Chris' Predicament
With a resounding thud, he hit the floor. Blood was slowly dripping out the side of his mouth onto the rug beneath him. His father had just hit him for at least the thousandth time that summer. It had been bad before, but since his muggle father had found out his son was a wizard, it got worse. He got beat almost every day since the letter arrived.
He was brought back to his senses when he received a kick in his stomach, which left him gasping for air. He was tired of it; he was tired of being beaten for something that wasn't his fault. As his anger built up something started to happen. He noticed his father had stopped kicking him and was on his knees clutching his stomach in pain.
As he stared at his dad, he wondered aloud "am I doing this to him, am I using wandless magic?" Then it hit him "I have to leave he'll beat me to death when this is over."
As he ran down the hall and down the stairs to his basement room he said to himself "Where will I go, surely I'll be expelled from Hogwarts." Although he was going to his seventh year at Hogwarts, he wouldn't be of age for another week. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he packed his trunk with all of his things. Chris didn't care where he went, he just had to get out of there.
Chris finally had all his things and was headed out the door when his dad came after him with a knife in his hand.
Lunging at his son "Boy, you're gonna pay for what you did to me. I'm gonna make you regret it for the rest of your life."
Before he could do anything, everything stopped. Just stopped, nothing was moving except Chris. If someone had walked in, he would have a hard time explaining things. His dad was in mid dive, absolutely nothing was supporting him. He wanted to figure out what happened, but he knew better than to stay and wait for everything to start moving again. As he reached the door , he heard a loud crash and turned around. His dad was getting up from the table he just crashed into, everything was moving again.
Scratching the back of his head, "What the hell is going on?"
Before he knew it, his dad was up again and headed straight for him, knife still in his hand. Without thinking, Chris pulled out his wand, pointed it strait at his dad, and bellowed, "One more step and I…I…I'll k-kill you. I've had enough of you, ever since you found out I was a wizard you looked for reasons to punish me, like you enjoyed it. But that's all over now, cause I'm leaving and never coming back to a house where my own father is…is jealous of me." At that, his dad stopped where he was and dropped the knife with a look of terror in his eyes. At that moment he knew what he said was true. He didn't believe it until he saw his dad's reaction, he only said it to infuriate his dad even more. He knew that saying those things were wrong, but dammit, his dad deserved it. After twelve years of being beaten by his dad, he just couldn't take it any more
With that Chris turned his back on his dad, slammed the door shut behind him, and walked off down the dark street.
He didn't know how long he had been walking, but by the looks of how the sky was getting lighter it must have been several hours. He decided he needed to rest and collect his thoughts because he didn't have a clue where he was. He set his trunk down and sat on the curb taking in his settings. It looked like a very unkempt park, the grass was yellow and knee high, everything was falling apart and full of rust. The swings snapped in two at the middle, the monkey bars had several bars missing, and the merry-go-round was lying on its side. There were huge trees swaying slightly in the breeze everywhere, in fact he was sitting under one. He sat there for what felt like an hour trying to remember the route he had taken when he left so he might get some idea as to where he was.
"Lost?" said a voice behind him.
Chris spun around , with his wand drawn, and pointed it at the tall man standing in the shadows created by the trees "W-who are you?" Chris managed to stammer to the tall man standing in the shadows. Although the man was standing in the shadows, Chris sensed something familiar about him, something safe. Even with these feelings, he never took his hand off his wand, but he did relax his grip slightly.
He waited, but the man didn't say anything. He just stood there in the shadows where Chris couldn't see his face. With a little more force, he asked again "Who the hell are you." Still nothing, "I said who the hell are you? Answer me dammit." something wasn't right, he had a bad feeling about this.
"Lumos." He decided to shine some light on the subject and figure out who this man was and why he wouldn't answer him. What he saw shocked him, it was professor Dumbledore. "Sir, what are you doing here, and why won't you answer me?"
Chris was getting worried, Dumbledore wasn't moving an inch, his eyes were unblinking, and his beard was being blown by the… "Wait a second," he thought to himself, "I don't feel the breeze any more, I haven't felt it sense professor Dumbledore scared me. It was just like at his house earlier, it was like time itself had stopped." Looking around, his suspicions were confirmed, the trees were bent like being blown around, but weren't moving. A car was stopped in the middle of the road, while a second was in the middle of a turn.
The man stepped out of the shadows smiling at Chris. "You know who I am Chris."
Chris immediately spun around, everything was back to normal again. "Professor Dumbledore what are you doing here?" he asked trying to hide the confusion in his voice. What the hell was going on, this was no coincidence. Twice in one night, he was going to have to figure this out.
"Are you okay Chris?" he asked with a hint of worry in his eyes.
Looking at the ground, he replied. "Oh, it's nothing sir, you just startled me." He avoided making eye contact with Dumbledore, he knew Dumbledore was an expert in legilimancy, and that direct eye contact was required.
"I received word from the Ministry of Magic that you used magic outside of school and were going to be expelled."
"I guessed as much." Chris interjected.
"Oh, really, what was it that you guessed Chris"
Chris looked back at the ground and spoke barely above a whisper "Well, that I was expelled from Hogwarts. I guess I had better find someplace to stay since I won't be going back."
"Yes, I believe you are correct, we will need to find you a place to stay, temporarily of course."
"I don't think there is anywhere I could go sir. I mean I don't have any friends, no family that cares for me, and no money to get a place."
"I see your point, Chris. I hope you don't mind, but I have already taken the liberty of locating a temporary place to stay."
He was shocked, confused, and grateful. He couldn't understand why Dumbledore was helping him, he wasn't one of his students anymore. All of these thoughts, though, were pushed to the back of his mind by his gratitude.
"You will be staying with the Weasley family. They have two children, one in the same year as you as well as two guests also in the same year as you. And don't worry you can trust them, they are very good friends of mine."
"Thank you sir, but I don't want to intrude on them." he lied. He wanted to go, he wanted to have a place to stay, but most of all he wanted to get as far away from his dad as he could.
"Nonsense, Chris, you won't be intruding. In fact, Mrs. Weasley wouldn't take no for an answer when I mentioned it. I will pick you up tomorrow from the Leaky Cauldron and take you there. I have already made preparations with the innkeeper, Tom. Here you go," he said handing him a small amount of wizard money, "this is for the bus to the Leaky Cauldron, just stick out your wand hand."
"Thank you sir, you don't know how much this means to me. I have one question sir, how long will I be able to stay?"
His eyes were twinkling mischievously "You will only be allowed to stay until the new term begins."
"What! That only gives me two weeks to get a job, get enough money, and get my own place sir. You can't possibly expect me to do all that in just two weeks, it's insane." He was furious, he was ready to haul off and hit the old headmaster. All of a sudden he calmed down, he noticed something in Dumbledore's eyes that he had never seen there before. Fear. It was only for a fraction of a second, but it was definitely fear. His face returned to normal and he started to walk away
Chuckling to himself, Dumbledore turned back. "It is not insane Chris, considering you have to be at school in two weeks." With that, he apparated away, leaving Chris standing there dumbstruck.