Fuzzy
Hermione Granger has been turned into an otter! How did this happen and what is she going to do about it? Plus, the only person she can talk to is Draco Malfoy, resident bad boy and Head Boy.
Thanks to my wonderful initial three reviewers: Anna Tramell, HermioneTwin, and MysticElf.
I dedicate this sequel to you three. Sorry if it doesn't compare to the original, but I enjoyed writing it all the same.
Happy reading,
-LDB
It was Easter holidays. They had one whole week off of classes. Hermione Granger, of course, was busy writing up a study schedule for her NEWTS tests that were coming up in the late spring.
Most normal teenagers would spend the Friday evening with friends celebrating the start of the week of freedom.
Hermione was no normal teenager. She was determined to stay right where she was in her room and pull up a strict schedule so she could be on top of things for the tests. It was a well protected secret of hers, but as much as she loved learning and teaching that information, she hated formal testing with a passion.
Writing down answers like a robot was not her kind of gauge on how intelligent and how much you actually understand a subject. It just shows how much you can hold in your tiny brain for a long enough time span to regurgitate it onto a piece of paper and hand in for some underpaid teacher to read it and write some score on it.
With those thoughts running through her head, Hermione penned in her last details on her calendar and cleaned her quill. She had finished her assignments that were due in three weeks hours ago and now that she finished her schedule she could relax for the rest of the evening. Putting her things away, Hermione stepped out of her bedroom and waltzed down to the common room. It was unlikely that Draco Malfoy, her Head companion, would be in the room. She found that he usually disappeared on Friday evenings to spend time with some other pastime.
Grabbing a book of the shelf, she tossed herself onto the couch and started reading a random chapter. She had read everything in the bookshelf and the entire Head dormitory within the first two months of school, so it was alright that she started reading in the middle of the book.
Thinking back to their last vacation, Hermione had to give a little giggle. She had no idea why it suddenly popped into her mind, but it must have been something triggered by being on the couch.
Draco Malfoy, Mr. Pureblood Extraordinaire, had been turned into a fluffy little black kitten. It had all been a mistake on the Potions Masters part. Professor Slughorn of course. Snape would never do such a thing that would affect his favorite student. Now if there was the chance of changing Harry Potter into a rat to be squooshed, Hermione wouldn't doubt the trouble Snape would go through to get it done.
It was weird, Hermione thought, that she was the only one who could understand what Draco was saying the entire time he was a cat. She never really investigated it, deeming that it wasn't really worth her time when she should be studying for her NEWTS.
To say that Draco was furious at her would be a complete and horrible understatement. She left him to turn back into a human, stark naked in fact, in front of the entire faculty of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Draco wouldn't talk to her and went out of his way to be cruel to her like he was before his apology at the end of the summer before their seventh year.
Hermione understood and took it in good sport. Though she would often make a jab at him whenever he crossed the line too far. Both seemed just fine in avoiding the subject of the pre-Christmas fiasco. Though in private, they both were able to get a good laugh every now and then.
That was four months ago and they moved onto different things. Hermione focused on her studies and duties while Draco went back to doing whatever he did in private while still getting his good grades and getting things done.
Shaking her head from the memories, Hermione went back to reading about the end of the First World War and the political changes that occurred because of it. It chimed nine o'clock when the door opened and Draco walked in.
"You're home early." Hermione looked up as he kicked his shoes off and tossed his over robe on the back of the chair he went to sit in. "I didn't think you were going to come back at all."
"Aw… you missed me? Don't worry, darling, I'll always come home to you." Draco said in a stage voice, making his voice sound adoring.
Hermione let out a laugh and turned the page. The blonde boy gave a smile and leaned back in relaxation. They had become closer because of the Christmas surprise and Hermione still used her nickname of "Mr. Kitty Feet" on Draco in good humor. They found out that Draco liked joking about, like he had just done, and not have to worry about her jumping at him in anger at making derogatory accusations towards women.
"I assume you already wrote up your schedule?" Draco had heard her tell Harry and Ron earlier that day that she couldn't go up to the Gryffindor tower that night because she would be writing her schedule.
"Yup." She closed her book and went to put it away on the shelf. "I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I want to get as much studying done as possible in the first couple of days."
