Monsters

Summary: Hermione fought to protect her friends. She would do anything to give Harry victory and to save their friends from the Dark Lord's reign. She did not know the price she had to pay for protecting her loved ones. She stopped feeling emotions and, ultimately, stopped being human. But what are monsters and what are humans? Can she still find happiness with what she's been given?

A/N: A series of non-chronological shorts inspired by The Creature's Cookbook: Diary of a Humanitarian by Simon Alkenmayer but I took some liberty in changing things. I also borrowed elements from Golden Bowl (2002), which of course has my favorite Takeshi Kaneshiro as its lead actor.

Prologue: Passing Time

Albus Dumbledore lied. The Sorcerer's Stone cannot be destroyed. It is impossible to destroy it. In fact, the stone had not really been created, merely discovered and its abilities harnessed. Hermione knew of this and took advantage, she searched and she found the stone, begged its creator to embed the stone into her being even her very soul. She did this to protect the people she cared about, her parents and her friends, especially Harry and Ron. A sacrifice she was willing to make for the people she cared about. You see, Hermione never really trusted the prophecy. She never believed in Divination, why start now? She believes in strategic planning and preparedness.

Other than the stone, she also did other precautions. Since she's not very good at wandless magic, she had her original wand embedded into her right arm. A very painful process, illegal and quite rare but was ultimately worth it. Thus, she had not been totally defenseless when her wand was taken, feigning helplessness until she could strike. It was instinctive really, she just knew she had to protect everyone or at least be well equipped to do so.

Of course, Harry won and of course, the stone affected Hermione in ways she had not expected. For one, scars and wounds, even those brought upon by magic and was supposedly incurable were easily cured. She knew well enough of the magical world's biases and prejudice to hide her incredible healing abilities by wearing long sleeves to supposedly hide the scars. If caught unaware, she would just say that she casted a glamour charm to cover these up.

As time went on and the comments about her maintaining her teenage looks continued and increased over the years, Hermione gradually had to disappear. First, it was on short business trips. Then, it was for months on end due to her boyfriend. Finally, she "settled down" and got married. Writing an occasional owl but even that had stopped. She left no address and had secured her home with all the protection spells she could get her hands on.

It was a good thing that she and Ron never got together. Otherwise, it would have been more difficult to extricate herself if she had a family. She often went on to ask if she could even have children but that is neither here or there.

But enough about the physical aspect of the stone's magic. The part that went unexpected had been within Hermione herself. She asked Nicholas Flamel to embed the stone in her soul so that none can use it; she had not anticipated that the stone would also alter her being. Hermione who had always felt apathy for others slowly felt her humanity slowly leaving her, whittled down to an abstraction of knowing what she should feel on any given situation. Yes, over the years, what was left of Hermione stopped feeling emotions.

Even if she had disappeared, she watched over her family (who did not know she existed) and friends diligently. She felt she had to, given the fact that it was for them that she gave up her humanity. Luna had been the last of her friends to go, before Luna died and on the last time her friend had been alone in her hospital room, Hermione entered and placed her hand over Luna's.

"I thought you'd never show up." Luna said in a raspy voice. Hermione only smiled and shook her head. Tears, an ability she thought she'd lost, came unbidden down her eyes. "You always knew I was just there." Hermione answered. "You've changed a lot but in many ways, you haven't." Luna said. Hermione shook her head. "No, I've changed too much." Luna weakly laughed at that and as always Hermione remembered how Luna's laughter always made her think of the tinkling of bells, reminiscent of folklores of how one could tell that fairies are nearby. "Thank you." Luna told her oldest friend. Hermione nodded her head and bent down to kiss Luna's forehead.

Things that Go Bump

Hermione started the process of "leaving" when she was 23. She had finally noticed that her body had not changed from the time she was 17, when she went through the procedure with Flamel. She was staying in a seedy place near Tokyo. She could afford better, what with her job and the bounties and prizes she's earned for being a "hero" during the last Wizardry War. But it was far away from the people she knew and far away from Japan's magical community. She also knew she would have to move from this place eventually.

After watching a movie in a nearby movie theater, she walked down the alley, darkened but at least it was a shortcut from here to her apartment. A man grabbed her from behind, he held a knife to her side. Hermione might be starting to lose her emotions, but one thing remained, the adrenaline rush and excitement she craved from when she fought in the war. She figured she ought to see a therapist for it, but she couldn't, not when it's the only thing left to her. She placed her wand embedded arm near the man's head when he was suddenly ripped off from her with a savage growl.

A man or what looked like it, with longish hair, pale greyish complexion and the sharpest claws and fangs ripped up Hermione's attacker with ferocious strikes that Hermione was left in awe of the poetic beauty of his attack. It was precise. Blood was not spilt but Hermione knew from her observation of physical attacks, hexes and curses that it was enough to kill the man.

