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Chapter 50Hermione barely reigned in her panic. She couldn't find Tallis. They had gone to the greenhouse after two hours in the library. The two had played quietly for about an hour before a house elf popped in to see if they needed anything. Tallis had disappeared before she could turn around and now, after twenty minutes of searching, she still couldn't find him. "Tallis," she called out hopefully, praying that he would respond this time to her call. "Tallis, you need to come out!"
Still nothing.
She sighed. She needed help. She left the greenhouse, quickly spelling the doors with heavy wards to let her know if Tallis left them, and then locking them on top of that. She needed to find the guys. She made her way to the study, relieved to find all of them sitting in there quietly.
Severus looked up in alarm when he realized that she was there alone. "What happened? Where's Tallis?"
"I don't know. One minute he was there and then a house elf dropped in and he must have been scared. I can't find him. I need your help, Ron."
"Sure," he said, quickly transforming into his animagus form: a golden retriever. He quickly padded down the hall, the entire group following him as he made his way towards his friend. Although retrievers weren't famous for tracking abilities he found that he could always find Tallis and Hermione no matter what had happened. The trio didn't question the ability, they were just thankful for it. He found himself at the door to the greenhouse and whined faintly.
Hermione pushed the doors open, immediately canceling the wards she had put up to protect Tallis. "Go on, Ron. We need to find him and make sure he's ok."
At his friend's words Ron barked once and dashed into the room, running through the large greenhouse in search of his friend. He spotted him curled up under a large flowering bush, his large paws and fluffy tail wrapped protectively around his small body. Wait a minute, he realized. Tallis transformed. He shook his head, needing to once again settle into his animagus mind that always seemed to move a bit more slowly than his human one. It simply took dogs longer to process things than it did humans, no matter how human-like they may be.
He crawled under the bush as best he could, barely managing to squeeze under it. He nudged Tallis gently, startling the small ocelot but he was pleased when the cat didn't back away at all. He could smell the fear on his friend but instantly realized that it was fear of something else, not fear of him. He crawled closer to comfort his friend, trying to take away some the mind numbing fear that was so glaringly present. Eventually the branches were simply too low for him to move any further, as enormous as he was.
He whined softly, making Tallis look up at him, contemplating the situation. The ocelot eyed the wide open beyond the branches warily and then took a few steps closer to it, finally plopping himself down in front of his friend, curling up once more as the dog curled around him as well.
The group had caught up to Ron just in time to see the dog's long tail swish under the bush. They knelt down and peeked under it; both surprised and not surprised to see Tallis in his animagus form.
Hermione sat back on her heels. "I don't know why it didn't occur to me that he could have transformed. Sorry, Professor. I didn't even think to look under the low bushes. I just assumed he was still human. I suppose he might have been able to squeeze under there even if he weren't in his animagus form right now though. He's pretty small still."
"It probably wouldn't have occurred to me either," Severus admitted. "Even knowing he had the ability I never would have thought he would have the control needed while in this state of mind."
"When did he become an animagus?" Draco asked, staring in awe at his friend.
"He accomplished the full transformation in the middle of our fifth year," Hermione said, peeking under the bush to her two friends again.
"Are you one as well?"
"Yes. I'm an owl. Ron and I didn't get ours until the beginning of our sixth year. We really struggled with it. It was incredibly frustrating that he finished his so quickly and it took us so much longer. We're used to it now though, him learning things almost instantly while we struggle for a while."
"And you?" Draco asked, turning to Bill.
"I'm almost there. Probably another month or so. Have you ever trained for it?"
"No."
"You and the Professor should train together," Hermione said. "I'm sure you both have more than enough strength and control to accomplish it."
"Does Tallis have a name when he is in his form?" Draco asked.
"Aegis," Bill answered.
"Aegis as in the shield of Zeus?"
"Somewhat. It is said by the muggles who study the old myths that when Zeus shakes his shield that a thunderstorm ensues and that men's hearts are filled with terror. A manifestation of Zeus' power, it is used for protection and as a warning for those who think to rise against him."
