Hey! This was written for the lovely Em.
This story is based on the fairytale "The King O' the Cats," which is a very quick and cute read if you're interested. Knowing the tale makes some of the more supernatural elements make more sense, but it's not necessary for reading :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. All rights go to J. K. Rowling.
Warnings: Past character death, death of an animal (not shown).
He'd like to start out by mentioning—no, insisting—that this was not the way things were supposed to be.
Dusk had just settled over the forest, and Draco thought he'd enjoy a nice walk. There was really no motivation behind it except a strange feeling that tonight might be a nice night for it, and, really, there was no evidence to point to the contrary. Slipping on his emerald green cloak and pulling on his riding boots (on the off chance it started to rain and he ended up trudging through mud on his way home), Draco walked outside of his little cottage and locked the door behind him.
He glanced over his shoulder a couple times at his cottage, sighing internally. It was...quaint, and it was quiet and warm, all qualities for which he loved it, but he found himself missing the grandeur of Malfoy Manor recently, especially since Charlie was no longer there.
It was odd, he mused, how much he'd been able to give up to live with Charlie. And it was especially odd how his lingering presence convinced Draco to stay.
The night was cool, but Draco didn't feel the chill. The forest around him had an enchanting element to it tonight; the tree branches hung low to the ground like bridge cables, steady and reassuring. The moon shone pleasantly through the canopy, getting brighter the longer Draco walked. He pushed his way past various weeds and through multitudes of bushes and wildflowers, never once stumbling even though he'd never been on this particular path before.
The night air was crisp, clear, and seemed to penetrate Draco's soul. The weight he'd been carrying for months now seemed to lift just ever so slightly, and Draco resisted the urge to gulp in the air like a drowning man.
Pushing aside a particularly dense branch, Draco stepped into a clearing. He blinked in surprise. He'd never come across a clearing on his walks through this forest before with Charlie, but he supposed that they'd never ventured quite as far as he had tonight. He took another step into the clearing and let the branch he'd been holding swish back into place behind him.
And then he wasn't quite sure how to proceed, because nine black cats with glowing green eyes all turned to stare at him.
They were all standing together in a circle around a hole in the ground, and they all meowed in unison upon seeing him. After a tense moment of silence—during which Draco wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to be doing, but he had the absurd sense that he'd interrupted something important—the biggest of the cats, with eyes like emeralds, swept his tail across the ground and meowed at the others. Immediately, like a spell had been broken, the cats scattered into the forest. The biggest one remained.
Draco was about to follow their lead, figuring this was as good a reason as any to call it a night, when something stopped him. His heart panged in a way it hadn't for a while, and Draco knew without a shadow of a doubt, that he needed to see what was in that hole. He needed to know, but he had no idea why.
Well, that wasn't entirely true.
Cautiously, Draco approached the hole, doing his best to ignore the feline staring at him. He looked down and immediately felt the breath halt in his chest. There was a black cat lying in the hole, obviously dead. A wave of sadness washed over Draco, and he pulled his cloak a little more tightly around his shoulders.
Something warm brushed against his shin, and Draco glanced over to see the big black cat arching his back and winding around Draco's legs. He knelt down carefully and extended a hand to the creature, who regarded him cooly for a moment before butting his head against his hand.
Stroking the cat softly, Draco murmured, "You knew him, didn't you?" The cat mewed. "I'm sorry for your loss," he continued, albeit awkwardly. "You know, I lost someone I really loved not too long ago. He'd be very concerned for you right now, more so than I am, to be honest."
The cat paused its movement to look at Draco with those glowing green eyes.
He laughed softly. "I think you could get on fine yourself, but I bet you're going to miss this guy here." Draco's hand stilled in the cat's fur as a thought occurred to him. "It's no fun being alone, but two guys like us, we can make it. Still, I don't suppose that maybe..."
Draco let his words trail off and instead looked around the clearing. There, not too far from the hole with the cat inside was a pile of dirt. Not bothering to wonder how it got there, Draco crawled over to it and began to cover the dead cat with it, murmuring reassuring nothings into the air as he did so. He'd no idea if there was a saucer of milk in the sky for cats, but Charlie had always insisted there was with a twinkle in his eyes, so Draco would acquiesce, just this once.
As he was patting the last of the dirt down onto the grave, Draco felt the cat place a gentle paw on top of his hand. As Draco looked at him, the cat quickly licked Draco's fingers before stepping back. If Draco didn't know any better, he'd say the cat was thanking him.
"Of course," he said stupidly. They stared at each other for a few minutes in silence, and Draco felt, for the first time, like he understood what Charlie had always meant when he said he had a special connection to the animals he met.
Draco stood up and brushed the dirt off of his trousers. Holding out his arms, he asked the cat, "Would you like to come live with me for a while? Nothing permanent, mind, but we might be able to bring each other a little bit of comfort."
The cat walked forward without hesitation, so Draco took that as permission to pick him up. Holding the cat with one arm and petting him with his free hand, Draco started walking home, wondering exactly what had possessed him that night. Charlie was the one who always adopted the animals, the one who always checked on strays to see if they were all right...
"How do you feel about the name Tom?" Draco asked. "It's a nice solid, sensible name. It suits you, I think." Tom mewed in agreement, and that was that.
Draco walked home with a regal creature in his arms and the echo of a long last laugh floating on the wind beside him.