Chapter Eight!
Whilst Harry was waiting for his friends in the Great Hall Hermione was in the Gryffindor Tower's girls' dormitory, waiting for Harry and Ron to get up. As she waited she was thinking about her best male friend Harry Potter. Over the summer he had changed, in her opinion, for the better. His confidence had, well now that she thought about it he seemed confident for the first time she'd known him without having to be forced into a deadly situation. She could also sense another deeper change within him, he seemed to be an amalgamation of several different animals. She could sense feline, canine, equine, reptile and bird, which confused her greatly.
She found it difficult to pin down the types of animals because the ability to sense multiple animals within a person was something new to her and the ability to sense any animal within a person was something new to the Wizarding World. She had been a 'normal' witch untilher second year but she had gained the ability after her misfortune with the Polyjuice Potion during the Christmas break of that year. She had returned home from her second year when it first surfaced and with it she had changed into a cat/human hybrid. She had looked on in shock at her new appearance, the first most notable change was that she was completely covered in a soft dark orange, almost brown, fur, the next was her head. It had become more cat-like, her eyes had changed to be slatted, which she later she discovered had improved her night vision, her nose had shrunk, turning more cat-like in appearance and fortunately her ears, whilst turning more pointy, had stayed on the side of her head and she had grown a two foot tail which crinkled when she was stressed; which was a very familiar sight for the first few weeks of her transformation. When it happened her parents had wanted the full story of what REALLY happened at Hogwarts for the last two years. They'd never asked for details before because of the many things that they wouldn't understand because of it being the magical world; something they weren't even remotely familiar with. But after not hearing from her for a few months and now her becoming a Catgirl, they wanted the full story.
As Hermione remembered that day, she released a sad sigh as she remembered how she had almost not returned to Hogwarts at the beginning of the third year. Once she had told her parents about the troll, saving the philosopher's stone, being petrified, and many other, smaller things, they were less than thrilled at what happened to their daughter. So, after hearing all this, it was no surprise to Hermione that her parents wanted nothing more than to pull her out of Hogwarts, find someone to try and heal Hermione, and have nothing to do with magic ever again.
However, in a long talk, Hermione explained that she couldn't just leave the magical world as there were laws in place forbidding anyone that had started Hogwarts from leaving until they had done their OWL's. The laws had been put in place so that all children would be able to have at least the start of a magical education ensuring they stood a chance within the magical world. Hermione was less than honest, however, and 'forgot' to mention that it wasn't Hogwarts she had to return to, just a magical school.
Hermione had gone on to explain to her parents that there might not be a way to heal her but that the first thing they should do would be to send a letter to Madam Pomfrey to see if she could, if not help them, at least point them in the right direction. Hermione knew how half-breeds in the magical world were treated so she had hoped that there was a cure. Even if there wasn't, she knew she needed to return to Hogwarts because whilst she was there she would be protected from the majority of the persecution and discrimination, after all,she couldn't exactly go out and about in the Muggle world looking the way she did.
Once Madam Pomfrey received the letter she had arrived at her home within minutes and began diagnosing the problem. After casting numerous spells the school healer informed her that she wasn't able to reverse the transformation and asked if she could call in an expert healer that specialized in transformations as long as confidentiality was ensured. The expert, however, was no more help than Madam Pomfrey, she did however theorise that because the cat hair was likely from a Kneazle, it was possible that the animals innate magic had affected the potion. The method Madam Pomfrey used to reverse the transformation the first time, whist the correct procedure in any other circumstance, wouldn't be a permanent fix; working for shorter and shorter periods until it no longer worked at all.
A week after Madam Pomfrey left Hermione had experienced the wonders of being a woman, as she had every month since two months after her twelfth birthday, and was curled up in her bed, where she planned to stay for the day. The cramps had been particularly painful and she wanted more than anything to make them go away. She suddenly felt herself shifting and her hope grew that she was becoming fully human again so the cramps, which she could only guess were worse because of her hybrid status, would go away. The pain went away, but Hermione found herself less than two feet tall and not even remotely human. She also suddenly felt warm and strange. Well, stranger than she thought she should anyway.
