The four people apparated just outside of The Burrow with a 'pop' and both Ginny and Harry staggered from the landing. Harry was on his knees gasping.

"That was just like after..." Harry said shakily.

"It's all right Harry," Ginny soothed him. "Apparating is like that, you weren't hurt again."

"What's wrong?" Molly asked.

"When Harry last apparated it was when he was hurt," Ginny explained. "He thought he was dying. When we did it again he panicked."

"It's all right dear," Molly reassured him.

"I'm sorry," Harry said. He mind was racing but Ginny's voice in his mind was soothing him, giving him something to guide him.

It's all right Harry; I'll never let you get hurt again.

I know, he replied. I trust you.

Thank you, we will always be together, Ginny reassured him. I'll always be there.

Molly and Arthur looked at the two children kneeling on the path to their home; hands linked staring into each other's eyes as they communicated wordlessly.

"Umm what's going on?" Arthur asked. "Why are they holding hands?"

"It's a long story Arthur," Molly replied. "Basically they have to keep holding hands or they lose are in excruciating pain. They also do a lot of accidental magic; they knocked me across the ward when I separated them."

"What?"

"I know," Molly replied. "There was just a flash and I was flying across..."

She was interrupted by Ginny saying, "It's gone again; I can't hear you anymore."

"I know," Harry replied. "It feels lonely when you're not in my head. It's weird because I've never felt lonely before."

"I know; I remember just like you do."

"I hope we get to the third stage soon."

"Yeah, the second stage will be bad; I mean what are we going to do with baths and stuff?"

Harry looked mortified and gulped while turning bright red.

"I-I don't know," he answered.

Molly cut in before Ginny could say anything more; "We can sort all that out when we're inside alright dear?"

They both nodded and Molly and Arthur led the way to the Burrow. Harry paused on the threshold, afraid to go in. He'd never had a friend, let alone been around their house and now apparently they were going to live together. He was going to live with Ginny, the one who he knew wouldn't hurt him and he was always safe with.

He could hardly get his head around the idea; he was with Ginny, he was never going back to the Dursleys, he could hear Ginny's thoughts and knew her inside and out and she knew him. He was magical and he was going to learn how to control it.

"It's all right Harry, don't be scared," Ginny said.

"How did you know I was scared," he whispered, worried that people would hear that he was scared; he wasn't allowed to be scared before and he was always beaten when he was.

"I could feel it," Ginny said. "Can't you?"

He concentrated for a few seconds. He realised that even at this level even if they couldn't share thoughts, they could share emotions. He smiled.

"See?" Ginny said. "It's easy if you just flow with it."

With that he followed her in. The kitchen was small and cluttered but very homely; most unlike what the Dursleys had. He looked around and saw the cookies left out on the bench that Molly was putting away and the clock with nine hands on it; each of them pointing at 'home'. The dishes were cleaning themselves in the sink and the old wireless on the counter was playing a ballad that sounded rather odd.

"Ginny? Could you take Harry up to your room?" Molly asked. "We should get his things from his old house soon enough."

"There's no need for that Mrs Weasley," Harry stammered.

"Nonsense dear," she replied. "It's no trouble and please call me Molly or mum."

"Mum he doesn't mean that," Ginny said.

"Ginny please don't," he whispered.

"What does he mean then dear," Molly asked looking confused.

"Gin-"

"Quiet Harry," Ginny said. Molly suddenly noticed that she had tears in her eyes. "What he means is all he has are these clothes; everything he ever got was taken away." By this point her eyes were swimming with tears for her bond mate.

"WHAT?" Molly screeched. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE ONLY HAS THE CLOTHES HE STANDS UP IN? THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!"

"Mum stop!" Ginny cried. She realised that Harry was cowering, terrified behind Ginny, holding on to her hand with a death grip; his face chalk white. "Stop your scaring him!"

"I'm sorry Harry dear," she said stepping forward only to have him flinch back shaking like a leaf.

