Write a Muggle!AU, a Noir, or a Soap Opera. QLFC Round 13 Keeper Prompt for Puddlemere United
"I was being sarcastic." Quidditch Pitch
Write about passion and reason working side by side. Potions Club
Write about a character who relies on their intuition to make a decision. Ancient Runes Assignment #7
Hermione Granger Extra Prompt

Dedicated to the members of my team for an excellent run this season, my housemates over in Slytherin on the Hogwarts Houses Challenges forum for their support, and the Ravenclaws over on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Forum for being so welcoming! Love you Guys!

Word Count: 2,630


Hermione screamed as a splattering of bullets hit the wall above her head. Plaster dust and chunks of concrete fell onto her curled up body, and the brunette found herself unable to stop shivering. Screams and the loud bangs of a gun being fired filled the air, and Hermione just stayed behind the large potted plant.

All she had wanted was to set up a bank account, was that too much to ask?

It must have been because seconds after she had entered the place, a bunch of men in silver masks and long black trench coats barreled in, waving around rifles and pistols, screaming for everyone to get down. The young woman had darted behind a large green pot that contained a palm tree, then some idiot decided to tackle one of the men shouting for money. Of course, that just caused chaos to reign down on everyone else.

"Psst!"

Hermione's head jerked up from underneath her arms and whipped around. There was a doorway behind her, and crouched in it, was a man with messy black hair and emerald green eyes. Confusion filled the woman as the man sighed and gestured with his hand for her to crawl his way. She hesitated for a second, wondering if she should do as the man wanted. Her gut was screaming for her to do it and so she steeled her nerves. A glance over her shoulder confirmed that the rest of the men dressed in black were all busy with getting the money from the tellers, and then the brunette was making a dash for it.

"What do you want?" Her question came out in a harsh whisper and the man chuckled. He grabbed her upper arm, pulling her into a run. "Where are we going?!"

"There's a safe room! I've already gathered a couple of people there!" The voice was slightly rough as he dragged her down a second hallway. "I'm a police officer and I've got a plan to get as many people out of the way as possible. When we get there, I need you to keep calm and keep quie—"

Hermione yanked the man to a stop, grunting in pain as his grip on her arm tightened. "Hold on a second! I don't know who you are; how do I know that you aren't one of those men and are taking me hostage? Hell, I don't even know your name!"

"Really? You're going to do this now?"

"Yes! I don't want to die!" Hermione huffed and put her hands on her hips. Incredulous laughter erupted from the man and he ran his hands through his hair once before turning his gaze back to her.

"I don't know how to prove to you I'm not the bad guy," the man spoke. "The only way I think to convince you is for you to come with me." He held out his hand and Hermione stared at the limb.

"Fine." She reached out and placed her hand in his, ignoring the shiver that ran down her spine in response. "I'm placing my life in your hands. Try not to lose it."

"Heh, my name's Harry by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Hermione. Pleasure's mine, I think," the brunette groaned as the man once again tugged her into a run. Another minute or so of running and then Harry was pulling her to a stop in front of a large grey door. Hermione was gasping for air, cursing her bookworm ways, while Harry reached up a hand to knock on the door. A jaunty tune followed, and the door opened immediately. A blonde woman with large blue eyes was staring out of the crack in the door.

"Oh, it's just Harry. You can put the chair down now, Ron." A bright smile filled the strange woman's face and she stepped back, pulling the door open with her. A man with shaggy red hair was lowering a desk chair back to the floor, a sheepish smile on his face.

"Really? A chair?" Hermione questioned as the two entered the room and the door was once again hut tight.

"What's wrong with the chair? It's a perfectly good weapon." Ron crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the new woman.

"You throw the chair at one assailant and it works, but what if there was a second one? Or a third? You don't even know if the chair would affect the first attacker. Sure, it's a great way to stun them for a couple seconds, but it wouldn't have worked in the first place," she lectured as she walked over to a corner and placed her back to it.

"Well I—You—Harry, just who is this girl?!" Ron's face got redder and redder, eventually stopping at a color that was just purple enough to stand out from his hair.

