Animagus Lessons

 ‘Let’s hurry, we need to have breakfast before we go to the lessons. Let’s take the shortcut,’ Amelia said as they all woke up and started to exit the Common Room.

‘I’m starving, let’s go,’ said Isabell hungrily. 

Olivia rolled her eyes. The girls sat at the Ravenclaw table and started eating eggs and bacon very quickly. By the time Isabell, Olivia and Amelia filled their stomachs, it was 6:45. The girls rushed to the stairs and climbed up to the third floor. They reached Professor Dumbledore’s office by a circular, moving stone staircase, which was concealed by a large, ugly and stone Gargoyle. They spotted the Gargoyle but they didn’t know the password. Isabell looked at the letter Professor Dumbledore sent them. Finally Olivia remembered a spell she heard once and decided to give it a try. 

Suddenly, after Olivia had used her spell on the parchment, some more writing appeared on the letter. It said:

Also, the password is Sherbet Lemon. 

Ok,’ said Amelia. ‘Sherbet Lemon.’

It took a few seconds but the Gargoyle suddenly spun open and revealed the staircase. They went up the stairs and found a wooden door. The knocker was in the shape of a Gryphon. The girls knocked on the door. 

‘Come in!’ said a clear and calm voice from the inside.

The girls opened the door and saw Professor Dumbledore sitting on his chair behind his desk. The office had a number of spindly tables. On these tables, were set delicate looking silver instruments that whirred and emitted small puffs of smoke. Professor Dumbledore had an incredible collection of books, which made up his private library. They walked in and luckily there were three chairs in front of the desk.

‘You got my letter?’ asked Professor Dumbledore.

Amelia, Isabell and Olivia nodded.

‘I didn’t send it by owl because I was afraid it would get intercepted,’ he continued. ‘Now, you must be wondering what I’ll teach you. We’ll get to that soon enough. First I need to take you somewhere. Now, follow me.’ 

He got up and so did the girls. They went back down the staircase and went to the seventh floor. It was the hallway where the Come and Go Room was and suddenly the door appeared again.

‘Oh, that’s just a bathroom. We came across this room before,’ Olivia said.

‘Think again,’ said Professor Dumbledore, smiling.

‘Well, we did meet a house elf, and she told us that this is the Come and Go Room,’ said Isabell. ‘But we didn’t understand what she meant by that.’  

‘Ah yes… It has two names. The Come and Go Room as the house elf said and The Room of Requirement,’ Professor Dumbledore explained. ‘Do any of you know about The Roo-’

‘STUDENTS OUT IN THE CORRIDOR! STUDENTS OUT OF THE HALL!’ 

The caretaker, Argus Filch, had run towards them with his beloved cat (she had red eyes), Ms. Norris. 

‘They’re supposed to be out of the hall. They’re with me,’ Dumbledore said, with surprisingly no annoyance in his voice.

‘Oh, sorry,’ said Filch as he turned awkwardly around to go.

‘Now, as I was saying, do any of you here know about The Room of Requirement?’

No one replied.

‘Ok, let me explain. The Room of Requirement is a room that appears when someone is in very great need of it, and contains what that individual needs at that time. It disappears after they are done with it.’ 

Isabell, Olivia and Amelia looked very curious.  

‘It is the place we’ll be practising in for the next few weeks,’ said Professor Dumbledore. 

He opened the door and surprisingly there was a larger amount of room compared to before.

 There was a teacher's desk and surprisingly no small desks for any students. The desks seemed to be at the side of the room folded up in some sort of way. The room lit alone without any source of light. There was another door which was at the corner of the room. Professor Dumbledore shut the door behind them and pulled out his wand from his cloak. He flicked it and as he did, the desks on the side of the room unfolded and landed in the middle of the room. The door at the corner opened up and six books came out. There were two different kinds of books that came out. There were three of each kind. The books landed on the desks and Professor Dumbledore sat in the chair.  

‘What are we going to learn?’ asked Isabell, raising her eyebrows.

‘You’ll see,’ Professor Dumbledore said, grinning. 

He held the three same books steady and did a complex spell that made the three books fly into each of the girl’s hands.

‘Woah!’ exclaimed Amelia, trying to attempt the spell. 

Professor Dumbledore laughed and told them to read the titles of the books. The titles were:

A beginners guide to being an Animagus 

‘What’s an animagus?’ asked Olivia, confused. ‘I never read it in a book before.’

‘An Animagus is a witch or wizard who could transform themselves into an animal and back again at will. It is a learned skill, unlike other skills which show up alone!’ explained Amelia, looking very excited.

‘Your animagus has a link to your personality,’ said Isabell excitedly.

‘Let’s not get overexcited, shall we?’ said Professor Dumbledore, smiling. 

The girls sat on small cushions and nodded their heads.

‘Transforming is a whole process. Are you ready?’

The girls nodded.  

‘Ok, there are two books I gave you. The one I put on your cushions is the way we will be using to transform into your animagus. We will not practise today, we will just do a small test for preparations to find your perfect animals,’ Professor Dumbledore explained. ‘Next time, we will make the potions. There are three we will need to brew.’

The girls looked at each other excitedly.

 ‘We cannot brew them today since we don’t have much time left before your lessons but we will do what we can. Today I would like to test you,’ Dumbledore himself looked excited. ‘You will be asked to perform three spells with 5 minutes of research each. Later on, I will ask you to perform each of your spells. These are spells you might not even know.’

‘Professor Dumbledore?’ asked Amelia.

‘Yes?’

‘Will you test us on these spells today, sir?’ 

‘Yes, don’t worry if you can’t perform them. You will only be able to perform the one linked to your animagus very well.’

