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 1: Just to stop the confusion I live in the UK and I know the UK way of crocheting so I am using the UK method of crocheting so to me a Single Crochet in patterns mean a double crochet.

Chapter Twenty-One

"You mean you are going to take me away from here?" Harry blurted out with hope dancing brightly in his eyes as he looked up at Epemetheus with just hope, with just trust that it made the tiger demon want to promise the little one the whole world.

"Yes, yes I am, when I found out what was going on I came to get you right away," Epemetheus said quickly hopping to gain the child's trust, "A dear friend of mine used a special spell on me to turn me into a kitten so I could be allowed into the house, even though it was as your cousin's pet kitten, so I could find a way to help you. I promise you Harry that you will no longer be beaten or hurt ever again. I will protect you."

Harry let out a chocked sob as tears gathered in his eyes threatening to fall, as Epemetheus' words slowly sunk into Harry's mind he lost the battle and the tears freely flowed out of his eyes. Unable to say anything as the emotions running through his body was to strong Harry held up his arms in a universal gesture to be picked up, he needed some type of comfort at this moment and did not care about being called a baby. Smiling softly at his little kitten's actions Epemetheus reached out slowly and carefully making sure that Harry knew well in advance what he was going to do and pulled Harry up onto his lap.

"Everything is going to be alright, I promise you I will protect you from now on," Epemetheus promised as he hugged Harry tightly making Harry almost melt into the muscular chest, this was only the second time in his life he could remember being held with just tenderness and unconditional love, "Everything is going to be okay, I promise, from now on I'm sticking to this form mostly so I can help you."

Sniffling Harry simply turned and burred his face in Epemetheus' chest causing the older male to let out a sigh and start running his hand through the child's raven black locks. Safe in the warmth and protection of Epemetheus' arms Harry finally allowed himself to let go of all the pain and suffering that he had kept deep inside of him, with each tear that fell Harry felt himself feeling lighter and better then he had in a long time.

Harry was finally being allowed to start healing, even if a very small part of Harry's mind told him that Epemetheus' words where nothing but empty promises his heart knew the truth and his heart trusted Epemetheus.

"Harry...you are not only a wizard but you are also a magical creature," Epemetheus said carefully as he tried to chose his words carefully, he did not want Harry to think he was some sort of monster for the rest of his life just because Epemetheus had chosen the wrong words when explaining just what he was, "You are not a monster or a freak or anything of the sort okay? You are a Black Tiger Demon, just like me and my friend Matsuo."

"Black Tiger Demon?" Harry replied with a questioning look on his face as he repeated Epemetheus' words, "What are they?"

"Well...take me for example, I am a Black Tiger Demon and I have two forms, I am in my human form right now, I look mostly like a human but I have these ears and this tail," Epemetheus explained as he pointed to the ears on the top of his head and to his tail that was lazily moving about behind him, "You have a pair of ears and a tail just like me but someone put a spell on you making them invisible but when the spell is removed you will be able to see them. The other form is a tiger, it looks like a normal tiger but instead of being orange with red stripes it is a smoky black/grey colour with black stripes, this is because we are a black tiger demon and not just a tiger demon. Do you understand?"

"I think so, we are tigers and we have black fur not orange and my ears and tail are hiding," Harry replied with a small frown on his face, he was used to trying to work complex matters out and finding out large amounts of surprising information all at once as the Dursley's tended to not to tell him much if anything at all, "And you are going to take me away from my aunt and uncle and we are going to live somewhere else with a person called Ma...Mat...Matt...Masutoie!"

"It is Matsuo," Epemetheus said with a chuckle at Harry's adorable attempts at pronouncing his friend's name, "And that is right, you are very smart for your age kitten."

Epemetheus bit back an awww as Harry's whole face went bright neon red.

"Matous?" Harry said as he tried again only to let out a groan when he realised he had messed up the name once again, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright kitten, I know that it took me a good month of practicing until I managed to say Matsuo's name correctly and even now after all of these years I find myself still messing up his name some times," Epemetheus said comfortingly as he rubbed Harry's back, hiding his anger at how thin his little one was, "How about for now you just call him Mat?"

"Mat? But isn't that rude?" Harry asked nervously as he shyly looked up at Epemetheus , "I thought you should not call an adult by their first name?"

