Third chapter up! Please review!

Nox In Aeternum Est

Rated: M

Summary: Harry Potter is depressed. He's already lost Sirius, what else could go wrong? Apparently a lot. Warning: will contain rape, torture, language, and SLASH. Dark Harry. Eventual HP/LV, still working out the details. Do not read if you can't handle it. You have been warned, I expect no flames. This is my first story, so constructive criticism would be nice.

Chapter 3

Hermione had a morning routine. Every morning the alarm would go off at 7am. She would rise, hair everywhere and eyes half-lidded. Seeing as the only other people in the house were her parents, she didn't particularly care how she looked in the mornings. Hermione would then grab her morning cup of coffee and the day's newspapers and sit in her favorite armchair to read them. Hermione subscribed to both the Daily Prophet, the popular wizarding paper, and The Times, an equally popular newspaper among the muggles.

Recently, Hermione had been aghast to discover the front page article of the Daily Prophet sporting a picture of Azkaban's gates blasted open. As she read further, she saw that all of the death eaters who had been captured after the events at the Department of Mysteries had escaped. All eleven of them, including the now infamous Lucius Malfoy, were at large once again.

However this newest breach of Azkaban wasn't much of a surprise to her. Afterall, if Voldemort could free his death eaters once, who was to say he couldn't do it again?

No, this news, while terrifying, was not much of a surprise to the brilliant Hermione Granger. The real surprise came a few days later, as she was flipping through The Times.

Ongoing Investigation into the Death of Vernon Dursley

At around 7pm on July 6th, Surrey Memorial Hospital received a frantic call from one Petunia Dursley saying that after she had finished cooking dinner she had discovered her husband was missing. She had gone searching for him only to find him lying naked on the floor of one of the bedrooms. She had sobbed into the phone that he was cold to the touch, unresponsive, and his face was an unnatural shade of blue. A medical team quickly arrived on the scene, but they were too late to revive Mr. Dursley. The unusual circumstances surrounding the man's death prompted the lead EMT to put in a call to the Surrey Police. It was clear to the medical professionals that the man had suffocated to death.

But it was unclear whether this was a case of homicide.

A quick scan of the man's body revealed that Vernon Dursely had engaged in sexual activity shortly before his death.

According to Petunia, their nephew, Harry Potter, was the only other person in the house at the time.

Also found in the room with man's body was a bloodstained belt and an equally bloodstained floor. Police suspect that Vernon Dursley had been physically abusing his nephew, including sexual abuse. The DNA testing of evidence collected from the room has yet to be completed.

Police sources confirm that the most puzzling aspect of this case is the autopsy of Vernon Dursley. The cause of death is listed as asphyxia due to a combination of compression of the throat and jugular veins. As there was no evidence to point to the man having committed suicide, it all pointed to the nephew strangling his uncle to death. However, medical records note that there was no bruising of any kind on the man's throat. Unlike usual strangulation where there is either bruising left by the murderer's hands, or ligiture marks left by the murder weapon, neither were present.

It was as if the throat collapsed itself.

At this point the police still have many questions. Unfortunately Harry Potter was missing from his relatives' house at the time the medical team arrived, and has not returned since. He is the only person still alive who might be able to solve this mystery.

Please contact the Surrey Police if you have information regarding Harry Potter.

Hermione nearly choked on her coffee.

"Mum," she called, trying to keep the panic out of her voice, "I'm going to go into Diagon Alley later today, I need to send some letters."


Dumbledore was a wreck. He didn't have time for an adequate amount of sleep anymore. Considering recent events, it was a surprise he slept at all.

First, there had been the Azkaban breakout. All the Death Eaters that had been captured in the aftermath of the battle at the Department of Mysteries had escaped. Dumbledore rubbed his tired eyes and sighed. And then there was Harry.

About a week ago, Dumbledore had been alerted to a problem at the Dursley household. While decorative, the silver objects in his office were also practical. One of them was linked to a spell placed on the Dursley household to detect dark magic. If dark magic was used anywhere in the house, the normally silver object would turn an shining gold and begin to shriek like a tea kettle. Dumbledore had thought at the time that the object must have been malfunctioning. However, in a matter of hours, he was proven wrong.


When Nymphadora Tonks had gone to relieve Kingsley Shacklebolt of his post, she couldn't find him. Assuming he had already apparated back to headquarters and that Harry was safely inside the Dursley house, Tonks had begun her watch.

Soon after, a muggle ambulance had arrived and a bunch of muggles had rushed into the house. Tonks was worried out of her mind. When the muggles had exited the house and begun to talk amongst themselves, she strained to listen.

"Never seen anything like it..." one of the muggles was saying. She crept closer, keeping hidden underneath an invisibility cloak.

"I mean, normally the person's at least wearing clothes," the muggle said in disgust, "What could he have been doing to have suffocated to death naked?"

Dead. According to this man, someone in the house was dead. Tonks thought it was likely that it was the overweight uncle who had kicked the bucket. At least, she hoped it was. The wizarding world couldn't afford to lose Harry Potter. And, she added as an afterthought, there was no way the boy who lived could be killed by muggles.

One of the other muggles snickered. The one who had spoken turned red and shouted "Shut up!"

"But seriously guys," said another muggle, "this looks like it could be a homicide. We should call the police." Homicide? Tonks didn't know that word.

"You thinking he might have been strangled to death? Come on, someone that large couldn't have been overpowered that easily."

Tonks breathed a sigh of relief. The muggle had said that the dead person was big. That meant it couldn't be Harry. The situation wasn't looking good, but at least it wasn't Harry dead on the floor. If Harry had killed his uncle...well, they could deal with that, but they needed Harry alive. Dumbledore had told her and Harry's other guards to protect the boy with their lives if necessary. Harry is crucial to defeating Voldemort, he had said. Tonks believed that if Dumbledore had said it, it must be true. Therefore, she would focus on finding Harry and getting him out of this mess; she could worry about whether Harry was a murderer later.

"Dunno, it's really weird. The guy's throat looks like it's been crushed, but there's no bruising of any kind. It's like the throat collapsed itself."

The muggles laughed nervously. "You must have just missed them. Come on, let's leave the theorizing to the medical examiner. We've done our job."

Tonks was getting frantic. The muggles had called the police, and still no sign of Harry in or around the house. The remaining Dursleys were waiting outside the house with the other muggles, but Harry wasn't with them. Tonks decided she had to risk leaving her post to go check the park that Harry frequented. She had to find him.

Tonks had quickly arrived at the park and looked around. Harry wasn't on the swings. She checked behind the bushes near the edge of the park. Bile began to rise in her throat. Instead of finding Harry Potter, she had found the body of Kinsley Shacklebolt. She had apparated back to headquarters as fast as she could.

She had quickly floo-called Dumbledore's office to alert him to her findings. But it was too late; by the time Dumbledore arrived at the Dursley's, Harry was long gone. He had returned to his office knowing the incident would make it into the muggle papers.


Dumbledore had held onto the hope that Harry had fled to one of his friends. That hope had vanished with the arrival of letters from Hermione Granger and, shortly after, from Ron Weasley demanding to know where Harry was.

Dumbledore sighed again. He feared the worst had befallen Harry. He would have to hold a meeting to inform Harry's friends, as well as the Order, what to expect if they couldn't find Harry soon.