Chapter 24
Something Important Is Missing
Location Unknown
Current Day
A tall form of a man with a pink open umbrella stands upon the tallest solitary rise on the former battle field and he looks around at his surroundings. Looking for any clues at all for what happened on that fateful night over a month ago.
Pushing his hand into one of his many pockets he pulls out a bloody group of papers from within. Unrolling the crumpled mass he looks at them and gently, almost reverently removes an unopened envelope from the top and places it kindly into his inside pocket before returning to the rest of the papers. Reading over the reports of that night from various people he realizes for the first time no one really was able to see what happened that night. Looking around he confirms he is at the right spot, the last place anyone seen Harry Potter alive.
Looking up at the falling sky he knows all evidence of prints will have been washed away, Harry taught him this. "WHERE 'RE YOU 'ARRY," the man shouts out into the darkness. Sitting, more like falling awkwardly to the ground far beneath him the half giant looks around dejectedly as he realized just what a task it is he has set out on. The Ministry has been unable to locate Harry for the last month what make him, Rubius Hagrid, think he can find something the others did not. "'cause I know 'arry's ali'e that's 'ow," he shouts out into the stormy night.
Hagrid looks around again as a flash of lightening lights the night sky, the reports in his large yet gentle hands, say it was raining something bad the night a lot of people's lives ended with the disappearance of someone special to them. He looks around knowing this isn't half as bad as it was that night. With another flash of light something catches the half giant's eyes; Hagrid inhales a deep breath not daring to hope as something reflects the light. Reaching over Hagrid digs his hands into the mud and wraps his large hand around his small treasure.
Pulling his out he looks at the dangling chain and realizes it is someone's tags. Pulling the tags closer to his eyes he reads the inscription on them.
Potter, Harry James
Commander, Special Forces
0-5
No denomination
AB+
As Hagrid realizes the chain in his hands is in fact Harry's dog tags his heart sinks knowing there is only one way for these to be here, Harry is dead. Then Hagrid realizes something he knows very few people know about, something is missing. Putting the reports and the dog tags in his pockets and placing the umbrella on the ground he instantly shoves both of his hands into the wet ground where he found the tags, knowing if one was there then the other must be there as well. After an hour of sifting through the mud he comes up empty handed much to his delight, he decides there is nothing more that can be found tonight. He also realizes his hopes are raised higher than ever before. Harry's other necklace isn't here, and Hagrid knows this other necklace is more important to Harry than these simple tags. The necklace contains his parent's wedding rings and his mother's engagement ring; his fathers can be located on Harry's own finger. A smile appears on Hagrid's face as he stands up and heads to locate quarters for the night.
Hagrid knows Harry would rather part with his dog tags than he would ever part with his parents rings. This one simple fact tells Hagrid Harry was still alive when he was removed from this field, the question is where, did he go where, is he now and is he okay.