CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
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
Two days later...
"I got an owl today," she spoke as she and Dean settled down for the night, climbing into bed in their motel room in Durham, North Carolina, as they were going to start investigating the case of a possible ghost possession in the morning.
"When, I never saw an owl?" Dean questioned, pulling her into him and feeling amused as she snuggled into him, seeking warmth like a kitten.
He supposed her behaviour made sense to him, after knowing why the feline traits appeared during sex, he had come to recognize that she was more feline in her mannerisms than he previously realised. She was fast. She was graceful. She was crafty. And she was affectionate, but when riled up she was fierce and she hissed and spit like an angry little kitten.
"When you went to get dinner," she shrugged. "It was from Kingsley."
"What'd it say, do you have a case?"
"No, it was to inform me that my presence is required back in England."
His hand paused in the movement of trailing his fingers over her back and under his shirt which she wore to bed. "Why?"
"I'm needed to testify against those that were captured during the battle, the MLE Department have finally finished processing those caught and they're now able to identify all those involved and trials are due to start. Whilst I'm back in England, I also need to call a quarterly meeting and participate in the training of some new possible recruits."
"When are you leaving and how long will you be gone?"
"He needs me back in England by the end of next week, and I should be gone no more than two weeks."
"Will you come back?" He questioned calmly, but Hermione could sense his true feelings. He was worried that she would leave him. That she might realise how much she missed her family and decide to stay.
"As soon as I can, I'll come back to you," she promised, placing a kiss to the underside of his jaw and settling back down against him.
~000~000~000~
Two days later...
"What the hell is a grindylow?" Dean frowned, sitting at the bench in the middle of the park in Huntington, West Virginia, surrounded by screaming and laughing children and their parents.
"A grindylow, they're better known as horned water demons."
"Well that's comforting," he said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes at him. Sam chuckled at them both.
"So, what's their deal?" Sam asked.
"They vary in size and they can grow up to five feet when they reach adulthood, their skin is a sickly green colour and their eyes are either white or yellow. They have horns on their head and octopus like tentacles, as well as long nails on their hands. I'm pretty sure it's what we're dealing with, although they aren't really seen in this part of the world, they're native to Britain and Ireland, so it's a mystery as to how they ended up here." She said thoughtfully. "And there isn't just one of them; they breed uncontrollably so there's likely to be thousands of them."
"Great," Dean sighed.
"In folk lore grindylows are said to have snatched children and dragged them down to the bottom of the lake or pond bed if they got to close to the water, drowning them and later eating their carcasses."
"Lovely," he commented and she slapped him on the arm.
"Don't be complaining, grindylows are only a level two."
"And that ogre was a level three, I think your world needs to re-evaluate your classification levels," he replied and she nodded, conceding his point.
"They are rather nasty, they're surprisingly strong for something so fragile looking. They can easily drag a fully grown adult weighing more than three hundred pounds to the bottom of the lake bed."
"How do we deal with them? There's already been two children found dead in the last week alone," Sam spoke.
"There's probably more that have yet to resurface," Hermione said sadly. "As I said, there's likely to be thousands in that lake," of which she nodded to the lake behind them. "As far as getting rid of them goes, it's easy enough, we just have to boil them alive."
"And how do we do that?"
"With magic," she shrugged. "I'll place Disillusionment Charms on us and we'll hide out until the park closes for the night, then we'll take care of it."
~000~000~000~
"That was surprisingly easy," Dean commented, his arm wrapped around Hermione's shoulders as they made their way to the locked gates of the park.
Hermione glared at him and Sam chuckled.
"That's easy for you to say, the little demons didn't try to gouge your eyes out, and you're not the one covered in grindylow goo." She gestured to herself, indicating to the awful smelling green slime that covered her clothing.
He shrugged. "You should've seen it coming."
"No, it was unexpected because I've never seen a bloody grindylow jump out from the water and fly at someone's face before, nor have I ever had to blow them up," she scowled.
"I thought it was hilarious," he smirked at her.
"Do you know what else is hilarious?" She asked sweetly.
"What?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You sleeping in the car tonight," she smiled at him innocently and left him when he stopped walking in surprise.
"You've met your match with her," Sam laughed, patting Dean and the shoulder and catching up to Hermione as she magically opened the gates.
~000~000~000~
Two days later...
"Hermione?"
"Yes, Sam," she responded, looking up from her book, as they were driving towards their next case, in Richmond, Virginia, where there had been several disappearances of children in the last month.
"Are griffins real?"
"Yes," she answered, and he made a strange noise in the back of his throat that amused her.
"Griffins? As in the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion? That griffin?" Dean questioned, turning back to look at her with slightly wide eyes, and she bit back a laugh.
"Yes, those griffins and they are very much real. I've never come across one myself, they're native to Greece and believe it or not, they only have a classification level of four. They live in the wild and on a few rare occasions it has been recorded that a wizard has been able to befriend a griffin and convince them to protect their valuables in return for raw meat."
"But they're mythological creatures," Sam blurted out.
"Our lives are filled with nothing but mythological and magical creatures and the supernatural."
"But, they can't be real, that's just taking things a step too far."
She chuckled at him. "Don't bother asking about a sphinx or pegasus then."
Sam made a strangled sound and she burst into laughter.
"SHIT!" Dean cursed and she found herself being thrown across the seat as Dean swerved the car dangerously and it skidded to a stop.
"Is everyone alright?" He asked.
"Yeah," she groaned, after knocking her head during the tumble.
"I'm good," Sam nodded, rubbing at his neck.
"What the hell happened?" She asked.
Dean looked over his shoulder, looking out the back window and she followed his gaze and her eyes widened at what she saw.
"Harry," she whispered.
"He happened; he appeared out of nowhere in front of me, I almost hit him."
They all clambered out of the car and Harry quickly made his way to them, meeting them half way.
"Harry James Potter! What the bloody hell do you think you're playing at? We could've killed you!" Harry winced and he rubbed at the back of his neck.
"I'm sorry," he said sheepishly, "But I didn't have time to wait until you pulled over somewhere; we've got an emergency."
Hermione's scolding ended before it could even start. "What's wrong?" She stood taller and he knew he had her attention, just as he had the attention of the two brothers standing on either side of her.
"Luna's gone into labour."
"Excuse me?" She questioned surprised; she hadn't expected that.
"Luna's in labour."
"But she's not due for another two weeks," she replied dumbly.
"We know that, as far the healer and midwife can tell, Luna and the baby are both fine. When I left to get you she was almost fully dilated. She's been screaming the manor down for you," he winced, rubbing at his ears as if still hearing her cries.
She blinked before turning around, her eyes locking on Dean's. She was due to leave for England in a few days time and she would be away for two weeks, she had not expected Luna to go into labour, nor for her to leave earlier than she had planned.
"You need to go," Dean spoke, noticing that both Harry and Sam vacated their vicinity to allow them to talk. "Your friend needs you, you were going back to England anyway, a few days earlier than expected won't make much difference," he said, but she could tell he didn't want her to leave, it was written as clear as day across his face, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
She didn't want to leave, but Luna needed her and she was needed back in England.
She sighed. "Are you going to be okay without me?" She asked him.
He gave her a lopsided smile. "Sweetheart, we'll be fine, we're not amateurs, you know?"
"Believe me, I'm aware," she said dryly. "But it's also my understanding that you seem to get injured when I'm not around."
He shrugged; neither denying it nor admitting it.
"We'll be fine," he repeated. "Is there any way for us to contact you so we can give you our location once you return?"
"Not really, but it doesn't matter, I have my ways of finding you without us needing to correspond," she replied, he raised an eyebrow at her but she didn't elaborate further.
She summoned her beaded bag from inside the car and dug around inside of it, pulling out the key card for the lift to her apartment building.
"Here," she handed it to him and he looked at it confused. "It's the key card to the lift in my apartment building," she told him and he looked down at her softly. "I won't be back for close to three weeks now that I'm leaving early, if you get a respite from cases, you can stay at my apartment. You have the key card and the house-elves will make sure you have everything you need. The access code for entry to my floor is 01-09-1991." He raised an eyebrow at her. "The 1st of September 1991, is the day my life changed completely, to me, it's the most important date in history. I hope you know how much trust I'm putting in you by giving you this. No one, not even Harry, has a key card or the access code." He felt his heart swell at her words, at the trust she so obviously had in him. "Now, please be careful, and I'll see you soon."
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him, but before she could pull away, his hands went to the back of her neck, keeping her to him as he slipped his tongue through her parted lips to tangle with hers, and she gripped his jacket in her hands.
She pulled back from him and rested her forehead against his. "I'll be back before you know it, at least I'm not in any danger," she told him, smiling a little smile.
She kissed him once more, and then pulled back from him, moving over to Harry and Sam. She and Sam hugged and she kissed his cheek.
"I'll be back soon, and please take care of each other."
"We always do," he promised and they pulled back from each other.
She took a hold of the port key Harry held out to her, and the last thing they saw was her smile before she disappeared.
"She'll be back in a couple of weeks," Sam told Dean, clapping him on his shoulder. "We better get on with this case, so we have something to tell Hermione when she gets back."
Dean nodded, but he still stared at the spot where Hermione had been standing, even as Sam climbed back into the car.
He looked down at the key card in his hand and he felt his mouth twitch into a sad smile. He would miss her presence; there was no point in denying it. And he just hoped the next few weeks went quickly.