A.N. I'd like to say that I am deeply saddened by the recent death of Richard Harris (A.K.A. Albus Dumbledore)

Thank you to everyone who reviewed!

Malena

Sirius bolted across the yard, towards the barn. If anything happened to Harry… he didn't want to think about it…

As he wrenched the door open he heard a popping sound. The room was dark, and there were animals panicking everywhere. He could see a small figure lying on the ground, near some of the pens.

"Harry!" Sirius yelled, running over to the boy. He pulled Harry into a sitting position and leaned him against his chest. Harry's eyes were closed, but he was breathing.

"Harry, speak to me!" Sirius said, jostling Harry slightly. "C'mon Harry."

He didn't respond.

Sirius scooped the boy up, and turned around, finding the whole family there. Sirius quickly muttered something about allergies, before running out of the house. When he was out of range, he Disapparated to their new house.

~*~

Peter Pettigrew growled to himself as he stomped around his house. That bastard child had ruined his plans again! Harry was supposed to be dead years ago, and he couldn't let him live any longer than necessary.

It had taken it ages to find out where Black and that child were living. Now they were bound to move almost immediately and he would have to find out where they are all over again… Peter had to have Potter killed before Voldemort came back. Peter knew he was still out there somewhere… he was going to return some day, and if he found that Potter had survived, even with several of his Death Eaters still in the Wizarding world… he was going to be livid.

Peter cursed to himself and slammed his hand down on the kitchen table, making the empty coffee glass he had left there rattle. He ran a hand through his hair, only to find several of them come out of his scalp. And to top it all off, he was going bald!

Remus Lupin walked up the corridor to Professor Dumbledore's office. Something was wrong, and he knew it. His wolf instincts were kicking in, and he could feel something in the air.

Although most of the teachers had retreated to wherever they go during the summer, Remus knew that Dumbledore would still be here.

Before he could knock on the doors he heard Dumbledore's voice from inside.

"Come in Remus."

Then the doors opened without him so much as moving. Remus slowly took a step into the room, only to find him several people staring at him.

"Hello Remus," Dumbledore said pleasantly. "May we help you with something?"

Remus looked around to see if he recognized anyone. Was that Alastor Moody? And… Arabella Figg? Something had to be wrong.

"I was… just coming to chat," Remus said, forcing a smile.

"Don't worry Mr. Lupin," Moody growled. "We felt it too."

"Something's gone wrong in the world…" Arabella said quietly. "Several of the centaurs are restless."

"Care to give any insight?" Asked someone whom Remus didn't recognize.

"I just… felt something…" Remus said slowly.

"Well, that was informative," sneered someone else. Remus turned, and found he was staring at Lucius Malfoy. Next to him was a small boy.

"Might as well escape while you can," Lucius laughed slightly, a laugh so cold that it sent shivers down Remus' spine. "These people will talk your ears off if you don't get away soon."

"Mr. Malfoy here was just coming to talk about his son," Albus said lightly, ignoring Moody's growls. "Have you met his son, Draco? He will be attending Hogwarts in a few years."

"No," Remus said, forcing another smile. "I haven't had the pleasure."

"Don't get any ideas, Lupin," Lucius snarled. "If you're still teaching here I might just reconsider sending Draco here."

The boy, who looked to be about 7 or 8 years old, glared up at Remus in the exact same fashion of his father. Surely a Slytherin…

Remus' smile faded and he turned to Dumbledore. Moody and one of the other wizards were arguing with each other, while a few of the other people just watched in interest.

"I tell you something is going to happen. It might not be soon, and it might be. We can't tell!" Moody yelled.

"Honestly Alastor, we have no definite proof that anything is going to happen!" Yelled the wizard. "It's just a silly feeling in the pit of our stomachs! We have no proof!"

"Xavier, Alastor, please calm down," Dumbledore said, looking thoroughly amused. "I'm afraid that we must wrap up our discussion, for Mr. Malfoy seems to be getting very impatient. I bid all of you good day."

The small group walked outside, including Lupin, who hadn't even had a chance to talk to Dumbledore.

