Sirius looked up from his glass of half-empty fire-whiskey when the fireplace flared green. He groaned once he saw who it was as he went on to take another sip.
"Stop day-drinking Sirius!" Augusta, who had just arrived at Potter Manor, told Sirius. "You need to keep yourself together. I can assure you we are doing everything…"
"It's not enough!" Sirius said, slamming the glass on the table. Had it not been enforced with an unbreakable charm the glass would've shattered from the impact. "It's been over two weeks. Two weeks, Augusta! We couldn't find Kingsley and now we failed to find Harry as well. Accept it, Augusta. He's gone."
"Of all people, I didn't expect you to say something like that," she said. "I saw how you broke down day by day since the first time we all heard that he went missing."
"There's no point in making me come back and join Harry's search, Augusta," Sirius said. "I know that's why you are here. If you don't have anything else to say then please leave."
Augusta sighed as she saw Sirius take his final sip from the glass before standing up. He swayed a little, clearly drunk from all the alcohol as he shook his head and blinked his eyes a couple times in an attempt to see things clearly. She shook her own head at his condition as she reached for her wand. Pulling it out she waved it just as Sirius lost consciousness and was about to hit his head on the floor but never did.
"Thanks." Augusta smiled slightly before turning to look at Susan who was standing at the door of her room looking at her.
"Anytime, dear," Augusta said as she floated Sirius back on the couch. He'd already begin to snore. She flicked her wand once more and fine threads from the couch wound around his body, preventing him from a fall in case he tried to turn over.
"How are things going?" Susan asked walking up to Augusta. "No one tells me anything."
Augusta looked at her for a moment. "It wouldn't be fair if I lied to you," she said. "You kids are more responsible than many grown-ups. We haven't found one clue as to where he is. Our ally nations at the ICW have also looked for him in their lands but there's been no sighting of him as of yet." She then paused before taking a breath. "We don't know where he is. We are not even sure…"
"Don't say that," Susan said. "Daphne came back last night. If she hears it than it will be bad."
"How is she?" Augusta asked. "I haven't talked to anyone but Neville and you. Everyone else is just…as if they went back to their own lives."
"Daphne hasn't stopped looking for clues about Harry's disappearance," Susan said. "Hermione and Luna are trying to keep their minds from losing over Harry's disappearance, especially considering what the most talked-about reason behind his disappearance could be. As for Draco, well, he's been busy with his own kind of thing. None of us really know where he is or what he's doing. He didn't even contact any of us after Harry disappeared."
"And how are you?" Augusta asked with a small smile of worry and care.
"I am doing alright," Susan said. "It's Sirius I'm worried about. It takes more to look after him than it would for a child."
"You know you two are always welcome to stay at Longbottom Manor," Augusta said.
"Then there will be no one to look after Daphne," Susan said. "She said she didn't want to stay with her parents. She's trying her own ways to look for Harry."
"How?" Augusta asked.
"She won't tell us," Susan said. "She's locked in her room since the day Harry disappeared. She came out of the room once two days ago when her parents came to meet her. To be honest, she looked fine from the outside but who knows what she's been doing in there."
Augusta sighed. She really didn't understand these children sometimes. "At least tell her to not over-work herself," she said talking about Daphne. "Well, I suppose I will leave you three to be. Call me if you need anything."
Susan nodded as Augusta walked over to the fireplace before throwing in the floo powder and walking through the green flames and disappear. Susan looked at Sirius who was in deep sleep. He reeked of alcohol so much that the entire living hall (which was a huge space) smelled of such. She conjured the couch into a bed before removing the threads that wrapped around Sirius. She then called Temmie who then cleaned the table and removed the empty glass and the half-empty bottle of fire-whiskey.
As she turned around to head back to her room her eyes fell on the open prophet beside Sirius. He had been sleeping on it and had just turned over. The paper still dated the day Harry had disappeared. His picture was there on the front page with big headlines 'Lord Harry James Potter – missing!'
