In Harry Potter as Neville Longbottom

Chapter 34: Grumpy Diana Part - 2

"Can you understand me, Diana? Shake your head if you do, please." Nev was testing the animal communicating abilities with Diana after he managed to save his life thanks to the mountain of meat he threw behind while running.

Diana was angry, very angry. Her father who bought her to this island abandoned her and left her alone. There was no one to teach her how to fly or hunt and then she grew up lonely. She hated being alone and then she finally noticed the familiar voice calling her name.

She decided to burn her father (a little) to let him know how angry she was, but her father threw so much delicious meat, she decided to forgive him.

Diana looked cautiously at the white flying fox around her and then the fox spoke to her in a way she understood her father's words. She was beyond happy. It was the first time; she can speak to someone.

She made a happy roar and then shook her head to indicate she understood the words.

"Amazing!" Nev was also beyond happiness at this moment. He had one baby dragon that could understand him and in future maybe can cooperate with him.

Neville started cheering up his angry, young and adopted dragon daughter with the help of floating meat pieces. Dragon or not, a young girl is not hard to please with her favourite food. He talked to her in simple words and also understood her feelings.

Thinking about how to fill this empty island to relieve the boredom of his daughter, was another task now. This is a big challenge even for him.

A dragon needs a playmate which cannot be weaker than her in strength and it cannot be something Diana accidentally injured or killed while 'playing'.

"Okay. I will find friends for Diana. You won't be alone in future. I will also come regularly. Okay?"

Making promises to his dragon daughter, he decided to arrange a direct channel to travel here. Out of all possible options, he finally decided to use the vanishing cabinet. He found one broken in the ROR and he knew the other one was in a famous shop in the Knockturn Alley.

"Fixing it won't be that hard but will take some time. My runes might improve because of it and If I can clearly copy its mechanism, I can get rid of the floo network and ministry won't be able to track me."

Thinking about this good side project, Nev focused his attention on Diana. Apart from food, he bought her things to calm her.

Neville rubbed her scales and washed her body to create a better image of himself in her heart and also used music to smoothen her nerves. All these tricks were learned from the books that were written by old dragon caretakers.

Diana after enjoying such a relaxed and happy day coiled herself around her father and fell asleep. In her mind, this was the best day since she came to this island. Great food, someone to play with her and talk with her and finally the rubbing and washing. She was already dreaming of her future playmates and Nev also took out some dry food for himself.

The 11-year-old human father and 1-year-old dragon daughter fell asleep like this, and it was only in the night that Nev woke up and then decided to head back.

Before leaving, he made new promises to Diana and again reassured her that he will soon bring new friends for her.

Using the portkey, he was back in the Egypt store. He ordered something light to eat and then decided to check out some local news before going back to his manor.

Egypt is pretty much boring when it comes to the Wizarding world now. It is now more of a heritage site. There are many tales of old wizards and their wealth or treasures buried here. Nev just wanted to check if the appearance of Dark Lord changed anything here, but he found people didn't even talk about him.

Dark Lord was the dark lord of Britain not of Egypt.

While he was taking a tour around the market, he bought some local grilled lamb sticks that looked too delicious to ignore. Just as he was crossing a small alley, a big cat type thing jumped on him, stole his lamb sticks and ran away.

"Fucking Animal!" He cried in anger and ran after that beast! He had more than enough confidence to tackle some wild beast.

After chasing that running shadow to the dead end, he finally got a good look at his small cat thief.

It was a pure-blood Kneazle. With golden fur that matched a lion with some spots and large ears and a lightly plumed tail. However, it was clearly malnourished. It was just too thin and looked scrawny.

Finding itself cornered, the beast was ready to drop the meat stick and pounce on Nev and Nev could see fear and hate in its eyes. He used his Patronus charm to talk to his scrawny cat.

"Expecto Patronum" the spell was done, and the white fox spirit came out of his wand. Looking around the fox found the Kneazle and then Nev conveyed his thoughts.

"Ask it, why he is so thin? How can he live outside without getting captured? If there are others like him?" Nev wanted to find some playmates for Diana and animals for his island and the suitcase and these could be a start. Kneazle was an almost perfect wizard cat, and it can even mate with a normal cat to make half Kneazles.

After the fox spirit passed the questions to the Kneazle, the answers Nev got made him furious.

This was a pet kept by a breeder. He only used him as a breeding tool and just gave him enough food, so he won't die or get strong and rebel. He was chained, beaten and kept isolated. Three days ago, he managed to free himself after attacking his owner and since then he is living outside.

"Well, it seems I need to find some justice for you little guy. Who knows, what else can we find with this breeder. You can trust me. I will give you food, shelter, and freedom and in exchange, you must stay loyal and protect my family. Deal?"

Nev after adding and removing some clauses finally made a deal with the Kneazle and then bought him back to his room using the shrinking charm. Once inside his room, he bought the Kneazle in one of the habitats that were good enough for him.

"Okay, you stay here. I will go to the breeder now. Don't worry. Once there, you can come out and choose his punishments."