Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Harry yawned and stretched, slowly uncurling from his little den under the stairs. He was a skinny little tom-kitten, with black fur that refused to stay in place no matter how much he licked it. He was thankful that his fluff covered up most of his body. From the meager meals that the house folk provided, he was practically skin and bones. They occasionally deigned to toss him scraps from their meal that they didn't want. At least he could supplement his diet with mice and whatever other prey he could catch whenever they let him outside.

"Damn cat," the larger twolegs muttered, almost tripping over Harry on his way down the hall. "Get out from underfoot, you mangy thing. Shoo!"

It was a wonder that he'd ever realized his name was supposed to be Harry, given how the twolegs usually simply called him "cat".

"We're going to have to get you fixed, soon," the twolegs said. "You're old enough for it now. I said they should've had you snipped the minute you showed up on our doorstep, but Petunia wouldn't have any of it. Said you had to be six months old first. And thought you were cute. You're lucky my wife thinks you're cute, you scruffy mog. Guess what? I did a little research and it turns out the vets want to spay and neuter pets earlier now."

"Vernon, are you talking to the cat again?" the skinny twolegs called from the kitchen.

"Oh, I'm just telling him that he'll never know the joys of chasing she-cats in heat," the bigger twolegs said casually, still staring at Harry intently.

Harry scrambled out of the way of a kick. The twolegs covered their paws in tough brown coverings that made it hurt when they struck Harry's ribs, and he still had bruises from the last time the fat twolegs had kicked him. The plump twolegs kit thundered down the stairs and out the front door. Harry saw his opening and darted toward the entryway quick he could, narrowly avoiding catching the tip of his tail in the closing door.

"Petunia! The cat got out again!" roared the big twolegs from inside.

"You were talking about cutting off his boy bits," the long-necked twolegs replied, barely audible. "Of course he got spooked."

"He's just a dumb cat! Not like he could understand a word I was saying!"

Harry slipped away into the flower bushes, trying to avoid the twolegs kit.

The overweight young twolegs spotted him and grinned maliciously. "It's time for another game of Cat Hunting, ain't it."

That was Harry's cue to make a break for it. Thankfully, his sleek feline form was much quicker than the obese twolegs, and he could fit into much smaller places. Harry quickly evaded the twolegs kit and made it to the park.

"Well, I'll be," said an enormous cat with ragged fur. Harry wasn't used to talking to other cats rather than listening to twolegspeak, but he'd been around enough neighborhood pets and strays that he wasn't completely inept at his own species' language. "Look at those eyes! So green! Ah, yes, there I see. You've got the white lightning bolt marking on your forehead, just like in the prophecy. And with black fur like that, you've got to be the kit of Pronghorn and Lilyheart."

"Um," Harry said. "I don't know my parents' names. Who are you, anyway?"

"Oh, pardon my manner. I'm Giantpaw," the big cat said. "I forgot to ask what you call yourself these days, either."

"Harry."

"Hairykit?" Giantpaw asked.

"No, just Harry."

"Right, you've been living as a kittypet," Giantpaw said. "Well, Hairykit is suitable enough."

"My parents died when I was very small, along with the rest of my litter," Harry said. "So I was told, anyway. The twolegs said they were run over by a car."

"A... car? Oh, you mean one of those monsters the twolegs ride? Pronghorn and Lilyheart, killed by twolegs? Nonsense!"

"So what really happened to them?" Harry asked dubiously.

"They were killed by a powerful, evil cat," Giantpaw told him. "Nobody likes to speak his name, so they just call him You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Well, I don't know his name, so you're going to have to tell me."

"Oh, fine," Giantpaw said, rumbling a bit, flattening his ears, and lowering his tail. "His name... is Deathstar."

"Deathstar?"

"Hairykit! Don't say it so loud!" Giantpaw snapped, looking to and fro warily.

"Sorry," Harry said. "But if he killed my parents, and you said something about a prophecy...?"

Giantpaw's ears flicked. "Yeah. We hid you here in the twolegsplace so that they wouldn't find you until you were old enough for training. We didn't think they'd look here."

"Training? What do you mean?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you? Well, there were mostly kittypets around, but we did leave Figleaf there to keep an eye on you."

"Tell me what?" Harry wondered.

"Did you think you were born to be a kittypet forever?" Giantpaw said. "You're a wizard, Hairykit."

Chapter Text

"What?" Harry said blankly. "A... wizard?"

"Yup!" Giantpaw said. "Cats are magical, don't you know?"

"What sorts of things can we do?" Harry asked.

"Oh, things like walking through walls, turning invisible, disappearing and appearing in another place, turning our bodies to jelly when twolegs try to pick us up..."

