The Weasleys and Potters stood in a large group down Platform Nine and Three quarters from the Malfoy family. Draco looked over at them. Through the normal mayhem of full trolleys with owls hooting and parents hugging their children, he realized that both parties were almost exactly in the same places that they were two years ago before Scorpius’ first trip to Hogwarts.

Some things had changed in the intervening two years, Owain Jones and his family were now across the way and Geoffrey Grindus and his parents were waiting with his family. Standing just in front of him, Draco couldn’t help but overhear Scorpius and Geoffrey’s still excitingly talking about the twelve-and-a-half hour match between Egypt and Brazil. The final score had been the highest scoring match, so far, in the tourney. Brazil had defeated the Egyptians four hundred ninety to four hundred sixty. When the Brazilians won, so did the United Kingdom. Brazil had won the ACE side and Australia had won the BDF side. The second place teams advancing to the semi-finals were the United Kingdom and Russia.

As Draco eavesdropped on the boy’s conversation, he was amazed that the boys seemed to be talking about getting revenge against the Russians and not about the undefeated Australians who would be their first match.

Just as the boys were talking about which one of them would hit the Federov brothers with the most Bludgers, a family of four, lead by a tall girl, walked up to the two boys. Draco did not recognize the quartet, although he did think that he had previously seen the tall girl.

Scorpius looked up, grinned, and said, â€�“Crystal,” The girl gave him a scathing look and he quickly added, â€�“line.” She nodded and smiled at him. He returned her smile and realized introductions were needed. â€�“Crystalline Dragonherd, I’d like to introduce you to my U.K. Quidditch teammate, Geoffrey Grindus. He’s a Slytherin in my year. Geoffrey, Crystalline is a fifth-year Ravenclaw, my greenhouse partner, and the treasurer of the Herbology club.” Grindus smiled at the tall girl, but neither party moved to shake hands or speak to each other.

A short(about Lily Potter’s height), green-haired girl walked up to the group. Looking to her left at the other girl, Crystalline rolled her eyes as she shook her head. Sighing, Crystalline spoke, â€�“Scorpius and Geoffrey, my sister, Beatrice.”

The girl looked the pair of boys over, starting at their heads and finishing at their feet. Her mouth made an expression like she was disappointed. â€�“So you’re Scorpius Malfoy, huh? I expected you to be a lot taller, based upon what Crissy said about you.”

Scorpius looked at his friend and back to the rude girl at her side. He straightened up, hoping to add an inch or two to his advantage over the green haired girl. â€�“And I would expect a sister of Crystalline to be more polite than you are.” Scorpius found himself making a face at the girl until he caught himself. He waited for a parental protest about the face, but was happy that none came. As his parents crossed his mind, he knew what his mother expected him to do next.

Turning away from the sisters and toward his parents, he cleared his voice to get his distracted father’s attention and said, â€�“Mother. Father. I’d like you to meet Crystalline Dragonherd, my friend from Herbology club, and her short sister, Beatrice.”

Scorpius was pleased that his comment had caused his friend to smile and her sister to turn red in the face. Scorpius saw his father look at the girls and give them one of his patented silent, half-bows. For some reason, his mother felt the need to come over to greet the girls personally. She extended her hand toward them, starting with Crystalline.

â€�“Hello, Crystalline and Beatrice, it is so good to meet you.” Astoria shook Crystalline’s hand and continued, â€�“I’m glad to see my son has some friends that use their minds outside of the Quidditch pitch.” The tall girl smiled at the compliment.

Scorpius saw his mother eye the younger girl, â€�“That’s an interesting color, dear. Did you dye it or use a spell on it?”

Beatrice perked up at the attention, â€�“I dyed it.”

Astoria smiled and, with an almost wistful tone in her voice, added. â€�“When I was young I wanted purple hair, but my mum threatened to shave it all off if I ever colored it. It does make your green eyes pop. It was an excellent choice.”

