Written for Assignment #1 on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry forum: Mythology, Task 5 – Write about a maternal woman who isn't actually a mother. Word count: 556.
The Cat Lady
Arabella Figg was a curious woman. At the age of sixty she could call herself a mother to twenty-seven adorable cats and, unfortunately, no human children. But it hadn't been meant to be this way.
Back when she was a young girl, her parents wanted her to lead a happy life, despite her being a squib. They introduced her to a kind and good-natured boy shortly after she had turned sixteen. Two years later Arabella and Cyril got married and moved into a tiny house on the outskirts of London.
She yearned to have a child as soon as possible. Maybe even a magical child? Cyril was as much of a squib as she was, but they both came from strong wizarding families; so it was not impossible. And so they tried, without success, for a little over fourteen moths of their marriage. On the twelfth of September 1940, fifth night of German bombing on London, Cyril's life came to a tragic and early end.
After this dire event Arabella's family took her back in. It was not easy to find a partner for a widowed squib; and they gave up rather soon. Over time she found herself in the role of a nanny (or maybe a governess?) for her little nephews and nieces – all nine of them! She loved them, but always secretly grieved over the child she hadn't been blessed to have. They loved her, too, or so she hoped; but they seemed to forget about her soon after starting Hogwarts. She understood.
The last of the children left for school in September 1961. After twenty long years Arabella needed to find somebody (or something) else to dote on. In the meantime she had taken particular liking to kneazles; eventually she redirected her motherly feelings to these intelligent and affectionate creatures. She had a way with them, even though they were often deemed difficult.
Her first half-kneazle kittens happened to be an accident. But what a lucky accident! They were less independent than purebred kneazles, looked almost like normal cats and, for some reason, people became interested in having them as pets. Within a few years she managed to turn breeding the hybrids into a profitable business. Parting with her kittens was heart-breaking at first. It became easier over time, but she always made sure to put them only in good hands.
At this point of her life Arabella dared to say she was happy, even with the spectre of Wizarding War raising. It was not the first war in her life… And her family's house was safer than her and Cyril's had been. She forgot that wars brought changes.
This time changes came with the end of the war and a visit from Albus Dumbledore. She had met him three, maybe four times before, when she happened to have bits of information potentially useful for the Order of the Phoenix. But now – now it was something more. He wanted her to look after a child, or rather to keep an eye on him. From distance.
Could she? She was sixty years old already, not a young girl anymore, and two decades had passed since her youngest nephew had started Hogwarts. But Arabella Figg was not one to get scared easily. And, especially, not one to leave a child in need. She accepted.