"But you already know so much. Do you really need to work yourself so hard? I mean… not that I don't think studying is important. I have to do it too. But…" Draco stood to stand next to her by the bookshelf.
"But what, Draco?" she turned around looking slightly tired. At the start of the spring term, she had been working harder than ever before.
"But can you promise me something?" Draco reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Depends on what it is you want me to promise."
"Promise me that you'll take a break sometime. Even if it's just for a few hours. Just don't worry about studying. If anything, worry about your sanity." Draco gave her shoulder a quick squeeze of reassurance and walked away not really wanting to hear her answer.
Heaving a sigh because she knew that he was right, Hermione went off to prepare for bed.
Saturday morning dawned bright and early. But not as early as Hermione Granger. She had already been up for three hours. History of Magic was the task for the day. Notes needed to be compacted and organized as well as sorted through to rate the more likely topics the essays would have as part of the test.
Her hand had already cramped up once and her eyes kept getting dried out from long periods of staying open. Hermione had a bad tendency of forgetting to blink when working hard.
Reaching out for her coffee mug, Hermione lifted it and saw that all that was left were semi dried dregs at the bottom of the cup. Sighing she stood up and made her way to the coffee pot she had in a different corner of the room. Too much caffeine was bad for her mood towards others, but she needed it.
"Why does all my coffee evaporate like that?" she moaned to herself as she poured half a mug before going back to reciting the different sides of the Troll Wars of 1490.
An hour later, at a little after seven o'clock, Draco came yawning into the common room his hair still badly ruffled and clothes askew.
"Bloody hell, Hermione. How long have you been awake and studying?" he sat on the stool next to her desk that he had put there long ago so he could pester her while she studied.
"What time is it now?" she didn't look up from her notes nor did her pen stop its travel over the parchment.
"Seven ten."
"Four and a half hours. Rounded of course."
"Rounded down, if I know you." Draco leaned forward and rested his head on the desk. "You never did explain what a pen is to me."
He was, of course, referring to when he was a cat and Hermione rudely cut him off when he asked her what a pen was when she took notes on his symptoms.
"Draco, I really don't have time to discuss pens with you. And your hair is simply dreadful this morning." She spared him a glance and he hurriedly ran his hand through his silken locks to try and get them in place.
"Will you accompany me down to breakfast at least?" Draco stood so he could get dressed so the public could see his perfect self.
"By the time you have your hair in place and everything, I think I'll be done with these notes." That was the closest thing to a 'yes' that Draco would get so he ran up the steps and went to get ready.
Hermione continued her steady writing of her notes from one of her essays onto her timeline and finished with plenty of time. Smiling to herself, she knew that Draco was giving her more time because he didn't want to stop her before she was done with her round of notes. He was actually quite sweet in that manner.
Cracking her neck as she stretched, she set her things down and went to get dressed and get her robes before calling out for the Head Boy.
"Hey, Kitty Feet. You ready? I'm starved."
"I think all that intense studying gives you the appetite equivalent to a bear." Draco snickered as he rushed past her and into the hall outside their dorms. He slung his arm over her shoulders when she emerged a second later, pouting to hide her smile at his antics.
"Fine. If I have an appetite of a bear then you have one that rivals Ron's." She laughed at his response.
"I can't believe that you just insulted me so badly. I thought we were friends, Hermione." He said from where he lay on the ground in shock. His hand was over his heart and he looked positively paler than usual.
"Come on. I'm still hungry." Hermione grabbed his outstretched arm and pulled him down to the empty Great Hall. "Ooooh… Chocolate pancakes!"
"Hot Cocoa!" Draco didn't care that he was sitting at the Gryffindor's table but he dove for the jug of the steaming drink and poured himself a cup. He sat there with a childish grin on his face as he sipped the drink.
"You really were deprived as a child, weren't you?" Hermione grabbed two chocolate pancakes and tossed a small spoonful of whipped cream on top before scraping some into Draco's cup for him.
"Uh huh. You better believe it. I had to drink prune juice since I was old enough to drink anything. Which has been my entire life. I hated it." Draco filled up his cup again before grabbing plain pancakes and drizzling raspberry syrup on it.
Hermione gave him a smile before digging into her food. Chocolate was one of her weaknesses. Though, as Harry and Ron found out, if she was mad at you and you gave her chocolate to apologize, she would take the chocolate and still stay mad at you until she decided that she didn't want to be mad. Chocolate or no chocolate didn't make a difference on the length of time she would be mad.
