Harry Potter: Connections

By Bear

Summary:Albus Dumbledore seeks the truth behind the remarkable boy that saved Hogwarts from the Heir of Slytherin. Meanwhile two Hogwarts students struggle to break free of the influence of Tom Riddle's diary and come to terms with the aftermath of the Chamber of Secrets.

Rating: PG-13

Categories: Alternate Universe

This story archived at

http://www.siye.co.uk/siye/viewstory.php?sid=128716

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.

Prologue

Author's Notes: This is the Sequel to Harry Potter: Lost. You need to read that before this. Thanks to my two Betas Arnel and jezzjamer2. From this point on the divergance from cannon begins to gain pace. So many things will be different. But first, let’s go back to Haloween 1981.

October 31st 1981

Godric's Hollow

Lord Voldemort raised his wand to the door of the Potter's home and said, "Alohomora."

The door burst open and Lord Voldemort stepped inside the house. He heard a shout of alarm from within. Victory is mine thought Lord Voldemort as he strode to meet James Potter.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off," cried James Potter as he leapt up from the sofa his wand clasped in his hand.

Lord Voldemort strode though the open door into the living room of the cottage.

James Potter ran towards Lord Voldemort in a pathetic attempt to buy time for his wife and child to escape. There was no way out of the house. He had erected anti-apparition wards around the house and the only Floo connection was in the living room.

"Stupefy!"

Lord Voldemort deflected Potter's spell by raising a shield with a wave of his wand. Potter raced toward him casting several more stunners, which Lord Voldemort once again easily deflected.

"AvadaKedavra!" cried Lord Voldemort.

He cast the killing curse as Potter approached the doorway. He seemed to be planning on attempting to block Lord Voldemort's entrance to the living room and the rest of the house.

The green light hit James Potter right in the chest. The momentum of his movements caused his body to continue moving forward for a split second. However, as his muscles slackened, he collapsed to the floor like a worn out toy doll.

Lord Voldemort stepped over the body and continued into the living room. The woman and child were gone. Scanning the room he spotted a second door, which lead to a staircase. He climbed the staircase. There were sounds coming from one of the rooms; the scrape of furniture being moved. How pathetic, she was attempting to barricade herself in.

"Confringo!"

The door to the room exploded inwards and Lord Voldemort strode through. Lily Potter was standing in the middle of the room with the child in her arms. When she saw him she shrank back towards the small cot on the far side of the room. She dropped the child into the cot and placed herself between the child and Lord Voldemort.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" she pleaded as he advanced on the crib with his wand drawn.

"Stand aside, you silly girl. Stand aside now!" he demanded. He would give her a fair chance to save herself.

"Not Harry! Please, have mercy, have mercy. Not Harry! Not Harry! Please I'll do anything."

"This is my last warning," he replied. His patience was wearing thin. Pleasing Snape was not worth this annoyance.

"Not my son! No! Please no, take me, kill me instead!"

"Stand aside, girl!" he demanded again. She still did not move.

"AvadaKedavra!" he cried.

The green light bathed the room in an almost otherworldly glow. Lily Potter dropped to the floor, in front of the cot containing the child she had pleaded for. The child would now die as well. The child looked up at him, his green eyes curious. He was not crying. Perhaps he thought this was all a game concocted by his parents. Lord Voldemort pointed his wand at the child, the one who could defeat him. He drew back the hood of his cloak. He wanted the child to see the face of the one who would kill him. The child now began to cry. He obviously didn't recognise Lord Voldemort and didn't know where his parents were.

"AvadaKedavra!" Lord Voldemort cried for the third time that night.

The green light left the tip of his wand and struck the child on the right side of his forehead.

Suddenly Lord Voldemort's entire being was filled with pain and terror. It felt as if his very soul was being stretched as it attempted to leave the world but was prevented from doing so. Some immeasurable amount of time later the sensations of his body fell away and he began to have some understanding of the world around him through the haze of pain. He was still in the room; however, it seemed faded and lifeless. The child was still there crying and was bathed in a brilliant white glow. The pain was receding now, he could think again.

Lord Voldemort saw his wand on the floor. He reached to pick it up. It was then he realised he had no hands to pick up the wand. He tried to scream in frustration only to realise he no longer had a voice with which to scream. An inexplicable terror came over Lord Voldemort because something had gone horribly wrong. He was broken, destroyed. Not completely though, his spirit was still here. His spirit but not his body. He was trapped, unable to interact with the physical world.

Lord Voldemort's tortured soul, wrapped in confusion and pain left the house in Godric's Hollow, leaving a crying baby and a rat that was skittering up the path towards the now dark and silent house.

October 31st 1981

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Albus Dumbledore returned to his office after a very enjoyable Halloween Feast. He always enjoyed the School's feasts; nothing gave him more delight than watching the happy faces of the students, even in these troubled times. Albus sat down at his desk and glanced over the instruments that sat on it.

He fought down a surge of panic when he noticed a deep red glow emanating from the one that monitored the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow.

Jumping to his feet he ran to the fireplace and grabbing some Floo powder threw it into the fire that was burning.

"Potter Residence, Godric's Hollow," he called praying that his instruments had somehow malfunctioned.

The fireplace did nothing. It was as if the house was no longer connected. Albus felt dread coil in the depths of his stomach. Had he failed to protect this family and more importantly, Harry? Without Harry, Tom could not be defeated. Until the prophecy was fulfilled he could not rest.

Praying for a miracle Albus swept out of his office. He made his way rapidly towards the perimeter of the School grounds so he could Apparate to Godric's Hollow and investigate for himself.

Chapter 1

Author's Notes: Here is the first chapter of Connections. From this point we start diverging quite considerably from canon. Thanks to my two betas Arnel and Jezzjamer2.

Remus

June 19th 1993

"Remus Lupin!" called a voice that echoed through his small flat.

Remus groaned and turned over in bed.

"Remus Lupin!" The voice called again.

Remus, deciding that he wasn't going to get back to sleep now, sat up in bed and looked blearily around his small bedroom.

"Remus Lupin!"

The voice seemed to be coming from the living room. Remus slipped on his robe and ventured out of his bedroom. The voice was coming from the fireplace; a Floo call.

"Hello?" asked Remus uncertainly.

"Ah, good afternoon, Remus," said the familiar face that was visible in the fire.

"Professor Dumbledore?" asked Remus.

"Remus," Professor Dumbledore chuckled. "You have not been my student for many years. Please call me Albus."

"What can I do for you...Albus?"

"I have an offer for you, Remus. May I come through?" Albus asked.

"Give me five minutes! I'm not dressed," Remus replied. He didn't want to meet Albus Dumbledore in his pyjamas.

Remus dashed back into his bedroom. He put on a clean set of robes and brushed his greying light brown hair into some form of neatness. He dashed back into the living room just as the Floo activated bringing Albus into his home.

"Do take a seat, Professor," Remus said hurriedly as he bustled off to the kitchen to make some tea.

Remus returned with the tea a few minutes later and sat down opposite Albus. Even though the timing of Albus' visit had surprised him, Remus had a pretty good idea what he was here about.

"Let me guess, Professor, you would like me to come and teach next year?" asked Remus with a chuckle.

"No, No! I must admit I was considering you. However, I have another friend who has agreed to do the job," Albus paused. "The job I have in mind for you, Remus, is something that I believe is far more suited to your skills and I think you will find this task of great personal interest."

Remus was silent; he assumed that Albus would soon make his intent clear.

"Your mother was Muggle-born correct?" asked Albus.

"Yes," replied Remus, unsure as to where this discussion was going.

"Excellent, so I take it you are reasonably familiar with the Muggle world? I will require you to spend considerable time there."

"Professor, what exactly are you wanting me to do?" asked Remus.

"Ah, yes. We have had a young boy at Hogwarts this past year. He's a bit of a mystery. He was found by Minerva on the streets and has the potential to be a powerful wizard," Albus paused. "I would like you to investigate this boy to see where he comes from and, if possible, track down any remaining family. I would do it myself but I cannot afford to spend any significant time away from Hogwarts after the events of last year."

"Why are you so interested in this boy?" asked Remus. Finding a muggle-born wizard with no known family was rare but not unheard of.

"He is a bit of an enigma. He was sorted into Gryffindor. Yet, he exhibits a skill that has been long associated with Slytherin; he's a Parselmouth. He was also responsible for saving a girl and eventually stopping the attacks that we suffered at school this past year."

"Have you considered asking the Goblins to run one of their blood tests on the boy? If he is a Parselmouth then he must surely have some wizarding family," said Remus.

"I have and the results…" Albus stroked his beard. "Let's say they seem impossible and they still do not add up with the boy being a Parselmouth. I'm hoping that by investigating his past it may uncover some new information. Information that will either confirm or deny these results," said Albus.

"What did the results say?" asked Remus.

"I think, for now it is best if I do not tell you, Remus. I fear that if you know the results it will bias your investigation," replied Albus.

Remus sighed. "So where exactly would I start and how will I go about tracing this boy's history?" Remus asked.

"The boy's name is Adam Winters. I am reasonably sure that it isn't his birth name and was presumably given to him at some point by the Muggle authorities," Albus paused. "I also have a parchment listing the various locations that we know the boy to have been living at prior to coming to Hogwarts," said Albus, as he handed Remus the sheet of parchment.

"This isn't a lot to go on," commented Remus as he glanced at the parchment.

"I know. At some point he must have been in the care of the Muggle authorities. You should be able to trace him based on that. A young boy on foot and alone could not have gone far without attracting notice," Albus hesitated. "I also have authorisation for you to use Legilimency if you happen to encounter anyone reluctant to give you information about Adam."

Remus hesitated; he wasn't that keen on the idea of invading someone's mind and sifting through their thoughts.

"You would, of course, only use passive Legilimency to see what they are thinking as you question them. No aggressive invasions of the mind," said Albus, obviously picking up on Remus' hesitation. "Remus, if this boy proves to be who I suspect him to be, then it could have dire consequences for the entire wizarding world."

Remus considered the proposal, he needed the money that a steady job would bring him and the case had piqued his curiosity. If he could avoid using Legilimency then it would be perfect.

"I'll do it," Remus answered. "However, my Legilimency is a little rusty."

"Let us practice together then, Remus," Albus answered with a smile.

Adam

June 19th 1993

Adam stared out of the window of the black Ministry car that he had been shoved into at King's Cross. He saw London stream past him as the driver sped through the streets. Adam realised the driver must be using magic; they were going far too fast for a normal car in London traffic. Truthfully, he was a little intimidated by the man assigned to escort him; he hadn't spoken to Adam at all, other than to tell him to get into the car. He wouldn't tell Adam where they were going.

They eventually pulled up outside a large building and when Adam saw it he felt worry begin to form in the pit of his stomach. He had never been to this place before but it looked familiar, almost as if he had been to similar places before. The building was a red brick building with four floors. The entrance to the building was at the top of a short set of steps leading up from the road. Above the double doors was a name. Adam couldn't read it from this distance.

The Ministry man got out of the car and went to the boot to retrieve Adam's trunk. Adam got out of the car and looked up at the building.

"Here you are. This is where you will be staying," he stated. "Someone will come for you at the end of the summer to fetch your school things and take you to King's Cross."

"What is this place?" Adam asked.

"It's a home for children. The Ministry has made arrangements with the owner for you to stay here over the summer."

Adam felt his stomach churn. He began to tremble slightly. He wasn't sure if it was nerves or anger that was causing him to tremble, it was probably both. He had told Professor Dumbledore that he didn't want to go to a children's home and he had ignored him; few of his experiences with children's homes had been good.

"I have to warn you that this is a Muggle establishment, so you will have to find a way to make sure the Muggles do not see your school things," the Ministry man stated.

"Can I send owls to my friends?"

The Ministry man seemed to think for a moment. "Well, you obviously won't be able to send anything as you don't have an owl, but if you're discrete you could probably send a reply with any owl that brings you mail," the Ministry man answered. "Now come on. I have other places to be."

Adam was tempted just to storm off there and then, but he was somewhat mollified that he would at least be able to reply to any letters Ginny sent to him. Anyway, the Ministry man had already taken his trunk, with all his things in it, up to the top of the stairs and pressed a button on the side of the door.

The door to the building opened and a woman stood there. She and the Ministry man held a quick conversation. He then came back down the stairs and without a word to Adam got back in the car and drove off.

"Are you Adam?" The woman asked in a kindly voice.

"Y-Yes."

"Come on in, then," she replied with a smile.

Adam stood at the bottom of the stairs frozen in indecision. He was incredibly tempted, based on his past experience, to just leave, but that would mean trying to survive until school started again. Alternatively, he could stay here; maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

Having made his decision Adam climbed the steps and entered the door. If it was unpleasant, he could always sneak away later. After all, he could do magic now!

"Let me show you where you'll be staying," said the woman as she gestured for him to follow her. She carried his trunk up the stairs to the second floor.

On the second floor they turned into a corridor that featured many identical doorways, the woman approached one of the doors, opened it and entered the room with Adam following. The room contained a bed, a small cupboard and a wardrobe. The bed itself was steel framed and had a mattress. It did not look anywhere near as comfortable as Hogwarts beds, but Adam had slept in much worse. The woman came to a stop and placed his trunk at the foot of the bed.

"This will be your room, Adam," she said. "The rest of the children are either in the common room on the ground floor or outside in the garden. My office is downstairs, if you need anything."

Adam began to slowly unpack his trunk. He took out only his Muggle clothes and was careful to leave his school robes and equipment in the trunk. He decided he would keep his wand in his pocket. It was the most valuable thing he had. He closed his trunk and placed it at the foot of his bed, carefully ensuring that it was locked.

Adam wandered over to the window that was situated in the wall near the headboard of his bed. He glanced out into the garden that was behind the building. There were several groups of children in the garden; they appeared to be playing sports. He spotted cricket and football. Adam sighed and looked at the bed and cupboard that would be his home for the summer. He really missed his room in Gryffindor tower and he really missed Ginny. When Adam thought of Ginny he felt a pang of anxiousness, he hoped she would recover from her ordeal in the Chamber now that she was back with her family. Hopefully she would write to him soon and then he could reply.

Adam lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Oh well, things could be worse, he thought.

A short time later, Adam decided to go and see the common room the woman had mentioned to him. He walked down the stairs to the ground floor and eventually found it. He peered through the small window in the door. Inside he could see a group of children, some younger and some older than him. They were sitting on a combination of old battered sofas and wooden chairs that reminded him of the chairs in the classrooms at school.

When Adam opened the door and stepped inside the common room, nobody took much notice of him. Most of the kids were reading and a couple were playing cards. There was also some music playing in the background. Adam realised that he had nothing to do. He didn't have any books that he could read in public. All he had were wizarding books and he couldn't read them unless he went and shut himself up in his room. So he just sat on one of the chairs quietly, he felt very awkward.

"YOU!" A raised voice from the doorway startled Adam.

Adam looked up and saw someone who looked familiar. He strained his memory to come up with the boy's name; Kyle. He was about two years older than Adam and was a reasonably large boy. Kyle had dark brown hair and a chubby face. He was a bully and Adam had last seen him several years ago.

"What are you doing here, freak?" said Kyle as he glared at Adam. "I thought they put you in jail!"

Everyone else in the room had either turned to stare at Adam or were doing their best to pretend not to have heard the conversation. It looks like Kyle has got a new little gang of followers here, Adam thought. Not wanting a confrontation, Adam stood up and shoving his way past Kyle, left the room and stormed upstairs back to his room.

He threw himself down on his bed feeling utterly miserable. He felt tears beginning to sting his eyes and punched the mattress in frustration. He had thought he was done with all this now! He was at Hogwarts! Seeing Kyle again had brought up too many bad memories. Where Adam used to live, Kyle and another boy had been the two biggest bullies; they had liked to beat up anyone who was even slightly different and Adam he had been classified as extremely different.

"Winters!" A shout came from the doorway.

Adam got out of bed and looked for the source of the voice. Kyle was leaning casually on Adam's door frame.

"What do you want, Kyle?" Adam said in a tired voice.

"You better watch yourself! The others may not know what you're like, but I do," Kyle replied as he advanced a pace into the room towards Adam.

Adam was suddenly very conscious that he was all alone in the room with Kyle. He took a step backwards. He knew from experience Kyle liked to solve problems with his fists.

Adam was saved by the sound of the door at the end of the corridor opening and someone coming through. The noise seemed to startle Kyle and he glared at Adam as he turned and stormed out of the room. Adam peered out of the doorway and watched as Kyle bulldozed down the corridor pushing past another kid who had just come up the stairs.

"Don't mess with him, mate," the other kid commented to Adam as he watched Kyle storm off. "Oh, by the way it's dinner time."

Adam sighed and followed him down to dinner. With Kyle here, at this rate it was going to be a long summer.

Ginny

June 27th 1993

Ginny was sitting in the Gryffindor common room writing in her diary. Today was a Saturday so she was wearing her Muggle clothing. The common room around her was reasonably busy with the hustle and bustle of students coming to and fro from their rooms. Many would spend today out in the grounds but the common room was already filling up with those starting their first essays of the year. Ginny's body tensed. She stopped writing. Slowly and deliberately, she closed the diary placed it inside her bag and left the common room.

She reached the bathroom on the second floor and went inside. She moved purposefully and stood in front the sinks.

"Open up," she hissed.

The sink sank out of sight exposing the pipe that was the entrance to the chamber. Ginny smiled. She walked slowly forward and without any sign of fear stepped into the gaping hole that had opened beneath the sinks.

She walked forward through the passage, until she came to the wall that blocked access to the chamber itself. She hissed at the wall and it too opened up. Ginny stepped into the Chamber itself and walked confidently to the statue at the far end.

"Speak to me Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four!" she hissed.

The mouth of the giant statue began to open and a slithering noise announced the arrival of the Basilisk. Its long body slithered from the hole in the statue's mouth to the Chamber floor. Once it hit the floor, it coiled up and waited in front of Ginny. It recognised its mistress.

"Search the School. Find the Mud-bloods. Sniff them out! Do not kill yet. I am not ready for my presence to be known. Not yet..." she hissed her commands to the basilisk.

The basilisk uncoiled itself and as it began to move towards the Chamber's exit Ginny jumped deftly onto its back.

"Carry me back!" she hissed.

Ginny's vision blurred as the basilisk carried her at tremendous speed back to the second floor bathroom. Once they reached the bathroom she allowed the creature to retreat back into the pipes to carry out its task.

Ginny left the bathroom and walked up to the third floor. Finding a corner away from prying eyes she raised her wand and pointed it at her head.

"Oblivate!" she whispered.

Ginny gasped as she awoke trembling. She looked around in relief; she wasn't in the third floor corridor. She was in her room at the Burrow. The dream had seemed so real. She glanced over at the small clock on her bedside table. It was just past seven. Far too early to be up in the summer but she wasn't going to get back to sleep now. She got out of bed and pulled on her nightgown that hung on the back of her door.

Ginny walked into the kitchen where her mother was bustling about preparing breakfast.

"Morning, Ginny dear," her mum said from the stove.

"Morning, Mum," Ginny replied, revelling in the smell of her mother cooking sausages and bacon.

"What's wrong dear, you look pale?" asked her mum.

"Just had a bad dream, Mum," she replied. "I'm fine."

"Okay, but if you want to talk about it I'm here," said her mum with an understanding look on her face. "Can you come help me with breakfast?"

Ginny stood up and began helping her mum prepare breakfast. As she worked Ginny felt secretly glad that her family was largely pretending that the diary and the Chamber had never happened. She didn't think she could have coped if they had been constantly babying her.

"Have there been any owls today, Mum?" asked Ginny.

"I'm sorry, dear," answered her mum. "Hermes returned with the letter early this morning."

This worried Ginny, she had been home a week now and Adam hadn't written. When she had sent a message with Errol, her family's owl, he had returned after a couple of days with the letter still attached to his leg. Errol was quite an old owl so Ginny had hoped he simply hadn't been able to find Adam or that he was too far away. So Ginny had asked Percy if she could use his owl, Hermes. He had grudgingly agreed and so Ginny had sent the letter again.

"You're worried about Adam aren't you, Ginny?" asked her mum.

"Yeah…" Ginny sighed. "Why would the owls not be able to deliver my letter?"

"It could be for many reasons; they might not be able to find him, he may be too far away, his house may have a spell on it that prevents owls from reaching him or..." her mum hesitated. "He may not have wanted to read the letter."

"Mum!" Ginny cried. "That's not true, something is wrong. I know it is. He said he couldn't wait to write to me!"

"Don't worry, dear, maybe his parents have taken him away somewhere as a surprise and he's too far away. I don't imagine any owl could reach him if he was in Australia or somewhere like that!" her mum said, attempting to reassure her.

Ginny knew that wasn't true. Adam definitely wasn't in Australia.

"Do you know where he lives?" Mum asked, obviously still seeing the worried look on her face. "Maybe we can go and visit him if he doesn't reply?"

"I don't know where he lives," said Ginny, her shoulders slumped. Then she had an idea. "Professor McGonagall does though. If we haven't heard back in a couple of days can we send her a letter and ask her to check on him?"

"Let's give it a few days and then try with Hermes again. Then I will talk to Professor McGonagall," said Mum smiling. "She will be on her holidays and I don't want to bother her unless it's absolutely necessary."

Adam

June 28th 1993

Adam was sitting outside in the garden reading a book, it was late afternoon. He had finally figured out a way to be able to read his Hogwarts books without having to stay cooped up in his room. On the third floor there was a small library, most of the books Adam didn't want to read. However he was able to use the covers of these books to hide his Hogwarts books. Right now, it appeared that he was reading a book about the history of Manchester United but he was actually reading his transfiguration book.

Adam spent most of his time reading these days. There wasn't much else to do around here. Kyle seemed to have threatened everyone that tried to talk to him which meant that he was generally avoided by most of the others. Adam didn't really mind, at least he knew he could escape this place at the end of the summer. Most of the kids here didn't have that luxury. In the end, Adam had decided his best strategy with Kyle was to just ignore him and Adam generally tried to stay near the staff that watched over the home, which meant not hiding in his room all day. Adam hoped that Kyle wouldn't try anything with the staff around and so far he'd been right. Kyle hadn't gone beyond verbal insults and Adam hoped it stayed that way.

What had Adam far more worried was that Ginny had not yet written to him and it had been over a week. A little voice in Adam's head kept repeating, she doesn't want to be your friend anymore. She doesn't want to be your friend anymore. Adam knew that wasn't true, he was still pretty sure she wanted to his friend. She wouldn't just forget about him? Would she? Stop it! Something must have happened that was stopping her from writing to him. Maybe her parents had taken her away to help her get over the Chamber.

Adam shook his head to clear it from his cycle of self-pity. Even if Ginny didn't want to be his friend anymore he would get on with his life, as he always had before when things went bad. Looking up from where he was sitting on the grass Adam saw a large group of kids playing a game of cricket. Adam could spot Kyle among them. Sighing Adam returned to his book.

"Winters!" Kyle's voice echoed across the garden. "Throw us the ball. Now!"

Adam ignored him.

"Winters!" Kyle seemed to be getting closer.

The next thing Adam knew he was face down on the grass. The left side of his face was throbbing wildly. Adam sat up slowly. As he did so he felt a strange liquid in his mouth. He spat it out; blood. Adam looked around. He could see a discarded cricket ball on the floor near where he had been. Kyle and his friends were also standing nearby laughing at him. They must have thrown the ball at me, Adam thought. A large crowd of other kids had also gathered around him, their expression's varied from shock to amusement. None of them are moving to help me though, Adam thought bitterly.

Grabbing his book, which had landed nearby Adam got to his feet and stormed back into the building. As he was heading back up to his room he passed one of the staff.

"Oh My!" She exclaimed. "What happened to you?"

"Kyle threw a cricket ball at me," Adam replied without thinking.

"Oh, well I'm sure it was an accident," she said. "Come with me and I'll get you cleaned up."

