96 Grindelwald’s Room

Private Room, Sept. 21st

Scribbling a large 'P' at the top of a fourth year's essay, Audemar Rosemburg tossed the last essay onto the stack. Leaning back in his chair, Rosemburg withdrew his wand and casually cast the tempus charm, causing the time to appear in front of him.

"Damn it," he muttered when he glanced at the floating numbers.

He was almost ten minutes late.

Cursing his incompetent fourth years for not being able to write in a clear and coherent manner, Rosemburg quickly stood up and stepped out of his office, locking the door with a nonchalant flick of his wand.

Typically, Rosemburg would be the last professor willing to take a meeting with a student outside of his classroom or office, but he wasn't meeting with a typical student.

Harry Potter was a brilliant student whose potential far exceeded anybody he had ever taught. The boy's successes during his first and, especially, his second year had given him a level of notoriety never before achieved by a half-blood at Durmstrang.

Beginning the walk up the large main staircase, Rosemburg couldn't help but marvel at the boy's improvement over the summer. It was well known that fifth year classes had the highest attrition rate. On average, only half the students in fifth year Transfiguration would be allowed to advance into the sixth year class, a number Rosemburg knew was in line with his colleagues' standards. It was often joked that fifth year should be renamed 'the culling' as the professors set ever increasing standards for any student who wanted to advance. One of the most difficult challenges was the requirement that students begin to cast silently.

Rosemburg had actually been concerned that Potter might not be up to silent casting as it required both a higher command of magic and emotional discipline – something 13 year old boys did not commonly possess. Surprisingly, his concern seemed to be unnecessary as Harry Potter was the first to pick up silent casting in his classes, further distinguishing himself from students several years older than him.

As several of the students Potter surpassed flickered through Rosemburg's mind, he continued walking down the hallway toward Harry Potter and Viktor Krum's new private room.

The thought of Krum caused Rosemburg to repress a scowl. He wasn't sure why Potter had chosen the Bulgarian as a friend, but the two couldn't have been more different people. He still remembered Romulus Rosier entering the staff lounge at the end of last term muttering about how Krum had barely scraped through into the sixth year Dark Arts class, having only the most basic ability at silent casting.

Of course like everyone else in Europe, Rosemburg had followed Krum's spectacular rise as a Quidditch player, but, unlike Krum's legion of loyal fans, he was curious to see if the boy would even be able to pass his classes – it wasn't like playing professional Quidditch would sharpen Krum's already lackluster wand skills. After receiving Krum's summer transfiguration homework in August, he would have bet anything that the boy would have failed out of Durmstrang at the end of the year. Unfortunately, the Highmaster had foreseen such a problem as well, and Karkaroff thought expelling Europe's latest Quidditch prodigy was simply unacceptable. Since Krum simply couldn't afford to fail any more of his classes, the Highmaster ordered the professors to schedule "every extra available time to give private assistance to Krum," something Rosemburg openly told Krum he was loath to do.

Stopping at the door between Goreman and Grundel, Rosemburg steadied himself before saying, "For the Greater Good."

When he had first heard that the Highmaster had shown Potter and Krum how to access Gellert Grindelwald's private room, Rosemburg had been incensed. Trying to remove the room from the school had taken the lives of two curse breakers, and, regardless of what Karkaroff said, no one was completely sure that the numerous curse breakers had removed all the harmful spells from the room. Rosemburg was certain that it was only the sheer amount of Notice-Me-Not and Aversion charms placed around the door that kept the students from investigating the room and likely getting themselves killed in the process.

Opening the door, Rosemburg allowed himself a moment to take in the main hallway. Grindelwald had been a master enchanter, and the opulence of his room was incredible. The high vaulted ceilings and large Greco-Roman columns made entering the room seem like stepping into an ancient imperial palace. Famous pieces of art from all over Europe were stuck to the walls by unbreakable sticking charms while tapestries taken from the Middle East told the story of how wizards came to rule the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century. The arched ceiling was painted with scenes depicting Grindelwald's dark army's successful campaigns across Europe and North Africa.

