Author's Note:

I would just like to strongly urge any of you who like the story at all to leave a review. I would like feedback on the plot and what you think about it. Thank you!

Chapter 3: Mrs. Potter

Ginevra Potter sat in her office, leaning back in her comfortable chair with her feet propped up on her desk. Her hands were behind her head as she gazed up at the blank white ceiling above her.

She had been really busy lately, but she was taking a moment to just sit back, relax, and think over the situation.

Harry had just left for Denmark three days ago. No word had been heard from him since then, but she wasn't that worried. She knew it often took several days to get in to see a king, and he would hardly send word before there was any to send.

The prince of Denmark was missing and the Danes were blaming England for his disappearance, though nobody in England knew what was going on at all.

On top of that, ancient magical history texts were being stolen from multiple locations. Nobody knew who was behind the thefts, but it was a sizeable group to be pulling off these kinds of robberies.

The first site had been a library in London, the second had been the Zabini Manor, and the last one, which had occurred only two days ago, had been the Ministry of Magic itself. These people were efficient, and knew what they wanted; they were in and out in no time at all, leaving everything undisturbed—with the exception of the books that were missing.

The door to her office crashed open with a bang, and Ginny jumped to her feet with a start. The headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor Flitwick, stood in the doorway.

"Hello Mrs. Potter, sorry for intruding so suddenly, but I have some urgent news for you." His eyes were solemn.

"No not at all, Flitwick. What's the matter?"

"It's about your son, Albus."

"What about him? Is he in trouble at school? Has he been getting into fights?" The concern was evident in her voice.

Flitwick took a deep breath, then launched into the tale of all that had happened the last week.

Ginny's face started to pale, and then her face went completely ashen.

"But—but I just don't understand. I thought Albus was happy at Hogwarts. I don't know what would drive him to this. It just doesn't make sense. And to go so far as to threaten another student's life. . . ." She fell into silence, then spoke up again, "And at a time like this, I'm already overloaded, and on top of that Harry's gone . . . I don't know what to do."

"I know, I was shocked as well. And I feel so terrible— I am at least somewhat responsible for Albus falling to the measures he did, and I am sincerely sorry."

Ginny was already under a boatload of stress as it was. She couldn't hold it in and she burst into tears. She sat down and put her head in her hands.

Flitwick hesitated, and then started to move towards her, but she spoke.

"Please Flitwick, I appreciate you coming and telling me yourself, but I would like to be left alone for a bit."

Flitwick hesitated once more, and then said, "Of course. If there is anything I can do, please tell me." He turned and strode out of the office, swinging the door closed quietly behind him as he left.

Ginny spun her desk chair around so that it faced the window. She looked out over London and wondered what had possibly happened to Albus to make him do such a thing.

Then her thoughts turned to what she should try and do about it.

She was fully loaded with the case of the stolen magical texts, and she knew there was absolutely no way she could get the ministry to give her time off to go look for Albus, even though it was a family emergency.

Harry was in Denmark, so he couldn't go look for Albus, and her oldest son, James, was in Romania, and it would take too long to get him over to England.

Her thoughts roved to Ron, but his job at the ministry was keeping him on his toes as it was.

Finally, Ginny's thoughts turned to Hermione. Yes, she was the perfect one to help out: she knew and loved Albus dearly, and would be more than willing to go after him. Hermione was a writer—one who spent three months of the year experiencing other wizarding cultures and researching their history, and then nine months at home, intensively writing her book.

Luckily for Ginny, Hermione had gotten home from her three months of travel just before the summer, and she would be able to take some time off her writing to go look for Albus.

Leaping out of her chair, Ginny grabbed a pinch of floo powder out of a jar on her desk, and threw it into the fireplace. Shoving her head into the flames she yelled out Hermione and Ron's address.

She looked out at a nicely furnished room with Persian rugs on the floor, and souvenirs of Hermione's travels lining the walls. On a couch in the center of the room, facing the fireplace, sat Hermione. She lay with her legs curled under her, a piece of parchment in her lap, and a quill in her hand. At the moment she was sucking on the end of her quill thoughtfully.

"Hermione?" Hermione jumped at the sound of Ginny's voice, the parchment fell out of her lap and onto the floor.

"Oh, Ginny, it's you. You frightened me." Hermione reached down and scooped the parchment off the floor.

"Sorry about that. Look, I have something I need to talk to you about." She told Hermione all that Flitwick had told her. "So I was wondering if you could go look for him. With Harry gone, and I'm completely loaded at work, and I know Ron is too…"

Hermione's face was full of concern at this point. "Of course Ginny! There's no way I wouldn't do this for you." They both fell into silence for a few moments. Ginny looked at the floor, while Hermione looked at Ginny's face with concern.

