"Well. That's settled then." With those last four parting words, Snape stood up and left the headmasters office. Harry just sat, mouth slightly open, staring at the mass of billowing black robes as they passed him. Turning around, he looked at back to Dumbledore, about to ask the old man a question, but he was interrupted before he could even ask it.
"I agree with Professor Snape, Harry. We need to know what has happened to Mr. Malfoy, and who better to find him than the person who saw him last? As an old classmate of yours, I am sure that you would like to know what he has been doing these past few years since you defeated Voldemort?" smiling at Harry, he glanced at his pocket watch. Before Harry could say anything, Dumbledore continued. "My goodness! Look at the time! I had promised to meet Madame Pomphrey to discuss some changes over tea, and then had to discuss some business with Professor Binns! I'm sure you understand how busy it can be, being Headmaster and all. You can use the floo here in my office if you like; the floo powder is just there on the mantle piece. Well, Good Luck Draco hunting!" and with a pop, Harry was left alone in the headmasters office, staring at Fawkes, who was staring right back at him.
Feeling somewhat confused, Harry flooed to the Leaky Cauldron and decided to take a walk home. It wasn't as if he was trying to avoid or shirk this new "responsibility" – he was, after all, one of the only three people that had seen Malfoy since his mysterious disappearance during their school days. Thinking about it some more just gave him a headache. No, he didn't really need to think about this matter in order to justify it; he had already made up his mind about the topic a while ago, when Malfoy was at his home, but he did need to hear it through. And there was only one person who could possibly help him with that problem. Making sure that the coast was clear of any suspiciously watching muggles, Harry took out his wand and hailed the Knight Bus.
Looking around the alleyway, Draco had finally spotted the man that he was looking for. Bryan was a tall, well built kind of guy, who was always immaculately dressed in designer clothing, and who was also always dependable for having a few of the more "recreational" drugs on hand. If you so happened to want them. And Draco most certainly wanted some. Spotting Draco heading towards him, he started to walk over, grin on his face. Draco grimaced sightly. Bryan was always enthusiastic when it came to "alternative" payments from Draco.
"Harry! What are you doing here!?" Hermione squealed as she opened her front door. "If I had known you were coming…" here, Hermione tried desperately to dust some flour off of her hands, but only succeeded in transferring some to her top. Harry silently muffled his laughter; Hermione Granger, star of Gryffindor house when it came to academics, able to list every type of fern by both common and botanical name in Herbology, able to tell you the origins and use for every ingredient in Potions, the girl who scored highest in the school in Arithmancy in their NEWT's and who was just a general all-rounder at school, found, of all things, that she just didn't have the ability to bake a cake. If it was just simple a sponge cake or even packet cake mix, something would inevitably go wrong. And given that Ron was particularly fond of desserts, Hermione was always continually attempting to succeed in making the "perfect" cake.
A few minutes later, Harry was situated on Hermione's couch, listening to the brunette as she talked through her thoughts and theories on the matter of Harry being "enlisted" to find Draco. Harry was only half listening to her; she pointed out the obvious fact that Harry and Draco had been enemies throughout their schooling life, and that they had always been the ones that were involved in fights, while also stating that there had been a shift in Draco's attitude when they had seen him when he had been recuperating at Harry's home. She also pointed out that although his attitude had undergone a drastic change, he could have easily been feigning his condition, and that he was just pretending to not know who they were. However, she did not think that that was likely, as his confusion had seemingly been genuine, and that he probably wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to insult Ron and Harry for all he was worth, even if Harry just had saved his life.
Hermione, however, was also very curious as to the reason why Draco had been so drastically changed, and wanted to find out the cause behind their old classmates strange behaviour. As Harry thought about this, he really began to wonder about what Malfoy had been through since their Hogwarts days. Harry had always assumed that Draco would become like the other purebloods that had attended Hogwarts; spending their time travelling the world and visiting exotic places to "sow their wild seeds" before returning home to learn in the running of their own particular family businesses. After all, many of the Slytherin purebloods came from wealthy and prestigious families, and they all had their own businesses and investments to look after; many of the families had intermarried in order to protect family fortunes as well as look after the interests of the old family bloodlines. Some had already been married off to each other; a few from Hogwarts had been matched together by their families, such as Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini – though it had always been assumed that the Parkinson and Malfoy families had had an arrangement between them regarding their children. Tuning out his thoughts, however, Harry was just in time to hear Hermione proclaim that she would help Harry with the search for Malfoy herself, and that Harry would not have to bear the burden of looking for him all by himself, and that they would start their search that very night. Once again without much of a choice, since Hermione had already made up her mind, Harry agreed.
Harry and Hermione stepped into the night club and headed towards the bar. Since the Viper's Nest was where they had been on the night that Harry had first found Draco, they had decided that it was a logical place to start their search. Of course, it had been Hermione who had suggested they begin their search there. After all, she seemed to be the only one that had remembered someone mentioning that hey had seen someone who looked very similar to Malfoy in the club on the night they had been there. Sitting down on two empty bar stools, Hermione ordered a vodka sunrise while Harry ordered a Guinness. Both sat back with their drinks and searched the crowd for any platinum blondes that were in the club.
