Chapter Twenty Nine
Original Author Notes -A/N: I don't usually include progress reports in chapter posts of "Vox Corporis", but in this case I think there are a lot of readers who'd like to know that I just finished writing The Talk scene. Harry and Hermione finally get around to discussing That Night after the Triwizard Tournament. So yes, they do talk about it... just hang in there until page 414 and you'll have the conversation you've been wanting since Chapter Three :)
The timing upon which this chapter fell was entirely serendipitous, but it serves really well as a nice Christmas present for all you readers, IMO. Happy holidays and enjoy!
Harry was working late in the library on his Potions homework. For days it had been his retreat of choice. Ron wasn't speaking to him, and Harry hadn't been in any great hurry to rectify their cracked friendship while Ron was still acting like a moron, so Harry had taken to avoiding his once best friend completely. That meant doing his homework in the library, the least likely place for Ron to go, rather than the common room. Frequently, Hermione would be holed up in the library with him, doing her own homework or keeping him company (when she wasn't in the girls' loo working on the animagus potion), which had been a salve to what might have been a painful schism between childhood friends. When she was across the table, right there if he only looked up, it was a reminder of why he was so angry at Ron in the first place. He'd look upon her face, vigilantly studious yet quick to smile for him, and he'd remember the way she'd looked after one of Ron's callous remarks.
Ultimately, it led to several late-night sessions in the library for Harry to be out of Ron's way, with the unanticipated benefit of improving his marks in class.
Harry would have thought their falling out with Ron would be a private matter, but it seemed most of Hogwarts was wise to the disruption. Of course, the more observant teachers noticed that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were no longer sitting together, three abreast, as they had since first year. Neville had spent about a day being overly friendly to Harry, perhaps trying to fill the hole left by Ron. It only lasted that single day, because Neville just wasn't Ron, and in fact the hole left wasn't so big as Neville must have at first believed, because Hermione was usually able to compensate for any gap resulting in Ron's parting. Harry appreciated Neville's gesture, but the fact was Neville wasn't needed. Hagrid had been a bit upset about the fight among his favorite students; in Care of Magical Creatures he'd tried to force a reconciliation by assigning the three of them to be a group to treat a wounded grindylow. Harry wasn't sure what Hagrid had expected, but probably not the grindylow getting its teeth in Ron's arm and the pair of them rolling around on the ground trying to out-scream each other before Hermione stunned the both of them. Ron hadn't seen that as quite the valiant gesture on Hermione's part that it was, to say the least. After that, the cold distance between them grew frostier still.
So it would seem the three were down to two. Considering Ron's recent behavior, Harry wasn't really sure it bothered him that much. Ron should have believed him about the Goblet of Fire. Every time he gave the situation with Ron any amount of thought, he came back to that. Harry had sworn he hadn't put his name in the goblet, but Ron refused to believe him. Hermione had gone on faith; she'd only had to be assured once that Harry hadn't done it, and she'd never given it another second's doubt. Ron should have been the same. He should have trusted Harry if he was the good friend he claimed he was.
So Harry had been spending his evenings in the library and nearly all of his spare time with Hermione.
It was getting late and most of the other students were trickling back to their common rooms. Harry was one of the last remaining in the library bent over his books. He could hear every rustle of paper, every little cough, every scrape of chair legs on the floor as someone got up to leave. It was amplified by the resounding silence of the stacks and tables. He'd come to appreciate the serene quiet of a library in the days since he'd started hiding away behind its doors.
He looked up from his book when a hand came to rest on his shoulder. He turned in his chair to look behind him. Hermione smiled down at him andhe immediately smiled back. "Hey,Mione."
"Almost finished, Harry?" she glanced at his open book and scrolls of homework on the desk. She looked so comfortable… at ease. For all the world it didn't appear to Harry that Ron's fracture from them was negatively impacting her. For that he wasgrateful.
"Sure, let me put this away and we'll go." Where was at her discretion. Sometimes they went for a run that ended down at the Black Lake shore. Sometimes they walked up to the owlery only to turn back without ever having mailed a letter. Sometimes they headed toward the common room only to knowingly miss their turn and have to circle back. Mostly, it was an excuse to be in one another's company. It was a chance to talk… talk the way they had at the Grangers' over the summer.
