Chapter 2

"George Weasley! What the hell were you thinking?" Mrs April Croft was glaring angrily at her foster child, who had his arms crossed and was glaring just as angrily back at her. "Look at him! Look what you've done!"

She gestured towards the other boy standing next to them, who certainly was an alarming sight. He had his hands clamped over his face, but failing to conceal how his skin had turned a worrying shade of orange.

"So go on!" Mrs Croft continued, now stroking her son's short brown hair, "What happened?"

George shrugged. "Dunno."

"What do you mean, 'dunno?'" she shrieked. "Of course you know! When anything odd happens like this, who else could it possibly be?"

"Who even cares how it happened?" shouted George, his temper rising and his ears turning red. "He deserves everything he gets."

"But he's orange! How is that even possible?" she thundered.

"I can't imagine," he said sardonically.

"I've had it up to here-" she held her hand high above her head, "-with you, and...and... you know what, just go to your room! Get out of my sight!"

George obeyed. His favourite place was his room. No, actually his favourite place was anywhere that was away from the Crofts.

George had always hated his foster family. They were so completely different to him, and they never understood him either. Mrs April Croft, with her jet black hair that fell to her waist and her cold grey eyes, was insufferable in every way. She blamed him for everything, (even though most of what he got blamed for was his fault), and she was determined that her son, Ben, was perfect.

This was not the case. Mrs Croft was utterly blind to Ben's faults, but George got the brunt of them every day. Ben was thirteen, two years older than George, and he was hugely popular at their school. Unfortunately, it was a well known fact around the school that Ben hated his foster brother, so everyone else ignored George to avoid Ben's displeasure.

In some ways, George didn't really mind. He often preferred being alone to having to talk to some of the morons at his school. Then again, he longed for someone who was like him, who he had at least one thing in common with. He was simply lonely.

Still, things had greatly improved since the death of Mr Croft, who had gone out drinking one night and never returned. Just the thought of the thuggish man sent a shiver down George's spine, and he instinctively touched the scars on his chest- long, white scars that never faded, spreading from his shoulder to his hips.

Naturally, George was the one who received the worst of Mr Neil Croft's anger; George had been, to him, a waste of space and a waste of money. In fact, George never understood why they'd ever taken him in in the first place, it wasn't like any of them wanted him.

That was what it seemed like, anyway. He'd considered running away from home so many times that he'd lost count, and yet for some reason, he never did. Not because he was scared, or because maybe some small part of him had become attached to the only place that he had ever stayed, but because he had nowhere to go and no one else to run to.

George pushed open the door to his room and launched onto the bed. His room, bright green and covered in pictures he had cut from magazines, was small but exactly how he liked it. It was his personal hideout, and somehow, the Crofts, no matter how hard they tried, could never open the door, while he opened it as easily as if it had been recently oiled. His desk was covered in pieces of paper with drawings all over them; drawings of people he had seen in the street that day, drawings of imaginary places he wished he could escape to. He had a small, stout bookcase that he'd made himself one summer out of pieces of wood he'd found in the wood nearby; it was full to bursting of books and magazines he'd stolen from school- he'd never been caught to this day. His clothes lay strewn all over the floor, most of them second hand but nevertheless good enough.

Hours passed, and George did not move from his position on the bed. He stared at the cracks in the ceiling, counting them over and over until he was well into the thousands. Finally, he heard Ben go to bed and then April- he waited another half an hour to ensure they had fallen asleep, before creeping out of his room, down the stairs and out of the front door.

It was around midnight; the moon was hidden behind clouds and it was almost completely pitch black, yet George found his way to his destination. The walk to the woods was a short one, and once he arrived there, he followed the path towards a small clearing. Here, George spent his summers lying under the trees and drawings the animals and plants he so loved to watch. No one ever disturbed him, and that was the way he liked it.

Tonight, George sat on the familiar log and simply listened. The hooting of owls and the rustling of small creatures emanated from the trees. The moon emerged from behind the clouds, perfectly illuminating the clearing in which George sat.

He closed his eyes, revelling in the peace and beauty of the place. Opening them, he then looked down at a pile of leaves beneath his feet . He watched in wonder as they floated into the air, flying around in a small cloud of many shades of green and brown.

It was these wonders of nature that he loved to escape to, and it was this place that he didn't want to run away from. Sometimes, he even wondered if there was something magical about this place, but then he pushed it out of his mind. It was just the wind- there was no such thing as magic.


A/N: And there we have it! I'm so sorry it's taken so long to update, this chapter has been difficult to write and I had a long time of terrible writer's block! Anyway, I hope you liked it, please please review and tell me what you think! Thank you millions to everyone who has story alerted and favourited, and special thanks to my fantastic reviewers, ctc, chocolateMnMs, Sunset On Heartache, thecompletebookworm, ak, Moonlight900, Katherine, toxicwings333, and alfiesurprise101. You guys are what makes writing so enjoyable! :D


Next chapter: Fred and the Johnson's receive a mysterious visitor and learn something shocking...