Allyssa Rose
Harry suddenly felt very cold. As if he was being hit with a cold wind.
He opened his tearful eyes and looked around. He wasn't in his room anymore.
He was sat on a deserted, cold, dark street. The Invisibility cloak still over his small body and his red backpack still in his grip tightly. Harry cautiously stood up and pulled the cloak off his small frame, he held it in his arms.
"Where am I?" Harry asked to the thin air. He naturally got no response.
He opened his bag and shoved his cloak inside. He felt lost. He was lost!
He was in the middle of an empty street.
The street was dim, the shops that lined the street had no lights on, only some of the signs were visible thanks to the moonlight.
Slowly, Harry walked down the street, his hands clasping onto his red bag tightly, the only sound was the eerie noise of the wind howling. The cold night air made Harry shiver. As he walked down the street he saw that the street seemed to go on forever. He couldn't see anyone at all, he couldn't see his parents or brother.
"Mother? Father?" He called with a lot of worry evident in his voice.
But they weren't here.
Harry began to run around the street looking for someone- ANYONE. But he was truly alone again.
Tears streamed down his face as he slumped down onto a doorstep under the sign 'Ollivanders: Makers of fine wands since 382 BC' and sobbed into his hands. He was lost! He was alone! He was...
"Are you alright lad?" Said a kind voice with a hint of an accent.
Harry looked up from his hands, his emerald eyes still full of tears behind his cheap glasses. It was a woman, she was knelt in front of him with a bag in hand.
She was a very beautiful woman. She had golden strawberry blonde hair which was tied in a pony tail with only two side strands of hair that feathered around her face beautifully. She also had water blue eyes that gazed at Harry with concern. She may've been older than his mother, but Harry couldn't tell.
"I don't know," he answered truthfully.
The woman placed the bag down, it made a click, like glass, as it was placed down. "Why are you here?" she asked calmly.
"I don't know," Harry cried a little.
She seemed confused, then asked "how did you get here?"
"I don't know!"
"Okay... okay" She stood back up. She was a good 5'9 or 5'10. She stood in silence for a while, watching the sad child. She offered him a comforting smile. He smiled back, his eyes lighting up with the action. She got back on his level to give him some comfort, still smiling at him, and asked "What's your name?"
"Harry James Potter," He answered without missing a beat.
She was even more confused "Harry James Potter?" She checked. He nodded firmly. "Are you related to James and Lily Potter?" she asked.
"Yes they're my parents," he answered, sounding very mature.
The woman was shocked! She'd read very article on the Potters and had never found anything that said they had another son. "Is Colin Potter your older brother?"
"Yes," Harry answered "By seventeen minutes."
The woman was even more shocked, she was stunned! "Do they know where you are?" she asked, trying to be sensible.
"They never know where I am," Harry answered gloomy.
The woman began to understand why she had never heard about this boy before. "It's very dangerous being out here by yourself." Harry nodded with a frown. "Are you hungry?" Harry's eyes widened at the thought of food, he hadn't realised how hungry he was! He nodded. "How about I take you for something to eat?"
Harry smiled at the kind stranger. "Yes please Miss...."
She stood up "Allyssa Rose of the noble and Ancient house of Rose," She tutted the noble and ancient. She was clearly not a typical pure blood type of wizarding woman. "You can just call me Allyssa," She offered her hand for Harry to shake.
Harry stood up, grinning. He shook Allyssa's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise! Now come on, I'm dying for a baked potato!" She laughed.
Harry liked her, especially when she smiled, she felt so..... warm. Very warm, better than his mother had ever been.
Allyssa led Harry by the hand into a pub but he didn't feel particularly happy about taking a boy into a pub with drunken individuals. Most people in the pub would be drunk at this time, so she came up with a plan.
She led him past the drunks and over to the bar, keeping him in front of her at all times.
"Tom?" She called.
Harry watched as a toothless pale man with came over to them with a gummy grin. "Miss Rose, what do you want?"
"I want a baked potato with a drink of butterbeer and a..." She looked at Harry. He shrugged back. "A chicken soup with a butter beer. I also want a room with two beds please"
Tom leaned forward, still grinning away, "Are you prepared to pay?"
Allyssa gave him a mischievous smirk, "Are you prepared to pay up?"
Tom's face dropped in panic, "I'll fetch a key!" He scrambled behind a door.
"Pay up?" he asked.
She looked down at him "He owes me quite a lot of money from last night's card game, which he can't pay!"
Tom returned a minute later, an old fashion key in his long hand. "Top floor, third on the left. Dinner will be up soon!" He handed her the key.
"Thank you, Tom. I appreciate it"
He smiled back and grinned at Harry in a way Harry hoped was friendly.
He held her hand tightly as they climbed the stairs to their room. Allyssa opened the door and let the boy inside. The room was fairly big with a desk in front of a window, two four poster beds with cream sheets and curtains, some shelves and a wardrobe, as well as a fireplace.
"Take a seat Harry."
Harry took a running start and jumped onto one of the beds, landing laid out comfortably on his stomach. This was the best birthday Harry had ever had. Wait-
"What time is it?"
"I'm not sure," she confessed.
Harry then remembered what Sirius had given him this morning. He grabbed his red bag from his back and rummaged through the bag for his pocket watch. It said 23:59. He was four!
"So, Harry" he snapped back to reality. "What's got you this far from home? Your parents must be so worried!"
