Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter

So, will Hermione's cat look keep her from taking the kids out. I think you know the type of kids she has to deal with.

Chapter 3 – A Catastrophic Halloween

Nobody moved. Nobody seemed to make a sound. Hermione felt she was holding her breath as Ms. Stats and the two other ministry officials stared back at her.

"Oh my," Ms. Stats repeated.

After a quick glance down, Hermione drew her arms over her exposed chest, even though she didn't appear to be exposed.

"Ms. Stats, I can…I can explain," she started.

"Oh, no need," she said slowly as she approached her. She then began to circle her, making Hermione feel even more uncomfortable. "No need at all. That is the most exquisite looking costume I have ever seen."

"Er…excuse me?" She cringed as she heard the kids giggling.

"It looks like you've gotten into the Halloween spirit after all. That outfit. It looks so real."

"Oh no Ms. Stats, you don't understand. The children did this to me."

"Oh I see," she said happily as she clapped her hands together. "They helped you make it. How generous they are."

"Thank you Ms. Stats," the kids chorused politely.

"But, no…they…" Hermione didn't have time to explain as she ushered her over to the group of pranksters who were smiling devilishly at her.

"Now now, we just came over to get a few pictures for the paper. We don't want to be long. I know these kids are eager to get out there and round up as much sweets as they can. Hurry now."

In-between Ms. Stats and one of her assistants, Hermione was shuffled behind the kids who were shuffled about until Ms. Stats was satisfied with their position. The whole time, Hermione kept trying to explain what they'd done, but there was too much talking going on between the staff and the kids.

"Alright," said the photographer as he lifted his camera at the group. "Looks good. Alright you lot, smile now."

"Come on Ms. Granger, smile," Ms. Stats encouraged.

Hermione found she couldn't produce anything but a scandalized scowl. There she was in the center of the group, surrounded by her grinning torturers, in what appeared to be a cat suit.

"Ms. Stats, I really don't want to be in the picture."

"And Ms. Granger, I really don't want to argue with you. Simply smile so we can get this thing done."

"Yeah, Ms. Granger," said Barrin sweetly. "Smile."

With Barrin standing so close to her, Hermione felt a sharp pinch on her rear. Her tail shot up and she gasped. This was followed by a flash from the camera.

"Alright," said the photographer, feeling he did get a somewhat good reaction out of Hermione for his shot. "Just a few more."

Hermione started to scowl again, but upon Ms. Stats's look, she forced herself to produce a painful smile. At her forced expression, the kids's smile seemed to widen in delight. I can't believe this, she thought, furious, These little weasels managed to get me naked on the front page again!

"Alright, we have enough now," said Ms. Stats. She then raised her wand and conjured seven pumpkin shaped pails and handed them out to the kids. "Now why don't you all get going."

Any hope Hermione had to grab some clothing, or even her wand, was dashed as Ms. Stats hurried her behind the kids out of the door.

"Don't worry, I'll lock up for you. Have a good time you all."

The whole time Ms. Stats was ushering her, Hermione had tried to explain, but to no avail. The door was shut behind her, and she was outside. Hermione wrapped her arms around herself and glared down at the grinning bunch.

"Come on Ms. Granger," said Lori sweetly. "You're supposed to take us trick or treating."

Her tail twitched. "When you undo what you've done to me!"

"We told you," said Aggy, "It won't wear off until the sun comes up again, so come on alright."

"Yeah, let's go!" cried Sammy.

Without waiting for permission, they ran forward, their little pails waving as they moved. Hermione sighed and shook her head.

"I must be out of my mind," she muttered to herself as she hurried after them.

Soon enough, Hermione found herself in the midst of a variety of beings and creatures, all running about swinging various types of bags from their arms as they hurried from house to house, filling them with candy. At the moment, Hermione was peeking out at them from behind a very tall tree while her little charges stood before it, gazing around at the sight of trick-or-treating in progress.

"Which house should we hit first?" asked Barrin.

"Don't know," said Torics. "What do you think Hermione?"

