Chapter 13 - Culling
The next few weeks passed slowly, Hermione and Thomas both found their rhythm in their apprenticeships. Hermione was set to become a Charms Mistress in 1952 while Thomas would have to wait 1953 as he shared his time with the Wizengamot. The new appointment of Raphael Corner had been a success, aided by the disappearance of Cantankerus Nott.
Hermione was spending more time in the Ministry, mostly in Thomas office while he reviewed the laws and cases set to be in front of the Wizengamot, the motions drafted by Dolores Umbridge were increasing every week, and her targets were clear. Centaurs, werewolves, vampires, veelas, muggleborns, she was aiming for limiting their rights as much as she possibly could, although the Dark Faction had calmed down with the disappearance of their leader, many of her motions were still passing. When Hermione saw the proposal set for the May Wizengamot session, she finally snapped. Umbridge was trying to set up what amounted to Centaurs reserves, limiting their movements to specific places in various forests. Hermione realised that in her time that motion had passed and had led to the isolation of the Centaur herd in the Forbidden Forest and hostile relations between Centaurs and Wizardkind.
Hermione decided it was time to act, before that motion made it to the Wizengamot floor, and "borrowed" the Potters invisibility cloak for a few days after spending an afternoon with Dorea. She spent a couple of days in Ministry elevators, waiting for the right moment. Finally, on Friday 28 April she was in the elevator with Umbridge and no one else. She wandlessly stunned the woman and redirected the elevator to go to the Department of Mysteries.
She strode to the Death Room under the cloak with a disillusioned Umbridge floating behind her. Once she made it, she wondered if she should talk to her and tell her why she was doing this but decided against it. Instead, she roused Umbridge and placed her under the Imperius curse with her own wand and had her write a resignation letter, explaining she had to leave for the continent on a matter of family emergency. Satisfied with the letter, Hermione levitated the imperuised Umbridge through the Veil with her wand following a few seconds later.
She left the ministry under the cloak, no one realising she had been there at all that day, and sent the resignation letter with a post office owl.
No one sounded the alarm of Dolores Umbridge's disappearance and overtime it was assumed she had decided to remain abroad.
It took until the end of May before Alphard had tracked down Fenrir Greyback. He strode into Riddle Manor late one evening and gave a parchment to Hermione without a word. She unfurled it and read it, it was coordinates.
"This is where you will find Greyback this weekend. During the new moon, he leaves his pack to spend a couple of days alone, in case one of his betas decide to take the Alpha on I think."
"Where is it?" Hermione inquired, not able to decipher the apparation coordinates by sight.
"Forest of Dean." Alphard replied, and went to serve himself a stiff glass of firewhiskey, while Hermione smirked at the irony.
"Perfect, I know the place rather well. I don't know if I can beat him in a duel so I went in another direction though." Hermione told Alphard.
"What direction?" Thomas asked as he entered the room.
"Silver throwing knives." Hermione murmured.
"Salazar I love you so much witch." Thomas exclaimed while picking her up and kissing her soundly, in the background Alphard drained his glass in one gulp to deal with the two psychopaths in love.
While she had been an Unspeakable with a lot of free time, Hermione had taken the time to become an animagus. During the new moon she knew Greyback would have dulled senses but to be safe she had immediately transformed when she arrived in the Forest of Dean, and flew as high as possible tracking her target. As a Nothern Goshawk, she was rather large for a hawk but the forest was her natural habitat and she blended rather well in the dark with her slate grey feathers. She flew around until she spotted Greyback, he was sitting down on the forest floor in front of a camp fire and looking rather sullen. She wondered how much the beast hated it when he felt his wolf wasn't strong and far away from his reach. She perched herself on a high branch that seemed sturdy enough to hold her full weight once she turned back.
She observed him for a few minutes, and was satisfied he didn't seem to be on guard. Swiftly she turned back to her human form and managed to land rather well on the branch she had selected. She was high enough to have a good view and far away enough his dulled sense wouldn't sense her coming.
