It had all started, as Harry would recall in the later stages of his life, from one particular session of Dudley's favorite game of "Harry Hunting".

Harry had been hiding in the alley, desperately attempting to calm his thundering heart to just shut the hell up lest Dudley hear it and give him another chase. It was then that he had first seen the man.

The first thing Harry had noted about him was that he was awfully filthy. Dirt was on his already torn clothes which were shoddily fixed by clumsy patches, his hair was all dirty from not showering for many days. He was old too. Whitish hair and wrinkles on his face being the two signs that Harry had quickly picked up. Apart from that, the man wasn't really that remarkable. However, a thing about the man that finalized it for Harry that the man indeed belonged to that "sort", which Aunt Petunia constantly talked about, was that he was reeking of alcohol.

Not that Harry, aged eight, would even know about alcohol. It was just that Aunt Petunia would always threaten him to give him away to that "sort" of man whenever the two of them encountered one with the same smell. The fact that Uncle Vernon often smelled of the same only made it more confusing. One thing was for sure though, there was wisdom in avoiding any person who even remotely smelled like his Uncle Vernon. And Harry would have avoided the man… if not for his precarious position.

The man walked towards the spot where Harry was hiding. A sudden jolt of fear instantly heightened Harry's recently calmed heartbeats and for a moment, he worried that his heart really was coming out of his chest.

"Come out boy," the man said in a slurred voice. There was also something else there. He sounded like Aunt Petunia in what his Uncle Vernon said her "those days". Growing up, Harry would later identify it as irritation.

Harry was a brave boy but the fact that the man was between him and the exit of the alley had unnerved him, not to mention that he was still but a child. Thus, a very meek Harry emerged a second later from the small hideout that he had taken shelter in.

He stood in front of the man and began fidgeting, his heart still thundering in his chest.

"What're you waiting for you brat? Go away.. Shoo!" The man made motion and opened up a small path for him. Feeling almost delightful, Harry hurriedly scurried away from there and broke into a run without glancing backward even once. He would never go to that place if he could help it.

But of course, he couldn't help it. Because, as soon as he had made that decision, he had immediately spotted Dudley and his gang who had apparently still been searching for him. Forgetting the encounter that he had had only a few minutes ago, Harry dashed for the same alley only to find a scene much more frightening than he had ever seen in his six year old life.

A youth who he knew to be a "punk" – according to Uncle Vernon's running commentary on that soap that came every Saturday on the telly – was holding the old man, who was lying on the ground, on knife and was muttering something unintelligible. Harry sneaked towards the old man and could make out the words of the punk.

"I swear to god old man, I will fucking kill you! Just give me the damn money! I know you drink you fucking hobo, give me a fiver or I'll really kill you, you fucking piece of shit!"

Feeling oddly brave, Harry crept behind the punk very very slowly. His once thundering heartbeat had oddly calmed down and only one thing was playing across his mind: he had to save the old man. He didn't know how, he didn't even know why but he just had to save him.

By pure luck, a discarded baseball bat happened to be lying on the ground near Harry, who sneakily picked it up, managing to not make any sound at all. He could still hear the punk berating the old man,

"Stop ignoring me you cunt! Get up!"

The punk, finally reaching the end of his patience, swung the knife towards the old man to stab him dead.. only to be interrupted as he felt an uncomfortable pain on his back. Turning back to look on the source of his discomfort, he found a small brat standing there with a baseball bat staring at him defiantly.

"Leave him alone!" Harry said!

"Why you!" the punk screamed and lunged at him. Harry, not feeling so brave now, closed his eyes instinctively and waited for a pain that never came… a moment later, he heard a thud and opened his eyes only to see the punk lying flat on the ground and the old man, now conscious, standing over him looking at him with mild curiosity.

"Why'd you do that boy?" The old man asked him.

"W-What?"

"Why did you hit him?" he clarified.

"He was going to hurt you! I wasn't going to let that happen!" Harry said defiantly.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Harry snapped at him.

"Why weren't you going to let that happen?" the man clarified again.