Harry stowed his things in his bag and stood. Hermione smiled at him and took up at his side as they left the library and started toward the Gryffindor common room at a snail's pace.
"Did you see the notice about the Hogsmeade weekend coming up?" Harry asked after a moment of companionable silence.
Hermione nodded. "To be honest, I was kind of surprised they'd allow it, all things considered. No doubt they'll have security enough to make it look like the queen's come to visit."
"Yeah… so, you planning to go?"
A smile tugged at the corner of Hermione's mouth. "Well… there's this book I was hoping I could find…"
Harrylaughed."Isn't there always? If I promise not to whine too much, you think we could stop in at the Quidditch shop after thebookstore?"
Hermione slid close to his side, momentarily took hold of his hand, and gave his forearm a squeeze with her other. "Deal. And you don't whine."
"Really?" Harry asked with a lift of his eyebrows.
"No," Hermione moved back away to a more casual distance, "you shuffle and shift around like a toddler who needs to go to the loo, but you don't whine per se."
"I do not."
Hermione very nearly giggled and Harry gave her a gentle bump with his shoulder. Hermione reached out to steady herself and caught his arm. When she was sure on her feet again she forgot to let Harry's arm go.
They rounded the corner that would take them up to the stairwell leading to the fat lady painting and the Gryffindor common room beyond. Hermione suddenly stopped. Harry halted and turned to face her."Hermione?"
Hermione stepped into Harry, stood on tip toe to bring her face to his, and just when Harry was sure his heart was going to jump into his throat she laid her cheek lightly against his and whispered with her lips brushing Harry's earlobe, "Full moon tonight, Harry."
Harry's eyes widened and he looked sharply at Hermione when she pulled back and watched his face. Her face was flushed with excitement, her eyes bright, her lips fighting a grin and trembling faintly with the effort. Harry blinked and had to clear his thoughts. "Full… so… we do it?Tonight?"
Hermione nodded and had to bite her lip to stop the exultant smile that was bursting to lay claim to her face. "Meet me at midnight in the common room? And bring your invisibility cloak."
Harry nodded mutely and followed, speechless, as Hermione walked off in the direction of the common room again. What with everything that had been going on with Ron and Sirius lately, Harry had lost track of the days and of the impending full moon. Tonight. It was daunting to think of all their preparations for months leading up to this night. He had a feeling the hours until midnight would feel like both the longest and shortest hours in his life.
Harry stole out of his dorm room at ten to midnight. Everyone else was fast asleep and had been for hours (if Harry could judge by the length of time Ron had been snoring), but Harry had been enclosed in his bed practicing the animagus spell a thousand times as he marked the hours until he would meet Hermione. He could already say it backwards and forward, but knowing that tonight it would be put to the test made him anxious to do some last-minute cramming. When he crept down to the common room he found Hermione waiting for him, her familiar black bag slung over one shoulder. She needlessly pressed her finger to her lips. Harry approached Hermione, draped the invisibility cloak over the both of them, and together, hunched over to stay fully covered by the cloak, they crept to the portrait hole. The fat lady stirred and snorted when her painting swung open for no apparent reason, but she quickly enough went back to sleep and Harry and Hermione were left to traverse the deserted corridors alone.
Harry didn't know where Hermione had in mind for them to go, so he let her take the lead. Bent nearly double as they were to scuttle along under the cloak, he found it easier to keep them tightly side by side by wrapping his arm around her waist and holding them practically bound at the hip, in order to avoid any potentially revealing bobbles.
Hermione hugged her bag before her and took them to a side entrance to the castle. Without a sound they snuck out on to the moonlit grounds. With a full snowy moon hanging high in the sky, it was easy to see in the night, every structure and feature gilded in silver light. Crickets were the loudest sound outside where normally the voices of schoolchildren would have been prominent, and Harry and Hermione's breaths were barely-there wisps of white leaving their lips.
Hermione patted his hand that was curled around her waist to get his attention and started forward again. Harry was perfectly in step with her and they left the castle behind.
