Several people watched in horror as a Bludger, which seemed to have been directly aimed at Harry, hit him in the head full force.

Harry could barely manage to keep a grip on his broom and the Snitch, as his fingers were slacking on the grip, and he was forced to grapple for a solid grip. He whirled toward the direction of the ground, while he had to fight hard against the darkness that was threatening to overlap his sight. Finally he passed out a few metres above the ground.

When he slowly regained consciousness, he could hear sounds and voices from what seemed far away. Concentrating on the voices, he could recognize Madam Pomfrey’s voice, but there were others as well. Where was he? He lazily opened his eyes and saw that he was still on the Quidditch pitch. The Gryffindor team, as well as his friends were sitting around him and Madam Pomfrey was standing in front of him.

"What happened?" Harry asked confused, before he remembered catching the Snitch.

Poppy threw Harry a stern look. “This time, your rib is only cracked a little. However, you have a slight concussion and have to lie down for a few hours, either in one of your dormitories or in the Hospital Wing.”

Harry groaned. Under no circumstances did he want to go to the Hospital Wing again! “What exactly happened?” he asked, feeling very confused. “I know that I caught the Snitch, and then something hit me in the head,” he added.

“You were hit by a Bludger,” Madam Pomfrey replied calmly. “However, your two Heads of House will come and talk to you about it as soon as you feel a little better.” She handed Harry three potions, and since he was feeling bad enough that he didn’t want to question her, he gulped them down and felt better immediately.

“Now,” Madam Pomfrey spoke again, “don’t run around, don’t use a lot of magic, don’t play Quidditch, and try to rest as much as possible during the next two weeks. I will see you in the evenings anyway, and if your condition is worse then, I shall keep you there.”

Harry groaned. No, he wouldn’t let that happen. He had already seen too much of the Hospital Wing to last for the entire school year.

-----

His friends slowly escorted him to his dormitory in Gryffindor, where he lay down and slept through the afternoon. By the time Harry woke up, it was already dark outside. When he noticed voices talking quietly next to his bed, he looked up and saw Professors McGonagall and Snape talking animatedly to each other.

“I suspect Quirrell,” Severus said, not noticing that Harry had woken up, “although I cannot give you a reason for this assumption. It is nothing more than a feeling.”

Hearing Professor McGonagall’s gasp, Harry put his glasses on, which Minerva had handed to him as soon as she had seen that Harry was awake. He was very confused, and he threw the professors an enquiring look.

“Harry,” Minerva started to speak, “do you remember the Quidditch game this morning?”

‘What a question! Of course I remember the match!’ Harry thought but refrained from voicing his thoughts.

“You were hit by a Bludger,” Snape continued, “which, according to the people who saw it, seems to have been purposely directed at you.”

Harry gasped. “What?” he asked unbelievingly. He couldn’t believe that. Why would anyone do that? And why to him? He hadn’t done anything to anyone.

“Yes, Harry, that’s true. I saw it myself,” Professor McGonagall confirmed the annoying fact. “Harry, do you have any enemies here at the school?”

Harry slightly shook his head and winced doing so. His head still hurt very much. He turned to Severus. “Can I have a Headache Potion please?”

Severus quickly checked on Harry, before he handed him two phials and said, “Drink this, and if you feel well enough then, you may join us. Dinner is going to start in a few minutes.

His friends kept him busy for the rest of the evening. The Weasley twins had organized a huge victory party in the Common Room, so that Harry didn’t have any time to think about what the teachers had told him.

-----

A week later, Harry finally had his first private lesson with Professor McGonagall, which was as interesting as the first one had been. For an hour, she let Harry practise very easy spells with his wand. He had to transfigure buttons into several sorts of things, like plush animals or other toys. However, his spells were much too strong, and the animals always ended up as real animals, and the other items most times appeared in a very high number – like when he had to transfigure a button into a plate. Suddenly, a complete tea set, with six cups, six plates, and everything else that belonged to a tea set, sat on the table.

“Yes, Harry –” Minerva sighed, “– I think tea will be in order. Would you like to try to conjure tea and biscuits for us?”

Harry beamed. Of course he would like to try. However… “Um… Professor? May I use wish magic?”

Minerva nodded affirmatively, and Harry concentrated on two cups of tea and biscuits. The teacher’s gasp brought him back to reality.

Harry looked at the table and gasped as well. All six cups were filled with tea, and the six plates were overflowing with many different sorts of biscuits. He groaned. Why did that happen? At least with wish magic he should be able to control his magic reasonably. “I’m sorry, Professor,” he apologized.

Minerva, however, laughed, which was very rare for the stern teacher, and said, “Yes, Harry, we really have to practise a lot. Maybe we should increase your lessons and practise on Saturdays as well. However, you are so powerful that I nearly could try to teach you sixth year’s exercises.

Harry gave her a surprised look and asked, “And what would that be, Professor?” Then he remembered something he had read about a few weeks ago and quickly added, “I would like to learn how to become an Animagus. Could you teach me that?” A hopeful glance took over his face.

Minerva threw him a shocked glance and replied sternly, “Harry, the Animagus transformation is the most difficult one, and at the same time, the most dangerous part of Transfiguration. I normally do not teach it in the regular classes, as only very few people are capable of it. A person’s magic has to be very strong to achieve this transformation, and I have never heard of an eleven-year-old Animagus.”

Harry looked at her pleadingly, and she just couldn’t resist his face. He was such a nice boy but had had so many bad experiences growing up without his parents. Now, at Hogwarts, he seemed to be quite happy but was ill half the time. She really pitied him, especially as she had known him well as a baby, and he had always been like a grandchild to her, just as she always had had kind of a mother-daughter relationship with his mother, Lily.

She sighed deeply and said, “I cannot promise anything now, because I have to ask Professor Dumbledore for his agreement. If he agrees, I will try to teach you how to become an Animagus. However, there will be one condition you really have to fulfil. You may only try to transform when Professor Dumbledore or I are in the same room. You may not practise on your own. Do you understand me?”

Harry nodded excitedly and asked, “Professor, please, can we go and ask Professor Dumbledore immediately?”

Minerva felt herself getting excited like the student in front of her. She stood up and motioned Harry to wait for a moment, while she went into her office where she fire-called the Headmaster. “Albus, could you step through for a moment, please?”

A minute later, Dumbledore was sitting on a chair next to Harry, enjoying one of the cups of tea Harry had conjured before.

“Now, this looks like a joyful tea party. What a pleasure,” he stated, before he threw Minerva and Harry an enquiring smile.

“Albus, Harry wants to learn the Animagus transformation. As powerful as he is, I think it might be possible for him to learn it, although he is only eleven. Do you think it would be all right to try to teach him?”

The Headmaster’s eyes were twinkling madly, and he said, “Yes, Minerva, I have no doubt that Harry will be able to learn it. However, as he is so young, it might take a few years. Moreover, he has to promise that he won’t practise on his own, but only when you are in the same room with him. Or I,” he added, smiling at Harry.

McGonagall fetched a timetable and tapped it with her wand, muttering something that Harry couldn’t understand. Finally, she said,

“All right, Harry. We have two parallel free periods, Tuesday and Friday at the fourth period. Come to my office during these hours, and we can practise either here or in my office, depending on your form and its size. If the size of your animal is not too big to practise in my office, you could additionally come any time in the evening and could try on your own, while I am grading parchments.”

“Thank you very much,” Harry said excitingly. He was so happy that he really had to stop himself from hugging his teacher.

In the meantime, McGonagall had written something on a parchment, which she handed to Harry. “Here, Harry. Go to the library and take this book out. Read at least the first two chapters before our lesson on Tuesday. Moreover, you have to ask Professor Snape if he could help you to brew the Animagus potion or even brew it for you.”

“What does this potion do?” Harry asked interestedly.

“When you drink this potion, you will be transformed into your animal for a few minutes, so that you know your animal and can have a close look at it. If you manage to brew it before Tuesday, we can try it out then.”

Harry thanked the teachers and received the permission to talk to Professor Snape about it, although he had to keep quiet about it to all other people. Then he went to the library to borrow the book and headed for the dungeons to talk to his other Head of House.

Professor Snape was not very pleased when five minutes into curfew a very happy Harry Potter knocked at his door. He was supposed to be in his dormitory in Gryffindor.

“Harry Potter! What are you doing here? It is already past curfew,” he asked sharply.

Harry gasped. He hadn’t thought about curfew at all. “Oh, I am really sorry, Professor. I completely forgot. I had my transfiguration lesson with Professor McGonagall until just now, and I have something I would like to talk to you, sir.”

Severus sighed. Of course, he knew about the lessons with Minerva, but curfew was curfew. On the other hand, it was not the child’s fault that he had two Heads of House, and wherever he stayed for the night, one of these two teachers was always quite a walk away.

“All right, Harry. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, Professor!” Harry told Severus the whole story, and Severus inwardly groaned.

On one hand he despised the Gryffindors for giving Harry even more attention by teaching a first year student sixth or even seventh year lessons. On the other hand, he was very glad for Harry who could really use any kind of help and affection he could get. Severus really had to try hard not to show his emotions in front of the child, but he efficiently managed to keep his face blank.

“Now, first of all I’ll have to transfigure the cover of the book in your hand to something else, into a difficult or uninteresting title, so that nobody would ever consider having a look inside the book.”

Harry gasped. He had completely forgotten that the Animagus thing had to remain a secret and that therefore, no one was supposed to see what he was reading. He held the book out to the teacher.

Severus pointed his wand at the book in Harry’s hand, and when Harry looked at the book again, the title had changed into ‘The Seldom Inefficiency of Birch Bark in Healing Potions’. The subtitle was ‘When Pepper-up Potions Do Not Work – A Rare Problem’. Harry threw him a grateful glance. He had already forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to do a lot of magic.

“Harry, let’s brew this potion together. It is quite difficult to brew, although it only takes about two hours including the preparations. Can you come here after dinner tomorrow, or do you have Quidditch practise?”

“After dinner will be fine, sir. No, I am only allowed to play Quidditch twice a week at the moment; therefore, I practise with the Slytherins on Tuesdays and with the Gryffindors on Fridays, that’s all.”

“Now, shall I accompany you to Gryffindor, or are you going to stay in your dormitory here tonight?”

Harry thought for a moment and sighed. “I would prefer to stay here, as I am very tired. However, I still have not gone to Madam Pomfrey, and if I don’t return to Gryffindor, everyone will be worried about me.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “You are aware of the features of the Floo network, aren’t you? I can easily Fire-call Professor McGonagall, whose office is near the Gryffindor common room and inform her, so that she will be able to calm your excited roommates. Concerning Madam Pomfrey, it would not be the first time for you to skip her check-up and be checked by me, would it now? I can Fire-call her too.”

Harry sighed again and shrugged. “Do you mind, Professor? I am sorry; I don’t want to bother you beyond…”

Severus interrupted him. “You are not bothering me; I just do not intend to be killed by your other Head of House if I send you up all the way to Gryffindor when you are obviously dead on your feet and could as well sleep in your dormitory here. Now, let me check on you, and then you can go to bed while I make the two Floo-calls.”

A few minutes later, Harry was fast asleep in his Slytherin dormitory, surrounded by his excited dorm mates, who were still waiting for an explanation why Harry had joined them on a Sunday and why he was so late.

“Maybe he had a fight with Weasley,” Draco tried to guess. “Ron can be such a b… sometimes.” Nobody knew more, and so they decided to go to sleep and ask Harry in the morning.

-----

In the morning, Draco woke Harry up early. “Harry, wake up! Tell me why you are here.”

Harry flinched at the touch, groaned and lazily opened an eye. “What’s wrong? What time’s it?”

“Now, tell us, Harry. Did you get in a fight with Ron last night?” Draco asked again.

In the meantime, Blaise had woken up as well and came over curiously. “Harry, is everything all right with you?”

Harry nodded. “Yes, of course. Except for the fact that this bundle of energy here had to wake me up so early.” What was wrong? Why were they so excitedly fussing over him? He had just woken up, hadn’t he?

“So, tell me, now. Why you are here?” Draco whined.

“Am I not supposed to be here? That’s my bed, isn’t it?” Harry asked confused, before he remembered the events of the evening before.

“Of course it is. We just didn’t expect you on a Sunday evening, especially an hour beyond curfew, but we are glad to have you here anyway,” Blaise answered quickly, giving Draco a snide glare.

Draco, however, didn’t notice. “Did you get in a fight with Ron?” he asked again.

Harry laughed. “No, Draco. I just had a conversation with our Head of House, and afterwards, I was so tired that the Gryffindor dorm seemed so far away and I just stayed here. That’s all.”

“Oh, I see,” Draco commented with a small hint of disappointment in his face.

Harry closed the curtains around his bed and proceeded to read the book that he had borrowed the night before, until it was time to get up.

