Harry Potter and the Elvish Magic

Harry Potter and the Elvish Magic

Chapter Five: The First Full Day Back

The next morning, Harry woke up in his bed in Gryffindor tower looking reflexively for the computer display above his headboard telling him what time it was. Of course, he instead saw the red hangings of his bed at Hogwarts. Harry wondered about it for a moment before realizing where he was. Happy to be back at Hogwarts, he drew back the hangings, and got his glasses from his bedside table. He looked out the window, and saw the sunlight hitting the lawn far below him. He looked at it twice, because it seemed to have extra colours. He finally remembered that because he was an Animagus who could turn into a Zauberian dragon, he would gradually be able to see more of the light spectrum. I must be seeing ultraviolet light, he thought. He couldn’t describe how the colours looked different, but he knew that they were there. He wondered how much of the spectrum he would eventually be able to see. Looking away from the window (processing all the extra colours was beginning to give him a headache), he went to his wardrobe and drew forth his robes. He went into the bathroom to get a drink of water, and while there, changed into his school uniform. He went back to his bed, picked up his Prefect badge from the table, and pinned it on his robes, trying to get it at least reasonably level. Ron drew back his hangings suddenly.

“What’s going on?” he asked, his words slightly slurred. He was still nearly all the way asleep.

“It’s time to get up,” Harry said. “See you at breakfast.” He left the dormitory as Ron woke up and got out of bed. He hurried down the stairs, and reached the common room. Eledh Malfoy was standing there, a letter written on black-bordered parchment in her hands. Tears were streaming down her face, and she looked distraught.

“Eledh?” Harry asked tentatively. She whirled around.

“Harry!” she gasped. “Could you please help me? I don’t know what to do. My parents sent me a letter, saying that they disowned me for going into Gryffindor.” Harry was shocked. He hadn’t thought that the Malfoys hated Gryffindor that much. He also felt a surge of sympathy for Eledh, who no longer had a family. He knew how it felt, having lived without one for fourteen years (the Dursleys really didn’t count; they were merely people he had had to live with for far too long.)

“Perhaps,” he said, “we should go to Dumbledore. He’ll know what to do.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “My parents always said he was a fool, but I never believed them. I don’t know that much about him.”

“He will know what to do,” Harry said. “But we should probably go now, before most of the school wakes up.”

“Could you take me to him, please?” Eledh asked.

“I can try,” Harry said. “But his office has a password that keeps changing. It’s likely that we’ll meet another teacher, who can take us to him. Would you like to leave now?”

“Yes,” said Eledh. “Thank you.” She wasn’t at all like the other Malfoys in her mannerisms; she was very polite, and appeared to be grateful for his offer of help. Harry wondered how hard it had been for her to grow up in a family where the Dark Arts were promoted, and to have parents who were servants of Lord Voldemort. He had thought that it was awful at the Dursleys, but now he realized that it must have been just as bad for her. He opened the portrait hole, and they set off through the hallways, Eledh’s tears vanishing because they were doing something to solve her problem. Harry was worried about finding Dumbledore, but then he heard footsteps going through the corridors. He could tell from their rhythm that they belonged to someone who was extremely tall, and there were only three people at Hogwarts he knew of who were that tall: himself, Ron and Albus Dumbledore. It was easy for him to realize that it was very, very likely that he was hearing Dumbledore, and he went off down one of the corridors.

“I think I heard him this way,” he said to Eledh, who screwed up her face slightly.

“I can’t hear anything,” she said, frowning slightly. However, sure enough, after a few minutes they met Dumbledore.

“Good morning!” he said merrily. “What brings you into the corridors so early in the morning?”

“Eledh needs to talk with you,” Harry said. Without a word, Eledh handed the letter she had been clutching to Dumbledore. He read through it quickly, and his face became very serious.

“Come with me, please, Eledh,” he said kindly. “Harry, I believe that breakfast is just beginning to be served in Great Hall...”

“Of course, Professor,” Harry said, realizing that this was a private matter. He turned to go.

“Thank you very much, Harry,” Eledh said.

“Any time,” he said, before going off to breakfast. He heard Professor Dumbledore and Eledh talking for quite a while, until he had gotten far away from them down the corridors. Normally, it would have struck him how well he was hearing everything. However, he wasn’t even listening to what Professor Dumbledore and Eledh were saying, because he was preoccupied with something else. Why did a Malfoy have a name that was Elvish for “Elf”?

***

Harry sat in Great Hall for a long time as other student drifted in, gradually eating a very large breakfast. Finally, Hermione came down with a sunny “Good morning!” (neither she nor Harry were much for extreme public displays of affection, so that was their usual greeting). She sat down next to him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, realizing that he had been virtually ignoring her. “I didn’t mean to ignore you. I was helping one of the first-years; I took them to Dumbledore. I shouldn’t tell anyone about it, though. It’s something that they have a right to keep private.” Hermione looked at him tentatively for a moment.

“Eledh?” she asked.

“How did you know?” he asked, shocked.

“It makes sense,” she said, looking around to make sure that no one was nearby or otherwise in a position to listen to them. “She’s a Malfoy who got into Gryffindor; so her parents are going to be furious. I saw you leave with her from the common room, and as I was walking down, I heard her and Professor Dumbledore talking. I didn’t listen, of course.”

“I noticed that too,” Harry said. “When I left them, I could still hear them talking until I got a long way down the corridor.” Hermione smirked slightly.

“Certain people have unusual abilities,” she said. Suddenly Harry remembered why.

“Of course,” he said. “And did you wonder about her name? What it means?”

“I know what you mean,” said Hermione. “I’m sure that it was just pure coincidence.”

“I can’t imagine that it would be any other way,” Harry says. “But it’s weird. She pronounces her name in Elvish, even. It’s some coincidence.”

“Looks like a question for the library,” Hermione said. “Oh, look! They’re handing out course schedules.” Professor McGonagall handed them their schedules, and gave one to Ron, who had just come in. They stared at their course schedules for a moment, and then looked at each other. Ron sat down on Harry’s other side.

“Wow,” Hermione said. “When they said that they were accelerating all our courses, they meant it. We have each class every day.”

“Don’t worry, Hermione,” Harry said. “It’ll just be third year all over again.” She smacked him playfully.

“Only this time,” she said, “the two of you will be working just as hard as I will!” She sounded quite happy.

“See what your girlfriend’s like, Harry?” Ron said. “She tortures us.”

“Both her best friend and her boyfriend,” Harry said mournfully. “I’ve been terribly deceived as to her character.” Hermione rolled her eyes. Suddenly Professor Dumbledore stood up. The lively chatter that had filled the hall died down.

“I would like to apologize for the omission that I made last night,” he said. “Madam Hooch will be contacting those interested in playing Quidditch this year if they will be so kind as to sign up on the sheets which will be posted in all the House common rooms. As a reminder, unless in very, very special circumstances, first years will not be allowed on House teams. Thank you for listening, and you should be heading off to your first classes shortly.” He sat down, and talk resumed. Ron and Hermione hurriedly ate their breakfasts, and they hurried up to their dormitory and retrieved their bags (which they’d enchanted so that they could carry all their books). Then they hurried to their first class, which was denoted on their schedules as “Physical Studies”, taught by “Professor Grubbly-Plank”.

“I hope she’s nicer than she was last year,” Harry said.

“I’m sure she will be,” Hermione said. “Last year she was substituting for Hagrid, in the snow and cold, with students who weren’t always paying attention. This will be much better, I’m sure.” They quickly found the classroom and found seats in the front row. Professor Grubbly-Plank wasn’t there yet. Other fifth-year Gryffindors drifted in slowly, and the bell rang. Suddenly there was a whoosh of air, and Professor Grubbly-Plank soared over their heads and landed on her feet in front of them. She wasn’t even breathing hard. Harry was astounded. She had leaped over all their heads from the back of the classroom. There was a thunder of applause, which finally died down.

“Thank you, thank you,” she said, smiling. She was completely different than she had been last year. She was an animated, cheerful figure whose apparent age was belied by her actions.

