More extemporanea. I'm weak, sorry!

This is another female Harry/LV fanfic (eventually). I'm planning for it to be short and simple like DTTH, but this one will probably be updated less often than my other stories.

Also I've had a request to do a time-travel TMR era fic, but think that might be too many open stories. You never know though. I go where the muses take me haha. Thank you for bearing with me.

Xx

"Just try it arsehole!" The petite brunette spat as a large man cornered her in the alley. In response he back handed her hard, splitting her lip and causing her to bite her tongue before wrapping one beefy hand around her neck. When his other hand tried prying open her jeans she started scratching at his face, but he simply grunted in annoyance and shoved her hard against the wall, and she was temporarily dazed by the knock to her head.

'Come on!' She thought to herself desperately. Harry had a strange ability, something that no one else did. Sometimes it scared her – she felt like Carrie – but sometimes it was incredibly useful, just like it would be incredibly useful right now! If she could control it that is.

She screamed as her shirt was torn and brought her hands to his chest, pushing with everything she had. He didn't budge. She saw her penknife laying on the ground a few metres away and willed it to come to her, but it was useless and it just lay there mocking her.

This wasn't the first time she'd been attacked and she was sure it wouldn't be the last. It was all just another peril of being a runaway. Life was hard and painful and the fight to survive was never ending. But she never stopped fighting. Oh, she'd considered it, in fact, the thought crossed her mind daily, but she would never give up. She was a survivor!

With that thought she stopped struggling, and the man stood to sneer down at her, mistakenly thinking she'd given in. She took the opportunity and instantly threw the heel of her open palm at his nose. The crunching sound was reassuring.

He stumbled back in pain, shaking his head to clear his watery eyes. Harry pushed off the wall, inching toward her knife, but not believing she'd get to it in time. When he gathered himself together the look on his face frightened her – if she couldn't fight him off she didn't think she'd be leaving this alley alive. Her head swung around as she desperately looked for something she could use. There was a skip to the left that was full of building rubble. If she could just get her hands on one brick she'd get away.

It seemed to be too late though and the man marched towards her again. She made to dodge around him, but he caught her easily and threw her slight frame to the ground. She quickly righted herself and started crawling backwards, away from him, but this only made him let out a gruff laugh as he took another step to her. She couldn't think anymore and screamed in fright, even though in her heart of hearts she knew no one would be coming to save her. Any one of the happy, healthy, clueless folk walking on the street beyond the alley would hear the scream and then quicken their pace to get away, determined to never think about where that scream had come from. But that was ok. She'd never needed them before and as her scream echoed from the walls of the alley, the skip lunged to the side, upturning in the process and in an instant the man was buried beneath the debris.

Harry let out a shaky breath as she leaned back to calm her racing heart.

When she was able to stand once again she took a few tentative paces to the wreckage. It seemed the weight of the skip had completely severed an arm, and that was the only part of her attacker she could see. Her face scrunched up in disgust, she spat out a mouthful of blood before tying a knot in her shirt to keep it closed and making her way home. Incredibly useful indeed!

She lifted the corner of the metal board that covered the door to the run-down factory and crawled inside, where it was as dark as ever. Even in the daylight this place could never be considered anything but dim.

She was careful and slow as she headed to the stairs. The factory was what the media affectionately called a crack-house, and with only a few randomly placed candles lighting the way she had to be careful not to step in any bodily fluids, or trip over an unconscious body.

Most of the people here were nameless. They came and went too often to bother getting to know. Thankfully though, she was heading upstairs, where she and her friends of nearly five years called home. It was a little better up here. Her small group had made this place theirs for over a year now, which was the longest she could remember staying anywhere since she'd taken to living on the streets.

"Hey Jay!" Sean called when he saw her, "Looks like half-pint's been fighting again!" He laughed at her scowl, so she ignored him to collapse onto the battered and stained sofa.

"Looks like she's been whoring herself out." Donna said nastily eyeing her shirt. "Make much money did ya?" Harry rolled onto her side to face the backrest.

"Eat shit and die, Donna." She shot back over her shoulder. She just caught sight of Jason walking into the room before turning back to bury her head beneath an arm.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing. Just some randomer." She explained before anticipating his next questions and continuing. "It's fine, I'm fine. I got away."

"If you say so, half-pint."

Several hours later she woke to the familiar sounds of sex, but merely rolled her eyes and stayed where she was while waiting for them to finish up. She had no idea what time it was and that didn't really matter; it wasn't like they had anywhere to go or anything better to be doing, but she knew from the local church bell that they usually woke up around noon.

She didn't feel any self-pity about her life. It was all she really knew, having fled from her hateful aunt's house at just six years old. She never would have made it through that first year if Jason hadn't stumbled upon her. He was sober the day they'd met and at first tried to take her to the police, but even back then she was a sneaky little thing and had gotten away from him, only to follow him back to the house he was staying in at the time. It had annoyed him at first, but he couldn't bring himself to throw her out. She'd be picked up by traffickers or a sex ring before the night was over, and so he said she could stay for a night – one night! That hadn't worked out for him and without either of them saying anything they became something akin to family. He wasn't a particularly good big brother, but she was still alive and kicking. He taught her to steal for all those times he forgot to eat, and in turn forget to feed her. Over the years he taught her to read and write and even got her a bunch of revision guides each year. It wasn't a school education, but at least she wasn't completely ignorant. Sometimes when he was high he'd spout poetry or long monologues for hours at a time and Harry thought he must have gone to a very good school once upon a time.

