Chapter 43:

Charlie's POV

I had apparated Alexis to Harry's office at the Ministry, despite the fact her being here was not going to help the aurors find Lucas. Harry was pacing as he barked orders, trying to avoid looking directly at Alexis sitting at his desk strumming her fingers impatiently, and loudly, on his hard wooden top. Harry ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes as he sighed. I braced myself for Alexis's reaction to what he was going to say, I could see from the way Harry rubbed at the back of his neck he was planning to say something Alexis was not going to like. I took a step closer and took note that her wand was in the front left pocket of her jeans, just in case I needed to confiscate it from her.

"Alexis, I have sent out aurors to look for information and try and find out who took Lucas. There isn't really much else we can do at the moment until some information is found. As soon as we know more I will contact you and will advise you of our intended course of action."

"What can I do?"

"Alexis, I have the best of my team on the case. They have had years of training and are the best that I have, they know what they are doing. I need you to wait for them to find something. Just be patient."
I almost laughed, Alexis has absolutely no patience whatsoever and he asked her to be patient when her son is missing. I put what I hoped was a comforting hand on Alexis's shoulder. She sank back in the chair, tilting her head back to look at me, biting her bottom lip I could tell she was choosing her next move carefully. I looked up to find Harry's eyes on me, silently asking if he had said the right things to avoid further upsetting Alexis. I shrugged as Alexis sat up in the chair again, leaning forward to address Harry again. She had barely finished calmly speaking his name when she was interrupted by an owl at the window. Harry crossed the room in three strides, throwing the window open to let the owl in. After Harry untied the letter from the birds leg, it flew off, without waiting for a response to be given. Harry handed the letter to Alexis after quickly scanning the envelope. Alexis took the envelope, her eyes widening as she recognised the big, messy writing.

"Lucas." She whispered, tearing into the envelope.

I leant forward to read the letter over Alexis's shoulder, reaching out to hold her shaking hands which were making it impossible to decipher the letter. Tears started to make their way down her cheeks before she shoved the letter at Harry.

"Char, she said…"

"I know what she said Lexy but we won't let that happen. I promise."

I hugged her and kissed the top of her head. Harry had finished reading the letter from Lucas and was shouting orders down the hallway. I desperately hoped that the aurors would be able to find Lucas soon, now that they knew who had taken him. I vaguely remembered Pansy Parkinson from Hogwarts, Alexis had gotten into a disagreement with her and the Malfoy boy when I had taken dragons to Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. If my memory served me correctly Alexis transfigured her into something, a slug or something I believe. I wasn't overly surprised that she had turned out to be a death eater, a lot of the Slytherin families had ties to Voldemort.

Harry came back into the room and informed us that he had as many aurors as possible searching for Pansy's whereabouts.

"Where can we look? What can we do?" Alexis asked, brushing the tears off her cheeks.

"You can go home and wait for me to contact you," Harry ordered.

"I want to help!" she demanded, using the table to support herself as she stood "This is my son we are talking about, I am not sitting around idly while he is missing and she is threatening to kill him!"

"Lex," I started calmly before interrupted.

"Alexis Fuller! You can barely stand; you haven't been able to leave your bed in months. I am not having you gallivanting around the country side looking for Lucas and putting yourself in unnecessary danger. I will not be explaining to him after we save him that you were too stubborn to do as you were told and ended up getting yourself killed!" Harry shouted at her, having found some hidden courage and authority since reading Lucas's letter.

"You will go home, both of you," he added, looking at me, "and I will come to you as soon as we have more information," he finished calmly.

Alexis turned to look at me, speechless at Harry's outburst. I rubbed her arm and waited for her to respond.

"Thanks Harry. Sorry I just don't want to sit around feeling so helpless, waiting for news. But if it really is for the best, I'll go home."

"It is, I don't want to be worried about what trouble you're getting yourself into while I'm finding Lucas. I'll keep in touch."

"Take me home Char," Alexis said quietly, gripping my hand.

I nodded, smiling my thanks at Harry before apparating Alexis and I home.

Hi guys,

Thanks for reading, sorry it was such an uneventful chapter but things will get more eventful in coming chapters as the search for Lucas continues. Let me know what you think.

Princess Leasha.
xoxoxo