Chapter 6

2022

"Potter?"

James raised his head from where it was lying on the wooden desk and tried to look like he'd been awake for the last hour. McGonagall wasn't fooled. She frowned and cast a look towards the Spells teacher.

"Amona, could I borrow Potter for a few minutes?"

"Certainly, Minerva!" the old witch waved them off as James got to his feet unsteadily, grabbing his book bag and stuffing his parchment and quill into it, all the while casting Fred a what-the-hell-does-she-want-I-haven't-pulled-a-prank-in-days look. McGonagall spoke again from where she was standing by the door.

"Mr Weasley and Misses Weasley. I think you had better come as well."

oOo

"What do you mean, gone?" Fred shouted at the Headmistress in a way that would have made Rose raise her eyebrows and tap the badge on her chest threateningly, had she been there. Rox's mouth had fallen open and her eyes were wide; Dom grabbed Fred's wrist to make him shut up while James tried to make sense of the situation.

"I don't mean to be rude," Fred added hastily, shaking Dom's hand off. "But how can they be gone? It's impossible for students to leave the grounds without authorisation; all the passageways were closed after the war. And we double-checked them all on our first year here anyway!"

"Fred." James warned.

"I mean, honestly, it's impossible to leave this place!"

"Fred." Roxy muttered, rubbing her forehead tiredly.

"They couldn't have escaped; we already tried everything!"

"Fred!" Dom yelled, making all three of them jump. "Could you please focus on something other than getting us detention for the rest of the year? Rose, Al and Scorpius are missing! So just shut up for a minute!"

"And you've checked absolutely everywhere?" James raised his gaze towards Professor Longbottom, head of the Gryffindor house, who was standing besides the Headmistress' desk. He nodded silently.

"What about the Forbidden Forest?" Roxy asked, her voice trembling. "What about Hogsmeade?"

"They aren't there and nobody has seen them leave the grounds."

"When did you realize they were gone?" James asked, his throat dry.

"First bell today."

James closed his eyes and leaned his elbows on his knees, breathing in deeply. Albus, Rose and Scorpius were missing. The last time he'd seen them was the previous night, when he'd yelled at his little brother and embarrassed him in front of the entire house. And now they had simply disappeared.

Merlin, his dad was going to murder him.

"When was the last time any of you saw them?" McGonagall asked, her gaze stern like she already knew the answer to her question. As James said nothing, his head resting in his hands, Dom spoke up.

"Last night. Al and James had a row. We haven't seen any of them since."

How nice of Dom to totally rat him out. James sighed.

"I see."

"Are you going to call my dad?" he finally asked, raising his head slowly. "Do my parents already know about this?"

"Yes, we will inform them of the matter. They should be here shortly." Neville's eyes were sad and worried as he looked at the four of them, sitting in front of the Headmistress' desk like a couple of naughty children. James realized that it was one of the first times he'd been called into this office without having actually done anything.

But you have done something, a voice, surprisingly close to Rose's, seemed to whisper in his ear. You drove them away.

Merlin, this was all his fault.

oOo

The four of them found themselves sitting outside the Headmistress' office, waiting for her to get a hold of their parents and for them to arrive, when James finally had enough. He got up; Dom immediately switched into mother-hen (or, as Fred and Louis liked to call it, overly-controlling-and-annoying) mode;

"Where are you going?" she asked, getting up and looking ready to follow him. "James?"

He didn't answer, simply walked away. In a second, though, they were on him, blocking his way and talking all at once.

That was the good (or bad, depends how you want to look at it) thing about having a gazillion siblings: you were never, ever totally alone... even if you wanted to be.

Especially if you wanted to be.

"Guys," he held up his hands tiredly, "can I just have some time to think?"

"Do you honestly think we're going to let you jump out of a window?" Roxy asked indignantly.

"… because we know how messed up you feel about all of this," Fred went on, frowning.

"…you think it's your fault since you yelled at Al…"

"… so you feel responsible for the fact that he's now missing…"

"…but give it up 'cause we're not letting you commit suicide…"

"…or dumbly attempt to find redemption for your past actions…"

"… so whether you like it or not…"

"… we're not letting you out of our sight."

"End of story."

James shot Dom an annoyed look, like he always did when the twins started finishing each other's sentences; for once though, she didn't seem to be sharing his pain at their twinness.

"Fred and Rox are right," she said firmly as he raised his eyebrows at her, "although I hate to admit it. And personally, I think we should stop moping and do something productive ourselves."

"That's kind of the thing, though," James muttered, realizing quickly that struggling against his cousins would be pointless and extremely tiring. "What can we possibly do to solve this?"

"Eating chocolate always helps in emergency situations." Roxy reached inside her back pocket and handed James a chocolate frog (one of the many advantages of being George's children was that the twins always had bags stuffed with candy when they came to school). James felt sick just looking at the sweet.

"Apart from that, though, I hope you meant that to be a rhetorical question 'cause I haven't got a clue," Roxy added, running a hand through her short spiky hair, as her cousin put the frog away in his jacket's pocket.

"I'm all for the idea of stuffing our faces with chocolate, but mostly I say family crisis call for emergency family reunions," Fred said wisely. "So how about we go fetch those dimwitted siblings of ours before we decide – or eat – anything?"

"That's not a bad idea, really," James answered slowly, "I'd like to be the one to tell Lils Al's missing so she doesn't completely freak out. Plus, one of them might have seen Scorp, Al or Rose today."

"Do you have the Marauders Map? You know, so we don't search the entire castle." Rox asked him, but he shook his head.

"No, but I know for a fact that Louis has potions on Saturday mornings. The others must be in the common room, or still in bed."