Beatrice gave her sister a dirty look, but kept her silence. Next, the Dragonherd wizard father and Muggle mother were introduced to the Grindus and Malfoy parents. The adults passed the time in pleasantries. However, Scorpius noticed that his mother continued to be focused on young foursome.

â€�“All aboard!” shouted the Porter and suddenly Scorpius felt a vast pain of loss. For the first time, he was going up to Hogwarts without Jimber Dokes. He quickly sized up his options. He could walk over with Geoffrey and see if they could get Albus to ride, without Rose, up to Hogwarts, but he knew Albus would probably not ride with them without her.

He looked up into Crystalline’s eyes and asked. â€�“Crystalline, would you mind riding up to Hogwarts with us?” Scorpius jerked his head towards Beatrice. â€�“We’d even be willing to ride with her if you have to bring her along.” Beatrice’s smile disappeared.

Crystalline smiled at the dig at her sister and answered, â€�“Well, I’ve already agreed to ride up with Mariel Trout and Athena Lay. It will be up to them. We were going to discuss some changes to the rotation of the greenhouse partners, and how upper-class Herbology students can tutor the first-years in their greenhouse projects.”

Geoffrey perked up, a smile came to his lips, and he turned toward Crystalline, â€�“Athena Lay, the ginger Ravenclaw?” She nodded positively. â€�“She’s in our year, Scorp. I think it’s time that I learn more about Herbology, if you don’t mind if Scorp and I slip in a little talking about the Quidditch tournament.”

The two friends of Crystalline were waiting at the door of the third carriage. Scorpius noted the ginger haired girl and how Geoffrey went out of his way to compliment her on a really stupid looking butterfly shaped pin she was wearing in her hair. The three girls moved to the side, leaving the boys and Beatrice watching for clues about their fate.

After the conversation ended, Crystalline walked back to Scorpius, she said that the boys were on probation and if they talked too much about Quidditch they would have to leave when the trolley showed up. The boys eagerly agreed to the terms and Geoffrey maneuvered his way to be at the steps to help Athena up into the carriage. So with Crystalline leading and Beatrice trailing the way, the six had to search half of the way down the corridor to find an empty compartment for their ride together.

Scorpius was talking with Albus about what they had been talking about in the Potter and Weasley compartment during their ride north. Just as he was about to ask if Rose had mentioned him, the name of the next person to be sorted pricked his ears.

â€�“Beatrice Dragonherd,” announced Professor Longbottom.

He turned in time to see the shoulder-length mop of green hair bounce as the eleven year old girl walked up to the stool. After a couple of seconds under the old pointy hat, it shouted, â€�“Gryffindor.” Everyone around Scorpius cheered, but he didn’t feel happy about it for some reason. He did cheer fifteen minutes later when Lily Potter added her name to the pack of Potters and Weasleys already in their house.

As he watched Lily sit down next to her cousin Rose, he realized he had not spoken at all to Rose. She must have felt his stare and she turned giving him an expectant look. He smiled at her, but could not think of anything to say. She continued looking at him until Lily whispered in her ear and she turned back toward her cousin.

Suddenly, he felt really alone. He had lost Jimber, who had to return back to his home on the Island, and he’d lost Rose to Denis Federov. No, that wasn’t true. Federov was somewhere a thousand or so miles east of here. Something had broken between he and Rose in America and he didn’t know how to fix it or what it would feel like if it wasn’t broke. Lost in thought, he watched Kitty-Kat and James argue about if James who would be selected as Prefect next year. Scorpius didn’t care.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Albus looking at him from the side. Albus cleared this throat, â€�“Scorpius Malfoy, I’d like to introduce you to my cousin, Rose Weasley. I think the two of you could become friends, if you’d want to.”

The weirdness of the comment caught him off guard and he turned to see Rose crack a smile. Scorpius had spent his whole first year at school without he and Rose being an ‘item’ and he had had fun being with her. She had been the first person to speak to him and Jimber on the Hogsmeade platform. He’d never been at Hogwarts without her being his friend. He couldn’t imagine that. He swallowed his pride and extended his hand, â€�“Hello, Rose, I’d like to try and be your friend.”

