I apologize to those that like Harry/Ginny, but I just can't see it.
Speech
Thought
Part of me is tempted to add Hermione. PoA showed she's a cat person, after all...
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"Hey, Harry. Wakey, wakey." C whispered.
"Unn..wa..?"
"Easy...now that you have the collar on, we can talk in your head. That way you don't look like a nutter. You've been out of a few minutes."
"Flipping hell......I thought you said I'd just feel weird for a moment.." Harry muttered, spitting out dust.
"Well, blacking out feels weird, doesn't it?"
"Whatever..wait...what the? Where the hell did I go!?" Sitting up, he quickly learned his body was nowhere to be seen, even though he could still feel it. Even his clothes were gone.
"Harry, relax. I should've told you before. By accepting the collar, you've agreed to become the next Cheshire Cat."
"What..what? Cheshire...but that's just.."
C laughed, "I kid you not, Harry. It was just over a hundred years ago when Alice went to Wonderland; at first she was kinda like you when you started Hogwarts, unsure of herself, too busy trying to make sense of it all to really enjoy what was around. When she met the Cheshire Cat, they both thought the other was rather odd for a while, but after a while they actually managed to grow on each other. He quickly became her guide, so to speak, showing her the ins and outs of Wonderland." Harry heard him sigh in a reminiscing way, "Unfortunately, it wasn't long before she had to return home. She managed to make an enemy of the Queen of Hearts. Ugh, she wasn't exactly Miss Popular, if you catch my drift. Alice managed to get away, but the Cheshire Cat ended up on the block; the queen apparently had a thing for beheading people..and the cat...you get the idea. This was his collar."
Harry chuckled this time, it wasn't too hard for him to put two and two together for this, "Don't you mean this was your collar?" He was greeted by what could only be described as stunned silence. After a moment, he could hear chuckling.
"Heh, smarter than people give you credit for. The Original Cheshire Cat, at your service. Well, on to business. Like I said, now that you put my collar on, you're my successor."
"So, what does that mean?"
"Get outta this dump first. The Weasleys are probably going nuts wondering where you are. I'll tell you on the way."
Harry complied and hopped to his feet, feeling oddly springy for some reason. He marvled at how fast and silent he was able to leave.
"All right." C began, taking a business attitude, "First off, invisibility. I managed to do it while you were out so you wouldn't be spotted. A little practice and you'll be able to control how much of your body can vanish. You wouldn't believe the kind of mayhem that would let you cause."
Harry contemplated it and found himself grinning evily as he literally danced between the people in the ally.
"This is another one, speed and silence. Add those to the mix, and you're quite literally a ghost."
"Ohh, I could get used to this." Harry's grin widened. It didn't take long for him to spot a huge, and familiar figure heading into Diagon, "Hey, there's Hagrid. Think I should let him know I'm here?"
He could almost hear C shrug, "Your choice, just think about being visible again and you'll return to view. Although I should warn you...how do I put this...since you're the Cheshire Cat now, you're not really a hundred percent human anymore."
"What?"
"You'll see what I mean when he sees you." Was C's only response before Harry focused on dropping the invisibility, grinning as he saw himself return to view right behind the towering man.
"Hey, Hagrid." He called out, lightly tugging the coat.
" 'Arry? Blimey, what'er yeh doin' in a place like...." The groundskeeper's eyes widened, " 'A-Arry...Merlin, what...what happened to yeh!?" Hagrid dropped the can he was carrying.
In a flash, Harry's attention turned to the falling object and both hands shot out, grabbing it inches from the ground, "Flesh-eating Slug Repellant?" He said, reading the label, "Whoa, my reflexes were never THAT good, even during Quiddich."
"Boosted reflexes. Told you you were fast."
"They've been ruinin' the school's cabbages." Hagrid answer, "But that's beside the point, what in the world's happened to yeh??" He gestured randomly towards the young boy, "Yeh..yeh...yer a cat!"
"See? Told you." C commented as Harry looked toward a nearby window and realized what he meant.
" Again I say..Bloody.." Harry whispered as he stared at his new reflection. A pair of large, pointed cat ears stood proudly from the top of his head. Ears that had an odd pattern of alternating light and dark purple horizontal stripes. His hair was even messier-looking, draping down to cover where his old ears used to be. He hand a hand through his only to find it felt more like a cat's fur than human hair.
As he did, he quickly noticed claws a few centimeters long had replaced his fingernails and oddly enough, pads on his palm and finger tips, even though he could still feel through them. But what really caught his attention were his eyes; they still had their emerald green hue, but now his pupils were slitted like a cat's and had an eerie gleam to them. "Bloody hell, C. You said changes, but I didn't think it'd be this much." He thought as he discovered he now had a tail as well that had the same color scheme as his new ears.
"Actually, those are just the inital changes, but you should be getting through the full thing before getting back to school. Don't worry, you'll be loving it when you find out"
Harry noticed Hagrid still staring. With a little help from C, he explained about taking the Floo and the possibility that it had inadvertently woken up some magical creature blood that had been dormant in him, hoping that would be an acceptable reason.
