Shopping
A/N: The content warning for today is: 50% longer than average. Also shopping.
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"Anything interesting?" said Harry, while feeding Hedwig yet another piece of bacon. She might be more demanding, or just less resigned, with Nim out of the castle and no longer trying to hog his attention.
"Hagrid's ancestry is questioned," said Hermione.
"Yes, well. So is mine."
Hermione looked up sharply, then back to the paper.
"Wildfires blazed in Hangleton Valley, muggles are rushing to extinguish the blaze, unspeakables were called in to control the fiendfyre that started the inferno. Two unspeakables injured and one muggle killed."
"Ugh," said Harry, "I had a dream about fiendfyre."
NIM?
Yes, Master.
Did you lose control of some fiendfyre?
It's meant for burning through all wards that aren't hardened against it.
Yes, and?
The wards around that cursed object were too heavy for us to penetrate, We found an outer corner and cast it there, it should have stayed controlled and sucked the wards dry in about half an hour, plenty under the limit of our control, but the wards were circulating much too fast and drew it everywhere at once. And kept it up for about three hours before collapsing. Now it's just barren waste inside, and normal muggle fire outside.
Are you sure, the newspaper thinks otherwise.
I'm sure.
Did that destroy the object?
No, but once the wards were down we put on flame freezers and walked right up to where it was buried and retrieved it, still cannot get the box open, and didn't want to try more fiendfyre until we've both recovered, but we've moved it to Gringotts.
Good.
There's one at Hogwarts, we figured we'd go looking for it during the summer.
Are you sure you don't want to search now, in case Karkaroff or someone has it?
Good point, I'll tell the dog-wizard.
Thanks, I … also try to keep the collateral damage well below the level of lethality in future.
Yes, agree the situation went snafu.
Your muggle jargon seems off somewhere, I prescribe more movies.
Cannot wait for summer. Dog-wizard has a list of favourites to show both of us.
Oh, that sounds like fun.
"Fans," muttered Hermione, "look awake."
"Ugh," said Harry and turned around.
It was not Colin, Ginny, or even Romilda, who Harry would have expected from that warning, it was Susan and Hanna.
Just at the far edge of speaking range, Hanna pealed off in another direction.
Susan however approached and asked if this was a law revision Saturday or a transfiguration revision Saturday, or a day off that she could go to Hogsmeade.
Hermione opened her mouth, but Parvati cut in, "Neither," she said, "Padma and I are taking Harry shopping for underthings."
"That's not —" started Hermione then got tongue tied, probably between, "that's not what's scheduled," and "That's not how you announce, in public that you're going to let your boyfriend look at you in small clothes," and of course, "I thought he was dating your sister not you," and, "At least Padma would have announced it both more subtly and more quietly."
In the end she settled for, "What?"
Which is about what Susan said also.
Parvati sighed, but at least she lowered her voice, "All gryffindor knows that most of his clothes are so old that most second hand stores would throw them away, if not burn them. He just came into a bunch of dragon money, it's time he owns clothes that fit."
"I own clothes that fit," said Harry.
"Yes," said Parvati, "But not enough of them that you're willing to throw the rest away."
"Oh," said Harry, "But I might grow into them."
They stared at each other.
There were snickers.
Parvati's lips twitched.
"Some of them," said Harry.
"Some of them you never will," said Parvati, "And some of them are out of range of a shrinking spell, I don't know where you got them."
"Yes, well," said Harry.
"And some of them there's more hole than cloth."
"I threw all those out last summer," said Harry.
Parvati twitched, "except the ones you keep for Nim's bedding?"
Hermione twitched and stared at her.
Harry shrugged.
"So," said Parvati, "You're going shopping, and we're coming with you, to make sure you buy enough."
Harry sighed.
"The question is," said Parvati, "Shall we start from here, and buy enough, then come back and clean out your trunk, or shall we start from the tower later, after we've cleaned out your trunk and you've inventoried what's left?"
"Hmm," smirked Harry, "Let's start from the tower, but … relatively immediately, apparently I need to grab some money."
He turned to Hermione, she eyed him with a smirk of her own, as if he was a tiny kid who'd just admitted the 'highly recommended nutritious vegetables' were actually fairly delicious this time.
Then she caught his expression, and all the murmuring nearby, and her eyes softened.
She cleared her throat, and intoned drily, "This sounds like the sort of date that might require, a chaperone."
"Thank you," he whispered.
She smiled and raised her pumpkin juice in a subtle salute.
"Yes," agreed Susan, in even frostier tones, "it does."
Harry's eyes widened. Hermione narrowed hers.
"Oi," sighed Harry under his breath.
.
Shopping wasn't so bad, Harry already knew his sizes from the summer before, (except he didn't because he was still growing.) He didn't take any convincing that he wanted acromantula silk pyjamas. At least, not once Susan reassured him (and Nim confirmed) that it would take years to wear holes in them. That and he saw the price.
Draco's reaction about that one red suit had scared Harry away, but if this was the normal prices, then apparently Draco's reassurance that it was a sentimental not monetary issue was entirely real.
Acromantula silk was expensive, but given the wear statistics that everyone was quoting, it still managed to be a good value. Because they all (except Hermione who was guarding the door against a mob of fans and potential fans?), reassured him that it would last several years if not decades. Which sounded like denim. And when the garment was constructed from cuts of fabric such that the fibres of the weave were at a 45 degree angle, (a technique called, 'sewn on the bias') the garment would gain the ability to stretch slightly, that was almost as comfortable as tee-shirt knit, if not more so. And then there was the fact that like muggle fibres from caterpillar silk and wool, it was warm in the winter and cooling in summer, and wick moisture. Though the rack of worsted material they were pushing him toward, seemed like it would fall somewhere in between those two muggle ideals. As a bonus, worsted had an additional softness like cotton flannel.
After pyjamas, came sports liners for wearing under Quidditch gear. Harry figured he'd wear them for pyjamas in the summer, if the nominal pyjamas didn't live up to their reputation for coolness in hot weather. (Not that Hermione had let him wear anything for pyjamas most of last summer.)
Then came the things nominally on the list: Actual clothes to wear under robes, loose tee-shirt-like garments (properly on the bias for maximum comfort and flexibility), semi-tailored dress shirts (on the straight, for that crisp uniform look), most in white, most in cotton or linen, but he gently pushed for silk again, (because the basilisk they didn't know about was bigger than the dragon that they thought they knew about), and they let him.
They even let him get one shirt each in pastels of the colours of all the houses he felt mildly aligned with. He wasn't sure that was a polite way to show solidarity in dress, so he didn't mention that was which colours he was picking, Green for Malfoy or Black, Yellow for Black or Potter or Longbottom, Red for Black or Potter or Weasley, not that he'd ever seen a family crest associated with the Weasley name, but …
And pants, they weren't what he was expecting, well they looked like what he was expecting, because he'd seen Neville and Ron dress in them, but they didn't feel how he was expecting. He tried on both major patterns. Both had more freedom of movement than he was expecting from how tight they felt. The cheaper design, (on the straight, flat-felled seams, because 'pants take abuse') had almost as much freedom of movement as he'd had wearing Dudley's cast offs the year before last.
The more expensive design, (on the bias again, for greater flexibility, but with extra heavy 'double' flat-felled seams, because pants, and 'on the bias seams aren't quite as durable as on the straight'), had even more freedom of movement than he remembered from Dudley's cast offs.
Also they were a bit closer to skin tight.
When he mentioned that, the clerk suggested there were some yeti wool pants even tighter, but when he tried those on, they were unacceptably tight. Even when he found some, several sizes 'looser' they were still skin tight, and still restricted his motion. He said, 'no,' firmly and picked out three each of 'on the bias' silk in black and grey. And one of woven wool, (hounds-tooth) (on the bias).
When Parvati objected that the knit wool looked 'unbelievably amazing,' he said, "They do look good," he agreed, "But, I do not exist to look pretty, I exist to move, and to protect people."