He saw a wave of relief sweep across her face. He had not noticed, until then, how tense she had been. She offered her hand palm down, the way his mother did when she expected someone to kiss it, and replied, â€�“Charmed.” It was the same expression, hand motion and response that she had said when they had first been introduced to each other two years earlier. He couldn’t help but laugh, and she smiled back at him.

The room seemed to lighten and Scorpius noticed Lily making faces at him. Down the table, a green haired girl laughed. He saw Lily turn towards Beatrice and the girls began to talk.

He and Rose might be friends again and that was enough, for now anyway.

Headmaster Flitwick rode a silver platter from the staff table up to the lectern which was emblazoned with the coat of arms of the school. â€�“Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. A year full of learning and growth are awaiting both you and our staff. Some students in the hall have a chance to become champions in both the classroom and the Quidditch pitch.” Scorpius looked at Albus and quickly toward Rose, his smile was matched by their own.

â€�“As many of you know, members of this school are among teams from four countries that will be playing for the World championship for their age group. The United Kingdom team includes members of three of our four houses, which shows that it is our differences are what make us strong. The finals will be held on Halloween week at the Salem Witches Institute in America. So the annual Hogwarts Quidditch tournament, will not be held in the usual fashion. The United Kingdom team will continue to practice as a unit under the control of their Captains Robert Devon and Ginevra Potter.” Murmurs could be heard through out of the hall.

â€�“That doesn’t mean that players who are not on the team will not get to play Quidditch. Coach Potter will take those who tried out for the team, but were left as reserves and other volunteers to play the role of the other three teams in scrimmages to be played on our pitch.”

The murmurs turned into excited conversations and some cheering as students imagined that they could possibly so impress the coaches that they might replace the members of the team and go on to win the World Cup.

â€�“This means that our school shall be hosting both Coaches in our school visitor quarters on weekends along with many other Quidditch personalities and Ministry Members.”

A moan came up from the Gryffindor table as all the idea of their mother or Aunt being constantly on campus, probably spying on them, sunk in.

â€�“After Halloween, the house Quidditch cup matches will begin on the last Saturday in November. Now, let me proceed with the normal warnings about trespassing in the Forbidden Forest-”

After the large and delicious meal, the male and the female Prefects lead Lily, Beatrice and other first years toward the common room. Scorpius followed Rose. Whenever they made eye contact they shared reassuring smiles, but they did not speak once until they said goodbye at the stairway.

Scorpius noticed that at breakfast things were still a little weird between him and Rose, but they were too busy to dwell on it. Albus, Rose, and he had walked down with their classmates Jenelle Gliech, Margaret Quince, and Harry Baird to the Great Hall. Abby Baird, as always, tagged along with her older brother’s friends, much to Harry’s annoyance. Harry was full of questions all about America and the people they had met there. On that latter subject, he and Rose failed to mention anything about Denis Federov or Grace Jackson.

After breakfast, Professor Longbottom handed out the class schedules. As the schedules were being distributed, Scorpius remembered that he had chosen to take a class that he didn’t really want to take. He had agreed to attend it just so he and Rose could be away from Albus and their fellow teammates. He had signed up for Arithmancy.

Scorpius looked down at his schedule. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, he would start with Professor Longbottom in the Greenhouses, followed by Transfiguration with a new Professor named Hugh Benton, and Charms with Professor Rachael Garrett. After lunch, Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid, and finally Arithmancy with Professor Vector. On Tuesday and Thursday, he would start with Defense Against the Dark Arts taught by Professor Dawlish, Divination with Professor Twelaney, History of Magic with the ghost teacher Binns, Potions under Professor Kettlebaum and Astonomy taught by Professor Sinistra. Every Thursday, he would also have double classes in Defense and Potions.

