Holiday to Hell – Resident Evil x Harry Potter

Harry rested his head against the cold window of the train as they sped through the night towards their next destination. Rain spattered the glass and he followed it as it fell sideways away from him.

"Here you go." Hermione placed the warm cup in his hands before taking her seat opposite him at the table, her eyes glancing at the darkness and rain outside before focusing on her companion. Every so often, her eyes would rake over the other passengers, looking for threats or anyone recognising them, her finger ran along the length of her wand in its wrist holder. Harry would have sighed in annoyance if his own eyes didn't do the same from his angle whilst he felt his own wand warm in readiness. Watching each other's backs, it's what they did. It's what they did best.

Harry sighed in pleasure and sat back in the seat and clutched the hot cup of tea in his hands, Hermione laughed quietly as she watched him savour the drink.

"I think I deserve a raise for how thankful you seem to be, that I brought tea bags with me."

He chuckled at the humour, "I'll get right on to that for you. Seriously, you are and always have been a lifesaver." He took another sip, a glance at the newspaper's date on the table made him frown, the feeling of guilt sneaking back into him. "Do you regret not going back?"

Hermione snorted before shaking her head at his question. "Hogwarts again? I've told you plenty of times since term started. I think I can handle not going back, I'm studying in the quiet times we have, I can take my NEWTS when we get back. You?"

"I never thought I'd have the option, but no, I wouldn't have gone back anyway."

"What about Kingsley's offer? Becoming an Auror."

"I thought about it, really I did, but I'm tired Hermione, so very tired. I don't want to fight any more, I'd be happy just relaxing and living my life. No Dark Lords, no prophesies, no manipulative old headmasters, no corrupt ministry making out I'm the next Dark Lord. No, quiet is good."

She smiled at him in agreement, "I understand. I had a call from Mum whilst I was getting the tea, she asked after you. Dads still angry but he'll get there."

"I honestly thought he was going to kill me, at least I know where you get your temper from now."

"Hush you. He'll be fine in a few weeks. He asked after you as well."

"Really?"

"Yep, he wanted to know what the four eyed little bastard was doing."

"Well thats better than other things he's called me. What did you say?"

"I told him we were sleeping together and having crazy monkey sex before I told mum bye before hanging up."

Harry began to choke on his drink in shock, gasping as his airway cleared, "Wait, what!?"

Hermione grinned at him, "You should have seen your face. Is it really that bad an image Harry?" ignoring his blushing and panicked look, she continued, "Anyway, I actually told him that you were doing better and sometimes you made it through the night without nightmares. That shut him up."

"Hermione..." he growled out at her before sighing in frustration, "It's not that bad."

"Yes it is and I know because I'm just as bad as you. Look, we take our time, go back when we're ready and live our lives."

"Yes Professor Granger."

Hermione shivered at the title, "Ooh, that sounds good. I might just decide to do that when we get back."

"What Minister of Magic not so interesting now?"

"Say yes Minister Granger for me."

"Why?"

"Just, I want to hear you say it."

"Yes Minister Granger."

Hermione frowned, "Nope, I think Professor works better for me. I might get into politics later."

"I thought you wanted equal rights for non-humans?"

"I do Harry, but small steps, a full frontal assault will just fail, especially now. Educate and guide the children and they will do half the work for me. The rest will come in time, I'm not just having to convince magicals, I have to convince the non-humans as well. Remember Winky's reaction to being freed? She had no concept of what we were trying to do in helping her. Welfare first, then education and finally freedom."

Harry sighed, leaving the subject alone and took another sip, he closed his eyes as he leant back in his seat, "This was a good idea. No mess, no fuss, just a quiet journey across America. Muggle style."

"No magic, means no government looking into us. The worlds here are almost fanatically separated. I'm just glad to be away from the Press, I really don't know how you've coped all these years, I know I said to ignore them and all in the past, but wow, half the time I'm not sure whether to be flattered or insulted and the rest I'm just angry at them."

"Tell me about it. We just defeated Voldemort and Rita's first question when she ambushed me was when am I getting married. Anyway, enough with the idiots, we're on holiday, a pity that the others chose not to join us, but... don't tell them, but, I'm actually glad they didn't."

