Thank you to all of the people who support my creativity with special thanks to: Rafał Badera, Jo Daviz, Antar Das, LegendaryWasabi, Ibuki Mioda, SvenGTX, Optimum Prime, Jack Schriner.
The next two chapters are already up on pat re on /Lowten for anyone who doesn't wish to wait. You will also find hi-res copies of the cover art and a link to my discord that aren't behind a paywall.
Chapter 38 wings to fly
Dumbledore stormed into his office in a flash of green flames as he Floo'ed from the Ministry. Once he was safely alone in his office and didn't need to worry about his public image, he let out a guttural yell of pure anger. Fawkes, seeing that Dumbledore was distressed, started singing a calming tune but the headmaster barely listened to it.
How did this happen? How had he lost the school? This was never in his plan, he needed to stay here for longer, it was for the good of all wizardkind! It was that Veela Delacour's fault. Things hadn't gone perfectly with Harry, especially after he had gotten close to Granger, but his plan had been flexible enough to cope with that. He wanted to get Harry in a meeting over one of the summer holidays (probably not this year), tell the boy about his scar, and leak the location of the Grangers to the Death Eaters. In his grief, the boy would have gone directly after Voldemort, and with the prophecy fulfilled Dumbledore would have been free to end Tom in his second epic duel with a Dark Lord.
But Delacour had changed everything. Dumbledore had to laugh a little as he remembered that Veela were creatures of fire, and according to alchemy fire was an agent of change. Miss Delacour was most definitely that, she had given Harry more responsibility to live than the boy had ever had, first for herself and then setting in motion freeing Black. He wasn't sure of how close Harry had gotten to the rest of the Delacours yet; they had met when their daughter was injured in the first task, he knew that much, but it was only time until they too became close to the boy. Engineering a willing martyr out of the boy was out now. While still technically possible, it would just be too messy for his hand in it to not become known.
Dumbledore popped one of his special lemon drops into his mouth. He made them himself and added a vial of calming drought to mix as the sugar cooled, each sweet was less than a fiftieth of a dose but it was enough to help students calm down when they were brought before him. The lemon drop was enough that Fawkes' song was able to start taking effect. He had a lot of planning to do if things were going to work out the way he wanted. As much as he hated that he would lose his stewardship over the school, and the young minds it shepherded, Dumbledore was at least able to hold on to the Supreme Mugwump position and was able to regain his seat as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Those were two powerful positions and they would be a big help to him going forward. The old man sat in his chair and started to plan how he would go forward.
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After the Wizengamot session, Harry, Hermione, Fleur, Professor McGonagall, Remus, and Sirius all Floo'ed to Harry's Hogsmeade house. Their permission to be out of school covered the whole day as they didn't know how long the Wizengamot session would last, so as the trial had ended early enough they had decided that they would have dinner together. Dobby and Sassy were ecstatic to have everyone home for dinner and quickly decided on roasting a couple of chickens along with some potatoes. The six of them went up to the family room and collapsed into the comfortable seats around the fireplace. The fire lit when Sirius flicked his wand at it, and they were all soon relaxing in the warm glow of the fire.
"So Dumbledore lost the headmaster's position. I didn't expect that," Sirius said.
McGonagall gave a little snort of derision. "The man hasn't been the headmaster for decades, constantly swanning off to London for the Wizengamot or Copenhagen for the International Confederation of Wix. And who do you think gets landed with those responsibilities?"
"Someone who would make a brilliant headmistress," Harry said, jumping in quickly when McGonagall took a breath, causing the master of Transfiguration to blush a little at Harry's sincere tone.
"I'm not sure I would be the best candidate," Professor McGonagall denied.
Remus wasn't having any of that. "Minerva, when I was teaching there last year, I spoke with the rest of the professors. Trust me, there are only two of them who wouldn't back you as the next headmistress, and that is more because you would, ah…" he glanced at Harry and Hermione, "...curb their excessive behaviours, should I say." Harry had no problem following what Remus meant; as headmistress, Professor McGonagall would never allow Snape to keep bullying students in any house save Slytherin, and there was no way the Divination Professor would be allowed to keep teaching her classes after downing a bottle of sherry.
