Chapter 9
Hermione and the Minister
The minister's trip to the states went along fairly well considering the amount of stops he scheduled. His aides were able to keep him moderately close to schedule, and Hermione was excited to see several new American cities she had not seen before. There was even a memorable summer's night where the Minister took in a professional baseball game in the northern yank city of Chicago. Hermione was familiar with the game of baseball, being raised a Muggle, but had never seen a game played at any level.
It was all quite interesting, as she a Jonas had a ball trying to figure out the rules. It was far less exciting than Quittich or any Muggle European sports, but the American spectators enjoyed it, which in turn made Hermione and Jonas enjoy themselves. The crowd had their own unique traditions Hermione found intriguing. At the end of the night she relished the riot she'd had and seemed to sleep rather well.
She was sleeping quite sound these days, and her face seemed to smile a lot more. Her conversation with Ron before she left brightened her spirits. It was by no means a resolution to their problems, but it was a start. She found herself daydreaming quite frequently about their unscheduled dinner together upon her return to London.
Ah, her return to London, that explained the daydreams. The minister wished to change aircraft once they departed the states. Opting into a smaller BAE 146 Queens Flight which he used to travel on shorter trips. Tomorrow afternoon, they were due in Gibraltar on the southern coast of Spain, and thanks to excellent schedule keeping by the minister's aides it meant a night in their own beds before heading back out.
Hermione knew she wouldn't see Ron, but for an hour she may get to see Ginny and perhaps Harry. The Concorde was on the ground at Heathrow taxiing towards the hanger where a short convoy of cruisers awaited them. People seemed to deplane rather quickly, landing just after eight in the evening. If they hurried they might be able to squeeze in a good nights rest at home before reporting back early tomorrow morning. Hermione, Jonas Quaid and a third Aurur, Vincent Cameron deplaned with the Muggle's, and Hermione ordered Cameron to Dissapparate once the convoy moved out. She and Jonas would escort the minister to Number 10 Downing Street where the night shift would take over his protection until the morning.
The convoy loaded up quickly and began to move out. There were three armored cruisers, and the minister's limousine all escorted in front and back by two local police wagons. Several motorcycle officers encircled the formation, moving ahead and falling back to clear traffic for the minister.
Hermione was tired, but excited at the same time. It had been just over a week, but she was still glad to be home. A thought crossed her mind, as she unclipped her Muggle phone from her hip. She flipped it open and scrolled through her stored numbers to find her parents. She wanted to give them a quick ring, just to let them know she was home safe for the night. Her peripheral vision saw a flash of light, and just as she looked up her cruiser was struck with a massive impact flipping it onto its side and then upside down on to the roof.
The world went silent at once as Hermione, lost grip of her phone and struggled to reach it above her head. With outstretched fingers she grabbed it along with a handful of broken glass just as the vehicle came to an immediate halt, jarring Hermione's teeth and jaw as her body snapped against the seat restraint. Somehow they were right side up again, and the only sound she could hear was the ringing in her ears. Her phone was lost.
With her head slumped forward and her eyes closed; there was a sound. Extremely loud, but unrecognizable. The sound came again, beginning to sound like someone beating a large drum, only this time she seemed to feel the vibration of the sound in her leg. There it was again, and again. Hermione opened her eyes, with her head still slumped forward to see large blobs of black appearing before her, coinciding with the loud gong sound. She blinked and the black came into focus as a dark red, on light tan color. The sound came again, and with it, a new blob of brighter red color. It seemed to appear from between her eyes before expanding on the tan canvas. Then came another. Hermione blinked into focus again and realized the tan canvas was her leg; the tan slacks she wore soaking up the blood dripping from her face one drop at a time.
Hermione pulled back causing her head to squeal in disapproval. What she knew to be blood dripped down her face from her forehead and felt like it was trickling out of her nose into her mouth. She blinked again and slowly started to understand. There had been an accident! She looked forward seeing her driver and passenger were slumped over in their seats. To her left, her partner, Jonas was obviously dead. Whatever had impacted their vehicle had crushed part of his skull; he was bleeding profusely from the hole in his head. She looked around, with exception of Jonas's window; all others were in tact but shattered in place. She reached for the door handle and pulled, but the door didn't budge. Slamming her shoulder franticly into it several times didn't make things any better; she unclipped her lap restraint with shaking hands and moved up to find another means of escape. It was then she remembered her wand!
