Fic: The Family Business (ch 1-5)
Made by the very talented Dhfreak
Title: The Family Business
Author: Chosenfire
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN. All recognizable characters and situations belong to their respective owners and I make no profit off this.
Rating: PG-15
Fandom(s: Supernatural/Harry Potter/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Hermione, Ron, Harry (in this chapter)
Pairing(s: Hermione/Ron, Buffy/Dean, (any other pairings I am open to suggestions)
Word Count: 5,500+
Spoilers: SPN post season 2 AHBL, Harry Potter post Bookk 5 AU books 6 and 7, BtVS post Chosen
Summary: Hermione Granger leaves the war in the wizarding world behind to find the family that had given her up, her father a man named John Winchester.
Chapter 2 Beta'd by Saturn
Chapter 1 Just Don’t Look Back
She packed the bag with shaking hands silent sobs wracking her body. An orange fur ball weaved its way under her feet in an effort to comfort her. She bent down to scoop the rangy cat in her arms.
“Hermione.” there was a loud banging on her door and the young witch quickly reached up to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“Go away Ronald.” she yelled holding Crookshanks closer to her as she shut the zipped up the bag.
She could hear their muffled voices through the thin material of the door “Told you she wouldn’t listen Harry, that girl is bloody confusing.”
“Let me try.”
“Hermione,” Harry’s voice was soft and pleading “please let us in.”
Hermione closed her eyes against the latest onslaught of tears “Just leave me alone.” she breathed out desperately and after a quick scuffle on their end she heard a muffled okay before she once again experienced blissful silence.
Crookshanks meowed softly in her arms and Hermione pressed a quick kiss to his matted fur and reached for the animal carrier she had purchased telling the intelligent cat “It’s just for a few hours I promise.” she locked him in and pulling out her wand muttered an incantation for the cat to sleep.
No need to put him through the trauma of a flight.
Hermione surveyed the room making sure she had packed everything she needed and satisfied she reached for a thin envelope that laid on her desk at the small safe house she had been sharing with Harry and the Weasleys for the Christmas holiday.
It was their seventh year and without Dumbledore Hogwarts was no longer safe so the Order had been moving them around.
The last attack had been too close for comfort.
Ron had been adamant that she stay with his mother and sister while they went to confront a group of Death Eaters that were rumored to be making their way to Diagon Alley. Harry had agreed saying that she should grieve the death of her parents.
Voldemort had found them and killed them.
Hermione looked down at the letter in her hand and sighed, she knew its contents by heart. She hadn’t shared it with Ron who had recently proposed to her.
Dear Hermione,
Professor Dumbledore has advised us to write a letter to you in event that anything should happen to us. You live in dangerous times and he fears that the war that you face could touch our lives. If you have received this than he is right and we are sorry, sorry that we could not be their for you now. You must know that we love you more than anything iin this world and are grateful that we were given the opportunity to raise you. You my dear are bright and beautiful and the world is yours for the taking.
If something has happened to us than you deserve to know the truth. While we have raised you you were not always ours. Seventeen years ago we were visiting the states when he came across a young man and his two sons, and you. You were but a baby and he was desperately trying to care for you but he was a single father and you were a very sickly child. We made a deal, he would sign you over to us and we would make sure you received the proper medical care that would save your life. So a week later we left with you in our arms and we have never looked back.
His name was John Winchester and he was a Marine. He loved you so much he gave you to us so you would live. I hope you understand our decision to keep this from you, it wasn’t the most legal thing but we have never regretted it. You are our miracle and no matter what remember we love you.
Love, Mom and Dad
She had known what she had to do. She would follow the example of the man who she had never known. The man who had been her father. She would leave in order to protect the life of her child.
There was a war all around them and Hermione was at the center of it, she had found out only two weeks ago and had known she could never tell Ron.
There would be no happily ever after for him, not when her two closest friends were determined to stop a monster. Harry would never leave, he couldn’t and Hermione knew Ron would never leave Harry. She was counting on it, someone had to protect him, he had a tendency to leap into things without thinking them through and she wouldn’t be around to offer a voice of reason.
