A/N: Hi again. So here we go, a nice quick update as promised. Shit's about to go down, people. Enjoy!


George glanced at his watch and sighed. Alicia had gone downstairs to collect Jake from Warrington ages ago. Since when did a simple drop off take twenty minutes? That useless wanker was no doubt complaining to Alicia about something pointless that she had no control over. George figured he would give it another minute or two then politely go find out what the hold-up was.

Thankfully, Warrington had been keeping his distance so far. George hadn't had to make good on his promise, which he was thankful for. At first he'd worried he'd overstepped by making that threat the other week. Then something had changed with Alicia and he'd felt vindicated. All of a sudden she was back to being talkative and energetic and she was engaged with her surroundings.

So there was a tentative truce between himself and Warrington and Alicia was back to her old self. Everything was going to be smooth sailing from now on. Still, George would gladly go down and knock some sense into Warrington if he had to. He had absolutely no qualms about doing that if it came to it.

Luckily, he never had to leave the sofa, thus avoiding any dubious knight in shining armour heroics. The front door finally opened behind him and he gladly tossed aside the random magazine he had been reading.

"Finally! What took you so long? Was that idiot giving you a hard time about something?"

"Excuse me, Weasley?"

George whirled around to find Warrington standing alone in the doorway rather than Alicia and Jake. "What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"What did you just call me?" Warrington asked, clearly having heard George the first time.

"An idiot," George replied blandly. "I would have gone with fucking idiot, but I thought Jake was going to be present. Where is he? And where's Alicia?"

"I obviously have no clue where your girlfriend is. I left Jake down in the car with Frank because I assumed she'd missed pickup because she was up here getting off with you," Warrington sneered.

George made a scoffing noise and crossed his arms. "Right. You thought we were shagging so you let yourself into the place. Perverted much?"

"Trust me, I would have gouged my eyes out immediately." Warrington entered the flat and headed towards the bedroom. "Seriously. Where the hell is she? I've waited far too long already. I have places to be today."

"She's not here!" George marched around the sofa to intercept him. "She left as soon as you called her. Stay out of her room."

George put his arm across the threshold to the bedroom and for a brief second he thought Warrington was just going to barge through. Instead he stopped and fished around in his trouser pocket.

"I'm not in the mood for games today, Weasley." He produced his mobile phone and began tapping angrily at the buttons. "If I hear her phone ringing in here there's going to be hell to pay."

"She took her phone with her." George began to get a slightly sick feeling in his stomach. "You mean you've phoned her and she hasn't answered?"

"Obviously. That's the first thing I did when she didn't show up. I've phoned her five fucking times already! She hasn't picked up once."

George watched as Warrington put the phone to his ear. George's heart began to beat a little faster as Warrington's eyebrows drew together. He was seemingly a little concerned now as well. "Voicemail again," he said flatly.

"Maybe she went to get a coffee down the street and left her phone behind there by accident?" George suggested, knowing already that it wasn't likely. It was just nice to think of something mundane rather than terrible for a second.

Warrington rubbed his hand tiredly across his face and groaned. "I don't have time for whatever is going on here. What am I supposed to do with Jake now? I can't bring him along to my meeting today."

"Alicia will show up soon so just leave him here with me."

"Not happening. I drop him off to Alicia and no one else."

George huffed and threw up his hands. "Fucking fine then! I'll come down and sort this out. It's mid-morning in bloody London. Somebody had to see which way she went."

Warrington marched back out the door and George went over to the kitchen table and snatched up his wand and the keys to the flat. There was no way Alicia would miss picking up Jake on purpose. Maybe there had been some sort of emergency that she couldn't ignore. That seemed likely. She wouldn't be able to ignore someone in distress.

George shared an awkwardly silent ride down in the lift with Warrington, who busied himself tapping away on his phone. If he was still concerned about Alicia's welfare, he was hiding it well. Adrenalin was pumping through George's veins though and he all but sprinted out of the lift when it reached the foyer.

He beat Warrington out to the street and paused to look around. It was crowded, making it difficult to spot anyone in particular. The fine weather had brought out locals and tourists alike. George kept looking left and right as Warrington went over to his car and briefly stuck his head through the passenger window. He came back over, a grim look on his face.

