(Don't kill me don't kill me don't kill me please have mercy, I needed a bad
guy! And he's cool as a evil dude!)

James looked nervous, and shoved them behind him, not a good sign. Harry
looked about and saw no sign of Hermoine, and he began to wonder.

"H... hello?" James stuttered. "Who i...is it? Munk... kustrap?" He ventured. There was a snort and tall brawny white and black spotted tom appeared from a pile of trash, causing James to relax with an easy grin on his face. The tom smiled back. "Hey Alonzo." James said.

"How's it goin James?" he looked behind him and looked directly into Harry
and Ron's eyes with his brownish hazel ones. He bit his lip. "Friends of
yours?" James nodded. "Ooohh... well you'd better tell Munkus, I don't know
how he'll react..." He muttered then became aware of that his audience would
be the ones effected. "But he'll be suprised!" He grinned before disappearing into the junk again. This set neither of the three boys at ease.

"Munkus isn't th...that b...bad, h... he tr... trusts me." James said gathering up some confidence. "But we should wait for Hermoine, you know." He said softly. Harry and Ron nodded.

Then they heard the familar giggle and with a loud pop about the size of a small firework, Hermoine appeared inbetween Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer. 

"Okay 'ere ya go Quax, one lil witchy by da name of He'moine." Mungojerrie said, presenting Hermoine, dressed in a casual pair of loose jeans, sneakers and longsleeved shirt. Hermoine joined the three of them, a look of anxious anticipation (for learning about a new culture, what else?) gleaming in her eyes. James grinned nervously.

"Thanks, well we'd better get going..." He said softly.

"Ya mean ta tell Munky 'bout da guests? A'ready knows, tol' 'im meself." Rumpelteazer said with a grin, staring at James. James looked slightly relieved. "'e still wan's to talk to ya, but afta the ball." She said, her grin falling a bit.

"Thanks Rumpel." He said with true appreciation.

"Twern't nuffin. Come on Mungo, we gots to ge' ready!" She said impatiently,
before dragging Mungojerrie off into the distance.

"Come on, let's get you guys some seats, so you can see what's going on before joining." Quaxo said cheerfully, before leading them off in a seperate direction. They arrived at a large clearing, lights strung everywhere, they gazed in awe before James seated them in an open trunk of a car, which was full of cushions, and just their size, as if it had been enlarged.

"Quaxo!" A deep voice snapped. James stood stalk straight.

"Y... ye... yes Munkustrap?" He said, turning around. Out of thin air appeared a towering gray tabby cat tom, with piercing green eyes that stared at the four coldly.

"You have been informed that you and I will be having a discussion immediately after the ball?" He barked, and James nodded obediently. "Good." He looked up to Harry, Hermoine and Ron. "You three will not be allowed to dance."

"B... but Munkus... strap!" James cried. "T...tha... that's the... the biggest p... p... part of the ball!" He pleaded. Munkustrap snarled.

"Then you'll have to sit it out with them, won't you Quaxo?" He hissed before turning on his heel and walking off. James dropped his head and sighed. Hermoine was fuming, along with Harry and Ron.

"Why of all the..." Hermoine said gritting her teeth. "That wasn't at all fair. How does he know that you didn't teach us the steps?" She hissed.

"Yeah... and how hard could it be to understand a story anyway?" Ron snarled, and Harry nodded in agreement.

"I was planning to stay with you guys anyway, you're are going to need a little help understanding the meaning of all this anyway." He said with a grin, sitting down beside them. Harry again didn't feel that it was the whole truth, but still made no comment. "Well, my people are called Jellicles." James started.

"So that's why you reacted that way when we thought the Jellicles were pointless!" Hermoine gasped. James giggled and bobbed his head.

"Yeah, well, the Jellicles are a very important group of people, you might say. You see, everyone has a special thing they've got to take care of. Like Mungo and Rumpel, or as you should address them Pearl and Rusty until they pull you into their confidence, steal various small objects and dinners. Muggles and Magic folk alike. Other examples would be Jellylorum, who you'll meet later on, who is the keeper of memory, she whispers things that you forget into your ear so you remember them."

