Chapter XVII - Life Lessons on a Whole New Level

Harry's lessons with McGonagall, Kingsley, Tonks, and Lupin, were each getting more intense as the days wore on. After spending a fantastic weekend with Ginny, Harry was sorry to see classes begin again on Monday. He still hadn't managed to talk to Dean, as he was hoping for a moment alone with him, and he didn't bring it up to Ginny, because he knew that she wasn't going to approve. The rumours about Ginny had disturbed Harry greatly; it wasn't fair that things were happening to her just because she was dating him. But he knew that if it bothered her that much she would leave him. Ginny would never do that … he should know; after all he did warn her and try to leave her. Look at where it had gotten them … miserable and desperate until they were back in each other's arms.

Harry stepped into McGonagall's office Monday evening with his books on animagus and his wand. He was ready to begin learning how to change. They had started human transfiguration briefly in his sixth year and McGonagall had given out lots of homework on it the week before. He felt ready.

"Good evening, Professor," Harry said as he closed the door behind him.

Professor McGonagall smiled at him. "Good evening, Potter. Grab some floo powder."

Harry sighed; he really hated traveling by floo powder. He took a handful and stepped into the fire. "Where am I going?"

"Grimmauld Place."

Harry nodded and disappeared in the green flames, appearing seconds later in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

Tonks smiled at him from the table. "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Hey Tonks," Harry said as Professor McGonagall flooed in behind him.

"Good evening, Nymphadora," Professor McGonagall said, as Tonks made a face of pure dislike at the sound of her first name.

"Wotcher Minerva! You teaching Harry his lessons tonight?"

McGonagall nodded. "Yes, I am. We'll be in the library for the evening."

Harry followed McGonagall into the library and closed the door behind him before he placed his books down. "So where do we start?"

McGonagall smiled. "First of all, did you study the theory thoroughly like I asked you to?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, I did. I've been studying since the day that I got the books from Lupin."

"Good … now the thing about an animagus is that once you become the animal you must remember who you are. The animal will want to take over and you will probably find yourself doing animal like things. But always remember that you are a wizard."

Harry nodded. "Okay … er, do I pick an animal? I asked Lupin and he said he thought that the animal chose you."

"It depends." McGonagall replied. "The animal usually has to be chosen. However, Professor Dumbledore and I were discussing the idea of you being an animagus and after last week's show in my office; Dumbledore seems to think that you may have the ability to be more than one animagus."

"More than one?" Harry asked in surprise. "Is that even possible?"

McGonagall nodded. "It's possible, but very few wizards have ever achieved it. Dumbledore himself could change into five different kinds of animals. There are only five wizards who have ever managed such an extraordinary talent. Merlin himself holds the record. He could turn into twenty different animals. Albus seems to think that you have that talent, Potter, and I never doubt what he says. He also believes that you will be able to change into a magical animal. That is also very rare."

Harry nodded. "Wow, so where do we start?"

McGonagall laughed. "We start with the basics. First of all I want you to choose an animal. A simple one, such as a cat or a dog. Think hard about it; picture the animal in your mind exactly what it looks like."

Harry did this, but he found himself thinking of a wolf. A black wolf with gorgeous thick fur. The image swam clearly in his mind. He nodded at McGonagall.

"Okay, I've got it."

"Now point your wand at yourself and start slowly, using what I taught in class last week, change one part of your body into the animal using the incantation for the human transfiguration; if you succeed, continue to do so, changing another part of you into the animal."

Harry nodded. He began to concentrate his energy onto changing his left hand into a wolf's paw. Since he had already mastered the homework, it took no effort at all. Soon he had transformed every part of his body but his head into a wolf. McGonagall looked surprised and extremely pleased that he had learned so quickly. He quickly changed his head into the animal as well. Harry dropped his wand and began to wander around the room as a black wolf. He looked up at McGonagall for approval and grinned to himself. He sort of felt like a wolf, but not really.

