A/N: Despite my better wishes, Harry Potter is not my property. The works are the genius of J.K Rowling, and she owns the rights in full - but of course I do not need to tell you that.

Missing Muggles

It was midnight before Harry woke up again. His head felt different, a great energy was lifted off his shoulders. It was one of those rare occasion where Tom was silent, Harry almost felt relived. He lay on the ground for a few minutes, sitting on the cold stone of the castle, slowly breathing and taking everything in. It was pitch black dark outside, and he could see that the moon was no longer on the corner of the window where he had previously seen it, he had moved a fair deal up into the sky, so he assumed that he had been knocked out for a while.

The book he was reading laid on the floor in front of him, shut. Harry didn't remember closing it, but thought nothing of it. A book closing on its own wasn't exactly the strangest thing to happen in Hogwarts, it was on the verge of normality.

He definitely didn't feel physically unusual. No superhuman strength. Somewhat relaxed, like everything was better in the world. Much of the hate inside of him had almost been removed.

Get up idiot. Tom spoke frustrated

"There we are." Harry whispered before gathering himself to his feet. Just when everything was good in the world, Tom speaks. "What exactly happened?"

We blacked out after the ritual, that is normal for a first timer. Tom admitted, you did well.

Harry let out a slight embarrassed smile, "thanks Tom."

To the dormitories.

Harry was sitting beside Draco at breakfast on Sunday morning, two days after the ritual. They were anxiously waiting for the Daily Prophet to arrive. Imogen was talking to some of her other friends, but Pansy was talking to Harry and Draco. No one else knew about the contents of Harry's first entry, except for Draco and Harry. Dumbledore certainly was not expecting it, and this calculated risk could go very badly for Harry

All this worrying was too late though, Harry knew it would be published.

Hundreds of owls flew in from the ceiling all carrying the one item, the Daily Prophet. Two beelined for the pair, and landed a newspaper in front of Draco and one on Harry's now empty plates. Harry observed that Dumbledore also received this copy.

Harry looked down at the headline in bold in front of him.

HARRY POTTER DEMANDS ACTION TO RESCUE MAGICAL CIVIL LIBERTIES

The young wizard is calling for the removal of punitive regressive government interference into the lives of families, for unnecessary governmental departments to have budgets cut and powers restricted, and to reduce the size of government. Read the full opinion piece, our analysis, and the full story on pages 4-5. Related to this story on page 6, Lucius Malfoy, chief advisor to the Minister for Magic, and member of the Board of Governors of Hogwarts, pushes for legislation cutting the DMLE budget and powers, tax breaks for businesses, and the introduction of Dark Arts to the curriculum in Hogwarts. On page 9 we discuss with expert Quirinus Quirrell, Professor at Hogwarts, about the potential impacts of this and how a more extensive knowledge of Dark Arts might be a good thing.

Harry looked up to see Draco's chuffed face, he was grinning. The entire hall had turned silent, everyone's minds were transfixed on one thing. Some were reading it with modest approval, especially down the Slytherin side of the hall. A handful of Ravenclaws enjoyed the piece, the rest not having a clear opinion from their face, but almost every other student in the hall held it in contempt. The entire teaching table, and in particular the Headmaster Dumbledore, were well trained in remaining completely neutral and reserved as they read the piece. Dumbledore was first to flick the page straight to page four, McGonagall and Snape next, and with pace the student populace turned over too.

Harry was reading the analysis with great interest, most of it was positive. Harry made a mental note to find out more about the readership of this newspaper, its leanings, and the ownership structure. It transpired that the Minister for Magic had been looking to cut business taxes for quite some time but was lacking the votes to confidently change that budget matter – or being able to determine where he cuts to public expenditure would come from. This piece seemed to give him a lot of much needed leeway and authority in doing so.

Harry noticed that the Headmaster put the newspaper down instead of continuing to read further onto the messages from Lucius Malfoy. He seemed jolly enough however, as he continued to finish his breakfast whilst talking to Professor McGonagall. Not once did he take the time to look down to where Harry was sitting, he could see everything from the corner of his eye. Harry always took the advice of Tom's quite carefully and seriously: never look into the eyes of Dumbledore. He could read the mind of almost anyone instantly, and there was much too much risk in doing that before Harry was able to build up a strong enough barrier to resist. Not that Tom would seriously think Dumbledore would invade the privacy of a younger student, truthfully it was an unnecessary risk to take on – nothing to gain from looking into Dumbledore's eyes.

