Chapter 26

A/N: Hello readers! I've been crazy busy and sleep deprived between nanowrimo and my job, so there may be a few things I missed in this chapter when I was reading it over a final time. Words are hard.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews and also thanks to irianaceleste for betaing!

~Frosty

Hermione knew as soon as she stepped into the room that Psyche had been correct in announcing that something wasn't right. The feel of the air was off; it was practically thrumming with a static electricity that almost seemed to pull the group further into the room.

Since she was following after the boys, Hermione couldn't see much of the room around the mass of their combined forms. What she could see were grey walls, elaborate crown moulding, and an abnormally large, four posted bed taking up a good portion of the large room.

"Took you long enough," someone huffed from behind Hermione.

Kate uncurled from her cramped position between the bed and the far wall just as Hermione finally cleared the doorway and the door slammed behind her with a loud thud. Her charade of helplessness was no longer needed now that her accomplice had revealed herself. With their attention directed elsewhere, Kate was free to lean back and watch the scene unfold in front of her.

"I've been waiting forever for Artemis' incompetent little team to defeat the creatures I gathered here." The mystery woman unfolded herself from a chair that had previously been hidden from view by the open door. She twisted her pouty lips into a fake smile. "For a while there, I was worried that you weren't going to be able to find us and my fun would be ruined."

In her mind, Hermione groaned. This beautiful, regal woman was clearly a goddess. She had an air of power about her that was undoubtedly divine. Hermione could even make a pretty good guess as to which goddess this was just from the way the woman held herself and her knowledge of mythology.

Harry gave Hermione a sharp look that clearly said she was going to have some explaining to do later. She nodded to show that she understood, thankful that Harry was smart and knew that this was neither the time nor the place to have that conversation.

Kate paced over to stand beside the goddess, smiling mockingly at the confused gathering. For someone who had been so perky before, she was certainly skilled at being malicious. "Did you actually think I was beaten so easily?"

Not looking pleased that her little monologue had been interrupted, the goddess flicked a finger at the mortal woman. Kate clutched at her throat and glared, making indignant squeaks as her voice failed her.

When Kate realized that she wasn't going to be able to have her say anytime soon, she walked over to the bed, as far away from the goddess as she could get. Perching on the edge of the mattress, Kate crossed her arms and sulked, shooting nasty looks towards the goddess.

"As I was saying," the goddess continued, "I've been waiting for you for days with nothing but this annoying woman for company. She's always whining about her dead husband like she thinks I care. I've never understood mortal devotion to one man when there are so many of them out there to enjoy."

Psyche transformed back into her human form, making Harry and Ron shift to the side so that she had room to stand beside Hermione without batting anyone with her giant wings. Her human form really wasn't the most convenient in enclosed spaces. Ron and Harry stared at Psyche for a moment, but their eyes were quickly drawn back to the threat. They were very confused, but they were professionals.

The goddess gave Psyche a very nasty glare, looking like she would dearly like to smite Psyche right off the face of the earth. Psyche, who Hermione had come to think of as soft spoken and kind, seemed to have an inner strength that went against her nature. Her shoulders were squared and her back straight as she met the goddess' stare head-on.

"Psyche," the goddess sneered, "I assume that you've become attached to these mortals?" Psyche didn't show any indication that she had heard, but that didn't seem to matter. "All the more reason for me to destroy them. Painfully."

"Leave them alone, Mother," Earl said as his wife plucked him from Hermione's shoulder and placed him on her own.

Aphrodite looked down her nose at her reptilian son. "What have you done to yourself?" She swished a hand through the air before Eros had time to answer her. "Never mind, I don't want to know. I won't harm your humans unless they get in my way... or annoy me."

"Mother, every mortal you're not bedding annoys you!"

She raised a beautifully shaped eyebrow. "Then you better hope that Artemis shows up soon or they may not survive."

While the lizard and his mother engaged in a staring contest, Hermione took a chance to glance around the room, wondering how everyone else was reacting to this strange turn of events. Draco just looked annoyed and slightly bored, which was a tad worrying since he had a tendency to instigate arguments with those around him when he was bored. This could be a problem if he got too bored, which would be dangerous with an angry goddess on the room, but Hermione could tell he wasn't quite bored enough to risk angering Aphrodite yet.

On the off chance that she had misread her partner, Hermione pushed him to the side and stood slightly in front of him so that she could more easily elbow him should he let his sharp tongue have free reign. This move was doubly helpful because she could more easily see what was happening in the room without Draco's tall form blocking her view.

Harry had his hand on his wand, attentively watching every movement of Aphrodite and Kate, waiting for either of them to attack. Ron though, Ron was staring at Aphrodite, his eyes large and unblinking. This wasn't really surprising considering the goddess of beauty and pleasure had more pull over mortals than any Veela ever could, and Ron had already proved that he was susceptible to that kind of thing. It probably helped that the pale pink toga the goddess was wearing was partially transparent, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"Artemis shows – Mother is this still about the whole death of Adonis debacle? You know Artemis had reason to kill Adonis. The boy was as vain as Narcissus and as hubristic as any hero without the skills to back up his inflated head. He had it coming to him."

Aphrodite stomped her foot. "She killed one of my favourite lovers and I will not overlook such a thing."

"It's not like you don't have hundreds more! Besides, you killed Hippolytus in retaliation."

The far wall featured a very large window. Hermione would have noticed it sooner, but she'd been kind of distracted by the bickering gods and super villains-in-training that had been occupying the room when she'd entered, not to mention Draco had been in the way at first. The windows probably would have remained a beautiful but unnoticed part of the room had they not started to glow. Hermione watched them suspiciously, wondering what was happening as the glow increased in intensity. She glanced at the others in the room, but everyone else seemed to be occupied with the argument happening between Eros and his mother.

Hermione's suspicions of supernatural activity were proven correct when the glowing windows became even stranger. A ripple started in the middle of the center pane and spread to the rest of the windows, getting more and more frequent until the entire thing was a waving mass. Just when it looked like the window couldn't possibly hold any more ripples, a figure stepped out of the undulating glass, leaving the window smooth and still once more.

Aphrodite stopped midsentence and turned to stare at her rival, her sparkling, white teeth bared in a snarl that should not have been attractive, but was.

"You know," Artemis said, looking Aphrodite up and down, "From this angle, you can barely tell that you're just a severed penis that fell into the ocean and became all kinds of trouble."

If the beautiful Aphrodite's followers could see her then, face transformed into a mask of rage, fingers curled into claws, and ready to pounce, Hermione doubted that they'd be quite so devoted to the goddess knowing that she possessed this other side. Aphrodite was so furious that sparks fell from her fingers and her ebony hair nearly burst from the intricate twist that kept it orderly. "And you're just an unattractive female who swore chastity and started acting like a man because she wasn't good enough to attract one!"

An arm wrapped around Hermione's waist and tugged her back a few steps. Knowing who it was, she allowed him to pull her, only looking back questioningly once he had her back a few feet, right up against the wall beside the door. She heard a clicking sound and knew that Draco was trying the doorknob behind his back. From his irritated expression, she also knew that the doorknob wasn't working.

"This is rapidly descending into a cat fight," he murmured in response to her look, "In my experience, it's best to be as far away as possible – and my experience is just with mortals, goddesses are so much worse."

Harry and Ron took the hint and backed away as well, while Psyche put herself between the quarrelling goddesses and her mortal friends.

Normally Hermione and her friends would have objected to a civilian putting herself between them and danger, but Psyche was immortal and much more equipped to dealing with angry deities, so none of them said anything. Besides, she had Eros on her shoulder, and he had been dealing with his mother for his entire life. Hermione was sure he knew how to keep himself out of harm's way.

"That might have been offensive if your chosen method of self-defence wasn't seduction," Artemis sneered. "I've had men vow chastity just to keep my company. No one's ever done something like that for you because without physical pleasures, you're worth nothing."

That was all it took. Aphrodite launched herself at the other goddess, screeching a primal war cry. Artemis was less passionate with her charge, but she had a glowing silver blade in her hand and she obviously had more combat experience from the way she held herself.

Aphrodite grabbed a handful of Artemis' hair and yanked hard, but Artemis retaliated by stabbing the other goddess in the stomach with her knife. Hermione knew that Artemis wasn't going to be able to kill the other immortal, but she still cringed at the pained screech that Aphrodite made.

The crackling feeling of power built in the room until it was pressing at Hermione's skin. It made her feel battered and bruised without even moving her. She stated to worry that the immortal catfight was going to actually kill her.

"LADIES!" Earl boomed, using that strange controlling tone he sometimes employed to manipulate Hermione and Draco. It seemed to work on the goddesses, but to a lesser extent. "Take this battle somewhere else. There're mortals present, and you two are prime examples of what happens when you kill mortals that aren't yours to kill."

Aphrodite didn't look like she cared in the least if she injured a mortal, but Artemis glanced at Hermione quickly, nodded and then grabbed Aphrodite by the front of her toga and threw the other goddess through the suddenly rippling windows. Artemis followed quickly after, her knife once again raised.

Kate rushed after them, but the windows were once again solid and her fists banged fruitlessly against the magically strengthened glass. "You promised me revenge against that hunting bitch!"

Suddenly back in a situation they had been trained for, Harry and Ron rushed forwards to apprehend the criminal. Kate continued to screech about avenging her dead husband while they magically bound her arms behind her back and relieved the screaming woman of her wand.

"Well, that was fun," Earl said, his tone upbeat enough that Hermione wasn't sure if he was being genuine or sarcastic. She was a little concerned that he was being genuine. One would think that the gods would tire of all of their drama after the first few millennia, but apparently they were still going strong and enjoying it.

"I will get revenge," Kate spat, looking positively deranged. "She sent a boar to kill my husband, just like she killed Aphrodite's love."

Earl shook his head. "Lover, not love. It's an important distinction."

"Are you sure he wasn't just in the wrong place at the wrong time and came across a boar?" Hermione asked carefully, not sure why Artemis would bother killing a mortal long after people had stopped boasting that they were better than the gods. Maybe he had happened across Artemis bathing? Hermione somehow doubted that.

"He wasn't in the wrong place, that boar attacked him!"

Draco, thoroughly bored with the entire situation, rolled his eyes. "If he was out in the wild hunting boars, then it's not that much of a surprise that a boar killed him. Honestly, I think it has a certain sense of poetry to it that he was killed by a boar while hunting them. The boar was probably doing him a favour considering it was you he had to go home to every n-"

Hermione elbowed her partner in the ribs to stop his words. He'd crossed so far over the line that he probably wouldn't be able to see it anymore. She could tell by the shocked and furious expression on Kate's face that Draco had been right in his assumptions about her husband. The man had been out in the forest hunting boars when one of them had killed him. It was horrible, but Hermione doubted that Artemis had anything to do with the incident. A horrible accident was most likely what had killed Kate's husband, not the interference of a goddess.

"I'm so confused," Ron grumbled.

"It's easy," Hermione said impatiently, "Adonis, Aphrodite's beautiful lover, boasted that he was a better hunter than Artemis, so she sent a boar to kill him. In retaliation, Aphrodite killed Hippolytus, one of the few men Artemis actually liked. He was a favourite of hers because not only did he dislike Aphrodite, but he gave up physical pleasures to focus on hunting."

Ron rubbed his temples. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to add some new boxes to the standard arrest form for this one."

"You have so much explaining to do," Harry said to Hermione. Even worse than angry, he looked disappointed in her like she was some misbehaving child keeping secrets from a parent.

Gravely, Hermione nodded.

Wanting to stay for an explanation but too professional for that, Harry pushed Kate out of the suddenly unlocked door, on his way to the fireplace on the main floor. Still looking confused and muttering about paperwork, Ron followed after them.

"This is where we part ways," Psyche said sadly. "We've accomplished everything we were supposed to."

"And we don't plan on leaving the bedroom for a very long time now that we're done with this whole Kate thing," Earl added.

Psyche suddenly rushed forward and hugged Hermione tightly. "I know it's not proper goddess behaviour to hug mortals, but I was born a mortal and some habits are hard to break."

Laughing, Hermione patted the other woman between the butterfly wings and then pulled away. As Psyche went on to offer Draco a hand so that he could give it a kiss like the gentleman his mother raised him to be, Earl climbed into Hermione's palm and looked at her with a tilted head.

"You need to forgive him and make a move. He's not going to get his head out of his arse anytime soon."

"I'll try," she said with a smile.

"Don't make me come back here and set things right." Earl then hopped over to Draco and bit the blond's ear, apparently unhappy that another man had kissed Psyche – even if it had been just the back of her hand.

Once the goodbyes were finished, Earl and Psyche disappeared.

"You're really going to ignore me?" Draco demanded.

They had managed to get the Chimera back to the Ministry without any problems, but they weren't exactly sure where it was going to live. While magical creatures all had a special place in Hermione's heart, the Ministry had a slightly different view of dangerous specimens; namely, it was frowned upon to bring them back to the Ministry and shelter them as one would with a stray cat in their own home. Until something could be worked out for the poor creature, Hermione and Draco made an agreement with the Unspeakables. In return for allowing them to study it – unobtrusively, of course – the Unspeakables agreed to house the Chimera.