It was out of her breast pocket faster than a blink, and as soon as her fingers touched the vine and dragon heart-string wand all her fear seemed to be sucked from her hands clearing her mind. With her left foot she pushed herself away from her door and blasted it off its hinges with a silent curse. She sprung out onto the pavement nearly stumbling from loose debris and her earlier blow to the head.
She looked frantically left and right to see several vehicles on fire or smashed. There were bodies in the street; none of them moved, with rocks, debris and broken glass everywhere. The moment she began to question if this was an accident; her ears gave her the answer. Gunfire! Someone was shooting! She stepped out from behind her destroyed cruiser and moved forward in the direction the convoy should have been traveling. To her relief, she found the ministers limousine damaged, but in tact with the engine running. There were perhaps fifteen armed Special Branch commandos surrounding the minister's transport in a circle facing outward. Brandishing enough guns to invade France, each one searched for a target, with some actually firing as the minister's limousine's engine revved trying to escape. It was held up on a large piece of debris as other security forces attempted to clear the rubble. Acting quickly, Hermione ran up to the commandos and screamed, "MOVE!"
Pointing her wand at the debris as two soldiers cleared from her path. With a flick of her wrist, a large orange bolt shot from the end of her wand like a laser. The debris didn't move for a second then turned white-blue and exploded, freeing the limousine. With a screech of tire, the commandos jumped on the limousine and it started to pull away. One agent reached out a hand for Hermione as she raced to catch up. Amidst all that noise, she couldn't believe she heard it, but there was no denying, she did.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Hermione stopped dead in her tracks, causing her to fall forward into broken glass just as a bright green killing curse passed over her head from behind. She watched as it struck the back of the limousine hitting one secret services agent in the stomach. He flopped around on the back of the moving limousine before falling to the street, dead. Still lying on the ground, Hermione pointed her wand at the speeding limousine, which had now picked up another escort vehicle with agents and guns hanging out the windows.
She flicked her wand as fast as a Muggle's fingertips on a typewriter, launching every protection curse, charm or jinx she could think of. Before the escape convoy turned the corner she believed she managed about thirteen different hexes, which should protect him until they could get him back to a secure location.
Hermione rolled onto her back and took a deep breath, she could feel broken glass and other debris cutting her everywhere she touched the ground. With her non-wand hand she fussed around her collar looking for something, after a moment she found it. A small curly wire with an ear piece attached to it. She forced it into her ear, and was flooded with frantic radio traffic. On her wand hand sleeve was her microphone; she took a deep, painful breath before placing it to her lips.
"BREAK, BREAK, BREAK," Hermione said into the microphone with a calm, yet authoritative voice. "This is Dragon, the package is en route; all wrapped up, except for a bow. I am on scene, situation is, Enchanting!" She spoke in code knowing someone on the other end would understand. In that short phrase she informed her superiors, she had engulfed the minister with magical protection, but no one magical was with him at the moment. She said she was still at the attack site, and there was an unknown amount of other, unfriendly wizards present. The radio traffic was dead silent for about five seconds, until another voice squawked back.
"Roger, copy. Dragon on scene, package en route, situation enchanted." With the man's voice acknowledging her transmission Hermione sat up in the shards and debris and pulled the receiver from her ear. The bleeding in her face had slowed but she could still feel warm blood on her cheek and neck. Placing her wand between her teeth, she reached into her pocket, pulling out a small hair tie to secure her down hair behind her neck. She touched her forehead feeling a large gash, and another on the bridge of her nose. Taking the wand from her mouth, she used her bloodied hands to push her to her feet. Hermione unbuttoned her suit coat and let it slide to the ground while grabbing what remained of two electronic pagers from her hip.
She tossed them to the ground in spite along with her Muggle pistol, and ripped the receiver and microphone wires from her sleeve. Holding her palm flat with her wand in its center she whispered and incantation causing her wand to levitate and rotate around like a compass. Commanding it to point the way of the nearest wizard or witch it froze pointing almost directly to her front.
Hermione looked up and got a fix on where the wand pointed and grasped it in a tight fist causing blood to ooze out from between her fingers. This was not a part of her detailed and well laid out plan. This was the part where someone got their ass kicked.
* * *
Hermione set off in a full sprint in the direction her wand pointed. It led towards a large bridge her convoy crossed just minutes ago. Her head pounded from what felt like a concussion and from the cuts on her head and face. Her ribs ached where the seat restraint had probably broken some but she had so much adrenaline coursing through her veins she could barely feel anything.
