Thanks to the book Professor McGonagall had given him, Harry's first magical project had been determined. The ability to transform into an animal whenever he wanted without the use of a wand not only sounded incredibly useful, but also sounded like a great magical and intellectual exercise.
That night Harry read as much of the book as possible. It was a very large book, not quite the size of A History of Magic, but definitely larger than the standard school tomes he had seen. It would probably take him somewhere around weak or two to finish reading, especially since he could only afford to read it at night before he went to bed.
This was because he not only wanted to continue spending time with Hannah, Neville and Susan—whom he found himself getting along with quite well despite his initial reasons for befriending them—but he also wanted to continue enhancing his reputation as a polite and helpful young man in order to facilitate more respect from his peers and the teachers. It was necessary for him to present this image to everyone at Hogwarts since he was so famous and everyone had their eyes on him.
Still, even if he was only able to read the book at night, Harry knew he would make good progress. Thanks to his eidetic memory he could read around 100-pages per hour and still be capable of remembering everything. So far he had managed to read just a little under eight chapters of the book.
What he had read was quite fascinating. Becoming an animagus was one of the most complicated and difficult feats of transfiguration to accomplish. Often times it took years for someone to become an animagus, which was why so few people ever bothered becoming one.
According to the book, becoming an animagus required several steps. The first was discovering ones 'inner animal,' which all witches and wizards apparently had. Basically, someone's inner animal was the animal they were most connected to based on a combination of key factors, such as physical features and personality traits.
Sirius was the perfect example of this. Harry's mother had always told the man that his dog transformation was perfect for him, since both would hump just about anything with two legs.
Morgana had explained that there were two ways for someone to discover their inner animal. The first way was done via meditation to connect with ones inner animal. This process was long and arduous, and also half the reason becoming an animagus took so long. It not only required years of meditation, but also a mastery of Occlumency, the rare skill to defend ones mind from intrusion. This was because Occlumency not only defended the mind from external influences, but also organized the mind in such a way that it was easier to connect with oneself.
According to Morgana, only those with a clear mind could connect with their inner animal, and only those who mastered Occlumency could take on that animal's form without losing their mind to said animal's instincts.
This was another reason it took so long to become an animagus using this method. Occlumency was not only a very rare skill, but also one that took years to master on own. Morgana's book stated that mastering Occlumency normally required four to five years of intense training under a master, and discovering ones inner animal took another two to three years. That meant if someone wanted to become an animagus using this method, it would take six to eight years all told.
There were, of course, advantages to using this method. One of those advantages was having a much closer connection to ones inner animal. This led to the witch or wizard in question not only having an easier time of their transformation, but also gaining traits of their animal outside of their animal forms.
A good example of this would be Morgana herself, who had used this method to become an animagus. Her form had been that of a bird—a raven to be more precise, and it had given her several unique traits and abilities she could access outside of her animagus transformation.
One of her abilities had been those of enhanced eyesight. While ravens didn't have the eyes of, say, a hawk or an eagle, they still had incredibly sharp vision. Much sharper than those of a human. Morgana's book stated that after becoming an animagus she had been able to see objects such as buildings, people, animals and plants with extreme clarity up to fifty miles away outside of her animagus form.
Another talent she had gained was the ability to feel air currents. It was a little known fact to those who had not studied zoology, but when a bird flew, they did so by riding air currents, not just flapping their wings. This was especially true during long distance migrations. How else could their ability to travel hundreds of miles without tiring be explained?
This particular ability, while not sounding very useful at first, had actually enhanced Morgana's skill with elemental wind magic to nearly unheard of levels. Harry had no clue what kinds of powers and abilities she had with wind magic; the book didn't say, but it was definitely an interesting little fact and made him wonder what kind of powers he might gain from his own animagus form.
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