Happy New Year! I am so so sorry for missing an update last week but I found this chapter so difficult to write (I am still not completely pleased with it but thought I couldn't miss two updates in a row!). Anyway, hope you like it (a little bit at least). I have the next few chapters ready to go so you'll be getting consistent posts from me from now on! Now, on with the story...

20 December 1997

"It feels strange being here over Christmas...All on my own..." Grace mused from her seated position in one of Minerva's armchairs. Her eyes strayed towards the frosted window, through which the Hogwarts Express pulling into Hogsmeade could just be seen. "Have you ever stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas before?"

Minerva looked up from her parchment, which had the names of all the students who were leaving Hogwarts for the holidays. This year, unlike most, the paper had the names of every student who had come to Hogwarts in September. She sighed and folded the paper and cleared her throat. "Only once," she replied.

"Why?"

Minerva's eyebrows furrowed slightly as she picked up her shoes and cloak "Various reasons," she replied vaguely. It was not that she sought to conceal the truth, indeed the truth was not particularly exciting: Minerva's father had been very poorly at the time and Minerva herself had caught a particularly virulent strain of the flu - she had not wanted to pass anything on to her father so they had decided they would celebrate Christmas once both she and her father were well again.

"Such as?"

Minerva sighed as she slipped her feet into her shoes, and wrapped her cloak around her shoulders. "Why are you interrogating me today, Grace Matthews?"

Grace pouted. "I'm bored," she said. "And I can't help myself from asking questions when you're being purposefully evasive. I'm nosy."

"Well, I am afraid that I cannot satisfy your nosiness at this time," Minerva said. "I must see your classmates off at Hogsmeade."

"You know, we don't need supervision," Grace muttered. "I think we're old enough to know how to put one foot in front of the other and get on a train."

Minerva instantly thought of Potter and Weasley and that flying car they had brought to the school in the early 90s. She straightened and slipped her wand into her pocket. "Perhaps so," she said measuredly, "but I have other things to attend to, which I know that you will not find at all stimulating. I will be back soon," she added. "Please do not leave the castle while I am away."

"It's not against the rules to go for a walk, Minerva," Grace grouched. "Am I to be trapped indoors all holiday?"

Minerva pursed her lips and looked at her goddaughter severely over her spectacles. "I am in no mood to argue with you this morning," she said, in a clipped tone. Then she added, more softly. "Please stay here until I return - your mother will have my head if you do not. I shall not be long."

Grace harrumphed. "Fine."

She let Minerva kiss her on the cheek, which told Minerva that perhaps Grace was not as irritated with her as she was making out. Then, Minerva left her quarters quite swiftly. She wanted to speak with the conductor and ask that he make sure all students were reunited with their families before he pulled out of King's Cross again.

As she left the castle — relishing the freedom of having neither Amycus nor Alecto bar her way or question her since both had left Hogwarts for the holidays — Minerva followed the trail of students walking together, huddled in the snow, en route to the platform in Hogsmeade.

She had three weeks now. Three weeks free from waking up in the middle of the night and feeling the need to check every floor in the castle in case some students had decided to put tantalising banners up in the hallways which criticised Snape, the Carrows or Voldemort. Three weeks free from Amycus and Alecto - Minerva could have laughed with relief if she had not been so exhausted. Snape was still around, of course, but Minerva could avoid him. She had noticed that he tried to avoid her as much as possible, which helped and suited her just fine.

Finally having reached the platform, Minerva made a beeline for Ernie who nodded in solemn agreement when she asked that he keep an eye on the students arriving at King's Cross. He nodded, leaned back in his chair and pulled the cord which sounded the horn. The train began to move.

Minerva stood back and shielded her eyes from the sun that had just poked its head out from behind the rolling moors. The sound of the wheels on the track almost obscured Ginny Weasley's voice - but the girl had poked her head out from one of the carriages and was waving wildly at Minerva to draw attention to the fact that she was trying to say something.

"Pr...Lu...good...Mis..!"

The train was picking up speed and Minerva had to jog alongside it knowing, from the distressed look in Ginny's eyes, that what the girl was trying to communicate was important.

Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan's heads appeared beside Ginny's. They cupped their hands around their mouths as they shouted simultaneously: "Luna's missing!"

A second later and the train hurtled away, leaving Minerva alone on the platform.

"Seems foolish not to have told you before the train left the platform. What are they expecting you to do now?"

Minerva was silent as she watched Abeforth clean the bar with a dirty cloth. It was much later in the day now. The train had left several hours ago. Minerva had spoken to Filius almost immediately after the train had departed, and he had assured her that Luna had in fact boarded the train. The matter had been raised with Severus who had told both Minerva and Filius that all students had boarded the train - that claim alone raised Minerva's suspicions.

"I do not know—Help them, perhaps?" she tutted. "Find Miss Lovegood?"

"I thought Filius said that he had put the girl on the train. Maybe she just decided to sit in a different carriage, with other friends?"

Minerva felt a flutter of worry and concern, and she shifted in her seat. "Those four have been inseparable since the beginning of the year. They would have been together on the train, I am certain of it. I am worried..." Minerva trailed away, not wanting to say the words out loud - that Luna was indeed missing, and that someone had taken her perhaps as punishment for the 'trouble' she had been causing throughout the academic year.

Minerva pressed her fingers against her eyes. She heard Abeforth stop scrubbing the counter, and straighten.

"Are you well?" he said, and the softness in his voice would have almost been touching if Minerva had not found his words to be so ridiculous.

"A student is missing, Abeforth!" she said, the strain from anxiety and worry clear in her voice. She opened her eyes again and dropped her hands back onto the counter. "Or possibly missing - none of us knows. And none of us can check because we are all trapped here."

"Anti-disapparition charms still in place are they?"

Minerva nodded. "It is like running into a brick wall if you do try to apparate," she said tiredly, opening her eyes. "And I am expected back at the castle shortly because of the new curfew."

There was a short pause, and then Abeforth cleared his throat. "You've sent word to Lupin and the Weasley. Molly and Arthur agreed to speak with Xenophilius and meet Lovegood on the platform. You've done all you can, McGonagall."

Minerva gently bit her lip. Much as she was loath to admit it - Aberfroth did have a point. Sitting and moping would not achieve anything. She sighed, rubbed her eyes, and then looked at Aberforth who was now folding the tea towel he had been using to scrub the counter. He was frowning - using the same frown lines Albus had exercised when he had been considering a particularly troubling problem.

He cleared his throat loudly. "It's likely the girl will be fine," he said.

He threw the cloth onto one of the tabletops, then rooted around his pocket for a pipe. As he retrieved it from a fold in his robes and put some tobacco inside, Minerva took this as her cue to leave - Aberforth did not like guests as the best of times, and Minerva needed to return to Grace up in the castle.

His bushy eyebrows shot up when she stood. "Leaving?"

"I have taken up quite enough of your time," she said. She wanted to speak with Severus again, as she did not know what else she could do to help Luna Lovegood - if the girl needed helping at all.

"The girl will be fine, McGonagall," Aberforth said once more, noticing Minerva's heavy frown and subdued manner. "I'm sure."

"Mm... I do hope you are right," she said, thoughtfully. She shook herself and sighed. "Goodnight, Aberforth." And she left the pub, feeling uneasy and unsettled by the whole affair.