FAMILY STICKS TOGETHER: CHAPTER 1
It all started one cool March night, when Harry's relatives left him standing on the doorstep of Callum House, Surrey's local orphanage.
He told the Matron there that his name was Harry James. Harry had never known his name; he'd always just been referred to as 'boy' or 'freak'. However, as luck had it, he'd been told to clear out the attic a week earlier and had discovered an old letter to his aunt from someone named Lily. Harry knew that his mother's name had been Lily so he'd read the letter, which told of how she'd just had a son and his name was Harry James. Harry knew he was in the same school year as Dudley but was younger, so Harry knew he was five. As Dudley was born in June, Harry knew that left only July or August for his birthday. This is all he could've told the Matron about himself.
As the Matron had been taking Harry to the 1980 ward, they passed through the 1981 section in which a young girl was screaming.
"Oh, not again," Harry remembered hearing Matron muttered before opening room 134 to reveal a small girl who was thrashing madly in her bed. Harry had followed the Matron into the room and, when he realised that she didn't seem to be able to help the girl, he got onto the bed and started trying to soothe her himself. Thankfully, he'd been more successful than the Matron and the girl's thrashing and screaming stopped, her breathing slowed to a regular rate and her teary eyes opened to reveal a set of big blue eyes.
"Hello, I'm Harry," he'd said softly.
"I'm Alexia," the girl whispered before a wave of new tears began streaming from her eyes. Harry hugged her tightly, and stroked her hair gently.
"Matron? Please may I stay here with Alexia tonight?" Harry asked.
One looked into his dazzling green eyes and the Matron had been sold. Of course it was against the rules, but no one had even been able to calm Alexia from one of her nightmares before. If this boy could help her, then who was she to take him away?
As the Matron slowly left the room, Harry continued to soothe his new friend. "Don't worry," he whispered. "It's over now. I'll protect you."
Ever since that night, Harry and Alexia had been inseparable and a few days later, Alexia had told him her story. She'd been three years old when she'd seen her parents murdered in their own hallway. It was late at night and her mother had put her down on the kitchen counter to open the door. The man had asked for her father but, once Alexia's mother had called for him, the man stabbed her right through her chest. She was dead within seconds. A then crying Alexia had to watch as her father came down the stairs and was shot in the head the second he entered the hallway. The man then pointed the gun at little Alexia and was about to shoot when a crashing sound came from the street and he quickly fled before getting caught. It had been a neighbour who had heard the gun shot and tripped over his bin on his way to find out. He'd seen the bodies and immediately called the police, not venturing close enough to hear Alexia's hysteric crying from the kitchen. She'd been stuck there for over an hour when she was finally discovered and, once they found out she had no other relatives, she was taken to Callum House.
That night is what haunted her nightmares. Harry had sworn to protect her his first night at the orphanage and, after hearing her story, he was dead set on keeping that promise and he always made sure she knew it.
For two years, it was just Harry and Alexia, or Hal and Ali as they'd come to nickname themselves. The two were quite a pair. Adults instantly fell in love with them what with Harry with his messy raven black hair and cheeky, bright green eyes and Alexia with her fair brown hair and big, dark blue eyes, yet, for some unknown reason, whenever one was taken to meet a couple looking to adopt they adults would always leave saying "What a perfect child! No, sorry, we don't want to adopt them." The adults at Callum House always wondered what it was, maybe the children expressed wishes not to leave the other which would convince the couples. They wished they could show the pair to couples looking for a boy and a girl but, unfortunately, there was a policy stating they could only do so with siblings.
Harry and Alexia never really paid much attention to the other children at Callum House, never even spoke to them, until the bullies began picking on them. Greg Mitchells, Archie Saunders and Morris Alton were their names. The boys stole their food at lunch, pushed them around in the playground and locked them in cupboards. One day however, Harry and Alexia saw them picking on someone else. A little girl couldn't have been older than four. The girl had light olive skin, dark brown hair and big brown eyes that were full of fear as she backed into the wall as the older boys towered over her. Harry and Alexia weren't completely sure what happened then but they both remembered shouting, "Leave her alone!" and feeling some sort of surge of energy leaving them and hitting the boys sending them flying into the wall. A the sound of the slumping bodies, the little girl opened her eyes and stared in shock and the sight of the three unconscious boys and the boy and the girl walking toward her.
