Hermione hasn't been the same since losing her parents. She's stopped painting, and broken off her engagement to Ron. Not to mention she recently started dating a real jerk named Malfoy. If that wasn't bad enough, the whole world has turned upside down with a mysterious virus. Hermione's forced to see how far she'll go to protect those she loves. And it's a lot farther than she'd anticipated. A whirlwind tale of love, loss, survival, zombies, and the everlasting spirit of humanity.
Quick Note:
So first of all, this story is a mash up of two of my favorite book universes; harry potter and Mordacious, (a zombie flick.) Warning there is quite a bit of violence, being full of zombies and all. There are also a lot of odd pairings, people out of character, and a lot of new faces being add to this story. The much beloved harry potter cast will act and speak differently because this story takes place in New York, not the UK. I hope you guys enjoy! :)
Chapter 1: Fortification.
Today is the kind of spring day that used to make me feel like anything was possible. That it would all work out in the end. I used to love days like this. Of course, that was before I started avoiding spring altogether. It isn't easy to avoid an entire season, especially one this glorious. But for the past three years, I've managed it. I close the blinds, stay out of the sunshine and keep to myself, so as not to dredge up memories of that first terrible spring. But this year feels different. I can't help but enjoy the breeze that promises summer is coming. It's the kind of day that puts a spring in your step, where you believe hope does spring eternal. I dreamt about Ron last night. But it wasn't the usual dream, the one that wakes me up in tears with that empty feeling in the pit of my stomach. We were sitting on the porch steps of my parents' cabin. Our legs were stretched out, feet resting on the ground. I was wiggling my toes. There was nothing else. Sure, the bees buzzed among the flowers and the trees whispered in the wind, but that was it. There was just quiet. And peace, the kind of peace that didn't seem to follow Ron as much as it was a product of him. When I woke up that feeling stayed with me, and I started thinking that maybe it could be mine again. My friend Luna's silvery hair swings as we pass the brownstones and apartment buildings of our Brooklyn neighborhood on our way to work. I haven't told her about this feeling, even though I tell her almost everything. I'm like a squirrel with a nut, wanting to hide it away for safekeeping, to turn it over and over and examine it. Luna glances at my feet. "You wore your new shoes."I nod. It's still too cool, but I wore the delicate straw sandals anyway. I thought they might make me feel feminine and strong. That maybe they would help me to embrace and welcome spring again. Relying on shoes to do all that is pretty dumb, but I need all the help I can get. Luna raises her face to the sun and sighs with pleasure. "My father was called in last night, something to do with the LX virus," Luna says, and pushes her hair from her face. "He says there are a lot of cases in New York now." Bornavirus LX has spread across the world in the past few days. So far it's only been found in the Midwest and West. I haven't been paying much attention because in the spring I never do. "Did he say how many?""No. But he's pretty certain the quarantine of St. Louis means it's going to get bad." "They quarantined St. Louis?"I'm shocked that it's come to that. "Yeah, late last night. Chicago, too. And air traffic is suspended from the West."We stop at the front door of the Sunset Park Community Center, where we both work. "How do you not know all this Hermione? You're usually the one telling me these things." "I've been distracted. I didn't listen to the news this morning." I want to tell her more, but I'm not sure what there is to tell. It's just a mental shift or something, and if it comes to nothing I don't want to advertise the fact that I've failed. Luna glances around and twists her lips. "Neville asked me out last night," she says to the concrete, her eyes dreamy. "Neville what!?" I yell. She shushes me and I lower my voice. "We just walked all the way to work and you tell me now? At—" I look at the time on my phone, "crap. There's a meeting. I have to go." Luna smiles. She did this on purpose so I wouldn't bother her about it the whole way to work. "I knew it!" I say, and narrow my eyes even though I'm grinning. "We're twenty-six years old and you still won't tell me when you like someone! Fred and I have been waiting for this. You're gonna tell me later, you know." "Sooo longggg Hermione," she sings out, as I head upstairs.
