~Whiskers~

Disclaimer: Anything recognizable from the Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling

Note: this fanfiction explains the fan theory that Crookshanks is the Potter's old cat.

Chapter 1: The Nicest Man on Earth

The rain glittered as it fell through the soft orange glow shining from the streetlights. The rain was cold and wet, but it was a nice and refreshing compared to the scorching July heat. But then I remembered that I hated rain.

It wasn't that refreshing.

I bolted across the street, dodging several cars, and miraculously made it to the sidewalk, where a whole new challenge awaited me. The shoppers. I had to weave in and out of scurrying legs, try not to slip on the wet ground and all the while making sure I wasn't stepped on.

Rain drops pounded on my back and face as I squeezed my way through the last pair of feet, which, by the way, narrowly missed my tail. I dashed into the nearest alleyway and wedged myself into the corner where smelly dumpster met cold wall.

All of this might seem really hard. Okay, it was a miracle that I was still alive, but I had done this every day of my life. Well, that's what I remembered—being born in this cozy little London apartment not more than four months ago. My owner was one of those kneazle breeders. So, the only reason I was born was to make her money. Which… I failed at. No one wanted me, so she dumped me out on the streets. And, I'd been living from alleyway to alleyway, trashcan to trashcan all my life.

Sometimes a stranger would give me, like, part of their burger or something. Actually, I've gotten quite a few breath mints. Which is weird. But mostly, people just ignore me. At times, I wished they would pay attention to me, pet me, tell me I'm cute. But, I was just the disgusting, hungry, skinny alley cat that everybody ignores, nobody wants.

Anyway, I sat by the dumpster, watching the shoppers push each other out of the way to get to the shoe sale, watching the rain splash as it hit the road. Occasionally being blinded by headlights.

But then I heard something behind me, a noise that almost made me jump like the shoppers trying to get a better look at the window displays. The noise was a loud CRACK! Then it was silent again. Uh…okay…

But that noisechanged my whole life.

A man walked by my dumpster. He was wearing a black rain coat with the hood covering up his incredibly untidy black hair, almost as if he was afraid of being seen. He was pretty tall. His hazel eyes were framed with circular glasses and he had a mischievous grin playing around the corners of his mouth. The man walked right past me, not even glancing at me. How unusual.

Then the man did something that surprised me. He turned around, looked at me and smiled. No one ever smiled at me before. I meowed affectionately at him, trying my best to sound cute.

The man knelt and looked me in the eyes. He reached out and scratched my chin with one finger. I purred appreciatively and he rubbed my head. The man glanced over his shoulder, then he scooped me up and stroked my head as he held me in his arms. If a cat could cry tears of joy, I probably would have.

The man walked down the street, seemingly trying hard to be discreet. He walked into a small shop called BALLOONS. He approached the counter and grinned at me.

"Could I have a balloon? Like, a first birthday one?" he asked the lady behind the counter.

She smiled and held up a blue balloon in the shape of the number 1. The man took out his wallet, and made an oops face. He set me down gently on the floor while he fumbled around in his wallet with gold coins and paper currency. Something I remembered my old owner call Muggle money.

I stayed right by his side, rubbing my face against his leg to tell him how much I liked him. The only person to ever pet me, to ever smile at me, to ever hold me like I was more that an alley cat or a way to make money.

He handed the woman some money and, holding the balloon in one hand, scooped me up again and sheltered me from the rain with his coat.

He walked back down the alleyway that he had found me in and walked all the way to the back. The man turned on the spot and everything went black. It felt like my body way being sucked into a straw and I was suffocating.

And then everything was fine again. But now I was somewhere else. Okay, that's weird.

We were standing in the middle of a small town right next to a church. Except it wasn't raining here, it was bright and sunny. The street was lined with small shops and extending beyond the church was several neighborhoods. The man turned towards the houses and started walking.

Soon enough, he stopped, but not in front of a house. He stopped next to this gap in the row of houses. But, he walked right up to it as if he could see a house that I couldn't. Uh…

And next thing I knew, I was in a house. It was a nice house. The walls were plain white, with occasional pictures here and there. All of the furniture was soft and grey. A large brick fire place stood at the back with several more pictures on top. One of those baby-mat-play-things was sitting in front of it. The whole place looked as if it was decorated for some sort of party. A few presents sat in the corner and a banner that said Happy Birthday Harry! hung on the wall and several balloons were floating around the couch.

The man stepped in and quietly closed the door. He was tip-toeing over to a chair when I heard a door in the other room fly open. Then, a woman with long, dark red hair came storming into the room. Her eyes looked like green fire. She was holing a baby that looked like a miniature version of the man, but with the woman's bright green eyes (except the baby's eyes looked happy).