It wasn't until they had crossed the grounds, slipped into the edge of the woods on the shores of the Black Lake, and come to a halt in a small clearing that one of them finally spoke. It was Hermione who broke the silence.
"This should be far enough from the castle that we shouldn't be seen. Close enough to the lake, too."
Postponing the moment when they'd no longer be scrunched together under the cloak, Harry asked, "What does the lake have to do with it?"
"Well, think about it, if you turn into a fish then you'd be in a spot of trouble if we weren't near any water, wouldn't you?"
"Oh."
Harry reluctantly removed his arm from around her and drew the cloak off of them. Hermione looked up immediately at the moon, as though to double check that it was indeed full and luminous. Harry balled up the cloak and set it at the base of a tree. He was surprised to find he was unspeakably nervous. "So… what now?"
Hermione blinked at him, swallowed as though she were just as nervous, then grabbed for her bag. "Uh… right. Well, should get right to it then, don't you think?" She reached into her bag and drew out a sealed jar. Inside was a grey, gravy-like liquid with odd shapes and lumps inside. Harry recognized the shaft of one of Hedwig's feathers amid the goo and guessed it was the potion containing histokens.
"I think you should go first," Hermione said. Harry felt his pulse jump. "Me? Why me?"
Hermione chewed on her lip and studied him closely. "Because tokening came more naturally to you than it did to me. I think if only one of us were able to change tonight, it would be you."
Harry wished he had a good reason to forestall being the first one to actually try the transformation, but Hermione's logic was too sound. As usual. "Uh… okay. So, what am I supposed to do?"
Hermione handed him her bag and opened the jar with his tokens. "First, we need to build the frame. We have to lay out a pentagram pattern on the ground, at least one token at each point of the star. You'll stand in the center, and the magic that binds the tokens together will engulf you."
Hermione moved a pace away, reached into the jar, and withdrew Hedwig's potion-soaked feather. She laid it on the ground at her feet. A soft glow emitted from the point on the ground and the feather stuck where it had been laid. It didn't even flutter when a breeze wafted through the clearing.
Harry stood back and watched.
Hermione went to the remaining four points of the unseen pentagram and laid a token at each juncture, each point glowing softly. Then she returned to the topmost point, the first point, and started again. She walked the same path, laid a new token each time, until she was down to the last three tokens in Harry's jar. The left-over tokens, since Harry's number of tokens had not been evenly divisible by five, she placed at the top point of the star. When she stepped away a pentagram was glowing on the ground before them. The points were the brightest, almost like a lumos, very nearly matching the pale glow of the moon, but when all the tokens had been added faint, misty, milky lines shimmered between the points. It created the familiar star shape, as well as boxing that five-pointed star in apolygon.
Harry's heart was racing. "So, I get in the middle, then?"
Hermione nodded, paused, and looked sharply overatHarry."Oh…" she gasped when something abruptly came to mind.
"What?" he asked in concern.
"Oh, bugger, I should have thought of it! I can't believe I was so stupid." Hermione's face darkened in the moonlight. "Harry… I don't know how to say this. The animagus transformation… well, it only acts upon the physical witch or wizard who's changing. To take objects into the transformation requires practice. Things like wands… and clothes."
Harry froze. "Are you suggesting I…"
Hermione nodded miserably. "I'm sorry, Harry! I was so worried about getting the potion done in time it completely slipped my mind or else we could have brought a blanket."
"What about the cloak?" Harry started toward his invisibility cloak maybe a bit too eagerly.
Hermione caught his arm. "It's enchanted, otherwise it wouldn't be able to turn anything invisible. You can't introduce an outside magical entity into the initial transformation process."
Hermione stared hard at the ground and chewed on her lip in intense concentration. Harry willed her to think of something. "I suppose one of us could run back to the castle and get a blanket," she said haltingly.
Harry looked back toward the castle. Through the treetops he could see the spires of the castle towers in the distance. They'd stopped a good distance from the castle purposely. "I suppose… would chance that person getting caught, of course."
Hermione tapped her fingers against the jar's side in time with her racing thoughts, her face screwed, then she gave an exasperated sigh of surrender. "Oh, honestly, we're both mature, rational people, we should be able to handle a bit of nudity."