"Mum let me," her daughter said. Ginny turned and looked Harry in the face, feeling his terror over her link and the flickers of thoughts that flew through the link as it waxed strong again. "Harry, it's all right; no-one's going to hurt you. You're safe here and mum wasn't angry with you; she was angry with the Dursleys for what they did." As she talked to him he gradually stopped shaking and relaxed his hold on her hand; the colour creeping back into his face.

"What did I do wrong?" Molly asked.

"Every time that someone in his aunt and uncles house was angry they took it out on him," Ginny said her eyes streaming from the memories that she saw in Harry's mind. Memories of beatings that left him barely able to move; that left him unconscious for days or even as long as a week. She couldn't believe that anyone could do this to any person, least of all her Harry! He was sweet and kind and shy; and from his memories could work hard and cared for others even though he was worse off than most.

"When you shouted he thought that you'd hit him; he didn't know we don't do that," she continued.

At that moment Bill walked in. "Who's getting hit?" he asked.

"No-one dear," Molly said. "Harry's just having a difficult time adjusting to a place where he is cared for," she continued, her voice breaking near the end of the sentence.

"She's right, Harry was it?" Bill said. He looked at him strangely. "You're out of hospital early. Don't worry; mum might get angry with us and boy you know about it when she does; but she never hits us." He looked back at his mother. "I gave a report to the aurors who came to see about those three muggles; they said they would come round later to collect statements as to what happened."

"Did they say exactly when?" she asked.

"No but they said that they would wait till they got information about who exactly those three were from their muggle sources," he replied.

"That's good," Molly said relieved. "I was hoping Albus could come round to discuss with Harry what will happen to those animals," she spat. "They really should be put down for what they did to him; now how about the other boys?"

"Fred and George were a bit shaken from what they saw and Ron didn't get there in time to see Harry. Charlie got help within ten minutes and the three of them were out the whole time. They got the knives and all three of them had blood stains on them so there shouldn't be a problem with charges," he stopped to get a hold on his feelings.

"Anyway, they took them to the ministry; they were still unconscious and from what they said they wouldn't wake up for some time. That horsey faced one had to go to St Mungos; something about neck damage when she was clothes -lined by her husband. Those were some wicked curses mum."

"They deserve worse," Ginny growled. "After what they did to him for all those years..."

"Wait," Bill said. "You mean that that wasn't a once off thing?"

"No," Ginny said. "They hit him all the time. He was hurt so often that he had to use his magic to make himself better."

"The healers in St Mungos said that it had probably gone on for several years," Molly said. "Broken bones, severe malnourishment; he was living almost purely on magic. If he was a muggle he would have been dead years ago and they never got him any help for his injuries and from what Ginny said they were all inflicted by those three."

"We shouldn't have bothered with aurors," Bill growled. "We should have killed them then and there."

"I think so too, but we can't," Molly sighed. "Anyway, take Harry up to your room Ginny dear; I'll call you when dinner's ready and can you ask your father to come down here."

"Come on Harry," Ginny said excitedly. "I'll show you my room."

She dragged him up the stairs as Molly turned to Bill.

"What was it that you were thinking when you saw him just then; you were looking at him funny," Molly asked.

"How did he get out of St Mungos so quickly? The healers are good, but from what you said he should have been in there for weeks at least. How did he heal so fast?"

"That's one of the things that we need to talk about with your father. You are the eldest so we need you to help us with this; Harry is going to need a lot of support to get over his life with his relatives and now we've got another complication." Molly sighed. "This is all happening so fast; to think it was only this morning that everything was normal and now it's all up in the air."

"So Harry will just be staying till we can find a home for him." Bill said.

"No, he will have to stay here," Molly said firmly. "It's for the best."

"Mum, you know as well as I do that we can barely keep ourselves afloat with all seven of us kids," Bill said. "I know that he would be a great kid but I don't think we can afford it and I'm sure dad will agree."

"I know but it's not that simple."

Just then Arthur walked in. "What were you yelling about earlier dear? Did Fred and George do something to our guest?"

"No, Fred and George weren't here when we came home," Molly explained taking a seat at the table, bill and Arthur copying her. "The poor boy had been treated worse than a Malfoy house elf." Arthur choked and looked furious at this. "When he came here he revealed that the only things he owns are the clothes he stands up in."

