He was surprised. Surprised that he was still alive and breathing. Tristan had made the mistake of attacking a scholar at Hogwarts. It hadn't been a crucio that had driven him over the edge an neither had it been a sectum sempra. Just a simple levitating spell. Muggles were allowed to walk in the gardens in the middle of the school under the supervision of experienced teachers. It was a rule of the Ministry, it would keep them sane and healthy. As sane and healthy as the muggles could be held while they were being used as guinea pigs by the students.
A few of the students were careful when they had to practice spells but it could still go horribly wrong. And most of the students, especially the ones with the green and silver ties, were just plain cruel. The ones with the blue and silver where the ones where you had the least risk of getting turned into something like a rat or a frog. But today it had neither been a green nor a blue who had pushed him over the edge. Three reds had corned him in the yard, pointing their wands at him. His fingers curled up into his hand palms, knowing that it wouldn't help much, they didn't even need to come close to him, but he refused to just stand there and do nothing.
The three reds moved closer, forming half a circle. The one on the right stepped forward while waving the wand and uttering a curse. ''Wingardium Leviosa!'' the next moment, Tristan was above the ground, his stomach turning in panic and his limbs flailed, hoping to regain the solid ground beneath him. He was getting a bit sick as he was thrown up in the air, falling until he almost made contact with the ground before going up again.
Then suddenly, the spell stopped and Tistan crashed down into the ground hard, nose first. He could already feel trickles of blood dripping on the grass. He didn't move, hoping that they had had enough and would leave. But it seemed that today he wasn't in any luck. The leader of the group walked towards him, crouching down and poking him, like children did when finding a dead bird, not sure if it's dead or just playing dead.
With an angry growl, Tristan turned and slammed his fist into the jaw of the wizard. The other was knocked down on the ground and Tristan was soon near him, landing punches everywhere he could. He didn't notice how it had became quiet around them. The wand had broken in the fall and for once, the power of muggle and wizard were equal. And soon Tristan was on the winning hand of the fight. That was until he felt a burning pain between his shoulder blades, knocking him away from the wizard.
The pain was familiar. It either meant that you were a test subject for the class Defense against the Dark Arts or that you really pissed off some people. The spell wasn't allowed for students to use outside of the classroom and they barely did use it outside because of the punishment if someone found out.
He heard someone screaming, his vision got blurry of the pain. His body spasmed and after what seemed like an eternity, the pain stopped. Tristan was too tired to move so he just stayed down on the ground. A rough hand hauled him back on his feet and dragged him away through the hallways. At that moment Tristan passed out.
He woke up in one of the cells in the dungeons. Tristan realized that he had been the one screaming. He was sure that he was going to be killed. The other people, or muggles as the wizards called them, only knew it as the green light and it was said that it could kill you instantly.
The ones that got permanently injured or went mad were taken away and they never returned. This probably would become his fate too. So when a group of wizards entered the dungeons and stood before his cell, Tristan was ready for them. He wouldn't go down without a fight. But they didn't open the cell door, they just stood there.
A man with long blond hair nodded after a while. ''He would be perfect for those Weasley's'' That man left and a other fired a spell at Tristan, making him lose consciousness again.
The next time that Tristan woke up, he noticed the strange ceiling above him. It was made out of wood. But Hogwarts ceilings were always made out of solid stone, it was a castle so it wasn't really surprising. The change from grey stones to brown wood was a moment of confusion.
The next thing were the blankets on top of him and the bed beneath him. Tristan blinked a few times, trying to figure out where he was exactly. Was he dead and in heaven? Possibly. But why was heaven made out of wood and brownish blankets?
Before he could figure out if he was dead or alive and where he was, a ugly monster with enormous eyes and ears appeared above him, sitting on his chest, just two inches away from his face. Tristan screamed the lungs out of his body and the creature above him did exactly the same thing, scrambling away from the bed. Tristan shot up, grabbing the blanket and keeping the fabric close to his body, like some kind of shield.
The monster was smaller than he had originally thought, wearing dirty cloths and standing a few feet away from him. Tristan just stared back at him, trying to figure out what it was. A loud bang and an even more ugly creature appeared, seemingly of the same kind as the first one. ''Filthy muggle'' the second one muttered while glaring daggers at Tristan.
Tristan was too shocked at his new surroundings to even notice the creature's insult. He wasn't dead and he wasn't at Hogwarts anymore. But where was he then? Still somewhere at a magical house because of those strange creatures.
At the conclusion that he was still at a house of a wizard or with, he jumped up, throwing the blankets off and pacing towards the window. The two creatures flinched at the sudden movement but they recovered quickly. ''Sit back down'' the grumpy one growled. Tristan ignored him and opened the old window, crouching in the windowsill, looking down. The ugliest of the two disappeared with a even loud bang as he had entered the room.
