More than a Dream

Chapter 2 Wands, Birthdays, and Rescues

For a long time Sirius was absolutely speechless. He was shocked. Then he was angry; who could have hurt Harry? If he ever found out, he'd... He felt the link weakening and grabbed at it desperately.

::Harry!:: he called out, panicking. Surely this was a strain for Harry, as obviously untrained as he was. And from what was surely a long distance, when he was hurt, no less. Not to mention... How could Harry have gotten around the wards of Azkaban? He'd have to be a Secondary. But that meant...::Harry, where are you? Are you alright? What's happened? Why did you call me?:: He was babbling, he knew. But there were so many questions he needed to ask, and Harry needed to tell him everything.

::Padfoot, I...:: Harry's mind-voice was weak and he seemed unsure of where to start or even if he was allowed to speak at all.

::Harry, I want you to tell me everything. Why have you called me? Do you know who I am?::

Suddenly Sirius' mind flooded with images. The Dursleys, the beatings, how Harry knew that their treatment of him was not normal, what had happened when Vernon was fired, and the happenings of the past week. Peter, and how Harry had inadvertently used his Soul-Searcher ability to see his betrayal of the Potters, and his knowledge of Sirius. Then the link dropped. It didn't break, for Sirius wasn't being affected by the dementors and he could feel it there still, but Harry was unconscious, that much was certain.

Another thing that was certain was that Sirius was more pissed than a particularly stuck-up hippogriff that had just been insulted for hours and hours upon end. Consequently, the steel door to Sirius's cell exploded into pieces the size of toothpicks and then spontaneously combusted.

Sirius stared at the place where the supposedly magic-proof door had once stood in shock. He shook it off quickly, however, and wasted no time in running out the door and past the dementors in his dog form. He travelled through the maze that was Azkaban on little more than instinct alone. Eventually he reached the barred gate that was the one entrance and exit to the building. He ran outside and shuddered as fresh air hit him for the first time in years. He took a deep breath that for once did not smell of death and decay and then started off at a lope towards the iron bars that encircled the island. He slipped through, astounded at how thin he had really become, and stood on the five-foot wide ledge between the bars and the cliff that towered fifteen meters over the sea. He looked down and hesitated for little more than a second, and then jumped into the icy depths. His last thoughts before he had to concentrate completely on getting to the mainland without drowning were, 'Hang on, Harry, I'm coming.'

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Harry lay in his cupboard. It had been nearly two weeks since he had been brought back to the Dursleys, and nearly two weeks since he had spoken to Padfoot. Not that he hadn't tried to do it again, it just seemed that he couldn't reach him. Or as if he was too tired to find him. He shifted and gasped at the pain that shot through his body. He stilled, remembering not to jostle his ribs or his leg, and slowly reached over to the bowl of soup that his aunt had told him would be his meal today.

He recalled the beating that had come after he had been brought back and shuddered. He had found himself unable to throw them back as he had done before, which meant that he had had to endure the entire thing. Vernon had been furious, to put it mildly. Been so mad that he would have revelled in beating Harry to death repeatedly might be closer. He certainly hadn't hesitated in breaking Harry's leg, or most of his other ribs.

And now it was midnight, or sometime close to that, and Harry was hungry. He hadn't eaten more than a sparse meal a day since he had got back, and the Dursleys had forgotten today's meal entirely. He pushed at the door of the cupboard with his mind but it didn't budge. He sighed. He hadn't really expected it to work, but it would have been nice if it had.

Suddenly he heard the front door open. It sounded as though someone was trying to make as little noise as possible, but he heard it squeak anyways. He reached out with his mind carefully, then nearly cried in joy.

::Harry?:: he heard. The voice was quiet, tired, and very cautious, but still recognizable as the voice he knew as Padfoot, or Sirius Black.

::In here:: he replied, sending an image of a cupboard, and the way to it from the front door. He listened to quiet footsteps coming towards where he lay, then waited silently while Sirius fumbled with the lock. It opened slowly, as Sirius was being mindful of creaks once more. Then he got his first look at his godfather.

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Sirius looked inside the cupboard, anger radiating throughout his body. What kind of people left a child to sleep inside a cupboard? It did little more than strengthen his resolve to take Harry away from this place. He then caught sight of his godson and he drew his breath in a sharp gasp. Harry looked, quite frankly, like hell. What little Sirius could see was covered in bruises and painfully thin. He also saw that Harry refrained from moving or breathing hard or unevenly. He forcefully restrained himself from going up the stairs and murdering the Dursleys. Barely. He spoke into Harry's mind, for the sake of silence and privacy, and to make sure Harry wasn't lying. One can't lie mind to mind.

