CHAPTER NINETY-ONE
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: 10
Ellen looked up from her conversation with Sam when her daughter appeared from behind the bar with a jacket on, car keys in her hand and a small bag slung over her shoulder. She narrowed her eyes, and Sam did the same when he looked up.
"Where are you going?" She asked her daughter.
"Just to get some groceries, we're out of milk and bread, and I want some cookies and ice-cream. I thought I'd head over to the store now before it closes."
"It's still early," Ellen said, looking up at the clock over the bar.
"Jefferson's closing the store early tonight, last time I saw him he mentioned something about going to his Grandson's soccer game."
Ellen narrowed her eyes further. "What were you going for again?"
"Milk, bread, eggs and cereal."
"You said you were going for cookies and ice-cream."
"I am, but we need eggs and cereal, too," Jo shrugged. "I won't be gone long, see you later," she said, walking out of the door.
Sam looked to Ellen with a frown on his face; he a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
"She's lying, isn't she?"
"Yes," Ellen said, her eyes still held on the door her daughter had just walked through.
"Well, it's been nice seeing you, Ellen, but I better get back to Hermione and Dean. I have no doubt Hermione's complained about being hungry by this point and Dean would've gone to get her something, if I get back in time there might actually be some food left." Ellen snorted. "Dean wasn't kidding when he said she eats more than the both of us combined, and you've witnessed how much food Dean can put away. I've watched her eat two double bacon cheese burgers, fries, onion rings, chicken wings, more fries, and to top that off, two slices of pie, and that was just in one sitting!"
Ellen snorted once more and Sam shook his head.
"Right, I better go, we'll come back tomorrow before we leave."
Sam stood up and removed his jacket from the back of his chair and he slipped it on. He put his hands into his pockets with the intention to pull out the car keys, only his pockets were empty.
Sam frowned, before his eyes scanned the table and floor, thinking that maybe they'd fallen out.
"What are you doing?" Ellen asked.
"The car keys, I can't find them."
"Where'd you last have them?"
"I could've sworn I put them in my pocket and now they're gone."
Ellen and Sam looked at each other, before the pieces fell into place and the light bulb went off.
"I went to the bathroom," he said.
"And I answered the phone."
"Jo was alone with my jacket. She's not gone to get groceries," he said, feeling dread fill him.
"She's gone to Dean." Ellen quickly stood up and darted out of the room, before returning with a jacket in hand and a set of car keys, which she threw at Sam. "You're driving, you're still under the limit; I'm not."
They both made their way out to Ellen's truck and hopped in.
"How does she even know where we're staying?" Sam asked.
"There's only two motels within miles of The Roadhouse, it won't take her long to discover which one it is."
"If she harms Hermione, Dean will kill her, you know that right?"
"Then you better hope we get there before she does," Ellen replied.
"There's things that you don't understand about Hermione and Dean's relationship, things that I can't tell you as that would be betraying their trust, and these things need to be kept a secret for their safety, particularly Hermione's."
"Why?"
"Crowley's taken an interest in her." Ellen made a noise of surprise. "At first it was because she's been spotted travelling with us, and her relationship with Dean was made known to him. He kidnapped her wanting information about Dean, about why she was the one to tie him down. Dean rescued her, not that she needed it, mind. She'd already taken care of Crowley by the time he got there. A while later Crowley kidnapped me, Hermione and Dean rescued me, I was kidnapped not to get to Dean, but to get to Hermione. There's things you can't and don't understand about Hermione. She's special, really special, and if Crowley were to learn these things about her, it would be game over."
Ellen seemed taken aback by his words, before a thoughtful look crossed her face.
"Hermione, that's not a very common name," she mused. "What's her maiden name?"
Sam turned his head, eyeing her carefully. "Granger, why?"
"Shit!" Ellen cursed loudly, and Sam slammed on the brakes in surprise, the truck skidding to a stop.
"Hermione Granger, The Hermione Granger? The Witch? Your brother married The Hermione Granger?"
Sam stared with his jaw all but hitting the floor and his eyes as wide as saucers.
"How do you know that?" He asked quietly.
Despite her surprise she rolled her eyes. "Bobby's not the only one that knows of true born magic, nor is he the only one that knows of the war that took place. I've heard of Hermione Granger and I know she fought in a war and helped to protect and save her world, and in doing so, she saved ours." Sam blinked, speechless. "And Will's father was a Squib." Sam spluttered. "Before he died he told us both of the world of magic, in hopes that we could prevent any true born magicals from being harmed."
