CHAPTER NINE
Summary: Hermione Granger, one of the brightest minds of her generation, makes a decision that will ultimately change her future plans. At twenty-three, she finds herself moving to a strange town that's a hell-mouth for supernatural beings, pregnant, and in way over her head. And the father of her unborn child? The tall, dark and handsome werewolf, Derek Hale. Rated M for a reason.
Disclaimer: I do not own canon events and characters, they belong to J.K Rowling and the creators of Teen Wolf and MTV. This is purely for entertainment purposes and I am not making a profit from the posting of this. This is set after Season 3, and everything from season 4 onwards doesn't happen; so no deadpool, Beast, Dread Doctors, Wild Hunt or Hunters. Allison still died, Liam will still be appearing, and there is no Kira or Malia. Derek is 22 and Hermione is 23. I'm fudging the time line a bit, too.
Page count: 11
They ate their food quickly with James sending Derek knowing looks and him replying with glares and growls, while Hermione remained quiet with a pillow held against her face. In all honestly, Derek thought she'd fallen asleep, but when she heard the rustling of wrappers being thrown into the bin, she removed the pillow from her face to see both werewolves having finished with dinner.
She cast a subtle and quick silent Ventilation Charm in the room to rid of the smell before pushing herself up in a sitting position and turning to plant her feet on the floor.
"So, got any gossip for me?" She asked. James looked confused and a chuckle escaped from Derek as he shook his head slightly.
"No gossip," he said.
Hermione frowned in disappointment. "Well, this was a wasted trip." He snorted at her. "So, what's the plan?"
"The plan?" James asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, the plan. I'm here now and I gave you a few days to sort this out yourselves," she said, pointedly looking at Derek.
He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "You want to involve your people," Derek spoke knowingly. She shrugged and James looked between the two of them confused.
"If I don't and someone finds out, I could lose my job, but I'm not thinking about me, I'm think about James and his family. How are you going to deal with the hunter? Do you plan on killing him? If you do, you've both harmed a human and regardless of the fact he's a hunter, he's still a human which means you'll lose the protection of my people and you'll be on your own and a known safety risk. Rather than having our protection you'll become our enemies."
Derek frowned. "And that's something we want to avoid, I don't want your people hunting us down, especially if they know who we are and where we are."
"Exactly, but if you let me take care of it, I can take the hunter into custody, he'll be charged and put on trial for his crimes and imprisoned. As for the werewolf, seeing as he's one of you and he's harmed a member of your pack, you have every legal right to kill him should you wish to. I could take him into custody but unless he's harmed a human, he'll probably walk free. The ones that were taken, are they werewolves?" Derek nodded. "I hate to say this, but the best option is to take him out of the equation permanently. He'll obviously just find another hunter to work with if we don't stop him, but his crimes aren't punishable by the laws of my people. We'll have to kill the werewolf and capture the hunter, it's the only option that allows you both to remain on the protection list."
"What the hell are you talking about?" James asked, his slightly narrowed eyes darting between them.
"None of your business," Hermione replied, while Derek said, "Nothing,"
"You two are starting to annoy me with all these secrets you're keeping," James complained.
"Tough," they both said, before looking to each other in surprise.
"Oh great, and you're speaking in unison. What's next, finishing each other's sentences?"
"Me breaking your nose," Derek answered, sending him a glare but James just look amused.
"Anyway," Hermione spoke, pulling their attention. "We should make a move tonight."
"It's too soon," James shook his head.
"Exactly, as far as they're aware, Derek was seriously injured and he needs a few days to heal, which means they know you won't be going after them again. Their guard will be down and it's unlikely they'll make another move, they'll be laying low. But we have an advantage, they don't know that Derek's fine and they certainly don't know you have me, and I'm your biggest player in this."
"How can you help exactly?" James asked with a curiously raised eyebrow and he sat forward in his chair.
"I told you she was powerful and I meant it, I've never met anyone like her before," Derek answered.
"I have a particular set of skills and capabilities that I can't tell you about," she said.
"You know what, I don't even care," James said. "I assume you have a plan?"
"I do," she nodded. "First of all, I need a bit of information. Do you know who the hunter is?"
"Shaun Dexter," Derek said.
