The Z.Z.Z.Z. (The Zoology of the Zigzagging Zappy Zouwu)
Chapter 1: Zig and Zag
Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange, mysterious, or odd. Simply because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.
Mr Vernon Dursley was a big, beefy man with a very large moustache. Though not the Disney evil kind of moustache, no it was deciding and distinctively more Walrus-like than any other moustache in Little Whinging. Mrs Petunia Dursley on the other hand was thin, blonde, and had a rather unusual amount of neck. Which she used to look over the garden fences and spy on the neighbours for gossiping material. To complete their little family they also had their only son: Dudley Dursley, and according to the two adult Dursleys, there was no finer boy to be found anywhere on Earth.
Though like all families that tried to strive to be perfectly normal, they also had a secret that was rather not so much ordinary.
This secret being a young girl named Poppy Potter. Poppy was the daughter of Petunia's deceased younger sister, called Lilly, who had been placed on their doorstep on a cold November night; along with a letter that explained why the Dursleys had to take care of the girl. Aside from the manner that she was brought under their care, Poppy was a normal girl who was rather bright, curious and liked to sing songs from movies she watched with her babysitter. Though much like with her sister, and her good-for-nothing brother-in-law, Petunia could tell that Poppy was not exactly ordinary and at times performed rather odd feats.
Then came the incident.
To this day neither Poppy nor the Dursleys were exactly sure what happened. A few days after Poppy's sixth birthday Vernon had the day off from work, and since it had been delightful weather Petunia had come to the conclusion it was a perfect moment to have a family picnic. They had taken Dudley, a few of their son's friends and rather reluctantly Poppy, to a nearby park. Where they had unfolded the large, red-and-white checked, picnic rug, and put up the foldable chairs.
After finishing their sandwiches Dudley and the boys began chasing Poppy through the park, playing their 'Poppy Picking' game, while Vernon and Petunia uncorked a bottle of wine and enjoyed a glass. Then, just as Vernon was about to fill his second glass, a loud tremor shook the park followed by a blinding flash of blue light. As the two adults had shot up from their chairs in shock Piers Polkiss, Dudley's best friend, ran towards them in a panic. Screaming something about large stones, Dudley, Poppy, and a cat.
As fast as they could Vernon and Petunia had followed Piers back to the others, where they found Dudley hugging a monster. A cat-like monster he refused to let go of and called Poppy. According to the other boys Dudley had nearly caught Poppy when suddenly a large cat rushed from the bushes right in front of the fleeing girl. Poppy had tripped over the cat and smacked her forehead against the large stone pillar that stood in the park. Strangely none of Dudely's friends had felt the tremor or seen the blue light, nor did they seem to notice the monster in Dudely's arms; seeing Poppy instead. Dudley seemed to want to say more but kept his mouth shut till the family, and the kids were back home.
Still hesitant to let go of the monster, Dudley told his parents that unlike the others he had felt the ground shake, and had seen the blue light. Both had come from the stone pillar when Poppy had hit it, and after the flash was gone both Poppy and the cat were gone; leaving the monster in place.
The adult Dursleys could only reach one conclusion: Magic, a near forbidden word in their household. As it seemed to signify everything that was not perfectly normal in their life.
In the cupboard under the stairs of four Privet Drive, Poppy Potter was deep asleep. Dreaming of a field full of yellow flowers, and a flying motorbike. When a shrill voice and loud rapping on the door of the cupboard woke her up.
"Girl?! Up! Get up!" Aunt Petunia rapped on the door again.
Poppy slowly opened her eyes and yawned widely tongue rolling out of her mouth. "Yes, Aunt Petunia?"
"It is almost time for school! Get up and eat your breakfast." Her aunt said with a tone that booked no patience. With her sharp ears, Poppy heard her walk away towards the kitchen.
Yawning again, Poppy flexed her shoulders and popped her back. Put on her glasses and opened the door of her cupboard. Carefully she crawled out, fully stretched while making sure that her long tail did not knock over anything. Which was rather difficult with a long tail like hers, even more so when it seemed to have a mind of its own at times.
Humming to herself the ten-year-old made her way to the kitchen, making sure her long sharp nails did not scratch the wooden floor, where her Uncle and Cousin were already stuffing their faces with heaps of eggs, bacon, and toast. "Good morning." Poppy said brightly, sitting up so that her arms rested on the table. A rather easy feat when you were about the size of a tiger. Her Uncle Vernon grunted something, while Dudley waved before devouring another piece of bacon. Without saying a word, Aunt Petunia placed a plate on the table for Poppy. It was full of freshly cooked vegetables, three cooked eggs and four pre-baked fishes. "Thanks, Auntie," Poppy said, before taking her first egg and using her nail to neatly cut off the eggshell with a single swipe before peeling it off and popping the egg into her mouth. The members of the Dursley household ate in relative silence, while Aunt Petunia did the dishes; she always ate and made breakfast before any of them woke up.
Sometimes it made Poppy a bit said, as before the incident she had often helped her Aunt in the kitchen. Sure Poppy might have done most of the talking, happily chattering about anything on her mind, and Aunt Petunia might not have said much back; but the young girl was fairly sure that her Aunt had liked Poppy being there.
"After school, get back home immediately. The garden needs some tidying up." Uncle Vernon told Poppy, breaking the silence. She happily agreed a tidy garden made for a happier Uncle Vernon and a happier Uncle Vernon was better for everyone; even himself or so Poppy thought.
Neatly cutting the fleshy parts of the last fish away from the bones, Poppy looked at her Aunt. "When I'm done with the garden can I go Zigzagging? It is Friday."
A bit reluctantly Aunt Petunia nodded, as she sat down at the dinner table with a steaming mug of tea. "Just make sure you are not seen. And I will check if the garden is done well." Allowing it as she knew how stir crazy her niece could get when she had not Zigzagged at least once a week.
With a loud whoop, Poppy jumped over the steel fences that were built around the school and playground about twelve minutes before the bell. While carrying Dudley and their bags on her back. As her cousin climbed off, Poppy shook herself a bit. Her long ruffled tail swiping around.
Rather oddly nobody, no teacher, child, or parents seemed to notice that a cat-like being carrying a heavyset blond boy on her back had jumped in their midst. It was a funny thing really, as other than the Dursleys no-one seemed to notice that Poppy had transformed. To the people standing around the school's playground, it had looked like Poppy and Dudley had just walked through the gate like everyone else. They simply did not seem to notice it, and in any situation that Poppy did something normal humans could not they saw her doing something different that explained the situation.
Ruffling Poppy's short mane, Dudley ran off to his friends. His real friends, and not the group of bullies such as Piers. After the incident, her Cousin seemed to have a change of heart or something like that. He no longer like "Poppy Picking" or similar games, and began playing with other kids on the playground. He'd even defend her from the bullies. Not that they actually could hurt her, but more so because Poppy would not fight back. A good thing really as she was almost able to lift Uncle Vernon from the ground.
However, most of the other kids in their class thought Poppy to be rather odd and generally avoided her. She did not mind it that much, to be honest, and instead choose to wait for the bell, humming a melody as she did so.
Today was the last day of school before the summer vacation, the last day Poppy, Dudley, and all their classmates would be attending their primary school. So rather predictably, their teacher simply took the register before telling the class to go do whatever they wanted to do for the day. And while most of her classmates that meant they rushed outside to play or sit in the sun, Poppy choose to go to the school's library instead. She was on a quest after all.
A quest of knowledge that is. See for the past year Poppy was on the self-appointed mission to figure out what kind of creature she had been transformed into. Though sadly she had yet to make any head or tails of it really. She was by all definitions a rather odd thing after all.
For the most part, she looked like a mixture of a lion and tiger. A lion-like head, with a mane, and the body of a long sleek tiger, with black stripes on her back, arms, and legs. Her tail was just as long as her body, from which a reddish velvet-like material grew that gave her tail a ruffled almost cloth-like appearance, or even a bit flower-like even. From her upper jaw, four boar-like tusks grew upwards. All four of her pawns had three fingers and a thumb, adorned with razor-sharp claws.
At first, the claws had made it very difficult for her to grab anything without shredding it to pieces, or crushing it in her strong grip, but thankfully a clever designer at Uncle Vernon's company had made special sleeves with some kind of gel inside that made it easier to transport the often-sharp drills. With some minor alteration to them, her Uncle had fabricated three of these sleeves that fit Poppy's nails. Allowing her to hold a pen, turn the pages of a book, and many more such things.
Yet even with the handy sleeves, Poppy still had no luck in figuring out what she had turned into. Once Dudley had tried drawing her and had shown it to the librarian to see if they knew something. The woman had laughed, Dudley's drawing wasn't very good, handed them a book about dragons and pointed them to the pages about the Chinese dragons.
If she squinted her eyes a bit, Poppy could see why the librarian had mistaken Dudley's drawing for such a dragon. She was, however, pretty sure she was not a dragon at all. No matter how cool it would have been.
While at first, it had been a bit disconcerting to wake up in a new body, one that was distinctively not human, and it had taken some time getting used to; Poppy honestly like being whatever she was. She was strong, fast, could jump very far, could purr like a cat, and best of all: Zigzagging!
Or that is what she called it. It was a strange ability that allowed her to travel great distances in no time at all. A bit like teleportation really. It was fairly simple too, just imagining the place she wanted to go, jump through the tunnel and she was there. Even better, her mane seemed to pick up where she desired to go, even if she didn't know the exact location. Or rather the numerous tendrils that grew with the hairs of her mane did locate where she needed to go, and interestingly she could make them glow with energy.
Needed to go to the supermarket to pick up something for Aunt Petunia? A zappy from her mane and she zigzagged towards one. Uncle Vernon forgot his lunch? A zappy from her mane and she zigzagged all the way to his office where she could put the lunch box on his desk or in his bag.