The creature that had almost given him a heart attack started squeaking. ''No, don't do that!'' Tristan stared down from the window. It was really high, if he was lucky enough he wouldn't break both of his legs if he jumped. But a sprained ankle seemed impossible to avoid. But at least he would be outside of the house. The moment that he decided to actually jumped, the door of the room was slammed open.
It had gone really quickly from that evening at the dinner table. Molly had in the end allowed Arthur to take a muggle into the house, mostly because she didn't want to lose face in front of the Malfoys. It wasn't really hard to convince the kids, though Arthur had great troubles in trying to convince the twins not to experiment on the muggle.
Not even two weeks later, Arthur was called at Marius office. Most of the muggles weren't suitable because they would continue trying to murder any wizard around them or because they had too valuable information about where the rebels were hiding.
But they had found one at Hogwarts. Arthur hesitated in the beginning, a muggle who already had bad experiences with wizards wasn't the most ideal start but after the war there wasn't a single muggle left who didn't hate wizards. Or so Marius brought as an argument against Arthurs objection. That was true and the only other option was to wait for an additional six months.
A few Aurors would pick the muggle up at Hogwarts and bring him to Arthurs home. The whole day the family had been busy with preparing. Even a old friend of Arthur had showed up, Sirius Blacks. Well, old friend? More like a friend of a friend and send by James Potter. Sirius was experienced in dealing with the edges of the magical world, especially the dangerous ones.
Sirius had two house elves with him, Kreacher and Dobby. The worst thing the muggle could see when waking up was to see a wizard so they could better let house elves keep an eye on him and to warn them when he woke up. Muggles were always completely sedated just in case they would try to run.
Molly had made mince pies and fudge, hoping to bribe the muggle. Though Arthur didn't know for what, either Molly was scared that the muggle would destroy the house or because she wanted to be liked by their newest housemate.
While talking with Sirius about muggles and how to take care of them, it became clear that Sirius had more experience in dealing with hippogriffs and dragons. He too seemed to think that muggles were a dangerous type of animal, like most of the wizards. Like muggles were like Bowtruckles, harmless when they are young but without the right protection they could kill you when old enough.
With a loud bang Kreacher returned after being send upstairs by Sirius to check on Dobby and the muggle. ''The muggle is awake and at the moment he's trying to jump out of the window'' Kreacher had never made it a secret that he didn't like muggles, so it was just by the nature of house elves that he hadn't encourage the muggle yet to jump out of the window instead of informing them about it.
Sirius jumped up, knocking over his chair and the can of Butterbeer before running up the stairs, quickly followed by Arthur. Sirius slammed open the door, was by the muggle in an instant and dragged him back inside. The muggle indeed had been on the edge of jumping out of the window, a jump he wouldn't have survived.
The muggle fought back against Sirius, trying to get out from his grip, scratching, biting, punching and kicking. Arthur stood in the doorframe, frozen. Sirius fought back, used to taking care of dangerous animals. A muggle was no match to him. In no time Sirius had him on the ground on his stomach, his arms twisted on his back.
Arthur could hear them both panting, neither wanting to give up. Sirius held both of the muggles hands in one hand and wiped some sweat of his forehead. It was then when Arthur noticed that the muggle was still young, around the age of Fred and George. Probably the only muggle that they could give without risking to lose any information.
''Arthur, the window'' Sirius said after trying a few times to get Arthurs attention. Arthur finally regained his posture, waved with his wand to lock all of the windows to prevent something like this happening again. He was actually quite shocked that the muggle would risk death just to get out.
''Okey, listen very carefully, I'm going to release you and then you are going to stand up very slowly. Don't try any funny things'' Sirius warned the muggle before releasing him and taking a few steps back, having his wand in handsreach.
The muggle got up, glaring at both Sirius and Arthur. ''Well, you surely got yourself quite the project'' Sirius grinned at Arthur. ''Couldn't you just go for a cat or another owl?'' Arthur ignored him, put his wand away. ''What's your name?'' he asked the muggle. Till so far he hadn't got any papers about him, he barely knew anything just that he had spend two months at Hogwarts after being captured.
When the muggle didn't reply and just glared at him, Arthur said his own name first. ''You won't have to go back to Hogwarts anymore'' he insured him. Worse and worse rumors about the treatment of muggles at Hogwarts had gone round. That they were tortured and that the students practiced on them to learn their spells. And Arthur knew first hand that an inexperienced witch or wizard could do great harm when they didn't master a spell yet.
''Tristan'' the muggle replied after waiting a while. ''My name is Tristan''