The uncomfortable feeling of being squashed into a travel sized person through space was enough to leave even the ones who use it the most gasping for breath. The sun was shining down on the apartment complexes as the girl brushed back her unruly hair and jogged up the steps to a house that seemed everyone ignored as if it never existed in the first place. Pushing the door open the girl went running into the house marked 12 Grimmauld Place before slamming the door shut behind her, startling a few pigeons roosting on the roofs of the homes.
"OI! BLACK!" She bellowed as she came skidding down the sharp hallway, ignoring the screeching of 'FILTH! TRAITOR OF MY KIN! MUDBLOOD' that was the customary greeting of the painting of Sirius's dear mum, Walburga Black. "BLACK!" The girl yelled again as she rammed into something solid, bouncing to the ground she glared at the human wall that had rammed her to the ground, Sticking her left hand out for Sirius to pull her up while she glared at him. Sirius smirked at her before jerking her violently to her feet causing the girl to crash in to his warm, and very shirtless, chest. Huffing at him the girl tried to jerk herself out of his grasp that was slowly crushing the breath out of her as he refused to let her out of his hug.
"Where's the fire at Kitten?" Sirius's eyes twinkled with mirth as the girl pushed her palms against his chest so she could see eye-to-eye…. well more like eye to chest since the top of the girl's head barely cleared Sirius's shoulders. Unwrapping his arms from the small girl's waist he took a step back and leaned against a wall. "So are you going to tell me what's got your knickers all twisted up?" His smirked broadened as the girl flushed before her eyes lit up as she remembered something.
"Well…" She dragged out, "Remember how Shacklebolt has put me on lookout for the 'runaways'?" She arched an eyebrow as she paused watching Sirius's reaction closely while he nodded his head, his shoulder length black hair bobbing with the motion for her to continue. "I
found them." She deadpanned.
"Where at?" Sirius asked, his eyes lighting up like a childs as they opened a present on Christmas, he to a step towards the wall, allowing the girl he had come to treat and see as a daughter that he never had, a breather and some more space between the two.
"America." She smirked as Sirius's face fell.
"Hermione," Sirius said using the girl's real name instead of his nickname for her, "America is dangerous, the creatures there isn't like ours here, it would be Hagrid's heaven, they will harm you without a second thought." His voice spoke of concern, but his face had lit up again before he continued. "Let's go." Hermione's doe-like eyes widened as her adoptive father implied that he was going to be joining her.
"This is my mission." She stated while Sirius just shook his head at her. "It is!" She insisted before giving into her inner child and stomping her foot on the floor. "And I don't want to lose you again." Sirius's eyes narrowed before wrapping her into a hug.
"Kitten, I'm not going anywhere, besides, I'm hard to get rid of once you have me." Hermione just looked doubtful. "I'm going, and I will stalk you if I have to so you might as well just tell me I can come before you end up hexing me and having to tell the Ministry that your dad is in St. Mungo's because you didn't let him join you on a little Death Eater Hunt."
"You wouldn't." Hermione snarled.
"Oh I would Kitten, and I am."
"I still can't believe you got Kingsley, KINGSLEY, to agree to you coming with me." Hermione huffed as she and Sirius sat in the plane as per the rules of the new Aurors, only use magic when absolutely necessary. Sirius just chuckled at her before reaching over and grabbed the phone out of her hands, turning both his and hers off as they were about to land again.
"Kingsley knows how I feel about being on the sidelines and I had been MIA for what… three years now?" Sirius mused.
"You just weren't 'MIA'. " Hermione put air quotations as she said MIA, "You were stuck in a place between death and life." She growled at him as she and he unbuckled and grabbed their bags and exited the private plan the Ministry had issued them before it took off again, heading back to London.
"Minor details Kitten." Sirius's bark-like laughter filled the quiet.. Hermione just stalked past him and to the car that was parked just outside of the landing area. Glaring at him she remembered how she had found out how to bring Sirius back from 'Death By Curtains' as he had dubbed it when he came back though he had never actually died, he had just been lingering in limbo, unable to move, think, or do anything except stay there. Listening to the voices of the dead telling their own tales to the only one who could listen without fear of being killed. Later Hermione had found out that was the original purpose of the arch, but she couldn't help but hate it, after all she never spoke of what she had to do to bring Sirius back even though there had been hints of what had happened, but never the full story. And nor would she ever tell someone it fully, she had sworn on the blood rushing through her, even if it had only been on a single piece of parchment, she still honoured it while what she had done had become an unspoken agreement that what happened would never be spoken of. Glancing around she saw the only car in sight.
"No way." She breathed out as she looked at the model of the car. "That's a '59 Cadillac Coupe Devill" Impatiently she tugged out the key from her back pocket before unlocking the trunk and shoving her stuff in it. "Hurry, get your's in." Pulling the false bottom of the trunk out, as when Kingsley had told the President, as all of the government officials and FBI and others were the witches and wizards of America, they had told them about the how the car they would be using would have one along with FBI badges that would get them anywhere they needed to go. Hermione noted the muggle weapons, rifles, pistols, switch blades, along with things to fight off the supernatural as well, silver bullets, silver knives, salt bullets, any type of weapon and it was probably there. Experimentally Hermione picked up what looked like a shrunken machete, pulling it out of the trunk, the machete that was as big as her hand grew to it's normal size. "Looks like theres a shrinking enchantment on the trunk." Hermione told Sirius as he opened the back to look into it. "It's most likely enlarged on the inside and on the trunk to, so it can hold more weapons." Slamming the trunk down as she replaced the machete and the false bottom, Hermione walked to the left side of the car. "And I call driving." She smirked as Sirius's face fell.
