A/N: Hey guys, this story is the remake of my old story Jushua Weasley and The Unexpected Journey. if your new to this story: Welcome. if you came from my old story: Welcome Back! i hope you enjoy the first chapter!
Chapter One: In Which Things Begin
Disclaimer: Not mine. i am Disclaiming it.
JoshXX ArtXXX WeXsley, that was what they found written on a small gold locket tied around his neck when he was about 2, JoshXX ArtXXX WeXsley. Mary Warner (a woman who he would grow to see as a mother and a friend) was the first to read those words with a look of confusion on her face, but she certainly would not be the last.
Nevertheless she had taken him in, for that was her job, taking care of the children that nobody wanted, and she was damn good. She had scooped him up and carried him up to her office, she set him down gently in a rickety wooden crib, kissed his forehead and had whispered when he'd begun to fuss "Hush now darling, shhhh, you are safe".
Mary Warner rubbed her eyes and stared down at the small locket that lay in her palm. She sighed heavily, for it was not uncommon for children to be left on her doorstep with no last name, or a name at all for that matter. Mary looked at the sleeping baby and sighed again Poor thing, she thought, whoever had him obviously does not want to be found. Reaching into the bottom drawer of her oak desk she pulled out a manila filing folder and a black sharpie. She quickly scribbled something on it before hurrying over the young boy who had begun to cry.
There written on the top of the folder were the words: Josh Art. Wesley, a new name for the start of a new life.
-Approximately 12 years later-
Six Letters, a now 14 year old Josh Art Wesley thought as he gently ran a finger over the cool surface of his locket. Six missing letters wiped out my identity. A loud snore from one of the boys he shared his room with made him freeze, he quickly glanced over his shoulder to see a rather large Mexican boy named Keith snort and mumble before turning over and falling back asleep.
The redhead let out a quiet sigh of relief. Josh was currently wedged (rather uncomfortably he might add) in-between the small space between his bed and the wall, he winced slightly, rolled his shoulders and turned back to the small piece of metal in his hands. His light brown eyes swept over the letters engraved into his locket. JoshXX ArtXXX WeXsley, six letters X-ed out, six big angry jagged X's carved deep into the soft metal, obscuring the letters completely.
Six x's, Josh hated them, for they were a constant reminder of how he was unwanted, how as a baby his parents had cast him out into the cold. Unwanted, that's what the children who lived here were, unwanted. Josh was unwanted, he felt a single tear trail down his cheek and he hastily wiped it away.
Josh gazed out the only window in this small room and saw light beginning to peek out over the treetops. He yawned, only now feeling exhaustion weighing down on him.
Josh flipped himself over and wriggled under his bed, winding his way through life-size dust bunnys and forgotten socks until he reached a floorboard that Josh had hacked with his pocket knife until it had come loose. He gently pried it up and set it to the side. Sitting in the floor was a small square metal box, Josh opened the lid and looked fondly at its contents. There were a few pictures, a couple of letters from a friend or two, and a small piece of maroon cloth with a golden W embroidered on it. He smiled and gently placed his locket inside it, before replacing the floorboard and going to bed, hoping to get a few hours of sleep.
-A Week Later-
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE-SMACK!
Josh groaned and sat up, glaring at his alarm clock that blazed a red 7:30 at him in response. He sighed and rolled out of bed, clumsily getting dressed before stumbling down stairs for breakfast. As he opened the door to the dining room he was immediately bombarded by noise.
"Do we have any coco puffs?" "Hey! That was mine!" "Shut up!" "Pass the toast idiot" "Stop hogging all the syrup Ben!" "Eww, scrambled eggs?! I hate scrambled eggs!"
23 kids all squished together at a long wooden table. Josh smiled slightly, this was his family.
"Hey Wexley! Have a good sleep?" he turned to see his curly haired best friend Noah smirking at him from the end of the table.
"Don't call me that" Josh said taking the seat next to him.
"What? Wexley? C'mon bro, you can call yourself Josh all you want but you'll always be Wittle Wexy to me." Josh glared playfully at him, ever since Noah had found out about the six X's from hell he's been calling Josh "Wexley" or "Wex" or "Wexy" or even "Smexy The Wexy" … life had been hard. Josh stifled a yawn as he loaded his plate with eggs.
"Dude, you look like you're dead." It was true, he had large purple sagging bags under his eyes, his skin was pale and his hair stuck out in all directions.
"My guess is death by electric shock" his other close friend Ryan said pointing to his hair as he took the seat across from them.
"Shut it" Josh said, stuffing a piece of toast in Ryan's mouth to emphasis his point. Ryan spluttered and choked, little pieces of toast spraying over a pair of five year old twins named Hannah and Lori, they both squealed and ran from the table while Noah roared with laughter.
"Josh stop teasing him" A 53 year old Mary Warner scolded as she walked up to the table. Josh looked down feigning a guilty look.
"Yes'm" he said in his best country drawl, she rolled her blue eyes and cuffed him lightly over the head. Josh smiled up at her innocently, the corner of her lips twitched in amusement.
"Hurry up you three or you'll miss the bus" Ryan glanced down at his watch that had a large crack in it and swore.
"Two minutes you guys!" Josh jumped up, swung his backpack over one shoulder and sprinted out of the house; Ryan and Noah close on his heels.
Josh tapped his pencil on his science textbook absentmindedly and glanced hopefully at the clock. 20 minutes to go… he blew his bangs out of his eyes, nervously fingered his locket, which he had felt an odd compulsion to wear today, and dropped his head on the desk. Something hit him in the head and he looked up, it was a crumpled up piece of paper, he un-crumpled it to revel his best friend's messy handwriting.
