Chapter 5
He’s dead:
Albus Dumbledore was a little concerned. His deputy head explained to him that she had received responses from every first year listed to go to Hogwarts in September, except Harry Potter. Albus decided to send Hagrid as he believed the Dursley’s were trying to prevent Harry from starting his magical education. Albus always knew Harry would not have a good life with the Dursley’s, but he knew it was the safest place for the boy. So many death eaters bought their way out of going to jail and they would go after Harry, as he was the one that made Voldemort disappear.
Hagrid returned to explain that no one was home. He did say he snuck into the house but could not find any sign that any other children lived there, apart from Dudley Dursley. There was no second child’s bedroom, no pictures of another child either. Now Albus was becoming anxious. He decided to go speak with Petunia, he would do that around dinner time, as that’s when most people were home.
Petunia told her two men to keep eating, that she would answer the door. The moment she saw the man in brightly coloured robes, she knew who he was and why he was here.
‘What do you want?’ She snarled.
‘I have come to take Harry to Hogwarts.’
‘You mean the boy you dumped on my doorstep on a cold night. Well, I have some news for you…wizard. My family were away at that time, we returned to find a dead baby on my doorstep. He had bled to death, from that nasty looking scar on his head, but he also could have froze to death. I took him to the hospital and left him there. It was lucky I found the note beforehand since I couldn’t really explain about your world. How could you just leave my sister’s baby on a doorstep without knocking on the door? I always thought you people were idiots and you proved it that night by not even bothering to find out if we were home, nor taking him to a doctor. Now return to your useless world and leave us alone,’ Petunia slammed the door, then stood for a minute to bring her breathing under control. She had worked on that story ever since that night, but she had just changed it.
Harry didn’t die, Petunia instantly took him and slipped him into a hospital and left him there with a note saying his parent’s had died and she didn’t want to raise another child. She left and never heard anything about the boy. She had always known that sooner or later someone from that world would turn up. Now they had.
Petunia peered through the curtain to see the old wizard staggering away as he moved slowly away from the house. From what she could see, the wizard believed her story. Hopefully now that would be the end of it. Even if she got another visit, she wouldn’t change her story. If they found out he was alive, somehow, she knew nothing about the boy and she didn’t want to know anything. The last she saw of him was when she left him at the hospital. But now was also the time for her to finish her plans, her plan to get her family to move away from Little Whinging. She knew there would be no use moving before, she was sure the old man would be able to find her because he placed the baby there and since she was Lily’s sister and the boy was Lily’s son. Petunia didn’t understand what magic could do and she didn’t want to. She wanted nothing to do with the world her sister belonged to.
Albus Dumbledore was in shock. He walked slowly down the road thinking about what he had been told. He wasn’t even paying attention. All he could think about was Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, died, due to a mistake that he made. He only saw a small bit of blood on the boy and believed the bleeding had stopped. It also didn’t dawn on him that the Dursley’s would not be home, since it was the middle of the night. It was a cold night, but he had placed warming charms that would have kept Harry warm, but only until the follow day. Since they weren’t there, they didn’t find Harry, so Albus believed that when the warming charm ended, Harry froze to death. It could have been the scar, which made Albus believe he should have taken Harry to see Poppy before leaving him with Petunia. He should have knocked on the door and spoken to them. He should have done a lot of things differently. Now, he will never know how Harry died. Was it due to the scar, or was it because he was left out in the cold and found days later. He realised he had basically killed Harry Potter. He was so into his thoughts of what happened to the boy that he didn’t see or hear the car that struck him. Albus died instantly.
It was late that night when Minerva called the rest of the staff to her office. She explained how Albus was missing and no one has seen or heard from him. Hagrid explained about Harry Potter and how Albus planned to go visit Lily’s sister, to explain to them that Harry will be coming to Hogwarts.
Minerva knew she would now have to visit the muggle world and Petunia Dursley to find out what happened to Albus. She dismissed the staff then picked up her wand from her desk. Before she left the office, an owl flew down and landed on her desk. Minerva was in a hurry but she took the letter and began to read it as she walked towards her fireplace.
