Sorry for the delay in updating and thank you for staying with me
...
Hermione sat, looking utterly unimpressed with the man in front of her. Sam sat next to her with a matching bitchface. Both were bound to the steel chairs they were sitting on in the same interrogation room Hermione had been in when she had been arrested the first time.
"So, Mr Ironwood. Here we are again" Hermione greeted with an eyeroll.
"That's Chief Auror Ironwood" the older man ground out
Hermione snorted "I'll call you that when you stop being an embarrassment to the American Auror-corps. So, I wouldn't hold out too much hope if I were you. You're lucky I called you Mr. Ironwood, you know. I've called you several other names in my head already."
Sam smirked a little. The witch was fearless and sometimes had a habit of running her mouth and provoking adversaries in the worst situations, much like the older brother they apparently had in common. He wondered now if it was something she had inherited or if it was Gabriel's influence. It was a trait that had often earned Dean a smack-down and sure enough, the heavy sound of a slap filled the interrogation room they found themselves in as Ironwood backhanded her.
The hit was enough to whip Hermione's head to the side, but her only reaction when she turned it back around to look at the man was a slight nose wrinkle.
"Well, that was rude." She remarked.
Ironwood turned to Sam with a sneer "Where's your brother, no-maj?"
Sam shrugged "I honestly have no idea."
"What do you need him for, Ironwood?" Hermione asked exasperatedly, and Sam was afraid she would earn herself another slap, but the creepy guy just smiled at her nastily.
"I believe we already established that at your last visit, mudblood. The memory charm." He spat.
Hermione nodded thoughtfully "Well, there's been some development since then. You see, you're not allowed to erase their memories since they are immediate relatives of a magical person." She smirked and leaned back in her chair in slight triumph.
Ironwood narrowed his eyes at her in disgust "Don't tell me you married one of those pea-brained lumberjacks. I knew you were basically a no-maj, but even you ought to have some standards."
"Goodness no." Hermione exclaimed, a little green around the gills. "Not that there would be anything wrong with marrying a muggle, but Sam and Dean are my brothers." She defended.
"It's true." Sam added with a shrug.
Ironwood looked at them with a raised eyebrow and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Just do the genesis charm, Ironwood." She requested exasperatedly, hoping for several reasons that Arthur was right about the familial match between her and the Winchester-boys.
Ironwood only stood, staring at them and grinding his teeth.
"You do know how to perform the genesis charm, right?" Hermione asked rhetorically. "I mean, the muggles have been using genetics in law enforcement since what, the 80's?" She looked at Sam for confirmation.
"Yup." He answered, popping the 'p'. His fascination with serial killers made him confident of that.
"So, with the Wizarding World being as amazing and forward thinking as it is, we should have been using those principles for decades before, right?" She continued with mock innocence.
"It's of no import. There are other issues with the Winchesters. Whatever family you are to each other means nothing." Ironwood spat.
"Yeah? What issues?" Hermione challenged.
"Amongst others, they are rumoured to be in possession of some very powerful spell books that no-majs have no business being around." The older wizard ground out.
Sam frowned and Hermione narrowed her eyes in suspicion "And where might you have heard that rumour?" She leaned forward towards the man and whispered conspiratorially "Does this perhaps have anything to do with the reason why Rowena McLeod is still roaming free?"
The man's face reddened which was very telling, but before he could incriminate himself further, he turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
"Wait, Rowena?" Sam questioned. "Like Crowley's mom Rowena?"
Hermione nodded. "She's committed numerous crimes against both muggles and wizards and she hasn't exactly been subtle about it. Since she's committing crimes on American soil, it's the American Auror's jurisdiction, which means she's his responsibility."
"Well yeah, but I mean, she's pretty powerful. She's probably not so easy to catch." Sam pointed out, not really wanting to defend the douche, but Rowena was a powerful player and shouldn't be underestimated.
