Amber and Emerald.

In response to Whitetigerwolf's Polyjuice Cat Challenge.

Disclaimer: Neither the world nor the characters belong to me. They are the property of J K Rowling, to whom I owe thanks for letting us use her creation to tell these alternate stories. The challenge belongs to whitetigerwolf, to whom I owe thanks for the idea that kickstarted this story. I'll happily claim credit for the story itself, though.

Requirements:

- Must be Harry/Hermione

- Harry and hermione must both drink Polyjuice potion contaminated with cat hair

- The transformation must be permanent

- IF Harry and/or Hermione become Animagus, it must be a feline

- At some point (it doesn't have to be immediatly after thier transformation) Hermione must go into heat

- Harry and Hermione must be provided with a means to hide their transformations from others

- Harry must spend summers with the Grangers

- Harry and Hermione must learn to fight in thier "new" bodies

- Cream and/or milk and fish must beome beloved food of Harry and Hermione

- Harry and Hermione must both be wary of Lupin at first (they're part feline and he's part canine afterall)

- Harry and Hermione must gain the ability to communicate with cats, and be able to speak to each other useing this ability

Recomended:

- Lemons

- Kittens! Although I should probably clarify and say Harry gets Hermione pregnant at some point

- Sirius declared innocent

- Kittens, this time I'm being serious. Hermione and Harry adopt a real kitten (or cub if you want to use a bigger feline) to raise.

- Mentor Snape


[Taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 12.]

Hermione let her robes fall and Ron backed into the sink.

Her face was covered in black fur. Her eyes had gone yellow and there were long pointed ears poking through her hair.

"It was a c-cat hair!" she howled. "M-Millicent Bulstrode m-must have a cat! And the P-Potion isn't supposed to be used for animal transformations!"

"Uh-oh," said Ron.

"You'll be teased something dreadful," said Myrtle happily.

"It's OK, Hermione," Harry said quickly. "We'll take you up to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions..."

It took a long time to persuade Hermione to leave the bathroom. Moaning Myrtle sped them on their way with a hearty guffaw.

"Wait till everyone finds out you've got a tail!"


Chapter 1: Never Alone.

It wasn't that Madam Poppy Pomfrey never asked questions. She preferred to only ask those questions that related to her patients' recovery. When Ron and Harry helped their now-feline friend into her infirmary, for example, she took in everything at a glance.

"Animagus or Polyjuice?" she asked as she moved to assist the bushy-haired girl. Ron's jaw dropped. "And how long ago?" Seeing that the Weasly boy would be little help here, she directed her gaze and questions at Harry.

The boy in question hesitated.

"Hurry up and spit it out," she snapped brusquely. "One is easily dealt with at up to twenty-four hours, but the other has distinct problems if left too long, and time is of the essence."

Harry gulped, and started to come clean. "P-Polyjuice, Madam Pomfrey, but she got a cat hair by mistake. It was about two hours ago when she drank it, and it took us quite a while to get her to come here." He'd managed to give her the pertinent facts without lying, quite a feat in his current state.

Madam Pomfrey stared at him for a few seconds. He was definitely holding something back, but that wasn't important now. Once Hermione was on her bed, the healer bustled back to her cupboards and began gathering potions.

Harry watched as Madam Pomfrey hurried away. The witch had been upset, even he could see that much. Turning to his red-haired friend, the boy- no, the young man made a decision.

"Ron," he said, his voice low. " You should go back to the 's no point in both of us being here. Or missing dinner." While Ron may have argued with him on the first point, the second stopped any argument in its tracks. He was a growing lad after all.

"I'll get a house-elf to bring you something." The redhead grinned. "Maybe some fish, and milk?"

Hermione's accuracy with a ballistic pillow was flawless.


