Freya's gasp pulled everyone's focus as they stepped into the Great Hall. "Kitten, look!" She said excitedly, tapping his hand repeatedly.
Koty lifted his head off of Amelia's shoulder to see what had Freya so worked up.
To all their shock and confusion, nearly half of the student body was wearing matching accessories in the form of Koty's own kitty ear headbands.
"Why in Merlin's name is everyone wearing those?" He asked in awe. Unlike his colorful and patterned ones, all of theirs were solid colors, mostly matching their hair. "What is going on?"
"There are a lot of angry purebloods out there, Kitten." Penny said, smiling.
"How come they're mad?" Koty asked innocently, not understanding. He did notice that lots of light-oriented pureblood families were looking at the ones with headbands in either disgust or annoyance, sometimes both. It seemed like everyone was upset for one thing or another.
"I don't believe it," Olive said softly. "They're publicly protesting the bullshit trial verdict."
Nearly every Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw pureblood wore the ears. The Slytherins didn't, but they were wearing collars with small padlocks on them.
Every. Single. One.
Only the Gryffindors were without any accessories and they were all as lost as Koty.
"This can't be because of me!" Koty gaped. "It has to be something else!"
His outburst caught some attention and whispers broke out all over the Hall.
Koty saw Professor Snape out of the corner of his eye, noting that the man was poorly stifling a smirk. He was wearing the collar too!!. Most of the professors were doing the same and the charms professor had donned on a pair of ears!
"Kitten," Amelia whispered. "Take off your cloak."
"Why?" He asked, nervous about revealing his wings. When he relaxed them, they were easily hidden under his cloak.
The twins looked at him and tugged the offending fabric off without a word, then put on their own ears in neon colors. Fred's were green and George's were yellow.
Upon seeing Koty's wings, the whispers grew in volume until people were shouting over each other to be heard.
Stumbling back at the sudden noise, Koty tripped and fell against Bear, who bit the collar of his uniform and helped him upright.
"SILENCE!" The headmaster commanded, using an amplifying charm on his voice. When the noise faded, he continued. "Everyone will take their seats and remove all non-regulation adornments!"
Most of the staff looked at him suspiciously, not even attempting to hide their reactions. Professor Flitwick sneered, pointedly adjusting his black headband.
Taking this as a queue, almost no one removed their ears or collars.
Professor Flitwick lifted his teacup slightly, making eye contact with Koty. They would get together for tea soon.
Koty nodded slightly, not wanting to draw attention... well, more attention.
"Anyone caught breaking the dress code will be given automatic detention and twenty points will be removed. Each."
The Hufflepuffs mostly removed their ears, but not all of them. The ones that did looked sad and/or angry about it. Not a single Ravenclaw or Slytherin removed their accessories. It was clear that the professors also had no intention of removing their own.
Only Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster were unadorned. Then again, not all of the professors ate in the Great Hall, so who knew what they were wearing?
Koty was still too dumbfounded to speak as he sat at his usual spot at the empty end of the Slytherin table. Much to his shock, every single one of the Slytherin first years moved closer, and he was suddenly sitting by people who had only ever scorned him. He didn't even know their first names! Or most of their surnames, for that matter.
Draco, he noticed, made sure to sit with as many people between them as possible.
The barrel shaped boy who sat across from Koty knocked his walking stick over.
"Sorry," he said, picking it up and propping it against the table once more.
Koty looked at his friends at the Ravenclaw table in bewilderment. In return, he received tentative smiles and shrugs.
"So, did the Malfoys adopt you, or are you still a Potter?" The girl next to the burly boy spat the name like it was a disease. She had a severe bob cut and a pinched expression on her face, almost as if she smelled something gross. "Draco hasn't said a word."
For his part, Draco just scoffed.
The Headmaster was still angry, but he stopped trying to speak. The hourglass for Slytherin was completely emptied, the Ravenclaw hourglass held eighty-six points, the Hufflepuffs had one hundred and four points, and the Gryffindors remained at two hundred and ninety-one points.
"He was fully adopted," Draco said eventually, when it became clear that Koty wasn't going to answer.
"Massive brownie points within the magical being community too," another boy said with a firm nod.
"The only ones who knew about me before the trial were my friends, Professor Snape, Madam Pomfrey and the Headmaster," Koty mumbled, feeling defensive toward his new parents. Sure, the professor had spoken with Lucius about his creature inheritance, but they didn't need to know that.
"Hey!" The other burly boy exclaimed. "Your eyes are different colors now!"
