Author's Note:

Hello world! Sorry I haven't updated this story in a while. I've had the actual idea for the chapter for a while and just decided to write it when I saw someone wanted an update. It's poorly written in the middle, but I hope you all enjoy just the same. Bye!

Chapter Six: Last Rodeo

Four years later… Harry's P.O.V

I watched as Aunt Rose ran around the house, putting Holly in the playpen and the triplets in bed. They had caught the flu after I had come down with it last week. Uncle Padfoot was going to take me to the rodeo today so I could try and get the blue ribbon this year. After that we were going straight home to wait for my acceptance letter from Griffin Academy. Since I was the first person in the whole family to go to the academy, we had no idea how the letter was going to be delivered. I just can't wait to go and tell Aunt Rose and Uncle Padfoot about everything!

"Go get your hat buddy," Uncle Padfoot said, "Then go wait in the truck. I've got to get Butterscotch on the trailer and then we'll be off, okay?"

I just nodded and ran upstairs to grab my rodeo hat. It was dark brown with a green stripe wrapped around it. Aunt Rose said it was my Mom's and that she used to go to rodeos as a child. She actually loved mutton racing, riding on a sheep to race or to see how long you could hold on. She was more of the racer, not particularly liking the falling off part of holding on. It must have been larger on her when she was a child, but it fit me perfectly now.

"Have fun Harry!" Aunt Rose shouted as I ran out the door, "Try and bring home that blue ribbon this year!"

"I will Aunt Rose!" I shouted as the door shut, "And there is no way I'm losing to that cocky Randy Degross this year," I added as I hopped into the truck.

Randy Degross was an eleven-year-old barrel racer like me. He has this wavy blonde hair and brown eyes that make all the girls swoon. At least all the girls, except my best friend, Georgia Harley, the one girl he actually likes and wants to be his girlfriend when he's older. She's a witch and Randy is a muggle, thank Merlin. If I had to go to school with that idiot I think I might blow my brains out. Randy won all the barrel races before I joined the circuit three years ago. He almost beat me last year because someone had thrown some paper in my face, but the officials decided to let me try again because I was blinded and almost fell of my horse because of it. I have a sneaking suspicion that Randy was the one who had thrown it or that he had someone else throw it for him. I hate him almost as much as Aunt Narcissa hates Draco's dad, Lucius.

Georgia has been my friend since we were two. Her father, her brothers, and her sisters all lived down the road with their grandma, who is good friends with my Aunt Rose. She's got this midnight black hair with a few silver streaks that she had dyed and bright blue eyes. That's how she got her nickname, Husky Dog. She always calls me Midnight Streak because when I race all you can see if a streak of black hair on top of a yellow blur. Her mom died when she was five, she said it was cancer, and she always tells me about her because she was a barrel racer too. Georgia rides the broncos at the rodeo and I'm always scared that she'll get trampled. She's my best friend, how can I not be scared?

"You ready Prongslet?" Uncle Padfoot asked as he climbed in the car.

"Ready as I'll ever be Paddy," I said, playing with my bracelet. I couldn't let Randy win this year. Everyone knew that this was going to be my last rodeo until next summer and I wasn't going to let that little pansy get to me!

When we got to the rodeo I went to go look for Georgia before the competition began. But, instead of finding my best friend, I found the biggest jerk in the whole rodeo. "Hey Pot Head, where are you going?"

"Leave me alone Randy!" I shouted back as I continued my search for Georgia.

"Come on Harry," Randy said, jumping in front of me, "You know you can't beat me this year. You just lucky all the other times you beat me. This time, I'll go home with the blue ribbon and you'll go home and cry to your mommy. Oh wait! You can't because your mom's dead!"

I was about to punch him in the face when someone else did it for me. "Shut your trap Degross!" Georgia shouted, "You should know better than to harass someone, especially about their momma!"

Randy growled at us and walked away, now beginning to sport a black eye. "Thanks Georgia," I said, "If you hadn't punched him I would've,"

"You wouldn't have been able to stop if you had started," Georgia said, "I know you Harry and you would have beat him into a bloody pulp if you had gotten the chance to hit him,"

"I know," I said as we entered the stables, "I would have gotten kicked out the competition too,"

She left once I had found Uncle Padfoot and we spent a good ten minutes getting Butterscotch ready. As I finished running the brush through her mane Uncle Padfoot growled and turned into a dog. "What is it Paddy?" I asked trying to look out the padlock to see what was bothering him.