"I'm sure I've heard his name before," she frowned thoughtfully. "I'll be right back," she said, standing up from the bed and lifting her jacket from the ground and slipping it on.
"Where are you going?" Derek asked, looking as though he wanted to follow her.
"I need to gather some information, and no, you can't come with me. I'll only be half an hour at most."
Before he could reply, she strode out of the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Derek staring at the door.
"Well, I like her," James spoke.
~000~000~000~
"I'm alive and there's not a mark on me," she rolled her eyes, as she stepped into the room and Derek immediately stopped in his pacing, his eyes checking her over for injuries. "And would you look at that, I was only gone twenty-three minutes."
James snorted and shifted in his seat, putting his phone on the table and giving her his attention.
"Right, I've gotten that information I needed and I know where I know the name from. Shaun Dexter is in our system, he's a known hunter and my people have been trying to catch him for two years now. According to our data, he's got fifty-three confirmed kills under his belt and he's suspected of another twenty-six. We haven't been able to catch him because he moves around too frequently. He doesn't just stick to America, he's international with kills in Asia and Europe, but given how well my previous department is run, he stayed far away from Britain otherwise we would've caught him. I can guarantee he'll be sentenced to prison for his crimes and he'll get a life sentence without chance of release. He'll die in a cell."
James looked surprised at what she'd learned and Derek impressed.
"We do have a list of known acquaintances of Dexter so we shouldn't assume that hasn't called for assistance now that he knows you're onto him, which means we need to get this dealt with as quickly as possible. That just leaves the werewolf, seeing as you don't know his identity I wasn't able to search the archives, so we're blind when it comes to him, but I may be able to find him and a lot quicker than either of you."
"Really?" James looked sceptical.
"She found me with only my first name," Derek told him. "She knows what she's doing." He then turned to Hermione. "What do you need?"
"I'm assuming you managed to get a few blows in with the werewolf?"
He nodded. "Cut his stomach up a bit."
"That's good," she said, moving over to the bin where she dug out Derek's bloodied and torn t-shirt and she threw it to him. He caught it, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Can you distinguish between your blood and his?"
"I don't see why not," he shrugged, and when she looked at him pointedly he lifted the t-shirt to his nose and began sniffing at it.
"I've seen it all now," James spoke, crossing his arms over his chest and stretching his legs out and crossing them at the ankles.
"I assure you, you haven't," Hermione replied.
"There's five blood spots that aren't mine," Derek.
She took the t-shirt from him and walked over to the table, spreading the t-shirt out on the surface and she pulled a marker pen from seemingly out of nowhere, making James blink slowly, wondering where it had come from.
"Point them out for me," she instructed him.
He came up behind her, pressing his chest against her back, one hand coming up to curl around her hip and the other reached around her to point out each of the blood markings that weren't his and Hermione drew a circle around them.
"Now I can work my magic and track the werewolf and it's safe to assume that where the werewolf is, Dexter is, too."
"And how are you going to track them?" James asked, looking amused at the way Derek didn't step back from her; in fact, he seemed to tighten his hold on her, his hand slipping from her hip to rest against her stomach.
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out," she replied. Derek snorted at his friend's scowl. "Since I know Mr. Protective," she gestured to Derek with her thumb, "Isn't going to let me anywhere near the werewolf, I'll handle Dexter."
"That's no better, he has bullets," he spoke.
"I have my ways, Derek, and you know I do. You've seen it."
"Your defensive measures can withstand bullets?" He asked surprised.
"The more powerful ones can, but the pregnancy's taking a lot of me lately so I'll be tired afterwards. I won't have a lot of time when Dexter realises that I've weakened so I'll have to be quick."
"He won't tell us where Ronnie and Connor are, I know he won't," James said.
"Believe me, I'll find your cousins, all he needs to do is look into my eyes."
"Care to elaborate further?"
"No,"
"Thought not," he sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"Right, we'll wait for the cover of darkness, in the mean time, I'm going to start work on tracking this werewolf. Don't disturb me because I guarantee my response will not be unpleasant," she said.
She picked up the t-shirt and then nudged Derek to step away from her. He seemed reluctant to do so but after his hand smoothed over her stomach he stepped back and she stepped around him and disappeared in the bathroom, shutting the door behind herself.