"Well, odder things 'ave happened, I suppose." Hagrid said, still somewhat startled by his young friend's sudden change., "We better get goin'; the Weasleys are probably beside themselves 'bout now."
It took Harry a few minutes to get accustomed to some of the looks he was getting, namely girls and some of the younger women. One girl, apparently a higher year than him and of asian descent, judging from her complexion, had happily squealed 'Neko bishonen!' when he went past. He was confused for a moment until C managed to explain it since Alice had taught him about other languages. It took C all he had not to laugh at his new friend's blazing blush. It didn't end until he and Hagrid caught up to the Weasleys outside Flourish and Blott's.
"Bloody hell, Harry! What happened to you!?" Ron blurted out when he saw him, a rap on the head by his mother for swearing quickly followed.
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"Knockturn ally....could have gotten...!" Was all Harry could make out after suddenly being engulfed by of Molly's hugs once. He managed to catch Hagrid relaying his magical creature excuse to the others as he extracted himself from her grasp.
"Wicked!" The twins said in unison as they each tapped an ear, watching them flicker on reflex.
Harry stifled a laugh. His new ears were kinda ticklish.
Ginny was staring at him a bit TOO intently for his taste, especially with what C was fairly certain was poorly hidden lust.
"Ew...that's not right!" Both of them thought, Harry making a note to make sure he was never alone with her in the same room while he was at the Burrow.
Ron, however...the boy seemed to be angry at the change. Like it was an affront to him in some manner. Harry shook it off, figuring it was just his imagination.
After a trip to Gringotts (where Harry picked up a bad vibe from Ron and Ginny, and Molly, which worried him, when he got money from his vault)
"Hey, C, " Harry thought as something hit him on during the cart ride, "How come nobody has said anything about the collar? I'm surpried no one's asked where I got it from."
"It's got the Wonderland equivalent of a Notice-Me-Not charm on it. Nobody will see it unless you specifically want them to." Came the reply.
When they returned to the bookstore, Harry noticed a poster outside indicating a book signing by Gilderoy Lockheart inside. "THAT'S gonna be our new DA teacher!?" He exclaimed as he pointed at the man in the picture.
Molly sighed dreamily, much to Arthur's chagrin "You're very lucky, you know. He's
"You have got to be kidding me!" He muttered as the group went in, "Merlin's hairy butt crack, he dresses poofier than Liberace! What's going on?? I don't think I've ever been this vocal about something."
"Heh, I think that's my fault. A bit of my personality seems to have meshed with your own." C replied sheepishly, "Wasn't expecting that."
"Really.." Harry replied dryly, "Well, I guess that explains why...hello!" His attention was quickly diverted by a cute strawberry blond in line with an older woman who he guessed to be her mother, "Just a tick..Susan? Susan Bones?"
The girl turned to see who called her name and froze when she saw, "H-Harry Potter??" She squeaked, staring at him like she was worried she'd just be seeing things, "What...what happened...?"
"Huh? Oh, this stuff?" He twitched his ears, "It's a long story, and in case you were wondering." His tail lightly flicked against her cheeck, making her giggle, "It's all real." He found himself enjoying the blush she was acquiring,
It wasn't long before some other the people started pointing at him and whispered amongst themselves, and that started to annoy him "What? You people never seen a catboy before?" He snapped at the other people who had began to stare at him like an attraction. After they resumed minding their own business, he turned back to the shy 'Puff, "I take you and your mom are here for the signing?"
Susan nodded, "I know he's supposed to be great wizard, but.." She bit her lip hesitantly, an act that Harry quickly realized he liked seeing, "He just seems kinda into himself a little too much."
"I have a feeling I'm gonna like her." He grinned to himself, not realizing the older woman was looking at the two with a grin of her own, nor that he was visibly grinning in a way that made the poor girl blush even brighter.
Unfortunately, his conversation was cut short by Ron pushing him back up towards Molly and Arthur, "Are you barmy or something, Harry?" The redhead snapped, "She's a Hufflepuff! Almost all of them are nearly Squibs"
Harry bristled, "What the hell's that supposed to mean? I don't give a damn what house she's in, Ronald. From what I could tell, she seems like a nice girl and I was trying to talk to her, you prat!" He snapped back. He was really disliking the attitude the youngest male weasley was exhibiting.
"Well, well, Harry Potter I presume" came the smarmy voice of Lockheart as a hand shot out and pulled Harry over to him, "Smile, Harry. Together we'll make the front page of the Daily Prophet."
"Pedophile!" Harry yelled, grabbing one of the copies of Magical Me the man was signing and brought it up against his head with a loud 'POW!'
"Child Molester!" The book impacted from the other side, "Police! Rape!" Harry finished the combo by bringing the impromptu weapon up, spine-first, in an impressive uppercut that promptly sent Lockheart ass-over-teakettle to the floor.
"Winner by knockout!" C hollered, giving Harry a mental thumbs up.
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As you can see. I kinda like Arthur, Molly not so much...