Draco and Hermione hit the ground with a loud 'thud,' still holding hands. They stood in a small dark room with a single podium that said Zabini Estate. Draco had let go, but Hermione was still clutching his hand. Her stomach was churning, both from the portkey travel, and at the thought of being in another of Blaise's homes.

"Hermione?" Draco waved, trying to get her attention.

"Hmm?" She snapped out of her daze.

"Can I have my hand back?" He smiled, coyly.

Hermione cleared her throat and whipped her hand back. "Oh yes… erm… sorry."

Draco smirked. "Come along then." He gestured towards the door and opened it. "After you."

Hermione walked through the open door, into a long hallway. Draco followed, and his jaw dropped the moment he broke the threshold. "That tosser…"

Everywhere she looked, she saw Gryffindor colors. Maroon carpets and drapery with gold trim; warm brown sofas; and dark wood furniture. She walked through the house, admiring and wondering at every thoughtful detail. It was small - for Blaise - only a four bedroom, ranch style layout. They had stepped out of what appeared to be an entryway closet with an extension charm inside for the portkey podium. There was stone flooring throughout the house and lots of natural light, and the entryway opened up to a large living area with a handsome brown leather sectional, and an espresso colored coffee table with lion claw legs. The sectional was facing a large armoire the same color as the table - she walked over and opened it to find a television and several VHS movies. She took a deep breath, and closed it, then spun on her heal and walked through the living room and into the kitchen. The warm tan brown countertops were hewn from some sort of stone that had subtle, translucent layers. The gas range was finished in dark cast iron and finished in brushed gold. The kitchen counters made a U shape, with espresso bar stools at the edge of the counter. The contrast between lit areas and those in shadow further enhanced the beautiful palette of colors in the kitchen, a trick of the skylight that somehow lent a magical feel to the air. Her fingertips trailed over a small gold lion statue with rubies for eyes that guarded one corner of the U, as she drank it all in. She sauntered casually down the hall to the bedrooms, and saw her bags sitting on the bed in the master bedroom. It was a monster of a four-poster bed, with red and gold bedding, sitting on plush cream carpet. Ornate gold curtains hung from the large windows. She saw a note on the bed. Tilting her head to one side, she stepped forward and picked it up.

Hermione,

I am sorry for how we left off. It was unfair of me to spring things on you the way that I did. But I want you to know that, when I promised you that our friendship wouldn't be compromised if we dated, I meant it.

Draco let me know what is happening with George. I hope you are starting to see what I mean about the Ministry. Even if you aren't, George is family, and we must do what we can for him. Selfishly, I will not be ending my trip early, but if you need resources, connections, or anything that I can send, do not hesitate to ask. What is mine is now yours.

I had the house elves adjust the Amsterdam house to your bloody House colors. I hope you like it. I find them hideous, but my consolations knowing it'll be driving Draco absolutely batty. Worth it.

Stay safe, and let me know if you need anything.

All my love,

Blaise.

Hermione wiped away a stray tear. She heard Draco's gentle voice behind her. "Are you alright? I didn't expect him to do this."

She turned to face him, and held out the note with a stiff arm. "He explains himself."

Draco skimmed through it, chuckling towards the end. He closed it, carefully, and handed it back to her. "And I repeat. Are you alright?"

"I'm relieved, and sad." Hermione stated, looking at the floor. "I'm relieved that he doesn't hate me for not going with him, but I'm sad because, well, all of this…" She gestured to the room. "…makes me miss him more."

Draco nodded understandingly. "Well, are you hungry? I figured we could whip something up, and I could explain my plan over dinner. I'm famished."

"Let's do that." Hermione nodded rather absently, and followed Draco to the kitchen. She pulled the refrigerator open, to reveal it stocked with more than she even knew what to do with.

Draco was standing back with his hands stuffed into his pockets, rocking back and forth from his heels to his toes. "Alright, I'm going to come out and be honest."

She looked up at him through her eyebrows. "What is it?"

He pursed his lips, and a blush rose across his cheeks. "I haven't the foggiest idea of how to cook."

Hermione sputtered before laughing outright. "Then why on earth did you say we should whip something up?!"