“As you all know, this class is new at Hogwarts this year,” she said. “Its purpose is to enable you to survive outside of Hogwarts should the need arise. Therefore, you will learn how to survive on your own in almost any conditions. We’ll go to the Forbidden Forest to start with, and then perhaps Antarctica, the North Pole, and areas with all sorts of different terrain types. You will be combining with what you learn in this class with what you learn in the Languages class, which will also educate you in different cultures. Can anyone explain to me how that class and this class are related?” Hermione raised her hand, the rest of the class was still processing what she had said.

“Yes, Miss Granger?” Professor Grubbly-Plank said.

“They’re counterparts of a sort,” she said. “The Languages class will try to teach us how to survive in various civilizations, and this class will try to teach us how to survive in various places without civilization.”

“That’s very good,” Professor Grubbly-Plank said, “except for one thing. You said that the classes will ‘try’ to teach you. That’s out of the question. They will teach you.” The class looked at her with new levels of respect.

“All of you,” she said, “will need to do a lot of work strengthening your body and your mind. One of the books for this class was The True Abilities of the Human Body and Brain. I’m sure many of you have discovered that it can give you a lot of numbers telling you your abilities. I’d like to correct one common misconception. Those numbers say nothing about how well you’ll do. If you have an IQ of 67, and your classmate has an IQ of 167, he or she could in theory do better than you at the moment, but it would all depend on how hard you try. You could do better than your classmate if you tried very hard. Also, it’s important to remember that you’re teenagers, your brains, while nearly formed, are not entirely complete, and that IQs can change. Don’t allow yourselves to be held back by some number. Do you understand?” They all nodded.

“Good,” she said. “Now, on to the course. You need to understand what you are all capable of. The human body is, I believe, one of the most adaptable ones on this planet. Coupled with your intelligence, it is probably the most adaptable. It is also probably the most under-utilized body on this planet. The same applies your brain. We, along with Elves, centaurs, vampires, certain giants, and Zauberian dragons” Harry managed not to change facial expression “are the most intelligent creatures on this planet. Of those types of creatures, we are by far the most numerous, and we by far under-utilize our brains the most. Those of you with a Muggle upbringing, or those who have been wise enough to take Muggle studies, know what a computer is. Each and every one of you has a brain which is capable of more determinations than all the computers in the world combined.

In this class we will learn to tap into our resources. It’s part of a program at Hogwarts that draws on all of your classes. You will all be undergoing the Animagus transformation today , which will be a combination of Potions, Charms and Transfiguration. In this class, you will be learning how to use your Animagus forms.

However, each class has an area that is unique to that class. Transfiguration’s area, for example, is turning things into other things by transfiguration. Charms’ area is that of the learning, development, and application of charms. Potions specializes in the same sort of thing for potions, and Defence Against the Dark Arts’ area is shown in its name. This class is called Physical Studies. That is somewhat of a misnomer. Although you will be developing your bodies, you will also be developing your minds. Any questions?” No one stirred.

“Right, then,” Professor Grubbly-Plank said. “Please take out your copies of The True Abilities of the Human Body and Brain. If you haven’t already done so, please place your right palms on the place indicated on the title page so that the book can acclimate to you. Please then turn to page 3.” There was a rustling as people got their books out from their bags. Some opened to the title page and placed their right hands upon them, but the majority opened to page 3. Harry was glad to find that this was the page after that which stated your ability levels. He didn’t want to see that page again. He had been distracted by both his thoughts about what he had seen on that particular page of his book and by how loud the rustling of people getting their books out seemed (before remembering that he could now hear much better than he had been able to before), and so it was a moment before he realized that Professor Grubbly-Plank was speaking again.

“In this class,” she said, “we will be covering both outdoor survival techniques and mental and bodily skills. I expect you all to increase your mental performance through taking this class. That will mean that some of you will have to work harder than others. Please realize that it really is essential that you take this class to heart, as it is easily as academically challenging as any of your other classes. Now, as for what we will be learning.

We will begin by starting mastery of the martial arts. If you have had previous experience in this area, know that it will be an individual instruction portion of the class, scaled to your current ability level. At the same time, you will learn about outdoor survival techniques. I’m sure that you are all aware of the grey training robes I had you purchase. I will expect you to be outside by the Quidditch pitch two hours before dinner on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (it will fit into your class schedules, I’ve checked), and two hours before breakfast on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. We will be having a physical training regimen, whether rain, shine, sleet, snow, any other form of precipitation or natural occurrences or disasters, or nuclear fallout. Basically, we will be having these sessions, and you will be excused from them only on grounds of serious illness, or death in your family. Do you understand?” There was a series of bewildered nods.

“Good,” she said. “I look forward to seeing you this evening. For today, we will begin learning things based on what you already know. Can anyone tell me why you should not go a field during a thunderstorm?” Harry knew why from Muggle school, and promptly raised his hand.

“Yes, Mr. Potter?” she said.

“You would be the tallest object in the vicinity,” he said, “and the easiest for lightning in the area to strike, because you would be the shortest path to the ground. If you were struck by lightning, there’s a good chance that it could kill you.”

“Very good!” said Professor Grubbly-Plank. “That, class, is an example of something which is common knowledge in much of the Muggle world, and something which most witches and wizards choose to disregard. It is to their folly to do so. Next question. Why would you want to avoid sleeping in a depression in the ground?” Harry, Hermione and Seamus raised their hands.

“Mr. Finnigan,” Professor Grubbly-Plank said.

“Water flows towards lower areas,” he said. “It’s possible that there could be a sudden flood, and then you could be swept away before you could do anything.”

“That’s correct,” she said. “Am I correct in assuming that you have a Muggle background, Finnigan?”

“My dad’s a Muggle,” Seamus said.

“Did you learn about not sleeping in an low area from him?” she asked.

“Yes, we use to go camping, and one time a place that I had wanted to set up the tent got flooded out,” Seamus said. Professor Grubbly-Plank nodded grimly.

“Three people in this class raised their hands,” she said. “They are the same three people in this class who have Muggle backgrounds. Did anyone else know the answer to that question? I want to know. Don’t worry, I won’t be angry, just this once, because you didn’t raise your hand.” No one raised a hand. She sighed.

“This is an example of what happens when you depend too much on magic,” she said. “Ladies and gentlemen, and I call you that because you’re old enough to shoulder a lot of responsibilities, when we spend time in the Forbidden Forest and other places, you will be allowed your wands in case of emergencies, but you will be required to repeat the exercises until you do them without magic. Is that clear?” They were all stunned.

“The vast majority of this planet is Muggle,” she said. “You will often be in areas that are Muggle, and then you will not be able to use magic except in the gravest of circumstances. You see, Voldemort has arisen, and due to our low population, we may need to have students, with supervision, out to fight him. Do you understand?” The class was even more shocked, but slowly, there were nods all around. Professor Grubbly-Plank looked pleased.

“Good,” she said. “Now let’s get started.” She began by showing them the locations of various nerve endings in the body. Harry was fascinated to know that a branch of the human martial arts, which he found were related to but fundamentally different from the Elvish ones, dealt with pressing nerve endings to immobilize people. Professor Grubbly-Plank demonstrated a different manoeuvre on each student. She immobilized Harry’s left arm, which throbbed for several seconds until mobility was regained. He was very impressed. She handed them each a diagram which showed the exact location of nerve endings, and said that they would be required have it memorized by class the day after tomorrow (they had each of their classes every day, except for Sundays). Suddenly, the bell rang, and she bid them goodbye, sending them off to Potions. Harry hadn’t looked forward to this class.

It was actually much better than he had expected. Professor Snape, the Potions teacher, was not his usual vindictive self, and Harry thought that perhaps it was because they finally had Potions all by themselves, and not with the Slytherins. Professor Snape began the class with his usual quiet, sinister lecture.