Hermione shrugged "Perhaps, but that only means that they should make even more effort. I wrote to them a few years ago when I heard of some mysterious deaths that had her name written all over it, but she was never on the wanted list."
Sam was quiet for a while. "We've worked with her a couple of times since Amara, y'know."
"By Nimue's nether parts – what on earth would possess you to do that?" Hermione snapped.
He sighed heavily and slumped in his chair "We needed her help to track Lucifer. And then to send him back in the cage."
"Why didn't you come for Gabe and me?" She asked incredulously.
Sam huffed "Look – we didn't know you very well at the time and we had worked with Rowena before. She had the Book of the Damned and besides, you and Gabriel had just left. You didn't even say goodbye." He defended.
"But she's a dark witch, Sam." She pointed out, talking slowly as if he was 3 years old. "She's not supposed to have that book either. It's too dangerous in hands like hers. I still want to destroy it. Do you have it?" she whispered
"Um, yeah. But it's hidden." He told her lowly.
Hermione nodded "Do not under any circumstances tell them where it is. Don't accept anything to drink from them and if you start to feel happy and lightheaded, fight it. Be on guard."
Sam snorted "I'm in a magical prison, Hermione. Even for me, that's a first. My guard isn't going down any time soon."
"Technically we're not in prison. At least not yet, this is just an interrogation room. We're still at MACUSA." She shrugged. "Magical Congress of the United States of America" She added when Sam looked confused.
...
"So, let me get this straight. Hermione was in prison, but it was us they were after?" Dean asked the wizard sceptically.
Eric shrugged, but looked thoughtful as he paced the kitchen floor "I was given orders but I'm not sure. I don't think I've got all the information. Obliviating you guys to protect the Statute of secrecy is one thing, but they wouldn't need to bring you in for that. And even so, it seems counterproductive. A lot of the things you deal with on a daily basis could put the Wizarding World on the spot. You hunters deal with the supernatural before it draws too much attention. Besides, if it's about knowledge of the supernatural, why just send out a warrant just for the two of you? We have an entire clan out there who are more or less in the know about supernatural beings and there hasn't been talk of bringing in any other hunters than the two of you. I know that you're legends in the trade, but other than that, what threat do you bring to the Wizarding World that the other hunters do not?" he mused and stopped to lean against a kitchen counter.
Dean frowned. "Could it be that we're working with angels?" He asked, pointing at Castiel and Gabriel.
Eric waved him off "Wizards don't care about angels. No offence you guys." He added when the two celestial beings both crossed their arms defensively. "It's a pagan thing." He shrugged.
Castiel tilted his head in thought. "That might be to our advantage. They won't expect us to –"
"To what, Castiel? If you haven't noticed, I'm outta juice and your wings are fried." Gabriel interrupted with a sniff.
Castiel huffed and rolled his eyes "There are other ways of fighting."
Dean frowned in thought. "What if you had some? Juice, that is." He asked Gabriel
"Whatever we could get would help our odds, but don't you need it for your next trip? Don't think I haven't noticed you came back alone. Hermione would flay me alive if I'm the reason Jack isn't coming back. Not to mention that Arthur-dude you went in there with. And we all know that flaying me would take a while since I'm fucking immortal." Gabriel winced.
Dean snorted "Are you afraid of her?"
"Are you kidding me? You have met my girlfriend, yes? She puts fucking Kali to shame with her temper. And don't think she'll let you off the hook just because you're her brother either." Gabriel pointed out.
Dean rubbed the right side of his face "Yeah. I'm aware. But to be fair, we didn't know that she was my sister the last time she kicked my ass." He groused.
"Wait, is she your sister?" Eric asked incredulously "Then there shouldn't be a problem. They would have to let them go because you're too closely related to defend an obliviation" he frowned in thought "That should be easy enough to prove though. All they would have to do is tell the Aurors and they would be able to prove it with a charm in seconds. They wouldn't even need to bring them in… The more I know, the more I get the feeling that this is personal at some level. I gotta ask, did any of you have any issues with the wizarding world? Did you ever come across a case with a natural born witch or wizard? Did you kill one or did you deal with one or something?" He asked Dean curiously.
