Hostage
Scorpius felt numb as Professor Hagrid escorted him and Albus into the castle. The half-giant had seen what happened from his vegetable garden but the kidnapping had been too quick for him to stop. Large tears leaked down their teacher’s face, mingling with his beard. He took them to Professor Longbottom’s office and had explained what had happened. Professor Longbottom went paler as Hagrid continued with the story of how he saw Death Eaters attack the three children and abduct Rosie Weasley. He told Hagrid to remain in the office with Albus and Scorpius, grabbed some papers from his desk drawer and ran out of the room. That had all been nearly a half hour earlier. Madam Pomfrey had been by and given them each a cup of tea and checked the boys for any injuries. Hagrid had his arm around Albus’s shoulders and both were crying. Scorpius noticed absently that there were tears trailing down his face too. He didn’t even care that Albus and Professor Hagrid could see him.
A gentle knock sounded at the door. Professor Longbottom had returned; he looked like he’d aged thirty years since he’d left the room. “Albus, Scorpius, I need both of you to come with me. Hagrid, once you’ve had time to collect yourself, could you talk to the centaurs? We’re putting up our best security measures, we need to let them know, and we need to know if they saw anything.”
Hagrid nodded his assent. Scorpius and Albus followed Professor Longbottom to another room. They’d barely walked in when a man with dark messy hair grabbed Albus and pulled him close. Scorpius didn’t have time to think about this before a very tall man with red hair grabbed him and started shaking him. Then several things happened very quickly. The red haired man started yelling, “Where is she?” and Professor Longbottom started yelling too, but at the man with red hair. A woman who had been crying in a corner screamed something, there was a loud bang as the door flew open and Albus yelled, “Uncle Ron, no!”
“Get your hands off my son!”
The tall man let go of Scorpius and drew his wand. Standing in the doorway, his own wand drawn, was Draco Malfoy. Relief rushed through Scorpius; his dad would make sure everything was alright. Scorpius couldn’t remember ever seeing his father so angry.
Draco Malfoy’s face was white with rage, whereas Ron Weasley’s was a blotchy red. Ron lunged at him, aiming a curse. Draco blocked it as Neville and Hermione jumped in.
“Ron! This isn’t helping, please, let Harry handle this for now,” Hermione pleaded.
“He kidnapped Rosie,” choked Ron. He turned to Draco and shouted, “We saved your life, you worthless scum and now you do this!”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about, Weasley,” snarled Draco, stepping protectively in front of his son. “But if you ever lay a hand on my son again, I’ll kill you myself!”
“Ron, calm down,” ordered Harry.
“Will someone tell us what’s happened?” begged Hermione, clutching Ron’s arm.
“Everyone, sit down, wands away,” commanded Neville. He motioned to the chairs in the room. No one in the room had ever had cause to hear Neville speak when teaching an unruly class. Everyone obediently sat down; the Malfoys faced the Potters and Weasleys; Neville sat in the middle.
“I got an urgent message that there was a kidnapping,” began Draco.
“Yes,” shouted Ron, “My daughter! Now where is she?”
“How should I know?” snapped Draco.
“Quiet!” boomed Neville. “Rosie Weasley has been kidnapped. She was on her way to visit Hagrid with Albus and Scorpius when they were attacked by three men on brooms, dressed as Death Eaters. Hagrid saw the entire thing from a distance but was too far away to help. Albus and Scorpius both tried to save her. Naturally, we alerted all of you. Harry, where’s Ginny?”
“She’s safe at home with Lily and Hugo. Kreacher’s on orders to bring any urgent messages,” Harry answered, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Astoria’s in France for the week, on business,” supplied Draco, lest she be added to the suspect list too.
“But w-why would anyone t-take Rosie?” sobbed Hermione, wringing her hands.
“Our children would be ideal targets for Death Eaters,” supplied Ron, still glaring at Draco.
“But it’s been nearly twenty years since there’s been any Death Eater activity,” pointed out Neville. “It doesn’t make sense. Besides, even if they really were Death Eaters, they wouldn’t actually gain anything by taking your daughter.”
“So why has he been trying to get his brat close to my Rosie and Harry’s Albus?” asked Ron, shaking with rage.
Neville stood up; there was a dangerous edge to his voice. “Perhaps we should let Scorpius and Albus leave. I thought it would be good to have them here to give testimony and be with a parent, but if this is the direction we’re going to go in, I’ll have them escorted to Gryffindor Tower.”
Harry cleared his throat. “Perhaps Albus should tell us what happened.”
Albus looked as though he would like to be anywhere else. “W-we were walking to Hagrid’s. We’d been playing at the lake and we were wet, so when they came it was hard to get the wands out of our pockets. I… I didn’t manage to get mine out in time. Rosie disarmed one, and Scorpius another. I only managed to grab the d-dropped wands. I’m sorry!”
Albus broke down crying, and Harry put his arm around him. “It’s okay, you still did well. Do you remember what spells they used?”
