Written for Cara, as thanks for being an amazing mod on The Golden Snitch.
Hope Bringer
Benjy isn't sure why he never mentions the woman who keeps interfering in his fights to anyone else in the Order, but after the tenth time he comes back with nary a scratch when everyone else is bleeding from various wounds, he starts to wonder if he won't have to – if only to give an explanation to these people who have become his family.
It's just… It feels personal, somehow – he doesn't know her name, only caught the barest glimpses of her face and body (what stands out the most is the crown of fuzzy hair that surrounds her face), but still something draws him to her.
He knows what the others would say, knows what it would be rational to think: that she is a trap, that she is only making him trust her so that one day she can turn around and stab him in the back.
The thing is, he can't help but think otherwise, not with the way she dispatches the Death Eaters she encounters with such violent spells. She never killed anyone, as far as he knows, but she had left a trail of broken bones and bloodied limbs that speaks for itself. Surely You-Know-Who would never stand for any of his Death Eaters to be humiliated so, even for a ruse.
Besides, he isn't even sure she hasn't been noticed by one of the other members of the Order already – she's not exactly discreet, though she, whoever she is, tends to stay on the fringes of the battles the Order engages in, or to orbit around Benjy's position.
He wants to know why though, and maybe it's stupid, but he tries to get her to come out of the shadows in the only way he knows how.
The battle rages in and he sees her, just at the corner of his eye. It's surprisingly easy to discard his instincts for a moment and let the acid yellow spell pass through his shield, to pretend he hasn't noticed it coming his way.
It is terrifying though – for a moment he hadn't been sure she would act, and Merlin, what if the spell hit him?
He barely has time to pursue that train of thoughts as something heavy shoves him down and out of the way of that spell.
"Are you mad?" His rescuer yells, shooting back a stunner toward the Death Eater that had just attacked them, a savage smile spreading across her face as she hears the man's next spell be cut short as it hits.
She is even more magnificent up close, are Benjy's first thoughts, before he shakes his head to try to dismiss, uselessly, the image.
"Of course not," he protests violently as he springs himself up and cast a shield around the both of them. "I just wanted to properly meet you."
She looks at him like he's lost his mind. "And you thought now was a good time why exactly?"
Benjy shrugs his shoulders, ducking beneath the green spell that went through his shield like it wasn't there with a yelp.
(funny thing about the Unforgivables: they destroyed non-magical shields, but left magical ones completely undisturbed, which meant that if you know how to avoid them, your shield would still protect you from a lot of damage)
"When else is there? It's not like you gave me an address, or even a name, you know," he answers with a grin.
She looks taken aback for a second, though it doesn't last as a volley of spells heads their way.
He winces and braces himself for the impact – the particular shield he cast is effective, but any impact on it rattles him down to his bones, and that many at once will hurt.
They never hit though – his partner waves her wand, muttering something Benjy doesn't hear, and a flock of birds fly out of the shield, dropping out of the sky in a shower of blood and feathers as they intercept every spell.
"You couldn't have just asked?" She asks with an exasperated glare, before turning her attention back to their surroundings.
"Would you have answered?"
"Of course," she replies, sounding offended.
"Oh, sorry then," he answers somewhat sheepishly.
Around them, the fight dies down as the pops signaling the arrival of Aurors. They don't relax yet though, not until the last of the Death Eaters have Apparated away, and then they duck out of sight of the authorities.
"Hermione," the woman says suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Hermione. My name is Hermione," she explains.
"That's… great. Thanks for telling me," Benjy replies, nonplussed. "But why now?"
She shrugs. "I thought it was time." She winks then, her eyes twinkling like she knows something he doesn't, and then she tucks her wand back in the holster that hangs around her waist and offers her hands up, wrists forward.
"Take me to your leader," she orders in a laughing tone.
"My leader?"
"Yes," she replies, rolling her eyes, "Dumbledore. I have some things to tell him that I'm sure he'd like to know."
"Right…" He hesitates for a few moments, before steeling himself and asking, "Why me? Why are you helping me, and not one of the others?"
She looks taken aback by his question, like she never considered he would ask it. She blushes, and for a moment she looks much younger, less like the formidable woman he sees in battle.
Her eyes are far away, and as the silence stretches he doesn't think she'll answer him.
"I just had to, I guess," she finally says, and it sounds like a confession rather than a simple explanation. There is grief in her tone, grief Benjy only understands too well, and a story he can feel she's not ready to tell yet.
That's fine – he can wait. He has the feeling it will be a good one.
"Alright. Let's go then," he says, and pulls her close, twists away, and Apparates them away.