"Excuse you?" Hermione shoved away from the wall and stood at full height, brushing a lock of bushy hair away from her eyes so that she could glare unobstructed at the man-child.

"Ronald, be nice. She's being helpful, and you're being rude. Hello, my name's Luna Lovegood. Pleasure to meet you!"

"Rude?! I was just trying to pro—"

"Her name's Hermione, and she's right." Harry interrupted the raving man with a raised hand. "Now, we need to come up with a plan on how to save the rest of those people."

"Well, they'll be left alive as long as no one else tries to play hero, right?" Ron questioned, sitting in the chair and throwing one leg over the other. "We should just stay here and try to not cause any more trouble."

"There's a mechanical room that contains backup generators." Luna stated airly, settling herself on the redheads knee without a smidgen of embarrassment. Ron blushed and turned his face away. Hermione grinned behind her hand and then turned to the man they had unwittingly declared leader.

"We could always break the chair that Ron's sitting on and have each of us take a part before going out there and using them as bats," Hermione drawled, settling her weight into her left foot and staring at the ceiling.

"Are—are you crazy?"

"I think she's gone mad."

Hermione blinked and refocused her gaze on the couple in the chair. Luna's mouth had dropped open, and Ron was staring at her as if she had a disease. Hysterical giggles escaped her mouth before she could stop them. Eventually her laughter came to a stop, and she took a deep breath before shooting everyone a reassuring smile.

"I was being sarcastic. I would never actually suggest that, but the nerves are getting to me."

"I understand." Harry had been quiet for awhile, so his voice startled her. "You needed to do something to take the edge off or you would've panicked. There's a woman called Tonks who works with my Uncle that does the same thing." A soft smile was sent her way, and Hermione felt her heart beat a little fast.

"Alright," Hermione clapped her hands together and then began to think out loud. "We need to figure out if we can get to the power source for the bank. Luna, you said you knew where the storage room is?"

"Yes, I do. I'm a bank teller here."

"We need paper and pencil so that Luna can draw us a map of this place, if we know where we're going, there's a lesser chance of getting killed due to running straight into a wave of bullets." The brunette began to pace the room, unaware of the looks of awe on the others faces as she reasoned out a plan. "From there, we can do an inventory of this room and the surrounding rooms. Once we know what we have to work with, we can figure it out from there. Personally, I want to make sure the bastards are captured and are never able to do that again, but I don't want anyone to die if we try to be heroes."

Everyone was silent, and Hermione grew increasingly nervous. She had done it again, spoke without thinking, and any second now she would get ridiculed for it. A sign from the right drew her gaze; green eyes held hers for what seemed to be hours. Finally, the man nodded and grinned at her.

"It's a plan. Hermione, Luna, you two stay here while Ron and I scout out the rooms adjacent to this one and gather everything you think could be useful." Harry spoke quickly, walking over to the door and cracking it. The blonde groaned and slipped off of Ron's lap.

"I was so comfortable though."

Hermione let a giggle slip through her lips at the pouting woman and then turned to begin digging through the cabinet that was in front of her.

"I found a Snickers!" Luna's delighted voice filtered over from the left, and Hermione felt some of the tension leave her. They were going to survive. She had no clue as to why she felt this way, all she knew was that she had faith in the man who had dragged her away from a potted plant, a man who had planned to chuck a chair at her the first time she met him, and a woman who didn't seem fazed by gunmen interrupting her work day.

The feeling of cold metal underneath her fingers brought her out of her mind and she focused on her task once again. A round object was drawn out of the cabinet and into the light, and Hermione's jaw dropped in shock.

"Is this...a smoke grenade?"

Luna's head popped up over her shoulder, staring for a couple of seconds and then letting out a large gasp.

"I've been looking for this! I had brought it for the Halloween party last year and we ended up not using it!"

The small object was yanked out of her hands and Hermione found herself giggling once again. Knocking on the door startled her out of her hysterics, and both girls stared at the door.

Knock. Knockknockknock. Knock Knock.

