Fudge Disclaimer: We here at the ministry are firmly committed to the rights and privileges of fan fic authors. It is something of which I have personally dealt with in the past, and intend to do so in the future. However at this point in time it can be said that fan fic writers must be willing to give up certain ahem... comforts... for the sake of the wizarding community as a whole. This is the way it must be in these troubled times what with You-Know-Who and his Death-Eaters about. That is all. Thank you.
Chapter Five – Animagii TestingThey walked into The Leaky Cauldron at exactly eleven o'clock that morning, wearing their new robes, and carrying a good number of other interestingly shaped packages.
Hermione had bought nearly an entire bag full of books, which was a lot, considering the bag she'd brought was magically expanded on the inside and charmed to be lightweight.. Harry had only bought three books, and for once, he'd actually bought a bit of wizarding fiction. It was the first time he'd ever bought a book that wasn't for school, so he was eager to get reading. The book was an auror mystery book whose author had apparently been visiting the store that past week to sign books. It was called 'The Park Point Poltergeist', and he was eager to see how it compared to the bits of Muggle fiction he'd read.
Ron and Harry had both gone into Quality Quidditch Supplies, and Harry had bought himself a whole new set of seeker padding. His old ones were beginning to fray, and he thought he liked the look of the black ones better than his old brown set. Ron scraped the bottom of his pockets to buy a mid-range broom tuning kit, and a booklet that displayed and automatically updated the most recent scores of his favorite team, the Cannons. The booklet had been charmed shut until it was paid for, and Ron immediately winced when he'd opened it and taken a look at the latest statistics. The Cannons had never done well, but apparently they were having an even rougher season than usual.
They'd all gone into Fred and George's shop, and nearly bought the place out. Neither Harry nor Ron had to pay full price for anything. First off, Ron immediately got the 'Redhead discount', then on top of that, he was given a family discount. Harry didn't get either of those, but his 'benefactor discount' meant that he was pretty much paying the same price as Ron for everything. Ron tried not to let anyone see how disgusted he was by this. Harry had given the twins all of his winnings just over two years ago after he'd finished the tri-wizard tournament, and they'd put it to good use, opening the store. The truth was, Harry actually had to talk the twins into letting him pay anything at all, but he didn't want Ron to know that.
So they all walked into The Leaky at eleven o'clock. Remus and Tonks went immediately to the bar to chat with Tom, the barkeep. The other three walked over and deposited their purchases loudly onto the table right in front of a nearly oblivious Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood.
Neville leapt up in surprise and quickly hid his hands under the table, but Luna's large blue eyes wandered up to their faces as if they'd only slowly walked up to them. She didn't look at all surprised. Harry thought it might take more than an earthquake and seven or eight bombs going off to truly surprise her.
"Hello Harry," Luna nodded. "Ronald, Hermione," she added, as if they were only an afterthought. Ron's nose wrinkled at hearing his full name, and Hermione elbowed him tauntingly in the ribs.
"Guess what my Gran bought me!" Neville enthused, still holding his hands carefully out of sight under the table.
Harry couldn't guess what it was for the life of him, so he shrugged. "What is it then?" he asked.
Neville grinned, and brought his hands up above the table to reveal the bulging eyes and greenish-pink skin of a strange horned lizard. It was gripping his hands with tri-clawed fingers and had its tail carefully wrapped around Neville's pinky finger.
"New pet?" Ron asked.
"Yeah," Neville nodded excitedly. "Everyone, meet Albus."
Harry couldn't help but grin. It was likely that Dumbledore would have been honoured to be the namesake of such an ugly creature. "You named him after Dumbledore?"
"I thought it was appropriate. With those eyes, it's like he can see everywhere all at once. I guess I always thought Dumbledore knew everything. I also thought I should choose a name that was really worthy."
Hermione looked very closely at the creature, whose skin was now slowly turning a lighter shade of blue. "Er… what is it, exactly?"
