Hey, ya'll! Larachan here with the next update of Harry Potter! Thankies for all the reviews, I really appreciate it! I hope you like this chapter as well and pllllllease review or no chapter 4!
No, to my reviewers who ROCK MY BEiNG!
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Thanks to all those that added me to their favorites and Author Alerts list! It means a lot! Hope you like the next chapter, guys!
Title: 9 Lives for Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13 due to occasional strong/suggestive language, only when appropriate
Disclaimer: All characters affiliated with the Harry Potter series are property of J.K. Rowling and Scholastic Press
Summary: Harry has a problem… a furry problem… Somehow, he ends up in the body of Hermione's favorite cat, Crookshanks! But no magic is going to save him this time! H/Hr, R&R please!
Thunk.
Thunk.
Thunk.
Hermione's footsteps were heavy this morning, jarring her whole body, and consequently, jarring the cat that was trying to get a substantial grip on her shoulder. Harry had almost fallen off numerous times on the way to the owlery and was now being forced to use 'claw tactics' to remain on his perch.
She didn't seem to notice too much, though…. Hermione kept talking to herself, wringing her hands, and looking around the corridor shiftily. Harry hadn't determined yet whether she still felt the need to bash Harry's furry little head in…
Or was she beginning to get genuinely worried about him?
"Where could he be? Honestly, that Harry Potter has a pretty stunning reputation for doing abnormally stupid things…"
"Hey now!' Harry countered, but it only came out as a caterwaul that produced a small giggle from Hermione. Guess she was still pretty tweaked at him…
"Ok." Hermione proclaimed, stopping just outside the wooden doors to the owlery, "He'll be in here…He will be in here." She grabbed the handles, pulled, and took a few steps inside. The smell of owls and rodents filled Harry's sensitive kitty nostrils.
Hermione looked around on impulse, searching every dark corner for the missing Harry Potter, to no avail. However… Harry felt her body tense up as she circled her gaze back to a window on the right side of the room. There, standing next to a pretty snowy white owl, delicately using her manicured fingers to tie a piece of parchment around the beast's leg, was Cho Chang. "I'll be damned." Hermione mumbled, barely audibly.
Harry watched as Hermione tugged at her bathrobe. She straightened her hair, checked her breath.
Was she…Fidgeting?
Hermione abruptly stopped as Cho froze, hearing her presence, and turned her way. The sun was just coming into the window making her hair shine. She leaned against one of the windowpanes, fully dressed in her Ravenclaw robes, and looking quite composed for this early in the morning.
The bushy-haired girl gave an involuntary shudder as Cho's eyes descended upon her. There was a definitive, cocky air about Cho this morning…One that Harry had never witnessed before…
Hermione puffed up her chest and walked defiantly across the room until she was an arms length away from Cho.
"Are those what Gryffindor's call uniforms? I don't know what muggles teach their children, but here in the Wizarding World we were always taught that clothes were meant to cover up the body, not expose it." Cho pointed a finger at Hermione's terry-cloth bathrobe and nightgown. "Tsk, tsk, Hermione, what would Professor McGonagall say if she saw you walking around the halls in that!"
Hermione gave a snort of defiance. "For a start, She'd tell you to stop being such a prude and mind your own business." Ouch. Point. Hermione 1, Cho 0.
"It's just that the sight of all that pale, unnatural looking skin is beginning to mar the public beauty." Double ouch. Point to Cho. It was strange for Harry to see Cho acting like this… when had Cho and Hermione begun to hate each other so much?
"Look, Cho, I didn't come here to be graced with your presence. So, you can forget how much you hate me, without cause might I add, for one single minute while I do what I have to do, and after that I'd be happy to leave you to admire yourself in peace."
"I don't hate you, Hermione. I just think Harry's wasting his time on you because, after all, you are a waste of time." Harry's ears began turning a not-so-complimentary shade of pink. No one could say that to his Hermione and get away with it! Why was Cho being so nasty to her? Was she always like this when she thought Harry wasn't around?
"We're just FRIENDS, you IDIOT-y-you know what? I don't have time for this. I'm looking for Harry. Have you seen him?"
"What?" The raven-haired girl pretended not to hear her.
"It's a yes or no question. Surely you have enough command of the English language to-"
Cho rolled her eyes and went back to fiddling with her parchment and the rather impatient owl. "You mean for once in his life he isn't chained at the hip to you and Ron?" She gave a snort of defiance.
