Spells from the last Chapter:
Veritas corporis et animo: Truth of body and soul.
Having already experienced the sensations of a Polyjuice transformation once, Harry thought he was ready for it. He was wrong. True, his insides again writhed like he was filled with live snakes, but this time they were venomous and biting. The burning sensation was an order of magnitude more intense, especially in his abdomen, ears, fingers and toes, as well as at the base of his spine. Oh crap, the tail! Reaching under his robes, trying to ignore the rubbery, melting feeling in his bones and muscles, he scrabbled frantically at the back of his pants. Luckily, his new claws were quick to appear, while his tail was slow, allowing him to tear open a seam in time for his brand-new appendage to explode out through the rip. Shortly after that, he felt like someone had set his muscles on fire, and thousands of spiders began to dance across his skin.
No-one could move. By the time any of them had realised what the Boy-who-lived was up to, he'd already done it. The changes were fast, and somewhat disturbing to watch. By the time Hermione had drawn enough breath to scream his name, it was done.
"HARRY!" His newly-sensitive ears lay flat back from her yell as he raised his vividly emerald eyes to meet her amber ones. "Why did you do that? What were you thinking? Or were you?"
Glancing at the assembled staff, he nodded. "Of course I was," he whispered, as Madam Pomfrey looked at her recently emptied bottles of cures and antidotes for Polyjuice, and shook her head. "You're my best friend, Hermione, other than Ron. But he's got a huge family and other friends, too. You've just got your Mum and Dad, and you need me more than he does. I know alone, Hermione, and you don't have to be, because I'll be right there." It was at that point that she hugged him, hard. A little embarrassed, he blushed and somewhat awkwardly, returned the gesture.
Professor McGonagall was touched. A brave young man made the choice to not let his friend suffer alone, but there was no way that Harry knew the full details of what awaited them. She turned to Snape. "Do we have time?"
The potions master's sneer had not yet returned to his face, and there was something in his voice as he replied... respect? No, it couldn't be. "Even if I started right now, the simplest antidotes take an hour to brew, and by then they'd have no effect. Congratulations, Potter. You've managed to gather even more celebrity for yourself. If you can survive the Ministry's prejudice against non-humans of course. On top of that, the preparations for those restorative potions aren't going to make themselves, you know." With that, he left, his black cloak billowing behind him as if in a wind no one else was touched by.
Madam Pomfrey sat in the chair opposite Harry with her head in her hands.
"You brave, kind and foolish boy," she said. "Do you even realise what you've done?"
"Erm... why does that sound like you think I've done more than just stop my best friend from being lonely?" Harry rubbed at his new ears with his left hand. "I thought she'd need someone who understood what she was going through, and it didn't look like something you could understand without going through it yourself, so... Did I do something wrong?"
"Harry," said a soft, sad voice from the vicinity of his chest. "You shouldn't have done this just for me. I don't even know how Mum and Dad are going to take this. Why should you risk losing you family over this?" Hermione locked gazes with him. "Don't you want to go home?"
A snort, followed by bitter laughter. Harry squeezed her a little tighter as the three adults watched. Hermione was puzzled by his response.
"I 'go home' every September, Hermione. As far as I'm concerned, this is my home, right here at Hogwarts, and not back at Durzkaban. They're not family, they're just relatives." He paused in his rant. "I read in a book, can't remember which one right now, that friends are the family you choose. If that's true, then you and Ron are more family to me than the Dursleys could ever be."
"Be that as it may," Madam Pomfrey interrupted them, "The two of you are, as far as I know, the only ones like yourselves in all of Britain, maybe the world." Although the Japanese had legends about Nekojin. "I'm going to need you both to stay here while I cast several diagnostic spells, to see what I can learn about you both. How much of you is cat, for example, as well as how exactly that will affect your minds and bodies."
The headmaster spoke up at this point. "Do keep us posted, Poppy. I believe they are going to need a great deal of assistance soon. I shall have Severus teach them a potion or two to hide their external traits."
"Not so fast, Albus," Professor McGonagall said. "Severus' attitude towards Mister Potter is known to be... shall we say adversarial? There is no way I shall accept him teaching them alone. For this extra mentoring, I shall also be present, as their Head of House. Unless you have an objection?"
The twinkle had returned to Dumbledore's eyes. "Whyever should I object? It puts you in a perfect place to teach them more about their feline side. And before you ask, if you are not willing to be their mentor in this, I will have to leave that side of their education to either Hagrid or Arabella."
