Chapter 7
2022
"What about the restricted section of the library?"
"Lils, they aren't at Hogwarts, ok?" James was still glancing at the Marauders' Map as the three of them turned the corner of the seventh floor and nearly tripped over his own feet doing so. "Plus, you know Molls' the only one who actually goes in there at all."
Molly sighed dramatically and forced herself to match his long strides, catching up to the two siblings. "Look, James, not to be pessimistic or anything, but what exactly do you hope to accomplish by roaming every single corridor in school?"
When he pretended not to have heard her, Lily grabbed his sleeve and tugged on it until he looked up from the map.
"James, Lou and Roxy said all of Al, Rose and Scorpius' stuff was still in their dorms. They couldn't possibly have left Hogwarts without anything but the clothes on their backs!"
Before he could reply, Lucy appeared at the end of the corridor and when she saw them, began running towards them at full speed.
"James, Molls, Lils," she gasped as she reached them, her face almost as red as her hair, putting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. "I've-been-looking-for-you-for-ages-where-the-hell-has-everybody-been?" she took a deep breath and blurted out: "Something's happened to Al and Rose and Scorpius!"
The three cousins sighed in resignation.
"Thank you so much for that valuable input," James muttered, going back to the map while Molly started racking her brains again and Lily told her cousin. "We know Luce."
"You do?" the fourteen year old looked surprised and started rambling. "But how did you- Were you there as well? Wait, wait… So did you catch him, then?"
"Catch who?"
"Goyle!"
That got their full attention. James' head whipped up and he stared at his young cousin in astonishment.
"Gregory Goyle? What does he have to do with any of this?" Lily asked Lucy, crossing her arms on her chest.
"But I thought you said you knew-"
"Wait-wait-wait," James muttered, folding the map and sliding it into his back pocket. "Lucy, start again from the very beginning." Besides him, Molly was readjusting her glasses and he could've sworn he could actually hear her brain whirring.
"Last night. After you and Albus had a fight – oh and by the way you were such a git James – I went after him and Rose and Scorpius. They didn't see me. They were whispering about what an idiot you are and going to go talk to Goyle; then Rose and Albus put the cloak on and they left."
Molly had her hands lifted to hide her eyes, just like those moments when she was thinking really hard or trying to remember something; Lily had snatched the Marauders' Map from James' back pocket and was unfolding it shakily; James simply stared at Lucy like he couldn't believe it.
"Goyle?" he repeated stupidly.
"You know, the old Death Eater, one of Scorp's father's friends, who was set free a couple of weeks ago?" Lucy clarified uselessly, as James was quite aware of who the git was and could feel his blood beginning to boil. "Then I heard Al and Rose and Scorp were missing an hour ago and I thought-"
"Well, he isn't at Hogwarts either," Lily muttered, disappointed, folding the map once more. "He must have kidnapped them of something."
"Why the hell would Al and Rose go see Goyle? Did Scorpius' dad arrange some effing meeting or something? What did the bloody Death Eater do to them? And more importantly," James shifted his glare towards Lucy who gulped. "Why on earth did you not come and tell me this sooner?"
"I thought I'd heard wrong! I mean, what would Goyle be doing at Hogwarts anyway? And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not Al and Rose's nanny. You should have been the one going after them in the first place, so please refrain from taking your rightful frustration with yourself on me, alright?"
"Oh, so you mean it didn't even worry you to hear-"
"Shut it!" Molly shrieked. "We don't have time for this!" She turned her glare towards her sister, who took an automatic step back. "Lucy, go get Fred, Dom and the rest of them. Bring them here. Go now!" she added when her sister hesitated slightly, causing her to jump and take off running towards the common room without a backward glance. Molly then turned towards the skinny black-haired girl on her right. "Lils, I want you to go to McGonagall's office, get Professor Longbottom and the parents, tell them to come here right away." And with one last glare towards her brother, who was more than glad to return the favour, Lily took off as well.
When the coast was clear, Molls looked at James, slightly worried all of the sudden. Warily, she held out her hand towards him and said slowly:
"Could you give me your wand?"
He raised his eyebrows at her and clutched the thin piece of wood more tightly in his fist.
