Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, Harry Potter, or the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, nor do I claim to own them.

Hermione watched as the man struggled to get away from the policeman who held his arms behind his back as the other policeman cuffed him and led him away, and it was in doing this that she saw the notebook fall from his jacket onto the ground. Looking around to make sure no one else saw, Hermione, always a sucker for a notebook, reached down and discretely pilfered it.

Adding it to her cart of possessions, she, again, looked around to make sure no one was looking and darted through the barrier of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. She plunked her chest in the back of the train, as usual, but decided to examine the notebook on her way back to Hogwarts. Personally, she didn't really have anything better to do, as neither Ron nor Harry were usually on winter break with her.

Turning the notebook over, she saw that it had, printed in large letters, the words DEATH NOTE on the front. Thinking about the morbidity of that title, she opened it and saw the instructions written inside. One line in particular caught her eye: if the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack. Hermione turned gold as she started to internally monologue. Weren't heart attacks how the serial killer Kira primarily killed his victims? But, if that was true, then did that mean that this notebook was how he killed his victims? That was, assuming that it wasn't a hoax. But, then again, it was a bit too elaborate to be a hoax. And what motivation would someone have for creating a hoax this-

Her thoughts were interrupted as Luna walked into her compartment. Startled, Hermione looked up, then closed and tried to put away the Death Note before she could see it, but-

"Ooh, are you a fan of Death Note too?" Luna asked Hermione, sitting down in the seat across from her.

"A fan of what?" Hermione asked.

"Death Note. It's a popular Muggle animation, although it's also a book," Luna continued. "I have a copy on me, if you'd like to read it."

Hermione took the book, and skimmed through it. She suddenly realized something.

"Hang on," Hermione suddenly said. "Luna, Kira is a serial killer who kills criminals with heart attacks, right?"

"Yes, he is!" Luna said, proud of herself for keeping up on Muggle news.

"And the character Light in this book, he's a serial killer who kills criminals with heart attacks using a magical book who has been dubbed Kira by the public, right?"

"Yes… oooh," said Luna, finally putting two-and-two together. "But, couldn't Death Note have been created as a sort of explanation for Kira?"

"True," said Hermione, thinking over it. "Say, have you seen the latest volume?"

"Yes, it's about a magical girl named Hermione acquiring the Death Nooooh," said Luna, again putting two-and-two together. To be honest, Hermione was beginning to doubt Luna's skills as a Ravenclaw.

"But, how is that possible?" asked Hermione. "How could the writer know that I would get the Death Note in the near future? He's either a very, very good guesser, or he has some sort of precognitive powers, and personally, I'm going with the latter."

(Little did Hermione know, but the author of Death Note was in fact a grown-up Haruhi Suzumiya, whose desire for her novels to be real made it so.)

"But if all the events in the Death Note series are correct, then that means that Light is going to be trying to seek you out and get the Death Note back!" Luna exclaimed, suddenly afraid for her distant acquaintance's life.

"Then I'm just going to have to be ready for him," said Hermione, clutching the Death Note and getting a wicked smile on her face.

In the months since the previous chapter, Light had:

- pretended to disappear after the end of his class trip

- gotten a job and an apartment in London

- gotten no leads whatsoever on the location of the Death Note

Ryuk, personally, thought that Light had gone mad over finding his Death Note again. Meanwhile, it became increasingly obvious to the police that Kira was now in England and was now killing civilians as well as criminals, whereas the killings in Japan had stopped.

In the months that had passed since his "disappearance", Light had, in fact, heard several rumors about the existence of a magic book that could kill people. The rumor hadn't spread too far, though his early attempts to squash them had resulted in failure.

Light, at this moment, was pacing his (mostly barren) apartment, trying to think of something that could be used to find the notebook. He had already traced the lead of the gothic maid to as far as it had lead him, which was practically nowhere. She had been one of the few he had killed on his remaining sheet of the Death Note. However, despite trying to kill as few people as possible, his urges had gotten the better of him and the entire front page was already filled up.

He decided to go out for a walk, with Ryuk following close behind him. It was Easter break, so the streets were fairly crowded, despite the slight and, in Light's opinion, fairly unpleasant drizzle over London. Thinking about getting his Death Note back made him a bit dizzy with the implausibility of it, but still, there must be a way…

A frizzy haired girl was staring at him. No, not at him, but behind him. But the only thing behind him was Ryuk, and he was invisible to all who hadn't touched the Death Note, his Death Note…

It was a slim lead, but it was the only one he had.

Trailing the girl was relatively simple compared to finding her. He eventually found out that she lived in a quiet little neighborhood, with a bench across the street from her house, no less, so it would be very easy to do a stakeout without alerting her suspicions.

