A Cat's Life
Chapter3: Friend-like Enemies
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter he would have spent a lot more time lusting after a certain Potion Master…and maybe Draco too.
CHSgrl09: Thank you! Meow indeed.
Acj11: Yes, I think the first to find out will be a bit of a surprise. Needless to say everything does not go to Sev's plan. But I won't give anything away.
Steinkrauz: EW! That'd be sooooo gross! DX
Shadow: Thank you very much.
The Green Eye: Thank you for your kind words.
New moongirl: Thank you.
Aliengirlguy: Yep, unfortunately for Sev, Albus was probably there the entire time. Creepy old dudes.
Sunscorona: I'm happy that you like my fic! Unfortunately, I probably won't be updating every week. However, it shouldn't be too awfully long between each chapter. I'm relieved that I seem to be keeping Severus in character!
Begs: Well…yes.
Kaede203: You may rest in the knowledge that I have every intention of finishing the fic. This chapter, however, is not the finish.
MrsSnape2u: Thank you!
XoxoxoxoX
All was chaos at The Burrow by 8:00 the following morning. Severus had really had quite enough of it. He had been woken up (Very rudely) by Ron Weasley yanking the blankets out from under him. The fact that the "blankets" in question were actually Mr. Weasley's robes did not lessen the man-turned-cat's anger at all.
He had lectured the red-head for a good five minutes before he remembered that no one could understand him in the slightest and the only thing that was coming from his mouth was a stream of hissing. Ron was staring at the cat with his eyebrows raised. He didn't know why but he felt like that bloody cat had been lecturing him.
"Why are you starring at Prince like that?" Harry asked, having just walked into Ron's room.
"I think your cat was just chewing me out, mate." Ron answered, stuffing the robes into his trunk. "It was hissing at me like it was mental right before you came in."
Harry laughed and reached over to pet Prince. Severus swatted at his hand before turning to leave the room. He went down the numerous stair cases, intent on getting breakfast.
Molly was rushing around the kitchen while calling out orders to the children upstairs. Severus climbed onto one of the living room tables to watch all of the commotion. It had never been like this at his house when he had been a child.
He had, of course, counted down the days left until returning to Hogwarts every summer. The night before his "vacation" was over he would pack his trunk and make sure his robes were clean. His father wouldn't have cared enough to remind him and by the time he was twelve his mother was always busy getting lost in whatever bottle she could find.
His mother had taken him to King's Cross his first year. That was still when drinking was an occasional thing. Every year after, until his sixth, he had hitched a ride with Lily and her family. It had driven Petunia crazy, much to Severus' joy. But after his fifth year he had moved out of his father's house anyways.
His mother had died in an "accident" over the school year according to his father. Tobias hadn't thought it significant enough to write Severus over. He had lived with Lucius after that. For a while at least. Until his father had died from alcohol poisoning and he was free to claim the house.
Severus gave himself a small shake to rid himself of the bad memories. He hadn't meant to get himself going down that road. The Burrow was just very different from what he was used to with all the noise and the smell of a homemade meal.
Molly went to the foot of the stairs, calling that breakfast was ready. Severus took this as his cue to sneak under the kitchen table and wait on Potter. As everyone sat down Ginny aimed a kick at Severus which he dodged with a hiss. Finally, he managed to find Potter. He wasted no time in climbing onto the brat's lap.
"No Prince. I set out food for you last night. It's right over there." Harry whispered to the cat, pointing to a dish with cat food in it.
Severus looked over to the food dish and felt his lip curl in distaste. He turned his attention back to Potter with a glare. "If you think I'm eating that you're sorely mistaken." He said with a meow. Deciding that the Chosen Brat was going to share with him whether he liked it or not, he clawed a piece of bacon off the plate.
Harry chuckled, snatching up the other piece of bacon before Severus could get it. "Harry, you shouldn't have Prince at the table." Hermione scolded. "And you're going to spoil him if you keep feeding him people food."
"He's fine Hermione. And I'm not letting him on the table. He's just on my lap." Harry smiled as Prince snagged a sausage.
