Chapter 9: SONO CHI NO SADAME! CROOOOOOOOOOOOKSHANKS!
"OH! Crookshanks why didn't I bring thicker robes? It's so cold out here!" Hermione complained as she walked through the snowy village of Hogsmeade.
'You seem a lot more whiny lately. I seriously think you should reconsider using that damned time turner so often, I think it's starting to mess with your mind.' Her familiar told her from atop her head. Of course though, she didn't hear any of it.
"Maybe one of the shops have some extra coats? I wonder how much they cost. Do you think that they would have warming charms on them? That was a stupid question, the owners have magic! Of course they would put charms on their clothes! Now that I think about it, I don't think I've bought any coats from a magical shop yet. Well then, better late then never!" She continued, not noticing the sigh of frustration coming from her cat.
'Whatever, do as you want, I'm going to go look around on my own. If things stay as they do in canon, then Harry should show up in a few minutes, maybe you can ask him on a date then! Don't get cold feet now, you were almost able to confess when you were drunk last night, so you can definitely do it now!' Crookshanks told his master, jumping off her head and running away to look around, ignoring her calls for him to come back.
'All right then, another day out by myself! It's been quite a while. I don't think I've been out on my own in a town since... *Shudder* THAT day.' Crookshanks thought as he slowed his pace, trying to clear his mind so he could take in the scenes.
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Harry was starting to feel guilty, but carried on with his training nonetheless.
The twins had given him a magical map specifically so he could go into town to hang out with his friends, and yet here he was, standing in the middle of the forbidden forest after escaping the castle through a secret passage.
'I'm sorry Fred, George, but I have to keep training. I don't have time to spend frolicking about. I have to get strong enough to fight off my manipulator before he does something drastic. I do hope you will forgive me for lying to the map.' Harry thought to no one in particular.
'Though, I suppose lying to them about what I am doing does count as "no good" right?' Harry sighed and got down on his knees into a praying position.
'Nevertheless, I have sinned by lying to a friend.' Harry closed his eyes and folded his hands together, 'Please great Crookshanks forgive me for what I have done.' Harry prayed to god, hoping that he could someday repent for his dishonesty. Though, Harry didn't believe that anything short of saving the lives of five people would be enough to cleanse him of his crimes.
With another sigh, Harry stood back up, closing the map and putting it in his pocket. He then approached his target. A massive boulder
"I could barely lift Sensei and Hermione yesterday with my telekinesis. I can not allow this! If I want to get strong enough to fight off my manipulator and kill this thing leeching off my soul, I need to be at least as strong as the hero in Sensei's story." Harry told the boulder that was easily twenty times his size.
Then, taking a deep breath, Harry cleared his mind and entered his horse stance.
With a look of concentration on his face, Harry stared the boulder down, a thick bright-green aura of energy suddenly surrounding both him and the large rock. And yet nothing happened. No one moved.
And so began the longest staring contest with a rock in human history.
Neither rock nor human moved from that spot for a solid three hours.
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Crookshanks had been wandering around for a few hours now. He was pretty sure that he had explored the entire village by that point (It wasn't that big), and was now just walking around aimlessly for the shits and giggles.
"What are you even doing here mudblood? Do you even have enough money to afford that?" Came the pompous voice of a blonde haired ferret.
"Of course I can idiot! You do know that there is a currency exchange service at Gringotts right? My parents had already gotten me plenty of Galleons there before the year began of course! We had gotten them as soon as we went to the Diagon Alley this summer. OH! I got Crookshanks during that very same trip to! He's my familiar! You know, the cat that's always on my head? Though, I suppose he does sit on Harry's head sometimes too. Do you have a familiar? I don't think I've ever seen it? What is it? Is it a ferret?" Replied the overly friendly voice of his master.
The ferret-looking-thing and his two body guards just blinked a few times in confusion. "You... seem more annoying than usual." He commented.
"Annoying? I don't know what your talking about. Anyway, I need to go now, I haven't visited the book store yet and I want to see if they have anything that isn't in the library." The bushy haired witch said before turning to leave, but as something caught her eye, and she stopped, blinking in confusion.
