Review Responses:
Baroque Isabella: Yeah, Prosper is a cool name for a cat...I wanted something original for Harry, and since Draco is pureblood and all, a Latin name seemed to fit...
SesshyGirlFluffy: No! No! Please don't die! Then someone will sue!
Nikoly Oley: Glad!
Prunelle: Ah, at leas you're pestering me to do it...
Corculum: SAME HERE! I LOVE KITTIES!
The-13th-To-Fall: I'd offer you some novacaine, but my mom used it all...(my mom's a dentist)...thanks for the review! Hope your tooth feels better!
where-my-heart-resides: UPDATED!
SAXandCLARINETgrl: Not exactly much much more, but hey...
Dinkus: Goodie!
Daesgal: Two of the cutest things EVA!
Dezra: Poor wittle Harry...lol
Draeconin: Yay! You like it! (I'm always surprised when people like my work - it just seems like such a forgein idea, you know?)
Phoegan Leisha: Yeah...i did that to my freind on accident, her face was stained orange for a day, thought she was gonna kill me...
Elisandra1: There's nothing wrong with repeating yourself! I do it all the time!
M.Kou: SAME HERE!
TheDoomer: Wow...shocks me every time...
Midnights Rose: I made you laugh! YAAAY!
oOo The Skittle Queen oOo: Yeah, yeah, you win...oh yeah, most definately. Off the side, the diving board, the raft, the inflatable boats...ah, good times, good times... Oh yeah. He's got Draco at his command!
Shakespears Whore: Must get tiring, huh? I'm sorry...
This chapter is dedicated to oOo The Skittle Queen oOo, Rose, for honoring me with the request to edit her story, The Scarlet Letter. Check it out, please! For me and Prosper?
If you want a chapter dedicated to you...behave, and we'll see ;P!
"And so some side effects of the Meta-Narum Complex are…Mr. Malfoy, you're fifteen points late, and there's a cat on your head…?"
Professor McGonagall paused, re-considered her own words, and spun around to face Draco again.
"Mr. Malfoy, there is a cat on your head."
Draco nodded. "Thanks, Professor. I'll inform him of where he is as soon as he stops playing with my hair."
Professor McGonagall stuttered and stammered for a few minutes before a look of comprehension dawned on her wrinkled face. "Ah…mandragora mix-up?"
"What is it with this school and secrets?" Draco grumbled, sinking down in his seat as everyone stared at Prosper, who had steadfastly refused to leave his head all day. Including Care of Magical Creatures. God was that a nightmare…
FLASHBACK
"Now then, today I'll be showin' yeh lot a group of summat that lives in packs deep in the forest. They're called forest wolves, real protective-like abou' their territory an' such. Kinda like tigers in a cer'ain way."
At this point Draco began to get a very bad feeling about this class.
"Here's one tha' I've trained, got 'im when he was nuthin bu' a pup…here, Aaron!"
A wolf-like creature, about waist high, with matted blue-black fur and red eyes trotted forward gently. Draco heard Prosper growl (but he also felt the cat back up in fright). Draco gently scratched Prosper behind his left ear, a good spot of his. This time, however, Prosper was territorial.
"Now, Malfoy, you be the firs' un' to come on up 'ere an' pet 'im!"
"Erm…that's not really a good idea…" Draco stammered.
"An' why no'?"
"Erm…" He couldn't very well say 'Because I have a pissed off baby Bengal tiger on my shoulder'.
"There ain't no reason t'all, yeh cowar'. Now, ge' up there an' pet 'im! Go on!"
Praying to whatever deity existed, Draco moved forward slowly. The wolf suddenly sensed Prosper and leaped at him. (He was located at Draco's neck, so it was more than a bit unnerving…) Prosper, in retaliation, leaped at the wolf and sunk his teeth into the dark cold wet nose. The wolf howled in pain and bucked around desperately, trying to throw the little kitten off.
Prosper finally let go and, in one bound, flew and landed on Draco's head. The wolf turned and high-tailed it back into the forest, probably to warn its pack about the dangers of tiny black-and-white things.
Hagrid just gave a sort of nod. "That'll be a tiger, Malfoy? Okay. Where's Harry now…?"
END FLASHBACK
Can you say 'fiasco'? Gar…this was getting old…
Draco reached up an began trying again, in vain, to pry Prosper from his skull/hair/stuff.
"Come…on…you…effing…stupid…cat…" he whispered as McGonagall droned on about some complex theory or another.
"Mr. Malfoy, is there something you would like to share with the class?"
"Erm…no…but…Prosper is hurting my skull…can I go see Madam Pomfrey?"
McGonagall sighed. "You're not going to go to the nurse, are you?"
"No, Professor."
"Fine, go on to your godfather, I won't stop you…" the professor sighed. "But you'll still have to complete the homework!" she yelled after him.
"Yes, Professor!" he yelled back, dashing down the corridors, skidding down stairs, and coming to a halt in front of his godfather's office.
