Chapter Three: Quills
Snape was grading essays when the tell-tale thump of the kitten landing on his desk alerted him to an unwanted 'guest.' He looked up to see the kitten staring at the quill, which he pulled from the parchment. "Go away," he stated, before he focused on the grading again.
When he pulled the quill up again, he saw a flash of white paws. He looked up just as the kitten punched, in a way, the quill twice before sitting back down. She had not tried to pin it or anything of the sort. Snape almost waved it at her before he squashed those thoughts down.
He was not going to keep the kitten, so he was not going to bond with it!
Snape focused back on his grading, ignoring the clock that struck ten on the twenty-sixth of December. When the quill came up again, the kitten repeated her action. "Stop it!" he hissed and she merely stared at him with her big blue eyes, before she batted the quill again.
He flicked the feather part of the quill at her, only to have her move back so it didn't touch her. She mustered a rather impressive glare for an itty-bitty kitten who could easily sit in the palm of his hand. "I need to finish grading these dunderheaded students' essays," he informed her.
The reason he hadn't found her a home today actually. It had nothing to do with the fact that waking up to the kitten purring was…enjoyable. Not at all.
He was not getting attached to the menace.
The kitten batted the quill again. His eyes suddenly widened. "Are you trying to get me to go to bed?" he asked.
The kitten purred happily and Snape glowered. "First of all, I don't listen to cats, especially not kittens that are not even ten weeks old. Secondly, I have these essays to finish grading. I will go to bed when they are done. Now, leave it alone," he retorted.
The kitten sniffed and then weaved around his arm. She batted at one of the essays, one on the top of a pile he hadn't graded yet…and lay on the pile. She then purred happily and he stared. "You miserable hairball," he insulted.
The kitten merely purred. Snape's response was to pick the kitten up and deposit her on the floor. She stayed for all of five seconds before she was already back up on the desk, making her way to the pile of unmarked essays. Ten repeats later, Snape threw his quill down on the desk and stalked to his room.
The calico purred in her victory and carefully got up, jumping down. She sashayed to her chair, making her way back up and settling on her chair, in her blanket. The kitten inspected her paw before she rubbed her face.
All in a good day's work.
"Take the menace Poppy," Snape demanded, practically dropping the kitten on the bed in the Hospital Wing the next morning.
The kitten merely sniffed at her treatment and flicked her tail at Snape. Pomphry waved her wand at the kitten and hmm'ed. "I have no reason to take her, Severus. She's healthy and is in better condition than the other kittens, despite being half their size. You found the runt, I suspect," she stated.
"Keep her then!" Snape snarled and the kitten glowered, batting in Snape's direction.
Pomphry chuckled. "Oh, Snape. She won't leave you for another if you threw fish on them," the medi-witch stated and the kitten purred in agreement.
"Have you named her yet?" Pomphry added while Snape glowered at the kitten.
"No. Because I'm not keeping her," Snape snapped.
The kitten sniffed and bat in his direction again. "I think she disagrees," Pomphry stated, carefully collecting the kitten and handing her back to Snape.
He took her, glaring at Pomphry. "Besides, if I took her, my owl Rhys would get jealous," Pomphry added and turned on her heel, back to sort whatever. Snape glowered and carefully placed the kitten in his pocket before he walked out.
The kitten was very good about not trying to jump out. "Well, that answered that question," he muttered and headed towards McGonagall's office.
McGonagall had turned into her Animagis form to speak with the kitten. Snape had ignored it and stared out the window. After a time, with it dissolving into some odd play between the kitten and McGonagall, the Transfiguration professor returned and deposited the kitten into his lap.
"She wants to stay with you. I'd suggest you stop trying to pawn her off or she might bite you. Of course, I was the one who suggested it. She said using alternative methods is best. Apparently, she thinks if she bats at you long enough, you'll get the idea. Her abstract idea was 'he's smart, for a human. He'll get it…eventually.'," the Head of Griffindor reported with a grin.
Snape glowered. "I'm not keeping her!" he snapped and walked out, carefully putting the kitten in his pocket again.
Snape slumped in his wing-backed chair while the kitten rolled around on the floor with one of his dull quills. She wasn't biting it, mostly just rolling around on his carpet with it.
Everyone he had talked to didn't want her. Filtch stated that Mrs. Norris and the kitten had a talk and play, before Mrs. Norris informed Filtch that she had chosen her Wizard, but it was nice of Mrs. Norris to offer to share. Of course, Mrs. Norris hadn't used Wizard, but the kitten had.
Apparently, the kitten now had a better understanding of certain Wizarding World standards.
The fact Filtch had explained all of this calmly had told Snape all hope was lost and he was stuck with her. The, mostly white, with black and orange flecked across her kitten. "So, since I'm stuck with you, what am I going to name you?" he stated.
The kitten paused in her playing and settled to stare at him. She then rushed up and jumped on the arm of the chair before settling on his lap. She stared up at him and he huffed, carefully petting the kitten's head. She purred lightly, leaning into the touch.
"All right, you impossible thing, what to call you?" he asked.
"It has to be something Slytherin, but not obviously so. It has to be a name that I won't feel embarrassed calling you by and a name that will not mark you as my cat, when you're allowed to wander. Slytherin is a hated House," he murmured, still petting the kitten's head.
He would admit, to himself and himself alone, that he had gotten attached to the furball. The kitten had an appeal.
If she had green eyes, Snape was positive that he couldn't have kept her. He liked wallowing in his grief and a daily reminder might just kill him.
He would have enough of one in a few years' time. Six or five? He couldn't remember anymore. Not that it mattered.
The kitten mewed, drawing him to the present once more. "Are you that impatient for a name?" he retorted.
The kitten batted at his hand and Snape smiled. "You menace," he muttered affectionately and she purred.
It was amazing what three days did. Of course, Snape knew he was attached to the kitten the minute he pulled her out. Saving a life did that.
A/N: In case you were wondering, no, this is not over. I have lots of years to finish. Also…I need names for the kitten. The requirements are in the story as requirements Snape himself sets down. Any help would be appreciated.
But not 'Lilly.' That has already been ruled out by the fact my Snape muse keeps snarking about 'wishing to wallow in misery to his cold, blackened heart's content until the day it stops beating, thank you very much.'
He's polite sometimes.
However, he's also peeved I'm giving him a cat. Mostly because I keep portraying him as 'sentimental.' He's just not admitting that, in his own sweet, sick, and twisted way, he is.