"Have you checked her bed?"
"Of course."
"Have you checked the library?"
"Twice."
"The common room? The great hall? Arithmancy classroom?"
"Yes, yes, yes. What do you take me for?" Ginny rolled her eyes. "The hospital ward is the last place I can think of. Will you please walk me there? Please?"
"I haven't had breakfast yet, Gin. She'll turn up - she always does. Come on."
Harry came up between them, putting one arm around each of his friends. "Do you two ever stop fighting?" he teased.
Ginny stuck her lower lip out noticeably. "Hermione's gone missing, and beastly Ron won't help me find her, Harry," she pouted.
"Oh, tell him the whole story. She's only been missing the quarter of an hour, and Ginny wants to go search the hospital wing."
"What's wrong, Gin?" Harry asked sympathetically. "Don't want to go to the hospital wing on your own?"
Ginny shuddered. "Not with - him - in there."
Harry nodded seriously. "Don't blame ya, kiddo. Wouldn't want to go there myself. Wanna give it a go together?"
"Blimey, Harry! Hermione's not in the hospital wing! She probably fell asleep reading in the bath, or got sucked into a book or something."
Harry shrugged and grinned at his friend. "You never know, mate." He looked happy - way too happy. Ron looked down and... sure enough, Ginny had linked fingers with Harry.
Ron rolled his eyes in exapseration. "Fine! The hospital wing! Let's go."
It all came back to her. "Draco," she groaned. "Why... what's going on?"
It all came out in a rush. "My father is under orders from the Dark Lord to keep an eye on you, and we need to impress him, to sort of, I don't know, get our good name back-"
"Good name," she scoffed, shaking her head ironically.
"Laugh all you want, mudblood," he said scornfully. "You-Know-Who wants you dead, but I choose not to kill you. You might keep that in mind."
"Why not kill me?"
"I have... other uses for you."He glared at her piercingly.
Her eyes widened. Draco groaned.
"God, Granger, don't flatter yourself. I'm not after your body."
"Then what?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"If you wanted to talk to me, you could have just come to the library, I'm not that hard to find, Draco."
"You're awfully cocky for someone in your position, mudblood."
"And what position is that, Malfoy?"
He threw up his hands in exasperation. "You're at my mercy, Hermione!"
Hermione laughed hollowly. "In your dreams."
Malfoy sighed and slunk down onto the floor beside her. "Aren't you scared?"
"Is that what you're after? Are you trying to scare me?"
"You're making this really difficult, you know."
"Making what difficult? What is going on?"
There was fear in her eyes, he realised at last, she was just masking it really well. Draco felt a small surge of triumph, but tried not to let it show.
Hermione was studying Draco's features carefully. Her palms were sweating and her throat was constricted. She had a very low opinion of Draco Malfoy - knew his father to be downright evil - but she never thought Draco himself would actually come after her. She had been careful not to give him any excuse to this year. She was trying to gauge his feelings at the moment. He seemed as scared as she was.
"I-" it suddenly dawned on her. "You know, you don't have to do everything your father says, Draco."
"Right, Granger, like you know anything about my father." He scowled. "And what does he have to do with this anyway?"
"You're father told you to take me down to kiss up to Voldemort, right?"
"Go to hell, Granger."
"That's what I thought," she said triumphantly.
Ginny was shaking. She felt Harry squeeze her hand. "Hullo, Megafoos! Meet my friend, Ginny. And you remember Ron?"
"I remember the bugger," he said affectionately. "Stepped on his backpack, f'I remembers the lad right, right?"
Ron grinned and ran his fingers through the hair on the back of his neck. "No harm done, mate."
"And I think I've seen your girlfriend before, ain't you been around here before, little girl?"
"Yeah," Ginny replied. "Helping Madame Pomfrey out with some of the wounded."
"Awr, what a sweetie."
"Listen, Megafoos, we're looking for another little girl-"
"Ron's girlfriend," Harry put in.
Ron elbowed his friend - hard.
"Right," agreed Ginny. Ron shot her a dark look.
"The one with the p'inty nose and the bushy hair? Always got her head in a book?"
"That's her! Is she here?" Ron asked.
"Er - no. Ain't seen her for a few days. Might want to try the library, though."
"Somewhere."
"I still haven't figured out why I'm still here."
"Yeah, neither have I."
"I meant besides the obvious fact that you're keeping me here."
Silence.
"Penny for your thoughts."
Hermione glared at him.
"Oh, come on. If we're going to be stuck here together, we might as well talk-"
She looked at him in surprise. "We? What do you mean we?"
"She says yes, but she she doesn't remember Hermione leaving at all. And she's not there," Harry said.
"And Ron thought maybe Hermione knew a secret passage from her room to the library," Ginny said sarcastically.
"There are no secret passages to the library," Madame Pince answered stiffly.
Ron and Harry exchanged glances.
"Supposing there were," Ron said slowly. "I wonder where they would lead."
"There are no secret passages in or out of the library," she repeated insistently.
The three stumbled out of the library. Harry thwacked Ron on the ear. "Good job being subtle there about the secret passages. She's not going to tell us where they are, mate. If the map doesn't even know, I'm sure she doesn't."
Ron mumbled something.
"Cheer up, Ron," Ginny said.
"It's not like Hermione to be missing," Ron said.
"She'll turn up," Harry said confidently.
"She will," agreed Ginny.
A dark shadow loomed before them.
"I suppose now that you're in your sixth year, you no longer need to attend class, is that it, Mr. Potter? And Mr. Weasley, your superior intellect has superceded any need to study potions, I'm sure. Or perhaps Miss Granger has simply provided you with the answers to all my questions for the next two years, is that it?"
"And Miss Weasley... I'm surprised at you."
"Professor Snape," Ginny pleaded softly. "Hermione-"
"No need to defend Miss Granger. I know very well that she passes answer to your brother on a regular basis. I-"
"No, sir," she insisted with a surprising amount of tenacity. "She's gone missing."
Something flickered in Snape's eyes. "Oh." He took a deep breath. "Well, there's no excuse for taking the search into your own hands." He hesitated. "How long has she been missing?" he asked casually.
"Since last night," Ginny answered.
Snape nodded. "Now get to class, all of you, before I decide to-"
They were gone before he could pronounce a sentence.