:: Where are you hurt?:: he asked.

::My leg, and my chest:: he heard in answer, getting an impression of sharp pain in both of those areas. He assessed the voice for strength, and was shocked to find that Harry was beyond tired. He had virtually no magical reserves at all. By all rights, the boy should be in a coma, or unconscious at the very least. Mind-reaching all the way to Azkaban, through the wards, completely untrained, was a feat that neared the impossible.

Sirius gently pulled his godson's cot towards him, careful of the boy's injuries. He took the threadbare blanket off his godson and lifted the boy's shirt, carefully inspecting his injuries. Six broken ribs, and three cracked ones. And one broken leg, and bruising on most of his body. This could be very complicated. He pulled out his wand (the one that David Ollivander, nephew of the Ollivander who owned the wand shop, had given him a couple of days before) and quickly cast a numbing charm and a bandaging charm. The Ferula charm was handy in that it both set the bones, and bound them.

Harry hissed in pain as his leg was set but otherwise made no noise as he did this. ::We need to get out of here,:: Sirius mind-sent.

Harry nodded, then asked ::How?::

::I'll apparate us. Do you know what that is?::

Harry nodded again, and Sirius assumed, correctly, that Harry had heard the phrase and it's meaning from one of the Auror's minds. He grasped Harry's hand in his and apparated back to Diagon Alley.

Now he slipped a hooded cloak over himself and walked through Diagon Alley, into Ollivander's back entrance. He had to hurry, for no doubt Aurors would be arriving soon, as Apparating could be traced, and neither he nor Harry could afford to be caught. He, for the obvious reason that he had no desire to return to Azkaban, and Harry, because if he were to be caught he would only be returned to the Dursleys, again.

Suddenly a voice came out of the darkness, "Sirius, is that you?"

"Yes. David, I need your help with him." David nodded, and his face darkened when he saw the state of James' son. He conjured a stretcher, and Sirius gently laid Harry down, noting that Harry was still watching the proceedings avidly.

"Portkey," David murmured as he held out a spare wand-box. Sirius nodded. They both grabbed the stretcher, and then Sirius reached out for the portkey, and they vanished.

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David Ollivander's house was just what you'd expect from a wand-maker's apprentice. There wasn't a wand in sight. After all, as David put it, he saw enough of the damn things at work. Of course, no one was seeing very much of the place at all right at this moment as the only two inhabitants were busily making sure the third would be able to move without pain and would not have to grow up crippled. Sirius wasn't even going to think of the possibility that, if he had not arrived and rescued him, his godson might not have had the opportunity to grow up at all.

Sirius was also sending explanations to Harry's unconscious mind, which Harry would remember when he woke up, explaining everything he could think of. Especially David, and what had happened since he had escaped Azkaban.

Sirius had barely managed to reach the mainland and had collapsed, exhausted, on the shore falling out of his dog-form and into his human one. And that was how David Ollivander, or more specifically David Ollivander's owl, had found him. Sirius had spent the first days of his stay explaining everything to David. He found that he had had little trouble with this, for, as David had told him many times, he had already known of Sirius's innocence. He never would explain how he knew, only that it was enough that he did, and that Sirius should get some rest.

The days after were spent cleaning up Sirius's appearance, feeding him up a bit, and generally making sure that he wouldn't scare the hell out of Harry the moment he saw him. It was also spent with Sirius getting increasingly frantic by the day. Finally, David had snuck into his uncle's shop with Sirius, and had him choose a wand. Then Sirius had to make his way to Harry's relatives' house. Which was complicated by the fact that there were at least two dozen very strong wards around the place to keep people like him, or at least what he was supposed to be, a Death Eater, out. Putting undetectable holes in the wards had taken nearly a week. But without them, Sirius would not have been able to use magic, apparate, find the Dursleys' house, or walk in without being detected by the Ministry and Dumbledore both. Let alone take Harry out of the Dursleys' without having a tracing spell placed on the boy. Which is why he was very thorough in partially disabling the wards, and making sure that his "holes" wouldn't cause the other wards, especially the one that was supposed to detect tampering, to go off.

He had then gone into the Dursleys' home and rescued his godson. Harry was now lying unconscious while David fixed his broken bones, lacerations, and bruises, as Sirius poured information into his mind. Suddenly David sighed and leaned back against the wall, thanking the gods for his medi-wizard training. Sirius looked up sharply.

