Please do me a HUGE favor and review!

Author's note: Please review. Feedback is very helpful. Be brutally honest or nicely honest, whatever. But if you have the time reviews would be appreciated. Also: Hogwarts, spells, characters, and everything else you recognize from the Harry Potter books belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Enjoy :)

"Hey Ennie, did you get the key?" Roxie asked.

"Yep. I nicked it from Mrs. Canterbury this evening at supper. She never saw it coming." Smiling, I could hardly contain my excitement.

"Ok. I've got the slides here and Nathan is guarding the hallway so let's go."

"Wait!" I interjected.

"You're not chickening out, are you Ennie?"

"Me? Hell no. It's just that we forgot to say it. Remember, the oath."

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"And?"

"And Mrs. Canterbury is a butthead who deserves what's coming to her."

"Indeed. Now let's hurry and be quiet, for goodness sakes! You're big fat mouth got us in trouble last time, Roxie."

Roxie rolled her eyes and headed for the room. I turned the key and entered Mrs. Canterbury's office. Though it was pitch black, I had snuck in many times prior and knew exactly where I was going. This would be even better than that time I set that snake on her in the garden.

"So she keeps her slides in the top drawer. All we have to do is put this in instead!"

"I know Roxie, now pipe down before someone hears us." I hoisted myself up on the table to reach the drawers.

"Oh crap! It won't budge."

"Is it locked or something?"

"Yeah."

"Well, can you get it unlocked?" Roxie moaned.

"I can try." Come on. Unlock. I need you to unlock. Come on.

"Well?"

"Hush, Roxie I need to concentrate!" Open. Unlock. Hurry!

"Yy-arrgh!" The drawer swung open,

"Got it. Roxie, hand me the slides." Smiling, I placed the slides into the desk. Let's just day social worker inspectors' night would be a lot more revealing.

"Oh man we are so in!" Jumping off of the desk, I motioned for Roxie to head toward the door. We tiptoed all of the way upstairs before heading back to our respective rooms.

"Ehenorf, did you do it?" My bunkmate asked when I returned.

"Mischief managed." I grinned before pulling back the covers and soundly falling asleep.

The next morning I hopped out of bed and cheerfully ate my porridge.

"What gives, Ehenorf? It's social worker visiting day. Usually you cut out of this dump way before."

"These social workers have a very stressful job and get paid very little and Mrs. Canterbury is an evil shrew. Do you really think I'd let this opportunity slide, Jessie?"

Jessie grinned as we cleared the table and got dressed in our best clothes. We marched into the auditorium and grabbed our seats.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I Mrs. Canterbury, am proud to introduce you to the wonderful facility we have here. Christopher, my dear, would you please dim the lights? Thanks. Now this slide show will showcase some of the wonderful things we have to offer here. Let's start with the first one, then."

The audience murmured as the first slide, Mrs. Canterbury hitting a child, showed. "This, this isn't it. I- I would never hit a student!"

The second picture followed. I can assure you that I do not drink alcohol around the kids. These photos here, they've been tampered with!"

Mr. Reynolds, the assistant director, took over and calmed down the crowd. A few hours later, we were free to go. I got a few nods and high fives and a few quizzical looks from the younger kids who had no idea what was going on.

"Ehenorf! Come." Mrs. Canterbury dragged me into her office.

"I am so sick of this. I gave you a home, made sure you had clothes, a square meal, and schooling and you do nothing but give me grief."

"I'm a nice guy ask my teachers, ask anyone. But when it comes to you, you just simply drive me crazy, lady. You're an overbearing totalitarian bitch."

"Ehenorf! That is it, you little twerp. I am going to make a phone call right now. I will offer any family top dollar to take you out of here."

"So I'm going to get foster parents?" I looked up eagerly.

"Yes and you'd better thank you're lucky stars I'm not doing worse. You're a bad influence on these kids and why I haven't done anything sooner is an absolute riddle. Tom, escort him to his room and see that he packs his things. He will pack his things and come straight down. He will not talk to anyone or take any detours whatsoever. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a phone call to make. The Larsons will want to know that the drug test results are no longer an issue."

