A/N: Warning: This is a continuation of the last chapter. As such the severe child abuse warning still applies.

As mentioned in the previous chapter: Aryanna's early childhood is not a nice one. This chapter continues to have abuse and corporal punishment of a child.

The New Princess

The Early Years - Part 5 - Chapter 6

A cat-astrophic battle!

Previously:

Luna wasted no more time. As soon as the door began to open she pounced inside, right through the woman's feet, before she even had the chance to fully open the door.

Using her cat senses to pinpoint the location of where the sounds had come from, she began to sprint toward the still-open door.

From there it was easy. Taking only a split second to pinpoint the location of the man she was looking for - a man who was standing aggressively over a bent-over crying young child with a cane in his hand, - she yowled aggressively and pounced, her sharp claws spread out as sharp as miniature knives, aiming right for the man's face.

And now the continuation:

It all happened in a blur. Vernon was taken completely by surprise. Before he could even hope to react, he suddenly had ten pounds of menacing fluff attached tightly to his face and a sharp pain in his skin.

Luna, the fierce feline protector that she was, wasted no time at all. Quickly seizing the moment of surprise for all it was worth, she stretched her claws out menacingly and then expertly lashed out as only a cat can. Quickly striking a series of long gashes all across her target's face as her claws struck deep and true, she barely missed her opponent's eye in the process before her target even realized she was there.

Her opening salvo completed, she quickly disengaged and jumped off him to land protectively in front of the sobbing and bruised girl she had vowed to protect, leaving Vernon behind alone to clutch at his face and bellow in pain.

Quickly turning to face the girl, wincing at her current state of pain and undress, Luna tried her best to speak kindly to her. "Don't be afraid," she said softly in a soothing voice, hoping to put her more at ease. "He won't hurt you anymore." She carefully hid her anger from the child and turned to face the man who was now staring at her with rage and disbelief.

"It's one of them!" Vernon spat with a mixture of anger and shock as he heard her speak, which then quickly turned into a blind rage.

"How dare you attack me, you filthy beast!"

"How dare you lay your hands on a defenseless child!" Luna retorted, her fur bristling as she made herself look bigger and more intimidating.

"The freak had it coming," Vernon snarled, his face turning purple with fury. He lunged at her, intending to grab her and wring her neck.

But Luna was ready for him. She stood her ground, ready for whatever this man might try to do to her. She dodged his clumsy grasp and scratched his arms and chest with her sharp claws, listening with satisfaction as he cried out once more in pain. She knew that she had to protect the girl behind her at all costs and would not let this man harm her again. The fate of the girl, princess or not - it didn't make a difference, now rested on her shoulders and she would not let her down.

Sobbing in pain, Aryanna tenderly nursed the newest welts she had just received from the awful caning mere moments ago at the hands of her uncle. She could hardly believe what had just happened. Did a cat really attack her Uncle Vernon? And did it just speak? She must be hallucinating from the pain. Cats weren't supposed to talk.

As if out of nowhere, a jet-black cat had appeared and clawed up her uncle's face with lightning speed. Got him real good too, judging by the crisscross of claw marks now plastered across his bleeding cheeks.

Now she was watching in amazement as her Uncle tried to drive the cat away, hollering and swinging his cane wildly and missing each time. It was all so surreal.

Looking towards the cat, imaginary or real, she tried to urge it to escape, to flee while it still could. She knew her uncle hated cats. There was no doubt in her mind, after what had just happened, he would surely kill it if he caught it.

Meanwhile, as Vernon clutched his bleeding face, Petunia rushed to his side with a brush in her hand. She tried to help him fend off the cat that had dared to attack him.

But Luna was having none of it. She had been in quite a few fights before, in her time as a royal advisor to the moon court, and so she was no novice when it came to fighting armed human combatants. If anything, humans were easy to fight when compared to Youma. Humans could be hurt, Youmas… not so much.

True, she may not have any elemental abilities or other powers like the Sailor Guardians, or any magic to call her own like the wizards and witches that lived in these lands, and the less said about muggle guns the better. But what she lacked in magical abilities, she made up for in spades with her natural agility, human-like intelligence, cat-like reflexes, and razor-sharp claws.

