AN: Hey guys this is my new story! I hope you like it! tell me what you think!:)
Chapter One: People are Strange when your a Stranger
Jimmy Porter took a deep breath before stepping off the airplane. It was a big step on his part, coming back to England. It was twelve years ago that he was found wandering London confused and terrified. His psychiatrist said that he was under the delusion that people were trying to kill him because of a prophecy. For a while the staff of the mental ward thought he was a paranoid schizophrenic, later it was ruled out because his thoughts were organized and the lack of other symptoms. It took 2 years in the psych ward to overcome the paranoia; still to this day he had feelings of people searching for him.
After two years in the psych ward with no recollection of who he was or anything about his past life, except for the nightmares of a man with red eyes, he was sent to America for an experimental study. The experiment consisted of five years of researchers trying different methods of analyzing his brain in order to determine where memories are stored and how amnesia comes about. During the period of the experiment, 7 of 10 started to recall there past lives, unfortunately he was one of the 3 that did not.
After the five years Jimmy decided to stay in America, the researchers gave him several job opportunities to get settled. For a while they allowed him to work in the lab while he went to school first to get his high school diploma and next to study biology, specifically neuroscience. The scientists he worked with were a great help as they were amazed how fast he picked things up. He was certain that they kept him around not only because of his great personality, but also because they were secretly continuing to watch him like they observed their lab rats behavior when taught new tricks. He was fine with it for the most part, it had become a normal experience to be hooked up to a EEG when being quizzed for his next exam. Apparently they were making groundbreaking work in the field of memory loss thanks to him. What it was, he didn't really ask.
After 5 years of working towards his undergraduate he finally graduated and was excepted into a graduate program. It was a great occasion, the scientists that became his best friends, threw him a party, and it was the happiest day of his life, which he could remember of course. It was that evening, after several shots of tequila, courtesy of Dr. Ben, that he suddenly had a vision in which he was surrounded by a bunch of red heads, all brothers he presumed, passing around a bottle of fire whiskey. A door open and everybody in the room yelled 'GINNY' with drunken cheer. He looked up from the bottle and saw the most gorgeous girl in the world walking towards him. Her skin was alabaster, her hair was fiery, and her face was mischievous. Taking a seat next him, she grabbed the bottle from his hands and took a swig, before passing it to the next person. Leaning over towards him, he took in her flower scent.
"I'm mad at you," She said quietly, her brown eyes so passionate, "but I've missed you dearly." And with that she started snogging the life out of him. In the background he heard all the brothers groan and make throwing up sounds. The next morning he woke up with a blazing hangover and a strong determination to find a girl named Ginny.
The researchers were thrilled. It took him four days just to convince them that going back to England was what he needed to do. It took him five days to convince them that he needed to go alone. With the help of the memory department he bought a plane ticket and had enough money to last him a month in England.
He didn't remember much of England except the psych ward, and as crazy as he was, he had no want to return to that place. Instead he checked into a hotel and started walking the streets of London, trying to bring back any recollection of anything. After two days he only had the memory of the young women and a strange urge to stand in a phone booth. Feeling discouraged and hopeless he spent the next day in a park reading the Journal of Neuroscience that Dr. Turner gave him.
Taking a break from reading, Jimmy thought briefly about buying a plane ticket home and leaving tomorrow that was until a man took a seat next to him on the bench.
"Hello," the man said cheerfully. He was tall and had dark skin with brilliantly white teeth. "I'm Dean."
Jimmy shook his hand slightly taken aback, "Hi, Jimmy."
"So where are you from?" Dean asked.
"I just come to England from the States."
The man looked slightly disappointed about that.
"Sooo," the man started, "whatcha reading?"
Jimmy looked down at his Journal, "Oh, I'm going to school to be a neuroscientist, I just wanted to catch up on the latest studies in the field.
Dean nodded thoughtfully, "Wow, that's cool."
Jimmy smiled awkwardly. There was a moment of silence before Dean spoke again. "I'm a painter."
Jimmy nodded.
Dean cleared his throat before continuing awkwardly. " I was actually painting over there," He pointed to a shady spot in the park were an easel stood. "When I saw you over here, I had to come over and say hi."
Jimmy felt slightly honored, "well thanks." He said sincerely.
Dean continued as if he didn't hear him. " You see you look like somebody I was once friends with."
Jimmy's entire body froze. He could practically feel his sympathetic nervous system taking over.
"Really?" Jimmy squeaked out.
Dean continued looking forward. "Yeah."
Jimmy's heart was beating so fast he was sure Dean could here it.
