Sitting in the hospital waiting room, Harry gazed up at the ceiling while clutching his right wrist with his other hand. It hurt, alot.

In fact, his whole body hurt right now, but his wrist and foot, which he knew was swelling up in his too-small shoe, hurt the most. He had dealt with lots of broken bones throughout the years, but having so many at once was what had brought him here to the hospital. The guy in the cab hadn't even tried to charge him for the ride, not that he had any money.

With that thought, Harry closed his eyes and continued to think about his horrible day, but his thoughts were interrupted by someone calling his name. Was it his turn already? Harry opened his eyes and started to get up, but stopped when he saw the familiar worried eyes of Arthur Weasley.

“Mis-mister Weasley,” Harry squeaked out as he promptly fell back into his seat. His back burned painfully in protest. What on earth was his best friend’s father doing in a muggle emergency room in Surrey?

“Harry,” Mr. Weasley called again, walking over to him, his body language calm but his eyes worriedly scanning the visible bruises on the thirteen year old’s body. “What has happened to you, kiddo?”

***

Half an hour ago, The Weasleys received a visit from a very concerned Arabella Figg. The children were spending the day with Great Aunt Muriel, much to their displeasure. The woman was not the most pleasant person in the world, but she was family nonetheless and taking into account that she was well over a hundred years old, she required some assistance de-gnoming her garden. Molly and Arthur were just sitting down to lunch at The Burrow when the floo flared to life.

“Molly? Arthur?” Mrs. Figg called, her head appearing in the flames. “May I come through?”

“Arabella!” Molly rushed over to the furnace with a smile. “Of course, of course, come on through!”

“Thank you, dear,” Arabella brushed off her robes and smiled back at her, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. In fact, if one looked closely there was quite a spark of anger showing in those eyes.

“Good afternoon, Arabella, to what do we owe this pleasure?” Arthur asked kindly. The Weasley’s were associated with Mrs. Figg due to her involvement with the order in the first wizarding war, but he couldn’t recall a time when Arabella had simply stopped by for a visit.

“Oh, it is lovely to see you both but this is more than a mere social call, I’m afraid. As I understand it, your family is well acquainted with Harry Potter?”

“Why-yes, yes we are,” Arthur offers slowly whilst guiding Mrs. Figg to a seat on the couch in the living room. Arthur was quite hesitant to discuss Harry Potter with people, even someone as frail and kind as Arabella Figg. It somehow slipped into the Ministry grape vine that Harry was his son Ron’s best mate, and from then on his co-workers and sometimes total strangers on the street would ask him what it was like to be in the presence of one Harry Potter. While Harry was a very famous boy, he was still just a boy and ever since his stay at The Burrow towards the end of last summer, Arthur had stopped seeing him as a celebrity in the wizarding world and just Harry, the shy and kind friend to his children. He had no interest in gossiping about the details of the child’s life with nosy people who didn’t know him and had no interest in his general welfare.

Arabella nodded. “I thought so. I also consider myself to be fairly acquainted with the boy, in fact I used to babysit him quite a bit.”

Molly and Arthur looked at each other in surprise. They were under the impression that Harry was completely isolated from the wizarding world before he got his Hogwarts letter. “Oh, goodness, really?” Molly asked airly. “What a small world!”

“Yes, well, I’ve lived in the same neighborhood as him since he was placed with The Dursley’s. They didn’t seem to enjoy the little tykes presence, so they pawned him off on me quite often… not that I minded, he was a sweet and quiet little boy, my whole purpose for living where I do, but it always saddened me to see how easily they would pass him off to a near stranger.”

“Neighbors!” Arthur exclaimed. The child had lived ten years completely ignorant of the wizarding world yet his neighbor and baby-sitter was a squib? “What do you mean he’s your whole purpose for living where you do?”

