Missing

Missing

Chapter 1

Please, please forgive me,

But I won't be home again.

Maybe someday you'll look up,

And, barely conscious, you'll say to no one:

"Isn't something missing?"

You won't cry for my absence, I know -

You forgot me long ago.

Am I that unimportant...?

Am I so insignificant...?

Isn't something missing?

Isn't someone missing me?

Even though I'm the sacrifice,

You won't try for me, not now.

Though I'd die to know you love me,

I'm all alone.

Isn't someone missing me?

Please, please forgive me,

But I won't be home again.

I know what you do to yourself,

I breathe deep and cry out,

"Isn't something missing?

Isn't someone missing me?"

Even though I'm the sacrifice,

You won't try for me, not now.

Though I'd die to know you love me,

I'm all alone.

Isn't someone missing me?

And if I bleed, I'll bleed,

Knowing you don't care.

And if I sleep just to dream of you

I'll wake without you there,

Isn't something missing?

Isn't something...

Missing, By Evanescence

***

The quiet and stillness of the castle was broken, as the sound of footsteps on a cobbled floor echoed. An elderly, longhaired man, who possessed an air of wisdom and strength, walked towards the castle door accompanied by two men and a woman. All were moving fast. All with identical looks of grimness on their faces.

"Are you sure we should be leaving the children alone?" the female voice asked.

"They are perfectly safe here." came the short, swift response.

And so they continued out the door, down the path, past the black iron gates, and after nodding to the large, bearded keeper of the keys, they disappeared with a small pop. The iron gates clanged shut, and the key turned creakily in its lock, ensuring that no one would enter or leave Hogwarts until the group returned.

***

Another pop, and the same group materialized on a darkened street. Each glanced around to make sure that their unnatural appearance had drawn no attention.

"Which one is the Grang...?"

The woman stopped as she glanced to the sky and saw the green light. It emanated from a skull with a snake wrapped around it, glowing and sparkling, as if to invite them to come across the threshold, to find out what damage had been wreaked. A shiver went through the elderly lady's body as they proceeded to walk up to the house. The muggle authorities would not be alerted; the aurors had already made sure that no one had heard a thing, and while the neighborhood slept, a war had raged on inside this house. And tomorrow, one unlucky student at Hogwarts would wake up an orphan. One unlucky student would told that they had no home to go back to.

A sallow faced man led the way, opening the door and stepping in. His wand was at the ready and his eyes were searching the room for anything...unexpected. Stepping over the overturned furniture he quickly scanned for any sign of life, though the amount of blood splattered on the floor and the walls foretold a worse outcome. The group cautiously made their way up the stairs crunching the already broken glass into a million more pieces. Turning on the lights in the landing, the first thing they noticed was a message written in blood. It was hard to miss.

It has started...Mudbloods be warned

Right underneath the message were two mangled, bloody bodies, as if the murderers were trying to prove a point.

"Was it Voldemort?" asked a male voice, and the sallow faced man let out a snort.

"No, Lupin. Voldemort would've just used a killing curse and been done with it." He looked around the room again; it looked as though whoever had done this, had fun doing it. There were bloody handprints on the wall, cushions with their stuffing ripped out of them littering the floor and on a chest if drawers lay a family photograph was smeared with blood. "It was one, if not more, of his death eaters."

"They had no chance," said Lupin, taking in the extent of the atrocities.

"What does it mean?" The older lady looked to Dumbledore.

"It simply means that we are, once more, at war."

"But what of the students? Do we send them home?"

"No, they remained at Hogwarts the last time, and so they will again. However, they need to learn how to defend themselves."

***

They continued to look around the house, to ascertain just how much damage had been done. Snape walked down the hallway and opened a door. It appeared to be that of a teenage girl's. Hermione Granger's. The walls were a light purple, and the bedding was pink. It appeared to have escaped the death eaters' ravage unscathed. Snape's eyes trailed over a desk covered with papers and stuffed toys, and over a nightstand, upon which sat muggle pictures. Finally he saw two bookshelves overflowing with books; and upon closer inspection he saw that they were a mix of muggle classics like Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Emma', sitting alongside Hogwarts textbooks.

