NOTE TO ALL WHO GO HERE ON 11/12/2012 – I AM JUST REARRANGING THE STORIES SO THERE IS ONLY ONE A CHAPTER, TO MAKE FOR EASE OF FINDING CERTAIN PARTS.

10. femHarry Potter AU– Ditching the Verse'

Chapter 1

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"And you are absolutely sure you want to do this?" Hermione Granger, bookworm extraordinaire questioned doubtfully, obviously questioning the er… sanity of her best friend.

The long and short of it was that Hermione thought that her friend had finally gone off the deep end.

She pursed her lips, watching as the other girl flittered around the room while throwing seemingly random objects into a small dufflebag. Of course, with all the magic she had gone to the trouble of enchanting that bag with (and pounding the knowledge into her friend's noggin) appearances were deceiving, as was displayed when her friend shoved a folded up tent into it. Expansion charms and lightweight charms were definitely the most useful when aiming to travel.

"Miaaa~" came the strangely chipper voice of her friend from across the room. Hermione inwardly shuddered. Her friend was almost never 'chipper', and describing her as such came hand-in-hand with her aforementioned friend's homicidal side. The chipper voice just ploughed on "Of course I'm sure! This will be awesome! I mean, it's just gotten so boring around here –"

"If you think having half the Ministry after you counts as 'boring' I just don't know how I was deceiving myself into thinking you still had a few screws in the proper place to begin with" Hermione muttered petulantly under her breath.

Ignoring her friend's byplay completely, "– so this will be a chance to put spice into my life, experience 'the great beyond'; find a life for myself away from the Ministry and all that poly-tic shit!"

"Politics, Phoenix; its politics. NOT poly-tics, no matter how many times you contend that all politicians catch some kind of virus that leads them inevitably to the 'dark side' when they take it up."

"Lucius Towel-boy was a politician." Phoenix pointed out in a voice that said clearly that the case was closed.

"Malfoy, Nixie, Malfoy. And I'm pretty sure that he tortured puppies as a child; being a politician was secondary." Hermione sighed. This was the latest of a seemingly endless line of similar conversations that she'd had with her black-haired, green-eyed friend.

Phoenix Potter raised a brow at her friend and rolled her eyes before focusing back on pulling up a few loose floorboards for any scattered possessions that she may have failed to collect, and Hermione took the moment to examine her friend.

Phoenix was short, barely reaching 5 feet tall – most people in their year towered over her; even those younger than her (which Hermione knew to be something of a sore spot for her friend). Even so, her body was lithe and toned and all of her movements carried a deadly feline grace – which Hermione knew to be borrowed from her animagus form. Her hair was a blue-black shade and a perpetual cross between wavy and shaggy, reaching just past her shoulder blades. Blazing emerald eyes drew attention to her aristocratic features.

Hermione had gotten a call from Nix early that very morning (yes, an honest-to-god phone call; she had wondered if the shorter girl even knew how to operate a phone before then) and her friend had vaguely said something about a 'trip' and if Hermione wanted to be there to send her off.

Like everything related to Nix, Hermione had gathered up the absolute necessary items before getting to her friend's location – the Dursley's house on Private Drive – as soon as humanly possible. Considering the last time Nix had contacted her out of the blue like that she had been covered in blood and trying to convince the Aurors that she really had only killed the Death Eaters that had attempted to kill her first and that she hadn't used some new and extremely Dark spell to make their heads explode (really, Hermione still wondered just where her friend had gotten that many muggle weapons, let alone found the time to enchant them and learn how to use daggers like that, her expertise having been displayed while… convincing the Aurors to make Vows of Silence on the matter). Anyway, Hermione had managed to repress that particular occasion, but it still didn't stop a number of possible scenarios running through her head – Nix could have finally snapped and killed her relatives, some left-over DE out for revenge may have turned up, triggering a repeat performance of the Dark Side's Defeat (as it was labelled in the Daily Prophet, coupled with words such as 'Confusing', 'Nauseating', 'Lack of Suspects' and 'Maybe a New Dark Lord was Removing the Competition?').