"Thank goodness we have no head meetings this week. I don't think I would be able to deal with that along with my studies." Hermione got a glass of milk and downed it in a couple deep gulps. Wiping her lips with her napkin she stood from her place and told Draco. "I've got to go back and study. You shouldn't hang around too long at the table."
"Oh, don't you wink at me like that." Draco grumbled and finished his breakfast before Hermione could get to the door. Standing, he decided to see if he could persuade her to forget studying for the morning. If that plan didn't work then he'd have to make himself scarce for several hours.
By the time he ran to the door and got into the corridor, Hermione had vanished. He had absolutely no idea how she could do it. Hermione never really looked like the athletic type, but she always seemed to be able to disappear and appear somewhere on the opposite corner of the castle when someone was looking for her.
"Hermione? Where'd you go?" He made his way back to the common room and almost made it when the sound of someone crying made him stop. "Uh… is something wrong?"
"Draco?"
Draco blinked. There was Hermione's voice, but he couldn't see her anywhere. The alcoves in the wall were too small to hide in like the others in the castle. There was also this strange little squeaking noise when she called out to him.
"Hermione? Where are you?" He looked around frantically.
"I'm down here."
Draco looked down and almost started crying from the hilarity of it all. Kneeling down, he looked at the cute, yet slightly pathetic and teary eyed otter at his feet.
"Hermione? Is that you?" he held his hand out and let the little otter sniff his fingers.
"Yes." Her voice was full of distress. "What happened to me?"
"You've turned into an otter, Hermione." He waited for some sort of reaction. All he got was her teary eyes to get wider and wetter.
"Oooh…. NOoooooooo…." She wailed and pulled one paw over her face and fell to the cold stone floor. "I can't be an otter!"
"Come on. We don't want anyone else to see." Draco scooped her up in his arms and hurried into their common room. "You've got some of the softest fur ever, Hermione."
"Yours was pretty soft too, you know, Mr. Kitty Feet." Hermione sniffed from her place in Draco's arms. "I don't even know what I did to deserve this!"
"Shh… stop wailing, Granger. You're the smart one here, remember? You need to keep your head on straight that way you can figure out how to get yourself out of this." Draco opened the door to the common room and sat on the couch.
"You're right. I need to figure this out so that I can get back to studying." Hermione butted her head against his hand in silent thanks and went to sit on her own cushion. "Now let's see… For you it was the Animagus potion fumes that transformed you. Maybe I can try and see if it's the same with me."
"Uh… I'll just go into my room while you try that out." Draco stood and moved to go up the stairs to where his bedroom was.
"Draco." Hermione sighed in a mixture of humor and in exasperation. "I was fully clothed you know. I'm not like you."
"I know. But I don't want to be bitten because something might not be right." He hurried to the top of the stairs and looked down.
"Are you saying that I can't do this properly?" seeing an otter glare is an interesting thing, but as fascinating as it was, Draco had no intention on getting closer to study the finer lines of otter facial features.
"No. I'm just saying that if this is caused by some strange occurrence, then almost anything is possible to happen." Draco turned around. "Now just try it out and see what happens."
"Oh, I can't wait to get back to studying." Hermione took a deep breath and said the spell clearly. "Transformare Animale."
Draco slowly turned around when he didn't hear anything from the Gryffindor down the stairs. He saw Hermione still in her otter garb and asleep.
"Oh, Merlin. What are we dealing with?" Draco trudged down the stairs and shook Hermione awake. "Wake up, Whisker Face."
"What did you just call me?" Hermione's black eyes snapped open and her ears went back flat against her head in irritation. Her sharp teeth lashed out and if it weren't for his quick Seeker skills, he would have been bitten. Unfortunately for Hermione, all she caught was the edge of his sleeve.
"Uh…" Draco backed away hurriedly. Being an Animagus cat, he knew the signs of an angered animal. "It's the same as you calling me Mr. Kitty Feet. It's just a pet name?"
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and have people assume that you're an idiot than open your mouth and remove all doubt. Ever heard of that, Malfoy?" Hermione uncurled herself and walked close to him while still staying on the couch.
"I have not. But I don't see how that was somehow connected to what I said before…" he trailed off, not knowing what trap he just put his foot in.
