Author's Note: I LIVE! I must apologise for keeping you all waiting (I have gotten a not insignificant number of PMs regarding this story); I have been writing a piece of original fiction, the first part of which I have just published (this is terrifying, by the way). So, now that I am in a less stressful place, creatively speaking, I shall be updating more regularly. Thank you again for hanging with me.

"The other reasons," replied Minerva as they wove their way through a throng of students, "is one reason. And that reason is a witch who shan't be named because if I name her she will appear just here in front of us and want to know why she and I are not friends."

Hermione looked over at her wryly and raised an eyebrow. "Oooh...Minerva McGonagall has a jilted lover?"

"I do not have her. Nor does she have me, which is the source of the problem. She thinks she ought have me." She looked over her shoulder quickly.

Hermione snickered at Minerva's obvious unease. Minerva frowned and shook her head.

"I am quite serious. I feel as though she has a Trace on me and a Taboo on her name, so that should I for some reason slip up and speak it, she will instantly know where I am and arrive at my location to whinge at me."

Hermione nodded solemnly, yet with a twinkle of mirth in her eye. "Well, I shall protect you from her should she arrive. Fear not." She stopped walking as they reached a traffic light at a busy street. A bus roared by them and Minerva recoiled from the kerb as three more followed.

"It is very loud here," she called over the noise. Hermione responded by taking her hand.

"Just remember to look left."

The light changed and they, along with a crowd of students, made their way across the street. Hermione pointed to the left. "There is a coffee shop just there. They should have tea as well."

Heat radiated off of the pavement, and both women were soaked in sweat before they made it the half block to the coffee shop entrance.

Minerva panted as the rush of air conditioning hit her inside the entrance. "Is it always this bloody hot here?"

"I don't know, Minerva. This is only the second time I've been here in the whole of my life."

As they approached the bar, the barista asked their order.

Minerva cast a brief look at Hermione, who was studying the menu. "Tea. Earl Grey, hot."

The barista smirked and saluted. "Aye, Captain." Hermione giggled. Minerva frowned and turned to Hermione.

"Is that young man mocking me?"

"I will explain later." The barista handed Minerva her tea and Hermione proceeded to place her order. They made their way upstairs and seated themselves at a table near a large plate glass window. Minerva gazed out of it at the street below, then turned to Hermione.

"What shall we do now?"

Hermione blinked. "Am I responsible for the plan?"

Minerva smirked. "You have done a fine job of planning thus far, have you not? This does not look like Azkaban to me."

Hermione smiled back at her. "Well, this might not be Azkaban, but we are in fact in a rather warm foreign country with no support and, importantly, nowhere to sleep tonight."

Minerva leaned back in her chair. "This may come as a shock to you, so prepare yourself." Hermione leaned over the table, intrigued. Minerva mirrored her movement, and whispered, "I am a witch. You are a witch as well. Using magic, we might create ourselves a shelter." She assumed her previous posture and said aloud. "Shocking, is it not?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Do recall that I have spent the entire time I have known that I am a witch unable to use magic outside of Hogwarts. It does take some adjustment."

Minerva smiled. "I remember that feeling. At any rate, what do you think we ought do?"

Hermione furrowed her brow. "Well, we have solved our immediate problem, but the fact does remain that we are fugitives from the Ministry and that one of the most politically powerful wizards in Britain is out for my blood, and yours as well. As I see it, we have three options, and none of them are particularly appealing. One, we may stay here in exile, open a pub, and hope that immigration does not notice us; two, we may dig up as much information as we can on Lucius Malfoy in order to exonerate ourselves, or three..." she hesitated.

Minerva prodded her arm.

Hermione eyed her wryly. "Three...we can throw all caution to the wind and try to disable or kill him."

Minerva peered at her. "Do not think that has not crossed my mind."

"The pub?"

"No. Ending Lucius Malfoy. The first time I seriously contemplated it was in late nineteen seventy-three, and I stopped counting or noting the occasions in the early eighties."

Hermione shifted in her seat. "Well, I was mostly suggesting that option for an even three, but if you really want to, I will help you. Such is my devotion to you." She took a sip of her coffee.

Minerva's rejoinder was cut off by a commotion at the other end of the room. Hermione looked up to see that a long-haired man in striped parachute pants had just hip checked a table, it seemed, and the woman sitting at it was now covered in hot latte. The latte-covered woman expressed her displeasure with the hip checker by shouting at him repeatedly and referring to him as a dirty hippy, among other disparagements. Hermione's eyes grew wide as she recognised the hippy as Rabastan Lestrange. She took firm hold of Minerva's arm and apparated.

