A/N: Firstly, I apologize for my long absence from writing this series. What caused it you ask? Short answer: everything. Long answer: Papers were due after midterms. Finals snuck up out of nowhere. I moved back home for the summer and I've been enjoying my vacation before I start my summer job. And by enjoying I mean that I've been catching up on sleep. Sorry for the absence and thank you for sticking with this story.
Attention: This story has also been nominated for Favorite Crossover at the Better in Texas Fiction website. If you'd like to vote for us the page is linked on my profile. To vote on the website the link is on the very bottom left hand of the page. I'm letting you know a bit late, so I don't expect to win, but I'm very happy that my work was nominated. It was huge confidence booster so to whoever nominated me- THANK YOU!
Lucius Malfoy stared down at the potion in his hand with a grimace. He wasn't going to enjoy what he was about to do but there was no way around it. Polyjuice potions tasted vile, so he tossed back the mixture like a shot and winced as it burned down his throat. How he missed the days when he'd possessed the authority to have an underling do these errands for him. The effects of the potion were almost instant and he began to shrink, lower and lower, becoming much smaller than his natural form. Bones were constricted and he held out his hands to watch in morbid fascination as his pale skin darkened to olive. As soon as the effect was complete he took out a pocket mirror to check his work.
Hideous, Lucius thought staring into the tiny mirror at his new face. It was babyish and round, just like the child he'd plucked a hair from this morning though.
Snapping the mirror shut he transfigured his clothes into attire appropriate for a ten-year-old. The wizard made his way towards the playground and once his feet hit the rubber safety mat of the concourse he easily spotted his prey. Jack Hotchner was exactly where Lucius had expected him to be, playing the sport he loved on the fields. It was a strange muggle creation that was played using a black and white ball that one kicked about. There weren't many kids Jack's age on the playground so he went for the direct approach, jogging over to the blonde boy. He felt the eyes of the boy's aunt on him but didn't glance her way. From the corner of his eye he saw her smile slightly, looking pleased. It was lucky that he had found the ingredients for polyjuice potion. In the body of a child his approach was unsuspicious and even welcomed.
"Hey!" Lucius said, momentarily surprised by the childlike tenor to his voice. A hideous sound to go with this hideous body, he thought.
Jack turned and looked at him for only a second before his face split into a huge grin. "Hey! Do you play soccer? Are you new here?"
The warm enthusiasm was strange to Lucius but he responded in the same manner. "I'm Carlos and I've only played a little. I moved in a little while ago. You're the only other kid my age around here," Lucius said shyly. "Can I play with you?"
"Sure," Jack was quick to say. "I know a ton about soccer, I can teach you everything about it."
Excellent, Lucius thought. It was so simple to establish a repertoire with children.
Picking up the game didn't take him very long. Soccer shared some similarities with Quidditch and Jack was a good teacher, for a ten-year-old. They went over drills on passing, shooting and dribbling until Lucius was proficient in all three areas. When he was assured of his skills he proposed a game of one on one. Jack was quick to agree. Using the space between two park benches as one goal and two pine trees as the other, the boys settled into a fast paced game. Despite not wanting to, Lucius enjoyed himself. The afternoon slipped away as they competed for points that they'd both stopped counting. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucius saw Jessica packing up her purse. He stopped the ball with the inside of his foot and turned to Jack.
"It looks like it's time for you to go," he said to his new friend.
Jack looked over his shoulder at his aunt and sighed. "Yeah. What about you?"
"I have to be back before dinner."
"Have you joined any sports leagues? A couple of kids who play on my usual team moved away. We're looking for more players, if you live in the area you can join."
Delivery time, Lucius thought eagerly. "I just moved here," he said.
"From where?" Jack asked curiously.
"Colorado," Lucius replied pulling a random state out of the air. He was only half sure Colorado was actually a state but Jack nodded so he figured his lie was plausible.
"Joining the soccer league would be a good way to make friends."
