Chapter 124 - The Missing Montague

A series of crackling pops rang out. The smoke cleared.

The two students beside Professor McGonagall stood completely unharmed, sheltered under her protection.

Professor McGonagall pulled Harry to his feet. He looked around and found every Ministry official knocked unconscious, Kingsley included.

He turned immediately to look at Praeris Prince, and found the Slytherin standing perfectly fine in the corner.

Pansy Parkinson, however, who had been right beside her, had somehow fainted.

Praeris calmly waved at them. Dumbledore actually nodded back at her.

Harry was utterly baffled. He said to Dumbledore, who was already moving to brief him, "There are still people listening—"

Dumbledore replied without concern, "I know. Harry, listen to me..."

Referred to as "still people," Praeris quietly searched for a suitable spot near Pansy and arranged herself to "faint."

In the instant Dumbledore made his move, Praeris had seized the moment and put Pansy down with a nonverbal spell.

Playing dirty. She was best at that.

Dumbledore was going to fight back. He was going to run. Pansy absolutely could not be left conscious, or she would bring unnecessary complications.

Pansy was so close. Rather than wait for Dumbledore to hesitate over whether to knock a student out himself, it was cleaner to do it herself, and it meant Pansy wouldn't actually get hurt.

Still, Praeris felt a flicker of something like admiration. Who said Light Magic wasn't formidable?

Just look at Dumbledore. Precise strikes on every opponent, not a scratch on his own people or the students.

When she noticed one of Fudge's men beginning to stir, Praeris lifted Pansy's hand and placed it over herself, then crisply tilted her head to the side and "passed out."

She stayed down until Umbridge, Kingsley, and Dawlish all came around and bolted off to pursue Dumbledore. Only then did Praeris, under Professor McGonagall's examination, "slowly come to."

Professor McGonagall's hands never stopped moving, and neither did her mouth. She was in a full verbal sparring match with Fudge.

She hadn't been able to help Dumbledore in any practical sense, but she was willing to play her part on the other front: letting Fudge know that Hogwarts still had her holding the line.

Fudge said dismissively, "Whether I think so or not is beside the point. What Dumbledore did, that is what matters. Professor, I suggest you take your students back to their dormitories immediately!"

Professor McGonagall swallowed a bellyful of rage, said nothing, and led the four students toward the door.

She took Harry to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room first, then brought Mary Etta to the hospital wing, and finally led Praeris and Pansy Parkinson down toward the dungeons.

"Prince." Professor McGonagall stopped in the corridor, not far from the entrance to the Slytherin common room. "You are a clever child. I trust you know what you are doing."

Praeris nodded calmly. "Of course, Professor McGonagall. You should get some rest as well."

Professor McGonagall's figure disappeared up the staircase.

Pansy stared. "Was she warning you? Because we testified for Professor Umbridge?"

"Perhaps." Praeris yawned. "Why does my neck feel a bit sore?"

"Did you bump it when you fainted?" Pansy stood on tiptoe to peer at Praeris's neck. "Let me see..."

Professor McGonagall had not been warning her. Quite the opposite. Hidden beneath that warning was trust.

Praeris's testimony had caught her off guard, but Professor McGonagall would never conclude from that alone that Praeris had switched sides at the critical moment. The child's parent was still one of their own. And besides, Dumbledore would never strike a student, not even by accident. Professor McGonagall had checked. Pansy had genuinely fainted.

Who had done it was all too obvious. Praeris had been helping Dumbledore cover his tracks.

The next morning, Praeris had no early classes.

After being kept up so late the night before, she simply slept in and made do with a few pastries for breakfast.

"Prince! Did Dumbledore really attack Ministry officials?"

Praeris looked down. A first-year student.

Pansy strode over and cut in, "We were unconscious. We don't know anything. That's it!"

She grabbed Praeris by the arm and steered her out, her tone thick with irritation. "Every single person on the way to the Great Hall asked me that exact question. I am thoroughly sick of it..."

Once they stepped out of the common room, Praeris noticed it: every noticeboard in the school had been plastered with a fresh announcement. Umbridge was replacing Dumbledore as Headmistress.

"Hey!" Draco materialized behind them, cheerful. "Good news, isn't it?"

