Everything around her was blurry and indistinct. Kim remembered hitting her head on something hard... and sharp, after she'd been sent to Dumbledore's office. She couldn't remember anything. In fact, she couldn't even move because the slightest movement made her head throb. In fact, even when she lay perfectly still, her head was throbbing.
It was then that she realized that someone was at the foot of her bed.
"...and I know that you're still not feeling good," a dreamy voice was saying, "but once you feel better, I have some good news to tell you: Daddy says that he's got a picture of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack-"
Luna, Kim realized. She sat up and groaned from the effort and touched her head where she felt a bloody gash there.
"Oww," she howled.
"Hey, Ginny," Ron's voice echoed in her mind, "she woke up."
Kim saw two Lunas standing in front of her as two red-headed Ginnys rushed over to her. It was then that she realized that she was cross-eyed and blinked several times before it started to go away.
"Kim, you're awake! Harry told us everything that you said!"
"Wha-? What happened?" she said with a slurred voice.
"You were under the Veritaserum and then you hit your head on this weird, sharp metal thingy," Ginny explained hurriedly.
"I did? Oww. My head hurts. Hey, Luna, there's a Crumple-Horned Snorkack behind you... go catch it..."
"That's not a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, Kim," Ginny said, suppressing a giggle, "that's Harry."
"Wha-? Why is he here? Why are you here? I don't want to talk to you! Oww!" Kim clutched her head, which made it hurt worse, so she lay back down.
"Calm down, or you'll never recover in time for the Quidditch game in two days," Ron said.
"Is that all you care about, Ron?" Hermione scoffed.
"No," Ron said indignantly.
"Out! Out! This girl needs rest, not visitors! OUT!" Madame Pomfrey shouted, waving her arms like a crazy person. "Out!"
"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey!" Kim called after the nurse as Ginny, Luna, Ron, and Harry were ushered out.
"YOU-" she rounded on Kim, "-you need rest!"
Kim grumbled at this, but lay back down on the white linen sheets, hoping to get back to bed.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
The next morning, Kim awoke in the Hospital Wing without a trace of the bloody gash. She sat there and waited for Madame Pomfrey to notice she was awake for almost fifteen minutes. When she finally did notice, she bustled over and force-fed some nasty tasting stuff to her.
"You can go whenever you're ready," the nurse said, disdainfully.
Kim hopped off of the bed and stretched. She changed into her Hogwarts uniform that she'd been given and walked out into the halls, realizing that it was time for lunch.
She walked down the halls and into the Great Hall and sat at the Gryffindor table. She saw Draco look at her with intense anger. She had to admit, however, that she deserved that look from him: with her ranking above him AND her comment about his... well... she deserved the angry look, to say the least.
She ignored him and sat into the empty seat in between Ginny and Orlando.
"Hey, Barkley! Feeling better?" James said, cheerfully from across the table.
"Can it, Livingston," she replied in a monotone.
James looked at her with a sneer, "Well maybe your pal, Malfoy, can get you to be cheerful..."
"Oh, no, not Malfoy," Ron groaned.
"Just ignore him," Harry said, waving it away.
"Well, then, look who's back from the Hospital Wing," Draco sneered as he, Crabbe, and Goyle approached the table.
"Shut your trap, Malfoy," she said, "I'm not in the mood to speak Troll."
"Watch who you're calling a troll," Malfoy said angrily as Crabbe and Goyle crackled their knuckles.
Kim stood up, beginning to get angry with him, "Oh, you're jealous, is that it?"
"Jealous?" he sneered, "jealous of what? I wouldn't want to be sitting here with the Weasleys. They're like a bunch of rabbits!"
Crabbe and Goyle sniggered stupidly.
"Well you know what I think of YOU, Malfoy?" Kim exclaimed. The whole hall was silent now and seemed to be watching what would happen. Even the teachers seemed to be anticipating what she would say next, "I think you're a dirty, bullying, slimy-looking MONGOOSE!"
The entire hall was still silent as Malfoy replied: "Mongoose? Is that all you can think of? Why would I care about being a stupid snake-eating weasel?"
"Snake-eating? Yes, of course! Oh, Draco, I love you!" she cried, running up to him and kissing right on the lips before running out of the Great Hall, amid many stares from her fellow students.
"Well somebody's having mood swings today," James muttered under his breath.
"Yeah, don't you wish it was you, Jamsie?" Orlando teased.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
"Mongoose!" Kim cried, "I want to be a mongoose!"
"Are you sure, Kim?" Wormtail asked, curiously.
"Yes. I'm positive," she replied firmly.
She had rushed off of Hogwarts grounds and Apparated from Hogsmeade to her father's side.
"Well next time you have a trip to Hogsmeade, then come back, and we can finish-"
"No. I want you to teach me now," she said, stubbornly.
"But, you'll be expelled-"
"No, I won't. I don't care! Give me directions and I'll do it myself if that's all you can do."
"Fine. Listen up," he snapped in a voice that she'd never heard him use before. "You need to concentrate very hard on this... mongoose... then you need to concentrate all of your magic through you: hold your wand the first time and say: 'Animagai'. With all the training you've done already, you should be able to change into this your animal at will. It might be difficult the first few times, but it will work for you. Tell no one."
