Gabriel grinned as they appeared in her office.

"Right on time."

Hermione just sighed, watching Loki snuffle around her office.

"Thanks." She murmured. She stretched and surveyed her office with something akin to dread. "I need to get to work."

He frowned at her.

"Do you ever do anything else?"

She shrugged listlessly, already buried in a file.

"I work... I invent...I write."

"You invent?" He asked skeptically, trying to fit that information in with what he already knew about her.

She nodded.

"I do freelance work for a joke shop I have shares in." She glanced up and seemed confused to find him still occupying space in her office. "Why are you still here?"

He shrugged, leaning against a cabinet.

"You're fun."

She narrowed her eyes, one hand tapping an uneven rhythm on her desk.

"No. I'm not. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I've got a day's work to catch up on. Which is all your fault, I might add. Because you decided to stick your bloody Property of Gabriel sticker on me, I got kidnapped."

The humour dropped off his face and was replaced with an unnerving seriousness.

"That mark is for your own good." He snapped. "It'll keep you safe."

Hermione snorted, her hair frizzing up in her fury.

"Safe? From what? Angels, demons...they're the only ones who know what it is. It won't keep regular humans away. No. I would've been safer if you'd left me alone." She calmed slightly, although her hair was still sparking. "Thank you for dealing with Ron. I appreciate it, I really do. But I think we're even now and I think you should leave me alone."

Gabriel looked petulant and Hermione finally lost it.

"GO before I decide to find out which one of us is more powerful."

He snarled and vanished, leaving Hermione to collapse into her chair, rubbing at her forehead.


"So how did you know Sam and Dean?"

Harry closed both eyes and pretended he couldn't see her. Hermione waited him out. They had been friends a very long time, after all, and she knew exactly how stubborn he was.

"I was on a case...It was that murderer, the one who went after the little girls?"

Hermione remembered the case vividly. Even Wizards have their psychopaths and Gerald Gibson had been one of them. He'd murdered six young witches before Harry finally caught up with him. He'd skipped the border and had been living in muggle America, worryingly close to a school. Hermione had helped put the prosecution together and he'd been sentenced to Azkaban.

"I met them then. Told them I was a hunter just like them, they seemed nice enough. I help them out whenever I happen to be in America."

"Of course you do." Hermione sagged in her armchair and stared at him.

"Gabriel bothered you recently?" Harry asked. He'd been remarkably alarmed that an Archangel had taken an interest in his friend. Hermione supposed they had to be grateful. From what Harry had told her, out of the four of them, she'd gotten rather lucky. If you were looking for a silver lining, of course and she, personally, wasn't.

Hermione snorted.

"No. I told him to leave and he did. This..." She gestured at her hip. "Flares up occasionally. I went to see one of the Unspeakables who specialise in Occulemency...She suspected that it's a low level emotive connection which is unfortunately unbreakable."

Harry blinked at her.

"I can feel his emotions and there is nothing I can do about it." She stated flatly.

"Oh...well, that's...wonderful."

Hermione shrugged. Loki rolled over so he was lying on his back, displaying his belly and simultaneously crushing her toes.


"Harry Potterrrrrrrrrrrr..."

Dean frowned, staring at his phone.

"Dude, wake up."

"Piss off, you wanker." Harry grumbled, but he sounded more awake.

"Listen, I need your help."

"You kidnapped my best friend." He said incredulously. "I think you're out of favours."

Dean grimaced, somewhat embarrassed about the whole incident.

"First, it was an accident and second, this isn't for me. A friend of ours has gotten kidnapped by demons. We could kind of use any help we can get."

There was a pause and then Dean distinctly heard a girl's voice.

"Who is it, Harry?"

"Please tell me you're not sleeping with Hermione?" Dean begged, unwilling to bring the wrath of a possessive Archangel down on one of his few friends.

"What? Ew! No. She's just here. It's Dean." Harry added for her benefit.

There was a disgusted snort.

"Yeah. I know. He says someone's been kidnapped. Needs help." Harry paused. "How dangerous is it?" He asked Dean, sounding rather grumpy.

"Er...pretty dangerous."

Harry sighed and relayed the information.

"I'm a grown man, Hermione."

