Minerva and Remus arrived at Hogwarts just in time to see a group of Hufflepuffs being escorted out of the building.

Remus gasped when he got his first look at Hogwarts.  It was pretty much in ruins.  It was still standing of course, but there were pieces of it missing and other parts that appeared to be caved in.  It was unbelievable.  He never thought that anything could cause Hogwarts come down like this.  It had more protection charms than all of Magical Britain combined.  How could it not be prepared for something like this?

"Remus, are you coming?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, of course," Remus said pulling out of his thoughts.  He followed Minerva up the path to the school and they walked in the gaping hole that used to be the door to the entrance hall.

If Remus thought the outside of the building was bad, the inside was a downright disaster.  There was debris everywhere.  He could barely even tell that he was in Hogwarts.  It looked nothing like it had before.  It looked like a condemned muggle building. 

Soon Dumbledore walked over to them.  "Hello, Remus, thank you for coming."

"The others will be here soon.  Molly went to the Ministry to inform Arthur and the Ministry.  Then she will find the other order members.  How many others have we gotten out?" Minerva asked.

"We're in the process of evacuating the Hufflepuffs.  They're the easiest to get out since they're not upstairs.  Then we shall move on to the Ravenclaws," Dumbledore said.

"What about my lions.  Have they been evacuated already?" Minerva asked.

Dumbledore took a deep breath.  He knew that Minerva was not going to react well to what he had to say.  She was very protective of the students.  "There is an issue with getting into Gryffindor Tower."

"What kind of issue?" Remus asked with concern in his voice.

"The entrance to Gryffindor Tower has caved in," Dumbledore said sadly. 

"Caved in?  Are you saying my students are trapped?  We can't just leave them trapped," Minerva said.  Her concern for her students was quite evident.

"I have no intention of it, Minerva.  I've sent Severus to see if he can find some way in," Dumbledore told her. 

"Did he?" Remus asked.

"Well, it was an hour ago and I haven't heard from him since, so if I'm assuming he did," Dumbledore said.  Honestly, his lack of contact with Severus worried him though.  If all was well with the students, Severus would've sent a message via patronus.  The fact that he didn't made Dumbledore worried that the students were gravely injured and could not stop to send word.

"But wouldn't he have let us know if he had?" Minerva asked. 

"Not if he was too busy to stop and do so," Remus said gravely.

"We have to get in there, or at least find out how injured the students are," Minerva said.

"I agree, but I can't see how to do so.  We can't afford to send anyone else.  Sending Severus has left us with one body short.  We need everyone we can to get the students out," Dumbledore said.

"What about finding a ghost.  Surely they would be able to get in or out without any difficulty," Remus said.  Ghost could do what they couldn't.  They could pass through any surface without having to worry about doors or rubble.  They could tell them how the students were fairing and even if there was a way to get them out. 

Dumbledore felt like slapping himself.  He should've thought about that ages ago.  The ghosts could help and not just the Gryffindors.  They could locate almost everyone because they could pass through every room in the castle.  It was amazing how when a crisis hit, the most obvious solution slipped through your fingers.  "Remus, if you can, find the ghosts.  Have them search the castle for people, Gryffindor being the first priority."

Remus nodded and started wading through the debris to search.

Just then several ministry officials walked in, including Arthur, Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Amelia Bones, Umbridge, and the minister himself.

"Oh, Merlin," Tonks said as took in the massive wreckage that used to be Hogwarts.

"How did this happen, Dumbledore," Fudge demanded to know. 

"What part of ‘earthquake' was hard for you to understand, Minister?" Amelia asked.  She thought it was self-evident what had happened. 

"I'm aware of that, but how could this happen?  This is Hogwarts for Merlin's sake.  It's supposed to be protected from everything.  How could something like this bring it down?" Fudge asked. 

"Cornelius, the protection on Hogwarts was put on by the Founders.  They couldn't have possibly foreseen something like this.  No one could've," Dumbledore said.  He certainly hadn't foreseen this.  Out of all the dangers that the school could face, this was the last one to come to mind. 

"Look, what matters now is getting everyone out," Amelia said before looking at Dumbledore.  "Headmaster, I need to know, did my niece make it out?"

"Amelia, I don't know.  The Hufflepuffs we could find were evacuated, but, unfortunately, I didn't have the time to try to put names to faces.  It has been utter chaos," Dumbledore said. 

"How many actually made it out?  Were Ron and Ginny found, do you know?" Arthur asked.  He knew the headmaster just said that it was too chaotic for him to recognize all the students, but he was hoping the man would've recognized his children since he was around them more.

"No, they haven't.  As far as I know, they are in Gryffindor Tower and that area is unreachable at this point.  But the twins were located," Dumbledore told him.  He hoped that knowing two of his children were safe would be of some comfort to the man.

"Yes, we past them on the way up here.  They're being taken to St. Mungo's.  I had Molly go with them with the promise that I would let her know the status of Ron and Ginny," Arthur said.

"What do you mean that Gryffindor Tower is unreachable?" Tonks asked.

"Well, it's not completely unreachable.  Severus was able to get in, but we can't get them out.  The entrance caved in," Minerva explained.

Tonks' eyes nearly bugged out of her head.  "Caved in?  Does that mean all of Gryffindor has caved in?"  That was a very scary thought.  That would mean that nearly all of those student's lives had become forfeit. 

Minerva shuddered at the thought.  "Let us hope the answer to that is ‘no'."

Dumbledore shook his head.  "No, if that were the case, Severus would've come back straight away."

"Unless he was hurt trying to get in," Arthur said. 

"Arthur's right.  We don't even know if Snape managed to get to any of the students.  Even if he got in, he could've just become a casualty," Kingsley said.

"Well, we will soon find out.  I've sent Remus out to find the ghosts and have them search.  Gryffindor will be the top priority.  We will soon now one way or another how badly everyone is injured.  In the meantime, we should keep searching.  We have a lot of ground to cover," Dumbledore said. 

They all nodded and went off separately to search for survivors.