Harry Potter and the Guild of the Night

Chapter 29

Sirius raised his hands and waved them around. "Oy! Everyone!" he bellowed and then whistled loudly.

The students in the Room of Requirement all turned around to stare at Sirius with varying degrees of surprise. He looked back at them with exasperation.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," he said. "You were the ones who wanted to learn to become animagi. I know it's the day before Christmas break but you wanted to learn." He grinned at them.

The students grinned back at him and settled down on the various chairs and cushions that the Room of Requirement had provided. Most of the DA students had opted to try the animagus transformation and they were eager to try tonight's activity. Sirius wanted them to try the visualisation spell tonight, they had been practising the steps for it and tonight they would try it one by one under Sirius' supervision to see if they could get it to work. Sirius had warned them that there was a good chance it wouldn't work the first time...or the second time or even possibly the tenth time. If it continued to not work they had two choices; either give up the idea entirely or persist. He then mentioned that it had taken Peter nearly twenty tries before he managed his visualisation. Oddly enough, that particular piece of news made them all more determined to try. By now they all knew what Peter had done to both Sirius and Harry and even the Slytherins agreed that the little rat's acti! ons were pretty despicable.

Sirius walked amongst the students, calmly explaining the process to them and helping them to clear their minds. He had enjoyed working with the DA and even more he had enjoyed working with Master Nhean. They had had some fairly vociferous arguments before Nhean had managed to impress upon Sirius that he was serious. He would not allow the animagus to overextend himself. He was quite happy to teach Sirius but only on his own terms. He was not anywhere near the league of Harry and his friends and would probably never be but the disciplined exercise had done wonders for him. He knew he would never look the way he did when he was younger; twelve years in Azkaban and the months spent in limbo behind the Veil had made sure of that but he at least wanted to be able to keep up with his godson.

He stopped in the middle of the classroom and surveyed the students. They looked like they had grasped the idea of clearing their minds fairly well but the next part would find that out for sure. He crouched down next to the nearest student.

"Try the visualisation spell," he suggested quietly.

The student, Cho Chang, nodded and muttered the words to the spell. "Ostendo bestia latere."

The air in front of her shimmered for a moment and Sirius held his breath. The shimmering faded and she opened her eyes and grimaced at him.

"Didn't work," she said reluctantly.

"Nope," Sirius replied casually, "but keep trying. That was a good first effort."

Cho smiled and closed her eyes. Sirius stood and moved to the next student to repeat the process. He was fairly encouraged by the time he got to Harry. Nearly half the students had achieved at least that odd shimmering and a handful had achieved a little more. Harry's five friends had all gone the furthest; each of them had managed am amorphous blob. They had seemed disappointed at that until he had assured them that he and Prongs hadn't done any better on their first attempts. He crouched down next to Harry, who seemed to be handling the idea of clearing his mind better than anyone else. Sirius supposed his Occlumency lessons had something to do with it. Sirius scowled at the thought; he wasn't really comfortable with the idea of Snape teaching Harry anything, let alone something like Occlumency and Legilimency. He and Snape were largely avoiding each other; neither was really sure how to treat each other and both were having trouble letting go of the past.

Sirius shrugged that thought away as he crouched down nest to Harry. "Try the spell," he murmured.

Harry nodded slowly. "Ostendo bestia latere," he whispered.

The hair on the back of Sirius's neck stood on end as the air in front of Harry shimmered violently and slowly began to coalesce. He started grinning, he somehow wasn't surprised. Harry had never really managed to do anything normally when it came to unusual forms of magic. He watched with delight as the form coalesced and then he gave Harry a nudge.

"Harry, open your eyes. With any luck you'll be able to see it with Oversight," he murmured.

Harry obediently opened his eyes and gasped. He could indeed see the form floating in the air in front of him. It was a large canine, that much he could tell, the rest he would have to rely on others to tell him.

"What kind of dog is it?" he asked with wonder, loud enough to cause eyes to pop open around the room.

"Whoa!" Ron exclaimed and got up to take a closer look. "Mean-looking thing! Good one, Harry!" Ron slapped Harry on the shoulder as the other students gathered around.

"It's some kind of wolf, actually," Sirius said, examining the image. He then looked up at Hermione. "Hermione?"

