Previously

"That's never happened to me before," Ron said, his hand still in Harrys. Hermione reached out and placed her hand on theirs. This time the silver cord was visible to all three children.

Hermione gasped. "I can see it!" She whispered. "A silver cord, just like you said."

"But what does it mean?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Harry said, "I saw it the first time when I shock Hermione's hand last week."

"I didn't see anything but I felt a tingle go up and down my arm. Could it be magic? Us recognising the other as wizards?"

"I don't think so." Ron said. I've lived around magic all my life and I've never felt or seen anything like this before."

Harry slowly released Ron's hand and Hermione dropped hers. Hermione turned to Ron.

"So you've always known you were a wizard?" She asked.

"Yeah, my whole family are witches and wizards."

"You must know loads of spells and things already. What sort of education do have before Hogwarts?"

"Err." Ron looked blank. "My Mum teaches us some stuff but she doesn't let us use a wand. Not since the twins blew up the kitchen. They're always doing things like that." He turned to Harry. "I bet you were allowed a wand. You probably know the whole first year."

Harry looked down at his shoes. "I didn't know I was a wizard. My relatives told me my parents died in a car accident."

Ron gapped at him. "But you're Harry Potter! Everyone knows who you are. And you don't know anything?"

Harry just mumbled something.

"Honestly Ron, don't be rude. Harry was raised by Muggles just like me and he does know magic. He showed me some the other day. Show him Harry."

Harry lifted his hand and summoned his reading light. "I can also make stuff move but that's really hard."

Ron looked at him in shock. "How did you do that? You didn't even use a wand!"

"Sure I've never has a wand before." Harry answered. "When I got my wand from Ollivander, I could feel the magic inside me, the wand just made it easier to find."

"I felt the same thing with my wand, Ron what about you?"

Ron winced. "Actually I just have my brothers old wand. It's really old and doesn't work right so…" He trailed off.

"That's a shame Ron. Ollivander said that you never get as good a reaction from someone else's wand."

"Yeah well, I-"

"There you are Ronald." The children turned to see the eldest red headed boy. The uptight boy grabbed hold of Ron's arm and began dragging him away toward the door where the other red heads were waiting. "You shouldn't run off like that. Making me chase after you. As a prefect, I have more important things I could be doing."

"Hey! Percy! Leggo!" Ron protested. "I didn't run off, I was right here the whole time, leggo o' me!"

"Mother, I have found him." The pompous boy announced, disapproval clear in his voice.

"Oh Ronald, there you are." His mother, fussing over the small red haired girl, looked up with a frown, "What were you thinking, disappearing like that, hmm? And talking to strangers. What have I told you? If you're going to be so much trouble…" Ron looked mutinous but Hermione interrupted before he could get the chance.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, Harry and I had some questions, we're new to all this you see and Ron was helping us. We didn't realise that we had taken up so much time."

The woman looked a bit flabbergasted now that she noticed the two children and Hermione's parents, who had come up from the stacks, standing with her son. "Oh I'm sorry dears," she said kindly, "You must be muggleborns. It can be kind of overwhelming at first but you'll soon get the hang of things. I'm so glad my Ickle Ronniekins was able to help. I'm Molly Weasley and these are my sons, Percy, the twins Fred and George, you've met Ron and this is my daughter Ginny. Welcome to the Wizarding World."

"Thank you Mrs Weasley," Hermione said solemnly holding out her hand, "I am Hermione Granger, I will be starting Hogwarts in the fall. These are my parents, Will and Diane Granger."

Mrs Weasley looked a bit taken aback by this very mature little girl in front of her but shook hands with her and then her parents.

Harry stepped forward and introduced himself but didn't offer his hand.

"I'm Harry Potter."

The reaction was immediate. Percy looked down his nose at him, the twins started whispering to each other, Ginny dropped the books she had been carrying, and Mrs Weasley looked like she wanted to start crying.

Ron saw the reactions and smirked. "Come on Mum, its not that big a deal. He's just Harry." Harry and Hermione shared a look and rolled their eyes.

Mrs Weasley seemed to recover herself, Ginny however let out a shriek. "HARRY POTTER?!"

Ronald Weasley was normal. Thank you very much.

He had five brothers all older and a sister. His father was obsesses with muggles and his mother ruled them all with a sparking wand.

They all lived in an overdeveloped shed with a ghoul in the attic, that looked like it was held together with spellotape.

Surrounded by a sea of red hair Ron believed that the world was going to pass him by. After all why would anyone notice him with all his more talented brothers around?

Deep in the core of his magical heart, Ron dreamed of finding someone who would look past the hair and see him among his family. Someone who would need him, rely on him. Someone to whom he was more than just a 'Weasley.'

But come on. Who was going to rely on him? Why would they? Still he hoped.

He never expected to find two people. Nor did he ever expect to find them in a book store, Quidditch store maybe. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. What was a national hero doing talking to a Weasley? Why was an obviously intelligent girl talking to him?

The spotlight shining on Harry would reveal many things to Ron over the years. War, political manoeuvrings, espionage, human nature. But that first day he only saw one thing.

Till his dieing day Ronald Weasley would swear that it was Harry Potter who gave him a purpose.