As such, Hermione was understandably puzzled upon arriving only to find an immaculate house with a decided lack of blood and/or police/auror presence that usually indicated a Potter Problem.

That she had been cheerily informed that the Dursleys had taken a spur-of-the-moment vacation (and she hadn't missed the telling glint in her friend's eyes that indicated the 'vacation' had likely not been their idea, thank you) before promptly being dragged into the house and simultaneously filled-in on Nix's latest crackbrained scheme.

This one involved dimensional travel. And nothing Hermione could say was going to convince her stubborn friend that just up and going would be a bad idea.

"If only I had bet she'd last another week – stupid Weasley twins, they've got the luck of the devil when it comes to betting" the brunette muttered to herself under her breath. At Nix's yelled "What was that?" she hastily replied that she hadn't said anything.

The bet that Nix would drop off the face of the Earth (involving when/how/why logistics, as no one had any doubt that the 'if' angle was out of the question) was the one in which winning would get you more money than all the rest grouped together. And with what Hermione was hearing from her short-on-sanity friend, Forge and Gred seemed to have come out on top.

Hermione caught her friend hiding away a few daggers in her clothing as well as one of those enchanted guns before she suddenly turned with a flourish and pounced on the hassled girl.

"Erk!" Hermione just managed to avoid a collision with the floor and patted her friend's back.

"You ready to go?" She asked weakly.

Phoenix pulled back to look Hermione in the eyes and smile, a hand going up to sneakily wipe the gathering tear from a corner of her eye "Thanks, 'Mione. For being such a great friend, that is."

Hermione smiled softly back – what else could she do but say goodbye? She had frankly seen her friend's departure coming from long off, but had never imagined it to be quite so… final. Sure, moving to America maybe, but another dimension? "Be well, Nixie."

There were a lot of things that went unspoken, lying beneath the rather simple words. They were both aware of them, but some things were beyond vocalisation.

Hermione took a shaky breath in and stepped away and out of the circle that had been painted on the Dursley's kitchen floor (as far as she could see, Nix had evidently stuck the table to the ceiling – obviously beyond caring about whatever choice words her relatives might have on the matter).

Phoenix Potter moved to the middle of the circle and closed her eyes.

Hermione could feel the gathering of energy, the shift of magic in the air as Nix's power was freed and brought to the surface. It stirred and whirled around, becoming a visible golden glow surrounding Phoenix as she girl's brow furrowed in intense concentration, her arms lifting in front of her, palms together.

Suddenly the power pushed down on the air around her, and the emerald eyes snapped open, and Nix's voice was brimming and bubbling with pure power as she enchanted "Eo trans dimensions quo ego sum necessarius!"

A blinding flash of light forced Hermione to shield her eyes against it, and she snapped them open as the light disappeared as quickly as it had materialized.

She squinted her eyes, trying to ignore the dots dancing across her vision.

The room was empty of Potters.

A banging on the door indicated that she had a lot of explaining to do for the auror squad that no doubt had been dispatched to search out the insane concentration of magic.

Hermione bit her lip, staring almost blankly at the spot that had held her first and best friend.

The sound of footsteps from the hall indicated that aurors had unlocked the door and charged the place.

"HANDS IN THE AIR! YOU ARE WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ON THE MISUSE OF MAGIC AND POSSIBLE USE OF A Z-CLASS RESTRICTED SPELL! DON'T MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVEMENTS!"

Hermione spun around, throwing her hands in the air.

It was just like Phoenix to ditch out and leave her to the aurors.

Second generation Marauder indeed. Hermione had quite a few choice curses that she'd never have the chance to try on her friend now.

And if she was a little teary, well, no one could blame her.

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Note: Clearly, this drabble references nonjon's 'A Black Comedy'- check it out, it's bloody hilarious.