Chapter 7
It was now the end of September, and even Victoire had to agree life was easier when she wasn’t stressing about things that weren’t any of her business. She hadn’t spoken to MJ or Lucy since the library fiasco, but MJ was letting Teddy pair himself with her now, so Lucy must’ve kept her promise and not told her sister they were snooping into their family. The Sinclair sister problem seemed to have constrained itself to the first week of school, and the only real issue was that people kept going missing, and the aurors were no closer to finding them. Victoire knew from her father that it was driving Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron crazy, and that nobody was quite sure what to do. There was seemingly no connection between any of the people, not even that photograph.
“That’s another one,” Teddy said. “Annie Foxx, and her husband. No kids at least.”
Victoire leaned over to look at the paper. “Oh! I know them, Erik Foxx worked with my dad for a bit.”
“Well, he fits the only descriptors they have,” Teddy said. “Worked at the ministry between 1994 and 2000.”
“I can’t believe that’s all they’ve got,” Victoire said. “That’s eight people now, and they’re no closer to solving it.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have told Lucy you’d leave it be,” Teddy murmured. Victoire sighed as she leaned into his shoulder. “Hey, that’s probably what Dom’s thinking.”
“That’s definitely what Dom is thinking,” Victoire said, watching as the morning post arrived. “Is your Charms exam today?”
“Yes, this afternoon.” Teddy said. “Which means I probably won’t be at lunch, but I can meet you for dinner?”
“Let’s plan on that,” Victoire kissed his cheek, before a letter caught her eye. “Oh my word.”
“What?”
“Uncle Charlie finally got back to Dom,”
“How can you tell?”
“His letter is neon green,” She said flatly. Teddy laughed as he caught sight of it. “I swear, I can’t believe I’m related to that man.”
“Oh, I can. You’ve got the same sense of humor.” Teddy kissed the top of her head as he stood. “Bye Vic, I’ll see you at dinner. Let me know what you uncle says.”
“I will, good luck on your exams.” Victoire said. She watched as Dominique opened the letter, and decided she didn’t want to wait until they both had a free period to hear about it. She glanced down the table to where Rose was with her friends. “Rosie!”
“Hey, Vic, what’s up?” Rose glanced up from her breakfast.
“Uncle Charlie finally wrote Dom back.” She said, “I’m going to go see what he said.”
“I’ll come with,” Rose declared. She turned to her friends. “Meet you in Potions?” Her friends nodded, and the two hurried over to the Ravenclaw table.
“Uncle Charlie got back to you then?” Victoire said as they sat down. Dominique didn’t look up.
“Hi Vic, yes he did.”
“Well, what’d he say?”
“She’s still reading,” Freddie said sullenly. “Won’t tell me either.”
“You could all learn patience,” Dominique said. “And besides, there’s nothing to tell.” She put the letter down. “All he said was that he knew about Oliver and Penelope, apparently Penelope and Percy dated for a while. And he wanted to know why we cared, and wanted to tell us to stay safe. He’s apparently taking a leave of absence from work and is in Britain for a bit, Grandmum’s losing her mind about all the missing people.”
“Eight in a month and a half is pretty scary,” Victoire agreed. “But he didn’t work at the ministry between ‘94 and 2000.”
“Doesn’t matter. Apparently Granddad tried to tell her that and she didn’t listen. Uncle Charlie doesn’t sound too torn up about it though, I think he needs a break.”
“I’d need a break after twenty-five years of dragons,” Rose muttered. She glanced at her watch and yelped. “I’m going to class, I’ll see you later.” She hurried off, nearly late to getting to class ten minutes early.
“Bye, Rose.” Victoire said, distracted. She turned to Freddie. “Dom updated you then?”
“And Eli and Georgie,” Freddie confirmed. “Look, if you wanted us to look into it, Georgie’s friends with Alex Wood. Maybe Alex’s dad mentioned something about Uncle Percy before he went missing, or about any of those other people.”
“Right,” Victoire said. “Georgie knows him from his quidditch days. Remind me why he quit again?”
Freddie shrugged. “Quidditch isn’t as fun when you’re not playing with the rest of the family,” He said. “Also MJ scared him.”
Dominique snorted. “She scares us too,” She said. “Yeah, maybe we should have him ask Alex.”
“Any chance he could wait for us to be there?” Victoire wondered. Freddie shrugged. “If you wait until the weekend maybe. 5th years have got a Transfiguration exam Friday, so it’d have to wait until after that.”
Victoire hummed. “Yeah, okay. Would probably make Alex Wood a little happier to chat too,”
Freddie nodded. “I’ll tell him when I see him in Potions,” He said. “I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks Fred,” Victoire and Dominique chorused. The two shared a look as Freddie left.
“What do you think?”
“Uncle Charlie did say one thing, but I didn’t want to mention it while Rose was here,” Dominique said. “Since her dad asked Uncle Charlie pretty directly in August if he’d heard from Uncle Percy ever.”
“And he has?” Victoire gasped, reaching for the paper, “When?”
“1996, a year after Uncle Percy got estranged from the rest of the family. Apparently Uncle Percy sent him a letter, asking if he’d agree to take custody of his kids if anything ever happened to him and his wife.”
“Did he say who his wife was?”
“Never, Uncle Charlie says he wrote back right away agreeing, and asking if he had kids because if he did he’d kill him for not getting to meet them yet, right after he killed him for letting him miss Percy’s wedding. But Uncle Percy never wrote back. Uncle Charlie says he checked the records a few years later, and while there was a record of marriage, it didn’t say to who, and no kids, at least no record of them.”
“So what, they had a miscarriage and Uncle Percy didn’t need him anymore? Or was he lying about it all?”
“I don't know.” Dominique shrugged. “Apparently, Uncle Charlie was the one who tried to meet up with Uncle Percy after the war. So he’s the one who realized he was missing.”
“And he never mentioned the letter?”
“Not to anyone, he asked us to not mention it to Dad, he said he would do it himself. Said he’d kept his little brother’s secrets long enough.” Dominique sighed. “It’s all turning into a pretty big mess, isn’t it? Every time we drop a mystery, we pick up another.”
“Sinclair sisters, missing people, and now Uncle Percy.” Victoire agreed. She shook her head. “I should go to class, you sure Uncle Charlie didn’t say anything else?”
“Asked if Sinclairs were causing as much trouble as we thought they would. I’m not going to answer that, don’t want to prove them right.” Dominique shared a look with Victoire. “We’d never live it down.”
“I’m sure we’d get called dramatic,” Victoire agreed. “I’ll see you later, will you talk to Alex Wood with me this weekend?”
“Sure, let me know what Freddie says,” Dominique says. “Rosie will probably want to come too,”
“Yeah, great plan, we’ll corner him like he cornered MJ at the quidditch tryouts. Sure fire way to make people like us.”
“Alex already likes us, we just have to not scare him off,” Dominique said. “Bye, Vic.”
“Bye,” Victoire hurried out of the hall, “oh, sorry!” She exclaimed as she ran into someone. She blinked. “Lucy?”
Lucy Sinclair glanced up from the letter she was holding, tears in her eyes. “Oh, it’s you.” She said. She wiped her eyes. “It’s alright.”
“Are you okay?” Victoire asked.
“Fine,” Lucy said. “Was MJ in there?”
“Um, I didn’t see her, why?”
“Just got a letter she’s gonna want to see,” Lucy pushed past her. “Bye.”
“Bye,” Victoire said, baffled. She watched as Lucy beelined towards the Gryffindor table, before turning back to go to class. “So weird,” She muttered. “Those two are so weird.” But of course, who was she to talk, with her crazy cousins.