Chapter 23

A/N: HAPPY DANCE! Why the happy dance? BECAUSE I FOUND MY NOTEBOOK WITH ALL THE CHAPTERS PLANNED OUT FOR THIS STORY!

Oh, and I do not own Harry Potter or The Lion King. If I did, I'd be wealthy beyond my wildest dreams and wouldn't be trying to find ways to save money to avoid taking out loans for Grad School.

The people of Gryffindor Tower had seem many an oddity in their time at Hogwarts, thanks in part to the Weasley twins. However, despite their training and preparation, they were unprepared to see the sight of a lion dragging Oliver Wood into the Common Room by his underwear. Literally by his underwear, as his pants were still by his ankles.

"Nothing to see here folks!" Fred Weasley directed attention away from the site, wincing as Oliver's head hit the first of many steps.

"Keep moving!" his twin aided him in the endeavor but they were unsuccessful. The sight of Oliver Wood being dragged up a flight of stairs by a lion was too mesmerizing for words.

"Ten galleons says he gets eaten," a fourth year muttered just as Oliver's head disappeared from view. A few of his friends muttered in agreement while Percy shook his head in amusement—being the only other Seventh Year boy there, he had roomed with Oliver and knew how passionate the boy got about his sport. It was only a matter of time before someone confronted him about it.

"You're on," a first year took him up on the bet. Meanwhile, Simba was a little busy. See he planned on getting Wood to apologize to Harry for endangering his life. He just didn't know how yet.

000

In the end, threatening the life of his broomstick was what finally got Wood to not only relent on the intensity of his practices but to also go and apologize to Harry. Simba couldn't help but smirk as he went back down to the Common Room. Wood had almost run out of the Seventh Year dorm, hopefully to apologize. Otherwise, Simba would have to hunt down the boy again.

Fun, but I don't want to do it again. People might talk, he thought with an inward chuckle as he finally noticed all the people looking in his direction.

"Katie, pay up!" he heard Alicia yell but ignored it in lieu of finding his brother's friends.

"Harry still in the Hospital Wing?" he asked Ron and Hermione as soon as he found them.

"Yeah," Ron nodded and Simba left at that, content that there was no way his brother could leave the Hospital Wing by the time he got there. He trotted down a pair of stairs, lost in thought. He couldn't believe what he'd just done. Never before had he attacked another human before. Sure it was Wood, so the Gryffindors might be less zealous about calling for his removal but still!

"What did you do?" Harry asked as the lion stepped foot into the Hospital Wing.

"What makes you think I did anything?" Simba asked, a little on the defensive side, as he had in fact done something. But there was no way for Harry to have known that quickly could it?

"Wood just left," Harry said. "As he left, he muttered about you and how he could never look at a certain pair of underwear again without shuddering. What did you do?"

As Simba launched into the story, ignoring the fact that Wood probably defied the laws of physics to get there so quickly (and the only reason he knew about those was because of Hermione), the laughter of his brother began to ease the fears that had developed. Fears about Black possibly being innocent, fears about Harry and how the fall had affected him and most of all, fears that somehow his past would come back to haunt him.

"I still can't believe you did that," Harry shook his head, a few chuckles still remaining as he gasped for air. "Wood's a Seventh Year and you're 13."

"I'm also a lion and he's a git," Simba retorted. "He let you fly in that," he continued, gesturing to the still stormy sky that was visible through the nearest window.

"Good point." Harry conceded with a chuckle.

"Hey, I'm going to leave before the nurse chases me out," Simba said. "See you when you get out?"

"Of course!" Harry said in a way that implied that Simba had insulted him by even asking. Simba smirked and walked out of the Hospital Wing and walked back to the dorm. If he was going to do anything, it was sleep. He needed it.

0000

He had heard about Harry's broom breaking and honestly, Simba didn't know what to do. He had no money so it wasn't like he could buy him a new one!

"Need to talk to Fred and George again," he muttered as he saw Malfoy doing something with both his arms. Didn't he have a cast on two days ago? Gryffindor had lost the game, much to the joy of Slytherin House—meaning Simba would have to work overtime to knock them down a peg or twenty.

