Professor Vector favored Harry with a predatory look as walked into her classroom. If his performance in the other classes was any indication, he would help her rewrite the laws of magic and usher in a new age of discovery.
"Do you know why you're here, Mr. Potter?" she drawled.
"No, Professor." The boy managed to keep the nervousness out of his voice, the professor was eyeing him like Dudley eyed anything edible.
"You are here because of the research that you've been doing with the other Professors," she explained with a toothy grin.
"Oh? What am I going to be doing with you, Professor?"
"We are going to see if we can figure out why and how your new spells work," Professor Vector purred. "Wonderful don't you think."
"Er . . . why . . . why do we need to know how they work?" Harry asked hesitantly. Based on her reaction, he knew instantly that he had said the wrong thing.
"Why?!" she barked, eyes shining with madness and suppressed rage. "Do you think we should be content to leave things as they are?! Do you think that we shouldn't expend the necessary effort to perfect your new spells?!"
"No?" Harry ventured, not sure he agreed with the answer but fairly sure he wouldn't like what happened if he tried to give another.
"Of course not!" she agreed firmly. "Glad to see that you have more sense than the average wizard, Mr. Potter."
"Of course not," he echoed. Why did his life have to be so bloody complicated? It was like he was the universe's spittoon or something. What he needed was a nice quiet vacation round the world away from all this craziness. 'Better not do it under my own name though,' he thought to himself. 'No telling how many crazies I'd run into. Much safer to do it with an alias like Mr. John Smith, or Mr. Dean Longbottom, or . . .' he had a flash of inspiration. 'Mr. Something Black.' Sirius would have appreciated the thought of Harry using his family name to have a bit of fun. Now how to get away with it without anyone recognizing him? Had to be a spell or item or something that would help with that. Harry made a mental note to look into the matter at a later date.
"I foresee quite a bit of work ahead of us," she added cheerfully, "I hope you don't mind sixteen hour days, working meals, and no weekends to speak of."
"I do have other classes you know, professor" he pointed out. He thought it imprudent at that moment to point out that he also had a life outside academics.
"Yes," she agreed. "But this is your only important class." The amount of conviction in the woman's voice was nothing short of terrifying. "Understood?"
"I do, but I don't believe the other professors will, professor."
"Then you'll have to be extra convincing when you explain it to them, won't you, Mr. Potter?" she laughed. "Think of it! Think of the discoveries we're about to make!"
"Yes, professor," Harry said glumly. He made another mental note to study extra hard to ensure that he'd cast every spell correctly the first time and every subsequent time in the future. A couple small mistakes had caused the professors to go mad, he shuddered to think how bad it would get if he made any more or if they witnessed any of his more unusual mistakes. Maybe he could get Ron or Neville to do something to distract them? He mused to himself. Maybe it would be better to split their attention by giving them other targets to focus on? Sure betraying his friends to a fate worse than death didn't sound very good when he thought about it out loud but that was no reason not to consider it.
IIIIIIIIII
Luna cheered as they got their first engine to start. It wasn't much but they were fairly sure that they'd managed to separate enough parts to reassemble one of the motorcycles. It was fortunate that Sirius has squirreled away a number of maintenance manuals with his copious and highly detailed notes.
"Nice work, Luna," Hermione congratulated her friend.
"Nice work, Hermione," Luna returned proudly.
The two girls smiled at each other before turning back to the mountain of parts yet to be sorted.
IIIIIIIIII
Ron was waiting when Harry finally managed to escape the Professors and stumble back into the Gryffindor Common Room.
"You alright, mate?" Ron asked in concern.
"What day is it?" Harry dodged the question.
"Sunday, why?"
"Cause I've been doing classes all day," Harry sighed. Sure he'd asked for a few extra sessions but he'd never expected them to take it as far as they had. "I'd almost rather be at the Dursley's . . . nah, but a nap in the cupboard under the stairs is sounding bloody attractive." As the one place in the house guaranteed to be and to have always been Dursley free, he was actually rather fond of his first bedroom.