Koty just nodded, wondering how he had noticed. Had they been paying him more attention than he thought? Even glancing down at his plate for a second, Koty didn't even remember what color that boy's eyes were, despite having just looked at him. Feeling the need to check, he stole a quick peek. Brown. That boy's eyes were brown.
Professor Snape was watching them closely. Upon catching Koty's eye, he used his fork to subtly point at his plate.
Blushing, Koty realized he hadn't seen the feast appear. There were the usual dishes, but to his surprise, there was a separate plate that held a single steak that was almost raw. He transferred it to his plate and added a bunch of raw vegetables. His newly strengthened teeth cut through it all with ease, and he was reminded of the 'rock biting' comment. Clearing his throat to keep from laughing, he took a sip of water.
The conversation seemed to flow, despite him not adding to it.
When the food finally vanished, Koty was shocked once more when the first years surrounded him in their march back to the dungeons. Usually, he'd have left a few minutes early to avoid the crowds, but was told that they would leave together and that was that. He wondered how long it would take them to grow tired of his slower gait and leave him behind like before.
"Alright," an Italian boy said in annoyance.They hadn't made it very far. "This is ridiculous. Just have the bloody dog carry you! At this rate, we'll have to turn around and walk to class by the time you finally get there!"
"I didn't ask for this!" Koty snapped and immediately gasped. He had just yelled at someone! He never yelled! It made him feel awful. Keeping his gaze firmly on the floor, he ignored everyone and continued on his way, hoping they would just go away. Why did being a Malfoy suddenly make everyone want to talk to him? Would he have to question any ties he made from now on? He didn't want to doubt everyone for the rest of his life, but what else could he do?
Koty just wanted to go see his friends. The ones that were nice to him before all of this. Before the name, before his creature status. It all just made him feel dirty.
"Speaker!" Ashthessa called out from its portrait.
Koty paused. "Hello, Ash," he said glumly. "Hey, Thass."
Lathassa cocked its head. "Why do you have wings now? They're so bright!"
"I'm a Vílaupír and my wings came in yesterday." Even though he didn't know their genders, he liked talking to the pair.
"Amazing!" Lathassa hissed in awe. "Since you have your wings, does that mean you found your mate? You couldn't have grown them without your mate! Who is it?"
"That's awfully personal, Thass," Koty replied, shaking his head. He wasn't ashamed to have Professor Snape as a mate, but that didn't mean he should advertise it either. People might get the wrong idea.
"No it isn't!" Lathassa urged. "We would tell you if we had a mate!"
Koty thought about it. They had said that they'd been waiting for a speaker for fifty plus years, so the odds of them being able to tell anyone were pretty slim. "Are there any portraits that you can speak to?" He had to know. Some of those portraits were gossip mongers in the extreme.
"No, little speaker," Ashthessa said sadly. "There was a portrait of Salazar Slytherin nearby that we used to visit, but it was removed many years ago."
"I'm sorry," Koty replied sincerely. "Since you're unable to tell anyone, I guess I can tell you about my mate. He-"
"Oh, I knew it would be a man!" Lathassa hissed happily. "I told you! And is he nice? Is he attractive? Have you mated yet? What's it called? Oh! Yes, I remember now! Have you had the bonded six yet?"
"The what?" What was Lathassa talking about?
"Nothing, hatchling!" Ashthessa said immediately. "That is not how you say that word, and he is too young for proper mating. Leave him alone!"
"If you would rather fight, I'll just come back another time." Koty said, ready to turn around.
"NOOOOO!" Lathassa pleaded. "We want to hear about your mate!"
"Okay, I'll tell you, but then I do have to get to my nest." It was funny how easy it was to remember to change some words, like bed to nest or child to hatchling. "It's the Head of Slytherin, Professor Snape."
He left the hyper Lathassa and the calm Ashthessa to discuss their new gossip as he headed toward the common room.
The common room was packed, and he was tired. He'd gotten used to being able to go to sleep at a normal time at the manor, but he was back on Hogwarts time, so he had to wait for everyone else to go to bed. He sighed and settled at one of the study tables to wait.
Koty grinned suddenly. He could use some of this time to write a letter to his new parents! After all, the commotion in the Great Hall was certainly letter worthy! He had people to write letters to now!
Digging the trunk out of his pocket and resizing it, he dug out some parchment and a quill and ink pot. He happily got to work, addressing it to 'mum and dad'. Who cares if he was sleeping less than the others? His new family was much more important than sleep.
In the hour it took for him to write the letter perfectly, a lot of students had gone to bed, but there were still half a dozen stragglers, including Draco.
"We should talk," Draco said with a disinterested sniff. "Let's go to your room so we're not overheard."
