Chapter 36: The Dragon Hunt
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"Hermione!" Ron's voice cut through the chatter of the office and she looked up to see him and Harry walking quickly towards her office, "You're back!"
She hugged them both, "We got in late last night. Very happy to be back in England."
"We heard the short version of the story that the mission was a success, but we wanted to hear the details from you," Harry said with a grin.
"They were very open and intrigued by our offer," she told them as they took the seats in front of her desk and she leaned back against it, "Honestly, the only thing they were unsure about was trusting the Ministry so we had to stay a while and prove our devotion to them and to our promise. The Gurg was quite friendly, he took to me very well."
"Of course he did," Harry laughed, "Grawp did too."
"Oh that's right," Hermione thought back fondly for a moment, "Well we went to them every day and I helped Bosch, the Gurg, with his English and we talked lots of details about the towns. He had some very easy requests that we added into the plans and we'll be sending the teams out to start on the construction and charms today or tomorrow, hopefully. The quicker we get them into towns, to quicker we can stop worrying about them changing their minds."
"How did Hagrid and Malfoy get on?" Harry asked.
"Took some time of strained conversation," Hermione allowed, "But I think they're on good terms now."
Ron avoided her eyes but nodded, "Our mission to the Dragonoligists went well," he said, changing the subject, "We put a bug in Charlie's ear to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. He gave us a few names about a week ago so the Auror team is doing some research as we speak to follow the leads."
"Oh, that reminds me," Hermione jumped a little, "The giants said their attack was supposed to be on Christmas Day. The Dragon eggs that were being passed around must have already been hatching when they had to restock. They would have wanted the dragons to be 9 months to a year old to be in the prime of taking to a giant and being powerful enough to do damage. I think at this point we're looking for dragons, not eggs."
"Wow, definitely," Ron nodded, "Okay, I'll send Charlie a message, we worked out some code to share information. He's supposed to be making a trip out soon anyway."
"Even if they don't have the giants to reign in the dragons, they've still got powerful destructive dragons on their side," Harry said seriously, "We need to find them and it sounds like we've only got another month to do it."
"Has there been any movement on the search for Pansy?" Hermione asked.
Harry looked over at Ron uneasily and then back at her, "We thought we'd found her."
Hermione hesitated before asking her next question, "The Aurors that were killed… is that the mission they were on?"
Harry nodded solemnly, "We think they found her. The Dark Mark was spotted over a house that was on our list of hideouts and the two Aurors were found inside."
They were all silent for a moment, "I'm sorry, were you close with them?"
"Didn't know them well, but they were good people. It's a hard loss for the department," Harry said.
"I think they're going to start using the dragons to incite fear," Hermione sighed, "Almost like they're taking them out for practice before the big attack. We need to find Pansy. We're really going to have to refocus the department on finding her."
"We've got a few more leads on our list. You can come with Ron and I whenever we're sent on missions."
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Hermione spent the afternoon at the Ministry, going over what everyone had accomplished in the last month. She was pleased to hear that there had been progress all around. One of the newer Death Eaters had talked. He was scared and wanted to strike a deal. His information had led to the house where the two Aurors were killed. In some ways, they were curious if it was a trap, but the man had broken down when he heard what happened, yelling "It was her! It was her!" Over and over again.
He'd given a whole list of hideout spots, but hadn't given more names, too afraid for his family if he did. Everyone knew the hideouts, not everyone knew everyone else involved as they were usually in masks during Death Eater meetings.
Harry and Ron had come back with a list of about twenty names of Dragonologists who had started in the last three years and had access to the Dragon Eggs and care. The Auror department had been through a full background check and investigation of a little more than half the list, not yet turning up anything unusual.
Once they had a plan for the next day, Hermione returned to the Manor to find Draco lounging in the den.
He looked up from the Daily Prophet, "Evening, Granger," he said, motioning for her to come join him. When she was close enough he pulled her into his lap, "Fancy some light reading?"
