Lost And Found

POINT ME

"Come on, Weasley, how much more time will it take!"

"I'm trying, Malfoy. It's not a very easy spell and I don't know why it is not responding as it does otherwise."

"For Marlin's sake! Hurry! I need to get to my children."

"If you just shut up for a moment, I can better concentrate. My children are out there too!" George Weasley let out a very uncharacteristic cry.

It was at The Burrow, where George was trying to locate the children with a variation of a new spell he had been experimenting with for last few months. Aurors were already searching for them everywhere and they took Mrs Mary Anton, wife of Joe Anton, for questioning. But there was no sign of Joe or Novokov. They seemed to be just vanished from the face of earth, alongwith the Malfoy and Weasley children.

Hermione tapped Draco on his shoulder and silently urged him to keep calm.

"Hey, George, is there anyway we can help? I know you're trying your best, but we are also very anxious, you know", Hermione said with hesitation.

"Thanks, Hermione. But there's nothing to help here, really. Actually I've already performed the spell. Now I'm waiting for the response to come. There's nothing else we can do now unless we get the response."

"Oh... Can you elaborate? If you don't mind, of course."

"Yeah, sure. It is very similar to the tracking methods used by Muggles, you know. I got the idea from them and also used the basic principles of the Trace that is used to locate underage magic."

"Okay..."

"There's a ring that Freddy always wears", George said in a hushed tone, "Don't tell Angelina, she would be furious. I put this spell on the ring and now the ring is connected to his magical core. As you know, everyone's magical signature is unique, it would help me to locate that particular person. I've a duplicate ring with me. With its help, I can call upon the other ring, essentially the magic of him. It can be specially used on children, because as a wizard or witch starts using wand, their magic is mainly channelled through wand, it would be difficult then to get adequate response through this spell."

"Brilliant! So, as I get it, you've already called for the other ring's magic and now waiting for its response. Right?"

"Yeah. But I've never done it for long distance. So I don't know how long would it take or would it work at all..."

"Oh..."

Hermione looked around the room.

It was almost dark outside. Molly and Angelina were crying silently in one corner. Draco was pacing restlessly in the kitchen.

Arthur and bill were already with the team of Aurors who were in search for the children around the neighbourhood. Hermione looked at the tensed face of George and again looked out of the window. From the expression on George's face, it was evident that response did not come yet.

Hermione looked out of the window towards the vermilion sky and could not stop her tears. It was the favourite time of the children. Normally when at home, they would be playing in the garden and their parents had to usher them inside with much difficulty as evening was falling.

Where are they now? What were they doing? Were they alright? They must be very scared. Were they still.... alive?

Hermione shuddered and whimpered at the thought. She hugged herself to stop her body from shaking.

At that exact moment George cried out loud, "Got it! Got the signal. It is responding!"

"What!"

"You got it?"

"Where is it!"

All the others in the room cried out simultaneously.

George spread a map of England on the table, put the ring (which was vibrating slightly) on it and pointing his wand at it, he said, "Point me!"

Everyone gathered around the table and waited with bated breath.

The ring started to glow. It was a very soft glow, almost imperceptible. At first it was omnidirectional. Then it started to glow more on a specific direction, towards south west.

It began to narrow down, narrow down and getting more focused and focused, until finally all the light pointed to a certain spot at -

"Merlin! Isn't it-"

"Yes, our family graveyard", Draco muttered.

***
It was dark.

The mausoleums of different shapes and sizes were standing like otherworldly creatures in the darkness, their looming shadows full of secret whispers.

It was deadly silent. Not a single tree leaf was moving. Not even the hoot of a night owl was heard.

Only the wane moon was sometimes staring down with dispassionate gaze, sometimes vanishing behind the dark clouds.

A soft pop was heard behind one of the tombstones. A young woman, wearing black robe, features half covered in a hood, a small wooden stick in hand, came out from behind the tombstone in stealthy steps. She looked around with caution.

Then she pointed the small stick towards the sky and whispered something. Dark clouds moved towards the moon and covered it completely, intensifying the mysterious darkness around.

The soft popping sound was heard again, several times and in different locations in the graveyard. Shadowy figures started to emerge from thin air, just like magic!

These figures started to move around the graveyard, with those small wooden sticks in hand like some kind of weapons. They were searching for something... or someone.

They scattered everywhere, looking behind every tombstone, trying to search every nook and corner. But still they didn't find what they were searching for.

Suddenly, in the middle of this darkness and deadly silence, something exploded in one of the farthest corners of the graveyard.

It was as if hundreds of firecrackers blew off together.

The sound shook everybody, including the ghost like old mausoleums.

The deafening sound of the explotion was followed by crys of humans and children...

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A/N: Hello, dear readers,

Here is the new chapter for you. Hope you enjoyed it.

See you soon.

Till then, stay safe, take care. If you like my story, please read, vote, comment and share.

With love,
Kikku