Harry opened his eyes to find that he was curled up on the grass in the middle of a forest. He could somehow hear and smell his surroundings more than ever before. He also felt bigger and stronger that he ever had in his life. He looked down at his hands and received a shock. What he saw didn't look anything like his hands. Instead of hands, he saw sharp claws with tan fur on them. He racked his brain trying to figure out what had happened to him. Then he remembered. He'd just started his animagus form-finding meditation. He realized that he must be in that form now, but wasn't sure what that form was, aside from a creature with claws.
He tentatively got up, and subconsciously tried to stand on his two feet, which resulted in his falling down on his back. He shouted, "Oww!" but it sounded like a powerful roar. He smiled to himself thinking, 'Whatever I am is a powerful beast.' When he carefully turned himself around and got up, this time walking on all four legs, he was instinctively impressed to walk in a particular direction. As he walked for a few minutes, he found that he could hear the slightest movement near him, such as leaves being crushed under his paws.
He began to smell what he instinctively knew to be water, and he realized how thirsty he was. He soon came upon a stream, and thought about how he was going to drink. He realized that he only had one choice, but wasn't entirely comfortable with it. Reasoning that his pride wouldn't quench his thirst, he moved his head over the water to start licking it up. Before he did that, he noticed the reflection that was peering up at him. With big emerald eyes, a wild black mane and lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, he was a lion. He stuck out his tongue toward the water. The moment he felt the water, he woke up.
-ASM-
Harry opened his eyes to see that he was lying on his back on a mat that had been conjured specifically for this exercise. He turned around to see two girls lying on similar mats nearby. They appeared to be stirring. He got up, standing normally on two feet, and walked over to Hermione.
The bushy-haired girl opened her eyes and looked around. She smiled upon seeing her boyfriend's emerald eyes. "Hi, Harry."
Harry smiled and reached out his hand to help her up. "Hi. Did you have a pleasant dream?"
"I think so. I found out that I'm a cat."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I'm a dark brown cat with brown eyes and…big front teeth." She blushed at the last statement. "Even as an animal, I can't escape my big teeth. I don't know how you can stand looking at me smile. I asked my parents to help, but…"
"I love looking at you smiling," interrupted Harry. "And I also love kissing you," he added with a wink.
"You may want to remember that someone else is in the room before you start snogging," suggested Ginny as she got up.
They both blushed at that statement. Over the past few weeks they'd kissed a lot, but never done that yet. "I'm sorry, Ginny," said Harry, "I should've helped you up, too."
"I guess I can forgive you, Harry. I'd expect you to pay more attention to your girlfriend than me. By the way, I'm a cute red robin. What are you two?"
Harry answered with a smirk, "Then you'd better watch out for Hermione. She's a cat and may decide she's hungry."
"Ha-ha, very witty," replied Hermione sarcastically as Ginny started giggling. "You never said what you are, Harry."
Harry sighed, acting disappointed. "Well, I have eyes as green as a fresh-pickled…"
"Hey!" shouted Ginny defensively as her ears, face, and neck turned pink, "Er, Tom made me send that Valentine! Yeah! He wrote that poem!"
Harry did his best to hide his amusement. "Okay. If you say so."
"Anyway," said Hermione, "You still haven't said what you are."
"Well," he responded, looking at the ground as though embarrassed. "I still have my scar."
"Come on, Harry," encouraged Ginny. "It can't be that bad. You're not a rat like Pettigrew, are you?"
"Er, no," he answered, using the bit of occlumency training he'd had to stop himself from showing his excitement as he kept his head down.
"You're not a snake are you?" asked Hermione. "I know you speak snake-language."
"No," Harry replied. "I'm a mammal. I have a tail and claws." He then looked up at them grinning broadly. "I'm a black-maned lion!"
"You…you…you acted like it was something bad!" shouted Hermione as Ginny laughed. "I thought I was gonna have to console you."
Ginny commented, "I guess you're a true Gryffindor."
"I guess so," agreed Harry. He then conjured a few dozen rocks on the ground. "If you two are ready, I think it's time for our duel."
"Defend yourself," shouted Ginny as she pulled out her wand and nonverbally shot a stunner at Harry.
Harry pointed his wand at one of the rocks, and it quickly moved into the beam coming from Ginny's wand, diffusing it. "You're getting pretty good at that," admitted Ginny as Harry dodged a spell that Hermione sent at him.
-ASM-
An hour later, each of them had successfully used a rock to block a spell more than once. Lupin had suggested learning to use small objects to block spells so that they could learn precision with that skill. He'd explained, "There's no way to guarantee that there'll be a table to use for cover when you're attacked." Harry had won more duels than the others, but the girls each did win their share. Harry and Hermione went from there to Hermione's home, and then to karate class for the last lesson before the yellow belt test.
-ASM-
After a difficult class, the couple spoke briefly to Neville and bicycled back to the house, intending to spend an hour in the pool before Hermione would start another Ancient Runes lesson. However, that was not meant to happen.
