Disclaimer:

I don't own anything related to the rights of Harry Potter... Or the lefts.

Author's Note:

The second chapter of Becoming Mr. Black.

Publish Date: Feb 10th, 2014

Update Date: N/A

Chapter Two

Meet The Cast

(A.K.A. Harry-Hunting)

Four weeks.

It had been four weeks since Harry had been seen at all outside of classes. No one that Hermione had asked had seen so much as a glimpse of Harry that wasn't within the boundaries of classes where the teachers kept disruptions to a minimum.

Hermione was in the common room and driving herself into a complete and utter tizzy trying to figure out where Harry was disappearing to, not to mention how he was doing it. Searching the castle was an absolute nightmare for someone like her, with her predominantly logical mind. She was about ready to tear out her hair, she was so frustrated.

She was even considering asking Malfoy for information, she was so desperate.

She had even gone so far as to try and recreate the Marauder's Map. She had a semi-working prototype that worked sometimes, but it was still quite a bit... Glitchy. Sometimes it would show people where they weren't and not show people where they were and sometimes it would work just fine, it seemed to be a coin flip on which it was at any given time. She had it out now, looking over it to see if maybe Harry would appear on it somewhere. She was about to give up when she decided to give it one more look. She bent over the map again, just to make sure, and became confused before deciding that the map was messing up again.

There was no way Harry was in a broom cupboard with that person. It didn't make sense, they didn't even know each other.

A tiny part of Hermione's mind whispered, 'But, what if..?', making the bushy-haired witch sigh and get out of her chair in the common room, psudo-map in hand, to find out if it was possible or if she needed to scrap the map and try something else.

Luna Lovegood was wandering the castle with a purpose. Most people wouldn't believe it, but she knew what she was doing. She always did, even if people didn't understand or didn't care to try.

Skipping around the school in a rather chaotic fashion, which to her was a complicated pattern that involved multiple constantly changing variables, most people got out of her way or avoided her all together if possible. One brave soul actually mustered up the courage to ask what she was doing.

"Herding Nargles and Wrackspurts, of course!"

With that, she continued on her way, leaving a rather befuddled and confused Hufflepuff behind her.

She suddenly stopped in the hallway, mid-skip and mid-song, deciding that her job was done for the day. She smiled serenely to herself at a job well done when something else occurred to her, something she almost forgot to do. She scowled for a second at not getting a second of rest, but shook it off and skipped away, intent on tracking down her new target.

She continued skipping around the corridors seemingly at random until she suddenly stopped next to a suit of armor. She took one step to the side so that she was hidden behind it and began counting to herself.

Upon reaching zero, she jumped out from her hiding place and crept up behind her target before finally saying, "There you are. I have some questions for you."

Tracy Davis was stalking the corridors of Hogwarts, looking for someone. She had no idea where they had disappeared to, but she was going to find out and then she was going to get answers, one way or another.

She started in all of the usual haunts, not expecting to find anything, but unwilling to skip over them, just in case. With those locations not bearing any fruit, she moved on to some of the less popular places, the hidden places that had been stumbled upon and whispered about around their darkened common room over the years. That took longer, seeing as it became necessary to avoid the awkward questions that would crop up if she were to be caught searching the less explored parts of the castle.

After that yielded no results, she began randomly opening doors and looking around the rooms, meandering around the castle. Given she had no other ideas on places to search, this seemed to be the best way to cover a lot of ground. It wasn't the best way to do things at this point, but it was the one that allowed her to cover the most ground.

Wandering around one of the unused parts of the castle, she opened a random door, and finally found the person she was looking for. 'Finally,' Tracy thought to herself. "There you are." Seeing her prey freeze, Tracy arched an eyebrow and said, "I have some questions for you."

Neville Longbottom was standing at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, right in front of the portrait in fact, waiting for someone to either come out or go in, as he had once again forgotten the password. He chuckled quietly at himself. He was one of the Ministry Six, he fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, and even after seven years here, he still continued to forget how to enter his own dorm.

He was just getting bored and starting to get lost in his thoughts when Hermione stormed out of the Portrait hole, muttering under her breath as she started intently at a piece of parchment. He knew what was going on, she was looking for Harry, the same thing she had been for the past few weeks. For once, he was curious as to what she was up to this time. The only parchment that he knew of that Hermione would look that intently at was either homework, which wouldn't help her find Harry, or Harry's map. Knowing that Harry would never part with the thing, especially considering he had gone into hiding and that was a useful tool, he figured that if anyone could have a chance to recreate such an item, it would be her, and that she was likely testing it out now.

