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slips in bonus post while everyone is distracted by HUGE sign

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Chapter 44: Animagi Revealed

The days faded away for Harry and the others. Their days were filled with lessons of Occlumency, Draco and Malfoy constantly switching groups, until Minerva was satisfied that everyone at Grimmuald place was proficient Occlumens.

When they weren’t slaving away at that, either Draco was teaching Harry Legilimens or they were working as a group on Animagi.

Harry was constantly exhausted and sore beyond belief from the constant beatings he was giving his body both mentally and physically. It became his routine to go to bed well after midnight, and arise before daybreak.

Harry and Hermione were soon in direct competition for each other to see who would properly become Animagi first. It wasn’t a spiteful competition, but a good spirited one, and while they were the closest to success the other were by no means far behind.

Two days before September the 1st Harry succeeded mere minutes before Hermione.

Harry had become a sleek somewhat small black cat with vibrant green eyes and a lighter colored lightening shaped patch on his forehead.

“That’s not good.” Stated Lupin, worry etched on his face as he stared at the cat Harry’s forehead.

However as soon as Harry had thought about it, the patch disappeared, to the amazement of everyone in the room. Harry, still in his cat form, walked out of the shadow he had been standing in and sauntering over to Sirius’ leg. No sooner had his fur touched Sirius’ brown pants, he had turned a tawny brown color, and except for his striking green eyes, he blended in quite well.

Everyone exclaimed loudly, and excited voices filled the room.

Everyone’s elation and Harry triumph was forgotten instantly however as Hermione managed to transfigure.

Where the moment before there had been shouts of joy now were gasps of awe. Harry in his surprise changed back, amazed at what he was seeing.

Where a frustrated Hermione had just been standing now stood a magnificent Hawk in the exact shade of Hermione’s hair. She opened her wings wide and leapt into the air for a moment before crashing down.

Shaking her head she changed back amid the peels of laughter.

“Flying is not as easy as it looks she said crossly, then she too burst into laughter.

“Very nice Miss Granger, very extraordinary.” The soft voice filled with pride floated through the laughter causing all sound to cease.

“I hope you realize the significance of this.” Minerva continued, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I do.” Hermione whispered, simply beaming.

“I don’t.” Ron said scratching his head.

“Won’t you ever read Hogwarts, A History?” groaned Hermione.

“Ron thought about it a moment before saying with a shrug, “Um, no, no I won’t.”

Hermione sighed and said, “There was only one person ever fabled to become a bird as an Animagus and that was Rowena Ravenclaw, who was said to become a Raven. That is only a legend and is not substantiated with anything in History.”

“There may be other bird Animagi but none that are or have ever been registered. That might be to the fact that they have an advantage of not being suspected.” Minerva added. “I was not able to see Harry’s, I cam in just in time to see Miss Granger’s not so graceful flight.”

Hermione gave Minerva and the others who snickered under their breaths a reproachful look, but she too turned her attention to Harry who instantly turned into a black cat. This time however, instead of rubbing against Sirius’ leg, he chose Herminone, who was wearing a faded pair of blue jeans.

Again as soon as he touched the cloth he changed into a light greyish color.

“Oh my!!” Exclaimed Minerva, he is a Russian Blue now.” She said referring to the color of his coat.

Wanting to try something his cat form leapt into the center of the room, where he stood still for a moment. The next instance, where the sleek Russian Blue had been a moment before, now stood a calico.

“He’s like a, like a” struggled Neville, trying to find the right words.

“Like a metamorphmagus animagus.” Lupin finished thoughtfully, thinking of Tonks.

“Tonks will be happy to see him then.” Ron said with no sense of restraint whatsoever.

Harry rose where the cat had just stood, “Not actually. He told Remus. “I can’t change my shape, just my color.”

“What do you mean Harry?” Asked James looking slightly confused.

Harry laughed, a slightly embarrassed look on his face, “Well, I tried to make myself look like a Siamese cat and a Persian cat, it didn’t work, I can only change the color of my coat not my physical shape, I can’t become different kinds of cats.” He shrugged

“Still, that is dead useful.” Ron insisted, “you can always change you color to not be detected, and you can get rid of the lightening bolt shaped patch too.”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Now that the novelty of Harry and Hermione’s success had begun to wear off, the others wanted to continue trying as well.

By the dinner the next day everyone but Ron and Draco had succeeded in becoming Animagi.

Neville had become a cat as well, but unlike Harry he could not change his colors, he was almost the same color as Harry had been when he had been a Russian Blue. He was very large, had over large ears, and was mostly paw, leg and tail, slightly clumsy when he moved. He caught sight of a fly however, and leapt to unbelievable height with precision, speed and grace that surprised everyone including himself.

