A/N: Yes, I know, it's CatJetRat's way of starting a story. That's because I, CatJetRat, AM writing the story. Princesspepper is having a bit of trouble with writer's block on this story, and since I'm not, I suggested that I just write this chapter and she can write the fifth. So we're switching. However, you should check out Princesspepper's story 'Russian Roulette', the story she's writing on her own account. I'll probably be starting another story on my own account soon too, so when it comes, check it out. Anyway, I'll be writing this story from Harry's POV. Princesspepper and I agreed that that would be the best way to do it, since I've already established Harry and she's already established Draco. So I hope y'all enjoy this fourth chapter of 'What Once Was a Boy'. Adios!
-CatPrincess
(CatJetRat)
Chapter 4
The Morning After
Harry's POV
I rolled over in bed, having had a lovely dream about chocolate-covered sundaes. I shifted, feeling slightly uncomfortable, and buried my face in the soft, furry comforter. Hang on…the comforter wasn't furry….
"Potter," snarled a muffled voice from underneath me. "If you do not get off of me now, I will be forced to introduce you to my ten best friends."
My eyes popped open and I saw ten very pointy claws FAR too close to my eyes. I gave a little shriek and jerked off of Malfoy SO fast that I fell off of the bed. Malfoy snickered, curling up.
"Honestly," he murmured, closing his eyes. "If I had known claws scared you so much I would have grown them willingly.
My eyes narrowed and I jumped up grumpily. My head hurt, since when I had fallen on the floor, I had hit my head. I grabbed the covers, which Malfoy was lying on, and jerked them towards me.
"MREOW!" Malfoy screamed as he fell off of the bed. I burst out laughing at the sight of flailing cat limbs tangled in the shredding green comforter.
Malfoy snarled at me and stalked into the bathroom, slamming the door shut with a back paw. I rolled my eyes, repaired the blanket with a quick flick of my wand, and remade the bed. I stretched out on the newly made bed and snuggled deeply into my pillow. I heard a door open.
"Okay, Potter, your turn," Malfoy said. I rolled over and had to quickly stifle my laughter at the sight of a big wet tiger, with drooping whiskers and soggy fur.
"You do realize that it is going to take forever for you to dry," I commented, amused.
"Not if you dry me with your wand," Malfoy said pompously. "Come on, Potter. Give it a flick."
I was sorely tempted to set him on fire, and say, "Hope you're dry enough now." but I refrained.
"Stop telling me what to do," I replied instead.
"You heard what Snape said. You're supposed to be my arms and legs. And my…" he eyed my crotch. "…wand."
My eyes widened to the size of saucers at the implication of this statement, and I quickly dried him with my wand before disappearing into the bathroom, not failing to notice Malfoy's evil smirk at having gotten his way.
What a psycho….I thought, undressing.
After my shower, I changed into my school robes, which I'd hung up in the bathroom the day before, and walked back out into our room.
"Merlin, you took long enough," Malfoy grumbled. "What are you, a bloody girl?"
"Well, if I was, maybe we'd finally have something in common," I retorted.
Malfoy's tail began flicking back and forth dangerously. "Are you implying something, Potter?"
"No," I said innocently. "Are you hungry? Let's go down to breakfast."
At this, Draco forgot about my previous comment and started moaning about how all the carbs we'd consumed the night before were going to go straight to his hips, and that his once-fabulous body had better be every inch as fabulous as it had been, or it was me he'd be eating for breakfast.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Malfoy," I said, annoyed, and gave him a quick shove towards the door. He looked highly affronted at being cut off, and ignored, and snarled at me, before prancing away pompously with his tail in the air.
"He makes a great cat," I muttered under my breath. "Spoiled, self-absorbed, and whiny."
As if to prove my point, Malfoy chose that moment to whine, "Hurry up, Potter! I'm hungry!"
I sighed, and followed him down to the Great Hall, where I was greeted by the sympathetic faces of my friends. Quite a few people were staring when we walked into the hall, but the people's stares were that of curiosity, not abject fear, or horror. So Dumbledore must have explained everything last night. Well, good. I had absolutely no desire to relate to a million different people what had happened today. I was all about just getting through the day without killing Malfoy, or vice versa, and hoping that Snape came up with an antidote quickly, so I would only have to spend minimal time in Malfoy's presence. I flopped down in a seat at the Gryffindor table, however, this seemed to piss Malfoy off.
"What are you doing?" He snapped. "We're eating at my table." He jerked his furry head towards the Slytherin table. I snorted.
"The hell we are."
Malfoy did not seem to appreciate this comment very much, and latched his mouth onto the back of my robes and began to try and forcibly drag me over to the Slytherin table. I, however, was having none of it. I yanked out my wand, and said firmly, "If you don't sit down and shut up right now, I swear to Merlin I will turn you into a toad."
Malfoy stopped tugging on my robes and went pale beneath his whiskers. "A toad?" he croaked out beneath a mouthful of my robes.
"Yes," I said firmly. "A toad with absolutely no hair, and plenty of warts. Hey, maybe you'll get lucky and Neville's toad Trevor will mate with you and you can have little, warty babies."
Apparently this prospect was too horrifying to even comment on, since, a second later, Malfoy let go of my robes and crawled into a seat beside me, tail between his legs like a puppy. Satisfied, I began to chew on his bacon again, and breakfast was almost uneventful. Until, towards the end, Seamus, one of the two openly gay guys in our year in Gryffindor, besides me, came towards me.
