Disclaimer: I don't claim to own anything in this story or outside it for that matter, Both Harry Potter and Cat Woman belong to their respective creators.

h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y

Midnight's kitten

By Mage-Alia

Chapter 4: The Faces of My Past

h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y

Harry stared at the person on his doorstep with incredulous disbelief.

If someone had told him all those years ago that one day he'd hate those he'd considered friends he probably would have laughed in their face but at the moment he was almost wishing someone had told him sooner so he could get Draco away from his apartment.

"Let me in Harry!" The Boy-Who-Won was shaken out of his stupor by the demand and scowled.

"Why should I Ron?" He asked in an irritated tone, setting the red head with a piercing glare, the kind only a cat could pull off. The Minister for Magic's son looked as though he was resisting the urge to growl.

"Mate! You're my best friend! Hermione is waiting outside too, we both wanted to see you!" Harry leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh, so now I'm 'your' friend?" He asked skeptically. "If I'm your friend, then why haven't you even bothered to write in so long?" Midnight, who had been sitting by his feet, gave a menacing yowl and Ron gave her an irritated glance and promptly began to ignore her.

"Come on mate! That doesn't matter! Where here now and we want to see you, can't we just come in for a little?" Harry set the pathetic man with a level stare.

"No, besides, my boyfriend is still asleep and I don't feel like explaining to him why I would be yelling at the Minister's Son." A look of surprise flitted across Ron's face at the news that he had a boyfriend.

"You're gay!" He asked, going so red that his face was nearly purple. For a moment Harry was reminded of his Uncle Vernon, having seen the same expression on his face every time something strange happened. Harry just gave Ron another deadpan look.

"Yes, I am." The Weasley looked slightly at a loss upon hearing the flat admission. He had been about to rant on something but couldn't get it out. He gave a frustrated huff and didn't even say goodbye before he flounced off down the stairs, Dean and Seamus following like guard dogs. Harry just threw them one last glare before moving back into the apartment and slamming the door as hard as he could. Across the room out of direct sight of the door Draco was standing by the window that looked out into the alley where the ministry car had been parked. He moved back slightly when Ron stormed into the alley and Hermione stepped out of the vehicle. Even from two floors below Harry could hear him yelling without heed of who might be listening.

"CAN YOU BELIEVE HIM!" He roared and kicked a garbage can, sending his flunkies scattering and the garbage can rolling, rubbish spilling out onto the pavement as it went. "HE HAD THE NERVE TO REJECT ME! ME! THE SON OF THE MINISTER! JUST SO HE DIDN'T HAVE TO WAKE UP HIS BOYFRIEND!" The last part had been said in a scathing tone as he kicked out at another innocent garbage can. Hermione moved forward.

"Well, its been so long… and you never bothered to contact him…" She trailed off timidly and Harry's eyes narrowed as Ron turned on her in a towering rage and slapped her across the face.

"Don't even try to talk to me!" He ground out and stalked to the car. Dean moved to help her but Ron sent him a glare.

"Leave her there!" He barked out sharply and the two former Gryffindor's reluctantly obeyed. After they'd gotten into the car it rolled out of the Alley and drove out into traffic, leaving Hermione behind. The curly haired witch wore a stricken look before she broke down and buried her face in her hands and began sobbing as the summer storm that had been building over the last few days finally broke on the city.

"Well this is interesting." Harry said slowly as he stepped back and slowly made his way to the door. Draco looked at him as he shrugged on a coat and picked up an umbrella.

"Harry?" Hand on the doorknob he half turned and gave the blonde man a small smile.

"I know what I'm doing." He purred and slipped out the door. Draco stared at the closed door until Midnight meowed to get his attention. She gave him a forceful nudge to the leg and he picked her up and placed her on the table under the window, his hands absent-mindedly petting her as they watched.

Hermione didn't look up from her crying until she realized that the rain was no longer falling and when she did she was beyond startled to see the green eyed gaze of the former Gryffindor golden boy staring down at her with an unreadable expression.

"Hello Hermione." He said, voice pitched low but still audible above the patter of the rain on the surface of the umbrella.

"H…Harry?" She managed to stutter out, her teeth chattering slightly from the cold. Harry nodded and offered a hand to help her up. The girl accepted it and was soon standing, her arms wrapped around herself as Harry turned and walked away. He stopped though when he realized she wasn't following and looked back, an eyebrow raised.

"Well? Are you coming or not?" Hermione jumped, startled before she rushed toward him, her high heeled shoes tapping on the concrete as she followed him out of the alley. A few minutes later she was standing in the entry of Harry's small apartment dripping on the carpet. Outside the rain had slowed to a sun shower as light filtered through the clouds, making the alley outside the window glow as Harry returned to the room with a towel and handed it to her.

