Title: Animal Eyes
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.
Pairings: James/Lily, otherwise gen
Content Notes: Angst, torture, gore, violence, AU (Neville is the Boy-Who-Lived)
Rating: R (for violence)
Wordcount: 2900
Summary: A series of one-shots set in the universe of The Art of Self-Fashioning, showing Harry, Minerva, and others after that fic ends.
Author's Notes: Another of my "From Samhain to the Solstice" fics, but there will eventually be more fics that are sequels to this one. In response to several people who asked for future-shots in this universe. Make sure that you've read The Art of Self-Fashioning first.

Animal Eyes

One—Minerva's Kitten

"What was that?"

"Someone sent me a nasty letter because they know I participated in taking Voldemort down." Minerva shook her head as she again folded and ripped the letter, the last piece of it that could plausibly be ripped. "Please don't worry, Harry. Nothing nasty came through the wards with it."

Harry narrowed his eyes and said nothing. The golden eagle on his leather glove shifted her weight, but made no other movement. The black cat on his shoulder, with the white cross decorating its chest, stared at her, but was likewise silent.

Harry turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Minerva sighed and turned back to her lunch. She would have to go to Diagon Alley next week, to replace some of the Potions ingredients that had once been in the Black labs at Grimmauld Place. Too many of them had turned to dried crumbs over the years, and Lily was working hard to re-teach herself her favorite subject.

Both Lily and James were avoiding going out in public for the moment. Minerva understood completely. It wasn't every day that people came back from more than a decade of lying mindless in St. Mungo's, and everyone from Healers to Potions masters would want to know how they had recovered.

And she also understood why neither Lily nor James felt ready to say "Our son found a way to pull the magic of the Cruciatus out of our bodies and then turned the casters of the curse into black beetles that he stomped to death."

At least their relationship with Harry was improving.

"This is Deimos. He's yours."

Minerva paused as she slipped her gloves up her hands. Harry had come into the house's entrance hall with yet another new animal tagging behind him, but she hadn't paid much attention to that. Harry Transfigured new animals from dust and broken furniture on a regular basis, and had done enough modifications to his own body that he probably didn't count as exactly human anymore.

Minerva didn't care about that. She only cared about him.

Now she stared at the new kitten Harry had gently nudged forwards from beside his legs. The kitten was an odd color, a sandy brown with black stripes edging his face and his brilliant dark eyes. He had more markings on his body, crisscrossing so much it was hard for Minerva to tell which were spots and which were stripes. He had paws that looked as if he could stretch them out and skate over the small piles of slushy snow outside. He opened his mouth at her, but no sound came out.

"You made him without a voice?" Minerva asked. She knew Harry would have a reason for that if he had, but she couldn't imagine what it would be. "And named him after the god of terror?"

"Yes." Harry touched the kitten's head, and Deimos looked up at him. Harry turned him so that Deimos was looking at Minerva again. "Take him with you to Diagon Alley. Most people will probably just think he's a half-grown Kneazle."

"Tell me why I should take him with me, Harry."

"To keep you safe."

"The Death Eaters who sent me that letter have no idea where I am. And you know that I'm safe as long as I stay behind the wards here. Regulus made them strong enough to stand up against an army of Inferi."

"In Diagon Alley you won't be behind the wards."

True enough. Minerva looked at the kitten again. It was also true that he didn't look threatening. She could walk past any number of people with harder familiars. And it was important to Harry that she have company. She nodded. "All right. I reserve the right to snatch him up and run if someone tries to kidnap him."

Harry smiled. It showed teeth that sometimes looked more pointed than they had been and sometimes didn't. Harry had tried various experiments on them, Minerva knew. "The kidnappers would be sorry."

Deimos padded over to Minerva's side and wreathed his tail around her leg. She found herself bending down to pet him. His fur brushed against her fingers, softer than the rose petal debris she had found in the last box of Potions ingredients that morning. Deimos arched his back against her touch, but didn't make a noise the way a normal cat would have.

"Come on, then," Minerva said. "You and me."

Harry stood behind them and watched them walk out the door.

Minerva shook her head in amusement as she came out of Slugg and Jigger's, carefully shrinking her purchases and sliding them into a robe pocket. So far, no one had accosted her, and no one had tried to steal Deimos. More than one person had offered to buy him, though, and the children toddling beside their parents who were doing Christmas shopping had tried to pet him. Deimos had never growled at them, or in fact made any sound. He just somehow wasn't where their tiny petting fingers tried to reach him. He was always balanced on Minerva's shoulder—heavy as a full-grown Kneazle, which had rather made her stagger the first time—or on a shelf or a wall or a corner near the ceiling.

"Shall we go to one more place?" Minerva found herself asking the kitten, and stopped. She didn't want to look ridiculous.

But Deimos looked up at her with those brilliant eyes, and opened his mouth exactly as if he would speak. Minerva relaxed. The animals Harry created were more intelligent than most of their natural counterparts, anyway.

She turned towards the bookshop. Although it was unlikely, they might have books on Transfiguration that interested Harry and he hadn't yet read.

A streak of blue fire blazed past her head. Minerva ducked instinctively, training from both wars catching up with her. Deimos was still standing in the middle of the street, and Minerva snatched him up and pelted towards a narrow part of Diagon Alley between the walls of two shops.

Another streak of fire hit the cobblestones in front of her before she could get there. Minerva turned around and crouched to present a smaller target, drawing her wand.

Two black-cloaked wizards stalked slowly down the middle of the alley, cursing every shop they passed.

Minerva grimaced. Whether they were Death Eaters there for her or simply Dark wizards with a grudge, she had been wrong about the danger involved in a simple shopping trip. She aimed her wand at the ground in front of them, ready to Transfigure it to mud or ice.

Then one of the wizards turned around, saw her, and threw a bright yellow curse that crackled towards her so fast she could only partially duck it. It caught her head, and made it ring as though she'd been thrown into a wall. She was gasping in seconds, winded, dizzy, and with blurring vision. The Concussion Curse.

Staggering, trying to fight her way back to her feet, she still shuddered at the long, shrill sound that rose from behind her.

It went on and on, soaring and soaring, a noise that resembled a human screaming in the way a lightning bolt resembled a flicker of a candle. For some reason, it did nothing more than make Minerva flinch, but the Dark wizards in front of her stumbled back, holding their ears. Minerva turned around, holding onto something that might have been a piece of wall.

A gigantic cat stood behind her. Deimos was gone.

As the cat lowered his head and stared directly at the wizards who had cursed her, Minerva finally understood. The stripes and spots were vanished now, blended into a shining sandy-colored coat. The big paws were made for sliding gracefully across snow, but looked a lot less ridiculous on a full-grown body than on a kitten. Deimos was long and lean and beautiful and as big as she was, and she would have recognized him at once if she was more familiar with his kind.

North American cougar.

One of the wizards recovered enough from Deimos's scream to try and incant a hex at him. Deimos leaped and soared straight overhead, a glorious curving arc that carried him probably twelve feet in the air and ten forwards. One of his paws swatted and hit the wizard in the face, spinning him around with a scream. Deimos pounced on his back and lowered his head. In the end, Minerva closed her eyes so as not to see, but she heard the moment Deimos bit through his neck.

"Good kitty, nice kitty…"

"His name is Deimos," Minerva said, and then wondered why she'd said that. It had to be because she had a concussion. "Not a nice kitty."

The other wizard didn't act as if he'd heard her. He was backing up slowly, his breathing loud and terrified. Minerva wondered idly what it sounded like to Deimos, if she could hear it so well.

Then Deimos's belly dropped to the earth and he slunk forwards, and she knew. The wizard sounded like prey.

"Call him off!" There was a bubbling sound beneath the wizard's words, as if he was just seconds away from sobbing in fear.

"Don't know how," Minerva muttered, which was the truth. Harry had obviously created Deimos to Transfigure himself into an adult cougar if she was in danger. She had no idea if he would stop killing before the threat was eliminated.

Deimos came level with her. Just to see if she could, Minerva reached out a hand and waved it up and down in front of his face. Deimos licked her hand without taking his eyes off the wizard furiously backing away from him.

"Apparate, you idiot," Minerva snapped, her irritation spiking. She had to serve as a mediator between Lily and James on one side, and Harry on the other, all the time. Now she had to do her enemies' thinking for them?

"I can't," the man whimpered. "I tried. You threw up some kind of anti-Apparition spell, didn't you? Because you shouldn't have!"

Minerva stared at him, and said nothing, even though she violently, violently wanted to tell him that he was an idiot again. When would she have had time to cast the anti-Apparition spells? In the moment before or the moment after they had made sure that she had a concussion?

Then she looked at Deimos and the way his mouth was opening, and she thought she understood. He could make sure that his prey was pinned and unable to flee, as well. Minerva wanted to bang her head into a wall, but it seemed nothing was near enough. She'd been clutching at the cobblestones earlier, not a wall.

Deimos leaped, and the man screamed. The sound didn't last long before Deimos tore his jaw from his face. Minerva did see that, as much as she wished she had closed her eyes in time.

When she could manage to blink them open again and look around, she wasn't surprised to see that she was sitting in an empty stretch of Diagon Alley. Probably as many people as possible had Apparated to safety. Minerva sighed and looked at Deimos, who had paraded back over to her and was sprawled next to her, licking her hand with a tongue like a bristle brush.

"Yes, you can't cure a concussion that way, stupid cat," Minerva told him, still more than slightly dazed.