Hermione's temper was beginning to flare again. "Look, I don't know what you mean by that, but Ron and I-"
Harry saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop listening to the girls all together.
Across the room on a perch, with her head tucked under her wing and dozing peacefully, was Hedwig.
His Hedwig. Thank God, what a comforting sight! Hedwig would help him…after all, she had never failed him before…
He leapt off Hermione's shoulder and bounded towards her, stopping just under her perch. She was sleeping lightly, he could tell from her breathing, but how was he supposed to wake her up? He was a cat after all….
He tried for the quick approach although he was sure it would come out all meows. "Hedwig! Oy, Hedwig! Rise and shine! Hedwig!"
The great white bird untucked her head from her wing and opened one eye, then the other, blinked, and stared down at Harry. And oddly enough, something strange happened…"What do you want now, Crhoookshanks?" She spoke in a slightly agitated, refined tone.
Harry stumbled backwards. "I-I can talk to animals!"
Hedwig bristled her feathers. "Just hooo exactly are you calling an animal?"
"H-Hedwig, it's me. It's Harry! I'm stuck inside the body of Crookshanks, and-"
"Hhhharry?" Hedwig cocked her head to the side and gave Harry the once over. "Crhoookshanks, it's too early in the mhooorning for your games."
"But Hedwig, I'm not Crookshanks, at least… I wasn't last night-"
Suddenly, the perch beside Hedwig's stirred restlessly, and a little tuft of white became airborne.
"Hedwig, Hedwig, HEDWIG! It's a cat! Cat! Cat! Crookshanks! Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!" The little owl sung in a high-pitched, droning, whine reminiscent of a mosquito.
"Pig!" Harry shouted. "Pig, I'm not a cat! Surely you remember me, I'm Harry! Remember?...Please?" Harry pleaded with the buzzing ball of white.
"Not a, not a, not a cat! Hedwig, Crookshanks says he's not a, not a, not a cat! What're those kitty ears then? Or those kitty eyes? Or that mangy kitty fur? What about that kitty, kitty, kitty tail?!" Pig shrieked excitedly.
"Lhoooks like a cat to me." Hedwig announced from her perch.
"But I'm not a cat!" Harry protested, lying down on the cold ground and suddenly feeling very much like Alice stuck in Wonderland.
And then, something ran across his front paws.
Something… furry.
And somewhere, in the back of his instinctive prehistoric brain, someone threw on a light switch.
"A mouse!" He sprang up on all fours. "'S a mouse. Where'd it go?! A mouse! A mouse!"
No, Harry, resist the temptation…
But he needed to… He had to find it. His whole life depended on it!
No, it's just primordial instinct! You shall overcome!
Who wants a nice mousey for breakfast? Harry does!
'Don't give in!' The more sophisticated side of his brain was screaming at him, but it was being drowned out as Harry felt Crookshanks' body leap forward in pursuit of the furry little rodent.
"No!" He was screaming aloud as this incontrollable feline body of his took him on a joyride. The little mouse in front of him kicked his running spree into high gear and somehow, Harry's body drew on an unknown energy source to follow suit.
"Ach! Watch it, ya blaggard!" A barn owl with an Irish accent yelled at him as a well placed kitty paw sent a water dish careening across the floor.
"Er….sorry!" Harry turned his head and tried to yell back, his body trampling towards destination unknown. He could feel his paws straining… almost got the mouse, it's right there…stretch…
"EEP!" The mouse shouted and dove left.
"Ghoood Heavens!" Another angry owl shouted at him as his tail toppled over her perch.
"Oh dear…"
By this time, half the owlery had been awakened, and all were looking quite ruffled…and quite anxious to peck the eyes out of Harry's head. He could just hear Hedwig and Pig talking about him as he ran towards the side of the room that Hermione was on.
"Definitely cat behavihooor. Hoo-hoo-hoooo's the animal now?" Hedwig pronounced.
"Look at him run, run run! Get that mouse, puddy tat!" Pig was dancing from talon to talon on his perch.
Harry ran between Hermione's feet and caught snippets of their conversation. "Fine!" She was saying. "If that's how you feel about it!" She reached down with perfect timing and caught Harry by the tail, swinging him up into her arms and holding him like a baby. "C'mon, Crookshanks." She mumbled.
