Eye of the Tigress

The girl ran, terrified, through the deserted ruins of old houses on the ancient isle. Her red hair, still tied in pigtails, bobbed chaotically around her face. She could hear its loping gait behind her, noisily crunching old pieces of brick and twigs. So this was how Amy Potter would die, mauled by an angry beast while escaping from her kidnappers...

She kept running. But the creature was getting closer now. If her heart could beat any faster, it would have sent her into orbit. Unfortunately, it couldn't, and she remained firmly on terra firma - and in danger.

There was a large orange flash, and then the sounds of a fierce battle. She gulped. Two large animals fighting... over dinner. Dinner. Her. Dinner. She was dinner. She didn't want dinner. She looked back again, drawn to the torrid scuffle despite herself. The huge three-headed dog that had chased her was now facing off against a large orange-and-black tiger. She didn't know when tigers got to Britain, but she didn't feel this was the appropriate time to question such things. She needed to...

Tree. She needed to climb a tree. Her eyes darted around looking for a good climbee, and found one. She dashed to it, and was soon over five metres high. She kept climbing. She had no idea how she would get down, but she knew she didn't want to get down, so that problem solved itself.

The battle grew fiercer, and then slowly died down. She peered down, and could faintly see one of the animals down on the ground, unmoving. The remaining animal had just one head. Amy was relieved, though not by much. She'd read the Jungle Book, even though the only Muggleborn grandparent she had was long dead. Her father had made a few attempts to show her Muggle stuff. Like the Jungle Book. Which featured a human child and a tiger that wanted said child for dinner. Or breakfast or lunch or dessert, it didn't really matter, did it?

Then the tiger changed ... into a cloaked, but definitely human, figure. Now she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Tiger Animagi didn't eat children. Admittedly, that didn't automatically make Tigerman a friend. Her father had many enemies, and not all the enemies were friends with each other. This could be another kidnapper trying to get her.

One of the heads of the dog moved. Her rescuer turned back into a tiger, slapped the head with a huge paw, and returned to its human self.

"Hello!" shouted Tigerman. Amy's eyes widened. Tigerman was female! And she sounded worried. "You were being chased by a Cerberus," she continued, looking up at Amy's tree. "I've taken care of it. My name is Jane. Will you show yourself, please? I don't want to hurt you. I want to help you get home."

Amy considered her options. Tigerwoman - no, Jane - knew where she was. In other words, Jane could get her whenever she wanted, whether Amy cooperated or not. Right, then. Amy would go with Jane. Which then led to another problem...

"Can you help me get down?" she asked. Then she added, "Please?"

Jane took out a wand as she kept her eyes looking up at Amy. "I can levitate you down, dear. Would you like that?"

Amy nodded. Soon enough, she was on the ground and able to get a closer look at Jane. But there wasn't much to look at, since Jane was wearing one of those cloaks that covered everything, face included. But Jane had a ... was that a tail? Yes, definitely a tail.

"If you tell me where you live, I can make a Portkey for you," said Jane, holding up a Muggle torch. "Do you live around here? And don't worry about the tail. My two boys finally managed to prank me."

"I'm from England," said the girl, smiling slightly. "My name's Amy", she added.

"Oh?" said Jane with a smile. "I grew up there. What brings you to this part of Ireland then?"

"I was kidnapped," said Amy.

"What?" said Jane, her voice growing harder. "Who?"

Amy's face paled as she began to remember her ordeal.

"Right, right," said Jane, starting to pace. Her tail followed her, but clearly had a life of its own. It kept pointing at Amy, as if trying to get a closer look at her. Amy found it slightly unnerving. "Did they send that bitch after you?" Amy nodded. "Before you go telling your mum n'all, I'm not swearing - that Cerberus was female. Now, do you think her masters are still searching for you?"

Amy looked uncertain. "Probably," she said.

"Did they feed you alright?" asked Jane.

Amy shook her head. "They gave me stuff. But I didn't want to eat it in case it had stuff in it."

"And drink?"

Amy winced, and nodded. "I drank water from the tap."

