Author Note: This story has now officially been viewed over a thousand times, and has been visited over 500 times. Thanks for the support, you guys.
And thanks to all the people who reviewed with their suggestions for the species Hermione could be. I enjoyed the variety of ideas, and especially the reasons for them. However, there could be only one winner. And so, after making a random number generator in Python which randomly rolled 5 different numbers, then averaged the number out, before selecting the animal I had input for the number (each of them being one of the suggestions made), I have finally decided on a winner.
The winner of Hermione's new species was CouldNotThinkOfAName, who, if you look in the reviews section, suggested that Harry be like his father and to have Hermione as a bunny.
That's right: Hermione's a bunny. I know there will be questions (and possibly a few complaints), and so I would please ask you to write any concerns you have in your review, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Shout-out goes to Camoss, who once again, was the first to understand the reference in chapter 3. Runner up was yukimenoko the ghost. Well done, you two. Thanks for the support.
And now, to business.
"Do you think the universe fights for souls to be together? Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences."
-Emery Allen
Chapter 4
The Pawpsicle Scam
Nick was really getting pissed with this guy.
"Listen, I don't know what you're doing, skulking around during daylight hours," the large, white-clad elephant said, looking down at the two red foxes in contempt. "But I don't want any trouble, so hit the road."
Nick had to almost bite down on his tongue to refrain from making an insulting comeback, and from the fist his shrunken son was making, he was doing the same. He put on a pleading look, and played the part exactly as they had practiced.
"I'm not looking for any trouble, either, sir." Nick replied, wishing in his head that he could cause trouble for the rude elephant. "I simply wanna buy a Jumbo Pop."
He motioned towards Harry, who took his cue and toddled forward in the embarrassment of a suit he was wearing. Inside, he dearly wished they didn't need the pacifier, but he made sure to keep the false facade of innocence on his face. Hearing a slight catch of a breath, he turned his head to the right and spotted a grey bunny who looked rather taken aback at his appearance. On closer inspection, Harry noticed a police badge that was pinned on what he recognised to be a Kevlar vest, almost hidden beneath a see-through neon orange mesh.
Oh no, he thought. Don't screw this up, Nick.
Turning his head back to the counter, Harry barely heard Nick ask, "You want the red or the blue, pal?"
Harry toddled as cutely as he possibly could and placed his hands on the cold-to-touch glass, peering in. He pointed towards the giant red popsicle that lay in the case, turning towards Nick. As he did this, he noticed the bunny near the door look uncomfortable, as if chastising herself for something that Harry did not know, nor really cared about at this time.
The elephant turned towards Harry.
"Okay, come on, kit, back up." he instructed, in a somewhat softer tone than he had used with Nick. "Listen, buddy. There aren't any fox ice cream joints in your part of town?"
"No-no, there are." Nick replied, as both foxes realised they'd have to pull the trump card out. "It's just, my boy, this goofy little stinker, loves all things elephant, he wants to be one when he grows up."
As Nick said this, Harry pulled the mask over his face, and using the controls Jake had given him, made a tooting noise with the trunk.
"Isn't that adorable?" Nick asked, plastering a weak-looking smile across his face.
It was at this point, upon looking at the elephant's disbelieving face, that Nick and Harry realised this was a bust. It would take a miracle for them to get that Jumbo Pop now, but Nick, ever the optimist, decided to at least see it through to the end.
"Who am I to crush his little dreams?"
The elephant was starting to get angry, and he showed it to the two foxes in front of him. His prejudices were starting to become evident to everyone in the parlour as his voice raised.
"Look, you probably can't read, fox," he abused, pointing his trunk at a sign on the counter. "But this sign says 'We reserve the right to refuse service to ANYONE!'. So beat it!"
An elderly elephant stepped up from behind the two, complaining, "You're holding up the line!"
Noticing the bunny stepping forward, Harry saw a way for them to still get a profit. He made the saddest sounding toot noise he possibly could through the trunk, and pretended to look dejected. His prayers appeared to have been answered when the bunny opened her mouth to complain.
"Hello? Excuse me?" she said politely, giving rise to Harry's hope.
"Hey, you're gonna have to wait your turn like everyone else, meter maid." the elephant declared.
Harry was now glad he had the mask to cover up the smile that appeared across his face. He knew that the elephant was going to regret saying that, for Harry knew that some cops could be so damn ingenious when they were so inclined, and calling a cop a meter maid was basically like raising a proverbial red rag to a bull.
"Actually, I'm an officer." she replied in the same cheery tone, showing her badge. "Just a quick question. Are your customers aware that they're getting snot and mucus with their cookies and cream?"
