Jolinnn: Good guess and thank you for your honesty. If you could tell me WHERE exactly you're confused, then maybe I could help you out a bit.

book_lover613: Thanks, Cuz!

Bloodie Indy: Thanks!

Mystic Supernova the Dib fan: *Hangs head in shame* Yeah . . . *shuffles feet awkwardly* sorry about the whole keeping-you-guys-waiting-for-numerous-months thingy. I've been really busy with school work lately, and I'm actually taking summer school this summer which starts tomorrow (depressing, I know). Anyway, I'll try to update as frequently as possible, so please just bear with me :)

blackkyu: No problem. I was honestly starting to forget the plot myself. As for Artemis and Rose and Al, we'll see. I have a general idea on where this fanfic I going, but little is actually set in stone. I don't know just how much interaction will take place between them, but a friendship is entirely possible.

Harry, struggling to look polite, opened the door to a fuming Astoria and Draco Malfoy.

"Well?" he said, inviting himself in. "Where are they?"

"Where are who?" he asked, confused.

Malfoy took none of it. "Oh, you know who," he insisted, his steel-grey eyes burning with rage, practically boring holes through Harry's skull.

"You-know-Who?"

"NO!"

Rose rolled her eyes. As usual, she made no attempt to hide her annoyance, or bluntly voice her opinion. "Okay, would you stop being so cryptic? I think it's pretty obvious that none of us know who you are talking about!" she threw her hands up in the air in annoyance. She turned back to Artemis. "Now, about those contacts. . . "

Fowl sighed, reluctantly handing them over. "I really do wish you would have been more- -" Rose snatched them out of his palm, giving him a quick "thank you", and handing the other pair to her cousin.

"Excuse me, does anyone realize that we're standing right here?" Astoria, Malfoy's wife, demanded. Astoria was a pretty woman with long, light auburn hair and large, sea green eyes. She was two years younger than her husband, but stood a little over an inch taller.

"No, we do," Rose assured her, "We just don't care."

"Potter," Draco growled, "what is the meaning of this? I demand to know where my children are at once!"

"I can assure you, Sir, that we are in the process of locating them right now," said Artemis, in a professional manner, seeming completely undisturbed by the couple barging into the Potter's house.

"What do you mean 'in the process of'?" demanded Astoria, growing angrier my the millisecond. Her husband, too, was shaking from head to toe in rage, clearly not used to having his demands unmet. "Who are you, anyway?" she asked, growing suspicious. "I haven't seen you here before."

Potter cleared his throat. "How about Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy and I settle things in the kitchen, while you guys debate amongst yourselves."

Artemis nodded. "That sounds reasonable to me."

Ginny glared at them. "I can't believe that we're even debating something so stupid. I'm not letting my son risk his neck."

"Come on, Mum, I really want to do this. I understand the risks, but this is super important. We need to find her. You know it, I know it . . . and besides," he added with a smirk, "who else is going to keep Rose in check?"

"I just think that this sort of thing should be left to the Ministry . . ."

"Pardon me, Aunt Ginny," Rose inquired, "but if I remember correctly, didn't you, along with a bunch of other underaged wizards create an army to rebel against the goverment when you were only fourteen?"

"That was totally different. The situation was dire. Besides, that wasn't life-threatening."

"But what about the Battle of Hogwarts? That was life-threatening," Albus pointed out.

"I'll have you know that I didn't actually participate in that battle. I minded by own business and stood on the sidelines, leaving the fighting to the adults."

Rose frowned. "That doesn't sound like what my dad told me. He said that Grandmother and Grandfather had to drag to the side, kicking a screaming because you wanted to fight." Albus giggled.

Artemis said, "If you really do not want them to participate, then I can make other arrangements. . ."

"NO!" shouted Rose. "I want to help. He's my brother."

"It will be quite dangerous. . ."

Rose shrugged nonchalantly. "I know that."

"Look, you're a smart girl, Rose," Aunt Ginny was nearly pleading, "surely you know better than to go out and risk your life when it's not absolutely necessary- -"

"'Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings'," Rose quoted solemnly.

Artemis nodded, impressed. "Salvador Dali," he said, recognizing the source, "Forgive me, but, 'ambition should be made of sterner stuff'."

Rose smirked. "William Shakespeare," she said automatically.

Albus, feeling that he should contribute, said, "'When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.'"

"Alright, enough with the quoting!" Ginny said. The children looked at each other and smiled.

"I like pie," Albus announced.

"Now," said Harry, once the door to the kitchen was closed. "I'm terribly sorry about what happened to little Scorpius- -"

"- -And Calista," Astoria interrupted. At Harry's blank stare, she rolled her eyes and laughed bitterly. "Did you not know? There are two children. Scorpius is the eldest, Calista just turned eight."

"Oh." He said, feeling a bit foolish. Then again, why should he? Why was he expected to know all of the names and ages of his former enemys' kids? Still, he tried to remain indifferent. "Well, then, I'm sorry about both of your children. We're doing all we can in our power to find them and you will be notified as soon as we receive any news."

