I don't own Harry Potter.
Merry Christmas.
Harley Potter the Black Cat.
They're gone. Liam, Colleen, and Vanessa…all of them gone, Harley thought dejectedly as she walked through the streets of Brighton. She had just witnessed her friends, who were the closest thing to family that she'd ever had in her life since the family she'd been left with so mysteriously were monsters, be taken from her.
A part of Harley wanted to go back. She wanted to see if there were any police officers still there at the hideout - with the amount of stuff she and the others had pinched here and there during their burgeoning burglary careers and their pickpocketing days, there were bound to be a few coppers still there investigating and bagging everything up so then it would eventually be returned to the rightful owners - and she could tell them she was part of the gang, that she lived on the streets, and that she wanted to be put into care herself.
But she didn't.
She couldn't - even if the police and social services put her with Vanessa, Liam and Colleen in the same home, which there was no guarantee they'd do, there was the slim chance someone would do their homework, and realise who she was. If that happened then she would be back among the Dursleys and if that happened then she would almost certainly never survive.
Vanessa and the others had told her just what their lives were like, which was comparable to her own life before she had found them on the streets. Liam and his elder sister had both been terrified of going back to their old lives because social services were incredibly stupid and thoughtless much of the time, and their worries had made the idea of entering the care system repugnant to Harley.
There was no doubt in her mind the Dursleys would kill her if she ever appeared in their doorway ever again. She knew the workload would have driven Petunia crazy by now since she no longer had an unpaid slave to do the cooking, the washing, the cleaning, the gardening, and all the other things the Dursleys heaped on her shoulders. Vernon wouldn't have a convenient punching bag to vent his frustrations, and Dudley wouldn't have someone to bully.
Social services had never done anything for Harley except cause her more pain and grief. The last thing she wanted to do was give herself up and let herself be sent back to Privet Drive.
Harley pulled her scarf up tighter and continued walking slowly without any clear destination in mind. She had nowhere else to go except to one of the places Vanessa and Liam and taken her and Coleen, which was a long way off especially since she needed to walk the streets by herself but that meant nothing to her. The walk would do her the world of good, and it did because by the time she reached the new hideout which was yet another abandoned building, this time an old house - she would need to find other places like this in the future - she had a much better idea of what she was going to do next.
She would continue being a burglar only this time she wasn't going to make the mistake of relying solely on collecting bits and pieces. She would be concentrating on the cash only; jewellery and other things in houses might offer profits of high returns, but Harley knew how frustrated Vanessa and Liam had become since their fence hadn't given them a break and had been incredibly greedy and just wanted more and more. The result - the police had come and had a field day.
Harley had no intention of letting that happen again. She didn't want to cart around tons of stuff around the neighbourhood; not only did it run the risk of getting her caught out like the others, now she was on her own she didn't have enough time to visit houses and break into them and finding large amounts of stuff to sell for a profit. In any case, she didn't plan on trusting another fence in case they were as greedy as the one Liam and Vanessa had both made the mistake of trusting.
No. Cash was easier. Yeah, she would probably go for jewellery, especially if she learnt more about whoever could buy and shift it, but she would wait for a bit.
As she walked slowly through the abandoned house to check on just how stable the structure was and where she could find a place to sleep, to eat, and to essentially live, Harley also took the time to reflect on some of her other choices and options. She definitely felt being a thief was the best option she had currently, but she also felt it was in her best interests if she just gathered enough cash to leave Brighton and go somewhere else. But it didn't take Harley long to realise if she did that she would be back in square one. She would still need to find a place to live and stay.
Maybe I should go into care, she thought to herself as she found herself lost for options. I dunno if they would take me back to the Dursleys, but if I can be with the others again then great.
The big problem with being on the streets anywhere, Harley pondered, was if you move from one place to another, doing what you can in order to survive, there aren't that many options or resources available to you…
After she had set up a temporary home for herself, Harley rubbed her belly. She was quite hungry and as she checked her pockets, she sighed with relief when she pulled out a pair of twenty-pound notes. She shoved one of them into her pocket and kept the other one out and prepared to leave the little hideout while looking down at the corner which was going to be serving as her bed for a while before she went out. As she walked out of her new abode, Harley shivered a little and pulled her coat up. It was turning chilly, but as she walked through the streets and it became colder and colder, Harley wondered just how cold it was going to get.
XXX
Harley pulled her blanket closer to her frozen body in an attempt to keep out the chills, but her hands shook and her teeth chattered in her mouth so loud it was the only sound she could hear.
