Summary:
Before the school year even begins, Harry Potter makes a new friend – a rather unusual dog. As Harry's third year at Hogwarts progresses, trouble always seems to be just around the corner.
An Azkaban escapee, chilling Dementors, and the annoyance that is Malfoy all seem like big issues until Harry finds out that his dog is in even bigger trouble than Harry could've possibly imagined. It's going to take everything Harry has to save his new companion! But when a devastating betrayal reveals some shocking truths, will Harry even want to help his new friend?
Trust is a fragile thing, and unfortunately for Harry, his trust in someone is about to be broken.
Chapter One: Found in the Darkness
Despite the chill of the late August air making it a good night to stay indoors, a dark silhouette could be seen darting from street to street and shadow to shadow.
The figure dashed through an alley and ended up behind a row of houses. A bit of moonlight revealed the figure to be a large dog. Pausing behind the first house, the dog raised its nose and sniffed the air. Two haunted eyes surveyed the area before the dog slowly made its way towards the second house in the row.
After checking to see if the coast was clear, the dog scampered passed the second house and stopped at the third. The dog crept up to two large trash bins and, standing on its hindquarters, knocked over one of the bins. It crashed to the ground with a resounding bang.
Startled by the loud noise, the dog backed away with its ears down and tail between its legs. After a few moments of silence, the dog moved forward and sniffed at the contents of the spilled bin. The dog used its nose to move a few bits of trash out of the way to reveal some partially rotted food and began to eat. A light came on in the house behind the dog, but since it was busy filling its empty stomach, the dog paid no heed to the source of the light.
The back door of the house suddenly opened and the dog stopped eating as it lowered itself to the ground. Teeth bared and ears back, the dog watched as two humans appeared. One was wielding a fire poker and the other was cowering behind the doorframe.
"There's nothing out here. You're just hearing things again, Martha," the man said as he lowered the fire poker.
"I swear I heard something," replied the woman, loosening her grip on the doorframe.
"Quit watching horror films. I'm going back to bed."
The man turned to leave, but at that moment, the woman spotted the dog crouched over the spilled contents of one of the trash bins.
"There!" she shrieked, pointing in the direction of the dog.
The man swung the fire poker back up and looked at where she was pointing. Seeing the animal, the man heaved a sigh and started stomping towards the trash bins.
Realizing that it was no longer safe to stay, the dog tensed in preparation for a quick getaway.
"Go on! Scat! Shoo, ya mangy mutt!" the man yelled as he swung the fire poker around, trying to scare the dog off.
The large dog ran from the house and the man. After running for a few minutes, the dog slowed to a stop behind a tree at the corner of a street. It crouched down low as it saw a car approaching. Once the car passed, the dog got back on its paws and darted across the street, taking cover behind some bushes.
'He lives around here somewhere... At least I think he does. Or did,' the dog thought as it looked around the street.
After weaving in and out of the bushes as it trotted down the sidewalk, the large dog decided to settle down under a bush to rest its paws.
'I guess I'll just take a short break for a minute or two. It'll probably help me remember where he is.'
Resting its head on its front paws, the canine closed its eyes.
'Maybe I'll take a small nap. Just for a few minutes. Then I'll check in on him and make sure he's okay. After that, there'll be nothing to stop me from hunting down that rat bastard.'
...
In hindsight, this may not have been his best idea.
Harry Potter was currently walking as fast as he could away from the Dursleys, dragging his trunk behind him and carefully holding Hedwig's cage under his arm. After he made it a few blocks from Number Four Privet Drive, Harry let Hedwig out of her cage and asked her to find him later that night. He didn't want to jostle her about while he tried to figure out what to do next.
It all started when Uncle Vernon came back to the Dursley residence with Aunt Marge. The harsh words that Aunt Marge said to him angered and annoyed Harry, but he was able to keep his temper under wraps mostly because he avoided Aunt Marge and her mutt like they were the plague.
The only thing getting Harry through the visit from Aunt Marge was thinking about Hogsmeade. He needed to have Uncle Vernon sign his permission slip. And for Uncle Vernon to do that, Harry had to 'behave himself' during Aunt Marge's visit. Whenever Aunt Marge would happen across Harry, he would try to tune out what she was saying and try to recall passages from his Quidditch through the Ages book. It worked almost every time. But, unfortunately, one slip up was all it took.