"Oh? Leaving so soon? A pity, I was hoping to talk to you some more. But why are you going that way? You do know that the library is that way right?" Ferret said, pointing directly at the forest in the distance. Realization seemed to dawn on Hermione's face and she smiled.
'Oh come on dude! This is Hermione your talking to, do you seriously think that my master would fall for something like that?' The ginger cat thought to himself with a scoff, watching the entire confrontation from a rooftop that he had somehow gotten up to.
"That way? But that's the forbidden forest, why would someone set up shop there?" Hermione asked, skeptical, but not willing to take the chance of missing out on books.
"Why? Well obviously they have to make sure that only those that are capable of reaching the place obtain the knowledge. It is quite a distance into the forest to, I could show you if you'd like." Ferret said with a straight face, but his eyes betrayed his intentions. He had been wanting to sneak into Gryffindor tower for months now to get revenge on his greatest rival, Harry Potter! This was his chance! Even if he had to beat it out of her he would get that damned password.
'Your acting is shit.' The feline thought to himself with a chuckle, comparing the blonde's acting to his star students (who's acting also wasn't that good, Crookshanks is just bias).
"OH! That would be great thank you!" Hermione said with a smile, though there was something else in her eyes.
Crookshanks blinked in surprise at her naivety. 'What the fuck? Is this actually master?' Suspicious, he checked his familiar bond, and sure enough, it connected directly to the brown haired teen in front of him.
'Did that old bastard start giving her a new potion? Why would he do that? People will obviously notice if her I.Q. suddenly drops forty points. What's your game here Dumbles?' Crookshanks thought as he prepared himself to pounce, ready to protect his master if the Ferret tried anything funny.
Speaking of the Ferret, it had a face that said that he was trying his best not to laugh. With somehow impeccable facial muscle control, the Ferret managed to simply smile warmly at the girl and gestured for her to follow him. His goons weren't as skilled though and burst out laughing, seemingly confusing the girl, but she just shook her head, as if to tell herself to think nothing of it.
'Goddamn it, Harry where the hell are you?' Crookshanks thought as he hurried to follow his master.
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Harry's mind was starting to feel weak, but he didn't waver! Even though he could feel the blood dripping from his nose, the soreness in his legs, and the mind-numbing pain that was shooting through his head, he carried on, focusing on the boulder in front of him with all of his being.
He remembered from his Sensei's story that the hero had twisted up an entire city with just her thoughts alone! And she had done it after she had been fighting for who knows how long AND being heavily injured! If she could do that, then surely he could... no he WOULD lift this rock!
With a new surge of will power, his aura flared to life once more and with greater intensity then ever before. The ground began to shake. The boulder began to vibrate, and the air was filled with a buzzing sound that carried for miles. Then, it was gone.
*BOOOOOOOOOM*
Harry watched in amazement as the boulder shot off into the stratosphere at hypersonic speed, physically seeing the air in its path distort as it broke through the sound barrier.
Harry-who had fallen on his ass as a result of the shockwave, something he would have to work on-simply laughed. "By Crookshanks I actually did it!" He yelled, letting out a war cry in victory.
He promptly passed out.
And despite this, none of the wild animals in the forest would dare go anywhere near him. This human HAD just thrown a rock into space after all.
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"So then mudblood, why don't you tell us the password to your den of idiots. If you do, we might just let you go without any permanent injuries." Ferret said once they had gotten a decent ways away from the village.
"Why would I do that?" Hermione asked with a curious face.
Ferret looked confused for a second, before he snarled. "Are you daft? I just told you that we'll beat you up if you don't!"
Hermione just smiled sweetly. "No you won't!" She said cheerily.
"Wha-What do you mean? Of course we will!" Ferret yelled with a frustrated voice.
"You're lying." She said matter of factly.
"No I'm fucking NOT!" He continued to shout, his face getting red. His body guards just looked at him in confusion.