She had used the muggle money her mother and father had left her and while everyone else was battling Voldemort’s followers Hermione Granger would be catching a flight to the States to track down one John Winchester and his boys.
She wasn’t completely without family.
Chapter 2 Steel and Spells
"Mom!" Hermione yelled as she entered the two story house she had grown up in. "Dad!" It was a nice and normal neighborhood filled with doctors and lawyers and police officers and salesmen. It was the perfect place for two dentists to raise a child.
For the first 11 years of her existence Hermione Granger had led a perfectly normal life. Then one day a snowy owl had dropped off a letter on their doorstep from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Ever since then her life had been everything but normal.
Her parents, her normal parents, had stood beside her every step of the way; embracing a world that had claimed her despite their beliefs and their inability to fully understand it.
"Mom, Dad." Hermione yelled louder, setting her coat down on the coach in the front room, furrowing her brows in confusion. They weren't at work; it was the holidays and her father had assured her that their small practice would be closed for her visit home.
Fear filled her as she noticed the unnatural silence. She padded her way to her parents room, her shoes on the carpet making no noise. She slowly pushed open the door, dread filling her; her hand went to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears at what she saw.
Her mother lay slumped in her chair, her eyes wide and sightless, no mark on her body to show why her chest no longer rose and fell with air. Her father was crumpled on the floor, the door to the bathroom still wide open, his eyes just as wide and without life; no mark touching his body either.
"We've been waiting for you," a voice informed her smugly. Hermione spun around to find herself facing the mask of a Death Eater, another behind him. Her hand reached for her wand, her ears ringing, her heart pounding furiously as she ducked out of the way.
"Stupefy," she yelled, blasting the spell over her shoulder as she scrambled into the bathroom, her legs carrying her by her parents bodies; her mind numb with fear and grief, something else stirring deep down. An anger unlike she had ever felt.
She barricaded herself in the bathroom. Ducking into the closet that held the robes and towels she closed her eyes tightly and tried to concentrate; her body stiffening up and squeezing through space as she appareted back into the front room, unable to will herself any further.
She found herself face to face with a Death Eater and that anger filled her as she shot out with her wand "Stupefy." The simple spell filled with the power of her anger caught the thug off guard and sent him into a heap on the floor.
Something hit her hard and Hermione hit the ground, her wand flying out of her hand. She rolled out of the way of more spells, ducked behind the couch and turned over the end table to provide a shield; the drawer in it tumbled out along with various papers and a small black case.
Hermione reached for the case; her hand fumbled with the combination. It sprung open; her hand wrapped around cool steel.
"Why are you running, you're defenseless, just give yourself up and you won't get hurt." The voice from earlier slid over her. "My Master just wants to talk to you. He sent us here to collect you." The voice was getting closer.
Hermione squeezed her eyes shut tightly, then opened them filled with resolve. She pushed the table away from her into the Death Eater and raised the gun, registering the fear filled eyes as she pulled the trigger. The man flew backwards from the force of the bullet her father had insisted on keeping it loaded with.
The Death Eater she had hit with the spell was still and the other that had been hit by the bullet wouldn't be moving ever again.
Gun still firmly clasped in her hand, Hermione sank to the floor, arms wrapping around her knees as she huddled into herself. Her body shook with the force of the tears that where making their way down her face, sobs muffled.
That was how she was found two hours later by members of the Order and it took Ron to pry the gun out of her hands and gather her in his arms before she could rest. Before she could bury herself in someone else and deal with the grief that was eating at her.
The Death Eater that had survived was taken into custody and would be interrogated and put on trial. The other's body was removed, the blood cleaned up and magic put in place to make it look like Hermione was never there.
Chapter 3 Players in Place
“Please I just need to….”
“Sorry you’re going to have to wait in line.” The tired looking brunette behind the counter said offhandedly her eyes not even bothering to look up from where they were locked on the screen in front of her.
