Harry didn't know how long he'd been walking for, the woodland area that surrounded the neighbourhood apparently stretched on a lot further than he'd expected and flanked a local motorway.
He'd started walking along the motorway, just inside the treeline where the ground was softer thanks to the grass and moss that covered the ground, as opposed to the concrete and road tar that made up the massive roadside.
His bare feet ached, but luckily, they were not bleeding.
He'd taken his invisibility cloak off after a while of walking and Hedwig had joined him, alternating between perching on a branch atop a tree, perching on his head and preening him, and flying alongside him as he walked.
It had been early morning when he had fled Privet Drive, he looked up at the sky, noting how its bright blues had slowly begun to bleed with the pinkish-orange glow of the setting sun. He turned his head to where the sky was slightly darker, noting that he could just about make out the slowly appearing form of some stars.
Harry sighed and let his head drop down to stare at his shirt, which now dropped town to rest a couple of inches above his ankles, the once off-white colour had been stained with mud from where he'd slipped down a rather steep incline a few hours prior and the bottom of the fabric was littered with small tears where he'd gotten caught on branches, brambles, and small rocks.
Being alone like he had been for these long hours had given his new instincts time to settle, and with them, it bought out a whole slew of childish emotions and wants.
He was cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, scared and alone and he wanted an adult now, please.
And yet there was no-one around to comfort him, no-one to tell him it would be okay, to hold him as he cried.
Just him and Hedwig, alone in the woods.
A wave of exhaustion hit him, and Harry found himself falling backwards landing hard on his butt as his legs throbbed in agony.
His chest felt tight and he could feel tears welling up in his eyes, he shook his head and rubbed at his eyes with the dirty sleeve of the shirt.
"I'm a big boy," He muttered. "Big boys don't cry."
He pulled his knees to his chest, tucking his shirt under his feet as he moved and buried his face in his arms, his shoulders shook and he found himself unable to stop a sob, his tears running down his cheeks.
"But… But I'm not a big boy anymore, am I?"
Hedwig flew down from a nearby tree, landing next to him. She hopped over to him and gently nibbled at the fingers that dangled down, giving a soft hoot when he turned his head to peer at her with one eye he smiled softly at her, moving his fingers to pet at her head gently.
Letting his legs slide down to a sitting position, he wiped at his eyes with his free arm and gave a loud sniff, willing his nose to unblock from where he'd been crying, he let his fingers slide from Hedwig's head as he peered around the small clearing where he'd collapsed.
The trees were tall, but not tightly packed together, there were many paths and signs, which lead Harry to believe that it might be a local hiking trail, although not a very popular one, judging from the complete lack of any kind of person that he'd seen all day.
He sighed and turned to look at his owl.
"Do you think you could find some kind of shelter for me to stay in, just for tonight?"
Hedwig bobbed her head up and down in an impression of a nod then spread her wings and took off, quickly shooting up past the top of the treeline.
Harry watched the sky as it slowly grew darker as he waited for Hedwig to return, enjoying the clashing of the pinks and oranges as they gave way to dark blues and purples.
The sun had almost fully set when she returned, appearing as a speck of darkness in the low light, her descent to the ground was silent and upon landing she hooted at him, gaining his full attention as she hopped to his left and took off.
Harry shakily stood up and began walking towards the deeper woodlands, following as Hedwig slowly flew in front of him, making sure he could keep up, often perching on low tree branches when he fell behind a bit too far.
The treeline grew denser the further they walked, and the ground filled with overgrown plants, rocks stuck out along the path he was walking far more often than they had on the footpath he'd been following for most of the day.
As he got out of his new hearing range, which was a lot further than it had been when he was human, from the motorway, he noticed the trickling noise of a stream, he picked up his pace, hoping that it was in the direction he was travelling in, after having gone almost the whole day without drinking anything, he was extremely thirsty.
He was rewarded when the tree line broke and he came across an abandoned and rundown cottage, which had a very clear looking stream running alongside it.
Harry ran as quickly as he could on his exhausted legs to the stream and fell to his knees beside it, he cupped his hands and dipped them in the cool water, bringing the liquid up to his mouth to drink, sighing in relief after he'd had a rather large amount of mouthfuls of the water. He knew it was dangerous to drink uncleaned water, but at that point, he didn't really have a choice, nor did he care.
From where he knelt next to the stream, Harry looked at the cottage as he took another sip of the stream's water.
It was completely overgrown with the local plant life, a tree had grown into one of the bottom windows and burst out through an upstairs window, wooden panels had fallen away and landed on the ground and half of the roof seemed to have rotten away, it looked pretty and fit its scenery with its wild look, but at the same time seemed extremely unsafe for use.
"It's not like one night will hurt, right?" He muttered to himself. "It's not going to collapse in on itself after possibly hundreds of years of being left out here just because I decided to sleep in it."
He nodded to himself and stood from the ground, walking over to the door of the cottage and carefully pushed it open.
The inside was surprisingly intact, if very dusty.
There were old tables and chairs scattered about, and after peering into the living room, he noticed that one corner had a bunch of old blankets bundled up, which were also dusty, but suggested that someone had used the house to sleep in before.
With that in mind, he walked over to what he thought was the kitchen and went through its cupboards and the pantry, hoping that the prior campers had left behind some non-perishable foods.
He was in luck, in the back of one small cupboard in the corner, Harry found a single can of tomato soup that was still in date by a whole month, grinning, he pulled on the can's ring, opening it. He didn't have anything to warm it with, so he just drank it from the can.
Now that he'd eaten something and had some water, he was feeling the tired a lot more, as such he walked over to the pile of blankets in the living room, shook them free of the dust and settled down into the corner they'd been bundled in to be the most protected from the elements.
As he was wrapping the last blanket around himself, he noticed that Hedwig had perched on top of the old, half-collapsed fireplace, and was sleeping, a small smile appeared on his face at the sight.
He would need to find himself some new clothes, shoes included, and find a way to keep himself fed, he didn't need to worry about Hedwig as she could hunt food for herself just fine, but he would worry about that tomorrow, for now, he needed to sleep.
He yawned and curled up in the large nest of blankets he'd made, blinking blearily up at the star dotted night's sky which he could see through the cracked window, silently naming the different constellations that he could see, slowly his eyes slid shut and he drifted off to sleep.
Moments later, a quiet creek could be heard, and a figure appeared in the doorway, staring down at the sleeping child.