CHAPTER 9

Hermione watched as Sam tried to process everything she had just said. She took a moment to compose herself. In just half an hour, the two of them had unloaded a lot of baggage. She was glad she told Sam what was going on between her and Ron, since there's going to be a time when she would have to go back to London and sign divorce papers. However, it hurt to drag everything out in the open, like reopening old wounds.

She wasn't over-exaggerating when she said she never felt more inadequate ever in her life than she has over the last few months as everything about Ron started to come out. Things she had no idea about started to come to light after she walked in on Ron in the living room that day a few months ago. It was as if Ron had wanted to get caught. Like he was itching to end things, but didn't know how to begin. The fact that they had known each other most of their lives and he still couldn't talk to her about his feelings was telling.

And in the process of them splitting up, she had lost most of her family. She didn't know what he told his family, but the Weasley's had all taken his side, shunning Hermione. The only people who still talked to her was Harry and Ginny. And that was only when the others weren't around. Otherwise they had to play by Molly's rules, and not speak to Hermione.

This job, taking her across the pond and on the road, came at the perfect time for her. It allowed her to get away from the newspapers, the family, and the apparently very attached woman she had walked in on who was pretty sure she was going to be the next Mrs. Weasley. It was all just too much to stay behind. Of course in her plan to get away, she never imagined it would be with a very handsome, very intelligent man. From everything she learned about hunters she never imagined any of them to be her age and good looking. This was a development she wasn't prepared for. Being attracted to another man, so soon after the breakup of her marriage, was not something she had on the agenda.

"Do you think we can do this?" Sam asked, finally.

Hermione shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but we don't know until we try."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, yeah, let's do it. Let's figure this out."

"Yeah?" Hermione asked, feeling a little excited.

"Yeah. Getting revenge is something I want more than anything. Doing it logically is the best way to do this."

Hermione smiled. "Yes, preparing oneself for a mission is always better than going off half cocked."

"You're starting to sound like Bobby."

Hermione shrugged. "He's a smart man."

"Yeah, he is."

The two sat in a comfortable silence next to each other on Hermione's bed.

"I'm sorry for everything that you're dealing with in your personal life," Sam said quietly.

"I'm sorry that a demon chose the path your life was going on for you. My best friend, Harry, had that happen. He was marked as infant and that determined his whole life."

"Yeah, not exactly how I would have wanted to live my life. But, I've met a lot of good people."

"And lost a lot of good people," Hermione said quietly.

"And lost a lot of good people. Something you're probably familiar with after being in that war."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, unfortunately."

"You know, when you didn't want to talk about the second guy you were stuck in a tent with, I thought maybe he had died in your war."

"Nope, made it through the war. Became a giant arsehole after it though. Merlin, how did I not see this coming? I keep replaying the last ten years over and over and over, and I just keep wondering if I'm really that stupid to not have seen any signs that he was unhappy. Or shagging groupies."

"It's not your fault, and you shouldn't be thinking that. You were in love. You weren't looking for anything being wrong, you were just living your life. So don't live with your what ifs. You'll just drive yourself crazy."

Hermione smiled at him. "You're a smart man, Sam Winchester."

Sam blushed, shrugging. "Well, I just have some experiences with what ifs."

Hermione gave him a sad smile. "So much in common, some good, some bad."

"Yeah, crazy, right?"

"Yes, crazy."

The silence was interrupted by the shrill ringing of Hermione's phone, causing them to jump. Hermione practically leapt across the bed, ignoring the fact she had to brush past Sam, and reached the phone on the end table. She flipped it open.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Agent Buckingham?" a voice asked from the other end.

"Yes?"

"It's me. Cade. You told me to call you when those men showed back up? Well, they showed back up."

"Great, try to keep them there, we'll be there as soon as possible," she said, hanging up. She turned to Sam. "They're there."

Sam jumped up from the bed, and moved to put his shoes on. Hermione did the same. She grabbed her wand, and stuck it in the arm holster. She turned back to see Sam checking the ammo in his gun before tucking it away. He turned to look at her. She just nodded, and they both moved to the motel room door and off to the woods.

SUPERPOTTER

For a minute, Sam worried about whether or not Hermione would be able to keep up with his pace, she was so much smaller than him, but, as with everything else, she surprised him. They moved through the woods with ease. They were going to try and make it to the cabin before the wizards had a chance to leave.

He wasn't sure, exactly, what to do when they got there. He never even thought to ask Hermione what to do, but he figured, they could play it by ear. He would let her take the lead on this one. As they neared the cabin, he fell back and let Hermione get out in front. He watched her flick her wrist and her wand fell into her hand. She slowed down and stopped and paused behind a tree, he followed suit.

She turned to look at him, and she just nodded at him. She moved a few feet closer, and he did the same. The cabin looked just as abandoned as it did yesterday. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He watched as Hermione waved her wand a couple times, before moving forward. Again, he followed. She pressed herself against the wall of the house, just to the right of the door. He moved so that he was to the left. He looked at her wand in her hand, and he palmed his gun. He would be prepared for anything.

Sam watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath before turning to him. She gave a nod, and turned to throw open the door. He wasn't sure what happened, but there was a blast and the door came flying outward, taking Hermione down with it.

"Hermione!" he yelled, forgetting about stealth as he watched his new partner fall to the ground. He watched her pull herself up, and bring a hand to her head.