All four girls immediately agreed, and the clerk pointed him to the dragon hide jackets. He glanced at Hermione, she smirked and shrugged.
"I think, not today," he said.
"Does that imply someday soon?" said Parvati with interest.
"It means not, 'no,'" said Harry, "But it also means, not 'today'."
"What does the 'I think' part mean?" said Parvati.
"It means," said Harry, "That I thought it sounded more polite that way. Speaking of polite, I think we've bored our shopkeeper long enough, and it's time to pay and move on, so that there's room for more customers."
"Thank you, sir," said the shopkeeper.
The total came in just over 350 galleons.
Susan and Padma looked heartbroken.
Harry paid it anyway.
"What just happened?" said Susan, as they walked towards the door.
"I did my May shopping in February," said Harry, "So that my friends could feel safe knowing that I was taken care of. Also because they knew I needed to know about acromantula silk. What did it look like happened?"
"Where did you get that much money?" said Padma, "I assume you didn't get it for the dragon."
It was Parvati's turn to look confused.
Harry stared at her, then realised that he didn't have a canned response ready for that.
"Not sold yet?" said Susan, "No of course not, but … Oh, that's right," said Susan, "you claimed your majority last summer."
Harry shrugged and nodded, "I did."
Everyone shrugged and relaxed, except Susan. And then they had to face the scene outside.
There were onlookers 5 rows deep at every conceivable window, even though only one had any chance of giving a view, and it gave a view of the display area, not of the corridor off the changing room.
"Clear out," bellowed Harry, "gryffindors will get a chance to see my pyjamas in the common room tomorrow evening, the rest of you will have to pay them for pensive memories, The rest of you will get to see as much of my Quidditch liners as you ever get to see … next year sometime, if I still make the team."
"I thought you were buying them lingerie," said one of the students from Beauxbatons.
"I don't even think this store sells that," said Harry.
"Not worth speaking of anyway," said Susan, "For that, go down there, turn left, and three doors down."
A fraction of the crowd dispersed in that direction, and another, larger fraction just dispersed in general.
And the rest seemed intent on actually shopping, now that Hermione wasn't keeping the door closed.
"What are we doing now?" said Susan.
"The deed is done," said Harry, "retreat to the castle? I seem to remember a violent excuse to visit my dorm room had been cooked up."
"That could happen later," said Padma, "The morning is young."
"No imagination," muttered Harry.
"Well," said Hermione, "If it was my date, the book store would be next, and then lunch, and maybe a walk back to the castle, longways around the lake."
"True," said Padma, "But it's Parvati's date, which doesn't rule out the bookstore, but she might want to inventory the study group's library before buying duplicates."
"Was there slytherin subtext in there, or Patil subtext, because I missed it all."
"So did I," said Harry.
"Gibbons and Lions," said Padma, "And probably horses, but we don't know."
"Oh," said Harry, "I can support that, so the apothecary next?"
"That sounds coded for all the wrong reasons," said Susan.
"I have yet to hear a good argument for going unregistered," said Harry.
"Oh!" said Susan, "that sounds interesting."
"Do you want to join the transfiguration study group too?"
"Sure," said Susan.
Parvati pouted for half a second, but then nodded, "Sure, why not."
"To the apothecary," said Harry with his fist in the air.
"Don't do that," said Padma, "Unless you wish to race Parvati."
Harry met Parvati's eyes, She shrugged and smiled.
"Someone who isn't racing, count us down," said Harry.
"On 'go'," said Hermione, "On your mark … get set … go!"
Harry ran flat out, and heard three sets of feet after him.
One light, two medium, oh, and one more, annoyed and not really trying.
He got to the corner and banked into the turn, light and first medium banked with him, and light even put on a mild bit of acceleration through the turn. He realised he'd been holding back a little something in reserve, which was generally wise.
He poured that on also, and made sure his breathing was adjusted well.
They reached the straightaway and he realised that Light-Feet had also been holding something in reserve.
And then they reached a mild crowd around the stationary shop and he had to dodge several times. It wasn't that much different than Quidditch actually. But it turned out dodging in snow slowed him down more than it slowed Parvati down.
And Susan was still coming, like a freight train, she did slow down to dodge pedestrians, but by that time most of them had been wise enough to get out of the way.
And then the apothecary was in sight, and he emptied as much of his reserves as he dared, with the need to stop again approaching soon.
He caught up to Parvati, barely, and then started coasting to a stop. She went several more paces at speed before turning half sideways and slide-dancing to a stop, reaching the boardwalk several steps ahead of him, and coming to a stop on the same stride as she lifted herself onto the boardwalk.
"How did you do that?" he said.
"Do which? You skirted those walkers like they were three times fatter or something."
"Like they were riding brooms and could spin to put bristles in my face, actually," said Harry, "No, I meant, how did you stop like you were … on skis or something."
"Oh," said Parvati, "girl scouts, they tell you not to run down a mountain facing forward. Turn sideways: any of the ways you can fall are safer, you've got more control, in at least two dimensions, but it takes a bit of practice learning how to run with no way to have an even gait."
"I shouldn't wonder," said Harry.
She shrugged, "I wasn't even planning on doing that, but when I started to slow, and felt the snow start sliding underfoot, it felt so much like mountain skidding, I just switched to that technique automatically. Glad I didn't have to sit down, though."
The sliding-in-to-base technique didn't sound like fun on cobblestone.
"Yeah," said Harry.
Susan and Padma had arrived. Harry was surprised, Susan was less out of breath than he expected.
He eyed her, "If I told you, you ran like a marine, would you know what I meant, and take it as a compliment?"
She grinned, "I run like a hit wizard."
He nodded, "That explains it."
He looked at Padma, "You're not out of breath?"
"Why would I be out of breath?" she said.
"Alright," he said, "That's impressive too."
She smiled.
Hermione trotted up, "Dear children," she sighed in exasperation, "you really should know better than to get so far ahead of your 'chaperone'."
They all laughed.
"So who won, I couldn't see," said Hermione.
"Parvati caught up and passed me at one terrain change that I judged poorly," said Harry, "I could have caught up on a longer race, but this wasn't a longer race, she won this race fair and square. And I'm not certain she didn't have more reserves waiting that she could have used if it had been a longer race."
"So, what did I win?" said Parvati.
"Well, at least one potion is already on the list," said Harry, "what else do we even need to buy here?"
"I've got a list," said Hermione, and started digging in her bag.
They went inside and Harry led the way to the animagus draught, except this store wasn't laid out the way he expected. So he had to start again, by which time Susan had already found it.
"One dose each, or three doses each?" he asked.
"What's the difference?" said Padma.
"Some people are denser than others and have to observe more times to get a good idea what they're supposed to be looking at."
"How many times did you take?" said Parvati.
"Once to understand what I was seeing," said Harry, "once to believe it and memorise it."
"Same," said Hermione.
"I'm fairly certain," said Padma, "That it will take Parvati once to see and memorise, and several minutes after she wakes up to believe it and understand."
Parvati stared at her, "What?"
"I know what you are," said Padma, "But if I tell you, you won't believe the potion as strongly, since it could have been my suggestion bubbling up from your subconscious."
"Oh," said Parvati, and shrugged, "I suppose that's possible. Are you going to write it down and fold it up so that you can say, 'I told you so'?"
"No," said Padma, "You'll know how I know before you finish believing it."
"Hmm," said Parvati.
"It sounds to me like this 'standard suggestion of three doses,' contains intentional margin, and we could get two each," said Susan.
"Or one each," said Parvati.
Susan looked troubled, and about to ask something, then looked at the shelf in a way that Harry guessed was to check the price. It wasn't one of the cheapest potions. But it wasn't horrible.
"How about," said Harry, "three each, and Susan can offer the leftovers to one of her friends."
Susan turned blank eyes on him and stared at his chest, "If you don't mind," she whispered.
"Or to Lavender?" said Parvati.
