Mariko had transformed into a dark green crocodile.

”Wow,” Harry said excitedly, “that’s just too cool. Oh, Mariko-san, I am very happy for you. In this form, you are predestined to live as near to the sea as you do. This is just the right form for you. Congratulations. Now I will try to teach you how to transform, alright?” It took another ten minutes until Mariko-san was back to her normal self. “Are you alright, Aunt Mariko? Are you in a lot of pain?” he asked worriedly, but she answered,

“No, it doesn’t hurt very much, I’m fine. So, how do we proceed now?” she asked, and Minerva answered, before Harry could say anything,

“We will arrange a lesson for you every day. Harry can teach you when he is well enough; otherwise, I will take over for him. Let us start tomorrow after breakfast, however by then Julian should have taken the potion too, so that you can start together.”

Mariko nodded affirmatively, before she asked quietly, “What is Harry’s problem, overwork because his immune system is still too weak?” Minerva nodded solemnly and told her how often he was sick.

On Sunday morning, Mariko-san, Julian, Julia and Marina were having breakfast together in the Snape living room. Hoping that Harry would eat properly, Lily had not called Dobby but prepared all of Harry’s favourite dishes for breakfast. Afterwards Mariko ushered him to the sofa where Ginny and Poppy had ordered him to spend the day. Shortly after, Minerva arrived and enquired if Julian had already taken the potion. Harry grinned and told her where she could find it, before he got up and lay down on the floor in front of the fireplace, so that Julian could use the sofa.

Julian took the potion, and everyone waited curiously, what would happen. After a few minutes, he had transformed into a chameleon. Just at this moment, everyone else came back from breakfast and Lily frowned having a chameleon lying on her sofa. Seeing his mother’s confused look, Harry could not help but exploded with laughter.

Lily frowned at him and said, “You seem to be much better today, that’s good, then I can ask you to make lunch today.” Harry inwardly groaned, but just turned around and closed his eyes. In front of the fireplace, it was so comfortable and warm, that he slept not only through Mariko’s and Julian’s first animagus lesson but through lunch as well.

The last week of classes passed quickly. Whenever Harry returned to their quarters, either Aunt Mariko and his grandmother or his grandfather and Uncle Julian, who was very funny, were there. As he was still busy with staff meetings after dinner and house meetings before curfew, he had agreed with his two animagus students to have their lessons just before dinner and if this was not enough in between the staff meeting and his house meeting. As he knew that they were both very powerful, he was not astonished when they both managed to change their left hands after only a few days of practising.

Thursday was the last day of classes, and on Friday, the students went home for the Christmas holidays. This year, Minerva had made a timetable for the teachers, who had to take turns eating lunch and dinner together with the students in the Great Hall. Harry was lucky, as Minerva had exempted him from all duties. During the last staff meeting on Thursday evening, Hagrid had approached Harry and asked if he wanted to have a Christmas tree for Merlin house, and when Harry entered Merlin house on Friday evening, the remaining students were all sitting in front of the bare tree discussing how they could decorate it.

Harry took his time to show them how to create their own decorations with a more or less simple spell, which was however a bit difficult for the first years. While the students were experimenting, he took a clean tissue out of his robes and wandlessly transfigured it into a golden bauble, before he wished a white owl, a golden-red phoenix and a white-green phoenix on it. Finally, he added a few branches of palm trees, and arranged letters saying ‘Merlin House’ on it. He showed the bauble around and told the awestruck students that it was for Merlin House in order to be used in the common room every year.

Finished with his own creation, he proceeded to help the students and did not notice how fast the time passed. Suddenly the Headmistress climbed through the portrait hole, which Harry could not see as he was just helping a student to finish her work, however the common room suddenly fell so silent, that Harry noticed and looked up, shocked to see his grandmother throwing a stern glance at him. A short look at his watch showed him that it was nearly midnight.

Julia was the first to speak, “Sorry, Granny, we completely forgot the time. Harry showed us how to make Christmas ornaments, and we just kept him busy and lost track of time.”

