Author's Note: I think I've decided to stay with Jake being important, but I'm not sure yet. Now, when you read this chapter, please remember that Hermione and Dick are both working off limited information. As a result, incredibly wrong conclusions are to be expected. Now, if anybody says anything about Dick's appearance, just remember, he is, for all intents and purposes considered quite attractive by his female counterparts in the DC universe.
I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest, but I felt it best to stop where I did. Now that I've said all that, I'll stop talking.
Chapter 3
It had taken Dick very little time to come to the conclusion that meeting Ms. Granger as Nightwing would be incredibly stupid. It would, for all intents and purposes be picking a fight with somebody he did not know the capabilities of. That being the case, he would have to approach her as Dick Grayson.
He'd considered a number of approaches once that was decided. Joining her religious community and using it to meet her was out of the question. The BME was very insular in nature and it was almost impossible to join.
He couldn't use her job to meet her either. Ms. Granger worked for herself, picking and choosing which jobs she took. Unfortunately, all Dick could find about her job was that she was an "independent craftswoman." He'd been unable to find out exactly what type of artisan she was, but one look at her taxes had confirmed that she was almost constantly working on one commission or another.
Dick had then considered befriending Ms. Granger. However, there were several problems with that idea. It seemed that Ms. Granger associated almost exclusively with her fellow members of the BME and was rarely in public outside of involvement with the group. Not to mention that as a friend he might well be unable to get close enough to her to find out exactly what she was doing.
He could, of course, use his Robbie Malone identity, but didn't feel it necessary. At least not at this point. To meet her in uniform, as Officer Grayson would be asking for trouble.
Which left him only one moderately good option. Luckily, his surveillance had revealed a number of rather good options for "chance" meetings.
Hermione twitched, hand moving to where her wand was hidden as she thought of which spell to use at the sound of something falling. Keeping her shopping cart between herself and the source of the noise, Hermione turned. She relaxed, mentally berating herself at the sight of a woman and several children, one of whom had knocked several boxes off a shelf.
This wasn't good. Grayson had her jumping at shadows. She hadn't been this scared since before the war ended. Only this time Harry and Ron weren't there to watch her back. No. She shouldn't think of Ron. Shouldn't think of what he had done.
Part of Hermione hoped that she'd made a mistake in creating the ward. But she'd gone over the equations, incantations, and the ward itself a dozen times over. It was doing what it was supposed to. Unfortunately, that meant that Grayson really was following her.
It wasn't obvious, and more times than not, Hermione thought it her overstressed psyche playing tricks on her, but Grayson had to be following her. Every once in a while, she'd sense a bit of the magical residue that had been left on Grayson. It was always almost out of reach. And it was driving her crazy.
Hermione had worked herself up to the point where to finally be attacked would be a relief. She wanted this over with. She wanted Grayson to do whatever he was planning so that she could finally react. So that she could feel a little less nervous in public.
Even with that hanging over her head, Hermione normally wasn't that jumpy. However, for the better part of the last fifteen minutes, Grayson had been far closer than he'd been since his last attempt to break into her apartment. In fact, it seemed that he was getting steadily closer.
Hermione had considered leaving the market and asking one of her friends to pick up her food instead, but she refused to let Grayson intimidate her in that way. Hopefully, the busy public place would encourage Grayson to rethink his plans to kill her or at least limit what he could do. After all, no matter how corrupt the Bludhaven PD was, he wouldn't be able to get away with killing her in public. Well, she hoped he wouldn't be able to get away with such a thing.
She pushed her cart to the cereal aisle and began to search for the oatmeal she liked. Hermione let out a sigh when she realized it was on the top shelf.
Theo, Irene, and Jimmy had taken after their father and his height while Hermione and Pete had taken after their mother in coloring and height. At 4'11, Hermione was an inch shorter than Elena. Irene was nearly 5'7 and she was only eleven while Theo was over six feet tall. It just wasn't fair.
Standing on her tip toes, Hermione attempted to reach the oatmeal without resorting to magic or climbing the shelves. The hair on the back of her neck stood as she felt a presence at her back. He smelled quite nice-perhaps it was old spice. A large hand took the box she was reaching for down from the shelf as Hermione backed up a step, accidentally bumping into the man behind her.
She spun around as the man said, "Is this what you wanted, Miss?"
Her eyes widened. It was all Hermione could do not to shake. The man before her quite handsome with hair that was truly black, tanned, olive skin, and the most amazingly blue eyes she'd ever seen. Hermione stood her ground as the tall, well muscled man stood over her.
It seemed that Grayson had found her. And unfortunately, they were the only ones in the aisle. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a spell to use that would not only protect her, but also not raise the interest of any nearly Muggles, should they happen the see her.
"Miss, are you alright?" he asked, now looking concerned. Obviously Grayson was a better actor than she'd suspected. "Do you need to sit down?"
"I-I…" Where was her Gryffindor courage? She'd faced down numerous Death Eaters. She'd survived Bellatrix LeStrange's torture without breaking. Why did she allow this man to terrify her so? "T-thank you for taking the oatmeal down for me. I was afraid I would have to do something uncouth."
Watching Grayson carefully for any sudden movements, Hermione took the box from his hands. She dropped it into the shopping cart. He carried one of the baskets supplied by the store with a number of fruits and vegetables in it along with pasta, sauce, cheese, bread, and meat from the store deli. Grayson really did look like he was in the store to shop. If Hermione hadn't known the truth, she certainly would have believed his cover.