Deliberately, Lucius looked down at the toes of his sneakers and shrugged uncertainly. He made his body language uncertain, twisting his hands and refusing to make eye contact. The wizard willed himself to look small and unsure. "We move around a lot," he said quietly. "I don't know if I'll be able to stay through the whole season."
"Oh, your family is military?" Jack asked, looking surprised. "We have a lot of families moving in and out of Virginia. It'll be fine."
"We're probably going to move to Texas soon."
"Oh," Jack said, looking surprised. "How long have you lived here?"
"Two weeks."
"How do you make friends when you move around so much?"
"I don't. I've never had a friend." Delivering this devastating revelation with hunched shoulders and lowered eyes, he could practically feel Jack's sympathy hanging in the air.
"I'll be your friend. If you can't join the league, we can still practice in the park."
Lucius looked up, pretending to be stunned. This was exactly the reaction he'd been banking on. "Really?" A hopeful smile graced his face and Jack was eating it up.
"I'd love to, I'll even invite my other friends from soccer and we can have real game sometime."
He grinned, knowing that he'd hit the jackpot. "I'd like that a lot. My grandmother gave me this when I moved for the first time," he said, pulling a braided bracelet out of his pocket. "She made me one too, and said I should give the other to the first friend that I made." Lucius showed Jack the matching bracelet on his own wrist before offering him the second band. Jack took it and admired it for a moment before tying it around his wrist. The heady feeling of victory danced in Lucius' chest when Jack finished double knotting the tie. That bracelet couldn't be removed now even if Jack wanted it to be.
"When did you first move?" Jack inquired.
"When I was four. We've moved thirteen times since then."
"That stinks," his friend offered.
"Jack!" Jessica called from the park bench. "Time to go!"
"I'll see you later," Jack said. "Here."
Much to Lucius' surprise, the blonde boy handed over his soccer ball. "I can't take this, it's yours" he objected.
"You need it more than me." With those words in parting, Jack sprinted away.
"What the hell?!" Hermione screamed.
Lucius sighed and cracked his neck. Transforming back from a polyjuice potion wasn't as easy as it looked, particularly when the potion made you smaller. Perhaps it was his age, he thought grimly, twirling Hermione's wand between his palms.
"You heard me," he admonished the disarmed witch, shooting her a dark look.
She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. Lucius sat on her sofa with his feet propped up on her coffee table. He'd just explained his scheme to her, detailing how he'd spent his afternoon with Jack Hotchner. She was struggling to grasp it, but she was muggle born so maybe it was an intellectual issue.
"Let me review," Lucius offered. "Jack Hotchner is wearing a hexed bracelet that I gave him. Either you do whatever I ask, or in eight hours the boy dies when the hex takes effect and stops his heart. It's quite simple."
"Jack would never accept a hexed bracelet from someone he didn't know," she spat.
"In his defense, he thought I was a lonely military brat," the Death Eater said. Experimentally Lucius shot a blasting curse with the witch's wand, shattering a vase on her mantle.
"What was that for?"
"Just experimenting," Lucius replied airily. "Works like a charm."
Hermione stalked back and forth by the window while Lucius watched her. "Fine!" she growled. "I surrender! Take me to the Death Eater State and kill me, just let Jack go. He's a child. He doesn't deserve this."
Lucius rolled his eyes. "How dramatic and self-sacrificing. I'm not taking you to The State."
"Why?"
"Because there's been too much turn over in management," Lucius told her. "No one in power respects the old guard. A good reputation and talent don't mean anything anymore. All that matters to these lowlifes that have high jacked the Death Eaters is results. They don't even confirm pureblood status," he bit out. "All they care about is what you produce for them."
"So you're taking my dead body to The State," Hermione jabbed.
"I won't deprive them of the pleasure killing you will bring," he snorted. "It should be a group activity for all the trouble you've caused us. Not what I had in mind at all."
"What could you possibly want from me," Hermione demanded.
"Don't sell yourself so short," Lucius stated, rising from his chair. "You have so much to offer me."