"You're probably alright," said Jane. "I better send you home though. Where's home for you?"

"Potter Manor, 18 Merlin Lane, Godric's Hollow, Wales," replied Amy by rote.

"Potter?" Jane's face turned ashen. "What's your surname?"

"Amy Po ... Smith," said Amy, backing away in fear at Jane's sudden change of behaviour.

Realizing this, Jane seemed to recover somewhat. "I am sorry to have scared you," she said. "I suppose you're Harry's daughter. And Ginny's. I should have guessed. Weasley hair, emerald Lily Evans eyes. You don't look like your grandmother though. Wrong shade of red."

"You knew my father?" asked Amy, surprised. She made no effort to move forward, though.

"I - no. My cousin did. She was a friend of your father's. And of your uncle Ron's. At least she thought she was. She helped them a lot, though I suppose she could have been a bit ... bossy. But they betrayed her, and cast her away when they didn't need her any more."

Amy backed away slowly.

"Don't worry," said Jane with a sigh. "You're probably in shock, hearing bad things about your parents. But they're human, remember? They make mistakes. And I don't judge people by what their parents did. You're innocent. I'm still going to get you home. But I think I better get you home myself. If you're Harry Potter's daughter, there's no telling how many people want to kidnap or kill you. And your home probably has all kinds of wards against incoming Portkeys and stuff. I'll take you to Hogwarts myself. That's okay with you, right?"

Amy nodded cautiously.

"Good. Let's go. I'll make a Portkey to the gates. I'll leave you when I've left with someone I trust." She cast a Portus spell on her torch. "Hold it."

Amy put her hand on the torch tentatively, resolving to ask her parents several questions about their past friends when she got back.

"Just one more thing, Amy. Hermione Granger was innocent. And she's dead now. Tell your parents that. I was there when she died."

It didn't take long for Harry and Ron to find the island where the kidnappers lived. They had found the house from their daughter's memories. She'd also drawn a makeshift map. A few charms later, they had narrowed the criminals' hideout to a lonely old cottage between some rugged cliffs and a forest. They figured it was the one Amy had run through.

After placing anti-Apparation and a host of other wards on the building, they carefully entered. Their caution turned out to be unnecessary. There were three men there, lying bound, gagged, and in bloody pools of blood. Upon closer inspection, all the bloods were coming out of the same parts of their body. In male sympathy, Harry and Ron winced...

"Bloody hell," said Ron for the umpteenth time after they had Portkeyed the bodies to Auror Headquarters and cast the standard preservation spells for the investigators to document later.

Harry nodded. They left the house, and looked in unison at the forest, then at each other. Without a word, they both wanted to find Hermione's cousin. They hadn't seen Hermione since she had slept with Harry after giving him a Lust Potion. And while she was dead now, it felt right of them to pay their last respects. Even to someone who thought that their old friend had been innocent.

They were halfway towards the woods when they saw the tiger. It looked at them calmly, not worried that they both had their wands out. It turned its back to them and began walking towards the woods, turning its head to look back at them a couple of times. Warily, they followed, Harry going first, Ron covering him. They walked about ten minutes before they saw the house in the middle of the woods. The tiger looked at them, then disappeared in it. They approached the house cautiously. They were both surprised when a woman and two boys came out of the house.

"Mr Potter? Mr Weasley?" said the woman brightly. "I'm Jane, and these boys here are Brian and Chris. I thought you might turn up soon enough. Please, have a seat."

Mutely, the two men sat down on the proferred deck chairs. Their hosts looked human, if one overlooked their tails, cat ears, whiskers, and the stripes on their arms and necks. One of the boys was wearing shorts, he had stripes on his legs too. The stripes on the boys were not as pronounced as those on the woman's - they could have been mistaken for ordinary cat stripes... suddenly Harry remembered where he had seen similar stripes before.

"Ron?" he hissed. "Did Millicent Bulstrode really have a cat?"

Ron looked at him dumbly.

"Remember Hermione and Polyjuice in second year?"

Ron suddenly got it, and then his eyes widened as he got it even further.

