Chapter 072

However, it was not those powers that truly captivated Harry's attention. While those abilities sounded incredible, what really gotten him interested was Morgana's ability of partial animagus transformation. Morgana le Fay had the ability to partially transform specific parts of her body into her animagus form, while retaining her human form in others. One of the powers she'd been well-known for, in fact, was her ability to transform her arms into wings and take flight by creating wind currents underneath her.

It was that ability, more than any other, that convinced Harry to become an animagus this way, and not using a potion to discover ones inner animal, as most people did. He didn't know what his animal was, but whatever it was, he was quite certain that the abilities he could gain from complete mastery would prove far more useful than simply using the potion.

Of course, there was far more to just discovering ones inner animal that went into becoming an animagus. Becoming one not only required a lot of time just for a person to discover their animal form, but also required a lot of skill in transfiguration.

Morgana had written that in order to become an animagus, there were two branches of transfiguration one needed to obtain mastery of. Human Transfiguration: the ability to transfigure a human into another object entirely, and Cross-Species Transfiguration, which was the ability to transfigure a person or animal into a different animal.

Both sub-branches of Transfiguration were required to become an animagus. It was just another reason so few people ever became one. Transfiguration was one of the most difficult and complex branches of magic. Even the slightest mistakes could lead to disastrous consequences, including permanent transfigurations and even death. For this reason most witches and wizards preferred branches of magic that were considered safer, such as Charms.

Harry was not most wizards. He had every intention of not only becoming an animagus, but mastering all branches of magic to such a degree that no one would ever question that he was one of the best and most powerful wizards in the entire world.

The morning after receiving Professor McGonagall's book, Harry went through the same routine he'd done yesterday. However, even during his work out, Harry's thoughts remained on what he had read the night before. Even when he and Neville made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry was still thinking of how he would become an animagus.

How long would it take? He wondered. Morgana had projected it would take six to eight years by going through the process she had used, but that did that necessarily mean it would take him that long?

While he hadn't known about Occlumency until the Sorting Ceremony, the truth was he'd been practicing meditation since he was seven, and thanks to his need to shield his mind from his memories in order to function as a normal human being, he had practically mastered the art of clearing his mind alread, which was the key to mastering Occlumency.

Did that mean he had already mastered Occlumency? The sorting hat had told him that he would have easily pushed it from his mind had it not spoken to him. But did that mean he would have been able to shield his mind from someone who had mastered legillemency?

He didn't know. Unfortunately, there was no way he could know. Not without finding a master Legillemens and asking them to take him on as an apprentice. Even more unfortunate was that he didn't know anyone who knew the art. He assumed that Dumbledore might. After all, the man was the most powerful wizard in magical Britain, but he wasn't entirely sure he trusted the man. Not after the Headmaster had left him on the doorstep of his magic hating relatives like a bottle of milk on a cold November night.

Harry supposed that just meant he would have to make do with what he had. He was positive he could discover his inner animal on his own before the start of the new year, it would just take time.

His only real problem was actually becoming an animagus once he found his inner animal. From what he had read of the books he'd bought during the summer about Transfiguration, Cross-Species Transfiguration was a fourth year skill, and Human Transfiguration was a N.E.W.T. Level skill, meaning it was only taught to those who managed to get an O on their O.W.L. Exams in fifth year. To make matters more difficult, in order to become an animagus one had to combine Cross-species Transfiguration with Human Transfiguration, which was above N.E.W.T. level magic that required Mastery of Transfiguration. All in all, if Harry wanted to become an animagus before the end of the school year, he had his work cut out for him.

Thankfully, he did have an advantage most others didn't. His mum's journals. While his mother had never become an animagus, she had described the process his father, James Potter, and his friends had gone through to become animagi. It gave an added perspective to what he had read from Morgana's book.

According to her, James Potter had been a genius when it came to Transfiguration. One of those once in a generation prodigies. In fact, it had been James who had first gone through the process of becoming an animagus, and it had been him who taught it to Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. His mother had written that James had been so good at Transfiguration that he not only became an animagus during his third year at Hogwarts—an until then unheard of feet—but had gained Mastery under Professor McGonagall's tutelage before he graduated from Hogwarts.

That would also explain why Professor McGonagall had been willing to lend him her book, as well as why she seemed to have a soft spot for him despite this only being their second time meeting—he didn't count the times she had been around him as a baby. James had been her favorite student, despite the amount of trouble he and his band of misfits got into.

"Are you alright, Harry?"

Harry's attention snapped back to reality at the sound of Neville's voice. He looked at the round-faced boy walking with him on his left and gave a polite smile.

"I'm fine, Neville," Harry assured the boy. "I was just thinking about what we learned in class yesterday."

"Oh." Neville looked unsure for a second, but then plowed on. "So what do you think of our classes so far?"

"They're definitely intriguing. Way more interesting than the muggle classes I took in primary school," Harry said with a chuckle. Of course, learning magic was infinitely more interesting than learning math and English. Though he would admit to loving science and history just as much as magic.

"So what's your favorite class?"

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