Pack!

               Chapter Twenty-Eight

               The evening seemed to still in anticipation. One moment Hogwarts stood as she had always done, looming large in both reality and imagination, the next had the landscape forever changed with her absence. The moment turned solemn, the assembled crowd realizing the changes were culminating into closure of their lives here.

               Minus the illumination from Hogwarts, the view was now lit only by a few lumos lights hovering in key positions. With the shadows taking different profiles, it took a moment for them to see Remus Lupin walking slowly toward them, the box containing Hogwarts held before him. He looked both sad and joyous, a complicated emotion that every person present from young to old understood in full, for in that instant, they all felt the same.

               Harry let the scene play for some moments, he didn’t want to cut short anyone’s chance to take things in and begin processing, but finally, as the countdown clock began it’s last ten minutes, and at with Remus’ nod of approval, he rose overhead on his broom once more. “Sonorus. Well, here we are and just look at us! I’m so glad it’s all of you I get to have this adventure with, and so proud to know you all, even if I don’t know you just yet. Thank you for believing in our mad escapade, I’ll never stop being grateful for it. And that’s about enough talk; I think it’s time to see what the future brings, don’t you?” He looked around at those he knew and those he didn’t just yet, feeling his heart swell. “I think it’s time. Would the A through F group and the G through L group please stand up? Could all able bodied adults without children, from those two groups only, please move to the front? We’d like to ensure we have a strong presence in place before we send the youngsters through. First and second group, once you have yourselves organized, please send your initial groups of adults through. Once they’re through, Remus, you and Hogwarts are next. After that, the remainder of A to F and G to L can follow. There is no rush, please take your time and watch your footing, don’t crowd the portal. M through R and S to Z, please follow in order, no need to separate anyone out.”

               For the next hour, he watched person after person walk through the portal. Some hesitated, throwing a backward glance. Others walked through gripping another’s hand, finding courage in togetherness. There was no grumbling to hurry up, a very peaceful aura blanketing them and muffling the pain of departure from the familiar and leaving acceptance, even if tinged with a bit of sadness.

               And finally, it was just Harry, Sirius, the elves, and a couple of trees nearly covered with owls of all shapes and sizes including many not native to Britain, his own Hedwig among them with her white feathers reflecting the lumos light. Moppy had told him owls had been making their way to Hogwarts for two days, quietly taking a perch in the owlery or nearby forest. Moppy had thought they might be wild owls, Harry was just thankful for whatever instinct led them here.

               “Taddy, would you please lead the elves through? If you wouldn’t mind locating Remus once across? He’ll have things well in hand, I’m sure, but could no doubt use your assistance. Hedwig? Would you escort your fellow owls through? You’re all free to roam, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t get too far away until we reassure ourselves that the environment is safe for you. If you’re hungry, we’ll ensure you get fed as soon as possible, but we’d like to get a look at any wild prey animals before you go off hunting, again to ensure your safety.”

               Harry took his last look around once everyone else had gone and then turned to face the portal, tilting his head a bit to the side, seeing Sirius step into place beside him, a hand dropping onto his shoulder. Sirius’ gaze was fixed forward, looking at the portal with impatient eagerness. Had he been in his animagus form, Padfoot’s tail would have been imitating the blur of a hummingbird’s wing. “All right, pup?” At Harry’s decisive nod he continued, “Let’s go find the future.” With that they stepped forward, passing through with a final ripple to the portal.

               As they stepped through the portal, the atmosphere around them began to shift and change. Colors become more vibrant, sounds became more pronounced, even the air felt different on their skin. Harry felt a sense of excitement and anticipation as he took his first steps into a new world. The landscape was different enough to raise the hair on the back of his neck, foreign but not, with strange colors enveloping familiar objects. The sky was the same, except no, not quite. It was as if the entire color scale had slightly shifted. The fact that the sun was out at right now was jarring to their sense of time, and the ground felt a little bouncier underfoot as they continued walking forward. “Hello world,” Harry said in greeting, before turning to engulf Sirius in a tight hug.

               Had anyone been able to see the land they left behind, they might have been a bit, just a bit, terrified. Thirty minutes after Sirius’s right boot heel passed through, the portal winked out of existence. And though he’d never know it, it was thanks to his impatience and a desire not to sit outside over a Scottish night that allowed Harry Potter to save the last group of Magicals in England.

               For their future mental well-being, it was a Very Good Thing no one had stopped to ponder the details of what would happen to the Calais alert once the runestones went active. The alert was triggered, but the backlash in energy that would have notified Remus was swallowed whole, a runestone having been placed nearly on top of the charm. As it also happens and as it was feared, the Channel wasn’t enough of a water barrier to halt the runestones effects. Less than thirty minutes after the death of the Calais warning and with the effects moving faster than predicted, the Dover warning tripped. Again the energy that would have notified Remus failed to escape the runestones grasp. It would have benefited no one to know the runestones effects were a mere 300 yards from the Hogwarts wards, the open wards, mind you, when the last of Team Clueless stepped across.

               As to what happened to Hermione and Ron? It would be many years, decades, in fact, before a Jane Doe was found on a small rocky beach in Scotland, remnants of a small boat run aground nearby, and later yet before John Doe saw daylight, having been located in an underground chamber in Devon. Their wooden wands having long since weathered away to ash, and with no one coming forth with even a local legend of who they might be, they faded into an unsolved case that no one took much trouble over, meeting their well deserved ends in obscurity. Their desire for fame, riches, and importance were defeated by their own ill considered actions and time.