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Snowy knew there had been a time before this. A time filled with straw, warm small bodies curled against her and a mother who had kept her safe. But that had been a long time ago, so long that she barely remembered what life had been like before the kind hands of the Woman.
The Woman loved her, the Woman would hold her close and pet her fur. Boop her nose and kiss her head. The Woman lived together with two other women who would smile whenever she would do something like that, and their laughter would ensure the Woman too would smile. When the other two women were gone the Woman was sad, only when Snowy would crawl on her lap would she be happy again.
Snowy didn't like it when the Woman was sad.
Snowy was still quite small, too much larger than when she arrived in the women's house, when a strange cat was suddenly there. It was a tabby with some interesting markings around her nose, and Snowy did not like it. She did not like this strange cat at all, but when she tried to chase the interloper away the Woman stopped her.
She was picked up from the floor and safely held in the Woman's arms, when suddenly the cat turned into one of the other women. This was the one without the funny voice. Snowy knew that as she grew older she would learn to understand what exactly the women were saying to each other, but for now, their voices held little meaning to her. She simply the Woman and the woman with hair as black as the night did not speak like anyone else here.
But that was of little consequence yet, what did it matter to Snowy if the women wanted to be different and strange. As long as they held her close, fed her, and showered her with attention, she was more than happy to forgive any and all peculiarities.
It was one night, when Snowy had snuck into the bedroom and crawled between the three warm bodies, that shouting filtered in from outside. Someone was very angry, there were torches everywhere and a black mark was barely visible from Snowy's hiding place. But deep down she knew it would cover up the entire night sky, something dark and dreadful that she needed to stay far away from.
The women weren't like her.
They had run outside without properly dressing, and were now shouting in turn. One word again and again. "Deatheaters, Deatheaters!" Snowy didn't want to know what exactly a Deatheater was, but it quickly became clear it was something of destruction.
After that night there were only two warm bodies to crawl between. The woman with the hair as black as the night had not returned.
The Woman was sad, she hugged Snowy even closer than in Snowy's oldest memories. The not-cat woman was also sad, and just as angry as the Woman, but her anger burned differently. They didn't stay in the place where everything was familiar.
They stayed in a cold castle for a long time, and though Snowy loved all the children who gave her pets, there too was sadness saturated in the air. The Woman didn't leave the rooms, she didn't seem to like anyone inside the castle and especially not the old man with the long beard in weird and brightly coloured robes. The Woman would always quickly pick Snowy up and march them as far away from the old man. Snowy didn't mind, but the not-cat woman seemed hurt by it.
Now more often than not, when Snowy crawled on the bed, there would only be one body left beneath the blankets.
-
Snowy did not like this new house they were living in, and she was quite certain Arabella shared that opinion. They had left Hogwarts a few weeks ago, after yet another fight between Arabella and Minnie. Snowy wasn't completely certain what it had been about, but she could make an educated guess.
The war. Death. The loss of Dorea.
Arabella hadn't been satisfied with what the Order was doing, something about her past and how she had been fighting for her rights for years (someone else who had been called Snowy, but who had passed along the Veil).
Arabella had stepped back from it all, had found a little place to call her own. With people who didn't ask too many questions about her past and had built a home just for the two of them. And Snowy knew this was not how Arabella had envisioned her future, but at least it was one, apparently few of her friends had managed to survive as long as she had.
Naturally it was at the moment that Arabella had finally accepted her lot in life when trouble came knocking on her door in the form of a well familiar tabby.
"What do you want, Minerva?"
Snowy was dozing in a sunspot windowsill and did not feel even a sliver of desire to stand up and defend her Arabella. They were all adults here, the women should be able to handle this problem without the help of a nice cat sleeping on their laps. Conversations needed to be had and Snowy needed her beauty sleep.
On the other hand…
Minnie did give the best pets, she always knew just the right spot to scratch. It was almost magical the way she always knew what Snowy needed, and well, the windowsill was getting a bit cold.
With a majestic jump, Snowy lowered herself to the floor before padding towards the couch and jumping on Minnie's lap. She turned around a few times and kneaded the stiff skirt Minnie preferred to wear, before laying down once more. This close it was a lot more difficult to ignore the ongoing conversation and Snowy couldn't help but pick up a few sentences.
Something had happened that had caused the end to the war. Something about a boy, and mother's love. Something about only trusting Arabella with this information.
Snowy didn't care about the particulars. She was a creature of simple needs, one of them was promptly met that night when she wiggled into her place on the bed between both Minnie and Arabella. With sleep only a moment away, Snowy quickly forgot about a new boy living on four Privet Drive and the way her world had just fundamentally changed forever.