Immer: For the record, I am not even sure if I can actually go throuth the series, but I am sure as hell going to try. And please bear with me the long waiting process in between chapters, if I start to slow down with updates, it's basically life throwing shit at my face.

Harry Potter is respectively owned by J.K. Rowling. I am merely writing for my own amusement.

Also, please submit a review after you're done reading.

Chapter One The Black Dog

HP

For as long as Harry could remember, there was always a black dog following him around. At first, he was frightened. It was a big dog, and he remembered seeing it everywhere he looked. He tried to tell his aunt and uncle about it, but they had written it off as part of his imagination.

"There's no dog there, you're just imagining things."

"It's probably a stray. Don't touch it, it might have rabies."

However, he knew it couldn't be a stray. The dog was too well groomed, and it didn't mind people. Also, if it did have rabies, wouldn't it be attacking people? Harry kept these thoughts to himself, and eventually stopped bringing up the dog. He was always aware of it whenever he saw it, and he often stared at it and wondered if it was his guardian angel or something.

They didn't officially meet until Aunt Petunia had started taking the boys to the park. She held Dudley's little hand, but completely ignored Harry's. And so little four year old Harry followed behind them, dejected.

At some point, he somehow got separated. Harry had his head down, and wasn't paying attention to where he was supposed to go. And then he realized he couldn't hear his aunt's shrewd voice, and he looked up to discover his aunt and cousin were nowhere in sight. To top it off he had no clue where he was.

Little Harry sat down on his behind and began to cry. As he wailed, he heard the sound of paws running up to him. He opened his eyes and screamed, crawling away from the giant black dog that came up to him out of the blue. It was so big, it was bigger than Harry!

The dog whined, ears pulled back and head lowered as if it was sorry. Harry sniffed, and rubbed his eyes as he sat up. The dog wasn't attacking him, it just scared him. Tentatively, Harry reached out to the dog, which eagerly leaned into his tiny hand. The fur was soft, despite the shaggy appearance.

The dog licked his cheek, and Harry giggled.

"That tickles!" Harry smiled, having forgotten he was lost. The dog wagged it's tail at his bright smile.

"Do you have a home?" Harry asked, peeking through fur to see if the dog had a collar. He found none, but wasn't at all sad.

"Wanna come home with me?" Harry stood up, and the dog twirled with a happy bark. He laughed, wrapping his short arms around the dog's neck.

"I name you Blackie!" The boy laughed when the dog barked even more excitedly in response.

Harry couldn't exactly remember how it happened, this event took place when he was four, but somehow the dog led him to the park where his aunt was watching Dudley play. She didn't even know that he had been gone, which was a relief, or else he would have endured a lecture.

Harry didn't bother joining his cousin on the playground. Instead he focused on playing with his first friend. They played tag, hide and seek, and at some point Harry crawled on its back to ride it. At that point, Dudley noticed the dog.

"I'm riding Blackie!" Harry examined with happiness as the dog trotted around in a circle, careful not to go too fast else the boy would fall.

Dudley waddled his way closer, eyes wide with a mix of awe and fear. He had never seen this dog before, and certainly not big enough to ride one like a horse. At some point excitement won over him as he moved closer.

"I want to ride the doggy! My turn! My turn!" Dudley shrieked, which finally drew his mother's attention (she was having a conversation with one of her friends).

The dog slowed to a stop before Dudley. Harry slid off with a bit of difficulty and he almost fell over. He was about to help Dudley up when Aunt Petunia snatched both boys away from the dog. She reprimanded both of them, mostly Harry, as she decided it was time to head home. She soothed Dudley's tears, but she snapped at Harry for being so careless.

"Don't go playing with random mongrels, boy! What if that stray was dangerous and hurt Dudley?"

"But the dog is nice! We were just playing." Harry's words fell on deaf ears.

"Oh, poor Dudley-kins, mummy will buy you a rocking horse if you want! How does that sound?"

"But I want doggy! Can't we get a doggy?"

"Oh, I don't know...mummy will have a talk with daddy."

"I want a doggy!" Dudley was about to go into another one of his infamous fits.

Harry glanced over his shoulder to wave goodbye to the dog. He wasn't exactly sure why he felt the need to do this, but he did. And when he looked back, the dog was nowhere in sight. Heart sank, Harry resisted the urge to cry again.