"She should visit Neville more often." Ron snickered.

"Yeah, but she specializes housewives. There's Jennyanydots, who controls the household cockroaches and mice, putting them in stratigic places, and teaching them to do useful things..." James continued, but then a tall, thin white cat flounced up, wearing a sparkling pink shirt covered in small glittering beads, and a pair pink of short shorts, she sneered at them.

"Hello, James." She sniffed. "You always were a human lover. Doesn't get you anywhere does it? I got the solo dance, and you are barely mentioned at all." She said with puffed up pride. "And those clothes are so five years ago, and your friends aren't much better. I mean even your broth..." She snickered, before James cut her off. She reminded Harry of a more clothing oriented Malfoy.

"Victoria, go the heck away, or do you want to be green permenantly?" James hissed. Victoria looked absolutely in a rage.

"You listen here, if you so much as touch me, I'll tell your friends your little secret. And then I know what happens..." She said trailing off. James had gone extremely pale, and he was white already. Victoria smirked before skipping off. James cleared his throat and shook his head, his colour slowly returning.

"Well, what a little snot, I would turn her green myself. But my wand would probably backfire." Ron sighed. Harry and Hermoine nodded in agreement. 

"Don't, trust me, Munkustrap won't like it at all, she's his daughter, and then we'll be in a whole lot of trouble." James said hastily.

"What did she mean that she got the solo, and that you're hardly mentioned at all?" Harry asked. James grinned, glad for the change of subject.

"Occasionally we let in a Muggle or two that we deem has enough creativity that we make them honarary Jellicles, because they resemble us in spirit.There's only been two that I've known of. T.S. Eliot, and Andrew Llyod Webber. Andrew based his musical on T.S. Eliot's book about us, and so Munkustrap let him into our world so he could see what the ACTUAL Jellicle ball was like. I was very little then, only about four. You see I was named after one of my father's relatives which was around when the leader then showed T.S. Eliot our world, as was everybody else, so everyone here is mentioned, except for a few, like Etcetera and Victoria. But back to the point. I was four and Victoria was about six. Webber chose her as a dance soloist, which is normally filled in by a male dancer, but he wanted a female so he chose her. I don't know bloody why though, she always screamed and threw a fit when he came near, I guess it's that white fur thing. Any way, I grew to like Webber, and I was anxious to learn about the world outside of the junkyard."

"I know that production! It's CATS isn't it? I saw that!" Hermoine said. "So this is where they got it all." She looked about in wonder. "Rather good musical." Ron and Harry shrugged. Ron had never seen any Muggle things, living in the wizard world, and Harry wasn't allowed to. "But it started in 1982, and if you were four when you met him, then you'd have to be born in 1978, how old are you, really?" She asked. Harry caught on. James was 21, but he looked only 14.

"Time passes slower here, sometimes faster, sometimes at the same rate as yours. Depends on the moon and other things. If it's full then it lasts the exact same time as a human day. I am fourteen, but to you it's been twenty-one years." James said without much explanation. "So what do you do for the jolly lot?" Ron asked. James fiddled with his tail.

"I haven't got one. They sent me to Hogwarts to get me out of their hair." He muttered. "Any way, we normally celebrate outstanding achievements through song and dance, even though it seems to be the same people always. In a way it's become more and more like Webber's production. Of course the people that they present are rather good, there's Jenny, there's Tugger, who makes the cats caterwaul at night, Bustopher, who is like a chef's taste tester, Gus the actor's guardian, and that's about it. Then they have the opening which explains the Jellicle cat, the actually ball where everyone chooses a girlfriend or boyfriend to court, and then there's the Addressing
of Cats, which is basically saying that we should treat others on an equal level, although most people treat it like a load of bull." James said, ending with disgust, obviously disapproving of such hypocriasy. "Also there's two warning songs that teach the younger generation of dangerous outcasts. One is Grizabella, she was a rebel and is said to of worked in jobs of ill-repute..."

