Disclaimer: Not even a little bit official. Ever.

This is an interesting chapter for me (if a little short), because it is entirely from other people's points of view. Up til now, I'm pretty sure every chapter was written primarily from Max's point of view, so this is, well... different. it was certainly harder to write. How do you guys feel?

Fifteen: All Upstanding

'Where are they?' Iggy frowned. He was sitting in an empty classroom with Nudge. Tess was hovering outside, concerned, but he'd told her he needed to discuss something with his family.

'I don't know,' Nudge mumbled sadly. A few days ago, she would have thought having Max and Fang, aka Miss and Mr Forget-About-Everyone-Because-Hey-Look-New-People- And-We're-Too-Busy-Making-Out (abbreviated as Miss and Mr FAEBHLNPAWTBMO) gone for a while would be a good thing, and give her some breathing space.

Was that even what I wanted? she wondered. As soon as they had been separated, split off into separate houses, she'd known things would fall apart. They couldn't be apart. They'd been together their whole lives and now... well, look at them now. What was there to say? Together they were strong, but alone they were a ruin.

She blinked back tears, frustrated with her inability to do something, anything. She still had Iggy, and she'd sent off an letter to Gazzy and Angel (and Ella, Valencia and Jeb, by association, but it was still hard to think of them as family) informing them of the circumstances. They'd received two in return not three hours ago, one telling them to sit tight and not to do anything stupid because they were coming (from Jeb and Valencia) and one saying "OH MY GOD THIS IS HORRIBLE BUT WE'RE COMING IT'LL BE OK BECAUSE WE ARE BRINGING EXPLOSIVES AND STUFF LOVE FROM ANGEL AND GAZZY" (from Angel and Gazzy, obviously).

'Nudge,' Iggy said gently, 'we can find them.'

'You're right,' Nudge replied. We can and we will.

-o-o-o-o-

'... and I'm very sorry about these circumstances.'

Ella thought that Albus Dumbledore was the single more sincere-sounding person she had ever known (including her mother and Max (sometimes especially Max)), and there was something about his eyes when he looked that made her feel like things would work out.

She, her mother, Jeb, Gazzy and Angel were sitting in the Headmaster's office, having come as soon as they'd sent off a reply to Iggy and Nudge. Two other staff members, Minerva McGonagall and Horace Slughorn, had joined them. As far as Ella understood, Max and Fang weren't the only ones missing. Along with them had gone five other students, two of them Ella knew to be Max's new friends.

'Mr Dumbledore, sir,' Angel chirped up, and immediately all eyes turned to see what she had to say.

Dumbledore offered her a warm smile. 'Yes?'

BANG!

The door was slammed open.

'My children are missing and you sit here offering nothing but condolences to these people? While I'm sure that's all very well meant, if they feel even half as strongly about their relatives as I do about my daughters, all they want right now is some action.'

The speaker was a tall, strikingly beautiful woman, whose perfect features had been marred by tears and bitter rage. Behind her stood what seemed to be a small crowd.

Jeb had stood up as soon as the door had opened, as though to defend them from some sort of attack. He queried, 'And who might you be?'

The rotund man who had been introduced as Slughorn stepped forward. 'Ah, Mrs Black, good to see you again. This is -'

The woman cut him off. 'I am Druella Black. My children are missing and I intend to get them back. If you would like to join me, please do.'

'And us!' A black haired boy with glasses pushed his way forward. 'They are our friends, we can't just let them go.'

'Besides you -' another boy started, but was cut off.

'Enough.' Dumbledore said firmly, and rose to his feet. 'The decision has already been made. We will form a search party and inform the Aurors so they too can keep an eye out. All those underage are to remain here for their own safety.'

And that was that. There was a flurry of movement and upheaval, and Ella found herself being ushered out of the office by her mother whilst Iggy argued passionately to be allowed to go, Nudge and Gazzy whispered frantically to each other and Angel...

