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Day 4:

11:16

Lily was awoken by a loud, high-pitched scream.

"Hey, Gunther, fand ich etwas. Oh mein Gott, es ist ein kleines Mädchen die Leiche!"

Another voice, this one more gruff and masculine in tone, replied to the first. "Du Lügner! Lassen Sie mich sehen." Lily tried to sit up or at least open her eyes, but to her horror found that she could not move a muscle.

"Was haben wir damit zu tun, Gunther?"

"Ich glaube, sie bewegt!" Oh, Merlin. Somebody help me! I'm trapped in the snow and I can't move! Help! Help! Lily cried out silently, hoping that the people could somehow magically read her thoughts.

"Seien Sie nicht lächerlich. Sie ist so kalt wie Eis." Lily felt something press against her face. It was a hand! Gathering all of the energy she could muster, Lily forced a small groan and opened her eyes a crack. Two people were kneeling over her. They appeared relatively young, perhaps in their mid-twenties. They were muggles, no doubt. One was a boy wearing a hat that covered most of his hair. The other was a girl with long blond hair pulled back in a neat plait. Both wore ski gear and looked like tourists.

"Sie ist wach! Sind Sie okay, kleines Mädchen?"

"Natürlich ist sie nicht okay! Schauen Sie sich ihre Hand. Sie braucht ärztliche Hilfe. Wir müssen sie sofort zu einem Arzt weg!"

"I'm s-sorry," Lily said. Her voice was hoarse and her words barely intelligible, even to her. "Sorry, I don't speak . . . whatever." Swiss wasn't a language, was it? Maybe German. The two appeared not to have heard her, and continued arguing in their foreign tongue. "Hey!" Lily protested loudly as the man scooped her up into his arms. The girl took off her outer jacket and wrapped it around Lily's freezing body.

"Ve are taking you to a doctor," she said, speaking English with an accent that Lily could not quite place. Or maybe she could. At this point Lily's thoughts were too jumbled to really understand what was going on.

Then it hit her.

Oh no.

"My brother!" Lily cried. "You have to take me back! I told Albus that I would get him help! No! No, put me down! We need to go back and find them! They need help!"

The boy looked at the girl helplessly, who just shrugged. "Sorry," she said. "I do not speak very good English."

"My brother and friends are trapped. We need to go back and save them!" Lily repeated, as if saying it a second time would make them understand. But she knew it was no use. As they continued to walk, Lily kicked and screamed in Gunther's arms, but the man held her tightly and she could not escape. Soon Lily grew exhausted from her own antics and fell asleep in the man's arms, only to awake on a stretcher in a white room, covered almost completely in blankets. Hearing a pair of footsteps, she quickly shut her eyes.

"I'm telling you, it's astounding. Had the young couple not found her, she would have been dead in hours."

"Well, the press is outside and they're restless. Do we know her name yet?"

"No. The couple found her in just her underwear with severe frostbite and hypothermia. She was unconscious when they brought her here and she had no means of identification on her. They told me to treat her, since I am the only English-born doctor here, they figured it would make her more comfortable when she got up."

"When will she wake up?"

"It's hard to say. To be quite frank, I'm surprised that she was conscious when they found her. Most would be in a coma at this point. And look at this," Lily opened her eyes the smallest possible amount and caught a glimpse of a man standing over her, examining her hand. "A good amount of the tissue has healed itself. I have never seen anything like it. Normally at this stage the flesh would have lost all blood flow and connection to the rest of the body, rendering it dead. But in her case, it appears that somehow the flesh regenerated itself. It's honestly nothing short of a miracle."

"Sir, sir! We got a call back from the resort next door. Just before you were stationed a group of four youths went missing. The girl seems to fit the description. Red hair, freckles . . ."

"What were their names?"

"Lily. Rose. Albus, and some other weird named. Scorpion or something."

