Harry sat up in his bed. The evening light gently filtered through his windows illuminating the messy bedroom of The-Boy-Who-Lived. Harry wasn't sure what had caused him to awake. Something seemed off. He reached for his glasses and wand. Though he was still under age he didn't think that would matter too much to anyone like Voldemort and his friends if they had managed to reach him at Number 4 Privet Drive.

Harry's ears strained to listen for the sounds of any threat. Finally, he heard a toilet flush. The sound, however mundane, startled him nonetheless. Just Dudley going to the bathroom Harry realized. He sighed and began checking his trunk to make sure he had everything he needed. He looked out the window at the houses around him. It was the fourth of July, just a few more weeks until his birthday and he could use magic. From there he would continue what Dumbledore had started and begin hunting down Voldemort's horcruxes. He had had little contact in the meantime with Ron and Hermione or the rest of the Order. Most of his contact with the magical world had come from The Daily Prophet and that was hardly a suitable substitute. He could tell that the war was going badly. More and more people were being killed despite the Minister's claims otherwise. With the Order now leaderless it looked like they were being picked off one by one. It made Harry sick to his stomach to think about. He could do nothing about it either. He was still underage and forbidden to use magic. At a time like this you would think that would be the least of their concerns yet all he had heard from anyone was not to leave Privet Drive. Besides that his only contact had been a letter when he first arrived. It had come from Mad-Eye the day he arrived back. He recalled it easily, "Potter, be prepared to leave at any moment. Do not leave your house. Communicating by post is not secure. Do not write back. Do not write anyone. Burn after reading."

After that message there had been complete silence. Harry was starting to worry if perhaps his friends had been secretly killed by Voldemort and their deaths covered up. The thought resurfaced and made him instantly queasy. With great difficulty he forced it down.

When it happened Harry nearly jumped out of his socks. There was a crack and suddenly Dobby was standing on Harry's bed.

"Harry Potter. Dobby is so glad to see you!" The elf greeted him with his high pitched voice. From what Harry could tell Dobby had gained a few more articles of clothing. Now he wore something resembling a Scottish kilt and a child's sweater for some American university. The red and black of the sweater actually matched quite well with the plaid coloring of the kilt Harry thought.

"Dobby! What are you doing here?"

"Shhhh, Dobby is scouting ahead. Is Mr. Potter alone?"

"The Dursley's are still here."

"Is there anyone else in the room?"

"What? look around, where could anyone be hiding?" Dobby jumped off the bed and checked under it. He heard the elf murmuring what he assumed were spells of some sort as he searched around looking in Harry's closet.

"Sorry, Dobby was instructed to be absolutely sure Harry was alone."

"Instructed by who Dobby?" Harry, while glad to finally have contact with the Magical world besides the morning delivery of The Daily Prophet was still surprised at the elf's strange, or rather stranger than usual behavior.

"The Order. They needed a secure means of communicating with you and Miss Hermione suggested me. Your house is under surveillance by the Ministry, the Order, and the Death Eaters and at this point the Ministry and Death Eaters might as well be one in the same. Hold on, Mad-Eye will explain more. I'll be back." And with a crack the elf disappeared again. He returned a moment later holding the hands of Mad-Eye and Tonks. Both had their wands drawn.

"Alright Potter, grab your things. You have two minutes." Mad-Eye growled. His magical eye whirling about searching the house for anyone else. Harry didn't wait to be told twice. He grabbed his trunk and slammed it shut. He reached over and quickly grabbed Hedwig's cage holding it in his other hand. Mad-Eye explained the situation.

"The Ministry has been severely infiltrated. In fact it has almost certainly fallen to You-Know-Who. They've passed ordinances limiting the kinds of magic that can be used around your residence here. No portkeys in or out and no apparating. Their claim is that it will protect you but your mother's charm did that already far better than anything else. Instead it's just trapped you here until your birthday when the charm's main effects of providing you a safe residence ends. Rather than wait around for that though we've decided to get you out early. Thankfully the Ministry and the Death Eaters within didn't factor in house elves like Dobby. By the way, Tonks, secure the Dursleys."

"Right. Wotcher Harry. Come on Dobby." She winked at him and walked out the door.

"Secure the Dursleys?" Harry asked.