“Today,” he said, “you will be brewing what will certainly be the most dangerous potion any of you have ever attempted. This is more dangerous than Polyjuice Potion, which some of you somehow managed to brew back in your second year.” Harry, Ron and Hermione started. How had Snape found out about that?

“This is more dangerous than using Gillyweed, which can be fatal in large enough doses,” he said, silencing Harry, Ron and Hermione with a glare. Everyone else was desperately trying not to snigger. Long practice in Snape’s class helped them all to succeed.

“You will be brewing the Animagus Potion, which I trust at least some of you remembered to procure the ingredients for?” he ended with a question.

“Take them out, now!” he suddenly barked. There was a scramble, and soon everyone had opened their black bundles, and the light of the moonstones, which shone surprising brightly, causing the dragon scales to glint, illuminated the room. The unicorn hairs and powdered phoenix feathers shone, and the dragon blood was faintly luminous. Snape looked faintly surprised.

“Place all of the ingredients in your cauldrons,” he said, “and add precisely 1 pound of water. Make sure that you get the amount of water exactly right, because otherwise the potion will kill you.” They each measured out the amount of water and poured it in their cauldrons along with their ingredients. Snape strode around, inspecting.

“This potion is a very new development,” he said. “It has not been abused by Lord Voldemort because it requires phoenix feathers, dragon’s blood and scales, and unicorn hair. Although any one of those ingredients could conceivably be used for Dark Magic, together they will refuse to unite for any Dark purpose, and will block the power of the moonstone from being used for a Dark purpose as well. Therefore, if you have Dark intentions, you will be unable to use this potion.” Harry wondered what would happen to Snape if Voldemort found out he was saying these things. He had been sure that Dumbledore had sent Snape to spy on Voldemort because of something Dumbledore had said last school year, but he was now doubtful. The risk of Voldemort finding out what he was saying would have been too high if Snape had been spying in the ranks of the Death Eaters for Dumbledore, so he guessed that Snape was not a spy any more.

Next Snape had them heat up the potion to its boiling point, which, because of the additional ingredients, was well over 3000 degrees. Despite the use of insulating charms, it became stiflingly hot in the Potions dungeon. This was the opposite of the normal atmosphere of the room, but it was still horrible. Snape finally allowed them to drink the potion just before the bell rang (it took a long time to cool), and sent them all off to Transfiguration.

“Well,” said Professor McGonagall, her eyes sweeping the class, “as none of you have blown up, melted, died or otherwise shown any unusual symptoms, I will assume that you have all brewed your potions correctly.” There were a few nervous laughs.

“Don’t worry,” she continued, “the potion, when botched, rarely kills, but it would have put you in the hospital wing for months. Is everybody ready to go outside? We’ll be testing our new forms out there.” There was a hum of anticipation as she led them outside and down to the Quidditch pitch. It seemed to Harry as if there was a huge, faint bubble shimmering over it.

“Professor Dumbledore has placed a Concealing Charm over this area,” she said. “It is to prevent anyone from detecting your Animagus forms. If you can see a very faint bubble-like thing hovering over the stadium, that’s what it is. Do not tell anyone of your classmates’ forms, because you won’t be able to see them because of the charm anyway. It’s for your and their safety. Come on, keep up.” Some people had been lagging behind. Professor McGonagall looked quite excited, and not at all like her usual reserved self. Harry supposed that she quite enjoyed teaching her students such advanced magic. She led them onto the Quidditch pitch, and dispersed them evenly across it.

“I will cast the charm on you that will begin the initial transformation,” she said. “Please stay exactly where you are, so that in the case that you have a very large animal form you won’t bump into your classmates. Don’t move at all; you’ll learn to use your forms later. Also, please understand that the initial transformation will take about ten minutes. You will soon learn charms from Professor Flitwick that will enable you to undertake the change at will, without any delay. Any questions or problems?” Neville raised his hand.

“Professor,” he said, “what if we turn into a fish or something that can’t survive out here?”

“That’s a wise question, Longbottom,” she said. “There is also a life-support charm that will keep you alive for at least as long as the approximately half a minute you will remain in your Animagus forms. It may be tempting to move around, but do not try to. I repeat, you will learn that later. Any other questions?” No one else moved. Harry got the impression they were scared speechless.

“Good,” she said. “I will change you back after you have remained in your Animagus forms for half a minute. Good luck. Animus aparecium totalus allus.” Harry felt his body slowly expand, and he began irresistibly to bend forward. Well, he thought, I suppose I must be an animal that walks on four legs. He was very excited. Now he would be able to turn into two animals at will. His body grew heavier, and larger. His hands touched the ground, and his new position began to feel more natural. Suddenly he felt a mild irritation as his body changed shape. It grew into an uncomfortable sensation as his ribcage expanded, and grew worse as his head changed shape. His brain was assailed by a myriad of new smells as his nose expanded, but he was distracted as his spine rapidly grew new vertebrae. He realized that there was another reason why Professor McGonagall had told them to not move. It would be far too painful.

Suddenly, the pain reached a peak and abruptly subsided to a bearable dull ache. Harry was relieved; he had been worried that he would go mad with pain. It had been nowhere near as bad as being under the Cruciatus Curse, but it had been plenty bad enough. He turned his head, which felt strange because of all the hair emanating from it, and noticed that although everything was in black and white, it was still reasonably clear (far clearer than it would have been if he had taken off his glasses while in human form.) Everything seemed abnormally bright, however, as if his Animagus form was more used to nighttime. He felt slightly uncomfortable in the warm September sun, and he swung his head around to look at his body.

He was a tiger. A huge tiger, well over four meters long, as well as a tail, which was another meter long . He looked at his coat carefully, deciding that he was probably a Siberian tiger because his coat was quite thick. He moved his great nose, and smelled the grass around him. It smelled both the same to him as it did when he was human, and different at the same time. It was much like the difference in how things looked to him when he had his glasses off, and when he had them on. They were still the same, in a way, but more wonderful at the same time. He glanced at his coat again, and thought that it looked rather pale. Suddenly he remembered that it was a very rare trait among tigers, but some of them were white and black instead of orange and black. The white parts of his coat weren’t really white, either, but more of an off-white which would still blend in with most backgrounds. He realized that this would make his Animagus form stand out even more than it already did, but he liked his white coat because he knew that white tigers were valued in many cultures.

He twitched his ears, which were clothed in off-white fur with one black stripe each. He could hear his classmates breathing around him, but he couldn’t smell or see them. He supposed that it was just one aspect of the Concealing Charm. He wished that he could see their Animagus forms, but he knew that it was just for their own safety. Then he began to change back.

It was something that he felt that he could control but probably shouldn’t, so he sat back mentally and felt himself change back into Harry Potter. His limbs lengthened, and his fingers grew much longer. His tail tickled terribly as it disappeared back into his spinal cord, and he resisted the urge to burst out laughing. The trunk of his body moved up, and his back reacquired the double arch necessary for erect posture. Soon he had colour vision again, and his head was a good meter and a half higher than it had been thirty seconds ago. He felt a whirling sensation, and he suddenly reappeared in a completely different part of the stadium. Professor McGonagall was standing in the centre.

“Because you have been moved to a random spot in the stadium,” she said, “the people who are now standing next to you are probably not those next to whom you transformed. Feel free to look down at the tracks left in the dirt as you leave the stadium, and class is now over. We will resume this class tomorrow, because you now have all your classes every day. For your information, an extremely complex system of charms and spells has been erected so that you are actually able to work for a total of twenty-four hours each day, still get twelve hours of sleep each night, and age twenty-four hours, while only twenty-four, rather than thirty-six, hours actually pass. Its details are top secret, so please don’t ask me how it works. I will see you tomorrow.” She suddenly became a cat, and ran off through the grass. His body still tingling from the transformation, Harry walked off through the grass to Languages, which he had next. He was flanked by Ron and Hermione, and they were surrounded by most of his classmates. His eyes whipped over the pitch, and he saw many different types of tracks. There were hooves, claws and paws, all with various depths. He even saw a pair of tracks that looked somewhat like human feet. He surmised that someone had become a chimpanzee.

