No you are not dreaming, yes this is real! And I apologize so much to everyone who has been waiting for this chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long. This is the final chapter of Cats in the Cradle, it ended where I wanted it to end but I had originally planned for it to be longer. However I do not want you…the like two people who are probably still reading this… to wait any longer to finish up the story.
Dedication: To everyone who has read my story and reviewed and sent me messages encouraging me to finish this chapter and really the whole story is dedicated to you, because this would not have been possible with you.
Disclaimer: Over my two year hiatus I have fought JK Rowling for the rights and succeeded!... Just Kidding although I did get to meet JKR I still own nothing!
September quickly gave way into October which passed by with only two momentous occasions. The first being Minerva's birthday (where she received a small surprise party, and was proclaimed an old fart by her husband) and the second being the break in of Sirius Black on Halloween which resulted in all the school spending the night in the Great Hall, which could have been great fun if everyone had not been so terrified at the thought of Sirius Black.
When Hermione confronted her mother about the break in, Minerva told Hermione how he must have escaped through a secret passage in the castle.
"Wait Mum a secret passage? Are there secret passages that can take you in and out of Hogwarts?" She asked.
"Oh certainly, and wipe that look off of your face young lady, I don't know where any are. Though it doesn't surprise me that Sirius Black would know where they are." She mumbled that last bit under her breath.
"Why would Sirius Black know where the secret passages are Mum?" Hermione asked. Minerva looked startled, as if she hadn't realized she had said that out loud.
"Never you mind, off to class with you sweetie" And that was the end of that conversation, or at least for Minerva. Hermione that evening approached Harry and Ron and asked them about the secret passageways out of the castle, intent on helping her parents guard the school. Ron quickly chimed in that if anyone knew any secret passageways it'd be Fred and George, so the trio began to spy on the twins when they went off by themselves in the evenings greatly aided by Harry's invisibility cloak.
This sneaking around occurred for roughly two months and it wasn't until December that they were able to discover a passage out of the school, although not in quite the way they expected.
One evening when Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys were relaxing in the common room, Fred and George announced that they had to go run an errand (which fooled no one) and left the common room. Harry quickly made his excuses, shared a glance with Hermione and Ron and followed the twins underneath the invisibility cloak.
So Harry followed them as quickly as he could, and after going around and around in what appeared to be circles they came to a stop at the 3rd floor corridor. Harry paused behind them, was this where a secret passage began?
"You might as well come on out Harry!" One of the Twins said turning to look at him.
"That's right come and join the party!" The other said and Harry, dumbfounded, removed the cloak and stared at them in shock.
"How'd you know I was there?!" He asked coming to stand by them.
"We'll get to that in a second Harrykins, we would like to know why you are following us?" Fred asked. Harry sighed and explained.
"We think Sirius Black might have gotten into the school by using a secret passage, and we knew you two know about the passages, but we didn't think you'd tell us where they were." The twins both gasped dramatically.
"It's like you don't know us at all Harry!" George said loudly.
"Do you honestly think we'd withhold information when it would help you escape and cause mischief?"
"Never!"
"So you'll tell me?" Harry asked.
"Course we will! In fact…" Fred shared a look with George "we'll do you one better."
"You see Harry, we know about every secret passage in the castle, have for many years in fact and we'll grace that knowledge onto you." They led him by the statue of a humpbacked witch and pulled out a piece of parchment.
"This is our secret weapon." George said proudly showing it Harry.
"What a blank piece of parchment?"
"No it's so much more than that! Watch: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" Fred chanted placing his wand on top of the blank sheet of paper. Harry watched in amazement as ink spilled from Fred's want and became words on the sheet of parchment. Harry read the words that appeared on top:
"Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present the Marauders Map. Is this a map of Hogwarts?"
"Yes Sir Harry, and not only does it show you the seven secret passageways in and out of the castle it also has one other handy little feature." They both pointed to part of the map. Harry peered closer.
"Wait a minute is that…?"
"Us?"
"Yes it is."
"That's brilliant! Is that how you knew I was following you?" Harry asked.
"Correctomundo!" Fred exclaimed. "Now Harry, we have no more need for this map, we know it backwards and forwards, so as long as you promise not to let Hermione give it to a professor, we are more than happy to pass it on to you."
"As long as young Harry promises to use it to create mischief." George continued.
"Not that you three need any help causing problems." Fred said smirking.
"Oh and don't forget to wipe it clean just tap it and say 'Mischief Managed' otherwise anyone can read it." They finished together handing over the map to Harry and continuing on their way Honeydukes.
Now in possession of the Marauders map the trio kept an eye on all of the secret passageways just in case Sirius Black appeared again. However with the upcoming holiday approaching their focus began to shift instead on relaxing and enjoying the empty castle once the other students left.
