CHAPTER 5

Sam was startled awake by the sound of a car door slamming outside his window. He sat up in bed, looking around in a panic before remembering where he was. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept that soundly. It was definitely before Dean sold his soul that was for sure. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he heard voices down in the yard below. He pushed himself from the bed, and walked over to the window.

Looking outside he saw Bobby and Hermione standing next to one of Bobby's barely running cars. She was leaning against the driver's side of the truck, running her hands through her long curly hair, which she had trapped in that tight bun earlier. She had also traded those robes for jeans and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt, and he couldn't help but admire her body. Wizarding fashion did nothing for her shape. He had to force himself to stop staring at her body. He looked over at Bobby, who had moved around the car to stand right in front of her.

Bobby kept gesturing at the car, and it looked like he was trying to explain something to her, and she kept answering back, also gesturing at the car. Sam couldn't make out what they were saying, but it didn't look happy. He decided to go down and get between them before it turned bad. He couldn't afford to have the two people he would be working with to be at odds with each other. He grabbed his shirt from the floor, throwing it on before opening the door to his room and making his way down to the yard.

As he opened the door he could hear Hermione trying her hardest to not yell at Bobby.

"But I don't understand why you're teaching me this? This seems useless!"

"Because what if you find yourself in a situation you need to know how to drive one? Then you'll know!" Bobby responded, using a tone Sam knew he only saved when he was frustrated.

"I asked you to give me a quick driving lesson, so I can help Sam drive. A crash course. This is not a crash course."

"What's going on?" Sam asked, making his way into the conversation.

Both Bobby and Hermione stopped what they were doing and turned to greet Sam. Sam felt his heart flutter when Hermione's face lit up with a magnificent smile when she saw him. This was not good.

"Sam!" she greeted. "It's so good to see you looking so rested! And you trimmed your beard."

Sam brought his hand up to his chin, rubbing the coarse hair there. "Yeah, I, um, decided to keep it for now, but it needed to look less like a homeless man."

Hermione laughed, and Sam decided he needed to make sure he made that happen more often. "Fair enough."

"So, what are you two arguing about out here?" he asked.

Hermione sighed, and Bobby threw his head back.

"Freckles here asked me to teach her how to drive before the two of you headed out on the road. However, she's taking offense at the method with which I'm teaching her. Making it damn near impossible to give her any lessons."

Hermione turned and focused a glare on Bobby. "Well, when I can't get the bloody car to even fucking start, then it makes it damn near impossible for me to learn, doesn't it?" she shouted at him.

Bobby opened his mouth to respond, but Sam cut him off.

"What do you mean you can't even start the car?"

Hermione turned back toward Sam. "I'm having a hard time pressing the clutch and shifting, and making sure my foot is also on the brake, and then the bloody thing just shuts off."

Sam turned to Bobby. "Why are you teaching her to drive stick? The Impala is automatic."

Bobby sighed. "Like I was telling her, just in case."

Sam shook his head. "Bobby, she can teleport. If we are in a situation where we don't have the Impala, she can just leave." He turned toward Hermione. "Look, if you want to learn how to drive, I'll teach you. We'll have plenty of opportunities on deserted roads for you to get some practice in."

Hermione directed her amazing smile at him again. "Really? Thank you so much, Sam. I just feel a little bad. I was hoping to surprise you with my newfound driving skills when we were on the road."

Sam returned her smile. "It's okay. It'll help us pass the time. We'll be spending a lot of time in the car. Might as well make that time interesting."

"Fair enough," she responded. "So, Bobby told me that you guys have a lead on Malfoy and Dolohov?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, um, a couple hunters who were clearing a werewolf den down in Kansas spotted them trying to negotiate with the pack. The hunters killed several of the werewolves, but not all. So we're going to head down and try and see what we can find. If we're lucky there will be one or two left that we can question."

Hermione's face paled. "Werewolves?"

"Yeah, but it's okay. I'll be there, and we shouldn't be in too much danger. When it's not the full moon they're typically harmless," Sam explained.