Deciding on a whim to see what was up, he approached her and matched her quick strides heading away in a vaguely familiar direction. After a moment he asked, "No luck on finding Harry, I take it?"

Hermione grumbled slightly under her breath before answering, "None yet, but maybe this will help."

Neville leaned over to see the parchment in Hermione's hands and confirmed his suspicions. "How's the map working so far?"

With a heavy sigh, Hermione replied, "It's being difficult. Sometimes it's accurate and people are where the map says they are, and sometimes it's completely wrong and I still can't figure out why!"

Neville looked confused for a moment before shrugging. He likely couldn't help with fixing the map, but at least he wasn't bored any more. Finally he asked, "What are you going to do when you find Harry?"

Hermione scowled dangerously before replying, "I'm going to hit him over the head until it gets through his thick skull that he shouldn't be running away from his friends like this!"

With that thought, Neville decided it was best to just follow along and stop asking questions, lest he invoke the rage of Hurricane Hermione. He nearly snorted remembering why Harry and Ron had started calling her that.

But in her defense, Ron really shouldn't have said that N.E.W.T.'s were rather unnecessary, and that she was, in Ron's own words, 'Completely nutters to worry so much about something so trivial'.

The wake of destruction and the howling rage that followed made Molly Weasley's howlers bloody well pleasant in comparison. There were people that had been outside at the greenhouses, on the opposite side of the school, that had clearly heard her ranting at the dense redhead. Most stared in awe at the young witch's lung capacity and sheer volume, even some of the teachers were rather impressed, even if they wouldn't admit to such a thing.

The fact that they had finally found Ron cowering and completely barricaded in an unused classroom down in the dungeons, still shivering in terror three days later was the only reason she hadn't gotten in more trouble for the ruckus she had caused.

Neville was pulled out of his thoughts by Hermione muttering under her breath. She grabbed him by the arm in a vice-like grip and frog-marched him down a narrow corridor, turning another corner as soon as she could. Confused, he looked down at the map and immediately saw why she would want to change directions.

Luna Lovegood was passing by where they had been not moments before.

Neville chuckled and shook his head. Luna was a sweet girl, just a bit 'out there', but for Hermione, talking to Luna usually resulted in a migraine and several colorful phrases muttered under her breath, so she she tended to avoid a confrontation with the strange girl whenever possible.

With another muttered curse, Hermione grabbed Neville again and tugged him down another random corridor. Neville just shrugged and went with it, knowing he could catch up with the strange Ravenclaw later at dinner.

Hermione would periodically glance at the map and on occasion change directions to avoid patrols and other students, especially Luna. The last thing either of them needed was the rumors that would erupt if they got caught wandering around the less used parts of the castle alone.

After a few tense moments and one last glance at the map to make sure they were going in the right direction, Hermione finally pocketed the map and strode down the corridor ahead of her, followed by Neville.

After a moment of utter silence where the two were thinking about the inevitable confrontation between the two psudo-siblings, a voice echoed from right behind them, causing Hermione to freeze in her tracks before her shoulders slumped down and her head dropped in defeat.

"There you are. I have some questions for you."

Daphne Greengrass hadn't been at Hogwarts during the year that Snape was Headmaster. Both she and her sister had to miss that entire year for 'health reasons', along with any other activities they might have had. At first it had angered Daphne that her father was basically keeping her a prisoner at home, but then she started hearing things on the Wireless and reading articles in the Prophet. Combined with the letters she was occasionally getting from her associates in school, it painted a rather grim picture of the magical world and Hogwarts. The news was only getting worse as the year progressed, with the growing list of dead and missing, the dismal reports, until it all finally culminated in what was now being called the Battle of Hogwarts and the death of Voldemort.

And now she was one of only a handful of Slytherins in a school that, by-and-large, seemed to be firmly against Slytherins. With the exception of the first-year snakes, it was open season, and now they were finding out what it was like for the other houses to deal with Snape's obvious favoritism. It had never really gone to that extreme with the teachers, but they couldn't be everywhere, and it was becoming more and more difficult to avoid the groups that were 'Snake-Hunting', as they called it.

