Chapter 15

Breakfast at Hogwarts was an interesting hour for Molly and her friends.

As they did every morning, the three sat in their usual seats three-quarters of the way down the table. What they weren't expecting, however, was to see a small serpent head appear on the bench next to them.

Matt cursed as the snake slithered out from under the table and transformed into the grumpy caretaker they all recognised. Her dark hair was braided neatly and lay over her left shoulder. There didn't seem to be an inch of fat on her entire body and her posture was hunched, meaning Matt often said she had the figure of a banana. Due to her extraordinary height, Miss Anguis always seemed to be looming over whomever she talked to, making conversation awkward, to say the least.

Nevertheless, Matt looked up at the caretaker, "Good morning, Miss Anguis! How are you this fine day?"

"Considerably better now that I'm about to give three students the detentions they deserve," the woman sneered, "Out of bed at ridiculous hours, eh?"

"Well, actually-" Rosie began.

"I don't particularly care much for the excuse I'm sure you've cooked up. I'll see you tomorrow evening, the three of you in the main entrance for your detention."

"Yay! Detention with the snake, my favourite way to spend evenings," Molly said sarcastically, swirling her fork around her plate, "What a brilliant way to start the morning."

She sighed and stared intensely at her bacon.

"Oh look!" Matt exclaimed, pointing up at the ceiling above him, "Post!"

Sure enough, hundreds of beautiful owls were swooping to the Great Hall, dropping letters and diving down to steal the occasional piece of toast. Surprisingly, Pepper soon joined Molly and her friends at the Gryffindor table, a single letter tied to her leg. Molly stroked her owl's head gently and removed the note as Rosie fed Pepper a piece of apple.

Molly's eyes scanned over the note. Her mouth fell open. She read it and re-read it over and over, desperately searching for any sign that might just show that what seemed to be her mother's handwriting was in fact forgery, and this was all a crazy prank. But it wasn't. This was as real as the castle around her.

Matt and Rosie were looking curiously at their best friend. Molly was still staring at the letter in shock.

"Molly?"

"I- I'll- I'll see you in Herbology," Molly stuttered, thrusting the note into Matt's hands and hurrying out of the hall. As soon as she was out of sight, Molly began to run. She ran and she ran through the Hogwarts corridors, not even paying attention to where she was going.

She didn't care when she realised she was lost; it meant fewer people would be able to find her. She didn't care that she had no clue whatsoever how to get back to the common room. And she didn't care that she hadn't seen a Hogwarts student or professor for at least ten minutes. The more isolated she was, the better.

Choosing a perfectly sized nook in the wall for her to curl up in, Molly folded herself away and allowed herself to really think about the letter her mother had sent her. She was going to be an older sister. It was as though her brain couldn't really process it. Everything seemed a bit fuzzy in her mind. Thoughts swam around inside her, colliding and shouting at her. Molly dreaded to think what things were like at home. Had this caused more arguments, or had it fixed the problems?

She leaned her head on the wall next to her and stared absent-mindedly into nothing. Why did her life have to be so chaotic?

Unknowingly, Molly sat in that little nook for hours. It felt like minutes, seconds, even, but, in fact, it was very late in the evening when her friends and the teachers really began to get worried. Molly had run off at breakfast and when Rosie and Matt appeared in Angelina's office, it was hours after dinner.

Matt presented the letter to Angelina and watched as the professor's face fell and blanched.

"And you haven't seen her since breakfast?"

"Nope," Rosie confirmed, "We'd just got downstairs for breakfast when the owl post came. She opened the letter then ran off! She said she'd see us in Herbology but-"

"She didn't turn up," Matt finished, "She wasn't in the common room-"

"Or the bathroom-"

"Any of the lessons-"

"The library-"

"Right! You can't find her. Go back to the common room, I'll fetch Professor McGonagall and make sure we find her. I'm sure there's no need to worry."

Matt opened his mouth as if to protest, but then thought the better of it and simply nodded. He and Rosie bid their head of house goodnight and left silently. As soon as the students were gone, Angelina took off at a sprint towards the headmistress's office. She bounded up staircases and yelled various passwords until finally, she burst through the door.

Professor McGonagall was sitting at her desk keeping a watch over a quill which was filling out a large stack of paperwork.

"Sorry to disturb you Profe- erm Minerva," Angelina still wasn't used to calling her old teacher by her first name, even after many years.

"Angelina," McGonagall nodded in confusion, "Whatever can I do for you at this time of night?"

"It's Molly. Molly Weasley. She ran off at breakfast and nobody's seen her since. Her friends reckon she's gotten lost somewhere in the castle," Angelina let the words spill hurriedly from her mouth and showing McGonagall the letter.

McGonagall didn't seem to know what to do. Eventually, she managed to say, "Well we must find her! Search the castle, get any staff you come across to help you."

The two women rushed from the office and began to scour the school. They asked portraits and suits of armour to no avail.

"We'll never find her like this," Angelina sighed, "The castle's way too big to search properly in one night!"

"We don't need to search all the castle!" McGonagall exclaimed, "Just the obscure places, the places nobody goes!"

And so they searched. They looked in places of the school that even they hadn't seen before until finally- hours after midnight- Angelina spotted a small shadow of a figure huddled in a nook in the wall. "I'll go," she muttered quietly and began to make her way over to where Molly sat.

She squatted down next to her niece and gently placed a hand on Molly's shoulder. For a moment, Molly's eyes searched Angelina's face, then she plastered a smile onto her face and said cheekily, "You only came to find me because you want me for the Quidditch team. Don't even pretend that's not true."

Angelina smiled warmly, "Of course you'd be an asset to the team, but if we'd left you here, I'm sure we'd have found a replacement. Matt, maybe?"

"Oh please, Matt doesn't know which way is up, let alone how to play Quidditch."

"Why did you run off?" Angelina asked kindly.

"Would you believe it was hide-and-seek gone wrong?" Molly asked.

"It must have been a very serious game of hide-and-seek for you to stay hidden for nearly nineteen hours."

"Nineteen hours?" Molly repeated, shocked, "I mean- yeah, very serious. Very serious indeed. I don't want my hide-and-seek reputation ruined."

Angelina sighed and looked at her niece sadly, "Let's go back to the common room, yeah? You must be exhausted."

Molly yawned and nodded, well aware she'd face the consequences of the day's drama in the morning. She clambered shakily to her feet and stretched before following her aunt towards McGonagall.

"Aunt Ange- professor?"

Angelina smiled and looked down at Molly, "Yes?"

"My mum's-"

"I know."

"What do I do?"

Somewhere in the castle grounds, an owl hooted. The wind rustled leaves softly and blew tunes in the air.

"I don't know."