Finding Mnemosyne
Xenophilius Lovegood had always had an affinity for animals and creatures and finding them. Only some times, Xenon didn't find them; they would come to find him. He always loved it when that happened, because he felt like they were searching him out for a purpose. Like they had meant to find him, and him specifically. That was the case one day when he found his second pet, whom he later named Mnemosyne.
It was over the summer that Xenon was 13, and he was at home as opposed to at school, since the school wasn't open during the summer, of course. He'd already been at Hogwarts for two years at this point, so he was well acquainted with how it worked. As has been established, Xenon was at home, and the dynamic there was vastly different than it was anywhere else. At school, he was occasionally bullied and made fun of, but he was allowed to be who he wanted to be for the most part. If he wanted to skip around everywhere (which he did), then he was at perfect liberty to do so. But at home, his aunt and uncle did their best to make him act more like a "normal person" as they called it. He resisted a great deal, but it usually landed him in trouble if he crossed the line. He wasn't allowed to skip around; he wasn't allowed to "spout off stories about nonsense" and he definitely wasn't allowed to talk about his creatures that he read so much about. Well, not when his aunt was around. His uncle shared the same niche interest, and they would share books, and it was really the only way that they bonded. But it was taboo around his aunt, and was the fastest way that Xenon could land himself in his room, forbidden to leave for a week or more, depending on how mad he'd made his aunt.
He had a bigger problem with being made to stay in his room than he did with his room itself. He often exiled himself there a lot of the time anyway, when he didn't want to unintentionally set off his aunt. But not today. Today, he was roaming the garden, to the far reaches of their property, near the end of the wood that encroached on the land. He liked going exploring, to see what he could find. Though more often than not he just ended up sitting in the grass somewhere and observing. But Xenon held the belief that you could find just as much that way as you could when you were up and actively searching for something.
Making sure he was completely out of sight of the house, and subsequently his aunt, Xenon skipped along the edge of the garden, climbing up on the small stone wall they had and trying to balance on it, which only resulted in his toppling over and rolling down the hill that lead to the very back end of the garden. Xenon was utterly unfazed though, only wiping his pants off and pulling a twig out of his hair. He popped back up, and looked around. He'd not been back in this part of the garden before, and he saw it as a new adventure. The hill did its job of hiding him from view too, so he was free to skip around all he wanted. It was as he was skipping around that he heard it.
A small, soft "mew."
Xenon stopped, and tilted his head to the side, going completely still as he listened. He heard it again, and wandered in what he thought was the direction of the mewing. The sound grew steadily louder as he approached the hill again, and he saw that there was a burrow in the ground. Xenon was very careful as he walked up to it, leaning over so he could see a bit better. What he saw made him smile. It was a mother cat and a litter of kittens! The mother cat looked at him, and Xenon's eyes went wide. That wasn't a cat at all; it was a kneazle. He knew the difference by the looks of the eyes; kneazles had smart eyes. Not to say that cats didn't, but there was a notable difference between the two. "Well hello there," he whispered, moving to sit cross-legged at the entrance to the burrow. He rested his elbows on his knees and his chin on his hands, tilting his head again.
What would he do with this discovery? He couldn't just leave them there; the mother had a family to support now, and it appeared that she was doing it all alone. That was admirable of her, especially with sextuplets. He wanted to do something, to show her that he wanted to help, but he was at a loss of what he could do. Xenon began to hum. He often did that when he was thinking, something that his aunt also got onto him for. He didn't care right then though, as she wasn't around.
Or, he hadn't thought she was. Over his humming, he could hear her shouting his name. "XENOPHILIUS!" He grimaced a bit and glared up at the hill before resigning himself to going back to the house. Looking at the kneazle mother again, he smiled at her. "I'll be back, don't worry," he told her. "And I'll bring you something. Food, or milk." The kneazle blinked her wide eyes at him, and started to purr. Xenon took that as a good sign, and waved at her as he got up.
