1,088The Mutt who Lived
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, Dumbledore bashing.
"Headmaster," Severus blurted out upon reaching Albus' round office, "he's going to attack the Potters right now. I'm sorry; there was no time to warn them. I just hope you meant it when you said that you were going to ensure their safety."
Dumbledore cast him a sad look, and Severus knew immediately that the old wizard had played with him.
"I wanted you to keep them safe, and you promised," he all but growled, knowing that he owed the headmaster too much to openly attack him.
HP
Lily Potter was a young, muggleborn witch at the age of 21. She was happily married to Lord James Potter. While she was a Potions mistress, her husband was an Auror – together with his best friend, Sirius Black. Fifteen months ago, they had been blessed with a baby boy, Harry James Potter, and as a belated birthday present, Sirius had given three-month-old Harry a puppy, who had been born on the same day as him. He was a Crup terrier, a very powerful, magical canine, whom they named Inu.
Inu was not the most innovative of all dog names, as it simply meant 'dog' in Japanese; however, Lily, James and Sirius could not agree on anything better. Sirius' suggestion of 'Barkymort' was in no way better than James' idea of 'Melvin' or 'Get-down-from-the-sofa'.
HP
It was a dark, stormy night on this Halloween, something which Lily did not like at all. She had just taken Baby Harry to bed, where he cuddled close to Inu, and was about to read him a bed time story, when Inu suddenly began to bark, jumped out of their bed and dashed out of the room.
"Oh Merlin, what is it now?" she said in annoyance, trying to calm Harry down, who was now getting upset at his familiar's absence and began to whimper.
"Shush Harry, I'm sure Inu will be back in a blink," she said in a soothing voice, gently pushing an errand strand of hair out of Harry's face.
However, instead of having the dog dash back into the room, she heard how the entrance door was blasted open, and a moment later, James shouted, "It's him, Lily; take Harry and leave."
Too stunned to do as much as move, Lily just stood there in front of Harry, listening for any sound coming from downstairs. The first thing she heard was Inu's growling and felt very much reassured by the canine's presence. Then, there were noises of a small fight followed by sounds of fireworks as well as a loud scream. However, thank Merlin, it was not her husband who screamed.
HP
Inu dashed downstairs. He could sense that the man, who had just blasted in the entrance door, was evil. He was a Crup and at the same time one of two babies of the family, his family, which he was going to protect by all means possible.
He immediately attacked the man, biting his left leg, his right leg and finally his left foot, causing the man to curse and hiss in pain.
The evil man still managed to raise his arm and point a wand at his father, beginning to utter something – and Inu was well aware of what spells could do, as his mummy and daddy used them all the time. Inu jumped up high, caught the stick with his teeth, broke it into two and let it fall down onto the man. In a spectacular bout of accidental magic, he caused the wand to explode in a flash of brilliant fireworks. The man tried to escape the colourful, hot sparks in vain and dropped to the floor, letting out a final, heart-breaking cry.
'He won't harm my family anymore,' Inu thought, contentedly, however, fully exhausted by the accidental magic he had cast. Ignoring the pain in his hind quarters, where one of the sparks had burnt him, he quickly made his way back into Harry's and his bedroom, where he crawled into bed.
HP
Lily observed how Inu slowly came back into the room and squeezed himself through the bars into Harry's bed, where the canine shook himself and slowly began to clean his fur, something that Lily knew was some kind of stress relief for the puppy. 'Thank Merlin, he seems to be all right,' she thought in relief.
"Lily, could you come down here for a moment please?" James suddenly called her, only to add in a calmer voice, "It's all right. He's gone."
However, when she climbed down the stairs, she stopped dead in her tracks. The evil wizard was not gone but was lying at the foot of the stairs, seemingly badly injured with burns all over his body. The entrance door was – as could be expected – hanging out of its hinges. The only important thing, however, was that her husband was all right and completely unharmed – just like Harry, Inu and her.