The bushy-haired girl frowned and walked around the image. "You're right about it being some kind of wolf. What I really need..." She trailed off and looked around, grinning as she found the book she wanted on the bookshelf nearest to her. "Ah, that's the one!" she said and grabbed it. She opened it to the page she wanted and compared the picture within to the image still floating in front of Harry. "Here we are! I though that's what it was. A Dire Wolf." Eyebrows went up all over the room and Hermione started reading some of the information in the book. "Dire Wolves have existed for millennia; they're actually a prehistoric species of wolf that was thought to have become extinct about 11,000 years ago. In actuality, the prehistoric witches and wizards, shamans I suppose they were back then, hid them because they'd altered them drastically. They allowed the unaltered Dire Wolves to die out and kept those that had been altered to establish a new breed of Dire Wolves. They ! aren't much bigger than an ordinary wolf but they are much more intelligent and vicious. They have larger jaws and teeth and are usually black. Muggles have a myth that Dire Wolves are wolves that have been brought back from the grave to hunt down enemies but that was been officially debunked about a thousand years ago."

She suddenly stopped and began giggling. Harry, Sirius and the others stared at her as the giggling continued.

"Hermione?" Harry said carefully. "What's so funny?"

Hermione, caught in her giggles, could only wave a hand at him and then at Sirius. When she finally got herself under control, she managed to tell them what had set her off.

"I'm sorry," she gasped, the odd stray giggle still escaping from her. "Dire wolves hunt in packs and often take over an ordinary wolf pack." She dissolved into giggles again.

Harry and Sirius looked at each other, somewhat mystified. They couldn't see what was so funny about that.

"Uh, Mione?" Harry said slowly. "That hasn't really explained anything."

Hermione took a deep breath and got herself under control again. "Um, well, obviously with this form you'll be able to run with Padfoot and Moony at the full moon."

Harry looked surprised and then delighted. He knew that Padfoot and Moony still went out on the night of the full moon and ran in the Forest. Not even the Wolfsbane potion could stop that ingrained imperative in the werewolf; it only stopped him from killing or maiming people. With his animagus form, he'd be more than capable of running with them. Sirius too looked delighted; the idea of running with his best friend and his godson filling both him and his canine self with excitement. They then looked at Hermione with confusion.

"There's nothing funny about that, Hermione," Harry said happily. "That's great!"

Hermione giggled again. "Um, that not it, Harry." She paused and tried to find a way to explain it. "Um, well, wolves...well, canines in general tend to have a hierarchical structure. That's where the saying 'alpha male' comes from. I guess Moony would be the alpha male?" She looked at Sirius for confirmation.

Sirius looked surprised. "Yeah, of course he is. He's bigger and stronger than Padfoot. That's the way it works, the biggest and strongest male gets to be the leader." Sirius stopped and considered things then he too began to laugh.

Harry scowled at the two of them. "Alright, someone want to let me in on the joke?" he said irritably.

Sirius stifled his laughter. "The first time you run with Moony and I is going to be interesting, Harry," he said with a grin. "Your animagus form will be big enough, strong enough and vicious enough to take on even Moony. Moony's not going to want to give up his status that easily and the instinct of the wolf will mean that the first night is going to be spent with the two of you fighting it out for the job of alpha male."

Harry's jaw dropped open and he began to look a little distressed. Sirius hastened to reassure his godson. "Don't worry, Harry" he said earnestly, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. "It's perfectly normal. Hell, Moony and I did the same thing the first time we ran together. You should have seen the expressions on Prongs' and Wormtail's faces the next morning. They thought we were going to kill each other but that's not what it's all about. It's about supremacy and being the strongest and best." He paused and ruffled his godson's hair. "Don't worry. You'll understand after you've spent some time in your animagus form."

Harry nodded a bit dubiously. "Can I try the transformation now?" he asked.

Sirius looked startled and sat back on his haunches to think things through. Mostly he was trying to remember what he and James and Peter had done. He slowly began to nod as he remembered the night he and Prongs had managed the visualisation. They'd immediately tried the transformation; Prongs had succeeded but it had taken him another couple of nights to manage it.

"Yeah, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work. James managed it right away but it took me a bit of time," he warned.

