New Worlds Emerge

He hid under a bush, watching as humans ran around and screamed and fell. His ears were flat on his head. Girl had gone away, along with weasel-boy and nice-boy. Cold-boy was still there, pointing his stick at other humans who slumped to the ground and made sounds which made his tail puff out. 

A long time later the humans left. Not all of them, but the ones remaining were familiar. Weasel-boy’s family. He tried to crawl out of the bush without being seen, but he was caught. 

“Crookshanks? Is that you?”

It was wolf-man, who the nice-boy didn’t like. Crookshanks hissed at him. 

“It’s alright,” wolf-man said. “The fighting is over. Hermione took Ron and Harry somewhere. I’m sure she’ll come back for you.”

Wolf-man wasn’t yelling or throwing things, and came back with a piece of fish, so he allowed the man to scratch his ears and followed him into the house. 

“Crookshanks!”

Wolf-man had picked him up and made him dizzy, and now he was in a new place. He didn’t think there were any mice here, or gnomes, or anything good to hunt. But girl was there too, and growling made her upset. 

“He’s fine,” wolf-man said, handing him over to girl. She draped him over her shoulder, and he felt her tears falling into his fur. He started purring, hoping to make her happy.

The humans talked about something in hushed voices, which he easily heard. Nice-boy had done something they didn’t like. He didn’t comprehend their standards for good or bad behavior, but it seemed like nice-boy had protected girl and weasel-boy. He didn’t understand why this was a bad thing, so he kept purring and hoped the girl would feel better soon. 

There were mice in the dunes and small pinching things hiding in the sand, and he even found a spiky thing that moved slowly. Cool-weasel cut the spiky parts off so he could eat it.

Sometimes girl would dangle a string in front of him and he would indulge her by playing with it. Most times girl was with her books.

One day an old man arrived. He could smell how close to dying the old man had been. He thought he caught a trace of nice-boy, but it was too faint, and it had been a long time since he had seen nice-boy.

He followed nice-boy upstairs and wondered when the boy would notice. Nice-boy was very focused on what he was doing, and girl and weasel-boy were making him unhappy. He started to approach, to diffuse the situation, but then weasel-boy said something that made wolf-people show up, so he ran. 

It got very hot, and very loud, and when it was quiet again bird-woman picked him and the old man up and they went somewhere else.

Girl had taken the weasel-boy away again, leaving him behind. She had gone away and come back before, so he wasn’t very concerned. The other humans were, though. He heard girl’s name coming from a strange box.

The place he was in was much bigger, and the humans said it was much safer from the people hunting nice-boy and the others. He didn’t like the smell. It was dry, someone was slowly dying, and they covered it up with the scent of decaying flowers. It made him sneeze. 

It was a long time before girl came back. She smelled like blood and herbs and was kept in a quiet room. She cried a lot.

It took a while for him to determine what had been done to her. Another wolf-man, a very bad one, had attacked her. Nice-boy had saved her, but the wolf-man was still out there somewhere, hunting other girls. He played with his food. He could come back for girl.

On a spring day many of the weasel-family left. They came back laughing and smiling and hugging. One even picked him up.

He perked his ears, listening to the story unfold. Nice-boy and cold-boy had killed snake-man. The humans were happy.

It took longer to hear that the bad wolf-man lived. Longer still to discover where he had been taken.

He leapt off his warm windowsill. Girl was still scared. He owed a debt to her for taking him away from the place with loud animals and swinging brooms.

He slunk out of the house.

His journey was long and arduous. He crept through trees and wriggled under bushes. He darted across roads and ran away from laughing children.

After a long time, he arrived in a place with many humans and big, moving things. They were surprised to see him, so he found darker places to travel. 

Finally, he found the place. There were humans who smelled like magic here, and he followed them through a glass window that wasn't really there.

He caught the scent of wolf-men. He followed one of the green humans towards it, to a room where people smelled like fire and cooked meat. He hid under a bed, listening to the green people whisper.

He heard wolf-man's name.

When the room was quiet again, he jumped on wolf-man's bed.

"What the fuck?" wolf-man growled.

He looked at wolf-man. He had thought rat-man was the worst human he had seen, until now. Wolf-man looked like something weasel-boy had tried to cook.

"Get off!"

Wolf-man thrashed around, like a fish caught in a net. The green humans had tied him down so he couldn't leave.

He jumped onto wolf-man's chest.

"Get off! I hate cats!"

His fur bristled at that. Not only had this man hurt girl and made her sad, he hated all cats. He was a danger to all of them.

He didn't need any more encouragement. He hissed and spat at wolf-man, flew at his face, and used his back legs to claw wolf-man's throat out.

When wolf-man stopped moving, he leapt away to clean off his paws. The green humans came back, and there was a lot of shouting and confusion so he left.

He had almost reached the exit when someone called out to him.

"Crookshanks? What are you doing here?"

It was nice-boy! Cold-boy was with him too. He walked up to them, and nice-boy picked him up.

"Why is there blood all over you?"

"We should go," cold-boy said. "It seems like there is a commotion, and I believe we have apprehended the culprit."

Nice-boy laughed, and a cool wave of magic passed over him. He felt much cleaner. They left the healing place.

"Is Hermione still at Muriel's?" nice-boy asked him.

"Meow."

"Alright, we'll get you back there. I’ve been wondering what you've been getting up to. I hope they don't pin whatever you did on us. We were just visiting Tonks. She had a baby! Can you believe Lupin asked me to be the godfather? Is he out of his mind? Of course I said yes, Tonks was crying..."

After a dizzying trip, he was back home. He found a patch of sunlight in the garden to fall asleep in.