The Stubborn Old Headmaster

10

Severus gave his godson a sharp look. "Harry, are you able to walk in your animal form?" he enquired. "If so, you should step in front of the mirror and get a good look at yourself in order to know what to search for." Seeing that the animal in front of him gave him what he supposed was a questioning look, he explained, "I can imagine that we'll have to look through a lot of books about magical animals in the library before we'll be able to find out what your form truly is. I've never seen such an animal."

Severus and Harry spent the rest of the day in the library, only interrupted by a quick break to the Great Hall for lunch. Suddenly, Severus let out a gasp, pointing to the page he was just looking at. "Harry, you're a Chameguise! You'll possibly be able to help Tom with this form." He pointed out the information about a Chameguise, raising an eyebrow at his godson, who gave him an enquiring look. "Listen, Harry," he continued and started to read aloud from the 'Encyclopaedia of Rare Magical Creatures'.

辞典始め

Chameguise

The Chameguise is the magical equivalent to the chameleon in the muggle world with the additional abilities of the Demiguise, the provider of the invisibility cloak (refer to Demiguise). The Chameguise is said to be able to shift its shape to any other magical or non-magical animal, able to change its colour and form, turn invisible, and to duplicate itself. It is an extremely rare animal, thus it is not well-known and may have abilities that have yet to be discovered.

辞典終わり

Harry stared in awe at the professor. 'That's the description of me when I'm an animal? Impossible,' he thought. 'That would be too good to be true. But… Uncle Severus said I could help Tom with the animal. How would I do that? Hmm.'

"Harry?" Severus called the child, slowly getting impatient to know why Harry didn't show any reaction to the information about the fabulous animal he was able to transform into. "What's wrong, child? Shouldn't you be dancing around the room with joy?"

'Ah, but do you really believe that I have all these abilities?' Harry thought to his godfather, looking at the older wizard in doubt. 'Plus, you said I could help Tom, but I don't know how.'

"According to the encyclopaedia, you should be able to duplicate yourself," Severus answered and patiently explained, "As far as I've understood from what you told me, Tom just needs a body. If you duplicated yourself, as the book says it wouldn't take half of you but multiply you so that it wouldn't hurt you to give one of the two parts away. Then Tom could use the second animal."

Noticing that Harry was looking at him in awe and understanding, Severus continued, "As far as I can imagine, Tom would have all your abilities as well as your features…"

'Then he would look like me?' Harry interrupted the teacher with a quick thought.

"Yes, but he can shape-shift like you, right? So he could shift himself into his own features at any time." He leaned forward so that his face came very close to Harry's and gave him an intense look. "Harry, you don't have to do that if you don't want to. Also, I have to speak with Tom, before you do anything to help him. We have to be sure that you have really cleansed him of the evil he was before. Otherwise, we'll eventually regret having helped him."

'Can you talk to him then before we try out any more?' Harry thought back.

"Yes, I'll do that," Severus replied, slightly nodding his head.

Severus stayed quiet for a few minutes. 'Ah, he's probably talking to Tom,' Harry thought in relief and tiredly leaned back in his seat. After his nightmare during the previous night, he had slept but it hadn't been a calm or refreshing sleep, and now he was becoming really tired.