"Why aren't we going to beat her up boss?" One asked in confusion.
"Wha-? WE ARE! Why do you think we came all the way out here you dolts?" Ferrets voice was filled with confusion. They could NOT be this dumb.
"But she just said that we weren't." The other pointed out.
"And you LISTENED to her?" Ferret looked at his body guard like he was an idiot, which, admittedly, he was.
"Yes?" He said, though it sounded more like a question then an answer.
Ferret let out a long sigh containing his rage, before looking back at his companions. "You listen to ME, not her! Got it? Good. Now, get your asses over here so we can beat the password out of her!"
Turning back to the girl, he scowled. "Now then, it seems I have to teach you a lesson for your impudence!"
"OH! What kind of lesson? I'm sorry but I didn't bring my notebooks with me. I wanted to leave room in my bag for other books after all. Speaking of, is the bookstore nearby? I don't think we have much time left before we have to return to the castle. Neverminded, I'm sure we're close. Anyway, do you think writing with a stick in the snow would work? No, probably not, I wouldn't be able to keep them that way! Well, I guess I'll just have to do my best to commit it to memory then. Now, what is it you wanted to teach me?" Hermione ranted.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? I meant that we're going to be beating you up! I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!" Ferret said, his frustration growing.
"Awww, you think I'm smart? That's sweet of you. Though, I'd prefer you don't flirt with me like that, I'm saving myself for someone else!" The Gryffindor stated cheerily, her sweet smile never leaving her face.
"Y-Y-You! I don't- how could-What the fuck? I am going to beat the shit out of you!" He screamed, his rage reaching a breaking point.
"What do you mean? I already told you that you weren't going to do that silly!" She chuckled happily.
"YES. I. FUCKING. WILL!" He continued, punctuating every word.
"Then why haven't you?" She asked, a different kind of smile appearing on her face.
"Huh?" Ferret's face froze, his brain obviously trying and failing to comprehend what she had just asked. When he finally did, he couldn't take being looked down on anymore, roaring in rage and running toward her, intent on beating her face in, apparently forgetting that he was a wizard in the process.
But before his fist made contact-
*ROOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR*
A roaring sound filled their ears as they all turned to see a brown bear standing in front of them. But not just any bear, nooooo, it was a fucking magically giant (10 meter tall) bear! A bear that had been attracted to them by all of the Ferrets shouting.
'*Sigh* Goddamn it Master. Was coming out here to fuck with them really necessary? Now look where you got us. And isn't it winter? Why the hell is this thing even here?' Crookshanks mewled out as he dashed out in front of his master without hesitation.
Everyone there (except the bear) was frozen in shock upon seeing the massive creature arrive. So, since nothing else was moving, the bears attention was immediately brought to the small ginger creature that was. Everyone's heads snapped down to the cat at Hermione's feet, who had just ran in from nowhere and began yowling demonically.
'Greetings majestic creature of the forest! I am Crookshanks! My companions and I were just passing through and mean you no harm. We will leave immediately. Please, allow us to pass and we won't bother you any more!' Crookshanks tried to mediate, falling back into his warrior role again. Why does he keep doing that whenever there's danger? Doesn't matter right now, he'll figure it out later.
'Foooooood' Was all Crookshanks could make out from the beasts low growl in reply. While he wanted to revel in self praise for learning to do that, he was interrupted by another growl.
'Kiiiiiilllllll' That one didn't sound as pleasant as the last.
'Creature, if you attack my master I will be forced to retaliate, something I think neither of us want!' Crookshanks tried to reason, genuinely believing that he could fight a giant, magic bear.
'Liiiiiiitllllle Biiiiiitchhhh' Was the bears reply as he begun to swing his massive arm at the cat.
The cat merely starred at the paw as it approached. Holy shit! Was he going to die here? No! He still had a student to teach! A Dumbledore to slay! A master to matchmake! He couldn't die here! He wouldn't!
With his will solidified, Crookshanks felt something within him change as his body was pushed into high gear by adrenaline, and the world erupted in color. Through his eyes, Crookshanks could see the world moving in slow motions while he was able to think and observe normally.
