Disclaimer: I wonder if there are any lawyers on this site looking to sue poor innocent children...

Well, I own everything that you don't recognize. Which includes the theory because I've never seen anyone else with this idea before.

Night had descended on the castle surrounding it in a darkness that held the secrets of the nocturnal.

Anyone up at this late hour would have good reason for being as nervous as one lone first year who had wandered away from the warmth of her common room to search for her missing life long companion, a.k.a. Mr. Snuffles the teddy bear.

With each step she tried to push cruel images out of her mind that had evolved from bone-chilling stories of werewolves, snakes, and dementors that roamed the school's halls after curfew looking to feast on weak and defenseless children. As an added worry, the student, who last year was nothing more then a common muggle, was still adapting to the idea that at any random moment a ghost could randomly pop out of nowhere and fly right through you. And by adapting to the idea, we mean she ran away as fast as she could screaming whenever she saw one.

But despite the overwhelming fear inside of her, she had to go on. It wouldn't be fair to Mr. Snuffles to just leave him to face the night alone, he'd get scarred, and cold, and what if something should happen to him? Besides, the child wouldn't be able to fall asleep without him safely in her arms.

The castle seemed bigger at night, with all the silently moving stairs and deserted hall ways; it would be easy to get lost. Her frightened brown eyes darted in every direction seeking some source of comfort. But all that met her gaze was a confusing jumble of passageways, windows and furniture that wasn't the least bit familiar to her.

She began to panic, her breath coming on heavy, her face twisting with fright. Where was she? Surely this wasn't the way to the Great Hall-where she was almost positive her bear was loyally waiting for her. Reality hit as her stomach dropped. She was hopelessly lost.

At this moment her adrenaline level skyrocketed as thoughts swarmed her mind. She was lost and was going to fail to rescue Mr. Snuffles from an almost certain death by some terrible thing. What-ever-it-was would probably get her too. She might die. She didn't want to die-a rather shocking opinion. Her vision fogged as her eyes become speckled with tears. Was this really the end? It couldn't be. She'd miss mommy and daddy and Suzie and Carol and-what was that?

Her short brown ponytails whipped from side to side as she searched for the creator of the sound, that almost inaudible thud. But she heard it, it was there, right?

There it was again! Her legs shook, her spine tingled, how could it be she felt so cold but her hands were sweating? Now she was sure she heard it, sure it was coming for her. Perhaps if she didn't move it wouldn't see her. The tiny frame stood frozen as she desperately tried to silence her heavy breath. If she wasn't seen or heard the thing would go away, right?

THUD!

Wrong.

She was torn in fright. Her mind was screaming "Run!" but her legs remained as heavy as lead. She couldn't run, she couldn't hide, she would die and no one would hear her screams echo down the-

"Mew"

The alarming thoughts that had raced through her head were suddenly gone, replaced by a refreshing bit of reality. Cautiously, the still wide eyes worked their gaze to the floor, not a hundred percent sure of what they would find.

A cat.

The tiny body almost crumpled to the floor with relief. It was a cat, that and nothing more. It was quite a cute one too, tiny with a thick coat of lusty ginger fur. True, its face was a bit squashed, but in the eyes of the little girl, that only added to her affection for the creature. Of course, when one is alone and lost in the middle of the night, most anything that isn't trying to kill you looks somewhat appealing.

"I'm glad it's just you little kitty," the girl's voice was soft and sweet like her demeanor, (obviously she was the one speaking, although at a place like Hogwarts a talking cat may not have been so uncommon) and the words were spoken like a sigh of relief. "I thought it was something scary, but I'm glad it's just you. Do you want to help me look for Mr. Snuffles?"

Still being young, even for her age, the girl still had some kind of hope deep inside of her that animals could comprehend what she was saying, and this one certainly seemed to. It cocked its head as if paying attention, the huge green eyes full of some kind of understanding. Or was that just hunger?