Susan grabbed the paper and took it with her. Sirius had been looking at it and lamenting over Harry's disappearance whenever he wasn't at the ministry helping the aurors look for him. "Where did you go, Harry?" she said as she glanced over at the closed doors of Daphne's room before heading for her own.
00000
A few days into Harry's disappearance and Daphne had finally found out that the book was missing as well. Whatever it was, she was sure that Harry would've gone to some place the book wanted him to and then he had disappeared. Being married to him the magic recognized her as a Potter as well so opening the locker in which he kept the book back at Hogwarts in their quarters wasn't a problem. When she hadn't found it there she had come to the manor looking for it. It wasn't here either which meant Harry had taken the book with him.
She had then talked to both Luna and Neville since it was impossible to contact Draco. She tried sending him many letters, even patronuses but nothing worked so at the end she had to rely on Luna and Neville, asking them if their divine beasts could sense Harry. Unfortunately they couldn't which was just as shocking. She then thought about it a lot when she remembered something Luna had once told her.
It was that all divine beasts had different powers and that one of the beasts – Scylla – had the ability to look for anything or anyone no matter where they were in this world. Unfortunately for Scylla, she had been trapped inside Ariana's body, Dumbledore's sister and knowing that man and how he was at large, successfully hiding from the aurors all around the world it would be difficult to look for him.
So, knowing that she was out of options Daphne did the only thing her mind could think of and so it was that a few days later she found herself inside Bibliotheca Mundi. This place had all the records the goblins ever made, which meant that this place held the records of every single thing. Not caring how long it would take her in here she began to work. Her objective was to find the records of the Dumbledore family.
She didn't know how long she was in there. The place's magic didn't allow one to feel hunger, tiredness or anything for that matter. She hadn't slept either and she didn't feel tired as well so she had kept going until she found what she was looking for. It seemed Dumbledore didn't know about the existence of this place. That or he hadn't found these records as she looked at it.
He may have erased records about his family as per his needs to keep a few of his familial belongings secret in the official records but in here, at the world's library everything could be found.
Daphne had brought a copy of Dumbledore's official or rather ministry-officiated records of his properties, courtesy of her father, which she began to compare with the records she had found here at the world's library. In the official record it was stated that Dumbledore had four properties while his brother Aberforth had six. But in the records of Bibliotheca Mundi it said that Dumbledore actually had eleven properties in total while his brother, as mentioned in the ministry record, still had six. That was seven properties missing from the ministry's records. If brought to light Dumbledore was sure to be charged for with even more but doing so would also hinder her plan.
And so remembering the locations of those seven places Daphne returned back to Potter Manor and locked herself in her room so that no one would disturb her. Temmie took care of her meals, bringing them to her room and made the small fireplace in there operational as a personal floo for her to go anywhere she needed to without letting anyone know.
She knew Susan or Sirius, whoever knows about her plans would definitely stop her. She would stop herself too had this not been for Harrys sake. He was missing and she might have a chance at finding him. And she had decided to take that chance.
It took her days to figure out where Dumbledore's hidden safe houses were. He was a clever man, possibly more so than Salazar Slytherin himself so she had expected her search to be difficult. However, not everyone knew about her tenacity except for her parents, Astoria and most recently Harry and none of them knew what she was up to so there was no one stopping her.
It took her a few days' worth of time but she had finally narrowed it down to three places where Dumbledore could possibly be hiding along with his sister and Scylla, the divine beast she wanted to meet.
She arrived at the first place on her list and was careful not to trip any spells or charms laid around that would alert Dumbledore. She looked around, taking a round around the property. It was big but not huge like she'd thought at first. There were definitely traps and alert-runes lying around as she noticed. They weren't cleverly hidden but one would miss them if they weren't paying enough attention.
This told her one thing – Dumbledore wasn't here. She wasn't completely sure but from the way the traps were laid it was clear that Dumbledore wanted these traps to be noticed. If it was true then that meant that he was not here and was using this place as a distraction for if and when the aurors figured out that this was one of his safe houses.