***

“And so,” Aberforth Dumbledore continued (he had asked them to call him Professor Aberforth, so they would avoid confusion with his brother), “I switched to pretending to being a Frenchman, because I had pretended to be from eight other countries at that one party, and I thought I would confuse the guests even more by pretending to be from a ninth. Afterwards, I snuck out, and guests could never agree on where I was from, because they had all thought that I was from a different country. That, class, is why you should learn languages, so that you, too, can befuddle guests at parties.” The class roared with laughter. He’d been telling them about how he had tricked the guests at a Death Eater party, and caused them to squabble so much that they hadn’t even noticed the Aurors who had surrounded and captured them until it was too late.

“I don’t expect you to be able to do something quite like that after a year in this class,” Professor Aberforth said, gesturing for them to be quiet. “However, you should all be multilingual by the end of this year, in at least six new languages. By the time you graduate from Hogwarts, all of you should at least speak sixty, many should be able to master eighty, and several of you will exceed more than one hundred.” Harry looked at Professor Aberforth, certain that he had been joking. He suddenly felt horror wash over him as he realized that he wasn’t.

“Those of you from Muggle backgrounds probably think that I’m joking,” Professor Aberforth continued, as if reading his mind. “I’m not. However, witches and wizards have an innate ability to learn languages. It is fairly strenuous for a Muggle to learn their second language, and nearly as hard to learn their third (especially if the two languages come from different families). However, Muggles who speak three languages fluently, or are bi- or trilingual, have a wonderful facility for learning even more languages. I personally believe that the brain needs to be trained to think in the different patterns of other languages. As with any task, with repetition, the brain improves.

“One way in which we generate and direct the form of energy that is magic is by having high densities of the neural connections and interlacings in areas of our brains. Some of these areas are the language centres, and others are the memory systems. Muggles can achieve the same thing, but it is harder for them. Because language and memory processing areas are very important in the brain, witches and wizards are able to learn languages much more easily than Muggles can.

“Because we can learn languages so easily, you might ask why so few witches and wizards speak another language fluently. Until recently, most witches and wizards had no desire to learn Muggle languages. There are over 5000 Muggle languages that we know of, and only about 50 magical languages that we know of. Certainly wizards, notably myself, my brother Albus, and the late Bartemius Crouch, Senior,” (Harry suddenly remembered that Percy Weasley had once said that his late boss had spoken over two hundred languages), “were part of an International Federation of Wizards experimental program (which is still classified) designed to see if the teaching of many, many languages simultaneously to the subject took up memory which could be used for other things, and made them more ‘Muggle,’ as was previously thought.

“It was found that every single subject of this experiment experienced vast increases in memory and became still more powerfully magical. It is believed that the intensive use of language centres and memory systems in the brain increased the density of the neurons even more, and this increased density increased the magic of the subject.” The portion of the class from wizard families looked bewildered about the references to neurons. Harry supposed that they didn’t come up much in wizard education.

“If you didn’t understand my references to different parts of the brain,” Professor Aberforth said, “it doesn’t matter. You will learn about the brain in your ‘Physical Studies’ class. However, you do need to understand how what I just said relates to this class. No matter how much you cram into your brain, it will always make room for more. I realize that it sounds absurd, but as far as we can tell, it’s true. Your brain somehow manages to remember everything it uses, as long as it isn’t diseased. In theory, there is a limit to what our brains can remember, but for most of us, that limit is so incomprehensibly vast that it is impractical to worry about it. Also, because no one has ever reached that limit of how much can be stored in memory, as far as anyone can tell, it is unknown whether or not there actually is a limit.

“Therefore, we will start off on three languages today, and it shouldn’t tax your brains too much. Please take out your copies of Textbook of Languages, and we will start today with German, Latin and Welsh.” There was a rustle as everyone hurriedly got out their books and prepared to take notes. Harry was very grateful for one feature of his newly enchanted bag: you could put your hand in and think of whatever it was in the bag that you wanted, and when you withdrew your hand, you would be holding it. Therefore, he was ready within several seconds for the lecture.

“German,” Professor Aberforth began, “is a very important language, both magically and in Muggle sciences, including social sciences. It is spoken, quite obviously, in Germany. It is also spoken in Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. This may sound surprising, but German is also spoken quite commonly in parts of France which border Germany (the same is true of French in parts of Germany which border France). It is also spoken fairly commonly in a few parts of Poland, and in some other areas. German is spoken throughout the Muggle world as a business language, and in the magic world, it is rapidly encroaching on English as the primary language of the International Federation of Wizards.

“German is characterized by the combining of smaller words to form bigger, often more specific words. These combinations often reflect a sort of logic. For example, the German word for headlight, Scheinwerfer, is a combination of Schein (light or shine) and Werfer, which means ‘thrower’.

“German has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. A word's case affects both the article describing it and its ending. In comparison, Latin has, depending how you classify them, either five or six cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative, and is sometimes considered to have a vocative case as well...” Midway through the lesson, Professor Aberforth switched from teaching them the intricacies of German past tense and Latin declensions to why they were studying the languages they were.

“I’ve chosen these two languages to begin our study because they are probably the two heaviest influences on English: English is directly descended from German, and approximately 63% of its vocabulary comes from Latin. I’ve also chosen a third language to start with which, because its people were geographically isolated for approximately a millennium, is different from the other two we will be studying, so that you don’t become overly accustomed to certain language patterns, and have a harder time later on. However, there are shared characteristics between these three languages that we are studying today, so it will not be extremely difficult for you to learn them together. I will add on French after a few weeks, and we will begin at least thirty, and possibly more, languages this year. You will not be becoming multilingual in all of these languages this year, but you will have them mastered them all by the time you graduate. To pass your Language O.W.L.s this year, you will need to be able to speak at least six languages outside of your native language and English (if those aren’t the same thing for all of you) in a multilingual manner. As part of the test, some of which will be combined with your Physical Studies O.W.L., you will be sent to part of the globe and required to complete a task which will require multilingual language skills.

“However, I must not digress, we still need to begin Welsh today. In Welsh, one important thing to know is ‘Ydych chi’n siarad Saesneg?’, which means ‘Do you speak English?’ You will be sent into the strongly Welsh-speaking parts of Wales long before the end of this year. You will not at that time be able to speak Welsh as well as English, and you will need a way to find someone who speaks a language you’re fluent in...” The lecture went on for the rest of the class period, and Harry was pleased to find out that he was going to be enjoying this class very much.

The bell rang just after Professor Aberforth finished his introduction to Welsh nasal mutations, and they set off Charms.

Professor Flitwick was his usual cheery self, and he looked delighted to be teaching them Animagus charms.

“The Animagus transformation can be accomplished very slowly without magic,” Professor Flitwick said, “but it would require some very unusual genes, which would trigger what we would call a ‘mutant’ growth cycle in growth from the human form to the animal form, and back. The Animagus transformation is essentially a form of rapid growth in certain dimensions, and a reshaping of bodily tissues so much that they are no longer recognizable as not being a real member of the species of animal you’re turning into. The only difference is the brain, which remains human in the Animagus form, although the emotions you feel as an Animagus are somewhat simpler, which is an influence stemming from the new physical form of the brain.” Harry remembered that this was something that Sirius had told him had helped him escape from Azkaban, where he had been unjustly held.

“All that is needed to accomplish the Animagus transformation nearly instantaneously, therefore, is a combination of several permanent, irreversible charms that are applied to the Animagus. These consist of a combination of a Mind Control Charm to trigger the process by conscious stimulation; a very powerful Speeding Charm to have the process occur in a reasonable amount of time; a Wakening Charm to stimulate the necessary energy for the process to occur; a Shaping Charm specific to the animal form to direct the actual growth; an Anti-Cancer charm as a precaution against cancer resulting from the rapid cell division; and an Animagus charm, which is what unifies all the charms into one net result.