As Harry scanned the crowd, he thought back as to how and why Hermione had become involved. Even though Malfoy had been a constant source of aggrievement to the smart Gryffindor from the very first time that they had met, Harry had very firmly insisted that she be allowed to accompany Harry on his "assignment" to find him. Harry had at first disagreed, stating that both Dumbledore and Snape had asked him and him alone to find Malfoy, but Hermione had been quick to point out that she had also been there to see Malfoy when he was staying at Harry's, and she could help him search for him. They had argued for a few minutes before Harry had given up after a rather loud exclamation of "I was able to help you find Voldemort, and I can sure as hell help you find Malfoy so stop arguing with me for god's sake!!" They had, however, agreed to keep what they were doing hidden from Ron for the time being, as Ron had a tendency to overreact when it came to discussing Malfoy.
Harry appreciated the fact that Hermione was much more willing to think the situation through methodically, and her burning curiosity to find out what had happened to the spoilt Slytherin brat that she had known during her Hogwarts days far outweighed any kind of petty hate that she may still have harboured for the man. It had, after all, been years since she had seen the man, let alone been insulted by him, and such childish antics should belong in the past, unforgivable as they may have seemed in the past.
Though Hermione had never mentioned it to Harry, she did have a nagging sense of guilt over how she may have been able to prevent his current situation, or at least have been able to help prevent the tragedy that had befallen his parents, the only family that he had had. Hermione had never before mentioned to either Ron or Harry that she had know about the Malfoy family's involvement in the fight against Voldemort. She had accidentally overheard Lucius Malfoy and Professor Snape quietly conversing in one of the back parlours of number twelve Grimmuald Place just before there was to be a meeting of the Order.
Harry, Hermione and Ron had all suspected that there was someone other than Severus Snape spying for them in the Death Eater ranks, but if there had been, it had been kept a very closely guarded secret by the highest members of the order. All that had been deduced about the spy was that he was a member of Voldemort's inner circle; and therefore in an extremely volatile position if they were ever to be caught. Hermione had not been close enough to actually hear the details of what Snape and Malfoy senior were speaking about, but taking into account that there was a known Death Eater in the secret headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, and that said Death Eater was talking to a known spy for the Order, it was rather simple for her to put two and two together and come up with four, uncovering the identity of the hidden spy.
The hardest thing for Hermione to do after she had heard of the deaths of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and the presumed death of their only child, Draco, (whose body was never found, and with good reason, seeing as he was still alive), was to keep the secret that had cost the Malfoy's their lives. While there was still hope that Draco may have been kept alive somewhere, there was no mention of their involvement in Voldemort's downfall, just in case any Death Eaters that had not been caught tried to seek revenge on the Malfoy heir on behalf of their fallen leader.
Hermione, however, knew that the deaths of both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had been fully intentional, and was a punishment bestowed upon them from the madman they had served misguidedly in their youth. The chances that Draco had avoided the same fate had been slim, but the lack of a corpse was what had kept hope alive for the missing Malfoy heir. Unfortunately, it had also lead to speculation that Draco may have been brainwashed and was currently being programmed by a Death Eater sympathiser – wilder rumours suggested that Draco was being raised as the new Voldemort, and was just waiting until the time was right to unleash pure blood fanaticism on the world again.
However, after the defeat of Voldemort, rumours began circling that the Malfoys were included in the mass of dead Death Eaters that had not been identified that had died on the battlefield and were not identified due to the many maiming and disfiguring curses that had been used by both sides. Until only just recently, everyone had presumed that Draco Malfoy was still missing in action, presumed dead. After the last battle, he had never returned to the school as many other students had, nor had he transferred to any other school such as Beauxbatons or Durmstrang. There had been a few wild rumours that Draco was living a life of luxury on a deserted island that was heavily warded against unauthorised entry, or that he was living life as a recluse in the muggle world, mere kilometres away from Diagon Alley and the wizarding world.
Needing to break the silence that had occurred around them while they had been enjoying their drinks, Harry asked Hermione a question that had been plaguing him since h had left Hogwarts.
"What will I do when I finally find him, Herm?" he turned back to look at the brunette that was sitting next to him.
"What do you mean?" she asked, taking a sip of her drink. "We'll kidnap him, and take him back to Snape and Dumbledore, and find out what really is wrong with him, and then go home. Simple!" Harry just stared at her for a few moments, before getting up.
"You know, Herm, sometimes – just sometimes, mind you – you totally and utterly scare me…" taking a quick step backwards to avoid being playfully slapped, he turned around. "I think I'll go and see if he could be in the bathroom or something. Be right back!" With that, he hurried away before she could say anything.
I'M SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok. I have to say, I don't like this chapter at ALL!!
I've had a really bad time with this chapter… it just didn't appeal to me at all, and I really just didn't want to do it! I thought it would be a bit weird if I just "accidentally" missed a chapter though, because my story really wouldn't make much sense after that.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed my story! I love you guys so much! Sorry it took so long! Runs away from people threatening to hex me
Why not tell me just how much this chapter sucks? Trust me, I'll be waiting and I won't be surprised. Trust me.
Come on, you know you want to…