AN: All recognisable characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
The steady brown eyes of Alicia Spinnet were fixed on the small form of her black kitten, Kim. In her peripheral vision, she counted down the seconds on the grandfather clock.
At exactly five o'clock, as the rays of the setting sun reflected off the face of the clock, the clear blue eyes of Kim snapped open. A week ago, Alicia would have claimed it was the hourly chiming of the grandfather clock, but she was wiser now.
She had once kept the cat in her room, but the cunning little thing had still woken up at five on the dot.
Alicia watched as her little cat rolled herself to her paws, yawned widely, and without so much as a glance at the brunette standing a mere meter away, padded out of the kitchen. Alicia could see her stretching on the carpet, before shaking herself and trotting to the door with her tail aloft.
The girl let her jaw drop. She'd just been snubbed by her own cat!
Making up her mind, she followed Kim outside. The little cat was still trotting, looking as though she was smugly heading off to business.
The girl following scoffed in disbelief as Kim left the pathway and trotted into a field of dried knee-length grass.
Waiting in the middle was a slightly flea-bitten grey dog.
Realising Kim could very well be heading into danger, she sped up, but the bobbing black tail was invisible as the little kitten moved through the grass.
When Alicia caught sight of her, she'd already reached the clearing, and padded calmly up to the big dog. Wordlessly, Alicia stepped unto the dried grass to snatch her cat before she was mauled by the dog. But before she could take another step, she stumbled and fell face-flat on the grass.
She looked up to find a boy shushing her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, but heeded the boy's warning and lowered her voice.
"I'm assuming it's your cat?" the boy asked, tilting his head towards the clearing. At Alicia's nod, he continued, "She's with my dog, but don't worry. He wouldn't hurt a fly."
At Alicia's disbelieving look, he said, "Trust me. I've followed him for a week now. He hasn't hurt your cat."
Narrowing her eyes at him in suspicion, she turned her head to watch Kim. To her relieved surprise, the dog wasn't eating the little black cat, only... kissing?
"You tell your dog to stop molesting my cat!" she shrieked in a whisper.
The boy doubled up in silent laughter, clutching his midriff. "Looks like she doesn't mind," he wheezed, before cracking up again.
Alicia couldn't help herself; the laughter of the boy was too infectious. She too began laughing at their predicament. They laughed for a good two minutes, before realising the dog and the cat had gone.
"Don't worry," the boy said again, seeing Alicia's panicked expression. "He'll take care of her."
"If you're sure," she said doubtfully.
"Promise," he assured. "Look, tell me your name. I'm Charles. Charles Warrington."
Alicia shook his proffered hand. "Alicia Spinnet."
"So which school do you go to?" he asked, leading the way out of the field.
She followed him. "St Gryffindor's, just down the road. You?"
He whistled. "I go to Slytherin House, up near Salazar River."
The brunette nodded; she'd heard of his school. "You're in a private school," she said.
He turned to look at her as they reached the pavement. "So what if I am?" he asked. "I'm not a snob, if that's what you're thinking."
She quickly backtracked. "Oh, I'm not saying you are," she said hastily. "I'm just pointing out a fact."
He eyed her carefully, as though making sure she wasn't lying. Satisfied by the guiltless look on her face, he nodded. "So you play any instruments?"
"My mum made me go to clarinet lessons," she admitted.
"Nothing wrong with that," he said. "My mum made me go to piano lessons, too."
She grinned. "Well, I might as well head home," she said reluctantly. "It's getting a bit late."
He smiled back at her. "Want me to walk you home?"
She blushed a little. "If you want," she replied shyly.
Sunlight filtered through the window.
It was another afternoon, and Alicia was standing in the hallway of her new house. She'd been unpacking things from their boxes, and she'd just picked up a beautiful picture.
"Ali, where did you want this?"
She looked up to find a man with sandy blonde hair holding up another picture frame, this time with her and him in it.
She reached for it, and he obligingly gave it to her. "I'll put them on the dresser," she said.
"Okay," he agreed. He made to turn back to where he was unpacking, but he eyed her curiously. "You okay?"
"'m fine," she replied, smiling up at him.
She stood up carefully, and he stepped forward to help her to her feet. She smiled at him again, and walked towards the wooden dresser.
She placed both pictures side by side on the center of the dresser, and gazed at them lovingly. The man came up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her.
"Who knew, right?" he whispered, also looking at the pictures with tenderness in his eyes.
"Who knew, indeed," she replied, gently running her fingers over her bulging stomach.
His fingers joined hers. "Have you decided on a name for her?" he asked.
"Yes," she smiled. "Kim."
One picture was of her and her husband, staring into each other's eyes in wonderment, as though they couldn't believe they were together.
The other picture was the beginning of life as they knew it.
It was of a small black kitten, nose-to-nose with a flea-bitten grey dog.
.
.
.
AN:
Written for RoyalJamboree's A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words Challenge, for one of the cutest animal pictures I've ever seen.
The goal for the challenge was to write a story based on a picture with exactly 1000 words (literally, a picture is worth a thousand words). I've decided to implement both the literal meaning of the phrase by making sure the story was exactly 1000 words (counted in OpenOffice), and figuratively by creating such a story that if you ask Alicia or Charles what the picture meant to them, it's worth 'a thousand words' for them.
One of the most inspiring prompts I've written for.
Review your thoughts and opinions.