"Potter, that was good. However, that is simply human transfiguration. An animagus is harder. Now here comes the hard part. Without your wand, concentrate extremely hard on your previous body, your human body, and imagine yourself with your clothes on otherwise you will appear naked. Understand?" Harry nodded and began to concentrate his mind on exactly what he had looked like before he changed himself. He concentrated and he waited, but nothing happened. He could hear McGonagall urging him on, but again nothing happened. Then he began to will himself to change back, taking a different approach then the incantation. Within minutes he was standing in the living room, fully clothed (thank Merlin) and looking pretty damn proud of himself.

"I did it!"

McGonagall smiled. "Almost, Potter, almost. That was an excellent job though. The next step is to change completely and at one time without your wand. No changing section by section. It is done the exact same way as you pulled yourself out. Try it."

Harry nodded at her and focused his mind fully on the animal that he wanted to become. He pictured that black wolf in his mind and when he blinked he was a wolf again.

McGonagall beamed at him. "Potter, that is truly amazing! Dumbledore was right. You are going to be very good at this. Okay turn back." He did so and she grinned. "Now we just need to speed up the process. To change and to change back takes you around five minutes. It should be quick and almost instant. Again."

After half an hour, Harry had it. Within seconds he could become a wolf to a human to a wolf again. McGonagall was so happy that she could barely keep herself from grinning.

"Can I try another animal?" Harry asked.

McGonagall nodded. "Sure, Dumbledore believes that you can so why not? Potter, another animal might be harder, usually wizards can only maintain one."

Harry shrugged and he thought of Sirius, that gorgeous black dog that he had been. He concentrated hard on becoming a black shaggy dog like Sirius had and within seconds was walking around McGonagall as a dog.

"Potter, that's incredible. Come back and change into both forms again."

Harry became human again and transformed from wolf to human to dog to human to wolf again. The wolf came to him in seconds, but Harry had to concentrate a bit harder on his second animal.

Once he was himself again he grinned. "How many do you think I can do?"

McGonagall shrugged. "I don't know, but I think that you should keep trying. However, we will register you only under one animal. Try something else, Potter."

By midnight of that evening, as the lesson had gone on longer once Harry had got going, Harry had managed to become four animals; wolf, dog, cat, and bear, all of which were black with bright green eyes. The eyes are what gave Harry away, they were his distinguishing mark. Once he had the animal in his mind, he could transform easily but it took time. However, the more he practiced the quicker he could change. He wondered how many other animals he would be able to do.

McGonagall smiled at him as he gathered his books in his arms from her office once they had returned to Hogwarts. "Potter, which animal would you like to register?"

Harry grinned. "The wolf."

"Alright, next Monday, I'll have someone from the Ministry here to register you. See you tomorrow." She waved good bye as Harry left her office grinning.

He had managed to learn how to transform into four different animagus transformations in less than four hours. That was amazing. It had to be some sort of world record or something. But then again, he knew that he was a powerful wizard. After all, he was obviously a threat to Voldemort from the beginning, because he had tried to kill him because of the prophecy. Both of his parents were supposed to be extremely powerful, so their combined talents would have made him powerful. Then Voldemort had passed on some of his power to him. Not only that, but that focus and special concentration that Joe had taught him helped him learn things quickly. Joe had said that it was a very hard talent to learn and not many wizards even bothered to try it, but he had mastered it. Once under that mist, Harry learned everything ten times faster than normal. And he had been in that mist tonight when he was doing the transformations. He sighed, it didn't matter, all that mattered was that he had managed four animagi, four!

He grinned and when he walking into the common room, he found Ginny alone sleeping on the couch. He grinned and figured he'd surprise her with what he had learned. Harry changed into the black cat and wandered over to Ginny, meowing and cuddling close to her. She opened up her eyes and smiled, pulling the cat into her arms.

"You're not Duvessa, are you gorgeous? Who do you belong to?" Ginny whispered as she scratched the cat behind the ears and Harry moaned; that really did feel good. She looked into the cat's eyes and Harry saw the slight surprise on her face, and he wondered if she knew it was him. He continued to let Ginny cuddle and pet him then he jumped down off of her lap and when she was looking at him, he transformed back into himself.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed, jumping up and into his arms. "That was amazing!"

Harry laughed and hugged her tight. "You know, that scratch behind my ears really did feel good, no wonder why cats crave the touch."