"They won't be! They don't care about me!" Harry cried, banging his little fists on the bed to emphasis his point.
"Okay! Okay! Okay...I believe you..." She lied. "But surely they would be sad if they could never find you..." She corrected herself.
In reality, Allyssa really didn't want to believe that the Potters were as bad as this boy was emphasising. Allyssa had read every article on the Potters as she could find. She as good as worshipped them, just like every other wizarding family on earth.
They seemed like the most perfect wizarding family you could possibly find!
Both parents were proud members of The Order of the Phoenix, they had fought Voldemort many times, they'd even survived a full attack that, no doubt, intended to kill them! And they're son had vanished the dark lord! A baby, not even a year old, had defeated Voldemort!
Of course she admired them!
She'd never known that Colin had a twin. Never read an article about any Harry Potter.
But, she couldn't bring herself to say that this innocent little boy was a liar.
"They won't! They hate me! They didn't give me a birthday cake!"
"Sometimes parents don't-"
"But they gave Colin a cake the size of this bed! And I only got one birthday present from them!"
"I only got one present from my-"
"But they gave Colin about fifty! And mine wasn't even wrapped! And Colin is allowed to call them 'Mummy' and 'Daddy', but I have to call them 'Mother' and 'Father'! And Mother made me move out of my bedroom so Colin could have it as a play room! And Father told me I'm not special like Colin! And they take Colin on holiday and to festivals and never take me! And the only clothes I have to wear are Colin's old ones! And-and-"
Harry broke down and sobbed hard into the sheets of the bed.
He hadn't meant to cry, especially in front of the kind Miss Rose, but he couldn't control it. It was as if every pain, misery and disappointment that had been made over the last three years had come spilling out.
He spared a thought to his parents. How would they react when they found out he was gone? Harry supposed they would be more annoyed about the cloak.
He felt a comforting hand placed on his head, stroking his hair. He looked up from the sheet. Allyssa had crossed the distance between the two of them and had sat down next to him, comforting him. Harry hadn't realised how much he craved the comfort until tonight.
"Its alright, it'll be alright," she promised.
They stayed like that for awhile, until there was a knock at the door.
Harry sat up and wiped his eyes, coving the tear-wet sheet with a pillow.
It was dinner.
Moments later, Harry tucked into his chicken soup happily, still sat on the bed while Allyssa sat at the desk eating. The soup warmed Harry's stomach and sent wonderful tingles all over his arms, legs, body and even soul. He loved it.
After he finished, Harry asked "Miss Rose, can I sleep here tonight?"
Allyssa turned to him. "Please, Harry, call me Allyssa. And of course you can. They always have spare clothes in the wardrobe, grab some and get dressed."
Harry smiled thankfully. He got up and grabbed the clothes. He went into the bathroom and pulled off his robes and dressed into the more comfortable attire. He then went back to bed.
"Goodnight Miss R- Allyssa!"
Allyssa giggled. "Goodnight Harry!"
Harry closed the curtains of the bed and snuggled down. He was four years old now. When he woke up he had no one. Now he was going to sleep with two new friends.
Allyssa had a job to do. She opened the window and a lovely young barn owl flew inside.
"Samson, keep quiet!" She warned quietly. The owl took her warning and perched himself on the window shelf.
She pulled out a piece of parchment and some ink. She began to write:
To Lord and Lady Potter,
I have found your youngest child, Harry. I'm, unfortunately, too busy with business at home to take him back to Potter Manor. So, instead, I will be taking him to my own residence, Bouton De Rose Cottage, so you can collect him when you can.
With care from,
Allyssa Rose
Lady of the Noble and Ancient house of Rose
After making sure the letter didn't sound too nice or too rude, she sealed the later in an envelope with the Rose family symbol. She then gave the letter to Samson, who flew out the window, very excited.
*
"This place is beautiful, Allyssa!"
"Thank you kind sir, my great-great-great-great-grandfather made it very many years ago."
Bouton De Rose Cottage was a very large house, more like a mansion, that gave a remarkable resemblance to a fairy tale doll house. The cottage was very large, warm and gave a great feeling of being welcome. The house was made of red bricks and had a pearly white roof, with a door at the centre of the building and the windows had old fashioned white shutters. But the setting of the house added perfectly to the fairy tale theme. The setting was a woodland area in Yorkshire, the house was a little over a mile away from a muggle village, with children Harry's age. There was even a stream to the left side of the house that flowed all around the green woodland.
Harry adored it.
"Who lives here?" he asked.
"Just me and the animals. As well as Big Sam and Samson."
"Are they your children?"
"In a way," she smiled "Big Sam and Samson are barn owls. Lovely creatures. Now, come inside," she ushered him through the door.
The door led into a hallway, which was no where near as posh as Potter Manor, it was more relaxed and fashionable. There was a set of dark stairs, wooden and varnished. There was cream carpets and many doors in golden brown leading to other rooms. But Harry was gazing at the many portraits of wizards and witches all looking grand in golden frames.
His eyes then turned their attention to a large barn owl perched at the bottom stair post, gazing back at him, looking rather curious.
"That's Sam."
"Big Sam?"
"Yes," she said getting down to Harry's level.
"He's lovely" Harry said, smiling at her, eyes aglow.
Allyssa took Harry's hand in between both of her own.
"I'm going to look after you until your parents come..."