"Hermione is right. Cat off the table." said, waving her wand. Severus yowled as he was banished from Potter's lap, landing near his food dish.
Severus glanced at the dry cat food in the dish. His lip curled again and he turned his back on the poor excuse for food. He walked back into the living room with his tail in the air. He jumped back onto the table to wait for them to finish.
It seemed to take hours. Severus was ready to go back into the kitchen and drag Potter out if it meant that they could finally leave. That was when Molly happened to check the time. "It's that late already? Hurry up you lot! If we don't hurry up we'll miss the train!" She exclaimed as she cleaned off the table with a sweep of her wand.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny rushed upstairs to get their trunks. Severus watched from the table as they all rushed around. Potter came back down first, levitating his trunk in front of him. He was also holding what looked like a cat carrier…the perfect size for Severus.
Severus didn't hesitate even slightly to leap off the table and streak into the kitchen, hiding under that table. If Potter thought he was going into that cage he had another thing coming. "Come on Prince. Here kitty, kitty." Harry coaxed as he reached for the cat.
"I am not going into that cage." Severus hissed, swiping his claws at Potter.
"Accio Prince." Harry smirked, pointing his wand. Severus hissed as he was suddenly lifted into the air and pulled toward Potter at a high speed. Harry caught him and was immediately being clawed and bitten. "Ow! Stoppit Prince! You have to go into the cage! I'll let you out on the train!"
After quite a fight Harry finally managed to get Prince into the carrier. Severus glared out of the depths at Harry. Potter was too busy checking his new claw wounds to notice the cat's glare though.
Ron and Hermione were standing at the foot of the stairs, watching Harry's struggle with amusement. "Thanks for the amazing lack of assistance." Harry glared at his friends, trying to get a rather deep scratch to stop bleeding.
"I get Crookshanks into his cage on my own." Hermione smirked, motioning to where Crookshanks was curled in his carrier, purring. Harry scowled at the cat as if it were its fault that Prince had clawed his arm to shreds.
"Kids we're going to be late!" yelled, pushing them out of the house.
Severus was cursing Dumbledore into the depths of Hell as he was jostled around carelessly. He wondered, not for the first time, why he couldn't have simply had a normal death. Or even a normal life. Or just not have had the misfortune to have met Albus Dumbledore. He plopped down in the cage gracelessly with a huff.
They all piled into cars that the Ministry had provided (Mostly because of Harry.) and set out for King's Cross. Severus continued to glare out of his cage, entertaining himself with thoughts of clawing Potter to bloody ribbons.
"You get used to this eventually. They'll let us out soon." A slightly snide voice said. Severus looked over to where the voice was coming from. Granger's cat was looking at him from where his cage was perched on his mistress's lap.
"Excuse me?" Severus said, unsure as to whether the cat had actually spoken to him or not. Though, if it had, should he really be surprised?
"You're getting riled up for nothing. It's uncomfortable, sure, but it's better than having been left in the pet shop." Crookshanks seemed to smirk as he said this. The expression looked odd on his flattened face.
"I cannot believe I'm actually talking to a cat." The black feline sighed.
A small chuckle came from the other cat. "I am quite curious as to how you managed to pull this off. I remember them talking about how you had died, Snivellus." Crookshanks grinned.
Severus' eyes snapped to the other cat. "You know who I am." It wasn't a question.
"I remember seeing you around Padfoot's house. Your body may have changed but your scent is still the same."
"And was it from Black that you learned that idiotic name?" Severus glared.
"What? Snivellus? I was under the impression that it was your actual name. It's the only thing I ever heard Padfoot call you."
"That is not my name. Just something that Black found amusing to call me when we were children." Severus frowned. As much as a cat is able to frown, anyway. "Apparently he still finds it amusing. No one would actually call their child Snivellus."
Crookshanks made a movement that could have been a shrug. "With a name like Crookshanks who am I to judge?"
"Point taken."
"So, how did you return as a cat? I must know." Crookshanks gave an odd grin.
"Curiosity killed the cat." Severus glared as Crookshanks laughed.
