Purging
Black Beyond
black_beyond@hotmail.com
Harry-chan no neko!
-----
^_______________^
And as for a certain e-mail request I received--- your wish is granted! Harry-chan
no neko, at your service! ^_^!!
AS for someone's continued nagging about Severus/Usagi.... I might write a later
fic with this pairing, but I doubt I'll match Usagi with anyone as a permenant
thing. She has to go home sometime, doesn't she? And I don't think Dumbledore
would love me very much for stealing his Potions Master...
But don't loose faith in me, my romantics! I will keep you quite satisified,
I think...
^_^
Who can resist a Harry-chan no neko, anyway? ;)
Usagi snorted. "After that, I appeared here. And that stupid youma attacked me.
Et cetera. But that's okay. What does that have to do with what I saw in the
Mirror of Treah?"
Ron nodded. "That would be the Sixty-four thousand dollar question, yeah."
Usagi glared at him and Ron suddenly found himself on his heads, holding his
head while a sharp, twisting agony seared through his temples, filling his
vision with a blistering white nothing while images danced through his head.
Unconsciously he tried to hold onto them out of pure instinct.
--
"Mommy, why doesn't Saruko come back to school? I miss her!" He was a cheerful,
confused ten year old girl, very naïve and sweet, looking up at a woman who had
the kind smile he associated with his mother. He saw the tears behind it, but the girl he was didn't.
"Oh, Usagi-chan. Saruko will never come back to school, I'm sorry honey. You
see, since Her Majesty the-- since Beryl's army won, she has... she has been
sending people away forever. They won't come back."
Ron felt a frigid realization cut through the girl he was. "Is the bad lady the
teachers and the newsmen talking about *killing* people, Mommy?"
--
He saw himself as a beautiful woman, with long silver hair and uncompromising
gray eyes looking anxiously into a mirror. He felt the woman-- himself-- jump
back as his image wavered in a violet, swirling mass. As it shifted, he found
himself looking at the elegant frame and with a shock realized it was the
mirror of Treah he was looking at, as Usagi. He felt dizzy, like something was
itching his mind.
His eyes went back to the mirror and he jumped again, startled to find that he
was staring into the eyes of a saturnine, regal woman who looked very much like Usagi.
"Mommy?" He heard himself ask in a language he did not know.
"Silly little daughter.... you should know that a single image cannot show what
you are. On your dreams I showed you what the Mirror of Treah will never be
powerful enough to show."
An image of a universe full of stars of all shapes and colors, as magnificent as
he would never see, flitted briefly into his head, a memory of a memory, lasting
only long enough for him to notice that at the very center glowed the only white
star.
Horror that he did not understand dawned. And then the thoughts that were
Usagi's came with it.
He-- she-- was everything.
"Mother, I am not... I can not... this is too... but..." Usagi tried to say so
many things, but the moment she started each one, she knew it was a lie.
--
He was sitting at a table, long streamers of golden hair polling out across the
counter. He felt miserable, and like a slab of quivering antelope in front of a
pissed off lioness. Two men were approaching him from behind, he knew, facing
two girls that were his friends that he did not know.
They took seats without asking and Ron added his own annoyance to Usagi's.
"What do you want *now*, Mamoru-san?" He asked, when what he really wanted to do
was test the strength of his delicate fist against the man with the dark hair's
face. A smirk was what he got in reply, and was deeply disturbed when his---
her?-- stomach did flip-flops and he fought down a sigh. He was even more
perturbed to find that he was concentrated very hard on the beauty of the man's
blue eyes.
"To prove to Motoki it was you at the hospital." Mamoru replied casually. Images
of a wound flashed though Ron's mind, and his wariness grew. But getting upset
would blow their carefully placed cover.
He really was confused.
"Great. Listen to me. Go away." He mumbled into the table, wishing desperately
to kiss Mamoru's lips and kill him all at the same time.
"Come on, Odango Atama."