Dean blinked. "Um. Maybe? We're sometimes working with a witch, but it's kinda like an on/off relationship based on mutual hate." He shrugged.
"And she's natural born?" Eric wanted to confirm
Dean frowned in thought "I think so. But she's like ancient. Not that she looks like it."
Eric nodded. "Would she have any reason to target you?" he asked, in full investigative mode.
"Son of a bitch." Dean grumbled and walked out of the kitchen with quick strides towards the library.
Eric raised an eyebrow and followed along with the rest "I'll take that as a yes."
"Everybody out!" Dean barked at the two Campbell family members who had invaded one of his favourite rooms in the bunker. One of them were even sitting in his chair.
Their eyes widened and they hurried out. He realised that maybe he was coming on a little too strong, but this was his home, dammit. The only one he'd had since he was four years old and he hated sharing.
He started rifling through drawers, moving papers and oddities around to get to the fake bottom which he removed, revealing two spell books. "The Book of the Damned and The Black Grimoire." Gabriel came up behind him.
"Do you mean to tell me, that not only did you two dingleberries keep that disgusting biohazardous piece of trash – you actually added to your collection?" he asked incredulously.
"Shut up. Those books saved us on more than one occasion." He pulled the books out and put them down on the nearest table.
"Are those, what I think they are?" Eric whispered apprehensively.
"If you mean dangerous, disgusting and unsanitary, then yes." Gabriel snarked.
Castiel huffed "That may be so, but Dean is right. They have been helpful."
"Helpful?" Eric chuckled hysterically "Nuclear weapons are 'helpful' too," he made an air-quote "-and you seem to have them lying around casually. I don't think you realise exactly how much damage these things can do. How much power they hold in the wrong hands."
Dean rolled his eyes "Well, they're not in the wrong hands."
Eric pursed his lips. "Are you sure about that? If the only way to get your brother back is to give away those books, would you not give them up? Your history says otherwise."
Dean frowned and put the books in a duffel bag that was still lying in the library from before he went through the rift. "Let's just get this show on the road. How're we gonna do this?"
…
Hermione had dozed off and was startled when the door slammed open. Ironwood had returned with one of his minions, a young mean looking kid who looked like he was fresh out of school.
"Seriously?" She sighed and looked at Sam who still sat at her left side.
Ironwood smiled genially at them and Hermione was immediately on edge.
"Yes, I decided that it would be better with some assistance. Certain… interrogation techniques work better in pairs. So, have you decided to make things easy and tell me where Dean Winchester is, or do we have to do this the hard way? Please say you want to do it the hard way." He winked at Hermione.
"Piss off." She scoffed.
"I was hoping you would say that." Ironwood purred "Griffins, would you like to do the honours?" he requested.
The young Auror stepped closer with his wand pointed at Hermione who scowled at him.
"Bring it on, kid" she challenged.
And he brought it. "Crucio!" He yelled and Hermione arched in her chair as much as her restraints let her. She refused to scream out loud and grit her teeth. It had been a while since she had been under the torture curse, but she remembered it well. She didn't talk then, and she had no intention of talking now.
"No!" Sam exclaimed, startled by the suddenness of the torture.
Griffins let up the curse and Hermione's breath came out in small gasps. The Auror looked slightly out of breath too.
"Where is Dean Winchester?" Ironwood asked again. Hermione shook her head and sent Sam a small smirk to let him know she was okay.
The men waited for either Sam or Hermione to answer, but when no answers came, Griffins cast the spell again.
"Crucio!"
This time he held it longer and a small cry escaped Hermione's throat. It felt like her blood had been replaced by liquid fire and it was being pumped rapidly through her system. The young guy who was casting the spell, was gripping his wand so hard that his knuckles turned white. When he broke it off, they were both panting heavily. Hermione rolled her shoulders, annoyed by the residual pain.
