(A/N): Happy Friday everyone! Unless it's already Saturday for you. I'm going on a small vacation with my sister starting tomorrow and I'm not bringing my computer with me, so I figured I better get this out now.
Thanks to trinastar818, HellsBells, and Guest for reviewing! I really appreciate hearing your thoughts and I always get inspired reading reviews. Even a handful of words can make my day.
Special thanks to Catzandbookz8 for pre-reading this! She's amazing and I've been loving getting her opinions on this story.
Just a reminder:
A.S.I.S. is the Australian Special Intelligence Services
A vest is the British term for a tank top.
Any recognizable dialogue is from the flashbacks in Arrow S1E15.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy!
Hermione lied.
Well, technically she didn't, but it felt almost like lying in her eyes.
Hermione hadn't specifically told Slade that she would be heading to the plane crash site first thing in the morning- though that was her original plan- which meant she hadn't actually lied. It was just that she still hadn't quite learned her lesson about the dangers of curiosity, so instead of doing the smart thing, she'd headed towards Fyers camp in the hopes of seeing his reaction to Slade and his partner taking control of the supply plane and escaping from Lian Yu. Except that wasn't what she'd found.
When she'd arrived at the edge of the forest line closest to the camp, she'd found Fyers, Yao Fei, and a significant number of Fyers men standing in a circle around Slade's partner and a man wearing a mask that was black on one side and yellow on the other. There was no sign of Slade, and she knew that something must have gone wrong at the airfield. Hopefully Slade had managed to pull off another miraculous escape rather than having been gunned down earlier.
The masked man held the kneeling boy by the throat. Hermione could see the boy's lips moving but wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying. She was tempted to put Harry's cloak on and creep into the camp to try and lift some supplies while everyone was distracted, but, for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to do so.
Harry's invisibility cloak was one of the most, if not the most, important items Hermione had tucked away inside her bag. Not just because of how much protection it provided her, but because of the symbolism behind Harry allowing her to take it.
Once Hermione had resigned herself to the fact that Dolohov wasn't going away any time in the near future, she'd begun preparing for the possibility of either being captured or having to go on the run. She'd agonized for weeks before finally going to Harry's house. The moment she was in front of him, Hermione had forgotten everything she'd planned on saying and had instead rambled on for at least a quarter of an hour until Harry had stood up, left the room for a minute, and then returned with his invisibility cloak.
"Here," he'd said, shoving it into her lap. "You need this more than I do right now."
Even though it was what Hermione had gone there for, she'd still hesitated to accept it. "But this was your father's cloak- it's a family heirloom."
"Yeah, and you're family."
She'd never forget the look in Harry's eyes as he'd told her that, how warm and loving they were at first, but then how hardened and cold they'd become as he continued. "I wish I could tell you that we'd get Dolohov before he ever had a chance to grab you. I wish I could say that I could protect you the way you protected me all these years. But I can't. I can't make that promise, Hermione. So, you're going to take the cloak because you are my sister and it's as much yours as it is mine, and you're going to do whatever it takes to survive. If Dolohov manages to grab you, then you stay alive until I can find you."
Hermione was glad that he hadn't made her promise anything, because it was unlikely to have been one that she'd be able to keep.
The invisibility cloak was something she both found herself using often and trying hard to rarely ever use. She always wore it when tracking the patrol patterns of Fyers' men, which minutely changed every four weeks. It also came in handy when she was hunting, since it kept animals from even being able to smell her. But beyond that, Hermione tried to get away with hiding in caves and trees as much as possible. If something were to happen to the cloak, she didn't know what she would do.
So, Hermione stayed where she was, hidden in the shadows of the trees but not actually invisible. She watched as the masked man started to raise a sword into the air. And then, she watched as something exploded directly behind Fyers and Yao Fei, causing the man to release the boy and turn to look behind him. The men began to scatter as another explosion occurred.
Fyers ducked low to the ground and raced away, speaking into some sort of communication device, Yao Fei on his heels. The soldiers began firing at random around the camp, clearly unsure of where the attack was originating from. Only the masked man and the boy remained where they were.