"We can't have that," said Grayson, giving her a blinding smile. "I'm Dick."
After several long moments, Hermione introduced herself. "Hermione."
"British?"
"Welsh," replied Hermione, wondering exactly what game Grayson was playing at.
"Very pretty area. I visited Cardiff and Newport a couple times as a child."
Obviously he wanted to make conversation, though for the life of her, Hermione could not figure out why. "I've never been to either. I grew up in Holyhead."
Was he coming on too strong? He wasn't even trying to flirt just yet, but obviously Ms. Granger was frightened. She wasn't doing a very good job of hiding it.
Still talking, Dick carefully examined Ms. Granger. She watched him too closely with large brown eyes that were almost wild with fear. Though she seemed to desperately want to run away, her feet stayed firmly planted.
Perhaps her religion discouraged interaction with outside males. Or maybe she thought he was going to attack her. From what few of the men currently imprissned for attacking Ms. Granger, Dick had learned that nearly half had never met her before their attempts to kill her. Could she really be that much of a threat? Dick reminded himself of the men whose powers she had interfered with.
Despite her appearance, Ms. Granger was likely very dangerous. Not that she looked it. She was a soft looking woman with impressive curves and delicate features. It certainly didn't help that she wore her thick dark curls so long that they reached her hips when plaited as they were at the moment. Like most of the women involved in her religious group, Ms. Granger wore a skirt that ended within six inches of her ankles and a modest blouse. Kitten heels only added to the image of a delicate, feminine woman. It was certain that the way she dressed in conjunction with her appearance would lead men to underestimate her. The only question was, was this purposeful?
Was she really that bad at acting? Or was her fear just another accessory? Ms. Granger could indeed be much more dangerous then he'd originally assumed.
"I'm a cop with the Bludhaven PD," Dick explained, answering Ms. Granger's hesitant question. "You?"
"I create things," Ms. Granger explained hesitantly. "A lot of my work involves mathematics and problem solving."
"Ah," said Dick, though he still wasn't sure exactly what sort of work she did. She still seemed scared of him, but had calmed down considerably as they'd continued their grocery shopping. He considered waiting until the next time he conveniently ran into her, but then changed his mind. "I know this is a bit forward, but would you go to dinner with me?"
"I-uh." Ms. Granger seemed to have frozen again.
She stared at him, almost as if she didn't believe the words that had come out of his mouth. Perhaps he should have followed his first instinct and waited to ask her out.
"Is it… Do you have a boyfriend?" asked Dick, wondering if perhaps he'd missed something during his research.
"No. No. That's not…" Ms. Granger trailed off. "When? And where?"
"I know a nice little Italian place a couple blocks away," explained Dick. "Friday, if that's alright with you."
Ms. Granger nodded hesitantly. "Eight?"
Hermione watched Grayson walk off, wondering exactly what had happened. Why had he asked her out? Did he really want to kill her? Or did he want something else?
As it was, Hermione had agreed to go out with him only because she was getting tired of the situation. If playing along would make him reveal his purpose, then Hermione would play along. Anything was better than being terrified to spend too much time in places not protected magically.
Hopefully he would reveal something during this farce of a date. Though now, Hermione had to admit that her worries had quadrupled. It was entirely possible that he was just a cop who had noticed the unusual amount of crimes committed against and around her. Maybe he wanted to blackmail her. Or perhaps he thought she was a criminal. Or maybe he wanted to know who was out to kill her.
Or maybe he was some sort of creepy stalker type who'd attempted to break into her apartment to rape her. Hermione quickly dismissed that thought. If he were, her wards would have done much more than they had to Grayson.
Perhaps Grayson actually was an assassin. And he wanted to get a bit closer to her before killing her. Maybe figure out some way to make her death look more like an accident.
Then there was the possibility that he was a representative from the local organized crime syndicate. Hermione knew that the BME had quite successfully kept the local mob from gaining a foothold in their community. Perhaps they were trying a different method of getting a person into the BME.
Or maybe he'd attempted to break into her apartment for a reason she hadn't thought of yet. Hermione knew that she hadn't thought of all the possibilities. Yet.
She knew what Harry would advise her to do. But Hermione was unwilling to do anything to Grayson until after he broke a law. She didn't believe in preemptive strikes. She would not do anything until after Grayson did whatever it was that he intended. After all, as far as Hermione knew, he hadn't actually broken the law yet.
Hermione bit her lip as she examined her appearance in the mirror. She had to look like she cared about the date, but was unwilling to sacrifice mobility to do so.
Her hair was in a simple up do that not even the most strenuous of exercise could upset-she had not intention of leaving something easy to grab available to a man who might attack her at any moment. The dress was a simple pale green, long sleeved, high collared and warm with a skirt that would allow her to run. Her strappy heels were likewise easy to run in. Her wand had been carefully strapped to her right thigh, well hidden by the skirt.
She'd even written out a note that told Neville exactly where she'd be, who she was with and chronicled the numerous attempted break-ins. It would be delivered to him should she be incapacitated, attacked, or killed. Hopefully it would be an unnecessary precaution.
Feeling as prepared as possible, Hermione apparated from her apartment to an alley a block away from the restaurant. Hopefully she would find out what Grayson was after before the night was over.
