Harry had been the emergency! He had sent Pig off immediately to Hermione, hoping that his letter would reach her soon and that she would be able to decode his cryptic message. Ron noted with some satisfaction that all those hours she'd spent proof-reading his Potions, Transfiguration, Astronomy, Care-of-Magical Creatures, History of Magic, and Defense of the Dark Arts essays had finally paid off.
True to his word to Hermione, Ron didn't mention their secret conversations and how he knew that Harry was missing. His parents seemed truly pre-occupied and Mum didn't blink twice when he had burst into the house yelling about Harry being in some sort of trouble. Her reaction, in and of itself, was enough to cause Ron to shiver. It was like they were expecting me to find out, or something.
Ginny sat next to him, pushing her bacon and eggs around on her plate, "What do you think happened to Harry?" she asked quietly, her brown eyes following the path her fork traced on her plate. Ron noticed that she had been uncharacteristically quiet all morning and hadn't even said a word when he had nicked the last piece of bacon from her plate.
"I dunno." He felt sick. It was as if his stomach was slowly trying to eat itself.
Ron felt his mum's hand on his shoulder, "Ronald, you need to get some sleep. You've been up all night, dear."
"Mum, what's going on?" asked Ginny doggedly.
Ron glanced at his sister tiredly who stared back at their mum with a fierce look of determination. He was annoyed. That's the fifth time this morning! Doesn't she ever give up?
"The Order will find Harry," Mrs. Weasley said quickly as she turned toward the sink, dodging the question yet again. The tone of her voice indicated that this was a closed discussion. Ron glanced at Ginny who dropped her fork on her plate with a loud clatter, clearly frustrated.
"You don't know what it's like sitting here and knowing that something is happening and not being able to do anything!" she said hotly under her breath.
Ron stared out the window and watched three garden gnomes struggling to heave an old boot over the garden wall; he knew exactly how she felt.
Where's Hermione? he thought desperately.
***
Ginny gently lobbed a pair of Fred's old socks through the air. They bounced off the wooden door with a quiet thud and then rolled away on the floor, coming to rest at the top of the stairs. She reached into the back pocket of her shorts and began to deftly untangle the twisted mass, her hands working automatically as her mind wandered…
She was sick and tired of always being the last one to know anything. Her brothers were older and bigger than her and were always trying to keep her out of the loop. Well, this year was going to be different! Last year she had finally been able to help Ron and Harry and she wasn't about to be cast aside yet again. Besides, Harry is in trouble and I'm not going to sit around and wait for someone to tell me what to do! she thought angrily.
Ron seemed to be content to just stare off into space like he had swallowed hermflapple juice and her mum was busy cleaning everything in the house, although Ginny knew she only did that out of nerves. The only other time that she could remember the attic being de-ghosted was last year when Percy decided that he was going to turn into an gigantic idiot to the fourth degree. And Dad, well, he was always at work or doing something for the Order that he couldn't talk about, which, for all she knew, could very well consist of just sitting around Grimmauld Place with Professor Lupin. Ginny loved her family, but their lack of decisive action was enough to drive her out of her skin!
Ginny couldn't wait until this year's career training consultation; she already knew what she was going to be – an Auror. She had been practicing Disarming and Shielding Spells last year with Neville outside of DA meetings and she was determined to be the best Auror the Ministry had ever seen. Well, maybe not the BEST, but she was definitely going to be up there. After all, she wasn't going to always be the youngest Weasley or Charlie's, Bill's, Percy's, Fred's, George's, or Ron's little sister. No sir, she was going to be just Ginny Weasley. But in the meantime, she was determined to do anything to ensure that she wouldn't be overlooked…again.
Ginny loosened the last knot and crept around the corner trailing two pieces of flesh-colored string to where Ron was crouching. "It's a go, there's no Impertuble Charm," she said, jerking her head toward the door to his parent's bedroom.
Ron nodded and hastily stuffed the end of one of Fred and George's Extendable Ears into his ear as she did the same. Even though Ron was sometimes annoyingly overprotective, at least he recognized a brilliant opportunity to get some much-deserved information.
"They have a right to know. They're Harry's friends."
Ginny jumped, even though he had used Fred and George's Extendable Ears multiple times, she was always startled by their effectiveness. It sounds like Dad is talking straight into my ear! She glanced over her shoulder just to make sure nobody was there as her mum's agitated voice buzzed through the Extendable Ear.
"Arthur, don't do this. You know what could happen and I will NOT have it!"
"Ron's old enough to start making his own decisions. You know that he will eventually find out, the way those three – "
"We don't know anything for sure. The children don't need to be burdened any further – they need to have a childhood! I will NOT let You-Know-Who invade this house more than he already has!"
Ginny elbowed Ron sharply at the mention of You-Know-Who.
"But it may be safer for them if they knew the truth!" Ginny heard the urgency in her dad's voice. He wasn't going to back down on this one; this was going to be a quite a row.