"Are you okay Ginny? You know this isn't your fault," said Hermione.

"But isn't it?" Asked Ginny quietly, still looking at the floor. "I was the one who raised him. I'm responsible for him."

"Sometimes things just happen, and there's nothing anyone can do. Who knows what is going through Albus' head right now—or what's going through his heart. Something could have happened at school, something could have hurt him real bad, there's no way of knowing."

Ginny sighed. "I know, but I still feel like I wasn't there for him when he needed someone."

"Do you need someone to be with you Ginny? Do you want me to come over there?"

"No thanks Hermione, I think I just need some time to be alone."

"Okay then. . . ." Hermione looked really worried now. "I'll get ready and go right away."

"Thanks a lot, Hermione."

"Anything for you, Ginny."

Ginny pulled her head back out of the fireplace and collapsed into her chair. She gritted her teeth as she threatened to fall apart. She couldn't, not at a time like this; she needed to focus on her work. Pulling herself together she drew a stack of papers towards her.

***

Hermione rose to her feet, and placed the parchment and quill on the small coffee table in front of the couch. She went up to her room and threw some muggle clothes into a bag and changed as fast as she could.

Rushing down into the kitchen she wrote a hasty note explaining to Ron what was going on. Leaving the note on the table she ran out the door. Out on the lawn she hesitated. She wanted someone to help in her search, but she didn't know who to go to.

Her mind ran through options. The only person she could think of who wasn't completely loaded with something right now was Bill Weasley, her brother-in-law.

Spinning on the spot, Hermione disapparated with a bang.

***

Bill started, and jumped with a yelp, when his sister-in-law appeared between him and the TV. "Hermione?! What are you doing here?"

Hermione turned and looked at the TV where Jaws was playing, screams emanated from the mechanical box, and blood and body parts spewed across the screen. "You're watching muggle TV?"

Bill looked sheepish. "Yeah, it's a good way to pass the time when you have nothing else to do."

"Where's Fleur?"

"She's out shopping, why?"

Hermione quickly explained everything to Bill. An expression of complete shock covered his features. "I was wondering if you could come with me and try to find him and bring him back."

"Of course, I could hardly turn family down when I'm on holiday anyway. Wait here." Bill stood up and turned to run to his room. He was a big guy, not too tall, but rather stocky. He had long hair pulled back into a ponytail, and an earring glimmered in one ear, just like the days when Hermione had been a young student attending Hogwarts. His face was badly scarred from the time he had fought Fenrir Greyback, brutal traces of the battle ran up and down and sideways across his big face, making him unrecognizable to people who had only known him before the traumatic experience. A large beard grew on his chin.

Through the open door Hermione could see clothes flying left and right as Bill tried to pack in a short amount of time.

Hermione looked back at the TV just in time to see a shark pop out of nowhere and swallow a man whole. She raised her eyebrows.

"Lovely movie you're watching in here, Bill." She said with a grin to herself.

His voice drifted in from the other room. "I was especially bored, and hey, that's a good movie, even if it is really gory." Hermione laughed.

Hermione heard a door slam somewhere in the house. A sweet voice with a slight French accent flowed through the house like a stream bubbling down a brook. "Bill, darling, I'm home!"

Fleur came prancing through the door to the front hall. In her arms she carried a couple of bags. A bright smile covered her face, but when she saw Hermione she halted.

"Oh, Hermione, what are you doing here?"

"I was—" Hermione started to explain, but halted when Bill entered the room with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

"Fleur, you're here. Great, that makes this so much easier." Bill closed the distance between them, relieved her of her bags, and drew her into his arms. He explained to her quietly as they gazed into each other's eyes.

Hermione occupied herself with watching the TV, attempting to give them a little privacy.

When Bill's voice stopped, she glanced up, thinking that he was finished. When she saw that the two of them were sharing a kiss, she hastily looked down, her cheeks flushing a little.

She began to wish she had had a chance to say goodbye to Ron, but the situation had forced her to leave before he came home.

Bill's voice cut across her reverie. "Hermione, let's go," he said gruffly. Giving Fleur a brief hug, Hermione raced into the hall after Bill, and out onto the front steps.

"Where do we start?" Asked Bill, turning to face Hermione.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment. "Let's try the International Floo Network. I'm not sure, but I think Albus might have headed for America."

"What?! Where did you come up with that idea? That's so random."

"It's not, actually. Ever since he was young, Albus has expressed the desire to get out of England, to go see some other countries, and America was always first on his list. He always talked about wanting to go there."

Bill shrugged, "Well, we have no other clues. Let's check it out." Bill and Hermione disapparated without another word.

