Harry focussed on his mental picture of the owl that he knew was his animagus form and tried to somehow transfer the image to his own body. The problem was that despite how clearly he had seen the owl during his original meditation, the image was slightly fuzzy now. He'd tried to use Occlumency to see the image clearer, but it hadn't worked.

The book that Sirius and Remus had given him for his birthday said that, the second step in becoming an animagus involved visualisation – you had to visualise the animal, before visualising yourself becoming the animal and, apparently, one day it would just work. It was way too airy fairy for Harry's liking, he preferred his magic to have complete and detailed instructions. It was why his favourite subjects were Potions, Runes, and Charms. Defence wasn't too bad either, but the theory for Transfiguration was vague and the practise of the subject was even more so.

Harry narrowed his focus to the owl's face and, specifically, it's ridiculous looking eyebrows – though they could have been ears, he couldn't really tell. He tried to take in each golden brown feathers that made up the eyebrows, before imagining them on his own face. Nothing happened, though his eyebrows felt a bit itchy.

"Merlin!" He heard Theo commenting in the distance. "Look at Harry's eyebrows."

The next thing he heard was the Weasleys' rambunctious laughter and a few sniggers from his other friends. Harry opened his eyes and glared at his friends.

"Aren't you supposed to be meditating?"

"It's already been two hours." Neville explained unapologetically, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You really should transfigure a mirror." Draco commented with a wide grin.

Harry raised an eyebrow questioningly, before shooting his friends an odd look when they all started laughing again. "What?"

Fred pulled out his wand and waved it over a piece of parchment. "Speculo!" He passed the transfigured mirror to Harry with a smirk.

Harry accepted the mirror and brought it up to his face, before almost choking in shock. No wonder his friends were laughing, he looked ridiculous. His eyebrows had been replaced with feathers and looked identical to the ones on the owl he had been visualising.

"I did it!" He exclaimed excitedly.

Takashi, who had still been meditating, opened in eyes, before looking astounded. "Congratulations, Harry."

"Can you undo it?" Draco asked with a smirk.

"How did you do it?" Neville added.

"Instead of focusing on the entire animal, I tried focussing on one small attribute." Harry explained.

Theo chuckled. "So you decided to focus on the eyebrows?"

"They stood out." Harry defended. "I'm going to try something else now."

"Try the beak." Fred suggested with a smirk. "It'll go with your eyebrows!"

Harry ignored him as he shut his eyes and evened out his breathing, he didn't want to try and turn his mouth and nose into a beak for a while yet. What if it went wrong and he couldn't breathe?

Despite trying to replicate what he done before Harry didn't manage to transform any other parts of his body, though he had managed to turn his eyebrows back to normal. Eventually, he decided to stop for the day and opened his eyes to the sight of all his friends sitting together and talking quietly.

Harry smiled in delight at the sight of Fred and George being included – the first few weeks they had all met together to practise, his Slytherin friends had done their best to avoid interacting with the Weasleys. It was nice to see that they had changed that policy. Admittedly, Draco and Daphne still looked a little uncomfortable, but still it was progress.

Harry stood up and made his way over to the group, sitting down beside Daphne. "Do you people ever practise?"

"Not everyone can meditate for two straight hours." Draco pointed. "Even Takashi stopped before you did."

"Did anyone make progress?" Harry asked curiously.

"No." Neville sighed as everyone else shook their heads.

"Good to see that your eyebrows are back to normal though." Theo smirked. "I'm sure Daphne is particularly relieved."

The group chuckled, but Daphne just raised her chin and shot Theo an unimpressed glare.

Harry added his own glare, before changing the subject. "What were you talking about?"

"How much busier we are this year." Neville answered. "There seems to be twice as much homework this year than there was last year."

Fred snorted. "Just wait until you get to your fifth year."

"Or your seventh." Takashi agreed.

"There isn't that much homework is there?" Harry asked rhetorically. "I'm noticing more in Ancient Runes, but that's because I'll be taking my OWL exam at the end of the year. I haven't really noticed any other difference."

