Lost and Found

Chapter 1

“MOMMA! PAPA! PLEASE DON'T GO!” yelled the small girl, as she attempted to grab her mothers hand. But she was quickly shook off and tumbled backwards onto the floor. “Are you ready to leave?” asked a man with whitish blonde hair and a scraggly beard. The other two adults nodded their heads and were quickly rushed out the door and led into a carriage. The little girl, whom they had left behind in the village orphanage, screamed and cried as she watched her parents leave. “Come back!” she yelled, rushing out and onto the dusty street, “Don’t leave me here…” she croaked, her voice quivering. The owner of the orphanage stood in the doorframe, watching the child fall apart. She too, was rather disgusted by the actions of the parents, but there was nothing she could do except take in the girl and try to help her. After three hours of sitting on the orphanage porch steps, it started to rain, heavily. But the girl didn’t mind. All she did was sit on the stairs and pray for something to happen, something good. Life as she knew it was gone. Lord Voldemort had managed to win back the Wizardry World and everything was going wrong. People were getting kidnapped by the death-eaters and were tortured until the death or till they gave some insightful information on where the rest of the Hogwarts army was. It was a terrifying time and many people went into hiding. The girl’s name was Rowan. She was a small little girl, but she was strong in her words. A very high-spirited 5 year old who was probably going through the hardest thing she had ever experienced. Unfortunately, her spunky little self was breaking at the seams...she was falling apart by the second. “Rowan darling, it is time for bed…” said the orphan keeper, “and it’s raining, so come inside before you catch a cold.” “No,” Rowan said, pulling her knees closer to her chest, “I'll wait until Momma and Papa come back for me.” The orphan keeper sighed and reached forward to take the girl inside by the arm, but Rowan quickly ripped her arm away and stepped back out onto the street, “Don’t touch me!” she yelled, starting to back away. “Come inside Rowan!” the keeper yelled, “They aren’t coming back! They told me themselves!” Rowan shook her head and started crying again in disbelief, “No! You’re lying! They told me that they would never leave me-” “Rowan, stop!” the keeper demanded once she realized that the girl was starting to turn around to run, “You won’t last on your own, you’re too young!” Rowan looked behind her, it was the forest path, leading to Ottery and many other towns that were left in ruins after the Death-Keeper marches. But, it was a way out, and maybe she could find her parents. So, as an impulsive decision, Rowan took one last glance at the orphanage and contemplated. Am I really going to do this? She thought to herself I’ll manage on my own. And with that, Rowan ran off through the forest path and was no longer in sight. The keeper should have gone after her, but instead, she stayed on the porch and watched her leave into the dark woods. She scoffed and returned inside to tend to the other children who were staring out the windows watching this all take place. -At the Malfoy Manor- It was that same day, and it was not much more joyful. The death-eaters and Lord Voldemort were having a very interesting conversation regarding a recent escape. The prisoners within the Malfoy Manor were all of the muggle-borns and half-bloods, as well as those involved in the Battle Of Hogwarts. Meaning, the Weasleys, Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood and so on. Others, like Draco Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, and Blaise Zabini were sitting at the meeting table alongside the others. They were terrified out of their wits considering they were involved in the planning of the escape, but no one else knew that. If Voldemort learned he had three traitors in the room, he’d have them killed at once. Everyone else was on edge as well considering Harry Potter was one of the escaped fugitives. Finding them all required extensive planning and strategic timing. All of which were things that everyone dreaded doing, but it had to be done. “Let’s begin with the problem at hand…” Voldemort said, frowning at everyone who sat around the very large meeting table, “Who allowed those prisoners to leave! Do you realize how many people we had guarding this place!?” Everyone cringed at the volume of the dark and luminous man, he normally remained calm during these situations, but the fact that Harry Potter was on the loose made him feel very uneasy. “May I suggest something, my Lord?” Lucius Malfoy said, standing up rather proudly, “My son, and his two friends, know most of the places where they other students may have fled to.” Draco whispered to Blaise and Pansy who sat behind them, “I swear I didn’t tell him to volunteer us.” Voldemort returned to his calm composure and ushered out his hand, “Proceed.” Lucius took a deep breath and shakily continued, “Well, they could go on a mission to find the missing prisoners- or at least find some more information in regards to where they all went.” For a while, Voldemort contemplated this proposition before saying, “That will be good. Draco?” Young Malfoy stopped whispering to his friends and immediately turned his attention to Voldemort, “Yes?” “Do you think you and your friends will prove to be successful in this task?” Draco gulped and checked with his friends before returning to the Dark Lord, they both nodded their heads in unison. “Yes, we are.” he said, standing up from his seat, “When shall we leave?” Voldemort smiled at his three little puppets and stood up as well, “Tonight.” Draco nodded and directed his friends to follow him out of the meeting room. The trio all left in quick timing and hurried out the large meeting room doors. As soon as they were upstairs in their shared room, Draco closed and locked the door. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing he was away from the intense atmosphere of the conference room. His friends looked a lot more relaxed as well as they started talking. “So,” Blaise began while taking hold of Pansy’s hand, making Draco eye it suspiciously as his friend continued, “what are we supposed to do now?” Draco stopped looking at their hands and returned to the question asked, he shrugged and got up from his bed, “To be honest, I’m not sure.” he ran his hand through his white hair and walked over to his bedroom window. “I mean, we know where they are, we told them where to go!” It was true, Blaise, Pansy and Draco planned the entire breakout in efforts to help the prisoners. In fact, they had sent word to the Weasley’s at the burrow to be prepared for some unexpected guests. Of course, Molly was shocked to hear that Draco and his friends had switched their views, but nevertheless, she made room. During the breakout, 6 people managed to escape. Those being Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, George Weasley, and the famous Harry Potter. Ginny made it too, but according to Molly, she still hasn’t arrived at the burrow. “I guess we just go to the burrow and try to figure something out with them.” Pansy suggested, “Perhaps they came up with another plan for the next escape.” Blaise nodded his head and stood up from his bed, “Pansy is right, we should warn them too.” Draco rubbed his eyes, he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep the past few days, “Yeah...that’ll work.” he said sleepily, “Well then, let’s get packing, we haven’t any time to loose.” Soon, the three of them were off to the burrow. It would take two days walk tops, as well as one night of camp. In order to get to Ottery, they’d have to take an old forest trail that led directly through the woods. It was a rare trail of transportation, so taking it wouldn’t be much of a risk. After a few hours of walking, it was starting to get cold and rainy, it was getting quite late as well. “We should start setting up camp soon, don’t ya think?” Pansy said, creeping closer to Blaise for warmth. They were all rather tired, considering each of them were lugging a backpack of supplies for the Burrow, as well a charmed tent that expanded into a miniature house when entered. AS you can imagine, the wait they were carrying was nothing short of heavy. “Let’s take a break, “ Draco exhaled, “we can rest for a few minutes and walk another mile or so before-” The sudden stop alarmed Pansy and Blaise as they watched Draco stare off into the distance. “What is it?” Blaise asked, but Draco shushed him. He dropped his bag onto the forest floor and started towards a thicket of leaves and thorns. Blaise and Pansy stood behind him and watched as their friends crept closer to the bush. Suddenly, there was the sound of a quiet sob, making all three of them pull out their wands and hold them out defensively. Draco then snapped out of his fear and motioned them to bring them down. They did as he instructed but cautiously followed him deeper into the thicket. “Who’s there?” Draco said into the darkness. Rustle rustle…. Draco yanked his wand back out and said, “Lumos!” at once the tip of the wand lit up and lightened the majority of the thicket. More rustling “H-hello…” said a little voice, coming from behind a massive old tree trunk, startling the three traverlers. Of course none of them showed their sudden fear and held their ground. Draco set his wand aside and tried to see who was talking to them. “Um...hi,” he said to the figure behind the tree, “are you lost?” The girl came out from behind the tree and stood shakily, “N-no.” Pansy gasped at the sight of the girl, whispering to Blaise she said, “Poor thing looks like she’s been abandoned…” “Why don’t you come out from behind the trunk and we can get you home, okay?” Draco said, extending a hand to the little girl, who stared at them quite frightened. She shook her head and nestled herself behind the trunk once more. Draco sighed and moved the thicket out of the way, enough for him to be able to see her entire, small figure. “Oh god-” he said once she saw all the real state she was in, “come on, you need to get fixed up.” The girl resisted at first, but just as she was about to pass out on the ground, she leaned forwards and took Draco’s hand. “Is she okay!?” Blaise and Pansy both exclaimed as Draco carried her out of the thicket. He grunted as he tried to avoid the sharp twigs and thorns. As soon as he got out, Blaise examined the girl. “She’s out cold, but not passed out, I think she was just relieved so she fell asleep.” he said, grabbing his bag, as well as Draco’s. Pansy picked her bag up as well and slung it back over her shoulder. “Let’s walk to another forest opening, I don’t think we have much time before the kid gets worse.” Draco said, worryingly. He had to admit, he felt rather anxious.