Disclaimer: Don't, own, Don't own, Don't own, Don't sue. Thank you.
Authors note: In case your wondering Remus never told Sirius about Toren because he assumed he was dead and didn't want to cause Sirius any more grief. Also when Harry left in the last chapter to get to bed he absentmindedly took Nemo with him. All right I'm done rambling, on with the story.
Chapter 9: Late Night Stroll or Off To A Bad Start
Unless you are happily asleep at that hour of the morning, 2:00 AM is not the best of times. It is a time given to pacing the floor in crisis or grief. Sounds of human activity at 2:00 AM usually mean trouble.
Selene thought of 2:00 AM as thinking time. Selene never had the knack of sleeping through the night. It was, for some reason, unnecessary. Perhaps it was the Wolf in her blood. In Selene's opinion, dawn was what you occasionally stay up as late as. Plants get up at dawn!
This 2:00 AM Selene was taking a walk in Wolf form out on the grounds of Hogwarts. So many new things had happened in the last few days, she needed the chance to organize her thoughts. Sneaking past Filch and the prefects had been laughably easy. The night was warm, the sky was spangled with stars, and just enough wispy silver clouds to decorate it. It was a perfect night for a stroll.
What she thought about, mainly, was her father. Her Papa! After her initial automatic response at the Sorting, she had begun to suspect that it might be him, but had not allowed herself to get her hopes up. When she had finally met him face to face, he was the same person she remembered. A little older, a little more tired, but the same Papa. She had always felt as though something where missing, and now it was full. The wolf in her wanted to run and howl in joy. Sitting down on a grassy knoll and tilting her head up to gaze at the stars, she gave thanks to whoever was responsible for giving Toren and her their fathers back.
A strange smell reached her on the breeze, one that caused the fur on the nape of her neck to stand on end and warning bells to go off in her head. She had never smelled anything like this before. It caused an instinctive growl to rise in her throat. Her head swung in the direction of the smell and she spotted a hut near the outskirts of the forest. She followed the sent trail around the back of the hut.
****
Draco Malfoy, posterboy for Slytherin house, stood in deep thought. His life had changed so rapidly this last summer, and it had caused Draco to grow up a bit. He no longer saw a point in annoying Potter, although it was amusing. There were just other things that required more attention. Draco had never really had to think about the future before. Joking around about Voldemort had been all in good fun when there hadn't been a snowballs chance in hell of the old fart ever coming back, but since the end of last year, Draco's father had been very insistent about him joining the death eaters. And that's where things got tricky. Because despite what people may think, Draco did not want to become a death eater!
He would die before he ever bowed to that disgusting creature.
His father always talked about how great Voldemort was or how powerful. Draco snorted. 'Yes. And that's why he was beaten by a mere infant.' He thought sarcastically. His father was pathetic, licking that thing's boots. The whole situation made Draco sick. He would never become that pathetic.
'Never!' he thought vehemently. Kicking the wood shed behind Hagrid's house in a small burst of anger.
At first the shed rattling in response seemed quite appropriate, but when the rattling started to increase Draco began to get alarmed. The door was banging insistently. As though something were violently trying to force it's way out. After a minute the rattling stopped.
Draco stood there, wand outstretched. Natural Slytherin curiosity got the better of him, and although he knew he was probably gonna regret this later, he cautiously approached the door to the shed.
"Alohamora." He whispered, pointing his wand at the door.
There was a soft click as the lock was undone and the door swung slowly outward, Draco squinted into the darkness and at first saw nothing, then a shape was revealed, it was tall and looked like a human. A shaft of moonlight came through and highlighted the features as the door swung further.
Draco's eyes widened and he stumbled backwards.
'This is not real, this is not real' he chanted in his head as the figure of his father stepped out of the wood shed. Draco scrambled backwards as the apparition came towards him, smiling the trademark Malfoy smile. Draco racked his panic'd brain for what he'd learned in Defense against the Dark arts, he's already guessed it was a Bogartt, but for the life of him he couldn't remember how to get ride of one. He began to panic as his back came into contact with the side of Hagrid's hut.
