Cats to the Rescue – Chapter 6
Like Minerva, Pomona had prepared a pillow for Arvin right next to her desk. 'Oh, I like this yellow colour more than the dark red in the Transfiguration classroom,' Arvin mused, sadly noticing that there weren't any sunrays nearby. As soon as the students were engrossed in their lesson, he scrambled onto his paws, feeling very safe because no wand could be seen in any of the students' hands. He had to walk to the far end of the green house, before he could make himself comfortable in the warm rays of the early autumn sun.
Unfortunately, Arvin wasn't aware of the fact that he was lying right in front of the devil's ivy, a magical plant that was extremely poisonous but held an enormous value in Healing potions. He sprawled on the floor and slowly drifted off to sleep, not noticing that his tail was touching the dangerous plant behind him. Only when he woke up as the students left the green house, walking right next to him, did he notice his tail was stuck.
Arvin let out a helpless yelp as he began to panic. Fortunately, one of the students noticed his problem and immediately called the professor, who put on her safety gloves, before she freed Arvin's tail with a few professional grips.
"Thank you," Arvin said gratefully, suddenly feeling extremely groggy in spite of the nap he had taken earlier.
"I hope you won't get ill," the professor said, giving him a piercing look. "The devil's ivy is one of the most poisonous plants I have in this green house, and all the first years learn in their first class to keep away from it."
'I feel horrible,' Arvin mused and decided to go home for the day. "If you were Herbifera I would tell you, but in your human form you can't understand. I'm going home," he replied and, while the professor was distracted with the newly arriving students, he slowly dragged himself out of the green house and around the never-ending wall of the castle, until he finally reached the cat flap. 'Am I going to die?' was his last thought as he collapsed in the cat's den, unconscious.
HP
When Arvin's mind slowly returned to awareness, he found himself lying on Severus' lap. He felt ice cold, although his tail seemed to be on fire. Arvin let out a small moan, causing the teacher to look at him in relief.
"Thank God you're awake, Arvin. I need you to drink this potion. It's the antidote for the devil's ivy. Poppy spelled it into your system earlier, but since you're awake you can drink the next dose yourself."
Arvin obediently sipped the potion, feeling too horrible to show as much as a frown at the foul taste.
"I assume you must be feeling dreadful," Severus continued in a soft, soothing voice. "Unfortunately, there is nothing to help you with that. You'll have to wait it out." With that, the professor gently placed him back in the cat's den and changed to Nero, curling up around the sick kitten.
During the following three days, Arvin's condition didn't improve at all. He vaguely registered Severus returned from his classroom every now and then, taking his temperature, feeding him his potions, and bathing his tail in a soothing essence. Every night, Felina and Herbifera joined them to spend the night together with the lynx and the extremely sick kitten.
Only after a week, Arvin was back to normal and hesitantly returned to classes, resolving to stay close to the teacher's desk at any time. It took him a few days to figure out, in which order he had to attend classes to get as much sunshine as possible, and from that time onwards, he always joined Minerva first thing in the morning, spent the next class in the Potions classroom, and the first afternoon class in the afternoon, where he normally slept through until Pomona woke him up in time for dinner.
After dinner together with Mrs. Norris, who was very funny in spite of being mean to the students as Arvin noticed quickly, the two cats normally went for a stroll through the castle, until Arvin had to return home as soon as it began to get dark outside. He usually spent the evening curled up on the sofa in the living room, right next to Severus, who was doing his work, grading homework and other parchments.
As soon as Severus was done with his work, he transformed into his lynx form and asked Arvin about the Potions class he had attended in the morning. On most days, Arvin had many questions concerning the potions the students had been brewing or about the ingredients they had used. Nero noticed soon that Arvin seemed to be highly intelligent and was very interested in Potions.
"I always had to cook at the Dursleys since I was three," Arvin admitted in a small voice when the lynx commended him. "I'd love to try to brew something some time, only if nobody except for you is around though."
"We'll do that," Nero replied firmly, "I'm very glad you're so interested in my favourite subject."
"Thank you. I can't wait to try it out," Arvin said happily as he absently cleaned his paws.
"By the way, tomorrow will be the first Quidditch match of the season. Join me out on the grounds if you wish. I'm sure you'll like it."
Arvin agreed immediately, and in the morning, he spent three hours shifting from Severus' lap to Minerva's and back, eagerly watching the Quidditch match Gryffindor versus Slytherin. By the time the Slytherin Seeker caught the Snitch, Pomona gently took Arvin from Minerva's lap.
"Stay with me for a while, sweetie," she whispered into his ear. "Minerva and Severus are probably going to verbally attack each other about the match. They always do, so the students think they're the largest rivals. No one except for a few of our colleagues and you know they're best friends."
'They should make it quickly. It's cold out here,' Arvin mused, nestling deep into the professor's warm robes.
