Cat-Florean

"Well look at you - alive and such. Thought you was a goner the way your da was looking Sunday."

Minerva looked up to see Dougal McGregor climbing over the log that bridged their stream, leading to the other side, which they referred to as The Wild Wood because it was much thicker and darker than the patch of trees in which they had their "clubhouse". Minerva had crossed over to the Wild Wood because she'd seen a cat and she'd called it over to herself gently and coaxed it out of a hiding place to find it was ill and she'd ripped her skirt (her mum would be furious) to make a tiny cat-sized bandage. She sat now in the shade of a tree, holding the puddy and whispering little songs to it about milk and mice he would get to eat when he was well again and able to run about the manse and the barn.

"Was he sorrowed?" Minerva asked, pouting.

"Oh yes, very grieved." Dougal made it all the way across with minimal amount of slippage on the damp, mossy bark of the bridge-tree and jumped over the extended arms of the roots that stuck up into the air at the end. He landed hard on his feet in a crouch amongst the grasses. "Not so grieved that he didn't take the opportunity to tell me off for being a heathen, though."

"He could be on his deathbed and have time for that, Dou," Minnie replied, smirking.

"I know." Dougal smirked, "Will be a right shame when he's got me for a son-in-law, won't it?"

"He won't," Minnie answered. They'd been over this before, though it had been some time since Dougal had brought it up. "Unless you're planning on marrying Malcolm."

"Blimey," Dougal replied, making a face, "I'd rather marry Ham."

"'Tis what I thought," Minerva smirked, cradling her new friend closer and humming softly as she ran her fingertip against the soft velvety nose.

Dougal crouched beside her, looking down at him. "What's the matter with it?" he asked.

"Wounded leg. A big bird tried at snatching him up. But he's a fighter, he's fought the bird off." Minnie smiled at the puddy.

Dougal's eyes widened, "Whoa. Did you see it, then?"

"No, he told me," Minnie replied.

Dougal rolled his eye - assumed this was Minnie being her typical sassy self - and stood upright. He grabbed at a stick from a brush and swept it about, sparring with a tree whose branch hung low enough he could reach. "What do you want to play at today? Pirates, perhaps?"

"Nah," Minnie shook her head. "I'm not in the mood much for playing."

"C'mon Min, we only get so many days to play together!" Dougal complained. "You already sloshed up one of them and soon the snows will be comin' and we'll be hunkered inside and missing even more."

"Then come help me nurse my pud."

"Dougal made a face, but he sat on a rock not far away and started drawing in the sand, watching her coddle the little ball of fur in silence. He studied her. Then, "You look different."

"I do?"

He nodded. "I can't put my finger upon it, but there's something different 'bout you. I dunna - maybe it's just on account of having not seen you for two weeks. Does things to a man's mind, that does."

"It doesn't."

"Aye. Drives me mad."

"Not having me about is more of a bit of fresh air for yeh, don't be lyin, Dou!" Minnie said. "You could be playing pirates right now with all the school boys if you weren't stuck here in the woods watching after this pud with me."

"Wouldn't. You know I don't play with the other boys. They're mean to me. All's I had to play with last week was Katie."

Minnie felt bad but she didn't say anything. She just doubled her focus on the cat.

"I can't wait 'til next year when we're both in secondary together and it isn't just me against all of them, Min. It'll be really nice not being alone all week." Dougal smiled at the thought of it.

Minnie bit her lip.

Dougal spotted the look on her face and he asked, "What're you lookin' like that for, Min?"

Minnie stroked the cat's fur. "Not a reason."

Dougal shook his head, "Nah, there's got'ter be a reason. What is it?"

"It's just that... I may not be goin' to the regular secondary school."

"What?" Dougal looked deeply disturbed by this thought. "Why on earth not?"

"It's just that I've been accepted to a boarding school."

"A boarding school? As in, you'd live somewhere else?"

Her cheeks felt quite hot. "Only for the school terms..."

Dougal stared at her, "Like on the weekends, too?"

"I'll be home for Summer and the holidays."

"But that's even worse than it is now!" Dougal complained. "Why's your Dad always got to be goin' and mucking things up for!?" He looked positively buzzing with anger. He stamped his foot, "Why do you have to go to some fancy Presbyterian secondary school!"

Minnie hesitated. Then, "It wasn't exactly me da's idea," she answered, shrugging vaguely, "It was sort of my mum's."

Dougal frowned.

Minnie sighed, "I'm sorry Dou, I didn't know 'til very recently."

