Feathered families

Part 3/?

A month after his arrival, Sirius had yet to conceive. Each week the potion would come back negative. In response, Tom was now incorporating tasteless vitamins into the Gryffe’s foods and mating with him twice a day. He had also written to Snape to ask his advice, though he had failed to get a response as of yet and any fire-calls had been answered by his werewolf secretary, who said Snape was very busy observing a high-risk Gryffe who was on the verge of laying with a very large clutch and he would make sure Snape got back to him as soon as possible.

Knowing that laying times could sometimes run over two weeks, Tom in the meantime reread every book or thesis on Gryffes he got his hands on in-between important government tasks. The reasons why a Gryffe wasn’t conceiving were wide and many. Lack of vitamins could be scratched off the list, leaving three reasons all writers agreed on as probable causes. One was exposure to toxic chemicals made by muggles, which he was horrified to discover could be found on the fruits and vegetables he was feeding both his Gryffes. They apparently softened the egg shells so much the egg could be smashed easily before it started to grow, if the egg was viable at all. He made a mental note to tell all the house elves that the produce they bought had to be washed at least five times before feeding it to his mates.

The other was a deformity of the ovaries or uterus caused in the shell of the now adult Gryffe or as a result of a violent act. Tom immediately fire-called a mediwizard (other than Snape of course), who specialized in diagnosing and treating magical creature deformities, for an appointment. He also fire-called Malfoy manor to ask for a complete medical history on Sirius. The medical history turned up clean, although Narcissa did mention that Sirius and his brother were both emotionally abused by their Fertilizer’s wife who resented their deceased Layer.

Although all their physical needs were met, both were deprived of attention for weeks on end. Tom made a mental note that this might be the reason why Sirius seemed so distrustful of him.

The third major cause lay in the sperm of the donor.

That reason gave Tom pause. However, because his sperm had produced one child already, he doubted he was the one with fertility problems. He shrugged that explanation off, seeing it as discredited already.

Tom’s relationship with James had also taken a turn for the worst. While James was out of his catatonic state, the Gryffe left in his place was someone Tom did not know. In the past twelve years, Tom had grown to expect James to seek him out when he returned home. The affectionate Gryffe would lay his head on his lap or shoulder while he was completing paperwork if Harry was around. If Harry wasn’t around, James would be doing far more naughtier things with his lap.

Instead, this new James had taken to avoiding him at all cost. If Tom did not know any better, he would say James was depressed but he rationalized the behavior as that of pinning for his offspring. However, he knew like any other animal once some time had passed, James would forget about the one egg soon enough in favor of a new clutch.

Harry’s scent had already faded to a mere whisper and James would be fertile again in less than two months.

Tom was determined to have his heir. In his mind, by giving up his only child and threatening the trust of his favorite pet, he had already proven he would go to any lengths necessary to get it.
-----

His Fertilizer still had not returned. Harry had no idea how long it was since he had last seen him. He had trouble remembering his Fertilizer and Layer’s scents and faces. Where were they? He wanted his old nest and his Layer’s warm embrace.

He did not like this place. The blonde boy would constantly ignore him and push him away if he got near him, so he had stopped trying. He did not understand why the blonde boy “Draco” did not like him. What was he doing wrong? He tried to find out by observing the other children together. The ones with short hair were never pushed away and the blonde boy would spend hours upon hours playing with them.

But the one with the long hair in strange bright-colored robes would be pushed away as well. “Pansy,” as this one was called, was very persistent but the fact remained that the blonde ignored the child’s attempts to touch him each and every time.

Left alone in the blonde’s huge room once again, Harry fingered his head feathers. Their length reached his slightly past his shoulders, a longer length than the short-haired wizards. Was this the reason? He tried to pull out one of the very long feathers on the back of his head but it hurt too much.

If his Layer was here he would help him preen his feathers to make him acceptable to the blonde wizard.

Harry pulled again, this time slightly harder, and the feather gave way. Harry dropped it onto the nest and pulled at the next one. Tears welled in his eyes as he pulled that one free.

Feathers had littered the nest in a full circle by the time the big, long haired blonde wizard entered the room and yelled his name. “HARRY!”

With swift strides, the blonde wizard had reached him and yanked his hand away from his head. Harry didn’t understand why the blonde wizard had the same look of horror on his face his Fertilizer had once when Harry had fallen from his shoulders onto a table.

Harry was then dragged by the hand from his nest so fast, his head snapped back at the strength. The blonde wizard didn’t seem to notice as he pulled the small Gryffe quickly out of the room and down a few corridors to rest outside a closed door.

The blond wizard knocked loudly on the door.

