I am so sorry I haven't done more for this series until now, but I hope you'll find everything has been worth the wait.

Anyway, I don't own Harry Potter, just this story.

Please let me know what you think.

Kuro Neko.

Manchester Burglar.

Roxy smirked as she followed the homeowner up the flight of stairs to where the bedrooms were. She made sure to keep her footsteps in perfect sync with the man after he had set the house's burglar alarm after he had sent the cat out. Roxy couldn't believe her luck - the homeowner's wife was either incredibly naive or just plain stupid to leave the back door open for the whole of the afternoon to allow their cat in and out, and it would go up until late at night before they went to bed. If it wasn't for the heavy foliage around the property obscuring the view from the streets the house was inserted into back and front, a burglar would have had a field day. She had only discovered this just by chance, and that was only because she was very thorough when she herself planned and committed a burglary.

Anyway, the homeowner had put the cat out, unaware that she had been watching his every move from a hiding place she'd managed to find before she had followed him upstairs. He hadn't known she was right there of course, nor had he known she'd spied on him using the security code and simply switched the alarm off.

Hopefully, they wouldn't even know she was there and discover what she had done until morning, still, there was always the possibility something might go tits up.

As she followed the homeowner after he'd finished with his rounds downstairs without him know she was there, but not before she went over to the front door and went through their pockets to see if they had any cash in their pockets - which they did - she went upstairs, making sure she stuck to the shadows and the Roxy had time to reflect over everything that had been happening for the last two years. It was amazing just what kind of things could change within two years now the Dursleys had been locked up and were now out of her life for good, and now Roxanne Potter had a much better life than what she'd had before. The Dursleys had been locked up, and thanks to the Tyler family who'd stopped the Dursleys from beating her up and had taken photographs of what they had seen and the full scope of her injuries, she had been put into proper foster care.

Roxanne had wondered if the Tyler's themselves would adopt her into their family, but it seemed it just wasn't meant to be, and after a while, she learnt to come to terms with it when she accepted the logic behind it. The Tyler's were a criminal family and while they didn't go out of their way to cause problems, everyone knew better than to antagonise them. She guessed they hadn't adopted her because they didn't want to draw off too much attention towards themselves, but whatever their reason Roxy would always be pleased and thankful they had taken her away from that miserable house.

At the same time, she had learnt the elder Tylers had gone straight around for the Dursleys to make sure the family understood what their son had done. And they wouldn't have just used words. She had been around the family often enough to know that they did not make idle threats. They had gone round to the Dursleys to beat them up or make them disappear. She didn't know which, she knew the family liked to think of things like that on the go, but when they had found her being beaten herself, they had changed their immediate plans and had called the police and an ambulance.

Thanks to the Tyler's, Roxy knew the Dursley family weren't having an easy time in prison. Personally, she hoped their lives were a living hell.

At last, everyone now knew what type of people Vernon and Petunia Dursley was behind closed doors, although several people around here had already felt red flags go up in their heads, especially the teachers at the school, who had tried time and time again to make the Dursleys stop Dudley from being the fat bastard he was.

In Little Whinging they'd been able to get away with everything, but here in Manchester, their son had learnt his bullying attitude and how his dad could get him out of trouble no longer worked and would no longer be tolerated. Roxy did sometimes wonder what had happened to Dudley, but as long as she never saw the pig again, she didn't care.

Ever since that horrible night, Roxy had grown closer to the Tyler kids but she hadn't befriended them because of the lingering traces of the Dursley's conditioning.

In the meantime, Roxy was able to focus on her life. Yeah, the foster home was great and the people in it were nice even if she went out of her way to really avoid the kids; it wasn't anything personal, but after the pain and the misery heaped on her shoulders by Dudley and his gang, Roxy was very standoffish towards the other kids. It was funny, really; for a long time, she had dreamt of a way to escape the Dursleys either by herself where she'd survive on her wits alone, or some long lost relative would learn of her existence and take her from the hell she was forced to live in.

She had given up on anyone strong enough to discover what the Dursleys were doing and have them arrested. So it was quite strange for it to have become a reality.

While she was focused on her life, Roxy also had time to think about her thefts. She had been forced to be a thief when she had been living with the Dursleys. She had stolen food from the school, small amounts so she could smuggle them back to Number 4 and then eat them whenever the Dursleys imposed their typical punishment of withholding food whenever something went wrong or something happened or because they were just bored out of their minds and wanted to just punish her for living.

