Disclaimer still applies.

Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long. I meant to post it last week, before I left town, but I was too busy. And it's still not as long as I'd like it to be, but I've made my readers wait long enough. (I hope this chapter answers at least some of your questions!)

A big 'thanks' to all of you that reviewed! Those reviews really put a smile on my face.

And now here's the fifth chapter.

O.O.O.O

What Seems And What Is

Ginny stood over the coffin, one hand partially raised, eyes disbelievingly wide. She was frozen, as if in shock.

Molly appeared at the top of the steps, looking down into the ill-lit room. She frowned when she saw Ginny. 'What are you doing down here?' she snapped. Ginny didn't reply, didn't even seem to realise her mother was there, other than to give a shrill squeak.

Descending the stairs, Molly quickly noticed the same thing that her daughter had. 'What...'

'I don't know,' cried Ginny, a hand over her mouth. 'I just... I found... Oh, Mum.'

Hermione's head popped through the doorway, calling, 'Mrs. Weasley?' Molly couldn't form an answer, but seeing her, Hermione didn't need one. 'Professor Dumbledore's here, Mrs. Weasley. Ron's with him now. He said he'd like to talk to you about something. Could you come up -- Ginny? Mrs. Weasley? What is it? Has something happened?'

Tear tracks down her cheeks, Ginny turned to face Hermione, shakily pointing a finger at the casket. Words... weren't really needed. Hermione's eyes widened, horrified.

'Oh, my god.'

Ginny bit her lip and squeaked an agreement, sinking slowly to her knees on the floor.

'Oh my god,' Hermione repeated, incredulous. 'That isn't possible.'

'Hermione,' managed Molly in a strangled voice, 'you said Dumbledore was here?' At Hermione's nod, she continued, 'Go and get him. Now.'

'Yes, Mrs. Weasley,' Hermione nodded, and then she was gone.

'Oh dear, oh dear,' murmured Molly, wringing her hands wretchedly and staring at Harry's coffin. 'Oh dear.' Ginny didn't move.

Seconds later, their was a commotion in the kitchen, and a group of people poured out of the kitchen down into the little room. Almost all of them stopped short of the casket, staring at it in disbelief, though they'd probably been warned already what to expect. Only Dumbldore, silver beard gleaming in the faint light, went all the way up to the wooden box.

'How did this happen?' he demanded of Molly and Ginny, his eyes hard and devoid of even the faintest twinkle. Ginny started sobbing quietly from the floor, and one of her brothers moved forward to put a gentle arm around her, still looking shocked.

'I don't-- ' began Molly, shaking her head. Then she hastily corrected herself, 'We don't know, Albus.'

The corners of the old man's eyes crinkled just barely, but he didn't comment on her choice of words. 'I see. What made you come down here?'

Molly cleared her throat, glanced once at her little girl, and said, 'I just wanted to see him, Albus, and Ginny offered to come with me.'

Only Ginny and Dumbeldore seemed to notice she was lying, and neither commented.

o.o.o.o

She wasn't empty. Again. This feeling was so much better than empty, no matter how much sadder. The empty was bad...

But even as she thought it, her awareness of having been empty started to fade, and she was left with a distant memory from years ago as her only knowledge of that emptiness.

(No sense leaving her able to warn anyone, after all.)

o.o.o.o

With a jolt, Lord Voldemort sat up painfully straight and glared at the two people in the room with him. The smaller of the pair backed away quickly, but Bella crept forward, anticipating her Lord's need of her.

'My lord?' she asked reverently, head bowed. Lord Voldemort shrieked in rage, and she too backed up, repeating her words.

'This -- Is -- Not -- Possible!' he fumed, gripping the edges of his throne until his knuckles turned white and the wood almost splintered.

'My lord?' Bella asked yet again, curious now.

'First, someone beats me to killing Potter,' hissed the Dark Lord furiously. 'Then I can't figure out how they did it. And now, someone's done something to the brat's body.'

Bella's eyes widened. Her companion's probably would have, had they not already been as big as saucers in his terror of Lord Voldemort's rage.

Voldemort howled.

o.o.o.o

Ron was in shock.

'But what happened to him?' he shouted angrily. Hermione was next to him, clutching his hand and muttering things that were supposed to be calming, but were doing no good at all. Whatever amount of maturity Ron had gained in the past week, he seemed to have lost it all in the space of a half an hour. 'First he bloody dies, and now this!'

'Ron,' snapped Bill, one arm around Ginny, who hadn't stopped crying since they'd come up from the cellar. 'We've said already, we don't know what happened to him. None of us do. Yelling at us isn't helping.' Charlie, from the other side of his sister, nodded his agreement without saying anything.

George grunted at them, slouching further down in his chair at the table. Next to him, Fred scoffed. 'And you're all doing a bloody great job of finding out, too.'

'This wasn't supposed to be possible,' Hermione declared staunchly, looking down her nose at the Twins. 'It's natural that they shouldn't immediately have an answer.'

A stern glare from Dumbledore silenced them all.

'It is possible,' the aged Headmaster supplied wearily, 'that the Dark Lord or his followers discovered a means to penetrate the wards surrounding this place enough, if not to enter themselves, then to remove Harry's body.'

Ginny sniffled. Molly, sitting between Arthur and Bill, paled considerably. 'Albus! Does that mean -- could they -- my babies!' she shrieked anxiously.