The cats were unable to continue their conversation as the human occupants got out of the car. The group rushed into King's Cross station, pushing trolleys ahead of them. Molly hissed at them to hurry while checking her watch.
The Golden Trio heaved their trunks onto the train just as the last call sounded. Ginny left for her friends without a word to the trio. "She's been pleasant lately." Ron frowned, sarcasm lacing his tone.
"She's just still upset over Harry. She really thought you two would get back together after everything settled down. Of course she also never suspected that you were homosexual, Harry." Hermione said as they found an empty compartment.
As they heaved their trunks into the luggage racks Ron frowned. "But…shouldn't she have noticed something was-er-off? When you two were, like, snogging?" Ron made a face at this last word.
Harry frowned as well. He had never really thought about it before. In truth he had never found snogging as marvelous as the other boys in his dorm had. He had figured at the time that his dorm mates had simply been exaggerating. Of course now he figured the problem was that he had been kissing the wrong gender the entire time. Not that he could compare the difference between kissing a girl or a bloke.
Ron had a point though. Shouldn't Ginny have noticed that he had been less than enthusiastic? He knew she had more experience than he did when it came to snogging. Maybe he was just a really good faker. Or maybe, the thought made his stomach clench uncomfortably, he was just really bad and Ginny hadn't said anything at the time to spare his feelings.
He tried to think back to the number of insults Ginny had been hurling at him when she had found out about his preference. Had there been anything about his kissing ability? It had been really hard to hear at the time with all the hexes flying at him.
Severus lay in his cat carrier, waiting for that idiot to let him out. He did take some interest in the conversation being had by the Golden Trio. Potter was gay, was he? 'And all the fan girls shall weep.' He thought with smirk.
He almost wished he could have seen the Weasley girl's face when she had found out. Hell, he wished James Potter was still alive to see his face. He had certainly given Severus hell when he had found out that Severus was bi-sexual. This still didn't make sense to him considering that the man's two best friends, the wolf and the mutt, had been obviously interested in each other. Then again, it wasn't like Severus had ever expected fairness from James Potter.
'Imagine if he had been alive to find out that his son was completely gay.' The thought made Severus purr subconsciously.
Harry peeked into Prince's cage to see the cat purring contently. "See? It's not so bad in there, is it?"
Severus' eyes snapped to the green ones and he glared. Potter simply chuckled and opened the cage for him. Severus slipped out of the cage and stretched, jumping up into the seat farthest away from the three.
A moment later the compartment door was pushed open and Neville Longbottom stumbled inside. "Hey guys!" he beamed.
"Hey Neville! We didn't know if you were going to be coming back for another year since you were actually here last year." Harry greeted.
"Yeah. A bunch of last year's seventh years are coming back. None of us exactly got to take our N.E. did we? I heard that their keeping everyone back a grade and just mixing the new first years in with the last bunch. No one really learned anything. Not to mention Gran wanted me to come back. Oh! But Professor Sprout said that she's going to take me on as her apprentice!" His eyes widened comically in his excitement.
"That's great Neville!" Hermione smiled.
Neville beamed and went to sit down, jumping up an instant later with an "Eep!" as Prince hissed and growled loudly.
"Idiot boy! It's easy to see that over the last year you still haven't gotten smart enough to do something so simple as to watch where you sit!" Severus hissed and he leapt into a different seat.
"W-whose cat?" Neville stammered as he sat down.
"Harry's." Ron answered.
"His name is Prince." Harry smirked as Prince glared at Neville.
"Don't worry though, Neville. The blasted cat acts like that with everyone. It's a bit of a nutter really." Ron frowned as the cats glaring black eyes switched to him.
Severus decided to ignore everyone in this thrice damned compartment. He curled up in the seat, his tail wrapping around him as he tried to get comfortable. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.
Harry chatted with his three friends. All four of them discussing the upcoming year which would be so very different from all the others in many ways. As they were eating the candy that they had gotten from the trolley Neville snapped his fingers as if remembering something. "That's right! Did you guys know that Malfoy came back too?"
