A/N: Okay so I can't even excuse my own absence. I know this is a short chapter but It's the best I can do right now, sorry about that. Hope you enjoy what's here though!

XXX

It had been two weeks since Blake had seen Scorpius. He hadn't even seen him in the Great Hall for any of the meals or in class. He had begun to wonder if something too terrible was wrong – he'd heard some of the other students talking about a wizarding hospital called St. Mungo's and he had checked the Hospital Wing but Madame Pomfrey had said that he wasn't there. It was obvious that there was something wrong, and Josh and Sam commented on one morning as they sat eating their breakfast.

"Are you alright?" Josh asked, picking up some toast.

"What? Yeah I'm fine," Blake muttered, sipping some orange juice.

"You're a terrible liar, mate," Sam said through a mouthful of bacon.

"You're disgusting when you eat with your mouth open," Blake shrugged, pretending to gag.

"So tell us what's wrong. You've been down for two weeks now," Josh urged.

"I'm worried about someone, that's all," Blake said curtly.

"You don't mean Scorpius Malfoy do you?" Josh asked quietly much to Blake's alarm. His eyes grew wide and stared at Josh like he'd just cast a hex on him.

"How do you know? Who told you?" Blake hissed.

"You're not exactly hard to notice," Sam said quietly, shrugging. "Disappearing with each other every Saturday, exchanging glances during meals and in class."

"I didn't realize that anyone had noticed…" Blake muttered.

"We only noticed because we're your friends. Have you written to him?" Josh asked, his dark eyebrows creased with concern.

"No, I was hoping he'd write me first,"

"You should write him. Send Andros – he hasn't had much work other than the occasional letter to and from your parents," Sam suggested.

"Okay… I guess I could do that. But what if I'm bothering him?" Blake said and then sighed.

"Blake I doubt a letter making sure that he's okay would bother him," Josh said, patting Blake's hand. "Now we'd better get going before Professor Finch-Fletchley assigns us detentions for being late."

XXX

A week later, Blake was still miserable. He had checked every morning for the last three days hoping to see Andros coming in with the post, a letter attached to his leg, but there hadn't been any sign of him so far. Blake trudged up to the Great Hall with Sam and Josh and sound down and nibbled on some toast. When the post arrived, Blake glanced up out of habit but was getting ready to return back to his toast when he saw one of the owls flying straight to him – Andros had finally arrived, and there was a letter attached to his leg.

Andros came in quickly, landing on the table and nipped some kippers off of the table as he stuck his leg out for Blake to remove the letter. It was written in emerald ink, and as Blake removed the letter he noticed that there was a heavy wax seal with the letter 'M' on it.

Sam eyed the letter as Andros took off. "That took long enough. What d'you reckon is going on?" He asked.

"Not sure, but the green isn't Scorpius's handwriting. It must be his father's," Blake said, stowing the letter into his robes. "I'll read it later – when there are less prying eyes."

"Let us know what he says," Josh said, offering a gentle smile.

"Of course I will," Blake said, more to himself than to the other two boys.

It wasn't until the lunch hour that Blake finally got a chance to read the letter. He bypassed the Great Hall in favor of the Hufflepuff dormitories and was panting by the time he got to his bed. Sitting down heavily, he extracted the letter, broke the seal, and removed a single piece of parchment.

Blake Avis,

Thank you for your concern in Scorpius. I wasn't aware how close the two of you had become. Not that it matters. There has been a… problem, and I'm afraid that we have left the country. You must not tell anyone. Our whereabouts are secret, and you have only received this letter out of the strictest confidences of the Auror office that no more letters shall come or leave from our present location until the danger has passed. Please do not be worried – things like this happen from time to time, and Scorpius shall return to your friendship before you realize it.

Yours,

Draco L. Malfoy

He stared at the letter, not quite believing what he was reading. What danger could be strong enough that an entire family had to go into hiding, especially a wizarding family? Surely there had to be more to this than what Mr. Malfoy had sent in the letter? It wasn't until the first tear dropped onto the letter, smudging a few letters, that Blake realized he was crying.

It took him a few minutes and a few gasps for air before he was calm enough to breathe normally. He was worried for Scorpius's wellbeing. If they had to take Scorpius with them, away from Hogwarts, it must be very serious. And with that, he removed his wand and placed the letter in the fire place and cast a quick spell to make the letter catch flame. He wouldn't endanger the Malfoy's by allowing anyone to know about what happened. But now he faced a dilemma. Could he trust Josh and Sam to let them know about what happened?

It wasn't long after he had set the letter on fire that Sam and Josh came into the dormitory, eyeing Blake curiously.

"Did you read the letter?" Sam asked, sitting down on his bed.

"Yeah," Blake said. "But I don't know if I should tell you. It's bad."

"Come on, if you can't trust us then who can you trust?" Josh reasoned.

"Well it's not a normal situation – Mr. Malfoy said I shouldn't tell anyone and that I'm not allowed to respond or expect any more letters," Blake said, bewildered.

"C'mon mate, we're not gonna tell anyone. Promise," Sam said, all of his usual joking tone now gone.

"Oh alright. It isn't much more aside from what I already said, except they've left the country and the Aurors are involved,"

"Merlin's beard, that is bad. I wonder what could make them go. You don't reckon it has something to do with the Dark Mark story from the Prophet a while ago do you?" Josh asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Could be, but didn't the Prophet say that they caught whoever cast the spell?"

"That's what Sprout said. If only we knew someone who was an Auror," Sam said.

"Well I do – at least, I know one of the Auror's sons. Albus Potter and his family are here at Hogwarts – you don't reckon they might know anything do you?" Blake asked.

"Not a clue – I don't think Harry Potter would be talking about Dark Wizards in his home though. He had enough of that when he was younger," Sam said.

"Well there wouldn't be any harm in asking. I guess I could talk to him during Herbology…" Blake said, staring into the fireplace where the last of the letter had finally crumbled to ashes.

"C'mon, we'd better go before we're late for Potions," Josh said kindly.

Potions passed by with a slowness that Blake wasn't accustomed to. When Professor Corner finally let them leave, he was the first out of the room with Sam and Josh following him quickly. He needed to ask Albus if he knew anything about the Malfoy's situation, but he wasn't sure how to go about doing it. He knew that the Potters had some kind of a grudge against the Malfoys, but he wasn't entirely sure what that might be.

He had just entered the greenhouse and made a beeline for the table the three Hufflepuffs normally shared with Albus and Rose when Professor Longbottom called his name.

"Mr. Avis, step outside with me for just a moment. The rest of you, get started on those," He said, indicating a bunch of pots and bags of dragon dung.

Blake clenched his teeth and followed the professor outside of the Greenhouse and around the corner so that they couldn't see the rest of the class inside.

"Blake, I know that you're worried about Scorpius, but you mustn't trying to get any more information out of Albus. He doesn't know anything," Professor Longbottom said, eyeing him seriously.

"What? Professor, I wasn't –" Blake started only to have Professor Longbottom raise his hand.

"I was in the common room earlier while you and the boys were talking, and some of it carried. Don't worry, I've spoken to Albus's father about this already and he says that he can't give any more information other than they're currently safe. You should focus your energies on your studies and not worry about the Malfoys," He said, before putting his hand out toward the greenhouse.

"Of course professor," Blake said before trudging back into the greenhouse.