This chapter took me a while to write, evidently, and I apologise but I am happy with how it turned out and that I was able to develop the story a lot more in this chapter. Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks xx

The Quaffle sped past my face and landed in a Slytherin's hands once again. I raced around the pitch waiting for my chance to strike. The air was crisp and clear today, which was perfect for Quidditch; however, I couldn't keep the fierce chill away even as I whizzed across the playing field. Each of the scoring posts was veiled with frost, barely standing out against the icy landscape behind them.

The Slytherin's ball bounced off the ring, making it rattle and tremble from the impact. I took the risk and dove for the Quaffle, scooping it up in mid-air and soaring back up towards the overcast sky. The crowd was wild and as excitable as ever, the Gryffindor's especially, cheering violently whenever we took possession. I couldn't help but hear the infrequent shout of my own name being passed amongst the mass of people, which gave me a feeling of euphoria and confidence almost as if we'd won the match already.

The icy air stabbed at my face as I dodged past two of the Slytherin chasers, one of whom was Malfoy. I had an odd desire to impress him as he had tormented me so much about the upcoming match. I wanted more than anything for him to eat his words. The score was 120-110 to the opposing team and had been going for quite a while; I just hoped James had already locked onto the snitch.

Picking up my pace, I fastened my gaze onto the last Chaser blocking my goal. I was sure he was aware that I wasn't letting up, but that didn't sway him in his decision to stay exactly where he was. Only a metre away from him, I stretched my arm backwards and thrust the Quaffle into Alex's hands, who zipped past me and the confused looking Slytherin, stirring up the wind as she passed. Finally skirting around Will, the Slytherin Keeper, Alex extended her arm and the Quaffle tore through the air and penetrated the ring. The crowd went maniacal, now that we had levelled with the Slytherin score, forming a chant of Alex's name as she briefly waved to them.

However, as quick as lightning, each member of the audience's gaze changed focus and darted to a place above me. Looking to find the culprit, I found that James and Al were neck and neck, each charging, higher and higher, for a bright golden ball. The Snitch.

In one tense moment that lasted a lifetime, the whole audience was on their toes; each player hovering numbly in the air no longer existed, only the two seekers racing faster and faster above us. Soaring higher and higher in the glowing path of the snitch, Al and James bounced off one another, each trying to overcome the other in pursuit of the winning snitch.

Flurries of clouds were floating low in the sky and it wasn't long until Al and James were engulfed by it. The crowds' cheers died off gradually and an eerie silence replaced it. From where I was on the pitch every suspense-filled breath could be heard, which made me realise I was holding my own with the anticipation that the next time any movement emerged from that cloud, the champion will have claimed the snitch.

I could see Malfoy peripherally beside me. His face showed pure faith and determination for his friend, as his eyes scanned the sky just like mine did.

Just as I almost couldn't take the tension anymore, a boy flew out of the cloud. Flecks of green and silver glimmered off his uniform showing that it was Albus who had appeared from the mist first. However, his back was bowed in disappointment and annoyance. He wasn't carrying the snitch. After a few wondering seconds filled with various sounds of confusion from the crowd, James materialised and raced past Al towards the pitch once again with his fist raised in pride and exhilaration.

The crowd burst out louder and mightier than ever before along with banners and hats flying up in the air, probably never to be found by their owners again. I broke out in grin, unable to stop smiling as the team rushed to a gathering on the pitch. I was engulfed by the huddle of taller players and the cheers and howls made me temporarily deaf. The overwhelming joy and excitement was spreading like wildfire and couldn't be stopped by even the referee or any of the teachers on the pitch. We had just beaten Slytherin, whom had claimed the name unbeatable for two years before this game.

All the hard work had finally paid off and James couldn't look more ecstatic. I hadn't seen him smile this much in a while; he couldn't wipe it off his face.

"Right, because 270 to 120 isn't embarrassing at all." Wondering around the now vacant Quidditch pitch, Malfoy's voice was filled to the brim with sarcasm. However, I couldn't help glimpsing a hint of melancholy and disappointment in his tone.

The Gryffindor team's animated huddle had eventually been broken and we all went to shower and change. I had found Malfoy standing stoically in the midst of the pitch when a peculiar feeling of sympathy overcame me. This derived me to initiate conversation and ask him if he was okay.

"I've heard of worse." I shrugged, trying to make him feel better.

"Oh, really?" He turned to look at me, unconvinced.

"Yeah." I shrugged and thought. "The Chudley Cannons for instance." I supplied.

"Hey." He objected. "The Cannons are a perfectly respectable team." His eyebrows furrowed in defense.

"Don't tell me you support them." I scoffed.

"I might." He said cryptically and folded his arms across his chest.