"It's a chameleon. A Mood-Revealing Jackson's Chameleon, to be exact." Neville said, sounding pleased that he had something interesting to impart to Hermione. "We just bought him this morning. He'll be living on my plants at home, and he eats all sorts of bugs. Mostly crickets and things. He's an especially useful creature for someone like me who likes plants."
"Why is he called 'Mood-Revealing' then?" Hermione asked, sounding especially interested.
Neville smiled sheepishly. "He mostly just takes on the colour of whatever he's sitting on, but every once in awhile he'll pick up on an emotion of someone nearby and turn really brilliant crazy colours. Normal Jackson's Chameleons that aren't magical are supposed to be the least adaptable of all the Chameleons. They only have two colours; brown, and various shades of green, but Albus here has at least six that I've seen. I already saw him turn neon yellow once!"
"That's pretty cool Neville." Ron said, rubbing Albus softly on the side of his belly. The skin was strangely gritty, and made a scratching sound against Ron's fingers. "Didn't you want an owl or something?"
Neville shrugged. "My Gran already has one, and I can use her whenever I want to. I don't really need one, and Albus is really very good at helping take care of the plants."
Harry nodded, but he knew that Neville hadn't bought an owl for the very simple reason that he didn't want to own a pet that could chat with Hermione whenever she was in her animagus form. Hermione had once told them that Pig had a difficult time keeping his mouth shut about Ron.
Ron didn't know about this though, so he gave a nod of understanding to Neville. Luna had a very interesting dry smirk on her face.
A sudden flash of fire, and a soot-covered body fell from the fireplace. Only a few of the patrons bothered to look over. Most of them only looked to see if it was the person they were meeting up with, others, such as Tom made sure to aim their wands at the lump that fell to the hearth.
However, it was Ginny, and she looked especially disgruntled by the soot now covering her robe.
"Hey guys. Ready to go?" she asked, brushing away at the blackened stains. Harry waved his wand at her, performing a scourgifying spell, and she smiled gratefully at him. He wondered why she'd come by floo instead of by train the same way they'd come, but didn't have time to ask.
"Lunch first." Remus said, walking back over to their table carrying a plate full of sandwiches. "I know it's still early yet, but I'm sure you all want to be fed before your tests."
"Eat quickly." Tonks added. "Apparently there was some trouble in the alley a few minutes ago, and we should be getting as far as possible from it."
"What happened?" Ginny asked, squishing into the bench beside Harry.
Harry sighed, and tried to give her more room, but not too much of course. He liked having her lean up against him as she reached for a sandwich. He couldn't help but also think of Luna's wiry frame on his other side. He grinned madly. Today was going to be a very good day. He could feel it.
"Nothing big, just someone spotted two dementors in the alleyway behind the bank."
"Nothing big?" Harry hissed out in alarm, forgetting to think about the girls for a second. "How can dementors be nothing big?"
"Dementors are more dangerous in big groups. Ever since the Aurors have been asked to patrol Diagon alley, the dementors haven't really been a problem here. There's always someone nearby who can cast a patronus charm. Unless they decide to come in droves, there really isn't a chance of them hurting anyone, and even if they do come here, the Aurors can call in whatever back-up is needed."
Harry thought he didn't really see how a dementor could be harmless, but he decided to let Tonks have her illusions.
Remus put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I know you aren't exactly fond of the creatures, Harry. I know they affect you more than others, but you have to remember that not everyone goes through such an extreme reaction. Wizarding folk in general might find them a bit frightening, but they aren't really such a difficult thing for most aurors."
"Right," Harry said, feeling slightly embarrassed. How exactly was he supposed to become an auror and the savior of the wizarding world, if he went all clammy and sick whenever a creature passed by that was seen by other aurors as 'reasonably harmless'?
They all ate their sandwiches in relative silence, then set off back out into Muggle London, to go to the ministry again.
As Harry walked, he began to feel a little nervous. The first test was the animagus test, and even though he was quite comfortable turning into a lion, the idea of a test for such a thing made him shudder. Remus was also beginning to fidget a little, and Harry thought he might know something about what was to come.