Koty blinked at him. "We should go to yours. I'm sure it'll be much more quiet."
"Mine?" He scoffed. "Greg and Vince snore loudly enough to strip the paint off the walls, and Blaise is going to be too wound up over his stupid trip to Venezuela to shut up any time soon. Lead the way, 'brother'." Sneering at the last word, he gestured for Koty to go ahead.
"Why do you hate me so much?" Koty asked softly, afraid of actually getting an answer.
Draco froze. "Did your stupid family actually teach you to discuss private matters in public?" He demanded angrily.
Falling back on honesty, Koty shook his head. "The Potter's never taught me anything after toilet training." He sighed and cast the silencing charm around them. "There. Now no one can hear either of us." Folding up the letter, he stuck it in his pocket carefully, not wanting to crumple it up.
"Why are you being so bloody stubborn?" Draco huffed, but took a seat regardless.
Pushing the question away, Koty looked at Draco. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"You," he replied simply. "Mother and father have dem-asked me to get to know you. So talk."
Demanded? Koty sighed sadly. "What do you want to know about me? I'm not very interesting."
For the hundredth time that week, Draco rolled his eyes. "Do you have any hobbies?" He asked blandly.
"A couple, I suppose. Quidditch, the salon, and I've been working on sketching. Well, I read a lot." Koty shrugged. It was all he could think of. He really was boring. "So, erm, what about you? What are your hobbies?" He might as well try to get to know Draco too.
"I am an excellent flier," he began pompously. "I've been flying since I was three years old, and I plan to make the House team next year. I enjoy learning new languages. So far I have become fluent in Latin, Spanish, Mermish, French, and I plan on learning Russian, Italian and German by the time I graduate. I am proficient in the piano, the cello, as well as learning the flute, but that's only because mother insisted on it. She also wants me to learn the violin, but I put my foot down. The cello is close enough. I've had several years of dance lessons, which I loathe. I intend to gain a mastery in potions like Severus, since he is my godfather. I am a chess prodigy, and have won several awards for the circuit over the past few years, all above my age group."
Koty blinked. He'd never even heard of the chess circuit. "That's really impressive," he said honestly. "I'd love to learn how to play an instrument, but I didn't get the chance."
For a split second, Draco's eyes lit up. "What about the violin?"
Thinking briefly on how the violins had made him feel at the Malfoy Yule Ball, he nodded eagerly. They were fantastic!
"Good," Draco sniffed. "Maybe since you want to learn, mother will stop hounding me to take it up. There might be a reason to keep you after all. Mother is awful when it comes to art, but I'm sure father would be able to help you with your drawing... if you're able to pull him away from the ministry."
Koty's brow furrowed. "Is he there often?"
"Didn't you meet him there?" Draco deadpanned. "That was a Saturday. I remember because I had a great laugh about the fact that a Potter had to have basic competency testing outside the regular hours so no one would find out. My parents might not have found it funny, but I certainly did. Unfortunately, I was expecting the Prat-Who-Lived to be told he was too stupid to attend and not you. Instead, I had to listen to my own father boasting about how intelligent and sweet you were, and how childishly Potty Senior was behaving."
"For what it's worth," Koty mumbled. "I am sorry about how you and I met. I knew that using someone else's wand was taboo, but he told me it was okay, because he gave me permission. If I'd known it would have caused problems, I never would have done it. I was just so excited... and scared, I suppose."
Draco's brows lifted in surprise. "Afraid of what? Me?"
"Not you specifically, but... well, kind of." Why was this so difficult? "I was afraid of everything. Before the day of ministry testing... I'd... I'd never left the manor. Lucius was the first person I had ever had an actual conversation with."
Jaw dropped, Draco half-leaned on the little table between them.
"There's still so much that I don't know about everything..." Koty sighed. "Basic things that everyone else knows, and I'm... I just wasn't taught. I even thought that everyone read as much as I did, and that when I got my Hogwarts letter, I honestly thought that I was being put into st- remedial classes."
"What?" Draco squawked, glad for the privacy charms. "Why in Merlin's name would you think that?"
Koty twisted his fingers and bit his lip. "I had just been told that I was going to be given the competency testing because I was too stupid to go to school, so I thought that they were assigning me books for remedial classes, since I'd read them several years ago. I thought I was being punished."
The blond just gaped. "How far ahead are you with school stuff? And what regular stuff don't you know?"
At that, he blushed deeply. "The professors are upset that I can't take my NEWT's without my OWL's, because they think it's a waste of my time." Now the other question. How did he answer that without making himself look like a complete moron? "I use sticking charms to tie my shoes," he mumbled. "I was never taught how to do it properly." Admitting it was humiliating, but maybe it was a good thing. Maybe Draco would realize that he wasn't stuck up or anything.