Harry nodded and concentrated on making the transformation. There wasn't much finesse involved; it was mostly a matter of fixing your mind on the creature that your visualisation had shown you and mentally willing yourself to become that creature. If you had the ability to change, your magic would enable the change to occur. Harry concentrated hard on the image of the Dire Wolf he had seen through his Oversight and what he knew of them other than that and was startled when he felt himself almost flowing into another shape.

Many of the DA students jumped backwards as Harry suddenly changed into the large black Dire Wolf whose image they had seen with the added extra of a thin white lightning bolt-shaped blaze on his forehead. For himself, Harry sat frozen with surprise for a long moment. He then gave a startled yelp when he realised that he could see normally. He stood abruptly, much to the surprise of the others in the room, and started shivering. Sirius saw the shivering start and buried his hands into the Dire Wolf's ruff, turning the animal's head to face him with main strength.

"Harry!" he said in alarm. "Change back! Come on, Harry, change back!"

He saw the wolf's eyes focus on his for a minute and then he was clutching his godson's hair. He quickly let go and drew Harry's shaking body close.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "What happened?"

Harry was staring blindly around the room, clearly not seeing anything. Sirius gave him a small shake.

"HARRY!" he bellowed into his godson's ear and Harry's head shot around. "Calm down and tell me what's wrong."

A blanket was suddenly shoved into Sirius' hands and he wrapped it around Harry before looking up to thank whoever had had the presence of mind to wish for the blanket that the Room of Requirement had so handily provided. He looked up into the grave face of Blaise, who nodded once before moving back into the group of students. He quickly turned his attention back to his godson.

"Harry, please tell me what's wrong," he pleaded.

Harry swallowed and shook his head. Somewhere in the change, either into the wolf or back, his Oversight had been lost and he quickly reinitiated it. He sighed when the room lit up and looked at Sirius.

"I...sorry, Sirius," he said weakly. "I didn't mean to freak out on you like that. It's just...I...I could see!"

"What?" Sirius blurted.

"I could see," Harry repeated. "As the wolf, I could see normally!"

Exclamations came from everyone in the room while Sirius stared at him, flabbergasted.

"Really?" Sirus asked dumbfounded.

"Yes," Harry said. "That's why I reacted like that. I was so surprised! I was expecting to either see something like what I do with Oversight or nothing at all. Sirius, how did that happen?"

"I...I don't know," Sirius said, running a hand through his hair and looking confused. "I've never heard of anything like that happening before. Maybe Minerva might know, she knows far more about transfiguring things than I do."

Harry nodded and then moved away from his godfather, shaking the blanket off. He concentrated and swiftly changed back into the black Dire Wolf. He stood up and shook himself before looking around the room. Sirius grinned, obviously the ability to be able to transform and the ability to see again was far more interesting than figuring out why. He stood and transformed into Padfoot. He padded over to the large wolf and whined, dropping to his belly and then rolling over onto his back. The wolf turned and looked at him then dropped his head down and gently took Padfoot's throat in its jaws. Padfoot's whined again and then gave a little yelp. The wolf let him go and Padfoot rolled back over and stood up. He immediately dropped into the classic canine 'let's play' stance, with his front legs stretched out in front of him, his head low with mouth open in a doggy grin and his tail wagging. The wolf returned the doggy grin and charged at the big black dog, initiating a bo! ut of wrestling. The members of the DA watched in open-mouth awe as the two canines wrestled, though they all noted through their amazement that the great Dire Wolf allowed his doggy friend to win some of the time. Finally the two canines separated and shook themselves. Padfoot transformed back into Sirius and he grinned down at his godson. Harry transformed back, re-established his Oversight and grinned up at Sirius.

"I see what you mean," he said a little ruefully, now understanding a little better what Sirius had meant about his impending first meeting with Moony. He hadn't even known what he was going to do when Padfoot had submitted before him like that but his wolf instincts had taken over and had made him accept Padfoot's submission before the pack leader.

Sirius chuckled. "I think I'm going to watch you and Moony from a safe distance," he said with a barking laugh.

"What was it like?" Hannah Abbot asked with excitement.

"Kind of weird," Harry said with a half-grin. "I was kind of me but mostly the wolf if that makes any sense."

"Sort of," Hannah replied. "I guess we'll understand more when we manage it for ourselves."

The others murmured in agreement and settled back down onto the various chairs or cushions they had claimed, determined now to try for themselves. Sirius laughed again and threw an arm around Harry's shoulders.

"Why don't you shift back into..." he paused. "You know, we'll have to come up with a name for your animagus form. Anyway, shift back and get used to it a bit more. I'd better supervise this lot."

Harry nodded eagerly and transformed back into the black wolf while Sirius began wandering amongst the students once more. Harry wandered around the room examining and sniffing things with interest as the others went back to their attempts at the visualisation spell. He found that the longer he spent as the wolf the more comfortable he became and the more wolf-like he felt. He was still definitely Harry but it was as though he was becoming Harry-wolf as opposed to Harry-man. When he heard a yelp from behind him, he turned his head lazily to see Ron, staring in surprise at the image that had formed in front of him. He padded over and sat down, cocking his head as he examined the image. He then transformed back and shook his head. He re-initiated his Oversight, sighing as he did so; that promised to get annoying in the future. He examined the image with Oversight, remembering what it had looked like through his wolf eyes. Ron's animagus form was that of a dog, specifically ! a red setter. Harry grinned at his oldest friend.

Ron flashed an excited look at him as he examined the form in front of him. He then tried the actual transformation. His brow furrowed as he concentrated but then he let out his breath in a rush.

"Damn!" he said in frustration. "How did you do that, mate?"

"I don't know," Harry replied thoughtfully. "I just concentrated hard and flowed into the new shape." He laughed ruefully. "Somehow, I don't think that's going to help though, is it?"

Ron shook his head in exasperation and Sirius, who had come up behind the two boys, laughed.

"It took me three days to figure it out, Ron," he said, "and it took Peter nearly a month. Don't worry, you'll get there."

Ron sighed and settled in again, closing his eyes to concentrate again.

An hour later Sirius clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. Harry was the only one who had managed the transformation and Ron was the only other one to manage the visualisation spell. But none of the others was the least bit put off.

"Alright everyone, I think that's enough for tonight," Sirius said and everyone groaned. He grinned at them all. "Look, if you lot aren't tired, you soon will be. I know I am! I suggest you practise the visualisation spell over the Christmas holiday, though I have to ask you not to try the transformation on your own. I know what to do if something goes wrong but you don't."

Everyone nodded and began to drift out of the room until only Sirius and Harry remained. Harry's friends were the last to go; they drifted out of the room discussing Ron's animagus form. Sirius watched them go and then grinned at his godson.

"Well?" he asked.

Harry grinned back. "I think I like being an animagus," he replied then frowned. "But I still don't understand why I can see as the wolf but not as me."

Sirius sighed. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that. James never had any problems seeing when he was Prongs but he always wearing his glasses when he changed. Maybe it's got something to do with the transformation."

"But Wormtail was missing a...a finger from his paw when he was a rat," Harry said.

"True, but that's because he is actually missing a finger," Sirius said, scratching his head. "That may have something to do with it. Pity Moody isn't an animagus."

Harry was about to answer but got stuck on a thought. "Maybe we should ask Master Nhean," he suggested ruefully. "There have probably been Night Warriors who were animagi. I'll bet someone in the Guild has an answer."

Sirius laughed. "Good thought. We'll ask him tomorrow," he said then threw an arm around Harry's shoulders. The two of them headed towards the door. "You're not upset about having to stay here over the Christmas holidays?"

"No, not really," Harry said. "I've always stayed here. The Dursleys never wanted me and, honestly, I liked staying here for Christmas. Ron and Hermione have often stayed and this year it'll be you and Remus." Harry smiled happily at the thought. "And I know that it wouldn't be a good idea for me to go anywhere. It's not safe." He sighed. "Pity, Mr and Mrs Weasley invited me to stay with them. I would have liked to have been part of a Weasley Christmas." His voice trailed off wistfully.

Sirius laughed. "I'm sure you'll get your chance in the future. Come on, we've got about half an hour before curfew. Let's stop by the suite so we can tell Remus the good news about your animagus form. He's got the registration paperwork too."

