Escape ↣ Harmione

Chapter Seven

Albus called an Order meeting. The pair had been missing for eight days, and he had finally decided to open the search.

"Neither Mr Potter or Miss Granger made it to Kings Cross on the day the Hogwarts Express was due to leave. Neither of them has performed any sort of magic in the last eight days either." His face got very sombre, and for a moment Severus thought the worst.

He watched as Albus pulled something from deep in his robes. "In an attempt to locate both Mr Potter and Miss Granger, I cast a locating spell on their wands. This spell led me to a muggle factory where after some searching I found these." Albus stopped speaking and held out his hand flat.

It took a moment but when Severus' brain made sense of what he was seeing his stomach dropped through his boots and kept on going. Broken wand pieces lay in Albus' hand. The dark wood of holly and the light wood of vine, the magical cores trailing from the split ends. There were gasps as everyone else saw what he did, and then a deep, profound silence fell as the implications set in.

"What sort of Muggle factory?" Arthur asked. "Could they have been held there at any point which was why their wands were damaged?"

"It dealt with refuse," Albus said. "Quite isolated, but I doubt they had been held there."

"Muggles collect their refuse from all over and take it to factories for processing. Some parts are recycled and turned into other materials that can be used to make other things. Some buried in landfill sites." Severus explained to the room. "If you found their wands there, there's no telling where they were disposed of, or how long ago."

The implication of that statement took longer to sink in. When it did all hell broke loose. Denials flew that if they had been taken, or captured, then they would have heard about it. The Death Eaters would have bragged. The idea that Harry Potter was dead, along with Miss Granger the brightest witch of her age, seemed completely nonsensical. They would have used magic to escape, if their wands had been broken they would have got word to someone, somehow.

Albus quieted them by raising his voice. "Enough! We have no proof they are dead. Severus, do you have any news to share?"

"The Dark Lord hasn't killed them or captured them. When I spoke to him in regards to Miss Granger, he seemed to readily accept that she was in a muggle hospital. As for Mr Potter, he was eager to see if you could locate him before he opened the field to the Death Eaters. He seemed to think that if Mr Potter were merely hiding in a fit of pique, then he would be returned to school shortly, and the Dark Lord wouldn't need to risk exposure by locating him."

"You don't think he's testing your loyalty?" Arthur asked, "Seeing what you will report to him and what you don't?"

Severus sighed, these people. "The Dark Lord is a megalomaniac, of course, he doesn't trust me. I'm useful to him, that's all. If he decides he no longer needs me, he'll kill me. There's no testing, it's a yes no equation."

A hush fell as for once, the people in the room considered that. Severus felt glad for a moment that they saw what he was up against. Then he realised that they were more likely to get him killed in some feeble attempt to help. Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, wanting nothing more than this meeting to not be happening. For Potter to be in Gryffindor tower calling him childish names while he completed homework badly. And Miss Granger there with him, plotting all the ways she could make his life miserable once Albus laid down the law.

Albus continued. "We would be foolish to jump to the incorrect conclusion. It is possible that they are both hiding waiting for the deadline on Miss Granger's contract to pass before they reappear. Of course, if this is the case, then they have disposed of their wands themselves to hide from the Ministry. This seems something that Miss Granger would be aware of?" Albus raised an eyebrow at Minerva.