OH. MY. GRANGER. I am so sorry, you guys! I meant to update earlier, but was crashing on me and not letting me log in. Before that, I just started school and had to get back into the swing of things. I've been waking up super early to write and I edited this chapter as quickly as I could. Oh! And while I'm at it, the Brownie Points add up to:

Hermione: 1 BP from sybil branson jr because she got on Ron's nerves and because she broke into Snape's classroom with a spell she found in the Restricted Section.

Draco: 1 1/2. 1/2 a Brownie from kurosakiami01 for being Draco and Harry, and 1 from BearGirl01 for saving Harry. I'm so glad that Draco is getting some love. He's my favorite character besides Harry.

Harry: 1/2 from kurosakisami01 for being such a cute little cat and changing his perspective about the blond.

And I thought this one was genius:

Mr. Monarch and the elusive dust bunny get 1 Brownie Point from dreaming of rocketships for escaping the clutches of Kitty Potter in such a bold, innocent, and adorable fashion. Also, for creating a couple of cute moments for Kitty Potter.

THANKS SO MUCH YOU GUYS! I'll try to reply back to the rest of the reviews I got, I didn't know that I should do that, and I just found out recently that most people did.

I will update in 10-13 days. Enjoy the chapter. 4,500+ words!

~C~

Professor Severus Snape cleared his throat for the fourth time this class. He usually wouldn't have thought anything of it, except that it was the same student every time.

And that said student was his godson, Draco Malfoy.

His typically top-of-the-class godson was, at the moment, dozing on his desk, completely unaware of the entire class staring at him, as Snape narrowed his eyes and cleared his throat… again.

"Mr. Malfoy. Kindly wake up, or I will have to do it myself." Snape said, in a tone that suggested that he was on the verge of exploding. Vincent Crabbe nudged Draco, whose head lazily dwindled off of his desk and faced Snape. His eyelids drooped slightly, threatening to close again.

"Sorry, sir. May I please be excused?" He asked, eyes wide with pleading. Usually, he wouldn't let a student go without getting a detention, or at least earning the rest of the class extra homework. This would strictly be a one-time thing. Only for you, Draco.

Snape massaged the throbbing vein on his forehead with a sigh. He wondered what occurred to make the blonde so tired in the first place, and prayed it wouldn't happen again, for his sake. His godson would pay for this… "If it means that my class won't be interrupted anymore, be my guest." Draco nodded his head in silent thanks, gathered his things in one jumbled armful, and scurried out the door.

The rug beneath Harry was soft. It was like… Heaven soft. He rolled onto his back, feeling each of the separate, velvety strings move against his fur in a luxurious sort of way. Combined with the sunlight streaming in through the open window, conveniently shining across his stomach, he was never going to move again. Harry closed his eyes and did another one of his cat-sighs. If he stretched a little this way and then wiggled just a teeny bit that way ah that was it. Even if Harry was a human he would love this, maybe. Harry didn't really get as much down time to just relax as he wanted, but here, he could spend hours a day (and more at night) just sleeping. This was yet another perk of being a cat, and he had found many ever since he became one nearly two weeks ago. He didn't have much time to do that, being one of the Wizarding world's saviors and all. On top of that, he had his studies and fighting Voldemort… It was a very heavy weight to be put on anyone's shoulders, let alone a fifteen year-old's.

Harry heard a gruff voice snapping at some students downstairs. A pair of feet stomped up the steps and stop in front of the door.

A small bam of the door hitting the wall resulted in Harry's head to snap in its direction. He was quite frightened by the sight that lie before his eyes. In sauntered Malfoy, er, Draco, looking as undead as ever. His eyes were sunken in, a dark ring contrasting under them against pasty white skin. His hair was ruffled; his back slumped in utter exhaustion. He untied his tie and flopped, face down, on the bed. Harry cocked his head to the side and made his way cautiously over to the blonde. He placed a paw on the bed, propping himself up just a little bit more to see what he was up to.

