A/N: Thanks to my beta, HPFanFicLuvr and to my reviewers:
witch@heart: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
I-Love-Moony: Thank you again.
LythTaeraneth: I know, they're nice. I'm sorry if I disturbed you with Remus/Hermione, but they do say, "Love is blind". And think of all the SS/HG stories out there. But I've labelled the story now.
Hawkeye's Seductress: Thank you. I'm glad you liked Anastasia – I do too. About the Remus/Hermione comment: see above.
She walked along beside Lightfingers, smiling slightly. It felt rather good, having his protection. Sometimes he would reach out so fast she could barely see his arm. When it return to him he held someone's purse in it. He grinned at her.
"Look, right, Squirt, wot ever yer do, don't turn into one of them rich wee snobs in flow'ry dresses, okay?"
He pointed to a group of well-clad girls who chitchatted about some boys from their school at the corner of a street.
She nodded and smiled. The thought of her as a snob was ludicrous. Besides, flowery dresses went out of fashion ages ago. She slipped her hand into Lightfingers' and smiled up at him. He was the sharpest one of the lot. Sometimes she was surprised that Jack was the gang leader, with Lightfingers so sharp and Bullet so strong, but those moments didn't last long. Jack certainly had some leadership qualities about him. He could think on his feet and had a trustworthy aura around him. She smiled a bit more at that thought. A pickpocket with a trustworthy aura. He'd be mortified.
" 'Ave a look 'ere, Squirt. Yer just wait right 'ere and I'll be hammer and tack in a jiffy."
She just nodded. She had gotten used to his rhyming slang by now, and had learned to decode it fairly well. She knew that "hammer and tack" meant back.
She sat down on the steps and waited, watching the large crowds go by. By now she had learnt to spot the interesting scents and ignore the rest. Not that there were many of the interesting ones, but every now and then a scent would remind her of Diagon Alley. Those scents would usually brighten her entire day, because they reminded her that someday, someone who knew Padfoot might, just might, stop by and find her. But she didn't long for Padfoot as much now as she had in the beginning. She had learnt to see the steadfastness and kindness of her gang.
There weren't that many interesting scents, which disappointed her. Sometimes when she had caught a particularly interesting scent she would feel happy for days. Usually that was when someone smelt of wolf, like her.
Two scents caught her attention. One was another wolf-scent, but the other… she knew it was a man, she could smell that, but his scent was almost identical to Padfoot's, had Padfoot been a human being. She looked around to see where they came from, but couldn't find them. It was during such moments that she hated London. All those scents, they made it almost impossible to find the one she was searching for. She caught scent of Jack, but didn't rise from the steps. If Lightfingers found her gone he'd go nuts. Sometimes he was even more overprotective than Jack. They all were very protective of her and they were more of a family to her than her parents, the Dursleys, had ever been.
Jack spotted her and came walking over.
"Wotcher hangin' 'round 'ere for. Ain't it borin'?
She shook her head.
"Where's Lightfingers ffen?"
She pointed to the direction where he had went and smiled up at Jack. His concern was sweet, but it could become a bit annoying at times.
"Wot, he left yer?" she could hear the incredulousness in his voice. "I'm takin' a serious chat wiv 'im wen 'e comes 'ome. Come now, right, Squirt. He'll understand woss 'appened."
She shook her head as he held out his hand. Lightfingers had told her to wait. Even though Jack was her special brother, it felt wrong to worry him that way.
He took it, but she pulled it away.
"Don't be silly, Squirt. Come on, right, let's go 'ome."
She shook her head once again. Why didn't he just understand? She couldn't leave because Lightfingers had told her to wait.
"'Ave a look, he left yer. I'm sure 'e don't want yer ter sit 'ere and be bored. Yor a sensible girl, right, yer can take care of yorself," he coaxed, but she shook her head again. It was rather nice of him to be so worried about her being bored. If she could, she would explain that she wasn't bored at all. She had all the scents to explore, and she had received a glimpse of Padfoot's world. He, meanwhile, was running out of patience.
"I won't 'ave yer bein' 'ere alone, bored. I'm takin' yer 'ome wiv me, weffer yer like it or not," he took her hand and began pulling her with him. At first she resisted, and she put up a pretty good job of it. There was a battle of wills and strength between them, but she was forced to give up, and follow him back home. Neither saw the man in a black suit who had seen the encounter and quickly pulled out his cell phone and dialled the police.
It was the end of June. Anastasia quietly slipped out through the door. She looked to see Jack; he was usually there waiting for her. However, she didn't see him, so she went to find Lizard. She found the entire gang gathered at the entry point of the abandoned warehouse.
They were obviously having an argument with someone at the door.
"Wotcher on abaht?" Jack said angrily. "I never kidnapped no girl!"
A man's voice answered him:
"You were seen forcefully removing a young girl, of about seven years of age the day before yesterday. Don't pull the innocent act, we know what your kind are like."
The man said the words "your kind" as if they were poison, and Anastasia realized that she too was included in Jack's kind. She was, after all, one of the urchins. About seven years of age… it had to be her they were talking about! That incident when she was waiting for Lightfingers. She walked forward to set it to rights, but stopped. It wouldn't do for them to see her in this condition. She slipped quietly up to Lizard and pulled her arm. Lizard looked down, and motioned for her to be silent. They slipped away.
"Awright, init? Let's cop yer potched up. Wot a bovver, right, Squirt." Anastasia raised an eyebrow, so Lizard continued: "Cor blimey guv, would I lie to you? They fink Jack kidnapped yer!"
She smiled.
"Bit daft, right, ain't they, the bloody bobbies?"
Anastasia smiled back.
"Right, let's cop this all sorted out."
They walked out to where Jack was still arguing with the police. There were two of them, one male and one female.
"Ah, there you are. Come along, child," said the female one kindly.
Anastasia looked from her to Jack and back again. Nobody had said anything about leaving.
"You don't want to stay here, do you? With all these nasty ragamuffins?" Continued the man
Anastasia boiled with rage. They weren't nasty! Who was he to speak about her friends in that condescending manner?
"We can find your parents and bring you back to them," coaxed the woman. Anastasia was by now more convinced than she ever had been. She never wanted to go back to her parents. She raised her chin proudly and took Jack's hand. If she could have spoken she would have told them exactly what she thought of them. Sometimes it really was lucky she couldn't. She didn't think they would be too pleased.
They laughed nervously.
"Don't be stubborn, girl, come now. We'll give you a good life."
She raised her chin even more. Her gang had trouble keeping from laughter. 'Good ole Squirt', Lightfingers thought. 'She ain't about ter abandon us at the first spot of Barney Rubble.'
The police left soon afterwards.
Little T started doing a victory dance for Anastasia's benefit. She clapped her hands, and he thought he'd never seen her look so happy as she did then.
At Hogwarts, school term was drawing to an end. End-of-year exams were prepared and last-minute homework was given in. But neither Hermione nor Remus could concentrate.
"I'm worried about Sirius," Hermione said quietly. "All he's ever thought about since he came here is that girl."
Remus agreed whole-heartedly. "But what can we do," he asked. "We've tried everything to get his thought to something else. It's not working. Out only chance is finding the wolf-child."
"Maybe," said Hermione carefully. "Maybe you could. With your heightened senses, and we know Alastor got a good look at her."
Remus closed his eyes.
"Yes, it could work. As soon as the term ends, I'll recruit Alastor and engage in a full search after the little girl."
Hermione nodded.
"Just … "she fumbled for words. "Just be careful, okay. I couldn't bear to lose you."
Remus nodded and they both returned to marking homework.