Tiger, Tiger.

After an Animagus potion gone wrong, Harry becomes a tiger and is unable to change back. Though, without the weight of the world on his shoulders, Harry enjoys his new body, until something happens to make him go back to Hogwarts in the possession of Draco Malfoy. HBP. AU. OOC.

Pairings: Harry/Draco one hundred per cent, there will be Blaise/Luna and eventually Neville/OC. Not much more romance other than this, maybe some off screen romance, I don't know, I haven't decided yet.

Warnings: there might be strong language, possible gory scenes in the future. I'll warn you though, so don't worry if you're squeamish. Probably a bit of underage drinking. Also bashing of the Dumbles, the Ronikins, the Bookworm and the Weaselette! Possible OC as well, as of now though, I am undecided.

I don't own Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling or the poem 'Tyger, Tyger' by William Blake. Also anything you might recognise from other fics on this site or another site is purely coincidental. Enjoy!

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"Blah," Talking.

Blah, thoughts.

~*~Blah, ~*~ Parseltongue

Blah, mental bond.

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In which not all Alleys are Diagonal.

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Draco sat alone in his room, his breath fogging up the window where he was sitting. He thought it was just past two in the morning, but he couldn't sleep. He loathed admitting it, but he had grown dependant on the rumbling snores of Prosper. His tiger, now sleeping down the hall as Harry, usually slept at the foot of Draco's bed, a comforting weight.

It was around two in the morning, but he couldn't be sure without checking and, with his wand and watch on his bedside locker on the other side of the room, Draco wasn't bothered to get up only to check the time. Tomorrow, or later on today even, they would be going to Diagon Alley to pick up Draco's school stuff. Most likely they would be meeting Blaise and Lamont, Blaise's cheetah familiar, outside Flourish and Blotts. Draco hadn't informed Blaise about Harry and wasn't about to do so. He, Draco, felt it was too private to go around telling his friend. He would leave that to Harry.

But, getting back to the matter at hand, Draco was lonely. And it seemed Harry was too. The door creaked open and in the doorway stood a tiger-hybrid, his head bowed, orange and black streaked hair falling about his face, golden green eyes flicked upwards towards Draco, hopeful. His tail swished slightly from side to side, the tip barely making it off the ground. "Hey…" Harry took a step into the room, hesitantly. Draco's amethyst eyes were also filled with hope. He gestured to Harry to come in and Harry did just that, closing the door behind him. He hurried across the room, making no sound on the dark wood floor.

He slid to the floor, his back propped by Draco's legs and his head resting on Draco's knees. Draco marvelled at his confidence, once, of course, he had gotten permission to come into the room. Harry had literally just plonked his head into Draco's lap. Draco threaded his fingers into the black on orange mess atop Harry's head.

"What are you going to tell Blaise tomorrow, or later today even?" Harry broke the silence. Draco smiled slightly at the growly tone. "Nothing, not unless you want to tell his something." Harry shook his head, flexing his fingers. "Nah, he'll probably find out sooner or later, even if we don't tell him. Hey, look at this." Harry pulled back and held up his hand. Draco raised an eyebrow but soon had to be picking his jaw off the floor when Harry's perfectly normal nails hardened and lengthened into claws. (Like Sabertooth's in the first Wolverine movie.) Harry ran one across the floor, and they both watched it cut into the hardwood like a hot knife through butter. "But get this," Harry then ran the claw over his cheek, leaving no mark, no broken skin, no blood. "It's fucking awesome, isn't it?" Harry grinned at Draco's dumfounded expression. The use of the explicative shook Draco from his thoughts. "Why do you swear so much? I mean, I've never heard you swear before." Harry's grin faded into a sad smile, "That's because you've never seen the real me, no one has, not even Ron or Hermione. They see me the way I want them to see me, the weak, undereducated mistreated saviour, not the real me. The real me is a potty mouthed bastard really." Harry smiled and stood, stretching himself out like a cat. He looked towards the door, and then glanced at the bed before looking back at Draco, smiling sheepishly. "Er, do you mind if I…" he gestured awkwardly to the bed, rubbing the back of his neck. Draco smiled and stood, before grabbing Harry's hand and dragging his towards the bed, "Not at all…"

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Severus found them the next morning, curled around each other, foreheads practically touching. Harry's tail was wound around Draco's leg and their hands were intertwined. He cleared his throat, and Harry's head sprang up, his hair standing on end. "Wuzzgoinon?" he rolled over, and raised his arms above his head stretching and yawning, both his back and his jaw cracking. "Egh," Draco, disturbed by the now grumbling Harry, also opened his eyes and blinked blearily in the soft morning light. Severus chuckled and said "Breakfast is ready, if you boys are hungry." He then left the sleep addled teens. Harry immediately perked up at the mention of food and leapt off the bed. He looked at the bed ridden Draco and snorted. Grabbing a pair of Draco's jeans he said "I am going to have a quick shower Draco. Please be presentable by the time I get out." Draco didn't respond other than showing Harry the middle finger. Harry chuckled and closed the door of Draco's bathroom behind him.