Harry's eyes widened nearly to the roundness of the overhanging moon.
"You want us to… naked?"
Hermione gave him an apologetic smile. "If it makes you feel any less horrible about it, at least we'll be even. I'll have to strip, too."
Harry opened his mouth to protest… when a little voice inside him snagged fervently on the concept of 'Hermione naked'. It suddenly felt very warm in the night air, but Harry couldn't say with certainty that it was a flush of embarrassment. "Well… I guess… I mean, you're right, we're both mature enough."
Hermione nodded. "Exactly. We'll just accept the fact I'm going to see you naked, and you're going to see me naked, but that's all it is. No reason to lose our wits about it. It's just skin. And besides, we're friends, so it won't be like it's some stranger getting a peep."
Harry had to wonder if Hermione was talkingaboutMyrtle."Right."
They stood, unmoving, staring at each other.
Hermione broke the stale-mate first. "So… you should…"
Harry was sure this time that the heat in his face was a blush. "Umm… right." With stilted movements, he toed off his shoes and pulled off his T- shirt. Hermione stood off to the side, trying to seem inconspicuous and uninterested in the whole process. Harry dropped his glasses and wand to the pile he'd begun of his articles of clothing, and it was slightly better when he couldn't clearly see. He slipped off his pants and felt quite the fool standing in the middle of the forest in just his boxers. He paused there.
Hermione had seen him in a near enough state to this when they were swimming. Actually skinning down to his birthday suit in front of her, though... that was a roadblock of terrifying proportions, and the difference of a single bit of clothing.
Harry glanced toward Hermione and saw her watching from the corner ofher eye. He was almost tempted to ask her to turn around, but that would be silly. She'd just turn back around and see it all anyway. Still, it felt oddly like he was going to be judged or evaluated once he had nothing left to hide behind.
With a deep breath to steel his courage, Harry dropped his boxers and was standing in all his bare glory in the middle of the woods. The rather cold forest, he noticed with a shiver.
"Okay… now, uh…" Hermione flicked darting glances at him from the corner of her eye, trying to talk to him without looking at him but trying not to look like that's what she was doing. It was jarring and distracting and Harry sighed in resignation. "It's all right, Hermione, you can look."
Hermione took in deep breath and turned to face him. She locked her gaze on his face at first, almost fiercely determined to meet him eye to eye, but it seemed she was unable to help the swift glance down. Her eyes flew back up quickly, but not before Harry felt like a specimen in one of Hagrid's classes. "Go… uh… stand. In the middle, there."
Harry nodded and stepped into the pentagram on the ground, painfully conscious of the view of his backside Hermione was getting. Turning back around to face her wasn't much better.
Hermione approached Harry where he stood in the star and stopped just inches from him. Harry almost drew back, self-conscious and twitchy, but Hermione mustered a smile that did wonders to help ease some of his crushing humiliation. She dipped the tip of her wand into the remaining grey potion in his token jar. When the wand came in contact with the liquid the points of the pentagram glowed brighter and the encased potion became luminescent. Hermione pulled out the wand, tipped in glowing potion, glanced up into Harry's face, then ran the tip of her wand down the center of his chest, tracing his sternum. Harry jumped, nervy, and a wave of gooseflesh followed the tip of her wand and spread to the rest of his body.
Hermione smiled again at his shiver. "It will focus the power within the frame on you." She stepped out of the pentagram, capped the jar, and said, "Now go into the meditative state you do when you token, but instead of completely voiding your conscious thoughts, concentrate on the spell. Know it."
Harry nodded and closed his eyes. Over the months he'd gotten good at reaching that state of mind quickly, but it took a bit longer to push away his shyness at being nude in front of Hermione. But slowly, that emptiness of thought began to take him. The sounds of the forest grew louder, richer, stronger… it touched his bare skin, seeped into his pores, flowed in the air that passed through his lungs. It grew up from his toes parting the grass, reached down from the stars, swelled with the moon, glowed with its light.