Amelia nodded to show she understood.

‘Now, the first spell in the test is Incendio. You have access to the library. You may start.’ 

Professor Dumbledore pointed to a small library, which was in the corner. The girls sped to the library in search of a book about ‘Incendio’. Olivia found the first book that was about the spell. Amelia found another a few seconds later and Isabell found one last. The girls went back to the cushions, held the books in their hands and looked at Dumbledore, eagerly, waiting for their next instruction.

‘You will read for a few minutes, then I will test you on this spell,’ he said.

The girls started flicking through the pages and reading the important information. 

The book the girls were reading said: 

‘Incendio’ is the fire-making spell used to create jets of flame. It is really useful in cold weather and sometimes can be used to set things alight. 

The girls were trying their best to accomplish this spell.

‘Ahh, yes, time to test you on this, it’s quite hard,’ announced Dumbledore, after a while. ‘First of all, Olivia, please perform this spell.’ 

Olivia was shaking and she was very pale.

‘INCENDIO! ‘ Olivia said, and surprisingly, her wand lit with jets of flame. 

The fire was so bright that Isabell and Amelia had to cover their eyes and step away from the blazing fire.

‘A very few wizards can create such jets of flame, well done Ms. Dragonheart.’

Olivia was panting, yet looking proud. Amelia and Isabell gave her a little hug.

‘Now, Amelia, can you perform this spell please?’ 

‘I-INCENDIO!’

Amelia hadn’t managed to do the spell correctly, because she waved her wand incorrectly in the middle. Yet she managed to create a weak jet of flames.

‘Well done, but not quite your animal, Isabell please.’

‘Ok- INSIENDO! ‘ 

Isabell had misspelt it, and therefore didn’t perform the spell, instead she jumped a few miles back, almost hitting the book shelf. Smoke was coming out of her wand. Amelia and Olivia then helped her up.

‘Not quite, but very good effort, as I said: it is very hard. So in this spell, Olivia succeeds, yet you might be an animal that has something to do with fire,’ Dumbledore said softly.

‘Next is ‘Reparifors’, it is the healing spell.’

The girls spent a short 5 minutes to find the book and practice the spell.

In the books it said:

Reparifors is the incantation of a healing charm that reverts minor magically-induced ailments, such as paralysis and poisoning.

‘Now, Ms. Dragonheart?’

Professor Dumbledore had 3 injured animals that Hagrid had. Their objective was to heal these creatures. Olivia was to heal a niffler which was hurt by a golden fork.  

‘O-ok REPARIFORS!’  Olivia held her wand incorrectly which made the animal more hurt instead of healing it. 

Olivia felt a lot of sympathy as she looked at the poor creature. 

‘Oh dear, would Ms. Clearwater heal these two?’ Dumbledore said as he pointed at the niffler and a gryphon which was well trained by Hagrid. Amelia took a deep breath and said the spell.

‘Ok- REPARIFORS! ‘

She couldn’t do it though. Nothing happened to the creatures, but they didn’t heal either.

‘Ah, not quite.’

It was Isabell’s turn. She was to heal a Blast-Ended skrewt (They are creatures that look like deformed, shell-less lobsters, with no visible head, that boost themselves forwards with an explosion in their tail every while). She raised her wand cautiously and said the spell. It worked perfectly, healing the Blast-Ended skrewt.

‘Well done! Now the last spell because you really should be going. It is Ventus. A spell that creates wind.’

The definition for the incantation was: 

 Ventus is a Latin word, meaning "wind".

It is a spiralling gust of wind emitted from the end of the wand. This cyclone is able to blow away heavy objects or even people. The wind could also entrap people, preventing them from leaving due to the violent wind speed. 

They all did as told and it was Olivia’s turn.

‘VENTIUS! ‘  

Olivia misspelt it, and so the paper they were working on wasn’t blown away, but was set aflame and slowly crumbled into pieces of ashes.

Dumbledore conjured another paper as it was Isabell’s turn.

‘V-VENTUS?’

Isabell was unsure of how to say it, so it didn’t work. The paper only rippled but wasn’t blown away. 

It was Amelia’s turn. She was slightly worried since she didn’t manage to succeed in the previous spells.

‘VENTUS!’

Amelia had done it. Not only was the paper blown away, but the strong wind also knocked over Isabell, who was standing a metre behind it. Amelia helped Isabell get up as they all looked at Dumbledore.

The girls looked proud and high-fived each other. 

‘Very good you three, now Olivia’s animal form would probably be a dragon. (Olivia gaped at him) Amelia is a phoenix.’ 

‘Wait, you have a phoenix in your office, sir?’ Amelia exclaimed.

‘Ah yes, he’s called Fawkes. Great Focus, Ms. Clearwater. Now, Isabell’s animal form is most likely a unicorn as I think you will master enchantments and jinxes.’

They all looked amazed about their animal forms. Olivia, a fierce and protective dragon that would breathe fire and fly? That was pretty cool. Amelia, a phoenix that has magical abilities, she could fly and can heal? Cooler than ever. Isabell, a unicorn that has a horn and does magic in her form? That must be a dream.

‘Some of your animal forms are winged because you are in Ravenclaw, Ravenclaw is the eagle, a unicorn is smart, I also think all of you are ready to transform,’ Dumbledore said, having a smile on his ancient face. ‘It is time for your first class I believe, I will inform the teachers that you need a little rest during the lessons.’

‘I don’t think Snape would agree,’ Isabell whispered to Olivia and Amelia, who had grins on their faces.

‘I will send you a letter when the next lesson is and don’t forget to practice brewing your potions,’ he said, smiling as the girls got up and gathered their belongings, which were on the side of the room.