Hello hello! I noticed I will be absolutely busy tomorrow and on Friday (my usual update day), so I decided to treat you and upload a little bit earlier! Yay!
Howeverrr, from next week onwards we'll be back to the usual schedule.

On another note, I wanted to recommend to you, my wonderful FFN fanbase, to consider taking a peek at the other fanfiction site, Archive Of Our Own. You can download fics on multiple formats (including mobi for Kindle!) and I find it easier to navigate and interact with the fandom of the fic you're reading. Plus, there's a lot of great Dramione content as well that's not on this site! That means MOAR FUEL for these trying times.

Lastly, please consider following me on Twitter. I regularly interact with my followers, share tons of art, fics and sometimes even sneak peeks of future chapters! An art commission for this very fic is also on the works, and you'll get to see it there first. Go to /denkinokofics

Have a wonderful rest of the week and please stay safe!

Draco's morning hadn't been half bad. Truth was, he'd had such low expectations of his Eighth Year that everything had gone way better than what his wild imagination had come up with. He'd had a decent Charms class with his mates, an all right double Herbology with Blaise and a somewhat dull mandatory Muggle Studies lesson with Theo. Both of them were the only Slytherins there — as per Wizengamot's ruling —, and they'd sadly received scathing glances from the other handful of students in the room. However, Draco barely noticed them, for his thoughts were filled with Lilith.

He'd never had a cat before, so he was wondering whether he should buy some special food, routinely ask the Elves for different kinds of meat or thinking about what kind of bed he should buy her. A nice collar would be perfect as well, so that no other student took her away, thinking she had no owner.

Lilith was his now, and he was hers. He hoped she'd come around and be less wary around him in the future, but he supposed she'd take her time, being a stray. He promised himself to be patient on her behalf.

"Draco, I swear on Salazar's bollocks that I will not lend you my notes if you keep on looking out the window."

Theo's voice brought him back from his daydream, in which he was choosing the most exquisite accessories for his new familiar. With one quick glance at the clock he noticed the class was about to finish, and his parchment was as blank as it had been at the beginning of the lesson.

"Fuck me."

"I'd rather not, dear, but if you let me keep Lilith I'll consider it seriously" Theo answered with a smile on his face. Meanwhile, a stern-looking Ravenclaw sitting in front of them bid them a murderous look before turning her head back to the board. They'd been through similar experiences for long enough, so they went through the motions of ignoring her automatically.

Draco let out an angry sigh, his cheeks turning a bright pink colour. "How many times have I told you not to-"

"Joke about prostitution. I know, I'm sorry" Theo excused himself with a sheepish downwards glance. "It's hard to forget when you grow up around people who enjoy those so much."

The blond knew very well what his friend was talking about. Pureblood males were keen on sexist customs, including joking about serious matters such as prostitution or rape, but those from Voldemort's inner circle even more so. Draco had been like that as the beginning as well, until he was invited to take part in the revels. After stomaching all the sights and sounds, occluding until he thought he was going to faint and vomiting for an hour after everything was done, he had vowed to never undermine others' suffering.

"Fine. Try harder" he bit back, chasing away the many horrors that frequented his nightmares.

Their new teacher, Mrs. Figg, bid them farewell with a kind look and wished them well. "See you on Wednesday," she said, landing her gaze momentarily at the duo of Slytherins with a tiny smile.

Draco nodded courtly and began gathering his unused supplies to place them inside his bag. To Theo's amusement, he had done so without the use of magic, most probably still adjusting to recently having his wand back. He decided against mentioning it, for he was sure it would bring his friend sorrow, so he decided to divert his attention in order to prevent him from noticing as well.

"All right, kitchens or Great Hall?" he asked, putting his things away without magic as well.

"Kitchens, I need to get something for Lilith" Draco answered, placing the strap of his bag around his shoulder and practically darting towards the door.

"Can I come?" Theo followed with a skip in his step. "I wanna play with her!"

"Be my guest, but you tell Blaise it was your idea when he gets all drama king."

Turns out such conflict was avoided easily, for said wizard was waiting in front of the Head dorms when they arrived with another basket of food, courtesy of Blinky. He was leaning against the wall, with a look that told them he already knew they were coming back.

"I call firsts with Lillith!" Theo exclaimed, all but running inside as soon as the painting allowed them entry. Curiously enough, the Wise Ones hadn't let Blaise inside without Draco, which was a calming thought for him. Theo was bound to steal Lilith more than once if they did.

"You think McGonagall will let me change rooms? I mean, I could be Head Girl."

"No way, I already escaped from your snores and you want to curse me with them again? I'd rather take Blaise" Draco answered in jest, setting the basket on the countertop as the latter fixed the table for four. All the while, Theo made a beeline towards the windowsill, where a sleeping Lilith made an annoyed sound, clearly bothered about being woken up from her nap.

"Hello, girl! How are you feeling?" he cooed, slowly bringing his open hand closer to her. However, he couldn't get close enough, for she growled at the sight of him. He raised his eyebrows at her warning, clearly surprised at the change of attitude.

"Look, Drake, she's feeling better!" Theo beckoned, half-whispering, half-shouting to his friends. Blaise sniggered from behind, thoroughly enjoying the Slytherin Prince's face of disbelief.