Walking up the hill proved to be a feat, and Xenon fell down quite a few times. By the time he fell over the stone wall and back into the main part of the garden, his aunt had stormed out of the house and was holding her skirts up off the ground as she poked around, looking for him. When she laid eyes on him, she shrieked, and started yelling. "What on earth have you been doing? You look like a walking grass stain for Merlin's sake! Get in the house now, Xenophilius, and go get cleaned up." She shooed him into the house and up the stairs, nagging at him to go change his robes, but Xenon wasn't listening too much. He was thinking up ways he could get food out to the kneazle family tomorrow, and hoping that they would be okay overnight.
-
The next few days after Xenon found the kneazles were rainy and stormy, and because of that, Xenon was stuck inside. He'd tried to sneak out, the rain not bothering him a bit, but his aunt caught sight of him before he made it off the patio, and she pulled him back in by his collar, saying something along the lines of 'if you go out now, you'll just track rain and mud in the house and I won't have it!' Xenon was really bad at not listening to her when she talked, but he thought that was what she said.
On the first day that the sun reemerged, Xenon bolted outside right after he finished his breakfast, but not before tucking some bread in his pockets for the kneazles. He'd just gotten out the door when he thought that maybe they'd want something to drink as well. Turning around, he started to skip inside but caught sight of his aunt, who was still at the table, and he slowed to a walk. She looked up over her cup, and gave Xenon a disgusted glance, rolling her eyes. He just put on an innocent face, sneaking into the kitchen and filling a bottle he found with some water.
Stowing that away in his pocket with the bread, he ran out the door, his aunt shouting at him to slow down as he passed the table. Xenon paid her no mind, sprinting across the garden as fast as he could, falling several times but getting right back up when he did. It didn't take him long to reach the stone wall at the back of the garden, and he scrambled over it, falling down the hill much the same way as he did the first day he'd discovered it. The tumble didn't bother him at all though, and he just crawled over to where the burrow with the kneazles were. Peeping inside the burrow, Xenon found...
Nothing.
Xenon's shoulders slumped. He hadn't realized how badly he wanted the kneazles to still be there until he found out that they weren't. He hoped that they'd only found refuge somewhere else, to get away from the rain, and that's why they weren't there anymore. The more he thought about that, the more that it made sense. Sighing but accepting the truth, Xenon pushed himself up off the ground and was about to make the trek back up the hill when he heard it.
A mew.
It was faint, but Xenon heard it, he was sure of it. He whirled around, falling a bit, but just crawling back to the burrow. This time, he stuck as much of his head into the hole as he could, vaguely wondering what would happen if he were to get stuck. Hearing the mew again, he put that thought out of his mind. There were more pressing matters at hand. He looked around, the burrow dark, but he saw a bit of movement near the back. He pulled his head out, glad he didn't get stuck, and took out the bread from his pocket. Tearing a small piece off, he set it near the entrance of the burrow, hoping to coax the kneazle out.
That didn't work the way he'd planned, though. Because it wasn't the kneazle mother that'd been in the burrow, like Xenon had originally thought, but one of the kittens. It was clearly too small to eat the bread, but it was big enough to walk and have its eyes open. Xenon watched as it tumbled out of the burrow, and looking like it'd not seen the light of day. It wobbled over to Xenon, and started licking his knee. He giggled at its antics, and looked around, wondering what happened to the mother kneazle and other kittens. There'd been at least 6 of them. They were no where to be found though.
The kitten, meanwhile, had stopped licking his knee and was now trying to crawl up his leg. Xenon carefully picked it up, petting its head. It was a rather beautiful kneazle kitten, mostly white but with some yellow/gingerish markings, particularly on its shoulders and face. Its tail was one giant fluff, and its ears were too big for its body right then. Xenon thought it was cute. He held it up to his face, and it licked his nose, causing him to laugh.