They appeared in London, in front of the glass doors of the International Floo Network. The street was a typical crowded London street. They pushed forwards together and into the building.

The place was semi-crowded with people coming and going from fireplaces all over the world. They pushed their way over to the desk where a tall wizard with silky blonde hair was having a discussion with the wizard behind the desk.

"Malfoy?" Asked Hermione in surprise.

The blonde wizard looked up. "Granger, it's been awhile," he said with the ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

"Yeah, how are you? Is work going well?"

Malfoy frowned at this. "It's on both work and family business that I'm here, actually. And no, I'm not doing amazingly well, since I found out this morning that your nephew has kidnapped my son and broken the law by leaving through the floo network without the permission of a guardian."

"So he did leave the country, as I thought…"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, nothing. I was talking to myself, but did I hear you right? You're here on family and work business?"

"Yes, as you know I'm an Auror, and it just so happened that I got assigned to hunt down Albus and Scorpius for breaking the law. I was just getting information from this helpful gentleman here." He nodded at the wizard behind the desk. "It appears they came through late last night and leapt into the floo channel leading to Chicago."

Bill leaned over and whispered in Hermione's ear. "It appears you were right." Despite the circumstances, Hermione couldn't help but feel a little smug.

"Thank you for that information. I think we should be running along now. We don't want to lose any time in looking for them."

They turned and started to make for the Chicago fireplace when Malfoy called out, "Wait!" They stopped and turned. "Since we both wish to find our children, maybe we should work together. What do you think?"

Hermione was surprised. "Yeah sure, I guess, why not?"

"Excellent," Malfoy replied with a smile.

The three of them grabbed some floo powder, and one by one stepped into the fireplace for Chicago.

It was dark as they immerged from the fireplace. The cold tiled marble room was deserted except for a young woman who sat behind a desk in the corner. It was dusk outside, the sun having just gone down.

As they strode out into the street, they were deafened by the sound of gunfire.

On their left, cops were ducking behind two police cars stopped in the middle of the road. On their right, a gang of what looked like mobsters were using dumpsters and light-posts for cover.

They were caught in the middle of a gunfight.

Bill threw himself in front of Hermione, then scooped her up in his large arms and sprinted towards the nearest police car and dove behind it.

Malfoy went for his wand but then a mobster caught sight of him. He fired off a shot that hit Malfoy in the arm. His wand flew from his hand as his arm fell limp at his side, blood was spreading out from the where the bullet had entered.

The mobster who had shot him jumped from behind the large dumpster he had been using for cover, rushed over, and tackled Malfoy to the ground. Pushing the point of his gun into Malfoy's temple he yelled out, "Stop firing or I blow his head off!"

Immediately all gunfire ceased. Hermione risked a glance around the side of the car, and saw Malfoy wincing in pain as he cradled his injured arm.

The mobster resumed speaking, "You're going to let us leave now. If anyone comes after us, we'll kill this man. After we are safely away, I'll let him go unharmed."

The police didn't reply. The mobsters all got up from their respective hiding spots and, leaping into two Toyota's that stood nearby, whipped around the corner, taking Malfoy with them.

Right before they disappeared, Hermione pulled her wand out in a flash, and, pointing at the Toyota Malfoy had been shoved into, hissed a charm. Then she hastily hid her wand again, before any of the Muggles had seen it.

One of the cops ran over to them. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, we're unharmed officer," replied Bill as he helped Hermione to her feet.

The worry on the cop's face decreased a bit. "Do you know who that blonde man was?"

"Why ye-" Before Bill had a chance to finish, Hermione stomped down on his foot and interrupted.

"No officer, I've never seen him before," Hermione lied, knowing that she and Bill could save Malfoy a lot faster without having to go to the Muggle police station and wasting a lot of time there.

"Well if you're unharmed, and you don't know who that gentleman was, then I guess you're free to go," said the cop, looking a little confused.

As the cops jumped in their cars and rushed away, Bill looked at Hermione questioningly. "I put a tracing charm on the back of one of the cars. If we told the cops we knew Malfoy, they just would have taken us to their station and we would have to waste a lot of time. This way we can rescue him in a minimal amount of time."

"Ah, you really are a smart piece of work," Bill complimented Hermione.

Hermione strode over and picked Malfoy's wand off the street. "We're going to need a car."

Bill grinned, "As long as I get to drive."

"Sure, if you want," Hermione replied dismissively.

Hermione gazed up at the sky. She could tell already that finding her nephew was going to be an adventure. They had barely gotten here and already they had been thrown into the middle of a gunfight and someone had gotten kidnapped.

Hermione muttered to herself, "Welcome to America."