"Well," I sighed. "I'm sad to say, so does my dad." I rolled my eyes at their inexplicably bad choice of Quidditch teams.

"Really?" He seemed surprised yet interested with this new declaration.

"Adores them." As in he still had the posters of them up on his walls from when he was at Hogwarts, much to my mother's dismay and abundant amounts of nagging to take them down.

"And what's so bad about that?"

"Oh, please." I shook my head. "They changed their saying from 'We shall conquer' to 'Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best'. I think that speaks for itself." I said, emphasising my point with air quotations.

"They're a classic team." He defended. "How can you not like them?" He raised his hands as if questioning the world.

"So are the Hollyhead Harpies." I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Just because your aunt is on the team." He sighed impatiently.

"No, because they actually have good players. I'd much rather play for them than the Chudley Cannons." I admitted.

"Is that what you want to do?" He said abruptly.

"What?" I looked at him, confused. He had caught me off guard.

"Play Quidditch. As a career." He prompted.

"Yes, actually." It took me a few seconds to piece together what I was saying as I was so surprised that he was interested. "I- there's nothing else I'd rather do with my life. It makes me feel-"

"-Euphoric?" He intervened.

"Yes." I pursed my lips and laughed at his lateral choice of words, even as I realised how true they were. "What do you want do after Hogwarts?"

"As stereotypical as it may sound, I want to be an Auror." Leave it to a Slytherin to be ambitious… and traditional.

"Wow. You and my dad really do have a lot of things in common. Don't tell me you like wizard chess now."

Malfoy went quiet and gave me a suspicious looking side-glance.

"Are you serious?" I asked in disbelief.

He shrugged with his hands.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head vigorously.

Carina POV

Internally fuming from Slytherin's recent defeat, I stood in the showers, wishing I still had my beaters bat in my hand so that I could hit something. The soapsuds rolled off my skin and I admired how they slipped so smoothly at the pull of gravity as inside I felt entirely the opposite, as if my skin was prickled with hatred. I was so angry I swore that the vapors clouding up around me had been the result of my fury.

Stepping out of the showers, I found that the cloakroom was now empty. Everyone must have sulked back to the common room in low spirits. I decided I didn't want to face the wrath that I called my home house just yet and slowly got dressed.

Of course I didn't mean to blame Scorpius for anything but I couldn't do anything but that. There could be no other plausible explanation for the fact that Slytherin had won the cup two years in a row previous, led by a different captain, and why today's game had ended in Gryffindor's favor. My brother's leadership skills obviously were not as pronounced as everyone thought they were.

Speaking of Scorpius, as I exited the changing rooms, I saw him walking on the pitch, along with a short, redheaded girl. They were smiling, even laughing at intervals. How he could be so cheerful after that game I would never know. I marched over, shouting my brother's name, not really knowing what I was about to say or do to him; all I knew was that I was angry.

Rose POV

"Scorpius!"

Whirling in the direction of the sound, I was stunned to see a female replica of the person stood next to me. It made me swing my head back to Malfoy and do a double take.

She stormed towards us, her luminous blonde hair flapping out after her. "What did you think you were doing becoming Quidditch captain like that?" she demanded.

"I thought we'd been through this." He sighed even though the girl was still trekking towards us looking as if she was about to commit murder. "Not everyone hates me as captain as much as you do."

The girl finally approached us and slammed her fist into Malfoy's shoulder mercilessly, uncaring to the consequences of the action. I couldn't help flinching back as felt like she was a genuine threat to my life.

"Ow!" Malfoy said pettily and clutched at the impact point, staring at her menacingly. Even I had to raise my eyebrows at that.

"Don't be such a baby." She said bitterly. I couldn't agree more.

"What do you want, Carina?" Malfoy said impatiently, rubbing his shoulder.

Carina! Probably the most ferocious beater I've ever played against. I remembered her taking a few shots at me today, scaring me senseless. Carina and her beaters bat clearly needed to sort a few unresolved issues out, so much so that I felt the need to interrupt their squabble.

"You know, you're a pretty good beater. You made some amazing shots today." I said cheerfully.

She looked at me as if noticing my presence for the first time and frowned slightly, saying suspiciously, "Thanks." While looking me up and down as if she thought she was missing something.

I stood back a bit then, realizing I had interfered.

Carina turned back to Malfoy. "What do I want?" She demanded, continuing on from Malfoy's previous question. "I want to know what happened to 'I have amazing leadership skills' and 'I have the perfect training plan' because clearly it was a load of rubbish!" With every word she stepped closer and closer to Malfoy's shrinking form with a threatening finger. She looked terrifying, despite her lack of height, but I was just glad it was him under interrogation and not me. And with that, she grabbed him by the ear and dragged him away.

