AN: I live! Sort of. School is evil. That about covers it.

I have made some progress on this story, however. I just need to find time to type up what I've written.

Also, this is the last chapter of part 1! Yay! ^^ So we're sort of a third of the way through. (When I started writing this story, I conceptualized it into three parts. It makes more sense when looking at the word document as far as structure goes. It's also part of why my chapter titles have been so lame. I need to go back and fix that. Apparently, you're not allowed to have two chapters with the same name.)

Once again, thank you so much for all the great support! I've never been this well disciplined when it came to a story, and that's all thanks to you guys. ^^

The cul-de-sac at the end of Privet Dr. was a familiar one to Remus. It was a prime location for Apparating into or out of the area. There was a grove of trees just beyond it that separated the neighborhood from a busy street beyond. No one went into them. It was noisy, and the fumes from the passing cars aggravated both throat and eyes. This incidental privacy made it easy to slip in and out unnoticed.

Remus didn't have time to care about whether some muggle would see him this time. Once the world stopped spinning and his stomach stop feeling like it was trying to be ripped out, he had his legs moving. It was two long blocks to Number 4. Roughly 14 houses between him and Harry. A five minute walk he needed to cross in seconds.

Something exploded down the street and Remus felt his heart jump. Tonks was two steps behind him, cursing up a storm even as they both pushed their bodies to move faster. The wards wouldn't let them Apparate in closer. They'd have to cover the distance on foot.

The road curved gently. A sudden gust of wind billowed dust towards them. There was debris in the road three houses out. Chunks of dirt and grass, shattered glass, fragments of wood. Someone was screaming.

One long stride took him over the curb. He ran across the yards, sticking close to the houses, wand out, ready for whatever may come.

Someone was screaming and Remus could only hope it wasn't Harry. Only hope there wasn't too many of them for him and Tonks to take. Only hope back-up was on its way.

There were no Death Eaters standing in the yard of Number 4, Privet Drive. There was a man in a red and black rob, his face turned away from the house, one hand clutching at his face over his eyes. And then he was gone. It wasn't Apparation. There was no Apparating within the wards. And it didn't have the distinct pop of apparition, nor the vague feeling of something having suddenly disappeared. The man was simply gone.

Remus jerked his eyes away from the empty spot (there was no Apparating from within the wards!) and quickly scanned what was left of the Dursley's front yard. It wasn't empty.

Two boys grappled together in the yard. The blond was trying to hold the other, yelling at him the whole time in a language Remus had never heard. For one confused moment, Remus though the other boy was Harry. He was about the right size, black hair – but he wasn't wearing the baggy jeans and overly large t-shirts Harry always had on. And the hair wasn't right. It was black, but it didn't flick up randomly the way Harry's always did. Where Harry was thin, this boy was sinewy. Once he knew it wasn't the young man he was so desperately hoping to find, the rest of the differences were very clear.

Then the boy's face jerked around and eyes as red as blood fixed on his own.

For a moment they stared at each other, as Tonks went rushing by, and then the blond boy wrapped something about the two of them and just as suddenly as the other man, they were both gone. Leaving nothing behind but crushed metal, broken windows and gouged earth.

"Harry," Remus whispered, before darting forward again. Tonks had pulled ahead of him and was already fighting her way into the house. Much of the front of the house had been wrecked. The front door was knocked off its hinges, the windows all shattered and part of the wall completely removed. The stability of the house would have to be checked. Later. Without hesitation, Tonks was pushing her ay through, climbing over fallen beams and crunching through shattered glass.

"Harry?" she called out. "Harry!"

Remus climbed over what remained of a couch. "Upstairs," he panted, already reaching for the railing. The steps, thankfully, were still intact.

Tonks nodded. "I'll check down here."

Climbing the steps as almost as terrible as the long run from the Apparition point. The distance truly was not that long. It was the hope and fear of what laid at the end. There had been no sign of Harry. Those people had looked nothing like Death Eaters, or any other wizard Remus had ever seen before. It was entirely possible that young Harry was still alive and well, safely hidden within the walls of his mother's sister's house.

It took Remus a moment to remember which door before he flung it open, wand out, Harry's name on his lips.

Hedwig screamed shrilly. The rest of the room was silent. And empty.

No Harry. Not even a sign of a struggle.

It was suddenly difficult to breath. This was far too familiar. The wreckage, the empty house, no loved one, no friend, no innocent child that never should have been involved in this.

"Remus?"

He was leaning against the door frame. He couldn't remember when it had started, but his legs would not support him. He turned his head slowly. He could still see down the stairs – see Tonks balanced at the bottom, standing shakily atop the broken remains of the muggle house. The sunlight streamed in behind her, lighting hair gone deathly gray.

"Petunia Dursley's hidden in the bathroom. I can't get a word of sense out of her, Remus." She bit her lip and stared up at him. "He's not down here."

Remus turned away to stare lifelessly at a child's room. "He's gone."