"Thanks, I'll be going now," Kim said and Apparated away before he could inquire about her spying job.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
"Kim? Are you okay? What are you doing in there?" Ginny asked though the door of the Dormitory.
"I want to be alone," she replied.
"All right," Ginny said, "I'll be back up in a few minutes."
"Concentrate," Kim whispered to herself. "Mongoose..."
With a small 'pop' Kim suddenly felt much smaller. She was standing on her hind legs with her arms feeling rather small and close to her body. A long snout was pointed out in front of her with a little black nose on the end. She looked down at her body and saw that she was covered in lots of tan-colored fur. Her paws had sharp, little claws on the end that were resting next to her long tail. She pattered over to Anna's full-length mirror and saw a weasel-like creature standing before her. She noticed a long black stripe that ran from her forehead to her nose on her face. There were several thin black stripes on her hind legs and on her back.
"Cool," she said aloud, taking in her new appearance, but her voice was now a screechy-like noise.
"Kim?" Ginny was back. "What are you doing in there?"
"Nothing," Kim replied, but the same screechy noise came out of her mouth.
"I'm coming in!" Ginny said, turning the knob.
Kim screeched and ran swiftly under Lauren's bed.
"Kim? Kim, where are you?" Ginny called.
Oh my, I wonder how you turn back! The thought suddenly struck Kim like a load of bricks. There's only one person I can really go to...
"Kim!"
"I'm going!" she cried in that indistinguishable squeak and rushed from under the bed.
"What the-?" Ginny cried as Kim rushed between her legs. She scurried downstairs and through the Common Room, causing pandemonium.
"EEK! IT'S A GIANT MOUSE!" shrieked Anna before jumping into James' arms and clinging onto his neck after which he promptly dropped her and she jumped into Orlando's arms instead.
"Oh my gosh, it's going to eat me!" Evan Youngblood yelled before doing a quick square-dance around the room.
Ethan and Eric looked at her excitedly. "Our dream has come true!" Eric cried, "Ethan, go get the nets!"
Kim jumped onto Michael's head and leapt off of it, which he ignored as though random mongeese frequently jumped on his head. She scurried through people's legs before she was cornered by Hermione's evil-tempered orange fluffball for a cat, Crookshanks.
"I told you that cat's a menace!" Ron yelled, as though trying to defend Kim. "It's going to eat that... thing!"
"That 'thing' is a mongoose!" Hermione exclaimed and pulled Crookshanks away for fear of injury to her precious orange fluffball.
Colin Creevy tried to snap a picture of Kim running through the Common Room, but decided it wasn't such a good idea when she bit his leg and drew blood.
"Come on, Ethan, catch it!" Eric cried as he and his brother rushed after her with large butterfly nets in their hands.
"What's going on in here?" the Head Girl, Amelia Winters, yelled, opening the Portrait Hole. Kim seized this opportunity to get out of the Common Room and rushed out between the girl's legs.
"EEK! KILL IT! IT WANTS TO ATTACK ME!" Amelia cried and jumped onto a chair in a very un-dignified way.
"We'll get it!" Ethan cried and he and Eric rushed out of the Common Room with their nets and began trying to catch Kim. She rushed swiftly through the hallways toward where she supposed the Slytherin Common Room must be, wishing she could go to someone other than Draco for help.
While Ethan and Eric chased after her, she spotted Goyle coming out of the Great Hall. Thinking quickly, and hoping to use Goyle's dumb-ness to her advantage, she crawled onto his robes and began squeaking madly.
Goyle turned around just in time for Eric to see Kim's trick and run away, Ethan following close behind. Goyle scratched his head dumbly and wandered around the hallway to the Slytherin Common Room.
"Goyle!" Kim squeaked, knowing it was useless.
"Wha...?" Goyle said, stupidly.
"It's me, the mongoose!" Kim said, hoping he'd understand somehow.
"Mongoose," he said, thickly.
"Can you understand me?" Kim squeaked.
"Hi, Mongoose!" he roared.
"Bring me to Malfoy," she said, slowly.
"Mal-floy?" he said, scratching his dumb head, "Why you want to see Mal-floy?"
"Because I'm a mongoose!"
"What's a mongoose?"
"I'M a mongoose!"
"Are you my conscience?" Goyle asked thickly.
Kim sighed, "Yes, Goyle, yes, I am. Now please bring me to Malfoy."
"Okay, I'll bring you to Mal-floy."
"Good boy," she said, scurrying onto his head where she was perched like a bird, wondering how Goyle understood her in the first place.
They neared the Slytherin Common Room where Goyle found Crabbe: "Goyle, there is a mongoose on your head!"
"I found it - it's my conscience."
"No, that doesn't quite seem right," Crabbe said in a much less stupid voice than he looked, "because mongeese are native to Asia."
"What's Asia?"
"Oh, never mind, your mind couldn't comprehend it."
"Crabbe, Goyle!" Draco said, coming into view as they entered the Common Room. He looked at Goyle for a moment: "Goyle, there's something on your head and it bothers me: get it off."
