Furry Magic

Title: Furry Magic, chapter 98

Disclaimer: Hp is not mine!


Chink!

A yelp followed the small sound that rang out in the Quidditch Team changing room.

Blaise turned to look, seeing young Hans Grimwold, following in the tradition Potter had started, a very young Seeker, clutching his foot and hopping up and down. The boy was bare, as expected for being on his way to the showers after a hard-played match. He extended his bruised toes and wiggled them experimentally.

"What's up with you? You all right, Hansie?" Blaise inquired. Looking over the wriggling toes himself. Then his gaze was diverted to something else.

Something shiny and round was rolling in circles on the floor, round and round and round in an ever narrowing trajectory. It hit a bump and rolled right to Blaise's own bare feet. Bending down he picked it up, turning it over in his nimble fingers examining it. Huh?!

"What are you doing with a spy-glass, Hansie?" Blaise looked at the younger boy. Who looked completely blank. Blaise decided the puzzlement was honest, not feigned. Hans had no idea what the glass was.

"I am not!" The boy complained. "It fell on my foot." He exclaimed, offended, as if the object had done it deliberately.

Blaise raised a skeptical brow. Pushed, just to be sure. "If they find out we had it in here, we'll be accused of spying on the other teams."

"It is not mine." Hans insisted. He wriggled his toes again. Seemed satisfied he was going to survive. "I don't even know what it is exactly...what is it?"

"It is a spy-glass. Not something to play around with. Where did it come from then?" Blaise wondered out loud. Then he shrugged. He had the perfect solution. There was a very easy way to find out. He would take it to Professor Snape, the head of Slytherin House.

"Here. It fell off the wall right there." Hans pointed out the spot indignantly. He hung back as if he expected other bad things to come from the location.

Blaise looked at the spot. His eyes narrowed. He turned and looked one way, back over his shoulder. The spot would show the lockers, all of them. He turned and looked the other way. And the showers. Not the meeting room. Where the players would all be clothed. A chill ran up his back. It had been right about hip height. Blaise was not stupid, nor naive. Someone had been peeping. Someone connected to Hogwarts, 'cause no one else could get in here to put the spy-glass up. He felt rage and disgust building inside of his stomach in a sickening wave. Some perv was peeping at *kids*. He was one of the oldest, in his last year, but there were real *kids* here.

It seemed Hans was not stupid either. The twelve year old's brows raised towards his curly blond hairline. "Ooooooo." He said. Eyes gone huge, with shocked and outraged innocence. "Oh. Someone's been...." He gulped, hands going to cover his privates.

"Too late for that." Blaise said dryly. "I think it safe to say, we've likely got nothing left to hide. None of us."

"Oooo." Hans said, again, cheeks gone blazing red in his pale, blond complected face. "Momsy is going to be really pissed." He whispered.

It took a minute for Blaise to realize that Hans had spoken rightly using the words he had. Just long enough for him to recall just who Hans' mother was. Hans' mother was an Auror for the Ministry of Magic. Actually *the* head trainer of all Auror's. "Battling Bertha". Not the best person to tell that her son was being oogled while naked in a school changing room. She *would* be pissed. Not as in irritated, not as in angry. Not as in unhappy. She was going to be PISSED.

OOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Chink!

The were-cats on the bed all alerted, heads raised, turned towards the unexpected noise, ears up, forward, all flashing to triangular kitty ears to better pick up and track the tiny sound. Their slit pupil-ed eyes snapped into focus on the globe that was rolling irregularly over the stone tiled floor. Graeme was up and off the bed first, Amrys right behind him, scooping the sphere up into his palm. He'd never seen the like of it. A ray of light was caught in it's depths, refracting into a rainbow across his chest and arm.

"Bring it." Snape's voice cut crisply in to Graeme's puzzlement. His tone told the were-leopard that Snape, at least, knew just what this mysterious thing was. He returned to the very full bed, where Lucius had automatically covered Harry with his own body to protect him, and dropped the tiny sphere into the wizard's cupped palm. Lucius sat up, peering at the object in Snape's hand.

Harry moved closer to his former teacher, as the realization of what Snape now held occurred to him. "A spy-glass!" He exclaimed. "What is it doing here?"