He looked at Albus’ schedule. They had the same classes, except Albus was taking Muggle Studies after Care of Magical Creatures and did not have Arithmancy. He next checked out Rose’s schedule, it was five full days of classes with only two open periods. She had all of his classes plus Ancient Runes in between Charms and Hagrid’s class. Rose’s two open periods occurred while the rest took Divination on Tuesday and Thursdays.

Rose looked over at Scorpius and asked, â€�“Could you sit with Kaitlin during the Divination classes? If someone doesn’t, she’ll get into trouble and that might affect her status on the Quidditch team.”

Scorpius nodded his consent. As they began their walk toward the first class, Albus whispered to Scorpius, â€�“Why do we have to babysit Kitty Kat? Can’t Jen or Maggie do it?”

Scorpius considered the question and answered, â€�“Maybe she doesn’t think that Jen or Maggie can force Kaitlin to do her studies.” He hoped that was the answer.

Ron Weasley stood guard next to the Portkey as Rory Smythe escorted Ares Pyter from the next- to-last security checkpoint to the last one. Ron noticed that Pyter had that same smug look that all criminals seem to sport when they figure they’ve got the upper hand against the system. A younger Ron Weasley would have taken a swipe at the smug S.O.B. to slap that look off of his face. One reason Ron did not do that was that, he was older and wiser about letting the perps have their moment of victory. Also, it was never a good idea to bounce a prisoner off a wall when you were escorting them to testify before the Wizengamot officers. Rory ordered Pyter to stop behind the yellow line and the prisoner did. If anything, Pyter’s smile was more annoying than ever.

Ron silently cast the spell that would detect any magical spells that would change the identities of either Pyter or Smythe. As he expected, they were who they looked like. Keeping his wand pointed between Pyter’s eyes, he took the man’s left hand and Smythe took the right. Ron touched the empty Scotch Whisky bottle (which was the Portkey) and Azkaban was replaced with the holding cell deep in the bowels of the Ministry. Ron tucked the bottle into his cloak pocket and he and Rory stepped back towards the door concentrating on their prisoner.

A female voice came from the other side of the door with a single word. â€�“Tonks.”

Rory answered with his part of the answer to the challenge statement, â€�“Nymphadora.”

The same voice restated the challenge, â€�“Tonks.”

Ron answered with the second half of the challenge, â€�“Lupin.”

A wand appeared through a slot in the wall near the door and it was pointing at Pyter. He sneered at all of their security precautions. The door slipped open and the two Aurors left their prisoner behind in the room. When the door clicked, Sarah Broomwright pulled her wand back through the slot and locked it and the door.

Ron gave Sarah, who was in her first week back from St. Mungo’s and a week’s rest at a Spanish beach, a nod and a smile. Rory looked past Ron to his usual partner.

â€�“Tell me, that you are cleared for patrol duty. Teddy Lupin is driving me crazy. The boy never shuts up.”

Ron smiled. Teddy did seem to talk a lot when he was being himself.

Sarah looked at Rory and said, â€�“I have to pass another battery of medical tests, before they let me out. Believe me, I hate this job much more than I do you and your stupid cigars.”

Both Aurors laughed at the inside joke. Ron missed that, from the moment he left working for his brother George and joined the Aurors, he had been partnered with Harry, who was already on the ‘Star track’ within the Ministry, being quickly and publically promoted up the ladder. Harry’s fast rise up the law enforcement bureaucracy had caused some mistrust from many of the senior Aurors towards their inexperienced boss. However, they couldn’t tell Harry to go f’ off, so Ron took the brunt of the discontent and jealousy from his co-workers who thought of him only as ‘Potter’s pet.’

