Harry Potter moaned as he gingerly opened his eyes. The sun was glaring down at him and his throat felt parched. He struggled to sit up but nausea swept over him like a plague. The world swayed beneath him although he was already sitting down and he struggled not to spew the wonderful lunch Mrs. Weasley had left them.
"What happened?" he asked aloud.
He sat up and noticed that it was eerily silent. He was still in the Weasley backyard but there was no one to be seen. It only took a moment before fear overtook him. He struggled to his feet and ran into the kitchen and to the clock that Mrs. Weasley kept. She had added Harry's and Hermione's name to the clock ever since Harry got married. Harry knew that Mrs. Weasley secretly hoped that Ron and Herminoe would come around.
He skidded to a stop in front of the clock and looked at it. Curiously enough, all the hands pointed to "home" except for Harry's hand. It was spinning at a constant speed around the clock. He looked curiously at it, almost hypnotized by the constant circling of his hand. Convinced that the clock was broken he listened for the tell tale noise of the twins or perhaps the clumsy feet of Ron, but he heard nothing.
He bounded up the steps and flung open his door, hoping that maybe Ginny was waiting inside but his bed was empty and neatly made. Panic swept over him. The ridiculous clock really was broken. He immediately went to his bedside drawer to find his wand but it was not there.
"GINNY!"
"HERMIONE!"
"RON!"
Panic overtaking him, he shouted the various Weasley clan members while running up and down the house, flinging open every door but it was to no avail. No one responded. No one was in their rooms. No one was there. Fearing the worst, he retraced his steps from the previous morning to retrieve his wand. Almost an hour later, Harry kicked one of the kitchen chairs across the room. It clattered and finally crashed against the wall, making a vicious dent. His wand was not there nor was anyone else's.
Maybe they had to leave and that's why no one was here.
He continued to ponder the several reasons why no one was in the Burrow. He glanced up at the clock again and watched as his hand continued to spin clockwise. He could not figure out why the rest of the hands remained at "home."
Pacing for several minutes, Harry tried to figure out a plan. He immediately tried to Apparate but nothing happened. Harry had mastered the art of Apparition during Auror training. He focused and tried again but all that he had achieved was to stupidly spin in the middle of the kitchen.
He tried it a couple times before sitting down and laying his cheek flat against the kitchen table. He stared at the dent made against the wall while pondering the various questions running through his mind. One question kept popping into his head though; where is everybody?
He stared out the kitchen window and watched the branches of a large tree in the distance sway back and forth. The soft whir of his hand spinning in that never-ending circle was the only source of noise in the strangely quiet kitchen. He continued to watch the branches sway when he was struck with a brilliant idea.
He bounded up the stairs again and flung open the room he shared with Ginny and went over to his closet. After throwing a few dirty clothes (have to wash that) out of the way, Harry found his precious Firebolt. He gathered his Invisibility Cloak and ran downstairs, Firebolt in hand.
He paused for a moment in front of the clock to make sure that the hands were the same when he left. He stepped outside and kicked off, immediately soaring into the air. The rush of wind in his face was comforting. The silence and solitude discomforted Harry in many ways along with his inability to find his wand. Perhaps they had taken it wherever they had gone.
He flew high into the clouds, often twirling and doing wheelbarrows to let out pent up frustration and energy. He gave a yell as he dove quickly beneath the cloud line before pulling up and leveling off in the direction of the Ministry in London.
Harry flew for quite some time as the sun began to descend in the horizon. It was an amazing color of blood red as it dipped beneath the rolling hills of the countryside and Harry felt a shiver pass through him. He could not tell whether his shiver was a cause of the chilling wind or the blood-like shadows that fell across the land.
In his haste to reach the Ministry, Harry did not see that none of the Muggle cars moved below him. He did not see that there was not a single person walking on the sidewalks. He did not see that there was absolutely no sign of life, human or animal, on the ground.
It grew dark and the only thing guiding him were the scatter of lights below him. He recognized here and there the landmarks that would lead him to his destination but thought nothing of the lack of moving lights that were the trademark of the Muggle vehicles. He thought nothing of the lack of noise. He attributed it all to the height at which he was flying.
He wrapped his robes tighter around him as the air grew colder around him. He felt naked without his wand. His only source of defense was not there and he had to rely on the Invisibility Cloak which had saved him so many times. It was during his long flight that he realized that there were quicker means of traveling.
Floo Powder.
He smacked himself in the head for his own ridiculous stupidity. He could hear Hermione's voice in his head now, The Floo Network Harry! It would have gotten you there in a second!