At dinner that night, Harry had been unable to completely ignore what Aunt Marge was saying as he cleaned up in the kitchen. Once Aunt Marge started commenting on his parents, it was only a matter of time before he blew up at her. Or rather, before he made her blow up. Like a balloon.
Which brings Harry to where he is now.
Walking by a park with no clue where to go next or how to get there.
'Fantastic. Now what do I do?' Harry thought to himself.
Stopping where he stood, Harry set his trunk down on the curb and sat on it. Harry sighed as gently dropped Hedwig's cage next on the ground to him.
"Well, I guess I won't be going to Hogsmeade this year since there's no way Uncle Vernon will sign the permission form now," Harry muttered under his breath.
As Harry looked around the area, he saw that that the park behind him was completely deserted and that there was no traffic on the road in front of him.
'Maybe I could head to the Burrow. It'd be nice to see Ron and his family again... Or I guess I could go to the Leaky Cauldron.'
Rubbing his hands up and down his arms to fight against the chill in the air, Harry sighed.
'But how would I get there? Fly? That wouldn't work. I could see if I could catch a ride to London to get to the Leaky Cauldron, but all I have on me are Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons. And I don't think that any Muggle would accept those coins as payment.'
A snapping sound pulled Harry from his musings. Grabbing his wand and jumping to his feet, Harry scanned his surroundings.
Since he couldn't see anything moving around him, Harry dismissed the noise and sat back down on his trunk. As Harry sat down, he looked across the street directly in front of him.
Something in the bushes caught his eye, so as Harry stared at the bushes, a pair of eyes in the bushes stared back at Harry.
...
The dog was dozing when it was startled awake by the sound of footsteps and something being rolled. Staying low to the ground in a crouched position, the dog slowly inched its way towards the edge of the bush facing the street.
There was a boy sitting down on the curb on the opposite side of the street. The boy appeared to have said something, but the dog couldn't hear what the boy had said. Curious, the dog slowly moved forwards until its head was almost completely out of the bushes, but still somewhat covered.
One of its front paws pressed down on a stick, making a cracking noise, which, to the dog at least, sounded like a gunshot going off in the silent night. Hunkering back down into the bush, the dog stayed as still as possible.
It watched the boy stand up and look around with a stick in his hand.
'A stick? No… a wand? Is he a –'
The boy sat back down only to look directly at the dog.
Eyes locked with the boy, the dog froze as the boy slowly stood back up.
...
Keeping his eyes on the bushes across the street, Harry got back up.
'This is stupid. This is so stupid,' Harry thought as he looked both ways before starting to walk across the street towards the bushes.
'It's nothing. It's obviously nothing. Just an animal. A cat, maybe. Definitely not someone from the Ministry here to arrest me for underage magic or to drag me back to the Dursleys. That would be stupid. I'm being stupid. A wizard wouldn't be hiding in the bushes. That'd be ridiculous,' Harry thought, perhaps a bit hysterically.
Harry made it across the street and stopped at the curb because the bush was now growling at him.
'Okay. Maybe it's not a cat.'
Since he had his wand in his right hand, Harry slowly crouched down with his left hand extended palm up towards the bushes. The growling noise stopped for a moment before returning at an even high volume.
'I'm going to get my hand bitten off. Why am I doing this?'
Harry stayed still and kept his left hand out towards the bushes.
"Hey there. I'm not going to hurt you," Harry called out softly.
The growling continued for a moment longer before it stopped and the bush started moving as whatever it was that was in the bush slowly poked its head out of the bushes, keeping its eyes on Harry.
'That is a dog. That is a really big dog.'
"Hey little guy. I won't hurt you."
'Yup, I'm definitely going to get my hand bitten off by this large dog-wolf hybrid thing.'
"Come on out. I'm not going to hurt you," Harry said.
Maybe the dog understood him or maybe it just liked the sound of Harry's voice, but whatever it was, the dog was now coming out of the bushes.
'Whoa! It must be a stray. Poor thing.'
The dog was large with dirty, matted fur. It was hard to tell if the dog's fur was black or just a dark color. The dog also appeared to be starving as its skin was stretched thin over its ribs. Its grey eyes were steady as it continued to stare at Harry. The dog's teeth were bared and its ears were flat against its head, showing the dog's displeasure with the situation.
Trying to show the dog that he meant no harm, Harry continued to not move as he spoke softly, "Hey, look at you pretty boy. Come here. It's okay. I won't hurt you."
