Chapter 12:

Jolene Malfoy enjoyed walking around Paris for shopping. She could use the international apparition points because her magical passport still contained her maiden name. She was only in Canada because of something her great-great-grandfathers had done and her families just remained there. So, she had no stigma in Europe and was living the good life. All with her husband's money. She was no fool; she was only married to Lucius because of his name and fortune. Her husband could be sleeping with his former wife—gods know they may have actually been in love (a stupid state to be in, to Jolene at least)—and she could care less. As long as she had the money to shop in these great European stories. She was going to be the envy of everyone in Montreal, once she got back there.

She apparated back to the small town where the Lestrange mansion lay just outside of. As Jolene walked towards the mansion, she noticed everyone was whispering before realizing there were people she had never seen before hanging around the town. Without causing attention to herself, she walked as quickly as she could until she reached the town limit. Once outside of the public's view, she broke into a run. There was no way her husband's half-cocked plan was going to ruin her now. She had too much to lose—she had to warn Lucius!

"I think they're planning on raiding us!" she yelled, bursting in on everyone involved. They all watched as Jolene walked into the center of the room and dropped her bags. She was breathing heavily from her run but still croaked out what she had observed in town. Of course, this caused quite a stir in the room as they were all on the lamb without the kidnapping charges. "So, mon homme, what are we going to do?" she asked her husband.

"Yes, Lucius, what are we going to do?" Patrick Mandola, who had used his Auror status to bargain his fate to a one-way ticket to Canada, asked. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the grand designer.

Lucius, however, was upset everyone was now watching him. "Why are you asking me? Why aren't we planning together?"

"Because this is your brilliant idea," Fudge responded. "We're just along for the ride."

"And the glory when we succeed," Lucius snapped. Jolene snorted.

"We're failing, mon homme, we're failing," she said.

"And it's all your fault," Narcissa said. "You just had to go out and see Draco. You just had to tell him in person that he was no longer your son. A simple note would've sufficed, Lucius."

Lucius was about to retort when one of Fudge's cronies spoke up. "She's right. You knew your son was now a Dumbledore man. You should've known he would've told him that you visited. You know about Dumbledore and McGonagall. What about their children?"

"I know about the mediwitch," Lucius replied. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Eden Dumbledore married my former supervisor, Ace Michaelson. And may I remind you I was an Auror," Mandola replied.

Fudge pre-empted Lucius' reply. "And he has a son," he said. "Riley Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore was allowed to procreate more than once with Minerva McGonagall!" Lucius exclaimed.

Fudge was blustered. "They're married—we can't control what our people do in their bedrooms," he replied.

"We don't want to know what goes on in our people's bedrooms," someone else said. Everyone shared some nervous laughter. Fudge continued.

"He works in the ministry in the transportation department. He would have access to everything travel related."

Lucius swore. "Then we all have to get out of here and create an emergency port-key," he said. Someone volunteered to go do that right then and there. "Good, arrange so that it goes to Villa Serpentia. We need to get out of the United Kingdom. Narcissa, go and pack the children. We need to get them NOW!"

There was a lot of commotion and it was preventing Sam from sleeping. Every time she fell asleep, something caused her to wake up. The last time was her sister slipping out of bed for some reason. Now, she was trying to recapture the sleep while wishing she wasn't such a light sleeper. But she was shaken from dreamland quickly as she was picked up. She cracked an eye to see Lucius Malfoy holding her. She panicked, not knowing what he was doing. She didn't think he was going to harm her from the way he was cradling her, but she could tell there was some urgency. She opened her eyes fully as Lucius handed her off to one of his lackeys. "Don't hurt her, Lestrange," he warned. The man nodded.

Samantha watched as her friends were also being carried by different people who were their kidnappers. All were asleep, but she didn't see her little sister. "Madi, where's Madi?" she called out. Her only response was Rawlins rolling over in the arms of the person carrying him. "Where's my sister? I don't see her! Where is she?" she continued to scream. Lestrange couldn't contain as she started to flail as she called out for her sister. "I want to know where my sister is!" she screamed, finally breaking free of Lestrange's hold.