"You've finished?" he asked.

"Yes. There are a few bruises left, and he'll be sore for a bit, but other than that he's fine."

"When will he wake up?" Sirius looked at his godson with relief and concern shining in his eyes, which made David wonder how on earth anyone could ever believe this man had betrayed the Potters.

"He should be awake any minute. I'll get you both some food." With that, he left the guest bedroom and went off to the kitchens. His grandfather hadn't believed in the enslavement of house-elves. Consequently, that meant he had to cook and clean for himself. He sighed and rubbed his temples. House-elves would have made everything so much easier.

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Sirius watched as his godson stirred and opened his eyes, blinking them blearily. He made to sit up and Sirius assisted him, and then sat back waiting to see if his godson would speak. Surprisingly, Harry's first words came in the form of a question.

"Sirius? What's a Primary?"

Sirius looked at him, dumbfounded. Of all the things he could have forgotten to explain he had to have chosen this one. He sighed and rubbed his temples, unconsciously echoing the gesture David had made only minutes before, and started to explain.

"You know how we can speak mind-to-mind? Telepathically?" Harry nodded, "Well that's a rather uncommon ability. There are many gifts that wizards can have that aren't connected directly to their magic. Soul-searching, which is seeing the truth of what people tell you and sometimes visions of their memories and emotions, Telepathy, speaking to animals, Empathy, Pyrokinesis, the ability to light anything on fire, Telekinesis, moving things with your mind, natural animagi, and some others. There are different levels of abilities, however. The people born with a high level of ability are called Primaries, the people born with a low level of ability are called Minors, and the people who have their latent abilities awoken due to... extreme circumstances, are called Secondaries. You appear to be a Telepathy Secondary, Telekinesis Secondary, and a Soul-searcher Secondary. I have no idea if you have any Primary or minor abilities however."

Harry looked as though he was carefully processing this new information. "What are you?" he asked curiously.

Sirius smiled, "I'm a Telepathy Minor."

Suddenly, the scarf Harry wore about his neck detached itself, slithered into Harry's lap, and transformed into a snake. Sirius started, and stared in shock at the snake, which was currently hissing animatedly at Harry and Harry... Wait, Harry was hissing back! Harry looked up at him his face turning worried when he saw Sirius' shocked expression. Sirius noticed that he also unconsciously shrank back from Sirius as though expecting to be struck at any moment. Sirius immediately sent a reassuring smile in Harry's direction, but was still caught off-guard when Harry spoke.

"What's wrong?"

Sirius rubbed his temples again, thinking bemusedly of how it was becoming a habit in a very short period of time, "You're a Snake-Speaker, a Parselmouth. It's an ability that is usually attributed to Dark Wizards. Voldemort was one."

Harry stared at him, mouth open in shock, "But I'm not! You know I'm not! I've never-" Harry was sounding panicky and frightened, and Sirius rushed to reassure him.

"I know you aren't," 'well', he noted when Harry immediately shut up, 'that certainly quieted him,' then continued, "the wizarding world at large, however, would regard you as no better than Voldemort simply because you have this ability, though I hope that anyone who knew you well would look beyond it if they found out. It's something you need to keep a very tight secret. People think that Parselmouths are worse than werewolves most of the time."

"Like Moony?"

Sirius jumped, startled, then stared at Harry, mouth agape. "How do you know about Remus?" he practically shouted.

Harry shrank against his pillow at Sirius's reaction and Sirius forcibly calmed himself. "I'm not going to hit you, you know. I'm never going to hurt you like your Uncle did."

Harry looked away, embarrassed. He knew that, really he did, but it was hard sometimes to remember everything he knew about Sirius from the time he had spent in contact with his mind, especially when he got loud or when he moved suddenly. "I know. I'm sorry," he mumbled.

Sirius looked contrite. He reached out with his hand and pulled Harry's chin so that Harry faced him. "You've nothing to be sorry for. I imagine that you can't control it, am I right?" Harry cautiously nodded. "Well then, there you go."

Suddenly, Sirius grinned, "Do you know what tomorrow is?" Harry shook his head. "July 31^st. Your birthday." Sirius expected some sort of reaction out of Harry for this, but merely got a blank look. "Your birthday," he tried again, "with celebrating, and presents..." he left off, hoping it would get a smile at the very least.

Harry looked at Sirius in genuine surprise, "You mean, I get presents?"

