After Harry's interference in their relationship, both in creating the problem and then helping fix it, Hermione and Draco began to get things back on track between them. The first thing they did was sit down and for the first time, they really talked about the fact Draco was a werewolf. Draco admitted his insecurities about his condition, and again he expressed the fact that he thought Hermione deserved better than him. In return, Hermione reassured Draco that he was who she wanted, and nothing would change that. By the end of their conversation, they'd vowed to keep talking and to speak about their concerns, rather than bottling them up and pretending as though they didn't exist.
The only sticking point came when they discussed the biting issue which had brought their problems to the surface. Draco was adamant that it wouldn't be happening again, and he would do whatever it took to control himself when he was with Hermione. Hermione tried to convince Draco that the biting was just part of who he was now, but he wasn't having any of it and he insisted that there would be no biting at the next full moon.
The last full moon of the year was due to fall a few days before the end of term, and unbeknown to Draco, Hermione had spoken to Narcissa to see if there was some sort of potion they could brew to help protect her from any side effects of the biting. Narcissa hadn't been sure, but she'd thrown herself into research and promised to get back to Hermione once she had some answers. Until she knew if such a potion existed, Hermione had decided not to mention it to Draco, but she was hoping that if one existed then it would be of some help in convincing Draco to carry on as they had been until Harry's interference.
With the biting issue put to one side for the time being, Draco and Hermione enjoyed the feeling of being back together and they were back to spending as much time as possible with each other. On the last Hogsmeade trip of the weekend, they headed down to the village with all their friends, but they were more than happy when it was decided that the various couples were going to go and do their own thing before meeting up for lunch.
After leaving Harry and Daphne to enjoy the rest of the morning together, Draco and Hermione wandered around the village watching as their fellow school mates got some last minute Christmas shopping done.
"Is there anywhere special you want to go?" Draco asked his girlfriend.
"I don't think so," Hermione replied with a shrug. "My Christmas shopping is all in hand."
"Of course it is, little miss organised," Draco laughed.
Hermione playfully glared at Draco as they carried on walking through the streets. With no specific plans to visit any particular shops, they wandered in and out of shops as the feeling took them. Eventually they ended up outside of the jewellers and Hermione stopped to take in the display of diamond rings.
"That one is lovely," She said, pointing to a delicate white gold ring with an understated diamond cluster.
"It is," Draco agreed. The ring Hermione was pointing to was by far the classiest on display. "You're not dropping hints, are you?"
"Technically we are engaged," Hermione said with a smile.
"Technically, I haven't yet asked your father's permission," Draco retorted.
"But that's merely a formality," Hermione argued. "I proposed, and you accepted."
"I did," Draco agreed. "But that is not going to be our official engagement. Until I propose, with a ring, we're not engaged."
"Spoil sport," Hermione pouted as her boyfriend took hold of her hand and pulled her away from the jewellers.
"Come on, it's nearly time to meet the others for lunch."
Heading into The Three Broomsticks, Draco ordered some drinks while Hermione grabbed them a table beside the window. From the seat the pair were then able to watch as their friends approached the pub to join them. First to arrive were Blaise and Luna, and they were followed by Theo and Padma. However, it was ten minutes after the time they'd agreed to meet up before Hermione spotted Daphne hurrying towards the pub, although for some strange reason she was alone.
"Ditched Harry, have you?" Draco chuckled when Daphne rushed over to them.
"Is he not here?" Daphne questioned with a frown.
"Why would he be here, he was with you, wasn't he?" Hermione asked.
"He was," Daphne replied, nervously biting her lower lip. "I wanted to go and buy his present without him nosing, so I popped into the quidditch shop alone. I've been looking for Harry ever since, assuming he was close by, but I can't find him."
"He won't have just left you," Hermione said, getting to her feet as panic started to creep in.
"No, he has to be around somewhere," Draco agreed as he also got up. "Let's split up and search the village. We'll meet back here in ten minutes."
"Is ten minutes enough to search the village?" Theo questioned.
"Not thoroughly, but it'll be long enough for us to decide if something sinister is going on," Draco answered.