Harry saw the mouse disappear into a crack on the far wall. The rodent turned back for just a minute, catching Harry's gaze, and…winked at him… Little mousey laughter tinkled through the walls and followed Hermione and 'Crookshanks' all the way out of the owlery.
Hermione swung the owlery doors shut behind her and leaned against them, dropping 'Crookshanks' to the floor and letting out a long sigh.
Was she…holding back tears?
"She's….she's insufferable!" Her hands clenched to fists at her side. "Not good enough, she says! Me! Not good enough to befriend Harry Potter!" Harry was a little taken aback; he hadn't heard that part of Cho and Hermione's conversation…. "What On Earth did Harry ever see in her!" Harry was starting to question that himself. "I mean, sure…she's got that…hair…and those….eyes…. and she's funny….and I guess she's smart…"
Hermione sat down on the floor and drew her knees up. "And she's older than him…got tons of friends…an amazing Quidditch player…. No wonder Harry prefers her to every other girl…."
Then, something dawned on Harry. Could Hermione be…jealous? Of Cho? Harry's little kitty heart skipped a beat. That would have to mean that she cared for him…something deeper than friendship.
At that moment, he would have given anything to be in human form, to hold her, to tell her that she was the one he preferred to every other girl. Unfortunately, in his present state, all he could do was rub at her legs and purr loudly. Desperately, he tried to think of a way to turn himself back into a human, to comfort Hermione when she needed him most, despite the fact that he knew she would be quite cross with him when he returned. But Hermione was barely paying any attention to him, she went on talking to herself.
"You're right, of course. No sense in sitting here feeling sorry for myself." She scrambled to her feet and began to walk off down the corridor with 'Crookshanks' on her heels. "Best if I check the dungeon now…"
But she hadn't been walking very long when 'Crookshanks' sensitive ears picked up something. Footsteps…coming this way… and by the irregular pattern of them, it was someone who was more than a little confused…
Hermione turned the corner and smacked head on into a face full of glasses and electricity-conducting hair.
Professor Trelawney.
Both hit the ground with a thud and a groan at the force of the impact. "P-professor?" Hermione countered, jumping to her feet and rubbing the emerging knot on her forehead. "Are you all right?" She reached out a hand to try and pull Trelawney up, and after much struggling, succeeded.
Professor Trelawney was a sight to behold this early in the morning. Her silver sparkly bathrobe was bunched at her waist, and Harry caught a glimpse of her flannel pajamas underneath. Under her round glasses, yesterday's makeup and purple eyeliner were slowly dripping down her face. She stood defiantly in Hermione's path, a bunny slipper on one foot, an untied tennis shoe on the other.
…Certainly not her finest moment.
"Miss Granger!" She began, readjusting her glasses, "I'm glad our paths in the universe have crossed again." Harry felt the revulsion well up inside Hermione.
"Er...really?" Hermione began to fiddle with a very interesting string attached to her robe, hoping that Trelawney might get the idea that she was far too busy for this.
"Yes, my dear. You are just the person I came down here to find! My inner eye told me you'd be leaving the owlery." Professor Trelawney threw her hands up in the air, causing the bracelets and the rings on her finger to jangle in Hermione's ear.
"…oh…"
"You see, I've come…" At this point, Trelawney snuck a peek around the corridor to make sure no one was listening, giving Hermione just enough time to scoff at her in defiance. "I've come to…warn you…"
"Hmph." Hermione crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I suppose your tea leaves told you that I shall shortly fall prey to hungry cannibals?"
"……No." Trelawney said curtly in a tone that strictly implied, 'Did I Teach You Nothing!'. "I had a dream last night….no…. It was – a vision."
"You don't say…?"
"I saw your room. It was dark outside and you were asleep. And then…then I saw something furry at the end of your bed."
Harry's eyes grew wide. Good. God. Was Trelawney about to make the third correct prediction of her life? He jumped up on Hermione's shoulders and tried to will the words out of the professor.
"It had four legs-"
Come on, Trelawney, you can say it!
"And two pointed, scraggly ears-"
Say it! Harry's inside the cat!
"And the most haunting eyes I've ever seen-"
Harry! Cat!
"And a crooked tail-"
Keep going!
"It was-"
YES!
"The GRIM!"
NOOO!
Harry felt utterly defeated. And a bit ill. Was he doomed to spend the rest of his life as a mangy cat? Yes, for the first hour or so, he had been lucky to be a cat and avoid Hermione's wrath. But she had calmed down considerably, and now she was really starting to worry about him. And just when he thought Trelawney was going to bail him out…
Why did he rest his hope in her anyway?
