Hiss Me, Harry

Betaed by deathangelgw

Chapter Three

“Harry, are you feeling all right?”

“Yes, Hermione. I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Yes, but, are you feeling a chill?”

“No, no, perfectly fine.”

“But you’re wearing a scarf. In the common room.”

“It’s a nice scarf. Excuse me, will you?”

Harry tried not to bolt up the stairs, working instead to climb casually, even pausing a moment to admire the railing and studiously ignoring the many watching eyes below him. When he finally got into his dorm room, he melted against the door with relief.

“You going to tell me what the bleedin’ hell is going on, or am I gonna have to beat it out of you?”

“Damn it, Ron!” Harry snapped as his breathing and heart restarted from the surprise he’d gotten. “Don’t do that! Look! You made my tail poof!”

“Never mind that.” Ron stepped out of the shadows that fell between two of the beds. His arms were crossed and he had a serious look on his face, which looked odd on him. “You’ve been acting strange since breakfast when you disappeared with Ferret-face and then came back without a word as to what had happened. Now you’re walking around all tippy-toe and wearing a bleeding scarf when it’s not even a bit drafty. Now tell me what’s going on, Harry.”

“I think I might be coming down with a fever and so…” Harry trailed off when Ron shook his head.

“I’m not swallowing it. Tell me the truth, right?”

His eyes darting around for a moment as if hoping to find the answer somewhere in the room, Harry shrugged and sighed. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?! What the hell happened between you and Malfoy, eh?”

“Leave it, Ron. I can’t because I can’t, right? I tell you and I’ll… Just leave it.” Harry pushed off from the door and stomped to his bed. Flinging himself down, he was surprised to find Ron right in front of him, sitting down on his own bed. “What?”

“Fine, you won’t say anything. Doesn’t mean I can’t stick to you like glue until I find out what’s going on... especially with what’s under that scarf.” Ron sat and stared at Harry. A moment of silence followed.

“Quit it. You’re acting creepy!” Harry finally exploded.

“I’m acting creepy? It’s you that’s acting creepy. You’d think you’d run off to have an affaire with the Ferret!”

“Don’t you dare say that!” Harry leapt to his feet, his face mottled red. “It’s not like that! We’re not having an affaire or anything! At all! So just don’t say that again!”

Ron’s eyes widened. “What the… You are?”

“What? No! Didn’t I just say that?!” Harry shouted.

“Yeah, you did. But it’s actions that speak louder than words, mate, and you are acting all kinds of guilty.”

“What? That’s ridiculous!” Harry threw up his hands and stomped to the end of the bed. “I mean, it’s just plain dumb! Who would think that, huh? Malfoy and I hate each other!”

“Yeah, that’s why I said it as a laugh. Sarcasm, ya know? But you’re acting like Percy when he got caught actually breakin’ a rule. Bouncing around and acting all put out.” Ron stood up and faced Harry. “What the hell happened?”

“Nothing happened!”

“Harry! You went off with Malfoy! Where did you go? What did he say?” There was a pregnant pause and then he asked accusingly, “What did you do?”

“Argh! Nothing! I didn’t…! We just went…! Argh!” Harry growled in frustration and ripped the scarf off his throat.

“What the hell?” Ron stepped closer and grabbed the shiny medallion hanging off the green collar. “If lost return to Draco Malfoy?!” he read aloud. “Why the hell are you wearing this?”

“I don’t want to but the bastard has it charmed! I can’t take it off!” Harry hissed. He backed away, forcing Ron to let go of the tag.

“But why did you put it on?”

“I didn’t! He did!”

“How the hell did he do that?!” Ron nearly shrieked. “Did he have more of his cronies? Did you have to fight?”

“N-No, I just. I was… Damn it! Yes, yes there were nearly five other Slytherins.”

“It’s war!” Ron shouted, pounding his fist into his palm.

“No! No, you can’t say anything about this to anybody!” Harry’s eyes went wide in fright and his tail flicked back and forth in agitation.

“What? But they jumped you! This isn’t going to be forgotten! Me and the others won’t use a collar on his lily-white arse, we’ll use a brand!” Ron went to his trunk and began sorting through it in anger. “They’re not going to laugh at your affliction! We’ll show them!”