The soft echo of his feet on the pristine white marble was the only sound the Transfiguration professor heard as he walked the massive entryway. Having been shown Grindelwald's room when he first started teaching at Durmstrang, Rosemburg knew that there were several concealed doors that lined this hallway. The doors led to several luxurious bathrooms, a decent sized library, Grindelwald's personal bedroom, a full study, and a large meeting hall. At the far end of the entrance way, he saw the massive clear glass window that partially opened to a grand patio, and presented an absolutely stunning view of Durmstrang's grounds and Quidditch pitch.

Noticing that his hands were shaking somewhat, Rosemburg balled his hands into fists to get them to stop. He still remembered sitting in the Main Hall when the Dark Lord had executed Professor Reinhart and claimed the Highmaster position. The next several months were a truly horrifying experience. Several scholars had written on the time period, but no book could ever completely convey the sheer terror the students felt every day.

For six months, the most powerful and evil man in the world had run his war from Durmstrang, and Grindelwald had no qualms about killing any dissidents in the school. Looking back on it, Rosemburg knew it was a tactic to break the pockets of resistance that had formed throughout Central and Eastern Europe. After all, who would dare challenge Grindelwald's authority when they knew the Dark Lord was sleeping not a few doors away from your child or the child of a relative or friend.

Shaking away the dark memories, Rosemburg forced himself to walk down the hallway and open the door to Grindelwald's study.

Immediately spotting his best student looking nervously at the time while talking to Romulus' daughter, Rosemburg announced his arrival by saying, "I apologize for my lateness, Mr. Potter. We had best do this as quickly as we can since I believe you have class starting very soon. I take it Ms. Rosier will be here to assist you?"

"Yes, sir, though she's made a lot of progress herself," Harry said confidently before raising his wand and tapped it against Calypso's right arm.

Instantly, Calypso's arm sprouted thick brown fur and expanded several times its natural size. Her hand soon followed, immediately twisting and contorting, leaving the girl with a large brown paw complete with sharp claws.

Rosemburg carefully inspected the transfiguration for any flaws. Not finding any, he asked, "And you feel no pain at all, Ms. Rosier?"

"None sir," Calypso replied. "It feels completely natural." To prove her point, Calypso flexed her new arm a few times and took a couple of swipes with the large bear paw.

Rosemburg nodded his head, quite pleased with transfiguration. "Very well done, Mr. Potter, and you say you are capable of doing self-transfiguration at the same level?"

"Yes, sir."

"Remarkable." Rosemburg favored his best student with a rare smile before turning to Calypso. "You wished to show me your progress as well?"

"Yes, sir." Calypso said with only the slightest hesitation. "I can transfigure large individual parts of the body like fingers, maybe even a hand, but I'm not able to make complete changes like Harry does."

"Show me," Rosemburg said, not bothering to hide his skepticism of the girl's claims.

Before Rosemburg could raise his wand to counter the transfiguration on Calypso's wand arm, Harry nonchalantly flicked his wand, reversing the transfiguration – he never noticed his professor's eyes widen at the causal display of untransfiguration.

Drawing her wand, Calypso smiled slightly when Harry raised his left arm for her to transfigure. Doing her best to focus on the transfiguration, Calypso took a deep breath and tapped her wand against Harry's hand. The slightly audible crack of the bones caused Professor Rosemburg to frown and remove his wand. With a flick of his wand, the transfiguration immediately reversed, leaving Harry rubbing the back of his hand.

"Sloppy, Ms. Rosier." Rosemburg said, carefully inspecting the back of his favorite student's hand as if to ensure that no lasting damage had been done. "How badly did it hurt, Mr. Potter?"

"It was a fairly sharp pain, sir," Harry said honestly, "but it was no worse than when I was at the same level. Calypso's improved a lot, I don't think you needed to stop the Transfiguration."

"I seriously doubt Armando would be pleased if I sent you to Charms class both late and injured," Rosemburg said flippantly before turning to address Calypso. "You need more practice, but, provided you do so, I don't see a reason why you cannot continue onto the next step with Mr. Potter. However, you should know that you will never complete the transformation if you do not drastically improve upon your transfiguration skills."

"I'll keep working at it, sir," Calypso said seriously.

"Do that." Rosemburg said dismissively. "Now, Mr. Potter, the next step in the process is optional, and you are free to ignore it if you wish; however, I believe it is of great value." Seeing that his student was paying very close attention, Rosemburg continued, "There has never been any firm proof that a person's personality directly reflects their animagus form, but strong correlations have been shown in several studies."