The staff at Hogwarts grumbled as they got another call from Minerva. They made their way to her office, only to find her bent down and speaking with someone from the ministry.
Filius could tell something was wrong, then he saw the letter on her desk. He began to read.
‘Oh my.’
‘What is it Filius?’ Pomona asked.
‘This letter is from a squib called Arabella Figg who lives not far from Lily Potter’s sister. It seems Albus went to speak with Petunia Dursley about why Harry never responded to his Hogwarts letter. She didn’t know what happened until after Albus left. He was struck by one of those muggle carriages, he’s dead. She also explained that she overheard Petunia Dursley, that’s Lily’s sister, explain about the dead baby boy she found on the doorsteps when she returned from holidays with her family years before. It seems the boy bled to death from the strange scar on his forehead.’
‘The-boy-who-lived is dead because he bled to death instead of being taken to see a healer,’ Rolanda said in a growl.
‘When did Harry Potter die?’
‘Right after his parent’s died,’ Minerva said as she faced the staff, ‘Albus worked on strong wards that connected Harry and Lily’s blood to her blood sister. It would keep anyone like death eaters away and if Voldemort returned, he would not find the boy either. I was upset that night and tried to explain to Albus that Petunia was a nasty woman. But they are not to blame for the boy’s death as they were not even home at the time. They had been away, on holidays. I just informed the minister about Albus, but I did not mention Harry Potter. We need more information, on the muggle aurors investigation. But going on what Arabella said, there won’t be much of an investigation apart from trying to figure out how the parents of the baby died.’
‘You will need someone who knows the muggle world and who would also know how to get that information. From what my niece has told me, the muggle’s now use some contraption called a computer, they store all information on that and those computers link to others. If you erase the information from one it doesn’t erase from the others,’ aurora said. ‘I don’t know much more than that.’
‘There are a few aurors who I know have links to the muggle world. Nymphadora Tonks is an auror trainee and her father is muggleborn. I will contact her. There’s not really a lot to investigate as we know what happened and it’s not a priority right now. As Arabella said, they know how the boy died so they were trying to find out more about the parents but that investigation was basically stopped years ago. I doubt there will be much to investigate or even find. It would be good to have the official documents even if it doesn’t really help. It’s not something we have to do right now. For now though, the minister has put me in charge until the governors decide who will be the new headmaster.’
‘You mean that Lucius Malfoy will work on a way to put someone he is close to in charge,’ Pomona said.
The staff all knew that Lucius Malfoy had paid a lot of money to stay out of jail. They also knew he was a death eater and still supports Voldemort. Without Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts, Lucius Malfoy will get someone he wants to run the school, when in reality, he would be in charge.
Many of the staff were people who the death eaters and Voldemort would not hesitate to kill. Filius is a half human half goblin, Hagrid is half giant, the rest of the staff apart from Quinirius, are half-bloods or muggleborns. Minerva was going to speak with each member privately. She had an idea, but it was something she would need help with. She already knew she was going to leave Hogwarts, but she was also going to take the book of names of the new students with her, along with the files on the students who are muggleborns. The book had been charmed by the four founders so they would always know when a magical child was born. Then someone would go see the child and explain about Hogwarts. The founders originally brought the magical person to Hogwarts for their safety. But after the wizarding world officially separated from the muggle world, it was mainly used to bring a magical child to Hogwarts so they could learn how to use their magic safely. All magical children were to be educated and without prejudice, it’s what the founders wanted. It did not matter if they were born to wizarding families or muggle families. It was only the pure-blood’s like Lucius Malfoy who was a death eater that didn’t want muggleborns at Hogwarts.
