Pretty Kitty

Sorry for the wait, got a bit of writers block, and for some reason a thousand plot bunnies have swamped me (don't think I'll take action with any of them until I've finished this. I refuse to be an author with a thousand unfinished stories- imagine the stress). However, I come before you, humbled and broken, with a new chapter. Please accept my apology and my big gigantic hug! ;;hugs;;

Well, here's the chapter you've probably been waiting for. Angst galore! Enjoy

~~*~~


Harry shot up in bed, gasping for breath.

“Merlin,” he whimpered shakily, a shivering hand coming up to wipe his sweaty forehead and run through his damp hair. His whole body was practically vibrating and covered in cooling sweat. He couldn't catch his breath.

When he started to settle down, the image of Cedric's lifeless eyes shot through his mind and he stood up abruptly, bolting out of the room and down the hallway. He got to the bathroom just in time, not locking the door as he leaned over the toilet bowl and heaved out the contents of his stomach.

When he thought he'd thrown everything he had up, he caught a glimpse of the scar on his left arm, left by Wormtail, and began to dry heave, white fluid or spit occasionally dripping from his mouth.

Suddenly, there were hands in his hair, carding through the dark strands. Another began to rub at his ears, and then an arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him back into a strong chest.

Harry's eyes were shut tightly as he trembled, absorbing the heat of the body behind him and the one to the side of him. The hands continued to stroke his cat ears, occasionally travelling down his face to stroke his cheeks or neck.

Finally, Harry opened his eyes again, feeling exhausted. He turned his head to the side to find a blurry figure, but he already knew who it was.

“Fred,” he croaked out, the body behind him being George. George's arm tightened.

“What happened?” he asked softly, breath ghosting Harry's bare neck. Their hands in his hair had stilled.

“Cedric,” Harry whispered, fighting down the tears threatening to well in his eyes. Fred moved to hug Harry from the front, an arm going around his back.

Harry's eyes drooped shut again and he was purring at the heat from the bodies surrounding him. He drifted off to sleep a few minutes later, a charm being cast to clean off the sweat from his body and freshen his mouth.

~~*~~


Hands everywhere, stroking across his skin, travelling from his stomach up to his chest.

He gasped sharply as fingers pinched one of his nipples and rubbed the other nub. His cries were muffled by lips slamming down onto his own, taking his mouth, plundering it passionately, ruthlessly.

He was purring, chest rumbling, and there were two wicked chuckles. He tried to see past the darkness enveloping him.

“Mm, George, Fred,” he groaned as lips fell on his neck.

“Pretty kitty.”

~~*~~

Harry's eyes shot open to see Fred leering at him, knelt next to him on a double bed... or two single beds put together, judging by the thin dip he was lying on in the middle.

“Fred!” he gasped out. A hand stroked his cheek and he turned to see George knelt on his other side, eyeing the tent in the quilt covering him. Harry looked down, horrified, and sat up.

“Oh Merlin,” he gasped out. This was humiliating. Absolutely humiliating.

“Well, this is interesting,” Fred practically purred out, a hand travelling to Harry's erection. Harry slapped his hand away and leapt out of the bed, face red, hands covering his privates. At least he was wearing his pyjamas.

“Don't worry Harry, you're a young, healthy, hormonal homosexual. This is completely normal,” George told him, eyes twinkling. “In fact, we're flattered.”

Harry could have cried at the brutal way they were exposing what he had kept from them, the way they were taunting him. His cat ears were pressed flat against his head.

“Just shut the fuck up!” he snarled before running out, slamming the door behind him amidst cries for him to come back.

~~*~~

Harry desperately avoided the twins after that. He couldn't believe what had happened. The twins knew! Knew of his sick crush on them. They probably thought he was a freak.

Ron noticed his avoidance of his brothers and, assuming Fred and George had taken their teasing of Harry's cat additions too far, helped him in his endeavour, while shooting glares at his brothers every time he passed them.

In their defence, they looked incredibly sheepish, and cast desperate, guilty glances after Harry whenever they saw him and he got away as quickly as he could.

Ron wondered just what had went wrong because, while Harry was known for his tempers, he wasn't very good at keeping grudges. Then again, cats were, something he'd picked up from Crookshanks. Maybe Harry's personality was becoming more and more cat-like?

