The Singing Dog
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC.
It was on the last day of school before the Christmas holidays, and Severus was looking forward to taking some time off and spending quality time with his family, when Albus suddenly called him into his office. "I hope I'll be back shortly," he said to his wife, before he stepped through the connecting door into his lab at Hogwarts.
"Severus, thanks for coming. I need your assistance with something."
Severus quirked an eyebrow in silent question.
"As you know, Harry Potter is the prophesized child. Well, in fact, anyone in the magical world knows. Now, I do not wish him to grow up with his fame, and I don't believe that the woman who gives herself out as Lily Potter is really who she appears to be, considering that Voldemort killed her. Anyway, as Harry is already six and should slowly begin to understand what's going on around him, I wish to take him to his muggle relatives and have him grow up with them, far from the magical world and his fame."
Severus' eyes widened in shock at the revelation to what lengths Albus was going to go and still pondered a possible response, when the old wizard urged him to head to the primary school and fetch six-year-old Harry to him.
'What am I going to do?' Severus wondered, as he slowly made his way to the primary school. 'Thank Merlin he doesn't know that Harry is my son now. Unfortunately, I can't do anything to Albus at Hogwarts, but if I don't do anything on this occasion, Lily might go as far as kill him.' He pondered the matter until he arrived at the primary school.
"Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak with Harry," he informed the teacher, promising to bring Harry back right afterwards.
"Harry, listen," he told his son, while they slowly walked back to the headmaster's office with Inu in tow. "Agree to everything that the headmaster tells you. I will cast an invisibility charm on myself and will be with you the whole time."
"What about Inu?"
"Ask the headmaster if you may take him with you. If not, I will take him and turn him invisible as well."
"All right." Harry nodded, completely trusting his father.
"Remember, Dumbledore doesn't know that you're my son. He believes that we don't know each other. Anyway, don't be scared. I have a plan to get rid of him forever."
A small smile played on Harry's lips, seeing his father smirk.
Severus led his son into the headmaster's office, wishing that he could pull through with his plan on the spot. However, all the former headmasters, who were not asleep, were watching them from their portraits. 'Too many witnesses to do such a stunt,' he thought in annoyance.
HP
While Dumbledore explained to the six-year-old things about a prophecy, blood wards and whatever Harry was not able to understand yet anyway, Severus thought to his son through telepathy. 'Don't listen to him. That's all nonsense. He will take you to your aunt's house. You have only met her twice, because her husband is a muggle and hates magic. I'm not sure if she's a muggle or a Squib. Anyway, go with him. I will be there and take you home right after getting back at him.'
Dumbledore allowed Harry to take Inu with him and instructed him to keep Inu close, before they stepped into the fireplace together. "Arabella Figg's place."
Severus left the office, before he transformed into his lynx Animagus form and dashed towards Hogsmeade, where he turned himself invisible and apparated right behind the Dursleys' garage. Fortunately, they had visited the Dursleys twice during the last five years, so that he knew the place well enough.
He strode around the house, his son's lack of a reaction confirming that he was invisible, and immediately cast a series of spells at the old wizard who was just about to ring the doorbell. First, he cast an invisibility spell, followed by a spell that bound the old wizard's magic, before he turned him into a dog and secured the transformation by a strong charm that prevented the canine from ever taking back his original human form. Finally, he made himself visible again, but left Dog Dumbledore invisible, as he was not in the mood to answer Harry's and Inu's questions right on the Dursleys' doorstep.
"Dad." Harry let out a relieved sigh. "Dumbledore suddenly vanished. Was that you?"
"That was my doing." Severus gave the boy a reassuring smile. "Let's return to Hogwarts. Inu, hold on to Harry tightly." With that, he picked up the invisible dog from the floor and held Harry's arm in a gentle but firm grip, before he apparated them all back to Hogsmeade. As they walked up to the castle, he told Harry and Inu that he had turned the old wizard into a dog, whom he was invisibly carrying on his arm.
Harry and Inu chuckled after hearing what he did. "Dad, what are you going to do with him now?"
Severus remained pensive for a moment. "Shall we ask Mum what to do with him?"
The six-year-olds nodded in agreement.
"All right then, I'll see you at home after the end of the last afternoon class, and remember to not tell anyone what happened. Dumbledore wished to speak with you, but it wasn't important – if anyone asks you."
"Yes Daddy." Harry seemed happy, almost as if he had not comprehended at all what would have happened had Severus not been with him.
'Our kids are gorgeous,' he thought for the umpteenth time, as he returned to his quarters and stepped through the connecting door into the apothecary.
HP
Lily was completely engrossed in the final steps of the brewing process of a healing potion that an old wizard was supposed to pick up in an hour, when she heard Severus come through the connecting door.
"Hi Sev, I'll be there in five minutes," she said quickly, before she calmly finished her concoction. 'He's gone right home,' she realised in surprise, wondering what Dumbledore could have wanted on the last day of classes before Christmas that caused him to not continue brewing right away.
