Battered

Chapter 2: Guilt

DISCLAIMER: None of these characters belong to me… they are copyright of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros.

Reviews:

Manx: Jeepers! Did you read my mind or something?! Don’t worry, Harry’s not going to be running into anyone’s arms in the near future… heh… great minds think alike eh?

Vibora: Oh… don’t cry! It gets better… promise!

Btw, in case anybody is wondering, this story is set in their seventh year and Voldemort has not yet been defeated… Not sure how long this story will end up being; it all depends on the reviews *wink*

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The following days at Hogwarts were quiet as far as everyone was concerned. Gryffindor house especially seemed more subdued than normal after going back to their tower only to find that the so-called leader of their pack was gone. While many people still denied they did anything wrong, ‘faggot’ or not, Harry Potter was sorely missed.

This was first noticed during an evening in the Gryffindor common room.

Hermione had been, as usual, pressuring her friends to get a move on studying for their N.E.W.T.s. Now, as you can imagine, this nagging would get annoying for the aforementioned friends every once in a while and, as per usual, Ron turned to face where Harry would normally sit to roll his eyes behind Hermione’s back and ask him to play a game of chess; imagine his surprise then when Harry was nowhere in sight.
After a strained period of quiet, the friends dispersed to go to bed.

The second incident happened during the Quidditch match of Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. The two teams had been tied at 130 points each and, as usual, it was down to the performance of the seeker. Ginny Weasley had been brought in as the last minute replacement seeker and, while she put up a valiant fight, was no match for Ravenclaw’s Cho Chang. However, as Cho captured the snitch and essentially won the game for Ravenclaw, it was blaringly obvious that something was missing. Looking around the field she saw that only a small proportion of the cloud was cheering for most people hadn’t even been focussed on watching the seekers and were only just realising what had happened. A bigger difference however was that the other team’s seeker was still at the other end of the field. Feeling oddly dejected at the lack of competition, Cho and the rest of the Ravenclaw team dismounted as did the Gryffindor team; it had been four years since Gryffindor had last lost a Quidditch match so normally, beating them would have been a great achievement however today, nobody felt like celebrating. There had been no enthusiasm and screaming for the teams as per normal from the crowd, there was none of the pre-match tension and none of the post-match house parties. There was no real competition during the game and, most obviously, there was no Harry Potter; captain and seeker extraordinaire of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Over the next couple of weeks, life continued as normal in Hogwarts; lessons were still held, games still played and there were still meals to go to but throughout it all, it was becoming more and more obvious to the staff and students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry what a grave mistake they made over an issue, now so seemingly insignificant.

Ron, Hermione and, yes, even Malfoy had been walking around with dark circles under their eyes as of late as their guilt had been keeping them tossing and turning throughout the night. Tensions had been rising through the school and more breakdowns happening as stress of the school year combined with other problems took its toll on everyone.

Then the final incident happened;

It was a normal day at Hogwarts, well as normal as Hogwarts ever gets anyway; everybody was at the Great Hall for breakfast when the owls came swooping in to deliver the morning post. It was not long before the quiet calm of breakfast was disrupted with hushed whispers and angry outbreaks as many read the Daily Prophet.



Attacks on Ministry of Magic; Raids

Early this morning, a squad of Aurors and members of the elusive Order of the Phoenix was dispatched to the Ministry of Magic building as unknown sources reported a minor Death Eater break in. However, the forces from the light side were sorely misinformed as over fifty death eaters were waiting for their imminent arrival.

Current reports stand at four death eaters imprisoned, two killed, nine Aurors severely injured, three killed and one Order of the Phoenix member missing.

For more details, see page 11.



As students and teachers alike hurriedly looked through the wizarding newspaper for news of their loves ones, one realisation struck home especially hard;
The war would not end until one, Harry Potter, Golden Boy and Saviour of the Wizarding World, ended it. The war could not end until the one person they had hurt above all others, the one who had no reason to fight for them, ended it.

As guilt turned to worry, Order Members, Aurors and friends alike set up plans to search for Harry Potter and bring him back, that is, if he was even still alive.


A/N: Hm… sorry about the short chapter… they will probably start getting longer soon…
Thanks to all those *cough* two people *cough* that reviewed the first chapter…

Please Review!