Tim would help her! That was a pawsitive thing, as there was a chance the spell she just cast would get stuck on her. She had used it before, in a misguided attempt to become a Animagus. But since then had cast the spell again on herself, so she had improved. To the point where it didn't become stuck on her. But there was always a risk she couldn't say the spell to turn her back. She had that problem once and it took her an hour to say the words right and cast the reverse.

She sat on a desk in a Ravenclaw hoodie and jeans. Carrying her bag of eternal sweets in which she was currently going through a packet of skittles with. Along with her outfit, from her spell she now carried a pair of cat ears on her head, her top row sharp teeth had grown a little longer and a long cat tail had grown out of her back. Both being grey and fluffy.

She had a purrfect plan. Nothing could go wrong with this she decided. Unless things did go wrong. But she decided they wont so they wont. Unless they do. Which they likely would.

She had come up with the idea that if she has the cat ears and tail, she could understand cats. As obviously the cat ears will pick up cat noises and she would understand them right? That is after all how the human mind works isn't it?

As she waited for Tim to show up, as she needed a better trained Ravenclaw to help incase she did mess up with this, and to help her find a cat. She didn't know if there were any cats actually in the school. She rested back on the desk and bit another skittle, when she thought she saw a mouse!

Usually she wouldn't really react, if anything her owl would love them, probably more then marshmallows. But she felt the urge to catch it. And so she clambered up onto the desk properly and jumped to the next one...not that well as she isn't that agile, the amount of sugar she has probably does not help in that regard. But she still managed to land on the desk.

She moved down onto all fours and gazed along the ground, looking for the perceived mouse.

Tim never quite knew what he was getting himself into when he agreed to one of Akira’s madcap plans. He knew one thing was for sure, it was never a dull moment.

As stipulated in the owl, he found Akira in an empty classroom on the fifth floor. He’d dressed casually, but practically, in jeans, t-shirt and jumper, with comfortable shoes. He expected to open the door and see Akira busy eating a packet of sweets, but his Ravenclaw housemate looked a little different to say the least.

The desks rocked as the second year leapt from one to another, sporting cat ears and a large grey bushy tail out from under the bottom of her Ravenclaw hoody. Unaware, it seemed, of Tim’s entry to the classroom, she clambered down from the desk on all fours to scour the floor.

“Here we go,” Tim uttered to himself under his breath, wondering if Akira had managed to cast those amendments on herself properly this time, or if they would have to make yet another visit to Professor Singh or even the currently-out-of-bounds infirmary to get them removed before lessons began again on Monday.

“Hey,” he called to Akira, “you dropped your toy mouse or something?”

Akira scrambled along the ground hunting for the mouse she swore she saw, there had to have been a mouse, wasn't there? She wasn't crazy was she? No, would a crazy person think that by turning themselves partly into an animal she could talk to them? No they wouldn't think that at all. She was perfectly sane. Now where was that mous-

Tim had arrived! She jumped up onto her feet and looked towards him, giving a bright smile towards him as she climbed onto a desk and jumped along them towards him, eager and excited to see he actually came to her idea. "Tim!" She sounded excited with a purr starting afterwards. She stopped at the last desk before the door and watched him, leaving a trail of several chairs being overturned by her not so gentle moves.

"It wasn't a toy mouse, I saw a real meow." She sat on the desk and started pulling out some skittles to share. "I saw it move across the floor." She said in a half insulted half cheerful tone, but she still continued to purr cheerfully in a low tone. Her tail swaying slowly behind her.

"Want some skittles?" She asked as she popped a green one into her mouth. "Or I got other stuff, meow have some chocolate frogs left."

“Tim!”

CRASH!!

Instinctively Tim braced to catch someone, something. Akira was fast becoming a possible replacement for his accident-prone older brother, Ambrose, who had left school.

“… I saw a real meow.” Tim’s eyebrows shot up at the replaced word along with the ears and tail at close range, which were most definitely magic and … attached. “Want some skittles?”

“Sure, thanks.” Tim replied, accepting the packet to dip his hand into. It would endear him to Akira. She always liked to feed friends and she had a sweet tooth.

“So, the tail, the ears… you reckon you’ll be able to actually talk to a cat?” He asked, doing his very, very best to keep a neutral, slightly optimistic outlook on this chapter of Akira’s feline adventures. “And uhm, you know I don’t have a cat, don’t you?” The Pepper boys had never been lucky enough to bring a pet to Hogwarts. They’d grown up in a Muggle house with muggle neighbours and there’d just not been space for the sort of menagerie Ambrose would have adored. Even though they’d now moved to Tim’s step mother’s Wiltshire manor with all the space, a new baby sister took priority over pets for school.