It was great!
And every Friday afternoon, when she had finished her chores her Aunt and Uncle allowed her to zigzag somewhere and play for a few hours, letting loose all the energy she had gathered up over the week. Once she had taken Dudley with her, but he had thrown up after the go jump and even more after the jump back; saying it felt horrible to him like being put in a very tight rubber tube.
Seeing as that today was Friday, and the last day before summer vacation, Aunt Petunia had given Poppy permission to stay longer than she usually could. Happily taking the opportunity to zigzag all the way to the cliffs of Dorset, where this time of year the grass was tall and flowers aplenty.
Poppy happily darted across the grassy fields, dashed through bushes, danced with the flowers. Singing as she did so. "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favourite things…" As she sang more couplets of her favourite song, from one of her favourite movies, Poppy did not notice an elderly man staring curiously at her from a distance.
"Now what in Merlin's name is a Zouwu doing down here in Dorset? Shouldn't you be darting around the Tainzi mountains in China?" The man said, interrupting Poppy's playing and singing. The man had curly white hair, a pair of small square glasses rested low on his nose. He was wearing a white blouse, with rolled-up sleeves, brown pants and was carrying a rather old suitcase.
Poppy tilted her head a bit. The man looked far from threatening, very kind even. Almost like she could see the kindness roll off him. Then she realized what he had just said. "You can see me?"
"Of course. I might be old, but not blind." The man chuckled softly.
Poppy shook her head. "No, no I mean you can see me?" She pointed one sharp nail at herself. "As in cat-monster me? Not human-girl me?"
"Hmmm well, I quite certainly see you as a Zouwu. Though I understand why you would refer to yourself as cat-monster if you do not know about your species." He rubbed his chin thought. "Though I am pretty sure I have never met or heard of one that can talk before." He looked her up and down. "Or one wearing glasses and a white summer dress."
"Well, I was human before." Poppy offered. "Tripped over a large cat and smacked my head against a weird rock. Then when I woke up, I looked like this." She sat down. "It was weird at first. But now I have gotten pretty used to it." She looked at her dress. "My Aunt made the dress, sewing several together. She said that I might look like a beast now, but that it was no excuse to walk around indecently."
The elderly man hummed in thought, following Poppy he also sat down. "Most curious… Oh! But where are my manners? My name is Newton Scamander." He held out his hand, Poppy shook it very carefully with a single finger. "But just call me Newt."
"Nice to meet you, Sir. I am Poppy Potter." Poppy happily introduced herself.
Newt raised his left eyebrow in wonder. "The Poppy Potter?"
"The only Poppy Potter I know off." The cat-like being shook her head. "I never met or heard about another one walking around."
"I see." Newt mused a bit. "This Aunt of yours can see you then?"
Poppy nodded. "Yeah, but only she, my Uncle, and my Cousin." She tilted her head a bit again. "Though I am pretty sure that when I was walking home from school one day, a small man with a large purple hat saw me too. He ran away screaming though."
"Zouwu do seem pretty scary at first glance." Newt nodded in agreement. "But if you get to known them, you will find they are some of the sweetest creatures I have ever encountered." He was silent for a moment. "This family of yours…they must be pretty ordinary people, right?"
Poppy snorted loudly. "They want to be perfectly ordinary normal people. So, they are pretty boring sometimes. Not me though, my Uncle sometimes complains that I was made to live with them to shake up their normal lives."
"Ha, I imagine you do shake them up quite a bit." Newt glanced at his watch. Clicking his tongue in disappointment. "Sadly, I do have an appointment in a few minutes. One of the sorts that I cannot miss." He rubbed his chin again, before snapping his fingers. "How old are you now?"
"Ten." Poppy answered curiously. "Though my eleventh birthday is in a few weeks."
Newt nodded, mostly to himself. "Then I would wager that soon you will get a most curious and interesting letter from your next school. Tell you what, once you have settled a bit in your new school why don't you write to me? Then I will tell you all about the Zouwu."
"Why only then and not sooner?" The cat-monster being crossed her arms.
Newt only smiled at the young creature. "Because until you get that letter it has to be a secret." He held up his finger in front of his lips. "Until we meet again Ms Potter." Then he disappeared with a soft 'pop'.
"He can Zigzag too?!" Poppy cried out in surprise before she realized something. "But how am I supposed to write to him if he did not give me his address? How odd." She mussed, mentally deciding it was probably for the best if she did not tell her Aunt and Uncle about this. Concentrating on home she felt the zappy, and with a jump, she zigzagged somewhere close to London, before making a second jump towards number four Privet Drive.
I hope you all enjoyed the prologue of The Z.Z.Z.Z. It will rather light-heartedly story inspired by stories like Harry Is A Dragon, And That's Okay by Saphroneth and Like a Red Headed Stepchild by Mugglesftw. Read those if you have not yet done so!
Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions, tips, or fun ideas please share them.