He Nearly Killed the Cat
The Waiting Game
By Anne B. Walsh
Author Notes:
I disclaim all material which is copyrighted by J. K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or anyone else. I do not disclaim material which is original to myself.
As I said in the summary, this story is a triple cross, involving the Dangerverse, Harry Potter canon, and an original universe of mine which I am trying to develop more fully, known as the Legendbreakers universe. I can think of no better way to develop the universe than by writing in it, and no better set of characters with whom to develop it than the DV characters.
Two women stood side by side on a parapet, gazing out at a star-speckled landscape. The taller had a long fall of black hair pulled into a severe tail at the nape of her neck, while her companion's fiery locks streamed unconfined over her shoulders. She twisted a coppery hank between her fingers restlessly, turning her head every so often to listen to small stirrings within the room behind them.
"Do you think we should have left her behind?" the dark lady asked after a long silence.
"Of course not. We're sworn to save lives, save individualities, where we can, and hers was the only one left to save. I just can't help wondering how well she'll do on her own. Solo work wasn't exactly a feature in her training."
"Neither was it in either of ours, and we turned out well enough." The statement carried neither pride nor humility, merely an acceptance of a long-established truth."She'll either succeed or she won't. We'll give her what help we can, but in the end it's up to her."
"I know, I know." A long sigh. "I'm still not ruthless enough, am I?"
"You may never be, but I make up for that." The dark lady's smile was sweet, serene, and would have sent any sane person running in the opposite direction as fast as possible. "It's why we make such good partners. She'll either adapt to solo work or she'll find a good partner of her own."
"Or she'll die."
"Yes. Or she'll die." The dark lady leaned against the stone merlon in front of her, leaning over its edge to peer into the depths of the starry night. "We both know there are worse fates."
Her companion drew a breath to answer, then let it out in a sigh and hurried inside in response to a larger stirring than before.
The dark lady remained where she was, listening to her partner's soothing tones smoothing away the sharp fear in the voice of the girl they'd saved from the wreckage of her world. She'd been where that girl was, once. All Legendbreakers had.
Each recruit to their ranks faced the same choice: crumble under the burden of finding oneself the sole survivor of disaster beyond imagination, or use the pain, the terror, the anguish and rage to fight back. Be one of those who broke, or become oneself a breaker of the patterns.
This girl seemed likely to take the second path.
And who knows what she may find if she does? The most surprising things survive in this story-filled cosmos of ours…
The tricolored cat scrambled to the back of the couch, putting herself safely out of range of the shrieking, laughing missile that was a fourteen-month-old Harry Potter mounted on his miniature broomstick. Curling up in pretended disdain, she began to wash her side.
The hardest part of all of this has been the waiting. Though it isn't exactly easy to see some of the people I love most in the world, the people I would have died for—the people I wish I could have died for—
She nipped herself on the paw, self-censoring these unhelpful thoughts. When I wish and what I would has nothing to do with what is. I'm a Legendbreaker now, which means my business is helping others, not myself. Though Miss Suzie did say something about rewards…
Her dark-haired mentor's calm, gentle words played inside her mind as she continued to wash her flank. "You'd be surprised what you'll find with all the stories touched by Outer Time to run around in. Most often it's something you didn't even know you were looking for, but once you find it, you wonder how you ever got along without it."
"Like the perfect partner to go out Breaking with." Miss Eve's more lively voice broke into the recollection, and the cat paused momentarily in her washing to glance over her shoulder at the member of this household who resembled the redheaded Legendbreaker to a striking degree. "M-Murphy knows I was only looking for revenge when I met you, not anything useful!"
I can't help but think she was about to say—
Another nip to the paw. Whether she was or she wasn't, it's not important now. What's important is that tomorrow is Halloween, and I have a job to do on Halloween. If I can prevent that accidental Horcrux from getting planted in Harry in the first place, not to mention keep his parents alive…
She occasionally wondered what Harry would be like if she succeeded in her plan. He looks so much like his father, and sometimes acts like him too. Will he end up just as much of a spoiled brat? Could he even become a bully, the way James was?
