Chapter 33
"Hermione, you need to calm down," Harry tried to soothe her. "Just because you can't see him doesn't mean that he isn't here."
Hermione took a deep breath. She felt like her heart was racing a billion beats per minute. Perhaps it was simply the adrenaline of stopping a bomb from going off, but she couldn't help but feel like something was terribly wrong. She knew she was being irrational; the logical part of her brain suggested that she ought to look around the entire ballroom before jumping to any such conclusions. It was really easy to say Draco wasn't in the room from simply looking around it quickly. The best thing for her to do was to ask around and see if anyone had seen Draco. With all the people around, someone was bound to have seen him.
But there was still the part of her that was terrified. There was a killer on the loose. They hadn't succeeded in setting off their bomb, so what if that made them desire vengeance all the more? What if it made them want to find and kill Draco or even Theo just because they didn't succeed in their initial plan?
Hermione turned to Harry and nodded. She couldn't afford to think like that. No, she needed to get all her facts straight first, and then act accordingly. It was the only way she would be able to get anything done at all.
As she walked back to her table she noticed Harry sneaking glances at her. For all the things Harry had managed to accomplish in life, including fighting Voldemort, unfortunately subtly is not a skilled he acquired along the way. When she got back, she noticed Ginny was making small talk with a few of the other people at the table, while Leanna and Ron were conversing about something quietly.
Hermione put on a smile as she sat down, "Hey, Ginny have you seen Draco around? I wanted to talk to him about something."
Ginny shook her head, "Sorry, I haven't seen him since before I left the table." She looked at her brother and his date to see if they would offer up anything.
Ron merely shrugged, while Leanna smiled brightly, "Last I saw him, he and Ron were talking about something. I think they were getting really close! Hermione wouldn't it be great if they could be super tight friends? I read that you and Ron had been distant lately, and maybe this is the key to getting you all back together as friends again! Oh can you just imagine? It would be brilliant!"
Ron simply scowled at his date while Hermione gave Harry a worried look. Had Ron said something to Draco that caused him to leave? Even if Ron managed to upset Draco, wouldn't he at least try and find her before he left?
"I'm going to go try and look for him," Hermione said as she excused herself from the table. She searched around the ballroom and asked a few people passing by. Most of them seemed confused about her asking them, but they all shrugged and said that they hadn't seen them.
That is, except for Neville.
Hermione had seen him standing beside Luna, the two of them drinking one of the fancy fizzy drinks that the Ministry had ordered. The pair had tried dating a few years back, and had gone through an on-and-off-again type relationship, before finally deciding they were better as just friends. They had managed to not have any awkwardness in their relationship.
She had walked up to them, and Neville had immediately sensed that something was wrong, "Hermione, is everything alright?" he asked her carefully.
"Have you seen Draco around?" Hermione asked them, starting to sound a bit upset. She could only take so much before starting to explode.
"Last I saw, he and Ron were heading towards the exit. I couldn't quite see what was up, but I remember thinking that it was a bit strange," Neville said, scratching his head.
"Why would they be going anywhere together?" Hermione couldn't help but frown. And why hadn't Ron mentioned that he had left the ball with Draco? Something wasn't adding up, and Hermione needed to figure it out, fast.
"I wish I could help you," Neville said sympathetically. "I probably should have followed them in hindsight, but it just didn't occur to me how odd the situation was. I do hope Draco is okay."
If Hermione heard those words come from the Gryffindor's mouth several years ago, she would have gotten his head checked. Neville had been terrified of Draco for so long, and even hated him at one point. She hadn't known it at the time, and she only had found out later, but Draco had talked to Neville right after the war. It had been once he had been cleared of his charges, and was trying to make his way in the world apart from the Malfoy legacy. He had told Neville that he wanted to make amends for all the things he had done wrong. Draco had explained his point of view, but had also explicitly stated that it was no excuse for his actions. He had said that the way he treated him was unforgiveable, and that he didn't expect redemption, but he thought Neville had a right to know how sorry he had been. It had taken a while, but over the years Neville had let go of his hate for the man.
"I do too," Hermione smiled meekly before walking back to where her friends were. She was going to go speak to Ginny about giving her speech for her. There was no way she was in any state to get up on a stage and pretend that everything was fine for the entire world to see, when it so clearly was not.
Unfortunately for her as she made a beeline back to the table, her arm was grabbed. She could feel the sudden pressure shake up her balance as she was yanked into someone. Hermione turned around frantically, to see none other than Ron standing there.