To Harry's left, he heard the abrupt sound of air blowing out a trunk at a rapid pace. He turned to see, to his absolute delight, that a male elephant had spat his ice cream out, into his date's face. Harry had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing.
The elephant at the counter, however, looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, his voice beginning to sound concerned and anxious.
"Well, I don't wanna cause you any trouble," the bunny continued, earning admiration from Harry with each word. "But I believe scooping ice cream with an ungloved trunk is a class 3 health code violation."
The elephant twisted to look behind him at something that Harry could not see due to his current small stature. He heard a rather loud squelch, followed by the sound of skin rubbing against cloth. Harry could feel his skin almost breaking as he bit his lip even harder to keep himself from laughing at the elephant's misfortune. As it was, Harry couldn't stop himself shaking from the effort it took it contain himself.
"Which is kind of a big deal." the bunny finished, chuckling nervously.
Nick looked at the bunny in bewilderment, surprised that anyone, let alone a bunny, had stood up for him. He felt a pang of sadness and regret when he realised that he'd be soon taking advantage of this, but to Nick, earning today's pay was much more important. He had to make a living somehow, even more than before, what with Harry now being an active part of his life.
"Of course, I could let you off with a warning if you glove those trunks and... finish selling this nice dad a Jumbo Pop." the bunny offered.
"Please." Nick implored.
The elephant let out a deep, annoyed sigh, and replied, "Fifteen dollars."
"Thank you so much." Nick thanked, turning to the bunny, and sincerely repeated. "Thank you."
He reached for his wallet, and was genuinely shocked to find that his wallet had gone.
That son of a vixen, he thought. When I see that little fox again, I'm going to kill him.
On the outside though, he said, "Are you kidding me? I forgot my bloody wallet."
He finished with a groan, before turning to the bunny, and an idea flashed through his head. A cruel idea, but it would at least allow them to get some profit for the day.
"I'd lose my head if it weren't attached to my head." he joked, but inside he was cursing. "That's the truth."
He knelt down and turned to Harry in his elephant suit.
"I'm sorry, pal. Gotta be the worst birthday ever." he apologised. "Please don't be mad at me."
What the hell is he doing?, Harry thought. This isn't part of the plan.
"Thanks anyway." Nick said to the bunny, looking dejected as he pulled Harry along with him.
Nice going, Nick, Harry thought, another hustle down the...
He was stopped in his thoughts when he heard the slam of a paw on the counter, and the bunny saying, "Keep the change."
Twisting his neck, he was stunned to see that the little bunny cop had paid for the Jumbo Pop herself. Never before had Harry's respect for the police ever been higher. He knew that most cops would've ignored this excursion, and he was ecstatic that the one cop who walked in happened to be a wide-eyed idealist. He also felt a pang of regret and guilt twist in his stomach, remembering that what they were about to do would be only just skirting on the fringes of the law.
20 Minutes Later
"What the hell, Nick?!" Harry yelled, his head turned up towards the fox who was now climbing the pipe to the roof. "I understand swindling money from bigots like that Jerry Jumbeaux guy, but that bunny cop too? She was trying to help us!"
"Believe me, I felt bad too," Nick called down, as he placed his hind paw on the gutter. "But your oh-so-lovable friend Jake stole my wallet. Again!"
"Hey, it's not his fault. He's got kleptomania, he can't help it." Harry defended, tossing the Jumbo Pop up to Nick, who barely caught it.
"Kleptomaniac or not," Nick replied, groaning from the weight of the popsicle. "I'm still gonna kick his skinny ass next time I see him."
Harry noticed a shimmer behind Nick, and sighed.
"That should be easy." he responded. "He's right behind you."
Quick as a flash, Nick elbowed what appeared to be thin air. He was rewarded with a slight oof, before Jake shimmered into existence, crumpled on the red roof tiles.
"To be fair, you didn't actually see me." Jake groaned, clutching his stomach.
"And to be fair, you almost blew the whole hustle." Nick retorted. "Now we're even."
"Touché," Jake chuckled, handing Nick his wallet. "I guess I kinda did deserve that."
"Oh, you did, Jake." Harry called from the ground. "How 'bout we spend less time talking, and more time working? Sun's not gonna be out forever."
They got to work, setting the popsicle into the position where the sun would hit it the most, and gathering the supplies they'd need for the refreezing process when it came to that time. Jake, hoping to make up for his thievery, used his longer arms to his advantage and gathered masses of large glass jars for the melted popsicle to go into, whilst Harry placed and replaced the jars as each got full.
