Hermione was eighteen when she had her first cup of coffee, and by twenty she had sworn off it forever. In grammar school she and her classmates had been told countless times to stay away from drugs and alcohol, but they never once said anything about caffeine. For five years she had stood by that vow, only for it to finally be broken the night after she agreed to let Draco Malfoy help her find Harry. She was already on her fourth cup when Malfoy turned the lights on in his study to give them some more light. She took a large drink from her cup and went back to reading. She must have gone over the case files Draco provided a million times, and still she knew something was missing, something important.

Draco had noticed Hermione's rather heavy caffeine intake and even though he wouldn't admit it, he was getting a little worried about her.

"Uh…Granger? Hermione?" he asked cautiously, trying to get her attention.

She slammed the paper onto the table a bit harder than she intended, causing Draco to jump. Hermione noticed that her hands were shaking a bit but didn't really care.

"What is it, have you figured something out?" She asked hurriedly.

"Yes actually," Draco answered, "Through careful observation I've deduced that you've had way too much coffee."

Hermione's eyes, before wide with anticipation now narrowed, "This is not the time for stupid jokes Draco, we have work to do, every second we waste could be a second closer to Harry being killed and-"

"Okay, you've definitely had enough." Draco muttered loudly, interrupting her.

He made to grab the coffee cup away from her but she pulled it away and took another drink from it.

"And don't worry so much about Potter, I don't think his life is in danger just yet." Draco told her, not bothering to hide his annoyance at her behavior.

"What are you talking about?" Hermione almost yelled.

Draco raised an eyebrow and answered after a beat, "Well first of all, I think that caffeine is messing with your head."

"Draco!"

"Let me finish!" Draco snapped back at her, "As I was saying, the fact that the body was a golem and not really Potter is a vital clue."

"How so?" Hermione asked.

"Well think of it this way, whoever did this must have taken a lot of time to plan. Golem making is extremely difficult, so they must have spent some of that time studying, meaning they obviously have had this all planned out for a while. But the fact that they left a Golem body tells a lot about them." Draco explained.

The effects of the caffeine seemed to wear off and Hermione's brain unclouded. She processed all this information and after a minute in deep thought, came up with something.

"Yes, it means that Harry is probably still alive, and they used the decoy body to call off the search. They don't want Harry found." Hermione thought aloud.

"But they do want him alive," Draco finished her thought, "for now at least."

"Then that means it can't be the Death Eaters, unless they wanted to torture him and make him die slowly." Hermione said.

"But then they would have waited until he was dead and given us the real body." Draco muttered sounding a bit bitter and while touching his forearm lightly, "In fact knowing them, they would probably have left the body on your doorstep."

Hermione shivered at the thought and nodded in agreement, "So I guess that strikes them off the list of suspects."

"Right," Draco answered, "If I had to guess, whoever we're dealing with here isn't after Potter's blood. This is either a crime of passion or of profit."

"I doubt the latter." Hermione stated.

Draco raised an eyebrow again, "What makes you say that?"

"Because," Hermione began, "If they wanted him for money why would they want people to think Harry's dead? It would make sense that they would need him alive to get the money, but then what? They can't very well send him back or kill him for real if the world thinks he's dead. And besides, Gringotts would inform me if any major transactions were made from Harry's account because Harry gave me rights to access it."

Draco pursed his lips. "I see, so then let's say it's a crime of passion. Did Potter have any stalkers or ex-girlfriends who never moved on?"

Hermione thought for a moment, "No." she finally answered.

Draco sighed with annoyance, "Well then tell about all of his previous relationships before you."

Hermione didn't really like his tone but chose to ignore it. She racked her brain for the requested information.

"Well," she began, "In his fourth and fifth year, Harry had a crush on this Ravenclaw girl Cho Chang, they had a date but nothing really came of it. I doubt it was her though, last I heard, she was living in Ireland and was just married."

Draco nodded, "Okay, who else?"

"Well…oh, he took Parvati Patil to the Yule Ball in fourth year." Hermione told him.