Two hours later, when Harry had breakfast at the Gryffindor table, he had to endure a similar conversation with his friends who had worried a lot when an hour after curfew their Head of House came to tell them that Harry would stay in Slytherin for the night.

-----

Harry could hardly manage to concentrate on his lessons. The thought “What will my Animagus form be?” kept popping up in his head every now and then. He hoped so much that it would be a bird, so that he could fly without a broom. But what if….

“Mr. Potter!” the stern voice of the Transfiguration teacher penetrated his ear. “Do you think this is too easy for you?”

Harry nearly jumped out of his chair. “No, Professor, of course not. I’m sorry, Professor,” he stammered, hastily glancing at Hermione and Draco in order to find out what they had to do.

“Try to transfigure your button into a plush teddy bear,” the teacher said strictly.

Harry took his wand, pointed it at the button, and thought, ‘I want you to be a cute, white teddy bear with green eyes and an orange jump suit.’ In an instant, the teddy bear sat in front of him, and the whole class applauded, as everyone had been watching Harry after the professor’s outburst.

“Very good, Mr. Potter. However, the next time I would like to hear your incantation, please,” McGonagall admonished him.

Harry sighed. He knew he had to do that… but here? In front of all the others? Noticing that not only the teacher but the whole class seemed to be waiting for him to comply, he wished the teddy bear back and again pointed his wand at the button, pronouncing the spell that the teacher had told them the other day aloud. He sighed and closed his eyes immediately after the word had left his mouth. He didn’t want to see the result of his transfiguration.

However, it only took the class a few seconds to scream so loud that Harry opened his eyes again, only to find himself eye-in-eye with a fortunately still-small polar bear, which was – of course – alive. Harry was wide awake, now. Before the polar bear could even move, Harry had wished him back to the plush teddy bear from a few minutes ago, and he felt his classmates relaxing.

Harry took the teddy bear into his arms and absentmindedly cuddled it. Looking down at the teddy, he was too busy trying to keep his tears from pouring down and trying to catch his breath to notice the concerned looks that his teacher and his friends gave him.

-----

Harry was still absentmindedly cuddling his teddy bear when he arrived at the dungeons. When Professor Snape entered the classroom and saw Harry he raised an eyebrow and threw an enquiring look at Hermione, who was sitting next to Harry.

“Harry,” Hermione whispered to Harry in a soft voice, “you better put the teddy away now.”

Harry gasped and felt himself blush terribly. He had not noticed at all that he had been cuddling the teddy bear for the whole time. He quickly opened his bag and put the teddy away. ‘Now, I have to concentrate on this lesson,’ he thought and feverishly tried not to think of anything else but the potion instructions that had just appeared on the blackboard. Fortunately, he had read the chapter in the book several times and knew the instructions by heart, so that he managed to brew a flawless potion.

-----

After dinner, Harry went straight to the Potions classroom, where Professor Snape was already busying himself with several potions that were simmering at a table in front of the classroom. “Good evening, Professor,” Harry said and settled down at the table next to the teacher’s.

“Good evening, Harry,” the Professor replied evenly. His face didn’t show any emotion at all. With a flick of his wand, potions instructions appeared at the blackboard.

Harry looked at the front of the classroom and gasped. The strangest ingredients were needed for the potion – Some of them Harry had not even heard of.

Snape raised an eyebrow and sneered. “Does this seem too difficult for our Mr. Potter…” Harry blushed and looked down at his table, and the teacher continued, “… who has, so far, made nearly all his potions in class correctly?”

Harry threw him an unsure glance, trying to assess the teacher’s mood.

“Harry, I know that this potion is very difficult. Get the ingredients out of the classroom’s stock, and then, I will show you how to prepare them.”

They brewed the potion together, and two hours later, Harry held a potions phial concerning a slightly orange potion in his hand, watching it from all sides. He wanted to try it out immediately, but he had to wait until his lesson with McGonagall.

“I want to try it immediately,” he blurted out.

Severus sneered and raised an eyebrow. “What did Professor McGonagall tell you?”

“She told me that we can try it in my lesson tomorrow,” Harry answered honestly and put the phial into his bag. Then he remembered something he had wanted to ask his teacher.

“Professor Snape,” he started timidly, and seeing Severus’ enquiring look, he continued, “are you an Animagus too, Professor? I hope you don’t mind me asking,” he added hesitantly.

