Disclaimer: Not mine, I just like to play with them for a little while.

Notes: Well, here it is. The long promised Catar fic. Silverfox does keep her word.

THE CATAR

Prologue

Raven bounds through the forest enjoying the rush of the air against his fur and the feel of the earth under his paws. Here he is absolutely free. None of the constraints of the human world can tie him down as he jumps over tree trunks and slinks through bushes.

A low hanging twig across his path twitches as a bird takes flight out of its bush and Raven gives in to temptation and lounges for it like a kitten. His front paws grab a hold of the twig as he lets himself drop onto his back. A bite and then he lets go again only to bat at the twig with his right paw as it swings back up.

One more swipe with his other front paw shreds the twig's leaves and Raven takes a moment to inspect and lick his claws. Not that a simple twig can do them any harm. They are magically enhanced to be strong enough to cut even steel. Little is safe from the wrath of an angry Catar.

Still Raven likes to feel the sharpness of his claws on his tongue, just as he likes the feeling of unsheathing them, allowing them to spring fourth from his paws, as he likes to feel the sun and rain in his fur, as he likes to race and jump and climb effortlessly through the forest, likes to play and jump out at anything that twitches ...

He rolls over again, back on his feet in a single fluid motion and takes off again in an elegant jump before a human could complete the turn.

A strong tree trunk in his way. A jump and out again come the claws and up, up, up until he reaches a strong branch that he races along.

Only about two metres from there is a similar branch reaching out from another tree. A simple push of strong hind legs carries him into the air and over and his claws grab hold of the other branch.

The softened sound of hooves on thick moss causes his ear to twitch. He stops to sniff the air. A centaur.

Another jump takes him back to the ground and he runs past the centaur with his tail held high. The stallion makes no move to challenge him. What are a centaur's hooves and teeth compared to the fangs and claws of a full grown Catar?

Laughable, that's what, thinks Raven, and the centaur well knows it.

Eyes gleaming with joy Raven runs on until another smell stops him in his tracks and steals the gleam and the joy.

Instinctively crouching low to the ground Raven listens, but there is no sound, just the faded smell of an old marking. He cannot feel their presence. No, they are not here now. If he wanted, he could go looking for them, sneaking into their territory on soundless paws, but no matter how softly he treaded they would still feel him, would feel the mark he wears before his own senses could warn him.

He should not enter here.

A quick spin and Raven takes off again back the way he came. It's time to return anyway.

A bird in a bush. Raven's strong paw presses it to the ground before it can even cry out in alarm, but the claws remain sheathed. He is not hungry, not truly out to hunt. This is only play. Otherwise the bird would be dinner by now.

Almost back to the castle Raven stopps at an old tree to stretch and sharpen his claws on its trunk. In the back of his mind he wonders what Hagrid might think when he finds the claw marking.

It doesn't worry him. Hagrid must have seen his marks before, must have come across a paw print from time to time, but is the half giant aware of what kind of cat left those trails?

If so, he never reported it, or Dumbledore hadn't passed the report on to the rest of the staff. Else that cursed Templar would already be after him, would be searching the forest. Would perhaps have found the clan. The poor rest of the clan. He'd probably have been disappointed at the size of his catch.

Just out of sight of the castle he transformed back to his human form. His human looking form. He would never be human. A cat was a cat, because it had claws and he had claws no matter what form he was in.

On inferior human legs he walked the rest of the way to the castle. Slow and clumsy humans were. And serious. In his human form Raven had no room for games. In his human form he had to remain constantly in control. Not a single cat instinct could show through.

Hagrid greeted him as he walked past his hut, but he didn't stop to talk. He was already late for dinner. Maybe he should have eaten the bird after all, but they would miss him at the meal and he might miss out on some important last minute announcements of the headmaster.

"Oh, there you are." McGonagall caught him off at the door. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

With an inner sigh he fully forced himself back into his human life, the cat packed away into a corner of his mind until the next time he could manage to steal away for a little while.

ERMonkey Burner of Cookies: Ah, but it's Harry's own fault for running away from them all the time rather than stop to consider that he too managed to get through Severus' class, or that he doesn't even know what Billy is like. He could have given him a chance.

