Draco was lying face down on Harry's bed flipping through a magazine full of Quidditch tactics he had brought over to share with Harry.

"Well I can't very well if you're looking through Quidditch monthly can I?"

Rolling his eyes, Draco tossed the book onto the floor and rolled onto his back to stare at the strange poster on the ceiling.

"Ok, go," Draco said, trying to imagine the strange Muggle game as he stared at the poster of the man with the large stick.

"There are two teams. One team stands in the field in different spots and some try to catch the ball and one man, the pitcher, stands in the middle and throws it towards the batter from the other team. The batter tries to hit it with the bat and run around the bases before the other team can catch it and tag him with it to get him out."

"And the point is?" Draco drawled.

Harry stuck his tongue out at him. "The point is you're hopeless. Even my dad watches baseball."

"No way, not Uncle Sev," Draco said confidently. "He's didn't grow up Muggle like you. He doesn't even have one of those picture boxes the Muggles are all addicted to."

"No but his mum was a Muggle and she took him to see baseball games."

Draco frowned. "But it sounds so boring. Look, they're so afraid they wear helmets!" He pointed at another poster Harry had just hung on the wall by the window Draco had constantly broken.

"That's so they don't get smashed in the head with the ball. It's hard like a rock and they throw it really fast, like a small Bludger coming at you trying to break open your skull."

A throat cleared behind them, and the two boys turned to see Severus standing in the doorframe with a small box in hand.

"This sounds like an unusual conversation," he commented, and Harry shrugged.

"I was explaining why they wear helmets when they go up to bat."

"Ah."

Too curious for his own good, Draco pointed and said, "Are you going to show us what's in the box?"

"Only if you determine yourselves not to scream like small children." This of course roused Harry and Draco's curiosity and they hurried over to where Severus was standing.

"I have a birthday present for you Harry. I know it's a day early, but it arrived in the mail a little early and I did not want it to escape."

"Escape?"

"Here."

Harry took the box and opened it to find a small, curious looking kitten with big round eyes, and soft fluffy brown and white fur.

"Wow, a kitten?" Harry asked, pulling it out of the box.

Draco snorted then and said, "Oh yeah, real scary uncle Sev. Bet we'll be having nightmares about this one." He looked at the kitten and then gave Harry a playful punch in the arm. Suddenly Harry dropped the creature and he and Draco jumped back because the animal had sprouted wings, turned inky red, and grown three inch long fangs and a set of scales.

"Aaagh!"

The little monster ran around the room in circles, frantic, before taking refuge behind Severus leg. It was still small enough to hold in one hand, but something with fangs that long was still a little disconcerting.

"What is that thing?" Draco asked, picking himself up off the floor.

Severus chuckled and said, "It's a changeling."

"A what?"

"Like one of the chamelion dragons you catch in the stream, it can change at will with the exception that it does not change to blend with the scenery, but with the owners mood."

Draco eyed Harry and asked, "What kind of monster is in there to turn a kitten into that?"

"I would suggest a playfully destructive one. When you punched him in the arm he probably had the urge to do the same in return, so the creature turned into something a little more destructive."

"So," Harry asked tentatively, stooping down to pick up the little monster, "will it change into anything I want?"

Severus looked thoughtful, and said, "It does have a mind of it's own. Sometimes it may refuse to change, as they can be known to be quite stubborn, especially if their owner is."

Harry held it up to Draco to see, but he wasn't willing to stick his fingers that close to the fangs.

"How about red and gold?" Harry asked it, and in an instant it shed it's scales and had long fluffy red and gold patched fur, similar to the checker rug they were standing on.

"Wow," Harry said, "It's great! Thanks!" he moved forward to give Severus a hug, and the creature changed back into a kitten again, keeping it's red and gold color.

Harry pet the animal for a moment before he paused, and asked, "When we get back to school, how will I know that it's mine if it keeps changing into other animals?"

"Because you are its owner and it will find you when you want it to," Severus replied.

"Just like that?"

"All you have to do is will it to you and it will come."

Harry grinned and handed it off to Draco, who ran out of the room with the changeling without a word.

Harry squeezed his eyes shut, and they heard a shout from Draco in the hall followed by laughter as the animal came charging back into the room and up into Harry's arms.

Hedwig watched all of this from the open windowsill with a reproachful eye, and then turned her back on them and went back to sleep.

Draco hurried back in, nursing a shallow scratch on his hand and said, "I've got to have one."

"I had to pay a trapper in Norway to find one in the deep caverns in the mountains. They are very hard to find and therefore very expensive."

Harry felt bad then that his father had spent so much money on him, but received a stern look for his trouble and went back to the kitten.

"I will leave you to your new pet then."

"Wait," Harry said. "What does it eat? Where does it go to the bathroom?"

"It eats whatever you can eat, along with grass and other plants, and it goes to the bathroom wherever you designate it to. I would suggest outside." He walked out of the room and downstairs, and could still hear the laughter of the boys playing with the monster upstairs.

"Ha ha, you can train it to go on the toilet Harry."

"You think?"

"Well if it goes where you tell it."

"And how's it going to flush?"

They watched in amazement as the creature sprouted a wing with little toes on the end like a bat, and used it to pick up a quill that had fallen on the floor.

"It has fingers," Harry said with a grin. "Guess that solves that problem."

"So what's its name? I vote on monster thing from Norway."

"Bit long. What about Sirius?" The monster growled then, and Harry said, "Ok, Remus?" Another growl, and Draco jumped in, "Draconis?" They kept on in this manner until Draco said the name Kenai, and told Harry that it meant bear. The changeling purred, and they laughed.

"Kenai it is then, little monster."

* * *

Kenai insisted on riding on Harry's shoulder, or in his jacket pocket for the next three days. He burrowed a hole through Harry's chocolate cake on his birthday, and learned to use and flush the toilet within two days. He made Harry laugh so much, that Severus wondered at the change in the boy.

Perhaps his changeling abilities wear off on its owner, he mused. He had been pleased to find that the boy had properly decorated his room now, and finally seemed to have an abundance of energy again as young men should have.

Severus was surprised too by the affection and loyalty the boy seemed capable of showing once he came out of his shell and started trusting. It seemed to Severus that the day they sat in the hall, Harry huddled in his arms and clinging to him for dear life, was the day that Harry had been able to let go of past hurts and begin to latch onto the idea of a future... a future with a family.

"Dad."

Severus looked up from the book he hadn't been paying attention to, and spied his son in his new pajamas and new Slytherin socks (courtesy of Draco).

Harry sat down on the couch next to him and leaned in to give him a hug. Despite being quite sure that seventeen-year-old boys did not give their fathers hugs, Harry was also quite sure that he had seventeen years to make up for. "I love you."

Severus sighed, for once in his life truly content. "I love you too son."