The bears claw approached at a snails pace, while the ginger cat simply observed. The bear was now covered in a thin green aura, green tendrils of energy branching out through it's body from a ball of energy that seemed to reside where it's heart was.
When Crookshanks looked at the Ferret out of the corner of his eye, he could see the young wizard covered in a blue aura, one that was slightly thicker than the bears. He too had a blue ball where his heart was that had multiple branches of energy branching out through his body, a majority of which were directed toward his hands.
Other than that, there were also small bits of different colors floating through the wizards aura. Small little lights that would pop in and out of existence as they traveled around his body.
Thinking Quickly, Crookshanks realized what must be happening. 'This must be the ability that Kneazles have. But why did it take so long for me to use it? No, that's not true, I could use it before, but not like this! Before it was more just a feeling I had where I could just tell if someone was trustworthy or not, not some sort of sixth sense! Is it because I'm half Kneazle maybe? Or maybe it's some legendary Kneazle power that only awakens once every one thousand years when the user truly needs it!' Crookshanks thought at super speed, silently hoping that it was the second one since it sounded cooler.
'Alright then, enough of that! With my new Byaku-*Cough* Kneazle vision activated, I might just be able to defeat this thing! The question is though, how?' Crookshanks tried his best to come up with a plan, but couldn't. As if listening to his desperation, the universe gave him some help.
*BOOOOOOOOM*
A booming sound reverberated through the forest, followed by an earthquake that rippled through the ground. The bear and the humans all fell over (along with a few of the weaker trees), unable to keep their balance with the earth shaking beneath them. But Crookshanks, because he was a smol boy, was able to stand upright just fine.
'I don't know what the fuck that was, but thank you!' Crookshanks thought furiously, before looking around frantically, hoping to find something that could stop the bear.
Not seeing anything that could be helpful, Crookshanks was about to start cursing the universe for getting his hopes up, when he noticed his own body. He felt strong! Really strong!
'Maybe I can beat the bear by myself?' He thought like every idiot that died trying to fight a bear before him.
'With this strength, I might just be able to sever its Jugular! It will be difficult to pierce through it's skin, even with this strength, but right now I don't have any other option!' Crookshanks dashed forward with determination, paying little mind to his similarly increased speed. He also failed to notice that his head seemed slightly heavier, due to his ears increase in size.
(Go to the Kneazle fandom page and look at its adult Kneazle picture. Imagine that but with Crookshanks color scheme.)
The bear was able to stand back up relatively easily once the earthquake had died down, only to find the small thing from before was suddenly on top of it, the creatures teeth aimed directly at its neck!
Acting quickly, the bear swung its arm up, smashing into the cat with incredible strength and sending it flying into a tree.
Unfortunately for he bear, this cat was no ordinary cat, but was instead a MAGIC cat. While a normal cat could relax its body to survive falls and impacts, a Kneazle could take it one step further due to their magically enhanced bodies, and could relax everything on short notice to survive brute force attacks. In fact, It was almost impossible to kill or even injure a Kneazle with brute force alone because of this, so sharp objects and curses were normally the go too weapons when dealing with one.
(This is bullshit, but since this is an AU and I felt like making the MC more powerful, I thought "fuck it" and decided to give the cats some new powers. MC doesn't really need the power of course since he's got Harry, and it's not really going to make to much of a difference on the plot, but I gave it to him anyway just cuz' it was fun. Maybe I can find some sort of symbolism for it later.)
Getting up quickly, Crookshanks rushed the giant again, this time making sure to dodge it's paw when it came down on it. He rolled under the creatures body (it was on it's hind legs right now), turning around and jumping on it's back, trying to climb it.
To bad the bear jumped backward without hesitation, smashing it's back into a tree (and smashing the tree in the process).
Landing in the remnants of a crushed tree, Crookshanks stood up again, rapidly dodging out of the way on of instinct, narrowly avoiding another swing of the giant creatures arm. Deciding that some mind games might be in order, the Kneazle started running around the beast in circles, confusing it at first, only for it get pissed off and swing its claw at a tree, crushing it to.
