Henrietta Potter And The Slytherin Child - (A 'Henrietta Potter' sequel) || D.M

71 - Strategies

"MUM?!"

My heart soared as I was met with the sight of my son. And then he was running, running towards me as though he were five again, and I'd simply found him after he'd become lost in a busy shopping centre.

And then my vision was completely obscured as his body crashed into mine, nearly knocking me over in the forcefulness of his embrace.

"Oh, Al," I sobbed, clutching him tightly to me, "you don't know how good it is to see you again."

"I know, Mum, I know," he murmured as his body trembled in my embrace.

I glanced up over the top of his head to see Draco being embraced by Scorpius. Our eyes met as we hugged our frightened sons, sharing a look of utter relief.

"We got your note," Draco said, letting go of Scorpius to address both the boys, "how did you do it?"

"It was Scorpius's genius mind," Albus said, grinning over at his brother.

"It was your idea to leave the note on the blanket," Scorpius grinned back, "I can't take credit for that."

"To cut a long story short, we stole the blanket from your baby self," Albus explained, ignoring my raised eyebrows, "wrote a message on it using a potion we made by stealing ingredients from Bathilda Bagshot's house, and then prayed you would be so upset by our disappearance that somehow you would cry into the blanket-"

"Thus making the message appear." Scorpius finished, grinning broadly. "Tincture of Demiguise - reacts when met with human tears."

"My son, the Potion's master," Draco chuckled. "Severus Snape would have been proud."

"I-I'm speechless," I stuttered, staring at the boys in awe. "And thank you, Al, for uh- rescuing my blanket." I didn't want to add that he should not have fucking tossed it away in the first place.

Albus shrugged, shuffling his feet awkwardly as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, well I felt bad for doing that. I'm sorry I chucked it out the window, Mum."

"None of that matters anymore," I said, shaking my head, "I'm just so glad we've found you."

We looked at one another, exchanging tentative smiles.

"As touching as this all is," Ron interrupted, making me jump. I had completely forgotten him and Hermione were with us, "but shouldn't we find out where this Delphi woman is and what she might be planning on doing?"

"You guys know about Delphi?" Scorpius asked, looking up in alarm.

"Yeah, it cropped up." Draco muttered stiffly.

"She's here-" Albus said, suddenly looking at me desperately, "she's trying to kill you we think. Before Voldemort curses himself. She's going to kill you and so break the prophecy and..."

"Yes, we thought that might be it too." Hermione interjected. "Do you know where specifically she is now?"

"She's disappeared." Scorpius said, and then looked at Draco with a horrified expression on his face, "Dad, she killed someone. She killed another student right in front of us. She's completely psycho."

"We know, Scorp," Draco said gently, placing a comforting hand on his son's shoulder. "And that's why we're so relieved to have found you safe and alive."

Something flickered across Scorpius's face as though he had just thought of something. "How did you get here without the Time-Turner?"

I saw the panic flit across Draco's face. I quickly jumped in, rescuing him from having to confess to his son that all this time he had been holding onto something that could have gotten his backside thrown into Azkaban for life.