"Frank hasn't seen her," Warrington reported. "What the bloody hell is going on? How could she have disappeared between her flat and the street?"

"I don't know! Look around. She's wearing jeans and a yellow top."

"Seriously, I don't have time for this! She's obviously not out here. I'm taking Jake back home with me till she shows up."

George put his hands on his hips and stopped searching the crowd to briefly glare at Warrington. "What? You're just leaving?"

"What am I supposed to do? I have a meeting at Malfoy Manor today and Frank is currently illegally parked over there. Just go back upstairs and she'll show up eventually."

"Something's wrong and you know it just as well as I do," George said tersely.

"That's your problem, not mine. This happened on your watch, mate."

"My watch? I'm not her bodyguard. And I'm certainly not your mate. You're a selfish fucking prick, you know that. Bugger off then and I'll sort this out on my own."

"I highly doubt that." Warrington turned and pointed up towards a black dome hanging off Alicia's building. "That's a surveillance camera right there. London is covered in them. Your brother and Potter should be able to get access to the footage from Scotland Yard."

George didn't know what to say. There was no way he would have thought of that himself. Warrington flashed a smug, satisfied smile then turned and walked back over to his car.

Some forty minutes later, George found himself waiting impatiently at the Ministry. He was sitting at Ron's desk in the Auror department and watching as random people came and went from a small room beside the cubicle. Everyone gave him suspicious looks as they passed by. Not that he could blame them. He'd made quite a scene earlier.

Harry and Ron had explained that it required a lot of time and paperwork to requisition a copy of a surveillance video from the Muggle police. Apparently 'having a bad feeling' wasn't a good enough reason to go to all that trouble. Well. George had probably overreacted in the end. He'd shouted and sworn and at one point he'd pushed over Ron's chair. Then he'd demanded to speak to no less than Kingsley Shacklebolt himself if someone didn't get hold of that video ASAP.

Thankfully, Hermione had shown up at that moment to have lunch with Ron. She had calmed George down and promised to speak to someone she knew who could get the paperwork processed quickly. True to her word, a copy of the video had shown up a few minutes ago and was currently being reviewed in the small room.

George was about to go barge in when the door opened of its own accord and Hermione appeared. Her lips were tightly pursed when she nodded to him. "You can go in now. Just try to keep calm all right. That means no more throwing furniture. I'll be back in a minute."

George leapt up, not an inch of his body feeling calm. He entered the room to find grim faces all around. A wizard he didn't recognise was at a desk scribbling hurriedly on a piece of parchment and another two Aurors were whispering in the corner. A frozen image of the street outside Alicia's block of flats was currently being projected against one of the walls and Harry and Ron were staring at it, arms crossed and legs apart in identical, authoritative stances.

Ron reached out to clasp his shoulder as George approached. "Listen, mate, you need to watch this video and tell us if you recognise the man who approaches Alicia."

"Man? What man?" George demanded.

"Just concentrate," Harry said firmly.

One of the other Aurors waved their wand and the image began to move. The camera was stationary and showed people bustling back and forth along the street. Ron pointed towards a pair of legs in the top corner of the picture. "That's Alicia there."

"Yeah," George agreed, recognising her distinctive pink trainers. "So she did make it down to the street. Warrington mustn't be there yet."

Another pair of legs came up beside Alicia and George's heart sank. Something bad had definitely happened to her. Someone had done something to her. His jaw clenched as Alicia's legs disappeared along with the mystery pair.

"We lose her for about thirty seconds at this point. The police checked nearby cameras and found her again though," Harry said.

The image on the wall switched to that of a dingy alleyway. George recognised it as the alley just down from Alicia's building. He recognised it because it had a Ministry Apparition Point at the end of it that he'd used a few times. The alleyway itself mostly provided access to the back of a few Muggle restaurants and George recalled it smelled strongly of fish.

Alicia's trainers suddenly appeared with the mystery set of legs beside her. The pair walked quickly into frame, heading right towards the camera. They were talking to each other as they hurried along. Alicia looked worried. The man beside her was waving his hands wildly. He had shaggy blonde hair that touched his shoulders and he was about the same height as Alicia. And he was a complete stranger to George.

