Chapter 23: Transformation and Transfiguration

They entered the study and the professor rose to meet them. She embraced Luna and said, "I take it this is your Fiancé and your inherited ready made daughter. Congratulations to both of you on your engagement. I was delighted to hear about it even if it all happened so quickly. I think it has taken everyone's breath away"

Luna laughed and said, "I won't need to publish it in the announcements column of the next edition of the Quibbler. It seems to be spreading like wildfire without any help from me." She paused and turned to Dudley and said, Dudley I would like to introduce you to the headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall. Professor this is my Fiancé Dudley Dursley and his daughter Petunia."

The Professor shook hands with Dudley and said, "I am very pleased to meet you Inspector. You will see from my giving you your rank that news does spread very quickly in the world of wizards

Dudley smiled and said, "It would seem so, professor. I have to say I am very glad to meet you as finding all about this place through Luna has lifted a great weight from my shoulders."

"I can imagine, Professor McGonagall replied. Even with your knowledge of the existence of magic, the response to it in your family would not have made your recent discovery an easy one to come to terms with."

"I was not worried about Tunie being a witch" Dudley replied, "but I worried about how I was going to deal with it in a world that did not believe in magic. That problem was weighing heavily on my shoulders. Luna coming into, my life has lifted that.

"I can see how she would do that," the professor smiled. "Now how do you feel about coming to this school when you are eleven, Petunia?

"I am so excited professor. It was great to find out I was a witch and to meet my cousins who are just like me. I didn't feel normal before and now I do. I so much want to come here I can hardly wait.

Well I've been looking up the records because your aunt came here. But I discovered that your grandmother once wrote a letter asking my predecessor if she could be allowed to come here with her sister. She couldn't come, alas, but you know I think at that stage of her life she would like to have been a witch. So you are fulfilling the dream she once had."

"Daddy says granny hated magic" said Petunia looking puzzled.

"That is quite true, Petunia. Sometimes when you suffer a great disappointment and discover you can't be what you really want to be your reaction is to turn against it. Then you go on to pretend to yourself that you did not want to do that anyway. I think that is what happened in your granny's case. That may be why she was so antagonistic to the world of magic and anyone who could be what she once wanted to be."

Professor McGonagall explained.

"That seems silly," Petunia replied.

"It is," said professor McGonagall, "It probably meant that your granny's life was not as happy as it could have been. But unfortunately all of us tend to do silly things and sometimes they affect us in ways we never dreamed possible. Even Professors and head mistresses of schools do silly things," she finished rather wistfully.

Luna looked at her in a new light and wondered what mistake she felt she had made that changed her life.

The headmistress shook her head then said, "Enough of these deep thoughts. Do you understand what I am saying Petunia"

Tunie looked at her and thought for a moment or two and then replied.

"I think so Miss."

At that moment there was another knock on the door and Professor McGonagall said once more, "Enter". A tall dark haired distinguished looking man entered and strode over to where she stood and kissed her on both cheeks.

"Minerva, it is so good to see you again. Thank you for your letter and I will be delighted to help you in any way I can. Indeed I will be very interested in meeting the young lady you spoke about."

He turned and looked at the family, his eyes alighting on Petunia.

"Ah!" he said, "I take it this very beautiful young woman is the one of who you spoke." And to Dudley and Luna's surprise he swept over to Petunia, knelt in front of her took her hand in his and Kissing her on both cheeks as he had the professor, and said, "I am Professor Jacque Dispard Petunia. I am French but I am a visiting healer working for two years at Saint Mungos the wizard hospital. Professor McGonagall has asked me to meet you because she believes you have some very special talents I might be interested in"

Tunie giggled because he had kissed her on both cheeks, and then seemingly unperturbed by what he had said about her, she replied.

"I have never met anyone from France before, but I think I am going to like you."

Dispard rose to his feet and laughed. "I think I am going to like you to."

Luna and Dudley were looking on with puzzlement and some trepidation at this turn of events. They turned to look at Professor McGonagall.

"You have to excuse Jacque" she said, "He probably thought I had explained to you why he is here today. His enthusiasm tends to run away with him at times."

The visiting professor turned and looked them and said with just a trace of an accent,

"You did not know about me I am so sorry, but we will explain"

"In a moment Jacque" McGonagall said

Once again there was a knock at the door and when bade to enter, two senior girls wearing prefect badges came into the room and looked at their head mistress.

