Chapter Four - Library Surprise
By the time Harry woke up, he was alone under the bed. For a moment he was disoriented, having no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there. Crookshanks' meowing jolted his memories, and he recalled with a fierce flush of embarrassment what had happened the night before.
As he crawled out from under the bed, he saw Hermione sitting at her desk. Faint scratching noises came from something in front of her, and the scent of ink and parchment confirmed his suspicions that she was writing something. To his great relief, and a smidgen of disappointment, she was a lot more clothed than she had been last night.
"Good morning," she said as she saw him emerging from the shadows under the bed.
Harry stretched, working the kinks out of his spine from lying in such a cramped position all night. Several joints popped as he moved. That's the last time I sleep under a bed, he vowed. Okay…I'll just check on what she's doing and then report to the Order, he told himself.
Shaking off the remaining stiffness, he padded over to the desk and peered at the parchment she was working on. A complex set of equations that he didn't have the slightest clue about revealed that it was her Arithmancy homework.
Hermione finished up the paragraph and set down her quill, grabbing her backpack and heading for the stairwell. Taken by surprise, he bounded after her and followed her to the front door. "Mom, I'm going to the library," Hermione called out.
Why am I not surprised? Harry sighed inwardly, then swore. Dammit, now I gotta follow her! Sorry Order, but Hermione is top priority…
As she went to open the door, she suddenly noticed him standing behind her. "Oh, no you don't, Shadow. You have to stay here. I'll be back later."
Harry's ears automatically laid back against his skull in displeasure, and he growled as she tried to sneak past him. He dug his claws into the wood of the door, getting his paw around to the outside to keep it open. Hermione put up a valiant struggle to close the door, but he managed to get his head through the gap to follow her.
She sighed. "Fine then! But don't you be getting into trouble or running away from me, got it?" Harry slid the rest of his body outside through the gap, and she was finally able to close the door to the house. "I think I'd rather have you be on that chain Charlie had," she told him. "If only to make the neighbors feel better about all this."
A clanking noise caught her attention as she stepped off the porch, and she looked down to see the chain lying on the sidewalk. She cast a suspicious glance at the panther, but Harry was just as surprised as she was. Apparently deciding that Charlie must have left it there in case she took him outside, she attached one end to his leather collar.
"We're going to get such strange looks from people," she muttered to him as they walked down the road. Harry looked around and was amused to see that she was right; people were stopping to stare at the unlikely pair of panther and teenage girl strolling casually towards the town library. A sporty red car almost collided with a telephone pole as the driver gaped at Harry.
From the other side of a chain link fence, a Yorkshire terrier started yapping insanely at him. Harry raised a feline eyebrow at the tiny dog that was so bold as to try to scare off something over twenty times its size. I may be a cat, but this is ridiculous, he thought with a snigger. It came out as a sneeze-like noise, which Hermione thankfully ignored.
The library was a rather large one, as far as libraries go; it was three stories tall and took up a good deal of floor space as well. The aged scent of bound paper permeated the entire room, and there was even a small lounge-like area in the center with couches and ornate rugs.
"Miss Granger!" a surprised man at the circulation desk exclaimed.
"Hello, Mr. Atoz," Hermione said.
"What exactly are you doing with this wild beast?" Mr. Atoz asked, looking nervously at Harry.
"I'm taking care of him for a friend," she explained. "He's very well-behaved, and there's no rule against having a panther in here, is there?"
"Well, no," Atoz admitted. "But keep an eye on that creature. If he so much as scratches one person, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."
"You won't have to," Hermione said with a smile, though Harry could smell her uncertainty. Feeling as though he needed to give her confidence a boost, he affectionately rubbed his cheek against her leg as if he were nothing more than a really....really...big kitty.
Which, of course, he was.
~~~~~~
By the time Hermione picked out a book to read, all the seats in the lounge area were taken. It didn't take her long to convince him to lie down on the plush rug and let her recline against his side, though many people had stopped to stare at the panther in the library.