"Severus?"

He turned around and saw McGonagall standing in the doorway. She entered the room and strode over to the nightstand. Upon picking up a picture framed with white fluff, she saw a girl, around eighteen years of age, standing next to her father and hugging her mother. Handing the photo, wordlessly to Snape, she walked out of the room; it was all too much for her. Placing the picture back on the nightstand Snape felt a pang of sadness for the girl. He knew that she had a tough road ahead of her, and that she would not be able to go through it alone.

Downstairs, Dumbledore was cleaning up any evidence showing that a muggle murderer did not commit this crime. After a wave of his wand, the message was gone, and they left the house, gone in the same manner as which they came.

***

Upon arriving at Hogwarts they all headed directly to the headmasters office to meet with other members of the Order. A few moments later Professor McGonagall entered the room, accompanied by a very sleepy student, who entered, looking bewildered. Clearly she hadn't been told a thing.

"Please, Miss Granger, take a seat."

Hermione nodded and looked around the room and noticed that along with a few of her professors, there were several members of the Order of the Phoenix present as well. She felt a lump rising in the back of her throat; she knew that what she was about to be told couldn't possibly be good.

"Miss...Hermione, tonight, the death eaters raided a home in the muggle world, and two people where murdered." He paused for a second choosing his words wisely, knowing that what he was about to say was going to break this poor girl's heart. "Hermione, your parents were killed tonight."

For a moment she couldn't breathe; she just kept looking at him, waiting for him to tell her it was a joke. A cruel and mean joke, but a joke nonetheless. Glancing around, looking at her professors and friends with pleading eyes, she realized that she was grasping at something that wasn't real.

"Are you sure it was my house, there's got to be some sort of mistake, right?" was her last try.

"Miss Granger, I assure you that it was your house and your parents are most definitely dead."

Lupin looked at Snape sharply, and then to Hermione. "What Severus is trying to say is that we are sure."

Nodding quite numbly she stood up and walked over to the door, and without another word she opened it and headed back towards her head girl room.

"You are a heartless bastard aren't you! This girl just lost the only family she has, couldn't you at least try to be a little nicer?"

Shaking his head, Lupin got up and followed Hermione, catching her at the bottom of the stairs. He pulled her in for a hug for that seemed to go on forever. His arms reminded her of her fathers, and she started crying, quietly at first, until her whole body was shaking and her knees gave way.

Holding her tight Lupin said, "Hermione, I'm here for you. If you ever need to talk about anything, I'll be here."

She nodded and walked away. Lupin stood there, watching her go.

***

"Albus, I will do everything in my power to take care of her."

"With how you just acted to her Severus, I highly doubt that you could do such thing," retorted McGonagall angrily. "She's going to need a lot of things over the next few months, things that you won't be able to give her."

"Minerva, I know all too well what she won't need. And that is to be babied and stifled and told that everything will be okay. Did you forget that I too lost both my parents to Voldemort and I know what it's like?"

Minerva looked at him, knowing that he was right. All the teachers here would stifle her and tell her that everything would be okay, that she would move on. Right now, that wasn't what she needed to hear. Right now she would want to know the truth and there was only one person who would tell her that truth. The whole truth, not the censored version. The truth that all of the school would hear.

"I think that will do for tonight. Tomorrow she will need to go to her home and collect her belongings. I think that maybe giving her a private room, like the staff here have, might be best for her...she will need somewhere to escape to."

"I agree Albus, she's going to need some time to recover from this, and she'll need someone to look after her during this time." McGonagall said, hoping that this ordeal wouldn't destroy her best student.

Lupin, having returned, was more than happy to oblige this request. "I'll do it."

"We shall discuss this tomorrow. Right now everyone needs to get some sleep."

