Chapter 8

A/N: Hello readers! New chapter!

I always put dividers in my stories, but I've noticed that sometimes the line thingies don't show up in the posted chapters, it just appears as an extra space between paragraphs... It's not me, it's ff . net...

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed (I just noticed that this story was over 100. I've been reading them all, but didn't notice the numbers)! Also thanks to irianaceleste for betaing!

To the Guest who guessed about Cassy and Sylvester: Nope. Good try though.

~Frosty

Draco and Smith were both sporting black eyes and other assorted bruises the next morning at breakfast. Despite their injuries, they both seemed to be in good spirits. They had somehow managed to bond over their mutual fondness for violence – specifically beheading things.

"What about a vampire?" Draco asked the other man. He and Auror Smith were seated at the table sipping tea as Hermione and Cassy were making breakfast.

After some discussion, it had been decided that meal preparation would alternate between the adults. When she saw that Hermione was getting ready to prepare a meal, Cassy had insisted on helping. Unfortunately, the safe house wasn't exactly stocked with a wide variety of food. The only acceptable breakfast item was eggs, so Hermione was forced to fend off Sylvester with a spatula while she cooked.

"Ha! Vampires are child's play. If you want a challenge, you should try beheading a harpy. Some of them keep fighting even without their head. Too stupid to die properly, like chickens."

Draco contemplated this as Hermione set a big bowl of scrambled eggs on the table. Without even properly looking, he expertly fended off Sylvester's sneak attack with a jab of his fork that had the horse squealing and hiding behind Cassy. Hermione and Draco were quite used to Sylvester breaking out of whatever room he had been locked in and then storming the table in search of eggs.

"You have a problem," Hermione said to the small horse, who just snorted at her and went back to staring longingly at Cassy's now full plate.

Not wanting the poor child to have to battle against the horse just to eat her food, Hermione snatched Sylvester and carried his wiggling form to Cassy's room. Sylvester had an annoying habit of escaping locked rooms, but it would take him a while, especially with a round door knob. Since they didn't know how he did it, they couldn't stop him. They could, however, buy themselves a little time to eat while he freed himself.

When everyone was finally sitting at the table and eating, Hermione carefully broached the subject of their plans for the day.

"There's something Draco and I have to take care of at work," she started with what she thought was appropriate nonchalance. Draco's eye roll suggested otherwise, but she was well used to ignoring him.

Auror Smith interrupted before she could finish. "I'm sure as hell not sitting here and watching the kid while you two traipse off to wherever."

Worried that the Auror's harsh words would hurt Cassy's feelings, Hermione quickly looked at the little girl. Thankfully, she barely seemed to notice that she was at the center of Smith's anger. Cassy was shovelling her food into her mouth at a rate that would probably have made Ron proud had he been there to witness it and wasn't too bust stuffing his own face to notice.

"We're just going to have to bring the both of you along with us then," Draco said with finality.

"When I said bring them with us, I was under the impression that we were going to see the Oracle of Delphi, not headed off to do our normal annoyingly tedious work."

Had Hermione's eyes not been clenched tightly shut, she would have rolled them. She was clinging on the back of his broomstick and not really pleased with the position. While Hermione was perfectly capable of riding her own broom, she wasn't as good at manoeuvring as Draco and she tended to squeeze her eyes shut during sharp turns or changes in altitude.

"I didn't want to tangle Cassy and Auror Smith in our divine quarrel. They don't deserve to have gods out to get them just because we're impatient and Auror Smith is a little pigheaded."

She squeezed her arms tighter around Draco's waist when her partner increased the angle of their ascension. Draco always had a little too much fun whenever he could get her on a broom. The sadistic part of him enjoyed having her perched behind him and completely at his mercy.

Cassy, unlike Hermione, was having a great time. She was too young to ride on her own, so she was perched on the back of Auror Smith's broom – with numerous sticking spells to hold her in place even if she forgot to hold on. She cackled with laughter every time Auror Smith dipped their broom or swayed to the side to avoid obstacles.

Not wanting to put Cassy and less so Auror Smith near any gods, Hermione had made a quick stop to her office to pick up the files that had accumulated while she'd been away. The one she'd chosen to handle first was very straightforward and not really dangerous at all. They needed to fly to the top of an admittedly steep and isolated cliff where they were to check the nests of some rather unique birds. According to Hermione's file, there was only a single pair of them left, but the locals had suggested that they thought the birds may have laid an egg.

Once great in numbers, the Stymphalian birds had been hunted by Wizards and robbed of habitat by Muggles. It was all very sad, really. Their story was one that wasn't uncommon enough in both the Muggle and Magical worlds.

Not being the nurturing types, the birds were known to leave their eggs alone for long periods of time. When Hermione and Draco landed on the precarious outer edge of the cliff, the egg was thankfully unsupervised.

