CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
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
Two weeks later...
"Case?"
"Yes," Hermione replied, turning her eyes to Sam as she entered their motel room after returning from retrieving breakfast for them.
"It's not another boggart, it is?" Dean asked, looking apprehensive.
No one had mentioned the boggart since that night, but they all knew it changed their perspectives of the world, and it changed their opinions of each other, but for the better. It put both Dean and Hermione on their guard and it made the brothers realise just how dangerous the creatures from the Wizarding World could be.
"No, I think you're going to like this one. As long as you don't make any sudden movements, you'll be fine."
"Okay, now I'm intrigued. What are we dealing with?" Sam questioned, leaning forward with his arms on the table.
"Well, for the first time in your lives, we're not going to kill something. Our target isn't a killer." They frowned in confusion. "We've been tasked with finding a herd of lost creatures. It's believed there is to be three missing and one of them may be injured. Our job is to find them and return them to the Wizarding World. That's it. No killing, no criminals and no deaths. You were complaining that we haven't had a respite in two months, well, this case is your respite."
"What creature are we dealing with?" Dean asked, eyeing the look on her face warily.
"You'll see, it's a surprise," she grinned. "Now, hurry up and eat breakfast, I've been given the last known location of the herd before they disappeared, we'll have to follow their trail and hopefully before morning. They prefer to come out at night."
~000~000~000~
"Are we even going the right way?" Sam asked.
"Yes," Hermione replied with a sigh.
"I'm sure we've past that tree twice already," he said, pointing to a large tree at the left as they hiked through the thick woods.
"No, we haven't, you're referring to the tree that we past half a mile back, that tree had lower branches."
"Yeah, well..."
"Sammy, she's going to smack you," Dean warned amused, eyeing the way Hermione was gripping her wand tightly and she had an annoyed look on her face at Sam's constant questioning and complaining.
"She wouldn't smack me, I'm her friend and little brother through marriage," he said smugly.
"Yeah, and I'm her husband. She smacked me this morning for using the rest of her toothpaste, though it's not like she doesn't have another thirty tubes in her bag," he rolled his eyes.
"I heard that!" Hermione called from her place a little ways in front of them. Sam sniggered whilst Dean didn't bother to look apologetic. "And yes, we're going the right way."
"How do you know?" Sam barely contained the whiny tone.
Hermione bent down and scooped something up onto her finger, turning around and showing it to them in the low light of the slowly setting sun. The silver goo was sparkling like rainbows.
"What's that?" He asked with a frown.
"Blood, like I said, one of them is injured and we need to find them before night fall. These woods open onto a main road and we can't risk them crossing it and getting killed."
"You're still not going to tell us what we're looking for?" Dean asked.
"No, but I promise you, this will blow your mind."
~000~000~000~
"Why are we stopping?" Sam asked.
Hermione had suddenly stopped in her walking, her eyes searching the area lit by her wand and the brothers' torches, and she strained her hearing. She felt a wave of powerful magic pulse around her, swarming in the atmosphere, making her feel warm and relaxed.
"This is it, this is where we need to be," she said.
She dug into her beaded bag, before pulling out two apples and placing them on the ground, she then pulled the brothers until they were hidden behind a large tree.
"Why did you do that?" Dean asked.
"Just watch and be quiet and still, we don't want to scare it," she whispered, peaking her head around the tree.
They looked at her curiously before doing the same as her.
They waited ten minutes before they saw it and their eyes widened when it came into their view. It could've easily been mistaken for a white foal, only there was a small horn in the centre of its head, it had a silver mane and tail, and upon closer inspection, it wasn't white, but a grey-silver when the moon shone through the trees and reflected off the service.
"Oh My God!" Dean muttered. "It's a fucking..."
"Unicorn," Sam whispered and when Hermione turned to look at him, she thought he looked as though he were going to faint. She bit her tongue to stop herself from laughing at him.
"A female unicorn. That's what we've been tracking. Two females and one male, they got separated from their herd and passed into the Muggle World by accident. Unicorns are the purest creatures in existence. If you're careful young unicorns will allow you to interact with them, whereas adults don't, though they tend to prefer women over men."
She turned her attention back to the young unicorn, watching as it ate the apple she'd put on the ground, and then it moved onto the second one.
"I'm going to approach it; I want to see if I can earn its trust. Don't make a sound and don't move until I say so, I don't want you to startle it. It might accidently injure me with its horn, despite the size of it, it's still pointy."