"What. Did. You. Call. Me?" He sat up, covering a blush with a glare and hoping
his red cheeks were mistaken for anger.
"Odango Atama. Because of your hair." He grinned.
--
He was in the forest, surrounded by dark trees and shadows that lurked but
dared not venture near, and he had all of five seconds before it hit.
Ten thousand million thoughts and emotions and sensations from seven billion
different people flying through his mind. He caught snips here and there, some
disgusting, some strange, some beautiful.
He screamed inside his head, because Usagi did not scream. She stood in silent
contemplation, patiently scanning through the havoc. But Ron couldn't take it.
He screamed again and again and thought he was going to die from the overload.
--
And then he was back, in his own quiet mind and a body he could control. After
he'd regained his breath, a look around told him that Harry and Hermione were in
equally rough states, and that Usagi was posed thoughtfully, chewing on her
bottom lip.
"You know, I really hate that spell. I don't think I'll use it again.... not
enough control over what the person sees. I just intended to show you what I
saw, but no... it skips around... and doesn't even show you the entire memory.
Stupid Spell-caster... can't you make your spells perfect?" She sighed. "Okay.
Anyway-- basically what you see in the mirror is what you are... and what you
cannot be...."
Hermione frowned. "So why don't you want us to look?"
But Harry had figured it out. "Because it shows death. Our deaths. You don't
want us to see our deaths."
Ron spoke before Usagi could answer. "What was that-- thing--- things-- that we
saw? Just before we came back? It was insane."
Usagi laughed harshly. "Welcome to my world, Ronald Weasley." She smiled a bit
too brightly. "Indeed. Welcome to the world that began the moment Metalia's
lifeblood ran over my hands and the copper-sweet drops fell into my mouth and
the time streams exploded in my head as her final curse." She closed her eyes.
"You want to be so powerful, Eternia? You want to be the beautiful, wise queen
your mother supposedly was? Fine. Have her wisdom. She took it by choice and now
I thrust it upon you so you have another reason to curse my name." Usagi's
mimicking, furious hiss fell heavy on their ears.
"She gave it to me as she died, so it's a powerful spell. At that moment, she
probably could have had just about anything. She was a very powerful sorceress
and the release of all her magick granted her enough power to take even me with
her. But you know what? She was a true, malicious, and brilliant woman to the
end. Instead I have every thought of every single soul in my head, every
possible outcome of any situation of any type of any kind, and every step I
take there is an explosion in my head of the million things that have already
happened in that spot. I could walk a million years and still not see everything
in my head. It's my worst curse yet."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "You see everything?" It was frightening. He'd led a
close life.
Usagi laughed. "Yeah. And until recently the curse covered not being able to
talk about it or share what I saw. Not even to warn people. But I managed, at
least, to break that geis. I think she added it after the initial curse, as a
nasty afterthought. So it was easier to break, although, since I only have
about thirty accumulated years of experience, it was kind of hard. But the part
where she left a rift in the lining of the communication charm was rather
obvious..." Her voice lowered and her eyes glazed over and she began to speak
more to herself than to her three new charges.
"She likes to talk." Hermione noted.
"Probably to keep herself sane." Ron replied. "Did you feel your head start to
pound? And it was only for half a second. If she was see everything everyone
thinks... god, I'd hate to be her at a kinky sex convention."
Even Hermione smiled a little. "Ron! That's not polite. She's a Queen."
"So? She's our age, too. Shove off." Ron defended himself.
Harry looked over at Usagi. She was hugging herself tightly, her lips moving
silently as she argued some moot point to herself, Her gray eyes almost black
in her reverie. He might have been worried except some part of him knew that
this strange lady wouldn't let anyone in her care die if she herself had to die
to accomplish it.
He felt a twinge of anger, which disappeared as soon as it had come. If she
had half the power that everyone acted like she had, why didn't she just kill
Voldemort and save the lot of them the trouble?
"Because I am not from this universe and it could possibly do more harm than
good, Harry Potter. I haven't the patience yet to sort out these blasted
thoughts, but I know better. I won't do it. It's not my destiny."