"Bloody hell, mate." Ron winced. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Maybe if you'd come along it would distract the Professors away from me," Harry suggested. "Or made a few interesting spell mistakes so they'd focus on you for a bit to give me a break."
"Anything besides that?" Ron asked mildly. "I mean, ask me to go fight a thousand year basilisk by your side, no problem. Extra class, well . . . that's something else isn't it?"
"I saved your life," Harry protested.
"Only a couple times," Ron said reasonably. "Ask for one of my kidneys or something. Or . . . hey we could go visit the giant spiders in the forest, that'll wash the tired right out of you!"
"Don't think an extra kidney would help," Harry said sourly. "Not in the mood for dealing with spiders bigger than Fluffy either."
"Well, the offer's on the table if you think of a way they will help." Ron scratched his chin. "Least you've got Hermione's house to hide out in during hols," Ron said thoughtfully, "Professors can't get you there."
"Where all I'll have to put up with is Hermione constantly badgering me to study," Harry said brightly. "That's pretty much the standard all year anyway, that won't be so bad."
"As distracted as she's been, I'll bet she won't even badger you that much." Ron grinned. "See, it ain't so bad, mate."
"How much longer till we get out?"
"Just a few more days," Ron assured his friend. A dozen or so actually, but he saw no point in being overly negative. "You think you can last that long?"
"If I can't, then promise that you and Hermione will look after Hedwig."
"I promise," Ron agreed solemnly. The redhead made a mental note to make sure none of the professors were watching any of his first casting attempts.
IIIIIIIIII
Minerva was making a few last minute adjustments to her lesson plans when the door opened to admit the Head of Hufflepuff House. As always, the woman had a vacuum flask in one hand which was no doubt filled with a delightful herbal blend. A basket in the other, likely filled with an assortment of baked goods. And almost certainly a more conventional flask tucked into her left boot filled with something to give the tea a bit of kick.
"Minerva, may I have a moment?"
"What can I do for you, Pomona?" Minerva replied.
"I was just wondering if we were pushing Mr. Potter a bit too hard," the other Professor explained. "He's starting to look a bit ragged." Left unsaid was how much of a shame it would be if they burned the boy out and lost the chance to see where his potential would take him in the future.
"Yes he is," Minerva sighed. "You didn't tell him about your concerns did you?"
"Heavens no," Pomona laughed. "Wouldn't want him to get the idea that he might have limits. Would you mind explaining to me why you're pushing him so hard?"
"Filius and I talked about it and we agreed that we're going to push Mr. Potter as hard as we can for the foreseeable future," Minerva began. "On the matter of his health, Poppy has been watching him closer then she usually does and as to why." She shook her head sadly. "Well, he does have several Dark Wizards out to kill him, doesn't he?"
"Life before limb," Pomona said solemnly. "Not to mention his horrible luck which would no doubt ensure any number of attempts on his life even without the dark lord to worry about."
Minerva sighed heavily. "At this stage it's more important to ensure he makes it to adulthood than to coddle him in some misguided belief that giving him the illusion of normalcy is more important than his continued survival."
"Albus is still being stubborn?"
"Albus has forbidden us to give Mister . . . Harry any extra training or special treatment since, quote; 'it wouldn't be fair to the boy to rob him of his normal childhood or to the other students to miss out on the extra instruction.'" Minerva snorted. "As if he had any left after growing up with those poor excuses for human beings." The guilt for her part in placing him there would haunt her for the rest of her days. All she could do now was her best to prepare the boy for the fight everyone knew was coming and to hope that it was enough to bring victory.
"But he is willing to allow Mr. Potter to aid us in our research," Sprout said in understanding. "Research being completely different from training, of course."
"Albus is an academic and a researcher before he's anything else," Minerva giggled. "It's one of his many blindspots along with his asinine belief in the inherent goodness of humanity. Tell him that Mr. Potter's accidentally created a new spell and that you need him to help research and he rubber-stamps every request that goes along with it. The fact that Mr. Potter happens to get a bit of extra training along with that research, well, that's just a happy accident."
"Not our purpose at all, neatly sidestepping the Headmaster's edict against training," the other Professor agreed. "Thank you for taking me into your confidence like this, Minerva."