The weather had become so cold it was unbearable and without anything, in the abandoned building she could use to keep herself warm her best option had been to huddle up in a corner and wrap her coat and blanket up around herself and hope her body heat became enough to keep out the chills. But it hadn't worked.
Harley had been worried about the growing cold for the last few days, but it was only now that the weather had turned so bad she couldn't help but wonder how long she had left; the library in Little Whinging had been full of decent books containing information about a variety of topics, but it had not occurred to Harley she should also be focusing on books about the cold and what the effects were on human health. Harley looked around the room in the abandoned building she had taken as a home and sighed, but her teeth chattered even more.
She accepted the truth.
There was no way she could get out of this without help. Yeah, she knew she could stay in this room with the windows gone with just a few pieces of the window frame left which let in the cold air into the room, but she had no idea what could happen to her if that happened. Harley had felt cold weather before of course, but never anything like what she was currently feeling.
The truth was…she was so cold that she had little doubt in her mind she would need to put herself into care.
Harley sighed, and she stood up slowly, shivering as the cold air hit her harder while she felt the cramp in her legs and feet. She winced and cried out as the painful cramp hit her.
"Ow!" her teeth chattered as she tried to massage her legs, but her hands and feet were so cold it was virtually impossible for her to massage the cramp out of her feet. Harley eventually gave up and she stood up and walked slowly to the door while she bundled up her blanket, and wrapped it around her body before she left the abandoned building and into the streets.
It was quite icy outside, and since she was so cold and she was wrapped in a blanket Harley had trouble walking so it seemed to take her forever to reach the police station.
As she stood outside the police station, already cursing the architects who'd designed the stupid building and the builders who'd built the place for giving it steps before she noticed the ramp for those who would have trouble walking and moving around, Harley hesitated while she shivered. While she knew there were so many things that could go wrong - the worst possibility was the police or social services would find out who she was and where she was from, and them send her back to Little Whinging.
But on the other hand…
Harley knew she would need to give the police a totally different name, but she had no idea if they would believe her.
"Are you okay, sweetheart?"
Harley gasped and she swung around, craning her neck upwards at the sound of the voice. Towering over her, looking down at her with an expression Harley had never seen before on the face of anybody, so she couldn't really define it, was a police officer complete with a fluorescent yellow-green jacket.
"Er y-yeah," Harley cursed her chattering teeth once more. "I'm h-homeless. M-my parents d-died years a-ago, and I am c-cold."
The policewoman gasped and she immediately bent down. "It's okay, sweetie," she whispered while looking at Harley again with an expression again the girl couldn't identify. "It'll be okay."
A part of Harley optimistically believed her. But the other part was uncertain.
XXX
Two years later.
XXX
Harley was sitting in her room doing her homework for school. As she lifted her head she smiled slightly as she took in the decoration of her bedroom. The room wasn't tailored to her specific likes or dislikes - the colour scheme was pink rather than purple which was her favourite colour, but it sufficed and it had the essentials which were it had a bed, wardrobe, and a desk with a chair. There was also a TV and a few videos, but since Harley wasn't interested in using her pocket money - something she had never anticipated getting considering the Dursleys had never given her money for anything and did the complete opposite and took whatever money she earned from the jobs they had her do around the neighbourhood - she never really invested the time to create a collection although the same couldn't be said with the books.
As she worked on the math questions - Harley had always been good at maths, but since she had always read a few advanced mathematics books because she was interested in the topic, the questions were easy enough to answer - Harley had time to think.
It was so hard to believe two years had passed by, and yet so far they had been the best two years of her life. Ever since she had met that nice police officer who had gotten her checked out at the local hospital to make sure she hadn't suffered any ill-effects from being out in the cold for such a long period of time, and then she was whisked away to a children's home.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the one where she was sure Colleen, Vanessa, and Liam had been sent to, but she was okay with that. She was used to being on her own, and while some of the other kids had been nice to her, Harley had kept her distance from them. She remembered clearly the last time someone had been friendly with her, and how it had turned out in the end. She wasn't going to let it happen again. But in time she had done her best to build small temporary bridges here and there. Granted, she wasn't friends with anyone and preferred being on her own, but she was willing to hang out with the other kids and go out with them.
Harley frowned a little bit as she remembered the long weeks she had spent waiting for the social workers or the police working out who she was, and then they would send her back to the Dursleys and brush their hands off of her and not think about the consequences.
But it never happened, thank god.
And yet, at the same time, Harley worried that she might have exchanged one hell with another.
While she had been living on the streets, she had been free; granted, it had been a tough life, never knowing how and where she was going to get her next meal, and never knowing how long you could stay in one spot before you were either turfed out by the police, or by somebody else in the same mess you were.
But she had been free.