"But she goes to the Heaviside in the musical!" Hermoine objected.

"Yes, well it makes a jolly fine musical if they end without a resolvement of the issue, doesn't it? He took some artistic license with that. Then there's Macavity, who despite the musical, has never made off with Deuteronomy, Webber uses a lot of artistic license." James said, before shaking himself. "You should get most of this now." He said, before stretching out his arms and looking out to the setting sun.

"But what about Mistoffelees?" Hermoine asked. Harry rolled his eyes, it figured that Hermoine would study anything she ever was interested in, to the very air that was being breathed. James seemed to have not have heard the question.

"The ball should begin here in a half hour."

"What about Mistoffelees?" Hermoine persisted. James turned.

"He's gone on a tour, something about a magical cats counsel, of course that was a few years back, and he still hasn't come back." James said glumly. Then suddenly everything went dark. "It's okay, this is what supposed to happen." Then music began to play. "That's from Etcetera, she always provides the music, she's rather good at composing. She's a couple years older than Victoria, and she helped Andrew Lloyd Webber with the music. She's smarter than she appears." James whispered. Cats' eyes began to appear everywhere, until dim lights flashed on.

They watched in amazement as cats of all different sizes and colours appeared everywhere. The opener was spectactular, except for the part where Jennyanydots hit a high 'C' causing the four to cringe in pain. But it was fun to watch any way, but it was hard to concentrate on fourty cats at once. So they watched the blurs of colours instead.

Next they came to an eerie song about the name principal, which James had explained vaguely. Some of the faces were quite frightening as they spoke, especially the one brown one that James called Cassandra (Who's second name was Nefret, Goddess of the Underworld in Egypt), who kept on showing her pearly sharp teeth at them. James explained that she was always like that. Then came the dreaded moment where Victoria did her solo. They couldn't say that she was awful (despite how much they wished it was true), she was extremely good, but they reasoned her personality sucked so they could hate her for that instead.

The next was Jennyanydots song, which was quite amusing and somewhat revealing. (Now you know why cockroaches always seem to appear in the most private of places, like bathrooms, while you're on the john. It's Jenny's doing.) Of course everyone dressed in plastic bags decorated to look like cockroaches and did an exciting tap dance. (Eat your heart out Riverdance.) The four found themselves clapping along with the beat and watched the fantastic colors glow in the artificial light.

Then the music changed to that of an electric guitar, and a tall tom with a large mane appeared. Ron giggled and poked Harry before pointing to Hermoine, who's jaw was hanging loose. The Tugger ended up being quite a playboy, and they found that the small shrieking one was Etcetera, musical genious, and James had been right that she didn't look it. They figured out that the Tugger was the reason that all the cats caterwaul at night looking for lovers, they were trying to find him or be him, depending on your gender. Tugger continued to dance around, causing almost every queen to drool, except for Jenny, Demeter who took care of catnip plants, and
Jellylorum, a young adult who simply didn't look at him. All of the males, including a orange one, whom James explained was Skimbleshanks, guardian of Railway trains, who had to be restrained, looked intensely jealous. Except for James, who simply looked like he didn't care.

Then Tugger pointed to a corner and Etcetera squealed, dashed off, there was a moment of silence, before a dark heavy music began to play. Out of the corner appeared a hagard old queen, her coat tattered and torn, and looking as if she certainly had lived a hard life. Her green eyes looked about anxiously, before becoming downcast. Harry squinted to get a better look at her, but it was too late. She sang desperately about what she'd been through, but Munkustrap had pushed her away. Demeter and Bombalurina (The nuturer of imagination) sang about the sins she'd committed, calling her, 'Grizabella the Glamour Cat'. Munkustrap turned and whispered something in her ear as she left and she gave a sad smile before stumbling off.

Next was Bustopher Jones, a taste tester to be sure, if his gut was to be any sign. Harry reckoned that Bustopher was twice as big as Dudley, and a very large cat, and he began to imagine them sumo wrestling, but shook his head and refocussed on the song. Apparently the Jellicles encouraged that one be wealthy and in lots of power. Only Bombalurina seemed disgusted by the display, but Munkustrap shot her a nasty glare and she covered her looks.

