“Hello? Fred and George?” A dreamy voice suddenly said. The twins turned to see a blonde haired girl staring at them absently.

“Loony. *Ahem*, Luna Lovegood?” George asked in surprise.

“Yes, they do call me loony,” Luna said, “It’s okay, I know why now. I’d rather be loony than to lose my ability to see.”

“Er, okay,” Fred said, “What do you want with us? Need us to prank someone? Some Slytherins bothering you? We mostly protect the Gryffindors by getting back at those gits, but we don’t mind defending a few ravens every once in a while either.”

“Actually, I was going to ask about Ginny,” Luna asked, “Have you seen her or Alexa since Friday? I didn’t notice Ginny or Jack at the meals on Saturday or this morning. Or Alexa at the Gryffindor table either. I’m beginning to be worried that something might have happened.”

George glanced at his twin as they frowned at each other.

“Actually, I don’t think I have seen those three since breakfast Friday,” He said, “That’s strange. Perhaps we should check in on our little sis.”

“Good idea, George. Thanks for telling us, Luna. We’ll let you know when we find her.”

“Okay, thank you. I’ll be looking for any secret doors or hidden rooms around the castle if you need me.”

Luna turned around and wandered off, staring into space around her and smiling faintly as she walked away.

Fred shook his head, “Loony… Alright George, let's look at the map.”

The two of them went to an abandoned classroom and after shutting the door took out the Marauder’s map. They’d swiped this from the confiscation bin the teachers kept after they had gotten a boring detention to sort the things out after one of their pranks. It had served them well ever since, letting them get away with pranks that would have been impossible otherwise.

Fred unfolded the map that appeared to be a completely blank piece of parchment. He took out his wand and tapped it, “I Solemnly swear that I’m up to no good!” He said. The full map of Hogwarts in its full glory was revealed. All around the castle were little pairs of footsteps each with a name attached. Dumbledore was up in his office as usual, everyone out and about in the castle on their business.

“You see her?” Fred asked after taking a few minutes to inspect the whole map thoroughly.

“No, not at all,” George replied, his voice beginning to have a tinge of concern.

“It’s fine,” Fred said, “She’s probably in some far away corner exploring with her friends. Let’s look again.”

They inspected the map again and Ginny, Jack, and Alexa were nowhere to be seen.

“Where could she be?” George asked, now getting concerned, “Someone would have noticed if something happened, right? One of the teachers?”

“I don’t know. Imagine how much we get away with, who knows. Those three are always wandering about, maybe people always thought that they were just in another part of the castle?”

“Maybe. What should we do? We can’t tell them about the map, but this is serious. What if they’re hurt?”

“We… We should tell them about the map,” Fred said.

“What, but…”

“We can’t wait, what if something happens to her again because we waste time setting up some excuse for why they should take it seriously from the start? If we’d had this map in Ginny’s first year, then maybe… maybe we could have stopped what happened to her.”

George stared at his twin for a few seconds. Despite them acting and almost thinking the same almost all the time, they were still different. But Fred’s words cut deep. What if them selfishly worrying about the map led to something terrible happening to Ginny and her friends? Could he ever forgive himself if that happened? None of the three of them were on the map. That meant that they either weren’t on Hogwarts grounds or in one of the secret rooms not on the map.

“What if Pettigrew sneaked in and kidnapped them from the castle?” Fred said, “We’ve got to tell Dumbledore so he can find them and tell the Ministry before something happens.”

“It’s already been over a day at least…” George said, “Do you think…”

“Then we can’t waste time! C’mon, let’s go to McGonagall’s office now. She’s in there now, she’ll get us straight to Dumbledore.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

The two twins stood and exited the abandoned classroom, looking regretfully down at the Marauder’s map that had served them so well.

“Mischief managed,” Fred chanted and tapped the map with his wand, causing the ink to fade away and for it to appear like normal parchment again.

— — —

Dumbledore inspected the map, the nervous twins and his vice Headmistress McGonagall standing behind them. An ingenious artifact, one meant to piggyback on the wards that Dumbledore had access to as Headmaster. A function that he tended to not use unless absolutely necessary to preserve the privacy of his students and staff.

He accessed the Hogwarts wards mentally and requested the location of one Ginny Weasley. The search returned. No result. Jack Anverts. No result. Alexandria Adams. No result. Eric Potter. In the Gryffindor common room. Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger were with him. Would Eric do something drastic as an outlet for his jealousy after Ms. Weasley won the first task in such spectacular fashion?

