Protection: The Sword and the Shield

Comfort And Joy

......Grounds, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood in front of his school in stunned disbelief. A Gryffindor had turned into a magical snake and was now slithering around the feet of a Slytherin that had turned into a gryphon. He was not surprised that one of Harry Potter's ladies had fallen from the light to the dark as that was what he truly believed was happening to the House of Potter. That he had corrupted a Weasley validated, in his mind, the behind the scenes efforts he had made to bankrupt them and pull them from the Potter influence.

But no matter how hard he tried his mind could not find an explanation for Daphne Greengrass becoming a gryphon. The nicest that could be said about her family was that they were neutral. But that did not mean they weren't dark. It just meant they weren't murderers, necessarily. Before Harry Potter had re-entered the magical world, Albus' goal was to get more Dark families to behave like the Greengrass one, as he did not truly believe that all of them could be turned to the light.

Despite the family representing his best case scenario for the darkest families, it still should have been impossible for the Greengrass heiress to become a creature that was so clearly a light creature. Especially as she was now cavorting with the possible rising dark lord that was Harry Potter. Gryphons were considered noble creatures, possessed by honor and integrity.

The Greengrass daughter should not have it as a magical creature. So determined and stubborn was the man that he started to suspect some dark nature to whatever magic Potter and his associates had discovered to achieve a magical animagus form. As was standard when his mind made this sort of leap, he blamed Sirius Black. "It was probably the same dark ritual he used to get that damn Phoenix." He thought bitterly.

Even with his mind roiling, he noticed the next two. Ron and Lavender stepped forward and everyone looked at them with open excitement. Everyone knew the two were the closest to Harry and likely the closest in magical strength to the boy-who-lived, not counting Neville. If Daphne and Susan could be a gryphon and a grim, what would these two become?

The crowd was not disappointed when Ron gestured for the Guardian of Hogwarts to step forward and go first. Albus Dumbledore did not know why but he expected Lavender to have been a gryphon. She was a Gryffindor and the Guardian of Hogwarts. He had noticed that each new pair were arguably more powerful than the previous. With Daphne, unexplainably a gryphon, he half expected that Lavender would be a dragon.

He only had enough time to dismiss the ridiculousness of his thought before she transformed. He took a step back when he saw what she actually turned into. The entire school had gone quiet in shock. Harry had insisted that this demonstration be done outside and up to that point, all the creatures could fit inside the great hall. Most had just assumed that his desire to be outside was due to not wanting to be cramped when they all turned into animals.

The elephant sized horse suggested different. 13' tall at the shoulders, the animal looked like a Black Abraxan minus the wings and with a lot of fire. The nightmare was a horse that was almost considered mythical in the wizarding world. Lavender galloped into the air leaving floating flaming foot prints before landing and raising unto her hind legs in an impressive display. Albus looked on the creature in fear. All his worst imaginings were confirmed in that moment. The guardian of Hogwarts was a nightmare. A creature of darkness and death.