"NIMO VIGILANTIA" she gasped, as she breathed heavy and flicked her wand. This curse would prevent anyone from Disapporating without taking her with them. It was a standard hex which any rookie criminal new how to prevent, which mean it was now a race for a portkey. Portkeys could not be traced, not like Disapporating could. She had no idea how many people she was chasing, but her wand was beginning to act erratically as a compass, meaning she was getting close.
She arrived at the edge of a bridge and stopping suddenly in her tracks to try and listen. Hermione heard nothing except distant autos traveling around London. She held her wand aloft again, and again it spun in circles. Either she had not cast the spell correctly or there was more than one wizard around her. She looked left and right but saw nothing. She snapped around left again, and out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of something. A disturbance in the air, but only for a split second as it vanished.
Acting quickly, Hermione raised her wand high in the air and in a stabbing motion dropped to her knees, jabbing it into the asphalt at her feet. A loud crack of bright red-beamed light shot to the heavens as a pale blue sphere exploded in an ever-expanding circle from the epicenter of her wand. If someone was hiding, this nuclear grade reveal curse would expose everything.
The blue wave of light shot out and almost instantaneously knocked three cloaked targets to their backs. The invisibility cloaks they wore now completely neutralized. Hermione was to her feet before they were; knowing this would be her one chance to call for backup. Raising her want to the sky again, she screamed "PETRONUM FAMEALLE!"
A white burst of light leaped from the end of her wand as the otter of her Patronis came to life. Swimming through the air in graceful flips of its hind legs; in circled Hermione. After one full circle the otter seemed to split into three equal sized otters, one red, one purple, and one green; all the same size as the original white one that was no longer there.
The red and purple otters took off to the sky at the speed of light together, while the green one headed towards downtown back the way she'd come. Hermione smiled and raised her wand just as the first wizard was getting to his feet.
"STUPEFY!" She yelled aiming just to the right of the first wizard. He dove left to get out of its way, not even wasting pointless energy to block the curse. He wasn't supposed to block it, Hermione thought. The wizard diving left opened the circle they had created around her. With four quick steps to her right, she could now turn around and have them all in front of her. You had to get up pretty early to surround Hermione Granger.
Moving out of the circle, she faced the three men who were now all on their feet. Realizing they no longer surrounded her, they moved closer to each other and began advancing towards her. 'Standard tactical mistake, move closer together to feel safer, but in turn making it easier to be hit with an area attack,' Hermione thought.
Hermione waited, as they got closer, and waited some more. Finally, once the last wizard was in range, she engaged. Stepping backwards in controlled steps, her wand hand resembled a handyman beating a nail with a hammer, only ten times faster. At every apex of her stroke at least one curse rocketed from her wand. The wizards scrambled to avoid her hexes, while blocking others desperately trying to expand the size of their formation on the bridge making it harder for her to attack all three of them.
Hermione ceased casting, flung her extended arms out wide the slapped them together at arms length in front of her face. Two tidal waves of orange, fire-like energy, one from the left and one from the right blasted the men back into the center of the road where she could manage them better. As they got to their feet, Hermione continued her onslaught.
The bravest of the three wizards charged her running in full steam, daringly avoiding her curses. A purple bolt raced from his wand tip at her, and at the last possible second a yellow and green twisting beam jumped from Hermione's wand; locking his spell in a tight battle. For a moment the purple hex pushed Hermione's counter curse back towards her; causing her feet to slide on the pavement; Hermione pushed back with all her might. She extended her free hand, flexing her fingers, and as if lifting a ten-kilo weight brought it up under her wand in support. The wizards purple beam continued to inch closer to her, now just two meters away. The light caused by the two spells colliding obscured the other two wizard's sight so for now she was safe, if only for a moment. The other two men's spells missed her badly since they could not get a lock on her exact position.
Hermione raised her left eyebrow, and around her in a five-meter radius, a thousand red sparkles appeared. Even as the purple beam of the other wizard advanced on her, she smiled, releasing the sparkles. In a flash of red lasers, they streaked towards her hands and exploded in a red pulse wave through the end of her wand. Traveling at an incredible speed, the red pulse raced to the end of her green-yellow beam overtaking his purple line, and rocketed to his wand. Without a sound her pounding erupted into a red super-nova engulfing the wizard. Hermione released her grip and braced for impact as the sonic boom hit seconds later.
