Lily woke him up shortly before curfew as she had promised. Harry quickly pulled his warmest robe over his pyjamas and went out to the living room to wait for his parents. He was very excited; this time he would not go as the only child participating in the full moon night but as a teacher who was taking his class out for a treat. Severus emerged from the bathroom and suggested,

“Shall we go?” Lily nodded and Harry nearly ran out of the room and through the portrait door. When they arrived at the Entrance hall, nearly everyone was already waiting, and after two more minutes, the last students showed up too. A stag and a black dog were waiting outside the huge Entrance doors. Harry told the students to transform as far as they were able to and follow the teachers out into a small hiding a few meters into the forest. He watched as everyone transformed before he changed into Icicle in order to help the students if necessary. Only five students were not yet able to change completely; Harry made sure that they could catch up with the fast pace of the animals.

When everyone had arrived at their meeting point in the forest, Harry transformed back and greeted the students and guests, introduced James and Sirius to the students and told them the story of the Marauders and the full moon nights. He had Remus asked before if it was all right to speak about his experience of being a werewolf and Remus had told him he didn’t mind at all. Then he told the students that they normally played in their animagus forms for a few hours until one of them called them back in order to have a picnic together.

“Today we will do it in a similar way. Let’s play here for a while, but please don’t go too far. I would appreciate it if I was able to see and hear you, because there might always be bigger animals than you; and we have had dangerous animals before. In about two hours, one of us will call everyone back for our nightly picnic and for some surprises James and Sirius have prepared.” When everyone was looking around to find similar animals to play with, Albus and Lily flew over to Harry, and Albus asked,

#How about a quick flight somewhere?# Harry and Lily nodded their heads, and Lily answered,

#We would love to, Granddad. We always go for a flight around Hogsmeade for some time.# And Harry added,

#Is there a special place you are thinking about, Granddad? And do you think it will be alright for me to leave after bringing my students out here?# Albus thought for a moment and reluctantly said,

#You are right. In this case, it would be better to stay nearby. Maybe we can fly over the lake and up to the mountains and back.# They went for a flight around the lake, but Harry really did not want to go too far away and suggested that they have a rest on the roof of the school. Harry flashed back into the hiding every thirty minutes, but everything seemed to be all right, and the students seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.

Shortly after midnight, they heard a loud ‘bang’ from the direction of the lake and seconds later, they could see what had caused it – a beautiful firework flower appeared over the lake.

#Wow; Mom, look; it’s beautiful,# Harry beamed, and Lily nodded and asked,

#Grandfather, do you think it will be better from down there or from above, up here?# Albus looked at them and said,

#I don’t know, but I think it is quite pretty from here; however, I can imagine that Minerva would prefer me sitting next to her. Therefore, I will fly down now. Are you going to stay here?# Lily and Harry glanced at each other, before Harry stated,

#I can imagine that Dad is waiting for you as well, Mom. Let’s fly down too.#

When they arrived on the ground, everyone had changed back to their human forms and was sitting on the ground watching the spectacle above the lake. But what was that?

“That’s a bear!” someone said, and everyone looked at the green animal in the sky, stunned.

“And that’s an elephant!” Remus said, sounding very impressed. Now, every firework that shot up in the sky took the form of an animal. Harry had never seen a firework like that. It went on for half an hour displaying more and more different animals. When the fireworks ended, James and Sirius came over to where the others were sitting, and Harry asked immediately,

“How did you get hands on those fireworks? That was very special!” James and Sirius grinned mischievously, and James explained,

“We consulted the Weasley twins, and when they heard that it would be for a class of yours, they just overdid themselves in trying to invent several things, and this was the effect of their research. By the way, they told us that you are their partner – is that true?”

“You’re WHAT?” Minerva and Albus asked simultaneously. Harry blushed deeply – good that it was quite dark – and admitted,

“Yes; in my old time line they wanted to have a shop but they didn’t have the necessary money, so I gave them the money I got from the Triwizard Tournament, which I didn’t want anyway. And in this time line I met them and they were not satisfied with their work at the ministry, so I just advised them to found a joke shop and gave them some of the money I had from the books we published in the past. Therefore they made me their silent partner.” He cleared his voice and said pensively,

“But these fireworks were really great. A pity that the other students couldn’t see the display. Do you know if they only made them for you, or if they have more in stock now that they have invented the fireworks? I mean, I could ask them if we can get some for our leaving feast or for Halloween.” He looked questioningly at his parents and grandparents, and Minerva said warmly,

“I am sure that they will make some more for you if you ask them, and I think it is a very good idea to show to everyone. There are many opportunities for fireworks – for example after the Quidditch tournament.”

