The Cat's Pyjamas
by Healer Pomfrey
Please refer to the disclaimer, warnings and notes at the beginning of chapter 1!
8 - Entertainment to our mind.
Before Pangur could even wonder what blood wards were, his eyes fell on the picture that was displayed underneath the headline. It showed his aunt and uncle. "Why?" he spoke up, trying to get a glimpse at the small letters of the text under the photo.
"Yesterday, remaining followers of the Dark Lord attacked the Dursleys," Severus explained, sighing.
"Pangur, this is not your fault," Minerva threw in quickly.
"Are they..." Pangur slowly trailed off, absolutely horrified at the thought. 'Of course it's my fault. They were attacked because they are related to me, and probably because I lived with them.' "The Dark Lord is Voldemort, right?" he queried, trying to recall what Severus and Minerva had told him, when they had spoken about the matter last summer and also during the winter.
"Yes," Minerva replied in a soft voice. "The Dursleys did not have a chance."
"Did they..." Pangur cleared his throat to win time before asking the worst. "These people, were they looking for me?"
Minerva leaned over and pulled him into a firm hug, before she said, "Probably yes, sweetie, but it's the Dursleys' own fault. Had they treated you better, you would still be living with them, and the blood wards would have kept them safe."
"Exactly," Severus confirmed in an equally soft voice. "Professor Dumbledore placed strong wards around their house; however, they were only active as long as you and your aunt were living together. Minerva is completely right; do not even think, for one moment, that this was your fault." Turning to his colleague, he queried, "Minerva, is it correct to assume that no one except for Albus knows Pangur's whereabouts?"
Minerva nodded. "Only Albus knows that he is with me, no one else, unless he told anyone," she said, frowning in thought. "The news that I am the Headmistress here and who are my colleagues will surely have made its way to Hogwarts by now. Severus, do you think we need to take further precautions for Pangur's safety?"
The Potions Master slowly turned his mug around between his hands. "Yes. I believe that we should cast stronger wards around the school grounds. Let's do this in the afternoon."
HP
A few hours later, Pangur observed how all adults walked around the grounds casting simultaneous spells, while he absentmindedly took cat's temperatures and fed potions to rabbits. 'Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are dead,' he mused, 'and probably Dudley as well, and the worst is that it's all my fault.'
猫のパジャマ
At the same time at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry...
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore looked up from his parchment when his office door opened and the Deputy Headmaster, Filius Flitwick, stepped into the room. "How nice of you to join me on this fine evening," he said tiredly, offering his colleague a lemon drop. "I trust that you read the main article in the Daily Prophet?" he queried, looking at the tiny wizard with expectance.
"Of course Albus," Flitwick replied eagerly, "the whole school is talking about nothing else than Harry Potter. Do you have any idea about little Harry's whereabouts?"
Dumbledore let out a long sigh. "Harry is with Minerva and Poppy; however, that's all I know."
"Does that have anything to do with Minerva's and Poppy's resignation last summer?" Flitwick asked with apparent interest.
"Yes," Dumbledore replied gravely. "If I am not mistaken, Minerva must be the Headmistress of the new wizarding school in Kentucky, the KFC, together with her sister, Medusa O'Leary. As far as I have heard, the school is open for younger students from the age of eight years onwards, so that I assume Harry must be a student there, at least from the next school year onwards. He is going to be eight this summer."
The smaller wizard's face lit up with satisfaction. "Oh then we won't have to worry about the little tyke. Minerva will surely be able to keep him safe."
Dumbledore absentmindedly popped a lemon drop into his mouth, before he explained, his voice laced with exasperation. "Filius, a few years ago, a prophecy was made, concerning Harry and Voldemort. According to the prophecy, Harry is the only one, who is able to defeat Voldemort, and the two of them won't be able to survive, whilst the other is alive. Do you comprehend my problem?"
Flitwick sighed, before he responded simply, "Albus, I don't believe in prophecies. You defeated Grindelwald; why should you not be able to conquer Voldemort, provided that he somehow manages to reappear?"
Dumbledore remained thoughtful for a few minutes, before he said, more to himself than to his colleague, "The problem is not only that the boy resides abroad but also that he is magically handicapped. I will have to think of something."
猫のパジャマ
On Wednesday morning, Pangur was very excited. 'Today, I'm finally going to learn telepathy,' he thought as he hurriedly dressed to be on time for breakfast.
"What do you expect from telepathy?" Severus asked, quirking an eyebrow at the boy on the chair behind the desk in his office.
'He sounds very stern,' Pangur realised, resolving to not disappoint his godfather. "I'd like to be able to communicate with people, who are not with me," he replied, feeling uncertain if it would be wise to speak about Goldie.
"Very well," Severus acknowledged. "Do you have an idea how this might work?"
"No sir," Pangur replied quietly, looking at the professor in expectation.
"First of all, you need to clear your mind." Seeing that Pangur stared at him in obvious confusion, Severus explained, "Push all thoughts from your mind and only think of the matter you wish to tell someone. If only the relevant thought is present, you will use a communication bridge to transfer the content to the recipient."
"A communication bridge, sir?" Pangur asked carefully.
"It is up to you to choose the communication bridge," Severus explained. "You need a bridge in order to connect with the recipient. For example, I use a huge golden cauldron, which contains a lukewarm relaxation liquid. In the image that I bring to the front of my mind to use telepathy, I jump into the cauldron, where I meet with the recipient of the message, which I intent to relate."