"It's Scorpius," Lily mumbled, opening her eyes all the way. The three adult stared at her. "What's going on?" she demanded. "Where am I?"

"Are you Rose?"
"No. No, I'm Lily." Lily sat up and immediately felt dizzy. "I want to go home. Oh god, have they found the others?"

The man looked sad. "Not yet, I'm afraid. If you can give us any information on them, any at all, then-"

"They're in a snow cave. Look for something with what looks like a bloodstain over it. better yet, just let me help find it. I'll show you where they are."

The man shook his head sadly. "Lily, you should stay here where we can treat you. At the moment you are in no condition to travel, I'm sorry."

"No!" Lily began sobbing. "No, I need to find them! I-I promised Albus that I would."

"Excuse me, Doctor Hanbury," a head peaked through the door. The woman spoke relatively good English, but with a noticeable accent. "Oh, thank the lord the girl is awake!" she turned back to Hanbury. "I tried to contact the girl's parents. Neither have cell phones, so I tried their home number. Nobody was there, so I left a message. Is there anyone else I can call?"

"Yes!" Lily shouted suddenly. "Aunt Ron and Uncle Hermione . . . I mean . . . Uncle Ron and Aunt . . . whatever. I know their number. It's . . ."

Much like a young woman after a particularly bad break-up, James had planted himself on the sofa of his Aunt's muggle room and after raiding the cabinets for snack food, stared at the television set for nearly six hours watching reruns of The Simpsons. Hugo was beginning his ninth book of the week.

The sound was small. Had they not been in the muggle room where it was located, there is good chance that it would have gone unnoticed. But as fate would have it, both boys heard it. It was the telephone.

James picked it up. "Hello?" he asked hesitantly. His cousin watched him curiously. "Yes it is. No, I'm his nephew. Who is this? Really? Oh my god! Oh my god! Yes, yes of course! Thank you!" He hung up and immediately attacked his cousin in a bear hug. "It's Lily! They found her!"

"What about the others?"

James stopped. The woman on the phone hadn't mentioned the others. "I don't know. But . . . but we have to tell the others!"

"How?" he proposed. "We don't know where they are. It's not like they own cellular phones or anything. We have no means of contacting them. I suppose we could wait until they return, but who knows how long that could be?"
Leave it to Hugo to turn what would have otherwise been the world's happiest occasion into a logic-based nightmare. Sometimes James really hated that kid.

"Goddamn you, Hugo Weasley."

"I love you, too, James Potter."

"Grrr."

"Hey, Rose?"

"Yeah?"
"I was wondering . . . never mind, it's stupid."

His cousin shrugged nonchalantly. "Okay."

Albus stared at his purple hands. "Rose, do you believe in an afterlife?"

Her answer was less than helpful. "I dunno. Maybe. Maybe not. Come to think of it, probably not. We'll find out soon, I guess, though."

Albus cringed. "Rose, do you think that you could fit through that hole? I can't walk and we can't send Scorpius, but maybe . . ."

"Al, what in Merlin's name makes you think that I would have a better chance than Lily did? Just forget it." She turned to Scorpius. "Is he still . . . ?"

Albus nodded, barely holding back tears. "Even if we do get help do you think he'll pull through?"

Rose opened her mouth as if to say no, but then paused and thought for a moment. "I wouldn't put it past him," she said slowly, a small smile appearing on her face. "That boy has surprised us plenty of times before."

"I called back an hour later like you said. The boy doesn't know how to reach her parents or his own for that matter, what do we do?"

Lily lifted her head sleepily. "Who's on the phone? Can I talk to him?"

"Just a minute, hold on. Here she is," the telephone was held up next to Lily.

"Hugo? James?"

"Oh, come on! I was your second guess!" James laughed nervously on the other end, then became instantly serious. "Are you okay, Lily? Where are the others? How did you get out?"

"In the ice cave. They're still there. I t-told Albus I would go and get help . . ." she began to sob.