Ron Weasley had an... intriguing mind. It was possessed of extraordinary focus, but thus far in his life, he had only focused on a few things. Food, which only required enough focus to remember to chew before swallowing (although he sometimes forgot). Quidditch required somewhat more focus, but he seemed to have both more talent or less than he believed, depending on his mood that day. And Chess, a game he had been unbeaten in since his Uncle taught him to play (Okay, except for Ginny, who'd beaten him once- how could he have fallen for a scholar's mate?). Now, his friend, Hermione, needed support. The redhead had noticed that he and she fought like the proverbial kneazels and grims. They were total opposites, and the major point that the two had in common was their singular friendship with Harry. Since Harry was staying with Hermione in the hospital wing, Ron came up with a plan. A plan that actually made him use all three of his specialties.
Step one, he decided, was Chess. He grabbed his Wizard Chess set from the boy's dorms, and set off down to the Great Hall early. This was the easy part.
Step two involved Quidditch. Sort of. It didn't take him long to track down his brothers. Not Percy, of course, he was too busy being a paragon of the rules. No, he wanted the twin paragons of rule-breaking, Fred and George. Needless to say, he found them.
"Hey, Fred," he called out. "I need a favour. Well, two actually."
"I'm George, that's Fred," began the twin he'd spoken to.
"I thought I was George," continued the other. "Why does no-one tell me these things? Hang on, if I'm Fred, then..."
Ron cut in before the twins could get much momentum. "That's right, it's Tuesday." Knowing how his brothers felt about stolen punchlines, he barreled on. "Look, the favours aren't for me, they're for Harry and Hermione. There was an incident yesterday, and he stayed in the hospital wing with her last night. They're probably pretty hungry right now. I was hoping you'd show me how to get to the kitchens, so I could get breakfast for them."
Fred looked at George. Their thick-as- two-bricks brother had broken into a punchline, and asked for food. It had happened before, they had to admit, but the thing was, this time it was for someone else. Deciding on the spot to encourage this change in Ron, the twins reached out.
"Of course, we'll show you the way," said Fred as he draped his arm across their little brother's shoulders.
"But in return, we'd like to hear about this incident," chimed in George, as he trapped Ron from the other side.
"Unless our..."
"Dear brother..."
"Would like to..."
"Volunteer as..."
"A subject to test..."
"Certain items upon which we are working." Fred and George had their twin-speak patter down to an art.
Ron had a bad feeling about this. It would be so easy to spill the beans, but...
"It's not my story, guys," he said, with uncharacteristic determination. " If they say it's OK, then I'll tell you. But if they don't, you'll have a subject." He gulped.
"Fair enough," they chorused. "Now here's how to find the kitchens..."
Step three, Ron had determined was the food. After giving Ron a decent meal, the house-elves had happily prepared a breakfast as he requested. And they were even happier to deliver it, but Ron asked them to wait until he called them. So down to the hospital wing he ran, where he ran up to Hermione's bed. And caught sight of the new Harry.
"FLIPPIN' HECK!" Ron still couldn't handle surprises very well. "What happened, Harry? That ption wasn't... catching, was it?" The youngest Weasly boy immediately started checking himself for various feline features.
As Madam Pomfrey approached the source of the yell, she was surprised to hear both Harry and Hermione laughing. "No, Ron," The bushy-haired cat-girl gasped. "You can't... catch it."
Harry wasn't laughing quite as hard, but his grin was still evident, along with a few fangs at the corners of his mouth. "I grabbed the last of the Polyjuice, Ron. Madam Pomfrey exhausted her cures for it trying to restore Hermione, but it was too late. And since all the mandrakes will be needed for the restoration of the petrified, there wouldn't be enough of that either. After all, her life wasn't actually in danger. So, she's going to be like this for the rest of her life. I couldn't let her go that alone, Ron. I couldn't." Harry's slitted emerald eyes were begging Ron to understand.
"Yeah, I can see that, Harry. Hang on a mo, I got a surprise together, an' this surprise just about drove it out of my head." As he turned away, the redhead caught a glimpse of Hermione's hand stroking Harry's arm. He was fairly sure they didn't realise it though. He grinned to himself briefly at figuring out something before his friends, and called for Stroder, the house-elf he'd spoken with in the kitchens.
"You called, Mister Wheezy?"
"Yeah, could you do me a favour and bring these two their brekkie?"
Harry looked puzzled, and the expression on Hermione's face was priceless, Ron thought, as the breakfast appeared. Tuna omelettes, with glasses of milk.
Ron found that both of his friends were accurate with pillows.