Chapter Six - Vet's Office and Baths
In the morning, Harry found himself being coaxed into the Granger family car for a quick road trip. His panther instincts rebelled furiously against going into such a small, confined space, but one look at Hermione was all it took to get him to climb across the back seat. His friend took passenger seat while her father got in the driver's seat, though she kept looking back at Harry as if afraid he would try to escape.
The vet's office was a thirty minute drive out of town, and seemed suited for various types of large animals like horses, cows, or sheep, as well as house pets. Hermione clipped the chain to Harry's collar before opening the car door and letting him out. He sniffed at the air, catching the scent of farm animals and antiseptic coming from the moderately-sized building in front of him.
Hermione led him to a waiting area while Jacob filled out the paperwork at the front desk, and Harry looked around at the other patients and their owners. A miniature horse stood beside an elderly man on the other side of the room, and the little equine watched Harry warily. There was a little kid and his mother two seats away, holding a birdcage with a parakeet inside. Two dogs growled at Harry despite their owners telling them not to, and a yellow housecat in a cat carrier tried to bat at Harry's tail through the bars of the door.
They only had to wait ten minutes before the secretary called "Shadow, black panther," though not without looking twice to make sure she was saying the right animal. Jacob, Harry, and Hermione followed her to an examination room, where their vet was waiting.
"Ms. Granger," the vet said with a smile, "Don't you already have a cat?"
"I'm taking care of Shadow while his owners are out of town," Hermione explained to him, also smiling. Harry guessed that this was where Hermione took Crookshanks whenever he needed medical attention, and that she and the vet knew each other at least a little well.
"So you say Shadow here sustained a knife wound to the shoulder?" the vet asked, unfazed by the panther in the slightest.
"Yes. A burglar broke into our house last night and stabbed Shadow in an attempt to get away," Jacob said. "We would've brought him in earlier, but it wasn't an emergency."
"I see," the vet said, nodding. "Can you get him up on the table so I can see the wound better?"
Hermione patted the waist-high table. "Up, Shadow." Harry carefully jumped up onto it in an attempt not to slide off the other side. He balked at the feel of cold metal under his paws, but Hermione's gentle hand on his back calmed him.
The vet shone a bright light onto Harry's shoulder and carefully separated the fur around the injury. "Looks like maybe two or three inches deep," the vet stated. "Has he been limping, or otherwise shown difficulty moving?"
"A little bit of limping," Hermione admitted, "but other than that he's looked just fine."
"Hmm." The vet prodded at Harry's shoulder a little bit. "No infection or festering yet, but it could be too early to tell. I'll set up an antibiotic for him and a proper bandage to cover the wound. Shouldn't take more than twenty minutes."
Harry forced himself to remain still as the vet shaved the fur around the wound completely off, though he winced at the thought of what he'd look like now. The vet smeared some type of salve into the cut and then covered it with a white bandage that stuck right to his skin. However, when the man came at him with a syringe, Harry laid his ears flat against his skull and hissed threateningly. He absolutely hated needles.
The vet wasn't too startled at his reaction, but stayed out of range of Harry's claws. "I don't think he likes needles very much," he said. "Could you try to calm him down enough for me to give him the antibiotic?"
"I have an idea," Hermione said, and suddenly Harry had to close his eyes as Hermione's hand covered them. Well, crap, he thought. I guess I should just get it over with before they try sedating me or something.
A small pricking at his shoulder and it was done. Hermione let him hop down off the table and they made their way to the front desk. Jacob sent them out to the car while he talked to the vet.
"That wasn't so bad now, was it?" Hermione asked him as she opened the back door. "Get in the car, Shadow." Harry inwardly sighed, and climbed up onto the cushions. This was not on the agenda, he grumbled to himself.
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Harry's shoulder healed quickly over the next week, and took up prowling around the outside of the Granger house several times daily. The neighbor dogs still barked at him whenever they saw him, but they were all confined inside fences and Harry squashed the instinct to fight them.
He leapt up onto the porch railing in one fluid movement, using all his panther senses to make sure no unidentified persons had come anywhere close to Hermione's house.
A rather burly man was walking his pit bull down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. The pit bull growled at Harry, and the man stopped to stare with a strange look in his eyes. "You think you can take a panther, Killer?" he asked the dog. The dog barked savagely in reply, straining at the leash towards Harry. The man smiled maliciously. "Sic `im," he said, and let go of the leash.
The pit bull plowed into a surprised Harry, knocking him off the railing. The dog snapped at his paws, and Harry recovered his composure. He snarled a warning, and when the dog tried to bite him again, he swatted at the beast with his claws extended. The dog yelped in surprise as Harry roared and pounced on top of it, though he held back from trying to kill it.
Mud splattered everywhere as the Animagus shoved his opponent into the ground with his front legs. The dog futilely attempted to get up and fight back, but Harry dealt it a stunning blow to the head with a paw. The dog yelped as Harry bit it on the back of the neck, lifting it by its scruff and dragging it to the sidewalk. He released the dog and snarled at it.
The pit bull needed no such incentive. It staggered to its feet and fled to its flabbergasted master's side, tail between its legs. The man stared slack-jawed at his thoroughly whipped dog for a moment, then glared angrily at Harry. Harry bared his teeth and roared. The man paled and took a step back, noticing for the first time that the panther was not restrained in any way. He turned tail and ran down the street, with his bloodied and muddy dog following.
"Shadow!"
Harry whirled around to see Hermione standing in the front doorway, looking at him disapprovingly. "You're all dirty now! Mom won't let you into the house like that, you know."
Harry shifted guiltily. He hadn't meant to cause any trouble, and if he wasn't allowed inside then how would he guard Hermione? Some bodyguard I am, he thought to himself.
