Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my OC Bailey, her puppies, and their father and any alterations to the original storyline plot their presence creates to various readers amusement everywhere across the globe.
A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 Chapter 18
Talk about wrong place at the wrong time.
Bailey doesn't necessarily believe in bad luck per say, but the level Harry is hit with this year is just ridiculous and we're not even halfway.
Harry and Bailey randomly come across Justin's own Petrified body in a corridor and Nearly Headless Neck hovering over him in the same state and his translucent body almost unrecognizable. Nearly Headless Nick is no longer pearly white, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock that is identical to the one Justin bore.
Harry couldn't be found here, but Peeves appears and sounds an alarm before they can get away.
Harry and Bailey end up bring brought to the Headmaster's office by Professor McGonagall. She gives the password to the ugly stone gargoyle stationed there and takes them up the spiral staircase that moves as an escalator would in the Muggle world.
Harry and Bailey are left for a small amount of time alone in the office as Professor McGonagall leaves to fetch Dumbledore and relay to the man what's going on with the most recent attack.
Harry and Bailey can't resist having a look around, investigating practically everything they see. There's so many intriguing things spread around that Bailey doesn't know which to start with. But she does know what she ultimately will keep her distance from.
The famed Hogwarts Sorting Hat.
The last time Bailey encountered the Sorting Hat it did not end well for her. She's lucky her nose hadn't been bitten off.
Harry bears no such reluctance. Harry slips the Sorting Hat on his head and has a private conversation with it. Whatever it was the Sorting Hat told him it causes Harry's spirits to drop even more.
A strange gagging noise behind them causes the two to wheel around.
Standing on a golden perch behind the door is an old and decrepit-looking bird that resembles a half-plucked turkey. Even though it's redder and gold than brown. The bird stares balefully back, making its gagging noise again. Its eyes are dull and a couple more feathers drop from the tail.
Bailey suspects it is very sick. Her suspicions are proven correct when it suddenly bursts into flames without warning, becoming a fireball. It gave one loud shriek and the next second there was nothing but a smoldering pile of ash on the floor.
Bailey yelps, cringing backward into Harry's legs. Harry yells in shock backing away into the desk.
Looking very somber as he steps into the room, Dumbledore said "Harry?"
"Professor," gasped Harry, horrified. "Your bird…I couldn't do anything. He just caught fire."
Smiling, eyes beaming, Dumbledore said "About time, too. He's been looking dreadful for days. I've been telling him to get a move on."
Say what?
Bailey tilts her head in confusion.
Harry is gapping, stunned.
Chuckling in amusement, Dumbledore said "Fawkes is a phoenix, Harry. Phoenixes burst into flame when it is time for them to die and are reborn from the ashes. Watch him…"
Dumbledore is right on the money.
A tiny, wrinkled, newborn bird pokes its head out of the ashes chirping at them.
Bailey lowers her head, lightly licking the baby phoenix to clean the ash off.
Fawkes chirps, giving a light hop onto Bailey's nose. She then carries him over to Dumbledore. He accepts the phoenix, petting Bailey's head in thanks.
Seating himself behind his desk, Dumbledore sighed "It's a shame you had to see him on a burning day. He's really very handsome most of the time, wonderful red and gold plumage. Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers, and they make highly faithful pets and familiars. Very much like your Bailey."
Dumbledore then aims his own eyes at Harry in a light blue penetrating stare that mirrors the one Fawkes gave off.
Before any words can be spoken the office door flew open with an almighty bang and Hagrid bursts in. A dead rooster is swinging from his head.
In breathless urgency, Hagrid said "It wasn't Harry, Professor Dumbledore. He was down at my house a couple of minutes before that kid was found. He and Bailey visiting her puppies. He never had time, Sir. It can't have been him, I'll swear it in front of the Ministry of Magic if I have to. You've got the wrong boy, Sir. I know Harry never-."
Loudly, Dumbledore said "Hagrid! I do not think that Harry attacked those people."
Rooster falling limply at his side, slightly embarrassed by his outburst, Hagrid said "Oh. Right. I'll wait outside then, Headmaster."
Hagrid leaves the room, red-faced.
Hopeful, Harry said "You don't think it was me, Professor?"
Shaking his head, pressing the tips of his long fingers together, Dumbledore said "No, Harry, I don't. But I still want to talk to you. I must ask you, Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me. Anything at all."
Inhaling deeply to calm his rapidly beating heart, maintaining eye contact so Dumbledore doesn't accuse him of lying, innocently, Harry said "No, Sir, nothing."
