Chapter Three – Visions, Scars, and Teenage Hormones

While he was sure that the Potions reading assignment was very exciting, Harry quickly found himself becoming bored. Hermione hadn't moved except to turn the page or take notes for the past half hour, and the panther part of him was becoming almost stir-crazy from the lack of movement. Even Crookshanks had already fallen asleep, curled up on the desk chair.

Unable to sit still any longer, he got to his feet and wandered towards the door. Hermione only glanced up at him before going back to her book. Perfect, Harry thought to himself as he padded down the stairs. Flicking his ears towards the open window, he could hear Mrs. Granger working out in the garden.

Satisfied that he wouldn't be caught doing things a panther shouldn't, he made his way to the living room and located the television remote. Grabbing it carefully with his teeth, he leapt up onto the couch and lay down, placing the remote between his front paws. Aiming it at the TV, he carefully pressed the power button with an extended claw.

The TV turned on to reveal a low-budget series about a guy named Lister, a hologram named Rimmer, and their mutated space cat onboard a giant red ship three million years in the future. Growling in exasperation at the show, he fiddled with the buttons to change the channel. Finally finding what he was looking for, he leaned back into the plush cushions and watched the news for anything suspiciously like a wizard cover-up story.

He must have fallen asleep at some point, because he found himself looking through Voldemort's eyes at a ring of kneeling Death Eaters. "My loyal followers," the Dark Lord hissed, "what news do you bring me?"

One of the Death Eaters spoke up. "My Lord, after careful observation of number four Privet Drive, we have concluded that Harry Potter is no longer in residence there."

"Idiot!" Voldemort snapped. "Of course Potter no longer lives there! Dear old Albus must have sensed the wards weakening and moved him to a more secure location. That is why we are going after his pathetic little friends...to get him to come to us."

Harry felt a chill run down his spine at the proof of what they'd only suspected thus far. Voldemort was indeed targeting the Weasleys and Hermione this summer in hopes of drawing him out to bargain for their lives.

"We will capture the youngest Weasley male first," Voldemort decided. "Wormtail!"

The short, balding traitor skittered forward to cower at his master's feet. "Master?" he asked, voice quivering with fear.

"You shall lead fifteen of my inner circle to the Weasleys' residence," the Dark Lord ordered. "Capture Ronald Weasley and bring him to me alive and unharmed. Feel free to kill anyone else, but bring me my hostage or it will be better for you if you never return to me."

Harry's scar seared with pain, and an even greater pain hammered through his skull as something connected with it. Yowling in agony, he nearly fell off the couch. A masculine voice screamed in surprise and fear, and Harry cracked open his eyes to see a rather shaken man standing over him with a briefcase in his hand.

Hermione's voice called down the stairs, heralding her approach. "Shadow? Dad?" she asked in worry.

The man, whom Harry assumed was her father, didn't look up from staring at the panther on the couch. "Hermione, honey, explain to me exactly why we have a wild beast in the living room?"

Before she got the chance, she noticed a trickle of red running down Harry's face and immediately grabbed a tissue. She pressed it against his forehead to slow the bleeding, and he couldn't refrain from hissing in pain at the pressure. "What happened?" she asked her father, gently running her hands down Harry's back as if trying to distract him from the pain in his head.

Mr. Granger, still somewhat taken aback but having recovered his composure somewhat, explained that he'd come up behind the couch, intending to sit on it only to find a panther lying there already. As he'd already begun to throw his briefcase onto the other end of the couch, it had struck the panther soundly on the skull, waking it up rather vocally.

Hermione carefully pulled the tissue away from Harry's forehead, and he allowed her to inspect the wound. "Hey," she said in slight surprise and amusement, "now you've got a cut that looks kind of like a lightning bolt. Now I almost regret not naming you Harry; you look a lot like him now."

Harry rather suspected that Mr. Granger had hit him on the scar, reopening the still-sensitive tissues rather than creating a new mark. I guess it's a good thing that this happened, he mused, able to think clearly now that the pain had died down to a faint twinge. It would have been suspicious if she'd seen the scar without any explanation of how it got there.

Remembering that her father still had no idea why there was a panther on the couch to begin with, Hermione abruptly apologized and briefly explained that 'Shadow' had been found on Hogwarts grounds and, being at least partly magical, needed someone to watch him over the summer until the Order could take him off her hands.

