Lily and a cat
Blissember day 3: pets
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It was the time of day that long shadows were cast across Godric’s Hollow, but Lily loved the splashes of deep red and purple that streaked across the sky moments later. It was simply lovely to sit on her front steps and just watch the world go quiet.
And that night, as always, Lily was watching. A browning leaf skittered across the ground, helped along by the breeze that came at dusk, and came to rest. This was when Lily noticed something… wriggling.
Furrowing her brows, Lily slowly approached and carefully crouched down a few feet away from the creature, just observing. The animal was small and thin, the fur matted and scruffy. It was just the pointy claws, the arch of the back, and the large, lamplike yellow eyes that turned to observe Lily with a hiss that revealed itself as a cat.
A very scrawny and underfed cat, for sure, likely left outside a moment too long and it wandered away or simply cast out when it scratched one piece of furniture too many. But despite its flaws, Lily watched its cowering in the too-long grass and the occasional swipe of a paw to ward off a beetle, and she saw the intelligence in its eyes.
And Lily fell in love. She watched a bit longer, then made up her mind - James would just have to live with the cat because it was not going anywhere. Lily made cooing sounds, soothing it with hands extended slowly, palms opened, welcoming and for a sniff. She reached carefully to pick it up but it hissed again and retreated, but she just stopped and watched again.
Lily was good at watching until it suited her to do something more. So she watched, and when the cat rejected her advances again - a stubborn little one it was, much like a toddler - she discreetly pulled out her wand and summoned a little can of tuna (she didn’t know why they had it, but it was likely Sirius had gotten it, as much as he wouldn’t admit he enjoyed it).
When she opened it, the cat finally displayed some sort of interest in Lily - after all, Lily was the one holding the yummy smelling food - and it crept forward, and Lily watched. The cat lapped up a bit of the oddly scented liquid then took its first taste of the fish, and soon it was gone.
The cat stopped and watched. It took in Lily’s open face and relaxed posture, and she even smelled kind, like the warm home it longed for so much. And the cat decided to stop watching. And Lily decided to stop watching.
So when Lily picked up the empty tuna container and turned her back on the cat to walk back inside, the cat followed, and let Lily lead it into an unpleasant bath and then a cozy box with a bowl of water right next to it, and it had made up its mind the second it stepped into the house. Lily was the cat’s and the cat was Lily’s.
James walked in and the cat watched. Lily embraced him and the cat decided it was James’s as well. James named it Crookshanks, for its crooked tail and the fact that the name sounded fancy, badass, and fit with the weird-sounding names most wizards gave their animals.
The next day Sirius visited, and Crookshanks and Padfoot surveyed each other, sniffing and glaring but eventually, they stopped watching and Sirius decided maybe a cat could be acceptable. Only if it behaved.
And Remus arrived a few moments later and Sirius made him promise that Padfoot would always come before Crookshanks “no matter how unfortunately adorable it is, Moony, okay?” and Remus was happy to oblige.
And Crookshanks was a part of the family from that day on.
Note: The cat tolerated Peter and Peter tolerated the cat.