Chapter 1
Some months later...
Hagrid was patrolling the Forbidden Forest when he heard what sounded like something fighting. Since most things in the Forest were big enough to give even him some trouble, he approached cautiously. What he saw surprised him. It looked like a girl was fighting one of Aragog's children. The strangest part was that it looked like she was winning.
After a long, hard, but successful, fight, the girl turned towards him. Hagrid knew that continuing to hide when she obviously knew he was there was pointless, so he came out from behind a tree. "Hello there. Don't know yer name, but I'm sure ya'd like some food."
She perked up slightly when he said food, and came slowly closer; walking on all fours like it was natural. She sniffed the air and seemed to find something she approved of, because she came the rest of the way forward and butted her head against his hand. He smiled with delight and gently stroked her head. Eventually, she got tired of that, and, taking advantage of the fact that he was sitting, she calmly pushed his arms out of the way and climbed into his lap to sleep.
After making sure she wouldn't wake up, Hagrid gently gathered her into his arms and went back towards Hogwarts. The girl had several serious wounds, obviously gotten from the fight, and Madam Pomfrey would be able to help.
In the Infirmary, Madam Pomfrey looked up as Hagrid came in. She didn't see him often unless he visited her patients, so she didn't know why he was there. That was, of course, until she noticed that he was carrying somebody in his arms. "Who is this, Hagrid?" She asked as she got him to set the person, now revealed to be a girl, onto one of the cots.
Hagrid stepped back to give her room in diagnosing the redhead's many injuries as he explained how he had found her fighting one of Aragog's children, and how she had eventually won and approached him.
Neither of them had noticed that Dumbledore was there until he spoke. "An interesting tale. I wonder where she's from?" he commented.
Hagrid quickly calmed down enough to answer. "Don't know, sir. She was acting fairly cat-like, though."
Pomfrey broke in at that point. "I don't know how exactly she will act when she wakes, but she does have some interesting features." She glanced up at them and motioned them to come closer. "She has ears on top of her head similar to a cat and a rather bushy tail. She reacted when I touched them, so I assume they are part of her."
Dumbledore nodded as she demonstrated. He smiled calmly and addressed them both. "Poppy, I am sure you would prefer to continue your work, so Hagrid and I will be going now. Hagrid, I am sure that she will wake in the morning and based on her actions, she seems to trust you. Perhaps you should come back then."
Hagrid agreed and, after saying goodnight, went back down to his hut.
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Hagrid came back up the next morning, wanting to see if the girl was awake yet. When he entered the Hospital Wing, he was greeted with a rather strange sight. The girl was crouched on the cot she had been placed on the night before, facing off with Poppy, who was obviously trying to feed her a potion. The girl slashed at the bottle but did not get near enough to touch it. Or so they thought. The bottle fell apart as if it had been cut into pieces.
Hagrid stepped forward and started to say something, when the girl's head whipped around and she saw him. Before anybody knew it, she was across the room and climbing his coat with surprising speed. She curled up across his shoulders and purred as if she belonged there.
Hagrid grinned happily. "So yah do rememba' me!"
Ranma purred. "Course I remember you, silly. Like your scent." Hagrid and Poppy blinked.
Poppy was the first to speak. "You can talk? What is your name, child?"
Ranma raised an eyebrow at her, but answered anyway. "I'm Ranma. How'd I get here? Last thing I remember is—" She paused. "That was a big spider."
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Ranma's first encounter with Harry was an interesting one. She had accompanied Hagrid when he went out to his hut. Actually, she had clung to his coat and hissed at Pomfrey whenever she came within three feet of them. Her ears had been flat and her tail lashing wildly. Hagrid had recognized the signs and cautiously suggested that maybe she could go outside with him until a place was found for her. Ranma had been happy to agree. Her tail had stopped lashing and her ears came up, though she kept an eye on Pomfrey. The two had left quickly.
Outside, Hagrid realized that his class would be meeting soon. "Well, I better ge' to my class, Ranma. Yer welcome to explore if you get bored."
Ranma grinned and nodded. "Alright," was all she said.
The first few students got there just as Hagrid got back to his hut. Ranma barely noticed as they called out familiar greetings to him. The trio were obviously good friends with both Hagrid and each other. But her eyes were fixed on one of them, a small, black-haired boy with green eyes and glasses. There was something strange about him.
Her eyes narrowed slightly in concentration before widening with surprised comprehension. He was a Snaketongue! He also had a snake's mind, if she wasn't mistaken.
The three friends jerked in surprise when a girl with cat ears and a tail jumped down from where she had been perched on Hagrid's shoulders. Hagrid laughed. "Sorry fer that. Almost fergot. This is Ranma. Found her yesterday."
The trio gave Hagrid wary glances, but quickly focused on the girl. She was standing almost nose-to-nose with Harry. Ranma sniffed from her close proximity, but Harry did not blink. He recognized a test when he saw one.
Ranma smiled slightly to herself. She had been right. He was a Snaketongue and had a snake's mind, which he obviously kept hidden from his friends. She stepped back several paces, but kept her gaze locked on him.
After a moment, she spoke. "Do not kill the snake because it does not trust. If it is kill or be killed, then kill, but do not kill the snake that does not trust. Listen to the snake of the mind and speak with the snake of the ground, but do not kill the snake that does not trust and do not trust the snake that kills." As soon as she had said this, Ranma turned and jumped back to her perch on Hagrid's shoulders.
Harry stared at her. He hadn't expected it, but he knew better than to discount the warning, even though most of the Divination he had seen was a load of crock. Something told him that what Ranma said would be important, so he nodded to her and concentrated on remembering exactly what she said so he would be able to write it down.
