Summary: Harry Potter x Death Note: Hermione has always been seen as one of the brightest witches alive. She soon learns that even the brightest people have their bad moments. Ending up in a magic-less universe, where a deadly game is being played by a serial killer called Kira and a famous detective L, Hermione must try to find her way back to her own world. But, will she be able to prevent her curiosity and morals from letting her enter the game though?

Beta: Nope, not yet. So please don't mind the mistakes.

Note: the rating might go up to M in the future, though you will be warned if this happens.

No she didn't. Yes, she did. Another story that wouldn't leave my head. That means that I have even more attention/writing time to divide but that comes with being a busy student that just can't help but daydream at her spare time – and during college once and now. Anyway, I enjoyed reading Death Note a lot. Combined with the fact that I love Hermione's character – woman power!- I decided on another crossover. Yes, I enjoy those things a lot.

So please enjoy and tell me what you think alright?

Behind the Brain

Chapter 1: Brand New World

In a dark abandoned alley, a figure covered by a large dark red cloak lied stretched out on the ground. If one looked closely, there was a nearly hidden signature on the back of the cloth, spelling 'U-S' in an elegant front. Long brown hair flowed over the figure's head. The body was barely moving, except for the slight movement of the upper back. The figure alive and breathing.

The sound of soft gasping breathes gave a slight indication of the state that the stranger was in. An odd carved stick lied not far away from the figure's outstretched hand.

With a soft groan, the twenty-three-year old Unspeakable named Hermione Granger regained consciousness.

The first thing that witch noticed was the splitting headache that was torturing her. She felt like her head was being split open. Growling out and frowning in pain, she barely noticed the tears spilling from her eyes. Her breathing became more ragged as she tried to pull herself together. Opening her eyes slowly, she squinted at the light that she saw at the end of the alley.

'Where am I?' Was the first question coming to her mind.

At least she was alone, she realised, as she didn't hear anyone around her. This caused her to feel relieved and afraid at the same time. After all, though it meant that there were no enemies nearby, there were none of her allies – nor friends – either.

'Magic.' Was the next thought that popped up in her haad, following the pure instincts of a witch that ran deep within her.

Her blurred eyes finally focused on the wand that lied a couple of inches away from her hand. Groaning, she stretched out as far as she could. Her whole body hurt and her hand shook rapidly as she finally managed to touch the smooth surface of her wand. Encouraged by the feeling, she put a little more effort in it and eventually managed to roll the polished stick into her hand.

A warm sensation spread through her and she couldn't help but sigh in relief. It was at the contact with the wand that her head cleared just slightly. As the pain became more tolerable, the Unspeakable realised something was off.

It was like noticing that something was missing. Like the silent humming of electricity around you. The soft humming from a sound or the light sensation of the wind flowing around you. It wasn't visible and you often don't notice its presence, but you take note of 'this something' when it is absent.

No, Hermione decided, it wasn't something that was visibly gone, it was more like a feeling.

'The air is different here.' Her hazy brain managed to provide her.

There was something missing.

And the witch had detected something very important.

There was no magic around her.

The young woman froze as the realisation hit her and forcefully pulled her rapidly rising - chaotic and panicking - emotions to the back of her mind. Recalling all her training – be calm and objective – she tightened her grip on her wand.

'First, own protection and health.' She reminded herself, going through the protocol for ending up in unknown situations.

Whispering a soft spell under her breath, the young woman was relieved to find out that she still had the ability to use magic.

The healing charm helped her a lot - though maybe not as much as the reassurance of being able to defend herself - and with a groan she managed to stand up. Leaning heavily against the stone wall of the alley, she fumbled with her purple beaded handbag that she wore under her red 'Unspeakable' cloak. As her arm dug into the Bottomless bag, she was glad that the beloved object almost never left her side.

The paranoia of being prepared for nearly everything had saved her a lot of worries.

'Second, surroundings.' Her eyes glanced around suspiciously, but she was still alone.

In the meantime she had managed to pull out a potion. Uncorking the flask, she quickly gulped it down. Having experience with the disgusting taste, she managed to repress her expression to a slight frown. She put the empty vile back as she carefully continued to study her surroundings.

'Where am I?'

Memories came flowing back to her as the splitting headache dimmed to a bearable one.

"Shit." She mumbled.