A few minutes later, she bottled the potion equally into six small phials, which she magically labelled and placed into a small box. With a flick of her wand, she cleaned her workspace and took the box downstairs, where Remus was overseeing the apothecary.
"Here's the potion for Mr. Burnham. He only needs two of the phials. The other four can go into the shelf."
"Thanks." Remus smiled, knowing that the old wizard would come and collect his phials shortly.
"I'll be back later. Sev is back from Hogwarts, where Dumbledore wished to speak with him, but he didn't join me in the lab. So, I'll have to go and see what's wrong. Harry, Neville, Draco, Inu and the twins should be back any minute now, too."
With that, she returned upstairs and headed home through the connecting door.
HP
"What happened?" She let out a loud gasp in shock upon seeing an unknown, black and white dog lying on the floor, seemingly dead, surrounded by four Crocosauri as well as Harry, Neville, Draco and Inu. "What does that mean? Is the dog dead? How did he come here anyway?" she blurted out, ignoring the fact that her twins seemed to be natural Animagi for the time being.
"That's Dumbledore, and no, he's not dead." Severus' voice was grim. "At least not yet."
He quickly informed his wife about the old wizard's plans and how he had fortunately been able to cross them.
"Harry, are you all right?"
Harry nodded. "Yes Mummy. Daddy was with me the whole time."
"Thank Merlin." Lily let out a relieved sigh.
"Why exactly is Dumbledore a dog now? What do you intend to do with him? Wouldn't a toad or frog be more useful in the lab?"
Severus quirked an eyebrow. "We're not murderers. Transfiguring him into a dog was just the first thing that came into mind. Anyway, Harry, Inu and I decided that he's all yours. What do you want to do with him?"
Lily let out a snort, before she pondered the matter for a moment. A malicious grin slowly spread over her face, as a plan formed in her mind.
Severus quirked an eyebrow at his wife in silent question, causing Lily to chuckle. "Well, if you're certain that you don't wish to use him as potions ingredient," she quipped, "I know exactly what to do with the dog. Do you remember Vernon Dursley's sister Marge?"
"Oh Merlin." Severus rolled his eyes in apparent annoyance at the mere thought of their brother-in-law's most annoying sister. "Yes, we've met her once, and that was just once too often."
Lily nodded. "Yes, but according to Petunia, she's very fond of dogs and is even breeding dogs. We could leave him to her. She'd surely take him in if she found him on her doorstep."
"Do you know the address?"
Lily nodded. "Give me a minute." She remained pensive for a moment, before she quickly cast a series of charms at the old wizard turned dog making sure that he could neither get his magic back nor transform. Afterwards, she cast a strong memory charm at him that robbed him of all memories of Severus' and her involvement in his predicament and gave her husband a confirming nod.
"Let's go." He picked up the stunned dog, before they quickly excused themselves for about thirty minutes and walked up to the Apparition point, from where they apparated to the neighbourhood of Marge Dursley's house. Fortunately, it was already dark this shortly before Christmas, although it was only four o'clock in the afternoon.
Lily placed him right in front of Marge's doorstep and cast a sleeping spell at the dog that made him remain on the spot, until someone would touch him, before she carefully cancelled the stunning spell.
"I will remain here in my lynx form and make sure that she takes him in."
Lily agreed, knowing that Severus was able to make himself invisible in his feline form. She then hurriedly returned home to make sure that the children were all right.
Just an hour later, Severus came home and informed her that everything had gone well.
HP
Albus woke up, finding himself on what seemed to be a doorstep, face to face with an unknown woman.
"Oh my, a stray dog. Aren't you a cutie? Let me take you in. It's just a good timing now that Waggle died a few weeks ago. I'm going to keep you in the house, not in the kennel."
Albus endured the woman's fussing, trying to recall how he had ended up in this specific situation. 'I'm not a dog. I'm the headmaster of Hogwarts and the head of the Wizengamot,' he recalled. The last thing that he remembered was how he had taken six-year-old Harry Potter to his muggle relatives. Once the woman placed him down onto the carpet, he tried to transform back and even attempted to change into his phoenix Animagus form, however, neither transformation worked. 'Did someone bind my magic?' he wondered. 'I was only together with Harry, and he's six. He wouldn't be able to transfigure me into a dog let alone bind my magic.'
=How did I end up here?= he asked, tentatively, somehow hoping that the woman would understand him.
"Don't bark. Are you hungry? I'm going to call you Jack by the way. You look fairly healthy, but we'll have to get you neutered. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to take you to the vet."
Jack AKA Albus fiercely shook his head. No, he wasn't hungry, nor did he want to be castrated. He was confused, and he wanted to go back home to Hogwarts. 'Minerva,' he thought in devastation. 'Where is she, when I need her?'
=Fawkes,= he called out, hoping that his familiar would be able to hear him; however, the phoenix did not show up.