Auror Smith hovered nearby. He couldn't really land properly when Cassy was thoroughly stuck to the back of his broom, and he didn't seem all that interested in creature conservation besides.

The nest was small, so it was easy to see that there was a bronze lump the size of a normal chicken egg nestled there among the sticks and bits of fluff.

Hermione searched around in the beaded bag at her hip until she found her magical camera. She snapped a quick picture of the egg for future files. If the Stymphalian birds were multiplying, the Ministry needed to know about it not only for preservation of the species, but for protection of people everywhere.

That done, she took another picture, not wanting to get back on the broom until the last possible moment. Besides, the sooner they wrapped up their business here, the sooner they would all be back in the safe house, trapped there and bickering.

An enraged screech had Hermione and Draco both reaching for their wands. It seemed that the parents had returned to their nest, and they didn't sound pleased to find that their egg had visitors.

"Let me guess," Draco grumbled, "I can't behead these."

"Don't even think about it. And be careful with magic, their feathers can reflect it if the spell hits them at the right angle." Hermione stepped away from the nest and braced herself for the birds to attack, mentally going over her inventory of stunning spells that may work without causing harm to the endangered creatures.

The birds were roughly goose-like in both size and shape but with a few minor differences. Their beak, for one, was that of a predator, more like a hawk's than a normal goose and made of a shiny, razor-sharp bronze. This was because the Stymphalian birds were man-eaters. They were designed for shredding flesh.

Another noticeable difference from geese was their feathers. Like the beak, their feathers were razor sharp and also bronze. Hermione knew from her file that these feathers could actually be launched at enemies and had been known to do considerable damage. If they hit in the right place, one of those feathers could kill a person instantly.

So maybe it was a little less than perfectly safe, but Hermione had made sure that Cassy was wearing clothing stitched with spellwork that would essentially stop any random projectile from injuring her. On top of that, Auror Smith had been instructed to stay well away from the birds in the event that things got ugly. Cassy was well taken care of and perfectly safe.

Shockingly, the birds drew out of their dive as soon as they saw Cassy. In seconds they went from fierce predators intent on consuming the flesh of those who sought to disturb their nest to meek little geese. Both Stymphalian birds landed on the ground near the place where Cassy and Auror Smith hovered and waited as if they expected a treat.

"What's going on?" Draco hissed, low enough that only Hermione could hear.

Her eyes were narrowed as she surveyed the scene before them. "I have some theories, but I don't want to confirm anything until I'm sure."

Draco groaned. "If you suspect Cassy is a god, for the love of Merlin, just tell me your theories. They're almost always right anyway. I don't want to be blindsided this time."

"Let's get back on the broom before those birds decide they might want to eat us after all."

"Maybe they think Smith's going to feed them the child," Draco mused.

"Draco, we're leaving." Hermione was already standing beside the broom waiting for them.

"I've never seen you so eager to get on a broom. Well, except that one time we were using the word broom to describe my-"

The only thing keeping Hermione from hexing him on the spot was the fact that Cassy and Smith were watching them curiously, wondering what was taking them so long.

"This is not the time, Malfoy. Get on the broom."

Smirking, Draco did as she asked. He knew when he'd reached the line, knew better than to cross it when there were deadly man-eating birds in the vicinity. His partner just might leave him there to be torn apart.

Remarkably, the birds just watched as Draco and Hermione mounted the broom and flew away, followed closely by Auror Smith and Cassy. The little girl giggled all the way, smiling and waving at the birds.

"Bye pretty birds!" she called.

With the way the sun glinted off the bright bronze of their feathers and beaks, the birds really were quite pretty in a razor-sharp death machine kind of way.

"Something shook loose in her head while she was with those snake women. The kid's an adrenalin junky now," Draco grumbled.

"- and then," Cassy told a rapt Sylvester excitedly, "We flew on brooms like witches on the Telly!"

They were back at the safe house, none the worse for the wear from their little outing. Hermione was busy doing the paperwork from their outing while seated at the coffee table in the sitting room.

As always when she did paperwork, Draco was beside her being a distraction. This time, he was distracting her by sleeping with his head in her lap.

They hadn't really had a chance to fully recharge after their stint in Antarctica and the both of them were still fatigued. Unfortunately, since Auror Smith was off securing the perimeter of the safe house and whatnot, Hermione needed to be there to supervise Cassy.

The girl's awed way of speaking about magic sent a jolt through Hermione. Since they'd found her in a magical shop, she'd automatically assumed that the girl was magical as well, but Cassy was speaking like a Muggle. Hermione couldn't believe that it actually hadn't occurred to her that the girl could be Muggle.

