New story just popped into my head, please be gentle. I don't own shit. Any people mentioned who bare any resemblance to anyone in real life is purely coincidental. A&P's circus does existso I don't own that either.

Please note that I am neither Russian nor a circus performer so some of this stuff might be wrong…in fact I bet like 90 of itis wrong... If I am could you tell me how to fix it? thanks!

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There were only two things that Harry Potter knew for sure. One was that his name was Harry Potter, he had distinct memories of someone calling him Harry, as apposed to the derogatory 'boy' his uncle had used. Of course he hadn't been called 'boy' for quite some time, having been abandoned when he was four, and being now the grand old age of 10 and ¾s, it was several lifetimes ago. The other thing he knew beyond a shadow a doubt was the fact that you always, always, always performed better without a safety net. How did he know this? Common sense, if there isn't anything to catch you when you fall you wont make the same mistakes that you would if you had the possibility of survival when you hit the ground. He also knew from experience. Whenever he was out in the ring his performance was ten times better because the clown with the whip and tranquilizer darts who had his back during practice wasn't even in the same tent.

You see, Harry had a natural affinity for animals (and heights, but that will be explained later). Snakes and big cats mostly but he had always been more comfortable around animals in general than humans. This is probably the result of being physically and mentally abused for the first half of his life. But he was a forgive and forget kind of circus performer, so he had left his past behind him and was looking towards the future. And in his very near future was 10, 700lb Siberian Tigers all at least 7 feet long, most 8, and all looking at him hungrily. He wasn't scared of course; every one of these beautiful killing machines was a close, personal friend of his…besides looking scared would ruin the show.
Harry took a deep breath and threw an exaggerated bow at the audience then turned to the pack of tigers who were pacing in equally exaggerated movements of agitation. He pointed at the one directly in front of him, Nala, the groups oldest female, and pointed at the colorful half-barrel that would serve as her seat. She hissed and did a half charge at him, getting gasps from the audience, but did as she was told when he cracked the whip in his left hand. He pointed to the next one, the largest male, Kujo, and made the same gesture. Kujo trotted over to his barrel obediently and licked his chops while staring at Harry.

The other seven, 3 male 4 female, did as they were told without any dramatization and waited for him to call them forward. He left the last tiger, the youngest and smallest male and therefore the outcast, pacing in the ring and turned to the others. Harry made an absent gesture to the tiger behind him, Sher Kan, and stood looking at Nala like an artist would a blank easel. Sher Kan came forward after fetching a colorful basket from outside of the ring. The tiger sat obediently at his side while he dug through the basket and came out with a large pink bow. Harry walked forward and tied the bow around Nala's neck.

This was the hardest part of the show because even if all of the tigers loved him like a son, which few did, their instinct would be to snap anything trying to do anything to their neck (their most vulnerable body part) in half. So he sweated a little and rubbed her behind her ears and hoped for the best. Neither Nala, nor any of the others caused any problems and he happily turned to Sher Kan.

He had the best relationship with him. Even if tigers weren't animals who normally lived in packs they still understood social hierarchy, and to them he was boss. Sher Kan, being on thebottom of the food chain among his pack-mates, continually sucked up to him in hopes of moving up a few spots. As a result he was the star of the show. Lion tamers often used the same techniques when working with an entire pride or just a few males. Females were harder to work with; they needed social order like they needed water. Without definite placement they became stressed and could easily become sick. Which is why he preferred tigers. They were more flexible and often traded places.

By the time Harry came out of his thoughts he had finished dressing Sher Kan up as the king and was having him hold the scepter in his mouth, which he would drop as soon as he turned away, bringing some comic relief to this daring act. The rest of the act went off without a hitch, including the part where he danced with Sher Kan and, the most stressful for all involved, jumping through hoops. None of the hoops were flaming of course; the animal rights activists were breathing down theirnecks enough as it is.

