One

Aiden Burke hadn't done anything wrong in his eyes, though the owner of the market seemed to think otherwise. How we he supposed to eat if he had no money to buy food? His family hadn't given him any money well, ever as far as he could remember, and they especially hadn't when they threw him from their house. What he had managed to take from the house was minimal, shoved hastily into a backpack and had only lasted for his first three days away. It had been a week now, and he was beginning to get desperate.

"Oi! You haven't paid for that! You—"

But what Aiden was he did not hear, for he had turned sharply to the right down an abandoned ally with a brick wall at the far end. He stopped only for a moment, looking quickly over his shoulder as he assessed his situation. The shopkeeper hadn't yet caught up with him as he took a few tentative steps toward the brick wall.

"You can't hide in the alleys boy!" The shopkeeper called off distantly. "I've called the authorities, you can't hide!" The distant shouts grew ever closer.

Aiden grimaced, his heart racing at ten times the normal speed. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, fueling his next move. With another shout from the angry market owner reaching a nearby ally, searching for him, he turned and ran the last few feet to the solid barrier.

But it wasn't solid. Or, it hadn't been when Aiden had run straight through it. He found himself, clearly on the other side of the wall, but how he'd managed to get here was unbeknownst to him. Looking back only momentarily, he ran a hand down the wall and tried pushing his hand through it, but to no avail. He shook it off, not having the time, or the inclination, to sit around and ponder this odd occurrence. Someone, though, was clearly on his side.

He took off at a straight out run and glanced left and right several times as to get his bearings. He was still in the marketing district of the city for shopkeepers lined the roads selling fresh fruits and vegetables, or meats from a local butcher. Some looked up curiously as they saw the young man of seventeen, tall and strong, with his almost-black eyes and jet black hair, running from something. What, they did not know. But most just went about their business, not concerning themselves with the problems of another.

The sound of sirens filled his ears and he immediately stopped running, keeping his cool. Turning towards a fruit stand on his right, he made himself appear as any buyer would. Testing out fruits for bruises and such. Some rubbish his mother had always told him to do if he found himself buying his own food. The sirens whirled past him, taking the left to lead them to street where his innocent crime had been committed.

And he ran again. He ran down streets he'd never before traveled upon, past townhouses and eventually found himself in the heart of the city. Cars buzzed around the central rotary, beeping horns filling much of the air around him. People bustled around the sidewalks at a quicker pace here, than in the market district. Many were rushing to work as to not be late, or dragging their children to school. Aiden scoffed, he wasn't bloody well returning to his school this year. He didn't have anything else to learn from anyone. Or as his parents had put it, he didn't want to learn anything from anyone, didn't care. It was during this argument that he'd been kicked out of his home. In the heat of the argument between him and his mother, she had been thrown against the far wall of their expansive living room.

Aiden hadn't known how it had happened and never remembered even touching his mother. But his father had thought otherwise and had proceeded to call his estranged son every name in the book.

"You have three minutes time to pack your belongings and get out," his father had said with chilling and cool finality in this voice.

So Aiden, in his rebellious attitude, had taken only taken a small portion of food and left the house, never to look back. But he was looking back now and hitting himself for not thinking to bring a change of clothes and other minor necessities. A few days back, he'd snatched an outfit from a store and entered the changing room with it, ripping off security devices and tags and hanging his old clothes on the hanger. It had been a poor attempt at smuggling clothes out of a store but the small old lady who ran the store was apparently too blind to have noticed a new outfit hung on her clothing rack and a young man leaving with one of her own.

Snapping out of his reverie he found himself facing a train station. He had no money to purchase a ticket to wherever it was he'd go. But then again, having no money hadn't stopped him from taking a new outfit, or snatching some food to keep his hunger level down to a tolerable level. He walked into the station, hundreds of people milling about in the lobby, purchasing tickets or checking out their luggage so as to be on their way into the city. Why anyone would want to take a holiday to this godforsaken area of Scotland was beyond him.

Pushing past the throng of people, Aiden made his way to the various platforms accommodated in the station. Trains lined either side of where he stood, some arriving, some leaving. He'd have to hitch a ride somehow. With a deep, nagging uncertainty he crossed to one of the trains, past the conductor who was checking tickets as people began boarding. The final car of the train held a small porch-type structure, made of iron. A ladder leading to the roof of the train was located here and it was then that Aiden finalized his plan to leave Scotland forever. Leaping over the cement walk to the iron gate, he grabbed hold tightly and swung himself around to the ladder and began climbing to the top of the train.

He hadn't wanted to go to the damn country. But after an hour on the train he concluded that that was exactly where he was headed. He'd been confidant that the train had been at least facing south! With another swear he looked once again at his surroundings. He really hadn't paid close enough attention to the schedule but hell! He'd been too busy worrying about being caught by the authorities!

Aiden decided to just go with it though. It wasn't as if he had a choice in the matter. He'd have to sneak onto a southbound train at the next stop. Surely station security wouldn't be tighter in a small village in the middle of nowhere… For he was certain that that was where he was headed.

