Disclaimer: I forgot to do one for the first two chapters. Anything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling. Everything else belongs to me. This applies to everything in this story (I'm not typing another disclaimer).

The sun was setting, rather half-heartedly, when Zeph sneezed violently. He looked around curiously, now out of his thoughtless daze. A small boy had sat down next to him. He didn't really look old enough to be out alone, but hey, who actually cared? Zeph wasn't in reality allowed to be there at that time of day, but he was. Anyway, Zeph had enough problems of his own to worry about without starting on someone else's.

Suddenly, the kid spoke. Zeph looked at him, surprised. The boy's feet weren't even touching the ground, but he had the guts to talk to a twelve- year-old?
"Are you okay?" What an odd question to begin with, but Zeph was too miserable to notice.
"Oh, yeah," he said sarcastically. "I've just run away from home, I'm freezing my butt off but I'm absolutely fine thank you, as you can see."
"Got somewhere to stay?"
"Of course. well, no, not really."
"I know a place you'd be welcome, if you'll come with me. It's perfectly safe, I promise, my dad likes me to bring kids home."
"Are you sure I'd be allowed?"
"Of course."

Without another word, he pushed himself onto the floor with a splash as he landed feet first in a puddle, splashing all the way up his trousers. Zeph looked at him carefully. It had been drilled into him since he was old enough to understand that he must never go anywhere with a stranger, but then, what harm could a seven-year-old kid do him? Besides, Zeph had nowhere else to go, so he might as well risk it. He stood up, all doubts forgotten, and followed his young saviour from the park.

Zeph was led unhesitatingly into the oldest part of the city, where huge, ancient houses towered domineeringly over them. It was all grey here: no trees on the street, no grass verges and no gardens. Unquestioningly, the boy turned into the short drive of one and trotted quickly up the steps leading to the front door. He rang the bell. Zeph followed him up, rather more cautiously, and was there just as the door was pulled swiftly open and Zeph and the boy stepped in. The boy shut the door behind him, took off his coat and hung it on a peg set low in the wall. The girl who had opened the door glanced at Zeph sympathetically. She was, perhaps, a few years older than Zeph, and looked wiry and tough, but had a friendly, welcoming grin.
"This is Willow," the small boy said. "I'm Cub."
"Good to have you," the girl said. "You're a wizard, aren't you?" Zeph stared at her- if he'd been expecting to be asked anything, this most definitely wasn't it.
"I suppose, yes, but."
"Great! Cub isn't usually wrong, but its good to be sure. I'm more abrupt than anyone else is, so I tend just to ask. Welcome to the unofficial school of witchcraft and wizardry. We call it the Lost Boys' school, though some of us are girls, 'cause pretty much all of us are runaways. Come upstairs, Cub's dad is making supper and he'll want to see you."

Zeph stared at her in amazement, openmouthed. She hadn't even asked his name, or who he was, where he'd come from. But food - he bounded up after her without a second thought.

They entered a large kitchen and Zeph looked around curiously. He'd never seen a kitchen on the first floor of a house before, let alone one in so strange a house as this one seemed to be. It was a pretty huge room. There was a single long table along the middle, and a few other children were sitting around it working. They were all probably teenagers, and all had the same tough look he'd seen on Willow. A clock on the wall told him unquestionably that it was seven o'clock - he'd been in the park for four whole hours!

A tired looking man in what looked to Zeph like an extremely battered dressing gown was pouring pasta into a pan of water. Beside him, three knives were slicing the vegetables. Zeph swung round and stared at them. They were chopping by themselves!!!!!!!!! The man looked up at him, then said quietly.
"Go through to the common room, Peter, and the rest of you. We have a new guest, and we need to talk in private."

The adolescents at the table looked inquisitively at Zeph and left, one ruffling Cub's mop of dark brown hair as he went. Willow followed them out, automatically, scooping up a pile of papers from the table as she went.

"Cub, go back to normal please."
"Aw dad." Cub groaned. Then, much to Zeph's amazement, the tiny child frowned slightly, his body wavered and he wasn't there any more. The body sprouted up and became slightly taller than Zeph himself. He'd lost the cute teddy bear sweatshirt he'd been wearing too, and appeared to be only a year or two older than Zeph himself. Zeph stared at him. He had neatly trimmed sandy brown hair and an amused smile as he noticed Zeph's obvious surprise.
"That's magic?" Zeph stammered.
"Yes," said Cub. "I'm a meta. meta."
"Metamorphmagus," said his father indulgently.
"That's it, thanks dad. I never could remember it or say it. Anyway, it means I can change what I look like. Do you need me, dad?"
"I don't think so, not here, anyway. You can go and sort out a bed for our new student if you're feeling helpful. You don't mind being in a dormitory, do you?" he asked Zeph anxiously.
"Uh, no not at all"
"Cool," Cub said, smiling. "I'll see you later then, at supper probably." He bounded out of the room, leaving Zeph with what seemed to be the only adult in the house. Zeph was shaking with nerves, what if he couldn't stay? From what he'd seen of this place, it was great. They all seemed happy, well fed, and were learning magic! The man, however, seemed perfectly friendly. He sat down on the bench on one side of the table, and Zeph copied him.

