CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
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.
AN
Alright, I thought I'd throw in a case every now and again from the actual show. This case is from season 6, episode 12, Like a Virgin, and I know that the plot line for the episode and how things turns out, but I've changed it a little, meaning there is no stone protecting the sword, the sword isn't broken and this will not lead to the 'Mother of All.' I'm not going down that route, I'm just using some of their cases from the show, as I feel it better gives Hermione a show of the supernatural world, other than just wendigos, lamias and the like.
Page count: 11
"So, where are we heading?" Hermione finally asked from her place in the passenger's seat, munching on a sandwich whilst Dean drove and Sam was in the back seat, reading another of her books.
They hadn't left the motel until a little after lunch, with it taking some time for Hermione to find a spell that would remove the blood stain from the carpet, which hadn't been easy. In the end she settled for an Illusion Charm, so no one would know it was there and by the time the charm wore off they'd be long gone, and Hermione had made sure to alter the blood sample so it could never be connected to Sam.
They'd been woken that morning by a phone call from Bobby, and of course Hermione was scolded and insulted over the phone until Bobby had ran out of breath, and after he'd finished with his telling off for her "stupid behaviour," he'd given them a location for their next case.
He hadn't given them any other details yet, as he wanted them to confirm a theory of his before he told them of his suspicions. And so, it was now evening and they'd been on the road for almost seven hours, in that time they'd stopped for dinner, and at two convenience stores so Hermione could purchase more snacks, since she swore up and down she was starving. The brothers didn't bother arguing with her. It was safer that way.
"Portland, Oregon," Dean answered.
"I've never been there," Hermione hummed.
"It's about a day and a half travel, if we're lucky. We'll drive through the night so we can get there without having to stop. Once we're there, we'll head to the morgue so you can check out the body. Did Bobby say what he wanted you to do?"
"Yes, I don't know why, but he wants me to see if I can detect whether or not the victim was a virgin."
He raised an eyebrow. "You can do that?"
"There's a medical spell that was used decades ago, in ensuring that Pureblood girls were still virgins, both before an arranged marriage was set if done so after the fifteenth birthday and before the actual wedding. It's not really used much these days, simply because most witches don't tend to wait until marriage, especially the Purebloods. Draco's own parents had him set to marry Astoria Greengrass, a Pureblood witch, from the day she was born and she was two years younger than us. After the war Draco took over Malfoy Industries and he became the Head of the House of Malfoy, meaning he had the power to break the betrothal contract. He'd fallen in love with Luna during the war, as she'd been taken prisoner and held in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor. He protected her as best he could. He couldn't marry someone he didn't love, his parents had done so and he'd been forced to witness their hateful marriage as he grew, he didn't want that for himself and he doesn't want it for little Scorpius either. He's already received petitions for betrothal contracts for Scorpius from twenty-two Pureblood families in Europe, and more keep arriving by the day."
"He's not even three months old!" Sam protested.
"I know," she sighed. "But Draco's not going to accept any of them, he wants his son to be happy, for him to choose who he wishes to marry, witch or wizard. Besides, if he ever takes the choice away from Scorpius regarding his future relationships, I'll be second in line to kill him with Luna leading the charge. For someone so calm, she's bloody frightening." They both snorted. "Do either of you have any idea of what we may be dealing with?"
"No, not until we're given the details. All we know is there's a dead body and several women have disappeared. Has Bobby told you anything else?" Sam asked.
"No, just what we already know," she shrugged.
~000~000~000~
"This building has appalling security," Hermione commented, as she and the brothers walked into the morgue and headed straight for the freezers where the bodies were kept. It took her three tries to find the body she was looking for.
They both snorted. "Only because you used magic to break in," Sam pointed out.
"Are you complaining?" She asked, looking up at him even as she continued to wave her wand over the body.
"No, it's a lot easier than picking locks, dodging security cameras and guards, and blindly navigating the corridors," he replied, leaning against the wall, whilst watching the corridor for anyone approaching.
"That's what I thought," she said, before looking back down to the body.
Hermione sighed, seeing the young, pretty redhead that can't have been older than twenty-one. If Hermione had to guess, she would say the young woman was a college student, but without Bobby's intel she couldn't be sure.
Her eyes were drawn when the result of the spell glowed white, informing her that the young woman had been a virgin.
"What's the verdict?" Dean asked.
