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Hogwarts Somewhere in Highlands, Scotland, Great Britain:
Harry walked through the gate of Hogwarts towards the castle, a path he had taken multiple times before, but it felt different this time. The trimmed grass was replaced by waist-grown one, and the buzz of hundreds of students talking among themselves was absent; instead, an eerie silence prevailed, making his heart heavy.
As he passed through Hagrid's hut, which was in disrepair, he increased his pace, unable to take in the condition of the place he considered his home, his first home. As Harry reached the castle door, the dread feeling in his heart increased. It felt as if it would come out of his mouth.
As he tapped his wand twice on the door handle, it began to open. Dust covered everything as he entered the castle and made his way through the entrance hall. It was so thick that Harry's shoes were making an inch of impression on the floor. As he was walking, the torches lit up, and the paintings seemed to start moving and were pointing towards him and looking at each other as one does when one is unsure if what they were seeing is accurate. The dread feeling inside shot up a couple of levels.
As he entered the Great Hall, he fell on his knees at the site before him. Tears began to come out of his eyes before he even realized it. Harry Potter, the veteran of two wars, cried, really cried. He thought all his tears had dried up after the devastation and destruction he had seen in his universe, but the sight before him was so devastating that he could not control himself.
The four tables were gone instead, and the whole hall was filled with hospital beds with only as much space so that a person could fit between them and treat the people or more like children on the beds.
Now he understood why his magic was warning him not to come here. Harry just reinforced the bubblehead charm on his head as he continued to take the sight in. Every child on each bed was dead, and for a long time, he meant every bed; not one bed was empty. All the tissues and mass of the occupant had already melted away, leaving only the skeleton covered by their robes. Seeing the skeleton of so many young witches and wizards, some even eleven and twelve had brought Harry to this state.
He also saw the bodies of some healers not in bed but on the floor, identified by their lime-green robes. It looks like they had continued to treat the patients even when they themselves were sick, and He could understand it due to the enormous value the wizarding world placed on their children. They died doing their job. He slowly got up and backed away outside the Great Hall, unable to take the sight anymore.
As he looked around the entrance hall, the noise level had increased significantly; all the painting frames were packed with people. It looked like every painting had decided this was the place to be. They all quieted down when they saw him back in the Entrance hall: Harry and the portraits staring at each other, unsure what to make of each other.
Finally, a chubby man from a painting spoke up, "Are you really here? I am not dreaming. Even if this is a dream, I never want to wake up to it. It has been so long seen a wizard waked in this hall."
"No, you are not dreaming. I am here. What the hell happened?" Harry said.
"Oh, thank Merlin, you are real." the man replied, smiling. Harry saw some of the others smile as well.
A woman's voice attracted his attention to the other painting, and he recognized her as the Fat Lady, the Gryffindor house door guardian," Terrible, Terrible disease spread through the wizarding world, causing massive death until it darkened Hogwarts door. Potion Master, Healer tried to create a cure, but alas, they were not .successful. We had to watch every young witch and wizard try to fight the disease, but everyone lost the battle. It took the old first, then the youngest, and then the rest. As the last Human died on Hogwarts Ground, The castle went to sleep till the time it was called again. With it, we also slept till you walked in," Fat Lady said with every painting nodding.
"Wait a minute, are you saying that some Magical being is alive in Hogwarts right now," Harry asked in wonder. He thought no magical being had survived the devastation he saw in Hogsmeade and Great Hall.
"No, some magical beings were able to survive the disease. Some are in the Forbidden Forest and others in the basement just a floor down." One of the ladies replied, "Hey, where are you going.. "She continues.
But Harry was not listening to her. He ran towards the stair, which he knew led to the basement.
As he reached the basement floor, which contained the Hufflepuff Common Room and the Kitchen, He found a big door which should not be there until now; the Hogwarts structure had been the same as in his universe, but suppose this could be chalked up as dimensional difference. Harry did not pay any mind to it and pushed the door open and went inside.
He froze as soon as he went inside. There were elves, thousand of them, going around their business. They also froze after seeing him. One of the younger elves came close to Harry and poked him.
"Did you come from the other side," it asked. When Harry looked confused, it elaborated, "Did you come from the other side of that door."
When Harry dumbly nodded, still confused about all of this. The elf's face lit up in a smile, and Harry was swamped with hundreds of elves, each trying to hug him, which caused him to fall on his back, but this also did not stop them as they continued to try to hug him with big smiles on their face.
After what seemed hours, He was allowed to get up. Harry did not mind it at all for the first time on this cursed day, and there was a smile on his face. House elves were like that; these tiny beings could light up the environment around How someone could be cruel to them, he did not understand.
The young elf which had earlier approached him asked. "Who are you."
"I am Harry," Harry replied.
The elf shook his head, pointing to himself said, "I house elf. You?"
"Human," Harry replied, finally understanding what the elf was asking. After his reply, he was again swamped by the elves, this time with a cry of Master.
After Harry calmed them down, He asked, "I am Harry. What is your name?"
"Master, I am Dis. We have waited for you to arrive for many moons turns." the elf, now identified as Dis, replied.
"Can you please elaborate? You were waiting for me. How did you know I would arrive" Harry asked.
"Not you per se, Master, but our elder always told us not to go past that door until a Human opened it and came through it; otherwise, the bad thing on that side will kill us all," Dis answered.
"Your elder is a wise elf. Can I meet Him?" Harry asked.
"Yes, He was Master He told us many stories about Humans and would always look at the door for it to open, but it never did. He died thirty moons turn ago. But Dis has heard all his stories and can tell Master everything Master wants to know," Dis replied.
"Okay, can you tell me what happened, please?" Harry asked.
Dis conjured a chair for Harry to sit on and then told him the story.
It started many, many moons turns ago when the bad thing reached the pretty lady. The children under her care started dying. Humans tried many ways to stop the bad thing but always lost. We were safe from the bad thing because we lived inside the great place, pointing toward the area where Harry knew the kitchen was located; we tried to help the young Humans, but when we went outside the great place, we would die.
We still went and helped the young one. The painting used to tell us if any sick young one needed water or food, we used to sneak at night and help them, but some of us died after going out. The Great wise lady Dilys who used to sit on the throne chair in the big hall, got sad after it and said we are dying. You guys are somewhat immune to it. You should not die as well. So She ordered us to remove all the painting in this basement and create a door to protect us from the big bad thing. So we have remained inside this place since."
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This was a brutal chapter to write hope you guys like it.