"Congratulations!" said Sirius happily. "Now, we're going to have to name you three new Marauders. What do you think we should call them, Moony?"

Remus Lupin looked at each of the three Animagi before him, finally focusing on the robin that was still flying around the room. "Well, Padfoot, I'd suggest calling this one Redwing - Wings for short."

Ginny sang a few notes of birdsong in reply before changing back into a human. "I like it. What about Hermione?"

"Hm," said Padfoot, looking at the dark brown cat. "How about Miss Kitty?" The cat growled at him, showing her teeth. "Alright, settle down. You don't like it. Then how 'bout Catwoman?" Hermione hissed angrily and scratched Sirius' leg as he chuckled. "Ouch! That hurt."

Ginny giggled, "How about Claws?"

Hermione purred and changed back. "Alright. That's acceptable. I think Harry should be called Scar." Harry roared his disagreement, quite loudly. "Fine," she said, petting his mane.

Sirius said, "Lions are supposed to be the kings of the jungle, so how about Kingly?" Harry shook his head.

"Too much like Kingsley," said Remus. "How about Fangs?" Harry nodded his head and changed back.

Sirius cleared his throat and said solemnly, "I hearby dub thee Redwing, Claws, and Fangs - the newest members of the distinguished Fellowship of Marauders," tapping each on the head with his wand as he said their new name.

Ron, Neville, and Luna, who'd been silently watching, applauded. Luna commented, "Now the wrackspurts won't be able to affect you."

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It took a lot of hard work, using the open slots on their study schedules, but on Friday, July 28th, Harry managed to send two silent reducto's at once - one from each hand - effectively breaking the two practice dummies he'd been using. He wiped the sweat from his forehead while sighing with relief that he'd finally done it.

"Good job, Harry," said Hermione, sounding a bit less enthusiastic than Harry would've predicted. "You did it first." Now, Harry knew the problem.

"I'm sure you'll get it soon," he said with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "You, too, Redwing."

Taking a deep breath, Ginny said, "I hope so."

Refocusing on the busted dummies, Harry thought, "Repairo!" and both of them fixed themselves.

He continued breaking and fixing them for the next hour, until Hermione announced, "I did it!"

Harry hugged her with a smile on his face. "I knew you could do it." He then gave her a quick kiss. "Now, fix them," he said as he went back to his practice. Fifteen minutes later, Ginny managed it as well, although Harry noticed that her dummies weren't broken as badly as his and Hermione's. He wisely decided not to mention that, instead congratulating her for a job well done. 'Besides,' he thought, 'the power she can put into the spells will increase with practice. Not to mention that her magical core is a year in development behind mine simply because of her age. She's much more powerful than I was last year.'

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Dumbledore was very pleased with their progress on his visit the next day. "I can honestly say that I've never seen anyone your ages with as much magical ability as you three. Miss Weasley, you are the youngest Animagi I have ever heard of. Miss Granger, you are the most formidable witch under forty that I've ever known, both in intellect and magical skills. Mr. Potter, the progress you've made this past year is phenomenal. I believe that you are nearly ready to fulfill your destiny." For a moment, Dumbledore seemed sad, but quickly smiled with a twinkle in his eye. "I would like to completely test your dueling ability, Harry. At ten o'clock sharp tomorrow morning, I'd like to duel you with no limits except to not use unforgivables."

Harry's eyes widened. "Er, I don't think I'm ready for that."

"Nonsense," replied Dumbledore calmly. "You're too modest. And besides, if you plan on dueling Riddle, you need to practice against someone of similar abilities, and I'm the closest person to an equal that is available. Good day to you all." He then left Number Twelve Grimmauld Place without another word.

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Harry spent the rest of that day nervously practicing every spell and dueling technique he knew, while contemplating running away.

"Fangs," said Sirius after Harry beat him in a duel for the third time in an hour. "You're nervous about nothing. Dumbledore won't kill you."

Panting, Harry nodded. "I suppose not."

"The worst he'll do is break a few bones. Maybe cut you or burn you with that fire whip of his. Maybe maim you..."

"You're not helping, Padfoot," interrupted Harry, who was smiling a bit.