"Yes and what happened the last time I let you go off on your own? You died."

Dean scowled, not used to being ignored.

"I came back!" Harry yelped. "All right fine. Dean, where are you?"

Dean relayed the address and heard the reverberations that meant he was on speaker.

"Can you get there?" Harry asked.

"Of course I can." Hermione said. "I can even get us back."

"You stand a person on the wrong side of the Atlantic once..." Harry seemed to remember Dean was still listening. "We'll be there in five minutes, Dean."

"Wait...we?"

All Dean got as a response was a loud dial tone.

Castiel and Sam watched him hopefully.

"They're coming to help."

"They?" Sam asked cautiously.

Dean shrugged incredulously.


Five minutes later Harry and Hermione arrived, knocking loudly on the motel room door. Dean stepped aside, letting them in. Both were dressed in dark clothing with leather greatcoats, embossed with a double M on the breast, draped over the top.

"What's she doing here?" Dean demanded.

Hermione saw Sam wince and smiled at Harry to explain, ducking past the hunter as she did so.

"She wouldn't let me..."

"March into danger unaided again." She provided helpfully, when he faltered.

Harry grimaced.

"Thanks. So she's here to help."

Dean turned to her.

"You any good in a fight?"

"Yes." She stated and left it at that. Dean's face became an interesting shade of pink but Harry sighed and jumped in before he could open his mouth.

"Before Hermione was demoted she was one of the senior hit wizards in the Auror Corps. Of course she mainly did the law side of things but..."

"I had to get my hands dirty occasionally." Hermione finished for him. "I thought we were supposed to be rescuing someone."

Sam sighed.

"We are. Our friend Jo. The demons took her thinking we'd go charging in after her."

Hermione nodded, with the wariness that comes from being friends with in the intolerably stupid and brave.

"Okay. And what's our actual plan?"

Dean cocked his shotgun.

"Charge in there after her."

Hermione sighed.

"Wonderful."


"Me and 'Mione will go around the back." Harry said, and they vanished soundlessly.

"Will stunning spells work?" Hermione asked under her breath. She hadn't wanted to admit it in front of the Winchesters but she had no idea what she was up against.

Harry nodded.

"Silent if possible. The boys will go in guns blazing and we can sneak around the back. Hopefully we'll get there in time."

Hermione unlocked the door wandlessly and they stepped into the dark building. It was everything you'd expect a lair of demons to look like. It was abandoned, spray painted, littered with leaking pipes, dirt and...oh yes, there were some hanging chains for no reason that Hermione could see other that aesthetic.

Harry stunned the first two demons and they slumped to the ground in a heap, the demons trapped in their unconscious vessels. There was a loud retort in the distance and they picked up the pace, moving stealthily through the corridors, ducking around corners. Jo was being held in the main room, with four demons posted outside each entrance. Harry and Hermione paused just beyond that corridor and Harry handed her a lump of glittering black rock.

"Remember this?" He asked, grinning.

It wasn't the time, nor the place for nostalgia, but Hermione couldn't help smiling.

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder." She whispered, holding the rock gently in one hand. "We use this, we won't be able to see they either."

"Except, we already know where they are." Harry leaped into the corridor and launched the rock at the demons. The smoke spread instantly, obscuring their vision, but the time it took to reach the end of the corridor was enough for Harry and Hermione to discharge their spells. The four demons collapsed and Harry carefully siphoned the smoke away with his wand.

"What?" He grinned. "Didn't you think I'd remember the counter charm?"

"I had my doubts." Hermione murmured.

They marched carefully towards the door, and rightfully so, because as they drew near the door burst open and suddenly there were three demons, too close to stun. The first knocked Harry to the floor with a punch that split his lip open. Hermione managed to get the second with a bond-breaker jinx, but the third smacked her across the head with the butt of his rifle. Her head swimming, she managed to remain conscious, but only barely. She managed to fire off a weak stunning spell, which seemed to do the trick, but by the time she'd regained enough of her senses to turn to Harry, he'd been pinned to the floor. The monster raised the knife it was holding, ready to plunge into Harry's chest and...it's head exploded.

Harry shoved the bloody carcass off him and they both stared up at the blonde holding the gun.