“Do you know what, Granny? Speaking of tournaments… I have a great idea,” Harry blurted out. And when he noticed that everyone was glancing at him, he continued, “We could have a tournament of the teachers’ team against a team of the ministry, a team of St. Mungo’s and maybe a team of the dealers in Hogsmeade or in Diagon Alley. A tournament of the employees of Britain’s magical world with who ever wants to participate would be great.” Everyone smirked at Harry. What a great idea! Dumbledore was the first to find words.

“Harry, this is a very good idea. Let us consider it during the summer holidays.” Minerva nodded approvingly.

Suddenly Dobby appeared together with a few other house elves who conjured a table, which was filled with the most delicious food one could imagine within seconds. Harry thanked Dobby and his friends and said,

“As you can see, part of an Animagus party has to be a picnic. Please tuck in.” After eating much more than they wanted, because everything was so delicious, they transformed again into their animagus forms and spent the rest of the night running, crawling or flying around the lake. James, Sirius and Remus who were joined by a few students in form of a wolf, a lion and a horse, were pushing and pulling each other so much that they ended falling into the lake. Most of the others joined them either as animals or in their human forms, but Harry still had enough of the lake where Grindylows were attacking innocent students and refrained from taking a bath. He was not sure if a phoenix would be able to swim anyway, and he didn’t want to go swimming in his human form, because he suddenly remembered the yellow pustules on his chest, which he still didn’t know where they came from.

After everyone had exited the lake, they cast drying charms on each other and gathered all together when Harry motioned them to sit down on the ground once more. He addressed the students and said,

“Now, it is already 5 o’clock in the morning, and I think it is about time to end our Animagus party. I hope you had as much fun as I had, and as we won’t have any more animagus lessons, because you will finish Hogwarts next week, I want to thank you for your attention during my class and I would like to ask you to hand in the registration forms for the ministry during your last Transfiguration classes next week. And I also want to ask you to be careful whenever you transform into your animagus form – please only do it if you are full aware, awake and healthy; otherwise, it can be very dangerous. Good night.” With this, everyone headed back to the castle. When Severus, Lily and Harry arrived at their quarters, Severus snorted and said,

“You are the right person to warn people about only transforming when they are awake and healthy. Let me tell you this – I could hardly refrain from laughing during your speech. Alright, let’s head to bed and get a few hours of sleep, hoping that Marina won’t be back too early.”

Harry slept through breakfast and lunch and only woke up when Marina jumped onto his stomach and shouted,

“Wake up you lazybones!” Harry mumbled,

“Gerrof” and pushed Marina off his bed. Then he tiredly stumbled out of bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower. He noticed that the yellow pustules had spread over his whole belly and briefly thought about asking his father or Pomfrey about it, but then he remembered the match against the teachers he was going to play the next day and decided to wait until after the game.

When he came out into the living room, he noticed that the others had just started to eat a late lunch in the kitchen and joined them, glad not to be scolded about sleeping through breakfast and lunch.

“Harry,” Severus reminded him, “Have you already taken your potion?” Harry nodded and replied,

“Yes, Dad, I took it in the morning before I went to bed. What do you think about our party during the night? Do you think the students enjoyed it?” His parents exchanged a glance, before Lily answered,

“Yes, of course, Harry. It was great being with so many animagi, let alone the beautiful fireworks and the delicious picnic. Can’t you imagine how much we would have enjoyed something like that as students if our teachers had arranged such an event?” Harry glanced at her sceptically, but his father assured him as well,

“It was a good idea in the first place, and you really made the best of it – I am sure that for your students this night was a memory they won’t ever forget. You did very well, Harry, and we are very proud of you.” This was the confirmation Harry needed. He threw his father a grateful glance and relaxed. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading, playing and resting around the fireplace until it was time to go to the Great Hall for dinner.

When Harry woke up early on Sunday morning, the first thing he noticed was that the weather was incredibly good for a Quidditch match. Beautiful sunshine made the lake twinkle. Harry was very thankful to have a window that was charmed to show him the view onto the lake – the scenery at Hogwarts, which he liked most. As long as he had such a window, he didn’t mind living in the dungeons at all.

After breakfast, everyone headed outside to the Quidditch pitch to watch the final game of the year, the match students against teachers. This match was always the highlight of the end of the year and nearly every resident of Hogwarts was watching. As usual, Mr. Potter had come to referee the match. He announced the players on both sides and blew the whistle for the game to begin, and Harry shot up in the air. He just loved flying in such a nice and warm weather. As he didn’t have to care about how many points they had to get before taking the snitch, he started to look for the snitch immediately.

