Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [146]
Just as Harry was beginning to really enjoy the scratching and smoothing sensation, Ron popped out from the room, and all attention turned to him.
“What was it?”
“Was it hard?”
“Did you have to make a buffalo?”
To all these questions, Ron have the same answer:
“I can’t tell you….” Everyone sighed, and the next person was called in.
“Lavender Brown!” Lavender confidently walked into the room, and disappeared. This time, the entire room was quiet, as if trying to hear what was going on inside. Ron was off to the side of the room, trying to resist any temptation to tell anyone what the test was. Within no time, however, Lavender popped out of the room with a happy expression on her face.
“That was much easier than I thought it was going to be,” she said gleefully as she walked over to Harry, whom she was disappointed to see was back in his human form.
“Hermione Granger!”
She walked into the chamber, and returned from it, what felt like seconds later. Harry saw Hermione mumble something like, “Too easy”, when she walked out, and joined Ron in the corner.
“Parvati Patil!”
Parvati entered, and left in no time. It was the same with Neville who went next. He seemed very confident in himself, and looked rather happy when he exited, quite the opposite of what Harry had thought his expression was going to be.
“Harry Potter!” said Professor McGonagall. Harry walked into the room, through the wall. It was just like walking through Platform 9 ?, or the door at the theater in Hogsmeade. It was a little cold, and felt like liquid, but that sensation was gone when he was fully inside.
It was a large, dark room. It appeared quite larger on the inside than it had looked from the outside, something quite common in the wizarding world. Professor McGonagall was in the middle of the room, standing behind a table with the three large boxes on it. Before each box was a different object. Harry walked closer to her.
“Welcome, Mr. Potter,” she said. “To get the Advanced O.W.L., all you have to do is beat the creatures under these three boxes. When I lift the box up, whatever is under it will wait for a few seconds, than attack the object before the box. It is up to you to transfigure the object into something that can defeat whatever is under the box. Each time, you will be given less time to figure out what to transform your object into. This exercise will test not only your transfiguration ability, but also your skill to think quick and accurately. If you succeed in defeating all three creatures, than you get the O.W.L. Ready?”
“Yes, professor,” said Harry, wand out.
“By the way,” whispered Professor McGonagall, her hands on the sides of the first box, “you, Weasley, and Granger will each be getting the Advanced O.W.L. anyway. Becoming an Animagus requires more skill than many adult wizards have, and you deserve some reward. And by the way… good job beating Malfoy the other day. He told me he was going to do that, and I really expected him to beat you.”
“Thanks, professor,” said Harry, grinning.
“Ready… set… go!” yelled Professor McGonagall. She lifted the box up quickly, and revealed what was underneath it. It was a fly. Only, it was about fifty times larger than a normal sized fly, around the dimensions of a hamster.
Harry looked down at the object he had to transfigure. It was a worm. Since it was already alive, it didn’t require much skill to transfigure. Harry just pointed his wand at it, and it immediately turned into a massive, green frog. The frog lapped out its giant tongue, and sucked in the fly, crunching it down its throat before it had a chance to make a move.
“Excellent job! Next!” said Professor McGonagall as she threw the box over the next creature. It was revealed to be a snake. It sprang up and hissed at the object Harry had to transfigure: a piece of parchment. Harry took out his wand, and pointed it right at the sheet of paper. He concentrated on what it would become, and suddenly it morphed into a small dragon. It was