The Forgotten Child Chapter: Cat Fight

"Look at me!" Lei shrieked, gesturing to her hair. It was now entirely black, and it was curled around her face and shoulders. "My beautiful red hair is black!"

"There's nothing wrong with black hair," Harry said somewhat defensively, but Hermione shot him a look that made him quiet. He continued in a more gentle tone of voice, "Besides, now you look a little bit more like my twin now."

"You aren't helping!" his twin cried. She grabbed two fistfuls of her now black hair and pulled slightly. "It was red yesterday, and now it's black! Black! THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT, YOU KNOW!"

Hermione winced from beside the shouting girl. "Surely there's a reasonable explanation for this. We just have to find out what that is. Has anything like this ever happened before?"

"Of course not!" Lei snapped back, still pulling at her hair. "If this had happened before, I wouldn't be quite so upset! Look at this!"

"I think she's going a bit insane," Ginny whispered from behind Harry, who turned to give her a brief look of agreement before turning back to the hysterical girl. "Though I can't say as I really blame her, as I'd be upset if my pretty red hair turned black, too."

"I can't believe this is happening," Lei wailed, burying her face in her hands. "This has got to be a nightmare of some kind or something, because this cannot be happening to me."

"I'm sure everything will work out in the end," Hermione said, trying to console the other girl. "All we need is some time in order to---Crookshanks, no!"

While everyone had been preoccupied with Lei and her frantic cries and newly turned black hair, Crookshanks seized his chance to get inside the girl's dorms. He darted between Harry's legs and up the stairs, dodged Hermione's hands, and raced by Lei, who didn't even attempt to catch the runaway cat. Suddenly there was a loud hissing noise from the dorm, and Hermione raced in there.

"Lei! Come help me here!" Hermione cried from inside the dorm. Lei seemed not to have heard her, because she didn't move from her sad position with her head in her hands. "For heaven's sake, Lei Potter! FORGET ABOUT YOUR HAIR AND START WORRYING ABOUT YOUR CAT!"

That seemed to penetrate Lei's depression, as she suddenly brought her head up, and then she darted into the dorm as well. There was more hissing, and then a mewling noise followed by a soft thud. Then Lei came back out, rushing down the stairs with a panicked and wriggling Piccola in her arms.

"Get off me you horrid little cat-demon!" Lei cried, shaking her leg madly in the hopes of dislodging Crookshanks from it. The orange cat had apparently attached himself to Lei's leg with his claws in order to get hold of Piccola, who was protesting loudly in Lei's arms and trying to get herself free from the girl's tight hold on her.

"Crookshanks!" Hermione yelled, following the tangled mess of cats and human down the stairs.

"Hermione, get this bloody beast off of me this instant!" Lei howled, shaking her leg so hard that she lost her balance and fell down the remaining stairs. She landed in a heap at Harry's feet, and Piccola finally managed to get out of her mistress' arms. They could hardly see the streak of black racing across the common room to hide under the couch.

Crookshanks saw her, though, because he untangled himself from Lei's leg and tried to go running after the kitten, but Lei stood up and grabbed him by the orange fur at his neck.

"Oh no you don't," she told him, glaring at the cat and turning to hand him over to Hermione. But Crookshanks would have none of that; he swiped at Lei's face with his claws, causing the girl to cry out in pain and drop him. He landed on his feet with only a slight stumble and headed for the couch that Piccola was under.

Harry turned to Lei to see if she was okay; four long, bloody gashes ran down the length of her face from her cheekbone to her chin. Just then a loud hissing noise broke out from the couch, and then a loud, tortured noise like an animal in pain sounded, and everyone turned to see Crookshanks' paw extended under the couch toward the black kitten, but it wasn't Piccola who had made the noise of pain. Crookshanks darted backwards away from the couch, and they all saw the tiny kitten attached to his front paw by her teeth. The orange cat drew back his paw and slammed it against the leg of the couch, and the kitten's back met the wood of the couch with a barely audible crunch, and she let go of Crookshanks' paw.

But Piccola wasn't done yet. She leap away from the couch toward Crookshanks, who backed away slowly, limping on three feet, holding his bleeding paw up off the ground. He hissed, but she completely ignored the warning and made a swipe at his face. He managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, and only a small section of his face near his mouth got cut. Turning glowing eyes back on the kitten, he pounced on her, and taken by surprise, Piccola fell to the ground under the significantly larger cat.

"Stop it!" both Lei and Hermione cried together, racing to separate the cats, but before they could get there, Piccola yowled loudly in pain as Crookshanks' back claws sunk into the tender flesh of her belly, and she snapped with larger than normal teeth at his ear, which was the only thing she could reach. It was Crookshanks' turn to howl in pain.

Lei and Hermione nearly collided trying to grab their rightful cats. Lei ended up snatching Crookshanks' round the middle and hauling him off her small kitten, who was then carefully scooped into Hermione's arms.

"I believe this demon belongs to you," Lei said sourly, extending the orange cat to Hermione.