snatched || drarry

17

Kingsley Shacklebolt had called a meeting. Draco pretended that he didn't know what it was for, maybe they had a new lead, but deep down, Draco did know why the meeting was being held. He pushed it away to the corners of his mind because it made Draco feel slightly better pretending to know what the meeting was about.

They still hadn't found Harry. They had checked all the places on Draco's list and more but there was still no sign of him and that terrified Draco. Draco really didn't want to go to this meeting, he really didn't have to want to face reality. Everything about this was Draco not wanting to face reality but it coming and punching Draco in the stomach anyway.

Draco sighed before stepping into the fireplace and flooing to the ministry. He had to go to this meeting whether he wanted to or not. Draco stepped out and walked down the busy corridors of the ministry, the crowd naturally parting to let him through. Despite his past, Draco was well respected within the magical community, managing to build a new reputation after becoming one of the best healers in the world.

A phone ringing pulled Draco from his thoughts. Draco sighed as he saw the name on the screen, Althea Downvale, head of St.Mungos. She was the only person in the hospital that held higher authority than Draco and Draco knew what the call would be about.

"Hello, Althea." Draco greeted.

"Hello, Draco. Are you busy right now?"

"I'm just on my way to a meeting but I can spare five minutes."

"Okay, this won't take long. Before I say this, I just want you to know that I'm not trying to be inconsiderate because I know what you're going through must be really hard and I haven't made this decision lightly but I can give you three weeks before I need you to return to work."

"Oh." Draco knew this was coming but he didn't know how to react.

"I'm really sorry but it's been really difficult without you. I've put Healer Tompkins as a temporary replacement for you but she's not as respected as you and the staff have been struggling a bit. You are one of the best healers in the world, you always seem to know what to do. You know I wouldn't be asking you to come back unless I needed you to."

"I understand. I'll be back three weeks on Monday."

"Thank you, and once again, I'm really sorry." Althea said.

Draco ended the call and sighed before heading to the room where the meeting was held.

Around half the people that had been called to the meeting were here, Draco offered everyone a weak smile before sitting down next to Pansy. He involuntarily groaned and placed his head in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Pansy asked.

"Just had a call with Althea Downvale."

"Ugh, what did that bitch want?" Pansy and Althea had history, things didn't end well between them.

"I've got three weeks before I need to be back at work." Draco sighed.

He really didn't want to go back to work. It just meant less time looking for Harry. Also, Draco would probably be bombarded with questions from everyone. He could just tell everyone to not ask him anything and they wouldn't but Draco didn't want to be receiving sympathy looks. Merlin, when someone gave Draco a look of sympathy, it made him want to gouge out his eyeballs.

"What the fuck? That is bullshit! You shouldn't have to go back into work. Do you want me to slap her? Because I will slap her." Pansy exclaimed.

"Calm down, Pans. I'll figure something out, I just don't want to be working when I could be looking for Harry." Draco said.

"Alright, but if you ever want me to slap her, I will."

"I know you will." Draco said, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

"God, she's even more of a bitch than I thought." Pansy muttered under her breath.

Draco chuckled lightly. He watched as the rest of the room fill up. Everyone from their friendship group was here, except one and the Weasleys were also here. Draco looked around the room, trying to figure out who was missing before his attention was diverted by Kingsley Shacklebolt walking into the room.

Kingsley's eyes scanned the room before landing on the empty chair.

"Where's Seamus?" Kingsley asked no-one in particular.

"Oh, he called me this morning and said he had a dentist appointment." Dean said.

"Right." Kingsley scanned over the room again, double checking everyone else was here before carrying on. "This is a meeting I didn't want to have to hold and before I carry on, I just want you to know that we're not giving up and there is still hope."

"Please just say it." Hermione whispered.

"Harry has been missing for a while and the chance that he's still alive is very slim."

Draco felt sick. He didn't want to hear it, he wanted to run and go back to convincing himself that Harry was definitely still alive.

"We won't stop searching and the case will be open until we find him but the searches are going to be less frequent. The reason for this is that no new leads have come up and we don't know exactly where to search next. Harry could easily be in a different country but we can't start searching abroad until we have evidence that he is in another country or he has been taken out of this country." Kingsley said. He wasn't meeting anyone's eyes, as if he was scared to see betrayal in their eyes.

"So, essentially what you're saying is that you've lost hope?" Ginny asked, almost bitterly.

"No, Miss Weasley, I'm not saying that. We will never lose hope but what you need to understand is that it's very difficult to continue with this investigation with no leads."

"Well, how's the mislocator investigation going?" Neville asked.

"It isn't. The person left no traces, they clearly knew what they were doing. We're no closer to finding out who stole it than we were at the start." Kingsley said. "I know this is hard for all of you, but even though right now we can't do much, we won't stop searching and we will never lose hope."

Draco stopped paying attention to what everyone was saying. He looked around and saw everyone looked considerably paler than when they first walked through the door. A few tears had fallen as well but that didn't stop them from talking. God, why couldn't they just shut up, all they were talking about was Harry. Why couldn't they see how painful this was for Draco?

The red scratches on his chest from when he broke down were a constant reminder of how painful this was for Draco. A constant reminder of how sometimes he just wanted to rip his heart out so he could be free from it for just a moment. The amount if times Draco had been kneeling over the toilet because it hurt too much scared him.

He was scared of a lot of things now. He wanted Harry home so the only things he was scared about was burning his tongue on his morning coffee that was made by Harry and someone spotting a hickey on his neck so he didn't have to endure the awkwardness when someone asked him what's on his neck.

"What if we never find him?" Luna asked.

Draco caught that. The first thing that he caught of the conversation was the question that made him want to scream whenever he asked himself it. The thought if it alone made Draco want to cry because what if Harry never came back to him? Draco wouldn't know what to do with himself, he would be lost, Draco didn't think he'd actually know how to live.

Draco felt an all too familiar lump rise in his throat. He didn't even try to push it away because he knew that it wouldn't. Draco sunk lower in his seat, hoping no one would notice his blurry eyes or the shaking of his hands. Draco shut his eyes, trying to calm himself down. He didn't want everyone to see him breaking.

"Draco, are you alright?" Blaise asked.

Draco opened his eyes and saw everyone looking at him, concern written on all of their faces.

"Uh, yeah, I-I need to go." Draco said, quietly.

Tears blurred his vision as he made his way to the door. Draco was breaking again and a part of him hoped someone would follow him and catch him but another part wanted them to stay so far away from him.