As the two partners went upstairs to catch up on what had happened since her injury at Mold-In-The-Wall, Ron pulled his dead uncle’s pocket watch out of his waistcoat. They had a half an hour before they would have to transport the prisoner to a joint meeting of the Head of the Magical Law Enforcement and the senior members of the Wizengamot. Ares Pyter was a publicity prize as he was the highest ranking member of Lucius Malfoy’s inner circle that had yet to be captured. Pyter, who had been a low ranking Death Eater at the fall of Voldemort, had gone to Azkaban and been in the cell next to Lucius Malfoy for his whole sentence. After his release, Pyter had taken jobs hocking potions and charms from Kiosks in Knockturn and Diagon Alleys. He had become a reliable footman for the Fletcher crime family. He had been trusted by Lucius Malfoy to ‘get rid’ of Gregory Goyle. Unfortunately for him, the man Lucius had chosen to help kill Goyle turned out to be Teddy Lupin in disguise.

So for over a year, Pyter sat in an Azkaban cell under very flimsy charges. He could not be charged with attempted murder, because he had been arrested, by Teddy, before any actual attempt harm to Goyle occurred. Also many of the conspiracy laws passed after the fall of Voldemort didn’t seem to fit his case. After months of rotting on the prison island, Pyter was getting a day in court.

The fact that the hearing was going to be held in a closed courtroom at the end of the day on a Friday worried Ron. The only reasons for the closed court and the hearing on Friday was that Pyter was going to be released and they wanted the news to break after the Saturday Daily Prophet went to press. The Ministry hoped the news would be forgotten by Monday.

However, the Ministry did not want to give up their ‘prize’ prisoner and the Wizengamot felt they had no real case that would hold up under press and legal scrutiny. Ron shook his head knowing the compromise they would reach before the meeting occurred. The Wizengamot would get the case dropped, but it would be done on a ‘technicality’, something that Harry, Teddy or both could be conveniently blamed for in the Prophet. Minister Lee would then have a perfect chance to publically bemoan the sorry state of the Aurors and their leadership. Ron turned and opened the slot so he could stare at Pyter. Pyter would be home, a free man, long before Ron would get to be home to be with Hermione.

No, Pyter wouldn’t run home. He’d lead any Aurors that Harry put on him ragged for the rest of the day and in the wee hours of the night he would go to some predetermined safe place and pass along to Lucius Malfoy everything he had seen at Azkaban and in the security dungeons. Ron really missed the days when Hermione could just erase memories from lumps like this without bothering with ‘due process’.

Scorpius looked at the last problem of his first Arithmancy homework assignment like it was written in ancient runes. Ida is a witch with a birth number of six and a Chaldean name number of seven. She is currently dating two different boys, Edward was born on August 28th and Gregory was born on November 20th. Use the Rowling compatibility table on page nine of your text book to answer which boy would make the better husband for Ida. Show all of your work.

Scorpius must have made a noise of some kind, because it brought both Rose and Albus’s noses out of the large text books that they had been studying. Rose looked over a Scorpius and said, â€�“Are you still doing the Arithmancy homework?”

He grimaced, knowing she had finished nearly twenty minutes earlier. He would figure it out. He wasn’t stupid.

Albus, sounding exasperated with him, spoke up, â€�“We’ve fifteen minutes before evening meal and after we have a meeting with Devon to run through our practice schedule. Can’t you ask?” Albus jerked his head toward Rose. The time constraints and the idea that Rose might be smarter than him made him even angrier. A sort of growl escaped from somewhere deep in his throat and he saw Rose half-hide a smile.

Rose lowered her Potions book, put a book mark where she had stopped reading, placed her elbows on the cover, hands cupping her head as she looked at him. He restarted the calculation. What threw him off was the last names of the suitors were missing.

Scorpius wadded up his scratched upon piece of parchment. He saw Lily and Beatrice playing, some sort of chanting, hand clapping game, in front of the large fireplace and tossed the parchment between their heads and into the fire. The two girls turned to find the identity of the thrower. Scorpius left his right arm extended in the air until they noticed. Feeling somehow vindicated by the very macho toss, he looked back to notice that Rose calmly still watching him. He accepted his defeat and the forthcoming humiliation.

