If it was just his maturing magic, she said, his powers would smooth out and the surges would eventually decrease in size and frequency. If it was his magic being volatile and unstable, then she told Harry that it would likely slowly get worse and he would have to find a balance or eventually it would likely kill him or just completely burn him out magically, leaving him a squib and possibly a mindless shell.
Harry had asked how long it would take to know either way, and Perenelle had told him, if it was maturity then it would be smoother somewhere between two to four lunar cycles. That hadn't sounded so bad. He was controlling it fairly well and just needed to make sure he continued. When she had told him the other option meant he had to find a balance probably within five years or so, Harry had just rolled his eyes.
Five years was plenty of time. By that point he'd have either been successful, or failed again. Either way, Harry knew he would be dead before he had to worry about his own magic killing or squibing him.
His hesitation apparently hadn't gone unnoticed by McGonagall, as she added in an even more severe voice, "If you cannot find a seat immediately, perhaps I should transfigure you into a map to help you? If that doesn't work there will certainly be plenty of seats in detention for you to find."
Harry wondered if she had taken his comments about the school the previous day personally. He frowned as he brought himself to the moment, "My apologies for being late, Professor McGonagall. However, little that I actually care about them, the deduction of points is unwarranted. You can blame the Headmaster for my tardiness, as he decided it was necessary to meet with me immediately after breakfast this morning. While I doubt you can deduct points from him, perhaps a detention where you can discuss his poor scheduling decisions would be appropriate."
"And from my understanding, transfiguration is never used as a punishment at Hogwarts." Harry added after a moment's pause. He knew he was cheating a little bit, throwing Mcgonagall's own words to the Moody of his world back at her. However she had used a similar threat on him during his first day at the the school when he'd been late for class. McGonagall blinked in shock at his response and after visibly getting over her surprise she fixed him with a stern-faced glare.
The class was absolutely silent in shock as well. Most students had their mouths open in surprise as their eyes darted back and forth between the formidable deputy headmistress and the impudent fourth year.
Harry met her eyes for several long seconds, before he ultimately resisted his urge to roll his eyes and then took several slow, methodical steps towards desks near the front of the room. He slid without hesitation into a seat next to Malfoy, who was biting the inside of his cheek to keep amusement off of his face.
McGonagall stared at Harry for several seconds as he once again met her eyes from his seat. It was several seconds later before she shook herself slightly and turned to the rest of the class to pick up the threads of her speech about attentiveness and foolishness.
Harry had a polite expression on his face but had to shake himself from a memory. The previous moment had been far too reminiscent of the first time he had attended this class when he had stumbled in late. That time it had been as an excited if timid first year, with a friend who tended to speak before he thought. At least she hadn't threatened to turn him into a map or pocketwatch.
He shook himself out of his memories, Draco had caught his eye, and had his eyebrow raised to look at Harry, the question about the meeting with Dumbledore clear on his face. Harry shrugged lithely and Draco nodded slightly, turning his attention back to the professor. Harry kept a polite expression on his face, but he wasn't really paying attention to anything McGonagall said. He was inwardly making a list of things he wanted to accomplish and all the little things he needed to do. Chief among his thoughts was everything he needed to manage to handle Azkaban. He had planned to free Regulus unless there was some overwhelming reason not to.
The letter from the Flamels hadn't cleared anything up, rather it merely added details to a muddy picture. On one hand the man was a marked Death Eater, who actually had a trial and hadn't said anything in his defense, instead had simply shown his dark mark, showing that he was sane, or at least coherent. On the other hand, the note that was in the fake Horcrux in the cave showed that he had betrayed the Dark Lord. Harry was sure if Regulus had told someone that Regulus would probably be free. Especially with his brother still out and free. There was something Harry was missing, and that bothered him to no end.
Harry was brought out of his internal thoughts when several items were floated onto the desk in front of every student, including a curled up hedgehog.
McGonagall began to explain to the class, "This is a review of the materials you should have mastered last year. Some of you will no doubt have to review your past lessons since things only get more difficult from here."
She paused and gestured to a chalkboard where directions shimmered into view. "You will each complete these transfigurations. Anyone unable to complete any one of them in their entirety will have 18 inches of parchment on how to do it correctly… for each transfiguration you are unable to complete." Harry glanced at the list that had shimmered into view on the board. He always thought that was impressive magic, since it was something that both Snape and McGonagall did. That was until Flitwick had confided in him that all they were doing was writing things out in advance and then disillusioning the writing.
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