Draco laughed loudly. "That's funny! I didn't know you had a sense of humor! That's rich!"
Koty shook his head. "It wasn't a joke." He held out his foot and let the sticking charm go. As always, the laces fell limply on either side of his foot.
"Oh," Draco breathed. "You're serious."
"Will you show me?" Koty asked in a small voice, fearing rejection.
He hesitated. "We can't do this in public. The others... they'll make it hard to forget something like that."
Nodding sadly, he pointed his 'wand' at his shoe and redid the laces. "Don't worry about it." He could still mention that they'd spoken in his letter, so that they wouldn't push Draco anymore. At least he might get to learn the violin. There had to be a book on shoe tying somewhere. He just had to find it.
The next morning, Koty was making his way to the Great Hall for breakfast when he ran into his friends.
Apparently, the Ravens had been trying to dig information out of them all night, but swore that they'd held firm in regards to his personal life.
Some of the Ravens were annoyed, but they didn't care.
"Besides," Penny said, ruffling his hair. "We like you much more than them."
"Yeah!" Olive said loudly. "You're way cuter!"
Koty snorted, blushing.
"And we don't cuddle with them during study time," Amelia added with a nod.
"You guys are so weird," Koty said goodnaturedly, rolling his eyes. "Come on, I want fruit salad."
Olive groaned. "Nooo, no fruit. I want a gooey danish and lots of bacon. And coffee! Lots of coffee! You can't be healthy all the time, Kitten. Have some sausage or toast with too much jam or something. You're gonna give us all complexes."
He stuck his tongue out, knowing that she was kidding.
When they entered the Great Hall, the first thing Koty noticed was that the only house with any points was Gryffindor. He looked around and saw that everyone who had been wearing the 'non-regulation adornments', were still wearing them today. Even the Hufflepuffs who'd removed them the night before!
After a while, more students began trickling in, and the owl post descended. There was a bit of commotion over the paper, but since Koty didn't subscribe, he decided to ask his friends later.
The kid he'd kind of yelled at the night before just smirked and tossed his own copy at Koty. "You've made the front page again."
Koty blinked in confusion. Again? When was the first time? Either way, it didn't matter. He looked at the blaring headline and his jaw dropped.
PUPILS PROTESTING POTTER'S PUNISHMENT!
Hogwarts furious over 'unfair' penalty for abuse!
By Aleksander Kartion
Not even reading the two page long article, Koty looked around the room. None of the Gryffindor's made it past the headline either, discarding their copies of the Daily Prophet. The rest of the tables were discussing it animatedly though the Slytherins were maintaining their cool facades in the process.
"Good show!" Professor Flitwick cried out, grinning.
Professor Snape just smirked behind his coffee and lifted his brow slightly before dropping back into his 'evil professor' persona.
Koty saw a fuming Headmaster, aggressively spearing a sickeningly sweet bun with his fork, while trying (and failing) to keep a straight face.
The attention of the entire Great Hall was brought to the Hufflepuff table when Freya's roommate Katya whistled loudly and stood on the table.
"My name is Katya Freebourne," she declared in a clear, steady tone. She unclasped her necklace, but held it in place. "And I am proud to have Kitsune blood!" She dropped the necklace and her glamours fell with it. Katya had coppery colored ears, much like the headbands, and three fluffy black tipped fox tails.
"My name is Charles Bastien and I am proud to have high elf blood!" An upper year Ravenclaw said just as loudly. He shucked off his robe to remove a metal cuff from his forearm. His skin was porcelain white and his hair lengthened to the small of his back. Pulling the locks aside, he revealed two pointed ears and widened his white eyes. White irises indicated an affinity for ice/frost.
A Slytherin stood (on the floor, not the table like the others) and simply let his own glamours fall. He stretched about a head taller, and he had red and orange scales sprinkled here and there. The biggest shock of all, was the pair of wildly colored dragon wings that burst from his back. "Drakken."
"Goblin!" Professor Flitwick cried out triumphantly, thrusting his fist into the air.
A little girl from Ravenclaw also stood on her table. "I am Luna Persephone Lovegood. Veela," she said, her form shimmering into that of ethereal beauty. Her long blonde hair became silvery and her eyes shone a vibrant purple.
The entire Hall looked to Koty when the declarations stopped.
Forcing himself to stop trembling, he stood. "My name is Koty Malfoy," he said, lifting his wings and tucking his hair behind his lightly pointed ears. As an afterthought, he willed his fangs to drop. "And I am a proud Vílaupír."