"What's she doing in there?" James asked.
"I don't know, and I'm not entirely sure I want to," Derek replied.
"Are you sacred of her?" James asked with a frown, but amusement broke through in his tone.
"Not of her, but I'd be an idiot if I wasn't scared of what she's capable of," he admitted.
"What is she? I won't tell anyone, you know I won't. Not only do you genuinely seem to care about her, she's carrying your pup, the future of your pack."
"I can't tell you, not because I don't trust you, but because if anyone found out that you knew, it'd get her in a lot of trouble and she'll be imprisoned. Her people have very strict laws about remaining undetected. She had to work her way around the laws just to tell me, something about the baby almost certainly being like her which meant I had a right to know what my child would be," he shrugged. "By the sounds of it, she probably shouldn't have told me at all considering we're not married."
"Do you plan on marrying her?" James asked.
Derek sent him a scathing look. "People can have babies without having to get married, you know?"
"I didn't say they couldn't," he shrugged. "I'm just curious, is all."
"Well, it's none of your business, as it is, we've only just discovered we've both got a mutual attraction for the other, we've both been trying to hide it from each other for weeks."
"God, give me strength, you two are hopeless," James sighed, dropping his head into his hands.
~000~000~000~
Night had fallen by the time Hermione had finally emerged from the bathroom and good thing, too, because James was in dire need of relieving his bladder. She'd been in the bathroom for hours and when she stepped out, Derek looked to her questioningly, wishing for answers.
"Dinner first, I'm starving, you've both had something to eat and I haven't since breakfast this morning."
"Why the hell not?" He demanded, a disapproving frown crossing his face.
"I couldn't keep my breakfast down, when it got to lunch I couldn't stomach the thought of food and then James brought back those disgusting fish tacos and I lost my appetite again," she shrugged. "I'll be back soon."
She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, and after finding somewhere to have dinner, she returned an hour later. She stepped into the room carrying a tray of beverages, and both werewolves looked up from their conversation sat the table, raising an eyebrow when they saw she had four drinks, not three.
"How'd you get to McDonald's?" James asked her. "The nearest one isn't for sixty miles or so and there's no way you got there and back and ate your food within an hour."
"Can't tell you," she replied, placing the tray on the table. She removed the two that belonged to her, both chocolate milkshakes. "Derek, I got you vanilla," she said, knowing it was his favourite as he'd mentioned it before. "James, I just got you a coke, since I didn't know what you'd prefer."
He shrugged and took the one that was his. "Doesn't bother me."
"Why've you got two? Are you expecting someone else?" Derek asked her with a raised eyebrow.
"No, my cravings have made an appearance in the form of ice-cream. I had a chocolate milkshake at the diner the other day and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it," she replied. An amused look crossed his face. "Right boys, make sure you go to the potty as we're leaving in five minutes and I don't have any puppy pads with me. I'll meet you outside."
As she stepped back through the door, Derek snorted at her and James pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I thought you were joking about her werewolf jokes," he said.
"She's not done, she usually manages to slip in six a day, and I've never heard her say the same one twice," he shrugged.
"Awesome," he sighed, while Derek stepped into the bathroom and James did the same once Derek exited.
They both made sure they had everything they needed before they left the room and Derek found Hermione standing by the side of his car with one milkshake in her hand as she drank from the other one, and he chuckled at her.
"I'm assuming you need James to follow behind us," he said as he approached her.
She nodded, "Yes," she spoke around the milkshake in her mouth. "I can't risk him seeing my personal GPS at work."
"Got it!" James called from the other side of the car park and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You werewolves really need to learn to keep your ears to yourself," she said, before she climbed into the car when Derek opened the door for her, and she was surprised when he didn't complain about having food and drink in the car. Merlin knows she certainly would've done if the car was hers.
"Where to?" Derek asked, switching on the ignition and turning to face her.
An amused smile played at his lips when she put one milkshake between her thighs and she struggled to remove her wand from her sleeve with the other milkshake in her hand, but she didn't seem to want to put it down as she still sipped at it.
He reached over and took the milkshake from her, holding out to her so she could continue sipping from it while she dug her wand out from under her jacket sleeve.