Hermione closed her eyes and sighed, "Me too, no pressure, no running around after the others to stop breaches of the statute, just two friends enjoying the journey."

He took another sip, "Yeah. Just Harry and Hermione seeing sights and travelling without pressure. I like this."

She finally took a sip of her own drink. "We should make this a regular thing. Once a year, for a few weeks, just us, pick a country and go. No pressure, no responsibilities, just relaxing."

"Don't tempt me, I might just decide it's a better idea to permanently do this rather than go back. Nearly as tempting as staying in the Forest of Dean."

Hermione blinked at the admission before deciding to change the subject, "What time is it?"

Harry looked at his watch, "Just after 8. When do we get to the transfer?"

"Another... half hour or so, we'll have 20 minutes before our next train. The Ecliptic Express. Newly reopened, brand new train designed to look like the old one, cabins and a five star restaurant with excellent views of the mountains and forests en route. We have a private cabin to sleep in and will arrive at about 7pm the next day. Then we have a week before continuing on towards Washington DC."

"Do we have anything booked which isn't a library or museum in Washington?"

"Not a thing," she grinned at him.

Harry mock sighed at her, "So this next place, anything interesting or is a quiet break there?"

"It's entirely up to you. There's plenty of good hiking either in the foothills or the mountains, plenty of lakes and rivers. You can either sit and do nothing, or there's a few places for water sports. One of the lakes is deep enough for diving.

"Definitely a hell no for the diving, done enough of that for this lifetime, almost drowned both times."

She chuckled at his reaction, "Even if it was to rescue a hostage?"

He looked at her, scrutinising her before smirking, "Depends if you're the damsel in distress." He snorted in amusement at her scrunched and disgusted face at being called a damsel. "Hermione, it's more likely that you'd be rescuing me."

"Fair enough, let's leave that alone, shall we. Anyway, we have a twin room at the Hilton, the best hotel in Raccoon city. There's not too much for me, but I'm fine with that. If you fancy a few days in the hills with some peace and quiet, I can book a cabin for a few days?"

"No, too much like camping for me at the moment. City lights, noise and pollution please."

"Okay, I also remembered that you mentioned that you hadn't seen an american football match before, so I ordered a couple of tickets, it's not really my thing, but neither's quidditch. I thought you might enjoy it, if not we can skip it or watch it on TV."

"Who's playing?"

"Small league teams, the home team and a neighbouring cities." Pulling a sheet of paper from her pocket, she looked for the team names. "The Old Court Thunders versus the home team of the Sharks, its supposed to be a good match, well balanced, no one's sure who will win."

Harry laughed as he realised something, "The Raccoon Sharks?"

Hermione shrugged with a self-depreciating smile, "I know, it's not just magical's who have issues naming things."

Harry looked thoughtful for a minute, the amusement still making him smile, "You know what I fancy? Sitting in a bar, watching the game surrounded by locals on the TV. I think I might just like that."

Hermione smiled at him, "Then a bar it is, we have a day to scout for a good one then. I'm sure there will be plenty."

Harry cheered as the Sharks scored a touchdown, bringing them back to an even score.

Hermione just smiled at the relaxed air he had whilst surrounded by strangers, although the alcohol and Harry being a lightweight may have helped a little. Leaning back, she took another sip of her drink, weaker than what she was used to with her dad, the drinks were smaller too. But the atmosphere right now was better.

She watched the TV as Harry did a little victory dance, trying not to laugh at his antics. Apparently he was a new convert to the game.

She nudged him to sit down when she caught the locals laughing at him.

When he didn't move, she looked up to find him staring at the screen with a frown. Taking a look herself, she saw the cameras following a fight breaking out in the seating of the locals. Within moments, people looked to be running and screaming away from the fight as it spread. Within minutes, the fight had grown into a full blown riot, the stadiums security and the few police present appeared to be trying to get people away whilst containing the fighting people.

Silence had filled the bar as people were watching in shock at what was happening.

Hermione only just caught Harry's mumbled words, "Something is wrong."

"Harry?"

