A/N: Totally stuffed up, meant to have updated this earlier than now. Thank you to ElectraJoltsMagnetism for reviewing and reminding me!
For disclaimer, see chapter 1
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The castle was searched, top to bottom. Twice over. One of the third years had seen Professor Logan levitating a big duffel-bag through the halls but when she asked about it, he had told her it was merely new ingredients for the following lesson.
It hadn't occurred to her to inquire what potion required ingredients so big. Harry thought that in hindsight, it was probably better than she didn't. Logan had lost his mind. If he had no qualms about kidnapping the Headmistress of Hogwarts, he would have had no qualms in harming a fourteen-year-old.
By the time midnight rolled around, Harry was beside himself and it took Hermione and Poppy to strong-arm him into taking half a calming draft. He sat, staring at his hands before he realised what he needed to be doing.
"Where are his things," he asked as Hermione was brewing away.
"On the bed out there," she muttered, concentrating on what she was doing.
He stood, looking over it all. Hermione and Rolanda had emptied Logan's rooms and he was interested in knowing what wasn't there as much as what was. He found a number of books and thumbed through them, pausing now and then as he read short excerpts. Most of it was journaling about his want for Minerva. It made Harry sick to read what he did after the students were in bed, but he pushed through it, searching for one scrap of evidence that might point him to where she was. He knew, without a doubt that there would be something in the journals that Harry needed to see.
Other than that, however, there was nothing else of note. Logan had left everything. Even his toothbrush. The only thing he'd taken was his wand.
And that was bothering Harry.
According to what he'd read, the man planned all of it meticulously, only to leave at the spur of the moment. He stood, looking at the belongings, searching for some sort of clarity but his brain rolled her name around like an echo he couldn't catch. He took a deep breath and nodded. He would find his love and he would find her as soon as he could, even if he had to read every disgusting word that Jackson Logan had written about her.
He pulled up a chair and knelt on it for a moment while he went through everything again. He examined item after item, from his toothbrush to the pockets in every single pair of trousers. He picked up the first volume of Logan's sick fantasies and started reading.
His skin crawled as he poured over the words, written from the moment Logan first met her at his interview. Hermione stopped by, leaving him a cup of tea before going to put the kids to bed, but it sat undrunk while he read. He didn't think about the irony of needing to read word upon word to find Minerva, but he was sure it would be in these pages. Logan was not a smart man, not as far as he could tell, but he was a raging narcissist.
After the first two books, Harry stood, feeling his stomach rolling. He managed to stumble to the nearby bin, wiping his mouth with a scowl when he was finished. Poppy poked her head around the curtain, where he'd sequestered himself and frowned with him.
"You're not going to be any good to her if you don't take care of yourself," she muttered, offering him a glass of water and a potion.
"I'm fine," he said gruffly, swirling a little and spitting it before draining the glass. "He," he swallowed again. "He is not a mentally stable man. His detail is -"
"Minerva has Albus' Pensieve," she soothed. "You can get rid of them as soon as we have her back."
"He is sick. He wants to torture her under the guise of pleasure. I mean, Poppy, the -"
"I will only tell you this once, Harry Potter," Poppy said, stepping forward taking his shoulders in her hands. "Minerva McGonagall is undoubtedly the most capable woman I've ever met. Even beyond the power she has with her being a witch. She will not allow this asshole to do any damage at all. She is bigger than that. You know that," she muttered. "You love her."
"I know," he whispered. "But I don't know her! We've only just -"
"You know her soul, Harry," she whispered, putting her hand on his heart. "I have never seen her as settled and as happy as she has been for," she considered. "Well, most of the year. She has searched for you her whole life without even knowing it. And now that you've found each other? Dear one, she's not going to give you up so soon."
He grabbed her and hugged her tightly.
"Thanks, Poppy," he whispered. "I want to apologise," he said, stepping back and blinking quickly. "I made an assumption about you, even if it was in my head."
"Harry, if I had a knut for every time someone assumed that it was my husband that I was discussing when talking about my marriage, I'd be a very rich witch."
He smiled and squeezed her hand.
"I'm still sorry."
"You weren't to know and I don't often correct people," she shrugged. "Not because I don't want it to get out, but because what I do in the sanctity of my own home is just that, my own. I would have told you, when we weren't in the corridors, surrounded by children. More importantly, you are still only very new here Harry, though we all love you in our own way," she cupped his cheek. "Some of us more than others. Minerva is my dearest friend in all the world, besides Ro, and it is important to me that you know that I am so happy to see the two of you together."
"I need to find her. She could be anywhere."
"You have done everything you can in this moment," she counselled gently. "You have used your contacts in the Ministry, you're reading this despicable asshole's journals, you've got us searching for an answer to what this powder was. There is nothing else that Minerva would be doing if you had been the one Logan took a fancy to."
He laughed and closed his eyes as two tears rolled down his cheek.
"Take a deep breath," she said, sounding much more like herself. "And get back to work."
He chuckled and nodded, sitting down and letting her squeeze his shoulder before returning to the journals.
He removed himself as much as possible from the content and concentrated on the details. He flipped page after page pausing here and there before moving on and reading more and more and more until, in the early hours of the morning, as his eyes were falling closed, he spotted something.
Found it. It's perfect.
It was all it said, which was enough to make Harry wake up. Logan was a talker. Even in ink, he seemed to like the sound of his own voice and Harry looked over the page once and then back. It seemed as though there was nothing more written there and Harry considered it. Logan wasn't stupid, but he also wasn't very smart. He waved his wand over the page and frowned when nothing appeared. He marked the page and kept on reading, vowing to come back to it once he'd finished this last journal.
He poured over the pages and stood, his chair clattering loudly as he read what was on the page.
He sprinted out of the Hospital Wing and down to Minerva's rooms, slamming open her office door with a thunderous look on his face. The portraits were clamouring for information.
"Which one of you," he growled, his heart thundering. "Revealed to Logan that I was coming to pick her up."
The room stopped and every portrait remained still.
"WHICH ONE OF YOU SPOKE OF THINGS YOU SAW IN THIS ROOM OUTSIDE OF THESE WALLS."
"I think I was the one, Mr Potter," one of them spoke quietly. "I did not realise I had done so until it was too late."
Harry's hands were shaking as he stared at the portrait.
"Harry?"
Albus' voice cut through the anger and Harry took a deep breath.
"That's it, my boy. Breathe. It will be alright."
"She has been missing for nearly 8 hours," he said, his voice wobbling. "He could have -"
"Trust her," Albus said, making Harry finally abandon his heated glare at the offending portrait. "Trust her. The only reason she's not back yet is because she's waiting for you to go and fetch her."
"He found somewhere. I just don't know where or whether he wrote it down."
"He placed something behind a frame in his room," the traitor said quietly. "The one at the back, beside his bed."
Harry didn't wait, he sprinted through the castle, sending a Patronus to Filius to update him, sliding to a stop in the doorway to the room. He'd never seen this place, he assumed it was Severus' room at one point but he was too focussed on the portraits at the back of the room. He raced forward, yanking them off the wall and looking at his feet. A torn square of parchment lay at his feet. Picking it up with shaking hands, he read it giving himself a little hope.
"Harry?"
"Here," he said, leaving the parchment in Filius' hands. "Bring the cavalry!"
He summoned his invisibility cloak and Minerva's wand. Hermione was not far behind his things and slid a little on the flagstones.
"You've found her?"
"Filius has the address. I'm going. Meet me there."
"Harry! Wait for backup!"
"He's not going to wait, I'm going. Be careful," he said, kissing her temple. "I love you."
He grabbed his things as they floated towards him and ran out of the castle.