Life Turned Upside Down
Chapter 3: Lost
DISCLAIMER: Nope. No luck yet.
Pain. Terrible aching pain. That's all he could feel. Not surprising, though. Pain had been all he could feel since………well, he had no idea. But one thing he knew for sure, it was a really, really, really long time ago.
But this pain was somehow different from what he'd grown accustomed to. You could pinpoint where what pain was coming from, where were the tender points, where there was less pain. It could be described as more definite, for lack of a better word. Slightly different from the pain he'd gotten used to since "a really, really, really long time ago", where he'd felt like an iron grip had wrapped its fingers around his heart, crushing it very, very slowly. Like a tear was spreading down his soul, every rip a nightmare. Like being burnt in every direction possible with a substance so hot it couldn't possibly be fire. Like a knife inside him was hacking its way out from his very core.
All in all, as painful as this pain was, it was definitely on improvement. Quite a big one at that. The agonizing burning had decreased to a sensation of being pricked with a zillion fat, sharp needles. That went right into your bones. Through them, even.
He was never complaining about an injection ever again.
Then he noticed something else. There were little spots of light swimming at the sides of his vision. And for the first time since said long period of time, he had a choice, control over something. Not much really, just whether he wanted the light to get brighter or go away. But at least it was a start. And he did that by……..
Opening or closing his eyes?
Strange. He never remembered closing his eyes. In fact all the time he'd always been straining his eyes, wiling them to see anything, anything at all beyond the suffocating darkness, anything. Somehow the black nothingness had scared him even worse than he had ever been.
The lights were fading. his eyes were sliding shut.
No. Nononononononononono. He'd waited too long for this. To see again. Light, light that illuminated darkness. Light that made darkness go away. He had wanted nothing else for as long as he could remember. For the darkness to go away. He struggled to open his eyes.
The light brightened so suddenly it was too much for his retinas to take. His eyes rolled back into his head and he blacked out.
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Albus Dumbledore worriedly sipped his tea, inwardly wondering how on earth he was going to convince Fudge to at least give Harry a proper trial. The way things were going though, Dumbledore thought he would be lucky to see Harry at all before the poor boy was carted off to Azkaban.
Hmm……Wonder if I can blackmail Fudge……
Too bad Lucius Malfoy probably had much, much more blackmail material than Dumbledore would ever get his hands on. And much, much more money as well. You wouldn't believe how far money could go these days.
Dumbledore idly stirred his tea. His mind unhelpfully decided to play tricks on him and rearranged the tea leaves in his mind's eye to look like a Grim carrying a lightning bolt in its mouth. A limp one. Dumbledore gave a start and pointedly looked away from his cup, superstitiously vanishing the tea leaves for good measure.
He eyed the Auror sitting opposite him. Their eyes met briefly, and Dumbledore gave him his best know-it-all smile. The Auror shivered and fidgeted nervously in his seat. Dumbledore grinned to himself. Having had taught nearly all of the current Ministry personnel definitely had its plus side.
Just then, the gargoyles outside his office reported a very angry man waving a green bowler hat was demanding entry. Well, more like screaming at the two "useless lumps of stone" to budge out of his way. Sighing, Dumbledore told them to admit Fudge.
The Auror stood to attention as a furious Fudge stomped into Dumbledore's office. Fudge, however, paid him no mind as he was too busy yelling at Dumbledore.
"DUMBLEDORE! THIS IS GOING TOO FAR! WHERE IS THE BOY? ANSWER ME AT ONCE! BEFORE I AM FORCED TO SEARCH THE SCHOOL!"
"Do calm down and have a seat, Cornelius. Lemon drop? I am sure we can – "
Then it hit him.
"Harry wasn't with his relatives?"
"I'm not in the mood for your mind games, Dumbledore! I want the boy, NOW!"
As Dumbledore began the fruitless endeavours of pacifying Fudge, he didn't know whether to be worried or relieved.
