"Where's Monty?" Minerva McGonagall asked the rest of the Potter boys, in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Edward Potter shrugged. "I dunno. Didn't he go to the library?" He said, continuing to eat his dinner.
Minerva frowned as she picked at her roast beef sandwich. "Yeah, but he promised he'd be back for dinner. Before dinner in fact."
Daniel Potter frowned as he swallowed a mouthful of stew. "Hm." He said. "Bit suspicious."
"Why?" Charlus Potter asked, pausing in taking a gulp of pumpkin juice.
Daniel shrugged. "Dunno. Just seems like it."
Jack Potter reached out for a handful of chips. "I agree." He said, slowly chewing on his mouthful of chips. "All this time in the library?! Monty is going mad with all that time with only books and Miss Pince for company. Poor boy." He said, smirking.
"Yeah I agre-" Minerva began but never got to finish her sentence.
A large Patronus, a Manticore, appeared out of thin air in the middle of the Great Hall. Everyone suddenly went quiet. Even the Slytherins.
The Patronus suddenly spoke.
"In case you're all wondering, yes, Fleamont Potter has been kidnapped."
"NO!"
"He is in very bad shape. He may not survive. He is weak, barely alive, barely breathing. That's good."
"NO IT'S FUCKING NOT!" Jack and Minerva both yelled.
"There is only one way I'm going to let Potter go."
"Tell us." Albus Dumbledore said quietly, sounding dangerous.
"Get me five million Galleons. If the money is any less then that, Potter will die. If you send any Aurors, Potter will die. If you don't do want I'll say, the entire Potter family will die. Including Minerva McGonagall. You have two hours to get every single Galleon. I will give more instructions later."
The Patronus suddenly disappeared. Several younger students were crying while older ones were trying to comfort them half heartedly.
The Potters and Minerva were white faced as they sat at the Gryffindor table, having lost their brother and cousin. Well, the Patronus said he was alive but he was barely breathing.
"Everyone return to their Common Rooms. I will have the house elves send up your dinner." The Headmaster, Professor Dippet, said quietly. The students got up and walked to their common rooms, still nervous.
"Potters, McGonagall, stay behind." Dippet called out to the Potters and Minerva. They stayed behind but were as to why.
"What do you want, Professor?" Jack asked, his hands shaking nervously.
"I presume you don't want to go to your common room." Dumbledore said quietly.
Edward shook his head.
"I thought that." Professor Selwyn, who taught Herbology, said. "Where are we going to get five million Galleons from?"
"The school vaults." Dumbledore said. "They date back to the time Hogwarts was founded and there was 100 million Galleons there to begin with. The founders were quite wealthy. More gold was added over the centuries. We will have enough gold."
"I dearly hope so." Professor Sinistra, Professor of Astronomy, said quietly, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "But Armando?"
"Yes Aurora?" Dippet said.
"Who's going to collect the money? The Aurors certainly can't." Sinistra said. "One or two of us will have too."
"I will." Dumbledore volunteered.
"I'll go too." Selwyn said. "The goblins are sure to hand over the gold while I'm there."
"In that case." Dippet said, pulling a gold key out of his robes. "Get the gold you two. And please, be quick."
"We'll be back before you can say Hinkypunk." Selwyn said as she and Dumbledore walked out of the Hall.
"Now what?" Charlus asked.
"We wait." Dippet said. "And call the Aurors."
"What?!" Minerva cried out. "Do you want to get Monty killed?!"
"No. But we're going to need backup." Dippet said. "To capture the kidnappers, correct?"
Minerva was silenced. "Can I say something?"
"Yes." Dippet said.
"Where are we going to drop off the money? The kidnapper didn't say nothing about that." Minerva said as she sat down at the Gryffindor table again, with Daniel, Edward, Charlus and Jack.
"It did say they'll give more instructions later." Daniel pointed out.
"But back to calling the Aurors." Sinistra said. "Are you sure about this Armando? Because if Monty dies... Well, I'm going to blame that on you."
"After Monty comes back, then we'll call them." Dippet said. "We'll have given them the gold, they're sure to let Monty go."
"But what if they don't?" Sinistra said quietly.
Dippet shook his head. "If it comes to that... I don't want to have to imagine it..."
Daniel, Jack, Charlus, Minerva and Edward were no longer listening to the conversation. They were sitting at the Gryffindor table in silence.
Edward couldn't believe it. Monty. The small boy who used to climb into his bed when he had a nightmare, was kidnapped.
•*Flashback*•*
Edward was seven years old and Monty was five years old when one of the most precious memories in Edward's life happened.
Edward was sleeping peacefully in his bed one stormy winter night when the door suddenly creaked open.
Edward bolted upright in bed but he smiled sleepily as his younger brother, Fleamont came into the room, clutching a handkerchief.
"Hey Monty." Eddy said, yawning loudly. "What's up?"
"C-can I sleep in here? I had a bad dream." Monty whispered softly.
Eddy nodded as Monty clutched his handkerchief close to his chest. "Get in here." Eddy commanded.
Monty smiled tearfully as he crawled into bed beside Eddy.
"Oh, you're freezing!" Eddy whispered as Monty wrapped his small arms around Eddy.
Monty sniffed as he buried his face in Eddy's chest. "I know. But the bad dream was scary, so I wanted to come to you."
"What was the bad dream about?" Eddy asked.
Monty hiccuped.
"Well, there was a lot of black and there was a lot of bad men." Monty sniffed. "And they were gonna kill me! And I ran and ran and ran and they caught me. They were eating me. Then I woke up with my tummy hurting."
Eddy rubbed the back of Monty's head. "Does your tummy still hurt, champ?" He asked.
Monty nodded and buried his face in Eddy's chest, still sniffing.
"I'll go get Mum." Eddy whispered softly as he walked out of the room silently.
Five minutes later, Eddy came into the room with Charlotte Potter.
"It's alright now, sweetheart." Charlotte said quietly as Fleamont wrapped his arms around her. "Where does it hurt?"
"My tummy." Fleamont mumbled.
"Is it really bad?" Charlotte whispered.
"Yup." Fleamont muttered as he nuzzled into his hankerchief.
"Maybe we'll see in the morning what's wrong with you. Is that alright?" Charlotte asked after performing a few charms. "You just have a normal stomach ache."
Fleamont nodded as he lay down on Eddy's bed.
"Can he sleep in here tonight?" Charlotte asked Eddy quietly as Fleamont dropped off to sleep.
"Okay." Eddy muttered softly.
Charlotte kissed Eddy on his cheek and left the room. Eddy wondered where he was going to sleep.
Eddy crawled under his bed and brought out a rather uncomfortable camping mattress. He got a old and musty blanket from the closet.
Eddy lay down on the mattress and tucked the tiny blanket around himself. It was going to be a long night but it would be worth it as long as Fleamont got a good night's sleep.
The next morning, Henry Potter entered the room to see Eddy sleeping on the mattress with only a tiny blanket to keep him warm.
With that, Henry's heart burst with pride.
End Flashback*
"Eddy?"