"Do you really think Lavender will read two stone worth of non-required transfiguration manuals by next October?" said Hermione from across the shop.
"No," agreed Parvati, "And she can probably brew her own potion anyway."
"Should we consider brewing our own?" said Padma.
"No," said Harry, "Not if we're going to do this, this morning so we can talk about it over lunch."
"Oh," said Padma, "fair."
So Harry took the potions to the front and paid for them. He was pleasantly surprised that they packed them in a disposable little padded carry case. Probably conjured, but still it would be enough to get them 'home' safely. (If they were even planning on keeping them around that long.)
Then they waited outside for Hermione and Parvati to be finished with their purchases.
Parvati was finished before Harry finished assessing which side of the shop to wait on, to absorb less wind and more sun.
He turned around to see her staring at her reflection in the window and adjusting her hair behind her ear. Her arm was very much like her sister's.
Susan stepped up beside her and copied her. Her arm was more like his.
Padma didn't need to adjust her hair, she still had a braid around the top of her head. This time one from Harry.
He stepped up behind Susan and muttered, "Do you know if there are wand holsters worth having, for sale around here?"
Susan stood up straight, and thought.
"Any leather, or just dragon?"
"Dragon is better."
"Not necessarily," said Susan, "But the shops that offer dragon hide will be the shops that offer the best."
"Fair enough," said Harry, "Do you want to grab two, standard sheath on left, not spring on right, and meet us back at the three broomsticks? Or do you think it's better if they pick out their own?"
"Colour?"
"Prefer natural black."
"Pride goes before a fall," warned Susan.
"Darkish green as second choice."
"Or are you just going for the cheaper colours?"
"My reasoning is entirely aesthetic."
"I can do it," said Susan.
He drew his wallet and summoned thirty galleons out of it.
"I assume this will leave extra, but I haven't seen prices anywhere but Diagon."
"Should be fine, I'll bring back the change," and she turned around.
And looked around, and turned around again.
"Parvati," she said, holding up her left hand, "How high can you reach?"
Parvati reached up, Susan made a show of measuring how high Parvati's elbow was compared to her own, but Harry could tell she was measuring how well muscled Parvati's forearm was.
"Alright," she said, "meet you at the three broomsticks."
"So?" said Padma.
"I figured out Parvati's prize for winning the race."
"Ah," said Padma.
.
Hermione appeared, and Harry led the way to the three broomsticks. Where he ordered the vegan picnic basket, for six. Not that they called it that.
By the time the basket was prepared and paid for, Susan was back.
"Ugh," said Susan, "What's causing the crowd?"
"We are," said Harry, "Let's go to the shrieking shack, I think there's a nice hollow just to the south where the sun concentrates this time of year and melts the snow."
"Ugh," said Parvati, "Isn't that place supposed to be haunted?"
"Not since Professor Lupin was here," said Harry.
"Oh," said Parvati, "fine then."
.
"So," said Susan, "How does this go?"
"If you're doing this alone, recommendation is to put on dragon hide gloves, or charm the vial unbreakable, or both. If you've got a friend spotting, warn them when you're about to drink, and let them take the vial away from you before you fall asleep and break it."
"Sounds good," said Parvati, "Who's first?"
"Go ahead," said Susan, "I can wait."
They stared at each other.
"Or I can also go first," said Susan.
"No you can't," said Padma, "Three of us have already gone."
"I could start with a story," said Harry, "about why this location has special connection to animagi."
Everyone looked surprised. And looked interested.
.
"Once upon a time," said Harry, "There was a man who hated werewolves, and he worked toward passing some of the most restrictive measures of just about any European nation.
"In protest, and perhaps as a last effort to turn him back to the course of sanity, a werewolf bit his four year old son."
Gasps and curses.
"He tried to cover it up, he redoubled his campaign, regardless of what it would do to his son's future. But there were people who knew, which slowed down his legislation somewhat. When the boy turned eleven, to the consternation of many, the headmaster of Hogwarts allowed him to attend school anyway."
"No way!" said Padma.
Harry nodded, "But precautions were put in place. The Headmaster himself donated this house and its tunnel onto the grounds, which was warded at both ends, and traps were set that wouldn't let it be opened from the inside after dark. The werewolf cub could lock himself up, and be confident that everyone would be safe from him until morning, when the curse would release him and he could fall asleep to rest off the effects of a night trapped alone as a cornered animal."
"That's the haunting?"
"Who knows," said Harry, "Maybe, or maybe that was pranks, making noise for the fun of scaring people away, or students tricking their fellows into breaking in near nightfall and then being trapped by the wards until morning."
"Anyway, it came to pass that the young wizard made friends, among them were three friends who liked to bully and prank those not in their own house."
"We all know someone like that," sighed Padma, "Some aren't even that selective."
"Quite," said Harry, "But for once, these three looked beyond their own mischievous minds, to detect the pattern of suffering that was inflicted on their friend, and they tracked him, and figured out his dark secret, and they researched if there was anything they could do to help.
"There was, and still is no cure, but at the time there wasn't even the wolfsbane potion.
"However, they learned that from their friend's perspective the worst aspect was not the pain of the change in the evening nor at change back in the morning, nor the hunger, but the loneliness."
"Desert," muttered Padma.
"And they learned that werewolves won't attack animals other than humans," said Harry, "So they conspired to teach themselves to be animagi."
"How old?" said Hermione.
"I think they finished in their fourth years, whereas we are starting in our fourth year, so whatever."
"Ah."
"Anyway," said Harry, "They dubbed themselves the marauders, and they gave themselves pet names, to use to refer to themselves in their animal forms, There was the original werewolf, named Moony, a rat named, Wormtail, a grim, named Padfoot, and a forest lord, named Prongs, after his antlers."
"Oh!" said Hermione, "Now I know where this is going."
"Actually that's basically the end, they kept Moony company at night, they continued stirring up just about as much mischief as before, by and by they graduated."
There was an expectant pause.
"The end?" said Parvati.
Harry nodded.
"Oh, come on," said Susan, "At least tell us what they did after?"
"Wormtail went home to take care of his sick mother," said Harry, "Padfoot and Prongs became aurors together. Moony looked at his cursed body, and cursed life, and saw a dark shield against all things darker than himself. And he travelled the world as a problem solver and hit-wizard for hire."
"Protectors all?" said Padma.
"Yes," said Harry, "Though Wormtail seems to have stayed with mostly the small scale, most of the time."
"Are we ever likely to meet any of them?"
"Prongs died protecting his family, during the war, Padfoot just about killed himself a couple days ago trying to destroy or capture a dark artefact, Moony …" Harry sighed, "he's out there again hunting dark creatures."
"Again?"
Harry pressed his lips together, "Who's looking at their animal next?"
"I am," said Parvati, "who's catching."
"I'm catching you," said Harry, "Who's catching the vial."
"I'm sitting down," said Parvati, "You don't need to catch me."
"I'll catch her, if she needs it," said Padma, "you catch the vial."
"Fine," said Harry.
They positioned themselves and nodded.
"Oh! Moony came back last year to teach defence," said Parvati.
Everyone stared at her.
"Oh … obviously," said Susan.
Parvati drank, Harry took the vial.
Her eyes rolled up, but she didn't fall.
"Interesting," said Hermione.
"How long will it last?"
"Three to twelve minutes, in theory," said Harry.
"She looks … stable, do we have enough watchers for us to go at the same time?"
"In theory," said Harry.
"Hermione …" said Susan, "you catch the vial, Harry, catch me, if I need it?"
"Sure," "Sure."
Susan drank and handed her vial off, then slumped dizzily forward onto her elbows, then rolled on her side and twitched.
A few minutes later they roused.
"Well," said Padma, "Who wants to talk first?"
"I'm not sure mine worked," said Parvati, "what did you get Susan?"
"Some kind of dog," said Susan, "felt … muscular, or just … more evenly muscular between my front and back legs… I guess that is common in mammals other than humans."
"Certainly," said Padma.
"How about it Parvati?"
