Chapter Seven
Not All Cats

 

“Not all cats are girls, you know!” Jonathan scoffed. He felt his fur poof up a little at his indignation, which felt weird. A bit like having his hair stand on end; having fur didn’t bother him that much as it did when it was individually visible hairs on his legs. Stuff like that had always felt a bit gross to him, and it was why he’d been adamant about wearing only jeans in summer (until his mother, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, hid all of them except the shorts). 

“I know that!” Sarah huffed and walked around him in a circle. “You smell like girl cat. Trust me, I know the difference.” Jonathan spun around to face her, and kept getting distracted by the way his hands and feet -- paws, he had to be reminded by the know-it-all voice in the back of his head -- felt on the floor, occasionally lifting one to look at it. 

“Now now,” Charlie said, “let the boy figure things out in his own time. Besides, the whole point of the familiar form is comfort, so it really doesn’t matter. Now, hop off, let me talk to Jonathan in private for a moment.” Sarah and Leah obliged, already dancing around each other on their way out. Charlie chuckled as she saw them leave. “I swear, only Sarah can keep up with that girl,” she mumbled. 

“What’s up?” Jonathan asked as he sat down on the floor in front of her. He figured he didn’t quite know what to do with his tail, but it seemed to naturally want to swish back and forth (nerves? Or excitement? He couldn’t tell. He was a cat!) so he just kind of let it.

“Well, there’s a few practical things I wanted to go over with you, if that’s okay. Most importantly: How are you feeling?” She had her legs crossed and her hands resting calmly on her knee, but her face betrayed her worry. It was strange to have someone actually be worried about his well-being, and while he wasn’t particularly fond of being pitied, Charlie always looked like she cared, and he didn’t… didn’t hate that. 

“I’m feeling quite good, I’ll be honest,” Jonathan said. “I wasn’t expecting to be so…” he looked around, “so small. But there’s definitely worse things than being small.” He grinned and Charlie laughed. “What?” he asked, suddenly very self-conscious.

“Oh, it’s nothing to worry about,” Charlie said, a big smile still on her face. “It’s… have you ever seen a cat smile?” Jonathan shook his head and felt his ears wobble a bit. He shook his head some more, to get used to the feeling and then focused on Charlie again. “Exactly,” she said. “It’s, and don’t take this the wrong way, very cute.” For a second, Jonathan felt himself bristle up, and then he relaxed. 

“Cats are allowed to be cute,” he mumbled. It would be weird for him to not be cute as a cat. If she -- or anyone else, for that matter -- had called him cute before, he would’ve just been annoyed. But as a cat, that was… well, not really allowed so much as expected. 

“Yes, they are,” Charlie said with a knowledgeable nod. “But you’re feeling comfortable, yes? No pains, aches or weird unpleasant feelings?” Jonathan nodded enthusiastically, and only a little bit because he liked feeling his ears wobble like that. “Okay, good. Next, some ground rules: No jumping on the furniture that isn’t for sitting on, especially the surfaces we might have food on. I don’t want to see you on the cupboards, kitchen counters or tables. The only exception is the coffee table in the living room.”

“Okay,” Jonathan said, not realizing how difficult resisting that particular temptation would be in his near future. Charlie held up a stern finger. 

“If I see you on any of those, know that I have spray bottles hidden all over the place. You’re not the first cat I’ve had in this house, and I’ve had enough cat hair soup to last me a lifetime.” Jonathan chuckled, again surprised at how high-pitched his voice was. Simon’s voice was the same when he was both human and ferret, wasn’t he? He’d have to ask Simon about it later. Or would that be weird? Was it because he was a girl cat? Would that matter at all. He shrugged, it didn’t really bother him. “Let’s see, what else…” Charlie tapped her chin for a second without a hint of irony. “Oh, right. I’ll ask Sarah and Simon to help you figure out your new form. It’s not just an on-or-off thing. You have a degree of control over what you look like, and I’m not really equipped to teach you this stuff.”

Jonathan chuckled. “Does that mean I could have cat ears?” he laughed. Charlie nodded vigorously.

“Exactly. Or cat’s eyes or a tail, if you want to. It’s pretty versatile. You should have seen Simon when he first got here. He could make his neck so long. It was really weird and I’m sure he just did it to gross us out.” Charlie leaned forward conspiratorially. “Sarah had chocolate milk coming out of her nose for an hour.” Jonathan laughed, loudly and happily, at that mental image. It took him a moment to stop, too. Something about hearing himself giggle in his high-pitched cat-voice filled him with a joy and a desire to keep laughing. He fell over, his paws in the air. It just felt more natural to do so as a cat, and his fur made every surface he touched feel slightly padded. Charlie seemed caught up in it too, so his… cutesy laughter… was clearly infectious. 

“Anyway,” Jonathan finally wheezed, “that seems… really cool.” When he sat back up and relaxed, he realized that his tail started to curl up around his legs automatically. 

“It is!” Charlie said, her cheeks visibly glowing. “Oh, and you’ll have to ask Sarah how to use your telekinesis.”

“My what.”

“I’m sorry to say it’s not the whole superhero stuff you see in movies,” Charlie explained. “No throwing cars around. But that’s to say that, if you’re in a room with a closed door, you’re not stuck until someone turns the handle. Simon doesn’t have the hang of it yet, but Sarah can teach you some of the basics. You’ll learn more about it at school, especially after you meet your warlock.”

“Huh. That’s…”

“Kind of awesome?”

“Yeah!”