A figure came striding out from behind a tent, coming to a stop in front of the masked man as yet another explosion occurred.
Slade. He'd survived.
The boy finally had the good sense to move, darting away to hide behind a truck.
Without hesitating, Slade pulled one of his swords out of its sheath on his back and charged at the masked man. He met Slade's attacks without hesitating, matching him blow for blow. Hermione had limited knowledge when it came to actual fighting, but their moves seemed similar and it almost reminded her of watching Harry and Neville duel; their movements seemed to mirror each other's due to how well-versed they were in the other's style. Hermione was almost sure that the masked man was Slade's former partner, Billy Wintergreen.
Slade was knocked to the ground and for a moment, Hermione worried that he was being overpowered. But then, moving so quickly that Hermione could barely see it, Slade slammed his elbow into Billy's gut and then shifted to hit Billy's hip with his other elbow, sending him to his knees. Grabbing Billy's arm, Slade pulled him up and punched him the face multiple times before grabbing Billy's head and putting a serrated blade through one of his eyes.
It was one of the most savage fights Hermione had ever seen, more than any of the fights she'd witnessed taking place during the Battle of Hogwarts. Slade had never hesitated, never lost his footing even after taking a hit. He had fought and he had won.
Letting Billy's corpse fall to the ground, Slade turned to look at his partner, who had straightened up from his crouch. A hint of movement caught her eye, and she looked to the right to see Fyers coming out from behind another vehicle and pointing a gun at Slade. Hermione almost shouted out a warning before catching herself because she must not be noticed.
The first shot went straight into Slade's arm and he fell to his knees. His partner grabbed a gun from off the ground and began firing wildly in Fyers direction, causing the mercenary to retreat. Even while helping Slade to his feet, the boy continued firing off random shots until they'd made their way out of the camp.
Without thinking, Hermione shadowed their movements. Right on the edge of the territory that Fyers had claimed as his own, the two men came upon one last soldier. The boy instantly moved, grabbing the gun the soldier was pointing at him and yanking it from his hands before shifting his weight and throwing his opponent over his soldier. It was only then he hesitated, pointing the soldiers own gun at his kneeling form. Instead of killing him, the boy slammed the hilt of the gun into the back of the soldier's neck, knocking him unconscious.
Slade smiled widely at the boy, clearly proud of how he'd handled himself. The whirling of an engine sounded overhead, and Hermione tilted her head back to watch as the supply plane flew away from the island.
They had missed their chance to escape.
Three days later, Hermione made her way to Slade's hideout. She would have gone sooner, but unexpected developments coming from Fyers camp had kept her attention. Hermione hoped that Slade would be able to use what she'd found to figure out what exactly Fyers was up to, because she wasn't having much luck so far. She also hoped that offering him an update on what was happening on the other side of the island would soften him enough that he'd be willing to hear her out.
She was well aware of the risk she was taking with Slade. In fact, Hermione had been plagued by nightmares all throughout the last two nights of the different worst-case scenarios that might result from doing this. But she was desperate and finally realizing that she didn't have much to lose at this point.
Every country had different rules about magical and non-magical beings interacting. For the most part, Australia was much like Britain in that the two worlds were kept mostly separate. However, that was not the case when it came to government workers since the two governments frequently partnered together on issues. A.S.I.S. was the Australian equivalent of MI-6 and, from what Hermione knew, the higher up in the A.S.I.S. ranks someone was, the more likely they were to know about the magical world. There was a chance Slade already knew about magic and may have even worked with magical individuals on missions, so revealing that she was a witch to him wasn't as much of a risk as it could have been. Yet, big or small, a risk was still a risk.
When she arrived at the plane wreckage, Hermione wasn't surprised by what she could hear happening inside.
"You've got to stay hydrated, okay?" an American voice stated loudly.
"Hydration is not my problem," she heard Slade snap back weakly. "My problem is getting a bullet dug out of my arm with a dull blade."
Hermione rolled her eyes. She'd thought this might happen and had prepared accordingly. Kneeling down, she opened her locket, pulled out her bag, and carefully removed a small packet, several vials, two water bottles, and Harry's cloak.
She listened as Slade's partner checked the wound and shockingly enough, found it infected.
