Sorry about the mix up guys dunno why I selected the wrong chapter haha, but I've corrected it now, so go back and read chap 6 if you haven't already. Thanks to all the people who read the story I love checking my inbox to find so many notifications... could do with some more reviews though (just saying haha) hope you enjoyed the last chap and this one as well!
Panting Ginny slammed the door behind her and leant back against the ruff wood. Closing her eyes she tried to still her heart beat. She heard murmured voices in the hallway and knew Sirius had come up to talk to Harry, but she quickly heard the creak of the stairs as he went back down again.
A few seconds later she heard a noise that rippled through her body leaving a wake behind like nothing could, Harry had growled, a noise that no human throat could produce. She had to bite down on her tongue to stop the answering call from spilling out of her throat. Agitated she pushed of the door and stalked into her room, her bare feet sinking into the plush carpet. She walked back and forth her agitation getting worse and worse.
She had only met one other shifter in her life since they were so rare, a magical fluke really. She definitely hadn't spent this much time in close proximity to one, especially a male and most especially another cat. As she paced her mind flowed with questions, spinning each one around and around.
Sirius had been the one to notice what Ginny was first, her parents having their hands full with six other children. The first time he had known was when he had had her sat in her lap a baby of no more than nine months. He had been playing some kind of game with her pulling faces and bouncing her around. He told her the first second he felt something was wrong was when her body grew really warm. He had been about to call out to Molly worried that she was running a fever, when suddenly it wasn't pudgy baby skin under his finger tips, but plush fur.
The first time he had told her this story he had chuckled saying he nearly dropped her on the floor in his shock. Starring up at him with beautiful golden eyes was a snow leopard pup. He'd told her that she'd looked at him annoyed because he had stopped playing and then had nipped him on the finger a small reprimand. She felt her lips pulling in a smile as she thought of Sirius' laugh as he had told her. Soon after she had changed back and he'd been so freaked out he hadn't told anyone. After doing some research he had discovered what she was.
With a sigh she crossed to her desk and sat in the chair, pulling out the first draw she tapped it with her wand and the disillusion charm disappeared and her diary appeared. She's started writing it around thirteen when her shifts had become most frequent and uncontrollable. She flipped to the pages where she had recounted what he had told her he'd found.
Sirius came and visited me today, after mum freaked out at finding a leopard sat on her couch. I'm sure she'd convinced herself that the other times weren't real and I've gotten really good at predicting the urges. This time though it caught me off guard, I hated it I couldn't control what was happening and then mum had screamed. The sound almost defended me, and when she finally calmed down she wouldn't look at me.
Ginny traced her fingers over the smudge marks in the ink knowing she had been crying as she had written these pages and as she read she could feel the same hurt leaking back into her body. Molly was a wonderful mother, but she just didn't seem to want to accept all the sides of her daughter.
He brought me a book he said he'd found for me, something that would help me understand what I was. Of course I'd read it straight away, but it didn't make me feel better. Turns out its mum and dad's fault, all of this. It seems that sometimes there's this fluke in magic when a couple that have animagi forms sometimes the magic can leak into their children. I queried with him why it was just me, and he pointed out a passage that explained no one knew why some people were born that way and others who had the same family weren't. Sirius thinks it's because I'm a girl, as if I needed something else to put me outside of my family, like being the baby and a girl wasn't hard enough. After I read it I got so angry I went and yelled at mum, all I managed to do was upset her and make myself feel worse. I'm gunna stay with Sirius for a few days while I process this, but I don't think I'm ever going to be able to look at my parents again, I mean because of them I'm a freak!
Closing the book Ginny ran her fingers over the turquoise leather closing her eyes, she could still feel the pain in her heart when she thought of that time. Her parents had tried but even in the magical world this was different. It was like being an animagus, the cat lived inside of her mind at all times, it had its own urges and needs and sometimes she was the slave to her leopard not the other way round. Slipping the diary back into its hiding place and resetting the charm she decided maybe it was time to go home. As much as her mother drove her insane, she didn't feel safe around Harry.