Harry couldn't help but recall how his father and uncle Sirius would comment on how their animal forms fit their personality. "I believe that's true sir."

"Excellent. Then the next step for you is to take some time to understand yourself. Contemplate what makes you, you." Seeing the rare flicker of confusion cross his student's face, Rosemburg sighed. "Unfortunately, I can not give you much more direction than that. There is no easy way to go about this, Mr. Potter. However, if it were me, I would start by creating a list of my obvious personality traits and talking to my closest friends – too often we overlook things that others see clearly in us, and your friends should be able to help you with that. Once you believe you have a firm grasp of your personality, you can attempt your first transformation."

"But how will we transform if we don't know what we are supposed to transform into?" Calypso asked immediately. "Do we need to meditate to find our form or take a potion?"

"Ms. Rosier, that is possibly the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time," Rosemburg said bluntly. "If there was a potion to find your form, I daresay that animagi wouldn't be so rare. As for your other thought, if the process was a matter of meditation, please explain to me why I bothered to have you learn advanced human transfiguration?"

Ignoring the abashed look on his student's face, Rosemburg turned to Harry and said, "Managing your first transformation will likely take a while. What you need to do is keep in mind those attributes which define you, and will yourself to change."

"Will ourselves?" Harry asked. "How exactly?"

"The Animagus transformation is...not a type of magic you will learn in school." Rosemburg said, struggling slightly to explain the concept. "It's old magic, a magic that requires a deeper level of understanding and control. Honestly, there is a chance you might simply be too young to command your magic in such a fashion."

"So, it's kind of like sensing magical traces in a way?" Harry asked curiously.

Raising a curious eyebrow Rosemburg said, "I wasn't aware you knew of such magic, Harry, but, yes, on a very basic level, the animagus transformation is similar. Both require the individual to have a strong sense of self and to manipulate magic on a level far deeper than simply wand waving. Again, I must warn you to be careful when attempting to change yourself, and, above all, should you feel a change occurring, do not, under any circumstances, fight it. Horrible things have happened to people who panicked or tried to stop the magic whilst undergoing the change into their animal form."

Harry and Calypso both nodded, but Rosemburg narrowed his eyes. "I am deadly serious about this, Mr. Potter. People have died when they unexpectedly changed for the first time. Fear is a powerful emotion and a sudden change to your very being can easily cause a burst of fear driven accidental magic. It is best if you do not even attempt to transform without someone competent, preferably me, present. I trust, of course, that you have successfully taught Ms. Rosier the Homorphus Charm just in case you need emergency assistance?"

"I can cast it, sir," Calypso said.

"Very well then. Mr. Potter, if you have any additional questions, you are free to ask me, but if not, I believe it's time I get you to Charms. Armando will be quite cross should you miss the entire lesson."

"I'll get started writing out my characteristics," Calypso said as Harry and Rosemburg stood up to leave.

"It might be best if you begin by writing down your thoughts of Mr. Potter, Ms. Rosier," Rosemburg said casually. "I've found that few people are able to accurately describe themselves without giving into a positivity bias."

"Err, yes sir, I'll start on that," Calypso said.

"Good. Now, Mr. Potter, we had best get you to class."

"Yes sir," Harry said, following Rosemburg out of the room and into the fourth floor boys' corridor.

"You improved a great deal over the summer. How often did you work on your transfiguration?"

Harry couldn't help but grin. It seemed that his Occlumency practice over the summer prepared him to adapt well to silent magic. Occlumency allowed one to become very aware of their emotions, and silent magic was especially driven by the caster's emotional intent. By using Occlumency to channel the proper emotion, Harry was able to generate a high quality silent spell.

"Not as often as I would have wanted, sir," Harry admitted, "but I had a very intense project I was working on, and I think the results have helped me this year."

"Well, whatever you did, keep it up. This type of improvement is impressive. I honestly cannot ever recall seeing someone adapt as flawlessly as you have to silent casting, and, believe me, I am not the only professor that has noticed. Tell me, did you even recognize that you silently transfigured Ms. Rosier's arm?"

Harry blinked. He hadn't noticed.

