Title: Instinctive Behaviour

Author: Knife Hand

Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated

Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.

Summary: Harry gets cold waiting on the front porch of number 4 as a baby, so he does something to get warmer, which changes things immensely (Animagus young Harry, no living with the Dursleys)

A/N: This was inspired by two other fics. Hermione Granger and the Prince of Serpents by CreatorZorah and Accidental Animagus by White Squirrel. Choice of Animagus form inspired by Three Turns by Elipsa (and AJ Freas), but Bandit not Bolt.

It was barley ten minutes after Professor Dumbledore had left the bundle that was Harry Potter on the doorstep of Number 4 that a cold wind blew down the street. The wind caught both the letter that the Professor had left and the corner of the blanket that had been loosely wrapped around the toddler. The letter got blown away and ended up down a storm water drain never to be read while the light blanket was blown off his small body. In less than a minute Harry was shivering. In a desperate attempt to keep Harry alive, his magical core, still unstable from the monumental events of the day before, reached down to one of his latent abilities and did the only thing it could to keep him warm. Sensing that something was going wrong due to its own instability, Harry's magic reached out to anything that could help, and found something compatible.

The pain woke Harry as his body shifted and changed. Fur burst through his skin all over and there was a massive pain in his lower back as his spinal cord extended into a long tail. The second the pain subsided, Harry scurried away from the place of pain, running quickly on all fours into some bushes further down the street. Instinct driving him, he chewed on a few leaves from the bush and then he curled up, wrapping his tail around him, and started dropping off to sleep.

After falling off to sleep, he found himself sitting in a playpen. There was only white outside the playpen, but that did not register to Harry, who was sitting in a pair of denim coveralls with a white t-shirt under it. There were a few toys, a stuffed cat, and a few beginner reading books. There was also a girl sitting across from Harry with dark brown hair in a pink dress.

"Hewwo." Harry said with the lisp of a young child. "I Har-wee"

"I Her-my-o-nee" the girl replied "Wanna play?"

Hermione held out the stuffed cat.

"Yess, Her… Her..." Harry began. "Yess, Nee."

They played for a while, then Hermione picked up one of the beginner picture books.

"Nee, you can?" Harry asked, pointing to the book.

"I weed you." Hermione replied.

Harry tottered over and dropped down next to Hermione, and she began to read to him. Hermione read the story then they played some more, until Hermione suddenly disappeared. A few seconds later the playpen also vanished as Harry awoke, still under the bushes and still an animal. Following the animal instincts, Harry headed north grazing on the foliage as he went, with his long tail pointing strait up into the air.

The pattern followed itself for the next several weeks. By day Harry would move north, eating fruit he found in garbage cans and the plants his instincts told him were edible, and avoiding anything big or noisy which included most people. By night, as he slept Harry would play with Hermione in the playpen. One the third night they had figured out that they could manipulate the playpen when Hermione had mentioned a toy she really liked and it had suddenly appeared in the playpen.

Hermione was sitting in her back yard, her mother had just going inside to fetch her a drink, when the animal approached. It had been a few weeks since she had started having dreams about 'Har-wee'. The animal was a small kind of… what was that word that her mother had been trying to teach her. Pri? Pir…friend? No. Pri-something. Like a monkey but bigger group than monkeys.

The animal was a dusky brown colour over its back and sides. Under its belly and neck it had white fur, as did its pointed face except for a black nose and black markings around its eyes. While it walked on all fours, its rear legs were much longer than its front legs. The most notable feature though was the long black and white striped tail, which was longer than its body. The animal had slowly emerged from the bushes, its eyes mostly resting on Hermione but occasionally darting around. It would take a few slow steps forward and then pause. The animal had closed three quarters of the distance when the sound of the door to the house opening broke the silence. By the time Hermione's mother had emerged and closed the door behind her, the animal was gone.

"Nee!" Harry said, bouncing with excitement as Hermione appeared into their dream play pen. "Me! Nee, me!"

"Har-wee?" Hermione asked, happy that he was excited but not sure what he meant.

Harry jumped around some more and in the middle of one of the jumps he turned into the animal she had seen that afternoon.

"Me, Nee." Harry said again after turning back into himself. "Me!"

Jenifer Granger watched her daughter through the window. Hermione had been spending a lot of time outside the last few days and for some reason she seemed to be reading out loud when outside instead of silently as she did inside. Silently Jenifer moved to the door and into the back yard.

"That done, Har-wee." Hermione said. "Birdy or Doggie now?"

Hermione had put down the book she had been reading and held up two new ones to something in front of her. Did she have an imaginary friend? No, Jenifer moved closer and saw that there was a primate sitting in front of her daughter. A damned if it did not look exactly like the Ring-Tailed Lemurs she had seen on the nature documentaries. More it like a young Lemur

"Hermione, come here honey." Jenifer said in a soft but firm voice.

Both Hermione and the Lemur turned and for a second there was stillness, then the Lemur started to run for the bushes.

"Har-wee, stop." Hermione called.

To Jenifer's great surprise the Lemur actually stopped and looked at Hermione. Slowly the Lemur moved back to Hermione's side but kept an eye on Jenifer.

"Mum, Har-wee." Hermione said. "Har-wee, mum."

Jenifer blinked and then realised that her daughter was introducing her to the Lemur the same way she would introduce a friend.

"Honey, that is a wild animal. It could bite you or have diseases." Jenifer tried to convince Hermione.

"Har-wee smart. Har-wee no hurt me." Hermione declared, before turning to the Lemur. "Har-wee, sheep to mum."

The Lemur looked at Hermione and the Jenifer for a second, and then it moved over to the small pile of children's books and retrieved the one that that was about sheep and held it carefully in its mouth as it half carried, half dragged the book over to Jenifer. It placed the book down in front of Jennifer before returning to Hermione's side.

Hermione settled down to sit on the ground and the Lemur curled up next to her.

Over the next few weeks, Jenifer and William Granger made a few discrete inquires about Lemurs to some Veterinarian friends, including one who worked for the London Zoo. There were no reports of Lemurs missing for any Zoos and the animal seemed to be genuinely attached, imprinted you might say, to Hermione, rarely leaving her side. After obtaining a few shots to give the Lemur, ones that would protect Hermione from any potential diseases without endangering the Lemur and administered by William Granger under the carful supervision of his two year old daughter, the Lemur known as Harry (or Har-wee when Hermione was pronouncing it) was accepted into the Granger household. In under a month it would be sleeping at the foot of Hermione's bed.

A few favours called in and the Grangers even had a legal licence to keep the exotic animal, though not to breed, exhibit or import/export. Harry was soon considered a member of the family. His days were spent playing with Hermione in his Lemur form as a semi-pet. His nights spent in the dream room with Hermione as a human and her best friend.

TBC…