So I guess this is what you would call a side story...it's just a funny idea that popped into my head. It's also a thank you to you amazing reviewers and followers who have officially been with this story for a year now!
Side Story: In which polyjuice cats make a strange reappearance
Hermione's arms were overloaded with books as she trekked from the library back to her dorms. The halls were empty, most of the students already at the great hall eating dinner so Hermione decided to levitate her books instead. Reaching out her hand, she gave a hiss of pain when her nails accidentally scratched her arm.
"Curious," Hermione whispered to herself, lifting her hand to inspect her nails. "I know I filed them yesterday..."
They were far longer and sharper than they were supposed to be. Frowning, Hermione went up to the girls dorm and after putting her books down on her bed, she immediately went to the bathroom to clip them.
"There." she said holding up her hands to view the short filed down length.
Stomach growling, Hermione turned and walked back out of the room, heading for the Great Hall. An eagerness built inside her knowing that her boyfriend, the one and only Sirius Black, was already down there. She knew she would get mildly scolded for staying in the library for so long. Sirius hated it when she would forget to eat, something about having to monitor her food intake or she'd disappear.
Hermione rolled her eyes good naturally at the thought.
"Buttons!" His voice shouted immediately when she stepped through the door. Smiling, Hermione went to him as he stood up from his chair and held out his arms.
Blushing, Hermione stepped into the circle of his arms, letting his tall frame engulf her. She was still unused to public displays of affections, even small ones like hugging. Sirius, however, was very keen for them, having no qualms in putting a hand around her waist as they walked, or holding her hand, kissing her lips before separating for class.
"You're late." he said, his voice a low rumble that she felt vibrating from his chest. Hermione hugged him tighter for a moment, breathing in his amazing scent before pulling back to give him an apologetic smile.
"I know but I-"
"Hermione, your eyes!" Sirius exclaimed, reaching out his hand to cup her chin and tilt her head back slightly so he could get a better look.
"What? What is it?" Hermione asked, as Sirius squinted down at her, his face going from surprised to confused.
"I thought I just...nevermind... Let's eat before you miss out." Sirius said, taking her hand and sitting back down at the table. A movement in the corner of her eye had Hermione shooting around in her seat and snatching at it before anyone else could even blink, her nose twitching at the peculiar scent.
A loud yelp brought Hermione back to her senses as everyone else around her fell silent. Mortification immediately hit Hermione as she realized what predicament she was in. She had practically thrown herself over Remus in order to dig her nails into Peter's hand, the nails she had just clipped already elongated and sharp.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! I have no idea what has gotten into me!" Hermione apologized, quickly letting go of Peter, unable to look Remus in the eyes.
"Err, it's alright. Are you feeling okay, Hermione?" Remus said as Peter just grumbled and rubbed his scratched up hand.
Nose, still twitching, Hermione eyed Peter as she answered Remus.
"Yes, yes. I'm fine."
"Then come and sit back down and eat." Sirius said as took hold of her shirt and settled her down on her seat.
"OH!" Hermione exclaimed, a smile blooming on her face as she tore her gaze from the nervous Peter and down to the food before her "Is that tuna?"
Eagerly Hermione took two cooked tunas and started eating, missing the gazes exchanged all around her.
"Erm, Hermione...have you taken something?" James asked slowly, making Hermione lifter her head curiously at him.
"No, I haven't taken something...just what do you mean by that?" she asked as she continued to eat.
"I just meant, er..."
"He means that you're acting oddly and if you had an accident with a potion, or took something offered by a student who might have done something to it..." Lily said as Hermione felt her ire puffing up.
"Well, I'll have you know that nothing of the sort happened and I am acting just fine!"
"But you hate tuna!" James exclaimed as Lily nodded her head.
"And you practically attacked me!" Peter added, giving a little squeak when Hermione's head quickly turn to him with a little hiss.
"Not to mention, and don't take this the wrong way love...but your hair..." Sirius said making Hermione immediately reach out and touch her hair.
As if by magic, hair immediately started to sprout out all over Hermione's hand, spreading up her arms over her neck, around her face.
"OH!" Lily cried, as all the boys jumped up from the table, wands raised as James looked for a culprit and Remus and Sirius tried to help her.
"Sirius!" Hermione exclaimed with terror grabbing onto his front as her gazed down at her shrinking form, his eyes wide but determined.
"Hermione, you're going to be okay! We're taking you to Madam Pomfrey."
"Meow!" Hermione repsonded, her eyes widening at the sound emitting from her mouth. "MEOW!MEOW!"
"Shh, calm down, love. You'll be fine..." Sirius said, picking her up into his arms, making Hermione realize that she had shrunk straight out of her clothes, her body now entirely fur.
"MEOOOOOWWWW!"
"AHHHH!"
Shooting up from her bed Hermione took in gasping breaths as her wide eyes took in her surroundings. She was back in her dormitory and it was quite obviously night time. Wasting no time, Hermione pushed back the covers to inspect her body in a panic.
Breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of no hair and normal body, Hermione sunk back into her pillows, her racing heart starting to calm down.
"I am never touching polyjiuce again!" Hermione vowed before sleep over took her again.