"Virgin," Hermione sighed, taking one last look at the young woman before closing the freezer door. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she said, walking over to him and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side.
"Then we better be careful," Dean replied, seeing no point in brushing off her worries; every time she'd said those seven words, something had always gone wrong.
"We better get out of here before we're caught; we've gotten what we came for."
~000~000~000~
"So just because this one victim was a virgin, you're assuming the other missing women are virgins?" Sam frowned, looking at the phone that sat in the centre of the table of their motel room on loud speaker, so all of them could hear.
"I'm not assuming, I know," his gruff voice replied, and it wasn't difficult to hear that he sounded annoyed.
"So what are we dealing with?" Dean asked, pulling Bobby's attention.
"Dragons."
The brothers turned to look at Hermione who had a deep frown on her face.
"Don't look at me, despite what muggle fairytales depict, dragons don't steal damsels in distress and keep them locked away in towers," she rolled her eyes. "In reality, unless a dragon is born and raised on a reserve, they don't trust humans and they're highly dangerous creatures. They'd eat you, not kidnap you."
They both frowned at her words.
"No, I believe it's a dragon from medieval mythology," Bobby's voice came over the speaker. "There isn't much information on them, but there's someone I know who may be able to help you. Dr. Visyak, she's a professor in medieval mythology. She's your best bet at closing this case and getting the women back. I've estimated there to have been at least eight women taken and they have nothing in common except for being virgins."
"How do we kill these dragons?" Dean asked.
"I don't know, that's why you need to see Visyak. I'll keep digging and see if I can find anything else, but I doubt I will. Let me know if you need me," Bobby said, before hanging up the phone.
The three Winchesters looked to each other.
"I'll go see this Visyak," Dean said.
"Once Bobby sends over the information on the kidnapped women, I'll work on trying to find a motive behind their kidnappings," Sam spoke.
"Once we have their addresses, I'll head over to their homes and find something that I can use to track their location; hopefully I can lead us straight to them."
"No," the brothers said together instantly.
She scowled. "Relax, I told you my reaction to the Tracking Spell was due to the use of blood magic and my magic reacting to the magic in Sam's tattoo, it won't happen again. I'm going to be using personal items to find them, possibly a hairbrush or toothbrush. And that reminds me, I need to recharge your tattoos, so when I have the chance I'll feed more of my magic into them."
~000~000~000~
"Did you learn anything?" Sam asked, looking up from his laptop as Dean entered their motel room.
Dean's eyes fell to the corner of the room where Hermione was kneeled in the corner, her eyes closed, her lips moving as silent words left her and with her wand being moved in intricate patterns over the variety of objects that sat in front of her, mainly toothbrushes, hair brushes and a single locket.
"Basically what Bobby said, only I know how to destroy these dragons."
"How?" Hermione muttered, though she didn't change her positioning nor did she stop what she was doing.
"We need a weapon that's been forged from dragon blood, or the great dragon slaying sword. Visyak let slip that she was in possession of it, though she seemed reluctant to part with it, luckily for us, she mentioned she keeps it in her basement. So we wait until the coast is clear and then we steal it," he shrugged his shoulders, moving to sit on one of the beds.
"Or, we use a weapon forged from dragon blood," Hermione said.
They both turned to look at her. "And where are we supposed to get one of those?" Sam asked confused.
"Easy, Charlie," she answered with a shrug. "You're forgetting he's a dragon tamer, he should have access to a weapon such as that, and if not, I can speak to Harry. His department often performs raids on residences and properties that are thought to contain illegal magical items. Dragons are an endangered species which is why they are protected. Anyone that is found to have illegal goods that originate from any part of a dragon are either given a fine or a prison sentence."
"But I've seen in one of your potions books that you have ingredients such as dragon's blood and scales."
"They're not illegal, dragon blood and dragon scales are rare ingredients, and they can only be extracted once the dragon is dead and not before. It's perfectly legal if a dragon is dead, but if a dragon is killed for the purpose of extracting its blood and scales, you'll automatically be facing a prison sentence. Sometimes blood is extracted for the purpose of checking the dragon's health, which can then be sold on, and most of the time dragons tend to shed their scales as they grow, and they can be collected and sold, since a lot of wizarding gloves, shoes and bags are made from dragon hide. Now, dragon blood forged weapons are a little more tricky for the reason that the blood has to still be warm, since despite popular belief, dragons are not cold blooded, though some do prefer hotter climates than others, it depends on the breed. Anyway, the only way to have warm blood is through killing the dragon and immediately extracting their blood, and I'm not talking a small potion vial of blood, I'm talking a quarter of the blood in the dragon's body, at least. No one can say the weapon was forged accidentally or unintentionally. So back to my original point, I can have Harry check the confiscated goods warehouse for any dragon forged weapons, they're rare but there's likely to be one in there. It'll be a pain in the arse to get it out, but I'll ask Kingsley for a little help since he's aware of what it is you boys do."