"Ah. And there it is. An idiot." Hermione smirked in secrecy and turned to hop off the couch.
"What do you mean by that?" Draco picked her up and held her at arms length away.
Hermione sniffed indignantly as if pondering if she should be so kind as to explain what she meant. Swishing her tail in thought, she decided it wouldn't hurt to explain. She was hurt by the name, but if she explained, maybe he'd pick a different name to call her.
"Listen to the difference. Mr. Kitty Feet versus Whisker Face. What do you hear?"
"Uh… Whisker Face doesn't have a title like Mr. Kitty Feet does?"
Hermione rolled her little otter eyes to the ceiling as if the stone would have an answer to her partner's stupidity.
"Whisker Face has that underlying insult that has a malicious edge to it. Kitty Feet is … harmless." Hermione found a flaw in her plan and struggled to get out of his grasp before he could find it, she didn't have much time.
"But," Draco started as he struggled to keep a hold of the struggling animal-girl. "I didn't mean any harm by the name. I honestly didn't say it to hurt your feelings."
Hermione heard the truth in his voice, but doubled her effort in getting away. It would be good if he didn't pull her closer to him. That would make it harder to get away. Unfortunately, Lady Luck was not on her side. Two seconds later, her cheek was pressed softly into his shoulder and he was petting her to calm her down.
"Stop it. I'm angry with you. And I need to think. Put me down." Hermione demanded not so politely. She could feel, as well as hear, the sigh Draco let out as he knelt to put her down. "You should be happy. I'm not doing any studying."
With that and a swish of her tail, she turned and ran up the stairs and into her room. She hated the feelings that she felt whenever she was near Draco. It started after the whole "Draco's a cat" thing in the winter. In the time period when he wasn't talking to her and he was busy registering to be a legal Animagus and he was writing letter after letter describing what happened to the Ministry to okay his license when he was still under age.
She didn't really know what it was. It was different than the feeling she had for Harry and Ron, but it wasn't like love. It wasn't even like what she felt for Victor Krum. All she did know was that it was driving her insane and the faster it went away the better. No one needed to know that she was starting to fancy the platinum haired Prince.
Jumping onto her bed, Hermione started to pace, wondering what had gone wrong and how to go about fixing it. She didn't want anyone to see her like this and was determined to get it fixed before two days were up. If she was an otter for too long, she wouldn't be able to get any studying done and she would fail all her NEWTS.
Checking the clock, she noticed that there was no way the boys would be awake. Not after the hard partying they were bound to have had the night before. Maybe she would be able to get to Professor McGonagall and get her help to change her back into a human.
But how?
Malfoy was the only one who knew she was an otter. What if it was like last time. Only Hermione could understand what Draco was saying. What if McGonagall couldn't understand what she was saying?
She flopped onto her back and immediately jumped up wailing in pain as she squished her tail. Draco slammed into the doorway a second later.
"You alright, Hermione?"
Hermione just wanted to snap at him to go away and leave her alone to figure out what was the matter with her. In more than one meaning.
"I'm a bloody otter. What do you think?" Hermione barked out. This whole being an animal is really tiring. "I just want to be able to go back to studying."
"What about me? I was a bloody CAT! I was worse than a cat. I was a KITTEN! A fluffy, adorable, tiny, black KITTEN!" Draco snapped back just as prickled as Hermione.
Emotions suddenly started to run high. Tears started to build up in her eyes. Her bottom lip started to quiver and she let out a sob.
"LIFE STINKS!" she dove under her massive pile of blankets. It was still pretty cold and Hermione left her stack of five blankets on her bed.
"Hermione. You're going to suffocate under all that weight." Draco walked into her room and pulled the top three blankets to the bottom of the bed to relieve some weight only to find that the lump that should have been Hermione wasn't there any more.
"MALFOY! Get me out of here!" Hermione's muffled voice came from the end of the bed.
Hurriedly, Draco pulled the blankets back to where they were and Hermione crawled out on her own accord. Her eyes were positively twirling at the rolling she had just endured. She sent a glare towards the blonde who looked apologetic but was saved by someone coming into the common room.
"Miss Granger? Mr. Malfoy?" McGonagall's voice rang out.
"Thank Merlin. Did you write to McGonagall?" Hermione looked up at Draco as she prepped to jump off the bed.
