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Frank ran his fingers through his hair as he stood there staring anxiously at his sister's empty room. Alice had been gone for three days now. She'd popped out to the shops, or at least that was what she had told their father when she left. Neville Longbottom had been the last person to see her and now she hadn't been home in days.
Frank knew it was his fault. He couldn't think of any other reason that she would disappear without a trace. It made him feel guilty; something that he was used to feeling when it came to Alice, but this was different... this scared him.
He knew that Alice's relationship with their parents was rocky, but it didn't make a whole lot of sense that she would just cut off all contact without a good reason. Frank swallowed the lump in his throat as he closed her bedroom door quietly. He knew this must be killing their parents. Alice wasn't their first child to just up and leave, but at least Frank knew that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Frank turned and walked into his own room, sitting on his bed with a heavy sigh. His dad had spoken to Harry about listing Alice as a missing person, but when they'd checked with her friends, she'd told Lysander that she was going travelling. At least they knew she was okay, even if she wasn't talking to them.
Even though he was scared that this was all his fault, Frank knew that he had to be brave for his mum and dad. They needed him to continue to work hard at school and make them proud and he wasn't going to let them down, not if he could help it.
His plan was to continue to work on bettering himself as well though. He needed to be a better person by the time Alice resurfaced. He wanted to make up for what he had done somehow, though he didn't really know how he was supposed to do that. Alice had been avoiding him for a long time now, ever since what he'd been calling 'The Incident,' and although he couldn't blame her, he didn't know how he was meant to fix things when she wasn't giving him a chance to make things right
"Frankie?"
Frank hadn't realised that he'd dozed off until his mother's voice woke him. He yawned and stretched as he got to his feet slowly and headed downstairs. He wasn't really looking forward to another awkward dinner with his parents, but they made a point of eating together as a family during the school holidays. It seemed pointless to Frank, but he knew none of them wanted to be the one to break the holiday tradition.
"What's for dinner?" Frank asked as he sat down at the table, ignoring the fact that both Alice and Auggie's chairs across from him were noticeably empty. Part of him wanted to remove the vacant seats and make the table smaller, but he knew if he did, it would feel like he was accepting that neither Alice nor Auggie was ever coming back.
"Lasagne." Hannah answered him as she served up generous portions of the steaming dish onto their plates, but that was almost the only conversation to be had for the duration of the long meal, spent in uncomfortable silence.
Frank was relieved that no-one was forcing him to join in conversation with them but at the same time, it broke his heart to know that he was personally responsible for breaking his family apart. It didn’t matter to him that Alice was so opposed to spending time with their parents. She still put the effort in regardless of her feelings and honestly it often felt to Frank like Alice was the glue that held the whole family together.
As a child, Frank had always believed that it was Auggie who was the family glue. She was the strong one, even when she didn’t believe she was strong enough. He’d seen her lose her best friend and somehow she’d managed to come out the other side even stronger. She was the brave one. And then she’d left. It was something which he didn’t understand at all. As far as he was aware, Auggie had been happy living with them, and to leave so suddenly without saying a word didn’t make sense to him.
The family had adjusted though. They had heard from Auggie once or twice, but she never told any of them where she was or what she was doing, just that she was okay. And then it was Alice who had become the brave one.
Even though Frank had hurt her pretty badly one night, she had still protected him. Alice said it was her job, even though Frank had wanted to take the punishment that he knew he deserved. She’d tried to convince him that not telling their parents what had really happened was the right thing to do, and part of him wondered if it was just because she didn’t want a fuss made over it.
After dinner, Frank excused himself and went for a walk in the garden. He sat down on the swing and stared up at the slowly darkening sky. This house felt weird to him now. It wasn’t home. He knew that a lot of people went to Hogwarts too, but he really doubted that any of them felt the way he did about it. For as long as he could remember, he’d lived at Hogwarts. Both his parents worked there, so it had only made sense. But it meant that this house felt like it was a holiday home to him.
This swing was probably one of the only parts about the property that he liked. When Frank had been five, or maybe six, Auggie and Alice had let him sit on the swing for the first time. Up until that point they had always told him that he was too little and he had taken them at their word, because they were his big sisters and it was their job to look out for him.
That night though, Alice had picked him up and helped him onto the swing and Auggie had gently pushed him. Alice had held his hand at first. Even though his sisters were convinced that he was big enough to swing on his own, Frank hadn't been quite sure.
By the end of his swing, Alice had let go though and Frank had believed in that moment that he might just be able to be as brave as they were someday.
That was probably the last time that he had felt brave if he was being completely honest with himself. He’d had both of his sisters by his side, helping him, and it had felt as if they could take on the world together. He would give anything to have that feeling back because right now, he was terrified at the thought of what the world would throw at him and his parents next.
Frank knew that he needed to step up though. He knew that he needed to be the brave one now that his sisters were gone. He wanted Auggie and Alice to come home and find that he had been the one to hold the rest of their family together. The problem was that he didn’t really know how he was supposed to do that. Being brave wasn’t something that came as easily to him as it did to them. Auggie and Alice seemed to be brave naturally, without even thinking about it.
Frank let out a soft sigh as he realised that he had no choice in it. He had no idea when his sisters would be back and no way to contact them. Alice had a phone but he didn't. He had never seen the need for one before because he didn’t really have friends, let alone friends that were comfortable with muggle technology.
He closed his eyes and just let himself swing, let himself get used to the idea that he needed to be the brave one in the family.
“Have you got everything you need, Frankie?” His mother asked as Frank heaved his trunk into the living room. It was time to go home to Hogwarts and he couldn’t wait, even if it was only to put some distance between himself and the deafening silence of the Longbottom House. He was keen to see Lily and Sarah as well. They were probably the only people that put up with him, but he knew that was something that he’d brought on himself so he couldn’t really complain. He’d made himself a social pariah when he’d outed Aileen and now Frank understood that he deserved everything he got.
“Yeah.” He patted his pocket where his toad Webster, the most important thing that he needed to take with him was hiding. “Let’s get going.” Frank was fully aware that the rest of the students wouldn't be arriving at the school for another few hours but he didn’t mind. He wasn’t one to ride on the Hogwarts Express, at least not any more, and he quite looked forward to the idea of being able to get settled back into his dorm before his roommates arrived. They weren’t his biggest fans, but that was okay.
Frank was used to being alone at school. It was only when he returned home that he couldn’t seem to handle it. Maybe it was simply too quiet for him to cope with it... He wasn’t sure. The castle gave him plenty of opportunities to be alone but be surrounded by people at the same time and he figured that that was just what he needed at a time like this.
He could do this, he thought. He could be brave. He just needed the right environment in order to help him get there.