Christmas day dawned brightly and Hermione crept down from her empty dorm in Gryffindor tower and ran down to Minerva's quarters on the first floor, holding Crookshanks tightly as she bounded down the empty corridors. She whispered the password to her mother's quarters, dropped Crookshanks on the floor, smiled happily at the presents underneath the Christmas tree and headed into her parents' bedroom. Both Minerva and Albus were still sleeping and Hermione crawled in between them to shake them both awake.
"Wake up its Christmas!" She said to Minerva whispering. Minerva's reply was to groan and pull Hermione to her.
"Do I want to know what time it is?" Minerva asked sleepily.
"6:30"
"I thought we agreed on 7:30 because Harry and Ron were coming at 8" She mumbled.
"We did but I wanted to spend some time with you and I wanted to give you both a present before Harry and Ron wake up."
"And that meant waking me up an hour before I had to be up?"
"Well I did want to cuddle a bit."
"That I can do" Minerva said opening up her arms for Hermione to cuddle into, and listening to Hermione giggle when Albus slid over to wrap his arms around both of them. They stayed like that for roughly half an hour until Hermione decided she had waited long enough and shook them both awake. Minerva groaned but willingly sat up to look at her daughter who smiled at her.
"Happy Christmas!" Hermione said beaming. Her parents returned the sediment although with much less enthusiasm.
"Alright Hermione what is this present that you much show us now rather than in an hour when we open the other presents with Harry and Ron?" Minerva asked. Hermione looked down shyly.
"Well because its a present but its not really a present, more like something I want to show you and I hope you won't get to mad at me…" Albus and Minerva shared a look.
"What are you talking about sweetie?"
"Well do you remember what you got me last year for Christmas?" Hermione asked. Albus and Minerva shared a bemused look.
"Yes of course I remember. It was our first Christmas together." Minerva said smiling at her. Of course she remembered it was one of the happiest days of her life. "I believe I gave you a history of magic text and one of my old advanced transfiguration books."
"And I believe I got you the socks that you are currently wearing." Albus told her, as Hermione wiggled her feet in the air as confirmation.
"Right! Well, I want to start by saying I didn't intend for this to happen quite the way it did but when I was petrified I had quite a bit of time on my hands because I couldn't sleep or move, and I only had so many visitors to occupy my time. So I just started working on this and then it was going so well that I had to keep up with it…" At this point Albus cut off her rambling.
"How about you show us whatever you are talking about Hermione and then explain." He asked his curiosity peaked. She nodded quickly and shut her eyes tightly in concentration, and suddenly there was a small pop and Hermione disappeared.
"Hermione!" Minerva shouted looking around wildly for where her daughter could have disappeared to, vaguely noticing her husband doing the exact same thing. Then, as she was about to bolt from the bed all traces of sleepiness gone, she felt a slight pressure on her leg and glanced down.
There sitting in the exact spot that Hermione had been was a small brown kitten with a fluffy tail staring up at both of them. After a few seconds of stunned silence the kitten walked over to Minerva and started pressing her paw into Minerva's leg.
"Hermione?" She asked still stunned. The kitten… Hermione meowed and rubbed against Minerva's leg before turning to do the same to Albus.
"Oh that is brilliant!" He cried picking up his daughter who meowed again. "This has got to be a record, she's even younger then you were Minnie! And how fascinating that she's a kitten still young not a fully formed cat. Most Animagi transform into the adult version of the animal but then again Hermione's not an adult yet. Oh well done Hermione!" The kitten meowed again in appreciation. Minerva meanwhile had whipped her wand out and was doing all sorts of complicated wand work above Hermione's head.
"Young lady do you have any idea how dangerous this is?! Something could have easily gone wrong with the transformation if you hadn't prepared properly! Change back I need to talk to you!" Hermione jumped out of Albus' hands and transformed back. Minerva immediately seized the girl and began checking her over as if there would be some sort of physical damage to her.
"Mum I'm fine!" Hermione told her.
"Explain now! Because I know you're a smart girl Hermione but there is no way that as young as you are you should be able to accomplish becoming an Animagus." Hermione began to explain quickly, fearing Minerva's temper that the woman was suppressing because of worry.
"I'm sorry but before I had been petrified I had begun reading up on the Animagus book you got me last Christmas, I was really excited about it and thought if I learned everything there was to know about it, you'd let me learn how to do it soon. And as I was reading I learned that the biggest and most complicated part of the transformation was mentally preparing yourself for transformation. Finding your inner animal and preparing your body and magic to make the change correct?" Both her parents nodded. "So when I was petrified…" Minerva cut her off at this point.
"You started doing the meditation exercises to keep yourself occupied." Hermione nodded eagerly.