Sirius sighed. He hadn't expected that. Though, he thought, he should have guessed. Those bastards didn't feed Harry properly, made him sleep in a cupboard, and abused him. Why the hell would they buy him birthday presents? He really needed to get a bit of revenge on Harry's relatives... later, he promised himself, I'll do it later. "Of course you get presents! And now that you're all healed up, we can get you a wand as well. How does a pet sound? Besides your snake that is. How about an owl? And a broom too, I'll teach you to fly! Oh and," Sirius grinned and with a pop turned into a large, black, grim-like dog, and then turned back, "I could teach you how to do that." He grinned widely. For Harry to be an Animagus like him, like his father. . . Well for one it would be dead useful as a disguise.

Harry stared at his godfather in shock, then gave him a huge grin and dove into Sirius' arms and hugged him like his life depended on it.

Sirius looked down at his godson. To get this kind of reception from him was something he had never even dared to hope for. He hugged back, and some of the shadows receded from his eyes, which were smiling for the first time in a long while.

Sirius held Harry until he fell back asleep, at which point David came back into the room. He stood up and made for the door, grabbing a roll from the tray David carried.

"Watch him for me?" he asked.

"Where are you going, Sirius?"

Sirius grinned ferally, "I have to pay a visit to a certain family Harry's been living with all this time," he said.

David stared after him, wondering exactly how many pieces the Dursleys would be in when Sirius was finished with them.

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Sirius made his way through the Dursley household. It was still night-time so the Dursleys were all still asleep. Sirius grinned evilly to himself as he thought of his plans. Oh this was going to be fun! Pity he couldn't wait around to see their reactions to his little prank.

First he put a charm on the Dursleys to keep them asleep. It would do him no good if they were to wake up and find him here. Then he took all of the clothes that he could find in the house, and sent them out into the back yard. It had rained recently and the flowerbeds, which Sirius had meticulously destroyed until they were little more than large brown splotches on the lawn, were wet, making a thick mud that Sirius imagined would be hell to clean out of clothing. Especially Mrs. Dursley's best dress, which was a pale blue, pale enough to be almost white, and made out of a fine velvet.

After he finished that, he shattered every piece of glass, fine china, and pretty much anything else breakable, that resided in the kitchen. He made his way towards the perfectly shined and dusted collection of antique china that was kept inside a glass case in the dining room. He smiled and pointed his wand at the case, making every expensive piece shatter, silenced by the sound-proofing charm he had put on the case.

He made his way through the house, destroying valuables and making huge messes. He particularly enjoyed painting the walls of the Dursleys bedrooms with all of the food he could find in the well-stocked kitchen. He wondered how hard it would be to clean crumbled crisps and cookies off the wall when they were stuck there with honey.

He looked around the now thoroughly trashed house with a satisfied expression on his face. He turned towards the door to leave, when sudden inspiration struck. He waved his wand and the Dursleys were now sleeping on the ceiling, as if gravity had been reversed for them. He left the furniture, or at least what was left of the furniture, on the floor. He vaguely wondered what would happen if they tried to walk outside, before he decided that he didn't much care, grabbed Mr. Dursley's rather full wallet, and left.

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The next day Sirius, David, and Harry were standing in the wand-shop. Sirius was reading the Daily Prophet, which had his picture stamped across the front page. He sighed, thankful for David's foresight in getting him and Harry in disguises before coming here. He waited for Mr. Ollivander to come out. After all, it was as good a time as any for Harry to get a wand.

Mr. Ollivander came out and looked at Harry in surprise. "A bit young to be getting a wand aren't you?" he asked, looking towards Sirius and David questioningly.

"We're going to be travelling for a while. I'm not sure if we'll be back in time to shop for his school supplies so I thought I'd get him the essentials a bit early," said Sirius pushing his now light-brown hair behind a lightly tanned ear.

Mr. Ollivander nodded, "I'd suggest you stand back a bit Mr...?"

"Anders. Orion Anders. And his name is Leom Orphicus."

"Yes, Mr. Anders." He looked down at Harry, who was looking back up at him warily through dark blue eyes slightly obscured by his floppy golden-brown hair, "Well, I'll just see what we can find for you, then," he said before turning and searching through the many stacks of boxes before picking one out, taking out the wand, and holding it out to Harry. "Willow and Dragon Heartstring, 9 inches."

Harry took it and merely held it, looking at Ollivander questioningly.

"Well? Wave it about for a bit, go on," said David from near the door where he was standing with Sirius who was watching intently.

Harry, feeling rather stupid, waved it about only to have it snatched nearly instantly from his hand.

