Chapter Text
Dazai never sent any letters back to his gang the summer after his second year. He was definitely receiving them though, with the way that Errol, as uncoordinated as he was, was always coming back to the Weasley house empty beaked. A quick letter to Hermionie confirmed that she was also not getting responses from their little Snakey either. Fred and George were, understandably, upset that their Boss was going no contact with them again. Especially with their suspicions that his home life wasn’t the greatest. It was disappointing to be left in the dark again. The twins agreed to give Dazai a reprimand once they got back to school. But not until after they made sure he was healthy and uninjured, of course. They were sure Blaise would do the same too.
The two gingers had not predicted that they wouldn’t be able to find Snakey at all on the train ride to Hogwarts, though. The whole gang, minus Dazai, had been able to find each other. As a group, they searched every room throughout the entire train, for at least a third of the time they spent on their ride. They had ended up all sitting together, in a horribly awkward silence as they tried to figure out where he might be.
“Maybe he’s coming to Hogwarts another way.” Ron suggested hopefully. “Hadn’t seen any article stating that they saw ‘im over the summer. Maybe the bloke’s finally learned that ‘e shouldn’t go outa his way to look bad?”
Fred furrowed his brows. Come to think of it, while the Daily Prophet was still spouting their nonsense about Dazai, they hadn’t had any recent photos of him showing. No exaggerated stories about him in Diagon Alley. Surely, if he had gone there, he would have been recognized on sight and swarmed with lunatics and reporters. This would have meant that he hadn’t gone to Diagon Alley, or got his school supplies. Looking over at his brother, Fred knew that he was thinking the same thing.
“I doubt that students are allowed to take other forms of transportation to Hogwarts, unless they have special reasons.” Hermionie responded, turning her head to the side as she made a thoughtful face. “Though maybe he was given a pass? Perhaps from Professor Snape, …or Headmistress McGonagall.”
At the mentioning of Headmistress McGonagall the room gained an uneasier air. The news of Dumbledore’s death was still fresh in their minds. Yet another tragedy their friend had been unjustly blamed for.
“Well,” Blaise said solemnly. “We’ll just have to wait and see if he’s at school.”
The Hounds silently agreed with the Second in Command.
Dazai was not at Hogwarts. According to rumors, Professor Snape and the Headmistress spent a month trying to locate the boy, to no success. Issue after issue of the Daily Prophet exclaimed the joy and relief felt in the wizarding community, now that ‘the demon problem solved itself.’ But now, it seemed the community was divided. While the DOE and wizarding majority stuck to their beliefs that everyone was safer without Dazai, there was a rising population of wizards and witches who believed that it was cruel to have driven a child out of their world, which was the popular theory as to why Dazai was gone. The boy had become an even hotter topic, a political issue among the community. The type of thing argued over at family gatherings, and during public events. Blaise couldn’t help but wonder if this was what Dazai and the Port Mafia’s goal was. To divide the wizarding world. Zabini, in the back of his mind, had a feeling that he was never going to get the chance to ask his boss that question. Yet he tried hard to remain hopeful.
In mid-December, Dazai was spotted in Knockturn Alley by an anonymous individual who just so happened to have a camera on them at that lucky moment. A blurry, but still recognizable photo of the thirteen year old was presented in the Prophet the next morning. With dark curls, white bandages, and a dark coat draping over a skinny torso, Dazai looked the same as when Blaise had last laid eyes on the boy. However, the sling and cast on his arm, along with the scowl worn on his face, were new. Dazai looked more tired than before.
And there was one more, big thing that Blaise stared hard at on that blurry photo.
The ginger boy in a hood next to Dazai with an equally tired glare directed at Blaise’s boss. Seeing this individual brought the boy a strong mix of emotions. On the one hand, he was relieved that Dazai was not alone with whatever he was up to. On the other, Blaise felt like he was replaced. He had no idea what Dazai’s relationship with the other boy was, but seeing another person their age next to him stirred a jealousy deep inside his chest. Looking around the Great Hall, to the other Hounds reading the paper, it seemed they all had reactions of their own as well.
