Chapter Seventeen: New Pets
Harry and Ginny were able to return to normal activities the next day, though Ginny still needed help getting out of a chair, and Harry was liable to fall asleep if things got too slow. Ginny also began helping Harry get used to using Fawkes as his eyes and after a week, and several more bouts of nausea, Harry was able to walk around on his own without being sick.
Harry’s first day of training since the attack came soon after this development, and Harry was anxious to use his new sight.
He arrived with Ginny in the Room of Requirement and Moody, Tonks, and Remus were all waiting for him.
“Decided to bring someone to hold your hand today, Potter?” Moody joked, laughing is his raspy voice.
“I just wanted to watch all three of you lose to Harry at once,” Ginny taunted in return, and Harry blushed crimson.
“Well, I think we ought to show Miss Weasley what really happens in these training sessions,” Tonks put in as she whipped out her wand, and the three of them began circling Harry. Ginny moved into a corner and felt Fawkes land on her shoulder, though he remained invisible.
Harry went into a defensive stance, turning his head in different directions as though listening for his attackers as he usually did in the past. Remus fired first, but Harry threw himself forward into a rolling dive, and came up behind Tonks. Without his wand, Harry fired three rapid stunners and all three of them were unconscious.
“Should we tell them how I did that?” Harry asked with a cocky grin.
“Let them wonder,” Ginny responded lightly, “I think they need to respect my boyfriend a bit more.”
After Harry revived the three instructors, Moody looked at him suspiciously.
“I’ve never seen you move like that before, Potter,” he growled, “You haven’t been holding out on me, have you?”
Harry grinned enigmatically, and set himself into a defensive posture. The three began to circle again, but it was with a great deal more caution. This time, Harry made the first move and fired a few stunners at each of them, alternating between his wand and bare hand to throw out the spells quickly. His opponents were only mildly surprised this time, and Harry only succeeded in stunning Tonks. Moody and Remus began firing spells and dodging and shielding in earnest, and the duel was truly begun.
Harry held his own solidly, shielding himself from numerous spells, and dodging around the room making himself a difficult target. He felt a grin growing on his face and let it stay there; make them wonder.
Remus, probably looking to catch him off guard, wordlessly woke up Tonks and the two of them worked their way around behind him, as Moody began firing faster to cover their movement. Harry’s grin widened as they moved to right where he wanted them. So far, he had turned to face whoever he was casting spells at, and now they were expecting him to continue. Just as Remus and Tonks started casting their spells Harry cast two disarming spells, one from each hand, without turning around. They both lost their wands, and Harry then used his wand hand to raise a shield to block Moody, and stunned and bound both Tonks and Lupin with the other.
“Just you and me now, Mad-eye!” he taunted.
“I have a few tricks of my own, laddie,” he answered, and turned and cast a stunning spell at Ginny.
Harry acted without thinking, throwing himself into the path of the stunner while pouring magical power into a stunner of his own aimed at Moody. Harry was hit square in the chest, and collapsed, his sight from Fawkes going black.
***
Ginny watched in amazement as Harry battled the other three, astonished at his ability to move, and his power in casting spells, all with a taunting grin plastered on his face.
It’s a good thing he doesn’t know how good he looks with that smile, she thought fondly, or he’d be impossible to live with.
Then Harry and Moody were the last ones standing, and she listened with amusement as they taunted each other.
Suddenly, Moody shot a stunning spell straight for her. She had a moment to fumble for her own wand, before Harry had jumped into the spell’s path and Moody was blasted across the room; Ginny found herself the only conscious person present.
She went to Harry first and used her wand to wake him up. He sat up groggily, and shook his head.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You were playing the hero again, Harry,” she answered as she rushed over to Moody’s side. “It looks like he hit his head when he landed, Harry. You’d better look at him.”
Harry, his connection with Fawkes re-established, made his way to the old Auror’s side, and cast a couple basic healing charms before waking him up. Moody sat up and glared at him, before climbing awkwardly to his feet.
“I think I need more people to set you against, Potter; maybe Shacklebolt will join us next time, along with a few others.”
“To be fair, you did get him with the stunner you sent at me,” Ginny told him bracingly.
“Well, I figured it might distract him a bit, but I was hoping for more success than I got.”
Harry laughed as he released Tonks and Remus, and they got to their feet, looking chagrined.
“How’d you manage all of this, Harry?” Remus asked, “Did the potions for your eyes finally work?”
Harry shook his head ruefully, and explained what he had discovered he could do with Fawkes.
“Though I hope you’ll keep all of that to yourselves,” Harry finished, “I’d like to keep it as a surprise for the next set of Death Eaters I run into.”
They all congratulated him on his new ability, and Fawkes became visible, preening proudly on Ginny’s shoulder, welcoming the praise they all gave him.
Ginny interrupted with her own question.
“Do you think I could join the training too?” she asked somewhat hesitantly.
“Of course you can!” Moody bellowed, “We could have used you on our side there. Anyway, it’s time you learned how to really fight Death Eaters. Ron and Hermione should join us too.”
“I’m sorry, Ginny,” Harry said sheepishly. “I should have made sure you were all part of this a lot earlier.”
“That’s okay, Harry… as long as it doesn’t happen again,” she said with a stern voice, though Harry could tell, even though Fawkes couldn’t see Ginny’s face, that she was smiling as she said it.
***
A few days later, Ginny was waiting in the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. Harry hadn’t yet arrived for dinner, and all of them had decided to eat without him, though Ginny had made a plate and cast a warming charm on it for him.
“Where’s Harry?” Ron asked around a partially full mouth; Hermione had been working on that with him, and he was now mostly understandable at mealtimes.
“I don’t know,” Ginny answered again.