Of course, normally she would always have tried to avoid a battle whenever possible, but presently she was defending a little girl. Not just any little girl but a girl who may very well turn out to be the missing princess they were searching for and that made all the difference in the galaxy to her.

She had no intention whatsoever of turning tail and running away. Her loyalty, duty, and honor lay with the moon, the new princess, and her future family. As such, as long as there was even the slightest chance that this girl was the princess they had been looking for, she would fight and protect the girl with all she had. Just like a queen cat would protect her kittens. Even die for her if necessary - though she hoped it wouldn't come to that.

In a way, along with the triplets, she already considered the princess to be another of her kittens now. As such no quarters would be asked for and none would be given either.

Needless to say, she was one mean kitty and was very willing to prove it too.

Luna hissed, snarled menacingly, and expertly flashed her claws every time one of the two humans showed any sign of wanting to step closer. She even managed to spit straight into Petunia's eye when she tried to grab her, temporarily blinding the woman and forcing her to back away with a yelp.

In retaliation, Petunia tried to strike Luna with her brush, prompting Luna to summersault over it like a ninja cat, and then rake her claws across Petunia's dress, ripping two long gash tears into it, causing Petunia to jump away hurriedly in fright and then wail out in distress at the sight of the damage of her prized dress.

At this point, Vernon's mouth was nearly foaming with rage, and beginning to see red from the blood that was dripping into his eyes from his head's bloody gashes, which Luna had managed to leave behind on his face.

He had replaced his cane with a golf club which he now held malignantly in his hands ready to strike at her in any way he could at a second's notice.

Luckily for Luna, his aim was terrible and so far he had only managed to smash a lamp from a nearby shelf, chip a nearby table and damage some wallpaper on a nearby wall. He swung again and promptly put a hole into the television set.

Vernon's yell of pain filled the air as electricity suddenly shot through his body, and just as quickly the circuit breakers gave out, plunging the house into darkness. His hair now standing straight up into the air from the static charge, he dropped the club, cursing cats for all they were worth. He was now more determined than ever to eliminate this particular feline in any way he could.

His evil musings were suddenly cut off by a screech from his wife who had just tried to grab the cat for a third time, this time with a kitchen towel wrapped around her hands for extra protection. Luna however had responded in kind, with a paw filled with sharp pointed nails. Hissing, growling, and spitting furiously, she had ripped the towel partly from her assailant's hands and had then proceeded to leave a gash across her right arm, injuring her and drawing blood.

But by doing so it seemed Luna may just have finally made a mistake, a mistake Vernon quickly saw and vowed he would make the most out of. Believing that now was the best moment to strike, he quickly picked up, raised his club, and swung.

Luna cursed at her current predicament. Luna was in a tight spot and she knew it. During the woman's last attempt to grab her, she had clawed right into her arm, leaving a nice painful line of claw marks behind. However, it seemed to have been a mistake. For now, one of her nails had become caught by the fabric of the cloth she wore and could now no longer be easily removed.

Sensing the man was getting ready to swing again, Luna swore. It seemed she was out of options. She had no choice. One way or another, this was going to hurt. A lot!

Struggling wildly to get away, she tugged with all of her might at the last second, awkwardly twisting her claw, until it finally came loose with a crack.

Releasing a sudden loud shrill cry of pain she quickly made a last-second attempt to dodge the incoming attack and somersaulted away. Just in time too as Vernon's golf club missed her by a mere inch in its downward thrust, where, judging by Petunia's sudden extreme screech of extreme pain, it seemed to have hit her instead.

'Fucking, damn it! That hurt like a bitch' Luna thought with a wince as she risked a glance at her now bloody paw. Blood was dripping from it from where her nail had once been. Evidently, in her rush to get away, she had broken and left one of her nails behind.

"Damn you, I just broke a paw nail!" she complained out loud, angrily, before she turned to glare at Petunia who was hollering and wailing in agony from her place on the ground, nursing what was a shattered leg from where the golf club had hit her.

'But so worth it!' Luna thought a second later as she fully noticed her enemy's state, forcing her grimace from the earlier pain into a pained smirk, before she turned back to re-enter the fight once more.

