Authors note:
This is for QLFC, Season 9, Round 4: It's a Horror Story Out There! (Yay!)
Team: Tutshill Tornados
Position: Seeker
Prompt: Apocalypse
Word Count: 1705
Trigger Warnings: implied death and destruction, bigotry
This was read through beta'd by Tres and SaintEpitah. Many thanks to these wonderful people! Any mistakes are my own! (I also had this beta'd a few days ago and forgot to write a note regarding just who did. My apologies if you did a read-through and I missed you!)
…
..
.
It was 1999, a year after the fall of Voldemort, that rumours began to circulate Diagon and Knockturn Alleys. The families of Muggle-born students were becoming ill. It began with an almost universal cough, a runny nose, and decreased appetite. A new strain of the flu, Muggle-borns explained to the few who asked. It took less than six months for the Muggles' genes to be re-written by a virus none had ever seen before. Food no longer appealed to them, their frames became gaunt and skeletal, listless aside from startle reactions.
As the millennium changed, Hermione Granger led an unprecedented move: she and Poppy Pomphrey, Madam of Hogwarts, had gone to the ICW and appealed for St. Mungo's to work in collaboration with wizarding hospitals across the globe in an effort to find out just what was striking down the Muggles. Those infected had begun to attack others around them with a fierceness rarely seen in civilized humans outside of battle. It didn't matter who it was: everyone was a target. Most victims were killed; many of those lucky enough to be saved soon became feral themselves, eventually succumbing to the virus themselves.
The unparalleled closeness between the two worlds led to unexpected changes in the provincial magical communities. While wizard-kind was secluded away from the rest of the world, Muggles had experimented and invented, expanding exponentially across the globe. In just a few hundred years, they had gone from simple farmers and small towns to sprawling cities. The lack of apparition hadn't slowed them down; instead they had created cars and aeroplanes to travel great distances in large groups. They had delved into science and humanities, teaching their children about religions and cultures and using science to study not only their own genes, but this planets' history and venturing to other planets as well.
Wizarding nations across the globe strove to catch up with their Muggle counterparts, wizards copying and comparing books and passing them along. Libraries grew exponentially, to the relief of Keepers of Knowledge who had long worried about the stagnation within their world. New classes were added to the curriculum, biology and chemistry among them, and Muggle Studies was no longer the easy pass joke of the school. It had been expanded to include actual knowledge wizards would need as they ventured into infested areas looking for survivors. Even Defence saw a massive change: no longer was it mere bookwork or duelling, defending against the Dark Arts and Creatures and nothing else. Students worked on physical conditioning and self-discipline, on teamwork regardless of House or Nation.
In 2001, a Muggleborn student smuggled her younger sister onto the Hogwarts Express, trying to protect the girl from parents that had turned rabid. Unknown to her, the girl had been infected herself. It wasn't until she went on a rampage through the halls of Hogwarts that it was discovered the girl had been bitten, human teeth-marks visible on her calf. At last the Wizarding World had a starting point of the infection.
Five years after Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, the entirety of British Wizarding kind had hoped to be far removed from the long reign of terror they had lived under. Instead, they were embroiled in another war.
It had taken over a year for the disease to be studied, the Wizarding World falling back on itself and becoming even more isolated than after the Witch Trials of the 1600s. Those infected became known as Zeeferi, similar enough to Inferi for most wizards' hearts to clench in fear, but still somehow different. Instead of magic, one could only become a Zeeferi through the transmission of saliva, and it couldn't survive in any with a magical core. If a wizard was bitten, they would become surly and standoffish, much like werewolves right before the full moon. This led to some dark wizards turning on their own, already fragile familial lines fracturing even more and becoming perilously close to dying out completely.
Many of those with dark tendencies took this as proof that Muggles were inferior and proclaimed that this was what Voldemort— and Grindelwald before him— had fought against: the obliteration of the Wizarding World and magic itself due to the influx of Muggle-borns and Muggle influences. Such proponents had passed legislation through the Wizengamot and ICW for the temporary cessation of Muggle-borns being allowed into wizarding schools.
That first year without Muggle-borns had been the smallest class at Hogwarts in written record, more than half of the students across each year leaving empty desks. Nations across the world became divided as Muggle-borns were banned from visiting their families and returning to the Wizarding World, many resigning from their jobs or closing their shops so that they could fight by their families' sides. The economy began to crash, and Goblins were guarding their accounts even more fiercely. As Muggle leaders declared a worldwide state of emergency, so did the ICW.
