Title: Minnaloushe: Part 4

Rating: G

Disclaimer: Everyone and everything in this story but the cat belong to JK Rowling.



"I've got a bad feeling about this." Ron looked nervously at his two best friends as they made their way towards potions class. "Do you think he knows it was us? I can't handle more detentions with Snape. Or what if he tries to expel us? My mum will kill me! Fred and George are so much better at this sort of thing than I am."

"Shut up!" Hermione muttered from beside him. "Why don't you just talk about your little prank all the way to potions class, maybe in front of some Slytherins. Then you can just confess everything to Snape whether he suspects or not."

"Oh. Right." Ron looked at the ground, falling into thought. The rest of the walk was done in silence.

The dungeon was buzzing with whispering. The Slytherins were all huddled together in small groups discussing Snape's absence. Some of the Gryffindors were also huddled together. They were debating whether Snape would show up for class or not.

Suddenly the doors burst open, sending all of the students rushing to their seats. With a determined stride, Professor Snape made his way to the front of the class. "So that it won't be a distraction through the rest of class," he began. "I suppose that I should introduce you all to Shadow." He indicated to the kitten on his shoulder. Ron, Harry, and Hermione tried to imitate the same looks of confusion that were on all the other students' faces. "I thought it best that I acclimate it...her to the classroom while she's young." The kitten regarded the class cooly from Snape's shoulder. She seemed to be daring anyone in the class to contest her rightful place in the classroom.

Great!> Thought Ron, glumly. I've created another Mrs. Norris.>

**********

The Potions class went better than Snape had anticipated. Potter, Granger and Weasley were all behaving better than usual, and when he took points for their incompetence, they didn't argue. Probably because they're responsible for Shadow here and they don't want to give me any excuse to suspect them.>

He was distracted from his thoughts by a sharp little pain on his earlobe. For the ninth time in that one class, Snape reached up and detached Shadow's claws from his ear. "Make certain that you ground the dried dragon's tongue into a fine powder. There should be no chunks of dragon tongue in this potion. God help us all if there are chunks, cause you'll blow us all to kingdom come." He thought for another moment, and against his natural instincts said "Miss Granger, perhaps you'd better help Mr. Longbottom. I rather like my dungeon with four walls to it." With that, he strode out of the classroom.

Once in the solitude of the hallway, Snape detached Shadow from his shoulder. "That's it." He growled. "Look, cat. I don't like you and with any luck, you won't like me much in a few days, but until then, here are the ground rules. you stay on my shoulder. That's it. Do nothing else. Don't claw at my face. Don't chew on my hair, and don't try to crawl under my robe!"

Shadow looked at him and blinked twice. "Mrowr!" She said, and batted at his nose. "Don't you ignore me. You're not the boss. I'm the boss. And I'm talking to a cat. What am I doing?" He asked Shadow, before he could stop himself. Shadow purred in response.

Snape rolled his eyes and sighed and set the cat back on his shoulder. "A very long day." He muttered as he swept back into the classroom.