Disclaimer: I don't claim any rights to Harry Potter & Co. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling & the publishers!
The Mute Mutt
By: Jodelle
Chapter 2: The Angry Cat Lady
"Those who will play with cats must expect to be scratched."
-Cervantes
Harry Potter heard a faint noise. There was silence for a few minutes so he chose to ignore it. It was probably just one of those annoying cats. They always made awful noises when they wanted to be fed. Ms. Figg was probably already in the kitchen setting out food. No worries, he thought, snuggling into the his pillow. Yes, let Mrs. Figg take care of it.
"Hraoww!"
Harry's eyes snapped open to see the cat sitting about five inches from his nose. The golden eyed cat was glaring down at him & repeated its complaint. "Hrowww!" Groaning Harry was thought to shove it away which was when he saw what had become of his hands.
They weren't hands! Where his pink nails had been there were five black claws. Instead of having palms he had padded paws. As he tried to stand up his horror escalated. No way was this happening!
For some reason Harry had it in his head that if he made it to the mirror in the parlor he'd see his usual face. As irrational a thought as that was his attempt at running to the nearest mirror had landed him on the floor with pain running through his head. Upon trying to run he had toppled off the couch and hit his head on the nearby coffee table.
"Hraoww," the cat growled as yet another cat, this time with blue eyes, joined it in staring Harry down. It was no wonder they didn't like him, he had to be some sort of dog.
How? He was too alarmed by the two angry felines to be properly in shock. I mean what good was wondering why someone was playing a great cosmic joke on him if he was about to be mauled by these two ferocious cats. Oh, how he wanted to pinch himself but you obviously couldn't do that if you lacked fingers.
He didn't know what Mrs. Figg would do when she caught sight of him but he took a deep breath inflating his lungs to the point his chest hurt and let loose a very loud chain of frightened barks.
"BARK!BARK! Bark!"
Harry was rewarded by the sound of running coming from upstairs. In her haste Mrs. Figg almost fell down the last few steps on her way into the living room which elicited several swears which strangely enough turned into sneezes as she edged into the room.
She spotted a small black dog cowering under her coffee table. It was hunkered down and had its paws over its eyes shaking all the while.
As much as she hated dogs what with being allergic to them she pitied the mutt being cornered down there by Marshmallow and Velvet. Their eyes flashed as she pretended to kick them so they'd back up. Oh, Merlin, she didn't want to touch it. She was knelt down by it close enough to scoop it up but she was clearly hesitating in touching it.
Shuddering at the thought of the hives she would get if she did the simple task of picking it up she turned away from the pup momentarily. Mrs. Figg reached for the jar filled with floo powder that rested on her fireplace mantle and threw a handful into the fire.
"Magical Menagerie, Rachelle Appleton." Mrs. Figg coughed at the end suppressing another sneeze. There were several loud noises coming from the fireplace that encompassed the voices of several animals; meowing, splashing, growling and tooting noises. A moment later a flustered looking witches face came into view.
"Bella! Oh, hello dear." She was panting heavily but still managed a bright smile in Mrs. Figg's direction.
"Are you okay, Rachelle?" All that noise coming from behind the girl hinted at trouble. Running the Magical Menagerie at Diagon Alley was a tough job for one of her oldest friends. While it was true that Rachelle had married and her husband sometimes helped out it was a chaotic job at best.
"Ah, the fire always scares the ravens who in turn rouse the whole lot of them. I had to re-lock a few cages as they were all struggling quite hard to get away. You know how it is when there are feathers flying, rats scurrying around, and I do believe our assortment of beetles has escaped from their box yet again!"
The witch was smiling despite her current problem of recapturing her escapees and turned to Mrs. Figg with a questioning look. The older witch sneezed again looking over her shoulder at the small dog before starting her tale.
"I found the dog cornered by my cats and Rachelle you know I can't touch them! It looks healthy so you can probably get a good price for it. Oh, but if you can't take it in could you please just get it out of my house. I'm begging you Rachelle I can't stop sneezing when I get within even two feet of it."
"Poor Bella, of course I'll come get it. Just a moment." There was a scraping noise as Rachelle moved a filing cabinet over so she could squeeze through the fireplace opening from her side to Mrs. Figg's.
The witch brushed the soot off of her turquoise robes before looking around for the dog. Once she saw it she knelt down and wrapped her hands around the scrawny fellow. It had the most unusual eyes a vivid green she'd never seen before.
Had Mrs. Figg not left the room when a sneezing fit had her overcome she might have saved Harry from a very odd childhood. If she had realized that the dog was Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, and not just a mutt Harry wouldn't have met Rachelle and therefore entered the magical world.
If she took it home there was a great possibility that she'd find it a home within the week although it looked cute enough to tempt Bennie to let her keep him.
Telling Bella to get away from the fireplace so she wouldn't come in close contact with the green eyed mutt she was quickly on her way. The small dog snuggled into her chest and was fast asleep soon after she arrived back behind the counter of her pet store.
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After a week the green eyed puppy proved to be such a charming fellow she had come to the decision to definitely not sell him. She had named the dog Sir Mutt and given him a large pillow in the corner of the store to sleep in.
It was the sweetest dog she'd ever seen. Sir Mutt rarely barked, was paper trained, and alerted her each time someone entered the store. You could say she grew to love the dog more quickly than any person had even begun to appeal to her. There was only one thing about Sir mutt troubled her.
The dog watched her attentively as she spoke to the customers as though it understood her every word. That was the only thing that alarmed her. Sir Mutt was just too intelligent.
He took an interest in everything in the store and then everyone once he began looking into the cages. The gerbil had taken a great gulp of water before spitting it right into Sir Mutt's eyes when he'd gotten too close for the millionth time. Enough said he started watching from a distance.
The delightful dog would have remained a member of Rachelle's menagerie had it not been for a small sand filled hour glass suspended on a chain. It was a treasure Rachelle didn't know she had as it had set on her shelf in the back room for over a decade.
After two weeks of being in the menagerie Harry had seen a beautiful red bird escape from it's cage with the help of a mischievous monkey in the cage next to it. While there was little Harry could do as Sir Mutt had no net or hands to catch the bird he was set on the idea of keeping an eye on the bird so Rachelle would know where the bird had escaped to at the very least.
Sir Mutt had chased the bird into the back room. The room was full of cages that were either rusty or had broken locks and in the farthest corner from the door was a bookcase. There were books on how to care for all sorts of animals some of which were thought to be extinct or nonexistent to those not in the know.
The red bird had taken it upon itself to perch on the highest shelf and had started using all its weight to push books over the edge to plummet down on Harry. Harry was quick with movement as a boy but being in a dogs body only two weeks he was clumsy and therefore very lucky to avoid injury. It was a good thing that his glasses had not been lost to him during his transformation or he would have been blind as well as clumsy.
So even though both bird and dog were on equal terms both only able to do so much without hands the bird was soon to get the upper hand. Once the bird had no more books to use it was no better off than Sir Mutt but them being on even terms ended the second the bird noticed the shiny necklace. Sure the necklace was coated with a thick layer of dust but it still sparkled.
Although many birds love shiny objects the bird valued its freedom more than the necklace and decided to pitch yet another thing over the edge. As it shattered Harry felt his world spin.
There were lights of every color that can be found in the sky at sunrise, sunset and night. The lights marked the passage of time going in reverse but upon become dizzy and queasy Harry blacked out.
-Jodelle
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Coming soon: Ch 3
She Saw Green
"I would look at a dog and when our eyes met,
I realized that the dog and all creatures are my
family. They're like you and me."
-Ziggy Marley