"Professor, I think you would be a good fit for the job, and as you said you already have experience with what the job entails, so you wouldn't need to learn the job. There would be less interruption for the school as a whole if you took the position," Hermione put her opinion in. They continued to talk for an hour about the trial and whether or not Professor McGonagall should put herself forward as the next head of Hogwarts. Dobby and Sassy served dinner at the family dining table rather than the formal one, so with six of them it was a bit of a squeeze, but everyone enjoyed the meal immensely. After dinner, Professor McGonagall and the three students floo'ed from Potter House directly to her office.
The next few weeks were hard on Harry; due to preparation for the tournament, he had let a lot of work back up on him. There was Neville's Whomping Willow project, about six essays he had let slide, some modifications he needed to make to the summoning rings after what had happened to Hermione in the first task, and considering what had happened to Fleur's signal bracelet, those needed an overhaul as well. Given all the work he was doing, he was glad that he had a legitimate excuse to escape it for a few hours. He and Hermione were currently in the room of Requirement, but instead of being on a date they were just using it as a comfortable and quiet place for them to meditate as they tried to discover their animagus forms.
In Harry's mind, he was currently walking through a meadow. He was looking around for any animal that might be there to meet him, but he couldn't see any animals at all, though he had the feeling that something was watching him. Harry continued through the meadow approaching the only landmark he could see, a large oak tree. Once he reached the tree, he had a quick look around and was about to walk on and continue his search when he was struck by an idea. If he climbed the tree and looked around, then maybe he could spot his animal that way.
Harry had climbed trees a lot as a child, mostly to escape angry dogs or to hide from his cousin, yet he was out of practice since then, and climbing the tree was a lot more awkward than he remembered it being. Or it might have just been that the tree was not an easy one to climb. Harry wished he had his broom with him so he could fly and as soon as he finished that thought his broom materialised in front of him. He grinned and climbed on his broom; even here in his head, he loved the feeling of flying.
He circled the tree a few times, searching for any kind of animal that would be living in it, but found nothing. He fell back on his seeker training and started flying in long lazy circles around the meadow, watching the floor for any sign of movement. He was really hoping he wouldn't turn out to be some kind of rat or mouse, but he was having trouble thinking of any other kinds of animals that would live in a meadow like this. He supposed he could live with a snake; it would fit with his parseltongue abilities. Harry continued to fly lazy circles, but still did not find anything. He was just starting to think that maybe he didn't even have a form when he noticed a shadow moving with his own. He looked behind him and saw a bird, some type of raptor like Hedwig, but most definitely not an owl. This bird was sleeker than an owl.
Harry drew back so his head was level with the bird so he could get a better look. It had a hooked yellow beak with a black tip. The feathers on the top of its body were a mix of dark grays, while the underside was a mix of dark and light forming a pattern that reminded Harry of seeing the waves of the sea. Its feet were also bright yellow like its beak, and each toe ended in a one black claw perfect for hunting anything from field mice to rabbits. Harry reached out his hand to touch it, expecting it to fly away from him, but the bird just looked at him and turned a little so it glided right into his hand. When they touched, Harry essentially felt himself being pulled inside the bird, the two of them becoming one. He could feel the burst of joy at being in the air mixed with his own, and they lost themselves in the joy of flight.
-ϟϟϟ-
Hermione was the first to wake from her meditation. Once again, she hadn't been able to find her animal. She glanced over at Harry, who was still deep in his medication. She considered trying again today but decided against it and pulled a supplementary book on arithmancy she had gotten from the library out from her bag and flipped it open to her bookmarked page. One hour later, it was getting close to dinner and Harry still hadn't woken from his meditations. Hermione was considering whether or not she should wake him up, as they were due to meet with Fleur for dinner, but at the same time she didn't want to interrupt Harry if he was making progress. She was just considering going to ask Professor McGonagall if waking Harry from his meditation for dinner was a good idea when he groaned and stretched, working the stiffness from his muscles that must have accumulated from being sat unmoving for a couple of hours.
Hermione was relieved that Harry had woken up and she didn't have to decide whether to wake him anymore. "Any luck this time?" Hermione asked.
A wide grin spread over Harry's face. "Yep, I found my form."
Hermione smiled. "Well don't keep me waiting, what is it?"
"Well, I'm not sure. It's a bird, a bird of prey, some type of raptor definitely, but I will need to look up exactly which one." Harry told her. "How about you? Any luck this time?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, still nothing, I just can't seem to stay in the right mindset long enough to find my form," she said, the disappointment evident in her voice.