"No way!" Ron exclaimed, dropping his Chocolate Frog. Said frog beginning to hop away.
"I really didn't think he would come back to Hogwarts." Hermione frowned.
When Harry didn't add any input Neville and Hermione looked to him. Ron was still on the floor looking for his Chocolate Frog. "Yeah I knew. It was decided at his trial. Narcissa requested he be allowed to go back for his last year. I-er-kinda said that I would keep an eye on him."
"Personally mate; I still don't understand why you didn't let them lock him up in Azkaban. I mean I get why you got his mum off but him? Don't you remember all the hell he put us through over the years?" Ron finally clambered back into his seat, examining the Chocolate Frog he had recaptured. He blew a bit of dust off and stuffed it into his mouth.
"I'm just…over it I guess. I think Malfoy's been regretting joining Voldemort ever since the beginning of his sixth year. But it's not like he could just look at Voldemort and say, 'Well I've made a mistake. I think I'll just quit being a Death Eater now!' could he?" Harry shrugged.
"Well that's very mature of you Harry. You could learn a thing or two from him Ronald." Hermione looked pointedly to her boyfriend.
As Ron opened his mouth to complain Harry jumped up. "I think I'll take a walk." he said, mostly to Neville since the other two were now busy bickering.
XoxoxoxoX
Draco honestly didn't know what his mother had been thinking. Why in Merlin's name did she request that he be sent back to Hogwarts? He wasn't even at the bloody school yet and already he was miserable.
As soon as he had arrived on the damned platform he had been greeted by glares from every direction. All he had been able to do was continue walking with his head held high. Stubbornly clinging to the Malfoy pride which was the only thing he had left.
Every compartment on the bloody train had at least two people in it by time he got on the train. No one wanted to spare a seat for an ex-Death Eater. Even the current Slytherins weren't keen on being seen with someone who had openly followed the Dark Lord. It wasn't like he could exactly blame them. If their situations were reversed he was sure he'd be the same way.
So he settled for wandering the train. He should have just gone with Blaise who had decided to go to Hogsmead a couple days early and not take the train. When Blaise had mentioned it over the summer it had just sounded exhaustingly unnecessary to Draco. Now it sounded like a marvelous idea.
Roaming the train only lasted so long so Draco wound up leaning against a window at the end of one of the aisles. He sighed and let himself slump down into a sitting position. This whole thing was an awful idea. What had his mother been thinking?
"Look what we have here." Came a sneering voice. Draco looked up to see four, sixth year Gryffindor boys leering down at him.
"Can I help you?" Draco tried to keep his voice smooth and even as he reached to grab his wand. Potter having returned the wand to him as soon as the trials were over.
"Yeah. We was just wondering why in Merlin's name they would let Death Eater scum back into Hogwarts?" The ring leader, Draco thought his surname was Lyons, sneered.
Draco said nothing but did rise to his feet slowly, his hand still firmly grasping his wand in his robe pocket. He decided to weigh his options. If he attacked them he would probably be expelled as soon as he got off the train, so that was out. If they tried to attack him he was sure he could defend himself, but then the four of them could run off and spin some sob story about how the evil Death Eater had been making trouble.
Draco wasn't sure how fair the new Headmaster, a man named Aelfric Galloway, was to ex-Death Eaters but he would bet a rather large sum that he wouldn't bother hearing Draco's side of the story at all. He probably wouldn't be as understanding as Dumbledore could have been. All he would see is a Death Eater attacking four innocent Gryffindors. Draco wanted to scream because, in all truth, there was no way for him to win in this situation. The snide part of his mind that whispered that he had brought this on himself wasn't helping either.
Not to mention, the thought brought a wave of grief, with Severus gone there was literally no one to defend him. The new head of Slytherin, since Slughorn had decided to go back into retirement, was a woman named Cayenne Chambers. Draco didn't know much about her but he was sure she wouldn't want to make a bad reputation for herself this early in the game.
So Draco said nothing, simply glaring at the defiantly. "We asked you a question." Lyons growled, shoving Draco's shoulder. His friends chuckled darkly behind him.