He almost gave over entirely to the peace, but like a once-forgotten face refusing to fade from memory, the words of the spell came floating up from the abyss of nature's voice and breath and heart. He could feel the swoop of Hermione's handwriting, then the words on the paper filled his mind, the meaning twined together into incantations, like vines dancing a ladder to the sky. He followed the dancing, the airy waltz. The higher it went, the stronger the night became. Sound assaulted him. Owls hooted like cannon blasts. Crickets chirped like chainsaws. The smell of the forest hit him like a bludger and he was light-headed. It was hard to breathe without falling flat from the air that brought the world with it in explosive, over-powering smells. His skin felt fit to peel free of his flesh to escape the way the light breeze slammed into him. So much assailing him, flying at him, overwhelming him, but none of it was pain. Nothing that hurt more than the shock of experiencing too much. And still he rode the twining vines of the spell, raced it to the moon where the real explosion awaited. He let the words carry him up and up, through the sounds and smells and the air on his body. His heart was racing, pounding like a giant drum in his ears, stretching his veins and arteries to the fullest as blood rushed like water rapids. He was bathing in the light of the moon, it was burning bright like the sun, and his heart was pounding so fast even the sounds of the night were drowned out.
And then he was falling. The ground rushed at him and he caught himself with his hands. The racing and the climbing and the pounding stopped and for a moment Harry didn't dare move until he could sort out where exactly he was. The sounds of the forest, the smell of the dirt and grass just below him, slowly brought it back. Outside.
Woods. Hogwarts. Harry breathed in and out quickly, chest heaving. He slowly opened his eyes… and squinted. It was bright out. Had he been flying to the moon until dawn? It hadn't felt that long. The crickets were still singing, the owls still calling… it still sounded like night. And the night was loud. Harry looked up and sought Hermione.
He found her standing a few feet away, looking down at him… and a look of absolute shock on her face.
Harry, confused, moved to stand… but he couldn't. His body wouldn't do it. He took a step forward, hand then foot, and he could move as though on hands and knees, but not standing upright. Baffled, he opened his mouth to call for Hermione's help… and he jumped to the side in surprise when instead of his voice an animal cry came forth in its place. Harry blinked up at Hermione, now truly on the path to panicked.
Hermione moved toward him… he had to look up at her, he wasn't taller than her now, only half as tall as she was. As though aware of his discomfort, when she was directly in front of him she dropped to her knees… and gazed at him in wonder.
"Harry…" she said, and Harry perked up at her voice. He could still hear fine. There were tones and pitches to her voice, layers and nuances buried that he'd never noticed before, but it was hers. And how he could smell her, even though she was across from him. It was as though she was in the crook of his shoulder.
"Harry… you did it!" Harry stared at her.
Hermione beamed, overjoyed, then she hesitated when she noticed his disquiet. "Can you understand me?"
Harry opened his mouth to answer that he could but a mewl resulted instead and he grimaced in frustration. He looked at her again, distraught, and gave an awkward nod.
Hermione, thankfully, accepted that poor response. "Harry… the animagus transformation… you did it!"
Harry looked down at his hands splayed on the ground… and spat when he saw black paws instead of hands.
"It's okay, Harry… stay calm." Harry looked back up at her, irate at the suggestion he should stay calm. Hermione's voice was soft and soothing when she said, "This is what we were trying to do, remember? I can only imagine what a shock is it, but it's all right. And please, stop snarling atme."
Harry curbed his annoyance and it must have worked, he could fee his mouth relax, and Hermione looked less tense. Once the initial shock was over, Harry realized that he wasn't in any kind of pain. His body felt different, moved and responded to him differently, but it still obeyed him. In fact, when he lingered on the sensations of his new form, he feltstrong.
"You're beautiful," Hermione breathed, and Harry turned his attention back to her. Hermione still looked absolutely astounded as she studied him. She reached forward to touch him, stopped short, and dropped her hand to her lap.
Harry wouldn't mind being touched. It might help settle him. Hermione was always good at doing that. Harry stepped closer to Hermione and dropped his head toward her lap, inviting her to touch him… or so he hoped.
She apparently understood, because her hand came to rest atop his head and Harry closed his eyes. It was nice.
"Wow…" she petted him, head to shoulders again and again, and Harry stepped in closer to her, his terror and displaced fury melting away. "Shall I… would you like me to describe what you look like?"