She ran back to the stairs, back to her bedroom to find Madison. "Stop her!" she heard someone call out. But she kept running until she ran into Narcissa. The woman leaned down and tried to calm the girl down as Samantha kept muttering about her sister. But with the excitement, Sam's out-of-breath tone and her urgency, it just sounded like rambling. She was trying to tell Narcissa that her sister was left behind as someone came up and muttered something. Sam stopped talking as she felt really tired suddenly. She felt Lestrange finally pick her up as she fought the sleep.

The last thing she heard was Lucius Malfoy's voice: "Give her here." She felt herself change arms and she made herself comfortable in the new arms before falling fast asleep.

A half hour later, the Auror corps sent for the raid approached the old Lestrange estate. From what they could tell in town, the people felt that something was happening there but thought maybe someone from the family had moved back in. Ace felt his stomach pummel though when he realized that the house was empty. Maybe this was a dead end? But then they got to the house and realized that it had been left in a hurry since there were still house elves cleaning up from a dinner. "Search the house," Ace ordered.

A few minutes later, an Auror called to Ace and Tonks who went running up together. They reached the fourth floor and could tell this was where the children had been kept. The clothes the mothers had described as the ones they had dressed their children in lay folded up nearby. "Bag those," Ace said and someone did so. "What's the matter?" he asked the Auror.

"We think someone's in that bathroom right there," the Auror replied, pointing at an oak door. Ace nodded and walked up, pressing his ear to the door. Sure enough, he could hear a child crying. Now the only problem was figuring out which child it was. He tried the door but it was locked. "We don't want to go bursting in there, sir," the Auror said.

"I'll try," Ace said, "all the children know me." He leaned into the door. "It's Ace Michaelson. Can you open the door?" he asked, using the voice he reserved usually for his little son.

A little voice came back. "P'ove it!" was heard. Everyone was amazed that the little child would be demanding proof until Tonks uttered the answer.

"Madi," she said. "Ace, it's Madison Snape!" Ace nodded and thought hard to figure out something that Madi would know about him but no one else would. "Let me, I have something that would work," Tonks said. Ace nodded, having an idea of what it was.

"Madi, honey, its Tonks," she called through the door. Once again, Madison demanded proof. "Well, you don't call me Tonks. You call me Aunt Dora, which is the last part of my full name," Tonks said. A minute later, they heard the lock pop and watched the handle turn. Madison Snape walked out of the bathroom, tear tracks still clear on her face. Tonks gathered the girl up and walked calmly out of the mansion.

Severus was being shaken awake and rolled over to tell Kiki to stop. Whatever it was, he felt, it could wait until the morning. Except Kiki wasn't the one shaking him; McGonagall was the culprit. "Minerva, what time is it?" he asked.

"Shortly after one o'clock in the morning. Once Kiki's done feeding Garret, you two have to get to the hospital wing. I'll watch the baby," she said.

"But why? It's too early for anything," Severus said.

McGonagall shrugged. "Albus woke me up and said I had to get you. He didn't tell me why either." Kiki appeared at the door holding Severus' robes. He rolled out of bed and slipped it on. With a nod to Minerva, they were gone to the hospital wing.

Albus met them smiling at the door. "I know it's early, but there's someone here who wants to see you," he said. He led the parents to a faraway bed (there were some students who had injured themselves on contraband Weasley products in the wing already) where both Eden and Poppy where bustling over someone in the bed. They passed a sleeping Maxim, where they also saw a smiling Ace and Tonks. Once Poppy stepped back, Kiki gasped and rushed the bed.

"Mama! Papa!" Madison called out as Kiki lifted her daughter out of the bed. "I missed you!"

"We missed you, too, sweetie," Kiki said, kissing her daughter's cheek. "I missed you so much. But where's Sam?"

