Chapter 2

"You're joking."

"Nope."

Hermione scoffed, "You were Peter Pan?"

"Yes. Three days before Tootles found me, the previous Peter Pan had been hit by a car. So when he found me, I became the new Peter." Harry had shifted in the chair and was now sitting with his legs crossed in front of him on the seat of the chair facing her. "The Lost Boys grouped together to protect each other. As I had already experienced, living on the streets was hard, so they worked together. There were only a few rules when living with the Lost Boys: Take what you need, share what you have, and look after each other. I felt more at home on the streets than I ever had at Privet Drive."

"But what happened? You went to Primary school, and you told us that you were still living with the Dursleys before Hogwarts. Why did you go back? When did you go back?" Hermione fired off several questions, without giving him time to answer. She couldn't believe that Harry had lived on the streets of London when he was five.

She internally rolled her eyes; of course, he would be part of a gang. Harry's luck was just that bad. Peter Pan indeed. Harry was one of the most mature fifteen-year-olds that she had met. She had always gotten the impression that he had grown up way too fast, and never really had a childhood. It seemed so incongruous next to the idea of the fearless and reckless character from literature.

"After I ran away, the Dursleys looked for me. I was never sure why. Maybe they didn't want to look bad to the neighbors; maybe they were afraid that someone would notice that I was missing. Now that I think about it, they were probably terrified of any Wizards finding out. Nevertheless, they put up posters and notified the police that I had run away.

After three weeks, the news spread to London and someone recognized me and told the cops. I was picked up a few days later and brought back to Surrey.

I'm not sure who was angrier, Uncle Vernon or me. Almost as soon as the reporters and police pulled away, my Uncle turned on me. I was locked in my cupboard for days as a punishment for running away. But I was angry too. I had finally felt happy, for what seemed like the first time in my life. I didn't want to live with the Dursleys. I didn't want to be Harry Potter. I wanted to be Peter Pan. I wanted to go back to the streets of London, my own personal Neverland. I wanted to be free again. I escaped from the cupboard after about three days and tried to run away again.

Unfortunately, my Uncle was a bit more vigilant this time and spotted me running down the street. Needless to say, my punishment was unpleasant. But I didn't let that stop me, I finally knew freedom and I wasn't giving it up. I ran away four more times over the next month. Any chance I had, I took. I got as far as Egham the last time before they caught up with me. I had snuck onto a bus and pretended to be a woman's son. Unfortunately, she got off at a stop and when I didn't the driver called it in.

My Uncle was tired of dealing with it. That time I made him a deal. I promised I would come back for school because I had to. But the summers were mine, I would live on the streets."

Hermione was speechless. Had they let Harry live on the streets? There was no way any reasonable adult would have agreed to that! But, she realized, the Dursleys were hardly what anyone could call 'reasonable'.

"So…" she started hesitantly "what happened?"

Harry made an odd sound now, something between a sigh and a chuckle. "They agreed. They didn't want me around anyway. They told the neighbors that I was staying with my Aunt Marge during the summers so no one would ask any questions. On their next visit to London, they dropped me off in an alley and left."

She rolled her eyes. Of course, they did. She paused and considered her friend. Harry was now sitting up but not facing her directly. His gaze was on the wall behind her right shoulder, distant and unfocused. Harry was so rarely open like this. Usually getting a story from his childhood was almost impossible, but today he was uncharacteristically open. She was seeing him with new eyes. Never in her imaginings of his childhood had she considered that he had been homeless. Much less that he had chosen it! It made her sad and conflicted. She desperately wanted to pull her friend into a hug, while simultaneously screaming at him for being reckless! He could have been hurt! He could have been put in an orphanage or kidnapped or hit by a car or… her mind swirled with nightmare scenarios. Clearly nothing horrible had happened to her friend, he was sitting before her now, but still.

Harry's voice jolts her out of her thoughts. He didn't seem to realize that her mind had wandered. "I headed straight for our last home base. It was the basement of an old apartment building. One of the windows at the base of the building was just big enough for us to slip through. I found them again." Here he paused, his face turning into a wide smile. "They were shocked! Tootles and the others had thought I wasn't coming back. They hadn't found a replacement Peter yet. They welcomed me back with open arms. I told them a story about being kidnapped by a walrus and a horse and having to fight my way back to them."

Hermione giggles. She can see where he got the comparison. She can feel herself getting pulled into the story. It still seems impossible to her but she is starting to see something emerge in Harry's eyes, a light that had never been there before. Just for now he had let his anger and sadness go, thinking about this event from years ago. He seems younger, more animated. He has started moving his hands as he speaks, grinning and becoming more animated, scooting to the edge of his seat towards her. He has a slight tilt to his mouth that speaks to mischievousness and fun. She has seen it a few times before when he has plotted to embarrass Malfoy or when observing the twins. She is starting to see how he could have been Peter Pan.

Unbeknownst to the two teens in the Library, there are two men listening to this story as well. Both have horror and sadness painted across their features. Their cub was unloved and homeless! Why hadn't they known about this before?