Alright, once again the chapter is late, very late. I was planning on posting a chapter ages ago, to be honest, but I could never work up the inspiration to start writing. It's amazing what grade 8 and getting ready for high school can do to your creativity. I swear my muse went in to a coma! I will try to finish chapters sooner, and send a review telling me to update if I'm late, it won't hurt, and will probably help instead!
I do not own anything you recognize from the works of J. K. Rowling. All characters in the place where Harry is currently staying are mine and mine alone!
Happy Reading!
It was a few weeks after Harry had gotten to the 'hut' as it was dubbed by the residents, and he was settling in very well. He loved his art and music classes with John, along with all of Jane's classes (other than dance, they were currently doing ballet! He preferred ballroom dancing when he had to dance). He also was very good at daggers and archery with Jason. He wasn't the only person surprised when he got a bullseye his first shot with the bow and arrow!
The kids there had grown used to him, and the adults rather fond of him. They had gotten used to him being quiet, as after his first couple of days with all the introductions and stories, he had stopped talking very much, they considered themselves lucky to get two sentences out of him when he wasn't in speech class. Even with his reluctance to talk in speech class, which frustrated John to no end, John had still taken him in as his apprentice of sorts after discovering his innate talent for music, specifically the violin. They had an old violin they had gotten from one of the kids who had joined them, it was his last possession from before, and he let the others use it as he preferred to see others enjoying it than it just sitting there. Regardless of where it was from, everyone agreed that Harry was brilliant at violin. He had quickly learnt as much as he could from John, which, admittedly, wasn't much, and had started to learn on his own. One of the first things he decided to teach himself was a song that he remembered his mother singing to him when he was a child. It was one of the only things he remembered about either of his parents.
He was currently standing on the edge of the roof, of one of the tallest buildings nearby, abandoned, of course. It had become one of his favourite places during his stay, as he could look out over the city in the relative quiet as the wind blew over him. It wasn't the cleanest air, and it wasn't the country, but it was more open and more free than he had ever been before, and he loved it.
His peace was soon broken though, as he heard Jason shouting at him from the ground. He looked down and saw him and John on the ground below him, shouting up at him. As they noticed him looking, they started waving for him to come down. He gave them a wave and walked away from the edge to head down.
Once he was on the ground, he walked up to the two boys. Jason was tall and muscular, and he definitely looked like the expert fighter he was with an old scar from a knife stretching from the middle of his lip, curving around and just missing his nose to about an inch above his right temple, slanting the corner of his eye permanently up. He also had a few scars on his hands and arms and another crossing his collar bone that stood out, all gained during his time on the streets. John was also tall, but he had more of a slim runner's frame. Though the muscles were still there, they were less obvious. He didn't have as many or as obvious scars as his brother, though he did have a wicked one on each hand, identical, starting on the middle of the back of his wrists, them curling up, following the bone towards his thumb before they cross over to his palms, splitting the web between his thumb and pointer finger before curving down and ending in the middle of his wrists on the inside of his arms. He wouldn't tell anybody where he got them, but Harry was sure there was an interesting story behind them. Being 2/3 of a set of triplets, they looked otherwise identical, with dark, mocha skin bright hazel eyes that looked a bright shade of green streaked gold in the light, and black hair, frequently worn in messy spikes by Jason, though John never really did anything with his.
"We heard that there is a group of three or four homeless kids spotted about a half a kilometre away from here. We were gonna go check 'em out, see if they wanna join up. Thought you might wanna get out for a bit." Said Jason.
Harry looked at them, considering. It could be a trap, but also, there could be some kids left alone with no-one but themselves to depend on, and while he could be cold and uncaring, let it not be said that he would leave kids out on there own, he never wanted people to go through what he did. He made up his mind.
"Sure." He said. The others just nodded and turned, leading the way. They had stopped their visible reactions at his single word answers a while ago. Harry just looked at them, bemused. Though they may not show it, he knew that it unnerved them, the way he acted. They never knew quite how to react at his sometimes eerie silence that always lasted until he was spoken to, or when he did respond, even then with only one or two words.
They walked for a while in silence, sticking to the back streets as much as possible. They all knew that if the police caught them, or a well-meaning passerby saw them, it would be straight to the orphanage for them. It took them nearly 20 minutes to reach their destination, with the maze that was the back streets in their area. The only reason they even knew they had gotten there was the quiet sniffling they heard from behind some discarded boxes.
Jason and John looked at Harry, who understood their message loud and clear. He was the youngest, smallest and least threatening of the three, so it would make sense if he were the one to go and speak to them first. Although he hated the fact that he would need to talk quite a bit, he knew that this was important. He approached the boxes with caution.
"Hello?" he called out, quietly. The sniffling stopped immediately. There was silence for a tense minute. Slowly, a girl who looked to be around 13 or 14 years old stood up, followed shortly by triplets, two girls and a boy who looked to be 10 years old, who she quickly pushed slightly behind her. She looked at him critically, her sharp eyes softening slightly as she took in his worn clothing and thin frame, though her tense posture didn't change.
"Who are you, and what do you want with us?" She said curtly, no emotion in her voice. Harry wasn't offended, if he had been approached by a stranger on the street, he would have been suspicious too. He looked at her, and smiled slightly, to show that he wasn't offended.
"My name is Harry. I live with a group of other homeless children and teens in an old abandoned warehouse. We share everything we get, and the older teens teach us what they know. We heard a rumour that there were some homeless children around here, so two of the children and I came to see if you would like to join us, rather than stay on your own." He said in a soft, kind tone, ending with a sweet smile he had quickly learned that nobody could resist. She looked at him, going over what he said, before she realized something.
"Two other kids?" She asked, looking around. Jason and John stepped around the corner, one by one, and went over to stand by Harry, careful to position themselves so that it didn't look like they were blocking them in. They introduced themselves.
"My name is Jason, he's John. We're two of the older kids at the warehouse. We're also two of the teachers." Said Jason. The girl looked at them once more, and finally relaxed a bit.
"Alright," She said. "We'll join you. My name is Olivia. These are my younger siblings, Jade, Jasmine, and Jeremiah. Our dad was killed in a car crash about a week ago, and mum kicked us out. She never really liked us much." She finished sadly. John gave her a slight smile, and simply gestured for her to follow them, as he turned down the street and started walking back to the warehouse, Jason and Harry quickly following.
It was slower going back, with the new arrivals, so it took them nearly half an hour to get back. When they did, they quickly slipped inside and introduced everyone. Olivia and her siblings were quickly settled in, and life went back to normal for everyone there. Harry continued to stay quiet, and still excelled in all his classes, always escaping to nearby tall buildings, was still John's protege in music. Life went on.
It was about a month after Olivia and her sibling had joined up when Harry was out wandering the back streets of London. He had quickly grown bored of the area near the hut, and kept exploring farther and farther away from it's safety. He was being constantly reprimanded for it, but that did nothing to discourage his exploits. This particular time, he was in Greater London, wandering along the edge of the Epping Forest, when he heard something that made him freeze.
"Harry?" He heard again. He whirled towards the forest, his eyes darting along the tree line, when he finally found the silhouette of a person standing a few meters in.
"Who are you?" He said coldly, his voice razor sharp as he for once abandoned his self-imposed rule of silence. "How do you know my name?" He continued, voice still sharp.
"My name is Remus. Remus Lupin. I know your name because I knew your parents. I – I would have come to see you sooner, but he – the wards – they kept me away. Please, Harry, come with me, I'll explain everything."