Chapter 5
It had taken three days before the Potters were released; The ‘Hearing Charm’ procedure had been scheduled, the group had been getting used to using their wands to spell out what they were saying, it was a simple ‘captioning’ spell that they had learnt first year. James, always loved to be the centre of attention but only when he was showing off or telling jokes, usually both; he hated when he got attention when he wasn’t okay, when he was sick or hurt, he hated people worrying about him, because of this, James’ was excellent at diverting people’s attention away from him as well as getting it. At the moment he was fussing over Lily to focus people’s attention on her. Lily had been closely observed by everyone, while they all noted symptoms, compared to what the Healers expected, her brain had healed amazingly. The healers had told her that her magic was the only reason she could even use her frontal cortex at all. They had told Lily about ‘Service Familiars’ and the group had floo’d to the organisation
Since the curse had hit Lily towards the top of the frontal cortex, it had mostly affected her motor skills, along with some minor personality changes. The witches symptoms were: severe weakness on right side, trouble organising thoughts and controlling her emotions and finally, easily distracted - her and Sirius went to wander around while James had been trying to get back into contact who’s Auror contacts, and both accidentally had been gone for multiple hours, and caused a panic by James, Remus and about most of the hospital - the Healers also wanted the group to keep an eye out for depression in either of them but especially Lily. To help her, the Service Familiar services had taken them to one of the fireplaces at St Mungo’s and had Floo’d to the Service Familiar Service building.
Lily and the group had been taken to a large room that appeared to be the reception and entry room to the organisation, next to the fireplace, there was a long light blue couch, the reception desk was just next to them on the right, on the left there was a white door and hallway went past the reception. They then followed the wizard through the white door and they then were in a round room with doors all around, on the doors were labeled with the names of the types of animals.
“Since your familiar will have to help with your mobility, you will need a larger animal, a basic guide is they have to be over 55-70cm or taller, and 30kg or more, but here we do specific measurements, do you need support standing?” The Wizard, who had previously named himself ‘Jacob Smart’, smiled kindly at her, eyes not pitying like so many, but instead just kind.
Lily smiled back and thought for a moment, she knew she struggled standing, it didn’t hurt but her muscles tired easily now and her balance was basically non existent, if she didn’t accept help she could fall, and if she fell and hurt herself that could keep her from her babies for longer, mind decided she looked to her husband. She didn’t need to ask he just grinned goofily like always and offered him his arm, exaggerating his movements and bowing dramatically, smiling at her dork of a husband, she took his arm.
With a flick of Jacob Smart’s wand, tao measuring tapes flew to where they were and halted at the wizards side. “Can you please move your arms to its like you’re a cross?” Lily did as he said “thank you!” Once more the measuring tapes moved and began measuring her arm span and her height. “Hmm, okie dokie, you can sit back down now”
James helped Lily sit down, and then sat himself next to her, Lily left her hand on his arm.
“Now, a mobility animal for your needs, will need to be 40% or more of your height and same for your weight, ideally I like to have it 50%. it says here you’re 152cm” Jacob flicked his wand, then aimed it at a parchment were with a jet of white, the parchment then had writing on it. “Are you comfortable with sharing your weight?”
Lily nodded “and 60kg, this is good as it means our options are a lot more open! We have both cats and dogs that size, do you have a preference?”
Lily did, “Cats,” Lily said, then as a sideway glance to Sirius “Sorry Sirius,” Sirius pouted.
Jacob jumped up with his eyes sparkling, “follow me follow me! I think we have JUST the match!”
James mustn’t of heard what was being said because he was looking around at the members of the room very confused. Lily tapped James and moved so she could speak directly into his ear.
“He did the calculations for height and weight and I chose cats!” Lily spoke louder than normal, but the group had been getting used to yelling for James to hear them. James nodded and stood up.
James held out both hands for Lily to help her up, and once again he offered his arm, this time she linked her arm in with his and slowly, they began to move towards the yellow door labeled ‘Cats’. The group moved through and Lily gasped at the sight, it was unlike anything Lily had ever seen before, they must’ve used an expansion charm because the room was huge, it didn’t even look like a room.
The floor was covered in long grass that looked so soft, Lily tried to take her shoes off, however that just caused her to fall. Lily laughed, she was right the grass was so soft, as she had fallen, she attracted the attention of one large chocolate, leopard-printed cat that appeared to have a Maine and blue eyes. The cat had ran up as she fell, very concerned, but when she had started to laugh the cat paused for a second, but came up to sniff the woman.
“Ah that’s Miss. I thought she’d be interested in you! Do you wish to hear her story? I warn you it’s not a nice one,” Lily nodded to the man, she hadn’t gotten up from where she had fallen, she let the cat sniff around her and continue to investigate.
