Pretty Kitty

Ginny Weasley had never looked so completely uneasy; at least, not that Harry had seen.

She'd spent the past few days hiding in her room and had had little interaction with her mother and Hermione - even that had been quite stagnant. She'd only surfaced to take meals up to her room.

Hermione had huffed about Ginny endlessly, how the girl was playing the victim, despite the fact that she'd endangered Harry. Mrs Weasley hadn't said anything about it, she would love her daughter no matter what, but she didn't reprimand Hermione for the insults, and she fussed over Harry more than usual, always sounding guilty. She hadn't spoken about Ginny to any of them, apart from to apologise to Harry for her ‘disgraceful behaviour’. This was the same with Mr Weasley.

Whenever the subject came even close to Ginny, the atmosphere became tense and it would be up to someone to distract everyone else.

Such as the day Ginny Weasley was dragged from her room by her mother and forced to sit at the table with everyone else. Whether it was a punishment from Mrs Weasley, or the woman becoming irritated with having to clean up Ginny's plates from her room, would never be known.

Her punishment had been decided between Albus Dumbledore, Mrs Weasley and Sirius, who insisted he be there to see justice for what Harry went through. Despite Sirius asking for a harsher punishment, such as expulsion, Molly had argued on her child's behalf, and expulsion was voted out.

She was to be suspended for the first two weeks of school, Hogsmeade trips were taken away from her, and Mrs Weasley was to remove any potion ingredients and cauldrons from her room, as Snape always set theory summer work and she wouldn't need them.

She was also forbidden from being in the potions rooms at school unless there was a teacher accompanying her.

“Merlin, she thinks that it's so unfair, always ranting about it,” Hermione was saying to Ron, having gone through another bout of Ginny's whining. “She says she didn't know that she could harm Harry! But it was completely obvious, right there in the book in large letters that the potion could cause permanent harm. Not to mention that the potion takes away all free will – it’s just sick!”

“You know, we do need a test subjects for our new project,” George realised, batting Harry's tail back and forth gently. Harry was trying to hit his hand away, and was about to unleash his claws.

Fred laughed nervously and took Harry's hands, stroking them under the table. George saw why and stopped playing with Harry's tail.

It was two days after Harry had agreed to be with Fred and George. He felt incredibly awkward around them, having no idea what they expected as his... boyfriends. They were forever hauling him towards them and kissing him at any given moment, although this was mainly when no-one else was around.

His first kiss had been ... completely mind blowing. George certainly knew how to use his tongue.

Only Hermione, Ron, Sirius and possibly Remus- the remaining Marauders gossiped like two old women- knew and, for now, Harry would prefer it to stay that way. Ron still hadn't got used to it, and Hermione often cast the trio odd looks when they were together, before apologising for staring.

Mrs Weasley suddenly opened the door with a bang, a hand on Ginny's back, pushing her through the door. Ginny looked mutinous as she was lead into the kitchen and sat at the table.

Conversation had completely died the moment Ginny entered. The twins tensed, sending murderous glares towards her. Fred's hands tightened on Harry's.

Hermione was ranting under her breath and Ron looked like he just wanted to run away from the tension that radiated around the room. She was his sister, and Harry was his best friend, his brother by everything but blood. He was so insanely angry at her for risking Harry's life, but he just couldn't hate her, as the twins seemed to be doing. However, this didn't mean he was on her side in any aspect.

Harry knew it would be completely unfair to make any of the Weasleys choose over them, and he was fairly certain he would lose, anyway. Ginny was part of their family. Instead of paying any attention to Ginny, he just focused on his plate.

“Well, eat up, everyone,” Mrs Weasley said, sitting down next to Mr Weasley. Sirius grumbled and picked at his food, Fred, George and Ron decided to ignore Ginny in favour of their beloved food, and Hermione uncomfortably nibbled at her dinner.

Harry moved his food around his plate, unable to eat when he felt like something horrific was about to happen, such as Voldemort coming through the floo or one of the others choking on their sausage and dying.

He jumped when he felt a hand on his back, and looked over at George.

“Relax,” George whispered, rubbing up and down his back, and spearing some of his food onto his fork. He lifted the fork and held it at Harry's lips. Harry opened his mouth and allowed George to feed him, before grabbing the fork and proceeding to feed himself.

Hermione seemed to be cooing at them silently, while Ron was looking away, face red. Mr and Mrs Weasley hadn't been watching, nor had Sirius or Remus.