Ginny laughed and kissed him softly. "You did it, I'm so proud of you."

Harry grinned and leaned close to whisper in her ear. "That's not all I learned. Watch this." He pulled back from her and quickly changed into a wolf, followed by the dog and bear.

Once he was Harry again, Ginny squealed and ran back into his arms. "I love you! How did you get so talented?" She asked as she pulled him down onto the couch with her to cuddle.

Harry shrugged. "Beats me. Actually, remember what I told you about Joe and the whole concentration and focus thingy; well, it turns out that's helping me out a lot."

"Really?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, because when I'm in that focus, that mist, I learn everything ten times faster than normal. Which is probably why I'm doing so well for once?"

Ginny laughed and kissed his lips. "Will you show me how to find the mist? And how to use it?"

Harry grinned. "Sure love. You want to learn now?"

"Okay."

Harry smiled at her. "Alright, so this is what you do. Close your eyes and think of something peaceful, something calming, a place where you would like to be forever, a place that makes you happy."

Ginny nodded and did as he asked. After a few moments she smiled at him. "Okay, I have my happy peace, now what?"

"Okay. Now you've go to take this happy peace that you've come up with and concentrate on it, hard, as your main focus, so to speak. Now how did Joe put it, he said 'I want you to feel a mist come over you, a peaceful mist that will drain you of your tensions'. That's what you should be feeling. Tell me when you reach it." Harry replied as he watched Ginny try to focus in on it.

Harry didn't doubt for a second that Ginny wouldn't be able to find the mist. Ginny was smart and talented and she enjoyed life too much not to be able to focus her concentration. Finally after about ten minutes, Ginny smiled.

"I think I've found it, Harry, it's like a silvery mist that floats around my brain. I feel calm, and well … at peace. Now what do I do?"

Harry smiled at her. "Enjoy."

Then he leaned down and kissed her lips softly. Ginny's hands flew into his hair as he deepened the kiss and lingered over her taste.

When he pulled back, Ginny sighed. "Don't stop."

Harry grinned. "Come back to me now, step out of the mist."

Ginny blinked back into reality and threw herself into his arms to kiss him passionately. "I love you."

"I love you too. Now if you use that focus in your classes, your learning should increase very quickly." Harry replied. "How do you think I've been getting so smart?"

Ginny grinned. "I knew there was a catch." She took his bottom lip into her mouth and sucked gently. "I love you, but I'm awfully tired."

Harry sighed. "I know me too. Do you reckon we should go to bed?"

Ginny shook her head no and cuddled into his arms. "I'd much rather stay here." She yawned as Harry's arms came around her.

"Yeah, me too. Goodnight Ginny."

Ginny smiled as she pulled the afghan off the back of the couch to cover them both up. "Goodnight Harry."

Harry flooed to Grimmauld Place again the next evening for his lessons with Kingsley. He said hello to Tonks and Lupin and then headed into the library for his training. Kingsley was already there and he smiled at Harry when he came in.

"Good evening, Potter. Are you ready to begin?"

Harry nodded. "Sure. Are we starting Occlumency tonight?"

Kingsley nodded. "Yes, we are. I've decided that since you have managed to become phenomenal at physical fighting both with and without weapons that every lesson will begin with a test. T his test will be against Aurors who will each try to best you. What do you think?"

Harry grinned; it sounded like an okay plan to him. It would give him a chance to fight other people, see what other techniques different people had and to not only practice, but to also brush up on his skills. "Sure, I'm in. Where do I start?"

Kingsley grinned. "Great! Alright, well Lupin set up a training room in the basement on the weekend just for these tests. So let's head down there." Harry nodded and followed Kingsley downstairs. The room was huge and the walls and floor had been lined in mats. He looked around the room and noticed three Aurors that he had never seen before standing in the corner talking. "Guys, Harry's here. You three ready to go?" Kingsley asked as they walked over to greet them.

"Yeah, Shacklebolt were ready." One man said with dark brown hair.

Kingsley grinned. "Good. Harry, this is David Quinton, Mallory Davidson, and Kenton Eisenhower. So who's going first?"

