Copy Cat

Chapter 3 – A Few Setbacks

A/N: Woot! Thanks for your continued support. I apologize for the delay in updating. Finals are coming up soon. O.o Anyway, this will probably be the last chapter of backstory before I get to the actual meat of the challenge. But, I think I need this chapter to show a bit more of what my made-up creatures are like. Reviews are always welcomed and constructive criticism gets me off. (J/K!!!)

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Rousing Harry the next morning was a task that none of the three adults ever wished to repeat for as long as they lived. Severus decided that he really shouldn’t have stayed the night, but a night of drinking had made the risk of splinching himself during Apparation very real, so he’d taken over his usual inhabitance when he stayed at the Black house. And that’s where the trouble began…

It had all started when he was roused at six o’clock in the morning by a large black dog jumping onto his bed and barking in his face. Barking was definitely not a welcome sound.

“Black! Get the hell off me!” He shouted. He regretted it. Barking was not a welcome sound, and neither was his own shouting. Shouting used stomach muscles and said stomach was already feeling queasy enough without having being strained by shouting at an insufferable specimen of humanity.

Sirius just gave him a doggy grin before changing out of his Animagus form. “Aw, but Sevvy, I was just making sure you kept to your usual routine. You normally rouse yourself at the butt crack of dawn, right?”

“Don’t. Call. Me. ‘Sevvy’.” Severus grit out. “You are far too cheery for this early.”

“Amazing what a good cup of Remus’s coffee and a dose of hangover potion’ll do for you.” Sirius grinned.

Severus scowled. “Any chance of salvation for a lowly Slytherin like me?”

“Of course, Severus.” Remus’s soft voice carried from the door. He carried a tray with a steaming mug and a small vial of lilac-colored liquid.

“Just because you’re currently a god among men doesn’t mean I like you,” Severus said when Remus came close enough for him to obtain the potion and the coffee.

Remus smiled faintly. “Of course not.”

Sirius shifted for a moment. “Can we get Harry up now? Please?”

Severus, who was in the process of sipping at a damn good cup of coffee (even if he would never admit that), scowled even further. He had a face built for scowling, Sirius decided. “Why?”

“Well, we have to see if he can find his mate. Then he might be more tolerable.”

“He’s had his powers for less than 24 hours, Black. Be reasonable. Besides, do you really want to deal with a Kuronegato in heat?”

“James wasn’t that bad…” Sirius said, trying to defend himself.

“Again, because he knew who his mate was before he came into his Inheritance. Thus, he was fairly immune to the effect of being near his mate.” Severus said. Remus nodded in confirmation when Sirius looked at him questioningly.

Sirius sulked. “Well… can we wake him up anyway?”

“I’d say that would be agreeable. We can take him shopping. He needs new clothes.” Remus provided with a smile. Sirius perked up at that. Severus groaned.

“I’m not going along on that expedition.” The potions master put his foot down. “Besides, I have an appointment with the latest Order members.”

Sirius growled. “You tell them about Harry, and I swear, I’ll hex your bollocks off.”
Remus gave Sirius a withering glance. “You will do no such thing, or else I’m sure Harry will do worse to you.”

Severus was beginning to think that maybe being Harry’s intermediary might not be such a bad thing if the little cat boy was going to cause Sirius pain for intervening with him. It would be interesting to see how much provocation he could get away with before Harry turned that power on him. It took him a moment realize that he had called the boy Harry again. And upon this realization, he scowled.

Following this realization was the confirmation that he was, indeed, becoming Harry… Potter’s (dammit, the boy was Potter, not Harry!) intermediary. And that meant that once H-Potter (getting better) found his mate, he would have to talk to the mate’s intermediary and then the mate’s family and all that unpleasant business. It was bad enough having to do it for his own godson.

“Fear not, mutt. I won’t breathe a word to them about your precious golden boy.”
Sirius bared his teeth.