A moment later, they slammed into verdant grass. Minerva quickly pushed herself up. "What on Earth was that about?"

Hermione, supine in the grass, stared up at Minerva. "Rabastan Lestrange was in the coffee shop."

Minerva stared at her, mouth agape, for several seconds before she composed herself. "You don't say."

"Indeed; I recognised him from the Department of Mysteries. It was him. He was trying to disguise himself as a Muggle, and he was in the coffee shop. How could he have found us?"

"How do you know he did not merely want a coffee?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Minerva. How could he have found us?"

"My dear, if I knew that, I would have seen him coming and we could have made a more dignified exit."

"Do you suppose he could have followed us here?"

"It is possible of course," Minerva replied. "given that he found us in the tea shop in the first place. But I do feel that he was rather occupied at the moment we left, so it would be a mite difficult for him to have followed us here. Where are we, by the way?"

Hermione looked around. They had appeared under a copse of large trees and onto a soft lawn. To her right was a black metal statue of a man on a horse, and beyond that stood an enormous granite building. "We are at the Capitol."

"The what?"

"It is the Muggle Ministry for Texas."

"Ah. Still in the same city?"

"Yes. From what I remember, I do not think we are actually very far from the coffee shop."

Minerva nodded. "Then we should be on guard. Rabastan Lestrange is not a terribly dangerous man alone, but if he found us then others might as well, and that would be dangerous indeed."

"I still do not understand how he found us." Hermione frowned. "You joked earlier that your...previous paramour...might have a Taboo on her name. Do you suppose that any of the people we have been discussing might have a Taboo on theirs?"

Minerva furrowed her brow. "Taboos are notoriously difficult to cast, and I am unconvinced that Lu—that the people we have been discussing have the talent or power to cast one. However, we might do well to avoid excessive unnecessary use of words which are related to those individuals in order to avoid possible ambush."

Hermione nodded. "I agree." She smirked. "There are those among us who refer to the younger as "The Ferret at school. Would that be adequate shorthand for the matter?"

Minerva blinked at her. "Ferret?"

Hermione nodded solemnly. "Ferret."

"Why do you call him that?"

"Primarily because self-important son of a bitch takes too long to say."

Minerva chortled and said, "You know, I always did tell the other professors that you are not the pure goodness and innocence that they all think you are."

Hermione opened her mouth to enquire further into that matter, but the loud crack of apparition interrupted her and she found herself being crushed beneath Minerva, who had thrown herself atop Hermione presumably to shield her from whatever curses were being thrown their way.

"There are four. Two will be in front of you when you sit up. Stay low. They are not terribly accurate, but the spells they throw are rather strong. Do not underestimate the depth of my affection for you." Minerva pressed a searing kiss to Hermione's lips, and suddenly her weight was gone.

Hermione rolled and rotated herself so that she was now on her belly but facing the two wizards or witches—presumably Death Eaters—whom Minerva had left her. They were far enough apart that she could not take them out with a single spell. Flashes of red and yellow light hit the ground near her. At least they were not yet duelling to kill. She shot a body-bind curse at the nearer of the two and rolled over into the shallow hole created by one of their spells, sheltering behind the bulwark of soil now in front of her. She chanced a look over her shoulder and saw Minerva crouched behind a tree, throwing spells at a single, but apparently wily, adversary.

Looking back in front of her, Hermione saw that her spell had been effective and that she, too, faced a single adversary. She did not have time to be relieved as a spell flew past her face. She smelled burnt hair and ozone. Pressing the side of her face to the ground, she took a deep, steadying breath and summoned the image of Draco Malfoy slamming into the courtyard wall, then popped her head up and stared down her assailant as she—as she thought of it—relaxed her mind.

The unknown witch or wizard flew backward into the marble base of a nearby statue, connected with a mighty crack, and moved no more. Behind her, Hermione could no longer hear the sounds of battle. Minerva stood, covered in soil with blood trickling from her lip, grinning at her.

"May I say, my dear, that was bloody brilliant."

Hermione blushed. "That is the first time I did that on purpose. I am not even sure what spell it might be."

Minerva quickly made her way over to inspect the bodies of Hermione's foes. "It would seem that you have your own magic, Hermione. But we really must discuss the matter elsewhere. Just a moment. Portus." She tossed a fallen stick onto first one body, then the other. They disappeared.

Hermione watched her silently, then asked, "Where did you send them?"

"To the Ministry. Now, we really should get away from here before all of the Muggles return with their Aurors. It would not do to get caught."