"Bye, Rose!" Malfoy called, sounding very much in pain. You had to feel sorry for the guy. The minute he was out of earshot, I remembered.

"Wait! I still have your…notes." I trailed off, realising he was too far away by now to hear. The silence of the outdoors now filled my ears.

Suddenly, I felt cold stinging my skin and creeping through my body. All of a sudden the happiness had gone and it was replaced my sadness and sorrow. There was none of Malfoy's teasing or comical remarks, I could barely move with all the dread that was filling my bones and drawing me back towards the middle of the pitch. Everything was in slow motion now, and as I spun back, I saw a mist of black veils now filling the expanse of the field. Gliding towards me was a particularly daunting flurry of capes. As it approached, I felt paralysed with fear and the weight of loss, as if I had been torn from reality after losing my most valued possession so that I now felt like I couldn't live another day. I felt lost.

With the ghostly figure floating closer, my limbs wouldn't move an inch. I called my own name in my mind, but it sounded muffled against my dominating thoughts of sorrow. It drifted past me at first, and then it seemed to stiffen at the realisation of my presence, putting its original path on hold and turning to its newest victim. I could hear the constant intake of breath being sucked into the black hole on its face, getting louder and more hollowed as it approached me.

I couldn't move an inch.

It was only then that I realised Malfoy had called me by my first name.

Hours later, I woke up in a bright room. Above me I could see an unlit sconce and the intricate patterns that lined the hospital wing's ceiling and walls. The memory came flooding back. The ghostlike beings that surrounded me on the Quidditch pitch, everything happy being drained from my body, just like my parents and teachers had said. And then nothing. I presumed I had fainted but the significant gap in my memory was unnerving.

Trotting towards the bed I now occupied was Madame Celeste carrying a glass of water.

"Miss Weasley, have you been feeling light headed or dizzy lately?" She didn't waste any time to ask questions, considering I had just woken up.

I considered the question. Yes, I thought, I had been feeling dizzy, but that didn't mean I should tell her. To be honest, the random light-headedness was worrying me even if it was only short intervals every few weeks."Not really." I lied.

"Well," She continued, despite my white lie. "I ran a few tests and your blood seems to be considerably low in iron. I wouldn't be surprised if you had a mild case of anaemia. I can give you iron tablets for now to stop the dizziness if it ever comes on again but more medication may be necessary." She spoke in a monotone that almost made me think she was sending me off as if everything was fine, but then the words sunk in.

I sat lamely on the linen bed and took it all in like a child being told Father Christmas didn't exist, and not believing it. It wasn't exactly the worst medical problem in the whole world but I was always convinced that I was perfectly healthy, especially with all my Quidditch training. And now I had a low-iron deficiency that couldn't be cured even with magic.

Unfortunately, there was more than one thing on my mind. "What about the Dementors?" I burst out.

Madame Celeste seemed to flinch at this question. "They were taken care of." She said dismissively.

"But there was so many." I pressed as she sorted through a pile of papers.

"Nothing the headmistress couldn't handle." She said dismissively.

The bright white room was starting to hurt my eyes.

"You may leave in a few minutes. Your blood pressure is almost back to normal." Her voice was stern but not harsh or rude, she seemed to have perfected a balance of the two in her time in the healing profession. Hugo wanted to be a healer. I wondered how long after Hogwarts it would be for him to have mastered that monotonous tone that told patients they had months to live.

I sat there for exactly seventeen minutes longer on the bed, swinging my legs back and forth in a daze, when finally Madame Celeste beckoned me over to her desk near the entrance of the Wing. I was still sporting a dirty woollen jumper and a pair of tattered jeans from my encounter on the Quidditch pitch and longed for a change of clothing. Glancing around as I approached her desk, there were a few students sleeping in the Wing but, thankfully, none that looked too injured. I had only been here a single time before now in my time at Hogwarts and hoped never to visit again. There was an air about the long room that unsettled my stomach just so. I wasn't sure if it was the smell of disinfectant or the unnerving knowledge of illness contained and going stale in the room.

Perched at her desk, Madame Celeste prescribed me some iron pills. The small white bottle rattled as she handed it to me and I took it apprehensively.

"Take these once every morning, or whenever you feel faint or out of breath."

I thanked her hesitantly and began walking towards the door when a simple question popped up to the forefront my mind. A harmless question, yet one that caused me great curiosity and consideration.

"Who brought me here?" I turned abruptly.

"I believe it was young mister Malfoy. You ought to thank him. Good day, Miss Weasley." She spoke while looking at her notes.

The Great Hall seemed just as loud as usual yet I couldn't help noticing the extra buzz in the air. Glancing across the hall, I detected a particular commotion on the Slytherin table at the other side of the room. A few members of the house surrounded a spot halfway down the table. I frowned but presumed it was one of their normal squabbles and would most likely be sorted by tomorrow.

