Harrison could hear Cass and Leo snickering as his aunt walked towards his unconscious best friend. He looked around the large training room at Riddle Manor as he twirled his wand idly between his fingers. The room was the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts and had a dark brown marble floor with specks of gold. There were training dummies lined up against one of the walls and targets on another. In one of the corners were several plush dark green couches for resting, a medium sized wooden table in the middle of them. Swords and other weapons hung above the couches on the wall and antique chandeliers lit the room. Two raised platforms meant for dueling stood in the middle of the room. Both of them were the same length with runes etched around them to stop spells from hitting anyone not on the platforms.
"You didn't block fast enough," Bellatrix said after enervating Draco.
"Of course I didn't," Draco grumbled. "Harrison's too fast."
Harrison smirked as he tossed Draco his wand. The blonde boy scowled as he reached for his wand catching it before it hit the ground.
"No excuses," Bellatrix said sternly. "If this was a real duel you'd be dead. Remember, all it takes to kill a man is one well aimed spell." She turned to her kids. "Your turn."
Cass winked at Harrison as she walked by him and onto one of the platforms. Harrison watched as Cass and Leo got into proper dueling stances.
"On the count of three," Bellatrix informed them. "One, two-"
Before she could say three Cass shot a purple spell towards her twin who immediately cast a shield charm. Leo scowled at his sister and shot a jet of white light followed by what Harrison knew to be a bludgeoning hex. Cass retaliated by casting three sectumsempra's in quick succession. Leo rolled out of the way and jumped up and cast a shield before throwing cutting hexes and the blood boiling curse. Harrison watched as they sent silent spell after silent spell, neither one successfully hitting the other.
Cass ducked as a severing hex flew towards her and it sailed over her head. Cass scowled and began volleying spell after spell. Leo tried dodging and casting shield charms but after being hit several times his shield fluttered and died. Before he could dodge or cast something to protect himself a stunning spell hit him square in the chest. Leo crumpled to the floor and Cass smirked.
"Brilliant," Bella praised. "You cast several spells in quick succession until his shield fell."
Leo's eyes slowly opened after his mother revived him and he sat up to glare at his twin.
"Not so funny when it happens to you is it?" Draco asked mockingly.
Leo switched his glare to his laughing cousin.
"Do you always laugh during your training?" A smooth voice asked.
Everyone spun around and saw nothing but Harrison knew his dad was there. A second later Tom appeared wearing black robes and an amused look. Draco's eyes widened and Leo looked embarrassed at having been beaten by a girl in front of the Dark Lord.
"How long have you been there?" Cass asked curiously.
"Since Harrison and Draco's last duel," Tom answered before pulling out his wand. "Harrison, how about you show me what you've learned from all those books before your other friends arrive?"
Harrison grinned, he loved dueling with his dad. He knew his dad went easy on him, if not he wouldn't have a chance since he was only twelve. But he could always practice at his full power when he was against his dad because he didn't have to worry about hurting him like he did his friends. He often worried about hurting his friends, he was more powerful than your average seventeen year old let alone twelve year old so he usually just toyed with them. He pulled out his wand and walked up to one of the platforms. Draco, Cass and Leo joined Bella on the couch she conjured to watch. Harrison began thinking of what strategy to go with and was glad he had finally got the hang of the banishing charm, it might come in handy. Whenever he dueled his father and they conjured things being able to banish them was a plus.
Tom and Harrison bowed to each other before getting in their proper dueling stances. Harrison didn't even blink before a jet of fire a foot thick came flying towards him, he waved his wand in a pattern he saw in an advanced Dark Arts book and prayed it would work. A second before the fire would've reached him he completed the wand movements and the fire shot off in the opposite direction towards his father. Tom waved his wand and the fire turned into six large swords with glistening blades. He lifted his arms and the swords went for Harrison who cast a wide range blasting spell that turned the swords into shards of metal. The metal continued to fly towards him so he cast a banishing charm that sent them back to Tom. Before they reached him Tom turned the shards of metal into dust which began to spin around and fly towards Harrison. Harrison waved his wand to get rid of the dust but it didn't work.
Harrison tried another spell, this one more advanced and the dust disappeared. The air cleared in time for him to see a jet of sickly orange light flying towards him. Harrison dodged the spell before it could hit him. Harrison pointed his wand at the floor in front of his father and turned it to ice. Tom noticed the spell from the light and wand movements and cast a spell to stop himself from slipping. The floor around Tom was light blue and shining, Tom smirked and Harrison knew that nothing good would come from that. Before Harrison knew what was happening large icicles were growing from the ground and encircling Harrison. Five seconds later he was caged in solid ice, he could see his breath and goose bumps were appearing on his arms. He cast a fire spell but all it did was cause the ice to perspire slightly causing him to scowl.