Brink182: LOL, exactly. But I guess he wants his daughter to have the perfect childhood he nerver had.

Ashisra: Actually Billy is the only Potions teacher in England. Draco and Sevi both teach in Scotland (where they aren't the only ones, by the way. West Hogsmeade has always had two to three Potions teachers.)

Mystical Witch: Sorry, but there never was a plan to continue Gangolf's story. He was just meant to show what would happen if a kid like Gilderoy Lockhart ended up in Slytherin. ... Aphy's French is poor by her mother's standards who happens to be a native speaker. Whether it's really not up to passing Beauxbattons is a different question. Considering that Hogwarts only seems to take English speaking children and there are only three top schools in all of Europe (which has more than three native languages incidentally) she shouldn't be the only first year at Beauxbattons having to study in her second language. You'd expect them to have programmes to help those students.

Joou Himeko Dah: Short for me, yes, but a lot longer than I had originally planned.

Dogss: If you did not want to read it, why did you? There's nobody making you read a fanfic you don't like, you know. Enough other stories to choose from. It's spelled tedious, by the way.

pinkprincessmud: I don't know. There aren't any more Snapes at the right age right now and West Hogsmeade still has two Potions teachers that aren't Snapes. And then there's Ireland, and who said all Snapes had to become Potions teachers? Some of Draco's and Billy's children might prefer to do something else. Anyway, all remaining Snapes are younger than Aphy, so she's safe from them.

Pam Briggs: For you I'll try to remember that this once, but I usually don't do e-mail alerts myself. I'd forget to do them at least every second time, so please use AuthorAlert. It's more reliable.

Colibi: Thanks. Seems like I got this one right for once. Usually at least some people hate my epilogues, but I haven't gotten any complaints about this one.

Kyzara: Ah, don't worry about Aphy, she'll be fine once she gets used to her new school. She won't be a great student, but good enough. I could stop to write about as easily as I could stop to breathe, so no worries about that. I know it's been a long break, but I'm back with my next HP fic now.

angelgothgirl: LOL, well, if you'd told me you'd read RD and MNS in one sitting I'd be really worried, but Letter and MNS isn't bad either. Glad you liked them! You seem to have missed only Harry Potter, Hogwarts Caretaker of my longer HP fics, but that one comes with a depression warning anyway. Interesting that you'd think the Draco and Sevi OOC in RD was barely noticeable. I got my first ever flame for that.

sil.: Thanks. I'm always especially happy to get a review from another site than Glad to see people do read my works there as well.

AlinaJaqui: Thank you!

Lindseys Angel: RD is finished there, but there is a sequel about Billy's first year. I'd have contacted you as you asked, but would have needed your addy for that :(.

Bright Eyes: 10+ pages for RD? How small do you print them? It looks quite a bit longer on my computer.

Yukura: Blush! Thanks!

Marauder2Padfoot: Sorry, but HPHC is finished. It's an open ended story as any more would have ruined the feel of it.

Spear and Magic Helmet: Well, I hadn't ever seen a Harry in Atzkaban fic before I wrote it. I just wanted to write about a depressed character and the scenario just worked for me. ... There's a reason Ron isn't in the fic. I just don't like him and wouldn't have written him very well, so I sent him away and used characters I could handle. Sirius' forgiveness will probably come, but it would have ruined the one chapter per person format to write it. No sequel planned at the moment I'm afraid. I'm too busy with other plot hedgehogs.

AnimeSiren: It's open ended on purpose, though I think I gave enough hints as to what will happen in the end. Adding to it would ruin the style, I'm afraid.

WittchWay: Thanks!

the musician: Holiday Blues is my story without a category. I don't know where it fits, but it makes me feel good, too, so I love it anyway.

Yukura: Thanks. It's such a simple little thing, but everybody seems to love it. (Well, what can I say, I love it myself.)

amz381: Well, by now you probably know how right you were ;). Well done.

laughing: I think with someone like Volemort out to kill him it's not that surprising Harry's nervous. He's just a teenager, after all. 'Go and kill the most powerful dark wizard in the world' is a bit much to ask of a child. 'And by the way, he knows you're coming.'