He crossed the room, coming to stand in front of her. The pureblood warlock towered over her and she felt like a bug being looked down on, but held her ground anyways. Her eyes fell to her wand, grasped in loosely in Lucius' pale fingers.
"I still remember the day I realized that I'd underestimated you," he said, surprising her.
"And when was that," she hedged, considering her options for taking back her wand. She could sucker punch him in the stomach or knee him in the groin and go for her weapon.
"The day that you robbed Gringotts Bank. It was quite a feat, Miss Granger. Hopefully you're up for another go round."
Hermione's eyes widened and shot to his. "I'm sorry what?"
"You heard me," Lucius dismissed. "Your skills have been proven time and again. It's time to put them to use for a worthy cause."
"By that you mean working for Death Eaters," Hermione accused.
"I actually meant by working for me, but same difference," Lucius mused. He pulled a piece of parchment from his jacket and spread it out on the coffee table. Hermione stepped closer and studied it, realizing that it was a schematic of the National Treasury of the United States.
The National Treasury was the Federal Bank of wizarding America and it backed the United States wizarding monetary system. They controlled everything from interest rates to the buying and selling of open market bonds. According to rumor there was over three billion dollars' worth of gold stored under the building as liquid assets to insure against financial collapse. Her heart beat sped up as she grasped the challenge that Lucius was throwing down for her. Jack's life for her robbing the National Bank of the United States. Fear paralyzed her as she realized the magnitude of her situation. Her mind conjured the picture of Jack Hotchner lying in a coffin if she failed. Hermione had only met the boy once, but he reminded her of Teddy and she couldn't help the tears that filled her eyes. Lucius would kill Jack like a normal person would swat a fly.
"I can't do this," she said. "I had help last time. Harry stunned the guard, Griphook knew the layout, Ron provided my back up and I was disguised!"
"You'll have help this time," Lucius promised, turning to the fire place. He performed an incantation and green flames exploded. The flames leaped and danced growing larger and larger. Suddenly there was loud bang and a portly older man in a three-piece suit fell out of the fire and landed at Lucius' feet.
He rolled over groaning. "What the heck? Where am I?"
"Welcome to Hermione Granger's apartment," Lucius greeted him cordially. "I'm Lucius Malfoy. We haven't met before."
At Lucius' name, the man went pale. "You escaped from Azkaban! I read it in the paper!"
"I did."
"He'll go back as soon as Harry knows he's missing," Hermione assured the newcomer.
"You place a lot of faith in someone who spent half the war wandering around the forest," Lucius drawled mockingly.
"What do want form me!" the hefty man demanded belligerently.
"This is Simon Eaton," Lucius told Hermione. "He's the Treasurer of the United States and the manager of the National Bank. He should be quite helpful to you."
"Helpful?" Simon inquired, looking baffled.
"We're going to rob the National Bank," Hermione told him flatly.
For a moment Mr. Eaton looked shocked but he quickly composed himself. Spinning around, he faced down Lucius. "I refuse," he snapped.
"Do you?" Lucius jeered. "I'd quite enjoy that." He turned to Hermione. "I'll be ridding the world of one more vermin. It always makes me feel so….. cheerful."
Her stomach turned over at the delight in Lucius' shark like eyes. She faced Simon.
"Mr. Eaton, you don't know me and you don't have any reason to trust me. But I'm telling you that a little boy's life hangs in the balance. His name is Jack Hotchner and he's ten years old. This man placed a hexed bracelet on him this afternoon. If we don't do what he says, he'll kill Jack. That's why I'm doing this."
Mr. Eaton swallowed hard. "How can I believe you?"
Hermione pulled out her military I.D. card from her pocket and handed it to him. "I really am Hermione Granger," she told him.
He straightened looking at her properly for the first time, studying her in detail. He squinted at her picture on the card and peered at her one more time. "My goodness," he exclaimed. "It is you! I didn't recognize you at first."
"Lovely. Now that you've been introduced, go fetch me all the gold in that treasury," Lucius ordered.