"Yes exactly! I was going mad sitting there all hours of the day, and the hospital wing was always absolutely silent at night it was very easy for me to concentrate and I didn't get tired because I didn't need to sleep. By the time I had been woken by the mandrake potion I had already discovered that my animal would be a cat" Minerva did give a small smile here which spurred Hermione onward. "And it did not take me long to finish getting my mind mentally ready for the transformation. Which according to your book, the reason why many people fail at becoming an Animagus is because they cannot mentally prepare for such a change."
"Yes that is true." Albus chimed in. "Many do not have the patience to sit for hours at a time to focus all their attention back into their body. The reasons problems occur with wizards is because they haven't mentally prepared and their bodies cannot handle the change."
"But it's the changing itself that is worrying me." Minerva cut in. "Even with the proper mental training and preparing your magic there is always a possibility that something may go wrong with the transformation. For you to practice the transformation alone…"
"But I didn't practice alone!" Hermione cut in. "Harry was always with me whenever I tried to transform. He watched and made sure that if anything went wrong he could quickly get one of you to help! Most of the time when I practiced we did in an unused classroom on this floor so that if something did go wrong Harry could run and get you!" Albus at this point placed a calming hand on Minerva's shoulder, though he winked at Hermione.
"And you are all right?" Minerva asked. "You didn't have any complications with the transformation?"
"Nope! And I even transformed for Professor Flitwick to make sure everything was alright!"
"Hermione, although Professor Flitwick is a wonderful Charms professor he is not a transfiguration master like your father and I." To her surprise Hermione grinned.
"He said you'd say something like that, and that I am to remind you that he is perfectly good at transfiguration and received an O on his transfiguration NEWT." Albus burst out laughing at Minerva's flushed face. Minerva sent another cross look to Albus before turning her attention back to Hermione.
"I'm sorry I upset you Mum." She said "I thought you'd be happy that I managed to do it…" Minerva reached out pull Hermione into her arms.
"I just know how dangerous it is to accomplish by yourself Hermione, I am very proud of you… especially since you seem to be perfectly fine." Hermione nodded at this and confirmed that she is healthy and normal. "Transform again." Minerva prompted and Hermione popped back to her little kitten form. Minerva picking up some of the excitement her daughter and husband displayed transformed down to her tabby cat form and knocked heads with her little kitten. Communicating with Hermione as a cat, while difficult, was easier than when Minerva tried to communicate with real cats. Apparently prompted by their noise, Crookshanks jumped up onto the bed and regarded them with a tilt of his head as if he couldn't make heads or tails of them.
"Well heaven forbid anyone walk into this room right now, they might think I've gone senile in my old age and become a crazy cat man." Albus said chuckling at them. Minerva transformed back and laid back down on the bed.
"My own record beaten by my daughter, I suppose if I had to lose the title of youngest Animagus ever I'd rather it be family."
"Wait, youngest ever?" Hermione asked transforming back.
"Unless there are some unregistered Animagus around but you are the youngest I have ever heard of." Albus commented. Hermione flushed red.
"Should I tell you then that Harry and Ron both want to learn as well? Harry has already started the mental meditations."
"If Harry and Ron want to learn then they only need to attempt it with myself present." Minerva said, Hermione opened her mouth to cut in. "Don't say anything else on the matter young lady, you are the exception to the rule, you are skilled at transfiguration Harry and Ron are not. So if they want to try and attempt it I must be present understood?"
"Understood." Hermione whispered. "Did I surprise you?"
"I'm pretty sure you gave her a great shock Hermione." Albus said.
"We'll have to go about getting you registered with the ministry!" Minerva said excitedly. "Also I want to observe you transformed to take some notes. Albus was completely right I've never heard of someone so young transforming."
"Merry Christmas Mum, Merry Christmas Dad!
"Merry Christmas, my beautiful girl." It certainly was a wonderful beginning to Christmas day and looking back on the past crazy year, Minerva would not have had it any other way, as long as she had this young girl wrapped within her arms.
Hi everybody! I feel so bad that I have not updated this in so long, honestly I never intended for it to take me this long to complete this story but my life has changed so much since I began this. When I began this I was a junior in high school, and my life pretty much consisted of marching band and my friends. I graduated from university in three years working full time and studying abroad, so any free time I had I pretty much used it to sleep. I am now a certified Social Studies teacher in the state of Maryland, long term substituting (aka gaining as much experience as I can!) until I get hired full time somewhere!
I am thankful to everyone who has stuck with this story, and if some people removed it from alert or stopped reading I completely understand. I hope you enjoyed this final chapter of the story. I did rush it a bit towards the end, I had always planned to end this story at Christmas, since this story began around Christmas, but I had originally planned a few more chapters. So sorry that it's a quick little wrap up but you all have been waiting to long for the ending and I needed to get it to you. Like I said it was never my intention to leave this story or Lioness. The others may or may not get revamped or finished but these two are done!