He needn't have worried, really.
They entered the ministry, and went five floors down in the elevator. In the reception room of the 'beasts and beings' division of the ministry, Amos Diggory sat in one of the chairs reading the Daily Prophet. Harry fervently hoped he hadn't seen Rita Skeeter's article.
Diggory stood when he saw them, and smiled sheepishly. He was a tall man with thinning salt and pepper hair, a navy blue suit-robe, and a thin moustache that looked somewhat out of place under his nose. In all, he was a handsome man, and Harry was uncomfortably reminded of Cedric, his son, whose death Harry had witnessed in his fourth year. Harry had met mister Diggory once before Cedric's death, and the older man now seemed sadder and more subdued since then. "You're all here?" he asked quietly, counting heads.
"Yes, that's right." Tonks said.
"Lupin. Didn't know I'd be seeing you today." Diggory said in a conversational tone.
Remus looked nervously at the floor, and nodded. Harry was amazed at how unusual that sort of reaction was for his guardian. It was almost… childlike.
Then again, Harry remembered that this was the beasts and beings division of the ministry, so Remus must have had quite a bit of contact with the people here. Perhaps most werewolves had a healthy fear of this particular place. After all, Harry had heard many a horror story about the treatment of beasts and beings by ministry officials, and not all of them were from Remus. He wondered if Remus had ever had unpleasant dealings with Mister Diggory. Tonks patted Remus on the shoulder, and he smiled nervously at her.
"Follow me." Diggory said quietly, and walked them down the hall away from the reception. "I've secured one of the labs down here for us to test in. I'll explain the test a bit more when we get there."
He trotted a bit further, and stopped at a door whose narrow rectangular window revealed only stark white beyond.
He jingled an old-fashioned looking key in the lock, and the door opened to release a sudden cacaphony of sound. Squawks and chirps mingled with roars and barks. A few sounds were unrecognizable, and Harry knew they must come from the many magical animals that were being studied.
Diggory stepped inside and out of the way to reveal an array of cages clustered along the back wall. Interesting earthy and musty smells assaulted his nose, which for the most part wasn't too bad. A few of the cages smelled worse than a pubescent teen's month-old laundry hamper, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Along the side wall, under a line of charmed windows, were three long aquariums with strange fish and other interesting semi-aquatic creatures lazing about, sunning themselves on rocks.
There were three desks in the rooms, and nine wooden chairs; three to a desk. One open door led to what looked like a disorderly corner office.
"Er." Tonks spoke up. "Don't you actually have a proper testing facility?"
Remus nudged her in the side, and she looked at him with a confused expression.
"Well, no." said Mister Diggory. "This is mostly a research centre. We don't usually get a lot of animagi coming through here, so there's no real need for more than this. We just assume that the people who come in here will only expect it to be a little disorganized. We are studying creatures after all. It's a messy sort of business."
"Or perhaps they are torturing us, after all. Messy, humph! I'll have you know, we're quite clean!" A strange female voice said, and Harry spun around to see who had spoken.
"Harry?" Remus asked curiously.
"Who said that?" Harry asked.
Remus only gave him a confused look.
"She spoke." Said another, this time male, voice. "Never shuts up as a matter of fact."
"Huh?" Harry asked again. "Who else is here?"
The rest of his group looked at him askew then too, and Harry spun around, still looking for the source of the voices. No one else was there.
"Harry, do you realize you were just speaking in parseltongue?" Hermione said cautiously.
Harry's eyebrows raised, and the source of the voices clicked into his head. He smiled, and turned toward the aquariums. One of them had three very distinct serpentine faces peering out at him.
"Oh, I see." Harry said, now clearly hearing the hissing undertones to the words he was saying. "You scared me," he told the snakes. "I didn't expect anyone else to be here."
"She didn't mean to." The male snake said. "She's just ungrateful."
