In the original books, Professor McGonagall gave Hermione a Time-Turner because Hermione asked how she could have more hours in the day — she wanted to take every third-year class at once. McGonagall petitioned the Ministry for special permission, and that's how Hermione got a Time-Turner for extra lessons.
Here, of course, Hermione doesn't need a Time-Turner to study more — she can just spend time in Arthur's Zen Garden. With Arthur and Ranni around, she effectively has two private tutors, both top-tier. Anything she needs to learn she can ask them directly; the Time-Turner is redundant.
So Hermione didn't apply for it herself.
"Professor McGonagall wanted to take me on as a pupil," Hermione announced happily. "This is a welcome present from her."
Arthur raised an eyebrow — he'd half expected some other explanation. He'd heard rumors ever since professors discovered Arthur was Snape's apprentice; they regretted not recruiting him sooner. McGonagall, who had already invited Arthur into her Transfiguration club and had hoped to make him her protégé, was especially put out when Snape quietly became Arthur's mentor instead. Retreating from that, McGonagall had chosen Hermione.
Arthur congratulated her and ruffled her hair. Hermione's smile only brightened, as if McGonagall taking her on mattered less than Arthur's praise.
"Cousin—Professor McGonagall said I can start learning Animagus transformation," Hermione went on. "She asked if you'd like to join us. You haven't been to Transfiguration club in ages, have you?"
Arthur winced and rubbed his nose. He hadn't set foot in Transfiguration club since the start of second year. McGonagall had assumed he was busy apprenticing under Snape — and she hadn't pressed him. The real reason was simpler: Arthur was lazy about extracurriculars. With exceptional aptitude, he solved his own problems and rarely showed up for peer discussions. The club was for exchanging tricks and troubleshooting; he didn't need it.
"No, I'll pass," Arthur said. "I'm not especially motivated to learn Animagus."
He knew the process intimately. It was grueling. You began on a full moon, keeping a single mandrake leaf in your mouth without swallowing it for an entire month. If the leaf left your mouth, you had to start over. The leaf had to remain in your mouth through meals and sleep for thirty days until the next full moon, when you could remove it and place it in a vial of your own saliva to sun-charge it. If the moon was obscured by clouds, you restarted. If the night was clear, you added a lock of your hair and a silver teaspoon of dew collected from a place untouched by sun or human for seven whole days. You then placed a ghost-moth chrysalis into the mixture, buried the bottle in a quiet dark place, and left it undisturbed until the next thunderstorm. Each sunrise and sunset during the wait, you pointed your wand at your heart and repeated the chant: "Amado, Animo, Animado, Animagus." If at any point you felt a second heartbeat, success was near. When the storm broke, you dug up the vial: if the concoction had turned blood-red, you drank it in a safe open area, then endured the transformation and struggle to suppress the animal instinct that surfaced. Fail to hold your human will, and you might actually forget you were human.
Animagus work was as much luck as skill. Official records showed most wizards took years to master it.
Arthur knew all of this because — secretly, last summer — he'd already completed his Animagus. Using the Zen Garden's conveniences, he compressed the time, adjusted local weather, and leveraged his godlike power to shortcut the process in one go. He'd never told anyone because his Animagus form was a gorgeous Norwegian Forest Cat — the kind of cat even people who didn't like cats would want to stroke. That didn't fit the stern, composed image he liked to pretend he had, so only Ranni knew. She'd seen him in the Garden as he transformed and had sworn to keep the secret.
Arthur hadn't minded the choice of a cat. Cats represent independence and nonconformity: living by their own rules, disdainful of obligations — traits Arthur thought fit him perfectly. And Norwegian Forest Cats are large — almost dog-sized — which made the idea more tolerable.
Still, he resolved to keep it private. When he did want to change shape casually, his Disguise Veil was far easier: it let the user assume any image they could clearly picture, even magical beasts, though that form wouldn't come with the actual traits of the creature. You'd look like the beast, not gain its nature.
Sirius had returned the Disguise Veil and then left Hogwarts. Now that his name was cleared, staying at school was unnecessary — and Snape had promptly kicked him out. Given how the Marauders had tormented Snape back then, Arthur thought Snape's restraint in not reporting Sirius as an illegal Animagus was merciful.
"Cousin! Cousin!" Hermione's voice snapped Arthur back from his reverie.
"Sorry, I zoned out," he apologized.
"You were daydreaming? I called you a hundred times!" Hermione pouted.
Arthur smoothed her hair. "I was thinking — we could use the Zen Garden to speed up your Animagus process."
Hermione's eyes lit. She knew how complex Animagus training was; if it could be shortened, it would be a blessing. Time-compression in the Garden could turn seven sunless days of dew collection into two hours. That was huge.
"Let's try it!" she begged.
"Not yet," Arthur warned. "We have to start on a full moon."
"When's the next full moon?" she asked.
Arthur pulled a calendar the System kept in his pocket — a little thing he'd bought in Chinatown — and checked. "The next full moon is at the end of this month. We'll prepare materials in the meantime."
Hermione nodded obediently, thrilled.
Before she could begin, another unexpected visitor arrived — an illegal Animagus of a different kind: Rita Skeeter, the Daily Prophet's freelance reporter.
Rita had earlier hinted during the holidays on Hermione's "Animal Communication Charm" post that she intended to interview Hermione after term started. Arthur assumed she'd forgotten, but apparently not. Rita turning up now was inevitable; she loved a sensational angle.
Arthur decided to go with Hermione and meet the gossipmonger head-on.
To read 90+ future chapters, head over to Patreon:
patreon.com/WhiteDevil7554