The woman led Adam into the office where she cleaned up his injury. She declared there was nothing broken and he hadn't lost any teeth. Adam was sure it would leave a lovely bruise though. Once she was done Adam walked tiredly back to his room and collapsed onto his bed.

He spent the rest of the day lying on his bed. He was unable to get to sleep, having felt dizzy on and off all day since Kyle had hit him with the ball. The entire left side of his face was now throbbing. Eventually, in the early evening, Adam dozed off.

When he awoke the room was dark. He could hear faint sounds of movement around him. He sat up slightly and scanned the room.

Suddenly two figures loomed over him in the dark.

"Hello, Winters," one of them said in a hushed whisper. "Thought it would be fun to tell on me, eh?"

Kyle. Adam knew he shouldn't have said anything.

"Leave me alone, Kyle." Adam said his teeth gritted in anger.

"What are you going to do, Winters? Smash up all the windows here? Destroy the room?" said Kyle in a mocking voice.

Adam tried to bottle up the anger he was feeling bubbling up. The last thing he needed was accidental magic here. Kyle obviously didn't like being ignored. Adam felt the impact of his fist on his stomach forcing the wind out of him. A second punch hit his stomach. Adam groaned in pain. A third punch hit him from the other side of the bed.

"Don't mess with me again, Winters!" Kyle said, giving Adam a parting shot.

Kyle and his gang left the room. Adam groaned again. He felt sick and his head was pounding. He lay there in pain for some time before he finally succumbed to a troubled sleep.

Chapter 2

Author's Notes: Thanks for all the reviews and thanks to my two betas Arnel and Jezzjamer2.

Ginny

July 1st 1993

Dear Professor McGonagall

I am writing to you because I am worried about Adam. He hasn't replied to any of my letters since the start of the holidays; in fact, all the letters return undelivered and he promised to write to me over the summer. Would it be possible for you to check on him, as I don't know where he is staying. I'm worried about where he may have been sent by the Ministry.

Ginny Weasley

Ginny attached the note to Errol's leg and sent him on his way. She watched as he flew off into the night. She was now seriously worried about Adam. Nearly two weeks had gone by and she hadn't heard from him at all. One letter sent with Errol and two now sent with Hermes had all been returned undelivered. Something was wrong. He wouldn't just ignore her. That much Ginny knew for certain.

"Is that your letter?" Dad asked from his seat at the kitchen table.

"Yes, Dad," replied Ginny.

"I'm sure he's alright," dad said comfortingly.

He gestured over towards the chair next to him, which Ginny went and sat on.

"Now, Ginny, do you think that Adam might have trouble at home? Could something have happened to him there?"

Ginny felt an enormous desire to open up to her dad and tell him everything, but it wasn't her secret to tell. Adam wouldn't want her to tell anyone.

"I'm not sure..... maybe. Professor McGonagall knows where he is; she will check he's alright," replied Ginny, trying to convince herself.

"Ginny, if you know something .... if you think something's wrong you need to tell me," her dad replied.

"Dad....." replied Ginny. "I'm sure he's fine. He wasn't that keen on going, but I don't think he'd be in any danger."

Ginny looked up at her dad with pleading eyes. Begging him not to ask anymore questions. He sighed.

"Okay, sweetheart. Get yourself up to bed," he said as he pulled her into a hug.

Ginny trudged up the stairs towards her bedroom and began getting ready for bed. She got into her bed and attempted to fall asleep.

Her summer so far had been quiet. She had made a start on some of her homework and had been given chores around the Burrow by her mother. Her brothers were even more protective of her than before, presumably due to the events of last year. They hadn't even let her fly with them, even though she'd now had flying lessons at school. Ron had been even more annoying. She wasn't sure if it was because he expected to go back to being best friends with her again, now that his school friends weren't here, or if he was trying to make up for ignoring her last year. She hoped it was the latter.

Ginny turned over in frustration, with her mind racing at a mile a minute she was never going to get to sleep.

Ginny left Hogwarts Castle and began walking down towards the Groundskeeper's Hut. The hut was dark. Good, he must already be asleep. Ginny made her way to the small garden where he kept his chickens. She needed to kill the roosters. No point in giving Dumbledore an easy way to rid the castle of her basilisk. She approached the cage that contained the rooster and opened the door. With an almost unnatural strength, she grabbed the rooster and snapped its neck.

The rooster continued to struggle in her hands as it thrashed around violently. After an irritatingly long time it finally grew still.

"Ginny! What the..... what are you doing!" A voice came from behind her.

It was the half-breed groundskeeper. He was staring at her with a look of shock on his face.

"Stupefy!" Ginny stunned him without hesitation.

Ginny looked down. Her robes were covered in feathers. If she woke up in the morning covered in feathers the girl would notice and she may well tell her friend. Ginny waved her wand over her robes banishing the feathers. She still had a couple more tasks to complete here, to ensure her presence went undetected.

She walked over to the rooster lying dead on the ground and pointed her wand at the corpse.

"Incendio!"

A ball of flame shot out of the end of her wand and the rooster was engulfed. She watched the flames in smug satisfaction until they had completely destroyed the rooster's body.

She walked back over to the unconscious groundskeeper.

"Rennervate!"

The groundskeeper blinked his eyes and they eventually came to focus on her.

"Ginny...?" he said in a confused voice.

"Oblivate!" she said, pointing her wand directly at his face.

His face went slack and his eyes became unfocused. Wanting to be far away before he came to his senses, Ginny strode purposefully back towards the castle.

Adam

July 7th 1993

Adam felt a twinge of pain from his jaw as he ate his dinner. It hardly hurt anymore, apart from an occasional muscle twinge. The incident had, however, left him with a lovely green-brown bruise that seemed to have grown until it stretched right from his earlobe to his chin.

Adam glanced around the dining room. To his relief, there was no sign of Kyle in the room. He had managed to stay clear of Kyle for several days. Having hurt him, Kyle seemed content to return to verbal insults.

Adam, over the last few days had begun to feel really down; he had to put up with insults from Kyle nearly every day. The majority of the other kids were too scared to be seen with him, so he had no one to talk to, and even worse, Ginny still hadn't written to him.

Adam left the window of his room open nearly every day hoping an owl would fly in. He had even tried going down to a secluded corner of the garden, in case the owls wouldn't come to him where a Muggle could see. Still nothing had come from Ginny. Adam had two choices now; he could either sit it out and wait until the end of the summer or attempt to contact someone by Muggle means. Hermione or Colin were probably his best bets. How he could get their addresses or phone numbers, Adam hadn't quite worked out yet.

After dinner had finished, Adam joined the crowd of other kids that began making their way back to their respective rooms. Adam stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked slowly. He eventually began to fall towards the back of the group. As he approached his room he could hear laughter coming from inside. Adam cautiously opened his door. He had a bad feeling about this.

When Adam saw what they had done to his room he felt as if he had just been punched in the stomach. Kyle and his friends had opened up his trunk, pulled out all of his school things and scattered them across his bed and the floor. Adam couldn't believe he had forgotten to lock his trunk this morning.

"I told you he was a freak!" Announced Kyle mockingly. Kyle pulled out a set of his Hogwarts robes and held them up. "Look at what he's got in here! Look at these freaky clothes!"

"Leave my things alone," Adam said in a quiet but angry voice.

Kyle waved the robes around and the others around him laughed.

"Why should I?" Kyle replied with a sneer. He waved the robes in front of Adams face. "We only came in to mess up your room a bit, but this is so much better!"

One of the other kids began to go through Adams trunk throwing his books out.

"Oh, freak! Is this your boyfriend?" he sneered, as he waved Lockhart's Magical Me book about. "I'm sure he's just magical!"

"LEAVE ME THINGS ALONE!" Adam shouted.

They all just laughed. Adam's Hogwarts robe had been discarded onto the floor and Adam noticed that Kyle was now spinning something idly in his fingers. Kyle had his wand. Adam cursed; how had he been so careless as to not take it with him.

"Oh, you want your special stick back do you?" said Kyle in an unnaturally sweet voice.

Kyle held out his wand and Adam stepped forward to try and take it from him. As Adam's hand neared the wand, Kyle grabbed it away from him with a mocking laugh. The rest of the crowd that had now gathered around them now joined in laughing.

Adam saw red. He flung himself at Kyle attempting to grab his wand back. The two boys fell to the floor in a heap. Kyle used his greater size to his advantage and managed to push Adam off him and get back to his feet. Adam stood up and turned to face Kyle, intending to charge him again. He had to get his wand back! As Adam took a step towards Kyle he felt a sudden impact on his face. The force of the impact lifted him off his feet and he fell to the floor onto his bum. He felt a trickling sensation below his nose and raised his hand to his face to feel for damage. His hand came away with blood on it. Adam stood up and faced Kyle again, who was grinning and still twirling his wand. The rest of the children in the room had surrounded them.

"Fight!Fight!" The others chanted as Adam stormed towards Kyle.

Kyle swung for Adam, catching him with a glancing blow to his already painful jaw. He felt pain shoot across the side of his face. Kyle grabbed Adam by the shoulders and pushed him backwards into the wall of his room. Adam swung to punch Kyle. He put all his anger and frustration of the past two weeks into the punch. Adam was much shorter than Kyle so his punch landed low; it hit Kyle just above the centre of his chest with a mighty crunch. The impact of the punch lifted Kyle off his feet, he flew the the length of Adam's room as if fired from a catapult and struck the wardrobe. The wardrobe's doors caved in, splintered and Kyle landed in a heap in the black of the wardrobe. He wasn't moving.

The rest of the crowd in the room looked at Adam with fear on their faces. Silently and unanimously they came to a decision. They didn't want to be seen anywhere near the scene of this fight. Within a few seconds and amongst a storm of chaotic pushing and shoving they ran from the room.

Not again, Not again! Adam thought with despair. He ran down the room to where Kyle was lying. He was still breathing. Thank God! Thank God! He wasn't dead.

Adam picked up his wand from where Kyle was lying and ran back to his bed. He rapidly began shoving his things back into his trunk. He didn't waste any time. Adam was sick of this place. He was sick of the people here. He just wanted to get out of here.

Adam grabbed his trunk and dragged it down the corridor. When he reached the front door, he turned the handle. It was locked. Adam withdrew his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the lock. I don't really have much else to lose at this point, he thought.

"Alohomora."

The door clicked open. Adam dragged his trunk down the stairs into the muggy evening and began to rapidly to make his way down the street.

Adam had been walking for about an hour before he stopped to rest. He sat down on his trunk. Despair began to overtake him. It was as if everything good that had happened to him last year, going to Hogwarts and making friends were all coming undone. He was back where he started, back on the streets.

Adam sat there on the side of the road for some time, staring at nothing in particular. The blood that had been trickling from his nose had now stopped but the skin around it still felt sticky. A rumble of thunder made him jump. He felt cooling raindrops begin to hit him and he sat there revelling in the cooling sensation that the rain gave him. The rain increased in intensity and soon Adam began to shiver, he only had his t-shirt and trousers on, so he rummaged in his trunk looking for one of his warmer Hogwarts robes to put on. In his rush to leave the home Adam had just shoved everything back into his trunk and now he couldn't find his warm cloak in the darkness.

"Lumos!" said Adam. He had already done magic outside school today, so one more spell couldn't make things much worse. It wasn't as if he would be able to get back to school anyway, not at this rate.

Adam held up his wand to light the area as he began searching inside his trunk for his cloak. By now Adam was nearly soaked. Unable to see due to the poor light he picked up several different sets of his robes, held each one up and examined it with his wand. He needed to find his warm one, any of the others would do little to keep him warm. Suddenly he thought he heard a clinking noise. In his rummaging for his robes something, probably part of his potions kit, must have dropped over the side of his trunk. Adam held out his wand attempting to see what had made the noise.

BANG. Another loud noise, this time from straight in front of him startled Adam. He stared, in front of him was a large bus, it was a purple Triple Decker, and there were bright lights coming from every window. He had never seen a bus like it before. As Adam was staring a man leapt out of the bus and approached him.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your conductor this evening."

Adam nearly jumped for joy. He could get this bus to take him back to Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall would be there.

"Oi! Kid! You did flag us down didn't ya? Where'd you wanta go?" asked Stan as he looked closely at Adam's face.

"Yes! I did," Adam replied quickly. "Umm.... can you take me to Hogwarts?"

"Why you goin' there kid?" Stan asked. "Ain't no one there this time of year, ‘cept that caretaker fellow."

Adam's face fell. He remembered Professor McGonagall had said she might not be at Hogwarts during the summer. If he couldn't go to Hogwarts where could he go? Ginny! Maybe he could get the bus to Ginny's house from there he could contact Professor McGonagall. Adam realised he didn't actually know where Ginny lived, but maybe the conductor would know or be able to take him near enough so he could walk the rest of the way.

"Umm," Adam said hesitantly. "I'm not sure of the actual address but can you take me to where the Weasleys live?"

"Wot's your name kid?" Stan asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"Adam Winters," Adam replied. "I'm supposed to go and visit my friend Ginny Weasley."

The explanation seemed to do the trick, Stan's face brightened.

"That'll be 13 sickles, or for 15 you get hot chocolate and for 17 you get hot water bottle and toothbrush," said Stan and he held out his hand.

Adam rummaged in his trunk and managed to find his money bag. He counted out the coins he had left from last year. His shoulders fell, he only had 11 sickles.

"Sorry, I've only got 11 sickles," Adam said in a defeated tone.

Adam saw Stan look him up and down; he must have made a pretty pathetic sight. Bruised, bloody and soaking wet. That might work to my advantage, Adam thought guiltily.

"Go on, kid! Get on. I'll let ya off this once."

"Thank you!" said Adam grinning. "Thank you!"

Stan grabbed Adam's trunk and tossed it onto the bus. Adam extinguished his wand and jumped on.

The Knight Bus was the first bus Adam had ever seen that had beds on it. Adam was currently sitting on one of the beds, holding on for dear life. The bus had moved off with a bang and Adam had nearly been thrown off the bed. Currently the bus was moving at an incredible speed through the traffic in London. Another bang rocked the bus and suddenly they were racing down country lanes.

A short time later the bus came to a screeching halt and Adam breathed a sigh of relief.

"'ere we are!" called Stan. "Your lucky we ‘ad no one else on!"

Stan came to the back of the bus, grabbed up Adams trunk and pushed it out of the bus' doorway. Adam jumped out of the bus after him.

"House is that way, kid," said Stan as he got back onto the bus, pointing down the lane. At the end of the lane Adam could see distant lights.

BANG. The Knight Bus rocketed off down the lane, away from Adam. He began to shiver again. His trip on the bus had warmed him up somewhat, but it was still raining and he hadn't managed to get his cloak out before he got on the bus. Adam lit his wand again, being careful not to hold it out. He didn't want to accidentally call the bus back. Grabbing his cloak, he wrapped it around himself and began to trudge up the lane towards Ginny's house.

A short time later Adam approached the house, soaked to the bone. The bus had dropped him off a fair distance away, at the start of a long winding lane that, eventually, had lead to Ginny's house. Ginny's house, in Adam's opinion, was one of the craziest, but yet most amazing buildings he had ever seen. It was a tall building and it appeared to have five or six floors, judging from the lights. It looked to Adam as if the building might fall over at any moment. It must be held up by magic! Adam thought.

Adam left the lane and entered the Weasley's garden through a small gate. He stood there for a few minutes staring at the house, plucking up the courage to walk inside. What if they don't want me here? What if they send me away? Adam shook himself and a light spray of water flew up off his soaked robes. Of course Ginny would help him.

Adam walked down the path to the small wooden door and gingerly knocked upon it.

Ginny

July 7th 1993

Ginny was sitting in the living room of the Burrow, she was playing chess with Ron and losing, as she usually did. Despite the rain that was beating down on the windows the living room was cosy, with a warm fire burning in the fireplace. Ginny, Ron and Mum were the only Weasleys in the living room, the twins were upstairs in their room working on one of their projects, Percy was also in his room revising his school work and dad was out on a raid tonight.

Ginny, thankfully, hadn't had any further dreams in the past few days. Which, along with the fact that Professor McGonagall had promptly replied to her letter, had significantly improved her outlook on things. Professor McGonagall had told Ginny that she would be going to immediately investigate where Adam had been sent. Ginny was planning on asking her mum if Adam could come and stay for the rest of the summer, as soon as they found him.

"Check Mate!" exclaimed Ron.

"Grrr."

"Another?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, go on," she replied. It wasn't as if there was much else to do.

As they were setting up the board, they heard a faint knock at the door.

"Was that the door?" Mum asked, looking up from her knitting.

The knock repeated a second time.

"I guess that answers that. I'll get it," said Mum as she made her way into the kitchen to answer the door.

Ron and Ginny began their game. A gasp from the kitchen interrupted them.

"Adam?!" Mum exclaimed from the kitchen.

Ginny shot to her feet and barrelled into the kitchen. Was there news about Adam? Was Adam here?

When Ginny reached the kitchen she saw her mum pulling Adam into the house.

"Come on in you poor boy," said mum in a kind voice.

Ginny looked at Adam. He was completely soaked and shivering. He had his Hogwarts cloak wrapped around him to cover as much of him as he could, including part of his face.

"Ginny, please make Adam some tea," mum ordered as she guided Adam towards one of the chairs in the kitchen.

Ginny bustled around, quickly getting the tea. While waiting for the water to heat up she watched as her mum took Adam's cloak off. She gasped when she saw his face; she hadn't been able to get a clear look at it before. He had a large, ugly looking bruise covering almost the entire left side of his face. His nose seemed twisted slightly and swollen. There were trails of dried blood coming from it and winding their way down towards his chin.

Grabbing the mug of tea she had made Ginny walked over to Adam and pressed it into his trembling hands.

"T-T-Thanks," he said. "I-I-I'm sorry for just turning up."

"Adam, don't apologise. Friends of my children are always welcome here," said Mum. Ginny's heart warmed that she was being so welcoming. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Adam seemed to freeze. Knowing he struggled to talk about his past Ginny went and pulled up one of the other kitchen chairs next to him.

"Go on, Adam," she said with a smile.

"They sent me back to a home," he replied quietly in a dull voice.

"What happened there?" Ginny asked. She knew he'd had a bad time at many of the homes he had stayed at when he was little.

"One of the kids I knew from before was there. He threatened everyone who talked to me. He did this," Adam pointed to his face. "Tonight I caught him laughing with the others about my freaky Hogwarts things. He tried to steal my wand and when I tried to get it back he punched me in the face. I-I.." he looked down at his feet. "I got mad and sent him flying across the room. That was when I left. I couldn't take it anymore. If I'd stayed something else would have happened."

Ginny noticed, that by this point her mum was looking thoroughly confused.

"Adam, what do you mean?" her mum asked gently. "Who was the boy that hit you? One of your friends? Couldn't you go to your parents?"

Ginny saw Adam look up and glance at her with a pleading look on his face. He wanted her to the the story.

"Mum, Adam's an orphan. He has no family. Professor McGonagall found him last year living on the streets and brought him to Hogwarts. The Ministry were supposed to arrange for somewhere for him to stay over the summer. I think they sent him to a Muggle children's home," Ginny looked at Adam for confirmation.

"I never got any letters and I didn't know how to contact anyone," he continued, looking up at Mum. "I didn't know where else to go. Hogwarts is a long way away and I didn't know if anyone would be there."

"Oh, how could the Ministry do that! Sending you to live with Muggles!" Mum exclaimed.

"I tried to send you letters, but the owls just kept coming back, as if they couldn't find you," Ginny said apologetically.

Adam gave her a watery smile as he sipped on the tea. In the warm kitchen Adam seemed to beginning to finally get warm.

"Will you let me try and heal up your nose for you, Adam?" Mum asked.

Adam nodded. Mum opened one of the kitchen cupboards and pulled out a book. After a few seconds of searching through it she snapped it closed. She waved her wand over Adam's nose and whispered a spell. The crookedness of Adam's nose corrected itself immediately.

Mum also moved her wand over Adam's bruise.

"I'm sorry I can't fix your bruise," she stated. "It's an older injury, isn't it?" Adam nodded in reply. "It should clear up in a week or so," said Mum.

"T-Tha," Adam said, yawning loudly. "Sorry. Thank you Mrs. Weasley,"

"I think you need some sleep, Adam," said Mum, chuckling. "You can use Bill's room tonight and I'll talk to Professor Dumbledore in the morning."

"I'll show you upstairs!" said Ginny excitedly.

Ginny sprang up and went to help Adam with his trunk. Her mum was going to let Adam stay with them and Ginny was incredibly pleased. She had missed Adam greatly the last few weeks. The two of them walked up the stairs to the first floor.

"This is my room," Ginny said, pointing at one of the two doors on the first floor. "This is Bill's room, he's in Egypt so it's empty."

"Thanks, Ginny," said Adam. "Umm, where's the loo?"

"Third Floor, there's only one door there," Ginny said with a giggle.

Adam disappeared up the stairs. Ginny moved Adam's trunk into Bill's room and then went over to close the curtains for him.

"Nice room," Adam commented when he returned and looked around the room. He flopped down on the bed, suddenly looking exhausted. "Ginny.... I... I hope you don't mind me being here," he said in a tired voice.

"Oh Adam," Ginny replied. She sat down on the bed next to him. "I'm glad your here."

"I...I just couldn't take it anymore," Adam said with an unreadable expression on his face.

"I know," Ginny replied. "But we'll have so much fun here! You can come flying with me!"

Adam smiled at this. "Thanks." Suddenly he seemed to perk up and his expression brightened. "We said we needed to practice if we want to try out for the team!"

"Ginny! Let Adam get some sleep," her mum said as she suddenly poked her head into the room, making both of them jump.

"Okay, Mum. Sleep well, Adam," Ginny said. She gave Adam a wave and left the room, closing the door on her way out.

Once outside Bill's room, Ginny heaved a sigh of relief. Adam was safe. Now all she had to was persuade her mum to let him stay for the rest of the summer.

Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Thanks for all the reviews and big thanks to my two Betas Arnel and Jezzjamer2.

Adam

July 8th 1993

When Adam awoke the next morning, he wasn't sure where he was. He looked uncertainly around the room. Ginny's House! I'm at The Burrow! He suddenly remembered.

Adam was in was a reasonably large room, far larger than the one he'd had at the home. There was a bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a chair. The bed was soft, as soft as his Hogwarts bed.

Adam got out of bed and spotted his clothes from yesterday in a pile on the floor. They didn't smell particularly pleasant, so Adam rummaged around in his trunk, found a clean pair of clothes to wear, and dressed.

Adam hesitated before leaving the room, he listened to hear if anyone else was moving around. He was overjoyed at the reception he had received at The Burrow. It was almost as if Mrs Weasley wanted him in her house, but Adam still felt unsure what the reception of the other Weasleys would be. Adam hoped he would be able to stay at least for a few weeks.

Adam exited Bill's room and looked around the landing. He couldn't see anyone else about. He thought for a minute about going into Ginny's room, to see if she was up yet, but decided against it. He'd never been into a girl's room before and Mrs Weasley might not like him going in there. After all, at Hogwarts the boys weren't allowed in the girls' rooms.

Adam walked cautiously down the stairs. As he approached the kitchen, he could hear the sound of people talking. He poked his head around the door and looked into the kitchen. There were several people sitting around the kitchen table, Adam recognised the twins and Ron immediately. Mrs Weasley was bustling back and forward between the stove and the table, handing out plates of food as she went. Adam hesitated at the doorway, unsure if he was welcome at breakfast. He had, after all, just shown up unexpectedly the previous night.

"Take a seat, Adam. I'll get you some breakfast," said Mrs Weasley warmly.

"Alright, mate," the twins said together, nodding towards him as he sat down at a free seat.

Ron mumbled something with his mouth full.