“This particular sequence of charms will only work with the type of Animagus transformation you’ve all undergone today. With other types, these charms are not necessarily required. Please think of a logical way that these charms could be applied, and write it out. You will each be presenting it to the class in twenty minutes, and then I will explain the way the charms actually are applied by the world’s authorities on the Animagus transformation. We will judge the best method (which is not necessarily the authorities’ method, one of you could come up with a better one), and then use it on ourselves before the end of class to make your Animagus transformations nearly instantaneous and at will.”

Over the next twenty minutes, they thought of logical ways to apply the charms. Not surprisingly, Hermione’s proposed method was by far the best in the class. However, Harry and Ron’s proposed methods weren’t far behind hers, and Professor Flitwick praised the three of them, along with Neville, who had come up with a surprisingly good, albeit unorthodox, method. Professor Flitwick then went on to explain the small differences between his method and those of Harry, Ron and Hermione, and discussed the slight merits it held over theirs and Neville’s. Harry understood it perfectly, and they soon applied the combination of charms to themselves, to have themselves transform into their Animagus forms faster.

The bell rang, and they set off for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry was particularly looking forward to this class; he wanted to meet Arabella Figg and find out why she had never told him she was a witch, and he wanted to see how the real Moody taught. He was the first person in the classroom, Ron and Hermione close behind. Sure enough, Mrs. Figg (Harry tried to remember to call her “Professor Figg”) was sitting at the front, along with “Mad-Eye” Moody. She smiled at him as he walked in.

“I suppose you’re wondering, Harry, why I didn’t tell you who I was,” she said.

“You’re right on,” Harry said breathlessly (he had hurried all the way from Charms, and the two classrooms were rather far apart).

“Well,” she said, “that’s probably because I don’t really look like this. I am actually an Auror who was assigned to watch over you while you were young.” Harry was stunned.

“Th-thank you,” was all he could manage. Ron and Hermione looked confused as she chuckled to herself.

“Oh, you’re welcome, Harry,” she said. “Now I can finally get rid of this horrid disguise.” She waved her wand over her face, which bubbled up most unpleasantly, and reshaped itself into the features of... Fleur Delacour???

“Surprised?” she asked brightly, all traces of a French accent gone. Harry, Ron and Hermione were stunned.

“Wait, though,” Harry said. “If you’re a student at Beauxbatons, how could you also be an Auror and Mrs. Figg?”

“I was an unusual student,” Fleur said modestly. “I’m not really French, but I speak the language bilingually and I wanted to go to school there when I was younger, so I went. I trained early as an Auror, and used a Time Turner to do that and to be Mrs. Figg at the same time. It worked wonderfully.” Harry shook his head in exasperation as Mad-Eye Moody chuckled. Soon other students came in. The boys looked shocked to see Fleur, and the girls looked envious at her beauty. Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats for what promised to be a very interesting class.

The Defence Against the Dark Arts class was wonderful, with Fleur having an amazing amount of experience, and Moody providing the wisdom and finesse which came with being an Auror for nearly eighty years.

Harry and Ron had Divination next, and Harry was convinced yet again that Professor Trelawney was a fraud. He lamented yet again choosing her class, and wished that he had chosen Ancient Runes instead, which was rapidly sounding more interesting. He almost hoped that he could switch classes, but he thought that it was years too late to do that. He resolved, however, to go to the library when he had time and study as much as he could about ancient runes to see what they were like. Professor Trelawney took time out of her wailing dirge predicting his death to reprimand him for not paying attention in class. Harry really didn’t care, and considered dropping Divination and taking up Ancient Runes.

Divination was followed by History of Magic, which was surprisingly interesting (although when applied to History of Magic, “interesting” was a relative term) because Professor Binns connected what he taught about the past to the present, which vastly improved the lesson.

After History of Magic, they had Herbology, which was quite interesting because Professor Sprout had them working with Fire-Breathing Mushrooms, which liked to “breathe” fire and grow in circles, forming miniature fairy rings. Harry barely avoided being scorched by one of the mushrooms’ plume of fire, but he was fine, and transplanted it safely. He was glad they weren’t the Mandrakes they had worked with in their second year, which had given off a cry that was fatal upon hearing.

Hagrid had a very interesting lesson set up for them in Care of Magical Creatures, which included several different creatures. Like all of their courses this year, it was enormously accelerated academically, and Hagrid had them all writing essays comparing unicorns with hippogriffs.

Their final lesson for the day was in Astronomy, which was much improved because it was being held in an indoor classroom, rather than at the top of the Astronomy tower. They’d been fascinated to find out that the ceiling of the classroom had been enchanted to show whatever portion of the sky Professor Sinistra wanted, and at various magnifications. Harry was glad that they wouldn’t have to have class in the middle of the night anymore.

After that lesson, they had seven hours left (Harry was just realizing how weird it was to have days which appeared to be thirty-six hours long, instead of twenty-four) in which to do their homework. They had a great time working together, and they had all their homework done within four hours. Harry decided to go off to the library, and Hermione joined him. Ron grinned slightly as they left together, and Harry blushed. All they did, however, was to let Hermione’s lips brush his (it still sent him nearly unconscious through all the new sensations coursing through him) behind several thick bookshelves, before they both lost themselves in the vast reaches of the Hogwarts library. Harry read through a textbook for the first year of Ancient Runes that he found to be fascinating. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t taken it years ago, when he had had the chance. Sadly, he completed all the exercises in the book, and just for fun wrote things about Hermione in Dwarvish on a scrap of parchment he had. He was concentrating so much that he heard Madam Pince quite clearly all the way across the library, but he didn’t hear Hermione quietly come up and look over his shoulder.

“How did you learn to do that?” she said in shock. He whirled around, saw her, and stuffed the parchment into his bag, blushing furiously.

“Hermione...” he muttered, at a loss for words. “You - you weren’t supposed to see that.”

“Why not?” she said. “It’s extremely flattering, and very kind of you to write such beautiful things about me? Where did you learn old Dwarvish? It’s by far the hardest language we have in Ancient Runes, and even I have trouble with it sometimes.”

“I- I was reading it from the Ancient Runes textbook I found there,” Harry said. “I just picked it up and started reading it. It was only first-year runes, but it took me nearly three hours to master it.”

“Harry, Harry, Harry,” Hermione said. “You’ve got such a great brain, why not use it sometime? Not only is this textbook designed to encompass an entire year’s worth of coursework, but it also isn’t a Hogwarts textbook. This is a textbook used by Orsaf University in Wales. Remember? The wizarding equivalent of Oxford? The one that was founded in a train station, by two wizards who invented a new spell for making all the Muggles forget about the Grindylow which escaped from their luggage, and thereby had an inspiration for the philosophy of their then-fledgling university?” Harry suddenly remembered that he had once seen an Orsaf University mentioned in the Daily Prophet. He nodded slowly, seeing the emblem of a train station on the spine of the book.

“What other runes did you learn, Harry?” asked Hermione slowly.

“Well,” he said, thinking. “I did all the exercises in the book” he indicated the pile of parchment which had grown up beside him on the table “and I did fairly well on all of them, so I guess I learned something about Etruscan, Norse, Druidic, Vampire runes, and Veela runes.”

“Harry,” Hermione said, “it took me six or seven months to get through that book. If you managed to do it in three hours, that’s- that’s beyond incredible. If I hadn’t known that you wouldn’t lie to me, I almost wouldn’t have believed you.” Harry shook his head.

“I’m not lying,” he said, wanting her to believe him.

“I believe you,” she said, somewhat softly. She looked both ways, and then bent down slightly and kissed him lightly on the ear. He gave her a look, and she rolled her eyes, mock-seriously. It was rapidly becoming her token gesture.

“I will talk to Dumbledore about this,” she said, and he knew that it would do no good to argue. He sat in the library for quite a while, before realizing that it was almost time for the session with Professor Grubbly-Plank. He hurried off to the dormitory to change, and met Ron and Hermione. They hurried through the corridors out to the Quidditch pitch.

