I'm not a kitten... Okay, I'm Kitten

Chapter 22 - Pt.2

Well, there was nothing to do about it yet, and he would find out soon enough. It was his first class of the day after all. As it was becoming a habit, Koty sat at the far end of the table with Taylor. They even started calling themselves 'The Slytherin Outcasts' in a joking way.

Koty was just glad that Taylor wasn't as bothered by it anymore, as he was in the first few days. He also thought the younger boy was forming a bit of a crush on the burgeoning Veela.

Without offering an explanation, he took out the kitten embossed stationery kit and began to pen a short note, despite having written a full letter the day before. They had forgotten to ask the Headmaster about getting Luna a private room! When she'd come to breakfast on Friday, she hadn't been wearing her tie, and Koty would be willing to bet that someone had stolen it. Again. This had to stop.

Hettie, who had delivered his mail yesterday morning, was swooping through the flock of post owls with a letter tied to her leg.

"It's so pretty!" Taylor exclaimed. "I've never seen a pure white owl before!"

"This is my lovely Hettie," Koty replied, feeding his gorgeous owl a bit of bacon. He sighed with feigned exasperation as she stuck her beak in his goblet for water. "I have a response, whenever you're up for it. If you're tired, I could always send it with Draco's owl."

For some unfathomable reason, Hettie and Draco's owl Nightshade, hated each other. Nightshade liked Koty well enough, and Hettie liked Draco, but they could not be in the same room without trying to attack each other. It was likely only because the Great Hall was so enormous, and crowded by more than a hundred owls, that they could deliver the mail peacefully.

Hettie let out an offended sounding hoot and snatched the short letter in her beak and took off. "Well, alright then."

Taylor let out a laugh and tucked into his raisin filled porridge. "I heard about the owls being used for post back in April when I got my letter, and I wanted to get one, but my Aunt Lucy said they were too much of a hassle. Supplies, food, toys, that sort of thing. Plus, she said an owl would bring fleas and mites and stuff into the house over hols."

Oh. Even Koty knew that the birds were not that expensive. As far as supplies were concerned, all they needed was a perch and a water dish. Owls fed themselves, and the treats were only a few sickles per pouch. "Do you think your Aunt Lucy would be worried about mites if you borrowed Hettie to send mail back and forth with her? I only send her out once or twice a week, so I'm sure she'd love the extra trips." It was true. Hettie flies for hours every single day. He'd only had her for about a week and a half, but she had spent a good portion of that time flying all over. "And I made sure the pet shop put on the spells to prevent her from getting fleas. Since the spell only has to be cast once a year, she's completely pest free until the end of next August."

Taylor agreed happily and they finished their breakfast in comfortable silence.

"Time for class," Koty told himself quietly. "It's probably not as bad as everyone is saying. They're likely just trying to pick on the professor since he's new." Much of the school had made fun of Quirrel last year, mostly for his stutter, but they still did it. Almost like an initiation. Yeah, that was it. He was probably just nervous, and the students were pouncing on the perceived weakness.

But the twins didn't insult anyone for something like that. And Luna had called him unprofessional. It could still just be nerves though, right?

Koty took his seat at the front, as he was the first to arrive. When the other students slowly began filling the empty seats, he wondered if the professor was going to assign seats. It wasn't done often, but Professor Babbling preferred to have her students co-mingle, so she sat them 1,2,3,4, then the next row would be 2,3,4,1, then 3,4,1,2, so each student was surrounded by students in the other houses. She also severely punished inter-house rivalries. No one mucked about in Runes.