"You want me to stop the video before the next part, Potter?" the Auror from earlier asked.

Harry glanced sideways at George. "No, let it run," he answered after a momentary pause.

George watched in horror as Alicia suddenly froze on the spot. The stranger stopped too and turned back to her. Alicia took her phone from her pocket and began to furiously press the buttons. The stranger reached out and snatched the phone from her hand and carelessly tossed it aside. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her against him. George felt like vomiting but he couldn't look away.

Alicia struggled and tried to twist away as the stranger began to force her to continue walking toward the camera. He pulled something from the pocket of his trousers but George couldn't see what it was because Alicia was in the way. But he could guess as to what it was because she stopped struggling immediately.

"We're assuming he's holding a wand to her back," Ron said, echoing George's own conclusion.

As they walked closer to the camera, the terror on Alicia's face became plain to see. They continued on past the scope of the camera and the alleyway was suddenly still and empty again. George turned to his brother beseechingly. "So what next? Where did they go?"

"We don't know," Ron began, holding up a placating hand as George moaned and covered his eyes. "You look ill. Maybe you should sit down."

George ignored the suggestion and began to pace back and forth. "This cannot be happening."

"So did you recognise the man who grabbed your girlfriend?" one of the other Aurors asked.

"Obviously not."

Harry stepped in front of George to halt his frenetic pacing. "Look, we've asked for help from the police but there's no more cameras in the alleyway because it ends in an Apparition Point and we don't allow them to monitor those."

"At least we know he must be a wizard since the end of the alleyway is covered in Muggle-repelling Charms," Ron said. "If he wasn't capable of magic he'd just be walking towards a pile of stinking rubbish rather than an Apparition Point."

"That's right. It's not much but it's something to go on for now." Harry eyed George with some concern. "You really ought to sit down and take a deep breath."

George lurched over to the desk and sat down next to the unknown wizard who was now reading over his parchment. It had started out as a perfectly normal Sunday morning. Slow, sleepy sex followed by breakfast in bed, then thorough, steamy shower sex. George had stopped working on Sundays specifically because he loved this quiet time alone with Alicia. Now what? What was he going to do if she didn't come back?

George didn't let that thought take root yet. She'd barely been missing for an hour.

The door to the room opened and Hermione returned as promised. A tall, black witch with a shaved head followed through after her then shut the door. Hermione came over to stand behind George. She put her hand on his arm and said, "I brought my colleague Doreen down to help. She's deaf and can read lips really well. I thought she might be able to see what Alicia and her abductor are saying to each other."

Abductor. The word careened around George's head like a wayward Bludger. Someone had abducted Alicia – stolen her away from him. Possibly forever.

"Start the alleyway section of the video," Harry ordered.

The video disappeared for a split second and when it reappeared it was at the point where Alicia and the man entered the alleyway. Doreen stepped closer to the wall, blocking George's view, which he was thankful for. He didn't think he could handle seeing those terrified blue eyes again.

The video ran its course and Doreen turned around. She signed something to Hermione who translated for everyone. "Doreen says she's sorry but she can't make out what they're saying."

George let his head fall forward and his forehead met the tabletop with a loud thump. They couldn't catch a break. Now they had barely anything to go on. Merlin only knew what Alicia was going through while they sat around in helpless silence.

"We might be able to slow down and enlarge the footage so she can try again," Ron finally suggested.

"Doreen says that won't help. The problem isn't the footage," Hermione translated. "She can't understand anything they're saying because they aren't speaking English."

George's head snapped up so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. "French! That's the only other language Alicia speaks."

"So this bloke is either French or he at least speaks French well enough to hold a conversation with a fluent speaker. That's something we can work with."

Hermione gave George's shoulder a reassuring squeeze then went over to sign something to Doreen who signed back then left the room. Once she had closed the door Hermione turned to George. "I'm really sorry we couldn't catch any of their conversation."

"It was good thinking, Mione," Ron said, and went to kiss her on the top of her head. "I don't suppose you have another colleague who happens to read lips and also speak French?"