"How about you, young man? Care to tell me where your brother is? I wonder, which one means more to you? Him or this girl, claiming to be your sister, hm?" He mused, looking at Sam.
Sam narrowed his eyes at the man, took a deep breath and spat him directly in the face. Hermione smirked in approval.
Ironwood recoiled and wiped his face with his hand "You piece of shit" He growled and punched Sam in the nose. "Griffins!" he barked and pointed at Hermione.
"Crucio!" Griffins screamed and Hermione was hit a third time. This time she couldn't help but scream when her veins were filled with fire.
"Stop!" Sam yelled. His nose was bleeding, dripping onto the metal table.
Griffins broke the curse, but kept the wand trained on Hermione.
"Don't tell them, Sam. It's fine. I can take it." She tried to reassure him.
Ironwood tapped his chin in contemplation. "I suppose you can. I had read you had withstood torture during the war." He admitted.
The interview was interrupted by a gentle knocking on the door. Ironwood huffed but turned around to open it.
Hermione sneered when she saw the red hair and the glittery black gown.
"Rowena" she growled, still slightly out of breath and sweating from the last round of torture.
"Hermione dear and Sammy, my boy" the other witch smiled saccharinely as she regally entered the interrogation room. She gestured for Griffins to leave which he did without so much as looking at Ironwood who was supposedly his superior.
"Rowena. What do you want?" Sam asked through clenched teeth.
"Why, you disappoint me, Sammy. I thought we were over this, but then you go and steal my books. That just won't do, boy. We agreed that I would help you and in turn I would keep the books. You didn't hold up your end of the bargain. So, I had to enlist the help of sweet Phallus here." She smirked and caressed Ironwood on the chest. The Auror looked thoroughly pleased with himself.
Hermione giggled hysterically. "Seriously? Your name is Phallus? Ironwood? Phallus Ironwood?"
Sam snorted and Hermione broke into raucous laughter despite the serious situation they found themselves in.
"Enough. Where are the books, and where is your brother?" Rowena sneered at Sam.
"Bite me." He replied with a slightly mocking smirk.
Rowena sighed "Phallus, can you –" she started, but was interrupted when the door exploded.
…
Eric sighed. "We need to be careful. Politically, this can turn into a nightmare of apocalyptic proportions."
Dean shrugged. Well, he would know about apocalyptic proportions. How many had the knucklehead caused again?
"The relationship between the wizards and the no-maj is extremely delicate and always has been – especially here in the States after the Salem Witch Trials. One wrong step in this and we risk another wizarding war." Eric continued.
"So, how do we avoid that?" Dean asked "We kinda have a lot on our plate as it is, we don't need to add to it. Hell, if we could have more wizards as allies, it would help us against the other fuckers we're dealing with."
Gabriel almost stumbled in surprise. That was one helluva change of heart. He stared wide-eyed at Dean who rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. Gabriel winked at him.
"That reminds me, does anyone have any way of contacting Harry Potter? He's supposedly Hermione's best friend, and he has a lot of pull, both with resources and political influence." Eric requested.
Gabriel sighed. "Yeah, I tried reaching him, but no answer."
"We need him. I'm planning on trying to sneak in, but we also have to be realistic. We'll be going in, in broad daylight on a weekday. The place is going to be packed. I think it's best if the family will establish a perimeter and we'll raise some anti-apparition wards – so they can't teleport out" he added when Dean looked confused "- then if they try to make a run for it with either Sam or Hermione, the family will be ready to catch them. And they won't expect no-majs. We'll go in with a small team – I'm thinking us four. I've brought some spare wands you can use for when we go through registration. Fooling the system is easy enough. Then we'll go to the holding cells and we'll have to improvise from there." Eric shrugged "But we need Harry Potter to back us up in the aftermath. We need him to tell the public about the corruption amongst the American Aurors to justify our actions. They'll listen to him without question." He added.