A sudden disturbance inside the train broke his thoughts. He heard, faintly, the conductor moving down the aisle. At the same time he slowly began to feel the train begin to slow. They couldn't have reached a station already…

The conductor's voice became clearer to Aiden. "Have you seen a passenger, late teens, black hair, built, ma'am? We were just radioed that a thief matching that description may have boarded this train."

Aiden didn't hear the woman's response for immediately he knew that they were looking for him. The train had almost come to a complete stop when he made the split second decision to jump. Hitting the side of a hill hard, he spun out of control down the incline.

Rocks and dirt rolled around him as he picked up speed. He fleetingly thought that he must be on a mountain of some sort and was surely rolling to his imminent death. And then he was wet. Water splashed in around him as he sunk downward. For what seemed like a lifetime, he could not distinguish the surface of the water from its shadowy depths. He flailed frantically in the murky water, desperate to get his bearings, swimming never been a greater skill of his. He felt spidery hands grab at him and then everything went black.

His lungs burned. Coughing up water and greedily dragging fresh air into his body, Aiden pulled his feet out of the water, the last part of his anatomy remaining submerged in the lake.

"Oh shit," was all he managed to sputter, gagging all the more.

After a few moments he was able to see around him without being blinded by stars. Dusk had settled in, proving he'd been unconscious for almost the entire day. He was surrounded by a lake and mountains on all sides. A dense forest lined one side of the clearing, the mountains a formidable barrier behind them.

Aiden turned in a full circle and stopped when he was the ruins. The structure had once been a magnificent castle; that much was obvious. The highest towers still stood majestically, though pieces of the roof were cracked or missing, leaving open the large rafters that had once been home to chambers of all sorts. The castle was built of the oldest stones Aiden had even seen, even older it seemed, then a medieval ruin miles from his home. He was able to notice that the front entrance was crumpled to almost nothing as he ventured closer. He glanced inside from his spot on the grass, seeing a large entrance hall with antique picture frames, broken and littering the floor. There was a door beyond, leading to what appeared to be a courtyard.

He was close enough now that when he put one foot onto the step, a sudden thought entered his head. He felt that he had something very important to do at home, and it needed his immediate attention. At the same time, he was stopped by a sign, rotting with age, which practically hit him upside the head. The decaying letters were a warning to those adventurous enough to have traveled this far.

No trespassing

Danger. Unsafe ruins.

As he took another step onto the stairs, to better read the sign, the thoughts of something to get him away from the castle were more forceful to the point that he actually took a step in retreat. A cold, harsh wind whipped across his face but in his heart Aiden knew he had nowhere else to go and wouldn't be accepted home no matter what he had to do that was suddenly so important. When the first drop of rain slapped his cheek cruelly, he resolved to spend the night in the limited shelter of the castle and in the morning he would find a way out of this hellhole.

He was bone tired and hungry as it was. And as he settled against the cold stone wall, in the would-be courtyard, and drifted off to sleep, he would have bet one thousand pounds that he saw a silvery beard move away from a window above. But he succumbed to the darkness and sleep overcame him.

When he awoke it took him a few moments to get his bearings. Not remembering where he was he jumped to his feet, looking left and right. But it began to sink in. The previous day's events caught up with him on a rush and he frowned. Yeah he had planned to get out of this place this morning but how could he do that when he didn't know where he was? He was facing outside, could see a small village through the entrance hall and out the front doors that he hadn't noticed the previous night. He didn't observe that the doors had been repaired overnight, or that portraits now hung on the walls as he moved to the front doors of the ruins. He saw a small hut in the distance, was positive that hadn't been there before…

Aiden swallowed, hard. He'd been moved overnight but how? He now noticed that the castle looked almost new but still held its ancient qualities intact. The floors looks newly polished and oriental rugs adorned the vast entrance hall that now appeared larger than it had the night before. No this was certainly not the same castle as the one he'd slept in the night before. He took a few steps back into the castle, seeing a coat of arms above the entrance hall's doorway. He saw a lion. A serpent. An eagle and a badger. "What the…"

"I think you should come with me young man," came a wheezy but kind voice behind him.

Aiden spun on his heel to see who had greeted him. The man standing before him was old, very old, with a silvery gray beard that reached his waist and a cap upon the matching hairs of his head. He glanced uncertainly at this old man with a twinkle in his blue eyes, who was wearing a robe of plum that reached the floor.

"Who are you?" was all he dared to ask this stranger, uncertainty building with great speed in inside him.

"A better question could be directed equally to you. Why are you here? How?" Albus Dumbledore asked his young man. He was no student of Hogwarts and yet… How could a Muggle enter the castle? He'd never heard of such a thing happening.
In fact, he knew it was quite impossible.

"Aiden… Aiden Burke." Came the untrusting reply.

A spark of recognition lit the old man's eyes that made Aiden regret using his real name. Stupid! Why would he do that, when other less noticeable names could have slipped easily into his mind? He was surely done for now. If he was found by the authorities, he didn't want to think of what could happen. He was trapped. He took a step back, hoping to make a break for the exit.

"I wouldn't do that, Mr. Burke," Dumbledore said. "Please, follow me."

Unknowing as to his intentions, Aiden found himself following this grandeur of a man. He had nowhere else to go after all.