NO SLEEPING! If I have to listen to Mr. Roberts drone on for an hour then so do you! Josh turned to send an annoyed glance at Ryan, who was sitting two seats behind him.
Fuck you, I'm taking a nap. If you want to there's a perfectly good chemistry textbook on your table that makes a pretty good pillow. Checking to make sure that Mr. Roberts wasn't looking he turned and lobbed it back before resting his head on the table again. He was just about to drift off when Ryan's response hit him in the side of the head. Growling slightly he opened it.
I can't! Holly Williams is sitting next to me; she has the worst nose whistle I've ever heard! It is impossible to sleep. Rolling his eyes he scribbled a response.
Well that's your problem, and her nose whistle isn't that bad…..
Please it's like a train
Dude stop, I'm trying to sleep.
Too bad I'm bored
Then talk to Noah
Can't, he's "wooing" Amy Johnson
Josh glanced over at Noah who was currently trying (and failing) to flirt with Amy, a blonde cheerleader, who looked annoyed and disturbed at the same time. Josh chuckled quietly and was about to respond when the bell rang. Shoving his things in his backpack he walked over to Ryan, who was smirking and leaning against the wall. He nodded toward Noah, who was following Amy out of the classroom like a lost puppy. The pair snickered as they watched their friend make a complete fool of himself. After Amy had walked away, Noah slumped over to them, looking dejected.
Josh opened his mouth and was about to tease him when a deafening crash shook the building. His hand flew to his face to block some splinters of wood and debris that rained down on him. Coughing he peered up through the dust to see several dark hooded figures step through the large hole in the wall. The figure at the front held up a piece of wood and began to scream in Latin. In any other situation he would have simply thought it was another crazy person with a bomb, but this time….
Powerful streams of color shot from the end of the stick. One of the beams of light hit Mandy Pinkerton, a girl who sat next to Josh in history, she screamed and started to writhe on the ground in pain, tears streaming down her cheeks as she screamed and begged for it to stop.
The school was reduced to chaos. Kids ran in all directions, all screaming. Josh dodged a red stream of light and heard one of the figures laugh hysterically.
"RUN YOU FILTH!" the figure cackled evilly. "AVADA KEDAVRA, AVADA KEDAVRA AVADA KEDAVRA!" Josh watched helplessly as a beam of green light hit Amy Johnson in the middle of her chest, her blue eyes grew vacant, empty. Josh watched as the life drained out of her. She was dead, his hand flew to his mouth and he took a few frightened steps back before turning and running. His fellow classmates began to drop dead around him. Josh ran, ducking under a water pipe as it broke through the ceiling. Water rained down and a fire had started in a nearby science lab.
"CRUCIO!" Josh fell to the ground. All he felt was pain, fiery and red hot exploding over every inch of his body, he heard a loud terrible scream and only vaguely recognized it as his own. Tears streamed down his face. Dear god please let it stop! He had thought desperately when he heard another loud crash and light filled the hallway. And then the pain was gone and Josh lay on the tiled floor, his cheek pressing against the cool surface as water splashed his face and flames licked at his shoes. A tall figure swam into his vision before all went black.
A tall man sighed as he surveyed the scene around him. Bodies littered the floor, blood and water swirled together and became one. This was a scene of death and destruction.
Death Eaters the man thought bitterly, for even though the war had ended more than 20 years ago, there were still a few who shared Voldemort's ideals, and who tried to avenge him by spreading his message of cruelty, blood and hate. The ones who had done this were those people; they had come to a muggle high school to torture and brutally murder the innocent, to send a message.
The war is not over. That was what was painted in blood; the blood of children, on the side of the school, the war is not over.
The man was stepping over the body of a young blonde girl, no more than 16 years old, when he saw it. Bright red flaming hair attached to a fourteen year old boy, lying near the wall. His chest was still moving. The man sprinted to the young boy and quickly flipped him over, the man gasped in shock. In his arms, half conscious, was the younger version of Ronald Weasley, same flaming hair, same freckled complexion, same nose. The boy groaned in pain and his eyes flickered open, they were warm honey brown just like….
"W-Water" the boy croaked his eyes cloudy and rolling about in his head. The man ignored his plea for hydration, instead opting to grab his shoulders and shake him roughly.
"What is your name?" he demanded. The young boy opened his mouth, and began to cough violently, most likely from smoke inhalation.
"YOUR NAME, BOY, YOUR NAME!"
"J-J-" the boy stopped briefly to cough again, "J-J-Josh" he finally stuttered out.
"Last name, come on lad stay with me, what is your full name!"
"J-Josh W-W-W-" the boy leaned to the side, retching and promptly vomiting.
""W" WHAT?! Come on boy I need to know, "W" WHAT?!" the boy blinked at him, obviously confused as to why this man was demanding his name when he needed help.
"W-W-" finally giving up, the boy dropped his head back and reached a shaking hand under his shirt, bringing out a small locket. He placed it in the man's hand and tapped it.
"J-Josh" he muttered again before slumping to the ground and losing consciousness. The man flipped the locket it over and blinked in shock at the words written there. Standing up abruptly and walking backwards until he hit the wall. Seamus Finnegan stared open mouthed at the unconscious boy, who muggle paramedics were now surrounding.
"It's you" Seamus whispered.
Hermione Granger was wrenched out of the pensieve. Her eyes were wide, and a single hushed word escaped her lips.
"Joshua"
A/N: so that is the end of the first chapter! please R&R, tell me what you think. i will try to update as soon as i can. Bye.