“Minerva, order a search and see if we can find them. The map is authentic.”

She nodded.

Dumbledore turned to Fred and George Weasley, “I will keep your map of course, and we will discuss it later. But for now, you may call on your fellow students to assist you in a search of the castle along with the teachers. I will be informing the Ministry and bringing in the Aurors as well to help.”

“Yes, Headmaster,” The twins said, looking disappointed at losing the map but more worried about their sister and her friends to be overly affected by it.

“Very well, get to it. We have little time to waste,” Dumbledore said to dismiss the three of them as he prepared to take the floo to the Auror’s office to speak with Amelia Bones.

— — —

Ginny shifted in place in the cocoon, her body feeling completely stiff and sore after being forced to stay in the same position for who knows how long. All three of them were hungry and thirsty, their stomachs growling as they remained together and their throats parched.

They had slept at one point as a group at what must have been night. But it was uncomfortable, with each of them frequently waking up as their heads drooped forward in their sleep, headbutting the other two by accident and waking all three of them back up. So none of them had been able to sleep well and blinked at each other through a haze of exhaustion. They occasionally said a few sentences to each other now to break silence, but their conversation had petered out over time. All of them were too uncomfortable and tired to be able to carry a coherent conversation with each other for long without losing focus and forgetting what they were saying.

She had considered going into Teregatt like she usually did when she slept at night, but she didn't want to risk it. What if it used magic to project her mind there? What if that made the cocoon fall and kill Jack and Alexa right after Ginny entered Teregatt? She couldn't take that risk, she had no idea how the magic of it worked or if whatever Eric had done would be able to detect it and activate.

There was a muffled voice that Ginny dimly registered.

“Jack? Did you say something?” Ginny asked, blinking hard as she realized she had just been staring blankly into space for the last few minutes.

“Noo? *Yawn* What?”

Alexa suddenly perked up, and tilted her head slightly to the side as she listened. She had slept the best of all of them, able to snooze somehow even despite their uncomfortable environment, “Shush both of you, I think it’s outside.”

They all went silent as what Ginny realized were two muffled voices grew louder. Ginny tried to process the information for a few seconds before realizing that it must be a person climbing the stairs of the tower while talking with someone else.

“We can hear them, do you think that means they can hear us?” Alexa whispered.

“We… may as well,” Jack said, “Let’s wait until they… top though.”

“Yeah, wait until…” Ginny said before snapping awake as she realized she had lost focus again.

The voices were much louder now and were right by the window at the top of the tower.

“Top… nothing here… Back down.”

“Quick, now!” Alexa said, “HELP! HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR US?!”

Ginny and Jack joined in with their own shouting, the loud noise jolting them both fully awake to add their own noise. It hurt Ginny’s ears, having her two friends shouting so loudly in the enclosed space around them.

“Invisible?” One of the voices said after they all stopped shouting for a moment to listen,

“Call… Bones. Dumbledore… They’ll figure it out.”

They waited for a few more minutes and there was much more commotion from the tower. Ginny felt magic being used on the cocoon and the thread holding them up snapped. They started to drop and Ginny’s heart leapt into her throat as they went into a freefall and all of them began screaming.

A second later Ginny felt a dozen spells land on the cocoon all at once. They bounced off, having difficulty sticking to it individually. But one single overpowered spell managed to stick and wrap around the cocoon. They stopped falling and gravity reasserted itself.

There was motion as they were lifted upwards by the overpowered charm and dragged back into the tower, the pervasive sound of wind around them cutting out all of a sudden.

They sat there for a few more minutes, with muffled voices speaking all around them.

“What do you think they’re doing?” Alexa asked, “Can’t they just cut us out?”

“They might think it’s dangerous and that they might hurt us if they mess up,” Jack guessed, “Wait, Eric wouldn’t do that would he? Have this thing hurt us when they try to get us out?”

Ginny thought about it.

“I don’t think so… but I wouldn’t put it past him to do something that would be painful but not fatal though. He’d just say that we could heal it up in the hospital wing, so no harm done.”

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“But you can protect us with your magic, right?” Alexa asked nervously, “If the cocoon tries to do something?”

“I’ll do my best,” Ginny promised, “You can’t see them, but I’ve got ten of my magic tendrils floating around each of us. As soon as anything happens I’ll use them to protect us.”