They both blinked in surprise, not only due to the information she'd revealed, but also because she hadn't once moved her focus from her task of finding the location of the missing women.
"At any rate, we should probably get our hands on that dragon killing sword, if my suspicions are correct, I bet that when I examine it, it's a magical artefact that's in the possession of a muggle."
"So we're breaking in?" Dean sounded far too pleased.
"No," she shook her head. "We can't risk you getting caught and if the sword goes missing, Visyak will suspect you, I'll send someone else in. They'll be in and out before any of us can blink."
They fell silent, waiting for her to make her move, but she didn't.
"And...I think I've got it," she spoke ten minutes later, opening her eyes and standing up, rubbing her numb legs trying to get rid of the pins and needles feeling before she even attempted to move.
"You've found them?" Sam asked surprised.
"I think so," she nodded, gesturing towards the strange, differently coloured lines that floated in front of Hermione before they connected to one point in the centre, almost like a spider web.
"What is it?" He asked.
"I believe it's a map."
"A map of what?"
"The sewer systems," she replied. Both brothers grimaced. "I know, one of these days we're going to investigate a haunted spa, or a private beach," she sighed.
Dean snorted. "Don't get your hopes up, Sweetheart. Right, we know where they are, we know what we're dealing with and we know how to kill them, all we need is the weapon."
"I can't find any reasoning behind their kidnappings, I don't understand the motive," Sam frowned.
"I don't suppose it matters now, we take out the ones responsible and then we can have a late dinner." The brothers rolled their eyes at her. "Right boys, let's get our things in order, we're going hunting."
~000~000~000~
"Zipper," Hermione called softly.
The little house-elf appeared in their motel room and bowed lowly to Hermione, before turning towards Dean and doing the same.
"Mistress, Master," he squeaked.
Hermione smiled at him, Zipper had been with her for the last three years and his previous Master had been one of the worst she'd come across, and he more than deserved his sentence in Azkaban, which he still had another fifty-five years remaining for his crimes against wizarding society. Zipper had just entered his teenage years for a house-elf and his ears were large and pointed with fur, he had large green eyes, his skin was more grey than green and wrinkled, and he wore a white shirt, a bowtie and black trousers.
"Good evening, Zipper," Hermione said kindly. "I was wondering if you might help me with a small task."
"Zipper is happys to serves his Mistress and Master," he said happily, bowing once more.
Hermione chuckled. "Thank you, it won't take long. I need your assistance in retrieving a possible magical artefact that is in the possession of a muggle." Zipper nodded furiously. "It's a sword, and it's believed to be kept in the basement of a property belonging to a Dr. Visyak. You are the only one I believe is able to retrieve the sword quickly and without being seen."
"Yes, Mistress, Zippers do as Mistress wishes," he bowed, before disappearing.
"He didn't even ask for the address," Sam frowned.
"He doesn't need it," Hermione replied. "House-elf magic," she shrugged, as if that explained everything.
~000~000~000~
Fifteen minutes later, not only did Zipper return with the sword, but Mimsy and Hopper appeared also, after Hermione had called for them to deliver a letter to Harry and Charlie.
"That was fast," she blinked, having not expected it to be so easy. "Thank you, Zipper, you've done remarkably, please take the rest of the night and the following day off from your chores," she said, taking the wrapped up sword from him.
"No, Mistress," he replied, before bowing and returning to the apartment. Dean and Sam snorted when Hermione scowled.
Hermione unwrapped the cloth from the sword, seeing that it didn't look remarkable or powerful, no, it looked seemingly unimportant, it looked simple. The blade of the sword was sliver, and the handle of the sword was black with a silver tip. It was nothing compared to the Sword of Gryffindor, with the gold, rubies and the inscription of words of wisdom from the Founder himself. She found herself disappointed.
