Observant.
Harrison found that, with the return of the student body, there was an increased amount of avoidance. He'd always been observant. Living in a household like his meant that you need to be. So he noticed Neville avoiding and dropping out of Divination, after Professor-Bug-Eyes made another comment about his Gran dying. He noticed Ron avoiding eye contact with Hermione, now he realised he had a crush on her. He noticed at the start of the year the very obvious tension between Snape and Remus, how their dynamic would change. He noticed Malfoy avoiding eye contact with himself, looking up every so often to find the blonde hastily looking at something else.
He was also avoiding someone. That someone being Dumbledore. Since Easter ended, the man... appeared. Everywhere. He walked out of class, and Dumbledore was walking down towards where the trio would usually meet up after using the Time-Turner. He would put a book back in its place and Dumbledore could be seen walking through the entrance of the library.
He was just glad he had the map.
He had practiced the spells to either create or change features on the map on spare bits of parchment over the first week back from Easter, usually during History of Magic as the rest of the time, he'd be doing studying, homework, or meditating.
It took the sixth try to perfect the spells, though he continued practicing to make sure he wouldn't mess them up. This map was one of the two things he had left behind from his father, he would not destroy it on accident, trying to make it safer. Safer from what? Probably just the twins, as he still didn't buy the whole 'Sirius Black is out to get you!' bit.
"Maybe you should do it Hermione," Harrison sighed, looking down at the map, elbows propped up on either side of the usual table they sat at.
Hermione shot him a look which screamed 'Seriously?!' as she snapped out of her meditation. The two of them were now racing to be the next to find their animagus form. Hermione was, in fact, pissed that she missed Ron's first transformation.
"You're spell work is a lot stronger than mine, Harry, and you've been practicing these spells for a week now."
"What if I mess up?"
"Then you can ask Professor Lupin to reverse it. Or better yet, you don't mess up at all."
He sighed again, rubbing his temple, staring down at the hidden map. It just looked like an old bit of parchment, but it was so much more. He could see the magic pouring off of it, had seen what it was capable of showing. Has seen the spells' potential to be more.
"Fine. If I screw this up, I blame you."
"Fine by me, Harry. You won't mess up." And the confidence in her voice was all he needed.
"You did it?!" Ron exclaimed, throwing up a privacy charm with barely any thought behind it as he spotted them in the common room, having just come down from playing Chess with Neville.
"Yep, password has been changed."
"To what?"
"Nothing too different, we thought it should have the same ring to it, but be longer and weird to say. Harder to remember that way." Harrison explained, "It's 'I solemnly swear I can only commit to no good.'"
"And what do you say to close it?"
"Its the same," Hermione said, Crookshanks purring on her lap.
"Why?"
"Why bother? No-one can't really do much if they want to open the map but they only know the words on how to close it." Harrison pointed out, pulling out the notebook he'd mostly used for sketching, "And besides, that's only a precaution, we can think of something actually creative for our own map."
The three had decided to create their own map in their first lesson of Arithmancy, while Harrison was still trying to perfect the spells. That way they don't have to change anything about what his father and friends left behind, and they could do whatever they wanted with this new one. Maybe it will become a tradition or sorts in the family?
"Fair enough," Ron huffed, stretching out his legs on the sofa, "You finished this weeks homework?"
He waved his wand and the privacy charm fell.
"Just Potions," Hermione groaned, dropping her head back onto the sofa. She was sat on the floor, so her head brushed against Ron's leg, causing a light blush to spread over his cheeks.
"Well isn't it my favourite trio of brand new nerds!" Fred greeted, strolling into the common room, definitely too smug for the safety of Hogwarts.
Harrison arched a brow, "Curfew ended twenty minutes ago, where have you been?"
George sprinted in not even two seconds after Harrison finished speaking, out of breath and sputtering utter nonsense, cutting off whatever Fred was going to say.
"What's up with Thing two?" Hermione asked, snorting in amusement.
Fred turned to look over his shoulder at his twin, who had doubled over and looked like he was about to collapse. Like, seriously, he was all red and sputtering, completely out of breath and looked traumatised.
"He... may of walked in on something he shouldn't have, when I told him not to. And I may of left him there to deal with the consequences of his actions when he walked in on the sight." He said vaguely, a feigned look of nonchalance on his face, waving one hand about.
Just then, Percy and Oliver walked into the common room. They froze at the sight of the twins, turning all flustered before hastily walking through the common room to the boys dorms.
"Doesn't have anything to do with that hickey on Percy's neck, and Oliver's inside-out shirt now, does it?" Harrison asked, barely keeping his amusement contained, the grin on his face breaking through. He was observant, after all.
He could hear the disgusted and shocked sounds coming from Ron, something about never getting an image out of his head.
"It's about time they got together," Hermione giggled.
"I have no idea what you're on about."
"No! No, no, no! Gross! I can't think of my brother doing that! Let alone Percy!"
It was the Monday of the second week back. More specifically, 18 minutes after class ended, and 15 minutes since the trio arrived in Myrtle's bathroom. It was a shock when the ghost wasn't there, but they figured she was out in the Black Lake, she'd mentioned she went out every now and then to mess with the Giant Squid if it was close enough.
Harry and Hermione were working on their animagi forms while Ron did Arithmancy studying.
The meditative state when being with your form was different, to say the least. Because you weren't in a blank mind, relaxing at the pure nothing, but you were in a forest. A forest filled with all kinds of different smells, and the colours seemed brighter, and you could count how many blades of grass you were sat near if you wanted to with the sharper sight.
Ron described that going from meditating to transforming was like merging, unexpectedly. You can touch your form here, pick it up, play with it. It was rather fun actually, running through a forest with the wildlife. Harrison supposed that's why the last part was so difficult. It was so easy to get distracted with another part of yourself.
So, when Harrison was sat, having a staring contest with the black-furred fox in his lap, noses almost brushing one another, and he'd suddenly felt a shift in his bones- he didn't really know how to react. Unexpected.
It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't pleasant either. Like drinking water when your not thirsty, but not full. Simply because you do.
His bones shifted, and he felt smaller, lighter than he ever thought he could feel. He felt warmer, and could smell Hermione's perfume despite her being too far for him to possibly smell it as a human, and Ron's shampoo. He could smell the magic in the air from where they had cleaned the bathroom previously, lingering in the stone of the floors and walls. It was overwhelming, yet so not.
He blinked open his eyes, having to squint for a sec to get used to how sensitive his sight was. At least he could see clearly without glasses now.
Hermione was still meditating, back to one of the stall outer walls, eyes shut, while Ron was opposite her, hunched over the Arithmancy books.
Harrison stood shakily, getting used to the feeling of four paws, before taking a few steps towards her, and sitting just in front.
Hermione had been meditating for about 19 minutes. The lynx in her was stubborn. Refused to even let her come near her majority of the time.
She was about to ask Ron a question about his process, opening her eyes and mouth when she saw it.
It, being a fox, with pitch black fur, head tilted in a canine gesture. Looking at her with those green eyes and she knew instantly who they belonged to.
It, being Harry.
"Oh come on!" She groaned, causing Harry to let out a squeaky-laugh and Ron to snap his head up.
"Bloody hell-," He grumbled, upset his focus was disrupted and shot a half-hearted glare at Hermione, just before his sight dropped and focused on the source of the laugh- on Harry.
"Bloody hell!"