While they were walking in the house after parking their bikes in the garage, Harry noticed a tall, elderly man with long white hair, a long beard, and a hooked nose. He was wearing a brown suit. When he turned toward the Granger's house, he said with a twinkle in his eye, "Hello, Mr. Potter. Hello, Miss Granger. It's good to see you both."
Harry looked more closely at the man and his jaw dropped. "Hello, Pro-Professor Dumbledore."
"Hello, headmaster," greeted Hermione.
"May I come into the house with you two? There's something I'd like to discuss."
"C-Certainly," replied Hermione. "I must admit this is unexpected."
Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes. I'd imagine it is."
After they'd gone inside and Hermione graciously got them some tea, she claimed to need to go to the loo and made a phone call from her bedroom.
The aged wizard sat at the table across from Harry and asked conversationally, "So Harry, have you been enjoying your little visit with the Grangers?"
Harry wasn't sure where his headmaster was going with this, so he decided to answer, but was determined to make sure not to look Dumbledore in the eye (so he couldn't use occlumency). "Yes, sir. I've been enjoying myself very much."
"That's good, Harry. It's good to spend time with friends, and then to return to our families." Harry now had an idea what this was about. "Speaking of which; when are you planning to return to your family?"
Harry looked at him as though he'd grown a second head. "The Dursleys don't consider me family, and I don't consider them family, either."
The aged wizard put down his head for a moment, and then looked toward Harry. "Now, I realize that the Dursleys may not be the ideal family, but you need to spend some time with them. I'm sure they miss you."
"Only if the lawn needs to be mowed or the dishes washed or the attic needs to be cleaned!" spat Harry.
"Surely you don't mean that," asked Dumbledore, "I'm sure that you care for each other. You should go back to their house."
"As long as the Grangers will let me, I'm staying here. If they won't let me stay here, I'll find some other place." He decided not to let Dumbledore know he knew how rich he is. "I'm not going back with them!"
Dumbledore took a deep breath and stopped talking like a concerned grandfather. "Harry listen! You have to stay there for your protection. There's nothing to discuss. Pack your things."
"Harry's staying here as long as he wants to!" shouted Hermione from the doorway.
"Miss Granger, you shouldn't talk back to your headmaster," scolded Dumbledore coldly.
"It's her house, not Hogwarts," replied Harry, "She can talk how she wants!"
"Sir, during the summer you're neither mine nor Harry's headmaster," explained Hermione even more coldly than Dumbledore had spoken to her.
Dumbledore started talking like a pleasant grandfather again. "Children, you obviously don't understand, but you'll have to trust me on this. Harry needs to spend most of the summer with the Dursleys. It's for his own good."
"HIS OWN GOOD!" came the voice of Adam Granger from the door. "I've seen how the Dursleys treat him, and I'll bet you have too! If you gave Harry his invisibility cloak, then the odds are that you have another one, or some other way to become invisible!"
Dumbledore sighed and admitted softly, "Yes, I have seen their treatment of him, and it is unfortunate. Nevertheless it is essential…"
"Essential that he lives with people who hate him!" shouted Marissa, who had just entered. "They've never even bought him his own clothes!"
"They had him living in a cupboard until his Hogwarts letter came, telling the Dursleys that you knew where his bedroom was!" shouted Hermione indignantly.
"Harry has to trust my judgment," insisted Dumbledore. "It's for the best."
"Trust your judgment?" asked Adam. "Trust the judgment of a headmaster who gives an invisibility cloak to an eleven year old? Trust the judgment of a man who leaves a baby with people who despise him while hundreds of families would've been more than happy to have him live with them? Come to think of it, what business is it of yours where Harry spends his summers? I doubt very much that it is the policy of Hogwarts to make sure that its students spend the summer where the headmaster wants them to."
Dumbledore explained, "There is a type of protection on Harry as long as he can call the place where his mother's blood lives home."
"Really?" asked Hermione curiously. "What does this protection do?"
"It helps him to be safe," answered Dumbledore.
"In what way?" asked Hermione. "If it prevents him from dying, then you wouldn't have slowed down his fall when the Dementors attacked that quidditch match, and Fawkes wouldn't have had to heal him from the basilisk wound in the Chamber of Secrets. If it prevents him from being injured, then he wouldn't hurt himself so often. He wouldn't have had to save himself from the Dementors a month ago. What exactly does it protect him from?"
"Er," said the headmaster, clearly at a loss, "Well, I think that the protection has helped him be lucky in those instances…"
"Lucky?" shouted Adam. "Lucky? From what my daughter has told me, he's spent more time in the hospital wing of your school than any ten kids! I think there's something wrong with your spell!"
"There can't be. As long as he calls the house his home…"
"Sir, I have NEVER called the Dursleys' house my home, either out loud or in my thoughts! Especially after I started at Hogwarts! I think of that house as prison! All I do there besides chores is count down the days until I get to leave!"
The old man's face paled. "I-I hadn't considered that affect on the wards. It never occurred to me, and it should have, considering how much danger Harry has been in. Part of those blood wards is love. I had assumed when I left him there all those years ago that they would love him, and he them. He is Petunia's nephew after all. If there is no love between Harry and the Dursleys, which causes Harry to not consider that house to be his home nor the occupants his family, those wards won't actually work, even though they register on my equipment as functioning. It's like having a perfectly good wand in the hands of a muggle. It's worthless."