Mallory, a beautiful woman with dark blonde hair smiled at him. "I will."

Kingsley nodded and pulled Harry over to one side of the room. "Now listen, Harry, I know this is just practice, but I want you to fight them like you would in a real fight, no matter how dirty. No wands of course, just physical fighting. Also, please don't hold back on Mallory because she's female. Treat her the same. Understand?"

Harry nodded and was glad that Kingsley had pulled him aside. At the sight of Mallory his first coherent thought was: how can I fight a girl? But he knew Kingsley was right, this was business, and it was no time to be a gentleman. Harry positioned himself down onto the mat and within minutes found himself in heavy combat with Mallory.

She was a good fighter; kept him on his toes as he blocked jab after jab. When he finally managed to pin her down with only one hit on him, he grinned as Kingsley called for them to stop. He helped her up to her feet and smiled at her.

"Sorry about that."

Mallory smiled back. "No, your not, you're damn proud of yourself. Congratulations, most men won't even fight me because I'm a woman, let alone actually beat me." She gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. "You'll do great. See you around." She waved goodbye and headed up the stairs.

Harry downed half a bottle of water and then turned back to the three men left in the room. The man who had spoken when he had first came in was next, David. Again the fight was intense, more so then it had been with Mallory. The man was stronger and more agile then she had been. Harry blocked him over and over again, only letting two hits come through, one in his gut, the other in his shoulder. After fifteen minutes of fighting, Harry pinned him down, and Kingsley once again called for them to stop.

Harry helped David up to his feet and grinned. "Good job, mate."

David nodded. "The same to you. I'm impressed; Kingsley wasn't lying when he said you had skill."

Harry grinned. "Thanks."

He managed about a ten minute break, in which he downed two bottles of water before he had to fight against Kenton. The fight went pretty much the same as the first two. Harry managed to get in some good moves and he quickly had wrestled Kenton to the floor. When Kingsley called out for them to stop, Harry collapsed on the ground, breathing hard. Kingsley told Harry that he could rest for a bit before they began the Occlumency. His rest was about fifteen minutes, and then Kingsley was standing in front of him.

"Great job, Harry, you took down three Aurors. That's impressive. You feeling okay?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good. Alright, you've taken Occlumency before right?"

"Yeah, but I had some trouble with it."

Kingsley nodded. "That's fine; you're going to nail it this time. Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, the first thing we need to do is to empty your mind. Bring back that focus, that mist that we talked about. Can you do that for me?"

Harry concentrated his mind on the mist. He could bring it to mind so easily now, he used it for all of his classes and most of his lessons. He nodded at Kingsley once the mist was in place.

"Alright, now I want you to concentrate on blocking your mind. This can sometimes be hard to do but you –"

"Wait, wait, wait! Block my mind? The last time I did this Snape just told me to concentrate on emptying my mind, and then he started forcing himself in there. He never said anything about blocking it!" Harry exclaimed, angry at the whole idea of Snape leaving out an entire step. Which probably explained why he hadn't been able to learn it in the first place; stupid git, he thought.

Kingsley nodded. "Well, you and Snape had issues together from what I understand, so he probably was teaching you grudgingly, so naturally he wouldn't teach you properly. Now I want you to concentrate your mind, Harry, make sure that you are still in that mist. The blocking can sometimes be hard to do. To block your mind, we're going to build blockers. Think of something solid, something unbreakable, and something tough. What do you come up with?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, bricks? Concrete? Steel? Stone? Titanium reinforcements?"

Kingsley nodded. "Exactly, anything that you consider strong, Harry. Let's go with bricks, concentrate your mind on building that wall up in your mind brick by brick by brick."

Harry nodded and he watched the opening of his mind through the mist. He took the bricks and he began to build it, concentrating hard on what he was doing. He grouted the ground and laid brick after brick, smearing them with grout to make sure they were stuck tightly. When he finished he looked up to find Kingsley reading a book.

"Er, I think I'm done. Was I at this a while?"

Kingsley nodded. "It takes a while to do this at the beginning. You've been at it for five hours. Is your wall secure?"