"Are you ok?" Alexia had asked, concern shining in her blue eyes.
The little girl nodded, still slightly stunned at what had just happened. Not surprisingly, Harry and Alexia were too. Somehow they had blasted the bullies into the wall but they hadn't even lifted a finger.
"I'm Harry and this is Alexia," Harry said softly like he had the night he'd introduced himself to Ali. "What's your name?"
"I'm Cassidy," the little girl said as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek.
"Well, Cassidy," Harry said, "why don't you come with us and we can get you some water?"
And so it was that Cassie, as they'd come to nickname her, joined their little group. Cassie's story was a little less eventful than Hal or Ali's but it was sad all the same. She'd been left on the doorstep of Callum House as a newborn. It was a classic abandonment story; left in a basket wrapped in only a blanket with a note. "This is Cassidy, please look after her" was all it said. Cassie had been at Callum House for all her life except for one year when she was fostered however the couple had returned her after an odd incident when a window suddenly smashed while she was crying.
This made Harry think of his and Ali's own 'incident' with the bullies. Smashing them into the wall like that was almost like… Magic. It was then that Harry remembered all his aunt and uncle's rants about 'magic isn't real' and 'you're just a freak infected by freakishness'. This was when Harry started wondering if maybe, just maybe, magic could be real.
A year later, a terrible accident happened at Callum House. Three stupid boys, namely Greg Mitchells, Archie Saunders and Morris Alton, had tried to have a bonfire in the small garden in the orphanage's atrium. The fire had caught onto a drape of a living room that had blown out of a window and the fire had spread from there. It had been the middle of the night so the children had been asleep. Harry was one of the first to wake. He smelled the burning. He rushed out of his room and saw the fire rising up the stairwell. He quickly ran to Alexia's room, banging on all doors he passed and shouting, "Fire! Fire!" Needless to say, the orphanage was soon chaos.
"Ali?" he shook his friend awake. As soon as she woke, she saw the orange and red lights flickering from the hallways. She looked at Harry in fear.
"We've got to get Cassie!" she exclaimed, quickly grabbing a jumper like Harry had and running out into the halls, Harry only a second behind her.
They found their young friend standing in the hallway of the '83 section, her arms wrapped around her small body.
"Ali, Hal!" she cried as she saw them.
"Come on," Harry said urgently, "we have to get out of here."
Cassie and Alexia nodded and followed Harry as he led then down a flight of stairs. They were running back down Alexia's corridor in the '81 section when the fire started spreading towards them.
"Turn around!" Harry shouted. "Run!" But before Harry could follow them, he heard a scream from inside room 139.
"Help! Help!" a boy was shouting and banging on the door.
Harry panicked, "There's someone stuck in here!" He called to Alexia and Cassie as he noticed they'd stopped at the end of the corridor. "Get out of here! I'll meet you outside!"
Being only eight years old, Harry wasn't really sure what he could do but he couldn't leave this boy here to die, he had to try something. The fire was getting closer, catching onto drapes, setting more and more carpet ablaze. He faced the door and shouted, "Move away from the door!"
He'd been wondering about 'magic' for two months and had come to the conclusion that, yes, it did exist. He'd managed to move small items if he focused hard enough. Now, his question was, did everyone have magic? But this was a theory he would have to test later.
He lifted his arms and turned his palms towards the door and with all the energy he could muster up he pulled back his hands and as he pushed them forward he shouted, "Open!" It worked, kind of. The door didn't open but it did breakdown revealing a boy with curly dark brown hair and eyes that looked hazel. Harry looked around and saw the fire was about to reach him. "The window!" he shouted at the boy. "Open the window!"
"We can't jump!" he sobbed. "We're on the fifth floor!"
Harry walked into the room. "What's your name?" he asked the boy gently, crouching down to his height.
"Theodore," the boy sniffed.
"I'm Harry," he said, "and I know this sounds crazy but there is no where else for us to go! We have to jump."
That was all Harry could say because the fire had now spread into Theodore room and was coming towards the two boys, and fast.
"On three?" said Harry. "One, two, three!"