"I… I got to stop that before it spreads," his partner said, and she could hear him begin moving about.
Slade seemed to share Hermione's doubt regarding his ability to stop anything. "When you swing past the drugstore for those antibiotics, you want to get me a copy of 'Maxim' or maybe a 'Sports Illustrated'?" he asked, giving a raspy laugh.
Hermione replaced her bag and locket, tucked the vials into her pockets and the bottles into her waistband but kept the packet clenched between her fingers, and threw the cloak over her.
"Yao Fei had these super herbs back in the cave that'd heal anything," the American explain. "I'm gonna go get them."
She could hear Slade panting. "You're not gonna last an hour out there."
"Well, I guess you better hope I get back in forty-five minutes then," he snapped, storming out of the plane and past where Hermione was still crouched without glancing her way.
Once he'd exited the clearing, Hermione stood and silently walked into what remained of the plane cabin.
It looked slightly better than it had when she'd first found it, but only slightly. The crates were now stacked around the room instead of strewn across the ground, there were two small camp beds set up on either end of the cabin, and a fire pit was set in the center under a large hole in the ceiling. However, the damage done to the cabin in the crash made it barely serviceable in terms of shelter and the floor was covered in dirt, leaves, and standing puddles of water likely formed during the storm that had occurred the previous night. Which was really not what one wanted when dealing with a gunshot wound.
Slade was worse off than she'd feared. Laid out on the floor near the fire pit under a single thin blanket, he was covered in a fine layer of sweat and his coughs sounded wet.
He turned to look at where she was standing with red-rimmed eyes. Staring in confusion at seemingly-nothing, Slade cough a few more times before rasping, "Hermione?"
Hoping that her assumptions were right, Hermione let the cloak fall from her shoulders. "Slade," she greeted with a grin, sounding more confident than felt. Holding up the silver packet, she told him, "Unfortunately, I didn't grab a copy of 'Maxim' or 'Sports Illustrated' for you while picking up your antibiotics since neither are to my tastes. Hope you'll be able to survive without."
He started to laugh but it quickly turned to a groan, his face scrunching up in pain. "You're a witch," he gasped, as she hurried to kneel beside him. "Should have known."
"Based off our one interaction?" she murmured, pulling her things out of where she'd stashed them and setting them on the driest patch of ground she could find. "That would have been quite the leap."
"'s why I didn't see you," Slade whispered, watching her carefully.
Holding up her empty hand, Hermione gestured to Slade's forehead. "May I?"
His brows furrowed in confusion, but he slowly nodded. When she placed the back of her hand against his forehead, Slade's eyes widened in surprise. Hermione didn't ask.
"You have a high fever," she sighed. "The infection's spreading quickly."
"The sweat didn't give it away?" he muttered, turning to look at what she'd set down next to him. "What's all that?"
"Two bottles of fresh, clean water- one to clean your wound with and one for you to drink, a potion to help clear your bloodstream of the infection, a pain-reliver, and something to clear your lungs. And the antibiotics, of course," she listed out, dropping her hand from his forehead to rest over his heart, carefully counting its beats. "So, I take it something didn't go according to plan at the airstrip?"
Slade groaned again. "The plan went fine."
"If that's the case, how did your partner end up at Fyers camp?"
"Because he's an idiot. Wanted to try and save Yao Fei."
Hermione's eyebrows rose. "That's surprisingly noble. I wouldn't have expected it of him. I just thought he failed to take out a guard and got caught."
Meeting her gaze again, Slade gave a crooked grin. "He did. One job and he couldn't even do that right. I had to save his ass."
"Really? Well, I can see why you decided to save him then."
"Wasn't totally useless. Fyers set up a challenge code to verify identification. 'Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the Earth'."
"'Nothing is bred that is weaker than man'," Hermione finished automatically. Then, "That idiot has read The Odyssey?!"
He let out a choked laugh. "Apparently it's the one book he read in college."
"No." Hermione stated, shaking her head. "He had to have been lying. If you're the type of person who's only going to read one book in the entirety of your time at uni, that book is not going to be The Odyssey."