"I think so." Harry replied, surprised that he had been locked in his own mind for so long.

"Alright if your wall is secure then I shouldn't be able to see into your mind if I try. Are you ready?"

Harry nodded. He watched as Kingsley stood up and raised his wand at him.

"Legilimens!" Kingsley replied.

Harry felt the pressure outside of his wall pushing on it, to try to break through, but the wall stayed strong. When Kingsley smiled at him, Harry felt relieved he had done it.

"Excellent, Harry. Your wall is strong. However, you need to keep it strong. Every night before you go to sleep, you concentrate on keeping that wall strong and tight. We don't want to do it too long at first as it is mentally exhausting on the brain. On Thursday we'll work on it a bit more. See you later, Harry, and good job."

Harry grinned. "Thanks, see you later."

He waved good bye to Kingsley and hurried upstairs, proud of himself for keeping his wall strong for now, even if he had to work on it, at least he had something to go on. He stepped into the fire place to floo back to McGonagall's office, grinning, the lessons weren't really so bad when you thought about it.

The next evening, Harry once again found himself at Grimmauld Place, this time his lesson was with Tonks. She grinned at him from the kitchen table as he stepped out of the fireplace. "Wotcher Harry!" She replied grinning.

Harry grinned back. "Hey Tonks, so what are we doing today?"

Tonks grinned at him. The first lesson with her had been pretty boring, well as boring as it possibly could be when you were with someone like Tonks who was spun on a regular basis. They had discussed the theories of metamorphmagusing and how certain witches and wizards were born with it; some had to learn it or something like it as it couldn't really be learned; and how some just couldn't learn it all.

"Today we're going to actually start. So I heard a rumour from Remus that when you were younger you were able to grow your hair back. This might help you out a lot because as you know very few wizards can be taught how to be a metamorphmagus, since it's usually very rare for anyone to be born with the talent. I myself am one of the few special ones. So can you grow you're hair at will or was Remus kidding me?"

Harry laughed. "I can still do that. I never need a haircut, I just concentrate my hair on looking like this and it does. Works well too, now that I'm starting to grow a beard, I don't have to shave. I can just will it away."

Tonks laughed. "Awesome, Harry! That means that you probably won't have any trouble learning how to use other techniques to change your appearance. Show me the hair, but instead of trying to keep it the way you normally do let's … grow it down to your butt."

Harry grinned. "Uh, Alright." He concentrated on his hair and within seconds felt it growing long as it slid down his back.

"Blimey Harry, you've got beautiful hair. It just grows out in gorgeous waves like that. Any girl would be envious . And that is completely off topic! Great job, Harry; now put it back to normal!" Tonks exclaimed.

Harry concentrated again and it soon was normal again. "Wow, that was way easier than I thought."

Tonks grinned. "Harry, you're a natural, I bet you've got some metamorphmagusing blood in you somewhere. Change your nose now." She laughed at the confused look on Harry's face. "Just do whatever you did to change your hair, but do it on your nose now." Tonks explained.

Harry gave himself a long and pointy nose, making Tonks laugh as he quickly changed it over to a hooked nose like Snape had.

"Excellent, Harry. Wow, you really got the hang of this. I think you're definitely a natural that just didn't know you could do it. Change your eye colour now and maybe the shape of you're eyes." Harry did so and Tonks grinned. "Hell these lessons are downright pointless. Remus, come in here for a moment." Tonks called out.

Lupin stepped into the library and smiled at Tonks and Harry. "What's up, you two?"

Tonks grinned. "Remus, Harry's a natural, he has to have some metamorphmagusing blood in him somewhere I mean, watch this. Harry, change your hair, eyes, nose, ears, and hide your scar."

Harry grew his hair long to his shoulders then made it the colour green. He gave himself brown eyes, a hooked nose, large ears, and lots of freckles.

Lupin laughed. "Now that's a sight. Change back, Harry."

He did and then grinned. "It's really easy."

Tonks nodded. "See, he's a natural. These lessons aren't even needed. I mean honestly, I can't teach him anything if he can do it all on will like I can. Where's the fun in that?"

