The World Beyond

Chapter Six: 'Transfiguration Class'

A few days after Harry had thoroughly humiliated Neville on the Quidditch pitch, the other boy seemed to have forgiven him. Harry suspected it was in no small part because Neville wanted to borrow his broom for the upcoming Quidditch match, and since Gryffindor's first game of the year was against Slytherin, Harry was seriously considering allowing it.

Neville hadn't asked yet, but he was currently spending their walk to Transfiguration class sucking up to Harry. Harry would have been more amused by the situation had he not been so nervous about the class. This would be the first time the fifth year Gryffindors had Transfiguration this year and Harry was not sure how he would react to having to spend an entire class period with Sirius, and pretending not to know him. He had managed to avoid him since their meeting after the Welcoming Feast, but Harry realized it was stupid and, anyways, couldn't last forever.

As Neville droned on about some impressive play he had made in a Quidditch match against Hufflepuff the year before, Harry glanced around him and realized he hadn't seen Hermione since breakfast. Luckily, Colin Creevey was hanging off of Neville's every word and Harry's lack of attention went unnoticed.

"And then I swerved away from the beater as he dove for the Bludger. I caught the Quaffle one-handed and started for the goal..." Neville was saying enthusiastically as they arrived at the classroom.

Harry pushed the door open and slipped inside. Professor Black had not yet arrived, but Hermione was sitting alone at a desk near the middle of the room. Harry quickly left Neville and Colin behind and slipped into the seat next to Hermione.

Neville stopped mid-speech and gaped at Harry. "But, I thought we could sit together, Harry. I haven't told you about the time I knocked the Slytherin keeper head-first into the goal post yet..."

"As interesting as that sounds," Harry began, and it did sound pretty interesting, "I really think I'll sit with Hermione now. Maybe you could tell Colin about it!" he suggested. Colin grinned eagerly, but Neville scoffed at him.

"Oh, but he was there when it happened! I don't need to tell him!"

"But you haven't told me what it was like up close!" Colin's eyes lit up. "Did his head crunch as he slammed into the pole?" Neville aimed a pointed glare at Harry and then slid into a desk to his left. Colin clambered into the seat next to him, and Neville began retelling the story to his friend in a low voice, clearly excluding Harry from the tale.

Harry rolled his eyes and turned to Hermione. "I think I upset him."

Hermione looked at first unsure of her response, but when Harry smiled, she did, too. "I take it you don't care?"

Harry laughed slightly, "It's just getting a bit old, you know. I don't need to hear about everything he's ever done in Quidditch. If he wants to borrow my broom, he ought to just ask me."

"Would you let him?"

Parvati and Padma came into the room and sat down in front of Harry and Hermione as he thought seriously about his reply. After a moment, he said, "I might, you know. I mean, if I'm not going to be on the team, and Gryffindor already has a seeker, so I suppose I won't be, then I guess I could be team-spirited and share my broom. Especially," he added with a grin, "if it's for the match against Slytherin."

"Honestly." Hermione shook her head. "You've been here how long and you already hate them?"

"You have no idea," Harry said. "I have to admit, though, I may have to hear that story eventually." He nodded towards Neville. "Anything that starts out with 'Slytherin Keeper's head' and finishes with 'slams into pole' sounds pretty good to me."

Hermione giggled. Seamus and Dean hurried into the room and took the seats in front of Neville and Colin. A few stragglers made their way through the door and soon the entire class had arrived. A few moments later, the door opened for a final time, and Sirius Black strode in.

Harry turned to watch him. He didn't know if it was his own nervousness or something about the professor himself, but he had to admit that this Sirius had a commanding presence that the one he knew couldn't have mustered. Harry, along with the rest of the class, watched quietly as the professor made his way to the front of the room. Harry felt straight away that there would be no rule-breaking tolerated in this class; he couldn't imagine even trying.

"Welcome back, fifth years," Black's voice. He dropped a briefcase so full it seemed to be near to bursting open onto his desk. "I trust that everyone had a good summer?" He eyed the students. Everyone nodded in unison. Harry noticed that even Neville seemed subdued. "Good." Sirius moved around his desk and sat down.

He pulled a page of parchment from his briefcase and consulted it as he glanced around the room. It took Harry just a second to realize he was silently taking attendance.

As the professor finished the roll, Neville's hand shot up into the air. Professor Black acknowledged him, and the boy said, "Did you have a good summer, Professor?"

"I did, Neville." Professor Black smiled kindly, though it was clear that he, too, could read the blatant 'suck up' expression on Neville's face. "My wife and I took our daughters to Paris for a few weeks. Had a marvelous time. Now, are there any more personal questions, or may we begin?"