Draco snorted, "Parvati Patil? Please, that woman's head is emptier than a flowerpot, she could never pull something like this off, anyone else?"

Hermione would have under normal circumstances thrown down in defense of a fellow former Gryffindor, but thinking back, she had to admit he was right.

"The only other person he actually dated was…well, Ginny Weasely and…you know." Hermione's heart sank when she thought of her deceased friend.

She often wondered what it would have been like if Ginny was still alive. Hermione remembered Harry telling her how she reacted to the break-up. At first she had been shocked, but after thinking about it, she realized that Ginny was probably just having a hard time getting over her idea of Harry being a hero. What she didn't realize was that Harry was regular person under all that press. But Ginny had been smart, she would have realized it eventually, and then maybe she could have moved on from Harry and found someone new, and hopefully the two of them could have become friends again. As for Hermione, Ginny was the best girl friend she'd ever had, and she knew that if she were still alive, Ginny would be right next to her through all this strife, comforting her and helping her find him.

Draco didn't say anything but didn't act like he didn't care. After a long silence, Draco coughed to get Hermione's attention.

"So is that it?" He asked.

"I think so," Hermione answered before being struck by another thought, "Oh wait no, in sixth year, this younger Gryffindor girl um…Romilda Vane! Yes, she had this huge fancy for Harry, she even tried dosing him with love potion once, Ron ended up taking it though by mistake."

"Romilda Vane?" Draco repeated, for some reason with a smirk.

Hermione furrowed her brow, "Yes, why do you look so amused?"

Draco chuckled, "Well I'll tell you this Granger, I may not know her as well as some of my friends do, but I doubt she would have the brainpower for this."

"What do you mean 'know her'?" Hermione questioned, even though she already had an idea of what his answer would be.

"I mean exactly what you think I mean." Draco said, his smirk growing.

Hermione rolled her eyes. She was about to tell Draco that they should get back to work, when a ringing sound from her purse distracted her. Draco watched with confusion as Hermione drew her cell phone from the bag and brought it to her ear.

"Hermione?" said the familiar voice on the other end.

Hermione's insides froze. She had hoped that Ron would not call her so soon. If he found out that she was working with Draco Malfoy, even though he was virtually the only one who could help her, he would go absolutely mad.

"Hi Ron." Hermione answered, trying hard to hide her nervousness. Nearby, Draco rolled his eyes at the sound of his old enemy's name.

"What's going on Hermione, we went to your flat but you weren't there, where are you?" Ron asked.

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to think of a suitable lie. What could she say? He'd already been to her flat so that wouldn't work. The park? No, he would have looked there. The pub? No, he wouldn't believe that because Hermione didn't drink. She had to think of something fast!

Whether it was lucky or unlucky for Hermione that Draco chose that moment to speak up is debatable, but nonetheless, when Hermione took too long to answer her friend, Draco saw fit to speak up.

"Will you just talk to Weasel already?" He said loudly

Hermione could almost hear her friend tense. She knew he heard that. Draco spoke far too loud for him not to.

"Hermione," Ron started slowly, "Tell me that wasn't the ferret I just heard."

"Ron," Hermione stopped for a moment before attempting to start again, "Ron I-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WITH MALFOY?!" Ron yelled so loud Hermione had to rip the phone away from her ear.

"Ron calm down!" Hermione could hear Luna's voice from the other end.

"Listen to me Ron," Hermione said once she was sure Ron was calm, "I know you don't like him but he's helping me find Harry and-"

"Helping you find Harry? Hermione, Harry's dead, they found his body remember? You gave the positive I.D. yourself!" Ron ranted.

Hermione was starting to become angry, but she hid it from her voice, "I know I did Ron but I thought it was him then. It wasn't."

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked incredulously.

"It was a golem Ron," Hermione said, "A fake body made of inanimate matter like clay or wood, or in this case rocks. Whoever took Harry planted a fake body to throw us all off, but me and Draco-"

"Oh you're on a first name basis with him now huh? That's great Hermione, just great!"

