BY fates design

Missing cloak

Back at Hogwarts - two days earlier

"Hm? We're seeing Hogwarts?" Kira tipped her head to the side, braids falling over one shoulder. "Why?"

Within the gold embellished confines of the Gryffindor common room, Harry sat before the fireplace, warm light cast over his cheek breathing an orange hue into his pale complexion. Situated upon the sofa opposite him were Ron and Hermione, all three of them had sour expressions on their faces.

"Ugh," Kira groaned. "Gross. What an awful excuse to be back in Hogwarts." Her nose scrunched up in disgust.

"Watch your mouth, filth." Ron shot back, reaching a hand into his pocket to wrap around his wand, but before he could even make contact with the wood, a barrage of stinging hexes rained down on him.

"Vile scum." Andromeda scoffed, pocketing her wand again.
"Disgusting." Narcissa agreed, slipping her own wand back into the sleeve of her dress.

"What a wench." Hermione scoffed, arms folded across her chest. "Who on earth does she believe herself to be, acting so high and mighty?" The fire cast streaks of vermilion through the frizzy strands of her walnut hair.

"Exactly." Ron nodded, his hand rummaging through a box of vibrant jelly beans, "I mean, bloody hell, acting like she has the authority to disown you. She's not the head of house, surely."

"They aren't talking about my daughter, are they?" James frown, brown eyes darkening with a sparked distain.

Staring into the twisting tentacles above the hearth, brows drown together forming three distinct lines to crease his face between his eyes. "What does disowning even mean? Like, I still have the Potter name, so it's meaningless, right?"

"Well... not exactly." Ron sat up a bit. "Disowning cuts ties with the family; no more ancestral magic, family vaults, heirlooms. Shit like that." He shrugged, sniffling.

Nodding, Harry stood up. "I'm going to the library. Maybe there's a book on these Tri Wizard Tournaments there." Lazily, he stretched his arms over his head with a groan, reaching into his bag for something. A frown pulled at his features when he fingers drifted aimlessly through the bag, coming short of the possession he was looking for. "Did either of you nick my cape?"

Both of the other teens sit up straighter at the accusation, shaking their heads. "No, Harry, we did not take your cape." Hermione rose a brow, "is it missing? Maybe you left it in your dorm or something." She suggested, standing up now as well to search the common room.

"Foolish children." Fleamont shook his head, exasperation dancing behind his glasses. "How grotesquely uneducated and ignorant." He tapped a rhythmic pattern with his fingers against the round table beside his seat. At his side was Euphemia, beside her was Walburga and then Orion, the four of them wearing matching expressions of disapproval.

For the next four hours, the three Gryffindors ransacked the entire castle, searching storage rooms and bathroom stalls, bribing other students to grant them access to other common rooms. When their digging came up fruitless, they collapsed back into the couch of the common room, panicked expressions painted across ashen faces.

"Where could it be? We've searched everywhere." Harry paced, feet scuffing against crimson carpet as he tracked back and forth before the fireplace, his form casting dancing shadows across the far wall of the room.

"Maybe some stole it." Ron offered, setting up a game of magic chess on the small round table beside the tattered arm of the couch he'd claimed. There was a smudged of dirt swiped across his cheek, perhaps ash or filth from their scavenging, and his scarlet hair was dulled with dust.