"I'm fine," she said, "They know we're here, we have to stop them before they leave."

Sam nodded, and rushed into the cabin, he could hear Hermione not too far behind.

The inside of the cabin looked empty, he held his gun out in front of him, and moved toward the back of the house. He kicked open a door to his left, and it was empty. He moved to the next door, and inside was a group of people, Cade being one of them.

"They went out the back!" he shouted.

Sam nodded and moved, but he wasn't fast enough, he felt Hermione push past him, and he followed. The back door was wide open. He cursed under his breath. This was not a good sign, they probably already got away. He didn't know what tipped them off, he was pretty sure they had been stealth.

They pushed through the door, and he almost ran over Hermione as she came to a dead stop in front of him. The wizards hadn't escaped. They were standing there in the lawn, their own wands raised.

"Miss Granger," the blond, Malfoy he thought, said, with a smirk. "I thought for sure it would be an American Auror who tripped the wards we set in the woods. But it's you. Traveled all the way from across the pond. And who is this with you? Already moving on from Mr. Weasley I see."

"Shut up, Malfoy," Hermione bit out.

"Oh, kroshka," the dark, Russian said. "You don't know how happy I am that it's you who's come here. I've been dreaming about this reunion. Thinking about what it would be like to add more marks to your beautiful skin. Feel your pulse slow as your life bleeds from your body."

Sam felt his pulse quicken as he listened to the man describe how he would kill Hermione. He lifted his gun higher and took aim at the Russian. The man laughed.

"Oh, Lucius, the Muggle thinks he can kill us before we kill him."

"How quaint," Malfoy muttered with a smirk. He lifted his wand and Sam watched as a bright light came hurtling toward him.

"Protego!" Hermione shouted, and the light bounced off of some kind of shield.

Sam stared wide eyed at Hermione. He was way over his head here. This wasn't like anything he had dealt with before. Knowing that anything he did would probably be considered a liability at this point, he fell back into the cabin, watching from around the corner, keeping his gun trained on the wizards, hoping to get a clear shot.

What he observed, however, was Hermione holding her own against the two men. She would throw a spell, and then they would throw a spell, and she would expertly block it. Watching her fighting the men, waving their sticks, their wands, at each other, shouting Latin, was awe inspiring. He couldn't believe what was going on. They were exerting just as much physical energy as they would if they were in a fist fight, but they never touched each other once. He wasn't even sure who was winning at this point.

Hermione threw another spell, and it finally made contact with Lucius, throwing him to the ground.

"Give up, and come with me. You're both under arrest for more crimes than I can list off," Hermione said, approaching the fallen wizard.

"Oh, pchelka, you should know by now that we're not going to just come with you. You'll have to catch us, first."

"Running is futile. I've put anti-apparition wards up, there's nowhere to go. Incarcerous," she said, effectively binding Malfoy. Before Sam could react, Dolohov lunged forward, grabbing Hermione and pulling her toward him. Sam leapt out of the cabin and rushed toward him.

"Let her go," Sam shouted.

"Oh how cute," Dolohov muttered. "Still thinks he's a match for wizards. Muggles are so adorable."

Sam couldn't even prepare himself as he was knocked backward, falling to the ground. A sharp pain in his stomach. He watched helplessly, as Dolohov ran his hand down Hermione's back, and rest on her ass.

Hermione shoved him away and held out her wand. "You. Will. Not. Touch. Me. Incar—"

She didn't get the rest of it out as she got hit with a spell from behind, launching her to the ground. Malfoy had gotten out of his bindings, and hit her. The two men stood around her, staring at her on the ground.

"We could kill you, but that would ruin the fun of the chase. I'll just leave you with something to remember me by," Dolohov said, flicking his wand at her, causing her to scream out.

The two men laughed.

"Until next time, pchelka," Dolohov said, and the two men disappeared before their eyes.

Sam sat up, ignoring the pain in his stomach and crawled over to where Hermione was lying on the ground, holding her chest. Blood was seeping through her shirt at an alarming rate.

"Shit, shit, shit," Sam muttered. "Hermione, what can I do? Can a hospital fix this?"

She shook her head. "I have a bag attached at my waist pull it off and hand it to me."

Sam moved closer, and found the bag tied at her waist. He pulled it and handed it to her. She pointed her wand into hit and a bottle flew out. She handed it to Sam.

"Pull the dropper out and just run the potion along the cut."

Sam nodded, before looking back at her. With shaking hands she unbuttoned her shirt and opened it. He tried to be a gentleman and divert his eyes from her breasts, which looked exquisite in the black bra she was wearing. Instead,he focused on the deep cut that ran across her body.

He began dripping the potion across the cut and watched in awe as the cut began to close as the potion touched it. It was like…magic. When the cut was healed he inspected his work, and there wasn't even a scar where she had been injured. And he couldn't help but notice the purple scar that ran across her chest from the other direction, from her collarbone to her ribcage. Hermione noticed him noticing, and drew her shirt back together.

"Thank you," she said.

"Yeah, no problem. Are you okay?"

She nodded, but her eyes began to fill with water. She picked up her wand and aimed it at the nearest tree and blasted it, bark flying everywhere.

"FUCK!" she screamed. "We had them. We bloody had them, and they just left. We failed."

Sam shook his head. "We didn't fail. We just came close. We will find them again. And we will catch them. And I will fucking put a bullet in that Russian fucker. And I will enjoy every second of watching him squirm."