When he noticed that Severus was watching him and following him consequently, he tried his stunt by going down until about two meters above the ground only to pull up again in the last second, but Severus seemed to be too intelligent and too used to Harry’s stunts to fall for it and remained at a certain height. Suddenly Harry noticed that he had difficulties to breathe. ‘Oh, no – what is wrong now?’ he thought and tried not to panic but to look for the snitch, carefully flying around the pitch. But instead of getting better, it got steadily worse, and finally Harry could not help panicking, flew over to Severus and gasped,

“Dad, help, I can’t breathe.” Severus glanced at him and shouted to his colleagues,

“Minerva, get the match stopped, Poppy come down with me immediately.” Then he turned to Harry, who was hovering next to him and said, “It will be alright, Harry, try to take deep breaths and hold on to me, I will take you down so that Poppy can help you. Then he proceeded to fly carefully downwards, holding his right arm around Harry. As soon as they arrived on the ground, Harry heard the whistle and Mr. Potter’s announce ‘break time’ from far away, before he passed out. In an instant, Poppy, Minerva and Albus were gathered around them, while the other teachers were busy keeping the students away from them. Poppy did a check and excitedly told Albus,

“Albus, please call Fawkes; he has to flash us to the Hospital Wing immediately – we cannot loose minutes walking up there.” Dumbledore called his phoenix, which appeared immediately and took Pomfrey and an unconscious Harry to the Hospital Wing. Severus excused himself and ran after the two, and Albus said to Minerva,

“I think we just have to cancel this game. Harry can be replaced by the reserve seeker, but Poppy and Severus cannot play, and I’m afraid I will have to go to the Hospital Wing as well, because they might need me.” With this, he transformed into his phoenix form and went away in a flash of fire. Minerva sighed and announced,

“I am very sorry to have to announce that we cannot continue our match at the moment. One of the students and three members of our teachers’ team are unavailable any more for the moment. You are dismissed; thanks for coming. I am sorry.” She thanked Mr. Potter and said,

“I hope to see you on the first Sunday in October for our next match – hopefully under better conditions. Please give my best regards to your wife.”

As soon as they arrived in the infirmary, Pomfrey fetched an inhaler from her office, sat next to Harry on the edge of his bed, enervated Harry and explained as calmly as possible,

“Harry, this is an inhaler. I will hold this in front of your mouth, and you have to take calm, deep breaths to get the medicine into your lungs, alright?” Harry nodded and tried to breathe deeply. In the meantime, Severus and Lily had arrived and sat down on Harry’s bed as well. Lily eyed his son worriedly and asked,

“What is wrong with him? Will he be alright?” Poppy sighed and told them,

“This was an asthma attack, but I don’t know why he got it. Harry, did you have problems before, or did it just start the moment you told your father?” Harry, who was feeling much better now, answered,

“It started a few minutes before, but when I noticed that it would get worse, I told Dad.” And suddenly he remembered something. “Oh, but I saw this morning, that I have some yellow pustules on my chest; I don’t know what they are; I was going to ask you after the match.” Pomfrey’s look had gotten very stern and she helped him to pull his shirt off immediately to have a look at his chest. In the meanwhile, the pustules had spread over nearly his whole body, and were now starting to appear on his arms and legs. She looked at them shocked and asked solemnly,

“Severus, have you ever seen something like this? It looks like some kind of allergy, especially since he does not have a fever this time.” Severus frowned and said pensively,

“Is there someone at St. Mungo’s who is specialized on allergies, whom we could ask over? The only thing I can imagine is that it could be an allergy against moon fern, which is one of the ingredients of the potion for his immune system. But he has taken it for five months now without problems, so I don’t know what to think about it. Alas, I know for a fact that moon fern can cause pustules like this.” Pomfrey didn’t waste any time but decided to floo over to St. Mungo’s immediately. Ten minutes later, she returned with a woman she introduced as Healer Akai, who was specialised on allergies. After prodding and testing for about an hour, she confirmed,

“Yes; he has an allergy against moon fern. Has he ingested large amounts of it recently?” Severus groaned and explained about the potion for Harry’s immune system, which he had developed in many years, because Harry needed it so badly.” The healer glanced at Harry pitifully and said,

“I am very sorry, but he must not take this potion anymore; it could be very dangerous.” Healer Akai excused herself, spoke to Pomfrey for a few minutes and flew back to the hospital. Poppy sighed and returned to Harry.

“He should be fine now, as long as he doesn’t take his potion anymore, but I am going to keep him here until at least tonight, probably tomorrow morning. She started to apply a cream onto the pustules, which felt wonderfully cool on his skin. Although his parents, grandparents, sisters and girlfriend stayed with him nearly all day, Harry could not help feeling very depressed. After more than two years of falling sick every second week, his father had invented such a good potion for him, and now he wasn’t even allowed to take it. Was this the end of his full moon nights?