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He didn't know how long he'd spent lying on the stone cold floor, floating in and out of consciousness in between days and weeks. Since he'd found himself here, he'd been pleasantly surprised to find that he did have a few options, like which direction he would like to lie in. Not much, since he'd be overwhelmed by pain if he tried to move too much, but better than having no choice but to endure the pain and darkness like he once had, not so long ago. It hadn't so much been the pain (though of course it had hurt, terribly) than the utter helplessness, the hopelessness of the situation. Usually when there was pain one would grit one's teeth and bear through it. Because you just knew that sooner or later the pain would end, and relief would come. It had to. But in that place, he'd felt like it was useless to bear with it, he couldn't stand it anymore, he wouldn't last much longer. But at the same time there was a feeling of conviction that this hellish place would make sure he lasted forever, and that the searing, blinding pain would last as long as he did – forever. With no break in sight. And it hadn't helped that the only thing that had kept him going on before – his family – had been no more.
All because he failed.
He choked back a sob. They'd been depending on him. He'd promised them; he'd promised he'd keep them safe. They'd trusted him. And he'd failed them.
They would never trust him again. But it hardly mattered, didn't it? Because there wouldn't ever be a next time. They'd trusted him with their lives and he'd failed them.
More tears welled up in his eyes. His body was racked violently with sobs, before he passed out again.
Thunder rumbled overhead and rain soaked his robes as his unconscious body shivered in the cold.
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Panic and chaos reigned in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. A furious, ranting Sirius was being restrained from rushing off to do something rash (like killing the Minister of Magic) by a strained, equally worried Remus. A shouting match was going on between Ron and Molly Weasley, who was trying to forbid her youngest son from going after Harry at once, and it only intensified when Ginny and Hermione joined the match. In a corner, a pair of red-headed twins with identical scary expressions were plotting Fudge's gruesome torture and death. Even the usually calm, collected Minerva was hotly abusing the Ministry.
Albus Dumbledore just sat in his seat developing a headache. Fudge had not been satisfied easily, and even after Dumbledore had sworn under Vertiaserum that he really had no idea where Harry was, Fudge had visited continuously for nearly a week to "discuss matters". So Dumbledore had endured a pleasant week of tedious, pointless meetings. and after that Fudge had stationed Aurors at Hogwarts to monitor Dumbledore's every move for a further two weeks. That was why he had only just notified the Order (plus a few more eavesdropping miscreants) of the warrant for Harry's arrest and the boy's disappearance from his relatives' residence, almost three weeks after the actual events occurred.
Two hours, more shouts and three supplies of calming draught later, everyone had calmed down sufficiently for Albus Dumbledore to organize a search party for Harry. It was difficult as Harry could've covered a lot of ground in three weeks, so the search and to be far and wide. Dumbledore could only hope that they would find Harry before the Ministry did.
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Fudge stood impatiently at a counter while the short woman behind the counter rummaged through her files.
"Hurry up, woman!" he barked at her. I'm a very busy man; I can't stand here all day!"
The woman finally looked up form her files.
"I'm sorry, Minister, there is no record of such a wand currently in use."
"What? That can't be! Dawlish! Are you absolutely sure you got the details right?"
"Holly and phoenix feather core, eleven inches….yes, I'm quite sure these are accurate, sir."
Fudge turned back to the woman. "And are you absolutely sure that there is no record of this wand?"
"I can double-check if you like, sir. Please wait a moment." She began going through her files again.
Fudge didn't fancy waiting in front of the blasted counter for another fifteen minutes.
"I've no time to wait for you to fumble around. I want to see your superior," he demanded.
"Right this way, sir." she said pointing to a door on her left, trying not to sound annoyed. Fudge swept past her into the office, closely followed by Dawlish. The door banged shut and she heaved a sigh of relief.
"Johnson! You are in charge of the registry of tracked wands, correct?"