But whatever Harry might or might not become, he would be neither an orphan nor any kind of Chosen One, and that would count as her first Legendbreaking success. The goal of the Legendbreakers, after all, was not to give everyone the perfect happily ever after.
Since most of us don't know how to get our own, I don't know how we manage it for other people!
Rather, the Legendbreakers fought to give as many people as possible a decent chance at making their own choices, instead of being forced into a particular path simply because "thus it is written."
Some people will still be unhappy, but some people would be unhappy if you handed them the world on a silver platter. At least this way they're able to choose their own unhappiness, and we can honestly say we tried.
She sighed, curling up and letting her tail rest against her nose. So tomorrow I stop Voldemort, preferably in some way that doesn't make it too clear who and what I am, and then I go after that last Horcrux. I don't know why I've left that one so long—it's not as if it will be the hardest to get, that was the one in Gringotts, nor the hardest to destroy, that was the one from the cave, not to mention I took the extra time and trouble to save Regulus Black without anyone spotting me—
Her snort made James Potter look at her oddly, and she quickly began to wash her tail. Who do I think I'm fooling? I know exactly why I've left that Horcrux for last, and it's nothing to do with logistics. It's because I can't bear the thought of seeing one of the people who lives in that house, not with what I know he's doomed to become without us. Without me.
Why is it that we always seem to be able to save everyone except the people who matter most?
The question had no answer. The cat had, in the process of her year-long training to become a Legendbreaker, mostly reconciled her heart to the fact that it never would.
I'll save the ones I can, and try my best not to cry over the ones I can't.
But Merlin's memoirs, it hurts to think of going back to Outer Time alone…
Sirius Black Apparated directly to the street on which James and Lily's cottage was located with no regard for whether or not a Muggle might see him.
The hell with the Statute of Secrecy, my little brainstorm might just have killed my best friend and his wife, not to mention my godson. I'll personally Obliviate every Muggle on this damn island if I have to, just as long as they're safe…
The cottage was still standing, and no Dark Mark hovered over it, but that might just mean the Death Eaters—oh please let it be Death Eaters, don't let Lord Dark and Nasty have come himself—weren't finished inside yet. Sirius bolted for the door, only to have it fly open before he was more than halfway up the walk. James shot outside, wand in hand, to all appearances entirely unharmed and looking as astonished as Sirius felt.
"Padfoot!"
"Prongs!"
"You're alive!" they blurted in unison.
"I was sure they'd got to you and found out about Wormtail—"
"The hell with Wormtail, he's buggered off, he must've been the spy all along—"
"He was what?" James blanched. "Talk about handing your wand to your enemy—"
"You're telling me!" Sirius laughed aloud, shakily. "I was sure I was going to find you all dead—"
"You would have if it hadn't been for the cat—"
"The cat?" Sirius took a step back, making sure he had a firm grip on his wand. If Voldemort did get in and has James under Imperius, he could be talking nonsense to try to warn me…
"Yes, the cat." Lily appeared in the doorway, pale but otherwise unshaken, holding Harry on one hip with her wand in the other hand. The little boy squealed with excitement when he saw his godfather and launched into a string of rapid-fire babble in which the word "tat" was audible multiple times. "Why don't you come inside and we can try to tell the story in order?" Lily asked over the noise, smiling fondly at her son.
Sirius hesitated for one moment, but even Voldemort himself would have had a hard time holding three people under Imperius at once, especially when two of those people were adults who did not want to be so held. And when the third one was a baby…
Voldemort's got no idea how babies act. He'd be making Harry all stiff and unnatural. No, this is for real. Somehow, we got a miracle.
Apparently, it's all thanks to a cat.
No prejudice or anything, but this I have to hear.
He stepped forward past James, squeezing his friend's shoulder as he went by, and scooped a happily wriggling Harry out of Lily's arms. "Did you see a pussycat?" he asked, bouncing his godson up and down. "What did the pussycat do? Other than somehow save all your lives," he added to the adult Potters.
