Chapter Five- Breaking and Entering

A/N- For those of you who are curious as to why Hermione is going by her maiden name; it's seriously just honest to god personal preference. I've always thought of Hermione as someone who's very independent and something of a feminist; JKR has never addressed it one way or the other. So, yeah…keeping her name just struck me as something that Hermione would do.

Hermione rather shared Ron's sentiment. She quickly turned on the bedside lamps so that they could have better light than their wands provided.

They then carefully scrutinized the upside-down faces before them, three of whom were unfamiliar. Hermione was surprised to recognize the sheriff amongst them. She was thoroughly less surprised to see Mr. Gold; she supposed that he wanted them gone more than she'd anticipated.

"I see we meet again, Mr. Gold," she said coolly. Ron had gone to close the door; she supposed that they had picked the lock.

Hermione sighed and rubbed her temples; it was really too early for this.

"Now, listen to me very carefully," she lectured her captives, "I am going to put you in a seated position and unpetrify you all from your shoulders up," she looked each in the eye to make sure that they understood, "Please don't shout, as I have warded the room against sound and I will be forced to petrify you again," she said, feeling a bit like a very polite Bond villain, "I will explain everything to all of you," Ron gave her a look and she shrugged, "As it seems like only telling one of you would be an exercise in futility."

She sighed…well, this wasn't quite how she wanted things to go. She flicked her wand and prepared for the onslaught.

"What's going o-"

"Who-"

"Just how-"

"What are you-"

"Quiet," hissed Hermione, wishing, not for the first time, that she had Severus Snape's skill of quiet intimidation. However, for whatever reason, her demand was met. She looked at Ron, at a complete loss.

"Ask them something," Ron mouthed.

"Right, let's get to it then," she said, doing her best to keep a quaver out of her voice, "What is this place?"

"Just a town," replied the sheriff, wincing, as though she knew how ridiculous she sounded.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Oh, please," she replied, exhausted, "Spare me."

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," muttered the scruffily bearded man who floated next to Emma.

Hermione yawned widely, "Try me."

A slight, dark-haired woman replied, "We- we aren't exactly from around here," she said looking distinctly uncomfortable.

Hermione snorted, "Nor are we."

A tan, rather muscular fellow intervened, "Yes…but we're…really not from around here," he finished lamely.

"Didn't realize it was a competition," interjected Ron, who had sat himself on the edge of the bed.

"Really, must we be so uncivilized? Let us down, Miss Granger," said Mr. Gold in a patronizing, faux-exasperated tone that Hermione found unbearably irritating.

"I think that civilized went off the table when you lot picked the locks on our door," Ron said, looking severe.

"I don't believe that comment was directed at you, Mr. Weasley."

"And I don't believe that you're in any sort of position to be so cavalier," retorted Hermione, her voice sickly sweet and laced with annoyance.

"Look, just let us go. People will notice we're missing," said Emma, her voice tinged with desperation.

Ron actually laughed out loud, "We're not keeping you here, mate."

Hermione nodded, a slight smile now making her face a good deal less grave, "Just answer our questions and we'll let you go on your way. So…just how far away is 'really not from around here'?"

The dark-haired woman spoke again, looking at all of the others with a sigh, "We're from another land- a land that might not make sense to you."

Both Ron and Hermione snorted.

The tan guy took up her line of narration, "Our land is a place entirely unlike your world- it's a land of magic."

Again, Hermione and Ron snorted, although not for the reasons their captives would assume.

"It's true," said Emma, seemingly a bit late to the party, "They have ogres and giants as well."

"And faeries!" broke in the scruffy guy next to her, "And dwarves!"

All four seemed eager to convince them of the existence of this fantastic land- all except Mr. Gold. He held his own council, and only spoke up after a pronounced silence.

"But our land now suffers from a curse," he said, his tone grave, "A curse that, by and large, destroyed it. We, its inhabitants, are cursed to live here, in your world, a land without magic."

Hermione and Ron looked at each other and Ron finally, slowly, broke the silence, "But…this isn't a land without magic."

"What?" shrieked all five people who floated before them. Even Gold appeared shocked.

He shook his head, "Hermione's a witch. I'm a wizard. There are loads more like us in the world. Magic isn't common by any stretch of the imagination, but the magical community still numbers into the hundreds of thousands throughout the world, if not into the millions."

Hermione nodded, "We have our own magical creatures as well; some would strike you as quite familiar."

The dumbfounded looks spoke for themselves.

Emma sputtered, "But-but…why?"

Hermione sighed, rubbing her temples, hating how long this night had been in the very depths of her soul, "Ron and I are here quite by accident…well, not entirely by accident, but not of our own volition, in any case," she took a deep breath, finding this more difficult than she thought, "I have to fulfill a magical bond, a bond that obliges me to protect my parents."

After a long, tense silence, the slight woman interrupted, "But, your parents can't live here! It's a…small community."

Hermione laughed aloud, rather mirthlessly, at the description, "Oh, don't worry, I think that I already know who they are."

"What?" gasped Emma.

Hermione nodded, "And I can find out right now, I believe," she said, her eyes settling on the cauldron in the corner. She quickly conjured a penknife and a potions phial. Walking up to Mr. Gold, she used the knife to nick his thumb; he winced as she added a few drops of his blood to the potions phial.

"What-" he said, quite at a loss for words.

"Oh, hush," Hermione murmured, closing the wound with a flick of her wand. She walked over to the cauldron and, carefully, so as not to spill a drop, poured a bit of the potion into the phial. She took a deep breath; at last she could complete the final step. The room was entirely silent. Hermione sliced her own palm, feeding her own blood into the potion.

And she waited.

Slowly, almost agonizingly so, the potion turned from a dark aubergine to a lurid pink. Hermione smiled grim satisfaction.

"Well," she said, "That's one bit done, I suppose."

A/N- Hope that you enjoyed it!