The Incredible Journey of Harriet Malfoy
So this is a retelling of the story the convict Mary Bryant, interspersed with the Harry Potter characters and hopefully personalities, at least somewhat. This has been inspired by and some choice dialogue borrowed from the Australian tow part series "The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant" it is fantastic and I believe that someone has put it up on YouTube if you want to watch some of it. I have also used some parts from the historical records (and ignored others completely) and also from " The Girl From Botany Bay" by Carolly Erickson. I obviously own none of these nor any familiar characters from HP.
It will probably be very slow going, but I wanted to get the first part out there to see what you all think of it. It is harder to write than anything that I have written before, but I really want to see this one through.
PART ONE
"I was seventeen from a fishing family, a family that was starving. I was always a bit wild, I should have listened to my Father, I should have listened to my Mother. But I didn't. Real hunger, it takes you over, it doesn't leave you room to think."
There had never been enough food on the table when I was a child, and especially now. My father James, is a fisherman and my mother does what she can. I am my parents sixth child, but I only have one other sister older than I. My mother Lily birthed thirteen babies, and miraculously didn't die herself in the process. But of those thirteen babies, only I and my three sisters survived. I had brothers and sisters, most died before their first birthday, but some lived for a few years.
I was all sorts that took them from us, the cold, the hunger, the sickness. I grew up my father's only son, helping him on the fishing boats. What we did manage to catch would have been just enough to feed us all and sell the remainder for rent if my father hadn't spent so much of it on drink.
So the month after I turned seventeen I made the decision that would turn my world on its head. That morning was the last time I would see my family, and the last they would see of me, for many years at least.
It was a pleasant early spring day, the sun shining from the cloudless blue sky taking the chill from the air. Madam Bones thought it the perfect day to make the trip out across the fields and through the Covington Wood to Fowey. She surely must visit her niece Susan that day as she had just had her first child. Madam Bones walked briskly across the fields from Coombe Farm carrying her picnic basket, she passed two gentlemen out for a slow stroll. Glimpses of St Catherine's Castle became visible through the trees as she approached the edge of the wood. Madam Bones could see a blue shape on the ground and as she cautiously walked closer she saw that it was the body of a young woman.
Her hair was long and dark, swept around her head in a tangle with the leaves. The woman's dress was hitched up around her knees, one arm palm up on the ground and the other laying across her chest. As far as Madam Bones could see, the girl wasn't breathing.
The food shortages in the area had been going on for a few years now and it had become more common place to find the dead bodies of the poor. While disease remained a huge killer, starvation was slowly rising among some classes of people. Madam Bones was concerned as she approached the dark haired woman after all she was a kind church going lady. As Madam Bones knelt in the ground she placed the basket beside her. And the dark haired woman sprung to life. She flung her left hand forwards and snatched the bonnet off the lady's head, unconcerned for the hat pin ripping out hair. The Girl pushed with all her might and Madam Bones tumbled to the ground calling for help as the girl picked up her basket and ran.
Harriet ran, she shoved the bonnet deep into the basket and pulled out some bread, taking a bite out of it while she ran, savouring the food in her mouth for the first time in days. The screams for help from the lady behind her rang loud in her ears and she forced her legs to move faster, to escape. She ran, faster than she ever had before, as fast as her poor tired, starving body could, but it wasn't enough. Fear gripped her and for the first time she thought about getting caught, and the consequences of it.
The thundering of feet, both her own and those of her persuers roared in her ears. She took in gasps of air, breathing as deep as she could, and pumping her legs over the uneven ground of the wood. Her flight was for naught as she felt hands on both her shoulders and she was brought to the ground screaming.
"No stop, please! It was just, I'm just... Please! We're starvin',"
The two men held her under her arms and she struggled, pulling this way and that when the woman caught up with them and grabbed hold of her legs. Harriet's skirts were pushed up over her thighs as she struggled to get free, kicking her legs.
"Straight to the magistrate then, stealing a silk bonnet and everything else in this basket." Said the first man.
"A hanging no doubt." Agreed the second man.
When Harriet's name was called she went forward to stand before the wooden frame of the bar. A dark haired, green eyed young woman of five foot two inches. She was grimy but brazen, there was no doubt that she looked coarsened by life, her hands were chapped and raw, her speech thick with her local Fowey accent. Her complexion reddened by the stinging Cornish wind.
It was recorded that she did "feloniously assault Madam Amelia Bones, on the King's highway, putting her to corporeal fear and danger of her life" and that she stole "violently" a silk bonnet and other goods worth eleven pounds and eleven shillings. The judges were unyielding and the law unforgiving. Harriet Potter was sentenced to be hanged for highway robbery.