Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry potter.

The crowd brushed past, which wasn't that weird, really, except that I had lost sight of Hermione. I saw a flash of red and then the crows past. Actually considering where we were that was slightly odd, come to think of it, that was suspicious.

Looking around for Hermione I was surprised to see she had moved, but wasn't worried just yet, she could quiet easily just have moved with the crowd accidently, but as I continued to search worry settled in my stomach.

I couldn't find her, but that wasn't too bad right? Maybe she had just forgotten something? Sort of frantic now, I continued to search. Following the path of the crowd I discovered it had disappeared and it was now just me along the street.

Where was she?

Deciding that maybe she went back for something, I went back to Honeydukes, but she wasn't there either. I searched the shop before hurriedly retracing my steps to the bookshop where I asked Rich if Hermione had come back there.

With a worried look on his face he nodded sadly, telling me not to give up and to keep looking.

I was in full panic now, had I scared her off? No she had been thrilled when I gave her the necklace so maybe something worse happened… what the hell had happened? The flash of red hair….

I remembered that I had seen the red hair in the crowd and there was only one family with hair that red, Weasley.

Had she run off with him? Why would she do that? No, something was definitely off. I had to find her.

As I excited the shop I saw a flash of raven hair in the crowds, the one person who could help me, though good god was I going to have to get over my pride, but Hermione came first.

"Potter!" I yelled, elbowing my way through the crowd. A head turned and I knew he had heard me. Jogging as through the crowd, I managed to catch up.

"Malfoy? What the hell do you want, you little Ferret!" he asked harshly as he recognized who I was. He had his wand in his hand ready to strike if I made one wrong move, but all I needed to say was one word.

"It's about Hermione." I said and immediately his attitude changed he was still ready to hex me but he was now listening to what I had to say.

"What about her?" he asked.

"She's missing." Immediately he stopped thinking of me as a threat and as more of an informant, he grabbed my arm and dragged me off the main section of the street.

I thought about protesting, but I was going to need him on my side, so for once I just kept my mouth shut. Man what had this women done to me that I was willingly going along with Potter?

As we came to a stop he asked, "What do you mean she's missing? Why the hell would you care?"

Well, it was now or never, Hopefully Hermione wouldn't get to mad at me for just telling Potter.

"Well, she told you she was dating someone right?" I asked, hoping that I wouldn't have to actually say it out loud.

"How do you know that she told us that?"

"Um," I sighed, here went nothing. "Because I'm her boyfriend." A look of disbelief crossed his face as the words his ears.

"What?" he asked,

"Merlin are you deaf, I said I am Hermione's boyfriend."

I thought he was going to go rage at me but instead all he did was let out a massive sigh.

"Well, I knew it was definitely some one that she knew we wouldn't approve of, which is why she didn't tell us. I should have seen this coming."

"Can you put off dealing with your friendship and help me instead?" I asked as I started to get frustrated with him. "You're missing the point she's gone!" I said, trying to get him back on topic.

"Okay, okay how do you know she's gone?"

I groaned, this was a waste of time, "Okay we were talking and a massive much of people cut her out of my view for a second and now she's gone. I know, I know, you going to say maybe she just decided to leave me, but I'm telling you that that's not what happened." I was talking really fast, hating the fact that while we stood here talking, she could be Merlin knows where.

"Okay, so basically, she was just going about her everyday life, and then poof she's gone? That is, admittedly, very strange, but you have to calm down how do we know she didn't just forget something somewhere and went off to go get it without telling you?" He asked.

"Because I've already checked this whole bloody town and she is nowhere to be seen. Potter don't you get it? She's gone! And I think that Weasley has something to do with it." It slipped out before I could process that that might not have been the best thing to say at this point.

"Well, I don't believe you about Ron, but it is possible she could have been kidnapped."

At least he seemed to believe that something was wrong, even if he didn't believe the whole Weasley idea.

"I hate this, just so you know. If I didn't need your help to find her Potter, believe me, I wouldn't be here. But she is gone, and I can't find her by myself."

Harry's POV

"I hate this, just so you know. If I didn't need your help to find her Potter, believe me, I wouldn't be here. But she is gone, and I can't find her by myself."

He looked so broken when he said the last bit; it pretty much said all I needed to believe him. Something was definitely wrong. Hermione didn't just leave her friends on a whim; she would have told him first, if he was in fact her boyfriend, so something had happened. Naturally Malfoy thought it was Ron, and I wasn't going to completely rule that out because if he had seen them together then I wouldn't put it past him to do something stupid like this.

"Alright if we are going to do this, we need to go tell the head Mistress, now." I demanded, hopefully he wasn't going to fight me on this.

He nodded, and it was then that I realized that he actually did care about Hermione, but I couldn't think about that now. There were more important things to be done.

"Well come on than, we have a missing person to find."

We didn't even bother to pretend that we weren't worried, we sprinted up to the castle, not bothering about the fact that people were staring at us strangely, we were solely focused on finding the one thing we had in common, Hermione.

Thankfully I had talked to McGonagall this morning by owl and like Dumbledore she had a second sense about things and had given me the password saying not to forget to ask for help when it is needed.

"Liquorish wands," I said as we came down the corridor, the gargoyle moving just in time meaning that we didn't smash head first into solid stone.

Both of us were breathing heavy as we waited for the staircase to reach its destination, for once I couldn't be bothered to pick a fight with Malfoy there were bigger problems to deal with.

The stairs hadn't even completely stopped when we both stepped out, and in an appearance of calm, we walked steadily down the corridor to the head mistresses office, where the door was immediately opened at our names.

"Malfoy, Potter, what on earth are you doing here?" McGonagall asked us in complete confusion. After all, seeing them together with no fighting would have been a shock to anyone.

"Professor, we have reason to believe Hermione may have been kidnapped." I said going for the professional view, hopefully this way would be quicker.

"Come in!" she said worry clearly showing in her face.

We both entered and sat down in front of her desk as she took the chair opposite.

"Now, explain. One at a time, if you please." She asked, and patiently listened to our response, but as we progressed a look of scepticism appeared on her face.

"How do you know for sure that something is wrong?" she asked finally as we finished, clearly she wasn't fully convinced.

Draco sighed impatiently, clearly not liking the fact that this was taking so long, "Look professor, she isn't the kind of person to disappear without the word, no matter how you look at it and I looked all over Hogsmead. She isn't there."

"Well, when you put it like that Mr. Malfoy I suppose you are right, we need to take action, I will call in some friends in the Auror department and see if they can conduct a privet investigation." She said as she got up producing a patronus and sending it off with a message.

"Thank you Professor," I said, knowing that there wasn't much else she could do at this point.

"I just hope you are both wrong, and that she is safe out of harm's way." she said worriedly as she sat back down, waving a hand in our direction, clearly we were being dismissed.

I stood up, as did Draco but he stopped asking, "Isn't there anything else we can do?"

"No, I'm sorry Draco, all we can do is wait, and you are a student here, so I suggest you get back to work."

A flicker of emotion passed his face but he hid it quickly, hurrying out of her office, as soon as we were out of earshot I said, "I know that you aren't just going to sit back, tell me what you are thinking."

"Why so you can stop me?" he asked, giving me a glare.

"No, so I can help you and hopefully find her all the more quickly."

He stopped in surprise and turned towards me clearly not expecting that answer, "Okay, first we need to check all her usual spots, then I suggest we go back to Hogsmead." He said grimly, clearly determined to find her.

A/N as always review! I think it's kind of cute how much Draco cares don't you?