"If that's true, then how'd he know the quote?" Slade questioned, though Hermione could tell that he was more amused at her reaction than genuinely curious.
"Because it's one of the most well-known lines in the book. I'm positive that whatever instructor he had waxed poetry about that one bit and that's the only reason he remembered it." Her father had been a fan of all the classics, and had quoted The Odyssey often at home, that line being one he had both loved and hated. "I can't believe Fyers chose that quote for a challenge code when there are so many better ones available. Actually, I can't believe he's using The Odyssey at all."
Though The Odyssey was certainly pretentious enough to appeal to Fyers based off what Hermione had seen of him. But there were so many other classics he could have chosen from.
Slade stared up at her with a strange expression. "What quote would you have picked then?"
Hermione blinked at him. "I don't know… I might have gone with, 'A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time'."
He shook his head. "I don't like that one, try again."
A laugh escaped Hermione at the absurdity of that statement, and she flinched at how raw and wrong it sounded to her own ears. Fingers drumming absentmindedly where they laid on Slade's chest, she tried to cover up her discomfort by hastily offering, "What about, 'Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say that we devise their misery. But they themselves- in their depravity- design grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns'? Or, if that's too long, 'Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this'?"
"The second one sounds more accurate," he murmured, eyes falling closed. "This is a weird hallucination."
"Oh, for Heaven's sake," Hermione snapped, hand moving from his chest to his shoulder. "This is not a hallucination. If you were hallucinating, I imagine you would be seeing something prettier than me. Now, are you going to take your medicine willingly, or am I going to have to shove it down your throat?"
Slade's eyes slowly opened again. "Not a child," he grumbled.
"What you are is about to get sepsis," she retorted, helping him sit up a bit. "Now, I'm going to give you the pain reliever first." Hermione held up the small blue vial. "I will then clean your wound before giving you the other potions. Understand?"
Eying the bottle warily, Slade asked, "How do I know that you're not here to poison me?"
"Because if I were, I wouldn't have bothered bringing so many things," Hermione answered shortly. Pulling the top off the vial, she brought it to his lips. "Drink."
He did as he was told, making a small face as he swallowed, but then his entire body relaxed as the potion took effect. "That's good stuff," he commented.
"Glad to hear it." After setting the now-empty vial aside, Hermione carefully unbandaged Slade's arm. "Did you really have the boy dig out that bullet with a dull knife? Do you not have tweezers stashed somewhere in all this mess?"
"Sorry, I would have cleaned up if I knew I'd be having company," he sneered, watching her carefully. "And his name is Oliver."
"Is it? How nice. I've just been referring to him as 'the American' in my mind." Hermione suppressed a wince at seeing how red and inflamed the bullet wound was and the cloudy-colored discharge seeping from it. "Is his voice always that whiny?" she asked, grabbing one of the bottles of water and twisting the cap off.
"Yeah," Slade grunted, tensing as she began pouring water over the wound at a slow, steady pace. "He's a rich kid whose family yacht sank during a storm."
Hermione couldn't help smiling a bit. "So, an ideal partner for you."
Slade hummed. "Could be worse."
"Really? How?"
"… I don't know."
She laughed again, this one coming out a little smoother. Exchanging the empty bottle for the yellow vial, Hermione pressed it to Slade's lips. "This will take care of the fluid in your lungs," she told him as he was swallowing.
Watching closely as he took several deep breaths, Hermione asked, "Is that better?"
His voice came out stronger than before. "Much."
Nodding, she picked up the purple vial. "And last, but not least, something to remove any bacterial cells from your bloodstream."
Slade took it without complaint. "Why bring the antibiotics at all if you were planning on giving me the potions?" he asked, shifting further upright.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to give you the potions until after I saw you," Hermione answered honestly. "If you didn't look so terrible, I would have just given you the antibiotics and the water. You'll still need to take them though; better to be safe than sorry and all that. Or you can take Yao Fei's miracle herbs if Oliver manages to bring them back."
"Isn't there a chance they'll interact badly with the potions?" She raised an eyebrow, surprised to find that he had even a basic knowledge of potions. "I'm not an idiot," he snapped when he noticed her look.