"What do you want?" she asked him, somewhat coldly.
"The same thing I've wanted for a while, Hermione," Ron said with a grin. "You."
"I think you should get your hands off me," Hermione insisted. "You're here with Leanna, and you should keep it that way. Ron, I'm not in the mood to discuss this right now."
"So when will you be?" Ron asked her, sounding desperately. "Hermione, I love you, and you know that. And I know deep down you still love me. So please, will you just stop avoiding me and let us get back together again?"
She huffed as she pulled her hand back from his grasp, "Ronald, I suggest you release me. I don't love you now, and I never will love you again. I've moved on from you. I'm in a committed relationship with Draco, and frankly I don't quite care what you think about it. I don't care if you approve, I don't care if you hate him, or if you think it's some sort of excuse to get you back. The facts still stand that I love Draco and I am happy with him." She pulled her hand hard to get out of his grip. He released her easily, and she quickly tried to walk away from him and from their conversation.
"Then maybe you should reconsider, seeing how Draco won't be in your life for much longer," Ron said with a grim smile.
She felt her blood chill at his words. Hermione froze in her steps and turned to face him.
"What do you mean by that?" Hermione asked him shakily. She tried to calm herself down; perhaps he hadn't quite meant what she thought. Maybe he was trying to say that Draco would leave her and she would be alone.
"I mean that accidents happen all the time. You never know when tragedy could strike; before you know it, something could happen and Draco could succumb to a tragic fate," Ron said twistedly. "Maybe it's a broom accident, maybe its poison, or even dragon pox. So if I were you, I would get used to the idea that he may not be in your life for much longer. Perhaps you might want to consider getting back together with me, or you could end up alone again."
Hermione tried to keep her face calm as she looked him in the eyes. She wanted to see the innocent friend she had all those years ago. She wanted to see the boy who might have hated someone but would never have wished them dead, or done them serious harm. She wanted to see the boy she once loved, compassionate even if somewhat hot headed. But that was nowhere in his eyes. The only thing they held was pure unadulterated hatred for Draco and for what Hermione had with him. She couldn't understand how it happened. But she knew she had to get out of there. She didn't say another word to him, or to anyone else as she headed straight towards Ginny and Harry.
"Ginny, I need you to give my speech for me," Hermione wavered as she spoke.
"Of course I can. Is everything alright, Hermione?" Ginny asked her, voice full of concern. She could see Harry also watching her closely as he tried to gage what was wrong simply by observing her reactions.
"No," Hermione shook her head. "It's not. Harry, I need to speak to you privately about it."
Harry seemed to understand as he followed her to a secluded section of the ballroom. Once they got there, Hermione cast a few charms so they wouldn't be overheard before she started to speak.
"I know how this is going to sound," Hermione said carefully. "I know it's going to look like I'm imagining things, and what I heard couldn't possibly be true, but Harry, I can't take the chance that what he said to me is true." And with that she launched straight into telling Harry every detail of her conversation with Ron. She told him about the inconsistencies; how Neville said he saw the two of them leaving together, yet how Ron managed to hide it; she told him about what Ron said, and the eerie way he had said it. As she spoke, she could see doubt and conflict in his eyes, and she was rather unsure of how he was going to react to her tale. She and Ron may not be on speaking terms at the moment, but that didn't mean that Harry and Ron weren't still friends, even if not quite as close recently.
"I'm not going to lie," Harry said slowly. "Some of the details of the case could point to Ron if you knew he was the killer and tried to connect the dots to him. I can't see him as a cold blood murderer, or even being capable of mutilating people to the way their bodies were found. But on that note, I didn't think Ron was capable of a lot of things he's done lately. It doesn't exactly make him a shoe in for the killer, but it doesn't let him off the hook either. Regardless, based on the conversation you had, I think we need to bring him in for questioning, due to policy and procedure. Normally, I would wait until tomorrow, but if Draco is indeed missing, then the best course of action would be to take Ron in right away. Unfortunately for us, we can't just take him out without drawing suspicion from the attendees of this event, or from the press covering it. The last thing we need is for this to get out to the media before anything is confirmed."
"So we just do nothing?" Hermione asked, voice rising.