Seeing the look on Harry's face, Rosemburg chuckled in amusement as they approached the Charm's classroom. "You are a truly impressive young man, Mr. Potter."

Opening the door, Rosemburg led Harry into the room where the students were paired up and trying to silently cast a shield charm. Harry spotted Viktor in the corner of the room looking a little ragged. His face had some light hex marks on it, and his robes were singed slightly.

"Armando," Rosemburg greeted pleasantly, "I apologize, but my meeting with Mr. Potter ran longer than I expected."

Kosarev looked up at the pair, but was soon distracted by a nearby student taking a stinging hex to their face. Apparently too busy to mix pleasantries, Kosarev quickly said, "Mr. Potter, can you cast the shield charm silently?"

"I'm sure he can, Armando," Rosemburg said before Harry could speak. "I personally watched him perform a silent partial human transfiguration not twenty minutes ago."

Doing his best to clear his mind, Harry fought the urge to blush at his professor's praise. Rosemburg rarely complemented a student's performance, and several students' in the room had stopped their spell casting to look enviously at Harry.

"What are you all staring at!" Kosarev snapped the moment he saw the class had stopped casting. "Get back to work! Thank you for delivering Mr. Potter, Audemar. Mr. Potter, please take Mr. Flemming's spot and begin working with Mr. Krum."

Nodding his head, Harry walked over to Viktor. "Bad class?"

"The worst," Viktor muttered distastefully. "Do you want to go first? Or should I?"

"You can cast first, it looks like you need a break anyway."

Nodding his head in thanks, Viktor raised his wand and silently sent a stinging hex at Harry, who raised his wand and blocked it with a silent Protego.

Viktor looked enviously at his friend for a moment before he shook his head ruefully. "You must teach me Occlumency,"

"I don't think you'd say that if you knew how painful and time consuming Occlumency is to learn," Harry muttered distastefully. "Besides, with everything you're doing right now, I doubt you'd have the time to learn it properly."

Viktor had one of the most intense schedules Harry had ever seen. Immediately after his last class, he would use an international Portkey to take him to Bulgaria's training facility in Varna on the Black Sea. After a grueling three hour practice, he would Portkey back to Durmstrang, giving himself just enough time for a quick dinner, a brief private meeting with a professor or two, and then an hour on homework before literally passing out in his bed.

Victor scowled as he continued to send stinging hexes at his friend, each one blocked by a perfectly executed Shield Charm.

"You'll catch up, Viktor, you're just out of practice," Harry said encouragingly. "I know I saw you cast a silent shield charm at the end of last year. It's just a matter of confidence. Now, are you ready to try?"

Taking several deep breaths, Viktor prepared to defend himself. Receiving only the slightest of nods to signal that he was ready, Harry fired off a quick stinging hex. Instinctively, Viktor raised his wand and thought Protego. A slight flicker of a shield appeared in front of him, but the moment the stinging hex struck it, the shield dissipated and the spell continued on to hit Viktor in the chest.

"Alright, I believe that's enough for today everyone," Kosarev said, calling the lesson to a close. "Since Mr. Potter seems to be the only person who is at all capable of casting a decent shield charm, I'd recommend you all go back and read chapter three in your books. I will personally be testing your shields during our next class, so be prepared."

Quickly grabbing his things, Viktor stormed out of the Charms classroom in frustration. Harry caught up to his friend at the top of the main staircase and the two of them silently walked down the boys' corridor, but while Harry stopped outside of Grindelwald's door, Viktor continued walking towards his own room. Viktor hadn't fully embraced practicing in Grindelwald's room, and while he would go there if Harry asked him to, he wouldn't spend his free time in the room if he could help it. Sighing, Harry said, "For the Greater Good."

Walking through the main entrance way and into the library, Harry saw Calypso sitting at a desk writing something on a piece of parchment. Reasonably sure that he knew what Calypso was working so hard on, Harry walked over to her and looked over her shoulder at the parchment.

"Is that for me?" Harry asked, his eyes widening at the large list Calypso had compiled on the parchment.

"Yes." Taking out another piece of parchment, Calypso said, "You need to get to work on mine, and remember what Rosemburg said, be honest."

Dropping down into an open chair, Harry grabbed a quill. "Alright, I guess I'll get started."