She drove into the night with only a vague determination that anywhere must be better than the place she left behind. It hadn't even mattered to her which car she had stolen, so long as she got away.
In retrospect, it should have.
It had started out normally enough: increased werewolf activity in the greater Boston area, so the Salem contingent had called in an expert. As a senior official in the Department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures and a former Auror, this sort of assignment was precisely up Hermione's alley, as they said on this side of the Pond. She had taken a small team with her to the neighborhood of Muggle Boston that sidled up to the hidden areas of Wizarding Boston, to investigate the report they had from a witch complaining of howling noises coming from just beyond her back garden. The Muggles they'd interviewed hadn't given them more than "those weird frat boys coming and going at all hours" in the house at the end of the street. It was early evening by the time they'd gone knocking there. As they approached the house, they heard a scuffle going on inside. Before they could decide what to do, the front door had flown open and a flood of creatures had poured through.
Within moments her two companions had been torn to pieces. Several feral-looking men (with claws and fangs, but no other hallmarks of lycanthropy, her mind relentlessly catalogued) had jumped them almost at once, and only Hermione's war-honed reflexes had saved her. Mitchell had been about to get off a curse when the first creature took him down, and Baines had simply turned and ran. One of the creatures had given instant and lethal chase.
Hermione had fired off one or two curses in the resulting chaos, simultaneously thanking Merlin and Ginny Weasley for teaching her the value of the Jelly-Legs Jinx. It had at least slowed her pursuers, just enough to let her to reach the line of cars parked to one side of the road. Shots fired behind her, which only spurred her on. She skidded to a halt in front of a long black car, crouching down with the entire vehicle between her and the definitely-not-werewolves who were on her scent.
She caught a glimpse of two tall, backlit figures moving just behind the creatures, striding purposefully, arms raised as though holding weapons. The taller of the two hefted a shotgun, while the other wielded a blade that glinted dully in the street lamp light. They were driving the creatures onward, moving steadily out into the open yard, while the man-monsters scattered. The ones that ran, the taller man shot. She held herself as still as she could, unsure whether or not to try and make a move to escape. By their weapons, these two were clearly Muggles, so unless her life were in immediate danger, she couldn't use magic they could detect. The last of the monsters turned when he heard his comrades fall, flight switching instantly to fight. Without comment, the second of the pursuers hefted his blade, slowly, almost lazily, before letting it drop in an easy arc, cleanly severing the creature's head from its neck.
Hermione stifled her gasp of surprise and revulsion, but not quite enough. Two heads shot in her direction, and two pairs of heavy footsteps began to pace towards her hiding place.
Without thinking, Hermione sent a wordless spell across the clearing towards the great oak tree, severing a branch with a significant crack.
The distraction worked. Both men took their eyes off her position just long enough for her to Apparate into the car as the limb crashed down onto the roof of the house, masking the noise. Their muffled shouts were drowned out by the revving of the motor, and she sped away from the entire bewildering disaster.