Unwilling to be drawn back into a mire of boredom, Harry peered around her arm at the page of the open book. To his surprise, it was The Hobbit, a book he'd heard about but never read himself.
Hermione noticed his interest, and tilted the book so he could see better. "Can you read?" she asked quietly, almost inaudibly. Deciding to play it safe, and take some suspicion off of him, he shook his head and gave her his best pleading look. "Do you want me to read it to you?" This time he nodded slightly, prompting a smile from his friend.
"All right. `Chapter One: An Unexpected Party. In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit...'"
Harry listened in fascination as Hermione told the tale of a content little hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, and the old wizard Gandalf who tricked him into going on an adventure with thirteen dwarves to take back the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. Hermione had to stop for a moment when they reached the chapter about the hill trolls, because she was giggling a bit too hard to read quietly. "Oh, don't look at me like that," she scolded him playfully as he eyed her in concern. "I was just thinking that if Harry had been there, he would've tried to put his wand up its nose or something, like he did on Halloween in our first year. Though to be fair, it did help distract it long enough, and it was rather sweet of him to come running to my rescue."
Once again, Harry was thankful that his dark fur hid his blush. Well, what was I supposed to do? I didn't know any helpful spells but I couldn't let it just kill her.
Hermione giggled a bit more, then went back to the story. She was still smiling, however. "Right then. `A really first-class and legendary burglar would at this point have picked the trolls' pockets - it is nearly always worth while, if you can manage it -, pinched the very mutton off the spits, purloined the beer, and walked off without their noticing him...'"
~~~~~~
"...`Utterly miserable as Gollum sounded, Bilbo could not find much pity in his heart'-"
"Hey, that big cat hasn't been there before, has it?" a new voice interrupted somewhat loudly.
Hermione looked up in irritation to see a pair of young men who appeared to be in their early twenties - old enough to know better, but young enough to disregard that fact. One of them was staring at Shadow as if he knew exactly what the panther was. The other was apparently unaware that Shadow was a real, living creature and proceeded to come a bit closer to see him better.
"Excuse me," Hermione said, "but we were busy reading, so if you don't mind, we'd like to get back to that."
"Who's `we'?" the second guy asked, raising an eyebrow sharply as if he thought she was crazy. "I only see you, darlin'."
"Uh, Josh?" the first guy said hesitantly.
"Not now, Adrian, I'm talkin' to the girl," Josh commanded, not even sparing Adrian a glance. "So, where'd this big stuffed cat come from?" He reached forward to poke at the big cat's side.
Up until that point, Shadow had been lying with his head resting on his paws, eyes closed. He obviously knew the two men were present, but chose to remain still for whatever reason. At the `stuffed cat' comment, however, he lifted his head and opened his jaws wide in a huge yawn. Hermione could actually hear his jaw joint pop loudly before he closed his mouth and stared straight at Josh, who had gone rigid in sudden fear.
"I tried to tell you, dude," Adrian commented quietly. "That thing is real."
"Like I said," Hermione said, smirking slightly and reaching up to stroke the top of Shadow's head in emphasis, "we'd like to get on with our reading, so if you don't mind..."
Josh was apparently frozen in a combination of shock and terror, so Adrian grabbed the back of his jacket and dragged him away. Hermione smiled at him as he cast an apologetic look in her direction, mouthing the words `sorry about that' as he hauled his petrified friend away from the witch and her panther.
Shadow looked up at her as if to ask what he should do now. "I think we should finish the book at home," she said. "You never know what kind of interruptions we'll get here." She could've sworn Shadow actually grinned at that, but when she looked again he was still normal-looking.
Grabbing a bookmark, she marked their spot in The Hobbit and stood, grabbing Shadow's chain. The panther gracefully rose to his paws as well, and followed her to the checkout desk. Several people had stopped to stare, and Hermione caught a glimpse of Adrian peering around a bookcase at the pair. When he saw her looking in his direction, he gave her the thumbs-up sign in approval. She smiled back, and turned back to the counter to check out The Hobbit.