He barked and I hid in the corner, knowing that his bark meant that something that could hurt me was coming. There was only one other time Uncle Padfoot had done something like this and I really didn't want to go a second round.

Flashback:

A six-year-old Harry was sitting alone in the barn, mourning the loss of his pony Hot Chocolate. No one had been able to comfort the young boy and his aunt was becoming more worried with each day passing. Harry heard a nicker and looked over to the sound, half expecting his long lost pony to be standing at the front of the barn waiting to ride. Harry sighed as he realized it was just Prongs, Uncle Padfoot's horse. He was out of food and it was Harry's job to feed and water the horses today.

Harry reluctantly stood and grabbed the grain to dump into his feeding dish. He heard hysterical barking from the front of the barn and assumed that Uncle Padfoot was playing with the triplets and one of them was going to close to the tractor for his liking. He rolled his eyes at his cousins' antics and continued the chore of feeding the horses.

Uncle Padfoot's barking was becoming more and more frantic as the seconds ticked by. Harry could feel hot breath on his neck as he finished dumping the grain into Twilight's, Lyra's pony, feeding bin. There was a deep growl, one he knew Uncle Padfoot couldn't do.

He slowly turned around and felt like fainting. In front of him was a large black bear and it appeared to be extremely angry. Harry stayed dead still, knowing any sudden movements could get him killed. Then there was the fact that he was paralyzed with fear.

Uncle Padfoot came charging into the barn and attacked the bear, but not before the bear managed to get one swipe at Harry. He fell, clutching his now burning face. He could hear the fight going on between his Uncle and the black bear but could do nothing but hold his bleeding head. He worried about his Uncle's safety as much as he worried for the bear for Harry hated for anything to be hurt or killed. It was just who he was.

Soon the sounds stopped and Harry was able to look out from between bloodied fingers. He could see the bear lumbering away and his Uncle growling at its retreating form, now in his human form. "Paddy," Harry whimpered, catching the young man's attention.

"Hold on Harry," Sirius said, "I'll have you at the hospital in no time at all,"

End of Flashback…

I ran my fingers over the four scars that extended from the top of my right eye to the bottom right of my chin. I had found the bear a few months later, dead in its cave and her babies slowly starving to death. Aunt Rose and I had managed to save the cubs and now they were living in a zoo in Detroit. If this turned out anywhere near as bad as the mama bear, Uncle Padfoot might not make it out alive.

"A dog?" a voice asked, "Wait, this isn't a dog," There was a yelp from Uncle Padfoot. "Well, well, well, it's my former cousin-in-law Sirius Black,"

"Malfoy!" Uncle Padfoot yelled, "Why in the bloody hell are you here?"

"I heard that young Mr. Potter was friends with my little Draco," he said, "I was wondering if he would be willing to introduce me to him,"

"No way in hell would I do that," I muttered under my breath so they wouldn't hear me.

"Why do you want him all of a sudden?" Uncle Padfoot asked, "You abandoned him and his mother years ago and they've been doing fine without you. Narcissa is actually about to marry in a few months, you can't possibly want Draco to end her relationship so you can leave Jennifer,"

"I don't wish to have Narcissa back," the man said, "You see Jennifer has been a very good and loyal wife. Very much like your Rose. But, unlike Rose, she hasn't bore a male heir. She's given me three beautiful daughters and is expecting to bring a fourth child into our lives in a few weeks. But I highly doubt it's the heir that I have been waiting for, so it's only natural for me to reclaim the only male heir I have. In this case, it happens to be Draco. So, are you willing to point me in the direction of my son?"

"I will when hell freezes over you bloody prick!" I cowered in the corner. I have only heard Uncle Padfoot use English curses twice before and when he said them he was really angry. He actually put a man in the hospital for three months before because they made him angry.

I yelped as the man drug me out of the stall. He looked almost identical to Draco but completely different too. This man was pale and not very muscular and Draco was tan and was the strongest out of all of us. Mr. Malfoy's eyes were hard and cold, where Draco's were bright and inviting. Draco would never feel comfortable living with this man; he would end up running away and getting himself hurt. "I am so not showing you Dray," I said, "You ain't his daddy,"

"I'm the one who helped bring him into this world," Mr. Malfoy hissed coldly.

