Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did I would rich and not writing fan fictions.

Chapter 1

Lately I've noticed a couple of Harry in Africa stories, were he does really well with the animals. Well, what if that started in a sense before Hogwarts...

The little boy in the cupboard was even more miserable then ever. The reason? His wale of a cousin was just given a puppy and never stopped bragging about it. The little boy rolled over on his far too small mattress before crying himself to sleep.

"Hmm." the boy's horse faced aunt seemed to be thinking of something.

"What is it Pet?" her mountain sized husband asked.

"What if we got 'the boy' a pet?" seeing her husband about to rant and rave she continued "I mean like a sick kitten or something, something that will die easy so we can tell him it's his fault and maybe take the wonder out of him."

The fattest pile-o-crap on the planet muled it over for a bit before reluctantly nodding in agreement.

The animal control van pulled up to a loading dock behind a pound and the driver switched off his ridiculously high volume stereo before killing the engine. As he got out the driver was relieved to see one of the aids was still present, it was late in the evening and most everyone else would usually be on the way home now and with the full load he had now he needed help. Walking around to the back of his van and opening it the driver was shocked. The only animal left in his ride was that little black kitten with the large paws. He had picked the damn thing up at the very end of his shift and now it was just snoozing in its cage, its open cage. Come to think of it, all the cages were open. Some of them slightly bent. Unfortunately it was too dark for him to notice the little drops of blood against the black interior of the van. Oh well, at least he had less work to do at the moment.

Vernon waddled his way into the pound and went strait to the desk. He noticed a somewhat frazzled looking blond behind the desk and rolled his eyes. He'd never be able to work with normal people outside of work.

"Pardon me Miss? I'm looking for a cat." he couldn't just come out and say a small sickly and/or dying cat or he wouldn't seem normal.

The blond's head snapped up so fast that even Vernon had to wince. "REALY!? Erm, I, uh, that is, of course. We only have one cat in at the moment though. A black kitten, perfectly normal. Would make a great pet, though it is somewhat anti-social..." the blond trailed off looking uncertain but, all Vernon heard was anti-social and of course. What Vernon failed to understand was that anti-social meant the cute little black kitten had a nasty habit of eating every other animal in the immediate vicinity. Stomping back to his car, in a way that would make an elephant envious, Vernon threw the animal into the passenger seat and drove off. If needed he could always just break the damn thing's legs and convince the boy it was his fault for being a freak. Besides it was a cat, little Ripper Jr. would make short work of it regardless. Was damn thoughtful of Marge to give the little pup to Dudley. Vernon never noticed two yellow, slitted, eyes narrowed at him.

"Any thing goes wrong with this damnable thing it'll be your own fault understand?" the king of all lard asses asked imperiously.

"Yes Uncle." Harry said softly. He didn't care if the damn thing had rabies HE HAD HIS OWN CAT!! Harry quickly scampered away to his cupboard, eager to play with his new cat.

"We'll give the boy a few days to grow attached, then show him what happens to freak pets."

Over the next few days Privet Drive saw its pet population drop to near zero. Even the wild animals like crows and mice disappeared from the background of the little neighborhood. Mrs. Figg stopped letting her cats outside when three had gone missing. Ripper Jr. seemed always on edge and kept peeing everywhere. Mittens, named because of her large paws, looked as smug as a cat could be. The Dursleys just KNEW it was the boys fault. Time for him to realize the cost of being a freak.

The next day Mrs. Figg awoke to the sound of a police siren. Quickly looking out her window she saw a police man walking Harry down the driveway of #4, the small boy clutching his pet cat to his chest, a haunted look in his eyes. Quickly leaving her house the old women made her way to the nearest officer.

"Excuse me officer," the uniformed man turned to her, "but what in the world is going on?"

The man grimaced slightly, "A case of abuse that led to that boy and his cat being saved. We found the kid locked in a cupboard under the stairs. Some wild animal or one sick son-o-bitch of a human got in last night and ripped the people apart. Even looks like something gnawed on 'em for a while. Half the dog is missing, looks like the top half got eating in one bite."

Mrs. Figg ran as fast as she could and flued Dumbledore. An emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix was called a few days later.

"Now, now Arabella, I'm sure the muggles are only exaggerating." Albus Dumbledore spoke in his 'I'm basically God so do what I say seeing as how I know everything' voice.

"Damn it Albus, I TOLD you the boy was being abused and do you do anything? NO! You just pull that stupid grandfather voice telling me its OK. Well it certainly isn't OK now! What happened to the Dursleys is all over the muggle media. That includes the abuse you old coot! Its already been proven by multiple investigators. Their also looking into the reports of abuse the school workers filed that never get fallowed up and that no one involved in remembers, your handy work I imagine. Face it Albus, you screwed up and its coming back to bite you in the ass. The fact that he was in an abusive situation, you put him there, and that there are obvious use of memory charms involved means that every one is going to know it was you who put The-Boy-Who-Lived into an unfit household and KNEW ABOUT IT!!"

As the women's words sank the door to the headmaster's office opened and Amilia Bones, fallowed by the top ten Aurors, none of whom Albus had any influence over, walked in. "Albus," the woman's voice was pure rage, "we need to talk."

All of Albus Dumbledore's past actions had been called into question. The Trial (or rather lack there of) of Sirius Black was the biggest issue. The nearly insane man was brought out and examined under Veratasirum and through Pensive memories. The vote was nearly unanimous, everyone came to the verdict that he was not guilty and that Peter Pettigrew was the traitor. That information was sent to all the newspapers and within an hour everyone in wizarding Britain knew Sirius Black was innocent. The only vote against him was from Dumbledore, who claimed the man was so dark that he was clearly fighting off the Veratasirum and was giving them false memories. He was ignored. Sirius was sent to Saint Mungo's for extensive mind healing. The investigation also showed that, through Lily, Harry had one last living relative who knew of magic, a fifth cousin named Terrance Brutt who, while non magic himself, would make an excellent guardian.

Unfortunately they didn't have enough hard evidence to convict Dumbledore but he lost most of his tittles.

Harry was blissfully unaware of this as he slept on with his new guardian in the next room. His little kitty was with him and he was away from the Dursleys. Life was good.

Said little kitty was currently looking out the window at the zoo down the street. If one were to look into the eyes of Mittens one would see a hungry gaze combined with an almost malicious intelligence. For you see the excitement of Harry Potter in the magical news made people fail to notice something very important...

A Nundu had escaped from a lab and was, thus far, unaccounted for.

Dun dun dun...

To Be Continued...