"Tea?" He asked and it was all she could do to nod numbly before he vanished into the kitchen. Wrapping the towel around herself she looked toward the window once again and noticed with a start that she wasn't alone. There by the window stood one person she had never thought she'd have seen again.

"Hello Granger." There was no hostility in his tone like there had been in their school days, instead there was a sort of wariness that made her wonder what he was afraid of. Hermione just nodded mutely in response, her mind barely functioning through the lingering shock. The cat on the small table beside him gave her a somewhat lofty stare before it leapt down lightly and strutted off into the next room.

It was silent after that as neither really wanted to move until Harry came gliding gracefully into the room once more, Midnight at his heels. He set the tea tray down before Draco wondered over and once more Hermione was subjected to the expectant look before she joined them, sitting gingerly on the edge on the couch. She was jittery and nervous about being in front of her old friend and his former rival. Of all things she hadn't expected them to be together either, if Ron's ranting was anything to go by.

"So…" She broke the long silence quietly once Harry handed her a cup, pouring out an extra one and setting it aside for the cat. "…How have you been?" Hermione nearly winced as the words came out and looked for the negative sign she'd been expecting but there was no anger or exasperation in Harry's face. His eyes traveled to her cheek and he absentmindedly pulled out his wand muttering something as he waved it at her and there was a brief icy sensation in her cheek before the stinging left from Ron's hit vanished.

"I was… unsettled, for a long time." Harry answered. "It's good to see you again." He offered and Hermione couldn't help but smile at the honest admission. She set aside her untouched tea and threw herself at her old friend.

"Oh Harry, I missed you so much." She said as she began crying again. "It just hasn't been the same without you and Ron… Ron… changed…" She trailed off as she realized what she'd done and hurriedly pulled back but Harry didn't let her get far. Pulling her back into the hug.

"I know Hermione." He assured her before letting her sit back again.

Harry sent a look at Draco as Hermione began to fuss, her old half bossy persona slightly muted, but it still shined through the timid cast that had almost taken its place. Where he no longer trusted Ron as far as he could throw him Hermione seemed to be a different story. She seemed genuinely sorry and almost lost. In a way it reminded Harry of how he had been after the war, barely living his day-to-day life and going through the motions ingrained into him by repetition. From the argument in the alley and the way she had let Ron walk all over her it was like she given up trying to live.

From there the conversation opened up and slowly but surely Harry got to hear the things he couldn't get from the papers. He heard how Ron had told Hermione he loved her and after a while, proceeded to ignore her after she had founded a small club of her own among her closer muggleborn friends. It had started out innocently enough, just a weekly meeting where they would talk about the state of the wizarding world and the petitions they'd launched to have some laws reviewed, the ones with the more daring ideas where talked down but then Ron had gained an interest and it had all changed. His influence as the minister's son and his known backing of muggleborns had put him in a position to stir up the masses into action. Hermione had fought him at first, she had tried to stop her friends from going down the same path as the death eaters but they hadn't listened to her.

Eventually Ron had taken her aside and threatened to pull her funding for her spell research if she didn't shut up and live with it. At first she'd tried to do without it Ron had struck again, making her unemployable. She hated him somewhere deep down but she was still putting on a smile for the masses as she was pulled around on Ron's arm for everyone to see, like a trophy to show off.

As Hermione faltered toward the end of her story Harry looked at the floor and began to glare a hole through the carpet.

"Mr. Weasley knows about this right?" He asked, "Why hasn't he tried to stop it all?" Hermione gave him a slightly helpless look.

"He can't do anything. Muggleborn witches and wizards now outnumber the purebloods and old families 1 to 20. They make up more of the magical population of England and there's nothing he can do to go against the majority, especially since they're scattered all through his ranks. If he stirred them into mutiny the wizarding world would be completely shattered." It was grim news indeed.

"And the purebloods?" Harry asked. He'd already been over the question with Draco but he wanted to hear it from someone else.

"Dying out." Hermione said with a sympathetic look at Draco's faintly green expression. "Ron isn't going to stop at them. He's to power hungry as it is and the only thing that could have brought him into line is the Wizenmoot, but…"

"…But that was made up of pureblood seats and with most of them dead or in hiding they can't do anything against him." Harry finished for her as Midnight looked up from her tea cup and meowed for more. Hermione jumped at the sound and Harry rolled his eyes, dispelling the somewhat grim air.

"Midnight! No more! Ophelia already said not to give you caffeine as it was! You get more hyper than Socretee's!" The cat complained loudly as Harry spirited the cup out of the cat's reach and went about removing the empty plates, teapot and cups. Draco got up to help him but Harry waved him off, deftly levitating the tea set back to the kitchen. Now well and truly dry Hermione got to her feet and stretched, crossing over to a window and looking out at the street that fronted the building.

