I am so sorry its been a while since I updated this story, but I have spent a long time fighting my personal life's problems and whenever I turned to this story I had issues with the things I was writing, but now I'm back and I hope you enjoy this chapter and future updates.

Please let me know what you think.

X

Life in London.

When the train pulled into London, Holly stood in the doorway of the carriage, a tight grip on her backpack which contained some of the few things she actually possessed including her notes looking out at the station. She took a deep breath, breathing in the cool breeze coming in from the city. Holly was surveying the station and the view beyond. This was her new home now. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

Holly hopped off the train. Using her powers to mask her presence and to stop anyone from seeing or noticing her presence. Checking a local map of the train lines, Holly tried to find the stations' location on the London transport map so she could find the nearest Underground station.

Holly didn't know anything about London; the visits the Dursleys took her on were sporadic and she barely saw much of anything.

There was no doubt in her mind that the Dursleys wouldn't lift a finger to muster any kind of effort to find her, especially in a city this large but she wanted to really hide in the city.

Satisfied Holly boarded another train that would take her deeper into London and closer to one of the interchanges that would give her access to the London Underground. She had never been on the Tube in her life, but as she got to the station platforms she found it easy to find the right train.

Thanks to the maps, she didn't find it difficult to get into the West End, and she got off at Tottenham Court Road just before the station was due to close, which was a relief to her (she was a bit taken aback and even frightened by the extremely steep escalator, but since it got her to freedom she let it take her up, and it wasn't rush hour yet so she was reasonably safe although she did ask herself if she should use this station again), but the sight of the shops and the general feeling she had of the place made her smile briefly before she walked off.

Deep down Holly didn't have a clue where she was walking off to, but she needed to find somewhere for what was left of the night and after walking around for half an hour, passing the back streets, Holly found Covent Garden. Finding a place to sleep she curled up and tried to make herself as small and as warm as possible.

That was how Holly Potter lived for the next 7 weeks while she explored London as best as she could, keeping on the move while she used her powers to break into shops for some food and water, and even warmer and more practical clothing. She would never miss the pitiful rags the Dursleys had forced her to wear.

After those 7 weeks, Holly was breaking into an Italian restaurant where she found some leftover Spaghetti Carbonara. After heating it up using the cooker in the restaurant, she set the food onto a plate and ate the meal quietly. She had never eaten Spaghetti Carbonara before and it was quite nice although she wasn't sure about it, to begin with. The Dursleys didn't eat any kind of cuisine from other countries, believing only British food was proper and normal, but since she had escaped on the streets she'd had the time to really experiment and broaden her horizons. As she ate her food, Holly considered what she had learnt and done in the last 7 weeks.

She knew she'd had a relatively easy time breaking into shops for clothes, money or food thanks to her powers, but she was using what she had and she wasn't going to be sorry for that. But she had to think of what she was going to be doing in the future. The notes on how to become a femme-fatale were still in her bag, but Holly was beginning to wonder to herself if becoming a femme-fatale was even worthwhile since she wasn't in the right place to learn.

However, she had learnt she could break into places without any problems even before she had seen the marathon of film noir movies before she had left the Dursleys. There had been an old Hitchcock movie, Marnie, about a psychologically strained woman who had taken the job of a secretary in an industrialist's office before she had effortlessly burgled her boss's safe, making off with $10,000 from him. If theft was that easy then she saw no reason why couldn't do both.

At least she had thought so at the time.

The problem with learning how to become a femme-fatale for her was her age, to say nothing for where she was.

Holly was too young to be seductive.

Holly was too young to wear those glamorous dresses with the thigh exposed, and she was too young to do half of the things some of those femme-fatales did. On top of that she was too busy thinking of ways to survive on the streets, so she hadn't really bothered looking at the notes she had taken.

On the streets, fashion was something that was simply non-existent and she found herself caring more about warmth and food rather than plans to make cash when she could simply steal it.

Holly dismissed the thought with a shrug. If she became a femme-fatale later on in life then great but she wasn't going to spend all of her time on the streets waiting for the day when it would happen. She had found other ways of making money, and that was by disabling the security of a shop with a wave of her hand and just walking in through the back or the front door.

After checking the antique pocket watch she had stolen a few days ago after taking a fancy to it and because she felt it gave her a piece of class, Holly decided it was time to make a move. After stealing a couple of apples and a banana, Holly left the restaurant once she had finished cleaning up after herself.

The Italian restaurant she had broken into was quite close to Trafalgar Square. Wincing at the necessity given how cold it was, Holly lay down on the cold hard concrete around a fountain, flinching at the occasional droplet of water that splashed her. After curling herself up, Holly went to sleep already timing herself to wake up early in the morning so she would be on the move.

She had no idea things were going to change for her.

X

"Look at this, guys. Have you ever seen her before?"

"No, she must be new."

"Wonder why she chose this fountain to sleep on?"

The voices woke Holly up. Thanks to the conditioning of the Dursleys, Holly deliberately kept her eyes closed while she listened to everything around her. The sudden voices took her by surprise, but in a way she welcomed them. It might not have been a really good sleep, but given how she had slept in a cupboard under the stairs for a long time, the hard concrete was nothing new for her to worry about. But she involuntarily tensed while she lay on the fountain. She didn't know who those voices belonged to, but she didn't like them being so close to her.