"Why would I do that?"
"So you don't do anything rash and stupid, which, you've got to admit, is something you're pretty prone to doing on a daily basis. Please give it here, James."
"What's going on, Molls? Why'd you send Lils and Lucy away?"
She knew him well enough that she sighed and dropped her hand to her side, realizing insisting was pretty pointless when dealing with perhaps the most stubborn of the Weasley-Potter offspring.
"I believed backup would be necessary, although now you'll probably just decide to rush in and ruin my well thought-out plan." She pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose again. "I think Goyle is the key behind Al, Rose and Scorpius' disappearance. And I think I know where he might be."
oOo
"Tell me!"
She cast him a worried look. "Hold your horses there for two seconds, ok? Don't go barging into the room and getting hurt like the idiot you are. I only said I thought I knew where he might be."
"Molls!"
"Ok, remember when Uncle Harry gave us – I mean you – the Marauders' Map on my first year? How he said that it showed all the people who were in the castle, except for those who were in a specific room?"
oOo
"James, can't we wait for your dad or Neville before we-"
"Are you sure about this?" James cut her off as he stared at the wooden door that had just appeared in the seventh floor corridor. "I get the logic of him hiding in the Room of Requirement. But why this room in particular?"
She sighed, and cast a glance towards the corner of the hall, silently praying for one of the two parties she'd sent for to appear there. When none did, she forced the answer out of her throat.
"Because I came in there this morning, and it looked different, kind of like the objects had been jumbled up, although I'm positive I'm the only person who comes in here at all. Plus, if you recall the war stories correctly, when Goyle, Malfoy and Crabbe used the Room, it was this particular place that they went to, always."
He nodded. "You're right." He was clutching his wand so hard that his knuckles were white. "Stay behind me. I'm going to kill the bastard."
"Don't!" she answered vehemently; "you'd better not, James! We need him to tell us what he did with the three dimwits who were stupid enough to go see him in the first place, remember?" when he grabbed the wooden doorknob, she felt panic seize her. "Wait! Can't we wait for reinforcements, please?"
"You can leave if you're afraid," he replied, shifting his brown eyes to her. She glared at him.
"And leave you here to get yourself killed? Be forever blamed for letting you be your usual moronic self? Be striped of the Weasley inheritance for letting one of my own get himself hurt? No, thanks very much." She steeled herself as he grinned and opened the heavy door.
We need the place where everything is hidden, thought Molly, shivering in anticipation.
As if repeating the sentence they'd said three times already in her head could change the nature of what was waiting for them behind the wooden panel.
oOo
Well, this had gone well. James had barged him and hurled a handful of spells at Goyle, who had been, as predicted, simply waiting behind one of the shelves in the room where many Hogwarts' generations of students had hidden various objects. James had lost his control, stunning the guy before having to reanimate him (so, basically everything Molly had been trying to prevent) to question him. Her cousin now had the former Death Eater backed up against the wall, disarmed and furious.
"What'd you do to my brother and my cousin, scumbag?" James asked, his wand almost touching his prisoner's chest. "Tell me where they are right now!"
When they'd first come in and begun the search, she'd hesitated before closing the wooden door behind them, closing off the passage to the Room of Requirement. The cousins, parents and teachers were probably waiting, clueless and more than a little worried, in the seventh floor corridor right now.
"Should I get the others?" Molls asked hesitantly, although leaving her cousin in the state of anger he was in at that moment seemed like it would be highly hazardous to their prisoner's well-being. She could have sworn she saw Goyle shoot her a pleading look of Please-keep-that-lunatic-away-from-me. So she stayed where she was, praying Uncle Harry (or Aunt Hermione, at the least) would be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together, just like she had, although the biggest piece of the mystery still remained unsolved.
"Where are Al, Rose and Scorpius? Answer me!" James' temper seemed to be slipping away rapidly, and since Goyle looked dead set on keeping his mouth shut, she found herself telling her cousin something she probably should have kept to herself.
"There's some Veritaserum in here if you want," she whispered, only to be met with a questioning glance from her cousin and a more than deadly one on Goyle's part.
"How'd you know?" James replied.
