31 The Beast Inside

It was a chilly November morning, and I was glad that I was inside the Room of Requirement. I never liked the cold much, and there was no way that I was spending the weekend inside the common room, no matter how cozy it was.

Amelia had just given Dumbledore the ultimatum regarding Snape recently, so we were waiting for information. We couldn't get past the fidelius of course, but if we knew the general area, then we could lay out traps for them if they ever walk out of there.

"Y'all sure about this?" I asked as I picked up a vial of the potion. The potion itself exuded a dim green hue.

"Yeah, mate. I'm nowhere good enough with my elemental magic. Need to shore that up before I start dabbling in other advanced stuff," said Neville as he set down his dumbbells and sat on a stool for a brief rest.

"Same here," replied Hannah.

I sighed as I looked around the room. The room had transformed into a hodgepodge of stuff due to our various requirements. A corner of it was now a gym to facilitate Neville's chest day. Susan and Hannah were sitting in another corner, poring over some books. Meanwhile, Hermione, Luna, and I were standing in the middle of the room. Each of us had a vial in hand as we stood near a circle engraved on the floor. Several totem poles were positioned on the diameter of the circle, depicting various animal faces.

"Susan?" I asked. She was comfortable enough with her elemental magic. Surely she could spend some time on this.

"Nope. Not all of us can blaze through advanced magic. I will completely master fire before I try my hand at something else that requires a lot of focus. If I was guaranteed an awesome animal then sure, but I'd rather master my element first," she said.

"Alright then," I said and turned towards Luna and Hermione. "I'll ask you the same question, I guess. I don't want you to feel like I'm rushing you into these things."

"As if I can just sit still while you are learning advanced magic. My curiosity would kill me. I'll somehow make time for the other stuff," said Hermione with a smirk.

"It's mommy's research. Nothing else matters to me as much as this does," said Luna in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

She was right though. It was one of the reasons I was doing it too. Pandora Lovegood and Lily Potter were two people who would have completed this specific method if they had worked together, or lived long enough. Both of them had different sources and were the missing pieces of the other's puzzle. That alone was not enough for us to devise this method though.

That's where Dumbledore's vast transfiguration knowledge came into play. The man was a veritable library of magic. But if it was one branch he knew better than the others, it was definitely transfiguration. I did not know whether Dumbledore was an Animagus, but I got every ounce of information about the transformation from him. McGonagall had once said that she finished her transformation under his tutelage, so it was understandable.

We were going for this and not the standard method because of the additional gain in mental protection and the possibility of gaining a magical animal form.

Some might ask me if this was necessary at all. I had all the necessary tools to match Riddle in combat. All I needed to do was practice more with what I learned from Dumbledore. But I've already been doing that. Moreover, the second path was just expediting the process. So I saw no fault in exploring this specific branch of magic. It was always better to have more weapons in my arsenal.

"Ladies first," I said as I gestured towards them to get started.

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My turn finally came around, and I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my eyes. Unlike the standard method with the mandrake leaf potion, our potion put us in a trance while the runes interacted with the potion and the various animal totems around us.

I expected my trance to take my mind to a forest or something similar, but to my surprise, I was in the Great Hall. Unlike the normal great hall, everything was blurred here and there was nobody around. I was wearing my Knights uniform and had my Aspen wand in hand. But for some reason, I knew that I would not need it.

I instinctually knew that there were three presences nested inside the castle. At the same time, I knew that I would be walking out with only one of them. Multiple animagus forms were not something we could achieve even with the help of this improved version. The fact that I could feel three different things holed in this place meant that there were three possible forms that I was compatible with. In the end, either the animal would choose me, or I would choose the animal. I would know when I found them. This in itself was different from the norm. Generally, we could not choose our forms. We just became the animal that most suited us. I suppose my case was different because this body was nothing simple. It had been exposed to three different souls in this lifetime, so I suppose that might have been the reason for this discrepancy.

And thus, began my exploration of the castle.

I didn't know how much time had passed, but I had spent some considerable time wandering around the dungeons, then the ground floor, and then the first floor. One detail I noticed was that I was not able to open doors or go to places that I had not been in.

With high expectations, I stepped into the second floor. Without preamble, I immediately headed to the point of interest on the floor. Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor was the same as always, sans two glaring differences. One, the ghost was nowhere in sight. Two, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was already open.

Not one to need any more prompting, I jumped in as wind billowed around me, slowing down the fall. My feet softly touched the ground as I landed and glanced around. I expected the corridor to be caved in, based on my knowledge of the place, but it was devoid of any damage.