Hermione wrapped her arm around Ron's waist and rested her head on his shoulder. "No such luck, I'm afraid."

"Now what?" George asked, turning away from the couple to address Harry.

"Now we're officially on the case. Normally an incident like this would be handled by Magical Law Enforcement Squad but our boss got it transferred over here once we explained the circumstances."

"We told him Alicia was in Dumbledore's Army with us and that she fought in the Battle of Hogwarts," Hermione explained. "It's not likely a dark wizard is involved but the tenuous connection was enough to get the Aurors brought in to take over."

"He's not a dark wizard though," Harry said quickly, as if he could tell George was suddenly panicking internally. "We had his photo circulated around the department and no one recognises him. We know of most of the dark wizards still hiding out in Europe and he's not one of them. Revesby there beside you has just written up a bulletin that's going to be duplicated and sent to every European Ministry in case Alicia is taken to the Continent."

"Right," was all George could manage to say. His mind was spinning and he knew he ought to be leaping into action but he couldn't for the life of him work out where to start.

"Have you noticed her acting strange lately?" one of the Aurors asked.

George shook his head firmly. "There's no way she knew something like this was going to happen."

"You may be right on that, but I still feel like something's been up with her. The few times I've seen her she's been guarded and uneasy. It felt like she wanted to tell me something, but she couldn't actually bring herself to do it."

George turned to glare at Harry. Yet another person who thought they knew Alicia better than he did. "There's been a lot for her to deal with since she got back. So yeah, maybe she's been a bit off lately, but that's understandable. If there was something serious going on she'd have told me." He stood up and ran his fingers through his hair roughly. "Look, I just need her back all right. I'll give you whatever you need and I'll do whatever you want."

"Right now you should probably go back to Alicia's flat and wait for us to hear from the French Ministry," Harry said.

"No. I need to be here helping."

"Harry's right, there's nothing more you can do here, George." Hermione came over and took him by the elbow gently. She steered him towards the door. "You can help by going back to Alicia's place and having a look around. This connection with France is a good lead and we should explore it."

"I think you're right about that, Hermione," George said as a moment of clarity hit him. He turned to her and forced a smile. "I'll go back to Alicia's and wait to hear from you. Just do me a favour and don't let the rest of the family know what's going on."

She nodded reassuringly. "Don't worry. It's an official case now, so only people who need to know will be told what's happened."

George pulled her into a tight hug. "Thanks, love. Now please use that magnificent brain of yours and find her."

Back in the Ministry Atrium, George looked over his shoulder to make sure no one he knew was around then he selected a random fireplace and grabbed a handful of powder and tossed it in. Then clearly, but not too loudly, he said Warrington's address then stepped into the green flames.

When he emerged through on the other side, he was met with an ear-splitting wailing as some sort of alarm activated. George stumbled out of the fireplace and waved his wand. "Finite Incantatem!"

Unsurprisingly, the screeching continued. George looked around and wondered briefly if he'd ended up in the wrong house. He'd only ever waited outside once while Alicia went in to collect Jake. But no, it was definitely Warrington's place. He had materialised into some sort of office or study and he could see photos of Jake on the nearest bookcase.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Protego!"

George closed his eyes and braced himself. His shield appeared a millisecond before the full body-bind reached him. He cracked one eye open cautiously as the awful alarm finally ceased.

"Weasley?" Warrington bellowed from the doorway. "What the bleeding hell are you doing in my house? I could have killed you!"

George snorted derisively. "We both just saw evidence to the contrary. My reflexes are still as sharp as ever."

"What are you doing in my house?" Warrington repeated as he marched into the room. "I hope for your sake that Alicia is about to step through that fireplace behind you."

George shook his head solemnly. "We need to talk."

"I don't have time for this! What part of that don't you understand?"

George looked him up and down. Warrington was wearing formal dress robes, which was a little jarring since he'd become accustomed to seeing the Slytherin in Muggle clothing more often than not. Then he remembered their conversation from earlier.

"You're going to meet with the Malfoys today," George said, the contempt in his voice undisguised. "That's what's so important?"

