1A/N: My reviewers. Sorry for those of you who didn't like chapter 6, I didn't like it much either, but I simply couldn't think to put what happened an other way, I know it wasn't the most logical but I needed those things to happen, it will come back later and be important. I promise though, if I can find a better way to write it, I will go back and do a re-write. Just remember that it's not like it was only Mr. Allen working there, there were other staff too. I hope my next chapter is better, Raven will be growing up a bit more. Going into this chapter, both boys are nearly eleven.

Shadow00: Third year most likely. Why would he not be recognizable? Don't understand your question, ask again please.

Anti-thule: I don't know if Mr. Allen will even come back into the story at all, maybe much later. We'll see.

For those of you who asked why Raven didn't use magic on Mr. Allen, well it's quite simple, he left his wand with his dagger in the hole in the wall in the alley where the fight was, sorry I din't make that clear.

For those of you who thought Raven should have done something about it, how could he have, he is only ten after all and this man is a big and strong man, there's a difference when you have a weapon to defend yourself with too. I would imagine that Mr. Allen would always catch him unawares, like he'd wake him in the middle of the nigh and rape him. He'd take advantage of the fact that Raven is defenseless.

... Thanks for the criticism too...

Chapter 7

Raven was surprised with how easily Chaz accepted that the detective needed to help them, and then was even more surprised when the detective agreed to get up at two o' clock in the morning and help two street kids who he only met briefly, once on the job.

Jason got there quickly, and either he lived really close, or he got there with all the speed he could muster. Raven sort of thought it was the latter, owing to the fact that the buttons on his shirt were either not done up, or in the wrong holes, his hair was still mussed up from sleep, and the tails of his shirt were still un-tucked. The young boy wondered at why the man rushed so. Then he thought, ' maybe it was the first-aid comment I made.'

Because Chaz was the only one of the two who could still think coherently, he was given the task of dragging them both into the alley and retrieving their things, and by that time, Jason was pulling into the curb. He drove an old white ford. The young man hopped out, grabbed a small bag from the back seat, and ran down the alley, dropping to his knees next to the two ten year olds.

"What happened?" Jason questioned Chaz, while he examined the wound on Raven's neck.

" we 'ad a run in wi' a metal pipe" Chaz said half-sarcastically

ignoring the sarcasm, Jason said," His neck wound is bad, the artery wasn't hit, but he needs stitches, the bleeding will never stop," he paused,"and yours does too" he added after examining Chaz's wound "I'm assuming you'll need tetanus shots, or stitches will only delay death. I won't be able to heal you on my own, your injuries are too serious"

"No!" Raven breathed weakly

startled, because he thought the kid was unconscious, he asked "what did you say kid?"

"Ye can'nae"

" can't what kid?"

"No 'ospit'ls" he rasped

"That wasn't what I was suggesting kid, my sister, she can help you both, no need for hospitals, we just have to get you to her house, it's not too far from here, I promise, and you can't afford to say no." Jason stated.

Both boys were finally loaded into the back seat, with temporary bandages to stem the flow of blood until they got healed. They were both leaning heavily on each other, sitting in the back seat of the car, while Jason sped through the deserted streets.

Not twenty minutes later, and some driving that would warrant revocation of a license, they were outside a modest sized two story home, and Jason was rushing to the front door, and after a hurried conversation with the tall dark haired woman who answered the door, they both rushed to the car and picked both boys up.

The woman, who Jason kept calling Sylvia, led the way into what must have been the sitting room. There were some couches and armchairs, a fireplace and an old-fashioned radio. The walls were cream and the furniture was done in creams and golds, it was a tasteful room, but not at all what one would expect from a middle class British family home. Where were the modern stereos, and the televisions? Where was the electric fireplace that was all the rage these days? These were all things, that had either of the two boys been coherent enough to notice, would have put them on alert immediately, as it was though, they didn't notice anything weird.