They were almost late for Professor Grubbly-Plank’s regimen, and they were surprised to find that they would be having the same class with the sixth- and seventh-years. Professor Dumbledore was standing there, dressed in the ubiquitous grey training robes, which were dominating the scene. He was handing out glowing balls, which were in various colours, and he looked to be quite enjoying himself. He joined Professor Grubbly-Plank atop a large rock, which was to the side of the Quidditch pitch.

“Welcome!” he called out merrily. “This is a new method we’re trying out today, and I will be on hand to assist Professor Grubbly-Plank in case anything goes wrong. I doubt very much that it well, but we should always be prepared. Those of you who don’t yet have your Time Orbs, please raise your right hands above your heads and spread your fingers.” Harry assumed that he meant the glowing balls, and as he didn’t have one yet, along with Ron, Hermione, and several other students, raised his hand, spreading the fingers. Dumbledore waved his wand, and the balls flew out over them as a phalanx, and swooped down into the waiting hands. Harry’s ball was glowing red, and so were Ron’s and Hermione’s. Looking over the crowd, it seemed to him that the balls (he kept forgetting to call them Time Orbs) were sorted by house. All of the Gryffindors that he could see had red balls, the Ravenclaws blue, Hufflepuffs yellow, and Slytherins green. Professor Grubbly-Plank cleared her throat.

“Once I activate the Time Orbs,” she said, “you will find yourselves on a virtual representation of this area, although there will be no one else there except for anyone who is simulated for the exercise. You will hear my voice or Professor Dumbledore’s telling you what to do.

Your routines are based on your physical ability level. Some of you will have routines that are only fifteen minutes long, and others will have routines that will be nearly four hours long. If your routine is less than two hours, you will ‘come back’ here when you’ve completed your routine and may do as you please because you’ll be finished. If your routine is more than two hours, you will ‘come back’ here after two hours have passed. Even though you have been ‘inside’ your routine for more than two hours, you will have only physically aged by that amount.

When I say ‘come back’, you must understand that the Time Orbs send you into a slightly different dimension or reality, which we can preset for your routine. They are called Time Orbs because part of their operation involves time. This may sound frightening, but I assure you that it’s been extensively tested, and that we will be able to retrieve you unharmed should anything go wrong. Let’s start then.” She raised her wand.

“Tempus non fugit,” she said. Harry felt as though he was falling rapidly, and then he “landed” somehow on the Quidditch field again. It was just the same as it had been, but there was no longer anyone there. He was standing there, with the sun turning towards the horizon.

“Hello, Harry,” Dumbledore’s voice came from nowhere, “I hope you’ve had a good day.” Harry nodded slowly, looking around for the source of the voice.

“We’ll start off by having you run around the lawn in front of Hogwarts a few times,” Dumbledore said. “By that, I mean the grassy area that is encircled by the Forbidden Forest.” Harry looked at the grassy area surrounding him. It would be at least ten kilometres around it; it stretched out for a very long way, nearly all the way to Hogsmeade.

“Professor,” Harry said, “I don’t think that I can run around it more than once or twice. It’s very far.”

“It is quite far, Harry,” Dumbledore said (Harry still couldn’t see the source of the voice). “However, you are capable of running it with some ease. Remember what you are.”

“Of course,” said Harry, feeling quite dim. “I’ll start over by the castle wall so I have a reference point.” He jogged over to the wall, and memorized his position. Then he started off at a moderate pace, mindful of how far he had to go.

“Harry,” Dumbledore said, “please start off with a sprint.” Wondering why Dumbledore wanted him to use up his leg muscles so quickly, but trusting the old wizard, he broke into a sprint that he had developed from years of fleeing Dudley’s gang. He roared ahead, thinking that he would get tired soon.

He didn’t, and he had gone around the grass perhaps four times, and was on his fifth before his legs began to tingle a little. He was jerked back to earth abruptly; he’d been running over what they had covered in class that day. He had already memorized the nerve positions by hard, and had gone over the stars they had learned about in Astronomy that day. He had learned even more about why he thought Professor Trelawney was a fraud, and he resolved to ask Professor Dumbledore if he could take a different class (if that were possible).

“Harry,” said Dumbledore, “this will be your last lap. You are capable of speeding up, and I would like you to do so until you reach the castle, when you may stop.” Harry pounded his legs harder, and marvelled at how he was, inexplicably, going even faster. As he flew over the grass, he realized that he had no idea how long he had been running for.

“Professor,” he said, “do you know how long I’ve been running for?”

“You are on your fifth lap, Harry,” Dumbledore said calmly (Harry thought that it was decidedly weird that they were both talking in normal voices with no apparent effort while he was shooting along). “You have been running for about sixty minutes, and you have travelled almost exactly fifty kilometres.”

“But that means that I’ve been going at about fifty kilometres an hour!” said Harry. “It shouldn’t be possible.”

“It’s quite possible,” Dumbledore said. “You are now travelling at over seventy kilometres an hour. You must keep this ability a secret, of course.”

“Professor,” Harry asked, “why is everything so secret all of a sudden?”

“During the time of Grindelwald,” Dumbledore said gravely, “the need for secrecy was not enforced at schools of magic, and students were allowed to go about their lives as usual. Grindelwald struck at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, murdering nearly all the students brutally, and wounding the school forever. I do not wish for that terrible tragedy to repeat itself here, and nearly every magical school in the world has taken measures similar to ours. Great pressure has been put on the few who have not. That is why we have taken on this burden of secrecy. It is in no way your fault, and I do not want you to feel responsible for it.” Harry nodded, and then looked up at the rapidly approaching castle wall. He ground to a halt, breathing astonishingly easily. He was bewildered. Was he really that strong?

“Please transform into your dragon form,” Dumbledore said. “We will start with ten rounds of the lawn as fast as you can go. I know it sounds silly for a dragon to be running, but it is essential exercise.” Harry recognized the sense in this, and immediately transformed into his dragon form. He had to concentrate hard on changing into a dragon and not into a tiger, and he supposed that it was one of the affects of having very little practice at being a double Animagus. However, he suddenly became a Zauberian dragon, and looked into the fourth-floor windows, as they were at eye level. He could see an empty corridor.

“In this particular simulation, Harry,” Dumbledore said, “there is no one else in the castle at the moment, so you won’t have to worry about being seen. Please do your first five laps on your hind legs, and your second five on all four.” Harry rose up onto his hind legs, so that he was at eye level with the sixth floor windows. His great legs moved, and he shot off around the lawn as fast as he thought he could go.

Predictably, Dumbledore had him speed up, and then stop before lowering himself down to all four legs. Running on four legs was much harder than running on two because his gait was now much different. He’d had some experience walking on four legs before, with Rubon, but he hadn’t run before. It was very strenuous to support nearly half of his body weight on his front limbs (he’d read while on the Silladem that when four-legged, 40% of a Zauberian dragon’s body weight went onto his or her arms), and he couldn’t go nearly as fast as he had otherwise been able to. However, by the end of his five laps he was quite used to walking on four legs. He stopped next to the castle, and lowered himself down on his haunches.

“That was very well done, Harry,” Dumbledore’s voice said. “I didn’t expect you to do so well; it’s very difficult to learn to walk on four legs. Are you ready to practice flying?” He had been surprising energized by his short rest, and said “Yes” reflexively. It took him a moment to realize that he could speak English while in his dragon form. Certainly his voice had sounded much deeper and quite different, but he could speak English perfectly. It was very startling.

“Let’s start by having you take off and fly over the Forbidden Forest,” Dumbledore said. Harry stepped away from the castle to give himself some room, smelled and felt the wind reflexively, spread his wings, and rose straight up in the air. He flapped his wings furiously before gaining momentum, and glided forward over the forest.

“That was exemplary, Harry,” Dumbledore said. Harry thought that he sounded different as a fitness instructor instead of as a headmaster. He dipped slightly on an unusual air current, and rapidly returned his attention to flying as he glided up on a thermal.