"No, that won't do," muttered Ollivander, "here, try this, Spruce and Unicorn Tail-hair, 12 ½ inches."

Harry took it and waved it about. This time something happened. When he waved it, the rubbish bin and the lantern both exploded and about two hundred wands fell off their respective shelves. The three men all stared at him with slightly shocked expressions before Mr. Ollivander shook himself and took the wand from Harry.

"No, definitely not that one," he said, with a slight jest to his tone, before picking another wand. They went on like this for nearly an hour with pretty much the same luck. There had been other rather. . . unfortunate wand choices. One had set Mr. Ollivander's hair on fire, another had turned an empty wand-box into a rather vicious thing that seemed determined to bite David's hand off, and another had turned the entire inside of the shop a blinding neon green before having the colour converge in one point and shoot out a beam of green light that destroyed Mr. Ollivander's one spindly chair which sat in the centre of the room. This last had visibly shaken the room's occupants and had made Ollivander steer clear of any wands with a Runespoor's Fang as a core.

Finally they found a wand, Holly and Phoenix feather, eleven inches. Ollivander told them that it was the brother wand to Voldemort's, and Sirius rushed Harry out of the shop rather quickly after that.

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Harry bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly, Sirius watching him in amusement.

"Excited?" he asked mildly.

Harry just looked at him. Of course he was excited! They were brewing the Animagus potion and it would be done in a matter of minutes. After eight hours of sleep, and then eight more hours of potion brewing, Harry was practically going mad in anticipation. It didn't help that Sirius had kept giving him demonstrations of turning into a dog and back.

David shook his head, watching the exchange from where he sat in a chair leaning against the wall about five feet from where Harry and Sirius stood. The two of them had been remarkably easy with each other since the evening before, when Harry had bested Sirius on his broom and Sirius had charmed him to levitate six inches from the ground in retaliation, as well as turning him all sorts of colours. David was astounded that Harry could so easily trust Sirius after all that had happened. He shrugged, thinking that since Harry had shared his mind with Sirius nearly completely for the better part of two days, they probably knew each other quite well.

Sirius threw in one last ingredient, making the potion turn a transparent pale blue, then announced, "Finished."

Harry grinned, wondering what animal he would become. Maybe a dog like Sirius, or an owl so he could fly about whenever he wanted, or maybe a-

Sirius cut off his thoughts by handing him a goblet filled with the blue potion. Harry raised it to his lips and was about to drink before Sirius stopped him by grabbing his hand. He looked up at his godfather in confusion.

"Do you remember what I told you?"

Harry nodded, then seeing that Sirius was not satisfied with this he replied, "The potion will turn me into my animal for five minutes. I'm supposed to try to remember what transforming feels like so that I can do it again. I also have to remember what being an animal is like. And I have to control my-" he frowned -what was that word again? Oh, yes- "instincts while I'm an animal." He looked up at Sirius again, then asked, "Can I take the potion now?"

Sirius chuckled and ruffled Harry's hair. "Twerp. Go ahead."

Harry grinned, then downed the potion in one gulp, grimacing slightly at the taste, before he felt himself start to transform.

It was an odd sensation. It felt like it should hurt, or at the very least be highly uncomfortable, but it actually ended up feeling very pleasant. His skin and muscle stretched and reformed, reminding him of the feeling you got when you stretched first thing in the morning; a tightening in your muscles, then a release that left you feeling relaxed and comfortable. Then there was the reforming of his bones, which felt odd, like someone was compressing and stretching him, almost like a really deep massage. Then he sprouted fur, which felt like he was putting on silk clothing. All in all, it was a very nice experience, especially after what he had felt at the hand of the Dursleys.

Then it was over. He looked around, noting that things were in different colours. He was seeing a lot more purple and magenta than he was used to, but things that should have been green, blue, or several other different colours appeared grey to his eyes. His peripheral vision was increased. Both his hearing and sense of smell had increased exponentially. And, he looked at himself, he had a tail!

He turned about in a circle, trying to get a better look at himself. He quickly realised that this wasn't working. He heard the sound of a man laughing and looked up.