Raven was amazed that the woman, Sylvia hadn't blown up at her brother yet, and that she hadn't even asked any questions. Though it appeared as if he thought too soon. As they were arranging both boys on the couches, making sure they were comfortable, she turned to Jason and hissed " what do you think you're doing, who are these boys, and why haven't you brought them to a hospital yet?"

Prepared for this line of questioning, Jason spouted off his reasons, " I've brought them here, you are a healer, they were briefly in my custody a couple months ago, they can't go to a hospital, because after they were treated they would both be returned to the orphanage they came from"

"ignoring everything else he'd said, she asked "why would being returned there be so bad, I know they're not the best places to end up, but really, isn't this a bit extreme?"

"If my guess is right, and by the reputation the place has, I bet it is, then the orphanage is where these boys got their injuries" she gasped " they need help, and they won't get it at a hospital, they would refuse to go" "they wouldn't!" "They would, help them, please. This one will die if you don't. They trusted me Via, I won't break their trust, but I can't help them, you can. Will you help?" he begged

" of course I will you idiot, though I don't agree with what you're doing, I will help them. You know I have to help them in my special way right?" she said

" I know, just help them."

As she said the last bit, Sylvia had pulled a foot-long stick from her sleeve, and muttered something, a moment later, she was holding a small leather case, that when opened revealed many phials filled with liquids of different colors. She uncorked the phials and poured them down the almost unresponsive throats, massaging their throats to help them go down. After at least four potions each, she picked up her wand again, and held it up to Raven's neck, muttered a few words in Latin, and then spread a cream over the newly sealed wound, she covered it with a bandage and moved on to Chaz to repeat the same process.

As she finished, she helped the boys swallow another potion each, and as Raven felt his eyelids grow heavier, his last though before giving in to the dreamless sleep, was, 'How ironic, his sister's a witch, a healer no less. My, the world is small.'

Raven had been listening to Jason and Sylvia arguing for a while now. He'd woken up to hear them going at it right outside the door to the sitting room they were still in. Jason was trying to explain to her why he brought them here, and not to a muggle hospital, while Sylvia was going on and on about the risk it was to use magic on muggles and how dangerous it was to obliviate children so young. She sounded quite furious with her brother, and despite all the fights he'd been in on the streets, Raven would be hard pressed to go up against her without help.

The argument seemed to be coming to a close, and Raven looked over to Chaz to see him awake and listening, and in a short conversation using hand signals, it was agreed that Raven would talk their way out of this situation. As the door opened, both boys feigned sleep. They could hear Jason grumbling unhappily, and Sylvia was muttering about her 'stupid brother'. As she leant over Raven, and began whispering he incantation she was interupted, and startled, when he sat up abruptly.

"I wouldn'nae do tha' if I was you" Raven said, as Chaz got up to sit beside him.

"What do you mean" Sylvia asked, adopting a confused expression as she tried to hide her wand up her sleeve.

"Ye doan need te 'ide yer wand witch, i's no' good form te 'ide an Ollivander's creation. Such a thing should be pu' proudly on display" Chaz said.

"An' we doan wan' te get mush fer brains when ye screw up on a mem'ry charm ye doan know 'ow to perform properly. Raven added.

"How... what... you're... I don't understand!" Sylvia spluttered, while Jason choked on his tea from behind.

" 'ow do we know 'bout the magical world?" Raven asked, smiling indulgently.

"Raven stumbled on it one day, years ago." Chaz said.

" A day tha' started unfortunate, and ended up the best in me life."

It took a few moments for the siblings to process this, then "how much exactly do you know of our world?" Sylvia asked

"we know evr'thing, we made sure we could read real good so we could learn wha' we needs. Down Knockturn they sell things fer a price we c'n afford."

"How is that possible that you have books? You wouldn't have had anywhere to keep them, I was part of the search on your, erm, home, there weren't any books there, let alone spell books."

"Aye, Jason, that would be 'cause there ne'er was any books there te begin wit'. Goblins be dead clever, and mighty useful if ye c'n make an alliance wit' em, which we 'ave." Raven answered, if not a bit arrogantly.

