Harry Potter: Syndicate of Heroes

Living in New York was turning out to be not what Doreen had expected.

Before she'd left home, she'd envisioned meeting up with Tony Stark, not to mention the rest of the Avengers, and showing them what she could do. Then, of course, they'd ask her to join them and she'd be living the dream.

The reality, though, was completely different.

So far, she hadn't gotten close to any of the Avengers. Once, she thought that she'd had a glimpse of Iron Man flying up to Stark Tower, or at least, what used to be Stark Tower. By the look of it, it was being renamed as Avengers Tower, at least judging by the stylised 'A' on the side that had replaced the word 'Stark'. She couldn't even imagine anything cooler than that. Unfortunately, the Tower was still under construction and she hadn't been able to get closer than the street outside of it.

And without getting to meet up with any of the Avengers, she hadn't been able to show them what she could do. And without that, it meant that she had nowhere to stay.

Being a fifteen-year-old in New York with limited money and resources wasn't exactly fun. Oh, sure, her new squirrel friends had helped, finding extra nuts and fruits for her. And being covered in squirrels at night kept one warm. At least, she'd been able to save a bit of money that way; not that she'd started with much, especially after buying a bus ticket across the country to get here.

Which all brought her to where she was now.

Doreen had found that, while fruits and nuts were good and being part squirrel meant that they provided the nutrition that she needed, the human part of her wanted more. And without much money, she had swallowed her pride and taken to checking the dumpsters behind some of the restaurants and cafés around the city.

With her hope of meeting the Avengers, she'd naturally gravitated to the area around Avengers Tower. From where she currently was, she could even see the Tower.

Glancing around, Doreen checked the street. As expected for this time of night, the street was empty, meaning that she didn't even have to duck into the alley beside the café she was outside of surreptitiously. She paused when she first entered the alley, giving her eyes time to adjust to the limited light. The expected dumpster was against the back wall of the alley.

Her steps paused as she noted a door partway down the alley and she eyed it warily. Seeing no lights coming from either the slit under it or the small window set in it, she pushed on, her grumbling stomach agreeing with her decision.

ooo00ooo

Harry's wand was moving in such a way that an outsider would have thought that he was conducting a symphony orchestra. Under his direction, dishes, cutlery, pots and pans were washing themselves before floating across to the tea towel in order to be dried. Clean and dried items were making their way home into the cupboards. At the same time, cloths were wiping down benches and the mop and broom were fighting over which part of the floor that they were responsible for.

A tingling in the back of Harry's mind caused his concentration to slip and for everything in the kitchen to freeze in place. Slowly, his head turned towards the alley beyond the heavy oak door. Someone, he knew, was out there. The wards that he'd placed told him that the person continued past the door that led to the staircase and his apartment. His head cocked as he wondered what the person would want further down the alley – there was nothing there expect for a dead-end and the dumpster.

A single sharp swish of his wand had the cloths dropping in place, the dishes settling on counters and the broom and mop retreating to their respective corners. With a satisfied nod, Harry stowed his wand into his wand holster and strode towards the door.

Harry's head was already turned towards the end of the alley when he stepped out of the door to the kitchen. Slight movement told him that whoever was there had their head over the side of the dumpster, meaning that his presence hadn't been detected.

A quick look around confirmed that there were no others about anywhere in the alley.

Thrusting his hands into his pockets, he slowly began to traverse the length of the alley. As he did, he examined the person who'd tripped his wards.

They were small. Slim, too, but whether that was due to genetics, age or lack of food was next to impossible to tell. At the moment, they were barely managing to stay on the very tip of their toes without falling in, the upper part of their body and their arms invisible to him, being as they were inside the dumpster.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

The unexpectedness of his voice startled the person in the dumpster to such an extent that Harry found himself darting forward to help them. First had come an echoing squeak of fright; then the person had overbalanced, their feet leaving the ground as they seesawed dangerously towards tipping the person completely into the dumpster. Only Harry grabbing their leg stopped their movement, eliciting a second high-pitched shriek from them.

Gently, Harry pulled the person back until their feet were firmly back on the ground. It was only when they'd completely righted themselves and turned around that Harry realised that the reason the person seemed so small was because they were young. And female.

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