Then the lights crackled and Demeter screeched, "Macavity!" Instinctively all four squished in tighter inside the trunk. Eventually Munkustrap had cleared the area and left himself. The music was changed roughly, not with the ease of Etcetera, to a more bouncy one. Then they heard the tell tale giggle of Rumpelteazer/Pearl, and they all relaxed. The duo bounded out with their bags and sang of their deeds and what they had done, along with performing amazing acrobatic feats, like grabbing each other and cartwheeling around, jumping over each other, and Pearl even jumped from
swing and Rusty had caught her. Harry noticed that all the songs were sung with the people's second names, instead of their first. The rest of the tribe entered and scolded the fun loving duo by throwing their loot bags off into the distance.

Then a great old hairy gray cat entered, and immediately was hugged by almost every kitten there. James explained that this was Old Deuteronomy, the wise elder. Everyone sang joyusly about Deuteronomy, although Harry didn't really see why he was wise. Then James said that the ball was about to begin as everyone except Munkustrap and Deuteronomy cleared the floor. Deuteronomy raised his arms in the air and began to call the Jellicles out. Victoria and Jemima (whom was the voice you heard singing in the wind) came out and explained the markings of a Jellicle. Harry was perplexed by the black and white ruling, but James explained that all you had to have was one of the listed things, and like Skimble was cheerful and bright, Cassandra had moonlit eyes, and they were all rather small., except Munkustrap, Alonzo and Tugger, but Alonzo was black and white and had bright black eyes, Tugger was pleasant to hear when he caterwauled and Munkustrap could jump like a
jumping jack, so that made up for it. Then the dancing got more and more seductive and Queens were pairing off with males, then all rejoined the group. Then they paired off again, leaving Victoria alone. Harry, Hermoine, James, and Ron politely did not watch the other couples, for they were doing very private things in a very public place. They couldn't stand to watch Victoria, so they focused on a dark corner instead.

Then, Grizabella re-appeared, a more determined look on her face, as if she wanted something. Everyone parted and glared at her. A couple of the kittens Jemima and Electra (spirit of feminism in young girls' hearts.) but Jellylorum and Jennyanydots yanked them back, hissing and snarling at Grizabella as they emptied out the proper, leaving only Deuteronomy to glare hatefully at her. Grizabella straightened and began to sing. Her song was so sad, although confusing, even though it lasted for a short while. The weirdest part of the song was the last bit:

"Memory, turn your face to the moonlight,
I can remember the old days,
I was beautiful then,
I remember the time I knew what happiness was,
Let the memory live again."

She sang sorrowfully, before stumbling off. Harry cocked his head in thought, Grizabella was plainly not singing about herself alone, she was trying to tell someone something. Moonlight was the sign of truth, because of it's pure color, so she meant someone to turn their memory to the truth. The old days would be the past, and 'I was beautiful then,' meant that she must have looked much different before. 'I remember the time I knew what happiness was,' maybe she'd lost someone important, someone she loved very much, and then 'Let the memory live again' could only mean that she wanted that someone to come back to her. Before he could contemplate more, the rest of the jellicles re-entered.

Deuteronomy sang about happiness, which nobody seemed to understand. Then Jemima stood and began to sing, teh exact same melody as Grizabella's song.

"Moonlight turn your face to moonlight,
Let your memory lead you,
Open up enter in,
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is,
Then a new life will begin."

She sang sweetly, and Harry quickly translated it, based on Grizabella's.

"Truth, turn your face to the truth,
Let your memory lead you,
Confess your sins and enter in,
If you find out what forgiveness is,
Then a new life will begin"

It might not have been as stunning as Jemima's version, but it had the same meaning, Harry thought.

Gus came on and was actually quite a sad person indeed, he was very old, and very lost in the past, and everyobody treated him like he was a drunk whenever he got enthused about something. Jellylorum had scolded him gently about his drinking habits, only to try to get him to focus on it when Gus started to become saddened. The Jellicles definately had odd rules. As he trodded off stage with the support of Jellylorum, everyone was feeling a little depressed.