Harry walked over to her, stumbling a little as his legs were still stiff and pulled her into a hug. "You'll get it Mione. I have every faith in you to do this, love. I bet you'll even finish your transformation before I do."
"But you're already so far ahead." Hermione leaned into Harry's chest, seeking the warmth and comfort he offered.
"I'm not that far ahead, and this is the easy bit for me, you're the one who will actually understand learning to transform ourselves and will need to explain it to me." Harry's belief in her was easy to hear in his voice and it bolstered Hermione's resolve.
"Come on Harry, we need to meet Fleur for dinner, remember?" Hermione started leading Harry to the door but kept hugging him close so that they had to walk slowly. They soon met up with Fleur who saw that Harry was hugging Hermione and she rushed over to them. Hermione saw Fleur check her over for injury and relax as she found none. "What happened?" Fleur asked, still concerned that Hermione apparently needed comforting.
Harry smiled. "Just a little academic frustration. Nothing to worry over."
Fleur nodded in understanding and wrapped an arm around Hermione as she fell into step, sandwiching Hermione between her and Harry. It was strange to Hermione, only a few months ago she saw Fleur as nothing but a 'boyfriend-stealing skank', but now she was quickly coming to understand that she was going to miss the French girl when the Beauxbatons students left.
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It had only taken him a couple of hours in the library to put a name to the bird. It had helped that he knew it was a raptor of some type, but Harry had also gotten a little lucky as he had started with books on birds that could be found in the UK. His form was that of a peregrine falcon. Some of the information about the falcon really excited him; for example,, if the wind was right it was possible he could fly the entire length of the country in a single day, and even London to Nice wasn't out of the question. Fleur also noticed that apparently it wasn't uncommon for peregrine falcons to mate for life. Both girls played it up that he was stuck with them, but Harry, while a little embarrassed by the attention, loved the idea and told them both so, earning himself a couple of quick kisses from them. Professor McGonagall was delighted when he told her that he had found his form, and told him and Hermione to meet her in Greenhouse Three right after classes on Friday. Harry and Hermione were a little surprised by this but agreed.
After their last class on Friday the pair rushed down to the greenhouse and were met by Professors McGonagall and Sprout. Professor Sprout unlocked the greenhouse and led them all in. Greenhouse Three was always kept locked unless she or one of the students she personally trusted with the key were there, because all of the plants in there (save for a few that were there for the effects they had on the other plants) had the potential to kill you. The first time Harry and Hermione had been allowed into this greenhouse was in their second year, under the careful eye of Professor Sprout, when they had been learning to repot immature Mandrakes.
"Now can either of you tell me why we are here today?" Professor McGonagall asked after she'd herded them into the greenhouse.
Hermione's hand shot into the air. And Professor McGonagall smiled and nodded for her to continue. "Greenhouse Three is the only greenhouse at Hogwarts that houses Mandrakes, as its cry is fatal to all who hear it. While the root is mainly used in restorative draughts, the leaf is used in the animagus awakening potion. The person intending to brew and drink the potion must keep a leaf of a mature Mandrake in their mouth for one lunar cycle before adding it to the potion as they brew it," Hermione rattled off, barely taking a breath as she was so excited.
Both the professors smiled at Hermione's excited display, but it was Professor McGonagall who was teaching them so she was the one to give Hermione five house points for her answer. "Now, I have refined the process a little bit since I became an animagus. For one, I have a charm that will numb your ability to taste bitterness that I will be teaching you, trust me you don't want to actually taste that leaf for the next month. However, it will change how your food tastes, some for the better and some for the worse," she added as a warning. "In general, everything will taste sweeter. I also have a set of plans for you to build an area that will accumulate the very specific conditions for the dew you will need, rather than sending you all over the castle looking for a spot that just happens to get no sunlight. You will, however, have to go into the forest to collect the cocoons of a couple of hawkshead moths. Luckily for you, they are fairly common in the forest. I recommend that you have Hagrid escort you there, he knows it better than any of the other staff here. And for Merlin's sake, don't go into that forest alone. If you can't get another professor to go with you, I'll make the time to take you myself."