At first, it didn't seem like he was breathing at all, which startled him a bit and tugged at his throat. If Draco died, then he would feel guilty because he couldn't help him because, well, quite frankly a cat isn't really of use in times of life or death.

And he did not want the death of a man hanging over his head for the rest of his life.

But after a second of careful listening, Harry picked up slow breaths, and, thankfully, with even more precise, focused listening and closer scooching, a very faint heartbeat. At least Harry knew that the worst he could be in was a coma, which he wouldn't feel very guilty about. He smirked and curled back up on the rug, still keeping a close eye to make sure he didn't suffocate in the pillows or something. He watched Draco's upper back rise up, stay in the air for a second, and then fall back to the green comforter. From this angle, Harry could see just how thin Draco had gotten, and it was scaring him. His stomach only rose about four inches off of the bed, his legs and arms like sticks. Now that Harry thought back a bit, Draco went almost nowhere anymore and only moved when it was necessary, like classes or when he had to meet his father at the fire. He only ate bread and water, from what Zabini and Parkinson were discussing.

Draco had shut even Harry out of his room that night, so things were probably getting a little rough in there without him to intervene and save Draco's ass. His suspicions were confirmed when he lowered his ear to the crack under the door and heard a soft sobbing sound leaking out before the meeting had even started. Sadness tugged at Harry's throat and he scampered off, not wanting to, or not being able to, hear any more of the retching.

"I'm just so worried about him," Pansy had sobbed. The conversation obviously far too awkward for him Blaise had rubbed her quivering shoulders silently. "He hasn't spoken to me for days. He only eats bread, he's gotten so thin that's it can't possibly be healthy for him. His grades are dropping. I can tell." She shook her head sadly as her throat closed a bit and forced her to stop speaking.

"I know. Maybe a trip to Hogsmeade would help. The next visit is in a week, so maybe you could take him there and then he'd feel better." Parkinson looked up suddenly and dropped her hand, which was rubbing her tear-filled eye. "You know, I care about him, too. He is my best friend, after all." Pansy nodded, trying to cover up her surprise but failing.

So Zabini isn't heartless after all. It came as a shock to Harry, too.

Hogsmeade, Harry daydreamed. He wished so badly that he could go there again with Ron and Hermione. If he could get changed back in the next week and escape, he would be able to, but unfortunately, there was always the problem of him not having a wand.

A large bam erupting from the boy's dormcaused all three of their heads to snap that way. "What do you think…?" Parkinson trailed off.

"Probably not anything good," groaned Zabini before sprinting off, Pansy following. Harry decided that he had better come with, to make sure Draco wasn't murdered on the floor or anything.

He wasn't, but he was close. They found him spread-eagled on the floor, unmoving except for the tears that were still streaming down his cheek. He wasn't even blinking. "Draco…?" Parkinson stepped a bit closer. "Are you okay, Draco?"

No reply.

"Draco, we know you're upset, it's okay, we understand-"

"No you DON'T! You'll NEVER understand!" Draco screamed at her, the tears rolling faster. He went back to not moving, leaving the other two in their silence. He remained like this for several snail-paced minutes, his friends staring at him in shock. The rise and fall of Draco's chest was so slight Harry wasn't even sure it was there at all.

"Check his pulse," Zabini ordered, and Parkinson knelt down to check. After a moment, she said that he was alive, and that maybe they should move him to his bed. Zabini lifted Draco onto his back and propped him onto his bed.

And that was where Draco stayed.

"Blaise?" Parkinson's voice was the first thing that Harry heard the next morning. He looked up from under Draco's bed, to see her clad in her school uniform and shaking Zabini awake.

"Fuck off," came a grumble from under the hoard of blankets.

"Wake up Blaise! You're late!" And with that, Zabini shot out of the covers, blankets tumbling to the ground in great mounds, and began to get dressed.

He looked back. "Get out of here! I need to get dressed!" He barked at her, but she tugged at his arm, revoking a sigh.

"Draco isn't getting up! I tried to wake him up just now, and he's not opening his eyes!"

"Did you check his-?"

"Yes, I checked his pulse!" She cried. "He's alive, he's breathing, but he's burning up. I don't know about you, but I'm going to take him to the Hospital Wing."

"Okay, I guess I'll help, since you're not strong enough to carry him."

Pansy gave him a dragging look. "Really, Blaise, you're a wizard in your fifth year. Do you think that maybe there would be some other means of getting him there?" Harry cat-snickered. Idiot.

Blaise grunted, apparently not able to come up with a better reply. Parkinson sighed and waved her wand in Draco's direction. He gently floated into the air, Parkinson still murmuring. "Get the door, Blaise." Blaise complained but did so. Harry, not wanting to be left alone, (and wanting to see what chaos would happen), tagged along. This was a good opportunity to see the castle again.

And the castle had not changed one bit as they moved easily through the corridors, though it was buzzing with rumors about Harry's disappearance. He heard a great variety of them, being on a secret mission for Dumbledore, hurt during Quidditch practice, killed during Quidditch practice, went blind because of a Death Eater, was attacked by a flobberworm (the hell…?) and a great deal more. Really, it was embarrassing to think that people thought he was put out for nearly two weeks because of a flobberworm…

The hallway was bustling with people, making last-minute decisions on where to put their feet to avoid stepping on Harry. It was actually quite scary from this angle, when he looked up, all he could see was feet. Once or twice he saw someone that he recognized, but the closest he came was when Neville almost stepped on him. He hissed and ran to Zabini and Parkinson, but felt guilty afterward when he saw Neville's confused form just staring at him. He gave a quiet meow so they would know that he was there, since he didn't think Blaise actually saw him come out the door (whoops).

Blaise turned his head a bit. "Holy shit, Pansy! Paws came along, look look look!" He pointed to Harry and tugged on Parkinson's sleeve like a little kid showing his mother a new toy.

"Blaise, there's no way - HOLY SHIT!" She jumped back, nearly dropping Draco. Several groups of students complained as they walked around her, more turned to see the source of the swearing. "Well, when the hell did you get here Paws?" she said in a sing-song voice, which didn't really fit with the word 'hell'. "He's gonna get squished, put him on Draco, Blaise," Pansy told him, and Blaise picked up Harry and placed him on Draco's stomach. He wobbled a bit, but sat down and was able to regain his balance. It was the weirdest thing, standing on a Malfoy's stomach. He poked it a bit with his paw, and, after seeing that it was actually pretty fun, poked it a bit more. A series of pokes and prods followed, then, gaining boldness, he hopped. And hopped. Draco let out a grunt after a bit, so he decided that maybe using a sick person as a trampoline for a cat wasn't the best idea, and sat down again.

He watched the people passing by, a sea of heads expanding further than the eye could see. There were many Hufflepuffs, a couple Ravenclaw first years near them (which Blaise barked at to move out of the way), and- oh God, oh God -

Ron and Hermione were five feet away, talking to Neville and clutching their books to their chests.

Harry crouched down a bit. If they recognized him, Harry Potter, sitting on Draco Malfoy's stomach, some very awkward questions would come up, some very strained answers would have to be spoken, and one particular Gryffindor would never hear the end of it.

"He's finally croaked, eh, Zabini?" a voice called from Harry's friends' direction. Snickers erupted across the hall. Harry wanted to run away and hide.

"Just sick, Weasly, probably from being around all you blood traitors." Ouch. Harry wanted to scratch Zabini, or claw his eyes out or something. The look of rage on Ron's face would have been funny if it weren't for what the Slytherin had just said. He grabbed Zabini by the collar and pulled his face close to his own.

"Listen here, Blaise," He spat. "I'm sick of you calling us blood traitors and mudbloods. If you don't like it here, then get the hell out. Stop being an ass." Harry had seen Ron mad before, heck, he had seen him angrier than this before, but Harry had always been around to stop him before he did something stupid like this. He didn't want Ron to somehow get fate stacked against him and end up in trouble with-

"WEASLY." A voice boomed from down the now-empty corridor. "Get your paws off of Mr. Zabini this instant." Fast-paced footsteps closed in on them, Harry's heart pounded each time the feet hit the stone floor. Shit. This would not turn out well.

"Professor Snape!" Blaise smiled, regaining confidence with the backup figure behind him.

Snape looked at Ron and Blaise first, and then Draco, and then his eyes fell upon Harry, and stayed for quite a bit of time. "I didn't know Draco had a new… pet." He murmured, eyes still focused on Harry. He knows. I know it.

Pansy giggled awkwardly. "What's wrong, Professor? You look like you've seen a ghost!" She laughed a little longer, but faded off when nobody joined in. She looked around at the looks that were pointed at her, cleared her throat and backed into the background. "I'm sorry, continue."

"Weasly, go. You too, Ms. Granger. And be grateful that I didn't take any House Points, because I will next time." Snape shooed them away with his hand. Harry heard Ron mumble 'Oh, trust me, we believe it' under his breath as they moved away.

"What's the matter with Draco?" He questioned when Ron and Hermione were out of earshot, eyes still unmoving. It was really starting to creep Harry out. The group of Slytherins (Theodore Nott had decided to join them back in the common room) stared at him for a moment, and then finally comprehended what he said.

"Oh, well, um…" Blaise started, unsure of how to explain or even where he should start. A lot of things had been wrong with Draco in the past few weeks. "He was having his nightly meeting with his father last night…"

"And he shut us out of the room, like usual." Pansy joined.

"Yeah!" Blaise pointed at her. "And we heard crying coming from his room…"

"Nothing new there." Snape commented in his dull voice.

"And then a loud noise, so we went to check on him. He was on the ground not moving. He was alive, Professor," He said hurriedly when he saw Snape open his mouth to interrupt. "Just not moving. So we moved him to his bed, and when we checked in the morning, he still wasn't moving. We decided maybe we should take him to the Hospital Wing."

"Okay," the professor nodded. "Send him my best regards when he wakes. Good luck." He paced away, his black robes swishing behind him.

"He's so scary sometimes," Nott whispered behind them.

The Hospital Wing was surprisingly empty in the morning. The bleached sheets were neatly folded on the beds. Madame Pomfrey bustled around the wing, commenting on every flaw in her work or grumbling about how much more cautious they needed to be. The four of them watched as she fixed this, tweaked that, moved that to the other side of the room, checked this, and diagnosed Draco at the same time.

"Well, I am happy to inform you that this is not a serious case. Not overly serious, anyways. Mr. Malfoy is just sick, he's caught a virus. A bad one, but not permanent or serious." She kept a straight face as Pansy, Blaise, and Nott released their breath. "However, he will have to stay in the Hospital Wing and take his medicine for about a week, maybe a little bit more."

"But Madame Pomfrey, I still don't get something." Pansy asked, a confused look settling in on her face.

"What is it, dear?"

"Why wasn't he moving earlier?" A murmur of agreement passed around the cluster. Harry was actually wondering that himself, from his spot on the corner of Draco's bed.

"Exhaustion, dear. You really should make sure that he eats more." Well, it was true that Draco wasn't eating, so he was bound to get tired sometime. He was bound to wear down; his strength was going to run low.

Their heads turned when they heard the huge Hospital Wing door creak open. It was two Hufflepuffs, one with a slightly mangled leg. Her friend was supporting her with an arm around her shoulder. They limped in, giving Madame Pomfrey a strained look. She was across the Wing in mere seconds. "Excuse me, dears, but I have other patients to attend to," she turned away from them and began talking to the girls.

"How long do you think it'll be till he wakes up?" Blaise questioned, the three of them now just standing around the bed, looking at Draco. Harry sat down again and looked at him, too.