The Ministry official, Johnson, fell out of his chair at the sight of the Minister himself in his somewhat unorganized office. He tried to kick a few files lying about on the floor out of sight under his desk.
"Yes, Minister, I am. Can I help you?"
"You most certainly can. I need all documents regarding the activities of a holly and phoenix feather core, eleven inch wand, belonging to one Harry James Potter," read Fudge from a piece of parchment Dawlish had handed him.
"Ahh… yes … holly and phoenix feather core….eleven inches….." muttered Johnson, turning the pages of a large, old, fragile-looking index. . "Only one record on page 5013, file XVII. File XVII……."he bit his lip desperately. Which shelf was file XVII supposed to be on?
"Umm…….got it! Shelf A247 (bii)!" He scuttled over to the shelf in question.
It was empty.
Johnson started helplessly at the files and parchment scattered all over the office floor. How was he supposed to search all of those for one particular file?
Dawlish guessed what was going on and mouthed "Summoning Charm" behind Fudge. Johnson's mouth formed an "O" and he smacked his head.
"Hurry up for goodness sake! How much more incompetent can you get?"
Outside, the clerk snickered at the irony of Fudge calling someone else incompetent.
Johnson raised his wand. "Accio file XVII!"
a large but empty wooden file zoomed towards his head, forcing him to duck. Random pieces of parchment from all corners of the office picked themselves off the floor and one even flew in through the window. Soon everyone's sight was completely obscured by flying parchment. Johnson was hiding under his desk, while Fudge could be heard yelling, "What is the meaning of this?" before he got a piece of parchment in his mouth, which effectively shut him up. For a moment, anyway.
Dawlish took advantage of the moment of silence to yell, "Finite Incantatem!"
The papers dropped back to the floor at once.
Johnson avoided looking at the seething, rapidly reddening Fudge and tried again.
"Accio page 5013!"
This time, only one piece of parchment rose. Johnson plucked it out of the air in relief.
"Holly…..phoenix feather…..eleven….ah, yes." He cleared his throat and read, "Holly wood, single phoenix feather, eleven inches from Oliverander's. Has been in use for four years. Owner Harry James Potter. Snapped on the 8th of August 1995 for involvement in murder."
"Dawlish registered what this meant before Fudge did. Snapped…?! His face went pale. "Do you have any other documents pertaining to this wand?"
Johnson shook his head. "No, all other documents are destroyed as soon as the wand is no longer in use, or as soon as the tracking charm expires when its owner comes of age."
"Who on earth told you that the wand was snapped?"
Johnson looked scared.
"It wasn't? But we received notification from the Auror division that Harry James Potter was to be arrested on the night of the 8th of august and that his wand would be snapped on the spot, so we updated our files accordingly."
Fudge, who had only just caught up with the events, turned a dangerous purple colour.
"DO YOU MEAN THAT….THAT WE CAN'T TRACK POTTER'S WAND?"
Johnson looked ashen. "Umm….W-Well technically the tracking charm is still working, so…so the and should still be tracked…………j-just w-we…uh…won't b-be….be able t-t-to receive the um….in-info…information……"
Fudge exploded.
"YOU. ARE. FIRED!"
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for not updating in such a long while, but I did tell you my exams were coming up, didn't I? Still…..I had this ready written since a month ago, actually….I just wasn't allowed to use the computer due to exams. My apologies! Anyways, I've done lots of daydreaming during my exams (hence the unsatisfactory score – I can't believe I was so careless!) so I've got lots of scenes for the next few chapters already. The wait for chapter four shouldn't be too long….would you like a shorter wait and shorter chapter, or longer wait and longer chapter?
Personally I think my chapters' length are quite satisfactory already – though I've seen much longer – just wondering about your opinion.
Oh yeah, and thanks to ALL my wonderful reviewers. A common trait of all fanfiction authors – they LOVE reviews! and I'm no exception. Before you go…..REVIEW!!