Meanwhile, as the chaos erupted in the sitting room, Aryanna hastily pulled up her pants over her sore, freshly welted bottom. Her eyes stung with tears that blurred her vision, and she tried to ignore the stinging pain that radiated from it. She ran out of the room, hoping to find safety in the entrance hall.

She knew better than to try and help the cat. 'It's none of my business,' she thought as she watched the feline valiantly fight both of her relatives from a distance. It would only make things worse for her later on. She had no interest in becoming the target of her uncle's anger again. Not if she could avoid it.

She knew from experience. She had tried to fight back once, and only once, and had sworn to herself never to do it again. It just wasn't worth it. It had resulted in one of the most brutal beatings she could remember. The pain was excruciating. Her uncle was stronger than her, larger than her…he could hit a lot harder too, and he didn't care how much it hurt. In fact, the more it hurt, the better.

But at that moment as she peered back into the sitting room, watching the chaos unfold, she couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt, responsibility, and even a sudden kinship towards the feline. For some reason she couldn't fully explain, she knew helping the cat was important and that she would regret it if she didn't.

Her heart ached for the cat that was fighting for its life. Did it even need her help? It seemed to be doing a good job of defending itself. But could it win? She doubted it. It was only a cat and Vernon and Petunia were…well… Vernon and Petunia. Her tormentors and the bane of her existence. Cats normally didn't win against humans and it surely wouldn't be the first cat her uncle had killed.

Suddenly, she felt a surge of emotions from the crystal inside her. It was sending her urgent feelings and images of her helping the cat, urging her to do it.

'Really? You really want me to do that?' she asked her inner companion incredulously. 'You know what will happen if I do that!'

She sighed as she got a confirmation feeling. Normally she would never even consider it but, it was a direct request from her inner friend, her constant loyal companion. She owed it far too much to just ignore a direct request from it.

Should she really try to help it? she wondered as she watched the cat valiantly fight both of her relatives. Looking inwardly for an answer from her friend she winced as she got a reply.

'I must be crazy to even consider this' she thought to herself. After all, she knew perfectly well what would happen to her if she did what she was thinking of doing.

'Well,' she thought dismally, 'chances are good that I'm going to be in for it either way later on so…'

She groaned pitifully as she made up her mind.

'Fine! I'll do it! Might as well earn it for once,' she thought to herself with a grim smile on her face, which quickly turned into a pained grimace at the mere thought of even more future pain.

"This is such a terrible idea," she whispered to herself as she steeled her nerves and began to courageously walk back towards the room.

She hoped it was worth it.

'Guess I better get used to sleeping on my stomach again for the next few weeks,' she thought morbidly.

"Fuck me! This is so going to suck later on."

Taking a deep breath, steeling herself for what was about to happen, she slowly walked back into the room once more.

Back in the living room, the 'cat fight' raged on. Petunia was crawling on the ground, weeping in pain and favoring her shattered leg. Meanwhile, Vernon was currently trying his best to scare the black cat out of its current hiding place within the living room's grand piano, which had been previously left open as, in his opinion, it always looked better that way. A choice he was now regretting.

Luna had thought that he wouldn't be willing to bash apart an item as expensive as a grand piano to get to her, and she was right. But it sure didn't save her from her current predicament.

Vernon was busy mashing the piano's keys making a royal racket of mismatched tones as he desperately tried to coax the cat out of the piano. If one of the piano's internal hammers also managed to strike the cat, then all the better. Meanwhile, Luna did her best to dodge them all.

As Aryanna stepped back into the room, she was momentarily stunned by the sight of her uncle's chaotic performance on the piano. It was like he was auditioning for a non-existent piece called 'The Catophony of Chaos' and it was without a doubt one of the worst performances she had ever seen. For a minute, all she could do was stare.

She felt a surge of anger and disgust at his cruelty and stupidity. She looked around for a weapon and spotted a vase that had somehow survived the mayhem. She grabbed it and crept behind her uncle, who was too focused on his futile attempt to notice her.

'This is probably going to hurt me a lot more than it will you, but… here goes,' she thought with a cringe, already silently dreading the painful punishment this action was about to earn her. But at least this time she would have earned it, unlike most of all of the other times. 'Better make it count,' she thought.

Acting quickly before she could lose her nerve, she quickly gripped the vase as tightly as she could. Then, making sure she put as much strength behind it as possible - which was quite a bit more now since her transformation - she smashed the vase down hard, as hard as she could manage. With a loud echoing crack that echoed through the whole room, she smashed the vase into little pieces, right onto her abusive uncle's head.

That seemed to have done the trick. Vernon was caught off guard, completely taken by surprise. He never knew what had hit him. Seconds later, his eyes rolled up and he collapsed like a switched-off light bulb, his head and upper body landing heavily with a loud smash right on top of the piano, ending his infernal song with a sudden, loud crescendo that echoed through the room. Aryanna felt a mix of relief and fear as she saw him fall. She had done it. She had finally stood up to him. But at what cost?

Her rebellious task for the day complete, unwilling to stay any longer than necessary now that the deed was done and that she had, for once, actually earned her next punishment, she strode straight towards the doorway. She passed by her aunt, who was staring at her with a look of pure flabbergasted surprise, and utmost horror on her face.

Seeing her aunt's expression of shock, something inside Aryanna finally snapped. Aryanna expected to feel guilty or scared, but instead, she felt a rush of adrenaline and defiance. She decided to give her aunt a piece of her mind. It was as if years of abuse and hate had finally come to a head all at once and a safety switch in her had suddenly flipped from on to off. Acting almost on impulse, she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"What?" "What are you looking at, you bitch?" she spat. "Do you call that music? Even a deaf brainless monkey could play better than that!" She paused and added sarcastically: "Oh, wait…I forgot. He is a deaf brainless monkey." She flipped her off and said: "Fuck you!"

With those words she walked straight out of the room, leaving an extremely open-mouthed, speechless aunt behind.

It wasn't until she stepped through the door that she froze. Only then did she fully realize what she had just done. Her reckless courage left her, and fear as she had never felt before washed over her.

'I can't believe I just did that,' she thought hysterically to herself in near panic. 'What was I thinking? I'm dead! I'm so freaking dead! Forget a caning, they are so going to kill me instead!'

Now in severe panic and no longer able to think clearly, she ran to her cupboard, the only place where she felt remotely safe in this house of horrors. As the door of her cupboard closed behind her, she collapsed onto her cot-like bed. Clutching her bruised backside, dazed, in shock, and in pain, she began to cry uncontrollably, terrified of what would happen next.

She had done the unthinkable. She had defied her aunt and uncle, the people who had abused her for as long as she could remember. She had smashed a vase on her uncle's head and called her aunt a bitch. She had felt a moment of freedom and power, but now she felt only fear and regret.

What was she thinking? How could she be so stupid? They would never forgive her for this. They would punish her worse than ever now. They might even kill her. She wished she could take it all back, but it was too late.

Tears fell from her eyes as she worried about the next day and the punishment she would no doubt now receive. She cried until she had no tears left. She felt exhausted and numb. She closed her eyes. 'I hope you're happy,' she thought to the crystal inside her.' She knew she was really going to be in for it now. With those thoughts, she drifted into a restless sleep.

Aryanna's actions were bold and daring but also reckless. She had crossed a line that could not be uncrossed. She had changed everything with one act of rebellion. She had no idea what the future would bring, but she knew it would never be the same again.

Sailor Pluto teleported to the living room expecting a smooth operation. She hoped to find her huntresses securing the house and saving the girl from her abusers. Instead, she found a scene of destruction and confusion.

Arriving in a bright flash of light, staff in hand, in the middle of the living room, she landed on top of the already heavily damaged grand piano. The piano, unable to handle the sudden increase in weight from a fully armored guardian, promptly collapsed on its damaged side.

Luckily, Luna had long since left the insides of the piano and wasn't inside when it collapsed. Uncle Vernon, however, wasn't so lucky. The heavy piano landed right on top of the man's feet.

Fortunately for him, he was not awake to experience the ordeal. Unfortunately for him, however, he would no doubt feel it when he eventually woke up.

'What in the name of the blasted void has happened here?' Pluto wondered to herself as she took in the carnage all around her. The room was a mess. Furniture was broken, glass was all over the floor, vases were smashed, curtains were torn... and she was standing on a badly damaged piano.

