The Gryffindor common room was unusually quiet for a weekend night. Most students had trickled off to their dormitories, and the fire crackled low in the hearth. Sky sat between Fred and George on one of the squashy armchairs, staring intently at the Marauder's Map spread across their laps. The twins looked grimmer than usual.
"She's not on it," Fred said, his voice lower than a whisper.
"Anywhere," George confirmed, tapping the parchment with his wand. "We've been checking every hour. Common rooms, bathrooms, kitchens… even the owlery. Nothing."
Sky's expression remained composed, but internally, a growing sense of dread twisted tight in his chest. Something wasn't right. Something was off, and it wasn't just Ginny's absence—it was the feeling in his bones, a quiet itch in his mind like puzzle pieces shifting without him.
"You've checked for blank spaces too? Overlapping footprints, weird movements?" Sky asked, keeping his voice casual.
Fred nodded seriously. "Everything. And no signs of Disillusionment Charms or Polyjuice disguises either. Nothing's cloaked or tampered."
Just then, Hermione arrived through the portrait hole, carrying a stack of books. She stopped short at the sight of them huddled around parchment.
"What's going on?" she asked, setting the books aside.
Sky looked up. "Ginny's missing. She's not showing up on the map."
Hermione frowned and came closer. Sky held out the map to her.
She gasped softly as she watched names pulse into view across Hogwarts. "This… this shows everyone?"
"Every person in Hogwarts," Sky confirmed.
"Down to the ghosts," Fred added.
"But—how? How does it even work?" she asked, awe mixed with disbelief.
"We don't know," George said solemnly. "But it's never been wrong."
Hermione's expression shifted from wonder to worry. "Then where is she?"
Sky glanced down again. "Either somewhere Hogwarts doesn't show us… or not in Hogwarts at all."
Fred muttered, "This didn't happen last year. Not like this."
Sky narrowed his eyes and whispered almost to himself, "Is canon trying to fix itself? But how would it do that? I destroyed the diary... and the Basilisk's locked away…"
Inside Sky's trunk lounge, they'd transformed one of the walls into an investigation board. Diagrams, notes, and magically floating string lines crisscrossed around sketches of Hogwarts. A glowing copy of the Marauder's Map hovered nearby.
"Three places we haven't ruled out," Sky said, pointing with a conjured pointer. "The Shrieking Shack, the Room of Requirement, and the Chamber of Secrets."
Fred raised an eyebrow. "The Shack I've heard rumors about but that is outside of hogwarts, isnt it?"
George also piped in "Room of Requirement? Never heard of it. And the Chamber of Secrets? That's just one of those Hogwarts legends, isn't it? How would you know its location?"
Sky gave a tight smile. "Ask me no questions, and I shall tell you no lies."
Hermione frowned, thinking aloud more than anything. "If the legends are true, then the Chamber of Secrets was Salazar Slytherins personal chamber and has never been found for generations… but Sky and I already inspected the entrance— we suspect it requires parseltongue to get in which is why no one has been ever able to find it. Ginny doesn't speak it either so we should be able to rule that out."
Fred gave her a skeptical look. "Wait—Parseltongue? That's the snake language, right? Thought only dark wizards knew that."
George nodded. "Yeah, it's supposed to be this super rare thing. The kind of magic that gets you on a watchlist."
Sky gave a dry chuckle. "That's just the reputation. Truth is, Parseltongue isn't as rare as you think. In India, for example, entire magical communities speak it fluently. It's not inherently dark—it's just another language. Britain's bias just makes it out to be sinister. You will see it for yourself if we cant find Ginny in all the easier places."
Fred leaned in. "Wait, so the Chamber of Secrets is actually real? I thought you were joking. You're saying we can get into them? Didn't you say Parseltongue was needed?"
Sky gave a half-shrug. "If it comes to that, I have someone in mind who might be able to help."
Seeing the twins' curiosity hadn't waned, Sky continued, "Let's go over the other two spots—just in case."
He turned and pointed at a floating parchment sketch of the Hogwarts grounds.
"The Shrieking Shack," Sky said, tapping a corner, "is the most haunted building in Britain, or so they say. But the truth is, it was used by a student who was suffering from lycanthropy. He needed a secluded place to transform into a werewolf during full moons, and this shack was connected to Hogwarts by a hidden tunnel under the Whomping Willow."
Fred tilted his head. "Makes you wonder what caused all the noise people talk about."
George nodded in agreement.
Sky smirked. "Exactly. There's a knot at the base of the Willow—press it, and the tree freezes long enough for you to get through the tunnel. That's our way in."
He shifted the pointer.
"Next is the Room of Requirement. It's a magical space on the seventh floor. Only appears when you really need it, and the door only shows up if you walk past the blank wall three times while focusing on what you need."
Hermione nodded. "It's incredibly powerful magic. We've tested it. The room changes based on the need of the person entering."
George's eyes sparkled. "That's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard."
Sky tilted his head. "It is. And I wouldn't be surprised if the founders enchanted it that way back in their day."
The Whomping Willow loomed over them like a sleeping giant. Sky approached first, pointing to a specific knot on the trunk.
"There," he instructed. "Touch that, and it'll freeze."
Fred hesitated. "How are we supposed to touch the knot? That tree nearly took George's arm off last year."
Sky exhaled. "Watch this."
Without further warning, he transformed. Where Sky once stood, a small, scruffy Niffler now waddled across the grass, fur glinting faintly under moonlight.