Harry Potter and the Gift of Memories [Harry Potter Fan Fiction]

Chapter XXXIX: Jaguars, Griffin's and Dragons, Part I

With a mild downward tilt of my wings, I descended into the small valley. The air whistled around me, shrill and loud as my descent came close to breaking the sound barrier. The wind before me parted as I focused my magic to the front of my body and used it to shield me from the effects. I could see small flames flickering at my magic as I reached terminal velocity.

And then I was at my destination. My dive took me to the lake, where I skimmed across its surface as I pulled out, my wings spreading to their fullest to slow my body while I used my magic to direct the flow of the air currents around me. The clawed talons of my front feet and the paws of my back feet skimmed across the water's surface, creating small waves in my wake.

As I flew along the surface of the lake, several animals that made this mountain their home came out to greet me. I recognized all of them, from the largest mammals to the smallest reptile, it was easy to recognize my subjects. And they recognized me as well, for when they saw me gliding along the lake, my powerful wings flapping only occasionally, they all bowed before me.

It was good to be king.

Looking down into the water I could see my distorted reflection upon its surface. It blurred due to the ripples, but nonetheless, I could see what all of my subjects saw. A glowing golden beak attached to a head of luminescent silvery feathers. Sharp, intelligent, and proud emerald colored irises. A pair of wings whose total span was easily twice as long as I was set into my shoulder blades, leading down into a pair of sharp, taloned feet. The silvery feathers became golden fur further down my body. Powerful hind legs and large paws with sharp claws were set into my hindquarter. And at the very end of my body, writhing and moving along with a mind of its own, a poisonous green snake with red slitted irises stuck out its forked tongue and tasted the air with a sibilant hiss.

XoX

Christmas had come and gone, and before long, Harry found himself back in school. The beginning of the second semester had been very pleasant.

One of the main incidents about the end of the holidays that pleased him to know end was the newspapers article on his appearance at the New Year Ball hosted by the Ministry. It had been a very flattering piece about him. Apparently, several very prominent witches and wizards he had spoken with during the ball had been more than willing to praise his intelligence and drive, stating that he was 'a young man with a keen intellect who was both polite and driven.' Andromeda had been very proud when she saw the article.

News must have also spread to his peers, because many of them had begun staring at him again the moment he arrived at platform nine and three-quarters.

Something else he enjoyed about returning to Hogwarts was getting to spend time with his new friends. During the train ride over all of Harry's friends had given him presents in return for the ones he had given them during Christmas. In all honesty, he had not expected them to have gotten him anything, nor had asked them to. That they had done so caused his heart to constrict with some unknown emotion, a strange but not unpleasant feeling that he had only felt a few times before—often in the presence of Lisa.

Classes hadn't changed much. In fact, they hadn't changed at all. The course work was slightly different, the subjects being the next set of spells and theory the teacher's wanted to teach, but that was about it.

Transfiguration had finally moved on from changing a match stick to a needle to the switching spell.

“Many people tend to think that the switching spell is actually swapping out one item for another,” Harry told Neville, Hermione, Susan and Hannah as he showed them how to perform the spell by 'switching' an apple with a glass vial. Of course, they were not the only ones paying attention to his lecture; the other students and even Professor McGonagall listened in, curious to hear his explanation. “But the truth is you aren't actually swapping two things around. It wouldn't even be a Transfiguration spell if that were the case.”