The noise was deafening people were talking and shouting and children where crying. Hermione was practically shouting as she tried to get the woman’s attention a large back pack laying on her shoulders and the handle to her trunk gripped tightly in one hand the other holding the cat carrier. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and her shoulder’s sagged in exhaustion. “I just to need to know how to get to Lawrence, Kansas.” She pleaded desperately.
The woman looked up briefly before turning back to her screen face impassive “I suggest you find a bus.” Her tone was dismissive.
Hermione was close to tears. She was tired and hungry and scared. She turned away from the woman dragging her trunk outside the muscles in her arm screaming. She made her way to a payphone and her hand hovered over the device the urge to call someone, to call Ron, nearly overwhelming.
The day before she had left a pureblooded wizarding family had been killed, the dark mark found over their house by their 13 year old son who had snuck to Diagon Alley. They had been friends of the Wesley’s, the mother worked with Ron’s father and that’s why they had been killed.
Hermione thought that if she got far enough away from the war that it wouldn’t touch her. That it wouldn’t touch her child. She wouldn’t be able to fight as the months got along and she would have made Ron and Harry vulnerable.
Because if she had to choose she would make the same choice Harry’s mother had made, she would give up everything, even her life for the sake of her child.
She had to find her father, the father that had protected her. She didn’t want to do this alone.
Her hand moved away from the phone and her eyes scanned the area looking for a bus station. She had to get to Lawrence, Kansas and find out what had happened to John Winchester and if anyone knew where she could find him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“We’re here,” a young woman leaned over to whisper in the ear of the man beside her. He groaned his eyes blinking open warily as he looked around straightening up in the seat. His eyes met hers and she grinned “Well hello sleepy head.”
She was still leaning over him and he took that opportunity to press a quick kiss to her mouth telling her as they drew apart “Okay, I’ll wait in the car.”
She glared at him “Oh no you won’t, we did not drive all the way from Cleveland so you could wait in the car.”
He gave her a quick grin “Well we could have taken the jet but someone wanted to have a road trip.”
Dawn Summers pouted settling back in her seat crossing her arms and muttered “I thought it would be fun.”
Connor O’Reily being the devoted boyfriend that he was panicked reassuring her quickly “It was fun, I had fun.” He looked around desperately “well lets go, we have a psychic to see don’t we?”
She grinned pressing a quick kiss to his jaw her face radiant “Thank you.” And she hopped out of the car.
Connor groaned closing his eyes briefly then followed closing the door to the brand new baby blue Mercedes a little harder than necessary. He walked over to where Dawn was waiting impatiently and intertwined his fingers in hers not resisting as she pulled him to the front door of the establishment they had been sent to.
Dawn was now officially a Watcher having graduated High School and trained under Giles since the new Council had been set up. Connor had taken up the position shortly after he had dropped off some messages from his father and Spike at the Cleveland base. He had stayed, met Dawn and had started a new life.
When the coven that Willow had kept in contact with had told them that something big was coming and that a psychic in a Kansas town might have some answers Dawn had volunteered to check out and Connor had been dragged along by Dawn’s enthusiasm.
They entered the house and Connor kept a firm grip on Dawn’s hand looking around at the place suspiciously. He had never trusted magic or the things he couldn’t fight. His experience with these things had always been bad and had always ended horribly.
“Well aren’t you a lovely couple,” a warm voice said softly and Connor turned to see the shorter black woman a smile lighting her face. She was heavyset and looked too inviting to be dangerous but Connor was wise enough to not trust appearances. Everyone could be dangerous.
Her eyes locked with Connor’s and her smile was knowing “Well you’re a suspicious one, don’t just stand there take a seat.”
Dawn pulled Connor along and they settled on a couch Dawn relaxing against the cushions and Connor sat at the edge ready to spring up at a moments notice.
She sat down across from them her eyes studying them each in turn. “Now why don’t you tell me why you are here?”