"I'm not certain it worked."
"What did you see?"
"I saw a litter of five leopard cubs," said Parvati, "being watched over by a grim so old it had grey around the mouth, and a kneazle so devious she smelled like a snake."
NIM are you around?
Just arrived with dog-wizard, walking up to the gate.
To look for the last cursed thing?
Well to get permission for dog-wizard to be here looking for it.
I'd rather not tell Dumbledore anything.
I'm fine with that, but you'll have to convince the dog-wizard.
Ugh, fine, tell him we're by the shrieking shack sharing animagus vision stories.
That will keep his attention.
I know.
"Except that the leopards weren't leopards," Parvati had been saying, "they were an otter, a monkey, a bulldog, and a lion."
"What about you?" said Padma.
"I was just me," said Parvati, "Oh! The horse that I always am."
"Right," said Padma, "and your regular monkey friend, well technically gibbons are apes?"
"Right, whatever," said Parvati, "Harry?"
"Checking on Nim," he said.
"Oh," she said.
"Is she the kneazle?" said Hermione.
"I'd assumed she'd meant McGonagall," said Padma.
"She was around too but farther away," said Parvati, she turned to stare at Harry, "Was everyone else in my dream animagus forms?"
"I don't know," said Harry, "That's not how my dreams went."
"But is Nim …?" said Parvati.
"Let's leave the discussion of Nim for last," said Harry.
Everyone glanced up at that. Hermione and Padma stared appraisingly, as if they'd noticed that implied he had an agenda he was working through.
He supposed he did have an agenda.
"First off," said Harry, "Does anyone not find their animal compelling enough to consider working toward."
Susan raised her hand, then waved it non-committal, and put it down.
Harry nodded, "When you see the amount of reading involved, most of it dense even by the standards of seventh year curriculum, you're welcome to revise that estimate, no hard feelings."
Parvati and Susan winced.
"That said, I and Padma are going to try to finish reading the prerequisites in time to get into Hogwarts' program next October, Hermione?"
"Me too," said Hermione.
"I think it's more common to be taken sixth year," said Susan, "Something about that year not having international exams at the end."
"Then I'll try for that," said Parvati.
"I'll see how much work is involved in reading the prerequisites," said Susan.
"Fine," said Harry, "We're all here to support each other, as time and resources allow, and as goals coincide enough for help to be available."
Padma nodded.
"Oh," said Parvati, "did Nim loose herself and get stuck in animal form?" said Parvati.
"No, that's not her main problem, we'll get to her later," said Harry.
"Alright," said Parvati.
"Next," said Harry, "There has been interest in learning how to turn invisible, like Padma."
"Padma?"
"What?"
"Would you like to give a demonstration?"
Padma looked around, then shrugged, stared at him, her lips twitched and she blushed.
Parvati and Susan flinched, while Hermione only narrowed her eyes slightly, then relaxed.
"Thank you," said Harry, "You don't have to stay that way."
Her expression turned stoic and she looked away.
"Any questions so far?"
"Her shadow was still there," said Susan, "Is it true invisibility, or something different?"
"She's not truly invisible," said Harry, "You're just not permitted to see her."
"Which is why it's more complete, but more disorienting to be around than disillusionment?" said Susan.
"Yes," said Harry.
"Alright," said Susan, "Seems interesting, how does it work."
"Thrall marks," said Hermione in disgust.
"Not—" started Padma.
Harry held up his hand, "It is a side effect of my personal rune, applied by me and worn for your protection, a 'thrall' is only the most comprehensive, which is to say, the least restrictive version of the contract. Padma wrote her own contract. You all are welcome to write your own contracts. I'm not interested in more thralls."
Padma sat up, "May I ask what Luna's contract was?"
"That she didn't need to obey me above normal authorities, but she needed to do her best to abide by school rules, and not use her invisibility as a tool of theft or intrigue."
"Is this even legal?" said Susan.
"Unfortunately, yes," said Hermione, "But anything that one of you gets up to, and eventually gets blamed on the group, could have legal repercussions on the rest of the group, should one of you get caught with the mark."
"Oh, Like death eaters?" said Susan.
"Yes," said Harry, "Which is why I will only mark those who ask me for it, and who I think will be responsible with it. Rather than everyone I can possibly recruit."
"Is it removable?" said Susan.
"No idea," said Harry, "If it is, I'd assume only by me, or me and the wearer acting together. Padma's is a unique case, because her contract is conditional, and she can control the condition mentally."
"Is there a reason any of us would not choose that?" said Parvati.
Harry shrugged.
"Oh, I remember," said Parvati, "Can I get it on an pendant? And then, can I control whether the rune only hides the pendant, or hides the pendant and myself?"
Harry shrugged, "definitely worth a try."
"I might be interested in that," said Susan. Hermione looked intrigued, but not eager.
"Fine," said Harry, "we'll experiment with that too, in the mean time, consider what you'd want in a contract, and if you'd want one."
"A Grim!" exclaimed Parvati pointing into the bushes.
A bark answered her. They all jumped up and looked where she was pointing. A large black dog loped towards them, then slowed and pranced around them, basking in the attention. Nim merely slunk in, and stropped Harry's ankles.
"Oh, with white whiskers," said Parvati, "It's … It's Padfoot."
"Oh, Merlin," said Susan.
"I told you he was watching over us," said Parvati.
"I believed you," said Padma.
"But what's he doing here?" said Hermione.
"Nim recruited him for her latest little crusade, against the last dark lord."
They all turned to stare.
"Ugh," said Harry, "it sounds like its time for a story about second year."
.
"I cannot believe that Dumbledore didn't allow the school to be closed," said Sirius, "Bare minimum precaution would be to get the students out. The best way would be a team of aurors checking wands and belongings on the way out. Would have caught the book before it left the school."
"Hermione and I have been over this. So yes, We know that would have been safest in hindsight. But it also would have convicted an innocent student for possession of a cursed artefact," said Harry, "and then that student's parents would have been in serious trouble for nothing. Which might have been the intent of the one who placed the book."
"But did Dumbledore know that?" said Sirius.
"If he did," said Harry, "then he has a lot more to answer for."
They stared at each other.
"Fine," said Harry, "I concede that Dumbledore should have let the school close temporarily, or at least be thoroughly searched."
Sirius nodded.
"Or," said Harry, "it would have caught me for being a parselmouth, and missed the book completely."
"Damn," said Sirius, "And did Dumbledore know you were a parselmouth?"
"The whole school knew, ever since that first duelling club meeting," said Hermione.
"And was that before or after Lucius' bid to shut down the school?"
"He didn't try to shut down the school, he tried to get Dumbledore fired," said Hermione.
"We might not know that for sure," said Harry, "Without reading the minutes of the board of governors."
"Fine, fine," said Sirius, "We don't know enough to assign blame. We could let bygones be bygones, are there any conclusions we can draw?"
"I don't trust Dumbledore with the cursed objects," said Harry, "or with anything else beyond his job description." Especially, he thought, not with placing orphans.
Everyone looked at him. Sirius and Nim especially.
"What do you want to do with them?"
Harry shrugged, "has anything interesting turned up so far as the cleanse vs. destroy research?"
"Basilisk venom can destroy them, obviously. The killing curse should cleanse them," said Sirius, "But I'm not sure how to apply for clearance to use it. Or if we'd want to."
"Moody demonstrated it in class," said Hermione, "on spiders. So he must know how to get clearance."
"Hmm, He might could use it for us without getting additional permissions," said Sirius, "He'll be suspicious, especially of me."
"More so of Nim," said Harry, "I haven't finished my plea report on her yet."
Susan sat up, "Who is she then? Besides unregistered."
"Bellatrix, thrall of Harry." said Harry.
Nim purred.
Susan frowned, "True thrall?"
"True thrall," said Harry, "inherited from my mother and claimed by me."
Susan's frown deepened, "Can you do that to all the other death eaters?"
