Disclaimer: Don't own HP or M&MS
Mr. & Mrs. Evans
Chapter 25: The Showdown Part I
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Draco sneered at the woman. Usually he wouldn't have felt obligated to say anything but in the present situation, he felt he needed to prove his status.
"I'm Father's grandson. I think he trusts me enough."
---
"What?" Hermione asked astonished.
Sienna's face twisted into an unpleasant look, "Father's procreated? Weird…"
Again, Draco rolled his eyes, "Whatever, if you can just show me where Krum is. I'm actually in quite a hurry."
"Look," Hermione started glancing back at Sienna for support, "I don't exactly know why Father's sent you, but we've been through enough with this bloke this morning to know that it'll take more than just one to safely get him back to Bulgaria. Actually, before Father called Sienna was just about to put together a team to make the trip back with him. I assure you, we'll get him there much more safely than you alone would."
Hermione finished and leveled Draco with her most fierce and unrelenting look. Obviously, the blonde man didn't know how to handle it because he glanced unsurely between the women.
"Was that a joke?"
"Of course not," Hermione told him.
"I can't go back to Father empty handed," he said through a clenched jaw, "He sent me on a job, and I intend to do it."
"And we intend to finish the mission we were entrusted with. This is our jurisdiction and I'm not allowing you to leave the premises with our bloke," Hermione continued, not about to let the snake-ish bloke undermine her, "Now if you want to go back with Sienna to make sure we do the job, that's fine. But you're not taking him alone."
Draco let out a snide laugh and gave her the coldest glare ever, "You know you're going to have hell to pay for this?"
"Why would I?" Hermione jested, "I'm only doing my job the way Father taught me how."
"Yeah but-" Draco let out a breath in order to try and calm down. Women. He hated them sometimes, "Fine. Suit yourselves."
"Thanks we will," Sienna replied with a cheery smile.
Draco rolled his eyes and sneered one last time before turning and stalking back the way he came.
"Natalie," Sienna called out.
The intern rushed back to her bosses, "Yes?"
"Make sure the slime ball gets out."
---
Ron apparated into the shed of Harry's backyard. Harry had been missing for quite a while now, so Ron figured he should come over to check on him.
Not phased in the slightest, Ron walked up the steps of the back porch and let himself in through the slider door.
"Harry- what the hell?" Ron asked, stopping in his path as he just rounded the corner and found the office door open. The open door revealed Quentin, unconscious and wearing only his socks and his boxers.
"Ron?" asked Harry's voice from the upstairs bedroom.
"Uh, yeah?" he called back, still staring at the captured bloke. 'Harry's really going off his rocker if this is what I think it is…'
"What's your patronus?" Harry called out, just to double check. For all he knew, this could be one of Hermione's clever tricks. That prospect explained why he had quickly grabbed the gun he was packing up when he heard the slider open.
"A dog…" Ron answered with a weird look still on his face as he began making his way upstairs. Harry sighed and set the gun back on his bed before stepping out of the his room, trying to close the door behind him. He didn't want Ron seeing or smelling the poly juice he had just poured into a cup.
"Mate, what are you doing?" he asked somewhat cautiously, preparing for Harry's answer regarding the half naked bloke in his home.
"Huh? Oh, I- I'm just-" he mumbled, moving back in front of his door. Ron, however, caught his attempt at trying to block his view of Harry's room. Suspicious and concerned, he pushed Harry aside a little before stepping into it.
Immediately, he smelt the draft of poly juice potion sitting on his night stand. Also on Harry's bed was what seemed to be the man's clothes from downstairs, a small vial of dark liquid, a wand box, and a gun.
Ron frowned, "You're going to see her aren't you?"
"Look, if you're going to try and talk me out of this, don't bother. I'm going," Harry said rather defiantly, folding his arms across his chest.
"Alone? That's definitely a bright idea," Ron replied sarcastically.
"Well I didn't want anyone to feel suspicious with what I was doing."
Ron nodded and continued with the same tone, "Yeah because sneaking around certainly isn't suspicious."
