Birth of a Nightmare Man

Chapter Nine

Barely two months after the death of Shacklebolt Kingsley, and Albus urged every Order member to go into hiding. So far twelve more had been killed in the same gruesome manner as Shacklebolt and they were no closer to capture Potter, who now had begun to leave magical traces on the scene, either not caring or wanting to make sure they knew he'd committed those murders.

The Weasleys abandoned their home and spread out in safe houses. Ginny's body was still at St Mungo's but Arthur believed she was safest there; Potter wouldn't be stupid enough to attack an entire hospital filled with wizards and witches.

Albus was safe at Hogwarts for the time being due to new wards aimed specifically at not letting Harry Potter inside the grounds, and offered safety to some of the Order members inside the school. While the students were aware of events outside, they didn't mind the presence of adults, some actually feeling safer when they saw an Order member.

While this all happened, Albus vented his anger at the walls of his office, all of his frustration at the boy who was supposed to have died trying to kill Voldemort. Everything had gone wrong after that. Potter had slipped between his fingers, become something Albus hadn't calculated, and apparently had it in him to torture people just as much as Voldemort did.

Twelve people, thirteen counting Shacklebolt, had to put their lives down for that bloody boy. Would he stop now, when they hid? Would he make a mistake? Albus didn't dare having Order members posted outside in public too often and therefore he had no other choice but to rely on the Ministry.

Amelia Bones had however seen the direness in the situation and ordered a search throughout the entire country, looking for Harry Potter. If they encountered wards hiding a property and they couldn't find the owners, the Aurors had been ordered to tear down the wards. Potter's house had to be somewhere.

Dumbledore wanted to search for the house himself, but everyone urged him to stay safe, he was the most important member, he couldn't risk his life like that. Albus conceded to that but urged outmost caution in turn; that they were not to risk their own safety. He realized he wouldn't be travelling much beside to the Ministry, a place Harry never could be so foolish to try and attack.

The faster they found the boy and got rid of him, the better.

-o-

Harry didn't like people who went into hiding when he wanted to kill them. It was rather rude of them to do that. However, he wasn't that surprised. He was just surprised it had taken them two months to realize that it would be safer to them to hide. Like, shouldn't they have realized that when he killed Shacklebolt?

Still, it meant he now had no idea where anyone of them was.

"Damn…" he said and Rabastan looked up from his breakfast. "I should've at least kill Hermione and Ron. Just one of them had been fine. Now I have to search for them. Maybe they even went to another country…"

"Use the Dementors," Rabastan suggested. "I'm sure they'll be thrilled to help and with winter coming their cold won't be noticed as much."

"Yeah, I suppose…" Harry looked out the window. "You know, I never got to celebrate Christmas with George in this house."

"What, you didn't like the Christmas pudding at Azkaban?" Rabastan asked. Harry looked at him and Rabastan grinned. "Bit dry, wasn't it?"