The Veil. She had fallen through the veil. A part of the Unspeakable department had been running tests on the Veil for a while. Last time had been no different. It had been a simple observational task and someone had requested Hermione to cover for her. Her colleague had a wedding of her best friend to attend and Hermione, seeing as June was a very nice woman, had easily agreed.

The Veil had been nagging her thoughts for a while.

Hermione was not directly involved with the investigation, seeing as the witch had been against studying the Veil at first.

After all, she didn't have very good memories of the terrifying object. However, after reading more about it – she was curious about it nonetheless- and hearing stories and different theories of previous researchers, she couldn't help but become slightly more fascinated.

It was a few days later during research, that she had stumbled on a little brown booklet that discussed the theories of alternate aniverses and the connection to the Veil. She had shaken her head at the ideas, put the booklet away and decided that she should get back to more important research, like the time-turners. An urge had made her stop though and after a moment of indecision, she had taken the book with her.

She had refused to acknowledge the tiny voice in the back of her mind that already going over different ways to test the theories.

She had managed to put it out of her mind though and for the next couple of weeks she continued to focus on the time-turners. Then June requested her cover and the tempting mystery surrounding the object had once again returned. She had immediately agreed, her curiosity getting the better of her once more.

She had been easily allowed to cover for her. It was not a job that needed specific skills. It had been a simple job of tracking the magical levels. It was one of the most basic task that one could get.

The spells that they were using to test the Veil would be done by others, so there was no objection of her helping out.

Hermione was still filled with disbelief of what had happened. She could still clearly remember the casual atmosphere back then and a friend within the Unspeakable greeting her with a smile.

"Finally giving in to your curiosity Ruby?" The man teased her as she followed after him.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione didn't answer his question. Instead she went straight to business. "Funny Onyx, just tell me what you want me to do."

"Just keep track of the magic and record the information Ruby." He said, using her code name once more.

Of course, it proved to be this little task that had indirectly brought her here. The one tiny danger of tracking magic was that it was more specific when one got closer to it. So, Hermione, being the person she was, had not minded to do so – as long as she kept a relative safe distance.

Even though she stood closest to the object, a couple of other unspeakable had stood near her, having to run their own spells. They could catch her if it was necessary. So, all in all, it wasn't dangerous at all.

Of course, Fate decided to prove her wrong.

One moment Hermione had been minding her own business, staring at the colors that her magic presented her and the next thing she knew was that there was a movement right next to her.

There was a loud cry as a spell was shot into the Veil. It had barely passed her shoulder, which immediately snapped her attention away from her task. The small group of Unspeakable next to her turned in shock to the traitor in their mids – a relative new Unspeakable that had shown some obsession with the Veil before but never like this – and then the chaos started. Flinging themselves towards the man who had thrown the curse, the team started battling right in front of the Veil, their magic rising.

"You can't mess with the Gate of Death!" The traitor proclaimed, eyes shining. "I will make sure no one ever will!"

Hermione, standing away from the fight and closest to the Veil, stared with wide eyes as her magic showed her that the Veil's magic was fluctuating after the Veil had been struck, before it was actually starting to suck up the energy surrounding it.

Breath had left her as she realised what was going to happen. It was creating a magical black hole of some sorts.

"Back away from the Veil!" She exclaimed to the others, as they finally apprehended the wizard.

She charged forward in an attempt to save herself, but it was useless.

A moment later, she felt herself being sucked into the direction of the Veil.

"Accio!" was immediately being called out by multiple people, all trained to act quickly.

For a moment it held, giving the team some hope, but the witch knew that the magic would be sucked away within seconds. In a last desparete attempts, a cloak was tranfigurated into a rope for her to hold on to, but the magic surrounded her reversed the spell within moments, leaving her with nothing to grasp on but thin threads.

'I won't make this without putting others in danger.' She realised and suddenly felt very calm. 'Well, I guess this might be the end then."

Her eyes met Onyx's dark ones as she struggled to walk away from the Veil. She was not going to make it, she knew, but she still had things to say.

"Stop Onyx, don't come closer!" She stopped him from running forward to grab her. He stood there, obviously conflicted by the situation before him. The witch was glad that someone grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from trying once more.

"Tell Ron and Harry and my parents, and everyone else that I love them Onyx!" She continued to yell to the older man.

"I will!" He yelled back to her as he watched her with grave eyes.

