Chapter 42: An invitation from Malfoy

I can't escape... If the little wizard really wants to eat me, I'll risk Dumbledore finding me out, and I'll give him an Avada Kedavra shot!

An exhausted Scabbers lay in the corner of the freshman dormitory, chest heaving.

Fish gracefully approached Scabbers and gave it the usual two swipes, but when it twitched its limbs unconsciously and didn't keep running, he knew that the rat was really exhausted.

"Meow~" (I had a good time today, I'll come play with you next time).

As Scabbers watched him nervously, Fish lowered his head and licked Scabbers' messy fur, then gave a satisfied meow and left Scabbers, who had almost become human again, alone.

Fish turned his head and looked around the room he and Scabbers had messed up.

The room had been turned upside down by the combined efforts of cat and mouse.

Pillows and bedding had been dragged to the floor or ripped off, and every item on the table had been thrown on the floor.

The soccer posters Dean had placed on his bed, the cage Harry had used for Hedwig, the memory ball Neville had forgotten in a corner, and other personal items of his roommates... were damaged in various ways.

"Meow~" (=?ω?=).

I'm in trouble, I have to run.

As for taking human form and using magic spells to restore the place to its original state?

Sorry, that was never on Fish's list of things to do when he got in trouble.

Fish jumped up, put his two front claws on the doorknob and opened the door. With the inertia of this flapping, the bedroom door slowly swung open. After Fish landed, he slipped through the crack in the door immediately, and the moment he was out, he lifted his hind legs and kicked the door again.

He carefully slid along the wall into the common room, which should have been filled with many people, but was now empty.

Most of the Gryffindor students had gone to watch the Quidditch team tryouts, and the few who stayed in the common room were bored for a while, so they scattered to do their own thing.

Fish didn't really know what was going on, he just thought he was lucky that no witnesses had seen him leave, and even if 'Scarhead' and the others came back, they wouldn't be sure that the dormitory had been messed up by himself!

The cats' thoughts were so innocent and so simple.

Leaving the Gryffindor dormitory as fast as he could, Fish threw his four paws out and ran downstairs.

Besides wanting to get away from the "crime" scene, he was hungry and wanted to get food from Comey.

"Fish?"

Fish was yelling up the stairs when someone called out to him, and he turned to look at....

It was 'Big Brain', and his two henchmen, the 'big dweeb' (Gregory Goyle) and 'Chubby' (Vincent Crabbe).

Draco Malfoy, however, had long since abandoned his big haircut slicked back in favor of a very ordinary three-seven, but even with the ordinary three-seven, he still looked meticulous under Malfoy's grooming.

"Meow~ (=●ω●=)?"

Fish sat on the stair railing and raised his left paw to greet Malfoy.

"I had my father get smoked cod from Iceland, I was wondering if you'd be interested in trying it," Malfoy asked in his usual leisurely tone, still in that old-fashioned pureblood family way even when inviting someone over.

But under the influence of his animal affinity, he didn't show his usual superiority in front of Fish.

Of course, even if Malfoy had shown it, Fish probably wouldn't have been able to perceive the intricacies of human socialization.

"Meow!"

Pureblood and Iceland and all that, Fish knew nothing about it, but he was familiar with the word "cod."

So, without hesitation, Fish hopped over the stair railing to Malfoy's shoulder and squatted there.

"Meow?"

Seeing Malfoy frozen in place, Fish raised his paw and poked him in the face.

The startled Malfoy came to his senses, "I'll take you there!"

With a small silver tabby kitten on his shoulder, Malfoy immediately strutted off towards the Slytherin common room with his two inseparable minions at an even more unrecognizable pace than usual.

On the way back, Draco Malfoy came to feel that that was the most striking moment of his life, as every young wizard he passed threw him looks of envy and awe, looks that made Malfoy raise his head even higher.

"Whoops!"

With his head too high to see the path beneath him, Malfoy tripped over an uneven tile and fell forward.

Fish jumped backwards over his shoulder in time to land on the shoulder of 'Big Dummy' Goyle.

Malfoy took a few steps to steady himself and looked over his shoulder saw that Fish was no longer there, he quickly turned his head and soon saw Fish with a new 'mount'.

Malfoy approached Goyle and hesitated, he wanted to put Fish back on his shoulders, but considering the character Fish had shown in the past, he felt he was probably making a fool of himself.

As Malfoy hesitated, the slow Goyle finally saw what he was thinking and unconsciously took half a step back and turned his body sideways so that the shoulder Fish was leaning on was hidden behind his head.

It was only after this that Goyle realized what he had just done, and hurriedly returned to his normal standing position, a simple but embarrassed smile on his face.

Malfoy glared at Goyle with a stern look, not intending to chase after him, but instead he gave up on trying to get Fish to jump back up, turned around and continued walking towards the Slytherin dormitory.

"What are you standing there for? Follow me," Malfoy shouted grumpily, Goyle, in a rare act of ingenuity, quickly followed, and Crabbe, with an envious glance at Fish over his partner's shoulder, muttered something under his breath and quickly followed.

With Malfoy deliberately quickening his pace, the three of them and the cat soon reached the Hogwarts basement, where Malfoy stopped in front of an empty, damp stone wall.

"Ambitious."

At Malfoy's command, a stone door suddenly appeared in the wall and slowly opened. Malfoy walked in, followed by Goyle and Crabbe.

"Ah! It's Fish."

As soon as they entered the Slytherin common room, a group of young wizards eagerly gathered around and expertly pulled several snacks out of their pockets and handed them to Fish.

Fish jumped off Goyle's shoulder, transformed into his human form and greeted the group with a smile as he accepted the snacks, "Hello!"

"Sit here for a bit, I'll get the cod." Malfoy frowned, said to Fish and hurried to his dormitory.

Fish nodded indifferently, opened a bag of snacks and popped them into his mouth, before looking curiously around the Slytherin common room.

It was a long, narrow, low basement, with green chandeliers, beautifully carved and expensive looking tables and chairs, even the mantelpiece was beautifully carved, and the floor was covered in an intricately patterned wool carpet, a completely different style to the Gryffindor common room.

But in contrast to this beautiful furnishings, the walls and ceiling were of rough stone, which did not clash with the green light.

What interested Fish most was the occasional flash of fish through the window, and the huge octopus in the black lake.

Fish ran to the window in two steps, grabbed the edge of a window and tried to open it.

"Wait a minute Fish! This window can't be opened."

The Slytherins in the common room rushed to stop Fish, who had failed to open the window and was about to break the glass.

"Meow?" (⊙ω⊙)?