"WHAT?"

"It gets worse," she continued grimly. "From the healers reports and what Harry and Ginny have told us he has been beaten and abused for years; the healers found three recent fractures, all less than a day or two old, on top of the stab wounds..."

"STAB WOUNDS?" he cried. "Wait start from the beginning."

"It started this morning; Ginny and I were making cookies when she felt a strange pull. Just like I did when you fell out of that tree," she said looking at Bill. "Anyway, we followed the pull out past the orchard and Ginny started feeling pains like she had broken her arm." The two men looked surprised at this. "There wasn't any injury, but her body was responding like there was. Anyway, we tracked the pull towards the stream and saw Harry and his relatives from a distance. They stopped by the stream and by that time there was a hedge between us and Harry's relatives while Harry was in plain sight. We saw that he had a broken arm and was limping.

"That's when everything went bad; Harry turned to look at us. He said that he felt the same pull Ginny did and then his relatives attacked him. They hadn't seen us so the grabbed him and started stabbing him." Her voice broke and there were tears in her eyes. "He was screaming and so I blasted the hedge apart and knocked the three of them back with an impediment jinx. The woman got hit in the jaw and neck when I hit her husband; that is why she's in St Mungos. Ginny had collapsed when he was attacked and had just gotten up and came over. I picked Harry up and that was when bill and the rest arrived; I told Charlie to go for help and Bill to keep an eye on the muggles before apparating Ginny, Harry and I to St Mungos," she paused to take a deep breath and calm down a bit; having to relive the events of this morning were taking a lot out of her.

"Once there I called for a healer and she took him straight to a ward with three healers taking care of him. Ginny passed out once we got there which is a good thing; he looked horrible, I wouldn't want her to see any more of what was going on, she's only five. Well they patched him up; closed the stab wounds and gave him blood replenishing potion but there were some longer lasting injuries. He had a punctured lung and one of the stabs had severed the nerves to his left arm. They had to wait a couple of hours before they could do anything more; too much magic could overwhelm him. When they came back a couple of hours later they did a full diagnostic. There was so much: he had unhealed fractures in his arms, ribs and skull to name a few." Both men looked appalled.

"You mean that they never even took him to muggle healers?" Arthur cried. "What kind of animals are those people?"

"The worst kind," Billy said.

"Yes, but that's not all," Molly said. "He was severely dehydrated and malnourished; at the moment he looks like he's the same age as Ginny or younger when he's a year older. They said that there was almost no food in his system so he must have barely eaten in days. What's more his magical core was almost drained; he must have been living off his magic for ages, used it to heal dozens of injuries or both. That and the psychological damage; he is scared of most if not all adults and believes he's going to be beaten whenever someone loses their temper of raises their voice." She shook her head. "Honestly, this is going to be a long hard road to recovery."

"What happened after they told you that?" Arthur asked.

"Right after they finished explaining everything, Harry and Ginny both woke up. We talked a bit and found out the people who attacked him were his aunt, uncle and cousin. When we asked him where he was hurt Ginny knew, then they looked at each other." She paused to collect herself.

"The looks on their faces was just," she struggled. "It was like a blind man looking at the sun for the first time; like they had seen the most beautiful and awesome thing in existence. Then Ginny got up and they took each other's hands. Gold light surrounded them, coming in bands from their hands and then they collapsed. The healers tried to find out what had happened but none of their spells could get through the glow that was around them."

Silence reigned in the Weasley kitchen.

"What in merlins name was that," Bill asked looking utterly flabbergasted.

"I really didn't understand much of what Dumbledore was saying, he had just got there after they collapsed, I'll floo him now," Molly replied.

She got up from the table and went to the fireplace and chucked a small handful of powder into the flames.

"Hogwarts Headmasters office!"

After a minute speaking to Dumbledore Molly pulled her head out of the fire and walked back to the table. With a roar of green flames Albus Dumbledore stepped out of the fire and brushed the soot off his robes.