Hermione was not one to be provoked into arguments, but this was too much.

"Have you been listening to a word I've said Ronald? Harry's not dead, the body was a decoy, he's still alive out there somewhere." She said loudly.

"Hermione, are you hearing yourself? Do you realize how that sounds?" Ron snapped.

"Why are you having such a hard time believing it, it's magic Ron. Very difficult magic but magic nonetheless." She yelled at him.

"Hermione there is no spell to bring people back from the dead, you know that." Ron said reasonably.

"What part of 'Harry Is Not Dead.' don't you understand?" Hermione shouted back, "The body is a fake, it's not really Harry!"

"Look Hermione," Ron said not seeming to have heard her, "I don't know what the hell is going on in your head right now but this is just ridiculous!"

"Ridiculous?!" Hermione repeated, her anger reaching it's peak, "No Ron, what's ridiculous is the way you're acting. I thought you had gotten past that childish immaturity of yours, but I guess I was mistaken. I don't care what you think Ron but I know Harry's still out there alive, and I'm going to find him with or without you!"

With that, Hermione hung up the phone and literally threw it aside. Draco stared at her for a minute, unsure of what to say. Finally he snatched up Hermione's coffee cup and held it out of her reach.

"I'm taking this." He told her.

Several miles away, a rather steamed Ronald Weasely slammed the phone back onto the base. He couldn't believe Hermione was actually associating herself with the likes of Draco Malfoy. The mere thought of it almost made him sick. This was Malfoy, the one who used to regularly put Hermione down with his prejudiced insults, and now she was working with him?

Ron supposed he shouldn't have been so closed minded to Hermione's theory, but somehow he couldn't believe that Harry was still alive. He had lost his whole family and now his best friend, even if he managed to hope beyond hope that Harry wasn't dead and then it turned out he really was…

As Ron turned away from his desk, he began to wonder whether he would have been safer talking to Hermione or facing the anger of his wife.

"Ronald, what the hell is the matter with you?" Luna seethed, "How could you talk to Hermione like that?! For god sakes her fiancé just died!"

"But Luna," Ron countered, "If you'd heard what she was saying, she thinks Harry's still alive! She said the body they found was a golem and to top it all off, she's partnered up with Malfoy, Draco Malfoy to find him."

"Oh come on Ron," Luna said exasperatedly, "You really find the idea of a golem body so strange, I've been wondering if that was the case myself, it's a perfectly reasonable theory."

Somehow that didn't convince Ron further. He'd heard enough of his wife's 'theories', and was pretty confident in his ability to tell which he should believe and which he should just pretend to.

"Luna, this is different!" Ron yelled, "This is a human life we're talking about here. What proof do they have that Harry's alive, how could they even tell the difference between a real body and a fake one? Especially if the magic is as old and difficult as they say it is."

"There are plenty of ways!" Luna fired back.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I don't want to hear about it anymore!" Ron yelled irrationally, "I'm going to bed!"

"Well that's fine then, go on and just laze about while Hermione's out there trying to find your so-called 'best friend.'" Luna shouted, angry tears beginning to stream down her face.

Ron could not remember the last time he'd felt so angry. He was mad at Hermione for giving him false hope, at Luna for believing it, at Harry for dying and leaving them, and at himself for being so powerless. He banged his fists down on the chair, and for the first time since the accident that put him there, almost wished he had gone with his family. His thoughts were so erratic, he ran his chair into the walls several times, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't calm down long enough to correctly guide the chair. The fourth time he was about to hit the wall, he looked forward and his heart sunk horribly.

Ahead of him there was no wall, just the large gap that lead to the staircase. It had been three years now since he'd last been able to use them, and now here he was, right about to do it again. The chair, to wide to fit through the passageway violently hit the sides and sent it's now former occupant sprawling downwards. His head hit almost every step, and the last thing he heard was Luna frantically screaming his name before his whole world went black.