Harry shrugged, "First, I'd probably want to try it 'unwilling' the first time in person. Second, I'm not certain I'd want anyone wearing my mark who I don't trust."
"If they're true thralls," she said, "which is to say, there's no limits on the obedience they owe you, then there's no reason not to trust them."
"In theory," agreed Harry, "but that implies they know who I am, when I give the order, 'no hurting anyone except in self defence or defence of others,' or whatever."
Susan made a disgusted look, then nodded.
"Also, no intentionally breaking laws without your consent," suggested Padma, "not blaming unintentionally broken laws on you or our organisation."
Harry nodded, "So that would be a huge number of invisible, confused people. Though perhaps that would still be better than letting them fall again into you-know-who's clutches, should he reclaim them as his own heir, before I claim them as the heir of his vanquisher."
"That's all getting rather esoteric," said Parvati, "can we concentrate on the practical part? That Nim is Bellatrix Lestrange?"
Susan shrugged, "True thrall is true thrall, she was already his mildly dangerous cat, now she's his extremely dangerous cat, who can wield a wand." She frowned, "have you given her a wand?"
"She visited her family estates and retrieved two and a knife," said Harry.
Susan nodded.
"Why are you alright with this?" said Parvati.
"Because she is Harry's," said Susan, "He's a peer and allowed to have a small army. He's even allowed to do what Dumbledore did with Snape. Vouch for him and say he'll keep him out of trouble."
"Wait," said Harry, "all I need to do to get us a better potions professor is claim Snape's obedience and send him to run errands or something? Anything that would preclude him teaching potions?"
"Well you'd also need to file paperwork with the ministry regarding him being under your control, rather than Dumbledore's," said Susan.
"Wait a second," said Hermione, "at the beginning of this conversation, you asked whether marking people was legal, and now you know all about this?"
Susan shook her head, "I'm still not sure marking people is legal. But inheriting lands and thralls, from direct ancestors and by conquering other peers is a time honoured tradition. I'd forgotten that he was a peer, and he neglected to mention that the legal term for the protection he was offering with it is vassalage."
"Merlin," said Hermione.
"Wait a damn minute," said Sirius, "who's offering to mark who?"
"I was," said Harry, "but no thralls, everyone gets to write their own contracts, and I encourage collaboration establishing what clauses they want."
Sirius understood Harry's hand motion and blinked, "to the girls present here right now?"
"Yes."
"Who are all under age?" said Sirius.
"Yes," said Harry, "Is that important?"
"In general," said Sirius, "those under age aren't allowed to enter contracts, those that do make contracts with minors are specially forbidden to let them work overtime or in situations that they might be inexperienced enough to judge how dangerous or disgusting they might be. Also you cannot work them in a way that interferes with their schooling."
"But I'm not employing them," said Harry, "I'm giving them access to use my personal rune to hide things and themselves from anyone but me."
Sirius shrugged, "OK, but it's still a contract, right?"
"Yes," said Harry, "I mean technically I'm asking for a contract in order to put restrictions on what orders I can give them."
"In fairness," said Hermione, "some of us are already working overtime, keeping up with our studies."
Sirius glanced at her, "That's not so bad, but only in the sense that part of the reason for the restrictions is to make sure no one feels forced to drop out of school to work." He turned to Harry, "you're not giving them extra homework?"
"Like the animagus reading material, and letting them shadow my reading and course exercises in my Overview of Law class?"
"Letting them read your books is fine, letting them do your homework is not, both illegal academically if it affects your grade, as well as labour laws if it affects their ability to keep up with their own homework."
"Understood," said Harry.
"Back to vassalage specifically," said Sirius, "You cannot promise them vassal protection," said Sirius, "accepting a vassal oath and claiming them, before they are of age is illegal, has been since … I don't know when, but it is."
"Oh," said Harry, "Good to know, what about someone I already marked?"
"Under age?"
"Yes."
"First of all, Orphan care for one's own vassals and for ally peer's children is the nominal reason it isn't completely illegal. Second of all, tell her plainly, that as soon as she is of age, or any time after that, that she chooses to renounce her status as your vassal, she can do so, on the basis of having been underage at the time of promising, and therefore was not competent to make a permanent decision."
"Can I tell all my vassals that they're free to renounce my mark, whenever they choose, but give me err … a day's notice, or whatever?"
Sirius blinked, "That might work in theory, I don't know. It's a subversion of the normal use of vassalage."
"But they could make it part of their original contract?" said Padma.
"Being underage, and none of them orphans to the point of needing my guardianship outside of school," said Harry, "It already should be."
A chill ran up Harry's spine. Sirius knew enough about this, he wouldn't be taken in by the lies Nim had made up to tell Neville.
Which meant Neville could figure it out eventually.
Which meant … hopefully by the time he did, he'd be as accepting of Nim as Susan.
.
"Now, I heard rumours of animagi visions," said Sirius, "let old Uncle Padfoot in on the secrets?"
So they each named their animal form.
After each Sirius asked how big they expected they were.
When they were done, Sirius pointed at Parvati, "You," and then at Harry, "And you. Hear me out. The rest of you can ignore this."
"There's a trick that isn't covered in the beginner literature, but it's known to happen with practitioners of small stature. How good are you each with living to living transfiguration?"
"We've barely covered it," said Parvati.
"I'm alright," said Harry, "It takes more concentration than non-living."
"Can you cancel one with a wordless finisher?"
"Yes," said Harry.
Sirius nodded, "if you take a double or triple dose of the vision potion, There's a chance it will give you a clear enough image that you'll feel safe initiating the transformation."
"Damn, is that safe?" said Susan.
"Regarding potions side effects, It is, when the creature is bigger than the mage."
"Bigger which direction?" said Susan.
"Larger volume," said Sirius.
"I might would be fine then," said Susan, "I'd rather take another single dose to see if I can get a better idea what size I am."
Sirius nodded, "and no one take a triple dose trying to cause this effect, before you've tried a double dose, am I clear?"
"Yes," they all said.
"Are you sure it's safe?" said Padma.
"Not for you," said Sirius, "but as soon as they can end a living-to-living transfiguration either wordlessly or wandlessly, they should be fine."
Parvati smirked, "My wordless finishers are fairly reliable, how different is living-to-living untransfiguration compared to other untransfiguration?"
"A table won't die of an incomplete transfiguration, and probably won't scar from a badly propagated untransfiguration. Living-to-living transfiguration needs to be done all at once, not in stages or a travelling wave.
"I've never had any trouble with that," said Parvati, "But I'm way behind Padma in working through the exercises."
Sirius gave her a distressed look.
"Padma's ahead of class work, just not as far as Harry," said Hermione, "Parvati's ahead of classwork too, just weeks ahead instead of months."
"Fine fine," said Sirius.
Parvati pushed the box of vials at Harry, "Try it!"
Harry looked around to see how this idea seemed to make the others feel.
They didn't look jealous, though that might come later. They looked like it was just another interesting pass-time for a Saturday afternoon.
"Alright," said Harry, "But I'm supposed to be a lion, Stun me or tie me up or something if I attack anyone by mistake."
"You won't," said Sirius.
"Promise me anyway that you won't let me hurt anyone."
"Alright," said Sirius, "I promise. You promise me that you'll wait for the image to be fully formed before you try to initiate the transformation."
Harry nodded, and took two of the remaining vials, uncorked them each, and chugged them together, then tried to hold them out for Hermione before they took effect.
Hermione wasn't expecting that, but Parvati grabbed them and pulled them out of falling range.
The vision came, but instead of unconsciousness, an overwhelming dizziness came over him. Or more like, all the kinds of disorientation rolled into one.
.
Then he opened his eyes, and felt like Hedwig had felt, the first time Nim had transformed her into a human.