“You’re the psychic,” Connor bit out “why don’t you tell us.”
Dawn hit upside the head and he turned to glare at her only to receive a resolve face that could have rivaled Willows.
“I’m sorry for that, he’s an idiot sometimes.” Dawn told the psychic softly.
Missouri Mosley gave the young woman in front of her a small smile “That’s alright child, he was reasons not to trust my abilities.” She looked over at Connor and reached for his hand. He tensed but didn’t pull away fighting the urge to lash out. “I’m sorry for your father, he was a great man and you are more like him than you know, he would be proud of you.” She let go of Connor’s hand and he nodded his throat tight.
Missouri turned back to Dawn “I do know why you are here, but it’s not for me,” as if it was planned there was a knock on the door and the psychic smiled sadly standing “it’s for her.” They watched as she went to answer the door.
Chapter 4 A Father's Love
“C’mon Princess quiet down for daddy, please quiet down.” John begged the 3 month old baby in his arms as she screamed her misery for all to see her little lungs able to reach levels of sound no person her size should be capable of.
She continued to cry and John groaned eyes moving to the ceiling begging the god he had stopped believing in a long time ago for a break.
That break came in the form of his eight year old son.
“Dad,” Dean muttered softly coming out of the bathroom 4 year old Sam behind him rubbing his eyes tiredly. They were dressed in matching dinosaur pajamas Dean’s slightly more messy but just as old and reliable.
“Yeah Deano?” John muttered pacing back and forth bouncing slightly as he tried to soothe his daughter juggling her to one arm as he reached down scooping Sam up and dumping him gently down on one of the hotel beds.
Dean shuffled his feet wincing as the babies cries got louder and told his dad softly “I’ll hold her, she’s tried and she likes to lay down on someone. I do it every night.”
John felt like a horrible father as he handed his daughter over to his oldest son and watched as she quieted down turning her face to burrow it in Dean’s shirt as he scrambled onto the bed beside Sam wrapping one arm around his already dozing brother and the other cradling the baby on his child’s chest hand moving in soothing circles on her back whispering loving words in her ear as she drifted off eyes closing.
John reached for the bottle he had made earlier and set on the small table when the baby wouldn’t take it and handed it to Dean along with one of the pacifier’s he had picked up at the hospital last week when he had brought Dean in to get his head looked at after he had gotten thrown into a tree.
There was now a bandage on his head but he was otherwise fine and his eyes were drifting closed as he settled the bottle on pacifier close at hand. John handed him a knife which he quickly stuffed under the pillow and a gun which he set by the bottle.
John leaned down pressing a kiss to Sam’s forehead than Dean’s “Love you kiddos,” he kissed the slumbering baby just as lightly caressing her dark hair “love you Princess.” He gave Dean a quick hard look “Look after your brother and sister.”
Dean looked up from where he was gazing at the baby his nod firm voice sure “Yes sir.”
John looked at his children eyes moving from his sons to his daughter and he felt the familiar twist of guilt in his stomach, he had betrayed Mary even though she had been dead for near on 4 years and he knew the type of his life he would give her.
Dean and Sam were his, Mary had died for them and they had just as much of a part to play in his search for vengeance but his baby girl wasn’t a part of it, she didn’t have to follow him on his quest. He had been selfish taking her when he knew he could have left her with her mother and she would have never had to face the things the boys had, the things he had.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Dean,” John yelled as he crashed into the hotel room coughing at the smoke that filled the room. He could here the crying over the roaring of the flames and he held up his arms against the heat coughing as the smoke entered his lungs.
“Dean!!!” he yelled again coughs racking his body.
“Daddy…” a voice whispered softly and his eyes flew around the burning room to land on a small form huddled in the corner his military jacket thrown over them. Dean clung to Sam the crying baby hidden between them her sobs muffled by their bodies as they muddled close to the floor trying to get oxygen.