Severus on the other hand seemed to be rather busy, he was wolfing down the breakfast before him whilst reading. Yesterday was not as eventful as he had hoped; when he knocked on the door of the Dursley's the previous day, they didn't answer. The cars were on the driveway, but the house, from the outside, seemed rather bare and empty. No movement inside, he couldn't even hear the sound of the television on. Piles of letters were on the floor at the entrance of the house. When he talked to Mrs. Figg, she seemed to be blissfully unaware of anything suspicious in the area and attested to Harry Potter being perfectly normal with her. Although she did admit that the Dursley's rarely sent the boy there, she talked about how he had a lot of initiative and independence from an early age. She talked kindly of him, which was rare of her ever doing. In truth, Mrs. Figg didn't think highly of anyone. It was not a kind life, being a squib.

The last day that she remembered talking to Harry was the day he got his letter, and she told him what happened that evening. She told Severus that he did not have prior information about the school and confided in her because he did not trust to tell his Aunt and Uncle. She happened to agree with Harry's conclusion. She was no expert in psychology, but that family was not normal – and it was to great surprise that someone as bright and warm as Harry would be able to survive such a traumatic childhood. This description worried the Professor, she almost sounded like the victim of terribly powerful confundus charm. That, or Harry was terribly charismatic.

So, the Professor was determined today to find out where they were exactly hiding. To find the location of the family. His first plan would be to ask Harry and to see if he knew anything about their location, the next would be to alert the charms professor, Professor Filtwick, who was an expert at location charms. With one of those, he would be able to track down the whereabouts of the family rather quickly.

"Good morning Potter," the Professor drawled behind the young boy.

"Professor Snape," Harry sounded surprised.

"I was wondering if you had heard anything back from your Aunt and Uncle since you left?" The Professor began with his line of questioning.

"Nothing Professor, is there something the matter that you need to contact them?" Harry tried being helpful.

"Not particularly, it is normal for students who come from non-traditional backgrounds to have a quick home visit from their Head of House after a week." The Professor lied through his teeth. He decided to reword the question: "So you've had absolutely no contact from them since you left with Professor McGonagall?"

"Exactly Professor," Harry spoke after he sipped from his orange juice. "Although I wouldn't worry about contacting them Professor, they aren't exactly worthy of anyone's time."

"I'll decide who is worthy of my time, Mr. Potter." The Professor advised the boy before heading off without saying goodbye. He left a pensive boy who was left staring at his breakfast, not eating.

Crabbe and Goyle strolled up to table for breakfast. They sat on the end of the table, away from the rest of the group. Chatting amongst themselves.

"Draco?" Harry asked breaking the silence from the group. He spoke with a sense of genuine curiosity, "how did you manage to get minions?"

Draco pulled a rather smug face. "Well, firstly I got sorted into Slytherin…"

"As did I," Harry reminded. "Yet I don't have a couple of imbeciles following me around as my muscle."

"There was a contract signed many years ago, their fathers owed mine quite a lot of money." Draco drawled. "Lucius decided to give them a little bit of reprieve in exchange for some… loyalty." Draco hinted rather sinisterly.

"How much would I have to pay you, Pansy?" Harry laughed.

Her eyes met his with a sharp gaze, but playfully she kicked him under the table and smiled. "Shut up Potter."

"Oi! Easy!" Harry managed to recover himself.

"Anyway," Milicent Bullstrude moved the topic on. "It's a Sunday, which of the mudbloods is it today?"

"The dorks are getting a little bit boring, honestly." Theodore Nott responded. "How about some of the Hufflepuffs?"

"Good thinking," Pansy nodded her head. "How about Boot?"

"I can't find them." Professor Flitwick spoke solemnly.

"What do you mean you can't find them?" Severus spoke with anger.

"I'm getting nothing." He replied

"What can this mean?" Severus spoke with a hint of worry. The first time that Professor Filtwick picked up worry from Severus' tongue.

"Well, truth be told I have never tried to find a muggle before - maybe that is the problem?" The Professor was completely puzzled. "I would need to do some sort of experiment to find out if that is the case, but I honestly do not have the time at the moment Severus to be exploring these matters - unless they truly are the Headmaster's wishes."

Snape looked at the wall for a moment, strangely not feeling better. "And if it isn't that?"

"Well… they are hidden where my magic can't find them, Harry's childhood protection might be hiding them, or… they are… well…"

"Well what?" Snape snapped impatiently.

"Dead." Flitwick swallowed.

A pit grew in Severus' stomach. Unless by some tragic accident or muggle, it wasn't the latter. Lucius had assured him that, despite his best wishes, he had stayed clear of the muggles of Privet Drive. He took him at his word. McGonagall had said they were perfectly normal when she left with Harry, and she had not returned afterwards - they were everything she expected them to be. She had instead wrote a letter to tell them of the situation, to inform them that Potter would not return. The very same letter that Severus picked up, unopened, from the mat alongside the huge pile of letters that were untouched.

So it seemed to the Snape that the last time anyone occupied the property was the day that Harry Potter left.

A/N: Hope that was ominous enough for you. Get ready for the next one.