"Maybe you should spend some time with Hermione," he suggested. "You know, get one last snog in before..."

"Shut up, Sirius," he said, actually chuckling as he walked toward the door.

After his girlfriend helped him forget about the upcoming duel, Harry went to bed much more relaxed.

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On Sunday, July 30th, Harry was waiting in the dueling room with Hermione at 9:45 a.m. Everyone else left him alone with her for a few minutes. He'd hardly touched his breakfast, and had done enough of his exercises to warm up, but not exhaust himself. He was wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, shorts, and trainers. He figured that they wouldn't be using armor in this duel. It was supposed to test his abilities - not the abilities of dragon hide.

"Don't be so nervous, Harry," said Hermione.

"Easy for you to say," he shot back. Upon seeing her frown, he quickly said, "I'm sorry."

She smiled. "I know you're under stress, but I believe that you'll do better than you think."

"Do you think I'll win?" he asked. His girlfriend shifted uncomfortably on the floor, answering his question with her body language.

"I don't think he'll hurt you too badly," she offered. "Just surrender when you know you're beaten."

He actually laughed. "Thanks a lot."

"Anytime," she said. She then kissed him. "You'll do fine. I know you'll get him a few times, anyway." She then giggled. "How many students have wished they could take a shot at the headmaster over the years?"

He laughed. "You will help me recover, won't you?"

"Of course, Fangs."

"Then it won't be so bad, I suppose."

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Sirius' voice said, "Dumbledore's here."

After taking a deep breath, Harry said, "Come on in. Let's get this over with. I hope I don't have to spend my birthday in Saint Mungo's."

"I have the same concern," said Dumbledore as he strode in. He was wearing long, purple robes, which greatly contrasted with Harry's outfit. "I have no wish to use their services as well. That is why I've asked Madam Pomfrey to be here."

It was soon decided that Remus would referee, and an invisible barrier was created to protect the spectators. Before the match began, Dumbledore said, "I want to make sure you fully understand, Harry. Don't hold anything back. I won't."

Harry gulped and nodded. Remus said, "The match is over when one of you either surrenders or is knocked unconscious, since neither of you can be disarmed by simply losing your wand. Take your positions." The two duelers took defensive stances. "Begin."

While pointing his wand at Dumbledore with his right hand, Harry shot a stunner out of both the end of his wand and his left hand, and then he dropped to the floor just in time to dodge a red spell that had been sent his way. He saw that Albus had shielded against both of his stupefies and was standing in the same spot he'd started at. Harry rolled and stood while shooting a blasting hex to keep his opponent on the defensive.

Dumbledore conjured a flock of twenty bats in the air and sent them at Harry, who formed a shield between himself and the bats. That momentary distraction allowed the headmaster to send a fire whip at Harry. It broke the invisible shield, allowing the bats access to Harry, and at the same time hit his wand, which the fifteen-year-old dropped a moment before sending a fireball out of each hand - one aimed at his opponent, the other at the closest bats, eliminating nine of them.

Dumbledore disapparated to avoid the fireball, and reappeared behind Harry, whose karate instincts kicked in. The old man couldn't tell what his protégé had done, but he felt his legs give out and fell to the ground. People started clapping at that moment, while Harry shot two stunners at Albus. With surprising speed for a man his age, Dumbledore rolled out of the way, and shot a tripping hex at the Boy-Who-Lived.

The hex hit Harry, who fell, but managed to roll out of the way before the headmaster's next hexes could hit him. With both of his hands together, he shot two blasting hexes straight at Dumbledore's chest. He conjured a shield in time, but part of the blast made it through and hit its target, pushing him backward five feet, but not knocking him to the ground. The old man was gasping for air, and his complexion was getting a bit pink. Harry sent another hex at him, but he apparated away again.

This time, Harry decided that two could play at this game. He apparated to where Dumbledore had been standing, aimed his hands where he'd been before, and shot two powerful stunners. Harry's guess had been right. The headmaster had once again apparated right behind his foe, but found that his foe had moved. He produced a shield just in time to block the stunners.

