Just Harry by watercrystals

His feet thundered against the solid ground they barely touched, the lights from lampposts and passing cars flew by in bright blurs and the sounds of movement whizzed about his ears while the increasingly cold wind stung his face...and still Harry ran. His muscles ached, his bones trembled with effort and cold, but in his mind he knew that if he stopped, they would make him go back. His chance at a real home would be snatched from his grasp yet again and he wasn't about to let that happen.

Harry knew it was dark, he was well aware of that fact, and he didn't know where he was although with his speed he was sure that he was quite a distance from the orphanage by now. And with that sudden realization, his paces slowed and he skidded to a halt on the side of the road, bending to catch his breath as though the air had suddenly been punched from his lungs. He gasped and choked while his throat felt sore and his chest throbbed. Squeezing his eyes shut, Harry waited until he could breath again before he straightened and glanced around.

A sudden chill, that had nothing to do with the night air, filled inside him as his focus fell onto the deep shadows, empty surrounding, eerie sounds, concealed house windows and boarded closed stores. Harry stood there, unable to move or think straight; he was alone, lost and no doubt unprotected.

Even as fear gripped him, Harry found the strength to moved quickly and spotted a torn fence that led to an old park. Exhaling, he dashed through the peeled back wire and moved towards the park seats. He slumped into siting position and bit his lip nervously as he expected something horrible to leap out of the bushes and attack him.

As minutes passed, the fear calmed only a little as he tried to think of something else, such as how he wanted to find his father and that those that the orphanage could surely never find him and take him away now. He suddenly felt unbearably thirsty and his stomach urged in complaint while his skin prickled with the cold. Pulling his hood over his head, Harry rubbed his arms in attempt to warm them; the cold was the only aspect he could modify right now.

He wasn't really sure how long he sat there, but he felt worst with each passing moment on that slightly damp and equally cold park bench. He gazed towards a house in the distance, seeing the lights on but curtains drawn across the windows, just like each of the other houses. It made him further worried that he wasn't as safe as he was trying to convince himself to be.

'Are you alright there, kid?' A gruff voice suddenly asked and Harry jumped up to stare at the slightly hunched man standing behind the seat.

'Arghh!' Harry yelled in alarm and fear. His eyes widened and he didn't think twice before he turned and ran, back through the wire and along the street he had been heading for before he'd stopped to breathe. As his feet carried him far and fast once again, his mind slowly recovered and his mind flashed with the image of the man that had startled him. He slowly down and soon came to a stop when he realized that he was likely to be a homeless man and perhaps genuinely worried about him being out by himself.

Grumbling at his stupidity, Harry looked around and wondered where to go now as he had already forgotten the way to the park; that was how he fled, just running along any odd street and turning any random corner without an ounce of consideration of an overall destination. Where he wanted to go was to the place where his father lived...and he didn't have even the slightest clue where that was.

Harry noticed something different about this area that wasn't present for where he had been near the park; the sounds. Before it had been unnaturally quiet apart from the wind and squeaking swings, but how he could hear distant shouting and the cars; their tyres against ground, beeping horns, skidding stops, increased speed and even various hints of music drifting from open windows. Somehow, this only frightened him further.

Harry stood still where he had stopped in front of a Chinese restaurant and contemplated what to do and where to go. He jumped when a loud sound came from a nearby alley but quickly realized it was just the slamming of a trashcan lid, followed by dragged footsteps and the closing of a shop door. There was a dog barking in the distance and countless cars drove past him. Harry rubbed his arms again and his eyes darted around, desperately searching for a place of refuge in which he could remain safely within until morning. He could not see such a place at all.

'Hey, get out of here!' The door of the Chinese restaurant had opened an a balding man with a apron scowled and waved a hand at him, looking firm but also suspicious. 'Ain't got nothing for you to steal, punk!'

'No! I wasn't...' Harry gasped at the assumption and even lowered his hood to prove it but the man had already disappeared back inside. He peered into the window and saw happy people looking warm while eating their meals and sipping drinks. Feeling a pang of misery, Harry slowly ordered his feet to walk while pulling his hood about his face. He shoved his hands into his pockets and kept a watchful eye on the streets and roads while not being able to ignore the temptation to glance into the windows of each store he passed.

