Chapter 3- Back to Hogwarts

"Do you see them yet?" Hugo asked, scanning Platform 9 and ¾ for their cousins. Everyone was gathering at the station to board the Hogwarts Express for the return trip to Hogwarts. As usual, Christmas break had gone far too quickly for Rose, though she was glad she would get to see Scorpius again. She scanned the platform, but saw no sign of her cousins or her boyfriend.

"No surprise, really" Rose said. "We're always the first ones here."

Hermione smiled at her daughter. "There's no shame in being prompt." Rose sighed. It wasn't easy being the daughter of one of the most notoriously organized witches in all England.

"Wait, I think I see Fred and Roxanne," Hugo said, pointing to a family of four walking onto the platform. Rose was happy to see Roxanne, one of her two best friends in the world.

"Are we really so early that no one else is here?" George asked. "Usually we're the last ones here. No holding up the works for this Weasley family today."

"It does seem pretty uncharacteristic of you," Hermione said.

"Well," Angelina said, "I've finally figured out how to get these three out the door on time."

"How?" Ron asked.

"I just told them we were supposed to be here a half an hour earlier than we were actually supposed to be!" Everyone had a good laugh at this.

As the adults continued to chat away, Roxanne grabbed Rose by the arm and said, "Let's go. The one good thing about being here early is that maybe we'll actually get a good compartment." The pair hugged their respective parents goodbye, then hurried to climb aboard the train. Just as they were about to climb up, they heard a voice behind them.

"Wait up!" They turned around to see their cousin Albus hurrying towards them. Rose smiled at the sight of her cousin and other best friend. "You aren't about to leave me behind now were you?"

"Well, we were hoping to finally get a compartment away from you, but I guess now we're going to have to accommodate you," Rose teased. The trio got onboard the train and found a compartment near the front.

"So how was your time with the Muggles?" Albus asked as they got settled into their compartment. Rose and her family had spent the last week of the holidays with her Muggle grandparents.

Rose shrugged. "It was the same as usual. Not much to do there, and since they aren't magical, their house is pretty boring. Unless we have Grandpa Weasley around of course. He always livens things up a bit."

Roxanne, looking bored by the conversation, stood up and glanced out the window of the compartment. "What do you think about Craig Lloyd?" she asked, seeing him walk by.

"In what way?" Rose asked. Roxanne stared at her. "You're right, stupid question. What else would you be asking about?"

"Wait," Albus said, putting his hand up, "I thought you were dating Dan Hannigan?"

Roxanne sighed and sank back in her seat. "I was, but we broke up over the holidays. I don't know, the romance just wasn't fresh anymore. We still care about each other a lot, but we had been drifting apart for a while."

"Drifting apart…from the guy you had been dating four weeks?" Rose asked.

"Hey!" Roxanne said, looking offended. "It was five. See what I mean?"

"I get it," Albus said. "By your standard, that's practically marriage." Albus just managed to dodge a Chocolate Frog Roxanne sent in his direction. "Seriously though, I think you're going to run out of guys to date eventually."

"Well, it doesn't help that half the guys at this school are related to me," Roxanne said. "But you're right. There's only so many guys left at Hogwarts. Maybe I need to get myself a nice Beauxbatons boy. Either that, or start dating Scorpius Malfoy."

Rose blushed a deep shade of red. She pretended to reach for something in her trunk, hoping that neither of her cousins saw her reaction to the possibility of dating Scorpius. As she was looking in the trunk, she heard the compartment door open, and looked up to see three new people come in and join them: Lorcan Scamander, his twin brother Lysander, and Rachel Finch-Fletchley. Rose noticed Albus scurry to make room for Rachel to sit next to him.

"Hey everyone," Rachel asked, looking oblivious to the special attention which Albus was paying her. "How was your holidays?"

Soon the group was immersed in a discussion of the holidays, talking about all the various foods and comparing their various gifts. After a few minutes, they heard the compartment door open again, and Chuck Sanderson walked in.

"Oh hey, are you guys full?" Chuck asked. "I can go find another compartment if there's not enough room in here."

"Don't be silly!" Roxanne said, hopping out of the seat beside Rose and going across to sit next to the extremely shy and suddenly blushing Lorcan. "We can always make room for you." Rose noted that the seat she made just happened to be next to her. It had been nearly a year since Rose had broken up with Chuck, but Roxanne continued to entertain fantasies that the two of them would get back together. Of course, Rose couldn't tell her the real reason why she knew they wouldn't get back together.

