Three

It took Potter less than an hour to get back from the Ministry. When the same elf as before showed Harry into the dining room, Snape gave up pretending to eat. Everyone else's food had been cleared away, only he still had a plate with a sandwich in front of him. And that only because Lucius had insisted.

'Nott, Parkinson, and Goyle are all accounted for, and they have alibis. Your other former friends, too.'

'Now look here, Potter...' Draco said.

'It's all right, Draco. As Mr Potter correctly stated, they are my former friends.'

Draco muttered something under his breath until Luna leant over and whispered into his ear.

'Which means we still have to find information about Miss Granger's disappearance,' Lucius pointed out.

Harry had been pacing in front of the fireplace; now, he stopped. 'What's your interest in all this?'

'You mean, apart from the fact that you came barging into my home and,' Lucius looked briefly at Severus before he continued, 'that I hate to see one of my friends in distress?'

'I'm not distressed. I want to find out what the fuck happened to Hermione,' Severus bellowed.

Lucius continued smoothly, 'As I was saying...'

'Why would the police want to talk to Hermione?' Luna asked.

Tiny wheels started to whirr in Severus' head. 'The police? Why didn't anybody mention this before? Potter, what exactly was the argument with that red-haired dunderhead about?'

'I don't see how...'

'Potter! And stop prancing about.'

Harry sat down, looking mutinous. 'Right. As you know, Ron borrowed one of the cars his dad keeps in his old shed, and he had an accident with it. He said the car was Hermione's.'

Severus stared at Harry, eyes narrowing. 'Since when do the police talk to the car's owner and not the driver after the accident? Something's off here.'

Harry was silent for a moment, then he nodded. 'Definitely dodgy. There's something else. Ron said the roadworks he crashed into looked really extensive, but they hadn't been there the day before.'

'I think it's time someone found out about this police investigation,' Severus said.

'The Auror department has contacts with the Muggle police. Let me see if they know anything. Maybe Arthur can help, too. He's been working really hard on improving relations with Muggles since he's become Minister.'

Lucius rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything when Severus shot a warning look in his direction.

Severus stood up and said to Harry, 'I'm coming with you.'

~*~*~*~*~

'What's she doing?'

Liz Mulligan peered at the woman in the other room. 'Not much. Walking around, sitting on the bed. Muttering something to herself for a bit. Nothing fancy.'

'Do you think it's true that they can't do anything without that?' James Wolverton pointed at the long, thin piece of wood on their worktable.

Mulligan shrugged. 'The others couldn't.'

'But isn't she supposed to be special? More powerful than the others or something?'

'I suppose.' Mulligan glanced through the two-way mirror again. 'Doesn't look like much, though.'

'Tell me again. Why do we have to use this bloody thing instead of proper surveillance techniques?' Wolverton asked.

'Because "proper surveillance techniques" don't work with that lot, as you well know,' a voice stated from behind him.

Wolverton and Mulligan whipped around to face their superior. As usual, the nameless man had entered without any sound. As usual, he was dressed in a brown, inconspicuous suit that perfectly matched his short, brown, inconspicuous hair and the brown, inconspicuous frame of his glasses.

Mulligan nodded. Yes, she did remember the nasty hiss when their fancy, new equipment had short-circuited. Not to mention the smell of burnt plastic.

'Excellent. Now, this time it's different. We've got enough data. This time, I want you to interact with our "guest".' Even his voice was inconspicuous. No trace of an accent but not posh, either.

'Interact? What for?'

Mr Noname put his brown, inconspicuous briefcase on their worktable. They heard several soft clicks as he bent to open it, then he extracted a small, wooden box from it. He put it on the table. 'Open it.' He passed a bunch of tiny keys to Wolverton.

It took him several minutes to figure out which key went into which lock. Finally, he turned the last one in its lock and opened the lid. Or rather, tried to open the lid. When he attempted to lift it, there was a flash of light, and he was blasted backwards. He managed to grab the edge of the table to keep from falling. After carefully inspecting the burns on his hand, he threw an accusing glare in Mr Noname's direction.

'Ah, yes. I thought it might be booby-trapped. You should have been more careful.' He turned to Mulligan. 'Here's what I want you to do. Establish contact with the subject. We want her to open the box and tell us how to use the object inside it. Use any means necessary.' He left the room as quietly as he had entered it.

Mulligan and Wolverton looked at each other. 'Shit.'

~*~*~*~*~

Severus leant back and stretched his legs, only to pull them back under the chair again a moment later. He bent forward to thumb through some of the security leaflets on Harry's desk, not really seeing what was printed on them. What the hell was taking Potter so long?

