Queen of the Cat Ladies

Narcissa's jaw dropped as she entered the drawing room. There were moving bundles of fur climbing up onto the table, walking along the mantle and swatting jingly balls as they ran across the floor. The living carpet of multicolored fur pooled at her sister's feet, surrounding her with cats that came in every shape and size.

Bellatrix lifted one of the cats onto her lap, grinning as she seized the cat's paw and waved it at her sister. "Look, Mustache, it's Cissy! Say hello, Mustache."

"Mustache?" Narcissa was confused. Why had her sister suddenly decided to surround herself with cats? Maybe it was caused by a hormone imbalance. When she was pregnant with Draco, Narcissa wanted nothing but pygmy puffs as far as the eye could see. And Lucius had bought them for her, which was nice because Draco had plenty of furry friends to play with when he was born.

She could still remember seeing Draco laugh as he lay on his back in his crib, playfully swatting the strands of pink and purple fluff that spilled over the railing on his crib. The pygmy puffs liked to sit on the railing, amusing him for hours on end by fluffing up their fur. One by one they exploded into colorful balls of fluff, only to deflate then explode all over again. And now it was Bellatrix's turn, only she had chosen cats instead of pygmy puffs.

Narcissa moved through the sea of fur, carefully navigating around the meowing, purring kitties. She pulled out a chair and sat down next to Bellatrix. She hadn't been sitting down for five seconds when a wide smile materialized out of thin air over her sister's right shoulder. That's it, just a smile. No face, eyes or body attached to the floating mouth that hovered in the air.

The younger of the two sister's gasped when she saw the floating mouth. The next thing she knew a pink and purple striped cat appeared on her sister's shoulder, its long, fluffy tail draped across Bellatrix's neck and shoulder like a feather boa. Of course, she had gotten a Cheshire cat. Why didn't she think of that in the first place? It wasn't unusual for people to have magical pets in the wizarding world. And although they were considered rare and extremely valuable, you still saw people with Cheshire cats every now and then.

"Well? What do you think?" asked Bellatrix. "They're lovely, aren't they? And this one." She reached up and scratched the Cheshire cat behind the ears. "He's simply gorgeous, Cissy. However the Dark Lord wasn't pleased when he materialized in our bed, where he perched himself atop the Dark Lord's head and started licking his bald scalp. But no matter. He'll just have to get used to them because I'm not getting rid of my pretty kitties."

She then lifted Mustache into her lap, brought him to her face and cooed," You're such a pretty kitty. Yes, you are. Who's mama's pretty kitty? It's you!" Bellatrix rubbed noses with the black and white cat, then sat him in her lap and resumed petting him. "This is Mustache, so named because he looks like he has a white mustache on his black face. And that's Cuddle and Sailor - "

"Sailor?" Narcissa cut her sister off in mid-sentence. "You named it Sailor?"

"Of course I did," Bellatrix huffed. "I'm Queen of the Cat Ladies. I can name my cats anything I want."

"Right." Narcissa looked down and saw a white cat wearing a blue and white striped sailor shirt. There was a sailor hat on the cat's head, which was held in place by an elastic strap under its chin.

It was strange seeing her sister surrounded by cats. But it could have been worse. She could have decided to adopt a bunch of fire breathing hellhounds.