Start 3.4

My limbs felt leaden, mind fuzzy with exhaustion. Where was I?

"Hermione Granger?"

I snapped awake, arms and legs pressing against the floor to fling myself upright only for restraints around my arms to unbalance me. Tipping onto my back my legs scrambled for purchase, claws scraping the floor and sending a table flying. Tugging uselessly at the steel I hissed in fear and fury, fangs flashing under the halogen lights.

"Easy! Calm down Hermione, it's me, Dexter."

Dexter? The FBI. I was in - there was a gun pointed at me.

"Don't shoot her," said Dexter. "She's coming around."

The gun was… shocking. Even after being attacked by spells and swords and giant snakes that small barrel had the power to halt me in my tracks. It was a weapon uncommon in the UK but I'd seen it enough in media to understand its power. Witches were more durable than muggles, natural magic protecting them from grievous injury from falls or most diseases. We weren't bulletproof though.

Folding my legs under my arachnoid abdomen I did my best to look nonthreatening. "What happened?" I squeaked. Now that the adrenaline was fading I was reminded of how exhausted and vulnerable I was.

"You don't remember?" asked Dexter. I shook my head. "After you were exposed you let loose a wave of red light that knocked out everyone in the room. The cameras caught everything but I woke up and dragged you out of the room before anyone else saw."

"Please don't tell anyone!" I blurted. "You have to delete the tapes. If the wrong people see what I did terrible things will happen." Mostly to me, but they'd all find themselves with a few missing memories.

"I see," said Dexter. "Well this is Special Agent Wexler and he…" The agent was still pointing the gun at me, muscles stiff and eyes wide. Dexter carefully nudged the gun away from me before ushering the agent out of the room. Dexter whispered to someone just outside the door before coming back with a bemused look on his face. Setting the table back upright he gathered up the scattered papers and pens casually as if totally at ease with the spider-girl. "So, where should we start?"

He was… really cool under pressure. What sort of training did they put their lab techs through anyways? "You're going to delete the tape, right?"

"I think we can probably do that," he replied. He paused as his eyes caught on part of my file. "Your parents are dentists? Is that a normal profession for… your species?"

"I'm human," I hissed, perhaps a bit too defensively. In my defense the laws concerning demihumans (even those coming about from spell accidents) were less than kind. Some of the cases I'd turned up during my recovery from tainted polyjuice in second year were chilling.

"Right." Was he mocking me? "And your purpose for coming to this FBI field office?"

Down to business at last. "I wanted to alert you to the fact that your nuclear plants and missiles are dangerously unprotected against magic users and various supernatural creatures."

For the first time that I'd seen, he blinked. "Can you repeat that?"

"I got into one of your nuclear power plants yesterday with hardly any effort, and I'm only sixteen. Would have been even easier if that invisibility cloak actually fit me. Can I get that back by the way? I sort of umm borrowed it from a friend and I'm still using it and…" I was rambling again. I should have just stuck to the basics, not mentioned I was sixteen and needed the cloak. Not only did it give them bargaining power but now they'd think I faked my birth records.

There was a glimmer in Dexter's eyes that worried me. For the most part (excluding his muscles) he seemed an easy-going lab-tech just like he claimed; but at times it felt like there was another persona hiding just beneath the surface.

"Are you confessing or was there another point to all this?" asked Dexter.

"I was just testing the security," I said hastily. "I didn't do anything bad. But there are terrorists at large with more magic than me that could at any time. The only thing stopping them is that most wizards are dead-ignorant about muggle, err, non-magical sciences. Lucius wouldn't know a nuke if it bit him on the arse." I blushed at my own use of a curse. I really had to get over that now that I was busy saving worlds.

"Wizards?"

Did he plan on repeating stuff I said often? "Yes, wizards and witches and werewolves and dementors that can suck out your soul." Frankly I thought being half-spider was enough proof of the supernatural but I could tell he still needed convincing. "Lumos." A sphere of not-light hovered over my hand, casting the room into shifting shadow. A bit more threatening than my old, normal lumos, but I felt it did the job. "Believe me now?"

His pencil cracked. "Yes, I believe I do."

"Good, because if I don't get back to Scotland soon some very dangerous people might come looking for me. First they'll wipe all your memories and then they'll toss me in jail for the rest of my life - or worse. So, can I go now?"

"Give me a moment." He left the room for ten minutes before returning with his hand obscured by Harry's invisibility cloak and the keys to my cuffs. "You're free to go. We would like to speak with you again soon though."

I was hesitant but I didn't want to risk staying in handcuffs. "Sure. Just send the mail to my parents and they'll make sure it gets to me. And make sure you're careful who you tell about this. Not everyone is who you think they are."

Three hours later I was on a plane headed back to Scotland. 'Mission accomplished.'