She sighed to herself. She hadn't really wanted to come back to Hogwarts, but she had been convinced to sit her seventh year and keep an eye on her little sister in Ravenclaw, not that she needed it. Astoria was fine in Hogwarts. She wasn't in Slytherin and none of her friends were supporters, so she was largely left alone.

Her, on the other hand...

Growing up for Daphne was difficult. She did love her father, but he was horribly strict with her at times, almost unreasonably so. What made it confusing was that Astoria was spared from such pressures, taught more how to be a lady instead of the lessons she had with her father. When she finally asked about it, her father only mentioned that he wanted to leave his legacy to her. Since her mother had died giving birth to Astoria, a young Daphne assumed he meant his name and all that entailed.

Now, she wasn't so sure she was right about that.

She had been wandering the hallways, uncomfortable in her common room and unwanted by the other students in the corridors. Her years sneaking around the school had paid off so far, she had yet to run in to anyone. She had one or two close calls, but a quick duck into an unused classroom and a few moments wait kept her from being seen by anyone. She briefly wondered how Harry was doing it so successfully for so long, but shook the thoughts off quickly.

She continued wandering, lost in her thoughts when she heard someone coming from ahead of her. A quick look around revealed only a small broom cupboard to hide in, so she ducked inside and shut the door softly behind her.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she looked around the small room she found herself in. Personally, she thought it odd that there was another broom cupboard here when there was one just down the hallway around the corner, seeing as they were usually much more spread out, but she wasn't complaining. It was a place to... Avoid running into people. She definitely wouldn't admit to hiding.

She had dismissed the room and turned back to the door, listening to someone's footsteps get closer. As Daphne was idly thinking about what she would say if she were discovered in here alone, the skin on the back of her neck prickled and a chill raced up her spine, causing her to straighten. She honestly felt like she was being watched, and in such a small room, she didn't like that at all.

Worried that she had just walked into a trap, she frantically looked around the room for anything that might be out of place or wrong or even just a little bit odd. Several long seconds of searching turned up nothing out of the ordinary, and she almost sighed in relief when she looked around the broom cupboard again. Everything was put exactly where it should be.

Everything.

And panic struck again. In her experience, nothing was this put together without it trying to hide something, and she was not really wanting to find out what.

"There you are," A voice behind her said, causing her to freeze. "I have some questions for you."

Minion #333, henceforth known as Trip, was not having a good day. After a rather unsuccessful mission for one Lucius Malfoy, and the subsequent torture for failing, he collected his meager earnings from the floor, the small bag of coins having split open upon impact with his face and scattering the coins around half the room. Not wanting to ire the elder Malfoy again so shortly after the last time, he ended up leaving half his pay behind after seeing Malfoy's hand twitch toward his wand.

Trip immediately went to a dive in Knockturn Alley known for its cheap and mostly edible food and spent a meager few coins on some rather hard and crusty bread and a small bowl of a watery soup-like substance that almost tasted like chicken. At least, what little he had did.

The table he was sitting at was in the same condition as the rest of the ones in the place, which wasn't that good. It honestly looked like the whole building was held together with spit and duct tape and magic and that's about it, and the furniture didn't look much better. He didn't think much of the creaking and groaning coming from his chair or the table he was sitting at, he was simply too hungry. He ate two whole bites of the bread and a spoonful of the watery soup when two of the table legs snapped off, sending his food sliding off to the side and all over the floor.

If that hadn't been enough, when the table leg nearest him snapped off, it did so in the direction of his face.

Being bashed in the head by a large chunk of wood was enough to shift Trip's weight to the point where the legs on the right side of the chair snapped off, sending him crashing to the floor, breaking the chair further as he fell. After a moment of staring blankly at the ceiling, he managed to stagger his way back to his feet and blink the stars out of his eyes. As soon as his vision cleared, he looked up into the irate gaze of the owner of the establishment.

The very big owner.

After paying for the damages out of what little coin he had left, he quickly ran away from the place. A quick transfiguration later, Trip headed through the Leaky Cauldron and into muggle London, thinking that maybe it would be best to just head home and crawl in bed. Today was obviously not a good day, but maybe tomorrow would be better. A loud noise startled him and he spun around, only to be blinded before immense pain racked his entire body.

He may have failed to see the bus barreling down upon him when he stepped off the curb, but he definitely heard the horn.