Chapter Twenty-Five: Lost and Found

Harry started playing with his pretend steering wheel while he and his baby sister sat in the back of their mother's car in their car seats while she drove them to Zelda's Zoo for Mystical and Magical Creatures. Once they got to the zoo the Weasleys were already there waiting for them. Lily pushed baby Sarah along in her stroller while Severus took Harry by the hand.

As they walked along the path, they saw all kinds of magical creatures from dragons to unicorns to chimaera's to thunderbirds. Once they neared the cage of the acromantula Ron started to run away and Sarah started crying. "Ron come back here! It's in a cage! It can't attack you!" His mother cried.

"I'm not scared. It's just a spiedur." Harry said while walking over to get a closer look. "Poor Sawah is scared though. It's alwight Sawah, you don't need to be afwaid." Harry reassured her.

"Yeah, she is pretty scared isn't she." Lily said while wrinkling her nose and then waving her hand in front of her. "She's got a nappy full of fright. I best go change her. Stay here with your father Harry." She instructed before picking Sarah up and gathering her inside her arms while continuing to attempt to hush her and calm her down and soothe her crying. Then after that she carried her in the ladies restroom to change her.

"Pwetty soon I won't need to wear diepurrs at all." Harry boasted as Severus smiled down upon him.

"That's right Harry, I bet by the time that you're four you'll be in big boy underwear." He told him.

"How long is that going to be?" Harry wondered.

"In a year since you're three now and three plus one equals four." He replied while showing him the math on his fingers.

After Lily finished changing Sarah's diaper, they continued seeing the rest of the animals and wound up taking lots of pictures before it was finally time to eat lunch and then head home. This time it was Harry's turn to get his diaper changed before they headed back to the car. Once they got there a fluffy black cat was there waiting for them.

"Oh my gosh, I don't believe it. Fluffy, is that really you?" Lily questioned him with uncertainty and the cat instantly looked up at her and meowed happily before starting to purr and rub against her legs.

"Kitty." Sarah said with a rather wide grin while pointing down at him as Lily readjusted her grip on her.

"That's right sweetheart, that's our kitty." Lily told her.

"We don't have a kitty." Harry said.

"We used to a long time ago though. He ran away when you were only a year old which is Sarah's age now." She explained and that's when suddenly Severus made a disgusted face.

"What's the matter? Don't you like cats?" Stevie questioned him.

"No." He replied. "I'm highly allergic." He told her before letting out a great big sneeze that frightened the feline so much that he wound up running and hiding underneath the car.

"You scared him." Harry said when suddenly Lily heaved a sigh.

"Oh honey he didn't mean to, it's just that Fluffy's fur makes him sneeze." His mother explained.

"So what are we going to do with him if we can't take him home with us?" Stevie wondered.

"Well first we better take him to the vet to check him out and make sure that he's healthy, and then we can still take him home and maybe have your uncle put on allergy medication." Lily suggested before she handed Sarah to Severus and then knelt down and stuck her head in on her frightened pet. "Oh come on Fluffy, Severus is sorry that he scared you." She reassured him soothingly but that's when suddenly Fluffy fluffed up his fur and let out a rather loud hiss.

"Is Fuffy mad?" Harry wondered.

"No baby, I think he's just scared." His mother replied.

"How are you ever going to get him out of there?" Stevie questioned her.

"I'll have to scruff him." Lily replied before getting to her feet and withdrawing her wand and making Fluffy's old blue cat carrier appear out of thin air down on the ground beside her. She pushed back the latch on the cage door and opened it before kneeling back down and grabbing Fluffy by the scruff of the neck and dragging him out while he continued hissing angrily at her.

"Stop it you're hurting him!" Harry cried.

"No sweetheart, I promise you I'm not hurting him. This is how his mother carried him as a kitten except she used her mouth." His mother replied.

"Where do kittens come fwom?" Harry wondered while his mother finished placing Fluffy inside his carrier and shutting the door behind him and blushed beet red with embarrassment.

"Well sweetheart, kittens are like babies and they need both a mummy and a daddy. So then God creates the kittens and places them inside the mummy's belly. Does that answer your question?" She wondered as he simply just nodded.

"Yes, it does." He replied.

"Oh thank goodness." Lily said while looking up at the sky as if in a silent prayer and then slowly started standing back up with Fluffy's carrier inside her right hand and then she placed him down in the backseat before everybody else got back into the car and she drove them to the vet's office.

Once Fluffy checked out perfectly fine they all returned home. The day might have been half over already, but Severus still had an awful lot on his mind. Although a part of him was excited for Harry to be going off to nursery school soon, there was still a part of him that didn't want to let go. However, Harry was starting to grow up whether he liked it or not, so he decided that he better start getting used to it now,.. because it wouldn't be that much longer until his first day of school.