Chapter 30 - Phoenixes and Animagus Transformation

The next important thing I wanted to research about during this year were phoenixes and the animagus transformation. So my next targets were these two topics.

Since I was doing my researches on various topic parallel to my other studies, it took a lot of time. After scourging through a lot of books, I finished both these researches too but it was the end of the year by then.

Let me start with Phoenixes. Phoenixes are just magical birds and they do not side show favouritism to any form of magic be it light or dark. They have many abilities like they can carry heavy things easily, they can travel large distances with bursts of flames, they are immortal and their tears have high healing property. They are also very hard to form a bond with and domesticate but once they form a bond they are extremely loyal to the person with whom it has formed a bond with. The number of known people who have formed a bond with a phoenix is only two in this world which would explain the rarity. Dumbledore formed a familiar bond with Fawkes during his early years before his duel with Grindelwald. With Dumbledore acting as the Light Lord over the years and fawkes being his familiar, soon the Phoenixes were known as Light creatures. In the same way a Basilisk which was the familiar of Salazar Slytherin became known as a Dark creature. But in truth they were just magical creatures and did not belong to either side.

So I could not do anything to the break the bond Fawkes had with Dumbledore and the power boost he got from the phoenix bond was there to stay. I could only take away the Elder wand to weaken Dumbledore.

Coming to animagus transformation. I researched extensively on the topic as I wanted to use the method that would give me the most benefit. The method normally used is to keep a mandrake leaf inside the mouth for a month and after a month use the same mandrake leaf to brew an animagus potion. After drinking the potion, the user goes into a trance like state where they experience becoming their animagus animal and find out which animal they can become. What follows is long process of reading up on the animal, understanding its various parts and slowly changing parts of the body to that of the animal using transfiguration till one day you can finally completely transform into the animal. This method is a forced and painful process and it needs the help of others so that they can help you if you accidentally disfigure yourself. This method was a forced process in which you are forcing your body to become the animal. So it does not give any other benefits other than the transformation and was quite risky.

The best, most fruitful and hardest method for animagus transformation I found is using occlumency to feel the inner animal in your mind, find it and form a bond with it. Then slowly and steadily grow closer to it and become one with it. During this time, you will form a deep understanding of your inner animal. After that you can transform into the animal easily by thinking about it. In this transformation after the first transformation you gain some of the traits of the animal which you transform into. This method is not popular and got lost in time due to its difficult process and time taken to complete it. You cannot find about this method anywhere else as it had been lost. I found out about it only due to it being available in the books in the room of hidden things where all the books thrown away are stored by the elves.

This is very tough process and almost impossible for many people. First you have to master occlumency. Then you have to find your inner animal with meditation. Then you have to form a bond with it. Then you have to become one with it by learning everything about it through your bond and only then can you transform. For this whole process it will take minimum of ten years for the most talented wizard. But other easier process can be done by anyone with enough determination in a year or so as even wormtail was able to do it in two years. Comparing the two methods people felt the traits were not important enough to waste so many years of time, so people lost interest in this method and soon it was lost.

Since my Occlumency was perfect I could save most of the time to complete this transformation. So I decided to use this method for my animagus transformation.

By the time I found this method, it was only one week away from the end of the term feast. So I decided to start practising the method during the holidays.