IMPORTANT: This is the old version of Harry's Familiars! This story has been adopted by the wonderful Darksurvivor, so head on over to his profile to find the new story.


AN: Hello! This is MagicWarriorDragon, and I welcome you to my first story! I had a ton of fun writing this, but stick with me for the first few paragraphs, please! I don't think those turned out quite how I wanted it to, but I think it gets better halfway through. Enjoy the first chapter of Harry's Familiars!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the associated characters.

The foal, less than an hour old, tried to stand after its latest failed attempt, calling for its mother to help it once again. The foal's mother, a strong dark chestnut colored mare, bent her head down and nudged the colt to its feet. The colt succeeded getting to its feet for the first time. The mother snorted and the colt took a shaky step forward. As it gained confidence in its legs it took another step forward, then another. The stable hand assigned to the care of the mare as it gave birth snickered as he wrote down how long it took the foal to stand.

"This little guy is never going to be worth anything if he's too weak to even stand! We should just get rid of him when no one buys him!" the stable hand commented to the veterinarian standing next to him. The vet was checking over the mare and foal to make sure both were healthy. "Well, both seem to be in fine condition. It doesn't matter to me what you do with him now." The vet left the stable with that parting comment. The stable hand closed up the barn and went home, his shift finished for the day.


Harry was close to collapsing by the time he stopped running. He glanced behind him one last time to check if Dudley and his gang of bullies were still behind him. He breathed out a sign of relief and looked around to see where his feet had taken him. He was leaning against a fence post, and by looking on the other side of the fence he could see all kinds of horses grazing. He continued to gasp for breath and headed toward the only building he saw nearby, a large barn with hay spilling out of the entrance. It was getting dark out and he could hear a car starting up in the distance, probably to take the last worker for the day home.

The barn was warm and should be a fine place to sleep, just for tonight, Harry thought to himself. A sound to his left caused him to investigate. He saw young horse that was running around in its stall, while a horse he assumed was the foal's mother nickered and walked around as much as it could in the cramped stall. Harry sympathized with the horses, thinking of his own "room." Harry's room was a small cupboard under the stairs at his uncle's house, where he was made to cook and clean every day, all the while serving as his Cousin Dudley's punching bag.

Harry opened the stall and let the two horses out of their cramped stall. The dark brown and white colt immediately ran out and started running around the stall. The mare followed her foal, but didn't leave the stall. Harry walked up to the mare and gently pet her for a long while. The foal returned to its mother, hungry for food. Harry gathered straw into a pile and tried to fall asleep. His eyes snapped open again when he felt a body lay down next to his. He still couldn't see anything in the darkness, so he reached out a hand towards the body. He relaxed when he felt the soft fur of the colt. He fell asleep with a smile that night.


Harry's thin frame shivered from the cold as he sat up, his messy mop of black hair falling over his glasses. He looked around his surroundings to find his missing source of warmth, the foal, was getting fed by its mother. "You need a name, little guy! So, I am just going to assume you don't have one and name you myself. I hope that's okay with you." Harry spoke to the unnamed foal for the first time. He knew that it couldn't respond, but continued to speak anyway, "You could be named Norman!" the foal didn't even move its ears towards him. "Okay, not Norman. How about Jeff? No, that's too generic for you. Maybe Mario? Or Widget?" Harry sighed and thought to himself. He looked over at the foal. It was so full of energy and life, yet it was so young and doesn't know true freedom. The foal has never run over miles of field or forest. It had potential to become a powerful, amazing, beautiful creature. "Kane. Your name will be Kane." Harry walked over to the pinto colt. He didn't know much about horses, but he thought it was a beautiful horse.

As Harry walked home he planned out the rest of his day. The first thing that would happen when he walked through the door of his house at number Four Privet Drive would be a confrontation with his Uncle Vernon. Harry's Uncle Vernon was a man that is wider than he is tall, and looks more closely related to a walrus than a human being. After getting yelled at, he would be given an impossibly long list of chores to be completed by the end of the day without a single mistake or imperfection. One of those chores would be to make them dinner, all the while his horse faced aunt screeched at him about a mistake he made with the food and how he would have to redo one of the chores tomorrow because it was done "terribly." Even though he made the ginormous proportions of food his fat whale of an uncle and cousin required, they would lock him in his cupboard without any food again. He would have to try get away with grabbing a few crumbs of food as he cooked it without them noticing, today.

Harry's day ended just as he predicted, and the only noticeable inconsistency to that plan was that he got beaten up by Dudley after he was yelled at by Vernon. He completed most of his assigned chores before getting thrown in his cupboard, but he had managed to snag a small piece of chicken. He ate the chicken after he heard the "click" of the locks outside his cupboard.

