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, it was 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 from every student.
As it was the last lesson of the day, 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 boy's 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 eyes focused on the Snitch and she tuned out everything else. Suddenly she saw, out of the corner 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 Gryffindors 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.