"I'm not ignoring you, I just... If you had just read the bloody file, we could have stopped her so much sooner." It didn't even have to be the whole file; information such as her maiden name was listed on the first page. He would have only had to open the file and glance at the first page and so much trouble could have been saved. Hermione knew that she should be focusing on the good, the fact that they had finally caught Kate and put an end to her crimes, but she just couldn't.

Draco was tired of this line of discussion. They'd already said the same words to each other frequently enough that he was thoroughly frustrated with the whole conversation. "Well I didn't and so we couldn't have. You're going to have to get over it."

"Just give me some time," she said tiredly. Once again she rubbed a hand over her face in an attempt to ward off the sleep that was determined to take her. "I'm going to go home and sleep for a long time. I have a feeling I'll be much more forgiving when I get back to work."

"Fine," he snapped. "Just know that I'm not going to grovel. It's because of me that we found the bloody bitch and I refuse to forget about that just because you're upset that it didn't happen sooner."

Hermione was actually stung a little by the harshness of his words. He was talking to her like she was one of the many people that he didn't like, something he hadn't done in a long time. She'd forgotten how biting his tone could be when he wanted it to be.

"Fine," she echoed.

Once the Chimera was delivered, they parted ways in silence, both of them going their separate ways.

Instead of going home to her bed like her partner undoubtedly did, Hermione comforted herself with something that could keep her busy. Paperwork was much better than lying awake in her bed and staring at the ceiling in the dark. She hated that she was on the outs with her partner, but at the same time she just couldn't bring herself to forgive him.

When Harry and Ron entered her office, she was completely unsurprised. They had probably made sure Kate was in custody and then immediately come to find her. Had the situation been reversed, Hermione certainly wouldn't have wasted any time in demanding answers from them.

Looking gravely serious, Harry and Ron seated themselves in the chairs opposite her desk. She knew that they didn't intend it that way, but she felt a little cornered under their heavy stare. It was probably her guilt making her feel that way since she knew they didn't mean her any harm.

Harry was the one who spoke first. "Hermione, I don't know much about mythology, but I know enough to suspect that those were goddesses in that room with Kate and you and Malfoy didn't seem surprised."

Her mouth was open to answer them. She wasn't sure what she planned on saying, but it was going to be logical and convincing, she was sure of it. Before her convincing words could leave her lips, something strange happened. The bleeding heart plant that still grew from the corner of her desk started to glow. One of the heart flowers separated from the rest of the plant and floated to the ceiling, hovering there. The rest of the flowers detached themselves and followed the other one gathering in a little swarm of flowers above Harry and Ron.

"Does this sort of thing happen frequently?" Harry asked, his wand out, but he was clearly unsure if he even needed the thing.

"What's going on?" Ron asked. He was less cautious than Harry and shooting some incinerating spells at the hovering cloud of flowers. The flowers dodged the spells, which continued on to leave singe marks on the ceiling.

Hermione watched the flowers warily. "I don't know, but I doubt it will be pleasant."

Just as she finished speaking, the flowers burst into a shower of golden glitter that covered everything in the room. Completely unprepared for the strange attack, Hermione somehow inhaled a mouthful of the stuff. It was oddly sweet, like sugar crystals.

Harry and Ron seemed to have had a different reaction to the odd sparkling substance than Hermione. They were both fast asleep, apparently not caring that their mouths were full of the glitter.

Baffled, Hermione tried to banish the glitter, only to find that it was magic resistant. She could make small portions of it disappear, but she was probably going to have to clean her entire office by hand to be rid of the glitter.

Something on her desk caught her attention. It appeared to be a pair of lacy gold knickers; they were the exact same shade as the glitter that coated her office. Hermione's eyes narrowed when she saw that there was a note resting on top of the knickers. It read:

They're not going to remember anything when they wake up. Let it stay that way.

That was remarkably little information. Hermione flipped over the paper and rolled her eyes. There was the type of message that she'd been expecting.

I suggest that you use this newfound free time by paying a visit to that partner of yours. These lovely little things are edible knickers - you mortals are so clever sometimes. Wear these when you visit him, your fighting is ridiculous. Don't make me come down there.

Hermione sighed, crumpled the note, and chucked it in the rubbish bin. They were closely followed by the ridiculous knickers. Why anyone would want to consume knickers was beyond her.

She conjured blankets for her friends and set about cleaning her office the Muggle way, hoping that she was finally done with the gods.