"I don't know what to say," he said honestly. "Are you going to kill her now that you know her identity?"
"Don't be stupid," she scolded, "Of course I'm not, it's thanks to her that the US never faced any of the tragedies Europe did. I may not have heard of her in years, and I may not know anything about her after the end of the war, but what I do know is she's a powerful witch that's done good with her magic. Unless she's turned dark, you have no reason to worry about her safety around me. And I now understand why Bobby approves of her."
Sam sighed in relief, before quickly continuing their way to the motel. "Does Jo know?"
"No, and if she discovers Hermione's a witch, she won't hesitate to kill her."
"Dean won't let that happen, he loves her. You know that Hermione's a witch, but there's others circumstances at play. Their relationship, as much as they love and protect each other, it's not solely their fault of how protective and possessive they are of each other."
"Meaning?" Ellen asked with a narrowed gaze, daring him to lie to her.
"Since meeting Hermione we've learned a lot about her and the Wizarding World and it's magical creatures and magic. All her family members are magical, we've met them all, we've spent time with them, we've looked after some of the children for a few days. We visit as often as we can, and we've seen the world she comes from and honestly, it's amazing. I've seen it several times since meeting her and I still can't believe it exists. Hermione's technically a Hunter like us, only she works for the magical government. She's the head of a department that focuses on magical creatures and criminals that escape into this world. She's highly accomplished, she's loved and valued, and she's a celebrity. You should've seen the media coverage when her world found out she was married, she was Europe's most eligible bachelorette beforehand."
Ellen seemed surprised.
"Magical creatures, some of them have life mates in which they are the perfect companion to the other, they share a soul, they belong to each other and they live and breathe for each other. This can happen with witches and wizards though Hermione explained it was a very rare occurrence. We discovered that Hermione and Dean are bound for not only life, but death, too."
Ellen took a deep breath and screwed her eyes shut.
"They share a soul, and they are protective and possessive of each other because they know they belong to each other. Hermione made it perfectly clear that the love she and Dean have for each other has nothing to do with her magic binding them, it cannot force or influence their emotions, their emotions and feelings are their own. Some witches and wizards that are bound together actually hate each other," he shrugged.
"Hermione and Dean live for each other. They get sick when they're away from each other for too long, and we learned that the hard way. It's why we try not to separate them for long periods of time, should we need to split up, more often than not Hermione and Dean go together, it's better for their safety and peace of mind when they're together. They're stronger together than they are apart, they love each other more than anyone I've ever seen. They'd die for each other and they'd kill for each other, and they have, several times. If Jo goes after Hermione, Dean won't let her live. Hermione is his entire world and should anything happen to her, he wouldn't survive it. Physically, emotionally and mentally."
Ellen took a deep breath, closed her eyes and counted to ten.
"That's a lot to take in. Is there anything else I need to know?"
"Plenty, but I can't tell you, they're Hermione and Dean's secrets. Hermione being a witch is why Crowley's interested in her. He doesn't know who she is, but he does know there's something different about her. He knows she's not only supernatural, but she's human, too."
"Crowley discovering her identity wouldn't be good for anyone."
"I know, that's why we're doing everything we can to avoid him. We have a home base now, Hermione's stinking rich and has several properties. We're using her apartment in Cambridge as a home base, it's protected by her magic and Castiel placed demon wardings and Enochian symbols around the building for extra security so we can't be found there. When we're not working cases, we're either there or in London visiting the family. Despite being Hunters, they've taken us in and they treat us like family, Molly treats us like we're her sons. It's nice having a mom, since I've never experienced what it feels like. Anyway, Hermione had a Hunter's library and armoury built in the apartment for us, and it's equivalent to Bobby's, bigger even. Hermione used magic to copy every single text Bobby owns, including the ones which are the only ones in existence. She's made hunting so much easier, and with her magic, we have power behind us. We don't get injured as much and when we do, she uses her magic and potions to heal us."
"Anything else?"
"Not really, but did you know there's two types of vampires and werewolves?" Ellen blinked, a blank look on her face. "We've dealt with several magical werewolves, Dean and I both agree that regular werewolves are much easier. We haven't met a magical vampire yet and I don't really want to. We've met a giant squid, ghosts and poltergeists that didn't want to kill us, they'd rather throw water balloons at us, which Hermione was not happy about," he snorted, remembering that day they'd visited Hogwarts and being introduced to Peeves. "We've met creatures that show you your worst fears, and that was not pleasant; and my favourite magical creature by far, unicorns."