“That’s a relief,” Alexa said with a relieved sigh, seemingly satisfied with Ginny’s promise. Ginny didn’t really think that Eric had rigged anything to hurt them, but now that Jack mentioned it… She wasn’t so sure.

They waited in silence for a few more moments before a powerful spell hit the cocoon and it unraveled all at once.

All three of them suddenly spilled onto each other in a big pile with Ginny at the bottom and Alexa and Jack laying on top of her and the Cocoon stopped holding them up.

They moved around until they were untangled from each other and sat up and looked around. Ginny blinked. Dumbledore, Amelia Bones, and McGonagall stood there staring at them, while a crowd of Aurors and other teachers were standing back on the stares also looking at them.

“Are you alright?” Dumbledore asked, “Ah, what am I saying. Amelia, Minerva. Let’s bring them to St. Mungo’s right away. Just give me a moment.”

Ginny went to stand along with her friends.

“You three just sit right there, the healers will be right along,” McGonagall said, “Would you like to tell us what happened to you before you go? Who’s behind this? Your brothers were very worried about you.”

All three of them shared a glance, realizing all at once that they hadn’t planned what they were going to say.

“Eric!” Alexa suddenly blurted out as everyone stared at them, “Eric ambushed us and put us in that thing. How long were we in there? He put us there Friday just before dinner.”

“It’s Sunday afternoon at the moment,” Dumbledore said, “Perhaps we should tell the healers to bring some food and drink as well?”

All three of their stomachs rumbled at once as they remembered their hunger all at once.

“I see. Minerva, would you go retrieve Eric Potter and his friends? I believe that Amelia and I will have to have a long chat with him soon.”

McGonagall nodded and walked back down the stairs, the milling adults below parting for her. Dumbledore was staring into space and appeared to be focusing hard.

After a few moments he nodded to Amelia Bones, “They can be apparated out from here for a few minutes. Will you have your Aurors escort them while we question Eric Potter?”

She nodded and several people in blue Auror robes came rushing up from the stairwell and leaned over to put hands on the shoulders on each of them. The world twisted around them and the next moment they were on a circular apparition platform just outside of a large hospital building. Ginny had never seen the outside of St. Mungo’s before. The three of them tried to stand, but the Aurors stopped them. Another two Aurors apparated in a second later and ran inside the hospital. The healers came out with them a minute later carrying stretchers. The three of them were loaded into them and carried into the hospital.

“Why can’t we walk?” Alexa complained to her healer, “My legs are wobbly, but they feel fine!”

“There are curses that only activate under certain conditions,” The healer replied shortly, “One of those is walking if you were in a stationary trap. Best to not risk it.”

“Oh.”

None of them tried to stand after that. The healers checked them over and gave them some food and water, which they all ate ravenously. They healed Ginny’s bruised face with a few quick spells. Ginny knew what having an empty stomach felt like from her memories from Harry. They were distant, but the sensation of hunger was oddly familiar to her. Something that was easier for her to just ignore. But Alexa and Jack had been disturbed by the horrible sensation when they were in the Cocoon, being used to always having as much food as they could want at home or at Hogwarts.

There they lay in their hospital beds right next to each other as the healers kept checking over them. After another thirty minutes all three of them were declared healthy and not cursed. But despite that they would still be staying for another few hours for monitoring.

The Aurors asked them what happened, and they basically told the truth. Eric ambushed them and shoved them in that cocoon so they could talk things out before leaving.

The Aurors seemed skeptical about the story, but after their questioning grew more intense the healers swooped in and scolded them and sent them out of the room.

“Healers are scary,” Alexa muttered after the healers finished shooing away the Aurors and left themselves shortly after, “They got rid of those Aurors just like that... I hope that they get Eric for what he did.”

“I’m sure he’ll find a way to not get in trouble,” Ginny said, “But I hope he gets caught finally for something.”

— — —

“I don’t see what the big deal is honestly,” Eric said, “I was just scaring them, I put a cushioning charm on the cocoon so that they’d all be fine even if they ended up hitting the ground. What I said was just a bluff. The thread would have snapped in a few days either way even if I didn’t do anything anyway. Probably Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.”

“They were parched, and didn’t have any food or water for two whole days,” Bones said, “How can that be considered harmless? Another few days and they might have died of thirst.”

Eric froze. Oops, he knew he’d forgotten something, “I would have remembered? I could have just cut them down anytime and it would have been fine even if you didn’t find them. I planned to do it tonight if you hadn’t found them by then.”

