Troy's sad smile.

Helena opened her eyes, but instead of a horrible ogre the only thing looking back at her was Troy. That sweet, freckled love of her life was holding Helena to his chest, and it took her breath away.

Troy gave Helena a sad smile. "You'll never leave me, will you Molly?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Helena tried to exclaim, but all that came out was a pitiful meow.

"I should have seen it coming, I suppose." Troy continued. "Stacy's family never thought I was good enough for her. She said she didn't care what they thought, even though I could tell that it was affecting her. But to dump me just like that the moment they arrange for her to be married to a noble?"

Helena's heart skipped a beat. Stacy had dumped Troy? And here Helena was, resting against his chest as he stroked her back. It was almost enough for her to get over the fact that she was in a fucking cat, but only almost. Maybe that spell had been forbidden for a reason. What good is a possession spell that can trap its caster in a random animal?

But this wasn't a random animal, Helena reminded herself. It was Troy's familiar Molly. And if there was one thing you could say about Helena, it's that she was adaptable. So she would adapt. Maybe this body wouldn't let her make love to Troy like she had dreamed about, but she would be with him forever. She was bound to him, as all familiars are bound to their masters.

Smiling to herself, Helena closed her eyes and began to purr as Troy's heartbeat and the sensation of his hand stroking her back washed over her.

Over the following days, Helena was determined to be the best familiar she could be. She used her mouth to fetch ingredients for her master, she carried notes back and forth between his friends, and she was there to cheer him up and get some TLC in whenever he could use it.

But Helena wasn't the only one trying to comfort Troy. Once word of the breakup got out, a number of young witches saw their chance to get close to the pretty boy. A part of Helena wanted to keep those witches at bay, to fight with tooth and claw to keep them away from her love. But another part, a new part that had come with the familiar's bond, told her that she couldn't get in Troy's way like that.

She was tearing herself apart over this internal conflict, until she realized that Troy didn't seem receptive to these advances. He always acted friendly, but he ended their conversations quickly and began to avoid the areas these girls frequented. If her master didn't want to talk to them it was a familiar's duty to make it so, Helena told herself. She would hiss at any witch that tried to flirt with Troy, and even bit one in the ankle when she proved too persistent.

Of course Troy noticed that his cat was acting strangely. He would give her puzzled looks whenever she acted out like this, and amused chuckles when she insisted on jumping into his lap for more pats. What really baffled him was that she wouldn't touch the pile of blankets Molly usually slept in. Helena refused to sleep anywhere but on Troy's bed, usually nuzzled into his side or on his chest like she had been on that first day.

But Molly's behavior wasn't the only thing that had changed since the possession. Without even noticing it, she had started growing. When Helena had first entered this body her head had barely reached Troy's knee, but now it was level with his lower thigh. At the same time, her snout was getting shorter and her teeth blunter. Helena's spirit was asserting itself, bending its host into a shape that suited it better. Even her paws were getting longer, each toe stretching just a little bit as Helena's hands began to reassert themselves.

Troy noticed those changes too, but couldn't make sense of them. No magical affliction he knew of would cause this, and his transfiguration teacher couldn't detect any magic on her either. Any traces of the possession spell had long since worn off, and a human spirit is not detectably different from that of a cat if you don't know what to look for. The healers couldn't find anything either. While these changes were worrying, she did not appear to be sick or in pain. So all they could tell Troy was to keep an eye on his familiar and let them know if anything changed.

But the really significant changes didn't start until two weeks later, and days away from the school. Troy was researching frost nymphs for his end-of-grade assignment, and dissatisfied with the existing literature he had ventured out into the misty forest to make his own observations in the wild. All he had brought with him was a magically enlarged tent, his gear, and of course his black cat.