Bailey is confident Dumbledore can see right through this, but the old man doesn't call her boy out on it. Dumbledore grants them leave to leave with no consequences.
The following day, the fact that Harry is walking around freely, not arrested or expelled should be telling enough that Dumbledore believes whatever explanation he provides that he wasn't responsible for the attack on Nearly Headless Nick and Justin.
Certainly, rules out Bailey and her children without a doubt. None of the dogs can attack a ghost of all things. That's the only consolation Bailey can take from all this.
It's as if it doesn't matter what he says now to contradict it. The stigma labelling him as the Heir of Slytherin is there. Thanks to all these loudmouths spreading rumors it's not going away anytime soon in the near future.
But Harry is suffering immensely from under all this unjustified peer pressure.
Harry really needed to get away from the numerous whispers, points, and stares happening behind his back from the students and teachers. He seeks solace in spending time with Bailey and the extended canine family.
The puppies excitedly greet Harry and their mother the moment the gate is open. They stream out, knocking Harry down and sending his glasses askew. Bailey barks at the puppies to get them back under control, delicately picks the glasses up in her teeth, depositing them into Harry's waiting palm.
Facing the Dark Forest, Bailey lifts her head and sends out a resounding howl.
Remarkably the puppies join their mother in howling a summons to their father, voices merging and echoing over the air into the Forbidden Forest.
The various leaps and bounds the pups are achieving in their rate of growth is getting hard for Bailey to fathom, but in a good way.
Doesn't take long for Brokefang to show up.
Recalling how they acted around them yesterday Harry has no inhibitions in unleashing the pops. No sooner does he unlock the gate that they're charging for him. Brokefang disappears, vanishing in a crowd of yelping and tail wagging puppies that are jumping up and licking his face.
Bailey sits, patiently waiting for them to finish and let it be her turn.
Extracting himself from the pups Brokefang approaches her. Bailey nuzzles him, pawing at Brokefang's neck.
Brokefang grows rigid.
She knows then that he's spotted Harry close by.
One of the biggest tests that still needs to be undergone is Brokefang being introduced to her master.
Harry takes the initiative, already researching what to do thanks to advice from Hagrid for this inevitable meeting.
Harry carefully crouches down at eye level, though avoids making direct eye contact with Brokefang so the alpha male doesn't mistakenly take it as a challenge. He's struggling not to show he's afraid or intimidated when that's really what he is. Brokefang cautiously approaches her boy at Bailey's behest, sniffing Harry's hands and when the alpha male moves on to the face her boy moves his head adjacent so it can be inspected. Finally, Brokefang gave a brief wag of acceptance to show he liked Harry's scent.
Bailey felt like she could breathe again. She had no idea what she would do if neither of the men in her life got along.
Brokefang takes the family down to the Black Lake.
From what Bailey can gather Brokefang wants to teach the pups how to fish.
Interesting.
Harry follows at the rear of the pack all the way down the shoveled pathway in the snow to the Black Lake, not interfering in the walk.
Harry settles on a decent sized rock where he can look out over the water and do his homework. Bailey lays down at Harry's side, deferring to Brokefang's expertise for this lesson. She doesn't really have anything to contribute here. She's not the hunting type. More like a scavenger like when Bailey was first a stray.
Brokefang locates a spot where some fish have congregated together in the shallows at a rare warm spot to escape the chilly water. Brokefang quietly paws some rocks in a close cluster, cutting off escape routes.
Right when everyone's attention is trained on him Brokefang commences with teaching them how to catch fish. Brokefang stalks to the water's edge, stepping quietly so not to startle the fish, and keep to the shadowed part so as not to give away his position. Picking his target Brokefang pounces on the prey. He ends up with a wriggling, fat, and juicy fish in his mouth. The bark, yip, and squirm in anticipation with each one Brokefang catches and tosses onto the rocks. He hasn't given permission for them to go for the fish yet, so they stay where they are. Brokefang even makes the space partially bigger by smashing some of the ice away by rearing up on his hind legs and slamming down with his front paws, breaking the ice further.
Bailey is impressed. They're learning how to fish and of patience at the same time.
Upon the seventh fish Brokefang gives a small signal for the puppies to have at it. All seven of them attack the fish and there is conflict on who gets which one, specifically from the boys. Bold, as defined by his name, beelines for the biggest and fattest one. Friendly intends for it to be for himself. Bold snags the head and Friendly the tail. Neither of them budges, snarling and pawing at the other to let go. Bounder and Ranger are in the same boat but are quarreling over the amount. Ranger is greedy and tries to add Bounders fish to his meal, but the bigger pup isn't taking it too well.