"But I'm older." He whined as she slipped into the drivers seat.
"But I've been driving longer than you have." She smirked triumphantly as Sirius slid into the passenger's side.
"Stupid muggles." He grumbled before brightening up. "I call choosing the music!" He reached his hand to the stereo before Hermione smacked it away.
"No, driver chooses, and since we are in the muggle world we will be listening to muggle music." Sirius reached his hand back like a puppy who had been caught doing something naughty before slouching in his seat.
"Fine, but it has to be something that I will enjoy." The corner of his lips turned as Hermione made a face, "None of this…. Shit." He gestured wildly to the music coming out of the stereo at the moment.
"Look in the glove department for a box of CDs will you? I gave Kingsley my CD case from my parents to put in the car so I wouldn't have to worry about it." Looking out of the right corner of her eyes she saw Sirius shrug before grabbing a case. "Look inside of that and tell me what CDs are in there will you?" She asked as she pulled onto a back road somewhere in Mississippi.
"Anything in particular you want to listen to?" Sirius asked as he searched through the CDs. "Holy Merlin's left saggy bollock! How many classic rock CDs do you have?" Sirius demanded as he pulled out Pink Floyd, Rush, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and many others.
"Just the ones that I inherited from my dad." Hermione said innocently before smirking at Sirius's dumbfounded expression. "I wasn't just the bookworm, over the summer holidays and before Hogwarts my dad taught me a lot of things since he didn't have a son to pass the 'Granger Title' down to." Hermione made a face before pulling onto the freeway.
"What exactly does the 'Granger Title' entitle to?" Sirius asked, waving his hands around his face.
"Oh you know, hunting, shooting guns and arrows, fixing engines and cars, and listening to music he deemed worthy for a 'man'." Hermione smiled, lost in memories, "I remember this one time when my father and I went camping in the dead of winter just so he could teach me when not to go camping and what to do in that situation."
"When did he take you?" Sirius stared at Hermione intently.
"The year before I turned eleven." Hermione shrugged. "Do you know where the tracker went?"
"What tracker?"
"Nevermind, we'll find it at the hotel, I already looked at where we are supposed to go, all signs indicate somewhere around here, where though… I'm not sure yet." A glance at the dashboard told Hermione that it was close to 9:00, "Keep a lookout for a hotel would you?"
"'Mione." A soft voice said near Hermione's left, grabbing the small dagger she hid under her pillow, Hermione sat up and turned to face her attacker. Seeing the man who adopted her after her parents had been…. Murdered, she dropped it as Sirius raised his hands in the air. "Merlin, I thought you were going to skin me." Hermione just glared, slipping her dagger back under the pillow, throwing the blankets off of her she stood and stretched.
"If I skinned you I would have a new book binding." Hermione sniffed, "What's on the agenda for today Black?" She asked, annoyance lacing every word she spoke, and every thing she did.
"Well… This was on the telly." Sirius turned the volume up just as a reporter was saying, 'And furthermore, the police have no clue what could have happened, as five healthy people just dropped dead, a look of fear or shock frozen on their faces.'
"Looks like we found them." Hermione grimaced as the faces of those who had been struck with what was most likely the killing curse flashed back on the screen. A girl who looked to be only five with short brown hair, blue eyes, her brother who looked to be maybe seven with the same coloured hair and eyes, her mum with blonde hair and green eyes, her dad with brown hair and blue eyes, and their grandma, with grey-white hair and twinkling hazel eyes. Looking at the faces of the ones who had been killed Hermione felt her stomach drop as she just kept looking at them. "How could someone actually kill innocent people!?" She cried. "I mean I'm not a saint when it comes to death,God knows just how many I killed in the Last Battle, but to take an innocents life?! It's unfathomable!" Turning to face the man who was in everything but blood her father, she allowed tears to fall down her face. "Its inhumane." Hermione whispered, Sirius just opened his arms, walking forward, Hermione laid her head on his chest and let the tears fall. Tears for Remus, Tonks, Fred, Colin, and Dobby. The tears she hadn't had time to shed as she went to funeral after funeral. The feeling of emptiness had been overpowering her for almost two months before she had become an auror, and now, Hermione grinned and pushed away from Sirius's chest. The sense of purpose was coming back to her.
"You ready kitten?" Sirius's eyes were full of concern as he held her at arms length away.
"Lets go hunting." Hermione's grin rivaled the Cheshire cats.
I know... I promised to work on my actual Harry Potter stories... But I had an amazing idea with a friend... And well.. this happened... so yeah... Anyways, I would love it if you would tell me if I should continue or not, also I'm not too sure who will be paired up quite yet so... suggestions are very welcome!
Love you all!