'And where are my huntresses?' she asked herself a few seconds later. She couldn't see any of them.

Pluto was confused and concerned by what she saw. The scene before her was not what she had expected at all. She needed to figure out what had happened and where her huntresses were. But above all else, she needed to find Luna and the princess.

Pluto stepped off the piano and surveyed the scene. She quickly found Vernon lying on the floor, snoring loudly. He had a large bump on his head and his feet were stuck under the piano. Pluto guessed that he had probably been playing the piano when she arrived and the instrument had collapsed on him.

She quickly checked his pulse and breathing. Then checking if it was safe to do so, she lifted the piano off his legs. He was alive but badly injured. His legs were broken but they were now no longer in danger of crush syndrome. He would no doubt need surgery before he could walk again. His face was also badly scratched and bleeding and there was a high possibility he could use some facial surgery as well. Still, overall though, he would survive his ordeal.

"He'll live," she whispered to herself before turning away from him to check out the rest of the room.

That's when she noticed a trail of blood leading to the kitchen. She followed it and found Petunia, who was sitting on the floor, clutching her leg. She had a look of terror on her face as she saw Pluto. Pluto saw that her leg was shattered and her face was bruised. By the looks of her injuries, she had been in some sort of fight. A fight she had evidently lost.

Sighing, Pluto approached her with caution, intending to help her. But Petunia reacted with fear and hostility. She threw a remote control at Pluto, who ducked to avoid it. The remote sailed past her, hit a nearby window, and cracked it.

"Please calm down," Pluto said softly. "I'm here to help you. I don't mean you any harm."

"NO! "Stay away from me, you freak!" Petunia screamed. "I'll call the police!"

Realizing that the woman wasn't willing to accept her help any time soon, if at all, Pluto thought it best to distance herself and give her some space. With another sigh, she took out her futuristic communication device intending to call for an ambulance but then hesitated and changed her mind.

'No, best to find out what happened here first, then mind wipe their minds before I let any emergency services come to take care of them,' Pluto thought. The last thing she wanted was to have to deal with questions from emergency forces when she was technically breaking and entering a house. Even if it was to rescue a child. A well-known superhero she may be, but even she wanted to avoid unnecessary police encounters and any resulting red tape if she could.

Ignoring Petunia's insistent screeches, Pluto walked up to her. A small wave of her hand and a quick use of Legilimency later, she left her alone once more.

'I'm so glad I learned how to do that,' Pluto thought to herself with a smile that turned into a frown as she turned to face Petunia again. It made her life so much easier.

It was without a doubt one of the more useful spells Pluto had learned throughout the long years after discovering that her own magic was compatible with the magic used by other magical beings in this world. This made sense when she thought about it. The survivors of the old kingdoms - the surviving humans, and the survivors of the other races that repopulated the earth - were the progenitors of today's magical races.

While the assortment of available spells in the world had drastically increased over the centuries, thereby also increasing what a witch or wizard could do with their magic, these same practitioners of magic had also grown lazy when they had started using wands to help them with their spells. As a result, Magic had become somewhat 'watered down' as people moved away from wandless magic to using wands.

While Magic itself remained fundamentally the same, the spells had not. Luckily, seeing as Pluto was without a doubt the eldest of all these 'progenitors of magic', she could use it too, though usually with a far higher power level than others could ever hope to achieve.

"What did you do to me? Answer me!" Petunia began to frantically shout at her, bringing Pluto back to the present.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about," Pluto answered her with a frosty glare and anger in her voice before walking towards Vernon, whose name she now knew. After what she had just seen in Petunia's memories, Petunia no longer deserved an answer or quick help.

Two more quick waves of her hand later on both Vernon and then Petunia - who had begged her to leave her alone towards the end, Pluto left Vernon asleep and Petunia with a drooling dazed look in her eyes.

'Hmm, probably shouldn't have used so much energy on her,' she thought as she noticed Petunia drooling all over herself from her mind alteration spell, but then shrugged. No matter, they would both recover soon enough. She would call an ambulance for them when she left. For now, the princess was far more important than her abusive relatives.