Dreamer, Charmer, and Whisper are much smarter on how they go about this. Unlike the boys they don't fight. Each of the girls sneak in and snag the best fish while the brothers are preoccupied with their squabbles, leaving them with the smaller ones left.
That's her girls.
As seen here the pups are starting to compete for food and rank as they would in the wild as this competition for fish shows. Exposure to their father and the teaching methods he's using are bringing them out in droves. In the next few months Bailey suspects they'll start vying for alpha status in the litter for whenever their parents aren't around. It's been made clear that in this family dynamic Brokefang is the dominant male and Bailey the dominant female, but this tightknit group of siblings will have their own hierarchy when it's just them alone. They'll be the 2nd in commands for each gender.
The changes are slow and subtle, but they're starting to adapt to a normal pack structure, integrating it into their lives with Brokefang influencing them.
Bailey will do her best to make sure that the mix in both of their bloodlines is evenly distributed in their behavior so as not to complicate their lives further at Hogwarts. She will make sure they can remain dignified and respectable in polite public society.
Bailey stays out of the ruckus, preferring to sit beside her boy and watch as Brokefang is doing the lesson.
Harry's mind is elsewhere as he sits there on the rocks, staring blankly across the lake, not having taken any of his books out.
Hugging his knees to his check, subdued, Harry said "Who am I, Bailey? What am I?"
He is Harry, her boy.
Oh how Bailey has never wished more that she can have the ability to talk and convey to her boy this.
Instead, all Bailey can do is lay her head in her lap, nudge his hand, and encourage him to stroke her head to relieve some of the inner turmoil he's going through.
It's what Bailey is here for.
Authors Note:
That's right! Your eyes are not deceiving you! It's a double update! The first one I've ever done! Ah!
Heads up everyone there's someone on fanfiction you need to seriously watch out for. Early a couple of months ago after I woke up I was checking my email and I saw I had a new guest review on my A Dog's Purpose Is Strange Magic 2 sequel. I took a look at it and got a very big shock. Some random person I've never spoken to before on here or anywhere else in my life was basically threatening me. Intimidating and practically ordering me to write a threatening letter to someone on their behalf, telling to stay off of for life or else they and everyone else close to them would be killed, disgustingly telling them to kill themselves. And at the bottom of the message this crazy person wasn't done. Warning me that if I don't send the letter then they would kill me and for confirmation to email them to make absolutely sure I complied with their demands. Of course I did nothing of the sort. Instead of doing what they wanted I reported them to the website, sent copies of this deplorable guest review message to police officer cousins of mine so they could have it on file, and I went to a nearby police station and reported it.
When I spoke to the police officers and they checked everything on the message they saw, that while the address and names of business were accurate the people and their names were not. They agree it was more than likely a scam because of the email address on the bottom in order to perhaps get access to personal information or potentially hack my computer. Despite that I'm still very happy they took it seriously as I showed and told them everything. All the same I'm still very happy that I brought this to the attention of law enforcement. Even though the entire thing might be fake I'm still very happy to have brought this to the attention of those who can do something about it if it was legit in some way. This may have been a scam, but it's obvious these people are beyond irresponsible if they try to goad people into sending death threats to random strangers just to get access to info.
Be that as it may if this does unfortunately happen to you do not send any messages to the email addresses they put down and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you bring the message to the authorities immediately whether it is legit or not.
Because it's a guest review it might not be visible for a couple of days as it loads if it is sent to you. But when it does you should definitely pressing the report abuse button and send it to the email that leads to the support staff that is available.
Just a heads up to those of you who aren't aware of this yet, Email alerts for this website are now only active if Email opts is enabled in account settings.
I hope you all like this one! I certainly did while writing it for your vast enjoyment! ;D
For those of you just starting out with my stuff there are other works on my profile that may catch your interest. I highly recommend you take a look as soon as the opportunity presents itself to you. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you discover.
Stay safe everyone. Especially with all of these crazy natural disasters occurring a lot lately due to global warming and climate change everywhere for sure. I swear it's like they're getting worse and worse all the time and it's like officials are simply just ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist entirely just to go on with their daily lives. Especially those in multi-million dollar companies that rely on certain elements of our planet that we rely on to naturally keep us safe instead of adapting and finding new safer ways to keep in business. There are so many options out there where they can adapt, but they just refuse to see it because all they care about is money. Climate change is altering so much faster than anyone can really keep track of.
So, in light of all this, it is important to live life to the fullest as much as anyone can.
I know I am. ;) See you guys next time.