"So you don't feel busy?" Theo asked disbelievingly.

"I do," Harry acknowledged. "But that's because of all the extracurricular things I do."

"Like what?" The twins asked together.

"Well, I wake up just before five every morning and then spend an hour working on my Occlumency shields." Harry started. "Then I meet up with Takashi and Neville and we run around the lake before practising our fencing."

"Which he does left handed." Neville commented.

"Fencing?" The twins asked incredulously.

"What is this,…" George started.

"…the eighteenth century?" Fred finished.

"That's what you find weird?" Theo exclaimed. "Not the fact that they run around the lake every morning?"

"That's weird too." George reassured him.

"I practise wandless magic every Thursday afternoon with Neville and Takashi," Harry continued. "As well as by myself every evening."

Draco's mouth fell open. "You do?"

Harry swallowed down a wince, he'd forgotten that Draco didn't know. At first he hadn't told his cousin because Draco hated Neville, and he liked the idea of doing something with Neville, and then he just hadn't thought it was important to mention. He hoped that Draco didn't mind.

"Wandless magic?" Fred sounded sceptical.

"Can you actually perform any spells wandlessly?" Daphne asked.

"Both Harry and Neville can." Takashi answered for him. "They are very powerful."

"Harry's better at it than I am." Neville added quickly.

"Show me!" Draco ordered imperiously.

Harry raised an eyebrow challengingly, but retrieved his wand from its holster and put it in front of him. Then he slowly levitated the wand into the air.

"Merlin!" Fred and George both whispered.

"That's amazing!" Theo exclaimed and Blaise nodded enthusiastically beside him.

Draco was staring at the wand with a vexed expression.

"You're all welcome to join us if you want." Harry said quickly, before glancing at Neville and Takashi to ensure that they agreed. "We've been meeting here, straight after classes on Thursdays."

"How long did it take you to be able to do that?" George asked curiously.

"About a year." Harry answered. "Though each additional spell seems to take less times."

"Not everyone can perform wandless magic." Takashi commented seriously. "I have been practising with Harry and Neville for two years now, but I still cannot levitate an object without meditating first."

Fred grimaced. "More meditating?"

"What else do you do, Harry?" Neville prompted.

"Well, this practise," Harry answered. "Which means that my Sunday afternoons are busy and Sirius floos in every Tuesday afternoon to duel with me. He's teaching me how to deflect spells with my sword."

The majority of the group already knew that, but the twins' eyes widened again.

"A sword?!"

"That's why he's learning how to fence and use his wand in his left hand." Neville explained.

"When exactly do you do your homework?" Blaise asked. "You spend a lot of time with us as well."

"In the evenings." Harry answered. "After dinner I usually spend about three hours on homework each night. I thought that I'd have more time this year, since I dropped Ancient Studies, but I've only been flying three times all term. I can't imagine how I would have fit Quidditch Practise in."

"We could go flying now?" Fred suggested. "There's an hour before dinner."

Harry straightened excitedly. "I'm keen."

13-13-13

When Harry met Draco and Luna at Hoth the next day, Draco was sitting in one of the armchairs looking decidedly peeved.

Harry greeted him, as he and Luna both sat down on the couch, before waiting for Draco to explain what he was upset about. It didn't take long.

"How could you not tell me that you were learning wandless magic?" Draco's nostrils flared. "Didn't you think that I would have wanted to learn too?"

"You don't like meditating." Harry pointed out. "I didn't think you'd be interested in doing something that involved meditating for a long period of time."

"Becoming an animagus involves meditating." Draco pointed out. "And you invited me to do that with you."

"We're both older now."

"So?" Draco's eyes were hard. "I can't believe that you chose Neville over me. I thought we were best friends!"

Harry pressed his lips together. "We are."

"Your wrackspurts look like Christmas, Draco." Luna commented idly, her gaze unfocussed.

Draco jerked slightly, as he shot her a confused look, before he scowled at Harry. "Best friends don't keep secrets like this, and they don't choose Neville Longbottom over each other!"