"Now, welcome to the school, son. You can call me Wolf; I'm pretty much the only teacher here, unless we have guests. We don't tend to use our real names here, because this school is in many ways illegal in the wizarding world to which we all belong. Do you have a nickname we could use? You can choose anything you like - we've got Cub, Willow, Storm, Rocky, Peter, Kent - that was where he came from - and all sorts."
"My. my brother used to call me Zeph. Z-E-P-H."
"That's great, easy to remember. Now, I expect you're wondering why you're here. You're a wizard, Zeph, and you need to learn to use your magic or it's a danger to you and those around you. Did you know about magic before I mentioned it?"
"I got a letter a while ago, and I think my aunt and brother had magic. They died."
"I'm sorry. That's always sad, but it happens all too often. Were you on the Hogwarts list?" Zeph nodded, thinking back to the letter that had started it all.
"Then I can sort that out easily," Wolf continued. "There are only two main rules here, you'll find, and both are easy to follow. The first is to never talk about magic to a Muggle - that's a non-wizard like your family must have been - and never to use magic where they might be able to see it. The second is never to do magic when you aren't wearing this."

Wolf pulled a small badge out of one of his patched pockets. It was bright red, with a stylized picture of a bird on it.
"The bird is a phoenix," the teacher explained. "It's a magical creature that's greatly prized as a friend among wizards. The badge itself will stop you from being detected as an underage wizard by the Ministry of Magic. Oh, and one last thing before I leave you to settle in. Please, read this, and memorize it. That won't be hard, the paper is charmed to help it stick in your brain."

Zeph took the small slip of paper he was holding out and looked at it. It was very tatty and worn.

No. 12 Grimwald Place is the Headquarters
of the Order of the Phoenix

"Got that?" Wolf asked. "If anything should happen here, go there immediately and say you're one of the Lost Boys, they'll know what you mean. I think that's all. I hope you'll be happy with us, I think most boys are, and you seem to me like you'll fit in nicely. If you ever need anything, just ask." Wolf picked up the piece of paper and tucked it away again. Then he sprung back to his cooking with a curse as the water started to boil. Zeph grinned, then looked around the kitchen. There was nothing he could do there and no kids in the room at all. He picked up his bag, and wandered back to the landing.

Zeph could see that another flight of stairs extended further up into the huge house, but there was another door opposite the kitchen that he decided it would be better to try first. He pushed it open, and peered around the door, rather shyly. It was another huge room, with a fire cracking cheerfully in a huge fireplace set in the center of the wall opposite. Great portraits hung proudly around the walls and a long, thin table was pushed against the wall to Zeph's right. A few people were sitting there, working, but most of them were sprawled around the room, either on the floor or on the worn red sofas and armchairs, reading or talking. Red and gold sparks shot up from a huddle in the corner. Zeph counted hurriedly. There were fourteen boys there and five girls, and they were all ages from his own up to the late teens.

Cub saw him standing there from where he was curled comfortably up in an armchair near the fire. He waved.
"Come over!" he called above the hum of voices. Zeph walked over somewhat reluctantly. Cub was with a few others of about their own age.
"So, what're you called?" the wizard boy asked.
"Zeph."
"Cool name, we've already told you that I'm Cub and this is Willow. She's fourteen now, and I'm practically thirteen. Those are Storm and Rocky who're twelve. They came in last summer, so they've only been here a couple of months."

Zeph looked at them carefully; he was determined that he'd make a good start by remembering them. Storm was tall and muscular, looking much older than his reputed twelve years. His blond hair flopped casually over his deep blue eyes. In Zeph's school, old school now he supposed, a kid like Storm wouldn't have looked twice at scrawny Zeph, let alone seem happy to be his mate, but Storm seemed open and as welcoming as everyone else Zeph had met so far. Rocky was a completely different kind of kid, with wavy black hair curling down his neck and soft brown eyes. They were all looking at him sociably, and Zeph felt he should really say something.
"I'm really pleased to be here," he said, feeling embarrassed at such a silly line. "But what exactly do we do?"
"Heaps of stuff," Storm told him - a totally unhelpful answer so far as Zeph was concerned. Cub looked at him scathingly.
"He meant what sort of routine do we have, didn't you Zeph?"
"I guess."
"Well, we have breakfast at about eight every morning, then we do lessons until lunchtime. After lunch, we're allowed to go out until about five then we have to come back and either do prep or have another lesson before supper. After that, we can do what we want so long as we've finished our work.
"We only have lessons in the morning?" Zeph asked incredulously.
"It's enough," Cub replied darkly. "A good four hours, not counting prep."
"And they aren't boring," Rocky put in eagerly. "It's not like we do the same stuff everyday like at my old school. Defense Against the Dark Arts is the best, I think."
"You would, kid," Willow said condescendingly. "Just because Wolf let you finish off the Boggart this morning. Anyway, I think you should all let Zeph find out about the lessons for himself - he's looking totally baffled by you already, not that I'm surprised. I'm going to help Kent now, before he blows himself up." She strode off with great dignity just as Wolf put his head around the door.
"Dinner time!"
"Coming!" came from various places around the room as they tidied away their things.

They poured through back into the kitchen and took seats on the benches along the two long sides of the table, everyone eagerly piling their plates full from the large dishes in the center. Zeph cautiously served himself some pasta with a dollop of sauce and tasted it tentatively.
"Do you like it?" Wolf asked. Zeph nodded emphatically, stuffing another mouthful into his mouth. The wizard beamed at him and asked Storm to pass Zeph the vegetables. The noise was overwhelming, but happy, busy and light hearted - a welcome change from the strained meals he'd always been subjected to at home.

After they'd all eaten enough to satisfy even the hungriest of them, Zeph was happily enthroned in the armchair nearest to the fire, where he gleefully watched the childish antics of the others as they played around with their magic. Cub was pretending to be one of the older boys, sending the younger ones that he had been with earlier into hysterics as the older students mistook him for one of them. Excited as he was, Zeph was soon dozing and the laughter faded away.