Hermione looked at the picture playing back at them from the newspaper - it was a picture of herself and Malfoy walking hand in hand up to the gates of the Manor with backpacks on. The title read: Holiday Affair: Exonerated Death Eater Draco Malfoy returns from vacation with his Detective, Hermione Granger, "Are you kidding me?" She said exasperatedly, continuing to read the article, which was on page 9 of the Prophet at the bottom of the page:
Late last night Draco Malfoy returned back to his family home for the first time in a month with Detective Hermione Granger on his arm, sources say. The two looked cozy, carrying their travel bags and heading in for the night. As previously reported, after the trial to exonerate Mr. Malfoy, the son of convicted (and later exonerated) Death Eater Lucius Malfoy, their love was exposed to the world. As scandalous as it was, it seems the two have been paying no attention to the tabloids on their month-long celebration getaway. The timing of the celebration, however, some may consider questionable, given the still ongoing case of Death Eater activity. Even more questionable is their decision to stay on holiday as Aurors died fighting against dark forces just last week. It seems it was more important to the pair to let their passions burn even brighter than the fires in York.
Rita Skeeter
Reporter for the Daily Prophet
Hermione scoffed, "That troll. Has she been stalking us since we left the manor?"
"I would say she certainly has," Draco nodded looking amused, "What did you do to her for her to want to see you fall so badly."
She looked at him, a little embarrassed before responding, "Do you remember all of the articles she was writing about Harry during the Triwizard Tournament?"
Draco looked guiltily back at her, "Hard to forget. I fed her some of those stories."
Hermione paused, tilting her head at him, "Oh that's right, you were one of her sources," she rolled her eyes, "Well I ended up figuring out that she was an unregistered animagus and realizing it was how she was getting her information, through you among other means," she added, "so I captured her in beetle form and made her promise to stop the stories or I'd expose her. It seems years later she's forgotten about our little deal."
"She's probably just pissed your deal lost her the juicy stories to hit the front page," Draco grinned.
"Well I think I'll be reminding her of our last meeting the next time I see her. Or see a beetle scurrying around."
Draco closed the newspaper, setting it aside and wrapping his arms around her, "You can be quite cunning, can't you. That's a nice Slytherin quality."
She narrowed her eyes playfully at him, "I did what I had to for what was right," she said, "That's a Gryffindor quality."
He pulled her to him and kissed her soundly, "Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night."
"Are you questioning my house?!" She laughed, "If anything I should have been in Ravenclaw."
"Getting cocky about how smart you are, now? Sounds like Slytherin again."
She pursed her lips, "You're trying to get under my skin and it's not going to work," she said matter-of-factly.
"What about getting under your shirt, am I doing well at that task?"
She shook her head, "I think you're being cocky now."
"That's because I'm a Slytherin," the look in his eyes was light and she couldn't help but laugh again.
He stood up, picking her up with him and walked to the door of the den before placing her back on her feet, "Shall we go enjoy, how did you put it, 'being back in our own space,' now?"
Hermione gave him a challenging look, "We can move our conversations upstairs and see how it goes."
His lips moved down to her ear, "You know I like it when you make it a challenge."
She blushed as chills erupted on her skin but held her head high and raised her eyebrows at him as she turned and walked towards the stairs, looking back at him with a grin as she started to climb. He let out a bit of a sinful laugh and followed her up two steps at a time, shutting the door hard as they walked into the bedroom. It had been a very long month and he intended to remind her of all the fun they had before their mission had begun.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o
As the week resumed, Draco returned to the Ministry to help with the information they'd been given so far, lending what knowledge he could about the hideouts the Death Eater had mentioned. They began to strategize their next move based on the locations the hideouts were in and what they could get to in a day. They would resume their raids again the following week, taking an appropriate amount of time for the funerals of the fallen and to make sure steps were taken so it wouldn't happen again — namely larger raid groups and available backup in the area.
Near the end of the week, Charlie dropped into the Ministry to meet with Hermione, Draco, Harry and Ron in person. She'd never known Charlie well but she could tell he knew her and Ron used to date because he was a bit awkward with her and quite cold with Draco. He gave them an update on the background checks of the Dragonologists and what they were able to determine about the dragon they had captured from the York tirade. As far as they could tell, there were no trackers on it, which led them to believe the dragon had been unleashed on the town by the Death Eaters as a warning of what was to come.
"Granger, what are you still doing here," Alden popped his head into her office late on a Sunday evening.
She pulled her eyes from her files and looked up at him, "Being away from a month was too long," she gave him a weak smile, "There's just so much to catch up on."