"I never said you were," she responded. "I may have thought it once or twice, but that was mostly because of the boy. As for your question, it shouldn't be an issue. None of these potions were made with ingredients that are known to have a strong reaction to other materials. At worse, you may feel a bit tired or have an upset stomach." Probably. Hermione would need to actually get her hands on some of these herbs to know for sure.
She'd been all over this island- what herbs was he talking about? Why hadn't she found any?
"Sounds fine then." She handed him the second water bottle and he drank almost half of it in one go, giving a satisfied sigh as he looked over to meet her eyes. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she responded, lips quirking upwards. "You don't have to pretend though- I know that you'd much rather be interrogating me than thanking me for help you didn't ask for."
His lips pursed slightly as he clearly fought back a smile. "Why carry around antibiotics with you when you have potions that can do the trick? I didn't think you magical folks thought very highly of our medicine."
"Ah, throwing me an easy question first to put me at ease. How nice. Well, my parents aren't magical, so I actually put more faith in modern medicine than I do in potions. I will admit that I tend to use potions more, simply because they start working sooner. However, those antibiotics are courtesy of Fyers. Not that he's aware that they're gone, of course."
"Of course," he echoed, looked back at the crumbled cloak on the ground. "I've heard of invisibility cloaks, but that's the first one I've actually seen."
Hermione also glanced over at the cloak, inwardly wincing at her own carelessness, but it was a calculated move. The invisibility cloak had been an easy way to see if Slade really could sense her presence even while she was invisible while also seeing if he knew about the magical world. And it was a way of proving how valuable an ally she would be. Throwing it aside like that implied it wasn't her most valuable possession. It also left it out of Slade's reach in case he decided he wanted to take a closer look.
"I'm not surprised," was all she said. "Good ones are hard to find."
Settling back on her heels, Hermione watched as Slade's coloring slowly transitioned from pale and washed-out to a healthy, tan glow. He was still sweating slightly, but it certainly wasn't as bad as before.
This was Hermione's first chance to actually see Slade. Her previous glances of him from afar had shown her that he had dark colored hair and their interaction in the forest had allowed her to see that he absolutely towered over her in terms of height and sheer muscle mass and his teeth were white and straight. Sitting in front him now, she could see his neatly trimmed facial hair, the thin scars on his forehead and next to his left eye socket. Her eyes ran over the well-defined muscles in his arms and chest, which were easy to see through the black vest he was wearing.
All in all, Slade was, unfortunately, not ugly.
Just as she carefully looked him over in the light of day, Slade was doing the same.
"It must be easy to survive here with magic," he finally commented, just a tad bitterly.
Hermione shrugged. "Perhaps it would be if I had a wand. Dolohov took mine when he kidnapped me."
His eyes sharpened. "He a wizard too?"
Moving so that was sitting with her legs crossed instead of resting on her heels, Hermione asked, "How long have you been with A.S.I.S.? Or, I suppose, how long have you known about the magical world? And how much do you know?"
"Long enough and enough."
At this point, Hermione was almost positive that Slade had become such a good fighter because he had to fend off the people who wanted to hit him for being such an uncooperative bastard. "Did you hear about the underground war that happened during the 90s in Britain? Most of the attacks were written off as being gang violence with a bit of domestic terrorism thrown in for good measure."
Slade's brows rose slightly. "The magical version of Neo-Nazi's, right? Suppose it makes sense that you tangled with them if your parents aren't magical."
She nodded. "I was one of the leaders of the resistance. Dolohov was one of the major players on the opposing side." It was a far too simplistic way of describing things, but Slade neither needed nor deserved to know the details.
He frowned, leaning forward and pulling one leg up to rest his arm on his knee. "You said you first tangled with Dolohov when you were sixteen."
Hermione looked at him, and she knew her eyes were the kind of cold that used to always make the boys quickly leave the room with a hastily put together excuse. "Does age matter in war?"
"It does to me," he answered firmly.
Allowing the tension to ease out of her frame, Hermione lightly responded, "Really? Are you sure that the boy is the reason you went soft, or have you always been that way and just told yourself otherwise?"