"Not at all, Pomona."
IIIIIIIIII
Harry woke up late that morning. Monday meant that he didn't have any morning 'research sessions' with any of the Professors and was able to sleep in till a bit after seven.
A quick check of his schedule confirmed that he had double Potions after breakfast. He frowned, if someone had told him at the beginning of the year that he'd see Potions class as a time to relax then Harry would have laughed in their face.
"Guess it makes sense," Harry muttered to himself as he walked out of the Common Room. "Worst Snape can do is take points and mark me down when I make a mistake, the other Professors." Harry shuddered. "Besides, it's not like he can assign detentions anymore, not after the other Professors already divvied up my time among themselves." A smile bloomed on his face as he imagined the likely reaction if the grease ball tried. Pity he didn't have Divination or History till Wednesday, he really needed a chance to catch up on his sleep.
IIIIIIIIII
Luna and Hermione met up after classes and rushed down to the train shed to continue their latest project. The temperature dropped and the smell of oil and steel hit them as soon as they entered the building. It took some time for their eyes to adjust to the darkness and they immediately set upon one of the men with their request after they could see well enough to find him.
"Course I can do it," one of the old machinists agreed after they had explained to him what they wanted. "Still and all, I think it's a bit of a shame that you girls have moved away from steam and into internal combustion though." He was of the opinion that internal combustion was not more than a passing fad and that people would soon realize that and go back to external combustion for all their transportation needs. The less said about diesel electric, the better.
"We just need to confirm something," Hermione explained.
"Oh yes," Luna agreed, "it would be best not to attempt to adapt the spells we found to enchant internal combustion to steam or Stirling Engines without a couple tests to make sure that we have a good idea of how they work on internal combustion."
"Safety first," Hermione added cheerfully.
"Glad you lasses have that one down," the old machinist rumbled in approval. "Give me a few and I'll have the parts turned out."
"Thanks," Hermione said.
"Yes," Luna agreed, "we really appreciate what you're doing for us."
"I doubt we could do even a tenth of what we have without your aid," Hermione agreed. "Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you in return."
IIIIIIIIII
Harry watched the other students file out of the Transfiguration Classroom with a forlorn look on his face. Sometimes he wondered what it was like to be normal, to be free, to not have to dodge constant murder attempts from dark wizards and their minions. To be able to go through life without having to constantly be on the lookout for plots and intrigue. Must me nice, he decided after a few moments of thought, must be real nice.
"Thank you for staying behind, Mr. Potter." Minerva smiled. "I understand that it can't be easy to give up so much free time."
"Yes, Professor." 'Like I have a choice.' "What are we doing today?"
"You are going to go down to the Quidditch Pitch for a bit of instruction from Madame Hooch," Minerva said warmly. "We thought it best to give you a bit of time to relax. Unless you'd rather not do a bit of flying that is. If that's the case I can think of a number of things I'd like to look into." It was cute the way he thought the castle wards weren't reporting his secret practice sessions or the sheer number of intriguing errors they'd created.
"Of course not, Professor." Harry said quickly. "I mean, of course I'd like to do a bit of flying. As much as possible."
"On your way."
"Yes, Professor." Harry was almost out the door before her voice stopped him.
"And don't think I didn't notice that you transfigured your pillbox into a two headed mouse," Minerva said with an amused smile. "When Madame Hooch is finished with you, I want you to come back here so we can figure out exactly how you did that."
"Yes, Professor." Harry agreed with considerably less enthusiasm.
Minerva looked at the two headed mouse in wonder as one head breathed fire on a fly that got too close and the other head darted forward to eat the fried insect. Perhaps it would be a good idea to speak with Hagrid to get his insights on the creature as well. He'd been one of the few professors that had not raised a stink about not getting a research project and as the Deputy Headmistress it was her duty to see that he was not left out.
IIIIIIIIII
Hermione and Luna looked at their new Motorbike with matching grins. While it was true that magic made creating things so much easier, it couldn't completely replace good old fashioned elbow grease or the satisfaction that came with completing a difficult job.
"Okay," Hermione looked down. "Why don't we play with the engine first."