She did, however, wanted to try something as she knew it would be useless to not actually be able to find if her theory was correct. Using a simple 'point-me' spell she found an owl's nest. It wasn't a magical owl so she used the imperius charm on it before casting a projection charm as well so that the wards around the place would see the owl as a magical one.
Magical owls could not pass through wards that were meant to block them. Dumbledore should've had that ward around this place since he was on the run. Sometimes the aurors used this method to catch really dumb criminals where if they couldn't find them then the aurors would simply post a letter to them using the magical owls. Then they would track the owl or put a tracker rune or a portkey – that would activate when touched – in the letter that they sent and once it reached the criminal the aurors knew of his location or could bring him to them.
These tricks were very simple and easily detectable but it worked against those who couldn't use enough brain when on the run as an outlaw.
So if Dumbledore had such a ward around his place then the owl Daphne had with her wouldn't be able to go through it. However, it will make the ward see the owl as an actual postal owl and then alert Dumbledore about it. Dumbledore should come and see things for himself because no one should know about this place in the first place so an owl coming here would be impossible.
And so it was that Daphne told the imperiused owl to fly towards the general direction of the property and let it go. She watched as the owl hit the wards where they were and couldn't fly past it. It tried again and again, hitting the wards and sustaining damage when Daphne cancelled the imperius spell and the owl flew away.
The shimmer she saw of the wards when the owl hit it told her that they were of a very complicated structure, nothing surprising considering it was Dumbledore who'd raised them but then it happened as she saw and felt it. Dumbledore apparated a few feet away from her looking towards his property with his back facing her. Luckily she had concealment spells applied all over her so he shouldn't be able to sense her but it was Dumbledore. She wasn't too sure of it.
She watched as Dumbledore appeared to mumble some spells of his own when the wards shimmer once more. It seemed as if he was checking whether or not they were working properly before he looked around. He waved his wand as a ripple formed and spread around him. Daphne didn't know what this spell was but she held her breath in anticipation when it went through her. She felt nothing but she was nervous as hell fearing whether that spell had caused Dumbledore to know about her.
Luckily it seemed like it hadn't. She sighed in relief as she kept watching Dumbledore take a note of the traps he'd laid around. He then scratched his long beard, looked around once more before dissapperating.
Daphne knew trying to track his apparition could be a trick of Dumbledore's so she just stay hidden for over an hour before slowly and quietly making her way far from that place. Once she felt like she was far enough she apparated back to Potter Manor in a phased manner where one would apparate over to many different places before finally apparating back to their destination to avoid being tracked.
Reaching the manor she crossed out the place from her list where she'd been today. Now only two places remain.
00000
"Do you know anything about this?" Draco asked looking at the hooded man. It's been over a month since he disappeared and you've said or done nothing about it. If this is someway a part of your elaborate plan than please do tell otherwise I am going to go look for him!"
"You do that and it's all going to be ruined," said the hooded man. "All you need to know is that he's safe. I can't tell you where he is but he will be here when the time comes."
Draco looked at him with realization. "So it can't be stopped?" he asked.
The hooded man turned to look at him. "I am afraid we will have to face him no matter what," he said. "Did you do what I told you to do?"
"I've sent them to Neville and Hermione," Draco said. "But…will this work?"
"I don't know," the man said. "But we have to try."
Draco sighed in annoyance before he walked away leaving the hooded man alone.
00000
Susan left her room to get something to eat. She passed by Sirius' room and saw the door was half open so she peeked in. She sighed in tiredness as she saw him lying on his bed, his legs and hands spread like a bird. The entire room reeked of alcohol. She'd asked Temmie to get rid of all the alcohol in the manor but it seemed Sirius had brought in more.
Shaking her head she left him lying there. He was a lost cause as it seemed. Coming downstairs she stopped by Daphne's room. The door was closed so she kneeled down to look through the key hole to see what she was doing.
She couldn't see things properly so she called. "Daph?" she said. "I am getting some pumpkin pie. Do you want some?" she asked. No answer came. "Daph?" she said again. Nothing.