It took him a moment to realize that Ron and Hermione hadn't heard; the voice
had been inside his head.
"Don't look so surprised, Harry. Surely you know that impossible was not
included in my vocabulary lessons as a Lunarian blueblood." There it was, that
tone of self-mocking again. He was beginning to wonder, very quietly, if the
girl had problems.
She apparently hadn't caught the thought. Or at least, she didn't yell at him.
"I'm weak, am I?" Hermione shouted at Ron. Harry turned and from behind him he
felt Usagi stir. "Well, Mr. Strong and Bastardly, let's see you wrack up the
guts to do this!"
Hermione stomped over to the mirror and looked directly into it. What Harry
found rather fascinating before his attention was drawn in completely by the
play of emotions on Hermione's face was the remark that Usagi didn't lift a
finger to stop Hermione, not even after the warning.
Hermione's face went from a look of shocked, startled realization to mute
disbelief. Slowly it became one of horror, and then, even more slowly, of
sullen-- and perhaps satisfactory?-- acceptance.
"I suppose I've always known." She whispered shakily, after several moments of
pregnant silence.
Usagi smiled warmly. "You should always trust her, Harry. And never betray her
yourself. She's brave."
Harry wanted to ask what his friend had seen, but when Hermione walked quietly
to the corner furthest from them and slid down the wall to bury her face in her
knees, sitting in quiet silence, he knew better than to press the subject.
Ron, however, persisted. Opening his mouth to interrogate Hermione, he was
surprised to find a soft, pale palm keeping him from speaking as it covered the
gap in his face. He gasped in indignation and the scent of sandalwood and
something very sweet and tantalizing overwhelmed him, driving him speechless as
he involuntarily lapsed into a quiet reverie.
He snapped out of it twice as quickly and glared at the petite queen, surprised
to find she was only as tall as he. How had she always seemed so much taller?
Now, she seemed almost meek, the inferno of her eyes a dull roar. She shook her
head. "No, Ron." She murmured softly, seeming almost like a normal girl. Ron
nodded, and turned away.
"If any of us were good at transfiguration, we could have chess. But..." Harry
was trying to think of a way to keep the peace in the small room, and
floundering.
Usagi smiled, and then there was a card table, with a complete wizarding chess
set. Usagi stared at it and smiled. "I don't think Professor Dumbledore will
mind very much." She added mildly. "I'm not very good at transfiguring new
magical objects yet, so I just borrowed his." Chairs appeared, four of them,
suspiciously resembling those from Trelawney's classroom. Usagi glared at one
until it had posed in front of the Mirror of Erised and then one by one, she
moved the others, two on either side of the table and one near Hermione.
Wordlessly, Harry took his seat behind the black pieces, and Ron grudgedly took
the white and made his first move. Usagi smiled happily jumped into her chair,
sprawling out in it comfortably. She scooted just a little closer to the mirror
and grinned, opening her hand for a black crayon to appear there. She began to
draw on the surface of the mirror, humming a child's nursery rhyme under her
breath.
The two boys shot her strange looks as Ron systematically began to beat Harry.
It was a short game, with Ron massacring Harry. As usual. As Harry set up the
gentle, polite pieces up for another game, Ron's eyes went to Usagi, still
happily marking away on the mirror of Erised and then to Hermione, who was
either asleep or seriously lost in thought.
"We're locked in with the two most beautiful girls in Hogwarts and we're playing
CHESS." He grumbled, moving his pawn.
"That's because Snape could bash in here any time, and because Hermione doesn't
like either of us that way, and because if we tried anything with Usagi, Snape
would probably kill us if she didn't." Harry reasoned, and tried to block the
pawn with one of his own.
Ron moved his bishop carefully. "Eh. It'd be worth it."
His friend shook his head sympathetically in reply. "Not for what Snape could do
to us, mate, but for what Usagi might. She doesn't have to worry about the
Ministry or Dumbledore, remember?"