"I guess I'll just have to give you a bath," Hermione continued, grabbing his collar before he could react. WHAT?! A BATH? he thought in alarm. "Luckily for you, the downstairs bathroom has a tub in it big enough to hold you, and there's only easily-cleaned tile floor on the way there," she said as she pulled him towards the house.
Hermione dragged him into a small bathroom and closed the door behind her, ensuring that he couldn't escape. She unbuckled his collar and set it on a shelf next to the sink, then turned the water on in the tub. "Get in, Shadow," she told him, looking ready to at least try to make him do it if he didn't obey on his own.
Harry counted himself lucky that panthers didn't mind water like most housecats, and carefully got in the tub. A few inches of water splashed around his paws, and he briefly amused himself by pawing at the water as Hermione located the shampoo.
"Hmm," she mused out loud as she looked at the bottle. "We don't have any cat shampoo, but I'm sure what's good for us is good for you…as long as you don't mind smelling like lavender for awhile." Harry cringed at the mention of flower-scented shampoo. Oh, that is so unmanly… He let out a small growl of protest as Hermione liberally doused him with the purple syrupy liquid, but she ignored it and began scrubbing the shampoo into his fur.
I'm never going to live this down if she finds out she gave her best friend a bath, Harry thought, and his fur hid another blush as he realized the implications of that. Aw man, she's gonna kill me.
Hermione's hands worked their way down his back from his head, and then each paw was individually tended to. He was startled when she grabbed at his tail and washed that too, but almost felt like dying from embarrassment when she scrubbed at his underside. Whoa there, that's just indecent! I'm never telling her about this once I'm human again, he decided.
The water quickly turned a frothy brown as the mud washed off, and Hermione drained the water as she rinsed the remaining shampoo from his fur. As soon as the water was no longer being dumped on him, he shook himself from head to tail, spraying water everywhere like a dog. Hermione sputtered as she was drenched from the onslaught, and Harry hopped out of the tub onto the bathmat, feeling secretly pleased that he'd been able to get her back for the indignity of bathing him. Hermione grabbed a large fluffy towel and began to rub it over his wet fur.
Oooooh wow, this feels good…
A rumbling noise made its way from deep in his throat and his human mind took a backseat as Hermione rubbed his back with the towel. She chuckled when she heard him purring. "You like that, do you?" Harry, to his slight embarrassment, could only purr louder in response.
After all too short a time, she pulled back and looked at him critically. "Yeah, I think that's good enough," she declared. Both Harry and the panther's instincts disagreed, but she'd already draped the wet towel over the curtain rod. He sighed inwardly as she buckled the leather collar around his neck again before opening the door. Reluctantly, Harry followed her up to her bedroom for another one of her homework sessions.
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A/N: I'm sorry it took so long for me to upload, but real life got in the way, big time. My laptop imploded, my dog had to be put to sleep, I had to get a part-time job, and college recently resumed. Chaos all around. Plus my interest has shifted towards Stargate. Don't worry, this story will get finished, just maybe not right away. Since you've all been so patient, I thought I'd find the time to get another chapter out. As always, I'm astounded to see how many people are reading this fic. I have 107 reviews on Fanfiction.net and 273 reviews here. It's my second-most-read fic on ff.net, with 1037 hits (topped only by a Stargate fic with 2652 hits), and on Portkey.org it currently has 21576 hits. Wow. Very popular, this thing. And now, to answer ten million reviews.
Are you still working on this? (asked by destroyerdrt and many others)
Yep.
Wow, libraries that come with cats? Where do you live and how do you find them? (asked by Porphyria)
They don't have them where I live, but I've heard of it being done. Run a search for "library cats" and see what you turn up.
I, too, would have expected Hermione to suspect Shadow as Harry by now. (stated by Spartacus)
Yes, well, love is blind. Besides, the story would be less interesting. And a lot shorter.
Oh I love this fic, it's godlike. but honestly Hermione won't allow them to bring Shadow to a muggle doctor... and please why don't you just answer the reviews at the reviews, because it's lame if the half chapter consists of review answers.. (asked by DaWing)
Okay, this is a review that has bugged me for quite a bit. I don't think it's "lame" for me to want to answer honest questions from my readers that may not be answered in the story. Besides, with all the reviews this story has, would YOU want to wade through nearly 300 reviews for an answer to your question? I know I wouldn't. This way, it's up front where everyone can see it, and similar questions will likely NOT get asked over and over because someone didn't read the reviews.
By the way, will the next chapter be taking Harry to a vet? It would definitely be interesting. (asked by Lucifer)
As you can see, yes indeedy they did. Unfortunately the mention of the vet's office is still a bit of a sensitive subject with me, as my dog had to be put to sleep over the summer. I went with her and was there in her final moments, and it still hurts to see the vet's sign every day on the way to college. That's one reason why it took me so long to post this part.
As for the chapter, it was quite good, other than the fact that a panther, would not weigh 160 pounds, it is more like 300+, after all it is pure muscle. (stated by nkao1000)
Actually no, it all depends on what type of panther it is. Black panther is not actually a species, it's a genetic fluke in jaguars and leopards that produces all-black coats, sometimes with faintly visible spots. All my sources said black panthers are usually around 160 pounds, being the average size. I'm sure there have been some bigger ones, but Harry has never been a big guy, so he's bound to be at the other end of the scale, if you'll pardon the pun.
Is that Harry's only Animagus form or are there other transformations? (asked by Parrkind)
Just the panther.
I take it that the burglar is just a "regular" muggle and not one hired by the Death Eaters or Voldemort. Although his statement "I'm not leaving until I get what I came for" was a little worrisome. What was he looking for? (asked by MononWalker)
Just a regular Muggle, looking for valuables. Dentists make a lot of money after all. He was just looking for something really expensive he could sell on eBay or something.
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