Hermione slowly stepped out from behind the tree and the unicorn's head snapped up the moment she did so. Hermione smiled, before reaching into her bag, pulling out another apple and she rolled it across the floor. It stopped when it hit against the unicorn's hoof, it lowered its head and sniffed at the apple, before eating it. Hermione took a step closer, and gave it another apple, and she continued to do so until she was almost in front of it.
This time she held out her hand with the apple sat in her palm, the unicorn took the apple from her hand and she smiled brightly. Once the unicorn had finished eating, it sniffed at her hand, taking a step forward to sniff at her stomach, then at her neck and then her head and it made a neighing sound, before lowering its head in offer for her to pet it.
Hermione slowly lifted her hand and placed it against the unicorn's nose, feeling it press into her hand more firmly. Hermione smiled and started petting it.
"I know you're not alone," she said softly. "I know you have your friends with you. I know you're hungry, I know you're lost and I know one of your friends is hurt. I just want to get you home to your herd, where your mothers and fathers are waiting for you. Will you allow me to help your friend, to give you food and to take you home?" She asked.
The unicorn turned and walked away, disappearing into the trees and Hermione's hopes were dashed, until she heard the sounds of twigs breaking under a heavy weight and three unicorns stepped out of the trees and into the moon light. The male unicorn was the largest, and Hermione could see that he was bleeding from a wound on his right side, just above his under belly.
"Hello, my name's Hermione," she said softly.
She dug into her beaded bag and pulled out two apples, rolling them across the floor until they stopped in front of the two new comers. Whilst they sniffed at them, the other unicorn came to stand by her side. Before she knew it, the others were only a step behind the other one. If she reached out she could touch them, so she offered them another apple, sitting one in each of her hands and they each took it from her.
"It's nice to meet you. As I said to your friend, I would like to heal you, I would like to feed you and then I would like to take you home. I know your parents are worried about you and they miss you. Will you let me do that?"
The three unicorns seemed to look at each other, as if communicating through their thoughts, before they all gave a neigh, of what she guessed was agreement.
She smiled. "Wonderful, before I offer you more food and I take a look at your injury, I would like to introduce you to some people. They're not going to hurt you, they're here to help just like I am, though be kind to them, they're muggles and they've never seen a unicorn before, we don't want them fainting," she whispered the last part, and she would swear she heard a strange sound of laughter from the three unicorns.
"Dean, Sam, you can come out now," she called softly.
She watched as they stepped out from behind the tree slowly and they approached with nervous looks on their faces. The three unicorns took a step back and made a noise of warning and Sam and Dean immediately stopped in their steps.
Hermione walked over to them, looped her arms through theirs and pulled on them until they took another step forward.
"I know they're men and you generally don't trust them, but this is Dean, my husband, and Sam, my brother-in-law. They take very good care of me and they're good men. Don't you think so? Why don't you see for yourself?" She said.
She took their hands in hers and held them out, allowing the two female unicorns the chance to analyse the brothers' characters on their own terms. The females slowly stepped forward and sniffed at their hands, before nudging them with their noses. They then stepped closer, sniffing at their stomachs, and since they couldn't reach their necks and heads like they could for Hermione, she motioned for the brothers to bend slightly and they did.
The unicorns took a long while sniffing at their necks, before moving to their heads, and then they stepped back, looking bored.
"I told you they were good men," she said smiling, before she dug into her beaded bag and pulled out two full bags of apples, handing one each to the brothers.
"Now your sudden apple craving makes sense," Dean muttered.
"Craving?" Sam said incredulously. "She bought out three gas stations, two convenience stores and the entire supply from the diner," Sam said amused.
"Dean and Sam will gladly feed you while I tend to your friend's injury," Hermione told the unicorns, ignoring the brothers' words.
She turned to see the male already perched on the ground with his legs folded underneath him and giving her access to the wound, as if knowing she was going to ask him to do that. She shook her head and slowly approached, kneeling down beside him and placing a pile of apples by his mouth to keep him distracted.
"I'm going to do my best not to hurt you too much, but I can't guarantee it will be successful," she warned softly, before pulling her wand and turning her attention to the wound.
It wasn't a large wound and to be honest, she wasn't even sure what the cause could be. So rather than wasting time trying to figuring it out, she set about healing the wound. She cast a spell to siphon off the blood, before she took out some Essence of Murtlap and lathered the wound in it, later covering it with gauze and bandages, knowing that once the bleeding had stopped the unicorn's healing capabilities would kick in and speed up the process.