He would not ask, he would explain. Less embarrassment that way. â€�“The problem as stated doesn’t work for Rowling’s table. I need the last names and years of birth for both of the boys. If there was only one item missing, I could express the answer in a formula with a variable for the missing item, but with this many missing items.” Scorpius hands flipped up above his head as a sign of exasperation.

Rose perked up. She seemed impressed by his observation. â€�“You’re right and that’s the answer.”

â€�“The answer is that there is no answer?”

â€�“No, the answer is that you can’t force a formula or theory to work when the available data does not match the required variables.”

Scorpius felt a smile of relief spread across his face. It was a non-answer answer. The deep buried Slytherin in him liked Rose’s solution; it was almost like he was cheating. He smiled and said, â€�“My mother would love that reply. She said too many of life’s questions have no real answers, only opinions pretending they are answers.”

Rose turned her head considering Mrs. Malfoy’s wisdom. She slowly began to nod in agreement to the comment.

A shout came from the table in the corner by the fireplace and Kaitlin’s Muggle Studies book glanced off James’ shoulder as he sprinted away from her. â€�“Rubber ducks aren’t real ducks dipped in ‘Indian Rubber’ to change them! They were never alive!”

James walked past his cousins and through an ear-to-ear grin said to Albus, â€�“I can’t believe she fell for that.” Continuing his laughing, James Potter left the Common Room, bouncing with each step that he took. The rest of the team began the task of storing away their quills, parchment and books into book bags, stood up, and followed James out of the door. Kaitlin was mumbling something about turning James’ whole head into a giant rubber duck.

Scorpius, Albus and Rose followed Kitty Kat, trying desperately to keep their laughter out of her earshot.

Returning to the Common Room after the two hour post meal meeting with Coach Devon, Scorpius pulled his quill, ink bottle, and Arithmancy homework parchment out to add the answer to the final question. He looked down in the space designated for the answer and found something already written in a very large, black ink letters. Scorpius Malfoy is a big, stupid troll .

Scorpius heard a peel of high pitched giggles from behind. He turned to see three mops of hair, one brown, one red and one green, disappearing up the stairs to the girl’s dorm. Pulling out his wand to remove the ink, he carefully considered what his next move would be. Maybe, James would have an idea about how to get back at them.

It was Thursday of the week before they were to leave for America. Scorpius was more exhausted than he had ever been during his three years at Hogwarts. Except for Arithmancy and Transfiguration, none of his other classes were challenging him. Although for about two hours on the first day of Divination class, he was really concerned when Professor Trelawney saw a Grim in his tea cup. When he was asked during meal why he wasn’t eating, he told Rose what had occurred earlier. Rose broke into laughter and she told him she had been warned by her mother that Trelawney’s penchant to see death omens during the first class. Rose’s news seemed to make the whole class seem like a joke, and he dismissed the class from his mind.

He found the long readings for Transfiguration and Potions were tiring, but interesting. He found that he was holding his own with Rose during the classroom discussions. However to help the others, Rose organized a required study group for the Gryffindor’s of Quidditch team just before evening meal to make sure Albus, who tended to procrastinate to the end of grading periods, and Kaitlin, who needed help in figuring little things out, stay up with the lessons. However, the daily reading group meant studying for another class had to be delayed until after Quidditch practices.

Arithmancy was giving him more problems than all of the other classes put together him. Rose had one more class than he had, plus the two hour nightly Quidditch practices – so she was also feeling the strain. So, as the only two Quidditch team members taking the class, they paired up to get through the homework in the few hours between Quidditch training and sleep. When he had signed up for the class, Scorpius had imagined the pair might be sharing late nights by the fireplace trading answers and kisses. Instead, they now spent hours discussing the properties of numbers and sympathetic magic in an uneasy partnership. Rose was still funny, very pretty and smart, but she was no longer ‘his’ Rose. At times when they would spend a half hour solving an extra credit assignment problem, he would forget and begin to lean in to kiss her before catching himself. Luckily, he had not accidentally embarrassed himself, yet.