The thought of Harry being taken over by a cat terrified him and, for the first time in his life, he voluntarily wondered into a library.

This was where Hermione found him at three in the afternoon in the summer holidays. To say she was shocked would be an understatement.

“What on earth are you up to, Ron?” she asked, taking a seat next to him in the old Black library. Dust covered most of the bookshelves in the room, and Hermione could clearly see their footprints on the ground.

“No way will Harry turn into some bitchy, purring feline on my watch,” Ron grumbled. If Harry turned into a Crookshanks clone, he didn't know what he'd do. He'd miss Harry terribly.

“Um... what?” Hermione asked, not sure whether to laugh or tell Ron that Harry wouldn't turn into a full cat just because he'd got some unusual appendages.

“Harry! He's becoming more and more like a cat. He's been holding a grudge against Fred and George for days,” Ron told her. Hermione had noticed this as well, Harry's unusual behaviour regarding two old friends.

“I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason. I get the feeling there's more to this falling out then Fred and George's teasing,” Hermione said, frowning.

~~*~~

Harry cautiously walked into the large chamber. It was his trial and, after many mix ups, Arthur had got him to the place it was now being held.

Harry had donned a traditional wizards hat to hide his ears, which pushed against the sides of the hat angrily, annoyed and being unable to move about freely. He was wearing some robes he'd borrowed from Ron and then shrunk greatly to hide his tail. Remus had cut a hole in all his trousers and underwear so his tail could hang freely out of it, instead of being pressed down a leg of his trousers uncomfortably.

The trial was infuriating. The chamber was large and eerie and, as Arthur had told him, normally used for criminals accused of serious crimes- Death Eaters. Fudge had used this to obviously intimidate him.

However, with Albus Dumbledore as his defence, Harry found it hard to be intimidated.

The outcome went well, and Harry felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest with the knowledge that he could keep his wand and go back to school, that he was still allowed to be a part of the Wizarding world. He didn't know what he'd do without it.

The thought of going back to the Dursley's made him shudder.

Dumbledore disappeared quickly after that, leaving a confused Harry to be taken away by Mr Weasley. He couldn't help but be hurt and rather angry that Dumbledore wouldn't even look him in the eye.

“Come on Harry,” Mr Weasley murmured, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Harry jumped at the sudden contact, hat slipping from the panicked jolt he'd given.

Mr Weasley gasped and quickly grabbed his hat from the ground, slamming it back on Harry's head to cover up the cat ears that had been revealed for a short moment. He looked around quickly, thankful no one had been paying attention.

“That was close,” Harry breathed out, tense from the surprise he'd felt, and glad his secret hadn't been discovered.

However, what they failed to notice was a stout, toad-like woman with a large bow on her head, staring at him contemplatively, standing next to a tall man holding a camera with a small poof of smoke rising from it.

Dolores Umbridge's face stretched into a wide smirk as she turned to the shocked man who'd taken a photo of the Boy-Who-Lived when he noticed the cat ears.

“Thank you, Edmund. I do believe that this is one for the Daily Prophet.”

~~*~~

“Harry,” Hermione gasped out, rising from the kitchen table as Harry stumbled from the fireplace, hat lost somewhere along the floo network.

He was immediately enveloped in a hug and grinned, patting Hermione's back. Ron rolled his eyes behind her, mouthing 'worry wart'. Harry had to agree.

She led him to a seat between her and Ron. Sirius was across from him, talking to Remus, but broke the conversation to give him a thumbs up.

“I take it that the trial went well?” Remus inquired, taking a sip of his tea. Harry nodded, a large grin on his face. He felt so incredibly light.

“Yeah, Dumbledore came and saved me. He was wicked,” Harry told them. Sirius laughed.

“He most definitely is. I think I speak for all of us when I say that thank Merlin you're here, although there was never a doubt of it in my mind. Dumbledore wouldn't have let you go that easily, and neither would we.”

Harry was touched by the words from his godfather. Sirius rarely showed an emotional side, and the fact that he was saying this to Harry made him feel warm inside.

“Thanks Sirius,” he said, hoping his voice didn't sound as clogged up as it did in his own ears. Sirius went back to conversation with Remus, looking both awkward and happy.

However, when he turned to look at Hermione and Ron, he saw they had stern expressions on their faces. He swallowed audibly at that. Ron with a stern expression was eerie, although he was used to it from Hermione.