"Goblins! An alliance with them? There's no way, not even the ministry had an alliance with them, all they have is a treaty of peace!" Sylvia exclaimed.

"Yeh well, we ain't the min'stry, are we?" Chaz said, a little insulted that he was being told the ministry fools could do better than him.

"How old are you" Sylvia asked, changing the subject.

" almos' eleven. In July I will be, I think." Raven said dully, as if this were no big thing that he din't even know his own birthday. Sylvia barely caught herself in time to not comment on it, thinking that, to him, it probably wasn't such a big thing.

Chaz didn't look like he going to answer her question, so she prompted him by saying,"And you?" while looking pointedly at the boy.

"Doan know really, bu' we always though' tha' me n' Raven was the same age, so... Eleven?"

" so then, will you be going to Hogwarts this fall?" she asked, and a moment later, could have cursed herself for her stupidity.

Chaz snorted without humor, and Raven chuckled bitterly " Listen lady. We doan know our names, or our birthdays .We nev'r knew our paren's, we doan 'ave family or money, or a home, or even our own things. Even if we was accepted into 'Ogwar's we couldn'nae go. Not even if we wanted to. So I guess, no, we ain't gonna be there in the fall." Raven whispered fiercely. He was ok with his life, but when people flashed things that were unattainable to him, right in front of his face so carelessly, it made him furious. He wasn't mad at her per-se, just mad in general that she said something like that so lightly, but then again, she probably asked every magical child she met that same question. Raven had thought about Hogwarts, and what he would do come time September rolled around after he turned eleven, he had thought of it constantly since the day Remus had bought him his first wand. He did dream of going there, to have somewhere to call home, but he would not leave Chaz, and he did not want to be seen as the boy that the wizarding world had dubbed their savior. He'd never wanted it, and he would forsake the safety of having a home, if just to stay away from it.

Raven and Chaz had ended up staying with Sylvia for a few months, she didn't want to let them go back to their life of stealing on the streets. They'd 'met' her son when he came home from two week stay off the end of term with a friend from school. Sylvia had been so happy that she could maybe entice the two boys to stay if they had someone their own age around to make them want to stay. What she didn't know was that Oliver and Raven had met years before, and that every time either was in the Alleys, they would look for the other. Raven had met many wizarding children, and it was just a strange coincidence that the lady that saved their lives was the mother of Oliver Wood, a boy who was four years older than them, and whom they'd first met in Diagon Alley when Oliver had been buying his school books at Flourish and Blotts in his second year. It had been a funny meeting when Oliver had come home to find the street urchin he'd befriended, sitting in chair at his kitchen table.

Mr. Wood had also come home one night through the Floo to find two strange and nefarious looking boys playing cards at his table. Chaz had narrowly avoided being hexed before Sylvia cam charging explain things to her husband, and he had warmed up tremendously to them after that. He was after all a stern, but fair man, and was willing to give both boys a chance.

Still though, by the end of July, both boys knew they would have to move on soon. They were not used to living in such a way, they were used to working for everything they got, and then some, and they were hard pressed to not nick something off the shelves of stores they went to, and were finding it hard to not steal the things lying so carelessly around the home the Wood's had offered to them. And worst of all, Raven found himself not feeling as guilty about these thoughts and impulses that he would have only months before. Old habits die hard, and the habits of two kids from the dredges of London, living in a small town in a respected neighborhood refused to die at all. Raven liked Sylvia and Oliver and Daniel, but their way of living was so different from his own, and he wasn't adjusting like he thought he might. Despite the comfort of a home that had been offered to him, he would not stay, could not stay. Besides, he couldn't have stayed forever anyways, it was best if they left sooner rather than later, and he also couldn't risk them recognizing him as Harry Potter. Especially since he was supposed to start school in September.

Thanks for reading! If you can find the time to Review, it'll be appreciated.

Ciao

- Darkness