Harry Potter and the Heir of Slytherin

Days of Summer Part I

It was night time. The sun had long since lowered beyond the horizon, and the moon had come out. Millions of stars twinkled in the velvety night sky, sparkling and glittering like a sea of diamonds.

It was a gorgeous scene, a view that many artists had tried to capture for years without success, and one that Harry Potter had seen many many times. Enough times that he could use his memory to pick out all of the constellations with nothing but a glance, and could predict each star's cycle for the next two years.

Of course, even he had never seen the stars quite like this. Sitting back on his hind legs, his midnight black fur ruffling in the stiff breeze blowing through the clearing, Harry Potter stared up at the night sky through the canopy of trees with glowing green eyes.

Then, without warning, he took off like a shot. He imagined that, to any human, it would seem as if his body had turned into a blur. He ran through the trees, deftly avoiding every object barring his path with great ease.

He moved quickly, his four pawed legs propelling him forward at increasingly greater and greater speeds, as he pushed himself far harder than he could as a human. He didn't know how fast he was going, but he had to be at least moving somewhere around thirty, maybe forty kilometers per hour.

It might not be as fast as his Nimbus 2000, but damn if it wasn't just as exhilarating.

There were many things that Harry noticed about this particular animagus form, which he took careful note of during this first test run of his newly acquired ability. His body, which had always been quite strong as a human, was nearly ten times more powerful in this form. He could feel his leg muscles as they worked on providing him with the propulsion to move forward. They were not even straining despite the incredible speed he ran at. His balance and reaction time was beyond top notch. He could react to anything at a moments notice, jumping over fallen logs, climbing onto trees and tree branches, and moving along the trees themselves without the slightest bit of effort. His sense of smell had been enhanced to the point where he could pick out all of the individual scents in the area, and discern the direction they were coming from.

Better still, Harry's vision was sharper than it had ever been before. Even in the darkness of the night, surrounded by enough trees that only a modicum of light from the moon and stars could reach him, he could see with perfect clarity of vision. Not even the fast pace that he had set changed his perception. There wasn't even any tunnel vision that usually came from moving so swiftly.

Harry suspected that these intense increases of perception were not just due to his new form, but magical in nature. Magical beyond the fact that he was a wizard turned jaguar. While it was impossible to know just how powerful the senses of a jaguar were, since there was no way to communicate with them, Harry didn't believe that the species had senses that were this powerful.

Although, now that he could transform into a jaguar at will, maybe he would be able to speak with jaguars. If nothing else, such a conversation should prove to be interesting.

He did notice a few downsides. His mind, while still very much his own, was a little more animalistic than it was in his human form. It took a good deal more effort than normal to think in a logical manner. The problem was his instincts as a Jaguar were running interference with his much more logically thinking human brain. It created a bit of an issue at first, but Harry had learned that once he let go of his need to study everything about his animagus form, his ability to think became a bit more clear.

Harry stayed outside for several hours, testing his new found animagus form, relishing in the sense of freedom it gave him. There was something to be said about being able to turn into one of the most powerful and fastest felines in the animal kingdom. It truly was one of the most incredible, thrilling experiences that he'd had in his almost twelve years of life.