“No, Ron! Listen to me! You can’t say anything about this!”

“They’ll pay!”

“No! Okay, okay! It- It wasn’t a group thing! You hear me, Ron? It was just Dra- Malfoy! There was no one else!”

Ron came out of his trunk with a bit of itching rope his brothers had gotten him. “Fine. Just Malfoy. Easy.”

“No, not easy. Ron! Let it be!”

“Are you insane?” Ron stopped and looked at Harry. His face suddenly shifted and became a mix of confusion, anger, sympathy, and fear. “Wait… Are you suffering from some sort of mental thing? I mean… I could understand that. You’ve been turned to a cat-boy and then attacked by a deranged, pouncy, foul mouthed, daddy’s-boy--”

“Yeah, we know who Malfoy is!” Harry interrupted. “And no, I’m not having a mental break down. I just don’t want this spread around the school, is all.”

“Okay, fine,” Ron said with relief at not having to comfort a possibly deranged cat-boy. “Then I’ll just grab him real quiet like and beat the snot out of him!”

“Argh! No! Ron, you can’t!”

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t!”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because he’ll tell you he shagged me!”

“Did he?!”

“Yes!”

They both stood facing each other as their shouts slowly faded into the walls.

“Bloody hell,” Ron breathed. “You are having an affair with him! And it’s… it’s… kinky!” he declared accusingly with his finger pointed at the collar.

“No! No, we are not having a kinky affair, damn it!”

“Then he forced you?!”

“Yes! No! I mean..!” Harry shook his head and pulled at his ears in frustration. “Look, Ron, I did some things that I am not at all proud of today and I would really rather not think about it, or relive it, or remember it, right?”

Ron threw the rope down and put his hands on his hips. “Well too bloody bad! You’re going to tell me what the hell happened or I’m finding Ferret and having it out of him!”

Harry tugged his ears a bit harder and then let them go with a huff. “Fine! Fine, I’ll tell you and I hope it gives you nightmares!”

“That’s a given, mate.”

Harry told him everything, from the moment the door to the hidden garden closed to the end of their activities. Ron only stood up to escape once. The rest of the time he quietly sat with winces and grimaces crossing his face.

“Well, at least you gave him a punch,” he said when Harry stopped. “But how’d you get out of there?”

“I felt the wands under his jumper. He hadn’t made them disappear with real magic, but with a magic trick. I grabbed them, tossed his into the bushes, and cast a bunch of revealing spells.” Harry looked up from where he was petting his own tail. “I took off and didn’t look back. Then I realized the collar was on me and that I couldn’t take it off.”

“Yeah, um, I could see why you were, uh, a bit distracted when he put it on.” Ron’s face nearly matched his hair. “But you couldn’t get it off, eh? Let me try.” He stood up and cast all the same opening spells and ending spells but nothing loosened the collar. “It won’t budge!”

“Yeah, it’s why I was wearing the scarf.”

“Hermione might-”

“No! You can’t tell anyone!” Harry stood up and began pacing. “This isn’t something I want anyone to know!”

“Yeah, understandable, that.” Ron scrunched up his face in thought. “Well, I could still find Malfoy, beat the snot out of him, and then get him to tell us how to take it off.”

“He’d rather die than tell us,” Harry stated knowingly. “He’d gloat to the grave that I was marked as his forever.”

“Yeah.” Ron sighed. His face suddenly went blank and then he cautiously looked up at Harry. “Well, you could, um… ask him, couldn’t you?”

“What?”

“Well, I mean, he seems to be fancying you a bit and maybe if you, er, swished your tail about, nice like, he’d, uh, take it off you.”

Harry’s eyes were as nearly as big as his spectacle lenses. “Swish my tail?! Have you gone mad? What am I? An alley cat in heat?”

“No, of course not! I’m just saying that maybe you could, um, work some charm and trick him into taking it off.” Ron stood and shrugged.

“Now I’m bleeding Mata Hari!” Harry stomped away while his tail swished and his ears were laid flat to his head. “I can’t believe you Ron!”

“I’m just trying to get the bloody thing off you!”

“Well try a bit harder!”