"Right!" said Jane, noting the men's realization. "Boys, I'll roar when I need you, alright? Now transform and shuffle off."

To the men's astonishment, the two cat-boys turned into young tigers in an instant and scampered off.

"They're just happy not to get back to their Transfiguration lesson," said Jane. "Rather like their father that way," she said, looking at Harry. "Not that it should matter much, I suppose. We were doing advanced stuff," she said like a proud mother.

"What are you?" blurted Ron.

Jane looked at him with an amused look. "I'm a Felician, Mr Weasley. A catwoman, tigress in this case. And Hermione Granger's cousin. Yes, she wore a glamour for seven years. And yes, both of you have seen her true form, when you were all twelve. She was lucky to be able to return to your world after that incident with Polyjuice. Turns out it works differently on Felicians - it reveals our true appearance. It took Dumbledore's fervent intervention at her trial by our council to get her back to Hogwarts."

"She got in trouble for that?" asked Harry.

"Pity she didn't go back to where she belonged," muttered Ron.

"I quite agree," said Jane pleasantly. "Because if she had stayed away, then Mr Potter would have not have gotten the vital clue of what Slytherin's monster was, and your sister would have been dead and she wouldn't have fed a Lust Potion to Harry five years later while you fed one to Hermione."

Ron jumped up furiously at this, while Harry pointed his wand at Jane. Then two orange flashes happened. By the time Harry had pointed his wand at his friend's attackers, it wasn't in his hand any more. And one of the tiger cubs was standing on Ron's prone body while the other held his wand proudly in his teeth.

"Of course, Voldemort would have arisen two years early and probably won without my cousin there to keep saving your arse," said Jane, twirling the wand in her hand smartly before turning to her boys. "Good job, kids. Now Brian, stun him with his own wand please, and then you can get off him Chris. Mr Potter will take him back to his home."

She looked directly at Harry again, watching his mind think furiously. "Hear me out, Mr Potter. I do not wish to hurt anyone, I just want a chance to tell the other side of the story. The side you never allowed Hermione to tell. Besides, would you want to hex me in front of your sons? Yes, your sons. Hermione never told you she was pregnant, did she? Of course not, you had kicked her out of your life before she had a chance to. And she was a victim as well. Even if you don't believe me when I say who was responsible for the Lust Potions - I admit I don't have proof - I do have proof that she was given a Lust Potion at the same time you were. I don't think the perpetrators planned that you would act on the potion with each other."

"I don't believe you," said Harry.

"I can give your samples of their DNA if you like," said Jane, gesturing with a nod to the cubs. They had got a ball and were busy playing some variant of volleyball with it using Ron as their net.

"Huh?" asked Harry, confused for a moment. "Oh! No, I wasn't talking about that. I meant the Lust Potion."

"What do you think about your sons?" she asked.

Harry looked at the two cubs again. They both had messy black hair with a few orange streaks in them, but they were not identical. Neither had glasses. They also seemed to be hitting their ball into the net quite often.

"I don't know what to think," he said. And honestly, he didn't. "Do they miss their mother?"

"She died when they were young," said Jane. "They don't remember her much. I'm all the mother they know."

"Oh," he said. "Tell me about them."

"They both go to Hogwarts under glamours. They're quite smart, but they seem to have got their grandfather's Maraudering spirit. They ... " She halted, giving him a second look. "I'm not sure I can trust you. If I give you too many details, you'll figure out who they are, and that's bad for their safety. Their mother trusted you and you screwed her."

"Look," sighed Harry, "it was ten years ago. And I never meant to push Hermione away forever. Have you got any proof?"

"You didn't mean to push her away? Really? You just stood aside as all the Weasleys pushed her away. You didn't look over your wife's shoulders as she sent my cousin Howlers telling her to stay away from you? You cast away the letters she sent you telling you she was pregnant?"

"What?" asked Harry, shocked. "I didn't know -"

"Face it, Potter. Your adopted family has kept too many secrets from you. Your wife lied to you. I don't expect you to believe me, of course. But when you go home, ask them."

Harry shook his head adamantly. "You're lying."