"True, that." Ron nodded and moved his bishop again. "Checkmate."
Harry cursed. "Three moves, this time?" He shook his head.
Ron smirked smugly. "Yup."
Nine games later with Ron winning 11-0, Hermione finally stirred, but only to
climb into her chair, and then to scoot it so that she could see what Usagi
was drawing. A slight smile lit up her eyes and Usagi made a crayon for her,
too. Soon both of them were silently doodling away.
After two more games, each time Ron killing off Harry's King faster than the
last until the polite old gentlemen threw down his crown and told Harry in no
uncertain terms that he was horrible at chess.
Harry grinned. "And I bet you're bad at Quidditch."
Ron's eyes traveled over to the two girls, and he grimaced. "What the hell are
they drawing that's so entertaining?"
"Don't ask." Harry advised wisely, but didn't stop Ron when he got up and moved
closer. In fact, he followed.
So when he and Ron were lifted into the air and suddenly found the room a lot
bigger than it had been before, Harry really couldn't say he was that surprised.
But he did get a look at the picture they were drawing-- it was of a man who
strongly resembled Snape and another who strongly resembled Black holding hands
beside a tree.
If it hadn't had been so utterly repulsive to his mind, Harry might have found
it funny.
He opened his mouth to protest that Sirius would never hold Snape's hand, except
he said "Merrrow!" instead. Beside him he could hear Ron spitting and yowling
and looked down at himself.
He tried to ask, "Where did all this fur come from?" but it came out as,
"Merrrrrrrroooww?"
Met with Usagi's grinning gray eyes, he felt the dawning certainly that he was,
in fact, screwed.
"Ooooooh. See the pretty kitty cats, Hermione? Aren't they so cuuuutttteeee?"
Ron meowed in desperation as Hermione grabbed him by the scruff of his orange
neck, smirking.
------
^_______^ NEKO NO KAWAII! *cuddles Harry the Kitten and Ron the Kitten* Mine! MINE!
Black Beyond
black_beyond@hotmail.com
Harry-chan no neko!
-----
^_______________^
And as for a certain e-mail request I received--- your wish is granted! Harry-chan
no neko, at your service! ^_^!!
AS for someone's continued nagging about Severus/Usagi.... I might write a later
fic with this pairing, but I doubt I'll match Usagi with anyone as a permenant
thing. She has to go home sometime, doesn't she? And I don't think Dumbledore
would love me very much for stealing his Potions Master...
But don't loose faith in me, my romantics! I will keep you quite satisified,
I think...
^_^
Who can resist a Harry-chan no neko, anyway? ;)
Usagi snorted. "After that, I appeared here. And that stupid youma attacked me.
Et cetera. But that's okay. What does that have to do with what I saw in the
Mirror of Treah?"
Ron nodded. "That would be the Sixty-four thousand dollar question, yeah."
Usagi glared at him and Ron suddenly found himself on his heads, holding his
head while a sharp, twisting agony seared through his temples, filling his
vision with a blistering white nothing while images danced through his head.
Unconsciously he tried to hold onto them out of pure instinct.
--
"Mommy, why doesn't Saruko come back to school? I miss her!" He was a cheerful,
confused ten year old girl, very naïve and sweet, looking up at a woman who had
the kind smile he associated with his mother. He saw the tears behind it, but the girl he was didn't.
"Oh, Usagi-chan. Saruko will never come back to school, I'm sorry honey. You
see, since Her Majesty the-- since Beryl's army won, she has... she has been
sending people away forever. They won't come back."
Ron felt a frigid realization cut through the girl he was. "Is the bad lady the
teachers and the newsmen talking about *killing* people, Mommy?"
--
He saw himself as a beautiful woman, with long silver hair and uncompromising
gray eyes looking anxiously into a mirror. He felt the woman-- himself-- jump
back as his image wavered in a violet, swirling mass. As it shifted, he found
himself looking at the elegant frame and with a shock realized it was the
mirror of Treah he was looking at, as Usagi. He felt dizzy, like something was
itching his mind.