He grabbed Theodore by the waist and jumped, most likely to his death. Harry looked down and the ground and wished more than anything he could've said goodbye properly to Alexia and Cassie. He hoped they'd forgive him some day. He closed his eyes waiting to hit the ground. But it didn't happen. He opened them again. He and Theodore were floating half a meter above the ground.
"I don't want to die, I don't want to die." Theodore was muttered, holding tightly onto Harry.
"Theodore," Harry whispered. "Open your eyes."
Theodore's eyes snapped open.
"Argh!" he thrashed suddenly when he realised he was suspended in the air. As he let go of Harry he remained suspended in the air. Harry, however, fell and landed rather hard on his butt. That wasn't important now though.
"You can do it too!" Harry whispered, watching and Theodore slowly lowered to the ground. Before Theodore could figure out what Harry was on about, Alexia and Cassie suddenly appeared, running towards Harry.
"Hal!" Cassie exclaimed running and hugging him.
Alexia followed suit, "You're ok!"
Harry returned their hugs before pulling away and introducing the rather awkward Theodore.
Once they realised that Callum House would have to close and orphans would be distributed to other nearby orphanages, Harry, Alexia, Cassie and the newest member of their group, Theo (as he'd been dubbed due to Cassie thinking 'his name was too long') decided they'd try life on the streets. It seemed like an odd decision to make but Harry knew how lucky they'd been at Callum House and didn't want to risk being separated from his friends. Even though he'd only met Theo minutes before, he didn't want to leave the guy. He figured it had something to do with nearly dying together.
So that was that. The four of them took to the streets. They'd wandered alleys and roads searching for some sign of an abandoned area in which they could take shelter. Their prayers were answered when they found a rather run down apartment, which had a worn 'To Let' sign outside it. Theo was quick to pick the lock on the front door and they were in. They'd barely gotten a metre into the hall when a boy, somewhere around Alexia or Theo's age, jumped out holding a knife.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he demanded, golden-brown eyes blazing.
Harry decided to step forward, ignoring the knife. "I'm Harry," he said. "This is Alexia, Cassidy and Theodore. We need a place to stay."
"Why?" the boy asked, raising the knife slightly towards Harry's face.
"Our orphanage burnt down, we have nowhere to go," said Harry.
"Luke?" came a sudden, very young voice from one of the rooms off the side.
"Stay where you are Kate!" the boy called before turning back to Harry's group. "How do I know we can trust you?"
"We have nothing," said Harry simply. "Cassidy is our youngest at age five and I'm the oldest at eight. What can we really do?"
This seemed to be enough for the boy. He lowered the knife and gestured them to follow him into the side room that the voice had come from. There were two mattresses in the room covered by very old blankets. Some crisp packets lay strewn on the floor as well as a fruit bar wrapper. On one mattress sat a little girl playing with a paper aeroplane.
"She's three," said the boy. "Kate say hello."
"Hi!" the little girl said brightly. Harry thought she looked like a miniature angel. She had very light blond hair and pale blue eyes.
"I'm Luke," the boy introduced himself. He had longish, messy dirty blond hair and golden-brown eyes. "You can stay as long as you like."
Eventually, Luke warmed up to the others. It turned out that Kate had been his parents' best friends' daughter. Both their parents had died in a car crash a few weeks previous and Luke, knowing that his only living relatives were drug addicts, had run from social services taking Kate with him. They'd also found out Theo's story. His mother had died in childbirth so he had been raised by his father who was a drunk and a drug addict who died from overdosing two months previous, leaving Theo with no other relatives.
In the months that followed, the six children grew very close. By December they were a family. Harry, being the oldest, was almost like a makeshift father and Alexia was the mother figure to them all. Except to Luke who was basically the same age as Alexia so he became more of a crazy uncle. Eventually they decided that they all needed proper names. They all wanted a surname. They finally chose 'James' as their surname as it was Harry's, though he wasn't sure if it was his real one or not.
Harry talked to them all about his 'magic' theories a few times. From the sounds of things they had all experiences these weird incidents. Harry decided to let it go as it seemed like it was just a normal occurrence.
They lived in that abandoned apartment for three years. They would've stayed longer but it only took three years for their world to be tipped upside down.
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