"COME BACK IN HERE!" he bellowed. "COME BACK AND PUT HER RIGHT!"

But a reckless rage had come over Harry. He kicked his trunk open, pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Uncle Vernon. "She deserved it" Harry said, breathing very fast. "She deserved what she got. You keep away from me".

He fumbled behind him for the latch on the door. "I'm going" Harry said. "I've had enough".

And in the next moment, he was out in the dark, quiet street, heaving his heavy trunk behind him, Hedwig's cage tucked under his arm.

He was making a mistake.

He knew he was. Running away from the Dursleys was perhaps the biggest mistake he could make right now.

He had nowhere to go. He was alone, in the middle of the night in the Muggle world, with the Aurors on his tail. He had after all, inflated his 'Aunt' some extremely serious magic, which meant that after last year he was definitely expelled.

But… but it didn't matter that he couldn't go home anymore, he didn't care. Privet Drive had never been his home, Hogwarts had been his home since he spent his first Christmas there with Ron. But now… being expelled meant that Harry had nowhere to go, he was stuck outside on the streets with nothing more than the dozen or so wizarding coins he had in the bottom on his trunk.

What about Gringotts? If he could get to the bank, then he'd have access to the rest of his vault, he'd be able to transfer it into a Muggle currency and use that to live under the radar. And as much as he wanted to, he couldn't even contact Hermione or Ron for help, both since the two of them were out of the country and because he didn't want to get them in trouble for aiding a fugitive.

First things first though. He needed to get 'off' the streets, standing out there in the open wasn't very safe for either a thirteen year old boy or for a thirteen year old wizard. Looking around slowly, Harry blinked in shock as he realised how far his feet had been walking while he had been thinking. Shrugging it off, Harry quickly dragged his trunk over to a half-wall that he collapsed onto, throwing his trunk open and beginning to sort through it.

A familiar prickling on the base of his neck made him falter, used to the feeling of being watched after two years of being at Hogwarts as the Boy-Who-Lived. Sliding off the wall and crouching down in front of his trunk, Harry used his new stance to hide the way his hand moved to the pocket his wand was in.

Subtly trying to glance up towards where he could feel the eyes burning into him, Harry caught sight of something small shifting in the bushes. As twin pinpricks of light started shining, Harry felt the tension washing out of his body, exhaling sharply as a shaggy furred dog edged out of the bushes.

"Hey there boy," Harry called out gently, hoping that it was a friendly dog and not a feral stray. "Or girl," he added when the dog wagged in response, only for it to growl and shake its head, "Oh… boy then?" he corrected making it bark happily.

Harry's hand, which had started to lower, quickly rose back up to his wand. He wasn't an expert in dogs, but even he knew that they weren't normally that intelligent. "I don't have any food I'm sorry," he said slowly, not wanting to either spook the smart dog or to alert the animagus.

Letting out a whine, the dog started across the street, keeping its head down as it stopped in the middle of the road and sneezed violently. Barely fighting back a chuckle as the dog continued sneezing, Harry stopped as his magic rose up, wildly rolling about beneath his skin. Groaning as he rubbed at his chest, Harry reached out to close his trunk, sitting down on it and let out a shaky breath.

"I'm fine boy," he forced out as the dog slunk closer with a whine, "I'm just… I haven't been feeling well lately."

'Haven't been feeling well lately'.

What an understatement. Even before Marge had come visit, Harry's magic had been going crazy within him. The temperature would rise when he was angry, actually it would even rise when he was feeling anything strongly. Vernon had woken him up in a rage several times when his nightmares would cause everything not nailed down to start shaking. He had even accidentally started glowing when he had been trying to do an essay on the Lumos spell branch.

Something cold and wet made him jump, staring down at the pathetic looking dog in shock as it nosed at his bare arm again. "You're not really a dog," Harry murmured, concerned grey eyes peering up at him, "Your eyes are too human."

The dog sighed, shaking its head, backing away from Harry slowly. Before the dog could turn back (Or at least Harry hoped he was about to), slapping footsteps filled the air, both of their heads snapping around to where a plump man had burst through the trees and was running as fast as he could. Hand diving back towards his wand again, Harry stood to watch as the dishevelled man sprinted across the park, looking over his shoulder constantly as he let out panicked whimpers.

"YOU!"

He jumped as the man spotted him and cried out in joy, changing his direction and heading towards the nervously backpedalling Harry. "Please! You can't let them get me!" the man begged, stumbling over the half-wall and diving at him, grabbing Harry's shoulders and shaking him. "They're trying to kill me!" the man continued, tears streaming down his face, "Please help me! I don't want to die!"

Harry just spluttered, so startled by the man's actions that he stood there dumbly as the man sobbed. "NO! It's them! Please don't let them hurt me!" the man screamed suddenly, unashamedly ducking behind Harry who blinked in confusion at the two armed muggles running towards them.

"Kid! Run!" the man in the trenchcoat shouted as the man behind Harry whimpered and clutched at his clothes.

As the dog jumped in front of Harry, growling darkly at the two muggles holding guns, Harry wondered briefly about why it was always him that got mixed up in these kinds of situations.

"Come on kid," the woman ordered as they slowed to a stop, their guns moving constantly as they tried to see past him to the man. "We're police," the woman continued, her Welsh accent obvious through her light panting, "That man's resisting arrest. Please step aside."

"Prove it," Harry ordered quickly, sounding braver than he felt as he stared them down, his hand slipping behind his back to pull out his wand.

