Harry Potter - The Accidental Animagus

Chapter 7 - Cat to Cat

Minerva McGonagall located the address Albus had given her. It certainly looked nicer than the boy's previous accommodations. Those had not been in a bad neighbourhood, but the houses here were a little more spaced out, with more trees and green space between them. The house itself looked a little larger, too, but of course, as she knew well, it was the people in the house who mattered. From what Albus had told her, the Grangers sounded like a good family, but she would be sure to investigate them for herself very carefully.

She arrived in the neighbourhood early in the morning, even before breakfast, and immediately took up position next door as a large, grey tabby watching through the windows. She wouldn't exactly be dining in luxury this morning, but she was willing to do a lot for Harry Potter. In an act that she would never have let her students see (or, indeed, many of her colleagues), she quickly caught herself a vole for breakfast. She had got quite good at it in her younger and more adventurous days, but it was hardly a dignified act for a teacher.

Even by cat standards, Minerva could fix quite a stare. She spent most of the morning watching the Granger family atop a chair from which she could see into the kitchen window. Though they knew she was coming later, they gave no indication that they suspected her. She was relieved to find that things looked perfectly normal, at least as far as she could see from there. It was hard to get a clear look at the boy, and he did look small and quiet, but she could make out the mother making breakfast and the two kittens-ah, the two children sitting at the table, talking and laughing. She didn't need Albus's report to know that wasn't something that was likely to have happened at the Dursley residence, nor was it when the father came in and hugged both of them.

The family spent the rest of the morning in ordinary activities: doing a few chores, the children playing and watching the muggle "telly". Nothing seemed to be amiss, and Minerva took comfort in the thought that Albus had finally made the right decision-or perhaps had allowed the right decision to be made.

She waited until after lunch (a fresh mouse for her and a plate of sandwiches for the family) and at the agreed-upon time darted off a couple houses down the street where she could untransform without being seen. She walked back up the street in November chill in her black robes and a hat that she hoped would be inconspicuous enough. Coming up to the house as if it were her first time seeing it, she rang the doorbell (such an odd way to announce oneself, she thought).

A tall, brown-haired man answered the door and looked her up and down, assessing Minerva, she could tell, as the second magical person he had ever met besides the children-goodness, and Albus with his eccentric mode of dress had been the first.

"Good afternoon. Mr. Granger, I presume?" she said.

"Yes. You must be Professor McGonagall," Dan replied warmly, shaking her hand. At this point, he was glad to see that not everyone in the magical world looked as absurd as Albus Dumbledore, although the witch's robes could hardly be called the height of fashion. "Please come in."

He led the way to the living room, where Minerva was introduced to a matching mother and daughter, and the family's newly adopted son. She couldn't help but stare at the boy. Even at his age, he was a spitting image for another boy who had been her best student in many a year not a decade earlier-except for the eyes, of course. When she saw him staring back at her, she blinked slowly at him, and he returned the gesture. She smiled, and the boy nervously smiled back. It was far too rare that she met someone who actually understood how to communicate with a cat. After all, the students' cats mostly stayed in the dorms, and none of Filch's had ever been much for conversation; most of her fellow humans were completely oblivious, though perhaps she could change that here.