That was a quick update, wasn't it? Well I told you I had some time off from work, and classes have been easing down lately, so getting this all out wasn't a problem at all. And chapter twelve is also being worked on, but I don't know when it will be posted, but soon I promise.

Now I just have a little poll for you all, so please at least answer this. Should I delete Salvage My Memories? I have had no ideas whatsoever for that story and it's WAY too OOC without a reason for it to be. And it became too boring. So either way I will not be continuing it, I just want to know if I should keep it archived or not.

Oh, and if anyone is interested, go to invisiblechildren dot com. It's a sort of protest for children in Uganda Africa and it's going on all over the country this Saturday. Please think about it because it's for a good cause. It's costs absolutely nothing except your heart and time.

Chapter Eleven
We're in This Together

"How could you let her go, Pansy?" Draco kept on hysterically, running around the picnic table, hoping she was hiding underneath, keeping up a game of hide-and-seek.

"She's five years old, Draco. She should be capable enough to use the restroom by herself," Pansy countered back.

Hermione started sprinting to where the loo was, right behind the concessions and it was in clear view from the table that Pansy had been sitting at with Blaise and Alyson. It would have been very hard to miss seeing the little girl coming out, especially missing someone else wandering in. She opened the door and ran in, looking everywhere a small child could hide in. Hermione checked every stall, under the sink, and in every corner. Still no luck.

Five year old magical children obviously couldn't disapparate, and there was no way they could conjure enough power to do any sort of invisibility charm. Where could she possibly be?

The brunette left the small ladies room and without having any second thoughts about it, opened up the door to the men's restroom, hoping for her own sake plus Aly's, that she wasn't in there. And of course, no luck there either.

She emerged from the bathroom area, going back to the spot she had just been at, to see Draco acting panic-stricken with a few muggle cops asking about the situation.

"When was the last time anyone saw this baby girl?" she heard the taller cop with a pathetic excuse for a mustache hanging over his lips, asking Draco while taking notes on a small pad of paper.

"For the second time, she's not a baby," Pansy screeched at the cop, her patience wearing thin, and it showed from the way her hands looked more like claws.

"Less than five minutes ago," Hermione butted in, with worry filling her voice and her face rigid as ever, but she was bound to get out of control any second. "She was sitting at this bench, eating lunch with our two friends here," she explained calmer than she should have been.

"I see." The same man wrote a few more words on his notepad, and then looked back up at Draco. "And you're the father, right?"

"Yes! She's my daughter like I've already pointed out, idiot!" Draco responded with a bucketful of anger, but said the last word a bit more hushed.

"Sir, there is no room for name calling," the other office behind the taller one said, finally serving a purpose for being there.

"Humph!" Draco grunted, ready to just find his daughter, the one person he had never wanted to let go of.

The main officer looked up at Hermione and said, "and you're the child's mother, ma'am?" with his pencil in his hand, ready to write the frantic woman's reply down.

"Oh no, I'm just his girlfriend," she responded, pointing to Draco, her hand shaking uncontrollably. She was surprised that the man made the assumption rather than asking Pansy, but it still brought a smile to her face with the fact lingering in her mind that someone, anyone, thought that she was capable of being a mother. Especially a mother to Alyson.

"Alright…" Bill—Hermione finally took the chance to read the tag with his name on it—responded with a low hum, possibly thinking of what to do.

Wasn't he supposed to be a professional and already have Aly back in Draco's arms, being coddled over by everyone? Where in the world could she have gone to? Did she leave willingly? Could someone have possibly taken her away, kidnapping the most precious child away from the adults that loved her so much? Hermione along with Draco, had so many questions circling around in their mind, that they were both becoming dizzy, with a nauseating feeling erupting in their stomachs.

"So she's 103 centimeters, shoulder length blonde hair in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes, with a yellow t-shirt and a jean skirt on, correct?" he asked, confirming the details Draco had given him while Hermione had been searching in the restrooms.

"Yes," Hermione responded before Draco had a chance to shoot a nasty comment out at the officer because she knew how he would get when his patience wore thinner than it was. His mouth had already been open to say something, but she had beaten him to it. "And she's carrying around a dark brown teddy bear with a red bow around its neck, and she calls him Gumpfrey." The officer nodded, adding the new information once again into his tiny book. "Officer, just please find her, she means so much to us. Please," she begged, something she had never gotten used to.

"Ma'am, we'll do our best," the second officer, George, said.

"I just have one more question," Bill started.

"Sure, anything," Pansy said, hoping that she could do whatever would be helpful because she felt completely guilty for losing Aly.

"Would there be anyone, anybody you can think of, that would have motive for possibly kidnapping her?"

Draco, thought for a second, sorting through all the people he had ever met in his life, even if Alyson had never been in contact with them. They could take out revenge on him by harming Aly, or even hurting him more than anything by taking her away. He thought of people back from his Hogwarts days, important people from the summer, witches and wizards from work, and even regular people he saw at restaurants that knew him by name.

