Broken But Beautiful~Dramione

Chapter fifty three

Draco wandered around the Great Hall in confusion. He had been looking for Hermione, but couldn't spot her. It was exceptionally a hard task as many people had similar masks to her, and the slow dancing music had turned into a live performance by an up-and-coming band. Now he was looking for the person he never thought he would seek out for help. Harry Potter.

"Harry?" Draco had spotted the messy black hair, and made a beeline to him.

"Draco?" Harry turned around in surprise. Ron was with him, and they had been talking together at the edge of the room.

"Have you seen Hermione?"

"I just danced with her not too long ago. Why do you ask?"

"I can't find her anywhere." Draco said helplessly.

"I suggested her to talk to Ginny and Luna. Maybe she's with them?"

"Where are they?"

"Not sure. They went to dance together when the band took over. I can help you look."

"Me too." Ron volunteered.

Harry led the way onto the floor, and all three were scanning the floor. Draco had no idea what to look for, so he kept his eyes peeled for a girl with long red hair. Ron had seen the two before they left, but had forgotten what they were wearing. He was looking for a crazy costume that Luna would theoretically be wearing. But to his surprise, many people had those kind of costumes on.

"Look! There's Luna's lion hat." Harry pointed, and they made their way over.

"Harry!" Ginny turned to them and stopped dancing. She could immediately tell something was wrong.

"Have you seen Hermione by any chance?" asked Draco.

"No, not since I saw her dance with Harry." she shook her head.

"Maybe she went to the loo?" Luna suggested.

"I don't think so. Why would she be gone for this long?" Draco frowned.

"Let's not panic just yet. There could be a lot of explanations for why she isn't here," Harry said reasonably.

"Well on the bright side, I personally thought the mask Hermione decided to wear complimented her dress wonderfully." Luna commented.

"Oh yeah. Where'd she get it? She didn't tell me she ordered a different one." Ginny asked curiously.

Draco experienced a sinking feeling in his stomach. "She thought you got it for her as a surprise."

"No it wasn't me." said Ginny.

"How about we take a longer look around first? Maybe Ginny and Luna can look in the loos. Draco go check your dorm room, and Ron and I will look around here. Meet back here in half an hour. If nobody finds her we'll alert Tonks, Humfrey, and Professor McGonagall. We have the highest level of security here, and I don't see how we could've been breached." Harry reasoned.

"Okay let's go." Ginny led Luna out, and Draco followed. Harry and Ron disappeared into the crowd, each of them hoping for a glimpse of their friend.

Half an hour of desperate searching had passed, and Hermione was nowhere to be found. Ron had gotten sidetracked with talking to Bill, and said he was going to stay at the dance. He was sure nothing was truly wrong, and that Hermione was just hiding somewhere.

The group of four alerted Humfrey and Tonks, who then alerted Kingsley and Leah. Professor McGonagall had been filled in too, and they had gathered in the Headmaster's office.

"Tell me the last time you remember seeing Hermione." said Leah.

"We danced together." Harry began. "It was probably around 10:30. I suggested her to talk to Ginny and Luna. She seemed like she was going to do it, but she never made it there. We can't find her anywhere. I looked on my Marau- er - something, but she isn't in Hogwarts."

"That can't be possible. Our antiapparition charms are up. And there's no way she could've gotten past the aurors stationed outside." Tonks objected.

"Well clearly she did." Draco glared.

"Tonks." An auror walked in.

"Paul. What is it?"

"We just finished our security sweep. The girl is nowhere to be found."

"Impossible. We took so many precautions." Humfrey looked horrified.

"It's not your fault." Tonks sighed. "We all messed up."

"Okay well that's nice you've all confessed but how are we going to get her back?" Draco snapped. Everyone looked to Kingsley.

"I-I don't know. We have nothing to go off of. I mean we don't even know who took her."

"Wait Ginny, didn't you say that you weren't the one who sent Hermione the mask?" Harry remembered.

"Yeah, that wasn't me." Ginny confirmed.

"What if the person who took her was the one who sent the mask?"

"That could be plausible. It would certainly have made it easier for the person to identify Hermione at the ball." Kingsley admitted.

"It was Theodore." Draco's eyes narrowed.

"How do you know?" Tonks frowned.

"Do you really have to wonder? I mean look at all he's done to her in the past year." Harry pointed out.

"If that's true, then for all we know, he could've taken her to the Coven. And we haven't had a breakthrough in their location yet." said Kingsley.

"But even still, that's not enough to go after him right now. Even if we did find him, we wouldn't be able to do anything." Leah shrugged.

"So what? We do nothing?" Draco looked around exasperatedly.

"Well - yes. But we are still pursuing knowledge of the whereabouts of the coven. Maybe there will be a breakthrough." said Kingsley.

"What about the deluminator? That's how we found her last time." Draco remembered.

"I don't think it works that way." Harry said gently. "It was just luck I suppose that it did last time. Or maybe Theodore wanted to lead us to her."

"We have to try." Draco snapped.

"Of course we will. We all want her back and safe with us." Harry reassured.

"Well we haven't done a great job of keeping her safe now have we?" Draco challenged. And not one of them could meet his eye. "We have to do everything to find her. She deserves that at least."

"I'll send an investigation team here tonight to see what they can find. But for now, that's all I can do." Kingsley sighed.

"Please go back to your dorms now, and be discreet about what has occurred. We will let you know if anything changes." Humfrey said gently.

Silently, the four students walked out of the office and towards their common rooms.

"We aren't actually doing nothing right?" asked Ginny, and the group halted.

"We have to help." Luna said matter of factly.

"Of course we're going to help. We're going out to find her." Harry said determinedly, and met Draco's eyes. In that moment, they communicated more to each other than they had in perhaps their whole lives.

Draco nodded solemnly. "Tonight."