Akira purred louder as Tim took some skittles, she shuffled a hand in her bag and looked for another item. Pulling out a chocolate bar, she looked it over before a small frown appeared on her face. "Maybe fish could be good on this.." She said quietly, her right ear flicked forwards.

She did seem somewhat disheartened by what Tim said, but nodded. "We need to go find a cat then. Right meow?" She asked while her tail started to curl around herself, her eyes drifted down to the ground as if hunting for that mouse again, if there was a mouse. She isn't crazy so there had to be one! She saw a mouse and she can talk to cats! "I should be able to talk to them! I mean, I got cat ears, a tail, fangs..." She lifted her lip up to show the fangs. "I even manage to make noises like them. Watch." She then did a terrible cat meow.

Seeming pleased with her terrible meow she stood up. "That sounded good right? And after we find a cat we can find some fish!" Both of her ears started flicking and she attempted to scratch them. "While I'm like this, promise me one thing. Don't do the pointer thingy. The little light on the wall thingy...I don't know what its called!" She said in a hiss of annoyance. Going to eat a couple more skittles to cheer herself up.

“We need to go find a cat then… I should be able to talk to them!”

“Right…”

“I even manage to make noises like them. Watch. That sounded good right? And-”

“Er…”

“-we can find some fish!”

“Okay…”

“Don’t do the pointer thingy. The little light on the wall…”

“I think I can promise that.” Akira spoke at a a million miles an hour in this semi-cat form too, only it had an additional obsession with fish to add to the sweets.

“Cat then.” He decided, wondering what poor soul’s cat they’d use. “Probably best to try and look in the common room. There’s always one or two napping there. Are you… are you going to come up there like this?”

Akira squealed in delight! Tim was going to let her go with her plan! Of course he would though, its a genius plan, why wouldn't he go along with it? Its a logical and well thought out plan. Cat ears and tail, will allow her to talk to cats. Its genius, and she was the first person to ever think of it! In centuries, possibly thousands of years. She was the first to discover this, she wondered why no one had tried such a genius move before.

What could possibly go wrong?

"Of course I'm going there like this. Why?" She asked, seemingly insulted by the question although she couldn't stop herself from smiling, betraying her overall happiness. "Do you have doubts about my purrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect plan?" Her smile broke for a second, she did not intend to roll her r for that long.

"Oh! Yes cats in the common room! The one in your class that you're dating!" She blurted out. "Uuuh. Eye ring? Eye mean? I think I saw her with a cat before!" She seemed proud of herself for' remembering' the girls name. And she was pretty sure they were, she heard one person mutter about it before and several people giggled. That made it a fact right? She may of been on a sugar rush when that happened so not heard it correctly, but she thinks she knows the truth, she knows all the adult stuff. Like stalks go down the same chimney as Santa.

“No, no doubts about your… plan…” Tim replied. More doubts about the whole being able to talk to cats and the part where she was seen like this in public.

“… The one in your class that you’re dating!”

What.

“…. Eye ring? Eye mean?”

“Eirene?!” Tim clarified. “I’m dating Eirene?!” He looked mildly horrified. “That’s the first I’ve heard about it. Has she told you that?” Tim asked, confused at where that had come from. He and Eirene were fourth years and in the same house but Tim had never felt that way about Eirene. Much as she was lovely, she was far too earnest and adoring of teachers.

“Er, yeah, she’s got a cat.” Baffled, they set off.

"EIRENE! YES THAT WAS IT!" She looked happy, she totally got the name first time. "I've not really talked to her. I suppose I might one day." She said cheerfully, putting another skittle in her mouth. Purring loudly and happily, her tail swaying calmly behind her. She moved to go side by side with him, taking his left side as her right arm moved as if to try to hold his hand.

"So you two aren't..." She let off a meow, not noticing she was doing so as she was going to say the last word. "Oh my. You aren't seeing anyone?" She looked a bit confused. Although it wasn't her business, but she was his sugar dealer, she needed to give him more sweetness in his life. The problem is trying to think of people older then her she doesn't see often. "Oooh theres the bouncy one, in Hufflepuff. Big hair." She was the same year right? She was an older student so it was highly likely. "Or that moody one? Or moody ones? The two Gryffindor moodys?" She asked.

