A/N: Another new story, I know! LOL. I don't care if you're mad about it. This Fenmione wouldn't leave me alone and had to be share.
Hope you like it.
xx-Kitten.
Where The Wild Things Are
By Kittenshift17
Chapter One
"I beg your pardon, sir?" Hermione Granger asked, blinking in confusion. She felt certain she must've heard him wrong. Head of the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures office, Aibek Skasgard, would never have made such a request of her.
"Did you mishear me, Miss Granger?" Skasgard asked, raising one dark eyebrow and making Hermione rather nervous.
"I… It sounded like you just asked me to lead an expedition into Uilebheist Fearann, sir," Hermione said, frowning at him.
"And you are fearful of doing so?" he asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his desk and steepling his fingers together. He surveyed her over the top of them, his dark hazel eyes fixed on her as though she intrigued him.
"No, sir," Hermione said. "It's not that. I'm just… surprised. I thought you were still insistent on having me focus my research on the uses of Puffeskin saliva in skin-care products, sir."
He narrowed his eyes slightly, clearly having forgotten giving her such a ridiculous assignment.
"Leave that to the cosmetic companies, eh?" he asked. "I need someone competent leading this team."
"What exactly am I looking for in Uilebheist Fearann, Mr Skasgard?" Hermione wanted to know. "I was under the impression that even those among our department were banned from entering that land."
"Monster land," he chuckled, shaking his head. "It is a… hostile place, Miss Granger. And the last stronghold of truly wild creatures. The expedition will be that you and a select group will enter Uilebheist Fearann and investigate claims of the creature listed in this file."
He handed over a case file to her and Hermione opened it, frowning as she scanned the contents.
"This claims that some kind of hybrid beast has been spotted bearing resemblance to Orthros, were it to have bred with a dragon. You want me to investigate a hybrid creature supposedly born of a dragon and a two-headed dog, sir?"
"Your specialties are lycanthropy and dragonology, are they not?" Skasgard asked, looking less than pleased by her skeptical and rather scornful tone.
"Well… yes, sir," Hermione sighed.
"And were a fire-breathing, dual-headed canine to be on the loose in Monster Land, you would be the most equipped person to investigate the claim, and handle the problem, would you not?" Skagard went on.
"I'm not declining the assignment, Skasgard," Hermione replied huffily, not at all liking her boss's tone.
She'd never quite liked him, if she was being honest. There was something about him that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She didn't entirely trust him, and she wasn't overly fond of his habit of checking up on her more than was decent. Not that he wasn't handsome and charming and even downright attractive. He'd starred in more than one of her raunchier dreams, but she still didn't entirely like him.
"You simply doubt it's merit," he put forward, leaning back and crossing his arms over his broad chest, frowning at her.
"Yes, sir," she admitted. "I doubt it's merit, and I doubt that the risks of entering Uilebheist Fearann are warranted to investigate it. Moreover, if it truly does exist, the size of the team I would need in to order to subdue such a beast would be astronomical. And no team of that size would be able to effectively infiltrate such a hostile and monster-filled habitat without sustaining casualties and without driving many of the beasts we might seek to study, into hiding."
"You doubt you could achieve this with five armed guards?" he confirmed.
"Five?" Hermione scoffed. "If this beast is a hybrid of a two-headed dog and a dragon it'll be as big as a house. You think five wizards would take down a fire-breathing beast of that size?"
"Five wizards plus you, Miss Granger. Do not do yourself the disservice of thinking you are incapable within the field," Skasgard pointed out.
Hermione's days of blossoming under such praise were behind her.
"The last time I was in the field, three men died and I was savaged and left for dead, Skasgard," she reminded him in a cold voice.
"And you have been running scared ever since!" Skasgard growled at her. "I will not allow you to waste your potential looking into the uses of Puffeskin saliva, Granger!"
"And you think it will be better spent sending me off to where all the wild things are and just unleashing me upon them?" Hermioned hotly. "Three men died, Skasgard. They were bloody well eaten by that Vipertooth, and you know it! What? Our department hasn't lost enough. You think we can stand to lose five more? This thing can breathe fire from two different heads, sir. If it's a hybrid of those two species, as claimed, it might very well be fire resistant, spell-reflective, and utterly savage. Add to that the fact that the entire area is crawling with all the dangerous creatures the Ministry didn't know what to do with, all of them loose and probably hungry, stuffed together in too small an area to be healthy. You think there won't be a hundred and one things in those lands ready to eat the lot of us?"