Someone was bound to have reported the loss of their little girl. The Ministry had contacts with Muggle law enforcement. She could contact them and see if anyone had reported Cassy missing.

Suddenly, Sylvester squawked and launched himself away from Cassy. He flew towards the window and hovered in front of it. On the outside, a crow could be seen faintly against the darkness on the other side of the glass, mirroring Sylvester's movements.

Crows again. Hermione had never seen Sylvester have a problem with any wildlife until the appearance of these crows. Something was going on with them, but she wasn't sure what.

Her musings were interrupted when Smith stomped back into the room then, looking displeased with life in general and the scene Hermione and Draco made specifically.

"Well isn't this a pleasant little picture. Do you treat all of your colleagues with such... hospitality?" His tone made it clear that he wasn't just talking about lending her lap as a pillow. He'd been in a bad mood ever since they'd returned to the safe house, snapping at everyone. This though, this was too far.

Hermione tensed unconsciously. "I don't like what you're implying," she snapped, keeping her voice low so she didn't wake her partner.

Her cheeks were burning. She couldn't believe the implication that she was some kind of workplace slag. It was people like him who made it difficult for women in the workplace. Hermione could take it, but she had heard stories about female Aurors who hadn't lasted and she was willing to bet that Auror Smith had contributed to their resignation.

Sometime after Smith's entrance, Cassy had slipped from the room, that uncanny sense that children had alerting her to conflict.

Smith looked her up and down in a way that made her uncomfortable. She had met hardened Aurors before, but Smith was a different kind of callous. There was a complete lack of empathy, sympathy, or any kind of soft emotion in his eyes. He was all coldness and violence. Hermione fought off a shudder at the coldness in his gaze.

Without waiting to see what else she had to say about his little unnecessarily voiced opinion, Smith sauntered into the kitchen as if he hadn't just insulted her horribly. Hermione watched him go with a mixture of disbelief and anger, repeatedly reminding herself that hexing him as his back was turned would be a terrible idea. Satisfying, but terrible.

Her attention was jerked back when a hand slid up her cheek and tilted her head down to look at her partner. His eyes were bright with anger but his touch was gentle.

"How long were you awake?" she asked.

"As soon as he walked into the room," Draco was also looking after Smith as well.

"I'm surprised you didn't go after him."

Draco shrugged. "I wanted to, but doing so would only reaffirm what I assume to be deeply rooted misogynistic tendencies. I'd be right there behind you if you want to hex him, though."

Hermione was momentarily floored by his intuitive and thoughtful reasoning. It was a vast improvement on his usual behead first and ask questions later philosophy. Maybe Draco was maturing... or maybe he was just in a good mood because he'd had a nap.

The hand on her cheek slid around to the back of her neck where it pulled her down for a kiss. Draco's mouth went a long way to calming her anger towards pricks like Smith.

"If he ever talks to you like that again," Draco said with forced calmness when she'd pulled away, "Make sure you kick his arse before I can because I'm liable to kill him if I get to him first."

Unsurprisingly, dinner was an uncomfortable affair – and not just because it was Draco who had prepared it. Having grown up with House Elves to prepare his every meal both at the Manor and at Hogwarts, Draco had very little experience with cooking. He had never had reason to learn to cook besides the occasional camping trip with Hermione in the middle of a forest somewhere. His pine needle tea and leaf wrapped fish were passable, but anything beyond that wasn't something he could do.

"Boiled carrots are gross," Cassy complained. She'd eaten her slightly burnt toast and canned beans, but just stared morosely at her carrots. They were overcooked to the point of being nothing but orange mush.

"Give them to the bloody horse then," Draco grumbled, "I don't care if you eat them or not."

Cassy was at first baffled and then excited. Not reacting at all to Draco's harsh tone – between him and Smith, she seemed to have developed somewhat of an immunity to hostility – Cassy fed the waiting Sylvester her over boiled carrots, smiling the entire time.

Apparently it had never occurred to her to foist off the healthy bits of her meal on a pet. Hermione had a feeling that the girl's parents weren't going to appreciate this new knowledge when she was returned to them.

As soon as she was finished her meal – after making sure to eat all of her carrots so that Draco wouldn't feel like his cooking efforts were unappreciated, of course – Hermione excused herself from the kitchen.

Leaning at an awkward angle and using a book as a table, she rested her back against the headboard of the bed she shared with Draco and penned a quick letter to Harry. Included in her letter was a thorough description of Cassy as well as everything she knew about the girl. With any luck, Harry would be able to contact the Muggle authorities and find some clue about Cassy's origins.

Normally, sending letters from safe houses was frowned upon, but Harry was an Auror and Hermione knew him to be capable of the utmost discretion so she made an exception for him.

For reasons that Hermione convinced herself were purely paranoia, she included a few questions about Smith as well.