CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Summary: Nine years after the war, Hermione's the Head of the Auror Department that specialises in dealing with Magical Creatures and fugitive Death Eaters that are loose in the Muggle World. With the fugitive Death Eaters no longer hiding in Britain, she's tracking rogue Death Eaters in the United States, which leads her to The Winchester brothers. The Witch and The Hunters are a dynamic trio that no creature, being or beast wishes to mess with, Magical or Supernatural. Hermione/Dean pairing. Rated M for a reason.

Disclaimer: I don't own original canon characters or events, just those that I create myself. Everything belongs to J.K Rowling and the creators of Supernatural. I am not making a profit posting this fanfic.

Page count: 7

Dean had no idea what possessed him to kiss her, but he'd be lying if he denied that he hadn't thought about doing it for a few days now. It was partially the reason he'd been so cold towards her when they'd first met. Admitting that he was attracted to a witch disgusted him; he should hate her and her kind. He should hate what she stood for and he definitely shouldn't have wanted to get into her pants, no matter how hot she was or attractive her accent was.

But then things slowly began to unfold. Castiel was her guardian Angel and had been since she was a child. He vouched for her and was under his protection. He'd shown the most emotion Dean had ever seen from the usually stoic Angel after only being with her for a short time. She'd worked a case with Bobby in the past and he vouched for her, he even seemed to like her, which was a miracle in itself. She'd fought in battles from the young age of twelve and she'd helped to win a war at the age of eighteen, a time when most teenagers were graduating school and had no idea what to do with their lives. She dedicated her life to protecting people from dark magic, the supernatural and magical creatures. She was honest, she was beautiful, she was strong and powerful. She was kind and considerate and fucking hell, she ate more than him and she loved pie, too! Maybe even more than he did!

He tried to hate her because he'd been taught to for as long as he could remember, but she was far too different to the witches he'd faced. She'd saved his life. She hadn't tried to kill him, even when he shot her and she'd almost died. In fact, all she did in retaliation was send a few birds to attack him and Castiel received the same treatment for not answering her calls for the last couple of years, and he knew he deserved worse. She all but swore to him that she would put his life as well as Sam's above her own.

She'd told him of her past, of the war and her world. She'd told him of her torture, something that she hadn't done with Sam and he'd witnessed how close the two had become in a short amount of time. In return, he told her of his time in hell, he hadn't really spoken about it in much detail, not even to Sam or Bobby, but she was the first person he had willingly spoken to about the dark, horrifying topic and it hadn't felt all that worrying or unnatural to him, either.

When she'd been attacked, a wave of worry and fear like he couldn't remember feeling coursed through him, shocking him in a way he hadn't thought possible. She'd broken down; she'd come to him, not Sam. It was him that she clung to, that she sought comfort and protection from. It was him that she came to the previous night when she was upset, not Sam, and it was him that she'd opened up to.

He tried to deny it, he honestly did, but he couldn't any longer. There was just something about her, something magnetising that drew him towards her, and like a moth to a flame, he felt himself being pulled to her presence. A thought briefly crossed his mind that she could be responsible, maybe a Love Spell of some kind, but he dismissed it. First;y, he didn't know if they existed and secondly, if they did he was sure she would never cast one on him. It wasn't in her nature, he knew that.

When she'd told him that he and Sam had to leave and wait for her to come back, if she survived, he felt dread fill him. There was no way in hell he was leaving her. Lucifer himself would be released from the cage before he left her, and that sure as hell wasn't going to happen. To put it mildly, it was a right pain in the ass to get him in there in the first place.

And when they were arguing, she was so close and he could smell that apple and caramel scent that reminded him of pie, a smell he had come to associate with her. Their noses were almost touching and they were looking into each other's eyes, glaring really, and he could feel himself drowning in her chocolate brown orbs.

It was too hard to deny his attraction to her, or the fact that he wanted to kiss her and she was so close, but then she turned away from him and he couldn't stop himself. He reached out to grab her wrist and tugged her close until she was facing him. Her eyes had widened somewhat and before she could question him, he did what he'd wanted to do for days. He ducked his head and kissed her.

Her lips were soft and plump, a little chapped in the right corner where he'd witnessed on several occasions, her nibbling at the area whilst she read a book or went over her notes with a thoughtful frown.

It was then that he realised that she hadn't responded; she'd tensed up. A feeling of rejection and humiliation filled him and as he made to pull away, he felt her body relax and her mouth pressed a little harder against his in response.