Except not that crazy, because at least he was still a mammal, and knew what to do with toes. Also he'd been this shape before in his previous animagus visions. Or should have been. No … He'd been this shape all his life, and he was still awake, but his instincts were all demanding to be moving as a lion, except he was not yet a lion. And his clothes felt like an unnatural affectation. And his wand holsters and waistband felt uncomfortable. Not tight, but they surely would be if he was transformed. He unbuckled his holsters and tried to explain that someone should cast stretching charms on his clothes, but his words came out a muffled blur, he kicked off his shoes, and without wasting time parting his robes he got his pants unfastened. They weren't so loose as to want to fall off, but they stopped feeling so unbearably restrictive.
And then he could concentrate. He saw, and felt, and whatever the word was for the part of imagination where spells yet uncast were planned and formed. The spell he needed took shape. It wasn't shaped like a transfiguration spell at all because there was no packing up the spell into a shape that could travel through a wand and be well-formed at the other side, and travel an indefinite distance in air, and then take its effect.
This spell was from his magic onto his body, no wand, no travel from hand to wand to target, it was a direct manipulation, even more direct than lumos.
He closed his eyes, made sure he had the whole image in place, the lion he would be and the magic to change and the control of the lion that his body would be turned into.
And there was the potion in his stomach and there were the tendrils of magic reaching out to his magic, pushing this vision into his head.
He could make this into another anti-imperious exercise, or he could accept the suggestion.
Or he could do one, and then the other. Perhaps use something less expensive for anti-imperious practice.
He let the thought fall away and let the suggestion re-assert itself, then initiated the imagined spell.
The dizziness and disorientation was gone. His body matched his instincts again.
He opened his eyes, the colours were more muted and sane. Which was to say, they matched more closely what he was used to from the times he visited Nim's head. He lifted his head, the shape was almost right too.
His feet felt more like articulated clubs in clawed boxing gloves. Not like stilts. Nim really was a weird shaped cat.
But he was what he ought to be.
He rolled over, then climbed to his feet.
He was a little wobbly. But not bad for a first time, or at least, not as wobbly as Neville on a broom for the first time.
At least he didn't think he was.
"Good," said Sirius, "now walk around and get used to it, give the potion twenty minutes or so to wear off before you try to change back."
It was easy to hear the words, his ears were excellent, but something was off… just how much of his ability to understand language was an instinctive feature of his human brain, instead of a conscious thing he knew how to do? Or to explain the way Susan talked: how much of that was stored in the part of his mind that existed in his magic or spirit.
But even as he worried about it, he managed to make sense of what Sirius had said, and also felt the process of 'unexpected recognition' was also part of the process of 'learning to recognise,' and felt the knowledge of how to talk, or at least how to listen, being copied into his lion brain.
How much of that was an automatic part of how brains worked, and how much of that was part of animagus magic and how much was part of the potion and how much…
Harry stopped that train of thought and turned his attention to obeying Sirius' suggestion: giving all his instinctive knowledge a work out, before he lost any of it or replaced it with things his spirit thought it needed in a brain, instead of letting actual experience guide the question. Stop again.
Harry nodded and started walking, trying to train his new proprioception, also retrain his sense of direction, with limited colours, but heightened sense of smell and hearing.
Mostly he just tried to get out of his clothes without ripping them to pieces. He was mostly successful.
.
He finished walking in a circle and a figure eight. He checked how well he could stand on his rear paws. His hips weren't really made for it, but the big problem wasn't his skeleton, but his balance. It was great when he was doing normal lion things. But he could tell there were parts of his self knowledge that must be learned, they were not given to him with his lion brain.
He looked around and found his pride watching him with interest, the whole thing just made him want to lay down and nap until the sun wasn't so excruciatingly bright. But it wasn't like it also made it excruciatingly hot, not in winter in Scotland. Fine, I won't nap. Having his whole pride watching him (except Luna was missing) … it made him want to show off and test his strength. Interesting.
But not interesting enough to think about. He turned away and saw a dead tree twice as big around as he was. Perfect.
He went up to it and sank his claws into it. The surface was slightly rotted, but the wood under that was solid. He pulled and dug and got his claws in deep enough to get an idea how much weight he could support with his claws.
He could climb, but it would be an annoying amount of weight on his claws, better to assist claw power with as much jumping and branch holding as he could. He'd seen Nim climb that way, mostly to visit / annoy / compete with Hedwig, but hadn't really paid close attention to how much balance & jump vs. hold on vs. claw, she'd been doing, or why. It was just a thing cats did when their friendly rival owl was sleeping in a perch temptingly low.
Now he was a cat, (a very heavy cat) and the idea of being up high tickled his sense of terrain knowledge and the need to have a working knowledge of prey gathering spots.
He let go of his idea how he'd been trying to achieve sense-of-direction, and looked at how his lion mind wanted to go about it. He looked around and found a better tree for climbing. He managed a leap onto the first branch. He managed to ignore Sirius' suggestion to save anything like that for next time.
He stood up and wrapped a paw around the next branch, but the tree wasn't really large enough for claws to be an advantage. Not at his skill level. But it was plenty high enough to look around and verify where he was.
And then things snapped into place, and he understood more about how the lion brain tracked direction and space, and how all of that fit into proprioception.
And finally, finally, all the knowledge of the terrain he'd acquired as a human started to filter through in a useful way, and he felt safe.
Safe for being eight feet up, in a tree, shaped like a big scary lion, and who knows what a wandering 3rd year might think on seeing him, and panic.
He leaped down, or rather leaped away from the tree and dropped. He took the impact with a bit of a thud, and realised all sorts of things about how to land as quiet as an owl, starting with paws extended, and bending his limbs gently to catch and slow his mass, or how to pounce, with paws in, and drive them out to stiffen at the last moment. Not so much like a boxer's jab, but like a martial artist's full bodied perfectly balanced and timed punch. Not a 'punch from the floor,' because he'd been off the ground, but a punch from the hip at any rate.
He stood and looked around, his pride was watching him—
Human body language was another thing he had to copy into his lion brain from elsewhere.
— looking at him with interest and adoration and satisfaction.
He was surprised how many of the small details he couldn't interpret, the large details he knew, because … because they weren't human instinct and he'd had to learn them, and therefore they were there in his memory as things he'd learned. But so much of the rest had been invisibly normal, and now he didn't have access to it.
But the expression he did recognise, the one he'd started to learn most recently.
Parvati wanted sex.
Then again, what were the chances that his lion brain was playing tricks on him?
He pushed that thought aside, he wanted to talk to them. And there were only two ways, become human, or order Nim to become human and talk through her.
And she didn't want to become human here and in front of them, not yet.
He knew that made sense but couldn't remember why.
He tried to remember how to change human, and realised he had no idea. Then he did remember, not a transformation, but a cancellation of the last transformation.
Except that couldn't be right, because then … wouldn't he lose all the knowledge he'd just added to this lion brain?
There had to be more to it than this, it even seemed like this very thing had been covered several times in several different ways in at least three books, but … but he couldn't remember. Maybe he just hadn't understood yet.
He also found he couldn't remember where he'd left his magic. But then, he often didn't until he went looking for it, and usually he went looking for it by grasping his wand and feeling the echoes ripple back and forth along his surfaces.
He returned to his clothes and nosed them until he found his wand. As soon as he touched it he could find his magic. It wasn't quite in the same orientation as where he normally found it, but it was there and ready.
He cancelled the transformation. And realised that Sirius was recommending he step behind a tree and wait for Sirius to bring him his clothes, but these were his pride and half had seen him naked, and the other half had wanted to, and now were.
So whatever.
He picked up his knickers and put them on, then his shirt… nope that was shredded, his pants were alright so he put them on. Hermione had gotten open his shopping bag from earlier and was holding it out, He took the uppermost shirt and put it on.
"Thank you," he said, and his brain and mind remembered they were supposed to be keeping him informed of what could be understood from what the humans around him were expressing, words and expressions.
It was like being dumped into the black lake and out of darkness into sunlight both at once.
He gasped in shock and looked up.
Sirius stopped, then grinned, "you couldn't understand a word I said, could you?"