Remus coughed. “Well. Let’s get Harry up and we can all have breakfast, how’s that sound?”

Severus and Sirius, locked in a staring contest, said in unison, “Fine.”

“Breakfast is the least you two can provide for me after all I’ve been through,” Severus added.

Remus gave Sirius a warning look before the other man could launch himself at Severus.


Everyone awake, they had then gone into Harry’s room. At first glance, it appeared as if the boy had already disappeared. The bed was messed up, showing that it had been used, but otherwise, there was no sign of any life in the place. Frowning, the adults approached the bed and realized that Harry had just burrowed himself deeply in the mass of blankets on the bed, despite the fact that it was sweltering outside.

Unwinding the blankets from their tight coil around the boy got them a groan of discontent and a tighter-curled Harry, but otherwise, nothing else happened. Sirius reached in and hooked his arms under Harry’s armpits and pulled. All adults were startled when Harry came up a ways, only to remain attached to the mattress and sheets by the claws in his hands. Sirius was the most startled and lost his grip on Harry, stumbling backward into Severus who pushed him away, causing the Animagus to trip over the pile of blankets they’d moved to the floor. Sirius had flailed for the nearest thing to grab onto, which was, unfortunately, still Severus.

Severus began to fall as well, so he followed Sirius’s example in grabbing onto something. This was, comically, at least in Remus’s opinion, the pot of coffee Remus had on a tray for Harry when they finally got him up. The lid on the pot popped open and scalding coffee rained down on the fallen men. Remus, despite his laughter, was quick to clean up the mess and cast a quick-cooling charm on the liquid to prevent burns.

Severus and Sirius stood up, looking quite disgruntled. They exchanged threatening glares with one another before turning as one to pry the still-sleeping Harry off the bed. Severus decided he didn’t want to be the one near those claws, so he took up the position of grabbing onto Harry around the middle while Sirius worked on pulling the claws out of the mattress.

Remus laughed when Harry’s magic pushed them off and the boy snuggled back down into his curled position. When the other two men gave him an exasperated look, he simply raised his wand and gave it a flick, sending the equivalent of a bucket of water on top of Harry.

And that was the end of the relative morning peace.


Now, four hours later, the adults were still sopping wet from Harry’s retaliation. Breakfast, or rather, brunch, was uncomfortable, but Harry was smiling. Of course, he had dried off in a matter of minutes. And he had a glass of sweetened milk and some bacon and waffles. What more could he want? His tail swished idly as he ate. It was an interesting sensation, now that he was past the initial phase of it all, to have extra appendages. He was consciously aware of his tail’s movements and of the twitching and turning of the ears on top of his head. And he wasn’t so sure he liked it.

“Harry,” Remus said, the wettest one of the three as when Harry had looked at them all accusingly, Severus and Sirius had helpfully pointed to the correct culprit, “Sirius and
I would like to take you shopping for a new wardrobe.”

Harry made a face and gave a low hiss, only to flush in embarrassment at the sound.

“We can glamour your ears and tail for you when we go out easily.”

Harry thought this over for a moment and slowly nodded his assent.

“When get back, however, we’ll need to start teaching you about what you are.”
Harry slumped down in his chair. “I don’t wanna know how much of a freak I am.”

“You’re not a freak. Your father was just like you, and amazingly, so was your mother.” Sirius said gently.

Harry automatically looked at Severus. The man kept his face carefully void of any derision. He had an inkling that if he let what he thought of James Potter show on his face, he’d receive a lot worse than a fairly mild soaking.

“What about Dudley?” Harry asked, only vaguely recalling that his cousin had suffered something sort of similar to what he had.

“What about him?” Remus replied.

“Well, shouldn’t he learn about this stuff, too? It’s my fault he experienced any of this at all.”

There was rapid blinking all around.

“Uh….” Sirius said.

“Well, I suppose…” Remus began, frowning as he considered what Petunia would say about the matter.

