It was weird seeing one of his Professors during the summer, Harry mused ruefully as he showed Professor McGonagall down to the basement.
It was shielded so the rest of the muggle house could function as normal. Harry didn't really understand it but knew electricity didn't work well around magic and that the basement and the kitchen were the only rooms in the house that were magic-proofed – the basement so they had a practice room and the kitchen because it was Dobby's domain. Apparently, Dobby switched the electricity off room by room when he cleaned the house.
Harry had questioned why Remus and Sirius had bought a muggle house and it had come down to two things: one, making Harry comfortable and they knew he was more familiar with a muggle home and two, because living in a muggle area helped keep Harry safe as wizards often found navigating the muggle world difficult.
The fact that they had muggle technology was great. They'd had a movie night with Star Wars and Harry had shocked Remus and Sirius by inviting Dobby too. The house elf had been glued to the entire film his thin arms wrapped around a bowl of popcorn. Additionally, after a few days of living with Sirius and Remus – Marauders – he was also very appreciative that they had to keep the magic to a minimum. They both had quite an evil sense of humour and Harry was certain that at some point he'd be a target.
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, recapturing his attention. She had set her carpet bag on the side table and was apparently waiting on him.
He flushed. "Sorry, Professor."
To his surprise she smiled at him. "Outside of school, you may call me Aunt Minerva like your father did, if I may call you Harry. What do you think?"
Harry was stunned and settled for nodding his head. He gestured at her and forced the words out of his mouth. "My Dad called you Aunt Minerva?"
"Yes," Professor McGonagall said briskly as she began to unload the bag with small objects that Harry recognised from their Transfiguration lessons, "although when James got older and cheekier he called me Aunt Minnie. I was good friends with your Grandmother Potter – we were at school together."
"Remus said you might tell me some stories?" Harry asked hopefully.
She paused and turned to him with an apologetic look. "I owe you an apology, Harry. I should have approached you before now and offered to tell you about your family. I have no excuse."
"That's OK," Harry said awkwardly, "Remus explained there's a line you have to stick to as a professor where relationships with students are concerned."
She nodded sharply. "I also owe you a second apology for allowing the Headmaster to leave you with the Dursleys against my better judgement."
Harry was speechless again. He'd never expected her to apologise for that. "Professor…I mean, Aunt Minerva, it's fine, really. Sirius explained why the Headmaster left me there and I understand. I mean, I was mad about it but…" he shrugged. He just wanted to forget he had ever lived with the Dursleys.
Her gaze rested on him for a long moment. "Well, Sirius and Remus seem to be taking very good care of you."
Harry smiled at her. "They're brilliant."
Her lips twitched visibly. "Well, shall we do some Transfiguration first? Then we can go over the scholarship details. And we can end with afternoon tea and some stories about your mother and father."
"OK." Harry agreed happily.
"Now, Sirius has explained to me that you had a binding and that you've been working with constrained powers for the last three years. He said that you've worked hard at the healing clinic after the binding was lifted to bring your magic back under control but you still require practice." She handed him a matchstick. "When you're ready, Harry."
He released his wand from its holster and set the matchstick on the table. A wave of a wand later and it was a perfect needle.
"Excellent." Professor McGonagall stated brightly. "If we were in school I would be awarding you points. Let's continue."
They worked for over an hour moving from the first year syllabus to the second and then to the third. The one-to-one tuition helped Harry relax around her more as she helped correct his wand movements to make the transfiguration easier or explained something about the theory that he hadn't understood. Slowly, he started to get used to calling her Aunt Minerva, but it was still a conscious exercise and he figured it would be sometime before he called her anything but Professor McGonagall in his head.
She stopped him after he had successfully completed the exam again.
"We should leave it there for today." Professor McGonagall said sternly. "How do you feel?"
"A little tired." Harry admitted.
"Most wizards your age would be exhausted, Harry." She assured him, beginning to pack everything away. "Clearly your power levels are as impressive as Sirius told me. I rather thought he was playing a prank on me." She shook her head. "You were quite a powerful baby come to think of it." She smiled at him. "You should consider becoming an animagus; I seem to recall you have a natural gift for it."
"I do?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Yes," Professor McGonagall said dryly, "you turned yourself into a miniature version of Sirius's form when you were three or four months old. Your father flooed me almost immediately. I'm not sure if he was more disturbed by the fact that you'd changed into a puppy rather than a young stag, or changed at all. I think it was the reason why he placed a binding on you."
Harry's mouth fell open and he snapped it closed again. "You knew? You knew that Sirius was an animagus? And my Dad?"
"And Mister Pettigrew, yes." Professor McGonagall nodded. "The summer after your father's third year I was visiting Dorea, your grandmother, when your father managed to transfigure his hand into a hoof. He couldn't undo it. I came across him luckily and reversed it. I also worked out quite quickly that he and his friends had taken an Unbreakable Vow not to tell anyone what they were doing – which was very foolish." She must have caught Harry's confusion because she paused in her packing up. "Has anyone explained Vows to you?"
"Are they the same as oaths?" Harry asked.
"Very different. Oaths are only enforceable if sworn to family magic, but Vows are a promise to magic itself. If someone asks you to take an Unbreakable Vow and you agree, if you fail to keep the Vow, you will lose your magic and quite possibly die from the shock." Professor McGonagall said.
Harry frowned. "Why would anyone take one?"
"To prove themselves worthy or because they owe a debt of some kind or because they're not in a position where they can refuse." Professor McGonagall answered. "In the case of your father and his friends, I suspect it had more to do with helping another friend keep a secret. I suspected that they'd realised Remus was a werewolf and that an animagus could spend time with him on a full moon without threat of being turned into a werewolf themselves."
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