Dang it! Hermione thought. She knew Light would have his shinigami with him, and she knew what it would look like, but she couldn't help having her eyes pop out in shock at actually seeing it! Seriously, it was friggin' hideous! Now he'd been staking out her house for hours now. What could she do now? He knew where she lived, and she suspected that he wasn't above breaking and entering… of course, she did know his name, and she did have the Death Note… no! Killing was absolutely out of the question! She hadn't yet, and she never would. Never! However, she did have an advantage where he did not- she could do magic! But, with the underage magic restrictions, that was out of the question too, unless she could prove it was in self-defense…

This prompted her to think of a quote from the Death Note series that Luna had most graciously loaned her: the best defense is attack!

Light had been calculating almost every possibility in his head, but he was completely unprepared for what actually happened.

The frizzy haired girl he'd been staking out opened the door and walked out. Light primed himself for going across the street and getting in under false pretenses, as he'd planned, but was vaguely surprised when she crossed the street, and was even more surprised when she walked up to him and asked whether he was going to come in or not.

Light had no plans for this possibility, so he was forced to spontaneously bluff. "Y-Yes, I-I would l-love that," he said, choosing to play the part of the secret admirer. The girl smirked at him.

"Come in, then," she gestured towards the house. As Light walked with her, he couldn't help but feel like she'd bought his bluff almost too easily.

Inside the house, her parents looked a little startled to see that she had brought home a boy.

"Who is this, exactly?" the girl's mother asked.

"This is Light, from school," the girl replied, putting emphasis on school.

"Oh, well, carry on then," the mother said, and Light followed the girl upstairs, feeling like he had just been led straight into a trap and had bought it hook, line, and sinker (although, because he didn't fish, he had no idea what any of those things were).

Up in the girl's room, she dropped any attitude of cheerfulness she had before. "Let's drop the false pretenses," shocking Light a bit in her bluntness. "You are Light Yagami, also known as Kira, I am Lily Granger (it was the first fake name she could think of and she thought it went rather well with the thematic naming of L and Light), I have your Death Note, you want it back, and I'm not giving it to you."

Wow. Light was kind of astonished at her detective work. Granted, he would definitely have to kill her now, but still, just, wow.

He took the Death Note sheet out to write her name on it, but was immediately rebuffed by Lily, as she called herself. "It's a fake name," she said. Inwardly, he sighed. He hated having to deal with fake names. Not to mention that this one's name was especially imperative to him, and he couldn't trick her into spewing it out. Well, he could always try using force, and her parents might mistake it for them, well…

He lunged out at her, figuring that he could more than likely overpower her, due to his masculinity and age. He was wrong. She quickly held out a palm, which he ran into. This stunned him for a split second, but that was enough time for her to stand up and slap her palms against his temples, then kick him backwards into the door.

Downstairs, the girl's mother and father heard the noises upstairs and inferred the exact opposite of what was actually happening.

Back in her room, Light had grabbed Hermione's her and was yanking it about before she gripped him by the under arms and flipped him over onto the bed, followed by her hair, and then by her.

It was at that particular moment that the father chose to check up on them.

Scrambling up from the awkward position, Hermione attempted to straighten her hair a bit (to no avail) while Light attempted to straighten up his clothes. The father backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.

And Hermione promptly punched Light in the face.

Ten minutes later, Hermione stood, panting, over a breathless Light, completely worn out by their fight.

She leaned in close to his face. "Leave my house, Light Yagami. And if you value your life, you will never, ever come back," she breathed.

Light nodded, and she got off of him. He slowly picked his way up off the floor and trudged towards the door. Ryuk solemnly followed. The two of them shuffled out the door, with Hermione's parents looking concernedly after him, wondering how Hermione had messed up this relationship.

Light had remained impassive for his trip to the front door, but now that he was outside he could visibly express his frustration. Acting out of pure rage, he tore his remaining sheet of the Death Note in half before realizing what he had just done and quickly putting the page back in his pocket.

Ryuk just laughed at him. "Wow, man, you got owned back there," the shinigami laughed. Light just gritted his teeth. Why was the death god laughing at him? He, the ultimate god of earth, the one to bring a new era to the world, was being laughed down by this worthless being whose only real power came through his Death Note? No, Light would surely have to make amends to this. He would get his Death Note back, if it was the last thing he did! No, scratch that last part. What was the good of getting his Death Note back if he couldn't use it? No, he would just have to find a way to find out the girl's real name without alerting her. It would take time, but if there was one thing he had a lot of, it was just that.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily she had managed to play the part of the stubborn-yet-brilliant girl who could face down Light and win every time, just as she had planned. Yes, Light was definitely at least a bit afraid of her, which was exactly the reaction Luna and her had wanted from him.

Of course, the downside to that was that he could just as easily interrogate her parents when she wasn't home and then kill her before she found out. However, a modified Memory Charm could deceive them into believing that her name actually was Lily, therefore rendering his interrogation useless. Of course, she would have to also make it so that they didn't know anyone else who knew her name so they couldn't refer him to anyone. She smiled. Light was going to get a whole lot more than he bargained for messing with this witch.

Sorry that this chapter is so late; see you next time!