MrsWeasley placed a plate of sausages and bacon in front of Adam, which he eagerly tucked into. He was especially hungry for some reason this morning. Adam had eaten half of his breakfast when Ginny appeared. As she approached the table, he noticed she was only wearing a nightdress and dressing gown. She sat down opposite Adam and started tucking into the breakfast her mother handed her.

"Good morning, Weasleys!" said a voice from the doorway.

"Hi Dad!" The four Weasleys at the table echoed.

Adam realised this must be Ginny's dad. He glanced up. Like all the Weasley men, he had red hair, except his was thinning out on the top of his head. He wore glasses and a familiar bright red hat with a pointy top. Adam stared at him, he knew he had seen him somewhere before, but he just couldn't quite pinpoint where.

"Hello, son, who are you?" said Ginny's dad when he saw Adam.

Adam stared at Mr Weasley, trying to pinpoint where he had seen him before. Adam saw Mr Weasley staring at him, as if he too recognised Adam. The memory suddenly clicked in Adam's mind, he felt his stomach sink and he gasped in horror. Mr Weasley was one the people he had robbed while on the run. Adam remembered the wizarding coins in the money bag that he had nicked from him, he hadn't known what they were at the time.

Adam looked away. Please don't recognise me, please don't recognise me, he chanted silently.

"I'm Adam, sir, Ginny's friend," he said, slowly raising his head.

MrWeasley was still looking intently at him and Adam saw recognition dawn on Mr Weasleys face. It made Adam feel sick to his stomach.

"You?!"Mr Weasley exclaimed. "The kid outside the electrickity shop!"

All of the Weasleys turned to stare at Adam, Ginny included. Adam felt himself flush with shame. He didn't need to look at them to see their accusing faces. In his shame, Adam bolted from the room. He dashed out of the door into the early morning sunlight. All that remained of the rain from last night was the damp feel of the grass on his bare feet.

Adam ran until he came upon a large pond. There he stopped, sat down at the edge of the pond and rested his feet in the cool water. He couldn't run anymore, he didn't even have any shoes on his feet! Maybe the Weasleys would at least give him his stuff back before they sent him away. He would go to Hogwarts and try to find Professor McGonagall; she was his only hope now. Why did things from his past keep coming back to haunt him?

"Adam!" Ginny called as she rushed across the garden towards him.

"You want me gone already?" Adam said bitterly.

"What are you on about?" Ginny said.

"Don't you want me to leave now you know what I did?" Adam snapped.

"Adam, shut up!" Ginny replied hotly. "Get it into your head, we like you for who you are, I like you! We don't want you to go just because of something that happened in the past!"

Adam sat in silence. Did the Weasleys actually want him to stay?

"Adam, will you come inside? Dad isn't angry he was just surprised. Mum and Dad would like to talk to you," Ginny asked in a more gentle tone.

Adam nodded stiffly and slowly got to his feet. He followed Ginny back inside the house. They passed through the empty kitchen and went into the living room. The room had comfortable chairs and a sofa; it felt very cosy.

"Adam, I'm sorry I raised my voice earlier. I was just surprised to see you again. Will you come and sit down?" asked Mr Weasley when he saw Adam in the doorway.

Adam moved and sat down on the sofa. Mr and Mrs Weasley moved two arm chairs and sat down opposite him. To Adam's surprise, Ginny sat down next to him.

"Adam, I want to make sure you understand I am not angry for what happened. Ginny told us a bit about your past and I expect you were going through a really tough time," said Mr Weasley.

"But I stole from you!" cried Adam.

"Adam, what did you use that money for?" asked Mr Weasley.

"Uh...food," Adam replied in a quiet voice.

"And I expect by that point you were pretty hungry?" continued Mr Weasley.

"Y-Yeah,"

"Well then," Mr Weasley smiled. "I dare say you needed that money more than me. If you'd have asked I would have given you some. I was only going to use it to buy a few new Muggle gadgets and enter a competition in the paper."

"Y-You don't mind?" Adam replied, feeling shocked.

"No, I don't," replied Mr Weasley with a smile.

"Adam," Mrs Weasley added. "I had a talk with Professor Dumbledore last night after you went to sleep. He was shocked to learn where the Ministry had sent you. He will be coming to talk to you today."

"I work at the Ministry and I think it is disgraceful how they treated you. We want to help you, but before we can do that we need to know a little more about what happened before you came to Hogwarts," continued Mr Weasley.

Adam looked down at the floor; he didn't like talking about his past.

"I know you don't like talking about it, Adam, but Mum and Dad will help," said Ginny and she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Okay," replied Adam, looking up at the elder Weasleys,

"Can you tell us how you ended up living on the street?" asked Mr Weasley.

"I-I ran away from the place I was living. A kid tried to beat me up and I hurt him...." Adam hesitated. "...badly. It was magic; it used to happen when I got mad. The people there caught me and locked me in a room. I just wanted to get away, and I suddenly appeared outside," Adam replied.

"That place was where you lived up until then?" asked Mr Weasley.

"I lived in a few other places, but because I was magical nobody seemed to want me, I was too unusual," Adam sighed. "It's easier to understand now I know about magic, but before I went to Hogwarts I had no idea why these things happened."

"Do you know what your parents' names were?" asked Mr Weasley. "We may be able to find if you have any living relatives."

"I-I..." Adam hesitated.

"Go on, Adam," said Ginny giving him an encouraging smile.

"I asked someone once if they knew who my parents were, they told me I was abandoned in some bushes in a park," Adam heard Mrs Weasley gasp. "I don't know if it's true or not," he added quickly. "I was named after I was found."

The room was silent. Adam was sure he saw a glimmer of tears in Mrs Weasley's eyes. Ginny was smiling encouragingly at him.

"Thank you for telling us that, Adam," said Mr Weasley.

"I'll get some tea," said Mrs Weasley as she stood up. "Professor Dumbledore should be here soon."

Professor Dumbledore arrived while Mrs Weasley was in the kitchen making tea. He came through the fireplace and was dusting some soot off his silvery robes as he entered the living room, with Mrs Weasley following.

"Good Morning, Mr. Winters," said Professor Dumbledore, as he pulled up a chair.

"Hello, Professor," Adam said coldly. He was sure Professor Dumbledore was responsible for where he had been sent during the summer.

"Adam," said Professor Dumbledore, he seemed surprised by Adam's cold response. "Would you tell me what has happened so far this summer?"

Adam retold his story. As he described the place where he had been sent by the Ministry he saw shock on the face of Professor Dumbledore, shock and anger. It was the first time he had ever seen the Headmaster angry, so he decided to leave out that he had used magic to unlock the door. He knew he could get into trouble for using magic outside of school.

"Adam, I can only apologise for what has happened. I left specific instructions with the Ministry, based on what Professor McGonagall told me that you told her. They obviously ignored my instructions," Professor Dumbledore sighed. "And as for why no owls were able to reach you," he paused. "I have an idea. Can you tell me if you used any deliberate magic while you were there?"

Adam hesitated, trying to decide if he should tell Professor Dumbledore that he'd used magic. Based on Professor Dumbledore's earlier reaction, he hadn't known what the Ministry had done but he should have known. He should have checked on him!

Adam looked over at Mr and Mrs Weasley. He was somewhat comforted that they seemed to think Professor Dumbledore was not solely responsible for what had happened to him. They both seemed to trust him. Even so, Adam didn't want to admit to anything that would get him into more trouble, but the man obviously already suspected Adam had used magic.

"I used my wand to unlock a door," Adam said, deciding to be honest.

"Ah," Professor Dumbledore chuckled. "That explains many things. I got a message yesterday saying an unknown student had performed underage magic."

"Unknown, Albus?" Mr Weasley asked.

"Yes, Arthur, for some reason neither the Ministry nor Hogwarts have ever been able to identify Adam by name. So when Adam performed magic it was detected but the Ministry couldn't determine who had done it."

"But surely the Ministry knew where Adam was?" Mrs Weasley interrupted. "Couldn't they work it out from that?"

"Molly, that assumes that different departments of the Ministry actually talk to each other," Mr Weasley replied dryly.

"This, I think," continued Professor Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling. "Could also be the reason why your owls were unable to find Adam. Post owls tend to use similar means of tracking people as the Ministry and the school."

"Am I in trouble for doing magic?" Adam asked in a worried voice.

"I think based on what has occurred, I will be informing the Ministry that I was unable to identify who cast that spell," Professor Dumbledore replied with a smile.

"Er.. Thank you, sir," said Adam meekly. He still didn't like Professor Dumbledore, but the Weasleys obviously did, and Adam didn't want to upset them.

"It is no problem and I must take responsibility for what has happened to you. So once again, Adam, I am sorry," he winked. "Professor McGonagall had plenty to say about my lack of attention to your welfare," turning to Mr and Mrs Weasley he continued. "All that now remains to be decided is where Adam should stay until school starts again."

Adam huffed slightly at being ignored. Didn't he get any say in where he would go?

"He will stay with us," Mrs Weasley responded immediately.

Adam saw Ginny dart forward and hug her mother. Adam was too shocked to speak; he couldn't believe that the Weasleys actually wanted him to stay with them. Adam tried to talk, but all that came out was a strangled cough.

"T-T-Thank you, Mrs Weasley," Adam finally choked out.

"Well that is settled, then. Thank you, Arthur, Molly. I will send Adam's Hogwarts letter with your children's when the time comes and I will write to you about the practicalities of this arrangement," said Professor Dumbledore and he stood up from his chair and made his way back to the fireplace.

Once had had left the room, Adam and Ginny grinned at each other. The summer was looking to be far better than either of them had anticipated.

July 9th 1993

Adam bounced down the stairs of The Burrow. It was the beginning of his second full day at Ginny's house and after the drama of the previous few days he was looking forward to simply relaxing. Ginny had promised to show him around her home today.

When Adam reached the kitchen, Ginny was already at the table eating her breakfast.

"Good Morning!" she said brightly. "The others are still sleeping. I was first up this morning."

"Hello, Adam," said Mrs Weasley. She bustled into the room and placed a plate of food in front of him.

"Morning," Adam replied and he began to tuck into his breakfast. Mrs Weasley's cooking was the best he had ever tasted. The only place that even came close was Hogwarts.

"Mum, I was going to show Adam around today, if that is alright?" Ginny asked her mother.

"Of course, dear, just don't leave the property," Mrs Weasley replied.

After they had both finished their breakfasts, they went outside. Adam looked around. It was the first time he had taken notice of the countryside surrounding The Burrow and he discovered that the house was surrounded by hills and fields for as far as he could see.

"The view is brilliant isn't it," said Ginny, obviously noticing him looking around in awe.

"I've never been in the countryside before, well apart from Hogwarts, but then we are sort of kept inside by the walls," said Adam with a grin.

Ginny pulled Adam's arm and dragged him off on a whistle-stop tour of The Burrow. She showed him the large garden, which was overgrown enough that Adam couldn't see his feet as he walked through it. They came to a small stone building.

"This is where we keep our brooms. We can maybe play Quidditch later in the summer," said Ginny.

"We can play here?" asked Adam surprised. He hadn't seen a pitch so far.

"Yes, follow me and I'll show you," replied Ginny, she grabbed his arm and pulled Adam across the garden.

They were halfway across the garden when Adam felt a tug on his shoe and he went flying to the ground. As he began to right himself, he saw a tiny creature jumping up and down and squeaking at him angrily. Adam stared, unsure what to do. What was this thing?

"It's just a gnome, Adam," Ginny said. "We have them all the time in the garden."

Adam watched as Ginny grabbed the gnome by its small stubby arms and with a mighty heave threw it over to the far side of the garden.

"Mum gets the boys to clean them out every couple of weeks. She'll probably get you to help. I don't have to though," Ginny said with a wicked grin. "It's not a job for girls," Ginny screwed her face up. "Unfortunately, I'll be given laundry to do."

They continued across the garden until they reached a group of tall trees. Ginny led Adam through the trees, until they came to an area of cleared land in the centre of what appeared to be an orchard.

"This is where we play Quidditch," said Ginny. "We just can't fly too high or the Muggles can see us."

"Can we fly?" Adam asked, suddenly remembering something from last year. "We said we'd go to the tryouts this year didn't we! We'll need to practice."

"Well, you'll definitely be able to fly. My brother's don't like me flying with them," said Ginny bitterly.

"Why don't they let you fly with them?" asked Adam.

"I'm a girl. They think I'll break easily," she replied with an exasperated look.

Adam paused, that seemed very unfair to him.

"Well, if you can't fly with them, me and you will fly when they aren't around," said Adam.

Adam saw Ginny's face break in a large grin.

"Yep, we can," she replied.

They began walking back towards the house. They were both feeling hungry and Adam was sure it must be lunch time soon.

"If you've never flown with your brothers, how are you so good?" asked Adam as they navigated the garden.

"Oh, I sneak out to fly," Ginny replied, with an innocent smile on her face. "How are you so good?"

Adam hesitated, trying to think of a funny reply. "Must be my natural skills," he replied with a cheeky smile on his face.

As soon as the pair returned to the house, Ginny disappeared upstairs to the bathroom and Adam went into the living room to sit down. As he entered the room, he noticed that Ron was already there. Adam hadn't spoken to him much since he had arrived at The Burrow. Adam sat down on the sofa. The noise attracted Ron's attention and must have scared his rat. It had been sitting on his shoulder and quickly ran out of sight when Adam sat down. Ron and Adam sat there in uncomfortable silence.

"I'm sorry," Ron mumbled.

"What?" Adam replied.

"I'm sorry for the way I acted last year. I thought you were the one attacking people and I...I didn't even believe my own sister when she said it wasn't you," Ron stood up and walked over to stand in front of Adam. "I know I can't take it back, but can we at least try to get on. I've apologised to Ginny about being an utter prat to her last year and ignoring her. If it wasn't for you she would have been completely on her own and things might have been far worse."

Ron held out his hand and they shook.

"Mates?" Ron asked.

Adam was amazed that Rom actually looked nervous.

"Mates," Adam replied.

"Um, do you want a game of chess?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, sure, I'm not very good though," said Adam with a smile.

Ron began setting up the chessboard. They had just begun making moves when Ginny entered the room, she sat down next to Adam.

"Ron is so good, I think it will take both of us to even have a chance against him," said Ginny with a smile on her face.

Ginny

August 1st 1993

Ginny ran into the girls' bathroom, she was feeling sick. As soon as she entered the room her body tensed. She turned around and left the room. She walked to the second floor girl's bathroom and descended into the Chamber of Secrets. When she reached the basilisk, it was curled up at the feet of Salazar Slytherin.

"Go up into the school, kill the first thing that you find," Ginny hissed.

Ginny rode the basilisk back up to the bathroom. It left her side to travel into the pipes. It had a mission to carry out. Within minutes, however, it had returned.

"Take me there," she hissed.

She followed the basilisk out into the corridor, where there was a cat petrified on the floor.

"Inefficient…" Ginny commented.

"Finish it..." Ginny began to hiss, but she fell to her knees gasping, holding her head.

"Stupid girl, you can not fight me," said Ginny in a strained voice.

"Finish...Argh!" Ginny once again collapsed to the floor.

"Go, return the Chamber," Ginny hissed, accepting defeat. The girl was too strong, still that could soon be rectified.

Raising her wand, she levitated the petrified cat until it was hooked onto one of the torches on the wall. If she couldn't kill the animal, she would send the school a message. She conjured a pot of red paint and using her hands wrote a message on the wall.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE

Returning to the bathroom, she cleaned the paint off her robe. It wouldn't do to leave any evidence. The girl might choose to confide in her Mudblood friend. The girl had told Ginny many things about the boy; she could see many parallels there to her own past. Such a pity he was a Mudblood.

Now clean, Ginny raised her wand to her head and a flash of light filled her vision.

In her bed, Ginny tossed and turned violently and let out a scream.

Adam

August 1st 1993

Ginny's scream shocked Adam out of his sleep. Bolting out of bed, without thinking, he charged out of his room and into Ginny's. Ginny was tossing and turning in her bed, Adam could see beads of sweat on her forehead and her usually vibrant hair was matted with sweat. She was obviously having a nightmare. Adam moved forward and was about to try to shake her awake when someone else entered the room.

"What is going on in here?" Mrs Weasley's raised voice came from behind him. "Adam?! What are you doing in here?"

"I-I heard her scream. I think she is having a nightmare," Adam replied shakily.

Adam thought he saw Mrs Weasley glare at him for a second, before she pushed past him to get to Ginny.

"Adam, go back to bed," Mrs Weasley ordered as she grabbed hold of Ginny and hugged her.

Not wanting to anger Mrs Weasley anymore than he already had Adam went back to his room, cursing himself for somehow ending up in another suspicious situation. He seemed to really have a knack for making people suspicious about him.

Ginny

August 2nd 1993

When Ginny awoke the next morning her entire body felt exhausted. She hadn't gotten much sleep after her mum had finally been able to rouse her from the nightmare. It had been the worst one yet. The image of her body writing on the wall and hissing orders to the basilisk made her shudder. Ginny was also fearful because if the pattern of her nightmares continued, she would soon dream of the attacks on the students and finally Adam. She shuddered again at the thought of this.

Ginny lay on her back watching the sunlight stream in from behind her curtains, she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, but she didn't have the energy to get up either. A short time later, the click of the door announced her mother's entry into the room.

"Hello, dear, how are you this morning?" her mum asked, as she bustled into the room with a basket of washing.

"Tired," Ginny replied.

"Ginny, what happened last night?"

"I had a nightmare, mum. I've had them before its no big deal," she lied. “Why do you ask?”

"Oh, it's just that when I got here Adam was in the room, we were a bit concerned..."

"MUM!" Ginny cried. "How could you think he had anything to do with this? He probably heard me scream and he is the closest! Adam would never hurt me!"

"Oh...” her mum seemed flustered by the strength of Ginny's reply. "Are you sure dear?"

"Mum, I dreamed about the Chamber okay! For the past few weeks I've been having memories coming back of the times that the diary was controlling me," Ginny was fuming now. "Adam is probably the only one that can sort of understand. He was the only one who noticed something was wrong with me and the only one to do anything about it!"

Her mum stood there in shocked silence.

"Mum, please don't accuse Adam. He had enough of that last year," said Ginny, looking at her mum with pleading eyes.

"Okay, Ginny," her mum lent down to give her a kiss. "When did you grow up so much?" she said smiling.

Ginny decided that her mum probably didn't want to hear the answer to that question, so kept silent. Once her mum had left the room Ginny dragged herself out of bed, dressed and made her way downstairs for breakfast.

When she reached the kitchen Adam, Ron and her mum were seated at the table. Adam was looking straight down at his plate, seemingly unwilling to make eye contact with anyone else in the room. As she entered the kitchen, he looked up and gave her a small smile. Ron ignored her completely, choosing to focus on his breakfast. Adam soon finished his breakfast and nodding towards the garden left the kitchen.

Ginny quickly ate her breakfast and went out into the garden. She finally found Adam sitting by the side of the pond.

"You okay?" Adam asked as she sat down beside him.

"Yeah,"

"What was that last night?" he asked. "I heard you scream and dashed into your room. I don't think your mum was too pleased to see me there."

"No, she basically asked me if you made me scream," Ginny replied.

"I...” stuttered Adam.

"I know it wasn't you. My mum is just a bit overprotective. I don't think she's thrilled that my best friend is a boy," Ginny replied with a smirk.

"So what was the nightmare about?" Adam asked.

"Well," Ginny sighed. "I don't think it's really a nightmare, I think it's the memories that Tom erased when he was controlling me. I see myself doing things, but it's not like I'm doing them. It's almost as if I'm watching over my shoulder, but I can sort of tell what he's thinking when he is me," Ginny shivered. "It's hard to explain, It's like I am doing the things but yet it's not me."

Adam took Ginny's hand and held it for a second. It helped to know there was at least one person who sort of understood what she had gone through.

"Do these dreams happen often?" Adam asked.

"No. I've only had two or three so far, this one was when the cat was attacked. I saw myself commanding the basilisk to attack! I wrote on the wall!" she said, feeling her voice quavering. "It's not just the things Tom does; it's when he casts spells. I don't know what the spells do but they feel familiar." Ginny looked into Adam eyes. "When Tom talks in Parseltongue I can understand him!"

"Isn't that just in your dreams, though?" asked Adam.

"I don't know! I can't try the spells out here and I'm not sure I want to!" Ginny stared at Adam intently. "Can you speak Parseltongue for me, to see if I can understand you?"

"I can't just speak it; I need a snake to talk to. I've never been able to do it otherwise,” Adam replied.

"Oh," replied Ginny, deflating slightly. "How do you know?"

"I've tried," Adam replied in a small voice. "If we find a snake, I'll give it a go for you, though."

"Promise?" asked Ginny, she had to know if Tom had left more than memories in her head.

"Promise," replied Adam.

Chapter 4

Author's Notes: Thanks for all the reviews and thanks to my two betas Arnel and jezzjamer2.

Adam

August 8th 1993

Adam and Ginny trudged across the garden with two of the Weasley family brooms in their hands. Today was the first chance they'd had to practice Quidditch.

Over the last couple of weeks Adam, Ron and Ginny had spent a lot of time together around The Burrow. Since his apology, Adam had been getting on well with Ron and, as a peace offering, Ron had helped Adam improve his chess skills. They still, however, had one major disagreement; Ron was adamant that Ginny couldn't play Quidditch with them. So whenever Ron asked Adam to play, he politely declined unless Ginny could play too.

However, today Ron had gone to visit Neville so after asking Mrs Weasley for permission, Adam and Ginny were heading out to the orchard to practice.

When they reached the small makeshift pitch, they mounted their brooms. Ginny immediately shot off around the pitch. Adam was slightly more cautious, but he soon was zipping around the small paddock almost as skillfully as Ginny.

"Don't go above the tree line!" Ginny called out as Adam began to climb.

Quickly coming back down towards the ground, Adam and Ginny hovered just over the centre of the pitch. Ginny grinned at Adam and shot off across the pitch again. Adam flew after her in pursuit. When they reaching the far end of the paddock, they looped around and raced back to the other side. Adam had to admit that Ginny was faster than him, but only just.

As they circled for the second time, Adam heard a chorus of claps and hooting noises coming from the edge of the trees. Circling around Adam saw the twins standing on the ground with their brooms. They were staring up at them.

"Bravo! Bravo! Looks like our sister and her friend have some talent!" The twin on the right said. Adam still couldn't tell them apart.

"Thanks, Fred!" Ginny called, blushing slightly.

"You two are quick, probably because you're both so titchy," said George.

"Brother, are you thinking what I am thinking?" said Fred.

"Why if they can catch as well as they can fly we might have some candidates to fill out seeker spot this year," George continued. "Our Seeker last year was awful; he only played because we had no other choice. He didn't even try out for the spot."

"It was why we lost the Quidditch cup," Fred finished.

It annoyed Adam slightly when the twins spoke like that in rapid secession. It made his neck hurt.

"I prefer chasing though," said Ginny, pouting slightly.

"We have three really good chasers at the moment, and as good as you are, Sis, I don't think you'll stand much of a chance," said Fred.

"You could both be good seekers though, I reckon," said George.

"Let's put them to the test," finished Fred.

The four of them mounted their brooms and hovered above the paddock. George grabbed a couple of apples from nearby trees.

"Okay, I'm going to throw these apples and I want you to catch them," said George.

George and Fred took turns throwing the apples across the orchard for Adam and Ginny to catch. The first few were easy and Adam only had to cross from one side of the paddock to the other in order to reach out and grab them. Fred threw the next one low. Adam dived rapidly towards the ground. As the ground rushed towards him, he reached out, closed his hand around the apple and pulled up, just barely in time to avoid hitting the ground. Adam swore he even felt his shoes brush the ground. Looking over at the other side of the pitch he saw Ginny reaching out and grabbing an apple that had gone sailing above the tree line, she seemed to quickly realise she was too high and sank back below the trees.