At that very moment, Potter entered the cubicle looking haggard, his hair even more untidy than the other times Severus had seen him. 'And?'

Potter shook his head. 'Nothing. I've talked to our contacts in the Muggle police. Nobody knows anything about an investigation into an accident. I talked to Ron to get more details. I even managed to talk to someone at the Highways Agency. According to them, there were no roadworks on the B3212 the day of Ron's accident. Fishy, if you ask me.'

'Extremely,' Severus confirmed.

'What do we do now?'

Severus said, 'I suggest, we...'

Susan Bones peered over the rim of Harry's cubicle. 'The Minister wants to see you, Harry. And you too, Professor.'

'Right, let's see what Arthur wants.' Harry stood up.

When they entered the Minister's office, they found Arthur Weasley busy studying what appeared to be the manual for the bits and pieces that were spread over his desk. Severus noticed that an entire shelf was devoted to all sorts of Muggle appliances in various states of assembly. He recognised a telephone and a toaster; most other things looked unfamiliar or consisted mostly of individual components that didn't add up to a whole. Another shelf was filled with Muggle books, mostly on inventions and technology. A glance at the stacks of magazines in front of it revealed titles like Elektor, TopGear, and What Car?.

'Isn't it marvellous?' Arthur beamed at them. 'Only got it this morning, directly from the other Minister's office. Once it's assembled, it's supposed to play music. Just like the wireless, but you can carry it around. Ingenious what these Muggles come up with.'

Severus came to a halt right in front of Arthur's desk and resisted the urge to sweep all the junk off it. Barely.

'Now, Harry, Severus, what's this I hear? You've been poking around in Muggle affairs. What for?'

Severus decided to see how Harry would manage to explain that one without implicating his idiot friend.

Harry shuffled his feet. 'You see, Hermione is missing, and there's evidence the Muggle police might have wanted to talk to her. And that's really the only clue we've got.'

Arthur had suddenly become serious. 'Our Hermione is missing? Are you certain?'

'Yes, positive,' Harry said quickly as Severus was drawing breath to inform Arthur what exactly he thought about being asked this question for the umpteenth time.

'Hm. Muggles couldn't be involved. We've made tremendous progress and enjoy cordial relations, now. The other Minister said as much when we had tea, yesterday. I don't want you to risk that with false accusations. Check the activities of former Death Eaters and their sympathisers.'

'We already have,' Severus ground out. Would it help their case if he tried to shake some sense into Arthur? Probably not.

'Check again. It's the only possible explanation. And keep me informed.' Arthur turned his attention back to the bits and pieces on his desk.

Severus led the way out of Arthur's office, feeling that any further attempt to talk to the Minister would be a complete waste of time.

Without a word, they walked down the corridor and didn't stop until the door to the staircase had closed behind them.

Severus banged his fist against the wall in frustration. 'Arthur has gone bonkers.'

'What now?' Harry asked, not making any attempt to defend his father-in-law.

'We continue our investigation from elsewhere. How about your place?'

All of sudden, Harry looked uncomfortable. 'Erm, I'd rather not.' He offered no further explanation.

'Hm, Hogwarts is not very practical.' Severus considered their options. 'Let's go back to Malfoy Manor.'

'If there is Death Eater involvement, I don't want any of the Malfoys in this.'

Severus had to try very hard to resist the temptation to cast a Petrificus Totalus on Harry and just carry him off to the manor. 'Look, even if any of the Death Eater lot are involved in this, Lucius isn't. In case you hadn't noticed, he isn't exactly keen on Voldemort's followers himself. Plus, we can use all the help we can get.'

'What makes you think he will help us?'

'Call it a hunch.'

'Hmph,' said Harry, but he followed Severus, nevertheless.

Satisfied, Severus marched downstairs to get to the Apparition point in the Atrium.

Draco and Luna were still there when Harry and Severus arrived back at Malfoy Manor. They briefly explained what had transpired at the Ministry. Once again, they all took seats around the dining room table to think about what to do next. Severus hadn't noticed the tea cups appearing before them, nor the plates with biscuits and small cakes that were now sitting in the middle of the table. Lucius poured the tea with a drop of milk and two sugars and, without a word, pushed the cup towards Severus. The warm, sweet liquid running down his throat felt very soothing.

'What if there were others?' Luna asked suddenly.

'Others?' Harry looked clueless.

'Who've disappeared,' Luna clarified.

'Oh, right. Good point, but I don't think I can poke around, anymore.'

Severus set down his cup with unnecessary force. 'You can't. But Miss Lovegood can.' He turned to Luna. 'You could pretend you're researching something for that magazine of yours.'