"What's that look for?" Sam asked.
"It's not what I was expecting."
"You sound disappointed," he noted.
"I am. Remind me to show you the Sword of Gryffindor some time, then you'll understand my disappointment."
She put the sword down before Hopper stepped forward and bowed, holding out a smaller item wrapped in a cloth.
"Mr. Charlie tolds Hopper thats you woulds be likings this," the house-elf said.
He was dressed in a manner similar to Zipper, though Hopper was quite a bit older than him, in fact, he was the second oldest of her house-elves, and he was the second house-elf she'd rescued after Mimsy. His skin was a dark green with deep wrinkles and dark blue eyes. His fingers were long and bony and he had a patch of fur in the centre of the backs of his hands.
"He be sayings that its what Mistress needs."
"Thank you, Hopper," Hermione smiled, taking the item from him. "You've done wonderfully, you may also retire for the evening and take tomorrow off from chores."
"No, Mistress," he replied bowing, and then returning to the apartment. Hermione scowled and Dean and Sam sniggered.
Mimsy stepped forward. "Mr. Harry saids that Mistress better bes careful or he wills gives Mr. Draco yours coordinates." Hermione snorted, taking the larger item from her. "Mr. Harry's say thats The Ministers says Mistress can keeps the item."
Hermione blinked in surprise. "Thank you, Mimsy, as always you have been wonderful. You may..."
"No," Mimsy stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips.
Hermione blinked, aware of Sam and Dean laughing behind her. Mimsy bowed to her and Dean, before returning to the apartment.
"I'm starting to like those little elves," Dean commented, seeing her dazed expression.
She shook her head, before opening the cloth from the larger item, revealing a small machete made of silver and gold with a black handle, and an image of a dragon etched into the blade. She placed that down, opening up the last item and revealing what looked to be a dagger. This, too, was made of silver, though it looked to have emeralds embedded in the blade, along with the marking of a serpent etched onto the handle, it wasn't difficult for her to imagine who the dagger had been confiscated from.
"Alright, the machete's on loan, but we can keep the dagger, it's just as well, it might come in handy in the future since it's silver and dragon blood forged. Once this is over, I'll run some diagnostics on the sword, but I'll have to hand it into The Ministry, where they'll have their agents test every strand of magic in the sword."
"So it is magical?" Sam asked.
"Yes, I can feel the flow of the magic inside the sword when I'm holding it, which means it's a magical item."
"Right then, let's get this over with," Dean clapped his hands.
~000~000~000~
"Why does everything have to bloody go wrong with those two!" Hermione grumbled.
She was following her wand's directions through the underground tunnels of the sewers, whilst Sam and Dean distracted the dragons since they'd discovered there were two of them. Thankfully, they appeared as humans as she wasn't sure she could handle anything else.
She grimaced as she stepped in something that didn't smell pleasant, she vanished it with a wave of her hand and took the next left, coming into a large tomb that held several large metal cages, and inside each cage was one of the missing women.
Upon seeing her arrival, they all gripped at the bars, trying to reach out to her and begging for her to help them. She wasted no time in rushing into the centre of the tomb and with a wave of her wand and a muttered incantation, every lock on the cages broke and the doors swung open. The women all looked at her with various amount of disbelief, fear and surprise. She'd wipe their minds later, right now they didn't have the time; she needed to get back to Dean and Sam as when she'd left them, they didn't appear to be doing too well against their opponents.
"Come on, I have to get you out of here before they come back."
Her words sparked something inside of them as they all rushed out of their cages and followed behind her, their arms wrapped around themselves protectively and their eyes darting about in the darkness of the tunnels, as if expecting something to attack them. Hermione led the way and she realised that the fastest way to reach the exit was to go past the area she'd last seen Dean and Sam fighting the dragons, and that could cause some trouble.
As they neared, she could hear grunts and groans, growls and curses, and she knew they would need her help.
"Stay here and whatever happens, don't move until someone comes to get you or unless you're sure I'm dead." She told them.
She didn't wait for an answer, Hermione dashed around the corner with her wand in her hand, her eyes focusing in the poorly lit environment and seeing that Sam was sprawled on his back with one of the dragons kneeling beside him as they struggled over the machete. And then her eyes landed on Dean, seeing him pressed up against the wall with the other dragon stood before him, his hands around Dean's throat and choking him, and the sword had fallen to the floor in Dean's struggle.
And just like that night when Jane had threatened Dean's life, something inside of her took over and she was no longer in control of her actions. It was as though she had left her body and she was standing on the sidelines, watching but not interfering.
Hermione spied the dagger on the other side of the room and she summoned it to her silently, catching it in her outstretched hand. With her right hand she threw the dagger straight for the man that was slowly killing her husband, and with the left, she threw a Stupefy at the one trying to kill Sam.
The man crumpled to the ground as the dagger lodged firmly in the man's back and Dean's body sagged to the floor, landing on his knees and rubbing at his windpipe with one hand and coughing loudly and the other hand was pressed to the floor, holding him up. With the combination of the Stunner and the distraction, Sam was able to get the upper hand and he plunged the machete through the man's chest.
What felt like hours actually only took seconds to play out, and suddenly both men were on the ground, dead. Seeing that Sam was fine as he laid sprawled on his back and breathing heavily, Hermione gained control of herself and she rushed to Dean's side. She dropped onto her knees in front of him, her hands going to his face. When he looked up at her, his eyes were watering from his coughing fit and his face was turning red. She lifted her wand and gently pressed it against his windpipe, casting a charm that would help with his airflow, and in a matter of seconds, his coughing stopped and he was hugging her to him tightly.
"I'm fine," he muttered against her ear, as she silently cried into him and clung to him like her life depended on it.
"I told you I had a bad feeling about this," she responded through a sniffle.
"Well to be honest, we didn't expect there to be two of them, and they were a lot stronger than they appeared, even Sammy couldn't handle it. Thankfully we have your magic on our side when we need it the most."
He pulled back from her, taking her face in his hands and swiping his thumbs across her cheek bones, catching the tears that fell from the corners of her eyes.
"You're a pain in the arse," she muttered.
He grinned. "I know." She sighed and pressed her forehead against his. "By the way, Glinda, you've got one hell of an arm on you."
She snorted. "You should see my right hook."
He looked surprised by her comment. "That reminds me, we never did get around to physical combat," he said thoughtfully. "We'll have to start your training when we have our next respite."
"No, we both know it'll just end in sex."
He grinned, looking rather pleased with her words. She rolled her eyes at him and he chuckled, before moving until he caught her mouth in a kiss. Her hands moved until they were both tangled in his hair, one of his hands slipped to the back of her neck, keeping her to him and the other slipped around her waist, slipping under her t-shirt and pressing against the small of her back.
"Err, guys!" Sam called, gaining their attention.
They pulled back from each other, turning to look at him and seeing that he was sitting up with his back pressed against the wall and he was watching them with amusement, as the group of women they'd just rescued shuffled on their feet nervously and watched them, some with curiosity and some with a pink tinge to their cheeks, likely having heard their conversation.
"I'll have to wipe their memories, they saw me use magic. We need a cover story."
"Serial killer?" Dean offered, pulling back from her and standing, helping her to do the same.
"I suppose it'll do. I'll wipe their memories so they don't remember us or how they escaped, you and Sam make sure you get the dagger, sword and machete, I'll do a crime scene clean up once I've dealt with these."
She approached the group of women, all of them different sizes, heights, ages and appearances, and in the blink of an eye, one by one, they each dropped to the ground as Hermione cast a mild Sleeping Charm, which would give her less than an hour to wipe and reform each of their memories whilst making sure that none of them were exactly similar to avoid suspicion. Victims remembered things differently and if every statement and account given matched perfectly, it would be suspicious and that's what they wanted to avoid.
Five minutes before the group of women was to wake, Hermione pulled back from the final mind, panting and wiping at the sweat that was beading down her forehead. She stood on shaky limbs and turned to see Dean watching her worriedly.
"I'm fine," she said tiredly, holding her hand up to stop him from approaching her. "I'd forgotten how tiring it is to do a routine mind wipe and reform of a muggle's memories, particularly so many of them. I'll be fine after a cup of tea and some food. It must be the early hours of the morning by now, do you think anywhere will be open for breakfast?"
Sam snorted at her and Dean shook his head, watching as she flicked her wand this way and that way, and the room glowed blue, letting them know Hermione's magic had removed all evidence of them being there. Before the women woke, they made their way back through the maze of tunnels with Hermione continuing to erase their presence, until they reached the exit, they climbed into the car and they left, closing another case.