The Daily Prophet reported Alana Braxton's arrest the next morning, and the whole school was talking about it at breakfast. Otto, Finlay and Caoimhe told everyone who asked to mind their own business, and most of them did. They went back to Seylon's Tower looking for anything they had missed and came away with nothing. On the way back they sought out Juniper and haggled her into supplying Floo powder, delivery in under four weeks.
On the way to Divination, Finlay found Fredrickson painted Slytherin green from horns to plaque and unable to make a sound. He lifted the silencing charm, and the sheep told him the rest: Elias and two friends, every day since the hearing. The party took him off the wall and carried him down to Hagrid's hut, where nobody paints anything and the company is better. Otto, meanwhile, started going to the gym with Callum.
Ravenclaw played Slytherin on the Saturday, Callum's first match as a Beater, and Ravenclaw won. Slytherin had been favoured and took it badly. The party used the noise: while the stands roared they slipped under the rafters and burned Elias's cloak. Elias found them afterwards and, in front of a crowd, challenged them to settle it at the Duelling Club.
Wickens ran the evening in the Great Hall, first disarm or first fall. Caoimhe beat Juniper. Otto beat Thad. Declan beat Finlay. In the second round Declan drew Caoimhe and announced that he did not want to hurt a girl, so she punched him; he won the bout anyway. Otto drew Elias and disarmed him clean, and Elias lost his temper badly enough that Wickens gave him detention on the spot. In the final Otto beat Declan and took the night.
Then the Prophet printed the raid. Aurors had gone through Noxley Hall, found the stair, the chamber and the vault door, and taken Arthur and Bridget into Ministry holding. The paper put the chamber, the missing Vanes and the Noxley heir in three consecutive sentences and let the school do the rest. Callum had read it at the same table as everyone else. He had been in that cellar with them. He was quiet and plainly unhappy, and he did not move from Otto's side.
Tobias and Rafael came to Hogwarts with McGonagall's leave and, for the first time, spoke to the party as something other than suspects. Bellatrix's Children are hunting Seylon's relics and believe they answer to Vane blood, which is why Callum's parents were taken. The cell can see the Aurors coming every time. It cannot see the party at all. Tobias wanted to use that, and said so. McGonagall thought the whole proposition preposterous and told them not to accept, and they accepted. A goblin from Gringotts drew up the terms, and the party signed with one clause of their own: anything bearing on Callum's parents takes priority over everything else.
Their first mission was given by Tobias and Rafael: go to Azkaban under the pretense of visiting Otto's parents, and see what they can find out about the warden. They left the next morning on Thestrals. Callum has never seen someone die, so he needed Otto's help mounting the Thestral, which Otto was happy to provide, lifting him up by his small waist. Finlay and Caoimhe rolled their eyes at each other.
They landed in the forest near the coast and Rafael gave them a coin to press if they needed help. Tobias warned them to only use it if their lives were in danger. He told them to go up to the fort on the cliffside and that Abel Gaunt would be waiting for them to ferry them to Azkaban. When they got there, a dragon was flying overhead. They got inside just before it scorched the roof. Abel told them he wouldn't be able to take them because the dragon had burned the boats and the cave with extras had been overrun by grindylows for months.
The party went to handle the dragon first: Finlay used his marble to sense its emotion. It attacked nervously a few times, but the party was able to hold it off with Protegos. They frantically tried Accio-ing sheep, but only wool would come until finally Callum managed it while Finlay distracted the dragon with some dried meat. Otto gave Callum a kiss on the cheek for his success, to which he blushed and smiled.
Then the party went down to the cave. Otto and Caoimhe went in, flying with Otto's magical cape. They found boats at the end and Otto used Wingardium Leviosa to lift one with them inside and carry it out of the cave. The party were viciously attacked by grindylows. First Caoimhe and then Otto. They were managing to kill them but there always seemed to be more. Eventually one hit Otto hard and caused him to drop the boat when they were pretty close to the exit. Finlay and Callum joined in the fight, and finally they defeated the last one. They were pretty injured though, and decided they should probably rest for the night before going to Azkaban the next morning.