No one said anything, so Black put the roll sheet back on his desk, stood up, and came to sit on the edge of his desk, right in front of Parvati and Padma. The twins sighed happily as he situated himself before them. Harry saw Professor Black smile a little at this.

"Can anyone tell me what we were just finishing up with when the year came to a close last summer?" Professor Black asked. Neville's hand shot into the air, as did Padma's, but Black looked past both of them and called on Hermione. Her eyes widened with surprise as she heard her name and glanced over at Harry, as if hoping he could help her.

"Well..." she began softly.

"Speak up, can't hear you!" Neville called out. Black whipped his head around to look at Neville and the boy quieted quickly.

Hermione began again, a bit louder this time. "We, were, um, turning inanimate objects into fully functional, live, and... um, large animals."

Professor Black smiled at Hermione, and she looked relieved to have gotten the answer correct. Harry was surprised at the high level of transfiguration these students had been studying. His inanimate-object-to-animal transfigurations had been limited to simple spells like pincushion-to-hedgehog, and he would hardly have called any of his classmates' resulting hedgehogs 'fully functional'.

"That's right," Sirius said from his position perched on the edge of his desk. "And we will begin this year by turning animals into other animals. By the end of the school year, we will have progressed to basic human transfiguration."

"Animals to other animals?" Harry heard Hermione mutter. "Is that even ethical?"

Apparently Black had heard her as well, and he smiled at her. "I assure you, Ms. Granger, that it does not hurt them. And I will make sure all animals are returned to their original forms before class is over."

Hermione nodded slowly, but she still looked skeptical of the integrity of the experiment. Neville smirked over at them. He still seemed upset with Harry for choosing Hermione over him, and whispered in Hermione's direction, "Afraid you'll hurt the animals? Probably will. At the rate you're going, you'll kill them before you change them."

Professor Black had heard him as well, it was clear, but before he could do anything, Harry shot to his feet, "You take that back!" he exclaimed, feeling a little childish at the statement. "Just because Hermione maybe can't do transfiguration as well as you can..."

Neville jumped up as well. "As well as I can? She's terrible!" he sneered at Harry. "But I suppose to you she looks like a right genius, doesn't she? Are you as behind in Transfiguration as you are in every other subject? What kind of school did you go to before, didn't they teach you anything?"

"All right!" Professor Black's voice thundered, and he was suddenly between them. He shoved both boys into their seats and glared at them. "That is absolutely enough. I will not have this in my classroom. We are here to learn, and absolutely not," - he directed his glare at Neville - "to make fun of other students' abilities. As such, you will lose five points from Gryffindor." He whirled around and strode back to his desk as Harry saw Dean, Seamus, and Colin glaring at Neville. "Furthermore, you will each less five points for fighting. Now..." He took a deep breath, regaining his control. "Can you each behave like civilized young adults, or will I have to separate you like children?"

Neville ducked his head and scowled as he sunk down into his seat, but Harry nodded at the professor. "Sorry," Harry said.

Black marked the loss of points down in a parchment notebook as the students watched quietly. The fifteen points duly noted, he glared at the two boys for a moment longer, then stood up and looked at Harry thoughtfully. "Mr. Potter, now that we're on the subject, I must ask, what level of transfiguration you were studying when you left your former school?"

Harry shook his head. "Some objects into animals... but not, you know, animals into animals or anything..."

"Quite all right, Mr. Potter." Black nodded, watching him for a moment further. "The basic pincushion-to-hedgehog, or tea kettle-to-tortoise?" Harry nodded and Black smiled. "You don't have much more to learn, then. I have no doubt you will catch up quickly, you seem like a bright young man."

Harry heard Neville muttering under his breath, and Colin tried to scoot his chair away from the other boy a little. Black either didn't notice or pretended not to.

"Very well," Black said, setting a small box on his desk. Distinct squishy noises could be heard from it. "We will begin by turning worms into caterpillars, a fairly simple transfiguration..." Professor Black continued to explain the process the students would follow as they all whipped their parchments and quills out and began scribbling what he said.

Harry glanced at Hermione. She looked very cute with the tip of her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth, completely focused on what she was writing. Wait a minute, he thought, that's Hermione! He shook his head to clear his thoughts and continued with his notes. Soon, Black passed out a worm for each student to practice on. Each of the girls, Hermione included, squealed in disgust as the slimy earthworms were placed on the desk in front of them.

"At least we don't have to dissect them," Harry pointed out, and Hermione nodded weakly in assent.

Neville and Colin had gotten immediately to work as soon as they got their worms. Dean and Seamus seemed to be comparing theirs, to see which was longer. Professor Black was standing in front of Parvati and Padma, trying to explain to them that they didn't actually have to touch the worms, and Harry and Hermione were staring worriedly at their worms, each afraid they wouldn't be able to do the spell properly.