"Only if I worked at it really hard," said Harry, "that was fine, when I didn't have walking or looking around to concentrate on instead. What was disorienting was not being able to read anyone's expressions or postures."
"What could you understand?" said Hermione.
"Terrain," said Harry, "elevation, hmm whatever sonar is called when it's done with scent and wind."
"Oh," said Hermione.
Harry donned his robe, finished buckling on his main holster, hiding the other in his pocket for now. He wasn't sure he wanted Susan to know he had three wands.
Harry almost turned to Sirius to ask his next question, except he had an inkling what shape the answer should be, and reached for his magic to find it instead.
He could transform with his clothes and holsters and everything, he only hadn't before because they'd felt so alien, under the influence of the potion.
Just to make sure, he changed, and changed back.
Hermione immediately got the difference, "Why didn't you do it like that before?" said Hermione in obvious exasperation.
"Because it was my first time," he said, "and I didn't know enough to try."
She struggled a moment to come to terms with that.
"And because the potion already had me running on lion instincts, and he didn't know what clothes were."
"The potion should still have you running on lion instincts," said Sirius, "what gives?"
"I can also resist the imperious when I feel like it and remember to try," said Harry.
Sirius shuddered and took a step back, "What?"
"Hermione told you already, Professor Moody demonstrated the unforgivables for us."
Sirius made and inarticulate grunt, then asked, "and gave you all practice throwing off the imperious?"
"Yes," said Hermione.
"Auror training in deed," Sirius muttered, "does he have you running in place and dodging stinging jinxes too?"
"No," said Harry, "But that sounds like good training."
"Obviously," said Susan.
Sirius huffed, "Alright, I'll take it up with him later, err, Padma?"
"I'm Parvati," said Parvati.
"Are you next?"
Parvati shrugged and looked at Susan.
"I need at minimum three doses, right? One to get a better determination of size, and then two?"
Parvati shook her head, and held out her hand, above her knee.
"That's a little big for a bull dog," said Hermione.
"And I managed to throw off the imperious, and I've been practising wandless finishers since I was eight," said Susan.
"How's your living to living transfiguration?" said Sirius.
Susan shrugged, "not above average."
"You're in forth year?" said Sirius, "I don't remember it being in the curriculum yet, but not terribly hard, just more concentration."
Susan made a face, "I did the one we had in the demo-lessons at the end of last year, but not the extra credit. We haven't had them in lessons again yet."
Sirius shrugged, "On the one hand, that means less to unlearn, on the other hand, I'm less convinced you have the power and the conceptual knowledge, even if it is applied very differently in this case.'
Susan shrugged.
"If you want to try, do so now while I'm within reach, otherwise," he shrugged and glanced at Parvati.
"What do you mean, 'less to unlearn?'"
"Living-to-living is still living-to-living," said Harry, "What's weird is casting from self-to-self with no wand. Makes things simpler, and yet, it is a charm style we hardly ever use. Self-enchantment being significantly less general use than cast or tap charms."
"You can use your wand if you want," said Sirius, "I'm sure it only makes the arithmancy simpler, the reflexes for how to cast and what casting even is are simpler with the wand there."
"Maybe I had the best of both, with my wand in my holster, not in my hand."
Sirius shrugged and turned back to Parvati.
"Are you suggesting that I'd be safe trying it some other time, with Harry watching," asked Parvati, "or Harry and Susan watching, but Susan should only try with you watching?"
"Yes," said Sirius, "or McGonagall, but she's an old stick-in-the-mud and doesn't like the potion shortcut, probably because it wouldn't have been safe for a cat her size."
"And has to teach a curriculum that is safe for all her students," said Hermione.
"Granted," said Sirius.
"I'll try it," said Susan, "Are you sure I'm big enough, what's the cut off?"
"About 4 stone," said Sirius.
"And is that based on potion to body-mass after transformation?" said Harry
"Yes."
"And that is based off most people not being able to throw off the imperious?"
Sirius nodded more slowly.
Harry turned to Susan, "Can you throw it off just by noticing that it's affecting you. Or does it take some effort?"
"Oh it takes effort," said Susan, "But not more than I can easily muster, I'm a hufflepuff."
Harry smiled, "Then I'm confident that you could overcome the potion's effects when you choose, either before or after your transformation. You're welcome to try now, or to wait for regular classes."
"I'm just not sure?" she said.
"If money were no object, and getting hold of Mr. Padfoot's time and attention wasn't a problem, what would you choose?"
Susan closed her eyes, "wait until summer, at least," she said, much more confident.
"That's fine," said Harry.
She sagged in relief, "Maybe after a few weeks to get used to the idea, I'll have a different idea. But this is all so new, I mostly just want to think about it for a while. Come to terms with … with dog-ness I guess."
"Good answer," said Harry.
Padma nodded.
"So it's my turn?" said Parvati.
"You also should not feel rushed," said Sirius.
"There's no rush," said Parvati, "I've been a war-horse all my life, this is just making it official."
"Hmm," said Sirius.
Parvati picked up the potions box and got one vial out and open, while Padma got another open and held it out to her. But Parvati handed the other vial back.
"Should I get undressed?"
"Only as far as you're comfortable," said Sirius.
Parvati gave him an exasperated look.
"You can borrow some of mine," said Harry, motioning towards his bag.
"For the transformation, or after?"
"Whichever," said Harry, "I haven't owned any of them long enough to get attached."
"If you didn't like them, why did you buy them?" said Parvati, "I mean …"
"That might be the quickest way to get into his drawers," muttered Susan just loud enough for everyone to hear but optionally ignore.
No one ignored her.
"Always the quiet ones," said Sirius.
"Back off old mutt," said Susan.
"Bitch," said Sirius.
"I hear you used to say that to my Aunt too," said Susan.
"So?"
"Just that you don't dare, anymore, is all," said Susan.
"Humph," grunted Sirius.
"Harry," said Parvati, "Are you sincere about lending me clothes after?"
"Yes," said Harry, "If you need them. If you can still concentrate with the potion pushing you, you might be able to choose to make them part of your transformation. Either way, just like Sirius said, wait until the spell or spell-like thing is fully formed."
Parvati took off her robes, and her outer, frillier shirt.
Hermione took them from her, and Padma held out the potions vials.
Parvati drank and handed them back.
Padma stacked them back in the carrier, as if she was used to returning the empties. Maybe there were still milk men where she grew up.
Parvati turned to stare at Harry, her eyes narrowed, then very carefully and deliberately she sat down.
After several seconds she got part way up and resettled into a crouch that seemed much more reminiscent of a horse. At least the way she had her fingertips on the ground seemed unlike anything a human would do, except sometimes sprinters.
She looked at Harry again, then stretched out her neck and looked at the ground.
"Back up," she croaked, "everyone."
They obeyed.
"Ont?" she muttered.
Padma skirted her to Hermione and went through Parvati's robes to find her wand and held it out to her.
Parvati didn't move.
Padma stepped closer and lay the hilt against the back of Parvati's hand.
Parvati nodded and tossed her head.
Padma retreated with the wand.
And then in her place there was a very huge black horse there, trying to stand up and look around. It had white on its paws and the side of her nose, well technically those weren't paws, but … hooves. The long fur above them was white.
Padma cooed congratulations.
Hermione and Sirius cheered.
Which spooked her for half a second, and then she rallied, and stood tall.
Horse's eyes don't turn much, Harry realised, But her ears sure do.
Then she turned her neck to the side, and tilted it.
Looking at herself, Nim supplied.
Of course, this is Parvati after all.
Looks like she won't need your clothes after all, said Nim.
I can't tell whether you're impressed or disappointed.
I can be both.
You are a rather complex cat, of low taste.
Yes.
.
Parvati took several turns about the yard, kicked up a little snow. Rolled in grass. Rolled in snow. Got up and shook the snow out of her fur again.
She led them out onto the path back to town and tried out her paces, lope, and canter. All while her sister gave a running commentary about what the different gaits were called. And when they were generally used.
Parvati returned to the shack yard testing her trot and her gallop.
