The Mutt who Lived
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable Harry Potter 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, Dumbledore/Weasley bashing.
"Godric, what happened?" Minerva asked in apparent disbelief.
"I just went to speak with my portrait in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts," Godric blurted out between chuckles. "Guess how many students are registered for their primary school?"
"Thirty?" Lily guessed, knowing that the primary school at Hogwarts was said to commence at eight, so that there would be three pre-Hogwarts classes.
"No," Godric chuckled, "one."
"One?" Lily asked, incredulously. "One student for three classes?"
"Yes," Godric confirmed. "Percy Weasley."
"Oh Merlin," James said, dryly, "and our Unicorn class alone has twenty pupils."
"Oh well, I'm sure it has helped the reputation of our school that Lily and Severus received the Order of Merlin for a potion from a recipe of Merlin himself," Minerva stated, only to add, "Perhaps it would be worth checking his other inventions."
"I'll do that," Lily resolved. "Now that we're almost finished with the wolvescure…" She trailed off upon seeing James glare at her.
"You can do research, but only on parchments please. No brewing of unknown potions before the baby will be born," he instructed her in a firm voice.
Lily merely rolled her eyes at her husband, thinking, 'That coming from one of the Marauders is gross.' However, she refrained from voicing her thought and merely nodded.
HP
'Finally, we can attend school,' Harry thought, happily, when his mummy ushered him and his siblings into the entrance hall, where Glenda was already waiting for them. From now on, he was to call her Miss Chittock. 'I must remember that,' he reminded himself, glad that his mummy had told him, Neville and Draco again the previous day. 'Thank Merlin Neville, Inu, Draco, Hermione and Christa are with me,' he thought, when one after the next other four-year-olds arrived through the fireplace.
His mummy and Glenda greeted each of them, and only when fourteen other children had arrived, they led the whole group to the Unicorn classroom.
During the holidays, Bill, Charlie and the twins had helped them paint a huge unicorn onto the door, which the other pupils now admired. Somehow, Harry felt proud that he was living in the school, which they were going to attend from now on.
HP
Everyone was to wait in the front of the classroom, while Glenda read each of their names. The pupil, who had been called, was shown to their seat. Harry did not know how his mummy and Glenda had chosen who was supposed to sit next to whom. He only noticed that the pupils were called up in what seemed to be an illogical order.
A girl named Hannah was the first to be called, followed by Susan. There was Mandy, Lavender, Millicent, Brigitte, Vincent, Tracey, Seamus, Gregory, Daphne, followed by Hermione, Su, followed by Christa, Neville and Draco, then there were Vanessa and Theodore, before his own name was called.
He felt extremely relieved, when he was assigned the seat next to Christa. 'Thank Merlin, together with one of us,' he thought, happily, smiling, when Inu made himself comfortable on his feet.
Absentminded, he completely missed Dean being called and only looked up, when his mummy left the classroom and Glenda began to speak.
HP
To Harry's annoyance, as much as he liked Glenda, her class was boring. He and his five siblings and closest friends were already able to read easy children's books by themselves and to write in capital letters; however, most of the others could not read at all let alone write.
Glenda observed the class for three days, before she assigned Harry, Neville, Draco, Susan, Hermione, Christa and Daphne two of the other pupils each and asked them to help their classmates do a floor puzzle with letters in order to teach them the capital letters.
Harry and his siblings and friends eagerly complied, and all of a sudden, the class was much fun and not boring anymore.
HP
Molly Weasley felt extremely annoyed. Four of her sons were already attending classes, however, at the MAMA – to her great grief. 'They're my children. They were supposed to be here with me,' she thought. Percy, the oldest of her remaining children, who had not left her in favour of their father, was supposed to have his first day at school today, however, alone in a class with Dolores Umbridge, he had been extremely cranky, when school was out at four in the afternoon.
"I don't like the teacher," he had told her in a firm voice, causing Molly to stare at her boy with a combination of understanding and foreboding.
