Cha-purr 2

Living with Ryoma was wonderful. Sure, the boy was a brat, and he was really obsessed with tennis, but Harry thought he was wonderful. He was always gentle and caring towards Harry –now named Karupin- and he made his father buy him only the best tasting tuna. After practice he would spend hours with Harry, petting him, grooming him, and napping together.

That was something Harry loved. When he was with his relatives, he barely got time to rest except at night. He spent so much time doing chores and running away from his cousin that having the luxury to just find a nice warm sunspot to nap was the greatest thing ever. He could literally walk to any window in the Echizen house and just sleep. No one bothered him, no one woke him up to make him wash the dishes… it was amazing.

It wasn't the first time something weird happened to him. Once he turned his teacher's hair blue! He still doesn't know how he did it. She was being mean and he wished that she felt humiliated like he did and then BOOM! Blue hair! Well there wasn't a BOOM. It was a boooooooom- a very slow change. No one really noticed until the blue seeped to the ends, and then suddenly everyone was laughing. It was a very quiet, slow, gradual boom.

Sure, he spent two days freaking out and running into mirrors as he tried to grow accustomed to his new appearance. He tried to change back but when nothing happened he just walked away and sought out Ryoma for comfort. Granted he didn't try very hard. He was starting to think this magic thing worked on how much he wanted something, and he really didn't want to turn back. He finally found himself a good life. Cat's had the best set up.

He was a cat now and despite his initial reaction, he quite liked it.

Another perk to being a cat that most people didn't talk about, Nanjirou, Ryoma's dad, had bought him toys to play with, Rinko, Ryoma's mother, got him a large fluffy bed, Ryoma spent 30 minutes finding him the perfect collar. He now owned his own toys! He never used the bed though. Ryoma always carried him to his bed so they could sleep together. The first few times he had been nervous and felt strange, but then he realized how comfortable it was sleeping with someone. He probably should have felt weirder about being a cat and now belonging to a family, but like most of his life he just rolled with it -after lots of counting of course.

Of course, the biggest issue was the litter box. He could accept the ears and tail. He already loved the reflexes. He even got over the whole licking thing, hairballs and all but… the litter box was too weird.

It was there out in the open. Anyone could walk by and watch him use the loo. There was no door, no privacy- just him, the box, and an audience. Dudley liked to go with the door open, not caring who walked by. Sometimes Aunt Petunia would walk by and praise him for developing so well. Dudley had no shame. Harry… Harry had shame.

The stress from doing his business out in the open had Ryoma finding him at odd places with his head pressed against doors and walls. He tried holding it in. He waited until the family were out or eating before going to relieve himself. He even tried using the actual toilet, but he wasn't great at balancing on the rim. Every time he tried he always managed to fall in. His yowls and cries had the family running to him and laughing. It's not his fault that his back legs were a little short and didn't stretch across the bowl all the way.

The litter box was his enemy. One day he would conquer it but… with all his toilet attempts Nanjirou had gotten it in his head that he had a problem and took him to the vet. Cat's pressing their heads against things… is a bad thing.

One of the upside's to being Ryoma's cat was that the boy would defend him against anything.

"Ryoma, the lady at the pet store told me that when cat's press their heads against walls there's a problem with their nervous systems. Plus, we don't know if your cat has had his shots! We need to go to the vet!"

Oyagi had said he would take Harry to the vet alone but Ryoma refused to let Harry go anywhere without him. Nanjirou argued, telling Ryoma that he needed to stay home to practice. There was a fight, some comments, and Oyagi putting his foot down and now Ryoma was sitting in the back pouting as he held tightly onto Harry. The boy had been obstinate the whole time.

"What does she know? Karupin is fine!"

Nanjirou sighed. "That cat doesn't act like a regular cat!"

"He can hear you," Ryoma spat back.

"He's a cat!"

Harry had quite enough. He was already terrified and Oyagi wasn't helping. He wanted to act like a normal cat but… he wasn't a cat. He was a boy turned into a cat and its not like they had a class set up to help you adjust and act like a cat. Granted that would be very helpful but it would also expose him and he really wanted to remain Ryoma's cat. That didn't give Nanjirou permission to talk about him like that though!

