Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other recognizable characters.
all typos are mine however.

A/N: Kind of a big deal in this one! Hope you're ready for it!

Chapter 20

Draco
Past

"I don't like it." Hermione said again as she huffed across the room from him.

"Hermione, you don't have to like it." Harry said once more from where he stood behind his desk, leaning against the fake window there.

"Harry-"

"Do you want to catch him or not?" Draco finally said, earning a glare from Hermione as Potter looked at him as though he had suddenly sprouted a duck bill.

"Ron-"

"Ron is being put on probation, as is half of the auror department Hermione, but we need to make it look like we agree with this, like we don't care…"

"They need to use me as bait." Draco finished and he was surprised to find Potter looking at him in sympathy.

"No!" Hermione said forcefully and Draco felt a little better knowing she actually cared. He was still sated from their romp in her office not that long ago, her last words to him ringing in his ears. "Find another way."

"Okay." Draco said and Potter started to argue as a knock sounded on the door and Hermione looked very smug as Potter crossed the room and opened the door to see the Weasel standing there, looking as though someone had broken his broom in two.

"Ron-"

"I just want to talk to her Harry," the man implored and Draco saw Hermione tense from the other side of the room, her brown eyes meeting his briefly.

"I don't think that now is a good time," Potter started but Hermione stepped forward then, cutting the man off.

"I'll meet you in your office."

The Weasel seemed to inflate at that, nodding eagerly and turning on his heel to, presumably, head back to his office.

"Hermione," Potter started but she shook her head, walking to where Draco still sat.

"I meant what I said before. I'll be back," she explained and Draco nodded, knowing she was talking about more than just Potter's office. "Don't make any plans without me."

Harry rolled his eyes as she exited the office and he sat down heavily in the chair behind his desk, "Malfoy-"

"Let's do this Potter."

"What?"

"Don't be daft," Draco snapped, "I want to catch this git."

Potter grinned at him, his eyes looking towards the door as though expecting Granger to pop back in and catch them, "she's not going to like this."

"It's a good thing I don't care then," he lied easily and Potter nodded before he started laying out the plans to use him as bait and, hopefully, catch the bastard who was targeting them and Draco only hoped that if he survived this that Granger wouldn't murder him.

HERMIONE
present.

"And I didn't write about your scar Harry," she sighed as she sat on the couch in Grimmauld place. Draco was perched beside her as Harry paced worriedly in front of her, "I didn't want it in writing but it's there. It's not all correct but it's there."

"I knew I had read it somewhere," Ginny called as she appeared in the doorway, her hand on her massive stomach and a paper clutched in her hands.

Harry took the proffered daily, his brow furrowed as he read the words there before he passed it along to Hermione.

Boy Who Lived with the Dark Lord

Was emblazoned along the top, a photo of Harry on loop as he sat in the hospital wing at Hogwarts not long after the last battle had ended, an endless loop of a time most of them desperately wanted to forget.

"It's all in there," Ginny said, "The same things written in your 'diaries' how the three of you went on a scavenger hunt for them, how Ron was supposedly locked up at The Burrow with spattergroit…"

"And look at the author," Harry sneered and Hermione's eyes narrowed as she saw Rita Skeeter's name there.

"So, whoever took my real journals just, what? Copied these down?"

"Perhaps…" Harry said and Hermione could see the wheels turning in his head, "I want to take them in. Have magical artifacts take a look at them…"

Hermione nodded, "I just don't understand why someone would take them and…"

She trailed off as she thought back to the first days after her memory had been lost and the book Draco had brought to her.

"I still have one, Draco brought it to me in St. Mungos…"

"Where is it?" Harry asked.

"My office," she said lowly and Harry nodded as he stood up and grabbed his wand and she followed.

"I'll stay here, with Gin and the kids," Draco said quietly as he helped her put on her cloak and slipped her wand into her hand. She nodded and turned to follow to where Harry was waiting before she turned back and grabbed Draco's face, kissing him hard on the mouth before she finally turned and followed Harry out of the door.

The ministry was empty when they arrived, the only person the night guard who didn't so much as question them as he checked in their wands and let them on their way.

"Hermione, let your wards down and let me go first…" Harry said as they approached her office. She almost argued with him, told him she could take care of herself but the look on his face gave her pause and she finally nodded and let down her wards, letting Harry take point as she followed behind, wand at the ready.

Her office was the same as she had left it when she had left earlier and she felt a little silly for holding her wand too tightly in her palm as they looked around the space.

She sighed as she moved to where the books she had were stacked and rifled through them as Harry eyed the office, ever the auror and always vigilant. It wasn't until she had reached the end of the stack that she realized it was gone.

"Nowhere?" Harry asked after she had voiced it to him.

"It's gone Harry."

She sat down in her chair, trying to figure it out as her eyes danced to the jar of beans on her desk.

"Harry?" she said slowly as her friend stopped his investigating to look at her, "someone has been here."

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"The beans, they were low this morning. I had thought of getting more but-" she waved to where the jar was now full to the brim of the colorful treats.

Harry frowned deeply, his brow creasing as he stepped forward and prodded the beans with the tip of his wand, "odd-"

Hermione quirked a brow at her friend, "Odd that whoever stole from me replenished my beans?"

"No," Harry said as he quickly cast a charm to place a stasis around the jar, "odd that you haven't eaten Bertie Botts in years. Whoever placed these here did it for a reason and I'd wager my entire Gringott's account that is has something to do with your memories."

A/N: I'm sorry about the wait. As it stands I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with this chapter, I had planned on extending it out but the flow just wasn't right with what comes next. We are, however, winding down. Hope you're ready!