Mr. Granger looked slightly skeptical, but accepted his daughter's explanation without too much difficulty. "Can he understand English?" he asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

Absently, Harry gave him a slight nod, startling even Hermione, who knew he was smarter than the norm for panthers. Acting quickly to restore normal catlike behavior, he bumped his head against her arm. She smiled slightly, running her hand between his ears and cautiously avoiding the 'new' scar. "Charlie said he understands most of what we say," she elaborated to her father. "So if he's somewhere you think he shouldn't be, you can tell him and he'll know what you mean. Charlie told him to stay with me, and he refused to leave my side for a little while until he got bored and went off exploring the house. So far he hasn't caused any trouble besides scaring me out of my wits when I heard you two yelling."

She turned to Harry, her face holding a certain degree of seriousness. "Shadow, this is my father, Jacob Granger. He's really a nice guy...he didn't mean to hit you."

"Terribly sorry about that, old boy," Jacob said, warily reaching towards the panther as if expecting 'Shadow' to bite him. Harry politely took notice of the man's scent before maneuvering the hand to his furry head in a please-don't-be-scared-of-me gesture. Breathing a sigh of relief, Mr. Granger ran his hand along Harry's soft head before stepping back. "I suppose I'll watch the telly some other time, then," he commented, throwing a wink at Hermione before heading upstairs to the parental bedroom.

Once he was gone, Hermione gently turned Harry's head so that he was looking at her. "I think you're a lot smarter than you let on," she said in a not entirely condemning tone. "I don't know of any other pets that watch the news, let alone know what a remote control is." She stared into his eyes, as if she could read the answers in the emerald-green orbs staring back at her. Finally she sighed. "Come on then, I imagine it's time for supper anyway."

Charlotte Granger had apparently looked up information on a panther's diet, because his supper consisted of a very large dish of shredded venison. He noted in slight confusion that she had also sprinkled a very small amount of mango shavings onto the meat. At first he was wary of eating fruit as a panther, but he was pleasantly surprised that even the panther part of his mind greatly enjoyed the taste of mango.

This time he didn't finish eating until the three Grangers had already left the table. Feeling comfortably full, he strolled up the stairs and into Hermione's room. She had begun closing the door as he arrived, but let him in before shutting it all the way.

"You sure took your sweet time," she said, and to Harry's great shock, she didn't give him a second glance as she took off her shirt.

Harry was almost certain he could hear his brain blowing fuses as he was treated to a sight of Hermione that he'd never seen before. Over the years she had developed into an adequately-curvaceous young woman, and Harry distractedly wondered why school robes had to cover up so much of people.

Three seconds later, it hit him that he was staring at his half-naked best friend, and his body was telling him to do things with her that he hadn't even considered. If he had been in human form, his face would have been Weasley-red as he tore his eyes away from the tantalizing vision of loveliness before him. Seeing no other place that he could go without breaking things, he bolted under the bed and crawled back to the wall. Only then did he let himself resume watching her, as all he could see was her feet and ankles.

We're not even the same species at the moment, he scolded himself. So stop looking at her like that!

"Shadow?"

Harry closed his eyes as he saw her kneeling on the floor, peering under the bed at him and unintentionally giving him a rather good view of her chest. "What're you doing, you silly panther?"

Obviously, he could not answer, but was doubly embarrassed when she crawled under the bed with him. She settled herself very, very close to him and gently stroked his side. He couldn't help but notice that she'd also taken her jeans off, leaving her in very little clothing at all. "Hey, boy, what's the matter?" she said soothingly, completely unaware of what effect her body was having on Harry.

Oh, please let her give up and go to bed, Harry pleaded to any deity who was listening. Apparently no one was on duty, because Hermione chose to cuddle up to him instead, apparently thinking her presence would provide comfort against whatever was disturbing him.

After several minutes, he heard her breathing slow down and deepen. Oh...no. She's fallen asleep on me?! This is not supposed to be happening!

However, he didn't have the heart to move and wake her up, and she would have to move before he could get out from under the bed. He was, rather effectively, trapped with a barely-clothed young woman draped against his side.

She's going to kill me when she finds out who I am.

It was several hours until he could convince his body to go to sleep.

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Questions from reviewers:

wildkat - "How will Harry do his summer homework if he's a panther?" Um, to be honest, I forgot all about the summer homework. Oops. I'll see if I can get something about that into the story towards the end, perhaps. Thanks for pointing that out!