Losing Harry Chapter 18
Story: Losing Harry
Chapter: Eighteen
Rating: PG
Warnings: occasional and/or eventual strong language, mild violence, scenes of a sexual nature
Characters: Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Albus, Scorpius, Lorcan, Lysander, James, Lily, etc.
Genre: Mystery, Drama, Romance
Summary: A wizard has disappeared, and the Ministry is refusing to investigate; Albus Potter is in the Hogwarts Infirmary, and Ginny and Hermione are arguing over Harry's peculiar behavior. All is not as it should be. HPDH+Epilogue compliant.
Written: 26 September 2009
Notes: Written in British English. Thanks to cymonie for the beta-work!
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
--
Hermione sat at the head of the kitchen table in number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The house felt strangely quiet and somber there without a welcome from Harry or the liveliness of his children. She felt a dull ache inside as she considered how long it had been since she had seen Harry last. She missed him. She had not been away from him for this long since the day she had met him on the Hogwarts Express when she was eleven years old.
At the table, sitting near Hermione on either side of her were Ron, Ginny and Luna Lovegood. Spread before them was all the research that Ron and Hermione had been able to come up with so far regarding both Malfoy and Harry.
Despite offering pleasantries, and tea and cake to all gathered there, Ginny sat looking distinctly disgruntled on her side of the table. Hermione thought it had to do with the efforts that had been extended to locate Malfoy, rather than Harry alone. Ginny insisted that she didn’t see what the connection was, and thought Hermione was out of her mind for believing in any such absurdity. Looking for Malfoy was wasting effort that should be spent on Harry and Albus.
Luna, meanwhile, on the other side of Ron, seemed to be enjoying her cake, oblivious to the tension in the room. Her blond hair was long and strung up away from her face with long tentacle-like fasteners. A few wisps fell near her ears, which were sporting earrings not in the fashion of radish-like plants, but rather in the shape of flapping, smoke-blowing mini-dragons.
Upon receipt of her agreement to join Ron and Hermione in the discussion over Harry, Luna had also suggested that they invite Neville Longbottom along, apparently believing the gathering to be in the vein of a DA meeting. She even offered to contact him herself. Uncertain about what Neville could possibly contribute to the discussion, Hermione had deliberated whether to bother him. She needn’t have worried, however. It turned out that Neville was on a special assignment investigating a new magical plant within the depths of the rainforest in Paraguay, on a two-year hiatus from teaching Herbology at Hogwarts. He did, however, send his regards and well wishes toward finding Harry.
It was a shame, though, that Neville hadn’t been at Hogwarts that year, or else he might have been a source of help with the situations among the children.
“All right, well, let’s get started I suppose,” Hermione said, feeling strangely like she was at an office meeting rather than a family meeting.
“Who should we start with? Albus?” Ron asked. “Or Harry and Malfoy?” Ginny huffed and crossed her arms. Hermione ignored her.
“Are they together?” Luna asked, blinking pleasantly.
Hermione sighed and began to outline from the beginning what they knew from both Malfoy’s and Harry’s disappearances. Luna seemed to know some of the facts, but not all of them. Ginny’s mouth tightened when Hermione referenced the letters that the Ministry had confiscated. Ron gritted his teeth when Hermione paraphrased the article about Harry’s death.
“He’s not dead,” Luna said serenely.
Ginny’s gaze snapped over to Luna. “How would you know?”
Hermione shifted uncomfortably.
“Well, he’s Harry Potter. If he were going to die young, I imagine he would have done it when we were students. He had plenty of opportunities.”
Ron seemed to be suppressing a grin, and Hermione was mildly amused, but didn’t want the meeting to stall here already, with Ginny’s raw emotions scarring their hopeful beginning.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ginny spat. “No one does. No one knows.”
Hermione cleared her throat. “You’re right. No one knows what’s happened with Harry, and that’s why we’re all here. We’re all people who care about him and want to get to the bottom of all this. We’ve lost too much time already.”
Hermione surveyed the table to see if they were all on the same page. Ginny was looking at Ron and said at once, “You were Harry’s Auror partner for several years. You must know best how to find him. You should know everything he would do.”
Ron tilted his head slightly, acknowledging that it should be true. “Unfortunately, because we were Auror partners, it also means Harry knows everything I might do to find him. And…I think we all know Harry was always better at that stuff than me.”
Hermione reached over and patted Ron’s leg under the table, wanting to tell him that the two men were just talented in different ways. She hoped Ron understood her meaning without her voicing it just then.
