Don't own HP

To my Reviwers... Thanks for taking the time to review my story, I love reading your suggestions, and after reading somthings said, I'm changing the track of my story slighlty to fit in a different way than I'd originally intended, I hope it will make the story less dull. Thanks!

I didn't get a chance to respond to reviews last chapter because I had limited time on the net. So here goes...

CH 2 Reviews:

- Thanks to those who reviwed their encouragement. You know who you are so.. Yea

-Xinn Lajgin: erm... Thanks. I think?

- it's summer and I'm far from home, int the middle of nowhere and I'm currently pirating my internet off my neighbours wireless satellite sooo I might not be too consistent with my updating.

CH 3 Reviews:

-Eowyn 23: you'll have to wait and see, I don't want to give away anything, but he will get to Hogwarts, it's when really that's the main question, I've yet to really decide, I've written it one way, but it's been done so many times that I know it will be boring and I might accidentally just cop someone elses story, I'm trying to keep it my own. Sorta.

- Xinn Lajgin: Harry will be independant and I'm not too keen on Dumbles, but in this story I don't think Harry will be Evil. But he won't be as biased towards Dark magic I don't think.

-Vingilot: after reading your review, I realized the hole I'd almost dug myself into. I'm in the middle of changing the story a bit to accommodate a bit to your suggestion. Thanks, without your review I think my story had already fallen into a block it wasn't likely to get out of # beams at reviewer#

-Tobang: I know what you mean. I sometimes just skip over a story if it's too short. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!

-linker27: I pu their history, because people need to be sorta attached for later on, plan on making the gang a part of his life, not just filler until he gets to Hogwarts. A lot of the small thing will mean something in the near and distant future. And I hate it when people get mentioned in passing in other stories, then somwthing hapens to them and the main character is upset, but you have no idea why because you don't know anything about them.

Chapter 4

During the Christmas season when he was nine, Raven had seen a random advertisement that had caught his eye. It was a lottery advertisement for the lottery, but it was the catch phrase that had caught his eye. 'What's the best thing to ever happen to you?' and that got him to thinking about the summer he turned six.

It was a day in the last week of August that was the best day of his life, (after the day he'd been rescued by Davey of course) it had all started when he an Chaz were on their way home one day, it was late and getting dark when they noticed they were being followed by eight older boys, the youngest of them being fifteen and the oldest nineteen. They each broke out into a run and when they got to the end of the block, they'd split up, and, as luck would have it, Chaz had three follow him, while five followed after Raven. The three following Chaz had broken off when he turned the corner and ran right past a local police station. But the five following Raven ended up cornering him when he ran down an alley to get through a small passage, only to find it had been blocked off recently. He was stuck with five teenagers advancing on him, holding a very sharp dagger each, whe he himself had a faulty blade that was likely to fall apart if any pressure was applied on it. He knew he was dead, and he swore to himself that he was going to go down fighting. That's when it happened, the five who were standing there one minute, were just suddenly unconscious the next, with no hint as to what caused it, all he'd seen had been a flash of red light, and then a man had stepped out of the shadows, he was young, but had a tired look about him, his hair was sandy blond, but had been streaked prematurely with grey, his eyes were drawn out and sad, but still had a feral spark left in them, as if everyone and everything he'd held dear was lost, and he was hanging on to one last connection, and his last reason for living was somewhere out there, waiting for him. He was wearing clothes that would have fit in just fine, had he not been wearing a medieval style cloak about his shoulders, and as he stepped further into the light, Raven could see the lines of his ageing face.

Regaining his composure, Raven said " well sir, I do believe yeh've saved me life jus' now, an' I 'aven' gots much, bu' whatever i' is tha' yeh wan', yeh c'n 'ave I'."

The young man smiled at the small boy in front of him, just now taking in his appearance, and it shocked him how much he looked like his deceased friend when he was younger, it was exactly how he imagined his friends son to look like, minus the dirty and worn appearance, and the accent, and with no conscious plans to do so, he offered to take the small street rat for ice cream at a near by shop. An offer the boy was bouncing to accept, but only agreed to after the man spent five minutes convincing him The boy was very cute, acting mature and responsible, and then it hit the man that the boy wasn't acting at all, and that he had to be the way he was. He shook himself out of his thoughts when they stopped outside a pub, preparing himself to convince the boy that it was actually there. He was further shocked by th boys question.

"Hey mister, didn't yeh say we was goin' fer ice cream? What're yeh doin' stoppin' at a pub?"

The man was so shocked by his question that he was silent for a long time. When he finally re-gathered his senses his mind was still reeling from the revelation. He resolved to find out who this kid was. " you can see the pub, kid?" he asked, baffled

"yeh, o' course I see it, 's righ' there ain' it?" Raven responded, and then under his breath he said " ravin' mad this 'un, 'e asks if I see a pub tha's in the middle of the stree'. Mad!"

This young man had heightened hearing, so he had to stifle a laugh when he over heard what the boy had said, and he also had to agree with him, because from his point of view it would indeed be a stupid question, but it meant a lot from his own perspective if the kid could really see the pub, in his wordl, it meant a great deal. Putting aside any questions for later, he steered the young boy into the pub and out the back door, explaining along the way that the ice cream shop is out back. The continued mutterings on how he was mad stopped abruptly when an arch appeared I nthe brick wall, revealing an alley way full of people shopping. Still leading the boy, he sat him down outside the ice-cream parlor, and went to get their cones.

When finally he'd sat back down across from the kid he introduced himself properly " Remus Lupin, Remus is just fine though for you"

"'Allo Remus, name's Raven, and Raven 'll 'ave te do fer yeh, 'cause I ain't go' 'ny oth'r name"

Remus barked back a laugh and said "alright, Raven it is. Care to tell me why those boys cornered you back there?"