Abandoning their drinks the group headed outside. Deciding it would be better if they all searched solo as they could cover more ground, everyone went in a different direction. Ten minutes later the group reconvened, all of them seriously concerned as none of them had seen anything of Harry. Even Draco's advanced hearing and sense of smell hadn't helped him, although he wasn't sure if he could maybe trace Harry's whereabouts if he could get a good whiff of something of his best friends and follow the scent.
"We need to get back to the castle and alert someone that Harry is missing," Hermione announced, taking charge of the situation.
"Is Rosmerta not around?" Blaise asked. "Surely she could get a message to Snape quicker than we could get back to the castle."
"She's at home," Hermione answered. "I haven't actually seen any adults around, so at least a couple of us need to head back to the castle and report Harry missing. The rest of us can stay here and broaden the search."
"I'll go back to the castle," Daphne volunteered.
"We'll come with you," Padma offered, volunteering herself and Luna to accompany the Slytherin witch back to Hogwarts.
"And we'll start advancing the search," Blaise said.
"Hurry," Hermione urged her nephew's girlfriend as she turned and headed back towards the castle with Padma and Luna. "Where do you think we should start?" She asked her boyfriend as Blaise and Theo headed off to continue searching the village.
"I need something of Harry's," Draco confided in a low voice. "I think I can track his scent."
Hermione thought for a second, before remembering her nephew had given her back a book he'd lent a few months previously that morning and it was in her bag. Pulling the book out she handed it to her boyfriend as they headed to the quidditch shop, where Daphne had last seen Harry.
"Well?" Hermione prodded as Draco stood holding the book, trying not to look suspicious as he tried to focus on Harry's scent.
"I've got it," Draco said with a nod as he began crossing the street to the jewellers. "Although, there's another scent mingled with his."
"Do you recognise it?" Hermione asked, knowing her boyfriend was getting better at recognising people by their scent as he was becoming more attuned with his wolf side.
"I think it's partly Daphne," Draco said with a frown as he followed the scent down the street.
"Only partly?" Hermione questioned.
"I'm not even sure on that to be honest," Draco admitted, lapsing into silence as he focused on following the scent.
Less than five minutes later, Draco led Hermione down the alley behind The Hog's Head. Coming to a stop, he looked around as he tried to carry on following the scent, but he realised that it had gone. Harry had gone no further than the alley behind the dingy pub almost all of the students avoided.
"Now what?" Hermione asked, wondering why they'd stopped.
"Nothing," Draco answered. "He was here, but I can't track him any further. He either double backed on himself, or he left the village from this spot."
"Harry wouldn't leave the village," Hermione insisted.
"Not of his own free will," Draco said in a quiet voice.
"He's been snatched," Hermione said, finally voicing that thought that had been drifting through her head since Daphne had mentioned Harry was missing. "I knew we should have gotten rid of all the Weasleys. They're behind this, you can guarantee it."
"And if they are, they'll be dealt with," Draco said to his girlfriend. "Don't do anything stupid, Hermione."
"Whatever I do, it won't be stupid," Hermione vowed dangerously.
Knowing there was nothing more they could do in the alley, Draco and Hermione headed back into the main part of the village. Just as they arrived on the main street, Lucius and Narcissa apparated into view. Sprinting over to Draco's parents, the couple quickly filled them in on what Draco had discovered.
"And you're sure?" Lucius checked.
"As I can be," Draco replied. "I'm still just learning stuff like this, but I would swear any sort of magical trace would lead you to the same place."
"We can do one of those, but it helps if we know where to start from," Lucius said. "Good job, Draco."
"Where's Severus, is he not coming?" Hermione asked.
"We convinced him to inform your father of the situation before joining us," Narcissa said. "But now we want you two to get all the students back up to the castle."
"But we want to help," Hermione argued.
"You are helping, Hermione," Lucius said. "We can't launch a proper search with students milling around the place. We need to get everyone back up to Hogwarts where the other staff can take control while we search for Harry. Now get going before your father arrives and there's a panic."
Knowing Lucius was right, Hermione pushed aside her own worries and switched into bossy head girl mode. With Draco at her side the pair began rounding up the students and sending them back to the castle. Anyone who dared to argue got the sharp end of their tongues, and within an hour every student who had been down in Hogsmeade was heading back up to the castle. Even Blaise and Theo had headed back up to the castle, hoping against hope that Harry would turn up and that nothing too bad had happened to him.
