Chapter 2

            Ron and Hermione were worried.  Actually, Hermione was worried; Ron was watching a fly circle his head.

            "Ron, do you have idea where Harry is?" she asked worriedly.

            "Nope," Ron replied, still watching the fly.

            A Ravenclaw named Terry Boot burst into their compartment excitedly.  "There's a pile of robes on the ground and some glasses with the Head Boy badge attached!" he exclaimed and ran over to the next compartment to tell them, too.

            Hermione was shocked.  Ron was still watching the fly.

            "What was Harry doing running around in the nude?" Neville asked, since he was sharing a compartment with the two of them.  Luna Lovegood carefully folded her latest copy of The Quibbler and went to fetch Harry's robes.

            "If you ask me," Ginny said, "there's no good place to go skinny dipping around here, so I don't know why he bothered."

            Little did they know, Harry was very close by.  He was actually right under Ginny's seat and had quite forgotten his predicament of being a cat and was busily admiring the view of under her skirts.

            Crookshanks, sensing another male cat around, leapt off Hermione's lap and became very territorial, beginning to spray things, like Ron's ankles.  Ron just watched the fly.  He had always smelled a little funny, anyway.

            "Crookshanks!" Hermione gasped, grabbing her cat around the middle.  "What has gotten into you?"

            Crookshanks hissed at Ginny's legs and Harry bolted out from under the seat.  Unfortunately, his escape route was cut off, because the compartment door was shut.

            "Aww!  How cute!" exclaimed Ginny, grabbing Harry around the middle.  "I wonder who he belongs to?"

            "What do you think I am, a pet?" Harry hissed.  But all anybody else heard was a hiss.

            "You should go around the compartments to see who he belongs to," Luna said, walking in with Harry's abandoned clothes.

            "Hey!  Those are mine!" yowled Harry.  He tried to reach out for Luna, but Ginny held him uncomfortably tight.  At any other time, Harry would have loved to be held in such a way by a girl when he was naked, but this was not the time… or the place.

            "Okay," Ginny replied and slid open the compartment door.

            She walked into the first compartment on the train.  It was filled with Slytherins.  Among them were Draco Malfoy and his cronies, accompanied by Pansy Parkinson and her cronies.

            Ginny was disgusted, but asked the lot of them anyway.  "Is this your cat?"

            Draco eyed the cat a moment then burst out into laughter.  Unable to think by themselves, so did the rest of the compartment.  Ginny thought they were laughing at her, so she stuck her nose in the air and marched off.  Harry had never been so embarrassed in his life.

            So Ginny wandered into the next compartment.  This one was filled with Ravenclaws, quietly reading to themselves.

            "Is this your cat?" Ginny asked, holding Harry up by the armpits.  Harry did not like being held this way.  He yowled.

            The Ravenclaws politely shook their heads and continued with their reading.  So Ginny went to the next compartment, which was filled with Hufflepuffs.

            "Is this your cat?" she inquired, holding Harry in that uncomfortable way, again.  He yowled again.

            "No," one of the Hufflepuffs replied.  The rest shook their heads.

            "But he is rather adorable!" one of the girls squealed, patting Harry on the head.  Harry hissed at the girl.

            "Poor thing," murmured the girl.

            "I am not a thing!" Harry meowed.  "I am a human being!"

            So Ginny went into the next compartment.  This one was filled with Gryffindors.

            "Is this your cat?" she asked her fellow classmates.

            The Gryffindors were playing Exploding Snap.  As she asked them whether Harry was their cat or not, the whole deck of cards exploded in their faces.

            "Nope," one of the boys replied.  "Cats are sissy animals, anyway."

            Harry growled and tried to scratch the boy's face, but Ginny pulled him away.  Then she went into the next compartment.  And the next.  And the next.  Until finally, there were no more compartments left to check.  Then Ginny went back to their own compartment with a very harassed Harry.

            "Any luck?" Neville inquired.

            "No," Ginny replied, shaking her head.

            "You should keep him," Hermione replied.  "He and Crookshanks can be good friends!"

            Crookshanks growled at Harry.  Ron watched the fly.

            "I'll call him Chester!" Ginny exclaimed, squeezing Harry so that he thought his guts would come out of his mouth, vowing someday to kill Malfoy.