Crouched to her knees, she knew he was done and stood to face the other two, still trying to get to their feet from the most recent detonation.
Hermione jumped to her feet screaming "ACCIO WAND!" The fallen wizards weapon smacked into her left hand as she pointed one at each of the remaining two wizards. "You are both under arrest! Drop your wands and step back!" She commanded but knew they had no intention of obeying.
The wizard on her left shot first, but Hermione merely flicked her wrist to block his spell.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" The right wizard yelled, unleashing a green flash Hermione dove to avoid.
As she rolled to her left, on her way to her feet she touched the two tips of her wands together creating a black-purple flash. Pulling the wands apart, standing erect, the black light extended like a pensive string between the two wands. She spun to gain momentum, coming around and underhandedly flicking both wands at her targets.
Two purple and black-lit constricting serpents came to life from the wand points and raved towards the two wizards. The left wizard offered no resistance as his serpent wrapped and overwhelmed him immediately; knocking him to the asphalt with a paralyzing jolt of magical current. The right wizard fired a few hexes at his serpent; upon striking it only made it larger. Once it had hold of him, she was sure the jolt was twice what the other man received.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Hermione shouted knocking the left wizard's wand from his hand, as he lay unconscious from her spell. "EXPELLIARMUS!" She shouted again, knocking the right wizard's wand from his barely conscious fingers. Using the two wands she activated a dual Lumous charm and searched in a circle for anyone else. She was alone.
"Mud-blood my ass!" She screamed in victory, forcing herself to take a breath. She continued to look around for any other sign of attack, but saw nothing.
She stepped forward to examine the three downed wizards, and collect the last two wands strewn on the road. She heard a very subtle crack behind her and felt as if someone had bumped her gently from behind causing her to stumble slightly. She stopped walking when she saw a small bit of pavement spit up in front of her to the left. Her ears picked up the sound of a wand hitting the ground. She felt funny and looked around. Sure enough, there was a wand at her feet, only it was the wand she had just taken from the very first wizard and used to defeat the other two. Hermione was confused, and light headed. She reached for the wand with her left hand but it didn't move. She couldn't feel it at all.
Horrorstruck Hermione looked down at her left hand and saw her entire left sleeve soaked in blood and dripping from her fingers. Moving her own wand, still executing Lumous, closer to examine she could see she was bleeding uncontrollably from a hole in the left side of her chest just below the collarbone. In a panic she pushed her wand hand over the hole and turned around to the three men she'd just beaten. The last two were still out cold, but the first man was getting to his feet. She noticed a small hole on the back of her left shoulder, also badly bleeding.
Panic hit Hermione at once and she turned away from them to run back towards where she left her convoy for help. Her mind seemed to move faster than her legs, and as she stumbled down the street she heard the first wizard laughing as he picked up his wand.
"We got you in a bit of a crossfire bitch!" He yelled from behind her. It was then she realized she had been shot with a muggle bullet. She tried and tried to get her legs to move faster but her energy escaped her body as fast as her blood.
Not moving very quickly, but still moving, she saw the flash of light from a rooftop where the shooter had just released another round. She screamed, "PROTEGO!" The bullet passed right through her protection spell and slammed into her pelvis like being hit by a train. It entered her to the right of her naval about three inches below her waist. Her momentum carried her torso and legs forward, but the impact of bullet on bone sent her hips and waist backwards. She collapsed upon herself as the velocity of the impacting bullet lifted her off the ground by over a full meter. She felt bones breaking and the bullet ripped through her insides on its way out of up her back. With a thud of flesh, and air being forced out of her lungs she screamed, landing on her back.
Hermione couldn't breathe; her throat was already filled with blood. With every ounce of strength she had left she rolled to her stomach and choked up at least a half-liter of blood. The first wizard she beat was walking towards her holding his wand again, while the second had regained his footing as was stumbling to catch up. Hermione continued to gasp and cry; choking forced her left lung to collapse inside her chest.
"Not a bad little witch you are, mud-blood." The man said from about five meters away from her, raising his wand. "Enjoy the afterlife, bitch!"
In a flash of instinct, Hermione remembered the spell she translated for Ron, but never told him. Secretly she feared he was working on breaking unforgivable curses, and this, mistranslated spell, was all she had left to fight what she knew was coming.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" The wizard spoke.