"Jo?" Hermione guessed, using the wall as a support to get herself up on her feet. She felt the lump on her head with a wince and tried to shake off the last of the fuzziness.

"Yeah." She reloaded the shotgun, cocking it. She was of average height, with blond hair, currently matted with blood. Her face was bruised, but her hands didn't falter in handling her weapon. "Who're you?"

"I'm Hermione, that's Harry. We're friends of Sam and Dean. Here to rescue you." Hermione grinned fleetingly. "Not that you seem to need it. On your feet, Potter!"

Harry scrambled up, snatching his wand as he did so.

He didn't stop staring at the hunter.

"Is he okay?" Jo asked warily, lowing her gun slightly.

Hermione shrugged, reaching for their wrists.

"We really don't have time for that debate." She turned on her heel and apparated them outside. Jo stumbling tot he ground.

"Harry, I need you to get Sam and Dean out of there..."

"What the hell are you?" Jo yelled.

Hermione turned back to her and froze when she saw the muzzle of Jo's gun pointing at her midsection.

"Jo..." Harry pleaded, stepping in front of her. "Please don't shoot my best friend. We're here to help you. We're wizards." He grinned at the blonds startled expression. "Not minions of the Devil. Promise. Now can you put that gun down so I can ask you something?"

Jo lowered the gun, but didn't unload it. Smart girl, Hermione mused, scanning the building for any signs of the hunters. Harry smiled besottedly and got down so he was kneeling on the ground in front of her.

"Will you marry me?" He asked hopefully.

Jo's blue eyes met Hermione's irritated gaze over the top of his head.

"Is he serious?"

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Unfortunately. I'm going to get the boys."

Hermione vanished just as Jo yelled.

"NO!"


The floors were streaked with blood, most of it belonging to the various demon corpses. Sam and Dean were in the middle of the fighting, Castiel burning demon after demon with his grace.

"We got her." She yelled.

Dean nodded and Hermione was just moving to help them when a sharp retort sounded behind them. She staggered slightly, before she turned to fire off a spell at the demon behind her. It took another two minuets before Dean almost beheaded the last demon and Hermione could feel her strength draining. Her movements had gained a sluggish quality that she didn't like and her left arm completely refused to cooperate.

She limped towards Sam, who caught her as she fell against him.

"Hermione, you okay?"

"Probably not..." Hermione winced, leaning heavily against him. "The coat stops me feeling pain so I'm not sure." The coats weren't perhaps the best idea. But in a fire fight where pain meant the difference between winning and losing, they did the trick.

Sam clenched his jaw and scooped her up in his arms, running with Dean and Castiel until they were outside. Harry was still on his knees pleading with an incredulous Jo, who had her shotgun aimed at his temple.

"Dean!" She said with enough relief that Harry scowled. "Please make him stop."

Harry got to his feet staring at Hermione.

"'Mione, you okay?"

Sam stood Hermione on her feet and she swayed gently.

"Coat..." She mumbled, meeting Harry's worried gaze. "Get it off me."

Harry nodded grimly and asked the Winchester's to hold her arms, so she wouldn't fall.

"Clench your teeth." Harry rested his wand on her shoulder. "Three..two...Divestus!"

Hermione shrieked in agony as the pain ripped through her. Her shoulder and her hip burned and it was almost too much. She collapsed against Sam but somehow managed to keep consciousness. Harry already pressing his hand against her shoulder, siphoning away the blood.

"You bastard." She whimpered, "Heal it!"

Harry winced, putting more pressure on the bullet hole.

"I can't. This is beyond me."

"But not me." Gabriel shoved Harry aside, scooping Hermione into his arms. "I'll bring her back." He promised and vanished.


Thank to all our reviewers.

Unfortunately, through a combination of bad scheduling, no internet, accidents...writing's been difficult. We're still waiting for Nox to get back on her feet (Or hands as the case may be) so this chapters come from me.

Let me know what you think.

Also, in case you're wondering, I'm back from exile and the sequel to Hermione's Angel, which will be a multi-chapter story, will be up this week. Should hopefully be a fast uploader too.

Nice to be back,

Hood (and Nox in spirit)