A plan formed then. As soon as they reached the vet clinic, Harry relaxed, wanting to appear calm before his victim. When Nanjirou stopped to open the door, and Ryoma passed close enough, he leapt out of his boy's arms and unleashed his claws on Oyagi's face. The man screamed a very unmanly sound as Harry got his revenge. Ha! Take that! His nervous system was fine! He was a great cat!

Ryoma eventually pried him off and soothed him with compliments on his good behaviour. Once Harry calmed down, his boy walked them to the desk and told the woman they were ready to be seen. When the woman tried to tell him, they needed to wait and fill in the required paperwork, Ryoma was his normal bratty self. He told the woman 'No, we are ready to be seen now' and then threw the clipboard at his father to deal with while he waited by the doors to the exam rooms.

They were seen to very quickly.

"He's in perfect health," the Doctor informed them. Harry was glaring at the woman. She touched some things that she had no right to touch! The more she poked and prodded, the more stressed he got and he was ready to just book it out the door, but Ryoma had picked him up just in time. The boy was glaring that the doctor as he masterfully groomed Harry's fur.

"Now about the head thing…" Nanjirou tried to lead the doctor.

"There could be several reasons for that. I will need to ask you some questions about any other abnormal behaviour Karupin has demonstrated. How long have you had Karupin?"

"Two weeks now," Nanjirou answered.

"That will make the questions a little harder then. Was there any established behaviour and training prior to you obtaining Karupin?"

Nanjirou looked confused. "Not that I recall."

Ryoma huffed. "Karupin was very stressed. His previous owner was mean to him. He only calmed down when I held him. Since coming to us he hasn't been as stressed and doesn't press his head against things anymore. He is very good. He only acts out against my father, but he has a face you want to hit, so you can't blame Karupin."

It was probably the most he heard the boy talk.

"Does Karupin pace a lot? Walk in circles? Seem to lose his balance?" the Vet decided to focus all her questions on Ryoma.

"No."

"Has there been any abnormal vocalisation?"

"No."

"Any seizures, slow reflexes?"

"No."

The vet nodded her head. "Okay, I'm going to do a blood test. Sometimes such behaviour could be due to an infection, or if Karupin ate something bad. The test will tell me more."

It was another long hour. Ryoma had to pet and soothe Harry as the Vet took blood. He glared at the woman as she checked his eyes, and when she was finally done, he was right back in Ryoma's arms listening to his heartbeat.

"I will contact you with the results but I don't think there's any reason to be concerned right now. Karupin seems fine and Ryoma may be correct that he was just stressed out with the new environment.

When the tests came back, Harry was fine, and Ryoma was smug for the rest of the week.

o.O.o

The days passed quickly in the Echizen household. During the day, Ryoma would go to school, and Harry would nap in the sunniest spot he could find. Sometimes Nanjirou would try to bug him, but Harry learned quickly to bite his toes to drive him away. The man would then retreat and comfort himself by looking at naughty magazines.

Ryoma would come home from school and do his homework while Harry napped on his lap. Then the boy would go to the backyard and practice tennis. Sometimes Nanjirou would go play Ryoma, making his boy sad. On those days, one of his naughty magazines would make its way into Rinko's hands. The fall out was hilarious and did its job of cheering up Ryoma.

At night, dinner was served, and then Ryoma would groom Harry. He did an excellent job brushing all his fur, and was gentle on any knots. Harry was always a puddle of happy goo by the end. After that, they would go to bed.

Being a cat wasn't hard. It was great, and Harry much preferred it over being a boy. Being a human was stress and pain. It was long days doing chores and hiding from his cousin. The Echizen's didn't make him fear that his limbs would fall off. They fed him, comforted him, and made him feel safe. It was something that he never felt with the Dursleys.

But of course, that had to be interrupted.

Ryoma was practicing and Harry was watching the balls, amazed at the speed they flew over the net, when a strange man walked into the Echizen backyard. He had a long white beard, tiny gold glasses on his long-crooked nose, and a very colourful suit. He was like the old man who lived down the street and liked to collect weird teapots on his porch.

"Excuse me my boy," The man started. He had an English accent that instantly set Harry on edge. "I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions, won't take a moment."

