Disclaimer:I Do Not Own Harry Potter.
Written for Beat the Boss Challenge
Warning: mentions of character deaths.
Prompt: Honeydukes
There is only rubble left. From Honeyduke's to Zonko's. The attack and the viciousness was a surprise. No one can deny Lord Voldemort is back or that he has an army more than capable crushing those that get in their way.
Twelve children died, thirty-three adults as well. Forty-eight injured. None of those children dead or injured were the children of Death Eaters.
Some of the funerals are being held today once all of them are over that's when all the trouble will begin. The search of who let it happen.
The Ministry is a few weeks away from crumbling, Dumbledore is missing, and Harry Potter is in a coma.
There's no hope it's like the war picked up exactly where it left off the last time, but worse because people have had a taste of life free from fear and Voldemort.
At least last time places like Hogsmeade weren't targeted often and they were it was never on a day packed with Hogwarts students.
The rules have changed from last time now it's perfectly acceptable to target a place where children are buying their favorite sweets.
Nothing and no one is safe this time. That's the message behind it all, no one is off limits this time around.
St. Mungo's is attacked during the night. Harry Potter is dead and long with several other people.
No one really expected the boy to make it, but it destroys the tiny ray of hope that some had.
The message is clear to everyone, fall in line or suffer the same fate.
So people begin to slowly do just that.
They don't want to die or their families to die.
There are whispers that Dumbledore is out there somewhere trying to gather enough forces to take Voldemort and his army on.
Some believe it and others don't, but it doesn't matter either because Dumbledore isn't going to kill them or their families if they don't fall in line.
Lord Voldemort and his followers have no problem killing anyone or anything who refuse to do what they want.
In the end, people will always follow the man who will kill them rather than the man whose in the right.
After all, what good does being on the right side do you if you or everyone you love is dead.
It was a brave and noble thing for Dumbledore and his small group people to try fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It's also foolish because one by one they fell, all but Dumbledore.
No, he's alive, locked away in a cell created by some of the smartest minds in the Wizarding world.
He's a symbol of what happens to those who fight back. A constant reminder that there is no hope.
It's hard to decide who people resent more the people who cause them pain or the people who couldn't save them from it.
The Death Eaters are like children without Lord Voldemort. They cause chaos wherever they go, and it's bad news for everyone else.
People hate Voldemort more than they can voice, but when he leaves the County to go abroad they miss the order and some sort normality.
It's quickly established that him leaving the Death Eaters in charge is a way to punish the population.
If you don't want houses burned down, dead bodies laying stinking in the streets, and your children safe then the answer is simple; kneel before the only man that can control the chaos.
If you keep the hatred out of your voice and eyes about it all then you walk away from it all pain-free.
Everyone knows that everyone has caved in and accept that this is the way things are. Sure, maybe in the middle of the night when they are alone they dream that someone will come along and save them, but by morning the thought is gone.
They have no hope or anything to look forward too, but they still have everything to lose.
There's more rubble, more bodies, and more grief. No children were killed or hurt this time, but they were forced to watch the destruction take place.
A handful to spread the message to the younger generation like your parents and grandparents you will no as you're told. And one day you will tell your children to do the same.
Some of the children have seen so much violence that seeing more means nothing to them. It's a fact of life they have accepted.
Sadly they're the ones who will day willing take the dark mark. Not because they believe in a cause, but because it's what is accepted.
The one's that watched with horror and disgust will most not likely take the dark mark one day, but they will abide by the rules like their parents do.
They too have accepted the way life is in their own way.
The next generation follows the ways of the previous one because they do not know what else to do. Because fear is one of the things that link everyone of every age.
Fear more than love.
It's raining. The streets are clear everyone inside after a long day of burying the dead.
Some dream of the horrors they have seen and others dream of the world that slipped through their fingers.
In the morning the world will be the same terrible place it was the day before. A hopeless place where death is always present.
There are no heroes rising from the ashes or ruins.
No hope to get them through the fearful days or terrifying nights. The world is what it is and they have accepted it because there was nothing else they could do.
Because what's the point of fighting beside a man whose right and risk dying when kneeling before the man whose the cause of it all is easier.