"Uh… no… I was going to but your scream made me run up here." Draco offered his arms to carry Hermione, but she turned her nose up and jumped off the bed and ran out of the room before him.
"Professor!" Hermione trotted down the stairs and sat in front of the older woman who was standing in the middle of the common room.
Draco stood at the top of the stairs jealous that Hermione could bound up and down stairs with ease as a four legged animal. He still had problems going down stairs four months after being initially turned into a cat.
"Um… Mr. Malfoy? Why is there an otter in your common room? You know it's against school rules to have a pet other than a cat, owl, or frog. I hope I don't have to tell my Head Boy the rules." The Headmistress looked sternly at the blonde still at the top of the stairs.
"That is Hermione Granger. Most definitely not a pet, Headmistress." Draco walked down the stairs and stood behind the otter that was looking pleadingly up at her Headmistress.
"Please tell me there's something that can change me back." Hermione pleaded up to McGonagall. "Please?"
McGonagall looked down her and raised her eye brow.
"I'm sorry Miss Granger, but all I heard was a strange… barking noise."
"Nooo… Malfoy's the only one that knows what I'm saying?" Hermione's head drooped and she slunk off to the couch to sulk.
"You say it like it's a bad thing. Be glad that someone understands your moaning." Draco told her sternly.
"Mr. Malfoy. Do not address your partner in such a manner." Though she was shorter by a few inches, McGonagall beat Malfoy in intimidation at that moment. "I have some business that I need one of you to attend to. And seeing as Miss Granger is out of commission at the moment, Mr. Malfoy you may go and pay a visit to the people in the hospital wing from last week's Potions explosion."
Neville Longbottom had successfully caused damage to everyone in his class. It was a record.
"Yes, ma'am." Draco made sure he had his wand before heading to the door. "Oh. And Hermione turned into an otter after breakfast. We were done eating around..."
"Seven forty-five."
"-what she said. Seven forty-five." With that he left the room to head off to the Infirmary.
"Well. I don't know how this could happen. Have you tried the same thing Draco did during Christmas break?" the old Transfiguration teacher sat down on the couch next to her Head Girl. Hermione nodded.
"Oh… I have no idea what could be going on. I'll go consult with the other teachers. I'm guessing that you don't want your friends to know?" Hermione nodded frantically. "Then I shall tell them not to bother you in fear of facing certain death."
Knowing that that was what her teacher and mentor was going to tell her friends, Hermione knew that she would be able to find a solution without her friends ever finding out about her current condition.
McGonagall left and Hermione sat on the couch trying to figure out what had happened. She remembered going down to breakfast with Draco and then having her delicious chocolate pancakes. She chugged down a glass of milk and left the Hall. Then all she remembered was hearing Draco's voice and being very close to the ground. Maybe she had a black out or something. Maybe she was just on auto-pilot.
But in that short time, between the Great Hall and the corridor before their common room, she had turned into an otter. Maybe it was after she got up the stairs. Maybe not. She didn't really have a clue on where she could start.
Deciding that there wasn't much else she could do about her current problem, she hopped off the couch and found a way onto her desk to get a little bit of studying in. She knew that History of Magic wouldn't help her predicament, but she didn't care. Her brain was still her own and she was determined to study.
It must have been close to half an hour later when Draco came back into the common room looking slightly ruffled.
"I hate Longbottom. Can't he even keep himself from getting injured? GAh!" he threw himself onto his couch and started moaning about his misfortune of having to go visit a bunch of bedridden people.
"You shouldn't be so mean to the poor boy. So he's a little clumsy. There's nothing wrong with that." Hermione hopped off her desk and ran towards Draco's spot on the couch. "Anyway, I have more important business to discuss with you. This morning."
"Yes?" he was tired and cranky. Dealing with a temperamental otter-girl was not one of his favorite pastimes.
"Did you see me after I left the Great Hall this morning?"
"I got up from the table before you reached the door, but by the time I got to the corridor, you had disappeared. I couldn't see or hear where you were." Draco placed a pillow over his face in attempt to deter any more questions.
Hermione sighed. She got the information she asked for, but it didn't really help. Why was she always the one to have to figure everything out? Heaving another sigh, she went back to studying.