"Comfort can wait," Luna agreed with sparkling eyes as she set aside the notes on the silencing and warming charms Sirius had used. "And after that we can do the destructive testing."
"We can figure out why Sirius' notes say never to combine a couple of the charms," Hermione corrected, "if that happens to be explosively destructive then so be it. No doing anything to hasten that along."
"Of course not, Hermione." Luna agreed with a mostly innocent look on her face. "I would never dream of hastening things along."
Hermione shot the other girl a look of deep suspicion, not the least bit convinced by her friend's apparent sincerity.
IIIIIIIIII
Harry got down to the Quidditch Pitch and found the flight instructor waiting for him in the broom shed along side a number of odd looking tools and devices, the purpose of which the boy could not deduce in the slightest but which recent experience with the other profesors had taught him likely heralded mountains of extra work.
"You look like you have a question," she observed.
"Why am I here, Madame Hooch?" Harry asked. The boy looked at his Professor with bleary eyes, he hadn't been getting much sleep lately.
"First of all, you may be a good Quidditch player but don't think that there aren't a few things that I can still teach you about flying."
"Of course not," Harry agreed quickly. "I've read about your time in the league."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Harry replied. "Most people." Including nearly every Quidditch Player at Hogwarts. "Say that you're the best chaser the Harpies ever had."
"I hadn't heard that," she said in an odd voice. It was nice to be appreciated. "Back to the point, aside from flying, I'm also a fairly good broom maker."
"You mean?" Harry perked up like he'd just taken a pepper up potion.
"We're going to craft a you broomstick," she said with a smile. "Every bristle, every curve in the shaft, and every enchantment."
"Wow," Harry gasped.
"I'm not up to equaling a Firebolt of course, but it can't hurt to get a better idea of how to craft a broom."
"Of course not," Harry agreed.
"We'll start by making you a new wand."
"A wand?" Harry asked in shock.
"Uses some of the same principals and is much easier to do with a limited amount of tools," she explained. "I'm afraid we're going to have to wait for a large enough lathe to arrive to do the broom." She paused. "This will also allow you to practice over winter holidays, as the monitoring charm they use to track underage magic is something I'll 'forget' to cast on it. I think you can handle the responsibility, but be sure to obey the rules. I shall assume that you have spent enough time around the Weasley twins to know that rule number one is don't get caught."
"Yes, Professor. How do we make a wand without the lathes?"
"Fortunately, I was able to borrow a couple of small table lathes from my uncle." She identified two of the odd devices with a wave of her hand.
"Your uncle, ma'am?"
"I believe you got your wand from him," she replied.
"Olivander is your uncle?"
"My mother's uncle actually," Hooch clarified. "This wand we're going to craft probably won't be as good as the one you purchased . . ."
"But after I make a hundred of them then they might be half as good?" Harry suggested with a cheeky, if tired, grin.
"Hopefully not that many," Hooch laughed. "Now, the first thing we need to do is . . ."
IIIIIIIIII
Hermione remotely started the engine on their newly constructed test bike and then ducked behind the blast shield to wait with Luna. Everything went well for a few seconds, so well that both girls ventured a curious peak around the barrier.
"Is it supposed to be smoking like that, Hermione?" Luna asked curiously. "It never did that any of the other times we started it."
"I don't . . ."
BOOOM, the newly constructed bike engine exploded and flung pieces everywhere.
"Ehehehehehe." Luna clapped her hands. "Let's do it again."
"And again and again until we figure out just why that bug repelling charm makes it explode like that," Hermione agreed.
"How did Sirius solve the problem?" Luna asked, still flush from excitement.
"His notes say that he just let the bugs fly into his teeth," Hermione replied, "I don't think he cared why it didn't work just that it didn't work." Hermione huffed. "Like any typical wizard he just ignored the whole thing."
"It is quite fortunate that us witches are much more sensible than wizards," Luna cheerfully agreed. "I can't imagine what it must be like for the poor dears."
Sensibly, Hermione bit her tongue before the traitorous thing could utter the first comment that popped into her mind.
