Dumbledore wasn't sure how long the incident lasted. It seemed like an awful long time though and he could hear his offices being trashed around him. Thankfully though, his desk never became a casualty, otherwise he and Minerva would've surely been gravely injured.

A few moments after the shaking ceased, Dumbledore stood up and helped Minerva to her feet. Then he looked around his office. It was completely destroyed. There were piles of rubble everywhere. Chunks of the ceiling were missing and now on the floor.

"Oh, Merlin, Albus. Look at this place. How on Earth could this happen?" Minerva asked in horror.

"It was an Earthquake. He knew that of course, most did. Earthquakes were not considered a muggle occurrence. It was a Mother Nature occurrence.

"Well, I know that, but how did it happen? We've never had one at Hogwarts. I assumed the protection of the school must have protected us against them," Minerva said.

Dumbledore didn't answer her. Instead he began wading his way through the destroyed office. They needed to get out. They needed to check on the rest of the school, and most importantly, the students.

They made out of the office with a little difficulty and started down towards the Grand Staircase. Or what was left of it anyway. It was in shambles. Most of the staircases were on a pile on the ground. The Portraits had fallen as well. The ones that weren't were screaming in fear.

Minerva gasped in horror. "Merlin's Beard! Albus if anyone was on the stairs when this happened..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish even the thought.

Just then, they noticed something move under the debris below. "Albus!" Minerva exclaimed.

Dumbledore immediately took out his wand and chanted "Accio broom."

Minerva did the same and soon two brooms flew through the air towards them. They immediately got on and flew down to the ground floor. They then began searching the piles of debris for the injured person. It took a few minutes, but Minerva got a glimpse of red hair. "Mr. Weasley!"

"Professor?" A weak voice called.

She immediately took out her wand to remove the debris around him.

"No!" Dumbledore exclaimed, stopping her in her tracks. "We don't know how many are down here. We must do it the muggle way."
Minerva nodded and mentally smacked herself for the oversight. That should've been an obvious realization. "Hang on, Mr. Weasley. We'll have you out in a moment.

At that moment footsteps were heard and Filch made his way over. He looked disheveled and had a few cuts on his face.

"Mr. Filch. Help us get him free," Dumbledore said as he continued to try to get one of the Weasley twins, he wasn't sure which one at the moment, free.

Between the three of them, they had him free in a few minutes. Minerva bent down next to him. "Mr. Weasley, are you alright?"

He groaned in pain. "My leg hurts. Oi, where's George. He was with me. We were just about go up the stairs."

"Consider yourself lucky you didn't. We'll find him, Mr. Weasley," Minerva assured him before she began a new scavenger hunt.

"Mr. Weasley, can you stand," Dumbledore asked.

"Uh, no, I don't think so. I think my leg is broken," Fred said in agony.

"Shall, I go search for Madam Pomfrey, Professor?" Filch asked.

"Find everyone, Mr. Filch. Get the ghosts and find anyone you can," Dumbledore instructed.

Filch nodded and walked away.

___________

Ron began to wake to the searing pain. His wrist felt like someone had bashed it with something over and over and over again. He must have snapped it when he fell.

He was vaguely aware of the panicked voices around him, but he was in too much pain to pay them much attention. Then he notice Hermione on the ground a few feet away from him. He immediately started crawling over to her. "Hermione! Hermione, wake up."

When she didn't respond, he put his head to her chest to see if he could even hear a heartbeat. Thankfully he did. "Hermione. Come on, you have to wake up."

"Oi, Ron!" Seamus called from across the room.

Ron turned to him.
"Come help me. Neville's in trouble," Seamus said.

Ron reluctantly stood up, careful of his broken wrist and made his way over to Seamus and Neville. Neville was pinned to the ground by a large shelf.

"We have to get it off of him," Seamus said.

"My wrist is broken. I don't know if I can lift it," Ron said. He really wanted to help, he just wasn't sure he could.

"Come on, just try," Seamus said.

Ron used his good hand to try to help Seamus free Neville, but he couldn't even get a good grip. He took a deep breath. "Okay, this is gonna hurt."

He used his injured hand and began to try to lift the shelf, but as soon as even the slightest pressure hit his wrist, he let go and started screaming in pain. "I...I can't. What about a wand." He wasn't sure why he hadn't thought about that first. That would be the best way to free his housemate."

"My wand fell out doing the quake and I can't get to Neville's pocket to see if he has his," Seamus said.

"Mine's in the dorm," Ron said. He looked towards the dormitory and found that even trying to go get it wouldn't be an option. The entrance was caved in. "Okay, I'll go get help."

"Have you looked at the door lately?" Seamus asked.

Ron looked towards the Common Room entrance and found that it too was caved in. You could barely tell that there was ever an entrance there. "Oh, bloody hell. So if we have no wand and the entrance is blocked off..."

Seamus nodded with a grim look on his face. "We can't get out."

Before Ron could respond to that terrifying thought, they both heard someone groan from behind them. They turned to see Dean pull himself out of the endless wreckage.

"Dean, you okay?" Seamus asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Dean said as he pulled himself to his feet. His body felt very bruised, but he didn't feel like anything was broken.

"Come help us then. We need to free Neville," Seamus said.

Dean climbed over the piles of debris and made his way over to them.

"Do you have your wand?" Seamus asked hopefully.

Dean reached into his pocket and pulled out small, thin pieces of wood. "Uh, sort of."

"Well, it was worth a shot. Come on, let's pull it off of him," Seamus said.

Dean grabbed one end and they lifted the shelf off of Neville and placed to the side, praying they weren't burying someone else even further.

"Ron?" a female voice called.

Ron turned to see that Hermione had regained consciousness and was sitting up with her hand placed on the back of her head.

Ron got back over to her as fast as he could and knelt down beside her. "Hey. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so, but my head does kind of hurt. What about you? You're holding your wrist," Hermione noticed.

"Yeah, I think I broke it. It'll be okay though. Others are hurt worse than me," Ron said with poor Neville fresh on his mind. He was almost positive that Neville had hurt his back with the way that thing was on top of him.

"What about Harry? Has anyone found him?" Hermione asked. She vaguely remembered Harry falling to the ground after being hit by glass, but she didn't know what became of him after that.

Ron shook his head sadly. "No, we haven't seen many. Seamus and Dean are alright, we're not sure about Neville. They just freed him from a shelf that had fallen on him. We don't know about anyone else."

"We have to get help," Hermione said as she began to get up.

Ron stood and helped her up. "Hermione, no one's going anywhere right now. The entrance is caved in."

Hermione looked towards the entrance and saw that he was right about that. "Oh, God? What do we do?"

"Right now, I think all we can do is find Harry and anyone else who was in here. We figure out how to get out later. Do you have your wand?" Ron asked.

Hermione searched her pocket and shook her head. It had to have fallen out during the Earthquake.

Ron sighed. "Well, it was worth a try. Come on, let's just start searching."

Hermione nodded and began searching the area around her for anyone buried in the wreckage.