When Harry woke up he was pleased to see that it was still dark and Tommy was still asleep. As he sat up in bed, shivering slightly as the bedclothes fell away from him, he rolled his eyes in disgust at the gurgling and slurping noises Tommy was making as he sucked on his dummy; he conveniently forgot that he himself could still not get to sleep without fingers firmly in his own mouth.

Harry got up and crept across the room. He stood on tiptoes to look inside the bars of the crib and frowned at the half-empty bottle that was tucked under his arm.

‘No bobba!’ Harry said as he reached in and carefully pulled it out from under Tommy’s arm. He decided to take a quick slurp on it. ‘Yummy!’ he said gleefully as the still-warm liquid seeped into his belly. He tucked it under his pillow for later.

‘Time to say bye-bye,’ Harry then whispered in Tommy’s ear.

He had come up with a plan – one that would get rid of Tommy for good. It had come to him in the night in a dream; a strange dream that seemed to have taught Harry a lot of things, things that he hadn’t seemed to know before - although as he thought about it now he was not quite sure that he hadn’t known them all along. In any case it was brilliant and there was absolutely no way that the Batman could ever find out about it.

‘And Nape will like me best now,’ Harry added with another frown at the sleeping baby. ‘So there.’ He stuck his tongue out for good measure.

By the time Snape had awoken, slightly more refreshed than he had the previous day, Harry was fast asleep and Tommy was, quite simply, gone - only an imprint of a baby in the soft red blankets to suggest he had ever been there.

Snape’s eyebrow shot up on his forehead as he swiftly drew his wand to perform a ‘point me’ spell; the eyebrow disappeared into his hairline when this failed to locate him.

His eyes scanned the room automatically, but, he reasoned, if Thomas had been hiding in a cupboard, much like Potter had that first morning, the spell should have told him that.

‘Potter,’ Snape said, crouching down next to a sleeping Harry and shaking him, ‘Potter, wake-up now please.’

Harry snuggled deeper down under the covers. Snape’s chambers were always cold first thing in the morning and Harry liked to pretend he was a worm snuggling down into the mud. Unfortunately Nape didn’t seem to be in the mood for that game today.

‘I said, wake-up!’

Snape, agitated by Potter’s apparent tranquillity, pulled the covers from him. Harry sat up in bed at that, the first sign of a pout on his face.

‘I a worm,’ Harry protested. Snape ignored him.

‘Potter, this is very important. Where is Thomas?’

Harry peered over at the empty cot and pretended to think about it. ‘Tomee is gone,’ he said.

‘I realise that, Potter,’ Snape said through gritted teeth, ‘but where exactly has he gone to?’

Harry shrugged and then, rubbing his eyes and stretching said without a hint of curiosity, said, ‘I no know. Breakfast time Nape?’

He went to climb out of bed but Snape stopped him.

‘Potter,’ Snape said, putting his hand on Harry’s shoulder and his face close to his, ‘If you know where Thomas is then say now, I mean it, no games.’

Harry squirmed slightly. With Snape’s eyes boring into him he felt uncomfortable. ‘I no know,’ he said violently.

After that, Snape flew into action. To save time (and to Harry's delight) he hoisted Harry into his arms and carried him to his office to floo Dumbledore. Five minutes later, he, Professor McGonagall and Molly Weasley (who had been in the castle having Charlie vaccinated for wizard wheeze, which could be contracted by muggles if the circumstances were right) were in Snape’s quarters.

‘Really Severus, what have I told you about keeping an eye on young children,’ Molly said. ‘The poor little mite could be half way to the Forbidden Forest by now.’

‘I hardly think so,’ Snape said curtly. ‘He can barely walk let alone scale a fifty foot wall.’

Molly tutted and looked as though she was about to say something else when Dumbledore tactfully interrupted.

‘I don’t think any of us are suggesting that Thomas acted alone,’ he said.

‘You think he was taken?!’ McGonagall said, startled.

‘Impossible!’ Molly said; but she didn’t look as confident about it as she sounded.

‘Headmaster, as you are well aware, the wards around this chamber are as impenetrable as Hogwarts itself,’ Snape said, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. ‘I can assure you that the boy cannot simply have been taken.’