"What happened to this person?"
Dean looked at him intensely, "Some bad people were after him. He disappeared a while ago."
Jimmy's heart fell into his stomach and his throat became dry.
"Dean," Jimmy said softly, "Maybe I should tell you why I'm here. "
Dean continued to stare at him unwavering.
Jim cleared his throat. "You see, I was found in London 12 years ago without my memory. For the next eleven years I could not remember anything form before the age of 17 until about two weeks ago, I had a memory. I came back to England to try to find the people from my memory."
Dean's eyes went big. "Who was in your memory?"
Jimmy blushed, "It was a family of red heads, I only have the name of one, Ginny."
As soon as he said the word Ginny, the man's arms were around him, embracing him.
"Harry! It's really you!" The man exclaimed in his ear. He pulled him away to look at him and then embraced Jimmy again.
Feeling vastly confused, but extremely excited, smiled and hugged the man back.
"I can't believe it!" Dean spoke quickly as he dragged Jimmy, now 'Harry', through the park and towards downtown London. "We all thought that the Death Eaters had got you. We were so worried! We had several search parties looking for you. The DA was extremely upset when we came back empty handed. Oh! You should have seen Ginny! She was ready to breathe fire. Nobody could talk to her for days! Did you know she took out five DE's just out of revenge? She's going to be so happy to see you! Oh! And Ron and Hermione, be prepared for the water works. I think Ron will even cry when he sees you. And Molly, Merlin, Molly is going to have a field day."
'Harry' just stumbled along confused and concerned as he took in the surroundings, not getting anything from the conversation other than the fact that Ginny will be happy to see him. Finally after being drag for several blocks Dean pulled him into a rundown looking bar called 'The Leaky Cauldron'.
The bar went dead silent as he was pushed in. He stood as still as a statue as he observed everybody looking at him in awe. 'Harry' gulped.
"Why are they looking at me," he whispered to Dean.
Dean grabbed his arm and lead him over to a giant fireplace grabbing a handful of strange powder he placed it into Harry's hands.
"You need to floo to the Burrow quickly."
Harry looked at Dean in confusion. "What?"
The people in the bar were starting to murmur.
Dean looked pained. "You need to step into the fire place and-"
Harry looked at him alarmed.
"Just trust me Harry," Dean whispered to him in a hurry, "You need to step into the fire place, throw the floo powder down, and shout the Burrow."
Harry hesitated for a moment, searching his friends face, then took a deep breath and thought, 'What the Hell', as he stepped into the fire place and shouted "The Burrow." With a flash of green fire he was gone.
He wasn't quite sure how he got there, one second he was in a bar, the next he was thrown into what looked like a living room in a house. The interior design of the room was the strangest he had ever seen, but he found it almost cozy and homey. He stood in the living room for a couple of moments, not really sure what he should or shouldn't do. He heard voices coming from a room toward his right. With his heart beating fast he slowly moved towards the noise. He wasn't sure if this was considered breaking and entering, but he decided to steal his nerves and enter the room. He was sure that Dean wouldn't send him to a place he didn't know.
Harry slowly opened the door and entered the room. For a couple of brief moments the room was chaos. There was a long kitchen table filled with red heads talking and eating and fighting each other over food. He was extremely happy to say he recognized several of them from his memory, despite the fact that they all looked much more mature. All movement and sound stopped when the door creaked as Harry pushed it all the way open, signaling them of his presence.
Everybody looked at him in astonishment. Harry feeling slightly overwhelmed, stood awkwardly in the doorway.
The silence continued.
Harry cleared his throat. "Erm, I'm sorry for intruding, but my friend Dean told me I should come here."
There was more silence.
Harry cleared his throat again, "Erm, I think he thought you guys could help me?"
A tall red head that Harry felt he should know stood up from the table, and walked slowly towards him. The rest of the red head's family watched still frozen.
The man approached him consciously, and then reached out his arm to grab his shoulder. The moment the man touched him, he hissed.
"Your real."
And then with Harry found himself, for the second time that day, being hugged. The man quickly let go of him, and turned towards his family.
"He's real!"
And with that Harry found himself mobbed by a family of red heads, feeling extremely confused but also very content.
It took a good twenty minutes before he found himself detangled from the family of talkative red heads and seated right next to the mother, a short and plump women who had decided he needed to eat. There had been so much activity that Harry wasn't able to tell them that he had absolutely no idea who they were.
Harry took a bite of food, which was the best food he had ever tasted, while trying to think of the best approach to take.