"What do you want from me Ron? Haven't you had enough of rubbing this in my face?" Harry asked in frustration, heading over to the potion and adding in a strand of Quentin's hair.
Ron rolled his eyes, but didn't back down, "I'm not trying to rub it in your face mate, I just want you to accept that the woman you're in love with isn't coming back. If you keep throwing yourself head first into these situations, it's only going to end worse and worse each time," he finished on a wise note. He noticed Harry's back stiffen and he waited for his response. In all truth, Ron just wanted his friend to go back to the way he was before he had ever seen Hermione Granger.
Harry gave his friend a blazed look, "Ron, no piece of parchment will convince me that she's evil. I have to see it with my own eyes- I have to hear it from her."
"How did I know that was coming?" Ron muttered to himself whimsically before looking back to Harry, "Right, well shouldn't we get going? Are we gonna surprise attack her while she's getting ready for bed?"
Harry grinned and shook his head, "No it's still day over there, Ron. Remember, time zones? I think we've discussed this before…"
"Look, my brain's far exceeded its limit for today and I could really go for some coco pops right now," he finished putting a hand to his stomach and giving Harry an intent look.
"I guess we better get moving then."
---
After their heart to heart, Harry and Ron had quickly sprung into action and finished up getting ready. Now, Ron was parked in a van, across the street from Granger/Monroe Financial and Harry was walking down the side alley just like Quentin had said.
Harry was feeling very uncomfortable in Quentin's body. It had been a while since he'd had to resort to poly juice and had become more accustomed to the few glamour's and disguising charms he used. Double-checking, Harry felt for the gun braced in the back of his trousers and squeezed the wand box in his hand.
"Oi, can you hear me good?" Harry heard Ron ask in his head.
Harry chewed on the piece of gum serving as their communication purpose, "Yeah."
"Alright, be cold and cruel Harry. You can do this, you're a beast, you're-"
"Ron, shut up," Harry muttered as he stopped in front of his entrance.
"I meant, cruel to everyone else- not to me," he heard Ron reply in a whiny voice.
"If you don't shut up, I'm going to hit you in the bullocks when I get back. Remember, I talk to you and only if it's an emergency."
Inside the van, Ron placed a protective hand over his trousers. "Fine then, do it your way."
Harry rolled his eyes while taking out the vile of Quentin's blood. He poured a bit of it onto his finger, and then wiped it on the concrete surface. A few seconds later, the wall turned into a push door. Harry glanced back and forth around the alley to make sure no one was watching before he quietly entered.
The hallway was dark, and Harry could tell he was walking on a slight incline. He turned a corner and was suddenly met with a brightly lit room with people bustling around it. Instantly, he was on alert and his hand grazed over the handle of the gun in his back.
Luckily, no one paid him any mind and Harry silently walked through the small hospital, aiming for the door on the opposite side. His eyes were trained on the exit, therefore he didn't see the corner of a bed obstructing his path.
He bumped into it and automatically glanced down to see what it was. On the top of the bed was a cream coloured folder. Harry's stomach dropped as he read the title of the folder: 'Jude Stewart- Expired'.
An odd sense of guilt overcame him, but he quickly shook it off and headed on towards the doors. He left the infirmary without interruption, and instantly followed Quentin's instructions towards the evidence lab.
He punched in the code and taped the tip of Quentin's wand against the pad and was instantly granted access. The door slide open, and Harry paused when he seen a man wearing glasses, inside typing something into a computer.
The man looked up and nodded at Harry, "Hey Quentin, what's up?"
Harry cleared his throat, "I need Harry Potter's wand. The boss wants to do some more analysis on it."
The man ripped off his glasses and gave Harry an incredulous look. Harry didn't break the man's eye contact but reached back for the gun. 'Shit, this is already going downhill.'
"Are you for real?"
Harry was confused with the man's response, "Yes."
"Come on," he groaned, pushing his glasses back up his nose, "she always does this."
"Uh, what are you on about?" Harry asked him as he started meddling with the glass cabinet behind him.