His eyes went back to the mirror and he jumped again, startled to find that he
was staring into the eyes of a saturnine, regal woman who looked very much like Usagi.
"Mommy?" He heard himself ask in a language he did not know.
"Silly little daughter.... you should know that a single image cannot show what
you are. On your dreams I showed you what the Mirror of Treah will never be
powerful enough to show."
An image of a universe full of stars of all shapes and colors, as magnificent as
he would never see, flitted briefly into his head, a memory of a memory, lasting
only long enough for him to notice that at the very center glowed the only white
star.
Horror that he did not understand dawned. And then the thoughts that were
Usagi's came with it.
He-- she-- was everything.
"Mother, I am not... I can not... this is too... but..." Usagi tried to say so
many things, but the moment she started each one, she knew it was a lie.
--
He was sitting at a table, long streamers of golden hair polling out across the
counter. He felt miserable, and like a slab of quivering antelope in front of a
pissed off lioness. Two men were approaching him from behind, he knew, facing
two girls that were his friends that he did not know.
They took seats without asking and Ron added his own annoyance to Usagi's.
"What do you want *now*, Mamoru-san?" He asked, when what he really wanted to do
was test the strength of his delicate fist against the man with the dark hair's
face. A smirk was what he got in reply, and was deeply disturbed when his---
her?-- stomach did flip-flops and he fought down a sigh. He was even more
perturbed to find that he was concentrated very hard on the beauty of the man's
blue eyes.
"To prove to Motoki it was you at the hospital." Mamoru replied casually. Images
of a wound flashed though Ron's mind, and his wariness grew. But getting upset
would blow their carefully placed cover.
He really was confused.
"Great. Listen to me. Go away." He mumbled into the table, wishing desperately
to kiss Mamoru's lips and kill him all at the same time.
"Come on, Odango Atama."
"What. Did. You. Call. Me?" He sat up, covering a blush with a glare and hoping
his red cheeks were mistaken for anger.
"Odango Atama. Because of your hair." He grinned.
--
He was in the forest, surrounded by dark trees and shadows that lurked but
dared not venture near, and he had all of five seconds before it hit.
Ten thousand million thoughts and emotions and sensations from seven billion
different people flying through his mind. He caught snips here and there, some
disgusting, some strange, some beautiful.
He screamed inside his head, because Usagi did not scream. She stood in silent
contemplation, patiently scanning through the havoc. But Ron couldn't take it.
He screamed again and again and thought he was going to die from the overload.
--
And then he was back, in his own quiet mind and a body he could control. After
he'd regained his breath, a look around told him that Harry and Hermione were in
equally rough states, and that Usagi was posed thoughtfully, chewing on her
bottom lip.
"You know, I really hate that spell. I don't think I'll use it again.... not
enough control over what the person sees. I just intended to show you what I
saw, but no... it skips around... and doesn't even show you the entire memory.
Stupid Spell-caster... can't you make your spells perfect?" She sighed. "Okay.
Anyway-- basically what you see in the mirror is what you are... and what you
cannot be...."
Hermione frowned. "So why don't you want us to look?"
But Harry had figured it out. "Because it shows death. Our deaths. You don't
want us to see our deaths."
Ron spoke before Usagi could answer. "What was that-- thing--- things-- that we
saw? Just before we came back? It was insane."
Usagi laughed harshly. "Welcome to my world, Ronald Weasley." She smiled a bit
too brightly. "Indeed. Welcome to the world that began the moment Metalia's
lifeblood ran over my hands and the copper-sweet drops fell into my mouth and
the time streams exploded in my head as her final curse." She closed her eyes.
"You want to be so powerful, Eternia? You want to be the beautiful, wise queen
your mother supposedly was? Fine. Have her wisdom. She took it by choice and now
I thrust it upon you so you have another reason to curse my name." Usagi's
mimicking, furious hiss fell heavy on their ears.
