Disclaimer: I don't own JK's characters… sorry if you thought so, but her work is even better =)

Chapter 7- Houdini

"Mr. Creevey, may I see you in my office?" McGonagall asked, catching Dennis leaving the Great Hall after finishing his lunch Monday afternoon.

"Yeah," Dennis said a little worried. "Now?" he asked.

"Now," McGonagall said sternly, leading the way to her office. When they arrived, three people were waiting. One woman was standing in the corner, leaning against the wall. Dennis didn't know who she was, and was a bit shocked at her neon blue hair. Professor Flitwick was pacing the room back and forth, and up to the moment Dennis arrived had been talking, apparently concerned about something. In the chair next to McGonagall's desk sat the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore sat, elbows on the arms of the chair, and hands clasped together.

What did I do? Dennis wondered when he saw the Headmaster.

"Mr. Creevey, we need to know if you have seen Drina," Professor McGonagall said, sitting behind her desk.

"Who?" Dennis asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"Drina Prewett," Flitwick said.

"DJ," Dumbledore clarified when it was obvious Dennis wasn't getting it.

"Oh," Dennis said as it dawned on him, "no, she went to London on Friday after classes finished."

McGonagall's eyes, which had turned their attention to a paper on her desk, shot up, her eyebrows raised. "Muggle London?" she asked.

"Yeah," Dennis said, thinking he had this one covered now.

"And you let her?" McGonagall said, smashing Dennis's confidence in the situation.

"S-she said she was meeting someone," Dennis explained, racking his brain for any other information DJ had provided him.

"Who?" Flitwick asked, becoming more flustered.

"I don't know," Dennis answered. "I'm assuming it was her dad or something though."

"How much do you know about DJ?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"What do you mean?" Confusion was washing over Dennis again, and he didn't like the feeling of it.

"How much do you know about DJ's past?"

"Er- Colin found out that her mum had died a long time ago," Dennis said.

All eyes were on Dumbledore as he took a deep breath and leaned forward in his chair. "DJ's mother died when DJ was six. Do you know what a Thestral is?" Dumbledore asked and Dennis nodded in response. "Then you understand what I mean when I say she's been able to see them since that day. I'm not sure if you know this but Diana, DJ's mother, was a Veela. When someone really falls in love with a Veela there is a bond there, and because of that bond her father died about three months after that.

"The Muggles found DJ and her brother David before their family could take them. These days, you can only adopt based on your Muggle work and public records, and seeing as her remaining family were purebloods they weren't able to get them. Her Aunts and Uncles were in other countries and had families of their own, but her grandmother tried to get them back for almost a year. She died as well, leaving no grandparents to claim the children.

"DJ and David had been at different orphanages, one for boys and the other for girls. From what I understand they were able to see one another on occasion, but he was three at the time, and soon adopted. We believe DJ ran away when she was eight, but it wasn't until she was ten that anyone found her. Professor Lupin had been going to see if the Shrieking Shack was still usable when he found her using it as a shelter."

"That's why she came a year early," Dennis pointed out, trying to grasp on to something of the whole mess that he knew.

"Right," Flitwick said. "The Muggles still have her as a runaway, though."

"Do you understand why she shouldn't have gone?" McGonagall asked Dennis. He was already kicking himself for not knowing any of this, and nodded while looking down at the ground.

He lifted his head to look at Professor McGonagall, "Do we know where she is?"

The woman with the blue hair answered, "She was taken by Muggle police to one of the Orphanages. I passed just after they had taken her."

Dennis looked at the woman, wondering who this was. "This is Tonks, a member of the Order and an Auror for the Ministry," Dumbledore said, as if reading Dennis's mind.

"I saw her wand hanging out of the backpack in a corner," Tonks further explained, "but it was too late to get to her."

"What is going to happen?" Dennis asked. He thought about the conversation they had had a week ago and how Colin and him had convinced her to do a small Christmas morning thing, just some games and a small gift exchange.

"We're trying to find where she is first," Dumbledore said first.

"We need you to inform us if you hear anything from her," McGonagall told him. Dennis nodded.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"Yes, you are dismissed," McGonagall said. The adults only started discussing things once Dennis was out of ear shot.

"Hey Houdini, pass the salt," Kara, a girl DJ's age said at dinner Monday evening.

DJ did so, not saying a word. None of them expected her to talk. They had heard she wouldn't even answer the Headmistress of the orphanage, which was something. No one ever kept information from her, not because Mistress Falson was cruel. Quite the opposite; Mistress Falson was so good with the girls they felt comfortable opening up to her.

"Aren't you hungry Drina?" One of the seven year olds asked. All the younger girls took an immediately liking to DJ. This was mainly because she had stood up to Patricia, a fourteen year old bully, when she was trying to make one of the younger girls do her chores.

"No," DJ said pushing away her plate. She hadn't told them to call her by DJ, since that's what she came up with when she ran away. It wouldn't be good to use the name they knew her by, but it eventually stuck.

Now she had a new name: Houdini. All the girls here had heard about Drina Prewett; the only child to ever run away and not be brought back within the first few hours. Not many kids tried these days either. Drina had just appeared to have vanished, and after all these years they were surprised that she turned up alive. Mostly the girls her age called her this and the younger ones called her by Drina, but she didn't really care what they called her. In fact DJ wished they wouldn't call her anything, she just wanted to be alone.

After finding out about DJ, Dennis had spent the entire afternoon and evening engrossed in one book or another sitting alone on the couch. Colin had barely been able to tell Dennis that DJ was missing, and though Colin didn't know why, he knew that this was probably a time he needed to actually be around. Julia came after dinner to try hanging around. They were sitting at the table and Colin kept looking toward Dennis, making Julia eventually notice as well.

"What's got him down?" she asked, trying to move closer to Colin. He allowed her to do so, but wasn't paying much attention to it.

"DJ's missing or something," Colin said.

"I'll bet she ran away," Julia said, as if the situation weren't that big a deal.

Colin looked at her in disbelief. "Why do you say that?"

"You've seen how she acts," Julia said. "All to herself, not talking to anyone else; I'll bet she went to join You-Know-Who, or something."

"Don't go saying that," Colin said quietly, but angrily. "Dennis is friends with her, and it's rude to assume things like that."

"If she didn't act like that, people wouldn't think it," Julia said, raising her voice a bit.

"I don't care, if you can't shut your mouth about it you can leave," Colin then let go of her hand and went to sit next to his brother on the couch. Julia got up and left in a huff. "How are you doing?" Colin asked.

Dennis's eyes didn't leave the page they were on. "Fine," he said a bit short.

"You know, I'm sure she's okay," Colin said.

"They took her to an orphanage," Dennis finally told him.

"Why?" Dennis didn't answer. "Okay, well then I'm sure they would be taking care of her right?"

"Christmas is on Thursday," Dennis said, turning the page.

"Yeah," Colin said, wondering where this might go.

"Do you think she'll be back?"

"We can hope so," Colin tried to affirm. "Let's get things ready like she is, okay?"

Dennis put down the book. "Yeah."

A/N: So, there are no more mysteries =) I hope it wasn't too much to take in right now, and I hope it all makes sense. Thanks for all the reviews and if you're reading this please review!

Thank you:

JamieBell: Well, here's the answers to all of your questions… Hope you like this chapter!

LeoKing: You are just too smart for my good. Yes she was getting him a present, and I'm no longer worried if people think DJ's a Mary-sue, because I don't consider her that.