A few days later, Dumbledore joined the Snapes in their quarters after dinner. “Good evening Lily, Severus, Marina. Would it be possible to speak to Harry for a few minutes?” Severus and Lily threw a glance at the closed door of Harry’s room, before Lily said,

“Probably yes, Albus, but he is just having his discussion with Minerva as every evening. Perhaps we could have some tea in the meantime?” Albus agreed immediately, and called Dobby to bring tea for everyone. They had just finished their first cup of tea, when Minerva and Harry emerged from Harry’s room, and Albus called Twinkle for more tea.

“My dear boy,” Albus addressed Harry, “There is something I need to speak with you about.” Noticing that Harry was listening expectantly, he continued, “As you have decided together with Minerva, you will cease to be a student at the end of this year and from that point onwards will be a full teacher of Hogwarts. As a teacher, you have the right to have your own private living quarters at Hogwarts apart from the office you will get of course. My question now is, whether you want to live in your own quarters or if you prefer to stay here with your parents and want me just to add an office to your quarters here. What do you think, Harry? You don’t have to answer now, if you need more time to think about it.” Harry glanced at him slightly confused. He had never thought about things like that. Of course, he wanted to stay with his parents; he was so happy to finally have his own family that he did not under any circumstances wanted to miss this any more. He looked his grandfather straight into the eyes and told him,

“No, Granddad, I don’t need time to think about it. I have already decided that I want to stay here together with my parents and my sisters. Of course, it would be nice to have an office directly connected to our quarters. Will it be possible to have a door which leads to Merlin House like Mom has it in her office?” Dumbledore laughed at his grandson and said,

“Your mother’s office will lead to Gryffindor from now on. Of course, you will have your own office, and it will have three doors. One leads to this sitting room, one to Merlin House and the third one to the Transfigurations classroom. As a teacher and Head of House, you need this much of comfort to be able to work efficiently. And I am very glad that you choose to stay with your parents, especially as your health is not the best; having you here with your parents is much less worrying for every one of us. We will also have a connecting room from your sitting room here to Minerva’s and my sitting room, so that it will be easier for me to watch Marina and her friend. And in order to be able to teach them properly, we will add another room to your quarters, a sort of classroom for kids like Marina or for possible younger siblings, nephews or nieces.”

Harry snorted and said, “You know exactly that Ginny will still be a sixth years’ student in autumn. So you will have to wait some more years for that, I’m afraid. By the way, I would like to ask you something. As far as I have heard, relationships between students and teachers are not allowed. But Ginny already is my girlfriend. Am I not allowed to be together with her for two years, or do I have to be engaged to her, or…?” Dumbledore laughed and then sighed and said,

“I have thought about this problem for a few weeks now. In fact, it is difficult. One solution would be if she ceased to be a student and would take the post of an apprentice, as there is no law concerning the relationships between teachers and apprentices. You told me that she wants to become a healer; does she still want to?” Harry nodded.

“As far as I know, yes. And you know that she already has a training position at St. Mungo’s for when she finishes Hogwarts.” Albus nodded pensively and said,

“Yes, my boy thanks to you. What I have thought of is to ask Poppy if she would take her as an apprentice. She would learn Healing mainly of course, but would also be able to attend classes, which are important for a healer like Potions or Herbology. I will ask Poppy tomorrow, and if she agrees, I will suggest it to Ginny. Of course, I don’t know if she’ll be interested and if her parents will agree.

As Dumbledore had promised, he talked to Pomfrey and after she had agreed very reluctantly, he talked to Ginny as well the next day, which was just a day before the end of the school year. Dumbledore excused Ginny from her afternoon lessons and took the whole afternoon to explain everything to Ginny explicitly.

She was very surprised but able to realise very quickly that this would be the optimal solution for her. Although she would not be in Merlin House anymore and therefore would not be able to play Quidditch for the Merlin team, she could still play for the Hogwarts team as a student. She would live in her own room at the Hospital Wing, just as Harry had his own room there before. And she could continue to be Harry’s girlfriend and hope that he would marry her as soon as she turned 17, which would be the case in a little more than a year. But the most important thing was that she could start immediately to learn healing. She had always wanted to become a healer, and this was a very good opportunity. Moreover, Harry had told her from his experiences that Pomfrey was a very good teacher.

“Yes, Professor, I would like to become Madam Pomfrey’s apprentice,” she told Dumbledore after thinking about it for a few minutes. Dumbledore gave her a pensive glance.