"James Potter!" she yelled, throwing a pillow at him, "Where have you been?"

"I—" James started to say, but she interrupted.

"You aren't supposed to leave! We're in hiding, James!"

"Lily, I know. But I was just going to get a balloon for Harry," he held up the number 1 balloon, "And plus, it's so boring staying in the house all the time."

Lily sighed. Then her green eyes came to rest upon me. She raised her eyebrows at James.

"What is that?" she asked.

"A cat," James answered.

"I know that," Lily said, "I meant why do you have it?"

"Because he's cute," James replied as he put me on the floor.

"James—" she started to say, but then she looked at me again, "I guess he is cute."

"Right?" James asked as he went over to sit on the couch, "So can we keep him?"

I meowed softly and looked into Lily's eyes, trying to appear cuter than ever. Giving her the, uh, kitty-eyes?

"I don't know," she considered, "Is he safe for Harry?"

"Of course, he is," James answered casually.

"Uh…" Lily hesitated. I widened my eyes even more, and purred as I lept onto James's lap. "Fine. We can keep him." she decided as she set the baby on the mat and bustled into the kitchen again.

I was happier than I had ever been in my entire life. These people wanted to keep me. Because they thought I was cute, not because I was a good way to make money. It was almost too good to be true.

Then the doorbell rang. James moved me onto the couch and went to get the door. How someone found this house, I didn't know.

A handsome man with long black hair framing his face, wearing a pink party hat stepped in. He strolled over to the couch and sat down. Then he saw me.

"A cat, James?" he asked, "Seriously, I'm a dog."

"Seriously, Sirius," James smirked, "And you aren't actually a dog, remember?"

"Well, pretty close," Sirius replied and he reached out to pet me. "Where's Lily?"

"She's in the kitchen," James answered, "Why?"

"Because I need to talk to you about something."

"What?"

"Well, you know how I'm your Secret-keeper?"

"Yeah..." James looked confused.

"I've been thinking… maybe I shouldn't be," Sirius concluded solemnly.

Now, I don't know what all this Secret-keeper nonsense is, but the moment Sirius said that, I got the feeling that this wasn't a good idea.

"Why not?" James asked.

"Because… well, everyone kind of… expected you and Lily to choose me. And… I think if it was someone else, the secret might be better protected," Sirius explained.

"Uh… alright. What about Moony?"

"No!" Sirius cried immediately.

"What?" James knit his eyebrows.

"Oh," Sirius hesitated, "Well, because… uh, he's a werewolf."

James almost looked hurt. "Sirius, he told us when we were kids, and we didn't care. You're telling me now that you're scared of him, or—"

"I know," Sirius shook his head, "But… Voldemort's recruiting all of the werewolves and… well… I just don't trust him."

"Sirius, Remus had been our friend for… for forever. He wouldn't join Voldemort, or rat me out."

"James, we can't take any chances." Sirius decided grimly. "Tomorrow we make Peter Secret-keeper?"

James hesitated. "Um… alright."

Somehow, I knew immediately that this was a terrible decision.

Half an hour or so later, the other party guests had arrived. Which was only two more people. One of them was a man the same age as James, but his brown hair had some grey streaks in it. His clothes were kind of shabby too. James and Sirius had called him Moony (and occasionally Remus). He was the werewolf that Sirius was talking about.

The other guest was a pudgy man with slick blond hair and watery blue eyes. He was shorter than all of the other men and he looked really nervous about something. Apparently, his name was either Wormtail or Peter.

I wondered why these guys had two names.

The party was fun. But usually birthday parties for one-year-olds are mostly for the adults. Still, it was my first party.

At one point, Harry had started saying something that sounded like pongs. James had smiled and grinned at his friends.

"Shall we boys?" he asked. Three of them grinned back and nodded. I was eager to see what this was all about.

And then, James slowly changed shape and suddenly, he was a deer. The same thing happened to Sirius, except he became a big black dog, the kind that had often tried to eat me when I lived on the streets. The third man, Peter, shrunk even smaller and became a rat. Harry giggled.

I was so shocked that I jumped. Remus and Lily laughed. Dog Sirius trotted up to me and barked. Part of me wanted to hiss and defend myself, but the other part of me knew it was Sirius. The two parts of me had come to a compromise, and I just put my paw on Sirius's nose.

The two other men changed back into man-form, but Sirius stayed a dog and lept up on the couch next to me.

A/N: Hoped you liked my first chapter! Feel free to leave reviews and thank you for reading. :-)