"Molly had a date with that Hufflepuff guy today; she must be somewhere in the park with him-"

"And hopefully not in his or her dorm-"

"Thank you so much for that mental picture, Fred-"

"Hugo said he'd be at the library to study for his DADA test on Monday…"

"Maybe Lucy's with him-"

"Lily might be off flying, you know how she likes to get up early on weekends to have the field to herself-"

"Alright, so separate, and get them back to the common room as soon as possible," James concluded, as all four of them took of running towards the stairs. "And remember to kill that Hufflepuff guy if you do find him with Molls in one of the dorms."

oOo

As expected, Lily was the only one on the Quidditch field that morning. Only she wasn't flying; she was sitting inside one of the three left rings, her legs dangling off the edge, her broom floating in mid air next to her. Roxy nearly stopped breathing when she found her there. She ran towards the foot of the gigantic rings and yelled;

"HEY LILS! Come here!" And when the young girl barely spared her a glance before resuming whatever it was she was doing up there, Rox curled his hands into tight fists.

"LILY LUNA POTTER! You get down here right now or I'm calling your big brother, and you can be sure he'll be pissed that you did this again!"

Lily sighed dramatically and hopped on her broom, taking her time coming down and finally hitting the grass with a final thud.

"What'd you want Rox? I'm kind of busy." Roxy shook her head at her stubbornness.

"I don't get it. Why'd you keep doing that? You know it drives James and Al crazy. Hell, it drives us all crazy! Why can't you just fly your broom normally? You do know how dangerous this is, right? Are you trying to make a statement or something?"

"I'm not in the mood for a lecture." Lily muttered, staring at her feet.

"Too damn bad. I don't want you doing this anymore, you hear? Or next time I'll personally tell Aunt Ginny about your stupid stunts!"

"Fine! Could we please drop the subject now? Why are you here anyway?"

"Emergency family reunion in the common room."

"Oh. How come? Did Fred and James finally get expelled?"

"What? No. Merlin, why would you think that? It's something else. Meet you there in five minutes?"

"Sure, I'll be there."

oOo

Thank Merlin, she was in the park after all.

"Hey, Molls?"

Molly raised her head but did not smile when Fred propped himself down on the grass next to her. She did close her book, though.

"Hi."

"So where's that Hufflepuff guy you had a date with?" Fred glanced around him suspiciously, but she just shrugged.

"Michael? Turns out he has a girlfriend."

"Oh." Trying not to show how relieved he suddenly felt, Fred eased an arm over the fifth year's shoulders. "Well, he doesn't deserve you anyway. And his front teeth are crooked."

"Sure, sure." She replied easily, smiling slightly. "So, what do you want?"

"We're in need of your superior brain cells in the common room. Emergency family reunion."

"Oh." She eyed him warily. "What'd you do?"

oOo

"Gone." Louis repeated mechanically. "What do you mean, gone?"

The four oldest cousins had finally been able to get everyone together (except for Lucy, as nobody seemed to be able to locate the red-haired tiny girl) at the same time in the common room; Fred had shooed away the other Gryffindors and the Weasley-Potter gang now had the entire room to themselves (quite an impressive deed really, considering it was 11 AM on a Saturday and all).

"McGonagall says they're missing." Dom explained, sitting down next to Lily, who was staring at her brother like she couldn't believe what he'd just said on the big armchair next to the fireplace. "Nobody's seen them anywhere either."

"But they couldn't simply have vanished." Louis whispered, dumbfounded. "Where would they go anyway?"

"Are you sure they aren't in the Forbidden Forest?" Molly asked, pushing the glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Or in Hogsmeade?"

"What about the Shrieking Shack?" Louis added.

"Or the kitchens?" Lily whispered hopefully. "They could have-"

"They aren't in Hogwarts," Hugo had taken the Marauder's Map (it was always travelling from hand to hand in the family during the school year) out of his jeans' pocket and was now scanning it thoroughly, frowning. "I can't find them anywhere on here."

Lily sucked in a sudden breath and looked at her brother. "Do mum and dad know about this? What about Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione?"

"Neville said he would call them. They might be in McGonagall's office right now." James answered uneasily.

"Oh man. The mums are gonna flip," Louis whispered, casting an anxious glance at Hugo, Lily and James.

"I can't believe this. I can't believe it." Lily glared at James, her voice rising steadily. "I hope you realize that this is all your fault. It's no wonder Al took off after the horrible things you yelled at him yesterday."

"You were a bit harsh, James." Louis agreed uneasily.

"Al's a big boy; he wouldn't have simply taken off after a little fight with James-" Roxy argued.

"… especially considering the fact that those two dimwits are always fighting and all," Fred added thoughtfully.

"Plus, Rose wouldn't have accompanied Al if he was only throwing a tantrum or something. She's not that petty." Molly concluded, crossing her ankles.

"Still, James-"

"I know, Lils, and I'm sorry, alright? I'd take it all back, but that's not going to make them reappear, is it? So how about we concentrate on how to find them rather than trying to establish the reason they left?" James shot back, his frustration making him want to hit something, anything. He ground his teeth at his sister's accusing gaze and turned towards Fred instead. "So, what do we do?"

His cousin grimaced and glanced around him to see if anyone else could come up with a plan. When none of them said anything, he turned back towards James and muttered hesitatingly: "Separate and look for clues?"

James pinched the bridge of his nose. "Merlin, this is such a stupid idea-"

"But it is the only one we've got," Roxy finished for him.

"And I'm not about to just sit here and wait," Lily glared at her brother.

"Let's go," Hugo concluded, getting up.

oOo

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