“Alright, Ms. Weasley, then we need to invite your parents here and ask them. As you are still under age, you need your parents’ consent for this, especially as it is a very important decision which will influence your future life greatly.” Ginny sighed and said,

“I can understand that, Professor. Could we try to see if my parents can come over immediately? I would like to talk to them before I get my hopes up too much.” Dumbledore laughed and put his head into the floo in order to call Molly, who stepped through the floo seconds later. Arthur Weasley, who had been nominated the new Minister of Magic a few weeks ago, was very busy, but still managed to come over to Hogwarts for an urgent meeting.

Dumbledore explained the whole story to the Weasleys, and after hearing all details and Ginny’s opinion on the matter, they decided that it would be all right with them, if Ginny decided she wanted to take the post. Arthur thanked Albus for creating this opportunity for his only daughter and hurriedly left the headmaster’s office through the floo. As it was nearly dinnertime, Dumbledore invited Mrs. Weasley to join them for dinner in the Great Hall. Ginny was very happy and very excited – she just couldn’t wait to tell Harry everything.

Ginny dragged her mother over to Merlin table and sat her in the seat next to Harry, while she sat on the opposite side.

“Harry,” she hissed excitedly, while Harry was greeting Mrs. Weasley, whom he liked very much. In his old time line, she had been like a mother to him, and as he had seen from his memories, even in this time line she had always been very kind towards him. He threw a confused glance at Ginny, who continued,

“Harry, Dumbledore told you about this apprenticeship thing, didn’t he?” Harry nodded and replied,

“Yes, Ginny, he did. And?”

“I’ll do it! And my parents already agreed,” Ginny beamed happily – a feeling which matched exactly with Harry’s feeling at this moment.

“Oh Ginny, I am so happy for you. And for us,” he added. “Congratulations my dear!” Ginny thanked him and proceeded to explain everything to Anna, Julia and Marina who were hanging on her every word to hear the story firsthand. In the meantime, Harry returned to his conversation with Mrs. Weasley. She told him, that they had decided that Ginny would enjoy two weeks of holidays at the Burrow and come back to Hogwarts to start her apprenticeship on the 1st of July. Harry cautiously asked Mrs. Weasley,

“Err… Did Ginny tell you about our relationship?” Molly glanced apprehensively at him and said,

“Yes, Harry. She told us months ago, and we appreciate it very much. I know you from baby time onwards and I am quite sure that you won’t do anything to hurt her. And I also know that this was the first reason for Albus to come up with this apprenticeship. But in fact, it will be the best thing Ginny can do anyway. Why loose two years taking NEWTs in subjects she will never need again? It is much better that she can start to study what she always wanted to learn. And you will look after her, won’t you Harry?” Harry smiled at her.

“Of course, Mrs. Weasley, I will try my best.” After dinner, Harry approached his grandmother.

“Um… Granny? Em… I just have a question… you see, …. um… wouldyoumindmyprankingtheseventhyearsstudentstomorrow?” Minerva scowled at him.

“Harry! Could you please say whatever you just said in a plain sentence?” she said exasperated. Harry looked at his shoes and repeated his question.

“Would you mind me pranking the seventh year’s students tomorrow?” Minerva laughed and told him she didn’t mind at all, provided he would only prank the students and nobody else. Harry was delighted.

“Thank you Granny. We will have fun tomorrow.”

And fun they had. While he pretended to assist the professor, he used his wish magic to transform all clothes the students were wearing into strange clothes changing either their form or the colour if not both. Fortunately, the students didn’t know that he was capable of wandless magic let alone wish magic, so nobody could suspect him as he was obviously walking around the classroom without a wand in his hand. Finally, before they left the classroom in their strange attire, he wished their hair a sparkling orange, green or yellow throwing sparkles into the air, which formed to letters saying ‘bye-bye Hogwarts’. As the seventh year’s class was just before lunch, all students in the Great Hall had their fun with this prank.

When Harry entered the Great Hall for the Leaving feast the same evening, Minerva approached him immediately and asked,

“Harry, your prank for the seventh year’s is great fun, but when will it wear off? They are still sparkling.” Harry grinned naughtily and replied,

“Don’t worry, Granny, it will wear off after 24 hours, so this will be shortly after they board the Hogwarts Express.” His grandmother gasped and threw him a stern glance, before she returned to the Head table and exchanged a few words with her husband, who grinned and whispered mischievously,

“Wait, Minerva until I’ll be finished with him tonight. He will want to kill me afterwards, but I’m sure you will have fun.” Minerva cast him a curious glance, while Albus stood to open the Leaving feast.