"Muggles are strange, reading such depth into a simple shield. Why do they try to give such detailed meaning to such mundane facts? It's a shield!"
"I don't believe they are entirely wrong, Draco," Severus explained patiently. Draco had still yet to learn the value in some of the muggle ways. "They might enjoy seeing that which we know to be true and factual as archaic myths for them to pull apart and analyze but they arrived to the right conclusions usually. The shield does protect during battle as well as terrify enemies. I'm not entirely certain that an ocelot inspires terror in anyone but mice and small rodents but Tallis certainly does as a man. You chose his name well, Miss Granger."
Hermione blushed. "How did you know it was me?"
"I sincerely doubt that Mr. Weasley would have come up with it and I know that my son would have chosen anything so noble for himself without your influence."
They were all startled when they heard a rough purring come from under the branches and they all peeked under once again. Bill smiled when he saw that his brother was grooming the ocelot. Only Tallis and Ron could have accomplished something like that. Only they would be able to throw off instinct as a dog and a member of the cat family and get along as well as they did. As young men the two were startlingly different as well but they managed to balance each other out perfectly.
"Let's go back and sit down and leave them alone for a bit," Hermione suggested. "I brought some books down here and a few games. We can just sit and chat until Tallis is calm enough to transform again."
"Will he be able to undo it? What if he is too scared and stays like that?"
"Hm? It won't really be a problem. It might actually be better if he stayed as Aegis. He'd certainly be more calm," Hermione answered Draco, walking toward the blanket she had brought down.
The small group sat and chatted quietly until it was time for lunch. Hermione walked through the greenhouse to her friends, still curled up under the same bush. "It's lunch time boys," she called out, pleased when she saw first the large golden retriever and then a still slightly skittish ocelot crawl out from under the bush. "Come on," she said, reaching down and petting the dog. "Good job Achates," she whispered to him.
They made their way back to the group, Ron barking happily when he saw all of the food. "Calm down," Bill ordered, piling a large bowl high with food that his brother could safely eat as a dog while trying to keep a watchful eye on his boyfriend.
The ocelot hung back at the edge of the blanket, unsure if he was allowed any closer but his was stomach growling hungrily. "It's ok," Severus said, pushing the bowl of nearly raw meat closer to his son. "Eat up." Aegis eyed him warily as he crept closer to the bowl, bending down to take a bite and then jumping back when Draco made an unexpected move. Severus glared at his godson who shrugged sheepishly. "It's ok. That is your bowl. You can eat all that you want," he said soothingly, pushing it a bit closer to him.
Aegis moved closer and then slowly started to eat. The other four finally started their meals once the animagi had begun theirs. Before Severus was halfway through his meal he was startled by a brush of silky fur against his hand. He looked down in shock to see that Aegis had moved closer to him, evidently no longer scared of him as long as he had the safety of his animagus form. He ran his fingers through Aegis' silky pelt for a few moments, pleased that his son was finally not frightened anymore. The ocelot scrambled into his lap, circling twice before settling down for a nap, his tail twitching contentedly.
Hermione smiled. "Looks like food really is the way to a man's heart," she said softly, not wanting to wake up the sleeping cat.
Severus continued to pet the silky cat. "I hope he stays like this for a while longer. He's so much more content. I'm worried that the amount of stress he has gone through today will harm him if we can't find a way to minimize it better. This may be the best way."
Tallis napped all afternoon comfortably in his Father's lap. After Ron was certain that he was sleeping soundly he transformed back. The group chatted quietly until Aegis woke around four. He blinked his eyes open and yawned, stretching out as long as he could, nearly falling off of the comfortable lap in the process.
Severus smiled and started to stand, pushing the ocelot to the floor. "I have a rather lengthy list of potions that Poppy needs for the Infirmary. I might go make a few before dinner," Severus announced, bending to give his son one last pat before starting to leave. The ocelot quickly padded over to his side and sat down again, staring up at him with large, unblinking eyes. Severus looked at the wild cat in surprise. "Do you wish to accompany me?" he asked, feeling ridiculous even as he did it, speaking to an animal.