Harry quietly stood up and ran into the house. The Dursleys didn't care what happened to him, as demonstrated by him being a cat and given away, but he did overhear them telling Dudley all about stranger danger. Never take candy from people you don't know, don't go anywhere with people you don't know, and tell an adult if you don't trust a situation.

Harry didn't trust this at all!

Finding Rinko, Harry ran around the woman's legs and howled. That got the woman's attention. Once he noticed her looking, he used his head to nudge her legs in Ryoma's direction.

"Karupin, what has gotten into you?" Rinko asked. Harry huffed and kept trying to push her. Curse his small body that couldn't budge her. "I don't have time to pet you right now I'm preparing dinner."

He didn't want to be petted! He wanted to save Ryoma from the weird old man! Desperate times! Leaping onto the counter, Harry snatched the flank steak the woman was preparing and ran. Rinko cursed and then she was giving chase! Harry led her outside just as the man started reaching a hand out to touch Ryoma.

Rinko's shriek was heard all down the block. "Don't you dare touch my son!"

Bam! Harry for the save!

Wow, being a cat is a real personality changer.

Settling down to watch the show, Harry started to nibble on the steak. It was his reward for a job well done.

"I'm sorry Ma'am. I am looking for a lost boy and I was hoping your son could help me," the man started.

"So, you had to let yourself into our backyard? If you needed help you could have knocked on our front door like any normal person. Now get off my property before I call my husband!" Rinko was not playing around.

"My apologies for trespassing but before I go, may I ask you a favour. A boy named Harry Potter went missing. He came to Florida on vacation with his family and disappeared, if you see him would you contact me?" The man slowly walked towards Rinko and held out a picture.

When the man first said his name, Harry had darted away and hid under the porch. He would bet his whole bag of cat treats that his face was on that picture. He didn't know who this man was but he didn't like him. He was trying to take Harry away from his new family and he was not going to let that happen. He would scratch the man until he gave up!

"If I see this boy I will contact the proper authorities so he may be returned to his family," Rinko assured the man. "If that is all, you may leave now."

The weird old man left, but not for long.

That night as Harry was sleeping, he was startled awake by Ryoma's bedroom door opening. Standing in the doorway was the man. Harry began to scream and hiss at the man, needing to protect Ryoma from him.

"No need for that noise, Harry. I have spelled the residents of this home asleep so that we may talk," The crazy guy said. Oh! That made him feel so much better! "If you will allow me, I shall cast one more spell so that we may talk."

"Get out! Get Out!" Harry screamed. Harry was desperate for the old man to just hear him and get out.

"Now that isn't a nice thing to say," the man chastised him.

"I don't care. You need to leave my family alone!" Harry shot back. He was baring his teeth, his hair was on end, and he was looking for the perfect chance to scratch the man.

"I mean them no harm." Like he's going to believe the bad guy!

"Really? Cause you said you spelled them asleep!" Harry hissed. This man came into his safe space and was shaking things up. He didn't like it! Just when things were going well for him, this man had to ruin them!

"It was a mere precaution and they will be alright. They will wake up in a few hours after having one of the best sleeps of their lives."

He didn't care! He needed this man gone! "Please just leave. Leave them alone, leave me alone, I don't want to leave. I like it here. For the first time, people are nice to me!" Harry pleaded, not realizing he was speaking English again.

The old man looked sad. "I'm sorry my boy. I never meant for you to have such a hard life. But you must not let it drag you down. I can change you back into a boy and take you some where safe. I can take you to a world where you will be surrounded by children just as special as you."

That sounded terrible. Harry didn't want to be with other children like him. He wanted to stay with the Echizen family. He wasn't special, he a was a freak, but at least as a cat he was loved.

The man slumped forward a little. "When I heard that your relatives returned from a trip without you, I went to investigate. They were telling the neighbours that you had died in America. I have the ability to read minds, and when I looked into there's, I was terribly saddened. I never thought you would suffer so much. I thought that your Aunt would love you like her own son but I was wrong. I can not apologize enough to you for putting you in that house."

Harry looked away. "Then why can't you leave me here? I am happy here. They take care of me and love me," he pleaded.

"Because you are not a cat, you are a human boy and you need to return to your own world. There are a lot of people looking forward to meeting you. I promise you, things will be better for you in the wizarding world. No one will hurt you like your family did."

