A/n: I love this chapter, hope you do too! Thanks to my new beta MorbidKitten2! **Not yet edited.

Yeah they took turns laying a rose down/

Threw a Handful of Dirt

Into the deep ground/

"I understand that you feel strongly about this lead Granger, I really do, but the fact of the matter is that Nott is my boss, and I can't just go upstairs and announce that I believe he's the killer."

"You don't," she pointed out, sitting in his office now. Lavender had gone home a few minutes ago, after Hermione told her that she thought she had a lead. Excited at the prospect of knowing who had killed Ron, she had disappeared without an ounce of difficulty. "I'm the one that believes it's him. You think I'm completely crazy."

"Look, I hear you out, alright? And even though I don't really like Theo, that doesn't mean that I'm just going to pinpoint him as a killer out of the blue and question him. He could fire me for questions like that and then we would really be off the case."

"But you have to question potential suspects!" she reasoned, banging her hand on the desk. Here she was certain that she had a lead, and all Malfoy could do was shoot the possibility down. "We have evidence, and we can even get Lavender to testify on the matter!"

"Oh yeah? And what exactly are we going to say Granger?"

"What we know," she said, resting her hands on the desk. "He dated Lavender, and then he started sending her threatening mail right around the time that my husband was killed. He was the last person she was with before Ron. He sent her notes, notes on blue paper, and he commented about the note that I found, even though he's never seen it! Lavender even said that Ron was acting strange a few weeks before he died! She said he was trying to break it off with her, but that he wouldn't give a reason why." She chewed her lip before saying the next part. "He wouldn't even say it was because he wanted to be loyal to me, from what she said. He wouldn't give a clear answer and we don't have one now!"

Draco rubbed his temples as he spoke, giving them both a moment of silence after her speech before saying anything. "I'll admit it is something we should look into. But there's a lot of loose ends. Does Nott have an alibi for the night of the killing? Would he also be responsible for Chang's death?"

"Cho was really good friends with Lavender, and if he really wanted to get back at her then he would kill her too."

"But why?" he countered, tapping a quill he had picked up on his desk. "What's the motive there? She's not bisexual; she wouldn't have a relationship with the girl. Would it have been done to harm her mentally, or to have leverage over Lavender for persuasion to get her to come back to him, if any of this is actually true. He killed your husband for revenge on her, or to get her to come back?" He moved to rub his temples again. "There are so many complications here, so many loose ends, that I don't even know if I want to question him. He has a lot of power and could fire me on spot. Of course, that might just prove that we are actually onto him and really concern him, but give us proof."

"Ha! See, you're starting to think of situations and reasons about why he did this too! If he fires you that just means he's scared that you're onto him; if he just yells, that could be an indicator that we're on the wrong track."

"Or that he's lying," the blonde pointed out, thinking like a detective. "Alright, let's say for a moment that you're right, that Nott is the killer. What do we do? We can't just question him like this, not with all the gaps Granger. We need to fill in more of the holes before I even attempt to bring this up."

"I know," she sighed, resting her head on her hand. "There has to be a connection though!"

"If you've found your criminal Granger, there's always a way to connect the dots. Right now we are missing too many dots though. If we were muggles, we could look for the murder weapon-"

"You know what muggles do when investigating?" she asked, smiling. The fact that he knew anything remotely correct about muggles astounded her.

"Yes," he said, steering them back on track. He was not going to go into his knowledge of muggles at this moment. "However, a blade of some sort was used during the killings as well in this case. Enchanted or not, it could be a clue. The only problem is wizards can spell the blades to not have a trace of blood or DNA left on them, and can keep the murder weapons in their own home. Until we know what kind of blade was used we can't even begin to narrow down the results of that."

"True, but we have more than just a weapon to look for. There's alibi's that would need to be found for him for both nights of the deaths, the notes that he shared between himself and Lavender-"

"Any notes that he may have sent to your husband," the blonde interjected, watching her face fall a degree. "If he's the reason Weasley is dead, then he had to contact him somehow. That would explain why he told Brown he couldn't stay with her without a reason, yes?"

"If it's true," she said, the gears in her mind turning. "Perhaps that's what the intruder at my home was looking for."

"Beg pardon?"

"Whoever broke in came with the intent of finding something. If Nott broke in, he might be looking for the supposed notes, or whatever else he may have used to contact Ron. The bedroom… well, I think it was trashed the most. Obviously the intruder was very inept on finding something, right? And now we can speculate what that might be. Maybe we should go investigate there today."