“Dad,” the voice came again and John scrambled to his children falling to the floor as a flaming beam fell on his back. He grunted against the pain as he crouched down beside his children scooping them into his arms muttering “I’m here, I’m here.” He stumbled out of the hotel coughing raggedly as he collapsed against the car breathing the night air in in desperate gulps.
Dean and Sam scrambled out of his arms and John looked down into his frightened sons eyes. “What is it?” John asked softly
“Daddy,” Dean’s voice came out as a sob “she won’t wake up, I tried waking her up but she won’t.”
Fear filled John twisting his gut as his face went as white as a sheet.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Weeks had passed on John had taken to haunting the hospital Dean a fixture beside him each day. Sam was with Jim being spoiled rotten and reassured everything was okay and that Dean and his daddy would be back soon.
The nurses often gave them food and coffee stopping in to offer them whatever comfort they could. More often than not touching John’s shoulder and ruffling Dean’s hair.
Little baby girl Winchester clung on a thread having token into too much smoke for her small lings to handle and they were now failing her.
John’s eyes were bloodshot and the only person he talked to was Dean and Jim. Guilt twisted his gut and he found himself in the chapel more than once.
One day as he sat there hands clasped eyes staring blankly at the crucifix that hung on the wall a couple entered. John glanced over at the them eyes narrowing and his hand tightened on the letter he held there that Jim had passed on from Missouri.
“Are you Mr. Winchester?” the man asked softly his voice cultured and very British. John nodded and the man shuffled nervously arm going around his wife’s waist. John’s eyes went to her, she was pretty and soft. Golden brown hair pulled back into a loose bun eyes a vivid blue. He turned back to the husband who met his eyes not backing down the cold Marine before him “The gentleman outside informed us you wished to speak with us.”
John looked back at the wife and nodded “That’s right, you and your wife are here on vacation are you not?”
The woman nodded and John continued bitterly “You have no children?”
Before the man could speak his wife did her voice soft and laced with sorrow “No we don’t. We’ve tried for years and came to see a fertility specialist, we told our friends we were on a second honeymoon. We can’t have children,” the pain thickened her accent “I cannot bear a child.”
John nodded tears pricking his eyes that he quickly wiped away. He looked over at them his voice just as thick “I have a daughter, she’s three months old, she’s sick and I don’t have the means or the time to care for her,” he paused letting that sink in before he continued “I lead a dangerous life that I have already exposed my sons to, I want to spare her.” He looked down at the letter in his hands despair washing over him “She needs a stable family that I can’t provide for her,” he looked back the couple his voice growing firm “but I believe you can.”
The man sputtered and the woman cried but in the end the papers were signed and his baby girl became Hermione Marie Granger. It wasn’t legal and they would be leaving the country the next day with their new daughter using papers Jim had forged but it was the best thing for her.
Dean held her one last time crying freely for the first time since his mother had died and John pressed a kiss to her forehead silent tears trailing down his cheek.
It was better this way, Missouri had told him it would be better this way. That his daughter would be safer and she would be happy and loved, that she belonged to the Granger’s and whatever life they would give her.
John couldn’t afford to doubt her, not on this. Not when his heart had already been torn open by the decision.
Chapter 5 And Away We Go
Missouri Mosley studied the young woman on her doorstep and she knew in an instance that she had seen the child before her. That the woman with an unsure smile and nerves of steel was Johnny’s baby girl all grown up.
“Well come in,” she gestured the girl into her home “just put those bags right there they’ll be okay.” The fair haired child complied and as she past by her Missouri could feel the shield the girl had built around her mind stronger than anyone she had ever encountered before.
Some people were born with that kind of block but the youngest Winchester wasn’t one of them, already Missouri could sense the magic clinging to the girl thick as a cloud as much a part of her as the blood in her veins.
It was different from Dawn’s, while that girl hummed with magic it was uncontrolled and wild but this young woman screamed with it holding it tightly in control.
She had been trained well and the steady flow reflected that.
“I’m Hermione Granger.” The girl offered her hand politely after she had put her belongings down and instead of shaking it Missouri grabbed the hand leading the girl into the living room.
“I’m Missouri, I know your father.” She reassured the girl and turned to the couple that was standing the boy looking ready to climb out of his skin the only thing that seemed to keep him grounded was his companions hand in his own.
Hermione glanced between her and the others clearly suspicious and her voice was guarded “I was hoping you might know where he is?” she eyed the couple closely.
Missouri rolled her eyes resisting the urge to snort, not only was this John’s child but she was clearly the baby sister of Dean Winchester. Missouri reckoned that if the others had been a threat that this girl wouldn’t bolt but fight for all she was worth.
“I don’t,” Missouri informed her honestly releasing her arm “John isn’t one to keep in touch but I know where you can find his boys.” She nodded to Dawn and Connor “You’ll need them to do it, they have far more resources then I do.”
“I’m Dawn Summers,” the young woman offered taking a leap of faith “and this is my boyfriend Connor O’Reily.” She shared a quick searching look with Missouri before turning back to Hermione her voice firm “We’ll help you in any way we can.”
“We will?” Connor asked his girlfriend softly their eyes locking and she nodded. He sighed and gave Hermione a small nod “Right, we’re at your service then.”
Missouri grinned broadly “Good boy.” She stood a smile firmly in place “Well why don’t you children get to know each other I’ll get some snacks.” As she left the room she shouted over her shoulder “Boy don’t you even think about leaving.” Connor shrugged guilty tearing his eyes from the door he had been staring at wondering if he could get to the car and wait for Dawn there.
Hermione’s eyes passed between the two strangers’ she had been left with and she didn’t know whether to bolt or to trust the pleasant woman who she had been told knew her father. She knew that magic existed outside of the wizardng world but she had never encountered it outside of books and she was beginning to doubt she could do this.
She was barely 18 and pregnant, she couldn’t afford to cast too many spells or she could be found, and Voldemort and his follower’s where still out there and if they discovered her away from the protection of the Order she didn’t know if she could hold them off long enough to escape.
She had thought that by leaving she would be doing the best thing for everyone, not only herself and her unborn child but Harry and Ron as well. She had figured that if she wasn’t there than Harry could do what needed to be done but what if she had only made things worse, what if they lost sight of the objective in search of her.
“Are you okay?” the boy, Connor, asked her softly his hand going to her arm jolting her out of her thoughts and Hermione resisted the urge to back up moving her eyes to his. She blinked giving him and Dawn a shaky smile.
“I’m fine,” she told them unconvincingly.
Before they could ask her any questions Missouri came back into the room looking panicked “You have to leave now,” she turned to Hermione “you can trust them.” She started hustling the teens to the door and Connor bent down to pick up Hermione’s bags passing the pet carrier to Dawn.
“What is it?” Connor asked knowing that they didn’t have time but needing to know what they were facing if they had to fight.
“Demons,” Missouri muttered offhandedly as she opened the door “and not your kind either.” She said pointedly to Connor and Dawn.
“Wait,” Dawn stopped outside of the house “what about you?”
Missouri gave her a sad smile “I’ll be fine,” her voice lacked conviction but she kept pushing them “now go.”
Connor dragged along Dawn reaching out a hand and pulling Hermione with them. He stuffed the other girl’s bags into the vehicle and easily caught the keys Dawn tossed his way. Dawn hopped into the passenger’s seat and Hermione numbly sat in the back wincing as the tires squealed as Connor pulled away her eyes locked on the lone woman in the doorframe of her house.
This wasn’t right, she wasn’t suppose to just leave someone behind.
Her eyes locked with Dawn’s in the rear view mirror and the other girl gave her a small smile letting her know that she understood. She didn’t know anything about Dawn and Connor other than the reassurance Missouri had given her but as she studied the two she knew they would understand a lot about her, she felt a kinship with the two recognizing others who had grown up in a war.
Maybe it wasn’t the same war but a battle always left there scars and watching the two prepare themselves with a steely determination and weariness she knew that they had some scars of their own.