Harry's New Mother

The Dursleys had never treated him well. Of course not. After all, he was the son of those 'freaks', as Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia called them. He had always been invisible to them, unless he was needed to do the chores or act as a punching bag. He was locked in the cupboard under the stairs most of the time, only to be let out for school, meals and chores.

Things aren't any better at school. For one thing, he was always untidy: his clothes were too big, his glasses were crooked, and his hair always stuck up at the back, earning many disapproving glares from fussy old ladies. The teachers were fine, until he turned a teacher's wig blue, causing the staff to dislike him. He had never had any friends at school as Dudley's gang hated him, and no one liked to get on the bad side of Dudley and his gang.

His only friend was the small grey tabby cat with dark green eyes that came to visit him every weekend while the Dursleys were at church, leaving him to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen until it was spotless and gleaming white. As soon as he finished, he would run out of the house, bringing a ball of wool snitched from Aunt Petunia's sewing basket(she never used it anyways), and play with the tabby cat until he could hear the Dursleys' car arriving. Then, he would bid a hurried goodbye to the cat, and rush to the house to open the front door for the Dursleys.

He even had a name for the cat. He called it Minnie as it was so small. The cat was lively and playful, and one day he brought Minnie to Mrs. Figg's house to visit her various kittens. When Mrs. Figg saw the grey cat in Harry's arms, her eyes widened alarmingly. When he asked timidly what the matter was, Mrs. Figg just shook her head and gave him tea and biscuits. She called Minnie 'Minerva', and talked to it as though it was a person instead of a cat. She even knew Minnie liked to eat salmon, although he never told her.

At the end of the visit (which wasn't as bad as usual, as Mrs. Figg didn't make him look at pictures), he demanded to know how Mrs. Figg knew so much about his beloved tabby cat, Mrs. Figg fidgeted uneasily, and said, "Well, Harry… You see, Minerva here," at this she patted the grey cat's head, "Minerva has also visited me, you know."

Feeling rather cross as he wanted to be the only one who owned the tabby cat, he ran across Privet Drive, just in time to slip through the back door and greet the Dursleys.