"There, all done, and once you've had your fill of the apples we can start on our journey to get you home. I'm hoping we can get you there before sunrise."
~000~000~000~
It had taken an hour for the unicorns to finally stop eating the apples, of which Hermione was glad since they didn't have many left, and Sam hadn't been joking about the amount of apples she'd bought, if she had to estimate, it may have been a little under one hundred bags.
They'd been walking for the last five hours, Hermione leading the way with the male unicorn beside her, and Sam and Dean a little ways behind with a unicorn each by their sides.
If you asked them what they thought they'd be doing with their lives when they were children, they may have said hunting, but they never would've said walking through the woods with fucking unicorns!
"I promise, we're almost there and a good job, too, sun rise isn't far off," Hermione said to the unicorn beside her and he brushed his nose against her cheek affectionately.
Hermione giggled and Dean's chest tightened at the sound. He felt a nudge at his side and looked to see his unicorn watching him; he chuckled, before lifting his hand and running it over the unicorn's nose.
They continued walking for another half an hour and then they reached their destination. To anyone else, it looked like two trees that had grown in such a way that it made an arch, but to Hermione and the unicorns, they knew otherwise.
"Would you like me to come with you?" Hermione asked. The three unicorns nodded their heads in confirmation and Hermione smiled in reply.
"I'll be right back," she told the brothers, before stepping through the arch with the male unicorn by her side.
The two female unicorns stayed behind a little longer. Dean's looked at him dead in the eye, making him feel as though it were reading his every thought and looking deep into his very soul. It nudged at his stomach, before lowering its head, wanting him to pet its nose.
Sam's unicorn turned away from him after saying good bye and stepped through the archway. His unicorn -which had interacted with Hermione first- stepped back and looked to the arch way, before turning its eyes back to him.
'Do not worry, you are a good man and good things come to those who wait. I can see all that you have suffered for the world, and I know the suffering that continues to plague you. You wish for nothing but your mate's happiness and safety, whereas most wish for fame, fortune and the world. You do not. You wish for your mate and future children to be safe from the one you call Crowley. It will be a long road ahead, but they will be. And they'll be happy and loved.'
The unicorn lowered its head and pressed the tip of its horn into Dean's palm, making a pin point incision and a small drop of blood fell out, before the little hole was gone as if it never happened. Dean hadn't even noticed the unicorn's actions.
'Do not worry, for I know it is destined that you and your mate bring another generation of good into the world. It may not happen today, it may not happen in a year's time, but it will happen, I have seen it. Thank you for helping my family return home, good bye, Dean Winchester, Hunter, Brother, Son, Husband and destined Father. Good bye, Friend.'
Dean froze. Did the fucking unicorn just talk to him telepathically? He thought.
He would swear the unicorn winked at him, before turning and going through the arch way.
"What's the matter with you?" Sam came over, clapping him on the shoulder to get his attention.
Dean blinked several times. "I swear to God, the unicorn spoke to me," he said.
Sam burst out laughing. "Don't be an idiot," he snorted.
"Why's Dean being an idiot?" Hermione asked, as she stepped out of the arch way, drawing their attention to her.
"He said the unicorn spoke to him," Sam answered her, still laughing and Dean glared at him.
Hermione's eyes snapped to Dean, and much to his surprise, they were wide and filled with awe. "She did?" She questioned quietly.
Dean nodded, eyeing her warily.
"Merlin!" She whispered. "Do you have any idea how rare that is? It's said that unicorns have telepathic tendencies, allowing them to communicate with each other, but on some rare occasions they have been known to communicate with someone they deem worthy, someone they believe is truly kind hearted and good. Someone they believe is destined for great things; that will do great things, and that has done great things."
Sam's laughter had stopped and he was blinking dumbly, his eyes going between Hermione and Dean.
"What did she say to you?"
Dean opened his mouth to answer her, but no sound came out.
"Oh bugger, I forgot, you can't repeat it," she sighed. "Was if something positive, good?"
He nodded. "Good, it was very good," he replied, giving her a look she didn't quite understand, but she smiled anyway.
"Well boys, we better get going, I believe we all deserve some rest. We've been on our feet for twenty-four hours straight, let's go." She spun on her heel and started walking in the opposite direction.
"Best case ever!" Sam said to Dean, as they followed behind her, and Dean found himself nodding in agreement whilst the unicorn's words were playing in his mind. "The Wizarding World is..."
"Awesome," Dean cut him off. "It's awesome."