Malfoy glared at Harry. Once again his eyes seethed with vehemence. "You don't care, do you?"

"I just said that we would - -"

"You don't care a damn about our children! You hate them just because of their parents! That's it, isn't it?"

"I have no idea what you are talking abou- -"

"Oh, save it, Potter! Don't tell me it wasn't your doing that the Ministry did not reply to my owl. Why else do you think I came here? Do you think I found it funny when Aurors searched my house for the umpteenth time, because someone preformed an illegal curse? Well, I'm not amused! Not in the least."

Now indignant, Harry returned the same venomous glare in Draco's direction. "I never heard about any surprise raid on anyone's house. Just because something bad happened to you, it doesn't mean that I automatically had something to do with it. I'm not out to get you, Draco. Now, if you'll tell me what exactly happened to Scorpius and Calista, it might help me in locating them."

"Draco was at work when it happened," Astoria interjected. "I was the one who saw it."

"Go on, then."

"Well, there isn't really much to it. I was in the parlor with Calista, and Scorpius came in and asked if he could test his new broom outside. I allowed it, but made him swear to stay in the yard and be back by dark. Later on, his sister joined him. There was nothing unusual about it. I became concerned when they didn't show up after dusk, so I sent Foo-Foo, our house elf, to go fetch them. Foo-foo returned later saying that they were gone. I followed her out into the yard, thinking that it might have just been a game, but after looking around for a while, I realized that there was no trace of them."

"That's when I came home," Draco said. "We searched the house once again, but came up empty-handed. Except for one thing."

"On the stone wall in the back, someone had scribbled something down. It looked like Scorpius's handwriting. . ."

"What did it say?" asked Harry.

"It was nothing," she said lowering her head, refusing to meet Harry's gaze. "Just a bunch of nonsense, really. Nothing. Forget I said anything."

"I'd still like to hear it."

"Fine." Astoria reached into her handbag and dug around. "I know that I wrote it down somewhere. . .ah, here it is: Atomic, global, danger, magic children, n wartius bon bon 23516429 12:30, number 3 every other, knockturn knockturn wingstand poppy. Like I said, all it is is a bunch of hogwash. Probably a part of some game he was playing but- -"

"Can I see it?" asked Harry. She nodded and handed him the parchment. He studied the content carefully, as if expecting it to change before his eyes. But the cryptic message remained the same. "Thank you," he said, "I'll send for some of my colleagues to come and investigate immediately."

"Harry!" Ginny burst into the kitchen. Her lower lip was trembling, and Harry could see that it was taking all of her willpower not to lose it right there and then. "They're gone," she whispered. "Albus and Rose they . . ." her voice cracked, "they ran away."

"How do we know where to go?" asked Albus.

"It's really quite simple. You said that Lily was walking Padfoot when she disappeared, right?" he nodded. "And it was approximately 6:30 PM, correct?" Al nodded again.
"Well, then, knowing your sister I suspect she planned a short walk around the block, which takes about half an hour, maybe twenty-five minutes, a nice-sized stroll. She vanished on August fifteenth, right? So sunset was roughly at 6:50 that night, which meant that it would have become dark outside before she could reach home. Lily knows her way around this area fairly well, so chances are that she took a short cut through the graveyard. It's pretty likely that she was kidnapped there."

. . .

. . .

. . . Chirp. Chirp.

"You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"

"What makes you think that?" Rose asked innocently. Rose was renown in the Weasley family for her math and logic skills, which by far surpassed those of the average ten-year-old. In fact, they often surpassed those of the average adult.

Albus paused, struggling to keep the emotion out of his voice. "Okay, fine. So maybe she vanished in the cemetery. But how will that help us find the kidnapper?"

"Villans always return to the scene of the crime," she replied matter-of-factly, making her way over to the graveyard. Rose walked with her head up high, looking more and more confident with each and every stride. To her, it was almost like a game. Mainly because Rose knew she would completely lose it if she so much as reminded herself that it was real life. The thought of her brother missing was too much to bare. But a pretend kidnapping? That she could handle.

Albus was a bit reluctant to follow. He trusted his cousin's judgement- -only a fool wouldn't, but he was worried about the potential dangers. He glanced at his wrist watch. Alfonse had given him and Rose watches that he claimed doubled as communication devices. Al had been skeptical, even after the older boy had demonstrated their use. Rose had taken to it easily, talking up a storm about how impressed she was with the technology.

He also felt sort of bad for running away. Okay, fine. He and Rose did announce they were going to leave, so it wasn't running away completely, he supposed. But they had left before his mum could respond. It felt sort of like cheating.

Rose, however, seemed to hold no regret of their actions, finding everything that they had done completely justifiable. Rose was the kind of person who liked to live "in the moment", rarely reflecting on the past. Al wished that the same could be said for him.

Suggestions are always welcome. So is praise and constructive criticism. Please let me know what you think!

Bonus points to whoever knows where Albus's last quote came from!