Ranma nodded to herself. He would remember. She turned her attention to his two friends, and blinked. Then she jumped down once more. She stopped in front of the redhead first. "Oh, I see! A Fireheart! I didn't think I'd meet one here."
Ron blinked at her. "Fireheart? What do you mean by that?"
Ranma smiled happily. "Just as it sounds. If they are jealous, then they are jealous with everything in them. If they are happy, then they almost float. A Fireheart is someone who tends to burn with whatever they feel. They feel things almost absolutely and can be some of the most loyal people in the world. On the other hand, if they don't like someone, then they can hold a grudge for years after hostilities officially end."
Ron felt his ears burn slightly as he blushed. Harry had paused in his memorizing efforts and Hermione laughed at the accurate description. Ranma grinned. "See? Told ya." She paused in thought. "True Firehearts are rarer than most people would believe. I'd say that you aren't the only one in your family though." Ron blinked at her. "Does red hair run in your family?"
Ron nodded. "Yeah, it comes from both my parents."
Ranma grinned. "So which of your parents is the fiery one?" She looked around in confusion as she heard choked-off laughter. Both Harry and Hermione were trying to keep their laughter under control and failing miserably. She turned back to Ron and was surprised by how red he looked.
"My mum is the, ah, fiery one." Ron was almost glowing with embarrassment.
Ranma's grin widened. "Oh, I see. Your mother is a true Fireheart then. That explains it." She turned away from him and looked at Hermione. She tilted her head slightly. There was something strange about her.
Hermione watched as Ranma walked closer and seemed to be sniffing, as well as studying her closely. "Is something wrong?" She asked it cautiously.
Ranma smiled distractedly. "No. There's nothing wrong, but I'd swear you smelled familiar."
Hermione blinked. "How can I smell familiar? I'd think I would remember someone like you, no offense."
Ranma frowned in concentration. "None taken. Where are you from?"
Hermione blinked. "Harrogate. Why?"
Ranma's frown deepened. "Harrogate. Harrogate. I know I've heard of that…Wait a minute!" She turned to stare at Hermione. Then she turned away and went over to a nearby tree and punched it, hard. "That idiotic, bastard panda! I'm going to kill him!" She punched the trunk again, harder. After another punch, the tree, which was almost six feet around, came crashing down.
The trio plus Hagrid stared at her in surprise. They were even more surprised when she went and jumped back onto Hagrid's shoulders. He felt her trembling and cautiously put a hand up against her head. He relaxed when he felt her rub against his hand and calmly rubbed her ears until she had calmed.
Eventually, she stopped trembling and sighed, putting her head down across her arms and ignoring everyone around her. Hagrid dropped his hand and looked around, realizing that his class had gathered while he was distracted.
Ranma ignored the students as she stared off into space. She had remembered Harrogate all right. It was where Genma had decided to try a new technique and lost all traces of any trust or love she might have felt for her father. She was almost glad that it had happened, but the Neko-ken had been a scar on her mind until Jusenkyo had allowed her control over the curse. She smirked slightly. 'Controlling a curse with a curse. Who would have thought.' Her smirk faded. 'Only in my life.'
She decided to turn her mind to less depressing thoughts and looked around. Hagrid was engrossed in teaching his class and wasn't paying attention to her. She got bored with listening to him fairly quickly, so she decided to find something else to do.
The trio was listening to Hagrid when it happened. Harry was the first to notice, and he coughed to try to mask his laughter. Ron and Hermione looked over at him. He just nodded toward Hagrid, so they both turned to look. Both had a hard time concealing their laughter as they watched Ranma.
Ranma had climbed down the front of Hagrid's coat lightly enough that if you weren't looking at her, you could hardly tell. She was now in one of the many pockets. Ranma had gone in headfirst and they could only see her from the waist down. Her feet were hooked on the edge of the pocket and her rear was in the air with her tail waving merrily. There was obviously something interesting in that pocket. She came out a moment later with something in her mouth and climbed calmly back to her original perch. Hagrid had been watching her with amusement from the time she had dived into his pocket.
As soon as she reached her original perch, Ranma took whatever she had found out of her mouth and released it in mid-air. The watchers were surprised when they realized that she had found a Snitch. They watched her bat at it and were unsurprised when it flew away.
What surprised them was that Ranma launched herself off of Hagrid's shoulders, twisted in mid-air, and batted at it again. She did this repeatedly as she played with the tiny golden ball. It never seemed to get out of her reach, even when it flew about twenty feet off the ground. Ranma would just settle back slightly, and launch herself at it once more. Whenever she did that, the Snitch would fly closer to the ground, before suddenly shooting up again. Each time it shot up, it would get a little higher, but Ranma would bat it down again every time.
> > > > > > >
AN: I have seen many of the 'Ranma becomes a cat' stories, and some of them are even crossovers. In these crossovers, I don't think I have seen anybody do a 'Ranma becomes a cat' combined with 'Ranma goes to Hogwarts'. Usually if Ranma is at Hogwarts it is because somebody noticed that he is a wizard and sent a letter for him to Nerima. I like some of the 'Ranma goes to Hogwarts as a student' fics, but I wanted something more original.
Somebody asked if it was a crossover, and obviously the answer is yes. Unfortunately, I don't know Gold Digger very well, so I did this instead.
AN2: People have been complaining that I have not made it clear that time passed between Jusenkyo and the first chapter. If the change I made doesn't make this clear, then I am sorry but I am not going to rewrite my story to try to accomodate everyone. It doesn't work, and I refuse to give myself headaches trying.