During the following weeks, he toyed with the thought of fleeing and trying to return to Hogwarts; however, not only did the woman, who seemed to be a muggle, take good care of him and always had him on a leash, when they left the house, but he did not have a clue how to return to the school without magic and as a dog on top of it. He became slightly excited upon hearing that the muggle's name was Dursley, thinking that she might be somehow related to Harry, but recalled that the Dursleys were married and had a son of Harry's age.
Only when Marge Dursley visited her brother's family did he understand the connection. 'But as they're muggles, too, that won't help me,' he realised in disappointment. 'Their son is a spoilt brat though.'
HP
Once a month, Lily used to exchange letters with her sister Petunia, and she grinned in amusement, when Petunia told her how Marge had visited them with her new dog, who was about the size of Inu and was called Jack.
The British magical world, however, was in an uproar. Minerva was the first who noticed that the headmaster had vanished without trace. The portraits in the headmaster's office only knew that he had left with Harry and Inu to take them to the boy's muggle relatives but never came back.
In the morning after Lily and Severus had taken Albus to Marge Dursley, Minerva visited them, while the extended family was still sitting at the breakfast table. "I'm sorry to disturb you. I just want to enquire if Harry is all right. Godric Gryffindor told me from his portrait that Albus took him to the Dursleys. Somehow, he has always been obsessed by the idea of taking Harry there. I'm sorry that I couldn't prevent him from doing so."
Lily glanced at her husband, before she motioned Minerva into the seat between Harry and Neville, where the two six-year-olds immediately began to fuss over their surrogate granny.
"Harry is fine. Fortunately, Severus got to know about Albus' plan and managed to rescue him on time."
"Thank Merlin." Minerva nodded in apparent understanding, before she asked, crisply, "May I ask what happened to Albus?"
Lily's voice was firm. "Only if you swear us a witch's oath that you won't tell anyone about it."
Minerva cast her a sharp look. "As much as I understand that you must both have grudges against him, you did not kill him, did you?"
"Minerva, do you know us as murderers?" Lily looked at her mentor, indignantly.
"No, sorry," the old witch replied and proceeded to swear her oath, only to be told the whole story. "Oh well, I know nothing about it. Let me just say, he brought it upon himself by making the two of you his enemies." Her lips bent to a small smile.
"You mean the three of us."
Everyone stared at James in his portrait in amusement, when he continued that he absolutely loved what Lily and Severus had done. "I just hope that he won't find anyone who will help him get back to his former form and even if he managed to return that his positions will already be taken by others."
"Don't worry about me. I am a cat, and I can't understand dogs." Minerva smirked. She rose from her chair. "I am sorry, Harry and Neville. I will come back to play with you at another time. Now, I must first inform the Minister of Magic that our headmaster has vanished without trace."
"Minerva, will you please join us on Christmas Day?" Severus' voice was firm but soft, as he continued. "Even if I suppose that you're going to be the headmistress now, you could always ask your deputy to watch over the school for you on Christmas Day."
"Thank you, Lily and Severus. I'll try." With that, Minerva stepped into the fireplace and returned to Hogwarts.
"She'll make a good headmistress." Lily smiled at her husband, who immediately agreed.
"She's not as biased towards certain houses as Albus was. That alone is going to make a huge difference."
A few days later, Alastor Moody came to ask Harry about the event.
Recalling what his father had told him just a few days prior, Harry showed the older wizard his necklace with the pendant in the form of a lynx. "I have my own Portkey that brings me home from wherever I am."
"I have the same." Neville proudly showed his own pendant.
"Oh, thank Merlin that your parents were wise enough to equip you with Portkeys." Moody cast Lily and Severus an appreciative look.
HP
The old wizard remained vanished, and when Minerva as the new headmistress took over the headmistress' office, Fawkes let out a series of mourning trills, before he flashed away in a bright flash.
"He said that he can sense that Dumbledore is still alive, but that he can't reach him and is going to return to phoenix land, until either Dumbledore returns or the one to whom he is going to bond next will be grown up enough to bond with the person."
Minerva stared at Godric Gryffindor in his portrait in surprise. "Can you understand his babbling?"
"Yes, of course. He was my familiar in the past. I am not sure if I can call him here out of this portrait, but if you need him, I shall try."
"Thank you, Godric." Somehow, Minerva felt relieved to have the founder of her own house, who was also guarding her private quarters, in the headmistress' office, knowing that he was able to give valuable advice.
'I wonder what is going to happen to Albus,' she mused aloud. 'Will he remain the muggle's pet dog forever?' She only knew that he was still alive, not only because Fawkes had said so, but also, because otherwise, a portrait of him would have manifested on the wall behind her new desk. 'Oh well, Lily and Severus wouldn't have given him to the woman if she wasn't really fond of dogs,' she reassured herself, knowing that she could absolutely trust her young friends. 'I wonder if Severus will be willing to become my deputy headmaster.'
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind words on the previous chapter. Please tell me what you think about this chapter and what you expect from this story.