"Oh, that's Harry's knock!" Luna exclaimed with glee, skipping over to the door and opening it once again. The two men stumbled in, arms filled with random things that they dumped into a pile right in front of the chair Ron had sat in earlier.

"That's from the three surrounding rooms," Ron panted. "What did you guys find?"

Luna and Hermione grinned at each other.

"I found a smoke grenade and a section of rope roughly 10 feet long." The brunette brought her hand up to her face and pretended to glance over her nails with a smirk.

"I found a Snickers! I ate though, so it's not here any more." The bank teller giggled at the pout on Ron's face.

"Wait, wait, wait...a Smoke Grenade?" Harry stared incredulously at the smirking woman.

"It was in the cabinet." Hermione gestured to the metal box behind her. "Luna said that she had brought it last year for a party, and they never used it."

Ron sputtered and Harry chuckled as the brunette and police officer made their way to the pile.

"What kind of party is that?" The redhead questioned as he gaped at the blonde. Luna grinned and tossed the grenade into the air before catching it and answering him.

"It's an interesting party!" The blonde skipped over to sit it the chair and stare at Hermione and Harry as they worked. The brunette grinned as she placed a stapler next to a paperweight. She couldn't stop herself from commenting and stirring up the conversation even more.

"Not that you would know," Harry snorted. "You don't sound like a fun guy at all. I bet you stock groceries at Walmart."

"I'm a star basketball player woman!"

"That would explain why I've never heard of you." The brunette commented as she sat back onto her legs. "I don't do sports."

"Don't do— What kind of a human are you?"

Pain flared through Hermione at the familiar words and she pursed her lips, turning her face away from the redhead and towards the police officer that had brought her to the room they were all holed up in. Her eyes remained downcast and she fidgeted with a bobblehead of a grinning pig.

"Ron," Harry's cold voice pierced through the fog of pain in her mind and the brunette's head whipped up to look at him. "That's enough."

"Geeze, I was just asking a ques—"

A knock on the door interrupted the basketball player. Everyone stilled, eyes fixed on the large metal door.

"Hello!? We heard voices! Is anyone being held hostage in there!?"

Hermione turned her gaze to Harry and began to mouth some words.

'Do you know them?'

Green eyes hardened and their owner grasped a hole-puncher, standing up and walking towards the door. One hand went to the handle while the other was held right next to his head. Luna moved to stand behind Ron and the redhead wrapped a single arm around her waist.

"I'm officer Harry Potter, ID 23378 Section F. Now, identify yourself." His voice was strong as he called out, and Hermione shivered once again. She really needed to figure out why she reacted like that every time he used his 'officer voice'.

"Harry!? Oh Thank Heavens! Your Mother would've killed me if you were dead! It's Remus— Huh?— Right! Officer Remus Lupin, ID 68921 Section G."

At this, Harry let the office supplies fall to the ground and opened the door. A man with shaggy blonde hair rushed in and enveloped his fellow officer in a hug. Hermione smiled at the sight and gingerly stood up, walking over to the two.

"If you're here, does that mean the robbery's been stopped?"

The two men sprung apart blushing, and the older man cleared his throat before nodding. It was a person from out in the hall that answered her question however, and Hermione found herself giggling.

"Yep. A couple tosser's thought that they could get in and out without a hitch, but we were stationed just around the block and were able to get here in less than five minutes. A quick threat of life in jail and they were crying and throwing their weapons down." The owner of the voice stepped through the doorway and the first thought in Hermione's mind was, Pink. The female officer had spiky pink hair that went to her shoulders and a grin a mile wide.

"Tonks, what were you and Remus up to around the block? The only things over there are a couple of fast food places and a spa." Harry questioned, moving to stand next to Hermione. Both adults blushed and Tonks glared at the green-eyed man before sticking her tongue out. Everyone laughed and Hermione felt all of the stress from the day slip from her shoulders.

She was alive, Harry and the others were alive, and they were going to stay that way if they had anything to say about it.

"Hey, you want to go for a coffee later? I figured I should pay you back for leaving that bruise on your arm."

Hermione's gut nudged her once again, and instead of hesitating she nodded her head with a smile.

"Sure, I'd like that."