He chuckled. "There's a difference between having morals and being soft, girl. I can have one without being the other."
"Oh, so it was your morals that kept you from abandoning Oliver and getting off this godforsaken island, not your emotional attachment to him? Because I watched your dramatic entrance into Fyers camp right in time to save Oliver from being cut down."
"I knew you were watching," Slade sighed, shaking his head. "I gotta say, I'm surprised you approached me again. Thought you preferred to keep your own company."
Her gaze fell to the floor as she stiffened. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you about how dangerous it can be to form attachments in a place like this."
"Then, what do you want? I know you didn't help me out of kindness."
"I'll have you know that before all of this, I was a very kind person." Hermione remembered Edgecomb then. "Well, usually. But I'm sure you can understand the dangers that come from being kind; sometimes, kindness is weakness. Or worse it's complacence."
"So, why'd you help me?"
Forcing herself to meet his dark brown eyes, Hermione bit her lip and tried to remember the speech she'd rehearsed the whole way here. Instead of her carefully worded request, what came tumbling out of her mouth was, "Teach me how to fight."
Slade's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"
"Teach me how to fight," Hermione repeated. "I want… no, I need to learn how to fight. If I want a chance of beating Dolohov when he comes for me again, then I need to know how to fight- fight like you."
When Slade continued to sit in silence, Hermione began to ramble. "I've been able to survive this long with my magic but it's not enough. I don't have my wand; Dolohov took it from me. And I'm relieved that you already knew about the magical world because I'm sure if I had asked you to teach me how to fight without you knowing about magic, you'd be sitting there wondering how I survived for so long against someone who's clearly a monster considering where he brought me, and you probably wouldn't want to bother with me since you're already having to teach that kid how to fight. But I saw your fight back at Fyers camp and I just… you won, Slade. You won and you survived and that's what I want.
"I want a chance," she told him evenly, her words slowing from a torrent of information to a more understandable trickle. "I want a chance to escape Dolohov that doesn't involve me slitting my own throat. I want a chance, Slade," Hermione repeated softly. "And I can't do it alone. I saw how Oliver took out that guard while you were escaping, and that was after only a few days of training. If I could learn how to do that, then maybe…"
Eight months on Lian Yu had drained most of the fight out of Hermione. Left with nothing to do but consider her situation and the possible future awaiting her, she'd been forced to come to the realization that she couldn't beat Dolohov without her wand. He could do whatever he wanted to her, and she wouldn't be able to do much to fight back. The only options left to her were to either accept her fate and hope that she would eventually be able to escape or kill herself.
Death was preferrable to Dolohov. At least if she took her own life, she could ensure it would be quick.
But meeting Slade- seeing Slade- had reminded her that there may be another way. A way that she had previously dismissed as being pointless but was now looking like her best option. Dolohov wouldn't expect her to fight back in a non-magical way and if she could catch him off his guard then maybe…
Slade stared at her for a moment longer before sighing and look away. "Jesus. Yeah, you're right. If I didn't know you had magic, then I would tell you to fuck off right now just because it would seem like you went years dealing with some asshole without bothering to learn how to defend yourself." Meeting her gaze again, he asked, "What do I get out of this?"
Hermione sighed with relief due to the fact he hadn't given her an outright no. "As you've seen, I have the ability to go almost anywhere without getting caught. I'll help you gather information on Fyers if you agree to train me, along with stealing some of his supplies when I can."
He cocked his head to the side. "You've been sneaking around for months- don't you know what Fyers is doing here?"
"When I realized how big Fyers operation was, I decided it would be better for me to evade him instead of engaging with him. But, if you'll help me, then I'll see what I can find out."
"This isn't going to be a walk in the park, girl," he warned. "I won't go easy on you and if you try to complain about how I do things, I'll stop training you. More information on Fyers would be nice, but it's not a necessity."
She blurted out a truth she'd never meant to say. "I think I'd rather you break me than Dolohov."
His sharp inhale seemed to almost echo in the enclosed space. "I need to know you have my back. As I know you saw, I don't react well to people betraying me." There was a mean little edge to his grin, and Hermione vividly remembered the way he'd stabbed his former partner through the eye. "If you're loyal to me, then I'll be loyal to you."