"You don't have to attend the class if you don't want," she had reassured him.
At dinner then, Dolores had tried to teach her youngest son, Ronald, table manners, making him, too, become very upset at the woman.
"Headmistress," Crouch spoke up, bringing her back to reality, "as the headmistress of Hogwarts, I believe that it's your job to make sure that we get more students. Teaching a class with no more than five students is ridiculous and a waste of my time."
"Ah but Barty," Albus spoke up in a soothing voice, "I believe that it was a bad timing, considering that two professors of the MAMA received the Order of Merlin first class for their efforts during this summer. I'm sure that by next year at the latest, we'll have our usual share of students back."
"Well if not," Dolores spoke up, "we're going to make Molly and Albus responsible and put them on probation. I'm sure that with me as the headmistress and Barty as my deputy, Hogwarts will recover soon."
"Nonsense," Hagrid spoke up in his booming voice, "Albus and Molly are doing a great job here. It's not their fault that the other school has the better teachers and the better reputation."
"Who cares about the opinion of a creature such as you?" Dolores replied, wearing an expression of absolute disgust. "Perhaps the problem is that we've got scum teaching here such as creatures and Squibs," she added, grimly.
'Oh Merlin, Dolores will get Hagrid for speaking up for Albus and me,' Molly thought, giving Hagrid a warning look, when a fight between Ronald and three-year-old Ginny diverted her attention.
HP
'It's a bad joke what's happening to me,' Hogwarts thought in annoyance upon listening in to classes and staff meetings for two weeks. 'Most of these so-called professors are not even teachers but merely politicians, who were fired from the ministry and whatever. I can't wait for Lily and James or even little Harry to take over in a few years' time. On the other hand, I don't want to wait so long. I can't stand that Umbridge bitch, nor do I like Crouch, Odgen and Fletcher and I think it's time for me to take matters into my own hands.'
She listened into her own walls, accessed the wards and changed them only just a little bit, however, enough to exclude Dolores Umbridge from them. 'That suffices for the beginning,' she thought, contentedly. She also made sure that no one but herself, James and Lily was able to access let alone change the wards.
HP
Every Sunday morning, the Potters made it a habit to visit Hogwarts as well as Amaterasu together with Harry, Neville, Dorea and Inu.
To everyone's surprise, they had found out that Dorea was a Parselmouth, and the two-year-old loved the basilisk dearly. Before Harry and Neville could even think about feeling left out, Dorea, Lily and Inu began to translate for them, just like Harry usually did for them with Inu's and Fawkes' babbling.
'We should go and buy a familiar for Neville,' Lily decided, resolving to speak with James about the matter as soon as possible.
HP
Before taking the Floo to the founders' quarters, James usually checked the Marauders' Map to see if everything was all right for them to floo over.
It was on the last Sunday in October that he stopped dead in his tracks. They were already on their way to the fireplace in his office, when he checked the map, and something caught his eye.
"Barty Crouch is on the map twice, once in the Great Hall and once in his private quarters," he informed Lily, who gave him a surprised look, before she rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Maybe the map is faulty if it shows the same person twice," she said, when his words efficiently penetrated her mind. "His private quarters?" she asked, incredulously. "How in the world did you manage to have a teacher's private rooms on the map?"
James grinned. "Do you remember Mrs. Malcan, the bitch?" he enquired, causing Lily to groan.
"Of course I remember her. She was our DADA teacher in sixth year," she replied, very well remembering the most annoying professor of all her Hogwarts years.
"Anyway, Wormtail entered her quarters and measured everything during a staff meeting," James explained. "The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor's quarters are the only private quarters we have though. Peter didn't dare entering Minerva's quarters. Still strange that Crouch shows up twice," he added, looking back at the map, where one of the Barty Crouch symbols was now moving in the direction of his office. Still, the other symbol remained in his private rooms.