“And the bruises on Ms. Weasley’s face?” Dumbledore asked seriously, “What about those?”

“Well, she was trying to break out so I had to stun her. The school bullies do way worse with their spells than pummeling somebody for a bit. I’m sure it was healed with a spell or two at St. Mungo’s.”

“I’m sure Ms. Weasley felt that way about it when you hit her,” Dumbledore said in disapproval.

“I was just trying to help them out! They’re great friends again now, aren’t they?” Eric said in frustration. Why were they making such a big deal about this? Everyone was fine, and from what Eric had heard the trio’s friendship was back and stronger than ever! They should be thanking him for what he had done, he had been right!

“And you, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger?”

“We had no idea about any of this Headmaster!” Hermione said, “I can’t believe you, Eric. How could you be so cruel?”

Ron was still fuming, not even looking at Eric anymore. Eric wilted slightly. He didn’t understand. Why was everyone so angry at him?

“Sorry, Hermione,” he said, “I really was just trying to help them…”

“Helping them by hitting my bloody sister!” Ron exploded, “You git, what did she ever do to you?”

“What?” Eric said, blinking and looking around to all the stony faces around him and the angry Ron, “Is that what you’re all mad about? I didn’t punch her or anything, it was a spell. I didn’t touch any of them at all. Isn’t the boil curse or jelly limb jinx way worse than what I did?”

Dumbledore sighed, “I see we’re not going to get anywhere with this. Thank you for your confession Eric, you may return to your dorms. Amelia Bones and I will discuss what should be done.”

The three of them left the Headmaster’s office, Ron still fuming and Hermione not even looking at him. Eric was at a loss. Everything had made so much sense to him. Yes, he’d forgotten to give them water. That was pretty bad. But he was planning to cut them down tonight either way if they hadn’t been found yet, so it would have been fine either way.

But for some reason they kept focusing on the bruises from when he had hit Ginny in the head to stop her from escaping. He had almost forgotten he’d done it until they reminded him during their questioning, honestly. Now Ron was mad at him, Hermione was giving him the silent treatment… He’d have to explain to them tomorrow when they had calmed down and would let him explain properly. He was sure that if he framed it in the right way that he’d be able to convince them. Even Ron after his protectiveness over his fake sister died down.

Worst case, Eric could just reveal that ‘Ginny’ was actually an imposter who had bodysnatched his old sister. That would probably clear Ron’s anger against Eric right up. But that was a last resort, he’d have to try all his other options first to sway Ron back to his side. Ginny could turn around and confess that Eric wasn’t who appeared to be either if she felt her secret was threatened…

Eric turned to Hermione. She was harder. He didn’t understand why she was so disappointed in him, but he didn’t like it. But she was more logical, he was sure that if he explained enough then he was sure that she would understand. Hopefully.

They’d forgive him, he was sure. They were his friends, that’s what they were supposed to do right?

— — —

Dad, Mom, and Sirius visited them and got the full set of events from the three of them. Sirius had an ugly expression on his face as he heard what Eric had done, but all of the adults were relieved that they were mostly fine.

“Hey Dad? Can I borrow your communications puck? I wanted to call Balthazar and tell him about this.”

“I can tell him,” Dad promised before glancing at Jack and Alexa with a frown.

“Can I tell him myself? I already told Alexa and Jack all about him while we were trapped in the cocoon.”

“Well, alright,” Dad said before handing over the small black disk after taking it out of his robes.

“Can we talk to him alone?”

Dad hesitated, before nodding, “Alright, we’ll be just outside. Molly, Sirius. Let’s go.”

The three adults filtered out and Jack and Alexa got out of their beds to stand around Ginny as she remained in her hospital bed with the puck in her hand. She tapped the top twice and it began flashing red.

After a few seconds, the pair of eyes appeared. “Arthur? What is- Ginny? What are you doing with this?”

“Something’s happened Balthazar,” Ginny said, “I wanted to tell you first hand what happened. Also… I’ve told my friends about Teregatt and everything that’s really happened.”

Balthazar’s eyes swept to Ginny’s two friends standing nearby. He fixed each of them with an intense gaze for a few seconds each.

“Alexandria or Alexa Adams? Jack Anverts? Are you sworn to secrecy?”

“Yes, we swore,” Alexa said jumping in, “We won’t tell anyone, even our parents. We understand how serious it must be to make sure that no one ends up finding out.”

