No matter how much Harry hated his uncle, he couldn't help but stand there in shock as he heard the strange silence downstairs. Uncle Vernon, dead. Harry had trouble wrapping his mind around it. But he didn't have time to think about it right now. He had to get out of there, to get somewhere safe before Voldemort made it up the stairs…
His thoughts were cut off by more crashing downstairs.
"TONKS, UPSTAIRS!"
"REMUS! BEHIND YOU!"
"BOTH OF YOU, GO!"
Harry heard more crashing downstairs. He knew from the sounds of footfalls on the stairs that he had no time to run. He stood ready at the door, his wand raised.
But to his relief, the door swung open to reveal none other than Tonks and Lupin.
Before Harry could say anything, Lupin grabbed Harry by the hand. With that, they disapparated. Harry knew he would never see number 4, Privet Drive again.
When the odd sensation of apparating went away, Harry found he was not at the Burrow at all (like he had expected), but 12 Grimmauld Place.
Harry felt Lupin's strong hands on his shoulders. "Harry, are you alright? Are you hurt?"
Harry shook his head. "I'm fine. Did… did he kill them?"
Lupin looked down. "Yes. I'm sorry, Harry."
Harry didn't say anything. He had always hated the Dursleys. He had always said that, and it had been true. But they were his family. The last of his family… and now they were gone, too.
"I'm – I'm okay. Can I go back to bed?" Harry felt suddenly tired. Lupin looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Go ahead," he said finally.
Harry walked slowly up the stairs, thoughts flowing through his head. If Voldemort could come to the Dursley's, was there anywhere he couldn't get Harry? Grimmauld Place was safe. For now. But Harry couldn't possibly stay in there forever.
At some point, he was going to have to face the facts. He was going to have to face Lord Voldemort.
And it just might be sooner than he thought.
"Harry!"
Before Harry knew what happened, he was engulfed in a pair of arms and a mass of bushy brown hair. "Oh, Harry, we were so worried! We knew that Lupin and the others were waiting at your house, just in case, but we didn't actually expect anything to happen!"
Hermione pulled away from him and Harry saw both her and Ron standing in front of him, looking worried. Behind Hermione's head he could see Ginny's face poking out from the doorway. He glanced at her, then looked back at Ron and Hermione.
"If you knew that, you knew more than me."
"Harry, we don't know what happened."
Harry looked up at his friends. They were staring at him expectedly. Even Ginny had emerged from her and Hermione's room out of curiousity.
Harry sighed. No matter how much he wanted to go to sleep, he knew he had to tell them. "Voldemort killed the Dursleys. I don't know what else happened. Lupin apparated me here before they could get to me. I was upstairs."
Ron looked ashen. "And… you're okay?"
Harry shrugged.
Ginny finally emerged completely from the doorway, her hands on her hips. "You know perfectly well that's not true. We can all see it, Harry. What's wrong?"
Harry shrugged again. "Nowhere is safe anymore."
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And there is chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed it.
Seirien: I love people like you. Yay for reading practically everything I write!
Maliaphire: you too! And I'm sorry, I couldn't pass up that cliffhanger.
"A funny thing to do is, if you're out hiking and your friend gets bitten by a poisonous snake, tell him you're going to go for help, then go about ten feet and pretend that you got bit by a snake. Then start an argument with him about who's going to go get help. A lot of guys will start crying. That's why it makes you feel good when you tell them it was just a joke."
-unolimbo
