chapter 15:Contemplating Animals

As the door closed behind the last of the departing Study Group, Hermione and Neville looked at Harry curiously.

"So, why did you ask us to stay behind?" Hermione prompted Harry and he smiled before activating his Portable Map on the local setting so that it only showed the few rooms adjacent to their location. After a moment of careful checking, he nodded and deactivated it before sitting down at one of the corner tables, waving for the other two to join him.

"You remember last year, when Professor Snape gave me points at the Leaving Feast as he returned my mother's journal?" He asked, receiving two nods in reply. "Well, he included a piece of parchment in it which listed several books technically banned in the United Kingdom but easily available abroad. The books aren't illegal to own, only to buy and sell in the UK… and they're texts used by several of the other schools for their Animagi courses."

"So that's how you knew about the way that the Uagadou school teaches their students!" Hermione realized.

"That's right. And not just them." Harry replied. "I've had Jor-El analyse the differing methods and compare them to some of the other records he had available. The method used in Europe is very risky and complicated because it was designed to be so in order to keep the numbers of Animagi down. After all, if you are an Animagi, you have a form that doesn't register as human and is virtually impossible for them to track."

Hermione looked slightly puzzled while Neville nodded in understanding, then took in Hermione's expression.

"It's all about control, Hermione." Neville explained. "Animagi are far harder to keep track of, thus harder to control and counter. Most warding schema don't do anything against Animagi in their animal forms, meaning that someone who can take on the form of something like a rat, cat or squirrel could go almost anywhere that they wanted, even places that the Ministry doesn't want them to. That's one of the reasons that they have an Animagi Registry, it's so that they can adjust the Animagi Wards around the Ministry to detect that specific Animagus."

"That sounds rather… cynical." Hermione weakly protested and Harry chuckled.

"My dad and two of his close friends were Animagi and my mother was apparently learning how to be one too, judging from a few of her diary entries. Anyway, Jor-El's analysis resulted in a ritual which takes less than twenty minutes and allows anyone to gain an Animagi form. He's set up the ritual circle for me, but it takes quite a bit of magic. Normally, we'd need six adult wizards to power it, or two Animagi due to the resonance effect, but he's found a way round it by linking to a magical source under my house and I'll be gaining my animal form this weekend. Either of you interested in seeing what yours are?"

Neville nodded firmly while Hermione looked torn. "But… will you register?"

"My parents didn't." Harry stated firmly. "Hermione, you remember last year when the Ministry played along with that slander in the Prophet? If they'd had a chance, I'd probably no longer be Lord Potter and might even be in Azkaban by now! There are quite a few of Voldemort's followers still in positions of power and all of them have access to the Animagi Registry. Voldie isn't fully dead, he might return and if he does, I need something that he doesn't know I can do."

Hermione sighed and gave an unwilling nod.

"I guess you're right." She sighed. "I don't like it, but you're right."

"Thanks." Harry said softly, patting her hand reassuringly. "So, Neville? You in?"

"Most certainly." Neville nodded eagerly.

"Hermione?"

Hermione sighed, then suddenly her expression brightened. "Harry, can the Ministry detect an Animagus transformation?"

"Nope. Why?"

"I'm in." Hermione smiled. "It'll be another thing to wow my parents with."

Neville blinked. "Hang on. How did Professor Snape know about those books? Is he an Animagus too?"

"I don't know and I've very carefully not asked." Harry stated firmly. "And neither should you."

The others both nodded in understanding.

"Now, the underlying magic is still fairly complex, but Jor-El has a good grasp of it. The downside is that, like the Uagadou method… you have to be naked the first time."

To Harry's surprise, it was Neville who blushed furiously.

"That's why it'll be done one person at a time and the room will be locked from the inside until you have regained human form and put the robe back on." Harry added. "We can sneak out on Saturday, do it and be back before anyone notices. So, interested?"

Hermione closed her eyes and sagged. "Why do you want me to break the rules? I've never broken the rules before, Harry."

"Some rules shouldn't be followed, Hermione." Neville said softly. "During the war against the Death Eaters, one rule which briefly made it in was that it was legal to kill muggles. Would you have followed that rule? Would you have let someone else kill your parents just because it was legal?"

"Dammit." Hermione swore, then she straightened up. "Alright. I'm in. And I won't tell."

.

.

"I'm here." Hermione said as she stepped into Harry and Neville's room. "Where's Harry?"

"He went ahead an hour ago." Neville said, closing the book he had been reading and slotting it back onto the bookshelf. "You nervous?"

"I… yes." Hermione quietly admitted as she closed the door and Neville smiled.

"Me too. But… let's do this."

"Okay." Hermione agreed as Neville opened Harry's trunk, revealing a steep staircase leading down. The duo descended and Neville led the way into a small room, closing the door and then re-opening it to reveal the Floo Room of The Pottery, a room in which Jor-El was waiting patiently for them.

"Heir Longbottom, Miss Granger, welcome to The Pottery."

"Thank you, Jorel." Hermione answered for them. "Are the preparations complete?"

"They are, Miss Granger." Jor-El answered with a slight bow. "Please follow me. Lord Potter is waiting outside the Animagi Ritual Room."

Following the spirit, Hermione took the opportunity to look round. "You've managed to keep this place incredibly neat. I don't see any dust at all."

"Just doing my duty, Miss Granger. This way, please. The Ritual Room is located in the basement."

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, a bark echoed and a moment later, a white-furred canine skittered round the corner, almost falling over, then bounded up to them, tongue hanging out as it panted happily. Sliding to a stop in front of them, it stood on its hind legs, planting its fore-paws on Hermione's shoulders and proceeded to give her a long, sloppy lick that covered almost half her face in doggy-drool.

