XXIII

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Haslet, Katherine, and Oliver were having lunch together at their dining table. Oliver was still red-eyed, crying about his best friend who went missing three days ago. Oliver jumped, hearing a thundering knock on the door. Katherine went up to answer the door, but Haslet stopped her.

"Kate, don't," Haslet shook his head, pulling his wife back to look from the peephole, seeing that there are four Aurors in front of his doorstep. Haslet jumped as an Auror knocked.

"Haslet Wood, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Percival Rosier!" The Auror said. "Open the door, Mr Wood!"

Complying, Haslet opened the door, letting the nearest Auror put him in golden handcuffs without struggle. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law. We have a warrant and your house will be searched."

"You're not arresting my husband!" Katherine yelled. "I'm a Muggle police, I have evidence that it was Camilla Rosier who harmed Percy! The evidence is in Muggle Southampton Precinct!" Katherine shook her head. "Where is your warrant?"

"Here-" another Auror hands a parchment scroll to Katherine, who only sighed and nodded defeatedly. "Come with us, Mrs Wood." Katherine nodded as she ran upstairs to the room she shares with Haslet to take her police badge before coming back down, showing her badge to the Aurors before pocketing them. Katherine felt her hand being held as she looked over to see her son.

"Mum," Oliver cried as he held her hand, his eyes begging her to stay. "I'm scared."

"I know, Sweetie," Katherine brushed her son's brown hair back. "Just stay with Aunt Hazel for a bit, Mum and Dad will be right back."

When Katherine lets go of her son, she holds her husband's shoulders and the nearest Auror, letting them disapparate away, noticing two of them stayed. Once Katherine opens her eyes, she realises she's in the back of her office. She immediately enters the office to her desk, shuffling in her file for Percy's case paper along with the two pieces of evidence she got from Rose Songchuya, before handing them to an Auror. The other Auror takes out their wand and made patterns on the wall, causing ripples to appear as the two Aurors, Katherine, and Haslet entered.

In the interrogation room, Haslet ran a hand through his brown hair as the two Aurors left him with his wife, his handcuffed hand on the table. How can he be guilty of kidnapping the boy- he can't understand. Shouldn't Camilla Rosier mention to the Aurors that he dropped Percy off Rosier Mansion after going to the beach and before going home? What evidences do they have against him? Why is he a suspect?

His thought went to what his wife had said, earlier. Does she really have proof that it was Camilla Rosier who harmed Percy? What are they, then? Why does she keep it from him? To think about it, his wife had been pushing him to invite Percy to the beach with them. Maybe she did know something about Camilla Rosier being harmful to Percy. What will Oliver say, now that he knows about this? He was arrested in front of him, and the boy had been quick to make assumptions. Will he opinionate that it was his father who kidnapped the boy? Where? Oliver knew every crook and cranny of the house.

"Hello, Mr Wood," an Auror greeted him as two entered. "I'm Superintendent Marjorie Burke and this is Chief Inspector Edward Mason. We'll be handling the case of Percival Rosier's disappearance."

"I'm innocent, please," Haslet begged the Aurors in front of him. "I didn't kidnap Percy. The others can search my house, it's not me."

"What history do you have with Mrs Camilla Rosier?" Marjorie asked, ignoring Haslet's pleas of innocence. "Mrs Rosier mentioned that she insulted you and your wife, is that correct?"

"She's my boss," Haslet answered, swallowing his saliva. "True, the night when I returned Percy to Camilla's care did she mock me and my wife, but we're mostly civil throughout the years she's been my boss."

"What was the insult, if I may?"

"She called me a mudblood and my wife a can't-spell," Haslet recalled. "My wife was about to ask for a conversation with Mrs Rosier when she kicked us out, saying she doesn't want a mudblood and a can't-spell in her mansion."

Marjorie writes Haslet's words before she looked up. "Before you go to the beach, did your wife display a sudden interest in him?"

"Now that you mentioned it, yes-" Haslet nodded. "I wanted us to go to Bournemouth Pier to celebrate Oliver's grades being As and Bs- we send him to a Muggle school- and Oliver asked if we can bring Percy with us. I was about to say his mother might refuse, but Katherine insisted that it's a good idea. She also kept talking to him when I taught Oliver surfing."

"Is she getting better?"

Arthur nervously bit his lip as he stood in the Lovegood House, watching his magically-depleted wife. Five days later she's already regaining the muscles and fat, but still grey and extremely wrinkly.

"Slowly, it all depends on the amount of magic she lost during her episode-" Pandora shook her head. "Be grateful that your wife is still salvageable, magical core depletion is often deadly and not much survive."

"Shit!" Arthur cursed as he sat down on the floor, his head laying on the sofa his wife is laying on. "I can't lose you too, Molly."

"Who have you lost?" Pandora asked. Arthur looked up at her, his facial expression was hopeless. "If you don't mind."

"There's supposed to be a boy after Charlie and before Fred and George, named Percy," Arthur answered, grief in his voice as he announced the fact. "But Molly became unhealthy during the pregnancy and had to go through an emergency c-section, which costs around two thousand galleons. None of us knew how to pay such a large amount of money."

"The Rosiers happened to want to adopt a child by all means necessary, so we made a deal." Pandora placed a hand on Arthur's knees to offer sympathy, which though does nothing to heal his broken heart, he appreciates it nonetheless. "The Rosiers will have Percy as their child in exchange for the money for the bill and some compensation payment, and the adopting parents want closed adoption."

"I can't imagine how horrible must it be for you-" Pandora shook her head. "Percy Rosier is the missing boy, isn't it?"

"Yes-" Arthur weakly nodded.

"Wasn't he last seen in Bournemouth Pier?" Pandora asked. Arthur nodded. "Well, why don't you go look for him there? After Molly's return back to health, of course. A magical signature can be detected from a certain area, yet no magical signature is identical to another. There's a spell to detect magical signatures."

"Pandora, you're a genius!" Arthur exclaimed gleefully as he hugged his neighbour tightly.

"There's no guarantee that he'll still be there, though," Pandora added the second Arthur lets go.

"I just need to try, first-" Arthur shook his head. "Maybe he'll be there."

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