"Alright," she replied, unfazed. "Why don't we just ask your friend Ron? With Veritaserum?"

"No!"

"Don't be silly, Potter. We'll Obliviate him afterwards if I'm wrong. And if I'm right, well, you decide."

He shook his head, but it was clear that he was considering it.

"Alright, don't do it for me. Do it for Hermione, for the girl you once called your friend. Before that incident, did she ever betray you? Do this for the girl who spent hundreds of hours looking for spells to help you, the girl who helped you save Sirius from the Dementors, for the girl who trained you with Summoning spells for your First Task against the Horntail, for the girl who started the DA for you and placed Skeeter in Azkajar. And helped you on the Horcrux Hunt. And ..."

"Fine! I'll do it!"

She grinned, punched a hand in the air and disappeared into her cabin.

Harry took the opportunity to look at the two tiger cubs who were - allegedly - his. They had already left their little game and were both looking at him stonily. One of them snarled a bit. He fought down the instinct to go for his wand, having seen how quickly they had taken down his friend. It was clear that whatever they had been told of him wasn't particularly complimentary.

One of them turned back into a boy. He was naked for a moment, and then the clothes he had been wearing earlier materialized onto him. He was still barefoot though, and Harry noted that both his hands and feet were human, though they were, like much of the rest of him, a pale brown-orange.

"Hello," said Harry slowly.

"Hello, father," said the boy. He said it like a curse.

"Brian Granger!" yelled Jane, coming out of her house holding a vial of transparent liquid. "You leave your father alone!"

"Mum!" he moaned. Harry looked at Jane quickly, before recalling that she had said that Jane had died so long ago that the boys saw Jane as their mother. He also noticed that while Brian had Jane distracted, Chris had changed back into a boy and had taken over the job of glaring at his father.

"Come on, Potter," said Jane. She pointed her wand at Ron. "Enervate. Petrificus Totalus." Harry winced at the betrayed look that Ron cast him. Jane efficiently pulled his friend's head back and dropped three drops under his tongue. "Care to start the interrogation, Potter?"

Harry sighed, and asked Ron the basic opening starter questions. Satisfied by his answers, he gestured to Jane to take over. She stepped forward.

"Did you know of anyone involved with ever subjecting Hermione Granger to a Lust or Love Potion or magical coercion of any kind?"

Ron clearly struggled for a second or two before answering affirmatively. Harry's eyes widened.

"Were you involved?"

"Yes."

"When Hermione Granger slept with Harry Potter, was she under magical coercion?"

"Yes."

"Who gave it to her?"

"My mother."

"Did you and Ginevra Weasley know of it?"

"Yes."

"Was Harry Potter ever given any form of magical coercion since to have positive romantic feelings towards Ginevra Weasley?"

"Yes."

"Is Harry Potter currently any form of magical coercion to remain with Ginevra Potter?"

"No."

"Did you or anyone you know interfere with, or discourage in any way, Hermione Granger's attempts to communicate with Harry Potter after she slept with him?"

"Yes."

Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, Main Branch, Diagon Alley

"Eye of Newt."

"Here."

PLOP!

"Don't drop it in, Fred!"

"Porcupine quills."

"Here."

Plop.

"Blood of a virgin rabbit."

"Here."

Plip plip plip.

"Peanut butter sandwich."

"Go make your own, Weasley."

Fred and George looked over at the cauldron, which was a pale shade of vomit green. Experienced Potions brewers as they were, they were well past the gag reflex.

There was a ring from the front of the shop. Apparently someone had arrived there asking the front door staff for them. Fred stepped up to the charmed Barbie doll that was used as an intercom.

"Gred here."

"Hey Fred," said a crackly voice through the doll's unmoving lips. "It's Harry. Get up here, he looks a right state."

"We'll be there," he said, as his twin already vanished with a crack. Fred cast a stasis charm on the cauldron and followed suit.

Jane walked purposefully on the main street of Felixity, the primary Felician city in Ireland. With her were Brian and Chris, who were arguing incessantly. Not that she was listening.