"I think that we have our orders and must follow them, Granger," Skasgard growled in retort. "This case landed on my desk when the Unspeakables got wind of it. They want to study the beast, and they want you to be the one to capture it and to assist them in their research. Before your last attempt at field work, you'd proved yourself beyond capable, and a reliable source of information to properly document the habits of magical creatures in their habitats. What happened to Wilkins, Strickland, and Burns was unfortunate, by they were all capable dragonologists and they all knew the risks when they went hunting for a Vipertooth. This assignment is yours and you will carry it out, or you will forfeit your position with the DRCMC."
'You'll fire me if I don't take the case?" she demanded.
"Not me," he shrugged. "You know the Unspeakables will go right to the Minister, and I don't believe he's currently very fond of you, is he?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes, looking away as her cheeks turned red. No, Kingsley Shackelbolt currently wasn't very pleased with her. Not that he could be entirely blamed. She had made a commitment to him, and she had broken his trust. It had been an accident, and it had been a mistake, but nonetheless the man no longer professed his love across the pillows to her and had banned her from his bed.
She would get no help from him, she knew. And with Skasgard the head of her department and the Unspeakables involved, it seemed any other help from anyone she might know within the Ministry would fall short of getting her out of this assignment. Not even Harry would be able to sweet talk Kingsley into forgiving her after what she'd done. Scratching frustratedly at the old scar on the side of her neck that she was sure was the reason for her raging libido at the blood moon a few months ago that had caused her to make the mistake Kingsley couldn't forgive, Hermione stared at her boss.
"I have no choice, in other words," she snapped, annoyed with his handsome face as he continued to regard her.
"None, I'm afraid," he shook his head.
"When do you need me to leave?" she asked, closing the case-file and accepting her fate without further argument.
"Tomorrow at first light," he said. "I've hand-picked your team, and I will notify them of the departure time."
"Very well," Hermione sighed, getting to her feet. "I will meet them here and we will set-out. Thank you for the assignment, sir."
"Don't let me down, Granger," Skasgard said, rising as well and offering his hand to her to shake. "Forget what happened last time. Just focus on your mission this time. And if you were able to capture live specimens of any of the other creatures inhabiting Uilebheist Fearann, I wouldn't object to having them brought back here for our studies, you understand?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes on the man as she shook his hand, knowing from that sly look in his eyes that his intent to send her had everything to do with her habit of capturing as many specimens for study as possible, and absolutely nothing to do with Unspeakables, the Minister, or her requirement to complete a certain amount of field hours every year to keep her license as a DRCMC Extractification witch. He just wanted a peek into whatever else might be inhabiting Uilebheist Fearann that the Ministry considered to be too dangerous to study.
"Yes, sir," she muttered, before turning away and leaving the office.
When she was gone, Aibek Skasgard leaned over his desk, fishing a small slip of parchment from the desk drawer and loading his quill with ink. He scribbled out a quick note, being sure to date the top corner of the letter, knowing the owl might take a while to penetrate the wards surrounding Monster Land in order to get word to the inhabitant there that he most urgently needed to contact.
She leaves at first light.
-A.S.
He tied the scroll tightly to the ankle of a Great Grey Owl the Ministry had loaned him for the purpose of contacting his agents when they were in the field. This one had been his companion for many years now, and as he stared at the bird, he let the wicked gleam in his unnaturally bright eyes shine through.
"You know where to go," he told the bird.
The owl hooted in response before swooping out the window and disappearing into the late afternoon.
"Thank bloody Merlin," he muttered when the owl was gone, flicking his wand to lock the door to his office before pouring himself a generous glass of fire-whiskey and thinking to himself that in short order, everything would finally be alright. Granger hadn't even put up much of a fight. Good. That was good. And he'd caught the way she scratched at her bite. She was primed and ready to fall now. All they had to do was wait.