"I figured," Hermione murmured, not looking away. "Fyers can't know I'm here and I think… I think I can trust you not to talk no matter what if you were captured. I can trust you to be discreet about my existence. But I can't say the same for Oliver. You can't tell him about me. If you're not comfortable keeping a secret from him, then we should leave things as they are, because I won't change my mind about that."
"Fair enough." Slade moved to stand then, and Hermione hurriedly followed suit, worried that he might still be off-balance. He seemed steady though, and Hermione was once-again reminded of how much bigger he was compared to her. Even Charlie, the largest Weasley by far due to his constant wrestling with dragons at work, couldn't compare. Sparring with Slade was going to be interesting, to say the least.
"Suppose we should do a proper introduction." He held out his hand. "Slade Wilson."
Hermione slid her hand in his, giving it a firm squeeze. "Hermione Granger."
He laughs. "Glad to see you've got at least some fight in you; after our first discussion, I thought you were ready to give up."
She couldn't bring herself to admit to him that she was. It was probably going to be challenging enough for him to train both herself and Oliver- no need to set herself back with him before they'd even started.
"I believe I know why Yao Fei is helping Fyers," she stated abruptly, pulling away from him and bending over to collect her empty vials and shove them into her pocket.
Slade's gaze sharpened. "Oh?"
"A girl was brought to the island on the supply plane. I believe she's Yao Fei's daughter, but I may be mistaken. What I do know is that she's what's keeping him compliant."
His jaw clenched and he looked away. "Well then, looks like things just got complicated again."
"Do you know what exactly Fyers is planning?" Hermione asked. "It's been clear from the start that they were interested in Yao Fei, but I had just thought that they needed something like information. Bringing someone else onto the island implies that they want him to do something in the near future and they wanted to have leverage on him until then."
"I have no idea," Slade admitted, obviously frustrated. "Fyers has been on this island for over two years now, but I haven't been able to figure out why. I'm not even sure Yao Fei knows what Fyers is after."
"Two years," she repeated, stunned. She'd known Fyers had been on Lian Yu for at least a year, but she'd never imagined it had been that long. "That's… I assume you're more familiar with how men like Fyers operate; do most operations take that long to execute?"
"They can, but none of Fyers other recorded missions ever have. Did anything else unusual arrive on the supply plane?"
Hermione bit the inside of her cheek. "There were a few boxes that seemed larger than normal. The men were just beginning to unpack when I left but they said it could take up to two weeks to get everything in place, and that there would be one additional delivery happening in the next few days via boat. Fyers didn't seem surprised by that timeline, if that means anything. Though, if it does, I imagine it can't be good."
Slade looked at her and then back to the cloak. "So, we should plan to head over to his camp in about two weeks and see what he's up to."
"If they're keeping it at the base camp," Hermione stated. "The conversation I heard was over the radio, so I have no idea if the boxes are actually being moved to the camp or if they're keeping them somewhere else."
"Fair point. You can travel magically though, can't you? Using that trick where you disappear and reappear somewhere else?"
"It's called Apparation, and no, I can't. Dolohov set up wards so that I can't Apparate- I assume because he thought it wouldn't much of a fight for me if I could just disappear whenever I was in danger."
"Of course he did," Slade sighed.
Hermione turned away and retrieved Harry's cloak. "I should be going. Provided that Oliver hasn't run into trouble, he should be back any minute now." Glancing back at Slade over her shoulder, she added, "You should probably lay down and try and look sickly again. And make sure to hide the antibiotics somewhere he won't be able to find them. Even if he brings back those herbs and they actually work, it can't hurt to have the medicine in case something else happens."
He gave a bark of laughter. "Yeah, sounds about right. Come back here tomorrow and we'll get started. I suggest getting a good night's sleep; I'll be pushing you as hard as I can."
"I'll do my best," she said blandly. Hermione hadn't had a full night's sleep in almost a year; the best Slade was going to get from her was 'rested enough'. But it was probably better that she was learning how to fight like this, since she doubted her next tangle with Dolohov was going to come when she was in peak condition.
Please leave a review on your way out!