After an exhausting session of apple catching, Adam returned to the ground and was soon joined by the twins and Ginny.

"You guys are both good. Ginny is slightly faster," complimented George.

"But Adam seems to be a bit better at catching," finished Fred.

"Unless we have some undiscovered talent at school, or we have some first year prodigy join, then I think one of you will make the team."

The twins slapped both of them on their back and then the group started walking back towards the house.

"Give him hell at the trials, Sis," Adam heard one of them whisper to Ginny as they walked.

Ginny turned and grinned at Adam. He rolled his eyes in response, and they continued walking, side-by-side, back towards The Burrow.

August 11th 1993

"Happy birthday, Ginny!" The crowd at the Weasley dinner table cried and Adam watched as Ginny excitedly blew out the candles on her cake.

The birthday tea, that Mrs Weasley had made Ginny was, in Adam's opinion, simply flabbergasting. Ginny had obviously enjoyed it as she hadn't stopped grinning since Mrs Weasley had brought out the first dish. How Ginny was able to grin and eat at the same time Adam wasn't quite sure.

After dinner was over, Adam sat next to Ginny in the living room, she was busy pouring over the Hollyhead Harpies album she had been given for her birthday.

"Adam, whens your birthday?" Ginny asked suddenly.

Adam hesitated. "Um, I don't know,"

"What?" said Ginny staring at him. "You don't know?"

Adam shook his head.

"I asked one of the people at one of the homes once, they didn't know. As I was abandoned, they didn't know anything about me,"

"So you never had a birthday party?" said Ginny sadly.

Adam thought back to when he was younger. "When I was little I can remember I always used to say my birthday was the same date as my two friends," Adam blushed. "I was always embarrassed because I didn't have one."

"What date was that then? We can use that!" Ginny said brightly.

"July 10th," replied Adam smiling.

Ginny always seemed to know how to make him feel better.

August 13th 1993

Adam was sitting at the breakfast table with the Weasleys. As usual, he was one of the first up this morning, so he had practically finished his breakfast by the time the others joined him. Adam was polishing off his third piece of toast, when an owl swooped into the kitchen with a pile of letters tied to its leg. Percy immediately jumped up from where he was sitting and grabbed the bundle of letters.

"Hogwarts letters?" Ron asked.

"Yes. Why is there one with no name here?" Percy asked as he flicked through the letters.

"That's me," Adam replied quietly.

"Why isn't your name on it?" Ron asked.

"No idea," Adam shrugged. "Would have thought they could have sorted it out by now though."

Adam and the Weasleys all opened their letters.

"YES!" Percy shouted suddenly. He nearly jumped up from the table but at the last minute collected himself. "Mum," he said trying to attract Mrs Weasley's attention.

"What is it, dear?" asked Mrs Weasley.

Percy held up a gold badge that read Head Boy. Mrs Weasley squealed and wrapped Percy in a hug.

"Well Done! Well Done!" Mrs Weasley gushed.

Adam looked around the room, all the Weasleys were grinning.

"Percy! Let's Floo your father and tell him," said Mrs Weasley and she dragged him out of the room.

Once the door had closed the twins and Ginny both burst out in giggles.

"Head Boy!" said Fred.

"Big Head Boy more like!" continued George.

The four Weasleys burst out in renewed laughter. Adam smiled, unsure if it was appropriate for him to join in.

Ginny

August 23rd 1993

Ginny was being a good girl; she was helping fold the washing. The boys had all been sent out to de-gnome the garden. It annoyed Ginny that she always had to help with the laundry. Surely, it was only fair for one of the boys to do it every now and then. She would quite happily go and help de-gnome the garden.

"Ginny! Come outside quickly!" Adam called from the doorway.

Ginny was only about halfway through the first pile of washing but was glad for any excuse to get away from the laundry, so she followed Adam outside. He ran across the garden, away from where her brothers were busy throwing gnomes over the fence. Suddenly he dropped to his knees and began searching in the long grass.

"Adam?"

"I was chasing a gnome and I saw it!" he replied.

Ginny knelt down next to Adam and looked into the grass that Adam has pushed aside. A long green and grey snake lay coiled up. Ginny felt herself recoil automatically. The last snake she had seen was the basilisk.

"It's okay. I'll talk to it," Adam replied.

"Hello, Wake up Mr. Snake!" Adam said with a slight hiss to his voice.

Ginny heard Adam but maybe it wasn't Parseltongue maybe Adam did it wrong. The snake stirred and began looking frantically around.

"Hello," Adam said, once again with a slight hiss.

"Hello, speaker, why did you wake me," the snake replied.

Ginny whimpered and felt her heart sink. She could understand the snake. Tom had done something to her, he had made her body speak Parseltongue when he controlled it and now she could still understand it.

"Ginny, you could understand me, couldn't you?" asked Adam hesitantly.

Ginny could only nod in response.

"I wanted to see if my friend was also a speaker and well she is," replied Adam.

"Greetings," the snake replied as it turned towards Ginny.

Ginny stared at the snake. She didn't want to speak to it. She didn't want to hear that hissing noise coming from her own mouth.

"Ginny, can you speak to it?" Adam prompted.

"Human?" the snake hissed.

Ginny stared at the snake, feeling panic welling up inside her. She couldn't bear to look at it, she turned away.

"Hello," she said. It came out in English!

She couldn't speak it! She couldn't talk to snakes! Tom had still done something to her though! She wanted things to go back to the way they were. With a strangled sob, she dashed back into the house ignoring Adam's calls as she ran.

When she reached her room, Ginny slammed the door, threw herself down on her bed and sobbed. A short time later, she heard a soft knock on the door. She ignored it. Eventually the door opened and Adam entered the room. He sat down on the end of her bed in silence.

"It could be kinda cool..." Adam said quietly.

"What?" she snapped.

"I bet we're the only two people in school who can understand snakes..." Adam trailed off.

"It makes me feel dirty," Ginny said softly.

"I'm a Parselmouth too. Does that make me dirty?" Adam asked, slightly annoyed.

Adam just didn't get it.

"The diary changed me! Whatever it did to me, I can now understand snakes! I can't forget about it because it changed me!" Ginny snapped and punched her pillow.

"It could be worse, Ginny!" Adam exclaimed. "Just because you can understand snakes, doesn't make you evil. Just like me being able to speak to snakes doesn't make me evil."

Ginny lay in silence, but she had managed to stop crying. She didn't say anything else to Adam and he eventually stood up and left the room.

Ginny didn't emerge from her room until her mum called her for lunch. When she reached the kitchen, she sat down next to Adam.

"Sorry about earlier," she said. It wasn't Adam's fault that she could now understand snakes. "Don't tell anyone, please?"

"I won't. I promise." Adam replied.

Ginny gave Adam grateful smile and began to eat her lunch.

August 31st 1993

Ginny was pleased. Tonight a Mudblood would die. It had been a frustratingly long evening waiting for her chance to take control of the girl. It wasn't until after the school had gone to sleep that her chance had come. The girl had been sitting in her room in Gryffindor tower, scribbling furiously in the diary. Once she had control of the girl's body Ginny had been able to sneak out of the common room unnoticed and release the basilisk.

She was now walking back towards Gryffindor tower; it wouldn't do for the girl to wake up somewhere else tomorrow morning.

"Ginny?" a voice called from the far end of the corridor. "I saw you leave, is everything alright?"

Ginny pressed herself up against the wall behind a nearby tapestry and peered out into the corridor. She recognised Creevey. He had a camera in his hand. A Mudblood, this was almost too convenient.

"Kill," Ginny hissed.

She felt the basilisk move towards her, she heard the sound of frantic scraping and slithering as it raced towards its target. Ginny heard Creevey emit a startled yelp followed by a thudding sound.

She heard the basilisk hiss in anger.

Ginny emerged from her hiding place.

"Go, Leave," she hissed.

The basilisk had failed, stupid creature. Creevey had only been petrified. Still, this would serve as a warning for others.

"Lucky boy," Ginny mused.

Ginny returned to the common room. She had better return the girl's body before it was missed.

Ginny fell to the floor with a crash. She looked around frantically, unsure where she was. Glancing up she saw her brother and Adam sitting at a small silver table. Ron was laughing hysterically, while Adam was looking at her with concern.

"That was hilarious!" Ron squeaked between laughs.

"Are you alright?" Adam asked as she got back to her feet.

Once she was sitting back on the chair, she looked around. She remembered where they were now; Ron, Adam and herself had been having an ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. They were out shopping for their school things today. Ron had arranged to meet Hermione here, so Mum had left them at the ice cream parlour to do some of her own shopping.

"I'm fine," she replied.

Adam leaned over and whispered. "Dream?"

"Yeah, tell you later," Ginny replied, she didn't want anyone else to know about her dreams.

"Hermione!" Ron called out suddenly and began waving enthusiastically.

Ginny looked up and saw Hermione, with two people that Ginny assumed to be her parents. She had a large cage in her hand. As Hermione and her parents were walking towards them, she glanced over and saw that Ron had a big grin on his face.

"Hi, Ron!" Hermione called as she approached. "Oh, Hi Ginny, Hi Adam," Hermione gestured to her parents. "These are my parents. Mum, Dad I think you've met Ron and Ginny before. This is Adam, Ginny's friend."

"Nice to meet you all," replied Mr Granger. "Where are your parents?" He asked, looking around the alley.

"Mum should be back soon," Ron replied.

Meanwhile Ginny was squinting to get a look inside the cage that Hermione had in her hand. She thought she heard a soft purring sound from inside.

"Is that a cat?" Ginny asked excitedly, she loved cats.

Hermione placed the carrier down on the table and Ginny put her face up against the bars of the cage. She peered inside. There was a large ginger coloured cat in the cage, it appeared to be dozing.

"It's soo cute!" Ginny exclaimed.

"His name is Crookshanks," said Hermione proudly.

Ginny watched as Adam and Ron in turn peered into the cage. Both boys seemed relatively unimpressed by the sleeping cat.

"Is that a cat, Hermione dear?" Mum said from behind Ginny, making her jump.

"He's part kneazle, they're supposed be very intelligent," said Hermione, beaming.

Mum smiled. "Yes, indeed they are." Looking around at the group she continued, "Well, I suppose we better get on with our shopping then," she said.

As the group walked towards the first shop, where they hoped to pick up sets of second hand robes, Ginny noticed that Adam was hanging at the back of the group attempting to speak privately to her mum.

Ginny had to listen carefully to make out what he was saying. "Mrs. Weasley, what is happening about my things, I don't want to be a burden," Adam said in a quiet voice.

"Don't worry, dear. Professor McGonagall gave us your money from the school fund to get your things," Mum replied kindly.

Ginny saw Adam visibly relax, and she slowed her walking pace to draw level with him.

"Were you listening in?" Adam asked.

"Yeah, sorry," Ginny blushed.

"Naughty," Adam stuck his tongue out. "So what was the dream about?"

"Colin being attacked." Ginny said glumly.

"Are...are you okay?"

"I think so. I know it wasn't me that did it. It's just so creepy to think of someone controlling me. Y'know seeing my body doing things and knowing I'm not in control."

"Yeah, but at least you sort of know now what it did to you," Adam paused. "Hopefully once you've had all your memories from last year come back, the nightmares will stop."

"I hope so."

Adam gave her a smile. "Let's catch up to the others."

Ginny nodded and smiled back. Adam wasn't the best with words, but his presence at times when she was upset always made her feel better.

Remus

August 31st 1993

Remus looked at the building he was currently standing in front of. It was an old red-bricked building, the windows had bars over them and the door appeared to have a steel plate over it. It didn't look homely at all. Remus shuddered. If his research was correct, Adam could possibly have lived here for two years.

It had taken Remus weeks of investigation to be able to find, what he hoped would be, his first step in tracing Adam's past. He had initially phoned all the children's homes in the London area and he had found three records of an Adam Winters. He visited two of these homes only to discover that the Adam Winters they had on their records wasn't the boy he was investigating. This was his last lead along this line of enquiry.

Remus approached the doorway and knocked on the door. A short time later the door cracked open to reveal a woman in a light blue uniform on the other side.

"Good morning, my name is Remus Lupin, I called on the phone," Remus said.

"Oh, come in then," the woman said.

Remus' first view of the inside of the building surprised him. It was unnaturally quiet. This was supposed to be a children's home. So where were all the children?

"Where are all the children?" he asked.

"They're all outside at this time of day," she replied stiffly.

Remus entered her office and took a seat. The woman sat behind the only desk in the room.

"So you are here to discuss Adam Winters?" she said, obviously having no interest in small talk.

"Yes, I was friends with his parents," said Remus. He hated having to lie but he needed the information.

The woman picked a brown file up out of a tray on the desk and glanced inside. She pulled out a photograph and showed Remus. Much to Remus' relief it was Adam. He had his first clue.

"Is this the boy?" she asked.

Remus nodded.

"Well, I can tell you that he was here between July 1989 and May 1991. He managed to escape, badly injuring another boy in the process," the woman replied.

"Can you tell me anything else? Where was he before he came here?" asked Remus.

The woman glanced in the file.

"He was transferred from a home in Cardiff. It says here he was a compulsive vandal which is why he was transferred," she said. "I can give you the address but that's all I can give you from the file I am afraid."

"Can you tell me anything about him? You must have had some interaction with him?" asked Remus. Even though he had the information he was after, he needed to see what the boy's life here would have been like.

The woman sighed.

"Please," coaxed Remus.

Remus put his hand into the pocket of the cloak and gripped his wand. He hated to do this, but Albus had asked him to get all possible information about Adam. Casting the spell silently as the woman began to talk he gently viewed her thoughts.

"Adam was troubled. He was a very sweet boy, to be honest. At first, we couldn't understand why he was sent here. He was never very good at making friends and he tended to get bullied by the others because of this," she began.

Remus was looking down onto what appeared to be a large dining room. There were several large rectangular tables in the room, with chairs around them. The room seemed deserted. However, the sound of someone crying filled the room. Remus saw the woman he had been talking to walk across the room, to where a boy of about nine or ten was sitting alone. The woman approached the boy from behind and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. Adam flinched violently and spun around, puffy red eyes glaring at her intensely. Adam had a partially healed cut on one side of his face and his left eye was black and swollen.

"Did they get you again?" she asked.

Adam nodded, with tears in his eyes.

"Adam, can't you try and make some friends? They only pick on you because you're always alone."

"I can't," Adam in a quiet voice. He pulled he knees up to this chest and wrapping his arms around them began to rock backwards and forwards.

"Why not Adam?"

"No one will want me! I'm a freak!" Adam snapped.

"You need to try, Adam," the woman sighed.

"Can you just get them to leave me alone?" Adam asked in a small voice.

"I'm sorry, Adam...but...I'll try," she trailed off.

Sighing she left the room leaving Adam holding his legs to his chest and staring into space.

Remus snapped back to reality.

"Then suddenly one day he violently attacked another boy. We had no choice but to call the police, but by the time they got here Adam was gone," she continued.

"Marie, come quickly!" a man dressed in the same blue uniform called to the woman that Remus had been speaking to.

She dashed quickly into the room from which the shout came. Adam was in one corner curled up into a ball and shaking violently. A large boy about twice the size of Adam was sprawled under the window lying in a pool of blood. It looked to Remus as if he had been thrown against the metal window frame.

"What did you do?" The man roared to Adam.

To Remus' shock, the man grabbed Adam by the scruff of his neck and roughly pulled him to his feet and shook him. Adam looked older than in the previous memory, probably by a year or so.

"Answer me!" The man roared.

Adam whimpered in response and the man slapped him across the face.

"Bill!" Marie cried out. "Stop! Let me take him, he may talk to me."

Bill put Adam back down on his feet.

"Lock him in the office until the police get here," said Bill.

The surroundings blurred slightly and suddenly Adam and Marie were standing in the office where Remus was currently sitting.

"What happened, Adam?" Marie asked.

"I-I-I d-d-don't know!" Adam cried. "He punched me and I fell. I got mad and when he tried to punch me again, something went bang and he flew across the room!"

"Adam! Tell the truth please! It's really important," Marie said. "Bill has called the police. I can only help you if you tell me the truth!"

"That is the truth!" Adam shouted.

"I'm sorry Adam, if you won't tell me the truth then I can't help you."

Marie left the room and locked the door. She leaned up against the wall and sighed. As she was leaning against the wall, Remus heard a faint pop from inside the room. Marie had obviously heard it as well. She scanned the area for the source of the noise. Finding nothing, she slowly walked away from the office.

"I can't tell you much more, I'm afraid. I probably shouldn't have told you this much," Marie finished.

"Thank you very much for your time," Remus replied, shaking her hand.

Remus replayed the memories he had seen in his head. The boy had obviously had an outburst of accidental magic in response to the bullying he received and had then managed to escape with further accidental magic. What was curious was that the Ministry hadn't gotten involved. Normally a large accidental magic outburst would have triggered a visit from the Obliviators. What was more concerning to Remus was that the boy was clearly aware of his magical talents and had come to the conclusion that because of them he could not make friends with the others in the home. Something had clearly happened in his past to result in this attitude. Remus was determined to get to the bottom of this.

Chapter 5

Author's Notes: Thanks for all the reviews, here is the next chapter! Thanks to my two betas Arnel and Jezzjamer2.

Adam

September 1st 1993

Adam's trip to King's Cross this year was about as different from last year's as you could get. Last year he had arrived about an hour early and sat around on his own. Now he had friends and was dashing frantically towards the barrier with his trunk. He only had about two minutes until the train left.

Eventually, Adam and Ginny stood at the back of the train breathing heavily. They had made it, but only just.

"I'm sure we were the only two that managed to actually pack all our things the first time around!" Adam exclaimed. They'd had to return to The Burrow several times to pick up forgotten items.

"My brothers are useless," Ginny giggled.

Adam and Ginny wandered down the corridor, eventually finding an empty compartment.

"Here's to a quiet year this time?" Adam said as they sat down. He wanted to try to lighten the mood; Ginny had been very quiet all day.

Ginny sat in silence for several minutes.

"Ginny?" Adam eventually prompted.

"When we get to school, I want to apologise to Hagrid......I got him sent to Azkaban!" Ginny blurted.

"Ginny..." Adam said.

"I know it wasn't me!" Ginny snapped. "But I still feel I should apologise."

They sat in silence for a while. Adam knew Ginny still hadn't completely come to terms with the things that Diary had done to her. He had decided to keep an eye on her and be there if she needed his help.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" The trolley witch said from the doorway a short time later.

Ginny shook her head and looked over towards Adam.

"Nothing for me thanks," Adam replied and the trolley witch left, pushing her trolley to the next compartment. "I've got no money this year," Adam said, blushing slightly as she disappeared from view.

"Don't worry same here. Mum says until we can go to Hogsmeade next year, there's no point in taking money to school. So she made me leave my pocket money at home."

Several hours later, the train pulled into Hogsmeade station and Adam and Ginny, now changed into their school robes, got off.

"It's the carriages for you guys this year, then?" Hermione asked brightly as she approached them on the platform.

"What?" Adam asked, confused.

"Only the first years go across in boats, everyone else takes the carriages," Hermione answered.

Adam, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Hermione all shared a carriage up to the school. Adam was surprised to find that the carriages seemed to pull themselves. Trust the magical world never to do anything the normal way.

As they entered the school, Professor McGonagall was checking on the students as they entered, when she saw them Adam saw a brief smile cross her face.

"Adam, I trust you had a good summer with the Weasleys?" she asked. "I was incredibly angry at....."

"Yes thanks, Professor, its been brilliant." Adam replied, interrupting her. He didn't want her to say anything about the first few weeks of the summer, not in front of all the others students.

"That's good, Adam." Professor McGonagall paused. "Oh, Miss Granger, please come and see me in my office immediately. It's about the matter we discussed at the end of last year."

Adam looked at Hermione, wondering what Professor McGonagall was on about, but the crowd of students forced them to move into the Great Hall before he could ask her.

The Great Hall was a bustle of activity with students pouring in through the large doors and making their way to their tables. Adam and Ginny split off from Ron who left to sit with the rest of their year. Adam and Ginny took their seats with the other second years and waited for the sorting to begin.

"There's a new woman up on the staff table," Ginny pointed out.

"I'm guessing to replace Lockhart," Adam replied.

Adam watched the faces of the new students as they were called up for their turn to be Sorted. He was keen to see if any of them looked as terrified as he could remember feeling before his Sorting last year. He was secretly pleased when he saw a large number of them did look exceedingly nervous. Adam realised that there were many more first years this year and the ceremony soon began to bore him. He couldn't believe he had five more years of Sortings to sit through.

When the Sorting ceremony was finally concluded Professor Dumbledore stood up and the Hall soon became silent.

"Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" Professor Dumbledore announced, his voice booming throughout the hall. "This year we must welcome two new members to our teaching staff. Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, a very dear friend of mine, Professor Hestia Jones and our second new appointment is our very own Rubeus Hagrid, who will fill the post of Care of Magical Creatures professor. After many years Professor Kettleburn has decided to retire to spend more time with his remaining limbs."

Applause broke out throughout the hall, which Adam joined in excitedly. He glanced at Ginny and saw that she too was joining in.

"I believe that is everything of importance, let the feast begin!" Professor Dumbledore finished.

Adam tucked into the huge meal that had appeared before him with great vigour, another year at Hogwarts had begun.

Ginny

September 2nd 1993

Ginny was waiting with Adam outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom for their last class of the day. She was surprised that she was actually excited about this lesson. This year she might actually learn something about defending herself. All she had learned last year was Lockhart's made up fairy-tales.

The door to the classroom opened and the class inside began to pour out. Once the flow of students out of the classroom had stopped Ginny and Adam entered and took a desk near the back of the classroom.

"Welcome, class," Professor Jones announced to bring order to the class. "Firstly, welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts! As I have discovered from my other classes today, your standard of instruction last year was abysmal. This leaves me with the task of covering two years worth of material in one year," Professor Jones paused. "I will cover some of the basic practical spell work for defence that will assist you should you ever be threatened by a person or magical creature."

The class broke out into excited whispers. Ginny was overjoyed at last they would be learning some real spells!

"However," Professor Jones continued. "First we must cover the theory work you should have covered last year, so I would not anticipate we will get to any practical work until after Christmas."

The entire class groaned.

"Now," Professor Jones waved her wand and sheets of parchment flew to each student in the class. "Take this exercise and let's see what, if anything, you learnt last year."

Ginny grabbed her quill and set to work on the questions in front of her. She looked at the first question and surprisingly realised that she knew the answer. Encouraged she began working her way through the exercise. It took the entire lesson to complete and as the lesson finished Professor Jones collected them in from every student.

As it was the last lesson of the day, and Ginny and Adam headed straight to the Great Hall for dinner. Ginny was anxious to go and see Hagrid soon. They hadn't been given any homework so far, so she thought tonight would be the perfect chance.

"I'm going to go and see Hagrid after dinner.” Ginny said to Adam as they munched through their dinner. “I'll meet up with you later,"

"I'll come with you," Adam replied.

"Thanks," Ginny replied with a smile. She wanted Adam there, but hadn't been sure if he actually wanted to come with her.

Once they had finished their dinner, they walked down to Hagrid's hut out in the school grounds. They approached the hut, which was a small stone structure with a small garden at the rear. The garden contained Hagrid's chickens and was filled with several rows of vegetables. Ginny had never been to the hut before but she recognised it from her dreams. As she got nearer to the hut she had a sudden attack of nerves.

"Am I doing the right thing?" she asked Adam hesitantly.

"Ginny, you've been on about doing this for several days now. Are you going to chicken out now?" Adam asked.

"No!" Ginny snapped. She didn't chicken out of things.

Adam grinned and strode up the steps to the hut and knocked on the door. There was the faint sound of movement from inside the hut and the door opened to reveal Hagrid.

"Ginny!" said Hagrid. "and...?"

