I forgot to put a disclaimer in the last chapter, so here it is:

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter charicters or Universe.

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A worried Ronald Weasley apperated in a grassy front yard of a fairly good-sized house. He didn't know how much time was left before the bombs started falling but he knew it couldn't be long.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Ron's 4-year-old Daughter Mavera (May) Weasley ran over to his father. "When's mommy coming home?"

Ron's anxiety almost came to a bursting point when he saw his little daughter outside when impending disaster was so near. It was all he could do to keep from yelling at her to get back inside. Instead, he said, "She'll be home later, dear. Now get inside, it's dangerous out here."

"Why, daddy?" May asked. She was a very inquisitive little girl, but Ron could not possibly explain all the details to the four-year-old, something that was common in Ron's daily experiences as an Auror in the middle of a wizarding war.

"Just, something's about to happen. Something bad." Ron said.

"What, daddy?" May asked. She would never give up until she got an answer. But Ron could not spend all day explaining this.

"Please," Ron said. "It's going to get very hot and the air might turn bad."

At that very moment Hermione apperated about five feet from Ron and May. She had a look of exasperation on her face.

"Oh, Ron," Hermione said. The two of them moved together and hugged deeply. They exchanged a lip kiss before pulling away.

"How did securing Leeds go?" Ron asked.

"It was terrible." Hermione said. "The spells we used were really tough even for the strongest of us. It didn't help at all that there were paniced muggles all over the place asking questions about magic, about the nukes, just panicing."

"Well, there's just one family we have to keep safe now." Ron said, putting his hand gently on his daughter's shoulder.

"Yes," Said Hermione wearily, tears started forming in her eyes. "But all the muggles, and everyone..."

Ron let his wife sob into his shoulder. "There's nothing more we can do for them." Ron said, patting Hermione's head. "We just need to protect our own family. Now, I have to start the spells that will protect our house."

Hermione understood and pulled away from her husband, standing next to her confused daughter. Ron walked over to the house and started to gather the power in his wand needed...

...when suddenly the evening lit up like high noon. Not just that bright, but even brighter. A second sun was rising in the north. Brighter than the orriginal sun and expanding every second, sending it's distuction waves out.

"Hermione! May!" Ron shouted over the growing din that was beginning to enveloup them all. "Stand near me! I can protect us, it's the only way!"

Hermione moved over to Ron and May rushed over clutching her mother's leg in fear.

The shockwave was thinning as it aproached but would not be thin enough. It would take a lot of power to create a hole in it. The sound filled their ears to the point where they could almost not hear at all.

As the shockwave tore across the forest, Ron pointed his wand forward and shouted a spell. A jet of blue light shot out and expanded to form a mushroom-shaped sheild that surrounded the family and extended some twenty feet before them.

All at once, the shockwave met the sheild. It instantly pushed the shield back ten feet an pinched it's edges. The winds rushing past the shield was intense, threatening to rip the sheild apart. They were not even aware of their house being reduced to rubble behind them.

Ron's wand arm shook ferociously as he struggled to maintain the shield. He used more power now than he ever had in his life to keep the shield up. In fact he used all the life energy he could find. Every ounce of strength he possessed was focused into just keeping the sheild up.

It seemed like ages. The wind roared for what seemed like hours, occasionally tossing derbies dangerously close to the family. Finally it started to die down. The roar died down to a whisteling howl, then abated further. The sheild was weekening faster and faster as Ron started to loose awareness.

The wind was now just a breeze. The shield was not only a few feet wide and very feeble. Ron's arm started violently as the shield flickered and then died. At the same moment, Ron collapsed, falling into the ground in a heap.

For a minute Hermione just stood with her ears ringing. All around her there were signs of destruction. Every single tree had been blown over and the leaves had been blown clear off and partially disentigrated. Where their house had once been there was just a foundation with scattered debree inside and behind it.

Then Hermione saw Ron. He was on the ground, not breathing. She bent over him and with quavering hands felt for his pulse.

She couldn't find it.

Harry couldn't belive it...the Ministry of Magic...gone? Does that mean London was gone as well? Harry tried apperating to other familure places: Diagon Alley, platform 9 ¾, his old flat, even Big Ben...but nothing. It was all gone.

Harry desperately thought of other places to apperate too. The Burro. Gone. Hogwarts—but he couldn't apperate there anyway. 4 Privet Drive, even. That was gone too. The graveyard where Cedrick died...even that was gone. In desperation, Harry saw the yard outside Ron and Hermione's house and a second later he was there.

Although the yard itself existed it was unrecognisable. Intead of a tidy little clearing in the middle of the woods with scattered toys of a four-year-old there was nothing but upturned trees and debree everywhere.

But there was a very small patch of land that was untouched. Lying in the middle of this was Ron. Dead...or what? Hermione was kneeling over Ron's body, weeping into it. Little May just stood by confused and terrified.

Harry walked over to Hermione and put his hand on her shoulder. Hermione looked up at Harry weekly, tears streaming out of her eyes.

"Did this happen protecting you?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded weekly. Harry pointed his want at Ron and muttered a quiet spell to check for his life force.

"He's alive." Harry said. "But barely. It's going to take a while for his life force to come back fully. We need to get him out of here. We all need to get out of here. We might not feel anything yet but the radiation will start making us seriously ill after a few minutes. Are you strong enough to Apperate?"

Hermione nodded. "I'll take Ron, you take May." Harry said.

"Wh-where are we going?" Hermione asked. That was a good question. Harry had not thought of where to go...only that they couldn't stay where they were. He mentally searched his mind for anywhere that still existed. There was only one place that came to mind for sure.

"Antartica." Harry said. "No muggles knew about it so no bombs were aimed there."

Hermione nodded. She put her arms around the shell-shocked May and dissapperated with her. Harry hoisted Ron's lifeless body into his arms and with great effort apparated the both of them to Antarctic City, Antarctica.

Antarctica was founded by a group of British wizards in 1737 who wished to escape the authoritarian Chief Warlock Humsfeddel and his legion of Secret Sorcerers. They came to the barren continent and with a great deal of permanent spells and charms were able to render a small area in a valley habitable for humans. Many more wizards came to Antarctica from England and other nations and the colony grew. It was secret, a secret kept by a Frank Henter, the famed founder. The colony grew as a result of secret recruitment in lands of wizarding opression.

In 1767 of freedom fighters lead by Dumbledore's great grandfather Regalious Alan Dumbledore overthrew Humsfeddel and turned the Chief Warlock posision to something purely symbolic and transferring real governing power to the Ministry of Magic, immitating the transformation that was slowly occurring in the muggle world as well. In that year Antarctica was no longer secret.

These days Antartica was much larger and made up of five connected cities. Although as a nation Antartica's population was small they were all wizards, and Antartica's population was approximitely equal to the wizard population of a small-medium-sized country.

Antarctica had mostly retained it's British charicter but as is inevitable with any seperated society it has branched off considerably. Helping the fact was the fact that Antarctica had turned extremely xenophobic and did not typically allow more than a few foreign wizards visit at a time.

However, in the face of a sudden nuclear war, Antarctica could do nothing to stop the thousands of wizards who pored into it's cities for sanctuary.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and May appeared in a crowded dusty street in the middle of Antarctic City, the first and biggest of the five cities. The whole street was filled with hundereds of people—many sick, many injured. There were many people walking around offering assistance, but not anywhere near enough to cover the entire throng of people.

It was going to be a long, hard future.