Dumbledore then began shooting hex after hex at his opponent in rapid succession, causing Harry to keep dodging without a moment to shoot back. After thirty seconds of dodging successfully, he made the mistake of jumping out of the way and saw that a hex was headed right where he'd land. He knew that it's impossible to apparate while in motion without splinching yourself, so he would get hit. He put up his best shield, hoping it would hold and landed.

The bone-breaker hex was weakened by Harry's shield, but did hit his left ankle, causing a lot of pain. Harry shot two bone-breaker hexes back at the headmaster in vengeance as he fell to the floor. The headmaster looked surprised to see those hexes and conjured a shield, which was destroyed by the hexes hitting it together. A weakened version of the hex hit his right arm, causing the man to scream in agony as it broke.

Harry took the moment of distraction to perform a healing spell on his ankle, but could tell it was still sore. However, at least he could stand up, even if he had a limp. He began rapidly firing stunners at his opponent, determined to end this duel before any other bones got broken.

Dumbledore raised another shield and began doing the same thing his opponent was doing, sending as many stunners as he could. Dumbledore's shield was taking a beating, and at the same time, Harry wasn't moving as fast as before, especially because the remaining conjured bats had finally caught up with him. The headmaster's shield was penetrated at the same moment that Harry wasn't fast enough to dodge. Consequently, they both got hit by stunners at the same time.

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Harry opened up his eyes, and saw the face of his girlfriend. "How do you feel?" she asked.

He shook his head in an effort to wake himself up more as he thought about it. He didn't feel any injuries, and could see Madam Pomfrey dealing with Dumbledore. "I'm fine. I guess I lost. Not much of a surprise."

"You didn't lose, Harry," she said bemusedly.

"I was knocked out."

"So was he," she said with a smirk. "You both fell at the same moment. It was a draw."

Harry's eyes widened as he stared at her in disbelief. "What?"

"Technically, he was hurt worse than you."

"He must've been holding back."

"Ah, Harry, my boy," called Dumbledore from where he was. "You did very well. The only thing I held back on was the use of lethal spells. I did not wish to kill you. I know that you did the same. As long as you don't hold back lethal spells when facing Riddle, I believe that you will have an equal chance of besting him in a duel."

Harry was shocked. "You believe I'm as good as Vold..."

"Harry! Remember that his name is taboo. Saying it could reveal our location." He sighed. "I wish the Ministry had put a taboo on the Unforgivables. I wish I'd thought to suggest it to Minister Vehosia." He then looked back at Harry. "I know that Tom has much more experience than you, and knows a lot more curses than you, but your power is about equal, and it doesn't take a thousand spells to end a duel - just one. You also have the advantage of youth and agility. If you can dodge his spells, it doesn't matter what he tries to hit you with. I was pleased that you didn't depend much on shields, because I doubt that any spell Riddle sends at you will be blocked by a simple protego."

"So, you're saying that as soon as the Horcruxes are gone, I'll be ready?"

Dumbledore's face held a smile that did not quite reach his eyes when he said, "Exactly. On that front, something that may help us has occurred. It seems that a Death Eater murdered a goblin at Gringotts when he was taking too long to wait on him. While that death is most regrettable, this has the Goblin nation very upset, and more predisposed to grant our request. I have a meeting with Minister Vehosia later today, where I'll ask him to request that the goblins allow us to search known Death Eater vaults for Dark objects. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a Horcrux."

They all wished Albus good luck before he left.

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The next day, Harry woke up early with anticipation. It was his fifteenth birthday, and for the first time in his life, he was actually expecting a celebration, along with gifts. It was true that he'd gotten them before since he'd joined the wizarding world, but it had always been a surprise to him. This time, he actually did expect his birthday to be recognized. He was having a party that wasn't a surprise. Despite that fact, he still had to do his training.

He threw on his exercise clothes and walked down to the training room, finding that Hermione was already there. She walked up to him and gave him a kiss.

"Happy birthday."

"It is now," he said before kissing her.

A throat was cleared behind them. Harry didn't respond, but Hermione separated from him. He reluctantly turned to see Sirius. "Happy birthday, Cub."

"Thanks."

Ginny, Neville, Luna and Ron showed up a few minutes later to join in the exercise, each wishing him a happy birthday, although Luna added, "Make sure the yeltines don't bite you. They like to bite people on their birthdays."