Harry looked up at her and very tentatively placed one of his large paws in her lap. He sat back on his haunches in front of her and waited.
"You're a cat. A very large black panther. Your eyes are the same color, in fact, against the black, they look quite striking. And here," her fingers traced his brow over his right eye, "a white lightning-shaped mark, your scar. This is incredible. I am so proud of you, Harry. Now the only thing left is to manage to change back."
Harry drew his paw from Hermione's lap and turned his thoughts inward. He found the vines, still twisting in the back of his mind. This time the spell led him down, back to earth, and he closed his eyes to follow it. It spiraled away from the moon, out of the light, out of the orchestra of sound, away from the jubilee of smells, fell from the sky. His body weight shifted under him, his balance tipped, and when he lurched and nearly fell over Hermione caught him. He opened his eyes to the darkness of the middle of the night and blurted, "Hermione!"
Hermione squeezed his shoulder. "Harry! Oh, thank Merlin. That was going to be the tougher of the two, coming back, but you managed fantastically! I knew you could do it. You're officially an animagus now, Harry!"
Harry pulled awkwardly away from Hermione and looked down at his hands. Human hands again. He shuffled to sit more comfortably on the ground before her and ran his hands through his hair.
"What was it like?" Hermione asked eagerly, leaning in toward him.
"Weird. Loud. And bright." Harry rubbed his bare arms with his hands.
"But it felt… amazing, too. I felt powerful."
Hermione was practically buzzing."That would be the strength of your animal form. A panther! Imagine everything you'll gain from an animagus form like that." Hermione was off in her own world, running through the myriad possibilities, and Harry took the opportunity to kip over to his pile of clothes and quickly dress. When he was clothed once more he turned to see Hermione still on the ground as he'd left her, staring off into the forest, lost inthought.
Harry smiled, finding himself in a considerably better mood after changing back. He went to her side and touched her shoulder. "Come on, Hermione. We came out here for you to do it, too."
Hermione seemed to jolt at the suggestion, thenshestammered."Oh… yes, right." Harry took her hand and hauled her to her feet. When they were more on a level, he could see in her face her doubts.
"You can do this, Hermione, I know you can."
Hermione gave a wan smile and ducked her head. "I don't know, Harry… I'm not so good at going on reflex. From the start this was more fit to you than me. We have to face the possibility I may not be able to do it."
Harry touched her chin and tipped her head up to force her to meet his eyes. She reluctantly looked at him and Harry offered her an encouraging smile.
"Don't start doubting yourself. I haven't gone through anything in this whole process that you didn't experience, too. The tokens, the dreams, the spell work… if it worked for me there's no reason at this point it shouldn't work for you."
Hermione nodded and sucked in a deep breath, clearly trying to work up her own sense of capability. She looked back at him, this time more determined than uncertain. It was typical, tenacious Hermione Granger that asked, "Anything I should know?"
Harry thought a moment. "If it works, the first few seconds when you're not human it's really disorienting."
"Right. I better set up my frame."
As Hermione drew her own jar of token potion from her bag Harry saw that his own pentagram was no longer a glowing shape on the forest floor. His tokens were abandoned bits of debris on the ground. Hedwig's feather skittered away over the grass on the wind. While Hermione drew out her own shape a short distance away, Harry went to his piles of tokens and kicked them away so they no longer mapped out the shape of a pentagram. It didn't take him long, yet when he turned back to Hermione she was finished placing her tokens at the points of the star. Hermione had had fewer tokens to set up. It was glowing as his had, though perhaps not as brightly as Harry's. He assumed it was the difference in the number oftokens.
Hermione stepped back from the shape on the ground as Harry came up beside her. She turned to him and handed him the jar of potion. "Here… you'll need to draw the focal line on me with your wand like I did for you." She looked long and hard at the pentagram awaiting her, then with a resolute look on her face slipped off her shoes and dropped her wand.
Hermione had given Harry at least the imitation of consideration for his modesty when he'd been undressing moments ago. She'd pretended she wasn't watching him even though she had been. Maybe it was the residual effect of the transformation, maybe his brain was a bit addled, maybe he was just not as decent as Hermione, but Harry couldn't find the discipline to extend Hermione the same courtesy as she disrobed. She tugged her shirt up over her head and Harry openly watched, in truth unable to lookaway.