She took out her 7 throwing knives, and prepared herself to aim. She had charmed the knives to be silent and had used a dummy in the garden to practice from the roof of the Manor, her aim was good at this distance and she felt confident. She sent the knives flying towards Greyback in quick succession, the first two hit the mark and he dodged the next three, but the last two hit the mark as well as Hermione adapted to his movements. He was now on the forest floor, bleeding to death. She apparated down to him, "I will make sure to destroy your legacy Fenrir, you were named for the bringer of Ragnarok but you won't ever fulfil your destiny."
Greyback tried to get up in vain, he was too wounded to move. She wasn't sure if it was mercy, or bloodlust, but she hit him with the sectumsempra curse. New gashes opened from his throat to his pelvis and he quickly succumbed to his injuries. She summoned back her knives, cleaned them and put them back into her bag.
She wasn't sure if anyone knew where he spent the New Moon, so to be safe she decided to transfigure the now corpse into a bone, she cleaned up the floor to remove all traces of blood and vanished all his belongings. She apparated away with the bone and buried it in the Forbidden Forest before going home.
News of Greyback disappearance came quickly after the next Full Moon, and Aurors were able to find his pack thanks to the anonymous tip of Alphard. They put the adult witches and wizards in ministry cells to await their trials after interviews to determine if they had ever willingly bitten someone. The minors were sent to a newly built rehabilitation shelter, secretly financed by Hermione and Thomas, where they could be deconditioned from the teachings of Greyback and hopefully re-enter society one day. The adults were tried quickly, to avoid them spending the next Full Moon in the ministry and if found guilty were sent to a special wing of Azkaban, equipped with wards and runes rendering the transformation safe for both the werewolf and anyone around. The same wards and runes were present in a room at Hogwarts specially made for students with lycanthropy.
Without the shadow of Greyback lurking around, the Wizengamot agreed to review the laws pertaining to werewolves to make sure Greyback's victims wouldn't have to suffer further. Thomas used this momentum to inscribe the werewolf room as a permanent fixture at Hogwarts and make sure students with lycanthropy would always be accepted, and had access to the room for their own safety and the safety of the entire castle on the Full Moon. He was pleased to be in agreement with the new Deputy Headmistress on the topic and established a correspondence with her.
To celebrate a full year in the past, Thomas took Hermione on a short trip. They arrived at night in the Irish countryside, where Thomas had rented a small cottage near Killarney. The cottage was in the middle of the forest, made of wood with an open-plan kitchen to living room and a small bedroom with a king size bed fitted with dark green sheets. The only light when they arrived was a few suspended candles, immediately he took her to the bedroom where he proceeded to show her how grateful he was for her accidental time-travel well into the night.
The next day, they spent hours lounging, reading, snacking, and generally relaxing from their busy day-to-day lives. Eventually, the sun set and Thomas took Hermione's hand to guide her outside, where a few candles were lit and forming a circle. He guided her to the centre, "Hermione, when you arrived out of nowhere a year ago, I was preparing myself for a bitter and unsuccessful life. You have changed my life completely, with you I have been able to enact change into the world and right the wrongs of others. You make me incredibly happy and falling in love with you has been the easiest thing I have ever done." Thomas dropped to one knee, and continued, "Will you marry me?". Thomas then produced a ring box and opened it for her. The ring was a match for her courting bracelet, the band was pure yellow gold in the shape of a snake and its eyes were 2 emeralds.
"YES! Yes of course I'll marry you Tom." Once the ring was on her finger he proceeded to snog her senseless. They spent the rest of the evening celebrating their engagement.
Two days later, they came home to find Alphard waiting for them in the library. "Finally! How was the trip?"
"It was amazing!" Hermione squealed and shoved her new ring right in front of Alphard's face who hugged her tight in response and muttered to Thomas, "If you hurt a single hair on her head, I will cut you up in little pieces and feed you to a dragon."
"I appreciate your brotherly concern Alphie but I am much more afraid of my fiancée than of you."
"So am I." he grumbled back.