A World Without

The stars above him were fading into dawn when he came too, his head was pounding viciously and a quick survey of the area told him he was alone. Harry stared mournfully at the gates of the Hogwarts, the deatheaters were gone and Harry's anger left with them leaving him numb.

Harry looked towards Hagrid's hut, hoping that the games keeper was able to make it to safely when the deatheater started it on fire, but in the soft light of the rising sun, the hut seemed perfectly undamaged. He walked slowly to the hut, his bruised and in some places bloody body protested the movement, but he needed to make sure Hagrid was alright. The vegetable patch around the hut was barren and as Harry drew closer he could see the windows were fifthly, the house was seemingly abandoned and looked as if it had been for years.

Confused Harry made his way to the castle, he tried to not look towards the astronomy tower, but his gaze led him to the base, to where the body of the greatest wizard he had ever known should lay. But there was no body, a burst of hope flew through his veins, perhaps it had been a ruse, maybe he was truly alive.

Harry ran to the front doors, they stood undamaged even though Harry knew they had been blackened only the night before when the deatheaters blasted them open. He pulled open the door just enough for him to slip through, closing the massive piece of wood behind him. The smears of blood were gone from the flagstone and the hall was eerily quite, all the rubies that had spilled from the broken Gryffindor had been cleaned from the floor and the hourglass repaired. Harry couldn't help but notice the amount of points for his house had dropped to almost nothing, while the Slytherin hourglass was filled to the brim.

Harry walked silently through the halls towards the Headmasters office, his wand at the ready. Where was everyone? Hogwarts should be crawling with aurors by now. A few early risers passed him in the halls, giving him awkward looks as they hurried past him, but he nor they stopped for questioning. The gargoyle guarding the Headmaster's office was soon in sight.

"Toffee éclairs." Harry said softly to the guardian, but the password did not work. Fifteen minutes later he had gone through all the candy and sweets he could think of without any luck. Perhaps the office had been locked when... Harry couldn't even think it, couldn't accept it without seeing Dumbledore's body. He left the corridor and made his way towards Gryffindor tower, eyes on his feet, not wanting anyone he passed to see the tears of frustration and sorrow running down his cheeks. What was going on? Had the whole attack been some horrible dream?

"Potter!! What happened to you!! Another one of your pranks gone bad?" Harry wiped the tears from his cheeks before turning to look at the person who had spoken to him, the face was familiar, but he couldn't remember it ever looking so young. Perhaps Rodolphus Lestrange had been a handsome man before he was imprisoned, as the man who stood before him was defiantly handsome, unlike the broken and aged man he had seen at the Department of Mysterious last year.

"Professor Lestrange, I have asked you and Professor Potter time and again to please use your titles around the students, we wouldn't want to set a bad example now would we." His head of house looked aged, well she always had looked old, but her grey hair was now almost completely white, and the lines around her eyes were deep. Why wasn't she drawing her wand? Why did she call a deatheater Professor? Why did she call him Professor?

"My apologies Headmistress McGonagall. See you both at breakfast, Professor Potter." The world had officially gone insane, it was too much for Harry to process and he went to his knees, clutching his head in his hands.

"Professor Potter!! Potter!! James what is wrong!!"