"So, is it ready?" The shaggy-haired fugitive asked his friend. The potion Lupin had been working on kept bubbling away on the low heat. It was a fairly large batch, but it was for eight people.
"No, Padfoot," came the exasperated reply. "It needs to simmer for another day before the next step. On Saturday, it should be done. It can't be hurried, so they can add the last ingredient then."
"I never expected the revealing potion to show us all those animals," Padfoot said after a few minutes silence. "A group that small, and I would have expected only a few to be capable of the transformation, or at least one or two who weren't. But all eight of them?"
The revelation of the animagus forms of Harry's group was startling, Remus had to admit. He hadn't been thinking about it much as he administered the potion, but afterwards had sat alone in his office for hours to consider the ramifications of unleashing eight teenage animagi on the poor, unsuspecting school. On top of that worry, was the way Harry had insisted on not registering their forms.
"It's not because the Marauders did it that way," Harry had said, "at least, not entirely. Mostly, it's because if the Ministry isn't actively against me, like that... wears pink, I've forgotten the name, then they're being restrained by those who are. Until one of us reveals the secret, we'd rather keep it as an ace up our sleeves."
Daphne had been offered the first dose, and since the potion worked by transforming them for a minute, had become a twelve-foot long, jet-black king cobra, after flaring her hood a few times, she returned to normal. "That was... odd," she'd said. "I was hearing things with my entire body, and smelling things with my tongue. It... I just don't know how to say it." After a few moments thought, she'd spoken again. "It was like coming home from Hogwarts, if I'd never known a real home." She'd missed it when Harry flinched at her choice of words, but no-one else had.
Ginny had gone next, and spent the next sixty seconds as a phoenix, which had surprised no-one. "It's only natural for a Heliopath," Luna had remarked, and then swallowed her own dose, and changed.
It had been an odd creature, standing no more than two feet at the shoulder on all fours, with slender legs and body remininscent of a greyhound or whippet. The long tail, matching the body-length of a two and a half feet, and the long and flexible neck were like those of a mongoose. Her head had been long, almost horse-like, although the four eyes definitely screamed 'unusual', with two on the sides of the head while the other two faced forwards. She'd also had long rabbit-like ears that twitched towards any sound, no matter how slight. The entirety of the creature's fur was silver, tinged lightly with blue, and a single, crumpled, purple horn swept back over the crest of her skull. As the friends had watched, she'd flickered in and out of visibility a few times before turning back to her human form.
"See," the excited girl had proclaimed, with such infectious enthusiasm, the others all smiled, "Crumple-horned Snorkacks do exist!"
The others had more mundane forms, it seemed. Ron had transformed into a red-furred Irish wolfhound, similar to Padfoot's own transformation, while Neville became a very large bear with brown fur.
"Grizzly," Hermione had announced.
"Why?" Harry had asked jokingly. "I think it's kinda cool." His mate then slapped his arm playfully, as the others groaned at his attempted humour.
Everyone had expected Susan's shape to be a badger, and they were a little startled at what she had become. Although similar to the badger, she was larger, with a more weasel-like snout and reddish-brown fur matching her hair, darkening to almost black at her paws. Her tail was longer than a badger's too, and fluffed out like a fox's, although not as long, only a third of her body-length. Even Hermione was puzzled.
It had been Harry who'd realised exactly what Susan must have been, not from books or schoolwork, but from Dudley's discarded comics, of all things. "She's a wolverine!" he'd whispered excitedly. "It's so her! Won't back down from anything, and quite happy to take on wolf-packs and bears to keep what belongs to it safe!"
Finally it had been the kitty couple's turn, and for one minute, the longest sixty seconds of the evening, their friends and the adults had found themselves sharing the room with two very large, black-furred, silver-striped tigers. Even a small tiger quickly becomes the focal point of attention if you're sharing space with it, and Harry and Hermione were not small, easily being six or seven feet long, not counting the tail. At a guess, they weighed around six hundred pounds at least, and it would not have surprised anyone to have been guessing light.
At last, the kitty couple reverted to their smaller, more humanoid selves. Luna's comment pretty much summed up everyone's feelings: "That was just... awesome. Terrifying, but nonetheless awesome."
As their potions simmered that week, the felines and their friends went about their usual routines, although Gryffindor wasn't losing as many points in Potions as they usually did, and Slytherin was losing more, mostly due to the efforts of Draco Malfoy. As the blond boy kept attempting to sabotage Harry's potion from a distance, thankfully the cat-like reflexes Harry had always possessed, now augmented by his actually being part cat and therefore excellent at intercepting small, fast-moving objects, stood him in good stead.