"She gave it to me as she died, so it's a powerful spell. At that moment, she
probably could have had just about anything. She was a very powerful sorceress
and the release of all her magick granted her enough power to take even me with
her. But you know what? She was a true, malicious, and brilliant woman to the
end. Instead I have every thought of every single soul in my head, every
possible outcome of any situation of any type of any kind, and every step I
take there is an explosion in my head of the million things that have already
happened in that spot. I could walk a million years and still not see everything
in my head. It's my worst curse yet."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "You see everything?" It was frightening. He'd led a
close life.
Usagi laughed. "Yeah. And until recently the curse covered not being able to
talk about it or share what I saw. Not even to warn people. But I managed, at
least, to break that geis. I think she added it after the initial curse, as a
nasty afterthought. So it was easier to break, although, since I only have
about thirty accumulated years of experience, it was kind of hard. But the part
where she left a rift in the lining of the communication charm was rather
obvious..." Her voice lowered and her eyes glazed over and she began to speak
more to herself than to her three new charges.
"She likes to talk." Hermione noted.
"Probably to keep herself sane." Ron replied. "Did you feel your head start to
pound? And it was only for half a second. If she was see everything everyone
thinks... god, I'd hate to be her at a kinky sex convention."
Even Hermione smiled a little. "Ron! That's not polite. She's a Queen."
"So? She's our age, too. Shove off." Ron defended himself.
Harry looked over at Usagi. She was hugging herself tightly, her lips moving
silently as she argued some moot point to herself, Her gray eyes almost black
in her reverie. He might have been worried except some part of him knew that
this strange lady wouldn't let anyone in her care die if she herself had to die
to accomplish it.
He felt a twinge of anger, which disappeared as soon as it had come. If she
had half the power that everyone acted like she had, why didn't she just kill
Voldemort and save the lot of them the trouble?
"Because I am not from this universe and it could possibly do more harm than
good, Harry Potter. I haven't the patience yet to sort out these blasted
thoughts, but I know better. I won't do it. It's not my destiny."
It took him a moment to realize that Ron and Hermione hadn't heard; the voice
had been inside his head.
"Don't look so surprised, Harry. Surely you know that impossible was not
included in my vocabulary lessons as a Lunarian blueblood." There it was, that
tone of self-mocking again. He was beginning to wonder, very quietly, if the
girl had problems.
She apparently hadn't caught the thought. Or at least, she didn't yell at him.
"I'm weak, am I?" Hermione shouted at Ron. Harry turned and from behind him he
felt Usagi stir. "Well, Mr. Strong and Bastardly, let's see you wrack up the
guts to do this!"
Hermione stomped over to the mirror and looked directly into it. What Harry
found rather fascinating before his attention was drawn in completely by the
play of emotions on Hermione's face was the remark that Usagi didn't lift a
finger to stop Hermione, not even after the warning.
Hermione's face went from a look of shocked, startled realization to mute
disbelief. Slowly it became one of horror, and then, even more slowly, of
sullen-- and perhaps satisfactory?-- acceptance.
"I suppose I've always known." She whispered shakily, after several moments of
pregnant silence.
Usagi smiled warmly. "You should always trust her, Harry. And never betray her
yourself. She's brave."
Harry wanted to ask what his friend had seen, but when Hermione walked quietly
to the corner furthest from them and slid down the wall to bury her face in her
knees, sitting in quiet silence, he knew better than to press the subject.
Ron, however, persisted. Opening his mouth to interrogate Hermione, he was
surprised to find a soft, pale palm keeping him from speaking as it covered the
gap in his face. He gasped in indignation and the scent of sandalwood and
something very sweet and tantalizing overwhelmed him, driving him speechless as
he involuntarily lapsed into a quiet reverie.
He snapped out of it twice as quickly and glared at the petite queen, surprised
to find she was only as tall as he. How had she always seemed so much taller?