IIIIIIIIII
Ron looked up when Harry staggered into the room. His best friend looked like he'd been put through the wringer. Never good to let the professors notice you, Harry was an example that no good ever came of it.
"Let you off early today, mate?" Ron asked.
"Madame Hooch is giving me a break," Harry replied, "says she wants me to get in a short nap before we do anything else."
"What's Hooch got you doing?" Ron asked curiously.
"She's going to be teaching me Quidditch moves later," Harry replied, "right now we're working on making wands and brooms."
"Quidditch?" Ron asked with a frown. "She was a bloody good chaser but what's she going to teach you about seeking?"
"She's a bloody good seeker too," Harry laughed. "Showed me a couple things that I didn't know were possible to do on a broom."
"Makes sense," Ron agreed slowly. "Couldn't hurt to learn a few chaser moves either." A couple thoughts began percolating around his brain.
"Guess not," Harry agreed.
"And since you're making brooms anyway," Ron grinned. "Be sure to make an extra one for me 'eh, mate."
"Won't be as good as my Firebolt," Harry cautioned. "Not even half as good as my old Nimbus."
"But it'll be better then the school brooms I'd wager," Ron said quickly. "Tell Hooch that I'd be happy to play keeper when you guys are practicing."
"I will," Harry promised.
"Get some sleep, mate." Ron advised. "You look like you need it."
IIIIIIIIII
Even with the aid of magic, it took some time to fabricate a new test bike. Neither girl would have dreamed of doing anything to any of Harry's bikes that might have even the slightest chance of damaging them. They both knew how much mementos of his lost family meant to the boy.
Not being the sort to lay about while others did their work and lacking the skill to help out, the girls chose to channel their free time into their locomotive design project. Hoping that after a few dozen revisions they might have something that both would not explode and would prove to be an improvement over current designs.
"What do you think of this, Hermione?" Luna called out. "I'm fairly sure I've found a way to give our steam engine a forty percent increase in power."
Hermione squinted at it for a few seconds, lips moving as she mentally checked all of the other girl's calculations. "It should work, but with that much power we'd have a hard time making it stay on the rails," she complained.
"Well, do we really need rails? I mean, I like trains, but the rails don't really matter to me." They were just bits of metal laying on the ground, hardly exciting at all and dead boring without all the tunnels and bridges. "If we charm the wheels so they act like they are running on rails when there is nothing beneath them we could just take to the air and avoid the whole rail problem."
"Hmmm, I wonder how fast we need to go to leave the Earth."
"Seven miles per second for an unpowered object off the top of my head," Luna replied cheerfully. "Why do you ask?"
"I've always wanted to visit the moon," Hermione admitted.
"Um . . ." Luna looked a bit lost.
"What is it, Luna?"
"I can't help but feel that there was a comment I could have made regarding that statement," Luna admitted. "Seeing that my name means 'moon' in Latin."
"It'll come to you later," Hermione giggled. "Be sure to tell me and we'll pretend you thought of it now."
"It'll make a nice touch when we write our memoirs," Luna agreed. "A touch or two of humor will make the whole thing much more accessible to the average person."
IIIIIIIIII
Harry finished his nap and went returned to the broom shed where he found Madame Hooch flipping through the latest edition of 'Women in Quidditch: Five Ways to Commit Fouls Without the Ref Noticing' while waiting for him.
"Have a good nap, Mr. Potter?"
"Yes, Professor."
"Is there something you'd like to say, Mr. Potter?" years of teaching had made her adept at reading her student's expressions.
"Ron was wondering if he could join us when we practice Quidditch," Harry said nervously. "He said that he'd be more than happy to play keeper."
"Of course," she agreed. "You may bring him with you when we meet tomorrow. If he stays late then we should have plenty of time to turn out a couple of blanks for him and he can get started on making his new wand right away."
"I . . . er, don't think he was planning on doing anything that didn't involve flying." Harry wished immediately that he could take back his statement.
"If he doesn't want to show up to one portion of the lesson then he can skip all of it," Madame Hooch said firmly. "He's welcome to come but he is not welcome to cherry pick the tasks that he wishes to do."
"I'll tell him, Professor" Harry agreed.