Now Professor McGonagall handed them over to Professor Sprout. "Right, now each of you will be needing a leaf off a Mandrake. Now, as I am sure you remember from your second year, Mandrake cries are dangerous and we are dealing with fully mature Mandrakes this time, so if anything goes wrong we won't need to bother Madam Pomfrey. That's why, even though we will be leaving the root potted and it shouldn't cry out, we will be wearing full safety gear." She indicated a pile of earmuffs and dragon hide gloves. Everyone, including Professor McGonagall, started pulling on gloves leaving the earmuffs off at the moment as Professor Sprout was still talking. "After the events of your second year, I always keep at least seven pairs of fully mature Mandrakes in here at all times, and we will be harvesting from this pair." She indicated a pot that was almost a foot and a half across with two bunches of green leaves planted in it. "You will each need to harvest one single leaf. For the potion, which leaf doesn't matter, only that it is whole, so I recommend taking a younger leaf from the centre. This also has the advantage that there will be less contaminants on the leaves, but you will need to be careful as the younger leaves are fragile and you need the leaf to remain whole."
After the professor finished talking, the four of them put on their earmuffs and worked together to move the pot that Professor Sprout had indicated to the workbench that was the main feature at the center of the greenhouse, a concession to the fact that this greenhouse was also a classroom. They grabbed a leaf for Hermione first and it was easy enough, but after that the two Mandrakes in the pot got rather uncooperative and acted almost as if the roots were swimming in the soil, and as a result the plants were shifting all over the place and knocking the soil out of the pot. In the end, Hermione had to hold the second Mandrake still as Harry clipped off a leaf that was almost twice the size of the one he wanted. It would be a little uncomfortable, but it was good enough.
Once they had gotten the leaves, they used a sticking charm to apply the leaves to the inside of their cheeks, along with a modified shield charm that would protect the leaves from any chewing. The modification let gases or liquids through the shield, though, so that the lease could stay in their saliva the entire time. The leaves were bitter and disgusting, not quite potions bad but more like over-boiled cabbage. It was possible to live with it, but it did provide adequate motivation for them to learn the charm Professor McGonagall showed them, and when they cast it it was almost an instant relief.
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The day after Harry and Hermione had gotten their Mandrake leaves, Harry found himself being led to the Room of Requirement by Fleur. Apparently Fleur and Hermione had decided that Harry was taking too long in asking Fleur out on a date, so the two of them had sat down and hatched a plan: Hermione was going to make sure he was free that evening, and Fleur was going to ask him out. Harry was a little uncomfortable, because as much as he liked Fleur the two of them hadn't done much of anything together beyond hugging or the occasional peck on the cheek. He knew Hermione and Fleur had done some heavier kissing during Christmas, both of them had been open and honest with him about that. The problem was that it just seemed to add to the pressure.
When Fleur opened the room Harry got a shock, because the room wasn't a room at all but a beach. There was a warm sun beating down on them and the sea was a crystal clear blue. Fleur interrupted his thoughts and pointed at a nicely painted wooden hut to his left. "There is a change of clothes in there for you. And I shall be in there changing mine," as she indicated a second hut on their right, she gave him a peck on his cheek before leaving to change. Harry didn't need telling twice and went over to the hut. Inside, there was a stack of towels and a basket containing the swimming shorts he had gotten for his days on the beach in France (or a perfect replica of them) and a sleeveless white t-shirt. Harry quickly changed out of his heavier cold weather clothing and into the provided beachwear.
A few minutes later Harry emerged from his hut to see Fleur exiting hers. He couldn't help but stare, she was wearing a pale blue bikini and a translucent sarong (at least that's what Hermione had called them on their French vacation) that matched her bikini at the top but faded to a green that he was sure was a match for his eyes at the bottom. It took Harry a moment to fight down the hormones and start thinking straight again. It wasn't helped by the fact that he was sure Fleur knew exactly what he was looking at and was posing for him, as she turned and smiled at him. Once he was close enough to talk normally, he said, "You look amazing, Fleur."
Fleur gripped the one side of her sarong and lifted it a little before bending her knees in a slight curtsy. In a terrible English accent, she said "Why thank you, kind sir. And might I say you are looking rather good yourself." Then she giggled at herself, which caused Harry to laugh along with her. Harry offered her his arm and the two of them started walking along the beach. "You know, when I was a little girl and my maman told me about the English gentleman I was going to marry when I was older, I actually got caught up in all the fantasy of it. I had Maman make me tea and scones for a week after I read about them in a novel about English nobility. I don't even like scones that much, they are too dense for my taste, but I would just lick the jam and the cream off of them."