Side Story Two: In which Draco's misplaced spell comes back to haunt at the most inopportune time
The evening night gave a pleasant breeze that played with the ends of Hermione's hair. Holding a sad attempt of a muffin Hagrid had made, Hermione wondered if it would be smart to just toss it...what if some poor creature came upon it, decided it wanted to take a bite and lost all of its teeth? No, she couldn't let that happen, so bending down, Hermione transfigured the muffin into what it should be...a rock.
Satisfied, Hermione made her way back to the castle, her mind making a list of things she wanted to do before getting to bed. It was nearing bed time but she figured she could still work on her tranfiguration paper and a little of her Arithmacy outline for her final project.
Or...her mind wondered treacherously, she could skip working on school to hang around Sirius. It had been a busy day for her yesterday; she had spent most of it in the library studying for a test she had today so she had not seen her boyfriend much. A day without her fix of Sirius felt like a day without happiness. Without him there was no one there to remind her to laugh, to get away from her mind and focus more on small happy things.
Like kisses...Kisses were marvelous little brushes of happiness.
She decided she would rather have her dosage of happiness than of accomplishment.
Climbing into the common room, Hermione did a quick sweep for Sirius, finding him immediately among the usual crowd of people who flocked the marauders. The marauders had something about them that made them always the center of attention, rather it be for their charisma, looks, or pranks, people wanted to be around them.
It made Hermione extremely happy when Sirius turned his beautiful gray eyes to her they brightened considerably, as if she was actually the special one that people flocked to.
"Buttons!" he cried and with an unsurprisingly agile move, Sirius hopped up and over the couch to come over to her, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "Did you have fun at Hagrids?"
She knew she hadn't told him that she was going to Hagrids so that meant he had looked for her on the map. For some reason this gave her a light happy feeling.
"Yes, even if he muffins are something that could maim and his tea is fit to poison." Hermione responded as Sirius smiled.
"Well I just had some delicious pumpkin pastries from the kitchens...do you want some?" he asked, his tone all too knowing as her eyes brightened up at her favorite dessert.
"Oh yes please!" Hermione chirped.
"Okay, since you responded so nicely..."
Sirius tightened his arm around her waist, moving her a little closer so their bodies were touching completely, his eyes surprisingly tender as he gazed down at her and gently brushed a lock of her hair away from her flaming cheeks.
"Sirius!" she hissed, her eyes flicking around the common room to see if anyone was paying attention to their close proximity. She did not feel to comfortable with public displays of affections beyond holding hands and hugging.
"Notice-me-not charm, my precious little Button"
Smiling devilishly, Sirius leaned his face down closer to her, his hand on her waist sliding around over her side, slightly grazing her left breast as it moved to cup the back of her neck, the other going into her hair. Opening her mouth to protest with a racing heart, she was cut of as his lips descended on her, immediately seizing the change of sliding his tongue into her open mouth. Surprised, Hermione gave a small squeal that had Sirius chuckling low in his throat, as his tongue slide over hers, coaxing her to play.
Grudgingly, Hermione found she couldn't help but respond, the sweet taste of pumpkin on his tongue calling for her reciprocate his actions with equal fervor. Her hands seem to have a life of their own as the reach out to pull him even closer. She nearly growled when Sirius pulled back slightly, his lips still grazing hers as he spoke, sounding winded.
"wrap you arms around my neck, love." he said and she did just that, anything to get her daily dosage of happiness. Crushing his mouth back to her, Sirius trailed his hands down her back, over her bottom and then hoisted her legs up and around his waist, making her squeak.
"Sirius!" she exclaimed breathlessly, as he moved kissed down her neck, sucking on her pleasure spots as he moved them closer to a darkly lit part of the room in between an empty table and a bookshelf by the portrait hole. She gasped when his tongue snaked out to taste her skin, licking the spot before sucking on it. Thrusting her hand into his gorgeous soft black hair, Hermione pulled lightly so he'd return to kissing, sighing in pleasure as his lips moved over hers.
"ouch!" he hissed suddenly, pulling back with a slight frown as his tongue flicked out to catch a drop of blood on his lips.
"Oh sorry," Hermione said but it sounded wrong. Confused, Hermione barely registered Sirius's eyes growing wide as he gaze at her as she raised a hand to her mouth.
But she didn't have to, she could feel her teeth from her bottom lip. Gasping now with horror, she felt with her hands as her two front teeth continued to grow and grow at an abnormal rate, reaching her bottom lip even with her mouth wide open in horror.
With a distressed cry, she removed her legs from around Sirius waist which finally jump started Sirius into whipping out his wand.
"Don't worry Hermione! I'll fix this! whatever this is!" He cried pointing his wand at her and trying numerous spells.
But nothing seemed to work as her teeth continued to grow and grow, now way past her chin hovering somewhere around her collar bone...
She needed help! Or she's end up looking worse than a walrus! The teeth were heavy and now touched the skin of her collar bone. Raising, horrified eyes to Sirius's own panicked eyes, she realized something...Merlin! What if they just continued to grow and grow, piercing her skin digging into her body?
When her teeth did just that, cutting into the skin, Hermione screamed...
and shot up in her four poster bed, heart pounding and sweaty as she felt her mouth, parting her lips to feel her straight and even front teeth. When her panic finally settled, she couldn't help the little shiver that overcame here.
"Damn you Draco Malfoy!" she couldn't help but declare before she settled back off to sleep.