After several minutes, the door opened to reveal what Harry though was the most scary looking wizard he had ever seen. It’s eyes were slightly red and illuminated with purple, its skin was pasty, and its nose was large. “As I informed you five minutes ago, I will call you when…” the red eyes focused on Harry, “What did your brat do to his pet, Lucius?”

“It did that to itself,” Lucius stated blandly.

“Interesting,” the scary wizard said as he bent down to grasp Harry by his chin and forced their eye contact. “His eyes are clear and alert.” The wizard pushed the Gryffe’s head down and roughly combed his fingers through the soft down, which were an inkier black than the surface feathers, and few remaining feathers. “There do not appear to be any parasites.” He lifted Harry’s up then forced Harry’s mouth open. “His baby teeth and mouth don’t give any indication of disease.”

One by one, the wizard checked every limb and organ.

“There is nothing physically wrong with it, Lucius. The only answer that comes to mind would be that animals in a new environment sometimes will develop anxiety issues, though this is the first case I’ve seen where a Gryffe over-preens itself.” The wizard drew back up to his full height. “I would recommend giving it affection and making it feel wanted if you want to stop the behavior. If his behavior does not stop after taking those measures, I will explore alternate options. Now, if you excuse me, I need to return to monitoring my patient.”

Harry caught the briefest of glances of an ill adult Gryffe as Severus slipped inside the door.

When Draco would return later that day, Harry’s reasoning in the belief that the blonde did not like him due to his long head feather would be proven incorrect as he announced quite loudly that Harry was “uglier than ever” and then returned to ignoring him as he got himself ready for bed.

Completely confused, Harry reasoned that the boy just didn’t like him for him. Feeling anger for the first time he could remember, Harry screeched at the boy despite knowing that the boy wouldn’t be able to understand, “WELL, I DON’T LIKE YOUR APPEARANCE EITHER! YOUR HAIR MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE DYING!”

Draco had just started taking off his robe and pulling it over his head when Harry made his little announcement, startling him into falling down in a very undignified manner. Once he regained his composure, he looked at Harry and said, “Shut up stupid bird!”

“Shut up stupid human,” Harry replied in a low screech before turning over in his nest, using his discarded feathers as extra cushioning as he fell into the best sleep he’d had since he arrived.

----

Tom watched carefully as the doctor examined his second mate. It had been necessary to sedate Sirius during the examination when he had began shifting into his Gryffin form to avoid the doctor’s attempts to collect urine, blood and semen samples. The three types of samples were all being left to sit in carefully labeled indicator potions on the conjured side table while the doctor carefully examined the Gryffe’s reproductive organs.

“There is some tearing at the entrance to its female reproductive organs as well on the anal cavity,” the doctor said as a Quick Quill jotted down his observations. Tom was about to ask if there was any way to fix it when the doctor stated, “However, I doubt this is the main reason for its infertility but if left untreated could lead to infection. Overall, I would say there are no internal deformities and the heat coming from the reproductive areas are congruent with the Gryffe being in a very fertile state.”

Lord Riddle opened his mouth again to ask about the indicator potions when the doctor cut off his question and yet somehow managed to answer the unspoken question once again, “An efficient amount of time has passed to allow me to accurately evaluate the samples taken from subject ‘Sirius Riddle.’ ”

Tom was beginning to find the young doctor’s apathetic and seemingly telepathic nature annoying.

“Urine sample tests negative of any harmful bacteria, sugar, or yeast but there is a slight color change to indicator container F, revealing that the muggle pesticide DDT is present in the subject’s system in a very small dosage. Blood sample tests confirms these results. There is no presence in the subject’s semen.”

“DDT?” Tom asked as he rubbed Sirius’s left arm in an attempt to calm the slightly twisting form of his mate as he attempted to break free of the euphoric state.

“A substance muggles have used on their crops for almost a century that has recently been discovered as being extremely harmful to bird populations,” the doctor answered as he began to pack his instruments. “However, there is an extremely low level of DDT present in your mate’s system and its presence in the urine proves his body is pushing the toxin out. I would suggest letting it run its course through exercise for the period of a few days before attempting to conceive and be careful where you buy its feed.”

“You are certain this muggle pesticide is the reason why I do not have my heir?” Tom asked.

“No,” the doctor answered, still not looking at Tom. “It is simply the only abnormality I can detect. If after a month, there is no conception, we will look at both of your reproductive systems extensively.”

Tom’s face flushed with a combination of embarrassment and anger. “I can assure you, doctor, I have already successfully reproduced. The fault does not lie with me.”

“You never can be too sure, my Lord. Infertility can happen to all creatures,” the doctor simply said before he bowed and left Tom still flushed.

“It does not lie with me!” Tom stated to the air.

TBC

Thanks everyone for so many reviews!