~000~000~000~

It wasn't a stretch to say Hermione was in a fair state of shock. She hadn't expected Dean to just up and kiss her!

She'll admit that she thought Dean was handsome, alright, she was lying; she believed he was one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. But for him to kiss her? Well, she'd never seen that coming.

She'd be lying if she said the thought of kissing him hadn't crossed her mind because on occasion it had. But for him to kiss her? What was going through his mind?

Their relationship for lack of a better term, had changed over the course of their time spent together, and certainly since their first meeting when he'd shot and almost killed her. At first, he'd been wary around her, he glared in her direction and his hand jumped towards his handgun when he witnessed her magic usage. He was distrustful of her; he wouldn't even eat the bloody food he'd watched her stand and cook for them.

He thought every word she spoke was a lie and he didn't believe that she wasn't a dark magic practitioner. She could understand his hatred of her kind; he was raised by a Hunter, he was raised to protect people from dark magic and the supernatural, but what she didn't understand was his obvious hatred for her in particular.

But then things started to change. The first day or so had been tiring for her, constantly having to defend herself against his verbal attacks and hatred, but then they'd started working the case together and miraculously he seemed to warm up to her. She didn't know what it was, maybe it was something Sam had said to him when she wasn't with them, maybe it was something Bobby had said on the phone to him, it could've even been him seeing that she wasn't the evil witch he thought she was, proving him wrong countless times. But the true changes came after her attack from Bowman. He was the one that allowed her to cling to him and ruin his shirt with her tears, and he didn't leave her when the police arrived.

He didn't push her when she was in a state of shock or denial and refused to eat but allowed her the time she needed. He didn't force her to speak in the car the next day, instead, he allowed her to come to terms with the attack on her own way as he listened to his music and Sam read his book. And the previous night, she didn't know what had possessed her to do it, but when she'd woken from her nightmare, her only thought had been that she didn't want to be alone, and without thought she'd headed to the Winchester brother's room.

They'd sat in silence and watched the crappy film that was playing on the TV and when that ended, he'd coaxed her into talking the attack it in a way that she didn't feel forced, that she didn't feel like he was judging her and he even reciprocated, explaining about his past and his time spent in hell.

She didn't know why and she didn't know what it was, but there was something different about Dean Winchester. Yes, she was physically attracted to him, who wouldn't be? But she was also drawn to him; it was as if something was pulling her, forcing her to want to be in his presence. It was odd and she knew it wasn't normal, given the life that she lived and the knowledge she held, it definitely wasn't normal and there had to be something at work, or at least, that's what she told herself for justifying her wanting to be near him.

Just like her, there was a darkness to him, even if it was hidden and buried deep down. Just like her, he had a difficult upbringing. Just like her, he had a traumatising past. Just like her, he fought hard to protect people from the supernatural. Just like her, he was cautious and tainted. He was just like her! They had more in common that anyone she had ever met, even Harry.

Having the urge to be near him made her behave the way she did, well, partially at least. She teased him to annoy him because it was amusing and fun, not only for her, but for Sam, too, and she suspected the brothers didn't have a lot of laughter in their lives. She teased him because it got a rise out of him, forcing him to interact with her. Before it was glare or a gun pointed in her direction but now it was a laugh or a returned comment. She teased him because it distracted her from her thoughts of wanting to be around him.

She had thought that her attraction -she refused to call it anything more- was one sided and would quickly diminish once the case was over and they went their separate ways, never to see each other again. But then some things just didn't add up. She'd caught him staring at her on more than one occasion, he'd seemed protective of her when he noticed that Bowman had made her feel uncomfortable, he didn't leave her after the attack, he let her share his bed when he saw how upset she'd been after her nightmare, and she noticed that he'd taken an interest in her magic, listening just as attentively as Sam when she was explaining certain aspects or answering questions. Or, at least, that's what she told herself.

She knew she was pretty, particularly when she put some effort into her appearance, even she wasn't blind to the changes in her body since her time at Hogwarts. She was pretty but she wasn't beautiful. Not like Luna's innocent and ethereal beauty, or Fleur's stunning veela beauty, or Ginny's striking beauty with her vivid red hair that made her stand out in a crowd. Hermione was sure that if she wasn't famous, she could easily blend into the crowd and no one would notice her. So why would Dean Winchester, one of the most handsome men she had ever met, be interested in someone like her? Exactly, he wouldn't! A man that walks into a room and has women practically drooling over him, she'd witnessed it several times: at the bar, at the diner, at the cafe, even in the bloody car park of the motel.