“What's wrong?” he asked, sinking in his chair. His ears were plastered to his head.

Hermione grabbed his arm and dragged him from his seat. “We need to talk with you,” she told him. Ron flanked Harry's other side and together, the two manhandled him towards the living room, which was bare of any other presence.

Harry sat down on a barely-stuffed chair cautiously, eyeing Ron and Hermione who sat on the sofa in front of him. It seemed they'd arranged the living room for just this occasion.

“What's wrong?” he repeated, rather panicked. Oh Merlin, someone had died, hadn't they? Ron and Hermione exchanged looks and he frowned, confused as anything. What on earth could make them this... foreboding, if not death?

Harry wondered when he'd become so morbid.

“I think the question is: What's wrong with you?” Hermione finally answered, watching him carefully. Harry's eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously. They were just confusing him even more.

“Your avoidance of Fred and George, the almost frantic way you steer conversation away from them, how you even dodge walking past the door to their room. Harry, you're acting strangely and we want to know why.”

Harry could see from the look in Hermione's eyes that she already had an idea. He shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

“Hey, what ever happened to Ginny, anyway? She's been hiding out in her room for forever,” he said, voice higher than usual as he attempted to change the subject.

“Harry, answer me,” Hermione ordered.

“Yes miss,” he squeaked out. Ron's lip twitched upwards before he schooled his face back into his commanding expression. Harry grinned at him for a moment, but Hermione cleared her throat. Harry resigned himself to explaining.

“W-well... it's sort of like what we talked about, Hermione,” Harry said. “They found out and then were right bastards, so...” he trailed off. Hermione's eyes widened and she walked over to Harry, rubbing his shoulder. Ron looked confused.

“I'm sorry, Harry,” Hermione told him. Harry smiled, resting his hand on hers.

“S'all right, not like I was really attached to them, anyway,” he said. Hermione saw right through that and fixed him with a knowing look, but was interrupted by Ron.

“What's going on?” Ron asked, looking between the two. Harry looked desperately at Hermione. Ron would explode if he knew.

Hermione, however, ignored the look in Harry's eyes. It was time he put more trust in Ron and Hermione knew that, after an initial fit, Ron would get over it and support Harry.

“Harry fancies Fred and George,” Hermione told him. Harry hissed at her, fur standing up on his tail with anger. Hermione shrugged.

Suddenly, two pairs of hands grabbed Harry's shoulders and hauled him up. Honestly, what was with all this manhandling of him?

“Well, that's good to know 'Mione,” a very familiar voice said next to Harry's cat ear. Hermione looked so horrified she didn't even react to her hated nickname. Harry imagined he looked about the same.

“So we'll just be kidnapping Harry here for a bit, while ickle Ronnikins calms down,” George said, drawing attention to Ron's bright red face.

Ron opened his mouth, but Harry was dragged from the room, door slamming behind him. He was so completely in shock he allowed himself to be lead up the stairs and into the twins room, ignoring the shrieks of Mrs Black, who had somehow known Fred and George were near her. George muttered something about that being the reason they apparated all over the place

The door closed behind them and Harry was forced to sit on the edge of their makeshift double bed. His eyes were wide and his mind had completely shut down.

“Harry?” Fred asked cautiously. George frowned.

“Kitten?” he tried, clicking his fingers in front of Harry's eyes. Harry blinked and then glared at George for the nickname, ignoring the urge to purr at the affectionate tone of voice it was said in.

“What's up?” Harry asked casually, blood pounding in his veins at being in the twins room while the two loomed over him, probably about to beat him down for his feelings.

“We were hoping you'd tell us.”

~~*~~

If there's anything that looks ridiculously misplaced in this story, please tell me in a review. The document manager on FF is hating me.

Haha, bet you thought I'd never move it along. I didn't like the ending to this chapter, but I couldn't think of a better ending sentence. I lack creativity, as you can see.

I didn't want to write out the scene of Harry's trial and use a load of lines that are in the books, leaving it completely unoriginal and rather annoying for people to have to read again, so I just summarised it instead. For some odd reason, I'm avoiding the fifth book like the plague... three guesses why.

Thanks so much for the response to the story! I love you all so much :D ;;hugs and kisses;;