PRIORI INCANTATEM by Arianna Waters (read with me .TXT) đ
- Author: Arianna Waters
Book online «PRIORI INCANTATEM by Arianna Waters (read with me .TXT) đ». Author Arianna Waters
At the breakfast, Harry was surprised when Lily asked him, âHarry, can your dad and I have a word with you after youâve eaten.â
He nodded, but he couldnât think of what they might be wanting to talk to him about.
Letâs just say, saying he was surprised afterwards would be the understatement of the century.
(Hah! A cliffhanger! I know I'm evil *grins maniacally*)
Living with Family and Friends
Lily took Harry to her and Jamesâ bedroom and James closed the door behind him.
âHarry ââ James began.
âYes dad?â
âI canât do this Lils!â James moaned, turning to Lily. âThis is even harder than proposing you!â
âYes you can, and you will!â Lily firmly replied. âAs for proposing me, it wasnât all that hard for what I know â seeing you did it five times a day â for four long years!â
Harry sniggered before turning his attention back at James.
âHarry . . . Dâuwanaâveasiblin?â James said in a single breath.
âSorry dad, but what?â
âWell . . . will you be happy with a . . . sibling . . . ? Do you want . . . er . . . to have a sibling? I mean . . . I understand . . . you might not want the responsibility of a younger sister or brother . . . since youâre used to living alone . . . and have already have too much burden. . . . Your experience with your only cousin hasnât been a nice one. . . . I and your mother thought . . . it would be better to . . . ask you whether â well â you know?â
âWhat â a sibling?â Harry said. âI get to be an elder brother?â
âI thought you wouldnât want to,â said James quickly. âI understand, I just thought Iâd ââ
âAre you insane?â said Harry, his voice easily as croaky as Jamesâ. âOf course I want to have a sibling! Or siblingsâŒâ
James turned back to look at him.
âYou want to?â he said. âYou mean it?â
âYeah, I mean it!â said Harry.
Both James and Lilyâs broke into the biggest grin Harry had seen on their faces, and hugged him fiercely.
Harry was having the best time of his life. Everyone beside him disliked cleaning, which, in Ronâs words was âworking like house elvesâ, giving Hermione another excuse to shout out about S.P.E.W., but Harry was fine with it. He enjoyed working with everyone, listening to Siriusâ and Jamesâ rants and Fred and Georgeâs jokes. He loved eating the food cooked by his mother, which he had never been lucky enough to have tasted before. He loved how James shared his like for treacle tart. He missed Quidditch, but enjoyed being audience to Fred and Georgeâs private lessons at the hands of James, Sirius and sometimes Remus, which had resulted in a number of pranks casted upon the members of Grimmauld Place.
He immensely enjoyed spending time with Tonks, who was much more hilarious than she had first appeared and told stories about her stupidity or listened to how they had confronted the Dursleys over and over ; or with Kingsley, discussing about Auror training and tasks. Even Mad-Eye was a pleasure to sit with, as he listened to him going on about how he had caught a number of Death Eaters. Most of all he loved the Animagus lessons he was taking in secret with his father and godfather, which even Ron and Hermione didnât know about.
He remembered the day they had begun only too well. It was about a week after he had come to Grimmauld Place:
âPsst! Over here, Harry,â Sirius had whispered from the door of the drawing room the group was cleaning.
âWhat?â he asked.
âShh! Keep your voice down,â James whispered. âFollow us, câmon.â
They led him to the basement.
âDescendo,â muttered Sirius, pointing his wand at the low ceiling. A hatch opened right over their heads and a ladder slid down to their feet.
âClever, isnât it?â James said. âPeople might wonder about a basement under a basement, but not one over it!â
âYeah, weâve got a basement attic on the first floor, no one knows about it,â Sirius said as he climbed the ladder.
They found themselves in a well-lit room with cozy red couches at the far end and a lot of free space in the centre.
âYouâll be having your animagus lessons here, son,â James said. âFor now, no one should know about it.â
Before Harry could open his mouth, Sirius said, âNot even Hermione and Ron, for now.â Looking around, he told Harry, âEven my parents didnât know about this room. This secret had died with the builders, but most unfortunately for them, Iâd found it in my second year and this has been my hideout since then. If your dad wanted to visit me, he would apparate in here.â
âThat explains the Gryffindor decorations,â muttered Harry.
âJust . . . keep this secret to yourselves. No one except for us three should know about the existence of this place until necessary. Maybe sometime in future, the Order might need a hideout from some traitor,â Sirius said with a smirk.
âSo, enough of this,â James said. âLetâs get started with your lessons.â
âThis,â he said pointing to a small vial in his hand, âis a potion which helps us discover our inner animal. It took us two years to gather information about it and prepare it.â
âFortunately for you,â said Sirius, âyouâve got us to help you out, thus saving two years of your effort.â
âThe discovery is easy,â said James. âThe latter part, which involves the actual transformation, is difficult and dangerous. But you neednât worry; youâve got specialists here for your help.â
âWeâll come to the second part later, letâs tell you about what exactly you should expect with this potion,â Sirius said. âNow, Iâm going to go, so that people donât generate suspicions towards us three, Iâll cook up some story to explain your disappearance.â
As Sirius left, James began. âYou know, transfiguration of inanimate objects into one another is the easiest, and transfiguring animate into inanimate and vice versa, is tad bit difficult.â
âYeah, weâve done both at school,â said Harry.