Thankfully he was saved when the red head that the mother deamed as 'Ron' spoke.
"So Harry," He said casually as he chewed his food, "its been 12 year mate, where the bloody hell have you been?"
The mother shot Ron a glare that made Harry's insides squeeze.
Ron held up his hands, "What I'm just saying what everybody was thinking!"
Harry jumped in before a fight started.
Flattening his hair awkwardly he started, "Um well its actually a funny story. You see I, um, well."
"Just spit it out mate!" Ron said aggressively, "Whatever it is it must be good to just up and leave your family and friends for twelve years!"
Harry stared at Ron intensely. It had never occurred to him that he might have had a family here in England. For some reason he just always thought he was an orphan.
"Do I have a family?" Harry said before he could stop himself.
Ron set his silverware down with a 'CLINK'.
"Bloody Hell mate! We are your family!"
Harry looked at the entire table of people and felt a strong kinship towards them, but he new that they were not related at all.
Harry looked back at Ron.
"I see, but I'm asking you if I have any relatives."
Ron looked confused, "What do you mean?"
"Do I have any blood relatives?" Harry asked.
Ron gave him a blank look.
Harry rolled his eyes.
"For instance do I have parents?"
Ron glared at him suspiciously, "What are you on about?"
Harry felt slightly crazy with the strong need to know more about himself.
"Do I have any sibling? Aunts? Uncles? Cousins? Grandparent!"
Subconsciously he heard the mother crying besides him.
Ron looked at him angrily, "What the hell are you trying to do here! You know-"
Harry stood up frantically, "No! You don't see! I don't know!"
Ron stood up also, "What do you mean you don't know!"
"I mean I don't know anything! I don't know who you are! I don't know where I am! I don't know who I am!"
Ron stood frozen. "What are you saying? That you have amnesia or something?"
Harry looked at the table of red heads, "I mean that I woke up 12 years ago without any memories. Up until today I thought my name was James. The only memory I have of my past life came several weeks ago. It was of this family and I drinking a bottle of whiskey and a young women named Ginny."
Harry collapsed onto his chair and put his heads in his hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't need to yell, but today has been overwhelming, and I'm really confused."
There was dead silence before he was enveloped in yet another hug. The mother was hugging him, but Harry found himself unable to care.
"My poor dear!" the women said soothingly in his hear.
She then let go of him and started filling his plate full of more food, while the rest of the family was looking at him in shock and pity.
Harry sat there awkwardly feeling unsure on how to continue, before Ron said, "Well Harry, you may have forgotten us but you haven't left your temper behind."
And with that the entire family started to laugh. Harry even chuckled a little bit.
"So Harry where have you been staying?" One of the other Weasley brothers asked.
Harry smiled, "At first I spent two years in a psych ward, then I moved to America to be in a research study, and I've been there ever since."
Everybody seemed surprised with that.
"So how was living with muggles for 12 years?" The father of the group asked.
Harry looked at him confused. "Umm, Muggles?"
The smile slowly started to slide off of the father's face.
"You known, non-magical people."
Harry clearly not getting what he was talking about just said slowly, "I guess its like living with any other type of people. I mean its not like I could have lived with any magical people."
The whole table looked at him strangely.
"Well why not?" Ron asked.
Harry chocked on his water. "Well because magic doesn't exist."
One of the boys sprayed his water out across the table while everybody looked at him in horror.
" Harry how did you get here?" The dad asked cautiously.
Harry's brow quirked." I'm not quite sure. Dean just kinda pushed me into a fire place."
"And you magically ended here right?"
Harry nodded, "I know it sounds crazy, but it just happened. I don't know how it just did."
The father nodded knowingly. " Harry that was magic."
Harry scoffed, "No its not. It can't be."
Everybody looked at him sadly.
Before anybody could continue, there as a loud bang and the front door slammed open before a young women with bushy brown hair frantically entered the room.
"Sorry I'm late!" she said in a rush, before pulling out a stick and summoning a chair from the living room into the kitchen.
Harry's eyes went wide.
The young women waved her wand and her coat and hat floated over to the coat rack before she sat down on the newly acquired chair, next to Ron.
Grabbing a piece of bread, she spoke rapidly to Ron.
"There's a new lead on Harry! Apparently somebody spotted him in The Leaky Cauldron. I went to investigate but he wasn't there. I don't want to be hopeful but I think he could still be alive."
Glancing around the table her eyes met Harry.
Harry so overwhelmed by everything that was happening, slumped back in his chair as the world turned black.
AN: Let me know what you think!