"You won't even enter the bedroom," he reminded, recalling how hard she worked to stay out of there, both after her home was broken into and when he tried to get her to go to sleep the night he reported that Brown honestly was pregnant. "Do you think investigating there is going to do any good?"

"You could look through there," she said, her voice growing quieter as she spoke. His eyes narrowed, and he tried to look into hers, but she kept avoiding his gaze. He very well knew that she didn't like that idea.

"It happened this morning Granger. There are other places we can go before returning there. And I know it's not on the top of your list, but at some point we- or at least I- will have to go back down into the basement and look around again."

Hermione cringed, staring at the floor. The basement, where Ron had been found dead. She shut that place off from her home, literally hiding the door with a decorative cabinet. Since the moment Ron died, she hadn't gone down there. It was hard enough to ignore the house, ignore the fact that her husband perished there, but she tried to for her children. They were too young to understand, after all.

Maybe moving in with Malfoy for a bit wasn't so bad. She could get away from that awful, awful place for a bit. Maybe she would sleep peacefully for a night.

"I don't know if I will go down with you," she said honestly, not looking up. "Perhaps someone else in this department can go with you."

"I never really expected that you would, Granger. No one would want to face those memories again. But right now I think we should go investigate a different place, somewhere that isn't your home."

"Hmm?"

"Chang's. If you're up to it, I think we should go there and do some investigating."

"What will we be searching for?"

"Anything. Like I said, there's lots of loose ends. Any notes, anything that can be taken and documented or sent to be looked up should be taken. I figure we aren't getting much done by sitting in the office and pondering things. If we really want to figure out whether or not Theo is a murderer, we have to go and search for evidence. I can send for some alibi's tonight once we head for the Manor."

"Maybe she has some unknown notes or something," Hermione muttered, standing at the same time he did. "Well, I suppose it's better than my basement."

"Exactly," Draco replied, studying her. She thought he seemed hesitant. "If you really don't want to go and look at any of the major evidence again Granger, then you're more than welcome to stay here and look through the files-"

"I'm coming," she interrupted, crossing her arms. "There isn't a body there anymore Malfoy, and I think I can handle it this time. I'll try to handle anything at this point, just so long as I can prove to you that Nott is the killer. I'm certain."

"If you say so," he replied, watching her turn and collect her things. Watching her, he felt extremely uncomfortable. No matter what she said, he knew the locations bothered her, and despite everything, he was growing fond of his new temporary partner. He didn't quite want to terrify her.

But that's what he was afraid would happen if he took her everywhere. He just wasn't sure how much of it she could take, not when it was directly related to her.

Don't push yourself too far Granger. I don't want you panicking on me again.

If nothing else, the lighting at Chang's still worked. Though it was the middle of the day it was cloudy outside, and it appeared as though it would rain. Hermione had mistaken the location of Chang's death for her actual home, and realized now that the two places were not connected whatsoever.

Chang was killed in an abandoned house on a muggle street. She lived in an apartment in the middle of magical London. The two places didn't seem related at all.

"I wonder what she was doing in that neighborhood when she died," the woman said as she searched the living room, calling out to Draco. "She doesn't live anywhere near there."

"It might be something important to figure out!" he called back, searching through an office space in the next room. "Perhaps she was running away from her killer."

"Don't you think that if she wanted to avoid dying, she would've been out in the open on the street and not in an abandoned house like that? It doesn't make any sense!"

"Well, then I suppose we should add the murder scene to our list of places to check out," he replied, opening a set of drawers. "Maybe the killer dropped something."

"Or left a fingerprint?" she asked, though she knew it was stupid to say. The place had already been swept for fingerprints and dropped items. There were lots of random things scattered throughout the rooms from what she remembered of the place, and wondered if something had been strategically tossed within the piles of rubbish. That was probably yet another silly idea.

"We already know there aren't any of those!"

"I know," she relented, getting on her hands and knees she peered under the sofa, her wand illuminating the space. There was an old playing card under there, loose change, and a slip of paper. Curiously, she took the paper and pulled it out, sitting on the couch.

It was only part of a note, with the better half missing. This appeared to be the end of a conversation, something that had been torn apart, the other half lost Merlin knew where. She read through the smudged ink, deciding that it had either been folded or torn before the ink could dry:

-insufferable! I could never live my life like that. Come on now, you're better than this. Tell her the truth. I know you weren't friends in school, but you should speak with her. If you really love him, then tell him to leave his family and be with you. And you can't be the other woman forever, you know that right? You're just going to end up really hurt in the end, and everyone else is going to be hurt with you.