"Be happy that's all I did," Pluto mumbled angrily, glaring at Petunia before looking around for the exit. Seeing it, she walked to the door, opened it, and stepped out.

Entering what looked like the house's entrance hall, she quickly glanced out the front door and sighed when she saw what looked like the whole Orion team standing outside. They seemed to be desperately looking for the house but having problems finding it.

"Well, that explains that," Pluto said to herself, irked before quickly searching for and then finding a small embedded stone in a nearby wall. It had been turned into a ward stone, a stone usually used to empower and stabilize long-term enchantments. She recognized the ward and its effects from Petunia's memories and while Petunia herself didn't have a clue what it was or what it did, Pluto recognized what she was dealing with. She had seen and even used many similar ward stones over the past few thousand years.

"Whoever did this knew what they were doing," she mumbled to herself as she recognized the advanced anti-aggression ward stone for what it was: a ward that would befuddle any muggles and magical that wanted to do any harm to the residents of the house. It would make them either forget what they came for or be unable to find the house at all. Sometimes even both. The perfect protection for child abusers like the girl's guardians.

'Better release them from their misery and give them the all clear,' Pluto thought as she prepared herself to destroy the ward stone, but then stopped herself a second later as a sudden thought came to her mind.

"On second thoughts, better leave it alone. Its destruction will no doubt summon whoever made it and I have a feeling I know who it was. If I'm right, I'd like to avoid the old goat for now," she grumbled, annoyed once again by the man's continuing interferences. While she had no doubt she could take him on and defeat him in a fight, the man was simply too well-liked by the sheeple and much too well-connected for her to take him on right now in any meaningful way, but someday he too would pay.

For the moment, she had far more important things to do than take on a foolish old man. From what she had seen in Petunia's mind, the abused girl matched the looks of the girl from her visions to a T. A few years younger maybe… but still the same. Add to that the fact that there were wards over an obvious muggle house - a house owned by non-magical people who - based on their hatred of magic - probably should not even know about magic at all - she was now certain that the girl was indeed the princess they had been looking for. The facts all added up.

'One way or another, his power over the princess ends today,' she thought viciously before opening the door and stepping out.

Almost immediately, her huntresses saw her as she seemed to appear out of nowhere from in front of them.

"Lady Pluto! Lady Artemis!" came the combined shouts from the huntresses of Team Orion. While all of the huntresses of Team Orion knew that she was Pluto and that she no longer went by her former godly name of Artemis, some of the older members of the huntresses had been around when she was still a goddess, so both names were used.

It was a well-known secret among the huntresses that Pluto could slow down and even stop aging for her huntresses, all thanks to her anti-aging stones which she had created so long ago. What did they call them again nowadays… philosopher's stones? No matter.

"The situation is under control. Please head back to your other duties. I'll take over from here," was all she said before turning around to head back into the house. No more needed to be said. She knew the huntresses would follow her orders without complaint.

'Which leads me to the next question,' she thought as the door closed again behind her. "Luna?" she called out loudly.

"LUNA, where are you?" she called out loudly again, hoping to find the elusive Mau and the even more elusive princess.

At that very moment, not far away, in a nearby cupboard.

The missing Mau and the girl were not far away. A few minutes after Vernon had collapsed, thinking it safe to move again, Luna had made her way out of the piano and then, ignoring the shell-shocked and screaming form of the girl's aunt, had made her way out of the room after the girl, hoping to catch up with her.

It took her a few minutes to find the girl, but she soon found her sleeping fretfully in a nearby cupboard, obviously overcome by exhaustion from her pain and recovering from the previous ordeal. Mistakenly thinking that the cupboard was a place where the girl sometimes hid to get away from her relatives, Luna had tried waking her up but had not been able to do so. Worried, Luna was about to attempt a more forceful approach when she saw something that made her freeze in horror.

It took her a few seconds to fully realize what she was looking at but soon Luna could only stare in open-mouthed sadness and shock as the realization hit her. This was not a hiding spot at all like she had expected. This was her bedroom - if it even deserved to be called that at all.

