In the Great Hall Theodore Nott locked eyes with Flint, Pucey, and Zabini. He jerked his head towards the door. "We need to talk," he said to them.

Blaise moaned. "Can't it wait until after breakfast?" he whined.

Only Flint recognized the severity of the situation at hand. He grabbed Zabini and Pucey by their short collars. "No," he said, "it can't."

The four boys rushed out of the Great Hall and into the hallway. "What?" Pucey spat, "I didn't even get to finnish my pancakes!"

Nott ignored him. "Do you remember last night when Astoria said that she was going to find Malfoy?" The others all nodded and Theodore closed his eyes and paused for a moment, as if not sure how to tell them. "Well," he said, "I think that she may have actually been serious."

Pucey's jaw dropped open. "That's impossible!"

Theodore raised an eyebrow. "Is it?" he asked slyly. Nott pulled out a small crumpled piece of parchment. "Look at this," he said, "Belinda found it while searching the dorm."

The boys looked at the parchment, then at one another, then back at the parchment. It was quite an amusing sight for Nott. "Wow," said Blaise finally, "if Malfoy believes this, then he must be desperate for help. I mean, she spelled 'located' wrong!"

Marcus looked suspicious. "Desperate for help? Doesn't sound like the Malfoy we know."

"It says here that he's located at Camp Half Blood-isn't that the place where those demigod blokes are from?"

"I think so. But it's in America, there's no way she could get there by herself. She can't apperate, and even if she was of age it's impossible to do on Hogwarts grounds. So if she did do it, how?"

"Floo'd."

"Come again?"

"Maybe she Floo'd. You can't do it in the common room, but you can in the teacher's offices if you know a secret password."

"And how do you suppose a mere first-year like her would find it?"

Nott bit his lip thoughtfully. "I'm not sure," he admitted.

"Why do we even care, anyway?" asked Flint, "it's not like she was our great friend. And even if she was, I'm not putting my life on the line for anyone else! Is everyone else but me here mad?" he demanded.

"I'm not sure why," Theodore admitted, "I just know I won't be able to live with myself if I knew I let an innocent little girl die-" he paused, looking horrified and utterly disgusted with himself. "Oh god, Merlin, save me! I'm turning into a Griffindor!"

Astoria was in a bad situation. She knew she couldn't just go back not-she was so close! If she returned now, then that meant she had failed her mission and that she was really a coward after all. Only the weak retreated when there's a bump in the road. And Astoria knew one thing for sure-she was not weak!

Percy held up his hands. "Look, I don't want any trouble," he told her. "Ypu're not supposed to be here. Others...well...they won't be as laid back as me. I don't want anybody to get hurt."

Astoria laughed coldly. "Of course you don't," she said, "and kidnapping Malfoy really shows it, too."

"What are you talking about?" he demanded, "I didn't kidnap anybody!"

"Right, I'm so sure," Astoria's voice was dripping with heavy sarcasm. "I suppose Malfoy was just stupid enough to walk right up to a dragon and put his arm in its mouth."

"Um...kind of?"

Malfoy leered at the two of them.

"Er...is that supposed to be intimidating?" asked Percy.

"I have no idea."

"What do you boys think you are doing?" a stern voice demanded.

The Slytherins froze.

"P-Pr-Professor McG-Gonagall," Blaise said, "what are you doing here?"

"I think the question is, what are you four doing here? Why aren't you at breakfast? Snooping the halls is strictly prohibited."

"Oh, yeah?" Theodore muttered, "what's your excuse?" As soon as he said those words the boy froze. His face turned bright red. "I-I m-mean..."

"Ten points from Slytherin, Mr. Nott, for that attitude of yours. I would take away more, but I understand that one of your housemates has gone missing-don't get any ideas though. If I catch any of you doing something like this again, it will be detention!"

Pucey stomped his foot in anger. "That's it? A kid's gone missing and all you're going to do is go little easy no us? You should be looking for her!"

McGonagall glared at him. "That is quite enough-"

"Oh, I'm not finished just yet!" Adrian said, "this is because we're in Slytherin, isn't it? I bet if a Griffindor went missing, the entire school would close down to look for them!"

"How dare you accuse me of-"

"Yeah," Blaise added, "you can't judge us! It's not fair!"

"If you don't start seriously looking for Astoria right now, we will ourselves," Nott said.

"He's right," Flint said, which shocked everyone. "She may not mean much to you, Professor. But in Slytherin we care about everyone in our house. We don't care how many points you deduct, or how many detentions you give us!"

The boys were all shocked at their own bluntness. They never meant to say those words, they just sort of slipped out. Especially to McGoanagall. They never really had anything against her-in fact, second to Snape, she had always been many of the Slytherin's favorite teacher. She was the least bias of all the staff and seemed to be fair to everyone. She wasn't too soft like Dumbledore. But there was no doubt in any of their minds that if she had to choose one house above all others, it would be Gryffindor.

They expected McGonagall to go balistic, giving them detention for months, but instead she grew pale. She opened her mouth to give them some really harsh punishment, but before she could, Nott made one last desperate struggle to escape punishment. "Wait! We know where she is!-Astoria Greengrass. Her and Malfoy."

McGonagall looked at him suspiciously. "Mr. Malfoy is dead."

Theodore swallowed. "Not, he's not. He and Astoria are in Camp Half-Blood, it's in Long Island, New York. We think that she may be there."

For a moment everything was silent. No one dared to make a sound-or even breathe. Finally McGonagall said, "we will look. But do not think this lets any of you off the hook. Detention for a month and thirty points will be taken away-each."

"But that's a hundred and twenty points!" complained Pucey.

"That is so unfair!"

"Yeah!"

"Very well, we shall make it fourty points each."

"Fourty?"

"Would you prefer fifty?"

"Fourty is good."

"I thought so."

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