Excitement bubbled up in her stomach as Hermione relished the prospect of being able to surprise her partner with her presence. Officially the conference she had been attending in France was not supposed to end for another two days but she had been able to leave early since the last of the charms speakers had already presented and it was only for the charms portion of the conference that she had been attending to begin with. Typically Flitwick handled these conferences because Hermione did not appreciate spending the extended period away from her lovely Scottish witch. Flitwick had begged off of this one, however, since it also happened to be at the same time as a heavily anticipated dueling match he had managed to secure tickets to. Hermione was the logical next choice considering she was a charms mistress in her own right even if she didn't hold a post at Hogwarts as a teacher. Her department at the ministry was more than happy to sign off on the conference since it was in her field and, even more importantly, Hogwarts was footing the bill for her travels.
Smiling happily to herself, Hermione adjusted the bouquet of roses in her arms and placed her hand against the panel concealing the entrance to the chambers she and her wife shared. Minerva used to have a rather irritating portrait guarding the entrance but after the wizard in it had made one too many lewd comments about the relationship between the two witches despite various threats of turpentine and flames, they had removed it. Now the entrance was the wards flared slightly and then dropped enough to allow her access. Her smile widened as she guarded by nothing other than special wards. With the touch of her hand against the panel door, she crossed the threshold and just as quickly the smile that had been forming on her face turned to horrified confusion. The instant she had stepped completely inside she had evidently also crossed some kind of silencing charm and could now hear at full volume the sounds of yowling, hissing, and growling. Hermione rushed towards the sounds, desperately worried for her beloved Crookshanks and fearing that perhaps he had somehow been injured while Minerva was out. She stopped dead in her tracks when she rounded the corner of the entryway to see on the stone floor a circle painted in red and inside of it were four cats. One she recognized as Mrs. Norris, another as a cat belonging to one of the seventh year Slytherins, and the other two as Crookshanks and Mrs. Norris. Seated outside of the circle were somewhere between a half dozen and a full dozen cats that she knew belonged to other students at Hogwarts. They were all meowing loudly as if egging on what was happening. Crookshanks had just leapt up and pinned Mrs. Norris to the ground with a loud growl, his tail poofed up enough that it looked like it had been struck by lightning. Minerva, still in tabby cat form, pounced on the other cat, pinning it too to the stone floor. The animagus and the half-kneazle locked eyes for a brief moment before lowering their teeth to the necks of their opponents and letting out a fierce growl in unison. Mrs. Norris and the other cat went limp at this before giving half-hearted meows and being let up from their positons on the floor.
A loud thump as Hermione dropped the roses she had been holding. Her fingers had loosened her their grip without conscious thought and it seemed the muscles which usually would have kept her mouth closed had also given up as her jaw dropped open.
The floral arrangement's death defying drop had caught the attention of the assembled cats and a chorus of meows was all that was heard as they beat a hasty retreat. One tabby cat and one orange half-kneazle were the only felines that remained. They seemed to share a look as if debating which one of them would be responsible for handling the shell-shocked witch they shared ownership of. In the end it was Minerva who approached, shifting mid-stride from cat to woman and offering her wife a hesitant smile.
"Minerva, what in Merlin's saggy arse was that?" Hermione spluttered out.
Minerva smiled serenely at her wife, quite enjoying how adorable she looked when she was confused. She opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a hiss from Crookshanks. She frowned nodded at him, "Yes, you're quite right."
"Minerva?" Hermione's last thread of sanity was desperately in search of answers by now.
"Ah, I'm afraid, Hermione, that as Crookshanks has just reminded me. The first rule of Cat Fight Club is that you never discuss cat fight club. How about you tell me about your conference? And I'll sort out the flowers."