***

The next morning Hermione received a note saying that she was excused from all her classes and was called up to Dumbledore's office. She wasn't sure why this time, although she was relieved that she didn't have to face Harry and Ron this morning. Telling them what had happened would force her to relive the scene in the headmaster's office, and that would be more than she could bear. She muttered the password to the gargoyle and walked up the long and winding staircase. Lupin, Dumbledore and Snape greeted Hermione and it was in that moment she knew that it was going to be a long day.

"Miss Granger, today you will be going home to gather whatever belongings you need or want. When you get back your room will be ready for you."

"And I will be accompanying you "

Hermione smiled slightly at the fact that Lupin was going to make her feel somewhat better, although she wasn't sure if she wanted anything from that house. From her old life.

"Actually Remus, I have already decided that Professor Snape will be accompanying Miss Granger there. He has a better knowledge of the muggle world than you."

Lupin nodded and stood back as Snape lead her out of the office, with Hermione trailing behind looking crushed. He watched them walking silently down the path, both looking at their feet. Once outside the gate Snape held out his hand but Hermione just looked at it, almost as if she wasn't sure what to do.

"Miss Granger, although I know that you don't want me to accompany you to the muggle world, you are in no state to apparate. And as much as you don't want to take my hand, it's the only way anything is going to get done."

She took his hand and with a pop they were gone. Hermione knew that Dumbledore meant well, but muggle knowledge or not she didn't feel as though she needed to be here with her potions master. He was always so rude to her, and no doubt he'd force her to hurry up, get her things and go.

"Miss Granger?"

She looked at him, unaware that he had even been calling her name, wondering how long he had been trying to get her attention.

"Sorry Professor."

He nodded briskly.

"Now I want to warn you, it's a mess in there. If it gets too much let me know and we can leave."

She nodded, not realizing that she hadn't yet let go of his hand, in fact she was squeezing it in anticipation of what she was about to see in there. Placing his hand on the doorknob he opened it, and when the room came into view her nails began to dig into his palm, but never once did she say she wanted to leave. As she stepped inside the air was stale, and the smell was almost unbearable. She looked around at her once comfortable living room that was now in shambles. There was blood everywhere, broken picture frames, broken vases, tables overturned. The sight overwhelmed her with an unbearable feeling of loss and despair. She turned to her potions master.

"It isn't our world anymore. They made it their world...and they had fun."

Snape looked at the girl, who seemed to take in every sight, every smell and was struggling to believe that this was once her happy home. Everything in him told him to pull her in his arms and comfort her. But that would be wrong. And it was not what this girl wanted not from him. He followed as she walked up the stairs and into the lilac room that he visited last night. She took out a few bags and began emptying the contents of the wardrobe and chest. Her hands were shaking as she placed the picture from her nightstand into the bag.

"I...I'll go and get stuff from the rest of the house," she said quietly, and Snape heard her walking down the stairs.

Looking down on the floor, he noticed a bright pink box. Picking it up he read the name of the product, 'Tampax'. Not sure what it was, he opened it and found individually wrapped packages. Taking one out and placing the box on the chair, he opened the wrapper and started playing with it trying to figure out what it was. It was made of cardboard with a cotton bullet inside of it. Hermione entered her room, looking around for something. After retrieving a worn brown teddy bear, she noticed what he was playing with and took it out of his hands...with a small smile on her lips? She retrieved the box, not noticing the leaflet that had fallen out and landed on the floor. Snape picked it up, and started to read it. Turning red, he handed it to her, flashing her a small and quick smile. It disappeared so fast that it made Hermione wonder if maybe she had only imagined it.

Snape himself was ready to leave, as he wasn't fond of this muggle house. It was too bright and cheery for his liking, with pictures all over the wall...it all just seemed too homely. Nothing like his childhood home, that was decorated in an almost gothic style. He heard her walking down the stairs again and saw her struggling with two duffle bags. Quickly rushing to help her with one of them, he grabbing the handle and almost toppled over.

"What on earth did you pack in this thing Miss Granger?"

"My books," came the amused response.

Nodding he placed them with the others bags and watched her looking around, absorbing her one last memory of the house that used to be her home.

Finally she looked back up at her professor and smiled weakly.

"I'm ready professor. Lets go."