"Hey, Seamus, how's it going?" I said, a slight blush covering my cheeks. I had always had a slight crush on Seamus, ever since a relationship with Ginny had made me realize that I was, in fact, gay.
Seamus smiled. "I'm doing okay, how about you?" I blushed even harder, feeling embarrassed that Malfoy was seeing this. But how could I resist Seamus? With his sandy, almost golden hair, and piercing blue eyes, it was a wonder he wasn't already taken.
"Fine," I replied.
"Hey, Harry, I was wondering," Seamus said, and now he was blushing, and biting his lip nervously, in a way that looked absolutely adorable to me. "Tomorrow is a Hogsmeade weekend, and I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me, to like, lunch or something. On a date," he added quickly. "I know you have to deal with Malfoy, but I don't think it'll really matter too much if he's there."
I stared at Seamus, and was sure that my mouth might drop open in surprise if I wasn't careful. "I'd love to," I said quickly.
Seamus grinned, looking relieved. "Awesome. So I'll meet you in the entrance hall, around eleven thirty?"
"Sounds great," I said, grinning in turn.
"See you then," he said, and, squeezing my shoulder quickly, left. I turned back to my breakfast, a silly smile on my face, when I caught Malfoy's less than pleased look.
"What?" I asked.
"'What?'" Malfoy echoed. "What do you mean, 'what'? You just made plans without conferring with me first!"
"So?" I said, feeling uncharacteristically angry. "What the fuck business is it of yours what happens in my social life?"
"I couldn't care less about your social life," Malfoy snapped, though I noticed he wasn't exactly meeting my gaze. "The only thing I care about is that you're supposed to be taking care of me. What the hell am I supposed to do all day while you're out getting laid?"
I flushed red, but defended myself. "It's just a date!" I snapped. "Who ever said it would come to that?"
"Yes, I'm SO sure that all he wants is to discuss your fascinating life. Come on," he sneered.
"Fuck you, Malfoy," I snapped, and, grabbing my bag, began to walk away.
"Potter," Malfoy called out. I stiffened, and then turned around.
"What?" I snarled, whipping around. I vaguely noticed that everyone was staring at us, but at the moment, I didn't give a bleeding fuck. It wasn't like they could understand kitty. "What the hell do you want? I don't need a goddamned mother," I spat. "It's none of your fucking business who I date."
Malfoy had the decency to look abashed. "I'm sorry," he muttered. I stared at him, taken aback. "I just don't like to be ignored, is all."
I contemplated him for a few more minutes, and then nodded. "I accept your apology," I said loftily. I walked back over to him and continued eating breakfast, though I was dreading the day ahead. How the hell was I supposed to get through classes with Malfoy the Insufferable beside me all day?
Just then, to complete my assurance of sunshine and roses for the day, Snape appeared behind me. I swiveled around in my seat, gazing up at him through narrowed eyes. I think he would make a good toad too, I thought.
"Mr. Potter," Snape sneered pompously. "I think you and Mr. Malfoy should know that I have made considerable progress with the potion so far. However, there is much I still need to work out." He paused with an air of superiority, as though I should fall at his feet and worship his magnificent potion abilities. When this, of course, did not happen, he sighed slightly and continued. "I have, however, discovered something interesting about the potion and the samples of hair I took from Mr. Malfoy."
I frowned. I didn't remember any hair removal, but I supposed it must have happened when I wasn't looking. "It seems that the potion, because it was a Blood-Replenishing potion, and yet had tiger hairs in it, has altered Mr. Malfoy's DNA structure in a way that is identical to the way a wizard's DNA structure alters when one undergoes an Animagus transformation after years of study." Snape hesitated, and it seemed as though each word he next spoke was causing him pain. I rather thought he looked constipated. I smirked. Constipation can be fun! I thought in a sing-song voice. "It seems—" and he stressed the word "—that you have inadvertently invented a potion that will do the same thing as Animagus transformations, which take years to figure out." Snape looked severely annoyed. "So, in essence, you have invented a fairly simple potion which will make becoming an Animagus much easier than it has ever been in wizarding history. It needs to be perfected, of course," he added quickly, as though to not give me too much credit. "There is still a flaw in it somewhere, which I won't be able to discover until I fully understand the potion, which makes Mr. Malfoy unable to change back to his human form. However, I feel certain that this will be a fairly simple problem to fix. After I do, Mr. Malfoy will be able to revert back to his cat form and human form whenever he wishes, exactly like an Animagus. " Snape gave a deep, deep sigh. "After I fix the problem, and Mr. Malfoy, I will register the potion with the Ministry, and it is likely that you will be able to gain a lot of money by selling the potion. It is a lot like Polyjuice Potion, I suspect. The wizard will merely have to add the hairs of the animal they wish to change into, and then swallow it." Snape glared at me, as though angry with me for daring to invent such a potion. "I will, of course, share half of the revenue, for fixing your foolish mistake." I bowed my head in agreement, not about to argue with him. He nodded curtly, then added, in a pained voice, "Ten points to Gryffindor for pure foolishness. Seventy points to Slytherin for being a test subject," he added, and looked rather relieved. He swept away. I grinned at Malfoy. "Cool."
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Cheered by the prospect of being an Animagus, Malfoy was rather subdued, though he did try to bite me when I teased him about liking the thought of being a pussy.
I went to bed that night feeling very happy, and, for the first time in two days, convinced that everything might be all right.
Merlin, was I in loony land.
A/N: I cannot believe how long that took me to write. And it's still only four pages long. Well, maybe it'll get us over our road block. Read and Review! Adios!
-CatPrincess
(CatJetRat)