"Was there anything else, Mr. Potter?"
"Well . . ."
"Yes?"
"Would it be possible to make a new wand out of this, Professor?" Harry held out a long piece of wood.
"A piece of your old Nimbus?" Hooch asked with a raised eyebrow. She tried to think if she'd ever heard or read anything about making a wand blank out of wood that had been previously been enchanted and came up blank.
"Yes, Professor."
"I don't know," she admitted. "I don't believe I've ever heard of anyone attempting it before." She mentally debated writing her uncle to ask his advice on the subject before deciding not to. Worst thing they could do was fail and she was curious to find out what would happen for herself. Bugger everyone else's hypothetical results.
"Oh." Harry drooped.
"None of that, Mr. Potter." She laughed at the expression on his face. "What's the best way to find out if something can be done?"
"To try it. Right, Professor."
"Right," she agreed. "What were you planning to use for a core?"
"Wing feather of an overprotective mothering owl," Harry replied.
"Don't recall anyone trying that either," she said oddly. "Worth a shot . . . though it might be best to try it in a more conventional blank to prove the concept."
"And to try a more conventional core in one of my Nimbus blanks," Harry agreed, "I've spent enough time around Hermione to learn how important it is to have a control."
IIIIIIIIII
The two girls set up their second test bike and prepared to carry out the experiment. The blast shield was up, the shield charms were up, their safety goggles were on, all that was left was to see how things failed this time and to try to correct that in their next design.
"EUREKA!" I've got it!" Luna squealed, "I've got it, Hermione!" The little blonde was bouncing up and down in excitement.
"You've figured out why it keeps exploding?" Hermione ventured a guess.
"No in the slightest," Luna replied cheerfully. "I think I figured out a way that we can make our locomotive fly."
"Oh?" Hermione pulled out her notebook. "How?, I thought we agreed that adapting the flight charms used on the motorcycle wouldn't work?" Hermione frowned. "Our tests all indicated that the locomotive will be a bit too heavy for them to work reliably. Did you think up some possible modification to get around that restriction?"
"Yes, but I don't think those are powerful enough either," Luna said regretfully. "So what if we ignored the flight charms all together." Luna's smile deepened. "Why do we need them? Our goal is to fly in the locomotive, not to make the locomotive fly."
"I don't see the . . . floating tracks?" Hermione ventured.
"We'll charm a bit the air to solidify and form into tracks in front of the train," Luna said quickly. "That way we're not flying the train, we're just sort of levitating it and letting the train move itself forward. Flying in the train without making the train fly!"
"It . . . it might work," Hermione muttered, her mind conjuring up pictures of a locomotive shooting through the clouds. "Still require an awful lot of power though."
"We can figure out the details and look into building a model later," Luna agreed. "But first! I believe we have a test to perform."
"We have to blow up another motorbike," Hermione agreed. "Well, hopefully not but I don't hold out too much hope that we've gotten everything figured out yet."
"Yay!" Luna squealed.
IIIIIIIIII
It was long past lights out when Harry stumbled into the dorms, tripped over one of Dean's discarded shoes, and literally fell into his bed that night.
"Hooch say anything about me doing Quidditch with you?" Ron asked.
"Madame Hooch says that if you want to learn to do Quidditch, then you'll have to come down and make your own broom." Harry mumbled, fighting to stay awake long enough to give a reply. "Sorry mate."
"How much time do you have to spend with her every week?" Ron asked speculatively.
"Couple hours," Harry mumbled. "It all depends on what the other Professors want to do and what I've messed up in class."
"Suppose it couldn't hurt to try it," Ron mused, "what do you think Harry?" Ron turned to look at his friend. "Harry?" only to find that he was fast asleep.
IIIIIIIIII
Luna squinted at her parchment for nearly five minutes before deciding to give up and get a second pair of eyes on the problem.
"Do you mind taking a look at this, Hermione?" she asked.
"What's the problem, Luna?" Hermione replied.
"My figures are off and I can't see where I'm making the mistake," Luna replied. "I know my result can't be true."