Ginny, on the other, looked away in what appeared to be disappointment. It would be too easy to hope that her older brother could magically locate her husband with a few well cast spells or one quick visit to a familiar place. Hermione wondered, though, if part of Ginny’s frustration wasn’t just at Ron’s or Hermione’s, or even the Ministry’s, inability to find Harry - but more so at her own.
“Have you sent an owl to Harry?” Luna asked brightly as if the thought had just occurred to her.
It was then Hermione’s turn to blink. “They all get returned.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s using an owl-specific ward,” Ron supplied. “It’s a spell I remember was referenced once in our Auror training but I don’t recall knowing anyone who ever used it. In theory, it keeps away any owl addressed to him by name. Even trace-owls would get confused and turn away.”
“Yes,” Hermione continued. “It makes perfect sense, because if we don’t know where he is, we can only use his name to send an owl. And likewise, no matter where he went, so long as the ward was in effect, the owl would still not be able to find him with only a name. We need his actual location in order to get a message to him.”
Luna nodded as if it was all very reasonable, and then asked: “What about Harry’s house-elf? Doesn’t he have a lovely little one about so tall?” She held her hand up in the air to indicate Kreacher’s height and then began to look around as if she would see him scuttling about.
“It would be an exercise in futility,” Hermione said, shaking her head. “Harry will only force Kreacher to promise silence and Kreacher will undoubtedly obey him.”
“Even if he’s in trouble?” Ginny asked in a quiet challenge.
Hermione glanced at her. She wasn’t sure how to gauge some of Ginny’s responses, whether she honestly thought Harry was injured, in grave danger, or possibly even dead as the Prophet had reported. She thought Ginny must have some kind of spousal-sense, something that told her, undeniably, unshakably that Harry was all right. Or else, that he wasn’t.
Hermione felt that she and Ron had those senses, when it came to Harry.
“Why don’t you send Kreacher then,” Ron tried suggesting to Ginny. “We can find out what Harry does.”
“I already did,” Ginny confessed.
Hermione and Ron stared at her while Luna stirred her tea, apparently intrigued by the pattern around her teacup. She began scraping a fingernail along the rim, as if looking for something.
“Kreacher said he couldn’t find Harry,” Ginny filled in.
“What?” Ron asked.
“It can’t be right,” Hermione said a second after. She and Ron glanced at each other, and then Hermione suggested, “Harry might have told Kreacher to say that.”
“Or he could be dead,” Ginny returned, a dead tone to her voice.
“He’s not,” Ron said through gritted teeth.
“I bet he’s hunting for Snickleweed Grubers. It requires a lot of solitude to catch one,” Luna suggested, at last glancing up from her teacup.
Hermione set a hand to her forehead and Ron took over the meeting.
“I spoke with George this week about finding someone who doesn’t want to be found. He said chances were that Harry’s spellwork would far surpass his own, but when it came to gadgets, he just might be able to come up with something. He’s working on a product that could take a sample of an item the missing person most recently touched and then use the traces on it to track down the last locations where the matching trace existed. He said it might be a step-by-step process, but eventually it could possibly pin-point the exact town where Harry was, even if his wards are hiding him.”
“It’s great, let’s do it,” Hermione said, hopeful.
“Yeah, the problem is…it’s not ready yet. George is still working on it, but he’s going as fast as he can.”
Ginny let out a long breath, uncrossing her arms as she moved her spoon from her cup to the saucer underneath it.
“Okay, well, I did think maybe we could use Rita Skeeter like we did in fifth year,” Hermione suggested, glancing over at Luna.
“Fourth year,” Ginny muttered.
“Another Harry Potter exclusive in The Quibbler?” Luna asked, smiling.
“We were thinking along the lines of a Potter Scandal exclusive piece. We could persuade Skeeter that she would hit the jackpot if she managed to unveil the Ministry’s cover-up and the Prophet’s lies about Harry,” Hermione said.
“Jackpot?” Ginny repeated, brows furrowed.
“Do you mean the Quishport?” Luna suggested in what she seemed to think was a helpful manner. Hermione stared at the ceiling, counting slowly down from ten.
“Do you think it’s possible?” Ron cut in, addressing Luna.
“Yes, of course.” She nodded encouragingly.
“Great, can you get Skeeter set up with the story and put her on our leads?”
“Oh, no.” Luna shook her head.
Hermione let her hands fall to the table, more loudly than she meant to. She did appreciate Luna, but the woman wore her out. Though an adult with her own husband and children, a family and home to care for, a job to be responsible for, Luna was as queer as ever, and as difficult a conversationalist as she had been at school.
“Why not?” Ron asked.
“Rita Skeeter’s in Cairo covering the Egyptian Pixie riots,” Luna answered.
“I could have told you that,” Ginny said dully, one finger tracing the edge of her saucer.