"Every time I finish with a sample, it's like Ms. Granger has to come back and double check on something or another. I swear man, sometimes I think she's just doing it to test my patience. You know?"
Harry smirked discretely, "Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about."
After pushing a few select buttons on the cabinet's door, it opened and spiralled through the contents until a bag with Harry's wand was brought to the front.
"Here you go. Good luck bro," the guy joked as he handed over the bag.
Harry grinned, "Thanks."
…
Harry walked through the halls of his enemies headquarters rather easily and much more comfortably with his wand safely returned to his wrist holster. All the agents and interns were either working at their desks furiously or buzzing around, and sharing information from cubicle to cubicle. He had to give it to Hermione; she certainly knew how to run a tight ship.
Remembering Quentin's directions perfectly, Harry walked into the elevator at the beginning of the offices and pressed the button for Hermione's floor.
Within seconds, the lift had stopped and Hermione's voice floated through the metal doors.
"Yes?"
Ignoring the slight fluttering he got from her voice, he cleared his throat, "It's Quentin. I'm back with what you asked for."
"Oh great, come on in."
The metal compartment opened and Harry looked up to see a wide office space, full of bookshelves and neat looking furniture. Instantly, his eyes sought out Hermione standing from her desk.
Hermione stood with a light smile on her face, but it fell when she realized Quentin was alone and was only holding one thin box in his hands.
"Hey… where's the specialist?"
"He was able to find an exact match, so I figured that would do," Harry said with a smile, his eyes not leaving hers.
Hermione took the box and gave him a sceptical look, "An exact match?"
"Yep."
She frowned internally. Something was off, and she wasn't liking Quentin's pithy tone. She ignored it, and opened the box anyway. Her mouth fell when she seen the wand that was identical to hers laying in the box, snapped in half.
"Is this a joke?"
"Of course not babe. You know, the first rule in the book is to not send amateurs to do your dirty work. But then again, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
Harry finished with an uncharacteristic smirk. As Hermione had began to open the box, he could feel himself bubbling under the skin of a different man. It felt uncomfortable and for a quick second really painful, before he felt himself calm and became aware that he was back to his original self.
Hermione looked up and saw her ex-husband and the man she was hunting for, smugly sitting in the chair opposite her desk. "Harry."
He slid his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Sorry… I know how you never like me interrupting your work but," Harry held up his wand, "I had to come back for what was mine."
Hermione kept collected under his dark look. She wanted to ask him if he had others in her building or if he stupidly came here alone but didn't want to show that she was panicked, "You're too late. Krum's gone."
Harry shrugged, figuring so, "That's okay, I have more pressing matters at the moment."
Hermione set her broken wand down and eased herself into her seat, "Oh? Like?"
"Like the talk you promised to have with me," he replied, staring intently into her eyes.
She shook her head and stared back, "We have nothing to talk about."
"We do actually, we have a lot to talk about." His eyes didn't move from hers as he continued, "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you now."
Hermione scoffed, "If you had any brains in that thick skull of yours then you would know that you probably should kill me right now."
"Don't push me," Harry told her, letting his hand wand lay loosely by his side.
Hermione followed him through her peripherals. Slowly, she moved her hand over to the side drawer and began pulling it open quietly. She shrugged, deterring him from her movements, "Who's pushing? It'd be a benefit to have me gone; I'm just saying that if I were you…"
"Expelliarmus!"
Hermione shot back and rammed into the bookshelf behind her as her silver gun flew out of her hand, straight into Harry's. He unloaded it before disassembling it and throwing it off into the room.
A moment passed while he observed her standing from the chair and pushing a few locks of hair behind her ear. Finally, he smiled in a somewhat teasing manner, "So you really that good?"
Hermione gave him a hard look, the humiliation still evident on her face, "The best. You?"
Harry gave her an arrogant smirk just to piss her off, "Well, I'm sure you've done your research."
"I sure have," she replied like it was nothing at all, "So? What's stopping you? We are alone."
