Chapter One

"I'm not sure when it happened, I'm actually not sure if London was ever really safe. It was a few weeks back that we started to notice that things were happening that should not have been had the shields been working properly." Hermione took a deep breath and ran a shaking hand through her tangled hair; it hadn't been washed or brushed in days. "There were people that were going missing. At first it was just a few missing persons reports, filed to the police. We didn't think too much of that, people went missing all the time in the city. Then our people started to vanish, people that we had recruited after we sent you here. They weren't high ranking individuals, but that fact that Witches and Wizards went missing brought rise to a red flag. There were a few of us that searched the cities, hours upon hours, days, a week, I think we're still looking for them!"

"Hermione, it's okay," Harry placed a hand on her knee. Her seething stopped; she hadn't even noticed that she was pulling so roughly on her hair.

Nodding grimly she continued, "Well there were people in a panic, nothing good ever happens when there's panic. Nothing gets done and people over look important details. There shouldn't have been people missing, Harry. It should have been impossible for someone to have been snatched from right under our noses. And they were doing it jus to see if they could get away with it. Well things happened that shouldn't have, actions that should have been taken were never carried out. When the shield went down, I don't even know how they did it. I helped put them up…" she coughed. "It was about five days ago that they raided the city. There were hundreds of Death Eaters; some had magical animals to help them find those with magic. Other's had trolls on chains…they were there to destroy. They killed anything they came across. It was a blood bath. I spent all that time on the run. The Order split up into five man teams. Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny were in my group."

Harry's eyes lit up at the mention of Ginny. He hadn't seen her in so long. Hermione noticed the spark and hated herself for what she was going to tell him next.

"Fred and Ginny died. They were caught by a hound. George, Ron, and I split up after that, deciding that it was best to get out of the city as fast as possible. Traveling alone was more effective. I don't know where they are right now; we were planning on meet somewhere close to Berlin, somewhere on the outskirts. Germany was safe, we heard."

Harry, the spark in his eyes gone, was shaking with rage. The information about Ginny…he could only imagine her facing off against one of the hounds. They were giant beasts, twice the size of large wolf, and had sleek black hair and snarling teeth. He had seen one only once before, and it had been dead at the time. It was just before they isolated him in the shrieking shack, he still remembered how terrified he had been seeing the dead creature…he could only guess at how terrified Fred and Ginny must have been.

--

"I need one room please." He pushed a bag that produced the musical jingle of money across the dirty wood bar.

The man behind the bar was round in his face and just about everywhere else. His dirty trousers were held up by suspenders and there was a rag, used to dry mugs, tossed over his shoulder. He knuckled his handlebar mustache and tugged open the synched bag peering inside. He looked up abruptly.

"And who be you?" His voice was deep and course.

"That's none of your concern," the cloaked man pushed another couple of galleons the bar man's way.

"Ah, Mr. Smith," the bar tender struggled to turn around and grab a key, but grab it he did and slid it across the filth of the bar to the hooded guest. "Just up the stairs an too your left."

"Thank you."