CHAPTER 2

Hermione smiled as Sam hesitantly took her hand, shaking it. She could tell that she wasn't quite what he expected. She wondered if there were even any female hunters or if everyone in this line of work was men. She hoped not, because it would be a long however long they worked together if she had to continuously prove herself to him. She had come too far to be treated like some fragile damsel in distress and kept from the action.

He released her hand, and then just stood there. He was looking at her like he didn't know what to do next. He kept looking from her to behind him and back again.

"May I come in?" she asked. "I didn't exactly dress like a Muggle, so it would probably be best if I didn't continue to stand here on the stoop for everyone to see and begin speculating."

"Oh!" Sam said, snapping to attention. "Yeah, I'm sorry. Please, come in. Um, Bobby isn't here right now, he's out."

Hermione walked into the house, shutting the door behind her. "That's alright, I'm sure you have many questions that I can answer before Bobby gets here."

She followed Sam into the sitting room and then just stood there. Sam had gone back to being not completely present. He was standing awkwardly next to the couch, and trying to not stare at her. She had to stifle a laugh. When the head of the Department of Muggle Relations at MACUSA briefed her on the American Hunter, she was told that there were witches out in the open who gained their powers through a deal with a demon. Those witches were hunted and killed by hunters. It was a big reason to continue the strict no-muggle contact the American witches and wizards had observed for centuries. Don't want to risk getting too close to a muggle only to show some magic and find out the muggle is a hunter and wind up dead. This must be why Sam was so uncomfortable around her. He was used to evil witches.

She took the opportunity to get a good look at Sam. He was tall, about a foot taller than herself. His dark hair was on the long side, falling just around his ears. And he looked sad. Which made sense, during her briefing she was told that he had just recently lost his hunting partner and brother. He was holed up in Singer's house grieving. Which made him the ideal person to help her out. He needed help to deal with his grief, and he was the best there was. Plus, Bobby Singer was one of the best researchers and helped run a lot of the cover operations for the hunters, so she would be in good hands for her mission. After getting an eye full of Sam Winchester, she was certain she would be in very good hands indeed.

She absentmindedly rubbed her finger where up until a couple months ago she wore her wedding band. She felt a little guilty checking out a man when her divorce hadn't been finalized yet, but then visions of the reason she was getting divorced popped into the forefront of her mind, and she immediately shook those guilty feelings off. She was human, and there was a very attractive man in front of her, she was allowed to look at him.

"Um," she spoke up again.

Sam jumped, like he had forgotten she was even there. "Oh, I'm sorry, why don't we take a seat," he said, gesturing toward the couch.

Hermione took a seat on the couch, and in a move that completely surprised her, Sam took the seat right next to her, turning his body so that he faced her.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione, was it?" at her nod, he continued. "I haven't been sleeping well the last few weeks, so I sometimes go off into this daze every once in a while. I'll try to stop that from happening too often during our conversation."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I know what it's like to go on very little sleep. If you agree to go on this mission with me, I can give you something to help you sleep at night, if you would like?"

Sam gave her half a smile. "I'll think about it."

Hermione returned his smile. "Please, do."

"So, uh, you're a witch? Like a genetic witch?" Sam asked, effectively changing the subject.

"I am."

"So, your parents were witches, and they had you, so you're a witch, and when you have kids, they'll be witches?"

"Well, not exactly. I'm what is known as a muggleborn. Which means my parents were muggles, and I had a genetic anomoly to make me a witch. So I was born and raised in your world, but moved into the wizarding world when I was eleven."

"Eleven? That's such an odd age."

"That's when you can start going to Hogwarts, the wizarding school. So right before it was time for me to go to school the headmaster and one of the professors came to my house, sat my parents and me down, and explained everything to us."

"Was it hard to believe?"

Hermione shook her head. "It was actually a bit of a relief. I had been exhibiting some accidental magic for a few years, so to find out why was a bit relieving to us."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I can imagine. So, Bobby says you control your magic through a magic wand?"

Hermione laughed. "Basically. I can do a few spells wandlessly, but for the most part, I use this." She flicked her right wrist and the wand came out of her arm holster and into her hand. "This is my wand. Every wizard and witch must visit the wandmaker before Hogwarts where they are chosen by their wand. This is mine. Vine with a dragon heartstring core. This was my first wand, and after a brief separation, we were reunited. Losing it was like losing a limb. I was very fortunate that an acquaintance was able to find it and return it to me."

"How did you lose it?"

"I would rather not talk about that right now, if that's alright."

"Of course," Sam said immediately. "I get not wanting about talk about things that have caused us pain."

"Yes, well, maybe if we get to know each other a little better and we are no longer strangers I'll tell you, but right now, I just want to glaze over intimate details."

"Well, if we're going to be hunting partners, we won't be strangers for long."

She looked up from her wand to see him actually giving her a smile. She easily returned it. She could instantly feel any tension that was between them start to melt away, just slightly. Which was good, because if they were going to be working together, they would need to be comfortable with one another.

"You're right, we won't be. Anyway, you wanted to see some magic, so I'll show you some magic." She turned and pointed her wand at a book that was sitting on the coffee table. "Wingardium Leviosa," she said with a flourish of her wand, easily levitating the book about a foot from the table before lowering it back down.

