It had been a day since Hermione's mysterious disappearance, and Ron and Harry had gathered all the qualified Aurors they could find from the Ministry and searched endlessly. They had explored every possible place Hermione could be: every shop in Diagon Alley, all of Hogwarts grounds, along with Hogsmeade; the Ministry, St. Mungo's, the homes of every person Hermione had contact with, including her own flat…

Just when Ron feared they would never find her, Harry and the Aurors began to dig deeper.

Exactly twenty-five hours after Hermione had failed to attend Ron's dinner, Ron, Harry, Kingsley Shacklebolt, John Dawlish, and a number of other Aurors were gathered around Ron's small kitchen table, discussing the next step in the search for Hermione Granger.

"When was the last you saw or heard of her?" Kingsley asked Ron. Straight away, Ron answered,

"We were supposed to meet at my flat at six," said Ron clearly. "She sent me a Patronus saying she was meeting someone for work about a half hour beforehand…" he trailed off as he now realized how they could trace Hermione's location.

"– at…at the Leaky Cauldron."

Kingsley and Harry looked at each other while Ron read what they were thinking by their expressions: if anyone at the Leaky Cauldron had seen Hermione, they might have a lead to where she may be.

The Aurors quickly Apparated in pairs to the Leaky Cauldron, where they burst through the doors and approached the bar, where Tom the barman looked up from cleaning the bar, startled by the intrusion.

"Evening, Tom," said Kingsley casually. "We're doing an investigation and we were wondering if we could ask you a question or two."

Tom nodded silently, and Kingsley continued in a low voice, "Last night, Hermione Granger went missing. She was supposed to be at the Leaky Cauldron a half hour before six. Did you see her at all?"

"Certainly I did," said Tom at once, looking surprised at this new developing piece of news. "She was sitting right at this bar, with another bloke. Looked to be a business meeting, I would say. She had only sat down for a moment before they both left together, around six thirty-five. Hadn't even ordered a drink, she hadn't."

Harry, who looked just as surprised as Ron felt that they had found someone who had seen her so quickly, spoke up, "Can you give us a description of the man she was with?"

"Tall, brown-haired. Handsome bloke, 'round twenty-five or –six."

"Is there anything else you can tell us about last night?" asked Ron, craving for more information.

"No, don't know nothing more, Mr. Weasley." Tom resumed his cleaning of the bar.

"Thank you, Tom, you've been a huge help," said Kingsley, turning to leave. Tom smiled a toothless grin in return and Ron followed the rest of the Aurors out the door of the Leaky Cauldron.

More talk of the search resumed, but Ron could barely listen, his stomach at the moment was doing great flips, front and back. He couldn't imagine what was happening with Hermione, and he didn't wish to. A sudden, cruel thought snaked itself into his brain: what if Hermione was seeing someone else, and simply ran away with him, leaving everyone who loved her, including Ron, to wonder her whereabouts?

But Ron quickly shut that possibility out; he had known Hermione far too long, he knew her better than he knew himself, and he knew she would never, in a million years, do anything as cruel as that to him…

Ron was thrust back into reality as Harry suggested Apparating back to his flat to discuss the terrible dilemma further.

"We're going to have to prepare further for this," said Kingsley sadly. "It looks like we're facing a kidnapping."