“Y-yes. The first one tried to stun Scorpius,” explained Albus, a little calmer. “I… I remember because he had to dodge the red light.”
Harry smiled and gave Albus’s shoulder a light squeeze, encouraging him to continue.
“A-and the one th-they used on R-rosie was P-pet-petr…”
“The Body-Bind Curse,” supplied Scorpius dully.
“Do you still have the wands?” Harry asked.
Albus sniffed and nodded. He pulled the two fallen wands from his robe. Harry cleared his throat again. “Er, Mr Malfoy, would you mind showing us your wand again?”
Scorpius couldn’t read his father’s expression. It had changed when the wands had been produced and now he was slowly acquiescing. “Ten inches, hawthorn, unicorn hair; I believe you’re familiar with it.”
“He has to ask, though,” pointed out Neville diplomatically. “Besides, it might help clear you.”
“I need to perform the reverse spell effect on it,” added Harry.
Draco nodded his assent.
“Prior Incantato!”
Little puffs of smoke came off the wand. Harry murmured, “There’s the block, and the one that blasted the door open, Security Charm, Heating Charm…”
With a wave of his own wand, Harry ended the spell. “Well, that wand seems to be cleared then.”
Before Draco could reply, Professor Macmillan entered. “Headmistress Sprout has received a ransom note!” he exclaimed, flourishing it.
Ron snatched it from Ernie’s hand. “They want ten thousand Galleons, by Tuesday. They’ll let us know the time and place later and… and they promise they won’t hurt her if we do as they say.”
Hermione started sobbing again. Ernie turned to the Malfoys. “So you’ve caught one of them, eh Harry?”
Draco snapped, “Don’t you dare accuse me you…”
“Well it’s pretty obvious you did it,” sneered Ernie. “Once a Death Eater…”
“That’s enough, Ernie,” added Neville sternly.
“I’m just saying he has means, motive, and I think we all know what he’s capable of,” added Ernie, dismissively.
“Let Harry and Ron do their jobs,” snapped Neville.
“Oh, no, please let’s let Professor Macmillan explain what’s so obvious to him. What was my motive? Why would I kidnap Weasley’s daughter? And how did I do it?”
Professor Macmillan was only briefly taken aback. “Well, judging by the ransom note, your motive would obviously be the money. As for how you did it, I expect you’ve been using your son as a spy. He seems to have wormed his way into…”
“Ernie!” barked Neville.
“First of all, I expect I’m considerably richer than Weasley. Shocking, I know. Why would I risk Azkaban for money that I don’t even need? Secondly, how would I even know where they would be today? Do you honestly think that I knew about their spur of the moment plans to go to the lake and had time to grab two other people, dress them in Death Eater costumes and…”
“What do you mean costumes?” interrupted Harry.
Draco gave him a look of surprise as Ron shouted, “So it was you!”
Before Ron could curse him, Draco explained, “The Aurors confiscated my mask nearly two decades ago. I believe you currently have it in storage, thus if I were the mastermind behind this, I would have had to create fake ones. Do you really think I’d keep a wardrobe full of Death Eater outfits, of assorted sizes, for twenty years, just in case I decided to kidnap Weasley’s daughter for money I’ll never need?”
“That doesn’t prove it wasn’t you,” pointed out Ernie rather feebly.
Draco sneered, “Well, really why would I dress myself and two other people as Death Eaters? Why would I go to the trouble of outfitting us all with the robes and masks just to make every idiot think it was me?”
Ernie seemed at a loss for words.
Harry turned to Ron. “He’s right. Why would a known Death Eater do that?”
“To convince you that it wasn’t him!” supplied Ernie.
“Ernie, this isn’t helping,” warned Neville, rising from his chair.
Draco’s gray eyes were once again inscrutable as he drawled, “So unless you have any more questions, Potter, may I assume that I am free to go?”
Ron looked like he wanted to arrest Draco anyway, but instead he stroked Hermione’s hair as she cried on his chest.
Harry sighed. “Yes, but until this is cleared up, I can’t let you leave the country.”
“I understand and have no plans to leave anyway. Let’s go, Scorpius,” Draco said, rising from his chair.
Scorpius paused to give a nod of goodbye to Albus, who waved back miserably.
“H-how are we going to get ten thousand Galleons?” choked Hermione into Ron’s chest.
“Shh… We’ll do it somehow,” murmured Ron.
Harry was about to speak when Draco stopped at the door and turned. “I’ll put up the money. I can have the full amount transferred to any account at Gringott’s by tomorrow.”
“Th-thank you, but why are you helping us?” asked Hermione, blinking back more tears.
Draco paused then took a deep breath. “The school sent me a letter requesting I come immediately as a kidnapping had taken place. I never want to go through the panic I felt at those words ever again. I wouldn’t wish this on even my worst enemy.”
Draco strode towards the door with Scorpius close on his heels. He indicated for Scorpius to go through first and then turned for a final remark. “Oh, and Potter, be sure to catch whoever actually did this; I’d like my money back.”