Now, she seemed almost meek, the inferno of her eyes a dull roar. She shook her
head. "No, Ron." She murmured softly, seeming almost like a normal girl. Ron
nodded, and turned away.
"If any of us were good at transfiguration, we could have chess. But..." Harry
was trying to think of a way to keep the peace in the small room, and
floundering.
Usagi smiled, and then there was a card table, with a complete wizarding chess
set. Usagi stared at it and smiled. "I don't think Professor Dumbledore will
mind very much." She added mildly. "I'm not very good at transfiguring new
magical objects yet, so I just borrowed his." Chairs appeared, four of them,
suspiciously resembling those from Trelawney's classroom. Usagi glared at one
until it had posed in front of the Mirror of Erised and then one by one, she
moved the others, two on either side of the table and one near Hermione.
Wordlessly, Harry took his seat behind the black pieces, and Ron grudgedly took
the white and made his first move. Usagi smiled happily jumped into her chair,
sprawling out in it comfortably. She scooted just a little closer to the mirror
and grinned, opening her hand for a black crayon to appear there. She began to
draw on the surface of the mirror, humming a child's nursery rhyme under her
breath.
The two boys shot her strange looks as Ron systematically began to beat Harry.
It was a short game, with Ron massacring Harry. As usual. As Harry set up the
gentle, polite pieces up for another game, Ron's eyes went to Usagi, still
happily marking away on the mirror of Erised and then to Hermione, who was
either asleep or seriously lost in thought.
"We're locked in with the two most beautiful girls in Hogwarts and we're playing
CHESS." He grumbled, moving his pawn.
"That's because Snape could bash in here any time, and because Hermione doesn't
like either of us that way, and because if we tried anything with Usagi, Snape
would probably kill us if she didn't." Harry reasoned, and tried to block the
pawn with one of his own.
Ron moved his bishop carefully. "Eh. It'd be worth it."
His friend shook his head sympathetically in reply. "Not for what Snape could do
to us, mate, but for what Usagi might. She doesn't have to worry about the
Ministry or Dumbledore, remember?"
"True, that." Ron nodded and moved his bishop again. "Checkmate."
Harry cursed. "Three moves, this time?" He shook his head.
Ron smirked smugly. "Yup."
Nine games later with Ron winning 11-0, Hermione finally stirred, but only to
climb into her chair, and then to scoot it so that she could see what Usagi
was drawing. A slight smile lit up her eyes and Usagi made a crayon for her,
too. Soon both of them were silently doodling away.
After two more games, each time Ron killing off Harry's King faster than the
last until the polite old gentlemen threw down his crown and told Harry in no
uncertain terms that he was horrible at chess.
Harry grinned. "And I bet you're bad at Quidditch."
Ron's eyes traveled over to the two girls, and he grimaced. "What the hell are
they drawing that's so entertaining?"
"Don't ask." Harry advised wisely, but didn't stop Ron when he got up and moved
closer. In fact, he followed.
So when he and Ron were lifted into the air and suddenly found the room a lot
bigger than it had been before, Harry really couldn't say he was that surprised.
But he did get a look at the picture they were drawing-- it was of a man who
strongly resembled Snape and another who strongly resembled Black holding hands
beside a tree.
If it hadn't had been so utterly repulsive to his mind, Harry might have found
it funny.
He opened his mouth to protest that Sirius would never hold Snape's hand, except
he said "Merrrow!" instead. Beside him he could hear Ron spitting and yowling
and looked down at himself.
He tried to ask, "Where did all this fur come from?" but it came out as,
"Merrrrrrrroooww?"
Met with Usagi's grinning gray eyes, he felt the dawning certainly that he was,
in fact, screwed.
"Ooooooh. See the pretty kitty cats, Hermione? Aren't they so cuuuutttteeee?"
Ron meowed in desperation as Hermione grabbed him by the scruff of his orange
neck, smirking.
------
^_______^ NEKO NO KAWAII! *cuddles Harry the Kitten and Ron the Kitten* Mine! MINE!