Anything that's not blatant is
a riddle
Please read and review if you can!
Author's penname: Elixa Amethyst
Voices of the Past Part II
Written March 2002 onwards, pre Order of the Phoenix.
All characters and things you recognise, are © JKRowling, no infringement
intended.
All references to
"mediwizard" mean healer.
Read Part I at ?storyid1672635
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Chapter Thirteen
A Summer Wasted?
I glanced sideways at Susan, who was putting her full attention into her potion. She was about to add four rose thorns, and was preparing them beside her cauldron. Thorns were like quills; they had to be added correctly for the potion to work. I watched Susan pick up the thorns with one eye, and then I glanced to Severus who was watching too. I looked back to Susan, at the same time the cat jumped up between me and the cauldron, making me jump, if not Susan too. I heard a bang as Susan must have dropped the thorns in incorrectly, and the cat jumped into my lap.
"Get off me you stupid animal!"
"Felix!"
"What is a cat doing in here?" I, Susan and Severus all spoke simultaneously. The potion was bubbling ominously before Susan. I grabbed the cat by the scruff of the neck and held it away from me. Not surprising it swore and growled at me. It twisted and I went to drop it. How it managed it, I'll never know, unless it had grown teeth on its neck, but I drew my hand away to see almost identical bite marks to the ones Ace had given me.
"Miss North is that yours?" Severus demanded.
"Yes Professor, I didn't know he was here, I thought I'd shut him in the dormitory. I'm sorry Sir."
"You're right to be, you've just failed!" The class of seventh years stared at Snape as he stood glaring at Susan over her cauldron. "You wouldn't have passed anyway, you've forgotten to add daisy roots before the thorns, which is lucky for you, as the potion would have boiled over if you had followed it properly up to now." I'd sat down on my stool again, feeling faint. No, I was being stupid; Felix is just a normal cat… There was a gasp from the students behind me as I transformed into my feline shape again. It surprised me, as it happened so quickly. I sat swishing my tail on the stool before my essay. Severus looked as shocked as the class did.
"What, never seen a cat before?" I asked in my cat like voice, which was all I could speak in, in this state. Severus pointed his wand at Felix and the cat froze as if it had been petrified.
"Settle down everyone, Miss North, clear your cauldron, and don't let that cat out of your sight. Everyone else get back to work. Elixa, my office." He touched his shoulder as he said office. I jumped onto the bench, trotted along it and leapt lightly onto his shoulder. I could hear the sudden outbreak of talking through the closed door. I leapt off onto Severus's desk.
"Time to try out the variation of wolfsbane?" I asked, before cleaning my tail. I did it without noticing.
"How did it manage to bite you?" A bowl full of the silver coloured liquid was placed before me. I stopped cleaning and answered.
"I have no idea." I started to drink. The potion tasted foul, and felt like the spreading of pain in the cruciatus curse, but this time with cold. Severus was watching intently. I shivered slightly, my fur standing up straighter. I licked the bowl clean and sat up again.
"It felt like I was turning my blood to ice, but that's wearing off now. Is that any help?"
"It could take the ministry days to get the counter potion together again." He told me. I nodded.
"Never mind, at least we know that doesn't work instantly at least, and that any cat causes the transformation." Being a cat wasn't the end of the world, just an annoyance. It had its perks. Severus sighed, scratched me once behind the ear and went to call Dumbledore from the fireplace.
I finished my day as a cat. In the Slytherin common room, everyone wanted to talk to me, which would have been fine apart from talking took a lot of effort as a cat.
"I should have warned you Elixa, Dad sent him to me as a companion, he didn't know about the cat thing." Susan was apologetic, her blue eyes filling with tears.
"No harm done. The Ministry will have the
antidote soon." I assured her. Kerry also seemed sorry. We'd more or less
forgotten what we'd fallen out about. Draco was the most amazed, and he found
it difficult to accept that his girlfriend was a black cat. He nervously went to
stroke me and I showed I was pleased by purring.
"Well, I know I wouldn't get you mixed up with other cats. Your eyes are
unique." He said, looking into my green eyes, which at an angle looked
purple oddly enough. I jumped onto Draco's shoulders to go down to dinner.
"Mr Malfoy, you know animals aren't allowed at mealtimes!" Madame Hooch snapped from behind us. Kerry turned round to face the flying teacher.
"It's Elixa! Don't you know?"
Kerry exclaimed. Madame Hooch gave an odd look and then nodded. We carried on
into the great hall. I hopped off Draco's shoulder, trying to avoid all the
other houses trying to see me. I'd had enough of the attention for the
evening; all I wanted to do was eat. That was going to be the next challenge.
When I was in a cat form, I could only eat what cats naturally ate. Anything
else just didn't taste the same. I hopped up on the bench between Kerry and
Draco and soon afterwards the food arrived. I was very grateful to my two good
friends for serving me food. It gave Kerry an opportunity to show us her newly
mastered spell. A bowl came flying over the heads of the students towards the
table and I ducked underneath the table, fearing I'd be hit by it, but it
landed neatly before me.
"Bravo Miss Alanis, a bit more height next time though!" Professor Flitwick squeaked from the staff table. Kerry blushed, and poured some water from a jug into the bowl for me.
I retired to bed early, cats on average sleeping many more hours than humans. I was glad to be away from the noise and the questions, and allowed to sleep. I dropped off soon after I curled up on my bed.