Aegis simply blinked slowly and scooted in closer to his long legs, leaning against his right leg as he yawned again.
"Do you need any help Sev?" Draco asked.
"No, I should be fine unless you lot get bored and want something to do. You lot may wish to catch up on your homework. The Gryffindors will need to return to school tomorrow. Unfortunately, we cannot cover for your absence any longer. You may return to the manor after the evening meal at Hogwarts if you so choose but only if you have attended all of your classes as well as all of the meals. You must make your appearance clear to the students. Draco, it would behoove you to do a bit of homework as well although you have much greater reason to stay longer than them as my godchild and near brother to my son. Even with that excuse you will need to return to school by next Monday so make sure that you are prepared. Poppy left your assignment list in the library before she left this morning."
The students all sighed but went to the library to work on their reading.
"Do you care if I come with you?" Bill asked. "I have a few days off of work anyhow and not much to do right now."
"Of course," Severus said, walking toward the lab. He smiled softly as Aegis walked silently behind them. Everything certainly had been up in the air for the last few days. He just found himself grateful that his son was alive and on his way to being well again. He didn't care what form he took during this healing time, so long as he would one day be himself again.
The two men and Aegis arrived in the lab shortly and Severus quickly set to work. He would cut or prepare a bit of an ingredient to give Bill a quick brush up on what he would be doing and then he would work on other things while Bill prepared his ingredients as he had been shown. Bill had never been as terrible at potions as Ron currently was but he hadn't worked with potions since his career at Hogwarts ended so he had lost a great deal of the knowledge and ability. A quick review was usually enough for him to pick it back up though.
"We still haven't discussed what happened, Severus," Bill said softly as he ground up yet another ingredient that was completely unidentifiable to him.
"I know. I'm almost scared to think of the implications." Both men silently ran through the rather short list of options to explain it. Either Tallis held enough power to make him into a sort of petty god (which they doubted) or else in his despair he had unknowingly tapped into a branch of necromancy, somehow twisting it into a pure art rather than the dark and soul twisting magic that it had hitherto been classified as.
"Has the Prophet caught wind of it yet?"
"I read the paper today quickly so I may have missed some of it but they seem to believe that the Dark Lord's curse had failed and that I was simply in a healing coma from a strong magical blast. No one believes that the curse worked. That much we are blessed with."
"What else did they say?" Bill said, keeping an eye on Aegis while they worked. He didn't want him to overhear the conversation for fear that he would understand what they were talking about and get upset. He noticed that Aegis looked a bit bored so he conjured some toys for him to play with, making a wide variety since he had no idea what, if anything, an ocelot would like to play with. It worked though and Aegis managed to amuse himself while the two men worked.
"The biggest topic was analyzing the potential truth behind the Dark Lord's claims that both he and Harry had been abused. Some believe that everything he said was a lie, others believe it to be true. They are practically demanding Dumbledore's head for this one. It will be interesting to see what the papers say tomorrow."
"Maybe we can use this to our advantage," Bill said. "Not that I want to cash in on your death and resurrection or whatever you wish to call it, but this whole situation may help us in the long run with the trial."
"My thoughts exactly. Now we just need to convince Tallis to go through with the trial and work on the golem. I hope to have the trial underway before the winter holiday."
"That would be perfect, especially if the worst of it was during the holiday itself so that Tallis could relax as far away from it as possible. If he's in school during it he'll have to hear a rehashing of anything the paper prints as well as speculation about what the jury cannot say. I'd rather spare him that if we could."
"We'll see what we can do. How did your visit with the Dursleys go?"
"Well enough. Poppy was able to heal all of the damage. He's still impotent but it would appear, even to a mediwitch or wizard, that he is simply impotent due to his excessive weight and drinking problems rather than the true cause. We should be fine in that regard."