"Ah, good evening Arthur, William," he said smiling at the other two men. "Molly said that you needed information regarding what happened today with Ginny and Harry Potter."

Arthur choked and spluttered for a second. "Potter! As in the Harry Potter?" he looked at his wife.

"Yes, we saw his scar when I took care of his relatives," she explained. "I got so caught up in what went on I forgot that you didn't know."

"Okay," Arthur said. "So what did happen when that glow surrounded them?"

"What that was, was a very rare occurrence called a soul bond," Dumbledore said. "I essence, their souls joined together granting them many gifts as well as pairing them for life."

"So the two of them will be together?" Bill said.

"Yes, at the moment the bond is stabilising, so there will a considerable amount of fluctuation in the properties of the bond, but during this stage, the first, they will need to be in permanent skin to skin contact with each other."

"That's why they were holding hands?" Bill asked.

"Correct."

"How long does this first stage last?" Arthur asked.

"The length depends on the strength of the bond; the longer the first stage the stronger. The longest known is 28 hours and that was Merlin, from what we've seen this will almost certainly be longer. I would estimate 32 hours at least."

"So Ginny and Harry need to be holding hands for the next thirty hours or so then they can be normal?" Arthur asked.

"Unfortunately not," replied Dumbledore.

"How long then," he asked.

"I am not precisely sure," Dumbledore said. "Though my best estimate is approximately two weeks."

"Two weeks!" shouted Bill and Arthur.

"They can't be together like that for two weeks!" Arthur said. "How will they bathe, use the bathroom..."

"I admit that those will be problems," Dumbledore said. "And undoubtedly they will cause much embarrassment to both Harry and Ginny, but that is unavoidable."

"Why can't we just break the bond?" Bill asked.

"Because breaking the bond will kill them both," Dumbledore said simply. "The requirements of the bond are not to be taken lightly. Failure to meet them has serious consequences. Researchers at the department of mysteries have some evidence that actions that would result in the bond being severed would kill the bonded pair as their souls are pulled from this world to prevent the breaking of the bond. That is why using magic to destroy the bond will kill them. At the moment any physical separation causes intense pain. Later down the track they will need to have physical contact for several hours every day or they will become physically ill and eventually die.

"What you have to understand is that they have become very much like one person with two bodies; they simply have to be together and there is nothing that we can do to change that."

"So in effect they are stuck together on pain of death for the rest of their lives?" Arthur questioned.

"That is correct, though they will still have some independence," Dumbledore said. "The usual way that couples have gotten around the requirement for contact is to sleep together at night thus allowing them to act independently during the day." Seeing that Arthur was about to object he said. "There will be no sexual activity between them; at least not for another nine or ten years. Also you will not have to worry about Harry hurting her; the pair share emotions and thoughts at almost all times so her pain is his."

Slightly mollified Arthur said. "You said that this is the first stage; how many stages are there and what happens in each?"

"There are five confirmed stages that other couples have reached though it is theorised that there may be as many as seven. The first stage is when the bond stabilises and is characterised by fluctuations in the couples power and abilities; usually from below the basic level they revert to after this stage to the maximum they will reach. The second stage is where they require physical contact, starting at constant contact and gradually decreasing over time, for this bond probably the second stage will be completed within six months and will reach the level of needing only a few hours.

"The third stage gives them the ability to share thoughts and emotions, though these two seem to have taken it a step further and share memories too."

"That's why Ginny seems to know Harry so well," Molly said. "She has access to his memories, emotions and thoughts with that it would be easy to identify why he is acting a certain way."

"Exactly," Dumbledore confirmed. "The fourth stage allows the couple to share senses; sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Again they took it a step further and they also have aura vision."

Both Arthur and Bill gasped at this, "Is there anything they can't do?"

"From what they've shown there is very little," Molly said. "When I separated the two, they knocked me flying by accident."

"True," Dumbledore agreed. "Their magical cores have combined and grown considerably; they are most likely at least as powerful as me in shear magical power. Together they would be unstoppable."

Molly looked suitably surprised while Bill and Arthur sat there catching flies.

