The Case of the Missing Day
Who Knows Where, August 1, 1998
“Wake up!” Astoria screamed.
“Oi! It’s like 10 in the morning!” Ron shouted in reply.
“Yeah! On August 1st!” Luna grinned back.
“Wasn’t yesterday July 30th?” Neville asked.
“Yep!” Dean replied.
“What happened to Harry and Neville's birthday?” Ginny asked.
“I don’t know!”
“Where are we?” Pansy asked.
“I don’t know!”
“This isn’t good,” Tracey said
“This is bad!” Seamus shouted at the same time.
“I’ve had enough time travel for a lifetime,” Harry said.
“You only did it once! I did it every day for an entire school year!” Hermione shouted back.
“What the bloody hell did you just say?” Blaise asked.
“She had a time turner!” Ron yelled.
“It’s how Sirius and Buckbeak managed to get away that night,” Harry said
“I’m sorry about that again. It hurt for a week or two, but I was overly dramatic!” Draco at least had the guts to look shamed.
“Eh, it worked out for the better. We wouldn’t have been able to get Sirius away if you hadn’t.” Hermione said.
“I think we need some more context…Now!” Pansy shouted.
“As much as I would love that, I think we have more pressing matters.” Blaise continued.
“We’re in France,” Daphne said
“I’m sorry what!” Ginny shouted.
“She’s right. I think we floo-ed or something to one of the Malfoy properties in France.” Theo said.
“So we ended up in mainland Europe and are missing an entire day of our lives, which happens to be the 18th birthday of two of our friends, this really isn’t good!” Hermione started.
“Wait!” Ron shouted. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but does anyone here not care about going home yet? Or?”
A handful of heads nodded. They wanted more sleep.
Hermione took a quick tally realizing that Michael, Padma, and Luna were the only non-lions or snakes present. The Hufflepuffs, other Ravenclaws, along with Lavender, Greg, and Millie, were not present.
“Go back to sleep or come over here to talk with us. We will be questioning everyone here at some point.”
Draco walked over to the calculating Hermione. “What do we do! Ugh!”
“Curls, you need to calm down!” Pansy laughed.
Pansy, Neville, Draco, Hermione, Daphne, and Ginny were sitting around a conjured table that no one had conjured.
“So, where do we start?”
“We confirm by an outside source that it is in fact August 1st, 1998. Then, that we are in France.”
“Where’s my beaded bag? I need it!”
“Where’s my wand?” Apparently, no one had theirs.
“That is also bad!”
“I need my bag.” Hermione breathed. “Accio beaded bag!”
The bag plopped onto the table.
“It was the one spell I was determined to learn before we went on the run. I have emergency-everything in here. Including the most wonderful thing of all, a few doses of memory potion. It was just in case someone was given the forgetfulness potion that I also have in here.”
“You’re scary!” Daphne grinned
“Why couldn’t you have been a Slytherin?” Pansy asked.
“I was nearly a hat stall?” Hermione mentioned in reply.
“So we drink the memory potion and hopefully remember why we are missing a day of our lives?”
“Hopefully!”
“Is this safe?
“Eh…” Hermione replied, tilting her hand back and forth. “Guess we’ll see.” She downed the bottle of potion.
To her, time had frozen. She saw what seemed like hundreds of memories flash before her eyes. ‘Truth or Dare! Drinking! Dancing! Fighting? That’s odd.”
“Fighting!”
“Huh? Hermione asked, coming out of her trance. “Did I say that stuff out loud?”
“Yeah!”
“Who was fighting?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if it was angry fighting versus a muggle version of a practice duel. I think it was boxing. In muggle London? With some old lady, I don’t know?”
“That most certainly takes the cake.”
“I’m sorry, but you spilled secrets that we don’t remember! That sucks!”
“I’m going to send a Patronus to Professor McGonagall.” An otter quickly appeared out of nowhere and took a message straight to Hogwarts.
Within minutes a trio of cats in blue came racing up. “I don’t know what you did, but there are at least 3 dozen friends of yours sleeping in the Whomping Willow. They’re exhausted and I’m pretty sure they’re drunk. I’ve managed to gather that you all went to the muggle world, partied, ate an abundance of dessert, and went dancing, Argus Filch is positive you went with his sister and went to a deserted boxing ring in an old speakeasy or something of the sort, said you were going somewhere on the continent, and then I woke up to this. I also have nearly 50 wands in my office? And that is a little odd? I don’t require a response. Good luck?”
“What the bloody hell!” exclaimed Ron who had given up on going back to sleep.
“Filch and Mrs. Figg are siblings? Oh my god!” Harry yelled with a look of sheer horror on his face.
“I’m sorry, what!” Theo shouted.
“No fucking way!” Blaise laughed.
“Isn’t that your old neighbor?” Ron asked.
“Yep!” Harry replied.
“That's odd.” Dean laughed.
“How is everyone in the Whomping Willow currently alive?” Astoria questioned
“And some kind of MMA fight?” said a confused Tracey.
“How do I not remember this?” Daphne asked.
“Just blame Harry,” Pansy suggested.
“What the fuck?” Ron shouted.
“Why me?” Harry asked.
Draco laughed.
“Because you usually have something to do with it.” Daphne laughed
“You’re always in the middle of the drama.” Pansy nodded
“There is no such thing as a coincidence in your life!” Neville laughed
“They’re not exactly wrong, mate,” Ron snickered.
“So how do we get home without our wands?” Harry asked.
“We can’t exactly charter a boat back to Scotland,” Hermione said.
“We can Floo?”
“Can we get into this castle? I can’t believe you have a castle!”
“Is this actually a Malfoy property?” Daphne asked.
“I think so…Why?” Draco replied.
“I mean versus a Black…
“Or Lestrange!” Astoria chimed in.
“Property.” Daphne continued
“You and your mother happen to possess all belongings of three of the sacred 28 families,” Daphne mentioned earning a pissed look from the Malfoy heir.
“Great! More Dark Artifacts!”
“The Ministry should be able to figure it out. Besides, Hermione, I need your help with S.P.E.W. My house elves are a mentally unstable mess. Thanks, Dad!” Theo groaned. Luna at his side, said, “We were visiting the Abraxans that you have.”
“I draw the line at a f-ing Pegasus!” Hermione screamed.
Harry laughed.
“What’s a peg-i-sus?”
“The muggle’s name for Abraxans or horses with wings. It’s part of Greek, I think, mythology. Although the name Abraxan might be Roman.” Hermione said.
“Cool?”
“I’d be willing to work with a carriage, though?”
“We have plenty, last I checked.
“Yeah, he’s got a dozen or so, here at least.”
“Seriously!”
“Old world money is just that!” Harry laughed and Hermione snickered in response.
“Muggle thing,” Tracey piped up to the confused looks of the rest of their friends.
“So we’ve decided on the carriages then,” Ron asked.
“I think I trust the Pegasus more.” Hermione laughed.
Hours later, when the students went back to Hogwarts and joined their friends, the memories had been given back with a Memory Potion. There would always be a little confusion about what had happened, but those stories would be told for years to come. And boy were they stories to tell!