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a badge, and held it out with a grin. "Here!"

"What's this?"

She already had a prefect badge.

Draco pointed to a silver "I" beneath the prefect badge. "Inquisitorial Squad, Praeris. A reward from Professor Umbridge."

"What use is it?" Praeris took the badge and turned it over.

Draco slung an arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the Great Hall. "Special privileges. The right to dock points from a Gryffindor just for drinking water. Professor Umbridge thinks very highly of us."

"Is that so?" Praeris swapped out the badge on her chest without breaking stride. "Then it's truly my honor."

"First-hand experience, it's brilliant." Draco said with a cheerful grin. "Too bad you didn't see the looks on their faces. Absolutely green with rage!"

"Draco!"

A tall figure was running toward them from down the corridor.

Myers jogged up, paused to catch his breath, and said, "Oh, and Praeris. Have either of you seen Montague?"

"Montague?" Praeris said. "No. What happened to Montague?"

Myers scratched his head. "A sixth-year just asked me. He didn't show up for class. They wanted to know if the Quidditch team had some other arrangement."

Draco and Praeris exchanged a look.

A missing student was no small matter. It was a matter of life and death. At Hogwarts, students were capable of defending themselves. Going missing meant encountering real danger.

Before disappearing, a person was a perfectly fine person. After disappearing, they might not be anymore. Myrtle was one example.

Praeris had an elective to get to. She told Draco to check the hospital wing first. If Montague had been hurt, that was the most likely place he'd been taken.

If he wasn't there, then they'd need to go through every boys' lavatory, every unused classroom, the Owlery, and the Room of Requirement, one by one.

The moment Dumbledore, that stabilizing anchor, was gone, the entire school had descended into chaos. Even getting through a class in peace was starting to feel like a luxury.

The period was Professor Vector's Arithmancy, covering new material on the relationship between Tarot cards and numbers.

The Minor Arcana had 56 cards divided into four suits, fourteen cards each. Of those, the numbered cards ran from 1 to 10, and the remaining four were the court cards, also called privilege cards.

Each of those 10 numbers carried its own symbolic meaning within the Arithmancy system.

"In our previous Arithmancy studies," Professor Vector said, "we learned how to assess a person's character, destiny, and future through numbers."

"That was the broad overview." Professor Vector stepped down from the lectern. "Of course, there are also more practical applications, such as love divination. Determining what attitude a person will take toward love, what kind of love they might experience."

"Today, we will study the Minor Arcana and map the numerical knowledge we've already covered onto the ten numbered cards—"

He never finished the sentence.

A whoosh, and a firework shot through the door, sailing right over his head.

"Whoa." Praeris said calmly. "Is today Hogwarts's anniversary?"

Pansy's eyes went wide. "Who sets off fireworks inside a classroom for an anniversary!"

"Could it be in celebration of Professor Umbridge taking office?" Praeris offered.

"No matter how you look at it, that's impossible!" Pansy covered her face.

"It has to be those Gryffindor troublemakers," Pansy declared. "Professor Umbridge drove Dumbledore away, so they want revenge. They're making trouble for her!"

In the back row, Hermione pressed a hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking.

Professor Vector raised an eyebrow and pointed at a Slytherin student at random. "You. Yes, you. Go and ask Headmistress Umbridge to come sort this out. I am but an unarmed Divination teacher!"

The delicate, helpless Professor Vector announced that student safety was the foremost priority.

To prevent any accidental injuries, class would be suspended until Headmistress Umbridge had dealt with the hazardous element in question.

With that, Professor Vector bent down, gathered up the Tarot cards that had scattered from his hands, and smiled to himself.

Three of Cups.

Splendid. Right now, he rather wanted to share with Minerva and Filius the particular joy of making trouble for Umbridge.

Pansy frowned. "Prae, can't you deal with this damn firework? Ah! For the love of—!"

Praeris flicked her wand and sent the firework veering off in another direction. "What did you say? Of course not!"

"But," Pansy clutched her head with both hands, staring after the firework. "Didn't you just—"

Praeris had redirected it with a casual flick. It had gone exactly where she pointed.

"Pansy!" Praeris fixed her with a look. "Didn't you notice? Professor Vector already sent someone to fetch Professor Umbridge."