“Just like humans, animals can be gifted with magic only they can’t manipulate theirs like we can, they can sense magic and are often drawn to Wix. Unfortunately many wix experiment on these poor creatures to try and understand magic better. About a year ago the organisation started by Newt Scammander known as ‘Magical Animal Allies” got an anonymous tip someone was keeping both wild and domestic magical creatures to experiment on and profit off. They raided the place and most of the animals went into a sanctuary. Now there are two groups of cats or felines, Pantherinae, and Felidae. Pantherinae are the big cats and Felidae’s are small cats, they cannot breed together, not without magic and not safely. This man did not care he bred a mainecoon - the biggest domestic cat, with a leopard, the cat used all its magic just trying to keep her and her babies alive but the pregnancy was too hard on her bodies and the babies were growing too big in her stomach. Unfortunately, her and four of her babies died, only one survived and it was only thanks to its magic. The Wix’s at Animal Allies noticed this cat was highly tuned into emotions, and was always trailing after someone, they decided to call us to ask if we could do a review to see if she was a fit for us and she was. I always suspected she’d be great as a mobility cat. Her size is more than perfect, in face if stood on two legs, she would be taller than Lily! She’s 162cm and weighs 50kg,”
Lily had began crying but was also laughing, Miss Bear started licking Lily’s face as she cried, as if trying to rid of the tears.
“She’s the one, I want her,”
Jacob smiled and nodded, clearly very pleased, to their surprise he quickly left the room.
“Need a hand love?” James asked, his voice yelling, Lily nodded.
James let Lily grab hold of his hands, Lily couldn’t pull herself up as her right arm as weak as her leg, after that James moved to her weak side, and supported her weight while she clumsily got up, Miss Bear meowed at the man, and continued to wonder around Lily, keeping a close eye on the woman. As Lily stood, Jacob rushed back in with an old leather suitcase and a lot of paper work
*****
The suitcase had been filled with the needed things for the ‘Bonding Ceramomy’ Only Lily had been allowed in but once they came out, Lily had a huge smile on her face and Miss Bear, who came up to Lily’s mid-thigh, was trotting next to her; the cat had been fitted with a harness, it was black and leather, there was a strap around Miss Bear’s girth and chest, and it had a handle, which Lily was already using. Before they used the floo to go back to the hospital, Lily explained how the harness was charmed to only apply 50% of the weight Lily applied to aid.
They said thanks to Jacob, and one by one, they flood back to St.Mungo’s
*****
Thanks to both Potter’s and Sirius’ influence and money, On the second day of their stay, James was fitted with a hearing charm. While there were many deaf Wix’s, some born and some like James, not all of them used hearing charms, many used sign - something James decided he was going to try to learn - it was also common to use the captioning charm like they had been going. The charm needed for James’ level of hearing loss was a very complex one that required, not just an object for the charm - In this case bone which would be manipulated by magic to fit snuggly behind James’ ear and just at the entrance of his inner ear. - but it needed a potion as well. The potion was a thick sticky paste that then would dry down to thin bone that behaved as the micro-hair particles would’ve, the bone from the outside and the bone could connect and de-connect. The charm increased movement of the inner ear and sent electrical signals and vibrations which then sent the signal and vibrations into the brain where it would be interpreted into noise. The procedure had been very invasive as James’ magic had to be suppressed, so it wouldn’t attack the foreign magic in his ear, once the charm had been placed and the magic wasn’t at its peak - which was always the five minutes after the spell or charm was placed, It was an incredibly delicate procedure that ended up taking 15 hours, 15 hours where Lily, Remus and Sirius had been worrying out of their minds. Lily was lying down, petting a curled up Miss Bear in an attempt to calm down, she wasn’t calm but she wasn’t yelling for answers like she wanted to, so she thought it was working, the weight of her Familiar on her chest was the only thing Lily wanted to focus on, Sirius had turned to Padfoot the minute James was whisked away, and Remus had been staring blankly while petting Padfoot absentmindedly, worst case scenarios rushing through his head, this was a big and risky procedure and Remus could swear he could feel more grey hair appearing. Finally a sleeping James was taken back into his shared room with Lily where they waited for him to wake up. Lily sat upright and, with a mix of help from both Miss Bear and Remus, the redhead stood next to James’ bed, Padfoot had jumped on the bed and was curled up at James feet while Remus was next to Lily. The group had casual conversations, trying to include James since Remus had read that it helps in waking them. It ended up only taking an hour, relieving the healers who he been hesitant to even put James under since he only just woke up from a coma. “James?” Lily asked hesitantly,
James grinned a big goofy grin that made his nose and eyes crinkle, “I’ve missed your voice beautiful”
Lily’s hands flew to her mouth as she gasped, tears filling her eyes - her eyes weren’t the only ones wet, she gently moved her hands to cup her husbands face and leant in pecking him on the lips. James grinned against her lips, making Lily smile as well, soon the couple were giggling while expanding small kisses, this only lasted thirty seconds as Sirius had started making fun of their PDA. The couple looked sheepishly at Sirius, who was sitting cross legged at the foot of the bed.
Remus rolled his eyes “You two are disgustingly cute””