"You're already hurting me by telling me to go. I want to stay here." Why couldn't this man just leave him alone? He already admitted to giving him to the Dursley's and now he was trying to put him somewhere new? He couldn't trust this man and he did not want to go with him.

"I will make a bet with you Harry. I will cast a spell to change you back into a boy but if you can hold off the spell and remain a cat, I will allow you to stay with this family for a year."

Harry perked up. For what he managed to guess abut magic was that if your will was strong you could do anything. So, if Harry wanted to remain a cat more than the old man wanted him to be a boy, he would win. "Okay, but you promise to leave me alone for a year?" He didn't trust this man.

"I swear on my magic that if you withhold my spell, I will leave you in peace for a year." A swirl of colourful wind swept around the room. Harry hoped that meant the promise worked.

"Okay…" he agreed.

The old man lifted stick, muttered some weird words, and shot a light at Harry. Bracing himself Harry refused to return to a boy. He was cat now and he didn't want to leave Ryoma. He could feel something inside him trying to stretch him out. His limbs were starting to burn, but he clenched his teeth and told the feeling no. Something snapped inside him and suddenly his body was flooded with a cooling sensation. The pulling stopped and Harry flopped over exhausted. His tail flickered slowly and he was happy to still even have a tail!

"I see…" The old man sounded sad. "A promise is a promise. You may enjoy this family's hospitality for a year but I will return to take you back to the wizarding world. You can't live your life hiding like this Harry. It isn't healthy."

Harry didn't care what the old man said. He was allowed to stay here! If he made the same bet with the man every year, then he could live with the Echizen's forever! Because he was positive his will would always be stronger.

Soon the man left. Harry didn't return to sleep though. He stayed up all night watching Ryoma. Only when his boy opened his eyes in the morning with a yawn did Harry calm down. Hey followed his boy around all morning until he left for school. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him. He still took too long in the shower, wanted eggs and toast for breakfast, and rolled his eyes at his father. Everything seemed fine.

Happy that his boy was safe and okay, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

o.O.o

Harry cried happily as he ran and jumped around the court. Ryoma was practicing tennis and Harry was chasing any lose balls around. It was a good game he had going where he would find a ball and he push and tumble around it until it reached Ryoma again. It was a good thing the boy had a whole basket of them, because Harry wasn't exactly speedy in his retrieval.

"Son, we need to have a talk!" Nanjirou loudly announced as he came out of the house. Harry mainly ignored the man. He liked to pick on Ryoma, and would make the boy upset every time they played together. Plus, he would still talk like Harry wasn't a real cat. It was rude.

"Oyagi, I'm practicing." Ryoma complained.

"This won't take a minute. Your mother keeps complaining that I am a no-good layabout moocher who does nothing with my time except make our son's life difficult," Nanjirou started.

"Mom is always right," Ryoma muttered under his breath. Harry slowly slunk over to the two, wanting to hear more.

"So, I went and got myself a monk job."

Ryoma actually looked up and looked at his father for the first time. "A monk?" The boy sounded shocked. Well as shocked as the normally monotone boy could be.

"We will be moving to Japan, isn't that exciting!" Nanjirou seemed so happy, but Harry didn't care about that. Ryoma looked devastated. "I figure this will be a good change for you. I already enrolled you in my old school. Ryuuzaki-sensei is looking forward to coaching you!"

"Ya! Why would I want to go to Japan? I'll stay here with mom and you can enjoy the monk lifestyle by yourself!" Ryoma was done with the conversation and turned back to the court to keep working.

"That's the best part. Your mother got a transfer to Japan too. How nice is it that her company decided to open a branch in Tokyo?"

Ryoma stopped moving, "Baka Oyagi… how long have you been working on this?"

Nanjirou just smiled. "For awhile. There's no one to challenge you here anymore. You need to go and play new opponents. Japan has a lot of strong players just waiting to face you. If you want to be better, get stronger so that one day you can beat me, this is the best way."

"Japan isn't strong." Ryoma objected.

Nanjirou just kept smiling. "Do you think so? How about we make a deal. We will go to Japan and if you can't find at least one strong player in the first month, I will send you back here."

Ryoma smirked. "Made made dane, oyagi."

It looks like they were moving to Japan.

He would like to see the old wizard find him there.