Hermione rolled over as the light came into the motel room's window. She groaned. She was glad she had remembered to cast a last minute silencing charm around her bed. She had a very sleepless night. Spending time with werewolves always planted the seeds of memories of Malfoy Manor. The promise of an encounter with both Malfoy and Dolohov in the near future exacerbated it. You would think after ten years the nightmares would be abated. The constant aching and throbbing of the scars on her arm and her neck from Bellatrix's cursed knife were probably didn't help.

She rolled over to take a look at Sam. He was breathing deeply. He seemed to have fallen asleep at some point last night. As she settled into bed, she could hear him crying. She didn't know what to do. It broke her heart to lay there listening to him cry. But she was pretty sure he thought she was asleep, since she cast the silencing charm. Her heart just broke for him. It had to be hard being here with her and not his brother.

She grabbed her bag and padded softly to the bathroom. She shut the door quietly behind her and pulled out some clothes for the day, casting cooling charms on them. She then pulled out the potions she's gotten used to using for the last ten years. Specialized ointments for the scars left to her from Lestrange. And a nerve relaxer for the after effects of the Cruciatus. She had less than a month's worth of the potions, so hopefully today went well, or she would eventually need to pop back to London and pick up another supply from St. Mungo's.

She stripped and stepped into the shower, rinsing the grime that traveling and walking around the woods yesterday left on her body. She ran through her offensive spells in the order she would typically use them in her head. She wanted to make sure she was prepared and ready for when they confronted Malfoy and Dolohov, especially if they were walking into a trap.

The last time she had seen Dolohov had been in the bowels of the Ministry as he was awaiting his trial after the war. He had taunted her, saying something along the lines that not only would he make sure he finished the job the next time, but that he would enjoy it. She had shrugged off the threats, confident that he would be convicted and sent to Azkaban. However, she underestimated the power of Malfoy's Gringott's account. Not only was he able to get himself off, he was able to get a handful of Voldemort's most loyal followers off as well. The Wizarding World had a long way to go when it came to delivering well deserved justice. Unfortunately many in the Wizengomet still held the same beliefs they help prior to the war, and that still colored their convictions. Hopefully, after a decade post-war, once she caught Malfoy and Dolohov, she would be able to secure convictions for them, and not have to worry about it again.

She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, toweling off with a not-quite-white towel. She applied her ointments, swallowed her potion, and dressed. She pulled a hair tie out of her bag and took the time to wrap her hair into a tight bun at the top of her head. With the humidity that they were experiencing down here, there was no point in trying to do anything else with her hair.

She shoved everything else into her bag, and exited the bathroom. Sam was sitting on the edge of the bed now, in his t-shirt and boxer shorts, his bare legs stretching to his feet which were planted firmly on the floor. He was staring off in the general direction of her bed.

"I'm sorry," she said, coming around him, trying to divert her eyes, since he wasn't dressed. "I didn't wake you did I?"

Sam looked at her. "No, you didn't. The sun did."

"Yeah, it woke me as well."

He stood up from the bed and walked over to the window. He looked at the edges. "There are no curtains."

"Of course there aren't. That man is probably too cheap to put curtains up."

"Or too perverted to. I bet he enjoys peeping in the windows of unsuspecting guests."

Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust. "That is disturbing." She paused. "And now I can't get the image of him having a wank in the bushes. Thanks Sam."

Sam laughed. "Sorry. Not quite awake enough to have any tact. Or to remember that I'm not here with my brother, who probably would have come to that conclusion first."

Hermione shook her head. "Tact is overrated, and don't forget that I've spent a lot of time with men. Don't treat me any differently than you would Dean. I won't be offended."

Sam turned and gave her a tight smile and a nod of his head before he moved back toward where he had set down his bag. She was pretty sure she heard him mutter something under his breath as he passed, but she couldn't be sure what it was. She watched as he retreated into the bathroom and she flopped onto the bed, closing her eyes. Some day she would get enough sleep at night and not feel completely exhausted. Today was not the day.