And that was the only sighting of Dazai anyone had. The rest of the year went rocky, but more calm than in previous years. No murders occurred within the walls of their school. Looking back on his second year, Blaise had yet to regret what he had done. But that's besides the point. The only major issues that had happened were Sirius Black’s escape and the current wizarding politics. Though, one of these issues abruptly was fixed.
Black was found dead, half buried in the snow along the trees surrounding Hogsmeade. From what was released, it had seemed that Black was hit by a blunt force, enough to kill him almost instantly. Apparently authorities were unable to deduce what spell was used to cause this. The Prophet, of course, pointed fingers at ‘The Demon on the Run.’ The case was left officially unsolved by the Ministry, and the end of Sirius Black’s reign of terror was celebrated.
Blaise had talked it over with Draco, and both of them concluded that it had to have been Dazai who had caused Black to turn up like that. He would have been able to take down a murderer without using magic, he had done it before. Of course, they were never going to reveal his secrets. Even without the boy around, their loyalty still stood.
Blaise had actually grilled Draco a number of times for anything he might have heard from his father regarding the Mafia, but apparently they had cut ties with the Malfoys before school started as well. Dazai, and his organization, had utterly ghosted the wizarding world! What was their reasoning? Blaise would never know.
And that was how the year went for Blaise. The boy assumed that it was similar for the other Hounds, just more confusing, since they knew much less about what was really going on. The gang didn’t really meet up anymore. House loyalties reemerged, separating the gang into Slytherins or Gryffindors.
Boarding the train to leave Hogwarts, Blaise lightheartedly amused the thought of Dazai showing back up for his fourth year. He wouldn’t even feel any bit of resentment anymore, just relief, if he found Dazai in one of the compartments that fall. But that probably wasn’t going to happen.
And it didn’t.
The gang sat together again on the ride to Hogwarts the following year. Perhaps they all, like Blaise, hoped that Dazai might somehow see them all together and show back up to reunite with his gang. The Weasleys and Hermionie took up one end of the compartment, talking about lighthearted, casual things. Draco, Blaise, and Pansy were on the other. Like the year before, Pansy had joined them simply because she wanted to be with Blaise and Draco. The snake trio talked and discussed things such as their plans for the year, vacations they went on, and their takes on interesting political topics.
Around halfway through the ride everyone seemed to have run out of conversation material. One of the Weasley twins cleared his throat.
“So. Me an’ Fred have something we want to share with you all.” George it seemed, said, tracing his eyes from one side of the compartment to the other. “We were going to wait until the time got closer, but seeing as we might not be able to get everyone back together to talk, we decided to go ahead and share it now.” Something they wanted to share when the time got closer? What could this be about?
Fred(?) signalled for the group to turn their attention to him. “It’s about Dazai.” The ginger said with a straight face.
The room’s atmosphere tensed up immediately. Hermionie awkwardly looked down at her feet, Ron suddenly gained an interest in petting Angel, and Draco got a strained look on his face. It seemed to Blaise that no one wanted to talk about him. Would they all rather forget everything they had gone through with him? “What in particular?” Blaise spoke up.
“So,” George began. “It doesn’t make sense that he never came back to school. Dazai wouldn’t let the Prophet’s propaganda push him out of Hogwarts, and it wasn’t like he had been expelled.”
“Something must’ve happened.” Fred stated. “I mean, other than that real odd photo of him in Knockturn Alley, he has completely disappeared from the wizarding world. Last year, I swear that the second we found out that Dazai wasn’t here, we completely abandoned the gang, and each other. We didn’t even try and figure out what happened to Snakey!”
“I mean, I always figured the bloke just got bored of school? It wasn’t like he ever was invested in it in the first place…” Ron brought up, trailing off back into silence. He looked back down at Angel, sitting on his lap.
“Dazai was never interested in his academics, but I’m fairly certain that isn’t true.” Hermionie gained a voice as well. “After all, he certainly seemed to enjoy his time here with us, and he never wanted to leave. Saying he wasn’t interested in Hogwarts would be incorrect.”
“Right, he didn’t want to go home.” Fred said. “We only ever heard bad things from him about his home. Enough remarks to make you wonder if he was safe. So why would he choose to stay there? If George and I are correct in assuming that’s where he is. Nowhere else would make sense.”