'Even though it looks like you might end up hurting me by taking a bite out of my hand or something. Why am I doing this again?'
"It looks like you're all alone out here. I'm all by myself too."
The dog took a few more steps closer to Harry.
"Although that is kinda my fault. I did run away. But there was no way I was going to stick around the Dursleys after my latest bout of magic," Harry said, trying to sound upbeat to continue to encourage the dog to come a bit closer.
Suddenly the dog leapt forward so that it was almost nose to nose with Harry. Startled, Harry yelped as he fell backwards, his right hand flying up and his left hand shooting back to catch himself.
Sitting on the sidewalk with a sore butt, his left hand behind him and his right hand with his wand stuck up in the air, Harry found himself with a wet cheek. The dog had just licked Harry's face from his chin to his forehead.
"Ugh!" Harry exclaimed. "What'd you do that for?"
As he was moving his left hand to wipe off the dog slobber, a loud bang sounded on the road next to Harry. The dog shot back off into the bushes. Harry looked up and saw a purple, triple-decker bus.
"Uhh… what?"
...
The boy, no, the maybe-wizard was crossing the street and heading right towards the dog.
'Stay away. Get back. I don't have time for this,' the dog thought as it began to growl.
The might-be-a-wizard stopped on the curb before crouching and holding out a hand in the dog's direction. The dog bared its teeth and began to growl louder.
"Hey there. I'm not going to hurt you," the maybe-wizard said.
Cocking its head to the side as it stopped growling, the dog considered what the wizard-boy said before dismissing the words.
'Kid, trust me, you don't want to get involved with me and my mess. Just back off and go on home. Maybe if you get a good look at me, you'll turn tail and run.'
The dog nosed its way out of the bush until its head was fully uncovered.
"Hey little guy. I won't hurt you," the boy cooed.
'Are you crazy, kid?! I am not little. I am a vicious-looking dog.'
"Come on out. I'm not going to hurt you," the boy said.
'Fine. I'll come out. You'll try to pet me. I'll snap my teeth at you. You'll run screaming in fear. And we'll part ways as if this never happened. Crazy kid.'
The dog carefully stepped out of the bush, but kept its distance from the boy.
'I'm insane for coming out of the bushes and you're insane for wanting me to.'
"Hey, look at you pretty boy. Come here. It's okay. I won't hurt you."
'Pretty?! I think you need to get your eyes checked.'
"It looks like you're all alone out here. I'm all by myself too."
'…Fine. You might've won a few sympathy points from me so I'll let you pet me. If you really want to. But then I'm outta here!' the dog thought as it padded closer to the boy.
"Although that is kinda my fault. I did run away. But there was no way I was going to stick around the Dursleys after my latest bout of magic," the boy said.
'Hold it – DURSLEYS?! As in Lily's rotten sister Petunia Dursley?!'
Taking a closer look at the boy, the dog noticed the dark, messy hair, the round glasses, and the vivid green eyes.
'It can't be!'
The dog sprang forwards, intending to get as close to the boy as possible. The boy fell back as the dog got closer to his face.
'It is! I can't believe it! I was looking for you! I was going to check on you and here you are. You found me!'
Unable to help itself in its excitement, the dog licked the boy's face as it wagged its tail.
'Harry!'
The dog sat down as Harry made a face.
"Ugh!" Harry exclaimed. "What'd you do that for?"
All of a sudden, a loud bang sounded as the Knight Bus appeared. Startled, the dog dove for the bushes as Harry peered up at the bus in confusion.
...
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch and wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you'd like to go. My name is Stan Shunpike and I will be –"
The man, Stan, paused his speech when he realized that Harry was on the ground.
"What choo doin' on the ground for?" Stan asked.
"I fell."
"Well, what choo do that for?" Stan asked.
"It wasn't intentional," Harry said, getting back on his feet. "Why is the bus so loud and… purple? Won't it call attention to the bus and make Muggles come and investigate it?"
"Muggles. They don' listen properly nor see properly, do they? They don' never notice nuffin'."
"…I guess."
"Well, you comin' on, ain'tcha? We can't wait 'round all night," Stan said before looking over his shoulder. "Ain't that right, Ern."
"Where does this bus go? And why did you stop here?" Harry questioned as he discreetly look over towards the bushes where the dog had disappeared.
"What d'ya mean 'why did we stop 'ere'?' You're the one who called us. And this 'ere bus goes almost anywhere you can think of," replied Stan. "'Cept for underwater."
