Arthur was sure Amelia would be in her office still. She usually worked late and now she was working on important cases. Arthur ran to her office and didn't even stop when Alice asked what he was doing. She followed him into Amelia's office where he found her doing paperwork.
"Arthur, what's wrong?" Amelia asked panicked by the man's unannounced entrance.
"It's Rachel! Someone sent her a portkey through the mail and now she's missing! The man claimed to have known about the original kidnapping! We need to find her! I can't lose her again!"
Alice broke into tears. Amelia got straight to work, "I'll get all available Aurors on it! Go home and tell all your friends and family to search. Alice your shift ends now go help find your goddaughter I will also give word to the Daily Prophet. If she's not found by morning the entire wizarding world will be searching for her. I'm not going to let her get away again." She rushed out of her office and ran off. Alice and Arthur ran around the Ministry telling anyone they saw that Rachel was missing again. Everyone they told, told anyone they saw and soon most of the Ministry was leaving to find the girl that everyone loved.
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Bill did as he father ordered. As soon as he was gone Bill called Albus. "Albus! Are you there?!"
"Yes I'm right here, Bill. What the matter?" He asked as he rushed towards the fireplace.
"Headmaster, you need to get all the professors you can and come over here immediately! Rachel's missing!"
Albus was stunned, "We'll be there in five minutes!"
Bill exited the fireplace and went back to the living room. Molly and Ginny were both crying and the boys weren't doing a very good job holding themselves together either.
It wasn't long until Professors Dumbledore, Flitwick, McGonagall, Sprout, Snape, and Madam Pomphery appeared.
"Bill, what happened?" Albus asked.
"Rachel got a package," Bill said. He then read the letter to them. "After the letter was finished she opened the package. The only thing in it was a necklace but the necklace turned out to be a portkey!"
"We'll find her, Molly," Poppy whispered to the weeping woman.
"I've been told that before," Molly said. "I can't wait another twelve years to see my baby!"
"Dad went to inform Amelia and probably the rest of the Ministry," Charlie told them.
"Alright, Minerva and Bill search Diagon Alley and tell everyone that Rachel's missing. Take Percy and the twins with you it will go quicker. Severus and Charlie go down Knockturn Alley and search for any sign of her," Dumbledore ordered before turning to Flitwick, Sprout, and Pomphery, "You three tell all possible contacts. Once you're done that join the search. Ron run to the Lovegood's house and tell them what happened. Come back here and stay with your mother and sister once you're done." Ron nodded and ran off.
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16 hours. 16 longer hours had passed without any sign of Rachel. No Weasley got a wink of sleep. Rachel had been kidnapped at 6 o'clock. It was now 10 o'clock in the morning. 16 hours. Molly was frantic. None of the others had returned from searching yet. Ginny and Ron wouldn't even make a sound aside from the odd sniffle or sob. Where was she? She wouldn't have left them on purpose.
Molly grabbed the Daily Prophet as soon as it arrived. Across the front page read, Haley Potter/Rachel Weasley Kidnapped.
Molly sighed and thought, 'Well at least everyone is looking for her.'
But that good thought disappeared when she read the next title, Mass Murderer Sirius Black Escapes from Azkaban.
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When Rachel woke up she had a huge pain in the back of her head. 'What happened?' Rachel thought to herself. The last thing she remembered was receiving a necklace in the mail. She slowly opened her eyes expecting to see the star covered ceiling that Charlie made for her. But all she saw was black. There was no light in the room at all. Rachel climbed out of the bed she was laying on but her legs gave out and she fell tenderly to the floor tearing a hole in her jeans in the process. It took her a few moments but she managed to get control of her legs again. She carefully felt her way along the room. As she walked she felt blood trickle down her leg. The room was very empty. Rachel felt her way along the walls until she felt a door hinge. From there she found the doorknob very simply. She was however surprised to find that it was unlocked. She opened the door slowly and a small amount of light flooded in the room. It took a minute for her eyes to adjust when they did Rachel saw a case of concrete stairs. She was in bare feet so it wasn't hard to keep quiet. Rachel peaked over the top of the staircase top find a man looking in her direction. He looked a little younger than her dad; maybe closer to James' age. He had a few bad scars on his face. He was just watching her calmly but when Rachel saw him she fell down a few stairs before running back to the room and barricading the door with a nearby dresser.
She heard the man running down the stairs and try to open the door. Rachel pushed the small bed into the corner of the room, grabbed the pillow and crawled under the bed. She curled up in a ball in the far corner. She placed the pillow in front of her as a sort of barrier. She knew it would be useless but it was slightly comforting.
Rachel heard a voice call from the other side of the door, "Haley! Please come out! We don't want to hurt you!"
'We?' Haley thought. 'There's more than one!'
"Please Haley!" a different man called. "We're sorry for scaring you! We just need to talk to you!"
Haley may have done some stupid things before but she wasn't crazy. She was going to stay in there as long as physically possible. She had a lot of practice from the Dursleys.
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"Any sign of her?" Albus asked Minerva.
She shook her head, "No and everyone's searching. Albus, do you think Sirius did this? He escaped five hours before she went missing. Do you think it's possible that he pulled this off?"
"It is possible, Minerva. But how would he have done it so fast? He doesn't have a wand," Albus told her.
"Maybe he had help. You heard the note. Two people knew about Rachel's kidnapping. If they worked together they could easily kidnap an eleven year old girl."
