At midday the three of them were summoned to detention with Professor Wizzlethorpe. He pressed them on every detail of Seylon's Tower: what they had seen, what they had taken, what Primrose had said. His curiosity raised the party's suspicions. They were not sure if Professor Wizzlethorpe could be trusted.
They went straight from detention to Professor McGonagall. They asked about the tower, about Bellatrix's Children, about the boy claiming to be Harry Potter. She shut down each of their attempts at more information and told them to focus on their studies, but paled at the mention of "Bellatrix's Children" and demanded to know where they had heard the name. They did not give Wizzlethorpe up, but McGonagall worked it out, and her face when she did was something none of them wanted to see again.
The term wore on and McGonagall's silence held. Wizzlethorpe taught his classes as if nothing had happened. By the time autumn turned toward winter and the end of term was nearly upon them, the three of them had stopped expecting answers.
One night in the Ravenclaw Common Room, the three of them found Callum still keeping his distance. He told them his parents had warned him off, that they thought the party was getting tangled up in something dangerous. Finlay said only that Otto missed him, and Callum smiled despite himself. He agreed to come back to them, on one condition: they couldn't use him as bait.
Dinner in the Great Hall was almost ordinary until Filch burst in and whispered something to McGonagall. She called every professor at the high table to follow her and left in a hurry. Caoimhe slipped on her invisibility ring and trailed them, catching the word "breach" and watching McGonagall scatter the professors across the castle in every direction. She turned back toward the hall.
She didn't make it in time. Two figures in dark robes passed her in the corridor, moving with purpose. She cast Immobulus from behind, but it failed. The figures entered the Great Hall and went straight for Callum's seat as the candles flames flickered out all at once. Otto lit Lumos as the strangers reached the table. Finlay cast Obscuro on one and Incarcerous on the other. The bound one tore free of the ropes and bolted. Caoimhe, catching up in the corridor, tripped him and hit Immobulus on the second try.
McGonagall returned paler than before, and ushered Callum and the others up to her office. She said, with some surprise, that she was impressed by how they had handled themselves. Then she asked to speak to Callum alone. Caoimhe, ever nosy, was caught listening invisibly from the steps. Callum surprised everyone by saying McGonegall could tell the others what he had just learned: his parents were missing. Someone had tried to break into the Vane Vault. An Auror was coming in the morning to take him to Gringotts to open it and find clues to aid in the investigation. He asked the party to come with him. McGonagall promised nothing more than that she would see what she could do.