Angel stood stock still in the middle of it all, focused on something that Ella couldn't see. Then she turned to Ella, and whispered four words that seemed to make time stop: 'I have a plan.'

-o-o-o-o-

Fang woke alone. The house had an empty feel to it. Silent, mournful. It welcomed him as an outsider, and let him rest like he hadn't been able to for quite some time.

Hogwarts was great and all, but like he'd said to Max, there was something missing. He'd thought about it for a while now, but there had been something missing from their lives from quite sometime - a spark. A flash of adrenalin, a sense of adventure.

Maybe it was crazy to miss the times they were constantly running, constantly fighting, but...

Wait. I don't miss those times. I miss Max from those times.

When she was wild.

When she was a fighter.

When she was wicked.

When she was as free as she could be.

When she was his, when she wasn't fussing around with trying to be normal.

God I miss her.

He loved her. Maybe more than he should.

But not enough to stay with her, a voice that sounded terribly like his own told him. You great fool.

-o-o-o-o-

'Mr Corvene.'

Jace turned to see Arya approach.

'Yes, Dr. O'Neill?' he replied politely. His stomach clenched nervously.

'How are you getting on with your work?' the doctor queried. She took a seat next to him and glanced at his notes on the various subjects.

'Um, very well, thank you.' He felt his cheeks heat up as she slid her hands across the desk and took his clipboard, brushing ever-so-slightly against his own hands as she did so.

She hummed softly as she perused his work. He watched her carefully, her dark eyes not betraying even a hint of emotion, blonde hair splashing against her shoulders, the way she leaned forward ever so slightly as though -

'Very good, Mr Corvene.' Her voice broke him out of his reverie, and he glanced back to her face, startled.

'T-thank you, Dr. O'Neill.'

Her lush lips curved into a small smile. 'Come, Mr Corvene. I did not visit sole to observe your work. There is a meeting going on, so I thought I'd inform you personally.'

Again, heat rushed to his cheeks. He got up instantly and followed her out the door.

They walked in silence, much to his chagrin. If only he wasn't so thrice-damned awkward with people, he might know what to say.

Are you doing anything this weekend? Would you like to get dinner with me? I think you're really great, I admire your work but I admire you even more. Arya, I really like you. Like, a lot. Would you like to go out sometime? I know you're out of my league but I can't keep quiet much longer, I need to know if there's even the slightest chance you'd say yes. If there isn't we can just return to being colleagues, nothing more, and I'll never say a word about this again but Arya I need to tell you because it's killing me.

He said nothing.

She stopped in front of a door he recognised as leading to a balcony. He watched her place a graceful hand on the scanner, and the doors opened with a soft whoosh. She offered him another of her small smiles, and she led him out onto the balcony.

'Look there, Mr Corvene.' she murmured. He followed her gaze as she pointed down to the courtyard below, where a man was chained to the base of a statue entitled The Noble Queen.

'Who is that?' Jace asked.

Arya replied, 'The man I sent to take the most recent subjects. He failed, and damaged one. Dr. Vincent had to step in to ensure none of the others were damaged.'

It was then Jace realised what this was: a public execution.

A burly figure strode towards the chained man. He was known only as Hunter, and often called Arya's guard dog.

'This man has failed in his duties to Dr. Arya O'Neill. He is worse than useless.' Hunter declared. 'Dr. Vincent, if you would be so kind...'

'Avada kedavra!' A jet of green shot towards the chained man, exploded there, and left him dead. Hunter cut the chains away, and the corpse fell limply to the ground. A team of cleaners hurried forward to collect the body and bore it away.

Arya laid a hand on Jace's arm. He looked at her, into her eyes.

'It was for his own good.' she said softly. 'If Queen had heard of his failure and thought I had not punished him, she would have given him far worse than a painless death. I trust you will not fail me as he did, Mr Corvene. I would hate to see you in that position.'

With that, she left him standing there alone, presiding over the dispersing crowd, and he loved her more than ever.