HEATHER BLACK AGREED TO DO THE THING THAT NOBODY ELSE COULD TO DO.
Use her animagus form, and protect Harry Potter for fifteen years.
As an owl.
As Hedwig.
***
Travis McKinnon wanted nothing more than to do something useful.
So he used his animagus...
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.
*
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
TRAVIS GLANCED BETWEEN FRANK AND ALICE.
They looked older than he remembered—obviously. Alice's hair, which she'd always kept in a short, neat pixie-cut back before everything terrible happened, was grey and worn. It had grown out completely, tied back into a low pony-tail.
It made her look far more tired, mirrored by the dull look in her eyes.
Frank, in the other bed, looked much the same. Far more tired than Travis remembered, his hair also turning grey, and his eyes distant and unfocused.
Travis hadn't been authorised to visit Frank and Alice before, when he was in his toad form and looking after Neville. Which he understood—he was pretty sure that animals weren't allowed in the hospital in the first place.
Heather grabbed his arm with a sharp inhale, and whispered, "Trav, that's..."
"Yeah," He choked out, "I know."
Although both Heather and Travis were close to the Longbottoms, Travis had spent far more time around them that Heather had.
So even though Heather was able to speak coherently, Travis was barely able to get the words out of his mouth.
"Neville!" Harry called out suddenly, and Travis' attention immediately shifted to the miserable-looking boy who was trailing behind Augusta, dressed in her usual, elaborate fashion.
Neville jumped, and he refused to meet anyone's eyes, cowering a bit.
Travis gave Harry, Ron and Hermione a pointed look—don't—but they either didn't see it, didn't comprehend what it meant, or ignored it, because Ron proceeded to exclaim, "It's us, Neville!"
Sighing, Travis, instead, turned to Heather, and whispered, "I'm gonna talk to Frank and Alice...do you mind if I...?"
"Of course," She said, understandingly, "You go ahead. I'll wait back here." She squeezed his hand, smiling, and then released it, letting him go to see the Longbottoms.
The rest of Ron's exclamation was lost to Travis as his attention, instead, was now fixated on Alice and Frank.
When Alice looked up and met his eyes, he almost choked on a sob, but her gaze remained dull and unfocused, even as she looked at him.
It broke his heart. But he kept walking and then he was standing next to her hospital bed, staring at the pile of gum-wrappers on the small, bedside table.
He remembered how Alice had always loved Drooble's Blowing Gum—how she'd always carry several packets of the stuff around with her.
"Want a piece of gum, Trav?"
"Where do you keep getting these from, Al?" He laughed, taking the square of gum from Alice's outstretched hand.
"Magic," She smirked, wiggling her fingers.
"Alice," He said, trembling, "Frank."
Neither of them were responsive, and Travis swallowed, unsure of what to do.
He'd been told what had happened to them—what Bellatrix, one of Heather's older sisters, had done to them. What they'd gone through, and endured; none of which they deserved.
Travis was trying really hard not to cry, but he wasn't sure what to do—two of his best friends didn't recognise him anymore.
He must've been sitting there for a while, lost in his own head, because suddenly somebody was tapping him on his arm.
When he glanced down, he realised it was Alice—she'd sat up, and was looking at him with furrowed eyebrows.
She didn't speak, but gestured at his clenched fist and motioned for him to open it.
Blinking back his tears, Travis made himself smile, despite the sadness that hung in his eyes, "What's up?"
When Travis opened his hand, Alice gently dropped a scrunched-up gum-wrapper into his hand.
"O-oh..." Travis flipped the foil around in his hand, "Thanks."
Frank was staring at him, now, looking extremely focused. He blinked several times, before leaning closer, as if to get a better look at Travis.
"Hey, Frank," Travis said, willing his voice to be stable, smiling a little, "How are you doing?"
Frank just kept staring, his eyes becoming even more focused, darting across Travis' face.
Alice tapped Frank, and they shared a look, as if they were communicating. Travis wasn't sure if they actually were, but they seemed to be exchanging some sort of understanding with each other.
Suddenly Frank turned to his bedside table and opened the drawer, revealing the over-flowing photographs and newspapers stuffed inside, and started rummaging through.
Several of the photos fell out and slid onto the floor, so Travis busied himself with picking those up, while trying to simultaneously figure out what exactly Frank (and perhaps Alice, also) was thinking.
It was a good distraction to the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him in that moment.
When he finished, he put the photos back into the drawer for Frank, and then straightened, to find Frank and Alice both hunched over one particular photograph, staring intently at it.
Slowly, Frank looked up and flipped the photo around so that Travis could see it, too.
Travis sucked in a breath when he realised that the photograph was one of Alice, Frank and himself together, Travis still in his Hogwarts' school uniform, squashed up between the two Longbottoms, their arms over his shoulders.
Bright smiles adorned their faces, and the moving photograph showed all three of them laughing, heads thrown back.
Actually, he remembered that Alice and Frank weren't even married yet at the time of this photo. They had only just graduated, and had gone to collect Travis from King's Cross Station.
"Tra...vis?" Frank said, stumbling a bit through the word, as if he hadn't spoken for a very long time and had forgotten how to do so.
"...right?" Alice asked uncertainly, glancing between Travis and the moving photograph.
Travis felt his heart begin to race as the emotions welled over and he began to furiously blink back his tears—
"Yeah," He choked on a sob, "Yeah, I'm Travis. That's me."
Behind him, Augusta exclaimed, her voice a bit fuzzy due to the distance, "You should be proud of your parents, Neville! Proud!"
Travis couldn't think of anything truer than that.