The door at the end of the corridor was conspicuously open as well. I stepped in with trepidation. I wondered whether I would come face to face with another basilisk in this same location.

With the distorted effect, the whole place looked spookier than it was in real life. It didn't feel like I would be in any danger in the trance, but I still wanted to play it safe. I closed my eyes just in case as I walked in. My footsteps echoed as I walked into the chamber. I let the wind speak to me as I mapped the entire layout of the place. I could feel a 3D image of the entire place in my mind as the wind caressed every single surface in the place.

As expected, a large snake was moving around the pillars. I couldn't tell for sure whether it was a basilisk or not. Some of the features were what I remembered, but I was no expert in serpents. Yet, I still wasn't willing to risk opening my eyes even though all of this was just in my mind. It was too big a risk. The snake itself was not as big as the one I faced, but it was still twice as large as me. I immediately stopped moving and stood still. It turned towards me and stared at me for a few seconds.

I waited with bated breath for it to make any sort of a move. We stood at a standstill for a few more seconds before it turned towards Slytherin's statue and crawled back into its hole. As the statue's mouth closed, I felt the presence of the serpent disappear completely. Now there were only two more creatures in the castle.

Not letting my failure get to me, I quickly left the chamber and let the wind carry me back to the entrance. I was not too keen on a serpentine form as well for some reason. It was as if the connection forged to the creature was artificial... unnatural even. I wondered if it was due to my encounter with the basilisk, or due to the prolonged exposure to Riddle's soul piece. Even if it was an actual basilisk, I felt like there was something else that suited me more.

Soon, I stepped foot into the third floor. As I walked around the floor, I reached a familiar corridor. It was another place of interest in the castle. Another place where I previously had a life-threatening adventure. As I walked through the forbidden corridor from my first year, I recalled all the traps within it.

Without hesitation, I opened the door and walked into the room as the door slammed shut behind me. The room was poorly lit, and the majority of it was covered in shadows. Yet I could clearly feel the massive presence within the shadows.

The shadows rippled as the enormous animal inside them began moving towards me. The first thing I saw was three pairs of heterochromatic eyes.

The Cerberus finally stepped out of the shadows and loomed over me. Unlike Fluffy, it was not snarling and trying to intimidate me. It was calmly observing me as the three heads sniffed the air in curiosity. Another marked difference from Fluffy was that the dog was of a different breed. It resembled a Husky more than anything. The coat of the Cerberus was as black as my hair, while the heterochromatic eyes reflected my own.

I slowly raised my hand and held it in front of me as the dog took another step forward and sniffed my palm. The three heads then looked at me for a moment before the middle head licked my palm and began wagging its tail. The other two heads began howling all of a sudden and the middle one joined them too after a couple of seconds.

At that moment, something clicked within me, and I knew that there was no other form for me. It was ripe with irony as well, a creature that guards the gates of hell being the form of a man trying his best to stay out of it. It made a twisted sense though, I had a connection with the afterlife. It was only proper that I got a form that was connected to it too in the myths.

I could now understand why there were three presences in this trance of mine. The serpent connected most to the soul piece of Riddle that was previously housed within this body. But that soul piece was here no more, so that avenue did not pan out. I suspected that the third presence- the one I did not encounter- would be something that would correspond to the original Harry.

It didn't matter anymore though. I found my form, and I was more than content with it.

Once the howling stopped, the entire castle lit up with white light. I instinctively closed my eyes and waited for it to subside. That's when I felt the abject difference. My mind was split into three, as if I was thinking three different thoughts at once.

The next thing I noticed was that some of my senses were giving me feedback from multiple sources. My sense of smell and hearing being the most prominent ones. Along with these new sensations and feelings came new instincts. Despite the sensory overload, I felt completely fine. I had no headaches and no trouble adjusting. I could feel three of my mouths grinning as I straightened up.

At that moment, I opened my eyes and woke up to reality, larger than I ever was.

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A.N: I'm back from the business trip! This chapter might be comparatively short, but I've been busy since I returned from the trip, and I didn't want to drag this chapter. Let me know how you like his animagus form. I guess the whole scene was a bit of a cliché, but the story is nearing its end, and I did not want Luna's project to be the only one that turned out to be a dud.

There is a reason I picked the Cerberus, apart from the apparent connections mentioned in the chapter.

I'm not too satisfied with this chapter, but I just wanted to get it out of the way and get on with the story. Maybe I'll edit the tone and the language, later on, to make it not so bland. My apologies if it seems like I skimped on the quality.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.