Harry turned to Remus again, this time making sure that he was speaking clearly in English. "Sorry. There are three snakes over there in that aquarium that are a being bit chatty."
"Three snakes!" came another voice. "Did you hear that? Three snakes! Well I never!"
Mister Diggory had gone very pale. "You're a parselmouth?"
Harry smiled wryly. "Yeah, I probably wasn't born one, but after this," he said, lifting his fringe and showing his scar, "well… Voldemort kind of gave me the ability."
"Right." Diggory said, releasing a breath of relief. "I guess that makes it all right. I don't really know of any parselmouths except for You-Know-Who."
"Well, now you do." Harry said, smiling.
"Just so you're aware," Diggory pointed to the aquarium, "those snakes over there are actually only one snake. Just one baby runespoor. I didn't know that parselmouths could speak to runespoors. I thought it was only normal snakes."
"I don't see any reason why not. I never actually spoke back to it, but I did hear a basilisk speak a few times, so I guess it's not that weird."
Diggory shook his head as if to release some confusion and dark thoughts. "Right, let's get back on topic. I should explain this test a bit."
He moved over to the office door, and everyone turned to face him, listening carefully. "I'll ask you about your animal, then get you to show it to me. Then I'll ask you to run around a bit and do what you do best while you're in the bodies of these animals of yours. I'll just need enough time to write down your markings and do a quick sort of sketch for the ministry records. Then I'll get you to transform only one part of your body; an arm or something and maybe just your voice-boxes-"
"Er… Just a part?" Ginny interrupted. "How are we supposed to do that?"
Harry's nerves stepped up a notch. He'd never done a semi-transformation before. How was it done?
"Oh, I keep forgetting that you didn't go through the proper channels. I don't mind if we skip that part. Usually that's what most people try first, just to make sure they've got the hang of it before the full transformation. Maybe you could practice it on your own later. It's really just to see how much control you have over the animal. Why don't you give it a try anyhow, and we'll see how you do."
Everyone nodded nervously.
"Right, I'll have to take a picture of both your animagus picture and your human one for the permit. As well."
Hermione moved to check her flyaway hair in the reflective glass of one of the fishtanks.
"So, in you go. One at a time then." He gestured to the office door.
"Right," Neville said, his brow beginning to sweat lightly. "I'll go first, and get it over with."
Everyone nodded, and Neville followed Diggory into the office, already shaking like a leaf.
Everyone pulled chairs out to take a seat. Ron held his hand out in front of his face, and tried to change just a part of it like Diggory had said. Hermione had also begun working on changing her foot into the claws of an owl.
"So, you're a runespoor then?" Harry asked conversationally, after walking back over to the side of the aquarium.
"Oh, ssso now he gets it right." The female voice said acerbically. "Only after he was told!"
"He doesn't mean anything by it." The first male voice said reprovingly, and he bopped his counterpart lightly on the top of her head.
"I should apologize then," Harry nodded. "I couldn't see you very well from over there."
"Why should you need to sssee us? Can't you smell us?" The third voice asked. "Do you not have a tongue?"
"Wizards don't work the same way you do. We sometimes need to see things before we can trust them. My sense of smell isn't strong enough to sense that you are a runespoor. Even my eyes aren't really good enough sometimes. I need to wear these glasses to clear everything up."
"You live behind glassss too?" the runespoor's middle head asked, lifting herself up to Harry's eye height. "We've lived behind glassss almossst all of our lives."
"I know how you feel," Harry said. "Once I let a boa constrictor go free. I don't believe he ever made it to Brazil, but it was a good try."
"You've releasssed one of our brothers?" The second male head asked.
"I tried." Harry said. "I can't help you though. I'm apparently not very good at snake rescue. I heard they caught him before he even left the reptile house."
"All of the animals here wish to leave. The only ones they can't contain are the phoenix and the unicorn, but the firebirds never come back to sssave us, and the unicorn would more likely skewer us with their horns than help us." The snake sounded slightly jaded about this. "They're both predators to us young ones anyway," he grumbled.