After an hour of that, the teenagers separated into two trios for their studying (Harry, Hermione and Ginny in one group with Ron, Luna and Neville in the other) based on the topics they were covering. On this day, Harry's group was continuing to practice nonverbally and wandlessly casting more than one spell at once. They all could do it, but wanted to make it second nature so that they could try more than two at once. The other group was learning advanced defensive magic.

After that hour was over, they began their duel. Since Harry needed to be best, he wanted the odds as bad as possible. Currently, it was Harry and Hermione dueling Sirius, Ginny, Neville, Ron and Luna.

At first, the outnumbered couple stood back-to-back as they each cast spell after spell, keeping the others on the defensive. However, the other team soon realized that they could pair off, with one shielding while the other kept firing offensive spells. Soon, Harry and Hermione were separated as they dodged away from curses that never seemed to stop coming. Whenever they got a chance, they fired spells that could penetrate shields, but they had to keep moving so fast that they would be dodging someone else's spell before they could stun the person. They'd have a new shield up before they were shot at again.

Harry got sick of this and shot a spell at the floor beneath Luna. He'd learned about it in an advanced transfiguration lesson, and had been surprised Dumbledore hadn't done it to him. The floor beneath the blonde girl's feet moved up into a speed bump, effectively tripping the girl. Harry stunned her. In this practice, stunned combatants couldn't be revived, otherwise they'd have to use lethal spells to decide a winner. If Harry had been fighting a Death Eater, he'd have probably used a reducto.

At the same moment, he heard Ron swear. He quickly glanced to see his first friend lying on the floor without a wand, in the process of being stunned. Harry had to quickly duck to avoid a stunner from Sirius, and mentally berated himself for getting distracted. "You take Sirius," shouted Hermione. "I've got Ginny."

"At least you think you have," said Ginny while Harry shot two curses at his godfather. He didn't watch the two girls' battle as Padfoot changed into a dog, with the spells flying over him. The grim jumped toward Harry, who jumped at Sirius changing into a lion, so that they both were animals when they rammed into each other. They both roared, distracting Ginny for one second, during which she was stunned.

Hermione watched the cat and dog wrestling on the ground, and wondered if she should interfere. She didn't want to risk stunning Harry by accident, and that went for any other spell she could try. She decided to just watch. She believed that Harry would win, but if he didn't, she'd hex Padfoot, so their team would win anyway. She thought that it wasn't very smart of Harry to change forms, but wasn't sure that she wouldn't have, under those circumstances. The huge dog and lion were almost evenly matched, and the dog had a lot more experience fighting in that form. All three of the 'New Marauders' were just getting used to moving in their forms.

Just when Hermione thought that Padfoot might get the best of Fangs, a red light shot out of the lion's front right claw straight into the dog's chest. He fell, stunned. Harry changed back into a human, and was panting. Hermione could see a few scratches on her boyfriend's face, so she quickly healed him before walking to each opponent and, "Enervate"-ing them. She then turned to Harry. "How did you perform a spell in your Animagus form?"

"He what?" asked Ginny, while the other boys stared at Harry.

"That's supposed to be impossible," Hermione continued.

Harry looked nervous. "I don't know. I just wished I could stun him, and I did. It didn't feel any different than when I use magic as a human."

"Hm," said Sirius, while scratching his chin. "I would guess that most, if not all, of the people who become Animagi only do magic with their wands. If that's the case, then they probably can't hold a wand in their forms, unless they're some sort of monkey."

Hermione's face brightened. "So, since we don't need our wands to perform spells, using just our bodies as magical conduits, we can use magic. I've got to test this!" she declared before changing into a cat. The feline pointed a paw at her boyfriend, and a beam of light shot him. He immediately began laughing uncontrollably, under the influence of the cheering charm. Soon, Redwing was shooting spells out of her wings in midair, with the small problems that she'd start to fall when she stopped flapping her wings to shoot a spell, and then her aim was off.

Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment before suggesting, "Shoot the spells out of your feet." The robin tried it, and hit her brother with a stinging hex.

"Ouch! What'd you do that for?"