He clouded her mind like no one had been able to do before. Even now when she was panicking about what was happening she wanted to go search him out, to feel his skin under her finger tips, but even more she wanted to feel his fur. If it was anything like hers she knew the top layer would be slightly ruff, but the deeper layer would be soft almost woolly. She wondered if he was a jungle cat or something bigger, if his fur would be sleeker than hers. She itched to ask but knew it wasn't her place, she had known the man for less than twenty four hours, and he had been thought dead by the wizarding world at large.
Sighing she got to her feet and decided what she needed was a good shower before she did anything else. Stripping of as she walked she slipped into her small adjoining bathroom with a smile. Sirius had added this bit when she had started spending more and more time with him, especially when he had to deal with a teenage girl who tied up the only other bathroom. Ginny was unbelievably thankful that he had as she turned on the water to warm up.
Pulling her bobble from the bottom of her plate she ran her fingers through it to undo the tight knot. She felt the slight kink to her hair as she tan her fingers through, but knew it wouldn't survive the shower, her hair was naturally straight and it took a lot of cosmetic charms to get it to do anything but flow down her back in a sheet. She stripped off the last of her clothing and slipped under the stream of water sighing happily as he ran over her head and down. There was nothing she loved better than a good shower.
Lily instantly noticed that there was something wrong with Harry when he came downstairs. He sat down and took a plate pilling food on, but he didn't look at her, and he was doing everything to avoid either of their eyes. Sirius caught her eyes raising an eyebrow in question but she shook her head, she had no idea what was going on. Harry wasn't one to get flustered he was usually completely and utterly controlled, sometimes so controlled it scared her, but right now he was scaring her more.
She'd gotten used to his cold eyes, used to his perfect stillness and calm, this was freaking her out. What could possibly get so far under his skin that it was showing without him realising? Getting to her feet she gathered together the now empty serving plates taking them over to the sink before she turned to look at Harry.
"Sirius do you think you could give me a moment," she said whipping her hands on a dish towel and dipping her head towards Harry.
He looked from mother to son and nodded, "sure I'm gunna go check on Ginny anyway," with that he scrapped his chair back and disappeared upstairs.
Lily leant back against the counter, running the dish towel through her hands, as she watched her son who as trying very hard not to look at his mother.
With an annoyed sigh she put the cloth down and circled round to stand next to harry, hands on her hips and her sternest voice she asked, "alright spit it out, what's going on."
He did look up at her then, his eyes going blank as he tried not to give anything away, "I don't know what you mean," his voice was flat but she could still hear the slight note to it.
Pulling out the chair next to him she moved up closer to him, getting into his personal space which she knew he hated. What she hadn't expected though was his reaction. She felt the growl more than heard it, a deep base that vibrated her chest, and she turned shocked eyes at him. He never growled at her, never.
"What the," she started but he didn't let her finish.
He flew to his feet moving back from her and throwing up his hands. She saw a flash of anger in his eyes then, not to mention a ripple of his cat's eyes.
"Oh I don't know, could it be that I'm in a place I don't know, with people I have never met but seem to know me," he paced away from her and she swallowed suddenly nervous.
Harry had a reason why he was so controlled all the time. She had seen him loose only a few times and it had ended in bloodshed. She had taught him control for this exact reason, but as she paced in front of her she felt as if none of his conditioning was working. She watched him shiver and a ripple of black fur danced across his skin. She hadn't seen him do that since he was barely a teenager.
"It's more than that Harry and you know it," she said pushing as much fear from her voice as she could.
She knew one thing was for sure, Harry needed her strong right now, and she most definitely wouldn't be weak in any way. Not when weakness made her prey.
Rising to her feet she walked up to him, putting a restraining hand on his chest and he stopped. The heat blazing from his body was incredible and she realised he was losing grip of all of his shields.
"Harry!" she scolded when he would look at her, her voice harsh.
His eyes snapped to her face and she hoped her own didn't give anything away since she was now looking directly at his beast.
"Ginny's a shifter," he said suddenly and she nodded she had suspected but not known for sure, "not just that she's a cat."
Lily gasped, oh this was not good.