“Oh, for heavens’ sake! Just bring the boy here, stuff some information down his throat, don’t allow him to ask stupid questions, and send him on his way.” Severus snapped.

“Brutality – the Severus Snape method of teaching.” Sirius snarked.

“Pity I was never your teacher.” Severus snarked back.

The malice was kept to a minimum, and apparently it was enough that Harry saw the comments as friendly teasing. The boy smiled encouragingly.

“I don’t think being quite that harsh is the way to go,” Remus began, “however, Severus does have a point. We can inform Dudley all about Kuronegato traditions and life habits. He may not believe or understand any of it, but at least we will have given him fair warning in case anything he doesn’t expect crops up.”

Harry beamed and settled down to finish his breakfast. The adults found themselves suddenly dry and warmed up a bit, much to their relief. Severus left abruptly when he realized that he was a good ten minutes late to his appointment.

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Malfoy Manor

Lucius ducked as yet another pillow sailed past his head. Narcissa had gone down with the first hit, and since then, Lucius was careful to keep out of the line of fire. The informal parlor, the family parlor, was in a complete state of disarray. Pillows, vases (helpfully charmed against breakage), throws, chairs, china (also charmed), lamps, and tables were everywhere.

The culprit was the distressed young Ryuugon who was warring with himself. His creature side demanded to be let out to go and hunt down his mate, and the resolutely stubborn side of Draco’s humanity refused to accept that he was longing for something. He, therefore, was in the middle of a tirade about how Malfoys may get what they want, but excessive want and longing is a weakness and is, frankly, unbecoming. He refused to be weak. The very thought of being weak upset his Ryuugon side further, causing him to yank a portrait of his grandfather off the wall in a display of raw strength. Weakness meant he couldn’t protect his mate; weakness had to be abolished.

Abraxas Malfoy shouted from his frame. “Draconis Abraxas Lucius Malfoy! If you don’t put me back on the wall this instant, I swear, I will come back from the grave and kick your sorry ass in line.”

Draco growled at the painting before hurtling it toward the fireplace, Abraxas shouting all the way about discipline and tantrums.


It was into the midst of this turmoil that Severus flooed. Instinct made him raise his wand to stop the flying portrait making a beeline for his face.

“Abraxas?” Severus questioned upon seeing the disgruntled ex-patriarch of the Malfoy clan.

“Hello, Severus.” The painting greeted. “You’re late.”

Severus winced. Even in death, the man terrified him. He recalled one time when he’d been invited to the Malfoy home for winter holidays, he’d accidentally slept through tea. The result was that for the next day and a half, he was only allowed to drink tea whenever he was thirsty.

“I apologize, sir.” Severus said automatically before sending the painting in a gentle arc back to the wall. “I was detained at headquarters.”

Abraxas, an old friend of Tom Riddle’s, but a huge advocate against the monster he’d become, raised his eyebrows. “Ah. And how is our favorite pair of fuzzies?”

Severus glowered at the portrait. “I should never have asked you about that damn Veil.”

Lucius watched this exchange with amusement. He recalled the incident where Severus missed tea during their Hogwarts years. It was clear that Severus had never forgotten it either. Severus’s arrival had been enough of a distraction for him to immobilize Draco, at the very least, for which he was very thankful, though Severus arriving earlier, as in on time, wouldn’t have been a bad thing either.

“Well, what do you expect? My great-grandfather invented the Veil. Of course you had to ask me.” Abraxas sniffed.

“Father, much as I delight in you tormenting my friends, I really must ask that you call a ceasefire for now.” Lucius intervened at long last.

“Oh, very well.” Abraxas agreed.

“Thank you.”

Severus finally took a seat and noticed Draco. “I thought he’d been doing better recently?”

Lucius sighed. “He felt his mate awaken yesterday. And now that pigheadedness is throwing his control out of whack. He nearly set the house elf on fire this morning.”

