CHAPTER TWO--THE DISAPPEARANCE

At first glance the night seemed peaceful, almost worthy of needed sleep. But upon a lone stretch of land, soft noises could be heard from the large wooden area covered in shadows. About a foot from that forest laid a small cottage, where grey smoke lazily danced.

Further from the forest laid a magnificent castle, gloomy with the night. Inside, soft breezes of the many residing ghosts tumbled about with an eternity of insomnia. The alive occupants laid in slumber when a shrill screaming blared throughout the silence.

In one office, a bearded wizard stumbled from his bed. Hastily throwing on the nearest robes, he hurried from the bed to his desk. A beautiful golden phoenix sorrowfully cried as tired blue eyes peered into a carefully hidden mirror. Inside the mirror he watched as colourful wards collapse about a small house. He recognized the signs of someone forcibly disappearing through the wards with something precious.

While he watched the mirror, several occupants swiftly flew down the corridors of the great castle towards the gargoyle. Knowing their urgency to enter, the gargoyle guardian to the office simply moved, allowing the spiral staircase to swiftly rise. The occupants raced up them and through the wooden door.

"ALBUS!"

Tired blue eyes peered over metal rims of gently placed glasses at the sight of four dishevelled professors flying inside, wands ready. Albus Dumbledore had been resting his body behind the only desk in sight, thinking when they arrived. One pale gnarly hand traced patterns in the floor length white beard as a grim smile greeted them, "The alarm sounded from one of our students house. The wards we had placed have fallen."

Gasps fell freely as he stood quietly. "Come, we must hurry. I'm sure the Aurors have already appeared." With one hand Albus swished his wand, transfiguring the figures of Professors Snape, Sprout, McGonogall, and Madame Pompfrey into decent robes.

They followed the Headmaster from his office to the outside as Pompfrey hurried to her hospital wing. Waiting at the cottage stood a large man, one huge hand holding a lantern, "Professors?"

Albus was quick to pacify the man, "It's alright, Hagrid." The other man merely nodded as he watched the four figures vanish in the dark.

"Albus, where are we going? Which student?"

The older wizard had wished his fellow professors wouldn't have asked. With sorrow in his voice, "It's Harry Potter." Then before anyone could say a word, he vanished with a pop. The others followed quickly.

Within moments the four professors from Hogwarts found themselves on Privet Drive. They could see the robed figures of the Ministry surrounding the small house belonging to Harry Potter. Minerva McGonogall was the first to speak, "Oh no. Harry."

Albus turned to her, "Yes, the wards had fallen sometime tonight." He than led his small group to the scourging Aurors. "Moody."

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody turned at the sound of his name, "Albus."

"What happened?"

"The alarms went off when the wards fell. We hurried here just after the first sounding. Upon our arrival we found the Dursleys still asleep in their beds. One of our own, Tonks, slipped on something in the front hall. When we had lights we found a small bloody trail coming from a cupboard beneath the stairs to the hall. The door was still open. We found bigger blood spills inside the cupboard but Harry Potter is missing, as well as his things."

All the professors paled at the description. Even Severus Snape could not find a single sarcastic remark at that moment for his most hated student. But Albus Dumbledore had to know more, "Who took him?"

Before the Auror could speak, another male appeared, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. "Ask your so-called spy. He's the one holding out on us!"

Onyx eyes flared in pure fury as the dark haired male tensed at the accusing remark. But as always the Headmaster came to his defense. "Severus has done nothing. He would have said something to us regarding young Harry."

A strange female suddenly popped up, her hair disarrayed in spikes of bright purple. "We questioned his relatives but they haven't said anything useful. Actually they won't speak at all."

A pale hand swiftly held out a small vial, all eyes widen. Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts, smirked at their actions. He always charmed his clothing to be able to hold various vials of potions, despite wearing a transfigured robe. The robes were always carrying useful items and cushioned to not break. "Veritaserum. My personal stock. Three drops should do."

Excited, Tonks hurried away, stumbling actually. In moments she appeared with several Aurors dragging a large man, though Severus believed the man to be a whale at first. "This is his uncle, Vernon Dursley."

With apparent glee, Severus forced the whale like man to swallow three drops of the truth serum. Then he allowed the aurors to question the man. "What happened here today, tonight?"

Vernon dully answered, "We dealt with the freak as usual, locked it away, while simply going to dinner and bed."

"Where's Harry Potter?"

"I don't know and don't care. Good riddance to it."

Stunned, the group could only stare before Albus asked the one question all didn't really want to know the answer. "Where did the blood come from?"

Despite his being forced to answer, Vernon didn't really want to explain and his struggle only made the dark haired Potion Master to smirk wider. "The boy needed a lesson in disobeying the rules. I had to beat it into him. We left him locked away in the cupboard."

Allowing Severus to grudgingly administer the antidote, Albus turned to the others. "We need to find Harry."

Fudge refused to allow the search to continue tonight or tax his ministry for one child, even if the Wizarding World demanded it. But he could at least give some satisfaction as he discreetly motioned his Aurors to drag the protesting Uncle away. To his reasoning, should anyone ask, it wasn't right to let such atrocities go unpunished but privately he believed that he could gain more brownie points if he imprisoned the brutal Muggle in the deepest recess of Azkaban, a spot where Dementors were free to feed upon the most evil of beings, even giving the Kiss should they wish without reprecussions of the Ministry. Yes, that should do splendidly, even if that brat can't be found anytime soon. "The child probably walked off. He'll show up."

Minerva refused to let this man tell her about her student, "With what we were just told, I doubt Mr. Potter walked off!"

Tonks agreed, "With the amount of blood in the cupboard and hall, I'd say Harry was taken by someone. There's no way he could walk away, not with that amount. It could be safe to say that whoever has him will either heal him since he could be close to death or allow him to die slowly from blood loss."

Albus nodded his own agreement, "We'll continue searching for him. We can only hope he's safe. Severus?"

The dark professor simply nodded, knowing the risk he would be taking once again for the foolish child. Glowering in anger, he stormed away, followed closely by the others, leaving behind the Ministry desperately cleaning up and an outraged Minister.