"Wow," Sam said, not taking his eyes off the book. "You can do parlor tricks with latin."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at Sam. She flicked her wand. "Avis Opungo," as the birds flew out of her wand, she aimed them at Sam's head. He cried out as they dive bombed him, pecking at his face and neck. She stifled a giggle as he flailed his arms trying to stave off the attacking birds. After a few minutes she took pity on the man, and cast Finite. The birds quickly disappeared, leaving a glaring Sam. Hermione smiled. "Parlor tricks?"

"Fine. I'm sorry for calling what you do a parlor trick. But did you really need to have birds attack my head?"

Hermione shrugged. "It's my go to hex when I'm annoyed at someone. Sorry."

Sam rubbed at his cheek. "I'll try to remember that before I annoy you next time."

"I was trying to prove a point. Next time you annoy me, I'll just do the typical silent treatment."

Sam smiled. "I appreciate that. So what other types of spells are there? And do you always need to say the spell out loud in order for it to work?"

"There are lots of spells, I would be here all day explaining every single one in detail. I'm sure you'll see several of them in the field. There are housekeeping spells. There are defensive and offensive spells. There are summoning spells, and healing spells. The ones we'll probably be using the most would be unlocking and door opening spells. I have a feeling those will be useful as we go."

"Wait, you have a spell to open locked doors?"

Hermione nodded.

A large grin spread across Sam's face. "Would it work on things like handcuffs?"

"Of course, it's just a basic unlocking spell, it's not specific to doors."

"Do you need a wand all the time?"

"No, there are a few spells I can perform wandlessly, the unlocking spell one of them. And to answer your previous question, I can do a few non-verbal spells, the unlocking spell is one of those."

"This is amazing. This will change everything. If you can open doors with the whisper of a spell and the flick of a wand, the chances of us getting caught while trying to pick a lock go way down. And if we get captured, trying to get free from restraints will be much easier."

"Hopefully. I haven't been tied up in a long time. So I may be a little rusty trying to get out of restraints if we're tied up in rope, but we're good if we're cuffed."

Sam was quiet for a second, and Hermione watched as millions of questions seemed to flash in his eyes. She could tell that they were a lot alike. Very academic minded. "Since you have your wand, are you trained to fight, like physically?"

Hermione shook her head. "Unfortunately I'm not."

"What about a gun? A lot of what we'll encounter out there can only be killed with specific bullets. DO you know how to shoot a gun?"

Again, Hermione shook her head. "I have no bloody idea how to use a gun. This is a large reason why MACUSA decided we should really pair up with hunters. Witches and wizards are really unprepared to go out into the muggle world and deal with all of the monsters out there specific to it. We have our own creatures that go bump in the night, but they're a much different breed. We can deal with them with magic. I honestly have no idea where to even begin with what we'll encounter."

"MACUSA hasn't prepared you?"

Hermione shook her head. "Not really. I just came into the states two nights ago. They filled me on you and Mr. Singer. And then they sent me here when they had confirmation from Mr. Singer that you both would be willing to help. Prior to coming here, I tried to do some research, but wizarding research books in the UK are severely lacking in information for muggle supernatural beings in North America."

"Wait, you just came into the states two nights ago? What exactly is going on? I thought this was directly through this MACUSA thing. Why wouldn't they just send one of their own people?"

Hermione sighed. "I would really prefer that I only had to explain this one time. But, it's actually a matter that is directly related to the British wizarding community. We had to go through MACUSA because we are encroaching on their jurisdiction and need permission to apprehend our suspect, or suspects, we're not completely certain, ourselves. Since I'm head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the UK, I was sent to take care of this. Since not only am I not combat trained, I'm more of the legal side of things, it was determined due to the nature of the case I would be paired up with American hunters to make sure I'm not killed. Because apparently that will be 'too much unnecessary paperwork.'"

"And they chose Bobby and I because we're considered the best."

"Yes."

Sam brought his hands up to his eyes, drawing them down his face. "This isn't going to be as fun as I thought it would be. This is actually going to be fucking hard. You have virtually no knowledge about the things we'll be hunting, no experience in physical combat or with any of the weapons we'll need to use. What do you do for your law enforcement?"

"I'm the equivalent of a solicitor, or lawyer, like you say here in the states."

"Why the fuck would they send a lawyer out into the field?" Sam yelled, frustration obvious in his voice.

"Because I'm the best. And it's my case that I've been working on for almost a decade, and it's the first fucking lead we've gotten in a long time, and I need to bring these people in for myself, so I can stop losing sleep over it!" Hermione basically shouted back.

"Why is it so important that you personally bring them in? You could just let someone else who knows what they're doing do it. Doing it yourself is just putting all of us in danger since you don't know what you're doing."

"Because one of them tried to kill me when I was sixteen and I was tortured at the other one's feet in his bloody drawing room!" Hermione basically screamed. She could feel the tears prickling at the back of her eyes. "That is why. I need to do this. And if you're not going to help me, I'll find someone else who will."

She looked over at Sam, who was for his credit, looking well and truly shamed. He couldn't even meet her eyes. He was concentrating really hard at his hands.

"I'm sorry," he muttered quietly. "I had no idea. I shouldn't have pushed. Obviously you and your group know what you're doing."

Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry for my outburst," she whispered, swiping at her eyes. "It's been a decade since the war, and it's still raw. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday."

"War?"

Before Hermione could answer the door to the front of the house opened, and a middle aged man with a full beard and baseball cap came into the room. He must be Mr. Singer. He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed Hermione and Sam sitting awkwardly next to each other.

"Well, shit. What'd I miss?"