"So what do you eat?" Harry asked, hoping to keep himself occupied until his test.
"Ratsss and mice, mostly." The second male voice answered. "We even know how to hunt."
"Really?"
"Yesss. We've been able to go out on the hunt before. But we can't eat the humans."
"I would hope not." Harry said, "I am one."
"No, it's because they took out most of our venom. We can now only hunt smaller creatures."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did it hurt?"
The first male head nodded. "We ssstill feel pain in the roof of our mouths when we ssswallow."
They were silent in contemplation for another few minutes, while Harry gave his semi-transformation a go. Then Neville returned smiling triumphantly through the door of the office.
Not a minute after that Ron went in, Harry heard Diggory begin laughing hysterically in the office. Apparently he'd just realized what had happened in Hogsmeade the year before. Neville and Ron had gone out and saved countless people's lives in their animagus forms, and even though no one had known who they really were, the image of the fox and the pug were quite famous in wizarding circles. They'd even had a pub unintentionally named after them. Harry thought it was a much safer version of fame than the one he had. Only a few privileged people knew what had really happened in Hogsmeade. Ron and Neville were able to get their thanks just by having people mention their animagus forms.
He turned back to the runespoor. "How did you know what that man said earlier? Can you understand English?"
"Underssstand." Hissed the second male voice, "but not speak back. It is apparently an ability unique to Runespoors."
"The man said you were just a baby. How old are you?"
The first male head spoke. "We're perhaps twenty years old, but our kind lives so long that twenty years is nearly unimportant in that span."
"You've been living here for that long?"
The middle female head nodded. "We long for essscape. Are you sure you can't help us?"
"I would undoubtedly get into a lot of trouble." Harry explained.
The left head shuddered. "Punishment is essspecially undesirable."
"Is it really so bad here?"
"It is said that some beings are tortured for acting human, and some beasts are punished for protecting themselves from the tests alone."
"You have tests done on you?" Harry asked, now feeling unaccountably guilty for being a member of the human race.
"Yes, you can see the scar upon Thessassa's back," the right head said, pointing to a splotch of redness on the female snake's torso. "She was attacked by a human, and they took out some of her insides. They said she shouldn't be allowed to have any children. They think we're dangerous."
The female head turned away and began to weep quietly.
"I'll see what I can do to get them to release you. I'm sure you've never done anything to hurt anyone."
"Not like that werewolf."
Harry's heart leapt into his throat. "What?"
"That man over there. He's a werewolf isn't he?"
"Yes, but…"
"He's got the scent of blood on him."
"But I can't believe that Remus would ever…He's not that sort…"
"Harry?" Remus walked over to the side of the aquarium. "I heard my name. What are you telling that runespoor about me?" He was smiling, and Harry knew there was no way he'd understood what the runespoor had just said. He couldn't have been telling the truth.
"Just telling him that you're my guardian." Harry said innocently.
"Well, you're next. Hermione says she's still not ready yet, and everyone else has gone."
Harry saw that everyone else was indeed smiling in relief, except for Hermione, who was crossing her eyes to look at her nose and mouth, which were small and slightly pointed like a beak. She seemed to have gotten it mostly right, but as always with Hermione, she wasn't happy until it was perfect.
Harry nodded, and said goodbye to the runespoor. He then crossed over and went into Diggory's office.
"You know you have a very unhappy runespoor out there." Harry said carefully.
Diggory chuckled. "Yeah, it's tried to escape three times. Once it even went around and ate all of our other rodent specimens. We don't know how she keeps doing it, but I'm sure it'll keep happening until she actually succeeds."
"You couldn't let her go?"
"Not really. I do feel for her, but Fudge always said he needed to have the dangerous animals studied, so we could combat them if necessary. We have to make it look like that's what we're doing. Bollocks, I say. I figure we could just leave them alone, they'll be alright. Besides, that one's never really experienced the wilderness. She wouldn't survive on her own now."