"That's what I've been saying over and over again! It's an important business opportunity for me and this is the first time an influential Slytherin family has reached out to me. If Alicia's not with you then fine, not my concern, but you have to leave. Marta is going to stay and look after Jake so you're not needed."

"Alicia's gone!"

Warrington narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

George tried to come up with a word to use. Abducted. Kidnapped. Taken. They all made his stomach churn. "Listen, a man approached her in the street while she was out front waiting for you."

"What man?"

George reached into his back pocket and removed the photo he'd snatched from a desk on his way out of the Auror Department. He unrolled the photo and held it up. "This man."

Warrington grabbed the photo, studied it for a second, then thrust it back at George. "Never seen him before in my life."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I'd remember that ridiculous hair if I'd seen it before." Warrington went over to the desk and collected a pile of parchments. "Now, since I don't recognise the man it's clear that I'm not going to be of anymore use, so you need to leave so I can Apparate to Malfoy Manor before I'm late."

George stormed over and slammed the photo of the stranger down on the desk. "Are you being serious right now? Alicia gets snatched off the street in broad daylight and you're worried about impressing Lucius Malfoy of all fucking people. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You don't know the first thing about me!" Warrington shouted, stepping right up into George's face. "I've waited years for this chance. Years! Too much of my life has already been wasted trying to fit into the Muggle world. I've had enough and the Malfoys are my ticket back into magical society."

George didn't flinch. He poked his wand into Warrington's chest and said, "What about Alicia, huh?"

Warrington mirrored George's action with his own wand. "You want to duel rather than leave quietly, then let's get it over with. Either way, I'm not getting dragged into something that has nothing to do with me."

"So you're telling me I was right about you all along. You really don't give a shit about her? You don't care that she's been taken Merlin knows where? You don't care that she's scared and alone and in trouble? You don't care that this psycho could be doing whatever he wants to her right now while we stand here arguing like a pair of fucking children?"

Warrington hesitated, his glare faltering as he processed those words. He looked down at the parchments he was holding one last time, then lowered his other hand and dropped his wand onto the desk beside him. George lowered his wand as well and took a few deep breaths as his heart rate gradually slowed.

Warrington stepped around to the other side of the desk and covered his face with the stack of parchments he held. "Fuuuuck," he groaned.

"Look, I'm sorry that Alicia had to go and get kidnapped at an inconvenient time for you, but I wouldn't have bothered to come here if I didn't think you'd be able to help."

Warrington appeared again from behind the parchments and his countenance seemed to have changed. He opened the desk drawer and dropped the paperwork inside. "All right. Just…just whatever. Tell me what you know."

George recounted everything that had occurred at the Ministry. Warrington grew more and more agitated as he listened. By the end he was pacing angrily back and forth as George perched on the edge of the desk.

"So what you're telling me is you know virtually nothing?" Warrington said once George had finished talking.

"We know that the bloke is French."

"We know that he speaks French. That's not the same thing as being French. He could be Icelandic for all we know."

"Yeah, but what are the chances? She lived in France for years and he speaks French. There has to be a connection there. Did she ever have a problem with anyone over there?"

"Define problem?" Warrington snapped. "She was originally sent there to help Ogden weed dark wizards out of the Ministry, so I think it's safe to assume she pissed off a couple of people."

"But I just told you he's not a dark wizard."

"Says Harry Potter…"

"No. Says every Auror currently working at the British Ministry."

"If the entire Auror department is on the case then what do you want from me? What insight can I possibly provide?"

"Maybe this isn't about her work with Ogden and it's something personal. I was hoping you would still have contacts back over there who could help us work out who this guy is. Harry and Ron are liaising with the French Ministry but I figured you would know people who operate outside the law."

Warrington stopped pacing and rubbed his jaw contemplatively. "There are a few people who owe me favours I guess. I could make some Floo calls, get the word out that we're looking for this person. In the meantime, you should write your own list of people you think might have it in for her. It doesn't make sense to put all of our eggs in one basket."