Harry and Sher Kan bowed in-sync and he lead the entire troop out of center ring. Fortunately, or unfortunately (depends on how you look at it really), he was the only act on at the moment so he could cut through the smaller ring on the left and didn't have to get any closer to the disruptive noise of the audience. Tigers really weren't big fans of loud noises and were just about at their limit now.

He led them to a small tent attached to the larger one that contained the three rings for the main acts and proceeded to take off all the articles of clothing he had put on during the act, including (but not limited to) hats, ties, bows, tutus, shoes (not real shoes, but they looked like it from the audience), bowties, and oversized monocles. Monocles were only used on the most well behaved animals. Less disciplined ones would shake their heads and/or scratch or rub them off. After all, would you want something on your face that rubbed up against your sensitive whiskers and nose? Didn't think so. Sher Kan had a monocle and Harry couldn't have been prouder.

Almost at the same instant that he had finished with the tigers a young woman in glittery swimsuit and tights ran up to him.

"Harry! What are you scheduled to do next?"

He blinked up at the near-hysterical woman. Her name was Natalie Klutzkovitchivough. Everyone called her Miss Natalie or Nat. She, along with her son, Mathew, was the star of the trapeze. Her son was about his age, but they looked nothing alike. Her son was muscular and handsome. Not to say that Harry wasn't handsome, but Mathew seemed to ooze handsome, and he carried himself in such a way that you just had to watch him and be awed by how great he was. Harry was just sort of good looking in a 'he'll be hot when he's older'kind of way. Harry wasn't not muscular; his muscles just didn't stick out like Mathew's did. He was all lithe speed, not bulky power.

"Uh, I think I'm helping with clown makeup. Why?"

Natalie dropped to her knees (not really, that would get her costume dirty) and placed both hands on his shoulders.

"Пожалуйста, please, please, please, please, do my act with me?"

Harry frowned and tilted his head to the side slightly in confusion.
"Why?"

Its not like he couldn't, he practiced with them quite a bit to keep up his skills, he was just curious. He had had his own trapeze act a while back (he was 7) and he knew how devastating it could be to lose a member. He had also played a small part in a high-wire act for a few years when he had been lighter. That was his first active role in Arnett and Paulo's Three Ring Circus. Before that he had been security (walking around looking for thieves and crooks) and makeup. After finding out he had an affinity for heights they put him on high wire, giving him his first taste of the safety net rule. After high wire came trapeze, then aerial straps, then they discovered his skills with animals. He had worked his way up from horses to camels to wolves (he was the only one he knew who would work with them) and finally to big cats. He wasn't allowed to work with elephants because of his age (and size). Apparently you have to be over 10 to work with elephants. Even though tigers were man-eaters (yeah right like 10 out of 300 ate people) and had fangs and could jump like 10 feet without getting a running start. Besides he was 10 and ¾s damn it!

"Mathew pulled something during warm up." She then started cussing about her no-good son in Russian. She had very strong accent but you failed to notice after a while.

"Sure," he interrupted her so he would have time to prepare "Just let me get ready."

She smiled in gratitude and ran to finish stretching. He joined her a few minutes later and was out in the center ring a few minutes after that. This act too went off without a hitch and by the time Harry made it back to his trailer he was so tired he could barely lift his arms. He sighed in relief when he opened the door and wasn't pounced on. His roommate, an 11-month arctic wolf cub named Kina (who had appeared out of nowhere one day), was normally hyper and he was grateful she was sleeping peacefully on his bed. He smiled gently at her and snuggled under the covers and gently as he could so as not to wake her. I didn't work. She jumped to her feet and started licking his face before settling down next to him and soaking up whatever warmth he provided. Harry sighed in content and drifted off to sleep without ever noticing the owl perched on his window.

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Please tell me what you think. If you would like to be my beta reader (since I really really need one) you should e-mail me. Do you think I should keep up this story? Review!

Пожалуйста please (or so says freetranslationdotcom)