Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it characters.

Captured Innocence

Chapter 1

"We have your daughter. We want five million galleons or we will kill her. Do not attempt to trace or track us or we will kill us. Believe us in this Mr. Potter. You will be contacted with further instructions"

The disembodied voice said in a shapeless, formless, silvery mist of the patronus, purposefully cast that way to make it impossible to trace. The inhabitants of the room looked on in sheer terror as the meaning of the words sank in. Harry looked like the very essence of his soul had been sucked away. He couldn't breathe, his lungs seeming to be emptied as he stared at the table where the mist had just been, vanishing leaving behind a small blue jacket. A jacket he knew very well. The jacket of his only daughter Rose, which he had placed on her that very morning as he watched her leave with Ginny. Whom he and Hermione had an arraignment with for child care. She'd watch Rose while her parents Harry and Hermione were at work. It seemed to work well, Rose loved her aunt Ginny and Ginny loved her. Not yet having children of her own, and not really finding a real career after being side lined in her Quidditch career after a devastating injury.

Harry cast a pale look at his best friend and second in command at the Auror department, Ron. His face also telling the story of the fear he was feeling.

"What do we know" Harry asked with purpose, but still having trouble keeping his voice from shaking.

Ron looked altogether crestfallen as he dropped his voice so Hermione, who now stood a ways off crying hysterically since she had received the news, "Not much, Ginny was taking her for their usual walk around the park, when according to the recovered memory of a muggle witness three masked men apparted out of nowhere, stunned Ginny and grabbed Rose and," Ron throat caught slightly, going somewhat tight, "And they took her and vanished," Ron finished in a low tone.

Harry looked on with his head swimming with so many emotions he couldn't discern one from the other. Pain, fear, love, hate, anger, and pure terror at the thought of his beautiful little girl out there in the hands of brutally savage creatures, whom Harry would give his very soul at this point to simply be alone in a room with right now.

"How's Ginny, is she alright," Harry asked in a tone of true concern.

"She's ok, obviously shaken up, but other than that she's fine," Ron answered.

Harry simply nodded his understanding as he looked of to the still shaking and convulsing wife, crying to herself in the large armchair they so often loved to occupy together, the very chair Rose had been conceived in. The thought caused Harry's eyes to mist. He couldn't succumb though, he had to be strong, his wife, daughter, and son needed him now. His son James, at his second year in school, probably at this point being pulled from his class at Hogwarts to be told the horrible truth and to be brought home to ensure his safety. Harry knew the security at the castle could not be trusted, having been victim to that startling fact to many times himself. So he had sent his best men to personally escort him back to his family's home here in Godirc's Hallow.

Harry wanted nothing more than to walk over and throw his arms around Hermione and try to provide the comfort she so desperately needed right now, but it would have to wait. Right now he needed to be an Auror. This was after all what he was trained for, but he never thought he'd have to deal with a situation so close to his heart. But he trusted no one else to lead this up. He was determined, he would go to hell and back, he would rip the very foundations of the world if that's what it would take to get his beloved child back.

It had been seventeen years since he had vanquished Voldemort, sixteen since he graduated Hogwarts and entered the Auror training academy. Graduating at the top of his class he began to get a fast reputation for being a tough, hard hitting officer. One many dark Wizards feared. He had been responsible for more arrests than many other Auror's combined. This however had earned him several enemies in the Wizarding underworld.

It was three years after leaving Hogwarts that he and Hermione realized something they both had always deep down in the very core of their being always knew, that they were truly in love. It was a near fatal encounter that Harry had with a particularly nasty nemesis that made them actually admit it out loud. He had barely survived the encounter, his enemy had not. While he laid, recovering in St Mungo's Hermione visited each and everyday, always with a look of tender compassion in her eyes, and something else Harry thought he'd seen, something he prayed he wasn't misreading. For he felt the same, though he had never had the nerve to admit it, for fear of ruining what they had. He and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione had tried being together during their final year at school, but all had to admit they were just not suited for one another. Ron went on to marry Susan Bones, after a somewhat brief courtship. Ginny focused hard on her Quidditch career after that, until she was hurt.

Harry remembered the day he first told his wife he loved her, first admitted that she was the only person who could truly fill the gaping hole in his soul. He was nearing the end of his stay at St. Mungos when as each day before Hermione floated into the room swaying lightly to the bedside chair. They smiled and exchanged small talk of nothing seemingly important, until Harry asked a question, a question that changed both of their lives forever.

"Hermione," he said lightly.

"Hum, what is it," she answered looking up at him.