"Hmmmmm." Hermione went over other girl's parchment three times before she was willing to admit defeat. "I can't find your mistake either, Luna," she sighed. "But you're right, this can't be correct. If it is, then . . . so it can't be . . . can it? But that would . . . huh?"
"Mug of hot chocolate before hitting it again?" Luna suggested. "Perhaps a bit of time away will help us clear our minds?"
"Sounds good to me, Luna," Hermione agreed absently, eyes locked on the parchment, mind running at full steam.
IIIIIIIIII
McGonagall felt a deep sense of satisfaction when her prized research subject managed to duplicate his earlier error to produce several more of the odd creatures. Belatedly, she wondered if creating an entirely new species of magical mouse was a good idea for a few seconds before dismissing the matter. That was for history to decide, she was a Professor of Transfiguration and her student had given her an interesting transfiguration problem and it was her duty to research it until it could be reliably reproduced.
"Very good, Mr. Potter." Minerva looked down at the two headed mouse filled cage.
"Does that mean I can stop?" Harry asked hopefully.
"It means that I can replicate your spell and that you can take these mice down to Hagrid for your next lesson," Minerva replied. "Followed by an hour with Madame Hooch and another with Professor Sinistra."
"Yes, Professor," Harry said in defeat. Perhaps if he studied every lesson before hand, he could avoid making anymore mistakes he wondered for the hundredth time? Sure it hadn't worked when he'd tried it before but maybe if he tried it again but harder?
"Uh, Professor?"
"Yes, Mr. Potter?"
"These were transfigured from pillboxes? Why are they stable creatures?"
"Because the pillboxes were transfigured mice, Mr. Potter, it's something I do before class to make it easier for students to get the spell," Minerva replied. "Not a word to anyone about that, understood? Part of our tricks to build student confidence is not letting students know any of the little tricks we use to help build student confidence."
"Yes, Professor."
"On your way."
Harry picked up the cage and trudged through the castle and across the grounds to the groundskeeper's hut that served as Hagrid's home. Three knocks on the door summoned the man in question who looked more than a bit pleased to see both Harry and his cargo.
"Ello, H'arry," Hagrid said with a grin, "let's see the little darlings."
"Er, here they are, Hagrid." Harry handed the cage to the half giant.
"Wonderful looking things aren't they?" One of the mice singed the edge of Hagrid's beard when he got too close. "Now, Perfessor McGonagall tells me that they like to eat flies. You and I are going to find out what else the lovelies like to eat, then we're going to see if we can set up a breeding program fer them."
"Okay, Hagrid."
AN: Omake Below
Omake By shiro_wolfman_k
What if he not only accidentally becomes and Animagus, but actually find a way to not only choose what animal he becomes, but can in fact change said animal at will every time he transforms into one? Becoming the first "Animorph", and nearly causing Minerva to foam in childish glee at Hogwarts in front of the
students... or causing an scene like this...
Hermione looked at Harry, "OK, I give up, what's wrong with you?"
"I think..." Harry said, "I think I offended McGonagall..."
"What did you do?" Asked Hermione.
"Nothing..."
"Harry Potter, . ?"
"I became an Animagi..."
"And?"
"I could choose my animal..."
"Which one?" Hermione asked curiously.
"A Raven."
"OK, that's unusual, congratulations by the way, but there has to be more to it to anger McGonagall..."
"When she asked me to do it again, and I complied... I turned myself into a Cat..."
"What?"
"Then a dog, owl, snake, tiger, cuckoo, Koala, bear, an Otter and a Panda..."
Hermione sighed, her friend has done it again. "So you think she's mad at you for that? Why do you think that?"
Harry though a little, putting his hand on his lower lip and rubbing it slowly with his finger. "Well, she was breathing hard, her eyes were dilated... oh, and she was as red as a tomato. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me to get out, quite strongly before she did something highly inappropriate..."
Hermione paled, "Ugh, Harry only you... that's no... I didn't need to have that in my mind..."
"What? Why, tell me!"
"NO! You are better not knowing, now if you excuse me I need to cuddle with a book for a while on my bed trying to pretend you didn't tell me that..."
"Hermio..."
" .Harry."
"Great, now she's mad at me too..."