'Excellent. Nobody will mind because they all think...' Harry didn't finish his sentence when he saw the looks Draco and Severus were directing at him.

'...because they all think I'm a bit strange,' Luna said calmly.

A moment of awkward silence ensued while they were all busy staring at their tea cups until Draco said, 'I'll help. I can postpone my trip to Paris.'

'No, go to Paris. Something tells me that we should attract as little attention as possible,' Lucius said.

'But, father...'

'I agree with Lucius. I can't quite put a finger on it, but there's something very odd here.' A very familiar sense of intrigue had taken up residence in Snape's spine. 'Miss Lovegood, how soon can you start?'

'I'll just get my lucky quill.' With that Luna left, Draco on her heels.

Lucius looked around. 'Severus, Mr Potter, I'd like to invite you to stay for dinner.'

Harry shook his head. 'No, thank you. I really can't. I should go home.'

'Thank you, Lucius.' Severus was glad not to go back to his empty rooms at Hogwarts.

~*~*~*~*~

Hermione had no idea how long she'd been sitting on the bed, thinking about her situation when she heard the door open. A woman came in, carrying a tray with a pot, two mugs and a plate on it.

'Hi, I'm Liz. I've brought you something to eat.' She set the tray on the table at the window and sat down on one of the chairs.

Ignoring the rumbling of her stomach at the sight of food, Hermione remained where she was. 'Where am I? And what do you want from me?'

'Aren't you hungry?' Liz pointed at the sandwich.

'No. I want to know what's going on.' Hermione avoided even looking at the food.

'We mean you no harm.'

Hermione snorted. 'Explain how abducting me and holding me here goes together with "meaning me no harm".'

'You really should eat something.' Liz held the plate out to her.

'What, so that you can drug me again?'

Liz shook her head. 'It's not poisoned.' She broke off a bit of the sandwich and ate it, then she poured tea into one of the mugs and drank from it. 'See.'

The voice of reason suggested that eating might be a good idea, indeed. Besides, Hermione really was hungry. She slowly walked over to the table and accepted the offered tea. The egg salad sandwich was surprisingly tasty, but then she was so hungry that even Hagrid's rock cakes would have tasted good at this point.

Hermione swallowed the last bite of her sandwich and, for the first time, took a closer look at the woman opposite her. She looked to be in her early thirties with short, strawberry blond hair and a couple of freckles on her nose. Her eyes were blue, and Hermione suspected that she'd have a friendly smile if she weren't looking as if something was haunting her. And, unless her radar was completely off, the woman was a Muggle. Still, for a fleeting moment the woman looked like a member of the Weasley family, and Hermione felt a pang of longing that was quickly replaced by white-hot anger. 'What do you want from me?'

'Your co-operation.' The woman's smile looked forced and didn't quite reach her eyes.

'Why would I want to co-operate with you? I repeat, you drugged me, abducted me and you're holding me here against my will.'

Liz didn't answer; instead, she shoved a picture towards Hermione. 'Ever seen this?'

The picture showed a square wooden box with several keyholes of various sizes, its lid intricately carved.

Hermione crossed her arms in front of her and didn't say a word.

Liz nodded as if Hermione's reaction confirmed something. 'We thought you might need a little persuasion.' She shoved another picture towards Hermione. Hermione looked at the photo and spotted one of her exes. Terry. Terry-can't-keep-it-my-pants-Boot. Who had spent two weeks in St Mungo's Spell Damage Ward after she'd found out about his little trysts on the side, not to mention his attempt to access her Gringotts vault without her knowledge. He was chained to a wall in some sort of cellar, gagged and looking fairly miserable.

'If you co-operate, we'll let him go,' Liz said gently.

'No.' Hermione glared at her.

'No? You might want to reconsider that.'

Hermione barely heard the door close as she kept staring at Terry's photo, fury still racing through her. With a loud bang, the mug next to her exploded, shards and splashes of tea raining over the table. One of the shards grazed the back of her hand, and red drops of blood were trickling onto the table top, mixing with a puddle of soggy tea. Suddenly Hermione's stomach decided that it didn't like the egg salad after all, and she ran into the bathroom to be violently sick in the loo.

~*~*~*~*~

'I think either your elves are bored or you need to have guests more often.' Severus eyed the amount of food that had just appeared on the table.

As there were only the two of them, he and Lucius had repaired to the conservatory for dinner. They'd just eaten their way through a herb salad and goat cheese with Severus keeping his opinion on fancy food to himself. Actually, the salad had tasted really nice, but the smells that wafted into his nose now were much more to his liking. A roasting tin with Toad in the Hole stood in the middle of the table, accompanied by steaming bowls filled with mashed potatoes, thick onion gravy and peas while their glasses kept refilling themselves with the smooth beer both he and Lucius liked.

