A/N: Hey, Liz here! We've gotten up to chapter 14 done, but unless people start reviewing it's hopeless and you'll get them EVERY OTHER WEEK! Bwahahaha. So please please please read&review!

Ciao,

DC- Liz

Chapter 4: Missing

"Ha-ha, 'Mione," Ron said, jumping up and opening the compartment door expecting his Hermione to jump up and say 'Gotcha!' Instead, he got silence.. eerie, spooky, silence.

"H..h..HERMIONE!?" Hermione wasn't one to joke. She was the prim and proper one.. other than when she was alone with Ron. She wouldn't pull off a stunt like this. No one could have gotten in, she locked it, didn't she? Well, he couldn't forget that they DID go to Hogwart's, one of the easiest spells was unlocking a door.

He couldnt believe it, Hermione was gone...he ran to the compartment Harry and Ginny were currently occupying, "Hermione is gone! She was there one minute...then she just disappeared!"

"Are you sure she's not hiding in your pants?" Harry said said sarcastically while Ginny playfully hit him and muttered, "Be nice."

"SHUT UP, HARRY! SHE'S GONE."

Ginny stood up and placed a hand on her brothers arm soothingly, "Tell us what happened"

"Well, it happened when the train stopped and the lights went out"

"Ron, the train DIDN'T stop, and the lights DIDN'T go out" Harry snapped.

"Harry...are you trying to make me insane? Are you? Okay, good, it's working. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE LIGHTS DIDN'T GO OUT? Obviously they did because if they didn't would I be standing here telling you the lights went out and my 'Mione is missing? NO." Ginny swore she saw a tear in his eye. Or maybe it was a twitch. She couldn't be sure.

"Dark magic..." Harry said, it was more of a statement, his green eyes deep in concentration.

"Why would you-know-who want Hermione?" Ginny asked nervously.

"I don't know.. I don't know! WHY HER?! Is it going to be like last time, Harry? Last time she was PETRIFIED, HARRY. This time it could be.."

"Don't say it, Ron," Harry said, his voice calmer now.

"Right, Ron. We all know what we're th-thinking," Ginny said, eyes wide in fear of losing her best friend.

"Maybe it has something to do with the scream Herms heard. She heard something no one else heard, you saw/felt something no one else did."

"Maybe she's a parselemouth, Harry," Ginny said.
"If she was a parselmouth, I'd hear what she heard. I'm a parselmouth, too." Harry looked at Ron, as if saying 'It's your turn to talk now.' He, however, was so consumed in thought of where, who, what, why...

Suddenly, Ginny spoke up, "We should tell the engineer. He could stop the train...or alert Dumbledor or something..."

"Yea...or something" Ron said sullenly.

"I bet you anything Voldemort," Harry said as the two weasley's flinched at the name, "is behind this."

"What..what would Vol--.. you-know-who want with Hermione? It's not like she has some big secret or something."

"How would you know? She doesn't tell you everything, ya know," Harry said, offended.

"Well she doesn't tell you everythin', either!"

"BOYS! Who the hell cares who she tells it to, the fact is none of us know what's going on. Maybe we should look at her stuff, retrace her steps. Maybe she's just pulling a prank."

"'Mione wouldn't do that though!" Ron said, "and I felt her being pulled away...it didn't feel like she was getting up...she was pulled."

"What the bloody hell!?" Harry asked, "Pulled...getting up...what?"

Ron blushed, "When it seemed like the train stopped and the lights went out...she fell on top of me...it was an accident..."

"WHAT?!"

"Does it matter, Harry? Does it? No-"

"YES! ACCIDENT MY A--"

"Harry, shush. Quiet. Sit. Boys," Ginny smirked when the 2 looked at her funny, "-you're not acting like 'adolescents.' you're acting like 2 little boys fighting over an action figure. Anyway, let's go back to the scene of the crime."

"Sorry, she's been watching too many muggle cop shows," Ron said apogetically when Harry looked confused.

Ron lead his little sister and best friend to the prefects compartment. The compartment was topsy turvy, things laying all over the floor, hermione's book lying on the ground in a way hermione would loathe. In the door way, a smirking Draco Malfoy stood.

"Did someone get in a fight?" The slytherin asked with a smirk.

"SHUT UP, MALFOY, I'M NOT IN THE MOOD," Ron growled, face red with anger, hands curled into fists.

Ginny ignored the boys, looking around, studying. "Ron," she said, absentmindly, "what happened? Why is it such a..wreck?"

Ron rolled his eyes, automatically calming down, "I told you already Gin! The train jerked, at least it did in here, and the lights went out. I guess 'Mione's book fell off the seat...and the rest fell out of that trunk there."

Ginny walked over to where the trunk was lying; everything was spilled out except one compartment at the bottom of the trunk. "What's this?" she asked. Opening it, she saw it was empty, filled with a greenish powder of some sort.

Harry seemed deep in thought when he finally said, "Looks a bit like floo powder...only finer. It's brighter too, practically glowing. I think we covered it in D.A.D.A once last year...Gin, can we your D.A.D.A text? I think its the same one we used."

"Sure, hold on," Ginny said, running out of the compartment into her own. Soon enough she was back, nervous as ever. "It's missing."

"Either you lost it-" Harry began.

"Because you're disorganized!" Ron cut in, recieving a glare from his 'baby' sister.

"Either you lost it or someone didn't want us to find out what this was."

"Don't be stupid Potter, its obviously Junior Portkey Powder, you know, like a portkey only in powder form.." Draco said smugly, happy to show off how much he knew.

The three students jumped; they had fogotten Malfoy, who was now lounging lazily against a wall, was even there.

"So, that means it would be, like.."