"Well it's wrong innit? I shouldn't let somebody get hurt if I can," Harry said as if it was the most natural thing to say to anybody.

He was irritated that the man was asking him so many questions. In his irritation, he had forgotten about his earlier apprehension towards the man.

The man looked oddly contemplative for a second, then said in a gruff tone.

"Don't bother me next time kid.. now go away, shoo!"

With that, Harry moved out from the alley, hoping not to run into Dudley again and silently cursing the man for being so rude.

One year later

Harry had almost forgotten the man, in fact, a day or two and all memories of the man would have been gone from his head. But it was not so.

Dudley and his gang had, for some odd reasons, vandalized the school's bathroom. As usual, the blame had fallen to Harry which was unfair as he was locked up in a different bathroom at that time by none other than Dudley himself. Nevertheless, Harry ended up with the blame and was subsequently punished by the teacher to aid the man who the school had called to fix the bathroom.

Yes, the man was the same old man that Harry had met a year back. However, the man never made any move to acknowledge that he had ever met Harry before. Thus, Harry mimicked the same and lingered around the man to pass him some of the tools that the man would ask for. He kept fumbling though, and kept handing the wrong tools to the man which wasn't his fault really seeing as he didn't really know the name of the tools. But it annoyed the man all the same and he dismissed Harry an hour before his intended detention.

Harry was glad that he was spared early or Aunt Petunia would have yelled at him again. That joy didn't last long. As they say, misfortune comes in a package. The day was not yet complete and Harry's share of misfortune was only just beginning. Dudley (again) and his gang had been waiting for him to come and once he was on their sight, they began a chase.

Harry ran desperately, as he always did, but a second group had been lying in wait for him in front (Dudley had apparently seen that tactic on one of his video games). Seeing that they were about to catch him, Harry began praying intensely for whoever was listening to not let him get caught. The world suddenly spun about him and Harry found himself on top of the school terrace.

He let out a breathe of relief at first, on being away from Dudley and his gang, followed by a shriek of terror as he comprehended where exactly he had wound up. It didn't took him too long to calm down, brave that he was, but calming down didn't seem to help when it came to getting down from the top of the school building where there was no stairs or ladder on hand.

So Harry did what a sensible kid would do. He attempted to climb down from the terrace, instead of waiting for an adult to come by. After all, who needs an adult when you can just hang down from the ledges and swing yourself to one of the classroom through an open window?

Naturally, the plan didn't quite go so well. He slipped in the process of hanging down and began to fall to the ground, a shriek following his descent. Never had Harry felt so much terror in his entire life! That was why when he found himself down on the ground, completely unharmed, he was utterly perplexed.

Before he could convince himself that he had indeed survived and the world he was seeing was not his afterlife, a flash of someone turning around the corner caught his eyes. Harry sprinted around the corner to see… nothing which was weird because he was sure that he felt someone catching him in midair and descending him safely to the ground, which of course, couldn't really happen seeing as no person alive could leap so high.

For now though, he was safe… well, not entirely considering that Dudley and his gang were still searching for him. Nevertheless, the package of misfortune had exhausted itself for the day and all was well. Now only if Aunt Petunia not shout at him for being late..

A month later, Harry found himself running again. A passerby or two commented something like "wannabe marathon runner," or something else, he wasn't entirely sure, which was as far away from the truth as was Aunt Petunia's food from being delicious. No, Harry Potter was not running away to train to bag a gold medal in Olympics. He was running because Dudley and his gang were at his tail… again.

While Dudley didn't really need a reason to give him a chase, this time there was one. Uncle Vernon had brought a DVD home called "The Karate Kid" due to Dudley's whining about it. Dudley apparently had Piers tell him that his brothers and other cool kids were talking about that Miyagi man from the Karate Kid and Dudley too had wanted to talk about the old man. Which, of course, meant that he had to watch the movie first. Hence the DVD.

Now Dudley watched the movie for the entire length of ten minutes until he realized that his favorite series was on the Telly. He rushed out the room and incidentally, left the DVD open. Harry, whom Aunt Petunia had ordered to clean Dudley's room, then entered the room to find the DVD open and ended up watching the entire movie!