“Well, we have news about what we talked about before Wormtail showed up,” Hermione stated quietly, “and we want to tell him about it.”
Ginny was excited by this news, but was interrupted from answering by a sudden commotion among the other students in the hall.
“That’s not an owl…” Ron stated in confusion.
Ginny looked around and caught sight of a dark-feathered hawk clutching a note flying towards her.
As it landed and Ginny reached for the note, Hermione grabbed her hand.
“Don’t touch that! It could be a trap or a Portkey or something. We don’t know anything about this bird.”
Ginny covered her smile with a hand as the hawk fluffed up his feathers in indignation and clacked his beak in Hermione’s direction.
“Looks dodgy to me, too,” Ron added in concern.
Harry looked ready to advance on either of them, so Ginny intervened.
“This is a pet that I’ve been training. I found him out by the Forest a couple months ago, and thought I might be able to use him like an owl. He’s nowhere near as efficient as Hedwig, but not so annoying as Pig,” Ginny informed them as she took the note. Harry promptly turned his back on her in a huff, as she read the note.
I reckon it’s time we told Ron and Hermione that we are Animagi now, and I thought this might be a good way to bring it up. I can’t wait to see what will happen when they see a hawk giving you mail. Get them out of the hall and take them somewhere where we can talk, and I’ll scare the daylights out of them when I turn back to myself.
“It looks like Harry’s not feeling well, and he’s not coming down,” she informed Ron and Hermione, “but now that you’ve met Gilderoy, do you want to see some of his tricks?”
“How did you manage to catch and train a hawk without us knowing?” Hermione asked disbelievingly.
“And why would you name him Gilderoy?” Ron asked in disgust.
“Harry and I were keeping him a secret, and I named him that because he looks pretty good but he’s not too smart.”
Ron and Hermione laughed, and the hawk let out a piercing cry of anger.
“We’d better take him out of here, though, or he’s going to get us into trouble with the noise,” Ginny said, enjoying herself immensely.
Ginny got up and held out her hand. The hawk regarded her balefully for a moment before flapping over and perching on her arm, gripping slightly harder than necessary with his talons. He turned his head away from her, but allowed her to stroke the feathers on his head as she led Ron and Hermione to the Room of Requirement. When they entered, it was once again the room with a high ceiling and open rafters, and the hawk immediately took off and perched above their heads.
“He can be so difficult sometimes,” Ginny said in exasperation, though it wasn’t hard to detect the amusement in her voice.
“So what tricks have you taught him?” Ron asked, growing curious and interested in seeing a show.
“Yeah, I’ve read that owls are the only birds of prey that can be trained for post and other things like that,” Hermione added.
“Well, honestly, I think Gilderoy here is a lot smarter than most owls. Watch this,” Ginny said, and she began giving Harry commands.
At first Harry wouldn’t come down from the rafters, but after a little pleading, he came down and began performing whatever tricks Ginny asked. After a moment, Harry really started to enjoy the shouts of astonishment when Ginny had him do simple arithmetic by bobbing his head a certain number of times. Finally, Ginny ordered him to write his name on a chalkboard she conjured.
The bird looked at her for a while, and Ron and Hermione protested that no hawk would be able to do that. Finally, Harry flapped over to Ginny and took the chalk in his beak, and flew back to the chalkboard. Using his wings to steady himself, Harry began writing in large blocky letters.
“Not Gilderoy,” Hermione read, and looked at the bird in amazement.
“What is it then?” Ron asked.
Harry was himself again in an instant, and shouted “Not Gilderoy!”
Ginny laughed hysterically, and after seeing Ron’s and Hermione’s horrified faces through Fawkes’ eyes, who had been perched in the rafters the whole time, Harry couldn’t help but join her. Fawkes had thought it degrading that Harry would resort to performing tricks, but admitted that the results were amusing.
Hermione recovered first.
“Harry, you did it! You became an Animagus!”
“That was bloody brilliant, Harry,” Ron put in, “How’d you manage this?”
“Well, it took a lot of work, and Ginny helped a lot,” Harry said as he turned his face towards her and treated her to as much of a glare as he could manage without being able to focus his eyes on her. “But I didn’t expect the treachery I was shown tonight!”
“Oh come on, Harry, you have to admit it was funny,” Ginny laughed.
“Well, you guys should see the tricks I’ve taught to my pet falcon, Cho.”
Ron and Hermione watched as Harry held out his arm and Ginny turned into a large falcon. They laughed as she ignored the proffered perch and flew straight into Harry’s stomach, knocking him down and turning back into herself, seated on top of him.
“Cho? That was below the belt, Potter!”
Harry pleaded for mercy and Ginny finally forgave him, and then apologized for the Gilderoy business.
“Well, this is fantastic,” Ron said, interrupting them. “How do we do it too?”
“I’ll show you both how, but there is a lot of personal work that makes it really difficult,” Harry told them. Ron was starting to enumerate possibilities of what he would be when Hermione interrupted.
“Harry, now that you’re here and we know it’s you, we know where the orphanage is.”
Harry’s attention was immediately completely focused on this new conversation.
“Is it still being used as an orphanage?” he asked.
“No, the building has been abandoned for years, but it’s still there. I also found Hephzibah Smith’s house, but her family still lives there, so I think the orphanage is more likely.”
“Alright, then it’s time to plan our next trip,” Harry told them, as he cast several spells on the room and declared it clear. “And this time no one will know we are coming, and will hopefully never know we were there.”
A/N: Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that this chapter was a little silly. As such, it’s one of my least favorite chapters, but once I started writing it I couldn’t stop, and now that it’s done I can’t bring myself to take it out. Maybe all of you will like it anyway. You’ll let me know, right?