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A/N: Sorry for the delay, hope you liked my random new stories though. Please read and review!

Hermione was worried. If that earthquake were natural then she would swallow her wand. Voldemort did something. It was just, no one knew what.

The car ride was silent as she, Ginny, and Ron sat in the back of Mrs. Granger's car. When they arrived at the station at a quarter till eleven, Hermione hugged her mother good-bye and Ron and Ginny thanked her.

Hermione walked straight towards the barrier, intending to remain silent when Ron grabbed her arm.

"Hermione-."

"What, Ron?"

"What I said the other day, I reckon I was out of line, and...I'm sorry."

Hermione said nothing, but looked up at him.

"Can you forgive me?" There was enough plead in his voice to let her know that he had regretted fighting with his two best friends as much as she had.

"Let's go find Harry and try to make up with him as well." They started walking towards the barrier.

"Yeah," said Ron, obviously relieved, "I reckon he really doesn't need us being gits to him, when he's got Voldemort to do that."

Hermione stopped in her tracks.

"What?"

"You just said 'Voldemort!' You've never done that before."

"Oh, yeah. I've decided to call Voldemort by his proper name. I'm sick of all this you-know-who rubbish. I mean Harry's our best friend, so we're bound to meet him sometime, I mean we were in the same building as him when Sirius died."

"You best rephrase that reason. Harry's bound to ask, and I don't think that wound's quite healed, or if it ever will."

Ron nodded, "It wasn't his fault he died. I can't believe I said that."

"I'm sure he'll forgive you. I'm really worried about him, though. He's all alone. I mean, I keep thinking that he'll do something...drastic. He really misses Sirius, and...I don't know, something Dumbledore said made it worse..."

"Let's go find him. Forget prefect duty."

They walked through the barrier onto the platform.

"He must be on the train already." They boarded and walked through each of the carts, searching for their comrade.

"You don't think something happened to him," said a clearly worried Ron.

"What could have happened to him?" asked Hermione in a falsely confident voice, ignoring the million reasons in her head that all ended violently about what could have happened.

"Come on," said Ron, "we should probably go to the prefects' compartment then. He's probably still at Grimmauld Place and coming for the feast... or something"

"Yeah..."

She didn't pay attention at all when the Head Boy and Girl assigned duties. She followed Ron to go find the others. No one else seemed worried about that earthquake. No one except her. It was getting dark. She expected the lights to come on any minute, but it was soon pitch black, and no sign of it changing.

Now people were getting worried. If this were unrelated with that earthquake, she would consume her Hogwarts: A History, along with her wand.

She could barely everyone was sticking their heads out of their compartments. Most of them took their wands out, then fell down.

Confused, she took out her own wand, intending to show those idiots what to do.

"Lumos," she whispered, and fell down as well.

When Harry awoke, it was so dark that he wasn't quite sure if he had opened his eyes. The taste of concrete was in his mouth and it took him a short time to realize why. His mouth had just finished saying the spell when he fainted, and so his mouth was still open when he hit the ground.

His wand wasn't in his hand any more. He felt around in the darkness until he found the slender piece of wood, and then groped along the wall until he could see the door.

Judging by the light outside, it was morning. Since there was no one in the common room, he figured it was the day they would all arrive.

He went to question Dumbledore about what had just happened, or what had happened yesterday, rather.

No one was in the Great Hall. Or the hallways. Or in the staff room. Or in the classrooms. Or apparently anywhere.

"Harry!" he spun around to see Dumbledore.

"Professor, I've been looking everywhere for you."

"We must have been looking in circles. Have you done any magic since the earthquake yesterday?"

"Yes, the torches went out, so I tried to get light from my wand. Then I fainted."

"Well until we figure this out, I suggest you do no more. The hospital wing is booked up from the teachers already."

"But, Sir, what happened?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure, Harry."

"You don't think it was Voldemort, sir?"

"I have nearly no doubt."

Harry's stomach flip-flopped, "But why would he do this?"

"Think about it, Harry. Our strongest defense is through magic. The magic community is a lot more vulnerable without magic. Most witches and wizards are nearly helpless without their wands. Now, run along and go get breakfast."

"Yes sir."

He walked slower back to the Gryffindor tower, and had time to notice things more- like the fact that all of the portraits had frozen. Some of them were in rather embarrassing positions as well. The Fat Lady was immobile as well, so the picture had never closed. He spent most of the day unpacking his things and thinking about what horrors Voldemort could do now, and how there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. Voldemort had practically eliminated his too biggest enemies- Harry and Dumbledore. Harry was in way over his head.

His thoughts were interrupted by loud clamor coming from outside. He looked out the windows to see the threstals pulling the carriages. Figuring it was time to go to the feast, he went downstairs into the Great Hall.

None of the teachers were present, yet. Harry sat down at a seat at the end of the Gryffindor table, and after a few minutes, a group of students started filing in.

"Where's everyone else?" Harry asked Neville as the Gryffindors sat down.

"All unconscious. When it got dark, they all tried to use their wands. It didn't work, they all like fainted or something."

"I know it happened to me too. Who was it?"

"Ginny, Hermione, Seamus, Dennis Creevy, and Parvati are some of the Gryffindors I heard. They carried them up to the empty classroom next to the Hospital Wing. I think they were changing it into an extension or something. They'll be ok, won't they, Harry?"

"'Course they will. It happened to me as well, and I'm alright, aren't I?"

"But why did it happen, is the question," asked Dean who had just came over with Ron. Ron sat farthest away from Harry, but still in their group.

"Do you know, Harry?" asked Neville.

"Well, I talked to Dumbledore for a few minutes, and he reckons it was Voldemort." He stopped to help Neville back into his chair.

"But why would he do that?" asked Neville.

Dean answered, "Because Dumbledore is the only one he's ever been afraid of, and now he's got nothing to fear. Wizards are far weaker without their magic, aren't they?"

Dumbledore strode in, closely followed by Professor McGonagal.

A few first years followed behind. Professor McGonagal placed the three-legged stool on the floor with the Sorting Hat on top. Everyone stared.

But nothing happened.

Suddenly the hat opened it mouth up and sang the shortest song Harry had ever heard it sang.

You should have listened,

You should have seen,

Now you will find out,

How cruel the world can be.

No one clapped.

"It's talking about how we didn't listen to it last year, isn't it?" Asked Neville.

Those around nodded. Nevertheless, Professor McGonagal called out the names of the few first years, and the hat sorted them, though he didn't seem very happy about it.

When they were done, Dumbledore stood up.

"Now," he spoke loudly, "Before you start you feast, I would just like to talk to you for a moment. As you all are probably aware, there seems to be a glitch in everyone's magic. I'm sure you all were expecting an explanation, but I unfortunately do not have one...so, until the times come where as we solve this problem I would like to advise everyone to refrain from performing magic. Until then, classes will obviously be different. Some of the staff members where one of these victims and are unconscious as of a few moments ago. We have alterative learning experiences."

Many of the students groaned as they realized what that meant- bookwork.

"Well, I've nothing else to say but, as always Tuck in"

The food was delicious as always, but even being back at Hogwarts could not make Harry happy...

To Be Continued...