Harry avoided her enquiry, "One last question."
"What?" she asked with a frown.
"Do you get comfort in killing people for money?" he asked her, looking deep into her eyes. This was the question he needed an answer to. This alone would depend how difficult his mission would be.
Hermione didn't falter under his intense look, "You tell me."
Harry wanted to roll his eyes. These curve balls were so unlike her- 'The Hermione you know, that is…'
"Well from my own experience I think it depends on the person."
"Charming," she muttered disdainfully. His arrogance was irritating her to no end. And to think, this was a man she had lived with for over six years.
Again, he smirked, "I know I am. Now don't you think you owe me an apology for lying all these years?"
"I don't owe you anything," she said coldly, her anger rising at the look of him. He must of thought so fucking highly of himself for being able to get her alone like this.
"Actually, you do Hermione… that is your real name isn't it?"
"I'm not telling you," she said shaking her head and lifting her chin, "Though I have to say Harry James Evans- that wasn't much of an effort was it?"
"It worked on you for 5 years," Harry replied with a chuckle.
She glared, "6 and I'm not sorry for anything."
"You know I used to think you were worth fighting for," Harry told her after a few seconds of being glared at. He didn't want to turn their conversation into a sombre one, but he felt that he needed to deal with the tirade of emotions running through his mind. He knew he was supposed to stay calm and cold, but damn it, he did deserve an explanation from her!
"Please," she sneered carelessly, "the sappy puppy dog spiel isn't going to work on me. You can't expect to get away with the things you've done."
Harry cocked his head to the side, taken aback by her words. "So this is the real you huh?"
"I guess you'll never know."
Harry looked straight into her eyes, all the arrogance and bitterness gone, "I'm not so sure I want to."
Hermione was surprised by Harry's tone. He didn't even say it in a cruel way…
more like disappointed and for some reason that's what hurt the most. Hermione
took a deep breathe and put on a new air of confidence.
"And like always, you're turning this into poor little you."
Harry shook his head, "That's not fair Hermione. I know this is about the both of us."
"In what ways, do you think?" Hermione asked him suddenly. Of course, it was rhetoric, but it was only a method to distract him.
"Well, this is about us being enemies, isn't it?" Harry answered her simply, undeterred.
Hermione quirked an eyebrow just as her hand grasped onto a particular book behind her, "Or, this is about me seeing if you can keep up."
Before Hermione could register the baffled look she knew Harry would be giving her, she grasped the large tomb and trusted it downward. A massive force sparked inside the room, and nearly instantly Harry and everything in front of her was thrown backwards by the powerful energy.
This was one of Hermione's escape methods she had installed a year ago. It provided a temporary apparation field from her office into a small room on the main floor. From there, she could signal a mass alert.
She only spared a second glancing across the room at Harry who was buried under her desk with hundreds of books on top of him before she apparated down the to particular room. The room, or rather the four by six compartment had only one button next to the door. She pressed it, and ran out yelling for everyone to shut down their work and abort.
Agents and interns started running around, stuffing paperwork into explosive cabinets, shutting down the computers, and crashing their servers. The evidence lab began rattling loudly and the inside seen through the glass doors began spinning before it disappeared to its designated storage unit in Paris.
Hermione's head was spinning watching her office virtually being destroyed. She shouted one last order to leave immediately before she and others disapparated.
…
Harry coughed and grabbed at his ribs after he blasted the desk off him with his wand. He began pushing books off his dust ridden body when he heard Ron.
"Harry? Are you alright? Harry?!"
"Yeah," he muttered, propping himself up to stand, "Yeah I'm fine."
"You need to get out of there in case she has other bombs rigged in there…"
Though, Ron's warning went unheard to Harry who was leaning against the cracked wall and staring off into the wrecked room.
A hint of a smirk was playing on his lips.
'Was this all she's got? Well then… she's in for a few surprises.'
Harry was sick of being seen as the fool where Hermione was concerned. Without a moment's thought, he decided that he was going to give her a taste of her own medicine.
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