It wasn't normal. Ever since Harry had disappeared Susan had barely seen Daphne out of her room. Her hand went for the knob on the door as she didn't think why she was doing this. Of all times she'd tried to open the door before she'd found it locked from the inside. However, when she turned the knob it turned all the way and the door opened with a slight click.
Susan gasped out of surprise. The door to Daphne's room was unlocked. She peeked in and found the room to be empty. Daphne wasn't here. She didn't know why she did it but she cast a simple revealing charm to see if Daphne's room was lying with some traps since it was weird finding the room unlocked, especially after all this time.
The spell revealed nothing. It seemed she'd simply forgotten to lock her room. 'Well, no better opportunity than this,' Susan thought as she walked in.
The room was a mess. That's what it was as Susan looked around in confusion and wonder thinking what Daphne had been working on in here for so long. There were parchment filled with scribbled notes and pages from various books everywhere. Her bed was all ruffled up. It seemed she didn't even clean her sheets or something. Everywhere she looked she found nothing but mess. There were food packets, mostly muggles. Susan knew Daphne had forbidden anyone from entering her room, even Temmie who was only allowed to come in with food and then leave which is why the room was such a mess.
"What are you doing in here?" Susan said to herself as she walked further in. She went up to the table where it was the messiest as it was filled with papers and whatnot as she looked at them. "What are these?" she said trying to understand what was written in them. They looked old but thanks to Daphne's beautiful handwriting everything was readable.
Knowing Daphne could come in any time Susan conjured a stack of parchments before copying everything from the papers inside the room in them with a simple copying spell. She then left with her own copy of Daphne's notes back to her room where she arranged them with another spell and sat down by her table to find out what it was that Daphne had been working on.
00000
The moment Daphne apparated over to the place she was hit with an immensely powerful aura. It was no doubt that she was at the right spot.
The second place on her list – Dumbledore's second hideout – and it seemed like this was it. She looked around. The place was inside a forest, still hidden magically but also using the nature's cover as well. Knowing there was a powerful and complicated ward around Dumbledore's place she wondered how she was going to go past it. There was no way she could breach or bring it down. She didn't know that neither much of curse-breaking nor she had the powers of a divine beast to do it.
It frustrated her that she was so close to her objective yet so far at the same time. Besides, there was a heavy chance that Dumbledore was in there and that meant she could end up facing him. She didn't want that. Facing him would mean straight-up dying or maybe not. Perhaps he would use her to get to Harry seeing how Harry had ruined his entire plan for the 'greater good'.
She was out of options. It infuriated her. Perhaps asking Neville could work? She didn't know. She needed to get past the wards. Magically she couldn't do it so she had to force her way in and the most efficient way for that was using the powers of a divine beast. Daphne didn't have one and she didn't trust Luna enough with this. No one knew where Draco was so all that was left was Neville because she had no connection with any of the other divine beasts.
00000
McGonagall had experienced a lot of things in her long life but this was something else. She looked at Neville who stood in her office. "Is this…when?" she asked in a shaky voice.
"We don't know but with the way things are happening…soon," Neville said. "We know you have more deep connections than my grandma with the ICW members even though you are not part of it officially but we want all hands on deck for this one. I hope you understand."
McGonagall nodded. "I will see what I can do," she said.
Neville nodded before turning around and leaving her office. McGonagall watched him leave before looking at the letter in her hand which he'd brought. She'd never thought that she would have to see a day like this. To be honest, a part of her was scared with what was coming. She would be lying to herself if she said that she wasn't scared. She was scared for her students. Having never married before or having her own children – something she very much wanted – she had taken her students as her kids. She would lay her life for them without a second thought.
00000
Neville walked out of the gargoyle which had just sent him on the common floor when he saw Daphne and was surprised. "Daphne?" he said as she came over to him. "Wha…Where have you been?" he asked. He hadn't seen her since Harry's disappearance so seeing her now was a shock.
"I need your help," she said.
"With what?" he asked.
"I know how to find Harry."
00000
Thanks for reading…