"Boy! Get up and make breakfast before you leave for school!" came the screech of his aunt that woke Harry from his restful slumber. The cupboard door opened and Harry emerged, quickly stretching his cramped muscles as he walked toward the kitchen. He cooked a simple meal of bacon and eggs. Then he scurried out of the kitchen after serving the food and took a brief shower.

Slinging his old backpack over his much too large hand-me-down clothes, he walked to school. School was not enjoyable for Harry. If he did anything better than Dudley, he would get in trouble with his aunt and uncle. Harry's cousin wasn't smart in any sense of the word, which meant basically failing everything. He has been considered a delinquent freak everyone he's met more than once, his reputation not helped at all by all the rumors his aunt spreads about him.

He walked into his first class of the day, the teacher glaring at him as he sat down in the far back of his English class. The classes were useless to him, all he did was get yelled at and purposefully fail his work, and because they don't teach him anything. He goes to the library after school every day, the only place he actually learns something. When he goes to the library, he reads books on math, science, English, and geography. He self-taught himself anything he thinks is useful every other day instead of working on those core subjects. The teacher barked out, "Mr. Potter, I do not tolerate day dreaming in my classroom! Why do delinquents like you always want to disturb those of us who are trying to learn skills that will help us live a successful life! Your future of living on the streets may be all but set, but other children's future is being set up now! Go sit out in the hall until your next class!" Sometimes Harry thought his teacher loved nothing more than to hear herself speak. He walked out of the room, tuning out the sound of the other children's snickers and sat outside the classroom. Thoughts of Kane danced through his mind, causing him to day dream during the middle of his teachers boring and unnecessarily long lecture on the different types of figurative language. He really wanted to go visit him, but as it was only Monday, he had to wait until the weekend.

The bell to go to his next class rang, startling him out of his thoughts again and he hurried to his math class. He took the sheet his grumpy math teacher handed to him and sat down, quickly doing all the problems on it correctly before erasing half of the correct answers and making them incorrect so he gets an F on the paper, the best his cousin Dudley would allow him to get. If he got anything higher Dudley would go to his parents and say that Harry cheated off of him and he changed his answers to make Harry's wrong, his normal excuse to his bad grades. Sadly, Harry had almost the exact same daily schedule as his cousin.

His next few classes were uneventful, going almost the exact same way as his math class. When the last bell of the day rang, he practically ran out of the door, being very careful to avoid his cousin and his cousin's gang of bullies. He got lucky today and they didn't chase after him. His first stop was the public library. The librarian barely glanced up from her book, used to him coming in every day.

He went to the non-fiction section to look for anything about horses, wanting to know more about his new, and only, friend. He was very surprised to find out how young his friend was according to the book. He skimmed over a few more books before looking for one on horse care and training, if he wanted to keep his friend. He was terrified at the thought that some random person could walk into that barn and buy Kane.


By Friday, he was buzzing with excitement, and not even Dudley and his gang eyeing him all day caused him to lose his good mood. The bell rang, and he was out of his seat and out of the door before Dudley even realized he was gone. He rang towards the general direction of the barn and was soon there, panting with exhilaration. It was also one of the first times he has ever run for fun and not to escape something.

Harry panicked when he didn't see the happy colt when he first walked into the barn, but calmed down with a chuckle when he noticed the colt running around outside with its mother. The workers only came during the week, leaving extra food out for the horses over the weekend. Walking into the fenced in field, he waited for the horses to notice him. When they slowed down to a walk, Harry greeted them with a smile and a, "Hey Kane! You look like you are having fun. Hello, pretty mare." He knew the fully grown dark chestnut colored mare had a name, so he decided not to try and name her. He pets the still small foal and played with its ears while he thought.

Harry longed for a friend. He has never had one, as Dudley would beat up and threaten anyone who was so much as nice to "a freak like him." The little foal's innocence and willingness to be his friend called out to his very soul. He just didn't want to be alone anymore. The little foal scrunched up his nose and snorted into Harry's chest. "You'll be taller than me at some point, Kane. I hope you'll be my friend forever and ever. Don't ever leave me, please." Harry had crouched down to give the little colt a hug at some point during his speech.

He started playing with the colt, slipping in a few of the foal exercise and brain development games he had read about in the past week. Eventually, both tired but happy, laid down on the ground, Harry's light frame leaning against the small but powerful form of the colt. Harry started to talk as the sun went down over the pasture. He told Kane about his life, his problems, everything. Harry poured his heart out to a creature he knew couldn't understand him. It made him feel so good, so free, to finally get everything off his chest for the first time ever. He talked late into the night. Kane's ears swiveled toward him the entire time, dutifully listening as Harry talked. When Harry finished he got up, Kane following his example. They both go into the barn and bed down, Kane's mother following after a few moments. Harry sleeps there once again in a pile of straw with Kane lying next to him.

AN: How did I do? I am welcome to feedback in the comments section! R&R! :)