Harry nodded in understanding.
"So, let's get on with it, then." Diggory said, pulling out sheets of paper. "What is your animagus?" He asked very straightforwardly.
"I'm a lion."
Diggory smiled, not looking surprised as he marked something down on the page. He then pulled out a camera. "Picture, quickly now, smile."
Harry gave a rather forced smile, and the flash went off.
Diggory put away the camera again, and tapped his quill on the side of the desk once. "Might you be able to demonstrate for me now?"
"I would." Harry said, then thought the word 'transanimagus.'
He felt his body being propelled down into the shape of the lion, and as always when he adopted the animal, he felt himself also adopt his alter-ego. It was like there were two beings inside of him. Harry, who was inherently human, and Greymane who was inherently lion.
"Please, do whatever you wish for a moment. I have to observe you." The man before him said crisply, and Greymane understood the command.
Greymane tilted his head to the side, and sniffed the air. He could see that the man was slightly disconcerted by this shape, and he knew he had to show him what a docile creature he could be. He lumbered over to the only blank wall the furthest away from him, and lifted up his claws, feeling that they were perhaps not quite sharp enough.
"No, no, stop!" Diggory yelled, interrupting him, and Greymane turned as if to ask why? "Here, you can use this." Diggory said, and pointed his wand to the wall, conjuring a large patch of thick brown shag carpeting, which spanned the entire wall surface.
Greymane gave a short nod and a purr, and proceeded to tear the carpeting to shreds while Diggory observed him. In a back corner of his mind, he felt as if he were somehow on display, but it really didn't matter that much. Once the carpet was appropriately shredded, he began to pace the length of the room, stopping only once to attack what looked like a floating piece of dust. He finally laid down in the sunniest corner beneath the quite false looking ocean view window, and waited. He wondered why he'd been so nervous just a moment ago. This was easy!
Another minute passed in this manner, during which Greymane vaguely heard the click of the camera but disregarded it, before he was instructed to turn back into a human. "What's next?" Harry asked.
"Have you ever tried to just change just your voice? Ever tried to make the sound?"
Harry started to shake his head, but stopped halfway. The memory of his recent agoramorphosis made him wonder.
"I don't know." He finally answered. "I might have done it by accident once."
Diggory looked confused. "It's pretty difficult to make that sort of accident."
"I… Just trust me." Harry finally answered. "I might want to try it again, though. I think I remember what I did."
"Right, then. Give it a try." Diggory looked less than believing.
Harry closed his eyes, and tried to imagine what he had done during his agoramorphosis. He remembered the way his throat had sort of closed up when he'd spoken in the other animal languages.
"Right, I think I've got it." Harry said, but leapt back in alarm as the growl escaped instead. Diggory looked quite impressed, and marked those notes down in his pages.
I did it! Harry said in lion, then realized that he didn't know how to change his voice back to human. He closed his eyes again, and imagined his way through his agoramorphosis.
Did I do it? He growled. No, I guess not. Let me try again. He added, despite the fact that Diggory clearly couldn't understand a word of what he was saying, and was patiently waiting for him to return his voice to normal.
Another minute passed as Harry recalled the memory of the way his throat had morphed during his agoramorphosis.
There.
Harry yelped, as instead of lion speak or human speak, the voice that escaped was that of a phoenix. Even the sudden yelp of surprise came out as more of a squawk.
"What's that!" Diggory yelped. "Where'd that come from!"
That's just Fawkes. Harry trilled, trying to think about what exactly he'd done to get his voice to do this. Apparently he likes to pop in every once in awhile. He explained, still singing the words.
It took another minute of pondering, which wasn't very easy with Diggory hounding him for information in the background. He wouldn't be able to answer him in any sort of intelligible answer, so he mostly tried to ignore him.
"Did I get it?" Harry asked finally, and opened one eye and searched Diggory's face.
"I'd say you did." Diggory answered breathlessly.
"Are you sure? I'm not speaking parseltongue or something now, am I? Sometimes I can't really be certain."
