Chapter 15 – Right Now

It's been two weeks and a meeting was finally called for the Aurors as they had located several of the base of operations for the group called HER, standing for Henchmen of Elite Reign. Their name was concerning, and Scorpius couldn't help but hit was related in someway to his daughter.

Mr Potter finally entered the tactical meeting room. "Thank you for coming quickly, everyone. We'll get straight to business, the group called HER has cause concern for not only my family and the wizarding community but also the muggle world. The strings of murders have been noticed by their police department however we have asked them to keep clear so we can clean up this mess." A map had been laid out on the only table in the room with specific points marked.

"Team Phoenix, you will be deployed to point A, we have reason to believe they have a wizard who likes to use fire at that point. Team Gnome, you will be stacking out point B, we have reason to believe they use Polyjuice potion, but we are not certain use caution. Team Chaser," Scorpius perked up paying special attention, "you will be assigned point C, we have almost no information on this group however we suspect they have a wizard curial to their plan there. Now dismissed."

Scorpius assembled with his team which was led by Mr Weasley. He had been scowling the entire time. Mr Weasley put a hand on his shoulder, "Scorpius, let's catch these asshats."

"Definitely."

They sat in the same seats they had sat in for the last week, across from a house with minimal activity all week. Scorpius started feeling the time pressure weighing on his patience. There were only a few weeks now until Christmas and he promised Rose she would spend Christmas normally. He sighed which caught Mr Weasley's attention. "What's eating you today?"

Scorpius rubbed his eyes and looked back out the small crack between the curtain and the window facing the other house. "I promised Rose she could be back to have a normal family Christmas."

The older gentleman chuckled, "That's one heck of a promise, I hope you live up to it this time." Scorpius was so taken back he wondered if they had been infiltrated by their enemy even though he knew that they hadn't.

"No need to look so surprised, I can't forgive you for leaving and hurting my daughter but I'm willing to see if you can make up for that through your actions now." Mr Weasley took a sip of his tea.

It wasn't that he mellowed in his old age, especially compared to what Scorpius remembered he was like when they were in school. He seemed wiser and more intuitive than you would usually give him credit for. It led his thoughts to his own father who he hadn't spoken to since finding out about the letters. He envied the Weasleys at times, they had strong bonds of love which makes you want to belong to that scene. "Thank you, Mr Weasley."

As Scorpius turned his head back to the house across the street, there was a movement at the front door. A black robed wizard of average height and build left the house then apparated. Their observations have only seen the one wizard coming and going from the house, they couldn't be sure, but they appeared the same. It was now or never, "It's time, move out."

They made their way to their assigned points of entry. Scorpius cast a silencing charm on himself and made his way across the street as others moved around the back. On the signal Scorpius charged in the front door, expecting there to be possibly more people they quickly check for people but all they find is an empty house. Not even a piece of furniture was left behind.

"Hey, you might want to see this guys," Someone called from upstairs. Scorpius ran upstairs on of the rooms had a pin board. It was the equivalent of being winded. Like he forgot how to breathe. There was a board filled with photos of his daughter and some of Rose, it was when he spotted the ones of the safe house that he moved before he could think. He apparated as he heard Mr Weasley calling something behind him.

When Scorpius appeared in front of the house it was already too late. The protective enchantment was gone, and the door had been blasted off, he ran into the house, everything was broken or flung across the room. The walls had scorch marks and cracks, while avoiding the debris he searched the ruined house to find no one home. There was a pop from outside, someone had apparated here. Scorpius readied his wand ready to tear this person to ribbons but it turned out to be Mr. Potter.

"Scorpius, it's me calm down, and I'll tell you where they are," Scorpius lowered his wand.

"Now we must go quickly," he started walking away from the house.

"Where did they take them?" Scorpius ran after Mr. Potter.

"I'll tell you first then we have to wait for Ron to get here."

Scorpius leaned against the wall of the destroyed house while he absorbed what had happened in that short space of time. Rose, Lyra and Hugo had been abducted from the safe house which they had found given the photos they had taken. Hugo had managed to send a Patronus charm before getting taken which alerted everyone to the mess and the tracking device in Lyra's stuffed teddy bear. He felt terrible how could he have let this happen a second time. Why couldn't he hold onto the people he loved the most? Why did he leave?

"You shouldn't feel so bad, no one including myself saw this coming."

Scorpius couldn't shake the feeling of guilt. As the heard to resounding pop of apparition.

"Harry, hurry up we're about to leave," one Hermione Weasley stood in the middle of a group of ministry Aurors and seemed to be overseeing the situation.

"Hermione what are you doing here I thought that we agreed that Ron and I would take care of it?" Harry rebutted.

"Oh, if you think I'm just waiting around for my children and grandchild to get back, you are sorely mistaken. Right let's go." No one else questioned her, fearing the wrath of the brightest witch of her age.