"Well, that's what I call a brilliant match, Minerva," Severus sneered with a smug expression on his face.
"Ah, but only because your Beaters fouled all the time," Minerva gave back angrily, causing the Potions Master to snort.
"Jealous, Minerva?" he queried, raising an eyebrow.
"No, I'm more content with my players' honourable behaviour than I'd be with an underserved victory," Minerva huffed.
Suddenly, Poppy breached the circle of students standing around the two rivalling professors. "All of you are going inside the castle instantly! Otherwise I'll drag you to the hospital wing for Pepperup potion. Did none of you notice that it has begun to snow?"
From the tone of her voice Arvin could tell the nice woman was very upset, and to his surprise everyone including Minerva and Severus followed her instruction. Nevertheless, it couldn't prevent Severus from catching a cold.
On Monday evening, Arvin noticed the professor was in a bad mood. He angrily mumbled to himself while he was grading homework, letting out a sneeze every now and then. Later, after transforming into Nero, he said, "Arvin, I'm sorry, but I'd like to skip our Potions lesson for tonight. I'm very tired."
"No problem," the smaller cat replied softly, feeling a bit sad because he loved their private lessons and had been looking forward to it the whole day. "Nero, are you feeling all right?" he asked worriedly when the lynx curled up next to him in exhaustion.
"It's just a bit of a cold," Nero replied, "but you're right. I should take a dose of Pepper-up potion."
Arvin chuckled inwardly, watching as steam emerged from the tall professor's ears. "Better now?" he queried as Nero lay down again.
"I hope so," the lynx croaked, "and I hope you won't get it from me."
When Severus returned to his quarters on Tuesday evening, he lay down on the sofa, ignoring the pile of parchments on the table. Frowning, Arvin made himself comfortable on the professor's stomach, looking at him in concern. 'He doesn't look good,' he observed. 'His cheeks are flushed as if he had a fever, and there is a lot of sweat on his forehead. Maybe he needs my help. Should I transform and check on him? At least I should check his temperature and wipe the sweat from his forehead. I can't do that in my cat form. But I don't want anyone to see me as Harry. Hmmm, on the other hand, Severus has seen me before, and he never told anyone about it. I can trust him.'
He finally made up his mind and jumped down to the floor, where he transformed back into Harry. Realising the professor hadn't noticed anything so far, he hurried to the bathroom to wet a towel and search for a thermometer for humans, only to return with both items a minute later.
"Severus, can you open your mouth for me?" he asked softly, causing the professor to open his eyes with a jolt.
"Harry!" Severus croaked in disbelief.
"I think you're ill, and I want to check on you," Harry replied quietly, carefully sticking the thermometer under the teacher's tongue, before he proceeded to gently wipe the sweat off the man's face. "Thirty-eight point two," he read from the display, "that's a fever. Should I go and try to find Poppy?"
"No," Severus replied alarmed. "I'll be fine. Just let me stay here overnight. Can you fetch me another Pepperup potion and a fever reducer from my lab? The Pepperup is on the third shelf from the door, fifth shelf from the bottom, and the fever reducer is the light green potion on the third shelf from the bottom right next to the door."
"Okay," Harry replied eagerly and hurried to fetch the requested phials. He watched the professor gulp down the potions and carefully adjusted the wet towel to the man's forehead, before he gave him a sharp look. "I'm going to change back into Arvin. Just wake me up if you need me."
"All right, thank you so much," Severus mumbled gratefully, already drifting off to sleep, while Arvin curled up right next to him.
In the morning, Severus' condition remained unchanged, and Harry tried in vain to keep the professor from teaching his classes. He pondered if he should tell Minerva or Pomona about his concern but decided against it, remembering the professor had always kept his secret so far.
On Wednesday evening, the teacher retreated to his bedroom instead of lying down on the sofa. Arvin immediately transformed into Harry and took the professor's temperature, noticing his fever exceeded thirty-nine degrees. "Severus, you can't teach classes tomorrow, and we need to call Poppy. Your condition is getting worse every day in spite of the Pepperup potion," Harry said worriedly as he took the thermometer back.
"It's only tomorrow and the day after, and then it's the weekend," Severus replied hoarsely. "I promise I'll stay the weekend in bed, until I feel better. Can you fetch me a fever reducer, please?"
"Of course," Harry replied and helped the man sit up and drink the potion, watching as the teacher drifted off into a fever induced sleep, shivering and coughing every now and then.
Too worried to transform back, Harry remained the whole evening in his human form, sitting on the edge of the bed, bathing the man's hot face with the wet towel every now and then. Noticing Severus' skin became hotter by the hour, he had just coaxed the thermometer into the sleeping man's half-open mouth, carefully holding it in place with his hands, when he heard someone call for Severus out in the living room.
'What am I going to do? No one can see me here in my human form, but I have to keep this thing in place,' he pondered, horrified.
tbc...
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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.