Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
Dies the Fire is owned by SM Stirling
Slytherin Rising was created by J.L. Matthews

Chapter 3: Searching for Survivors

Ron and Hermione appeared on the Grangers' front lawn. Hermione ran to the door but it was locked. She pulled out her keys and began franticly fumbling with them trying to find the key to her parents house. She dropped them when Ron got to the door.

"Here, let help you" said Ron as he picked up the key ring. "Is it this one? This one? This one?"

Hermione shook her head with tears streaming down her face until he reached the correct one, which caused her to nod. Ron put the key in the door and opened it for her. She ran in and started calling for her parents. "Mum? Dad?" There was no answer. She went from room to room calling for them. When she saw that the bed had been made she realized that they must have gone to work. But just in case, she left a note for them on the refrigerator explaining what was going on and telling them to go to the Leaky Cauldron.
Their next stop was her parent's office. This time, there was no fumbling with keys and she pulled out her wand and used the unlocking charm to gain them entrance. No one was there.

"The spell must have hit while they were on their way here" said Hermione.

"It will take while for them to get here," said Ron. "Let's check on my parents." They left another note and apparated to the Burrow. As soon as they walked in the door they were enveloped in a desperate hug from Mrs Weasley.
"Ron! Hermione! You're alright!"

"We're fine. Ginny's fine. But . . . Harry is missing .. . ." said Ron.

"What! How did it happen?" asked Molly.

"Just after he killed you-no-poo, he dove into a spell trying to rescue Luella Martin, I mean Flint. They both vanished and we weren't able to find them. . . .How's Dad?"

"Your father has been very busy at work since the emergency started."

"Can I use your owl to tell my parents what to do?" asked Hermione.

"Of course dear" replied Molly.

"Hang on, it could take forever for Earol to find them" said Ron. "We need a way of reaching them instantly . . . if only we had a house elf . . ."

"Kreacher!" Ron and Hermione both exclaimed at once.

"Kreacher doesn't want to serve a filthy Mudblood!" the grimy house elf exclaimed appearing in front of them. "I won't! I won't! I Won't!"

"That's too bad" said Ron. "All three of us had wills leaving everything to each other if one of us were to die. Is Harry dead?"

"Won't! Won't! Won't!"

"Kreacher, stop yelling" Hermione commanded.

Instantly the house elf went quiet.

"Kreacher, go and find my parents, then come back here and tell me where they are." She commanded.

The house elf vanished and a few minutes later re-appeared.

"The filthy muggle parents of the filthy mudblood are on a street."

"Which street?" asked Hermione

"Kreacher does not know the name of filthy muggle streets"

"Can you take us there?" asked Ron.

The house elf disapparated himself, Ron and Hermione. They re-appeared in front of Hermione's Parents who were part of a crowd of people walking down a street. Several people screamed when the bizarre trio appeared in front of them.

"Mum! Dad!" Hermione sobbed and she hugged her parents. "I was so worried about you!"

"We're fine" said Mrs. Granger. "We just had a spot of bother when the tube stopped working."

"You mean you don't know?" said Hermione incredulously. "This power outage is permanent."

A murmur rose through the crowd.

"Let's get out of here before this turns nasty" said Ron.

"Right. Mum, hang on to me. Dad, hang on to Ron"

They apparated back to the Granger's house.

"First things first" said Hermione. "Kreacher, what would you rather have? Would you rather be set free or would you like to continue to serve me and my family?"

"Kreacher would rather serve filthy mudblood and her skanky muggle parents and her blood traitor of a husband than be a money-grubbing mercenary elf. Kreacher will serve. Oh! what Kreacher's mistress would say if she could see how low Kreacher has sunk!"

Hermione and Ron Explained what had happened and the opportunity for the Grangers to move to school that they had sent their daughter away to for half of her life. When the facts were laid out for them, the Grangers accepted them, especially after some experimentation around the home proved that nothing electrical worked. So, they packed up some clothes and gardening tools so that Ron and Hermione could apparate them to Hogwarts.

After apparating the Grangers to the gates and walking into Hogwarts, they found Neville, Luna and Ginny waiting for them on the front steps of the castle.

"I knew you'd be back now," mused Luna.

"We've gotten letters from my Gram and Luna's father, but Ginny has only heard from the twins," said Neville.

"Mum's fine" said Ron, "Dad's at the Ministry."

"We haven't had time to go anywhere else besides rescuing my parents," said Hermione. "Oh my god! What about Harry and Luella's families? We forgot all about them! No one will have even sent them a letter!"

"I seriously doubt that Harry would care what happened to those Muggles after the way they treated him," said Ron.

"He wouldn't want them to come to harm," said Hermione. "We have to try and save them."

"My Gram should be safe as long has the stays home, the house is invisible to Muggles" said Neville.

"My dad says he's packing up and moving the Quibbler to Hogsmead," said Luna. "He's got a bad feeling about London."

"We'll check on them anyway after we've checked on the muggles," said Ron.

When Ron and Hermione knocked on the door of 4 Privet Drive the door was answered by a muscular young man who was about their age. He took one look at them and yelled:
"Mom! Some freaks are here!"

"I told the boy I didn't want his freaking friends coming over here any more!" growled Vernon Dursley as he strode to the door.

"Please sir, may we come in?" asked Hermione.

"NO!" yelled Vernon as he slammed the door in their faces.

"Please sir, open the door" called Hermione through the door and she began knocking on it once more. "We need to tell you something! The power outage is permanent and lots of people are going to starve! And Harry is dead! He wouldn't have wanted you to come to harm!"

The door opened again.

"Did you say the boy is dead?" inquired Vernon.

"Yes" said Ron. And we're rescuing the muggle relatives of wizards. We can take you to the school where you'll be safe."

"Safe! Safe!" Vernon exploded. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that you have our best interests at heart, that you not going to turn us into something unnatural as soon as you lure us off to that freaky school of yours? You tell that lying boy that we wouldn't go to that freaky school of his even if it was the end of the world!"

He slammed the door in their faces once again.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione asked.

"There's not much we can do" replied Ron. "We can't rescue people who don't want to be rescued. There are too many others to save."

"I suppose you're right" Hermione conceded. "Come on! The Martins live just a short walk from here."

When they got to the Martins' house, there was no sign of Luella's parents and Kreacher could offer no help because the Martins were related to neither Ron nor Hermione. They popped by the Longbottom estate and found that Neville's Grandmother would be perfectly safe as long as she stayed in the house. A quick trip by Diagon Alley allowed them to find Mr. Lovegood hard at work packing up and Fred and George conducting business as if nothing unusual were going on. Finally, they decided to go back to 12 Grimauld Place so they could write letters to Luella's husband and her friend Deanna who might have a clue where Luella's parents might be.