A/N:
Okay, question answering time!
1) Shoutout to ChenangoJones for noticing the very first chapter was entitled "epilogue" instead of prologue. Much appreciated.
2) finkles89 - these are the things that happen when you don't have a beta, thanks for catching that!
3) Honoria Granger - I didn't decide how many Death Eaters were in Asylum until nearly the end of the story so that was a bit sloppy on my part but, when I imagined Asylum, it was for those who refused to (or weren't really given a chance to) change. They're the ones who you'd hear the family name and be like, yeah Death Eater. So there's probably somewhere around two dozen people in Asylum.
Everyone else who has read/reviewed/favorited - THANK YOU! It means a lot :)
Hermione didn't have time to think about what had happened with Draco. She walked through the house and, using the portkey that she had, quickly went back to the museum. She walked into the workspace to find both Harry's team and the majority of her team sitting together on one side of the room. Hermione's eye caught a flash of red hair and she realized they were all standing around George Weasley, who was explaining something while they all looked on intently. She approached the group and was met with a wide grin from George when he saw her. The others turned around at George's grin and, upon seeing Hermione, there was a chorus of hellos.
"Hello everyone," Hermione returned the greeting. "What's going on?"
"George thinks he's perfected the locator spell," Ron said, proudly.
"I tested it out this morning to find Angelina's other shoe," George told her, with a grin. "One blue and white sneaker was happily reunited with it's other half."
"That's great!" Hermione exclaimed. "Do you think it'll work for...other...things...?"
"Everyone here knows everything," Harry told her, as she trailed off vaguely. "We can speak freely."
"Oh good," Hermione replied. "So can we use it to find Kingsley's wand?"
"I don't know," George said, honestly. "The spell works similar to the locator spell for people, you use an object that's similar to or has a common quality with the missing object. That's what I was explaining when you walked in."
"Well we have half the contents of Kinsley's house here," Ron pointed out. "There should be something we can use, right?"
"A wand is as unique as the wizard that uses it," George replied. "It's not just a common object, it's a different entity altogether. I have no idea what you could use that's comparable."
"Well we have to try," Hermione chimed in. "Right now, this is the best lead that we have."
"Why don't you all get started looking through the boxes of evidence that we have," Harry instructed the group. "George, can you oversee? Maybe guide them towards what might work for the spell and what might not?"
"Absolutely," George replied, jovially. "Come on, everyone!"
Without the same enthusiasm that George had, everyone except Ron, Hermione, and Harry moved towards the boxes of evidence that were stacked nearby and began to sort through them. Harry moved away from the group and back into the control room. Ron and Hermione followed him.
"Susan, can you go out and help the team?" Harry asked, once they were inside. "They could use another person."
"Of course," Susan replied. "But shouldn't someone stay and keep an eye on the monitors?"
"I'll keep an eye on them," Hermione told her. "You go ahead and help out."
"Okay," Susan said, and left the room.
"So what's going on with in Asylum?" Harry asked. "We saw Zabini was arrested, what happened?"
"Everyone who was sick was poisoned," Hermione answered. "The poison was a combination of potions that only Blaise had access to and Blaise was in the house where we think a number of them had been the night before. That was evidence enough for Greg Goyle so he arrested him. Blaise is being held until he's placed on trial."
"Maybe Blaise was trying to help us somehow?" Ron asked, scratching his head. "He knew they would be getting their memories back and so he tried to get rid of the worst ones?"
"Blaise didn't do this," Hermione said, confidently. "There's no way."
"Then who?" Ron wanted to know. "Who else could have done it?"
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. "We were in the middle of trying to figure that out when I got Harry's Patronus."
"We?" Harry asked. "Who's we?"
"Malfoy and I," Hermione said, ignoring the way that her heart sped up when she said his name. "He doesn't believe Blaise is responsible either so we came to a truce of sorts."
"How do you know he's not the one who did it?" Ron questioned. "He seems the most likely."
"I saw his face when he found his father collapsed in his room," Hermione replied, defensively. "He was genuinely surprised."