“Two of the most common difficulties for Animagi when learning to fly are speed and endurance,” Dumbledore said. “These problems especially apply for you, because flying for a dragon uses a combination of the various back, chest, shoulder and arm muscles. These muscles are often weak in humans. To remedy this, we’ll first have you work on speed. Go as fast as you can, please, and keep going straight ahead.” Harry worried for a moment that they would get over Muggle areas and he would be seen, but then he remembered that Professor Grubbly-Plank had said that there wouldn’t be any other people in the simulation except for those required in the simulation. Was Dumbledore testing him to see if he was thinking about avoiding being seen by Muggles? It very well could be part of the exercise; he’d need to think about things like that in the real world.

“Professor,” he asked, “won’t we have to worry about being seen by Muggles?” He could almost sense Dumbledore’s smile.

“I’m glad you thought of that, Harry,” he said. “Ordinarily we would need to b careful about flying too far and going all the way across the forest, but in this simulation, the forest goes on for a very long way indeed, and there are no Muggles at the other side. Go ahead. You should eventually be able to, with practice and with exercise, go up to several times the speed of sound.” Harry gasped inwardly as he sped up. He had had no idea that Zauberian dragons could fly that fast, and wondered what happened when they ran into things at high speeds. He knew that dragon scales were amazingly tough, and guessed that they might be able to withstand said impacts.

While he had been thinking this, he had sped up subconsciously, and he looked down now at the trees, alarmed at how fast they were going by. He had seen videos in Muggle school of what pilots saw out of supersonic jets, and while he doubted he was going that fast, the effect on what he saw below him was similar. He risked a quick glance at his wings, and he saw that they were rapidly becoming blurs (even though Zauberian dragons processed images at well over one hundred times per second, which was nearly ten times the speed of ordinary humans).

“Fly higher, please, Harry,” Dumbledore said. Obeying, Harry angled himself up sharply until he was flying vertically. This was slightly easier than flying at the speed he formerly had been, despite the fact that he was now going directly against gravity.
“That’s enough, Harry,” Dumbledore said. “You’re over ten kilometres up. Hover in place now.” Harry moved his wings back and forth, spreading them to their widest extent. He manoeuvred them through the air as was becoming second nature to him now, and he soon had only a residual aching in his body from the unaccustomed labour.

“As long as we’re up here, we’ll practice breathing fire where it can’t hurt anything,” Dumbledore said. “I’ve always been told by dragons that to breathe fire, you merely concentrate on having flames come out with your breath, and that beyond that it’s merely a matter of aim and lungpower.” Harry opened his mouth, envisioned fire spurting forth, and blew as hard as he could. A great jet of orange flame, which was extremely bright and very hot (although it didn’t burn him), shot out of his mouth and danced out through the air in front of him for a distance of at least twenty yards.

“That’s very good, Harry!” Dumbledore said merrily. “Look down at the forest below. Do you see anything?” Wondering what Dumbledore meant, Harry looked down at the forest, and was amazed to see glowing figures moving around below. They were a very unusual colour that he’d never seen before, and it took him a moment to realize that he was seeing animals in infrared light. He was amazed, and liked his Animagus form even more.

“As I’m sure you’ve realized,” Dumbledore said, “those are animals down in the forest below. If you’re ever in the wild, that’s one way to find food.” Harry grimaced at the thought, but then realized that he might very well like to eat raw meat as a dragon. You never knew. Even so, dragons did have the ability to make fire. Did some of them cook their food? Harry had no idea, but he hoped they did, in case he ever had to hunt and eat as one.

“Let’s head back to Hogwarts now,” Dumbledore said. “There are still three more training areas to go through today.” Harry hoped that his body would stand up to the workload as he turned back towards Hogwarts (he didn’t know how he knew which way to go), and went at a slightly slower pace than the one at which he had come out at.

Surprisingly soon, he had gotten back to Hogwarts. He saw where the sun was, and was confused. Although he could have sworn that it should be dark out by now, the sun was only at the position it was usually at about four in the afternoon. It had only moved slightly since when he had arrived in the simulation. Suddenly he realized that that was probably the reason for the abnormality: this was a simulation, and not everything was going to be the same.

“Next, Harry, we’ll focus on the aquatic portion of the session,” Dumbledore’s voice said. “If you will please transform back into a human and go into the Quidditch changing rooms, you will find there a wetsuit, which you should change into. Also, now would be a good opportunity to relieve yourself if you need to. I will not be watching you until you come back out again.” Harry changed back into a human and was immediately struck by two things: an urgent need to evacuate his bowels and a painful feeling of overuse in his arms, shoulders, back and chest. He hurried into the Quidditch changing rooms and hurried to the bathrooms.

Soon afterwards, he went into the changing rooms proper again, and saw a black rubbery wetsuit folded neatly on one of the benches. He went over to it, stripping off his clothes. He laid them neatly on the bench, and then held up the long wetsuit, wondering how it was supposed to be put on. He finally found a long zipper in the back, and after unzipping it, he was able to wriggle in. He awkwardly zipped the zipper back up, and looked in the long mirror to make sure he’d got it right. It looked right, as far as he could tell (it fitted his skin so closely that there was really no other way he could have gotten into it), and he walked outside in his bare feet (the wetsuit didn’t cover his hands, feet and head).

“There you are, Harry,” Dumbledore’s voice said. “We’ll have you go into the lake now.”

“Professor,” Harry said as he walked towards the lake, “won’t it be terribly cold in the lake? It’s September.”

“That’s why we had you wear a wetsuit,” Dumbledore said, “at the price of decreased aerodynamics. It will keep you warm, even when the lake freezes over (at that point you will use an aqualung). Well, go ahead and get in.” Harry walked slowly into the lake, his feet cold, the rocks on the bottom unpleasantly slippery.

“Have you had swimming lessons before, Harry?” Dumbledore asked.

“Not really,” Harry said. “Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon wouldn’t pay for them. I do know something about swimming, but I’m not that good at it.” Dumbledore sighed.

“Very well, then,” he said. “We’ll start with the basic things. It’s really quite intuitive, when you get down to it.”

For the next hour, Dumbledore had Harry do all sorts of basic strokes. He had been right, the wetsuit did keep him warm. Harry progressed well, better than he would have thought possible, and soon was at home in the water.

“That will be enough swimming for today,” Dumbledore said. “We will now move on to the martial arts section of the session.” After Harry had dried himself off and changed back into his regular clothes, he went on Dumbledore’s instructions to a room in the castle that he had never been to before. He was startled to find that the inside of the room had mats on the floor, and was prepared for martial arts instruction (he remembered that it was called a dojo.) An Asian man suddenly appeared out of thin air.

“Harry, this is your instructor, Mr. Yang,” Dumbledore’s voice said. “He is a very talented instructor.”

“Hello,” Mr. Yang said.

“I’m pleased to meet you,” Harry said. Mr. Yang looked at him with a critical eye, and then waved a wand, which he pulled out from nowhere. Harry’s clothes tingled, and suddenly he was dressed in a white pajama-like outfit that Mr. Yang was dressed in. The only difference was that his belt was white, while Mr. Yang’s was black.

“First, we’ll start with aikido, which I believe Professor Grubbly-Plank introduced you to the basics of,” he said.

***

Two hours later (in the time of the Time Orb), Harry staggered out of the room, after having received a glowing report in terms of his progress from Mr. Yang. Apparently, Mr. Yang thought that there was a good chance of him earning a black belt in several martial arts before he graduated from Hogwarts. He had said that that was incredible; such a thing would normally take a very long time. Encouraged by this, Harry tiredly walked out of the castle.

“There is only one more aspect to your training that we will cover tonight, Harry,” Dumbledore said. “Your second Animagus form.” Harry felt even weaker. Nevertheless, he transformed rapidly into a tiger, and Dumbledore put him through his paces. Sensing his tiredness, Dumbledore put him on three laps around the lawn. Harry’s arms felt like lead midway through the second one. He realized how much of their body weight tigers placed on their front legs as he completed the second lap and went into the third.

“Stop,” said Dumbledore as he reached the farthest part of the lawn. Harry ground to a halt, his body shaking slightly with effort, breathing heavily, and panting.