Judging by the childish scribble of 'Ary's Room' on the wall in…was that blood? this was indeed the girl's - their elusive princess's - bedroom. The cupboard 'bedroom' was small, dark, and full of spiders. Barely large enough to house a toddler, much less a child. Only now did Luna see the small cot that was stuck and cramped in the corner, along with what looked like a broken lamp and nothing else.

Luna didn't know what to think anymore. She was so frozen in shock by what she had just realized that all she could do was stare in horror. Surely this couldn't be true…could it? she wondered. Unfortunately, it seemed it was.

It was at that moment that Luna heard Pluto's voice coming from outside of the cupboard.

"LUNA Where are you?"

It took her a moment to find her voice, which when it came out was barely more than a whisper at first, but then she managed to call out a bit louder. If cats were able to cry, then she was sure she would be bawling at that moment.

"Over here. We are over here!" she called out just loudly enough to be heard, unable to keep her voice steady in her sadness.

A few seconds later Pluto peered into the cupboard and almost immediately closed her eyes in dismay at what she was seeing.

"By the void, this is awful. I knew from the bitch's memories that it would be bad…but this," was all she could say before she stopped as she had to hold back a sob of her own.

It took her a minute or two to get herself back under control before she felt ready enough to continue.

"Thanks, Luna, I'll take her from here," she said quietly and softly with sorrow in her voice, giving Luna a hug to comfort the cat before carefully transferring Aryanna up out of her cramped bedroom into her arms, careful not to wake her.

"They will pay for this," she said glaring towards the general direction of the Dursley elders in the living room. "Oh yes, they will definitely pay for this. I will be back later to personally make sure they will. But for now, let's just get her out of here," she said solemnly with anger in her voice, anger that she hadn't felt in a long time. Pluto was usually a very calm and gentle person unless she was fighting a Youma. For her to sound so angry clearly showed just how aggravated she currently was.

A quick nod and a near-silent heartbroken "Good!" from Luna, was all Pluto needed to hear. Nothing else needed to be said. Luna trusted Pluto that she would do just that.

Giving the cupboard one last vicious glare, Pluto carefully held Aryanna firmly in place while placing another hand on Luna.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready!" came the near-silent reply from the cat.

A second later, the trio were surrounded by a flash of bright white light and then they were gone.

A few hours later, deep in the Scottish highlands, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmasters Office.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore - the celebrated and powerful wizard with too many middle names and titles, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, creator and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Transfiguration professor, the triumphant opponent of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, holder of the Order of Merlin 1st class, and holder of many other titles too unimportant to mention - was occupied with his usual summer business in his office when his attention was suddenly drawn to a loud voice.

"Albus! ALBUS! Damnit Albus where by Merlin's saggy underpants are you? Come quickly! ALBUS!" came a sudden woman's frantic voice.

Albus Dumbledore quickly turned his attention towards the fireplace, from where the frantic voice was coming. He could just make out the head of Arabella Figg, one of his 'watchers' who lived near the house of Aryanna Potter - the Girl Who Lived. Arabella had been tasked with keeping an eye on the child, and her head was now sticking partially out of the green fire in the fireplace. She was using a magical communication system known as the floo network. With the help of a special green powder, the flames in the fireplace could turn from yellow to green, allowing for communication and even fast long-distance travel between fireplaces.

"Arabella, my dear, what's the matter? Is Young Aryanna doing ok? Are her relatives causing trouble again?" he asked his spy worriedly, already wondering what distasteful act he would have to do this time to correct whatever had just happened. Those muggles were far too much trouble.

Looking at the old woman, he vacated his chair to walk over to stand closer to the fireplace so that she didn't have to shout so much.

Oh, how much he hated helping the Dursleys, but unfortunately it had proven necessary from time to time to do just that. No matter how much he hated doing it, it was necessary. All for the greater good of course.

You see, he knew that young Aryanna's aunt and uncle were not the 'nicest of people' and he also knew that the girl's living conditions were…let's just say…less than ideal at times. However, he had long ago decided that while it was most certainly not the best place for her, or any young child for that matter, to grow up in, it was nonetheless the safest place for the young celebrity to stay.

With all of the still-at-large followers of Voldemort out there, followers who would love nothing more than to torture, rape, and kill the young girl to avenge their fallen master - and not necessarily in that order - he had to find a way to protect her. Preferably with the most powerful magic possible.