Lupin laughed. "You're absolutely right. Harry, no more lessons with Tonks. Looks like you're Wednesday nights just became free. Tonks and I will talk with McGonagall about your progress. You can go, Harry; goodnight and see you later."

Harry grinned. "Great! Thanks Tonks, thanks Remus, see you two later."

He waved goodbye and headed back to Hogwarts with a smile on his face.

Thursday night came quickly to Harry and he soon found himself back in the basement of Grimmauld Place concentrating on his brick wall. Kingsley stood across from him continually trying to penetrate the wall, but he had yet to break through Harry's defences.

"Excellent job on that wall, Harry; very good job. However, now I want you to try to thicken the wall. Make it stronger. Maybe add another brick wall in front of it or a concrete wall. Whatever you like." Kingsley replied as he took a seat in one of the chairs. "I'll leave you to it, remember, build it piece by piece."

Harry nodded and he began to concentrate once more. He decided to build another brick wall as well as a concrete wall and then attach them together to make it extra strong. He concentrated on the structure in his mind, building it up piece by piece, followed by the concrete and then he used concrete to help seal all three walls together. When he was finished, Kingsley was reading again.

"I'm done."

Kingsley nodded. "Five and a half hours this time. What did you do?"

"I built another brick wall, and then a concrete wall, and then I used the concrete to cement the three of them together." Harry explained.

Kingsley looked impressed. "Good idea, Harry. Alright, let's try this again." He stood up and pointed his wand at Harry. "Legilimens!" Harry's wall blocked everything and Kingsley grinned. "Excellent, Harry. You've got it down-pat. Now all you have to do is remember to keep your wall strong. Empty your mind every night before you go to bed and remember to keep the wall up and to keep it strong. By doing this the wall will stay up and no one will be able to penetrate your mind, especially not He Who Must Not Be Named. Understood?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, understood."

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow morning. We're going to have a good work out, build up your strength. See you later."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, see you."

Friday morning after breakfast Harry was back at Grimmauld Place with Kingsley. Kingsley had set up a complete work-out routine for Harry to follow in his lessons every Friday. So far Harry had managed to keep up with everything that he had to do. He ran around the lake every morning for his run; he did fifty sit-ups and push-ups every morning and every night; he emptied his mind and concentrated on his wall every night before he went to sleep; and he still managed to find time to do all of his homework, practice his training, practice his animagi, and spend time with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

The work out routine was simple. He would stretch out and then go for a long light jog outside for about forty minutes. Then he would allow his muscles to cool down with some simple stretches. After that, Kingsley had gotten him into the habit of lifting weights and working out his biceps and triceps as well as his calves. The muscles Harry had developed over the summer continued to grow. This was the second time that Harry had the work-out routine with Kingsley and he enjoyed it. He got to exercise, have a bit of fun, and become strong. After he did so many sets on certain machines, Kingsley would make him cool down and do some more stretches followed by sit-ups and push-ups (Kingsley had decided that Harry needed to raise the number to sixty every morning and night and one hundred during every Friday work-out session) crunches and more stretches. After the work-out Harry would shower and change, feeling both re-charged and refreshed. He liked the work-out, it made him feel good about himself and he liked the movements, it felt good on his muscles. He headed back to the castle for lunch so that he could spend some time with Ginny before his lesson with Lupin.

He took a seat at the table in the Great Hall and waited patiently for her to come from her Muggle Studies class. When she took a seat next to him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest, he knew something had happened. He kept his arms around her and hugged her tight. He knew she was fighting to hold back tears, not wanting to make a scene.

"Want to go somewhere quiet? Just the two of us?" Harry whispered in her ear as he kissed her temple.

"No." Ginny whispered back. "I don't want them to know that it's affecting me." She let out a long breath, and reached up to kiss him softly. "I feel better now."

Harry smiled at her. She looked better; she had managed to hold off her tears and was now smiling at him, glowing with happiness. "You're beautiful." He kissed her softly. "Now tell me what happened?"

Ginny handed him a piece of parchment and instead began to grab some food for lunch. "Harry, will you read it later on, when no one's around, please?"