‘Well it’s a shame those wards of you didn’t do as good a job of keeping him in!’ Molly shot.

‘Look, there must be a reasonable explanation for his disappearance,’ McGonagall said. ‘As Severus pointed out, no-one from the outside has ever breached Hogwarts. Let’s not start assuming things. The first thing we must do is search the grounds – it is possible that Tommy has wandered off into some nook or cranny that is invisible to the wands’ eye.’

‘Well that’s going to make him easy to find I must say!’ Molly said. ‘He could be frozen to death by then. Well I suppose we better get on with it. Ron and Ginny and the twins can help out and Hermione too. If we split up we can cover more ground. I’ll start on this floor.’

Molly was just about to leave when she felt a small tug on her robe. She spun round eagerly, and was only slightly disappointed when she realised that it was Harry’s fist and not Thomas’ that had the golden material tightly clenched within it.

‘Oh Harry, my little dustbunny,’ she said pinching his cheeks, ‘I almost forgot all about you, you were playing so quietly.’

‘Me good. I play bookies,’ Harry said. He had been sitting in the corner flicking through his Quidditch book for ages whilst the grown-ups were having boring talk. But now he had had enough of being neglected. Not only that, but he had an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach and he wanted Molly to distract him. ‘Read me.’

‘Oh I can’t now Harry, I’m sorry we’ve got to find little Thomas.’

Harry frowned and Molly took it for concern.

‘Don’t worry dear, we’ll soon have your little friend back for you.’ She turned to the others. ‘He seems quite upset doesn’t he? I’ve never known him to be so quiet. We better keep a close eye on him - they get very attached at that age. When I used to take Fred or George into a different room from each other they used to scream the place down.’

‘I hardly think so,’ Snape said. ‘Last night he threw a tantrum at the mere suggestion of Thomas coming back to my quarters.’

‘They’re very fickle at that age too,’ Molly said. ‘You have to make allowances.’

Dumbledore stroked his bear at the exchange but he passed no comment other than to say, ‘Severus if you would organise the search I think it would be helpful for Harry to be involved in it.’

‘But headmaster …’ Snape protested.

‘There will be no-one who can be spared to look after him in the meantime,’ Dumbledore said. He smiled down at Harry. ‘You would like to help us to find Thomas, wouldn’t you Harry?’

Harry looked up at the bearded man with the twinkling eyes. He wanted to shout NO, he would not be help looking for that stoo-pid baby, and please leave him and the Batman alone so they could play, but something stopped him and he nodded silently whilst fidgeting with the buttons on is pyjamas.

‘That’s the spirit,’ Dumbledore said. He turned to Professor McGonagall. ‘Perhaps with Miss Granger and Mr Weasley. They should take the staff chambers since Harry can not be seen by the student population.’

‘Of course Albus,’ McGonagall said. She took Harry’s hand. ‘Lets get you washed and dressed first young man, you don’t want to go and see you friends looking like something that just got thrown backwards out of a portkey.’

‘I want Nape,’ Harry said.

‘Severus is going to be far too busy looking for Thomas,’ McGonagall said with a stern look in Snape’s direction. It was clear that she was holding him firmly responsibly for Thomas’ disappearance.

Harry pouted. ‘Nape!’ he insisted. This wasn’t working out how he had wanted it to at all.

‘Put that lip away young man,’ McGonagall said. ‘And let’s go and get dressed.’

With that she marched Harry from the room.

‘How far can one baby have got?’ Ron muttered.

He, Hermione and Harry were looking for Thomas in the staff quarters. They were at present in a musty old cloister that had once been occupied by the Astronomy teacher – Professor Serpens - before Professor Sinistra. Ron thought it strange that it was located so deeply underground considering that the point of astronomy was supposed to be to look at stars, and there wasn’t so much as a window (not that you could have seen anything out of it even if there was). He couldn’t blame the new professor for relocating to the astronomy tower. These quarters had a funny smell that nipped at the nose, and there was dampness in the air as though they were in a chilly fog which seeped into the clothes and skin on contact.