But strangely, after that day, Harry began to see the dog more and more often. He caught sight of the dog sitting in the parking lot when the Dursleys went grocery shopping. He would peek out the window to see the dog watching the house from across the street. But always, always whenever he looked again the dog was gone. Harry started to think he was seeing things.

Then when Harry and Dudley started school, he began to see the dog a lot more often. During breaks, Harry would see it watching him from outside the school gate. And then, on one fateful weekend, Dudley and his group of friends chased him around the neighborhood. That was when the dog approached Harry for the first time in years.

Harry was running as fast as his short legs could. He was fortunate he could run a little faster than Dudley and his friends, who were all on the chubby side and sucked at running. Eight year old Harry made a quick turn, not realizing he ran down a street that ended in a circle of houses. He turned, and his heart sank when he realized he was trapped.

"You got nowhere to run, Potty!" Dudley breathed, red faced as he and his friends gathered their breath.

"Too bad there's no toilet to stuff his head in."

"Sorry, but I think the toilet would rather want your heads. You lot got a lot more meat on your bones, bet you'll be tastier than skinny little me." Harry knew he was so dead then, but the stunned looks on their faces was worth it.

"Get him!" Dudley ordered with a roar.

Before the boys could close in on him, suddenly a black dog charged in. It put itself between them and Harry, hackles raised and teeth bared as it snarled at them. Harry stared, unsure if this was really real, but the frightened screams were real enough as Dudley and his goons ran.

When they were gone, the dog calmed. It's fur wasn't standing on end anymore, and ears were perked up as it turned to face Harry. He stared, confused and bewildered. It certainly looked like the same dog from the park, four years prior.

"Blackie...?" Harry gasped, and the dog barked and twirled, tail wagging wildly.

Suddenly the dog tackled him. Harry had a sense of panic before his face was licked all over with dog slobber. Some of it got on his glasses, but he didn't care as Harry squirmed in a giggling fit.

"I get it! Blackie! I missed you too! Get off."

At some point Harry pushed the dog off of him. He sat up and took off his glasses, using his sleeve to wipe off the saliva so they were clear again. He glanced over at the dog, which was still wagging its tail happily.

"Have you been watching me the last four years?" He wasn't sure why he was speaking to it like it understood him, but it barked in confirmation.

"Oh. I'm sorry I couldn't take you home. Aunt Petunia said no dogs allowed in the house. And yet Aunt Marge can bring her dogs when she visits."

The dog tilted its head in the absurdity of it all.

"Yeah, Aunt Petunia doesn't make sense sometimes." Harry stood up, not caring he was having a one sided conversation with a dog.

"Hey, want to go to the park?" Harry smiled when the dog responded with a happy bark and rubbed against him. The action nearly had Harry tumble to the ground, as the dog came up to his chest, but he didn't mind.

Together they headed to the very same park they had played when they first met. They played until Harry grew tired, and he laid down in the grass using the dog as a pillow. By now it was close to dinner, and Harry was dreading going back.

"I don't want to go back." Harry admitted as he watched the colors change in the sky above. "I don't ever want to go back there, to the cubbard underneath the stairs. But where am I to go? I have nowhere to go."

The dog whined. Harry wasn't sure if the dog really did understand what he was saying, or had very good sense he was upset. And, finally feeling that someone cared, even if it wasn't human, Harry told the dog everything. Dogs were great listeners, and they couldn't tell humans secrets.

"I lost my mum and dad when I was a baby. My only relatives are Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, so I was sent to live with them. I used to think it would be better off at an orphanage, but that was until I met an orphan at my school. He told me stories of what's it like, there. And it's horrible, more so than here. So, even though I hate it here, it's better than at an orphanage I suppose."

The dog was surprisingly silent, and Harry continued.

"Aunt Petunia said my parents died in a car crash, which was how I got the scar. I sometimes wonder if they speak truth, though, but that could just be wishful thinking. I like to pretend they died for something grand, like protecting me from someone. I know, it's silly, but it's just a fantasy."

Harry didn't notice how the dog became tense at these words. He didn't notice the slight shaking in the canine's muscles. He continued on talking his heart out.

