After searching our bedroom from top to bottom for any clues to his whereabouts, we eventually discovered a note which must have fluttered underneath the bed.
Gone with Orion to get Mr Dog and to find Aunt Hermy and Uncle Ron so that Mummy won't have to cry anymore.
"Oh god!" I wailed dramatically, as a wave of sickness swooped low in my stomach. "This is all my fault!"
Draco snatched the letter from my shaking hands, sucking in a sharp breath as his eyes scanned over our son's handwriting.
"This must mean he's headed back to Hogwarts," he muttered, panic strangling his voice. "But how does he think he's getting there? It's hundreds of miles away."
"Knight bus?" I suggested, my chest tightening at the thought of him travelling alone.
"Without a wand?" Draco scoffed, raising his eyebrows.
"I don't know... Muggle transport, then?" I reached, forgetting Jack would need Muggle money.
"Muggles had to cease and desist public transport ever since Death Eaters began blowing up trains and buses."
"Oh god, Drac," I breathed as the full horror of what kind of world Jack had walked out into hit me like a tonne of bricks. "What are we going to do?"
"I'm going to go straight to Hogwarts, and start there," Draco said, removing his wand from his pocket. I noticed that despite his calm demeanour, his hand was trembling. "Chances are, he's going to attempt to go back to the last place he saw them."
"I'm coming with you," I said at once, placing my hand over his, clasping it in mine.
Draco's eyes widened, fear flitting across his face. "Are you crazy?" He hissed, snapping his hand away. "You can't do magic."
"I'm not sitting at home twiddling my thumbs when my son is missing!" I implored, my heart racing frantically.
"It's out of the question." Draco shook his head, his mind clearly made up. "Scorp needs you here."
"Jack needs me too!"
"No, Blaire." He spat, his face pinched in anger. "I refuse to take you with me when you have no means of defence."
"Please, Drac," I begged, desperate for him to understand. "I can take another weapon... a kitchen knife. Magic isn't all there is."
"Don't be so stupid!" Draco spluttered, "What good is a steak knife going to be when faced with the Killing Cur-?"
"I've got a gun."
Both Draco and I whirled round. Narcissa hovered in the doorway, holding Scorpius in her arms.
"Mother!" Draco gave a horrified gasp. "What do you mean you've got a- a gun?"
"Well... rather your father has," she corrected herself. "After You Know Who took over, he decided to arm himself with one. Just in case he got his wand confiscated again."
Try as I might, I could not imagine that dude shooting a gun.
I, on the other hand, had played enough Muggle video games with Draco to feel confident enough about using one.
"I don't know," Draco said, lines creasing his brow as he looked from his mother to me, "it's still too dangerous-"
"If it was you missing, I'd want to be out there too." Narcissa demanded fiercely. "Let Blaire go and help find her son. Scorp is fine here with me."
I threw her a small, grateful smile. She understood, and I was glad to have her on my side.
In the end, Draco grudgingly agreed.
"Promise me you'll stay by my side the whole time," he insisted as I loaded up the small black handgun at the kitchen table. "And only use that thing as a complete last resort."
I rolled my eyes, twirling the gun on my trigger finger before coolly tucking it behind my back down the waistband of my jeans so that cool steel pressed against my skin, feeling oddly comforting.
"Come on," I said, holding out my hand for him to take. "Let's go and get our son back."
He gingerly took it, trying to hide the mildly impressed look upon his face.
******
Despite it being almost May, it was cold and windy when we arrived outside the gates of Hogwarts.
Draco and I slipped into the grounds, both disguised under black Death Eater cloaks.
As promised, I kept as close to Draco's side as possible, his wand readily poised in his hand. I could tell his other hand was itching to hold mine, but it would have looked too odd - Death Eaters weren't usually seen going out on romantic strolls together.
I shivered as I glanced up at the castle. Despite having lived both in it and beneath it for the past fourteen years of my life, it was strange being back there in broad daylight.
We made our way over to the Whomping Willow, Draco only conjuring his Patronus once we'd reached the entrance. The Dementors had finally moved on since we were caught, looking for other souls to feed off.
As soon as we landed in the tunnel, Draco pulled me to him, clutching his arms tightly around me. I could feel his heart thudding wildly beneath his chest.
And I realised that it was him who needed comfort. He was scared.
And truth be told, so was I. For if Jack wasn't down there, then I had no idea where to look next.
"We've got to have faith, Drac," I whispered, reaching up to cup my hands to his face and force him to look into my eyes. "We can't give up on him. Ever."
Draco nodded, but he said nothing. Stepping back, I took his hand in mine and led him down the tunnel, running my thumb along his knuckles in a gesture of comfort.
It felt so strange being back in the tunnels. Everything looked smaller to me, the walls more closed in, and the chambers we had built seemed colder and darker.
I was suddenly seeing this place through Draco's eyes, and I realised how horrified he must have felt when he had discovered his son was growing up down here.
But for Jack, it had been his home... his everything. It hit me just how difficult it must have been for him to suddenly have it all taken away from him in one single night.
Tears stung in my eyes as we stepped into the living space we had shared with Ron and Hermione. I had not been prepared for the wave of emotions that engulfed me. But I pushed them down, because right then my priority was finding Jack.
"Jack?" I called, looking around in horror. The place had been ransacked. Furniture broken, pots and pans littered across the floor.
Draco swept over to the bedrooms, hollering out his son's name as he kicked the doors open.
Something small and shiny caught my eye on the ground by the upturned sofa.
Mr Dog.
"Drac, he hasn't been here," I choked, my vision blurring as I bent down to clasp the tiny Scottie dog in my hand.
My head started spinning and my lungs seemed to turn to lead as I struggled to draw breath. I didn't realise I was crying until Draco scooped me up in his arms, holding me fiercely to him. His turn to comfort me.
"We'll find him," he murmured ardently as he wiped the tears from my cheeks, "I promise, Blaire. I'm going to get our son back to you even it's the last thing I do."
"How?" I asked, shaking my head in despair.
"By doing the job I had originally come here to do." Draco stated, looking at his watch. "Crabbe would have called Umbridge away by now. I'm going to get the sword, kill the snake, kill Voldemort and get Jack back. It's the only way."
"You mean we," I said, feeling a sudden fierce determination as I looked up into his stormy grey eyes. "We are going to get the sword. We are going to put an end to this once and for all."
He looked as though he was going to argue, but then stopped himself. Swallowing he nodded, clasping my hand firmly in his, squeezing it tight as our palms pressed together.
"Let's do this, Zabini."
And off we went to do the job Harry Potter could never finish.
******