"Control your tail, Bee, it's wagging like a bloody dog's!"

"You Hexed it! It's not recovered yet!"

"Then why is it trying to pick my pocket?"

"Coz my hands are occupied, occupying my pockets!"

"Bro, you're a ..."

"Shush, the two of you!" hissed Jane suddenly, breaking out of her reverie. Her sons looked at each other with an amused glint. They had been worried about her ever since their father had turned up. She had gone into one of her introspective moods again and they had to get her out of it. "You're behaving positively canine!"

They put on their best abashed expressions. Had she been her normal self, she wouldn't have believed them for a moment. For now, she couldn't care less.

"Right," she said, "you two go and explore. I'll meet you here in three hours. Alright?"

"Mum," Brian pleaded, "please don't go drinking again!"

She could see Chris next to him, nodding vigorously. She sighed. "Look, I feel like shit. I need a bloody drink. Just - just go, alright?" She turned and headed towards one of the bars in town. Her sons watched in dismay.

In public, Brian was the twin who did the talking, the assertive twin, while Chris provided backup. In private though, his brother was usually in charge, even if Brian still did most of the talking. So it was no surprise when Brian turned to Chris with a What Do We Do Now? expression.

"Alyx," said Chris after a couple of moments. "We get Aunt Alyx here."

"Get me a drink," said Harry as he walked into the semi-living quarters of the twins above their shop. They each had their own homes, but this space had served as their trusty bachelor pad when they were younger and less innocent.

Fred tossed him a can of chilled firewhiskey. Harry looked at it dubiously, wondered for a moment when non-beer alcoholic beverages got placed in Muggle cans before noticing the "Made in Ireland" small print on it. Ah, Irish. That made it safe, as far as alcohol was concerned. Bad alcohol in Dublin would lead to riots.

"Cheers," muttered Harry as he opened the can and held it aloft. Then he downed the alcohol... and concluded that the reason Dublin remained riotless was that the bad alcohol was exported.

"What is this shit?" he yelled before the aftertaste kicked in. Then it kicked in and he felt his liver taking a Portkey to his colon before returning via Floo and getting lost along the way.

He took a second gulp that was larger than his first. Fred smirked at George, who handed over a galleon.

"Hermione's dead," he said. "Ron and I met her cousin. Jane. That's her. That's her cousin. Her cousin's called Jane. She never told us about Jane. Jane saved Amy from the kidnappers and sent her home to us. Jane said Hermione's dead and that she was also under a Lust Potion."

The twins looked expressionless. Fred made a small Go On gesture. George nodded slightly too. They weren't particularly close to Hermione, but it was hard to believe that she'd get caught using a Lust Potion. Sure, she might use it - they didn't know her enough to say she wouldn't - but getting caught? Hermione had one of the highest ratios of Number of Rules Broken (hundreds) to Number of Detentions Served (one, in first year) at Hogwarts.

"She got pregnant."

Fred and George exchanged looks.

"Twin boys." Harry looked up with a wry, albeit small, grin. "You'd probably like them. She says they take after their Marauder grandfather. And with their mum's brains..."

Indeed, Fred and George were rapidly contemplating the possibilities. Their current generation of Weasley nephews and nieces hadn't produced worthy enough heirs to their nefarious legacy, much to their disappointment.

They considered asking Harry how he was sure the kids were his, but opted not to. If Harry was interrupted now, he might realize he was talking and clam up for good.

"Brian," continued Harry, "and Chris. They didn't like me very much." He shrugged. "They liked Ron even less. Disarmed uswithin seconds."

Fred blinked. George was surprised too. Ron might be their stupid kid brother, but he was still a trained Auror. And Harry! Disarmed by a couple of teens - which they would be given how many years had passed since they had last seen Hermione.

"They are ti - " Harry found himself unable to speak, and soon realized he was under some kind of secrecy charm. This wasn't unusual in his line of work, so he ignored it and ploughed on. "Jane gave Ron Veritaserum. She said it was, maybe she lied. Said I owed it to Hermione to hear her side of the story. That's true, you know."