"We need to go, grab your stuff."

"We're going to be fine, let's just go back to our room and get some rest, see how things are in the morning."

Harry frowned at her suggestion before nodding. "Okay, we'll apparate back to the room."

"Outside, we need to sign back in."

Without looking away from the screen, he nodded at her suggestion, "Okay outside, but damn close."

Harry watched from the hotel window as the city below fell into chaos, tides of some kind of inferi wandered the streets, shambling after people as they tried to reach safety. Buildings near the stadium towards the western edge of town were burning, house fires growing beyond control. Sirens wailed over the cries of people as they tried to save themselves.

Hermione was watching the north of the city, smoke rose from the streets, flashing blue and red reflected from the oily black smoke of car fires. Hermione could see along one of the main roads through the city centre, a barricade had been erected around the hospital, the cracks of gunfire echoing amongst the buildings from that direction as the inferi tide poured from within. The injured that had been evacuated from the stadium had all been taken there.

Harry sighed in frustration as he tried to work out an escape plan, "Any ideas?"

"We can't apparate out of here, we're too far from anywhere else we've been to safely reach it. Blind apparation right now is more stupid than normal, as is line of sight except in an emergency."

"Yeah, who the hell would release an army of Inferi on a city like this? Does MACUSA have any Dark Lords running around at the moment?"

"Harry, I don't think they're inferi, come and see this." She pointed along the main road, "There, see the Bakery with the 2 burning cars outside?"

"Um, yeah, I see it. Crash?"

"I think so, watch the Inferi as they pass the cars."

"I don't... bollocks. They're not shying away from it, they're just moving past."

"I've not seen one in the flesh before, so you know better. But do they look right to you?"

"We're too far away, I don't know half of what I'm seeing."

Hermione passed him a pair of Omnioculars. "Have a look and tell me what's wrong with what you see."

Harry grunted at the comment, "Beyond everything that's happening? Ah fuck, that's gonna be more nightmares for me. OK, they're eating people. Wait. They're not beating their victims to death and moving on, they're grabbing people and biting them. Eating them. Holy fuck! Hermione, is this recording? Watch this!"

"I've seen enough Harry."

"No, you really need to see this. Watch." He pushed the Omnioculars at her face until she relented and watched the recording.

"Oh god, that's just... wrong. Oh god... but... they don't do that!" She threw the Omnioculars onto the bed as she frowned and began pacing, running through her memory for anything that did that.

"I think these are something new Hermione. They aren't Inferi, they can make more of themselves from their victims."

"So what do we do?"

"We be us. We help as best we can Hermione. There's a lot of people who need help, we can save some of them at least."

"What about the Statute?"

"Screw it, either we use everything we have or we're going to die. They can bitch at me later. I'm damn sure this comes under self-defence."

Hermione froze and her eyes snapped to his bag, "Everything?"

Harry sighed, "Everything, even that."

Hermione sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Hopefully they'll think it's you rather than the wand if they investigate. Ron will throw a fit if he realises you lied to him."

Harry reached over and took her by the shoulders, his eyes boring into hers, bright in their focus and intensity, "Hermione, we have more important things to think about than Ron's attitude. We need a plan, any ideas?"

She froze for a moment under the intensity before nodding. "We find a secure location and supplies, gather everyone we can as we do so, then scout an escape route and escort them out."

"Portkeys?"

She shook her head, "I know the concept but not how to actually make one. Especially a safe one. We'll have to do this the hard way."

"Okay then, so we need space and secure. Supplies can come after. Hospitals out by the looks of it, same with the stadium. Train station? Shopping Centre? Is there a college or university?"

"There is a college, but it's an open campus, no Uni. They call them Malls here and that would be good for supplies but a nightmare to secure, likely full of people and large areas of glass. Same for the station, but it might give us a way out, use the train lines as an option." She grabbed her back and pulled out some papers and maps, "let's see. Theres the police station, looks pretty solid, it's a good size and the police will be based there. A good gathering point and it's pretty central to the city."

"Okay, we have a plan, cops it is. Pack anything that might be useful, we can shrink it down and dump it later if it's not useful."