She had also stolen money from the Dursleys. It wasn't as difficult as people might think considering Dudley's bedrooms at Privet Drive were an absolute rubbish heap and it was easy for him to lose track of whatever cash he was given. When he did lose the cash, it usually found its way down to her former cupboard. Roxy had planned to keep the money and take it with her always so if an opportunity did arise, she would take it and be prepared for any eventuality.

For a long time, Roxy had been waiting for such a chance. Visits to London were extremely rare but Roxy had gotten the idea into her mind if the Dursleys took her there, then she could find the opportunity to escape them. In the densely packed streets of the city, it would pathetically easy for her to run off and even board the London Underground and head for a place on the network the Dursleys would never think of. Roxy had no doubt in her mind the Dursleys wouldn't care one little bit if she had run away. They'd probably party until dawn.

She'd had other plans, of course. Roxy was not stupid. She knew the chances to go to London were very rare, and she had only seen the capital city of Britain once or twice in her life. In any case, the Dursleys hadn't liked travelling for some reason. It also occurred to her they hadn't wanted her to see the entire world as if she didn't have the right.

Still, she had collected the money. She had hoped that one day she found the opportunity to escape Number 4 and her disgusting relatives once and for all, so she had continued collecting the money. Now she lived in Manchester, Roxy had been stealing money from the Dursleys and while she didn't need to do it anymore now they had been locked up, Roxy missed the thrill.

When she had first stolen things like food and pocket change, she'd felt a thrill at having taken something that wasn't hers. After that it had been an addiction, she loved taking things from other people although she had never had the opportunity to take anything too precious from anyone - the Dursleys didn't count since she had needed to be really careful with what she had taken in case they cottoned on and took notice some of their cash was going missing - and the Dursleys were one thing, but she had never had access to anything in the neighbourhood.

Roxanne had told the Tyler family about her thieving habit once she had gotten to know them better and discovered one of the reasons why they were virtually untouchable was because the entire organisation was made up of people who didn't know what the other was doing. Roxy had seen flaws in the whole thing of course, and she had told the family. She only had hope that they lasted a long time before it fell apart, but hopefully, that would not happen for a long time.

In the meantime after admitting her addiction to theft, Roxy had asked them if they could help her become better. She had carried on, telling them about what life with the Dursleys had been like and how she didn't want to ever be helpless again. The Tyler's had begun teaching her to steal, helping her learn skills from pickpocketing to shoplifting, and then moving her up to full-blown burglary. Out of all of it, Roxy preferred burglary. With pickpocketing, there was the risk, the very real risk, of being seen and then caught even if the whole thing was fascinating.

After reading HG Well's novel The Invisible Man and how the deranged scientist Griffin had gone insane after he had become invisible, Roxy had compared a pickpocket as the aforementioned invisible man because it was pathetically easy to stand next to someone and pick their pockets. Ever since that night, the Tyler family had begun teaching her on how to break and enter places, what to look for and how to find things like money and jewellery. They also taught her the ropes of how to use various burglary tools, finding various teachers who were burglars themselves - the Tylers made doubly sure to find burglars who, they knew they could trust and hadn't turned over a new leaf by giving the police or the media information on how to prevent burglars from breaking in in the first place. The Tyler's had told her those people had just given up after spending time in prison. Roxy had no intention of finding herself in that kind of situation. She had been a brilliant student, learning everything that the burglars had to offer her. She had learnt dozens of different techniques and skills from the various teachers she had.

Everyone had different approaches to breaking and entering a house; she had met a burglar who disguised herself as either a nurse or something else, and she would only break into houses or flats as long as they were empty. Her disguises were meant to cover up every single detail, and thus make it hard for the coppers to find her. Another burglar was a crossdresser although that was only to fool the authorities into thinking that a woman was responsible rather than a guy.

Other burglars were simpler.

They went out and found houses that were empty and after a quick check they would just break-in, either using brute force and ignorance, or they would use their brains. Burglars who did that tended to carry keys or they would con their way into the house, fooling the homeowners into letting them in. However, while that may work for an older burglar, Roxy was just too young to be able to con her way into someone's home without them asking her questions about why she was alone and why she was not in school. Roxy discovered she preferred using silent but quick means of getting in like using a special tool to break through the lock, or take advantage of any open window or door, or in this case….