"It means a person could come from anywhere?" Ron asked. When he recieved looks that growled at him for not understanding, he said,"What? How would I know, I slept through that class!"

"If you're so smart, Malfoy, why don't you tell us where 'Mione is then?" Ron said.

"First of all, 'Mione?' What the fuck? Second of all, I don't know where Mudblood is, last I saw her she was walking by my compartment."

"But..how? Your compartment is all the way at the end..."

Draco looked at Ron as if he were the dumbest creature on earth, "Listen Weasel. I am not always in my compartment. I visit other slytherins, and...talk to idiots like you"

"Which really amazes me; who knew you could form complete sentences?" Ginny said slyly.

"Now Weaselette, its not nice to talk to your big brother like that." Malfoy was sneering, but his eyes seemed almost amused.

"Now now, Snake, if you thought we were all such idiots why ever are you standing here, in our doorway, breathing down our necks like a Little LOSER?" Ron and Harry snickered.

"There's nothing 'little' about me, unlike Potty and Weasel over there."

"OH SHUT UP, MALFOY," Harry growled.

Draco smirked, he was having fun, and he wouldn't just up and leave after being told to...

"So why are you all so freaked out about mudblood?" He hated to sound curious, but he was... well not really, he just wanted to hide from Pansy.

"Because she's our friend!"

"Crabbe's my friend. Wouldn't give a shit if he up and disappeared, though."

"That's awful, Draco," Ginny said, sounding truly disgusted.

"I know I am."

Draco stared attentively at the red headed weasel, she had grown up, much like the mudblood. He couldn't help but wonder if she'd be easy.

"....Dra-co?" Ginny inrerupted his twisted thoughts, his name unfamiliar on her tongue, "Do you know anything about Hermione's disappearance?"

"Granger's missing?" Ginny, Harry, and Ron glared at him. "..Joke? Heard of it? No, I don't know anything about Mudblood's 'disappearance.'"

Harry and Ron sighed in unision, it was hopeless.

Ginny took control, "Ron, you are head boy, go alert the engineer of Hermione's disapearance. Harry, grab your wand and a 'Witch's Every Purpose Storage Bag' from my trunk, use your wand to put the powder in the bag so Dumbledor can examine it. You, Malfoy, will sit right there so I can keep an eye on you!"

"You are not my baby-sitter!" Draco snarled.

"Do you want everyone to think you had something to do with her going missing?" Ginny asked skeptically.

"Why not, I can always use more popularity."

"Let me guess: joke?"

Draco smirked and nodded, his blonde hair flying everywhere.

As Harry and Ron exited the compartment to do what Ginny told them to do, the red headed girl stared at Draco suspiciously, "Why the hell are you being so nice?"

"I'm not the satanic evil son of a bitch everyone makes me out to be Weasellete, don't jump to conclusions, makes you seem like more of a bitch then you really are."

Ginny wipped out her wand and backed Draco against the wall, putting the wand to his throat. "I am not a bitch, do you understand me?" She sneered.

"You have been hanging out with Granger to much." Draco stated, his voice emotionless.

"Why are you calling her Granger when you usually call her Mudblood?" She asked, wand still at his throat.

"Because after a while, it gets rather dull. And the constant insults don't have nearly as much of an effect as they once did." He replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Or, maybe it's because you actually feel bad that Hermione has gone missing."

"Me? Feel Bad? For a Mudblood?" his voice scandalous.

"Yes. You. feel bad. for Hermione." Ginny sounded like she knew already Draco was hiding something, like she was watching so many movies she knew the signs of...something.

"I do pity her. Its obvious the dark lord took her, and I know she will be put through hell before he finally kills her..." He drawled.

"YOU DO KNOW SOMETHING! Tell me you fucking nitwit or I'll Avada Kedavra your ass! AND I DON'T CARE IF ITS 'UNFORGIVABLE' BECAUSE I'LL LIVE WITH BEING UNFORGIVEN."

"Do you honostly think they actually clue me in on such things when I'm going to Hogwarts? That old fool Dumbledor would know all he needs to know by looking at me. I don't know a thing," He said, although his eyes revealed he way lying. He wasn't all that good at concealing emotions recently, not since he stepped into this compartment atleast. Ron and Harry returned at that moment, together.

"We can't find Dumbledor, Ron's having a heart attack (I think), we can't find any teachers, and...Ginny is up on Draco with a wand to his throat?" Harry clued them in, explaining why Ron had both hands on his knees, spitting furiously, trying to regain some breath.

"Oh, this? He called me a bitch. I think he.."

"He..?"

"He's a stupid pureblood."

"That's great, Gin.." Harry said, running to help Ron, who was now sprawled out on the bench, twitching and murmuring "Mum? Is that you mum? Is that a spider? NOT A SPIDER, MUM! DON'T TURN INTO A SPIDER!"

Draco looked at Ginny...he had been sure she would have told the two boys so they could pummel him into the ground. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to tell them a little bit -

No, what are you thinking Draco!? Silence..silence is the key He thought, for once, unsure of what to do.

Harry took Ron out again, muttering something about how 'if Hermione was here she'd make him all better.' Ginny turned to Draco again, glaring. "So, what were you saying about the Dark Lord?"

"You talk smart, but you really aren't at all, are you?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow, "I'll help you then. Who is The Dark Lord's number 1 enemy?"

"Harry," she said suspiciously. Where was he going with this? Yes, maybe she was taken, but why not Ron? Or even Ginny? Or Harry Potter himself?

"Good girl" He said, as if she was a dog, "Now, who is the top of the class at Hogwarts?"

"Hermione, but I don't see how..." Ginny stopped short, when Ron came back into the compartment.

"Harry's missing!!"