The edges of Severus’ mouth twitched as if he was laughing a bit, before he replied, “Yes, Harry. I am a snake.”

Harry’s eyes grew bigger and he looked expectantly at this teacher, hoping that the Professor would show him his Animagus form.

Severus sighed and transformed into a black snake with a beautiful, green pattern.

Harry was impressed and looked in awe at the stunning snake in front of him.

‘Do you like it? That’s why I always know what happens in Slytherin house – A snake is very inconspicuous, and none of my students know when I’m there,’ Severus hissed in Parseltongue, more to himself, of course, as he was aware of the fact that no student could understand what he said while he was in his snake form.

‘Is that true?’ Harry thought to himself, before he realised that he could understand the snake like he was able to talk to the snake in the zoo before he had arrived at Hogwarts. But should he let his teacher know about this? Was it normal for wizards to be able to speak to snakes? Probably yes, but he had never heard anyone talk about it.

Severus noticed that Harry seemed to be far away in his thoughts. What could have triggered this? He had pleaded that Severus should transform, and as soon as he transformed, Harry had pulled himself back into his thoughts. And suddenly, something began to dawn on him.

‘Do you understand me, Harry?’ he hissed again.

Harry shifted uneasily from one foot onto the other. ‘Yes, sir.’

Severus transformed back into his normal form, sat down, and motioned Harry to sit down as well.

“Harry,” he said pensively, “you were able to understand what I said, right?”

“Yes, Professor,” Harry answered warily. “Why?” he then asked. “It’s not unusual for wizards to be able to talk to snakes, is it?”

Severus frowned, before he told Harry that it was indeed very unusual – even for wizards – to understand Parseltongue. When he asked Harry if he had talked to a snake before, Harry nodded and told him of his visit to the zoo, where he had talked to a boa constrictor. ‘Why is he able to understand? He is not an heir of Slytherin,’ Severus thought fervently. He knew that this ability to speak to snakes had sometimes appeared in his own family as well, as the Princes were an old family that had always been very close to the Slytherin family. However, the Potters couldn’t have anything to do with those Slytherin-bound families.

“Professor,” Harry’s voice pulled Severus out of his thoughts. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody what you told me while you were in your snake’s form.”

Severus nodded. “Yes, Harry, please keep quiet about it. Moreover, nobody should know that I am a snake at all. So far, only Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall as well as Madam Pomfrey know about it, and I would like it to remain like this.”

“I won’t tell, Professor. I promise,” Harry said firmly, and Severus decided to believe the boy. Although he looked like his father, his behaviour so far had been completely different from the way James Potter had conducted himself. Had James known Severus’ secret, surely at least the whole Gryffindor tower would have been informed during the next hour.

-----

“Harry, does Professor Dumbledore know that you are a Parselmouth? I mean someone who can talk to snakes?”

“No, sir, I don’t think so. I haven’t spoken to anyone about it,” Harry replied anxiously.

“Then let’s pay him a visit. With a bit of luck, Professor McGonagall will be there as well, so that you can try your potion.”

Harry beamed at the Professor, and they quickly left the Potions classroom. He was indeed lucky, as he noticed the moment he entered the Headmaster’s Office. Professor McGonagall was just having tea with Dumbledore.

Before Severus could tell his colleagues the reason for their visit, Harry had addressed his Head of House. “I have the potion, Professor. Professor Snape helped me to brew it.”

“And he wants to take it immediately, Minerva. Do you think we could release him from this burden?” Severus added, smirking.

Minerva snorted and glanced at Harry. “Harry, do you feel well enough, I mean, physically well enough to transform? It might hurt a lot, depending on the animal you are likely to become. Even later, when you have managed the transformation on your own, you may only transform when you are in a good, physical condition. Otherwise, it could be dangerous and you could make yourself worse.”

Harry thought for a moment. His chest hurt a bit, and he couldn’t breathe easily, but that was nearly normal nowadays. “Yes, I think so,” he answered apprehensively.

Dumbledore pointed to the sofa. “I would recommend you to lie down on the sofa before you take the potion and make yourself as comfortable as possible, because you will really transform in the animal you are going to become, and, as Professor McGonagall said, the transformation might hurt a lot the first time,” he advised Harry.

Harry did as he was told, took the Potion, started to transform, and found himself in a black world of pain.