Hilltop Cottage

A/N: For those of you who have been reading, I made an error in posting the chapters and posted 45 as 44, skipping a whole chapter. I have amended this if you want to go and read 44 again! Sorry!!

---

Hermione felt slightly nauseous as she walked down the narrow corridor of St Mungo’s. Severus walked beside her, his face set. They were both nervous and both knew it, although nothing was said. Their hope of a fresh start to their family life hung on the outcome of this morning, not to mention bringing their good friend back to them.

They were met by Luna, who smiled at them with such encouragement, and excitement, that Hermione couldn’t help but panic. There was so much riding on this, and Minerva meant a lot to everyone, particularly her ex-pupils.

Beside her stood a tall man with greying hair and a calm, open visage. He wore a white lab coat and carried a holdall similar to a doctor’s Gladstone bag.

‘Hi, Hermione. Hello, Severus. I have been looking forward to this day,’ she smiled brightly. ‘This is Frank Brownlee. He’s a Wizard Veterinarian. He will diagnose Minerva once she has transformed.’

Frank Brownlee shook their hands with a smile on his face. ‘I hope to do more than diagnose your friend. I’ll do my best to cure her, too.’

Hermione gave Luna and Frank a tight smile, but said nothing. Severus looked closely at Luna’s face.

‘Do you know something that we do not, Nurse Weasley?’ he asked, knowing Luna’s ability to predict things.

‘It’s Luna, Severus, as I keep telling you. And I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself on this occasion, if that’s okay.’

She turned from them and walked briskly to Minerva’s room, but not before Severus had caught the edge of a smile on her face. He breathed a deep sigh. Now he knew all would be well.

Severus took Hermione’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She squeezed back, but didn’t catch his eye. She was running the spell through in her head over and over again to make sure she didn’t mess it up when she had to say it for real.

As they all entered the room, Luna lifted her wand and ran a series of complex diagnostic spells on Minerva, who was still sleeping peacefully.

‘We reduced her stasis charm yesterday. I’ll remove it fully before you start the spell. She’s at her optimum level of health thanks to your potions, Severus. There’s nothing more we can do to prepare her for this. The rest is up to you, Hermione.’ Luna smiled warmly at her friend and patted her arm.

‘I wish I felt less nervous,’ Hermione said quietly.

‘You know the spell works. We tested it many times. Just relax,’ Severus soothed her calmly.

Hermione withdrew her wand slowly and stepped towards the bed. Luna lifted her wand, and the shimmer of the stasis spell surrounding Minerva slowly disappeared, leaving the sleeping witch at the mercy of her illness. Frank Brownlee stood respectfully at the foot of the bed, but eyed the patient closely as if to glean some sort of clue from her presentation.

Hermione paused before raising her wand and turned to look at Severus. He nodded at her to continue, and she took a deep breath before lifting her hand and starting to speak. She moved her wand in an intricate pattern over Minerva’s prone form, and a violet glow emanated from her wand tip and covered the Headmistress like a translucent blanket.

The change was almost unnoticeable at first, but as Hermione finished speaking and moved her wand in a final flick and swish, the human form of Minerva McGonagall was replaced by that of a mangy-looking, miserable silver tabby cat.

Frank Brownlee let out a long sigh, and immediately took charge of the proceedings by walking between Hermione and Severus and running his hands over Minerva’s cat form, feeling beneath her fur with gentle fingers.

‘Do you know what’s wrong with her, Mr Brownlee?’ Severus asked in hushed tones.

The sight of Minerva’s usually sleek and vital Animagus form reduced to that of a flea-bitten old moggy was more of a shock to him than his friend falling ill in the first place.

Frank sighed again. ‘I think I know what this is, Professor Snape. I just need to verify my suspicions.’ He pursed his thin lips into a line so tight that they almost disappeared, and then began to cast a series of diagnostic spells.

The cat that was Minerva let out a low meow from deep in her throat, and her ears went flat against her head as she eyed Frank Brownlee with suspicion. Hermione held out her hand tentatively.

‘Shush,’ she crooned, gently stroking the fur at the back of her neck. ‘He won’t hurt you, Minerva.’

Severus raised a surprised eyebrow at Hermione, who glared back at him.

‘Well, she is a cat, Severus. How else should I calm her down? Anyway, it always worked for Crookshanks,’ Hermione said defensively. To her delight, Minerva purred softly and rubbed her face against her knuckles, and she shot a smug grin at Severus before resuming her stroking.

Frank slid his wand back into his upper left hand pocket and lifted his bag onto the end of the bed. He opened it to reveal a selection of pills and potions, and grabbed a quill and a scrap of parchment.

‘Mr Brownlee, we would be more than grateful if you could give us some indication of what you have or have not diagnosed,’ Severus said from between gritted teeth.

There was a hint of no nonsense in his voice, and it worked on Frank Brownlee in the same way it worked on the first years of Hogwarts. The man visibly jumped, and turned sheepishly to Severus and Hermione while casting a hopeful glance at Luna. He got no support there, but met the same frustrated and stony glance from the medi-witch.