After about ten minutes of this, Nick remembered one slight detail he had forgot: they didn't have a covert way to get to Tundra Town from here. He reached for his phone, which by unfortunate circumstances, had become stuck in his pocket. Nick struggled for a minute or two, before he finally freed his phone from its hostage. Unfortunately, momentum came into play, and the phone ended up flying through the air, over the edge of the roof.
"Heads up!" he called out, fearing for his phone.
Hearing his cry, Harry looked up and saw the phone flipping through the air, again and again. To him, time seemed to just stop, and so he reached his still short and stubby arms out to catch it. By some miracle, he caught it and held it up for Nick to see.
"Oh thank God." Nick gasped in delight. "Mind calling Finnick, would ya? We're gonna need a ride."
"Got it." Harry replied, quickly finding Finnick's number and pressing the call button.
The phone rung once, twice, before it was picked up, with a gruff "Yo!" answering.
"Hey, Finnick, it's Harry. We need a ride for the old Pawpsicle hustle. You in?"
"Be there in five. The old place, right?" the gruff voice answered.
"Yep. Thanks, man. We owe you."
Harry ended the call, and tossed the phone up to Nick, who thankfully caught it this time.
Finnick appeared to have underestimated his skills as a driver, for not two minutes later, he and his beat-up van arrived with a literal bang erupting from the exhaust. The back doors practically exploded as Finnick opened them, his eyes hidden behind his trademark sunglasses.
"All right. Let's load 'em up." he ordered, grabbing a jar full of the cherry coloured liquid, and taking it aboard.
"Just got one last one to fill up, man." Nick called out.
Harry, hearing this, placed the last jar under the pipe, and waited.
Meanwhile, across the street, Judy Hopps, the officer who had met Nick and Harry less than an hour ago, was placing her 262nd ticket onto the windshield of a car. As he leaned over to place the slip between the wipers, she noticed a reflection in the glass and recognised the figure she saw. The little fox kit she had remembered, still wearing the same elephant suit.
Twisting her head, she spotted the young fox, and slid off the bonnet of the car.
"Hey, little toot-toot..." she called out, raising her hand for a friendly wave. She stopped almost immediately once she saw what was happening.
She spotted a red liquid pouring out of a rain gutter, which her eyes followed up to notice Nick atop the roof, banging the last bits of the melted Jumbo Pop off the large stick that once held it. She saw him toss the stick aside, and slide down the roof, almost surfer-life as he did so. With her bunny hearing, she only just heard what he said.
"C'mon Harry, change back." Nick said. "You'd be a lot more help without the little kit disguise."
"Okay, okay." the young fox (obviously called Harry) replied.
With a wave of his hand, the small fox grew almost an entire foot and a half, morphing from a toddler to a pre-teen in two seconds. Judy blinked in shock and rubbed her eyes just to make sure what she'd just seen wasn't a figment of her imagination. And sure enough, it wasn't. Somehow, that fox had aged years before her very eyes. And not only that, it looked as if the two foxes were doing something rather suspicious with the melted popsicle, as they loaded it up into a van that sat right next to them.
As the van passed, Judy noticed a small unknown fennec fox sitting at the wheel, barely able to see over the top. They had an accomplice, maybe more, it seemed.
So Judy decided to follow them.
Inside the van, the quartet were blissfully unaware of the tail they had recently caught. They were laughing and joking with each other as they took the tunnel from the sweltering Sahara Square to the freezing Tundra Town.
And then the mood shifted, as Harry questioned Nick.
"So, Nick?" Harry said in a serious tone. "What're you gonna do if you see that bunny officer again?"
"What bunny officer?" asked Finnick, being ignorant of what had transpired at the ice cream parlour.
"Some bunny cop who practically saved the hustle from crashing and burning." Nick told Finnick, before turning to Harry. "And I don't know. If I do see her again, I'll pay her back the twenty bucks with the profit from today. Easy as that."
"You know I'm gonna hold you to that, right?" Harry replied.
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Nick said nonchalantly. "Now just drop it, okay, Harry. Don't need you hanging over me like some guardian angel that'll 'lead me to the light'."
"STOP RIGHT HERE!" Jake yelled from the back.
Finnick, in his fright, slammed on the brakes, and skidded to a halt.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Finnick cursed.
"It's coldest here," Jake explained, showing them the thermometer. "They'll freeze quicker."
"You really need to work on your delivery, though, Jake." Harry said, clutching at his heart.
Judy looked on in confusion as she watched the van skid to a halt in front of her.
What happened?, she wondered, as she squinted at the van. Did they slip on some ice or something?