She undid her pants and shimmied out of them, unaware of Harry's staring problem a pace away behind her right shoulder.
Hermione reached behind her back and unclasped her bra. Harry shifted stiffly as she dropped the scant article of clothing to the ground with the rest of her clothes. Then she slipped out of her knickers like it was nothing, an afterthought. She turned to him and he was floored. Harry could hardly breathe. He gaped at her naked body, her curves painted and shaped by the moonlight, moving and silvering her skin, shining darkly in her hair that spilled past her shoulders. How she could want to be anything but the lovely thing in front of him right then was beyond his comprehension. She was beyond incredible. A compulsion rose in him to touch her. He wanted to touch her everywhere the moonlight did. He wanted the places the moonlight missed for himself. He'd give anything to trace the quicksilver of the night's lantern with his hands as it bathed herbody.
"Harry?"
Harry jerked from his reeling thoughts and met Hermione's eyes. The jump of his eyes up from down was the only proof he had that he'd not looked above her neck once before she called his name. Harry blushed. He felt guilty at first, but Hermione's expression when she stood facing him, bare to him in the moonlight, was a bit shy and embarrassed but not angry for his wandering gaze. He was astounded that she'd allow what he'd done, but she had.
Hermione gave him a small, mysterious half-smile, then turned and stepped into the center of her glowing pentagram. Harry watched her, mesmerized.
Hermione turned back to him, the moonlight hitting her just right to lay a scoop-shaped swath of pale light over her left breast, and she said, "Mark me."
Harry blinked a moment, then remembered the potion in his hand. With a gruff clearing of his throat, he took out his wand and approached Hermione. The nearer he drew, the more his heart hammered, the hotter the night seemed, the more beautiful she became. He stopped in front of her and stared down at her. First into her eyes, then at her lips, then down to her breasts, so insanely close he could just bring up his hand and touch her. Just one touch. Instead, he dipped the tip of his wand into the potion and watched it begin to glow.
When he drew it out and looked again at Hermione her eyes were downcast… when she looked back up into his face he somehow knew, from the light in her eyes, the part of her lips, the catch to her breath, that she'd been looking at his 'physiological response' to her. After all those times in Avalon, he was used to the way she looked when she was looking at that. Harry caught his breath and slowly drew the tip of his wand down the center of her chest, between the slight swell of her breasts. It seemed to take a supreme effort for him to back away when he was done. Hermione watched him intently as he left, favored him with a slow, unnamable smile, then she closed her eyes.
Harry put the potion away and stood there quietly watching Hermione trying to reach another state of mind. He used the time to attempt to get a hold of himself, but it was challenging. Hermione was still a naked vision of beauty in front of him. And with her eyes closed, her attention elsewhere, it was just too easy to stare. To study and memorize and notice so many things a friend should never notice.
It felt like an hour before there was any change. Suddenly, Hermione gasped. Her breathing accelerated. Her eyelids fluttered and her expression changed from blissfully untroubled to torn. She staggered and cried out.
Harry jumped forward just as Hermione began to fall. She twisted in midair. Her small hands reached out to break her fall… they broke it in the form of sandy brown paws. Her legs folded under her, cushioned the blow when she hit the ground as tawny hindquarters. Her lovely flesh turned golden, smooth skin roughened by a coat of short fur. Her hair wrapped around her neck, her shoulders buckled under the burden of holding her own weight as bone and muscle shifted… Hermione fell to the ground on her side. When she came to rest, at last, on the forest floor it was not in the form of a witch.
Harry stopped in his tracks and gazed down at the lanky form of a lioness.
Hermione opened her eyes, dark brown as they were in her human form, and she caught sight of Harry right away. She scrambled to her feet and wobbled as though punch drunk. Harry knelt before her, remembering how comforting it had been to have her on level with him when he'd become a cat. He gaped at Hermione's new shape. She was sleek and powerful- looking on sight. There was no mistaking her animagus form; a large lioness. She had a chestnut-brown half-mane mostly on the underside of her throat, such as a young male lion might have, but in Hermione it reflected in animal form her characteristic wild hair as a human.