"Unicorns?" She spluttered.
"They're real, Hermione got a case a while back to find and rescue three baby unicorns that had wandered into our world. One of them was injured. The two females allowed us to feed them apples and pet them, whilst Hermione healed the injured male. We walked them back to the entrance to the Wizarding World; it's my favourite case by far."
"I need a drink," Ellen muttered.
"We need to stop Jo from doing something stupid. She likes Dean, doesn't she?"
Ellen sighed. "Yeah, and she has for a while. She was hoping that the next time you visited they could talk things through and possibly give a relationship between them a go. Being a Hunter and having a relationship doesn't work unless your partner is a Hunter themselves. I think Jo's just lonely. Discovering that Dean's married has sent her over the edge, she's letting her jealousy, loneliness and disappointment cloud her judgement. Will Hermione harm her?"
"Only if she hurts Dean. Something inside of her takes over when Dean's in danger, it's like she's not in control of her own actions and something darker, more primal takes control of her body. You need to know, Hermione doesn't only have magic at her disposal, she's handy with a gun and even better with knives. I've never seen someone with aim quite like hers, she's even better than Dean. If Hermione hurts Jo, or worse, kills her, it's not her fault, you need to know that."
~000~000~000~
Hermione stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself and a second one around her hair. She stood in front of the mirror above the sink, staring at herself with her hand pressed against her flat stomach, wishing for a baby to be growing inside of her. She sighed and left the bathroom.
She picked up her wand from the bedside table before giving it a wave, summoning underwear and clothing from her beaded bag that lay on top of the table. She caught the items of clothing and laid them down on the bed, scrutinizing them, deciding if they were going to be comfy enough.
She nodded to herself before quickly dressing in her underwear, slipping on the pink sleep shorts and pulling the grey tank top over her head. She returned to the bathroom and with a flick of her wand, the mess was tidied up, the towel disappeared from her head and Hermione's hair fell down her back in perfectly dry ringlets.
She exited the bathroom, and feeling the urge for a little bit of a pampering session, she climbed onto the bed and summoned a small bottle of nail varnish from her beaded bag. She only ever carried one colour with her as she could easily change it with her wand. She reached over to the bedside table and turned on the radio, and she listened to the music playing and dancing a little, too, as she set to painting her finger nails white, before moving onto her toes. She waved her wand over her nails and they instantly dried.
With a thoughtful frown on her face, she flicked her wand, changing the colour of the nail varnish from white, to blue, to purple, before finally settling on pale pink. Once she was happy with her decision, she placed the nail varnish on the table and sat back with her back pressed against the head board of her bed, her eyes scanning her surroundings and seeing the state the room was in.
Bed sheets were in a pile on the floor, as were hers and Dean's clothing since they hadn't been exactly patient in getting rid of their clothes. Dean's shirt hung over the lamp, whilst her jeans were on top of the microwave. One of her shoes lay by the door and the other was on the other side of the room, sat underneath one of the chairs at the table. Her jacket was hung on the back of the chair, and her shirt was on the table, whilst Dean's jeans were hung over the TV. She smiled to herself and shook her head, deciding to clean the mess up.
She jumped up from the bed and with her wand in hand, she set about levitating all of their clothing and with a flick of her wand, it was folded neatly and sat on the table. She turned her attention to the bed and she wasted no time in changing the bed sheets and making the bed perfectly made. She put her hands on her hips and made a noise of satisfaction, before the song on the radio drew her attention and she felt a smile pull at her mouth. It was one that she'd recognise anywhere. It was the song that was played at her wedding, the song of their first dance.
She turned around and flicked her wand, summoning the TV remote and catching it effortlessly in her outstretched hand, before flicking through the limited channels available.
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and a sense of danger washed over her. She gripped her wand in her hand, before silently, quickly, turning around with her wand outstretched and pointed towards the door, where one Jo Harvelle stood with a gun pointed at her and a look of disgust and hatred on her face.
Hermione silently cursed, she hadn't warded the door! She'd been distracted by Dean when they returned to the motel and after he'd left, she'd completely forgotten she hadn't warded the door or windows. Even if Dean had locked the door behind him and taken the key, she knew Hunters were fairly efficient at picking locks.
"Jo, what are you doing here?" She asked calmly, though she didn't lower her wand.
Judging by the look on Jo's face, she had seen her casting magic and she'd put two and two together. She knew she was a witch, there was no point in hiding her wand.
"Where's Dean?" Jo asked, a barely restrained sneer on her face.