Hermione's parents had wasted no time after seeing their daughter turn fully into a cat in calling the school nurse once more. After examining Hermione again as a cat, Madam Pomfrey had come up with a potion that would assist in helping her to shift from cat to hybrid and hopefully hybrid to human. The potion wouldn't allow her to instantly change into a human or cat but with practice Madam Pomfrey hoped she could learn how to. She also went on to explain to Hermione that if she turned into a cat when having her menstrual cycle, she would go into heat, hence the strange warmth she was feeling and the inability to think straight. She warned her that as she got older the feeling and impulses would get more pronounced, but that she would look into developing a potion to suppress these feeling and stop the random shifting into her cat form when menstruating. She was also given a yearlong potion to ensure that she wouldn't get pregnant if she had sex in her cat form after forgetting to take her monthly potion.
With the potions she was quickly learned to shift to her fully human form again, her cat-girl form, and even her Kneazle form for which she was very thankful. Holding them though, was another matter. Basically, she was now a Human/Kneazle hybrid with two Animagus forms and like any Animagus transformation, holding the form took practice. The Catgirl form was her default form and although she could stay in her human form as long as she liked in ideal conditions, when she got worked up enough, she would revert to that form, which was very dangerous depending on where she was. This also happened when extreme emotions came into play, so on the advice of Madam Pomfrey, after having been told of the problem, she started to learn the basics of Occlumency.
It took a few weeks and a lot of effort but she was finally able to control her extreme emotions so that she wouldn't transform back into her default form; the Catgirl. It was a bit odd not being able to be as happy as she wanted to be about some things, but she got over it when she stayed human, usually. Her shields were, although not the best that they could be, as it would take a while to do so, the best that were needed to keep her mind completely safe. The reason that they weren't better was that she just didn't have the knack for the mind arts and the emotion caps weren't very powerful. She had to consciously focus on them for them to work. Not a lot, but considering when exactly she needed them it was going to take some time to get used to strengthening them at a moment's notice.
A month after her initial transformation Madam Pomfrey returned with the potion as promised and so her subsequent periods were easier to deal with. As the summer passed for Hermione she started to feel emotions that weren't her own, sensing things she couldn't explain. When she talked to Madam Pomfrey the woman explained that she suspected that because Kneazleswere empathic creatures, Hermione might have gained their abilities too. So over the summer she had to learn the difference between her own emotions and other people's. Three weeks before the end of the summer she and her parents went to France for a holiday, thanks to her control over herself reaching the point where she could be in public for long periods of time.
Over the next year, her life got somewhat crazy, all thanks to the time-turner, learning to handle her life as a cat-girl and the general craziness that happened by being friends with Harry Potter. In the beginning everything was fine, but by Christmas she had gotten in over her head. She had thought that she could handle all the classes, but sadly she was finding if difficult, even with the time-turner. It didn't help that she'd made a big mistake that almost ruined her friendship with her best friend Harry: she had gone behind his back and reported that he had gotten a Firebolt to Professor McGonagall. She had thought she was doing what was right, seeing that at the time everyone had thought that Sirius Black wanted to kill him and sending a broom could be a good way to get to Harry. The problem was that she didn't talk to Harry first and explain it to him. She had thought that he might not listen to her and had figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. It was one of those times she crossed a line with him and she regretted it as it had damaged their friendship. Never having had a proper friend until the age of eleven had left her ignorant of certain lines you don't cross; something that hadn't truly made itself apparent until then.
With taking so many classes, helping Hagrid in Buckbeak's defence because of what he did to Malfoy, and not talking to her friends for a while had caused things to become too much for her resulting in her forgetting to take her monthly potion to help with her stay in human form while she went through her period. So on the day that she had her period, she turned into a Kneazle; a Kneazle that was in heat in a school full of other cats. Normally at home it wouldn't be a problem as she would hide in her bed shutting everything out of her room, but at Hogwarts she had Crookshanks and things didn't go too smoothly. When she saw Crookshanks she had bolted out of the Gryffindor Tower and had hoped she could find a hiding place away from any other cats. But it wasn't to be, as Crookshanks caught up to her, forced her to submit to him and the fucked her.
It was very painful when Crookshanks pushed his cock into her, a spike broke off, hurting like hell and no matter how much she wriggled or tried to free herself it only caused him to fuck her harder and faster until she felt the hot splash of his seed within her.