George nodded as relief flooded his body. Truth be told, he had no clue what he should be doing right now and he was glad to have Warrington take the lead. As much as George was loathe to admit it, Warrington was smarter than him, the smug ponce that he was. They both realised that for Alicia's sake their rivalry had to take a backseat for the time being.

George Weasley and Christopher Warrington were going to have to find a way to get along.


Diesel.

The stench of it overwhelmed her senses for a moment. She rolled over and dry wretched. She pulled the collar of her shirt up to cover her nose and mouth.

Blinking in the dim light, Alicia slowly sat up. She was sore all over, but her head in particular was pounding. The smell of the fuel wasn't helping matters. Her brain was rewinding back through the bits and pieces she could remember.

A blonde man on the street. He spoke French to her. Said that his little boy was injured down an alleyway and needed medical help. Come quickly! He's bleeding. No one else could help because no one else could understand the man because he didn't speak any English. But Alicia understood him. Alicia could help.

But it had been a trap. There was no boy to be seen and when Alicia had tried to get away he had pulled his wand on her and told her to walk to the end of the alleyway. When she realised they were headed towards an Apparition Point, she had started to scream and struggle.

The last thing she remembered was the man saying "Stupefy!" loudly in her ear.

Now she was here. Wherever here was. The space was long and narrow and completely devoid of anything. The floor was dusty and hard and there was a few small windows up high along one wall. All she could see outside was clear blue sky, so no help there. Hopefully it was still Sunday but she had no real way of knowing how much time had passed.

Alicia slowly got to her feet, her shirt still covering half her face. She walked towards the end of the room and the whole space wobbled slightly. Then she realised. She was in the back of a lorry. Who would want to kidnap her off the street and throw her in the back of a lorry for God's sake?

Alicia's head throbbed and she clutched at it with her free hand. Of course. He was the person who'd been sending all those awful letters for the past few months. He had come after her like he'd promised.

Sobbing, Alicia dropped back to the floor. She was so stupid.

So unbelievably stupid.


Christopher stood up and brushed soot from his dress robes. Why the hell was he even still wearing them? He began to unbutton them as he made his way back over to his desk. He'd managed to get hold of a few of his old contacts in France but no one recognised the man in the photo. It'd proven to be a colossal waste of his time. They were no closer to knowing anything and he'd missed his meeting with Lucius and Draco.

He'd sent an owl over to explain that he was going to have to re-schedule. There was a very real chance though that his last minute cancellation would annoy them so much that they wouldn't bother to arrange a second meeting at all. But that was the least of his worries at the moment.

Christopher threw his robes over his chair and leaned on the desk, staring at the still photo of the man. This wasn't his fucking job. He didn't know what to do next. But Weasley certainly had no clue. Potter probably wasn't doing any better. Alicia had been missing for over three hours now and that idiot hadn't even shown up to question him yet. The situation was becoming grimmer by the second.

Mostly the problem was that Christopher hated feeling impotent and useless and directionless. He associated the feeling with all of the worst moments of his life. The first time he'd felt this way was the day he'd been cut off. The business he'd poured all his time and energy into had suddenly been ripped away from him. Within minutes he was unemployed, disinherited, ostracised. The panic of not knowing how to provide for his coming child had been all encompassing. He'd come close to losing it several times.

Only one person had been there with him. She'd whispered calming words and stroked his hair and done any number of little things that had kept him from breaking down. She'd been the only one there for him through those agonising months of uncertainty. She was the only one who still had time for him when he was no longer rich and successful.

When he'd felt defeated, like he wasn't going to be able to learn all that he needed to in order to pass as a Muggle, she had been there with endless encouragement and optimism. More often than not she would sit there patiently and just let him rant and rave about the injustice of the whole situation. Then she'd take his hand, perhaps kiss his cheek, and tell him he was going to be fine, that he was doing brilliantly. She'd been so sincere and adamant that he always believed her and that kept him going.

But what the fuck had he ever done for Alicia?

Weasley's assessment of him the other week had been scathing, but not inaccurate. He always took from her, never reciprocating the support and faith and care she'd shown him for years. He really was like a leech, sucking the life out of her to keep himself nourished and healthy.