He wondered where he was but apart from street signs and an occasional double-decker bus, he received no solid indicators. Where would his father live? Harry frowned, because he knew nothing about his father at all apart from his name; Severus Snape. He smiled lightly at that, taking the small comfort he could receive. His middle name was Severus, so whoever his father was he must have loved him enough to give him his own name as his son's middle name. But what about his surname, Evans...why not Snape?

Sighing his warm breath into the cold night air, Harry continued to walk until his legs were sore and his throat felt injured. Slumping against a wall, Harry considered his options; ideas such as calling the police and asking a store person for help flitted through his mind but he shook them away with determination.

In the end, he literally crawled into an alley that stopped halfway along without reaching the other side due to a blockage/wall created by large bins and many boxes. He curled defensively behind a huge bin and several piles of the boxes while using his backpack as a pillow and pulled several folded cardboard boxes over himself to serve as a blanket. Shivering and hurting in more places than he cared to count, Harry squeezed his eyes tight and tried to force everything out so he could at least get a little rest while he waited desperately for the arrival of daylight.

As his eyes closed, his mind shifted between sleep and awareness of his suffering mixed with fears, producing not a dream nor nightmare but instead, a memory...

'And you bloody stay in there you freaky runt!' Uncle Vernon bellowed with a purpled face while shoving Harry by his collar into the cupboard under the stairs. The door shut, vent closed and locked clicked into place. Seven-year-old Harry scurried onto his bed and sniffled further, curling his arms around his legs as he tried not to cry. Was it really so terrible to ask for more food and yell at his cousin for hurting him?

He had sat there for over an hour, his stomach grumbling the entire time, until the door swung open and his aunt stood there. He was shocked, not because he had expected his uncle but because she didn't look cross with him.

'Gather your things.' She told him in a reserved but otherwise content tone. 'All of it.'

'Yes, Aunt Petunia.' Harry complied and quickly packed his little belongings, wondering what was going on and if they were going to punish him by destroying or tossing his things. With that thought, he shoved a toy horse into his pocket in attempt to save it.

Once done, he stepped out and became further nervous as his aunt and cousin waited by the door.

'Hurry up!' She hissed and he quickened his pace to follow them outside to the car. Enlightened softly with the prospect of going somewhere with them but still cautious, he kept his pace normal and expression calm while moving to get into the backseat but Petunia stopped him.

'No, you are to ride in the front.' She said.

At the time he had been so shocked and thrilled, more so when Dudley said nothing and merely got into the back with a smug look. He didn't realize until later that this was his aunt's final way of being nice and Dudley's enjoyment to what was coming.

He sat and did up the seatbelt while sitting perfectly upright and staring straight ahead. He didn't know where his uncle had gone and he had no clue where they were going, but decided that silence was best.

An hour had passed and still they drove and it had started to rain. Harry glance nervously at his aunt and out the window (he could make out shapes although they were slightly blurred by the falling water), every few minutes, now very nervous and a bit fearful as to their destination. But not once did he dare ask. Perhaps he should have.

Riverwave orphanage had looked so much darker that day, even as the rainclouds had drifted away. Harry knew what was going on the second his aunt turned the steering wheel to direct the car towards the looming building.

'Out.' She instructed after parking and Harry did as he was told. Dudley was practically laughing with glee by this point.

'Good morning, how may we help you?' The lady in the lobby asked while Harry glanced around and clutched his things closer to his chest.

'I had this boy, my nephew, cast rudely upon me since he was a baby and his care is becoming too much.' Petunia began what was to be a long conversation and declaration of arrangements. Harry didn't pay any of her words nor the forms much attention because he was too busy noticing several other boys laughing and running up several stairs together. He spotted a couple leaving with a girl about his age, she was smiling and they spoke to her in loving tones while smiling happily. And then the orphanage no longer seemed to dark and constricting...in fact, it was like a breath of fresh air in which smelt of happier possibilities. Too bad it didn't last as long as he'd have liked it to.

And while Harry fretfully slumbered in the back of an unclean alley, shivering with cold and aching with hunger, his father Severus Snape was finishing a batch of headache potions and preparing to proceed upstairs to his awaiting bed.

The man was unaware that his son was miles away, suffering and longing for the father he desperately needed...now more than ever.