Tomorrow, the Arithmancy assignment would be turned in and the third year players would also have to get the extra readings for their classes so they could keep up with the others during their ten day absence from school.

What made Scorpius feel the most depressed was that Denis Federov would be there on campus waiting for Rose somewhere, and he would have neither Grace nor Jimber to fill the void. The biggest issue caused by the tourney was not the extra readings or the practices, it was Lily Potter. Lily had told Beatrice and anyone else that would listen that she was going to America with the team. As for that, Rose was the only player to be on her side, James and Albus, tired of babysitting their little sister, wanted her to stay at Hogwarts. During a trip planning meeting, Lily somehow got in and threw a fit demanding that she go, because she was the team mascot. Without her, they would lose in the first round. Geoffrey Grindus pointed out to her that they had lost twice with her there so she was not a lucky charm.

The next day at breakfast, Grindus and a few Slytherins unfortunate enough to be eating near him were bombarded with scrambled eggs and syrup dropped on him by Peeves. Harry Baird later claimed that he had spotted Abby, Beatrice, and Lily talking to Peeves just a quarter an hour prior to the attack.

To end the turmoil on the issue, Mrs. Potter at the end of Friday’s meeting announced that, Lily was allowed to accompany the team. The hard look on her face brought a quick end to any further debating about her presence. When they arrived back in the Common Room, Lily, Abby and Beatrice ran up to the dormitory to help her pack for the trip.

An owl arrived in the special owlery for priority messages to the Auror office. The receiving clerk, Travis Adams, untied the message and scanned a note from Scotland Yard. After reading the first few lines of the note, he tossed Floo powder into the small fireplace in the wall. Checking the work schedule of the senior Auror staff, he shouted into the fireplace, â€�“Harry Potter’s office.”

Out of the fireplace, Travis saw the woman sitting behind a desk. She jumped as the roaring of the fire echoed through the office. â€�“I’ve got an emergency notice from the Scotland Yard Liaison for the Auror office. It’s coded as a level one emergency.”

Travis saw the smoked glass office door to his right open and out walked Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley. Potter, moving quickly, went to the fire and said, â€�“You have a level one from Anthony Goldstein?”

Travis, his head still in the fire, bobbed in the affirmative. Harry reached into the flames and the man jumped back. Travis thrust the note into Potter’s hand and the arm retreated back through the flames and into the Head Auror’s office.

Travis stuck his head back watching Potter read the note. Without comment, he handed the paper over his shoulder up to Weasley. He saw Potter swallow and looking into the fireplace said, â€�“You did the right thing. Thank you, Travis.” And with that the fire went out in the fireplace.

Harry turned to his secretary and said, â€�“I need every Auror, including those on a level one assignment to meet me near the Tower of London. Alert all of those on holiday, they are expected to be on duty as soon as possible. And as soon as possible means, today!”

Ron Weasley walked over to the woman’s desk and added, â€�“Include Sarah Broomwright in your list of Auror’s to contact. We need everybody.” Ron looked over toward Harry and said only one word to sum up what he had just read, â€�“Wow!”

The caravan had just landed and the cheering stopped with the rocking of the camper. After the door was opened, the plump witch Kim Davis appeared in the door. Unusually, she did not speak as she entered. She actually shut and locked the door behind her. Bobby Devon stood up and started to address the woman when she pulled out her wand and blasted him into the wall. Davis next pointed her wand at Lily Potter’s head in a silent threat as she took a device covered with ancient runes out from under her robes and stuck in onto the wall. When she pushed a button in the device’s center, the windows were full of blue light and the caravan rocked.

Scorpius looked next to him at Albus and he felt sick. They were being kidnapped and the only person stupid or desperate enough to kidnap a caravan full of the families of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, Quidditch heroes, and the only grandson of the richest wizard in all of Britain was his grandfather. Whatever the reason for the crime, he was certain he was the reason it had occurred.