"Thanks," she said, taking the milkshake from him again. "Right, I've already tracked the werewolf and locked onto his location, my wand will give us directions, you just have to follow them. Point Me," she muttered softly.
His eyes watched her wand as it sat in the palm of her hand, and just when he thought nothing was going to happen, her wand levitated off her hand and bobbed about in the air as it twisted and turned until it landed in the direction that led to the exit of the car park.
"There you go, follow that," she instructed with a nod to her wand and she went back to sipping at her milkshake as she leaned back and shuffled in her seat to get more comfortable.
"It'll take us to where we need to go?"
"Yes, given I had access to the werewolf's blood, it'll be one hundred percent accurate, but do me a favour?"
"What?"
"Never mention that I was the one to track the werewolf."
"Why?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You see, I may have used illegal tracking measures to find him," she said sheepishly.
He stared at her in surprise before shaking his head and snorting at her. "I thought you said you were a magical police officer."
"Not quite, but it's the closest profession to what I do. But even so, I broke the laws of my people to find him and could face prison time if word gets out."
"You're something else," he shook his head, before turning his attention to pulling the car out of its parking space and moving towards the exit, taking the first left as the wand showed him. As he drove down the street he looked at the rear view mirror to see James following behind him.
~000~000~000~
They'd been driving for almost an hour and he honestly didn't know how much longer they had to go, and neither did Hermione. As a precaution he'd made a pit stop to refuel and James did the same, before they got straight back on the road.
At some point during the drive, Hermione had finished her first milkshake and moved onto the second, before she muttered a spell over it –and much to his surprise she'd done it without her wand which he didn't know was possible- and cast a Freezing Charm to ensure the ice-cream didn't melt, and she'd been falling asleep not long after.
"Tired?" Derek asked her.
"Exhausted," she replied, stifling her yawn. "I haven't slept much since you've been gone. It seems my sleep depends on your presence, too."
He frowned at her answer and briefly turned his eyes towards her, seeing her eyes closed and her head titled back.
But now, as he took another left and followed the road in the dead of night, he let his eyes wander to Hermione. At some point she'd pulled a blanket from her magical handbag and had draped it over herself, as well as stuffing part of it under her head to use as a pillow as she leaned against the window. Her breathing was even and deep and for the first time, he noticed the dark circles under her eyes. He was usually quite observant which led him to believe she'd somehow hid them from him with her magic, otherwise he would've definitely noticed sooner.
Hermione's wand started buzzing and she startled awake, jumping in her seat and the blanket falling from her lap.
"You alright?" He asked her.
"Yes," she grumbled. "Just wasn't expecting to be woken so rudely," she replied, glowering at her wand.
He snorted at her. "What does it mean? The buzzing?"
"We're nearing our destination, we have less than a mile to go."
Derek sighed in relief, before he rolled his window down and stuck his hand out for James to see and he indicated the number five twice, letting him know they'd be there in less than ten minutes.
"I really don't like the idea of you being here, I said I wouldn't allow you near a dangerous situation," he spoke, after rolling his window back up when James flashed his head lights to let him know he understood.
"It doesn't matter, it's going to take the both of you to deal with this werewolf, either leaving you unguarded against Dexter, or allowing him chance to escape. You need me and my magic on your side. And even if you tried to stop me, you wouldn't be able to. I'm with you whether you like it or not, as it is, I'm taking the less dangerous of the two."
"He has a gun, several of them in fact."
"And I have my magic. My magic's unstable as not only is my body a conductor for my magic, but the baby's growing magic, too. This means that our magic often reacts and clashes which is why my magic's harder to control and more volatile, but it also makes me more powerful if I can get our magics to work together."
"That made no sense to me," he said.
She rolled her eyes. "Essentially I've got twice the magic a regular witch does. Sometimes they meld and work together, but most of the time they fight and clash, making my magic unstable."
"Got it," he nodded. "I think."
She snorted at him. "All you need to know is I can handle myself against hunters, Dexter isn't the first I've been up against."
"He's not?" He asked surprised.
"No, back in Britain I'd get sent out to not only meet with other magical beings and creatures, but to meet with hunters, too. It was my job to ensure they stopped harming those that were innocent and if they didn't, then they were arrested and detained to face trial for their crimes against the innocent."
"So you scared the hell out of them?"