Pangur remained thoughtful for a moment, trying to comprehend every detail of the professor's explanation. "Could I use Goldie?" he asked finally. "I could ride on her in order to speak with her?"
"That should work well," Severus commended him, adding, "and if you want to communicate with a person, the two of you could ride on Goldie together."
Pangur smiled happily, knowing that the words coming from the professor's lips had been a rare praise. However, when he began to practise, he soon became frustrated. Each of his attempts to tell Severus how grateful he was that the professor took the time to teach him remained fruitless.
After thirty minutes of practice, Severus told Pangur to stop, pointing out, "You don't want to make yourself sick by practising too much. Now, you will only practise when I am with you. Doing magic just by yourself would be very dangerous and could even kill you. The only thing that you may and even should try is to clear your mind. I expect you to be able to do so within a week."
"Yes sir," Pangur promised eagerly.
猫のパジャマ
One day, Severus was very impatient. "Now concentrate," he hissed, seemingly annoyed about having to remind the boy several times that morning.
"I'm sorry sir," Pangur apologized. Somehow, he was unable to focus on the thought that he wanted to transmit, and when Severus carefully penetrated his mind using Legilimency, he was met with a flood of various messy thoughts.
"Don't waste my time," Severus finally said. "We'll try again when you're ready to make an effort." With that he dismissed the boy.
'Oh no, Severus is really angry at me,' Pangur thought as he slowly walked back to his room. Somehow, he felt relieved that Minerva was absent, uncertain if he would be able to hide his disappointment about his telepathy lesson.
However, when he helped Patrick in the clinic later on, the vet noticed soon that Pangur was not his usual cheery self that afternoon. "Pangur, what's wrong?" he asked kindly, looking astutely at the boy. "Are you feeling unwell?"
All of a sudden, Pangur noticed that his head hurt a bit. "No, it's just that I didn't pay much attention in Telepathy earlier, and Professor Snape was very angry," he admitted in a small voice.
"I see," Patrick said calmly. "Severus was in a bad mood today, but I believe that it was not because of you, but because of something that he read in the Daily Prophet this morning. Don't worry, little one. I am sure you're doing fine."
猫のパジャマ
When Pangur woke up in the morning, not only his head hurt, but also his throat was very sore. 'I probably caught a cold,' he thought, wondering if he should ask Poppy for a potion. However, he decided against it. 'She always makes such a fuss; she would surely keep me, and Severus would be even angrier if I missed my Defence lesson.'
Unbeknownst of the concerned looks he received from all adults at the sight of his small breakfast of cornflakes, Pangur stood up quickly when the Potions master rose from his seat.
"Ready for Defence?" Severus inquired kindly, raising an eyebrow as he eyed Pangur.
"Yes sir," Pangur replied in a small voice, noticing that his voice was beginning to fail. 'Today, I must try to do my best. I can't disappoint Severus again,' he thought on the way to the Defence classroom.
He could not believe his luck, when Severus motioned him to take his position and announced, "Today, we're going to practise the Expelliarmus spell once again; however, we will cast the spells absolutely soundlessly."
At first, the professor allowed him to cast the spell, before he attacked Pangur, and Pangur managed to dodge the spell. Then, however, Severus began to randomly cast the spell preferably just when Pangur was distracted right after casting his own silent 'Expelliarmus' at the professor.
Fortunately, Severus only cast rather weak spells at him that merely made him tumble to the floor instead of causing him to crash into the wall like it had happened to some of his classmates in class. Nevertheless, after casting the spell twice and falling to the floor twice, Pangur felt utterly miserable. He had the impression as if his surroundings were moving, although they weren't. He tried to ask Severus for a break, but his sore throat refused to let out as much as a whisper.
'Please stop for a moment, sir. I don't feel good,' he thought to the professor, in a desperate attempt to relay the message through telepathy, just before colourful stars began to appear in front of his eyes.
Before he knew what was happening, Severus scooped him up in his arms, and a cold hand found its way to his forehead.
"You are burning up," Severus said, looking concerned.
Pangur closed his eyes, which now hurt as well, and relaxed in his godfather's arms, feeling too miserable to care what was happening.
猫のパジャマ
"He only caught a cold," Poppy diagnosed a while later. "However, he completely depleted his magic."
'But I only cast the Expelliarmus spell twice,' Pangur thought, before he drifted off into a potions induced slumber.
From that day, Pangur had no problem whatsoever to use telepathy, he knew that he could not do the slightest bit of magic when he had caught as much as a cold, and the adults began to watch him like hawks.
猫のパジャマ
It was almost three years later, two weeks after Pangur's birthday or a day after the well-known birthday of famous Harry Potter, that the Daily Prophet reported something which shocked Minerva and Severus.
Pangur deciphered the main headlines on the front page:
'Break-in at Gringotts - Secret Object Stolen from Vault 713'
'According to Hogwarts' Headmaster Dumbledore a Tragedy'
"Do you believe that he placed the stone in Gringotts?" Minerva asked the Potions Master.
"Apparently yes," Severus replied slowly. "Knowing that everyone expects Harry Potter to come to Hogwarts this summer, he surely deemed Hogwarts not safe enough anymore."
"What does this mean?" Pangur asked hesitantly, curiously looking from Minerva to Severus.
"This probably means that the Dark Lord has gained immortality," Severus answered grimly, fervently searching the newspaper for further information.
tbc...
A huge thanks to JB5391 for beta-ing. Thank you all for your kind comments and sorry for the delay. I will try to update within a week this time, provided that there is still interest in this story. A very happy and healthy New Year to you all!