Hermione followed closely behind Simon Eaton as they entered the back of the National Bank. The beautiful Neoclassical building wasn't as pretty from the alley way. Green slime decorated the cinderblock walls around them and it felt about ten degrees colder.
Simon fumbled with the door's lock and then forced it open. "We don't use this entrance anymore," he explained quietly. "It's not up to code for a bank to have multiple entry points but we haven't gotten around to fixing this old building."
He shoved on the door with a hard push from his shoulder. It opened with a loud creak and Hermione flinched at the sound as she followed Mr. Eaton inside. The banker led her into the lobby and towards the front of the building. Just as they turned the corner, he paused, halting. "Look," Simon said softly turning to face her. "I didn't want to tell you about this before, but you need to know. There are guards in the vault."
"What?" Hermione hissed. "In the vault? Like inside of it?"
"They patrol the tunnels leading to it."
"How many? Where?"
"They're on rotation. They walk through and do periodic checks on the contents. Usually there are four guards but I gave Thomas the night off because his wife is sick."
"Three guards are manageable," Hermione said. "What about wards and protection spells?"
"I can undo all of those," Simon assured her. "But I can't go inside with you. The structure of the spells is designed to detect my stress and fear to prevent a situation just like this one."
"Fine. Give me directions then."
The banker pulled a pad and pen from his suit jacket's interior pocket. He drew a corridor with a fork that led to two separate vaults as Hermione watched.
"The gold that Malfoy wants is housed in the two vaults at the end," he told her. "Half is kept in each location to make theft more difficult. You'll need to undo some of the spells near the end yourself. I can't reach them and they're the most complicated spells."
"Of course," Hermione muttered.
"If you got past the Thief's Downfall in Gringotts, you'll be able to get past this," Simon promised with confidence that Hermione didn't feel. She gripped the handle of her wand tighter and tried to figure out how to get a message out. Lucius had charmed her wand so he'd know every single spell she did and he'd done the same to Simon. She had to get help for Jack, but she couldn't think of a way.
"Ready?" the banker asked her as he finished with the map.
"As I'll ever be," Hermione said.
"Think about the cost if we don't deliver," Simon advised her, passing her the crudely drawn diagram.
"I'm thinking about the cost even if we deliver. There's no guarantee that Jack isn't already dead."
The banker looked shaken by her observation. "We have no way to get help," he replied.
"Maybe not," Hermione said, looking down at her wand. "Do you have a phone?"
"No. Those muggle devices don't work in this world, there's too much interference from magic."
"Isn't the vault sealed?" Hermione asked him.
"Yes. The second vault more so because it's close to the D.C. underground. To avoid interfering their technology we had to use fewer spells on it. But I would caution you it is well defended."
"It's protected from all outside magic, correct? No spells or charms inside of it?"
"I see where you're going with this but it's unlikely. The idea that a phone could work down there is debatable and we don't even have one," Simon argued. "It's too risky. A boy's life hangs in the balance."
"If we don't do something we're practically killing him."
Simon shuddered, then wiped his hands over his face and met her eyes. "Fine. I think I know of a way to get a message out. One of the tellers has a non-magical wife. He has a cell phone that he takes out to the muggle word on his lunch break to call her."
"And?" Hermione prompted.
"He leaves it in his desk."
"You undo the wards," she told him. "Lucius is tracking our wands and he might get suspicious if we waste time."
Simon instructed her which teller's desk to search and pulled back the paneling at the back of the lobby to reveal a set of stairs. From there he undid spells, charms, hexes and jinxes. By the time that Hermione returned he was half way done. She stood back and watched as he worked, her nerves finally settling in. Simon finished quickly and turned to her with a fine sheen of sweat beaded on his brow.
"It's open as far as the vault. This is a far as I can take you. Just remember, there are only spells over the vaults. I've undone everything else. The spells are in a random rotation so no one knows what spells are covering the vault on any particular day. Remember to be careful of the guards."
Hermione nodded and disillusioned herself. She took a deep breath as she stepped down the first step of the stairwell.
