Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [57]
“I know you’re just doing this so that you can try and be better than me Malfoy,” said Harry.
“I know you just wanted to becomes an Animagus to one up me, Potter,” responded Malfoy. By now, Professor McGonagall had finished her work, and stood up. She looked up at the four of them (more or less glared at Malfoy), and spoke.
“Tonight, we will begin your training as Animagi. This will be very tough training, some wizards think it is not worth the trouble of learning. However, I hope you all will stay with it as it will benefit you in the end, by far worth all the trouble.
“The most difficult part of Animagus transformation is the fact that you cannot use a wand. A wand does not enhance your magic power, however, as is commonly thought. It centralizes your magic. It takes the magical power that is spread throughout your body and puts it all into one area, letting you do more complex magic.
“To do a transformation, you must concentrate on each magical cell in your body individually, and force that one small area to transform, part by part. Your first few transformation will be very… err… choppy. But, eventually, you’ll be able to centralize your magical cells yourself, instead of piece by piece, and transform smoothly, though this may take months… even years to master…. Are there any questions before we begin?” asked Professor McGonagall. Malfoy, surprisingly, raised his hand.
“Yes Mr. Malfoy?”
“Why can’t one use a wand when performing an Animagus transformation?” he asked. Professor McGonagall started at him in surprise.
“Well, I thought that would be obvious Mr. Malfoy. Using a wand to perform an Animagus transformation totally defeats the purpose of transforming in this manner. Being an Animagus will help you when you have no wand, or are otherwise handicapped. Now then, are all of you ready to begin?” The four of them nodded.
“All right then,” began Professor McGonagall, “to start, have any of you ever changed parts of your body without the use of a wand?” Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy each raised their hand.
“Mr. Potter? What have you done?” Harry remembered, from his childhood, that whenever the Dursleys gave him a haircut, they could cut off as much as they wanted but, no matter what, the next day, he would have a bushy head of hair again.
“Well… when I was little, I made my hair grow back when my Aunt and uncle cut it.” said Harry. Professor McGonagall nodded in approval.
“And you, Mr. Weasley?”
“Well… once, my brother, George, hid my favorite teddy be- err… toy… on the highest shelf in our room. I could almost reach it, but I was just a few inches away. So my hand it… just grew a little I guess. George was freaked out afterwards.” Professor McGonagall, once again, nodded with approval, as if testing them to see if they were worthy.
“Now what about you Miss. Granger?” Hermione blushed a little before she spoke:
“Um… this Summer, while I was at Viktor Krum’s mansion, we were both on his couch and he leaned over to- well…. I leaned over to him and all of a sudden my teeth, they grew larger and larger, at least three times their usual size. I eventually did get them back to normal… after a while.” Professor McGonagall once again nodded, though not as much as before. She made up her lack of blushing, however, with a small smile.
“What about you Mr. Malfoy?” asked Professor McGonagall.
“Well, I haven’t ever actually done anything on accident, Professor, but I can do this,” Malfoy put out his hand, stretching his fingers. He closed his eyes, and at first, Harry thought he was imagining it, but Malfoy’s fingernails started to grow. At first it was slow, but then there was a recognizable difference, especially when mayfly’s fingernails were three inches long.
Then, just when Harry thought they couldn’t get any longer, Malfoy’s fingernails shrank back to their original size. He put his hand back down by his side, and then opened his eyes,