"Or just Eirene. You two would look cute!" She purred louder still, keeping in step in a disturbingly agile while also clumsy fashion, half unnatural due to her now...unique anatomy. "Me and your brother are both deeply concerned." She teased, in reality she hadn't met anyone from his family other then Eta since the summer holiday. Which was a fair bit now, she may of seen a Zeta being a Pepper in Charge but she mostly stuck to the people she knew. Like pestering Tom with insane plans. But they aren't insane!

And now they need to move so she can talk to a cat!

“I’ve not really talked to her…” Akira admitted, and Tim felt momentarily relieved Eirene wasn’t going about claiming she and Tim were in a relationship. For an astute Ravenclaw, Tim did not realise that Akira was actually fishing about his relationship status for her own good.

“Oh my. You aren’t seeing anyone?” 

“Er, no,” was it his imagination or was Akira rather close to his left hand side suddenly? The questions had brought out blushes on his cheeks, as for despite the fact he’d not had a girlfriend, Tim had already experienced a few crushes amongst his classmates like Isla Spectre. His Uncle Monty had tried to advise him[1] but in the end it had taken time to fizzle it out.

Akira rattled off about other girls in school and Tim was lost on who she meant until she latched back onto Eirene.
“You two would look cute!”
“Er…”
“Me and your brother are both deeply concerned”
“You and Ambrose are?!” Tim exclaimed. He doubted this.

“No, I think Frank’s got more chance with Eirene than I would - even - if I was interested.” He emphasised, keen to quash any rumour before Akira could start it. “People don’t have to be paired off, it’s not like essential when we’re at school.” He protested.

Alas, the conversation with his sugar-infused-cat-ear-and-tail-sporting-housemate did not progress much past the suggestions of Akira suggesting possible suitors until they made it into the Ravenclaw common room. Eirene was still struck down in the hospital wing, but her cat had the free run of the castle like everyone else’s seemed to.

“Are you going to talk to it, here?” Tim asked. The Common Room was filled with Ravenclaws studying on a Saturday morning or taking part in more intellectual pursuits of reading, wizard chess or writing letters home to their parents. Responsible sorts, Ravenclaws. It was weird enough how Hericho looked without having an audience to witness her attempts to meow at it. “Or do we need to kidnap it?”

1.	April 2011, Isn't She Lovely

Akira had a smirk on, she liked watching Tim squirm, she didn't want to bully, thats not very nice at all. He's a friend, but its funny to watch. She'd be an excellent match maker, she understood people. She was people. They could pay her, she'd get more sweets. it was a good gig, Valentines is next month. Someone should probably lock Akira away during it as she was starting to decide on lacing chocolates with love potions and handing them out like a cupid.

But before she fully formed it they were there. Happily back in the common room, she was purring again now they were, it was home and a very good home. The aesthetic and ambiance is always nice, although she found some people didn't like having Hot Chocolate spilled over them, it was not a good lesson for her. There was shouting and crying. Something about why would you practice Wingardium Leviosa on hot chocolates in a room filled with books. Good times.

The cat though, was good. She slowly approached to pet it on the head. "You got somewhere else to test it?" She asked calmly, there were lots of places far better then the common rooms. She pondered on his idea though, maybe somewhere else would be good, as long as they could return the kitty before Eirene became better. She didn't want to annoy Eirene, she'd likely be given a list of reasons why what she did was wrong. They were never short lists she has either, or atleast she assumed they weren't short, she usually got bored half way through when she heard a list and started snacking.

Did Eirene do lists? She'd actually never really spoken to her, she thinks. She needs another skittle.

"Its not kidnapping, thats for children. This is Cat Burglary."

“…This is cat burglary.”

Stuff it, Tim thought, looking around at the studious Ravenclaws in the wide, circular room. A few of them were giving Tim and Akira funny looks.

"Come on." He scooped up Eirene’s cat as carefully as he could without letting it wriggle free, but not so tight as to hurt it, and headed swiftly in the direction of the Fourth Year boys dormitories.

Unlike the girls dormitories, Akira was free to enter the boys dormitories without any caterwauling noise or the steps turning to a slide. It didn’t mean she’d ever been invited in, or that they might encounter one of the other fourth year boys. Philo, Remi, Asher, and Xander were unlikely to still be lazing at this hour, he’d seen them all at breakfast, he was sure.