Today, fed up with yet another attempt on his or Hermione's potion's, the catboy pushed his frustration into his magic and waved his hand at the incoming ingredient. With a whispered "Immobulus", he froze the offending projectile in place.
Severus Snape was getting fed up with his godson's unwillingness to learn. He was getting fair grades, that owed a lot more to intensive tutoring than to any native talent, and the plans the boy came up with were lacking anything resembling cunning. Draco wasn't the first boy to be sorted into the House of Snakes on pure ambition that he couldn't support, and Snape doubted he'd be the last.
"Mr Malfoy," he spoke in a cold, flat voice, "can you identify the substance that is currently suspended in flight between yourself and Mr Potter?" Draco shook his head. "Can anyone?" Predictably, Hermione's hand was raised, and Harry's also. Neville's was there, too, which surprised some, and it was that young man the Potions master called upon.
"It's a bubotuber pod, sir," Neville said, a little nervously. "When heated in a liquid, it has a distressing tendency towards exploding."
"10 points, Mr Longbottom. Ms Granger," Snape changed targets in the silence, caused by him willingly giving points to a Gryffindor in a Potions class, "what are the effects of such an addition to the Elixir of Might we are supposed to be brewing today?"
As the more knowledgeable students went pale, Hermione answered the Potions master. "In addition to the explosion, which in this enclosed space would ensure that everyone not immune to poisons would be affected, the bubotuber pod added at this stage would corrupt the elixir's intended effect, turning from something that grants great physical strength for a few hours, into something that drains it for the same period." Even those who weren't advanced students were deathly pale now. Although it was hard to tell for the kitty couple, as their midnight-black fur got in the way. "The most probable effect in most situations would be death from heart failure as the body would lose even the strength to keep it beating. Luckily, Harry and I are immune to such things, and would still be able to summon and render assistance." The silence in the room was deafening, and even Crabbe and Goyle were glaring at Draco Malfoy.
"There you have it, Mr Malfoy," Snape uttered after a few moments. "Were it not for the actions of Mr Potter, you would have endangered the entire class for an attempt at revenge that your targets wouldn't be affected by. I'm sorry, but you've gone too far. You are suspended from my classes until such time as you can control this pettiness. Even if that means you have to repeat the year."
As Snape's words finally penetrated the haze of thought, as he realised that he'd almost killed himself for an ineffective revenge plan, the boy did the only thing he could. Draco fainted.
"I can't do it, Narcissa," Snape tried to explain to the woman across the desk from him. "Putting Draco anywhere near Potter or Granger would be like leaving a baby in a basilisk pit. If you want him to pass Potions at all, you simply have to get him a private tutor." He glared out the window at the Quidditch pitch, where the aforementioned felines were practising flying with the help of the Gryffindor team. As he did, the kitty couple switched brooms, by leaping to each others. They were only ten feet above the ground, so a fall wouldn't even have hurt them thanks to their feline instincts, but it was a moot point as they succeeded. Turning back to Draco's mother, he continued.
"My godson or not," he said, "he put every student's life at risk, as well as mine and his, for what? An attack that wouldn't even have any effect on the targets. He knew what they'd become, it was announced in the Great Hall at the Welcoming Feast this year. It was in the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler, as well as Witch Weekly, of all things. He didn't even bother to research their capabilities before launching his 'master plan'. With no real intelligence on his foe, he very nearly put himself, as well as nearly every other student in that room, in the position of owing the Duati Bast'et a life-debt! Their knowledge grows by leaps and bounds, they have allies in the DMLE, despite the Ministry's general corruption, and, and this is the important part, they have earned my respect the hard way. Do you remember what I told your husband about his secrets?"
The seemingly sudden change in topics threw the Malfoy matron for a moment, but she quickly recovered, recalling the conversation in question. "Somewhat," she answered. "Didn't you tell him his Occlumency was lacking? That was the impression he gave."
"Typical Lucius," Snape thought, "always put the blame somewhere else." Clearing his throat, he answered Narcissa. "I told him his secrets were safe from all but a handful of Legilimens, of which I was one. I went on to say that there were two people in the world who could keep me out when I wanted in: Dumbledore and Voldemort. Now, there are four, and just trying to touch the outer mindscape of these two felines is enough to trigger a migraine." As Narcissa gaped (she would deny it, of course, should he ever be so crass as to bring it up), he went on. "Their abilities are growing in leaps and bounds. He stopped that pod wandlessly. Draco is lucky to be alive, you know."
The sneer that marred Narcissa Malfoy's visage was an automatic response, he could tell her heart wasn't in it. She had heard from her husband about the basilisk last year. Not even Dumbledore could have taken the creature down, even with a phoenix to help him. Voldemort wouldn't have been able to kill it either, if he wasn't able to command snakes. Sighing, she made her choice. She didn't want to do this, but it looked like Lucius wish to send his son to Durmstrang was going to come true...