Hermione Granger used this as a platform to further her fight for the rights of all. It was obvious how much Muggle-borns impacted the Wizarding World now, she had pointed out, using logic to silence the naysayers that pointed out she herself had married a Pureblood. How soon before the Wizarding World would collapse under the loss of magic? Hogwarts itself was already beginning to show signs of crumbling, the past ambient magic of students dissipating, causing the castle to show its age. How long would it be before magical creatures became infected or began to disappear?
Citing Muggle studies of genetics, Hermione fought to completely end archaic marriage laws. Magic was already trembling under the loss of so many potential users. Wards were falling without constant maintenance, no longer able to draw on their surroundings. How much longer could purebloods depend on magic to fix genetic problems caused by bloodlines breeding too closely? Two wizards were credited with shaping the Wizarding World over the past decade: Harry Potter and Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort himself. Both were both half-bloods. Wasn't that proof enough that attempting to keep bloodlines separate wasn't going to work in the long run?
Draco Malfoy had opened Malfoy Manor up as a stronghold for those without homes, much to the disgust of his pureblood parents. His father had gotten a hold of a Muggle religious text, sold on the black market before Knockturn Alley closed, and began to study it. This had been foretold, he proclaimed to any who would listen, by the Book of Revelation. Draco had quickly used his status as Lord Malfoy to restrict his father's movements before he could cause more anti-Muggle damage.
Luna Lovegood followed in her mother's footsteps, spending her days creating charms and curses alike to help her fellow wizards. It was Luna who expanded on aquamenti in an attempt to create a physical barrier the zeeferi had trouble crossing. She had also shown the spirit that led her to be in Dumbledore's army: gathering Ginny Weasley and Hannah Abbot and heading into Muggle cities that were overrun to practice defensive spells until they found the best. Luna's unique way of looking at the world allowed her to combine different magics in the most unexpected ways, and she quickly became one of the youngest spell-mistresses in written history. It was her spells that were credited with saving so many.
Today, on the fifth anniversary of the end of the Second Wizarding War, George Weasley stood in the middle of Muggle Chelsea, his wand in hand, blue eyes straining as he attempted to see through the portable swamps strategically set up across the cracked pavement. Beside him stood Neville, Lord Longbottom after the deaths of his grandmother and uncle, his wand alight with lumos to light the way for the latest raiding party.
Shouting came from further down Chelsea Road and Fred clenched his wand harder, the wood creaking dangerously. "Ready?"
Neville nodded, his wand thrust even higher as a beacon of safety.
Ron Weasley was visible through the smoke first, red hair bright against grey concrete and greyer smoke, pale freckled skin smudged with dirt, ash and who knew what else. Bolts of light shot from his wand as Zeeferi crowded at him from every alley he passed. Behind him, a group of Muggles and Muggle-born followed, bruised and scared as they trudged along lost in a nightmare. Bringing up the rear was Harry Potter, his large magical core and years of training since Voldemort's defeat giving the Man-Who-Lived the perfect training to deal with the hordes of Zeeferi at their back.
Ron paused at the lip to the portable swamp, directing the Muggle-borns into positions of defence as the Muggles themselves crowded near the centre. It had been the strategist's idea to use Muggle-borns in their rescue; they all had at least some training through school, and zeeferi weren't the smartest creatures around, merely going for any human-sized movement or loud noises alike. It allowed them to almost double their raiding parties as groups were brought down to six wizards, each team able to rescue close to fifty people each raid.
Above the group flew Dean Thomas and Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw calling out Zeeferi positions to the former Gryffindor chaser to be picked off one by one. As Ron gave the signal, Neville cast nox and stepped closer to the barrier. A practised flick and the intonation imperium ascendo lifted the first closest Muggle above the swamp with a startled cry, quickly joined by Fred. Fred's efforts were broken by blasting the Zeeferi with aqua eructo and the jelly-legs jinx. Anything more powerful was unusable as it may hit the very people they were trying to rescue. Every ten rescued were given a portkey to the quarantine ward at St. Mungo's and sent away.
As the last portkey left, the portable swamp collapsed and the remaining Zeeferi advanced on the four wizards left standing. They waited, wands held high, until the last possible second before Harry cast firestorm.
King's Road was alight with flames as Cho and Dean landed seconds before the group apparated away.
For once, the apocalypse didn't mean the Muggle one or the wizarding one; they were intrinsically entwined with one another and they would have to fight together.