"You see," she went on feeling the need to explain, "I've lost my most favoritest bear in the whole world and I think I left him in the Great Hall and I was going to look for him there but I got lost and I don't know how to get back." She stared at the cat for a moment, waiting to see its response, or lack of response as the feline remained still for a few moments. Then, all at once, the cat stood up off its hind legs and began to walk down a corridor slightly to her right.

"Don't leave!" The girl cried running after the cat. The ball of fur stopped, waited for the girl to catch up, and then started off again.

"Do you know where you're going?"

"Mew"

She could have died from excitement. This cat seemed to respond to her, and (she prayed) was leading her to the Great Hall.

"Alright," she said in cheery tones, "I'm following you!"

---

The same green eyes darted back to make sure the girl was still following. Yep. Good thing the she had found her or else the poor girl would have been really lost. How on earth did this girl manage to get about half a castle away from her destination in the first place? Obviously she was a first year, but you'd even expect them to have the route down by now. School had started three months ago, and everyone went to the Great Hall roughly three times a day.

The procession of cat, girl, and oversized bear was heading from the Great Hall toward the Hugglepuff Common Room. It figured, where else would the girl have been placed? Too dim for Ravenclaw, too adorable and innocent for Slytherin. And the recently rescued definitely wasn't a Gryffindor, or else she would have recognized the girl. No, 'he', he would have recognized her, stupid gender changing complications. No matter how often she did the spell, he was always a cat. She'd rather be an 'it' then a 'he.' Not that there was anything wrong with the male gender, it just seemed slightly… wrong.

The cat glanced around trying to make out the surroundings. Lets see, 'he' was sure the Hugglepuff common room was somewhere around here, but where? Time to act cute and dumb. Squatting down on hind legs it gave the girl its best innocent look, slightly cocking the head and making the eyes go blank as if to say "Okay, it's your turn to figure out where to go."

As if on cue the girl's eyes went from the cat to the surrounding hallway. Suddenly, a look of intelligence leaped across her face, lighting up her features.

"I know where we are!" she whispered in a hushed squeal. "Oh thank you so much kitty!" She leaned down and began stroking its silky fur. A smile spread across the cat's crumpled face. Good, the girl didn't expect him to lead her anymore. As beneficial as it would be to learn the password of the Hugglepuff Common Room as well as a refresher course on where it was, she/he/it was growing tired. Besides, the feline already knew the location and password for the Syltherin Common Room, and more interesting conversations dripping with gossip could be heard there then the Huggepuff's. With a final scratch between the ears from the girl's small hands, the cat dashed off leaving the child and bear behind.

---

Had one followed its path back through the castle they would have seen a flash of ginger duck behind a rather large statue of some ancient wizard. His stone arms were spread out in front of him as if about to cast a spell with his hands, creating a nice sized hiding spot behind him.

This was where the creature stopped. Green eyes scanned the deserted hall, and then shut as the wrinkles on the face deepened, full focus being poured into a single thought.

In one fluid movement the forelegs of the feline began to rise as if it was trying to stand up. The backbone straightened until the back was no longer at an angle with the legs, which had now grown in length. The ginger fur was evaporating into slightly tanned skin, with the exception of the back of the head where the fur grew longer and made the subtle change into thick strands of brown hair with a tinge of orange. The forelegs had lengthened into arms, paws stretched and thinned into fingers, and palms blossomed. Shoulders sprung out of the back, ears sunk from the tops of the head to the sides and turned from tiny triangles to something of an oval. The face lengthened, making the once crumpled skin smooth and even. Whiskers disappeared into a growing nose which had lost its rosy tinge. Red lips popped out of the mouth without warning.

Ten thousand changes took place in the blink of an eye, each moving with a coordinated precision that could only be the work of long hours studying the magic behind the motions.

It was not a cat, but a girl of seventeen who stepped out from behind the statue a minute later and hurried down the hall with black robes flowing behind her for fear someone would catch her wandering around at this late hour.