Chp 20: Next Steps

After Hippocrates left Adam tucked into his food, absolutely devouring the meat pie, finishing it off he went to start on the tripe. Taking a bite he cringed before spitting it back onto to his plate.

"Jeez get some table manners Adam, I've seen great unclean ones eat with more decorum than you" said Calcifer judgementally.

"Let your taste buds eat this then" he shot back chasing the rest of the trip around his plate with a fork.

'That's disgusting' he said aloud.

Clank, Clank, Clank

He heard the sound of an object clanking down the hallway from outside the room he was within.

The doors swung open exposing a grey-haired grizzled man, whose face looked like had been roughly carved from wood. But most striking was the magic eye spinning in its socket and the peg leg he clanked in on.

Beside him were two women one was an older woman with chocolatey brown hair an wide caring eyes, whilst the other was younger though with a noticeable resemblance to the older lady If one ignored the luminescent pink head of hair.

'Wosit, kid how you doing, you looked to be in pretty rough shape when I found you' beamed Nymphadora.

'You were the auror that rescued me and brought me to the closest apothecary'.

Nymphadora let out a little laugh this is the hospital the apothecary is down the street but no bother, I was just doing my job.

'Tonks we were here on official ministry business let's get to the questions'.

'Yes Nymphadora, behave' said the older lady.

'Mum, I told you not to call me that'.

'But it's a lovely name'.

'Wish you had said that to all the 16-year-old boys at Hogwarts' replied Tonks huffing.

Moody ignoring the bickering mother and daughter pair turning to Adam.

'So your name is Adam is it, my name is Moody the bright-haired one just goes by auror Tonks and that's her mother Andromeda Tonks who's been kind enough to look after you for a few days after hearing about your situation. Whilst we track down your guardian'.

'Its good to meet you Sir'.

"I feel sorry for this lady she's going to end up stuck with you" said Calcifer in Adam's head.

'So laddie, tell me what happened in the forest. It looked like a dragon had gone through the woods like a whirlwind' asked Moody.

'I don't remember being in any forest, I just remember blacking out after something with wings caught me' replied Adam truthfully.

'Hhhmmm .... You must be the luckiest boy in wizarding history if you got picked up by a dragon and just got left behind.

"Hey Calcifer now that I think about it why didn't Skarbrand kill me when we appeared".

"Honestly, I think he was just hit so hard, he suffered short-term amnesia, I can only rely on your sense and your eyes were closed but I heard Skarbrand flap off and a bunch of screams, seems like some cultist got more than they bargained for. Though lucky for you, he seemed not even to care, going after the group as more skulls are better than one you know how it is, but you have to give credit where credit is due".

Moody was in deep thought, "The kids not lying, at the very least he believes himself, I guess he's lucky to have not seen it".

'Well, that's all I really wanted to know, our priority right now is working out why a dragon attacked'.

Moody turned on his one heel and clanked back out the way he had come

'Stay out of trouble kid' he called as Tonks scrambled after him.

----

As they left the room Andromeda turned to him smiling.

'I'm Andromeda and my daughter the intrepid auror, asked me to look after you for a little while, whilst they look to contact your guardian, let's get you up and out of St Mungo's.

Andromeda helped Adam out of the bed and onto the ward's varnished herringbone oak floor.

Seeing him in hospital gown, she inspected him up and down.

'Ahhh dearie me you'll need new clothes as well, we better buy you some on the way'.

'Tempus'

4:20

'Come we don't have long till Madam Malkins closes' and I'm sure you don't want to be stuck in a gown till next Monday'.

Following after Andromeda who was telling him all about the room he'd be staying in and her lawyer husband, down several flights of stairs they reached the ground floor and walked up to the a service counter.

'I believe we have some belongings to collect under the name Adam' she said to the man.

'Aaarrr yes Adam, I saw you come in I was worried you almost wouldn't make it, it's good to see you on your feet so soon young man's.

Grabbing a sac from behind him he handed it over.

'I'm afraid we've not returned your clothes as they seemed to just to be strips coming off you when you came in. But there's the knife you came in with, now you be careful with that though and a little souvenir we extracted from your leg a strange bony thorn, we almost threw it away but I find that keeping a memento of an injury helps us not repeat them.

"That's wraith bone, that is" said Calcifer.

'Thank you for everything ...' said Adam.

'Don't worry kid this is what makes the job worth doing it's Omar by the way'.

Adam and Andromeda left St Mungo's passing through a few side alleys before finally coming into the gobsmacking thoroughfare that was Diagon Alley.

'Wow' exclaimed Adam.

----

Location: Department of Magical Law Enforcement

'So he knows, nothing'

Amelia Bones, sighed.

'Not that I can tell and we have no evidence that he was anything but a victim of the incident considering his injuries and the memories retrieved from the muggle survivor as such we have no legal right to demand he respond under veritaserum or has his mind read, nor does the boy deserve to go through further trauma' replied Moody.

'Well we need to find out what that creature is, send an inquiry down to the down to the

Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as to whether they have records of such a chimaera' ordered Madam Bones.

As he was leaving out the door of her office.

'His eyes' said Moody throwing the comment behind him as he went.

'What about them' replied Madam Bones.

'They remind me of my teachers when I was a young lad in the auror academy, the ones who were veterans of the war with Grindelwald'.

"Now that's interesting' pondered Madam Bones, "There have been no wizarding wars in your living memory, a muggle one perhaps".