“The forest will be cooler,” Dumbledore said. “Nothing will harm you in that form. Turn right, please, and just walk for the moment.” Grateful for the rest, Harry walked slowly into the forest, his large eyes looking everywhere. The forest didn’t seem as dark as he had remembered it (which, he realized, was due to his increased nocturnal vision). He could hear all sorts of sounds, and realized that the forest was indeed alive, in a sense. He began to admire it, but then his thoughts were interrupted.

“There is a simulated rabbit up ahead,” Dumbledore’s voice said. “Catch it. Let your tiger instincts take over.” Harry’s nose went up and sniffed the wind, which was blowing towards him. He could clearly smell a rabbit as he moved forward slowly. He crept over a small ridge in front of him, and saw a grey rabbit sniffing at something up ahead. He felt sorry for it until he remembered that it was simulated, not real. Instinctively, his body crouched down against the ground, and he crept forward as quietly as a mouse. The rabbit’s ears twitched, and he froze. The rabbit merely kept feeding. His body tensed, and he felt a strange excitement. It was the quiet before the kill. Suddenly his sinews tensed, and contracted as he shot forward. The rabbit looked up in panic, and bolted off through the trees. Harry followed it, letting his instincts take over, and very, very soon, he had caught up with the rabbit and broken its neck with a single bite.

Suddenly, he was next to the Quidditch pitch again, and it was still empty. He transformed back into a human, and looked around. What had happened?

“You did that very well, Harry,” Dumbledore’s voice said. “We will continue tomorrow. Although you have been in this simulation for nearly six hours, you have only physically aged two hours. You will return to the real world now. However, I have one thing I must ask of you. You may have wondered why I put Magic, by Rosel Rolandson, on your booklist, and not on that of your friends. I cannot tell you all yet, Harry, although I would wish too, but understand that although you, Ron and Hermione each have the potential to be far greater than Voldemort (and are therefore in even more danger to fall down to the path of evil), you yourself have much additional talent which they do not. Read the writings of Rosel Rolandson. She was one of the greatest witches of her time, and probably the smartest person to ever walk this earth. Do not tell anyone of this, and read your books only discreetly. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” said Harry. He was bewildered, but Dumbledore’s instructions were simple enough, and he had learned, through long experience, to trust the old wizard completely, and to pay much regard to his wisdom.

“Good,” Dumbledore said. “You, along with several others, may well be our only hope. You will not remember my last sentence until you need to. I shall see you at dinner.” He had become very grave, but Harry could almost see the twinkling returning to Dumbledore’s eyes (it seemed like it had disappeared far too often lately). Harry suddenly pitched forward through darkness, and a moment later, he was back next to the Quidditch pitch. Only this time, many of his classmates were there too.

Several people were staggering around, their faces covered with sweat. Others, like Harry, stayed where they were and conserved energy. Harry’s entire body was throbbing. He was tired all over, and a burning (although it didn’t really hurt) was shot through him. Hermione and Ron were standing next to him, and they both looked exhausted as well.

“I was in there for nearly five hours,” Hermione gasped. “Wow!”

“I was in there for six,” said Ron. “So I get to say ‘Wow’ too.”

“Well,” said Harry, “I was in there for six hours too. What did you think of Mr. Yang?”

“He’s ever so good at what he does,” said Hermione. “It’s a pity he doesn’t exist.” Harry and Ron smirked, before heading back up to the castle for dinner. They stumbled into Great Hall, accompanied by many of their fellow classmates. Harry noted with some amusement the Crabbe and Goyle were already there. Judging from the amount of food they had already eaten, they had been there quite a while. Perhaps their routines were the fifteen minute ones Professor Grubbly-Plank had spoken of. Harry thought that it was a form of poetic justice, in that Crabbe and Goyle, who had used to be the school bullies because of their great stupidity and great physical strength, were now the weakest of their classmates. Harry looked at who else was there and was surprised to see that Neville was with the crowd of people who had had a two-hour session. He wouldn’t have thought that Neville had it in him.

Harry brushed aside his surprise, sat down at the table, which was fortunately covered with food, and simply began eating. He didn’t gulp things down, but he merely filled his body at a steady pace. Soon he had cleared and refilled his golden plate four times, and he was still voracious. Up at the staff table, all the teachers looked pleased that the method of teaching had worked.

“How much are you going to eat, Harry,” Hermione asked. She herself was on her third plate.

“You’re eating more than normal too,” he said. “It’s probably a good thing. Your body will get more nutrients that way.” Hermione rolled her eyes again (on most people it would have made them look dreadfully stuck-up, but on Hermione it looked endearing because she didn’t really mean it), and continued eating.

“What did they have you do?” she asked. “They had me exercise as an animal, and then as a human, and then as an animal again.” Harry realized she meant that, like him, she had exercised both of her animal forms.

“I’m glad our days are longer,” Ron said. “We’ve already been up for twenty-two hours today. At least I have nearly all my homework done.” Harry agreed with him entirely. Hermione looked bewildered at what she would do now that she had free time. Harry resolved himself to the fact that he would need to begin reading Magic so that he would get anywhere in it. He decided that he would transfigure the covers so that they would look like one of his other textbooks. There was always the risk that someone would ask to see them, but then he could enchant the books so that they would look different to someone else’s eyes.

Finally, they finished dinner and walked up to the common room, still exhausted. Hermione got out a book from her dormitory and sat down in a chair in front of the fire, reading it intently. Ron asked Eledh, who was sitting by herself in a corner, if she would like to play chess. It was the best thing he could have done; her face immediately lit up and she smiled, saying “Yes, I’d love to!” (it soon became a habit of theirs to have a chess match every evening). These chess matches were what kept Eledh from falling into depression at her parents’ disownment of her. No one knew it at the time, but the friendship that developed out of these matches would be very, very important in the future.

Oblivious to all this except for the vague realization that Ron and Eledh were playing chess, Harry got out the first volume of Magic and waved his wand at it so that it appeared to be his Languages textbook, which he had already studied out of for forty-five minutes already that day. He went downstairs, signing up on the Quidditch sign-up sheet that had been tacked up on the bulletin board, and sat down across from Hermione, trying to make it seem as if he was studying his Languages textbook. He opened up the book to the first page.

“Magic,” he read,“is a resource that is both over-used and over-husbanded. Most witches and wizards disregard the equally large store of Muggle wisdom to limit their knowledge and studies to the magical arts. This is an underused resource. A good analogy for the use of magic is the hunting of a tiger. To maintain a body that weighs up to six hundred pounds or more, a tiger must consume a great deal. However, a tiger, while making reasonably frequent lunges at prey, does not chase them far because it tires quickly. In this manner, it only kills prey that it surprises and catches almost immediately after the initial lunge. A tiger, therefore, only eats a kill about once every eight days. To maintain its body, it primarily preys on larger animals, and can eat nearly fifty pounds of meat per kill. The tiger’s use of rapid lunges is alike to a the typical use of magic by witches or wizards because as the tiger restricts itself to one method of hunting, with a fixed reward, most witches and wizards restrict themselves to one form of magic and of knowledge, with a limited outcome. The difference between the two is that the tiger’s body is designed to hunt in this manner, and it is limited for this reason, while witches and wizards nearly are always restricted by choice. Some witches and wizards are tigers that keep on running, because they do not restrict themselves to one form of knowledge alone. Many have predicted that periodically some shall be born who are naturally predisposed towards being the tiger which can keep on running, and running, and running, and that they shall be either keepers and bringers of all that is good, or the instigators of evil. It is they who must resist the corruption that power can bring, and they who choose correctly are rewarded justly. History seems to have borne out those who have predicted as such.”

Harry looked at the flames suddenly. He had been able to keep running for a long time as a tiger at a high speed, so in a way he was a tiger who could keep on running. Was he predisposed to be the tiger who could keep on running, and running, and running? Was that what Dumbledore had meant? Had he been trying to give Harry a hint by having him run as far as he had? What did it mean?