"Well we can't exactly leave them. Though they won't know where we're taking you they could still be used against you by You-Know-Who and his lot. We need to take them someplace safe too." Harry heard shouts from downstairs. Uncle Vernon was demanding an explanation and then fell suddenly silent along with Petunia and Dudley.

"What are you doing to them?"

"Dobby is using his magic to put them to sleep. We've prepared a safe house for them on the other side of the world. We're relocating them there. It's better we just move them there first and then explain it. Besides we don't have much time. Are you ready?" Harry nodded. Tonks ran back upstairs tripping and knocking over a lamp at the top of the stairs.

"Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley have been successfully relocated. Oh and the gas has been turned on too." With a crack Dobby appeared again beside them. She moved to the window and looked out watching for any threats.

"Good, now for some fun." Mad-Eye got a twisted smile on his face as he pulled out a small bag beneath his robes. He reached in and began pulling out blocks about a foot long and four inches thick. Harry realized there was an undetectable magical extension charm on the bag as soon as the first one came out. At first Harry thought they were books wrapped in this strange paper.

"What are those?"

"The muggles call it "Composition 4 or C-4 for short." Mad-Eye said as he continued pulling them out. "They're high explosives. Meant for destruction. We normally wouldn't have done this but we received information that the Death Eaters are about to make a move against you. Hence why our time is so short. When they kick in the doors though they'll be in for a nasty surprise." Mad-Eye pulled out dozens of those blocks until he had a stack half Harry's height. Mad-Eye had a sort of twisted smile on his face and Harry realized he had never seen him smile before. It scared him.

"Moody. We're out of time." Tonks said from the window. "They're here." Across the street a dozen or so figures had appeared wearing cloaks and masks. A chill ran through Harry's spine.

"Almost done. Dobby get Harry out of here then come back for me and Tonks," Moody growled as attached a few wires to the blocks. Dobby didn't give Harry time to object. He jumped towards, grabbing him around the chest. Harry grabbed onto his trunk and Hedwig's cage tightly and with a crack he was gone. A moment later Dobby returned alone.

"Ready Tonks? Dobby get us out." Dobby and Tonks grasped Dobby's hand as they were jerked through what felt like a narrow rubber hose. They appeared next to Harry.

Voldemort watched floating in the air across the street as a five of his Death Eaters advanced across the street. He knew Potter was protected by countless charms, some from the Ministry and some from his mother. However, just that morning his coup had succeeded. Rufus Scrimageor had been forced to flee and an Imperiused fool had replaced him. Now with the full might of the Ministry on his side Voldemort could finally act. His death eaters quickly moved through the Magical Britain working to eliminate any resistance. It was so easy. Most of the Order, if there was much of it left after Dumbledore had been killed, remained hidden but finding and killing them would only be a matter of time. At the moment though he had what he needed to move against the real prize. The only one who they said could stop him.

Voldemort wasn't sure what sorts of surprises the house contained but he decided there was definitely the chance Dumbledore had left some protections there without informing anyone. So he had ordered a few of his trusted, but disposable, Death Eaters to go forward and to bring Potter to him. Alive.

The Carrow siblings, McNair, as well as Crabbe and Goyle (senior) moved cautiously across the lawn of Number Four Privet Drive. So far nothing. They had all expected to at least run into some magical barrier before then. They approached the front door. Wands were out. McNair took the lead counting down from three to one. When he reached one he blasted the door in with a hex. It flew in off it's hinges as they all streamed in after it ready to blast away any resistance.

But there wasn't any. There was nothing, nobody was here. And then it happened. Upstairs in Harry's old room sat a 300 pound pile of C-4. Mad-Eye had magically linked it to the charms of the house. Five seconds after someone intending to bring harm on Harry entered the house it would trigger the charges. Tonks had also switched on the gas stoves in the kitchen and blown out the pilot light. The intended effect over time had been to build up natural gas within the house that would add to the explosion. The gas though hadn't had enough time to fully disperse. Not that it mattered much. The 300 pounds were overkill anyways.