Draco was forcibly reminded of himself from two or so years ago. Taunting people for the hell of it as Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly behind him. He grit his teeth as he thought of two. Crabbe, whose body was never found, and Goyle who was in Azkaban.
The memories were painful and it made Draco hate this situation even more. He was tired of all this childish nonsense. All he wanted was to get through this year as quickly and painlessly as possible. "I didn't do anything to you. Just leave me alone." He didn't expect his words to work and he wasn't disappointed.
One of the other boys (What was his name? Something Palmer?) Rushed forward and pinned Draco against the window by his shoulders. "Didn't do anything, did you? Well I wonder which one of your little Death Eater pals killed my little brother last year. Hell, it could have been you. Couldn't it?" The boy growled out, his face no more than an inch from Draco's.
"We should teach this piece of trash a lesson." Lyons sneered.
All four boys drew their wands, Palmer's being immediately gouged into Draco's throat. He couldn't even find it in him to blame them for hating him. They needed a whipping boy. He would have wanted one if he was in their shoes. Draco scrunched his eyes shut, wishing that they would just get it over with.
"Hey! What are you lot doing?" Came an all too familiar voice.
The group of Gryffindors backed away from Draco and looked at the floor as if it were and actual disciplinarian who had found them and not a student. "He started mouthing off to us." Lyons said, sounding like a five year old tattling.
Harry frowned. Draco was still leaning against the window, rubbing his neck where Palmer's wand had dug in. A bruise already forming on his fair skin. It wasn't very hard for Harry to put two and two together. "Go back to your compartments." Harry tried to make his voice a bit commanding and it seemed to work. The four boys shot Draco malicious glares and turned away.
"Sorry about them. They're just still grieving and don't have anyone to take their frustrations out on. They didn't do anything to you, did they?" Harry reached for Draco's shoulder. Draco jerked away from him, turning to face him with a glare.
"I didn't need your bloody help, Potter! Why do you always have to do that? Why do you have to save everyone? WE GET IT! You're a bloody saint! You'll defend the entire Wizarding World with your bare hands! You'll sacrifice yourself at the drop of a hat! I GET IT!
"Do you understand? You can stop now! You can go back to hating me! You don't have to defend the stupid, weak, Death Eater! You, literally, couldn't become a better person if you tried. Just…leave me alone." Draco mopped at his eyes. He would not cry in front of Harry bloody Potter again.
Harry stood waiting for Draco to be done yelling. Once the blonde finished Harry hesitated, trying to find the right words. "Look Malfoy…Draco…I know we've never…well…gotten along. Which is a major understatement." Draco scoffed at this. "But I'm just sick of it. Aren't you? I'm sick of all the childish fighting. So…I-er-want to call a truce.
"I know we'll probably never be great friends but for Merlin's sake let's stop being petty and stupid. We can just completely ignore each other if that's what it takes." Harry looked at Draco, whose expression was unreadable. "I didn't take your hand back when we were kinds and we've been fighting ever since. So…I think it's time to put that all behind us." Harry held his hand out with a hopeful look to the Slytherin.
Draco hesitated but took Harry's hand, shaking it slowly. "Fine. But this doesn't make us friends, Potter. And I was serious about you needing to cut out that 'Save Everyone' garbage." Draco smirked, looking Harry in the eye.
Harry gave a smile. "Gotcha. Stop with the ultimate hero act and we're not friends. How about…friend-like enemies?"
This made Draco crack a slight smile, almost shyly. "Deal."
XoxoxoxoX Chapter End
A/n: Well there's the next chapter! Next one will have a lot more Severus, I promise! Oh! THIS IS IMPORTANT! I'm not 100% on who Draco is going to end up with in this story. I've narrowed it down to either Blaise Zabini or Charlie Weasley. There's a poll on my profile page so please all of you go and vote on who you want darling Draco to end up with. If you don't want Draco to end up with either then…I'm sorry. Please review and thank you for reading! I would appreciate not being flamed. Love all of you!