Astray in Endeavor





Summary: Ginny Weasley disappeared within a week of graduating from Hogwarts, and Draco Malfoy swore that he would find her if it killed him. Now, three years and an anonymous tip off later, it just might do that. And if he's not careful, her too. In order to protect the world and the woman he fell in love with from a new and perhaps even more dangerous threat, he must swallow his pride and team up with his childhood nemesis before someone else disappears.



Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm a University student. I have no money.



Please Note: This is going to be a long and very complicated story. There will be plot twists and flashbacks, and they are not going to be in any particular order. It is a romance. And it is a mystery. It's a lot of things. I just hope it's good. Lemme know if it isn't.





Chapter 1.



The first thing that he heard upon waking was the incessant drone of his muggle alarm clock. It was the only thing that could rouse him from the sleep caused by his sleeping draught anymore. He briefly wondered why he was taking it in the first place. Then he remembered. It kept the nightmares away. It was always the same anymore. The clock would go off, he'd hit it, get up, trudge to the office, fight with his assistant about the authenticity of information, go home, eat something, take the dratted potion and go to bed. It had been the same thing now for the last three months. Frankly, it was monotonous.



Draco Malfoy hauled himself out of bed, and showered briefly. Everything was pitifully the same these days, and it didn't look like things were going to be getting any more exciting any time soon. Becoming a member of the Ministry had been the best thing to do at the time, but it was boring when there were no results. It was only when he arrived in his kitchen that he remembered that today was possibly an exception to his view on current life. He was getting a shiny new assistant today, and that meant another round of explaining his purpose in life to another Ministry hopeful. Joy.



He banged into the Ministry building and flapped his arm at the irritating daily calls of greeting that came from the general direction of the main desk. The woman who usually manned it was uninteresting anyway. When he finally got to his office, he managed to escape the clutches of the simpering secretary that was always waiting outside the door in hopes to attract his attention. He flopped gracelessly into his chair and heaved a heavy sigh of relief. But, of course, the day had yet to begin. He cracked open his eyes and peered at the pictures sitting on his desk, as usual.



To anyone who didn't know what Malfoy did at the Ministry, the pictures would seem to be innocent pictures of someone's home life. One might even assume that they were of his family. Or at the very least his wife, if he was married. One was a muggle photograph of a very pretty girl with deep brown eyes, and waves of auburn hair. Another was a wizard photograph of the same girl laughing at something a young man with black hair was saying to her, while another with red hair fumed in the background. The third was of her with a smirking younger version of himself, it was a fairly obvious picture. The fourth, and last photograph that he owned of her was the one that always intrigued him. He picked it up and gazed at it for what seemed like the thousandth time. The girl, looking far older than she should have at the time it was taken, was in deep conversation with another girl, this one with long bushy brown hair. They would talk, look up shocked, then smile, and then go back into conversation. He could still remember the day he'd stolen Creevey's camera in order to take that picture.



****



"I'll give it back in moment Creevey. This is a picnic, I just want to take a picture. I'm not going to hurt anyone with it."

"Well, alright, but only if you bring it right back."

"You have no faith Creevey."



Draco cautiously crept up on the pair of girls, so deep in their conversation. He couldn't figure it out. Ginny had been so subdued, whenever he visited lately. Usually she was all over the place, you couldn't keep her calm for more than five seconds. But she and Hermione had been sitting under the same tree for over an hour talking intensely about something or other. It was rare that you could get the two of them, together, and calm enough for a photo, he knew that Creevey had been trying for ages. And he wanted one for his own reasons.

He was within five feet of them. Another foot, and it would be perfect. He stepped out from behind the bush.

"I just don't know what to do about it Hermione. I haven't told anyone else yet."

"Well Gin...I,"

"Oh girls!" He called out, camera ready. They looked up, registered his plan and waved as he took the picture. Then they returned to their conversation.

"I don't know what to tell you...."



****



This was the last photograph anyone had ever taken of her. When Creevey developed it, he made two others, as per request, and Draco had given one to Potter as a peace offering. Even now though, they still skirted around each other.

He never knew what they had been talking about. He'd asked Hermione later on, but she refused to explain. She had maintained that it wasn't her place to tell him, and that he should ask Ginny. The only problem was, and he had pointed it out to her, Ginny wasn't there. Ginny wasn't anywhere. She'd nodded and had basically said that it did present a slight problem. He supposed that he'd never quite forgiven her for that.

He was sure that there was something in the picture that should give him some kind of clue, but so far, he could find nothing out of the ordinary. The snatches of conversation that he had heard meant nothing. It was a puzzle.

Draco rubbed his eyes once and put the picture down.

"What's the secret, Ginny. Where did you go? Why?" He muttered.

"Uh, sir?" Draco nearly fell out of his chair, when the nervous voice intruded on his reverie.

"What do you want?" He snapped, irritated.

"I'm, uh, I'm your new assistant...." The younger man stammered.

"Name." Draco stated.

"Terence Orderly, sir." It looked as if the boy was trying very hard not to salute. Draco almost laughed. Almost.

"Hogwarts graduate?"

"Yes sir."

"House?"

"Hufflepuff sir." That explained that then.