Something inside her needed to protect both him and Sam, she needed them safe and out of danger. Why couldn't he see she was trying to keep him out of harm's way? He refused to leave her and then proceeded to argue with her and then she turned to walk away.

For him to kiss her was not what she'd been expecting, not at all. When he ducked down and his lips pressed against hers, her mind and body froze in surprise, and just when she could feel his hesitation at her lack of response, she mentally gave herself slap and seeing as he'd been the one to make the first move, she did what she'd been thinking of doing for days.

Just before he pulled away, she pressed her lips against his a little harder in response to Dean's advances. Upon his realisation that she wasn't rejecting him, he released his grasp on her wrist and his hands relocated to her hips, giving her a tug so that she stepped into him and his hands slipped around to the small of her back, holding her against him, whilst her hands moved to his biceps, gripping the fabric of his well-worn leather jacket.

Hermione's knees almost collapsed when Dean nibbled at her lip and soothed it with a swipe of his tongue, it moving past her lips to be met by hers when she released a little gasp.

~000~000~000~

Sam stared in surprise at the sight of Hermione and his brother in their current position before he snorted and shook his head. The sexual tension between the two of them had been there since day one and he wasn't the only one to notice it; Bobby had, too. In fact, they had a bet going on whether Hermione and Dean would act on it, how long it would take and who would be the first to crack.

It seemed Sam owed Bobby fifty dollars as he'd bet on yes to the first, Hermione to crack first and for it to take two days. Bobby had bet yes, for Dean to be the first to crack and for it to take three days; he was the closest with it now being day five since their meeting. It may be considered a short amount of time for anything to occur between them, but they were in close quarters and surrounded by danger and pressure, aspects that heightened emotions and affected behaviour.

Sam removed his phone from his pocket, snapped a photo of the two completely engrossed in each other and oblivious to their surroundings, before quickly sending it to Bobby and congratulating him on his winnings. The reply was instantaneous with nothing but a "Told you so, Idjit." Sam snorted at the gruff Hunter's response and seeing that Hermione and Dean still hadn't come back to reality and didn't seem to show any signs of doing so soon, he leaned back against the invisible Impala, got himself comfortable and busied himself with playing a game of Tetris on his phone.

A few minutes later, he cursed in annoyance when the game ended and the noise seemed to startle Hermione and she sprung away from Dean, letting out a little noise as she almost slipped on the dry ground. At the sound, Sam lifted his head and snorted in amusement.

Dean stared at Hermione heatedly as he tried to catch his breath and Hermione refused to look at anyone but the ground whilst fiddling with her fingers. She, too, was trying to catch her breath, her lips were swollen and red and her face flushed pink.

Sam snorted once more. "It's about time," he commented amusedly.

Hermione cleared her throat and turned around, facing away from them. "You have to go; I suspect the others will be arriving shortly," she spoke as she crouched down to pick up her wand which she'd dropped during the kiss.

"We're not leaving you," Dean's tone held no room for argument but that didn't stop her from trying.

"It's too danger..."

"No,"

She cleared her throat once more and let out a sigh, tucking a wayward curl behind her ear and out of her face, it having fallen free from her ponytail. "Fine, you can stay," she begrudgingly agreed. "But I need you to do everything that I tell you to, it's for your safety."

Dean made to argue but Sam cut in before he could, who knew how long they'd be glued to one another if it were to result in another kiss?

"That's fine, Hermione. We'll listen and we won't interfere," he promised.

She turned around and looked at Sam before looking at Dean shyly and the corners of his mouth quirked at her sudden and uncharacteristic shyness. She grabbed her beaded bag and rummaged around inside, pulling out two sets of white robes that were identical to hers.

"You'll have to wear these; we don't want anyone on our side mistaking you for a Death Eater. I would also like to keep your identities a secret, so make sure that your hoods are up."

"Why do we have to stay hidden?" Sam asked.

"You're muggles," she shrugged her shoulders. "My team won't have a problem with you being muggles but they will have a problem with you getting involved in wizarding affairs. They believe that you should stick to your world and we'll return the sentiment; we don't interfere in your matters, so you shouldn't with ours. Some also don't like the fact that you're Hunters, some of you have actually killed our kind of witches and wizards, as well as werewolves and other creatures."