Severus arched an eyebrow. This was certainly an interesting development, and while it would be easier on him, he had no desire to see his godson mate with Harry. “I see.” He said at last, careful not to give any indication that he might know anything.

“Yes, but he’ll get better.” Lucius waved a hand dismissively. “We actually had other things to discuss than Draco.”

“Quite.”

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Harry was grumpy. Despite having the glamour up, he’d had to take it down in order for the tailors to properly measure him for his new clothing. And that had set off a world of inquisitiveness about the Boy-Who-Lived being a magical creature. He had been exceedingly grateful that Sirius and Remus were there, Sirius in Animagus form growling whenever someone got too close. But, on the upside, he had clothes that fit him better now. He had also discovered during the fittings that he sported Celtic knot-like markings on his upper arms. That was not a happy discovery as Remus had told him that those markings indicated that he was an unmated Kuronegato.

“C’mon, Harry. Your species doesn’t produce an allure. You have a destined mate, but sometimes, that mate isn’t always the first one to find you. And in that case, a suitable substitute is accepted. And the markings let the destined mate and potential substitutes know that you’re still theirs for the taking. Once you have a mate, they’ll go away. I think.” Remus tried to coax Harry into a better mood.

Harry bristled at first, but eventually sighed. “I just… I always thought I’d have a choice, you know?”

“Well, you sort of do. If your destined mate never turns up, you have more of a say in who you accept as the substitute.”

Harry made a face and absently scratched Sirius behind the ears. His glamoured ears swiveled with the noise of the crowd, and he was thankful that no one could see them. He grimaced when he recognized the voice of the one person he never wanted to see outside of school.

“Harry? What’s wrong?” Remus saw the look on Harry’s face and was more than a little concerned.

“Malfoy’s here.”

Sirius’s hackles rose and he started growling.

Remus looked around and saw the Malfoy family a few stores away. Severus was with them. When Severus spotted Remus he made a few hand gestures that suggested Remus get Harry the hell away. Quickly. Remus took one look at Draco and decided that Severus had a point.

“Hey, Harry. What do you say we get some ice cream?”

Harry brightened and eagerly agreed.

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Draco hadn’t wanted to go to Diagon Alley. He didn’t care that this was his father’s way of making up for the fact that he had been immobilized while Lucius and Severus discussed Order matters. He wanted to be at home ripping apart that…

He lost his train of thought and growled low in his throat. Lucius shot him a look.

“Draco?”

“They’re here. Damn you. My mate’s here somewhere.” Draco struggled to keep himself in check. The Ryuugon within him shot tendrils of icy fire out his fingers, but because Draco had his arms clenched firmly at his sides, the only harm inflicted was on the pavement below him, which underwent a strange combination of bubbling and freezing before cracking in several different places.

Severus, who had been on the lookout for Sirius and Remus anyway in order to prevent an unpleasant confrontation between Sirius and Lucius, upped his observational skills. When he finally saw Remus and made eye contact with him, he made a few pointed gestures indicating the blond beside him. He silently thanked Merlin that Remus was a clever man and had gotten the message.

Draco blinked a few moments, apparently confused by the fact that his mate had suddenly gotten further away. The distance helped calm the untamable Ryuugon, and Draco was once again in control of himself.

“I want a new broom, father.” Draco said finally.

Severus looked insanely relieved. Lucius took this in carefully, vowing to figure out what Severus seemed to think was truly avoided there. But, for the moment, the older Malfoy smiled indulgently at his son and gestured for him to lead on.

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12 Grimmauld Place

Harry was happy to be home. He’d greatly enjoyed his ice cream, and had laughed himself nearly sick when Remus had ordered Sirius’s favorite ice cream and had then refused to share any with the dog, on account of bad behavior. Sirius had whined, begged, and nuzzled his head against Remus’s shins until the sandy-haired man had finally relented and gotten an extra cup to put some ice cream into for the Animagus. Sirius had retaliated against the mean treatment by transforming one paw into a hand and pinching their waitress’s butt whenever she was near Remus.