The strange thing was that when he finished with her, although she was sore and embarrassed about it, both because of what happened and that her first time was being raped by a cat, she found that she liked the feeling of pain during the mating. So, curious and wanting to experience the sensation again, she allowed Crookshanks to mate with her a few times and after a few matings, she'd gotten used to the pain, come not enjoy it even, so she realized this was why normal female cats kept on having sex. After a while, though, she grew bored with Crookshanks. Although she enjoyed what she was doing, there was something missing, it felt empty and hollow. She wasn't sure what it was, though, but she suspected that it was because Crookshanks wasn't what see wanted in a mate, be it in cat form or in human form. She decided, however, until she found that something that was missing, she would continue what she was doing as even the increasingly hollow pleasure was better than spending her time in human form while she was experiencing her period, so she was grateful for the escape.
By the end of her third year the sex was becoming more of a chore even though it kept her from going insane from the stress she found herself under. She, Harry and Ron had found out the truth about Sirius Black and about who actually betrayed Harry's parents and killed the twelve Muggles; Peter Pettigrew. Frustratingly. Pettigrew was able to escape before they could take him to the Headmaster so that Sirius could be freed. Thanks to both the Minister of Magic and Professor Snape, Sirius, with Harry's and her help, had to make a run for it. It also shook her trust in authority figures, she now saw that some authority figures shouldn't be trusted blindly and she hoped that Sirius would be okay and one day she hoped that Sirius would be free and be with Harry, which would make Harry happy. It was the one thing Hermione always wanted, to see Harry happy and safe, as she had a crush on Harry, but was too afraid to say anything.
The summer passed slowly and monotonously, she'd spent time with her family, who all went to Italy shortly before she stayed with the Weasleys for the World Cup. The only real unique thing that happened was she kept taking her potions so she wouldn't go into heat. But that didn't mean that she stopped mating with Crookshanks altogether, oh no, it just meant that it didn't happen every other day, instead she would have a mating once or twice on the weekends, or when she had her periods, as it was better than spending her time in human form while. Plus, she enjoyed having sex too much to stop. It might be boring, but boring sex was better than no sex at all.
Thinking back to only a couple of days ago on the Hogwarts Express she realized the first time she'd noticed something different about Harry was when Crookshanks had awoken about an hour into the journey from the sleep that he had been so engrossed in since leaving her home. He'd leapt up onto her lap from where he'd been napping on the floor and then hissed loudly at Harry.
Thanks to the abilities from her Kneazle side Hermione could feel that Crookshanks had seen Harry as a threat and someone who might try and take what he thought was 'his'. Hermione had thrown him into his cage and told him firmly they would be talking later. Harry had given her a strange look, but if it was because she was actually punishing Crookshanks for once or if it was that she was being so severe, from his perspective, she couldn't tell. She didn't know why Crookshanks was like this, sure Harry and he didn't get along, but Crookshanks had never acted like this before, so she had to wonder why he'd started now. It wasn't until sometime later that she realized that Harry felt different and clicked as to why Crookshanks felt threatened, there was a more powerful feline about and he was worried that Harry would take her from him and being honest with herself, she could only hope he did so.
As Hermione thought about how these changes could have happened, a new piece of the Harry puzzle revealed itself, Harry had talked her down, argued with her even, with confidence and logic. This surprised her as Harry had never done this before, he'd never had the confidence or balls and she had to wonder where his new attitude came from. Before, he would let her be so as not to anger her and keep away from the spotlight.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Ron coming down from the boys' dorms, surprised that Harry wasn't behind him. "Ron, where's Harry? Is he still in bed?" Hermione asked, concerned, Harry never left her and Ron behind before.
"No, I thought he was down here," Ron said, confused, "Do ya think he went down for breakfast already?"
"I don't know," She replied, "It is possible, but he hasn't done it before. Come on, let's go down and see if he's there, if not, we'll look in the Hospital Wing, just in case he didn't feel well during the night and went there." And with that the two of them went to the Great Hall.
o0OoO0o
As Ron and Hermione reached the Great Hall and looked at the Gryffindor Table they found a teenager that they'd never seen before. He had black hair, was rather muscular, having a body that any man would love to have, and he was wearing a pair of shorts and a white shirt. Although confused as to who he could be, Hermione couldn't help to look at him lustfully, he made her wet. She could feel that he was very powerful, something ladies also looked for in a boyfriend if possible. So she decided that when she found out who this young man was she would work on getting him into her around the Great Hall, she saw that she would be having competition for her goal, if the lustful looks on several of the female students were anything to go by.