'Help!' he yelled mentally, since Malfoys had far too much dignity to say such things out loud.
A large black projectile slammed into his "Fathers" chest, ricocheting off and flipping to land between him and the Bogartt. Draco saw that it was a very big wolf. And it was snarling at the bogartt. The thing stopped and looked at the wolf, it seemed to be concentrating to find the wolfs greatest fear. Slowly it reached up to grab at its head, as if in pain. With a high pitched cry it shrunk to reveal a small, and very pathetic, in Draco's opinion, creature. With a small body, spindly arms a large head and even larger eyes. It was really quite ugly.
The wolf growled in a threatening manner and the bogartt squeaked and scampered off into the forbidden forest.
The wolf turned and looked at him with its strange silver/blue eyes. Draco stiffened. Then watched in surprise as a whitish glow enveloped the creature and its form changed to that of the new girl. The one he'd met in Diagon Alley.
"You ok?" she asked. Tilting her head to study him.
Draco's mind was still fogged with adrenaline, so he heard the question without really comprehending it. Okay he pondered, am I okay
Selene waved a hand in front of his eyes. "Hello in there?"
Draco's wits snapped back like elastic, making his head smart. "What? No! I'm not okay! Do I look okay to you, woman? What kind of question is that!"
Selene blinked in a befuddled manner and cocked her head to the other side. "A pretty obvious one, considering you were just attacked. How about this: are you injured?" She enunciated the last four words slowly and clearly, as though speaking to someone who didn't understand the language.
Draco was starting to get angry, which relieved him. Anger was good. Anger was something he understood and could deal with. He drew himself up and brushed off his robes. "No, ma'am, I'm not injured. If I were injured, it would be no business of yours, in any case." He shook his head. "Freak."
Selene didn't appear to understand the word, but maybe something in the undertones of his voice must have let her know that the term was not complimentary. An angry growl rumbled from her throat, an obviously inhuman sound, and the side of her mouth lifted into a snarl. Fear slammed back into Draco, and he started back into the wall again. He had forgotten that she was the wolf.
Then Selene blinked and shook her head. She visibly took her temper, eyed it dispassionately, tied it off and amputated it. She sighed and straightened up. "I'm sorry." She said. "We obviously got off on the wrong foot. Let's start over. Hi, my name is Selene," She stuck out her hand. "Wanna be friends?"
Three impossible concepts in less that thirty seconds! Aside from the twin miracles of her not being angry with him, and apologizing to him, she had asked to be his friend in the same breath. He was so startled that he gave the offer some thought.
If another Slytherin had made the same offer, his response would have been something along the lines of "Nice try." But since she was a Gryffindor, and everyone knew that Gryffindor's didn't have a devious bone in their bodies, he had to assume that she was being serious about the offer.
"Why?" Draco asked suspiciously.
Selene blinked in non-comprehension.
"Huh? Well why not." She shrugged, looking confused. Draco glared.
"I meant, what do you really want from me?" he said. Selene tilted her head to the other side.
"I really just wanna be your friend." She said in a small voice. Draco glared harder.
"And you would require nothing from my end? I doubt it." He turned his back on her. He heard a sigh behind him.
"Would you just relax? It's friendship. As in, the quality or state of being friendly. God, you're the most irritable guy I've ever met!" She snorted and stared off into space for a moment. "What if I showed you my secret? Would that make you feel you can trust me?" she asked.
"What, that you can turn into a wolf? I saw that already, remember." Draco scoffed.
"No, I meant my other secret." She said impishly.
Draco tried hard not to be interested, but his natural Slytherin curiosity got the best of him again. Turning slightly to look over his shoulder he asked. "What other secret?"
She grinned, held her hands in front of her, then reached up and slowly pulled off the ring on her right ring finger. Draco watched in amazement as a pair of black ears appeared on the top of her head and a tail waved about in the grass.
He stared for a minute before a strong and ferocious compulsion suddenly gripped him. He reached out with both hands and rubbed the furry ears between his fingers. They were very soft. After a few minutes a strange rumbling, growling was heard. Draco pulled his hand away, afraid that he had made her angry. Only to see that her eyes were half closed and it looked like she was going to start drooling.
