CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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: 6

A sharp 'crack' from the other side of the room had Dean springing to his feet with his gun pointed at the doorway of the bathroom so fast, he gave himself a head rush.

"Whoa, calm down, Mate," Harry said, his eyes wide as he held his hands up in surrender, showing he had no weapons or intentions of harming him. Dean grumbled beneath his breath, released a sigh and returned to his chair, turning his attention back to Hermione.

"How did you find us?" He muttered.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Hermione and I can track each other in case something happens to the other and we're captured or seriously injured and need help."

Harry's eyes turned to Hermione and he moved over to the bed and sat down on the edge, pushing some curls back away from her face and he noticed Dean's frame stiffen from the corner of his eyes at the tender gesture. Harry held his wand over Hermione and with a whispered spell, all of the dirt and dried blood left her body, leaving her clean.

"How is she? Was that Angel of hers able to heal her?" He asked.

"You know about Cas?" He questioned surprised.

Harry nodded. "I've met him a few times, once before the war and twice after."

"He healed her but there were some complications, he said something about the dark magic attacking her organs and her body was shutting down. He reversed the damage but he warned that if she ever falls under the curse again, it'll kill her instantly."

Harry paled considerably and Dean noticed that although he looked to have been healed and cleaned himself up, his glasses were still cracked.

"Thankfully, the Death Eater faction has been taken down, there may still be a few roaming around in other continents but when word spreads the others will give up. Hermione's focus will no longer be on capturing Death Eaters but on magical creatures now. She's still likely to get hurt but her chances of being tortured are almost zero. That's if Kingsley doesn't try to take her out of the field due to her health, but between you and me, he's scared of her, hell, so am I," Harry chuckled.

Dean eyed him holding Hermione's hand. "Just how close are you two?" He asked and Harry must've noticed the tone of jealously laced into the words as his eyes cut to Dean's.

"We are not now nor have we ever been sexually or romantically involved," Harry promised and something in Dean's demeanour changed, he didn't seem as stand-offish as his posture relaxed. "Hermione and I have a bond that's difficult to describe. She's told you about our lives, about the war and how we were raised?" He questioned and Dean nodded. "Well, my Aunt and Uncle weren't nice people, they despised magic and all those that possessed it whether they were good or not. Due to both my parents having magic, it was all but guaranteed that I would have magic, too, and they knew that. They hated me because of who I was. They never told me of my heritage and they told me my parents died in a car crash, when in reality they were murdered trying to protect me. I met Hermione when I was eleven-years-old and before I met her, I had never been given or shown any affection; she was the first person to hold my hand, to hug me, something so simple that I'd never before experienced. She was the first person to show me kindness and love. She was the first person to treat me not just like as a friend, but as family," Harry confessed, his fond gaze being on Hermione throughout his explanation.

"We have no secrets, nothing is off-limits between us, not even our bloody sex lives, which I admit is a little odd as much as it is horrifying but that's why we do it. Most of the time we make a game out of it, to see who can last the longest without running out of the room looking disgusted. The loser has to do a forfeit, a forfeit that's so incredibly embarrassing, it's traumatising. But, I suppose that's sibling rivalry for you," Harry chuckled.

"But in all honesty, we've had a difficult life but through everything, the bullying, the battles, the duels, the war, the pain and death, the fear and horror, she was there for me and her belief in me never faltered. Even when she disagreed with me and I rushed into things rashly, she still followed, protecting me. I've lost count of the number of times she's saved my life, Hermione, to the rescue as always. I had all this pressure on me, a seventeen-year-old boy was expected to save the world. Believe me, there were times that I wanted to give up and times that I did, but Hermione was always there to give me a swift kick up the arse. We've always been close and we always will be. She's my best friend, my big sister in everything but blood. She's the Aunt and Godmother to my three children and they adore her, as does my wife who's also Hermione's best friend. We miss her, she's always travelling and out of the country, it's not often I go out of the country as I'm based in England, Hermione's based here in the US."

"Why doesn't she stay in England, she has a life there, family?"

Harry smiled sadly. "That's true, she does, but what I have with my wife, what Bill and Fleur have, George and Angelina, Percy and Audrey, Malfoy and Luna, even Charlie and Claire, Hermione is reminded that she can't have that, that she can't have a family of her own."

"Why?" He frowned in confusion, his eyes darting to the little witch and then back to the wizard.

Harry gave him a sad look. "Hermione hasn't had the best dating experience. I wouldn't say she's attracted to the 'bad-boy' type, it's more like she attracts those that aren't good for her. I don't think any of us have ever approved of one of her past boyfriends, not that she cared, when Hermione has her mind made up there's nothing you can do to convince her otherwise."

"I'm not following," Dean said, annoyance edging into his tone.

Harry sighed. "Hermione is the kindest, most caring and loving person I have ever met. She gives out her love without caution and that's dangerous for her. She's a strong person but even the strongest of people have weaknesses, cracks in their armour, and let's just say her past boyfriends figured out her weaknesses and they used them against her."

"They hurt her?" Dean gripped the chair's armrests tightly, feeling anger and protectiveness flare-up within.

"Not physically, well, there was that one time boyfriend number four got drunk and pushed her, she fell down some stairs and broke her arm and a few ribs; she got her own back though. They mainly took advantage of her kindness, and Hermione couldn't see that until it was too late. Some used her for her fame, to get their five minutes of fame. Some used her for her name, to get promotions or job interviews, to get into parties or to be able to converse with a specific crowd. Others used her to sexually satisfy themselves, taking everything they could from her until she was emotionally worn out. And others used her for her money."

"Money?" Dean frowned; Hermione hadn't mentioned anything about being rich or having money.

"Hermione's financial standing in the Wizarding World is quite high, convert it into muggle currency and it's even higher. Hermione is very smart; she's got a knack for knowing which businesses to invest in and which businesses could bankrupt her; she's very sensible with her money. She received her inheritance from her parents, she got compensation from the families of Death Eaters that caused her serious harm during the war, such as Dolohov, Lestrange, Malfoy and Black, and she also received reward money when she was awarded her Order of Merlin: First Class. That's not even including the money she gets when one of her spells is added to a school's curriculum nor her wages from the Ministry, to put it mildly, Hermione's well off and she's one of Europe's most eligible bachelorettes. She's a target because of that."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Dean asked him, eyeing him warily.

"It's a warning." Harry stated, his eyes turning from Hermione and locking onto Dean, holding his gaze unflinchingly. "I've seen Hermione hurt too many times, I hate it when I find her at her apartment, sobbing her heart out and with more empty ice-cream containers than I can count, over men that don't deserve her, that use her, that can't see how special she truly is. I hate that she doubts herself, that these arseholes make her unsure and feel self-conscious and ashamed of herself. There's something different about you though," Harry tilted his head to the side slightly, a small frown on his face. "I don't know what it is, but there's something different, and I can see there's something between the two of you. I don't care whether it turns into anything or not, I don't care if it's only a quick shag or if you end up together for the rest of your lives. Hermione's been hurt enough and I can't stand by and let it happen anymore. You hurt her and I'll show you exactly how I won a war at the age of seventeen," he threatened. Harry's face hardened and his eyes darkened, showing Dean that he most certainly wasn't joking.

"I don't want to hurt her," he confessed.

"But that doesn't mean that you won't."

"You said so yourself, nothing could happen between us."

"But it might and if it does, just remember you've been warned."

Dean cleared his throat and he shifted in his seat. God! He'd never been given the warning before and it had unnerved him how the smaller man, slightly younger than himself, had been intimidating, and he'd met Lucifer! The fucking Lucifer!

"Haven't you got another pair of glasses, or a spell to just fix them?" Dean changed the subject.

Harry's mouth tugged at the corners as he looked back to Hermione. "It's tradition. The first time I met Hermione on the Hogwarts' Express, she fixed my glasses for me, since then, whenever I end up in a duel or a battle and my glasses break, depending on where I am, I'll apparate to Hermione and she'll fix them for me. It's nostalgic," he said fondly, his eyes tracing her face before a sigh left him. "I better get back to England, I have a wife and three children to get home to, she's probably worrying herself silly and not sleeping," he chuckled. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Hermione's forehead before standing up. "Will you notify me when Hermione wakes?"

"How?"

Harry dug into his pocket and he pulled out what looked to be a ring from a soda can.

"Keep this with you. When she wakes say 'treacle tart.' It's the activation code and once you have spoken the words, I'll be transported to wherever it is you are."

Dean didn't bother to look doubtful, in the last week he'd seen the capabilities of trueborn magic, and if he were being honest, he was stilling trying to wrap his head around the whole concept of it.

"Keep an eye on her for me. In her beaded bag you should find some vials labelled Nutrition Potion, if you give her a third of the vial every meal time, it should keep her healthy and give her body the nutrients it needs. In total, she should have one vial a day until she wakes." With that, he disappeared with a crack, leaving Dean to digest everything he'd learned about Hermione; some of it surprising and some of it not so surprising.

~000~000~000~

It was dark outside and the early hours of the morning when Dean found himself still being sat in the chair beside Hermione's bed, though this time Sam was snoring in the background, dead to the world in his own bed whilst Dean stared at Hermione, checking that she was still alive and breathing. He hadn't yet given her the potion Harry had told him to, planning on starting the regime at breakfast the following morning, though it sat on the bedside table ready to be administered.

Dean sighed when he saw Hermione's body twitch, her hands clenched into fists on top of the covers and her eyes moved below her eyelids. It'd been happening for a while now, like clockwork, it was every fifteen minutes and it had started not long after Harry had left.

In the beginning he'd hoped it meant she was waking up but he'd come to understand that it was likely just a reaction to her sorting through her memories, learning to process her near-death experience.

Dean took his phone from his pocket and eyed the time, seeing it was three-thirty in the morning. He debated calling Bobby, knowing he would likely kill him for waking him up, just as he would for not telling him about Hermione; either way, he was getting shot the next time he saw Bobby.

His eyes flittered up to Hermione and back down to his phone and he pressed the correct number on the speed dial, hearing the dialling tone coming from the speaker. It rang three times before Bobby's gruff voice could be heard.

"You better have woken me to tell me someone died, otherwise I'm gunna kill... "

"Hermione's in a coma," Dean interrupted tiredly.

The line went quiet for several seconds.

"You better not be messing with me, Dean, if you are..."

"I'm not, Hermione's in a coma," he repeated with a mutter.

"You have ten seconds to explain what happened or I'll shoot you on sight," the grumpy Hunter threatened.

"We've never seen something so..." He trailed off, not knowing how to describe it. "Putting Lucifer in the cage was a simple salt and burn job compared to what we just witnessed," he confessed, his eyes raking over Hermione, over where he knew the injuries had once been and he heard Bobby curse over the speaker.

"Fuck! What happened?"

"A blood bath," he stated simply. "Good guys versus bad guys. We entered the building with Hermione as the team leader and within the first five minutes, we lost sight of her. It was hours later when we found her; I was hit with a ricocheting spell and ended up on the floor, she got distracted and was hit with the Torture Curse, I killed them." He went quiet, no remorse in his voice, just letting Bobby digest the news. "Her friend, Harry, found us and told us that we'd won. He retrieved a magical doctor to help Hermione but she said there was nothing she could do since Hermione'd been tortured too many times in her life. Cas showed up and healed her whilst she was on the verge of death, even he looked worried that he might not've been able to heal her. If she's ever tortured through magical means again, it'll kill her instantly. She's currently in a coma, Cas said something about her magic needing to right itself and her mind needing to process what happened to her, she'll wake when she's ready but physically she's fine."

"Thank God," Bobby muttered. "Where are you?"

"A motel not far from the warehouse, we're going to haul up here until Hermione wakes."

"I'll pass on the case to Ellen; you just stay there and watch out for her," Bobby instructed. Dean didn't answer; he'd already planned on doing just that from the moment Hermione had fallen into the coma. "Did she figure out what ritual they were planning to complete?"

"She never mentioned anything," Dean frowned.

"Maybe not then, call me when she wakes." Dean nodded, though Bobby couldn't see him. "Get some sleep, Idjit," Bobby said, ending the conversation. Dean snapped his phone closed and placed it on the bedside table. Ignoring Bobby's words, his eyes remained focused on Hermione.