"SEV!" he yelled, pounding on the door, "COME GET THIS BLOODY CAT OFF ME!"
He could have sworn he heard Snape laughing before the bolt slid back and the door creaked open. Sure enough, the Potions Master was chuckling as his godson walked into the room.
"Shut the bloody hell up and help me here," Draco snarled.
"Language, Draco," Snape admonished.
"Severus Ernest Snape, if you do not get this cat off my head then god so help me I will tell everyone that you think pink is a wonderful color and sleep up with a pink teddy bear at night."
Snape gulped at the seriousness of this threat. "Fine," he growled. "Why is attached to your head and why is it a problem?"
"Hmmm…maybe…because his claws are sticking into my SKULL?"
"Oh. Yes. That would be a problem, wouldn't it?" Draco scowled at Severus as the older man suppressed a snicker.
Harry, when he had taken Prosper's form, had apparently not forgotten that he did not like Snape. The Potions Master raised a hand to take him, and Harry sprung straight into Snape's face, hissing like fury taken bodily form. Snape yelled as he swung his hands wildly around to grab the kitten while Draco sat on the floor and laughed.
Several inventive curses (and not the type to be used with wands either…) and a few misfired jinxes (Draco ducked at least eight times to avoid ending up with an invisible arm or a few tentacles) later, Prosper and Snape appeared to have reached a tentative truce. The tiny kitten stood, swaying slightly (the site made Draco think that the kitten was drunk for one crazy moment), panting. Draco picked it up and found its little heart beating away, thump-thump-thump. The tiny animal stuck out an adorable (since when did Draco think ADORABLE! GAH! DAMN PROSPER!) tiny pink tongue and lay contentedly in Draco's arms for a few moments before clambering onto the Slytherin Prince's head again.
Draco sighed as Snape heaved himself to a chair, sat down, and performed some healing spells on the deeper cuts on his face. "Perhaps," he said finally, "you should take him to the new Defense teacher."
"Who's that?" asked Draco suspiciously.
"Remus Lupin has, sadly, come back to our staff," Snape sneered. Hearing this tone, and apparently gathering that Snape was insulting someone whom he was probably inclined to like, Prosper hissed. Snape flinched and hurriedly added, "Sadly, I mean, for all those other schools that will so miss his teaching experience."
Prosper relaxed and closed his eyes, curling up on the top of Draco's head again. Draco rolled his eyes and suppressed a grin at the cat's behavior. He had been doing that all day. He was the freaking Slytherin Ice Prince, for chrissakes, not…not…not a happy yet scary purple dinosaur who sang gooey love songs!
If such a thing existed. But Draco doubted it.
So he was to be found in the middle of lunchtime knocking on their new DA teacher's door to tell him his old best friend's son had been turned into a kitten and was practically scalping Draco. Not the usual situation.
"Who is it?"
"Erm…it's Draco Malfoy, Professor, and I've something to tell you about Ha-Potter." Draco cursed his treacherous tongue. He had thought of little Prosper as Harry in his mind all week, and now…. He could only pray that Lupin had noticed nothing.
If he had, he didn't comment upon it as he opened the door, letting Draco and, also, Harry, enter. Draco looked around the office. Well, it was very different from the other professors'.
McGonagall's was covered in diagrams and chalkboards and tacked-up papers and filing cabinets. It was orderly and strict, very uptight and unrelenting. Snape's office was dark, filled with…things…in jars and other such things which repulsed all save the Potions Master himself. Dumbledore's office was just…weird. It seemed as though each office reflected the person.
Lupin's was…. The walls were a pale yellow color that seemed to catch the afternoon sunlight just right. His desk was a dark mahogany piece, littered with parchment, quills, and the like. He had tack boards up on his walls, and Draco caught glimpses of pictures…there was one that caught his eyes especially.
It had four twenty-something men in it. One had smooth, silky midnight-black hair with big, deceptively innocent blue-silver eyes and pale skin. He had his arm looped around a man with light, almost caramel-colored hair and big, truly innocent and happy amber-and-green-flecked eyes with slightly paler skin than the first. To the other side of the first man was a man with hair like Potter's, a nose like Potter's, skin like Potter's, glasses, and hazel eyes. Harry's dad…. Next to him was a watery-eyed, fat little man that looked, truthfully, a bit like – okay, okay, a LOT like – a rat.
But what threw him off most were the two others in the picture. In front of Harry's father, with an arm wrapped around her waist, was a gorgeous, curly-haired, red-headed woman with tan skin and beautiful caring emerald eyes. And in her arms…a tiny baby looked out onto the viewer of the picture with a brilliant white smile, jet-black, messy hair, tan skin, and big jade eyes.
He looked at the professor, who looked around at the papers and such that littered his office. "Sorry about the mess. Now, Draco, what did you need to tell me about Harry?"
"Um…he's here to see you, sir."
"Where?"
Draco wordlessly gestured at his head. Lupin took one look at Prosper, threw back his head, and laughed until he cried.