Looking out into the platform his heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach, the entire platform was totally destroyed. There were chunks of plaster and rail track fragments littering the floor, to the extent that he wouldn’t have been able to push his trolley along the floor, even if he wanted to at the moment. Of course his luggage was the last thing on his mind at the moment, thoughts like ‘When the hell did this happen?’, ‘How the hell did this happen’ and ‘How come that rust stain looks a lot like dried blood?’ however were.

“Hermione!” Harry shouted out frantically, finally coming out of his shock with the realisation that if this had just happened, Hermione would have been caught in the... the... blast maybe? He couldn’t really tell what had happened, but that was as good a guess as any. He shouted again using her nick name, but after waiting for her reply finally gave up and started to look round to asses the situation.

‘Well,’ he thought, ‘the good thing is that I’ve been stood here for a good two minutes now, and nobody has aimed a curse at me yet!’ and as he though this it suddenly became quite apparent that there was nobody there at all, dead or alive. ‘I’m also in one piece, my scar is feeling fine, and I think I know were I am, even if not how it became like this.’ He thought continuing his mental check list which he had become used to using in such situations.

‘However... there is still the problem of finding out what happened, where Slick is, why Swipe hasn’t come through yet and when this happened.’ Concluding his mental list finally he decided the best course of action was to try and go back though the barrier, thought that in itself showed itself as a null-possibility when, as he tried to walk through, he hit a quite solid stone wall. Cursing quietly at his luck he finally decided that as he was currently “Stuck” here he would at least investigate a bit, and then portkey to Hogwarts. What he refused to do was just stand here all day till someone came, he needed to find out what happened as he would be having a long talk to Dumbledore about it soon enough.

Shrinking his luggage down and pocketing it, he started stepping over rubble, keeping to the walls to prevent people from sneaking up on him. He had only moved a few yards when he came across a news-stand which had a few papers still inside it. If Harry was not confused before, he was now. It wasn’t the news on the front page that perplexed him, in fact it was the usual random claptrap the profit always wrote, no it was the date that baffled him. The date on all the papers read August 10th, a date which Harry remembered quite well as it was the date of the failed attack on Platform 9 ¾.

Harry shook his head slightly, as if to clear his head, feeling way out of his depth in this strange situation. Of course he had been in many situations like this with the DA, and on his own as well. It was this experience above all else which now allowed him to keep his cool, after all the boy-who-lived can’t be going to pieces in a middle of a crisis can he now? No certainly not, there was a reason the number two rule of the DA was don’t panic, and it wasn’t due to Hermione being a fan of “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy” either!

Turning round to sweep his eyes over the station once more he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten about Hedwig, who at the moment was sitting quietly on a nearby sign post, having probably moved from her perch on his trolley when he had first shouted. Feeling relived that at lest there was one familiar face with him, be it human or not, he offered his arm to her to perch on, which she obediently flew to.

“Sorry for ignoring you girl, I was just a bit shocked.” He said to Hedwig, stroking the owl’s feathers. Many a time he had been teased by Ron about talking to her like this, but somehow he got the feeling she understood him. Then of course there was also the fact that she was the first friend he ever had to talk to. “Everything’s so screwy here girl,” he continued, getting a hoot of agreement from Hedwig, “I feel like I’m in one of the twin’s warped practical jokes, with dried blood added for extra effect.”

He let out a long sigh finally deciding there was nothing else to be gained from being here, he needed to talk to someone of the none-feathery variety. “Look girl, I’m going to portkey to Hogwarts, can you fly there ok? There is a window smashed in that corner that should allow you out.” Harry said using his left arm, the one which was not supporting Hedwig, to point out one of the closest windows. Hedwig looked at the window and then hooted in agreement before taking off towards the outside of the building.

With Hedwig gone, Harry didn’t see any point in delaying. He took out his emergency portkey and prepared to say the activation word which was “Voldemort is a loser” spoken in Parceltongue. Letting out a low hiss he felt the quite familiar tug just below his navel, taking him away from the ruined platform.

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AN: I hope you like the Portkey activation words. If you want my reasons on why I chose this- well basically, who else can speak parcletong apart from Harry and Voldemort (therefore making it secure from Death Eaters use) and also when would a Death Eater ever insult Voldemort? Remember my Harry’s outlook on life: “never take things too seriously because I have a high chance of not being here tomorrow anyway” So I figure he would take EVERY opportunity to piss him off, just for fun hum? Disagree, agree? Please sign my guest book (main site page) and tell me what you think.