The last of the sixth year students were leaving my last class of the day. I had skipped lunch and had instead opted to eat in my chambers, sitting in front of the fire. I would also forgo dinner, I decided, and left my classroom. I exited the dungeons, and then the school. I made my way to Hogsmeade, knowing that as soon as I reached the end of the wards I could apparate to my destination.

I didn't have rounds until midnight, so until then I had the time to visit an old friend of mine, Nathan Forbes. He always cheered me up.

I felt a slight tingling as I walked through the wards and as soon as I crossed them I twisted on the spot and apparated.

The house in front of me had only one light on, the one in the front room. The darkness surrounding me made it slightly hard for me find my way to the front door, but I eventually reached it.

I did not knock, but immediately opened the door and walked in. The only person who knew that this house was here was me, so I felt relatively safe. I closed the door behind me after I crossed the threshold and lit more lights around the house with my wand. I called out: "Nathan!"

In the hallway before me appeared a ferocious-looking black leopard. He bared his teeth at me in silent laughter. I stepped forward, my wand at my side. The leopard tensed, and in the blink of an eye he was sailing through the room, only to land on top of me, pushing me to the ground.

I stared into the luminescent yellow eyes above me. They watched me with obvious enjoyment. I felt his sand-papery tongue against my cheek and suddenly I laughed. Scratching the beast behind the ears I said "Nathan, how many times have I told you not to tackle me every time I step through that door?"

He shook his head and said in a slightly growling voice, "Too many times if you think I'll actually listen." The slight rumbling in his throat was his way of laughing and as he got off of me I joined his laughter with mine.

He sat back on his haunches and I sat on the ground in front of him. He tilted his head to the side, appraising me. "You look different" he growled. It wasn't a bad kind of growl; he just had a hard time keeping to human sounds.

"Mmm" I agreed. "I'm taking my friend Severus's place at his job. He's on vacation." He nodded and let out a jaw-breaking yawn, showing all of his very white, very frightening teeth. He slid to the ground so that his head landed in my lap. I set to work scratching him behind his ears. He purred a deep rumbling sound. I relaxed. This is what I had come here for. To not have to talk, to be able to just feel another person's unquestioning love. Not romantic love, but love nonetheless.

Nathan was born, and has always been, a black leopard. He, however, is magical, as shown by his ability to talk and understand the human language. However, he was not born into his magic. He grew into it. When I say this, I mean that over the centuries that he has been alive he has over time gathered magic into him.

Every person, creature, and plant come into their existence with the ability to hold magic. Wizards and witches are born already holding that magic. Other beings, however, also have the capacity for that magic, and over time it collects. You will find that if a muggle lives to be over three hundred years old, that they will have in them enough magic to do what wizards and witches do naturally. That's why the really old trees are used more often for wands, because they already hold magic in them. You will find however, that no humans and almost no beasts ever live long enough to find that magic. Nathan is one of the exceptions.

Nathan told me once that he was born and raised as a pet for a roman emperor; he has since then traveled the world, and found that after a few centuries had passed that he could speak and make things happen without any visible effort. He made many friends over the years, from all over the world.

Oddly enough, I met him for the first time at the zoo. My parents had taken me to see all the animals at the zoo for my birthday. We walked all day and finally we got to the big cats section. This was before I knew I was a witch (I'm muggleborn), so when I saw Nathan looking at me and a voice in my head telling me who he was, I kind of freaked out. My parents took me back to our home in the country. The next day the escape of the black leopard was on the telly and the day after that, I found him in the woods behind my house. This time he explained (aloud) ,what was going on, more quickly. Since then we have been friends.

He taught me some of his tricks also, so I can do just a little more than most witches and wizards; nothing spectacular, nothing that would help me in a fight, just some things to make my life a tad easier.

He decided that he was tired of exploring and when I came into my inheritance I bought him this little house in the middle of nowhere. So, he stays here most of the time. It is nice to have a steadfast friend by my side (figuratively speaking) all the time.

I checked my watch. It was 11:30. I told Nathan that I had to leave, said my good-byes, and apparated back to Hogsmeade, ready to do my patrol of the school in a better state than earlier in the evening.

I wandered around Hogwarts in the dark. One of my Nathan-taught tricks was that I could sense everything around me. Not really seeing in the dark, it was more like I could feel where everything was around me without actually touching anything. It was really useful, especially when patrolling for curfew-breaking teens. Severus had told me much about a certain student by the name of Harry Potter who used to sneak around under a cloak of invisibility. Unlike Severus, however, I would have been able to know immediately if he was in the vicinity, without the use of my eyes. It was almost a shame that he no longer was a student here. I would have loved to catch him sneaking around, not that I had anything against Potter, but I thought it might make Severus happy.

As I stalked the hallways I saw a light coming towards me. It was two people. Taller than most of the students, but I wouldn't rule out the sixth and seventh years. As it turned out, however, it was Albus and Minerva. When I realized this I paused. They had yet to see me, so I waited until their light fell on me.

"Hello Albus, Minerva." I nodded and made to move past them but Minerva's gasp brought me up short. I paused again, looking at her with curiosity in my eyes. When I saw Albus's shocked face too, I asked "What is it?"

Concern marred the headmaster's face. "Severus," he said in a worried tone, "what happened to you?"

Minerva was pointing to my chest. I followed her gaze while saying "What do you mean what happened to me? Nothing happened to- Oh." The front of my robes had claw marks from when Nathan had tackled me. With a flick of my wand the tears disappeared, leaving un-blemished cloth in their wake.

I looked at them with an untroubled expression. "Just a run in with an old friend." Albus would find whatever horrible creature my friend bade attack me, I just knew it, so before he could say anything I went on with "His pet is a little overprotective. Nothing to worry about. No harm done" and continued on my way, as if uninterrupted.

When I watched the recordings of that scene later, I saw that after I walked away, Minerva turned to Albus as if to ask what was wrong, but he just shook his head and asked to no one in particular "What is going on?"