Thanks for the reviews! And sorry Aquaria, but I don't usually write fan fiction romances that are not explicitly present in the stories that I'm writing on. Sorry.



Arthur Weasley stood watching the men from St Mungo's as they finished preparing the Dursley's for transport to the hospital. All three had been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse several times until Dudley had finally lost consciousness and fallen on the older Dursley's, crushing them and knocking them unconscious as well. Mr. Weasley supposed that that was what had saved the family; their attackers must have thought the boy's heart had given out and had killed his parents when he fell on them.

Mr. Weasley chuckled, the boy had only passed out and his father had simply been knocked out when his killer-whale sized son fell on him. His face grew grim again as he remembered the sadder aspects of the Muggles' salvation. Mrs. Dursley had broken her back in the fall and all three were severely injured by the curses themselves. This all made for a predicament that Mr. Weasley found both frustrating and heartbreaking.

Harry Potter was missing from a home that currently had a dark mark floating above it and these people were the only real clue they had to finding him. Unfortunately, until they woke up, the ministry's only hint to what had happened tonight was the dark mark in the sky.

Mr. Weasley sighed, he'd already helped take care of the Muggle neighbors and now he wondered what he would tell his family. Ron would be especially heartbroken to learn what had become of his best friend. Ginny too, she'd had a crush on the boy for years now, though Harry, a typical young man, had never noticed. Molly would be crushed as well, she thought of Harry as another son. For that matter, the entire family had all but adopted him.

"Excuse me," said a young wizard as he toted Harry's trunk containing all his earthly possessions from his room.

"Is that all of Harry's things," Mr. Weasley asked him.

The wizard looked surprised for a moment, "Yes, I think so, but -"

"I'll take them," Mr. Weasley said firmly.

The young man looked uncertain a moment before finally relinquishing the trunk, "Yes, sir."

Mr. Weasley made it home finally an hour later. Ron looked curiously at the trunk his father had with him.

"What's in the trunk, Dad," Fred asked, coming up behind Ron.

"It looks like Harry's trunk," Ron said, a feeling like a boulder settling in the pit of his stomach.

"Yeah, it does," George agreed, his voice taking on the somber note that was beginning to permeate the kitchen.

"Harry? Is Harry here, Dad," Ginny asked coming in, her mother right behind her.

Mr. Weasley looked at his wife sadly as he gently answered his children, "Harry is not here. We don't know where Harry is."

Disbelieving silence reigned in the kitchen for a moment before Mrs. Weasley asked, "What happened, Arthur?"

"Deatheaters attacked his home last night. There's no sign of Harry, but his family is in St Mungo's after having been tortured by the Cruciatus Curse," Mr. Weasley told them.

Mrs. Weasley gasped as Ginny started crying. The twins simply looked dumb-struck as Ron lowered his head so his face wouldn't be seen.

"Is he..." Ron began quietly.

"We don't know," Mr. Weasley answered. "He's just gone."



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Snape hurried to Dumbledore's office, his robes billowing behind him as he walked. Dumbledore had sent him a message that he needed to see him urgently and at this time of the year that could only mean one thing, Voldemort.

He stopped just long enough to utter the password to the stone gargoyle leading to Dumbledore's office and then he was off again. Up the stairs and into the crowded office. Hagrid and McGonagall were already which surprised Snape.

"What is going on," he asked in a surly voice.

"Ah, Severus, you've arrived," came a tired voice that Snape recognized only from 14 years of memory.

"Now will you tell us what is wrong, Albus," McGonagall asked impatiently.

"Yes, now that Severus is here, I can share with you my grave news,"Dumbledore said gravely. He paused and took a deep breath.

"Last night Voldemort attacked again. He killed Arabella Figg and tortured the Muggle family Harry lives with," Dumbledore said. He paused again, as though unsure of how to continue.

"Is Harry dead," Hagrid rumbled in a low voice. His face was white over beard and his eyes were wide. Snape idly hoped Hagrid didn't pick now to have his knees give out, there wasn't enough room in Dumbledore's office for Hagrid to safely fall.

"We don't know, Hagrid," answered Dumbledore. "There's no sign of Harry. There is a sign of a struggle in his room and lower level magic that he might use was detected, but none of the neighbors saw anything that happened. One woke up to screaming, but that doesn't tell us much."

"So the stupid boy's been taken then," Snape said rhetorically, his lip curled in disgust.

Dumbledore simply nodded and watched as McGonagall sat down - in a seat as far from Hagrid as possible. Snape's mouth twisted in a ghost of a smile as he noticed this and wondered if he should do the same. Hagrid now looked as though he would fall at any moment.

"Poor Harry," Hagrid cried, but he made his way over to a chair that looked as though it could him. Once there he hung his head and sobbed, "He was too young to die!"

"We don't know that he's dead, Hagrid," Dumbledore told him firmly. The three professors all looked up at him in surprise.

"You don't seriously think he'd let Harry live," McGonagall asked incredulously.

"I refuse to believe Harry is dead until I have proof," Dumbledore told her.

"But how will we ever get proof," she asked him. "No one who went missing after an attack has ever been seen again."

Dumbledore simply looked tired and sighed, "We will see."

"I'll see what I can find out," Snape told him suddenly.

Dumbledore looked over at him surprised, then nodded. At his nod, Snape swept from the room holding his left arm.

"Stupid Potter. He's going to get us both killed at this rate," Snape muttered darkly as he went to answer his master's calling.

Next Chapter: The Why