Special Training

The first step to becoming an Animagus was to keep a single Mandrake leaf in the mouth continuously for an entire month. If the leaf left the mouth, the process had to be started over.

Keeping a leaf in her mouth was really inconvenient, and Mia failed many times. Fortunately, she had picked a few extra leaves at the time.

Because Lockhart was so unreliable and Harry was surrounded by dangers, Mia brought the trio to the Room of Requirement for special training.

"Wow, this is amazing," Ron exclaimed as he looked around the room that could change to suit their wishes.

"Mia, how did you know about this place?" Harry asked curiously.

"Secret~"

"All right, this isn't the time to talk about that. We have serious business to take care of: special training!" Mia clapped her hands to get their attention.

Behind Mia stood three statues wearing armor and holding longswords.

"Today, I'm going to teach you one attack spell and one defensive spell."

"First is Protego. Use it to protect yourself when an enemy attacks. Next are Expelliarmus and the Blasting Curse. Expelliarmus knocks your opponent's weapon away, and then you use the Blasting Curse to attack."

"I'll demonstrate. Harry, help me out."

"Okay." Harry quickly stepped out and stood opposite Mia.

"Harry, attack me."

Harry hesitated, then cast an attack spell.

"Protego!" The attack was blocked.

"Expelliarmus!" Mia then attacked Harry. His wand flew out of his hand, and Mia caught it.

"Wow." Ron applauded blankly.

"Next is the Blasting Curse!" Mia fired it at Harry without mercy, frightening Ron into thinking the brother and sister had turned against each other.

Harry's bracelet released a shield that blocked the attack.

"So strong." Harry looked at the bracelet on his wrist. Hermione and Ron also leaned in curiously. "What's this?"

"It's a little weapon I made using alchemy. It has Runes engraved on it, and when you're in danger, it automatically produces a shield. Of course, I've finished yours too." As she spoke, Mia handed a little rabbit bracelet and a Wizard's Chess bracelet to Ron and Hermione.

"It's so pretty." Hermione admired it, unable to put it down, and Ron was just as delighted with his.

"I also added a few functions. It can sense one another's approximate locations, and if you're attacked, I'll know where you are."

"You're amazing, Mia. There's practically nothing you can't do." Ron thought that perhaps the gap between people really could be this big.

"All right, enough flattery. Did you remember the spells from just now?"

"We did!" All three nodded together.

"Good. See the statues behind me? They'll attack you next, and you need to defeat them while protecting yourselves." Without giving them time to react, Mia started the attack as soon as she finished speaking.

"Wait! We're not ready yet, Mia!" Ron dodged in a fluster, while Harry and Hermione quickly used Protego to block the attacks.

"Your enemies won't give you time to react. Keep going. You can stop once you've mastered them." With that, Mia left them to it. She still had alchemy and Runes to study, and their equipment needed to be updated regularly.

The three of them jumped and scrambled about, attacking and defending in a sorry state.

"Harry, I can't do this anymore!" Ron's wand already had some problems, and his spells only worked about half the time. He had made it through unscathed entirely thanks to his brother and Hermione.

"Protego! Protego Totalum!" Hermione remembered a protective spell Mia had used before and instinctively cast it herself, protecting all three of them.

"Wow, Hermione, you're amazing!" Harry and Ron looked at Hermione in admiration.

Of the three present, Hermione often studied with Mia and knew a great deal. What she lacked was practical combat experience.

Mia had made Harry study quite a bit too. It could be said that Mia deserved more than half the credit for Harry being so strong in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Harry had sparred with Mia plenty of times, so his reactions were quick too; he simply didn't have as much knowledge as Hermione.

Ron had only just joined the class and needed to study hard and keep making progress.

"Wow, great job, Hermione, but you can only use the three spells I taught you." Mia had noticed too and gave Hermione an approving thumbs-up, but their main task today was to learn to use those three spells proficiently in actual combat.

By the end of the training, all three had run out of magic. Seeing that it was about time, Mia made the statues stop.

"Are you okay?" As she spoke, she waved her wand, and a gentle energy gathered at its tip. The three could feel their exhaustion fading and their magic recovering.

"Amazing." Hermione looked at Mia eagerly; she wanted to learn it.

"No, your magical reserves aren't enough yet. You'd get hurt. But I can teach you to read Runes." Mia poked Hermione on the head.

"All right, once you've rested, let's continue. You don't have classes tomorrow anyway, so don't even think about leaving until you've mastered them." Mia wore a beautiful smile, but her words were like a devil's whisper. How could someone with a body temperature of thirty-six degrees say something so cold?

Ron looked utterly desperate. Harry was used to it; Mia had trained him like this during the holidays. Hermione, meanwhile, was eager to grow stronger and had already started again.

Not until dawn was breaking did Harry and Ron leave the Room of Requirement, supporting each other and nodding off with sleep. Hermione had drunk the Pepperup Potion Mia brewed and had already rushed off to the library with Mia's Runes notes.

As for Ron, he never wanted to come back here.

But every night that followed, Mia dragged all three of them back for training.

Ron: Help!

Having successfully kept the Mandrake leaf in her mouth for a month, Mia was ready to begin the next step. She told Harry, Hermione, and Ron to train hard in the Room of Requirement, then went to the Forbidden Forest.

The second step to becoming an Animagus was to remove the leaf at the full moon, fill a small crystal vial with saliva, soak the leaf in it, and let it receive pure moonlight. Add a hair and a silver teaspoon of dew to the crystal vial while moonlight shone on it. The dew had to be collected from a place that had not been touched by sunlight or humans for seven whole days. Finally, add a Death's-head Hawkmoth Pupa and leave the mixture in a quiet, dark place until the next thunderstorm.

From the Astronomy Tower, Mia observed that the next storm would come the following week. In the meantime, she needed to point her wand at her heart and recite an incantation at every sunrise and sunset.

There were still five hours until sunrise. After checking her pocket watch, Mia decided to go see how Harry and the others were progressing in their training.

Only after they had more or less mastered their new spells did Mia let them return, while she stayed in the Room of Requirement.

When it was nearly time, Mia pointed her wand at her heart and recited, "Amato, Animo, Animato, Animagus."