‘I’m sure that he can’t have got in here,’ Ron said. ‘Look at it!’ He pointed to the dilapidated fireplace and the crumbling walls, ‘Who in their right minds would wander into here?’

When this still provoked no response from Hermione, Ron turned round to face her. He had hold of Harry’s hand and the toddler jerked on it sharply to try and move on.

Ron winced. ‘There’s no need to pull my arm out of the socket,’ he said to a scowling Harry, rubbing his shoulder, ‘I just want to see why Hermione is ignoring me.’

‘What?’ Hermione seemed to immediately jolt to attention, her dark eyebrows furrowing as she turned to look at Ron.

‘I said, Why-are-you-ignoring-me?’ Ron pronounced each word carefully, as though he was talking to somebody of limited intelligence.

‘I wasn’t,’ Hermione said, slightly distractedly, ‘I was just thinking that I’ve been here before.’

‘You’ve been here before?’ Ron said dubiously, raising his eyebrow at the cobweb that had entangled itself in her bushy hair, ‘why would you want to do a thing like that? ALRIGHT HARRY,’ he yelled as there was another sharp tug on his arm, ‘we’ll go in a minute!’

‘Ron!’ Hermione chided, ‘there’s no need to shout!’

‘Well you have him then,’ Ron said, passing Harry’s hand to Hermione.

‘I no hold hands,’ Harry said, grabbing his sweaty palm away irritably. He was sick of this whole expedition. It was dark, cold and smelt funny and he was starting to get hungry, not to mention the fact that his legs were hurting.

‘Fine by me,’ Ron shot back.

Hermione sighed. ‘We won’t be too much longer,’ she said. ‘Here.’ She took out her wand and traced a line round Harry then brought her arm back a few feet. Immediately glowing green baby reins appeared. They were extremely long in length, which would allow Harry the freedom to move around, but were secure so that he could not escape. ‘Go and explore.’

Harry wrinkled up his face and tried to tug on the funny string but his hand fell through it. ‘Magic,’ he said solemnly.

‘That’s right,’ Hermione said. ‘Molly taught me it,’ she added to Ron – with quite a smug look he thought to himself.

‘What did you mean you’ve been here before?’ Ron said as Harry took off full pelt round the room.

‘What I said. It was the day of the Quidditch tournament. Look.’ She led Ron off to a side door and opened it. There was another dark and deserted corridor and in front of them was the portrait of St Filiwell that Hermione had seen Lucius enter; to the right there was the gargoyle that she had hidden behind.

‘Oh yeah,’ Ron said, ‘I remember now. You thought that he had been getting up to something.

‘The question is, what,’ Hermione said thoughtfully.

‘Lets go and see,’ Ron said. He charged up to the wall and banged on it, then rubbed his hang gingerly. ‘It doesn’t sound hollow.’

‘There’s no point,’ Hermione said. ‘Lucius had some kind of code I think.’

‘Code?’ Ron said blankly.

‘You know, some kind of spell to get in.’

‘Oh, why didn’t you just say so then.’ Ron didn't like it when hermione used muggle words, it made him feel stupid.

‘I told Professor McGonagall about it but when I asked her if they’d found anything she said that they hadn’t been able to find any secret entrance on this floor, though there were ones elsewhere that Lucius could have known about. Apparently the figures in the portraits change every few days to confuse intruders and she thought I must have got it mixed up with one of the other floors.’

‘Well …’ Ron said. ‘There definitely isn’t anything here, so maybe …’

‘I did not get confused!’ Hermione said indignantly. ‘I remember the smell.’ She shivered involuntarily, ‘and the cold. In fact I don’t know why I let Professor McGonagall talk me out of it.’

‘Oh, right, whatever you say, Hermione’ Ron said unconvincingly.

‘I think I might talk to Draco about it,’ she added, ignoring him. ‘He might know what his father was up to.’

At that a flushed Harry ran up to them with tears in his eyes. He had been running around some kind of tiny, nasty birdie-spiders and they had blown hurty fire in his face.

Hermione reached down and picked him up, concerned. ‘Are you okay Harry?’

‘Bad spiders!’ Harry said, his lip quivering. He nestled his head into Hermione.

