PC Jones looked over at the young boy sitting in the too large chair at the interview table, soothing the bite mark on his hand. He had been caught thieving by Mr Williams, the local grocer. Apparently he'd seen the lad a few times over the last few days, but the times Mr Williams had approached him he had run away. The lad would have been noticeable even if this hadn't have been a small Welsh village where everyone knew everyone else. His scrawny, unwashed, and generally bedraggled appearance shouted at neglect. His face currently was hidden by greasy long hair, but the glimpse PC Jones had managed to get showed a yellowing bruise from a black eye and a cut on his cheek. Ah well, it was in the hands of Social Services now anyway. He couldn't get anything out the lad, and he'd even tried speaking in English just in case the lad had crossed the border but other than a unnerving stare he hadn't gotten anything else. He went to put some antiseptic on his hand. He quietly thought to himself that it was a sign he was getting too old for the job when he struggled to wrestle little boys with the strength of a mouse to the station. He was due for retirement in a month anyway... at least Di, his wife, would be pleased.

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Miss Harrison hadn't a clue what to do next. She had introduced herself to the boy in front of her in both Welsh and English because she didn't know which he spoke, and the PC Jones had indicated he wasn't know as a local. He couldn't have been older than five and she didn't want to seem too intimidating. She had sat there in silence for a while seeing if this would prompt the lad in front of her to speak but he just sat there, still as a statue. In the end she had asked for a cup of tea for herself and a glass of juice for the boy. Well he might not say anything but he certainly guzzled the juice down. She requested a few sandwiches as well. If the boy was caught stealing food he was probably hungry.

She jotted a few notes down on the paper in front of her. Then inspiration struck her.

"Tell you what... How about I give you this piece of paper and you fill in the bits you know. Can you write or draw?"

The boys hand slowly inched towards the pen but never quite completed the action of picking it up. She noticed bringing his arm up had pulled his too short jumper up his arm, revealing a bruise.

"Does that hurt?...Do you have any other injuries?"

Again, just silence.

Miss Harrison stood up. She would need to phone her manager to see what she should do. She couldn't seem to get the boy to open up and neither had the police. Perhaps it needed someone with more experience, she had only been qualified a few months. Either way the boy had clearly been abused. The logical conclusion was that he had run away after being hurt. But who had hurt him and where he came from was still a mystery.

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Severus sat at the wooden desk in front of him carefully munching the sandwiches the lady had asked for. She had said he could eat them but he was still expecting it to be some sort of trick. He had picked them apart looking for any tablets or stuff he didn't recognise and given them a sniff but they just seemed to be plain old ham in bread and butter.

The adults here spoke a different language. He hadn't realised that when he had snuck on the train. Mind you he hadn't cared where the trains were going and had got on the first one at the first platform he had come to. He had hidden in the luggage compartment bit at the back behind everyone's suitcases and the gentle rocking motion of the train had made him nod off despite the pain and adrenalin. When he woke up the train was pulling into the station and the man on the tannoy had said it was the last stop. Severus hadn't caught the name- Lanfair... something.

He resolved in his own mind that he wasn't going back. He didn't care if Mam missed him. She didn't do anything to stop Pa from hitting him and nowadays that's all Pa did. That and complain about Severus. He just made them unhappy. Well, fine. If they didn't want him he would go away. He had figured he was in Wales because of the red dragon on the flag he had seen in the pub window. Surely the police here wouldn't be able to find out who he was. Manchester seemed a world away. Besides he didn't think his Mam and Pa would even care he had gone, let alone gone to the police.

He looked up as an older lady opened the door.

"Well hello there. My name is Gwen. I'm from social services. I don't recognise your face from round here. Do you like the village and the beach?"

Severus nodded. He decided that he wouldn't tell them his name but he didn't want them to think he was thick or deaf or something. Billy had told him that kids who were deaf got taken away and locked up. Severus didn't think this was true but he wasn't about to test the theory on himself. Besides he was getting fed up at sitting in this hard chair.

"Do you know any Welsh?"

Or maybe he was safer not responding!

"No? Well that's ok. It's nice to see someone new round here. Are your parents or guardians on holiday here?"

Shrug.

"Do you live with your Mum and Dad?"

Severus shook his head. Perhaps if they thought he lived with his grandparents or someone they wouldn't find his parents.

"Who gave you those bruises?"