Dudley then entered the room just when the movie was ending (talk about timing!) and Harry, who had known about cool kids watching "The Karate Kid" couldn't restrain himself from taunting him. Later he would realize that taunting "I watched the movie! I know about Miyagi and you don't Dud!" wasn't the wisest move of the year. At least he got to see Dudley's face get the same purple shade as his Uncle Vernon's. Totally worth it!

Which brings us back to Harry running away from Dudley and his gang.

Harry now had a respectable distance from the Harry hunting party — which essentially meant that he would have Dudley easily distracted by the time he closed the gap. Thus, he had stopped to catch his breath. It was then that he witnessed an amazing sight.

An old man, who he readily recognized as the same old man he had encountered the two times and who looked suspiciously like Mr. Miyagi, dropped.. from.. the.. fudging.. sky! Harry rubbed his eyes twice, in fact he even pinched himself, hard, to confirm that he was not dreaming and that he really had witnessed a man drop from the sky and inside the alley!

Bravery or curiosity or something else Harry knew not, prompted him to go inside the same alley that he had his first encounter with the old man. He had expected to find a dead body, possibly squashed (as Uncle Vernon had mentioned what happens to those who do not behave and are thus flung from the Big Ben) but he was much surprised (and a bit disappointed) to find that the man was lying on the ground and snoring but was not dead!

Again, Harry knew not what it was but it prompted him to go in front of the lying man and shake him awake. And then shake him again once he did not react at all! And then again. For an entire hour he shook the man before the man regained his awareness. Needless to say, he wasn't happy at all!

"Stop manhandling me you infernal.. oh it's you," said the old man in a groggy voice.

"Yes. Excuse me, but did you fall from the sky?" Harry asked, unable to restrain his curiosity.

"Go the fuck away kid. I haven't slept enough," the man then proceeded to drop on the ground as if he were dead.

Additional fifteen minutes worth of shaking him awake later, the man woke up again and practically yelled at him.

"What's the problem with you kid!? Can't stand a sleeping man? Next time I will just let you fall down. Ungrateful brat!"

The man was drunk enough to not control what he had just said. It was only after a spell of silence surrounded the two, that he realized the impact of his words. He looked visibly guilty and tried to soothe the situation,

"Listen kid, I didn't really mean that okay? I mean, you are a bother and all but.. what I mean is.."

"It was you!" Harry exclaimed!

"Yes, yes, I didn't really mean to say... What?" the man snapped up from his reverie.

"It was you who saved me!" Harry cried out loud.

"I don't know what you are talking about," the old man said.

"Back when I was stuck at the school terrace and then I slipped up, it was you who caught me! You saved my life!"

"Fat lot of good that did me," he muttered. But he had underestimated the loudness that came with silence of the alley and a keen kid who was hanging on your word.

"It WAS you! Oh my god, thank you so much sir! And you can fly too! That explains everything! You are superman! Oh no, wait, you are Mr. Miyagi. No, Mr. Miyagi was kinda short and a little round too, and he's a telly character, Uncle Vernon says that telly characters aren't supposed to be real. Who are you?" Harry asked, catching his breath.

The old man let out a sigh and looked as if he was internally cursing the stars for bringing this bundle of joy to his doorsteps (alleysteps).

"Look, kid. It's not that I don't like you even though I do not, in fact, like you but you are not supposed to know that. I did save your life, yes, but what I am saying is, you just forget what you saw today and then I'll forget that I saved your life and then we'll call it even. What do you say?"

"But I can't! You saved me from falling from that terrace and that woman on the telly said that you simply cannot forget those who save your life. Does that mean that I have to date you? Which is fine by me but I don't really know what date means."

The man let out a huge sigh. This problem at his hands was not going away apparently..

"Just.. Just go away kid.. and you don't need to date me. I don't really need cops on my alley right now."

"Okay sir, I'll be back though!" said Harry cheerfully.

"Fine with me kid!" the man too waved in a fake cheer. After Harry turned the corner, he heard something that sounded suspiciously like, "Time to go away."