"It's my conscience," Goyle said acting stupider by the moment.
"It's Kim!" Kim squeaked. "Goyle, tell him my name is Kim!"
"My conscience's name is Ken."
"NO! KIM!" she squeaked.
"Oh, she changed her name... now she's Kim," Goyle added.
"Kim?" Draco asked, looking with a smirk at the mongoose, "Oh, this is priceless! Kim! You're a mongoose!"
"Maybe if it is an Animagus, you should give her a quill and a piece of parchment," said Crabbe smartly.
"I get it, Mal-floy," Goyle said, stomping over to a first year and stealing their quill and parchment.
Kim grabbed the parchment in her paws and hopped off of Goyle's greasy head, with the quill in her mouth. She jumped onto a desk and began writing: I've turned into my Animagus form, but I can't get out! HELP!
Draco picked up the paper with a smirk and read it. "What do you want ME to do about it?"
Help me get my dad!
"How am I supposed to do that?" he asked, "and why did you turn into a mongoose of all things?"
YOU gave me the idea. Also, I don't know, get him somehow! It's a Friday, so you can spend the weekend finding out!
"There's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend," Crabbe pointed out.
APPARATE THERE AND GET HIM! Kim wrote out, finding it odd that the other Slytherins didn't care in the least bit that a mongoose was writing on a piece of parchment with a quill in the middle of the Common Room.
"Well you're going to have to stay in my Dorm for tonight, you can kip under my bed," Draco said, gathering her in his arms, when she promptly bit his hand and scurried ahead of him and into his dormitory.
"You're going to pay for this one, Malfoy," Kim squeaked.
"What did she say, Goyle?"
"Mmmm, turkey," Goyle said with a belch.
"Yes, we know you had turkey for dinner, Goyle, what did she say?" Crabbe replied to his insolent comment.
Kim refused to hear anymore and instead crawled under Draco's bed and was disturbed to see a pair of girl's knickers. She dragged it out and looked at Malfoy questioningly.
"Ah, those are Pansy's!" Draco said, stuffing them back under the bed, "so that's where they went! Now get back under there, I'm going to change!"
With a squeak of fright, she disappeared underneath the bed with Pansy's knickers, making sure that they were far away from where she was sleeping and trying to ignore the snores of Theodore Nott, another Death Eater, and a boy named Blaise Zabini.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
The very next morning, Kim found herself in a very tight place. She mulled over the previous night's events and realized that somehow, she'd turned human again.
"I'M A HUMAN!" she yelled so loudly that she felt the bed above her jump in surprise.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO, WAKING ME UP AT...Oh… it's 10 AM…" Malfoy jumped out of bed.
"I'm human!" Kim yelled. "And I'm stuck! Get me out!"
"Turn into a mongoose and get out yourself!" Draco replied.
"No! You just want me to be stuck as a mongoose again!"
"Duh! I wanted to send you to your father by owl!" Draco replied.
"You disgust me, now GET ME OUT!"
"Crabbe. Goyle. Wake up! Lift up my bed! NO, NOT WHILE I'M IN IT, GOYLE!"
Soon, with Crabbe and Goyle's strength, the bed was in the air, after which Goyle dropped the bed on Malfoy's toe.
"OUCH, YOU DOLT!"
Kim just snickered to herself and crawled out from the bed. Once the bed was off Malfoy's toe, he and Kim walked downstairs, where they were met by Pansy.
"Draco! How could you? I KNEW IT! You're cheating on me for HER!" she cried and slapped Draco twice across the face.
"Pansy, I found your knickers," Draco replied.
"Oh, really? I've been looking for those. Where are they?"
"Under my bed, right where you left them," he answered, pulling her close to him. She seemed to have forgotten about her accusation that Draco had cheated on her. She was giggling madly as Draco raked his fingers across her back and grabbed her rump.
Kim was disgusted by this public display of affection. No one paid a second glance to her as she snorted in disgust and stalked off into the Great Hall, looking disheveled.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
"Gee, Kim, you look awful," James said that morning over breakfast.
"Well you would too, Mr. Oh-so-sensitive," she replied.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I spent the night underneath Malfoy's bed," she replied, pouring herself some orange juice.
"AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING UNDER THERE?" he roared angrily.
"Why should you care?" she said in reply, leaving the table with a piece of toast.
"HEY! KIM! Can I use the rest of your orange juice?" Orlando yelled after her.
Kim waved her hand at him to say 'yes' and walked out of the Great Hall and traveled back to her Dormitory where she hoped she could change into something that made her look slightly less disheveled.
"I've got my eggs, I've got my orange juice, but I need my hot sauce," Orlando said enthusiastically.
As Kim wound her way around the halls, she heard someone footsteps approaching behind her.
"Kim!" It was Ginny.
"Yes?"
"So now you're talking to me?" Ginny asked, raising one eyebrow.
"I guess," she replied, kicking the thin air with her hands in her pockets.
"Good. You'll never guess what happened last night-" Ginny said breathlessly and went into detail about the crazed mongoose of Gryffindor Tower.
Kim just smiled.