Harrison closed his eyes and waved his wand in the air forming several runes. A giant snake made of fire shot from his wand and began tearing at the ice. Soon the ice was gone leaving behind a giant puddle of water. Harrison waved his wand and the snake disappeared along with the puddle. He looked up at his father in time to see a black lighting bolt fly from his wand, Harrison side stepped the spell and cast six blood boiling hexes faster than his friends watching thought possible. Tom easily blocked the spells and cast several spells even faster than Harrison had. Harrison was flung backwards by a well placed banishing charm and slammed into the invisible barrier caused by the runes around the platform. He slid down the wall but he hadn't let go of his wand. He lifted it up to cast a spell but before he could his wand went flying out of his hand and into Tom's.
"Impressive," Tom praised as he easily caught his sons wand.
"That was amazing," Draco said sounding impressed.
"Are you okay?" A worried voice asked.
Harrison turned and saw Daphne, Tracey, Jenna, Pansy, Theo and Blaise standing behind the conjured couch. He gave his friend a dazzling smile as Tom waved his wand to check his son for any damage.
"I'm fine Daph," Harrison assured her. "How long have you all been there?"
"Since you sent a jet of fire back at your dad," Theo replied.
"You were phenomenal by the way," Tracey said. "I've never even seen the older kids at Hogwarts duel like that."
"That's because they're all idiots," Blaise told her. "If other parents were like Slytherins and trained they're kids maybe they could have half of Harrison's talent."
"It's a good thing they don't," Cass interjected. "You wouldn't want the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs trained like us now would you?"
Blaise eyed Cass. "No, I wouldn't."
"Where's Luna?" Tracey asked. "Is she not going to start animagus training with us?"
"The lesson she's in at the moment ends at noon," Harrison answered. "Sev's teaching her Potions." He cast a tempus. "She should be here any minute."
Five minutes later Luna walked in wearing clothes appropriate for training. She took a seat next to Harrison on one of the chairs Tom conjured.
"Now that you're all here we will begin," Tom said. "However before I tell you how to find your form I have a few rules you all must follow." His eyes roamed over the eleven kids. "You will pay attention and do exactly as I say, I am a busy man and you're all lucky I'm taking time out of my schedule to help you. I usually only teach my son however he asked for me to teach you the animagus transformation. He thinks if you use my methods you'll learn faster. I myself became an animagus after only a year of trying, and I didn't have anyone helping me. You will also speak of this to no one besides your parents or the inner circle without mine or Harrison's permission. This is because I don't want any of you to have to register your form with the Ministry. There are less than four weeks until you all return to school, or in Luna's case begin school. We will meet here in this room everyday at six in the morning. I have meetings and other things to attend to during the day and that is the only time I'm available. If you complain or don't give it your all you will leave and not come back. Do all of you understand?"
Everyone gave their verbal agreement while Harrison tried not to look amused at how much his father had just sounded like McGonagall.
"Good," Tom said as he snapped his fingers.
Twinky popped into the room carrying a silver tray with eleven vials.
"You will all drink a vial of the animagus revealing potion that Severus brewed for you," Tom continued. "Once you drink the potion you will immediately transform into the form you will be able to take. The transformation will last for a minute before you turn back." Tom motioned for the house elf to hand out the potion.
Harrison grabbed a vial and watched as his friends took theirs. Tom waved his hand and the eleven kids drank the purple potion. Harrison grimaced as the slimy drink slid down his throat, it was the most disgusting thing he'd ever tasted. It tasted like raw fish dipped in mud and moldy socks, he felt like throwing up. A second later he felt his body shift and he could feel the cold marble floor under his chest. His senses began to overwhelm him, he could smell everything from sweat to what he thought was the back garden. A second later he felt his body shift and he saw ten animals staring at him, even in their animagus forms he could see that they were shocked. He felt his body shift once more and he opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was a roar.
Harrison was confused but before his brain could process anything he was back to normal and everyone was staring at him. Tom was staring at him with pride and a hint of amusement while Bella's eyes only held pride. All of his friends were shocked but he could also sense their confusion. He felt both annoyed and agitated at the looks.
"Why is everyone staring at me?" Harrison demanded.
Jenna opened her mouth but then quickly shut it.
"You changed into three different animals," Luna said in her dreamy voice. "You first became a long green snake and then you morphed into a snowy owl, you looked like Ares. After that you appeared to be a fully grown black panther. You looked quite handsome as the panther."