From the sounds of things they were kids, not unlike her, maybe one or two of them were a few years older or around her age, it was hard to be sure. Holly had known there were young runaways but she had steered clear of them.

Thanks to Dudley's bullying and the way the kids had simply bowed their heads and accepted his threats while the schoolteachers did nothing to stop the bullying, Holly had long since given up hope of having friends. She knew these kids were nothing like the cowards at St Gregory's, but long-held habits of wanting nothing to do with other kids meant she wasn't concerned about things like friendship.

"She's pretty, hope she doesn't get touched by anyone," Holly heard another voice say. It sounded rough and she knew it was another girl.

"Don't say that, Lisa. C'mon, let's wake her."

"Why?"

"She can't stay here. She can become part of our gang. Everything in me is telling me to wake her and to help her."

Holly decided to speak up. She turned on her side and said clearly, "Who are you?" She opened her eyes and looked around at the kids near her.

There were 7 in total. The number didn't really surprise her much since she knew there were many runaway children on the streets, but she wasn't surprised in the least they would band together. It was logical that they would seek friendship and security that way.

There were 3 girls and 4 boys. Standing over her was a tall girl who looked a few years older than she was with long, messy hair and a dirt-smudged face. Judging from her clothes she had been on the streets for a very long time. The others were no different.

"Hi, I'm Penny," the girl said with a smile. "And you are….?"

Holly narrowed her eyes. "Holly," she replied, refusing to give her surname.

"It's nice to meet you, Holly," Penny smiled down at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Sleeping, what does it look like?" One of the girls, a shorter one started giggling at the witty retort.

"Don't you have any family?" One of the boys asked.

"No," Holly was pleased to note it was a genuine answer. Her parents were long since dead and the Dursleys had never cared for her except when she was their servant. She was pleased they hadn't lifted a finger to find her, and she was in no hurry to think about them. It led to too many pain-filled memories.

Holly was just about to say something when she heard something. "Oi, you lot!"

Holly shot up and she saw the policeman rushing towards the gang.

"Oh no, not again!" The smaller girl said before she and the others broke into a run. They were a fair distance from the copper, and so they had a bit of a head start even if he had been running towards them. Holly followed after them, ignoring the pain in her legs and chest which came from lying on stone for such long periods of time.

As they turned a corner, Holly reached into her jacket pocket mentally relieved her new and precious watch was in her inner pocket and pulled out a small black bag. She opened it and tipped the small glass marbles out all over the ground before she raced on. The policeman was turning the corner.

She laughed loudly and raucously when she heard him yell and curse when he slipped on the marbles and went flying. The smaller girl was just ahead of her and she had stopped in surprise when she had seen the policeman go flying.

"How did you do that then?"

Holly chuckled and she grabbed the girl lightly and pulled her along. This was no time to ask questions. "I'll tell you in a bit. It's just a trick I picked up a while back. It still works like a charm. Where have the others gone?"

"Follow me," the girl said before she looked up with a tilted head at the older girl. "Are you with us now?"

Holly didn't know the answer to that question for sure, but she didn't see any reason why she couldn't have friends or even a support network. In any case with these guys in her life, Holly saw no reason why the curse of Dudley Dursley would affect them. "Why don't we ask the others?"

X

The runaway kids lived in the rooftop of an abandoned shop. They had clearly gotten tired of living on the streets of the city, and so they had looked for shelter. They had spent a while scrounging together the supplies needed to turn it into a crude little home. There were old, battered mattresses lying haphazardly around the floor. Clearly, they were the beds the kids slept on, regardless if they were fit for it or not. Holly herself didn't care.

The whole place was surprisingly tidy, with a number of black bags in a corner filled with rubbish. Clearly, the kids here didn't want the place littered with god knew what. Holly had a feeling they had seen the common infestations of rats out there and they had seen them mingling with the filth out there, and they did not want it here. She could appreciate that.

"You should have seen her!" The young girl was gushing. "She poured something all over the pavement, and the policeman went flying…WHHOOOP!" To add to the effect, the little girl dropped on her backside, making her friends laugh.

Penny smiled at the girl, and she lifted her gaze curiously at Holly, but one of the boys asked, "Is that true?"

Holly pulled out the bag and tipped some of the marbles in her hand. "It's a trick I learnt when I was being chased by bullies a long time ago," she explained as she showed the marbles around, "Just tip these out on the ground, preferably near a corner, and they go flying and hopefully get injured. It worked on the policeman, it works on bullies."

"How long have you been on the streets?" The girl with the roughened voice asked.

"Seven weeks now. I've survived by going through bins, mostly," Holly had no problems with the half-lie she had just handed out, she wasn't going to tell them about her powers since they would likely react just as badly as the Dursleys and she wasn't going to let that happen.

"Do you want to join our little team?" Penny asked after sharing a moment looking around the faces of the other kids. Some of them had looked accepting before she had even asked Holly the question, others looked reluctant like they weren't sure. After the question was asked Holly was not surprised in the least. She guessed they weren't keen on change.

Holly hadn't planned on going into a gang or anything like that, but now she realised these kids could be there for her. Granted it would be hard since she had powers to get in and out, but she could cope. In any case, these kids could show her things she had never imagined. "Yeah, okay."

X

Until the next time...

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