And this time, don't lose the note! Last time I got a weird response about our conversation and I knew it wasn't you. We don't want to be blackmailed any more than we already have been.

It wasn't signed, but she realized that had to be the end of it. Odd really, for the conversation sounded like one she may have had with Lavender. The situation sounded right to be about Lavender (the receiver of the note), Ron (the assumed man that was being spoken of) and his family (Hermione and the children). It made sense, but for the time being she didn't want to jump to any conclusions. Cursing herself that he had already touched the note and soiled it with additional fingerprints, she dropped it into the evidence bag Draco had provided and continued searching, hoping to find something else useful along the way- like maybe the other half of the note. Yes, that would be lovely. She could talk with Malfoy about the note later.

With nothing else interesting turning up in the living room and the office space ending up being useless, they moved onto the bathroom- which took Hermione no time at all to search through- and finally the bedroom, that turned up several interesting things.

To start with, they were both staring into a drawer, exchanging glances between each other. "I suppose no one has come here and investigated yet."

"Apparently not," he said, enlarging his bag to fit the abundance of clothing. "I wonder how long that went on."

"Who knows. Would the autopsy guy be able to determine that?"

"No, this will go to the forensic scientist, though he does more with magical forensics than anything. Physical things are hard for him to work with sometimes, but he's going to have to deal. His name is Tony, and we're going to be dropping all of our things off to him."

"He's going to have a lot then," she said, making a face as he finished levitating all the clothing into the bag. The drawer had contained countless amounts of random clothing, all stained in dried blood. Now that the drawer was empty, the could see where the blood had stained the white paint as well. "Do we take that as well?"

"Take a picture, we'll return if it's needed. But it's only the object that held the items," he replied, shrinking the bag again. "Hopefully your husband didn't have a drawer like this?"

"Not that I know of," she replied, looking horrified at the idea. "I haven't honestly really touched any of his things since he died, but I always used to put his clothes away when I did the laundry. I would've seen something like this if it existed."

"Well, we can cross of similarities between the two then," he said turning to search a bookshelf. "The two murders aren't exactly alike."

"No, they have their differences," Hermione agreed, turning to face the closet. She was a bit apprehensive now to look through clothing after finding the odd pile of blood-coated ones in the bottom of Chang's dresser, but knew she couldn't stop searching now. Opening it, she quickly discovered that there was nothing interesting in there at all except some overly-revealing club wear outfits at the back.

"Look at this," he said, drawing her attention. Turning around, she found that he was levitating a blade by his head, the handle stained in blood as well. Her eyes widened a hair.

"You don't think the killer would've left that, do you?"

"I don't even know what this would've been used for, but considering that drawer of bloody clothing, I don't want to start making guesses. We'll take it along and have Tony check that out as well."

Agreeing, she turned back and continued her search. It wasn't long before they were finished, and nothing more had turned up.

"I suppose we shouldn't let the Aurors do any investigating," she said as they exited the apartment. "They tend to miss a lot, don't they?"

"At the other locations, yes. I've done a scarce bit of searching at the others, but I can guarantee we'll turn up lots of things that they overlooked. Tomorrow I'm thinking that we should take a trip back to the abandoned house."

Hermione nodded, not letting any of her hesitation show. Today they found things that could make some honest progress in the case, and if braving her fears put her closer to finding her husband's killer, then she would continue to do so without any hesitation. Avenging him was more important to her than anything.

The two left the apartment, preparing to apparate once outside. Yet neither of them noticed the heavy breathing just a few doors down, too caught up in their conversation. They didn't look back over their shoulders as they entered the elevator, missing the grinning face of a madman as he pulled the invisibility cloak off of himself.

They never even knew they were being watched by the same man they were trying to catch.

"Tony might have something for us in the morning," Draco said as they packed up for the day. "He said it'll depend on whether or not any of the evidence was cloaked to be overlooked or tampered with in any way by magic."

"I hope it doesn't take too long," she agreed, wandering towards the fireplace. "You still have to open up your floo for me to come over from Harry's."

"Yes well," he said, looking away, "Just don't expect me to leave that connection open. As soon as you come through tonight I'm blocking it to keep those pesky Potter's out."

Hermione shook her head, always slightly bemused by how Draco took things. "Very well, but remember it might take me a bit. I do have to explain things to my best friends after all."

"Just use small words," he said, waving a hand. "If you use anything over seven letters he might get lost."

