Kitten
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And Just saying, I know Tom was kinda OOC but that's the point, he was saying that everything they thought they knew was a lie made up by Dumbledore. I'm sorry that you didn't like the chapter but I'm afraid that it will stay the same as it kind of sets the tone for how Tom will act towards Hermione. I do appreciate the comment though J.
If you're interested in the full outfits that the characters are wearing, they're on my Polyvore account in the 'Kitten' collection, my username is the same.
Just a quick note about cats, a 'queen' is a female cat while a 'tom' is a male cat. Most people know the second but not the first so I felt I should mention it.
Also, a shout out to Sam, this might not be as steamy as 'Two Muses' but hey, it's not at that point yet ;P
I know it's a fairly short chapter but there's not much I can add to it.
Anything you recognise is not mine.
TRHG
Chapter 4
The next morning, it took Hermione a few moments to realise where she was but when she did remember, she bolted up out if bed in surprise. After a few moments she calmed down but the idea that they were in Slytherin Manor, under the direct care of Lord Voldemort himself, was still somewhat alien to her. A knock at the door made her look up.
"Yes?" She called out, grateful for the white nightgown that had been left out for her to use the night before. Much to her surprise, Narcissa Malfoy walked in carrying a garment bag and a shrunk version of Hermione's school trunk.
"I'm sorry if I woke you dear, but breakfast is in half an hour, after which I'm going to take you, Ginny and Luna shopping. Draco might have gotten all your things and sent them here from the school but I would rather take you girls to buy a whole new wardrobe in Dublin today." She smiled, resizing Hermione's trunk after placing it at the foot of her bed.
"Thanks, has Dumbledore noticed that we've gone yet?" Hermione smiled, hopping up out of bed.
"Not when I last spoke to Draco but he might have by now. Here, I thought you might like this little outfit." Narcissa replied, laying the garment bag on the bed and resizing a pair of black and white Mary Jane shoes and silver bangles. Inside the garment bag was a short cream ruffled dress which, when it was on, looked lovely on her. She added her stockings, the shoes and bangles with black mascara to finish the look.
"You look lovely, almost like an angel. We'd better have something to eat." Narcissa smiled. Both Ginny and Luna looked lovely too, although Ginny had a sort of 50's style to her top and skirt combo while Luna looked like she was ready for a holiday on the Algarve in white capris, a blue tank top and flip flops.
The three teens enjoyed shopping with Narcissa, she knew exactly which shops to go into and could tell at a single glance the quality of an item. They ended up with full new wardrobes each and they got a new wardrobe for the guys too, they'd decided to stay at the manor but Narcissa wasn't going to let them get away with not having new clothes. By contrast, the guys spent the day flying with Tom, Lucius, Snape and the LeStranges; by about lunchtime they were bored with plain flying so they began to play a game of four-on-four Quiddich with Tom and Harry as Seekers, Lucius and Rastaban LeStrange as Keepers and Neville, Snape, Rudolphous and Bellatrix LeStrange as Chasers. Harry's team won by the narrowest of margins and that was probably due to the fact that Harry's skills as a Seeker were almost purely instinctual whereas Tom's were based on practice.
"What is it that you find so amazing about flying?" Hermione sighed when everyone was eating dinner and sharing what they'd done that day.
"Flying gives you such a sense of freedom, the air is so clear and uncrowded that it can really calm you when you're feeling tense." Tom explained, a calm and relaxed smile on his face.
"But at times you go 50ft up in the air, if not even higher! How can being that far off the ground be calming?" She gasped, looking shocked at his reply. The others wisely kept silent, Harry, Ginny, Neville, Luna and Snape because they knew the reason behind her aversion to flying, while the others were simply curious by her attitude.
"It almost doesn't seem real when you do look down, and most of the time you're looking around you rather than at the ground so a lot of the time you forget just how high you are." Tom countered, looking at her closely.
"How can you 'forget' just how high you are?" She gasped, her face paling at the thought of being so high.
"You have Acrophobia." Tom said suddenly.
"She has what?" Harry asked, looking worried.
"Acrophobia, a fear of heights." Tom replied, his eyes never leaving Hermione's pale face.
"Can we please stop talking about heights!" Hermione said, her voice high and almost panicky. Sensing how upset the young Neko was becoming, Narcissa changed the subject to the new wardrobes that she'd gotten for the teens, a topic which drew input from everyone except Tom and Hermione. Hermione was picking at her food, her appetite having left her during the discussion about heights and flying, with her eyes focused on her plate; Tom's gaze was still trained on Hermione, concern shining in his eyes for her.
It was much later, when she was about to get ready for bed that Tom knocked on her bedroom door.
"Tom? What's the matter?" She asked, her voice betraying her tiredness.
"I wanted to show you something, come with me." He smiled, offering her his arm. After the briefest hesitation she accepted the arm. Much to her surprise, he led her outside to a large open area that she knew had served as a Quidditch pitch that day. Lying in the centre was a broom, more specifically a Firebolt that she recognised as being newer than Harry's. She turned to look at him with slight alarm in her eyes.
"Shh, don't worry Kitten. I wanted to show you that flying can be perfectly safe. I won't go higher than my shoulder height, I promise. Will you trust me?" He said soothingly, gently rubbing small circles on her hand. She looked scared but she nodded, causing him to smile at her. He mounted the broom before settling her in front of him, her body facing sideways in a sort of side-saddle position with his arms around her.
