Runaway Children

Summary: Under-fed, suffering from malnutrition and injuries, abused and unloved, Harry's had enough. When Vernon beats Harry once again, he runs away. By wishing and accidental magic, he apparates all the way to the streets London at the age of six. He ends up in the care of two young squibs, kicked out by their pureblood families. Later on some other squibs and Muggleborns are added to the pack. Harry will not be anything like Dumbles had imagined when he dropped Harry at the Dursleys!

Warnings:
Abuse
Violence
Not-Growing-Up-with-the-Dursleys!Harry
Runaway!Harry fic
Independant!Harry
Grey/Darkish!Harry
Non-puppet!Harry
Metamorphmagus!Harry
Street!Harry - Manipulative-Dumbledore – AU

Rating: M for (future) language and violence. Some sexual content (later on). Nothing graphic, though.

Pairing: None yet. Future Pairing not yet decided on. Slash or Het not yet decided.

Beta: Still none. Anyway, if someone wants to beta, drop me a message. Otherwise I'll search for one soon.

Note: English is only my second language. I am certain I have made or will make some mistakes and stupid errors somewhere. Feel free to point them out so I can change them - just don't troll and/or flame, 'kay? I, like almost everyone, am fond of reviews. I prefer (constructive) critic though. While it is nice to hear someone loves the story, I'd still like to know what I can improve to make it better. While it's a bit less nice to hear someone hates my story, I still prefer to know why people hate it.

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor claim any kind of ownership on the original material, referenced in this work. I do not expect, nor will I accept any payment or compensation for this work, as it is being done in the nature of fanfiction. Anything you recognize is bound to be Rowling's work or coincidence with fanfiction someone else wrote. I have, to my knowledge, not borrowed/'stolen' plotlines or characters from other fanfic authors. If I borrow something, I will place a note somewhere - either in the disclaimer or in an Author's Note.


Chapter 1 – Squibs to the Rescue!

Harry kept his right arm to the wall, trying to keep himself from falling again. He slowly moved in the direction of the alley's end, his eyes fixed on the wall. Everything was blob-like and his vision was unfocused, and the left part of his pair of glasses was broken, making it even harder for Harry to see anything. With every step, every move he made, his body seemed to explode in pain. His thoughts were clouded, all his focus was directed on leaving this alley. Not that he had anywhere to go to – or even knew were he was. He did not know or think about what he was doing, or why – he had simply set his goals on leaving this alley, without any specific reasons or purposes – he simply needed to focus himself on something to prevent losing consciousness. The pain had now partially numbed his body, clouded his thoughts and greatly limited his sight – and his movement. With his glasses half-broken his sight was limited already, but the amount of pain and the loss of blood made him nearly blind.

As a result of this, all Harry saw was a variety of moving, colored blobs, turning and spinning, going everywhere. He was dizzy and the emptiness of his stomach gave him a feeling of nausea.

Focused only on the wall next to him, Harry misstepped and fell down almost immediately, in spite of all his attempts to stay on his feet.

In his fall he accidentally took a half-filled garbage bin wit him. The bin clattered on the ground with much noise, then bounced up slightly, now hitting the wall with a noise at least as loud as before. What rubbish had been in the bin, was now spread over the alley, splattered on the walls – and on Harry. The bin rolled away from the wall and hit Harry's feet.

Not far away from the alley Harry had been trying to leave, unsuccessfully, two girls had heard the noise caused by the clattering bin.

They looked at each other. "What the hell was that?!" the youngest of two yelled, surprised by the sudden noise. The other shrugged. "No fuckin' idea, Vicky. Reckon we should look?"

'Vicky' nodded. "Sure thing, Ellie."

The older girl groaned. "Do not call me 'Ellie', Tori, my name is Lisa and you know it."

"Well, actually, it's Elisabeth, Ellie." The younger girl winked. "But fine. You don't call me 'Tori' or 'Toria', and I won't call you 'Ellie' or 'Beth' or any variation of it. Deal?"

Victoria hated her name about as much as Elisabeth did. Courtesy of their inbred, pure-blooded, bigoted parents – as a scion of a proper, pure-blood family she should have a proper name. Victoria Lucretia Goyle.

At least, that had been the case until they were kicked out and disowned by their own parents for being non-magical – squibs, as they were called. Well, she wanted nothing to do with them anymore – not her parents, not any other relatives of her. Now she officially was Victoria Lucretia No-Name, née Goyle. Unworthy, they had called her, when she hadn't received a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter when she was eleven.

Elisabeth's story was similar. Once Elisabeth Aurora Parkinson, now just Lisa, she too had been disowned when the suspicions of her being a squib were confirmed when her Hogwarts Acceptance Letter never arrived.

"Yes, deal. Hope you'll hold it this time for more than three hours, Vic."

The two smiled to each other. "Anyway, are we gonna check out that noise, Lisa?"
Lisa nodded. "Sure we do."

The two girls ran in de direction of the noise they had heard not long before. They manoeuvred easily through the maze of dead-ended alleys until they had reached the place from where the noise had originated – two alleyways left of the one the girls had been in.

They immediately noticed the fallen bin and saw something else laying on the ground in the distance.

"What's that?" Vicky whispered to Lisa, a scared note in her voice.

"Don't know. Guess we should check, no?" The older girl replied.

Vicky shivered but nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

It was at that moment that Harry tried to roll over so that he could get back to his feet. He managed to roll over for a moment but fell back almost immediately. He moaned slightly as he hurt his broken wrist yet again. In his pain, he was unable to see anything, and so he had kept his eyes firmly shut. He did not notice his surroundings at all anymore – he was straddling the fence between consciousness and unconsciousness. Unknown to him, the two girls slowly neared him, scared by every movement he made.

When Lisa and Vicky came closer to the heap they saw lying on the ground, they noticed it was moving slightly, trembling and rolling.

"It's moving…" Lisa whispered softly, stating the obvious. "What is it?"

Vicky, who had the better eyes of the two, stared at whatever it was before them. "I am not sure…" she whispered back, "but it looks like a kid."

Lisa turned her head to the girl next to her. "A child? What in Merlin's name would a child be doing here?"

Vicky raised her eyebrow. "The same thing we do, Lisa? It probably was either kicked out or ran away. Don't think it'll hurt us, though – seems to be in a bad condition. Can't even get to their feet."

Lisa walked closer to the kid, and shivered at the sight she saw. A little boy, fighting unconsciousness, lay in a foetal position before her. His left wrist was bended in a direction normally impossible, his skin and clothes bore traces of blood and wherever his skin was exposed, bruises, gashes and scars were to be seen. A pair of glasses, as battered as the boy himself, had fallen off his face onto the ground. Trash – probably from the bin – was splattered over him, even though the boy did not seem to be aware of anything. He shivered and quivered, his breath was irregular and tears, caused by pain, streamed down his face, mixing with both the dry and the fresh blood traces.

Lisa cursed loudly, a long string of both muggle and wizard curses. Vicky almost ran towards Lisa. "What's wrong, Lisa?!" She yelled, then looked at the child before them. "Goddamnit… What the hell has happened to him? Who is sick enough to hurt a small child like that?"

Vicky shivered, then threw up. Tears ran down her face – ran down both Vicky's and Lisa's faces, actually.

"I don't know, Vic, I really don't. He needs our help, but how? How? HOW? We cannot do anything."

Vicky nodded. "We can't bring him to a hospital, and the witches and wizards don't want anything to do with us." She waited for a moment. "We don't even know if this boy is muggle or wizard – what do you think would happen if we'd bring a muggle into the Wizarding World, Lisa?"

"Nothing good, that's sure. So both hospitals and St. Mungo's are not doable. Can we ask anyone else who could heal this child?"

Vicky hesitated. "There's Tobias, Liz. We could try."

Lisa sighed. "If he's still around. You know as well as I do that he plans to rejoin the pack and leave England, Vic."

Vicky sighed. "I know, Liz, I know… But what else can we do? He's our only hope – you know that he had almost finished his Medi-Wizard training when they got him, and he got kicked out for that. Whether the boy is wizard or muggle, he'd help. He understands, after all. He's as much expelled by society as we are."

Lisa nodded. "True, but we don't even know if he is around anymore. Might still be there, but he could just as well have left to rejoin the pack in Germany, you know."

"Yes, I know. But we have to try. If he's still here in London, he can safe the boy. After the horrors my relatives did during last war, I will never leave a child, muggle or wizard, behind to die, even if I do not know them, if I can do anything to safe them."

The child was unaware of the discussion going on only a few feet away from him. He could not even move anymore, or think. He had lost consciousness again, and if nothing would happen, the next thing the abused, starved little boy would lose, was his life. His body had lost too much blood already, and with his poor health and injuries added, it was only his magic that was keeping him alive.

"I know, Vic. I feel the same… but what if he is not there? What if Tobias has left already?" A tear leaked down the girl's face as she saw the boy lying near her, clearly beaten down. She remembered her cruel family all too well. When they started fearing the girl had no magic, they had started beating her 'to provoke accidental magic', although Lisa assumed it was more for being unworthy and a disgrace of the family name.

Despite this, and despite the cruelty of her family, she had never been treated like this little boy lying at her feet. Her family might have hated her, but never had they trashed her like this boy was trashed. Never had they brought her on the verge of losing her life – at least not until that day they kicked her out of her home and out of the family.

"I don't know, Liz, I really do not know. I hope he is there, I really hope it."

Both girls nodded.

"Vic, go to Tobias, get him here if he's still around, I'll stay with the boy and make sure that no one else will bother him. Use that portkey he gave you, we have no time for running through London's alleys."

"Yeah, Liz. I'll be back as soon as I can." She held her hand on a necklace she wore – a silver cord with a pendant in the shape of a wolf's head, whispered a short phrase to activate the portkey it actually was. "I'll be howling with the pack."

