Chapter 123: The Mitigated Truth
Black Estate, Cardiff, Aug. 5th
Stepping out of the floo, Harry was immediately pulled into a hug.
"Harry," Sirius said happily. "Ready?"
Sirius' grin was infectious, and soon Harry was smiling back at his uncle. "Absolutely."
"Well let's get started." Sirius led his godson into the living room where most of the furniture was already pushed against the walls. Taking a seat on a cushion in the middle of the floor, Sirius gestured for Harry to sit opposite him. "Go through your exercises."
Nodding his head, Harry cleared his mind to calm himself. After a few minutes, he held out his arm and took several deep breaths while thinking about his form. He pictured the doberman's strong, muscular, leg. He focused on how the muscles were tight, and always ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. He envisioned himself running through a forest, his speed gathering with every bound.
Slowly, he felt his arm changing. The muscles began shifting while the hair on his arm began to shrink and thicken. As his bones began to rearrange themselves, Harry did his best to keep his mind on the transformation. Mistakes were made when you lost focus, and Harry knew all too well the pain a half transformed limb could cause.
After a moment, Harry opened his eyes and grinned. His left arm had completely turned into one of the doberman's four legs. He ran his hand over the limb and marveled at how seemingly perfect the transformation had gone.
"Well done." Sirius had a huge smile on his face as he watched his godson complete the first step in the transformation. "How did it feel?"
"Less painful," Harry admitted.
Sirius' smile somehow managed to grow. "Excellent. That means you're becoming accustomed to the change. Pretty soon it'll start to feel completely natural. Now, turn the limb back to normal."
Taking a deep breath, Harry focused on the image he had of himself. Far sooner than he expected, he looked on as the doberman's leg quickly shifted back into his arm. "Amazing," he said as the transformation finished, "I didn't feel a thing."
"Well, I think you're ready Harry."
Swallowing somewhat nervously, Harry asked, "You really think so?"
"I do," Sirius said emphatically, "but what did I tell you when you first started?"
"That what you think doesn't matter. It's my body and my magic." Harry felt his confidence rise. "I think I'm ready as well. I didn't feel a thing turning my arm back to normal."
"Okay then, Harry." Sirius stood up. "This will be one of the hardest parts of the transformation, so if it looks like it's going wrong, I'm going to immediately change you back, okay? Don't fight the magic if you feel yourself changing back suddenly. It's likely me forcing you back to normal, and I'll only step in if it's not working."
Excitement built up inside him and Harry did his best to remain calm and collected. He'd been waiting since his first lesson with Sirius to do this, and he couldn't help but feel some anticipation. With the doberman clear in his mind, Harry willed himself to change. He pictured the long tongue, the floppy ears, and the sharp canines. As soon as he thought about the doberman's snout nose, he began to feel the first change. At first, it felt like his head was being crushed, but then he could feel his skull and cartilage start to be reshaped.
His eyes began to burn and his nose felt like it was being ripped off his body, but Harry kept a clear picture of the doberman in his mind. When his jaw unhinged and was reconstructed, he wanted to scream, but all that came out of his mouth was a pitiful sounding whine. Feeling a pain in the back of his neck, Harry fell forward onto all fours and he felt his back crack slightly. Suddenly feeling the need for more air, he opened his mouth and felt a long tongue slip from his mouth.
After several deep breaths, Harry opened his eyes and he saw Sirius standing a foot away from him. His godfather had his wand drawn and was staring at him very intently. Taking a step forward on his hands and knees, Harry lifted his body up and licked Sirius across the face, causing his godfather to lurch away and sputter.
"Disgusting. No wonder your dad always got mad at me when I did that," Sirius said, wiping away the excess saliva off his face. "You did it though. Congratulations Harry." Waving his wand, Sirius conjured a large mirror directly in front of his godson.
Harry looked back at his reflection in awe. His body was almost completely human, except his head was that of a doberman. Seeing the doberman head on his body was more than slightly disturbing, and Harry concentrated on turning back. An agonizing minute later, a fully human Harry Potter was kneeling in front of his godfather, who was quickly inspecting him to ensure that he didn't leave off a part of his human head.
"Everything looks okay." Sirius reported. "How'd it feel?"
"A little awkward, but I felt the same way when I first started working on my arms," Harry said casually.
"Understandable. You're almost there kid. Once you master getting the head, we can work on the body, and then it's just a matter of putting it all together. You should be good to go by this time next summer." Sirius looked intently at his godson. "Remember Harry, you promised not to work on the transformation at school this year. You're getting into the most difficult aspect of the transformation and the last thing I want is for you to rush ahead and hurt yourself."
"I remember."
"And do your best to temper your friends' progress as well," Sirius advised. "In fact, it might be good if you didn't even tell them how far along you are. They might do something stupid to catch up with you, especially if they're the competitive type."
"Yeah, I'll try to keep it to myself, but Calypso will probably try to drag it out of me at some point." Thinking of Calypso caused Harry to hesitate. He knew his family would be meeting her in a few days, and Harry was still trying to decide if he should tell them ahead of time that she was a Rosier.
"You okay, Harry?" Sirius asked, looking at his godson in concern.
"No, not exactly," Harry said honestly. "Um, Sirius, I have a problem, and I'd like to talk to you about it."
"Okay," Sirius said slowly, "let's go into the kitchen and talk, Harry."
As he followed Sirius, Harry wondered exactly how much he should tell his godfather about Calypso. He had been thinking of confiding in Sirius for some time, but, even now, he was concerned. Taking a seat, Harry accepted a glass of water and bit his lip nervously.
Sirius sat opposite Harry looking worried. "What's going on Harry?"
"If I tell you something, will you keep it from my mum and dad?"
"Provided that it isn't anything dangerous," Sirius said, "I suppose I can keep it to myself."