She was able to stay on task for a while. Notes were impossible to copy in her otter form and turning pages in the book took a while to get used to. But she was finally able to get along on her own for a while.
Around noon, Hermione turned over her shoulder and looked at the blonde who hadn't moved from his place on the couch, the pillow still over his head. She glowered at the lazy lump that was supposed to be so appealing to so many witches across the country. If they saw him now, Hermione was sure they wouldn't see a lazy man, but instead say "oh how cute" or "How handsome his is asleep" or some other thought that plagues ditzy women's minds.
All she wanted to do was call out and ask him to swap her book for her transfiguration one and put her papers on the upper level of her desk. Deciding that it would be a horrible thing to wake up the grey eyed demon pretty boy, Hermione settled for heading up to her bedroom where some of her other books were still out and about.
Half an hour later and tired of not being able to study in her otter body, Hermione wished for some chocolate. She just wanted a nice bar of milk chocolate and a glass of cool milk. With that thought, Hermione perked up. Maybe. Just maybe.
Dashing to her bed, Hermione hopped onto her bedside table and tried to yank open the drawer. She was sure she still had one left. Trying to pull open a drawer from above it wasn't the best idea. Sure she had enough power to get it open, she didn't have the right angle and ended up tipping everything over causing a large crash and breaking the lamp on top of it and getting cut in the process from the glass shards.
Draco stumbled in several seconds later, looking half asleep still.
"Hermione?"
"Ouchie…." Hermione carefully pulled herself out of the wreckage and inspected her wounds. None of the glass was stuck in her so she took it as a good sign. "I'm over here, Draco."
The blonde walked around the bed and waved his wand to clean up the mess, fixing the broken items before placing it back onto the table that he pulled back into its proper position.
Finished with the table, he turned to clean up Hermione's cuts.
"What were you trying to do?" He tapped his wand on the wounds and watched as they healed over and her fur was cleaned of blood.
"I wanted my chocolate." She looked at the floor not wanting to admit that she had chocolate. Knowing Draco, he would try and steal it from her one day. "I'm just frustrated that's all."
"Have you had lunch?" Draco wanted to steer away from chocolate. It was a really bad weakness of his.
"No. What? Do you think that I'm going to leave the dorms looking like this?" She sniffed indignantly. "I think not."
Draco sighed at the behavior of the girl. It had definitely turned for the worse.
"Any ideas on how to transform you back into a human?" Draco asked, trying to be polite. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Actually…" Hermione was struck by a lightning bolt of ingenious. "Can you take me to the room of requirement? It'll be able to help me with this."
Draco blinked in surprise. Of course. It was a stroke of brilliance. It was a wonder neither of them thought of it before. Picking up Hermione he told her happily, "Let's go my little Fuzzy Baby."
"Fuzzy Baby?"
"Well it's better than Whisker Face isn't it? Come on, I've worked hard trying to find a name that you wouldn't argue with." Draco looked down at the otter in his arms as he crossed the common room.
"I guess I can live with that. Just don't use it in front of anyone else, please." Hermione looked for a place that she could hide while Draco walked down the halls.
"Hold onto my side and let my arm hide you." Draco whispered and waited as she shifted her position as they started to go up the stairs to the seventh floor.
Hermione stayed perfectly balanced from Draco's waist down his leg to his knee. They only passed a few Hufflepuffs who didn't really look at Draco as he passed. In front of where the door to the Room of Requirement would appear, Draco stopped and asked Hermione.
"What do we want?"
"I need a place that will give me a safe place to be while I research ways to transform me back." She said and Draco nodded in understanding and started walking back and forth keeping her words in his mind until the door appeared. After it was yanked open, Hermione was finally able to disentangle herself from Draco and stretch her paws.
Draco closed the door behind them and locked it tight so no one else could get in. Hermione focused her mind and thought, "I need something that will tell me what happened to me and how to reverse it."
As soon as she finished her thought there was a loud pop and there went the weasel. No. There was no weasel. But instead there was Dobby the House elf.
"Dobby!"
"Dobby?"
Hermione and Draco called out to the elf in surprise.
"Hello, Master Malfoy, Miss Granger?" he called out Hermione's name in question. He was sure he heard her voice, but couldn't see her.
"I'm right here, Dobby. I've been turned into an otter. Do you know what caused this?" Hermione waddled up to the elf.