However, Harry caught Ginny staring at the interaction. Her eyes were narrowed and her jaw clenched.

Harry looked away, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in his seat, far too uncomfortable to take another bite of his food.

Fred and George instantly looked over at Ginny as Harry sunk into his seat. They shot her twin glares.

“Fred!” Mrs Weasley hissed. “George!”

“I'm Fred!” George protested when Mrs Weasley addressed him as himself. Mrs Weasley sighed.

“I'm sorry Fred,” she huffed, and George grinned at her.

“S'all right mum,” he reassured her. Harry chuckled quietly and George smiled at him, lifting a hand to absently play with his cat ears.

Ginny's eyes narrowed further, seeing the way Harry didn't try to move away or struggle from George playing with his cat ears, like he had before. It was obvious to see that something had changed between the three of them, with the way Fred (was it Fred?) was looking completely smitten, George satisfied and Harry a mixture of confused and happy.

She stood suddenly, pushing her plate away.

“Ginny,” Mr Weasley warned, his voice stern. Ginny scowled, refusing to be subjected to the torture of Harry being fondled by her brothers.

“I'm not hungry,” she snapped, before storming out. She heard one of the twins mutter 'good riddance' behind her.

XxXxXxX

“So, Harry my Harry, we've been meaning to ask you,” Fred started, bouncing down next to Harry on his bed. The twins and he were in his and Ron's room. Ron was playing chess with George and Hermione was reading over Harry's Transfiguration essay.

“-How do you know which one's which?” George finished, moving his knight. Harry was rather surprised at the question, although he understood it, and shrugged.

“It's not exactly hard,” he answered, earning an incredulous snort from Ron, who broke his concentration from the game. George snickered to himself and used this opportunity to move one of Ron's pieces while his brother wasn't looking.

No wonder he always won against Ron.

“Not hard?” Ron asked, “They're exactly the same, down to the last freckle. Everything, the way they do things, the way they say things, their personalities. The same!” Ron waved his arms about to punctuate his point.

Harry laughed at that. Ron was exaggerating a bit.

“No they're not. George has a slightly deeper voice and Fred's eyes are a bit more mischievous. He's always grinning, even in serious situations, like when he glares, he smiles,” Harry said, thinking over the differences. Fred looked positively evil when he glared and smiled, while George looked chilling and stern. “And George is more of a mother-hen,” he added.

Fred, who had been watching him with mixed emotions, laughed and wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulder.

“Hear that George, you mother hen, you! You're turning into mum, you are,” he said, delighted at that revelation. George scowled and chucked one of Ron's chess pieces at his brother.

“Oi!” Ron cried, retrieving his chess piece and frowning, trying to remember where he put it.

“Goes here, Ron,” George told him, pointing to a space it was clearly not in before. Harry shook his head at that.

“Oh, and George cheats,” he added, a wicked smirk on his face. George shot him a mock-hurt look.

“I don't cheat!” he whined, “you cut me deep, dearest.” Ron was studying the board, pointing to the different squares and muttering to himself. Suddenly, he glared at George.

“Harry's right, you are cheating!” Ron exclaimed, standing up and crossing his arms. “That's the last time I play chess with you.” He skulked over to Hermione, rather sour that he hadn't realised before. George just chuckled to himself and went to sit beside Harry.

“Thanks for that, Harry. Now he'll be watching my every move,” George told him, pouting. Harry merely grinned, leaning back on his arms.

“Guess you shouldn't cheat, then,” he said nonchalantly. George quirked an eyebrow at him, blue eyes devious.

“Oh really?” he asked, head inching towards Harry. Harry watched him apprehensively and nodded. George's face drew even closer to his, a smirk on his thin lips. Just as those lips were about to touch Harry's, George's hands splayed on his chest and suddenly shoved Harry down onto the bed, covering him. His hands sought out Harry's sides.

One of the many let downs that came with this cat curse was Harry's new sensitivity to being petted. And being tickled. Even Sirius, the treacherous bastard, delighted in poking his ribs to see him squirm.

George was a master tickler, as it turned out. His fingers dragged along Harry's sides underneath his t-shirt and the cat-boy let out a very unmanly squeal, tail jabbing George in the arm, and hands attempting to fend off George's.

