I yanked out the map from the file, laying it on the coffee table in the Ravenclaw common room. A few miles of terrain had been circled with a red pen. That was the general location of where Dad had disappeared.

"I'll start packing," Aliena said, rushing off. "Wait, what?" I jerked my head up. "There was no way we were letting you go out in those woods alone. We're coming too," she said firmly, pulling out an old carpetbag. "I've always hated this thing," I heard her mutter. She tapped her wand to the handle, and the inside was magically expanded to fit all of our stuff. She began to pack our clothes in our trunks before shoving them into the carpetbag. "How are we supposed to just leave Hogwarts? I mean, getting all the way to Romania-" "I've got access to the spare Quidditch brooms," Cuthbert piped up. "You'll be lucky if we aren't expelled," I groaned. Cuthbert grinned. "Your dad was expelled."

"Fair point."

I yanked out a headshot of Dad. Dad always looked awkward when he moved in pictures. Dad in the picture gave me a shy smile before attempting to duck out of the frame. I smiled sadly to myself, folding up the headshot and tucking it into my pocket. Having that small part of him there made me feel strangely content.

"There's an escape route out of Hogwarts through the pipes in the boy's bathroom. Once we escape, we'll fly to a wizard bar. There's this guy my dad knows who works there. He may be able to help us get to Romania," Cuthbert said. "How would he help us get to Romania?" Aliena asked curiously. "He owns a fancy cruise ship, and let's just say he owes my dad something."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This is a stupid plan," Aliena muttered under her breath. It was midnight, and we were walking through the halls to the boys's bathroom to make our escape, Cleansweep Sevens clutched in our hands. "Got any better ideas?" I snapped. Aliena rolled her eyes. Cuthbert was focused, determined not to get us into any more trouble than what we were going to get in. "Left," he muttered, and we obeyed.

Cuthbert guided us to the entrance of the boys's bathroom. "Hop on, and follow my lead," he instructed. We nodded. Aliena swung the carpetbag over her shoulder before mounting her broom like I did. Cuthbert flew into the boys's bathroom, Aliena and I in hot pursuit. There was a large crack in the wall just large enough to fit one of us at a time. We each glided seamlessly through it, and the next thing we knew, we were in the pipes.

They smelled awful, but the sharp turns and twists made it hard to think about that. After about thirty minutes of sharp twists and turns in the pipes, we finally reached the outside world. I saw Hogwarts shrink from sight as I glided over the trees of the forbidden forest.

We had escaped.