Chapter Five – Hopeful

Ginny woke up to the shrill sound of an alarm clock. Her eyes shot open to notice that she hadn't been dreaming, she really was a cat and if she ever wanted to be a human again she would have to get away from Harry. She heard the alarm clock stop ringing and decided to hide under the bed so Harry wouldn't see her.

She got under right as he put on his glasses. Going to the mirror Harry expecting to see Ginny curled up in a tiny ball. The only problem was she wasn't near the mirror.

Taking out his wand he said, "Accio Ginny." Out from under the bed she shot and right into his warm hands. She started to shake when he brought his hand towards her head as if to hit her, but was pleasantly surprised to see he wanted to pet her.

As he rubbed behind her left ear she felt her body vibrating. Harry noticed the purring sound and laughed. Ginny noticed what had happened and scowled at him.

"I see that you like to be petted. I'll have to make a mental note to only pet you when you behave." That damn smirk was starting to drive Ginny crazy. "I need to eat breakfast so you are to stay here until I come back."

Just then Ginny's stomach made a loud grumbling noise. If her fur wasn't red and if cats could blush she would be tomato red.

Harry gave her a look of understanding and told her he would get her some meat. To show her appreciation she waged her tail.

Harry then proceeded to drop her onto the bed. For some reason he looked upset.

"Don't expect me to be this nice to you again. I'm only being decent because it's your first day. Soon it will be much worse."

With that Harry left.

This was her chance to escape. The door wasn't that thick, she could claw her way out. A happy feeling invaded Ginny's body at the thought of getting out of the blasted boys dorm.

"All I need to do is get out of this room. If I can get out of here I'm good."

Thinking that luck was on her side she walked over to the door and was about to start clawing, only to be flung back a foot. She didn't know what had happened but she wasn't going to give up that easily. After ten minutes of running at the wall and being repelled by an invisible force, Ginny gave up and crawled onto Harry's bed.

Her body ached, her head felt likely to explode, and she had gotten nowhere. Crawling under the sheets, Ginny made her way to the end of the bed were she cried herself to sleep.

To soon the door to the dorms opened. Harry was tired of hearing Ron ask where Ginny was. He wanted to yell, "In my room you idiot" but didn't think that would get him very far.

He scanned the room to see where his cat was. When he didn't see her he took out his wand when something caught his eye. A lump was at the foot of his bed, just tiny enough to be a cat.

Wanting to show her how much power he had he jumped on the bed, shaking her awake. She literally jumped a foot into the air because of the spastic movements of the bed. Running up to the pillow, Ginny peered out to see what was going on.

She ran out just in time. Looking up, she saw that Harry was violently jumping on the bed and had almost stepped on her.

Harry still hadn't noticed that she was up and out of the bed, so he kept on jumping and he accidentally landed on her tail. With a squeal of pain Ginny ran into the bathroom. The pain was horrible, so bad she felt like passing out. Unluckily Harry had heard her whimper and saw her run. He came into the bathroom to see her hiding in the tub. When he came toward her she cried, making the most pathetic sound had ever heard.

He felt guilt coarse through his body and decided to leave her alone. Knowing that she was famished he put down a piece of turkey in a bowl. He had even gone as far as to cut it into tiny bites-sized chucks. Once gone Ginny jumped out of the bathtub and began to eat, noticing again how hungry she was. The slice of turkey hadn't filled her up at all.

Thinking Harry might give her more she went to his bed only to find that he was gone…and the door was cracked open! She could easily escape from the room.

"It's a good thing that guys don't think things through all the time." Ginny thought.

She squeezed herself out of the door and slowly crept towards the portrait hole. She would have to wait until someone left or came. She hide under a chair and waited for what seemed like forever for someone to come along. After a good hour Ron came in. Ginny took her chances, hoping that Harry wouldn't be near by. As she got out of the door and started down the hall she wondered where to go to next.

She let her body take her down to the dungeons. "Why am I down here? This place isn't safe." She thought. But another voice in her head said, "It's the safest place, Harry will never come down here." Trusting the latter she began to take in her surroundings.

She stopped walking when she heard someone coming. She ran towards the shadows where she could hide but unfortunately hit a suit of armor. The noise caused the passing person to come towards her.

As she tried to untangle herself from the heavy metal she heard a male voice say, "What are you doing down here?"