"I will try to find my way back." She continued and her calculative mind gave her a hint of inspiration. Searching in an inner pocket of her cloak, she pulled out a magical gem that could storage a lot of magic – she had been prepared to use it for her experiment that she had planned to do later today – and charged it with as much magic as she could.

She felt herself weaken tremendously and her breathing became more ragged as she struggled against the flow.

"Keep this here and keep it safe!" She cried out, as she threw it at him with all her might. The magical gem shone brightly as she continued to crawl away from the Veil with all her might to buy her some time to act upon her last plan, she quickly started chanting in an unknown language.

She was going to make sure the hole would close after her.

One of the eldest in the team's eyes widened, recognising the spell. "No Ruby!"

But he was too late as suddenly all the magic swirled around her, saving them from harm and then abrubtly pulled her into the Veil and disappeared along with her.

The last sensation she remembered were the icy wisps of the Veil caressed her skin before she was swirled, spun, distorted - similar to apparition, but so much worse – twirled, spiralled, twisted, sucked into a loop of colors and energy.

'Oh Merlin...'

The memories and the shock of being transportated to this place suddenly caught up to the witch and Hermione bowed forwards as she lost the meagre lunch that she had had before the meeting. Throwing up once more, she shakily patted her hair to make sure that it was still securely put in a pony-tail. Acid burned her tongue ever so slightly and she spit out the horrible taste.

Pulling herself together once more, she righted herself. She decided against using her magic to clean her mouth, even though she really wanted to.

'Who knows how long my magic might take to recharge in this place.' She thought, suddenly feeling very vulnerable with the lack of magic surrounding her. The only thing that calmed her slightly was the odd sensation in her chest, located at her magical core. It was a slight magical tugging sensation, as if she was connected to something.

A nearly invisible smile cracked on her face. It seemed that at least her plan had worked. Wherever she was, she managed to create a life-line of magic that was connected to the magical gem that she had left behind.

'Though how long will it keep up?' A more pessimistic part of her brain questioned her as she stumbled down the alley to study the place that she had ended up.

'At least, I'm not dead...' She reminded herself of far worse situations that involved the Veil.

Wand ready, she peaked around the corner, before her eyes widened in recognition.

She was in Tokyo?

'So I'm still in my own world?' Her eyes feverishly took in the similarities to the world that she called her own. Deciding that she was safe for now, she slipped up her hood and mingled with the people walking down the street.

The witch didn't want to put away her cloak, feeling vulnerable without it. Luckily, she managed to look like someone with an 'unique' style that surprisingly didn't get as many looks as she thought it would. The few rolling eyes and stares that she caught were easily ignored and she kept on the lookout for more information.

'I don't know enough Japanese.' She silently cursed herself, determined to look into it. 'Maybe I should use that translation spell later on.'

As her brain was catching up to her current situation, her eyes were drawn on one of the screens that were showing some kind of news reportage. Being a muggle-born, Hermione always tried to keep up with the basic news every day. If she couldn't, her mother would make sure that she was up to date. Ever since the final Battle, she had wanted to keep up with the muggle-world, as it was part of her identity.

She halted her steps as she finally understood a few things.

One, the date on the screen did not correspond with her own. It was two years earlier than her own time-frame.

Second, she had never heard about this Misa-Misa figure before. She might not be into that stuff, but she should have heard the name at least once right?

Third, she had no clue who this Kira was that people kept whispering around. Another name she should have noticed if the "world wide news" was of any indication.

Fourth, she couldn't help but be suddenly be reminded of a certain little brown booklet that told her about the 'alternative universe' at the other end of the 'Veil'.

Nerves finally her. She quickly grabbed the booklet from her bag and started flipping through it at a hectic speed. Her eyes scanned over the words as she ignored the rush of the people around her, bumping into her and complaining about tourists.

Instead, her eyes were stuck on the book. Eventually, her eyes became more lost. With a final shocked gasping breathe, her arms fell limp down at her sides, her hands still clutching the book.

There was no magic around her - Tokyo of all places should have loads of it. The dates and news objects were different. The Veil.

Looking up into the sky, Hermione could only borrow her friend's two well-known words to describe the situation that she was currently in.

"Bloody hell." She whispered.

She was in another universe.

~End Chapter ~

A 'yay' or a 'no way'?

I would appreciate it very much if you decided to share your thoughts and if not, well too bad.

Hopefully till next time!

~Dreamyin