"Well think of Matsuo and myself as special cases then," Epemetheus said kindly, he did not want to tell the little one quiet yet about his plans of making him his official kitten as he was worried it might be a bit to much plus he wanted to talk to his mother and Matsuo about adopting Harry first too, "You can call me Ep and Matsuo Mat, we are your Ep and Mat. We will be the ones looking after you all the time unless we are at work."

"Do...do you think that...Mat...would mind me calling him Mat?" Harry asked shyly as his small hands reached up and clinged tightly to Epemetheus, "I don't want to upset you or him...not after you have been so nice to me."

"Nice to you kitten?" Epemetheus asked as he tilted his head in confusion.

"Yes! You have been really nice to me!" Harry replied passionately as he gave Epemetheus a serious look, or a look that was as serious as a seven year old child could, "You are taking me away from my aunt and uncle, you are giving me somewhere new to live, you and Mr. Mat are going to be looking after me and taking care of me and-"

"How on earth did you come up with all of that?" Epemetheus asked with wide eyes as he looked at Harry in a new light, "You really caught on fast."

"Of course I did," Harry replied as he let out a huff and pouted at Epemetheus , "I might be seven years old but I'm not an idiot!"

At Harry's comment Epemetheus tilted his head backwards and let out a loud roaring laugh causing Harry to let out a mouse like squeak and look up at Epemetheus with wide shocked eyes.

"Errr...Ep sir?" Harry asked carefully as he watched Epemetheus try to get his laughter under control, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine kitten, I'm just surprised at your words," Epemetheus said with a playful grin on his face as he pulled Harry into a tight parental hug, "You are so adorable and smart! I hope Matsuo and mother let me keep you!"

"I am not a toy or animal," Harry said with a glare only for it to be ruined by how he was snuggling and leaning into Epemetheus ' hug.

"I know little one I know," Epemetheus said softly and fondly as he placed a kiss on the top of Harry's head, "I just can't help myself sometimes, you are so adorable and you will even be more adorable when we make your ears and tail visible again."

"Are you sure that you cannot just remove the magic thingie from me now?" Harry asked while trying to hide his excitement, "We could do it now while you are thinking about it."

"Nice try kitten but no can do," Epemetheus said ruffling Harry's already messy hair, "There is already a problem with magic here, the spell that Matsuo placed on me was meant to keep me in the kitten form for a day or two more and then I could become a human once again and start changing forms once again but for some reason there is a strange foreign magic in the area that I picked up on last night when I used my demon magic. I do not know what this magic is and I do not want to tempt fate, everything is going well for us at the moment and I do not want to cause us any problems. I will make your ears and tail visible again when we get to the manor where Matsuo, I, and now you live."

"Strange magic?" Harry asked as a thoughtful expression crossed over his face, "I don't know anything about magic beyond what you told me but...do you think that the strange magic has something to do with the strange people?"

"Strange people?" Epemetheus asked as his playful nature suddenly disappearing and being replaced by a serious and more protective one, no one threatened his kitten and got away with it or even tried to threaten his kitten.

"Yeah, strange people," Harry replied with a nod of his head, "They go around wearing these strange clothes and they look like they have on a strange type of dress and they look like they think they fit in and look like everyone else but they stand out like one of my crochet books in my cousins bedroom."

"Damn wand wavers," Epemetheus snarled out as he all but spat the words out, "What are they doing here?"

"Wand Wavers?" Harry asked only to gasp out in shock and flinch, he had broken a rule, he had asked a question, Epemetheus would be so angry at him now.

"Yeah, those stupid Wand Wavers and us Black Tiger Demon's do not really go together very well, man how do I explain the last war to a seven year old child?" Epemetheus asked himself with a sigh.

Harry watched with fear building inside of him as Epemetheus raised his hand once again and moved it towards him. Preparing himself for the worse Harry braced himself for his punishment only to find Epemetheus placing his hand on top of his head. Blinking in confusion and shock Harry nervously looked up into Epemetheus' eyes only to gasp at what he saw.

Anger, pure anger.

To Be Continued...

Sorry about the slow updates, there is a heat wave going on where I live and I'm worried about overheating my laptop so I'm being careful. I don't know if anyone would be interested in this but would anyone like me to write another story about Harry being able to knit? I don't know as much about knitting as I do about crochet but if you want I could give it ago if anyone is interested.