Directly overhead the magical charms activated a series of detonators in the charges. Magic and electronics do not normally mix well. Half of the detonators failed to detonate at all. Which is why Moody had hooked up so many. Only one needed to actually fire. As it did it triggered a chemical reaction within the explosives. Composition 4 is composed of about 91% cyclotrimethylene-trinitramine more commonly known as RDX, some polyisobutylene to act as a binding agent and finally some di(2-ethylhexyl) sebacate as a plasticizer. The resulting compound is relatively stable. Sometimes security forces add in some motor oil and 2, 3-dimethyl-2, 3-dinitrobutane to act as a chemical marker. This particular batch lacked that as it's makers wished to remain anonymous.

That only half initially detonated did not matter. The neighboring detonations provided the energy to detonate them. The shockwave expanded at a rate of over 8 kilometers per second. Harry's room was locate almost directly overhead the front door. As the shock wave expanded outward spherically it crushed the floor underneath it. Wizards are normally a bit hardier than regular humans. Nevertheless, the Death Eaters inside never stood a chance as the shock wave descended downwards upon them. The compression of the air, as well as the energy from the explosion itself heated the space to a temperature of over two thousand degrees. The combined pressures and high temperature crushed the death eaters and incinerated them. Investigators later would only be able to locate fragments of charred bones.

Across the street the force knocked the observing Death Eaters back about 10 feet. Lucius Malfoy would later recount the event to his wife saying that it felt like being kicked by a hippogriff all over. The blast took Voldemort by surprise too as the shock wave forced him back and almost knocked him out of the sky. What was that? Had one of those fools blasted a curse at Potter? Had Potter blasted a curse like that at them? He had ordered them to take him alive. He looked down at the remains of the house. Little remained of the structure and what did was on fire. He could see nothing recognizable. Not even his Death Eaters. What magic was that? He looked down at his surviving Death Eaters. They staggered to their feet. One of them had been impaled through the gut by what looked like a metal pipe.

Lucius noticed as one of the Death Eaters, Thorfinn Rowle looked down at his chest in shock. Blood was pouring out of him. His hand shook as he tried to cover his wounds but he couldn't, the blood just continued out of him. His mask itself was cracked in multiple pieces. It appeared as though some of it had embedded itself in Rowle's cheek. The sight was truly ghastly.

"H-h-help." He managed to get out before collapsing. Malfoy himself felt nothing but inescapable panic. He saw Rowle's cry for help but heard none of it. The world appeared to be moving in slow motion and a loud ringing filled both his ears. He reached up and felt his face. Half his mask too had been blasted away, thankfully his face didn't feel injured. His hands shook. He tossed the remains of his mask to the ground. He had to get out of here. He couldn't just run though. The Dark Lord would never forget such an act of cowardice. Thankfully he had the perfect excuse laying just before him. Malfoy grabbed Rowle and appararted him to St. Mungo's and was gone in a flash. He wasn't sure if they would be able to help but he didn't care. He just needed to get out of there fast. Apparating hurt far more than usual. Malfoy would later realize he had several broken ribs and a broken nose. Everything was hurting and apparating only added to the pain.

The other Death Eaters too were in bad shape. Voldemort landed in the street. His black cloak clinging to him like smoke as he observed the scene. Was Potter dead? No one could have survived a curse with that power. But what if he wasn't there to begin with? According to the Ministry's information Potter had last been tracked as entering there and had not been observed, by magical or other means, to have left. So what had happened? Voldemort turned from the ruins.

"Bellatrix," he hissed.

"Yes my Lord?" Blood was flowing from a gash across her forehead. She held her left arm close to her in pain but was clearly doing her best not to show.

"Figure out if Potter was here and if not, find out where he might have gone."

"Of course my Lord," she replied shakily. Voldemort hardly noticed. He was too concerned with the whereabouts of Potter.

"I want him alive do you understand? If I find out one of those foolish Death Eaters has caused this mess and killed Potter…" He glared at her. He didn't need to finish the sentence. Bellatrix herself had never seen something like that. At first she had assumed the Dark Lord himself had seen Potter from up high and blasted him away in a most spectacular curse. Now she realized something else had been the cause of that and she felt the cold, familiar chill of fear like the sorts she endured in Azkaban for years. Only this time there were no dementors around.

"I will at once my Lord." Voldemort departed. What did that was magic he had not seen before. That meant either Dumbledore still had some tricks up his sleeve or there was a new player on the field. Each needed to be fully considered.