"Adam," Adam replied. "We met in the Leaky Cauldron last year, I was with Professor McGonagall."

"Of course! I remember now. Come in, come in!"

Ginny glanced around as she and Adam trooped inside the hut. It seemed a very small place for such a big man to live; it was only a single room. There were several large chairs, a bed and a fireplace. In the centre of the room was Hagrid's dog. Ginny was fairly sure that Ron had said his name was Fang. She noticed Adam looking warily at the dog.

"Sit down, kids!" Hagrid said jovially. "Would you like something to eat or drink?"

"Uh, sure," Adam said.

Oops, Ginny remembered that Ron had said that she shouldn't accept Hagrid's offers of food. So she shook her head. She probably should have mentioned that to Adam.

Soon Adam's lap was loaded with a cup of tea and a large plate of cakes. She, Hagrid and Adam sat around the small table in his hut. Ginny watched as Adam picked up one of the cakes and put it in his mouth. Ginny had to hold back a laugh as Adam's face contorted briefly before he forced it back into a neutral expression.

"Good?" Hagrid asked.

Adam coughed. "Oh yes. I'm sure Ginny would love one," he said sweetly.

Hagrid looked expectantly at Ginny, who took a cake and ate it with only a slight grimace. They were very hard. She glared at Adam.

"So what can I do for you two?" asked Hagrid.

Ginny hesitated. This was going to be hard to do, but she needed to do this.

"We wanted to congratulate you on your new job!" Adam said, breaking the silence.

Hagrid beamed at them. "Professor Dumbledore sorted it out for me. Who would have thought? Jail last year and a teacher this year; a great man, Dumbledore." Hagrid's face dropped briefly. "I don't know how long I will last though. Draco Malfoy was injured today. In my first class!" Hagrid slammed his fist on the table making Ginny and Adam jump. "It was his own stupid fault! If he had done what I said..." Hagrid trailed off.

"I'm sure you'll be fine. Professor Dumbledore won't fire you!" Ginny replied.

"Thanks, Ginny," Hagrid replied, the worried expression beginning to fade from his face.

The room settled into an uncomfortable silence. Ginny saw Adam looking over at her and knew she had to do this.

"Hagrid, I wanted to apologise for last year." Ginny paused.

"Ginny..." Hagrid replied quietly.

"It was me. I opened the Chamber!" Ginny's story came tumbling out of her mouth. "I killed the roosters. It was because of me that you got sent to Azkaban!" Ginny hung her head.

"Ginny, I know." Hagrid said quietly.

"What?" Ginny and Adam exclaimed together.

"Professor Dumbledore told us at the end of last year. I don't blame you. It wasn't your fault that someone slipped you an enchanted diary," Hagrid smiled at her.

"Professor Dumbledore told everyone?" Ginny snapped. She thought it was going to be kept a secret.

"Only the staff! And he made us promise to keep quiet about it!"

Ginny sat in silence, she felt herself deflate. She was surprisingly angry with Professor Dumbledore. He told the teachers! True she was going to tell Hagrid, but she wanted to be the one tell him. She saw Hagrid looking at her with a sympathetic expression on his face.

"We all understand it wasn't your fault. Professor Dumbledore told us all not to try to talk to you about it," said Hagrid, kindly.

"Thanks..." Ginny muttered.

"We should be heading back to the castle," Adam said breaking the uncomfortable silence. Ginny had almost forgotten he was there.

"Well, good bye! Come back anytime!" Hagrid said jovially as he stood up and began clearing up the tea things and the, mostly uneaten, cakes.

Ginny and Adam left Hagrid's with a wave and walked together back to the Gryffindor common room.

Remus

September 4th 1993

Remus growled in frustration. He had been at the children's home, that Marie had given him the address for, all day and he had been unable to find any substantial information on Adam. The boy had definitely been here, his file stated that he was left outside the home by persons anonymous in January of 1987 and had been transferred to London in July of 1989. Adam's file at the home had not had any further information. So Remus had come to the home every day for the last couple of days hoping to speak to an employee who had been working there at the time. According to the manager there was only one such person. So Remus had arrived when her shift was due to start at nine AM. It was now nearly six PM and she had still not arrived for work.

Remus was dozing in the reception area of the home but the sound of the front door opening jarred him out of his sleep. He looked towards the doorway and saw a woman who was probably in her early forties hanging her coat and bag up in the cloakroom.

"Excuse me, are you Alice?" Remus asked.

"Yes," she replied. "Can I help you?"

"I was hoping you could help me, I'm trying to find information about this boy," Remus asked, as he pulled a photo of Adam out of his pocket and showed it to her.

She gasped. "That's Adam!" Her eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to know?"

"I was a friend of Adam's parents, we are trying to track him down," Remus replied smoothly.

"They abandoned him here," she snapped. "Don't they have the courage to come themselves?" The woman was staring at him with a look of fury.

Remus drew back unprepared for the hostility.

"I-I had no idea. They've been dead several years," Remus replied thinking on his feet, "and I hadn't seen Adam since he was a baby,"

Inwardly Remus was pleased; at last he was getting somewhere. If he could identify the parents that had abandoned the boy his search would be at an end.

"I'm sorry to speak ill of your friends, but they left him here and told him they would be back that evening. Of course they never came back," Alice said bitterly.

"Did you see them?" Remus asked.

Alice shook her head. "No they left him at the door with just a small bag."

Remus was stumped now. A dead end. He couldn't exactly ask what their names were. They were supposed to be his friends after all.

"Did you know him well?" Remus asked.

"He was such a sweet boy; he had the most unusual eyes I had ever seen, almost unnatural. But he was an incredibly shy boy. He never used to want to be friends with any of the other children and I'm sorry to say it but he was showing symptoms of past abuse."

Remus sighed; he had feared something like this would be in the boys past.

"Can you tell me anything about why he was transferred?" Remus asked.

Alice sighed. "I objected strongly to it, but the boss wouldn't listen. Adam had these temper tantrums. If one of the other kids provoked him, it was almost like he would explode. He knocked over his wardrobe, somehow managed to bend his bed so it was L-shaped," she paused. "The other kids would always call Adam weird and said he did strange things. I think it was just an excuse to pick on the loner, which unfortunately Adam was. One day one of the other boys did something to him and he smashed every window in the dining room. To this day I don't think he did it. There are massive windows in the room and he was only unsupervised for a few minutes. There was no way he could smash all those windows in that time."

Remus nodded. He knew how Adam could have smashed all those windows.

"When the boss heard about it, he insisted that the boy be sent elsewhere and he left a couple of days later. I can find the place for you if you like," Alice continued.

"I already have the address, it was in his file but there were no details about why he was moved."

Remus thought he saw a tear in the corner of the woman's eye. He felt no inclination to use Legilimency to get more information. She had given him far more information than he had expected but she didn't have the critical information he needed. Where had Adam been before here?

"Thank you for your time," Remus finished and stood up from where he was sitting.

"Sir," she said in a quiet voice. "If you find Adam, is there any chance you could get back in touch?"

Remus smiled. "Yes, I will."

Ginny

September 18th 1993

Ginny couldn't remember the last time she had been this nervous. She and Adam were sitting on a bench outside the Quidditch changing rooms. They had both worn the scruffiest clothing they had, fully expecting to get mucky.

Ginny watched the sky above her. Tonight was the Quidditch trials and there were already a number of others up in the sky warming up. At precisely seven thirty they all gathered on the pitch and the Gryffindor captain Oliver Wood stood in front of the crowd of students.

"Welcome! As some of you may know, this year our only vacancy in the team is Seeker. However, we are looking for reserves for some of the positions. First, let's see how good you all are on a broom. So get into the air!" Oliver ordered.

Ginny winced as Adam wobbled slightly as he climbed into the air. She followed the line of students as they all moved to hover above the pitch. Oliver had the whole group of students circle the pitch and tested their general ability to fly. After an exhausting series of climbs, dives and straight line races the students descended to the grass below.

When they returned to the ground, Oliver ruthlessly sent over half of the Gryffindors away. They weren't good enough on a broom for any position. Ginny was pleased to see Adam among those who were still on the pitch.

"The trials for the reserves will be the first. Chasers with Angelina, Beaters with Fred and George, Keepers with me," Oliver paused. "Now MOVE!"

Ginny dashed off towards the crowd of Chasers, they had both decided to try out for the Seeker position but Ginny wanted to see how good she was as a Chaser. Angelina Johnson ran Ginny and the four others through an exhausting set of drills, testing their ability to handle the Quaffle and avoid Bludgers.

"The final trial will be for the Seeker. All participants will take to the air and a Snitch will be released. This Snitch has been bewitched to enable it to be caught easier than a real game Snitch," Oliver chuckled. "We don't want to be here for days after all."

There was nobody other than Ginny and Adam trying out for the position, so they both took to the air and began circling the pitch.

"The Snitch is out!" Called Oliver from the ground.

Ginny scanned the sky frantically looking for the Snitch, while also keeping an eye on Adam. She needed to keep a look out for any signs that he had seen the Snitch. She had completed three circuits of the pitch when she saw Adam move. She shot off after him. She could see the Snitch now, floating tantalisingly above the centre ring at the far end of the pitch. Adam had a fair lead but she was closing the gap. Suddenly, the Snitch shot off across the pitch. Acting on instinct, Ginny swung her broom around and shot off in pursuit. Adam had lost a fair amount of speed by doing a slightly slower turn. Ginny shot past him and as the distance to the Snitch closed, she reached out her hand and grabbed it.

"Ginny has caught the Snitch!" Oliver called from below.

"Back into the sky we'll go again," Oliver called as Ginny handed the Snitch back to him.

Ginny began circling the pitch again and when Oliver announced that he had released the Snitch again. Ginny scanned the air around her searching for any visible sign of the small golden ball. Suddenly, a blur zoomed past meters in front of her broom. Her head snapped around and she saw Adam grinning holding his hand in the air.

"Adam has caught the Snitch!" Oliver called.

Ginny's jaw dropped, she had completely missed it!

"Okay, whoever gets this one gets the position," Oliver shouted up at them.

Ginny and Adam rose into the sky again. She had to get the Snitch first; Adam was her best friend, but this was Quidditch. Suddenly Ginny saw it, hovering in the centre of the pitch. Adam must have seen it at the same time as he turned and shot towards it from the opposite end of the pitch. Ginny was racing towards the Snitch, too; it hadn't moved. She was close but so was Adam. His hand was outstretched and he was reaching forward. Ginny stared intently into Adam's grey eyes and they charged towards each other on a collision course. They both were an equal distance from the Snitch…it was only metres away now. Her eye's focused on the Snitch and she tuned out everything else. Suddenly she saw, out of the cornet of her eye, Adam change direction, Ginny felt the Snitch brush her fingertips and her hand closed around it as split-seconds later Adam zoomed over her head. He had pulled up to avoid her!

Ginny was grinning madly as she descended to the pitch below. She felt nearly giddy with exhilaration, but was shocked at just how disappointed Adam was looking.

"Gather round! Gather round!" Oliver called, and the crowd of Gryffindor's all assembled in a circle around him. "Our new Seeker is Ginny Weasley!" A cheer went up from the gathered crowd. "Our reserves will be: Chaser: Ginny Weasley. Keeper: Cormac McLaggen and Seeker: Adam Winters."

Students began to move away, some disappointed some excited. Ginny made her way over to where Adam was waiting.

"Hi," he said lamely.

"Adam you were awesome!" said Ginny. "But you pulled up to avoid me! If you hadn't done that you might have got it."

"I didn't want to hit you!" Adam exclaimed. "You're better anyway," he continued glumly.

"Adam, I've been flying for years! You had never been on a broom before last year. You're just as good as me and better than most of the Seekers in the other houses."

Ginny saw Adam smile.

"At least I get to practice with you," Adam said, with what looked like a slightly forced smile. "Sorry. I'm an arse. I should be congratulating you!"

Suddenly Adam hugged her. Ginny felt herself blush uncomfortably. Adam never usually initiated physical contact. Ginny smiled as they broke the hug and they began walking back towards the school.

"Congratulations, you two!" Fred called as they left the pitch.

"Our own sister, Seeker! Mum and Dad will be so proud." George continued.

"Thanks guys." Ginny said.

"Well done, Adam. Gryffindor is lucky to have just about the two best Seekers in the school in their house! You were awesome, too." said George.

Adam beamed at the praise, but Ginny couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if Adam hadn't tried to avoid hitting her.

Chapter 6

Author's Notes: Thanks for all the reviews! Big thanks to my two Betas Arnel and Jezzjamer2.

Ginny

November 6th 1993

Ginny gripped the handle of her new broom nervously. She loved her new broom. Her Mum and Dad had bought it, when she had told them that she was the new Gryffindor Seeker. It wasn't top of the range, but it was far better than the school brooms.

Ginny could hear the sound of cheering from outside. She was sitting in the changing rooms, waiting with the rest of the Gryffindor team. Today they were supposed to be playing Slytherin. However, the match had been changed at the last minute so they were now playing Hufflepuff.

"Bloody Draco Malfoy," Oliver grumbled as his team assembled. "No way that he's injured badly enough that he can't play. Anyway, Slytherin should have a reserve!"

His rant finished, Oliver cleared his throat.

"Okay, team! I know we prepared for a game against Slytherin but we can beat Hufflepuff! We can beat anyone! Don't let the weather bother you. What's a little rain? Let's get out there and win!" Oliver shouted as he pumped his fist into the air.

Ginny was soaked to the bone even before she managed to get into the air. The rain was beating down, her Quidditch robes were soaked and her hair had become plastered to the sides of her face. From her position, Ginny could barely see the Hufflepuff team assembling on the far side of the pitch in their bright yellow robes.

As one, the Gryffindor team kicked off and ascended into the sky. Ginny watched the Hufflepuff Seeker, Cedric Diggory, begin a circuit of the pitch as Madam Hooch released the Quaffle for the start of the game. Ginny knew that Cedric had a faster broom than she did, although her small size did give her an agility advantage. Ginny knew that she would need to see the Snitch first if she was to stand any chance.

As the match began, Ginny scanned the field for the Snitch. There was no sign of it. Oliver had suggested she feint during the match, to try to discourage Cedric from following her if she did spot the Snitch before him. So Ginny rapidly accelerated across the pitch, ducking slightly to avoid a passing Bludger.

"Ginny Weasley might have seen the Snitch!" the announcer shouted across the pitch and the crowd cheered.

Ginny decelerated rapidly and returned to circling the pitch. Cedric, who had begun to follow her, slowed and returned to circling the pitch in the opposite direction.

"Hufflepuff lead 50 to 0," Ginny heard the announcer call as she soared past the announcer's booth.

She circled the pitch again, Hufflepuff scored twice more as did Gryffindor. The weather began to worsen, the rain intensified and thunder sounded in the sky. Ginny realised she needed to catch the Snitch soon. Then she saw it, hovering low behind the announcers box. It was currently on the opposite side of the pitch from both her and Cedric. Ginny had feinted several times during the match but Cedric had still followed her every time. She needed to try something new.

Ginny accelerated towards the Snitch. She noticed Cedric had also moved to follow her. Ginny crossed her fingers; this would only work if he hadn't already seen the Snitch. Ginny decelerated as if she was feinting.

"Another feint from Ginny Weasley! Looks like she hasn't seen the Snitch after all,"

Ginny saw with satisfaction that Cedric had stopped, returned to his pattern and for the moment he had his back to her. Quick as lightening Ginny shot forward towards the Snitch. Don't move! Don't move! She chanted silently as she zoomed over the top of the announcers box. As she neared the small golden ball, she reached out and, with a feeling or triumph, closed her fingers around it.

"Ginny Weasley catches the Snitch! Gryffindor win 170 to 70!" The announcer screamed.

The Gryffindor half of the stadium erupted into a huge cheer.

Adam

November 6th 1993

Adam leapt into the air and cheered enthusiastically as Ginny caught the Snitch. He watched as Ginny did a quick flyby of the Gryffindor stands holding the captured golden ball in her hand. Adam waved at her as she went past, but thought it unlikely she could pick him out from the rest of the mass of Gryffindor's.

Once Ginny had landed, Adam made his way down out of the stands to meet her. He thought she had played magnificently today. She had completely outsmarted the other Seeker despite the horrific weather conditions.

"Adam!" Mrs Weasley called from behind him as he walked down towards the changing rooms.

"Hi, Mrs. Weasley," Adam said as he saw her and Mr Weasley approaching. "I didn't know you were coming today."

"We came to see Ginny's first game!" Mr Weasley replied excitedly. "I understand you're the reserve Seeker?"

Adam nodded.

"Congratulations then!" Mr Weasley exclaimed. "Shall we wander down and see Ginny together?"

When they reached the pitch, Ginny ran towards them and wrapped her Mum and Dad in a hug.

"Mum, Dad! I didn't realise you were coming!" Ginny said excitedly.

"We wouldn't miss your first game! We're so proud of you!" Mrs Weasley gushed.

Adam saw Ginny beaming at her parents as she hugged Mrs Weasley again. He shoved his hands into his pockets, feeling a strange pang of jealousy towards Ginny, but he pushed it aside.

"Oh, Ginny, we heard a couple of days ago that Bill and Charlie are coming to visit at Christmas!" said Mrs Weasley excitedly.

Adam heard Ginny squeak in excitement. He guessed that Bill and Charlie were more of Ginny's brothers. As the family group, and Adam, walked back up towards the castle, Adam began to hang back a bit not wanting to get in the way.

"Adam?" Mr Weasley's voice attracted his attention.

"Huh? Sorry, Mr. Weasley. I was in a world of my own."

"I was just going to check that you are coming for Christmas, aren't you?"

"Me?" Adam replied. "I-I don't want to be a burden,"

"Nonsense, Adam! You're more than welcome," Mrs Weasley added with a smile.

"I'll see you then, I guess," Adam said trying to seem relaxed. He felt the strangest jubilant feeling overcome him. He couldn't believe the Weasleys actually wanted him to come to their house for Christmas.

Ginny

December 19th 1993

"What do you do for Christmas at your place, Ginny?" Adam asked, as their carriage pulled them towards Hogsmeade Station.

"Nothing special, really. Don't worry. You'll be fine!" Ginny replied enthusiastically.

Ginny knew that Adam was very nervous about spending Christmas with her family. She didn't quite understand why, because her Mum and Dad really liked him. Ginny herself was feeling elated to be going home. The work they had been covering in their lessons had been getting much more difficult recently, especially Snape's, and the amount of homework seemed to have increased in as well. Ginny was glad that she could have a break over Christmas. She and Adam had worked very hard to get most of their work finished, so they didn't have to worry about it over the holidays.

As they approached the station, they noticed Ron, Hermione and Neville clustered around Hagrid.

"Let's go see what's going on," said Adam, who was looking curiously over at the small group.

As they approached Hagrid. She heard Neville exclaim. "It's not fair!"

"What's not fair?" Ginny asked.

"Lucius Malfoy has complained to the Ministry about Draco's injury in Hagrid's class. They're holding a hearing in April," Hermione informed her.

"You're not getting fired, are you?" Adam asked.

"No-No!" said Hagrid. "But..." He sniffed. "They want Buckbeak to be executed."

"Can we do anything to help?" asked Ginny.

"We're looking to see if there's any legal information that can help at the hearing," Ron said proudly.

"We?" Hermione snapped.

"Yes, we are," Ron replied slightly smugly.

"I think, Ronald, you will find it's me that's been doing all the work. While you play chess and waste time!" Hermione huffed and then stormed off onto the train.

Ginny and Adam looked at each other bemused.

"What was that about?" Ginny asked, shooting a look at Ron.

"I don't know. She's been really stressed recently," Ron said, looking equally confused.

"She's taking too many classes," Neville added. "She's dashing around all day like a house-elf."

Ginny noticed that Neville and Ron were looking at her.

"Why are you looking at me?" she asked apprehensively.

"You're a girl. Can you go talk to her?" Ron asked.

"Fine!" said Ginny, and turning her back on the boys, she jumped onto the train to find Hermione. Why did she get landed with these jobs?

Adam

December 25th 1993

"PRESENTS!" Adam heard Ron shout, as he pounded past his room and down the stairs of the Burrow.

Adam had been awake for a while already, but he didn't want to be the first one to go downstairs. He'd been kept busy since they got back from school, helping the Weasleys decorating the tree, and putting up decorations. Yesterday, he'd even seen Mr and Mrs Weasley placing presents underneath the tree. Christmas holidays at the Burrow, so far, had been amazing. As well as helping to decorate the house, he had also been out flying with Ron and Ginny. Ron had finally accepted, now that Ginny was on the Quidditch team, that she could actually fly.

He had also fallen victim to his first prank from the twins. They had offered him a drink and he had, foolishly, accepted. He should have noticed Ginny shaking her head furiously at him. The drink turned his hair bright red and the twins had exclaimed that he looked just like Ron but without the freckles, which had made both of the boys blush. Fortunately, the potion had worn off a few minutes later, thank goodness. Adam actually quite liked his hair and didn't like the idea of anyone messing with it; especially not changing the colour.

A short time after Ron charged down the stairs, Adam heard a soft knocking on his door. Ginny poked her head in the door. She was wearing a light pink dressing gown and her hair was slightly messy from sleep.

"Come on down. It's time for presents!" Ginny exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement.

Adam and Ginny raced down the stairs. When they reached the living room, they saw Ron and the twins already at work on their presents.

"Ginny, Adam, Happy Christmas!" Mrs Weasley called as she entered the room, she wrapped Ginny and then, to his surprise, Adam in a hug. "Sit down and open some presents! I'll get you some hot chocolate!"

Ginny ran and sat down beside the Weasley's Christmas tree. She rummaged among the parcels and pulled several out. Adam sat and waited.

"Adam, there are some for you here. Come rummage and find one!" Ginny ordered with a smile.

Adam sat himself down between Ron and Ginny. Adam's sudden movement surprised Scabbers who was on Ron's shoulder and he squeaked and ran to the other side of the room. Ron swore under his breath and dived after the rat as Adam began rummaging in the pile and pulled out a present. It was a large, soft parcel. Adam turned it over trying to decipher what it was.

"Oh, that's from me, dear," Mrs Weasley said as she returned.

Adam ripped open the wrapping and pulled out what was inside. It was a large grey jumper. Adam heard Ginny emit a small squeak of excitement.

"Put it on! Put it on!" Ginny chanted excitedly.

Adam pulled the sweater over his pyjama top. He hadn't noticed before but a large A was knitted on the front of it.

"I love it!" Adam exclaimed as he ran a hand over the warm wool. The way Ginny was practically bouncing up and down, implied there was some special significance to this jumper that he wasn't quite getting.

She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Mum made the sweater herself. She never normally gives anyone other than us kids one!"

Adam felt a surge of emotion and he blinked his eyes.

"T-Thanks, Mrs. Weasley," Adam said and quite spontaneously he leapt up and hugged her.

Mrs Weasley beamed at him.

The morning passed in a blur of excitement for Adam as he opened several other presents. A book from Ginny, school materials from Professor McGonagall and, surprisingly, chocolate from Ron.

Adam couldn't believe how generous the Weasley family was to him. He felt incredibly guilty that he couldn't return their generosity; the most he had been able to do was a card, which he'd had to make himself. His face had burned with embarrassment as he gave it to Mrs Weasley.

"Thank you, Adam!" she exclaimed, giving him a knowing glance she continued. "Don't worry, if that's all you can give us. We didn't give you presents because we want them in return. We gave you presents because you're a good friend of our daughter and we like you."

The Christmas proceedings at the Burrow were put on hold by the arrival of Bill and Charlie. Adam felt slightly intimidated by Ginny's older brothers. They were both much older than he was, having already finished Hogwarts. Adam could see the strong family resemblance, both having red hair and freckles. Bill, however, had his hair long and in a ponytail. He also had an earring. Adam thought he looked quite cool. To Adam, Charlie looked like a taller, stockier version of Fred and George.

