A/N: I don't own Harry Potter
This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Sci fi September
The scan showed that the ship's emergency life support was activated and there were two life forms aboard.
Word Count: 910
The scan showed that the ship's emergency life support was activated and there were two life forms aboard. Hermione wrinkled her nose wondering if the equipment was short circuiting. She swore she had checked it before they'd left the base.
Rescuing ships in distress was just something that had become so routine for her base. Her partner was somewhere else on the ship. It was his idea that they split up. It was always his idea. She was much more logical about it, always saying they should stay together, even if it would take longer.
"Find anything yet?" he asked over the walkie. She replied in the negative. So far, there was nothing here. There was no sign of the two life signs the computer read. There was no sign of anything that would have caused the ship distress. That had been the first thing Hermione had read.
There was no fuel leaks, the ship had taken no damage as far as the computers said, but still the life support had been activated and a distress call had been sent out. Hermione was starting to wonder if the whole thing was a wild thestral chase, looking for something that didn't exist.
She had finally made it down to the engineering bay. Nothing seemed amiss yet. She had managed to restore most of the power to the ship, strangely named the Prince. She'd laughed about the name.
Her partner, a member of a family line named Prince, hadn't found the joke as funny. She laughed now, thinking about how Severus hated to have his work interrupted, thus why they always separated on these missions.
"Hermione? It's all clear here, there's nothing. We should head back to base, unless you've found something worth reporting?"
"No, I haven't found anything yet, Sev. I'm going to give engineering a quick once over and then check the shuttle bay to make sure they didn't launch themselves in an escape pod our scanners missed. Meet me there?" she suggested.
"Perfect. I'll see you there," he answered, before the walkie cut off again. Hermione shook her head. When they'd been assigned as partners about three years ago, she'd hated him. He'd been her mentor and she'd hated him with a passion. Now... well, time did change things and she was finding she hated him less and less with each passing day.
She wasn't ready to admit it to him yet, but she'd seen the way he'd been looking at her now that they were on equal footing. She'd seen the long looks he'd taken when he'd thought she wasn't looking. She was starting to do the same, and starting to realize, she liked what she saw.
She pushed the door open, fighting the force a bit. Most of the doors were electronic and when the emergency life support had been activated, it had drawn energy from other places in the ship. The door finally whooshed open and Hermione stepped inside.
The room was dark. She pulled out a her light, shining it carefully over every surface. Nothing was out of place. A sound coming from the far corner caught her attention. It was small, like a whimper, but hushed. Slowly she turned her light that direction. Her eyes widened seeing the two survivors of whatever had happened here. They were children, a girl and boy. The girl had long black curly hair and the boy short brown hair. Hermione guessimated they were about seven and maybe four?
"Hello," she called to them, taking a step in their direction. "I'm Hermione, are you alright?"
The girl turned to the boy, moving her fingers rapidly. Hermione blinked, watching her. She hadn't seen anyone use sign language in a long time. There were machines that could translate thoughts into verbal words now, the art of taking with one's hands had fallen out of fashion. She watched the girl for a moment longer, wondering if either of the children could speak. She couldn't understand the signs.
"I'm sorry, I don't speak sign. Where is everyone else? Do you know what happened here?" she asked. The girl watched her lips moving. Hermione had a feeling she was trying to read them.
"Wormhole," the girl finally answered. "We got stuck. Everyone vanished. Me and Hugo were spared somehow. Hugo doesn't speak with words."
"I can see that. What's your name?"
"Rose, my name is Rose. Are you here to save us?" Rose asked.
"I am, my partner is waiting for me, and now you two in the shuttle bay. How about we go meet him?" she suggested, her heart aching for these two children.
Their parents must have been on the ship and vanished into the fabric of time and space. Rose turned to Hugo, signed a few more things, and then they both rose to follow Hermione. Rose taking her left hand and Hugo the right. Hermione smiled at them as they traversed the ship quickly meeting up with Severus.
"Hermione?"
"This is Rose and Hugo. They're the survivors we were looking for. The ship got trapped in a black hole, everyone else vanished," Hermione explained, not quite knowing how to explain how similar Rose looked to Severus and how she was fairly certain Hugo looked a lot like she had as a child.
Whatever their story, Hermione was going to make sure both Rose and Hugo had a new safe home, with her... and if she ever admitted her feelings, Severus.