Intro
I'm having writer's block again. Hate that. It happens more often than I'd like. I will have ideas and I'm good and then... nothing. Daughter #1, Peanut, sent me a list of prompts that someone had put up ages ago for some sort of drawing... something... anyhow, this was one of them and an idea niggled at me. So I wrestled my slippery muse into a chair and strapped him down...
Here we go...
- Day 19 -
It was their first day of Transfiguration class and they were running behind schedule. Harry was in a panic. He didn't want to be late for class. He had to do well in school. He didn't want to give them any excuse to send him back to Surrey... back to Privet Drive... back to the Dursleys.
At last they found the correct room and skidded inside moments before the hour. Harry was
panting, doubled over with his hands on his knees. Ron was beside him looking around in a panic. When he didn't spot their professor, he let out a gust of air in relief, "Made it! Can you imagine the look on old McGonagall's face if we were late?"
Harry stood up now that he'd caught his breath and frowned at his friend, "That's Professor McGonagall, not..." But his words failed him as he stared at the cat sitting on his professor's desk staring at the two of them. Harry had a sudden flash of déjà vu and shivered as if some walked over his grave.
Ron just watched his friend and asked, "Harry?"
"Yeah?" Harry responded, but he wasn't truly listening to his friend. No, Harry was slowly approaching the professor's desk… or more accurately, the cat. Harry crouched in front of the cat and said, "I know you."
"It's just a cat, mate." Ron urged his friend to move away from the feline, "Come on, before she comes in and sees us."
"Yeah, okay… but you're wrong about the cat," Harry said as he allowed his friend to manhandle him towards a desk, "I know I've seen her before."
Granted, the cat was a simple orange tabby. Harry could be wrong about having seen her before, but something about the intensity in the feline stare told him he wasn't mistaken. That cat had been on Privet Drive, had been watching his house and when Dudley chased him during one of their hunts, that cat attacked his cousin, saving his hide more than once. It's why his cousin was now afraid of cats.
Before Harry managed to say any of these thoughts or previous observations of said cat aloud, the cat leapt from the desk and transformed from a feline into a human, but not just anyone… it was their Transfiguration professor. There were gasps and oohs and ahhs throughout the classroom catching both boys' attention before they had actually made it to their seats.
Both boys turned just in time to witness the end of the transformation. Professor McGonagall walked towards them. Harry was stunned silent, Ron gave a breathy, "Bloody hell… that was brilliant!"
Professor McGonagall quirked an eyebrow at the two preteens. "Yes, quite." She spared a humored glance at the two before shooing them to their seats. The woman made quips about their tardiness, but there wasn't any real heat behind her words or idle threats of what would happen if the pair found themselves late for class again. Still, the class proceeded, and Harry found the class fascinating.
Harry listened and learned. Harry flourished in Transfiguration as it became his second best school subject. And if over the years a certain cat made frequent visits to a Muggle home in Surrey… or Professor McGonagall easily became Harry's favorite teacher… or if there happened to be gifts of shortbread biscuits or catnip left anonymously on her desk… that was no one else's business but theirs.
Day 19 - Prompt: Cat
Word Count: 11,636