Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I do not have any rights to Harry Potter and I do not make any money from writing these fic's.

A/N: Written for Remi's Random AU Challenge with my AU being a different ending. This is about what if instead of being hailed as a hero and getting the girl in the end Harry was pushed aside and ignored?

Chapter 3

At those words Harry suddenly found himself looking at what seemed to be a normal pet shop but with a more darker tone to it. Instead of bright greens, yellows and reds littering the front of the shop with happy smiling faces there was only the colours black and dark purple as the main colours with golden loopy old fashioned writing. The large bay window which Harry thought would be over crowed with animal cages had been blacked out by paint and magic, written on across the black window in golden loopy writing with a picture of an elegant looking cat was the words 'The Pet Shop'. Looking around more Harry found that the door had the same treatment as the shop front did through no opening times hung in the window like normal shops, there was not even a closed or open sign.

"Professor...I know I agreed to this but something does not feel quite right," Harry admitted softly as he let out a tired sigh, "It does not look-"

"Because it is not a normal pet shop, now come on before we start attracting unwanted attention," Minerva said softly but sternly as she guided him towards the shop door, "Remember, do not judge anything at first glance."

At the pointed look Minerva sent him Harry quickly nodded his head while making sure that his hood did not fall off. Without a single word spoken Harry tired the door only to feel a strange tickling sensation go through his whole body before a soft almost unhearable click to come to his ears.

"What was that?" Harry asked as he quickly pulled his hand off of the handle and tried to walk away only to find he was blocked by Minerva, "Did you hear that clicking sound? What was it? Do you think it was dark magic?"

"It was just the wards adjusting themselves so you could enter while alerting my friend of your arrival," Minerva said calmly as she shot Harry a dry look, "I would be careful you are starting to become as bad as Alastor Moody."

"Well we are doing all of this during the night," Harry said ignoring the look Minerva sent him, "So...can we go in now? Is it safe?"

"It is perfectly safe, and knowing my friend she is waiting on the other side with a tray of tea and biscuits and the potion I told you about," Minerva said with a fond look as she described her friend.

"Okay...but won't your friend be angry about being woken up at this time of night?" Harry asked as he pushed the shop door open, "Or be angry that we did not wait for morning or-"

"I am not angry at you for anything Mr. Potter, I am only sorry that we had to meet under this sort of situation," a silky soft voice said as their voice came through the half open shop door.

At the voice Harry found his whole body frozen in place, he twisted his wrist slightly, through no one could see thanks to the cloak, causing his wand to come out of its holder on his arm and into his hand. Without realising just what he was doing Harry slowly and quietly pushed the door open using his experience in the war.

Standing calmly in the middle of the shop with an amused expression on their face was a young woman with long straight black hair that reached down to the floor framed her body like a protective blanket. Ruby red lips and expressive but blank black eyes stood out on a chalky white face that looked as if it was made out of marble. The woman's tall, slender and thin but healthy figure was covered by long black robes that reached the floor with a beautiful pattern of red roses and their green steams slowly going up her robes that stood out with an unearthly elegance. To Harry the woman looked too beautiful and delicate to be human.

"Lyla my dear friend it is a pleasure to see you again," Minerva said softly as she gave her friend a welcoming smile from her spot behind Harry in the door way, "It looks like you have not aged a day, just like the last few times I have visited you. How do you manage it?"

"It is a gift I suppose," the woman, Lyla, said with a playful smile before turning her gaze to Harry, "I see, you are the one who has come here in search of an owner and home."

"How did you know?" Harry asked as his whole body tensed up.

"I know many things young one," Lyla said with a mysterious smile that seemed to fit perfectly on her face, "I know that you wish to escape the fame, I know that you wish to find true happiness with the one meant for you. I know what you will become once you drink my magical potion."

"And just what will I become?" Harry asked stiffly as he eyed the strange woman while staying glued to his spot in the shop door way.