Blood wards were his answer.

On their own Blood wards were already some of the most powerful wards in existence. Of those, blood wards fueled by a mother's sacrifice were among the very best defenses possible. Far better than any other protections he could have offered her under normal terms.

As such, he had placed and then tethered newly created wards to both Aryanna and her aunt - Petunia Dursley - who was her mother's sister and therefore shared her mother's blood. This allowed him to keep both Aryanna and her relatives safe by keeping these wards active.

But unfortunately, it was also here where the problem lay. For these wards to work and continue working as they should, Aryanna needed to stay and live with her relatives under the same roof. The blood wards would fail if she no longer considered her aunt's house her home.

Now, he knew her relatives didn't like magic but he had hoped in his heart that they would learn to love her in time and treat her like they would their own child once they got to know her… or failing that, to at least begrudgingly take care of her since she was Petunia's niece. They were still family after all, and family tend to take care of their own.

It was a difficult choice for Albus Dumbledore to make, allowing little Aryanna to stay with her relatives. But as long as she remained safe and alive from the dark witches and wizards who wanted her dead, he had decided it would be worth a little hardship. While regrettable, he had deemed the sacrifice of growing up in an unhappy and less loving environment acceptable.

Little did Albus Dumbledore know that while his plans were fundamentally well-meaning, the wards had a detrimental effect as well. They did nothing to protect the young girl from her relatives.

The wards, while indeed powerful, had only kept out any 'human' and other 'known' magical beings who wanted to harm her and her family. They had not, however, protected the girl from her own relatives' desires to harm her.

Against the Police and social workers who wanted to arrest the girl's relatives on charges of abuse and neglect, they had worked like a charm. In those cases, the wards made the visitors believe everything was ok or failing that, had hidden the house completely, as in the case of Pluto's Huntresses.

However, Pluto and Luna were not a human or a normal cat. They were aliens from a different planet. As such they were unknown to the wards creator and therefore exempt from the charm as their creator had not known to add protections to account for them. Not to mention the fact that both Pluto and Luna had wanted to not harm, but instead help, the primary reason the charms even existed in the first place, and so the wards had even less reason to keep them out. As such they were able to act with impunity, whereas everybody else had not. A loophole Albus Dumbledore had not foreseen and had now come to bite him and all of his plans in the backside.

But of course, for now, Albus Dumbledore knew nothing of this as he spoke to Arabella Figg, who told him that the Dursleys had been injured and were currently in a nearby hospital under heavy guard after getting arrested for child abuse - news which shocked the old man.

Not knowing what else to do Albus quickly told her to step aside and that he was coming through.

An hour later, Albus returned from a fruitless visit to the Dursleys' home feeling very worried and extremely frustrated.

He had no idea what had happened. He arrived to find the blood wards broken and fallen and the whole house surrounded by emergency and police personnel.

According to a muggle police officer who he had magically persuaded to tell him the truth, the adults of the house had been arrested on charges of excessive violence on a minor, heavy child neglect, and suspected murder of a minor. At this point, it was only suspected murder because the body of the child had not been found anywhere. However, they had found blood on a wall inside the child's former 'sleeping arrangements'.

Needless to say after what he had just seen Young Aryanna would never be returning to 'those' people ever again.

He was not looking forward to hearing Minerva tell him 'I told you so'. But if she did then he deserved it and this time he would listen to her.

He only hoped Aryanna was still alive and that he could find her before anybody who wanted to harm her did.

'So much for the bright idea of leaving her with her aunt,' he thought sadly while wiping away a tear from his cheek. He never intended to see her hurt, least of all abused. What had he done?

Sitting down at his desk he grabbed some parchment and a quill then dipping its tip into the inkwell he began to write.

He had a lot of owls to send and floo calls to make.

He also needed to find an alternate home for her. Maybe the Weasleys would be willing to take her in - he'd ask them once he found her.

He would probably have to activate the old order again as well.

Maybe even ask the ministry for help if he didn't find her soon.

But he would look for her and find her, even if it was the last thing he ever did. He had to correct his mistake.

He had to. The fate of the wizarding world…and that of a young child was on the line.

He could not afford to fail! Not again!