Kitten Troubles

Chapter 6

Voldemort ran out of the room as soon as he saw Potter's eyes on him. He was running because he knew he wasn't supposed to be in the meeting and he was eavesdropping. And after what the long-haired demon just did to whoever that guy was, he wasn't in the mood for getting caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

Besides, he was afraid of Potter. He knew before what demons could do when angered, but he had never seen one as powerful as this. Nor one so angered. It scared him.

When he finally stopped running he had ended up in the garden somewhere. He had never been this far away from the manor since he had been a cat and it turns out that he was actually nervous being this far away from it. He had no idea how to get back and with an angry demon on the loose he wasn't so sure he wanted to get back. And therein lay his dilemma.

He was afraid to be out here by himself this far away from Potter and the reassurance that he knew where he was-somewhat. But he was also afraid to go back and to face the wrath of an angry demon. It just wasn't a good spot that he was in right now.

And then he stopped and took stock of what was going on. He wasn't supposed to be feeling like this. He never really paid that much attention to his emotions so why was he doing it now? He was acting on instinct. And somehow he knew that it felt oddly familiar, like he had used his instincts before now. He scratched his ear.

And that's when it hit him. He was turning back into a kitten! Panic settled itself in his stomach and he started turning around in circles madly, trying to find which way he had come from. Needless to say, it wasn't working so well.

He tried to cry out for help, his pride be damned, and it came out as a high pitched meow. In his head he could definitely tell that no one would be able to hear him unless they could see him. Deciding that it was inevitable, he sat down and let his body become the silver kitten once again.

He meant to try and find his way back, he really did! But his instincts weren't letting him do anything! It wasn't his fault he wanted to go and chase that damned mouse or that he just had to pounce on the dragonfly and get his shiny coat all muddy. And it most certainly wasn't his fault that he had to stop before the sun went down to clean himself up with his tongue. And it damn well wasn't his fault that the sun decided to go down shortly thereafter! He laid down and fell asleep a few hours after the sun had left the world in darkness, exhausted by all the emotions the tiny kitten had to go through in one day.

Harry didn't know what had happened. First he was mad at some newbie idiot and the next thing he knew he was watching Voldemort run off to the gardens. And not the regular gardens, no he had ended up running for the magical ones that change their paths all the time. And Harry had followed him.

He had trusted his instincts and powers to guide him through the bushes and hedges to find the blasted man. What he hadn't counted on was the shadows in here being this difficult to work with. They didn't want to obey him and he literally had to assert himself more than once by putting on a spectacular show that drained him of a lot of his energy. Not all of it, but enough to genuinely concern him.

And that didn't happen often.

Eventually, as in several hours later as the sun was just beginning to make its appearance over the horizon, he found the telltale signs of a cat's presence. It was sleeping and he decided not to bother it. But something made him turn the corner anyway.

What he saw wasn't a stray like he had expected, but Voldemort in his silvery kitten form. Well...once silvery. Now he was a weird combination of silver and muck brown and every other color in between. He walked up and gently picked him up and held him to his body, being careful not to jostle him too much.