He'd always known from the very beginning that he needed her a lot more than she needed him. This would likely be the one and only time that he'd be able to pay her back for some of the help she'd given him over the years. Right now she needed him to come through for her and he knew he had to do it. The consequences of opting out here were too dire to even consider.

The worst part was, Christopher had suspected something was up with her weeks ago. She'd wanted to talk to him privately about why she left France so abruptly. Then Narcissa Malfoy had shown up and completely side-tracked him and he'd never mentioned it to Alicia again. But something was definitely unsettling her. She'd kept forgetting things, as if she had something else occupying her thoughts.

Yet Christopher had never pushed her on it, instead accepting her weak assurances that nothing was wrong. Deep down he knew he hadn't pursued it because he didn't think it was his problem; let Weasley deal with it now. But that was completely the wrong thing to do obviously. The events of the morning had proven Weasley had been no better at sussing out what was going on.

They had both failed her miserably and she was currently paying the price for it.

Who would want to take her like that? What could she possibly be involved in that dangerous people would be after her? What were they doing to her right now? An attractive young woman, alone, scared and vulnerable…

Christopher stopped that train of thought. His chest was already compressed enough that he couldn't take deep breaths. He had to stay on target. Right now he had a piece of paper in his hands with a few names on it.

He skipped downstairs and found Weasley sitting on one of the kitchen benchtops, his own identical piece of paper in his hand.

"Where's Jake?"

"Outside tossing around a quaffle with your housekeeper."

"Good. Now get your bloody arse off my benchtop. There's a seat literally two feet away from you," Christopher snapped, pointing towards one of the dining chairs.

"Anything's a seat if you put your arse on it," Weasley muttered as he slid off slowly. "Did you have any luck?"

"Not particularly. Thought of a few people who mightn't be too happy with her though." He tossed his list of names on the table as Weasley sat down.

"What is this shite? This isn't very helpful. Who is 'Pervy Ministry Bloke'?"

"Don't know his name. I just remember Alicia mentioning that someone there fancied her and wasn't happy when she rejected him. Never told me his name of course. Didn't want me to get involved."

"So she's always hated having someone fight her battles for her? Well I'm glad it's not just me she doesn't trust to help her out."

Christopher snatched up the list Weasley had written down. "Yeah, and I wasn't her boyfriend or anything at the time, otherwise I'd have just gone down to the Ministry and sorted it out on my own. I still know people who work there though so I'll be able to find out his name if need be."

Weasley nodded. "What about the French Minister then? Alicia mentioned they ended up becoming quite close. Would she help us?"

"Marie would move heaven and earth to help Alicia if she knew she was in trouble. I tried to get through to her but she's in Belgium right now attending the European Confederation Summit. It's going to be difficult to get hold of her for the next few days."

"We can't wait for days. We really can't catch a break here."

"Wait, wait, wait," Christopher barked as his eyes settled on one of the names on Weasley's list. "Why is Flint on here?"

Weasley hesitated, then gave a resigned sigh. "There was an incident after the Quidditch match, okay. After you had left with Jake, Flint cornered Alicia and words were exchanged. I wasn't there for all of it and I was too far away to hear any specifics, but your name was mentioned a few times."

"And you just let this happen?"

"I stepped in when he made a grab for her. She had it under control though. She said something that really rattled him. I never found out exactly what went down but Alicia assured me that she'd made sure Flint was going to leave her alone from now on."

Christopher slammed the list down on the table in front of him. "Why am I only finding out about this now?"

"Do you think he's involved in this somehow?" Weasley asked.

"I don't know. But Flint's never been right in the head. He was the kid who pulled the wings off butterflies for fun. He has a dark, sadistic streak and the IQ of a garden gnome. That's a dangerous combination. If Alicia did something to provoke him then I don't know what he'd be capable of."

Christopher abruptly turned and headed for the backdoor. Weasley scrambled to his feet and said, "Where are you going now?"

"To talk to Marta."

"Why?"

"Because you and I are going to Flint Manor."


A/N: Next chapter is half finished. A couple of reviews would go a long way to ensuring a speedy update. Thanks to everyone who's made it to this point of the story. I appreciate you all very much!