Lost And Found

~ Godric´s Hollow ~

Owls were flooding into the room. Draco stared at them in astonishment. Sure, the same thing had happened this time last year, but he´d really thought that everyone would have forgotten by now. He was touched to realise that all his friends and quite a few acquaintances had remembered his anniversary.

Luckily Hermione and Ron were there to help him with it. They were currently relieving the owls of their letters and sending them back with a pre-written thank you note. Draco had written one the night before, just in case this happened and had duplicated it a few times. Looks like he´d have to do more.

Draco sighed. Eight years of marriage, ten years together. Why wasn´t Harry here to help him celebrate? Why did Harry feel that he had to leave? Why couldn´t Harry talk to him about what was bothering him so they could sort through it together?

He wasn´t going to get any answers, so he went to check on the children, who were napping in Daniel´s room. The pair were curled up together in Daniel´s crib. It was getting a bit small now. Pretty soon he´d be in his very own bed. Draco kissed his son and his goddaughter lightly on their heads and quietly left the room.

"Still sleeping?" Hermione asked, glancing up from the kitchen table, where she was sorting the letters into two piles - those from people Draco actually knew and those from Harry´s fans who had been devastated when Harry had disappeared. Actually many of them had been outraged that Harry had left Draco. He had been surprised to find that many people thought that he and Harry belonged together and they thought their relationship was cute. Some people were so weird, Draco thought.

"Yeah," Draco said, sitting opposite Hermione. Ron was still attaching thank you notes to the delivery owls to return to their owners.

He picked up a letter from the Strangers pile and read it.

Dearest Draco,

Oh Harry! How could you be so stupid! How could you leave him?! And your son! Shame!

I´m sad now. :( But I know you will make it all better in the end so I´m going to be holding out for a happy ending. :)

Love,

ILLK

"Is this for me or for Harry?" Draco asked wryly. Well, at least they were on his side.

"You have a lot of support from the general magical community," Hermione said, smiling sadly at him. Draco knew she missed Harry far more than she let on.

"Some seem to be a little too into conspiracy theories, though," Ron said, joining them at the table. "Here´s one I was reading earlier."

Draco took the parchment Ron held out and read the letter.

Draco,

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Noooooooo!!! ::cries uncontrollably:: Poor poor POOR Draco! ::Sniffle:: Poor Daniel! He only has one father! Well... nevermind, you understand what I´m trying to say ^_^

Oh my god! Did Harry run off with the woman who gave you your son? Are they married? And have 5 kids? All named James?! Do they live in the U.S.A? No! Maybe, he ran off with Voldie! Wait- he´s dead...nevermind..

Love,

VenusPrincess

"Wow...that chick is..." Draco cast his mind around, searching for an appropriate description.

"Nuts?" Ron offered.

"Yes. Nuts," Draco agreed, staring down at the letter. "The private investigator looked for Harry in the States, didn´t he?"

"Yeah, no sign of him there," Ron said, ripping open another letter. "You read his report didn´t you?"

"Yeah, but that was ages ago," Draco said.

"Remember, he said that there was no sign of Harry travelling on any muggle forms of transport, so he must be in the UK somewhere. Portkeys won´t work across an ocean, it´s too far. And the PI found his Firebolt in the Forbidden Forest, so we know he didn´t fly anywhere," Ron said, reminding Draco of the little bit of information the expensive private investigator had found. "I still say there is something fishy here. Why on earth would he have ditched his broom so close to Hogwarts?"

"Perhaps he had a portkey hidden there," Hermione suggested. "He obviously doesn´t want to be found, otherwise we´d have been able to follow his trail."

"Daaaaad!"

Draco stood up. "I´ll be right back."

Draco stopped in the doorway and glanced back at the pair of them. "Thanks for being here with me. I really appreciate it."

"Of course, Draco," Hermione said warmly.

"Where else would we be today," Ron said, smiling at his best friends husband.

Draco smiled back and went to check on his son.

"Daniel, what is it sweetie?" Draco asked as he entered his son´s bedroom. Isabella had slept through Daniel´s bellowing. Hermione liked to joke that she could sleep through Armageddon.

"Where´s Daddy?" the little boy asked tearfully.

Draco´s heart contracted as he looked around the room. Daniel´s photo of Harry wasn´t on the bedside table where it usually was. He looked all around it and was relieved to find it had fallen down between the beside table and the wall.

"Here he is," Draco said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. He handed the photo to Daniel, who gazed down at the moving image of his father. He lifted the photo up to his face and pressed his lips against the glass in a sloppy kiss.

"Miss you Daddy," Daniel said softly. Isabella had woken by now and she was pulling herself up to sit beside Daniel.

"Uncle Harry?" she asked, pointing at the photo.

"Daddy," Daniel told her. He pushed the photo in her face. "Kiss Daddy," he commanded.

Isabella did as she was told. By now the photo was dripping with the two kids saliva. Draco handed Daniel a cloth.

"Wipe Daddy clean," he said, touched by the antics of the two children. Daniel took the cloth and solemnly wiped the glass clean. He then put the photo on the bedside table, face down. "Daddy go sleep now."

"Firsty, Uncle Draco," Isabella told Draco.

"Let´s go get some juice," Draco said. He picked up the two children, propping one on each hip and walked downstairs.

He heard Ron and Hermione talking before he entered the kitchen and something held him back.

"Shhh," he whispered to Bella and Daniel. They both put a finger to their lips and mimicked Draco.

"I wish you would just give up on this idea that Harry is in trouble," Hermione was saying to Ron. "Draco needs to let go and move on. All your doing is making him believe that Harry didn´t want to leave him."

"What if I´m right?" Ron said challengingly. "What if Harry really was kidnapped or something?"

"Wouldn´t the kidnapper have made some demands by now?" Hermione said. "As much as I want Harry to come back, we just have to face the fact that he´s not. It´s not helping Draco to keep holding onto this faith. I see his face whenever you make some comment about Harry being in trouble. His eyes fill with hope that perhaps Harry had no choice in the matter but we all know that´s not true."

Draco had heard enough. He pushed the door open and said brightly, "Look who I found."

The conversation stopped abruptly as Draco handed Bella to her father and Daniel to his godmother and set about getting juice for the children and coffee for the adults.

Draco sighed as quietly as he could. Luckily the kids were distracting Ron and Mione. Today was a difficult day, just like last year. Was Harry thinking of him? Did Harry miss him? Draco felt like crying so he went into the walk-in pantry and pulled himself together. He didn´t want to cry in front of his friends. He´d done that enough in the last two years.

"Draco? Are you okay?" Mione was calling out to him.

"I´m fine. Just looking for some biscuits," Draco called back, his voice only wavering slightly. Draco rested his hands on the shelf in front of him and stared down at the floor, blinking furiously. He heard Isabella say something about dancing and heard Hermione turn on the stereo. The two kids cheered and Draco could distantly hear Ron laughing at their antics.

But Draco couldn´t hear anything but the music. It was a favourite song of his that he had sung to Harry. He remembered their conversation right here in this very kitchen when Harry had teased Draco about him leaving Harry for a muggle popstar. He couldn´t stop the tears now as memories flooded back to him. He fell down to his knees. He´d managed to hold it together all day, but now he just couldn´t stop sobbing.