"Why don't you go and ask Hogwarts if there are two Barty Crouch persons in the castle?" Lily suggested, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"Can we go now?..."
"… Amaterasu is waiting for us," the twins shouted, impatiently hovering in front of the fireplace.
HP
"Yes, we really should do that," James agreed immediately, when Lily brought up the idea of buying a familiar for Neville. "When did you want to go, and do you have an animal in mind?"
Lily smiled. 'Typically James,' she thought. 'He's always ready to do anything for me or the kids.' Aloud she said, "I'd prefer to go as soon as possible, before your baby is going so big that it'll be too annoying to move."
They decided to head to the magical menagerie on Saturday morning and take the children with them, so that Neville could choose a familiar for himself.
When the day arrived, they had to take Hermione with them as well, as she was staying with Harry, Neville and Dorea for two weeks, while her parents attended a dentist congress in Australia. Therefore, Lily felt relieved, when Sirius and Remus announced that they would accompany the family.
Needless to say that Inu came along as well, considering that the only time he ever left Harry's side was when the boy was flying either on a broomstick or on one of the winged horses. Over the time, Inu had become proficient at travelling with Fawkes though.
As soon as they arrived in front of the Magical Menagerie, they spotted a toad sitting next to the entrance door. It did not look like anything special, however, every now and then, it was spitting out a small chocolate frog.
"This is Wonka," the shopkeeper, who had stepped outside to greet the group of four adults, four children and a dog, informed them.
"I like him," Neville blurted out, as he eagerly accepted a frog, which Wonka spat into his hands.
"Are they good?" Hermione asked, sceptically, eyeing the toad in apparent disgust, a feeling which Lily could not help sharing.
"They taste like normal chocolate frogs," the shop owner informed her, handing out chocolate frogs to Hermione, Harry and Dorea.
"Mum, Dad, can I have him?" Neville asked, looking at Harry, who nodded his approval.
"He needs a special potion once a week, and he must be fed a small cup of cocoa every day," they were told.
"My mummy is a potions mistress, and Dobby will make him cocoa," Neville replied with apparent pride, causing the adults to smile at the four-year-old's enthusiasm.
"Let's still go and see the inside," Remus announced, once James and Neville had gone with the shop owner to buy Wonka. "Perhaps we find some interesting animals, which we could buy for the school."
When Lily followed the others inside, she stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing that Inu was engrossed in an eager conversation with a tiny, colourful snake.
=Harry, tell Mummy that she must buy her and become her familiar,= Inu informed his familiar in apparent excitement, and Harry immediately translated. =She's an Aesculapian Serpent.=
Lily let out a gasp. "Thank you Inu," she told the canine before turning to the snake. "Would you like to come with me? I am a potions mistress and would be extremely happy to have you."
A moment later, an already known feeling of happiness penetrated her mind, and she knew that the serpent had bonded with her, even before the snake spoke up.
"I've taken the liberty of bonding with you. I hope you don't mind. I am Iro, an Aesculapian Serpent, and I was waiting for a potions mistress to come and become my familiar all these years. No one here was able to understand me, before your dog entered the shop a few minutes ago."
"Thank you, Iro," Lily replied, thinking in amusement, 'Now, I have two snake familiars, one basilisk and one Aesculapian Serpent. Good to know that I'm the heiress of Slytherin; otherwise, I'd doubt my own mental capabilities.'
She was brought back to reality by the children's excited shouting, when her sons backed up Hermione who was trying to convince Remus to buy a large bird with a curved, black beak, black feet and very fluffy looking, brown feathers for the school. 'If he didn't have feathers but fur instead, he'd look like a teddy bear,' Lily thought in surprise.
"He is a magical eagle, even if he doesn't really look like an eagle," the shop owner explained. "He can turn himself invisible, he can carry a person on his back and even flash people to places like a phoenix," he added, motioning Hermione to sit on the bird's back. Seeing that the eagle invitingly flew to the floor and sat there for her to board his back, Hermione complied, and the eagle flew a few rounds around the shop, much to the girl's pleasure.