"Alright Orderly. I want you to understand exactly what you've just gotten yourself into. Do you know what I do here at the Ministry?" Malfoy asked the man in front of him. He shifted from foot to foot for a moment.

"Sort of sir. They told me that you're the Chief Investigator for Missing Persons. I take it you look for missing people." Draco nodded slightly.

"That's almost correct. I do look for people. And I always find them. But when I'm not looking for other people, and I want you to understand this, my priority is locating one particular person."

"One person."

"Yes. One person. It's the only file in the filing cabinet. Read up, you'll need to."

"Why is that sir?"

"Because, I always need a new pair of eyes."

"Ah." The younger man turned to leave the room, obviously to brush up on his reading. He paused for a moment when he caught sight of the pictures of Ginny half turned on his desk.

"Pretty girl. She your wife?" He asked a little nervously. Draco looked at him.

"She could have been. If she wasn't missing." He said plainly. Orderly nodded and wisely left the room.



It was two days, and numerous annoying questions, later when Orderly finally came up with something good. And even then, he'd had to have it dropped in his lap. The boy was by far the worst assistant the Ministry had ever thrown on Malfoy, and he was beginning to resent that.

Malfoy was standing by the only window in the room attempting to clear his thoughts when Orderly opened the door.

"Ummm...Sir?"

"Orderly, if you don't stop calling me 'sir' I will have you forcibly removed from the building. What do you want now?" He asked irritably.

"I'm sorry. It's about the Missing Weasley case." Draco smiled slightly at the use of the name. When he had first accepted this job, he had made sure that the Ministry understood what his priority was. They had agreed and had dubbed the problem 'the Missing Weasley' case. Everyone knew what it was about, and always got out of his way when he was on a lead.

"Well? What is it?"

"Well s- uh, Mr Malfoy, I found this in the mailbox when I went to check it this morning. It doesn't have a name on it, and I wasn't able to find out anything about where it had come from." Malfoy took the piece of parchment from the younger man's hand and examined it. His eyebrows shot up.

"Did you see the owl that left it by any chance?"

"No. And no one else did either. I asked."

"Hmm. Thank you. Get a hold of Potter. Tell him I'll be visiting him this afternoon."

"Yes sir. Oops, I mean uh.."

"Nevermind. But that's the last time, you hear?"

"Thank you Mr. Malfoy!"

"Just get on with it." Orderly shuffled out of the room and Draco sat to re-read the letter.



'To Draco Malfoy

I know that you are looking for Virginia Weasley. Though I can not give you details concerning her exact whereabouts, I can say that she will be in danger from a rising Death Eater threat that is currently occurring. Potter will know what that is about. Anyone who did not know me will not be able to determine my identity, but you Malfoy, who did know me, should be able to, if you can remember the Ultimate Secret. And it's answer. Act swiftly my friend."



Draco thought hard. The Ultimate Secret had been a joke in the Slytherin house. It had started when he had entered Hogwarts for his first year. It wasn't really a secret, just something that they had used to emphasize the fact that Harry Potter was a gimboid. He tried to remember who had been in on it when they started it. Crabbe and Goyle and a few others....



****



"Harry Potter is a complete git." Malfoy ranted. Crabbe and Goyle watched him silently, not that they ever did anything else. That was when a couple of girls wandered over to see what was going on. He recognized one as Pansy Parkinson, a girl whose parents his father frequently spent time with. She was incredibly annoying. The other girl he didn't know.

"What are you going on about?" The brunette asked snidely. Malfoy glared at her for interrupting. Goyle decided to add his two cents worth.

"Harry Potter snubbed him. The Boss thinks he'd've made a good Slytherin." He said. The two girls looked surprised, Malfoy himself was surprised, he hadn't heard either one of those two utter a whole sentence like that in their lives. The brunette nodded.

"Yeah. If he'd been smart. But he wasn't. Deal with it." She said.

"He's a git." Malfoy stated again. "Imagine taking up with a Weasley."

"So he's a gimboid. It's not like it's the Ultimate Secret of the world you know." She said.

"Who are you anyway?" He asked her, irritated.

"Me? Blaise Zabini. Nice to meet you Malfoy."



****



Blaise....he never found out what had happened to her. He knew that Pansy had been carted off to Azkaban with Crabbe, and Goyle had been killed on the battlefield. He'd been there for both occurrences. But Blaise....she too had disappeared after the end of the war. She had always been an odd ball in the Slytherin house. Always easy to talk to, was actually a fairly nice person. Draco believed that the only reason she had been put in Slytherin in the first place was because of the foul temper she had. She had been the one to finally pull Pansy off of him, and tell her to bugger off. And she had never been after anything other than a good friend. And then she was gone. Her family had been Death Eaters, he knew, but she had never admitted to being the same. She had even fought alongside with him. And then, she had disappeared. But, he knew the reason. She was tired of this, she had said at the time. Tired of the fighting, tired of the shadows of death looming over them all. She needed to go. She snapped her wand, and walked away. And Draco, hovering over Ginny's wounded body at the time, had watched her.

"The re-surfacing of old friends. I wonder who else we'll find before this is over." He mused quietly before leaving the room.





End of Part 1.

Stay tuned for Part 2.