Pansy cocked her head and evaluated Draco. "With Madame Pomfrey, maybe a day. With any luck, he'll be up by the time we're done with classes today. We can come visit him then." Blaise nodded and pulled up a chair, but Pansy slapped him on the arm. "We still have to go to classes, idiot!"

"Oh. Right." They got up to leave. They weren't going to leave him here, were they?! He meowed angrily and Nott turned around.

"Oi, Pansy, your cat's meowing." He called. Pansy, who was already halfway, turned and glanced at Harry.

"That's Paws. He's not my cat, he's Draco's." She rotated to ask Blaise, "Should we leave him here with Draco? It's allowed." Blaise murmured something to her, and judging by how Pansy gestured for him to come, Blaise agreed with her and they weren't coming back.

Was it possible for a cat to kill themselves? Harry knew he was going to die of boredom anyways, why not just get it over with?

The Hospital Wing was the dullest place in the universe; Harry now had no doubt about that. He might even prefer Snape's classroom over this. Maybe. He had tried everything to cure his boredom. He had slinked around the beds, searching for long lost items that had been dropped behind there. He had pestered the other patients, including the Hufflepuff girl, which was actually pretty fun until he got yelled at by Madame Pomfrey. He was able to sit on the windowsill, until he almost fell out again and decided that he should get off.

And Draco was still out.

Harry lay down under Draco's bed, setting his head down on the dusty floor. Draco was above him, still sleeping/passed out as Madame Pomfrey fed him and injected medicine into his arm. She came back once every hour or so to do so, which was the current method that Harry was using to tell the time. She had given him six shots so far, and she was bustling back to give him another one. Harry could hear her heavy, fast-approaching footsteps coming near. He could hear her apron rustling around as she bent down to give him the shot in his arm.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Harry heard the bed springs creaking as (undoubtedly) Draco shot out of bed and swore several times before calming down enough to ask, "Where the fuck am I?!"

"Language, Mr. Malfoy. We have younger patients here as well." Madame Pomfrey scolded. "And you're at the Hospital Wing. Your friends brought you this morning claiming that you weren't waking up." Draco relaxed a bit against the bed frame.

"Slimy gits," Draco muttered and laid his head on the pillow again. He sighed irritably. He was back to normal quickly. Harry popped out from under the bed, sat down, and glared at Draco for making him have to stay here. Draco saw him out of the corner of his eye and a grin broke out on his face. However, the smile faltered when he saw that Harry was angry. "Why're you giving me a look, ya' bastard? What's the matter- oh, okay, sorry." Draco lowered his voice after a series of 'shhhhhhh!'s and 'hush's. Harry continued to stare him down mercilessly. Draco stared at him back. There was about a minute of this, so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Madame Pomfrey just stood there, looking back and forth at the blonde and the cat, not sure what to do.

Finally, she cleared her throat and said, "Mr. Malfoy, I still have yet to give you this shot." Draco looked up and sighed his I'm-way-too-good-for-this-why-should-I-even-have-t o-do-it sigh that he was so good at. He snapped out his arm and gave her the expression that one would give to a teacher right before a surprise test. Harry knew because he had seen him do it. When Madame Pomfrey injected the needle in him, Harry saw Draco's face freeze up for half a second, and then he shuddered and went back to normal.

"Hurry up, Ron." Hermione, fed up with her friend's slow pace, finally snatched his arm and pulled him into the library, led them to the back table, and pushed him into a chair that she grabbed from another table.

"Hermioneeeee!" Ron whined. "I don' wanna go to the library. Especially during lunch." Hermione smacked the top of his head. "Ow! What was that for?" He grumbled and clutched his head.

"For acting like a child." Hermione snapped and pulled a large book out of her bag. She plopped it onto the table (with a rather loud thump) and flipped through the pages eagerly. When she came to the page that she was looking for, she thrust the book into Ron's face and screeched, "There! THERE!" Ron looked confused for a moment, and tried to set the book onto the table, but Hermione, faster than a mother cheetah protecting her cubs, clamped the book on Ron's hands. She then set the book down, and opened to the page Ron's hands were stuck in like they were a bookmark. Ron stole his hands away and nursed them, as there was nearly always something to nurse of his when Hermione was around [AN: Don't you dare take that in the wrong way, you dirty perverts! :O].

