A/N Things heat up a bit in this chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 7

Dauntless

"To think," the strange man said, "I almost ignored the alert of suspect witches at the Fairy."

Ginny immediately felt the threat of imminent danger. With the speed of someone trained by years of combat, Ginny pushed Hermione behind her as she instinctively threw up a shield charm. Three extremely powerful spells collided with the charm which knocked the couple back a few steps.

"Looks like we might have an Auror, Joe. Those were wicked fast reflexes," someone said from behind the man who had spoken first.

Ginny sent more power into her shield charm as Hermione pulled herself up on the wall behind her.

"Wait a tick, I know her!" a third man said, who sounded slightly younger than the other two men, "She's that redhead captain that Tony was telling us about. The one who's been chasing him around. She's powerful fellas, I don't know if we wanna go up against her," the young man said.

The first man continued shooting spells at the shield, "She won't be able to handle the three of us at once and protecting her little chippy, as well," he said with an evil grin.

It was at that moment that Hermione realized the men didn't fully know who she was, so far they had only recognized Ginny. They thought her to be just some low-level witch or possibly even a muggle. She steadied herself and tried to calm her brain so she could help, her vision was blurred from the alcohol.

Ginny inched back a few centimeters, wincing as more spells burst into her shield charm. The charm had stopped several blasts before finally it flickered away. Hermione silently threw up a protego charm to replace Ginny's, but not before a stunning spell had slipped through. Ginny saw the streak of red magic heading towards them and grabbed Hermione. She turned, blocking the brunette from being hit and took the spell to the back.

"Ginny!" Hermione yelled, as the redhead slumped against her for a second. The brunette was surprised when Ginny put a hand on her shoulder and stood back up.

"I'm alright, Mione, just a bit stunned. We have to get out of here," Ginny said as she shook her head a bit. Hermione couldn't believe that Ginny had taken a stupefy full on and not been knocked unconscious. That was, literally, what the spell was meant to do. It was then clear to Hermione that, while they may be almost equally powerful, Ginny was significantly more battle hardened than herself.

Ginny spun around and sent a modified stupefy that Hermione recognized as one of the spells she had created at her job in the Ministry. It caused the spell to expand into a large series of waves that could stun several people at once. Drunken Hermione was exhilarated to see her work being of use but forced herself to focus on the battle.

The death eaters were forced to scatter and waited for the spell to end behind cover. Hermione reached for Ginny's hand as she sent an expelliarmus toward a death eater who was aiming his wand toward them.

Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand, left her protego up as long as she could, and sprinted in the other direction. With the spell still active, the Death Eaters had no choice but to chase after them until they were past the shield charm.

After a moment of running through the town, Hermione realized that the Death Eaters were gaining on them. Hermione wasn't considered the most physical athlete and Ginny had just been stunned. The brunette turned towards an alley way to be sure to get away from any muggles, then made a split-second decision and apparated.

They arrived at the Forest of Dean. It was where her, Harry and Ron had gone to hide during their Horcrux hunt. Realizing that the Death Eaters would quickly trace their magic and follow, Hermione ran a few paces and apparated again a few miles away.

After apparating yet again, she ran farther this time knowing that the farther she ran between apparating would make it harder for them to trace the magic. Hermione kept a tight grip on Ginny's hand as they ran.

Hermione apparated them three more times, always going closer to London in small jumps. Hermione decided that she had confused them enough, it would be almost impossible to follow at this point. The brunette apparated one final time into the living room of her current flat.

Ginny stood in Hermione's flat and breathed deeply for a moment before she fell to her knees, feeling dizziness and a bit of confusion. Her stomach was twisted, and she hurt all over. She had never apparated so quickly or so many times while so drunk. Not something she would like to do ever again.

"Think I might be sick," she said in reference to their quick apparating. Ginny expected to begin feeling better after a moment, as she usually did after appearing, but she just got more nauseous and dizzy.

"Blimey, Ginny! You're bleeding!" Hermione yelled as she looked to the redhead, who was kneeled on her floor. Blood was covering Ginny's jeans and slowly pooling onto Hermione's floor. Hermione ran to her bathroom and pulled out a witches first aid kit. "Where are you hurt? What hit you?" Hermione asked as she kneeled in front of Ginny and dug through her magic bag for her bottle of dittany.