"The fifth stage is the limit of what we know; at this stage the couple are able to control each others bodies. We confirmed this by placing Ginny in a potion induced sleep and placing the body bind curse on Harry, who was then able to control Ginny and move her around before another fluctuation in the bond broke the connection.

"that is the limit of our knowledge of the stages. The other two theoretical stages are a mystery."

Silence once again reigned in the Weasley kitchen.

Finally Molly broke the silence. "What sort of changes do you think we will need to make?"

"In what way do you mean?" Dumbledore replied.

"As in what arrangements to cope with the new abilities that they have, like schooling?"

"If you are agreeable then I would like to train the two of them to control and focus their magic as it is now, in other words teach them wandless magic. I dare say that once Harry turns eleven then the two of them will be able to go to Hogwarts together.

"in the mean time; they will need to wear these," he held up two chunky bracelets. "These will contain their magic and prevent them from doing any damage."

"But those are the things prisoners in Azkaban wear!" cried Arthur. "There is no way that either of them will wear those!"

"If they lose control of their magic they could injure or kill anyone around them," he replied flatly. "They have power on the same scale as my own but with none of the experience and training in controlling magic; all it would take is a powerful emotion, most likely fear based on their responses to the effects of the bond, and they will unleash power that would do severe damage to anything and anyone around them. I assure you they will only be on for a day or two, no more. As soon as I make arrangements for them to learn to control their magic I will remove them."

"I still don't like this; from the sounds of it Harry has effectively been in prison for the past five, nearly six years," Arthur replied stubbornly. "Now you want to put him back in another one."

"Admittedly it is most definitely not an ideal solution but would you prefer them to lose control and hurt one of the others? There is a real risk; you saw at the hospital how they set they bed on fire with their magic and they knocked you across the room. Could you imagine them setting the house on fire with the children in it? Or knocking one of their brothers into a wall with enough force to shatter most of their bones? It is the lesser of two evils." He finished firmly.

Arthur looked at Molly and she nodded but had tears in her eyes.

"Will they affect the bond?" Bill asked.

"No," Dumbledore replied. "The bracelets only inhibit magic from escaping the body, the transfer would be continued and so the bond kept safe as they will be in physical contact as long as they have the bracelets on."

The three weasleys nodded but looked as though they were about to be sick. They hated that they had to treat the two children almost as if they were prisoners, just to make sure that the rest of them would be safe. They had to admit to themselves though that the risk was there and the pair were children; they had no experience as Dumbledore said and would do damage that they didn't want to contemplate.

"Bill can you get them?" Molly asked.

He nodded and left the room. As he walked out into the hallway to the stairs there was a knock on the front door. Arthur went to answer it.

"Ah hello Kingsley!" he said. "I take it you're here to collect statements?"

"That I am," he replied in his deep calm voice.

"They should be coming down now; was it just the kids you wanted?" Arthur asked.

"No, I would need to get a statement from your wife and possibly, William I believe it was? who kept the muggles under control until we arrived."

"Certainly, they are all in the kitchen through here," Arthur replied ushering him inside and towards the kitchen.

"Ah Molly, and Albus good to see you," Kingsley said. "I wish that we were meeting under more pleasant circumstances."

"You and I both," Molly replied.

The two kids at that moment walked into the kitchen, hand in hand. Harry immediately shrank back a bit at the sight of the tall dark skinned man who had just taken a seat at the table. To him everything about the man screamed toughness; both physical and magical and as usual in the presence of a formidable man Harry concentrated on making himself as small and insignificant as possible. Ginny realised this and quickly started calming him; it was obvious to those present that Ginny was the only person Harry truly trusted. He always was panicked at the sight of people who were angry or aggressive and Ginny was the only one who could calm him even when the person had shown themselves to be friendly.

"Ginny and Harry I take it," Kingsley said. Both nodded. "My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt; I am here to collect statements from the two of you, Mrs Weasley and most likely William as well. You just need to provide answers to the questions as truthfully as you can, no more no less. Do you both understand?"

"Yes" both intoned. Kingsley stared in shock at the voice that they way they both sounded together but he simply shook his head a bit and continued.

"Shall we begin?"