“Yes, well, why didn’t you?” Hermione snapped.
Ginny looked up and blinked at her.
“Enough nonsense,” Hermione pressed on. “If we think Harry might be looking for Malfoy, let’s talk about what we can ascertain regarding Malfoy-”
“Have you owled him?” Luna asked.
Actually, Hermione hadn’t. Of all the things they had considered, not once had she or Ron jotted out a quick note to Malfoy. ‘Hey there, dear old ferret. Noticed you disappeared, wondered if you’d seen Harry.’ Better to let Hermione write it. She made a note on her pages to do so once she had recovered from this dreadful meeting.
“I did meet with Astoria Greengrass earlier in the week to inquire after Malfoy and the accident that occurred in their home last June,” Hermione said. Ron nodded and Ginny looked bored.
“He’s not run away with a mistress,” Luna interjected.
“How do you know that?” Ron asked, eyebrows raised.
“Well, of course, because Malfoy is gay,” Luna said, matter-of-fact.
Hermione’s mouth fell open and Ginny turned all the way around in her chair to look at Luna. Ron didn’t look like he’d be speaking just yet.
“What makes you say that?” Hermione questioned.
“Well, I happened upon Astoria a year ago while shopping in Diagon Alley. It seemed rather obvious that they were unhappy.”
“Unhappy!” Ron bellowed. “Just because a bloke’s unhappy doesn’t mean he’s gay!”
“It hardly seems relevant, anyway. It’s enough to know that the Malfoys were having marriage problems for some time,” Hermione pushed the conversation on, attempting to steer them away from another sidetrack. “Astoria confirmed this information. She was rather distant throughout our entire chat, however. And she kept peering toward the door, though I could never determine why,” Hermione said.
“What did she say about the accident?” Ron asked.
“Nothing, except that she came home and found the house as it was, broken clock, shattered teakettle, and no sign of Malfoy. And she hasn’t heard from him since that day.”
Ginny stared down at her hands, twisting up the napkin on the table.
“And the divorce papers?” Ron asked.
“She said they had signed them months and months ago, but had never filed them,” Hermione answered. Luna’s brow lowered as though she were thinking about the statement, though for all Hermione knew, she could have been thinking about Blibbering Humdingers again.
“Any signs of Dark magic traces?” Ron inquired.
“The signs were there, all right,” Hermione said, “but nothing I could actually use.” She frowned, spreading out the pages and photographs she had gathered from the files Kingsley had given her access to. “It’s been too long. It was a temporal occurrence, whatever happened, so the traces couldn’t survive fully in tact all this time within the house, nor on the clock. Whatever spells were used weren’t strong enough to leave complete permanent impressions. The blood samples, however, remained intact on the teakettle.”
“Ooh, blood?” Luna asked, leaning forward with interest.
“The blood is Malfoy’s,” Hermione said.
“Big deal! Malfoy’s blood on a broken teakettle after a fight in his own home! What does this have to do with Harry?” Ginny lashed out.
“How do you propose we find him?” Hermione asked coolly.
Ginny crossed her arms again and sat back in her chair.
“So it doesn’t tell us who did it, but we could safely conclude that Malfoy was attacked, anyway,” Ron summarised. “And that makes Astoria’s story sound very fishy. Did she say why she filed for divorce despite Malfoy’s absence?”
“I expect she was ready to move on,” Luna answered out of turn. Hermione and Ron both glanced at her. Ginny shifted in her seat, carefully inspecting her fingernails.
“Well,” Hermione drew out the word, recovering her train of thought, “what she said was that they had always meant to divorce since drawing up the papers, and she didn’t think Malfoy intended to return from wherever he was, so it would be better for the family to move forward.”
“But the blood? The attack? She thinks Malfoy just skipped town?” Ron asked sceptically.
Hermione shrugged apologetically. It didn’t make a lot of sense to her, either.
“What about finding Al?” Ginny asked, returning to the conversation while Luna used her wand to pour herself some more tea from the kettle.
“Sorry, no luck yet,” Ron replied gently.
“Is Albus lost?” Luna asked curiously before taking a sip from her teacup.
“He ran away from Hogwarts. Lorcan and Lysander must have told you?” Hermione inquired.
“Well, no. But I have received several owls and Floos from McGonagall. Do you think the two are connected?” Luna set her cup down expectantly.
Hermione sighed.
“We received a letter from our Rose,” Ron filled in. “She said Albus and Scorpius left school, and that your boys might know where they went.”
“Oh. Well, no. They haven’t told me anything about it,” Luna replied.
“When was the last time you talked to them?” Ginny asked, sitting up in her chair.