"I don't understand why they call me freak, or blame me for something I never did. I can't explain why my hair always grew back when they give me awful haircuts, or why tea cups shatter when they yell at me. Sometimes a tire of Uncle Vernon's car blows up, and even though I'm nowhere near it, they blame me. I don't understand them, but I figured it's better to adapt and just go along with it. Arguing with them earns me locked up in the cubbard for a week."

Harry wasn't aware of the tears falling down his cheeks. Or that the dog was growling. He sat up, shoulders slumped as he choked out the words that have been haunting for years.

"Am I a freak? Is it all really my fault, or is in their head? Am I a freak of nature as they claim?"

Harry curled up, hugging his knees close. It had been so long since he cried, the force of it wracked his tiny frame as his sobs filled the air. Movement caught his eye, and he looked up to see the dog standing before him. It held such sorrow in it's eyes, that for a moment Harry thought it was more than a simple dog.

And then the dog transformed into a man. A man with long black hair, strange clothes, and arms wrapped him into a tight hug. Harry was so taken aback by just witnessing a dog transform into a man that he didn't care that a complete stranger was holding him, holding him tightly as if afraid to let him go.

"Oh, Harry, you're not a freak. You're just a boy, a precious boy. I don't know if I can succeed, but I promise I will try and make things right and get you out of there."

Harry cried even harder and held onto the strange man who promised him a better life, and he didn't even care if he didn't even know his name. The sincerity in his voice was enough to calm the boy, and he hoped with all his might that this wasn't some dream and he would wake up to learn this wasn't real.

For the first time in his short life, Harry felt kindness and love that he had been deprived of for so long, he held onto the man tightly. If this really was a dream, Harry didn't want to wake up.

"Don't make me go back! Please, please please please. I promise I'll be good, just don't make me go back. Please please please please." Harry repeated like a mantra.

"As much as I want to Harry, that would be kidnapping. Just be patient for me, okay? I will see you again soon, hopefully. Be strong like your father and you'll be just fine."

"You knew my father?" Harry hiccuped, squirming as he pulled away to stare at the man curiously.

"Yes, I was his best friend before he died. My name is Sirius Black, your parents named me your godfather."

Harry couldn't believe it. He had a godfather. But why didn't he know of this man until now? One look at the man and he saw enough reason for his aunt and uncle to deny the man to even step one toe inside the house. Hair down to his shoulders, tattoos everywhere, and strange clothes that would have made his relatives nervous.

"So...I can live with you then Mr. Black!" Harry exclaimed with excitement.

"Call me Sirius, Harry. And I'll see what I can do to arrange something. In the meantime, be strong and hang in there. The next time we meet will hopefully when I've found a loophole for you to come live with me and Remus."

"Wait. Who's Remus? And how can you change into a dog? Can Remus become an animal, too? Can I be an animal?" Harry was overwhelmed with questions, and Sirius laughed as he ran a hand through the boy's hair.

"Remus is a very close friend of mine. And no, he doesn't willingly turn into an animal. That sort of magic takes years to learn, Harry, you won't be ready to tackle that for years to come. Although we did manage it at a young age."

"Magic? But...but...how? And who else can do that?" Harry frowned, confused.

"To put it simply Harry, you're a wizard. Your parents were, too. They were fine witch and wizard, strong and brilliant. Your father could transform into a stag." Sirius smiled as the boy took the information in.

"But...I can't be a wizard. I'm Harry. Just Harry."

Sirius sighed, and for a moment the boy thought he had done something bad. Harry opened his mouth to apologize, but the man spoke first. His voice was calm as he elaborated.

"Think for a moment, think of something happening that you can't explain like your hair growing back the day after a haircut. Or tea cups shattering, or the tire blowing up. That's all happening because of your magic, Harry. It's all your magic, nothing isn't a coincident where magic is concerned."

Harry thought over the strange situations in his life. He recalled how when he was running away from Dudley and his gang at school, somehow he emded up on the roof of a building with no idea how he got up there in the first place. Once when he got really angry at Dudley one morning, suddenly the burner used to cook bacon burst and the food caught on fire.

Everything clicked inside his head. The realization must have been readable on his face when Sirius smiled fondly at him.

"See? You know it deep inside, you're a wizard. And you're going to be great, just like your mother and father."

Harry felt a wave of confidence and pride he hadn't felt before, all just from those simple words. He grinned up at his godfather from ear to ear. And Sirius felt his heartstrings pull at the sight.

"Thank you, Sirius."