"That's exactly what she did." James followed Sirius into the cottage and sat down on the bottom step of the stairs leading to the first floor. "Moody would have my hide for it. After all his lectures about making sure you have your wand on you at all times, I jumped up and left mine behind when His Evil Darkness came through that door. Shouting for Lily to run, that I'd hold him off…" He shook his head. "If I'm going to be that stupid, maybe I deserve to die."
Lily reached down and smacked him on the ear. "That is quite enough of that. No one is allowed to put you down except me, not even you. And you're hardly the only one around here who panicked and forgot training. Explain what Patches did instead of dwelling on what would have happened if she hadn't been there."
Patches. Right. Sirius vaguely remembered the Potters' cat from previous visits. The little tricolor had always seemed shy around him, which he was used to in cats. I never thought much of it… but now I have to wonder, was she hiding from me for a reason?
"I've never seen anything like it." James massaged behind his ears, where his glasses rested. "She ran right between Voldemort's feet and tripped him up. He fell splat on the nose he doesn't have, and Patches turns on a Knut, shoots past me up the stairs, and drops my wand beside me as she goes. Split-second timing, just as good as anything we ever managed on the Quidditch field. It was beautiful."
"Smart cat," Sirius commented. Too smart… but what am I worried about? Whatever she was, Animagus or transfigured or just part kneazle, she's obviously on our side. Save the worry for real problems. "Since you're here and alive, I assume you got a hold of your wand."
"Grabbed it just in time," James confirmed. "Stunned his Dark Evilness before he got his breath back, snatched his wand out of his hand, and Portkeyed him to Antarctica by his robes, and I hope he gets frostbite on his bollocks before he figures out how to get back."
"Language in front of Harry," Lily said mildly as Sirius guffawed. "I don't have much to add to that. Patches brought me my wand too, and jumped up into Harry's cot before I could stop her."
"Why would you want to stop her?" Sirius flipped Harry upside down, eliciting another series of gleeful squeals.
"We thought it was better if each of them had a place that was all theirs, where the other one couldn't go." Lily rolled her wand between her fingers, pausing for a moment as she encountered a set of fresh teeth marks on it. "She's never scratched anyone, but it wasn't worth taking the risk that Harry would be the first. He's nearly caught her a time or two on that little broomstick you gave him, and in closer encounters, he's still too young to understand that he can't pull her tail or pat her like he does you and get away with it."
Sirius held Harry at arm's length and examined him. "No scratches I can see. Did he go for the tail?"
"She didn't give him the chance." Lily's green eyes went misty as she relived the moment. "She rubbed her cheek against his, licked him on the forehead, and jumped out his window. I would have stopped her, if only to say thank you, but I think I was still in shock."
"Shock? You? What the—er, what in the world would have caused that?" Sirius's hasty self-correction made James snicker and Lily cover her mouth to hide a smile. "There was only an evil dark wizard in the house your stupid friend told you was perfectly safe—"
Lily's hand made sharp contact with Sirius's ear. He yelped, and Harry giggled. "I don't allow it in my husband, and I'm certainly not going to tolerate it from you. No running down the people I love." She smirked. "Let me do that."
"Yes ma'am." Sirius saluted her with the hand not currently holding Harry. "As I was saying, there was only an evil dark wizard in your house, and your cat only brought you your wands and saved your lives. Nothing in that to be shocked about, is there?"
"Glad you can laugh about it." James had his elbows braced on his knees, his hands now massaging the back of his neck. "I don't think I'll ever put my wand down again."
"I'm only laughing about it so I don't do something else that would scare Harry." Sirius felt his knees start to wobble and elected to seat himself on the hallway floor rather than fall. "Someone's bound to be along soon who can take charge of him, and then I can have my real reaction. Merlin's sodding beard, you two ought to be dead."
"I know." James pulled Lily down to sit on his lap, wrapping his arms around her as though to persuade himself through touch that she was actually alive. "But we're not. And it's all thanks to Patches."
"I wonder who she really was?" Lily murmured.
Sirius looked down at Harry, who had discovered the emergency supply of Honeydukes in his front pocket and was attempting to gnaw the wrapper off. "We'll probably never know," he said, rescuing the chocolate and unwrapping it himself before breaking off pieces for everyone. "But just in case she's still hanging around…" He pitched a chunk of chocolate out the open front door. "That's for you, Patches. Thanks for everything."
