Meeting the Dursley's
“I’m sorry,” said Athanasios, or Thanos as he preferred to be called, “you want me to what?” He was used to all manner of requests from his fellow campers, especially over the last few years, but this was by far one of the weirder ones.
“Pretend to be my pet,” Percy repeated.
“Oh, good so I did hear you correctly.” Said Thanos. “Follow-up question, are you insane?”
“Come on Thanos,” pleaded Percy, “it’s just until after I meet my cousin, and then you go off and do whatever it is you do. Please.”
“Right, not gonna even unpack that. Second, follow-up question. Why?”
“Why what?” Asked Percy.
“Why do you want me to pretend to be your pet?” Thanos clarified. “Are you that scared of your cousin that you need some backup or something?”
“Oh, well. It’s just that I’ve never met either of them—”
“Two secret cousins?” interrupted Thanos in a mutter.
“—And after Manhattan, I don’t—”
“Right, right, got it.” Thanos interrupted again with a sigh. “So, just to get this straight. You want me to turn into some type of animal, come along with you to your cousins over in London, play happy family and loving pet and make sure nothing bad happens. And then when you leave or start school or whatever it is you are doing over there, you want me to just wonder off and poof from their memories?”
“Ah, yeah. If that’s ok? I can see about paying you. Or something.” Said Percy.
Thanos stayed silent and stared at Percy with a hum. For a reason yet fully clear, he was contemplating accepting the request. It was not even that he was fully against it to begin with, Thanos knew how Percy had been hunted since he turned twelve. And he knew that in order for Percy to have any semblance of peace he would need something of an ‘anti-monster tracker’, of which Thanos naturally was.
“So…”
“I’m gonna be honest with you.” Thanos finally sighed, “I’m starting to question whether I’m the insane one.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“So does that mean…?”
“Just tell me what pet you want me to be Jackson.” Thanos almost couldn’t believe that he was even doing this.
~
The house at 4 Privet Drive was as quaint and unassuming as the rest of the houses in Little Whinging, and Thanos was already regretting his decision.
“Your cousins Jackson, better not be children,” Thanos hissed in Percy’s ear from where he was curled around his shoulders. He had taken the form of a relatively large black house cat and had begrudgingly allowed Percy to secure a blue collar around his neck for the occasion.
“They’re only like, three years younger than me, relax.” Percy murmured back as he walked up to the door and knocked. He was nervous, not so much that the secret of the cat around his shoulders would be found out, but rather if he was going to get along with either of his cousins. London was a long distance away from New York and he had no desire to travel that again so soon, especially due to a reason such as whether someone liked him or not.
Inside the house Thanos and Percy could hear someone running down the stairs, the clicking of heels on hardwood, and the muffled sound of conversation that cut off when the door opened. Standing in the doorway with a strained smile was a woman that seemed to be the very epitome of the tired housewife, from her carefully crafted curls to the apron she patted flat as she welcomed Percy inside and introduced herself as his aunt Petunia.
“Your mother didn’t say anything about you having a cat,” she fretted as she led the duo into the living room where the rest of the Dursley family were gathered.
“Sorry, I wasn’t sure if I was going to bring him,” said Percy. “I promise he’s very well behaved and I’ve got food for him, so you don’t have to worry about feeding him.”
Percy’s aunt merely sniffed and kept her strained smile. Thanos could tell that she had something more to say about it and was thankful that she instead turned to introduce the people seated around the living room. Percy’s uncle Vernon was a large walrus of a man and was seated in the lone single seater and stared the duo down with an impressive air of barely contained disdain. Taking up most of a couch to himself was Percy’s cousin Dudley, which Thanos privately thought was a stupid name, and who seemed to be paying more attention to him than anyone else. Lastly, Percy was introduced to Harry Potter, a reasonably skinny teen—especially when compared to his cousin Dudley—with untamed black hair and a pair of wire framed glasses that did nothing to hide eyes that closely matched Percy’s own.
“It’s nice to meet you all,” said Percy as he reached up to scratch Thanos under the chin, “this is Thanos. He’s real quiet I promise, and you’ll probably even forget he’s here—”
Vernon cut in before Percy could thank them for their hospitality, as little as it was, and barked out that he had better be right about the cat. “I’m not running a charity here and I’m already being quite generous with allowing you to bunk with Harry.”
“Yeah, of course.” Percy mumbled and spared a glance at Harry and then at his aunt whose strained smile had gradually faded into a thin line.
“Right, well Harry will show you where you are staying,” Petunia said with a sniff, “and then you are to come down and have dinner.”
“Right away Aunt Petunia,” said Harry as he gestured for Percy to follow him.
