Thank you for the reviews! (And I meant to say, to anyone wondering who Phillip's mother, is you will find out. Just not yet.)
CHAPTER NINE: Those Left Behind
Present Day
Harry stood in the Hogwarts grounds, staring at the spot where he'd last seen his youngest child. Hermione came up behind him and gently put her arms round him. "You're here again,"she pointed out.
"I just think if I stare at it long enough then she'll suddenly appear again. But she won't. It's been months."
"She wouldn't necessarily appear here,"Hermione pointed out. "If we're right about what's happened to them, then they could appear anywhere, at any time. We've had experience of travelling to the past, remember?"
"Yes but with us it was only a few hours and we came back the long way round. I don't fancy Nymphadora being an old woman the next time I see her."
James came walking across the grass towards them. "Dad, Hermione."
Harry looked at him with a certain amount of suspicion. "You've spoken to the Order?"
"Yes and they agree with me. Nymphadora and Bradley are stuck in the past. A full-scale search in this time period would be pointless."
"I'll talk to them,"Harry decided angrily, making to push past James.
James caught his arm. "You stepped down as leader of the Order for a reason, remember? You knew you'd made some wrong decisions, you trusted me to make the right ones. That's what I'm doing. I want to help Dora as much as anyone but we need to find out the right way of doing that, not go chasing off on one."
"I think Dumbledore knows something,"Hermione noted.
Harry looked at her in surprise. "What makes you say that?"
"I don't know. It's just the way he's been ever since this all started, since Nave first tried to kill you."
Harry looked back at James. "I trust you have no objection to questioning Dumbledore?"
"No, I'm right behind you."
Neville was already at his desk when Harry, Hermione and James came walking into the headmaster's office. "Harry, Hermione, James, what's going on?"
"We want to talk to one of your predecessors,"Harry replied.
Neville got up and stood to one side, giving them unrestricted access to the portraits behind him. Harry was immediately focused on the portrait of Dumbledore. The old man nodded slowly. "Yes. I suspected you'd be talking to me sooner or later. The one secret I have yet to divulge to you."
"Do you know where Nymphadora and Bradley are?"Hermione asked.
"I have some insight into it, yes."
"Then why haven't you said something?"James demanded.
"I made some choices a long time ago. As with a lot of choices I've made over the years, I wasn't sure if they were right. I hope they were. I hope things will turn out for the best."
"We need answers, not vague guilt,"Harry replied.
"You already have the answers, Harry,"Dumbledore told him. "You too, Hermione…and even you, Neville. Think back to your third year."
"The year Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban,"Neville recalled.
"The year we met Peter Pettigrew,"Hermione added.
"There was more,"Dumbledore replied. "There were two new students that year. The story we gave was that they had been home schooled. One of them was sorted into Gryffindor. She became your friend."
"Yes,"Harry agreed. "Her name was…Dora." He gaped in astonishment. "It was her. Nymphadora. Her and Bradley, they were there with us in third year."
"Yes,"Dumbledore confirmed. "I wanted to preserve the future so I tampered with your memories. I didn't remove anything or change anything, I simply made it so you wouldn't think too hard about certain things. If you had realised that Nymphadora was destined to travel back in time, you might have done things differently."
"So they're all right, her and Bradley?"James persisted. "They're going to end up back here? I mean, they didn't stay with you all the way through school or anything?"
Dumbledore's reply failed to give the reassurance needed. "They will be all right...if all goes according to plan."
Rose entered Ron's office to find him looking more than a little frustrated. He seemed to have just finished a conversation over his desk's floo-link and it apparently hadn't gone well. "What's wrong?"she asked.
"I still can't get Nave's files unsealed."
"What?" Rose was astonished. "But it's been months! He used an Unforgiveable, he's abducted two minors…"
"The Wizengamot have argued that that wasn't deliberate…and they're probably right."
"I'll get the DMLE to talk to them again."
"It can't hurt, I guess. Seems the Wizengamot want to show me what I can and can't do. A lot of them still aren't happy about that ministerial pardon I gave to Harry and the others."
Rose sighed. "Including me."
Ron looked at her kindly. "Yeah, well, what else was I going to do? Thing is I don't think they'd be doing this unless there was someone leaning on them."
"That would have to be someone from one of the old wizarding families, right? I don't remember a pureblood family called Nave."
"He could be descended in the female line,"Ron pointed out. "Unfortunately, we won't know unless we can get those files."
Beverley found Gemini and Tracey sitting in one of the Hogwarts corridors. The cousins had both been unusually quiet ever since Nymphadora and Bradley had disappeared. Beverley missed them as well but she was doing her best to stay upbeat. They had got out of trickier situations after all. "Those aren't very happy faces,"she told them.
Gemini managed a smile but it wasn't a very convincing one. "I guess we don't have much to be happy about at the moment."
"Well, your Uncle Harry's trying to look back through the historical records for any sign of them. I'm sure wherever they ended up they'll be safe. Can't you find anything else to do other than sit around moping?"
"I did tell Balthasar I'd help him with his homework,"Gemini admitted. "And he's probably missing Dora too."
"I've done mine,"Tracey replied. "Mum always taught us to do things quickly."
"My mum tried to do the same. We didn't listen."
Beverley smiled. "Well, Tracey, how do you feel about going to watch the Quidditch practise?"
Tracey gave a smile and a nod. They said goodbye to Gemini and headed towards the pitch where the Gryffindor team was assembling. However, when they got there, the team didn't seem to be doing any practising. They were simply huddled in the centre of the pitch. "Is something wrong?"Beverley asked.
Sixth year Meg Best, who had been selected as captain after her predecesor David Barrett had left the previous year, looked at her awkwardly. "We're just discussing pulling out of the championship. It's not much fun when one of your team is missing."
Beverley's classmate Amanda Willis, who had tried out for Chaser after years of reminding everyone her father had once been Gryffindor captain, nodded. "I was really looking forward to playing with Dora this year."
"She could have been a great Seeker one day,"agreed fifth year Manuel Peregrine, who currently held that post. "I was thinking she'd take over from me."
"She's not dead!"Tracey pointed out. "You can't do this!"
"Tracey's right,"Beverley agreed. "Nymphadora would hate it if you didn't play because of her. She'd want to come back and find you'd won the championship." She looked around at the doubtful faces. "Look, if you pull out, I'll put a team together myself. And I can't even play."
Meg gave her a smile. "Okay, third year, we'll put you in our reserves. We're still playing…and we'll hope Dora comes back soon."
