Sorry this has taken so long to post! A LOT of drama has happened in my life recently and it's been rough. I'm not moving to Alaska after all. A coworker/frenemy ruined that for me, so RIP my new start. It's okay though. I work in politics for goodness sake and Iowa is the place to be right now!
Chapter 11
The alarms were blaring as Hermione jumped out of bed and threw on her discarded shorts and Charlie's shirt. She grabbed her wand and shoved her feet into her shoes as she ran out the door. Charlie followed a few seconds later, having to grab another shirt from his drawer since Hermione stole his.
Hermione ran towards the sounds of battle, holding her wand out in the ready. Charlie followed closely at her heels.
"Expelliarmus." Hermione shouted at the first unfamiliar figure. They were cloaked in a long robe with a hood, not too different from Death Eaters.
"Stupify," Charlie quickly followed.
The unfamiliar figure went down and the duo moved onto the next person.
Hermione heard that curse she had just saved Charlie from just days ago. She turned around and saw Rhea be hit with the green light and fall.
Hermione held back her gasp and tears as she cast the killing curse herself at the person it had come from.
"Poor Rhea," Hermione thought.
The poachers outnumbered the tamers three to one, slowly picking off the tamers. Hermione could hear the dragons roar in pain and with each fall of her comrades she just got angrier and deadlier.
She had quit using the stunning hex, simply using the killing curse. There was no time for mercy.
They held off for as long as they could, and just when things seemed hopeless and Hermione and Charlie were back to back facing down twenty poachers, reinforcements in the form of Aurors arrived.
Hermione nearly bursted into tears as the Aurors picked off the remaining poachers, who then turned to flee.
They had provided a distraction, and gotten what they wanted.
This time though, Hermione didn't let them retreat.
"Hermione! Don't run off!" Charlie shouted at her as she took off running into the forest, chasing down the poachers.
She reverted back to stunning them as she dodged their hexes, knowing she would have back-up this time.
Some poachers were struggling with heavy bags, and one fell behind the rest of the group. Hermione full body tackled them from behind, knocking them to the ground. She grabbed the back of their head and slammed it into the ground, rendering the person unconscious.
She jumped off them and chased after the final few poachers, stunning three more of them before the rest disappearated.
Once there were no more spells to be cast, Hermione collapsed, landing on her knees, panting, struggling to get her bearings.
Charlie came running behind her, also panting as he struggled for air from following behind her so closely.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and fell to his knees beside her, "'Mione, that was reckless."
Hermione looked at him, fierceness in her eyes, "I was sending a message. They know I'm here, they know I'm going to kill now, and they know I will chase them down. They're lucky there is no way to track through disapperation, otherwise I would have tracked them down, and taken them out."
Charlie pulled her into a hug, and she started to sob.
"Poor Rhea," she said softly into his chest as her tears soaked through his shirt.
A few minutes later, Aurors descended upon them, taking control of the situation.
They had trouble rousing the poacher that Hermione had physically knocked out, but when they pulled back the hood, it revealed Pansy Parkinson.
Hermione looked at her quizzically, sniffling as she struggled to understand.
"Why would Pansy get her hands dirty," she wondered aloud.
"Hmmm?" the familiar Auror who had hit on Hermione earlier asked.
"This is Pansy Parkinson. She was in my grade. Her parents were death eaters in the war. I'm trying to figure out why she's out here getting her hands dirty. She's rich." Hermione said quietly, wiping her tears away.
The auror shrugged, "I don't know honestly. But we will find out. We're going to be discussing tighter security from now on. I am sorry for your losses."
Hermione nodded and made to move off when Pansy jerked awake.
Pansy hissed at Hermione, "Mudblood. I should've known you would survive. You're such an unkillable cockroach."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Good to see you too, Parkinson."
Pansy snarled at her, "You're such garbage. We took down your numbers with ease."
"No you didn't," Hermione snarled back, "I killed more of yours that you did of mine. You're going away for a long time. You're lucky I'm not in charge of interrogating you. You wouldn't like it."
Pansy laughed and mocked her, "What would you do, use the cruciatus curse against me?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes and stayed silent, confirming that she would. Pansy went pale.
A few minutes later, the Aurors collected the wands of the stunned poachers, and unfroze them leading them away in cuffs.
Hermione and Charlie made their way back to the sanctuary, hand in hand, and they were too antsy to go to bed.
Hermione sat in the armchair, staring at the fireplace. Charlie sat on the couch, staring at her. This was almost too much for them.
Hermione debated the benefits of staying. The dragons were no longer the biggest danger, it was the poachers. They needed more witches and wizards trained in duels, and more security, harder to pick cage locks.
Hermione stood up suddenly, grabbed a notebook, and sat at the table with a standard muggle pen. She had always hated quills.
Sanctuary To Do List
Hire goblins to make the cage locks
Hire trolls to guard the facility
Anti aperation wards
Limit entrances to the facility
Limit floo access from the outside
Find wizards and witches trained in dueling to guard (use veritaserum to determine their true intentions [prevent moles])
Weekly drills to create an action plan for any future attacks, use Aurors as trainers to help with quick reactions and learning new spells
Push for new international legislation protecting Dragons further
Hermione sat back and looked at her list of things to do. She couldn't think of anything else to add to it, but it seemed like a good start.
