Creature Comforts (h.p.)

11

The first thing Harry and Hermione did was re-house Hermione's parents. They realised that Dumbledore would catch on quickly that Hermione was staying with Harry, and assume the worst. She didn't want to risk anything. Her mother's shriek at the sight of her reminded her that her parents had never seen her without glamours. The fur and ears and tail was most certainly a shock.

When they had settled everyone down, Harry handed everyone one of his beautiful phoenix feathers and explained in a glamoured voice that they should all hold the feathers, and not let go no matter how odd it felt. Then he imagined them all disappearing into flames. When they arrived at the little beach villa in Australia, Harry could finally take the cloak off because there was no chance Dumbledore had bugged it. The Grangers looked at him and his wings in wonder. As a parting gift, he gave them a handful of feathers.

"These," he said gesturing to the fiery and icy wing feathers in his palm, "will transport you. If you come under attack or find yourself in danger, think of me and you will be teleported to me. I suggest you keep the blue ones for emergencies, because it's much much colder. These," he held out his other palm and revealed two long tail-feathers, " will pass messages to me or Hermione. You think of the message and the intended recipient, and it should be received by either one of us. And these," he plucked two tiny shimmering feathers from his crown, "will temporarily remove all memory of magic, and of Hermione, when you crack it in half. I will feel when they have been used and when possible Hermione or I can undo the change and you will remember once more. That is in case you are captured."

Since that rather saddening day, he and Hermione had spent most of their time as creatures, both of them getting used to their inheritances. Harry's birthday was a small affair, but he enjoyed it nonetheless as he spent it as himself with the only person he trusted. In the next week they traveled to Gringotts incognito and had Hermione checked for blocks. She had spells monitoring what she said, tracking spells, a love potion keyed to Ron, loyalty to Dumbledore and hate to Malfoy but beyond that nothing. All were removed. On the 26th of august, Harry's wyvern inheritance was fully matured and his horns and tail were fully grown. The tail was long, muscular, and covered with rows upon rows of pearly green scales. It ended in a little plumage of phoenix tail feathers. The horns shaped into a little crown, the smallest on either side of his head and the largest in the centre. they stayed the same black to pearlescent white gradient but gained the faintest forest green hue. The only thing that he wasn't content with was how often he found himself thinking about a particular blond-haired slytherin. why did Dumbledore want harry to hate him in particular? And why was Malfoy so intriguing?

All too soon it was time to go back to school. Harry so hated putting on all of the glamours on but it would only be for a short time, he reassured himself. Soon, he and Hermione would be out of the creature closet.

They were all packed up and glamoured up to go, finally, but even Hermione had become fond of Potter manor. With heavy hearts Harry feather-transported them to King's Cross. To their disgust, they were almost immediately bombarded by gingers. It was very different knowing that mrs Weasley's bone-crushing hugs were devoid of meaning, that Ron's chattering was commissioned of him. Ginny seemed to be rather reserved, however, eyeing Harry suspiciously.

Harry noticed he was getting a lot of sympathetic looks and worried glances, undoubtedly from the whole being-abused thing. Needless to say, he was highly relieved when they got on the train. He was looking forward to simply sitting next to Hermione and dozing off, but that dream was of course shattered as she and Ron were prefects. They parted ways, leaving Harry and Ginny to find a compartment. They settled for a compartment with Neville and Luna. The dreamy blonde's eyes widened as he walked in.

"Harry, you've finally broken the blocks on your magic!" She exclaimed. The compartment fell silent. Well, there went any hope he had left of a peaceful train ride. He shut the door, locked it, slammed the blinds down and scanned for magical tampering before he chanced replying.

"How do you know about that?" Luna seemed completely unfazed.

"For all of last year your magic was like it was fighting against something. And now you're back, despite the glamours you've got on, your magic is much stronger. It's like an aura." He had no time to process this before turning his wand on Ginny who threw her hands up in surprise.

"How much of this all did you know?" Ginny's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she cried. Harry fumbled for the parchment papers with the vault transactions and blocks that he'd been accustomed to carrying around. He thrusted them toward ginny and she scanned them, her eyes growing wider and wider. She let out a screech.

"LOVE POTION?! That's VILE!" Ginny was dismayed. if harry was under love potion, then... "I must be under it too," she gasped. And when she knew of its presence, the already minimal hold it held over her broke. "I've been doubting my attraction to you since it began. I never had a reason to be, it was just - there - love potion, oh my god-" She suddenly let out a huge whoop. "I don't have to feel guilty about snogging Dean anymore!" Harry was all but dumbfounded.

"So you really had no idea about any of this?" Ginny looked deep into his eyes, trying to get her honesty across.

"No, I didn't. I swear on my magic I had nothing to do with any of this," she said calmly. And he believed her, finally.

"Thank god, because I've never actually thought of you as anything but a sister and the whole thing just felt off-"

"Right?! I totally get that! Like there was something in my brain telling me I had to fancy you but it was just kinda gross because I'd feel the same way about snogging the Twins or Ron-" Harry's eyes darkened.

"Don't trust Ron. He was being paid to be my friend, and had love potions on Hermione. Don't trust your mother either." Ginny's jaw dropped.

"My- my mother? She was in on everything?!" Harry nodded solemnly.

"And being paid by Dumbledore out of my vaults." Ginny sat down, dismayed. Harry found himself wriggling uncomfortably.

"Hey, do you mind if I take my glamours off? It's really uncomfortable." And receiving no protest from the three around him, he moved his wand from his feet to his head. Almost like a grand reveal. And it worked, because once his face was revealed they all gasped unanimously. He stretched his wings as he usually did, out over his head, and this time his tail came winding around his ankles. The tips of his horns twinkled like silver amongst the stunning feathers. He settled back in his seat. "Oh, thank merlin," he hummed, placing the glasses he didn't need in his robe pocket. Neville and Ginny were wide-eyed.

"Blimey, Harry!" Ginny breathed. "I'd almost not mind snogging you if you looked like that." He snorted and raised an eyebrow. Ginny flushed slightly. "If you plan on waltzing around the castle like that you'll never get a minute without some girl falling at your feet."

"Oh, don't act like everyone in the castle is straight. Some dude called Damien slipped me his owl address in Diagon Alley, I think I still have it somewhere-" Neville finally entered the conversation.

"-Wait, Harry- are you going out and about in the castle openly like that? Because by the sounds of it, Dumbledore did not want you coming into this inheritance." Harry grimaced.

"Yeah, me and Hermione decided to stay normal at least for the first couple of weeks, just to try and get a good idea of the full picture. But we figured, if Voldemort is the dark and Dumbledore is the light, we want no part in either. So we're going to have it publicly announced that we're going neutral. You're free to join. But from then on, we figured, why hide everything with glamours? Maybe we could inspire others who are insecure of their inheritances to be more outspoken." Ginny's brow furrowed.

"You're saying 'we' as 'you and Hermione' - does Hermione have creature blood too? Isn't she a muggleborn?" Harry cursed himself.

"That wasn't my secret to tell - so I'm not going to tell you what she is, she can do that herself - but yes, she does, and we think that just as magic skips generations in squib-bloodline families, as do creature inheritances." They all nodded, absorbing this new information. Neville, looking quite terrified, cleared his throat.