"A father can make the child," I said, "But a daddy is the one who loves and raises him. Draco's daddy has been Mr. Andrews since Dray was just a tot. You abandoned him and his mother you asshole!" Then I spit on his shoes.

That had not been the brightest idea I had ever had. Mr. Malfoy grabbed me by the back of my shirt and threw me into Uncle Padfoot, who had been trying to recover from whatever Malfoy had done to him. I stayed still as the two of them fought. Soon the noises had stopped and someone picked me up. "Come on Harry," Uncle Padfoot whispered, "Get up please,"

I opened my eyes to see that Uncle Padfoot had a split lip and his own left eye was starting to swell. "He didn't hurt you to bad, did he Uncle Padfoot?" I asked.

"No bud," he said and checked me over for any injuries. When he was done he led me back to the stall and I took Butterscotch out to the arena. I could see Randy finishing up his rounds and moments later the judge announced his time of fifteen point six seconds, which was a pretty average time. I could see the black eye and I couldn't help but let a chuckle out. He was always claiming to be high and mighty, but a girl could knock him out in no time at all.

As we approached the starting line, I spotted Mr. Malfoy watching the rodeo. I looked at Uncle Padfoot, then back to Mr. Malfoy and back to him again. Uncle Padfoot saw him and left, probably to tell Aunt Sissy and security. "Now we welcome our next contestant, Harry Potter!" the announcer yelled, "Better watch close folks or you might miss the show!"

I couldn't help but smirk. He was exaggerating and everyone knew it, but they knew that they would get a good show. I stroked Butterscotch's neck and leaned down to her ear. "Let's give them one last show girl," I said, "It needs to be a good one because we won't be in this ring for a while,"

She snorted and started pawing at the ground. I grinned at her antics. She loved a good run, especially if it was a race. I looked over again and saw Mr. Malfoy being led away and, a couple of rows ahead, saw Georgia and Draco cheering. I could see Ron and Neville too, Ron sporting a black eye. He'd probably got to close and a horse kicked him or had run into Randy. It wasn't an odd occurrence to see them fighting.

The beginning shot rang out and we were dashing for the first barrel. I could hear the music playing in the background and everyone cheering. Butterscotch easily ran around the barrel and started aiming for the second one. She knew the clover pattern by heart and she had never failed to get around them since we started the big time racing. She was a great horse and I was going to be sad when she retired.

Racing around the last barrel and rushing for the finish line, I saw something odd. There was something silver on the ground where we were heading. I tried to make her turn a little so we wouldn't hit it but she couldn't turn. She knew this last part was a straight line and she refused to turn. I braced myself for something to happen.

The moment we crossed the line a noise resembling a gun shot rang out. Everyone in the crowd began to scream and Butterscotch started bucking like a bronco. I grabbed the saddle and held on tight, hoping that I wouldn't fall off and get hit in the head. It had happen before and I had been unconscious for nearly two days. When I woke up, I didn't look too pretty.

I could see the rodeo clowns rushing out to get Butterscotch under control and the police officers grabbing the silver thing. I was losing my grip and I screamed. One of the rodeo clowns grabbed me and pulled me off the horse, but not before she managed to give me a good kick to the leg. There was a loud crack as she connected the hit and I couldn't help but scream again. Getting kick full force by an agitated horse is one of the most painful things that could happen to someone.

The rodeo clown handed me to a police officer and I could see the others struggling to get Butterscotch into her trailer. I whimpered when he moved my leg. It hurt and I knew it was broken. There was no way it wasn't broken. I just wanted my Uncle Padfoot; he'd know what to do. He'd be able to calm me down.

"Harry!" I heard him yell. "Harry! Where are you?"

"I'm over here!" I yelled. The police officer handed me over to a paramedic when Uncle Padfoot found me. He stayed right by my side as they loaded me onto the ambulance.

"It hurts," I whimpered when someone accidently bumped my leg.

"I know it does bud," Uncle Padfoot said, "We'll get you to the hospital and they'll fix you right up,"

I knew we were heading for the muggle hospital nearby and that I wouldn't be able to heal as quickly there as I could in St. August. I felt sleepy and couldn't help but shut my eyes and welcome the painless darkness.