Shadow Phoenix

@ Dark Dragen, JohnnyK, GhostwriterMO, rose & mjd: Thanks for your reviews!

@ Dark Dragen: I've read and reviewed both of your stories... please tell me, when you update them.

@ JohnnyK: I whis this too. But I have to confess, once I gave you all chapters I have at the moment, you'll have to wait longer than just a day. Positive: I still have 15 Chapter for you.

@ GhostwriterMO: Yes, Hermione will. No, I don't think Cho will. Tonks will get some in Shadow Phoenix II, but not yet. Umbridge... will get sufficient punished (Dementors kiss), but not before she get's to use the cruciatus on Harry... (stupid idea... REALLY stupid idea...) The animagi... well... you're right with Hermione (and Ginny) getting feline forms, but the rest... Draco may be an insuferable git, but only because of his father. He will get better with time. He has a lot more potential, than he uses and Harry will cause him to change. So no ferret. The Twins... no skunks. These tricksters will stay red(Foxes). Ginny's new hobby: Hunting said Foxes after they pranked (or worse) her. (The Weasly's Women are way more dangerous, than their men...)

@ mjd: Thanks for telling me these mistakes, but I do have a beta, you know... she's just too busy right now and during the weekend, her I-net was gone... She'll correct these mistakes along with a lot we don't even recognise and I'll edit them as soon, as she e-mails me the betaed version.


@ ALL: This Chapter bas yet to be betaed, but it will be done soon.

Apologies from Raina (my beta). She promised to beta the chapters I sent her(and the old ones) soon. Untill then, you'll have to endure my mistakes. I do have the excuse that english is my second language, you know.

C13: Animagi

The next week High Inquisitor Umbridge started visiting the classes of the teachers, taking notes and trying to disturb their teaching.

There were only three teachers who weren't intimidated by her.

Professor Bins was a ghost and taught for more than 200 years at Hogwarts.

If Umbridge attended one of his lessons, he wouldn't even have noticed.

Professor McGonagall ignored the witch, till she had given her students their tasks, before she for a short time turned her attention to her and told her she could only observe, if she didn't disturb the lesson.

Snape simply asked her if she'd let anyone disturb her lessons the first time she tried.

His answers to her questions, where short and just polite enough to be not insulting, while his stare stopped her from wandering around the classroom, the first and only time she attempted to...

Being distracted by their discussion let Harry made a small but important mistake and his potion turned bad, which Snape was very pleased about.

***********

The next weekend, Hermione asked Harry if they could have a talk, after he came back to the Griffindor common room from Quidditch practise.

“It's been bothering me the whole time!.”, she begun. “We might be prepared, if some Death Eaters attack and for the exams, because we can train in your training room, but the others are not. It's like the whole school will be defenceless, if the worst happens. Finally I got an Idea what to do about it.”

Harry smiled at her. “Now, what can we do?”

“We need someone with real skill and experience in fighting the Dark Arts, a proper teacher who tells us when we make mistakes and corrects us immediately teaching us in secret. We need someone like you, Harry.”

Harry thought about it for a minute.

“Do you really think, I'd be a good enough teacher?”, he asked.

“You forgot, you're already teaching me, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Dean for our first animagus transformation. I know you're a great teacher.”

“Well... If I was to teach you, we'd need a room... and my trunk isn't possible. Even if there was enough place it wouldn't be safe enough. I don't want to have this many people see it either. Also, I wont start teaching Defence unless the lot of us are animagi.”

“The weekend after the next is a Hogsmeade trip. We could meet anyone who is interested there and talk to them.”

“We'll become animagi in a week...”, Harry mentioned. “Set it up then, but be careful. The whole point in the ministry's intervention in Hogwarts is to prevent us students from becoming Dumbledore's or my private army. They will look out for exactly what we're planing. Also tell Neville to ask Draco, who of his house can't be trusted and be sure, they don't get to know of this first meeting. I trust you to know what you do.”

***********

Another week later, the potion was completed.

Harry didn't tell anyone first, drinking his part of the potion in the middle of the night from Saturday to Sunday inside the training room, when everyone else sleeping.

The first change wasn't pleasant at all, but not painful either.

Once it was over, he could see, he was some kind of bird, with black feathers.

He inwardly cursed himself for not putting up a mirror in the room, but couldn't change that any more.

He started to change back to his human form, finding it a lot easier and faster to execute, than his change into the animal form.

He spent the following hours shifting between his human and animagus form, till at morning he could feel someone entering his trunk.

Harry instantly turned back to human and looked, who had been coming in.

It was Neville accompanied by Dean and Ron.

“Hey, Harry!”, Ron said. “We wanted to ask you when the animagus potion is completed. You said it was due around now... You know, if you think we're not ready yet, we'll wait, but...”

“You're ready.”, Harry replied. “As is the potion. It was completed last evening and I tested it on myself tonight.”

Harry changed and took flight, landing right on Ron's shoulder.

They were stunned with awe and shock.

When the black bird had jumped to the ground and changed back to Harry, he said: “You didn't really think I would let you take the potion, before I'd have tested it on myself, did you?”

“Harry, you're a phoenix!”, Neville finally broke out of being unable to do anything but staring at Harry.

“A Phoenix? Don't joke around animagi don't transform to mystical creatures... ...except... ...wait a minute.”