I momentarily felt the need to seek out Malfoy to thank him and ask him to recall what happened with the Dementors in as much detail as he could render, but thought better and decided not to disturb the intimidating herd of Slytherins on the far side of the hall.

I scanned the Gryffindor table and saw Alex sitting with Miranda and Ingrid. As soon as Alex recognised me, her eyes widened with concern as she stumbled out of her seat. I paced the last few steps between us and her arms encircled me.

"I tried to get into the Wing but they refused to let me in." She said into my shoulder, annoyed.

"It's okay. I'm fine." I said, letting go of her. The truth was, I didn't really want to talk about it as I may or may not have been slightly traumatised after my encounter with the Dementors. The Boggarts in Third Year were nowhere near as scary as the ones on the pitch and I was pretty shaken up.

"You are telling me everything that happened when we get back to the dorms." She said firmly.

I rolled my eyes nonchalantly and took the seat next to her.

"Have you heard?" Miranda spoke up from opposite me sounding pretentious.

Of course, I hadn't 'heard', I'd been in the hospital wing for nearly five hours. "Heard what?" I said impatiently as I was guessing this was the reason for the extra buzz in the Hall that day.

She pushed a tattered looking newspaper towards me. "Lucius Malfoy is missing." She leaned closer. "Supposedly, so is his daughter."

"Daughter?" I didn't remember him having a daughter, a son, of course, but not a daughter.

"In-law." Alex sighed irritably at Miranda. "Why are you so excited over this anyway?"

"Actually, I'm the exact opposite. They should have found him by now." Miranda answered indignantly.

"He went missing yesterday. Give the poor Dementors a chance." You would have thought Alex actually sympathised with the Dementors.

"That's why the they were on the field. They were looking for him." I thought aloud.

"McGonagall went ballistic. Dementors aren't allowed on school grounds."

I still felt as if I had only just woken up, not yet fully recovered from the incident and couldn't get my head around the situation at hand. "Remind me why Lucius was in Azkaban to start with?" I asked.

"Multiple murders." Alex shrugged as if she had heard this many times. "All in the name of Voldemort apparently."

"Psycho." Miranda interjected, shaking her head in disgust.

"And what's this about his daughter in-law?" I said, ignoring Miranda and scanning the article-

'Astoria Malfoy, mother of two and husband of Draco Malfoy, has been suspended from her place in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement due to selling misleading information. During this leave she has been recognisably absent from any court trials and legal obligations. After numerous searches and questionings regarding her whereabouts, the Ministry has reason to believe that she is missing, along with her father-in-law, Lucius Malfoy, who has reportedly escaped from the Wizard prison, Azkaban. Whether these disappearances are linked or not, the Ministry is under works.'

Astoria. Again the name troubled me and I couldn't stop the recognition from flooding into my brain. Where could I have heard it before? How would I recognise Malfoy's mother?

"What kind of misleading information do you think?" Referring back to the article, Alex was curious and leaning over my shoulder.

"My dad says even the smallest mistake can land you in court at the Ministry, even if you're Head of Department." The Ministry was a place of complicated formalities that even I didn't understand the majority of. "So, it could have been anything." I shrugged.

"I'd be careful with that Malfoy if I were you." Miranda spoke up in revulsion.

"Someone's had a change of heart." I mocked. "You were all over him last week." I vividly remember her staring him down as he sauntered to the Slytherin table the previous week.

"That was until his grandfather escaped from one of the most secure prisons in the world. Anyone who's close to the family is bound to be killed first."

"Don't be so presumptuous. I bet he hasn't even spoken to his grandfather since he was locked up."

"You can't be sure."

I looked at Alex for support.

"She kind of has a point." She shrugged.

"Alex!" I objected.

"Not so much the killing part," she explained quickly. "I just think we should maybe stay away from him for a while."

"Well, that may be a problem since he's my potions partner." I shot back.

"I'm sure Slughorn wouldn't mind if you swapped." Alex continued. I couldn't believe she was actually pressing the matter.

"I'm not going to make a big deal out of something so pathetic." I had barely eaten anything all day and I had already lost my appetite.

That night, my thoughts went over and over the missing reports until I felt as if it was now meaningless. I couldn't help but wonder if what Hugo told me related in any way to this. The Ministry being threatened and certain people going missing all happening at the same time was peculiar. What if they weren't missing? What if they didn't want to be found? I could only guess the answers.

Thank you so much for reading! What do you think?

I enjoyed writing in Carina's point of view, especially since she is an OC. She is a very short-tempered person, as you can probably tell, (she loves her older brother really!) but that doesn't cancel out the fact that she is awesome and, indeed, badass. :D