He stared at the pebbles beneath his feet.

"I wish I could stay with you here for always, but... I mean, its very important to mum."

Dougal said, "Well I s'pose we still have most of a year to be talking her out of sending you away before the term starts so we'll have to just come up with something to convince her that secondary here with me is the best idea!"

Minnie stared at the cat.

"It'll need to be something brilliant to do it, though... " he started musing to himself, not noticing that Minnie wasn't joining in this time.

Minerva changed the subject as gently as she could, staring at the cat, she announced, "I think I shall name him..." she thought for a moment. "Florean."

"That's a stupid name."

Minnie looked up, "It isn't stupid."

"It is!" Dougal stood up and dragged his stick across the sand. "Is that even a boy name or a girl name?"

"A boy's," Minerva replied. She stroked the cat's little face.

"Well, it's stupid," Dougal repeated.

Minerva frowned down at the cat in her arms and kissed his little face gently.

"Nobody's ever been named Florean before, I'll bet."

The cat nibbled her fingertip playfully. "They most definitely have, Dou"

When she got home that evening, Minnie showed her mum Cat-Florean, as she'd begun thinking of him, and asked if magic could fix him. Isobel had hesitated, then pulled Minerva into her parents bedroom, where she opened up the floorboards and dug about until she'd withdrawn a small white bottle. "You musn't tell your father of this," she said quietly, and she uncapped the bottle and poured out the smallest drops of a clear, steaming liquid into a tiny spoon.

"What is it?" Minerva asked.

"Skelegro," replied Isobel, and she carefully took the cat into her arms and poured the drops into the cat's tiny pink lips. Minnie stared on, scared for her little friend, and watched as he struggled against Isobel's chest for a moment, yowling, as she poured the potion into his mouth. When she finished, she handed him back to Minnie, who held him closely and gently. "It'll take a little while, but his bone should regrow by morning." Isobel screwed the cap back on the bottle, then reached for her wand from the floorboards and waved it over Cat-Florean as she murmured the incantation to heal flesh wounds and the torn flesh on the cat's leg seemed to stitch itself together and mend.

Minnie had never wanted to learn to practice the magic more.

She remembered the guilt she'd felt back at the stream, when Dougal had looked so upset about her leaving, and she sighed. "Mum?"

"Yes, Minnie?"

"When you went to Hogwarts... did you regret leavin' anybody behind?"

Isobel paused, then, misunderstanding Minerva's question, said, "Your father and I will miss you while you're gone, and so will your brothers, but goin' to Hogwarts is a very exciting adventure, Min, you'll barely notice we've been left behind once you go."

"I s'pose," Minerva replied, then, "It's just that I'm sad about leaving Dougal."

"You'll make new friends, Min. Like those boys you met at the Leaky Cauldron."

"I'm more worried for Dou than for me," Minnie answered.

Isobel shook her head, "Do not worry about Dougal McGregor; he will be more'n fine... You've got a great many wonderful things in your future... The wizarding world has never been safer and better... Grindelwald finally defeated... Dumbledore as Deputy Headmaster... You could not be arriving at a better time for the wizarding world..."

"Who is Grindelwald?" Minerva asked.

Isobel shivered. "A bad man."

"Like Mr. Hitler was?" Minerva asked.

"Yes. Very similar. Except he wanted wizards to rule over muggles, and he was very cruel to any who were pro-muggle."

Minerva shivered.

"But he's locked away now in a wizard prison, far away. Numengard." She could see the fear in Minerva's eyes. "Albus Dumbledore defeated him. Should be the Minister himself, Dumbledore, at least that's what I say. And a good deal many others, but he chose the position at Hogwarts over it. I'll never understand."

At her mother's words, Minerva now pictured Albus Dumbledore as a dashing young man with a good deal many strong muscles and shiny badges, like the war heroes she'd seen on the newspapers returning from Germany and France at the end of the war not even a year before.

Isobel smiled then, and said, "Dun'a worry girl, all of the evil's been defeated in this world and the time for terror is over and only the good can come now. You'll see, 'tis but a golden era you've been lucky to come to age in." She patted Minerva's hair gently.

But Minerva wondered - for the Reverend always spoke of evil being defeated, only to speak of it as though it had returned, as though it had never been defeated at all, but still ruled over the earth. She thought that perhaps there was no such thing as complete destruction of evil, but only of good winning a battle while the war still raged on just below the surface of mankind... manifesting itself in the beliefs and intents of others... until it had found a new figurehead to carry the banner.