"You're the only idiot I know who would enjoy being attacked by a female," Draco said with a smirk, setting Lilith's chicken on the plate right next to his.

At that, Theo turned around with a smirk of his own.

"I distinctly recall someone being thoroughly happy at having his arse handed to him by Granger in Third Year."

"No, I wasn't!" Draco sputtered indignantly, botching his attempt at transfiguring a glass into a water bowl for Lilith.

Behind Theo, Lilith looked at him with a curious shine in her eyes.

"Oh mate, she's interested! Aren't you, Lil'?" Blaise asked from a respectful distance, watching as she settled down carefully on the ledge again, turning to face him at his question.

"Don't you dare-"

"Oh, hush, you party pooper, it's not like she's going to tell Granger. Look! Her eyes are positively glistening in excitement!" Theo practically squealed, accioing his plate and a sandwich from the basket. Then, with another flick of his wand, he moved one of the settees to face Lilith and sat down gingerly. Seeing as the three of them shared one brain cell more often than not, Blaise also accioed his food before settling himself right next to Theo.

Lilith's tail flicked back and forth in anticipation, ignoring Draco's exasperated groan from the other side of the room.

"Okay, so as you probably know, one of your owners' names is Draco Malfoy. That's the blond git over there," Blaise pointed a thumb behind his back without looking away from the enraptured feline, "and he has been desperately in love with a witch since he was eleven years old."

"But because he is a bloody idiot, he never told her how he felt about her. Instead, he completely antagonised her and her two best friends" Theo continued, taking a bite off his meal. Lilith cocked her head at this, silently urging them to continue.

"Don't you look at us like that, it wasn't completely his fault. His dad is a basket case and, well, that's a story for some other time. Thing is," Blaise picked up, "when they were in Third Year, this witch smacked him so hard in the face she broke his nose!" he guffawed, unable to control his laughter. On the other hand, Theo got a hold of himself just enough to finish the story, but barely.

"Oh, the look on his face when he came to us that night was priceless. His ego was so wounded the poor bastard had episkeyed himself and swore his goons to secrecy" he hollered, letting the memories flow and add to his amusement. Next to him, Blaise clutched his stomach, rejoicing in the privacy of a room in which people of their lineage needn't control their every move.

The look of perplexity was back in Lilith's face as she stared blankly in Draco's general direction, seemingly lost in thought.

"Alright, that's quite enough." His voice, filled with the tell-tale iciness of occlumency indicated a finality that not even his best friends dared to defy. Instead, they put the furniture back in its place and treaded to the table without so much as a cough to clear their throats before they resumed their lunch.

As they fixed themselves some dessert, Draco motioned Lilith to come over to them, letting her have as much space as she needed to eat in peace. The last thing he wanted was another bite from her.

"Eat up, Lilith. I'll go see McGonagall before supper so that she can check the pet registry. After that, we can get you a proper bed and collar."

However, Draco never was able to see the Headmistress, for she received an urgent call by the Ministry and would be gone until further notice. In her place, Professor Flitwick remained as a temporary replacement, which did little to quell the Slytherin's worry.

When he visited Flitwick to get a look at the pet registry, he half-expected the Charms master to kick him out. After all, he didn't believe many could be as magnanimous as McGonagall — not even Draco himself had wanted to come back to Hogwarts. Instead, Professor Flitwick greeted him with a polite smile, along with the offering of his renowned dancing cupcakes.

With a quick look at the registry, they found out that no student owned a curly-haired cat, so he promptly inscribed Lilith under his name on the list — a fact that annoyed Theo, who insisted she also belonged to him, which led to Blaise's annoyance towards the fact that clearly Lilith belonged to all three of them.

Alas, he spent the first week of his Eighth Year with his new pet and two best friends, amongst discussions of whose turn it was to feed Lillith, what colour should her bed be and what gem suited her fur the best. Unbeknownst to his friends, though, Draco had written to his mother on the very first day, asking her to contact the Malfoy family's jewelry maker so that he could order a custom-made pet collar made of the finest dragon leather. Attached to it, he commissioned a white gold plaque, embedded with tiny diamonds surrounding an alexandrite — one of his birth stones. On the back, the plaque was engraved with "Lilith — Draco L. Malfoy" in the most exquisite handwriting.

So when her collar arrived on Friday morning and she refused to wear it, saying that Draco was disappointed would have been an understatement. He tried every trick in the book under his friends' watchful but amused glances (even resorting to begging!) to no avail.

In the end, after an hour of unsuccessful trickery, pleading and bribing, it was Theo who convinced her to put it on. Draco never knew exactly how he did it, for as soon as he bent down and whispered something to her, Lilith's ears perked and she gingerly let him place it around her neck.

Her health drastically improved with each passing day. She ate well, slept a lot and mysteriously never soiled anything. He reluctantly let Theo and Blaise pet her somewhat, but was very skittish around Draco.

She took to sleeping on one of the armchairs in front of the fire, even more so on Saturday evening when the trio came back from Hogsmeade with the plushiest, most beautiful purple cushion they could find for her.

Draco hadn't noticed, but by the end of the week, he began needing a couple glasses less of firewhiskey to fall asleep.