"Wait, there's two types of werewolves?" Sam questioned in surprise, his eyes widening a fraction, his brow furrowing and his mouth pulling down at the corners.

"Yes, I'll explain later, just please keep your hoods up." They nodded before slipping on the robes and Hermione had to alter them to fit their frames since they were her robes and they were much bigger than her smaller frame.

"There's going to be a lot of ricocheting spells and curses; you have to watch out for the darker colours and the neon colours, they're the most dangerous and they'll do the most damage. One spell, in particular, Avada Kedavra, it's the Killing Curse and it will be used by every Death Eater in there. If you see a neon green light, you get out of the way and do it fast." They nodded in understanding and she turned to Sam. "Give me your arm."

He looked confused but did as she said and she reached out, taking it in her hand and pushing up his robe sleeve to reveal his forearm and she summoned a marker pen from her beaded bag before uncapping it and proceeding to draw several runes on his skin.

"What are you doing?"

"There's no such thing as Protection Spells and Charms but there are ancient runes. I'm drawing them onto your skin to hopefully give you a little more protection. It won't stop anything dangerous but minor forms of magic shouldn't be a problem, so I'm giving you the runes for protection, luck, strength, light, energy, magic and success. They won't be as strong as they usually would be due to them being rushed and I won't be able to feed my magic into them since it's a lengthy process and we don't have time, but still, it's better than nothing," she explained before dropping his arm and stepping back.

Dean held out his arm for her before she'd even asked for it and she felt her cheeks heat up as she felt his eyes watching her as she drew the runes onto his forearm.

"There," she cleared her throat and stepped back from him. "Onto my next point, I have a lot of devices that as muggles you should be able to use without any difficulty."

"Magical items?" Sam perked up. He was practically bouncing up and down in excitement and Dean rolled his eyes.

"Yes, just give me a second whilst I find them out." She went digging through her beaded bag until she pulled out what looked to be three policemen's arsenal belts. "None of these items will kill and they were not made to injure, but that doesn't mean that they can't." She handed them one each and instructed them to tie them around their waists, as she did the same beneath her robes, hiding them from sight. "Listen carefully, we've not got long before the others arrive and I still have to prepare. First, we have Peruvian Instant Dark Powder, it does exactly as it's named. You take the pellet and throw it onto the ground and instant black cloud will fill the area, this can be used in offence, but that makes it difficult for yourself. It's best to use it as a distraction to escape; it will cover you so you have time to get out. They outnumber us by two to one, we've faced worse odds in the past and we've won, so I'm not particularly worried, but that doesn't mean that things can't go wrong. If it does and you have to retreat, you must and you should get as far away from here as possible, no arguments." She glared at them both, reinforcing her words.

"Next we have Decoy Detonators, to activate simply press the red button and place it on the ground. It will do the rest itself, even going as far as to find its target and relocating itself. It's basically a self-portable small explosion." They looked impressed. "This is a Portable Swamp, again, fairly explanatory, just throw it and when it lands it will activate. This is a Weasley's Snowstorm, throw it in the air and get out of the way. Weather in Bottle, just uncap it and run. Now, onto the most impressive of magical products, fireworks; great distraction. We have Bang Bang Bang Boggarts, they'll give the opponent a fright when they see them, for reasons that you won't understand and you don't want to, trust me. We also have Thor's Thunder Crackers, Thestral Thrashers and Whack Trance Whammy Rockets. All of these products were created by Fred and George Weasley," she said proudly. "Some of them specifically for the war and the others we just found useful. Do you think you can remember them?" They nodded quickly, slight frowns on their faces as they looked over the products and committed them to memory. "Good, now get whatever you need."

They both turned to the Impala and then looked back to Hermione when they couldn't see it due to its magical camouflage. She rolled her eyes but summoned the weapons case from the car.

"You'll want weapons that are easy for you to conceal and carry," she said and they both grabbed several handguns and a knife each. "I'll cast Silencing Charms over your guns, that way the Death Eaters won't know that you're muggles, or that we have muggle weapons that can kill instantly." Within minutes she had their guns spelled and the weapons case safely in the car. "Just remember, only kill if you have to, otherwise just incapacitate."

Just as Hermione finished speaking, the port-keys arrived with reinforcements.