Adam stayed at the back of the room as the Weasley family was reunited. Once the two elder Weasley brothers had finished greeting their siblings their attention turned to Adam.

"Oh, boys, this is Adam, Ginny's friend from school. He's staying with us this Christmas," Mrs Weasley said with a smile.

Adam hesitantly held out his hand and shook both of their hands. "Hi," he said shyly.

"Hi, mate," Bill said, as he shook Adam's hand.

With all the Weasleys and Adam now present, they sat down for Christmas dinner. There were massive portions of turkey and stuffing for all at the table and Adam tucked into the delicious food with delight. After the meal, everyone pulled Wizarding crackers, which Adam remembered from Hogwarts last year.

That afternoon, the Weasleys, minus Percy, plus Adam, trooped outside into the cold sunshine for a game of Quidditch out in the orchard.

"So I hear Ginny is taking after me in the Quidditch department," Charlie commented as they walked out to the pitch.

Ginny blushed, replying. "I'm not that good!"

"So you vs. me as Seekers then?" Charlie proposed.

Adam hoped they were going to let him play.

"I'll play Chaser if it's alright?" Ginny asked. "Adam can play Seeker nearly as well as me. But I'd like to play Chaser."

"Okay," Charlie hesitated. "Me vs. Adam then."

"Guys, as there are only seven of us I'll ref. Let's have Charlie and the twins verses Ginny, Ron and Adam. Two Chasers and one Seeker per team. No Bludgers." Bill ordered, taking charge.

The two teams ascended into the sky, as Bill released the Snitch and then threw the Quaffle into the air. The four chasers were all quick and many goals were scored in quick succession; it was apparently going to be a very high-scoring game.

Adam kept scanning the pitch looking for the Snitch. When the game had been going for half an hour, Adam saw Charlie suddenly begin moving across the pitch. Adam shot off in pursuit. Adam was far smaller and lighter than Charlie was, so he had a speed and agility advantage. As he closed the distance between them, he scanned the sky in front of Charlie. He couldn't see the Snitch, so Charlie must be trying to trick him. Adam decelerated rapidly and scanned the sky. Then, he saw it floating where he had just been. He performed a rapid turn and charged back across the pitch pursued closely by Charlie. Adam, however, had such a head start that Charlie didn't stand a chance and Adam captured the Snitch with a joyous yell.

In hindsight, Adam wasn't sure if it was luck that resulted in him catching the Snitch, or if he had seen through a brilliant ploy by Charlie. For all Adam knew Charlie could have been trying to tempt him away from the Snitch that was too close to Adam for him to possibly to catch. His curiosity however, was pushed from his mind when he reached the ground; Ginny pulled him into a congratulatory hug and Ron slapped him on the back.

"Good flying mate, you're really quite good," Charlie stated shaking his hand.

Adam flushed with pride.

They began walking back towards the Burrow, it would soon be time for Christmas tea. As Adam trooped back into the living room, he noticed Bill pull Ginny aside before she could follow him into the house.

January 2nd 1994

As the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Kings Cross station on the way back to school Adam and Ginny dashed up the train attempting to find a compartment. Eventually they found Hermione alone in one and they sat down opposite her.

"How was your Christmas?" Ginny asked brightly.

"Oh, fine," Hermione replied. "I got lots of work done!"

"You worked over Christmas?" Adam asked, surprised. He'd had so much fun over Christmas, he'd barely had time to think about school work.

"Yes," Hermione replied shortly. "I've got lots of classes plus I looked into Buckbeak's trial."

"Had any luck?" Adam asked.

"Oh, yes. I'm convinced they can't have him executed, not when it happened only because Malfoy," Hermione said the name with derision. "Failed to follow instructions."

"Malfoy's a git," Ginny commented. "I'm glad he's not in our year eh, Adam?"

"He's a right pain in the arse," said Adam.

Their conversation was interrupted by the compartment door opening and Ron and Neville entered the compartment.

"Hi, guys," said Ginny.

Ron and Neville sat down next to Hermione on the opposite side of the compartment.

"Hi, Hermione," Ron said. "Um," He hesitated. "I'm sorry about annoying you at the end of the term."

Hermione smiled at Ron. "Thanks. It's partly my fault though, I've been really stressed but I managed to get loads of work done over Christmas. I'm feeling better now."

"Did you find anything out about Buckbeak?" Neville asked.

"Yes," Hermione replied and she began rummaging in her bag. "I've got a load of notes here. Let's go through them together."

Remus

January 4th 1994

The dead end at the children's home in Cardiff had forced Remus to go pretty much back to square one. With the very real possibility that Adam's parents had abandoned him at the home, Remus had decided to check Wizarding and Muggle birth records, with hope of tracing Adam's past from his birth. The records at the Ministry of Magic were simple enough, there was no family named Winters in the Wizarding world. There were, naturally, many Adam Winters' recorded in the Muggle world and Remus had checked each one that had been born about the same time that Adam would have been. None of them were the boy he was looking for. Which meant either Adam's birth was unrecorded, which was very unlikely, or Adam wasn't his real name. Remus calculated that Adam had to have been between seven and nine when he was left at the home in Cardiff, which was more than old enough for a child to know their own name.

Remus was currently sitting in the records office of Bristol council. Having exhausted all other leads Remus had decided to take the brute force approach and was checking the children's records of every county in Britain, starting with the major cities. The fact that Remus had been forced to make use of the Confundus Charm to get into the records was not important. He needed to find this information for Albus.

Remus inhaled excitedly. He had found a piece of paper for an Adam Winters. The boy had been placed in care with the Jones family in September of 1986. The records also provided the address of the children's home he was in previously and the address of the family. It wasn't the evidence Remus had expected but it was the best lead he'd had for weeks. Remus duplicated the records and after clearing the office left the building. He decided to head to the children's home first; he didn't want to go pursuing a private citizen until he had confirmed that the boy was the Adam he was searching for.

Remus arrived at the children's home later that day. He was surprised by its appearance; it had been converted from multiple terraced houses and was painted in bright colours. It looked welcoming. Walking up to the house Remus pressed the doorbell and waited. The door eventually opened to reveal a teenaged boy; he looked about eleven or twelve years old.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Hello, could I speak to the person in charge please?" Remus asked.

The boy hesitated.

"Who answered the door?" a voice came from behind him.

The boy froze and then darted back behind the door. Soon the door opened wider and an elderly woman appeared.

"I am sorry, sir; they're not supposed to answer the door when I'm not in the office. Do come in," she gestured inside.

Remus followed the woman into the hallway. He could hear faint sounds coming from one of the rooms. Remus chuckled. The children were obviously still listening.

"What can I do for you?" The woman asked.

"I'm looking for some information on a boy I believe would have been in your care here several years ago," Remus took out the photograph of Adam and showed it to the woman.

"I'm sorry I don't know him," she stated. "What was his name? I may be able to find his file." she replied.

"His name is Adam Winters," Remus replied.

"I'll go and look for you...?" she trailed off, waiting for his name.

"Remus Lupin, I was a friend of Adam's parents."

She nodded and left the room. Remus heard movement again from the doorway. The door opened a crack and the boy from earlier poked his head out and looked around the room. Eventually he and a girl, they looked to be brother and sister, came out and approached Remus.

"Sir," the girl asked.

"Hello," Remus replied with a smile.

"Did you say you knew Adam?" she asked. "We knew him when he was here."

That got Remus' attention. He pulled out the photo and showed the two teenagers.

"That's him!" the girl squeaked.

"Can you tell me anything about him?"

"We were friends; we were together at another home before we came here. It closed and we were taken here. Then this family came and said they wanted to take him home with them but Adam didn't want to go. He wanted to stay with us. They said he had to go," the boy replied.

"What was he like?" Remus asked.

"He was a little odd at times, but was also really funny." The girl laughed and turned to the boy. "Remember he always used to be able to find things that we lost; remember the drain!" she giggled as if reliving a happy memory.

"The drain?" Remus asked.

"I dropped my teddy down the drain outside and Adam managed to get it back. He just walked in the room with it in his hands, it was filthy dirty but he was clean!" The girl smiled. "It's been a long time since he left; I've still got a photo of the three of us just before he left."

Remus was intrigued now. The boy that these two children were describing seemed very different to the boy he had encountered in his previous investigations. Something had happened to him between leaving here and arriving in Cardiff.

"Mr. Lupin?" the woman said as she returned with a brown file under her arm. She glanced at the two children.

"Er, we'll go," the boy said and the two children left the room rapidly.

"I've got some information I can give you," the woman handed Remus a piece of paper. "That's all I can give you I'm afraid."

"Thank you very much," Remus replied as she moved towards the door, obviously ushering him out.

Once outside the door Remus began walking down the short path back towards the street.

"Sir!" a voice called.

Remus looked up and saw the two teenagers from earlier calling to him from an upstairs window.

"If you see Adam, can you tell him we still think of him?" the girl called.

"Yes, what are your names?" Remus asked.

"Luke and Laura," the girl replied. "Will you tell him?"

"If I see him I will," Remus promised.

Once he was out of sight of the home Remus took the sheet of paper out of his pocket and examined its contents.

Adam Winters.

Admitted to St Mary's Children's Home November 20th 1981.

-Previously in care of: Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton.

Transferred to Hodge House August 2nd 1985 - Upon Closure of St Mary's.

Left in care of Mr. N Jones September 5th 1986.

Remus felt satisfied. This had been a very profitable day. He now had two leads he could chase, the Jones family and the Hospital. The seeming change in personality Adam suffered between leaving Hodge House and reaching the home in Cardiff greatly concerned Remus. Making a decision Remus decided to tackle the Jones family first. Something happened to Adam there and he wanted to know what.

Chapter 7

Author's Notes: Here is the latest chapter, thanks for all the reviews! Thanks to my two betas Arnel and Jezzjamer2. There are two more chapters to Connections after this one. However the start of the third book should be ready for posting almost as soon as Connections finishes!

Remus

January 30th 1994

Remus stood nervously outside the door to the small terraced house in the suburbs of Bristol. It had taken a great deal of searching to track down the family that had taken Adam. His task had been especially difficult as Jones was such a common name.

Remus knocked on the door to the house, and a short time later, it was opened by a man who appeared to be in his fifties. He had a bald head and a black beard. Remus guessed he was Mr Jones.

"Hello?" Mr Jones queried, looking uncertainly at Remus.

"Good day, my name is Remus Lupin. I am looking for information on a child named Adam Winters."

Remus noticed that the man paled slightly.

"I don't know what you're talking about! There is no Adam Winters here," Mr Jones replied and he firmly closed the door.

Remus realised it was entirely possible that he had made a mistake, but the man's behaviour was simply too suspicious for his liking. So Remus knocked on the door again. This time there was no answer. Remus sighed.

Raising his wand, Remus silently unlocked the door and entered the house. He had to get to the bottom of this. He strode into the hallway of the house, which had several photographs on the walls. Remus examined them, there were photos of Mr Jones and, presumably, Mrs Jones, the only children he saw in any of the photos were two boys with blonde hair, they looked to be fourteen or fifteen. The house was silent, other than the faint sound of a television coming from the rear of the property.

Remus walked towards the sound, and eventually came into the kitchen. He saw Mr Jones sitting in a chair with his feet up reading a newspaper. When the man saw Remus, he shot up out of his chair. Remus was quicker, with a flick of his wand he summoned ropes which bound the man to his chair.

"I'm sorry, but I need you to tell me what you know about Adam," Remus stated.

The man was struggling in his chair. "What the hell have you done?!" He gasped, looking at Remus with a fearful expression on his face.

"When you tell me about Adam I will release you."

The man was still wriggling, trying to free himself from the ropes.

"Tell me," Remus demanded.

"There's nothing to tell! We had him here for a while, but it didn't work out. He didn't get on with our boys. We took him back," Mr Jones replied hurriedly.

That's a lie, Remus thought. He shuddered at the thought of someone returning a child like faulty goods.

Reluctantly Remus raised his wand and pointed it at the man. "Tell me more about Adam," he instructed.

Mr Jones walked into the sitting room. They had brought Adam home only a few days ago. Adam was crying in a corner of the room and his boys were playing in front of the TV.

"What happened here?" Mr Jones asked.

"Adam wouldn't share his toys with us,"

"Adam!" Mr Jones raised his voice. "You must always share your toys with the boys."

Remus felt the memory shift.

Mr Jones walked into the kitchen, Adam was sitting at a chair in the kitchen, sobbing softly. He glared over at the boy. What now?

"What happened?" he asked sharply.

"T-T-They hit me," Adam replied quietly.

"What did you do to make them hit you?" Mr Jones asked sharply.

"They wanted my toys."

"You should have let the boys have them!" Mr Jones replied sharply. Adam had no right to upset his children.

Remus felt the memory shift again.

"Dad,"

Mr Jones looked down at his son.

"What son?"

"Adam's been doing things."

"What do you mean?"

"He's a freak! He makes things move, to frighten us and make us do what he wants."

Mr Jones was fuming. How dare that boy intimidate his children.

"Adam!" He roared. "Get in here!"

Adam appeared hesitantly.

"What's this I hear about you doing weird things again?"

"I...I..." Adam stuttered. "I didn't..."

"Don't lie!" Mr. Jones shouted, seeing red he took two steps towards Adam and pushed him, hard.

Adam fell backwards, and landed on his backside.

Tears began to form in Adam's eyes. "I can't help it!!" He screamed before rushing out of the room.

"There's nothing more! He didn't get on with our boys, so we really couldn't keep him!" Mr Jones pleaded.

"Did anything unusual ever happen around him?" Remus asked angrily, keeping his wand pointed at Mr Jones.

Mr Jones was sitting in his chair in the living room, he could hear a ruckus between the boys and Adam. Looking up from his paper, he saw Adam trying desperately to hold onto the toy action man he had been given yesterday as a Christmas present. The boys wanted to play with it, why was Adam so selfish?

"Give it to them, Adam!" Mr Jones commanded.

Adam flinched at his voice and the boys cleverly used that to their advantage to snatch the toy from him.

"But...it's mine." Adam said, he reached out and attempted to grab it.

Suddenly the toy flew back into Adam's hand.

"Adam!" Mr Jones roared. "I told you to give it to them. Doing these things is the reason you'll never fit in with this family!"

"Freak! Freak!" the boy's called.

Remus felt the memory shift.

Mr Jones was sitting with Adam in the kitchen, he had a piece of paper in his hand.

"What do you have to say about this boy?" he said sternly.

Adam shrank back.

"How did you get up on the roof?"

"I-I-I don't know!"

"You do know. And you will tell me!"

"I don't!" Adam cried.

"Adam," Mr Jones voice softened slightly. "If you don't stop doing these things, we will have to send you away."

Adam gaped at him. "Y-Y-You don't want me?" he said in a small voice.

"Not if you keep doing these unnatural things. It's a good job the school didn't realise how you got up on that roof!"

Remus felt the memory shift, yet again.

Mr Jones charged into the smallest bedroom where Adam was staying. As he walked in he saw one of his boy's punch Adam.

"What did he do?" Mr Jones asked.

"He hit me!"

One of the boys threw another punch at Adam and suddenly without explanation, they both flew backwards across the room impacting the wall on the far side of the room.

"What did you do them?" Mr Jones shouted.

"N-N-N-Nothing!" Adam stammered.

Mr Jones charged towards Adam, how dare he hurt his children! In a rage, Mr Jones raised his fist and punched Adam right in the middle of the face.

He stood there in a stupor watching Adam lying on the floor with blood pouring out of his nose. Coming out of it, he realised exactly what he had done.

"Oh no,"

"N-No, nothing at all, he was rude and didn't want to be friends with our kids," said Mr Jones.

"Where did you take him back to?" Remus asked.

"W-W-Where we got him from," the man stuttered.

Mr and Mrs Jones drove down a large road in their car.

"Where are we going?" Adam asked.

"I've got to go and do some business today," Mr Jones said without looking at Adam. "I'll leave you with some friends."

"When will you be back?" Adam asked in a small voice.

"Later this evening," Mrs Jones replied shortly.

"Why did you make me pack my bag?" Adam asked.

"Uh..." she paused. "Just in case we get delayed, we may stay the night," said Mrs Jones.

"Okay," Adam replied.

Eventually their car pulled up outside the children's home.

"Out you get, Adam," Mr Jones said.

Adam got out of the car with his backpack. He turned and looked hesitantly at the place where he had just been dropped off.

Mr Jones' last view of Adam as he drove of was of him staring at the car as it drove off.

"That's not true," said Remus angrily.

"Okay!" the man gasped. "We were just so ashamed. We just couldn't cope with it. We couldn't help but treat him as second class to our own lads because he was just so different," the man hung his head. "We realised we were no good for him, so we decided to send him away, but we couldn't bear to take him back to the place we got him, we'd be in trouble for what we did. So we left him at a place in Cardiff," his voice became quiet. "We realised that we couldn't be trusted with him."

Remus felt his anger soften slightly. This man had mistreated Adam, but he seemed to feel genuine remorse.

"Are you in contact with the boy?" he asked quietly. "How is he doing?"

"He is doing fine now." Remus replied coldly. "He had a tough few years after he left here because of your treatment."

The man hung his head.

"I...I'm sorry," Mr Jones said.

"So am I," said Remus coldly.

Remus raised his wand, realising he needed to leave no trace that he had been here.

"Obliviate!"

With a second flick of his wand, Remus dispelled the ropes binding the man. Remus left him, still dazed, in his kitchen, confident that he would not remember anything of Remus or the conversation they'd had.

As Remus left the property, he felt a strange mixture of anger and sympathy for these people. They were completely ill equipped to deal with a child with such powerful juvenile magic as Adam. They had mistreated him, no doubt about that. Remus now had more insight into why Adam was the way he was when he was in Cardiff. His treatment at the hands of the Jones family over the six months he was with them, if the memories Remus had seen were anything to go by, had apparently effected him massively. At the age of six he had become convinced that his magical gifts were something that excluded him from being friends with people and disqualified him from having a chance at a normal life.

All Remus needed to do now was track Adam's past back to his birth parents, whoever they were.

Ginny

February 4th 1994

Ginny was walking the corridors near the Hogwarts library. The boy had finally left her alone. She was very interested in him, now that she knew he was a Parselmouth. Was it possible that he could be a descendant or a distant relative? The girl had told her many things about Adam; his background was similar to hers. If he could be convinced; then he would be a perfect right hand for her endeavours. She would have to confront him at some point. If he joined her, then her forces would be strengthened, if he didn't, well, he could be eliminated.

What Ginny saw when she reached the library made her furious. Her Basilisk had somehow failed again. The ghost had, by some unknown means, managed to prevent the death of the student. Now there was a second petrified student.

To make matters worse, the half-breed groundskeeper had gotten a second rooster. It had to be eliminated. It wouldn't do to leave any easy way for the muggle-loving fool, Albus Dumbledore, to eliminate her basilisk.

Once the basilisk had been sent back to the Chamber, Ginny walked to the groundskeeper's hut. It was quiet and the lights where out. Good, she needed to finish this quickly before Adam missed the girl. Locating the rooster Ginny raised her wand.

"Confringo."

A bolt of light shot out of her wand and struck the rooster. It exploded into a dozen pieces and its blood and guts sprayed out covering Ginny's robes.

Ginny smiled, all she needed to do now was clean up, erase the girl's memories and return her body.

"Ginny!" a voice called. "GINNY!!"

Ginny snapped awake, groaning loudly. She felt completely drained and exhausted, as if she hadn't gotten any sleep at all. Ginny glanced around the room dazedly. Hermione's head was poking in through the door.

"Adam's waiting for you, you're late for breakfast!" Hermione exclaimed. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ginny said, trying to smile.

Once Hermione had left, Ginny got out of bed, rapidly put on her clothes and raced down the stairs. Once in the common room, she met up with Adam and the two of them dashed down to breakfast. They only had fifteen minutes until their first class, which was Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"Are you okay?" Adam asked as they gobbled down their breakfasts.

"Yeah, had another dream..." Ginny replied.

"Oh."

"I'll tell you about it later, we need to get going!"

Ginny and Adam reached the Defence classroom just as Professor Jones was about to start the lesson.

"Get to your seats Miss Weasley, Mr. Winters. Be thankful I'm not going to take points." Professor Jones said sternly.

Ginny and Adam took their seats.

"Class, today we are going to have our first practical exercise," Professor Jones announced and the class whispered in anticipation. "You should all remember that we covered the Body-Bind Curse last lesson. To test your accuracy and ability to hit a target I will release a small number of Cornish Pixies into the room. These creatures are harmless and being hit by PetrificusTotalus should knock them out of the air. Each student will have a turn."

Professor Jones withdrew a cage from under her desk. Inside the cage were a small number of Pixies.

"Don't worry," she reassured the class. "These creatures are reasonably hardy. So they won't be hurt."

Professor Jones scanned the classroom.

"I think our latecomers can go first. Miss Weasley, come to the front," she announced.

Ginny groaned, she really didn't feel like doing this at the moment. She felt tired, sluggish and generally rubbish. Reluctantly, Ginny stood up, walked to the front of the class and watched apprehensively as Professor Jones released the Pixies.

Ginny head whirled as the as three Cornish Pixies encircled her.

"PetrificusTotalus!"

"PetrificusTotalus!"

"PetrificusTotalus!"

She missed Pixie after Pixie. Ginny growled in frustration as she felt a strange tugging feeling from behind her head. They were in her hair! Ginny spun on the spot and slapped her long hair with her hands trying desperately to get the Pixies out of her hair. The class began laughing.

Ginny looked over at the class and saw everyone apart form Adam laughing hilariously, Adam was looking at her curiously, as if expecting her to do something.

The Pixies buzzed around her grabbing her hair again.

"PetrificusTotalus!"

She missed again. Then one of the pixies grabbed a bunch of her hair and rapidly flew to the top of the classroom, it hurt. Ginny saw red. She span around on the spot and barely without a conscious thought fired a spell at the Pixie.

"Confringo!"

The bolt of light sailed to the top of the classroom and impacted with the ceiling. The area it hit exploded and debris showered down on her and Professor Jones.

"STOP!" Professor Jones screeched at the top of her voice.

Ginny stood still. She had a light dusting of debris covering her school robes. She looked down appalled at the wand in her hand. How had she done that?

"Where did you learn that spell, Miss Weasley?" Professor Jones demanded.

"I-I-I don't know!" Ginny exclaimed. She was completely panicked now. How did she learn that spell?

"Miss Weasley, sit down. We will discuss this with Professor McGonagall tonight. Come to my office immediately after dinner." Professor Jones ordered.

Adam

February 4th 1994

Adam was waiting for Ginny to return from her meeting, or detention, with Professor McGonagall and Professor Jones.

When she came back in through the portrait hole, Adam saw her shoulders were slumped and her eyes were puffy and red. She had been crying. Adam jumped up off his chair and ran over to Ginny.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I've got detention. Tomorrow," Ginny said as Adam led her back to one of the chairs in the common room.

It took Adam a few seconds to figure out why a detention tomorrow had upset Ginny so much. Tomorrow was the Quidditch match. Ginny had detention. Ginny not playing meant he would be playing!

Adam suddenly felt a feeling of elation fill him.

"Oh," Adam replied, feeling terrible that he felt happy about his friend's misfortune.

Ginny smiled weakly at Adam. "I guess you get to play tomorrow then."

"Yeah," Adam replied, trying hard to conceal his glee. "What happened? Where did you learn that spell?"

"From my dream, I think. I used it in my dream to kill a rooster. I was just feeling so tired, rubbish and frustrated, but I've no idea how I really did the spell though," Ginny replied tiredly.

"Did you tell Professor McGonagall that?" Adam asked.

"Yes, she was sympathetic, but she said I still should have controlled myself."

Adam laughed, "You? Control yourself when you're angry?"

Ginny laughed, cracking a small smile. "I guess you're right, I'm a lost cause."