'This is so cool!' The magical feline thought with a laugh as it watched another slow motion arm closing in on it. Jumping up and running up the beasts arm as fast as his legs would carry him, Crookshanks aimed once more for the beasts neck.
And his claw struck true!
The bears Jugular burst open from the attack, immediately spewing blood everywhere. But, out of anger and panic, the bear swatted its assaulter with all of its strength, sending Crookshanks flying into a tree and bouncing off of it, landing between the bear (who was about twenty meters in front of him now) and the humans, who were still paralyzed with fear, and a little awe upon seeing the little cat fighting that big ass thing and actually giving it a challenge!
Standing back up, albeit shakily, Crookshanks looked back up at his opponent with determination. He didn't have time to let his body relax before the bear swung at him because his muscles were still tense from his own attack. So, while his body had relaxed by the time he hit the tree, the bears initial strike was enough to break a few bones.
Still, Crookshanks stood as tall as he could and stared into the mountain of a beasts eyes. It may be bleeding out rapidly, but with it's bodies' size, it would definitely have enough time to kill both him and the humans that he was protecting before it bled out. And judging by the look of pure rage in it's eyes as it walked toward them, that was exactly what it was about to do!
Crookshanks lowered his body once more, preparing to fight. He let out a low growl and a noise followed that sounded much more menacing than any of his previous noises, even his demonic yowling!
'I apologize master. I doubt that I will be able to do any more damage to this thing after that blow. But, if you can take comfort in it, know that this bastard will definitely be going down with us!' Was what said noise translated to.
Crookshanks, despite knowing that it was hopeless, began to take a step forward. Prepared to fight to the death. But then-
*Phweeeeeeeeeee*
*Splat*
*RUMBLE*
Just as Crookshanks was about to take another step, he interrupted by a shower of blood, dirt and snow engulfing him and the humans. This was immediately followed by another earthquake, but this time a much larger one.
The humans were once more knocked off their feet and a lot more tree's were knocked down this time. Luckily because of the fight, all of the tree's that could have fallen on them were already crushed. (They were in a pretty thin part of the forest.)
Crookshanks, meanwhile, was thrown backward by the shockwave. This time though his body was already relaxed and easily shrugged the impact off.
The ground slowly calmed down, and the snow and dirt began to clear. The ginger cat stood back up again, hurriedly looking toward the source of the explosion.
There, in the center of a decently large crater, was a twenty ton boulder. And underneath it was the crushed and mangled corpse of the magic bear.
'What the fuck is happening?' Crookshanks wondered where it all went wrong (probably when he let Hermione follow Malfoy into the woods alone).
"CROOKSHANKS!" Came the cry of his master as she came out of her shock first and sprinted over to him, somehow uninjured.
"You idiot! Why would you go and do something so stupid? Are you okay? Where did he hurt you?" She asked frantically as she checked him over, yelping in panic when she accidentally poked his broken leg, making him flinch in pain.
This continued for SEVERAL minutes.
When she finally calmed down a little, she noticed his new appearance. "OH! Crookshanks you look adorable! Your ears are all floppy now!" She emphasized her point by pinching his ears and flicking them around.
'*Groan*' Was Crookshanks reply. By now his adrenaline had faded and his body crashed. Hard.
"Oi, Mudblo- Granger." Came The Humbled One's voice.
Turning to see Malfoy approaching, Hermione just rolled her eyes.
"What do you want now Ferret Face? I already told you earlier that you wouldn't lay a finger on me, do you really want to argue about it again?" She asked, an annoyed look in her eyes.
"No Granger, I don't. I don't know why you were so confident about that earlier, but I don't really care anymore. I simply wanted to thank you. If it weren't for your familiar, both of my friends and I would be dead. So thank you." He stated earnestly, bowing slightly at the end.
Hermione, completely caught off guard and not quite sure if she was dreaming or not, eloquently replied. "Um-Uh...Yeah, sure, its fine."
