Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 603 If she had the willpower to remain silent for a month, she would succeed at anything.
The intense and exciting Animagus instruction soon began.

With Sirius Black's experienced guidance and Harry's tireless help, Sophia successfully faced failure in her first step.

"Gulu——"

"You swallowed a mandrake leaf?!" Harry exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"I can't help it!" Sofia said. "What's in my mouth just keeps going down into my stomach... This grass doesn't taste good—"

"Because it wasn't meant for you to eat," Sirius said helplessly. "There are a few more here; you have to hold these leaves in your mouth for a month—"

“A month!” Sofia exclaimed in horror.

“Yes, it can’t be taken out for a month.” Sirius raised his eyebrows. “You must not swallow the leaf or take it out of your mouth at any time. If the leaf leaves your mouth, the whole process must be restarted. It’s written in the ‘Powerful Potion’.”

“Ah…” Sophia said sadly.

“If she had the willpower to keep this thing in her mouth for a month without saying a word, she could succeed at anything…” Harry shook his head hopelessly. “Sophia, you should probably give up. Besides, I think even if you learn how, you’ll probably turn back into a snake…”

“But I really want to become a unicorn…” Sophia said dejectedly, “so I could go with Francis to poke the dragon’s butt—”

Sirius's lips twitched slightly, then he looked at Harry.

“This is what’s in Cohen’s box…” Harry said, covering his face.

“I still can’t believe someone like that could kill Dumbledore,” Sirius sighed deeply. “You know, Harry, you and him remind me of James and me—”

“I’m trying not to overthink it,” Harry said. “I believe he’ll come back and explain everything—and…”

Harry looked at the disappointed Sophia.

"Alright, alright, little snake, don't be so sad." Sirius cleared his throat. "I still have a way—James and I once came up with a way to safely hold a mandrake leaf in our mouths without affecting our normal speech..."

"Really?" Sophia looked at Sirius with sparkling eyes.

“A little spell that sticks a leaf to the side of your mouth. James and I pretended our mouths were swollen and kept this stuff in our mouths for a whole month,” Sirius said. “I can teach you—once this is done, you need to be at the full moon—”

"Thank you, big dog!" Sophia hugged Sirius tightly and rubbed against him happily.

"?"

Sirius was startled by the sudden hug and, somewhat bewildered, raised his hands and looked at Harry.

Because he had never been hugged like that by a little girl before.

“That’s just how she is…” Harry said habitually.

The Animagus process is neither simple nor overly complex.

After the first step of "containing mandrake leaves", there are not many time-consuming steps left.

The second step is to take the leaf out during the first full moon, fill a small crystal vial with saliva, and soak the leaf in it to receive the pure moonlight—but if the full moon is overcast, a new mandrake leaf must be found and the process started again. That's why Sirius Black said there's a lot of luck involved.

However, Sofia was always very lucky. After holding the leaf in her mouth for the entire month of April, they waited for the first full moon under a cloudless sky.

They added a strand of Sophia's current body's hair, a silver teaspoon of dew from a deserted place, and a pupa of a ghost-faced hawk moth to the crystal vial illuminated by the moonlight, and then buried it under the roots of a tree in the backyard.

At this point, most of the tedious, luck-based steps are over. All Sofia has to do is point the tip of her wand at her heart at each sunset and chant the spell: "Amado, Animo, Animado, Animagus".

It wasn't until a stormy night with thunder and lightning that he dug out the bottle of prepared potion and drank it down in one gulp.

As May drew to a close, Sophia finally witnessed the stormy night, and Harry's special training was also nearing its end.

All the members of the Order of the Phoenix tutored Harry for a period of time, teaching him many spells and techniques for dealing with enemies, in order to give Harry a better chance of winning against Voldemort.

But apart from Moody, almost no one was willing to actually let Harry confront Voldemort.

A fragile hope lay before them, yet no one dared to take the first step.

Without the Dementors, the Ministry of Magic gradually showed signs of weakness in its fight against Voldemort. Not everyone was as fearless as Edward, and even some Aurors began to waver.

Voldemort was like a ghost that could never die, appearing and disappearing unpredictably. In one battle between the Ministry of Magic and Voldemort, someone clearly saw a killing curse hit Voldemort, but Voldemort reappeared in another place the next day.

The situation on the Muggle side is equally dire, with attacks making headlines everywhere.

Harry has been restless in Grimmauld Place these days, and he can probably only relax a little when he's with Sophia.

Sofia's first Animagus transformation will take place tonight.

Before she was about to drink the potion, which had turned blood red, Sirius repeatedly reminded her that whatever she wanted to become, she had to become the creature that appeared in her mind, otherwise she would never be able to be with Harry.

Sophia hadn't been listening to anything before, but this last sentence had a significant effect on her—she did exactly that, because becoming a unicorn was far less important than being with Harry.

and so……

【No!!!!!】

Sophia hissed after discovering that she had turned into a snake again.
-
"Snakes again!" Sofia said sadly, sitting on the bed. "Waaah..."

“It’s okay, you can have Cohen make you a spare unicorn body later,” Harry comforted her, patting her shoulder.

“But Cohen said he wouldn’t be back for a very, very long time—in the story, ‘a very, very long time’ means never coming back—” Sophia said sadly, “and he won’t even let me eat much rabbit…”

“That’s because I was afraid you’d eat it all at once and there wouldn’t be any left…” Harry pursed his lips. “Whatever you want, Cohen will get it for you—”

"really?"

“Otherwise, why would he make this body for you?” Harry said. “Making a living human body is very complicated. You heard what Moody and Sirius said; it’s very complicated alchemy…”

(End of this chapter)