I'm not a kitten... Okay, I'm Kitten

Chapter 18

The surprised/confused/outraged murmurs stopped. The silence that had wrapped its way around the student body held firm.

Wait, why were they staring at him? Why did they go quiet?

Seeming to snap out of the spell, Charles Bastien walked down the aisle between the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables.

The whispers slowly began to pick up, but the low volume almost made it sound like buzzing bees in the background.

Charles finally made it to the end of the aisle and faced Koty, dropping to one knee. "My lord," he said, tipping his head respectfully.

The student and staff alike all gasped as one.

Koty's eyes widened as he looked around for someone to... to do something. Why was Charles kneeling for him?! He looked to his Head of House for an answer, who simply nodded once and subtly moved his hand upward. What did that mean?!

"Um, Charles?" Koty began shyly. He felt so dumb! Of course! "You can... stand up..."

"Yes, my lord," he said reverently, dipping his head one final time before standing. "If I may, my lord?"

Still feeling like an idiot, Koty gave a nod.

"We should arrange a meeting between ourselves, and in your own case, my lord, your mate and guardians." He kept his gaze on the floor, refusing to meet the eyes of his lord.

"Sure?" Koty said hesitantly. What in Merlin's name is going on? Why was he being called a lord? It just didn't make any sense!

"With my lord's permission, I will write to your guardians."

"Alright," he said, biting his lip. "I think I will as well." And he definitely had to talk to Sev- Professor Snape. Where did that come from?

Without knowing what else to do, he took his seat, hoping against all common sense that no one was staring at him. Glancing up from the tabletop, he noted that every eye, aside from Charles', was on him. Charles was backing away with his eyes downcast.

"Return to your meals!" Professor McGonagall called out, shaking her head minutely.

Eventually, the chatter resumed and everyone stopped staring so blatantly, though he did see at least four or five at a time pretending to be sneaky about it. Thank Merlin for small favors.

Draco moved to the opposite side of the table, directly across from Koty. "You're a lord now?"

"I don't know!" He whispered vehemently. "Do you have any idea what just happened?"

"Not really," Draco replied just as quietly. "But Severus wants to talk to you later."

Peeking up at the Head table, Severus was sipping his coffee, occasionally speaking to Professor Flitwick.

"How can you tell?"

"We have a signal," Draco said simply, reaching for the pumpkin juice.

Letting it go, Koty turned back to his own breakfast. He needed to write that letter.

It took three days of confused correspondence between Koty, his parents and Charles to set up the meeting. According to his last letter, Koty's dad had spoken with Bastien Liegalos (as he was Charles' uncle and closest living relative) and invited him along. After a lot of discussion, Professor Snape and Lucius agreed that Koty didn't have to introduce his mate to the Liegalos family.

Koty had learned that in efforts to hide his heritage, Charles had actually changed his last name from Liegalos to Bastien to attend school in relative anonymity. It had been his idea to use his uncle's first name as his last name, as the pair were incredibly close.