A/N: Sorry people, this is the last instalment. Just think yourselves lucky I've posted all five chapters in just three days! I've been running myself ragged trying to sort out the spacing and the italics and changing the documents into a format FF.net will accept. But thankyou to everyone who reviewed so far, and for all you people who will (hopefully) review once it's finished. Lady Godiva and McCallM.Daneils especially, you're the only people who've posted more than once so far, so I count you two as my devoted fans. :-) Thankyou. Enjoy this, the last - and longest - chapter, because there's no more where this came from.
Disclaimer: sigh Not mine. I own the Lucados and Bagheera. And all the passers-by near the end, but they're anonymous so it doesn't matter.
Ginny woke up in a better mood than she was in the day before. At least, she was in a good mood until a huge hand dragged its way along her neck and down her back. She sprang up, hissing indignantly, to see Max Lucado crouching next to her, wearing a cheesy grin.
"Guess what, Ginger? You get to go to the V-E-T today and get your S-H-O-T-S!"
"Honey, why are you spelling things to the cat?" Melody called from another room.
"Habit, I guess. You say the word ve -- I mean, V-E-T, and they go berserk. I went through the same thing with my dog Barney and his B-A-T-H."
"You're still spelling things. The cats don't care about the word 'bath'. Cats don't have baths, they clean themselves."
Thank Merlin for that.
"Well, I have to spell the V-E-T, otherwise they get a bit freaked out."
Wait, the vet? I have to go the vet?
Ginny dashed from the room, which she realised on her way out was the living room. She had fallen asleep the night before on the rug in front of the empty fireplace.
"Why did she freak out?" she heard Max ask. "I didn't actually say the word."
"Maybe she already associates the spelling with the place, so she hates it. Maybe she can spell. She's a very smart cat, you know."
You bet your dragon-skin gloves I'm a smart cat. Smart enough to know that going to the vet is not a good thing. I go to the doctor, not the vet. Anyhow, I don't need cat-shots. I already got all my people-shots.
Ginny slinked up the stairs quietly, trying to find someplace to hide.
Please come and find me soon, Draco, she thought miserably. I miss you. I want to be human again.
Finding a bedroom with a bed against the window, she leapt up from floor to bed, from bed to windowsill, and sat there, staring mournfully out at the street. It was a fairly nice street, with trees circled by miniature fences, again like Lady and the Tramp. She remembered it quite clearly, unlike most Muggles, who could only remember snatches of it from their early childhood.
"A fence around every tree..." she said sadly. She heard her pathetic mew once again, and frankly, she was starting to get sick of it. It had been fun being a cat at first, until her idiot boyfriend gave her away, and even then it was still a novelty. But now it was just not fun. It was downright frustrating.
She'd been through a lot worse than animal transformation, she'd get through this.
As she stared through the double-glazed window with the blue frame, she watched people on the street. A family with a buggy wandered back to their house across the road. A young couple strolled happily into a nearby park. A kid walking a dog ran by laughing. A group of people holding a road map were knocking on the door of a house next-door-but-one.
Ginny took a second look at that group of people.
It comprised of four; three guys and a girl. They all had thick black coats on, with hoods raised over their heads in the light drizzle that was now interrupting the cool breezy morning. One boy didn't have his hood up, but wore a dark hat instead, shaped like one of those detective hats with the dent in the top. The front boy, the tallest of them all, rapped sharply on the door, almost impatiently. The girl drooped as though tired, and one of the other boys was tossing a stone from one hand to the other while talking to the third boy, who looked alert and anxious.
Ginny peered hard at these people. She was sure she recognised that throwing and catching, the way the boy's hands deftly tossed the smooth pebble from one hand to the other, catching it with lightning-fast reflexes.
She couldn't see a single face due to the hoods and the angle they were all standing at, but she could see the shoes of the boy with the pebble; Muggle trainers that lit up with he took a step.
"Harry!" she yelled excitedly.
The group was turned down by the house they were currently asking at, and they proceeded to the one next-door. In a matter of minutes they would be at this house. As the four of them turned to approach the next house, one of the boys lowered his hood, staring around worriedly. His hair was pale blond, tousled from the hood and from the number of times she saw him run his hands through it before he put his hood back up.
"Draco!" she shouted. "Ron, Hermione! Oh, at last!"
She sprang from the windowsill onto the bed, and down to the floor, and began racing for the door of the bedroom.
Wait. She stopped abruptly. They'll not be at this house for another minute or so. If I go down now, I'm likely to be taken to the vet, and then Draco will probably never find me. I've got to wait until they're here.
She returned to the windowsill, watching her brother, boyfriend and two best friends finish at the next house, and agitatingly slowly approach her house. As they walked up the garden path, Ginny made her move. She sprang down and shot out of the door and down the stairs like a fiery rocket.
"There you are!" Max Lucado exclaimed, picking her up and bundling her into a bright-red plastic cat-carrier, the same one that had been used to carry her before. "Ok honey, you get Baggie in the car, I'll get Ginger."
Ginny yeowled in frustration. They were right here! They were coming to take her home! Why was this stupid man doing this to her?