SUPERPOTTER

Sam shut the bathroom door behind him and leaned against it closing his eyes. He couldn't believe he just said what he said out loud. "Yeah, well, I didn't want to fuck my brother." What was that? He couldn't help but wonder what the fuck was up with him. Did Dean somehow manage to infiltrate into his mind after he was dragged to hell? Because this was definitely in his territory. Dean would easily recognize that Sam was attracted to Hermione, and then he would hound him until he acted on that attraction and slept with Hermione. He had done it several times in the past. However, this was different. Hermione wasn't just some girl on a case. She was his partner, and he couldn't sleep with his partner. That would make things weird and awkward.

He stepped away from the door, and got ready to shower. His hair was getting long, and his beard was getting itchy, but he wasn't going to do anything about it now. He showered quickly, trying to not think about the attractive woman who was just in here, and then got out, and threw on a t-shirt and his jeans, foregoing the button down this time. He stepped out of the bathroom and saw Hermione sleeping on the bed.

She was sleeping fitfully, twitching a bit, flinging her head back and forth on the pillow, muttering under her breath. Her brow was furrowed, and she was frowning. Sam dropped his bag, and moved to her side, sitting on the edge of the bed. From the little she told him about her time in the war, he could imagine that it left a few lasting effects.

He gently put his hand on her shoulder and she sprang up from the bed with a gasp. She looked around frantically, her eyes not quite focused. She was breathing hard, and she was was looking around for something on the bed, probably her wand.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," he said gently. "It's okay. You're safe. It was just a dream."

She stopped moving and looked at him, her eyes finally focusing on him. He watched as her face crumbled and she started crying. Sam didn't hesitate, he moved toward her, closing the gap between them, wrapping her tightly into a hug.

"Hey, you're okay."

Hermione shook her head. "It's been ten years," she bit out, through the sobs. "Ten years. When will the nightmares stop? You weren't supposed to know about them."

Sam frowned. "Why not? Everyone gets nightmares. I get nightmares. I watched my brother get dragged to Hell. I've seen things you couldn't even imagine, and they haunt my sleep. I don't know the full extent about what you went through, but being tortured? That's no walk in the park. I'm sure being after the people who did it can't help."

Hermione pulled back and looked at him with her tear filled eyes, as if she were in awe of him.

"What?" he asked.

She just shook her head. "You've known me for less than a week and you are already more understanding than…" she drifted off.

"Than what?" Sam asked.

She shook her head. "Never mind."

Sam shook his head. "No, what were you going to say?"

He watched as she looked down at her hands and began fussing with her fingers. She looked as if she were debating with herself about whether she was going to tell him or not.

"Hey," he said. "If you don't want to tell me right now, you don't have to. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, you can just—"

"My husband. You are already more understanding than my husband," she blurted out, interrupting him.

Sam was taken aback. "Your…your husband?" he asked. He glanced down at her fingers, noting that she wasn't wearing a ring, so it wasn't something that he was completely oblivious to, so that's good. But he was still surprised. He figured if she were married that would have been brought up right away when they were discussing the fluidity of this hunt.

"Well, husband until the d-divorce is final," she said.

"Oh," Sam responded. Things were making slightly more sense. "I'm sorry."

She laughed. "Well, that's a phrase I've been hearing a lot in the last few months."

Sam smiled sympathetically. "That doesn't sound good. Can I guess that it wasn't a mutual choice?"

She shook her head. "Nope, definitely not mutual. I was pretty blindsided. I mean, I knew things weren't great, but no one's marriage is perfect. We had a few rough spots, but I thought we were working things out. And then," she paused, closing her eyes. Sam watched as tears made their way down her cheeks from under her closed lids. "And then, I came home from work early, and walked in on him fucking some random witch in our living room. Our bloody living room. Right out in the open. And after I walked out of the house that day, I learned that she wasn't the first, by a long shot. And I've never felt so inadequate in my entire life as I have in the last few months."

Sam shook his head. Cheated on by her husband. He never would have guessed she would be one to be cheated on. Yes, he's only known her for a few days, but she was beautiful. And nice. And insanely smart. Her husband was crazy.

"I know you probably have heard this a million times from just about everyone, but you shouldn't let that asshole get in your head. You are by no means inadequate in any way, that I've noticed." He pulled out his stack of business cards from his pocket. "You made us business cards! I mean, I'm impressed."

That did the job. Hermione started laughing. "Silly, Muggle. Impressed by a basic charm."