"VIKASI!" Hermione cried, choking up blood while raising her wand at the last instant. The two spells collided in mid air. Hers blue with a red swirl, hitting his green killing curse. The result was instantaneous. A sonic detonation where the two curses met, that both sent the wizard flying away, and its sheer force slid Hermione three meters backwards along the asphalt streaking it with her blood. Hermione gasped, trying to force in any air she could manage.
She dropped her head to the pavement with a thud, as she could barely hear the second wizard freaking out at her blocking the killing curse. She raised her head again from the road, her hair sticking in her blood, to see them advancing again. She had nothing left but raised her wand anyway, right into the first wizards disarming hex. Hermione was almost glad it was gone, she was so tired; she just wanted to close her eyes.
Behind the two men, she saw a flash of light. Hermione squinted to focus but couldn't make out what it was. The two wizards turned around to see what she was staring at. They turned just in time to see Hermione's red otter Patronus sail between them. Now on her left side spitting up blood with every breath she laid her head on her outstretched arm.
There was a flash of white light, and then another. She heard a man scream as her vision went in and out of focus, then more light. She opened her eyes to see a bright red beam bouncing around over where she lay, a second later an orange streak came along side it from the direction of her feet. She lifted her head as far as she could towards her feet and saw two men locking wands with her wizards. She tried to sit up but could only move her head.
A face appeared on top of her, but Hermione could not focus in on it. She felt a hand behind her neck attempting to lift her as she choked on more blood. She was freezing, but the hand on her neck felt warm. Hermione's eyes closed, as she swore she could hear someone calling her name in the distance. She choked and choked, gasping for air and rested her head in the chest of whomever was trying to pick her up. Her eyes fell heavy as the darkness finally took hold.
* * *
"Hermione!" Ginny screamed as she pulled her head off the road. "HERMIONE!" Ginny placed her hand over the wound in her belly as Harry and Ron advanced past their position with wands blazing at Hermione's attackers. They had each received Hermione's distress calls, and in turn responded as quickly as they could. Ginny was wearing her white night gown and house slippers. Ron had no shoes on just a cotton shirt and sleep pants and Harry was wearing only sleep pants and boat shoes.
"Hermione! It's Ginny, can you hear me? Hermione!" She was completely covered in blood as Ginny tried to scoop her up. Ron and Harry moved aggressively in on the two wizards, casting spells and locking wands pushing them further and further back.
"Christ, she's fucked up!" Ginny yelled cursing for the first time in her life. Harry looked back at the horror on her face.
"St. Mongo's, NOW!" He screamed. Ginny nodded, grabbed hold of Hermione with both arms, and with a crack, the two of them vanished from the bridge.
Ron moved in hard on the wizard he was fighting, throwing curse after curse until he was fighting from the ground. With two flicks of his wand the wizard was disarmed by Ron just as he saw Harry's target go sailing by under the influence of Levicorpus.
Out of the corner of his eye, Ron spotted a third man looking over the railing of the bridge down below. He ran over to subdue him, but just as he got in range, the man found what he was looking for. With a flick of his wand, he called the port key from down below and vanished.
Ron turned, barefoot seeing Harry rounding up the other two.
"What the fuck is going on, mate?" Ron screamed as he ran over to Harry.
"I think they tried to attack the Minister. We need to get them back to the Ministry for questioning."
"Did you see Hermione?" Ron begged.
"Only for a second, Ginny's got her at St. Mongo's."
"Was it bad?" Ron said softly.
Harry, trying hard to find the best way of breaking the news to Ron, nodded.
Ron pulled up his wand and pointed it at the head of the closest prisoner. "What did you do? What the fuck did you do?"
Harry pushed himself between Ron and the wizard. "Wait"
Ron didn't hear Harry, he was distracted away from the wizard at his mercy by a large dark stain on the asphalt.
"Christ, look at all this blood! Look at all her blood!" Ron screamed pointing to the pavement, tears streaking his face. He dropped to his knees, letting his wand slip from his fingers. His eyes grew larger as the magnitude hit him. Ron's mind couldn't absorb what his eyes were seeing; pools and puddles of Hermione spilled for no reason.
"We better hurry." Harry interrupted as he grabbed one prisoner. After a moment in shock, Ron stood and grabbed the other. Ron's heart beat loudly in his chest as he focused his mind on Disapparating to the Ministry.