Morning saw Harry still by Hermione's bedside, although somewhere near midnight he'd lost the battle to stay awake. Hermione herself looked down at his hand, still holding her own, as if to say I'm never leaving you. Her hand was still covered in black fur, with retractable claws replacing her fingernails. A quick inspection with her left hand told her that the changes were still in effect. Her face was still furry and bewhiskered, her ear were still pointed and very mobile and her tail was still there. A scraping sound caught her attention, and she looked up in time to see the hospital wing doors open, revealing Madam Pomfrey leading the three professors whose expertise was essential in this situation: Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore. It shouldn't have been possible, but she also heard their whispered conversation.

"I'm sorry, Albus," Madam Pomfrey began. "Simply too much time had passed. The standard cures and antidotes just didn't work, and it would have been too dangerous to increase the dosage at her age. I'm at my wits' end." The healer's eyes were red-rimmed, and her cheeks were puffy from shed tears. "If the three of you can't help her, young Hermione Granger will never be human again."

It took every ounce of self control the girl had not to gasp at that piece of news. As the teachers approached, she struggled against despair. What will Mum and Dad think? she thought. Can I still go to school? What am I going to do for work? How am I going to hide this? Can I hide this? Where can I get more fish? She frowned at herself as the last thought rose to the surface. It seemed she was definitely different.

A hand on her chin dragged her face upwards, to lock eyes with Snape. Her inner cat knew how to deal with being grabbed, and she lashed out, her claws opening several scratches on the potions professor's cheek. On the bright side, he let go of her. However, he was now angry.

Before he could draw his wand however, he felt a hand on his wrist. "Severus, I believe you need to calm down," said Dumbledore. "It seems that Miss Granger's changes, pardon the rhyme, go even deeper than we had thought. Minerva, if you would."

Professor McGonagall drew her own wand, and cast a strange spell: "Veritas corporis et animo*!"

Nothing seemed to happen for a few moments, then Hermione was covered with tiny orbs of golden light. As the lights danced across her she noticed Harry shifting his weight. He was awake! Obviously, her best friend didn't want to leave her alone, so he was faking sleep. After about five minutes, the lights began to gather in the transfiguration teacher's hand, where they reshaped themselves, merging into a miniature figure of Hermione... complete with fur, ears and tail.

Madam Pomfrey sighed, and just... drooped, like a wilting flower. Professor McGonagall began weeping, Professor Dumbledore looked filled with sorrow and even Professor Snape seemed at a loss, though probably out of fear and disgust more than sympathy. The headmaster turned towards Hermione, with no twinkle evident in his eyes.

"I am most sorry, Miss Granger," he said. "It seems that there is, at this point in time, no way to return you to your former self. Although we will try to help you, I believe your unfortunate transformation is permanent."

Hermione buried her face in her hands, and began to cry. The teachers looked away, allowing her time, and Professor McGonagall turned to Dumbledore.

"I believe we can bend certain rules under these extenuating circumstances, Albus," she said. "Miss Granger's parents need to be informed, and at this trying time, she needs them here."

Nodding, he agreed. "We shall have to hope that her family and friends are able to accet her now. But remember, Minerva, ultimately, none of us can understand what she is going through alone."

Harry had been listening, and thinking. As far as he could tell, his best friend was never going to be human again, barring a miracle or prodigy of magic, and was going to have to relearn herself alone. He knew loneliness. Hermione and Ron had rescued him from it, and made it all a bit more bearable, just by being there. Ron had his family for support, but Hermione's parents were muggles, if not Dursley-type muggles, who would have trouble understanding this at first. She needed someone who knew what she was going through firsthand, who she could know understood the problem. Even with her parents, if they could accept her new self, it was unlikely that she would find that. Harry made his decision, and as a true Gryffindor, never looked back.

As Hermione dragged her hand from his and began to cry, Harry's hand stole to his pocket, and the flask therein. The flask with the last of the Polyjuice Potion, gathered up as they left Myrtle's bathroom. His other hand removed from his other pocket a hair. The second hair that Hermione had decided she didn't need in the potion. Surreptitiously dropping it into the flask and swirling it around, he drank.

In the silence that followed Albus' declaration to Minerva, silence fell. A silence broken only by the sound of someone swallowing. As everyone's attention moved to Harry, he changed.