"No, no one I can think of off the top of my head," the blonde wizard replied.

"Alright. Gather all of your things and meet me in the police station near the entrance. We're going to try and touch base with the security guards at the end of the zoo, making sure they haven't seen her."

"Thank you, sir. We'll be right there," Blaise finally opened his mouth.

A thought instantly struck Hermione with the cop's last statement, and she swiftly reached out for Draco's arm, trying to stop him from leaving. She got on the tip of her toes, trying to make it so that only her boyfriend could hear her next words.

"Draco, do you think it's a good idea to let the muggle cops take care of this?"

"Huh? You don't think they can find her?" Draco thought that maybe her hope was already starting to diminish, but it was too soon.

"It's not that. But they won't have any of our records in their system, because technically we don't exist to them. We should let the Aurors take care of this," she tried to keep on whispering. Apparently it didn't work all too well.

"George," Bill began saying after taking only two steps away from the area they had been standing around, "how about you go on ahead and make your way to the station. We'll all head there in a minute."

The other man nodded, understanding that there was business to be taken care of that he didn't have any part taking in it. He turned around, taking long strides in the opposite direction, away from everyone else. The other man looked at Hermione, and that's when she realised that he probably had heard the words she wished to exchange only with Draco.

"So you're all wizards then, I'm guessing?" That was a bold move.

"Umm…" Draco was at a loss for words. How could that muggle man possibly have known? Was he one, too?

"It's alright. Only the top officials in police stations located in major cities know. I'm from the London department, but only here training other officials." Bill was quite blunt in his statements, but it still kept on bothering Hermione as to why they would need to know about the wizarding world.

"Why?" the brunette girl found herself asking.

"We keep in contact with your own officials—Aurors, are they?—because cases like this tend to happen. I'm not too familiar with the things that go on in your world, but I'm told that there are certain people that are born from us without magic, that still keep in contact with their original world. Like you are doing now. In these situations, we were told to take care of things as far as we could take them, and then let your Aurors take it from the point where us cops can't continue any longer."

"Oh," Pansy and Blaise gasped in unison, realising how much these 'strange' people could actually help them.

"But we'll look around the park first, and then when we're positive your daughter is no longer here, we'll escort you down to your own Ministry."

Hermione silently prayed that real soon, Alyson would be back with them, having found her in the park. But even as she asked whatever deity ruled the sky to bring her back right then, she had doubt that anytime soon she would be surrounded with the best magic she knew: a child's love.

XXX

All four adults were sitting in a waiting room in the small station that the zoo offered for security purposes, but still on comfortable couches. Pansy and Blaise were sitting in one together, with Blaise comforting his wife who had been crying and blaming herself that it was all her fault. 'If only I hadn't let her out of my sight! I don't care that it was for one minute!' Her tears had all been used up, but they still remained on her cheeks, reminding her that it was not over.

Draco and Hermione were in the other couch that was perpendicular to the other one, with Hermione sitting in between the blonde's legs, so that he wouldn't be able to see her face. She didn't want him to see her crying. Hermione Granger was not one to cry, and she refused to show weakness. But she did love the comfort her boyfriend's arms offered to her.

They were all waiting for the final word from the security guards and police officers that the whole zoo grounds had been searched, and if Alyson had been located or not. And the silence was excruciating.

"It's okay to cry sometimes," Draco pointed out, also letting the girl in front of him knowing that he felt her hot tears.

"I know," she let out in a hushed tone, barely being audible. "But I'm not used to doing it so openly."

Silence once again filled the thick air, almost feeling as if the room would just as soon be filled with fog and smoke. Everyone had so many thoughts in their head, but something was worrying Draco more and more as he kept on thinking about it.

"You're not going to leave, are you?" he asked, concerned for his own sanity. He couldn't take it if he was about to lose somebody that he actually for, for the third time in his life. He just would not let her leave this time.

But Hermione was so shocked at his question, that she lifted herself up and twisted her body so she was sitting on his lap, arms around his neck and looked at him with the one emotion that he felt he never had enough of.

"I would never do that again. Losing someone is the worst feeling ever and I would never subject you to that kind of pain ever again. Finding Alyson is something that we both need to do together, and I will not leave your side for a single second," she answered his worries with the response he had hoped for, with determination set in her voice. If anyone could fine Alyson it would be Draco, and she would help him in anyway possible.

"I was hoping you would say something along those lines."

Hermione wasn't sure, but she thought she could see his eyes cloud over with unshed tears. She wasn't sure if they were there because of the emptiness he felt because his only daughter was gone, or if they were presented because it was set in stone that the love of his life wasn't going anywhere.

"I love you, Draco. We'll get through this, I promise. The wildest fire, widest ocean, tallest mountain, or bitchiest person will not stop me from holding Alyson once again in my arms. I will get her back for you."