She smacked him playfully. "Shut up!" Stepping up to the fireplace, she grabbed a handful of floo powder. "I'll have to make two trips; Hugo is so young that I don't dare floo with anything but him."

"Very well."

"And thank you," she said, catching him off guard. He was about to ask why she said that, but the girl called out her destination before he got the chance. Smirking after she left, he shook his head.

Clever witch indeed.

"It's not as bad as you think," she reasoned, crossing her arms defensively. "It actually makes sense!"

"Staying at Malfoy's makes sense?!" Harry asked, appalled. Ginny sat at the table between them, quite content to watch the two argue and keep her comments until the end.

"I know you don't like the idea Harry, and truth be told I was skeptical myself at first, but it really does make sense. Harry, we might have a lead on the case! If I'm at Malfoy's then we'll be able to work on the case at all hours-"

"And that makes you happy?"

"Finding the killer of my husband makes me happy," she spat, and his ears tinged red at that. She did have a point. "I know you don't agree, but this does make sense. "His wards are ancient, and can't be broken through. Even the war couldn't do that. After what happened at my house I'm a bit apprehensive staying anywhere, but he made that point and it made me feel a bit better."

"It's safe here too," Harry argued, irritated that she couldn't see that. "I would never let anything happen to you, your children or mine, or Ginny. We're all safe here."

She smiled softly. "That's one of the main reasons I don't want to stay here and burden you Harry; just listen to that list! I might be able to defend myself, but Ginny is still recovering from having Lily and the children are only going to add stress. I know you don't like it Harry and I never expected you to, but please try to understand my side of things. This does make sense."

"But why would you want to spend more time with that prat? Isn't work-"

"He's not that bad," she argued, defending her partner. "He's grown up Harry, and if you two didn't despise each other so much maybe you could see that. He isn't mean to me about the case; he's considerate actually. And besides, I feel more confident talking about the case outside the office as it is. At the office, I feel like I'm always being listened to."

Harry frowned, not liking that answer. "Do you think there are cameras or something?"

"Perhaps," she replied, shrugging. "That's not my point though. I want to be able to do as much for the case as possible, and this would be the best way."

"But is it the smartest way? Do you really trust him?"

"Yes," she replied surprised by how certain she sounded. "I do trust him. He has a son Harry, and I've seen them interact. He really loves the kid, and he would keep Rose entertained. I wouldn't be doing anything bad for my children." Turning her attention away from the stubborn man, she looked at Ginny. "Help me out here! You out of everyone have to understand why I need to figure out the killer's identity as fast as possible."

Ginny sighed, standing from her seat. Even the mere mention of Ron's death seemed to bring her mood down. "Despite how good it might be for the case Hermione, I can't fathom why you want to spend time at the Manor after what happened. I think it's going to bring back a lot of bad memories."

"My house can do that for me," she muttered, looking away.

"That being said," the ginger continued, "It's not my place to speak out against it. You're doing this for a reason, for both the safety of your family and for the case you're working on. I may not like it, but I'm not so narrow-minded that I can't see your cause."

Hermione's head shot up, a smile pulling at her lips. Was Ginny honestly defending her?

"Gin, are you-" Harry started, but was cut off as his wife whirled around, pointing a manicured finger at him.

"And you! Just because you've had your spats and battles with Malfoy doesn't mean that he can't change! Everyone is a different person than the person they entered the battle as Harry, and out of everyone you should understand that. Hermione is anything but a fool, and I trust her judgment on this matter. If she thought there was anything sketchy at all about this situation, we both know she wouldn't go. You're just too repulsed by the idea of it being Malfoy's house that you can't even see the benefits of her being there."

He looked at his wife, then Hermione, and then Ginny once more, a bit at a loss for words. He didn't really liked being ganged up on by tow sharp-tongued women. When she realized he wasn't going to respond, Ginny returned her attention to Hermione.

"Get out of here. We all know you want to go and work on that case." She waggled her eyebrows while she was turned away from Harry, hinting at something else as well. "Everything's packed, so get going before Harry finds something to say."

Grinning at her friend, she bolted towards the fireplace. She couldn't wait to start working on the case again.

Thank Merlin Ginny interjected, or she wasn't sure how long that would've taken.

A/n: Let me know what you think darlings!

Also, my first post for "The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition" is up under the title "Shadowed Happiness." It's a lower rating and not Dramione, but if you want to read something different from me check it out! It's a Cho/Cedric friendship story.

You can also check out my new Dramione story "Where are Your Parents?"