Jason had a brother called Harry, which is why nobody ever called her by her name – they said it was too confusing, and so even after he'd overdosed two years ago everyone called her half-pint. Some of the newer additions to their group, like Sean, didn't know her real name at all.

Eventually she heard cigarettes being lit and rolled over, pushing herself up with a groan. Everything ached. Her jaw was tight and swollen, her lip and mouth stung something rotten and she had a black eye if the tender and sore touch was anything to go by. Strangely though her ribs hurt the most and she couldn't remember banging them last night.

Jason got up too, hopefully to find food. Harry was hungry, which probably meant she hadn't eaten for a day or so.

"Oh, what happened to you?" Donna asked when she saw the state Harry was in. She just shook her head and repeated her explanation from last night, knowing the twenty two year old couldn't remember a thing. "Come on then huni," Donna waved her over. "Let's have a look at you."

Harry settled herself onto the mattress beside the blonde. Donna's hair might once have been golden, but now it was always dull and dirty and had faded along with the light in her eyes.

"Gimme, gimme." Harry made a scissoring motion with her fingers and Donna handed over her half smoked cigarette whilst checking the young girl for any serious injuries. Her ribs were bruised but not broken.

"Heads up!" Harry turned and thanked her quick reflexes when she caught the large bag of Doritos before he hit her face.

"Gee, thanks Jay!" She scowled. He came closer and cast a look to Donna.

"She ok?" He asked, hissing in pain when Harry punched him in the shin.

"I'm fine, I told you. Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" She tried to sound offended, but it didn't quite work when she'd already started munching away.

"Cool down, half-pint. Here." He dropped a heavy envelope onto her lap. "Have you spoken to anyone lately? Told anyone where you live?"

"Of course not!" She defended. It seemed that someone knew where she lived though. The letter was addressed to Harry Potter, Second Floor, Carlton House, Harry snorted: Carlton House! Such a nice name for a dilapidated old factory.

"Well," Jason didn't quite believe her but let it go, "I found that downstairs, and apparently there's been a few of them before, but they all got used up for papers and such. Pete was mumbling something about owls." He added with a laugh. "Crazy old drunk."

"Weird." Was all Harry said before stuffing the letter into her jeans. She got up to change into a new top before telling the others that she was heading to the homeless shelter to take a shower.

It was only after she'd washed off all the blood and grime and was sitting in the shelter guzzling the free water that she remembered the letter.

Her heart dropped slightly when she opened it to find it was just a joke. She never let herself hope, but getting a letter, just for her, was nice. It really was very curious though. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to pull this off and she couldn't think of anyone who would waste money on something like that. It must have been one of her friends though. Once when in the height of a drug trip, Sean had sworn he'd seen a sleeping Harry hovering over the bed and she'd accidently used her powers in front of them a few times. It was never anything overly impressive. One time a chair had slid in front of a very withdrawing and angry Jason, blocking his path so she could get away. Another time she'd fallen onto a used needle, but there was never any wound. Still, they all made a big deal about her, saying she was a witch or something. She didn't tell them about the other times she'd used it – they would just think she was crazy or a freak like her family did, and she didn't want that. These people were all she had to keep her relatively safe. It wasn't a healthy situation by any stretch of imagination, but they looked out for each other, went searching if someone didn't come home at night, watched over each other when they sold themselves for cash or drugs and always made sure to get them medical help if it was needed. And they protected Harry from other addicts and made sure no one ever touched her.

She walked around London for a few hours, stole a pie and thought about going to the library before thinking better of it and heading home.

By the time she reached Carlton House it was getting dark, and she paused at the sight of a huge scraggly man standing in front of the building. She assumed he was looking for somewhere to crash for the night, but she never trusted strangers.

When it became apparent that he wasn't going anywhere she tried to quietly sneak past.

"'Ey, ey, little girl." He called out. She winced but, keeping her distance, turned to face him. "I'm looking for Carlton House."

"This is Carlton House."

"No," He shook his head as if trying to convince himself. "No, that can't be right. I'm after 'Arry Potter. Do you know her?" For a moment she froze. Why would anyone be looking for her? How did they find her?

"What do you want with Harry?" She asked, suspicion clear in her voice. The large man held up his hands in defence and to show he had no ill intentions.

"I've been sent by a school she's been accepted to." She frowned at the lie. If this guy worked at a school, it couldn't be a very good one. What bothered her most though was that someone had obviously put the man up to this, and it made her nervous that someone was going to so much trouble to mess with her. She hoped it was just one of their group, that they were hiding in the bushes somewhere laughing. She hoped, but that didn't feel right.

"I know Harry." She declared in a strong, but pleasant voice. "She told me that if a giant ever came looking for her, I should ask him to go back up the beanstalk and that she'd return the gold just as soon as she could."

"Ey?" The man wasn't a bit offended, just very confused and that 'off' feeling she had grew. He didn't seem to be messing around at all.

"Piss off!" She cried, quickly making her way towards the front door. "I don't want to know, I don't need a school, and if you don't leave I'll call the filth!"

Hagrid watched in shock as the little girl disappeared behind the metal plate. What was going on here?!

Ok, so the first chapter of a new story…

Bit more of a kickass Harry than the innocent(ish) DTTH version lol. Hope you enjoyed! Next will be Snape's turn to retrieve Harry.