Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 228, Section 227: Hermione's Animagus Form

“…Okay.” After a long silence, Harry nodded and said, “I will help you—but on one condition: I have to be there to watch over you in case anything goes wrong.”

“That’s great!” Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She took a couple of quick steps and turned back to say, “It’s settled then. Um, don’t tell Ron and Neville… although I don’t think they’d be able to learn Animagus even if they did, but—anyway! I’m going to play with Angry Horn!”

Hermione ran all the way to Angry Horn's side without even turning her head. She casually started talking to Ron and the others, who were begging Angry Horn to agree to take them for a ride in the sky.

It has to be said that after ascending, Angry Horn's personality seems to have become more composed than before, perhaps due to the influence of the ice element? After all, water and earth elements are generally considered to have more composed personalities... at least much more composed than wind and fire elements.

If we apply this to Angry Horn, it's like a dragon transforming from the restlessness of approaching adulthood into the comfort of an old dragon. At least in the past, she would never have agreed to let Hermione and the others step on her smooth, beautiful scales and then onto her back—she might even have carried them for a while.

But for the Angry Horn at this moment, she no longer cared about such trivial matters. She was flapping her wings and carrying several children... well, she even used her claws to grab Hagrid and flew into the sky with a scream.

Gazing at the enormous dragon shadow in the sky, Harry pondered Hermione's words and the fact that Angry Horn was clearly no longer flying using the power of its wings... He thought about many things.

Harry didn't plan to release Angry Horn out of the suitcase world right now so she could roam freely in the outside world, not only because her size had become very large and she would be easily spotted by Muggles, but Harry suddenly understood Mr. Weasley a little better.

Just as Mr. Weasley left some loopholes in the law to benefit himself, Harry felt he also needed to leave some legal loopholes in the yet-to-be-released "Shamanic Law" or "Elemental Law," at least so that people wouldn't think he was using his power to arbitrarily modify creatures with magic.

But before that, when the full moon arrives this month, Hermione's transfiguration ritual will also take place.

"...The key is to stay calm, stay determined, and imagine...imagine..."

Standing in the clearing in the woods, with lightning flashing and thunder roaring overhead, Hermione's mutterings became increasingly broken and incoherent amidst the booming thunder.

“Don’t be nervous,” Harry said, suppressing a laugh. “You can think of it as a trip, just walk around.”

“How could I not be nervous—ah! No! I have to stay calm! Harry, don’t talk!” Hermione gasped for breath. “Besides, this is nothing like traveling.”

It was hard not to be nervous. Hermione's mind raced as she quickly recalled the details of Harry's Animagus transformation that she had repeatedly pressed out of him. At the same time, she listened to the second heartbeat in her chest amidst the rumbling thunder. Then, she closed her eyes and gulped down the potion in the bottle.

Unsurprisingly, Hermione's expression was initially one of great pain. Her body seemed to be melting away. Unlike Harry's transformation, Hermione's size didn't increase; instead, it shrank—a person of that size was rapidly shrinking. Blue-grey fur was growing rapidly from her body, and her clothes were disappearing, turning into a fur-like appearance with the original clothing patterns.

Finally, the creature still standing on the grass was a Cat of the Cat, also known as the British Blue, with dense, soft, and smooth fur that appeared a beautiful blue-grey under the light of the wand.

It seemed not to have realized what was going on, and just stood there blankly until Harry walked over and squatted down in front of it.

--"Meow!!!"

A panicked, or rather, shrill, meow escaped from the cat. Perhaps it was still adjusting to the shrunken perspective, but Hermione's transformed blue cat was indeed terrified.

As if springs were installed in its paws, the blue cat suddenly sprang up from the ground and landed with a backflip!

No, that wasn't its limit. In just a few seconds, Harry watched as the blue cat's four legs seemed to rebel. Each leg had its own ideas, twitching and kicking wildly in four directions. The cat also suddenly arched its back, opened its mouth wide, and twisted its head left and right.

Harry: "..."

He almost laughed, because Hermione was clearly unable to control her animal instincts after transforming. The key to Animagus transformations is to remain calm, especially during the first transformation. Human thinking is not yet adapted to the animal body, so it is easy to be swayed by the animal's instincts.

And cats... cats are indeed very instinctive animals.

"Calm down, Hermione!" Harry had to call out, afraid that if he didn't help, the blue cat would twist his head off. "Don't move! Calm down, and then slowly try to control your body! Don't forget you're a human! Don't give in to your body's instincts!"

After the initial panic subsided, Hermione seemed to finally realize what she was doing and what she should do.

Harry watched as the blue cat gradually regained control of its four legs and slowly stood up from the ground. Its soft, water-like body finally stopped writhing in a strange way and stood normally on the ground, trying to walk, one step at a time.

"When you want to change back, just imagine your human form," Harry reminded Blue Cat after seeing that his movements were finally more natural. "By the way, do you want to see what you look like now?"

As Harry spoke, he summoned water elementals to create an opaque water curtain that perfectly reflected Hermione's current appearance. Harry then saw a look of surprise on the cat's face—it was hard to believe a cat could make such an expression, but it did stand upright on its two legs and even pressed its two front paws against its cheeks, looking utterly incredulous.

No further prompting was needed; the upright blue cat quickly transformed into an upright Hermione, who exclaimed excitedly, "Why did I turn into a cat?!"