"Simba!" a tall boy with a kind looking face called after him as he was about to sit down at Gryffindor's table. Simba looked over in confusion; he didn't recognize this student.

"I'm sorry. Who are you?"

"Cedric," the boy said and Simba went from suspicious to calm in two seconds. Cedric Diggory was the Hufflepuff Seeker, and one of the Prefects around the school—though Simba only knew that because Percy wouldn't shut up about him during the summer. Honestly, did that guy know everything about every Prefect? Simba, however, was still confused as to why Diggory would want to talk to him in the first place.

"Oh yeah. Sorry," Simba said, as he realized that Diggory was still waiting for an answer. "There are a lot of students at Hogwarts."

"I bet," Cedric chuckled. "Listen, I just wanted to ask you if Harry was okay. That fall was pretty high up and—"

"Pomfrey wouldn't let him out if she wasn't one hundred percent sure that he was fine," Simba cut him off, though with a smile. "Harry's not one to hold a grudge, neither am I."

"That's good," Cedric sighed in relief and Simba wondered if the word of what he'd done to Wood had gotten around the school, and he also realized that he was lying a bit on the grudge thing. "Still, I'm glad Harry's okay. Oh, and I wanted to pass along something from some of the third years. They said if you wanted to, you could sit with them."

"Why?" Simba asked. He didn't know any of the Hufflepuffs all that well.

"Hannah Abbot has an older brother, a former Hufflepuff Keeper who had a rivalry with Wood. She wants to know the true story about what you did to Wood to send off to him."

Fair enough. Wait, what did Diggory mean by the true story?

"You mean you didn't eat him?" Cedric asked as Simba asked this. Suddenly, the Great Hall was filled with the sound of a lion laughing. Simba actually laughed so hard, he fell on his side. Cedric's face gained a look of pure embarrassment as all eyes fell on him and he walked away slowly.

"Simba, stop being so weird," Ron said as he approached the laughing feline. Hermione had just rolled her eyes and sat down at the table, having grown too used to this behavior to comment.

"You should talk," Simba said, instantly stopping his laughter and getting up. "Really Ron? The Cannons?"

"They're just having a bad season!"

"For the past three years?" Simba retorted. "Ron, you can do better than them!"

"Not even going to ask," Harry said as he approached.

0000

The weeks went past and soon Christmas had fallen on Hogwarts. Simba, who by this time had become a full-fledged insomniac thanks to the memories coming at him as he slept, had been found passed out in four different locations by his brother and friends.

"Why were you sleeping in the boy's loo?"

Make that five different locations.

"Harry, the less you know about how well one can sleep in the boy's bathroom, the better," Simba deflected the question as they walked back to the dorm. Well, he walked back to the dorm. The Twins had just grabbed Harry as they were walking back. Shrugging but not bothering to deal with it as the Twins were weird and Simba had no intention of being pranked, he continued to walk. Simba finally got to the dorm and plopped in the chair by the fire.

"Any Second Year bothers me and I'll repeat my Wood performance," he growled and chuckled as the Second Years scooted far away from him. He wasn't normally this mean but he couldn't remember the last time he slept. He felt his eyelids grow very heavy.

"Why is he drooling?"

Stupid Second Year!

0000

"Merry Christmas Simba!" Harry called a few weeks later. Simba smiled back, not answering because he was trying to get a few more minutes of sleep. Honestly, another night like that and he'd go to Snape and see if there was a Dreamless Sleep potion for lions.

"Awesome!" Ron called and Simba lifted one sleepy eyelid to see the boy lift up a pair of Cannon robes. Knowing they could only come from Harry, Simba stopped caring and only truly woke up when Hermione entered the room. Well, that was because of her twice-damned cat.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione gasped and Simba lifted his head to see his brother holding a broomstick. A very good broomstick, from the way Ron was staring at it. Honestly, the boy was drooling! It was strange.

"It came from the dog-man," Crookshanks told Simba and just knowing that made the lion's blood run cold. He still wasn't sure if he could trust Black and knowing that broom came from him…well, let's just say a visit to Snape might just be in order after all. You know, after he made sure Black didn't do anything to that broom other than wrap it.