âGood,â James said. âWhat you havenât done on a vast scale is transfiguration of one animate object into another. It follows certain rules and principals. For example, you cannot convert a snail into a rat because a rat is a mammal and a snail isnât. You can convert a rat into a rabbit, as both are rodents. As you can convert a Rohu into a Salmon, but not a Salmon into a whale, for you must be knowing that a whale is a mammal. Salmon and Rohu are not. Following me so far?â
âYes,â Harry said confidently. He had been hanging on each and every word his father had been speaking.
âHuman transformations are even more difficult,â James said. âYou cannot just transform any person into any animal. A human can be transformed into their animagus form only â so, going under transfiguration by someone elseâs wand is one of the methods used for discovering the animagus form, but itâs a bit unreliable. Few can do it accurately, and Iâm not going to take chances on my son.â
As James stopped for breath, Harry, who had been trying to control himself, burst out into laughter.
âWhatâs so funny?â James asked, amused.
âNothing . . . itâs just . . . Moody . . . Barty Crouch . . . had used . . . animal transfiguration on . . . Malfoy . . . and he had . . . turned into a . . . FERRET!â Harry spoke between fits of laughter.
James started laughing with him. After five minutes, as their laughter subsided, Harry spoke again, âI canât believe it! Malfoyâs animagus would be a â a â ferret!â and the two started laughing again.
âWhat are you two laughing at,â Sirius Black spoke, as he reentered the room. Harry explained the reason and Sirius doubled over, laughing harder than ever.
âLucius Malfoyâs . . . son . . . a . . . a . . . FERRET?â he gasped.
âAtleast . . . Malfoyâs cute in . . . animal form,â Harry managed to say with difficulty.
âOkay, enough of it, back to the task,â James managed to say with a straight face, before the trio went roaring with laughter once more.
After a quarter of an hour of messing around, Harry stood up, âOkay, thatâs enough, dad, Padfoot, letâs get back.â
Almost reluctantly, the two Marauders stood up.
âSo, son, I told you about human transfigurations. Now, this potion does the same work in an easier manner,â said James, pointing once more to the vial. âInstead of converting you, it gives you visions of your inner animal or animals.â
âYou mean to say more than one animagus forms are possible?â Harry asked.
âYes,â said Sirius. âDumbledore is said to have two animagi, one of them being a Phoenix. Though, we havenât ever seen him transform, so it could be a rumor. Maybe, people consider Fawkes to be his animagus, which isnât possible, because Iâve seen them in same room together hundreds of times.â
âYep,â James spoke. âDumbledore isnât even listed in the seven known animagi of the century. But, though punishable, there must be a lot of unregistered animagi amongst us.â
âYeah,â said Harry. âRita Skeeter is one, her animagus being a beetle.â
âLetâs not dither from the topic again,â James said before Sirius could ask more about Rita Skeeter. âMerlin is known to have had three forms, including a Dragon. Usually, the animagus form is a common creature and not a magical one, but powerful wizards are known to have magical animagus forms, and a few very powerful ones even have two. Three is nearly unheard of. Voldemort is said to have just one ââ
âA snake?â Harry asked.
âYes, a Snake,â Sirius said.
âWe suppose you might be having that one as an addition to your own form or forms,â Sirius said, âconsidering you can speak Parsletongue.â
âSo, anyone who can speak Parsletongue is supposed to have a snake as their animagus?â Harry asked.
âYes,â said James. âMostly, even in their human form, an animagus can talk to their kind. Sirius here can speak to dogs,â he said. âAnd Pettigrew could talk to rats.â
âAnd you?â asked Harry.
âHavenât tried yet,â James said. âStags arenât exactly easy to catch when youâre a human, are they?â
Harry shook his head.
âSo, you want to try the potion today?â Sirius asked, looking eager.
âOf course!â Harry replied.
âSo, whatâre we waiting for? Here, take this,â James said, handing the vial to Harry.
As Harry gulped the potion down his throat, he found himself drifting into a sleep.
The darkness around him cleared, he found himself in a thick forest. âForbidden Forest?â he wondered. But the trees were younger and the ground wasnât as thickly covered in vegetation. A loud roar startled him. He turned around, coming face to face with a majestic Lion, basking in the glory of his lordship over the jungle. He hadnât seemed to have seen Harry. As Harry crept closer, he noticed a scar in the shape of a bolt of lightning, very much like his own, on the Lionâs head.
Darkness crept in once more. Before his eyes could adjust to the darkness, Harry found himself in broad daylight near a beautiful lake. A dragon was flying overhead. As the dragon lowered itself to the shore of the lake, Harry
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