“They wrote me for some information,” Luna answered, gazing back at Ginny.
“What kind of information?” Ron drilled. Luna turned her attention to him.
“I think it was research for a class. They wanted to know about a bird. Probably for Care of Magical Creatures. They do teach such interesting and varied things in school these days,” Luna mused.
“Er, what kind of bird?” Ron continued with less gusto.
“Oh, a bird from Mediterranean coastal areas. Quite special, with a mating call that attracts even grown wizards!” She laughed. Ron looked amused and Hermione shook her head.
“Well, there is always the Trace,” Hermione said.
Ginny shook her head. “Albus knows underage magic is traced. If he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t do any magic. He’s like his father that way.”
“Okay,” Hermione ceded the point, “but maybe he slips up. Or maybe Scorpius does. I’ll speak with Mafalda Hopkirk and see if she can put an alert on their Traces.”
“I suppose the owl you sent with the trace didn’t do any good?” Ginny asked Ron.
“No, it wouldn’t tell us anything,” he answered.
“Do the owls talk?” Luna asked with interest.
“No,” Ron shook his head, “they’re trained to give us clues, either by bringing back a sample from a tree, plant, or even printed media from the location, or else to work with us on special maps to indicate the location the owl traveled from. Owls are geniuses, I tell you.” Ron had been extremely disappointed, but if she were honest with herself, Hermione hadn’t been surprised. She knew if Albus Potter had run away from school, he had thought at least a few steps ahead. But, like Ron, she did believe he would be easier to locate than Harry, at least.
“So, if they’re such geniuses, why couldn’t the bird find Al?” Ginny challenged.
Ron looked uncomfortable and Luna said, “Ooh, Albus must be extremely clever. And he’s not in Ravenclaw?” She looked around at them all in surprise.
Hermione scowled. It was Luna’s Ravenclaw sons who most likely held their best clues to finding Albus. She was certain, however, that a Magical Law Enforcement witch conducting a full interrogation of two wizarding school students would be somewhat frowned upon. Maybe she could just pop into Hogwarts and have a friendly chat with them.
“Hey, why not send Kreacher to fetch Al?” Ron suggested.
Ginny shook her head again. “Kreacher thinks Al is Harry’s little prince clone. He would do anything for that boy, including keep his secrets from his family.”
“But you’re his master, too!” Ron argued hotly. Hermione frowned at the use of ‘master.’
“Technically, I’m his master’s wife. He likes me, sure. But the children are Harry’s blood,” Ginny explained.
The meeting was already winding down to a close. They had no more information to discuss, and no new leads. Hermione could owl Draco and attempt to follow up on Astoria’s curious behavior. There was always the Deluminator and the Trace. Still, she wasn’t sure what they had accomplished besides putting everyone on the same page.
“What if we try to talk to the Malfoys and see if they have ways of locating Draco or Scorpius, you know, within the family, with their own house-elves or something?” Ron suggested.
“You mean contacting Narcissa and Lucius?” Hermione clarified. He nodded darkly. “I suppose we can try.”
“I can do it,” Ron said at once.
“Are you sure?” Hermione questioned. “I’m still employed at the Ministry. I could use my position-”
“No.” Ron shook his head. “I don’t want you anywhere near Malfoy Manor. If we do it, I’ll be the one who goes.”
The three witches at the table surveyed him for a moment, Luna appearing amused, Hermione appreciative, and Ginny with narrowed eyes. Then Ginny spoke.
“If you do meet with Lucius, you should inform him that helping you will help him locate his grandson, whom I am sure he would be eager to find. I gather that Scorpius is well loved in his family, even if he is a Malfoy.”
Ron nodded and the table grew silent. It seemed to Hermione that there were no more new ideas forthcoming, and so she made one final plea for Luna to discover if her boys were hiding information.
“Please, Luna. If you could just tell them that Al’s family cares about him very much and that we don’t want to see anything bad happen to him and Scorpius…”
“I can try,” Luna said. “But I doubt very much it will help. Those boys still to this day won’t tell me where they hid their talking Warbulf dolls when they were four.” She shook her head as if this were a mild tragedy.
Ron looked ready to ask what a Warbulf doll was, but Hermione stopped him with a strong grip on his forearm. They finally adjourned the meeting and Luna left with a happy wave before Flooing home. Ginny rose from her seat to make dinner, speaking a quiet invitation to Ron and Hermione if they wished to share tea with her.
They agreed, regardless of her recent and prolonged foul mood. Hermione knew it must be hard to suffer not only the disappearance of one’s husband, but one’s child as well. She wanted to help Ginny, but she wasn’t sure how she could.