“Hm. I suppose there’s no taking it back now,” Balthazar grumbled, “But I’ll tell you one thing Ginny. Absolutely do not tell your parents this unless absolutely necessary. Having spent some time with them, they care very much for you. If you told them they would break your secret the second they thought you might be in danger or the Ministry could help with the situation.”

“I understand,” Ginny said, “But I thought my friends deserved to know.”

“Very well. Tell me everything that’s happened.”

They did, Balthazar asking questions on exactly what had happened the whole way.

“Have you considered allowing me viewing permissions again to watch you from afar? I could have assisted you and known as soon as you were in trouble if you did,” Balthazar said.

“No! I know you won’t try to, but I don’t want you watching me in the bathroom or when I’m just relaxing even by accident.”

“I understand. I’ll have to accelerate my plans then. Over Christmas I’ll give you a device similar to this one that you can simply press and call for help from me. I didn’t want to reveal our connection to your Headmaster any more than necessary just yet in case he realized that you had it, but we can’t allow something like this to happen again.”

“What about Eric?” Alexa asked, “What if he tries to attack us or Ginny again before then?”

Balthazar’s pair of eyes looked at her, and Alexa looked embarrassed for a moment.

“A good question,” He said, “I’m sure your school will be on high alert for such an attempt, but… I will discuss the issue with your Headmaster. If he can’t provide assurances then I will assist the school with some security of my own to make sure you won’t be attacked.”

Ginny let out a sigh of relief. Balthazar would handle it.

“Just make sure to not provoke him in the meantime,” Balthazar said, “I’ve spent much time with Eric. It sounds like he was genuinely trying to help you even if he has a twisted way of going about it. I don’t think he will attack you in truth after getting scolded by your Headmaster.”

“Okay, I’m perfectly happy to avoid him,” Ginny said.

“Then I will see you for Christmas break then,” Balthazar before scanning her friends up and down again, “Feel free to bring your friends. I’m interested to finally meet the two friends you talk about so much in person…”

The puck turned black and the pair of eyes disappeared again.

“You talked about us?” Jack asked, “What did you tell him?”

“Er, I don’t know,” Ginny said, “Nothing bad. Just whatever came to mind about my day including you two. He’s a great sounding board. I can just talk and talk to him and feel better at the end despite him not even saying that much back most of the time.”

“That’ll be so strange to meet him in person. He really has horns and bat wings?” Alexa asked.

“Yep, and red skin. Just like how Jack and his parents have dark skin,” Ginny said.

Alexa and Jack blinked and seemed stunned for a few seconds.

“What? He has red skin? How’s that the same as me?” Jack asked.

“Well, people must have all sorts of skin colors right? We’re just in an area with a lot of white skinned people right? But there’s a few people like you Jack with dark skin. So there must be areas where people have red or green skin or all the other colors too, right, even if there’s only a few of them! Balthazar has red skin so there should be other people with colorful skin around the world even if there aren't any at our school.”

“Is Balthazar even human?” Alexa said, “Doesn’t he have horns and bat wings? Why would how he looks have anything to do with humans?”

Ginny slowly blinked. “Oh. I… never thought about it that way? Wait, is that wrong? There’s nobody with colorful skin out there?”

“No, no I don’t think so,” Jack said, seeming a little stunned, “Don’t you have Harry’s memories? How did you not figure that out sooner? This is ridiculous… How did this never come up before?”

Ginny frowned, “I try to not use the memories. Feels disrespectful to Harry’s memory, so I only do it when I really need to. Wait, so that’s really it? Light to dark, that’s it for humans? Man, I was looking forward to meeting somebody with one of the less common colors this whole time…”

“That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?” Alexa said, “Just meeting someone that was blue or purple or something out of nowhere. Now I feel a bit bad for bursting your bubble.”

“I don’t know, there might be some out there,” Jack said, “People have accidents with human transfiguration that cause all sorts of permanent effects. Maybe there are some people out there with bright red skin from that?”

They both stared at him for a second, before Ginny sat up, “Hey, yeah! So my dream isn't dead! Maybe it can still happen!”

“Yeah, there’s always a chance!” Alexa said, “I’m sure we’ll stumble across someone like that eventually.”

“Yeah!” Ginny said, feeling much better after suffering through her initial wave of disappointment.

“Ridiculous,” Jack muttered in half disbelief as Alexa went over and opened the door to let the adults know to come back in to get Balthazar’s communicator back.