Harry’s room, thought Thanos, was relatively plain in its furnishings with only a bed, a wardrobe and a desk decorating the space. And thought that the books and broken toys in the room were obviously secondhand as far as he could tell considering the almost pristine condition of the trunk half hidden under Harry’s bed. Faintly he caught the scent of something distinctly like a bird and wondered how often Harry kept his window open for the scent to make its home in the room. He was quick to discard that notion however when he saw the crest on the trunk more clearly, and while it had been a while since Thanos had anything to do with Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, he remembered the crest quite vividly.
“It’s not much,” said Harry, “but we could probably figure something out.”
“Yeah, and hey, I don’t mind sleeping on the floor,” said Percy as he let Thanos jump off his shoulders to land on the desk. “I could probably go to the shops or something tomorrow and get a sleeping bag or something.”
“We might not have the time,” grumbled Harry, “Aunt Marge is coming tomorrow, and we’ll probably have to help out. But we could go the day after, and I can take the floor till then.” He offered.
Thanos, having moved from the desk to the bed while Harry talked, meowed softly to get their attention, and then pointedly started to groom around his maw. For a second neither boy moved, staring at the cat in a mixture of bemused confusion before understanding settled over Percy’s face.
“Right, we should probably head down to dinner,” said Percy before he put on a show of telling Thanos to stay in the room and to stay quiet.
Thanos waited until he could hear them going down the stairs before jumping off the bed and shifting to his humanoid form. A quick flick of his wrist and the room was soundproof and warded to warn him if someone was about to enter the room. While he had promised Percy to play the perfect little pet while he stayed with his aunt and uncle, he had made no promise that he would not also do his own thing while there. And now, seeing the personality lacking room and the Hogwarts trunk that marked Harry as a wizard, Thanos could not help himself but to snoop.
He started with the wardrobe, striding over with a hum, and flinging the door open to see a snowy owl in a cage as well as a few other wizarding memorabilia that was shoved into the small space. The owl, Hedwig the plaque said, merely stared at Thanos for a moment before hooting softly and going back to cleaning her feathers.
“I doubt you are welcome here any more than I am,” said Thanos as he summoned some food for the owl and closed the wardrobe door. He would see if he couldn’t let her out later in the night for a flight, though he hoped that Harry would do that on his own without much prompting.
Next, he went for the half-hidden trunk and found what appeared to be the boys school uniform and an assortment of books—all magical in nature. Thanos found these to be some of the most interesting things he had found so far in Harry’s room and made a note of their titles before putting everything back where he found it and stood back in the centre of the room. He debated with himself for a moment, staring at the space with a contemplating hum. Percy and Harry would be finished with dinner soon enough and the debate on who slept where was likely to pick up again, for all that they were both being civil about it, Thanos did not wish to be stuck in the middle of it. And so, with a snap of his fingers and an incantation muttered under his breath, Thanos summoned a sleeping bag that looked like it could have been there a while and promptly shoved it under the bed.
With another flick of his wrist the soundproof spell and ward were lifted and then he was once again a cat just in time for Percy and Harry to enter the room. With a soft meow, Thanos had wound himself around Percy’s ankles and started to herd him towards the bed with a chirp.
“What’s he doing?” Asked Harry as he closed the door.
“I think he wants to show me something?” said Percy.
Thanos chirped once more and darted under the bed, scrambling to grab at the sleeping bad with his teeth to drag it further into view of the two teens. Percy immediately reached past Thanos and dragged it the rest of the way out, looking at it with an amused chuckle.
“Looks like we won’t have to go shopping,” joked Percy.
“Huh, I didn’t even know we had one,” said Harry. “Dudley must have gotten one while I was at school or something.”
“And he put it under your bed?” Percy asked as he started to set up the sleeping bag. He, like Thanos, had already concluded that Dudley was not the most active kid around, and nor was he the most likable or caring.
“Ah, yeah,” muttered Harry as he fidgeted under Percy’s intense stare. “Dudley’s old things usually find their way into my room at some point. But I don’t mind,” he quickly explained, “it’s not like I’m here that often with school and all.”
“The fancy boarding school in Scotland, right?” asked Percy.
“Right.” Harry confirmed.
Having completed setting up the sleeping bag, Percy sat and started to go through one of his bags, ignoring Harry’s final insistence that he was fine to take the floor. In muttered conversation the two were quick to get ready for bed, taking turns stepping out of the room so the other could change. Thanos merely watched the events from his perch on the desk, watching in bemusement as the two bantered with an ease expected from long-born friendships, albeit with the awkwardness and slight hesitation that betrayed just how long they’d actually known each other. Before long the two were settling down and saying their goodnights, and Thanos, as quiet as was promised, was slipping away into the night.