"I don't care what Dumbledore says," Moody growled. "Something's up. There's an unusual amount of Dark Magic going on, and I'm going to find out what's going on."

Sirius put Harry's limp form on the living room couch of their new home. The boy was still unconscious and was showing no sign of waking. Sirius gently shook his godson's shoulders, trying to coax him awake.

"Come on Harry, wake up…" Sirius sighed. "What on earth happened?" He added, more to himself than Harry. Sirius Summoned a blanket and covered Harry with it, then sat in a chair, and watched his godson all night.


~*~

"Is he awake yet?"

"No."

"Is he awake yet?"

"No."

"Is he-"

"For the last time Cam! No! He's not awake yet!"

"…How 'bout now?"

Harry's eyes flickered open, and then he jumped back. Cameron's face was only inches away from his.

"I think he's awake," Cameron said.

"Cameron?" Harry said groggily. "What're you doing here?"

"Sirius invited us after he said you were unconscious," the girl replied. "He was freaking out. I never heard his voice get so high and squea-"

"That's enough Cam," Sandy said. "Sirius! Harry's up!"

In an instant Sirius came skidding into the living room, before jumping over one of the chairs and falling to his knees beside Harry.

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked desperately.

"I'm fine," Harry said uncertainly. He sat up slightly, testing to see if his muscles worked. "Where are my glasses?"

"They're right here," Sirius said, putting them on Harry's face and nearly poking his godson in the eye. "Harry, what happened? In the barn?"

Harry stared at Sirius for a moment, before frowning and looking at the floor.

"I was… I was in there with Jake and Mark. They were showing me one of the pigs," Harry said. "We heard a noise. Sort of a scratching."

"Do you know what it was?"

"No. We thought it was a goat or something, but we weren't sure." Harry swallowed and continued. "Then, we saw this rat…"

Sirius's eyes got wide, before narrowing suddenly. "And?"

"The rat… the rat started to change," Harry replied slowly. "Mark and Jake had started going towards a different animal pen, and didn't see any of this… The rat grew bigger, and bigger… Until it turned into a man…"

Sirius put a hand to his mouth and stood up, starting to pace the room.

"And then?"

"The man stared at me, smiled, and took out a wand from his pocket," Harry said. "That's the last thing I remember…"

"Damn him," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Do you… know this man?" Sandy asked.

"Yes. It's Pettigrew."

At those three words Harry's eyes got wide, and Sandy raised an eyebrow.
"Pettigrew? As in the guy who betrayed Harry's parents?" Sandy asked skeptically. "How the hell did he find you?"

Sirius laughed bitterly. "You think I know? That little bas… er… rat works in ways I could never imagine."

"If you need somewhere to stay, you can come to our place," Cameron said instantly.

Sirius gave a small smile. "That's alright. I think we'll stay here for a little while longer. He'll be expecting us to move, anyway."

~*~

Remus Lupin stared up at the night sky. He was on the concrete roof, lying on a towel. He took a deep breath. He could smell exhaust, and garbage from nearly everywhere…. Damn his good sense of smell. While he was teaching he could smell the pheromones off of the older students. Half of the time he walked around with an anti-smell charm on himself. Then he smelled something else… something closer to him than all of the other things.

"Remus?"

Remus jumped as Peter's face appeared above his own.

"Peter? What are you doing here?"

"I just decided to check in on you," Peter replied, giving a small smile. "Something wrong?"

"No…" Remus said uneasily. "I just had a weird feeling today…. Is something wrong?"

"No," Peter said defensively. Remus raised an eyebrow and lightly sniffed. He smelled… pigs? And hay? Where had Peter been?

"How were your errands yesterday?" Remus asked lightly.

"Oh? They were fine."

"What'd you get?" Remus asked.

"… shampoo."

"Shampoo?"

"Yes…. To see if it would help my hair problem," Peter said. He never was a very good liar.

"What're you doing up here?" Peter asked, hastily changing the subject.

"Just thinking," Remus replied. "Full moon's in a couple of days."

