The Disappearance

Chapter 2

Six months past, nothing has been heard about the boy who lived. They usually say no news is good news, but in this case no news is bad news. Hermione was doing her best to keep from cracking up. Ron on the other hand had become more distant, most people thought this was the way he was coping with Harry's disappearance.

As today was the day that the ministry was telling the wizarding world that Harry Potter was dead, they decided after six months of searching for "the boy who lived", as they took it upon themselves to declare it, now in the Daily Prophet they were now calling him "the boy who lived and died".

Remus Lupin took the paper from the owl on that fateful morning, he just glanced at the front page, and went pale, at that very moment Sirius Black walked in through the door still half asleep not noticing that Remus had gone a deathly white.

"Remus, what's in the news on this fine morning?" enquired Sirius,

Lupin replied, "Something you won't like." something in the tone of Lupin's voice made Sirius start

"What is it?" Sirius asked reaching for the paper, Lupin tried to hide from him, but Black had seen part of the front page, a photo of his Godson smiled back at him. "What's Harry been up to this time?" wondered Black, as he took the paper from Lupin's hand. When Black saw the headline, he went pale, then his face started to go as scarlet as the Hogwarts Express, then he bellowed "Why wasn't I told about Harry going missing?"

"I don't know I'll owl Dumbledore to see what's going on."

Back to Hogwarts

Karl Vagstav, as head boy was going round his duties. Was thinking how familiar the place is, and yet he had never set foot in the school before the start of term in September. He was placed into Gryffindor even with him coming from Durmstrang; the sorting hat had seen something of Gryffindor qualities in him.

Karl had heard so much about the boy who lived in the six months he had been in Britain. He thought about the dangers that Harry had been through and how Ron and Hermione were hurting at the moment, as their best friend had now been declared dead, he thought now was not the best time to become friends with them. He often saw Hermione as she is the head girl, and thought she was very pretty indeed.

Meanwhile Dumbledore was being bombarded with owls from the wizarding world one letter in particular was written in a very angry tone, Dumbledore recognized the writing right away, he opened the letter to read, and became very shocked that Sirius has not been told about Harry going missing and being declared dead. Dumbledore wrote back immediately telling Sirius that he was sorry he had not been told, but as ministry agents had been round the school most of the time, he was not able to write.

Meanwhile, in a house a hundred miles away from Hogwarts, a man with a silver hand was waiting, for a more powerful being than himself. Lord Voldemort strode over to the man and said "Well is the plan going as according to plan?" "Yes master" Wormtail wheezed "the boy is planted in Hogwarts thinking that he is new to the school, but we know otherwise."

Flashback six months

A lonely house in Bulgaria, sat a man thinking how it would be to have his son back. The only thing he could remember about him was his violet eyes. A man had said he would find him (this man had a silver hand), a few days back he had received word that Karl had been found and that they would be bringing him home within the week.

When they brought him back, he was unconscious and he looked thinner, than what he had remembered, but it had been four years he had been seen last. When the men had left, James Vagstav wrote a letter to Professor Albus Dumbledore ask him if it was alright for Karl to continue his studies at Hogwarts. He decided not to put any explanation.

Back to the present.......

As the year progressed, Ron was becoming more and more distant; he was spending more and more time away from Gryffindor tower and Hermione. The other Gryffindor's thought that it was strange, but put it down to Harry going missing then being declared dead

Hermione spent more time sat in Gryffindor Tower, at the present Ron was absent again. Hermione sat reading the Daily Prophet, when she suddenly started after reading an article in the paper. Hermione ran out of the portrait hole and straight to Professor Dumbledore's office, along with the newspaper still in her hand. When she reached the gargoyle, it opened revealing Professor McGonagall "Hermione what are you here and not in the common room?"

"Professor, look at what I found in the Daily Prophet!" Hermione said. Professor McGonagall looked at the article that Hermione was pointed at; she gasped and told Hermione to follow her up to Professor Dumbledore's office.

When they entered after knocking Professor Dumbledore looked up from some work he was doing "Professor McGonagall, Miss Granger what a pleasure. What do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Hermione walked over to him and placed the Daily Prophet in front of him and asked "Have you seen this yet sir?" Dumbledore looked down and read the article and then looked up at both Professor McGonagall and Hermione.

"Professor" began Hermione "what does this mean, Dr Katherine Riley, cousin of the late James Potter missing. I thought that Harry had no family left"

"We never told Harry about Katherine, because of the fact she went across to live in America and finally married the Minister of Magic over there David Riley, but she didn't know about Harry as all contact between herself and James became non-existent. Not because they fell out, they just lost contact due to Miss Potter moving across to America, shortly after she finished studying here at Hogwarts. Before the beginning of this term she was going to pick Harry up to bring him directly to Hogwarts, but as you know Harry vanished. I wrote to Katherine and got no reply. I started to get worried, when David her husband wrote to me to tell me that Katherine had also vanished around the same time that Harry had gone missing. So there you have it. I couldn't say anything about what had happened with Katherine due to what had happened with Harry. With two Potters going missing at the same time would have brought major panic to the wizarding community" explained Dumbledore to Hermione and Professor McGonagall, then Dumbledore continued by saying "Hermione everything I told you is not to be repeated outside of this room, if people knew about Katherine then the Minister Riley in America would be in more danger.