A feeling of disappointment settled in Harry's stomach. He fought to shake it off and focus on his goal. At last, he spotted the tell tale signs of the skyscrapers which lined the sky of London. Several lights were turned so Harry knew it was not yet past the time where no one was at work. He dived quickly into London, fearing the worst. He came to a quiet stop near the dumpsters, eerily reminding him of six years ago when he had come to rescue Sirius. He shook off that feeling and checked to see if any Muggles were around.
There were in fact, no Muggles around. Harry stepped out onto the street and saw that none of the cars were moving. Oh, they were on the street but none of them had their lights on. None of them were moving. Harry could not shake the ominous feelings as he approached a yellow compact car. He looked inside, hoping not to see what he thought he would see.
He had envisioned perhaps a dead body in the driver's seat. The work of the remaining Death Eaters but to his shock, he did not see anything in the car. For a moment, he was struck by the thought that it would be foolish to leave your car in the middle of the street. That slight moment of incredulity passed as he quickly examined all the other cars on the street. There was no one in them.
The pieces of the puzzle were starting to connect in his head. Obviously, the Death Eaters had taken the Weasleys and perhaps all the Muggles in the surrounding area hostage. He had to warn his fellow Aurors. He leapt into the telephone booth and dialed the magic number. There was no soothing voice this time nor did he receive a badge of duty. Instead, the rickety phone booth clambered down with several clanks until he reached the Ministry floor.
Once again, silence was the predominant noise on the floor. All the Floo stations lay dormant while the guard that was usually present was not there. Once again, he felt oddly reminiscent of the fateful night when Sirius died. He wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around him and walked as quietly as he could towards Auror headquarters.
The dominating statues of the wizard and witch were gone. Instead, equal statues of all races stood in a line, staring directly ahead. It was a sign of equality among the races; a new decree had passed over the Ministry since the fall of Voldemort.
He did not dawdle as he quietly crept into the elevator which led him to Level Two: Auror Headquarters. He kept low and expected enemies but when the lift opened, there was no one there. The desks were empty as Harry's footsteps remained the lone source of sound as he walked around. He spotted his cubicle next to Ron's and sat down in the chair, feeling very uneasy.
There was no one here. He stared at the faces of the many Death Eaters he had captured and also at the Death Eaters still at large. Not one of them would be capable of staging such an elaborate plan that kidnapped the whole Weasley family and left not one Auror at his station. There was always one behind in case there was an emergency. The usual whirring of paper airplane sending messages was not there.
Harry leaned forward, his elbows on the desk and rested his chin in the palm of his hand, staring at the picture of Hermione, Ron, and himself. Tears stung his eyes as flashes of Hermione screaming in pain echoed loudly in his head. It was only after a moment did he notice that the figures in the picture were not moving. They stared eerily at him, grins plastered on their faces with Hogwarts in the background. He sat immobile, hoping that the picture would all of a sudden break out into laughter but the Trio continued to stare at him with the same grins on their faces. His eyes looked around his cubicle and noticed that none of the other pictures were moving as well.
Some of the Death Eaters leered at him while others were in mid-scream but they all shared one lonely quality. They were as still as the air around Harry.
"Dammit!" he yelled as he pounded on the desk, causing the picture frame to fall over and sending several leaflets of paper flying around. The feeling of solitude drew once again upon Harry. He had not seen a human being since that loud snap near the Burrow.
He sat up. In his panic and haste, he had forgotten all about the loud snap which distracted him. He replayed the scene in his head. They were staring at the hill in the horizon when they heard a loud snapping noise behind him. He spun around and saw a bright light around the Burrow and blacked out. That was all he could remember.
He replayed the scene in his head, trying to remember if any of them had said anything but the memory was quickly fading from his mind. If only he had his wand. He stood up and began searching the Auror cubicles for a wand. He traveled throughout the Ministry hoping to find at least one wand to extract that memory but it was useless. There were no wands there and Harry was reminded of the fact that there was not a single person in the Ministry of Magic. Once or twice, he thought he saw something but it was only his own shadow.
Someone's always here.
The mere fact that there was not a single person in any of the levels deeply disturbed Harry. Someone was always at the Ministry. One could always find some sort of representative there because after all, magic does not rest.
He wandered for what seemed like hours, hoping to find a trace of a human soul within the Ministry. Once or twice he wandered past the Department of Mysteries but left the door alone for now. He had not entered that door for six years and he was not going to start now.