Hermione stood with legs braced apart and panted, her eyes locked on Harry with a wild light of fear glinting in the moonlight.
"Hermione?"
She took a step toward him and looked down at her front paw. She seemed to take a moment to take stock. Panic seemed to give way to curiosity. She turned her head to look back at her body. She flicked her tail, experimenting, studying, exploring. Harry had to chuckle. Hermione looked back at him and yawned, baring long, intimidating canines. Not that Harry was afraid of her.
Hermione crossed the remaining distance between them and blatantly stuck her nose in his face and sniffed. Harry smiled and tangled his fingers in her mane. Hermione met his eyes, and there was no mistake. It was Hermione behind them.
"I told you it was amazing, didn't I?" Harry asked in an awed voice.
Hermione shoved her head against his chest and it knocked him back. He laughed out loud. He ended up flat on his back with Hermione straddling him, standing over him and looking down at him with intent feline eyes.
Harry still had his hands buried in her mane.
Hermione licked her lips and Harry watched, astounded, as the lithe cat above him changed into the girl he'd known since he was eleven. The hands he'd had in her mane became entangled in her hair when she transformed back. Hermione lost her balance and crashed down on top of him. Harry's laughter stopped abruptly and he went rigid as Hermione collapsed on top of him, completely naked, but Hermione was giggling too wildly to notice. "Harry! I did it! Oh, wow, it was incredible! You were right. I was a lion, wasn't I?"
"Uh… yeah…" Harry shifted underneath her as she wiggled in excitement.
Hermione leapt off of him and stood, brazen and bare, in the moonlight. Harry sighed tensely with mixed relief and disappointment when she got off of him. "Can you believe that we're both cats? And not just housecats either, mind you, but you a panther and me a lion? What are the chances? Astronomical, but there's no question now! We're animagi, Harry!"
Harry climbed to his feet and brushed off his pants. "Pretty amazing."
Hermione whirled to face him. She was beaming, absolutely radiant with triumph. "Don't you realize how astounding this is? I really thought we might have to try a couple of full moons before we did it, and I wasn't even sure I'd ever change. And neither of us had any trouble changing back.
That's the trickiest part of the transformation, and we both did it without a bit of trouble. I'm so happy I could just scream!" Hermione laughed and launched herself at Harry, wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug.
Harrywhimpered."Uh… Hermione? Think you could put your clothes back on?"
Hermione tensed and jumped back from him, face dark with color. "Oh… I'm sorry, Harry, I… can you believe I forgot I was naked?" She laughed nervously at herself and went to fetch her clothes. Harry bit back commenting on the fact that he'd certainly not forgotten she was nude, not for a second.
By the time she'd dressed she had calmed down and things were back to some semblance of normal.
"What now?" Harry asked.
Hermione dispersed her own tokens and turned to regard him thoughtfully. "We'll have to find time to learn what we can do in our animagi forms. And now that our bodies know how to do it, changing will be much easier to do, so we can begin to work on transforming physical things with us. Namely our clothes and our wands." Hermione turned her gaze up to the moon and she narrowed her eyes. "For tonight we should probably head back to the castle. Wouldn't want to push ourselves too hard the first time."
Harry retrieved the invisibility cloak and they started back together. When they reached the tree line Harry covered them in the cloak and tugged Hermione tight to his side with an arm around her waist as they had when leaving the castle. The halls were just as deserted on the return trip as they'd been when they left, with not a trace of Mister Flitch or Missus Norris to be seen. It was a night of good fortune all around, it would seem. The fat lady looked bewildered to have midair provide the proper password, but sleepy and bleary-eyed she dutifully swung open and in short order they were safely back in the common room. There, with a shared, thrilled smile, they grudgingly parted company.
Harry climbed the stairs carefully back up to the boys' dorm room and slipped inside. He stashed his cloak, changed his clothes, and crawled into bed without a sound. The night had been so full and his mind was so preoccupied with his and Hermione's accomplishment that Harry didn't even notice that Ron wasn't snoring.