I'm at my desk, considering beating my uncooperative computer with my stapler when I hear a voice. "Psst, Hermione." Fred's head appears over our shared cubicle wall. "Drinks later." I open my mouth, about to refuse, but he shakes his head and flashes me his white-toothed smile. "Don't even say no," he drawls, before he sinks down. I sigh and slip on my sandals to go argue my case. I'm sure this is one time Fred will be glad I'm backing out of plans. I sit down opposite Fred's desk and swing my foot. "New shoes?" he asks. The magical properties I imbued them with this morning have not materialized. So far the only thing they've done is create a suspicious pre-blister itch in several places and my toes are freezing. "You like?" "Yeah, yeah, they're great. Have I ever given a rat's ass about shoes?" He runs a hand through his messy red hair and tries to look despondent but fails. Fred is tall, broad and exceedingly healthy. It's obvious he grew up in a household where they ate beef and drank whole milk and were out in the fresh air and sunshine. He has an ever-present smile, a splash of freckles, and a boyish charm. When he's serious though his face can look stony at times. I'm sure he perfected it in his high school days while playing football, where a good game face is essential, especially when you're secretly gay. I sigh. "Believe me, I'd rather go out to drink. But I'm going to try to break up with Malfoy tonight." Fred grins and whoops, very loudly. Everyone in the office turns to stare at us. Now that I've told Fred I can't chicken out of the breakup at the last minute without getting tons of grief. I already regret telling him. "You are not going to try, you wuss!"He bangs a pen on his desk and points it at me. "You're going to do it this time. But, first, we'll have a drink for fortification." I laugh because of course, he's going to get his way. His blue eyes that had held laughter a few moments ago turn serious. "You'd better make a clean break. Or I'll do it for you. I swear I will this time. If you don't leave him I am honor bound as your best friend to stick my nose in your business." I hang my head in defeat. I guess I'm going to need that drink after all. "Okay, you win." Fred eyes me with a doubtful look. "I will. I promise."I lay my head on his desk and moan. "I hate this. Why do I have to break it off?" He pats my head. "Because Hermi,' you date the wrong people." I stick my tongue out at him just as Neville, our part-time IT guy, pokes his head into the cubicle. There's a flush of excitement on his angular cheeks. "Guys, come see," he says. "The virus is in New York." We follow him down the hall to the conference room. I refrain from asking him about Luna because she would kill me, although I'm dying to. Our coworkers are perched on chairs and the long table, eyes trained on the newscaster. "Bornavirus LX has been found in all five boroughs since yesterday. The virus first appeared in Long Xuyen, Vietnam last week, and has since spread throughout the world. As of last night, cities in the middle and western U.S., including Denver, Chicago and St. Louis, are quarantined, and state governors have instituted mandatory curfews. The fast-moving virus causes brain damage, which triggers the infected to aggressively attack and spread the disease through their bodily fluids. "Authorities state that the virus is under control. People with a high fever and joint pain should be seen immediately by a doctor or emergency room. Please do not try to care for your sick loved one yourself. The CDC and Health Department are not releasing estimates of the number infected so far. We will be following up with more information as it becomes available." Neville cocks an eyebrow at me, lets out a harrumph and heads to his workspace. His hands fly over his computer keyboard. I don't ask what he's up to because I know he'll find me when he's done. Fred and I amble back down the hall. Usually, I would comb the internet for news about the virus, but it's gone in one ear and almost out the other by the time we reach our desks. My thoughts are consumed with the tactic I'll use to break up with Draco. There's the let's-be-friends and the it's-not-you-it's-me and there's the fact that I'm an idiot for dating Draco in the first place and then dragging it out this long. "Hey," I say to Fred, "how about this: 'Malfoy, I'm an idiot. And I can't be with you anymore because I'm an idiot?'" "You suck at this." Fred puts his arm around my shoulders to stop my shivering. I don't handle this kind of anticipation very well. "I'll coach you over drinks. By the time you get to Malfoy, you'll only have to recite your lines. Okay?" I give a somber nod. "Fred, why can't I just marry you?" "Fred snorts and gives me a slight shove. Darlin', we both know who you should marry, and that door is probably still open." He's talking about his younger brother Ron. We were engaged until I ruined it. "That ship has sailed, Fred, he wants nothing to do with me." I can't say Ron's name out loud because I'll start crying, I know I will. "It's been two years, I don't even know where he is." "He hasn't been in touch for a long while, but I know he's in the northeast, Hermione. I could find out where. If you wanted me to?" My face is hot. I haven't done many things I'm ashamed of, things where I've been hurtful, but what I did to Ron is the biggie. Fred bringing it up today of all days must be a sign. What if I said, Sure, go ahead and find him? I can't imagine that Ron would be happy to hear from me. But that feeling from my dream still lingers, and I want it for real. I want it so badly that maybe I'm finally willing to take the chance and find out. I open my mouth, trying to find the words, right as my phone rings. Fred raises his very red eyebrows like he'll be waiting for an answer and leaves. I pick up the phone. "Hey, Granger," Malfoy yells over loud rumblings. "Where the heck are you? It sounds like you're standing on a runway or something." "I am. We're at the private airport here in