Harry Potter was not known as the Boy-Who-Lived or even widely known. The night of Halloween, 1981 his parents had been out at an emergency Order meeting and had left him in the care of a babysitter. They had returned after a neighbor had called slightly concerned about the smoke coming out of their home, they had rushed to Godric's Hollow only to discover that their young son was assumed dead and the babysitter definitely dead. They were unaware that Voldemort had come to the house to kill Harry and failed, they also didn't know that a well meaning person assuming that the very much alive baby was now an orphan had removed him from the wreckage.

James and Lily Potter erected a grave for their young son and joined the rest of the Wizarding World in rejoicing over Voldemort disappearing and leaving them in peace, but they never forgot that Harry's body had never been found and that their son might be out there. They like most parents that are forced with accepting the death of a child, refused to give up hope that he could be alive.

The well meaning person, let's call them Bob, had taken Harry to a London orphanage and left him in the care of the Matron. His first name had been embroidered on the blanket and they made up a last name, thus Harry Johnson was born. Harry Johnson grew up not knowing his parents or eventual siblings, not knowing that after that last night as Harry Potter Voldemort was never seen again and peace descended on the world he was forced to leave behind.

Harry and life at The London's Children Ward didn't mix very well. There were tough chores everyday and all the children were schooled within the Ward so they never met the children who were know as living on the "outside". When ever a hopeful couple would come to look at children however everything was tidied up and the children allowed to play outside and around the Ward itself. Harry was also singled out as the 'weird kid', funny accidents happened around him and the other kids steered clear. The Matron, well it was obvious why she never had her own children. She wasn't exactly motherly, in fact she seemed to have a satanic bent.

Harry was not allowed to be adopted by orders of Bob; he had to live at the Ward until his 18th birthday and then he would be free to go. Though honestly, not many people wanted to adopt the freaky kid anyway. It wasn't Harry's fault of course, but whenever a family so much as hinted that they wanted him something would happen that would convince them otherwise.

Harry was 6 when Charles or Chaz as he liked to be called showed up. Chaz had also been abandoned by his parents, as Harry was told had also happened to him. They cited strange happenings as their reason and the Ward never asked questions. Chaz and Harry became fast friends, bonded over their apparent strangeness and that no one wanted them as children. Harry was once interviewed by a reporter about being an orphan, when the man had asked how long Harry had been there Harry replied down to the day the time spent here. The man had been surprised and then saddened by the lack of hope in many of these children. When the article had come out though many people where unsympathetic and said these children deserved it. Harry accepted that and moved on, but the article was not noticed by only Muggles and Bob knew again that Harry still remembered nothing, as was the point.

When Chaz and Harry were 11 they began to plot their escape. They never dreamed it would ever actually be possible to escape but it was amusing to talk about it anyway. It was one of the dreams that the children of the Ward often harbored, that there was a chance of escape. They also dreamed of one day so distant relative that wanted them would appear and make unicorns and rainbows appear. Naturally, all the children realized that they were stupid dreams.

Then the day came, some rich man in order to appear more loving, had given the Ward a bundle of money to take the children out for the day. So on September 1st 1992 Harry and Chaz joined the long line of children waiting to go to the museum. They had to board a train at Kings Cross Station and then get off in the heart of London to reach the museum; in the huge crowd at Kings Cross it was easy to lose one child. Or two.

Harry and Chaz saw their chance as a huge group of redheaded people ran though their line and blocked the Matron's view of them. They took off running and Harry slammed by accident into the redheaded girl and knocked a book out of her possession. Harry kicked the book away without realizing it and kept running.

Harry and Chaz kept running until them were about mile from the station. That's when they stopped and took stock of what they had. They couldn't believe that they had actually done it. It was like that old movie that they had once seen, Escape from Alcatraz.

"Well Chaz we are free, and homeless and without any money. So what next?" Harry glanced around him at all the tall buildings and the rush of parents shoving themselves and children toward the station that they had just escaped. He couldn't help, but see that there were owls. Which was odd.

"Well mate I feel that we need to find a job of sorts and a place to stay, or else we'll end up where we started." Chaz began to remove the uniform tie and mess up his hair, he hated having to polish himself up so that the Matron would look good.

As the 2 boys stood on the street and thought out their next move, because honestly they hadn't thought any of this out past the whole getting away part. That is when Joseph Armstrong, known as Fingers to his friends and the police, saw them. He assessed them in his mind, 2 small boys, light it looked like and with some muscle build that could be useful in the future. And they wore the distinctive uniform of the Ward in central London which meant that there would be no parents looking for them, they were perfect.

Fingers walked up to Chaz and Harry and smiled warmly at them.

"So my young friends what has you in the city this fine day?"

Chaz and Harry looked at one another and shrugged, what harm could it do to answer the question?

