Harry Potter And The Tiger's Eyes

Author's Notes: Hunter has to face his friends and band mates and explain to them what happened. How will they react to his new look and attitude? Also in this chapter you meet the first of Hunter's new Professors.

The others were waiting for Hunter when he and Carla arrived in the common room. He smiled at them and kisses Katie before sitting down on the couch. "Well I suppose you've all noticed the new look," he says with a soft chuckle. They all nod as he considers the best way to begin.

"I'll explain what I know in a moment. First I need show you exactly what has happened." He takes off his jacket showing them his new muscular build before removing his gloves to reveal clawed hands. The others gasp as he tucks his mane of long hair behind his pointed ears.

Finally he removes his sunglasses and they pull back in shock at the sight of his eyes. Hunter begins to talk, allowing them to see his fangs. "It was after my third controlled change that I ended up stuck like this," he tells them. "The only thing anyone seems to be able to tell me is that 'I'm a special cub of Seline.' Yet no one seems to be willing to tell me why I'm so special," he growled.

Katie sits down beside him and wraps her arms around him. "I don't care what you look like," she assures him. "You're still the same man I fell in love with."

Hunter pulls away and gets up off the couch. "That's the thing," he tells her walking over to the fireplace. "I'm not the same." He stares into the fire and can feel the tiger pulling back in fear of the flames. "I'm more tiger now then I was last year." He can feel her approach and doesn't pull away as she hugs him from behind. "The tiger is a part of me now and there's no going back." he says closing his eyes. "I'm no longer the same man you all knew before." He turns around and looks down at her and it becomes obvious to everyone just how much he's grown over the summer. Last year they were roughly the same height but now he was more then a head taller then her.

"I don't care," Katie says resting her head on his chest. "I love you no matter what." She can feel his smile at her words. She will not deny that his new appearance startled her but she's over the initial shock. He was her boyfriend and she loved him no matter what he looked like.

"Not to break up your fun," Harry says from his seat. "But it is getting late and I think we should decide if we're still a band or not before we call it a night."

Hunter laughs as he lets go of Katie. "I hope we're still a band cause I've got us booked at the Three Broomsticks every Hogsmeade weekend through next year."

Needless to say everyone was excited about performing again. Neville told Hunter that he had written several new songs over the summer they could play and Hunter agreed. "Hermione," he says. "You're our new keyboard player. Also you'll still be singing back up vocals with Ginny."

"And what about Carla and me?" Cho asks walking into the room. "What are we going to do?"

"Well since we're just playing on Hogsmeade weekends for now," Hunter says "You, guys are in charge of the merchandise." They agreed with big smiles. "Here's the deal though," he says before they get too far ahead of themselves. "You can keep half the profits and divide them up as you wish, a quarter of the profits go to the band to be divided evenly and the remaining quarter goes back into making more merchandise. Sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan." Carla grins wickedly thinking of all the possible merchandise her Neville and Cho can come up with.

The next morning at breakfast Professor McGonagall hands them their schedules after checking the requested classes against their O.W.L.S. Hunter had scored perfect O's in every subject , same as Hermione, allowing them to continue on to N.E.W.T.s level in all of their classes.

Once all the schedules had been handed out Hunter, Harry and Ron returned to their common room to enjoy their first free period together. Due to Hunter's new schedule they only had first period off together as he was the only one in the group taking Hagrid's N.E.W.T classes.

"So who are the new Professors?" Hunter asks as he and Ron begin playing Wizard's Chess.

"Professors Slughorn and Umbridge." Ron says taking one of Hunter's pawns with a Knight.

"Umbridge," Hunter says taking the Knight with his Queen. "Sounds familiar." He thinks about the name for a few moments as Ron takes his rook with his other knight. "She wouldn't happen to be Dolores Umbridge, would she?" Hunter asks with a noticeable growl as he takes the knight with his Queen.

"Check," Ron calls taking Hunter's bishop with his Queen. "That's her," he says. "How do you know her?"

Hunter growls as he takes Ron's Queen with his own bishop. "She's the biggest anti-demi human bigot in the Ministry." His voice conveys his hatred for the woman. "By the way," he grins at Ron. "Mate."

Ron looks at the board and growls himself as he sees that Hunter's bishop put his King in check while Hunter's rook and knight cut-off the King's only means of escape and none of his pieces could block the check. "One more game." Ron demands.

They continue to talk about their new professors and Hunter finds out that Slughorn actually held Snape's position before he retired and let the traitor have the job. Ron and Hunter continued to alternate between wins since they were evenly matched.

They left the common room and headed down to the Potions Room for their first class of the year. As soon as they entered Hunter had to race out of the room covering his nose. He ran into Hermione on his way up the stairs as the boys came running after him.

"What's wrong mate?" Ron asked as Hunter slowly calmed down.

"You didn't smell it?" Hunter asked as his breathing and heart rate return to normal.

"Smell what?" Harry asked. The room had smelled unusually pleasant like flowers at the Burrows, the wood of his broomstick and treacle treats.

Hunter stands up straight. "Amortentia," he turns to face them. "It's the most powerful love potion there is and smells exactly like whatever attracts each person the most."

"What did you smell Mr. Catiar." A short fat bald wizard asked. Hunter had to force himself not to laugh at the silver walrus like mustache the Professor had.

"Three things actually," Hunter says leaning against the wall. "The forest after a summer shower and Katie‘s new perfume." Hunter closes his eyes and smiles forgetting to hide his fangs.

"And the third?" His Potions Professor asks. "What was it that drove you from the room so suddenly?"

"Catnip," Hunter answers simply.

Professor Slughorn nods. "I understand and am sorry I that I hadn't considered how the potion might effect you." He turns to the others. "You three had better hurry or you'll be late to class." They leave as Professor Slughorn turns back to Hunter. “You are excused from class for today, I'll remove the potion this evening so you can join us tomorrow." Hunter nods and returns to the common room to relax before his next class.

Author's Notes: Okay so maybe Slughorn was a little out of character for this chapter but I didn't see away for his normal personality to work for the scene.