Draco scowled into his pillow. He despised morning people and it would seem that Fate had intended for his familiar to be one. Heaving a sigh, Draco pushed himself up onto his elbows, blanket pooling around his waist. Might as well get up if there was food. Rolling onto his back, Draco sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, yawning. Throwing on a clean shirt and a pair of blue jeans, Draco jumped slightly when the bathroom door banged open. When Harry said a quick shower, Draco had assumed he would take at least ten minutes, not the two and a half that he actually took. Harry stood, in a pair of Draco's black jeans and nothing else, with a towel in his hand.

Draco took a moment to admire the black stripped and orange tipped hair when Harry sneezed. It was comical, eyes rolling back into his head and nose scrunching up. It was a mighty sneeze, his entire body rippled with its effects. The biggest effect it had though was the ears. Two tiger ears just popped up on the top of his head, completely out of the blue. Harry's normal ears, usually covered by hair, were now gone and two honest to God tiger ears stood atop Harry's head like they were there the whole time.

Harry and Draco stood looking at each other for a couple of second before Harry reached up and tugged on one of the ears. Feeling it was real, his mouth twitched. It wasn't long before he was in stitches laughing. Draco just smiled at Harry and threw him a shirt. Harry, still chuckling, quickly pulled it on and buttoned it up. He smiled at Draco, his new ears perking and his canines glinting, "Food?"

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Harry will be called Prosper when he is in tiger form.

Sorry for any confuzzilation

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Diagon Alley wasn't overly busy, mainly casual shoppers or the odd school shopper, but there were enough people to notice the big ass tiger walking alongside the Malfoy heir. Blaise smiled at the pair, and Lamont bounded over to Prosper and nuzzled the huge cat before trotting back over to Blaise. "Draco." Blaise said as he pulled his white haired friend into a hug. "Blaise." Draco smiled and Prosper chuffed slightly into Blaise's open hand. "Well, he grew." Blaise said, petting Prospers head. Draco just smiled and winked at his dark skinned friend. Draco, don't tease him. The mental message was enforced with a playful push by a purring Prosper, who Draco just grinned at.

They walked around the alley for a few hours, getting all the necessary equipment for the upcoming school year. Outside Flourish and Blotts however, they encountered a slight problem. Mainly one Bookworm and one Weasel. "Malfoy," Granger had squeaked, "A tiger is much too dangerous to be brought into a school." Before Draco could answer Weasley butted in "Yeah Malfoy." Draco just sighed and crossed his arms. "Prosper, a tiger, has more manners and self-control than both of you combined. He'll be fine at school." Prosper did his huffing chuckle thing and Draco smirked thinly, placing his hand atop the tigers head.

A loud bark had all of their heads turning. Neville Longbottom was strolling up to them in black jeans and a white shirt, hands in pockets. His Irish wolfhound lolloped over to the group of students before leaping back to Neville, his tail wagging a mile a minute. Neville halted before them, his brunette hair catching the sun. "Malfoy, Zabini. Ron, Hermione." Draco and Blaise nodded back while the two other Gryffindors smiled. "I don't think you've been properly introduced, this is Alaric." At the sound of this voice the huge dog perked his ears, whining happily. The dog seemed to like Prosper, nudging him and attempting to bite his tail. Prosper for the most part humoured him, whacking him with the powerful tail whenever Alaric grazed it with his teeth. "We were shopping, Nev, if you want to come with us." Hermione said, putting her hand in her jacket pocket, where a squirming bulge lay. Neville declined saying he was finished shopping for school stuff and that he was going to meet up with Luna in Dillyd Alley. "Funnily enough, that's exactly where we're going." Blaise said, grabbing Draco's and Neville's arms, dragging them away from the Gryffindors. Lamont ran ahead with Alaric while Prosper stalked alongside Draco, listening to their conversation. He had, of course, never been off Diagon Alley; unless you could the disastrous time he went to Knockturn Alley, so naturally he was curious as to what this Dillyd Alley was like. Neville was saying "You know, I did just say that so I could leave." Blaise smiled and Draco nodded "Obviously, but Dillyd Alley is always worth a look." The unlikely trio gathered a lot of surprised looks, either due to the fact that there was a cheetah and a wolfhound playing together like kittens, the fact that there was a huge tiger strolling along the road or due to the fact that the Ice Price of Slytherin was openly smiling and talking to a Gryffindor.

However unlikely the trio was, none of them, including the familiars, will ever forget what they saw when the turned the corner to Dillyd Alley.

"Hello Neville, I see your dog scared off all the Wrackspurts."

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Ha, right, sorry about the wait, but straight out of the doctors and into school, and, seeing as I'm doing my Junior Cert this year, updates will be few and far between (If you don't know what the Junior Cert is it's basically a form of torture meant to test you at the end of your first three years in senior school.) I actually had this done ages ago but my internet was down and then my laptop crashed, deleting all my programmes. I had to reinstall Word and rewrite this chapter. Super sorry about the wait.

No matter how much I like you,

I'm secretly annoyed with you

0_o