He needed someone with sense. With experience with the feline and the mysterious. He needed McGonagall. Now, how to get to her…
"The…the grim?" Hermione was saying cautiously. "You saw the grim in my room?"
"Yes, dear. So I've come to warn you. Be very careful. Guard yourself – and your friends."
"O…ok, Professor. Thank you."
And with that, Trelawney traipsed down the hallway, tripping on the untied shoelaces of her tennis shoes every few meters.
"The grim…" Hermione mumbled. She wasn't actually going to believe Trelawney, was she? "Oh, God. Crookshanks, what did Harry say about Trelawney? She's made two correct predictions in her life…God forbid this is the third…" She was going to believe her! "What if – Harry's been taken? It's too much coincidence. She dreams about the grim in my room. We wake up the next morning, Harry's invisibility cloak's on the floor, and Harry's gone missing…"
'That's it, Hermione, keep thinking. Now, you've got to go to McGonagall!' Harry was mentally pushing her.
"Best we check the dungeons?"
"NO!" Harry screamed, but it only came out as a forced meow. Hermione wrinkled up her nose.
"Gosh, you're insistent this morning! Well, c'mon , Crookshanks!"
"Whaddaya mean you didn't find him?"
"I mean I didn't find him! What? You didn't either?"
"…no. You checked the owlery?"
"Yes."
"The dungeons?"
"Yes."
"The-"
"Ron!" Hermione gasped, "I checked everywhere you told me to, all right?!" She let her hands fall to the common room floor and scooped up Crookshanks, who was strangely clawing at her leg, and placed him on the couch beside her. It was around 9:00 now, in an hour or so the Common Room would be alive with excitement.
For a moment, Ron and Hermione continued their staring contest. "And no trace of Harry?"
"RON! NO! How many times are you going to ask me!?" Hermione threw her hands up in the air. "If there'd been a 'trace', don't you think I would've told you by now?!"
"Good God, Hermione, I was just asking!" Ron crossed his arms and made a very good show of being visibly offended.
"…..Oh, fine. I'm sorry. There, happy now? Ron, stop pouting, it's annoying." Hermione rested her chin in her hands and tried to ignore the annoying cat claws digging into her side.
"So…what do we do now?" Ron was fiddling with the corner of his tartan bathrobe.
"Ron, you promised you'd go with me to see Professor McGonagall!" At this, Crookshanks sprung out of his seat and jumped onto the floor, staring up expectantly at Ron.
"I swear Hermione, you of all people…getting stirred up like this over Trelawney's bull predictions. You only want to go see McGonagall because it's about Harry. You go bonkers over the littlest thing involving him-" Suddenly, Crookshanks launched himself right into Ron's face, which made Ron make a sound very similar to a baby elephant and commence trying to pry the cat claws out of his forehead.
"That's not true! You know I'd do the same for you! Ron, are you listening?" Hermione stood up from the couch, "Will you PLEASE stop badgering my cat?!"
Ron froze, Crookshanks still hanging off his ear like an oversized earring. "ME?! ME, BADGERING YOUR CAT?! I'd gladly quit badgering your cat if it'd remove its paw from my nose!" At this point, Ron finally pried Crookshanks from him and let the cat tumble to the floor where it landed with a hiss. "What's wrong with that cat today, Hermione? He's meaner than usual…"
But Hermione wasn't listening to Ron at all. The second Crookshanks had been thrown to the floor, she hurried over and stooped down in front of him, picking him up and rubbing his back while whispering things like, 'Oh! You poor thing!' and 'How dare he do that to you!'. When she finally turned her attention back to Ron, it was only with anger. "Ron! You could've hurt him!" Ron scoffed at this while he tried to stop the bleeding on his forehead. "Look, I'm going upstairs to change, and then we're all going to go see Professor McGonagall, and That Is That!"
Ron rolled his eyes at her in defiance as he watched her walk up the stairs to the girl's dorm, cat in tow. Yes, there was definitely something strange about that cat today. Maybe he had imagined it…but when Hermione had been stroking it just a minute ago, it actually looked as if the cat….was smiling.
Well, that's all for now! Hope you liked it, and as always, reviews and flames alike are quite welcome. Just leave me something! Till next time,
larachan