Minerva knew she would need to visit all the muggleborns and explain how Hogwarts was going to be and how much danger they could find themselves in. She was also going against all the rules when she tells them that if they live in England and don’t do their education at Hogwarts, the student will have their wands snapped and their memories of magic obliviated. Their families would also be obliviated, but the student would also have their magic bound. It was time she helped those students before they found themselves trapped in a world where they had no hope for the future but also there was a chance that Lucius Malfoy will make sure those muggleborns end up dead. She also planned to speak with the house elves. Since she was the headmistress, at the moment, they would do as she ordered, but she would ask them first. She knew that the house elves always put the students safety first so she already knew they would do what she asked. She also asked the house elves for one more thing, they were to quickly remove ever book from the Hogwarts library. She told them where to take them and explained why she wanted this done. All that had to be done quickly as she knew it wouldn’t be long before Malfoy was in charge.
The following morning, Minerva spoke private to each staff member she believed would agree with her and wish to help. She did not speak with Severus Snape or Quinirius Quirrell. She did not believe Snape had changed at all. He treated children of light families like all death eaters treat them. He also made sure that his Slytherin pure-bloods were given alibi’s to make sure they got away with the things they did. She also decided not to speak with Sybil Trelawney. Minerva thought the woman was a fraud she was just good at guessing or getting information on people to make it seem like she is seeing the future.
It was exactly as they thought. Lucius Malfoy had worked it to place one of his people as headmaster of Hogwarts, Dolores Umbridge. Then the governors along with the new headmistress worked on some new rules that the students and staff followed.
Lucius will make sure that no pure-blood student could get into any trouble for attacking a muggleborn. The teachers were also able to punish muggleborns whenever they wanted. If a muggleborn hurt a pure-blood in any way, they would instantly be sent to Azkaban, it didn’t matter if they were eleven or seventeen.
When they had all the rules and laws for Hogwarts ready, the new headmistress and governors went to Hogwarts.
What they found was a deserted castle. No staff, no house elves, no library, no personal effects. The only students that had climbed out of the carriages were the pure-bloods. The students didn’t know what was going on so they just sat in the great hall. They were going to give it an hour before they notified their parents and the ministry.
Minerva McGonagall, along with most of the staff from Hogwarts began to teach the muggleborns that wanted to learn magic. Along with half-bloods who lived in the muggle world. This would not be like Hogwarts were students stayed at the school. Between all of the staff they worked on places that the students could appear by portkey, so they could get home every afternoon. If there was a child who’s parent’s didn’t like the fact their child was a witch or wizard, then the child would remain at the new school. Again, it would be the same if they found an orphaned witch or wizard.
Minerva had unsealed her families home, which was an old castle in Scotland. She had worked with Filius to enchant the castle so no one could find it unless they had a rune mark placed between their toes. This would also stop the ministry from picking up on any magic at the castle. Albus had taught her how to make portkeys and how to make sure no one from the ministry ever found out. The staff were going to do all they could to keep these students safe from being found. Once they did their owls, which could be done overseas, then the child would keep his or her wand rights even if they didn’t want to continue their education. Between Minerva and some of the staff, they all had contacts in many different countries. But Minerva and the staff all believed it would be safer to wait until the student turned seventeen. The student would know enough to be able to protect themselves, but also fight or use wards to protect their homes. None of the staff trusted people at the ministry and could change the laws so a student could still have their wands snapped until they became an adult.
The staff planned to teach the students more than what was normally allowed by the ministry. They would do everything in their power to make sure these children had the best hope of having a good, but safe life. Minerva brought in a few muggleborns and squibs to teach muggle subjects as well. She knew that a muggleborn will never get a job in the ministry here. They either went overseas or returned to the muggle world.
Filius had extra help, from the goblins. Any student that had a vault would have extra security so the ministry could not confiscate the contents. Filius did ask about Harry Potter’s vaults since they were told he was dead. The goblins did not believe he died since their death notification room did not add the boy’s name. Filius wasn’t sure what to do, apart from inform Minerva what he had found out. They could try to find out what happened to Harry Potter, because he would be in danger from those like Lucius Malfoy.