"What was the spell you used, by the way?" Adam asked, indulging his curiosity.

"The spell was Confringo. Apparently, it blows stuff up. All I know is the incantation. I've no idea how exactly I did it."

"It probably would be bad for us to be caught practicing it," Adam mused.

Ginny laughed, "If we do, we're going to get even more of a reputation."

"Reputation?"

"Yeah, after last year we're going to end up being known as troublemakers if anything much happens this year," Ginny laughed.

Adam snorted in response.

"Let's hope last year was the end of our adventures, then. I don't want a reputation," Adam smirked. "Well, other than the best Seeker in Gryffindor."

Ginny punched Adam playfully in response.

February 5th 1994

Adam was so nervous he could barely eat his breakfast. He was wearing his Quidditch uniform, which consisted of his red and yellow striped jersey, trousers and a red cloak. Adam especially liked the cloak. Ginny had disappeared earlier to her detention, leaving Adam to worry his breakfast in peace at the Gryffindor table.

After eating a bite or two of everything on his plate, Adam made his way down to the Quidditch pitch. He was using Ginny's broom today. She was letting him borrow it as he still didn't have one of his own. Her broom was far better than the school brooms.

Once he reached the changing rooms, Adam sat on the bench waiting for the rest of the team to get ready.

"Winters!" Oliver's voice coming from behind made him jump. "Boy, I'm glad now we've got two really talented Seekers. You'll be fine up there. Ravenclaw has an excellent Seeker in Cho Chang," he paused. "Now with her broom she has a speed advantage, but you're always quick to the spot the Snitch, so that should work in your favour." Oliver clapped him on the back. "Let's get onto the pitch!"

As Adam walked out onto the pitch, the roar from the stands was deafening. He felt his arm trembling as he mounted his broom and took off into the sky.

Concentrate, Adam, you can do this!

Adam waved to the Ravenclaw seeker Cho Chang as they passed each other. He didn't let himself get distracted though because he needed to keep a sharp lookout for the Snitch.

After twenty minutes, the game was very evenly matched, although Ravenclaw were thirty points ahead.

The game continued and Adam continually scanned the pitch for the Snitch. Then, suddenly, he saw it, a fleck of gold in the sky near the Ravenclaw keeper. He was much closer to it than Cho. Adam accelerated towards the small golden ball.

"Winters has seen the Snitch!" the announcer shouted and the Gryffindor's cheered.

Adam glanced behind him; Cho was gaining slowly but surely. His broom simply wasn't as good as hers, but he was still closer to the Snitch. He sped towards it weaving left and right to avoid the occasional Bludger that had been sent his way. Once he was less than fifty metres from the Snitch, Adam noticed Cho closing on him. Adam weaved left, right, up and down, vainly attempting to make it difficult for her to get past.

They were only a few meters from the Snitch when Cho drew level with him. Adam felt her give him a strong nudge in an attempt to throw him off. Well, if she wants to play dirty...Adam and Cho both raised their right hands to attempt to catch the Snitch. They were neck and neck now. Suddenly Adam leaned his body towards Cho and gave her a firm shove with his shoulder. She obviously hadn't expected him to try anything this close to the Snitch, so she hesitated for a split second. That was all it took for Adam to close his fingers around the Snitch.

"Winters has caught the Snitch! Gryffindor win 250 to 130!!!!" The announcer screamed over the din of the crowd.

Adam raised him arm in triumph, he felt more exhilarated than he had ever felt before in his life. Cho threw him a dirty look as he sailed over towards the Gryffindor stands and the frantic cheering that was coming from them.

After the game, Adam was bustled back to the Gryffindor common room at the head of a sea of Gryffindors. Their praise made him feel incredibly warm inside. When he and the rest of the Gryffindor team reached it, there was only one person inside. Ginny.

When Adam entered the room, he broke out in a massive grin. Ginny angled her head to one side as if to say, Well?

"We won!" Adam exclaimed.

Ginny charged forward and gave Adam a hug. "Did you get the Snitch?" she asked.

"Yes!" Adam said happily.

Their conversation was interrupted by the rest of the house entering the common room. Adam was sure he heard someone yelling "PARTY!"

He could only grin in delight.

Ginny

February 12th 1994

The girl was storming back to the common room after her fight with the boy. Reaching out from the diary, her consciousness was suppressed and her body taken over.

Ginny stopped walking, turned on the spot and strode towards the Chamber of Secrets.

Ginny had released the basilisk, it had its target, it would succeed this time. Ginny smiled. She nearly had complete control of the body now; soon the girl would be gone for good. She walked purposefully towards the entrance of the Chamber, thinking about who would be next to die. She would need to confront the boy soon...but not yet.

Caught up in planning her next move, Ginny tripped suddenly on a large piece of shed basilisk skin. Cursing, she climbed to her feet. A shed scale from the Chamber floor was embedded in her hand.

Ginny pulled the scale out, leaving a bloody gash in her hand. She moved her wand over the surface of her hand and the wound immediately closed itself. Ahh, it felt good to have a young body! She flexed her musclesappreciatively. She had been trapped in the diary for too long.

"Aguamenti!"

Ginny sprayed water over her hands to clean them. She knew the girl was suspicious of her by now, but she didn't want to add to her suspicions.

Ginny awoke with a scream. She glanced frantically around her room. She was the only one there, phew. She didn't want to have to explain her dreams to her roommates. That dream had been incredibly creepy, hearing Tom thinking of her body as his own. Ginny felt dirty all over. She shivered.

Trying to put it out of her mind, Ginny decided it was time to get out of bed. She put on her jeans and a sweater and went down to the common room.

Ginny and Adam ate breakfast together as usual. Today was a Hogsmeade weekend so the majority of the third years and above were gone. Ginny decided to take advantage of the quiet in the common room and tell Adam about her dream.

"Can you teach me the spell?" Adam asked, once she had finished describing her dream. Ginny knew he was always interested in learning new spells.

"What spell?" Ginny asked.

"The water spell!" Adam asked enthusiastically.

"Sure," Ginny grinned. "We should go outside to practice it though." Now she thought about it, she could see how they could have fun with that spell.

They ran down the stairs, and out of the main doors of the school.

"Aguamenti!" Ginny said, thinking back to her dream.

A spray of water erupted from her wand. Adam jumped back in shock; narrowly avoiding getting wet.

"Can you show me?" Adam asked.

"Umm, I'm not really sure how I did it. Try holding my hand as I do the spell."

Adam clasped his hand over Ginny's and followed her wand movements when she cast the spell again. He then tried to copy her. After a couple of tries, Adam was only able to get a small trickle of water from the end of his wand.

Ginny heard Adam grunt in disappointment.

Ginny watched him try again, he screwed up his face in concentration.

"Aguamenti!" he said.

Suddenly a stream of water flowed from the end of his wand. It wasn't as high pressure as hers was, but it was nearly as good. Ginny giggled to herself. He just needs a little more persuasion, she thought.

"Aguamenti!" she called and directed the stream of water so that it covered Adam's clothes.

"Oi!" he shouted.

"Aguamenti!" he shouted and Ginny felt a stream of water soak the back of her jumper.

"Aguamenti!" she shouted back, spraying him back. She then took off at a run, avoiding Adam's return spray of water.

Adam chased her. As she ran towards the entrance to the school, she hid behind one of the doors waiting for Adam to come through.

"Aguamenti!" she shouted again as he burst in through the doors, spraying him with water yet again.

He turned around, and laughing hard said. "Aguamenti!" spraying her yet again.

"ADAM WINTERS!" a screech echoed from above them.

Adam and Ginny looked up to the top of the staircase. Professor McGonagall was standing there looking down at them.

"Would you explain to me, why I just saw you and Miss Weasley spraying each other with water, inside the school!?" Professor McGonagall demanded.

"Ummmm," Adam replied, unsure of what to say

"You two, my office now!"

Adam and Ginny gulped and timidly followed Professor McGonagall to her office.

It was early evening by the time a thoroughly berated Adam and Ginny returned to the common room. Professor McGonagall had even made them mop up, by hand, all the water they had sprayed inside the school.

When they entered the common room, they saw Ron, Hermione and Neville huddled in one corner.

"Hermione has been crying," Ginny commented, spotting Hermione's puffy eyes.

"What's the matter?" Adam asked, as he dashed over to her.

"We got a letter from Hagrid," Ron said, grimly. "Buckbeak is going to be executed."

"What!" Adam exclaimed.

Ginny couldn't understand how they could allow an innocent animal to be executed.

"Yeah, it sucks," said Neville.

"We are looking into mounting an appeal but I don't have much hope for it," Hermione said as fresh tears visible around her eyes.

"We need to do something," Adam stated.

"Yeah, but what, mate?" Ron asked.

Ginny saw everyone looking at each other in silence. She hoped someone would come up with a good idea soon.

Remus

February 20th 1994

Remus was sitting in the records room of Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. He had been here for the last several days searching for Adam's medical records. His progress was hampered by the fact that Adam's medical history didn't seem to exist and that he had to hide every time anyone came into the records room. He'd been caught once and had been forced to Obliviate one of the hospital staff. Remus had decided that it was far better for him to avoid any contact with the Muggles that ran the hospital.

After finally giving up on finding any medical records with Adam's name on them, Remus had decided to look at all admissions of young children from just before the date Adam left the hospital, November 1981.

Remus sighed in frustration. He had been through all of November and October no one by the name of Adam Winters had been admitted in that period. Giving the pile of November and October children's admissions a second look, he noticed that one of the files wasn't labelled.

Opening the file Remus looked inside.

Name: Child N

Date of Birth: Unknown

Admitted: November 1st 1981

-Police contact: PC James Taylor (NO: 76751)

Discharged: November 20th 1981

- Into the care of St Mary's Children's Home, Bristol.

Notes:

-Unidentified Child.

-Suffering from malnutrition, dehydration and hypothermia.

-Child seems traumatised. Believed to have suffered recent traumatic event.

-Child named by hospital staff, pending confirmation of identity: Adam Winters.

It was at this hospital that he was named. It was as Remus had suspected; Adam Winters was not the boy's true name. Remus wondered what the traumatic event was that Adam suffered before he was admitted to this hospital as an unidentified child.

November 1981, Remus thought back to the other events that were occurring at nearly the same time that Adam was abandoned. He was nearly overcome with a wave of grief.

"James..." Remus groaned quietly, thinking of his deceased best friend.

Maybe before he tracked down the police officer he would take some time and pay his respects again. Godric's Hollow wasn't that far from Taunton, and he liked to make sure the graves of James, Lily and Harry were always well tended.

Chapter 8

Author's Notes: This is the penultimate chapter of Connection! Big thanks to all that reviewed and to my two Betas Arnel and jezzjamer2.

Ginny

April 16th 1994

George hoisted Ginny onto his shoulders and triumphantly carried her from the Quidditch pitch towards the castle. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup! They had utterly trounced Slytherin that afternoon, beating them by three hundred points. What had been even more satisfying, was that everyone had said that she had completely outclassed Draco Malfoy, who was the Slytherin Seeker.

When Ginny got back to Gryffindor Tower, she had a photo taken with the rest of the team. She was pleased that Adam was included; he had caught the Snitch in one of the games and deserved to be congratulated. Once the photo was taken, the party began.

The celebrations lasted late into the night, fueled by the butterbeer that Fred and George had once again expertly provided. However, slowly during the course of the evening, the Gryffindor's drifted off to bed. Soon it was only Ginny, Adam and the remainder of the team in the common room.

Ginny sat down next to Adam, who was sitting on the sofa by the fire. He was looking extremely tired.

"Do the twins never stop?" he asked with a yawn.

"Nope," Ginny laughed.

Adam yawned again.

"Go to bed, if you're tired," Ginny said with a grin.

"I don't want to be the first of the team to go!" Adam objected.

Ginny rolled her eyes, boys, everything was always a competition.

Ginny looked around the room. She giggled as she saw Fred being rejected for trying to be extra friendly with Angelina. When she looked over to see if Adam had seen Fred's humiliation, his head was lolled to one side. He was fast asleep.

I'll just finish this butterbeer then I'll go to bed, Ginny thought sleepily. She was also feeling very tired.

She forcibly wrested control of the girl's body from her when she heard Adam calling her name. Turning slowly around she raised her wand at Adam.

"Stupefy."

Ginny smiled as the red bolt struck the boy and he crumpled to the floor.

With a flick of her wand, Ginny levitated his body and carried it into the bathroom. She opened the entrance and levitated him towards the hole that led down into the Chamber. With a slight shove, she sent him falling through the hole.

At the bottom of the slide, she again levitated him and his body floated through the Chamber. He was face down now, having landed that way from his fall down the tube.

She placed his body a short distance away from the statue of Slytherin. It was time. She now had complete control of the girl's body. Soon the girl would be gone.

Ginny walked over to the feet of the statue of Salazar Slytherin and lay down. Ensuring the girl was still unconscious she relinquished control of her body, knowing that the next time she returned. It would be permanent.

The soreness in her neck woke Ginny early the next morning. She must have slept in an awkward position. Opening her eyes, she was surprised to find that she was still in the common room. She turned her head slightly, and found that it was resting on Adam's shoulder. In his sleep, he had slumped down into the corner of the sofa and she had apparently fallen asleep on his shoulder.

Suddenly realising the position she was in, Ginny sprang back across to the other side of the sofa. The rapid movement disturbed Adam and he shot upright, gazing around the room rapidly.

"Huh?" he asked dazedly.

"Um, I guess we fell asleep on the sofa," Ginny felt herself blush. "I think I was using you as a pillow."

"Oh, um," Adam said, also blushing slightly. "It's only 3 a.m.," Adam continued, glancing at the clock.

"Oh, we should go up..." said Ginny.

"Yeah,"

Without a further word the two dashed up the stairs to their respective rooms.

Remus

April 18th 1994

Remus walked into the central police station in Taunton. He had arranged an appointment with the now Sergeant James Taylor.

"Good Day, Sergeant, I'm Remus Lupin."

"Hi. Do come in and have a seat." he replied. "What can I do for you?"

"I don't know if you remember, but in November of 1981 an unidentified child was found. The case was dealt with, according to hospital records, by yourself." Remus asked, getting straight to the point.

James Taylor looked completely blank. "Sorry, I don't recall that."

"Would you have records from that time?" asked Remus.

"We would," James replied carefully.

"Could you look the case up? He would have been found either on the first or second of November 1981."

"If you wait in the reception area, I will have our clerk look. It may take some time and we may not be able to give you much information from the file," the policeman replied.

Remus left the Sergeant's office and sat down in the waiting room. He had to wait for several hours before the clerk appeared.

"Mr. Lupin, I have the file here, but I'm afraid all I can tell you is that the child was found in a small town called Milverton, it's not far from here."

Remus froze when he heard that name.

"Mr. Lupin?"

"Sorry, I don't suppose you could tell me who found him?" Remus asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't."

Remus grasped his wand and placed a Confundus Charm upon the clerk.

"I don't suppose you could tell me who found him?" Remus asked.

"Her name was Lindsay Thomas from Milverton," the clerk replied with a dazed look on his face.

"Thank you," Remus replied and rapidly left the police station, just in case anyone realised that something strange had happened.

Remus strode down the street. Why did it have to be there? He thought in exasperation. One place he didn't want to go back to.

Adam

June 9th 1994

Adam scribbled furiously on the exam paper in front of him. He was putting the last few finishing touches to his final exam, Potions, one of his least favourite subjects, taught by one of his least favourite teachers. At least it was the last exam.

Adam had been nervous prior to his first exam, which had been Defence, but had been pleasantly surprised when he realised he knew most of the answers. The work he'd been doing must have sunk in.

"Put down your quills," Professor Snape announced from the front of the room.

He summoned the test sheets with a flick of his wand.

"Stand up and leave the room in an orderly fashion."

Adam stood up, collected his things and left the room. Once outside, he waited next to the door for Ginny to come out.

"How did you find it?" Ginny asked from behind him, making him jump.

"Oh, fine, you?"

"Yeah, it was fine. I'm relieved it's all over now!" Ginny said excitedly. "What do you want to do now?" Ginny asked as the two of them climbed the stairs out of the dungeons.

Looking at his watch Adam realised they still had several hours until dinner. He looked around the Entrance hall and saw Ron, Hermione and Neville walking purposefully out of the main doors.

"Look!" Adam exclaimed in a whisper. "Ron, Hermione and Neville heading out of the school. Shall we check out what they're up to?" he asked.

Ginny nodded her agreement.

Adam and Ginny left the school and followed the path, searching for the trio. Adam eventually spotted them standing in a huddle a little further down the path.

"What's up, guys?" Adam asked, as he caught up to them.

"It's today," Ron said, staring down the slope towards Hagrid's hut.

"What's today?" Ginny asked, coming to stand next to him.

"Buckbeak's execution," Hermione replied, with tears in her eyes.

"Oh," said Adam. "Is there anything we can do?" he asked uncertainly.

"We're going to try to stop it," said Ron.

"We're in," Ginny responded.

"No. It might be dangerous," Ron said. "Mum would kill me if I let something happen to you this year."

Adam spotted Ginny's face begin to flush. That was a danger sign.

"Okay, we'll wait here," Adam replied, plastering his face with a glum look.

Adam saw Ginny glare daggers at him.

"Okay, guys, we'll let you know how it goes," said Hermione, still staring down at the hut.

Ron, Neville and Hermione began walking along the path again towards Hagrid's hut.

"Why did you agree to stay here?" Ginny demanded crossly.

Adam smirked, "If we argued they may have tried to make sure that we were out of the way, now we can do our own thing. We need to help Hagrid."

"What can we do?" Ginny asked eagerly.

Adam paused. He didn't actually know what they could do. He looked down at the hut and saw Ron, Hermione and Neville enter through the door.

"Voices..." Ginny said suddenly in a low voice.

Adam strained his ears, he could just about make out the faint sound of voices approaching down the path. People were coming from the direction of the school!

"They sound too old to be students," he commented. "We should hide."

"The garden," Ginny replied.

"Huh?" Adam asked.

"Just follow me!" Ginny ordered.

She dragged Adam around to the back of Hagrid's hut and into his garden, where Buckbeak was tied up. He looked quizzically at the two of them and pawed the ground nervously, as they entered the garden. He seemed to know that something was going on.

They pressed themselves up against the wall of the hut. Adam knew they were out of sight of the path, but he hoped they were also hidden from the windows of the hut. They didn't want to the trio inside the hut seeing them, not if they could help it.

Adam could hear the voices getting louder, presumably as the owners walked down the path towards Hagrid's hut. Adam snuck around the side of hut to have a quick look up the path. Professor Dumbledore was in front, followed by a small man in a suit and bowler hat. Also with the group were two people dressed largely in black, one had a black mask and carried an axe, the executioner, the other had white hair and carried a cane. He looked vaguely familiar to Adam, although he couldn't quite place where from.

"That's the Minister! And Lucius Malfoy!" Ginny exclaimed. Apparently, she had also decided to take a peek.

"We need to find a better hiding place," Ginny whispered, she flinched slightly at the sound of breaking china from inside the hut. "Quick, behind the wall."

They sprinted over to the wall at the far side of the small vegetable garden and hid behind it.

A few minutes later, Adam heard the back door of the hut open and he saw Ron, Hermione and Neville emerge.

"Its okay, Beaky, its okay," Hagrid said to Buckbeak from the doorway. He then turned to the trio. "Go on, get going!"

"Hagrid, we can't"

"They can't kill him,"

"Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble!" Hagrid said.

Adam watched as Ron, Hermione and Neville snuck around the side of the hut. They waited there for a few second before sprinting out of sight.

"That must mean Professor Dumbledore and the others are in the hut," Adam said. "They wouldn't have run past with them still outside."

Adam and Ginny strained their ears for any sound that came from inside the hut. Hagrid had left the back door slightly open, allowing voices to drift out into the garden.

"Where is the beast?" a cold voice demanded loudly from inside the hut.

"Outside! Go and see for yourself!" Hagrid answered angrily. "He's all ready for you!" he spat.

Adam quickly ducked and pulled Ginny down with him. They crouched out of sight until they heard the soft bang of the back door closing.

With the door now closed, the voices coming from inside the hut were muffled and Adam was no longer able to make out what was being said.

"Now's our chance!" Adam exclaimed.

Adam leapt up from where he was kneeling and dashed over to Buckbeak. Suddenly the Hippogriff shot to its feat and fixed Adam with a stare.

"Bow!Bow!" Ginny said in a frantic whisper.

Adam did as he was told and bowed to Buckbeak. Much to his surprise, after a moment's pause, Buckbeak sank to his knees in return. Adam hurriedly began to untie the knot that secured Buckbeak. Once the knot was undone, Adam attempted to lead Buckbeak by the rope out of the garden.

Adam could still hear voices coming from the inside of the hut; they must be still talking inside. "Buckbeak! MOVE!" Adam hissed.

Buckbeak finally responded and began to follow Adam out of the garden. After quickly bowing herself, Ginny ran over to Adam and also grabbed the rope. She helped Adam to pull the Hippogriff out of the garden.

Adam and Ginny battled to keep Buckbeak moving. They needed to reach the only cover that was nearby, the first trees of the forbidden forest.

As they approached the forest, Ginny suddenly exclaimed. "Look!"

Adam followed where she was pointing. Ron, Hermione and Neville were standing on the grass staring with open mouths at Adam and Ginny. They had presumably stayed, wanting to be nearby when the inevitable happened. Adam just shrugged his shoulder's and continued to lead Buckbeak towards the forest.

It wasn't until they were in the forest, hidden inside the tree line and out of sight of Hagrid's hut that they relaxed.

"Go on, Buckbeak, you can go free now!" Ginny said.

Buckbeak began to slowly walk away from them but he stopped and turned on the spot to stare at Adam and Ginny. They both waved at him and finally Buckbeak turned around and letting out a shriek, charged off into the forest.

Adam grinned at Ginny. "We did it!"

They began making their way jubilantly back out of the forest towards the school. It was early evening, and the sunlight was still streaming through the trees at the edge of the forest, making it a pleasant walk.

"I'm sure I heard it come from the forest, boss," said the cold voice that he had heard earlier.

Adam and Ginny tensed and flattened themselves against nearby trees, attempting to keep themselves hidden. Adam glanced at Ginny, who was hidden behind a tree a short distance from where he was, she had a terrified expression on her face. Adam felt pretty scared as well.

The crunch of footsteps on the forest floor came nearer. Adam peered around his tree in all directions trying to locate where the sound was coming from. There were two men, Lucius Malfoy and the executioner approaching from behind the tree where Ginny was hiding.

"Stop there!" they called in unison.

Adam pressed himself flat against his tree trunk, ensuring he was out of sight. He heard running footsteps and spell fire.

"Stop, girl!" he heard Lucius Malfoy shout.

Adam's stomach sank. They'd caught Ginny

"You're that Weasley girl aren't you?" Lucius questioned with a sneer.

"So what if I am?" Ginny replied.

"What are you doing out in the forest all alone? Up to trouble no doubt."

"I'm just taking a walk," Ginny replied sweetly.

Adam heard an eerie sounding laugh.

"A likely story. You're up to no good, I know you caused plenty of trouble last year."

How did Lucius know about that!?

"W-What?" Ginny said. Adam could hear a quaver in her voice now.

"You were responsible for the attacks on the students."

"N-No!" Ginny shouted. "It wasn't me,"

Lucius laughed again.

"Girl, you are going to come with me and tell us where you took that Hippogriff."

"I-I don't know any Hippogriff."

"Indeed. You will tell us soon enough. Macnair, bind her."

Adam wasn't sure why Ginny didn't try to escape. He realised in frustration that he couldn't do anything; he couldn't see where the men were or where Ginny was. Not without revealing himself. Even though he didn't have any idea how he could help, Adam drew his wand anyway.

"Help!" Ginny cried, causing Adam to tense.