"Do you ever wonder what would of happened if we, well if we went through with what we almost did in that tent when we were alone," he asked with a soft voice, remembering a stolen night where the shared a tenderly passionate kiss, and found themselves nearly given into their baser desires, only stopping at what they thought was a noise outside the tent. Harry stepped outside to investigate and when he returned he found Hermione bundled up in a chair, he knew then the moment, the opportunity had passed.

She looked at him slightly startled and went a deep shade of crimson, "Well sometimes, but really Harry it was just something we really didn't need to deal with then, we had so many other, more pressing matters to deal with," she answered.

"So you don't regret it, not going through with it" he asked seeming a bit disheartened.

"I never said that, I just mean, well, I" she stammered obviously flustered, "Oh Harry why are you bringing these things up," she asked in a somewhat hasty tone. She was afraid herself; afraid to admit to him, to anyone that she to was hopelessly in love with her best friend.

"It's just I think of things like that sometimes, like how our lives would be different if so many different things had happened. What if I had plucked up the courage and asked you to the Yule Ball, what if I had taken our time during the D.A to make a move, what if I hadn't thought so much about Ron's feelings and just acted on what was in my heart." he said through a long sigh.

"What do you mean Harry, why are you saying this," Hermione asked, her heart feeling like it was about pound straight through her chest.

"Well I've had my fair share of close calls in the past but I've come to realize something, life's to short to be afraid to live out your hearts desire, after this last fight I promised myself as I laid on that operating table that if I pulled through I wouldn't be afraid to listen to it, and follow what it had been telling me for years." he said as he took her hand and suddenly looked her straight in the eye, his piercing green eyes making her shiver with anticipation. "And that's this, Hermione I love you, I've loved you for as long as I can remember, I've just been so afraid of so many things, how you'd feel about it, how Ron would feel about it, how the bleeding world would feel about it, but I'm not anymore, I could die tomorrow, or next week, or in a hundred years, but all that matters is I need you to know this deep truth, Hermione Jean granger I love you with all I have inside, and I always will." he finished, letting his eyes tell her the truth of these convictions.

She just looked at him dumbfounded, not knowing what to say, he began to look away, fearing he had just done it, he had just tainted their friendship forever, he feared she didn't or couldn't feel the same, when she grabbed his face and with a motion that nearly gave him whiplash she pulled his lips fiercely to hers. They wrapped themselves in a kiss that spoke of the passion that each had been feeling for the other for so long. When they finally broke she beamed like the sun's center, "I love you too Harry Potter, it took you long enough to say it," she said playfully slapping his arm and then laughing in pure euphoria, pulling him into another long kiss.

They were married two months later, their first child being born shortly after, a son they named James. Then a second child came, nearly nine years ago to the day, her birthday being only three days away from this day, the day she was taken. They named her Rose, and were in gentle blissful oblivion.

Hermione's tormented wails once again brought Harry out of his thoughts of the past and back to stark horrors of the present reality. His brained switched, he needed to suppress these emotions for now. The Auror part of himself kicked into high gear, "Watikins" Harry cried with authority to a younger Wizard with long sandy hair and sharp features that made him look underhanded and menacing, making him perfect for undercover work, "Go through the usual sources, make contact with all of your CI's, see if theirs any buzz about this on the streets," Harry ordered to the young man who nodded and turned to leave the room at once.

"Rosen, you find out all you can about tracing formless patronues, if there's a way I want to know it and I want to know it yesterday, talk to Breckin Sayers in the department of mysteries he knows the most about it," Harry again ordered to a smaller, broader Auror with sleek brown hair. He nodded as well and left too.

"Ron, set a perimeter around this house, send Glosset and Mulchwood, to do the same to the burrow, just in case," Harry cried in pain at the prospect of more people he loved being targeted.

"Right mate, and don't worry, we'll get her back safe, keep faith," Ron said in a kindly comforting tone, taking Harry's shoulder.

Harry just nodded as Ron left the room as well, leaving him and Hermione alone. He then slowly walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, she hugged him tightly as painfully wrought tears streamed down her cheeks, "Oh Harry why is it always us, why the hell do these horrible things keep happening," she cried in pure anguish.

Harry just stroked her hair, he didn't have an answer, at least not one he wanted to utter out loud. It was him he thought, he had always carried this curse, this curse that seemed to infect everyone he gets close to, everyone he loved. Striking them down because of the mere association with him. And now his innocent little angel was the newest victim. He finally succumbed to tears as he thought about her out there, scared, alone. A fire suddenly blazed to life in his soul, a wrathfully consuming flame. He would get her back he vowed, he would get her back and those responsible would pay.