Kapitel 47: Midnight news
Harry was jerked awake by alarms blaring. He jumped out of bed. What had happened? Had the Death Eaters managed to escape already? He got dressed in a hurry, then ran over to the holding cells, where the activity was. He went in search of Lagasete or anyone else in charge. He didn't have to search long. Lagasete came towards him, fury visible on his face.
"What has happened?" Harry asked. "Who has escaped?" He hoped it was not Lestrange.
"Your niece." Lagasete said, fury coming from every syllable. "She got the chain off and ran out the window. She must have had help. What do you know about this, Potter?"
Rose? That couldn't be! Harry just stared at Lagasete in disbelief. Could this just be another ploy from the Death Eaters, that they brought her with them as a hostage again? Why would they risk doing that?
"Are you sure? How? Is it only her?"
"Only her, yes. And of course we are sure. It only took two minutes from when the chain was off until we raised the alarm, but she was already gone. We found this just outside the gate." He held up her Tracker. "Are you still convinced she is as innocent as you believe, Potter?"
"If she was not, why didn't she take anyone else with her?"
"If she was not guilty, why did she run?" Lagasete countered. Harry knew this wasn't the time to expose what he had discovered. Instead, he asked the other important question.
"Have you any idea who helped her?"
"I was sort of hoping you could tell me that. But I understand that the British Ministry will continue with the same vein that you have always done. Polite excuses but no action. Now, get out of the way, Potter. We have work to do."
Harry realised that his offer to help would be refused. But he still went over to the cell. He needed to see this for himself. No one stopped him. The cell was indeed empty, the chain on the floor, and the window wide open. Why did the window in the cells open that easily? Sure, the prisoners couldn't reach it when they were restrained, but it had clearly been easy for whoever helped her to get inside. He thought he knew who that might be. He needed to contact the family again. Hermione especially needed to know what had happened.
"Oh, Rose. What have you done this time?" he sighed as he went back to his room.
***
Hermione was nudged out of sleep by a low buzzing. That was a warning mechanism she had installed, so that she could receive emergency messages without waking Ron or anyone else in the family.
She leaped up and saw the small note on her nightstand. It only said "fireplace". She ran into her office. Nothing. Then the living room. Harry was there, looking serious.
"You should wake Ron," he said. "He needs to hear this. Ginny is on her way."
She didn't like the sound of that. But she ran back to the bedroom and shook Ron awake. He was up and alert in a moment when he heard who it was. Just as they were walking down to the living room again, Ginny came in the front door. She hadn't bothered to knock, apparently.
Once they were all present, Harry went straight to the point. "Rose is gone," he said. "She escaped from the prison about an hour or so ago."
"What do you mean, gone? Has she run away? How? Why?" Ron asked.
Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. What was going on here?
"Is it only her, or some of the Death Eaters as well?" she asked.
"Only her. Lagasete is furious, as could be expected. He clearly didn't want my assistance. It looks like someone from the outside simply opened a window and released her chain. It took two minutes for the alarm to be sounded, but she was already gone. I doubt they will find her, and I am honestly not sure if I want them to. They found the Tracker outside the main gate, disabled."
Hermione groaned. What were Rose thinking? This would only make matters worse. They had been close to a solution, now they had to start from scratch again.
"But who could have helped her?" Ron asked. "She doesn't know anyone in Norway."
"I think I can answer that." Ginny said. "Albus is not at home. No one has seen him for two days now. Scorpius is missing too. He had a final check-up at the hospital yesterday, but he didn't show."
"Albus was with Draco and Scorpius when I learned about the family vendetta." Harry said.
"Wait, you don't think they…" Hermione asked.
"Yes, I do," Harry said.
"They wouldn't!"
"Sure, they would." Ron said. "Think about it. They have little to no hope that Lagasete will ever let Rose go. This is a quick and easy solution."
"And an illegal one!" Hermione almost shouted. "They'll be hunted everywhere! How could they put us in this position?"
"I agree with Ron." Harry said. "This is exactly something Albus and Scorpius would do."
"But why? Don't they trust that we can sort this out?" Ginny asked.
"I honestly don't know if we can sort this out, and it will be a lengthy process if we do. We definitely cannot count on Lagasete to relent. We need to take this above his level now. With this escape, we may actually stand a better chance at clearing this all out. Lagasete will not have a Malfoy to punish either way now, if Rose managed to clear all her tracks, as I suspect she has."
"I have another thing that may help," Hermione said. "I looked in the archives for signs of this group of Malfoy's from Norway. Under the Thicknesse government it seems they were attempting to come under legal protection. It says they were expected, but never arrived, lending credit to Draco's drowning theory. But no sign of them was ever found. If there had been an accident at sea, there should be some sign of the boat, wreckage, something. So, I kept digging. It turns out, the boat in question was later reported in Iceland. This was in March 1998, so right before the Battle of Hogwarts. There were documents that mentioned a trip to Iceland to figure out what had happened to the boat, but of course it never happened."
"So, there is a chance that these people are still alive?"
"Yes. At the very least, we can prove that Britain has not been hiding them from justice."
"That may help. Though it might have helped more yesterday. I think we should wait a few days before confronting Lagasete with this, since he will be busy searching for Rose in the next few days."
"He may even tell you about his history now." Ginny said. "This may be to our advantage in the long run. Now he won't have a token Malfoy as a target for his anger no matter the outcome."
"Or it will make him even more angry. And technically, the old story about the Norwegian Malfoys is not directly related to Rose's case. Lagasete will probably not admit that he held her back due to his own grudge. Either way, there is little we can do at the moment. I just wanted to let you know what had happened. I suspect we will hear from them officially in a few hours at the most. I thought it best if you heard it from me."
"Thank you." Ron said. "But please, try to make sure they don't kill her, if she is recaptured."
"I doubt she will use lethal force against them, if she is found, so they are unlikely to retaliate. Even Lagasete would not do that, I think." Harry said. "I will do my best to calm things down. But I am afraid that if I interfere too much here, they will kick me out of the building. And please, when someone contacts any of you, act very surprised and angry that Rose would ever do such a thing. Don't implicate anyone else."
Hermione nodded. "I will come myself within the next few days. I will contact the Ministry in Iceland first. Once I have all the answers, it is time to confront Lagasete."
Harry agreed. "Any ideas they have about not being personally involved have crumbled."
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