Chapter 16 It's in the Blood
Hermione chastised herself after she realized she had been gazing out her office window for the third time that morning. The overcast London skyline had not changed since she looked at it the last time.
She rubbed her finger in a circular motion between her eyebrows, then pressed her thumbs against the brow bone to relieve pressure from her aching head. Too much time had passed with no word from Harry, and she feared the worst. She didn't dare to give voice to her thoughts, not to Ron, and especially not to Ginny.
Ginny had become⦠focused? Desperate? Driven? Ginny thoroughly questioned Teddy about all the events leading up to his disappearance. Then she went home, packed up Lily, and took her to stay with her parents at the Burrow. Ginny moved to Grimmauld Place since it was the last place anyone had seen Harry, or anyone resembling Harry. From there, she retraced all of his footsteps after leaving Hogwarts and interrogated anyone who had seen him the day he disappeared.
Winky took diligent care of Ginny, making sure she had regular meals and a clean place to sleep. Ginny asked Winky to trace Harry's whereabouts if she could, but she could only detect traces of extremely dark magic, and she was unsure if those traces were new or not. A disappointed Ginny returned home.
Hermione closed the case file in front of her and checked her watch. She would disapparate over to the Potter Place and have lunch with Ginny. Maybe if they put their heads together, they might come up with an alternative approach to the search. Resolved, she grabbed her pocketbook and shrugged into her camel-hair trench coat, cinching the belt tightly around her waist. She was pulling her hair from beneath her coat collar when her receptionist, Tifani, came in with a pile of files and a stack of messages.
"Oh, Ms. Granger, I didn't know you were going out."
"Sorry, Tifani, I decided to pop out for some lunch. I'll be back in an hour."
"I have the updated case files here," she raised them in her hands to get Hermione to notice, "and a few messages."
"Thanks. If you could just put them on my desk, that would be great. Thank you."
Hermione sidestepped past her receptionist. Work could wait. She wasn't accomplishing anything today, anyway.
She didn't see the glare her receptionist was leveling at her retreating back. Delphini had no choice now but to be patient. Delphini giggled as she plopped the stack of folders and messages on top of Hermione's desk. Hermione would see the message from "Harry" when she returned. She had mixed it in with all the others because it wouldn't do to have it right on top. It would look too eager. And she was eager! She couldn't wait to witness the reunion of Harry and Hermione, and the beginning of all she had ever hoped for.