Mrs. Figg shifted nervously in her seat. “Oh yes, of course… Professor Dumbledore got me a house there shortly after The Potter’s deaths. He wouldn’t permit me to tell the child anything about his magical heritage. In fact, he wanted me to keep my distance as best I could but he had still wanted someone to watch over the boy and make sure all was well. I reported to him monthly or whenever I felt necessary, which I’ll tell you was quite often... “ She trailed off, sighing. “I suppose I should have tried harder, perhaps gone through the Ministry when it became clear that he wouldn’t take my concerns seriously.”

“Concerns?” Molly probed gently. She herself had many concerns when it came to Harry’s placement with the Dursley family. She had told Dumbledore as much, but he waved her off and assured her that Harry was best off with his family.

“Yes, well… I’m sure you’ve been able to decipher that The Dursley’s are not very kind people, at least not to Harry. They put on quite the show for the neighborhood but it’s clear to anyone with half a brain that things aren’t so perfect at #4. I’ve told Albus this numerous times but he insists that things couldn’t possibly be so bad and while Harry might not be very well liked by his “family”, he is welcome in their house. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve accepted his reasons for years, even when I knew things weren’t well at all…” Arabella sighed again, heavily, and looked down to her hands. “I simply can’t abide by Albus’ say so any longer, the child is not safe in that household. I came to you because I knew he spent a bit of last summer with your family, and I was hoping perhaps you could help him in ways that an old squib simply can’t.”

Arthur stared at her in silent disbelief. He was of course aware that life wasn’t all sunshine and roses for Harry, he knew that the boy was not close with his family, but he never really considered that the child was unsafe in his own home. And Dumbledore allowed this?

“We’ll do anything to help him, of course!” Molly exclaimed, barely sparing a glance at Aruthor’s stricken face. She knew her husband well enough to know that he wouldn’t simply let a child suffer alone when they could help, especially one that had stayed with their family for weeks. “We’ll go to the Dursley’s now and collect him!”

Arabella shook her head. “That’s the thing,” she said slowly. “I’ve suspected physical abuse for a long while, but I could never prove it… there was nothing more than a few suspicious bruises throughout the years. But last night The Accidental Magic Reversal Squad showed up and today a cab pulled up to the house and I saw Harry get in it alone, covered in bruises and clutching his wrist. I can only hope that he’s gone to the hospital, I don’t know where else he would have gone looking like that.”

Molly gasped, her hand reaching out to clutch her husband’s arm. She expected neglect, but she didn’t want to even imagine that Harry was being abused. “We have to find him, poor dear all alone, injured, and who knows what muggle medicine could do to him!”

Arthur could see that his wife was becoming hysterical with worry and made an effort to clear his mind and come up with a plan. He stood quickly. “I- I will search for him, Molly, you stay here. It shouldn’t take too long for me to find him and then I will bring him back here.”

“No!” Molly exclaimed, standing up with him, shaking her head. “I will not stay here and wait around like a helpless housewife, I need to help you find him!”

“Darling, I know that you are not helpless. Someone has to stay here as we don’t know when the children will get back and if they come before Harry, they need to be warned… it will be a quicker search alone.”

It took a moment for Molly to nod, sighing as she admitted defeat. She knew that her husband saw her as more than just a housewife, and they should be practical about all of this. It wouldn’t be good for the children to return from their aunt’s house to find The Burrow empty, heaven only knows what sort of mischief George and Fred would get into in their absence. The last thing they needed was fireworks to go off as soon as Harry was brought into the house.

Arthur gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “Hopefully I won’t be long. Thank you for alerting us to this, Arabella,” he sent a nod in her direction before heading towards the backdoor and quickly walking outside to the apparition point beyond The Burrow’s wards.

Arthur had searched two small hospitals before finding his destination. There in the Surrey hospital’s waiting room was Harry Potter, small for his age, sporting messy black hair and bright green eyes with round framed glasses, but his key features were the only things that looked the same since the last time Arthur had seen him nearly one year ago. The boy was dressed in long sleeved muggle clothing, but it couldn’t hide the sickly looking bruises covering his face and neck. “What has happened to you, kiddo?”