Harry laughed at that. "Yeah, scones can be a little heavy for some, but there are lighter options that are served with the tea in those kinds of teas, I think you would probably prefer the French fancies. I have no idea if they are actually French, but they are little squares of sponge cake with a vanilla-flavoured topping that's then covered with brightly coloured fondant icing. The whole thing is about an inch wide, long, and tall."
"Sounds promising, but I don't think I have ever seen them in France, so they probably aren't French." Fleur told him. The two of them were now walking in the surf enjoying the feeling of the cool water washing over their feet on the slightly-too-warm sand.
"Seems like you had a lovely childhood," Harry said, smiling at Fleur.
"Oui. Maman and Papa are magnifique. There were always some who didn't like Veela, but home was always great. You and Hermione will have to come visit this summer."
"I think we would love that. You already know Hermione and her family are close with Ali's family, so they visit Nice most years anyway. Hopefully now we know that we don't need to hide magic from them, we can avoid the need to drive there and back from Paris. I may hate Floo travel, but at least it's over quickly."
"I can see that a whole day in a hot car doesn't sound fun, but if you hate Floo travel so much, why are you not trying to learn your family Apparition? Hermione was saying that you can even Apparate inside Hogwarts even though there are wards preventing it."
"I think I can Apparate inside Hogwarts, I ended up on a troll's back with no clue how I got there once, but I don't know if it was Apparition or if I was just too full of adrenaline to remember."
"Hermione told me about that. She said you put your wand up its nose and killed it to save her." Fleur sounded as though she was still having trouble believing it.
"Well I wasn't actually trying to kill it or stick my wand up its nose. My plan was to cast Lumos in its face and blind it so we could run away. It sort of just happened. But I probably should work on the Apparition thing, normally I would have been all over that, a link to my family and all. It's just that this tournament has eaten up so much of my time, though without the tournament bringing you into my life I probably wouldn't even know about it."
They continued their stroll for almost an hour before they stopped. Fleur called for Dobby and he delivered a picnic basket full of food. As she unpacked it Harry saw a French baguette, about six different types of cheese, and some cured meats that looked like some kind of ham and salami along with a bottle of wine. Fleur saw him looking at the bottle of wine and said. "You should read the label." It was in French and mostly gibberish to him, but he was able to pick out a couple of words: 'Merlot', which he knew was a type of wine, 'elfe', which was close enough to the English, or more likely the English was close enough to the French to understand, and 'Potter'. Harry looked at Fleur.
"When you gave my father permission to sell a few bottles to cover the property tax, he bought six of the bottles himself and I had Dobby swipe one. It is criminal that you haven't tried your own wine yet." Fleur smiled at him.
"Won't your father be upset at you?"
Fleur shrugged. "A little. but he will forget about it long before I get home. And even if he doesn't he would agree with me that our first date is something worth opening a bottle for. Now sit and I can start to give you an education on some of the finer things in life."
They spent the next hour relaxing eating French cheeses, Harry got confused because he couldn't tell two of the cheeses apart but he only liked one of them. Fleur called them brie and camembert. He thought the camembert was delicious, especially when she melted it on the bread with a wave of her wand, but he just couldn't get on with the brie. The others were nice enough, though he couldn't eat much of the one with blue mold in it before the flavour became too strong for him. Harry's favourite was Boursin, though he wasn't sure if that was the name of the brand or the cheese. What he did know was that it was full of garlic and herbs and he loved it. He hadn't had much wine in his life, only a few glasses with his dinner during his visit to France, but the wine from his family's vineyard was the best he had ever tasted, and from what Fleur was saying he wasn't going to taste much better without dropping maybe 10 galleons a bottle.
Once they had finished eating, they started making their way back to the huts and the door back to the rest of the school. Harry, who wasn't used to alcohol, had to lean on Fleur a little as they walked back. Strangely, the journey back didn't seem to be even a third of the distance they had walked. After giving Fleur a deeper kiss than any they had shared until then, the two teens parted to get changed back into their regular weekend clothes and return to the school.
A/N
The charm that Professor McGonagall developed has a similar effect as a mundane fruit that actually exists: synsepalum dulcificum, also called miracle berry. I once had some tablets made from this berry, and it was weird. For half an hour I couldn't taste any sourness. I tried eating a lemon and it tasted sweet, like lemonade made with artificial sweetener instead of sugar.
I had Harry's wine be relatively good because it was elf made, which is something that in canon was supposed to be something quite good. But his wine will never fetch more than that and it's a small family vineyard, so it's never going to produce much.