Malfoy merely nodded, turning around and leaving without another word. though he had a very contemplative look on his face. His goons also followed, though, they didn't apologize, or even look in her direction.
After a few moments of watching their backs disappear, Hermione realized where they were and picked her cat up.
"Come on Crookshanks, lets leave before another boulder falls from the sky." She said as she started walking back to the village.
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Sitting in the cart back to Hogwarts, Hermione turned to her cat and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry Crookshanks, I shouldn't have gone with them earlier, that was stupid of me. I was just so confident that I wouldn't get hurt by anything today that I just played along!"
"Earlier when they had started talking to me I had seen myself walking on the street with my bag full of books. I figured that something had happened to stop me reaching the bookstore before the end of the trip, and since I didn't seem injured I thought that whatever it was wasn't dangerous. Since you hate using the time turner so much, I didn't think much when I didn't see you with me. I hadn't even considered you though! I'm sorry. What kind of terrible pet owner am I?" She finished her rant by hanging her head in shame.
Crookshanks looked at her for a second, before suddenly jumping up onto her head, ignoring the pain shooting through his body.
"Crookshanks! What are you doing? You can't go moving around like that until Madame Pumphrey fixes you!" She scolded her cat as she held onto him, trying to make sure that he didn't fall.
'Don't worry about it so much master. Much more good came out of this than bad. Malfoy was Humbled, you got to fuck with him a little, I became a super Kneazle, and we learned to watch the sky's for falling boulders! And, best of all, you (hopefully) learned not to trust that damned time machine so much! And I only came out with a few scratches! Seems like a win to me.' Crookshanks comforted his master before curling up into a ball (on her head) and falling asleep.
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Later that night in the common room, when Hermione had told her friends about what had happened that day, Ron had simply scoffed in disbelief and walked away, while Harry was staring at his Sensei (who was taking a nap on Hermione's head) in awe. He didn't doubt for one second that his Sensei could fight a creature of that size, and to only come out with light injuries? Harry began to wonder just how powerful the foe that taught him humility truly was.
When he asked Crookshanks in the RoR the next morning, his Sensei merely stated that it would be of no use describing his enemy, as a mere mortal was incapable of comprehending its power! Did that mean that his Sensei had fought a god level being? That's amazing! Harry then vowed to quadruple his training so that he could one day reach his Sensei's level.
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(God damn that chapter was a lot longer then I originally intended it to be. 5000+ words, that's the longest chapter on this fanfic yet. And it only took 3 hours to write and edit.
Oh, and, to be clear, Crookshanks will NOT be gaining access to wizard magic, nor will he ever get a human form. If your wondering why, it's simply because I don't see a reason to make him into a cat in the first place if I'm just going to make him human anyway! I would maybe do that if he was cursed into being a cat, but Crookshanks actually enjoys it, so I don't see a good reason to make him human again. Instead, just think of Harry as the human protagonist, since he still is the protagonist, just alongside Crookshanks.
As for Crookshanks new powers, no he won't be gaining anymore anytime soon, and when he eventually does, it will be a very specific power. See in my HP universe the magic system works on belief and hard work, so magic CAN do anything so long as the wielder believes that it's possible and works toward it, but that only applies to the more sentient magic casters that actually contain magic such as wizards, centaurs, goblins and elves. For magical creatures however, they are more akin to magical effects rather than containers.
Yes, as shown earlier through Crookshanks vision (any name suggestions for that?) animals do have magical cores, but the magic that those cores hold is magic with predetermined effects. The bears made it bigger and stronger. A dragons would let it make fire. You get the idea. This is different from containers who wield pure magic, which can be easily influenced to do anything simply by the casters intent.
I hope I explained that well enough. Anyway, once again, if you have any suggestions please comment them, they are always helpful and keep me motivated to write more. Also, if you feel like it, a review would be much appreciated. People tend to click onto a book more if it has a star rating and you only gain one of those once you reach ten reviews. This is at three as of writing this. With that out of the way, thanks for reading!)
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