All six of the younger Weasleys cringed simultaneously, sharing a pained look amongst them. Fortunately for them, Molly didn't notice, she was so busy staring at Dumbledore.

He sighed. 'They are all perfectly safe here, Molly, as they are still living and therefore possess certain natural protections which will prevent them from being "snatched" against our will. I'm afraid, though, that this does mean we shall all have to be extra cautious from now on.'

'How so?' inquired Hermione, curious despite her agitation over Harry's now missing body.

'To subvert the wards in such a way, Ms. Granger, the Dark Lord need not be aware of this place's actual location, merely that it existed and was warded,' Dumbledore explained obligingly. 'However, now that he has succeeded in penetrating them, he will be able to recognize them should he ever -- accidentally or intentionally -- come in personal contact with them. He does not necessarily need to see them or be searching for them to find them. We must prevent him, at all costs, from even suspecting this location.'

Bill, the best able to understand this, looked grim. Hermione bit her lip and turned her gaze away. Ron cursed, leaping up and storming away from the table. Hermione made to follow, but George grabbed her arm and held her where she was.

'Let him go,' Fred whispered. 'He needs to think. He does that best alone.'

o.o.o.o

You wouldn't have known it to look at him, but Severus Snape was almost as nervous as he'd ever been in his life. He knelt in silence for several long, tense moments, before the Dark Lord in front of him responded.

'... What did you say?' was the low, deceptively calm hiss.

'Dumbledore suspects you in the disappearance, my lord,' Severus repeated, biting the words out almost reluctantly.

'Does he now...' It wasn't a question. Severus swallowed.

'My lord...' he began, taking rather a risk. One of Lord Voldemort's most important rules was that you did not ask questions. If you dared to, you soon found yourself on the receiving end of his favorite "present".

Severus wasn't particularly fond of the Cruciatus, himself.

'Not now, Snape.' And the Dark Lord turned his back, obviously dismissing all of his assembled Death Eaters. Severus blinked rather rapidly at the scrawny robed figure.

As far as Severus knew, there was only one Death Eater who could get away with ever questioning Lord Voldemort about anything, and then only when the master was in a tolerably good mood. And Bellatrix wasn't even there.

Severus stood, leaving quickly.

Speaking of Bellatrix... He didn't know where she was or what she was doing -- he seldom did; Lord Voldemort didn't tell him everything, after all -- but he hadn't seen her at the last two meetings. In such particularly stressful times as these, that was reason to worry.

Not that he'd ever worry about Bellatrix Lestrange, mind you.

But... well... he would like to be there when the bitch got taken out, someday.

o.o.o.o

'It'sss flattering,' Voldemort mused, in Parseltongue, 'to know that the old fool thinksss I wasss involved, that I'm capable of that. But it'sss annoying, becaussse I wasssn't. And frussstrating, becaussse I didn't even think of ssstealing the boy'sss body. And ssso intriguing, becaussse who really did take it, eh?

'Ah, my pet, my pet, what am I coming too?'

Silence, very brief.

'Oh, yesss. Jussst the thing, my pet... a presssent for the Mudblood lover.

'Come, we mussst ssspeak with Bella.'

o.o.o.o

There was a single magical tie connecting someone in the room to the outside as he entered. But with his presence, the tie was immediately severed -- a good thing too, the man felt, given the sinister quality of the tie. So dark and malevolent-- He was pretty sure he recognized the feel of that magic.

The man looked around, attempting to pinpoint the other end of the tie. He almost growled when he realised who was in the room with him. If he touched one hair on any of these heads, then oh, there would be Hell to pay. And he'd been there, too. (Comparatively speaking, anyway. Most people didn't ask him, though, so he didn't get to give that answer.)

o.o.o.o

'Headmaster Dumbledore, can you tell us-- '

'Can we see the body of Mr. Potter?'

'Dumbledore, Dumbledore, is that a denial!'

'Minister Fudge has declared-- '

'Is it true that Harry Potter's come back to life?'

'Have you figured out what killed him yet, Headmaster?'

' --and what do you have to say about that, Dumbledore?'

'What sort of items is Mr. Potter being buried with? I heard they still haven't found his wand!'

'Sir, over here! Sir!'

'The Gringotts goblins tell us there's quite a sum left in Potter's vault-- '

'Just a picture, Headmaster, just one comment!'

'Where are the Weasleys? How are his friends holding up?'

'Who's getting the Potter Estate now that Harry's gone?'

'Will we see his ex-girlfriend Granger at the memorial?'

'How is the loss of your student affecting you, Dumbledore?'

'Where is Mr. Potter being buried?'

'Why is Potter's funeral going to be private?'

'Did Mr. Potter have any kind of heir at all?'

'Sir! Will there really be dragons at the memorial service, to honour Mr. Potter?'

'Headmaster Dumbledore!'

o.o.o.o

'Albus, this is a disaster,' proclaimed Minerva. The venerable witch was standing in the Headmaster's office, leaning heavily on her walking stick though she shouldn't have needed it anymore.

'I am aware, Minerva,' Albus assured her, still staring at the papers covering his desk. There were more, and deeper lines on his face, even than when he was in company of the Weasleys.

Albus Dumbledore was getting tired. Of it all. So very tired.

Minerva didn't appear much settled, but Albus hardly noticed, which was unusual. 'What's to be done?'

It was as good a time as any to share his thoughts with his Deputy Headmistress. Albus sighed.

'Minerva, I have one idea. About the disappearance, not his death. It must not leave this room...'