“You’re the one who was too busy taking it to stop him from doing it!”

“Bastard!” Harry hissed and ran out of the room.

“Harry! Wait!” Ron ran to the door but Harry was already streaking through the confused people in the common room and out the portrait. “Damn it!”

“That was a very insensitive thing to say, Ron.”

“Hermione! Wha…? How did you…?” Ron stammered as Hermione stepped away from the wall next to the dorm room door.

“Really. You both were shouting and carrying on as if you’d never heard of a silencing charm.” She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. “Well, I’ll be off to the library then, shall I? Draco’s good at spells, but he’s not much of an inventor. Whatever he used is bound to be in a book somewhere. I’ll try to find out what he’s recently checked out.”

She walked away and down the stairs as Ron stared after her in awe.

“Oh, and you had better go find him,” Hermione called over her shoulder. “I’d look in high places.”

Her curly hair disappeared and Ron shook his head. “A bloody menace, that woman is,” he muttered under his breath and grabbed his cloak before taking off to look for a seriously angry cat.

“Stupid Ron. Thinks he’s so special just because he doesn’t have a tail.”

Draco paused as he heard the mumbling voice.

“I’d like to see him try to stop Draco bloody Malfoy from doing something when his hand’s done his trousers.”

The thought of his hand down Weasley’s trousers was abhorrent, but the sound of his kitty nearby was not. Draco quickly backed up and motioned for his curious friends to be silent as they moved away from the hallway.

“Right. Goyle, give me that tuna. Crabbe, give me the toy.”

“He’s here?” Glaston, a fifth year Ravenclaw, asked. He had been very excited to be asked on this hunting expedition. Nobody had ever been as keen as Draco had been when Glaston had spoken about his favorite subject: cats. Of course, Glaston knew why Draco Malfoy wanted to know, but Glaston himself was dying to know what it was like to have the mind of a human and the features and instincts of his favorite animal.

“Yeah, I believe he’s up in the rafters,” Draco answered, his eyes aglow with glee.

“I don’t think we can shake the hall, Draco,” Crabbe said uncertainly.

“You idiot.” Draco snatched the toy from Crabbe’s hands with a glare. “Why do you think I want the tuna? We’re going to lure him down. Zabini said that Weasle King and the brainy bint didn’t take any food out of the dining hall. Potter never showed for lunch or dinner, so we’re going to call to his stomach.”

“You’ll need to make sure he smells it,” Glaston interjected. “Sight alone may not induce him to come down. But the scent of food will definitely get his attention.”

“Good to know.” Draco took the tuna and unwrapped it. The minced meat was fragrant and he smiled as he held it in his hand.

“Once he’s eaten, and he’ll eat it fast, he may be a bit sleepy. But, if it wasn’t enough to make him satiated, he may want a bit of play. His hunting instincts will have been perked up with eating and some chase and catch will be tops.” Glaston was nearly frothing at the mouth with being able to share his knowledge. His sisters hated when he talked about cats and all his housemates were not amused anymore either.

“Good. Well, have a good night.” Draco turned and began to go back to the hall where his quarry was hiding. Crabbe and Goyle also turned and started heading in the other direction.

“Wha…? Wait, wait. Aren’t we going to help you?” Glaston ran a few steps after Draco. Draco gave him a cool stare.

“And why would I want you along?”

“Be-because… You said that you needed my help!”

“And you gave it. Nice of you. Good night.”

“But I want to see and talk to him! You said that he’d be happy to talk to me!”

“And I’m sure he would be. The stupid Gryffindor is happy about everything, isn’t he? I never promised that I’d allow you to actually speak to him. Now get gone.” Draco sneered at him and resumed his hunt. Glaston was left behind in confused disappointment. But Draco couldn’t be bothered by that now. Or ever actually. He had a kitty to catch.

He quietly crept into the hallway and listened for the angry grumbling. Everything was silent and then he saw something move to the left. He waited and, sure enough, it happened again: the quick swish of an upset tail flicking back and forth. Draco followed it up to its owner who was perched on top of a large corbel that held up the wooden beams crossing the ceiling. Harry’s back was to Draco and he seemed to be tugging at his ears while muttering to himself.

