Chapter 6: Mirrors and Magic
"I think that they must have enchanted the trunk like most Wizarding homes to be bigger on the inside. The feather-light charm is nice too. That trunk would be too heavy for either of us to lift otherwise." Hermione said to Harry. Suddenly, she got a slight gleam in her eyes and a new book appeared on the table next to her bag. She picked it up, and opened the cover to inspect the contents. A big smile spread across her face and she turned to Harry still smiling. "This is great; this book tells how to enlarge items magically and how to add all sorts of other enchantments to them. This means that we could charm our bags to be lighter and to hold more once we learn these spells!" Hermione almost squealed in her excitement.
Harry pulled out his mirror and while looking at it said, "Sirius Black."
There was a momentary flicker in the mirror and then Sirius's face appeared. "Hello, Harry, Hermione. I see you got our package okay. These mirrors are the ones that your father and I used at school to talk to each other while we were in separate detentions. We also made the second pair of mirrors so all four of us could have one. It will get a little warm when someone calls you. To answer just say their name back into the mirror and they will both be activated."
While Harry was gazing at the mirror in his hand, Hermione picked up her mirror, stepped a few paces away, and called out, "Remus Lupin."
"Hello, Hermione." Remus said with a smile on his face. "From the look on your face I think that you want to know how to charm another set of mirrors? The magic may be a bit beyond you right now but I will gladly do that for you. Who do you want them for?"
"My parents, if they can use them." Hermione said with a hint of hope in her voice. "They only get letters from me using Hedwig, or a school owl, and I thought that this would be better. I miss talking with them."
Remus looked pensive for a moment before replying, "I don't know if they will work or not for non-magical people, but we can at least try. If it doesn't work, have one of the house-elves pick up the mirror from them."
"Thank you, so much!" Hermione cried happily. "Do you happen to have a book on how you created all of this or is it something that I can get from the library easily?"
"It would be in the restricted section at Hogwarts, so I'll send you a copy. Did you find the list of spells that we sent along too? There is also a little book without a title, about the size of a diary that you two should look at immediately." Remus said with a big smile.
Sirius was half listening to Remus' conversation when he heard him mention the book. "Hey!" Sirius shouted. "I wanted to tell them about the book." By this time, everyone gathered around two mirrors, having shut down the others.
"What book are you two talking about?" asked Harry. Turning to Hermione, he said, "Did you notice a small book without a title? I didn't see it when we were unpacking."
Hermione stepped over to the stack of books and after a few seconds, she came back with a triumphant smile on her face and the book in her left hand. "Here, I think that you should look at this."
Sirius, Remus, and Hermione were all grinning from ear to ear at Harry while he opened the cover. The book looked well read, the edges worn, and some of the pages were dog-eared. As he began to read, the smile on his face grew to match the others. "This is wonderful! You two and my dad wrote a book on how to become Animagi?" Harry was running his fingers along the spine of the book with reverence.
"That book contains all of our notes on the entire process. It should aid you two immensely and speed up the process. The books on Animagi in the Restricted Section are basically useless, that is why there are so few of them around." Sirius beamed at the way Harry was looking at the book. "There are also some supplementary books that you should read that will help you along. They are listed in the front of the journal."
Hermione was peering over Harry's shoulder at the list of additional books and noticed that they were included in the collection from the original Marauders. Looking up at the mirror, Hermione smiled and said, "Thank you both for the help. Harry, I think that you should drop a couple of subjects and add Runes and Arithmancy instead. Divination isn't worth anything with that old fraud teaching, and History of Magic is worthless with Binns droning on about Goblin wars the entire time."
"That's a good idea, Hermione. I think Harry would benefit much more from those classes. Besides, we used a lot of runes and Arithmancy to create the map. They are also very helpful with wards and spell crafting." Remus said with enthusiasm.
Sirius put in his two Knuts worth by adding, "I agree with Remus and Hermione, Harry. You can do independent study in history and divination if you want to take those OWLS at the end of your fifth year. I know that you will be starting a year behind, but I think that between Hermione and Remus that they can catch you up to your year mates in about six or seven months."
The direction the conversation was taking surprised Harry, but he realized that they were all correct. He had only taken those classes because Ron wanted to. "I think that you are correct. I really hate having my death predicted every week by that old fraud, Trelawney, and it is such a chore to even stay awake with Binns droning on in that monotone of his. I'll talk to McGonagall this weekend so I can get my schedule adjusted."
There was a small pop behind them and then they heard Winky call out, "Master Harry Potter has missed dinner. Winky and Dobby will bring you two some food." There was a second pop and Dobby appeared with a picnic basket.
"Thank you both for remembering that we hadn't eaten. Would you like to join us?" Harry asked his two house-elves.
The response was immediate; both of the elves broke down crying saying that they were not worthy and how great Harry Potter was for offering to eat with lowly elves. Before their rant could get too much further Harry piped up, "Please relax. It would be an honor if the two of you would eat with Hermione and me. You can tell me a bit about yourselves and what you like to do and how things should be done in a Wizarding home." Turning back to his mirror, Harry said to a smiling Remus and Sirius, "It looks like we have to go now. I will call you tomorrow to talk. Thanks again for all of your help."
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