Making the executive decision that Xenon just simply couldn't leave the poor creature there, he took the bread and bottle of water out of his pocket. He tucked them in the burrow, leaving the bread to be eaten by something else, and the water to be retrieved later. He held the kitten in the crook of his arm, very carefully, and slowly made his way up the hill. Xenon was always less clumsy whenever he was holding a creature or something else, and this wasn't an exception. The hill wasn't hard to get up, and he set the kitten on the top of the wall as he climbed over it, needing both arms to pull himself up. The kitten was very cooperative, and stayed right where he set it when he told it to not wander off. Smiling, he picked it up again, and walked across the garden.
This was where things would get woolly He could either ask his aunt if she'd allow him to keep the kitten (of course he planned on telling her it was just a cat kitten and not a kneazle kitten; if she knew it was one of his creatures, she'd throw a fit). Or he could sneak it into his room and take care of it there until he was off at school again. Then he'd have a lot more freedom. Though he did already have his owl Hesperus, and he wasn't sure if the school would say anything about his having two pets. Xenon didn't think so; kids broke the rules all the time, and the school didn't get too too mad. And Xenon wouldn't be causing any harm, if anything he was helping the kitten more than hurting anything.
He lingered outside the patio for a bit, holding the kitten that'd gone to sleep at this point. Maybe if he stayed out here long enough, he could just slip inside unnoticed. Xenon wasn't that lucky, however, as his aunt decided to take a walk around the garden and nearly ran smack dab into him on her way out of the house.
"What are you doing... What is that?" she asked, pointing at the kitten.
Xenon blanked for a minute, even though he had had a plan. He wasn't good at interacting with people. "It's a kitten," he eventually said. "I found it abandoned in the garden."
His aunt glared at him. "And I'm going to assume you want to keep it, don't you?"
Xenon just nodded, his hair getting in his face as he did so. Pushing it back, he looked up at his aunt. "Can I?"
The kitten chose then to wake up, and yawned, a small squeak coming out of its mouth as it did so. His aunt sniffed, obviously displeased that he'd asked. She sighed dramatically. "Ask your uncle. And if he says yes, then it'd best not make a mess anywhere in the house or it's gone. Can you understand that? Or do I need to put it in simpler terms?" She gave him a condescending look before stalking off, continuing on to her walk around the garden.
Almost not willing to believe it and get his hopes up, Xenon hurried inside, and went to find his uncle. He was in his study, which was predictable. Xenon walked in, the kitten mewing to announce their presence. "What do you got there, Xenophilius?" his uncle asked. Xenon tried not to make a face at being called his full name, and sat on one of the chairs. He held the kitten out in both hands, to show his uncle what he had.
"A kitten! Oh, and it's not just any kind of kitten, either. She's a beaut of a kneazle if I saw one," his uncle said.
Xenon smiled, knowing his uncle would be able to tell the difference. "Auntie said I could keep it if you said so and if it didn't make a mess."
Something flashed in his uncle's eyes, and Xenon was suddenly scared that his uncle was going to say no. He could be very nice and would bond with Xenon over creatures, but he was also very unpredictable sometimes. "How did you come across this kitten?"
It took Xenon a few minutes to say something. "Found it," he said. "Abandoned in the garden."
His uncle nodded, pursing his lips. "Well, just make sure she doesn't make a mess, like your Aunt said." Then he smiled.
Xenon smiled really wide in return, and jumped up, careful not to drop his new kitten. "Thank you!" he said, knowing his manners.
"Now scamper off. You need to think up a name for her!" his uncle called as Xenon walked out of the study.
"Oh, I do, don't I?" Xenon said to the kitten, holding it up. He hoped his uncle was right in calling her a girl (it was too early to tell what gender the kitten was; too young). "I think I'll call you Mnemosyne." Mnemosyne mewed, and licked Xenon's cheek. He smiled at her and, looking around, skipped off to his room, happy now that he'd have company and someone to take care of.