"I've been in here a couple of times, doing research and trying out some things." When his brow stayed furrowed, she sighed deeply and tugged on one of her curls. "I've been experimenting with time-turners. It kind of got me intrigued after Aunt Hermione told me about how she used time-travel during her third year here. She gave me her old time-turner, see?" Taking out the thin chain from her robe, she handed it to her cousin, who stared at it blankly. "Only… See, I'm not exactly supposed to be doing what I've been doing, so you can't tell anyone. But since I've been spending some time here, I can affirm that there is some Veritaserum around."
"Oh," James turned back towards Goyle, placing the time-turner on a nearby shelf. "Go get some, Molls."
"Actually, I would recommend we ask for parental supervision before we-"
"Go."
oOo
They didn't ask the right questions at first, that much was pretty clear. Even after four spoonful of the Truth Serum, which left Goyle looking more than a little green, the bloke still refused to tell them what he'd done with Albus and Rose. It was only after ten minutes of intense questioning that Scorpius' name popped up (it was true that the Malfoy offspring wasn't exactly James' priority) and that Goyle told them everything.
And that Molls' "superior brain cells", as Fred had said, had put it all together.
"Think about it," she whispered as James, looking absolutely livid (understandingly), paced in front of the chair they'd pushed Goyle down on for his questioning. "Lucy said they were worried about going to see him and that Rose and Al put the cloak on. Goyle says Scorpius was the only one present when he sent him to 1998, but the two others must have been there with him. He must have sent them all together back in time. Plus, didn't Lily tell you the three of them seemed jumpy all evening?"
"Wait, wait." James rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. "How is sending someone back 24 years in the past even possible?"
"He broke the time-turner and used a spell I've never heard of. My guess is he managed to double, triple or do whatever to the normal amount of time a time-turner can go back to with it."
"But how on earth did he enter, or choose or whatever, the date he wanted them to arrive on?"
"I don't know, do I? His explanations don't make any sense to me!"
James sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his messy red hair. "How do we get them back?"
Molly shook her head slowly. "I have no idea. He obviously didn't plan for Scorpius to come back at all, just to alter the time stream and change our present by keeping Voldemort alive-"
"Scumbag," James called to Goyle, who merely grunted in response.
"- and I have no idea what's going on in 1998 either. Obviously, we don't have to worry about Scorpius trying to keep Voldemort alive, but those three might just be stuck in the middle of the war right now. This is a very dangerous time to be visiting, made all the more dangerous by the fact that all of our parents are there too, only younger-"
"-and that Al looks like a carbon copy of my dad," James added, desperation underlying his tone.
"… and that Uncle Harry is being looked for by the entire country. Exactly."
"Damn it."
"You can say that again."
"So… What do we do?"
"You are going to stay here and try not to do anything stupid while I go and get the parents outside. Uncle Harry will figure this out, James." Molly hesitated and put a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "You know he always does."
"This is all my fault," James whispered miserably, running a hand over his face. "I can't believe I was so stupid. If anything happens to them…" he shuddered slightly and didn't finish the thought. Molly wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him lightly.
"They'll be alright," she answered automatically. "Don't think like that. Now stay put. I'll be back in a sec." And she was gone in a swirl of red curls and black robes, leaving James standing in front of Goyle, his arms hanging limply at his side.
All his fault. All of it.
And if they couldn't bring them back… How would he ever be able to look Lily in the eye again? And his parents, and Ron and Hermione? He'd never quite hated himself so much before in his entire life.
Goyle groaned, bringing him back to the present. The Death-Eater was still under the potion's influence, his face slack and his eyes glassy, and James stared at him with pure hatred. Of course, this was the scumbag's fault as well. And the ministry's too, and the minister's. After all, none of this would have happened if Goyle hadn't been released from Azkaban in the first place. Showing remorse for his past actions, like hell he had! James' eyes drifted away from the revolting man and found the thin golden chain on the shelf beside Goyle.
And that's when the idea hit James like a ton of bricks.
And the realization that he had to act fast before his parents and cousins came to stop him.
Pulling his wand out from his back pocket, he pointed it straight at Goyle's face, whispering a spell he'd never used before in his life.
"Impero."
oOo
So what do you think will happen next ? =)