She also knew enough to recognize that the attacker of her attacker is not a man. She stood by quietly, watching the scene unfold. Finally, the creature took his dental veneers from the pocket of his jacket and slipped it on. He looked at her quizzically. Probably expecting her to run or to scream or just to react. Hermione nodded her head.

"Aren't you going to run?" The man asked in an obviously well practiced "human" voice and something tells Hermione it's not the creature's real tone. "Are you going to eat me?" Hermione countered. The creature shook its head. "No." He said as he "folded" the man he'd just attacked. "Then, I'm not going to run. Predators are more likely to attack runners, getting thrills out of the chase." Hermione continued.

"You're not normal aren't you?" The creature asked. Hermione shook her head. "But neither are you." Hermione countered. "Are you going to eat him?" Hermione asked. The man shook his head. "Too much alcohol, cigarettes and vices… He reeks of death. I only did him a favor by killing him early." Hermione nodded. "I should thank you, I suppose." Hermione politely said. "Why? You were going to kill him too had I not come along. I just didn't know it at the time." The creature replied. Hermione smiled at this.

"Do you drink or eat human food?" Hermione asks. The creature nodded. "I live over there." Hermione said pointing to her apartment some distance away. "Come over for some tea sometime." She said as she walked off, leaving the creature to clean the evidence of his crime.

She would research hard and long, to find traces of this creature in the annals of the wizardry world, both in Asia and in the libraries of the enclaves in Europe. But she had not come across a single one. The only thing akin to what she'd seen had been a mad rambling of a potioneer back in the 5th century.

When she finally asked the creature about its people, the creature had to admit it didn't know much except for the observation of its own body, the boundaries of lands and territorial instincts. It didn't know how it came to be or what it is. It was supposed to be asexual as there was no need to procreate, but when it removed it's clothing to Hermione's mortification, it possesses male parts much similar to humans. It insisted that it heard from someone that there were those of its race, whatever they were, that do not possess human sexual parts. She took note of this, curiosity winning over modesty, but eventually forced it to cover itself up as it took to doing it's chores naked.

Musicals and Bowling

The creature did come over, and would continue to come over whenever Hermione is in the area for her short "business trips". He didn't have a name but for taxation, work and property investment purposes, his current "name" is Shu Akutagawa. He is pretending to be a 32 year old man and is currently a stockbroker. Hermione had to laugh at that and told him that by his appearance he should at least be pretending to be 29 years old.

The creature also had to laugh at her audacity at pretending to be a 23 year old. It was puzzled by the inability of humans to tell how she is still in a body of a teenager.

Because she extended an invite to the creature, it felt that it had to extend an invitation to her too. As it turned out the creature lived in a modest two bedroom apartment two blocks from hers. A few expensive antique pieces are the only telltale clues of the creature's acquired wealth over its centuries of existence. It said that most of its things are in storage and in bank vaults. It didn't really need to work, but it gives a show of normalcy. Hermione guessed that if the creature did need money, it could just sell off one of its antique belongings.

The creature apparently enjoys bowling, musicals and milk tea. He eats human food but is not nourished enough by these. Hermione, did not bother asking it how it got its meals. Only made it promise not to be hungry enough to eat her. The creature had to laugh at that saying that whatever it was in her blood makes her "inedible" for it.

They share meals, human food, of course, as Hermione wouldn't eat human beings. "How can you be a cannibal if you aren't even human?" The creature asked her. Hermione shrugged. "I used to be human." Hermione answered. The creature would nod and then proceed to feed her one of its own cooking, which didn't have human parts in it. Shu, happens to be an excellent cook, with either human food or food made out of humans.

Over time, the two creatures as Hermione termed both of them or monsters as Shu terms both of them became what can only be termed, as friends. The creature knew Hermione wouldn't tell on it's secrets as he wouldn't tell hers. Besides, who would believe them?

The creature taught Hermione how to play PS2 while she taught the creature to appreciate musicals. Then, Hermione taught it how to do gardening and even set up an urban garden in its apartment (herbs for it's cooking) and the creature taught Hermione how to cook human food. Finally, the creature taught her how to bowl. Hermione was a natural. Whenever she was in town, Shu would take her bowling almost every night. She could feel the glare of one of the attendants whom she presumes to have a "crush" on the creature.

Their friendship grew so much so that when the apartment next door to it became vacant, it paid the landlord the down payment and first month rent and convinced Hermione to move from her tiny apartment to this one seeing that the rent is almost the same and it had a balcony while hers didn't.

Hermione looked at her friend suspiciously and asked. "Please don't tell me you ate the last tenant?" She asked jokingly. The creature only shrugged it's shoulders and winked. "Okay, I won't tell you." It replied as it helped Hermione carry the boxes inside her new apartment. Leaving Hermione to sigh and shake her head wondering if the creature was serious or not.