Regina and the Invisibles

Disclaimer in first chapter.

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Dawn coughed violently, she hated this. She would always hate this. In fact she would probably rate Buffy's driving above Floo-Travel.

Long fingers caressed her nape comfortingly, "I'll keep you in my cloak next time, eh?"

A baleful glare was the only response to Draco's flip comment. Twisting, she writhed out of his grasp and climbed up his arm to drape herself across his shoulder, making sure to hook her kittenish claws in with each step.

"Alright, alright! Damn Kneazle," the blonde muttered. He received more than one odd glance for talking to a pet, though most found something less interesting to occupy their eyes once they saw who it was that was doing the speaking. Floo-Travelers were common at this time of year, Draco vacated the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron quickly. Not that he enjoyed the establishment, quite the opposite in fact. But it was a useful entrance when he didn't want to make too much of a fuss.

Diagon Alley was at its most prosperous in this, the first week of August. Muggle-borns stared with unabashed wonder at the magical world that they'd only just discovered, while pure-bloods enjoyed the time with friends that they'd not seen in weeks. Talk of the war was everywhere though, and it threw a dark pallor over what should have been a joyful time.

Draco ignored it all, he had but one destination on this street: Eeylop's Owl Emporium. Finding Regina had been a stroke of miraculous good fortune, but that didn't mean he wouldn't need a new owl to replace Orion. The proud eagle-owl had been lamed by a rather aggressive attack from the Whomping Willow. He was no longer up to long flights, and would be spending the rest of his days breeding up future generations.

The shop was dark and musty-smelling, Dawn liked it immediately, and not just because of all the feathers there were to play with. She watched as her Wizard scanned the perches, he was obviously looking for something in particular. Suddenly he halted his search and glanced at her, a speculative look on his face.

"What do you think, Reg?"

Dawn nipped at his ear, Don't call me Reg!

He yelped and fingered the sore lobe, favoring her with a glare before repeating his query.

She scanned the shop looking at all the birds. There were large owls and small owls and owls that didn't look like any nocturnal bird SHE'D ever seen before. Flicking back and forth over the selection, suddenly her eyes caught and held on a rather indistinct bird towards the back.

Dawn leaped down from Draco's shoulder and made another rather spectacular jump to land on a perch not too far from the bird she'd spotted.

"What do we have here?" The silver-eyed teen held out a hand for the owl to inspect; it hooted softly and stepped onto his wrist with a dainty air. The bird regarded him with cool, disinterested golden eyes before turning it's head to favor Dawn with an acknowledging coo of approval.

Despite the soothing/happy/delight feelings he was receiving from his Familiar, Draco regarded the dust-colored bird somewhat dubiously.

"That bird… has not allowed anyone to hold him since he first arrived," the shopkeeper said, obviously startled when Draco came to the front to make his purchase.

The owl in question snapped his beak out and let it click ominously at the man, causing the shopkeeper to regard him warily.

The Kneazle merely watched with amused blue eyes.

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After ensuring that his new familiar would be delivered to Malfoy Manor post-haste, Draco and Dawn began to make their way towards their real destination.

Dawn enjoyed her position; wrapped around her Wizard's collar she looked like nothing more than a decorative puff of fur. She purred ferociously into his ear, causing him to laugh: a mellow sound that instantly made her redouble her rumbling efforts.

Borgin and Burkes was a rather… shadier place than Eeylop's. As such it was found down another alley entirely: Knockturn Alley gave the former Key the wiggins.

Everyone she saw had the same purple glow: untrustworthy. She shivered and mewled her displeasure.

"Just coming to get a few books, Regina, we'll be back home in no time at all."

Her feelings of unease were trebled when she heard someone following behind them, being unable to talk had some serious downsides. The teen mentally added a workable tongue and vocal chords to opposable thumbs under her internal list of Body Parts I Didn't Appreciate Till They Were Gone.

Draco's purchases were hurried and he used Borgin's Floo. His Familiar's unease had put him in a similarly wary state of mind. His father might be imprisoned, but not all of Voldemort's supporters were. And the likelihood of running into one of his father's old 'friends' increased with every moment spent on the street.

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I swear, this guy studies more than Willow and Giles combined! Dawn moaned, her tale lashing in frustration. Every day she spent in this form made it more and more natural to her.

Although she didn't think she'd ever get used to tongue-baths. Or hairballs. Blech!

Draco was crouched over yet another old, dusty book. Not that Dawn had anything against old, dusty books, in fact she rather liked them. They tasted like learning and smelled like exotic spices, but they were dang dull when you couldn't understand what was written in them!

Dawn was a mistress of languages like Latin, Sumerian, and French, but the concepts in some of these tomes made Willow's old Magic Books look like finger paints to their Van Gogh's!

Magical theory had never been one of Dawn's strong points, not even when Willow was lucid enough to teach her. Knowing the WHY had never been as important to her as knowing WHAT the result was.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, Dawn thought morosely. Her Wizard had been trying to 'fix' their connection for the past week now and she was fed up! If he didn't do something other than study soon she was going to -

"Master Draco? You is having guests!" The trembling, squeaky voice of Ziggy the House Elf came from just beyond the table. Dawn perked up noticeably at the appearance of the small green critter. Even if these 'guests' proved to be dull as drying paint, maybe she could play a quick round of chase-the-elf before Draco noticed, just to bring some excitement into her day.

Her teeth glimmered in the kneazle-equivalent of a grin, I guess I won't have to do something drastic after all!

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