Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor Death Note

Pairing: HP/L


Two and a half years later… December of 2002

The man previously known as Harry Potter had adjusted quite well to his new life. He was eighteen years old, has been so for six months in fact, and loved his new existence, which consisted of himself, Hedwig, and last but not least, freedom.

He hardly ever noticed before, but the wizarding world, his status as the Chosen One and the war with Voldemort were suffocating him. He didn't miss much, ever since the death of his Godfather, he started noticing that, maybe, the wizarding world wasn't really the place for him.

This opinion was one of the reasons he now thanked his magic so much for helping him run away.

At the beginning, naturally, things were extremely complicated. How was he supposed to explain the reason why there were no records of his existence, why he had no parents, why he didn't go to school?

Harry opted, instead, for living on the streets. Well, more or less. Hedwig had, somehow, found the perfect place for them both to live, an abandoned building that wasn't too decadent. Any rat that now dared to enter the place would instantly become her meal, and Harry had a place to stay and a roof over his head.

He had changed his name, also. Not officially, since he obviously did not have records, but whenever asked, he told them to call him Hadrian Black. The only exception for this was when he was performing: in such a case, he went by the name of Phoenix.

The way Harry, now Hadrian, found to guarantee that he would have enough food to survive, was to be a street performer. He did many things for the 'show', including malabarism with knives (he was surprisingly good at it), music (with a violin he found while shuffling the attic of his residence, and learnt to play very quickly with another street performer) and, naturally, he also performed as a magician. One of the best in the streets of London, if not the best, since he was a real wizard, even though he had no wand. Still, he made a point of mastering the muggle tricks to present, with the purpose of not being too obvious with his real magic.

When he wasn't doing his 'job', nor at his home, he tended to hang around the public library a few quarters down from his home, in an effort to catch up with the normal muggle schooling, though he quickly got distracted with other subjects. His actual system was to study whatever caught his fancy, although he always took the time to study the basics, especially math and English.

Among the subjects he had been studying ever since he started frequenting the library, were psychology, law, chemistry (potions, anyone?) and foreign languages such as French, German and Spanish. Hadrian also read about rhetoric, philosophy and meditation, the last one being vital for learning how to direct his magic with his will, instead of spells and wands. In his pursuit for knowledge, he discovered his love for literature, especially detective novels. As such, it was with wide eyes that he accompanied the progress of many cases on the media, taking notes, elaborating theories and using all the information he could collect in order to solve the cases, making it a silent and one-sided competition to find the culprit before the police.

At first, he failed spectacularly, but soon was able to keep up with the officers, and then began winning his 'game' most of the times. The reason he became so interested in detective work was because of his experience with going after and poking any and all mysteries at Hogwarts. Guess the habit never died down.

Anyway, he always wondered about what Hermione and Ron would think about his new life. After some time pondering over the topic, he concluded that while the ginger would be excited about the detective work, the bookworm would be enchanted by his newfound love for learning. Figures he'd only excel in subjects he chose for himself, rather than the curriculum approved by the ministry.

His constant presence at the library resulted in meeting his first friend in this new London. One of the volunteers, Bethany 'Beth' Fox, often stopped by his desk to talk to him. Afterwards, he also became friends with Sophia Marvelin, the street performer and music teacher who later taught him to play the violin, and Lucian Marvelin, her brother who worked at the hospital... Damn, he forgot the name again.

All in all, Hadrian was extremely pleased with his new life. Pity he had no idea how much it would change in the following months, but if he knew, he'd be looking at his watch and urging the time to pass faster.


As it has already been mentioned, it was December. Hadrian, in a whim, decided he wanted to do something different this year. He called Sophia Marvelin to help, and now, they were at the park surrounded by their spectators, mostly parents and children so well 'wrapped' against the cold they could be shipped off to another continent and arrive with next to no damage.

Sophia was in charge of the music, while Hadrian did his magic. He did some of his usual tricks, pulling off some Christmas-themed ones, plus his signature: he pulled an owl from a Christmas cap. Frankly, much more original than the usual rabbit.

Having been waiting until his audience was at its' peak, he signaled the violinist, who announced the grand finale. As Hadrian picked up the things he'd need, he began his story. Never lying, he narrated the dark times of his childhood, keeping his story as light as possible to avoid scaring the children.

For that, the topic he talked about was food. He told them about having been made to cook for his relatives, but not being able to eat the food. The magician also said that, for a long time, he was convinced he didn't like to cook, but discovered only a few years ago that he did enjoy doing it, especially sweets.

He smiled mischievously then, and said he'd be doing one for them.

Hadrian completed it with an apology, saying that since he didn't have any cooking utensil with him, he couldn't do anything normal, but that he had everything he needed to make a sugar sculpture.

In front of him, there was a small table, a box, a teacup filed with sugar, and just a bit of water in a plastic cup. He asked the children what they would like sculpted and asked Sophia to pick a kid.

The woman pointed to a child with a Spiderman costume, who immediately declared he wanted a spider. Hadrian smiled, nodded, and then begun to show his audience that he would only use the water, the sugar, and the empty box, which he dismounted to show was perfectly normal.

Then, he assembled the box again, turned the teacup inside it, lightly touched the water with his fingertips, and asked someone to time 5 minutes for him to use. A second later, he dipped his head and began to work.

When the time was up, Hadrian's head came up, grinning wildly. He partially dismounted the box, showing a corner of it.

Inside, a small spider laid on top of a beautifully crafted spider web, all made in sugar.


Somewhere in the middle of the crowd, carefully hidden, gray eyes watched deeply interested both the magician and the sculpture.


A/N: Well that's it for today. Thank you all for reading, I enjoyed seeing your reviews ;)

Next chapter comes in one, maybe two days. No promises, though, I'm also working on an original story.