"I see," Harry said. "And finding me in the middle of a twolegplace?"

"Oh, well, not so much that," Giantpaw said. "I've been looking for you for three sunrises. You're almost six moons old now and ready to begin your training, but I wasn't sure which twolegs nest you'd taken refuge in. They all look the same to me."

"They are all the same," Harry pointed out.

"Crazy twolegs," Giantpaw said disbelievingly. "Anyway, I'm glad I found you, Hairykit. Let's get you out of here and back to the Clan. I'm sure you have lots of questions, but I can answer them as best as I can along the way."

"Gladly!" Harry said, prancing after Giantpaw. "I never want to go back there again. But, first off, what's a Clan?"

"A Clan is a group of wizard cats," Giantpaw explained. "There are four Clans in the forest. LionClan is the Clan your parents were from, and that's whose territory we're entering. There's also RavenClan, BadgerClan, and SnakeClan." His ears twitched distastefully as he mentioned that last one. "SnakeClan are bad cats. Never was a cat who went as bad as the ones in SnakeClan. They were the supporters of You-Know-Who--"

"Deathstar?"

Giantpaw hissed. "Yes. SnakeClan was You-Know-Who's Clan."

"Was?" Harry repeated. "Did something happen?"

"You'd be the only one who knows for sure what happened that night," Giantpaw said. "You-Know-Who came to murder your family. They were in hiding in a secret nest in the forest, protected and hidden away with magic, but You-Know-Who found them and killed them all. Except for you. Something mysterious happened that night, leaving you with that marking on your forehead, and You-Know-Who... gone. Vanished as though he never was."

"I don't remember doing anything... I was just a little kitten. I was barely off my mother's milk. So what happened with SnakeClan after that?"

"Some of You-Know-Who's supporters got off by claiming he'd been mind controlling them," Giantpaw went on. "Others were imprisoned on an island for their horrible crimes. Even now, the other Clans are still suspicious of them."

"What's so special about me?" Harry wondered ruefully. "Why did I survive when my parents and littermates died?"

"That I couldn't tell you," Giantpaw said, looking up to the sky as they approached the edge of the twolegplace. "But among the Clans, you're known as the Kit-Who-Lived. You're famous, Hairykit. You survived where so many others died. Great cats stood in You-Know-Who's path and fell like so many leaves. And yet somehow, you, a little just-weaned kit... you lived."

Harry whimpered, "Somehow, I don't feel special."

"You'll be a great wizard someday, if your parents are any indication, Hairykit," Giantpaw said.

"Why do you call me 'Hairykit'?"

"Well, it's because you're still a kit," Giantpaw said. "Kits get 'kit' at the end of their names. When you become an apprentice, you'll get 'paw' at the end of your name. Then when you become a full wizard, your name could be almost anything. And leaders have 'star' at the end of their names."

"Your name ends in 'paw'," Harry said. "Are you an apprentice?"

"Eh, that's a long story," Giantpaw said. "Rather not go into it right now, sorry."

"Oh," Harry said sheepishly, looking away.

"Look. We're almost there."

Harry looked ahead to see more trees than he'd ever seen in one place before, even in the rare instances when he was able to get to the park. He didn't even glance back at the twolegplace as they left it behind. The air was fresh and filled with birdsong rather than the rumble of the twolegs' monsters.

"This is amazing!" Harry exclaimed.

As they wound their way further into the forest, other cats poked their whiskers out to look and see who the kit was with Giantpaw.

"Who's that kit?"

"Look at that marking!"

"It's the Kit-Who-Lived!"

"Our savior has come back to us!"

Harry was very confused at the attention and shied behind Giantpaw. At least the huge cat gave plenty of girth to hide behind.

"Now, now," Giantpaw said. "Give Hairykit some space. Let him breathe!"

Harry didn't who know these cats were, and wasn't sure what to think of all this. So far as he was concerned, he was just Harry. But that was what the twolegs called him, and he never wanted to go back to the twolegs or be associated with them anymore.

"Hairykit? Is that his name?"

"Is the Kit-Who-Lived coming back to LionClan?"

"That's his choice, little one. Don't pressure him."

"The Kit-Who-Lived would be welcome in any of the Clans!"

"Come on, back off, everyone," Giantpaw said. "I need to get Hairykit back to camp. Whitestar is eager to see him."

Harry kept quiet as the cats reluctantly dispersed around them, and they continued on through the forest. Once they were out of earshot of anyone that he could see, he asked, "Who is Whitestar?" He thought for a moment, then said, "The leader of LionClan?"

"Got it in one," Giantpaw said. "He sent me to retrieve you. He's a very wise and powerful cat. He'll be glad to see you're alright."