"True, but who would help Sirius? Even if James and Lily told Sirius who else would they tell?"
"Well, there is…" Minerva started.
"Is who, Minerva?"
"Remus Lupin was always close to Sirius and James. The letter sounded guilty. Remus would never be able to kidnap someone in good conscience. He would feel guilty for the rest of his life."
"Why would he take her now? James and Lily are dead. Sirius was in jail. What would his reason for taking her?"
"Now Rachel knows who she is. Maybe they didn't want her to ruin their friend's names. Maybe they just wanted her back. Maybe they just missed her. The reasons for someone doing something don't need to make sense to anyone but themselves. Motions are incidental."
"I believe you are right Minerva. Remus and Sirius most likely have the girl together." They both apparated straight to the Burrow where they were meeting everyone and they told them their suspicions. Molly burst into tears. If they had her baby there was no telling what she was going through at the moment.
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24 hours. 24 hours had passed and Rachel wasn't home. Where was she? Molly left the kids with Percy and joined the search. She was surprised by them immense support. At least once every five minute she saw a wizards handing flyers to muggles or knocking on doors hoping for some kind of information. But nothing seemed to work.
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Rachel was hungry and thirsty. She knew that if she didn't get rescued soon she would need to leave the room in hopes of getting water. Every bone ached and her head to throbbing. The two men had felt her alone a long time ago. The last thing they said to her was, "Come out whenever you're ready. We just need to talk." Rachel had no interest in talking to these men. She wanted her Mum to hold her. She wanted her Dad to tell her it was going to be okay. She wanted to go home.
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"Molly, Arthur, go home. Take Bill and Charlie with you. You're dead on your feet. Get some sleep. We will let you know if anything happens," Albus told them.
"But Albus…" Molly started.
"You won't be doing her any good by not taking care of yourselves. Go home, Molly. We'll keep searching. Sleep, eat, and then come back."
They didn't have much of a choice.
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Rachel couldn't take it any longer she needed something to drink. She crawled out from under the bed and moved the dresser back so she could open the door. She slowly opened the door. She tiptoed towards the staircase and heard voices.
"I told you this was a bad idea," one voice said. His voice didn't sound mad but sad.
"It would have gone a lot better if she hadn't fallen so hard in the landing," the other voice said.
"That's not my fault! How was I supposed to know that she would knock herself out?"
"You couldn't have," the second man told him.
"Oh Merlin, she's locked herself in there for twenty four hours," the first man said sadly.
Rachel popped her head up and looked at them through the rail. Rachel saw two men. There was the scarred one from earlier and a man with long black hair. He looked very scruffy.
"Wow! Moony!" The scruffy man yelled pointing at Rachel.
Moony turned and saw her half hidden, "Padfoot, get her something to drink!"
Padfoot ran off and returned a few minutes later with a brand new water bottle. Moony took it from him and said, "Here Haley. Drink this." He set the bottle on the floor and rolled it in the direction of the staircase. Once it was close enough to reach Rachel grabbed the bottle opened it and chugged it down. Once it was empty she rolled it back. "You can come up here, Haley. We just want to talk. Then you can leave."
Would they really let her leave? She was only a weak girl. If she let them these men would be in complete control of her. Her wand was back at the Burrow. She couldn't defend herself, not against both of them. "Please Haley," Padfoot begged.
With shaky legs she stood up Moony and Padfoot sat in two seats at the table and waved for her to join them. Rachel slowly walked to the table and sat on the edge of the chair farthest from them.
"Haley, do you remember how you got here?" Moony asked.
Rachel shook her head.
"The necklace we sent you was a portkey. You landed here but you fell and hit your head. Hard. We took you downstairs so you would be more comfortable," Padfoot explained.
"We didn't bring you here to harm you Haley. That was a complete accident," Moony said.
"But we do need to tell you some things before letting you go back home," Padfoot said.
Rachel nodded her understanding.
Moony said, "Lily was pregnant around the same time as Molly. They were friends and she knew there due dates were days apart. Molly had you and Ron a few days before Lily went into labor. There was a complication with the birth that left Lily unable to have any more children. The baby had a problem breathing though and died three days later. Lily kept going on about how it wasn't fair. Molly had seven healthy children and she couldn't even have one. It was James' idea. James took the two of us to the house. I set a sleeping charm over the house and James went in and got you. Padfoot was on look out. Once James was out of the house he walked to the Apparation point. Once he was gone we made noise to wake up Molly and Arthur and left. You have to understand that his actions were those of a desperate man."
"Well, it doesn't make them right," Rachel said quietly.
"We know. Not a moment has gone by that we didn't wish we had stopped him Haley," Padfoot said.
Rachel shook her head, "My name's Rachel not Haley."
Padfoot sighed and said, "Alright, Rachel."
"And if you were so full of guilt, why didn't you tell anyone after they died? You could have done it anonymously and saved me ten years of hell."
Neither man had an answer.
"I'd like to leave."
Moony gave a sad nod and pulled out a ring and envelope, "This will take you to London. You should land just a few blocks away from the Leaky Cauldron. Tom will let you floo home or call the Aurors. Whatever you want. I want to take this with you too. There's something everyone needs to know."
Rachel nodded.
"We are sorry, Rachel. For everything," Padfoot told her.
Rachel cautiously grabbed the envelope and then small ring and felt a pull behind naval. This time she decided to fall forwards so she wouldn't slam her head again.