"You know actually registering takes some of the fun out of it," Harry said wryly.

"Tell me about it," Sirius replied humorously as they walked down the corridors. "I'm not sure I like being a good little registered animagus but after my trial, I think Kingsley would have killed me if I didn't register. You know they've tightened security at Azkaban after hearing about how I escaped."

Harry snorted and they made the rest of the way to the suite in silence.

****************************************

Harry felt a little lonely as he waved off his friends the next morning and he resolutely spent much of the day moping around the castle. Sirius found him up in the Astronomy Tower shortly before and poked fun at him until he was laughing. They then moved some of Harry's things down into the suite where he was going to stay over the holidays and headed down to the Great Hall for dinner. There were only a handful of students staying at school so once again the four House table were gone and just one table remained for the staff and students to share. Harry and Sirius sat down next to Remus, who immediately pulled out some parchment and waved it at Harry.

Harry sighed and swapped places with Sirius. He and Remus began a soft discussion with Remus filling in various places on the parchment while Sirius watched.

"Everything alright, gentlemen?" the Headmaster asked as he entered the room with Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Yes," Remus said absently as he read the next question. "Just filling out the animagus registration forms for Harry."

This statement effectively silenced the table and the three teachers hurriedly sat down. Food appeared on the table and Professor McGonagall eyed Remus, Harry and Sirius with interest.

"You've succeeded then, Mr Potter," she observed. "May I ask what your animagus form is?"

Harry looked up and grinned at his Transfiguration teacher. "Erm, a Dire Wolf, Professor."

Again silence ranged along the table.

"A great bloody big black Dire Wolf," Sirius confirmed with a grin, "with a white lightning bolt blaze on his forehead."

Harry rolled his eyes. "'Cause nobody's going to know who it is with that particular detail," he muttered sarcastically.

Remus chuckled. "Ordinarily you can't see scars under the fur but that's not exactly an ordinary scar you've got there, Harry."

Harry gave Remus a flat look and Sirius burst out laughing.

"I think that look means 'tell me about it', Moony" he said, still laughing.

"You three seem to be in an extraordinarily good humour about this," Professor McGonagall said curiously.

Harry stopped glaring at Remus and smiled at her. "Well, yeah!" he said. "I'll be able to go with Moony and Padfoot when they run at the full moon. I've always wanted to do that. I hate not being able to help Remus."

Many of the teachers immediately looked worried.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Minerva said, looking at Sirius and Remus.

Sirius snorted. "Well, the first night's bound to be a bit of fun." Remus and Harry swallowed grins. "But I don't a Dire Wolf has much to worry about with Padfoot and Moony."

The Headmaster smiled and the three of them, a twinkle in his eye, as Minerva frowned.

"What precisely do you mean by that first comment, Mr Black?" she said sternly.

Harry and Remus couldn't control themselves anymore and collapsed laughing. Harry had been worried about Remus reaction to his animagus form but Remus had been pleased. Apparently Padfoot could only do so much on his own; they hadn't realised how much having Prongs there made a difference. Remus had immediately realised that the first night was going to bring about a dominance scuffle between him and Harry but he seemed to find the whole things terribly funny which had gone a long way to setting Harry's mind at ease. Remus had made a fairly droll comment along the lines of it being about time Moony had some competition and had smirked at Sirius. The rest of the evening had degenerated into a very amusing round of insults between the two Marauders.

Sirius was the first one to get himself back under control and, seeing the increasingly exasperated look on Minerva's face, he hastened to explain.

"Canines have a pretty strict hierarchy system, Minerva," he said. "You know the whole alpha male thing?"

Minerva nodded and Snape arched an eyebrow.

"You, an alpha male?" he sneered.

"Not me," Sirius said shaking his head with amusement. "Moony's the alpha male in our little pack. Padfoot's not big enough or strong enough to take Moony on." Sirius laughed. "But Harry will be. That Dire Wolf form of his is pretty formidable. The first night the three of run together is going to be interesting."

"A fight?" Minerva asked with concern.

"No, not a fight as such," Remus reassured her. "Dominance scuffling. A pack can only have one alpha male. And I'm not exactly sure who's going to win out of the two of us."

"And Padfoot's going to stay right out of it," Sirius added with a grin.