"Eugh!" Hermione protested, fumbling in her pocket for a handkerchief as the dog dropped down and bounded over to Neville, who stepped back.

"Harry, don't you dare!"

Hermione froze mid-scrub. "Harry?"

The dog looked at her and Hermione had just enough time to see that its eyes were green before it seemed to flow upwards, turning into laughing Harry Potter (albeit a Harry clad only in a pair of shorts).

"The look on your face!" He chuckled and Hermione dope-slapped him.

"You licked me!" She protested as Neville tried to muffle his laughter. "You licked me!"

Harry shrugged, then ducked away as Hermione flailed at him. "Nev! Help!"

"Sorry, Harry." Neville chuckled. "My Ravenclaw intellect tells me to stay out of this one."

"Traitor!" Harry protested as Hermione cornered him. "Okay! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have done it, no matter how funny it was!"

"Prat." Hermione sniffed as she finally abandoned her attempted assault on him.

"Okay." Harry grinned as he straightened up. "So, I have robes ready for you and I've done some testing. Once you've done the change, practice it for a bit. When you can do it almost by reflex, you can start wearing clothes, but you need to get used to how each item changes the feeling before you add another, so immediately getting fully dressed and then trying it is a bad idea."

"Hence the shorts." Neville deduced.

"I've had some clothes put in the room for you both. Pants, shorts and a T-shirt for Neville, a one-piece swimming costume, shorts and a t-shirt for you, Hermione. I found it took about half a dozen transformations before I was comfortable enough to do it without leaving my pants behind… ripped three pairs doing that. Anyway, once you've done a couple of transformations, you may want to relocate to your suites to practice in private for a few hours so that you can do it while keeping all your clothes intact… or at least easily replaced."

As Harry spoke, he had been leading them to a blank wall at the end of the basement.

"Here's the Room and it isn't concealed by magic since that would be too easy to detect. Instead, I press here and here…"

An irregular portion of the wall swung inwards like a door, revealing a room beyond that was well-lit and had complex designs engraved on the floor, walls and ceilings.

"So." Harry grinned. "Who wants to go first?"

Hermione and Neville looked at each other.

.

.

Hermione watched as Neville lazily swung through the trees, his long arms allowing him to grip the branches with ease. After several minutes, he made his way down and knuckle-walked towards them, reverting to his human form as he drew close.

"You've really got the hang of that shape, Nev." Harry said admiringly and Neville smiled.

"I used to climb trees when I was younger. This makes it easier. What am I, out of interest?"

"An Orang-utan." Hermione supplied, earning a look of thanks. "Since you like books quite a bit, it's quite appropriate."

Both Harry and Neville gave her confused looks and she giggled.

"The Librarian? Terry Pratchett? I see that I really need to introduce you both the the Discworld Books."

"Well, you've seen both of our shapes, now it's your turn." Harry prompted and Hermione took a couple of breaths to steady herself, her hands checking once again that her shorts and T-shirt were still in place.

"Here goes!"

Hermione fell forwards, but it was a large cat that hit the ground, one whose slightly-outsized paws indicated that it still had some growing left to do.

"Wow!" Harry breathed as he circled her. "A tigress! Awesome!"

Hermione nodded, then stretched, allowing her claws to show. A moment later, she was back to being human again.

"You know, only you have a good shape for hiding in public." She half-scolded. "Orang-utans and tigers aren't really found in Scotland, except in zoos."

"It's still a useful trick." Harry pointed out. "And if your cousin visits, get a tiger plushie and let her see you as a tiger. When she runs away to get an adult…"

Hermione started snickering at the thought, then she glowered at Harry.

"Stop trying to corrupt me, dammit!"

"Language, Hermione!" Harry said, putting as much offended dignity into his voice as he could, then all three started to laugh. "Hmmm, we should get back to Hogwarts soon."

"Indeed you should." A new voice said and all three of them spun round to see Filius Flitwick watching them. "On the other hand, given what I've just seen, I can understand your absence. It's a pity that my heritage prevents me from becoming an Animagi myself, it's one of the things I find myself envious Minerva about. I must ask, though, how did you spoof my Map?"

"…I included an over-ride." Harry admitted. "Mainly for things like this."

Filius raised one eyebrow. "How very Slytherin of you."

"The Hat said I wouldn't do well there." Harry said with a slight shrug. "Apparently I'm too straight-forwards."

Filius turned and walked beside Harry back into the Pottery, Hermione and Neville close behind. As they entered the Floo room, Harry clicked his fingers.

"I almost forgot! Jor-El, can you order in a copy each of the books written by… by… who was it again?"

"Terry Pratchett." Hermione supplied.

"Yeah, him."

"Of course, sir." Jor-El said as the quartet stepped into the room that connected to Harry's trunk.

.

"Well, that was quite unexpected." Filius stated as he clambered out of the trunk. "Next time, give me a heads-up so I can cover for you if anything happens."

"Yes, Professor." Harry sighed, then he held out his arm. "My watch doubles as a communications stone, if you need to talk to me from your office."

"And it lets you call me if you need to." Flitwick deduced. "I assume you both have the same as well?"

Hermione nodded as Neville emerged from the trunk beside her.

"Good to know. Well, no harm was done and you've all gained a skill which I have no idea about."

"Thanks, Professor." Harry grinned.

"I have no idea what you are thanking me for." Flitwick smirked, then he sobered. "But seriously, give me a heads-up next time you decide to head out."

"Yes, Professor."