The Cupboard Series 3: Potter Haven

Chapter 3

No one paid any attention to the boy lying on the bench in the middle of the park. After all, it wasn't as though there weren't dozens of others utilizing the park at the same time. It was a popular place for lunch – not too far from a half-dozen blocks of offices and within short walking distance from a small mall. Many hundreds of people visited this place every week and, while it wasn't usual to see a teen there, the school holidays had arrived and more young people were out and about than there usually were.

At that moment, the boy in question was asleep, something that he hadn't done in close to thirty hours. There had been moments when his head had drooped, but a five second or so micro-nap is never going to be enough to sustain anyone.

Those who noted the boy at all saw a skinny boy with a shocking head of messy black hair. If the eyes behind the old, round spectacles had been open, they would have been mesmerised by his vivid green eyes that had enchanted more girls than the boy had ever realised. The most striking feature of the boy, though, was only visible on the odd occasion that the wind ruffled his hair enough to expose it. A red scar in the shape of a lightning bolt stood proudly on his forehead, still looking as fresh as the day that it was made over eleven years previously.

Both the boy's arms and feet were crossed as he slept. His clothes, a pair of long dark grey cargo pants and a dark green T-shirt were rumpled as though he'd been wearing them for the last couple of days. Little did people realise that they were correct. For this was no ordinary boy, this happened to be one of the most wanted individuals in the whole of Great Britain.

Not that Harry Potter, for that was the boy's name, knew this at that time.

Certainly, Harry knew that people would be looking for him. Just as certainly, he knew that he didn't want to be found. Not after what he'd done. For he was no ordinary person. No, Harry Potter was a wizard. A wizard that had recently caused one of the most powerful wizards in the country if not the world, and incidentally his own Headmaster, to fly through the air into a concrete pillar. Harry was sure that Dumbledore would have been injured badly. And to top it off, that was his third offence at breaching the Decree for Underage Wizardry.

Not that he believed that any of those times were truly his fault. One was made by a house elf; the other two were clearly cases of accidental magic, something that he couldn't control. But in the wizarding world, three strikes and you were out.

That was why, even as he slept, Harry had one hand tightly wrapped around his wand. He had absolutely no intention of being caught or going quietly. He didn't want his wand snapped or his magic bound. The third penalty, that of being expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had surely already happened and there was nothing that he could do about that.

Oddly enough, he'd actually planned for this strange turn of events. But then, his life was never like an ordinary person's, so it paid to be prepared.

An incessant beep of his watch snapped Harry's eyes open. With a jolt, he sat up and peered around him and behind him, assessing each and every person that he could see. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he relaxed slightly. Slowly, stealthily, he slipped his wand back into the dragon-hide holster on his wrist and made sure that it was disillusioned.

Glancing at his watch, Harry nodded and stood. By now, his new glasses should be ready.

Getting to his feet, he began to make his way back towards the mall that he'd stumbled across only that morning.

Initially, when Harry had run from King's Cross Station the afternoon before, his only thought had been to disappear into muggle London. Wizards, he knew, rarely ventured away from their own world and outside in the crowds was his best bet at getting lost. He'd randomly taken street after street, always changing direction, always aiming to make it infinitely harder for any pursuit to find him.