Squinting at Harry, Stan asked, "What choo lookin' for?"
Harry, no longer trying to be discreet with his glances, had turned towards the bushes.
"There was a, well. Umm. My-my dog," Harry stuttered. "The bus startled my dog. It ran into the bushes."
"Why d'ya –"
"Look, you said this bus can go anywhere. Can you take me to London? To the Leaky Cauldron?" Harry asked, interrupting Stan's question.
"'Course we can!"
"I have to get my trunk and owl cage. They're over there," Harry stated as he pointed over at his trunk and Hedwig's cage on the other side of the road.
"What's it doin' all the way over there when you is standin' right 'ere?" asked Stan.
Making a decision, Harry ignored Stan's question and asked, "My dog can come on the Knight Bus too, right?"
"Is it trained? Cuz we can't be 'avin' unruly animals runnin' amuck an' terrorizin' the customers."
"Yes?" Harry said uncertainly before clearing his throat and saying, "Yes. He won't bother anyone."
'I hope.'
"Okay, then, get your dog and –"
"The bus scared him into the bushes. I'll have to coax him back out."
"Well 'urry up! We 'aven't got all night. We've places to be!" Stan said. "You get choo dog and I'll grab ya trunk for ya."
Turning on his heel, Harry walked over to the bushes and crouched down as Stan dashed across the street to grab Harry's possessions.
'Please still be here. I might be a bit crazy for wanting to take a large stray dog with me, but I can't just leave him all alone out here. It'll start to get really cold soon and I don't want to leave him in the streets with nothing to eat either. If I take him with me, maybe I can help him.'
"Hey boy." 'At least I think you're a male dog.' "Are you still here?" Harry asked softly.
There was a bit of movement before the dog stuck its head out of the bushes and 'woofed' in Harry's face, making Harry smile.
"Hey there, would you like to come with me? I'm all alone and you're all alone. Maybe we could help take care of each other? Would you like that?"
The dog slowly came out of the bushes as Harry got up and stepped back a few paces. Shaking out its matted fur, the dog 'woofed' again and padded up to Harry.
Harry reached down and gently petted the dog's head as it rubbed up against Harry's legs.
"Are you coming aboard or not?" Stan asked.
"I'm coming," Harry said before addressing the dog. "Come on, boy. Let's go!"
The dog cautiously followed behind Harry as they walked into the Knight Bus.
Catching site of the dog, Stan jumped back and exclaimed, "Bloody 'ell! That's a Grim, that is! Death omen's what 'e is. We don't be takin' Grims on this bus!"
"He's not a Grim!" Harry protested.
'What the hell's a Grim? And what does he mean by death omen?'
Harry looked behind him at the dog.
Thinking quickly, Harry said, "He's been a part of my family for years! He is not a Grim. He's just a large dog."
"…You sure?" asked Stan, warily staring at the dog. "'e's not lookin' too good."
"Positive," Harry assured him as he and the dog walked passed Stan and further into the bus.
Stan had already placed Harry's possessions on one of the beds, so Harry sat down beside his trunk as the dog hopped up on the bed and draped itself across Harry's legs.
"You're heavy," Harry quietly complained to the dog.
In response, the dog made a snuffling sound that almost sounded like laughter. Harry used one hand to scratch the dog behind its ears.
Stan turned to Harry and asked, "Well, what choo name, anyways?"
"Oh, well, I'm…"
'I definitely can't tell him my real name. Not if the Ministry might be looking for me because of my bout of magic against Aunt Marge'
"…Neville. I'm Neville Longbottom."
"Well, Neville, it'll be eleven sickles ta getcha to London."
Once Harry paid Stan, Stan turned to the driver and said, "Take'er away, Ern."
After the initial bang of the Knight Bus taking off into the night sounded, Stan shook out a copy of the Daily Prophet. From where Harry was sitting, he could see a large photo of a crazed and emancipated-looking man with long matted hair staring out at Harry from the front page. Harry thought he recognized him.
After a few moments, it dawned on him.
"That man!" Harry called out to Stan. "He was on the Muggle news!"
Stan turned back to the front page of the paper and, seeing the picture, he chuckled.
"That's Sirius Black. 'Course 'e was on the Muggle news, Neville. Where you been hidin'? Under a rock?"
Chuckling again at the blank expression on Harry's face, Stan grabbed the front page and handed it to Harry.
"Ya need ta catch up wiv the times more. 'ere, read this, Neville."