"Was it someone you lived with?"

A nod. Perhaps they wouldn't send him back anyway... "I'm not going back, I'll just run away again!" he burst out.

At this Severus was bombarded by more questions in the guise of curious conversation. He had told himself not to give anything away, but had ended up nodding and shaking his head an awful lot. Now she seemed to be making arrangements for him to be seen by a Doctor. Severus didn't like the sound of that. Johnnie from down the road had told him horror stories about Doctors who experimented on little boys whose parents wouldn't miss them.

"No no noooo no please don't, I'll be good, I'll even go back, please not the doctor." Severus tugged at her skirt and tears started to gather in his eyes and make little tracks down his grimy face. Gwen bent down so she was at eye level and then gently placed her hands on his shoulders

"Don't worry, you'll be with me. What are you scared of? He won't hurt you. Dr Davis is my Doctor too, and he's ever so nice. It will be nice to get those cuts and bruises cleaned up and have a bit of a wash wont it. " Gwen kept up the soothing monologue while Severus followed her to the car. He noticed where they were going but didn't feel he really had a choice. Besides he was hungry and had decided that people who ran away in books never seemed to be hungry or thirsty and always found what they needed when they needed it. Well that hadn't happened to Severus. He had been cold and hungry and thirsty and his cuts and welts were hurting him and he felt dirty and scared and sleepy.

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The car ride had been uneventful and the Doctor had turned out to be a young man with a smile that was too bright but he didn't seem to be scary although Severus felt nervous he had to strip off.

Doctor Davis hadn't said anything about the cuts and welts on Severus' back and had even warned him that it would sting when he cleaned them.

After that he got given a lolly and told to wait in the room with all the toys. He could even play with them!

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"Well, he's had more than a one off beating. Some of those welts were deep and I noticed the scars of others on his back and bottom too." Dr Davis told Gwen. "I've documented it all and if need be I can write a report if you need more evidence. I take it he won't be returning to where he came from?"

" We will notify his guardians where he is when we find them, but he won't return there unless its supervised visits, unless we establish it is safe for him to return which seems unlikely. You definitely think the bruises and marks indicate its long term? He couldn't have got them all over a short period of time?"

"No, I'm afraid not. He has had his nose broken a few times as well. It's an old healed fracture that was never set properly. If whoever he lived with didn't give him the broken nose, they didn't take him to a Doctor to fix it either."

Gwen cast a worried look at the door where Severus was playing. She had hoped the injuries had happened whilst he had run away but from the sounds of it she would have to try and find an overnight foster home for him until she could arrange for a room at an orphanage. Hopefully he would tell them his name soon. It would make things a lot easier. They couldn't go around calling him Boy or Lad all the time.

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Severus had decided the Welsh people were strange. Nice... but strange. He had been taken to another nice old lady after the Doctor and she had given him a bath, clean clothes and even cut his hair. Severus hadn't complained about having his hair cut because he thought having short hair might be a good disguise. His Mam and Pa would be looking for a little boy with long hair, if they were looking for him at all.

She had even given Severus a teddy to sleep with and said he could keep it! And she had tucked him in...even read him a story although it was in Welsh and he hadn't understood any of the words. Severus couldn't ever remember him Mam doing that. That settled it for Severus. He was going to stay in Wales forever.

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Severus glanced around his room in the orphanage at Llanfairfechan, the town where he arrived, for any stray belongings that he wanted to take with him to Hogwarts. He hoped that he could pick up English quickly enough. He had picked up Welsh fairly quickly after coming here and that's all anyone spoke so he could only remember a few English words here and there. Any bullying from account of his accent and pasty looks had been quashed fairly quickly by the staff here and he had even made a few friends.

He was still reeling from the revelation that they had found out his real name and weren't sending him back (the letter had his real name on it as well as Edryd Jones). Severus was quite proud that they had never found it out and had had to re-name him. Apparently Gwen had done some digging and had found that his Pa was dead- drunken brawl or something and they couldn't find his Mother for love nor money so that was that in terms of going anywhere else. Llan would still be his home in the holidays.

Apparently it wasn't unusual for some of the orphans to be sent to Hogwarts, in fact Daffyd would be there, although he was in his fourth year. Severus hoped he would get into Ravenclaw so he would have someone he knew who he could talk to properly. Daffyd always came back with a funny accent and magic tricks.