"I trust that you left them with no knowledge of your visit?"
"Of course, Severus," Bill said smirking. "I leave no ends undone. Nothing will give you away in that regard. While I was at it I cleaned up his memory of his last encounter with Harry last summer. I didn't want him to remember how Harry defended himself. If he mentioned it in court it would sound too similar to the incident with Malcus Perry and people might make connections. He now believes that he kicked Harry out because he started to fight back too much, which is entirely true albeit not the entire truth."
"Very good. Did you also clear up their memories of the night?"
"Yes. They know that a wizard came there asking about Harry and their treatment of him but they don't remember the contract or anything else. As far as they are concerned they kicked the man out of their house after about the third question."
"Very good. I never should have gone there," Severus said quietly, cursing himself for even getting into the mess to begin with. Sure it felt great castrating the bastard but it was unnecessary and was making covering their tracks even more difficult. Nothing was worth putting his son in danger.
"I still think it was smart, Severus. At the time we were worried that Dumbledore would move more quickly and that he would try to take Tallis away from you or else return him to his relatives. It was the best thing to do, given the circumstances. Not to mention you now have everything legally cleaned up should the ministry try to take him away anyhow for some reason, regardless of his age."
"Yes but now we face misuse of magic charges for obliviating muggles after forcing them to sign a magical document giving up rights to their nephew," Severus responded sarcastically.
"Most of that wouldn't stand up in court. As his birth Father, you had a greater claim to him. They couldn't really refuse and frankly, the documents were superfluous. We were just being cautious by having them signed. If the assault ever comes forth then we can counter it by the obvious abuse of your son, all of which will have already been brought to light by the trial. No jury would ever convict you after hearing only a small portion of what your son endured with the Dursleys. The worst thing they have is the obliviate spell—which was performed by me, not you. Not to mention that Fudge passed that decree a few years back making it legal for any witch or wizard that was of age to perform the obliviate spell as needed upon muggles in most situations. Given the Dursleys' history as magic haters it only makes sense that we would want to wipe their memories of their more recent encounters with magic. You're perfectly safe. I made sure of that."
"I suppose so." Severus looked down at Aegis who was playing quietly in the corner, chewing contentedly on some sort of hard rubber toy that Bill had made. "We just have to make sure that he isn't ever left alone. As much as he wants to deny it he needs someone to take care of him."
"Don't worry. Everything is coming together well. The recent events were unexpected but I believe they may help us. Having Voldemort push our hands a bit might not seem ideal but I think it will be for the best. He's already prepared the world for a potential child abuse trial. Now we just need to make sure that we get the Boy Who Lived safely killed off and everything will work out well."
The rest of the evening flew by and Tallis still remained in his animagus form, unwilling or unable to transform. When it was time for bed he looked around his large, dark room where his Father had left him and shuddered slightly, jumping off the bed and running into his Father's room. He stretched up as far as he could to look up onto the high bed and found himself looking directly into his Father's dark eyes.
Severus took one look at the large, scared eyes of his son and reached down to scoop the ocelot up. "You can sleep here tonight, Aegis," he said softly, petting the now content cat. Severus sent up a quick prayer that his son would remain in form all night and not wake up in the morning in hysterics over being in bed with a man. He wasn't about to force his confused son back into his bedroom alone though, especially after it had clearly scared him so much. If there was a problem in the morning he would deal with it then. He hissed lightly as Aegis' sharp claws kneaded through his covers and into his chest and muttered a charm to prevent his skin from being shredded by the wild cat during the night. He fell asleep content, listening to his son purr as he dozed.
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A/N: Ron's name, Achates, is that of Aeneas' faithful companion, in case you don't remember your Virgil.
I also have never had the privilege of owning my own ocelot so Aegis is largely based after my own kitty with a few wild cat things occasionally thrown in. Hope I didn't offend anyone's sensibilities. I kind of figured that as an animagus he wouldn't exactly be like a true wild cat since he retains some of his own personality as an animal.