"Right, I'm going to get the broom to hover so our feet are about six inches off the ground, ok?" He said smoothly in her ear.
"Ok." She whispered, instinctively pressing closer to him. Slowly and gently, the broom rose into the air, hovering about half a foot off the ground. It stayed there and eventually, when she felt that it wasn't going to raise any higher, Hermione relaxed and was able to look around. Slowly, they rose into the air, six inches at a time, until they were exactly level with the height of Tom's shoulders when he was standing on the ground.
"Are you alright Kitten?" He asked, tightening his grip around her waist slightly when he felt her tense at the height.
"I-I'm ok." She stuttered quietly, but grateful for the comfort his arms gave her.
"Would you be alright for us to fly around a bit? I'll go slowly." He asked, his voice velvety as it sounded in her ear. She could only nod as she feared that her voice would shake if she verbally responded. By the time Tom landed the broom, Hermione was actually comfortable flying with him at that height and she saw why he found flying calming, although she felt that she wouldn't have been nearly so calm had Tom not been with her.
TRHG
Hermione was woken from her sleep by the sound of someone knocking into something in her room. It was pitch black so she guessed that she hadn't been asleep long. Hushed voices were coming from near the end of her bed and, the more she heard, the more worried she got.
"He said that we've got to take her back to him at Hogwarts and we'd get more money and power than Riddle could ever give us." The first voice said, irritation in his voice.
"But Goyle, how do we know that it's the little Mudblood he wants?" The second voice asked.
"Because he told us that he wanted the little Neko, Crabbe! Look, you can send one of the other girls if you want and get shouted at for sending the wrong one but I'm going to follow our instructions. I'm sick of Greg being looked down on because he's less powerful than the Malfoys, well no more!" Goyle senior snarled angrily.
"Fine, fine, you know I'm as concerned for Vincent as you are for your son. I just wanted to make sure that we've got the right girl." Crabbe senior sighed. Hermione decided that she didn't want to hang around so she decided to take advantage of a little known fact about Nekos to make her escape. While a lot of people knew that Nekos are part feline, it is less well known that they can shift into a full feline form. It's not an Animagus transformation, rather it's a form of shape-shifting. It only took a little effort on her part for Hermione to shift into the form of a small black cat, that looked barely out of kittenhood but was in actuality a fully grown queen. The only sign that the cat was Hermione Granger was the fact that her eyes had remained the same topaz colour.
After transforming into her cat form, she could see much better in the dark than before. With practiced ease she slipped past the two men walking cautiously towards her bed and padded towards the door which they'd left ajar. Carefully she opened it a bit wider and made her way out of the room. Now the immediate danger was gone, she realised that they would no doubt search for her once they realised that she was not in the room.
'I need to find somewhere safe.' She huffed in 'cat-tongue' as Harry called it. She started to see what she could smell nearby, she could smell each of her friends in the surrounding rooms but she knew that with them would be the first place Crabbe and Goyle senior would look. Suddenly she picked up Tom's scent, she knew that they would never think to look for her there. To her surprise, his room was only a few doors down from hers, an empty room separating him from her room, she almost couldn't believe her luck that he was so close. Unfortunately her luck ran out when she reached the door which was closed and she could hear Crabbe and Goyle senior's surprised exclaims from her room. Desperately she scratched at the door and mewed frantically, hoping almost against hope that Tom would hear her and open the door. As she heard Crabbe and Goyle's footsteps heading out of her room to investigate the noise she was making, she also heard the sounds of movement coming from behind the closed door. Mere moments before Crabbe and Goyle left her room, the door opened and she ran past Tom's legs and into the room, drawing his attention to her. She hopped up on his bed and looked at him, wondering if he would realise that it was her. Her eyes widened slightly when she noticed his attire, he was wearing a pair of loose dove grey silk sleep pants and nothing else with his hair tousled from sleep. He merely looked confused for a few moments before closing the door.
"Hello, and who are you little one?" He asked picking her up and rubbing the back of her head.
'Tom, it's me, Hermione.' She mewed but he obviously couldn't understand her. Instead, he sat down and continued rubbing just behind her ears.
'No, Tom, it's Hermione, I need to tell you…oh Merlin that feels good! Wait, Tom…Argh!' She tried to say but his efforts behind her ears made her thoughts a little scrambled. Suddenly she had a flash of inspiration. When she had been flying with him, she'd curled her tail around his wrist in her panic. As best she could, she coiled her now smaller tail around his wrist and looked up at him. Confusion flashed in his eyes briefly before sudden understanding took its place.
"Hermione?" He asked, raising his right eyebrow. She nodded.
"What are you doing here Kitten? Did something haqppen?" He asked worriedly, again, she nodded.
"Can you transform back?" He asked, placing her on the bed. She nodded and slowly turned back to her normal form.
"What happened Kitten?" He asked sitting next to her.
"I woke up to find Crabbe and Goyle senior in my room. They didn't realise that they'd woken me up because they were talking about someone at Hogwarts wanting me delivered to them. I realised that it probably wasn't to have afternoon tea, so I shifted to my cat form to escape. You were the only person that I thought they wouldn't look for me with." She explained, leaning into his side.
"I'll deal with them Kitten. Are you wanting to stay here for the rest of the night?" He asked, placing an arm around her shoulders.
"You wouldn't mind?" She asked, loving the feeling of his arm around her.
"Kitten, it's fine. I honestly don't mind." He smiled, placing a soft kiss on her temple.