Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 5: More Missing Children

Harry stumbled into the Auror Department on Monday morning. "Tired, Mr Potter?" his secretary asked with a smile.

He returned her smile weakly. "Exhausted. Albus kept waking from nightmares, then James would not stop taunting him until Ginny threatened not to send him to the muggle summer camp he likes. Lily sulked in her room, feeling neglected, and both she and Albus are refusing to eat. Ginny took James to the camp this morning and I dumped Albus and Lily on Teddy for today, then skipped breakfast in favor of escaping."

"Would you like some tea? I'm steeping a pot of Irish Breakfast now."

Harry nodded. "Thank you. I do not want any interruptions this morning except emergencies and if Draco Malfoy comes by, set up an appointment for after lunch."

She handed him a cup as she answered, "Yes, sir," and Harry retreated to his office.

His door locked, Harry sat and opened the envelope that Malfoy had given him on Friday. Inside were letters from seven distinct families. He read the Notts' letters first and stared blankly when he reached the end. He knew Pansy Parkinson had married Theodore Nott and he had heard they had children. He had not known Pansy's second pregnancy had resulted in twins or that one twin had been kidnapped three years previously, at the age of eleven. The boy had never had a chance to attend Hogwarts. According to the letter, Pansy had quietly put word about that he drowned on their summer holiday.

She had finished one letter with a plea:

Tell no one about Andrew, Draco. The letters we received were so very threatening and we fear for the rest of our children. They described terrible blood magic and dark arts known, to my knowledge, only to Death Eaters. Please, burn this letter and never repeat its contents to anyone. Love, Pansy.

Harry set the Nott letters aside and picked up those written by Millicent McLaggen, nee Bulstrode. They were much the same as Pansy's, except they described a twelve year old girl named Catherine, who had disappeared over Easter holiday the previous year. Millicent referenced Pansy's son indirectly and, like Pansy, hinted at a Death Eater connection and begged for secrecy, especially from her husband, who knew nothing about the correspondence. She did not say how she had covered the girl's disappearance, but Harry would find out.

The other five families' letters were much the same. All spoke of missing children, each with at least one parent from Slytherin. Though only Millicent and Pansy seemed to know about each other, the descriptions of the kidnappers' letters were remarkably consistent. All of the families had covered their children's disappearance because they feared for the safety of their other children.

As he went over his notes, Harry realized that all of the missing children had grandparents who were confirmed death eaters, all had at least one parent from Slytherin, and about half had a confirmed death eater parent. All of the children were between the ages of ten and sixteen when kidnapped, but of those who had attended Hogwarts, not all were in Slytherin themselves. One girl, Augusta Flint, had been a Hufflepuff and Catherine McLaggen and a boy, Matthew Goldstein, had been in Ravenclaw. Three children had never made it to Hogwarts to be sorted.

Harry wrote a summary sheet with their names, their parents' names, and what he knew of their ages, Hogwarts houses, and the explanations of their disappearance. He did not include Scorpius Malfoy on that list, but he did list similarities between him and other missing children in his notes. A little after noon, he summoned Terry to his office.

"I've nearly completed the report," Terry said. "I just need to confirm something with Parvati."

"Something else has come up." Harry handed him the list. "Find out everything you can about the children on this list, especially their last known whereabouts. If they are dead, I want confirmation. Do not contact the parents yet."

Terry took the parchment. "Why?"

"I believe Scorpius is not the only child who was kidnapped. There may be more besides these as well. I want a preliminary report by Wednesday noon."

"Yes, sir. Will that be all?"

"For now. Thank you." Harry watched him go, then stood and left for lunch.

Harry had only just sat down at a fish-and-chips place he liked when two women he did not immediately recognize joined him. The shorter one leaned toward him and hissed, "Draco had better be right about you, Potter."

"Who-"

"Pansy," the shorter woman said, "and she's Millicent."

Millicent spoke next. "Draco gave you the letters."

"Yes. I've shown them to no one else." A bit more loudly, he asked, "Would you care for lunch?"

"No, thank you," Pansy said. "We'll be watching, Potter."

"I could use your help-" he started, but Millicent cut him off.

"We will consider it." Both women stood and left.

After lunch, Harry compiled the reports from the other aurors regarding Scorpius' disappearance. Three other students had been located who had seen Scorpius at Hogsmeade Station. Two had ridden in the carriage with him and the third had seen Scorpius at the station looking for Albus. None had seen the unknown man.

An attempt had been made to modify Scorpius' trace spell to notify the aurors the moment magic was used near him. Whether the modification would work if he had no wand remained to be seen. Harry was fairly certain that Scorpius would be wandless.

The thing Harry found most worrying was that none of the parents of missing children had been blackmailed or asked for ransoms. If the kidnappers did not seek monetary gain, then what did they want? Only two possibilities came to mind: slaves, most likely sex slaves, or lab rats for dark arts spells. He did not know which would be worse and fervently hoped it was not a combination of the two.

Around three o'clock, Malfoy stopped in. Harry mentioned the meeting at lunchtime and Malfoy shrugged, saying Pansy and Millicent had taken his betrayal much better than his wife had. "Do you have more news?"

"Not much, but we are fairly certain we are dealing with rogue death eaters. How is your wife?"

"Angry. She's requested a divorce."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "On what grounds?"

"Dissatisfaction and homesickness for Belgium. She plans to move back there within the next few weeks whether or not I agree."

"I wish to have her questioned. I'd rather not bring her in by force."

"You may have to. She won't come willingly, but I won't impede you. I will instruct my house elves to let you through the gates whenever you arrive."

"Thank you. Could you persuade Pansy, Millicent, and the others to meet with me? The more information I have, the more quickly I can find them."

"You believe they are still alive, then."

"I don't know. It would help if I knew why they were taken in the first place."

~O~

27 June 2018

My dad met with yours again today. He wants to meet your mum sometime soon, too. He thinks death eaters took you, but he doesn't understand why. I just hope they aren't torturing you. If they do, I will never forgive myself.

I finally have a reprieve of sorts from James. He started his muggle football camp today so I only have to see him at night now. I hope playing football all day will tire him out too much to pester me. He'll demand that I sign up too for the first few days, but that will end soon enough.

Lily and I celebrated James being gone by building a big tower with our Legos in the middle of James' bedroom. Teddy was watching us and he doesn't know we aren't supposed to play in James' room when he isn't here. We destroyed our tower the muggle way and sent Legos flying all over the room. It will take James days to collect them all since he can't use magic at home and I can claim I was just trying to keep Lily happy.

I wish you were here. I miss you.

Your bored best friend, Albus

Author's Note: Obviously this is slightly AU. It was written before JK Rowling revealed Scorpius' mother's identity.