Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter J.K Rowling does.
People of various ages begin a life of crime for many numbers of reasons, some, like Harry Potter, began a life of crime out of pure necessity to survive having no other choice left to him. From an early Harry always knew his Aunt and Uncle hated him it was quite easy to tell with the nasty comments about him and his parents on a daily basis not to mention that they made him sleep in a cupboard, Harry wasn't stupid and knew what his Aunt and Uncle were doing was wrong and illegal, but the way that Harry saw it was that if his Aunt and Uncle were breaking the law and no one was doing anything to stop them, well, why shouldn't he?
It was with this realisation that harry started to pinch things from his family, only small things, like the odd toy from his cousin Dudley, a bit of extra food from the fridge, the odd bit of loose change his Uncle left lying out. After a while of stealing simple things and not getting caught Harry began to consider taking more but soon realised that if he did his Aunt or Uncle would no doubt find out and most likely kill him for it. Harry was quite smart for his age, though he never showed it, and so got the idea that it would be a good idea to try and find some books that would help him from the library that was just down the road. It turned out to be a huge success they had books on all sorts that would be a help to him, Harry also started a journal of sorts, keeping track of distractions that he found useful, new ideas to try, and many other thoughts he had.
I was shortly after Harry turned eight that fate opened a new door to him, one that would change his life forever, he apparated for the first time. It happened while he was in the supermarket on the edge of Surrey, one he knew his Aunt and Uncle never went to, he picking out a number of food products that would last a while without been frozen or stored in a fridge and were easy to get into so he would have a nice little stash for when his Uncle decided to lock him in his cupboard again. After picking up a couple of items and hiding them, which was easy epically with the old clothes of Dudley he was wearing as they had, plenty of space to store stuff, that one of the security guards caught him and chased him out of the store and down the road, it was just after turning a corner that Harry suddenly found himself on top a building's roof, the library's to be exact. Needless to say Harry was somewhat in a state of shock, quickly overcoming his shock Harry rapidly began to think on how this happened and hoped he could do it again, it would certainly help getting his chances of not getting caught in future and not to mention getting down from the library a lot easier.
It took Harry almost 3 hours before he could repeat the miracle and used it to get down from the library's roof and head straight back to Number 4 Privet Drive before his Aunt and Uncle started to wonder where he had got to, all the way back though his mind was racing on how his ability to jump, as he decided to call it could be used and how soon could he get away to practice it some more.
And practice it more Harry did, over the next 3 months Harry able to get completely comfortable and learn the limitations this new method of travel presented. He figured out that he couldn't jump to anywhere he hadn't seen before either in person or by picture, he guessed that it worked by bringing up a image of the location from memory and jumping himself there, though he still hadn't used it to travel large distances so far. He had also started to implement into his less than legal activities giving him a even bigger range of choice for targets including what money he could get from a few local shops at night.
It was 6 months before he was 11 years old that Harry was finally ready to leave the Dursley's for good after spending the past year gathering all the supplies which included some clothes that would fit him, quite a bit of food and of course money. He'd only managed to steal roughly £300 from the local shops as he didn't want to run the risk of getting caught or end up taking nothing. All of these he would need in order to survive on his were own stashed away in an abandoned house on the edge of Surrey that no one went near anymore. He also had a leaving gift for the Dursley's thought out for all the love, kindness and warmth they had shown him over the years.
Harry laid in his bed under the cupboard under the stairs waiting for his Aunt and Uncle to go to bed so he could get started on his leaving present as he figured it would take him most of the night to get it finished for when they wake up in the morning, there, perfect they had just got into bed and all was quiet, time to go. Harry jumped from his cupboard to a stables that he had found while looking for a place to stash his stolen goods, instead he had found a different treasure, one he was going to be taking tonight and leaving with his Aunt and Uncle, horse manure …. And lots of it, after 4 hours of digging manure into large bags and jumping back to the Dursley's he was finished and a little tired, but he couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of what his Aunt and Uncle would think to his leaving gift, after all it wasn't every day that you would wake up and find your living room redecorated with horse manure as he jumped to the abandoned house that had his supplies in.