"It is not up to us to tell them the TRUTH! You know what Dumbledore said, it's up to Harry to tell them, when he's ready –"
"Yes, dear, but Harry was just a sixteen year old boy. He didn't –"
"What did you just say?" Ginny heard the unmistakable alarm in her mum's voice.
Ginny froze and she heard Ron suck in his breath. Dad didn't just say…
"We found it, Molly," she could barely make out what Dad was saying, "The car…it was completely destroyed. I don't know how anyone could –" Ginny heard her dad's voice break, "– could have survived."
Her mum began to sob.
"Dumbledore is checking the strength of the wards; they would indicate any…losses. Cass and Lupin are –"
Ginny didn't want to hear any more and slowly removed her Extendable Ear. She looked disbelievingly up at Ron who promptly flung his Extendable Ear across the hall and marched down the stairs. The kitchen door rattled angrily as it was yanked out its doorframe and then banged loudly as it slammed shut, and she knew that he was running out to the paddock to try to talk to Hermione again. Ginny sat frozen, staring at her parent's door, unshed tears glistening in her wide eyes.
No, not Harry…
***
Remus Lupin stood in the brightly lit Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. Witches and wizards were bustling past and he could hear small busts as they Flooed in and out of the Ministry Atrium. Cass Casely was standing in front of him quietly talking with the Watch-Wizard on duty. "A small favor, Eric, that's all I'm asking…"
His clasped his hands behind his back and tried to look slightly bored so as not to look too conspicuous. However, inside he was anything but. Remus silently urged the security wizard to cooperate, If he only knew what was at stake here!
Dumbledore felt that alerting the Ministry to Harry's disappearance was unwarranted, especially because the identity of the other wizards who had been conversing with the Dursleys was unknown and the panic that would surely ensue if Harry's disappearance became public knowledge would be disastrous for the Ministry. And panic and mayhem is exactly what Voldemort wants, thought Remus darkly.
The members of the Order who could be spared were working desperately to find Harry. Cass had Shacklebolt pull Tonks from her Auror assignment – as she was the only one appropriate, being a Metamorphmagus – to search around Marjorie Dursley's house for signs of Harry or the other Dursleys. Arabella Figg was keeping watch over the Dursley's residence, William had returned to the Ministry to keep an eye out for any unusual activity, Arthur was hopefully back at Headquarters with Dumbledore and Minerva by now, and Moody was, as usual, a step ahead of everyone else.
Earlier that day, he, Arthur, and Moody had located the address listed on the parchment found at the Dursleys. It was an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of London and, according to Moody, it was an old Apparition Safe Point used by Ministry Aurors. It had clearly not been used for decades as it had fallen into disrepair, and there were no traces of wizards, witches, Muggles, Dursleys, or Harry.
Cass had suggested tracking the most logical routes between the Dursleys, the warehouse, and Marjorie Dursley's house; Lupin appreciated her cool logic and preferred her systematic approach to problem solving over Dumbledore's somewhat frustrating round-about and involved methods.
They were flying Disillusioned along the route from Privet Drive to the home of Harry's aunt when they saw it: a blackened massof of twisted metal sitting along the side of the road. Clearly, two cars had been involved in a head-on collision, one of which was badly burned. There were strangely dressed Muggles everywhere, taking pictures and collecting pieces and scraps of metal in plastic bags. Yellow and white lines were drawn along the ground and encircled seemingly random pieces of wreckage.
They were hovering directly above the scene and he and Arthur had been discussing how best to distract the Muggles when Moody saw it, a small piece of wood lying in the gravel along the side of the road – a wand.
-Flashback-
"Is it Harry's?"
"There's no way to tell. It'll have to be scanned," said Remus solemnly. Arthur only looked at him worriedly as the two men stood side-by-side on the road, brooms in hand.
Moody ambled past them, his wooden leg crunching loudly on the gravel. "Muggles have been taken care of…got twenty minutes 'til it wears off." He waved his wand in the general direction of a huddled group of men and women staring blankly around them. One of them let out a loud quack and another began to squat and hop in place.
"Alastor, you didn't –" said Arthur warningly.
Despite the graveness of the situation, Remus felt the corners of his lips twitch. Neutralizing a group of semi-Obliviated Muggles by temporarily mind-charming them into animals was just something Moody would do. "Well, at least we don't have to worry about doing more Memory Charms before we leave. They won't understand anything they see."
Arthur frowned and looked on anxiously as one of the younger Muggles began to roll languidly on his back in the dirt and another bent over and began to intently lick her knee. Just then, Moody called them over. He was standing well away from the wreckage near a large knobby tree at the bottom of an embankment and pointing at something in the grass at his feet. Sitting among the tall weeds and twisted roots of the tree was a shoe.
Remus picked it up and turned it over carefully in his hands. It was a worn trainer – the type that teenagers wore. It couldn't have been lying there long, at least not more than a day or two because there were no signs of dampness from the previous storm and the inside of the shoe was relatively clean. More worrying, however, were the small shards of glass embedded in the laces and the dark splatters on the toe which looked to be drops of blood.
