The crunch of gravel under tires alerted the police of another cars arrival. The slamming of doors revealed Hermione and Sirius as they walked up the winding sidewalk to where the yellow police tape forbade entrance to civilians. The narrowed eyes of the grey-white speckled hair of a seasoned policeman followed Hermione and Sirius's every movement as they walked under the tape.
"This is strictly prohibited to the public!" The man's voice left no argument as he looked over the two.
"And we are privy to know what's going." Sirius stated, flashing his and Hermione's FBI badges, nodding the man moved to the side and allowed them to look at, in, and around the house. Pushing past Sirius, Hermione moved to the inside of the house hearing Sirius say something about how they were supposed to look around without any others there. Rolling her eyes as they all listened to Sirius, Hermione pushed open a door towards the end of a hallway, only to find soft pink walls, a princess duvet, and a ton of stuffed animals. Looking closer to them she saw that the heads of them were ripped off and stuffing was placed on the far side of the room.
"What have we here?" Hermione whispered to herself as she looked at the formation that the non-stuffed animals were in. It was a crude dark mark, but it was a dark mark all the same. "Sirius! Look for the marks that wouldn't be spotted directly." She called as she exited the room. Hermione kept walking towards the living room, not paying attention as she was walking backwards, something on the ceiling was almost calling to her.
"I already said that there is to be no one here." Sirius's gruff voice grunted out, whipping around Hermione fell to the floor as her left foot got caught in the rug, pulling her down.
"And we have permission to view this." Hermione looked up from the floor to see two men standing in the doorway, the taller one had dark brown shaggy hair and was looking bored where the shorter one had a lighter brown hair that was cut short and glaring heatedly at Sirius who had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at the two in front of him.
"What's going on?" Hermione asks as she pushes herself off the floor, crossing the room to the door she quickly gives the two a once over before looking curiously at SIrius.
"So you aren't looking here alone." The short one said, the corner of his lips starting to turn upwards. Ignoring him Hermione gently tugs on Sirius's arm trying to get his attention.
"Forget about the two for a moment." She said, pulling his arm with her as she moved to go to the girl's room again. As she drugged his arm with her, Sirius refused to move, his arm stiffened and once again Hermione found herself upon her butt. Glaring at the ceiling for something to do she noticed a strange line that seemed to be going around the room and then down the hallway. "There's something on the ceiling." She quietly announced to herself, pushing herself up once more she moved towards the center of the room where the lines seemed to be carved deeper into the ceiling.
"Your partner seems to think that it's time for a nap." The short man remarked to Sirius as he caught sight of Hermione lying on the floor staring at the lines, her eyes darting trying to figure out what it was.
" 'Mione?" Sirius asked his body slightly turning towards her, the two men slipped past him, taking his body as a welcome into the house. "Dammit." He cursed before sighing and walking to where Hermione was still at, her eyes still darting around.
"The Dark Mark." Hermione murmured as her mocha eyes traced the lines again, the picture getting bigger the longer she looked at it. Swiveling her eyes towards Sirius she tilted her head to the side, like a dog. "Do you see it?" Shaking his head no, Hermione rolled her eyes for the tenth time that day and grabbed Sirius forcing him to kneel down next to her. "Its right there." She murmured into his ear using her finger to point it out to him. The widening of his eyes told her that he had found it and they knew for sure what had happened to the small family.
A thump and cursing caused Hermione to jump to her feet, her heart pounding, before she realized that she wasn't in any danger as the war was over, carefully, she inched her way to where the noise had come from. Keeping her body pressed against the wall she couldn't hear anything. Carefully placing her feet so the rug over the wooden floor wouldn't give her away, she placed a hand on the gun strapped to her thigh. Placing a shaking hand to the door she pushed it open gently before seeing the two men that had practically forced their way in holding a decapitated stuffed pig, Hermione's chocolate eyes widened as the two men froze, neither of them moved as they sat there staring at each other. The clearing of a throat behind Hermione had her spinning around, an arm against Sirius's throat before she remembered where she was and what was going on.
"Glad you pay attention Kitten." Sirius smirked as Hermione's cheeks twinged a pale pink. "Now could you let off the pressure on my neck before I can't breathe and you have a murder on your freakishly small hands?" Hermione dropped her arm and walked back away from the three men. "Find anything you care to share with the rest of us agents?" Even though Sirius had cocked an eyebrow and his voice had gone up as if it were question, a deaf person could still have heard the underlying threat of 'tell me or I will not hesitate to feed you to the three headed dog that is at the moment guarding my house.' Not that muggles knew of a three headed dog that was the size of a house.
"Yeah, why the hell is the stuffing and heads removed from the stuffed animals?" The shorter of the two men on the opposite side of the room asked. His green eyes flickering from stuffed animals to the decapitated heads lying in a bizarre pattern that wouldn't mean anything to the two muggles.
"We think it's a signal of the cult that killed these people." Hermione spoke, her voice soft. "Not that we have any other murders to look at since we barely arrived this morning." Pushing herself off of the wall that she had been gently resting against, Hermione walked to the closest decapitated stuffed hippo's head and peered at it.
"Don't touch anything Kitten." Sirius cautioned from a little ways behind her. Waving him off, Hermione crouched down to see the head better.