Deuteronomy climbed down from his tire and immediately began Skimbleshanks, everybody perked up and began to sing about the perky railway cat. Of course after they woke him up. They danced about, and some of the kittens pretended to be station master's daughters primping their hair. They jumped about in a line with Skimble and formed a magnificent train out of junk lying around. Then there was a loud crash, everyone froze and looked up.

What they saw was a tall hairy orange tabby with hard silver eyes. He growled and everyone screamed and dashed off to fight him. But Macavity, if Harry was correct was having none of it and kept heading towards Deuteronomy, who was unprotected since everyone was trying to fight Macavity. Soon rats entered the scene and began to attack the Jellicles, leaving Macavity free to get Deuteronomy. Harry now did not feel so sure in James' opinion of Macavity. However, James was gone. Harry looked out to the yard to see James dashing towards Deuteronomy and stepping inbetween him and Macavity. Macavity stopped dead and stared at James, and something changed. Macavity backed off, his rats following. James disappeared back to their
seats as everyone began to crowd around Deuteronomy, paying not attention to
his savior. Harry was about to say something about that, when Jemima stood
again, and began to sing.

"Daylight, see the dew on a sunflower,
And a rose that is fading,
Roses wither away,
Like the sunflower I yearn to turn my face to the sun,
I am waiting for the day."

Harry thought that was a bunch of pretty words, which it was, and didn't bother trying to decipher it. Munkustrap started singing about the choice to go to the Heaviside, which Harry figured was heaven to these people, when Grizabella entered. Immediately everyone turned away. Grizabella searched the proper again, and found nothing.

"Memory, turn your face to the moonlight,
Let your memory lead you,
Open up, enter in,
If you find there, the meaning of what happiness is,
Then a new day will begin,

Memory, all alone in the moonlight,
I can smile at the old days,
I was beautiful then,
I remember the time I knew what happiness was,
Let the memory live again.

Burnt out ends of smokey days,
The stale cold smell of morning,
A street lamp dies,
Another night is over,
Another day is dawning.

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise,
I must think of a new life,
And I mustn't give in,
When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too,
And a new day will begin."

Harry watched as Grizabella collapsed into a fit of tears. The first two bits were the previous ones. He couldn't figure out the third one, but it sounded like she was talking about a heated past, and the morning or the forgiveness brought in a new day could restore things as they were, time before day was dying, and yet forgiveness was not given, and yet another day of forgiveness was dawning. The fourth talked about how she was waiting to be forgiven, and talking about what new life she would live if she were forgiven, that this night would be another part of her soul, and maybe he
thought that she meant that she had forgiven their sins already. The question was what was the sin. Jemima stood. 

"Sunlight through the trees in summer,
Endless masquerading,
Like a flower as the dawn is breaking,
The memory is fading."

Grizabella joined in on the last line. Sunlight in summer might represent youth, and the masquerading meant someone was hiding or being hidden, and that Grizabella was going to forget past. Grizabella began to sing solo again.

"Touch Me! It's so easy to leave me!
All alone with the memory,
Of my days in the sun,
If you touch me,
Then you'll find out what happiness is,
And a new day will begin."

Nobody reached for her, and nobody touched her. Although it looked as if James might, if Munkustrap wasn't boring hateful glances their way. Harry sighed as Grizabella disappeared into the night. She must have meant that if they'd just make contact with her, instead of leaving her alone in bitterness from her enforced deprivation from happiness. If they contacted her, then they'd find out that she did forgive them, and they could start a new day. Harry lost interest in the Jellicles from that point forward. He never thought he'd met a people more stuck up and unforgiving than them. Of course he knew it wasn't James' fault that they were like that, in fact probably it wasn't the fault of most that it was that way, but somebody with their nose stuck in the air that had power. As soon as it was over the three stood, yawned and stretched. James sighed and shook his head.
Chapter 9