Next: Chapter 19
Chapter: Eighteen
Rating: PG
Warnings: occasional and/or eventual strong language, mild violence, scenes of a sexual nature
Characters: Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Albus, Scorpius, Lorcan, Lysander, James, Lily, etc.
Genre: Mystery, Drama, Romance
Summary: A wizard has disappeared, and the Ministry is refusing to investigate; Albus Potter is in the Hogwarts Infirmary, and Ginny and Hermione are arguing over Harry's peculiar behavior. All is not as it should be. HPDH+Epilogue compliant.
Written: 26 September 2009
Notes: Written in British English. Thanks to cymonie for the beta-work!
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
--
Hermione sat at the head of the kitchen table in number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The house felt strangely quiet and somber there without a welcome from Harry or the liveliness of his children. She felt a dull ache inside as she considered how long it had been since she had seen Harry last. She missed him. She had not been away from him for this long since the day she had met him on the Hogwarts Express when she was eleven years old.
At the table, sitting near Hermione on either side of her were Ron, Ginny and Luna Lovegood. Spread before them was all the research that Ron and Hermione had been able to come up with so far regarding both Malfoy and Harry.
Despite offering pleasantries, and tea and cake to all gathered there, Ginny sat looking distinctly disgruntled on her side of the table. Hermione thought it had to do with the efforts that had been extended to locate Malfoy, rather than Harry alone. Ginny insisted that she didn’t see what the connection was, and thought Hermione was out of her mind for believing in any such absurdity. Looking for Malfoy was wasting effort that should be spent on Harry and Albus.
Luna, meanwhile, on the other side of Ron, seemed to be enjoying her cake, oblivious to the tension in the room. Her blond hair was long and strung up away from her face with long tentacle-like fasteners. A few wisps fell near her ears, which were sporting earrings not in the fashion of radish-like plants, but rather in the shape of flapping, smoke-blowing mini-dragons.
Upon receipt of her agreement to join Ron and Hermione in the discussion over Harry, Luna had also suggested that they invite Neville Longbottom along, apparently believing the gathering to be in the vein of a DA meeting. She even offered to contact him herself. Uncertain about what Neville could possibly contribute to the discussion, Hermione had deliberated whether to bother him. She needn’t have worried, however. It turned out that Neville was on a special assignment investigating a new magical plant within the depths of the rainforest in Paraguay, on a two-year hiatus from teaching Herbology at Hogwarts. He did, however, send his regards and well wishes toward finding Harry.
It was a shame, though, that Neville hadn’t been at Hogwarts that year, or else he might have been a source of help with the situations among the children.
“All right, well, let’s get started I suppose,” Hermione said, feeling strangely like she was at an office meeting rather than a family meeting.
“Who should we start with? Albus?” Ron asked. “Or Harry and Malfoy?” Ginny huffed and crossed her arms. Hermione ignored her.
“Are they together?” Luna asked, blinking pleasantly.
Hermione sighed and began to outline from the beginning what they knew from both Malfoy’s and Harry’s disappearances. Luna seemed to know some of the facts, but not all of them. Ginny’s mouth tightened when Hermione referenced the letters that the Ministry had confiscated. Ron gritted his teeth when Hermione paraphrased the article about Harry’s death.
“He’s not dead,” Luna said serenely.
Ginny’s gaze snapped over to Luna. “How would you know?”
Hermione shifted uncomfortably.
“Well, he’s Harry Potter. If he were going to die young, I imagine he would have done it when we were students. He had plenty of opportunities.”
Ron seemed to be suppressing a grin, and Hermione was mildly amused, but didn’t want the meeting to stall here already, with Ginny’s raw emotions scarring their hopeful beginning.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ginny spat. “No one does. No one knows.”
Hermione cleared her throat. “You’re right. No one knows what’s happened with Harry, and that’s why we’re all here. We’re all people who care about him and want to get to the bottom of all this. We’ve lost too much time already.”
Hermione surveyed the table to see if they were all on the same page. Ginny was looking at Ron and said at once, “You were Harry’s Auror partner for several years. You must know best how to find him. You should know everything he would do.”
Ron tilted his head slightly, acknowledging that it should be true. “Unfortunately, because we were Auror partners, it also means Harry knows everything I might do to find him. And…I think we all know Harry was always better at that stuff than me.”
Hermione reached over and patted Ron’s leg under the table, wanting to tell him that the two men were just talented in different ways. She hoped Ron understood her meaning without her voicing it just then.