Minerva had spoken to Garrick Ollivander and explained the situation. He was more than happy to help. Garrick would sell the new students their wands, but he would not have any type of records about the sales. He also asked Minerva to place the information under the fidelius charm. If the ministry questioned him using veritaserum, he could not reveal the truth about the students that were now being taught by the former teachers of Hogwarts.
The moment the new students arrived; Minerva had removed the trace from every wand. Garrick had explained to her how to do it and it would need to be done straight away. She did not want the ministry to find these students or people that worked in the ministry that were dark could hurt them, or worse, kill them. She wanted to give them a fighting chance. Allow them to learn, not just magic, but muggle subjects as well, that way they could keep their magic to use if they wanted, but work in the muggle world, which would be safer.
Minerva had contacted some of Albus’s old friends and asked them to help out at the school, most did. She also contacted the Tonks family and explained about Albus and Harry Potter. Nymphadora was going to use her metamorphmagus abilities to get into the police station and into their computers to find out what happened to Harry Potter. They needed to know if he did died and if he did, they wanted the boy buried with his parents. If he wasn’t dead, they had to make sure he was safe. The trouble was, she was not up to date with all the new programs that computers used. There had been no use so she hadn’t bothered learning. It could mean she has to take the time to learn before she went into the police files.
When the ministry tried to find all the muggleborns and half-bloods who had been at Hogwarts, they came up empty. Their homes had been sold to new people who didn’t know anything about the previous occupants. All children under the age of eleven could not be found as their families address was not registered at the ministry and doesn’t until the child turns eleven. But while they were trying to find these students, others began to realise what was about to happen to their world. Without the muggleborns and half-bloods, their world would not survive. There just wasn’t enough pure-bloods to keep the government going or places like Diagon alley. Since most pure-bloods only ever had one child, their world would slowly shrink until there was not enough people to keep it going.
The pure-bloods would never admit it, but they were lucky if they got one child and if they had more than usually the other was born a squib. But many of the pure-bloods just could not conceive. Some blamed muggleborns and muggles, they said they had some type of disease that affected the noble pure-bloods. The truth was, it was caused by inbreeding. All pure-bloods were related and too closely related so their either had a squib child or one with hardly any power and they could only conceive once, if they were one of the lucky ones.
The ministry had the aurors seize Gringotts. He wanted the money from the vaults of those who weren’t at Hogwarts. He found out that the vaults of those half-bloods that disappeared had been emptied. They weren’t emptied, it was just the extra goblin magic that made the people from the ministry believe they were empty.
Without the money from the vaults or those spending money, their world was going to become tougher to live. Many from the ministry already knew what was going to happen. Their world will die, due to old families beliefs that they had to stay pure or their magic would safer. The truth was, they had to “breed” with non pure-bloods if they had any hope of surviving.
After trying to call the house elves from Hogwarts to return and none did, they found all the house elves from the ministry and St Mungo’s also gone. Animals such as the unicorns and centaurs were gone from the forbidden forest but they weren’t the only ones. All the animals were gone. Any tree that was used for wands had also disappeared. All that was left were large holes in the earth.
After some investigation they found out that everyone and everything from Hogwarts disappeared not long after Albus Dumbledore died. Right now, the ministry, who was being lead by the nose by Lucius Malfoy, blamed Dumbledore. They went with a story that he somehow hexed Hogwarts so if he died, it would be empty of magical artifacts and students who were not pure-bloods.
Hogwarts could not remain open with less than a hundred students, but they also didn’t have the books, sorting hat or any way to feed the students. They also didn’t have any staff to teach the students. There wasn’t enough people at the ministry who could teach most of the main core subjects. Now it would be up to the parents to teach their children.
Years before, a small boy named Harry, who at the age of two years old, had been adopted. The young couple decided to changed the boy’s name to Martin since they were starting a new life, just as the child was about to begin a new life so they believed a new name would be best.
It was only a year later that the couple adopted another child, a girl. Right after everything was finalised, the family moved away from England. No one in the wizarding world would ever find out what happened to the-boy-who-lived.
The end: