Chapter Eight - Take Me Out at the Ballpark
Morning arrived all too soon, and Hermione decided that Ohio songbirds were just too bloody cheerful this early in the morning. With a five hour time differential between Cleveland and London, she and Ron and planned for her to stay up until one in the morning and he would get up at six so they could exchange patronuses and test the deluminator before she went to bed.
They also set a backup plan in place for the next day's mission. Ron could hear Hermione speak his name and a bit of the sentences that followed it and he felt certain he could recreate his apparition as he had on the hunt for the Horcruxes. Things went quickly south when their conversation strayed into their personal relationship. The ensuring row lasted for over an hour before they both gave over to silence. Harry's phone call within seconds of the disappearance of Ron's patronus the last time led to an awkward conversation where both avoided saying Ron's name as they discussed the most recent row until almost sunup in Ohio.
Unfortunately for Hermione, even with a Pepper Up potion as compensation, Terri was very much a morning person and she bounced into the lobby of the Torc at 7:30, smiling and apparently none the worse for wear after the, hopefully, unremembered adventures of the previous evening. Oscar's presence beside a scowling Hermione increased the wattage of her smile as Hermione tried to find solace in a cup of coffee that was threatening to melt its way through the mug in her hand.
"Hello Hermione, I see you still must be on London time. Morning Oscar, you're looking rather chipper." Beaming, Terri smiled at both of them as she swept into the lobby. "Stayed up late with your boyfriend on the phone I imagine." Taking Hermione's lessened scowl as a `yes', she smiled knowingly.
"You two must have burnt up the phone lines between here and London last night. I hope your boyfriend went to work with a bigger smile than you seem to have woken up with." Missing Hermione's shocked expression, heightened by a growing blush as she remembered both of her conversations from last night; she turned her attention to Oscar. "I don't suppose you would like my contact numbers, would you?"
"Why Terri, that might be a very good idea. I think we could seriously try to have a good evening some night, don't you?"
Laughing, Terri shot back. "Oscar, I think you've seriously misjudged what kind of girl I am." Giving him a second of two to begin apologizing, she put her hand on his arm and said seriously. "I never just try to have a good evening. I always have a very good evening."
Leaving the two engaged in their own version of the ancient courtship dance, Hermione walked over to the desk where Flori and MT were engaged in a serious discussion. Joining the other two witches she nodded towards Oscar and Terri. "Should I brief him in on the rest of the plan?"
"My little brother? Not if you think that there's the slightest risk to little miss sunshine there. He might play the gallant rake, but he's over protective to a fault. If he thought that there was the slightest risk to her, he'd pull some stunt and she'd end up on a wild goose chase to Toledo or Erie before you could say `Open Sesame'." Shaking her head at her brother's foibles, she looked at MT. "Have you ever seen him this bad?"
"Him? Just the one time." Chuckling at the memory, MT shrugged her shoulders. "It was a few years ago while you were down in Virginia on loan to them for that counterfeit crystal ball scheme that was hitting the DC area. He was absolutely gaga over some muggle dancer in a touring company of `Chicago'. He was supposed to provide discrete protection to the performance, there was a hint of some sort of magical threat, and he ends up falling very hard for this dancer in the show. Things went really well until the last night of the run here in Cleveland and someone released an uktena back stage. From what I understand, Oscar gets himself tossed by the first sweep of its antlers and his muggle dancer pulls a wand out of her hairdo and nails the scaly threat to the wall with a pair of spells."
"Uktena?" Hermione asked, intrigued by the antlers and scales. Flori looked askance.
"Very large snake, very deadly, very bad tempered. Has a crystal crest on its head that shoots a very nasty beam, antlers that'll shred body armor like tissue paper and an appetite for anything moving it can catch. It figures in the cautionary stories of the Tsalagi which usually end with `…and everyone died.' Nasty buggers if you're not prepared for them. I don't think Oscar ever got over being rescued by his `damsel in distress'."
Chuckling over the look on Flori's face, she nodded. "As soon as she finished putting down the threat, she obliviated everyone back stage and tried to give Oscar a hand up, he'd broken six or seven ribs when the serpent body slammed him into a brick wall. Stupid fool ignored her and ended up puncturing a lung pulling himself to his feet. He ended up spending three weeks in St Alban's Hospital, wouldn't even let the poor girl in to see him."
Sighing, MT smiled at the knowing look Flori was giving her brother across the lobby. "She was from one of the western bureaus, got seconded to the touring company as undercover security by one of the hotels out there since they were going to spend about a month playing Vegas when they got out west. Of course the touring company didn't compare notes with the theatre management, so the two undercover security people spent a six week run chatting each other up, not knowing that the other was also magical." Shaking her head, she smiled sadly. "Felt bad for the poor boy, but he treated that poor girl terribly after she saved his sorry ass."
"Goodness, you wouldn't think that he'd react that badly." Shaking her head, Hermione studied Oscar and Terri closely. "It's not as if he had been totally honest with her, either. Is he always such a flirt with muggles?" Turning to Flori, she watched her eyes narrow as she shook her head at her brother.
"Actually, I think this might be the first muggle he's spoken more than a half dozen words to, outside of work, since he got out of St. Alban's. Which is sincerely odd since it was actually a witch who broke his heart." Sighing, she looked at Hermione. "Brothers, you can't live with them, and the Bureau won't let you hex them without a license. What's a poor girl to do?"
Smiling, Hermione retorted. "Wouldn't have the foggiest. Grew up an only child in a muggle household, didn't meet my `brother' until the summer I was eleven on the train to school. My best mate and I have been like sibs, I suppose, since the day we met so getting one when you're old enough to housebreak him isn't a bad deal."
Smiling as she thought of Harry, Hermione ignored the growing mental misgivings at her usual assessment of him and their relationship. Hushing the snarky voice in the back of her mind that was making very unsisterly comments about Harry and their conversation last night, she turned back to MT. "Anything you can think of before we get this shooting gallery on the road?"
"Nothing we didn't discuss last night. Irving will be at the stadium, so you'll have him today for backup along with Oscar. Flori and I will beat the local bushes for Stuart supporters to keep up the impression that we're still following the breadcrumbs they left for us. During the game tonight, Oscar will join Flori and I to "follow-up" on whatever clues that are left for us to find, and you and Cooks with Thunder can move on Serpent Mound without being noticed."
"Right, then. Well, let me collect those two and we'll be on the road. You two be careful today, don't stir up a bigger puka's nest than you can handle."
Laughing MT put an arm around her and smiled. "It has to be believable, they have to believe that we're searching for our two thieves among the Jacobites so they they'll not be looking for you tonight. You just be careful at the stadium today. They know you're going to be there and they'll have had time to prepare."
Walking determinedly over to the couple chatting by the desk, Hermione put on her best `let's get started' smile. "Ok, you two. What say we head out and see exactly how baseball works around here?"
Half an hour later, the limo was pulling into the VIP area of Jacobs Field, the Indians' home in Cleveland. Still impressively new, the stadium complex rose around Hermione as the limo navigated the spacious parking area. Coming to a rest beside a check in area, Hermione exited the limo as Terri and Oscar followed. Waiting for her escort, she looked cautiously around, trying to see something that didn't belong in an environment she was totally unfamiliar with. As the door opened, she smiled as Irving flashed her a reassuring smile and nodded cautiously. "Hello Slider. Everything going smooth today?"
Sighing dramatically, Irving shrugged his shoulders. "I don't suppose I'm ever going to garner any respect after having met you dressed that way, am I?" Taking her grin as a negative, he continued. "Didn't think so, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Everything's as quiet as an elf, don't you know."
"Quiet as an elf?" Terri asked as she came up to join them. "I don't think I've ever heard it put like that before." Looking puzzled, she smiled at Oscar who was frowning.
Oscar, after throwing Irving a dirty look, smiled back at Terri. "Must be a Santa thing, living up near the North Pole like he does."
Trying to cover, Irving offered, "Sorry, I'm Canadian. Our mice are very noisy. I think the Brits also say something else totally different."
Grinning, Hermione shook her head. "Nope, we pretty much set the quiet standard at church-mice."
Exasperated, Irving shook his head. "Anyway, the schedule for today is fairly straightforward. Ms Granger will observe a meeting with team operations this morning, then a quick lunch meet with management, followed by batting practice and then the game from the owner's suite. There's a quick reception between bp and the first pitch with the Mariner's reps, they have a fairly big cricket league up in the northwest so there's a bit of interest in scheduling games in the Seattle area." Smiling blandly at Hermione, she could see a twinkle in his eyes. "I think they've got a couple of bowlers and a striker from one of their clubs up there to talk to someone from England about getting the Americans more into the international mix."
"Sounds, lovely." Looking over her shoulder at Terri and Oscar talking animatedly to each other, she stepped closer to Irving. Palming the miniature wand from her day-planner, she cast a hasty muffliato towards the pair still chatting by the car. "Just bloody marvelous. I'd last five minutes in a conversation with actual cricket players, and I've actually been to matches. Used to try to follow a local club during the summers when I was in school. How's MT going to handle that?" Smiling cheerily, she nodded towards Irving as if she were just asking details about the reception.
"Relax, Hermione." Irving countered with a grin. "We'd already thought of that, even before things got a bit dicey. MT did her schooling in New Zealand, played both Quidditch at school and cricket on a muggle club. A bit scandalous, actually. Female players weren't common, but somehow she "convinced" the club and the league to let her play with the big boys. Very good bowler, she had a way with the ball that was almost `magical'."
Grinning at the expression on Hermione's face, he continued. "Needless to say, while the ministry in Auckland is a bit more lax than Ottawa or London, they still eventually got around to talking to her about underage magic. She never cheated, but she did cast a few very interesting hexes on some opposing strikers who expressed their verbal dissatisfaction regarding her gender. You didn't think they picked cricket for your cover story quite out of the blue, did you?"
"Well, no. But I thought that they picked cricket since there aren't many fans here in the States." Hermione shrugged, looking back at the other pair to see if they were getting ready to proceed inside.
Laughing, Irving shook his head. "I think there are several leagues in the lakes region, almost a dozen teams in Ohio alone. If someone in England actually decides to send a pair of teams here, you'll see a goodly amount of interest."
Following her gaze, he shook his head. "Oscar's got a bad case of it; I can see that from here. Ready to meet the Marketing Department?" Waiting for Hermione to drop her spell, Irving cleared his throat noisily. "If we're not inconveniencing you two, I think Ms Granger has a meeting in five minutes."
Shaking her head at the guilty looks the two were exchanging, Hermione noticed a sudden flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. Shouting, "Oscar, seven o'clock, jump," she drew her wand and cast a quick jinx at the slavering hound that was leaping at the pair from a roiling cloud of darkness that suddenly erupted from the empty air. Oscar wrapped his arm around Terri's waist and turned to apparate.
A distinctive "pop" marked their disapparition and return five yards away. Irving cast a pale yellow beam that swept across the open area, illuminating two shadowy figures moving towards Hermione. Waving her wand in a delicate pattern, a parliament of ominous looking owls appeared, circling her head. Following the line of her wand, they flew at the two figures limed in the yellow glow from Irving's spell.
Oscar, pushing Terri behind him, began casting pale blue beams at the hound and into the cloud. Irving grabbed an ink pen from his pocket, twisted it counterclockwise and threw it towards an open space on the garage floor. As it struck the concrete, it began to glow with a pale blue sheen and two wizards and a witch dressed in the robes of the local reeve's office apparated in a triangle centered upon the pen.
Car alarms began sounding as stray spells ricocheted from the walls and other surfaces and struck the parked vehicles. Adding to the cacophony, the hound began a mournful howl that raised the hairs on the back of the neck of those within ten yards of it. As a feeling of unease and dread began to grip her heart, Hermione enfolded the bizarre canine with a globe of force designed to reflect magical energies within its confines. While the howling continued, the grip of panic on her disappeared.
Turning to her right, she noticed an unfamiliar pair of wizards moving stealthily around one of the blaring cars. Leading them slightly, she deftly bounced a jinx off the windshield of the car in front of them that sent them stumbling back into the line of fire of the county-reeves that were supporting her.
Ducking as a pale green beam flashed towards her, she silently disarmed the witch that had cast the curse in her direction. Grabbing the wand out of the air with a practiced ease that would have made Harry proud, she caught a flash of movement out of her eye. Turning her head, she saw Oscar slumping to the pavement as a wild-eyed witch grabbed a stunned Terri around the waist and begin to turn to disapparate out of the parking area.
Heedless of the magic flashing around her, she moved towards the strange witch and attempted to disrupt her apparition. While her hex caught the woman's shoulder, obviously it wasn't enough to disrupt her concentration as the pair disapparated out. Rushing over to the spot where the pair had disapparated from, she knelt down and checked Oscar's vitals. A hasty reennervate roused him from his stupor.
"Destination, determination, and bloody hell deliberation." Hermione fumed while checking to see how the rest of the impromptu battle was progressing. "The witch that stunned you grabbed Terri and apparated out of here." Seeing that the local county-reeves had the situation under control, she pulled Oscar to his feet and dragged him over to Irving.
"Some poxy witch stunned Oscar and grabbed Terri and side-along apparated her out of here." Hermione explained as she leaned Oscar against the side of the limo and began checking him for obvious signs of trauma. Watching with narrowed eyes, she saw Oscar begin to shake off the after-effects of the curse that had downed him.
"We've got to get her back." Gritting his teeth against the lingering pain, he tried to take a deep breath and winced as his ribs protested the continued abuse. "Hermione, have you got any clue as to what we do next?"
Hermione paused casting the healing charms and looked over at Irving. "Call for MT, tell her to bring enough polyjuice potion for two for twenty-four hours and we'll need Flori back here for a bit. Tell her it's Plan B with a slight twist." Picking a blond hair from Oscar's sleeve, she held it up with a satisfied grin. "Your sister will have to be your girlfriend long enough for her to go home sick for the day." Smiling sadly at the horrified look on Oscar's face, she resumed casting a charm to knit up his ribs. "Don't worry, we'll get the real one back before morning."
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