No More Walls (A Dramione Fanfic)

The Search

Draco met with Morris and Payne at Zizzi, the Italian restaurant. His demeanour was completely different now that he had "turned his switch off", releasing the old Draco. It caught Morris off guard when he saw him, never having met that part of Draco before.

"Let's find her, then," Draco said bluntly when he walked up to Morris. Payne had his hands cupped on the window of the restaurant, and he was looking in, observing the Muggles while they ate. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Um," Morris started, "where is Granger? Is she coming or-"

"No. She can't come," Draco snapped, cutting him off. "Let's get this over with. Where was Esther spotted? What happened?"

The man decided it was best to ignore the new attitude.

"Payne!" Morris yelled over to the Auror. The man turned quickly like he was just caught doing something he shouldn't have. "Stop creeping out those Muggles, and get over here!" Morris shouted, making a few people on the streets look at him funny.

Payne ran over and smiled at Draco. "Hello, hello!" He greeted him, happily. Draco didn't smile or say anything back, and Payne's smile faltered. "Uh, and where is Miss Granger?" He asked, looking around them, expecting her to show up out of nowhere.

"She couldn't come," Draco said flatly, causing the two other Aurors to share a look.

"Alrighty, then!" Morris clapped his hands together. "Well, let's head out. Esther was spotted here so we can use a tracking spell to find her now that we have a physical spot to place her at. If she changes into her Animagus form it should catch that as well. It'll be obvious when shoeprints stop and turn into pawprints," he laughed.

Payne apparently did not catch how rude Draco had been on the subject of Hermione or at least didn't care, because he brought her up again while Morris was setting off the tracking spell in an alleyway up ahead.

"It's a shame that Granger couldn't come along," Payne shook his head. "She is such a bright woman and has been very helpful. You both work well together."

Draco stayed quiet. The part of his heart that was breaking before, started throbbing, this time mixing itself with anger. He found he couldn't respond even if he wanted to. He couldn't trust his emotions.

Esther's footsteps, which were glowing a faint purple, were only visible to the three of them. The prints went on a couple of blocks until they disappeared into a gutter. The kind without a grate, that Pennywise the Clown looked out of.

Morris squatted near the hole, looking closely at the ground. There were paw prints replacing the shoe prints. He sighed. "You have got to be kidding me. The gutter? She jumped in the sewer?"

Draco looked closer, and sure enough, the purple pawprints disappeared right into the hole. "Well? What do we do?" He was pretty damn sure what they would have to do but he didn't exactly want to do it.

Payne looked from the hole to Morris with a look of disgust. "How should we go in?" He asked Morris. "Just Disapparate?"

"Unless you want to wiggle your way through there, I think that's the only solution," Morris sighed again.

The three of them walked across the street to the nearest alley and went behind a dumpster that was overflowing with garbage.

"Take my hand, you two," Morris told Draco and Payne while holding out his right hand. Draco winced at the thought of walking around the sewer system, but grabbed the hand, nevertheless. The familiar sensation of Disapparition filled him, and a moment later they were in the dark. It smelled like everything from decomposing animals to human waste.

"This can't be sanitary," he mumbled, looking around with a face that was quite reminiscent of his Hogwarts days.

Morris laughed, as he probably thought Draco was trying to be funny. "You got that right, Malfoy. Let's see...ah. Here we are." Morris pulled out his wand to reactivate the tracking spell and lit up a path for them to go on ahead. Immediately, they saw the faint purple light. "Let's go!" He led the way, with Draco in the back.

The prints ended about nine metres ahead, and immediately they heard a screeching noise. All three of them looked at each other. Morris and Draco knew that sound, and it was not difficult for Payne to figure out what it was. They tiptoed closer to an alcove where the sound seemed to originate. There was a small figure on the ground, though it was dark and hard to see. Draco pulled out his own wand, and the tip lit up. In front of them was a cat. The very cat they were looking for, and it was injured. Blood covered its left leg and looked broken. Esther looked defeated, even as a cat. She lifted her head but quickly put it down, evidently in too much pain.

"Do we turn her back or-" Draco questioned, eyes glued to the bleeding Animagus.

"No," Morris said, his voice shaking, "it'll be easier to carry her." He squatted in front of Esther and pointed at her with his wand. "You try anything, anything at all..." He warned. He kept the wand on her a second longer, then gently picked her up. "Let's go."

Authors Note: What will happen next?

Thanks for reading so far! I post twice a week on Wednesday's and Saturday's. Feel free to comment and star if you enjoyed it! Have a wonderful day! (: