Lookin' Good, Feline Good PV M. Avery Closed

If there was one place Max wanted to go more than anywhere else, it was the Forbidden Forest. He wasn't entirely sure if it was a great idea considering the amount of death and darkness that seemed to thrive between the gnarly-looking trees, but there was just something about it that he couldn't quite... No. Actually, he knew exactly what it was that drew his boy's heart to the edge to peer in. It was the word 'Forbidden.' To an adult, forbidden may have meant don't go in, but to a kid it meant 'Look! An exciting, mysterious place that holds secrets you can't even imagine! Check it the bloody hell out!'

So he did. Not actually planning to go in - expulsion wasn't something he wanted in his deck of cards - but just to get that much closer to something he wasn't supposed to get close to. Wandering aimlessly along the tree line, he wondered if something would happen with him just being this close. It would be just his luck for something to grab him and drag him in.

Luckily, that wasn't in the books for today. What was, apparently, was a kitten. Max stopped dead as he saw it toddle out of the bushes, unaware even of the girl for the moment. A kitten. He had many weaknesses - bad temper, lack of knowledge, disinclination for human contact - but the majority of the time he could turn things around if those slipped through. Cats, however... He couldn't help the way his face softened or the boyish smile that played with his mouth whenever he saw one.

He was just planning to watch it and be on his way when the girl near it spoke, alerting him to her presence for the first time. Oh no. No, you couldn't touch a wild kitten if its mother was still alive because the human scent could turn the mother on the kitten. He took a few quick steps, tapping the girl lightly on the shoulder before her hands could touch the sweet little animal. At her scream, he jumped back a bit and immediately watched the kitten in concern, hoping her voice hadn't hurt its ears. "Don't scream like that near a cat," he scolded, though his voice still held a gentleness he couldn't help. The kitten was twitching its nose. "You'll startle it."

Ami blushed in embarrassment, standing up. "Sorry," she mumbled. "You scared me." While the second part could've been perceived as accusatory, Ami's tone of voice plainly presented it as a simple explanation for her scream. She truly did feel bad for scaring the kitten, although it now simply sat on its haunches, staring at the two students with wide eyes.

Speaking of students, Ami turned her head to study the boy who had tapped her shoulder. His robes marked him as a Gryffindor (oof, that was a mixed bag of students), and she was a good 4 or 5 inches taller than him, even with his hair being as fluffy as it was. Sharp, analytical blue eyes (good, he's not an idiot) lined with thick dark lashes that never seemed to blink, and from the crisp fold of his shirt underneath his robes, you could tell that he knew how to dress well. Fantastic- she was with someone of a relatively high IQ. This, she could work with.

"D'you think it's male or female?" Ami asked quietly, crouching down again. "Do you have a laser pointer on you? Maybe we can get it to turn around." Dumb question, but it didn't hurt to try. She felt rather uncomfortable continuing to call the feline an "it", so this was currently of the utmost importance on her to-do list. "Or, we can use lumos," she added on as an afterthought, still studying the small cat. To her, it seemed more domestic than feral- the fact that it had yet to hiss, to bare its teeth, or simply to turn around and walk away. How had it gotten here?

Remaining silent for a moment as he took in her Hufflepuff robes, Max nodded hesitantly at her explanation. He loathed the House she was in to the degree that he went out of his way to avoid people in it, but if his mood grew sour then he thought the kitten might sense it. Any angry words or negative connotations that lead to a conflict just wouldn't be beneficial to the tiny creature. He wasn't exactly sure why he was thinking this through in the same sort of way he'd think a pure-blood interaction through, but there it was.

"I don't know what a laser pointer is," he said in that same soft, gentle voice he reserved singularly for cats. Perhaps it was some sort of muggle device, but he'd never seen one in any of his war movies or read about one in history. Was she a mudblood? Most days he'd try to avoid someone like that, but again, this was kind of a no-conflict zone right now. As neutral as Switzerland. For the next... however long it took... he had to play nice in order to keep the kitten calm.

"Our best bet would be to throw a small pebble or something in the bushes behind it," he mused, now intent on solving the problem. Letting a kitten wander the Forbidden Forest alone wasn't high on his priority list. "Lumos might hurt its eyes." The gender of the kitten may not matter overmuch but he was now as invested in finding out as her, if only so he didn't have to call the little bundle of fur 'it.' "Do you have good aim? Because if you hit the kitten - " He let the words hang in the air, the threat implicit in them, though somewhat muted by the fact that his expression was still starry-eyed.

Ami nodded along to the boy's suggestion of throwing a pebble- of course, that would almost certainly work. In fact, it might work better than a laser pointer, to be perfectly honest. She nearly snorted at his mention of aim, and pointed out, "That adorable little bundle of love is probably no more than half a foot tall, and they're sitting about five feet away from us." There, compromise. Until the two found the gender of the kitten, Ami decided that she'd go with the gender-neutral of 'they'. "I think I can throw that far without hitting them," she continued, the statement accentuated with an eyebrow raise.

Bending down and picking up a small stone, Ami presented the pebble to the kitten, making sure they saw it. The kitten tilted their head to the side, staring at the stone curiously with their wide eyes. What is that? they seemed to ask. Is that for me? Really, Ami couldn't help but smile, and she tossed the pebble over the kitten's head in a soaring lob, the stone landing perfectly in the bushes behind the ball of fluffy adorableness. "Score," Ami said softly to herself, glad she did okay. Embarrassing herself now would certainly be, well, embarrassing.

The kitten turned their head, as planned, and stalked off towards the bushes, their tail high in the air. "Come on, quick," Ami hissed quietly, inching forward to get a better look. "Male, I think," she said quietly, accompanied with a shrug. "I might be wrong, though. Any thoughts?" The kitten was now rummaging around in the bushes, seemingly keenly intent on finding the stone.

Finally giving up on standing, Max came closer and crouched beside the girl to watch the kitten watch them. If curiosity really did kill a cat, this little creature didn't have much hope of living through the afternoon with the way it was behaving. Though touching it would be a bad idea on so many levels, Max also didn't want to just leave it alone if it had no mother to look after it. This was a conundrum for sure, but one he was keen to figure out if only so nothing would happen to something so tiny and innocent.

His eyes widened then narrowed as the Hufflepuff girl threw the pebble, glad to see it didn't hurt the kitten and straining his eyes to try to catch a glimpse under the tail. He was fairly certain she was right - a boy, by the looks of things. A mischievous, fluffy boy who had the softest looking ears ever. If he gave up on logic he'd want to scoop the little guy up immediately and curl him into the crook of his arm, waggling a finger over the creature's small paws. It was almost humiliating, how badly he wanted to give in to that instinct even in front of another person.

"Yeah, male," he agreed, tucking his fingers beneath his arms and rocking on his heels so he wouldn't do anything he might regret. "Now we just need to figure out what to do about the situation. We can't really touch him but we should figure out if his mom is around - a kitten all alone by the Forbidden Forest is terrible. We could draw him out with a piece of fabric or something and see if his mom comes?"

Ami breathed a sigh of relief at Max's confirmation that indeed, the kitten was male, pleased that her initial instinct had been right. Good, so she still remembered things from her time serving in animal shelters. The Gryffindor boy continued on to talk about finding the kitten's mother, and Ami couldn't help but bite her lip in worry. She... she had an idea, something she wanted to say, but she didn't want to tell the boy in case she offended him- that would probably be disastrous. But as the kitten continued to rummage around in the bushes with his tail high in the air, Ami couldn't help but blurt out, "He doesn't have a mom."

Damn, that was the wrong thing to say. Blushing, she continued on hurriedly, added, "Look, he's neutered, and recently, too. The shaved fur around that area, and no presence of testicles, unless I'm blind. I think he might've been someone's pet, and ran off." She didn't want to add her other observations simply of the cat's behavior, but instead left it up to the other student. He seemed bright enough, he'd catch on.

The kitten seemed to lose interest in finding the stone, and spotting the two students again, trotted (did kittens trot?) galvanized back over to the two, tilting his ear. "Look," she added, pointing at the kitten's ear. "It's tattooed, too. Definitely neutered." Then, she supposed, the unasked question hung in the air- now what?

Of course, there was the selfish thing to do, to simply keep the cat. But even then, there was a problem- who would keep it? The boy, or Ami? Both of them seemed to have substantial knowledge of cats, and a substantial love for them, so both of them would certainly want the cat. If they kept it, would they simply share joint custody, like divorced parents? Would he be willing to do so?

However, if she wanted to live up to her Hufflepuff name, the right thing to do would be to find the rightful owner. The question was, was the Gryffindor willing to do that with her?

For the first time since he'd come over to the treeline, Max truly looked at the girl who was in this situation with him. It was a look of almost offense on behalf of the kitten at her statement that he didn't have a mother - everything had a mother, and there was no way he'd accept that the kitten had just been abandoned. Unless she was implying that his mother had been killed by something in the forest, which made him feel rather uncomfortable because the things that lived in the forest weren't gentle creatures from what he'd heard.

He opened his mouth to retort that they should go looking for his mother (Max was fully prepared to stride into the Forbidden Forest to ensure her well-being if he couldn't find her near) when the Hufflepuff continued with the explanation. Neutered? He studied the kitten again, watching the little guy's tail stand straight in the air in excitement when a moth fluttered out of the forest. She was right about a tattoo on the ear... So this was someone's pet. Who the bloody hell would dare let such a sweet animal out near the most dangerous place in the school? If the person looking after the kitten wasn't dead, Max wanted to make them wish they were for not taking proper care of him.

"You're right again," he agreed stiffly, doing everything he could to keep the anger from colouring his tone. People who abandoned their pets were the worst humans on the face of the earth - forget Death Eaters, there should be a law in the Ministry that neglectful cat owners should go to Azkaban. One of his fists curled in frustration as the moth that had come out of the forest started back towards it and the kitten turned as if he would disappear into the trees if no one stopped him. He had no cat parents to look after him, his owner was nowhere to be found, and he was too young to know how dangerous the world was. Max couldn't stand it any longer.

"Hey, buddy," he said, taking a hesitant step that was loud enough to make the kitten turn. "Hey, hey, hey, little guy. Can we help you out?" Turning to the side so that he wasn't approaching the kitten in a manner that could be taken as threatening, he awkwardly shuffled sideways until he was close enough to reach out. Stretching his hand ever so slowly so as not to scare the baby, he held his fingers out to allow the kitten to sniff him before he finally touched it. Soft. He let his index finger trail over the silky fur of the kitten's forehead, curling around its ear so he could give it a gentle scratch. The kitten didn't seem nervous in the slightest, and Max finally turned his entire body around, sitting cross-legged on the ground as he eased the kitten into his lap just to hold it for the moment so it wouldn't be tempted to go back into the forest.

"You're lovely, aren't you?" he laughed as he massaged the little guy's ears with his thumbs, suddenly not the least bit self-conscious with a cat in his lap. "It's okay, we'll take care of you. You're not gonna be alone anymore, buddy. It's okay." His heart was well and truly melting as he felt a rumble resonating throughout the kitten's body, a purr that had Max beaming as he glanced at Ami. "We're looking after him. Or I will by myself if you can't, but he's not going to be alone and if we find the owner then that person is going to beg him for forgiveness on their hands and knees."

There was something almost magical about the effect that the kitten had on Max. His sharp, analytical face softened, and instead of looking 15 or 16, he truly looked like an excited 11-year-old who found a cat. Like she said, magical. Ami couldn’t stop the genuinely sweet smile that sprang upon her face, and she slowly drew closer to the kitten in Max’s hands, sitting down on the grass across from him. It would’ve been an odd sight to see, if you had stumbled upon them- two students, one cooing at a kitten, only about 7 feet away from the treeline of the Forbidden Forest. Spoopy.

His declaration to keep the cat was expected, but not entirely welcome. Not seeking out the proper owner was a little reckless, but Max seemed intent on keeping the feline. “I’m going to take care of him, too,” Ami said quietly, with a frown. “I’m not going to let you have him all to yourself.” Sticking out a finger, she held out her hand for the cat to sniff, and giggled as he licked it instead. 

“This one...” she said slowly, scooching towards Max ever so slightly, while sill respecting personal boundaries, “This one trusts too easily, don’t you think?” She scratched his ears a little, like Max had, and laughed as the kitten purred again. “Ooh, you’re getting a full-body massage there, aren’t you, uh...” 

Ami trailed off as she realized she still didn’t know the boy’s name. He looked familiar, from somewhere and somehow, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe he just had one of those familiar faces that seemed to pop up everywhere... nevertheless, if she was going to be sharing custody of a cat with this kid, they needed to be sure that they could trust each other. “I’m Ami. I guess we’re going to, uh, raise a cat together, then...?”

It wasn't overly shocking to hear that the Hufflepuff girl also wanted to look after the kitten - it was a natural proclivity when something was as small and helpless as the baby to want to protect it. He wasn't happy about it but he had no choice about accepting so as to avoid conflict. Besides, the kitten seemed to like her and he might've trusted someone just a smidge more than usual if an animal also trusted them. His faith in an animal's judgement of character was much greater than his faith in a human's at the very least.

Holding the kitten in a manner so as not to fully restrict its movements, he allowed it to wriggle happily under her ministrations. She was right, of course, that it trusted too easily, but that was why it needed someone to guide it in the right direction. "Max Avery," he answered almost absentmindedly, rubbing behind one of the kitten's ears with a knuckle. It didn't slip past unnoticed that the girl hadn't said her last name, something the majority of pure-bloods were trained to do as soon as they could speak. It wouldn't do for people to know he was 'raising a cat' with this girl, which apparently he was being suckered into doing because he couldn't very well say no and risk a fight that ended with her going to the professors.

Sighing, he gave her his full attention, pressing his lips into a thin, thoughtful line. They couldn't take an animal back into the castle without breaking a few rules and possibly getting it taken away to some bad place. But leaving it this close to the Forbidden Forest? "We need to find a place to keep him, Ami," Max said, wondering if she knew of any hidey holes outside the castle. They were in together now, he supposed - the whole thing from getting food to making sure it was safe to ensuring no one found it - so they'd have to find a secret place to keep it. "Breaking the rules is too risky for him, never-mind us. Do you know any secret places around where he'll be safe?"