"Having trouble?" Harry glanced up to see Black standing above them with a smile on his face. "May I make a suggestion? It might be a bit easier if you actually tried."

Hermione blushed scarlet and Harry nodded. "Right, professor, we were just... just getting to that part."

"Another suggestion: relax." He smiled at them again. "Hermione, you know full well I won't hurt you if you don't get it right. And the same goes for you, Harry. Like I said, you're here to learn. If learning means messing up a few times at first, so be it. And, just between you and me," - he leaned down and lowered his voice to a whisper - , "for all his talk, Mr. Longbottom hasn't gotten it right, either. Mr. Creevey, on the other hand, is doing quite well." With a wink to them both, Black turned and made his way over to the Neville and Colin. Harry heard him congratulating Colin on his good progress, while Neville's scowl deepened further.

"Okay." Harry took a breath. "So we just..." He paused and consulted his notes, then aimed his wand at the worm. If he hadn't known better, he would have said the worm looked frightened. He counted silently to three, then muttered the incantation.

His wand emitted a small spark, which collided with the worm. The worm bounced a few inches into the air, twisted, and fell back to the desk. Nothing else happened.

"That has got to be inhumane," Hermione said.

"Well, I don't notice you doing any better!" Harry retorted.

"Oh, Harry, I didn't mean you specifically." She shook her head. "I just meant this whole thing in general."

Harry was suddenly reminded of his Hermione's obsession with house-elves and S.P.E.W. He shoved the thought away for the moment. "Right," Harry said. "Not that I totally disagree, but I'm going to have to learn this if I ever want Neville off my back. So, here goes..." He aimed his wand again at the worm, which he decided was defiantly looking afraid of him.

By the end of the class period, Harry was beginning to get the hang of things. His worm now had caterpillar legs, at least, though nothing else about it had changed. Hermione had only managed to shoot sparks at her worm, but not for lack of trying. He was beginning to realize that even the Hermione he had known before didn't put as much effort into her schoolwork as this one did.

"Very good, class." Professor Black clapped his hands. He was again at the front of the room, by his desk. Harry glanced to his left and noticed that both Colin and Neville's worms were beginning to resemble caterpillars. The professor waved his wand and the worms all returned, as promised, to their original state. "Good work today. I can see that this year will be as good as, if not better than, last year. Class dismissed."

Having been nearly silent for most of the class, the students were all itching to talk, and conversation broke out among them as they stood up and began to cram their supplies back into their book bags. As Harry and Hermione were heading to the door, Professor Black called out to Harry and they stopped

"I was wondering, Mr. Potter, if I might have a word with you before you go?" Harry nodded and turned to walk back to Black. Hermioen hung back, halfway to the door, but Black said to her, "You may go on to lunch, Ms. Granger. Don't worry, I won't be keeping him long."

Hermione left reluctantly and Black motioned for Harry to sit in the front desk, where Parvati had been moments before. Sirius seated himself again on the edge of his own desk.

"From what I have seen today," Black began, "you are quite a talented wizard, Harry."

Surprised, Harry said, "Thanks."

Black became more serious. "That said, you are a good deal behind the rest of the class. I cannot allow that to continue. If I did, you would only fall further behind. I suggest, Mr. Potter, that you come in for extra tutoring."

Harry's eyes widened. "What, here? With you?"

"You sure know how to make a bloke feel good about himself, Harry," Black said with a chuckle. "I don't have the Plague or anything, you know."

"I know..." Harry trailed off. He was torn. He knew he need the extra help, and a part of him desperately wanted to be able to spend more time with his godfather, even if it was this strange and hardly recognizable incarnation of the man. On the other hand, it was this class he had been dreading the most, and he couldn't imagine anything much stranger than having to spend more time with this Sirius. With the possible exception, he supposed, of having to spend more time with the Ron Weasley in this world.

"Harry?" Black leaned in and snapped his fingers in front of the boy's eyes. Harry blinked rapidly in response and looked back up at his professor. "Sorry. You slipped away for a moment there."

"Sorry," Harry responded. "Sorry. Didn't mean to. Just... thinking. Shouldn't, you know, Hermione... she seems to be further behind than I am, even though she has been here."

Black smiled. "She's been coming in for tutoring since first year. In fact, if you're not sure it'll do any good, you could ask her what she thinks..."

"No, that's not it..."

"We knew each other, didn't we?" Sirius's eyes narrowed. "I mean, where you came from. You know another version of me."

Harry looked up at Black, who seemed genuinely intrigued by the possibility. Harry nodded. "Yeah. Um. You were - "

"No, no," Black stopped him. "You don't have to tell me anything. About our relationship or anything, if you don't feel comfortable. If we're mortal enemies, I don't have to hear about it."

Harry cracked a smile. "No. We get along pretty well, actually."