Adam needed to know what was happening. Taking a chance, he closed his eyes and tried imagine a snake in front of him.

"Try and distract them!" he hissed.

"You're hissing doesn't scare us, girl!" Malfoy replied, angrily.

"Adam, they've got my wand. They are standing near the tree where I was hiding, come around to the left hand side of the tree," Ginny's answer floated back.

"Don't you dare make that noise again!" Lucius Malfoy was shouting, he sounded almost scared. He must not have heard what Ginny had said to him.

Adam, deciding to trust that Ginny had a plan to distract them, gripped his wand and dived around the tree to his left.

As he moved, he pointed his wand at the tree that Ginny had told him the men were standing by and shouted. "Confringo!"

Adam's spell impacted with the tree, shattering the trunk and showering the two men with debris, forcing them to the ground. The men didn't seem to be expecting him. Ginny's plan had worked! Adam ran towards Ginny and they both began running deeper into the forest, ignoring the cries of outrage coming from behind them.

Adam and Ginny kept running. They changed direction randomly until they were confident that they could no longer hear the sound of footfalls behind them. By the time they stopped, they had run deep into the forest and the combination of the sunset and the tree cover was making the light fail.

"Do you have any idea which way to go?" Adam asked, hopefully.

"No," Ginny replied glumly.

"Okay, let's try this way,"

Adam and Ginny walked, hoping to find their way back out of the forest. They walked and walked. The forest seemed to stretch out before them without end and the light continued to dim.

"We're going around in circles!" Ginny cried in frustration.

They continued walking and walking, for what felt like days.

Eventually they began to flag. Adam was exhausted, cold and hungry and Ginny looked the same. In the near complete darkness, Adam could just about make out a small hollow beneath a nearby tree.

"It's getting dark, we should rest up a bit," said Adam. He knew they would never find their way out in the dark.

Ginny nodded in agreement, she looked terrified.

They settled into the hollow beneath the tree.

"I don't think we're going to find our way in the dark," Ginny said in small voice.

Adam nodded.

"We need to keep ourselves as warm as possible, let's sit as close as we can to each other," Adam instructed. He knew all about sleeping outside.

They wrapped their cloaks around themselves and clung to each other as the temperature dropped. Adam knew that they would need each other's body heat to keep warm.

Remus

June 9th 1994

Lindsay let out squeal of delight when Remus showed her the picture.

"Oh, how he's grown up!" she remarked excitedly.

"Can you tell me a little about when you found him?" Remus asked.

"Well, I was doing my evening jog around the park. I heard crying coming from the bushes by the pond. I pushed them aside and he was lying there wrapped up in a blue blanket," Lindsay sniffed. "How could anyone abandon a small child!"

"Do you have any idea how long he had been there?" Remus asked gently.

"It was raining, so the park was quieter than normal. He wasn't there when I went for my morning jog."

"What did you do after you found him?"

"I picked him up, he was freezing and crying. I ran to the nearest phone box and called an ambulance. The police came; they took my details and then he was taken away in the ambulance," she smiled. "It's good to know he's well."

Lindsay paused as if considering something.

"Will you see him soon?" she asked hesitantly.

"I should do, yes."

"I've got something he may like, if you can give me a few hours to dig it out."

"What do you have?"

"The blanked he was left in. I was surprised when the police or ambulance didn't take it, but after they had gone, well I still had it. Its in a box in the attic."

Remus smiled. "I think he may like that, I know he doesn't have much from his past."

"Can you give me some time to dig it out?" she asked.

"Yes, I want to take a look at the park, so I'll be back later on," Remus responded.

Remus left the house a short time later. He was fairly sure he knew where the park was in the small town, so he Apparated to the nearest place that he knew.

Remus landed in the small high street in the village. Seeing it made his blood boil.

"Damn you, Sirius!" he muttered angrily under his breath.

It was on this street the day after James, Lily and Harry were murdered, that Peter had tracked down the traitorous Sirius Black. Peter had attempted to apprehend Sirius, only to be killed, along with twelve Muggles. Remus shuddered; only a finger had been left of poor Peter. Of course, the Muggles in the area were completely unaware of the reason behind the deaths that day. The Ministry had modified the memories of the local population and a gas leak in a local shop had been blamed.

Remus looked around the street. He had assumed that the park would be near the high street, but he couldn't see any sign of it, so Remus asked a local passerby to direct him.

The park was only about ten minutes walk away and Remus had plenty of time, so he walked at a leisurely pace towards the park.

The park was a reasonably large and roughly rectangular in shape. It was enclosed by a black fence. There was a children's playground, a football pitch and a red brick path that wound its way through the park towards a small group of trees.

Remus followed the path and eventually he reached the small pond. It was a peaceful spot. The pond was surrounded by bushes and several benches were conveniently placed at intervals along the bank, presumably for people to feed the few ducks that were swimming on the surface of the water.

Remus conducted a cursory search of the bushes. He did not expect to find anything here after all these years and he didn't. The bushes had possibly been uprooted and replanted many times in the years since Adam was abandoned here. It was a strange coincidence that while Adam was presumably lying in the bushes here, Peter was being murdered on the other side of town.

Leaving the park, Remus returned to Lindsay's house.

"Please give this to him, and give him my love," Lindsay said, meeting him at the door and handing him a small package wrapped in brown paper.

"Thanks, I will," Remus replied gratefully.

With his days work done, Remus returned to his flat and placed the package on the table. At last, his investigations were complete; all he needed to do now was organise his notes so he could present them to Albus.

Remus stared at the small package on the table. His curiosity getting the better of him, he gently removed the wrapping. He could always wrap it again before he gave it to the boy. Remus looked at the small blue blanket. It looked strangely familiar. Remus turned the blanket over examining it for any distinctive markings.

What Remus saw was not possible. It simply wasn't possible. Embroidered on one corner of the blanket, standing tall and proud, was a very familiar stag.

Remus grabbed the Floo powder, threw it into his fireplace and shouted; "Albus Dumbledore!"

Chapter 9

Author's Notes: Here it is, the final chapter of Connections. I will hopefully start posting the next book in the series next week. Thanks to all those that have reviewed and thanks to my two Betas Arnel and jezzjamer2. Enjoy!

Ginny

June 9th 1994

The sound of movement woke Ginny some time later. She was momentarily disorientated and sat up suddenly wondering where she was. Then she remembered, they were lost in the Forbidden Forest!

With a start, Ginny realised what had woken her, there were skittering sounds coming from nearby!

Ginny shook Adam and his eyes snapped open.

"What?" he asked.

"I can hear something."

They both got to their feet. It was pitch black, presumably the middle of the night. Ginny felt slightly refreshed from her sleep although she was now ravenously hungry.

"Lumos."

Adam's wand lit the area around them but they still couldn't see the source of the noise. Together they walked slowly away from the hollow where they had slept. The sound was getting closer, like many feet hitting the ground in quick succession.

Adam spun around. His wand light cast shadows that looked to Ginny as if strange creatures were emerging from the trees to eat them.

Still the sounds of many feet hitting the forest floor echoed around them.

Suddenly one of the shadows seemed to be getting slowly bigger and a hulking shape appeared in the glow of Adam's wand. Adam froze. Ginny felt Adam's body began to tremble slightly.

"Ginny... " he said in a soft voice.

Ginny squinted her eyes as the shape advanced. She screamed. It was a giant spider.

"Stranger," the spider said. "In our territory."

"We'll leave," Adam said his voice shaking.

"Too late. Die." the spider said as it advanced on them.

Adam grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the way.

"RUN!" he shouted.

They pelted across the forest floor, Adam's wand making the forest come alive with strange shapes. The skittering sounds continued behind and to the sides of them. The spiders were chasing them!

"Confringo!" Adam shouted, pointing his wand behind them.

His spell struck the ground making the leaves that covered the floor shoot into the air, but it didn't slow the spiders.

"They're going to catch us!" Adam shouted as they ran. "Any suggestions?"

"Try Stupefy," she suggested, remembering the spell she had used on Adam in her dream.

"Stupefy."

The red light from Adam's spell shot behind them, it struck one of the spiders on its soft underbelly as it climbed over a fallen tree. The spider fell to the floor where it lay still. The rest of the spiders still gained on them, coming from behind them in wave after wave.

"Stupefy, Stupefy, Stupefy, Stupefy, Stupefy," Adam shouted time and time again, sending a hail of red spells behind him.

Ginny craned her neck to see if the spells hit. Some did, but they only seemed to anger the spiders further and they still kept coming. Suddenly, as she was looking over her shoulder, Ginny felt a tug on her foot and she fell to the ground with a sickening snap.

Realising she didn't have much time before the spiders caught her, she got straight back to her feet, but when she attempted to put her weight on her right foot, her entire leg gave way as pain shot from the ankle up to her thigh.

Adam ran to her side.

"Put your weight on me!" he urged in a panic. "We need to keep moving."

Ginny was able to hobble along by leaning on Adam, but they were now losing ground rapidly to the spiders.

The spiders caught them in no time.

Adam held his wand up and lit the area around them, while Ginny watched in horror as the spiders closed into a circle around them.

"Die," the spiders echoed.

Ginny and Adam clung to each other in terror. Adam vainly pointed his wand at any spider that got close. Trying to keep them back.

It was no use.

Suddenly a new sound erupted from the forest near them. There was a twang and the thunder of hooves. An arrow impaled itself into the lead spider dropping it to the floor.

"Go! Leave them!" a voice echoed in the dark.

The spiders scattered. Adam spun around pointing his wand in the direction of the new voice.

"Lower you're wand, young one," the voice said. "I mean you no harm."

A form materialised from the dark. Ginny recognised it instantly. It was a Centaur.

"It's a Centaur," Ginny said, thinking that Adam may not know what it was.

"Two young ones!" The centaur exclaimed. "It is lucky the Acromantula fear us and are easily scared off. Lucky for you your chase led them to the very edge of their territory. If they knew I was alone they would not have left so easy."

"W-Who are you?" Ginny asked.

"My name is Firenze and we should be leaving this place before they return," Firenze peered at her and then at Adam. "You are injured, come ride on my back. There are searchers out for you in the forest."

Firenze lowered himself close to the ground and Ginny was able to get on his back with Adam's help. As she mounted she got the first clear look at her foot, it was twisted unnaturally to one side. Why didn't it hurt more?

They began moving, with Firenze leading and Adam walking by his side.

"What are your names?" he enquired.

"I'm Adam Winters."

"I'm Ginny Weasley."

Ginny saw Firenze gaze at the sky as they walked along. He paused and looked at Ginny and then at Adam.

"You should stay together," said Firenze.

Adam looked bemused at what the centaur was saying. Why would Adam leave her now?

Ginny lost track of how long they walked together through the forest but eventually, sometime later, they saw a faint light in front of them.

"Light your wand," Firenze ordered.

"Lumos."

The light of Adam's wand rapidly attracted the attention of whatever was producing the light in the distance. It moved rapidly in their direction and soon Professor Dumbledore appeared from the darkness.

"Adam!" He seemed incredibly agitated. "Oh thank goodness! Miss Weasley too!"

"I have your students, Albus, the female is injured," Firenze stated solemnly.

Professor Dumbledore helped Ginny down from Firenze's back.

"Farewell, Adam and Ginny," he stated, before galloping off into the dark forest.

"Hagrid!" Professor Dumbledore's voice echoed across the forest. "I have them!"

"Let's get you two to the hospital wing," Professor Dumbledore said kindly. Then his expression hardened. "We will discuss the events that lead you to be in the Forbidden Forest alone at night, in the morning."

Adam

June 10th 1994

"I'm getting fed up of this place," Adam grumbled as he sat up in bed the next morning.

"Then you shouldn't do things to land yourself in here!" snapped Madam Pomfrey, as she placed a breakfast tray on his bedside table.

Madam Pomfrey went over and pulled back the curtains next to Adam's bed. Ginny was sitting in the next bed gobbling her breakfast.

"I've fixed your ankle, Miss Weasley, and you are fine, Mr. Winters. Once the Headmaster has been to see you, you may go," Madam Pomfrey stated.

Adam had just finished his breakfast when Professor Dumbledore entered the room.

"I have informed your parents about what has happened, Miss Weasley," he said solemnly.

Adam saw Ginny pale visibly.

"I would have thought after last year, you two would have been more careful," he said sternly. "I have also had a complaint, Miss Weasley, that you attacked Lucius Malfoy, is this true?"

"NO!" Ginny said raising her voice. "He attacked me, took my wand."

"Ah, I did think it unusual for someone who was so brutally attacked to have their opponent's wand," said Professor Dumbledore, his humour seemingly returned. He withdrew Ginny's wand from his robes and placed it on her bed.

"Thank you, Professor," said Ginny. She now lowered her voice. "I think he may have had something to do with the diary last year, he knew about it and I don't think you told him, did you, sir?"

"No, I most certainly did not. Do you have any idea how he could be involved?" Professor Dumbledore questioned.

Adam saw Ginny's face scrunch up slightly in though, and then suddenly relax in shock.

"When I bought my school supplies last year, my cauldron got knocked out of my hands, and he gave it back to me..." Ginny trailed off. "IT WAS HIM!" She shouted obviously furious.

"Calm down, Miss Weasley. I will investigate this, although it will be hard to convict him on such evidence. I will, however, ensure that he is no longer welcome on school grounds."

Ginny gave a watery smile, though it was obvious to Adam she was far from pleased.

"Now, will you tell me exactly what you were doing in the Forbidden Forest?"

Adam hesitated.

"It might have been rumoured," Professor Dumbledore continued. "That you had something to do with a Hippogriff that mysteriously vanished before its execution. The Ministry has been asking who could have freed the animal."

Adam stared at the Headmaster.

"However, my investigations have determined that it couldn't possibly have been you two. I expect you just went exploring and got lost," Professor Dumbledore said, his eyes glinting.

"Yes, sir," Adam replied.

"Good, good!" Professor Dumbledore's eyes turned to Adam. "I must impress on you the need to keep yourselves safe! Be more careful next year!" Professor Dumbledore turned to leave. "I just need to have a quick word with Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger and Mr. Longbottom and then I will send them in to see you."

Professor Dumbledore disappeared towards the exit of the Hospital Wing. A few minutes later Hermione, Ron and Neville raced around the corner.

"Thank goodness you're alright!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I can't believe you did it!" called Neville.

"You nearly got my sister killed!" grumbled Ron.

"Ron! It was as much my idea as Adam's!" Ginny exclaimed.

"I know! You're a troublemaker anyway, but you and him together! You're...you're nearly as bad as the twins," said Ron, frustration evident on his face.

"Why did you do it?" asked Hermione.

"Well, you weren't going to do it! We had to do something! We couldn't just leave him there to die!" said Adam.

"I know. You did a fantastic job," said Hermione softly. "But what happened afterwards, how did you get lost in the forest?"

Adam and Ginny launched into the tale of their confrontation with Lucius Malfoy, their encounter with the giant spiders and meeting Firenze.

June 11th 1994

The next morning, Adam was eating breakfast with the other Gryffindors in the Great Hall when an old and slightly feeble looking owl landed in a heap in front of him.

"That's Errol!" Ginny exclaimed as she reached over and grabbed the letter from the owl's leg. "Oh...There's a letter for you," said Ginny looking slightly surprised.

Adam opened the letter eagerly; he hardly ever got any post.

Dear Adam,

I just wanted to let you know that Mr. Weasley made enquiries at the Ministry about where you were going this summer and once again they had not sorted anything out for you.

So I've decided that you are going to come and stay with us for the summer. We will pick you up at King’s Cross when we pick up Ginny and the boys. It has all been arranged with Professor Dumbledore.

Love

Molly Weasley.

P.S. We will be having words about the exploring that you and Ginny seemed to have undertaken recently.

Adam couldn't help the massive grin that came to his face at the thought of another summer with the Weasleys. Looking over to Ginny, he saw a worried look on her face.

"Mum and Dad want words with me about the forest," she said, slightly timidly. "I'm just glad it wasn't a Howler!"

"They said the same to me," Adam replied.

"Really?"

"Yep, and I'm coming to stay this summer. Apparently, the Ministry didn't sort anything out for me again," replied Adam still with a massive grin on his face.

"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed, grinning back at him.

"What did you get from Mum?" Ron asked as he leaned over the two of them to pet Errol.

"Mum wants words with us about being in the Forbidden Forest and Adam's coming to stay this summer," Ginny replied.

"Did you expect them to say nothing about it, Ginny?"  Ron replied.

"No," Ginny sighed.

"It'll be good to have you around again, mate," Ron said, turning towards Adam. "So, have you guys got any plans today?" he continued.

"Nope," replied Adam. "All our school work's done."

"We gotta go talk to McGonagall about our electives next year and pick up our results though, remember," Ginny added.

"What are you thinking of doing?" asked Ron.

"Care of Magical Creatures definitely," replied Ginny. "Not sure about the other one. I'm thinking of Arithmancy,"

Ron got a strange look on his face when Ginny mentioned Arithmancy.

"What about you, Adam?" asked Ron.

"The same, although I was debating Arithmancy or Divination,"

"Divination is an easy class although you don't learn much," said Ron with a shrug.

"I'm definitely not doing Divination," Ginny stated flatly.

"Okay, shall we both take Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy then?" asked Adam, turning towards Ginny.

"Yep, let's do that."

Ron laughed. "At least you're only taking two each!"

"What do you mean?" asked Adam.

Ron lowered his voice and he whispered to them. "Don't tell her I told you, but Hermione took far too many. She got so stressed! I'm glad she's dropped a couple now, she was working far too hard."

"It's good that you care, Ron!" Ginny replied.

Adam saw Ron flush bright red.

"Erm, must be going, see you guys around!"

"What was that?" Adam asked.

Ginny giggled. "I think Ron may have a crush on Hermione."

"Oh," Adam replied, not really understanding what was so funny.

Once Ron had made a hasty retreat, Adam and Ginny continued with their breakfast at a leisurely pace.

"Shall we go and talk to McGonagall first?" Ginny asked, once they had finished.

"Sure," Adam replied. "I want to tell her that I'm sorted for the summer, I know she was on about making sure she knew exactly where I was going before school finished."

As they stood up from the table, they heard Hagrid's voice booming across the Great Hall calling their names. Adam looked around and saw Hagrid standing next to the staff table at the end of the hall, he was waving them over.

"Hi, Hagrid," Adam called as they approached.

"I just wanted to say," Hagrid hesitated, glancing around. "That...that I'm glad you're okay after your little adventure in the forest, its a nasty place."

"Thanks," Ginny said sounding puzzled.

Adam wasn't quite sure why Hagrid was making a fuss either.

"Its amazing that at the same time you got lost in the forest, that someone was setting Buckbeak free. I'd sure like to thank them, if I ever get to meet them," Hagrid said, winking.

Adam saw Ginny grinning. She had obviously caught on to what Hagrid was going on about.

"Well, you better be off," said Hagrid, clapping both of them on the back.

"Bye, Hagrid!" said Adam, feeling buoyant.

As the two friends walked out of the Great Hall, Adam could feel a giant grin forming once again on his face. He couldn't believe his luck, he was going to spend the summer with Ginny. It looked like this summer holiday was going to be far more fun than last year's.

Remus

June 11th 1994

Remus was rather annoyed with Albus Dumbledore, furious even. He hadn't been answering his Floo for nearly an entire day, and when he did finally answer, Remus was sharply instructed to come through and wait in the office.

Apparently, Albus had more important matters to deal with. What could be more important than this?

"I am sorry to keep you waiting, Remus," said Albus as he swept into the office looked slightly flustered.

Remus pulled out the blue blanket and chucked it to Albus.

"This is the blanket that Adam was wrapped in, when he was found abandoned in a park."

Albus examined the blanket. Remus noticed his eyes visibly widen when they came across the stag embroidered on the blanket.

"Albus..." Remus began.

"Remus, before we continue," Albus said, interrupting him. "I need you to give me your word that you will not tell another soul what you have found, or what we are about to discuss,"

"Okay, you have my word," replied Remus without hesitation. He could understand the need for secrecy.

"Then, please continue, Remus."

"That blanket was Harry's, I am sure of it. So I'm wondering, how did Adam end up wrapped in it?" Remus asked. "I can only think of one possible explanation and that just seems......"

"I think your suspicions are correct, Remus," Albus interrupted softly.

"But.... that's impossible," Remus stated flatly, shaking his head. "It simply can't be true!"

"Remus, it is what you already suspect, Adam is Harry."

"He looks nothing like Harry!" exclaimed Remus feebly, voicing his doubts.

"People's appearances can be changed," said Albus softly. "I have conducted a blood test. Adam Winters is definitely Harry Potter. Your research has only confirmed this and provided us, I hope, with some insight into his upbringing."

Remus felt sick, as the reality of the situation crashed down on him. The child that he had watched bounced from Muggle children's home to Muggle children's home, had been abused, made an outcast, and persecuted based on his magical talents. This child was Harry. James' son. Harry...

"There was no way any of us could have known," Albus said softly, obviously sensing Remus' distress. "You know how much was left of Lily's body, there should have been no way a baby could survive that."

"How...?" Remus croaked.

"Based on what you have told me, it seems that Harry somehow survived the night Voldemort attacked. Sirius must have removed him from the house, but was forced to leave him when he realised Peter was tracking him," said Albus.

"How did we never find out he was alive?" Remus asked, feeling angry now. He should have been able to do something for James' son!

"Sirius did something that interfered with the boy's magical signature. It is almost as if he found a way to make the boy Unplottable. He did have a Hogwarts letter, but the school was not able to supply us with a name for him."

Remus shook his head, how had it gone so wrong.

"Does he know?" asked Remus.

"No, and he will not be told; at least not yet."

"What?" Remus shouted. "That boy has no idea of his heritage; he doesn't know who his parents are! We owe it to Lily and James to tell him."

"Remus," said Albus soothingly. "He will be told but not yet. I have my reasons; I have a suspicion that if Harry survived that night then Voldemort too is not gone forever. Despite what we all believed."

"What?" Remus interrupted. He was gone. Everyone knew that.

"You will have to trust me on this, Remus. If Voldemort returns or if any of his surviving Death Eaters realise Harry is still alive he will be a prime target for them."

Remus couldn't argue with that. The remaining Death Eaters over the years had been keen to exact revenge for their master's downfall. Take the Longbottoms for example.

"As Adam Winters he is safely anonymous," Albus continued. "You gave me your word, Remus. Do not tell the boy! For his own safety."

Remus' shoulders slumped.

"Why, Sirius? Why?" he asked.

"I'm considering taking a trip to Azkaban and asking him that very question," Albus sighed. "Although he is probably insane by now."

They both sat in silence for several minutes.

"Can I at least see him?" Remus asked weakly.

Albus hesitated. "I think now would not be the right time, you are too emotional, and he has had a rather," Albus stroked his beard. "Stressful end to the school year."

"Oh," Remus replied lamely.

"Although I'm sure we can arrange something, and in fact I have a proposal for you regarding the next school year. If you accept I believe it would enable you to have contact with the boy," Albus answered gently.

"What is it?" Remus asked, he wasn't sure he wanted to be involved in anymore of Albus' projects.

"Now is not the time," Albus replied. "I think it would be useful for both of us if you can you tell me what you know about Adam's past?" Albus continued.

"He was abandoned in a park, only a short walk from where Peter tried to stop Sirius. He was found there by a woman out for a run. She contacted the Muggle authorities who took Adam into their care."

"What date and time?" Albus questioned intently.

"He was found on November the first, at approximately seven pm."

"Sirius killed Peter at about two pm that same day," Albus said to no one in particular.

"Sirius must have just dumped him there!" Remus spat. "He was supposed to be the boy's godfather!"

"Why don't you tell me something about Harry's life. Where have your travels taken you?" asked Albus.

Remus launched into the story that took Harry Potter from a bush in a park, to Hogwarts.

Table of Contents

Harry Potter: Connections

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9