"Just describe him for me, one more time."

Harry was getting tired of this. They were wasting valuable time. Hermione could be halfway across the globe by now, but they insisted, he had to tell the story for the third time.

"This is ridiculous. He was kind of tall I guess. Taller than me, but shorter than Ron. He was creepy like hell. He was really pale, with black, kind of messy hair. He was dressed completely in black, even had this creepy black sword, I've never seen anything like it. He had to be a Death Eater. He even had a skull on his damn t-shirt!"

"And you're sure she didn't know him?" the annoying Auror asked.

"I don't think so. I don't know. They looked friendly enough, but we are Hermione's best friends! She couldn't have some friend we didn't know about. She would tell us, right?"

Ron just stood in the corner, sulking. He didn't like the possibility of her keeping secrets from them either, but Ron took it personally. It was looking more and more likely that it really was someone she knew. They had been looking at pictures of Death Eaters and their relatives for hours, but there were none that looked like him. Could still have been a supporter from a foreign country though.

He felt bad that he didn't know what he preferred. Either Hermione had been abducted or she had been keeping secrets. Neither of those things sat well with him. They were best friends. They weren't supposed to keep secrets from each other.

"There was something wrong with him though. There was this strange dark feeling about him, and when we went after them behind that house, there was this really creepy feeling. It was almost like standing near the Veil."

That feeling was what worried him the most. The cold sense of darkness in that place. It sent shivers down his spine, and it didn't make sense. And what did it even mean? Were there other ways to the veil? And had that guy pulled her through it?

"And who the hell runs around with a bloody sword anyways?" Ron felt the need to add.

"Thing is" Harry said "We have no way of knowing where they might have gone. They must have apparated, even if we didn't hear the sound that usually comes with apparition. Just that creepy cold feeling, but no matter how they did it, they could still be anywhere by now!"

"Mr. Potter, I understand you may be frustrated, but without signs of a struggle we have no reason to suspect foul play as of yet. You will need to wait 48 hours, and if your friend hasn't turned up by then, we can start a real investigation."

"She is a bloody war hero!" Harry hissed.

"She is a war hero, my best friend and a muggleborn! She is a prime target for escaped Death Eaters! We'll wait 24 hours, no more. If you won't start the search by then, we'll launch our own. How do you think that will look in the newspapers? 'War hero missing – Aurors office not taking actions?'" He raged.

With that, he stormed out of the Head Aurors office, Ron shuffling along behind him.

He strode purposefully through the halls of the ministry, towards Kingsley Shacklebolt's office. As acting Minister of Magic, he ought to be able to help them.

He slammed the doors open and marched inside to be met with Kingsley sitting calmly at his desk. The only indication that he noticed Harry's dramatic entrance was a lifted eyebrow

"Are you quite finished with your tantrum or do you need another ten minutes to rant?" He asked, in his deep baritone voice.

Harry huffed but threw himself in one of the two armchairs in front of the desk. Ron sighed and sat in the other.

"Merlin, Ron. This is a mess. What the hell are we going to tell Ginny?" Harry asked, rubbing his face

"I think I'll leave that to you, honestly. As long as I'm not in the house."

"What are we going to do Kings?"

Harry was all out of steam by now, and sounded more like a small child than the savior of the wizarding world.

"I received a memo from the Head Auror. The standard is, as he said 48 hours before starting a search, but I agree with you that it would be better not to waste too much time. As you suggested, we will wait 24 hours before we start the search, but we can still prepare for it during those 24 hours."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked

"When Sirius had escaped Azkaban, we were caught on the wrong foot. We had no way of knowing, if he was hiding in Hogsmeade or Hong Kong. We knew he was intelligent and resourceful, after all, many of us knew him personally. He was well known throughout the wizarding world, so it would make sense for him to stay away from large wizarding settlements. Odds were, that he would be hiding in the muggle world. We sent out flyers and pictures to national television channels, all over the globe, with contact information, leading directly to the ministry."

"Muggle media?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Muggle media exactly. That is our best bet. We'll need some photos of Hermione, which we can probably get from the Prophet, but Harry, are you familiar with the concept of a sketch artist? Muggles often use them in situations like these."

The next hours were hard. They needed to set up an office, away from the ministry, to avoid magical interference, when trying to set up a hotline. They needed to brief the people manning it, and plan cover stories.

Harry was given an office number on a slip of paper, and was told to go to meet the sketch artist.

He was pretty skeptical about the whole thing. He wished, not for the first time, that there was some way of photographing a memory, but there wasn't one.

Maybe Hermione could develop a way, when she came back.

'If she came back' An annoying little voice in the back of his head told him.