Harry interrupted her and said, “No, Julia, you are very nice and I really appreciate your loyalty, but this is not your fault. It is me who forgot the time. I’m sorry, Granny.” He turned to the others and said, “Sorry, but it is late and we should all go to bed. We will continue this tomorrow. Good night.” Then he followed his grandmother out of the portrait hole with Julia in tow. Together they went through his office into their quarters and he apologized again, “I am sorry, Granny, this was not planned.”

He explained the situation and Minerva said calmingly, “Harry, it’s alright, I am not angry. I was only worried about you. I am glad everything is alright. Maybe you should try to sleep in tomorrow morning. Good night.” Harry gave his grandmother a slight hug and wished her, Julia and his parents a good night, before he and Ginny entered their room, where he again apologized – this time to his wife, who promised she would ground him, if it happened again.

On Saturday morning, he really slept in, and when he entered the living room, everyone was already busily fussing around to decorate the tree. Harry took two tissues and quietly sat down on his favourite spot on the sofa, then he noticed that it was too cold and moved just in front of the fireplace where he lay down on his stomach. Nobody seemed to have noticed him at all.

He transfigured the first tissue in a golden bauble like the one’s that decorated the Snapes’ Christmas tree every year. Then, again with wish magic – as he was still wearing pyjamas, he didn’t have his wand anyway – he put a beautiful pattern with a dark green crocodile in connection with pretty white flowers onto the bauble. Having a good look at the finished bauble, he noticed how beautiful it was. Hopefully, Aunt Mariko would like it as well. He carefully laid it aside and transfigured the other tissue into another similar bauble, which he decorated with several small chameleons, all of them in different colours, which looked beautiful on the golden back. Watching the bauble closely, he was very content with himself but now very tired, laid the bauble aside, just next to the other, curled up in front of the fireplace and was asleep within seconds.

Suddenly Severus noticed him and said, “Harry!” Everyone now looked into the direction and noticed Harry as well as the two golden baubles he had made. Minerva carefully picked the first one up, gave it a piercing look and handed it to Mariko saying,

“I would say he made this for you, Mariko-san.” Then she carefully picked the other one up, looked it over and handed it to Julian. “Look, it has your chameleon on it.” Both of them were very happy and proceeded to putting the beautiful baubles onto the tree.

Harry, Ginny and Julia spent the whole afternoon in the common room teaching and helping the students to decorate the tree, before they returned for Christmas Eve dinner to their quarters. Harry had told them he wouldn’t come again in the evening, but they would open presents together after lunch on Christmas. This time he had bought parchment for his students from WWW, which they could spell to only show the writing after the use of a certain password, nothing special but very useful.

For the first time in years, Harry could really relax on Christmas Eve. Not only had he bought all presents early enough, he had also asked Dobby to wrap them for him and put them under the tree around midnight. Sitting on his favourite spot on the sofa next to Ginny and more or less listening into the conversation between Mariko-san, Julian and his great grandparents, which Severus joined sometimes, he didn’t notice how fast the time passed. Soon it was after midnight, and suddenly Julia gasped.

“Wow, Harry, look how many presents are under the tree! Mom, Dad, may we start opening presents now?” Lily and Severus exchanged a glance, and Severus answered,

“All right, Julia; you may open one present each, the rest we will leave for Christmas morning.” Julia immediately turned to Harry and asked,

“Harry, do you have a present for me?” Harry laughed and replied,

“Yes, of course I have a present for you, but it’s under the tree, so you will have to search for it on your own.” She frowned but went over to the tree digging into the pile of presents. In the meantime, Mariko-san leaned over to Ginny and Harry and handed them an envelope. It was decorated by fine writing in Japanese, which Harry could interpret as ‘to Ginny and Harry’, and contained a voucher for two nights of accommodation at the ‘Sparkling Hat’, the equivalent to the Leaky Cauldron, in Tokyo. Mariko-san told them that the date was not fixed yet and that they just had to reserve the room by phone, when they were in Okinawa next summer.

“Thank you, Aunt Mariko and Uncle Julian, we would like to see more of Japan when we visit you in summer,” Ginny said with a happy glance at her husband’s twinkling eyes.

At this instant, Julia came over and pulled Harry into a bear hug, shouting, “Thank you, Harry, that’s too great.” Noticing the astonished expressions on nearly every face in the room, she grinned and explained, “Harry gave me a book on the animagus transformation, a potion’s phial and a voucher for private lessons on the same topic.”

Harry laughed and commented, “Yes; you know that I normally don’t teach students apart from the normal animagus class in seventh year, because I don’t want to be told I would favour certain students, but as Julia is my sister it is of nobody’s concern if and what I teach her. Therefore, I have decided to start teaching her to become an animagus, presuming that she wants me to.” Julia laughed and asked,

“Is that a question? Of course, I want you to teach me. When can we start?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Harry answered stifling a yawn, which did not go unnoticed by his wife, who stood up and, having said good night to everyone, pulled Harry into their room.

When Harry woke up, it was already nearly lunchtime, and when he entered the living room after a quick shower, his parents and grandparents were playing with the colourful mobile phones Harry had given them for Christmas. After struggling inefficiently through the catalogues of the shops, he had flashed over into muggle London and bought a dozen mobile phones in different colours to give to all his friends. During the last days he had spend many hours in his office charming each single mobile phone according to the needs of the person who would receive it. As soon as Julia noticed Harry, she came over and pulled him into a hug.

“Happy Christmas, my dear brother! Can we use my potion now?” Harry laughed at his enthusiastic sister and gave her an approving nod, before he got up from where he has just sat down.

“Here, sit down on the sofa, drink the potion and lie down. It might be slightly uncomfortable,” he advised her, sitting down on a near-by chair. Everyone was watching, when Julia complied and a minute later transformed into a pretty, white unicorn.

“Wow,” Ginny said in awe. “You’re the only one except for Albus and Harry to have the form of a magical animal, that’s great!”

During the following week, Julia joined Aunt Mariko and Uncle Julius with their animagus lessons; however, while the two guests were able to proceed very fast, it took Julia much more time. Harry said soothingly,

“It’s clear that they are much faster than you, because they are more powerful. The age of sixteen is a turning point in the life of a wizard or a witch concerning their magic. Surely Mom and Dad have told you that, haven’t they?” When Julia nodded, he continued, “and as you are still fifteen, your magic is not as powerful as it will be in a year. But as everyone in our family is very powerful and able to become an animagus, I believe that you will be able too. The fact that your animagus form is a magical animal, which is very rare, shows that you will be a very powerful witch.” Severus added,

“Take it easy, Julia. Aunt Mariko and Uncle Julius have to hurry, because they will be going back to Japan in a few weeks and can’t take any more lessons with Harry until the summer, but you have Harry here every day, and as long as he is in the same room with you, you can practise anytime.” Julia nodded relieved,

“Thank you, Dad, thank you, Harry.”

Harry and Ginny took turns with Albus and Minerva as well as Lily and Severus to show their guests around places within the wizarding world and within the muggle world. Ginny and Harry also tried to spend as much time as possible with Marina and Violet, because Harry knew he wouldn’t have much time when school started again the next week.

When Mariko and Julian had to leave on January 15, everyone was sad, and Harry urged them to promise that they would come back next Christmas.

The next few months were uneventful. Harry was as busy as usual with lessons, homework, animagus classes, Primary school lessons and Deputy Headmaster duties, Head of House duties, Quidditch practise with the teachers and with his house team, Yakkitch practise, staff meetings and meals in the Great Hall. However, Julia assisted him with grading and supervision of detentions, which Harry did not give out very often anyway, and Harry tried to be back in his quarters around curfew in order to keep Ginny company, who was always very tired in the evening.

The result of more rest in the evening was that Harry’s health was slowly improving, although it was still not very good.

Minerva and Harry had decided to arrange the summer course for the muggleborn students for the last three weeks of the holidays. Several people had suggested to hold the summer course during the first three weeks of the holidays, so that Harry and Ginny could leave for Okinawa after the course and come back just in time for the new school year. However, Harry preferred to come back from Japan at least a week before the start of the new school year to be able to get rid of the jetlag during the holidays and to prepare his lessons for the new school year. Therefore, Ginny and Harry would leave at the beginning of the holidays and come back at the beginning of August.

Harry and his grandmother had agreed to contact the parents of the muggleborn students for the next school year during the Easter holidays as they had done in the previous year. During the first week of the holidays, Harry had been told to rest and do nothing, and in the second week, Minerva and he were quite busy visiting twelve muggle families. This time, they had trouble with two families, who just didn’t want to accept that their children were magical, however the ‘therapy’ Harry had performed on the troublemakers last year worked with these families as well. During the next few weeks, all twelve students called him on his mobile phone and confirmed their participation in the summer course.

As Harry was not allowed to do any work during these holidays apart from accompanying his grandmother to the muggles, Julia and he used the time for their animagus lessons. On the last day of the holidays, Julia finally managed the transformation, and a beautiful white unicorn was standing in front of Harry. He immediately took his mobile phone and called Minerva,

“Could you please come over to my room for a moment, Granny?” Minerva thought it had to be about the muggleborn students but replied,

“Yes, Harry, I will be there in five minutes.” Entering Harry’s room, she was stunned, when she saw the beautiful magical animal. She sat down on the edge of Harry’s bed and looked at the unicorn in awe. Finally, she managed to say,

“Oh Julia, this is beautiful. Congratulations to both of you!” The unicorn nodded its head, before it tilted its head looking at Harry. He thought for a moment and asked his sister,

“You are asking me if you should transform back, right?” When she nodded, he continued, “On one hand I would like to show it to Mom and Dad, but on the other hand we will have our animagus night next Saturday, and maybe you could just join us without them knowing before.” Minerva laughed and agreed immediately,

“Yes, Harry, I think that’s a very good idea. Now, Julia, maybe you should try to change back now, so that we can see that everything is all right with the transformation both ways.” She had just transformed back, when the door opened and Lily entered the room, glancing suspiciously at the three of them, when they immediately burst into laughter. Lily gave them a stern look and said,

“My son is supposed to rest and not to be taught pranks by his granny and his sister.” Minerva snorted and returned,

“Do you think your son is such a good boy that he needs someone to teach him pranks?” Now everyone had to laugh just more, before Harry managed to ask innocently,

“I take it you came to call us for dinner, is that correct?” Lily nodded and left the room.

When curfew arrived on Saturday evening, Harry and Julia were still in the common room. They had agreed with their grandmother that Minerva, who was watching Marina and Violet and keeping Ginny company in the Snape’s quarters, would tell Lily and Severus that they should go out without Harry and that Albus would accompany Harry to the forest when he came back. As soon as Lily and Severus had left their quarters, Ginny came to fetch her husband and sister-in-law, and Albus accompanied the two of them to the entrance hall, where Julia transformed into the pretty unicorn.

“Julia, may Granddad and I ride on your back please,” Harry asked his sister, who nodded immediately, and the two phoenix animagi transformed into their animagus forms and flew onto the unicorn’s back. Then the unicorn left the castle and headed for the forest directed by Harry to where they were going to meet the others.

The others were stunned to say the least when a beautiful unicorn with two phoenixes on the back arrived at their meeting place.

“Julia!” Severus was the first to recognise his daughter’s animagus form. James was happy – finally, there was an animal, to which he could talk! He tried it out immediately, and Julia was not only astonished but very happy too. She already had envied Harry, because he was able to talk to his mom, wife and granddad, when he was in his animagus form. Now, at least she had someone to talk as well. She spent the whole evening until their picnic with James and Sirius and was very happy.

Ginny’s belly was like a ball with the growing twins in it, and one day at the beginning of April, when Poppy had kept Harry for a weekend after several weeks of ‘peace’ for him, Poppy told him he better quickly prepare an additional room with cots and everything for the twins. On his astonished look, she said,

“Although the predicted birth date is May 5, I am relatively sure that they will not wait for the next month to come. My prediction would be between April 15 and April 20.”

How correct she was! Harry was just in the middle of a first years’ class on April 18, when Minerva entered his classroom and told him,

“Poppy just called me; your twins seem to be troublemakers as their father and seem to cause problems. You better go and look after your wife; I will take your lessons for the whole day.”

Harry, who had turned white hearing her words, could only nod and mumble, “Thank you, Granny,” before he transformed and flashed out of the classroom.