A/N: I'll be real; I wrote this little thing entirely because I wanted to get in Cat!McGonagall's head. It's not as cute and funny as the first two fics, considering the contents, but it was a nice little exercise.

This is set during chapter six of The Children of Snakes.

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse and the such.

Disclaimer: Not gonna lie, I kind of wish I owned cat!McGonagall. Alas! It was never meant to be.

Summary: Minerva McGonagall is a former Auror, a stern professor, and a formidable witch. It just so happens that sometimes she's also a cat.


Just Cat Things 3: Harry

One of Minerva's favorite things about being a cat Animagus was the ease with which she could comfort young students who didn't know who she was. It was the reason she didn't reveal her form to any student below third year: eleven year olds away from home for the first time tended to get homesick easily, and there were plenty of things they would tell a cat that they wouldn't tell an adult. A small number of students from all of the Houses had revealed terrible home lives or bad experiences with their fellow students, and she never failed to follow up on the information she received.

So when she saw Severus leading the Weasley twins to his rooms along with a very upset Potter, it was only second nature to follow. The man's door closed in her face before she could get in, but nothing could keep a cat out of where it wanted to be (at least not in Hogwarts—the castle had a certain fondness for felines). She crept into the sitting room through a convenient (and new) cat door, then sidled along the edges of the room until she was able to dart under the couch without Severus seeing her.

She settled down just in time to catch Potter's parents rotating into view. Fighting back the curiosity about just how he'd contacted Amestris from his fireplace (she'd worm the information out of him later), she listened into the short conversation with approval.

It still amazed her sometimes how competent he was with traumatized children, such a distinct opposition to his normal demeanor that it was like watching an entirely different man. Then again, with a past like his, she supposed he would have found it necessary to learn what to do with them. Even if, as she suspected, he was never quite emotionally prepared to deal with what he learned.

She waited a few minutes after Severus left before she moved, watching the way Potter shied away from even the most incidental of touches from his friends, and then she crawled out from under the couch and jumped neatly into his lap. Potter looked far more startled by her appearance than he should have been, so she finally took matters into her own paws and demanded that the boy pet her.

"I didn't know Professor Snape had a cat," Malfoy said from behind her, confused, but when one of the Weasley twins tried to out her as their professor she glared at the boy. It was hard to tell which one was which even as a cat, so she mentally labeled him Gargoyle One before turning her attention back to Potter. Why had he stopped petting her?

He resumed before long, commenting fondly on the markings that identified her particular form, and she made herself comfortable. Potter clearly wasn't going to say anything else with other people in the room, but she could at least do her best to comfort him.

It took several hours for anything else of interest to occur. Potter petted her diligently, occasionally tracing obscure alchemical symbols into her fur, and she was starting to doze off when the door flew open and Severus swept in.

"I am going to figure out how to keep you out," Severus snarled at her, the bitter old bat, so she gave him a smug look and increased the volume of her purring.

Then Potter's parents were rushing over to him, the general dropping to his knees with more calm than she had expected. She didn't get a chance to consider what that meant, though, as Potter upended her a moment later when he caught sight of the headmaster—and Lockhart. It wasn't difficult to figure out what happened, so even though most of the company knew who she was, she jumped up on the arm of the couch in front of Gargoyle One and hissed. (She was almost certain she heard Gargoyle Two mutter "Get him, McGoogles!") She'd never liked Lockhart much to begin with, and she'd wanted to get her claws in him from day one. If she hadn't been surrounded by colleagues and students at this moment, she'd already be digging into the area that would hurt him the worst.

Fortunately, Elric didn't seem to have the restraint she possessed. She settled herself back into Potter's side and purred in satisfaction when Lockhart hit the floor. She had rather mixed feelings when he threatened Albus next—the headmaster was an old and dear friend, regardless of the terrible decisions he'd been making lately—but didn't move from her spot. She sincerely doubted the boy had been serious when he'd asked about killing them, and even if he had been, well, Albus was a big boy. He could protect himself.

The excitement died down soon after that. While Albus called in Aurors (and Poppy) to take care of Lockhart, she gave Potter a final little goodbye nudge and leapt gracefully off the seat. Elric gave her a startled look as she wound herself around his legs, but she darted off before he could pet her. She was going to have fun working alongside that one.

In the meantime, she had to make her displeasure with Albus known. His office was badly in need of a redecoration.


A/N: Ed's chapter is next! I'm looking forward to writing it, so hopefully it'll be out soon.