Ron and other boys/young men were giving the unknown teen jealous looks, not only were the girls/young ladies looking at him lustfully, but he was giving off a powerful aura making it known that he wasn't someone they should piss off.
As Ron and Hermione got closer to the unknown teen, Hermione began to feel the same thing she sensed yesterday and for the last year or so. To make sure what she was feeling was right, she looked up at his forehead. Sure enough, she saw what she was looking for, a lightning bolt scar. "Harry, is that you?" She asked.
"Hi Hermione, Ron," Harry greeted as he looked up from eating his breakfast, "Sorry I didn't wait up for you but I just finished my morning run, something I started this summer. By the end of it I was hungry, so I came here for something to eat rather than going back up to the tower."
"Harry, mate, what happened to you?" Ron asked, confused, not knowing what was going on. For the last few weeks he'd looked like a weak and small boy like he used to be, but seemingly overnight he changed and neither him nor Hermione knew why. Although Ron was even more jealous of Harry, as now he rich, powerful, great looking and had every girl looking at him lustfully. It seemed to Ron that Harry was getting everything that he wanted. But what he didn't get, was that he had what Harry wanted, a family. Everything Harry had he worked for, aside from some bits of inheritance he hadn't used much of.
"Oh, a wizard named Patrick Footman, who liked to be called Padfoot knocked some sense into me," Harry explained. Although Ron didn't seem to get the point as he emphasized the name Padfoot, by the shocked look on Hermione face he suspected she did. But before she could say anything he continued, "After a long talk where I realized I could do better than I already was he put me on some potions, made sure I exercisedand knew my studies back to front. All in all, after everything that he did, caused what you now see in front of you. The reason you hadn't seen any changes until this morning is that I had a bracelet on that hid my changes, as it would look strange to the Muggles if I suddenly changed so rapidly. The bracelet was designed so that it wouldn't wear off until today and, to be honest, I didn't say anything because with everything that happened over the summer I kinda forgot all about it." He admitted sheepishly.
"Well, I have to say this summer has been good for you, Harry," Hermione said with a blush.
Before anyone could say anything else Professor McGonagall entered the Great Hall and walked over to her House's table. As she got to where they were seated she gave out the timetables and, looking at Harry, said, "Mr. Potter, I've seen Professor Babbling and she agreed to test you in the third year of Ancient Runes this Saturday and have your results back to you by Sunday, so that if you pass you can join her class next week instead of waiting."
"Thank you, Professor,"Harry smiled, "I'll try and not let you or Professor Babbling down."
"That's all we can ask for, Mr. Potter, that you try your best." The Deputy Headmistress replied, "Anyway, I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall at nine thirty. Do you need me to transfigure some robes for you or do you have something to wear?"
"Would you mind transfiguring some robes for me?" Harry asked, "I haven't got any robes big enough for me anymore."
"Not a problem, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said, "I'll see you shortly." and left to hand out the rest of the schedules for her house.
"What was that about, mate?" Ron asked.
"Well, Patrick got me thinking about classes, and he made me realize that Divination just wasn't the right class for me." Harry said with a shake of his head, "The class wouldn't do me any good for the future but by taking Ancient Runes instead I'll be given more of a choice in which jobs I can do when I finish Hogwarts. He also made me realize that I had to do better in class and that's why I won't be slacking off this year, I want to do my best, so I won't be letting my parents down."
Ron was shocked that Harry would drop an easy class. Sure it might give him better job opportunities but he was the Boy-Who-Lived and as the Boy-Who-Lived the truth was he could walk into any job he wanted. What he didn't realize was that even if Harry did that, he would still have needed to learn the skills to do the job properly. Hermione felt a rush of pride that her friend was finally taking his classes happened this past summer, she was glad, as it awakened Harry's true potential and she couldn't wait to see what else Harry would do now, as by the looks of things he wouldn't be holding back as he used to.
Before either of Ron or Hermione could say anything, Harry stood up and said, "If you'll excuse me, I need to get cleaned up before meeting up with Professor McGonagall." and then quickly left to have a shower before meeting up with Professor McGonagall, where she would give him some robes before they left for Diagon Alley.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Authors Note:Here is another chapter of Mishap, I hope that you like the chapter and I hope you'll review and let me know what you thought and any ideas you would like to see in the story.
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