Hermione nodded, but she didn't look completely convinced. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. It'll be fine."

Sam looked at her, drawing his eyebrows together. "Are you okay?"

Hermione looked back up at him. "Yeah, yeah, no I'm fine. When do we leave?"

Sam looked over at Bobby. "What do you think? Should we try and get there as soon as possible, or wait until the morning?"

Bobby shrugged. "I mean, you've waited this long, it would probably be best to just get an early start in the morning. Take tonight to get a little more rest before heading out."

Sam nodded. "I agree. What do you think, Hermione?"

"Yeah, that is probably the best. Give me a little more time to research about the werewolves you have here. See if they're different than the werewolves I'm familiar with."

"I have plenty of books on lore for you to peruse," Bobby said.

"Do you mind?"

"Of course not, come on. I'll get you some of the best texts on werewolves, and while you read, I'll get something on for dinner."

Without waiting for an answer, Bobby headed into the house, leaving Hermione and Sam alone together in the yard. As they stood together, silence stretching between them, Sam began to worry about what it would be like to be alone with her out on the road. If they couldn't be alone in the yard together for two minutes without it getting awkward, what were they going to do for days on end?

"So, I never asked, but what do you do for money? You aren't paid to hunt are you?" Hermione asked.

Sam shook his head. "No, no we're not. We, uh, hustle pool and commit credit card fraud."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You what?"

"Yeah, I know it's illegal, but you know, it works. And it allows us to put gas in the car and food in our bellies. And gets us a roof to sleep under while we're working jobs. It's all I've really known, actually. My dad took us on the road when we were young, and Dean and I spent our childhood living a nomadic life while he hunted."

Hermione frowned. "Well, I get paid for my work at the ministry, even while I'm here, since I'm technically on the job. So rather than hustling pool to keep a motel roof over our head, why don't I just take care of that?"

Sam laughed. "Fine, but I'm going to have to hustle a couple games to make sure I have enough cash on hand when this job is done. Is that okay?"

Hermione sighed. "If you must," she said, humor finding its way into her voice.

Sam smiled, chuckling. "So, werewolves? You have those, too?"

She nodded. "Yeah, and most of the time they're perfectly fine. Only transforming at the full moon. The rest of the time they're just like you or I. And we even have a potion for them to take during the full moon so when they're transformed they can keep their minds, making them completely harmless, almost like large dogs."

"Dogs? So when you say 'transform' you really mean, 'transform.'"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, they transform into a wolf at the moon. A literal wolf. What do your werewolves do?"

"They grow fangs, but they keep their human forms intact."

"Interesting. And you kill them?"

"Silver bullet to the heart."

Hermione let out a breath. "Wow. Just like in the legends."

Sam nodded. "Just like in the legends."

"I have so much to learn," Hermione said.

"I'm looking forward to teaching you."

SUPERPOTTER

Hermione and Sam were sitting side by side on the couch pouring over some of the texts Bobby had pulled for Hermione on werewolves. The differences between the werewolves she was familiar with over in the magical world versus the werewolves over here that they were going to encounter were astonishing. She really couldn't believe the differences. If she were still working for the Department of Magical Creatures, she would probably spend a lot of time researching these differences and seeing if these were the only two variances in the species, or if there were variances around the world in other countries.

She shook her head. She was not here to do research. Well, technically she was doing research, but not the kind she was thinking about. Maybe there would be time to expand on this idea. She turned her attention back to where it needed to be. She looked back at the text. She had a lot of experiences with old and rare texts in the wizarding world, but these put them to shame. With a lot of the books they were looking at being handwritten, it was the definition of rare.

Sam leaned in closer to point something out to her, and she barely heard what he was saying. His proximity was making her stomach do somersaults. After having showered and shaved, he smelled good. And he wasn't an unattractive man. Just the opposite actually. Even though he had layered a t-shirt under and open button down, she could tell that he was in shape. Which of course he would have to be with the physical demands of the job.

She absently ran her fingers along her ring finger again. It still felt weird being bare. Was she even ready to start something new? Would she ever be?

"Supper's ready, kids," Bobby called from the kitchen.