‘Forgive me,’ he said, his hands splayed in supplication. ‘I was so involved in my task.’

Hermione smiled then. She knew that feeling of being so focussed on something that everything else was forgotten.

‘It’s okay, Frank. We appreciate your help, but you need to remember we have been trying to get Minerva well for quite some time now. It’s really important that we know what’s wrong with her,’ Hermione said, trying to encourage him.

‘She has cat ‘flu. Quite a serious strain, actually. It’s a good job you kept her in stasis, or we would have been too late.’ He looked at Severus seriously.

‘Is there a cure?’ Severus felt a little shaky.

‘Well, I will try this extra-strength anti-biotic first, and there are some Charms that can compliment that should she need a boost. Difficult thing, treating Animagi. I’ve never had to treat one with cat ‘flu before, to be honest.’

He walked over to Minerva, and with help from Hermione, he managed to get her to swallow a phial of anti-biotic potion. They all looked at her for a few moments as if expecting there to be an instant cure, but there was no change.

‘I think we should let her rest and come back later today,’ Frank said.

‘Very well,’ Severus said, obviously disappointed.

‘She looks very content,’ Hermione said, stroking the head of the now dozing cat, curled up in a ball in the centre of the bed.

‘I think she will be fine,’ Luna said, smiling knowingly.

‘You’re such a tease, Luna.’ Hermione laughed lightly and took Severus’s hand. ‘Take me for lunch. I’m suddenly starving.’

They said their goodbyes after making Luna promise to contact them if there was any change at all.


***

The coffee shop in Diagon Alley was only recently opened and seemed to be modelled on a similar American chain of shops. Hermione loved it as soon as she walked in and inhaled the rich, sultry aroma of roasted coffee beans. Severus scowled around himself and huffed slightly.

‘What on earth is wrong with you?’ Hermione muttered at him.

‘Nothing. I just don’t go for all this.’ He waved his hand around himself dismissively.

‘I love it. Look, there’s a free couch. You go and sit; I’ll get the coffee and some food.’ She pushed a reluctant Severus over to the couch and watched as he sat tentatively, as if expecting it to jump up and bite him. Shaking her head, she walked to the counter and ordered two large cappuccinos and two Paninis.

As she walked back to the couch, she was shocked to see a very different Severus to the grumbling man she had turned her back on. He had lifted a glossy magazine and had his head buried between the pages, ostensibly reading. Hermione wasn’t fooled, however. She could see the magazine trembling and the tell-tale shaking of his shoulders, and she knew that Severus was fighting the urge to laugh out loud.

She sat down beside him and lent towards him. ‘What on earth is so funny?’ she whispered.

‘This,’ he laughed, handing the magazine to her and lifting his handkerchief to wipe his watery eyes.

Hermione took the ‘Witch Life’ magazine from him and stared in disbelief at the two-page spread. A large photograph of Alicia Maines shone out from half of the first page under the headline ‘New Spell Backfires on Genius Witch’. On the second page was a photograph of a Chihuahua, and the caption below it read ‘Miss Maines, as she is now’.

Hermione gasped and started to read. She had known that Alicia would want to try the spell immediately, but she had no idea it would make the gossip columns of the American society magazines. The article went into great detail about a press conference that had been held, amid huge publicity, at the hospital where Alicia worked. The witch was there to unveil the new spell she had been working on. Unfortunately, the spell had backfired, and instead of transforming the well-known Socialite witch, Maris Wilton, into her Animagus form, the spell had transferred to the caster, Miss Maines. She was then transformed into the dog in the photograph, and no amount of ‘Finite Incantatems’ had been able to reverse the spell.

‘Oh, my god,’ Hermione said, trying hard not to giggle and failing miserably.

‘Revenge tastes delicious, doesn’t it?’ Severus took a long slurp of his coffee and grinned at Hermione.

‘But Severus, you know we can’t let her stay that way,’ Hermione chided through laughter.

‘Well, perhaps we could send the solution to her. In a week or so,’ he said, not catching Hermione’s gaze.

Hermione put down the magazine and lifted her coffee, then took a contemplative sip.

‘I think we may be quite busy this month, Severus,’ she said seriously. ‘We may have to leave our correspondence until we have more time, don’t you think?’ She sat back in the couch and licked the foam from her top lip slowly, and looked innocently at Severus. His eyes flashed at her in amusement.

‘I think you’re absolutely right.’

They sat and ate their lunch in silence, with the occasional giggle from Hermione, who had pocketed the magazine after shrinking it discreetly. They were both surprised when a Patronus in the form of a small fawn landed before them and spoke in Luna’s voice.

‘You need to return to St. Mungo’s. Minerva has transformed back to her human form and is asking to see you both.’

Severus grabbed Hermione by the hand and they ran out of the coffee shop before Luna’s Patronus disappeared.