"Is he… dead?" she enquired, her voice quivering.
"He was just pointing his wand at me and began to utter the killing curse, when Inu attacked," James informed her. "He's a hero. He saved three lives tonight. I'll show you the memory in the Pensive later on, love. I'm going to kill Peter though," he blurted out in obvious anger. "Such a traitor."
Lily reached out for her husband's arm and pulled him close. "No James, you're not going to kill anyone, as Harry and I need you here and not in Azkaban."
"Of course, you're right as always," James replied, gently placing a kiss onto her forehead, before he headed to the fireplace, 'probably to call his fellow Aurors,' she thought.
"I'm going to call Moody," he announced.
"I'll go and read Harry his good-night story then," Lily replied, once more glancing at the evil wizard. "Are you sure that he's really dead?" she asked, just to be certain.
"Yes, absolutely," James confirmed, before he stuck his head into the fireplace.
When Lily returned to the nursery, to her surprise, Harry was gone and a dog looking like a twin of Inu was lying there in his stead. The two canines were fast asleep, huddled against each other.
Lily let out a horrified cry that made the canines open their eyes, and she thoroughly relaxed upon noticing the emerald colour of the new canine's eyes. While Inu's face was mostly black with a few brown spots, Harry's face was white, surrounded by black fur, where his hair was in his human form.
Only upon taking a closer look at the puppies did she notice that Inu had a burn mark that deeply scarred his skin leaving an unusual lightning-shaped scar on his hind quarters.
'Oh, the poor cutie, he received that by saving our lives' she thought in surprise. 'Harry must be a natural Animagus though.' While she and James had both managed the Animagus transformation, none of them was a natural Animagus. "Anyway, thank Merlin for Inu," she muttered, gently caressing the two canines' fur, before she noxed the lights. 'Perhaps Harry sensed that Inu needed to be calmed down after what he did tonight, and he instinctively transformed?' she wondered, as she left the room in confusion.
When she returned downstairs, leaving the door slightly ajar, she heard her husband shouting at someone. Quickening her pace, she took in the situation with bewilderment. Alastor Moody, whom she knew to be James' and Sirius' boss, was standing next to the evil wizard's body, and her husband was glaring at the older wizard.
"Sirius was not our Secret Keeper," he growled. "Who in the world told you that? Lily," he turned to her using a softer voice, "please call Amelia and Sirius and ask them over instantly."
Lily immediately complied. As immature as James was when together with the other Marauders, he remained calm and knew what to do in an extreme situation like this, and that was one thing she loved about him. He always knew what to do.
HP
A few minutes later, Amelia and Sirius stepped through the fireplace, just when Hagrid arrived on the doorstep.
"Ye're alive," he blurted out, large tears running over his cheek.
"Why would we not be alive?" Lily asked, sharply.
"Ah, 'cause Dumbledore, 'e tol' me te take lil Harry to the Dursleys, 'cause ye were gone," Hagrid replied, slowly wiping a tear from his cheek.
"To the Dursleys?" Lily enquired, her eyes narrowing in anger.
"Yeah," Hagrid confirmed.
"All right, thank you Hagrid, but as we're very much alive, you can return to Hogwarts and tell Dumbledore that I'll deal with him later on," Lily said in a dangerously quiet voice that was laced with anger.
"Dumbledore also was the one who called me telling me that Voldemort had gone to attack you and that Sirius was a traitor," Moody spoke up.
"Peter!" Sirius suddenly growled and made an attempt to leave the house through the entrance door; however, James grabbed his arm and held him close.
"No Siri, you're not going after Peter. Leave that to the Aurors on duty," he instructed his best friend.
"Harry needs his godfather here and not in Azkaban," Lily concurred.
tbc... ?
Sorry - this story is not very Christmas-like - still, I wish you a merry Christmas!
Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
Next chapter: "Lily on the war path".