From a distance, she saw the back doors fly open, banging as they hit the sides of the van, and four foxes tumbled out, each holding a jar of the melted popsicle. They appeared to be talking to each other as they went behind the van, and out onto a desolate field of nothing but snow.
Judy hopped off the seat of her vehicle, and tiptoed behind them, diving behind a pile of snow whenever one of the foxes turned. Once the foxes stopped, she peeked over the ridge of snow she was currently hiding behind and witnessed the smallest fox making small, deliberate holes in the snow with his paws. As he did this, Judy noticed he placed a small popsicle stick in the middle of each pawprint.
The reason for his behaviour became apparent as the other three began filling each of the holes with the red liquid contained in the jars they carried. As they continued filling the holes, Judy overheard a few snippets of conversation emitting from the foxes.
"God, I chose the wrong attire." one fox complained, looking at the synthetic leather jacket he wore.
"I told you, Jake, didn't I?" another fox (called Harry, if Judy remembered correctly) replied. "I told you to wear something warm, but no, Mr High-and-Mighty couldn't bear to part from his precious jacket."
"Why do we even have to come here anyway?" the fox called Jake questioned, as he continued to pour the liquid. "Why can't we just put them in a giant freezer or something?"
"But then they wouldn't be Pawpsicles." Nick replied, smiling at his pun.
"I'd take that sacrifice any day." Jake replied eagerly.
"Why don't we sacrifice your jacket to a bonfire?" the small fennec fox remarked angrily. "That'll keep you warm."
"You will not touch my precious." Jake countered, sounding scandalous.
Despite the circumstances, Judy couldn't help but giggle at the fox's antics. However, like bunnies, foxes had an acute sense of hearing, and noticed the sound.
"What was that?" Harry questioned, squinting, unable to see anything but white.
Suddenly, a scared-looking brown bunny kit scampered across the snowy plains, looked almost desperate to get away. The foxes all looked up in unison, and upon seeing the kit, shrugged and continued working.
Judy let out a sigh of relief.
2 Hours Later
Judy stomped up the stairs to her apartment in a rage, and yet she also felt rather dejected. The nerve of those foxes, honestly. Not only did they make her look like a fool, but they also had the audacity to chastise her dreams of becoming a cop.
Anger radiated off of Judy as she unlocked her door, clouds of powdered cement dusting the floor beneath her feet. Today had simply gone from slightly terrible to outright horrible within hours of meeting that original fox duo at the ice cream parlour.
As she thought about that fox kit, she couldn't help but wonder how the hell he had managed to enlarge himself within seconds. That was the type of magic you'd only read about in books or see in movies, and yet that kit used this potentially lifesaving gift for mere hustles. Everything about that Harry Wilde intrigued Judy, and though she may not have enjoyed the company of his father, she wouldn't mind getting to know the kit.
All of these thoughts flew straight out of her head the instant she heard her phone ringing with a MuzzleTime request from her parents. She answered, and was sucked into a whirlwind of questions that took her mind completely off the strange Harry Wilde.
Tundra Town
Today was turning out to be one of the most frightening days of Hermione's life. Not only was she all alone in an unknown, cold place, but she was also in a vastly different body compared to what she was used to.
However she recognised the body to be similar to the common European rabbit, the Oryctolagus cuniculus. That at least told her that wherever she was, there were mammals that she recognised from her world.
But that didn't mean she didn't get scared whenever she saw other anthropomorphic animals, like that quartet of foxes that caught a glimpse of her earlier that day. She even recalled scampering away from them, as if some biological urge was telling her that they were dangerous.
However, before she ran away, one of the foxes seemed to catch her eye. The fox appeared to be a juvenile of his species, based off his height; sporting emerald green eyes, and had a small tuft of white fur that lay nested on the fur on his forehead, which looked remarkably like the description of Harry Potter's scar.
Could this have been where the Boy-Who-Lived had disappeared to? Was this why no one knew where he was or what he truly looked like? Questions poured through Hermione's head like never before, and not all of them held answers this time.
*SUGGESTIONS TIME: How do you think Harry and Hermione should meet next chapter? Post your suggestions in your review.
Author Note: This is officially my longest chapter yet. Almost 4000 words. Please review, write what you liked, what you didn't and everything in between. I loved reading every review from last chapter, and I want that much commitment again.
To those wondering why Jake has kleptomania, I based it off one of my friends who had this condition. He's gotten in trouble with the police multiple times, and I would love if you would show your support for him by reviewing. Show him that there are people other than me that stand with him in his struggle with his kleptomania. So please, REVIEW!