Fred was doubled over with laughter, reduced to uselessly pointing at him in mockery, not helping at all. Harry finally got a hold of George's wrists, digging in his claws threateningly. George grinned down at his breathless boyfriend, and leant down to kiss his lips softly.

“Don't do that in front of me, please,” Ron begged, looking away as if they were humping like rabbits in front of his eyes.

“Aww, don't want to upset poor Ronnikin's virginal mind, now do we George?” Fred asked, flopping down on the bed next to George and Harry. George grinned, rolling off Harry and onto his other side.

“That's right, we could completely scramble his values,” George said seriously.

“If it's possible to make his mind any worse, anyway,” Fred pointed out, looking at Ron speculatively. Ron groaned and buried his head in his hands. Hermione tutted.

“Don't be so horrid,” she scolded, although it wasn't as strict as usual at seeing Harry's wide grin. The twins sat up and held their hands up.

“Horrid? Us?” they asked in unison, innocent as the day they were born. Hermione shook her head and Harry rolled his eyes.

“You can't really pull off innocence,” Harry told them, causing the twins to turn large, puppy dog eyes on him. He couldn't help laughing to himself at that, causing Fred and George to growl playfully and jump on Harry in a dog pile.

Ron laughed and joined them, jumping on Harry who was letting out muffled yells. Hermione chuckled and walked over, sitting on top of them all and continuing to read a book she'd put down.

“Gerrof Hermione! How much do you eat?” Ron whined, squirming, face uncomfortably pressed into Fred's shoulder blades. Hermione hit him on the head with the book.

“Are you calling me fat!?” she screeched.

“No, no, I'm not!” Ron quickly exclaimed, covering his battered head. The others were laughing under him at Ron's typical display of idiocy.

“I can't believe you called me fat!” Hermione continued ranting, getting off them and crossing her arms. Ron sat up, and Fred and George moved so they were cuddling Harry to watch the spectacle before them.

“No, I didn't! I swear I didn't!”

“Merlin Ron, can't believe you called her fat!” Fred tutted, shaking his head. George sighed solemnly. Ron scowled at them for their complete lack of helpfulness.

“He's just so insensitive,” Harry told them. Ron looked rather betrayed and Harry sent a large, innocent smile at him. Ron shook his head at that and the twins laughed, both stroking his sides absentmindedly, causing him to purr and snuggle against them further, pushing down the embarrassment he felt at actually snuggling with someone.

He would have to get used to a lot of new things with the twins.

XxXxXxX

“Have you found out anything about Harry's condition?” Mrs Weasley asked at the end of an Order meeting. Albus, who was straightening some pieces of parchment, shook his head solemnly.

“There is nothing in any books and my contacts haven't proved to be very useful. Severus has been researching diligently, but he just can't find an antidote, as there was none to the original potion,” he told her solemnly. The adults who were left sighed despondently.

“Are they dangerous?” Sirius asked, concerned. None of them had picked up anything out of the ordinary about Harry, other than his irritation at having these new, awkward appendages, and the occasional cat-like action.

“As far as I believe, no. I do not think they are detrimental to his health. In fact, having feline instincts may prove to be useful,” Dumbledore said. Harry hadn't seemed to pick up the grace of a cat, but maybe he'd learn how to land on both his legs when leaping from heights. He smiled in amusement at the image. “Although, it could also be a target for Voldemort, if the man has any knowledge about cats. We'll have to see his reactions to items like catnip, and if he can be subdued by grabbing the back of his neck, which we may need to keep protected so no Death Eaters can use this against him.”

“You reckon Voldemort will actually research cats?” Sirius asked with a snort. Dumbledore fixed him with a stern gaze.

“He will stop at nothing to kill Harry. Do not forget this,” he said. Sirius paled and looked down, all mirth knocked out of him at the reminder.

“He's not really shown many cat-like traits,” Mrs Weasley said, having been observing Harry to see how much he changed.

“The potion, if it had been made correctly-” Everyone shuddered slightly at the thought “- would have taken a while to settle, one of the reasons why it's possible to throw it off in the first week, but near impossible afterwards. He'll more than likely change as time goes on. Just keep watch and report to me, if you will.”

Albus stood, smiling at them all benignly.

“I hope you all have a pleasant night,” he said before turning to the fireplace. He chucked in some floo powder and flooed back to Hogwarts.

Mr and Mrs Weasley, Sirius, Remus and Tonks sat there in silence after he went, his words being a cold reminder of what Harry would go through during this war.