Nobody responded to that, a silence fell onto everyone as they pondered at what they were just told. It was true, all they ever heard from Dazai about his home was complaints and alarming statements. Complaints about his Father, and how boring it was there, along with casual remarks about how dangerous the city he lived in was. The realization that maybe Dazai didn’t have a say on whether or not he would return to school dawned on everyone. Everyone except Blaise and Draco, who had already thought of such things. The two made eye contact.
“Now that we’ve explained our thinking to you, we can really share what we’ve been wanting to ask you.” George said seriously. “It’s something that we’ve been planning since last year.” Looks were exchanged across the room.
Fred leaned forward in his seat. “The two of us are in our sixth year now.”
“And sixth years get to learn apparition.” George continued. “During that week, the spell restrictions that prevent people from apparating inside Hogwarts are lifted during those lessons.”
Blaise furrowed his brows. Wait, they couldn’t be suggesting-
“We want to use that time as an opportunity to apparate to Dazai’s city, Yokohama, and find him. And we want to bring you guys with us.” Fred stated, dead serious.
“That’s-” Hermionie frantically started saying, only to be finished by Pansy.
“Crazy! Are you out of your minds?! Neither of you have any solid practice apparating, most likely, and you plan to go halfway across the world, to a city you don’t know the layout of, to find Dazai?? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you two sound?”
“We’ve been getting tips from our big brothers Bill and Charlie about apparating, and plan on using the first couple lessons that week to get a feel for it, before executing the plan as soon as we feel comfortable enough. Then once we find Dazai, one of us would apparate to our house. Our Dad has a flying car he’s made as a project that we can think will be able to transport Snakey without being… affected by his powers. For the problem of being in an unknown city,-”
“We’ve been able to make an even better version of the Marauder’s Map. And it works anywhere, it isn’t restricted to just Hogwarts. We spent the whole spring and summer completing it. It even lets you single out specific names, meaning-”
“You can track him down with ease.” Blaise said, disbelievingly. Those two found a way to accomplish all this? It was amazing. But, could he let this happen? Flicking his eyes over to Draco, he saw the anxious look on the boy’s face. They might be killed if they go. The rest of the gang could learn something they weren’t supposed to. So much could go wrong once they were there. Dazai probably didn’t want his gang tracking him down at all!
But… what if Dazai actually needed them? What if Dazai disappeared because something truly bad happened to him? And thinking about it, the twins could apparate everyone to safety if it was necessary, probably. Besides, Blaise’s emotions had the best of his logic at the moment. He wanted to see Dazai, badly. He missed his boss. Damn the risks, if he had an opportunity, he should take it to see him!
“I’m in.”
“Blaise!” Draco and Pansy said at the same time, whirling around to look at the boy.
Fred chuckled. “Had a feeling you would be the first one to agree. Glad to hear it.”
“Now,” George said. “How about the rest of you?”
Uneasy looks filled the room for some moments. Then they began to change to determination.
“I suppose… your plan is pretty well put together. And if Dazai is not safe, then we’ve got to help him. I just hope we aren’t expelled…” Hermionie declared.
“Bloody hell, we’re gonna be in deep shit when we get back.” Ron said exasperated. “But I’ll go with you.”
Blaise looked at Draco and Pansy. The two looked at each other, then Draco sighed. “I guess someone needs to make sure you all don’t act too stupid. Sorry Pansy.”
“Draco!” Pansy gasped, then looked across the room and huffed. “I hope you all have fun while you're gone, since you’re sure as hell gonna be in for it when you return!” She snapped, before finishing her remarks. “Give that idiot a couple punches from me, or I’ll be the reason why he disappears next.” A smirk crept into her face, in mean spirits, but still showing that she wouldn’t be stopping them. Blaise looked at the girl.
“Thank you, Pansy.” The girl turned red in the face.
“Oh save it! I couldn’t prevent you dumbasses from going through with this if I tried.” Blaise smiled at her words. George cleared his throat, drawing the attention back to him.
“Alright, now that everyone is complying…”
“Operation Save Snakey starts now.”