Snape shot him a look. "I should think that was obvious, Mr. Potter." He replied without heat. He gave a grimace. "I am afraid that it is quite possible the last few hours have been less than private."

Harry's face flamed. He had been in great need of comfort. Cuddling had only provided so much of what he needed. So Lucius, despite the crowded bed, had gently given him what he asked for. Sweetly making love to him, as Graeme had held Harry, stroking his raven curls, kissing him.

Now, Snape was telling him....someone else may have witnessed it all. Someone not belonging to the pride. A stranger. And Harry blushed to his roots. The older leopards had a very different reaction. Kaithas patted his shoulder, reassuringly. Amrys and Lucius snarled.

"Who has violated our privacy?" Amrys asked darkly, his mood only partly recovered from his reaction to being driven to sexually assault Harry. Where normally he would be the most even tempered of men, he was ready to rend and tear. He wanted to damage whoever had violated them again by spying on their most intimate moments.

Lucius sat stiffly, his face thunderous. The pride was still being attacked. It was not acceptable. His people were being harmed, their lives exposed. "Can you give us a name? I would like to pay them a visit, to...express my...displeasure...with this...." He rumbled, deep in his chest, his voice holding a threatening hiss. He pulled Harry nearer, as if to shield the Chosen after the fact. Tucking the youth into his arms and showing his bristling teeth. Harry himself, once the blush had faded, was feeling outraged. He growled unhappily.

Severus pulled out his wand and waved it over the small artifact. The glass shone brighter. Pulsing. Then the light faded with a "whoooomp". Snape instantly threw the sphere away from them all as hard as he could. It flew into the stone fireplace and exploded into a thousand sharp, cutting shards, flames spitting out in long tongues of angry blue and red. They all ducked, until the conflagration had died down.

Snape was shaking his hand. Amrys grabbed it, gently unfolding the long, supple fingers to expose the circular burn. His anger rose higher. He carefully licked the singed skin. Soothing the sharp pain with his healing saliva. He hated that Snape did not have the same healing powers as a lycanthrope. He worried that his love would be harmed, and not be able to recover. Amrys resolved to speak to Lucius at his next opportunity. Severus should be offered the chance to be of the pride. He had defended them all. He had cared for Draco and his children. For all intents and purposes, Snape was pride already. If he wished it, they owed him a chance to become a were-leopard in truth.

"No. I am afraid the device was booby-trapped. I can not tell who has sent it to spy." Severus Snape's dissatisfaction was abundantly clear. He was furious that Amrys and Harry had been attacked. His desire for revenge was palpable.

Harry mumbled something from his position wedged tightly against the king's chest and under the powerful arm. Snape raised his brows. Harry fidgeted, so he wasn't quite so tightly mashed. "The same one who spelled me and Amrys." He said, confidently.

"Safe to say, yes." Snape replied. "It had the same feel, the same signature. I only wish I had been able to track it." He ground his teeth in frustration. Then leaped in place as if stung. He pulled a flat scrying disc out of his deep pocket and glanced at it. He recognized the face in the disc.

"Yes, Mr. Zabini?" Snape inquired, all trace of upset gone from his smooth, rich, melted-chocolate voice. "How may I help you?"

Blaise held up the small sphere so that Professor Snape could see it. He opened his mouth. "We found this in the locker room...." He began, only to have Snape cut him off, urgently.

"Put it down at once." And such was the influence he had over his House, Blaise obeyed without question or demand for explanation. He gingerly set it onto the floor tiles, backing swiftly away. "Are you alone?" Snape persisted.

"No, professor. I am not alone. There are a few of us still here..." Blaise answered, the hair at the back of his neck raising. "I think someone was peeping at us...."

"Yes." Snape agreed. "All of you will leave the room, immediately. Place a lock-spell on the door to that room, your *best* lock-spell, Mr. Zabini. Return to Slytherin House. Do not speak of it to anyone. I will be there in moments. Move, Mr. Zabini, time is critical, the object is more dangerous than you think."

He swung his long legs out of the bed as the scrying-disc winked out, restowing it into his pocket. Amrys followed, his face set. And Graeme, Harry, Lucius were less than a step behind, heading out of the room at a run.

Kaithas was left alone on the bed, blinking.

ne'ichan
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