Daphne and Tracey sent Luna weird looks while Blaise snorted. Harrison stared at Luna before a grin broke out on his face, he had three animagus forms. His father had three forms but he hadn't thought he would, he knew how rare it was and what it meant. He had assumed he would be a snake, the fact that he'd also be able to turn into an owl was an exciting prospect. He loved to fly on a broom and he knew he'd love flying without one. Having a panther for a form might be able to come in handy, his grin turned into a smirk as he thought about using it to scare Ron.
Tom glanced at Luna before looking back at his son. "It's exceedingly rare to have more than one animagus form. Only an exceptionally powerful witch or wizard can have more than one. However a downside is that you'll have to learn to transform into each form separately. Just because you can transform into one doesn't mean you'll be able to transform into the others automatically. You'll have to work extra hard if you want to use all three forms. For now I would suggest only attempting one. Once you have the basics down go onto the next and then the final one." He cast a tempus. "I have a meeting to get to. I want all of you to spend the rest of the day studying the anatomy of your animal. Feel free to use our library." He pierced them all with his ice blue eyes. "If you don't read up on your animal I will know, and I won't be pleased."
"Mum," Cass said to Bella who had been watching everything closely. "What were we? I was too busy trying to stand right to pay attention to anyone else." She glanced at Luna. "I don't know how she could tell what Harrison was. I only knew he had three forms because I saw him switch but I couldn't quite make them out, they went too fast."
"Draco is an eagle," Bella replied causing Draco to smirk. "Leo is a large black snake, Blaise's a gray wolf, Theo's a brown owl, Daphne's a leopard, Cass you're a blue medium sized snake, Tracey's a black lab, Pansy is a tiger, Jenna's a normal sized black cat and Luna's a swan."
Everyone looked pleased with their forms especially Leo and Cass. If Harrison had to guess who would have a snake form besides himself he would've guessed the twins.
"I need to get going," Bellatrix announced. "All of you should head to the library."
Fifteen minutes later Harrison pushed open the double doors to the library. The room was twenty time the size of the Great Hall and the shelves had expansion charms so they could hold three times as many books. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with books. A spiral stair case led to halfway up the shelves, a balcony ran around the entire room causing the library to essentially be two stories. The only part of the walls not covered in books was where a large twelve foot tall fireplace was, a portrait of Harrison and Tom hung above it. There were wooden tables, comfortable couches and high backed chairs all around the room. A large book sat on a silver stand near the fireplace, if you tapped the book with your wand while saying the name of a subject, author or quote any book relating to it would be listed. If you wanted to go through all of the books you could tap the book and ask for a list of all the books, by tapping on the title a summary of the book would appear.
Harrison tapped the black leather bound book. "The anatomy of medium and large snakes."
Words began forming on the page in neat writing. There were several dozen books on the subject and Harrison scanned the list. He found several books that sounded good so he summoned three of them before walking over to the nearest table. He opened the book to a random page and began to read.
As with all reptiles, snakes are covered with scales, which offer protection from desiccation and injury. They can be smooth and shiny, such as a python's scales, or rough and dull, such as a hog nose snake's scales. The outer, thin layer is the epidermis, which is shed on a regular basis. The inner, thicker, more developed layer is the dermis. This dermal layer is filled with chromatophores, the pigment cells that give snakes their color. Scales are formed largely of keratin derived from the epidermis.
Harrison stopped reading, he knew all of that so he flipped to the next chapter. The next chapters first page was a giant diagram of a snake and its intestines. He scanned the picture and ran his pointer finger from the head to the tip of the tail. He turned the page and scanned the first paragraph.
Snakes have no moveable eyelids, limbs, ear openings, sternums, or urinary bladders. Most species have only one functioning lung, although many have a second, vestigial (essentially non-functioning, or only marginally functional) lung. The organs in the snake body are necessarily elongated, to fit within the narrow confines of its body cavity.
The snake's respiratory system consists of a glottis at the front of the mouth that leads to a windpipe; the glottis is moveable to prevent it from being closed off during prey ingestion; although it may appear that the mouth is completely filled with prey when the snake is swallowing food, the moveable glottis, whose opening is on the floor of the lower jaw, remains open so the snake can continue to induct and exhaust air from its lungs and air sacs. The windpipe, extending from the glottis, divides into two bronchial tubes, each leading to lungs; the right lung is primary and the left is secondary, considerably smaller and either non-functional or only marginally so. The forward portion of each lung is used for gas exchange and is highly vascular (supplied with blood vessels); the posterior portions of each lung are hydrostatic, non-vascular air sacs that, in the right lung, extends nearly to the venter and serves to regulate pressures inside the body. Induction and exhaustion of air is performed, not by a diaphragm, but by the movement of the ribs under the control of specialized muscles.
He absentmindedly nodded, this was something he should read. He knew that in order to properly transform you needed at least a basic understanding of the animal you wished to turn into. He smoothed out the page and continued to read.