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the cat?" Harry paused for a moment. "My Animagus form is special. Normal wizards' Animagus don't turn into magical creatures. You should know that."

“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant. I don’t want to become a magical creature.” Hermione paced back and forth on the ground. “I just never thought I would—oh my god! Just like Professor McGonagall!” “That’s still different. Professor McGonagall is an American Shorthair silver tabby, while you are a Cat Cat,” Harry calmly pointed out the difference. “I think a blue cat is cuter.”

“Watch your language, Harry. How could you use the word ‘breed’ to refer to two ladies?” Hermione rolled her eyes in annoyance, but quickly turned away and asked, “Do you really think—I mean, the blue cat is cuter?”

"Hmm, round face, a bit clumsy," Harry commented briefly.

This time, he was met with Hermione's murderous gaze.

When Harry and Hermione returned to the Great Totem, Sirius was lounging on the sofa with his legs crossed, playing a Muggle handheld game console.

"Oh? You're back?" Sirius said without looking up when he heard Harry open the door. "I bet you succeeded. Hmm, I told you Harry was making a big fuss. After all, we were in the lower grades when we learned this spell, and even that idiot Peter completed it smoothly. Hermione is smart enough to do it without any problem."

"Why are you here?" Harry asked expressionlessly. "Aren't you at work? How's things going with the goblins?"

Harry felt his fists harden when he saw Sirius lying on the sofa playing video games like a lazy dog. He couldn't stand people who did nothing but eat and wait to die!
"Ahem, I'm just a little worried about you guys, after all, this is Hermione's first shapeshifting." Sirius, sensing Harry's unfriendly tone, immediately sat up straight. "As for the goblins, Lupin is watching. To be honest, I feel like it doesn't matter whether I'm there or not. Besides, those goblins are really hard to talk to. They stick to their terms and won't budge."

"Then there's been no progress?" Considering that she had dragged Sirius down in a way, Hermione helped change the subject.

“There’s really no progress. Goblins have long lifespans, and they can negotiate for a long time unless you put your wand right up to their heads,” Sirius shrugged. “But obviously, neither the Ministry of Magic nor my lovely godson would let me stick my wand up a goblin’s head, so—why not show off your Animagus, Hermione? That’s much more interesting than boring goblins.”

As he said this, Sirius jumped up from the sofa and before he even landed, he turned into a big black dog.

"Woof! Woof woof!!"

Sirius barked a few times, wagging his head repeatedly to signal Hermione to come over.

Hermione took a deep breath, glanced at Harry, and then transformed into the blue cat and jumped onto the back of the sofa.

"Aha! A cat!" Sirius Black instantly transformed back into his original form, pointing at Hermione and shouting, "Just like Professor McGonagall!!"

“It’s still very different, at least the breed is different.” Harry wasn’t surprised by the slow progress on the goblin side. He walked over, picked up the blue cat, stroked its fur, and sat down on the sofa. “Besides, Hermione can’t register with the Ministry of Magic like Professor McGonagall.”

“Aha, I’m pretty sure neither of us are good kids.” Sirius Black gave a knowing smile as he watched Blue Cat lying motionless and tense in Harry’s arms. “Be careful, Harry.”

Without answering, Harry threw a water balloon at his own disrespectful godfather on the head.

Perhaps she doesn't have much power yet, but Hermione's desire to help him in any way she can has touched Harry. After mastering Animagus, Hermione's talent in Transfiguration has increased dramatically.

She can now easily turn a stone into a chirping little bird, which can then fly away on its own. This is something that many fifth and sixth graders cannot do, and Hermione is only a second grader.

As a result, Professor McGonagall's gaze towards Hermione and Harry has recently become strange. The experienced professor has reason to suspect that some people are once again skirting the edge of the law... well, it's no longer on the edge.

However, Professor McGonagall didn't point anything out. She simply gave Hermione some extra lessons after inviting her to join her Transfiguration Club, which was exactly what Hermione wanted.

Harry's intense preparations were thus given the addition of someone who, despite not knowing why, was so nervous, was still doing his best to improve himself. Before long, even Ron and Neville, and even Harry's young apprentice Luna, were urged by Harry to work harder to learn practical magic.

This was not only because of Nico's dangerous prophecy, but also because Harry discovered that the activity of the elements in this world was rapidly increasing. The Hogwarts area could now see the active figures of elemental spirits everywhere, including places that many people could not even imagine.

The water element active on the surface of the Black Lake, the earth element rushing across the grassland, the wind element howling past the castle tower, and even the fire element causing the house-elves in the burning kitchen to cry out in agony... not to mention the elemental spirits that inexplicably appear around the students.

The ink they were using to write their papers suddenly jumped out of the ink bottle, and clumps of black ink left their footprints on the parchment before fleeing in a hurry, leaving the students standing there dumbfounded, staring at their ruined assignments, unable to extricate themselves for a long time.

At breakfast, milk elements moved from the left to the right of the table and jumped into a bucket of water amidst cheers from the students, turning a bucket of water into milk... Life at Hogwarts suddenly became lively.

Well, to be precise, things have gone completely wrong.

This situation wasn't limited to Hogwarts; similar changes occurred throughout England, although the elemental spirits in those places weren't as active as those in the Hogwarts area.

Fudge even rushed to Hogwarts overnight to find Harry, the Minister of the Shamanic Order, to seek a solution—well, not to mention Fudge panicked, even Harry was nervous about the situation.

(End of this chapter)