A week had gone by, the only sign of Zoe being alive was that of food going missing from the kitchen and mysterious black roses showing in the food's stead.
The search had gone cold as far as the adults were concerned. Aurors were deployed to find her, along with every teacher on high alert. But nothing turned up on her whereabouts.
The friend group had worked endlessly in search of where she could be. Every free second they got, they'd spend it on finding her.
Leslie had even gone a step further as to not sleep in that week, she searched every crevice of the castle, scheduling a search every odd hour to find any sign of Zoe.
Until exhaustion had finally caught up with her.
"Les, you need to take a break. You're going to burn yourself out and won't end up helping anyone"
Leslie's eyes were bloodshot and hands trembling next to her coffee mug. If Gavin hadn't known the cause he would've thought she was on some sort of drug.
"No! I'm so close, I can feel it. What if we search here?" She pointed to a specific area in the map with a red circle encasing it.
"Les, you've suggested that room three times in the past hour already"
"Have I?" Gavin sighed, hoisting her up by her elbow until her trembling legs were the only thing holding her up.
"Go sleep, she can survive a couple of hours of you taking care of yourself for a better outcome" Leslie sighed, dropping down her trembling hands to her side.
"I hate it when you're right" Gavin smirked, gently patting her on the back as she was escorted towards the exit.
"I'm sure your darling Fred will more than willingly sacrifice his bed for you to sleep. Sweet dreams Les!" She was too tired to even fight back and went on to find the Weasley prankster without a single sound of protest.
"So we just lost our main investigator. It's all up to you Theo" Theo sighed, chewing the edge of his already destroyed nail.
"I don't even know where to look! We've already covered every inch of the castle and there's no sign of her" A collective sigh erupted from all of their lips as their eyes went to the younger Wood sibling.
Neo was sitting at the very edge of the Ravenclaw table, pushing around his food with his fork.
Hugo and Lily were there trying to cheer him up with different jokes and reassuring words. But Neo didn't even show a sign of listening. All that came out from the boy were small quiet sighs every once in a while.
His eyes were void of all emotion and body as rigid as a rock. It was hard to tell wether he was stiff with worry or anger, they could only hope it wasn't the latter.
"He hasn't said a single thing. He only eats the bare minimum to survive, goes to class and sleeps for an hour or two before staring at the windows in the Ravenclaw tower. Some are starting to believe he's become another ghost of the castle"
With how pale and distant Neo had turned, it was no surprise students thought that. But that side of him broke all of their hearts in one swift motion.
If Neo lost his rock, was that all that would be left of him?
"We need to find her soon. Not for our sake, or even hers. But for him"
A new determination filled the space they occupied as they set up new watches for corridors and empty classrooms.
They would find Zoe to free Neo from his mental prison.
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a/n: My poor baby Neo 🥲 He's too innocent and amazing for this world I have created 🥲
I have no quirky funny thing to say today I'm sleepy 😴 just vote and comment blah blah blah
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Black Roses {James Potter x OC}
Fanfiction-"No wonder you don't have a girlfriend with your trollish manners" "I'd call it more of a tedious rom-com Lily has forced me to live"- Zoe Wood and James Potter had an odd relationship. They had known each other since the moment they came out of t...