With that, I was guided to my room. Tom handed me a gray suitcase and I shoved my sweater and other petty possessions in there. I had won. I was getting out of here!

"Wow. Now I'll just have to go to the main room and tell everyone goodbye."

"Nope. Mrs. Canterbury was very clear. You will gather your things and wait downstairs until the Larsons arrive and fill out the remaining paperwork."

"Come on, she's probably wasted or at least pissed off enough not to notice."

"I'm sorry, Ehenorf. I truly am. Now let's go."

Tom guided me downstairs and waited with me until dawn. At that point, Mrs. Canterbury grabbed me by the collar and threw me outside.

"These are your new foster parents. Sven and Jillian Larson."

"Hey there."

"Oh hey little one. How old are ya? Ten, am I correct?"

"Nine. I'll be turning ten come August."

"Well great then. We'll throw ya a nice big party, isn't that right Jillian?" The short, mousy-haired woman next to him nodded.

"Ok, well I'm sure that you'll want to get acquainted with your new son. No time to waste. Legally, he's your problem now." Mrs. Canterbury waved as Mr. Larson pulled out of the parking lot. Maybe I was just imagining it, but I could've sworn that a tear of joy fell from her eyes.

Life with the Larsons was pretty good. Mr. Larson was an engineer from Sweden who had always wanted a son. Mrs. Larson was a little odd, kind of ditzy, and spaced out a lot. Ok, she was a druggie. Even a nine-year-old couldn't ignore that, but the home was nice and I still had the rest of the summer to look forward to.

For the whole month of June, I wrote letters to Roxie, Nathan, and everyone else back at the foster centre. I didn't get any responses so I gave up soon after. It was ok though, I had a lot to keep myself occupied with my new home and all. I had been at the foster centre since I was 15 months old and had never lived elsewhere.

Things were looking up until the 1st of August, ten days before my birthday.

Mr. Larson was at work on a business trip and I was home with Mrs. Larson. She had been acting stranger than normal, but I didn't read too much into it. One night, Mrs. Larson stormed into my bedroom.

"Where is it? I know you stole it you little bastard!" I turned on the light and saw Mrs. Larson in her nightgown. Her hair was wiry and frizzy. Her skin pale and lifeless.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Mrs. Larson inched closer to me. "Green bag, behind the coffee creamer in the cabinet. Don't lie to me!" She shivered and shook her finger violently. Her eyes were glazed and didn't focus.

"I didn't take anything from you."

"Tell me what you did with it or I'll strangle you!" It didn't take a genius to realize she wasn't kidding.

"Get off of me!" Her hands were able to grip my neck surprisingly well. Panicking, I tried to get loose. No such luck. Come on! Something happen. Don't fail me now! I need- I need it!

Suddenly the house burst into flames. I escorted Mrs. Larson out of the window and then followed. I forced her against a tree and tried to keep her still. Neighbors gathered around and soon the emergency vehicles showed up.

Mr. Larson came home from his business trip early and no matter what I told him, he wouldn't believe that I didn't mean to set the house on fire.

"I'm sorry this didn't work out. I really thought you would be the son I never had." With that, he dropped me off at the foster centre.

As you can imagine, Mrs. Canterbury was just thrilled to have me back as I was to see her wrinkled old face again. Luckily for me, I did get to see Nathan again.

"You never wrote back to me, Nathan."

"We never got any letters from you. It was weird. You just disappeared and none of the staff members ever mentioned you again. Roxy reckoned that you ran away,"

"Speaking of Roxy, where is she?"

"A family came just after you left. She just went home with them a week ago. Apparently, they're pretty nice so yeah."

"Oh," I said concealing my disappointment, "I'm happy for her I guess."

"You can probably see her when school starts up again. So, you're birthday's coming up soon. Maybe you'll stick around long enough for us to celebrate."

