my friends, the story has begun.

Life After

Sitting down in the Gryffindor common room, surrounded by the people that had been a huge part of their lives, Harry and Ron had to break the news.

"Hi everyone," Harry started, his eyes drifting down to the floor instead of the cautious sets of eyes surrounding him. "We have some news, and it's not good."

After a pregnant pause, Ron whispered: "Hermione's gone."

Blank expressions filled the common room before chaos exploded. Some began suppressing the urge to cry, thinking the worst; others were angry and furious. Most though, were begging for answers.

"We don't know where she's gone, and we only realized she was gone a couple hours ago, when we found letters she had wrote me and Ron." Harry said. "We've searched everywhere. Only a few of her belongings are gone, and she didn't leave any notice as to where she was going or when she was coming back. We all know that the war has affected all of us in different ways, but Hermione shouldn't be alone. We can't leave her to her own defenses, not after how much shes taken care of all of us since we met her, and how much she's endured these past couple months."

"We have to figure out where she might've gone, and find her as soon as possible," Ginny said, standing up and pacing, her eyes watering slightly. "After everything she's been through, shes never left us before. We can't leave her side now."

"I know, which is why we had to bring it to your attention. All of you."

"Where is the first place she would've gone?" Molly Weasely asked.

"The most likely places could be Diagon Alley, or maybe her parents house?"

"Then we start there. Who wants to search Diagon Alley?" Harry quizzed. A few hands rose, and multiple different locations were assigned a couple people each to search through.

Harry and Luna would go search the Granger residence.

Ginny, Neville, Cho and Molly would search through Diagon Alley.

Percy and George Weasely would both set out to search through Hogsmeade.

McGonagall would quiz the ministry and put out a small notice to the Aurors, but hopefully small enough not to draw attention from Hermione if she remained in London.

Others volunteered to research the castle with Ron, checking empty rooms and hidden areas, along with searching the grounds for any and all trace of her. They would use the Mauraders map.

And so the search began.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

Harry and Luna landed in the kitchen of 8 Heathgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London - Hermione's childhood home.

The house was clean, but dusty. A for sale sign could be seen out the window, and the walls, cabinets, and shelves were bereft of any inkling that anyone resided in the home. The rooms upstairs looked just as they would in any home that was for sale, the bookshelves cleared and the light blue walls bare. All picture frames that were once up, showing Hermione and her parents and extended family were all gone.

The pair searched the backyard and the rest of the home, searching for any sign that Hermione had been there, would be there, or is coming back to that location.

Finding absolutely nothing, they returned back to Hogwarts.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

Back at Hogwarts, those who were searching the castle were now huddled in the Gryffindor common room, wrapped in blankets or in the embrace of another. There had been no sign of Hermione anywhere, no matter how hard they searched. The map had revealed nothing. Not finding it hard to believe that she would be able to flawlessly cover her tracks, but nonetheless disappointed, they mourned the loss of Hermione Granger.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

When everyone was gathered back together, it was revealed that not a single person was able to find Hermione. Harry and Ron were the most desolate. Picking through her belongings, the pair gathered what they thought would be the most valuable to her when she came back, they set it aside on her old bed, and pulled the curtains to her bed. The rest was up for grabs if people wanted to take things to hold until she got back to take them back.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

Five Years Later

ϟ ϟ ϟ

Harry Potter was an auror looking into the department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Ron Weasley was an ex-auror now working at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with George.

Ginny Weasley got drafted as a player for the Holyhead Harpies, an all women quidditch team.

Neville Longbottom married Hannah Abbot and became the professor of Herbology at Hogwarts.

Luna Lovegood continued to study magizoology.

Minerva McGonagall continued on as the Headmistress at Hogwarts.

Hermione Granger remained missing, and everyone was still desperate to find her, no matter what lengths they had to take to accomplish the feat.

ϟ ϟ ϟ

The magical alert over the door to his offices chimed, alerting him to the presence of someone in the building. Knowing his secretary would initiate contact, he had time to get his business in order before apparating down to the entry level floor of the building.

The first thing he noticed when he arrived was the glasses on the face of someone he used to know, and the pungent red hair on another. One was a stocky build; his attire obviously covering a muscular build, dissimilar to the somewhat thin build he supported in his youth. The other was much of the same as he was in his youth; red hair overtaking the majority of any other noticeable features, but slight stubble covering his jaw and supporting areas being the only noticeable differences right off the bat.