With the last of the students shooed from the village, Hermione and Draco returned to the alley where they found the adults. Voldemort and Severus had joined the Malfoys, and both wizards looked absolutely furious.
"Any sign?" Hermione asked nervously.
"No," Voldemort answered with a shake of his head. "But Draco was right, this was the last place he was in the village. Thank you Draco, you've given us our starting point."
"So what happens now?" Draco questioned.
"We try our best to trace Harry, but it won't be easy," Severus said in a hollow voice. "Since he's seventeen, the magical trace for underage magic won't work. We can try using some sort of blood magic, but unless whoever has taken him is an idiot, it will likely get us nowhere."
"It has to be the Weasleys," Hermione insisted. "Who else would do this?"
"I tend to agree, but if it is them, they've been awfully clever about it," Voldemort said with a frown. "I've been keeping an eye on the two older ones as much as possible, and there's been no sign that they've been planning anything untoward. Either they knew they were being watched, or they're smart."
"Possibly a bit of both," Hermione said. "I'm guessing after what happened with Ron they'll be expecting us to keep an eye on them, and both Bill and Charlie are clever."
"We can worry about who has Harry when we find him," Severus interrupted. "Right now, we need to find my son."
"We will, Severus, we will," Voldemort promised, his face a mask of determination as he set out to find his missing grandson and wreak revenge on whoever had the audacity to snatch a member of his family.
C.O.T.D.
Harry was fuming as the two eldest Weasleys bundled him away from Hogsmeade. Even though he'd been stunned, they'd done it in such a way so that it was more like he was caught in a body bind. He couldn't move or talk, but his mind still worked and he was as angry as he'd ever been.
From Hogsmeade they arrived in the countryside somewhere remote and all Harry could see from his limited viewpoint was a ramshackle old cottage. It was clear the cottage was their destination, as Bill and Charlie carried him into the cottage and plonked him unceremoniously on the sofa. Harry glared at the pair, just waiting for them to release the spell on him.
"You know it's rather tempting to leave him like this," Bill chuckled.
"It is," Charlie agreed. "Although it's the perfect pose for our first picture."
Harry frowned in confusion, until Bill produced a copy of the morning's Daily Prophet and propped it up beside his prone body. When Charlie then pulled out a camera and snapped a few pictures, Harry began to get a clearer picture of what the pair were planning. They'd kidnapped him for ransom. Either his father or his grandfather would receive the pictures, along with some demands. Although what either of the Weasleys expected to achieve was a mystery to Harry as he thought they were smart enough to realise that by taking him they had just signed their own death warrants.
"Now Harry, we're going to be leaving now," Bill said with a smirk. "Don't worry about the spell, it'll wear off in half an hour or so."
"And there's no point trying to escape, because you can't," Charlie added. "You're stuck, and there's nothing you can do about it."
Harry continued to glare at the pair, but he was unable to move as they left the cottage the same way they'd entered it. True to their word, the spells did begin to wear off after half an hour, and Harry was soon up and about. The very first thing he did was try and apparate out of the cottage, but unsurprisingly, nothing happened. However, he wasn't one to be deterred and he set about trying to find a way of manually escaping the cottage.
An hour later, Harry's optimism about a fast escape had vanished, and in its place was a worrying feeling that the Weasleys had him exactly where they wanted him. Not only was the cottage tightly locked up, meaning there was no means of escape, but more worryingly, Harry found his magic wasn't working. Not one spell he'd tried, not even the most basic ones had worked. He didn't know if there were just wards preventing him from doing magic, or if the spells they'd hit him with had done something to him. Personally, Harry was hoping for the former as he really wanted the chance to cause some pain to the two wizards who had kidnapped him, not to mention Ginny.
After establishing there was no escaping, Harry checked that there was food and drink in the cottage and that he wouldn't starve to death. Satisfied he would survive, Harry turned his thoughts to what would happen next. He had no doubts that his family would rescue him, it was just a case of how long it would take them to find him. Harry was just hoping that it wouldn't be long, and that he would be safe before Bill and Charlie got much chance to carry out any more of their fiendish plan.