Mr.
Whiskers - Chapter Two
Hermione's New Houseguest
"...OK Mr. Potter, now back to the yellow circle, and then we'll wrap up the paperwork."
Harry didn't even bother closing his eyes before silently Apparating across the room. They were already running an hour behind after Hagrid insisted on celebrating his birthday before leaving the castle this morning, and now he was stuck in the Apparation test from hell. Well, to be completely honest, it wasn't really the administrator's fault. When they showed up at the Ministry Licensing & Regulations Annex in Diagon Alley that morning Harry had insisted on testing for Dual Apparation and an instructors license.
So now it was quickly approaching noon and Harry was beginning to worry. It had already been two days since Hermione figured out the order members around her home were spending more time watching her than setting up wards, and she had been unprotected ever since she chased them off. He was actually surprised she didn't see through their ruse sooner, seeing as they were supposedly putting up wards to prevent muggles form noticing a creature that could turn invisible anyway. As insane as Albus' plan was, the first half of the summer had passed without any problems. It was the next four weeks Harry was dreading, although it should be a nice test of what he had learned over the past year.
It really was amazing how his life had changed in that time, starting with the night he received his O.W.L scores. While his 8 owls were decent (especially compared to Ron's 5), his less than acceptable results in History of Magic and Divination along with his failure to make an 'O' in potions would require him to make an Exceeds Expectations N.E.W.T. in both Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures to become an Auror. So as he sat there trying to decide if being an Auror was worth the hassle, he realized it didn't really matter. Whatever he chose to do, Voldemort would not stop trying for him. The prophecy was right; he would be unable to live his life until Voldemort was dead. And so with visions of him and his friends going through top-secret Auror training over the summer, Harry had written a letter to Albus explaining his revelation.
Unfortunately for Harry, he forgot to take into account what other people might have planned. While Albus had agreed with Harry about his need for extra education (and even talked the ministry into waving the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for any students on Hogwarts grounds), it looked like he would be doing this on his own.
Neville and Luna weren't really candidates for the extra work. While the outcome would affect them, the war itself was an outside event for them. And even though the extra training would have been great for Ron and Ginny, Mrs. Weasley was still a little shaken after the attack on her husband and the ministry battle that left two of her children in the medical wing, so they were forbidden from anything to do with Voldemort or the Order. As for Hermione, Ron had finally admitted he fancied her (by sending her a note from her secret admirer, and then negating the secrecy by using pig to deliver it), so they already arranged for her to spend the last month of the summer holiday at the Burrow
So by mid-July Harry was packed and heading for Hogwarts, alone once again. By the end of the summer holiday six weeks later, his extra instruction had placed him far above N.E.W.T. level in Defense and Charms, and on par with most of the seventh-years in Transfiguration. Not wanting to waste the past month of tutoring by going back to regular classes, Albus agreed to remove Harry from the normal sixth-year N.E.W.T. courses in these subjects, as long as Harry promised to continue with his private tutoring.
Ron had managed to maintain his Prefect status (even after ignoring his prefect duties the previous year) and was named Quidditch Captain since Harry's ban hadn't been overturned yet, so with no responsibilities and only 2 classes to attend each week, Harry had plenty of time to seek additional tutoring from the staff and order members around the castle and planned on spending the evenings with his friends, along with the odd night for a Defense Association meeting.
Once again, real life had other ideas. Oh sure, Ron thought the new spells were cool that first night back when Harry showed them, and Hermione was always interested in learning something new. But by the second week of school Ron was more worried about getting a gift for Hermione's birthday, and once that passed it was the upcoming Quidditch season. Hermione had continued to meet with Harry every once-in-a-while to see what he was learning, but her and Ron's first little 'tiff' just after her birthday was enough for everyone to learn the consequences of her spending time alone with 'Potter' as Ron had put it.
It was the 'Potter' comment that really made things change. If his best friends couldn't even see past his name then how could he expect anyone else to? The whole idea of O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s was kind of redundant with that kind of fame, especially if he ends up dead because he wasted time learning about rare plants of Antarctica instead of how to defend himself.
It all went back to the epiphany he had back in July, he just hadn't taken his conclusions far enough. This wasn't just a struggle between him and Tom where the winner gets to go on with their life; the stakes here were much higher than that. After Voldemort is gone and all of his friends return to their lives what is he going to do? Play Quidditch? Be an Auror? They'd probably put him behind a desk, dragging him out and stuffing him in a penguin suit each year to wave at crazed fans. Twenty years after Voldemort is dead and gone he'll still be sheltering behind wards, hiding from both dark wizards wanting to prove themselves and reporters looking for a story. Harry didn't need to prepare himself for the job-market after Hogwarts; he needed to prepare for his life.