Harry nodded, it was obviously bad. "Yeah sure." He helped himself to the potato salad on the table and sighed; it looked like his talk with Dean was going to be tonight, no matter what.

Lupin smiled at Harry as they stood across from each other in the library of Grimmauld Place. They had decided in the summer that Lupin didn't need to teach Harry the spells, he just had to give him a list and tell him what they did. Harry could learn them quite easily on his own. Lupin had sent the list to Harry via owl earlier in the week and Harry had mastered all of them. Lupin would send him a list every week with more spells to learn.

"Alright Harry, so you mentioned it in the summer and Dumbledore informed Minerva after what I hear was quite the performance in her office last week; wandless magic. You seem to have the power to do it. I myself cannot do much. The only thing that I have ever been able to master is to light a fire." Lupin's eyes darted towards the fireplace and he held up his hand, flames erupted in the hearth and disappeared just as quickly.

Harry grinned. "Cool."

Lupin smiled. "Why yes, I do believe so. Now, Dumbledore believes that you will be able to accomplish more. I can help you with the gist of it. Now what you were talking about in the summer, about the natural elements, you said that Hermione told you about them?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, she mentioned them and told me that she thought I was powerful enough to possibly be able to call them up and use them. I didn't understand what she was talking about. She was going on about how muggles may not believe in magic but they do believe in the natural elements, earth, air, fire, and water, and that some people can actually use them to their advantage, like I don't know, control them. Which is true, I remember seeing things on television about psychics and things like that. So I started reading about them in the books she gave me and its pretty interesting stuff. It has something to do with concentrating your energy into your hands and willing the elements to help you. She also gave me some American muggle woman's romance fictional trilogy; I believe the author's name is Nora Roberts. It was called the Three Sisters Trilogy and the books were about these three women who are witches and live on this island. Interesting all in all, a little too mushy for my taste, though Ginny absolutely loved them, sorry getting off topic. Anyway, the women in the books were able to control the elements and it was in fact the elements that were their true power. Like one woman represented fire, one earth, one air, and then there was this random guy who represented Water, but he wasn't as important, being as he wasn't a sister and all, but he did fall in love with the one who represented fire. Anyway, by calling the elements they could like make thunderstorms and stuff like that. In the actual magical books, it touched upon a lot of that. It just keeps saying that it takes concentration and that not all wizards can do it." Harry explained.

Lupin nodded; he looked thoughtful for a moment. "You shouldn't have any problems with it, Harry, once you get going. Both Lily and James could do wandless magic. Many wizards can but they don't think much of it. James was especially good at levitating things, namely you, and making fire, light, etc. Lily was good at almost everything she did. So it should come to you naturally. Also, you've got a natural talent for metamorphmagusing, which I'm not sure where that came from but I assume somewhere in the Potter family history it was there. McGonagall also tells me that you've already mastered four animagi transformations, which in itself is a great accomplishment. There's not a doubt in my mind that you will be able to transform into many more animals and soon. You've also managed to finally get a good hand at Occlumency and Kingsley didn't fail to tell me what Snape so conveniently left out when he was training you. The natural magic should go pretty easily."

Harry grinned. "I hope so, because I think it would be awesome to be able to control it."

Lupin smiled. "You will be able to. Now first, let's a take a look at your power, Harry. I want you to concentrate your power into the palm of your hand. Imagine a ball of power, something solid. We'll see what happens."

Harry nodded and focused his mind in on the mist, the one thing that helped him learn so quickly. He focused on the power that he could feel running through his veins, the power flowed strongly and freely. He stretched his hand out, he didn't know what made him do it, but he turned towards the fire place and lifted his hand up, with his palm facing the now empty grate. He opened his fingers and simply flicked his wrist and a blazing fire had appeared in the fireplace. Next Harry turned and flicked his wrist again; all of the lights in the room went out and then back on.

Lupin grinned. "Oh I'd say you've got the potential, Harry, now let's see what we can do with the power."

Harry stepped up into the boy's dormitory later on that evening. He had just finished dinner and Ginny had some work that she wanted to do in the library on Ancient Runes. She was working with Hermione so Harry had slipped away, hoping to find Dean. He had read what was in the parchment and he wasn't impressed. Dean may not have written it down but if he had any part in starting them he was going to be in trouble. He almost laughed when he found himself alone in the seventh year boys' dormitory with him.