"We kinda ran away from our home," Chaz said with a small smile, "And we have no intention of returning." He finished fiercely.

"Well that's fine because I have no intention of returning you. Come let us talk of the possibilities this will open up for us. By the way call me Fingers okay, real names aren't important."

Fingers was involved in several small schemes and his biggest wish was to enter into a larger scheme. Fingers was a pickpocket and a successful one, unfortunately he wanted to be a car jacker and had a terrible memory. You needed a good memory to be able to jack the right cars, you jacked them because someone else wanted them and you needed to remember which one it was they wanted. Fingers was hoping that these 2 kids would be his ticket to the car jacking world, they would jack the cars and he would pick the pockets to feed them when there weren't any customers for a new car. Harry and Chaz had unknowingly stepped into the world of crime, running and hard times.

"So boys would you be interested in joining me and my gang?" Fingers asked as he sat on the bench nearby and spread his arms over the back.

"Well, what would we have to do?" Chaz asked, looking at Fingers carefully. Harry said nothing just watched Fingers face, he had become good at knowing when people were lying. All the adults that he had ever known has lied to him. Generally they said that someone would love him and adopt him, and that he wasn't a freak.

"Nothing at the moment, but as soon as you two get trained up you'll be, to put it quite frankly, stealing cars." Fingers wanted it all on the line, he didn't want these two kids backing out, trying to say they didn't know what they were getting into. They were going to know exactly, there was no walking away from Fingers.

The two boys merely looked at each other and seemed to communicate without speaking. Harry wasn't sure, it would keep them from resorting to other ideas to survive and Fingers seemed like an okay guy.

Chaz, like Harry, was straddling the fence. Before his parents hadn't wanted him anymore they had drilled into his head that stealing was bad and he would go to hell for it. But he also saw that this could be the best choice they would get.

Harry spoke up, "Okay, but what are the rules and the unspoken but?"

Harry had read a lot at the Ward, it was the one thing they wouldn't get mad at him about. So he learned a lot and remembered all or most of it. He knew there had to be conditions.

"Well first off my name is Fingers and you two need new names. That way if you are ever caught by the police you can't say my real name because you don't know it. So don't tell me your names, and walk with me and meet the rest of the gang. They can be either your family or your worst enemies so don't cross them alright."

Fingers led them along an alley and stopped at a brown door. He raised his hand and pounded above the knocker that was in the shape of a pair of handcuffs. He noticed Harry and Chaz's raised eyebrows, "It's to remind us of what we are running from every time we enter these doors."

They shrugged and followed him inside. A small group of teenagers sat around a T.V. and shouted at a football match that was playing.

"Hey guys, we have new friends to welcome into the fold," Fingers shouted over the people yelling in excitement and disappointment.

Immediately everyone turned around and pinned their sight on the two boys.

"Who are they?" a girl with light blond hair asked.

"Um well the one with glasses can be Specs and the other one doesn't have a name yet." Finger crossed his arms and looked at Chaz with a considering frown.

"Specs?" Harry asked, he hated his glasses and would prefer not to go by them. It was just one more thing that people could use to make fun of him, and they did.

"Yeah kid, so get used to it because I like it okay. Hey, other kid do you run fast?"

"Yeah," Chaz shrugged and looked embarrassed which only increased when Harry snorted.

"'Yeah?' mate, you run really fast, I have trouble keeping up with you." Harry shook his head over his friend's modesty.

"Well good," the blond spoke up again, "you can be Swifty."

She stood up and walked over to them, "I'm Bets by the way." She shook both their hands and stood back to let more people introduce themselves.

A young boy about their age or a little younger stepped forward first, "Hi I'm Tales and I provide the alibis." He smiled shyly and let himself be pushed back. He was too young to actively be in the streets, but he could make the female cops cry every time with his sob stories.

An older boy stepped forward with sandy brown hair, almost like Chaz's but darker, came up next. "Yo, I'm Dutchy and I help Fingers with the rush hour crowd at the Underground." He smiled at his little joke and flexed his muscles to show off a little.

The last person to step forward was another girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens. "Dusty" was all she said before she leaned against a wall and watched them like a hawk.

And thus Harry and Chaz, now Specs and Swifty, joined the gang of street kids known as the Bandits.

&()(+

5 years had passed since Harry and Chaz left their old lives behind…again. They had become well known and wanted car jackers with several warrants out for their arrest. The police had never caught wind the "hardened criminals" they were after and the two teenaged boys they saw around were one and the same.

They had both become the masters of disguise. They could wear a red ball cap stealing the car and then when running if need be ditch the blue jacket and switch the ball cap for a newsboy cap because the cops never looked at faces, but the clothing the person wore. They also could blend easily in large crowds still being slight for their age. They had never really had a chance to catch up on the last calories when they joined the Bandits. There had been several series of hard times, and less food was one of the first coping methods.