D.C. waiting for our jet to New York. It's been delayed. They're saying we have 'low priority.' There are ten senators and their families ahead of us." "Philip Morris must be giving out vacations if you vote yes on a pro-youth smoking bill," I joke. "Yeah." He doesn't even chuckle at my lame joke. Sometimes Malfoy is lacking in the humor department. "Anyway, I don't know about tonight. I'll be in late, but maybe I'll come to your apartment so I can see you first thing in the morning." "Sure. Good. Just let yourself in whenever," I squeak, painfully aware that I don't want to see him at all. "I'll see you in the morning." "See you then." The phone clicks off. I can see him standing at the airport. He'll slip his phone into his designer-name-I've-never-heard-of coat pocket and rake a hand through his blonde hair. Then he'll stride off to find the most important-looking person at the airport and convince them his flight has priority over Air Force One. My stomach stops roiling now that I get to put off the breakup. When I get home tonight I'll pretend I'm really tired or drunk or something. I know I'm being spineless, but I don't like to hurt people's feelings, even if I don't like them very much. Or, in Malfoy's case, when they pretend they don't have any feelings. But, mainly, I'm chicken. I've spent the past half a year convincing myself that Malfoy isn't as superficial as he seems, but now I'm not so sure. Honestly, at first I kind of liked how easy it was to date him. He didn't push me to talk about my feelings or for any physical affection, heck we rarely even kiss. Plus he couldn't compare me to the person I'd been two years before. When I first met him I was coming out of a two-year fog. But as the fog has cleared and I've become more like the old me, he's never given me more than a glimpse of something real. Our relationship is strained at most, more like an occasional friendship than dating. In true passive-aggressive fashion, I've been waiting for him to break it off. I've gotten more and more distant and even blatantly annoyed with him. This approach obviously hasn't worked. I need to imagine the after, not the part where I do it. I just need to tell him and do it fast. Fred's voice floats over the wall. "You've got to rip him off you like a band-aid." "How do you read my mind, Fred? It's so freaking creepy!" "I heard your phone call. You've got more time to drink now. Practice, I mean." He leans over the cubicle to grin down at me. Neville enters holding an unlit cigarette and his iPad. He reminds me of a praying mantis: all long, skinny legs and arms. He spends all his time folded over a computer, smoking madly, or with his nose in a book. I smile, imagining him and Luna being an odd but cute couple. "Hey," I say. He plops down and hands me his iPad, which is open to a blog page. "Look at this, Hermione. It's about Bornavirus LX. It's more serious than they say." My family's dinner table was a place where Roswell and Peak Oil and the New World Order were debated with enthusiasm. I've found a kindred spirit in Neville. He loves that kind of stuff. I read aloud. "As the LX virus has spread it appears to have mutated. The last reports received suggest it may be only a matter of hours from infection to the final stage." "In the final stage the person goes crazy," Neville says. He runs his hand through his light brown hair. "Then they attack, which is how a lot of people are getting infected. It's in the saliva and blood. One site says they've been showing the same footage of Chicago for twenty-four hours because Chicago's a wasteland. I know a couple of bloggers out there and their sites have been down for the past day." A graph estimates that fifty thousand people in New York City will be infected as of noon today. "That's crazy," I say. "Fifty thousand? There's no way they could hide that many sick here. And they're still telling us it's not serious?" He fiddles with his unlit cigarette. "I know. They wouldn't quarantine major cities if it wasn't serious. The hospitals are filling up faster than they can handle." I think of Luna's Father, Xen, who's a Doctor. He'd know what's going on. "Yeah, well, I definitely wouldn't put it past the government not to tell us anything until we're fucked." I sigh. "I have to finish this newsletter. My computer is being a pain." Any mention of a computer problem lights a fire under Neville. He nudges me out of the way and pokes around on my computer. He shakes his head. "Man, look at your desktop. Sure you don't want another shortcut on it?" I don't mention that I recently cleared it and thought it was tidy. I tug a piece of his hair, choosing to ignore his defamation of my character. "Are you coming out tonight with us?" "Ah, yes, tonight."His smile lights up his face. "The priming for the great break-up." "Fred, you have a gigantic mouth." I know he's listening from the other side of the cubicle. "No, I got out of that. Tonight is just good, old-fashioned fun." Fred's voice comes over the wall. "And coming up with Hermione's breakup tactic, Neville. Maybe you can help. She's gotten herself mixed up with the wrong guy, as we all know. Neville simply laughs as he finishes whatever magic he's worked on my computer. "Girls are more trouble than they're worth." "Amen to that brother! Fred calls over. "That's why I stick with men, less hassle." I chuck a water bottle over the wall at Fred. His long arms easily reach out and snag it though. "See what I mean? So much drama from the fairer sex." I stick my tongue out at him, even though he can't see me. "Even though this is a breakup, slash drinking party tonight you should definitely come, Neville. I think Luna's coming tonight," I say innocently. Neville ducks shyly under his hair. "And you, Fred Weasley," I point my finger at the cubicle wall, "are not one to talk about wrong guys. How many boyfriends have you had since I've known you?" There's no reply. I smile in triumph. Neville is distracted by his buzzing iPad. "Wow, I have to see this," he mutters and wanders out.