Cats to the Rescue – Chapter 5
"Oh look at those sleepy heads, and four of them at that!"
Harry lazily opened his eyes, blinking a few times in surprise as he saw a huge animal, looking like a bit different from a cat. "What's that?" he whispered, terrified at the sight, trying to hide under the lynx's thick fur.
"That's our friend Rolanda. She's a cheetah," Felina explained hoarsely. "Thank God you're here, Rola. We're all ill with the Muggle flu, and none of us is able to transform back and look after the others. Could you perhaps call Hamish and ask him to give us our potions four times a day?"
"No, Minerva, I'm going to look after the four of you, if you perhaps could introduce our small friend here?"
"Let's call him Arvin," Nero suggested. "Arvin means 'green water,' which I believe is fitting if you take a glance at his eyes."
"I like it," Harry as Arvin whispered, smiling at the gentle, large cat.
HP
During the following days, Rolanda came every few hours, transformed into her human form, and nursed the four cats back to health. After their recovery, only a week of holidays was left, and the three teachers took turns staying with Arvin, while the others engrossed themselves with the preparations for the new school year. Sometimes, all of them had to attend staff meetings and couldn't help leaving Arvin alone, but he didn't mind. He liked the cat's den and already felt at home in the Potion Master's living room.
One day, Nero had even arranged a play date for Arvin with Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's familiar. The two cats spent a joyful afternoon together, and the older cat showed the kitten shortcuts all over the castle that even the teachers were not aware of. She even instructed him how to get into the castle if the front doors were closed.
'I love this castle, and the people here are so nice,' Arvin thought as he tiredly curled up next to the lynx after an exciting day. In the morning, Nero had taken him to Hagrid and had introduced Arvin as his familiar, afterwards he had eaten lunch together with Mrs. Norris, and in the afternoon, Herbifera had shown him the green houses, which Arvin found extremely interesting.
However, every night when the cats met at the cat's den, the topics, "What are we going to do when school commences?" and "How can we coax Arvin into transforming back to Harry?" came up.
To Arvin's great relief, Nero hadn't told anyone that Harry had spent a day and a night in his human form to care for them when they had been ill, and the two ladies apparently hadn't noticed and believed he didn't even know how to change back.
"Arvin, school is going to begin next week. Wouldn't it be so much better, if you changed back into your human form, so you could attend primary school or we could hire someone to tutor you?" Felina made another effort to convince Harry, causing the small cat to sigh in exasperation.
"No, I love to be Arvin, and I don't want to change back. Can't I attend classes here in my cat form?" he asked desperately.
"We can do that for a while, but it'll be boring for you, since you can't practise anything but will only be able to listen," Nero said quietly.
"That's all right with me," Arvin replied stubbornly. 'I absolutely love my life as it is now, and I really don't want to change anything,' he thought, remembering how horrible his life had been at the Dursleys. 'These three people are worrying about me. I never had even one person spend as much as one good thought about me.'
During the last evenings before the students came back, the three teachers agreed with Arvin that he could choose each morning which of their classes he wanted to attend. They showed him the way to the respective classrooms and instructed him to stay away from the students and not give them a reason to raise their wands against him.
"I won't," Arvin promised, frightened.
"There is another point we have to discuss," Felina said thoughtfully. "Arvin, we won't be able to spend every night here in the cat's den, because we have staff meetings to attend, detentions to supervise, and patrols in the halls to do. Therefore, we need you to choose one of us with whom you want to stay during the week. We'll only be able to stay here together during the weekends."
"May I still remain here?" Arvin asked shyly, throwing Nero a hesitant glance.
The lynx looked sharply at the kitten. "Are you sure you want to stay with me, little one?" Seeing the small cat nod appreciatively, he sighed. "Well, then I don't mind. I expect you to be back when it gets dark every evening though."
"I will," Arvin happily agreed.
HP
During the following days, Arvin quickly became used to the human form of the tall teacher. The man was very kind and always gave him a proper cat's breakfast, before he left his quarters to attend breakfast with all the staff and the students in the Great Hall. "I am the Potions professor and Head of Slytherin, one of the four Houses at Hogwarts, and the Headmaster expects us to attend all the meals in the Great Hall," he gently explained to Arvin on the first morning. "Sometimes, I can skip one or the other meal, of course," he added as an afterthought.
"Okay," Arvin replied and devoured his breakfast, while the lynx transformed back into his human form and got ready for class.
Glad that Mrs. Norris had shown him so many shortcuts, which made it possible for him to cross the whole castle within minutes, Arvin anxiously made his way to the Transfiguration classroom.
He hesitantly entered the classroom after the students, noticing in relief that Felina was sitting on the teacher's desk in her cat form. "Felina, where could I stay without being in the way?" he asked, suddenly feeling very shy towards his cat friend sitting high on the table.
"Look, I put a pillow right next to my desk," Felina replied calmly and as gentle as ever, turning her eyes towards a burgundy coloured pillow on the floor.
"Oh, thank you," Arvin replied gratefully and quickly took a seat on the pillow.
A short time later, Felina transformed back into her Minerva form and took the time to introduce Arvin as her familiar. "I expect all of you to be kind to Arvin, and if I hear of anyone casting a spell on him, the respective student will be expelled," the stern professor explained in a no-nonsense voice.
Arvin watched interestedly as the students had to try to change matches into needles. 'This seems to be very difficult. Will I be able to do such things in the future?' he thought, observing the students in amazement, until a sunray tickled his nose.
'Oh, leave it to Felina to place the pillow for me exactly where I like it,' he mused, sprawling on the pillow to enjoy the rays of the early morning sun coming through one of the large windows. Mere minutes later, he was soundly asleep, not even waking up when class ended and the next students filed in, making a lot of noise.
Arvin woke up half through the second class, before he spent the rest of the morning watching the older students trying to transform a plush cat into a hedgehog. He unconsciously left the large, burgundy pillow, following the sole ray of the sun still entering through the window to the other side of the classroom. No one took notice of him. Only when Arvin felt a strange sensation and began to panic, unaware of what was happening, and a student let out a huge gasp, the teacher's and students' attention was drawn to the small cat turned hedgehog on the floor.
"I'm so sorry, Professor, I wanted to transform my cat but accidentally hit him," the student explained, obviously horrified, while everyone else was gaping at Arvin.
'Such an imbecile,' Arvin growled inwardly. 'Nero was right when he said many of the students were dunderheads. I just hope Minerva can change me back. Otherwise, I have to try to transform back into Harry.'
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley," the professor announced. "Although Arvin should have stayed near my desk, you always have to pay attention to properly point your wand at the object you want to transfigure."
"Yes Professor, I'm sorry, Professor. Shall I try to transfigure him back?" the student offered, causing Arvin's mind to scream, 'NO! Only Minerva may do so!'
Fortunately, the professor seemed to have the same thought and replied immediately, "No, I shall do that myself. You're dismissed." With that, she pointed her wand at the hedgehog, transfiguring him back into the small kitten in the blink of an eye.
Arvin let out a grateful sound, throwing the woman a thankful look. She gently picked Arvin up, speaking to him in a soothing voice. "That was frightening, sweetie, wasn't it? You must stay near my desk; otherwise this might happen at any time. Are you feeling all right?"
When Arvin nodded affirmatively, Minerva put him back on the floor and transformed into Felina. "It's lunchtime, Arvin. Are you going to have lunch at Mrs. Norris'?"
"Yes, and thank you, Felina, for changing me back. It felt very strange," Arvin replied, still feeling a bit shaky by the experience.
Noticing the smaller cat wasn't his usual self, Felina suggested, "Shall we drink a bowl of milk together before heading for lunch? I'll have to transform back and call a house-elf though."
'A house-elf? Nero talked about them before,' Arvin mused, slowly letting out a small, "Okay."
"Hamish!" Minerva called her personal house-elf, and Arvin watched excitedly how a small elf appeared and bowed deeply enough for his large ears to touch the floor.
"Yes, Mistress Minerva, what cans Hamish dos for Mistress Minerva?"
Only seconds later, the two cats were happily slurping their milk. After a quick lunch together with Mrs. Figg, Arvin made his way to the green houses, not yet aware of the fact that the participation in a Herbology class could be much more dangerous than Transfiguration.
tbc...
I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.