The doorbell rang as Melody approached the door, carrying Bagheera in a similar carrier, and she answered it in surprise.
"Can I help you?" she asked, her voice as melodious as her name.
"Hi, do you have cats?"
Melody blinked at him for a moment, trying to work out if this was some sort of survey, and if the man at her door had actually noticed the cat-carrier in her hand yet.
"...Yes, we do. Two of them. Why?"
"Are you sure they're your cats?" Ron asked suspiciously.
"Ron, don't be so rude." Hermione pushed him to the side and spoke to Melody. "Sorry. My friend has lost his cat, and we were told that a family in this area had adopted her."
"Oh. Well, I guess that could be us, we adopted a new cat from the pet-shelter just yesterday." She put down Bagheera's carrier behind the door, next to the coat-stand, and motioned for the visitors to come in. "What does the cat look like?"
"Red. Well, actually ginger. All over," Draco answered. Ginny meowled from her carrier, which was swinging slightly in Max's hand. It was very disconcerting, and she was beginning to feel nauseous.
He set her down and opened the clasp on the carrier. Ginny shot out and leapt up to Draco, who knelt in time to catch her.
"Ginny?" he said cautiously, standing up with her in his arms, as she clung to his cloak with her claws.
"Yes you idiot! It's me! I am so going to kill you once you change me back!"
"I think it's her," he told the others hopefully.
"She doesn't seem to like you," Max said uncertainly. "Are you sure this is your cat?"
"Where did you pick her up from?" Ron asked.
"The pet shelter in town," Melody replied.
"That's where I dropped her off," Draco said with a smile.
"Wait, you dropped her off? I thought you said you lost her?" Max looked suddenly angry. "You can't abandon a cat then claim it back on a whim!"
"No, you don't understand," Draco babbled quickly. "I didn't know it was her. She doesn't usually ... look like this."
"Well what does she usually look like?" Max challenged.
Hermione stepped around Draco, motioning for him to be quiet. "If I might act on a hunch, Mr...?"
"Lucado."
"Mr Lucado. Do the words 'draco dormiens nunquam titillandus' mean anything to you?"
He thought for a moment, then spoke. "Yes, that was the motto of my old school." Realisation suddenly dawned on him. "Honey," he said to Melody, "They're wizards! Hogwarts graduates!"
"Yes, we are wizards," Hermione confirmed with a smile. "I guessed from your clothes," she added. "Now, my sister-in-law's boyfriend," she said, pointing to Draco, "woke up yesterday morning to find that his girlfriend was a cat. He didn't recognise her in this form, so he took her to the pet shelter, which I believe is where you adopted this cat."
Max looked thoughtful, yet still a little suspicious. "Prove it."
"Um." Draco looked at the cat in his arms. "Hey Gin, meow if your name is Ginny."
Ginny obliged, if only to prove that she wasn't a cat. She meowed.
"And if you're actually a person, not a cat."
Ginny meowed again.
"That could be a coincidence," said a voice from the hall. One of the triplets stood there, holding a tumbler of juice. "I don't want Ginger to go, she's not a person, she's a cat." His voice was plaintive and pleading, and it almost broke Ginny's heart to have to prove him wrong.
But she had to. She squirmed, and squirmed again when Draco didn't let her go. He put her down, and when she trotted off in the direction of the kitchen, the little boy followed her.
"She's looking at the fridge," he called through to the group of adults who stood in the hall, all confused.
"Do you have letter magents on your fridge, Mr Lucado?" Harry asked. It was the first thing he'd said since the door opened.
They all headed for the kitchen. Harry considerately closed the door behind them. Bagheera was left scratching at the inside of his cat-carrier.
In the kitchen, Ginny was jumping up at the fridge. Harry went over to the fridge and pulled off handfuls of the letters, laying them on the floor next to the frantic cat.
"Point them out, Ginny," he said softly.
Ginny pointed to an 'I' with her paw. Harry picked it up and stuck it to the left of the fridge door. Ginny pointed to an 'A'. Then an 'M'. They continued in this way until a message had been spelled out on the clean white door.
'I am not a cat. I want to be me.'
She had gone for the shortest message she could think of with the shortest words, so that she could get to being human faster.
"Well," Melody said with an accepting tone of voice, "I think that settles it."
"Can I change her back now?" Draco pleaded.
Max gestured him forward. Ron and Hermione joined him in pointing their wands at the cat swishing her tail impatiently on the kitchen floor, and said the spell that would revert her to her previous form.
In a flash of light, Ginny felt her body changing, becoming longer, taller, heavier and much less agile. Her skin felt smooth again, her nose no longer twitched, and she stood upright once more.
Harry was ready with his cloak, which she grabbed the moment the light vanished and she was able to move properly. Everyone had averted their eyes but Draco, while she wrapped it around herself and fastened the buttons. Melody had her hand over her son's eyes. The moment she was fully decent with no possibility of the cloak popping open, she lunged at Draco.
He braced for the attack he was clearly expecting, and received a battery of blows around his head from Ginny's clenched fists. They were only light blows, though, which bounced off his head and messed up his hair. The only thing bruised was his dignity as he cringed in the onslaught of his angry girlfriend. When she stopped he was still hiding behind raised arms.
She stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for him to lower them. When he didn't, she grabbed his hands and pulled them down herself. His surprised face turned to her and she planted a kiss on it.
"Thankyou," she said. Inwardly she rejoiced at having an actual voice again.
"Ginny, I'm -"
"Don't apologise! I'm mad at you." She turned to Hermione and hugged her fiercely. "Thankyou! I'm guessing you found me."
"Draco helped."
"Don't side with him!" Ginny told her, frowning. Hermione smiled. She hugged Ron next, for the effort he'd spent knocking on many doors, and for all the yelling he must have already subjected Draco to, which she was grateful for. Then she turned to Harry. "And thankyou for helping with the magnets." She hugged him closely. He kissed her cheek and she smiled.
She looked down at herself and did a quick twirl.
"I'm human again!" she crowed happily. "Oh, and you two," she remembered, turning to Mr and Mrs Lucado, who were standing watching their reunion with smiles on their faces. "Thankyou for putting up with me."
"No problem, Ginny," Melody said. "We got your name quite close, really, didn't we?"
"What was her name?" Ron asked.
"Ginger," said the little boy. Ginny saw from his button-badge that he was Rupert. He looked very sad. "You were really a girl?"
"I am. That's why I wouldn't eat the cat-food. I don't think there's ever been a vegetarian cat before," she wondered out loud. "I'm going to miss you kids," she said, and it was mostly the truth. They were all quite sweet when they weren't trying to pick her up, and from her current perspective they were adorable. "Oh, and by the way, you were way off when you named Bagheera. He says his real name is Samson."
"Oh," said Melody, looking mildly surprised. "Cats talk?"
"Yep. You said yourself I was a chatterbox."
Draco smirked.
"Don't smirk at me! You no longer have the priviledge to laugh at me, Draco Malfoy!" she snapped, not looking at him.
"Oh, don't be mad, Gin. I'm really sorry! I honestly didn't recognise you, and I'm so, so, so sorry that I gave you away, and I'll never do it again, I promise." He stepped up behind her. Ginny glanced over her shoulder at him, and saw his earnest face surrounded by tousled blond hair.
She made a face. She frowned at herself. Then she stomped her foot in annoyance, turned round and kissed him. He was still as soft and sweet with her as ever. She really had missed him.
Hermione's voice broke them apart. "I hate to be a spoilsport, but there's a kid in the room."
"Sorry," Ginny said. Rupert was giggling behind his hand. Draco was smiling as he put his hand through Ginny's. She squeezed it happily.
"Well, we'd better be going," Ron said stiffly. He glared at Draco, then marched out of the room. Hermione rolled her eyes and followed him.
"Thanks again," Ginny said.
"Thanks for letting me take her home," Draco said with a grin. Ginny gave him a gentle shove.
"Don't think I've forgiven you. You're going to pay for this."
Harry laid a hand flat on each of their backs and pushed them out of the kitchen. Ginny giggled.
As he left the kitchen himself, Harry swept off the hat he always wore now when he went out, and bowed magestically low. Rupert laughed at him, and Harry gave him a friendly grin before flipping the hat back onto his head and striding out after his friends.
"I hope you learned something from this, Malfoy." Ron's tone was stern and angrily parental as they walked down the street towards a secluded area where they could all Disapparate.
"You're going to make an excellent father, Ron," Hermione murmured with a smile.
"Yeah, I did," Draco replied. "Always keep stray cats around until I can find the location of all the people I know."
Ginny poked him in the shoulder with one finger, the nail of which was unusually sharp today.
"Okay, okay. I mean ... things aren't always what they seem?"
"Right."
"And I may not always have the chance to say what I feel as often as I'd like to."
What do you mean?" Ginny asked.
"Gin, I love you."
"I know, Draco, I know. I love you too."
"Do you want me to kick you?" Ron said threateningly to Draco, and he was only half-joking.
Harry pulled a cookie from the pocket of his jeans, which were now visible along with his red sweater, as he was no longer wearing his cloak.
"For goodness sake, Harry, are you producing them?" Draco exclaimed. "Where do you get all these biscuits from?"
"It's magic," Harry replied, eyes twinkling.
"I kinda wish I'd said goodbye to Bagheera while I could still speak cat."
"Bagheera? The other cat?"
"Yeah. He was a creep by human standards, but I guess that's normal for cats. Feline testosterone ... ugh."
"You were hit on by a cat?"
"Several times. It's not that strange, Draco, I was a cat too."
As they rounded a corner, Ron took on a thoughtful look. "Um, 'Mione, what was that you said about a father?"
"I said you're going to make an excellent one," Hermione repeated.
"You mean some day? In the future?"
"...In the future, yes." Hermione smiled, and grinned when Ginny caught her eye. Ginny gasped with laughter, putting her hands over her mouth in shock.
"In the near future, Ron," Harry told him, patting him on the back. His trainers lit up on the damp pavement, sending red and green glows across a shallow puddle.
"Okay, what are you guys on about?"
Harry suddenly jumped round excitedly to face Hermione as he walked.
"I call godfather!"
A/N: I say thankyou again for reviewing, you're all fantastic.