"Hello Jane, Hello Susie, this is Petunia." she said, pointing at the young girl. "I think you should take her down to the kitchen and have the house elves give her something to eat and drink. Then take her and show her the owlery, the great hall and anything else you think she would like to see. You can bring her back in about an hour". The two girls took Tunie by the hand and told her they were delighted to meet her and that if she came with them they would make sure she had a fun time. Tunie turned to Luna and Dudley and said eagerly.

"Can I Go Daddy"

"Of Course sweetheart" said Dudley realising that the Professor wanted to speak to them alone.

Once the girls had departed she asked them all to be seated. Dispard joined her in a second chair which had been placed behind the desk alongside hers.

Dudley and Luna took the chairs that had been place in front of the desk and waited for the professor to speak.

She started by reassuring Dudley that this had nothing to do with Tunie's qualifications for coming to Hogwarts. These were beyond dispute. She then went on to tell Dudley about Luna's recent visit and her feeling that Tunie might have the ability to harness a very special magical talent that few could master. I am not going to Dudley so you might be shocked by what is going to happen," she had said to him. She suddenly stood up and then right before his eyes she disappeared and on the desk their sat a large tabby cat with distinct light spectacle markings around its eyes. Dudley gasped in amazement and then just as suddenly the cat disappeared and Professor McGonagall stood before them once again.

Dudley could not believe what he had just seen. The professor smiled at him and told him she was glad to see that she had shocked him. She related to him that sometimes she did this before her first year classes on their first lesson and some of them were a bit blasé about it.

Dudley asked wide eyed, "What did you just do?

"I am an animagus." She said. "That means I can transform myself into a cat whenever I wish,"

"Can you turn into any animal?" Dudley asked.

"No," she answered. "If I transfigure myself it will always be a cat like the one you saw just now."

"Ah!" Said Dudley and he turned to look at Luna, "I remember you telling me Harry's dad and some of his friends could turn themselves into animals. Seeing it happen in the flesh, however, is unbelievable."

I hope not," Said the professor. "Indeed in your case I hope it makes it very believable."

"Oh it truly does," Dudley said with a smile.

"Good" said McGonagall then she went on to explain that what Harry's dad and Godfather did was highly dangerous because so many things can go wrong. Fortunately she went on they were two of the most brilliant pupils at the school in their day. They not only did they manage to do it for themselves; they enabled another less able student to do it also. This was an even more remarkable achievement because he was a student at the lower end of average ability. It took them three years of experimentation and I shudder to think of the risks they were running by illegally becoming animagi. If a wizard expresses the desire to try and master this, he has to register with the ministry and is strictly supervised in his experimentation. There are currently only nine registered animagi in this country today.

Dudley looked at her puzzled and said, "This is fascinating professor, but why are you telling me about it."

"Because your fiancé believes that your daughter's rather wonderful affinity with animals and especially with dogs, suggests that she might have the latent ability to achieve this rare feat. I tend to agree with her. So I have called you here, to ask you to let us explore this possibility with her and I have asked healer Dispard to be with me when we talk to her about if you give us your permission.

I think if we discovered this talent in one so young it would be so much easier for her to master the techniques necessary to achieve it. Professor Dispard who is the equivalent of a highly trained Psychiatrist in your society works at St Mungos with people who have suffered from spells going wrong and curses and other things which have been irreversible and now blight their lives. There are many things that can go wrong as a result of magic in the world of wizards as your fiancée so painfully knows. Dispard is an expert in dealing with such things.

I don't want you to get the idea that it would be dangerous for your daughter to attempt to do what we are suggesting. Under proper conditions it would not be so. But the professor wants to sit in on her attempt and write it up for our medical people and our educators. Because if we are successful it means we should look out for more young people with this kind of talent and encourage them to try at the earliest stage we feel they have the ability to cope with it.

"It is certainly spectacular to achieve this but has it any practical use," asked Dudley.

"It helped Harry's Godfather to escape from Azkaban prison when it was being guarded by the Dementors," said McGonagall. And then she laughed and went on, "I don't suppose that is a very good illustration to give to a policeman."

Dudley and the others joined in her laughter at this point.

"However, there may be another application which will have a greater relevance to your present situation. You are currently chasing a rapist in your community who is praying on young girls. Just imagine if he went after Petunia and captured her and tied her up. If she was in a position to transform into a small dog when he was absent it would be easy for her to get free of her bonds and perhaps seek to escape just like Sirius. There are other situations and careers in which it would be a distinct advantage to possess a talent like mine."