It was amazing how light she felt after getting all of that off her chest. She smiled to herself as she began to make plans on sabotaging her own boyfriends growing organization but then she looked down at the small desk nearby and the smile melted off her face faster than she could snap her fingers. There, laid out in plain view was a bright orange folder. Half hanging out of it where sheets of parchment covered in blotchy stick figures in fading ink that depicted little unspeakable acts. Others contained familiar sloppy writing and in bold across the top of one sheet where the words,

I HATE HARRY POTTER!

Harry re-entered the room at that moment and Hermione looked up, shock displayed on her face.

"Harry…" She gasped out. "Where did you get this?" The said man looked at the folder on the desk and winced at his own stupidity for leaving it lying around.

"…" He remained silent as his eyes flickered to Draco and back to Hermione. His mind was searching for an answer but none seemed to come in time to explain his late night wonderings. The folder and the break in at the Burrow was all the evidence needed to place him there. Harry's gaze drifted again, but this time they fell on Midnight. The Egyptian Mau stared back at him, her eyes somehow conveying a kind of understanding that hit him like a hammer.

'Tell them what you need to.' The animal side of himself translated and Harry let out a heavy sigh, flicking a long bang out of his face as he looked back at Hermione and Draco's curious expressions.

"What… what if I told you I died…"

h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y

Green eyes looked through the window from their perch on the roof of a nearby building. In the apartment Hermione was asleep on his couch, still afraid to leave and that made her the second person he'd taken under his wing… well, paw… in as many weeks. He knew Draco was still where he'd left him, in his own bed, one that he rarely ever used any more.

Everything was becoming… so messed up.

He had been murdered and resurrected all in the same night and his killers where part of a faction that had started out as nothing more than a get together held by Hermione on weekends. It was all so much more personal now. The people who had killed him where connected to the people in his past. The ones he'd thought of as friends in his years at Hogwarts and in the few desperate years of fighting afterward.

The one's who had eventually forgotten him and left him to drown in his own depression.

But, no matter how much he tried to block it all out the world seemed to want in. It pressed against him from all sides until even he couldn't deny reality anymore. He could no longer leave the wizarding world to flow past him as if it never existed, things had gone to far and there was no one else to take up the mantle of the hero and to save them from themselves. Harry looked down at his gloves, the tips of the diamond claws glinting at him in the moonlight as he remembered the words Ophelia had told him after she'd finally accepted Midnight's choice.

'…Midnight, is special. She has the power to grant freedom to any caged soul and you have indeed been caged. For whatever reason she has judged you worthy of something that until now, has only been held by your predecessors, the cat women who have appeared over the ages. She has given them ultimate power and ultimate confidence in themselves and others. By accepting the gift as you have, you have accepted both sides of yourself and found the balance you sorely needed. From now you may be alone or misunderstood by others, but you have all the time in the world to face them…'

Indeed his transformation had brought out the side of himself he'd lost to the war and for the first time he could think clearly. The world had needed him as much as he had needed them and now that he was back, he hadn't the heart to turn away. He was free of all obligations to the Wizards and Muggles alike but the urge to fight was in his blood. As long as there was someone he needed to protect he would always find himself back where he'd begun, standing on the line between light and dark fighting the eternal battle for neither side in hope of something better. It was what his soul had screamed out every day of his life.

Harry tore his eyes away from the windows of his apartment and with his cat like grace he began to travel across the rooftops of London. Silent as a ghost he made his way to an industrial area and stopped, searching out the right building amid the rows of large metal storage warehouses. Hermione had given him a few hints to finding the Wyverns that he hadn't known before, such as one of their meeting places in London itself. As cliché as it seemed the use of the industrial area was still a good place for them to hide. Most purebloods refused to enter the Muggle world anymore. Even the innocent ones who had stood on the sidelines where keeping to themselves.

He took a long leap over a few transport containers and jumped silently up onto the rooftop of the warehouse at the end of the row, furthest from the city. Careful not to make even the slightest of noise as he crossed the tin roof he found a skylight that wasn't as rusted as the others and used it as an entry point. Slinking into the steal beams that made up the rafters he found a place with sufficient shadows close to the wall and draped himself over the precarious perch. The Warehouse didn't remain empty for long.

There where no wards on the building, the people who met here weren't going to risk the magic of any protections drawing any wizards or witches that didn't belong to their ranks. One by one, each with a blistering crack of apperation they came taking a place in the circles that moved outward from the center of the warehouse. All wore the same eye searing shade of orange and shifted slightly, murmuring to each other before there was another crack and suddenly, Ronald Weasley was standing there in the midst of them all. Before he could put his hand in his pocket Harry spied a glint of gold and realized that they had been using the DA galleons to contact members.