"There's no way to tell if it's Harry's or not. But because it's so far from the wreckage, it could mean that someone's survived and managed escape."
"Or was pulled from the wreckage," noted Moody gruffly.
Arthur surveyed the forested area around them, his brown eyes behind his glasses darting from the dense thickets near them to the tangled underbrush across the road. "I'll send word to Dumbledore and have him organize a search party." Arthur pulled out his wand. "In the meantime, we should start looking near –"
Remus placed a hand on his arm. "I think that Dumbledore will want to see the accident site for himself first."
"There's no time, Remus," the urgency in Arthur's voice was clear. "We all know that Fudge is monitoring Dumbledore's every move; the only way for him to get out here undetected is to fly. Even that would be too risky."
"Weasley's right," muttered Moody. "We have to find Potter quickly."
"There may be something here that we're not seeing. The scene needs to be Canvassed thoroughly – magical indicia may be still be detectable and if that's the case, it may save us valuable time; we may not even need to search the forest." Remus knew that looking for Harry in the forest would be time-consuming and extremely slow because of the few members available and they may not have that much time, especially if it turned out to be a dead-end. What they needed was more help!
Arthur paused as he considered this and then took the small transparent cube that Remus held out to him and attached it to the handle of his wand. "I'll deliver it back to Headquarters then," he said quietly.
He pointed his wand in front of him and uttered, "Recordari," as he slowly turned in a circle. The Anamnesis, which was now glowing a deep emerald green, was recording and storing the sounds, smells, and images of the scene that were to be later replayed, examined, and deconstructed for any lingering signs of magical spells or auras – evidence that Remus desperately hoped would lead to Harry.
Arthur detached the glowing cube and tucked it into his robes. "In the meantime, I still think we should alert the other members and begin to organize a search of the forest. Magic or no magic, Harry could be out there…"
"I'm on it, Weasley." Moody began to limp towards the trees. "Might as well start here." He turned, his magical eye swirled in his head while his other eye stared resolutely back at them and said, "If Potter's here, I'll find him."
Remus couldn't help but feel anything but deep respect for the knarled ex-Auror who held his wand before him and disappeared silently into the thick undercarriage of the forest without a backward glance.
Remus exchanged farewells with Arthur. Then he was speeding away to toward the Ministry as fast as his broom would carry him with the mystery wand hidden securely in his traveling cloak, an urgent voice that sounded eerily like James's propelling him onward.
-End of Flashback-
Lupin jumped, the Watch-Wizard had returned with a small piece of parchment and the wand, muttering, "Only for you, Cass. Not a word of this to anyone, otherwise it's my badge on the line – you know the new Ministry regulations about reporting all wand scans and registrations."
"Thank you, Eric. You don't know how helpful you have been." Cass gave him a brilliant smile which faded instantly as she turned from the desk. "To the seventh fireplace on the left," she whispered out of the corner of her mouth as she steered him quickly down the hall and past a very large hole that had once been the Fountain of Brethren.
They Flooed into a large white room and Lupin glanced around apprehensively. A number of lumpy objects, which were concealed underneath large blue Ministry-standard Security Shrouds, lined the walls and there were no fewer than ten white doors along the side of the room opposite the fireplace. One was slightly ajar and he thought he saw something metallic reflecting light from the dark room. There was an elongated and elevated area in the middle of the room that looked to be a stage of sorts. He raised his eyebrows at Cass.
"Auror Pre-Training and Screening Headquarters," Cass said simply. "It's a Ministry WP Level 3 Security so there's no surveillance. Don't worry, it's only accessible by the Floo," she said this as he glanced cautiously toward the doors.
Cass held out the piece of parchment. "I didn't think it wise to wait."
"Let's hope that it hasn't been unmarked." Remus knew that the underground wand trade circulated unmarked wands tat that were commonly used for crimes because they were impossible to trace back to their users.
Cass met his eyes. "It might give us an idea who may have been lurking at the accident site." Neither of them dared to speak their greatest fear – that it was Harry's wand and he was now without any means to protect himself – or worse.
Remus nodded and took the parchment with a shaking hand and unfolded it.
11 inches/holly/phoenix feather core Screened xxxxx by Watch-Wizard xxxxxxxxxxxx (the line had been scratched out) Wand imprint match: 100% Registered to: Harry James Potter DOB: 31/7/80 DOD: - Current status: active Significant Spells Performed: the Patronus Charm & the Cruciatus Curse
He felt something contract in his chest and he crumpled the parchment in his fist. "Send confirmation to Dumbledore. It's Harry's wand," he said tensely.
***
A/N: Hats off to Dianne (pre-beta) and Allie (PS beta) for their eyes! I think might've finally caught all of those annoying typos that seem to elude me no matter how many times I proof-read.