Sorry for being gone so long...school, church, and birthday parties caught up with me.

Chapter 11

It was the day of his first transformation at Hogwarts, and Harry wasn't worried. Really, how could it be any different? He was actually quite excited. All the pent up anger he had toward his fellow classmates would dissipate tonight.

Professor Lupin was the complete opposite. Apparently, he and his wolf didn't get along so well. Harry wisely kept to himself his method. He knew, from experience, that the wizarding world considers many things dark and evil for no apparent reason (like last year for example with his gift to talk to snakes). Professor Lupin seemed like a nice guy, so Harry really didn't feel like doing anything to cut his friendship with him until he knew him a little better.

Luna was at the entrance to the chamber. "You have to wonder about Salazar Slytherin, putting the entrance here...you have your potion, right? And a place to store your clothes?" Luna could worry about him a lot...but she really didn't have many people to worry about. Lately, she was giving him a puzzled look, like she was trying to figure out something...then again, Luna normally did that. "Have a nice time!" Luna waved as he went into the chamber.

Harry remembered a broom this time along with everything else. He had a feeling that a phoenix wouldn't come and save him this time around. Soon enough, the painful feeling of the transformation (he really needed to make a potion to deal with it) came upon him, and he only got brief flashes of memory as the wolf took over.

Harry cheerfully walked into Professor Lupin's office. Besides that empty feeling in his stomach as a side-effect of the potion he was taking, he was having a great day today. Most of Gryffindor seemed to give up teasing him at this point and instead gave him a glare despite his new Slytherin boyfriend, which lessons from Snape and the Durselys taught him how to ignore. He saw Ron desperately try to get the oblivious Luna and played a game of pick-up Quidditch with him after his failure.

What most surprised him about this day was that his cousin Dudley actually sent him a letter. Even more surprising, it was a nice letter. Dudley, for whatever reason, thought he had to inform him about his new cousin, Jasmine Rose Dursley. He also sent an apology for last summer, and a request for a letter back.

"So Luna...." Harry started off eailer in the day.

"What do you need?" Luna smiled. "You were going to ask me something. I could tell."

Her ability to sense that was only slightly creepy, but that was made Luna, well, Luna. "My cousin sent me a letter. He wanted to patch things up with me. We've never gotten along. I don't know why he would apologize now."

"People grow up. You should give him a second chance. You never know. Besides, he is family. Besides, weren't you different this year from last? Maybe he also had a wake-up call." Luna said.

So Harry decided to write back. Besides, Dudley never really hurt him. Sure, he chased him down the street with his gang of buddies and he wasn't a nice guy, but Dudley never was mean-spirited like his parents.

"Hi Professor Lupin. No offense but you look terrible." That wasn't the best thing to say to a teacher, but it was true. Professor Lupin looked ragged and bags hung under his eyes. The best way to describe him was walking death.

"You look decent Mr. Potter." Professor Lupin replied. Harry looked just as he normally did. "I have never looked like that after a transformation."

"Potions can do miracles." Harry replied. He wasn't telling a lie...it was a half truth.

"Indeed." Professor quickly gulped down a potion in front of him with a grimace. "I see you inherited your mother's love for potions making. I seem to blow up every potion I touch like Mr. Longbottom" Professor Lupin said.

"You knew my mother?" Harry asked.

"Not as well as your father. I was best friends with him." Professor Lupin sighed. "I miss them both greatly."

"You don't want to talk about them, don't you? I understand." Harry was used to knowing little to nothing about his parents. At least now he knew his mother was good at potions.

"Yes, but now that I think about it, you really should know more. Your father was extremely loyal to his friends, and to me when I needed it most. He never abandoned me after he figured out about my 'furry little problem' as he would nickname it." Harry couldn't help but laugh in relief. At least one parent he knew wouldn't care what he was now. "Your mother had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even, and perhaps most especially, when that person could not seem it in themselves. I remember that she helped me with some guilt in sixth year..." Harry cam closer to hear the secret but Professor Lupin contiued, "which you shall not know about."

"Why not, Professor Lupin?" Harry asked.

"Because it is not purely mine to tell. Don't you have a class to go to, Mr. Potter? I have heard you've brought your grades up recently." Professor Lupin, very weakly, pushed him out of the door.

"It's insurance and payback. Plus, I'm getting help in transfiguation from Fred." Harry smiled. "For some reason...my transfiguations keep blowing up. I never really had a talent in transfiguation to begin with...do you think it is a side-effect?"

"Probably, but I wouldn't know. I was bitten when I was a young child. Personally, I have had no problem with my transfiguations. You must be the first person in Potter history to be horrible at transfiguation. I remember the Potters prided himselves on that ablity."

"Great...just lovely, and I have to go to that class next." Harry sighed.

Harry actually went back to his dorm to pick up some books he left in there before heading to transfiguation (he needed to plan his transformations better next time). Those gleeful glares from most of the Gryffindors should have been a clue before he even opened the dorm room door.