Ginny, on the other, looked away in what appeared to be disappointment. It would be too easy to hope that her older brother could magically locate her husband with a few well cast spells or one quick visit to a familiar place. Hermione wondered, though, if part of Ginny’s frustration wasn’t just at Ron’s or Hermione’s, or even the Ministry’s, inability to find Harry - but more so at her own.
“Have you sent an owl to Harry?” Luna asked brightly as if the thought had just occurred to her.
It was then Hermione’s turn to blink. “They all get returned.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s using an owl-specific ward,” Ron supplied. “It’s a spell I remember was referenced once in our Auror training but I don’t recall knowing anyone who ever used it. In theory, it keeps away any owl addressed to him by name. Even trace-owls would get confused and turn away.”
“Yes,” Hermione continued. “It makes perfect sense, because if we don’t know where he is, we can only use his name to send an owl. And likewise, no matter where he went, so long as the ward was in effect, the owl would still not be able to find him with only a name. We need his actual location in order to get a message to him.”
Luna nodded as if it was all very reasonable, and then asked: “What about Harry’s house-elf? Doesn’t he have a lovely little one about so tall?” She held her hand up in the air to indicate Kreacher’s height and then began to look around as if she would see him scuttling about.
“It would be an exercise in futility,” Hermione said, shaking her head. “Harry will only force Kreacher to promise silence and Kreacher will undoubtedly obey him.”
“Even if he’s in trouble?” Ginny asked in a quiet challenge.
Hermione glanced at her. She wasn’t sure how to gauge some of Ginny’s responses, whether she honestly thought Harry was injured, in grave danger, or possibly even dead as the Prophet had reported. She thought Ginny must have some kind of spousal-sense, something that told her, undeniably, unshakably that Harry was all right. Or else, that he wasn’t.
Hermione felt that she and Ron had those senses, when it came to Harry.
“Why don’t you send Kreacher then,” Ron tried suggesting to Ginny. “We can find out what Harry does.”
“I already did,” Ginny confessed.
Hermione and Ron stared at her while Luna stirred her tea, apparently intrigued by the pattern around her teacup. She began scraping a fingernail along the rim, as if looking for something.
“Kreacher said he couldn’t find Harry,” Ginny filled in.
“What?” Ron asked.
“It can’t be right,” Hermione said a second after. She and Ron glanced at each other, and then Hermione suggested, “Harry might have told Kreacher to say that.”
“Or he could be dead,” Ginny returned, a dead tone to her voice.
“He’s not,” Ron said through gritted teeth.
“I bet he’s hunting for Snickleweed Grubers. It requires a lot of solitude to catch one,” Luna suggested, at last glancing up from her teacup.
Hermione set a hand to her forehead and Ron took over the meeting.
“I spoke with George this week about finding someone who doesn’t want to be found. He said chances were that Harry’s spellwork would far surpass his own, but when it came to gadgets, he just might be able to come up with something. He’s working on a product that could take a sample of an item the missing person most recently touched and then use the traces on it to track down the last locations where the matching trace existed. He said it might be a step-by-step process, but eventually it could possibly pin-point the exact town where Harry was, even if his wards are hiding him.”
“It’s great, let’s do it,” Hermione said, hopeful.
“Yeah, the problem is…it’s not ready yet. George is still working on it, but he’s going as fast as he can.”
Ginny let out a long breath, uncrossing her arms as she moved her spoon from her cup to the saucer underneath it.
“Okay, well, I did think maybe we could use Rita Skeeter like we did in fifth year,” Hermione suggested, glancing over at Luna.
“Fourth year,” Ginny muttered.
“Another Harry Potter exclusive in The Quibbler?” Luna asked, smiling.
“We were thinking along the lines of a Potter Scandal exclusive piece. We could persuade Skeeter that she would hit the jackpot if she managed to unveil the Ministry’s cover-up and the Prophet’s lies about Harry,” Hermione said.
“Jackpot?” Ginny repeated, brows furrowed.
“Do you mean the Quishport?” Luna suggested in what she seemed to think was a helpful manner. Hermione stared at the ceiling, counting slowly down from ten.
“Do you think it’s possible?” Ron cut in, addressing Luna.
“Yes, of course.” She nodded encouragingly.
“Great, can you get Skeeter set up with the story and put her on our leads?”
“Oh, no.” Luna shook her head.
Hermione let her hands fall to the table, more loudly than she meant to. She did appreciate Luna, but the woman wore her out. Though an adult with her own husband and children, a family and home to care for, a job to be responsible for, Luna was as queer as ever, and as difficult a conversationalist as she had been at school.
“Why not?” Ron asked.
“Rita Skeeter’s in Cairo covering the Egyptian Pixie riots,” Luna answered.
“I could have told you that,” Ginny said dully, one finger tracing the edge of her saucer.