Albus' ready acceptance of Harry's most recent revelation (along with the humorous twinkle behind his glasses) was all Harry needed to know the headmaster had already seen this coming. After all, he had already been through this himself when he defeated Grindelwald, even if he had the advantage of being over 100 at the time. So Harry finally did what he should of done when he first heard about the prophecy - he asked someone who had been in this position for advice. By the first of October, Harry's name no longer appeared on any of the Hogwarts rosters. In fact, the only place Harry was listed on any official documents was as Albus' personal assistant.
Surprisingly, the only one to really object about the change was Snape, and his main objection was Harry's age (most of the staff thought he was just jealous because Harry was to have a desk in Albus' office.) At first Ron was bitter about him abandoning the team, but once they held Quidditch tryouts and found the second year triplets to play chaser he was ok with moving Ginny back to Seeker, especially if it meant Harry would be around less to steal the spotlight. Hermione tried to give Harry a lecture about being responsible and planning for his future every time they saw each other in the common room for the first month or so, but whenever she started Ron would pop-up and distract her (no doubt protecting his claim.)
With Albus teaching him mental disciplines like Occlumency, Legilimency, Telekinesis and Telepathy, and Minerva helping him with self-transfiguration and his Animagus transformation, the months went past quickly. By Christmas he had mastered Occlumency (amazing the difference a competent teacher makes), and progressed far enough in his Animagus transformation to determine his form. The idea was to start dueling lessons with Filius over the winter vacation, but that was before Voldemort accelerated their plans by destroying Harry's protection - killing all three Dursleys during their Christmas dinner.
Worried that guilt from the attack would increase the emotional strain he was already carrying, his training staff canceled lessons for the rest of the week. But Harry was not ready to take it easy. The death of his relatives just gave him one more reason to defeat Voldemort, one more reason to be ready, one more reason to push himself to the limit. So with four days to himself he decided to test those limits.
When he woke Monday afternoon in the Hospital Wing he knew there was a lecture on the way, but it was worth it. With a virtually limitless supply of Pepper-up potion thanks to Dobby, he was able to go four days without sleeping, dedicating 24 hours a day to reading and practicing everything he could get his hands on covering self-transfiguration. By Saturday night he had transformed into the Nundu for his first time, and had it mastered by dawn Sunday. Unfortunately, he didn't remember much after that, and it wasn't until he missed his Monday morning appointment with Albus and Minerva that the staff went looking for him.
But the lecture (and 2 days of bed rest forced upon him by Madam Pomfrey) was worth shaving off 6 months of lessons and practice, especially once he learned to control a partial change. It came as quite a surprise in late March while Harry was participating in a duel against both Filius and Minerva at the same time. Seeing two stunners coming toward him and no time to dodge, he had surrendered to the idea of being beaten once again and thought of how the anti-magic properties of his Nundu form would really make a difference. The looks on his two instructors faces were quite amusing when they saw the spells absorbed into his now furry form. Somehow he had accidentally made a partial shift, looking much like what muggles thought Werewolves looked like. It took months of practice for him to control the shift enough for a dense pelt capable of absorbing spells, but without going too far as to loose the ability to hold his wand.
Now if he could just get control of the natural disillusionment abilities in his human form…
"Mr. Potter!" The tone of exasperation in his voice made it clear it wasn't the first time the test administrator had tried to get his attention.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Can you repeat that?"
"Just sign here and we are through. Your instructors certification will arrive by owl later this week."
As he signed the license a thought struck him - he couldn't have an owl delivering anything to him at Hermione's. The whole reason for this scheme was her fierce independence. She couldn't stand Ron's jealousy so she wasn't at the burrow, and she's chased off the order members that were acting as guards. If she thought for one minute that this favor for Albus (he still had trouble calling the staff by their first names) was not legitimate, he would be out and she'd be left unguarded for another month. And after they intercepted an owl from Malfoy Jr. to his mother detailing everything about Hermione's muggle family, it was a reasonable conclusion that she would be attacked before the end of summer.
"Um, can you have that forwarded to Hogwarts? Albus will see that I get it."
"Of course Mr. Potter. Here is your Apparation license, good for up to two additional passengers. And may I wish you a very happy 17th sir."
Harry thanked him as he and Hagrid left the office. Heading toward the Apparation point, Hagrid began to get a little nervous.
"Right, that should be all yeh need here. Now, yeh sure we cant jus' be takin' the knight bus over to Hermione's?"