She had learnt a great deal, about how to steal, how to fight, and how to see the world differently from how ordinary people saw the world.
Nothing would ever take that from her.
And yet, life had become so harsh Harley had simply given up, and she had not regretted it. It had been freezing cold, and she had felt as if she could very well die. She was not going to just die simply because she was full of stubborn pride. In any case, Harley had since studied up on what could have happened had she stayed out for long.
She could have frozen to death, died of hypothermia.
Harley didn't want to die. She was a young girl. There was still much she wanted to see, much she wanted to do with her own life, and she wanted the opportunity to reach that stage.
She wanted to travel to other countries. She wanted to see what was beyond Britain, especially after being confined to Little Whinging.
As she went through her math homework, Harley knew one thing. While she had only just survived on the streets of Brighton and ended up nearly freezing to death out there, she was glad she had a safety net now although she still planned on committing burglaries.
Granted, she had been waiting for the right opportunities to begin work again, but Harley had already found a decent house. Best of all, it was on the road to school.
A knock came from the door. Harley lifted her head. "Yeah?" she called.
The door opened and one of the kids stood there. "Hi, do you wanna play with us?" the girl, Anita, asked. She was a nice girl. A bit timid, but she was nice and sweet.
Harley smiled, reminded of little Coleen. Her smile faded a little as she remembered what had happened to her friend, and she hoped the little girl was still with her siblings although she still wasn't entirely sure about the system in place where it came to siblings in care. "Sure thing," she replied and she put down her books and she left her bedroom while all the time hoping none of these kids got her in the same moods whenever Dudley and his friends had bullied her, and those strange things had happened around her.
But she hadn't found it in her heart to say no to Colleen. In any case, it would do well to be friendly to the kids in this place, and she hoped whatever those strange things were, it didn't happen here.
The last thing she wanted was to be labelled a freak, not here.
XXX
Over the next two weeks, Harley observed the house although she didn't really have a lot of time except for when it was the weekend to really spend some time examining the property. It wouldn't be until the end of the second week when she had really sorted through her plans that Harley would feel ready. One night, Harley sneaked out of her bedroom and she was thankful she had managed to get her hands on a spare key from the office of the children's home and she managed to get out of the house. She walked the mile towards the house and she saw that despite the lateness of the hour, a light was on in one of the rooms downstairs.
Harley crept towards it, hoping there weren't any motion-sensitive lights nearby. Luckily for her, there were none, and she looked through the open gap in the curtain. She saw a man sitting on a sofa, reading a newspaper while watching television if the bright lights were any indication. But Harley was frustrated because once more she could not see anybody else inside the house. And she had been looking for a while. Harley recognised the man with his dark hair; she had seen him often enough leaving his home, wearing jogging gear. Every morning he went jogging and while she didn't know for sure just how far he jogged, Harley knew regardless it would be a cinch to break in and burgle the house. With that in mind, Harley walked over to the front door, wincing in annoyance and worry when a security light came on. But nothing happened. No-one came to the door. Still, the light gave her enough time to examine the lock.
Harley smiled and left.
The next morning, Harley walked towards the house on the way to school. She arrived at the house, just in time to see the owner jog out into the street without once noticing the small girl wearing a school uniform. Harley took advantage of that, and she carefully and calmly walked to the front door after she peeked in through the windows. She saw no-one.
Harley slipped a bump key into the lock and after giving the key a rap, she was inside the house. Cautiously she stepped inside the house and she silently closed the door and walked through the house looking for any sign of an animal or a person. Harley found what looked like an office, and she stepped inside and after donning a pair of latex gloves, she began going through the drawers. She found a small amount of cash, but that was it. She was about to go upstairs when something happened that horrified her.
"Have you gone out yet?!" Harley almost jumped in fright when she heard the voice coming from upstairs. She quickly leapt over to the door and moved it so then she could see through the gap.
Her blood went cold when she saw a woman through the gap with a coat on herself already. "Andrew?" the woman called, looking around, but she didn't receive a reply. She shook her head. "I'm sure I heard something," she muttered to herself, disappearing out of sight.
Harley listened carefully as the woman went back upstairs, and she crept out from behind her hiding place and she went into the kitchen and took a look outside the back garden. Harley knew there was a garden gate leading into the garden that she knew she could use so long as the woman upstairs didn't hear.
Quietly she stepped into the kitchen and unlocked the backdoor, and she went into the garden, pressing herself against the wall and moving around it until she reached the gate. Harley looked over the top and saw that the man, the husband, was back. She listened carefully as she heard the front door open and she scaled the gate. Within moments of sticking to the bushes, Harley got out without anyone seeing her.