Like every morning, the Great Hall of Hogwarts was buzzing with students' laughter and voices, but unlike every day, their topic of discussion for today was very specific.
Harry Potter.
Even those sitting at the Gryffindor table were among the talkers, except for three. Neville, Ron, and Hermione.
They all sat in the middle with their head down, focusing on the food in front of them. Neville made several attempts to begin a conversation but failed to find the correct words each time.
Finally, like it had been going for the past few months, it was Hermione who broke the silence.
"I saw Professor McGonagall acting...strangely, just now. She looked worried. Really worried." Just before breakfast, Hermione had seen Professor McGonagall pacing outside the staff room, her expression agitated. It was a rare sight to see her so troubled.
Ron raised an eyebrow, causing a reaction after a long time, but after a few seconds, he regained his now usual silent behaviour.
Neville, on the other hand, could not keep calm and asked, "Do you think this is related to Harry?"
"I noticed that she was talking with Professor Flitwick, and they both looked… tense. But as soon as I got near, both of them stopped talking and greeted me. They then looked at me as if waiting for me to leave before continuing their conversation."
Hermione was sure that something huge was happening behind the scenes, but she could not figure it out.
Just then, the sound of fluttering wings filled the hall, and Hermione glanced up, watching as dozens of owls dived to deliver the morning's post. Several students received letters and parcels, laughing and chatting as they unwrapped them. But the usual carefree atmosphere turned noticeably colder as a handful of owls landed at various tables, dropping the 'Daily Prophet' onto waiting hands.
Hermione's gaze fell on her copy, dropped onto her plate by a rather scruffy-looking owl. She reached for it, and just as her fingers brushed the front page, she froze. Her eyes widened in shock, her hand trembling as she stared at the headline that was written across the page in bold, black letters.
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No. No... no, no. This could not be happening. Hermione froze.
Around her, many students were also learning about the news. Seeing the tense reaction and Hermione's shock, Ron took the newspaper.
As he read the breaking news, he realized that their nightmare had taken a darker turn.
---
The emerald flames of the Floo Network roared to life, and out of it emerged the figure of a wizard.
Albus Dumbledore had used the Floo Network as magical transportation to reach the Ministry of Magic. As soon as he received the letter about the disappearance of Harry Potter, he gathered all the professors at Hogwarts to brief them about the event and also sent a message to each member of the Order of Phoenix.
Dumbledore was sure that even if the many members of the Order of Phoenix were not on the same terms as him right now, they would follow his order to get out and begin searching different places for a clue about Harry Potter.
Still, there were a few he could not reach. Merlin knew where Sirius was. He could only hope that the latter was not going to be captured or do anything rash.
The other one was Kingsley Shacklebolt. Normally, the latter was always the first to give him insider news for the Ministry. But Dumbledore guessed that, with the ongoing situation, he might be extremely busy.
For Dumbledore, from the moment he received the message till now, not many minutes had passed, and thus he was shocked when he found a group of wizards already waiting in the hall.
Among them were Rita Seeker from the Daily Prophet, Lucius Malfoy, and several other wizards from the wizarding world. Being a well-known wizard, all heads turned as soon as Dumbledore appeared. Rita Seeker rushed in front of the headmaster and wasted no time in firing her question.
"Professor Dumbledore!" she called out, "Is it true that Harry Potter has gone missing? And what of the Azkaban attack? Were you aware..."
Just as Dumbledore was about to silence her questioning, two figures came from the other side. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was walking toward the crowd. By his side was the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Amelia Bones.
Usually, the Minister of Magic was the focus of attention in these situations, but this time, all eyes were fixed on Amelia Bones.
After all, why not? Considering the condition she was in.
Her face was pale, and her robes were scorched in places, revealing dark burn marks beneath the fabric. Bandages wrapped around her arms and hands, and there was a streak of dried blood just above her left brow.
Amelia Bones was known for being a skilled witch, so seeing her like this caused every wizard there to be momentarily paused.
She arrived in front of the crowd, and before anyone could begin questioning, she started talking.
"As everyone knows, today, the 3rd of December, is supposed to be the release date for Harry Potter from Azkaban. So, as the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I had to make the decision which Aurors and at what time we would go to retrieve the boy. But I know there may be an unknown force at play, so I decided to feed different information to everyone in case there were any traitors among us. One false time that we gave was that at noon, we would send the envoy.
Instead, there was a secret group of five Aurors, including myself, who left undercover early in the morning at five. Our journey to Azkaban was without any issues. But when we arrived at the prison, we noticed an unusual presence. There was a dark dog. Just as we were about to follow it, someone began attacking us. When the attacker saw that he could not defeat the five of us, he bombarded Azkaban, and the prisoner was free."
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd, as they realized the result of such an action. The only person who was thinking differently was Dumbledore, who guessed that the black dog must have been Sirius Black.
Amelia paused and swallowed after speaking continuously for so long.
"As you all guessed, now the five of us were at a disadvantage against so many prisoners; many of them were Death Eaters. While the four other Aurors were trying to keep the Death Eaters in check, I pursued the original attacker and saw that his target was Harry Potter. The attacker grabbed the boy and began escaping. The two of us began exchanging spells, but when one of the Death Eaters launched a spell against me, I had to defend, but this caused me to lose to the escaping attacker carrying Harry Potter."