Potters through time

Chapter two: Family affairs

Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry had, in all of it's long years, rarely been witness to such franatic, distressful search as it had that September the fifth 2016.

Samantha Potter roamed the grand castle, which housed the school, in great speed, without any apparent pattern, and seemed almost panicked, all in all, very akin to a fly; yet, in reality, she was very hard from panic, and the firm, fierce expression of determination attached to her face only accentuated it. The said determinated look was actually so intense that even the head boy, and head girl had jumped out of her way, without even realizing what, or why had they done it.

She was in a state of mild distress and major annoyance. Her eldest brothers and sister had disappeared; vanished; gone missing; were nowhere to be found. Just pick your favorite. And, the worst of all, it was all upon her to trace their movement, and figure what had happened and where had they went. She knew that she couldn't count on Clint, since he was in his O.W.L. year, and had more than enough upon his plate, without her burdening him with this problem as well. Triplets were out of question as well, for, as much as she hated to think negatively about any member of her family, even Sirius had to admit that they were pretty much useless for anything besides quidditch; and emuling Lily in Amy's case. And the twins? They had the mind, and the skill to aid her, but the fact was that they had absolutely no experience on finding their way thru the castle, and as such, were not an option either.

In her reverie, she unconsciously wandered right around the corner, and into a group of haughty Slytherin seventh years that were in a pick-on-a-Gryffindor mood.

Extremely unfortunately for them, she was in no mood to deal with them. Pacifically that is.

At the same time, Clinton Dursley, known as Iron Clint among his piers, not that it mattered, emerged from the opposite corner of that very corridor, his girlfriend of a year and a half, Marylyn Shayne, and their best friends, the McGruss twins, Morgan and Morag, next to him. And although they were in school for only a couple of days, they were, already, very deeply engrossed in a discussion over their latest transfiguration lesson, and the theory over the spell they were practicing.

Marylyn was the first to notice the scene in front of them. She let out a shriek of panic, effectively breaking the discussion and drawing the attention of other three upon the events she just witnessed; she unconsciously reached to grab her boyfriend's hand.

"Clint! They are attacking your cousin! We have to aid her!" she told Clint, the tone of her voice clearly and obviously betraying the panic she felt, as she tried, unsuccessfully, to pull him towards his cousin, but he refused to move an inch. The tone of his voice, as he was replaying, was filled to the brim with amusement.

"WE have to do nothing but stand back, and enjoy the show. It would be rude to interrupt anyway."

Morgan shot him scornful, withering glance, while Marylyn gave him half astonished, half disgusted look. He pointedly ignored both of them, and grinned impishly.

They simultaneously mouthed, probably to berate him, but Morag's shout of admiration stopped them.

"Wow! I'll be damned, look at her! She is bloody amazing! Unbelievable!" the reverting of his voice back into his thick Scottish accent only served as proof of how thrilled he was.

They, or actually, only the girls, managed to turn just in time to catch the sight of Samantha finishing off the last one of her assailants with very nasty jelly-jail jinx, that left him in a hard block of purple slime, only his nose protruding out of it, that reeked in unfathomably disgusting odor.

"Clint, does she…" Started Morag excitedly, with a star-struck expression upon his face, but Clint just smirked and cut him off.

"Nope, but Mo… Don't even go there. Better for you to just drop it."

"Aw, C'mon on Clint. I'm your best mate, and you know…" Morag started of indignantly, and apparently somewhat offended, but, once again, Clint cut him off, this time not even turning to face him, as he went up to his cousin.

"Precisely. It's you I fear for, not her. She can't take excellent care for herself. Now drop it."

As the two of them bantered, they finally got near to Samantha. Or better said, they couth up with the girls who, nearly immediately after the end of the fight, rushed up to Samantha, and started to fuss about her.

This, though, only seamed to annoy her further, and wear down her volatile temper. She finally lost it, and snapped up on them.

"Oh, for the love of God and Merlin, will you two knock it out. It takes more than a few of stuffed-up arrogant slimeballs to cause me any harm!"

Clint's grin instantly grew into full fledged, head splitting, ear to ear smile, as he looked at the back of one of his favorite cousins.

"Brilliant performance there Sams, old girl. Simply ingeniou…" He began praising her, but in the middle of his speech, she turned to face him, and he did a double take at her facial expression, his appraising speech completely forgotten. His smile melted and he grew serious, and his face assumed concerned, guarded expression. "Sammy, tell me what's wrong"

"Nothing I can't handle by myself. There's no need for you to worry about it." Her response was quick, and although she didn't deny her distress, it was obvious that there was more than met the eye, and she was adamant not to allow anyone but herself to bear the burden of that trouble.

She still reasoned that he already had his, more than, fair share of stress up ahead, an she be damned if she brought him more.

Yet, Clint thought different, and her refusal to allow anyone but herself to worry, an annoying habit she picked up from her father, only made HIM more adamant to find out what was bothering her.

"Whether I should concern myself over it or not, is upon me to decide. And I can't decide until I hear what is the trouble." He spoke calmly, seriously, but there was also a distinct note of finality in his voice. And, all throughout his speech he examined her face thoroughly, and carefully.

To someone else, her face would betray no more than some trouble, some annoyance, and a whole lot of determination. Clint, on the other side had the benefit of growing up with her, or more precisely, watching her grow up next to him, and thus was one of the rare persons who could reed expression on Samantha's face on a much deeper level. There he noticed that the mild distress was actually a major one, and that she was also afraid. This disturbed him; if you could count on anything, it were Remuses cool-headed brilliance, Sirius' fierce family protectiveness, and Samy's ferociousness. Still, he was a bit calmed by the obvious fact that the annoyance was upon herself, for being afraid at all. He knew it was far from normal thirteen-year-old behavior, but for a Potter, it was rather expectable.

Suddenly, his insights kicked in into turbo drive. There was only one person he could think of that could make her that distressed…

"It's Lily, isn't it?" He asked tentatively, and a small flicker in her eye answered him that if he was not one hundred percent correct in his assessment, he was hitting pretty close.

"What did she get herself into this time?" he asked in a soft, compassionate tone.

Finally realizing that there was no way she could keep him out of it now, Samantha finally gave up eluding to answer, and felt a pang of happiness that she could count on him to aid her, not that she would ever admit being glad over it, and with a defeated sigh, told him briskly, before continuing on her search.

"I'll tell you after lunch. Old place."

As she was moving past Morag, who was eyeing her pretty appreciatively, she suddenly bolted, and her elbow had, quite excruciatingly, connected with his ribs.

"I'm not a piece of cattle, or a vegetable at the market to be ogled at, so I recommend you to mind your manners McGruss." She reprimanded him coolly before setting of again.