"Going to lunch, or are you eating at your desk today?" Ron asked Harry from the doorway of the record's room. Harry was filling out several forms that were required to request reports from muggle law enforcement.

"If you give me a minute," Harry, "I'll come with you. I'm taking the afternoon off though, we've got a case conference with Hermione and the mindhealer about Tim.

Ron nodded, "I think Hermione said something about it this morning."

Harry finished his forms and with a flick of his wand, sent them off down the hall to the Muggle Liason Office, "All right. Let's go."

"Meeting your cousin was a real surprise. I didn't expect him to be quite so..." Ron trailed off looking for a word.

"Human?" Harry said sardonically, "Me neither. I feel like my life's been sort of turned upside down in the last week. Between Dudley and Tim..." Harry shrugged, "Brings up a lot of old stuff."

"I suppose." Ron shook his head, "How is Tim?"

"Tense, frightened, quiet. He's settled down a bit. Actually slept through the night last night." Harry paused, smiled fondly, "Of course, apparating to a roof top takes it out of you."

"He alright? Didn't splinch anything?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, he just scared himself." Harry replied. Ron and Harry headed out to the street, "Ginny took him to school this morning with Lily." while many wizard children were privately tutored in their early years, Harry's children had attended a school set up for wizard children, organized along the lines of a muggle primary school, "Ginny owled me this morning, she said it went well when she dropped him off."

"So are you still planning on that leave you keep saying you're going to take?" asked Ron, "Seems like a good time."

"That's what Ginny said."

At promptly two o'clock Harry met Ginny outside of the Office of Wizard Child Protection. Harry held the door so Ginny could go through first and she playfully swatted his hand as she always did.

Hermione and one of the mindhealers from St Mungo's was there. Hermione was reading a parchment that seemed to have just arrived. Harry didn't like the way she was biting her lip. Apparently neither did Ginny, because she said quietly, "Is that about Tim?"

Hermione looked up, her face an impassive, professional mask, "Not out here." she said shortly, indicating the public front office. She was right, it would be just their luck if some snoop from the Prophet was hanging about. Harry and Ginny didn't often make the paper anymore, but still.

Hermione ushered them all into the case conference room. Once inside, she handed the parchment to the healer and, to Harry and Ginny's surprise, augmented the room's own privacy spell with several of her own, including a muffliato aimed at the door.

"Hermione, what..?" Ginny started.

"Harry," said Hermione sitting herself, and indicating chairs for Harry and Ginny, "This might actually turn into a case for the Auror's Office." she said very seriously.

"Sorry?" said Harry, mystified.

"Penny sent over an observation report from this morning, and it's...highly disturbing." said Hermione, "Can you tell me what Tim's told you of his life with his mother?"

Ginny sighed, "He won't talk about it to me. Just says his mum's ill sometimes."

"Any mention of his father?"

"No," replied Harry, "The family friend I met yesterday said he'd never seen the man. Apparently, the grandmother thought he was trouble."

"And he's very distrustful of men?"

Harry nodded, "He's okay if I let him make all the first moves. I still can't get him to call me anything but Mr. Potter. It seems safer to him somehow. As if the formality keeps me at a safe distance. And if he thinks I'm angry, he either cowers or shuts down completely."

"This report certainly explains a lot of the child's behavior." the healer said, darkly, "And the failure-to-thrive. I'll have to set up a treatment plan. I haven't seen this kind of thing since the War."

That wasn't good.

The healer handed Ginny the parchment, "This is the observation report from Penny over at the school," the healer said. Harry scooted closer to Ginny so he could read it at the same time.

Tim Dawson, Age 7

Tim is a muggle born child, in the bottom 3rd percentile for growth according to the healer's report. No current evidence of physical abuse was present per healers report, but physical neglect was apparent in terms of nutrition and socialization.

Current Foster Parents are Harry and Ginny Potter.

On first arrival, Tim had little trouble separating from his current foster mother, Ginny Potter. His affect is somewhat flat, consistent with reports we have received from WCS worker Hermione Granger. He appears very attatched to his foster sister Lily Potter, age 10 3/4. It is apparent that Lily has taken on the role of protector for Tim and he has accepted this.

After morning meeting, when the children were broken up into their age groups for lessons, Tim was quite resistant to being separated from Lily. He became quite distressed, and while he showed no outward behaviors, several glass jars in the room cracked due to accidental magic. Lily was very helpful as she suggested that we show Tim her classroom so that he would know where she was. She stated that Tim had told her that he was afraid of people disappearing and not returning for him.

