Unbroken

Thursday, Week 1

Draco POV

I'm never surprised when Boss arrives looking more weathered and haggard than the day before but today is different. He's...different. It looks like there is a giant sitting on his shoulder and he's being beaten like a slave with every step he takes. This is bad. Real bad.

"Hey...Boss, you err...alright?" I try to maintain a steady flow with my words but they come out after several pauses due to my being nervous.

"I'm fine, Draco. Did Neville find anything in the Memory Chamber?" He tells me and asks me. I sense a deep sadness in his voice and body but I think it's best not to pry. He won't open up to anyone but Granger and, unfortunately, she isn't here right now.

"Nothing, Harry. Victim was unremarkable. Brown hair, brown eyes, a couple of freckles dusted on her cheek but nothing remotely unique." He mutters 'shit' at my revelation and makes an annoyed face. It mirrors the same feeling I got when Longbottom told me.

"Then he's using something else, just don't know what. There's no way in hell he's just picking random targets." Boss sounds self-assured of his words and I want to believe him. I know of his history with Dolohov and I know exactly what the bastard did to Granger so I'm not surprised this case is quickly becoming personal.

"Maybe not, but there's not much to go on. We don't know nearly enough to prevent another murder," I admit as my shoulders sag.

Boss looks dejected but it disappears as quickly as it came. He straightens up and regards me with a hard look, a determined look.

"We'll find him, Draco. I know we will."

Somehow, I believe him.

He strides into his office and I retreat back to the conference room to overlook the several documents and notes made by the coroner. On the way there, my mind drifts to the beaten frame of my boss and I wonder what happened last night.

It is a bit of an open secret that him and Roberts were fucking but Longbottom, Luna, and I never dared talk about or questioned it. I know Boss wasn't in love with her and I know their relationship was strictly sexual so I rule out the possibility that it was something between them. She could never have that effect on him.

With the possibility of his problems coming from Roberts out, I have no choice to think that it was something between him and Granger. It can't be Weasley because he doesn't talk with that idiot anymore. Granger must have done something again. She must have let that smart mouth run off again.

"Fucking hell." I can't stop the exclamation from escaping my mouth. Things are bad enough as is and Boss is toeing the line of being suspended. This is the last thing we—and him—need.

Ron POV

Bloody hell, Hermione's depression has gotten worse. I'm not an idiot, I know she's hiding her pain behind those fake smiles and cheery faces. Even though she tries to be cheery around me, I can tell she's uncomfortable. The distance between us is steadily growing larger and I just can't find a way to stop it. Add to that the fact that she's been going out by herself when I'm at work and I'm starting to believe something is very wrong.

I don't think she's cheating on me because it's not in her nature to do that. I know she loves me as well because she married me. Hermione would never cheat on me. But there's this thing in my chest, this feeling that she knows something. I don't know what it is but whatever it is, it seems to have had a profound effect on her.

I want to believe she's starting to remember the forty days she spent alone with Harry but I quickly bat it away, knowing that there was a zero percent chance that would happen. The healers had warned us against ever trying to help her regain her memory because it could very well render her brain dead.