When Hermione promised to help Remus care for the eagle, the adults agreed to buy the bird, and Remus discussed with the shop owner that it would be adequate for the bird to have his nest on the side of the stable with the winged horses and unicorns.
'Rubbish,' Lily thought. 'It's obvious that he's going to be Hermione's familiar in the very near future, and while she's at the school, he's probably going to stay with her. Oh well, as long as she's a primary school pupil, she won't stay overnight,' she then reminded herself, instinctively knowing that the girl would be a guest in their private quarters more frequently in the future. To her surprise, she realised that she did not mind at all. Five-year-old Hermione was always polite and helpful, and just like Christa, her sons' other best friend, the girl had become very dear to her.
HP
Lily had been distracted enough by all the new animals to not miss James and Sirius. Only when the two Marauders showed up with James carrying a small animal on his arm, did she realise that she had not seen them ever since they had entered the Magical Menagerie.
"What's that?" she asked, eyeing the small, light brown animal with curiosity.
"That's a niffler," Sirius informed her.
"A baby niffler in fact," James clarified, "and we've bought it for the school."
"Moony needs some more animals of all possible kinds, so that his job won't become boring too soon," Sirius added, causing Remus to glare at his friends in apparent annoyance.
"Do you have any idea how to care for a niffler?" he enquired.
"Of course," Sirius replied, grinning. "We've got all the instructions in a memory, which we're going to show you later on."
'Oh Merlin,' Lily thought with a combination of annoyance and amusement, 'Marauders.'
"Mum, can you ask Glenda to bring our class to Remus next week…"
"… to look at all the new animals?" the twins enquired, bringing her back to reality.
"Why don't you ask her yourself at dinner time?" Lily replied, smiling at the excited boys.
"I want go, too," Dorea emphasized, glaring at her brothers.
"I'm going to take you on a special tour, little one," Remus promised, before he proceeded to tickle the little girl, who was his goddaughter, causing her to laugh, happily.
HP
A few hours later, Miranda Miller, Amelia's secretary, announced that Dolores Umbridge requested to speak with her.
"What does she want?" Amelia enquired in disbelief.
"Frankly speaking, I don't know," Miranda admitted. "She's complaining about not being able to get into Hogwarts in spite of being the headmistress of the primary school or something."
Supressing a groan, Amelia rolled her eyes in annoyance before uttering, "Let her in and remind me of my appointment with Alastor Moody in ten minutes if she's not out by then."
Miranda grinned and said, "Understood, Boss."
A moment later, Dolores bustled into the room. "Amelia, you must help me," she blurted out, letting out a deep sigh.
"If I can," Amelia replied, trying to keep her voice just a little warmer than the ice-cold tone the bitch deserved. "What happened?" she added, inwardly groaning.
"Today, I left Hogwarts for the first time in two months to chaperone the students' Hogsmeade visit," Dolores informed her, "but when we returned to the school, I couldn't get onto the grounds. "I even tried to travel through the fireplace from the Three Broomsticks, but apparently, the wards won't let me through. That's according to Madam Rosmerta, who floo-called Albus Dumbledore to enquire on my behalf."
"I'm afraid that I can't help you," Amelia replied in bewilderment. "What do I have to do with the Hogwarts wards?"
"You're the Minister of Magic. You can demand that they allow me into the wards. I am the headmistress of the primary school after all," Dolores requested.
Amelia shook her head, just when Miranda struck her head into the doorframe. "Minister, your appointment with the head of the DMLE is due in two minutes."
"Thank you, Miranda," Amelia replied, feeling very grateful towards her understanding assistant, and rose from her chair. "I'm sorry, Dolores," she lied as well as possible, as she motioned the woman towards the door, unaware that the witch unobtrusively plucked a black hair from the visitor's chair before leaving.
tbc...
Thank you so very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
Next chapter: "The Umbridge plot".