'Purring' he realized. Giving a smirk and watching Selene shake herself out of her stupor. She looked at him and smiled.
"There, see? So if I every do anything bad to you, you have some dirt on me. So do you trust me now?" she asked with a smile.
Draco stood up and fixed his hair and clothes. Then bowed in a very regal manner.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Draco Malfoy, and I would be delighted to be your friend." He said in a very suave voice. Sir Lancelot couldn't have pulled it off any better. When you're raised by money, you learn to be artful.
Selene giggled and bowed back. Draco smiled a real smile.
'I think that this will be interesting.' He thought. 'Friends. What a concept.'
****
Selene snuck into the girl's dorms. Everyone else was still asleep. As she moved over to the bed that she had been told was hers, she heard the door open behind her. She turned around and saw a sleepy eyed Toren standing in the doorway clutching and equally sleepy looking Skye to his chest.
"Can we sleep in here with you?" he asked in a quite voice.
Selene smiled. And nodded. Then climbed into bed and curled around her little brother as he rolled into the large bed and placed a hand on her invisible ear. She smiled tenderly down at him, as he drifted off to sleep, Skye curled up on the pillow next to his head.
'Guess he's not used to sleeping on his own. Since they were small children in the Forest, they had always slept near each other, in a bundle with their Gryffin mother. She placed her arms around him and pulled him into a protective embrace, her tail curling around him like a blanket, his other hand fisted in the fur. She purred low, so the others wouldn't hear, and drifted off to sleep.
****
Harry was nudged from his slumber by an unusual sensation: small localized impacts on the side of his head. As he came back to a groggy sort of consciousness, he became aware of an unusual sound: a soft chewing noise, coming from the direction of the impacts.
He opened his eyes carefully and aimed them in that direction. His vision was one large brownish-red blur, as per usual at this obscene hour of the morning. The abnormal thing about this vision was a new blur, this one of dull silver and black.
"Hey, mopey." Said the apparition.
Harry grimaced and shut his eyes again. He wished he could reach for his glasses, but he didn't want to move just yet. Something about the black bits of the blur in relation to the silver part had jogged his memory, and he hoped he could puzzle out the identity of the shape this way, without having to move. Hmmah. Yes, he recalled now. Selene' pet fox creature.
And it was speaking to him.
Conclusion? This was a dream.
Harry turned his head away from the dream construct and muttered, "Go 'way." As he tried to sleep again.
An emphatic rain of small projectiles, followed by an annoyed snort from the apparition had him jerking into a sitting position and reaching for his glasses.
"Would you stop that!" Harry forced out through clenched teeth. "Why are you in my bed anyway?" He continued in an angry whisper, fending off more of the small objects, which he now recognized as Bertie Botts Every-Flavor Beans.
The fox's fur fluffed out in anger.
"What am I doing here? You kidnapped me, you moron!" It yelled into Harry's face.
Harry blinked at the fox in confusion, just now noticing that he had empty chocolate frog wrappers and wizards cards scattered at the end of his bed.
"What the? You ate all my candy, didn't you? You little fur ball!" Harry yelled back grabbing Nemo by the tail and holding him up so that he could look him in the face...er muzzle.
Nemo glared at him. Harry pushed back his growing anger and gave the little creature his most intimidating frown.
"I didn't kidnap you." He said through gritted teeth. The fox scoffed at him.
"Sure. You just happened to walk off with me in your arms and didn't even notice, right?" It said sarcastically.
"It's the truth, and besides I didn't hear you complaining." Harry pointed a finger in its face. The fox tried to bite it. Harry yanked his finger away.
"I was unconscious, you four-eyed freak of nature!" It yelled, beginning to thrash angrily in Harry's hold.
Harry narrowed his eyes and began to debate whether or not Selene would notice if her pet went missing, because he was seriously tempted to start strangling the stupid thing.
"Shut up, before I hex you both. Some people are trying to sleep ya know." The groggy threat had come from the vicinity of Ron's bed.