“Did you see that?!!” He yelled as he changed back, still perched on the shelf where he had landed. That is, until the shelf crashed down from his weight. He managed to change into a cat mid fall and landed gracefully out of harms reach, still to the amazement of the group. “What?” He asked as he brushed the dust off of his pants, his face bright red in pleased embarrassment.

Luna succeeded soon after Neville and everyone exclaimed over the beautiful markings on the elegant body of the Doe standing in front of them. Her pelt was snowy white with large fawn colored spots. Her big brown eyes were full of kindness and joy as she bounded around the small room.

“You are beautiful.” exclaimed Neville, his voice soft and full of awe as she changed back.

“Thank you Neville.” Luna said in her breathy voice smiling at him, therefore missing the questioning looks everyone else gave Neville.

A small but powerful mountain lioness suddenly bust into the crowd, her roar powerful enough to shake the house on its foundations and elicit several screams. Neville still smiling at Luna fainted dead away. “Are you ok?” Ginny asked bursting back into her human form as she rushed to Neville’s side, not noticing that she was the only one. She looked up and laughed loudly as she realized that the others were still cowering against the back wall. “I’m sorry,” she said laughing still, “was that not subtle enough?”

Someone’s going to come after that.” Ron told her reproachfully, as Hermione conjured several chairs. They all sat and stared at Harry and Draco, who were pretending to teach the others about Occlumency as Minerva, Molly and Arthur burst into the room.

“What was that?” sputtered Mrs. Weasly looking around. The group shrugged the shoulders, feigning ignorance. After several moments when both Molly and Arthur were sure that there were no lions loose on their children the grudgingly headed back upstairs. Minerva however stayed behind for a moment.

“Keep it down.” She said, glaring at Ginny.

“How did she know it was me?” Ginny asked amazed as Minerva shut the door.

After dinner, Ron Hermione, Harry and Draco headed back down to the room, the others opting for a break now that they had succeeded.

Ron was in poor spirits at his apparent failure and had almost give up.

“Keep trying, Ron, don’t give up, Draco hasn’t done it either.” Hermione tried to encourage him, but all she got for her kind words was scornful looks from both boys.

Harry gave her a small smile and said, “Ron, you just need to relax, you are trying to hard.”

“It would be easier if I knew what I was going to turn into.” Ron grumbled, but he closed his eyes and was silent for several moments.

The air around him seemed to change and suddenly he jumped up a strange look on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a shrill bark, and where Ron had been standing a moment before was an extremely excited golden haired Cairn Terrier.

“Oh you are so cute.” Hermione exclaimed picking up the excited dog, who promptly licked her face. She began laughing, but Harry just said, “That’s sick mate.”

Hermione laughed and put the small dog down her turned back into Ron, still turning in circles.

“Come on!!” He exclaimed, “Let’s go show everyone!” he grabbed Hermione’s hand and dragged her out of the room.

Harry started to follow them out of the room, but Draco’s hand stopped him.
“I was hoping they would leave.” Draco said a look of embarrassment on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked slowly, feeling a sense of dread.

“When we made this deal,” Draco began, “I didn’t realize that everyone would learn and catch on so quickly, I guess I underestimated the lot of you.”

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked frowning.

“I already am an Animagus.” Draco said softly, “But I knew you wouldn’t agree to let me help you with Legilimens with out offering something in return, you wouldn’t accept that I just wanted to help you. I expected everyone to still be struggling until after school started, then I wouldn’t have to worry about it.”

“Worry about what?” Harry asked, terror sinking into his stomach.

Draco sighed, looked at Harry solemnly, and asked, “You remember in our fourth year when Mad-eye Moody turned me into a ferret?”

“Yes…”Harry said slowly, a look of dawning understanding on his face.

“Well, that wasn’t him transfiguring me. He had caught me the night before and was trying to show everyone that I was an Animagus, but luckily Professor McGonagall caught him before he could tell my secret.”

With that said Draco turned into the sleek white ferret that Harry had remembered from all those years ago.

His jaw hit the floor as Draco changed back. “Because he had humiliated me I was afraid and embarrassed to show any of you, I was afraid they would all laugh at me again.” Draco hung his head, and for a split second Harry thought he saw tears.

“I had no idea.” Harry said softly, wondering for the first time if Draco’s dislike of him wasn’t in fact deserved.

Draco didn’t say anything as he walked toward the door. “I won’t be going with you to Hogwarts.” He said, his back still facing Harry. “At least not right away.”

Harry remained rooted on the spot several minutes after Draco had left contemplating the words of the boy. He was unable to shake the overwhelming sense of sadness or even to rekindle the feelings of hatred he had harbored for so many years.