"I'm bleeding? Huh... would ya look at that," Ginny said groggily, "Ha, there's blood on your floor, Hermione," the redhead said as she laid flat onto Hermione's living room floor in a drunken, bloody mess.

Hermione made Ginny lean up and said, "I know there's blood, Gin, it's coming from you. Now come on, dear, let's get you on the couch. Put your arm over my shoulder."

The redhead complied and flopped her arm over the back of the brunette's neck. Hermione assisted Ginny onto the couch so she could assess her injuries. "What hurts, hun?" Hermione asked as she scrambled through her bag again, realizing that Ginny would also need a blood replenishing potion with all of the blood she was losing.

Ginny closed her eyes; forehead scrunching up as if in thought, "My back…. and my leg. Right leg. They are burning," Hermione nodded and immediately went to work. She leaned Ginny forward and pulled the redheads tank top over her head. The brunette sat by her side while Ginny turned slightly to show her back.

Hermione's breath caught as she looked at a large chunk of flesh that was missing from the left side of Ginny's back just under the left shoulder blade. 'She's been splinched' Hermione thought guiltily, knowing it was probably her fault for apparating so fast while intoxicated. Hermione moved Ginny's bra strap to the side to keep it from getting in the way. "This is going to sting, Gin," she warned.

The redhead nodded, having used dittany many times before. Hermione used the dropper to put the Dittany onto the wound. Ginny grit her teeth at the feeling of flesh quickly reforming and the bees-sting pain that came with it.

After a moment, the pain subsided but returned as Hermione added a second dose. "That looks better. Might scar a little, but it's mostly healed and has stopped bleeding," Hermione said. Ginny nodded, realizing she did feel a lot better already, but with the pain in her back subsiding the pain in her leg became significantly more noticeable.

"My leg hurts," the redhead said as she turned to sit regularly on the couch again. Hermione nodded and kneeled in front of Ginny, she reached forward and undid the Captain's belt. Ginny groaned and laid her head back onto the back of the couch. The redhead smiled slightly, wishing she had Hermione on her knees undressing her in a bit of a different situation.

The pain snapped Ginny out of her lustful fantasy, the brunette slid the jeans off of her wound and brought her out of her inappropriately timed sex haze. Ginny looked down and saw a bit of her skin was gone on her right inner thigh. She took a few deep breaths to console her pain.

Hermione looked at the similar splinch wound on Ginny's leg. She gently spread the redheads legs a little and grabbed the bottle of dittany again. "Ready?" Hermione asked.

Ginny smiled sarcastically and said, "Go for it, babe." Hermione lightly frowned at Ginny's nonchalant attitude towards her own injuries but began to apply the dittany. She heard a sharp intake of breath from the redhead as she applied a bit more.

Hermione thought back to their confrontation in the alleyway, "You know, you're quite dauntless," the brunette said as a rush of desire flooded back to her.

"I'm really not," the redhead said through gritted teeth, "That's good enough," Ginny said. Her body was shaking slightly from not being able to handle the pain anymore. Hermione wanted to protest and add a bit more, but she could tell that the wound was under control. Hermione could tell Ginny was having trouble controlling her pain levels, and Hermione didn't want to cause her any more discomfort. The brunette handed Ginny the blood replenishing potion as she stood.

"Here, drink this. You need it. Drink it slow or it may upset your stomach. It will help with the dizziness and nausea. I'm going to clean up some of this blood," Hermione said and without thinking, gently caressed Ginny's face with the tips of her fingers for a moment. Hermione's heart skipped a beat and she blushed, not having meant to do that.

Ginny smiled at the brunettes inadvertent flirting and took a small drink of the potion. She laid her head back on the couch again while she closed her eyes and breathed in slowly. Hermione turned towards the mess that was her living room, which at this point looked like a crime scene from some scary movie she had seen growing up.

Ginny relaxed her shoulders and subtly fixed her eyes on Hermione. 'That's the best date I've had in a long time,' she thought to herself as she rested her satisfied eyes.

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