"Yep. I suppose I missed your birthday, too. How's twelve feel?"

"Like a crapshit eleven."

"I'll be double digits soon. Just like you. I guess I'm kinda looking forward to that. Anyway what else has been going on around here?"

"Um Mrs. Canterbury gets extra inspections now thanks to you. She only hits kids with the paddle at night. Kids around here are terrified, especially the little ones. In other news, I asked for your top bunk. Jimmy said no."

"He's a hog, mate. He would actually sleep diagonally to make sure nobody else in this place gets any room."

"Well he's running an errand now. Mrs. Canterbury is wrecking her diet and going back to her fat self. Stocking up on chocolate, butter, beer, and more beer."

I laughed and climbed into my old bed and fell asleep. I stayed at the centre for two days before Mrs. Canterbury shipped me off to another family. That year I was in and out a whole bunch.

That year passed by quickly. I had a few memorable experiences, a few good pranks, but mostly I was just a misplaced ten-year-old whom people couldn't wait to get rid of. I went to school, went to various homes.

In April, I found myself back at the centre.

"For God's sake how do you keep finding yourself in here? If you would just get adopted already!" Mrs. Canterbury yelled.

"Maybe if you actually took the time to find me people who aren't drugged out, suicidal, drunk, or deathly hate children, then I could get adopted. How do you find these people anyway?"

"You're the problem. Each time we send you away and you return there's one thing in common: a rack of complaints about you! I swear you'd better shape up."

"Or what? You'll kill me? I wish I was never born!"

"Me too!" Anger rushed through my veins.

"Shut up you old hag!" My sudden outburst shocked me.

Mrs. Canterbury clenched her fists. As she tried to take a swing at me, her arm jiggled.

"What the?" Mrs. Canterbury tried again with her other fist.

"My arms! Help! Tom. Somebody!" It was as if her arms had turned into jelly. I glared at her quickly to see if she would try me again. Not wanting to lose control of her legs, she just stared angrily at me.

A few minutes later, her arms returned to normal. "You little freak."

"So now do you believe me? I told you I was special. I told you the world is on my side. I can do things you can't even imagine."

"My arms fell asleep. Nothing special there, you little twerp. Come!" Mrs. Canterbury grabbed my arm and dragged me out into the hallway and into the common room. The closet door swung open and she stuffed me inside.

"I won't be seeing you for a long long time."

I banged on the door for hours but decided to save my energy until morning when someone might hear me.

Mrs. Canterbury opened the door a few hours later. "I've told them about you in here. They are not to help you. You will stay here until you prove that you can behave yourself."

I tried to squeeze past her but she blocked my way. Move! Move! No dice. "Well see you in a few hours, then?"

I stayed in there the remainder of the day. I had never felt so powerless in my life. Finally, Mrs. Canterbury came back.

"Can I leave now? I'm starving and I as in there for like 5 hours so I also have to pee. Really badly."

"As a matter of fact, I have some good news for you. You're going to a new family. They asked for you specifically."

"Oh geez, this ought to be good."

Mrs. Canterbury introduced me to Mr. Wolf. He was a tall, slim man with striking features.

"Come with me." As I once again said goodbye to the foster centre, I was escorted to a tall house a few blocks away.

"Supper is ready," The man said simply as he opened the front door and pointed to the kitchen. A pot of soup was stirring itself on the stove and a bad suspended in the air was feeding the cat.

"Well?"

"Um cool gadgets, I guess, Mr. Wolf."

Don't kid yourself, boy. I think you know why you're here. No? You can do magic."

"What, did Mrs. Canterbury tell you what happened the other day or something?"

"Ehenorf, the ministry found out that you were living in a muggle foster home."

I giggled. "What the hell's a muggle?"

"Someone not like us. Those horrible people back at the home. Your past foster parents. Ehenorf, you know it and I know it."

Now what are you talking about, Mr. Wolf? What are you playing at? Seriously don't mess with me."

"Congratulations, Ehenorf. You're a wizard."

Please review :)