"I noticed," Pansy said, still bewildered. "And?"

Praeris was very clear on this point. "If we deal with the firework before Professor Umbridge arrives, she'll have made the trip for nothing."

"Today is her very first day as Headmistress. If we handle this firework and she fails to handle the others, wouldn't that be as good as saying she's not up to the job?"

Pansy's expression cleared. Getting ahead of the new boss, showing her up on day one, that was indeed not a wise move.

She immediately accepted this explanation and put the matter of the fireworks entirely out of her mind. With fireworks zipping chaotically through the air around them, the two of them settled in and cheerfully started drawing Tarot cards.

It wasn't until nearly the end of class that Umbridge came barrelling in, disheveled and out of breath, and was promptly blasted by a stray firework into a hairstyle of considerable artistic merit.

As for whether Praeris had any hand in that particular artistic merit, well. Some things are better understood than said.

The more pressing problem was that by evening, the Slytherins still hadn't found Montague.

Praeris and Draco reported the situation separately to Professor Snape and to Umbridge.

Under normal circumstances, a student disappearance that went unsolved for more than a few days had to be handed over to the Ministry of Magic. Take the incident with Ginny, years back. The school had come within a hair's breadth of closing and a full Ministry investigation.

Umbridge had spent her entire first afternoon buried in the Weasley firework affair. Hearing about Montague's disappearance that evening hit her like a bolt from the blue.

"How can he simply not be found?" Umbridge's smile was visibly strained. "Can a student just leave the school grounds? Search! Search again!"

A person can be incompetent. What they cannot afford is for leadership to find out.

Umbridge's current strategy was to smother every inconvenient problem in Hogwarts before it could surface.

She was getting her first real taste of just how difficult it had been for Dumbledore to manage these students. Hogwarts students genuinely knew how to cause chaos.

Stepping out of the office, Draco turned and walked backward down the corridor, looking down at Praeris. "Damn it. Where the hell has Montague gone? Praeris, where do you think that guy could possibly be?"

Every place worth checking had been checked. Nothing.

"If Montague can't be found inside the school," Praeris said quietly, "then the only explanation is that Montague isn't in the school."

Draco let out a short laugh despite himself, the corner of his mouth tilting up. "Is that a joke?"

"If you want to take it as one." Praeris shook her head. "This is serious. Who saw Montague before he disappeared?"

Draco thought back. "In Professor Umbridge's office. Picking up the Inquisitorial Squad badge."

"If I were Montague—" Praeris lowered her gaze.

"That would be genuinely terrifying." Draco said without thinking.

Praeris shot him a look. Draco immediately crossed his hands in a zip-it gesture.

The vast majority of Slytherins, the moment they had that badge in hand, went straight to dock points from Gryffindor. Draco was a case in point.

Today, the crystals in the other three houses' hourglasses had been flowing steadily upward, like water reversing course.

In all likelihood, Montague had either gone off to dock points somewhere or gone to show off his new status.

But that didn't help much. Without eyewitnesses, there was no way to know who Montague had clashed with, or where, or who was responsible for his disappearance.

The worst-case scenario: Montague had been bound and stashed in some unknown room deep in the Room of Requirement, unable to get out. If they didn't find him soon, the next time anyone laid eyes on him, he might be nothing but bones.

It kept coming back to the same dead end. They could only search. Search every inch.

Praeris shook her head. "No good ideas. We can only keep looking. It's nearly curfew. We'll figure it out tomorrow."

Classes the next day meant students could only search in their free periods, and Montague might as well have evaporated. Not a trace.

Around 7 that evening, Praeris was in the common room reading.

Andrei came tearing in like a small hurricane. "Prefect! Prefect! There's a ghost in the toilet!"

"Of course there's a ghost in the toilet." Praeris looked up, puzzled. "But, wait. Did you go into the girls' lavatory?"

The ghost in the toilet. That would be Myrtle.

"No, Prefect, it's a male ghost!" Andrei said. "A male ghost with his head stuffed inside the toilet bowl!"

"Don't panic. There are plenty of male ghosts in Hogwarts. The Bloody Baron is male, isn't he?" Praeris was already getting to her feet. "Go get Draco. We're going to take a look."

➤ Next: The Budding of Lia