Sam gathered the papers they were reading and set them aside before standing up, offering his hand. She took it without hesitation, and blushed as she felt a current go through her.

Stop it, Hermione," she chastised herself. Now is not the time.

Dinner was an uneventful affair. She enjoyed the company of both men. They were telling stories about hunts in the past. She listened and laughed when appropriate. But she couldn't help but spend her time just observing the two men. Bobby was kind, but would probably deny it if confronted. He gave off a very "dad" like vibe. She could really tell that he cared about Sam.

Sam was much more relaxed and vibrant than he had been earlier in the day. He was enthusiastically relating a story about how he and his brother had once fought with the spirit of H.H. Holmes. She loved that he was able to talk about his brother without any hurt in his eyes right now. His brother sounded like a pretty cool guy, it was unfortunate that she would not be able to meet him.

Before long she was being ushered into a guest room, and they were making plans to leave as early as possible. It was a long drive to where they were going. She shut herself in the room, closing her eyes, and leaned against the closed door. She pulled her wand out of her sleeve and began casting silencing charms on the room. Wouldn't do to wake everyone up if she didn't sleep well tonight.

SUPERPOTTER

The sun came into the window of the room Sam was staying in much earlier than he anticipated. He didn't get very much sleep the night before. It was a good thing he had that nap earlier in the day yesterday, or else he was screwed. Hopefully the drive was uneventful and they could get to the town early enough to catch a few Z's before they went to talk to the werewolves.

He grabbed his rucksack and threw the few clothes he had unpacked into it, throwing the door to his room open and heading downstairs. He heard movement in the lower level, so he was guessing someone was up. He moved to the front door, throwing it open to look at the Impala. As much as he hated going out on his own, he was actually looking forward to climbing in that car with Hermione. Sitting next to her, teaching her about their werewolves, and hearing her compare the similarities and differences to hers was actually pretty fun.

Dean was never one for research. He preferred to gank the sons of bitches and move on. It would be a nice change of pace for once to have someone else who enjoyed the research. Someone who would be enthusiastic about researching and not call him a nerd. He smiled to himself. Yeah, he was looking forward to this hunt, just a little bit more than he was before.

He threw his rucksack in the back seat of the car and turned around as he heard the gravel crunch behind him. He turned around and saw Hermione and Bobby walking toward him. Hermione, for her part, didn't look like she slept much the night before either. Her hair was thrown up in a haphazard ponytail, and she had dark circles under her eyes.

"Is that all you brought?" he asked, gesturing toward her small backpack.

She nodded. "Yeah, I wanted to travel light."

Sam shrugged. "Here, let me put it back here."

She handed him the bag, and he threw it in with his rucksack before closing the door. He turned back and faced the other two. "Are we ready?"

"Just about," Bobby answered, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a cell phone and handed it over to Hermione, who took it from him. "This is one of our burners. Sam's number and mine are programed into it. The number is programmed into Sam's phone. If you get separated, this way you'll be able to contact each other. Now, I'll keep doing research from over here. I'll give you two a call if I find anything out. I've put an APB out on these two mother fuckers. So the second I hear something, you hear something."

"Sounds good, Bobby," Sam said.

"Yeah," Hermione echoed. "Sounds good."

The three stood in the driveway for a few awkward minutes, before Sam cleared his throat. "So, shall we?" he gestured toward the car.

"Yes, let's," Hermione answered, walking to the passenger side of the car. "Thank you, Bobby."

"You're welcome, Freckles," Bobby answered.

Hermione opened the car door, climbed in, and shut the door behind her. Leaving Sam and Bobby alone for a few minutes.

"So, you be careful out there, Sammy," Bobby said.

"Yeah, yeah I will."

Bobby extended his hand and Sam grabbed it, gripping it tight, before pulling Bobby into a hug. The two separated and Sam moved to get into the car. Sitting behind the wheel, he took a deep breath, before turning the key in the ignition, and with the roar of the Impala's engine, he pulled out of Bobby's driveway onto the road of his next chapter, with a new sidekick.