Harry smacked the two of them. "You two are not making me feel any better about this," he said with exasperation.

"Harry, do you think we could see it?" Professor Flitwick asked excitedly.

Harry grinned a little sheepishly and nodded. He stood up and handed his cane to Remus then moved away from the table. He concentrated on his wolf form and flowed into it. He gave himself a shake and then looked over to the table.

"Very impressive, Mr Potter," said Professor McGonagall admiringly.

Harry opened his jaws and then snapped them shut. A idea came to him and just for a second he gave a very canine grin. Then he leapt over to where Sirius was sitting, grabbed the back of his shirt in his teeth and proceeded to pull him out of his chair and onto the floor. Sirius hit the floor with a thump and Harry immediately settled as much of himself as he could on his godfather's chest.

"Oy, Harry, gerrof!" Sirius wheezed, pushing unsuccessfully at the wolf draped on top if him. "You're bloody heavy."

Harry yawned and settled his head down on his front paws as Sirius struggled underneath him. Sirius rolled his eyes and glared at everyone laughing at the table.

"A little help?" he said desperately, causing the laughter to increase. He growled softly and changed quickly into Padfoot. As soon as he had he leaned forward and nipped at the closest part of Harry he could reach.

The big Dire Wolf yelped and scrambled to his feet then glared at Padfoot. The black dog rolled over and bumped his packmate gently with one shoulder. The big wolf shook himself and nudged Padfoot back. Another look of glee seemed to enter the wolf's eyes and he padded over to the table again. This time he placed his paws on the seat next to Remus and licked the side of Remus' face. His tongue very long and very wet.

Remus jerked away with a startled oath. "Merlin! Harry!" he yelped and wiped the side of his face. "Did you really have to slobber all over me?"

The wolf huffed in his face and dropped back down to the floor. By this stage everyone at the table was roaring with laughter; even Snape had a small smile on his face. Padfoot looked at Harry and Remus for an instant and then bounded over and repeated Harry's actions on the other side of Remus' face. He then ran over and sat down next to the wolf and the two of them gave very canine grins.

Remus sat still for a moment then slowly began laughing. He accepted a towel that a laughing Minerva had quickly transfigured for him and wiped his face. Then he turned to face the two grinning canines.

"I will thank the two of you," he mock-scolded, "to keep your slobber to yourselves or I will get Filius to charm you so that you both can't transform back! Then I will feed you both muggle dog food for a week."

Sirius shifted back and mock-pouted. "You wouldn't dare, Moony! That's just too cruel." He grinned. "Besides you wouldn't be able to put up with the whining for more than a day anyway."

Remus rolled his eyes as Harry also shifted back. Harry paused to re-establish his Oversight then joined his godfather and guardian back at the table. As he did, Snape cocked his head to one side and looked at Harry with interest.

"I am curious, Mr Potter," he asked, "as to how your Oversight adjusts."

Harry blinked. "Oh, er, it doesn't," he stammered. "I can see when I'm the wolf."

The last of the laughter stopped and everyone except for Master Nhean looked at him with surprise.

"Interesting," Dumbeldore said then turned and raised an eyebrow at the diminutive Night Master sitting at his side. "But you don't seem that surprised, Nhean. You obviously expected this."

"Yes," Nhean nodded. "I knew that if Harry was able to manage the animagus transformation he would be able to see in his animal form. The phenomenon was noted by the Guild shortly after the records began. Sato was an animagus. He refused to transform after he was blinded because he feared how he might react. He transformed some years later in an emergency and was startled to find that he could see while he was the animal. There have been a few Guild Warriors who were also animagi and they have all reported the same thing. Unfortunately nobody seems to have an answer as to why it happens."

"Surely people have speculated?" Snape queried sharply.

"Yes, indeed they have, Severus," Nhean replied mildly. "But nobody is sure how to test those theories and speculations."

"Will I always lose my Oversight when I transform?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Nhean said. "Again, many have speculated as to why this happens but no one can figure out a way of testing the theories."

"Great," Harry muttered.

Remus chuckled and poked him in the ribs. "Did you want to finish these now?" he asked, pointing at the almost forgotten registration forms.

Harry sighed and began serving himself dinner as the table settled down around him. "I suppose so."