"Um… it seems as if Harry Potter and Mr. Ron came into the kitchens early in the morning while we's were making breakfast and spiked the chocolate pancake batter. Dobby didn't know of this until after breakfast was served. Dobby was able to get all the pancakes down before the students came down. But I guess Dobby was not fast enough to save Miss Granger." Dobby raised his hand in a fist and made to hit himself if Hermione didn't squawk in disapproval.
"It's ok, Dobby. No need to hurt yourself. I just want to know if there's a cure. Did Harry or Ron say how to cure this?" Hermione shifted uneasily from paw to paw to paw to paw. Her tail swishing the entire time to keep her balanced.
"The sirs did say something. Something about true love's first kiss." Dobby looked completely perplexed. "Dobby not quite sure. Dobby hear from one of the other elves. Can't hurt to try?"
"Only hurts when you don't know who your 'true love' is, Dobby." Hermione sighed. She had a wish on who it was, but that innocent looking blonde on the other end of the room was blissfully ignorant and Hermione would be glad to keep it that way.
"Why don't you just ask the Room to show who it is that way you can change back into a human and get back to studying?" Draco is smart! There is hope for human kind! Hermione knew it was too early to give up on him. Besides, her true love might not be Draco at all.
"Good idea." Besides, it would only cause problems if Draco loved her only because the room said so. Focusing her thoughts once more she asked that only she could see who it was. In her mind's eye a cute little black kitten filled her vision. His grey eyes pierced her own black otter eyes. "Oh, Merlin's beard. You have got to be kidding me."
"What? Who is it?" Draco sat in a chair that appeared and looked down at the girl who was lying motionless on the ground.
"Do you really want to know?" Hermione rolled over onto her back and then over back to her feet.
"Unless it's Voldemort or my father…" he trailed off making his point. Hermione jumped up onto his lap and then onto the armrest of his chair.
"What if I said it was Mr. Kitty Feet?"
"I'd have to tell you to be serious for once in your life. I know how much of a joker you are." Draco ran his hand over her lush fur.
"Where'd Dobby go? I didn't hear him leave." Hermione looked around and noticed the absence of their favorite house elf.
"He went to get you some chocolate and lunch." Draco continued to pet her before stopping to give her a stern look. "I still want to know who it is, Fuzzy Baby."
"I wasn't kidding, Mr. Kitty Feet. It's you. Except… it's Mr. Kitty Feet." She shifted a little in her seat, uncomfortable under Draco's gaze.
"You're not kidding?"
Hermione gave her most infamous look of exasperation. "Does it look like I'm kidding?"
"And here I thought you would be ecstatic about getting to kiss me." Draco gave her a dashing smile. He ruffled the fur on the top of her head.
"Why would I do something strange like that?" Hermione had to fight against sighing in bliss at the feel of his hand running through her thick fur coat.
"Cuz you luuuuurrrve meeee." He sang out before cracking up in laughter. "Come on, it's worth a shot, right?"
"Yeah. I just want to get back to my books." Hermione blinked. Sure it had only been less than seven hours since she turned into an otter, but still. It was eating away at her study time.
"Ok. Maybe you love your books more than me, but your books don't know how to kiss, do they?" He planted a kiss on the tip of her small ear.
Hermione squirmed. But Draco wasted no more time in transforming into his kitten form and pressing his cold nose to hers in a little "kiss".
Immediately, Hermione blacked out and she woke to Draco's slight shaking of her arm and calling her name.
"Hermione? You ok? Wake up, there you go." Draco coaxed her awake and helped her up. She did a quick check of herself and sure enough she was back to being a human. Giving a squeal of delight, Hermione promptly engulfed Draco in a massive hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you!"
"Urk… you're welcome. But Hermione, can you let me go?" Draco's voice was faint and his face was tinged a slight blue.
"Oh yeah, sure." Hermione released her hold on him and he fell back, gasping for air. Patting his head in silent apology, Hermione's lips broke into a sly smile. "You want to have some fun this vacation, Draco?"
After recovering, Draco looked at her with one of his perfect eyebrows raised in question.
"Well, now that we've kissed, there are several things on my mind that are considered 'fun', Fuzzy Baby."
"Head out of the gutter, Kitty. I meant more along the lines of helping me with some… payback?" Hermione looked downright mischievous with the shine in her eyes.