Sirius was laughing! What was so funny? He cocked his head in question, which only made Sirius laugh harder. He looked over a David beseechingly. David shook his head ruefully, rolling his eyes. He then conjured a mirror, so that Harry could see what he had become. Harry looked into the mirror eagerly. He had become- a wolf? No, that wasn't right. He studied himself carefully. He was a dog, definitely a dog. German Shepherd by the looks of it, but the fur was all off. Grey, not that that told him much considering the fact that he was essentially colour-blind, with black ears and a black crest running down his back. Black paws and tail-tip, and a small, slightly lighter-coloured patch of fur above his eyes that was shaped vaguely like a bolt of lightening. His fur was longer than any German Shepherd's would be, and looked vaguely wolf-like, which had been what had confused him before. He was also rather small, and looked like a pup. Maybe that had to do with how old he was? He'd have to ask Sirius later.

He was forced to end his perusal of his new body when he felt the change come upon him again. But he didn't grow larger. Instead he was getting smaller. When it was over he looked up at the mirror again. A cat? But weren't cats and dogs opposites? And wasn't he only supposed to have one form? Oh well. He noticed immediately that both his hearing and his vision were better in this form, though he got the impression that if anything were to get within three or four inches of his face it would become hard for him to focus properly. His sense of smell, oddly enough, was even less that that of his human form, but he was no longer quite as colour-blind. He twitched his nose and was astounded at the amount of sensitivity there was in his whiskers. He could practically feel it when dust particles touched them! He walked around a bit, revelling in how smooth and easy movement was as a cat, before he was forced to change back.

He found himself sitting on the floor as a human, looking up at Sirius and David in confusion. "I thought you said that I'd only have one form."

Sirius and David traded glances, both thinking along the same lines. Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but David cut him off. "Let him try to transform first so we know for sure."

Sirius nodded, then turned to Harry. "Try to transform, into the dog."

Harry nodded, then focused on the feeling of transforming into a dog, and what it felt like when he was in that form. Then he actually felt the transformation. It was faster this time, though still not the near-instantaneous POP that happened whenever Sirius transformed.

Sirius nodded in satisfaction, though still slightly impressed despite himself. It had taken near to four months even after he had taken the potion before he could transform that quickly. "Turn back now."

About ten seconds later Harry was once again sitting on the floor in his human form.

"Well, that settles it then. Pay up, David," said Sirius cheerfully.

David muttered something vulgar under his breath (which made Harry look at him in shock, wondering if people could really do that with a tree and a stuffed turkey. . .) and handed Sirius a galleon.

"What's settled?" asked Harry.

Sirius looked at him, smiling, and said, "You've got another ability. It seems that you're an Animagus Minor."

"What's the difference between an Animagus Minor, Animagus Primary, and a regular Animagus?"

Sirius frowned thoughtfully, then replied, "An Animagus Primary can easily learn to turn into a few hundred animals. I think that you get classified as a Minor when you have less than thirty or so forms." He looked to David for confirmation, and David nodded. "And the main difference between the people with the gift and a normal Animagus is that the people with the gift take to the change like a duck to water. It took me four months to get as far along as you are, and you've only had fifteen minutes. That and the fact that people with the gift have multiple forms."

"I only have two forms," Harry pointed out, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Sirius had said that most people only had one or two abilities if any, and he had five.

"Well then," said David amiably, "you've only got a very small amount of that ability, even for a Minor." He paused, then continued, correctly interpreting Harry's uncomfortable posture, "You're not abnormal for having more abilities than most people. In all likelihood, your Secondary abilities will probably lose strength or go away altogether. Sirius can only train your Telepathy, and I don't have any abilities at all. The telepathic training might be enough to control your Soul-Searching, but the Telekinesis will have to go untrained."

"And most untrained Secondary abilities either lose strength or go away completely," Sirius finished for David.

Harry nodded, but then just sat there as if he was wondering what to do with himself. Sirius came up with a solution quickly. "How about we go outside and you can get used to moving about in animal form?" he asked. "You'll have to learn to walk and run all over again, and it will be different for each animal."

Harry smiled and nodded. Sirius transformed, Harry following his lead and turning into a dog. They trotted out the door, Harry trying not to trip over his own feet and failing about three quarters of the time.

David shook his head. They should enjoy themselves while they could. The Ministry probably remembered his opposition of Sirius' imprisonment, and it would only be a matter of time before they arrived. He rubbed his left forearm, the sleeve coming up slightly and revealing a faded red brand, shaped like a scull with a snake coming out of it's mouth. The Mark had faded a great deal the night that Voldemort was defeated by young Harry, and it had only ever been black when He was calling his Death Eaters.

David sighed, thinking of his past. Then his face brightened a fraction. Perhaps helping young Harry get away from his relatives, and Sirius get away from the misguided Ministry, would help him to atone for his actions.

He could only hope.