Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Knockturn Alley wasn't really Dark. It was dingy and grimy and there wasn't much light, but the people there weren't evil. They were just trying to get by. Worried mothers and fathers warned their children to stay far away from the place. They said it was Dark and evil and filled with malicious spirits. Really, the only thing it was filled with was poverty.
It was so full of poverty. Brimming and teeming and every other word for overflowing. The people were hungry and desperate and people who are as hungry and desperate as this are inevitably forced to turn to thievery and prostitution and trafficking to keep themselves and their loved ones alive.
And there were children in Knockturn Alley. Children whose fathers left every morning, just like anyone else's, only their fathers were always wary because the law did not approve. Children whose mothers left to make money, only their mothers were often cheated after playing fuck toy to some pig. Children who were starving and couldn't do anything to help their families.
Except they could, couldn't they? Adults made money selling their bodies over and over again. It was a resource that never ran out. And children had bodies too.
The people in Knockturn Alley had morals. Children selling their bodies never made so much as a Knut. Their offers were never accepted. Anyone who dared to try was faced with wands, rocks, and sharp sticks. Because even a starving man wouldn't watch as a child was taken advantage of when they didn't know what they were selling. Because even a prostitute wouldn't watch as a child unwittingly gave up something that they themselves had only sold when faced with certain death. Because even a criminal wouldn't cheat a child so badly.
So everyone ignored the children who tried to sell themselves. They would smile sadly and turn away or wince and keep walking or close their eyes and shake their heads at the tragedy.
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Teddy knew he shouldn't have walked down Knockturn Alley. Gramma Andy had told him not to and Aunt Ginny had told him not to and Gramma Molly had told him not to and Uncle Harry had told him not to. He'd heard it his whole life. Don't go down Knockturn Alley. The message was deafening.
So Teddy Lupin, who was never as daring as James, stayed out of Knockturn Alley.
At age eighteen, he walked into the alley for the first time ever. He shook off all the warnings he'd heard against the place. Surely they only applied to children. But then a little girl walked up to him and he wanted nothing more than to be back in Diagon Alley, blissfully unaware.
The girl couldn't have been older than eight and she was thin as a stick, obviously starving. Her clothes were nothing more than rags and her grimy hair was tied into pigtails. And she had just tried to sell her body to him.
He stared at her, horrified at the hope evident on her face, and saw a couple of men behind her reach for their wands. For several moments, the street was still and Teddy understood exactly why he had never been allowed to come here.
Then the little girl glared at him and turned on her heel.
"Wait…" he said, pained by her situation. He pulled some galleons from his pocket.
She glared again. "I'm not a beggar." She informed him, turning away again.
"No," he replied, "you said you were selling your body." People gasped and several wands were drawn in an instant. Somewhere nearby, glass shattered against the cobbled street. She looked suspicious, as he continued. "I'll give you five galleons for a hug."
He knelt in front of her so that they were face to face and she beamed at him. Skinny arms were flung around his neck and he smiled sadly as he hugged a complete stranger in the middle of the street.