For a moment it seemed like the world froze then as one everyone in the bookstore and turned to look. Suddenly it seem as if the everyone in Diagon Alley descended on them en mass. People reached out to touch him and shake his hand. He was pushed , pulled and yanked this way and that and the noise was deafening. He lost track of the Grangers and the Weasleys in the sea of faces and bodies. Harry was just about to panic when there was a explosion and the braking of glass could be heard. A pair of arms reached out from the confusion and grabbed him, lifting him up and began to push through the crowd. Now he was definitely panicking and began to struggle and fight his way free, until a voice yelled in his ear.

"Its all right Harry. I've got you." It was Hermione's father Will. Harry relaxed and turned to hide his face in Mr Grangers chest. Will pushed his way through the crowd avoiding the grasping hands and rushed in to a grimy looking pub and out through the other door in to what looked like a typical London street. When it seemed like they weren't being followed Will set Harry down on the pavement.

"So," Will asked looking a little out of breath, "How do you like being famous?" Harry just gave him a sick looking smile.

Hermione and Diane came rushing out of the pub next. They looked around a bit before spotting Will and Harry and hurried over.

"My goodness, Harry. I knew you were famous but would never have imagined that kind of reaction." Hermione patted him up and down to make sure he was still in one piece. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"Yes Hermione. I'm okay. Just a bit shaken up."

"Oh, the nerve of those people, acting like that! Just as well Ron grabbed something from his brothers, the twins, what where their names, Fred and George? Whatever is was made a huge explosion. While everyone else was running away, with no consideration for anyone else, Dad could grabbed you and ran. I don't know what they were thinking, making an explosion like that in a room full of people, someone could have been hurt, there could have been a panic! Someone ought to…"

"Hermione, there was a panic! I was panicking! I thought I'd never get out of there!"

"Yes well." Hermione faltered. "I suppose it was very brave of him. You should have seen it Harry! After everyone ran after the explosion, Mrs Weasley started to tell Ginny off for drawing attention and causing a riot. But that was nothing compared to Ron!" Hermiones eyes started to shine. "He went on and on about how they shouldn't treat you any different just because of something you did as a baby. That you clearly didn't want all the attention and you would probably not want anything to do with them now because of her."

Harry was smiling at the image of the gangly red head competing with his mother on telling his sister off when said red head ran out of the pub they had just passed through.

"Hey mate!" Ron spotted them and ran over. "Listen, Harry, I'm really sorry about what happened back there. Ginny's in big trouble now, for drawing all that attention. She didn't mean too, it's just, well… She grew up listening to bedtime stories of you. When she was six she swore to everyone she was going to marry you."

Harry was horrified but Hermione just thought it was funny. "When did she stop listening to the stories?"

"What do you mean stop? She still does. We're going to hear about it for days now, about how she met you and how 'you're so nice and handsome and she can't wait to be Mrs Potter.'" He spoke the last bit in a high falsetto mimicking his sister.

Hermione frowned, disapproving written across her face. "Well honestly."

"Anyway, I just wanted to say sorry for the trouble. And thanks for helping me out with my mum. She can be really over the top sometimes you know? I suppose it comes from having seven kids."

"Good grief!?" Mrs Granger burst out. "Seven children?"

"Yes Ma'am." Ron answered, a little glumly. "I have five older brothers and a younger sister. But Bill lives in Egypt and Charlie lives in Romania so it's just us at home now."

"You are lucky you know, I always wanted a brother or sister. I was an only child." Hermione told Ron. Her parents hadn't been able to have any more children after a miscarriage when Hermione was three.

"I grew up with my cousin Dudley. I think I would have preferred to be the only child. Still it would have been nice to have a brother or sister." His eyes seemed to take on a faraway look. The others gave him sympathetic looks.

"Listen, I should go find Mum again, she's probably gone ballistic looking for me, but do you want to owl sometime? Just address the letters to the Burrow and the owl will do the rest. Maybe I really could answer any questions you have, like you told Mum."

Harry nodded eagerly, "Yeah that would be great. I have an owl. I was going to use it just to write to Hermione from school, but…"

"Why would you write to her? You're going to Hogwarts too, right?"

"No, I decided to got to the Academy of Magicks."

Ron gaped at him. "Whoa. That's a really exclusive school. They hand pick their students and only accept people with loads of talent. My brother Bill got asked to go in his fifth year but Mum wanted him to stay at Hogwarts."

"Well I looked at the information sheet for it and it seemed pretty good. Plus it was the most helpful."

"RON!!" Mrs Weasley was standing at the door to the pub. "Get back here this instant!"

"I gotta go! Owl me, okay?!"

Mrs Weasley waved to the Grangers and Harry, before grabbing Ron by the ear and dragging him inside.

"Well," Mr Granger said, "It looks like you two made a new friend."

Well here's chapter four. I hope everyone likes it.

I've been getting a lot of comments about the cord the trio see. I wasn't going to tell people but seeing how it will be a while before the question is answered in the story I thought I should.

Its not a binding. It does not indicate soul mates. There is no power sharing. No mind reading. No shared animagus form.

It is nothing more than a connection. Everyone and everything is connected in some small way. Parents and children. Siblings. Friends. Even enemys. Everything in the world is connected.

Harry and the others will develop the ability to see these connections and the reason they could see it now is because 1) because of the strength of the bond and 2) they were expecting to see it. (Harry saw it because he is strong.) This ability is similer to mage sight.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I now have some good ideas about how to pace the story. Please keep it up!