"Good luck," Simon told her grimly.
A sharp ring from the rotary telephone on Harry's desk startled him.
"What?" Harry answered it. The phone was designed to work despite the magical interference and he used the device to speak to muggle authorities that the D.A. cooperated with joint operations.
Hermione's voice came through. "Harry?"
"What's up?"
"I'm in the middle of robbing the National Treasury of the Magical United States."
"Need any help?"
"No!"
"It was just an offer," Harry said at her offended tone. "How are you even calling me from there?"
"One of the bank employees is married to muggle and he leaves his cell phone in his desk. His absent mindedness is my life line," she explained. "Listen, I don't have much time. Lucius is in D.C. he's given Jack Hotchner a hexed bracelet that he says will kill him. I need you to get that bracelet off of him."
"Whoa, slow down. Start from the beginning," Harry ordered straightening in his chair.
Hermione back tracked and started again. She told Harry how Lucius had been in her apartment after she'd gotten back from the assignment in Tennessee. She relayed, almost word for word, her conversation with Lucius and the plan to rob the Treasury.
There was a crash on the other end of the line. "Hermione?"
"I have to go," she said quickly. "Save Jack. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to him."
The line went dead and Harry sat frozen. Then he dialed the number for the director of the FBI.
Hermione shot a bombardia spell behind her, hoping to slow down the approaching guard. While she'd been on the phone, one of the pallets of gold that she had minimized rejected the spell and re-enlarged itself, knocking into the wall with a crash. Now she was trapped in the second vault with a bag of enough gold to bank roll a small nation and three guards firing on her. She needed something big to get out of this situation but there was no dragon for her to steal this time. A killing curse hit the wall beside her and she heard the guard's footsteps moving closer. The vault was a square room with one door and no other points of entry. She was pinned down. Yet another killing curse flashed just over the top of her head.
"Come out with your hands above your head!" one of the guards yelled.
Hermione realized that she had no options. If she surrendered, Jack would die. If she didn't surrender, she would die and so would Jack. There was no decision to be made. She put her wand on the floor and pushed it towards the door in a sign of surrender.
"I'm unarmed!" she shouted. "I'm coming out."
"Hands over your head, move slowly," the guard instructed.
She did as he asked and with deliberate steps she moved into the door way. The moment that she was in the guard's line of vision, a white spell hit her square in the chest.
Hermione dropped to the ground as a wave of pain almost made her lose consciousness. A stunner? No, those were red. A body binding spell, she realized. The guards approached her and her arms were wrenched unpleasantly behind her back. Through a magical haze she felt herself being lifted by magic and carried through the same tunnels that she'd raced through earlier. The guards walked behind her so that she couldn't see them, but she could hear three distinct sets of footsteps. A numbness spread through Hermione's chest as she thought of Jack Hotchner. She was sorry that she'd failed him. In the lobby the group stopped.
"Where's the other guy?" a voice asked.
"What other guy?" the guard who'd shot her with the spell asked.
"He was just here. I stunned him."
"Expellaramius! Stuplify!" Simon's voice cut through the air, and there was the sound of a body hitting the floor.
Cries of pain and grunts sounded as more spells flew. Simon was battling the guards with everything he had. Suddenly she dropped from the where she hung, suspended in the air and crashed to the marble floor.
"I'm so sorry," Simon apologized rushing over and kneeling by her side. He performed a spell and she felt the body binding magic ease.
"No apology necessary. That was impressive," Hermione told the banker, propping herself up on her elbows.
"I was the head of the East Coast Dueling club my senior year," he said with a bashful smile.
The familiar crack of aparation behind them had both wizards spinning to face Lucius Malfoy. "Very good," the pale man praised, studying the scene in the lobby. Hermione glanced at the guards, all of which were unconscious. As she looked back towards Lucius, he flicked his wand, wordlessly sending out a green curse. Hermione realized what it was an instant too late. She flung herself in front of Simon, but the spell flew by her and struck him in the chest. Simon Eaton was dead before he hit the floor.
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