~~~~~~
During dinner, Harry was able to sneak away long enough to send a quick note to Remus Lupin about his vision the previous day, signing it under the name "Hermione's Shadow," knowing that he would understand and alert Dumbledore. Apparently Remus was on Hermione's guard-duty today, because a reply came back about ten minutes later.
Weasleys safe, it read. Burrow under Fidelius and family at 12G. Stay with Hermione.
RJL.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and tapped the note three times. It obligingly disappeared, and he transfigured back into Shadow before padding downstairs to rejoin the Granger family.
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A/N: Once again, thanks for all the reviews. There were a few more questions this time around, so here are the answers.
When will Hermione find out? (asked by several people)
I'm not telling. :-P But obviously not until towards the end.
How will/Did he warn the Weasleys/Order about the attack? (asked by several people)
As you can see at the end of the chapter, he did indeed, but he wasn't able to earlier in the day because he had to stay close to Hermione as she was out of the house.
By that last sentence, "It was..." do you mean he was enjoying it or not? (asked by Musique)
Part of him was enjoying it, part of him was too mortified. Wouldn't you be?
I'm guessing that Mr. and Mrs. Granger don't know that it's Harry. (stated by Anastasia O'Hara)
That's correct. They don't know that the panther is an Animagus at all, as they were told the same story that Hermione was.
How long does it usually take you to finish one chapter? (asked by Andi)
Actually I have most of this written out in advance, but I'm currently stuck on one of the later chapters. Plus sometimes I forget about my fics (I get caught up in my homework and stuff - I'm in college, so I'm sure you can understand why) and then weeks later I say to myself, "Oh, I should probably update that…"
Why doesn't Hermione suspect at all? (asked by toink)
Hermione's been told that Harry is in a safe place, so she thinks he is being kept far away from anyone and everything. Plus, well, you know what they say, love is blind…which is why Harry can get away with being right under her nose without her suspecting.
How many chapters are there going to be? (asked by toink)
I'm not sure, somewhere along the lines of ten, according to my plans. Could be more, could be less.
Why are the Grangers so calm in allowing Hermione to keep the panther as a pet...aren't panthers dangerous? (asked by toink)
Remember, the Grangers aren't magical, so they pretty much have to take the wizards at their word. Charlie did nothing to indicate that the panther would be a danger to them or their daughter, especially since he left the panther in Hermione's care, and Hermione has told them about magical creatures being intelligent and less apt to be randomly violent.
I thought the bit with Hermione cuddling with Harry was really cute - but I don't know if she would crawl under the bed to do it - most of them aren't comfortable to crawl under. (stated by MissLexi)
Apparently, Hermione's bed is one of the few that is comfy to be under. Plus my beta suggested it, and I thought it was a great opportunity to embarrass Harry - and mortify Hermione when she finds out. :D So for the sake of amusement, Hermione's bed is quite comfy underneath.
I don't know if you know any French, but my comment is "tres bein!" (stated by _Amber_Eyes_)
Merci! I'm afraid I don't know too much French (I did take two years of Spanish though), but I know what that means at least. That's about the extent of my knowledge, besides "parlez-vous francais?" (to which I usually say "Non!" for obvious reasons.)
Please hurry up and post the next chapter! (stated by practically everyone)
I'm trying, I'm trying, but like I said before, I'm a college student. So I get caught up in my homework and have to put my fics on a back burner, plus sometimes I just plain forget about these things. While it's nice to see that this story is so well-loved, please tone down the enthusiasm just a notch or two, I'm doing the best I can. If you really want to have me update faster, IM me on AIM (EnigmaSphinx42) or MSN (vulcan_danks@hotmail.com) and remind me. (AIM is preferable, but if you must use MSN, I suppose you must.) At least I updated faster this time, eh?
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