Green eyes narrowed as Ron began to speak, ranting about 'Granger' betraying them and 'Potter' denying the invitation to join their cause. As he hadn't worn a mask it was all to clear to see how he felt about the subject. His face was that ugly puce color and it clashed with his hair as he verily spat out his rant. Harry listened, the urge to intervene growing as the meeting continued with the general reports from various divisions.

If anything, they where organized.

They had their fingers in all the right pies. One group had joined the Muggle defense forces and reported that they where manipulating their way into the higher ranks as quickly as their magic would allow them without being discovered. The concealed audience of one recognized the slightly more mature voice of Lavender Brown as she stepped out of the centermost circle and draped herself over Ron. His cat side sneered at her, hissing out a lowly 'slut' that forced Harry to repress the urge to laugh. He just grinned, very white teeth nearly glowing in the darkness. Business reports from Muggle companies where bandied about and also the rather disturbing fact that members of the Wyverns had been buying out the various communications mediums in both worlds.

They weren't going to just expose the wizarding world to the Muggle's, they where aiming to take over everything…

…and the scary part?

Unlike the efforts of Voldemort, these idiots might just have a chance.

Continuing to listen he wasn't nearly as surprised as he should have been when Ron began to speak once more, but this time he was frighteningly cold, real malice coating the tone of his voice.

"I want you all to prepare for an assault in the muggle world tomorrow. We are going to pay a visit to Harry 'Bloody' Potter." Murmurs went up again and Harry finally decide to act, making sure he could see a clear path to the open skylight he stood up on his perch and peered down.

"I don't think I can allow that." He purred, his voice deepening as he began to wonder easily across beams and supports. The movement combined with the sound of his voice drew their attention quickly and a few of the more trigger happy quickly shot a volley of spells toward him as a good chunk of those present left as quickly as they could, not wanting to be caught. Ron sneered when they abandoned the others.

"Cowards." The red head growled before drawing his wand and aiming it at the ceiling, but holding back from firing. "Come out here and say that to my face, scum! Or I'll hex you into Oblivion!" In the roof Harry got a flash of de'ja vu and his world seemed to fade for a moment as the scene was replaced by a memory.

"…Don't move or I'll hex you into oblivion Freak, you're not going anywhere…"

A clawed hand reached up, brushing over the place where he felt the ghost of a wand tip pressing against his forehead and cold stone below.

The voice matched.

Ron had been there that night.

Suddenly Harry didn't feel like playing with them anymore. He crouched on the beam as only a cat could and hissed down at those still assembled.

"I'd like to see you try asshole!" Harry growled out angrily, the hairs rising on the back of his head as he jumped to another perch with little effort. The wands where no longer trained on him as he slunk back into the shadows, moving quickly to another area of the roof.

"You've already tried once…" He said before moving once more. "Remember me?"

Another spray of Hexes where avoided.

"No, of course you don't." Harry went on conversationally. "I was just another insignificant victim." He put in an air of burden to his tone.

"Unwanted…. In the wrong place…. Unmissed…" He leapt down, momentum allowing him to run vertically down a wall without flying off, nails biting deep through the metal in his rage. He leapt out of the shadows and strafed past one of the wyverns, catching them off guard. The man screamed out loud and clutched at the arm of his robe where a set of paper-thin scratches where visible. Harry vanished once more and stopped to take a good look at his former friend.

He had worked himself into a rage and was fuming as he began to shoot off increasingly dark curses at random. Harry didn't say anything else, instead staying stock-still. After a while they finally gave up trying to curse him and Ron swore under his breath, muttering dangerously to himself.

"Our plans for tomorrow will still go ahead!" He barked out at the remaining Wyverns and grabbed the giggling Lavender before he vanished with a crack. The others looked at each other before following suit. Some of them actually remembered the Boy-Who-Killed-The-Dark-Lord. If they where going to kill him in this attack they where going to need to be at their best. Harry waited until he could no longer smell them and made his way back up into the rafters the same way he'd gotten down.

Careful to avoid the newly created structural weaknesses he escaped through the skylight and made his way out of the area. Upon reaching his apartment he silently slipped in the window and shucked the costume before slipping on a pair of tracksuit pants and sliding into the bed with Draco.

It would be easy enough to move on tomorrow.

h e r e k i t t y k i t t y k i t t y

And that's all she wrote!

Wow! This is like the third story I've updated in the last two or so weeks. I am SOOOOOO on a roll! Everything seems to be coming along so well right now…. (but that's only when it doesn't involve school.)

So for now, keep and eye out for any updates…who knows, maybe I'll even dig up something for that GW/Underworld story I was cooking a while back…

… actually, don't get your hopes up on that, the inspiration fairy went on holiday where that is concerned….

Don't forget to Review!

Cya.