A drop here, a drop there (a one-shots/snippet book)

A Sense of Home 1-4 (Hp/WtNV drabbles)

Summary: Harry was eight when he found the old oak door during Harry Hunting. He was only looking for a safe place to escape his bullies, he didn't expect to find himself in a desert town...in America.

A desert town where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful (and sometimes seemed a bit too close), mysterious lights pass overhead, and where a little boy who was taught he was a freak may have just found a place where he can belong.

[drabble-fic, fluff, family, typical Night Vale weirdness]

[between e27 First Date and e28 Summer Reading Program, July 2013. Yes, Harry technically travels to the future because time of weird in Night Vale.]

1.

It seemed to just be another day for Harry Potter.

He was woken up this morning by the rapping of his aunt on his door, he left the cupboard where he slept to cook his relatives breakfast, sat and ate his stale bread and tap water while they ate the bacon and scrambled eggs that he cooked, walked to school while his uncle drove his cousin there on the way to work, and now at recess he was running away from his rotund cousin and his pack of friends.

It was a game they liked to play, "Harry Hunting". And as the name suggests, it was Harry that they chased around until they either caught him or he managed to evade long enough for recess to finish.

At the young age of eight, Harry had a few years of evading them down almost to an art form. Yes, sometimes he would just be too tired and sore from chores, or too weak from hunger, and he wouldn't be able to run fast enough to escape their fists.

But aside from that, the years long of practice made him create routes and improve his evading skills. The playground had equipment in it that he can climb, jump, and run over to slow down his less agile pursuers. The trees to the north have barks rough enough to help him climb up, but the ones with white bark is too smooth to even attempt when in a hurry. If they're far enough behind him he can sneak into the library and hide.

Which direction Harry ends up in will depend on which direction Dudley and his friends started before they ran after him.

...and like Harry had gotten smarter in the years of having this happen, it seems that they too had learned a few things.

Piers appeared in front of him, preventing him from running to the forests. And on his left was another three of the group, and behind him was Dudley and one other boy, shouting and panting. So Harry turned to his right, thoughts racing as he tried to find a way out of his predicament.

He knew that where he was going was at the back of the cafeteria.

More, he knew that it's a dead end.

He remembered that there was a garbage dump there, and that it was too low for him to climb to the roof that way... but he should at least try.

Dread was washing over him even as he made the decision, weighting his limbs almost to a slow, but self-preservation instincts made him keep going despite the knowledge that is was all for nothing.

But then, there, at the end of the alley, was an old oak door.

Harry didn't know how he knew it was oak, or that it was old. He didn't know when that door was put there and where it leads. But he knew that it was a possible way to escape.

So he bypassed the garbage dump, little hands reaching desperately for the brass knobs. It turned easily under his grip, and he quickly went through, closing the door behind him.