"Harry Potter, what can I do for you?"

The man was looking around, his eyes avoiding the stark blonde haired man in a tailored suit in front of him in preference for anything else in the room. "Malf- Draco," Harry said with a slight nod, looking directly at a chair. "We're hoping you could help us find someone."

"I see."

"Malfoy." Ron said, his eyes taking in the man before him, trying to reconcile it with the ferret he had come to associate with the man when they were teens. The current Draco Malfoy had the same abnormally blonde hair and thin build, but his arms were filling out the suit jacket, alluding to a build not so different from the one Harry now supported, even if it was obviously on a much thinner and taller frame. The suit was all black, without a tie, but with a black undershirt as well. His face was clean-shaven, supporting no stubble or five o'clock shadow.

"Ronald Weasely and Harry Potter, both in one place. Where's the third member of the trio?"

"Actually, that's who we're hoping you could find." Harry spoke up, his eyes finally landing on Draco.

"Hermione Granger? Bushy hair, know-it-all student? That same one?"

"Yes. She's been gone a long time and every avenue that we've tried to take has lead us nowhere but more dead ends."

Draco's face must've emanated the same type of confusion that he felt, because Harry chuckled a tight, forced laugh before returning to the same grim expression that he had seemed to sport for the past five years. Quickly putting his occlumency, Draco switched back into the professionalism and neutral expression that he normally carried himself with.

"I see. Come to my office and we can sort out the details." Draco said, leading them to the elevator.

When they arrived onto the floor of his office, he led them to some chairs in front of a desk-like table. Sitting down, he motioned for them to do the same as he conjured a sleek black notebook and a fountain pen.

"When was she last seen?" Draco asked, looking at the two men sitting in front of him.

"That's the thing, we're not exactly sure?" Harry said hesitantly, his eyes meeting Ron's before darting back to Draco's.

"Can you give me an approximate estimation?"

"About a day or two after the.. the war ended."

"When did you notice she was missing?"

"About a week after," Harry said, quickly following up the statement at Draco's affronted look. "We were all so busy and you know Hermione, she never stopped moving until someone found her sleeping somewhere other than her bed."

"Did she leave anything behind, or take anything with her?"

Relaying the details and giving the letters to Draco - who dutifully took notes - Harry and Ron both answered various questions.

When the questions ceased to a stop, it was finally time to discuss the possibilities and payment.

"I can - and will - do the best I can to find Hermione, but it will cost you." Draco said.

"Cost is not a problem, it's covered no matter what you ask." Harry replied quickly.

"Then I'll begin as soon as I can."

As soon as he can happened it be the second that the pair were shown out of the building. Gathering his best investigators and aurors, he led them through a step by step process they all knew by heart, but slightly different because of the person they were trying to find.

"If you all know anything about the world five years ago, you'll know that Hermione Granger helped save the wizarding world from the darkness that threatened to plague us, and some of us here have the reminder of the darkness branded onto our arms. Hermione is a highly intelligent witch. If she wished to disappear, there won't be a trace of her anywhere we would even think to look normally. That means that we have to come up with some very, very resourceful places to look. Almost nowhere in the wizarding world would she have landed, unless something was inhibiting her from getting to where she really wanted to go. So we start by searching any and all hospitals and medical facilities in Britain and Eur-Asia in general. Use her given names, any aliases that we know she's gone by, any plays on her given name, her initials, etcetera. You all know the drill. If anyone has any findings or anything that you think is important - find me immediately. Do not relay any of this information to anyone outside of this facility or another staff member here - we don't know what caused her to run and at this point everyone is a suspect. And for the love of merlin, do NOT approach her if anyone finds her."

Dismissing his people, Draco drifted into his office. After branching off from the auror training he had taken and passed spectacularly, the ministry had granted him permission to run his own private investigation service for magical folk, as well as his own independent studies in alchemy. His business was successful and booming, with many still missing after the war had ended. Still some death eater sympathizers were active, and the wizarding world had yet to recover from the catastrophe that was the war.

Sending out his own personal patronus - a Hungarian Horntail - to some of his obscure muggle and squib contacts that could help him search, he sat back in his chair and tried to calm his racing mind, pulling out his own letter from Hermione that he had long ago stuffed back into its envelope and put into a drawer.