"Basically," she nodded and he snorted at her. "At any rate, I've been shot at before so guns don't frighten me."
"That doesn't make me feel any better."
"I didn't think it would, after all, allowing me anywhere near this is going against your instincts to keep me safe," she shrugged, before her eyes landed on the creepy looking building up ahead. It was too small to be a warehouse and too big to be a residence of living. "Fantastic, why is there always a creepy building involved?" She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest, rather childishly in fact.
"Speaking from experience?"
"Sadly, yes," she muttered.
When Derek pulled the car to a stop and turned off the engine, they both stepped out of the car and James soon approached them.
"This the place? You're sure?" He asked.
"Yes," Hermione nodded. "I reckon it's some kind of storage facility, it's either abandoned or isn't used very frequently, which is how they've gone undetected and you never would've been able to track them here. It's too far away for you go on scent alone, so you're welcome."
Derek rolled his eyes at her and made to move forward but her hand darted out to his arm to keep in place and he looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.
"James, turn around and don't look," she instructed.
"Why?" He questioned.
"Because I said so, that's why. Derek, make sure he doesn't look," she spoke.
He looked amused at James' annoyed scowl before he motioned for his friend to turn around, and Hermione pulled her wand, muttered under her breath and what looked to be a blue print of the building appeared with two dots marked, one red, the other white. Derek looked at her questioningly and she cancelled the spell before telling James he could turn back around.
"Right, the building only has one floor and from what I can gather, there's only two people here, Dexter and the werewolf. Dexter appears to be on the east side of the building, whereas the werewolf appears to be on the west. They may be working together but it's clear they don't like each other as they're keeping themselves separate, which makes it easier for us."
"How do you know that?" James asked.
"I just do," she replied. "If the werewolf's anywhere near as injured as Derek was, it shouldn't take you too long to get a handle on the situation, and while you're doing that, I'll take Dexter and I'll find out where he has your cousins, too."
James looked both sceptical and hopeful as he nodded and made his way back over to his car to retrieve God knows what. As he did that, Hermione turned to face Derek, putting her back to James.
"Do you trust me?" She asked him.
"Why?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Derek, do you trust me?" She repeated.
His eyes searched her face for a few moments before he nodded. "Yes, I trust you."
"That's all I needed to know," she said.
She removed her beaded bag from her jacket pocket and she stuck her hand inside, the whole of her forearm disappearing and his eyes widened in surprise. She pulled her hand back with several differently coloured potion vials and slipped her bag back into her pocket.
"Okay, this one is similar to a smoke bomb only it'll fill half of the building due its potency so if you use it, be careful," she told him, handing him the blue potion. "This one is basically an energy boost, it'll increase your speed and strength but given your werewolf metabolism, I'd say you'll have no more than five minutes so choose your timing carefully," she handed him the pink one. "And this one be very careful with. It's designed specifically for werewolves and it's used as a mercy killing for werewolves that are dying and have no chance of healing. If you pour it down his throat, it'll kill him within fifteen seconds. Be sure not to get any on yourself or it'll hurt like hell. It's poisonous if ingested, but it can still cause harm to the outer body." She handed him the silver potion.
He looked down at them for a few moments before slipping them into his pockets and nodding. "You really are handy in a fight."
"I am," she nodded in agreement. "And please be careful, I can't take the sight of you injured again," she pleaded.
He reached out and his hand encircled her wrist, pulling her into his body as he wrapped himself around her smaller frame and took in her scent.
"I'll be fine, not only do I have James with me, but your assistance, too. Not only is he outnumbered but he's overpowered."
At hearing James approaching she pulled back from Derek. "Right, let's get this over with. I'm exhausted and I'm getting quite moody over the fact I'm here in the middle of the night tracking down a murdering arsehole that's kidnapped innocent people, and I'm going to make sure Dexter feels my displeasure on the matter." James snorted and Derek chuckled. "There's three entrances to the building, if you take the back entrance, take the first right and go through the first door it'll lead you straight to the werewolf unless he's moved since I checked the building. I'll take the side entrance and I'll meet you both out here once we're done. Agreed?"
"Agreed," they both spoke.
"Alright, then let's do this."
As she stepped away she could feel Derek's worried look on her retreating back.