Hermione snorted and pulled back behind the tree.

"You really think I'm going to help you? After what you've done!"

Lori groaned as she grabbed her arm and pulled her into view. Hermione gasped and made to cover herself, causing some of the boys to giggle.

"Oh come on, Hermione, it's a costume," Lori reasoned with a laugh. "Ms. Stats didn't have a problem with it did she."

"She said it was exquisite," said Torics.

"It really was exquisite work you guys," said Ben as Torics, Barrin, and Aggy bowed.

"You…you lot are…wait til this…when I get my hands….tomorrow!" Hermione was so flustered by the whole thing, she couldn't help trying to say every threat at once.

"Remember," Aggy warned, "You have to make sure we have a good time. Your reputation depends on it."

Practically livid, Hermione decided she had no choice. She proceeded to follow her duties, guiding the kids from house to house. So far, no one had taken her look for being inappropriate. She did gather second and even third looks from some of the passing children, but mostly from the adults. Hermione swore they could see right through it especially when she heard a passing woman say "The things women wear on Halloween…more appropriate for the bedroom from the looks of it".

At one point, a small group of kids rushed up to her and reached out their hands to feel her fur.

"Where did you get your costume?" asked a young girl dressed as a witch.

"Looks so real," said an astronaut in awe.

"Whoa! Look at her tail!" said a kid dressed as what looked to be an animal tamer, "It's really moving!" He grabbed it and pulled and Hermione shrieked.

"Hands off the tail Mr. Dundee!" she cried as she pulled her tail to herself.

"Did you see that? She acted like it really hurt."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw her own group of kids laughing on the porch of a house they had just received sweets from. Then the little witch patted the fur down on her leg. Hermione gazed down at her as she stared up at her in awe.

"Will you be my kitty?" she said hopefully with big eyes.

With the skies darkening, Hermione felt some comfort in the idea that the darkness would hide her some, but it was still no picnic to be running around in fur with a constantly twitching tail.

"There's got to be some way to break this spell," she mumbled as she followed behind the troop.

"You could try shedding faster," Barrin offered, causing the others to laugh.

"Or try this while you wait," said Torics who stopped and raised up a carton of milk. Everyone paused in their trek. Hermione blinked at the carton curiously.

"Where, did you get that?"

"I asked for it at one of the houses," he said nonchalantly. "Come on, you must be getting thirsty."

He waved it around as if to entice her to drink it, and what Hermione couldn't understand was that she suddenly really wanted a sip.

"What are you doing man?" asked Sammy suspiciously.

"She's been in that cat-suit for a while, which means some cat tendencies should have surfaced by now."

"You wish," Hermione sneered. "I have no interest in consuming that…nice, cold…creamy…No!" She shook her head and gripped her ears hard as if it would knock such an interest out of her brain. This is mad! Where did that come from! I can't be…really turning into a cat, can I?

"Hey look Hermione! A mouse!" cried Aggy.

Herimione's head shot up at the statement.

"Mouse!"

She didn't have to look far. There it was. A large gray mouse calmly walking up the sidewalk. It turned, past the excited trick-or-treaters as it was making for the front door of one of the houses. Without thinking about it, Hermione dashed after it. There was no thought of the fact that she was in fact not a cat, but a witch, and a sensible witch for that matter. All she wanted was the mouse.

She was on him in an instant. He didn't see her until it was too late. He turned just as she leapt.

"Aaaaaaahhhhh!"

Hermione landed, right on top of the poor slightly chubby boy who just happened to be dressed as a large gray mouse.

A huge chorus of laughter rang through the air.

"Get off me! Are you mad? Mom! Mom!"

"Oh," Hermione started as she quickly came to her senses. "Oh….oh, I'm so so sorry. I…I don't know what came over me."

She got off him as quickly as she could, but it wasn't quick enough as his mother came hurrying towards them.

"What have you done to my boy!"

"I…I"

Hermione's focus on the pair quickly shifted to the thing that came bounding up next to the woman. It was growling at her. Hermione seemed to automatically arch her back and hiss fiercely back at the large dog.

"What in the-"

Hermione didn't hear the rest of what the woman said as she took off, with the dog running and barking after her. She was partially aware of everyone seeming to stop their trick-or-treating to watch; a teenaged girl in a cat-suit running from a dog. Laughter seemed to ring from every direction.

Hermione simply made for the nearest tree, and without thinking about it, she scurried up it, like the animal she seemed to be. A crowd was gathering around the dog that was barking up at her from the tree's base. People were pointing at her. Her own group of kids were laughing so hard, some were accidentally dropping candy from their pails as they doubled over. What made it worse was that she couldn't seem to help hissing down at the dog and swiping the air with her paw as if she could reach his nose.

Hermione moaned softly. She felt warm and very very tired.

"Hermione," said a singsong voice.

She groaned. It sounded like Lori.

"Wakey wakey," came another voice that sounded much like Barrin's. Then there was giggling, and Hermione knew.

Her eyes fluttered opened, and she groaned at the sight of all seven kids standing before her, still in costume, smiling at her. She also realized she was laying down. She turned and saw a blanket covering her body. With a quick glance, she peeked under and was relieved to see she was at least wearing her top.

"What…what happened?" she asked slowly.

"We went trick-or-treating of course," said Ben as he and the others raised their pails filled to the top with candy.

Hermione frowned, then the horrible transformation of what the kids had put her through came flooding into her mind. She popped up immediately and started looking at her hands and arms. They were normal, human. She looked all around and saw that they were back in the daycare. She glanced at the window and saw it was still dark outside.

"I..I don't understand."

"Neither do I," said Torics who was looking rather disappointed. "My sister assured me you'd be stuck like a cat til morning. Ah well. She can't do everything."

"At least we have a backup plan," said Barrin.

"Yeah," Torics agreed.

"Backup…," Hermione started, but realized she should use this opportunity to get some answers. "How did I end up here? The last thing I remember was being…being up in a tree."

"Yeah," said Sammy happily. "It was so funny."

The others started to laugh.

"It was all thanks to a passing wizard you're back here."

Hermione paled.

"Wizard?"

"Yes wizard," said Barrin. "He was in the neighborhood with his little brother trick-or-treating."

"We knew he was a wizard cause we saw his wand in his belt," Lori added. "I guess you were too busy with the dog to see, but we ran up to him and told him that you'd gone nuts with a potion, so he pointed his wand at you and knocked you out."

"Then we hand him bring you and us back here," said Ben.

"We had him open the door for us and told him we'd be fine when you woke up," added Torics.

Hermione ran a hand over her head. She was pleased she didn't feel pointy ears on top.

"I don't believe this," she muttered. "Did he contact the ministry?"

"We don't think so," said Ben. "He seemed a bit dim."

"He was a teenager, like Hermione," said Aggy. "Of course he was dim."

"I can't believe this." The kids simply grinned. "I can't believe this. I'll never be able to show my face in my own neighborhood again."

"I wouldn't worry," said Miles as he gently patted her arm. "I don't think anyone recognized you cat woman. But man, they'll be talking about it for years I bet."

"This was the best Halloween ever!" Barrin stated.

"And thank Merlin it's over, because it was my worst!" Hermione shouted.

At that, everyone gave her a curious smile.

"And it's not over yet," said Torics curiously.

Hermione cocked a brow.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked slowly.

After tossing each other a few smiles, they all hurried forward with their hands raised towards her.

I was going to end with three chapters, but I had a final situation in mind and decided to place it in another final chapter. So the cat transformation prank was planned to be the major prank, if not only prank for this fic, but I added others. I was going to explore Hermione's cat tendencies a bit more, but the charmed candy, as Torics came to realize, wasn't perfect enough to keep her as a cat the full time; so in that case, it wasn't strong enough to keep too many cat tendencies going, but it was enough for their outing.

So stay tuned for the final chapter. What back up plan do the kids have for her?