Deimos only looked at her with huge eyes that seemed to become bigger and bigger by the second. Minerva had time to realize that he was shrinking back into a kitten and hear the cracks of Apparition—probably from Aurors, late as usual—before her vision began to tunnel and she fell unconscious.

"You're lucky that you weren't injured worse than you were, Professor."

Minerva smiled a little at the Healer standing in front of her. She was a fussy young woman with brilliant red hair that Minerva thought probably made her related to the Weasleys. She had also fought to heal Minerva's concussion before it could cause her further damage, and had wanted her to remain in St. Mungo's overnight.

Minerva didn't want to, and not just because she detested the way that the Healers believed that a concussion they'd cured with a wave of their wands meant she should rest in bed for the foreseeable future. She knew Harry would come looking for her. He hadn't so far because Minerva hadn't specified when she and Deimos would return from Diagon Alley, but it had to be happening soon.

And she didn't want him exposed to more people who would never really understand who or what he was.

"A burn and a concussion is lucky," Minerva agreed. "I suppose that you didn't hear who the wizards were or what they were doing there?"

"Seeking some kind of vengeance for the fall of You-Know-Who, I think. They were both cousins of Death Eaters."

Minerva sighed. Harry would be insufferable, even if the wizards had simply wanted to lash out at the world and hadn't targeted her, which Minerva thought the likeliest conclusion. She might soon have two magically-growing cougar kittens with magical screams shadowing her every step.

Speaking of…

"Did you see the kitten who was brought in with me?"

"Oh, sorry, Professor. I didn't realize you couldn't see him with the way you have to hold your head. He's at the foot of your bed on the floor. Hasn't moved, the loyal little thing! I've never seen such loyalty in a cat."

"He's unique," Minerva said dryly. "Deimos?"

Deimos lifted his head slowly. He was glaring at the Healer, but he made no sound, as usual. His tail had begun to twitch, however, and his ears were slowly sinking flatter on his head.

"No, don't attack," Minerva said firmly. Harry could have built in some kind of control measures, she thought. Then again, he insisted that his animals have at least some form of independent thought. "Listen to me. I am safe. I am going home soon. My concussion is cured. You are to leave others alone, do you understand me?"

Deimos opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He sprang up on the bed and curled around her foot, still staring at the Healer.

"He's remarkable," the Healer said. She put out a hand as if to stroke him, but Deimos's tail lashed fast enough to leave a tuft of fur on the bed. The Healer laughed and pulled her hand back as if she wasn't frightened. She probably wasn't, Minerva thought. She had found that many people tended to ignore or misinterpret cats' body language, at least compared to the knowledge they had of dogs. "Where did you get him?"

"An acquaintance of mine breeds cats, and can do some rather remarkable things with them," Minerva said, which was no less than the truth. "Did the Aurors want to speak to me about the wizards that I defeated?" She would keep the truth about Deimos concealed if she could.

"Oh, yes, I forgot. I don't think it'll last long, since it was self-defense and the other witnesses fled, but they do want to talk to you." The Healer crossed the room.

"Not a word out of you," Minerva hissed at Deimos the minute her back was turned. "And stop that tail-lashing."

He actually did, and yawned and put his head on her foot. In seconds, when the Aurors came into the room, he was a cutely-dozing kitten who anyone might want to stroke.

"They let you go, though."

Minerva sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Yes, they did. They bought my claim that I couldn't remember what spells I had cast while under the Concussion Curse. There's precedent for that curse distorting both memories and the sense of threat that a victim feels herself to be under." She dropped her hand and glared at Harry. "But the situation would not have arisen if you had not given me such a guard!"

"I want you alive," Harry said plainly. A grasshopper alighted on his shoulder, and Minerva eyed it, wondering what kind of venom it probably spat. "Your life matters more to me than other deaths."

Minerva opened her mouth, then closed it. She knew already the futility of arguing with Harry about this. "All right. But next time, tell me what an animal like Deimos can do."

"Next time?" Harry shook his head. "But I don't need to give you another guard. You have Deimos."

Minerva frowned. "I am not taking that cougar with me everywhere I go."

Harry gave the slight flash of teeth that was his usual smile. "You might find it hard not to."

Minerva stared down at her feet. Deimos was curled around them, his tail also wrapped around the legs of the chair. She had thought it coincidence that he had stayed so close to her after they returned to Grimmauld Place, but…

By the time she looked up, Harry had already disappeared back into his experiment rooms.

Minerva sighed and reached down. "At least I know what you can do now, and that means I can protect us both better," she whispered.

A faint movement against her hand made her think Deimos was waking up, but when she looked back at him, she realized his eyes were still closed. And then she heard it. The faintest of noises.

Deimos was purring in his sleep.