"We can't rule anyone out," Harry commented, earning a frown from Hermione. "Not even Blaise."
"If we could just talk to Blaise, you'd understand," Hermione said, throwing her hands in the air in frustration. "But no one can talk to him until the morning of the trial. Whenever that is."
"He hasn't stopped pacing since we got in here so he likely has something to say," Ron said, pointing to the monitor.
At his words, Hermione's face lit up and she threw her arms around Ron with a quick hug.
"Ronald, you're brilliant!" she exclaimed, rushing over to the control panel.
With a couple of taps, she brought up the room where Blaise was on the large screen. She rushed over to the conference table, sliding files around and moving boxes until she found her journal. She grabbed a pen from the table and ripped a page from the journal. She quickly scribbled a message and sent it away in a poof. She then turned to the screen and watched as it appeared on the bed in the room where Blaise was being held. Blaise noticed the piece of paper and Hermione watched as he walked over, read the paper, then looked up, directly in the direction of the camera.
"What did you write?" Harry asked, moving next to Hermione.
"I told him to look up and left," Hermione replied, excitedly.
"How are you going to get anything out of him?" Ron wanted to know. "He can't exactly write back."
"But we can SEE him," Hermione told him, rolling her eyes. "A thumbs up or a thumbs down is all we need."
"That's brilliant, Hermione," Harry praised. "But aren't you limited to about a sentence for the magic to work?"
"I'll make it enough," Hermione replied.
Hermione ripped another piece of paper off and wrote another note. It disappeared in a puff of green smoke and she watched as it appeared next to Blaise. Blaise read the paper and gave her a thumbs up.
"What did you write?" Ron asked.
"I told him thumbs up means yes, thumbs down means no," Hermione replied as she wrote on another piece of paper. "Now I'm asking if he put his med bag down while at the Nott's."
A moment later, Blaise gave a thumbs up.
"Did you keep it in sight the whole time?" Hermione muttered as she wrote the note.
Blaise read the note and gave a thumbs down.
"Okay, so someone could have accessed his bag," Hermione said, more to herself than anyone else. "But who?"
"Uhh, Hermione?" Ron's voice broke through her thoughts. "I think Blaise is trying to tell you something?"
Hermione looked and saw Blaise had contorted his arms into a shape.
"What the hell is he trying to say?" Ron asked.
"It looks like he's trying to make a letter 's'," Harry said.
"S?" Hermione wrote on the paper.
A moment later, Blaise grinned and gave her a thumbs up. He then began to move his arms again. He stopped, puzzled, then instead tried to use his fingers."
"NOW what the hell is that?" Ron asked.
"Looks like an 'r'," Harry replied, shrugging when Hermione and Ron gave him an incredulous look. "What? Ginny likes charades."
With a laugh, Hermione wrote an "r" on the paper. When it arrived, Blaise gave her another thumbs up.
"S-, r-," Ron said. "That doesn't spell a damn thing."
"Senior," Hermione blurted out. "Nott Senior is the one who sent for Blaise, he must be the one Blaise thinks is framing him."
"Nott, Sr.?" Hermione wrote.
She looked to the monitor to see Blaise giving her two thumbs up.
"Hang in there," Hermione wrote and sent the message away.
Blaise gave her a thumbs up and went back to pacing.
"I need to get back," Hermione said to Harry and Ron, placing the journal into her bag. "Nott, Senior is unconscious but I can talk to Theo."
"Maybe not much longer," Harry replied, pointing to the camera trained on the inside of the town hall. "It looks like some of your patients are waking up."
Hermione looked to see Neville and Hannah helping Lucius Malfoy into a sitting position. She watched as Draco strode over to his father and the two embraced. There was a deep love there, Hermione realized. It shone through her monitors. She turned away and shook the thoughts of Draco Malfoy from her mind.
"Well I'm glad they're going to be okay," Hermione said, with a smile.
Ron opened his mouth to reply but a look from Harry had him closing his mouth again. Before anyone could say anything more, the door to the control room opened and Dennis walked in.
"We found something we might be able to use," Dennis said, excitedly. "George is ready to try the spell."