Harry held the paper up to the light and read:
BLACK STILL AT LARGE
Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous person to ever be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.
"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."
Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis.
"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it – who'd believe him if he did?"
While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.
Glancing back up at Stan, Harry handed back the front page and said, "He killed thirteen people with one curse?!"
"Yeah," Stan said. "Scary-lookin' fing, inee? And 'e did it in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Caused big trouble, didn't Ern?"
"Ahh," Ern affirmed darkly.
"Black's a big supporter of You-Know-'Oo," Stan continued.
"Voldemort?" Harry questioned unthinkingly.
Stan's entire face went white and Ern jerked the wheel so hard that an entire house had to leap out of the way of the bus.
"You crazy or somefing?!" Stan said with his hand on his heart. "What choo sayin' 'is name for?"
"Sorry! So sorry. I just – I just forgot," Harry stuttered.
"Forgot!" Stan yelped. "'Bout gave me a 'eart attack 'n' you 'forgot'."
"So he, er, Black was a supporter of You-Know-Who," Harry prompted.
"Yeah, very close to You-Know-'Oo, they say. I 'eard 'e was You-Know-'Oo's second-in-command. Anyway, they cornered Black in the middle of a street full o' Muggles and Black took out 'is wand and blew the street and some o' the Muggles to bits. So the wizards still 'ad Black cornered and you know what 'e did then?" Stan asked.
"What?"
"Laughed. Just stood there and laughed," Stan said. "And when they went to take 'im to the Ministry, Black just went wiv 'em. Still laughing 'is 'ead off. 'E's mad."
"He'll be even madder after spending time in Azkaban," Ern interjected darkly.
"There's never been a breakout from Azkaban before," Stan said. "But the guards'll find and deal wiv Black just fine."
"Talk about something else now, Stan," Ern said. "All this Azkaban talk is given me the collywobbles."
Moodily, Stan put away the paper and turned away from Harry.
Looking down at the dog in his lap, Harry realized that during his conversation with Stan, the dog had stayed oddly quiet and very still. Perhaps the bus ride was making the dog nervous.
...
Author's Note: Once upon a time, I decided to write a story and upload it to this site. Unfortunately, I did something stupid and didn't backup the document that had much of the story (and notes for the story) written. My hard drive crashed and I lost everything I did on the story - I got discouraged and since I was starting up classes as a freshman in college, suddenly I didn't have the time to devote to writing more on the story I had lost. I got a new (more professional) email address and continued on as if I never wrote any fanfiction.
Years passed and I graduated college. In my reminiscing about my life before and during college, I (for some odd reason) decided to check out my old email addresses (yes, plural - I had some really weird email address names) and I found reviews for the story I had once written. Encouraged once again (and also bored - I'm living with my and still looking for career-type employment – but hopefully I'll have the opportunity to move out soon), I decided to see if I still had it in me to write some Harry Potter fanfiction. Somewhat embarrassed by the way my story had been written, I decided to scrap it completely and rewrite the whole thing - taking bits and pieces from what I'd written before, but changing the overall tone and writing style of the story. (And yes, this is a rewrite of See Who I Am)
I was going to wait to publish any of this until I had finished writing the entire story, but as I was writing, I kept having second thoughts about the actually putting this story out there (I'm not so confident with my writing style – I studied Communications, not English, not Writing, and not Literature – and let's just say I wasn't too hot in my compulsory English class). But I decide to go ahead and publish the first chapter now so that I couldn't back out of it later. I've already got over 23,000 words written for this story and I'm still writing on a semi-regular basis.
I will update this story slowly to allow myself time to proofread over the chapters I've already written and also to allow me to have a few chapters pre-written so that if "life happens", I'll still be able to update this story on a fairly regular basis. (And, so far, I plan to upload a chapter every week – though depending on how fast I can write, it might end up changing to every other week)
Also, while I'll try to, for the most part, stick to canon events, there will be differences between what actually happened in the Prisoner of Azkaban book/movie and what happens in this fic (mainly because it's been a while since I actually read the third book and watched the movie – so while I remember most of what occurred, I have forgotten some stuff and I'm not all that keen on looking up the specifics – just general instances or events). And as this story progresses, the changes that have happened (as opposed to what happened in canon) will ultimately lead this story away from some major canon events.
Any mistakes, grammar or otherwise, are my own. Let me know if you see anything that you think needs to be corrected.