When the World Changed
This story is based on the True Revenge series of stories written by myself and ElfFlame. In honor of this sad day three years ago, I decided to write this. I've always wondered how the magical community in the HP world would have reacted to September 11, 2001, so I wrote it for myself. This story takes place in between De Die In Diem: From Day to Day, and Dragon's Tears, and may not make as much sense unless you have read those first.
The day had started like any other day, but Lucius Malfoy had no idea that it would turn out to be a day that changed the world, for both Muggles and Wizarding folk alike. Adriana was teaching up at the school, so Lucius was taking care of his three daughters. This was her first year teaching, and he was still adjusting to being the primary care-giver for his children.
Two year old Kali had chosen to throw a temper tantrum when Lucius had told her it was too cold outside to practice Quidditch. She'd spent a half hour on the kitchen floor kicking and screaming about how mean he was. During this time, eight month old Teecie had been awoken from her morning nap and screamed in her car seat that Lucius had strapped her in on the kitchen counter to keep her safe and within his eyesight.
Lucius had been attempting to give five year old Reni her lessons, but they'd had to stop during the screaming. Finally, Reni had grown so frustrated that her sisters were taking time away from her schooling time with her father, that she'd started yelling at Lucius to shut them up.
Lucius had finally picked Kali up and carried her to her room where she could scream as much as she wanted without making a big disruption. She'd finally calmed down fifteen minutes later when she'd no longer had an audience, and fell asleep, exhausted from the exertion of her tantrum.
Teecie had fallen back to sleep shortly after Kali's noise died down, allowing Lucius to go back and continue using talking flashcards to help Reni learn the alphabet. Reni was a very bright child, and was doing very well learning her letters and numbers. She could write her name and the names of her family members, with help. Lucius was so proud of her; he was constantly putting her schoolwork on the refrigerator door, for everybody to look at.
Lucius had prepared macaroni and cheese for himself and his daughters that day for lunch. Kali had awoken from her lie down and joined her sisters at the kitchen table. They'd all sat around, eating, talking, and laughing with one another.
The family had spent the next several hours playing in the living room together. Lucius helped his daughters build a fort out of a table, chairs, and a few blankets. Reni and Kali moved several of their dolls and toys into the fort and played quietly while Lucius bounced Teecie on his knee. Teecie laughed and squealed while her father smiled down upon her.
Finally it was naptime for the younger girls. Lucius carried Teecie into her room, set her in her crib, and sang a few songs to her while she fell asleep. "And when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all," he'd sung in a quiet voice while she'd begun to snore quietly. Lucius carefully stood up, kissed Teecie's cheek, and went back to the living room to get Kali and put her down for her nap.
Kali wouldn't fall asleep until Lucius had read her favourite Quidditch adventure book, How Salazar Caught the Snitch. He loved seeing how she always fell asleep with a smile on her face after he read that book to her.
Lucius was in the kitchen cutting up an apple after he'd told Reni to find cartoons on the telly for them to watch as a special treat that afternoon while her sisters slept. A couple minutes passed before Reni trotted into the kitchen. "Papa, there's no cartoons on the telly! All the channels have some movie on. It's weird; it's all the same thing. Maybe the telly's broken," she said, sounding disappointed that the cartoons weren't on.
Lucius walked into the living room to see what was wrong with the telly when he saw the image of a huge building that had a gaping hole towards the top, and was billowing clouds of black smoke. Picking up the remote and flipping through the channels showed that indeed, all of them were broadcasting the same images. What was happening? It couldn't be a movie, not on all of the stations. After a minute, Lucius turned to the BBC, the Muggle channel that would most likely inform him of what was going on.
There was a broadcaster on the BBC who was narrating what was going on. Those buildings, for now there was a second building in flames, were the Twin Towers in New York City. Aeroplanes had flown into them, which explained the holes and smoke. What wasn't known was why.
"Papa, New York City, mummy used to live there, remember? I remember she told me about that city, it's very big," Reni replied, her eyes wide as she looked up at her father. "Papa, is this real? Is this a movie?" she asked.