Remus hadn’t found it particularly funny and was currently trying not to speak to Sirius. Sirius, in turn, was doing everything he could to get Remus to listen to him. Harry was in his room, putting away all his clothes first, knowing that he wouldn’t get any lessons until they had stopped arguing anyway. He was amazed at how sensitive his cat ears were. Sirius and Remus were far down the hall in the library with the door shut, and he could still hear them arguing.


“Come on, Remus. It was just a bit of innocent fun.”

“I don’t want to talk to you, Sirius. You had no right to do that.”

“But, Remus, you know I meant nothing by it, and besides, she clearly thought you were cute.” Sirius pleaded.

Remus didn’t answer.

“Moony? Did you hear me?”

Remus still didn’t respond.

“Don’t pull this crap with me, Remus. The silent treatment is so juvenile.”

Remus and Sirius waited in silence for a moment, wondering if Harry would intervene. When he didn’t, Sirius continued.

“Remus, this is absolutely ridiculous. I messed up. I’m sorry. There’s no need for you to take this sudden vow of silence.”

Remus’s eyes flashed. “I don’t think you’re particularly sorry, Sirius. And until you are, you can just consider yourself as having just taken a vow of chastity.”

The werewolf stormed out of the library and slammed the door behind him.

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A/N:
Everyone seems to decide that Lucius' father is named Abraxas, but I can't recall if that's really true or not, so I just went with the flow... ^^;

Reviewers' Address:

butterpie: Yeah, I never liked how Sirius had to die. So, he's back. And of course Sirius and Severus have to fight. That's a given. ^_^ Hope the story's still working for you.

thrnbrooke: Here is the chapter!!! Severus is the intermediary, but that won't become quite as clear for a little while yet... I think. I just kinda write what feels right. Lily was also a Kuronegato. And the full confrontation will be at King's Cross. And sparks will fly!!

Ataeru: Thank you muchly!! ^_^ Yeah... Draco + enthusiastic = a hard mental picture to conjure up. LOL. Thanks for sticking with me.

Jacq: Quite an endorsement from you then for you to stick around. I appreciate it. And I hope I continue to hold you captive.

TatsuTipatico: Interesting username, first off. Boggles my mind, actually. LOL. I'm glad you're enjoying reading. I do hope you'll stick with me.

Moonlight Black Rose: *wipes sweat from brow* Whew! So glad you like it. It is your challenge, after all, and I want to make sure that I meet what you need/want to happen. But, like I said, this was pretty much the last of the backstory. Next chapter will be a brief bit with some more Dudley, some more info on the Kuronegato, and then on to King's Cross, and the ensuing school year. I do hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

Zuka: Thank you very much. Sorry to have made you wait so long for the update.

Rin: Yes!! Kitty harry = the sexeh!! Hope you stick around to read more!

nameless faces: Sure thing. You're now on my update list. And I'm glad you like the fact that Dudley's got some magical consequences, too. I always wondered why no one seemed to touch on that, so I brought it into my fanfic.

RentaiKitten: Glad you like it!! I will continue to give out more as much as I can!

Night The Storyteller: First off, love your username. I have an original character who's a storyteller, and so your name makes me happy. ANYWAY! Hope a little of your curiosity was sated about these creatures. There will be more revealed as the story continues, of course. Next chapter should have more on the Kuronegato.

Lilith: Aww. Thanks!!! I made James a sub b/c he seems like the type to be all, "I am all that is man!" And then Lily says to take out the trash, he's all like, "Yes, dear." LOL. And next chapter will hear from Dudley again. Promise.

Draco_Harry_lover: Well, sub in this story isn't always in attitude. He's got a lot of control, or will. But, I do know what you mean. Maybe I will write a special fic just for you sometime (as in, after my finals) with Harry as dominant. ^_^ I do appreciate your continued reading of this story, however.