Almost as soon as Kat had transformed, she had turned back into a human. She ignored Malfoy's shocked face, grabbed his hand and walked with him out into the busy streets of Diagon Alley. After a few more minutes of silence, Kat looked at Malfoy.

"So you're not going to say anything? To be honest, I'm surprised you've been so quiet."

"Me too, but I figured that you wouldn't want to talk about it."

Despite the thoughtfulness that Kat had seen before, she was still shocked at the consideration that he was giving her.

"Thank you. I'm still kind of in shock that I actually showed it to you. But I needed to; however, I don't think that I'm really prepared to talk about it right now. I'm going to go sleep, but I'll answer any questions tomorrow?"

Smiling at him and touching his arm gently to show her thanks, she then stepped back and apparated home.

Kat walked into the office the next morning feeling slightly apprehensive. She was prepared to answer any questions that Malfoy had, but it didn't negate the fact that she hadn't talked about her animagus in years. As she walked in she noticed Draco sitting in his chair reading and she took a moment to study him. He looks so peaceful like that. She was brought out of her thoughts by Padma and Ernie walking in behind her. She found some courage and spoke aloud to the entire room.

"Hey everyone, I have something I need to tell you all and show you. If you could all come and sit down?"

Everyone looked confused but did as she asked. She then briefly described that her seventh year she learned how to become an animagus and that she hasn't used her form since then.

"I've decided that it's time to start telling people and who better than those I work with?"

Kat glanced at Draco and was happy to see understanding in his eyes. She had left a lot of the personal issues out of her story this time and just stuck to the facts and she was glad to see that Draco wasn't going to bring any of it up.

Padma looked super excited.

"Oh, I'm so excited. I've only really seen McGonagall transform. What's your form?!"

The former Ravenclaw was so excited that Ernie placed a hand on her arm to try and get her to calm down.

"Oops, sorry. It's just such a fascinating process."

"Well I'd be happy to talk to you about it some other time if you'd like. I never mentioned it because I don't think my form would be very useful but.."

She then stood up and moved into the middle of the chairs and transformed. She quickly shrunk and grew hair and then was standing on 4 legs. She glanced up at the people in the room and was happy to see that none of them looked terrified.

"Ooo. You're a panther right?" Padma asked.

Kat just nodded her head and padded over towards Padma who put her hand out.

"Can I touch you?" She asked.

Kat nodded again and then Padma placed her hand on Kat's back and stroked her fur. Kat instinctively stretched out her back. She looked over at Draco and saw him staring at her with an expression she couldn't decipher. So she turned around and padded over towards him and sat near his feet and looked at him. He didn't move or say anything so she was shocked when he reached out his hand and stroked her head. She was super embarrassed when she accidentally let out a low purr and quickly moved away and transformed back into a human.

"So yeah, that's me. It's not exactly inconspicuous but I can be super quiet and my senses are fantastic like that."

Padma looked like she was having a hard time sitting still because she had so many questions.

"How about we order food and eat it in here together. As a team?" Kat tentatively asked.

"And I can ask you questions?"

Ernie and Draco both laughed at Padma's comment. Kat just smiled before replying.

"Absolutely."

The rest of the day went well. They ate lunch and chatted about more than just Katherine's animagus form. They talked about their lives, who they were dating, gossiped about who others were dating and so on. They then split into their pairs and continued to do research until the end of the day. On her way out the door Kat called out to Draco.

"Don't forget, I won't be in until closer to 1 tomorrow. I'll see you then!"

The next day Kat quickly ran some errands and then met up with Ginny and about 11 for lunch.
"What was so urgent that you needed to meet for lunch so soon?" Ginny asked Kat as soon as they were seated.

"I'm falling for Draco." Kat blurted out.

Ginny looked a bit shell-shocked but then she laughed.

"Why are you laughing at me? This is a big deal!" Kat practically screeched at her best friend.

"Oh I so saw this coming!" Ginny choked out in between her laughing fit.

"This is terrible. I can't believe this is happening to me. I mean it's super obvious that he's fit. I've always been attracted to him. But over the last couple of days. I've actually come to care for him. I don't want to just shag him anymore. I want to talk to him about things."

"What has he done?"

Kat took a deep breath and gave Ginny the basic overview of their lunch date and the conversation they had.

"I need to preface the next part of the story with I'm sorry for never telling you. I just. It never seemed like the right time. I'm an animagus. I learned how to do it our 7th year. I thought that an animagi would be extremely useful in trying to get information around Hogwarts undetected. So I talked to McGonagall. I had always been good at Transfiguration and I think we both needed something to take our minds off everything. She agreed to help me. It took me 4 months. I finally finished my full transformation right after the Christmas holidays. But unfortunately I'm not anything common, native to the area or small. I knew early on what my form would be but I was hoping for some reason that maybe I could still manage to use it. I used it for a little bit here and there. I also never told you because if I was the only one who knew the information, then you wouldn't have to lie. After graduation I never saw a point in bringing it up. But Draco mentioned animagi during our lunch and I told him. And then showed him. He was so understanding. I also told the team yesterday that I learned during our seventh year. I didn't tell them anything personal and he didn't say anything. He was so understanding about it all."

Kat quickly finished her story and stared at Ginny.

Ginny began to speak slowly.

"I'm not going to lie and tell you that I'm not upset that you didn't tell me. However, I understand your reasoning for it all so I'm just going to let it go for now."

Kat quickly grabbed Ginny's hands.

"Oh Gin you're the best. I'm so sorry. I've thought about telling you for ages but it always seemed like it's been too much time so you'll hate me. You're my best friend Gin, I couldn't this without you."

Ginny smiled "I get it, I really do. And you're my best friend too. Together forever okay?"

Kat just nodded in agreement.

"So what's your form?"

"A panther."

Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking again. "It's funny, when a panther was what came out of your wand as your patronus I wasn't surprised. It fits you perfectly. So I'm not surprised at all that it's your animagi form. But you're right. That's so not inconspicuous or really useful for a lot of things other than fighting. Or stealth through the woods. But onto the original topic. It sounds like you and Draco have a lot in common and he's nicer. He's never going to be a saint and Merlin knows you won't either. But maybe you two are good for each other."
"He's Draco Malfoy though!"

"And?"

"And he could have his choice of women. This little infatuation can only end in heartbreak."

"Well then it does and he's an idiot for letting you go. You know we could always decide to come out of the closet and just marry each other?"

Kat laughed and Ginny smiled, knowing that she had done her job for the day.

"Now go back to work. Act like normal and everything will work out okay?"

"Okay. Thanks Gin. I love you."

"I love you too. Now go! I'm late for practice!"

Kat walked out of the café thankful for her best friend more than ever.