"Wonderful," Harry replied. "Let's go."
Together they all walked back into the workspace and over to where everyone was gathered. George was standing by one of the work tables with a map of London and surrounding areas spread out on it. He'd laid a small, red pushpin down on the map and he had his wand in hand.
"What are you going to use to try to find the wand?" Hermione asked.
"We found another wand while we were in Kingsley's home," Seamus told her. "We thought maybe Kingsley used it as some sort of backup wand. If that's the case, maybe it can help us find Kingsley's actual wand."
"Do you think it will work?" Ron wanted to know.
"No idea, little brother," George said, twirling his own wand in his hand. "But so far, it's the best we've got."
George kept the wand they'd found in his left hand and, with his wand in his right, muttered an incantation, while waiving his right hand. When the incantation was complete, he touched the wand with his wand, then touched the red push pin. The pin shot into the air, spun around three times, then froze mid-air. It stayed there, suspended for a moment, before dropping onto the table, exactly where it had previously lain.
"So that's a no to the spare wand," George said, with a half-laugh. "Oh well, on to the next!"
With groans of frustration, everyone went back to the evidence boxes.
"I need to get back," Hermione said, looking to Ron and Harry. "There's another journal like the one I used to communicate with Blaise in my office. Third book from the left on the second shelf. You can use that if you need to get in touch with me. There are instructions on the inside cover."
"I'm going to send a couple people over to Kingsley's place to see if we can get in and find anything else we could use," Harry told her. "Otherwise, we'll be here. Should we send one of your team back into the control room?"
"Oh Merlin, yes!" Hermione said. "I almost forgot."
"Who do you want us to send?" Ron asked.
"They know who's rotation it is," Hermione replied. "Just tell whoever's turn it is to get in there and keep an eye out."
"Will do," Harry said. "Here's a few more portkeys, the department is working overtime to get as many as we need."
"Thank you," Hermione said, taking the small black pouch. "Good luck."
She walked out of the room and went into the back alley behind the museum. She reached into the black bag and pulled out a large black binder clip.
"They really stretched the imagination with this one," Hermione muttered to herself.
She closed her eyes, gave it a squeeze and, after the pull, she opened her eyes and found herself in her kitchen.
"At least they're getting more accurate," she thought.
She rushed out her front door and nearly flew by Draco Malfoy who was standing on her porch. She grabbed her chest when she saw him.
"Merlin, Malfoy, you scared the hell out of me!" she exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you," he replied, agitated. "What took you so bloody long?"
"Work," she told him, refusing to say more. "What did you find?"
"Most of the elders are awake," he told her. "Neville and Hannah are still there though keeping an eye on them. I asked them to keep everyone there under observation. Seemed easier."
"Good idea," Hermione said, ignoring the look of surprise on Draco's face when she complimented him. "We need to talk to Nott, Senior."
"He wasn't up yet last I was there," Draco told her. "He and Mathias Bulstrode were still unconscious. Why?"
"Then we need to talk to Theo," she said, so wrapped up in her own thoughts she didn't even hear his question.
She moved to walk off the porch but Draco stepped into her path. She immediately took a step back.
"Granger, I asked you a question," he tried again. "Why do we need to talk to Theo?"
"We need to search his house," Hermione replied, realizing she couldn't tell him that Nott Senior was Blaise's #1 suspect. "We need to see whatever it was that Goyle saw."
"That's going to have to wait a second, I have something I need to tell you," Draco said.
For the first time, Hermione looked up at his face. He looked worried, she realized. Really, really worried. Self-preservation went out the window and she moved back toward him.
"Malfoy, what's wrong?" she asked.
"My mother informed me that the remaining members of the board met while the elders were being cared for," Draco told her. "Blaise's trial will be Thursday morning."
"Thursday morning?" Hermione exclaimed in horror. "But it's already Tuesday evening, that gives us less than 48 hours to figure out who framed him."
"About 36 hours by my count," Draco replied, grimly. "It's not a lot of time."
A fierce determination lit Hermione's eyes and she shook off her fear. "Then we better get to work."