"There isn't anything on it." Hermione muttered from the corner of her mouth to Sirius as she glanced around the room and spotted the two other men inching closer, trying to hear what was being said. Standing up, she brushed her hands off on her pants and glanced around one last time. "It looks like we found everything that we needed to find." With a quick glance at Sirius with her mocha eyes, Hermione turned and walked out of the room, not really caring what was being said behind her back as she glanced once more around the house. Her eyes rested once more on the ceiling where the Dark Mark was scratched on. "I'm sorry." She whispered to thin air, hoping that the small family would hear her and forgive them for not being able to protect them before they had been killed.
"Coming Kitten?" Sirius gently asked as he draped an arm around her shoulders, gently guiding her to the door.
"It's just not fair!" Hermione exploded as soon as she had gotten into the hotel room. Sirius groaned before throwing himself onto the soft bed, a hand on top of his face to block out the light. "They didn't do anything to deserve to die! The only thing they had done wrong was by being a muggle and it's not their fault for that!" Without warning Hermione's fist slammed into her thigh. "What good is being an Auror if you can't save innocent people?" She cried, throwing herself onto the opposite bed that Sirius wasn't occupying. Pulling the pillow onto her lap she sat up quickly and schooled her face into a mask, one that she had perfected when she, Harry, and Ron had been on the run. The one that meant she would do anything to save people from dying. As Hermione sat in the bed, squeezing her pillow Sirius carefully stood from his bed and crossed the small walkway between the two bed and opened his arms to her.
"I think I have an idea…" He said quietly as Hermione allowed herself to be swept into a hug. "But it's going to require us to go alone." Hermione pushed his chest away gently and looked at him, thoughts swirling around her head.
"Why?" She asked, her eyes searching Sirius's, the man who was her father in every way but blood.
"I got an owl from Kingsley this morning before you woke up." Sirius muttered. "Dolohov is a few States away from here, and Kingsley wants me to get him." Hermione opened her mouth but seeing it Sirius spoke quickly and held up his hand. "He wants you to get Bellatrix, and Greyback will be whoever gets him first." Sirius grimaced. "But you have to remember that Bella will follow wherever I go, and I will be following Dolohov." He paused.
"And Greyback will be following me." Hermione stated, knowing that as she said it, it was true. Sirius only nodded. "When?" She asked.
"Tonight." Sirius said as he pulled Hermione back into a hug. "Be safe Kitten." Hermione laughed quietly.
"When am I not?" She joked.
"I'm starting to think that you were the one that trouble follows." Mirth laced Sirius's voice.
"Why?" Hermione pulled away.
"Well… First a troll tries to kill and eat you, then a basilisk petrifies you, then you have to help a criminal escape while avoiding dementors and a werewolf, then our world believes that you are a slag not to mention you have to help Harry, and then you almost die at the Ministry." Sirius pauses, "Anything I'm missing?" He feins asking. Hermione laughs and lightly slaps his chest.
"That was only because I'm friends with Harry Potter." She defends herself weakly.
"Suuure." Sirius drags out, "Just be careful." He ruffles Hermione's hair, causing her now tamed curls to become tangled and messy. Glaring at him she reaches up and goes to mess up her father's hair. Sirius blocks her arm and grabs onto it, stopping her from reaching his precious hair. "No touchy the hair." He says, a fake accent rolling off his tongue.
"What hair?" Hermione innocently asks as she nonverbally vanishes Sirius luscious locks.
"HERMIONE!" He roars as he shoots up from the bed and to the bathroom, where his long, precious hair used to be was now a comb-over. "I AM SO GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS!" He bellows from the bathroom. Standing quickly up Hermione rushes to the door and wrenched it open before running out of the room and quickly to the bar to stop people from falling off the second floor, rolling her eyes, Hermione quickly swings herself up on top of it and looks behind her as she sees Sirius, who had restored his hair back to normal, running towards her. Taking a quick breath Hermione jumps off the railing, rolling into a somersault as she hits the asphalt and took off running again. Hearing a thud behind her, Hermione was notified of the man who was chasing her. Laughing Hermione skidded to a halt after about a mile or two of running before turning to the left and to an alleyway, quickly pulling herself on top of a dumpster and onto the squat building next to it, Hermione ducks and watches as Sirius looks to the left, to the right, and into the alleyway for her before looking up and seeing her. "At least.. we know that you… can outrun an old man." Sirius pants as he clutches his side.
"Anyone could outrun you." Hermione retorted as she swung down from the building and landed in front of him. "Besides, aren't mutts supposed to be the smartest and quickest?" She smirked as Sirius scowled at her.
"Just because you can climb better than me doesn't mean that you are better." He growled playfully before quickly putting her into a fireman's hold, ignoring Hermione's shout of surprise and her fists as she beat his back he continued walking down the street, ignoring the looks they got from the other pedestrians. With a sigh, Hermione admitted defeat and slumped onto his shoulder.
"So, are you going to take the car or your motorcycle?" Hermione asked as Sirius put her down in front of their car.
"Motorcycle." Sirius said, grinning.
"Of course." Hermione said, rolling her eyes at him.
"Be safe Kitten." Sirius said before climbing onto the motorcycle after he pulled it out and let it grow to how it was normally and he rode off into the darkness.
I know it's kinda everywhere in this chapter, but I needed to get the things in the direction I wanted it to go. Question: In the next chapter she meets one of the three escaped Death Eaters who do you want her to meet/see
1)Bellatrix Lestrange
2)Fenrir Greyback
3)Antonin Dolohov