As Summer Ends: Week 4 entry: Vanished

[swissmarg]

Title: Vanished
Author: swissmarg
Summary: "Caradoc Dearborn, vanished six months after this, we never found his body..." --Alastor Moody, OotP
Rating: G
Word count: 415
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and universe were created by J.K. Rowling and no claim is made by using elements thereof in this work of fan fiction.
Notes: This was written for the As Summer Ends September Challenge on first_order . Prompts: Caradoc Dearborn, a world so far away

 

When he first saw the news reports about the towers in New York, nearly 20 years to the day since he’d turned his back on his former life, Caradoc had thought the breakthrough had come, the great spill-over from the wizarding into the Muggle world, although he had been surprised that it had taken place in the States first. Somehow, he had never really thought of Voldemort’s people as being much interested in anything outside of the U.K. But then, as the story unfolded, Caradoc became convinced that there was nothing magical about the attacks after all. Muggles could be just as evil as wizards; why not?

He didn’t go by Caradoc any more. Not that, in retrospect, he had really needed to change his name. The gulf between the wizarding and Muggle worlds was so great that abandoning one’s wand was as effective as assuming a new identity, and keeping out of wizarding areas as good as leaving the country. Still, he hadn’t known that then, and so in addition to dropping his wand into Llyn Tegid and moving to the Isle of Man, he’d re-christened himself Ned Rogers and gotten a job as a night watchman at a storage facility.

Despite all his efforts, he remained the same man he’d been before: dour, private, a man of certain habits. At first, he’d cropped his hair short and grown a beard, but he’d given up on that after six months, and aside from a few more lines on his face and a few more pounds on his frame, he looked much the same now as he had back then, and anyone who’d cared to track him down probably wouldn’t have had too hard of a time of it.

He did wonder, at odd moments, whatever had happened to the people he’d known back then. Moody and Black. Dumbledore. Perkins. For all he knew, they could all be gone. The entire wizarding world might be dead. Blown themselves right through the floor of the Department of Mysteries, or eaten by Quintapeds, every last one of them.

When it was dead quiet in the yard, round about three in the morning, the lamps overhead swinging on their wires, he sometimes imagined someone turning up to bring him back, their robes heavy and smelling of sulphur. He’d run through the scenario a thousand times in his head, what he’d say to convince them to let him stay.

It never happened. Deep down, he knew it never would.

Comments

[lar_laughs.livejournal.com]

I really like that! Caradoc's indecision fills this drabble with a lot of good angst. ...eaten by Quintapeds... *grins* His imagination must keep him up most nights.

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the mysterious Caradoc Dearborn who disappeared during the first war. It seems quite plausible that some of the MIA might have gone into hiding rather than being killed. Though to stay hidden for twenty years, and abandon magic completely, he must have been truly terrified.

Some of the family names I use in AQ are, not coincidentally, some of the more obscure names from canon. Mostly I assume they are long-separated branches of the same family tree, but it would be something if there was a more direct connection between Darla Dearborn and Caradoc, wouldn't it? ;)

[swissmarg]

Oh, I never even thought of that! Nice detail.

The way I meant this was, Caradoc jumped ship so to speak, expecting that when things were clear, someone would come and find him and tell him it was safe to come back, but they never did. So he doesn't know if everyone was killed, or if no one cared about what happened to him, and he's sort of scared to find out either way, so that's why he never made any effort to get back in touch himself.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

This could also go in the story. It would not take much to say, and would enrich the character.

[swissmarg]

I think that's what the last two paragraphs say: He sort of hopes that someone will come for him, but has given up hope that they will. And the fact that he doesn't make an effort to find anyone himself, well I guess that's not exactly explicit why he doesn't, but do you really think it needs to be spelled out?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Although the idea itself is excellent, I think this suffers from not having a real ending. It sort of peters out. I think it would improve if you had placed the fall of the Towers near the end rather than near the beginning. But the thought of a wizard who simply walks out because he has had it, and who deludes himself that the Muggle world will be less cruel than the wizarding one - and keeps deluding himself about that for years! - is really first-rate. I know this is frightful cheek, but do you think you could rewrite it?

[swissmarg]

LOL, funny you should say that, because I actually had another couple of paragraphs after this, but felt that it was meandering, so I cut it back. I like having the Towers at the beginning because it sets up the time frame and gives the reader a point to reference from for the aspect of terrorism in the real and wizarding worlds. The point of this for me was that no one ever missed him... and then leaving it open as to whether his life would have been better had he stayed: Would he have ended up like Black, Moody, and Dumbledore? (i.e. dead)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Just noticed... Llyn Tegid, eh? Someone is well up on her Welsh mythology. I actually wrote and published a book that's partly about that, so I wonder how many other readers of yours would have caught it.