“So what did you find, Jerome?” Harry asked, sitting down at the table Severus had conjured.

“Here, read this,” Jerome murmured, shoving a book under Harry’s nose and pointing to a paragraph in small typing. “A case like ours, including process and results.”

“We used the Soul Switching potion normally used only for human to human switches instead with a man, my brother, and his dog. We wished to somehow give the dog human intelligence. I gave both my brother and the dog a drink of the potion, from which we had discluded human ingredients, and activated it with the appropriate spell. There seemed to be no immediate effect on the dog, but my brother immediately began to shrink and soon changed form not into a dog, as we thought might happen, but into a snake. My brother was not an Animagus, but I was, and I changed to my form, a tabby cat. I spoke to the snake telepathically, and found it was, indeed, my brother. The changed potion had given him an immediate animagus transformation. I urged him to change back, which he found difficult. When he was again in human form, he mentioned feeling almost trapped, a feeling that he said left him after a few more transformations. On his sixth transformation, he was stuck in his animagus form as he battled the snake’s spirit for dominance. He won it, and so ended our experiment.”

-Anonymous

“Great, so I can expect a fight with a tiger sometime soon,” Harry rolled his eyes dramatically.

Severus shook his head. “Not just a tiger,” he corrected. “With yourself.”

“So don’t transform until you’re ready to fight, Harry,” Jerome added. “Since you’re probably a more powerful wizard, and the tiger is a more powerful animal, it’ll probably happen sooner. What I don’t get is why you’re having the fight anyway. I never had that- I don’t think it happens in normal transformation.”

“Because the usual transformation is more gradual,” Severus explained. “You grow into your form instead of being forced into it.”

“So how can I possibly friggin prepare myself to fight with... myself, I guess.”

“Language, Mr. Potter,” Severus admonished sarcastically.

Jerome rolled his eyes. “And the used to say I was never serious...”

“Who ever said that, Jerome?” Severus asked.

“Gryffindorks. But they only ever saw me being an ass, not in the common room or anything. I guess they never noticed I was making top grades. Anyway, you should probably be pretty set with Occlumency before you try changing. Legilimency could be useful too. That way the tiger mindset couldn’t get to you, but you could control it with Legilimency.”

“If you’ve worked on it some since our last meeting,” Severus said, carefully not thinking about the Pensieve incident, “maybe we won’t have to work as much as I had thought.”

“I have worked hard,” Harry replied indignantly. “I’m pretty good at making a shield and keeping it up.”

“We’ll try it after dinner,” Jerome said. “I suppose the original plan for the day was pretty shattered once Harry turned into a fucking tiger.”

Severus’ eyes narrowed in a teacher-like way. “And they wonder why Harry’s such a troublemaker. Look at this bad influence.”

“I’m not a troublemaker,” Harry protested.

Simultaneously, Jerome cried, “I’m not a bad influence!”

Severus just looked condescendingly at them both and began walking towards the library doors. “Come along children. Binky will give us our dinner a touch early, I suppose.”

The two young men followed, Harry muttering, “Déjà vu,” and Severus hissing, “And this is the man that’s supposed to save the world.” Jerome merely chuckled at them both.

As it turned out, Binky was glad to serve dinner a bit early, and all three men eagerly dug into the scrumptious vegetable soup. When they were done, Severus called Binky, who vanished with the dirty dishes, and then they retired to the living room. Harry sunk down onto a forest green couch and rubbed his eyes. It had been a long day, and in a few minutes he’d be practicing Occlumency again, after such a long time with no mental attacks. It was tiring simply to think about it.

“Up you get,” Severus murmured to the skinny teenager, almost kindly. “Ready?”

Harry nodded his acknowledgement and immediately Severus shouted, “Legilimens!”

For a second, Snape thought he had Harry, but then his mind slammed into a mental block and he retreated. “Pretty good?” He spat sarcastically at Harry. “Pretty good? I was expecting a weak little shove out, if anything. I wasn’t able to pull a wall like that until I was eighteen and in the Dark Lord’s service. No chinks or anything, Jerome,” the dark man raved.

Jerome looked at Harry with a calculating gaze. “Try Legilimency, Harry. On me or Severus; we’re both master Occlumens.”

Harry glanced hesitantly at Severus, then nodded. “Alright. I’ll try you, Jerome, I wouldn’t want you to get bored just sitting there.”

The blond man nodded with a little smile and Harry lifted his wand. “Legilimens,” he called softly. At first he met resistance, but soon Harry slipped through Jerome’s wall and memories began pouring into his mind. Most were of France, which Harry recognized from pictures, but a few were of Jerome’s Hogwarts days. In a moment, Harry felt himself being pushed backwards, and he came back to the present.

Jerome was gasping. “Yeah, I think he can do Legilimency,” he breathed. “Wow it’s been a while since someone’s gotten me.”

Severus smirked at Jerome. “Getting weaker, Jerome? Find you’re losing your touch?”

Jerome glared at the potions professor. “Would you like to try it? I didn’t think so.” He sat back onto the couch. “Now what?”

“Why don’t I try transforming?” Harry suggested quietly after a few minutes of silence.

Severus looked at him appraisingly. “You think you’re ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Harry shrugged. “Let’s go.”

Jerome cleared his throat. “Severus, we should probably put him in a sort of confinement before he changes, just in case he can’t get control and we have to forcefully bring him back to his human form.”

Severus nodded. “Ready Harry?” At Harry’s nod, Severus muttered a spell and a silvery cage rose from the ground around Harry. “Whenever you like, Harry.”

Harry immediately became the fierce-looking tiger from earlier. For a second, the animal looked totally docile, but suddenly it let out a low, rumbling growl. “Crap,” Severus muttered. “Harry’s going to have to fight for it.”

As he spoke, the tiger lunged at the bars, snapping at the air. For the next ten minutes, it went on much the same, the tiger trying desperately to escape, seeming to have complete control over Harry. But gradually, the beast calmed down. Jerome allowed himself to hope that Harry might be gaining a bit of influence over the tiger’s vicious mind. Finally, the tiger stopped growling and throwing himself at the bars and settled down into a nervous prowl around the perimeter of the cage. In another few minutes it yawned and laid down in the middle of the confinement, watching Severus intently.

“Severus,” Jerome murmured. “Transform and see if he’s got control.”

Severus, concerned about Harry, didn’t stop to try and convince Jerome to change instead. In his animagus form, he beamed a wave of thought to Harry.

“You there, Harry?”

“Yeah, Severus,” the boy responded wearily. “I did it.”

“I see that. Now transform, and then you can go to sleep.”

Both tigers straightened and zipped back into their human shapes, one of which immediately sloped off for the stairs and bed, muttering, “Night, Sev, night, Jerome.”

“He called me Sev,” Severus said very quietly.

Jerome nodded. “Yes, he did.”

“No one’s called me that for years, not since- not since she died.”

“Get to bed Severus. It’s been a long day for all of us.”