Dumbledore sighed. "I've never allowed myself to consider the idea that leaving Harry with the Dursleys was a mistake before, but I guess it was. Harry, I owe you an immense apology. Professor McGonagall warned me about the kind of people the Dursleys were before I left you with them. I should've listened to her. She'd actually watched them for a day. I hadn't. I was so sure that I'd made the right decision."
Dumbledore seemed to age several years in front of them as he sighed. "Perhaps we should investigate the possibility of Harry getting a different guardian than the Dursleys. It would be easier if Sirius' name was cleared." He then looked at Mr. and Mrs. Granger with a twinkle in his eyes. "You wouldn't be interested in becoming Harry's guardians, would you?"
The adult Grangers looked down, but Adam did speak. "We like Harry enough, but I, er, I don't think Harry and Hermione want to be brother and sister."
Dumbledore looked puzzled. "Why not? They've been the best of friends for years. They can always be seen together."
"Well sir," began Hermione.
"We've started dating," finished Harry.
Dumbledore smiled at the young couple. "Really? That's wonderful news, but it does complicate things, doesn't it? I suppose there's nothing wrong with your staying here this summer. We can address this problem this year before next summer. I would ask the Weasleys, but I'd dare say they have enough children of their own. If you've no objection, I'd like to set up some wards protecting your home since Harry is staying here for now."
Hermione and Harry watched Dumbledore in fascination as he set up protective wards around the house. Dumbledore mentioned that McGonagall had told him of Harry's desire to take Ancient Runes instead of Divination. Harry simply explained, "I'm tired of having my death predicted every week."
-ASM-
At the end of karate class, Harry and Hermione proudly accepted their new yellow belts. Unfortunately, Neville had made one mistake during the test, and would have to take it again a week later. "I'm sure you'll get it next week," assured Harry.
"Why don't you come have dinner with us," invited Hermione, obviously trying to cheer up Neville. "I'm sure my parents would be glad to have you. I promise Fred and George won't be there."
Neville put his head down and shuffled his feet nervously. "Er, I-I've got to meet Ginny..."
"Say no more, mate," replied Harry. "We understand. Enjoy your date."
-ASM-
After Harry and Hermione had enjoyed some time in the pool and studied, Hermione stated, "Harry, I'd like to go out tonight."
Harry looked nervous. "Er, as much as I enjoy it, I'm not sure it's safe."
"Come on, Harry," insisted Hermione, "That was an isolated incident. Besides, we can disguise ourselves first."
Harry scratched his chin as he thought. "I suppose so. That is the whole point of my disguise, isn't it?"
"All right. This time I want to actually see a movie after we eat. Let's go downstairs and ask my parents if it's all right."
After a slight objection from Mr. Granger about safety, and reassurances that they would be disguised and would stay in public places, avoiding alleys, her parents agreed. The two of them portkeyed into Grimmauld place at six o'clock so they could magically disguise themselves and go out. When they arrived, they received a shock.
While they were changing their features, they heard a male voice shout, "Stupefy!" Both of them moved quickly, pulled out their wands and looked around. They heard the same voice shout, "Petrificus Totalus!" followed by a loud THUD.
"That's coming from the dueling room!" said Harry as he started walking fast in that direction.
They found the door closed, so Harry pointed his wand at the door while Hermione prepared to pull it open. Now that they were close to the room, they could hear some spells being fired nonverbally, while others were being fired by a female voice. The male voice was shouting other spells back. Hermione opened the door and the two of them looked inside.
Ginny turned and asked, "HARRY? What are…"
At that moment she was hit by a stunning spell shot from Neville's wand and fell. "Oh no! Harry, I didn't mean to stun her when she wasn't looking!"
Hermione revived her while Harry asked, "What are you doing here?"
Neville replied nervously, "Er, dueling practice. Ginny said you wouldn't mind."
"I don't," responded Harry, "We were just surprised to hear fighting when we stopped here to disguise ourselves."
"We're going on a date," explained Hermione, who'd finished reviving Ginny.
"Er, I told Neville you wouldn't mind him training here. He wanted to practice dueling," said Ginny when she stood up.
"I just told him I don't mind, Ginny. In fact, Neville, you're welcome to join us when we duel every morning."
Neville looked at the floor again, "Er, I didn't know you practiced dueling."
Ginny explained, "Harry asked me to keep it secret."
"Oh," replied Neville, "I'd love to, but I can't. My Gran makes me visit…I'm busy. I'm lucky she lets me take karate. I can only come late like this."
Ginny said, "We duel for a while and go out for dinner. We've been doing this since Monday."
"Do you want to join us tonight?" asked Hermione. "We'll be going to a movie afterward. You're welcome to join us there as well."
Neville answered, "Er, if it's all right with Ginny, that'll be fine. My Gran lets me stay out until ten so we have time."
-ASM-
They went to a fast food restaurant and then watched an action movie that had romance as well, so they all enjoyed it. After Harry and Hermione got back to her house, Harry said, "This ended a lot better than our first date."