Harriet stared at her bed, the meager piles of her belongings spread out and sorted. She had a few pairs of jeans, and her favorite shirts, a ton of underwear and socks (old, but still decent), and two pairs of sneakers. Another pile had her school supplies, and another her collection of books. Cathy had deigned to allow her to keep the school backpack she had bought (“with my husband’s hard-earned money!”), which Harriet was thankful for, but she had no idea how she would fit everything in.
Her breathing speed increased as a world of worries assaulted her mind. So much was changing, so fast, and she had no control over any of it, as usual. Her stomach bubbled with acid, and her mind felt too full. She tried to focus and took all her thoughts and imagined shoving them down, down deep inside. It worked, mostly. Her breathing eased and she was able to think, although her stomach still felt like tanks were driving around inside. Suddenly she realized she had a big problem: she hadn’t eaten since lunch at school, and had no idea when she would be able to eat tomorrow, or if she would be expected to pack a lunch. There was no way Cathy would be giving her anything, Cathy had a lot of rules about food in the house. Harriet wasn’t allowed to get snacks or food on her own, only at mealtimes. Cathy accused Harriet of stealing food quite often...and was usually right, even if she couldn’t prove it.
After being starved at the Dursleys, Harriet had never really felt secure about food. She always felt like she needed to hoard and hide what she called “emergency food”. Even with the regular meals for the past five years, she still couldn’t let go of this control, this safety net.
Harriet waited until 2am, and then snuck down to the kitchen. Cathy was laying on the couch, no doubt trying to wait and catch her in the act, but Harriet knew she couldn’t stay awake for long. She had a lot of practice with these late night escapades. Carefully, Harriet opened the cupboard and selected several boxes of snack foods. Once upstairs she selected several snacks from each box (crackers, slim jims, anything thin and easy to hide) and then snuck back downstairs and placed the boxes back exactly where she had found them. Harriet would place the snacks in the inside pockets of her jacket where Cathy wouldn’t think to look.
Harriet went back upstairs to finish packing, automatically packing her belongings as she tried to imagine what tomorrow would bring. Some time later, she realized she had packed everything up, and was surprised, astonished even, to see that everything had fit.
“How is that even possible?” She wondered, staring at her backpack, full to the brim with all her worldly possessions. Harriet looked around the room and under the bed, thinking that maybe she had just missed something while packing. But no, everything that was “hers” was packed. Shaking her head, Harriet figured she had better get some sleep, since she was obviously losing it.
Early the next morning, Harriet woke up and sat on her bed, staring at the door. She couldn’t bare going downstairs and seeing Cathy and her husband. They had been her family, awful as it usually was. And now suddenly they weren’t. She was a stranger in a home that was no longer hers, and it was awkward and awful and made her stomach churn up into her throat. Harriet decided she would just read and forget about everything until the man came to pick her up. Digging one of her books out of her backpack, she laid on the bed and forgot about everything for a few blissful hours.
At exactly 11:55, the man rang the doorbell. Harriet heard it from upstairs, and quickly sprang to her feet. She grabbed her backpack, put on her secret-snack-jacket, and slowly opened the door to listen. Sure enough, the man was speaking in a low tone to Cathy.
“Is the girl packed and ready to go?” He asked, his voice deep and melodic, with a hint of aggravation.
“I sure hope so!” Cathy replied, laughing scornfully, “She’s been up there all day, hasn’t even bothered to say goodbye to any of us. Ungrateful child!” Harriet heard no reply from the man, and decided she might as well head down. Harriet clomped down the stairs and was soon standing beside Cathy. Unbidden, she felt emotion rise up her throat and prick her eyes. She tried not to think about how she was giving up this chance at a family. If only she could have been better it might have worked out. Harriet took a deep breathe and held it, trying to force herself under control.
The man asked, “Are you ready?” Harriet just stared up at him and nodded, trying not to look at Cathy in case she started blubbering and begging her to let her come back.
“Wait just a minute Mr. Snape!” Cathy said slyly. Harriet knew what that tone meant. And now she knew the man’s name at least. “I need to check her stuff to make sure she didn’t steal from us, she's quite the little thief. Taking food and all sorts of things!”
Mr. Snape stared at her unblinking. “It is Professor Snape, and I don’t have any time for this nonsense. If it pleases you, I will check her when we board the train later today, and make sure she returns any stolen items. Good day madam.” With that, Mr. Snape, no Professor Snape, marched away out the door, clearly assuming Harriet would simply follow right along. Which she did, not even glancing backward at Cathy or the house where she had spent five years of her life.
Harriet followed the man dressed in all black, to a school she had never known existed, for a talent she didn’t know she had.
---------------------------------------
For two exactly two blocks, Harriet’s world was a safe, sane and normal place. For two blocks, she had followed her Professor assuming they would be boarding a bus to get to the train station he had mentioned earlier. For two blocks, Harriet had assumed that her life, while taking a very unexpected turn, would remain more or less the same.
Instead, they turned off the street and directly into a copse of trees in nature preserve. Harriet was suddenly very sure she was about to die.
“I followed a strange man to a strange school, and now he's leading me into the bushes to cut me up and murder me,” Harriet thought, stopping dead on the very outskirts of the trees. Her heart felt like it would beat out of her chest. She was frozen for several seconds until the Professor Snape turned and looked at her, annoyed.
“What are you doing? We are going to be…” Snape never had a chance to finish his sentence, because Harriet suddenly darted to the left and ran straight into the deeper part of the forest.
Within seconds, she had disappeared.
Chapter 2: Escape