Saturday evening saw the seven friends once again in the DADA classroom, adding the last ingredient to the Marauder-version Animagus Elixir: a certain amount of their own hair with three drops of their own blood to bind it into the concoction. Before they drank, however, Harry made a suggestion.
"This is going to be a massive secret between us," he said, "so I think it's only fitting we do this in the Chamber." Hermione's nod backed him up. No-one wanted to miss out on seeing the legendary location, so there were no objections. Sneaking through the hallways to Myrtle's bathroom presented no great challenge, although Hermione had to ask Mrs Norris not to fetch Mr Filch when they ran into the caretaker's familiar.
Aside from Ginny, their friends had never seen the Chamber of Secrets, and the young Heliopath's memories were incredibly, and thankfully so, vague. Coming upon the basilisk's massive corpse, which had yet to begin to rot, unbelievably (although Professor Lupin explained that it had to do with the residual magic inherent in the flesh of the millennial creature, as well as it's poisonous and venomous nature), had them all gobsmacked. The kitty couple had a puzzled look on their faces instead.
Sirius shook himself out of his canine form. "What's wrong, Harry? You look disappointed, somehow."
"It just looks smaller," said Harry. "When we fought it, it seemed much bigger, but I guess that's because it was moving."
Ginny had found the venom-blackened spot where Harry had 'killed' Riddle's diary. "Here," she announced. "I'm taking it here." Suiting words to actions, she downed her Elixir in one go. A quick burst of fire later, and her phoenix self had graced them with her presence. A few heavenly trills had them all smiling, and she transformed back and forth a few times to be sure it was working. The others followed suit, until all of them could become their animagus selves at will.
Sirius whistled as Luna, who'd gone last, returned to her human self. "We two are the last of a group called the Marauders," he spoke in a low voice that demanded attention. "In the last war against You-, I mean Riddle, we joined a group under Dumbledore that he named the Order of the Phoenix. Now the Marauders shall return..." He was cut off by Harry.
"With respect, Padfoot," the catboy said, " we aren't the Marauders. We aren't pranksters. But we wouldn't belong in any order either. If the rules don't work, why respect them?" He'd spoken at length with his mate about this over the intervening week, and her feline instincts won out over her ingrained human respect for authority after a lengthy battle. "We're a magical menagerie, covering the full array of Houses at Hogwarts, led by two cats. We aren't an order, we're a chaos. So I'd like to call to order the first meeting of the Chaos of the Tigers." He was hugged by Hermione when he finished, and he hadn't expected the applause that the others broke into.
"Very well, Harry," said Professor Lupin, "the first thing is names. Every animagus has an alternate name for their animal self. Your father was Prongs, and he became a stag, a twelve-pointer, if I recall. Padfoot here is a dog as you know. So we've been putting our heads together to come up with your alternate names." He handed the youth a piece of parchment, on which he'd written his suggestions, more than one for each of them. Harry was quickly appointed to make the final choices, as leader of their little band of 'heroes'.
"Alright, then," he began, " Ginevra Molly Weasley, you are now Skyfire. May your songs remind us of the right path to take, even when all is dark. Welcome to the Chaos." For an impromptu announcement, he'd managed to make it sound incredibly formal. He continued. "Luna Selene Lovegood, you are now Spiral. May you always keep our minds open to how much we don't know, even when we think we know enough. Welcome to the Chaos."
"Especially then," Luna replied.
"Neville Franklin Longbottom," Harry called, and his friend stepped forward. "You are now Grizzlegrim. May your heart guide us all in courage and friendship. Welcome to the Chaos."
He then introduced Susan, after which Ron was next, being named Firefetch, and admonished to show them all what true loyalty looked like, even in adversity. Then it was Daphne's turn, and she found herself dubbed Midnight, apparently for her scales, and asked to show that not all cunning or ambition was evil, a task she happily accepted. Finally it was Hermione's turn.
"Hermione Jean Granger, you are now Amber. May your hunt for knowledge ever be successful, and may that lore always be used to help others. Welcome to the Chaos." He hadn't even looked at the parchment's suggestions for her. He crouched and lifted Pakhet. "And you, Pakhet, are given honorary status as Toggletrust. Welcome to the Chaos."
His mate placed her hand on his shoulder, and as the others nodded, treated him to the same routine. "Harry James Potter, you are now Emerald. May your heart always know honour, trust and love, and may you lead us well, and to victory. Welcome to the Chaos." Then she hugged the living daylights out of him.