“It’s not like I can just swish my tail like a…a … strumpet or something! Ron is an arse. An utter prat and I should have punched him a good one in his face. Dra-Malfoy doesn’t fancy me, that stupid bastard! How dare he say that?!”

“Aw, has someone upset my kitty?” Draco drawled up at Harry. He held back a chuckle as the tail poofed and Harry visibly started. Extremely angry eyes peered down at him as the tail was quickly drawn up like the rope ladder to a tree house.

“Get the hell away from me!”

“Tsk, tsk. And here I am being polite and not bringing up your naughty behavior from this morning.” Draco smirked up at the hissing coming from above. “I even brought you a present.”

“Go to hell, Malfoy!”

“See? A nice bit of fish, just for my puss,” Draco crooned and held up the offering unwrapped and visible. He watched as Harry leaned over and looked down at the tuna.

“Like I said, go to hell! I’m not a cat!” Harry hissed.

“Really? You don’t want it? I got it just for you, kitty.” Draco waved it around. He then pulled his wand and quietly caused a small draft to carry the scent upwards. He saw Harry’s ears twitch and the green eyes appeared again over the edge of a beam.

“I really hate you.”

“There, there, now. I know how hard it can be to come under the yoke, or collar as it were. But still, no need to be nasty.” Draco shook his hand a bit, jostling the fresh fish.

“Get the collar off of me now, Malfoy!” Harry glared hard and his voice was steely as he carefully moved to lie across the beam and stare at the food.

“But it looks so nice on you. It matches your eyes.”

“It’s green! You didn’t do it for my eyes, you bastard!”

“Let’s just say that it’s a very convenient color.” Draco’s arm was beginning to ache as he held aloft his offering, but the direct stare he was getting from Harry and the slow movements he noticed to show that Harry was contemplating coming down were all he needed to keep steady.

Harry’s body seemed twitchy before he finally began sliding down the beam while he glared at Draco. He stopped midway and waited. Draco jostled the fish again and watched Harry watching it. Finally, Draco lowered his arm and squatted down on the ground. Harry’s ears twitched and he sneered at Draco as he slid the rest of the way and stopped.

“Come on, kitty. Here’s a nice bit for you,” Draco crooned and held his arm out.

“Piss off, Malfoy! You think I came down for that? My arse hurt, that’s all!”

“Ah, well, I promise to be gentler next time.” Draco smirked.

“I wasn’t talking about that! I was talking about the hardness of the wood!” Harry’s eyes widened as he realized he was making things worse. He didn’t need Draco’s laugh to confirm it. “Prat!” He then zipped over and snatched the handkerchief-wrapped tuna out of Draco’s hand and ran back to the wall. He watched Draco from the corner of his eye as he quickly began scooping the fish into his mouth with his fingers. Draco didn’t move, just squatted on the ground, watching Harry with his stupid smirk.

The handkerchief was quickly emptied and Harry looked down at it in disappointment. He hadn’t realized how hungry he had been.

“You want a bit more? I have some sweets.”

Harry looked suspiciously at Draco.

“Come here, puss. I’ve got a biscuit from dinner. I was saving for myself, but I’ll share it.”

“Malfoys don’t share,” Harry spat out and threw the handkerchief down.

“True. I’m proud of you for knowing that, kitty.” Harry snarled. “But I’ll share with you.” Draco reached into his trouser pocket and brought out a serviette containing two biscuits. Harry’s ears twitched again as he stared at the biscuits. Draco waited and then smiled as Harry slowly moved forward and then hunkered down next to him. As promised, Draco gave one of the treats over and watched Harry eat it in three bites. He popped his own in his mouth and chewed, watching Harry lick his fingers before he sat down on his rump and looked at Draco.

“Take the collar off, Malfoy. It’s not funny.”

“Wasn’t meant to be. I claimed you, You’re mine.”

Harry snarled and went to stand up but was stopped by Draco’s hand on his arm. “It looks very good on you. I bet there are millions of cats out there who would happily trade places with you; to be owned and cared for.”

“I’m not a cat!” Harry wrenched his arm free and bolted out of the hallway and down a side passage. Draco stood and smiled. His kitty would be back.