Harry Potter and the Reluctant Rebirth

Chapter 12

Finally, a weekend without a study group. The sun was shining and it was a nice, warm day.

A perfect day to train Sansa.

"Harry... why are you putting your rat in water? Where did you even get a basin?" Draco scrunched his nose up while he watched me -wearing my dragonhide gloves- pick up a screeching Scabbers from his cage for the first time since I got him and place him in the basin. It wasn't full of course, I'm not an animal abuser, it barely reached his belly.

"Well, he's old so he needs help cleaning himself and I'm taking him outside. Best I make him presentable to the public," I responded, using my gloved hands to keep Scabbers from scrambling away. "I want to introduce him to Sansa."

"Won't your owl just eat him?"

Good point. "I don't think so."

Cleaning Scabbers wasn't difficult, just rinsing off his fur then patting him dry with a towel. 'Just a rat, Harry. Don't think about who he is just what he is...'

I returned him to his cage and went to the owlery where my beautiful big girl was resting... snuggled against Ulysses.

"Sansa," I say, making her perk up at my voice. "You ready to meet your new job?"

At the word, "job" Sansa tore herself away from her snuggle buddy and landed on my offered arm so I could walk out of the owlery and to an empty spot about 50 meters from Hagrid's hut. Her large yellow eyes found Scabbers and she froze up. A wave of intelligence washed over those eyes and Sansa slowly puffed up in size, clicking her beak threateningly. She began to shift from foot to foot and soon she began to screech.

"So, Sansa. This is Scabbers, I need him to remain in my possession for a few years and I don't want him to escape. Think you can catch him if I let him out?"

Sansa stiffly looked at me, pupils shrunk to the size of a pinhead and she bobbed her head. I sat the cage down and opened the door.

Scabbers stuck his nose out of the cage door and made a run for it. He almost disappeared from my vision in the unmowed grass entirely but Sansa let out a bone-chilling scream and took off. She circled the air, slowly moving as if she was following Scabbers. Then suddenly, she dove towards the treeline, talons out and she caught something, specifically a certain garden rat.

Sansa landed on my arm using her free talon, in her other one was Scabbers, her claws gently locking him in place at the chest area while the little guy was squirming in her grasp. I took him back and locked him in his cage, rewarding Sansa with some chicken.

"We'll try this again in a couple of days in a different location," I tell my lovely feathered lady after she calmed down from the excitement. My goal is for her to be able to find him any time he was in his rat form and was nearby. I just didn't expect her to react so violently when she spotted Scabbers.

Hopefully, this just means Peter Pettigrew wouldn't be escaping anytime soon.

..... :3..... :3..... :3.....

No amount of being a Potter nerd could prepare me for these stupid exams. As each day passed for every test, so did the temperature to the point where I was tempted to go to Transfigurations half-naked just so I didn't have to deal with my shirt sticking to my back. I managed to pass that particular one with flying colors -to my knowledge- by turning a mouse into an ornate snuffbox with a detailed painting of the Birth of Venus on the lid... honestly, I pictured the first thing I thought an old, posh, snuff user would have decorated on their box.

I think I passed charms? He asked for a tap-dancing pineapple but surely the hula was okay. Snape made everyone nervous as he breathed down our necks while we wrote an essay on how to make a forgetfulness potion, oh how that subject is just mean.