The court rooms were empty as Harry visited the courtroom where they had found Dolores Umbridge questioning the Muggle Born. He sat in the very same chair she had sat in and surveyed the court room. The room seemed larger when he sat there or perhaps it seemed larger because no one was settled into the benches. No one sat beside him to record the transcript for the hearing. He stared at the spot where he crouched underneath the Invisbility Cloak nearly three years ago. Harry sighed in exhaustion and frustration. It was nearly midnight and he was in square one again. There was no sign of the Weasleys or Hermione.
Still, Harry explored the Ministry, hoping to find some way to detect his wife and his friends. He wandered into the Improper Use of Magic office and sat down; hoping that a paper airplane would zoom in with a report but none came.
Harry sat down in the Obliviator office, hoping that one would come back and complain about some inept wizard or witch but none came. He wandered into the Head of Transport office, hoping to find some poor bloke who had failed his Apparition test but none came. In fact, there had been no activity in the Floo Network or any use of Apparition since 3:23 PM according to the records.
His stomach rumbled in hunger. He had not eaten since that delightful lunch and that event seemed like centuries ago in Harry Potter's mind. He laid his head despondently in his cubicle as he thought of where his friends were. Harry wracked his mind, desperately trying to find a reason for the sudden disappearance of nearly everyone he had seen.
He resolved to go out the following morning at first light and seek someone that could explain what the hell was going on. He reminded himself to use the Floo Network if possible and went down to the dining hall to eat food before retiring to a fitful and uneasy sleep
****
Dawn broke over the horizon in a flash of brilliant orange as the sun ascended to it's rightly place, overlooking the land. There were no birds chirping in the background nor were there any car honks that marked the morning rush hour. Only the shrill of the wind or the creaking of the trees provided any sound.
Harry Potter was dressed in the same robes as the previous day and marked off April 7 on his calendar in his cubicle. He stuffed the picture of the Trio at Hogwarts in his pocket and took the phone booth outside. Hoping to hear the rumble of the car engines or any sort of noise at all, Harry trained his hears for the comforting sound of people.
The sunlight poured into the phone booth as it rose above the ground and Harry was dismayed to see that the yellow compact was exactly as it had been the night before. He cursed softly as he kicked the phone booth several times in frustration. His already witling patience took another blow as the sound of silence greeted him good morning.
Angered by the lack of human life, Harry yelled at the top of his lungs towards the sky.
"WHAT DID I DO? I'VE DONE EVERYTHING EVERYONE HAS BLOODY ASKED OF ME! WHERE ARE YOU?"
His last question echoed like a gong in the buildings surrounding Harry. He could hear his last question being repeated over and over again, assaulting him from all directions. He kicked off his broom and launched into the sky, escaping his taunting voice.
He flew silently over the rooftops and found that it was the same all throughout London. None of the cars were moving. There were no people wandering in their morning commute nor were there any dogs that were being walked. It was empty. For a moment, Harry wondered if everyone evacuated London and clung on to that fruitful thought. He flew around London another time to make sure, sometimes even flying by buildings and checking into the office but it was the same throughout.
As he flew over the river, he was suddenly struck by grief. Exhaustion and depression weighed upon his shoulders and the lack of human contact was driving him insane. He ran a hand through his hair as he sighed exasperatedly. Again, he thought he saw movement but it was only the clouds playing tricks on him. Everything was playing tricks on him at this point, he thought.
Unfortunately satisfied with his trip, he traveled down into the Ministry once again to reform his plans. He took a piece of paper and started sorting the evidence down. He could conclude that London had been abandoned or evacuated. There was no sign of Apparition or any Portkeys since he had blacked out so he concluded that the loud snap and bright light were somehow significant. He continued to write down a list of evidence just as he had been taught in Auror training.
Next, he wrote a series of questions. The first question of course was "Where is everybody?" He wrote as many questions as he could and ended it with one last question, "Where is my wand?" He gathered the papers and stuffed it in his pocket along with the picture. He left a note in Auror headquarters in case anyone became and set off for the Burrow again. Harry moved into his investigation mode. Planning on investigating the scene of his friend's disappearance, Harry took some Floo powder and tossed it into the fireplace but nothing happened. He tried again but failed.
Maybe I'm not so dumb after all.
After attempting to summon a green fire a couple more times, Harry marked that on his long list of evidence and traveled up to the ground to fly off once again. During his flight, he dipped low once or twice to see if there was any activity in neighboring towns or villages but there was none. He had thought of traveling to Diagon Alley but without his wand to tap the bricks it was useless.
Harry landed after some time in the Burrow and opened the rickety gate. A wash of nostalgia swept over him as he thought of Ginny but he quickly forced it down and focused on the task at hand. As he passed through the kitchen, he noticed that his hand was still whirring softly around the clock. He sighed and set out for the backyard.
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Poor Harry, if only he could get his wand