Sam smiled. "Well, silly Muggle or not, it is impressive. How long were you and asshole together?"

She took a deep breath. "Well, we had known each other since we were eleven. But we became romantically involved about ten years ago, after the war ended. We were married shortly after that."

It only took a few seconds for Sam to connect the dots in his head. "He's the other guy, the one you didn't want to talk about. The one you were on the run with."

She nodded. "Right."

"Bastard."

She shook her head. "You're being unfair to him, you don't even know him. You haven't even heard his side of the story. It's pretty compelling. You may change your opinion if you did."

Sam frowned. "Try me."

"I'm damaged. From the war. Both physically and mentally. He tried really hard after the war, to be there for me, but it just grew to be too much for him. Eventually he moved to the guest room to sleep, and asked me to put a silencing charm back up. When the worst of the nightmares were over, he moved back in. He was very supportive of my career. It allowed him to live a comfortable life. However, he wanted to start a family. Harry and his wife, who is also my sister-in-law, were starting their family. We wanted our kids to go to Hogwarts together. However, something was wrong. We couldn't get pregnant. And when we did, it wouldn't last. I finally saw a healer, and the torture I was subjected to during the war affected my reproductive organs. I would be able to get pregnant, but the chances of carrying to term were slim. That just made things worse. He became resentful. I think that was one of our biggest fights. So many things were shouted. Pretty sure he called me deformed at some point. And then things got better. We got into a routine. And I was lulled into a sense of security. But apparently that's when he ramped up his cheating. As he tells it, he wanted to 'fuck women who didn't disgust him.'" She stopped here, as the words got stuck in her throat. "I'm sorry."

Sam shook his head. "Don't be sorry. And for the record, I didn't change my mind. He's still an asshole. Lashing out at you for something that's beyond your control? It's not like you tortured yourself. Of course there's going to be lasting damage. Of course you're going to have nightmares. Can I tell you a little about myself? Maybe it will make you feel a bit better?"

Hermione nodded. "If you would like to share, I would love to listen."

Sam took a breath. "When I was a baby, my mom was killed by a demon in my nursery. This is what spurned my dad into a life of hunting. A couple years ago, we learned that the demon who killed my mom gave me some of his blood, and made me…special. I have, or had, rather, these weird psychic powers. I could see people dying before they died. Turns out the Demon was recruiting someone to open the gates of hell and be his champion in the war of Hell on Earth. He took all of the kids he was grooming and put us in an abandoned town for a last man standing battle royale. Dean and Bobby came to rescue me, but not soon enough, I wasn't lucky. I wasn't the last man standing. That's when Dean made his deal, and I came back, and I had a rough go of it. And watching my brother get torn to shreds and dragged to hell? That shit messed me up, too. So yeah. Your husband is an asshole."

"Wow," Hermione said. "You have psychic powers?"

"Had. I haven't had a vision or anything in a long time, but on Dean's last day, Ruby, a demon who we were working with, told me that there's something she could have taught me that would have taken down Lilith, the demon who held Dean's contract, but I didn't listen to her. So yeah. I ingested demon blood as a baby, and it gave me psychic powers at twenty-two. And apparently there's something that I could do to defeat a super strong demon."

"What happened to this Lilith?"

Sam shrugged. "She tried to kill me after Dean died. But it didn't work, I was like, immune or something. And then she just peaced out. I went to Bobby's and then met you. But right before you came into my life I was plotting on how to hunt her down and get revenge. But Bobby said revenge is not a good idea, so here I am."

Hermione was quiet for a few minutes, deep in thought. "This demon, Ruby, she said that there's something that you have the ability to do that will defeat this demon? Did she say what?"

Sam shook his head. "No, she never got the chance. She said it took time, but we weren't listening. We were pretty convinced we could kill Lilith."

Hermione was quiet again. "I wonder." She muttered.

Sam perked up. "You wonder what?"

"I wonder if we can figure out what she was going to teach you, and do it ourselves."

"Could we do that?"

Hermione shrugged. "There's always a possibility. You can find almost anything in a book. And I have access to a lot of books."

"What are you saying?"

"How about we add a little side mission to our mission? Want to take out a demon?"