"Why to find out the answer to that question my dear pet you will have to drink the potion and sign the paperwork," Lyla replied with an innocent smile through Harry could see something else...something hidden behind the smile, "How about we start by you and Minerva entering my shop instead of just standing in the doorway? We do not want to attract unwanted attention now do we?"

Feeling the slight push on his back from his transfiguration professor Harry stumbled forwards a few steps before slowly entering the shop and looking around carefully while keeping a close eye on the woman.

The shop was just as strange as the outside of the pet shop, walls were completely bare and only covered in blood red paint with the same strange golden painted patterns that the outside of the shop had. The only furniture was a table in the corner of the shop with an old fashioned till on it that looked as if it came from the Victorian era. Behind the till sat a large red cushion the size of a medium table with golden tassels and lingering while a plain and simple doorway without a door stood behind both the till and the cushion.

"What are you guarding?" Harry asked as his eyes turned back to Lyla only to find a black table with a complete tea set, a selection of food consisting of small sandwiches, chocolate and biscuits and what could only be the potion Harry had heard so much about along with a single piece of parchment and a large long black quill through Harry could not place just what sort of bird it had come from, "When did that appear?"

"When you were looking away," Lyla said playfully only for a strange smile to appear on her china doll like face when Harry glared at her.

"Oh Lyla, you are still the same. It seems that some things never seem to change, I still have not figured out how you do half of what you do," Minerva said with a soft chuckle as she stepped out from behind Harry and walked towards her long time friend, "I have to ask for you to stop playing around with Harry, it has been a very long night and I wish for everything to be settled before anyone can put a stop to this."

"I was not playing games, I was merely testing young Mr. Potter so I knew where to place him," Lyla answered calmly as if she had not just been given a telling off by Minerva, "It seems that I will be placing him in the angen mawr area."

"What is the angen mawr area?" Harry asked carefully as his eyes followed every movement of the strange pet shop owner.

"It is one of the many areas where the...pet's are kept until they find their true owners," Lyla replied calmly as she took the parchment and black quill off of the table, "The area is a large comfortable forest with a lake, several clearings and some hidden areas. The weather is comfortable and calm and you will receive almost constant care...unlike the other areas where my pet's are kept. The angen mawr area is also where my more...special cases go."

"I think that this is the most I have ever heard you talk Lyla," Minerva said teasingly shocking Harry slightly, for some reason Harry thought that there was a story hiding from him that explained Minerva's strange out of character behaviour.

"Yes, well when the need for it comes I will, I do not see the point of needless words. After all words can be just as powerful as swords and daggers," Lyla said as she offered Harry the parchment and quill, "I believe that Minerva and myself has already explained everything that is written down so all we need is a simple signature to formulise the agreement before we can carry on."

Making sure to keep one eye on Lyla Harry quickly scanned the contract while making sure that there was nothing he should not sign or extra bits added into the contract. Finding none and only what Professor McGonagall and the pet shop owner had told him Harry decided to sign the contract but he had no ink.

"It is a self inking quill, Lyla stated as if reading Harry's thoughts, "It is not a blood quill."

Not trusting his voice Harry simply nodded his head and signed the parchment only for it to somehow be elegantly snatched off of him and the potion that would turn him into the magical creature he would become to be shoved into his hands. Looking closely at the important potion Harry found it to be just like Professor McGonagall had described it, the simple blue and purple looking liquid with golden sand like liquid in the centre seemed so innocent looking but Harry knew otherwise.

Taking a deep breath Harry put his wand away, carefully pulled out the cork and drank the potion in one single gulp. The next thing Harry knew was the sound of shattering glass on the floor as pain suddenly hit him, it was pain on a whole new level like he had never thought before.

"The transformation has began," Lyla said with a smug tone through her words were not heard as a large amount of pain hit Harry causing him to fall to the ground, narrowly missing the broken glass on the ground.

To Be Continued...

Been playing around with the idea of making Harry either a Kitsune or a Neko.