The Animagus

Chapter 3: The Healing Wing

My eyes shot open. What happened? Where was I? Where is Gilderoy? I looked around and blinked, trying to get my fox eyes into focus. I was still a fox. I tried to recall the last thing I remember. All I remember is... the kid! Hagrid! The trolley! Oh god. I panicked. What have I done? My eyesight finally cleared. I was in what appeared to be in a hospital or nursery. The walls were made out of a bleak stone or brick, I couldn't tell. It had large archways filled with glass that served as mirrors. There were shelves and cabinets on the far side of the room, opposite the looming wooden doors. There were herbs, potions, bandages, anything you could think of that would be used for healing animals. It was all there. As my eyesight came into better focus, I noticed something. Something I would never forget.

There were various sized cages lined up against the wall with injured animals in them. I saw an owl with a splinted wing, a cat with a torn ear, they were all laying on piles of blankets... just like the one I was one. My eyes widened. I was in a cage, just like the rest of the animals. No no no, this couldn't be happening. This was my biggest fear, being treated like an ordinary pet. No more than a dumb server with a brain the size of a wrinkled pea. Although I love him, I have always feared Lockhart would capture me and never let me go. He was a nice man, but he was too clingy. I think he fears that one day I will leave him, and he will do anything to prevent that. I tried to stand but my leg gave out. I looked down to see it wrapped in a bandage. I whined in pain.

I couldn't shift back to being a human. If I did, besides everyone in the hospital wing finding out, the cage would shred me to bits. It looked strong and definitely enchanted. I guess that makes sense, figuring you never know what type of animal could be in here. But it was me. I'm just a little fox. If I could transform just a hand- just a hand! I could reach out and flip the lock. I gingerly reached out a paw, wincing, and fiddled with the lock. I fumbled. It slid back even further. There was no hope of escape. I didn't even need to escape, just show the person in charge that I don't need to be in a cage. I am not rabid and I am not an animal!

I would have to try and shift my hand -only my hand- to unlock this door, but it would be incredibly difficult. No one ever has managed to just shift part of their body. I was about to attempt it, and probably be shredded to death by the cage, when a plump little woman came barging through the doors. She was frantic and had a stack of papers in her arms. I watched as the papers flew from her hand and on to the floor. The owl across from me squawked and beat its wings. "Oh hush you." she scolded. She bent down to pick up her papers, but I interrupted her with a shrill whine. She looked up. "Ah, you are awake." She quickly finished gathering her papers and set them down on her desk, just below the shelves of ingredients.

She scurried over to my cage and fumbled around in her pockets a bit. I got excited, she's must be preparing to let me out! My tail started swishing involuntarily against the back of the cage. I saw her hand in slow-motion emerge from her pocket, holding something small in her hand. My tail started going faster and her palm opened to reveal.... a treat. One measly little treat. It wasn't even real meat, it was that rip-off, half fried, fake treat. Poor woman fell for the company's sales trick. Though I was hungry so when she stuck the treat through the bars, I accepted. I took it from her hand and swallowed without thinking of the gross flavor. I cursed myself for gagging. The woman gave me an odd look, tilted her head, then turned around and headed towards her desk.

She reached over to a small radio and turned on some music. It was some old-timey song that I had never heard. She took the first paper from the stack of forms she had just brought in not 5 minutes ago and began to write. She hummed as the pen flew across the paper. I peered over the bars of the cage, trying to see what she was writing. I didn't care but was simply bored. Eventually, I set my hands on my paws and let my brain fall back into deep thoughts.

About an hour must've passed before, finally, the huge, wooden door swung open. A tall, and very old, man strode in very elegantly. He had on light blue robes that trailed a bit behind him. My fox eyes could see the tiny dirt building up on the fringes that lay on the floor. But besides those minuscule details that no human could see, he was a very clean and organized man. He too had a stack of papers. Though, unlike my care-taker, who came in very busy and bustling, he had them floating neatly behind him. I wish I could do spells like that. He had a long and flowing beard and hair. It was whiter than Draco Malfoy's groomed hair. He had a pair of spectacles resting daintily on his nose, two half-moons. He seemed to peer over them to look at the plump woman at the desk who had just gotten up to greet him.

"Hello, Madam Pomfrey." His voice was strange, low and hoarse but kind and gentle at the same time. I assume Madam Pomfrey is the woman who gave me the treat an hour before.

"Professor Dumbledore. A pleasure." She smiles. They seemed to be old friends. "Any word on the students?"

"Not more than yesterday. The students will arrive, as planned, tomorrow." Tomorrow!? My heart raced. I can't wait! I will get to spend so much time with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Be sure to have some extra supplies ready for tomorrow. There will be a quidditch tournament to celebrate opening day. There will be a total of three games tomorrow and the next day, so you will have many patients."

"Oh my! I wasn't aware of this! Excuse me, I should probably go visit Professor Sprout to steal some herbs and plants from her. Bye Professor!" She ran out of the room, her heels scuffing the tiled floor and her robes flowing along her sides. Dumbledore chuckled the paused. He scanned the room, clearly looking for something. His eyes stopped on me. He took a wrinkled hand and removed his half-moon spectacles from his nose and stuffed them neatly in his pocket. I tilted my head curiously and looked into his eyes.

"Hello Nat," he inquired. "Sorry about Madam Pomfrey, she doesn't know your... true nature." He and his long strides walked over to my cage and he reached into his pocket. He reached out to the lock that kept me imprisoned here in this dastardly hospital wing and with a small wrench, opened the lock. The moment I heard the click I bolted out. My tiny paws scratched against the bars and I launched off my hind legs. I prepared for the pain when I hit the ground and closed my eyes, but it never came. Instead, Dumbledore had one hand around my torso and lifted me up.

"Impatient, just like the rest of them," he chuckled again. With a swift flick of his want and an incantation, the bandage around my left fell off and disintegrated before it could hit the floor. I flexed my paw and the pain was gone. I yipped cheerfully and he loosened his grip on me so that I could jump down to the floor. My paws gave a soft thud as they hit the tile below. I put my weight on my previously lame paw and found that it was at full health. I nodded my head once in thanks and head off into the seemingly large castle.

But, before I could get to the door, Dumbledore spoke up. "Gilderoy will not be here until tomorrow. I have sent word that we have you, he knows where you are. It would be a shame if you took advantage of your freedom," he inserted air quotes around the word freedom, "until he arrives." Dumbledore winked. I looked back at the looming wooden door then back at Dumbledore, but the professor had vanished. I smiled inwardly and took off at a swift trot into the castle.