They ate in silence with Lucius casting an enquiring glance at him every now and then. Severus felt very full after his third helping, but found that there was still room for some Bread and Butter pudding. The two wizards topped off their silent meal with a glass of Lucius' excellent brandy in front of the fire in his study.

'You know it's highly unlikely that any Dark wizard is involved in this. Not that there aren't any die-hard followers of the Dark Lord out there, but if any of them had a hand in Miss Granger's disappearance, we'd know by now.' Lucius twisted his glass around in his long fingers.

'Yes, we'd have received a note. Or a body part.' A shiver ran through Severus, and he saw that even Lucius had gone paler than usual. He quickly took a sip of his drink, relishing the soothing effect of the alcohol running down his throat.

'She means a lot to you, doesn't she?' Lucius asked softly.

'She is... a friend,' Severus answered.

Lucius nodded. 'She's a remarkable witch. I think you should stay here, tonight. I'll have Keppy prepare a room.'

'Thank you.' One of the guest rooms at the manor sounded like a much better place to spend the night than at Hogwarts where everything would remind him of Hermione.

Lucius stood up to give directions to the house-elf. As he walked past Severus, he briefly rested a hand on his shoulder. 'We'll find her.'

At that moment, the silvery shape of an otter swam into the room and stopped in front of Severus.

'I've been kidnapped. I don't know by whom or why. I'm in a high-rise tower block, but I don't know where it is. Help me, please,' the otter said in Hermione's voice before it disappeared.

A momentary surge of relief that Hermione was alive washed through Severus before he grabbed the edge of the table very hard. 'Shit.'

'Why didn't I think of this earlier?' He fumbled for his wand. 'Expec...'

'Master Malfoy and Miss Lovegood,' Keppy announced, interrupting Severus' spell.

Draco and Luna rushed in, both looking very tired, but Luna beamed, announcing, 'We've found her. She's alive.'

Lucius said, 'Yes, we've actually just received a Patronus from her that confirmed as much.'

Severus sprang to his feet. 'Where is she?'

'And we have a pretty good idea what's going on now,' Draco said.

'Out with it.' Severus had started to pace in front of the fireplace.

'It seems a number of witches and wizards have disappeared over the last few months only to turn up again a few days later unharmed. When interviewed by Aurors, all they could remember was waking up in a strange flat, somewhere in a high-rise building where they were kept for a day or two without their wands. They didn't see anyone, and the next thing they knew, they woke up at the Stirring Rod...you know, that seedy drinking hole in Knockturn Alley.

'But the really interesting bit is that it's all been kept very quiet. Allegedly because no one was harmed. And, the Aurors who interviewed them were always the same two people,' Draco said.

'Weird, but not surprising, given the level of competence at the Ministry,' Lucius commented.

'It gets weirder. Apparently, the order to keep it all hush-hush came directly from the Minister.'

'Arthur?' Severus couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.

'Arthur Weasley,' Draco confirmed.

'Arthur is blind, not guilty. I suspect Wrackspurts,' Luna said.

'Too bad,' Lucius muttered under his breath.

'As Luna said,' Draco resumed his tale, 'Arthur Weasley isn't directly involved in this, but someone at the Ministry is.'

'Who?' Severus asked, coming to a stop in front of Draco.

'Demelza Robins, and she was happy to supply us with the information we needed.'

'Just like that?'

'A few drops of Veritaserum and an Obliviate might have been involved,' Draco conceded.

Lucius gave his son a proud, fatherly smile.

'Where did you get Veritaserum? Never mind. What did you find out?' Severus asked.

'I do have access to your stores, remember?' Draco sounded almost offended.

'Yes, yes. Demelza Robins?'

'We didn't have time to get all the details, but apparently she has a contact, get this, at the Muggle Ministry to whom she passes on the relevant information. It seems there's a group of Muggles who study wizards and witches, and Demelza's been passing on names of people they might be interested in. She admitted that she gave them Hermione's name.'

Severus suddenly had the urge to go and hex Miss Robins to a place from where she wouldn't return, like right in front of a Quintaped.

'Does she know where these people keep their captives?' Lucius asked.

'Yes, because she helped them make the place "wizard-safe",' Draco said with a sneer.

'Wizard-safe?'

Severus didn't need to look at Lucius to see and feel the cold fury radiating in waves from the man standing across the room.

'Severus, I think it is time for you to use your talents and go undercover again.'