Author's Note: The idea for this story came to me a couple days ago while I was petting my cat. The characters belong to J.K. Rowling, I'm just borrowing them.
Six year old Harry Potter was playing in the yard of number 4 Privet Drive. It was a warm spring evening, with a gentle breeze that carried the scent of new grass and blooming flowers. Harry enjoyed days like this, it allowed him to get out of the house and away from the watchful eye of his Aunt Petunia. If he was in the house she would undoubtedly make him do some kind of chore, or make him stay in his cupboard under the stairs.
Harry had been getting the feeling that he was being watched. He looked around the yard warily, hoping that his cousin Dudley and his friends hadn't come to pick on him. To his relief, there was nobody around, except for a cat that was sitting on the wall.
The cat was a beautiful silver tabby that had green eyes and peculiar markings around the eyes. Harry had seen the cat hanging around the house before. There were times that Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon could be heard yelling at the cat to go away; neither one was fond of cats. This didn't bother the cat or keep it away from the yard. Harry had the feeling that the cat was keeping an eye on number 4; but that was an absurd thought, because it was just a cat. It probably belonged to a neighbor, and it liked the yard of number 4 for some reason. The cat's presence annoyed his aunt and uncle, but Harry didn't mind, because it seemed like a friendly cat.
Harry looked at the cat for a few moments, and the cat looked back at him. Looking into those eyes gave Harry a strange feeling. There was a strange quality about those eyes, an almost human quality. Again, Harry shook the thoughts out of his head. It was just a cat.
Harry really wanted to pet the cat and see if it was as friendly as he thought it was. "Here kitty," he said. Harry was delighted when the cat jumped down from the wall and walked up to him. The cat was even prettier up close; he could see the beautiful silver and black coat better. Up close, the markings around the cat's eyes looked like glasses to Harry. He had never seen a cat with glasses markings around the eyes. Harry put his hand to show the cat that he was harmless, and the cat rubbed its head against it. Harry smiled; the cat was friendly.
"You're a sweet kitty, aren't you?" he said softly to the cat as he scratched it behind the ears. The cat began to purr, and rubbed against Harry's legs.
Harry petted the cat for about 5 minutes when he heard a man say "There you are Minerva."
Harry looked up to see the strangest man he had ever seen. He was tall, with long silver hair and an equally long silver beard. There was a pair of half-moon spectacles perched on his crooked nose. But the strangest thing about the man was the way he was dressed. He was wearing long robes that were midnight blue. Harry had never seen anybody dressed like this, and he had the feeling that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would not approve of this man. They did not approve of anything that wasn't considered normal.
"Is this your cat?" Harry asked the man.
The man's eyes twinkled for a moment (Harry didn't know that was possible), and he responded, "Yes, I guess you could say she is."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were looking for her," Harry said.
"Don't be sorry, I wasn't too worried about her. She can take care of herself. She seems to like you," the man said with a smile, as Minerva once again rubbed against Harry's legs.
"She's really friendly," Harry said to the man.
"Yes she is. Come on, Minerva, it's time to go."
Harry petted the cat one more time and watched her walk over to the man in the robes. Harry was sad to see the cat leave. Harry had a feeling, however, that he would see the cat again someday.
"Bye, Minerva. Bye mister," Harry called after them.
The man smiled and waved to Harry, and then he and the cat walked to the end of Privet Drive and disappeared from Harry's view. He thought he heard a faint pop, before Aunt Petunia called and told him that dinner was ready.
Five years later, Harry Potter sat in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, just after being sorted into Gryffindor. He looked along the staff table at the people that would soon be teaching him all about magic. Harry stopped at the silver haired and bearded man with the half-moon spectacles, Albus Dumbledore. He looked so familiar, Harry was sure he had seen him before. A memory of a silver tabby, and a man in robes came back to Harry. Harry's eyes slid to Professor McGonagall, who had just finished with the sorting and sat down next to Dumbledore. She had green eyes, the exact shade of the cat's eyes. They both looked at Harry at that moment; McGonagall gave him a small smile, and Dumbledore winked. Harry smiled back at them, and turned his eyes back to the delicious food in front of him.
The next day, in Harry's first Transfiguration lesson, Professor McGonagall told the class that she was animagus, or a person that could change into an animal. She demonstrated this by changing into a cat, then changed back to applause from the class.. Harry gasped when he saw her animagus form; she was the cat from his memory!
Harry's time with his aunt and uncle was far from happy. He often wondered why he had to stay with them, when they obviously didn't care about him, and he often wondered if anybody cared. The moment he saw McGonagall's cat form, he thought about the times he had seen her, and that day that she let him pet her, and Harry smiled. Somebody had cared after all.