"No! No, don't cry, Lily. It's okay. Everything's okay. Hey, don't worry, we'll find them." There was a muffled voice in the background. "SHUT UP, HUGO! NOBODY ASKED YOU'RE OPINION. Anyway, we're going to find them. And as soon as Mum and Dad get back, they'll come right over. There's nothing to worry about, Lily. OKAY, YOU KNOW WHAT, MISTER? I WANT YOU TO STAND IN THE CORNER OVER THERE. YES, I MOST CERTAINLY DO HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO TELL YOU THAT. WHO'S THE BABYSITTER HERE, AGAIN? ALRIGHT, NOW YOU'RE JUST BEING SMART. THAT'S RIGHT TURN AROUND. ALL THE WAY, HUGO. I WANT YOU TO STAY THERE FOR FIVE MINUTES." Lily smiled and giggled in spite of herself.

James came on a few seconds later. "Sorry about that. But, seriously, it's going to be fine. Just you watch."

"B-but I was supposed to get help. He trusted me! And now they're not letting me go with the search party to look for them. I feel terrible."

Don't feel guilty about what happened. You did the right thing. It's not your fault in any way. And don't think I'm just saying that, 'kay? You were really brave for going out there and Mum and Dad will say the same thing. I'll find a way to contact them."

Lily sniffled. "Thank, James."

"No problem. . . OH YEAH? WELL SO IS YOUR FACE! IT DOESN'T NEED TO MAKE SENSE! AND DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO STAND IN THE CORNER? NO, YOU CANNOT BRING JANE AUSTEN OR ANY OF YOUR OTHER IMAGINARY GIRLFRIENDS WITH YOU. DON'T MAKE ME GO OVER THERE . . . gotta go, Lily. I have some business to handle." The line wet dead.

"Honestly," the woman muttered to the doctor, apparently not realizing that the conversation had ended. She spoke to Hanbury in French, but Lily had learned enough of the language from her cousins to understand. "What kind of parent doesn't have a cell phone. They should at least buy one when their child is missing. If I was that girl's parent, I'd be hovering over that phone for weeks!"

"It's not their fault," Lily said, catching the woman by surprise. "I know they're looking for me." She sat up in bed. "I'm feeling much better, Dr. Hanbury. Can I help look for my brother and cousin now?"

When the doctor shook his head, Lily pounded her fist on the side of the bed and screamed. "Why won't you let me look for them? Only I know where to look! You need to let me at least try."

Day 4:

18: 43

"Rose? Rosie, he's awake!"

"He is?" Weasley scrambled over to her friend. Scorpius was sitting up with Albus's support. Rose's eyes filled with tears. "Oh my god, he's awake! He's awake, Al!" she hugged Malfoy tightly to her chest, still sobbing happily.

"How are you feeling, mate?"

There was no response. Scorpius just stared straight ahead. Albus waved his hand in front of his face and clapped. The boy did not so much as blink.

Al propped him up against the wall. "I saw him open his eyes by himself, I swear! Scorpius, is this some kind of joke? If it is, I am going to kill you!"

Scorpius said nothing.

"ARGGHH!" Rose screamed at a decibel that Albus had not even thought humanly possible. Without warning, he launched herself at Malfoy and began punching him repeatedly.

"Rose, no!"

Scorpius, now seeming to be slowly waking up, responded sluggishly to her assault in a series of hopeless attempts to defend himself while Albus did his best to pull apart his cousin from the poor boy.

"Wait, Rose! I think I hear something!"

Sure enough, there were mumbling voices above, followed by barking and the sound of cracking ice. A pair of men peered at the kids. "Who screamed?" one asked, narrowing his eyes.

Albus pointed to Rose.

"Well, it's a good thing you did. We were about to search for you in the other direction."

This is probably the second or third to last chapter. This has been a really fun story to write and hopefully it was fun for you to read. Please review to say what you thought of it.