Then she stood and breathed and eyed them all.
"What does she want?" said Susan.
"Maybe her wand?" said Hermione.
Padma held out the wand. But Parvati ignored it. She looked at Harry.
"Padma," said Harry, "Do you … know how to ride?"
"Oh," said Padma, "Sure. Parvati, do you want to try a rider?"
Parvati nodded.
"Does anyone know enough about saddles to conjure one?" said Padma.
Silence.
"I know cushioning charms," suggested Sirius.
Parvati shook her head violently.
Sirius acquiesced, that she should be allowed to 'learn one thing at a time.'
A little more bewilderment, then Sirius conjured his artistic interpretation of a mounting block, and Padma got on. Though she quickly started complaining about how much higher up Parvati was than the pony they'd been allowed to ride at their uncle's house. Also about wanting to get off and adjust her robes.
Parvati let her off. Hermione didn't want a turn; so it was Susan's turn. Susan did not look like she was having fun, but she held on, and she stayed balanced well enough.
Then Padma recognised what was wrong with her technique in several places and gave recommendations: "Hold on with your knees, not with your hands." "Sit up straighter, at least when you're not racing." "Trust her with more of the work of balancing."
After several more ovals and figure eights and trefoils, Susan was looking both more confident and more comfortable. Parvati had also relaxed quite a bit, but eventually Parvati caught Harry's eye, then cantered over to the mounting block. Susan heaved a sigh and got off.
"Do you want to give me a turn also?" said Harry.
Parvati nodded.
Harry climbed on. She was taller than Buckbeak, and significantly wider than Buckbeak or a broom. She took a few steps and hunched and wiggled. He got the idea and scooted back a bit.
She nodded and walked faster.
Before long they'd gotten used to signalling their suggestions about upcoming turns to each other by how they leaned, and then she went out onto the verge beside the road and took off at a canter. She slowed some and did a quick turn around and cantered back the other way.
She'd signalled a turn, but Harry hadn't been expecting a tight U-turn and all but fell off. But he managed to stay on, and once the turn was over he recovered quickly. At the next turn she entered the turn more gently and gave him a chance to lean into it before the turn reached its sharpest. And then she went past the shack to a bit of open field, and ran in trefoils and cork screws, as if to trick him into falling off. And interspersed were straight lines to see how fast she could accelerate or stop.
On one strait-away he leaned, and then the game reversed. Could she follow his leans fast enough to keep him from falling off.
And then once when he tried a lean so far that she'd have had to corner almost as tight as that first hairpin turn, and she called his bluff and kept straight. He'd had to grab a handful of mane to stay on, and hauled himself back up. She'd slowed to a stop and snorted for most of a minute.
"Yes, laugh it up," he agreed, "We probably are rather amusing, to watch … or terrifying, depending on their preferences."
She nodded.
"Sorry about pulling your hair," he said.
She shook her head.
From the way her mane danced, He wondered if that was the 'it was nothing' that a head shake usually meant, or if it were a, 'yes, that hurt, but I'm over it now.' Or something else entirely. 'Brush it straight, damn it, you made me look rumpled,' (as if galloping didn't already do that.)
After his impossible turn instruction, it was her turn again, to try to shake him off. Not by bucking, rolling, or kicking, any of which he was fairly certain would take him off immediately, if not also break bones. But no, just turns and turns back the other way.
And then her ears flipped around, and she paused. Then turned toward the shrieking shack and their audience, and cantered in that direction.
.
"Well, pup," said Sirius, "that was quite a show, have you broken her in yet?"
"I think," panted Harry, "she already knows what to do, and it was I who needed breaking in."
Parvati snorted, and took him to the mounting block. A clear signal.
He got off. "Also, about this 'pup' designation. I seem to remember you promised not to call me that after I managed to transform."
"No, that was never the deal, the deal was that I'd also give you a marauder name."
"Hmm," said Harry, "so welsh."
Sirius sputtered.
Harry turned his back on him, to face Parvati, just straightening her back and rolling her eyes as she adjusted to human balance again.
"Thank you for the ride, Lightfeet."
Padma and Parvati turned to stare at him.
"Is that the best you can come up with?" said Padma.
Parvati didn't seem to mind, merely had an eyebrow raised.
"I'll have you know," Harry told Padma, "I started calling her that half way through the race, just from the sound of how she turned, before she caught up and I saw who those footsteps belonged to. That it matches her stockings too, is just an added bonus."
"Humph," said Padma.
"True coincidences are rarer than people think," said Parvati.
She means to quote, 'there's no such thing as coincidence,' hinted Nim, she's just educated enough to know that's not quite true.
"Ah," said Harry.
"Praecipua," said Sirius, "the brightest star in Leo Minor."
"He's hardly a little lion," said Hermione.
"No, but he does still have a few baby spots."
"All the more reason to assume he's going to be larger, eventually." said Hermione.
"Also," said Padma, "that's so hard to say, no one but you will use it.'
"I don't know," temporised Hermione, "Praecipua, it has a distinguished sound to it."
"Because distinguished is what it means," said Padma.
"Isn't it feminine," said Susan, "not that there's anything wrong with that, only that Harry's animal form very definitely is not."
"Praecipuus, then," said Sirius, "unless you want Goryoun or something."
"Not so much," said Parvati, "one sounds like a cliff and the other sounds even worse."
"So what would you call him?" said Sirius.
"aankhon vaala sher?" said Padma.
"What? Why?" said Parvati, then she groaned and shook her head.
"What?" sighed Harry.
"Your first name sounds like 'green.' aankhon vaala sher means something like 'eyes of the lion' so … together Harry aankhon valla sher means the lion with green eyes, but by itself it just means, 'that lion with eyes,' which is … rather common in lions you know."
"I like it," said Sirius, "except its too long. What's just lion, or little lion?"
"Chhota sher," said Parvati, or "shere ka bachcha."
"No," said Sirius, "All of those are … too serious. A marauder name needs … more —" he made a motion with his hands and said several things in … perhaps German.
"You're not communicating," said Hermione.
"Oh, I know," said Sirius, "Richard."
"Huh?" said Susan.
But Padma and Hermione groaned.
Even 'Claws' or 'Climber', would be better than that, thought Nim.
Should I mention that?
No, 'of the sharp claws' is one of my titles, and … well perhaps you want to reserve 'Climber' for your gibbon friend?
Yeah maybe.
Parvati stared at them for several seconds, then at Harry, then she nodded, "It's funny enough, but … I'd rather vote for Sher, it sounds like a proper pet name."
"It's the best so far," agreed Hermione.
"It's not up for discussion, the senior marauder has spoken, His name is Richard."
Everyone looked around awkwardly.
Susan muttered something that had the lilt of sarcasm, though Harry couldn't make out any words.
"Meh," said Harry, "He's my dog-father, I guess I'll accept it from him."
Sirius patted him hard on the shoulder, as if to say, "See, I told you."
Padma stared hard at him, then nodded, "Sure, Hara Sher, whatever you say."Parvati's hand flew up and covered her own mouth, as if the sudden dimple hadn't given away that she was suppressing a giggle.
"What are you laughing at?" said Susan.
"Harry," gasped Parvati, "made two … said two things at … Padfoot's expense but, I didn't … get one of them until Padma explained it."
"Oh," said Susan.
Sirius patted Harry's shoulder again and returned to his previous spot at the picnic blanket.
"Hmm," grumbled Sirius, "'Lightfeet' also has my seal of approval, not that I'm convinced I should mention that before you young-ins have shown—" he raised his hand palm up with his fingers touching as if searching for the correct words, " … the proper respect for your betters."
"Oh, don't be a stuffed shirt," said Harry.
Sirius dropped his hand and rolled his eyes, "Don't you get it?" he protested, "I'm not a stuffed shirt, I'm a ham. (But my stuffed shirt impression is fairly spot on, if I do say so myself.)"
Everyone laughed.
Even Nim.
...-...
{End Chapter 13}