I walked Tim and Lily to Liy's classrom and explained to the teacher that I might need to interrupt class should Tim become distressed. This appeared to satisfy the boy.

I took Tim to the testing room to evaluate his academic level. He appears to have a reading and language level above the standard for his grade, although there are gaps in his learning, indicating inconsistent school attendence. See attached academic report.

After the academic tests were concluded, I indicated to Tim that I needed to fill out some paperwork and that he should feel free to explore the toys in the testing room until lunchtime. It was several minutes before he actually did so. He seemed reluctant to explore on his own.

His play was very stilted as I feel he suspected that he was, in fact, being observed, but after a few minutes he became engrossed with playing with the set of moving figures and the castle. His play with the figures involved fairly age appropriate scenarios until he found a black robed wizard. He turned the wizard onto one of the witch figures and said "Crucio".

I was unsure I had heard him correctly, so I continued to observe his play. Several times he repeated this incantation. Once I was sure that I had heard correctly, I asked Tim where he had heard the word. He stated, "My Dad used it on my Mum sometimes."

I asked further about whether wand use was invovled. Tim was able to describe to me the wand movement in vague terms and repeated that the incantation was indeed "Crucio"

I asked him why his father did this, Tim was very matter of fact, stating, "Sometimes she does things wrong. He does it to me when I'm bad too."

The report continued on the rest of the parchment, but neither Ginny nor Harry could bear to read further.

It was clear from Penny's handwriting that she was shaken by the encounter. Ginny turned to Harry with her hand over her mouth. Ginny looked like Harry felt, white faced, and ready to be sick.

"It looks like we don't need to worry about the boy's father coming forward." said Harry in a flat, detached voice. "You'd better send this over to the office. Someone else needs to investigate it. I'll kill him if I catch him. I won't do Tim any good if I go to Azkaban." Harry had a terrible sense of deja vu, thinking of Sirius going off half cocked, chasing down Pettigrew, rather than going to Dumbledore with the knowledge he had.

"So, what now?" asked Ginny, getting a grip on herself.

"Well," said Hermione, in a brisk businesslike voice that Harry knew hid her own agitation, "We need to know if your willing to make a long term comittment with Tim, as it does appear that family reunification is out of the question."

"Out of the question?" asked Ginny, "I thought his mother was in some sort of muggle treatment?"

The healer and Hermione glanced at each other, "She signed away her rights this morning. She has ninety days to appeal, of course, but I don't think she will."

"Why not?" asked Harry.

Hermione looked at him apologetically. She pulled another form out, this one on muggle paper, "She said to me," Hermione hesitated, as if she didn't want to say whatever it was aloud, "Well, she said to me, in no uncertain terms, that she didn't want Tim back." she handed the form to Ginny and Harry.

Under all the muggle legalese was Mary Dawson's signature, signing away her rights, and then under "comments" Hermione's neat script read:

Ms. Dawson states that she is "Happy to get shut of the little freak since he and his father ruined her life."

"That effing cow," exclaimed Ginny, outraged.

Harry nodded, unable to speak himself.

"So you see, we really need to be able to place Tim somewhere long term, as soon as possible." Hermione went on, "If you both feel that you can make this commitment, that would be ideal. It would be all right if you said you didn't want to, I mean..."

"Of, course we'll keep him." Harry said firmly, finding his voice, "Poor thing already thinks everyone is going to vanish on him." belatedly, Harry glanced at Ginny, but she only nodded encouragingly.

Hermione and the healer both breathed with relief, as if they'd really been worried, "I'll have the office draw up the papers for a foster-adoption process, then. We'll have to wait the ninety days for appeal, during which time you'll be named temporary guardians and for nine months you'll be considered de facto guardians. After that you'll be able to do the adoption formally.

"What's the difference between guardian and adoption?" asked Harry.

"Oh, it's just a formality, but it's much more permanent." Hermione replied, "It would mean that Tim could change his name to Potter if he wanted and he'd have the same magical and legal inheritance rights as your natural children. It's a magically binding contract where guardianship is not. If Tim's natural father were to come forward during the year, he could file a claim on the boy, but after adoption, he could not.

Hermione's face turned hard, "But after what we've learned he'd be facing life in Azkaban for using an Unforgivable. On both a child and a muggle." she rubbed her eyes with one hand, "I'm so pleased you're willing to do this." She pulled yet more forms out of her bag, printed on both parchment and muggle paper, "Let's get these signed and you can go pick up Tim and Lily on time."

Harry signed the papers with the feeling of odd foreboding that had been dogging him all weekend, "Perhaps I'm here to prevent the rise of a new Dark Lord." a half remembered voice said in Harry's head.