One Day They'll Know Your Name

To whom it *name* concern

Amelia Bones stifled a groan as she rubbed her temples, trying to stave off the headache she could feel coming on. She had just taken a potion to relieve her previous headache, and couldn't take another for the next few hours. She cast a quick Tempus only to groan again. She was going to be here for hours yet. She was just grateful Susan was at Hogwarts. No matter what her niece said, thirteen was too young to be able to watch oneself overnight, including making meals.

She had finally made it through the Auror Corps and found that all of the work she had done when she became Head of the Department had paid off and their vetting process worked as it should. None of the Aurors were embezzling or taking bribes, and all of the Aurors worked with partners of the opposite political stance so that no one would slip through the cracks. She didn't want anything like what had happened when Barty Crouch was the Head to happen again.

Unfortunately, this meant that she still wasn't any closer to finding out what idiot had told the papers that Sirius Black was guilty, even after his trial two years ago. She had begun looking into the financial department, only to find out that there wasn't even one person in that department and that all the finances were handled by the goblins. Which was either the best thing the Ministry had ever done, or the dumbest thing they'd ever done. What kind of idiot decided, 'yes, we hate anyone not human that still talks and thinks, so we're going to give our money to one of those races to handle for us!'?

She rubbed her temples again. She was going to have to talk to the goblins wasn't she. While she had absolutely nothing against goblins, she knew that they would take rightful offence to a human sticking their nose into their business looking for someone taking bribes. Especially since everyone knew that goblins never took bribes.

She slumped back in her chair. She was very tempted to just skip this department, since it was just the goblins, but she knew she had to be thorough. Maybe the intelligent creatures knew something. She sighed and pulled some blank parchment towards her to draft a letter to the head of the goblins.

********************

Harry grinned as he walked along the corridors towards the Defense classroom. The Patronus lessons were going well, and the teen had continued practicing nonverbally outside of the lessons. He had almost gotten it. He could feel his magic spread through his body in a cheerful way and shoot out of his wand, spreading out into the misty white of the Patronus. But there was never an animal, just a thick cloud of misty white. Occasionally he thought he saw a shape, but it was always gone too quickly to see what it was.

As he was about to turn into the classroom, he heard a voice from a couple feet away. Harry Hatchling!

Oh hello, Jor. Did you enjoy your hunt?

No, the adder said with the snake equivalent of a pout. There was a smallfurredprey that I chasssed, but it turned into a human before I caught it.

Another Animagusss at the school? Harry asked.

What isss an Animagusss? Jor questioned.

An Animagusss isss like me and my friendsss, able to turn into animalsss at will.

Oh. Then yesss, the sssmallfurrednotpreyman isss.

Harry hummed. I'll tell Remusss and Sssiriusss about it then. Do you want to ssstay for my lesssssson with Remusss?

Yesss, I will come. And with that, the snake wound his way up Harry's offered arm to lay across his shoulders like one of those minks in old photos.

"Sorry I'm late, Moony. Jor caught me right outside your classroom to tell me about another Animagus in the school. Apparently someone has a rat or mouse form!"

Remus turned to the door with a smile as it opened, but the smile dropped off his face as he heard what kind of animal the Animagus was. Harry noticed and frowned. "Everything ok, Moony?"

"Yeah, cub, everything's fine. Ready to get this spell?" Remus smiled again, but Harry could tell it was a little forced. He shrugged it off. Remus was probably just shocked that there was another Animagus.

"Yeah! I think I'm finally going to get it today!"

Near the end of the lesson, Harry still hadn't gotten the spell. Remus studied him for a moment, then said, "I think the problem is that you don't know what would represent a protector for you. Too many things protect you and your subconscious is having difficulty picking the right one. Once you figure that out, you'll have the spell easy. Want to try it one more time nonverbally?"

Harry stared for a moment, then shook himself and nodded. Pointing his wand he thought of needing a protector. A moment later a gush of mist spilled out of his wand, thick and full.

"Very good! Once you figure out what your protection is, you'll be able to do it both verbally and nonverbally. That's very impressive!" Remus grinned at him and pulled out some chocolate. "Here, take some chocolate to build up your reserves again, and head on off to supper. I'll see you in class cub."

Harry grinned back, taking the chocolate and leaving with a wave. He had a letter to write first.

*********************

Dear Padfoot,

How has your day been? Mine has been pretty good. Moony and I had another Patronus lesson. It went pretty well, but it still hasn't formed a corporeal form. Moony says it's because I don't know what my protector would be.

Jor found another Animagus in the school! He said he was chasing a rat around (at least I think it was a rat. There's not much difference between rats and mice in Parseltongue) but it turned into a human before he could get it. Moony got really weird about it when I mentioned it, but he shrugged it off and got to our Patronus lessons. But that's super cool right? Another Animagus in the school!

Anyway, I have to get to supper now, I just promised Jor I'd tell you about it. I hope your day was good! Can't wait until summer so I can see you again.

Love,

Harry

With that, Harry quickly put the letter in an envelope and sent it off with Hedwig, then headed to the Great Hall to meet his friends for supper.