"Yeh not got te have a reason fer them ta do I', we're smaller 'n them an' They doan like me brother Davey, I s'pose they been waitin' te get me to teach Davey a less'n, i's a god thing yeh came, cuz I woulda bin dead if ye 'adn'nae shown up" Raven stated solemnly.

Again, this smal boy shocked Remus. It really was amazing what a kid on the streets had to face up to. Deciding to continue on with his questioning, he asked him if he knew why it was such a big thing that he'd seen the pub

the answer made him laugh again, he'd said " if yer tellin' me I'll be a drunk when I'm older, yeh c'n shove off"

"No Raven" he said while still chuckling "it means that you're a wizard."

"Right, and next thing yeh know, yer tellin' me tha' ev'ry fullmoon yeh roam aroun' eatin' innocents"

"... ... ..."

"No way!"

"... ... ..."

"Alrigh' Remus, explain."

"Raven, anyone who can see the entrance to The Leaky Cauldron is either a witch or wizard, or a magical creature, it's never wrong, so, naturally you've seen it so we can only assume that you aren't accreature, and you certainly aren't a girl so that leaves one option. You're a wizard." Remus said "tell me, has anything ever happened to you, when you're feeling hurt or afraid– "I'm never afraid"– okay, when you're in danger then. Has anything weird ever happened to you to keep you safe, out of harms way?"

"... ... ..."

"Precisely. Now, normally a wizard gets his wand when he turns eleven, an they start going to school, but for you we don't even know if you will go to school, and you're eleventh is far off. we can't get you an Ollivander's just yet, but we might be able to find somethingdown Knockturn alley, and when you turn eleven we'll see if we can't sneak you into Ollivanders for a legal wand. I wouldn't normally do this kind of thing, but I have a feeling you'll be needing it in the next couple of years. I have a few people I can get a hold of to teach you some of the basics in defensive and offensive hexes and curses. So, if you like meet me in the pub tomorrow at noon and we'll see what we can do. Got it?" Remus wasn't so sure that the kid had understood a word he's said about anything after he told him he was a wizard, but he seemed to understand he was supposed to be back the next dy, and for now that was good enough.

After letting him go, Remus wondered why he was doing so much for this kid. He out it down to the fact that he resembled what he imagined Harry might look like, and he would have loved to help him in any way that he could, but owing to what he was, he wasn't allowed guardianship. Little did he know that he was actually helping his good friend's orphaned son.

The next day for Raven was one of the best of his life. He'd found a good way to protect himself, and he was thankful t Remus for giving him that chance. Even in his young mind he understood it was an important discovery, not to mention the fact that it was wicked cool. That night, when Raven was having dinner in the pub with Remus, while Remus was explaining to him the importance of secrecy and whatnot, he'd pulled out his old, decrepit dagger, he was attempting to fix the hilt, while still listening to Remus when suddenly Remus stopped talking.

"Is that the dagger I saw you with yesterday Raven?" Remus asked

"Yeh"

"it's not really in the greatest condition is it?"

Raven snorted"i's junk Remus, i' woan do nothin', garbage i' is."

" And for someone like you, you need a good blade right?"

"Wha' yeh gettin' a'?"

"If I told you I had a good dagger you could keep for me, would you accept?"

They both knew that Raven understood that what Remus was trying to say was that even though he was poor, he would go out and bu Raven a Dagger, because it was a necessary tool to have. Raven, not being the type to pass up an offer on something that might very well save his life in the future, agreed to let Remus buy a new dagger for him.

Over the years Raven learnt many things. He had brought Chaz with him one day past the Leaky Cauldron, to test something, and when the boy had named all the shops, including the old pub, Raven had been ecstatic, they'd both thrown themselves into studying their magic, they'd discovered who Raven really was, and were glad they'd found out he had shape shifting abilities, so he could hide his tell-tale scar. Raven continued seeing Remus, he'd run into him every couple of months, and the young man would tell him stories about times past, and of Hogwarts, the school he'd attended with his frineds when he was younger. The man would also take some time to teach him a few new curses and shields. He was a good teacher but because he was a werewolf (something Raven wasn't at all bothered by; and when Remus had asked if he had a problem with it, he'd just simply asked him if he had any intentions to bite him on a full-moon. Startled by the question, Remus had immediately denied that he would do such a thing, and Ravens simple reply was that if that was the case then he had no problems with is 'wolfy problem' as he was apt to call it) he refused to apply for a job to teach at Hogwarts, even though he'd be brilliant at it.

They'd also discovered that because the alley was so busy, it made the perfect place to pick someone's unsuspecting pocket. They made a fortune there, and with their agreement with the goblins, they were easily able to exchange it into pounds. After a while though they began to get recognized, so their criminal excursions there had to be cut down. But before they'd had to make the cut back, Raven had nicked a beautiful silver ring off a man coming out of the apothecary. The ring was a silver snake that was biting it's own tail it had two gems for eyes, one was ruby, and the other was an emerald. The man, a sallow skinned, dark haired, black clad wizard had been the only person who had even come close to catching Raven, and it was only his knowledge of the streets of London that had saved him from getting caught. Needless to say, after that they were a lot more careful when stealing in the alley. The two boys, after years of exploring the streets, knew every twist and turn of all the alleys in the muggle and magical world.

In the three years he'd been apart of the magical world on an active basis Raven had met lots of people, both on the good and bad sides of the fence, everyone, even the kids he'd met knew him as the dark haired, emerald eyed boy named Raven, who stole and lived on the streets.

A/N: That's Chapter 4. I love Remus, so I had to put him in there. Anyone guess who the ring was

stolen from? I might have something going for that might pop up in a sequel, or it might just end up being useless side info. I'm not sure, I'll have to think on it.