"Not nothing," Harry insisted. "We just cleverly get him out here. Thankfully for us, we can use Ron's reputation as a partier against him, and cast a spell on him to make him appear drunk. You leave separately, and it will just seem as if you left early for something else, while I go with Ron, appearing to be a helping hand. We'll take him back to the interrogation room, and then slip him some veritaserum to see how much he actually knows. If it's nothing, we release him and try and figure out where Draco is, and if it turns out to be something, we take it from there."
Hermione took a breath as she nodded. She knew he was being rational, and that they couldn't just drag Ron out of the ball in handcuffs when he technically hadn't done anything wrong. His words to her weren't actual proof that he was involved in any illicit activities, so it wouldn't be legal to treat him like some sort of criminal. But that didn't stop them from being able to question him. She took her wand out and cast a disorientating spell on Ron, to make him appear as if he had one drink too many. Hermione gave a nod to Harry as she picked up her purse and walked out of the ball, saying goodbye to a few people, so that if anyone asked questions, there would be witnesses to her departure.
She apparated straight to the Auror offices and as she waited patiently for Harry to show up with Ron, she began to pour some veritaserum into some tea to hand to Ron. The plan would be for Harry to wait a few moments as Ron began to cause a bit of commotion at the ball, giving them a way to get him out without raising too much suspicion. It probably would have a small feature in the paper the next day, but someone Hermione couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for him. After everything he had done to her, he deserved to feel a bit of embarrassment every now and then by the media.
She sat in the interrogation room as the door opened and Harry brought Ron in. He was having difficulties walking or even being aware of his surroundings. If it weren't for the key, but nearly unnoticeable differences in the spell and being drunk, Hermione would mistake him for actually being completely plastered.
As Ron was placed in the seat across from her and Harry, Hermione pushed the cup of tea in front of him. Ron seemed a bit confused about where he was and why it was that he was here, but due to the spell he wasn't quite as alert as how he normally would be.
"To sober you up," Hermione explained, as he took the cup and began to sip. Harry lifted the spell from him right after he drank every last sip of the cup.
As Ron regained his consciousness, she could see his face fill with rage about what had happened, "Why did you bring me here?" he sneered.
"Did you really think you could say what you did to me and expect there to be no consequences?" Hermione asked.
"And you think that's me?" Ron questioned. "Harry, how can you indulge this? Hermione's being crazy! I bet Malfoy planted those ideas in her head. She just wants to discredit me because she's upset that we broke up and she's realised that she lost a good thing in her life. And now she needs me in it one way or another so she's doing anything just to be in the same room as me! Couldn't you see her angry jealous glares to Leanna at dinner tonight? She just can't accept that I've moved on!"
"Actually, I think you're the one who can't move on," Hermione said furiously.
Harry raised his hand up to stop her, "Hermione, this isn't helping. You know as well as I do that veritaserum only works if you ask him questions; otherwise he can lie all he wants." Harry turned to face Ron, "Did you kill the other purebloods? Did you kill Adrian Pucey, Marcus Flint, Fredrick Gregson, Terrence Higgs, or Blaise Zabini?"
"No," Ron said with a shake of his head. He seemed furious about the fact that they had slipped him something so he couldn't tell a lie, so he instantly dropped whatever façade he had been attempting to pull earlier; it's not like anyone would have believed it anyways.
"Were you in any way responsible for those deaths?" Harry asked again.
"No."
"Do you know who killed them?" Hermione tried, desperately hoping for an answer to help them.
"No," Ron said simply, not wanting to indulge more information to them than that.
She felt her heart start to sink. If he kept giving them answers that led nowhere, they would be forced to let him go. He would be just another dead end, and by time she actually got to Draco, he could be dead. And in Hermione's eyes, that was absolutely unacceptable.
"What did you mean when you said those things to me earlier?" Hermione questioned him further. She would be damned before she let anything happen to Draco. She needed for him to be okay. He had to be okay.
"Exactly what I said to you. Draco will be out of your life soon enough," Ron smirked.
"What is your part in getting rid of Draco," Harry cut in as he could feel Hermione seeping with anger. She was shaking, due to just how mad she was that he had the nerve to say it again.
"Not much," Ron admitted. "I was contacted a week ago by owl. It simply said that they had heard that I had a common interest as them because we both had a mutual problem with Malfoy. All I had to do was bring Malfoy to a certain location today and they would take care of my problem for me, leaving me free to be with Hermione forever."
Hermione gasped as she heard his confession but quickly composed herself. She could tell that the veritaserum was slowly wearing off, so she simply stared him in the eye. "I want you to tell me the exact location where you took Draco."