And I do mean everything.
I'd say you're welcome, but I think it would scare you. Not to mention, it would involve lots of long explanations, and the sooner I get out of this world, the better for everyone.
Our enemies like nothing better than "restoring" worlds we've Broken while we're still in them.
Belly down, the cat formerly known as Patches stalked her sweet-smelling prey. It might be silly, but she felt that it would be rude to leave the people she'd been safeguarding for the past year without accepting their final offering.
Besides, I'm hungry for human-style food, and chocolate is a nice safe thing to eat. It may have trace amounts of salt in it, but there's certainly no bread involved.
Not unless your mother is even more overprotective than mine were…
Clenching her teeth over a wail of sorrow, the cat stretched out a paw and hooked the chocolate towards her. Once she was sure she could remain silent, she picked it up delicately in her mouth and retreated the way she had come, as unnoticed as a shadow.
One last piece of business. Get in, get the book, get out. Destroy it, and the world is saved. It's even odds whether Voldemort freezes to death in Antarctica or finds some way back in time for the Aurors to catch him, and honestly, I don't care which it is. He won't hurt anyone anymore, and that's the main thing. Harry gets a chance to grow up normal, maybe have brothers and sisters, head off to school when he's eleven…
I wonder who he'll meet when he does?
The chocolate began to melt on her tongue, as bittersweet as this victory she had claimed. The people of this world, a cousin to the one where she had been born, would be happy tomorrow when they learned what had happened to their great enemy. They would go on with their lives, never knowing which of them "ought to have" died, which of them "ought to have" suffered terribly, and sooner or later some other ridiculous story predicament would arise.
And then I, or another Legendbreaker, will come back and drag them out of their own troubles once again. Or we won't, and they'll go to destruction the way they deserve. Or the Reality Cops will come along instead, and they'll go to destruction the way they don't deserve.
The way we did.
She huddled into her hiding place at the base of a tree, squeezing her eyes shut over the tears she had refused to shed for nearly two years. The people she loved were gone. Their faces, their names, some of the tricks and quirks of their personalities lingered in the inhabitants of this world, in the inhabitants of hundreds of thousands of other worlds that had all come from the same source, but her loved ones had been dispassionately wiped out of existence for the crime of being different.
And the only reason I survived it was because I was out of the Den, practicing my hunting. Miss Eve and Miss Suzie got there too late to stop the Reality Cops, too late to do anything but stop me from attacking head-on and take me away with them.
If they hadn't, I'd have been caught too. I'd have been "rehabilitated." Which is to say, brainwashed. Forced to forget who I am and submerged into the personality of someone I'm not, all in the name of purity and originality.
Sometimes I wonder if things wouldn't have been better that way. No more sleepless nights wondering how I'm going to save this world, and the next world, and the world after that. No more painful reminders of my Packmates in the little quirks of the people around me. To just be an idle daydream, a passing thought, a figment of someone's imagination… would that really be so bad?
She licked her chops as the last fragment of chocolate dissolved. Someday maybe I'll find out. For right now, I promised to save this world, and that's what I'm going to do. Then I'll go back to Outer Time and take a good long look at what I have and what I want, and see if there isn't some way to make them match up more closely.
And if the best answer is to turn myself over to the RC's and let them rehabilitate me, then so be it.
Rising onto the pads of her paws, she leapt into the air and vanished.
Author Notes:
So, is it working for you? Do you want to know more? Do you get who everybody is? And if not, can you still enjoy the story?
I know, I know. I have a lot of questions. Then again, this is the first major thing I've written since I embarked on this crazy adventure of mine, so I really hope it's good!
I have Chapter 2 of this story already completed, and I know what Chapter 3 (and possibly 4) will consist of. Whether I continue past that point is up to you, my loving readers. Please let me know if this is worth your time and you want to see more of it!
Thank you, by the way, to everyone who has liked my Facebook page and/or read my blog, "Writing Outside the Cube." Happy, engaged writers tend to write more of what their fans want sooner, so please keep the comments coming and I'll try to do the same with the story!