"Hagrid, you just watched me apparate around the testing center for 30 minutes carrying all sorts of things. I can get us both over to her house no problem. Besides, it's already lunchtime and Albus told her we would be there this morning."
"Eh, I suppose yer right. But an't the muggles gona wond'r 'bout me, I don't really fit in 'round there yeh know, kinda big for me size." 'Specialy if'n yer gona be there looking like a leopard"
"No worries Hagrid. Nobody will see me, and I've got my invisibility cloak for you to wear."
So after a quick pop into the Forbidden Forest for Harry to shift form ("Don't need no wizards gettn' scared ifn they see you like that, eh Harry?") Hermione found herself answering the doorbell, to an empty porch.
"Hello… Oh!" She started when the immense form of Hagrid shed the invisibility cloak. "Sorry Hagrid, you startled me."
"S'ok Hermione, 'jus didn't want any O' yer neighbors ta see us."
Hermione froze next to the now-open door. "Us… you mean… it's here?"
"Oh, e's here someware. Now wher'd yeh go off ta"
And with that a large leopard shimmered into being in the entryway.
"Ah, there he is, and I'll just leave his stuff here. Now if yeh don't mind, I'm gona slip off fer a pick-me-up at the Three Broomsticks 'fore heading back to the castle."
Hermione paused mid-stride and turned to her half-giant friend. "The Castle? I thought you were leaving for the summer. That is why it is being dropped off here, right?"
"Eh, of course Hermione." Harry lay down on the cool tiles of the entryway, hiding his face behind his huge paws. You would think after 6 years of accidentally spilling secrets to her Hagrid would learn have learned to just keep his mouth shut when around Hermione. "I jus afta go get me stuff. Albus' got a portkey all ready fer me"
"Albus?"
Harry didn't need his telepathic skills to sense the skepticism in her voice.
"I said that? Mus be spending too much time wi' Harry. Whole staff's got em callen em by their names, 'cept Snape that is. Well, I'm off"
And with that Hagrid practically ran out to the street to summon the Knight Bus back to Hogsmeade (actually, he was running, trying to get out of there before he let anything else slip in front of Hermione).
Closing her front door, Hermione turned to her new guest.
"So, I guess you can't tell me what's going on? Thought not. Well, if I understand the notes Professor Dumbledore gave me, you should be able to understand much of what I am saying. Is that right?"
The large cat gave a slight nod. He had been wondering what happened to his notes.
"Ok, so I've got a deadly magical creature that the ministry has been lying about for 80 years, that has been spending the past 4-5 months with my headmaster and, if I recognize the writing on the scroll he gave me, someone who was my best friend, that the order spent 3 weeks putting up wards to prevent people from seeing you, even though you can turn invisible… Am I missing anything yet?"
The confused look on the Nundu's face almost made Hermione burst out laughing.
"Oh my goodness. Well, that's the first thing we'll have to change. Harry kept referring to you as 'Shadow', but it really doesn't fit your personality, now does it?"
She slowly stood, still looking at the large cat with the perplexed expression on his face.
"Well, all the notes say you are a male, so let's go with 'Mr. Whiskers'"
The look of shock and alarm on Mr. Whiskers face really made her burst into laughter this time.
"So be it, Mr. Whiskers." She started, once again trying to keep the laughter out of her voice. "And I'm willing to bet they forgot to feed you before dropping you off on my doorstep. Well, let's see what else Hagrid left here."
Going over to the pile of stuff Hagrid dropped by the door, she continued her narrative to the newly dubbed Mr. Whiskers.
"Let's see… We've got a couple of large pillows, probably for your bed. And a nice brush to keep the shedding down… Ah, here we go. 'Ms. Granger - your new friend will take care of his own meals'...and just how are you supposed to do that?" Hermione paused to give Mr. Whiskers a hard look. "No eating the neighbors pets, ok? '…but here are some treats to keep him on his best behavior. Enjoy your holiday, Headmaster Dumbledore' Well, let's see what kind of treat he sent you."
Looking into the bag Hermione started giggling. "What else, it's a bag full of Lemon Drops!"
With that, Mr. Whiskers buried his head in his paws in shame.
"Are you embarrassed about your sweet tooth Mr. Whiskers? Now that is exactly why 'Shadow' just didn't fit you."
Putting down the treats, Hermione picked up the last item in the stack with a look of confusion on her face. Worried about what else Albus might have sent, Mr. Whiskers took a peak, quickly recognizing what she held in her hands.
"J.P…." She mumbled, running her fingers over the embroidery inside the cloaks collar. "What in the world was Hagrid doing with Harry's invisibility cloak?"