"Dean, what are you doing upstairs at seven thirty on a Friday evening?" Harry asked in what he hoped was a friendly tone, because he sure as hell didn't feel friendly at the moment.

Dean shrugged. "Not too much, just thought I'd rest a bit. What are you doing up here?"

Harry grinned. "Well, now that's actually a funny story, I was looking for you."

"For me?" Dean asked as he watched Harry come closer to him. "Why would you be looking for me?"

"I think you know." Harry said. "Now, I've noticed that there have been some terrible and untrue rumours going around the school about Ginny. Very rude ones in fact, and I don't appreciate hearing these lies about my girlfriend any more than she does. I also heard a funny thing about you starting them."

Dean shrugged. "So what if I did? She's a slut, Harry, a slut. She leads guys on and then gives them nothing, she deserved it. Look how fast she dumped me and moved onto you, and look how fast she dumped Michael and moved onto me."

"First of all, Michael was a prick! Second of all, you two were terrible for each other so don't even try to deny it. Trying to be more than friends was a failure and you know it. Ginny and I, well I don't know … what we have is special, and I love her. And because I love her I don't like the idea of those filthy lies filtering throughout the school." Harry said in what he thought was a very calm voice considering the anger he could feel bubbling up inside of him.

Dean sighed. "Look, I know you're right and I'm sorry. I'll apologize to Ginny as soon as I see her. I didn't expect the rumour to take off though, honest, all I said was that Ginny was a tease and she led men on and then wouldn't put out. I had nothing to do with how the rumours changed I swear."

Harry shrugged. "That's too damn bad because you are going to apologize to Ginny and I'm still going to do this."

Harry punched Dean in the face and he fell backwards on the bed.

"What the hell, man?" Dean exclaimed. "Now I'm going to have a freakin' shiner in the morning!"

"Not my problem, you deserved it. And I do admit, it felt pretty damn good to do it. Muggle duelling is awfully satisfying. If I ever hear you say anything bad about Ginny again, that punch will get a repeat." The door to the dormitory opened up and Ron stepped into the room.

"Hey Harry, what are you doing up here? I thought you were … Did you just punch Dean?"

Harry nodded. "Sure did, and I'll do it again if he doesn't answer me soon. Well?"

Dean stood up. "I'll apologize already."

He stood up and walked over to Harry and before Harry could move, he punched him in the gut. Harry grabbed Dean and they began to fight, rolling around the dormitory floor as they punched each other. Harry managed to get another good one on Dean, but Dean only hit Harry in the mouth, before never managing to touch him again as Harry's training allowed for him to be good at dodging blows.

Ron yanked them apart and stood between them in shock. "What the hell has gotten into you two? Muggle duelling?"

Dean was holding a hand over his bloody cheek. "Ask him. He just came in here and punched me!"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, and if he asks me and I tell him why, what do you think he's going to do to you?"

Ron turned to Harry. "Why did you punch him?"

Harry shrugged and wiped his hand over his mouth. His lip was bleeding and his jaw was sore. He would probably be bruised a bit in the morning. "Dean started a not so nice rumour about Ginny which has escalated around the entire school, who now thinks that Ginny is some sort of scarlet woman, and they've been attacking her with sexual comments all year." Just repeating it made Harry fire up again. "Move aside, Ron, I want to hit him again."

"So do I." Ron declared as he glared at Dean.

Dean looked worried, but then again, two against one wasn't exactly the best odds. "Look, you can't do anything to me, you're Head Boy. Ron, look I'm sorry, I'll apologize to Ginny, but honestly the rumours that are flying around now … I never would have believed they would get so bad."

Harry grabbed Ron, holding his arms tight. "You apologize to her and you put a stop to these rumours as best as you can and I promise to keep Ron away from you. If you don't, it won't only be me and Ron you'll have to answer to as I can easily let it slip to Ginny's five other older brothers what you've done to their little sister." Harry pulled Ron out of the room and grinned to himself. He felt better now … much better.