Hermione narrowed her eyes slightly. "Out, he's gone to get dinner, he should be back any moment now."
"Then I suppose I better kill you quickly," she lowered the gun slightly, aiming it at Hermione's heart.
"You kill me and you won't make it out of here alive," Hermione warned.
"That a threat?"
"No, a promise. Dean will kill you."
Jo laughed. "Dean will thank me. When you die, whatever Love Spell you have on him will wear off and he'd gladly go home with me."
Hermione felt jealously flare up in her at the obvious meaning behind those words. She took a calming deep breath.
"There's no such thing as a Love Spell, and I certainly haven't done anything to Dean. His feelings are his own. He proposed to me of his own free will, and in front of my entire family, too. He married me of his own free will. He sleeps beside me every night, holding me tightly, kissing my shoulder, nuzzling at my neck because he loves that I smell like pie, or say he says anyway. I would never use such magic on him or anyone else for that matter. Do you honestly think Dean would marry someone he believed to be evil, a monster?"
"Dean would die before he willingly married a witch."
"You say that word as if it's an insult. It's not, genius. I'm a witch, it's who I am, who I was born to be. I can't change my genetic makeup. All I can do is pass it on to our children."
Jo sneered hatefully and her finger went to the trigger on her gun.
"Don't do this, you're not stupid. If you're lucky enough to survive what Dean would do to you, you certainly wouldn't survive Sammy's actions. I'm his big sister, not through marriage to his brother, but because he loves me. We were friends before Dean and I started a relationship. He's the one that encouraged Dean to pluck up the courage and ask me out, he doesn't think I know about that, but I do."
"I kill you, Dean's free of your darkness, and Sam will be, too, since you obviously have him fooled."
Hermione rolled her eyes, she couldn't help herself.
"Killing me won't impress Dean and it won't send him into your arms or your bed. He's never looked at another woman since meeting me. I see him getting hit on all the time, yet when I look at him, he's not looking at them, he's looking at me and only me. He loves the way I smell. He loves burying his hands in my hair and snogging me silly. He loves winding me up, he loves finding any excuse to touch me and bloody hell, his sex drive has only increased since marrying me."
She saw a vein about to pop on Jo's forehead.
"Killing me will send Dean off the deep end and he won't rest until you're dead. He'll hate you. I've worked very hard convincing Dean that violence and murder is not always the answer, and now he's more sympathetic, more logical, he doesn't make killing his first and only option, but rather his last. I won't have you turning him into a cold blooded killer. I won't have you ruining his life."
Jo laughed cruelly. "He'd be so much happier with me."
Hermione couldn't help it, she looked Jo up and down.
"I don't think he would. He's more attracted to brunettes, and he seems to have a thing for curly hair, or at least he does mine. He prefers a petite stature, since he can wrap himself around me whilst we sleep comfortably. You're pretty, but there's something not quite right with you. You seem angry, hateful, and despondent. Those are not the qualities Dean likes in a person. He loves that I can make him laugh, that I can verbally spar with him. He loves that I'm British, he sometimes makes me say certain words just because he thinks it's funny or sexy. And he loves my family and they love him. The children adore him, my brothers and sisters treat him as a sibling and the couple that raised me treat him as their own son."
"With me he has a family. He has a life outside of hunting. He has people that love and care for him. He has a home. What would you give him? A dingy bar and a bitchy attitude? If I were dead or alive, Dean would never be with you. He doesn't love you, he only sees you as a friend. You need to get a handle on your jealousy and leave before Dean gets back. He said he'd be gone no more than an hour, it's been nearly that. Leave whilst you still can."
Jo took a deep breath and closed her eyes, appearing to be composing herself, and just when Hermione thought she could relax, Jo struck.
Hermione flung a Sticking Charm at Jo and it slammed into her, sending her flying into the wall, sticking her to the surface as flailed about and screamed, trying to break free.
Hermione sighed in relief, before a terrible pain shot through her. She looked down at herself, seeing the blood seeping through her clothing where her stomach was.
She looked up in horror, her wand falling from her grip and bouncing off the ground. Her hands shook as she brought them to her stomach, putting pressure on the bullet wound and trying to stem the bleeding, but she knew it was useless.
The door burst open and she looked up, seeing Dean with two pizza boxes in hand and a crate of beer in the other. His eyes locked on hers before falling down to her stomach, then moving to the gun on the floor and over to Jo flailing around on the wall. His eyes shot her; wide, terrified, horrified.
"I love pie," Hermione said, before she collapsed to the ground, a pool of blood beginning to surround her.