Harry took a deep breath and looked down at the fox.
"If you promise to be quiet, I'll take you back to Selene." He offered, setting the fox down on his bed. It sat up, crossed its arms and turned its head away from him. Then sighed and muttered a resigned sounding "Fine."
Harry nodded, then got up and threw on his robes for the day and started towards the door. The fox jumped off the bed and followed at his heels.
After going down the stairs and through the common room, then up the stairs to the fifth year girl's dorms, Harry stopped and turned to the little annoyance.
"Here's the girl's rooms, Selene should be in here." He said, then turned and began to head back to his own room.
He felt something small impact with the back of his head. Harry stopped and mentally counted to ten. When that didn't help he set his sites on a higher number, like one million. Slowly he turned around and looked down at the fox who was glaring up at him.
"What?" he bit out.
Nemo gave him a look, as if he was one or two steps above Athlete's Foot in the food chain. "How am I supposed to get the door open, stupid?" It said pointing above its ears at the knob.
Harry began to grind his teeth together. He imagined different, and horribly painful, ways to murder the little creature and yet make it look like an accident. As he opened his mouth to tell the newest bane of his existence what he could do with his problem, the door opened.
"Oh Harry, it's you. I was just going to come get you." Hermione said, coming out of the girl's room. Harry turned confused eyes in her direction.
"Why?" he asked, forgetting the fox for the moment. Hermione fidgeted with her robes before looking up at him.
"Well you see, Toren is in there and I needed you to take him back to the boys dorm, he really shouldn't be sleeping in there but since their both new I guess it's ok this one time." She said, her Prefect instincts were being challenged.
Harry shrugged and followed her into the girl's dorms. It looked the same as the boy's dorms, except a little cleaner. Nemo ran ahead and jumped up onto the bed were Selene was sprawled out with Toren curled up on her chest.
Harry sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over to shake Toren awake. He blinked then looked down at where his hand rested on the mattress.
'The girls beds sure are a lot softer than ours, even if they do look the same.' He thought feeling the soft texture under his fingers. 'Almost like fur.'
A strange rumbling noise had Harry looking up at Selene, he stopped moving his hand as he tried to identify where the noise was coming from when it stopped. Harry blinked then started petting the mattress again. The noise came back. He did this several times.
Toren woke up to hear his sister purring and blinked at the guy sitting on the bed. His mind had yet to start functioning properly and by the time it did he reacted like most people do when their surprised.
He yelled and jumped off the bed, knocking Harry over and onto the floor with a loud thud. Nemo laughed and Selene sat up and scratched at one of her ears (although it looked like she was just scratching her head) stretched, yawned (reveling a set of fangs) and got out of the bed, stepping over Harry and putting on the school robe over the clothes she already had on, then stumbling out the door.
Nemo snickered and bounced off Harry's head then followed Selene down the stairs. Toren apologized repeatedly, grabbed Skye and raced after his sister.
Harry stared after them stupidly from his prone position on the floor for a minute, then shook his head. He got up and placed his hand on the mattress, felt around a little, then frowned in confusion. Shaking his head he headed out the door starting at his hand and muttering to himself. Hermione looked after him in obvious bemusement then, with a glance at her watch, she yelped and raced around the room gathering her things and sprinted out the door, which shut by itself in the wake of her departure with a soft thud.
****
Authors note: The next three chapters are already in the works. I planned to put them all out at the same time. Originally the chapter wasn't going to be this long but as I started writing, it turned into a three-part deal! I was going to wait but I haven't updated in so long I decided to just put the chapters up as they are finished. So technically the next chapter will be 'Snape's dance lesson or door slamming' fun' That one will be great. You get to meet my newest creation, the Defense against the dark arts teacher. But I won't tell you right now, it's a surprise. I just needed to have Selene and Draco meet and this is how it turned out. And in case your wondering this isn't going to be a Selene/Draco I've got someone else in mind for him. Oh and if your wondering about the interaction between Nemo and Harry I just thought it would be funny if those two didn't get along right away, they'll learn to like each other soon enough but until then it's prank city for those two. Review and let me know what ya think. Later