Sirius pushed himself off the desk and began picking up the worms left on the desks as he said, "Good to know. But that leaves you no excuse for trying to avoid me here, Harry. Look, if things don't work out, we can always stop the lessons..."

Harry shook his head. "No, you're right, of course. I'm just being silly. And I do need the help. When can we start?"

"Anxious now, aren't you?" Black accepted Harry and Hermione's worms from Harry's outstretched hand and closed them all back in the box. "How about I check my schedule and get back to you when I can fit it in?"

"All right," Harry agreed. "Can I ask... how did you know I knew you?"

"Other than your reluctance to be around me any more than is necessary?" Black smiled wryly. "Because that's a telltale sign of some sort of guilt."

Harry laughed. "Sorry."

"Quite all right. I think we've worked past the problem now." Black began collecting his things from his desk. "I caught your little slip after the Welcoming Feast. "At Harry's blank look, Black continued, "You very nearly called me by first name, remember? And besides," - he grinned suddenly in a way that reminded Harry of the prankster his Sirius had been - "I'm wickedly smart, aren't it? I'm not a Ravenclaw for nothing."

"Certainly some ego," Harry muttered to himself while laughing. He was already beginning to wonder why he had been wary of being around this Sirius Black.

"I heard that," the professor admonished as he directed Harry towards the door. "Come on, I'll walk you back to the Great Hall. I expect Hermione will be waiting for you there." Harry nodded, so Sirius continued, "I'm glad to see the two of you have been becoming good friends."

Harry smiled and shrugged his shoulders lightly. "Well, she didn't seem to have too many friends here. And she's really a nice person."

"She is. You know, I've always thought, Hermione reminds me a good bit of myself, at that age. And," he continued, "watching the two of you in class today, I've decided you remind me a good bit of my wife."

"Thanks... I think?" Harry questioned.

Sirius laughed. "You had better take that as a compliment. That's my wife we're talking about here." He locked the classroom door behind them and they started down the hallway together. "So, tell me," he said, "I've been hearing quite a bit about this broomstick of yours."

Harry blushed, "Yeah. My, um, Firebolt."

"So I've heard. Not a model we have in this world, so far as I know. I don't keep up with Quidditch all too much, but my daughter is quite the fan," Black said. "On a semi-related note, don't let Neville Longbottom get you down too much. I think he's just suffering from a good case of what we might call... broomstick envy?"

Harry laughed. "He's a good flier, too. And he doesn't have a bad broom at all."

"No, indeed," Sirius agreed. "And Gryffindor is a tough team to beat. Though I like to think Ravenclaw is a bit of a challenge, as well. I might be biased, of course. Speaking of Quidditch, you must have heard by now at least someone mention your resemblance to James Potter. Plays for the Cannons?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "Dean mentioned it, first day here. His name is James Potter?"

"Indeed," Sirius said. "He and the Cannons won their last match enormously, as always. He and that damned Snape will lead them to victory yet again, I suppose."

"Snape?"

"Severus Snape," Sirius confirmed. "I can't stand the slimy git."

Harry had to laugh at that. Nice to know some things never change, he thought.

"And just what are you laughing at, Mr. Potter?" Sirius inquired. "Mind, I'm not particularly fond of that James Potter either. Knew them both at school. But I'll do my best not to hold your resemblance against you."

"Thanks." Harry pushed open the doors to the Great Hall.

"I guess," Sirius began, "that this is where we part. Do enjoy your lunch, Harry."

Harry nodded and then, just as Sirius began to walk off, he said, "You are going to wash your hands?" Sirius held his hands up to inspect them, and Harry laughed. "You were actually holding the earthworms, remember?"

Sirius nodded with a laugh. "Good one, Potter. I told you, you're like my wife. Take a point for Gryffindor. I'll just go and take care of my hands now." The professor turned and exited the Great Hall the way he had just come in. Harry turned back to the room and saw Hermione waving to him.

With a laugh to himself, he let the doors slam shut behind him and hurried over to join his friend at the Gryffindor house table.

To be continued...

Scenes from Chapter Seven: 'A Hogsmeade Visit'

- "Go talk to her, then," the other boy advised. "I mean, what is a Hogsmeade weekend for, if not to engender romantic entanglements?"

"Engender romantic entanglements?" Padma snorted with laughter. Colin blushed bright red and Harry was glad to find himself no longer the center of the teasing. His relief was short lived.

Parvati smiled at him. "So, go on, Harry. Get to your engendering!"

- "Can we go there?" The prospect of meeting his quasi-mother frightened Harry more than he would ever admit, but he couldn't pass up the chance to find out if it was really her.

"To the museum?" Colin snorted. "On a weekend?"

"What's wrong with it?" Hermione retorted with unusual vigor and Colin immediately looked remorseful. "I'll take you there if you want, Harry."