“Yes, well, why didn’t you?” Hermione snapped.
Ginny looked up and blinked at her.
“Enough nonsense,” Hermione pressed on. “If we think Harry might be looking for Malfoy, let’s talk about what we can ascertain regarding Malfoy-”
“Have you owled him?” Luna asked.
Actually, Hermione hadn’t. Of all the things they had considered, not once had she or Ron jotted out a quick note to Malfoy. ‘Hey there, dear old ferret. Noticed you disappeared, wondered if you’d seen Harry.’ Better to let Hermione write it. She made a note on her pages to do so once she had recovered from this dreadful meeting.
“I did meet with Astoria Greengrass earlier in the week to inquire after Malfoy and the accident that occurred in their home last June,” Hermione said. Ron nodded and Ginny looked bored.
“He’s not run away with a mistress,” Luna interjected.
“How do you know that?” Ron asked, eyebrows raised.
“Well, of course, because Malfoy is gay,” Luna said, matter-of-fact.
Hermione’s mouth fell open and Ginny turned all the way around in her chair to look at Luna. Ron didn’t look like he’d be speaking just yet.
“What makes you say that?” Hermione questioned.
“Well, I happened upon Astoria a year ago while shopping in Diagon Alley. It seemed rather obvious that they were unhappy.”
“Unhappy!” Ron bellowed. “Just because a bloke’s unhappy doesn’t mean he’s gay!”
“It hardly seems relevant, anyway. It’s enough to know that the Malfoys were having marriage problems for some time,” Hermione pushed the conversation on, attempting to steer them away from another sidetrack. “Astoria confirmed this information. She was rather distant throughout our entire chat, however. And she kept peering toward the door, though I could never determine why,” Hermione said.
“What did she say about the accident?” Ron asked.
“Nothing, except that she came home and found the house as it was, broken clock, shattered teakettle, and no sign of Malfoy. And she hasn’t heard from him since that day.”
Ginny stared down at her hands, twisting up the napkin on the table.
“And the divorce papers?” Ron asked.
“She said they had signed them months and months ago, but had never filed them,” Hermione answered. Luna’s brow lowered as though she were thinking about the statement, though for all Hermione knew, she could have been thinking about Blibbering Humdingers again.
“Any signs of Dark magic traces?” Ron inquired.
“The signs were there, all right,” Hermione said, “but nothing I could actually use.” She frowned, spreading out the pages and photographs she had gathered from the files Kingsley had given her access to. “It’s been too long. It was a temporal occurrence, whatever happened, so the traces couldn’t survive fully in tact all this time within the house, nor on the clock. Whatever spells were used weren’t strong enough to leave complete permanent impressions. The blood samples, however, remained intact on the teakettle.”
“Ooh, blood?” Luna asked, leaning forward with interest.
“The blood is Malfoy’s,” Hermione said.
“Big deal! Malfoy’s blood on a broken teakettle after a fight in his own home! What does this have to do with Harry?” Ginny lashed out.
“How do you propose we find him?” Hermione asked coolly.
Ginny crossed her arms again and sat back in her chair.
“So it doesn’t tell us who did it, but we could safely conclude that Malfoy was attacked, anyway,” Ron summarised. “And that makes Astoria’s story sound very fishy. Did she say why she filed for divorce despite Malfoy’s absence?”
“I expect she was ready to move on,” Luna answered out of turn. Hermione and Ron both glanced at her. Ginny shifted in her seat, carefully inspecting her fingernails.
“Well,” Hermione drew out the word, recovering her train of thought, “what she said was that they had always meant to divorce since drawing up the papers, and she didn’t think Malfoy intended to return from wherever he was, so it would be better for the family to move forward.”
“But the blood? The attack? She thinks Malfoy just skipped town?” Ron asked sceptically.
Hermione shrugged apologetically. It didn’t make a lot of sense to her, either.
“What about finding Al?” Ginny asked, returning to the conversation while Luna used her wand to pour herself some more tea from the kettle.
“Sorry, no luck yet,” Ron replied gently.
“Is Albus lost?” Luna asked curiously before taking a sip from her teacup.
“He ran away from Hogwarts. Lorcan and Lysander must have told you?” Hermione inquired.
“Well, no. But I have received several owls and Floos from McGonagall. Do you think the two are connected?” Luna set her cup down expectantly.
Hermione sighed.
“We received a letter from our Rose,” Ron filled in. “She said Albus and Scorpius left school, and that your boys might know where they went.”
“Oh. Well, no. They haven’t told me anything about it,” Luna replied.
“When was the last time you talked to them?” Ginny asked, sitting up in her chair.