At that moment the portkey activated and the girl disappeared. She reappeared again in a different alley, not far from where Tobias lived – if he still was around. She looked around her, and saw no one that could have possibly seen her. She sprinted towards the backdoor of the squatted building Tobias lived in. Both she and Lisa had slept there sometimes, when they couldn't find a place for the night. It had been squatted illegally, by the Pack, before they had left for Germany. At that moment Tobias had been injured heavily, and so he couldn't go with them. He was now healed and would soon leave London to rejoin the Pack.

Back in the alley Vicky had just left, Lisa sat down on the ground, her knees up, her head on one of them, and she cried. Tears leaked down her face as she remembered the horrors she had seen before her family kicked her out almost four years ago, and during the past years here on the streets of London.

She knocked loudly on the door. It took a while for anyone to reply, but about a minute, perhaps two minutes later, Vicky heard Tobias' voice.

"Yes, who is there?" While it seemed an innocent question, Vicky knew that if you did not give him the right answer, he would not open the door for you. What the right password was, depended on who you were, and why you were there, but a part of it was the same for everyone.

"Victory howls with the Pack." Vicky waited a moment. "The Queen and Victory will be requiring the Lone Wolf tonight."

Immediately the door went open. "Vicky. Come in. What can I do for you? Where is Lisa?"

The girl stepped through the door, entering the building, explaining the problem. "We found a child on the streets in the Pack's district. A little boy."

"Yes? What was he doing out there?"

The girl shrugged. "We don't know. He's injured badly, and we think he'll die soon if no one helps him. Tobias, can you please help us? I do not want to see another child die." She pleaded the man to help her. Due to her family, she had seen death long before she should have, and she would never again allow an innocent to die if she could prevent it.

Tobias looked at the girl. "How bad?" he simply asked.

The girl shuddered when she thought of the heavily injured boy she had left Lisa with.

"Really bad. Irregular breathing, unconscious, broken wrist, clearly malnourished, abused. Wounds, scars and bruises over most of his blood-covered body. Lisa is with him."

Tobias cursed loudly. "Where?"

"South-West part of the Pack's District, close to the Border, ain't far from Queen's Alley. It's the parallel alley eastwards." She used Lisa's codename, because that was the way the place was known to the Pack. Since about a year it was her Alley too, but the name had stayed the same.

Tobias nodded. "Can find it. Stay here, prepare a bed for the kid. Will have to take him here, I think. Lisa still has her portkey?"

Vicky nodded. "She has. Will you Apparate to Queen's Alley, or do you wanna use my portkey?"

"The portkey would be good – don't want to use too much of my magical reserves, might need them."

Silently, Vicky took off her necklace and handed it to Tobias. She turned around to go and prepare a bed for the small kid when she heard him whisper the phrase she knew so well.

"Queen of London's Streets." It activated the portkey in the other direction, taking the bearer to Queen's Alley. It was a two-way portkey, very useful when you needed a quick escape. And while a Squib could not apparate, they could use a portkey. Where Apparition used energy from one's Magical Core, a portkey gathered the needed energy, the magic, from it's surroundings. And even in Muggle areas, the earth and sky contained magic. In fact, even a Muggle could use a portkey on their own, if they wanted, while no Muggle would ever be able to Apparate alone.

While Vicky went upside to prepare a bed for the boy, Tobias reappeared in Queen's Alley, and headed immediately in the direction of the alley Lisa and Vicky had found the child in. He ran and quickly found the place Victory had told him of.

The first thing he noticed when he entered the alley was Lisa sitting with her head on her knees and crying. It shocked him. Lisa – Queen – was one of the strongest people he knew of, psychically. Why had this shocked her, hurt her so much? She never cried.

"Queen?" he yelled through the alley. Immediately the girl looked up and wiped her eyes, not wanting to look weak.

"Tobias? Vicky found you?"

He walked towards her and nodded. "She did. She's at the Wolf's Nest, preparing a bed for the boy she told me you two found."

Lisa shuddered. "We found a boy, yes." She took a deep breath. "Why can people be so cruel to others? I don't understand. He's just a child – an innocent. He cannot have done anything to warrant this…" She sobbed softly. The man looked at her, then noticed the boy lying a few feet away from her.

"That's the boy?" He asked. She nodded. He carefully walked towards the child and blanched when he saw him, and cursed loudly.

"By Morgana, what have they done to him?" He shuddered. "Queen, take your portkey, go to the Wolf's Nest, tell Victory that I'm coming. I'll be there soon, as soon as I have made sure that I will not injury him by portkey travel," as he noticed she was looking strangely at him, he added "I have Vicky's portkey."

The girl nodded. "Yes, Tobias." She whispered the key phrase and disappeared.

Tobias knelt down next to the boy and looked at him. With a monitor spell, he checked, but there didn't seem to be any spell-damage. He had no time for other checks – this boy needed to get to a sterile location as soon as possible.

Because there was no spell-damage, it was safe for the boy to travel by portkey. He carefully took the boy in his arms, trying to hurt him as little as possible, then whispered.

"I'll be howling with the pack."