Cat wriggling in his arms, Tim made it into the cozy, but cluttered, boy’s dormitory, and Eirene’s cat jumped from his arms onto his bed, and began to sniff its surroundings and lick itself on Tim’s Ravenclaw blue blankets. The five beds were arranged along the curved wall so the foot of each bed pointed in towards the central door. Like the girls’ beds, they each had curtains to draw around, and the view from the windows was of the surrounding mountains and the lake. At the foot of each bed was the trunk belonging to each boy, some open, others with socks or jumpers draped out of the mouth. Tim pushed his shut, fearing Akira might spy a pair of boxer shorts or worse in there, and was glad he’d made his bed.

“Er, hang on, I’ll open a window…”

Well, they were five teenage boys sharing a room. He hurried, tripping over someone’s broom and navigating an exercise book that had spilled off a neighbouring bedside table.

The smell was, somehow worse but better then what she was expecting, honestly she had expected it to smell like gas and weird other boy things. But to her it mostly was sweat and dirty laundry, upon this she really started to pity the Elves that worked in Hogwarts, even if they were happy here, they must dread the boys rooms. She saw Tim go to the window, but that likely wouldn't get the smell done quickly. "Orchideous." She said with a circular motion, allowing stems to form off her wand that then sprouted white jellyfish like petals.

She allowed them to fall to the floor, rather pleased at herself. "Now that helps clear the air, and is proof you had a girl meow." She purred before eyeing his trunk. "If you're worried I'd see your knickers don't worry, I have a sister, I've seen underwear before." She took in the other sights of the room, so this was a boys room. It was, to say the least. underwhelming. It was pretty much just like her room, although messier, possibly, it usually seemed to be her to leave the mess. But that only lasted for a few days...maybe weeks? Before she's tidy again.

"Ooh I can leave you something better then flowers if you really want to convince you had a girl over?" She started to think of what she could give, there's obvious, but she can't give a hickey, she needed to leave something not bite him. Although her new fangs could do with something to chew on, maybe a marshmallow? Now with one in her mouth she thought again. "Ooh I could leave you sweets, or something more personal? I could leave my br-" She stopped and stared at Eirene's cat.

Did it just talk? Was she crazy? No! Would a crazy person be sugar obsessed, constantly trying to tease a boy while making herself part cat with a spell she can't properly use for the second maybe third time that in all likelyhood she will need to see a professor about as its stuck again as she can't pronounce the reverse spell half the time? No. Only sane people do that.

"Meow meow nyaa?"

“If you’re worried I’d see your knickers don’t worry, I have a sister, I’ve seen underwear before.”

Tim gave Akira a perturbed look. He wasn’t worried about Akira seeing girls knickers. More his underpants!

“… I can leave you something better than flowers if you really want to convince them you had a girl over? … I could leave my br-”

“No, no, no…” Tim waved both hands to discourage such a notion.

Hell, what he got himself involved in!!

Eirene’s cat saved him by meowing in a disgruntled manner. Akira leapt to try and reply. Tim put a hand to his head and rubbed his forehead. All he needed now was for someone to walk in on them. Akira in the boys dormitory, sporting a cat’s tail, meowing at Eirene’s cat. He’d never explain it. Thinking upon it, he pointed his wand an cast colloportus.

“You really think this will work?” He implored, “or won’t Eirene’s cat just think you’re swearing at it?”

"I don't see why having cat ears won't make it work. Human ears hear human stuff, cat ear hear kitty stuff." It worked in her mind, all sound was vibration right? And voices carried different vibrations, and different ears heard different vibrations. Like thats why some people can hear whistles that others can't. So a cat must just be on a different vibration to a human.

So if her theory was right, if her cat ears were actual cat ears. It should be able to understand to an extent the cat. It just then depended on how they communicate, it might not all be noise, it could be body language and smells also. Or she may not understand the meaning. However these were small things to her, she just needed to find out how to get them talking, then she needed to decipher.

Its what the centaurs do isn't it? They read the stars, then have to find out what the stars mean. It all seemed to make sense to her.
It helped she also didn't really need to study, she managed to pass all of the exams last year easily, she only got passes but it wasn't really difficult for her but she managed. Although Tim needed to study, that she knew, but he seemed upset after going to some sort of club, and he'd been studying hard, he deserved a break.

If this counted as a break or babysitting a sugar addicted cat enthusiast with too much time on her hands, was up for debate.

"Now, listen here...what is the cats name again?" She didn't actually know. "is it like..xander? Xeon? Exon m-" Another cat meow escaped her, and with her noticing the cat react to some noise she moved in closer, a hand attempted to stroke the kitty as she did so.