"You should get out of here, the week starts again tomorrow."
"Detective Northcott? Detective Granger?" A voice called loudly from outside the door to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
They paused a moment before Hermione stood up and they walked briskly over to the door, swinging it open to see one of the Aurors that worked the weekend shift, Grant, she thought it was, "I wasn't sure if you'd be here but saw the lights on," he said quickly, "There's just been three dragon attacks all over England."
"What?" Alden asked, "Are there any casualties?"
"A handful so far, muggles again," he nodded, "The Dragonologists and a few teams of Aurors just left the Ministry."
Hermione looked over at Alden, "I'll get my bag," and he nodded, running to grab his jacket before they followed the auror out of the Ministry, apparating outside of Bristol where the first fire was spotted.
"Watch the skies!" One Auror was yelling to another as he cast a revealing charm, the Dragonologist next to them scanning the clouds through a pair of omnioculars.
Some Aurors were going house to house in the small neighborhood that had set fire to obliviate residents and replace their memory of the dragons with a gas explosion and check for any additional casualties or injuries. Another group of Aurors was spreading out through the town to put out the fires that burned brightly in the night sky.
"Where are the other fires?" Hermione asked the Grant.
"Oxford and Whitby," he said, "This was the largest."
Hermione nodded, striding off towards the Aurors scanning the skies, "Detective Granger here," she said, joining them, "Did we get any sight of the dragons?"
"We did when we first arrived. There was just one and it was taking off from the scene. We're keeping a lookout in case it comes back," said a tall blonde Auror named Higgins.
"What type of dragon was it?" She asked.
The Dragonologist took his omnioculars down for a moment, "Horntail, of course," he said with a bit of a huff, "Of all the eggs to steal, they stole the Horntails."
"Was it alone?" Hermione asked.
"Someone was riding it," Higgins shook his head, "Not very well, at that. We just caught a glimpse but whatever was on its back was flopping up and down like a flobberworm."
"It's coming back!" The Dragonologists shouted, pointing at a dark shadow in the sky.
Hermione squinted her eyes as the outline of a medium sized dragon came into view, "Is there any way we can safely capture it without hurting the dragon?"
"We'll do our damnedest," Higgins said, grabbing his broom from the ground as he and the other Auror hopped on, taking off into the night.
"Will you know how to subdue the dragon?" She asked the Dragonologist, shaking her head quickly, "I'm sorry, where are my manors, I'm Hermione Granger, Lead Detective on the case with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Crazy night out here," he gave her a crooked smile, "Cristof Pohler, nice to meet you," he shook her hand briefly before getting back to business, "I've brought a sleeping draught, just have to get close enough to its nose for him to inhale it."
"Can I see those?" She pointed to his omnioculars and he nodded, handing them over. She focused in on dragon and the five brooms now flying around it in some sort of formation. She could see spells being shot by the dragon rider, but their aim seemed to be quite terrible.
"They're wrangling the dragon," Cristof said, "We've been working closely with the Aurors, taught them some of our methods. When you weave the brooms like that the dragon gets almost entranced by the movements and it'll follow the same path."
As he spoke she watched as the brooms and the dragon weaved closer to the ground where they stood.
"Best to stand back a bit," he suggested, "They'll be coming in for a bumpy landing like that." Hermione took a few long strides backwards, watching as the Aurors pulled up quickly and hit the ground hard, rolling to the sides as the dragon's large talons dug into the pavement with a roar.
The dragonologist ran up to the dragon, crouching low and staying to the left of him before grabbing onto one of the spikes on its neck and climbing. Hermione joined the group of Aurors casting spells at the wizard on top of the dragon. One of their Stupify spells seemed to hit and the body atop the dragon grew rigid, sliding off the back and down onto the street.
Hermione looked up to see Cristof reaching around the dragon's face and getting a bottle of the sleeping draught as close as he could to its nostril. With one large puff of smoke, the dragon's eyes closed suddenly and it swayed in the moonlight before falling to the side, Cristof jumping off right in time to get out of the way.
"Any idea who the Death Eater is?" One of the Aurors called.
Hermione looked down, "What the— yes I know him, this is Cormac McLaggen. He was in Gryffindor a year above us."
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A/N: Happy Wednesday! Would love to read some reviews :)