Roxy arrived at the top of the staircase and she heard the sound of running water from the bathroom and the sound of someone brushing their teeth before spitting it out. Roxy ducked out of sight when the bathroom door opened, and the man came out rubbing his chin before he walked into the main bedroom and closed the door. Roxy stayed where she was and she made herself as comfortable as she could get on the stairs, and she waited there for nearly two hours, listening to the sounds coming from the bedroom; she overheard their muffled talking, but what they were talking about she neither knew nor cared.

Finally, she stood up when she heard the sounds of snoring coming from the bedroom, and very cautiously she opened the door and stepped in where the sound of snoring nearly blew her off balance. The man was making enough noise to wake the dead, and his wife was just taking it while she made noises of her own to compensate. She stepped into the room, not closing the door in case she needed a speedy getaway. She could hardly do that with the door still open.

Roxy slipped out a small torch from her pocket and walked around the room to see what she could pinch. Shining her torch around, Roxy opened drawers in the vanity table and pulled out a number of rings studded with diamonds and another assortment of jewellery. At the same time, she found a nice amount of cash. She pushed it into a bag she'd brought with her, but what happened next the young burglar would never truly be sure about - her best guess for later would be she had made a sound and the wife had heard it over the chainsaw massacre sound coming from her hubby when she was close by, but she would never be sure - but what she did know was she had been close to the woman's bedside table with her torchlight playing far away, and then the woman woke up.

"W…whassat?" The wife asked, yawning heavily while Roxy looked on in horror before the woman noticed the tiny burglar in the room in shock, but shock turned to outrage. "Dan, Dan wake up!" She started screaming at the top of her voice while Roxy broke into a run out of the still-open door and rushed back to the stairs.

"GET BACK HERE!" Roxy didn't look over her shoulders, she didn't need to have an eye in the back of her head to know the wife was chasing her out of the bedroom, but she leapt onto the stair rail and slid all the way down while the wife or the husband, she didn't know whether the husband had managed to come out of his brief stint in suspended animation to follow his wife, or at least see what was going on.

It was a nightmarish trip down the rail because everything was going by so fast, but Roxy was just thankful that she had opted for this means of getting out of the house quicker and staying - well, two steps ahead of the curve. By the time she reached the bottom of the rail while dimly listening to the sounds of the wife and the husband, who had definitely woken up while she concentrated on getting herself out of the house before it was too late, she quickly lifted her leg otherwise her pelvis would have been crushed and to use it as a brake so she could hope off.

Roxy leapt off the rail and raced for the backdoor of the house. She chanced a quick look back and saw the husband and the wife and she noted they weren't that far back. When she got into the back garden, she raced into the trees and hid as best as she could in the undergrowth. There wasn't any time for her to go to the back gate, and in any case, they'd guess that was where she had gone for. Both husband and wife came out of the house, both of them carrying and waving torches around to look for her. Roxy stayed where she was, watching them.

It didn't take long for them to give up. "There's no sign of 'em," the husband said.

The wife was in a terrible mood. "If you'd have gotten up we could have caught them," she snapped at her husband. "How did they get in in the first place? I thought you'd set the alarm!"

"I did!"

"Clearly you didn't!" The wife stormed back to the house in a terrible towering temper.

"I tell you, you mad bitch I had set the alarm!" He yelled as he stormed back to the door.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT!" She screeched back, but the door was slammed as they both stepped in their home. Roxy watched them go, unsure whether or not to laugh or to pity the husband for having to put up with that. She decided to go for pity, but still, she'd stolen some good jewellery and some cash, she stayed in her hiding spot for another five minutes before she stood up and she went over to the back gate, all the while keeping as vigilant as she could in case the mad homeowners heard her and came charging out, which they didn't. Once she had opened the gate, she crept out and disappeared down the street when she was positive no-one else had seen her running away.

XXX

Getting back into the foster home wasn't difficult. After she had come to the foster home, the dumping ground, or whatever anyone liked to call it, Roxy had checked the place out and she had used her contacts to furnish her with some skeleton keys once she had worked out she wasn't good at climbing. She unlocked the doors from the outside and she crept inside without any of the childminders knowing what she had done, and she relocked the doors and went upstairs as quietly as she could.

Roxy ducked down when she reached the top of the stairs and she crawled towards her bedroom to make sure no-one heard her, and she reached her room. Once inside, she closed the door quietly and got into bed.