Draco blanched, and his voice became high pitched. "I thought you'd say something about going to eat out, and see Amsterdam! That's what most birds would do!" He threw his arms in the air. "Alright look, we can call a house elf -"

Hermione snorted. "We aren't calling a house elf. You are going to learn how to cook!"

Draco leaned back against the counter, a hopeful grin spreading across his face. "Or I could just watch you cook!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "This is an important life skill. You need to at least be able to do the basics. Here's the deal." She snagged a cookbook off of the pantry shelf. "YOU are going to go through this, and follow the very difficult instructions." She handed him the copy of 'Cooking For Dummies,' as he glared at her. "I will be in the living room, going over the texts and maps you found. Try not to burn this lovely place to the ground."

Back in the bedroom, Hermione had begun to dig through her bag for some of her own material. She heard a loud, resounding 'CRACK,' which could only mean one thing. "DRACO MALFOY!" She shrieked. "You are UNBELIEVABLE." She stormed out of her room to find Draco sitting at the dining table, grinning over a table of perfectly seared steaks, pan-browned fingerling potato halves, some sort of peppered root vegetable stir fry, and a colorful chopped salad.

"Whaaat?" He said, feigning innocence. "I'm a quick learner!"

"You are so full of it." Hermione countered. "And you are impossibly spoilt."

Draco shrugged. "You and Blaise are always the ones saying I shouldn't apologize for my wealth." But under the bluster, he looked just a tiny bit hurt.

Hermione immediately felt guilty. "Well, we do have a long night ahead of us, and it's best we don't waste time," she back-pedaled. "But you will learn to cook, at some point."

Draco sat up straighter and grinned. "Deal." He pulled his wand out, and flicked it. All of the texts and several maps appeared, along with a table, between them and the living room. "Let's tuck in, and then we can take a look at all of this."

They spent the next several hours mapping out the various sightings of the pack over the years throughout the Netherlands. They were getting frustrated by hour five.

"There's no pattern! It makes no sense!" Draco's blond hair had begun to lose its typical, perfectly slick look. His hair hung in his eyes as he bent over the pins that represented the different reports of sightings, for the umpteenth time.

"Maybe it's migratory?" Hermione offered, as she reached into her bag to pull out yet another book.

"I already looked into that. But it would't make sense with the regional weather patterns." He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to brush it out of his eyes.

Hermione's forehead scrunched as she tapped the tip of her nose. She sighed deeply as her mind ran rampant. Her hands ran down her face, and then landed on the back of her neck, elbows propped weakly on the table. "Okay, hold on. We need to step back." She stood up suddenly, grabbed Draco from behind by the shoulders, and pulled him away from the map. "Let's try to get some distance. It'll help." She swished and flicked her wand to a simple levitation spell and the map rose off of the table. "Okay now let's step back five paces."

They both backed up and stared. After a long moment of awkward silence, Draco groaned and threw himself backwards onto the sofa, slinging his arm over his eyes. "This is hopeless."

But Hermione stood fixed, continuing to stare intensely at the map. Something felt familiar, but just out of reach of her conscious mind. One thing was for sure. Hermione Granger does not quit. She stared, and stared, and suddenly… "Wait… Waaaiiiit! I think I have it! Draco! Can you hold this levitation spell?" Without hesitation, Draco jumped up and did as he was asked.

Hermione scurried over to the table with the ancient Sanskrit text. She started bouncing with excitement. "I've got it! Oh my goodness, I've got it!" Draco's eyebrows lifted, part way in expectation of the answer, and partly in surprise at how giddy and childlike she suddenly seemed.

"Want to let me in on the party, Granger?" Draco quipped.

Hermione waved her wand in a circular motion over the Sanskrit text, and a symbol appeared above the book. The symbol looked like a series of smoky brush strokes, layered over each other midair: there was a large circle and a triangle, with every corner of the triangle just slightly overlapping the circle; inside of the circle was a square, with every corner of the square on the circle, and within the triangle, a smaller circle. She walked over to the map, carrying the floating symbol at the tip of her wand. "I remembered this from when we were rereading the text earlier." She flicked her wand, and the symbol flew out and attached itself to the map, growing slightly as it did. Every single pin landed on a part of the symbol. "These are hunting patterns, and I would bet my bonnet that wherever they live, is near the center of this," she said assuredly, as she stabbed her wand through the glyph and into the map.