"Nope, but I would recommend that when you go for your apparition testing, you ask about fire-flashing."
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"Well, it's completely impossible for a wizard to be a magical creature as an animagus of course, but sometimes you find people who have enough of that same sort of magic within them to take advantage of it. Only one out of every five hundred wizards or so are able to fire-flash the way phoenixes do. It's more common than learning to be an animagus, because it's something that shows itself to be inherent in your system as a hereditary thing, like parseltongue. You'll also want to ask about whether your parents were able to do it. It's not something you need to have a permit for, and I've heard that for some people it's easier than apparition."
Harry's head was spinning. He didn't quite know what Diggory was talking about. "So, it's like apparition?"
"Except you have to be the sort of person who has the ability in you to begin with, and there's no way to test for it, so you just have to try. I've heard it's a dangerous thing to attempt, but I'm not sure why. Still, if you're able to get that inner phoenix of yours to sing… You might just want to give it a go. Ask the apparition instructor about it, all right?"
"Okay." Harry said, not really knowing what he was getting into, and feeling a bit like he was in a daze.
"Right then, lets try something else. Can you change your hand into a paw?"
Harry demonstrated what he had been able to accomplish while he'd waited, which was only changing his nails into fierce looking black claws. Apparently this was acceptable for Diggory. He wrote up a temporary animagus pass, and handed it over to the smiling teen.
With the test complete, Harry walked out of the office with a somewhat vacant smile on his face. Hermione gave him a curious frown as she passed him.
Hermione returned ten minutes later, looking for some reason, slightly miffed.
"What, didn't he give you a pass?" Ron asked in alarm.
"Oh, of course." Hermione said quickly, waving the hand holding the bit of parchment to dismiss the comment. "It's just this." She handed him a second page, and Ron's eyes went wide as he scanned it.
"I asked Mister Diggory for a list of registered animagi." She said, looking very unhappy.
"Merlin!" Ron breathed. "We don't have anything on her now!"
"What? What is it? Who don't you have anything on?" Ginny asked, trying to look over her brother's shoulder.
"Rita Skeeter." Hermione spat. "We had her blackmailed not to write anything horrible about Harry. We promised we wouldn't tell anyone that she was a beetle animagus, as long as she didn't write any more sludge about Harry."
"It looks like she's nipped that in the bud by registering herself."
Harry groaned, and rolled his eyes. "That's why she wrote all that stuff about my agoramorphosis. Maybe she was even there! How else could she have known?"
Hermione's lips thinned out. "I don't think this is a coincidence. Somehow she's been able to register herself just as quietly as we have, so she must also have some reliable contacts in the ministry."
Harry looked at the list. Indeed, there was Rita Skeeter's name, last on the list, followed by a date early that spring, explaining when she was registered. Next to her name was a short explanation of why she had decided to become an animagi. It said: For business reasons.
"She certainly didn't beat around the bush." Harry commented. "For business purposes means she can spy on anyone she wants, and get just the right scoop."
Ginny nodded. "And from now on, keep your eyes open for beetles."
Harry agreed with her wholeheartedly. "Gin, can I talk to you for a second?"
Ron raised his eyebrows in gleeful disbelief.
Harry shrugged. "I just have a sort of mission for you this afternoon if you want it."
Ginny nodded. "All right."
Harry pulled her into a quiet corridor for a moment, explained the problem, and carefully unloaded the cargo he'd stashed up the sleeve of his robe During Hermione's testing.
Ginny smiled mischievously as she helped curl it securely into the bottom of a quickly conjured backpack. She zipped it in, and Harry helped her load it on to her shoulders without jostling it too much.
"Thanks Gin. I think it'll really appreciate the move."
Ginny smiled at him. "I'll take good care of her-or rather him-or rather them..." she rolled her eyes and shrugged. "I promise."
"There'd better be lots of rats where we're going." Hissed a male voice from inside the backpack.
"There certainly are." Harry answered.