“Freedom at last!”

Niamh spun in a circle, arms outstretched.  Harry stopped her spinning as she was catching attention he did not want.  His eyes darted immediately to the jacket pocket of a man walking by them and he mentally slapped himself.  Back on the streets again, his thief instincts had come back in full force.

“Harry, what’s up with you?”

“Thief instincts,” replied Harry, stuffing his hands deep into his pockets to keep his nimble fingers from stitching anyone’s wallet.

Niamh blinked then her eyes widened.

“Ooohhhh…”

“Yeah…”

“So,” said Niamh.  “You’re telling me you find no urge to steal wizarding money yet you get sticky fingers when Muggle money’s around?”

Harry groaned, “It’s a habit, Ni.  I had to steal to survive remember?”

“I remember.  Hey, let’s go over there!”

“Where?”

“There!”

“The record store?  But, Ni…electronics don’t work at Hogwarts.  You know that.”

“Surely my brilliant friend can think up something.”

“Who?  Hermione?”

Niamh punched him in the arm and spat, “No!  You, silly!”

“Me?”

“Yes, goose.”

“Y’know, I resent being called poultry.”

“Oh, finally caught on, have you?”

“Sod off on the sarcasm and let’s go to the store.  You want me to make an attempt at getting a CD player to work at Hogwarts, fine.  I’ll come back to haunt you after I blow myself up in the effort.”

Niamh punched Harry again, this time gentler than before.

“Fruitcake,” she growled good-naturedly.

“Fruit bar.”

“Fruit punch.”

“Fruit beer.”

“Oh, joy.  I’m drunk!”

“You’re a drunk bar,” said Harry with a chuckle, earning another punch on the arm.

“Come on,” hissed Niamh, dragging him across the road to the record store.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

“Ni, how much stuff did you buy?”

“Oh…just a few things.”

“Few things, my ass.  Ni, this bag weighs a bloody ton!”

Harry looked into the bag and his jaw dropped.

“Hell’s bells, Ni.  Did you buy the whole store??”

“No,” replied Niamh with a wry smile.  “Just half of it.”

“Gods!”

“Hey, you offered to carry it.”

“Well, I didn’t know it weighed a bloody ton and a half, now did I?”

“It was just a ton a minute ago.”

“Bugger a minute ago.”

“Yeah, yeah…  I still have to buy your present…hey!  Where’d my money go?”

Niamh dug into her pockets while Harry looked around, eyes darting instinctively to the shadowed nooks around them.  As Niamh dug into her pockets, he saw someone slink out of one of these nooks into an alley.

Ah-ha.

“Hold this,” he growled, shoving the bag at Niamh before sprinting after the shadowy figure.  He ignored Niamh’s surprised cry after him, leaping over a downed trashcan.  The thief noticed that they were being followed and sped up, knocking things over as they ran.

But Harry knew the London back alley’s as well as he knew each scar on his body.  He had not navigated them for three years but once the same pavement was racing away until his sneakers, he knew them again.

The thief scrambled up a wire fence and tumbled down the other side.  Harry knew climbing the fence would take too much time so he improvised.  Leaping up onto a trashcan, he jumped up onto a Dumpster and ran the length of it, making a flying leap at the end.  He cleared the fence and hit the ground running.  The thief in front of him gasped for breath.  Harry smirked.  He almost had him.

Another trashcan knocked down by the thief.  Harry cleared it easily, stretching out one hand to grab the thief.  His fingers brushed greasy hair and dirty clothes but did not catch.

Suddenly he tripped over a cat that had suddenly run out in front of him.  The thief sprinted on as Harry picked himself up.  He hissed in annoyance and sprinted after the thief again.  But now the thief had a good lead and Harry, who was now tiring, couldn’t catch up.

Then he saw a way to catch the thief.

Scrambling up the side of another Dumpster, he leapt onto the one adjacent to it then made a jump for the bottom rung of a ladder leading up to a fire escape.  The ladder stuck, which was just what Harry had hoped it would do.  He swung twice then let go, letting his momentum take him forward and down.

Straight towards the thief.

He struck the thief hard, sending both of them crashing to the pavement.  The thief was the first to recover from the blow, trying to throw Harry off.  But Harry held on tightly, shoving his knee down hard into the thief’s solar plexus[1].

“Give me back my friends money, you braggart.  Or I’ll turn you into the police.”

There was a gasp from the thief and then a voice that struck a chord in Harry’s memory gasped, “Harry?”

Harry blinked and pulled back from the thief.  He dragged the both of them to their feet, moving them into the light.

“Tyls.”