"By all means. If it'll take you away from studying for a little longer." He gave a smirk and hauled her to her feet. "What's your plan?"
"Give me a second." Hermione started pacing back and forth. "Ah ha… Dobby said that the batter was 'spiked'. Right? Meaning it was some sort of potion. If we can figure out what it is or get some ourselves, then we can turn both Harry and Ron into some sort of animal!"
"That's my girl. Now. How do we go about getting this potion from them?" Draco put himself on the chair and waited for her brilliance to shine again.
"I'll just go and say that it's for some study. Or I'll just go ask one of the other Gryffindors if they know anything about their early morning walk." She whipped around and smiled at him. "I want my chocolate."
"Me too." On the arm of the chair two bars of chocolate appeared. One was milk chocolate, the other was dark. "Well I know which one mine is."
Draco bit into the dark chocolate while Hermione unwrapped her milk chocolate like it was the most wonderful thing on the planet. They finished quickly and Hermione told Draco that she'll handle everything concerning getting the Gryffindors and that he should go back to the common room and figure out how to record their transformation.
They left the room separately, Draco leaving first and heading to their rooms before Hermione turned and walked down to chat with her fellow housemates.
It only took half an hour to secure the rest of the potion and head back to her room. The idiots were stupid enough to gloat about their plan the night before to the majority of the house and left the bottle sitting on top of their bedside table where it was easy for her to snatch and run.
"I've got it!" Hermione ran into the common room with a dazzling smile on her face. "They're such idiots! It's almost too easy."
Draco appeared behind her in the doorway.
"What were you saying, Hermione?"
Hermione let out a small scream and whipped around, her brown locks whacking him in the chest. He was holding a camera in his hand.
"I got it!" she beamed up at him happily as she showed him the bottle that was half full of a vivid purple liquid. "Is the camera for tonight?"
Draco's mind wandered down a dirty alley and Hermione had to whack him over the head.
"Out of the gutter, Kitty Feet."
"Oh. Sorry. Yes, it's the device that we'll use to document this glorious day." He waltzed into the room and took a seat on the couch patting the seat next to him. "Come enjoy the afternoon with me. I have a question."
"Ok." Hermione put the vial next to the camera that Draco put down before sitting down. "What's your question?"
"Two actually. One. Can you still turn into an otter?"
"No, only under the influence of the potion." She had looked up the potion and affects in the library after her quick find of the substance in the Gryffindor dorms.
"Two. Can I be your true love?" he gave a sweet looking smile, batting his eyelashes up at her.
Hermione scoffed and he gave her the pout-y face and transformed into his kitten form. Padding onto her lap he continued to give that oh so sweet look.
"Alright, enough of that, Draco. Stop playing around. I thank you for doing it for me, but I think the joke is over."
"You mean I don't get a chance?" he stepped off and turned back into himself.
"I didn't say that. You just don't get automatic title of true love, dearest." Hermione smiled. "You can start your admiration by doing a good job at recording my revenge."
"Sounds like a plan."
Dinner time.
Hermione offered to pour the boys their drinks and while doing so poured half the mixture in Ron's cup and the other half in Harry's.
"Here you go, boys." Hermione smiled and set the glasses for them to drink. They had this strange ritual of toasting each other on their greatness and drinking before starting to eat.
Both boys chugged down their drinks and Hermione saw a small flash on the other side of the room where Draco sat. They started eating and everyone was enjoying their first dinner of the vacation when there were twin thunks of the boys falling out of their seats in a faint. Another flash happened at the moment they started to fall.
Hermione, the ever worried friend, rushed to check on them and to wake them up.
"Harry, Ron. Wake up."
"Blimey, what's wrong with us?"
Draco stood from his seat and snapped another picture.
"What happened to us?"
Hermione finally broke down and started laughing her head off. In front of her sat a three-toed sloth and a baby gorilla. The school erupted in yells.
Fin
8.20.2006
AN: Well. That was interesting. Interesting things happen when you don't plan ahead.
9.1.2011
AN: Well, here is the reupload of "Fuzzy" companion to "Kitty Feet". I hope anyone who was looking for more of the Kitty Feet adventure was satisfied with this second piece. I hope you enjoyed it and as always…
REVIEW FOR THE SANITY OF THE AUTHOR!