"This is real, Renata," Lucius replied slowly.
"But what happened? Why did something crash into them?"
"I don't know," Lucius replied, his eyes glued to the telly screen as the reporter was now reporting of a third crash into a place called the Pentagon in the States. At that point in time, he knew it was a calculated attack in order to incite terror in the Muggles. Had it involved magic, it would have made many a Death Eater proud to see such a feat.
"Papa, what's happening? Is this place very far from here? Will something crash into us?" Reni asked, taking her father's hand and leaning against him nervously.
Lucius leaned down, picked Reni up, and held her tightly. "No, baby, this place is very far away from here. Nothing bad is going to happen to us," he said while realizing this was too scary for his child to be watching. "Say, why don't you go play with your toys in your fort? I don't think the cartoons will be on today," he said, setting her down and watching as she ran off to play in her fort.
About twenty minutes later, the telly began to show footage as one of the towers collapsed. Lucius gasped as he saw the building fall. How many people were inside? A few seconds later, another thought hit him: there was a branch of the American Ministry of Magic located among those buildings. It was charmed so Muggles wouldn't know it was there, of course, but would they protect them from a building of that magnitude collapsing next to it? How many people were at risk from this?
Lucius knew Adriana had spent about a decade in New York City during Voldemort's first rise to power, and depending on how old those buildings were, she may have seen them or visited them before. He knew that she would want to know about this. Perhaps it was time to inform her of what was happening.
After another minute, Lucius walked to the fireplace, picked up a small amount of floo powder and threw it down before leaning down and sticking his head into it. A few seconds later, he was looking into Snape's office. Luckily he was there, and able to summon Adriana within a couple minutes. She was in the middle of a class, but had left immediately after Snape assured her it was urgent.
Adriana flooed home in time for Lucius to inform her of what had happened, and to witness the second tower fall. She'd tried to stifle a small scream, but hadn't been successful. "Oh, Lucius, those poor Muggles! They're dying," she cried out while throwing herself into his arms. Lucius held her tightly while she cried. He couldn't keep his eyes off the telly screen. It was absolutely mesmerizing in its utter horror. In a different life he might have cheered on such an event, but now, it disgusted him. Who needed Death Eaters to kill off Muggles when they seemed so very capable of doing it to themselves?
After Adriana composed herself, she flooed back to the school to talk to Snape about it. By now, the Minister for Magic would know what had happened. Arthur Weasley, Minister since the end of the second war, had always been very interested in all things Muggle, and would have been immediately informed of the events that were currently happening. If there was any possibility of the American Ministry of Magic being in danger, he'd know by now if there was anything wrong with it.
Snape flooed to the Ministry of Magic to gather more information on the situation. Arthur told him that he'd formed a team of people to take a portkey over to that American Ministry of Magic branch to offer their assistance. There were a few reports of casualties in the building. Also, several witches and wizards from around the world had been gathered in New York for a conference on Muggle-Wizard relations, and had been visiting the towers that very morning. They'd been reported missing, and no information on their whereabouts or status was known as of yet.
Snape took this sad news back to the school with him and made the announcement that evening at dinner. The students were quite subdued for the rest of the evening as they all tried to make sense of the situation. Reports were flooding into the Ministry of Magic by now, and Arthur was keeping everybody informed.
Adriana returned home that evening to spend time with Lucius and her daughters. After they'd gone to bed, she and Lucius stayed up late to watch the coverage of the attacks on the telly.
Several long days passed before confirmation came that the witches and wizards in those buildings, as well as several squibs, had all died as the buildings had fallen. Arthur and the members of the British Ministry of Magic wore armbands in honour of those dead for a week afterwards as they went about their business.
While that day didn't affect the Wizarding world nearly as much as it had the Muggle world, it had still touched them. It took several weeks for that branch of the American Ministry of Magic to get up and running again.
Lucius looked at the days he spent with his daughters differently after that day. He saw that life, and the time people were given in their lives was very precious, and not to be taken for granted. He knew now that the world could change forever in a minute, as it had that day.