Charlie was watching her carefully, trying to gauge what she was doing. After a few more minutes of her staring at the notebook, he stood up and walked over to her, placing his hands gently on her shoulders and rubbing them. He kissed the top of her head and peered over, reading over what she had written.
He was silent for a few minutes as he read and contemplated what they needed to do.
"We should take this to the director now." He said softly, "Nobody is going to sleep tonight."
Hermione nodded and marked the page with the attached ribbon bookmark.
She stood and followed Charlie to the director's cabin. Charlie knocked on the door and it was quickly opened by the director.
"Hello Tyler," Charlie said solemnly, "Hermione had some ideas to better protect the sanctuary."
Tyler quickly let them in, and they found a war room set up, with Aurors en mass surrounding Tyler's kitchen table.
Hermione almost felt nervous, but quickly crushed it as she felt 10 pairs of eyes set on her.
She cleared her throat, "I've thought of some ways to better protect the sanctuary."
Hermione proceeded to read off her list, maintaining good eye contact as she read them off.
When she finished, Tyler nodded his head. "I want to implement every single one of those ideas. They are great. Especially the goblins making new gates. I hadn't thought of anything like that."
Hermione nodded, "And sir, I was wondering, now that Rhea is gone." Hermione choked up a bit, "Who is going to finish the training?"
"Well, I'm tempted to end the program early until we get everything under control with the poachers. I don't want any novices dying."
Hermione pursed her lips, "Well sir, if you cancel, I still want to stay. I'm making this my life's work. So I'm staying on to help the dragons and implement these policies."
Tyler nodded, "I will check with the other novices in the morning and see if any of them want to stay. If they do choose to stay, your training will be greatly accelerated. Do you understand? Your expectations will be raised."
Hermione nodded, "Just the way I like it. And I'll check with them."
Tyler nodded, "Okay."
Hermione sat down at the table with the aurors and they worked out the logistics of everything that Hermione had thought of.
The Gringotts goblins were to be contacted by floo the next morning, nobody wanting to wait for the time it takes for an owl to fly there and back. They knew the price they would charge would be steep, but it was necessary.
The aurors were put in charge of anti-aperation wards before they left. They each would cast their own spells to strengthen the also formed a schedule for the next upcoming weeks to work on drills and practice spell casting. An ad for experienced duelers was drafted, as was an ad that would go to the troll colonies.
When Hermione finally left, she felt accomplished in what she had done. Charlie had sat back and let her work her magic. She was amazing and powerful.
And nobody had said a word about her killing a lot of poachers. In everyone's minds, it was justified. It had been kill or be killed in the battlefield. Hermione was fine with that.
The sun was rising by the time they left Tyler's cabin. Instead of trying to get any sleep at all, the duo headed to the mess hall to get strong coffee and food. Caffeine was needed.
Hermione met up with the novices, choosing to sit with them that day.
They were all staring at their trays silently. Hermione cleared her throat and they looked up.
"So, I spoke with the director. And he will be probably ending the program. If you still wish to pursue this career, you will be allowed to stay, but you will be thrown into the field and learn with pretty much hands on experience. Tamers are now lower in numbers, it is difficult and dangerous. If you stay, then it will not be easy. If you choose to leave, that is fine. I will not think less of you."
"Are you staying?"Gwen asked.
Hermione nodded, "Yes. I just left Tyler's cabin. I came up with some new measures that will be put into place to further protect the sanctuary from attack. It includes new doors designed by the goblins on the cages, along with experienced duelers and trolls guarding, anti apperation wards, and weekly drills to be conducted that will train us all for another battle."
Dmitri spoke next, "Hermione, how many did you kill last night?"
Hermione's expression dropped, "I don't know," she said softly.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Dmitri spoke up again.
"I'm staying. Hearing the dragons cry last night just made me want to help them more."
Everyone nodded in agreement, and one by one, they all agreed to stay on; dedicated to their work.
The rest of the day, everyone walked around shell shocked from the night before as they tended to the wounded dragons, cleaned up the remains of the two dead ones, and collected the bodies of the fallen.
Khione had been injured in the fight, and Hermione was taught how to tend to a wounded dragon, assisting in Khione's care.
Hermione held back her tears the majority of the day, finally cracking when she got back to her cabin. She didn't feel like going to Charlie's cabin, wanting to wallow in her sorrows by her lonesome.
After crying for an hour that night, Hermione sniffled and looked at the wall, making a promise to herself that she would fight with every breath in her body to protect the dragons.
Thank you everyone for reading! I'm glad I got this chapter done before I lose access to computer again! I got a new job, this time in fast food. Whatever though, if it gets me out of this drama filled environment then I'm down. On a COMPLETELY unrelated note. So you guys probably don't know this, but I am a democratic socialist and I'm planning something big to take place in 2 weeks again ICE. So if you live in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, LA, Miami, New Orleans, New York, or San Francisco, or anywhere close to those areas, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE message me ASAP. I've got 2 weeks to plan this action and need all the help I can get! Usually I try to keep my stuff apolitical, but it's an emergency. These are dangerous times and we all need to get active.
Anyway, as always, review, favorite, and follow! I love getting emails alerting me to know favorites and followers! Thank you!