Luck of Nines

73

          Chippy had left when he woke up, they never seemed to sleep much, always rushing to a new task.  To watch the shop owners or people who were near wherever they had set up their rest place and perhaps straighten up a thing or two, since nobody ever seemed to cleanup right.  To clean the nearby buildings.  To gather some nice snacks.   But usually to catch up with what was being said on the streets in the muggle and wizarding worlds.

       Chippy said that watching both worlds for a big, proper event had been one of the last tasks he had been given before... he had been released. Chippy had at first insisted that his masters and mistress hadn't meant to do it, not really, it was hardly even a proper release. Chip- Harry had never been sure what to think.  Sometimes it didn't seem as if Chippy even realized he was accidentally continuing to fulfill that last order.

       Harry hadn't intended to move, just lie there and listen and feel Chipped Fang's rattling breath against his flank, but he felt himself tense and wish he had moved to atop the canopy as he felt the wind shift and heard the quiet creak of the door opening. His back was towards the room, as Chipped Fang had been showing and telling him about all the sights that lay beyond the large windows that the cat had explored. He strained his hearing and nose now to sense out who the intruder might be as heavy footsteps fell with the care to intend to be quiet as they approached, closing his eyes so the reflection would not be seen in the window.  The smell was familiar, but still took a second longer than the sounds to place as Theo, not quite familiar as they once had been.

        The rocking chair creaked as Theo took a seat and then moved it closer, it had carefully been placed to be facing the bed, close to the side of the bed he had woken up on, Harry realized. Theo breathed steadily as his gaze bore into Harry's back.  Had he spoken while he had been waiting for Harry to wake up, Harry couldn't help but wonder as the silence drew on, long and contemplative.

        Theo sighed, speaking very quietly, "You're finally out of there, you're free.  I can't believe you're back... I... I missed you." 

          He hadn't ever told Theo exactly how good his hearing was, when he wanted it to be, Harry realized, like a shock of cold water the realization flowed through his veins.  He shouldn't be hearing this.

            "I..." Harry interrupted whatever quietly whispered thought was planned to exit Theo's mouth by shifting slightly, twitching his paws and making a quiet whimper as he did so, hopefully in a passable imitation of slowly dawning wakefulness.

      He tossed his head, moving it in several jolts closer to Theo's direction, eyes closed, nose sniffing, before finally forcing his eyelids open. He forced his every muscle tense as he half raised to his feet and stared down unblinkingly at where Theo sat in what he hoped appeared as shock.

          Theo sat in the wooden chair, eyes wide and frozen as he gazed back. 

           Figuring he'd at least tried to play the role of waking up, Harry settled himself back down onto the bed, uncoiling his tense form and blinking his acceptance of their presence despite continuing to stare. 

          "I-" Theo took that as his cue to speak, "I was just- I normally read here before I go to bed," he explained holding up his excuse, a thick, old looking book that Harry would never willing read, "I didn't mean to wake you up..."

          Harry might have been surprised by the knowledge that Theo apparently made a habit of visiting to talk to him while he slept, but it didn't particularly matter much anyway.  This older Theo might not be exactly the same as who he had shared a space with for all those months, but it didn't seem that his alliances or intentions had changed that much. He still seemed to care about Harry's adaptation to the wizarding world at least.