Gabriel snorted, having seen the sway the saviour held over his own friends even. "They'll follow like lemmings."
"But if this Harry dude holds that much sway, why don't we just get him to tell them to let them go?" Dean asked with a frown. He leaned against the table, looking dead on his feet. Gabriel wondered when the dude had slept last.
"I don't know if we have that much time. I suspect that Ironwood has gone completely rogue and if I'm right, odds are that they haven't even logged Sam and Hermione properly. And we don't know what they're doing to them in the meantime. If Ironwood is rogue, it could be anything. Even Unforgivables." He looked at the others gravely. "Let's go brief the others."
Gabriel was happy to hang back to watch the briefing while going through the contacts on Hermione's phone. He tried reaching Harry again, but no dice. He frowned at the phone and decided to go topside for some fresh air.
Screw it, he couldn't wait around for Harry to pick up. He tried the next best thing.
He paced outside the bunker entrance while listening to the dial tone as he waited for the other person to pick up.
"You'll be my maid of honour, right?" The person greeted.
"Uh… Sure?" He agreed. Whatever the hell he had to do to get some backup.
"Wait… Gabriel? Where's Hermione?"
"That's actually why I'm calling. I'll get straight to the point – Hermione and one of her brothers have been arrested by some corrupt wizard-cops who want to delete the memory of her and her brothers-"
"Brothers?!"
"I just told you she was arrested by corrupt cops and that's what you choose to focus on? Anyway – it's a new development."
"Sorry. Continue."
Gabriel cleared his throat "Right, anyway. We think she's being held at that MACUSA-place. We have another wizard-cop who's gonna help us bust them out. You in?"
"Uh, sure – You want me to bring in the DA?"
"Oh, right. Your little militia. Sure, why the hell not. I should warn you though, we're trying to go for sneaky and no offence, but you lot are rarely subtle."
Ginny snorted "I'll have you know that Neville, Luna and I led that underground army through an entire year in close quarters with the enemy. The only reason you think I can't be sneaky is because I'm THAT good at it." Gabriel could practically hear the smirk.
"I hear ya."
"But there's a time to be sneaky and a time for trouble. Do you want direct back-up, or do you want a diversion?"
Gabriel grinned"What did you have in mind?"
Ginny laughed "I'm sure I could figure something out"
"I need your boy-toy too though."
"Get in line. I've tried reaching him for ages."
"Be careful, Red. These dirty wizard-cops, I don't know how far up it goes of if it's isolated to the States."
She sighed "You know what? I'm going to leave Harry a note and then I'll get some people and we'll come to fuck shit up across the pond. Harry can join us when he's done with whatever he's doing."
"Yeah. Just. Maybe – I'm gonna hate myself for saying this – but maybe you should cue your brother in on what's with Harry? Maybe he could figure out a way to get to him?"
"Deal. Text me when you want shit to go down."
She hung up and he smirked fondly at the phone. He liked Ginny Weasley.
He heard leaves being crushed by boots behind him and turned around to come face to face with Dean.
"Here" The hunter opened his palm which held a small vial of grace.
"It that – are you sure?" He asked sceptically. Why he was so polite about it, he didn't know. He ought to just chug the damn thing and be done with it – it was his grace for Pete's sake. But a voice that sounded suspiciously like Hermione told him to be cool about it. Damn conscience.
"Yeah. It's probably not enough to get you to top speed, but we need you man." Dean admitted with a shrug.
Gabriel nodded slowly. "Well, bottoms up"
He reabsorbed his grace and instantly felt more powerful. Dean was right, he definitely wasn't in peak condition. His wings felt heavy and he probably couldn't fly, but he was ready to smite some ass.
...
Thank you so much for sticking with this story. I know it's getting rather long and seems like it's going off in several different directions, but I promise it will make sense in the end. At least it does in my head and in my rough drafts.
I'll try to update sooner next time, but I'm back at work and the sea of neglected tasks have reached my bloody armpits.
Please leave me a review to let me know what you think!