"You're right," Peter nodded. "Do you need me to be there? Because I might have a date…"

Remus laughed lightly. "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

"All right," Peter said, blushing a little. "Well, I'm just going to go back downstairs…. It's really cold up here."

Remus watched as his friend turned and went inside. Peter had been lying to him, and Remus wanted to know why….

~*~

After a few months Mark and Jake, the two farm boys, had become Harry's friends. Every morning that summer Harry ran out the door and down the dust road to their house, where he would help the family collect chicken eggs and feed the animals. They had loads of cows and bulls, most of them wandering around the pasture, chewing on grass.

The farm boys would show Harry everything that they could do on that farm and in the small town that was nearby, which to Harry, wasn't much. They would play Cops and Robbers in the fields and would go swimming down in a nearby stream. They would pester Sirius to take them into town so they could see a movie or go to the ice cream shop. Cameron came back to visit a few times, but found Mark and Jake's games absolutely absurd, and stole Harry away so they could talk about magic. Cameron had started learning when she was seven, two years after Harry had started his studies. However, Cameron never missed an opportunity to visit her favorite cow, Helen. Helen was a honey colored bovine, with huge brown eyes that Cameron had fallen in love with. Harry's favorite animals were the new baby pigs.

Then, one seemingly normal day, Harry awoke quite early to the sound of trucks driving past. He jumped out of his old bed and looked out the window. The trucks were stopping at Mark and Jake's house. Harry pulled on some clothes and went dashing outside. Several men had gotten out of the truck and were talking to Roy. Roy made some gesture to the cattle that were outside chewing on their grass, before going back into the house.

Harry ran across their yard and rang the doorbell.

"Mr. Robin," Harry said. "What are they doing to the cows?" The men were now poking the cows with little sticks that made the cows angry and run away.

"They're takin' them to the city," Roy said.

"Why?"

"Because they need the animals to make food," Roy said. Harry's eyes got wide.

"They're-they're going to-"

"Kill them? Yeah, dat's right. And we get a bundle of money for them." Harry just stared at Roy, his mouth hanging open in shock. "Is something wrong Harry?"

Harry just mouthed wordlessly at Roy, before turning on his heel and running all the way back to his house.

~*~

Sirius loaded a few more boxes into the back of their car. He looked around nervously and shrank them, before putting in more boxes. Harry was sitting in the front seat, holding a box on his lap. They were moving again, only a week after Harry had come running into his room, screaming that the animals were going to be killed. Scared the crap out of Sirius when Harry did so, for he was still asleep.

And now they were leaving. Sirius had had enough of farm life, and Harry was going on about cruel and unusual punishment of animals all the time. He had only gone back to the farm once, and that was to say goodbye to Mark and Jake.

Sirius got into the front seat and started the car. As they drove down the highway, neither of them said a word.

"Where are we going now?" Harry asked quietly.

"Monaco," Sirius said. "As soon as we're a safe distance away from here, we'll Apparate."

"Okay."

Silence overwhelmed them again.

"Why don't you study your magic?"

"My books are in the back."

Sirius looked over at the box that sat in Harry's lap. "Then what's in the box?"

Harry looked up at Sirius, before slowly opening the box. Sirius, after making sure there were no oncoming cars that he could crash into, looked inside.

Inside of the box was a little piglet. It was sleeping, making little snorting noises every time it breathed. Sirius slammed his foot on the brake.

"Harry! Why do you have a pig!?"

"I don't want him to get killed!" Harry said earnestly. "Besides, Wilbur doesn't like it at the farm."

"Wilbur?" Sirius said. "Don't give it a name! If you give it a name you'll start getting attached to it."

"Wilbur's my pet," Harry said sternly.

"That's it, we're going back to the farm and returning that thing before you get-"

"Sirius do you want Wilbur to get killed?" Harry said, looking up at Sirius with his eyes going wide.

"Harry, I'm sure that Wilbur will be fine," Sirius sighed. "Come on, we're going back."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"YES."

"NO!"

Sirius stared sternly down at Harry. "You're not having a pig for a pet. Imagine what Wilbur will think when we have pork for dinner."

"That's why I've also decided to become a vegetarian."

Sirius nearly fainted.