Harry hurried into his library, taking his exemplar of 'The Secret of Lord Draconis' out of his safe and looked something up.

The other three slowly followed him.

“Isn't that the book you took way from Hermione, when she tried to read it?”, Ron asked, causing the other two to stare at him.

“He can take away books from Hermione?”

Now Neville sounded more impressed than when he stated Harry's animagus form was an phoenix.

“There it is!”, Harry said happily. “His animagus form was a white Dragon. There is nothing wrong with the potion it's because of my first change!”

“Care to tell us, what you're talking about?”, Ron asked.

“No, but if you get the twins and the girls, I'll give you the potion.”, Harry said locking the Book away again.
Ron frowned at him, before the three of them went to get the others.

When they all gathered in his throne room, Harry had already prepared their potions on the small table.

“The first change is going to be the most difficult.”, he explained for the last time. “Turning back to human will be easy and each time you change it will get even easier. You should at least change twenty times to your animagus form and back, before you do something else.”

Then he summoned mirrors onto the walls.

“I really regretted forgetting to summon these before I took the potion.”, he mentioned. “Now, everyone take a potion and drink, if you still want to become animagi.”

They did and soon their bodies began to change.

Everyone but Ron and Neville got smaller.

Ron became a horse, Neville a grey, huge bear, which turned out to be a Grizzly.

Nobody could resist calling him Beary, which became his Marauder's name.

Ron was called Runner, because he could run a lot faster than anyone else in his animagus form.

Dean became a sparrow and Ginny came up with calling him Little Feather.

The twins stayed looking equal, even in their animagi forms.

Both of them became foxes.

The Girls both turned into cats, not the small kind of cats, you could play with though.

More the kind, which would eat you, if you'd try.

Hermione became a lioness and Ginny a tigress.

Harry claimed, that a lion would be named King, so Hermione had to stick with Queen.

She didn't mind at all.

Ginny insisted on being called Kitty, even before anyone could suggest another name.

(Deans joke of Kitty being a tiger in the bed made all of them laugh a lot. Except Ron.)

The twins didn't get mauderer names, but Harry suspected, they already had some.

He gave them five more potions, to send them to their father, for him, Bill and whoever else of the Order might want to become an animagus.

After they were gone, Harry asked Neville to go get Draco and the other ones to stay beside him for this meeting, so he wouldn't have to show him his own animagus form yet.

When Neville brought the Slitherin, Harry sat on his throne again, the girls on each of his sides, while Ron and Dean guarded the door.

“Longbottom said, the potion is completed and tested.”, Malfoy said.

“Yes indeed, Draco. It is. Kitty, Queen. Show him.”, Harry answered.

The girls changed, staying beside his throne.

Harry reached out and began to stroke both big cats, what they seemed to like a lot.

The eyes of the Slitherin darted from one feline to the other.

“Good, I wish I was so lucky, Potter. You look like some kind of king right now...”

Harry burst to laughter, before he stood up.

“Did you complete all points on the list I sent you?”, he asked.

“I did.”

“Then take this. It's the animagus potion.”

Harry handed Malfoy a small bottle.

Draco took a deep breath, before he opened it and drank.

He changed into a silvery-grey wolf.

After Harry had him change a few times, he started to call him Silver, whenever he was in his animagus form.

“Do all of your animagi have nicknames like that?”, the Slitherin asked.

“All that are in here... except me... hmm...”

Harry thought it over for a moment.

“Shadow would be suiting, I think.”, he decided.

“What are your nicknames?”, Malfoy asked the boys.

“Runner.”, Ron stated. “Dean's Little Feather and Neville Beary.”

“I think I have an idea what Beary and Little Feather stands for, but Runner?”

Ron changed and made some steps toward Draco.

“OK, ok, I get it! No need to get angry.”

Ron changed back laughing.

“Now the only one left is Potter. What kind of animal does Shadow imply?”

“You'll know the moment you see, but lets keep it a surprise, a little longer. I'll give you two hints though. First: It's winged. Second: It's none of what you'll assume.”

“Giving the hint, that I can't guess it right is unfair, Potter.”

“Maybe, but you'll know what I meant once you see.”

Malfoy signed.

“Well I don't have all day. I'll just get back to my business. See you.”

Neville accompanied him once again to the door of the Griffindor common room.

“We have still eleven potions left...”, Harry mentioned as he once again stroked the heads of his cats, sitting on his throne.

“We'll simply pick those worthy of it from the students I'll be teaching.”, he decided.

“You can stop playing king with two big cats now...”, Ron started, but reconsidered when both stared growling at him.

“Though of cause you can do it some longer as well... like all day, maybe week, month or year.”, Ron said while backing out of the room with Dean.

(If two big cats like that would stare and growl at you like this, you'd do the same, believe me... If they were males Ron's Griffindor courage might have been enough to let him stay but he knows women are way more dangerous.)

After the door closed behind them, the girls turned back, laughing so hard they couldn't even stand up.

“Well, now that the two of you had a good laugh from scaring poor Ron, why don't you go, do some preparation for next weekend? While you do, I'll come up with plans for the first few lessons and a plan what they need to learn during the year.”, Harry said blowing a lot of their amusement away. “If you're done, I'll surly find something else for you to do, till you stop scaring our friends.” ,he mentioned.