Figuring that would be the best he would get, Harry nodded his head. "Okay Sirius, it's like this, the girl I'm dating, Calypso. Well, her name's Calypso Rosier, and her father was a Death Eater."
Much to Harry's surprise, Sirius didn't react at hearing her name. "I see," he said, seemingly in deep thought. "So Evan had a kid before he died. That's...interesting."
Harry was about to say that Evan Rosier wasn't her father before he thought better of it. There was no reason to tell Sirius his Dark Arts Professor was also a Rosier. His parents had never really been comfortable with him being advanced in that class, and he didn't want to give them any reason to be more concerned... or take him out of Durmstrang.
"So, a Rosier," Sirius said lamely. "Well, I don't know what you want me to say, Harry. Your parents, Merlin, me as well, we don't exactly have a great history with any of them."
"Calypso isn't like her father." Harry felt the need to defend his girlfriend. "She's... she doesn't think Voldemort was right."
Sirius sighed. "Harry, I have to ask this, okay?"
Harry nodded.
"Do you know who she lives with? If her father's dead..."
Looking right into his godfather's eyes, Harry knew exactly where Sirius was going with his questions. Feeling more than a little bit angry, he snapped out, "She's not spying on me, nor is she trying to use me to get to Nathan."
Tensing slightly, Sirius held up his hands. "Harry, I wasn't saying–"
"You were thinking it!" Harry took a deep breath and forcibly calmed himself. "I know you were thinking it, Sirius, but she's not like that."
"How are you so sure I was thinking about it?" Sirius asked, narrowing his eyes somewhat.
Deciding to come clean, Harry said, "Legilimency."
Sirius immediately frowned. "Mind reading. Just bloody great."
"You know of it?" Harry asked, surprised. "I thought mind magic was pretty rare."
"Oh, it's rare enough alright, but after your little obsession to learn Occlumency last year, your mum asked me to raid my old family library for anything on the subject. I didn't find anything on Occlumency, but I found a book on Legilimency. So, when did you learn it?"
"It's part of being an Occlumens. You either learn how to ignore the flashes of insight or you bring it under control."
"And, naturally, you learned how to control it." Sirius frowned. "Which means you knew what you were doing snooping around my head."
"You weren't exactly hiding where you were going with your question." Harry defended himself. "To a Legilimens you were practically screaming the question."
"Fine, whatever." Sirius said, waving the issue off. "My concern still stands. How do you know?"
"I've been inside her head for one. I know how she feels for me, and I've known her thoughts on blood purity for years."
"What are her thoughts?" Sirius asked.
"Beyond passing down some of the rarer magical talents like Metamorphmagi, Calypso doesn't care about blood at all, Sirius," Harry said emphatically. "Calypso is just too pragmatic to be a purist. She respects talent, ability, and skill above everything else. It doesn't matter if you're a Pureblood, Half-blood, or Muggleborn. As long as you're dedicated to improving yourself, she'll respect you."
"Well that's good. I didn't think you'd be one to date a blood purist, and she certainly seemed nice when we met in Paris." Sirius took a deep breath. "You're going to have to come clean at some point Harry, and I would do it sooner rather than later. Your dad shouldn't take the news so badly," Sirius said, seemingly thinking out loud, "I'm proof enough that not everyone is like their family, and it's not like she was raised by that shit head Evan. Your mum, well, she might not like the Rosiers, but Lily isn't one to hold a family name against someone. "
"Why does my mum hate the Rosiers?" Harry asked.
"It's complicated, Harry." Sirius sighed. "And, honestly, I'm probably not the best person to tell you since it involves Snape, and I'm not exactly unbiased when it comes to Snivellus."
"Professor Snape? What does he have to do with it?"
"Harry, you know that Snape and your mum were old friends," Sirius hesitated, "but did you know they had a pretty bad falling out during Hogwarts?"
Harry shook his head.
"Well they did. From the end of our fifth year until... well, until you and your brother were seven or so, your mum and Snape barely spoke to each other."
"Really?" Harry asked. "Mum said Professor Snape was her oldest friend. What happened?"
"It's a long story, Harry, but Snape was always really good at the Dark Arts." Sirius explained. "He started hanging out with Rosier's lot starting around our third year. It was only a matter of time until he and your mum had a falling out. After that, well... let's just say it took some time for your mum and Snape to reconcile."
Harry wasn't an idiot. He knew when his uncle said Rosier's lot, Sirius most likely meant Death Eaters, but that would mean... "Wait! Was Professor Snape a Death Eater?"
"He was," Sirius said, not bothering to hide the truth from his mind reading godson. "Obviously, it's still a sensitive topic, and your mum didn't want either of you to know. Don't tell your brother. Merlin, don't even tell your mum I told you. Forget hexes, she'd curse me for letting you know."
"So, does Mum blame Rosier for turning Snape into a Death Eater?" Harry ventured a guess.
Sirius shrugged. "Personally, I don't think Snape needed a reason to turn dark, but I'd say your mum feels that way, yeah."
"That's not Calypso's fault," Harry said stubbornly.
"I know, kid, I know," Sirius said sympathetically. "So when are you going to tell your parents?"
"Probably before the world cup. She's going to be there."
"Your parents are looking forward to meeting her, you know, your brother as well."
"Yeah, I know."
Sirius hesitated for a second before he walked over to the cabinet and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of Fire Whiskey. "Not a word to your mother," Sirius said after pouring a very small amount in a glass and pushing it towards his godson. Taking a sip of his own glass, Sirius added, "It'll all work out alright, Harry. In the meantime, why don't I show you a few of those illusion spells you were asking about?"
Pushing aside the glass of amber liquid, Harry did his best to listen to his uncle describe an active projection spell. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Calypso would be meeting his family in less than a month.
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