"Of course," the Welsh woman said quickly, reaching down to pull a leather id case that she flipped open. "I'm Lieutenant Cooper. This is Captain Harkness," she introduced as she showed him the badge, "We're Torchwood," she explained, the man letting out a particularly loud whimper.

As Harry's fingers curled around his wand, his mind raced. He could step aside and let this 'Torchwood' take the man, despite the fact that they had lied about being police. Or he could stay in the way, most likely getting either arrested for obstruction of justice or just plain shot by them.

"Tosh?" 'Captain Harkness' asked suddenly, his hand rising to his ear with a confused expression on his face.

Harry's attention was pulled from them down to the dog in front of him as he sneezed, the growling starting up again, this time aimed towards the man behind him. "Hey!" he hissed, "Shut up boy."

"It's okay Tosh," Harkness announced, making Harry glance up to see the man's eyes locked onto Harry's wand which he was still holding at his side. "I know what the source is. It'll be fine."

"Jack?" Cooper asked curiously as the man behind Harry started up a chant of 'Don't let them get me'.

"Do you know what you're protecting Kid?" Harkness asked slowly, a knowing expression on his face as he stared at Harry. "He's a Raxacoricofallapatorian. A carnivorous species of alien that like coming to Earth to hunt and kill Humans. Torchwood has been following this guy for around a month now, he's killed dozens of people and if you help him escape, then he'll just kill you and then he'll go kill more innocent people."

Harry stared at the man in shock, his jaw falling open as he tried to process what he was saying. The chubby, sweaty, sobbing man behind him… was an alien. But not just any type of alien, he was also a carnivorous one. An alien… right…

"An alien… right. What is he going to do? Probe me and then cut my head off with his lightsaber?" he asked sarcastically. "You're insane, all of yo-" he was cut off by pain flaring up in his chest, his magic beginning to burn through his body again.

"What is it with you people and probing?" Harkness muttered, "Just accept you want a dick up your arse and move along". As Cooper tried not to giggle, Harry shook his head and kicked out at the still growling dog with a snapped order to shut up. "See? Your dog smells something is wrong," Harkness pointed out, "And people like you -" he paused to shoot Harry's wand a pointed look "- Taste all the bit sweeter to people like him."

Both of their guns snapped up again, making Harry straighten his back from where he had been slouching slightly. "Kid," Cooper exhaled slowly as a blue light started shining from somewhere behind Harry, "Move". Before he could however, his magic was rolling up inside him, crashing about like the ocean during a storm. Biting back a pained whimper, Harry fell forward to one knee, feeling like he both wanted to explode and implode at the same time.

Through the gap between his arm and his body, Harry watched as the lower half of the man's body was torn apart, revealing two short legs and a large fat stomach. "Oh," he exhaled dumbly, his body still paralyzed by his own magic, as the creature straightened up to it's full size and unsheathed six large sharp-looking claws.

Moving before Harry could react, one of the claws speared through his shoulder as the clawed hand latched onto his shoulder and yanked him off his feet and into the creature's stomach-chest. "You will let me go, Torchwood," the creature hissed in a babyish voice, "Or my nest-mates will tear this town apart, and I'll tear this boy limb from limb."

"Let the kid go Raxacoricofallapatorian," Harkness ordered coldly, as Harry's hand opened and clenched, wishing he hadn't dropped his wand when the creature had unveiled itself. "We won't hesitate to put a bullet through your brain otherwise."

"Let me go Torchwood," the creature repeated as Harry found himself being lifted off the ground, a pained whimper being torn from his throat as more pressure was put on his shoulder. "Or watch him die."

"Kid," Harkness' voice called out, cutting straight through the combined pain of his rebellious magic and of his skewered shoulder. "Torchwood occasionally deals with the Unspeakables. If I give the word they'll write off any breaking of the Statute of Secrecy as necessary for self-defence and you won't get in any trouble for it."

"Jack?" Cooper's voice asked sounding confusion as Harry's mind translated what he had said.

Harkness knew about magic. And apparently he was capable of getting Harry out of trouble for breaking the Decree for Underage Sorcery. But why would he be telling Harry about that unless… unless he needed Harry to get out of the way using magic.

"Three seconds before the boy dies," the Raxa-something holding Harry snarled out.

Closing his eyes, Harry concentrated on his magic. He may not have his wand anymore, but he did have his magic, and as Aunt Marge proved he didn't need his wand to perform magic. All Harry needed was to egg his magic on enough to induce some more accidental magic, hopefully the kind of accidental magic that wouldn't end in him dying slowly and horrifically.

"Three."

His magic had been crazy recently, why wasn't it reacting now? He was definitely feeling more emotional than he was back at the Dursley's!

"Two."

Was the temperature rising or was he just imagining it?

"One."

Come on magic. Inflate it. Shrink it! Set it on fire! Just do something!

"Zero."

Pain shot through Harry's body as he was jerked forward and then back again, his mouth falling open in shock as his head dropped down to stare at the blood-coated claws sticking through his stomach. As he the alien behind him cackled like a stereotypical muggle witch, Harry was only able to stare down at the claws, his mind blank and his magic finally silent within him.

When the alien finished giggled, Harry heard the word "What," from behind him, before his magic was surging up and exploding through his skin seconds later.

Rift

Based off DZ2's Out of this World challenge.

Forgive me Fanfiction… I just did a thing...

I don't own Harry Potter or Torchwood.