“I know!” Charlie said. “Witches, wizards and warlocks have access to all kinds of magic, but that doesn’t mean you’re completely helpless. So you know by now that you’ll be in cat-form when you’re near your own, right?” Jonathan nodded. “That doesn’t bother you?” He shook his head no. “Okay, good. Well, the closer you are to your warlock, the stronger your ability to move stuff around becomes, and the stronger their magic is. That way, the two of you will become an unstoppable team.”

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“Rad,” Jonathan said solemnly.

“I know! It’s a wonderful feeling, if I’m honest, and I’m really glad you’ll be experiencing it soon.” Charlie uncrossed her legs and stood up, straightening her dress. “Now, I would normally recommend you go out there and get acquainted with your new body, but it’s getting quite late, and I’d rather get you kids to bed on time. You’ll have all day tomorrow to ask questions and to figure out what being a cat means with Simon and Sarah.” She must have seen him frown -- whatever that looked like on a cat -- and winked. “But if you were to bump into Simon and he turned into an excited ferret, and he bounced off the walls until he was too tired to stay up, well, I couldn’t blame you for that, could I?” 

He noticed his tail had started to flick excitedly and he twirled in a little circle, and then bounded for the door when Charlie started going that way, only to find it closed. Right. No thumbs, and he didn’t know how to do the telekinesis thing yet. He put his paw on the door like he’d seen cats do and looked up at Charlie. She put her hands on her hips, but couldn’t keep a straight face for longer than a second and then started laughing. 

“Alright, you,” Charlie said, and then, more to herself than anything, “you’re going to be a handful. I can feel it.” She opened the door, and Jonathan zoomed through, figuring out how to move four legs at once and finding that it all came very naturally. His feet pattered on the floor first in a walk, then a jog, and finally a sprint as he sped through the house, occasionally jumping up against a wall because he could. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so excited about anything, and he didn’t even really know what he was excited about. This just all felt so good and right and fun. After a moment, the winding passages of the Familiar House led him back to the familiarity of the main hall and the adjacent buildings and he ran in a little circle, checking out the different rooms, until he saw Simon lying down on the sofa in the living room, reading a comic book. Jonathan sprinted toward him, and jumped up on the coffee table, realized that he didn’t have the same grip on the polished wood surface as he did on the floor and slid all the way until he tumbled off and realized that, contrary to popular belief, cat are perfectly capable of falling on their noses. 

“Ow,” he said, giggling slightly out of breath as he laid on his back for a moment, seeing Simon’s friendly face peek over the edge of the couch. Jonathan waved a small paw, then giggled again. 

“Jonathan?” he asked, excitement creeping onto his face. Jonathan nodded. Simon’s face grew smaller and pointier quickly until he tumbled off the couch in an uncoordinated ferret attack, landing on Jonathan in a bundle of bouncing fur. He jumped up and accidentally launched Simon several inches into the air, his tiny limbs flailing, and immediately they started to chase each other around the coffee table, Jonathan jumping up onto and off of the couch cushions and then back onto the ground, and Simon bouncing and shaking his head in the way only ferrets could, both of them laughing loudly. 

When he had a second, Jonathan spun around and bopped Simon on the head, making sure to keep his nails in. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt his friend, after all. Simon seemed to get the message and, despite bouncing in place for a quick circle, slowed down. “I’m a cat now!” Jonathan said excitedly, only now realizing how out of breath he was. 

“You’re a cat!” Simon said. “How does it feel?!” 

“Pretty awesome, to be honest! I haven’t figured out how to turn back into, like, a human being person yet, though,” Jonathan said. He thought for a second, walked over to Simon and softly grabbed onto the back of his neck with his teeth. Okay, having a mouthful of fur was less than great, but he wanted to try this before Simon knew what he was planning. 

“Hey, what are y--” Simon said, and was cut off when Jonathan picked him up by the scruff of his neck and jumped clumsily onto the sofa. Simon glared at Jonathan when he let go, standing up on his hind legs, and then falling over backwards laughing again onto a pillow. “That was awesome,” the ferret chuckled, tiny hands on his stomach, and then he poofed back into a human. The sudden expansion caused Jonathan to jump up, and he found himself standing on Simon’s lap. 

“Uh, sorry,” Jonathan said, trying to keep his balance. 

“It’s fine, man,” Simon said with a smile, and put his hand on Jonathan’s head. For the first time in his life, Jonathan experienced what it was like having someone pet him. It was… interesting. It was strange. It was strangely interesting. Not to mention comforting. He felt something rumble, and his eyes shot open, thinking there was something big driving by the house, like a large truck, until he realized the rumbling came from his chest. “Aww,” Simon said, “you’re purring!”

“Am not!” Jonathan said, but he couldn’t help but smile. “Anyway, how do I turn back into a person?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Try to think of what you look like, and then like…” Simon stopped for a moment. “Do you remember what it was like, reaching out to this version of yourself in the forever box?”

“The… forever box?”

Simon gave him a shit-eating grin. “Charlie hates it when I call it that. Anyway, the infinity cube or whatever. That grabbing a hold and pulling towards yourself?” Jonathan nodded. “Okay, do that, but… in reverse. Let this go, and grab the other one.”

Jonathan did as he was told, closing his eyes and tried to reach out to his other, human form. It was slippery, but he eventually wrapped his head around it. It was like trying to pick up a coin and replacing it with one already in his hand, like mental sleight of hand. He felt himself getting stretched out, and when he opened his eyes, everything was the right shape again. He was sitting uncomfortably though. 

“Oof,” Simon said, “you can get off now.”

With a yelp, Jonathan jumped off of Simon’s lap.