Hermione pulled him back gently and looked him up and down. He was covered head to foot in dust.

‘Honestly, have you been up a chimney, Harry, you’re filthy!’

Harry ignored the reprimand. ‘Bad spiders,’ he insisted.

Hermione’s eyes eventually settled on the heavy fringe that had fallen over his face. She put her fingers up to it and noticed that the ends were singed.

‘Something’s burned him,’ she said to Ron. ‘Here, let me check something.’

She passed Harry to Ron, who held him awkwardly. He could never get used to the fact that his best friend was now a two-year old child.

‘Bad-spiders,’ Harry repeated to Ron.

‘I heard you the first time, mate. Don’t worry, I won’t be going anywhere near them. I think they’re bad too.’

Harry looked up curiously into Ron’s face. His face was all screwed up and he was shaking slightly.

‘Scaredy-bat!’ Harry squealed, laughing hysterically. ‘Ron a scaredy-bat!’

‘Oi, stop that!’ Ron said. ‘At least I’m not a little baby who can’t even walk properly or eat with a knife and fork.

Unfortunately the sarcasm seemed lost on Harry and he just giggled more, chanting scaredy-bat over and over again like it was the best joke in the world. Ron was just about crimson (and trying very hard to stop himself smacking his best friend on the behind) when Hermione reappeared.

‘Just like I thought,’ she said. ‘Midgie-dragons.’

‘Midgie whats?’ Ron said. ‘Here, you have the little brat.’

He passed Harry back to Hermione and she put the toddler on the floor.

Hermione rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t you ever listen to Professor Sprout,’ she said.

‘Not often. Why, what did I miss?’

‘Midgie-dragons are insects, Ronald.’

‘Well I gathered that much for myself.’

‘They are a very rare form of insect actually, and not something one usually sees in decent society. They usually flock around areas that contain dark magical artefacts.’

‘Eh?’

‘You know, like dragons guard treasure,’ Hermione explained. ‘Midgie-dragons will only go where they think that there is something valuable and usually wicked.’

‘What are they doing down here then?’

‘I don’t know,’ Hermione said. ‘Actually they seem to be dying out. Because they’re so small they breathe fire in unison. If there had been a lot of them then Harry really could have got a nasty burn, as it is …’

‘He didn’t.’

‘Exactly.’

Hermione thought for a few moments. ‘I suppose that it could have something to do with Lucius. Perhaps he removed something that they were guarding.’

‘They’re here though, not in the secret room that only you’ve seen.’

Hermione glared at Ron. ‘I’m not making this up.’

‘I’m not saying you’re actually making it up, you might just be a bit confused,’ Ron said. ‘Maybe the midgie-things just got muddled up too.’

Hermione was just about to make a cutting retort when Harry tugged on her sleeve. She looked down and saw that he was crossing his legs and jumping around.

‘What’s the matter, Harry,’ she said.

‘Me need wee-wee.’

‘Oh, okay.’ Hermione ignored Ron’s disgusted look. ‘Good boy, Harry. We better get you back upstairs then, hadn’t we?’

Back in Snape’s quarters, Hermione waited patiently for Harry to use the potty. When she heard the lion roar she helped him do his buttons up.

‘You’re a good boy Harry,’ she said brightly.

Harry beamed.

‘Is that so?’ said Snape.

Harry whizzed round, and his expression turned to terror as he saw that the Batman had somehow found Tommy.

‘Then perhaps he would like to explain this.’

‘Uh oh,’ Harry said.

Snape looked angrier than Hermione has ever seen him. His black eyes were slits and there was a flush on his pallid face. In his arms was a filthy, but seemingly contented, Thomas.

Before he could utter another word Harry had bolted as fast as his chubby little legs could carry him from the room. Snape handed a sleeping Thomas to Hermione without a word and stalked after the toddler, grabbing him easily and hoisting him under his arm like a sack of potatoes.

‘Me and you are going to have a little chat,’ he said, carrying him swiftly from the room.

‘What was all that about,’ Ron said, coming entering the room just as Harry began to wail.

‘I don’t know,’ Hermione said, ‘but I have the feeling that Harry is in a lot of trouble.