Some things never change however, some of those things were their friendship and their innate distrust of parents. Harry and Chaz both hated the mere thought of their parents, something that is and was encouraged by Fingers who didn't want to lose his best. Bets had adopted a mother persona over the two boys, she made sure they ate, washed, and learned something from the school books Dusty always had. Harry and Chaz always complained about this in public but rather enjoyed it secretly. She also bullied them into actually attending school when they were busy. It had gotten to a point where she would pick them up and drop them off. Harry and Chaz explained it saying that Bets was actually their real mother, but community pressure had kept her from being more in their lives until now.

Currently though, they were running for their freedom though a small town right outside London, Harry and Chaz had been told to pick up a red Jaguar that was a 1996 model. The owner lived in the town they were currently racing though, they had attempted to steal it before he woke up, but they got hung up. After dealing with what had held them back they decided to get it during his lunch break at a café. In the midst of breaking the lock a young fresh faced rookie cop had spotted them and given chase. Harry and Chaz were running thought the overly crowded public square of Godric's Hallow; they spotted a popular lunch spot and ran inside to pretend they were innocently eating.

A large redheaded family, that looked vaguely familiar to Harry, was sitting there along several darker haired people and they seemed to be celebrating something. They threw themselves into chairs and smiled as the waitress came over to take their order.

"Hello welcome to the Wizard's Brew. Did you guys have a Happy Halloween?"

Harry thought back to yesterday which involved stealing a mint condition Rolls Royce and giving it to their demander and making a sweet bundle to tide them over.

"Yeah it was productive, you?"

"It was nice though it meant getting ready for this huge lot, who come in every year." She gestured over her shoulder and the large table he had noticed earlier. "Anyways, what can I get you boys?"

"Let us have a think please, just got in." Chaz flashed his best smile and she smiled back, nodded and let them be. Chaz has this ability to completely throw women for a loop with just a look. An ability that he totally abused.

'Alright mate, your back's to the room and mine is to the wall, I'll watch the door and you watch the kitchen entrance." They had already learned the value of keeping a complete eye on their surroundings. They had seen the Matron and assorted others over the years, and would prefer not to get caught now.

"Whatever you say Swift, hey do those people look familiar to you?" He gestured to the crowd behind him.

Chaz glanced over Harry's head, "Kinda, maybe they live near us. Hey did Bets mention that guy she saw hanging outside the house?"

Some might have called Chaz a little paranoid, but Harry nodded and quickly scanned the surrounding tables and the kitchen door. He was glad their table was blocked by the large party from the front; it would make spotting them harder. They both knew that there were warrants out for them and they needed to be careful. The cops might not have known that it was them, but if they were guilty of one crime they might be guilty of others.

Chaz and Harry continued to chat about their friends and the recent events in their lives. Dutchy had heard from his family after 6 years of nothing and was considering talking back to them, naturally Chaz and Harry didn't agree. Dutchy was from a rather wealthy family and had be outcast because of the actions of his mother. His older brother that was supposed to take over recently died and the family needed a new heir.

&(&

Alastor Moody had noticed the two boys come in because their faces were blocked by hats and he thought it odd that they didn't remove them, like the other young men in the restaurant. He also noticed that they chose a table and sat so that no one would be able to sneak up on them and they were keeping watch. It tickled his curiosity enough that he was watching them and wanted more input.

He leaned over and tapped on one Sirius Black's shoulder, as a fellow Auror he felt that Sirius had noticed as well and was could prove that he wasn't being paranoid.

"Sirius, do you see those two boys in the corner?" Moody pointed and saw Sirius nod and then frown as he noticed how they were acting.

"Why does it seem like they don't want to be noticed?" Sirius leaned forward and squinted, "One of then looks familiar but I can't place it. What do you think, he just turned back around, but it's the one with the blue cap that has his back to us."

Moody attempted to fix his blue eye on him but was interrupted by the Muggle police burst into the restaurant.

"There they are!" A younger one pointed at the two boys. Whose reaction was to leap from their chairs and rush toward the kitchen, throwing chairs and tables into the path of the police. One managed to catch the sandy haired boy around the waist. The ball caped boy turned around to help him but he yelled, "NO! RUN Harry like we did 5 years ago and RUN!!"

James Potter snapped his head around and asked "Did he say Harry?" He and Lily were always on the look out for young boys named Harry. It had been awkward when the young prince had been named. James watched the boy dash out the kitchen door and lose his hat revealing untidy black hair that reminded him of his own.

James narrowed his eyes and Lily, who had heard what he said as they were all paying attention to the struggle by the police to handcuff the other boy, said, "We need that teenager."

The former Order of the Phoenix all turned their eyes toward the teenager and started planning how they would manage to steal him from the Muggles.