"Hi Rose," Chuck said as he sat down next to her, a little too close for her comfort. It was a cliché, but Rose still really wanted to be friends with Chuck. She did still care about him deeply. The problem was, she knew that he wanted more from her.

"Hi Chuck," Rose said in return. "Oh and happy birthday! I hope you had a good one."

"Oh, it was alright," Chuck said. "I ended up going to London for the Boxing Day sales, so that was fun. Plus it's great to be able to perform magic outside school." As if to demonstrate the point, he drew out his wand, pointed it at Albus, who was climbing out of his seat, and said "Everte Statum." Albus tumbled back into his seat. He started to get his wand, but Chuck raised his hand.

"Now now Albus, with all these prefects in the car, I don't want to see you performing any underage magic." Everyone in the compartment roared with laughter. The laughter was soon interrupted by the sound of the door once again opening. Scorpius Malfoy's head peeked in, and Rose's heart started doing acrobatics.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"

"That you were interrupting our conversation?" Albus said with a snarl. "You're not welcome here."

"As if I'd want to be in a compartment with a pile of Weasleys," Scorpius sneered. He started to back out of the compartment, but before he did he looked in Rose's direction. He didn't dare say anything or even wink, but it was enough. Rose knew it was no accident that he had stumbled into their cart. She looked at her cousins and friends glaring at Scorpius as he left. It was going to be an interesting semester.


Harry walked into his office to see his godson sitting behind his desk.

"Must be nice being the boss," Teddy said. "Getting to stroll in whenever you feel like it, no consequences, no discipline, make your own hours."

"Give me a break, Teddy" Harry said, "I was taking the kids to get on the Hogwarts Express."

"Hey, you know I'm just giving you a hard time. No one in this office works harder, or more often than you."

"I just do my fair share," Harry said.

"Some might say that defeating the most dangerous Dark Lord in history would count as your fair share," Teddy suggested.

Harry brushed him off. "Any updates on Hayden?" he asked.

Teddy looked at him for a moment, then reached for a paper on Harry's desk. "It's probably nothing," he said, "but an owl came in this morning from Terry Boot over at the Prophet. Apparently, one of his photographers hasn't been showing up for work, a Dennis Creevey. He doesn't want to make anything public, but he was hoping someone in the office could do a few quick checks on him."

"And you think this might be connected to Hayden?" Harry asked.

"There's no proof of that," Teddy said. "It's just a feeling I'm having. I looked up his information, and he's not a particularly controversial photographer. He just works in their features section. He doesn't seem to have any enemies, at least not that anyone at the Prophet is aware of. And…"

"He's a Muggle-Born," Harry finished.

"Yeah. Do you want to send someone out to check on this, look at his place and interview Boot?"

Harry considered this. "No. We should check up on this one ourselves. You're right, it's probably nothing. But if it's something, I want to stay in front of who hears about this."

Nearly an hour later, Teddy and Harry stood in Dennis Creevey's apartment, talking to Creevey's boss Terry Boot.

"So when did you last see Dennis?" Harry asked.

"It was right before Christmas," Terry said. He had come in to turn in some photographs he had taken at the Hogwarts Yule Ball, and to get his next assignment."

"Which was…?" Teddy asked.

"He was just supposed to hang around Diagon Alley on Boxing Day, get a few good shots of some happy shoppers."

"So he hasn't been on any assignments lately which might have gotten him into any hot water with anyone?" Harry asked.

Terry laughed. "Dangerous? Dennis? Harry, he was just a Lifestyles photographer. Strictly social events and fluff pieces. I can't think of anything he's covered that would have led to kidnapping or anything of the sort." Harry and Teddy sat in silence a moment, considering this. "Do you guys have any more questions for me?" Terry asked. "I really need to get back to The Prophet office."

Harry waved him off. "No, no you can get going. We'll contact you by owl if we have anything further, or if we find out anything." With this, Terry left the apartment. Harry could hear the cracking noise that accompanied apparition just after the door was closed.

"So what are you thinking?" asked Teddy.

Harry considered the question. "It's probably a simple disappearance. Dennis didn't seem to have many roots here, so he could've just up and left. There's no sign of struggle in the apartment, and there doesn't look like there's anything missing. But on the other hand… My gut says there is something wrong about this. Keep the case open, but don't go spreading the word around. For now, let's keep it between the two of us."