"I didn't choose Neville over you!" Harry snapped, before taking a deep breath. "I've wanted to learn wandless magic since before first year when I saw Baknog, my Family's Accounts' Goblin, conjuring a money bag wandlessly. Baknog told me that wizards couldn't do wandless magic like Goblins could, but that I could probably learn to do some. He even recommended a book on wandless magic to me. That book was the reason I learnt to meditate. I had planned to start learning straight away, but then I got distracted with having learn to control my magic when I was meditating, so I didn't get around to it until second year."

Draco was glaring at him. "That doesn't explain why you didn't tell me."

"Neville got a new wand during the summer before second year," Harry went on. "Madame Longbottom had been forcing him to use his father's one, but it hadn't worked well for it. Ollivander said that the fact that Neville's magic was strong enough to do some magic through his father's wand, meant that he would probably be able to wandless magic one day. So, I asked Neville if he wanted to learn with me. I didn't tell you because there was no way that you and Neville would have agreed to do anything together back then, and I already did a lot of things with you. I thought it would be nice to do something with Neville too. I really didn't think you would be interested, Draco."

"You could have at least told me." Draco said, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I know," Harry acknowledged. "And I'm sorry that I didn't. I was twelve and stupid."

"Because you're so much more grown up now." Draco challenged, a small smirk breaking through his glare.

"Much!" Harry agreed with a grin. "You're welcome to come practise with us."

Draco wrinkled his nose. "You said that it took you a whole year to complete one spell?"

"Just under a year." Harry corrected.

"No, thanks." Draco decided firmly. "I'll just stick with learning to be an animagus."

"Alright." Harry smiled, swallowing down his desire to say 'I told you so'.

"Is it alright if I come, Harry?" Luna asked absently, her eyes focused on something on the ceiling.

"Of course." Harry assured her quickly. "You're always welcome, Luna."

Luna's gaze moved from the ceiling to Harry. "Thank you. I think it sounds like fun."

"Fun?" Draco grimaced. "Meditating is not fun!"

13-13-13

Harry's next class was Defence Against the Dark Arts and, as he always did, Moody started by instructing them to put their books away. Since they had had at least two dozen lessons with the auror, no one had bothered having their books out in the first place, but Moody still continued to say it every single class.

Moody was a bizarre professor and Harry found him quite difficult to learn from. He knew that some of his classmates really enjoyed the professor's no book policy, but Harry missed learning about theory. He'd read the textbook of course, and reread each chapter before class, but Flitwick and McGonagall always took the time to explain extra theory to them during classes. Moody didn't bother – he just put them straight into action.

"Right," Moody stared over the classroom, his magical eye spinning at a sickening speed. "Who can tell me what three spells are the most heavily punished in Magical Britain?"

Harry raised his hand.

"Bones?" Moody asked.

"The Unforgivable curses." Susan answered. "The Killing curse, the Imperius Curse, and the Cruciatus Curse."

Moody nodded slowly. "Right, I presume your aunt has told you all about them. I know she runs into all three of them quite often with her job. Now, who can tell me what happens to a person who is hit with the Killing Curse?"

Harry fought the urge to shrink down in his chair as his classmates turned to stare at him.

Moody chuckled. "Or should I say, what happens to every person other than Potter?"

Terry put up his hand tentatively. "They die, sir."

"Instant death." Moody agreed. "No pain, no suffering, no chance of being saved." He turned to his desk, where a jar of spiders sat, and pulled one of the spiders out of the jar to place on the desk. Then he raised his wand. "Avada Kedavra!"

Harry's classmates flinched and Harry's stomach dropped in horror as a green light hit the spider, which immediately turned over and lay still – it's legs in the air. It was horrible and Harry found himself wondering whether that had been how his parents' died. Had it been that quick? Had they also fallen over onto their backs without a mark?

"No magical shield can stop it!" Moody declared, leaving the spider lying on the desk. "There's only one person who had ever survived being hit by it, and we all know who that is."

The class turned to stare at him again, but Harry straightened his shoulders and held his back stiff. He refused to be self-conscious or embarrassed for having survived.

"Now," Moody started. "What effect does the Imperius Curse have?"

Harry raised his hand.

"Potter?" Moody asked.

"It controls a person's actions." Harry answered. "The caster can make them do anything."

Moody dug his fingers back into the jar and pulled out another spider. Harry's stomach squirmed, he didn't want to see the spell performed.

"Imperio!" Moody shouted.

Instantly the spider, that had been trying to escape from the table, froze in its place. Then it began to cartwheel its way across the table. It was ghastly. Moody didn't stop there though and Harry couldn't help but feel increasingly nauseous as their professor forced the spider to do his will.

Unbelievably, his classmates didn't seem to feel the same way – some of them were even snickering.

When Moody had finally finished playing with the spider, and had reprimanded the students for laughing, he moved onto the final curse.

"Now the Cruciatus Curse. Anyone?"

Nobody seemed to want to raise their hand, but eventually Susan did. "It causes pain."

Moody didn't respond, instead he dug his hand back into the jar and pulled out the final spider. "Engorgio!"

Harry really didn't want to see what was about to happen, especially not on a spider that large. He'd seen the curse cast before, Voldemort had cast in on Pettigrew in the visions he'd had in second year. Maybe he could fake sick and be excused from class. Then again, he probably wouldn't have to fake it that much – his stomach felt decidedly ill.

"Crucio!" Moody shouted, and Harry cringed as the spider drew its legs into itself as it twitched and rocked from side to side. He couldn't imagine the pain that the spider must have been feeling.

Moody left the curse on the spider for ages and, after a few seconds, Harry clenched his eyes shut so he would have to see the suffering spider in front of him. How could Moody be allowed to torture animals in front of them? Surely he couldn't have taught it to the fourth year class when he had taught had Hogwarts for some of Harry's second year – Harry was sure he would have heard about it.

13-13-13

Thankfully it was the last class of the day, Harry didn't think he could have sat through any more classes with the images of the spiders in his head. He walked out of the class automatically and then down the stairs and outside. His mind was flicking between images of the spiders and of Voldemort torturing Pettigrew. It was all a bit close to home. Especially since he knew the Voldemort was out there, probably casting those curses on people every day.

Harry wandered across the grass and soon found himself just outside the Forbidden Forest. He glanced around, to ensure that no one was looking at him, before quickly stepping into the forest and behind a tree. He hadn't seen his snakes since starting his fourth, maybe now would be a good time to do that. Hopefully the sight of his happy and alive snakes would help chase away the other images from his mind.

Harry had only been to their nest once before, so it took him a while to find them, but eventually he found himself standing next to the hollow tree trunk that they had made their home in.

~Sarko?~ Harry hissed quietly, trying to visualise his snakes. ~Sativa?~ He had spent some time the year before working on being able to use his parselmouth abilities without having a snake right in front of him and had found that he could do it, as long as he was visualising a snake with enough detail.

~Who is there?~ Sarko's voice hissed from inside the log.

~Harry~

Seconds later, Sarko's head appeared in the opening of the log. ~Greetings, Snakeling~

It was surprisingly nice to speak Parseltongue again, Harry hadn't even realised that he had missed it. He spoke to Sarko for a few minutes, before Sativa appeared, dragging a dead dormouse in her mouth. Apparently the two snakes' eggs had hatched and they had dozens of tiny snakes to feed.

Harry didn't stay for much longer. The two snakes were obviously busy and, while he had certainly enjoyed their company when they had been his pets, he felt rather distant from them. They had their life now, and he had his. He doubted he would go back and visit them again.

On his way back to the edge of the forest, Harry considered the different parselmagic spells he had read about. Originally he had bought the snakes to help him learn parselmagic, but he had always been too busy. Maybe he needed to make time for it, like he made time for all the other things he was learning. After all, while he certainly didn't want to publicise his parselmouth ability, it would be a great skill to have if he ended up in a life threatening duel. A circumstance that wasn't as unlikely as he would have liked it to be with Voldemort out there.