“They wrote me for some information,” Luna answered, gazing back at Ginny.
“What kind of information?” Ron drilled. Luna turned her attention to him.
“I think it was research for a class. They wanted to know about a bird. Probably for Care of Magical Creatures. They do teach such interesting and varied things in school these days,” Luna mused.
“Er, what kind of bird?” Ron continued with less gusto.
“Oh, a bird from Mediterranean coastal areas. Quite special, with a mating call that attracts even grown wizards!” She laughed. Ron looked amused and Hermione shook her head.
“Well, there is always the Trace,” Hermione said.
Ginny shook her head. “Albus knows underage magic is traced. If he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t do any magic. He’s like his father that way.”
“Okay,” Hermione ceded the point, “but maybe he slips up. Or maybe Scorpius does. I’ll speak with Mafalda Hopkirk and see if she can put an alert on their Traces.”
“I suppose the owl you sent with the trace didn’t do any good?” Ginny asked Ron.
“No, it wouldn’t tell us anything,” he answered.
“Do the owls talk?” Luna asked with interest.
“No,” Ron shook his head, “they’re trained to give us clues, either by bringing back a sample from a tree, plant, or even printed media from the location, or else to work with us on special maps to indicate the location the owl traveled from. Owls are geniuses, I tell you.” Ron had been extremely disappointed, but if she were honest with herself, Hermione hadn’t been surprised. She knew if Albus Potter had run away from school, he had thought at least a few steps ahead. But, like Ron, she did believe he would be easier to locate than Harry, at least.
“So, if they’re such geniuses, why couldn’t the bird find Al?” Ginny challenged.
Ron looked uncomfortable and Luna said, “Ooh, Albus must be extremely clever. And he’s not in Ravenclaw?” She looked around at them all in surprise.
Hermione scowled. It was Luna’s Ravenclaw sons who most likely held their best clues to finding Albus. She was certain, however, that a Magical Law Enforcement witch conducting a full interrogation of two wizarding school students would be somewhat frowned upon. Maybe she could just pop into Hogwarts and have a friendly chat with them.
“Hey, why not send Kreacher to fetch Al?” Ron suggested.
Ginny shook her head again. “Kreacher thinks Al is Harry’s little prince clone. He would do anything for that boy, including keep his secrets from his family.”
“But you’re his master, too!” Ron argued hotly. Hermione frowned at the use of ‘master.’
“Technically, I’m his master’s wife. He likes me, sure. But the children are Harry’s blood,” Ginny explained.
The meeting was already winding down to a close. They had no more information to discuss, and no new leads. Hermione could owl Draco and attempt to follow up on Astoria’s curious behavior. There was always the Deluminator and the Trace. Still, she wasn’t sure what they had accomplished besides putting everyone on the same page.
“What if we try to talk to the Malfoys and see if they have ways of locating Draco or Scorpius, you know, within the family, with their own house-elves or something?” Ron suggested.
“You mean contacting Narcissa and Lucius?” Hermione clarified. He nodded darkly. “I suppose we can try.”
“I can do it,” Ron said at once.
“Are you sure?” Hermione questioned. “I’m still employed at the Ministry. I could use my position-”
“No.” Ron shook his head. “I don’t want you anywhere near Malfoy Manor. If we do it, I’ll be the one who goes.”
The three witches at the table surveyed him for a moment, Luna appearing amused, Hermione appreciative, and Ginny with narrowed eyes. Then Ginny spoke.
“If you do meet with Lucius, you should inform him that helping you will help him locate his grandson, whom I am sure he would be eager to find. I gather that Scorpius is well loved in his family, even if he is a Malfoy.”
Ron nodded and the table grew silent. It seemed to Hermione that there were no more new ideas forthcoming, and so she made one final plea for Luna to discover if her boys were hiding information.
“Please, Luna. If you could just tell them that Al’s family cares about him very much and that we don’t want to see anything bad happen to him and Scorpius…”
“I can try,” Luna said. “But I doubt very much it will help. Those boys still to this day won’t tell me where they hid their talking Warbulf dolls when they were four.” She shook her head as if this were a mild tragedy.
Ron looked ready to ask what a Warbulf doll was, but Hermione stopped him with a strong grip on his forearm. They finally adjourned the meeting and Luna left with a happy wave before Flooing home. Ginny rose from her seat to make dinner, speaking a quiet invitation to Ron and Hermione if they wished to share tea with her.
They agreed, regardless of her recent and prolonged foul mood. Hermione knew it must be hard to suffer not only the disappearance of one’s husband, but one’s child as well. She wanted to help Ginny, but she wasn’t sure how she could.
Next: Chapter 19