The Search

The map had been moved from his office to rest on the wall of the Auror meeting room. Here, it had expanded. Now, it encompassed now only Britain, but Russia, France, Switzerland, Czech, and everything in between. The thumb tacks and strings had multiplied, criss crossed and cross referenced and been traced over by his pack at least five times a week. By now it resembled a spider web, the map beneath it having to be projected just in front of the additions to be visible at all.

As much as the map itself had been modified, nothing had changed more than the man standing before it.

Brock Cox was not as he was four months ago.

He was wearing jeans today, and a belt, a simple grey cotton tshirt above that. It was almost laughable how casual the outfit seemed. There was nothing casual about the man. He had barely cracked a smile since he’d walked into her office and found her gone. His Kallie. And now, four months later, it was as if he had forgotten how to smile. He did not remember what the expression felt like, the movement of muscles beneath skin to show happiness. He did not know how he had ever done so before.

Zino had advised he dwell on happier times. He had replied that happier times would not bring her back. The past was past, this was now, and now he needed to find her.

He still hadn’t found her.

His pack was still diligent in their searching, they still believed in his cause. Perhaps it had been the urgency in which he had initially called them forth, and the complete lack of focus he had had since. Their Alpha had only been like this once before, and then he hadn’t had a purpose.

Now, he did.

The significant others - wives, to be precise - of other powerful Wizards had also been taking. Sophia Chaos, Alise Rusnak, and Ninetta Skydancer were all reported missing almost immediately. His wolves had discovered their absence, but had - by some miracle of magic - completely missed where they’d gone. It was unacceptable. He had lead a few teams on their rounds before, Zino at the ready to add to the map, but even he had come up dry. His paws had traced every line on the map more than once per full.

Last time, he had nearly forgotten his Wolfsbane.

Each head of school had been sent for. It was time for the cat to be let out of the bag. Their forces would aid in the search, surely, and for that, he would need to tell them what the rest of the Wizarding World did not yet know. They had been appeased by the image of Kallie Nikkala walking into of the ministry and disappearing into her office - sometimes accompanied by Eli, sometimes by Brock, and sometimes completely alone - and at the end of the day walking off to the apparation point and disappearing with a crack. No matter what the public believed, one thing was certain, and no amount of polyjuice was going to change it.

The Minister of Magic was missing.

Sacha had swept through the ministry, impassive as he made his way through the many corridors to find his way to the Aurors meeting room. He hadn't wanted to take the time for this meeting, really. Every minute was one that ought to have been spent searching for his wife. Granted, he already had many, freeborn* and human alike, on the search. It simply felt that without his personal involvement that he wasn't doing enough.

Ketty had finally persuaded him to go.

Walking into the meeting room, Sacha glanced about, noting that Brock was the only other person there. It had been years since he had seen the other man. They had been close friends in school. Next to Ramzan, Brock had been Sacha's closest friend.

"Brock," Sacha greeted evenly.

Then, Sacha's mask - the one he had mastered through years of meticulous self-control - slipped entirely. With a savage cry, rife with anger, grief, frustration and everything in-between, he grabbed the nearest chair and smashed it against the end of the table. A choked sob escaped his lips as he brought both hands up to rake through his hair.

"Sorry... I..." Sacha began, only to kick impetuously at a broken piece of chair. "I need a moment," he rasped.

---

*House elves born out of slavery; the Rusnak family have employed free, paid elves for generations

“Sacha.” The man’s scent had proceeded him, familiar as ever to the werewolf. Glancing over his shoulder, Brock just caught his turmoil, his breakdown. It was almost comforting, seeing someone as strong as Sach return to something as base as anger. Frustration.

It was a sick kind of relief, not being the only one.

“Sach.” Brock repeated, coming to the man’s side and placing a hand on his shoulder. He searched for words, comforting ones, ones of the friendship that had lasted through the years that summed up just how in the same boat the two were. Flashes of their school days came to mind, almost enough to make the man smile.

Almost.

“Kallie went first.” He said, the words almost choking him. He grit his teeth and turned back toward the map, the sight of it a symbol of his struggle, the crossing and intercrossing lines almost mocking him.

Where is she, Brock?

Not here, Pentu.

Try again, loser.

Are you even looking, Veni?

Failing at this too, are we son?

Shoving his hands in his pockets, the man fumbled with a box of cigarettes, picking out one and placing it between his lips. He stayed like that, just staring at the map, the unlit thing hanging from between his lips.

”You know I hate those things, Pentu.”

“Aw, come on, Volchonka. All the cool kids are doing it!”

“I’m not dating ‘all the cool kids’ now, am I?”

He spit it out, tossing the whole box into the trash. Where had he even got those things?

“I’m missing something.” He said, the statement barely aimed at the other man. “What am I missing? I’ve searched-” His brown eyes tried to trace every line, but there were too many, each touching and intertwining and crossing over the other.

He’d searched everywhere.

But now, now he had help. Now he had- Sacha. Sacha would help him. He always had.

Turning his head to look at the other man, he let his own mask fall, unsurpassed insanity shining through the anger and frustration. “What am I missing, Sach? I’ve looked- I’ve looked-” His eyes returned to the map, the lines, the tacks. Everything. He’d looked everywhere.

Why hadn’t he found her?

At Brock's words, Sacha simply clasped the other man's shoulder in a show of solidarity. He wasn't wholly surprised to hear that news. It made sense - kidnap the minister, then the wives of all the heads of the schools.

He knew Brock well enough to realize how hard the former was affecting the man. Brock had always loved only Kallie, even if it had taken him most of school to realize it. Sacha had once believed it to be a bit tragic.

Gaze studying the maps with its many lines intently, as memorizing the patterns made there, Sacha turned to look at his friend.

"Ketty and the others have been on the search the moment Alise failed to return home from Azorat. I... found her wand." Sacha ran his hand through his hair once more, causing it to stand wildly atop his head. "I would have sent them out sooner, but - I had, unfortunately, place them stock on Kallie's appearing less in public than I ought to have."

He moved to stand shoulder to should with the other man. "We will find them," Sacha enunciated. His tone brooked no argument. He wasn't just speaking comforting words - he was making a solemn vow.

"Yes we will," Basil agreed stepping into the room. He had just come from a meeting in Underland with the Queen and was still dressed in his robes of state. Or what he considered to be robes of state. Knee high black boots, tight leggings in charcoal grey, a crisp white shirt buttoned to just under his sternum, a long royal purple cloak that swept the floor and his pendant of office dangling from his neck to fall against the bare skin on his partially exposed chest. He had only heard the last sentence of the conversation but he had no doubt if it was important the information would be shared.

He studied the map on the wall thoroughly before speaking again. "We can rule out any of the lands under. My goblins and the other creatures have scoured the lands leaving no stone unturned. I have allies down there that would never allow my wife to be hidden from me under their eyes. No. If each of us are here because our partners were seized then they must be Above. Even as we speak bands of my goblins are searching high and low." His fist pounded against the table in a display of anger he didn't usually show. "I will not leave my twins without a mother and my kingdom without a Queen."