When Ron finally had the courage to speak, he spat, "Now what was there?" Hermione sighed heavily.

"Remember that spell we found in the Potions Cabinet?" Ron hesitated, then nodded. "Well, I did some searching up on it, and I found what the spell was." Ron's face brightened slightly, and his eyes smiled warmly. He didn't show it, but he really was missing his best friend. Neville, Dean, and Seamus were nice, but the dorm just didn't feel as balanced without Harry. "The closer we can get to finding out what happened to Harry, the closer we can get to finding him." Hermione was smiling, too.

"So what's the spell?" Ron asked.

"Well, it's actually a pretty advanced spell. None of us have learned it yet, but with Harry's garble-mouth, it's no miracle that he was able to accidentally say it." Hermione pointed at a line in the book. "It's this spell, actually." Ron peeked down at the book. There sat a couple of words, so ancient and odd that it was hard to even wrap his mind around. They were probably Latin, or some other neighboring language. Ron looked to Hermione for help. She huffed and started to explain.

"It's a spell that, when casted, turns the caster into the closest animal to them." Ron started to say something, but Hermione cut him off with a hand. "Dead or alive. You know what this means, don't you?" Ron, breaking the grave atmosphere with his utter loss, shook his head sadly. "It means that Harry could now be any animal in that Potions closet. We have no way of finding out which one."

"Should we tell Dumbledore? I mean, he could probably help, and it would put all of these ridiculous theories to rest. Flobberworm my ass…" He muttered. Hermione thought for a moment.

After a long time, she finally said that they should. They rocketed through the library, out the door, and into Dumbledore's office, where they found Snape, talking angrily to the Headmaster. Dumbledore brushed them out, but they listened behind the door.

"...You know, don't you?" Snape asked gravely.

"I do, Severus."

"Do you have an idea of what to do about it?"

"I do, Severus."

"You know how dangerous this is, Albus?"

"Yes, I do, Severus."

"I will leave the matter to you."

"I know, Severus."

"We need to stop this. It's not healthy for him, it's breaking him down. He's still his bratty, king-like self, but toned down, kind of timid. And now he's in the Hospital Wing, and was put there after one of these events." He was seething; the room itself was oozing the tense mood.

"I know, Severus. I know." Dumbledore said sadly. The voice alone broke Hermione's heart. Ron was just left in a muddle of confusion. "Observe them. Find out, please. I don't want another one to be influenced. And if he is, please talk to him about it." Snape bustled out of the room. He glared at Ron and Hermione for a moment, and whisked out of sight. "Come in," they heard Dumbledore call, and they entered cautiously.

"Professor Dumbledore, as you know, Harry has been missing for some time now, and we think we may have a big clue to where he is." Dumbledore nodded for them to continue. Hermione, hauling in a huge breath, said, "We were searching in Professor Snape's Potions Cabinet," Way to save our asses, 'Mione, Ron thought. "That was the last place we saw him. And we saw his glasses, and his wand. And we looked into his wand, and we saw a... interesting spell."

And off Hermione went, telling the whole story again, but this time more dramatic and including some hand motions to show just exactly what she was talking about. Dumbledore, bless him, listened without getting annoyed, miraculously, and was letting her go on with nods and 'Okay's. He reassured him that he would get right on that and search for Harry himself as soon as possible, as losing a student in the castle would be a great shame indeed. As they turned and left the room, the Headmaster leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes. He heaved an enormous sigh, and said to Fawkes and all of paintings on the wall, "Naturally, this school only gets the most interesting cases."

Well, I hope that was interesting. Things will pick up in the next chapter, I have a nice, nosebleed-worthy way to end the next one. *evil laugh*. I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Don't forget about Brownie Points! Review or Draco will get worse!

I really hope you guys keep reading.

Love, C