He looked up to see if they were upset at him for his lack of faith in their little brother. They weren't. He realized they had probably forced Ron to drink far more harmful stuff. Then again, they didn't know much harm his next words would bring to Clan Weasley.

"Ron said Hermione was under a Lust Potion too. And that he knew who gave it to her. He said it was Mum."

There was a crack. When he looked up, Harry saw only Fred in the room.

"He also said that Ginny and Ron knew. And that Gin gave me a Love Potion."

The look on Fred's face was not encouraging, and Harry Apparated out with a loud crack.

Like most Felician pubs, the atmosphere inside The Stunned Herring was smoke-free. Beings with a fine sense of smell did not like to spend time in a place that smelled like cat's piss or rancid smoke. The owners paid good money for cleansing charms.

There was a jukebox in the corner; some female Slavic-accented singer was crooning a lovelorn ballad, comparing her past men to spilt milk and fishes that got away. Hermione, having grown up in both Felician and Human society, appreciated that humans might find it funny. But phrases like 'not crying over spilt milk' really entered human society from the Felician one.

Not all feline-associated phrases, though. For example, take 'curiosity killed the cat'. That was definitely a human invention. Cats were too smart, too fast, and too prone to letting dogs test new things for them, to get killed by a mere investigation of the unknown. And of course unknowns would be investigated. Felines were allergic to unknowns, and dealt with this by making them cease to be unknowns.

Which explained why Hermione Jane Granger spent so much time in the library.

And why she was currently deep in the investigation of the unknown that was her fifth glass of Guinness. She didn't even notice of they were spiked with catnip or not.

A woman walked into the bar. The music didn't stop, though a few eyes did glance her way to take not of her slightly canine features (indicating that her Felician half was a cheetah) and her long legs. She was wearing, like all Felicians, Muggle clothes. Of a distinctively summer kind. But she wasn't in heat, and everyone's noses caught that. Heads returned to their beers.

The cheetah woman walked up to where Hermione was sitting.

"Greetings, Granger."

"Go cuff yo'self, Alyx," slurred Hermione. "All three of you."

Actually, that wasn't the effect of the alcohol. Felician pubs had as many mirrors as they had scratching posts, which was quite a lot.

"Your boys sent me," said the shorts-clad cheetah, flicking her tail in the barkeeper's direction in a No More Beer Over Here gesture. "They're worried. Said they met the f--ko called their da."

"'Arry's not a fu-fu-that thing."

Alyx shrugged. She'd never met Harry Potter herself, but what she'd heard of his personal life hadn't been positive. Still, he couldn't be that much of a dog if Hermione cared for him. "Will you come quietly, or do I have to drag you out?" On the other hand, Hermione hadn't been this down since Crookshanks had become a bumper sticker on a moving lorry. (Small animals stuck very well on lorry bumpers.)

She considered her options. A cheetah couldn't drag a tiger out physically. And Alyx was one of the ninety five percent of Felicians who were Muggle, so she couldn't Levitate or Portkey Hermione out. She'd have to go with the persuasion thing.

"There's a tub of ice cream in my freezer with your name on it."

Hermione grimaced. Even if her extra-hard stomach could handle five Guinnesses better than a human stomach, it couldn't fit much new stuff.

"I've got three new books for you to read."

Hermione didn't think her eyes could remain in one place long enough to read any words.

"I'll get you a sobering Potion."

Hermione would have stuck her tongue out if she could remember the correct muscle movements. She didn't want to be sober. That would mean facing reality, and who on earth wanted that?

At that precise moment, somewhere elsewhere, a Weasley twin was approaching his little brother with another vial of Veritaserum.

A/N: The picture of Alyx is really Cheetara from the 80s cartoon Thundercats. No, this isnt a crossover. Jane's pic was made with Free Morphing 2.1.6. I've not forgotten about Wrath, but it is on hold. And those of you who don't mind Hermionecentric fics with Harry bashing can read my Betrayed!Hermione fic I'd rather be a Mudblood than a Mudbrain on GrangerEnchanted. It's 15 000 words and complete. Reviews would be nice for both this chapter and that story.