Kitten

Hey, so I got the idea for this fic while reading some HPTR fics where Harry was turned half-cat, but I'm more fond of writing HGTR fics so I thought of a way to incorporate some of the ideas I had using that pairing.

Just to let you know, Neko is a Japanese word for cat and is also used in cosplay and various fiction genres to refer to a catgirl, a girl who often has feline attributes.

Anything you recognise is not mine.

TRHG

Chapter 1

Hermione Granger was nothing if not special, not only was she uncommonly pretty but she was also highly intelligent and a witch. But what made her most special was also her biggest secret. In her second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Chamber of Secrets had been opened by the Heir of Slytherin and had let loose a Basilisk which was Petrifying all Muggleborn students (of whom Hermione was one). In order to try and find out who the Heir of Slytherin was, Hermione and her two best friends (Harry and Ron) had brewed a Polyjuice Potion to get into the Slytherin Common Room. Unfortunately for Hermione, when it was time to add the hair of the person you wanted to change into, she accidentally added cat hair, turning her into a cat in human shape. When Harry and Ron realised, they got her up to the Hospital Wing as fast as possible with her head covered by a cloak to hide her.

Madam Pomfrey managed to change her back to her human self…almost. They were unable to get rid of some feline features that Hermione had developed; namely: a tail, cat ears, whiskers, claws, a cat's tongue, cat teeth and cat eyes. Not even Dumbledore could help; he explained that she had probably been in cat form for too long and so was stuck like that. But when he thought that she was asleep he told Madam Pomfrey that she might have some Neko blood in her.

Once Professor Flitwick had helped her with a Glamour to hide her new features, Hermione rushed to the library to research Neko's. What she found was very helpful even though there weren't a lot of books on the subject. Apparently, a Neko was a species of magical being that originated in Japan; they were humanoid in form but had certain feline elements. They always had cat ears and a cat tail but sometimes they had extra features too. They were considered rare because truly Dark Wizards tended to kill them for their life force which could be used to extend a human life. In fact, there were none recorded in the UK at that moment and hadn't been for well over 250 years.

Dumbledore's attempt to keep her in the dark about her species made her suspicious of his motives; she couldn't think of a legitimate reason for him to try and hide her species from her. For the next few years, she was very careful around Dumbledore, not to the extent that he'd notice, but still vigilant enough that she'd stand a chance of escaping if he tried something.

In her third year, she told Harry, Ginny, Luna, Neville, the Weasley twins and Professor Lupin what she was and let them see her without the Glamour spell. The girls gushed over how pretty she looked while the Weasley twins thought she looked 'wicked', Neville smiled happily at her and Harry asked to stroke her ears softly. Professor Lupin looked like everything made sense. Apparently she smelled exactly like a cat to him which had been confusing him from the moment he met her. The only person she hung out with that she didn't tell about her differences was Ron, she knew from experience that Ron got jealous about anything that he felt made people better than him, and Hermione's species made her very special.

TRHG

Currently, Hermione was sat with her friends in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, on the way to Hogwarts for what would be Harry, Hermione and Neville's seventh and final year (Fred and George, the Weasley twins, had dropped out two years previous to open their own joke shop); Ginny and Luna were also in their final year, during the summer they'd studied harder than before and passed the exams to advance a year (although it had been with Hermione's help). By contrast, Ron was being held back a year due to his poor results on the previous year's exams. He'd gotten a 'T' in almost all his exams except Potions where he hadn't even made that grade resulting in Snape refusing to teach him. Harry himself was lucky to carry it on, he'd only gotten an 'E' but, as he was only two marks off an 'O', Snape agreed that he could continue if Hermione tutored him to get his marks up.

"Mione?" Ginny asked, drawing the Neko's attention.

"Yes Ginny?" Hermione said softly, looking at one of her female friends.

"Did you dye your hair? It looks so much darker than before the summer!" Ginny asked curiously. Hermione chuckled lightly, while it was true that most people's hair darkens slightly over the course of their life, hers did so at an alarmingly fast rate. Over the years, her light brown hair had darkened until it reached the warm shade of ebony that it currently was, a shade which matched Harry's perfectly.

"No, it just did it naturally." She replied with a smile. Her hair now matched the fur on her tail and ears, like most Neko's, and made her skin seem paler than it actually was. Overall, she seemed more mysterious than she had ever seemed before, she had to admit that it was a good look for her. It actually made her and Harry look a bit like non-identical twins (at least when she was wearing her Glamour), something else that had Ron mad at her for. He couldn't stand the idea that someone else was closer to Harry than him.

The rest of the train journey was spent just talking about the upcoming year, although Hermione did have to give Ron a detention when he came to find them for making a snide remark about how Harry was Head Boy. Perhaps the biggest problem Ron had was that his friends were doing really well while he was struggling with his schoolwork an couldn't seem to keep his personal life in any semblance of order.

TRHG

Once the Sorting and Welcoming feast was over, Luna showed the new First Year Ravenclaws to the Ravenclaw Common Room and gave them the password before going to the Heads Dorm to meet the others. Ginny and Neville were already there, after doing the same as Luna for the Gryffindor First Years. As usual, their little group spent their first evening back at Hogwarts talking about their hopes and plans for that year.

"I want to improve in Potions." Neville said resolutely. He'd carried it on because he did really well in his OWL's when Snape wasn't hanging over his shoulder but the previous year he hadn't done too well inn class work.

"I'm going to apologise to Snape for looking in his Pensive in 5th year." Harry smiled, he knew that he'd been in the wrong and wanted to try and make things right.

"I'm going to become friends with people I've never met before." Luna smiled dreamily.

"I'm going to go after my crush!" Ginny grinned, she'd told Hermione the previous year about her massive crush on Draco Malfoy and Hermione had encouraged her to go after him.

"I want to find my Soul Mate…" Hermione smiled wistfully; as she grew closer to her eighteenth birthday, the urge to find a mate grew, something that happened with all Neko's. A Neko only has one true mate but they can be mated to anyone. However, they will only be truly happy with their true mate.

"I'm sure you will Mione, we'll even help. Right guys?" Ginny replied, looking around at the others. They all agreed happily.

"At least we can be sure it's not Ron!" Harry joked, causing them all to laugh soundly.

Later that night, when Hermione was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, she had a sense that all their hopes for the year would come true.

"They have to…" She whispered to herself as she drifted off.