Madi shrugged. "I went to the potty since I felt the urge," the girl explained. "And then there was a lotta noise outside so I stayed in the potty. I heard Sammy sc'eaming but then it got quiet. I stayed in the potty till Uncle Ace and Aunt Dora re'cued me!"

Ace nodded. "They must've been tipped off. We think Lucius' new wife was in town and found out. They cleared out. But we're going to find them—Riley thinks they may have used an illegal emergency portkey. We'll find them, we promise."

Severus nodded as he kissed his daughter. "Thanks for Madi right now," he said. He then turned to Poppy and Eden. "Can we take her back downstairs? I think she wants her own bed now."

"Certainly," Poppy said. "I'll give Lucius one thing. He hasn't hurt any of the children. Madison was bathed and fed."

"Bathed?" Severus and Kiki asked. Even Albus, Ace and Tonks looked concerned. "Who bathed her?" Severus demanded.

"Sammy, Jamie and Lily," came his response. "The house elves dew our baths and we hadda wash alone." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "Can we go home?"

"Yes," Kiki said, handing her daughter to her husband. Madison was starting to fall back asleep now that she was in the safety of her father's arms. "Thank you. Thank you all for Madison. She renews the hope we'll find Sam and everyone else."

Sirius was taking a coffee break in between his classes at the Auror academy when Harry showed up. All students stopped and watched as the academy's most famous graduate walked up to his godfather. Sirius smiled and hugged Harry before the two went into his office. The door hadn't even closed when they heard the whispers begin. The two rolled their eyes. "So, Harry, what brings you here?"

"They did the raid last night," Harry said. Sirius looked up. "They were tipped off and fled. We're still trying to track them." Sirius nodded and sighed. "But there is good news—Tonks and Ace found Madison in a bathroom. She had gone in the middle of the night and the noise from the evacuation kept her in there."

"At least some good came from this. I'm sure Severus and Kiki are thrilled," Sirius said. "But what about the other children?"

"Judging from the condition Madison was found in, they are taking care of them. Kiki brought Madi into the office so we could talk to her more. They were prisoners, but very well cared for prisoners. Lucius made sure house elves fed them and drew them baths. Narcissa left them clothes and brushes. She also gave them books, according to Madi, but Lucius took them away," Harry explained.

Sirius laughed. "Lucius doesn't understand children," he said. "I'm sure our children are given him a run for his money."

"Madi says they are," Harry said, smiling. Sirius laughed again.

A/N: It's Hell—I mean Tech—Week for my school's production of "Rumors" and I'm running the lights. Should be fun. Luckily, there aren't many light cues to worry about. I think registration for Spring term is coming up and I'm making plans to take a class for a few weeks in London. (Yay! You think I'll run into anyone from HP?) Well, thanks again to my reviewers:

blind-bella: Welcome to the fold! Don't worry, my stories are so much better than studying. Trust me. I have two tests tomorrow and look what I'm doing—posting! As I said, I'm thinking of doing a story about Sam when she's older (which is seriously a great possibility) but only after I do at least one story for another category. I really started writing in Broadway fanfiction and got sucked into HP. We'll see.

SarahtheBardess: You are quite dead on about Lucius and Sam. Yes, the kids will be sad they missed the Welcoming Feast and the kids have been gone about two, almost three, weeks. I love Molly Potter, she's just so adorable! I think this answered one of your questions—this starts the plot bunny that won't let me go. (Pushes giant rabbit with Remus' pitchfork) Rawlins is three, almost four, but is slightly more mature for his age. Probably comes from having the twins for sisters! If that's what you hope for between Sam and Lucius, you'll like this plot bunny!

Well, I got to go and attempt to study for my French test tomorrow before having to eat dinner and running to the theatre for rehearsal. And hoping that my CD player doesn't start protesting and telling me to take my "Songs for a New World" CD out. Jason Robert Brown is a genius!--Mac