Alternative Magic

Working quickly, Hermione poured the jar of fresh blood over the ritual circle she'd drawn using melted silver in front of the veil. Centered amongst the runes and soaking in the thick red fluid was a large tomb with thousands of names. She watched as the black ink slowly became surrounded with scarlet, her name the last on the visible page.

Once the tome was entirely soaked with the lifeblood, Hermione started chanting in Latin as she cut her wrist with a goblin forged silver dagger and allowed her blood to mix amongst the parchment and spilled fluid.

"Datum sponte, uti sanguinem meum ut scio atque custodiat," she chanted. "Malediceres inimicis meis vocavi ex Dolohov's malum."

The runes below her glowed in a vibrant purple before erupting into hot flames and swallowing the magical tome as Hermione grinned triumphantly over her success.

"You're too late Ferret," She called out breathlessly. "Your master won't be pleased."

"Granger," Draco Malfoy said, stepping from the shadows and grimacing at the sight of her covered in blood. "Have you gone mad? Breaking into the Ministry again? You've trapped yourself at the mercy of your enemies."

"It's always been a matter of time," the witch said tiredly. "I chose my own end."

"You stupid bint," Draco swore. "You're all that's left of the Order, and now he'll parade your broken body through the streets."

"It almost sounds like you care," Hermione scoffed seconds before a shimmering patronus burst into the death chamber. The tiny jack russell terrier sprinted up to Malfoy before speaking as Hermione glared at it.

"Ferret, the mudblood has broken into the Department of Underage Magic and ran off with the book containing all the names of magical children. The Dark Lord expects you to get it back, and capture her. Dead or alive. He doesn't care."

"Tell me you didn't break in here for that," Draco hissed at her as the patronus dissipated. "How stupid can you be? It's only a copy! Even if it was the only one of its kind, it wouldn't stop us from hunting down every last muggleborn."

"Perhaps not," Hermione agreed. "However, it will make it much more difficult to find them. At the very least they deserve a fighting chance."

"You've gone mad," Draco muttered with a shake of his head. "Utterly round the bend."

"Nephew," a masculine voice crept from the shadows interrupting Hermione's response. "Playing with your food again? Your poor mother would be terribly disappointed...my late wife on the other hand...she inherited that lovely Black madness."

"Uncle," Draco greeted, sneering at the older Death Eater. "It's improper to speak ill of the dead."

"They won't care," Rodolphus dismissed. "Both are buried six feet under. Not even your father could give a shit what I say even if he did obscenely indulge your mother."

"Rodolphus," Hermione said, her voice filled with delight when she laid eyes on him, her gaze lingering on his marred face.

"You wear my handiwork well. Really, you should step into the path of my spells more often. Maybe the next time one of my curse will cleave your face entirely in two pieces."

"Mudblood," Rodolphus hissed,his hand predictably touching the large scar on his face. Even Draco rolled his eyes while Hermione cackled gleefully. The Malfoy heir watched the witch sheath her wand, while his uncle was seething at the witch.

"Where's the book?" Rodolphus demanded looking at Draco. The younger wizard merely stared at him.

"I'm not the one who stole it," Draco answered.

"The Dark Lord charged you with getting it back," his uncle said glaring at him before glancing at Hermione who was actively grinning at the exchange. It didn't take Rodolphus long to realize the smirk on the witch's face and her nod towards the pile of red ash were connected.

"You bitch."

The vibrant fuschia spell the Death Eater lobbed at her hit her in the abdomen. Draco stared, horrified when Hermione didn't even attempt to deflect it. The shriek of agony from his uncle ripped Draco's eyes away to see Rodolphus writhing on the ground.

"What did you do?" His voice barely reached above a hoarse whisper.

"Just shared a little gift that Dolohov bestowed upon me when we first met," the witch answered cackling. "I'm sure you know how talented he is at creating curses that cause misery. Don't worry this one merely incapacitates the victim...until death."

"Do you really think Antonin won't willingly give the Dark Lord the countercurse?" Draco asked exasperated, "Or that he doesn't know how to circumvent your little curse by creating a new copy of the book from the original at Hogwarts?"

"You're right," Hermione agreed readily; surprising the blonde pureblood, "On both accounts."

Draco realized then that he'd missed an important factor.

"Which is why I siphoned out all of Dolohov's blood and used it on the original book," Hermione told him. Draco stared at her as he understood why she was drenched in blood. He couldn't help wondering what exactly had happened to her.

"In fact, let's ensure that your precious master can't undo the curse ever."

The muggleborn witch flung the ministry copy of the tome towards the veil, laughing when Draco's summoning spell failed.

"How is it that the heir to the Malfoy legacy doesn't understand that most magical books are invulnerable to magic?"

"He'll kill you," Draco said desperately as he realized how utterly fucked he had become. "The Dark Lord will make an example out of you, and then hunt down every mudblood like he already planned."

"Not if he can't catch me," Hermione answered nonchalantly. "Besides, I think you'll find that he'll be losing a wide amount of followers if he follows through with that plan."

"Granger, there's no way out of here," Draco argued stepping forward. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."

"You stupid Ferrett, there's always a way out," Hermione said smirking as she stepped backwards into the veil's embrace.

Hermione hadn't been in a muggle hospital since she was a young child . The last visit she remembered was one of her Dad's numerous health scares. Despite being a dentist, he'd always been frail and sickly. Regardless of the longevity, she still recognized the tale sign of steady beeps of monitors and the scent of chemical sanitizers without opening her eyes. It was unnerving to realize that not only was she conscious, but amongst muggles. Hermione never expected there was anything other than oblivion on the other side of the veil. It was pure paranoia that she had prepared herself with endless supplies.

Her internal monologue was interrupted by a voice clearing their throat from Hermione's right side.

"You're awake," a female said. It was a struggle, but Hermione managed to turn her head towards the voice. The movement wasn't right...her body was sluggish, as if she could only move with great effort.

Did they give me drugs?

"You can call me Natasha," the redheaded woman said. Hermione stared at her momentarily reminded of Ginny, before recognizing how dangerous this woman appeared. Natasha's posture was impeccable, yet the woman seemed as though she was trying to appear nonchalant.

"What's your name?"Natasha asked as Hermione watched her. Knowing that her voice would set her apart from the American in front of her she chose to remain silent. It took her some time, but she rolled onto her back again.

"Do you remember how you got here?" The questions didn't cease, but ultimately Hermione ultimately fell asleep to the sound of Natasha's voice. When she did reawake, Natasha was still speaking, but not to her.

"She's been in and out of consciousness today. I've tried questioning her, but she hasn't answered anything."

"Honestly if it wasn't for a few facial tics, I'd assume she doesn't speak English. She fell asleep again about four hours ago. No she hasn't woken back up. Thank you sir, I will head out. Yes I'll report back tomorrow."

Hermione remained motionless well after she heard Natasha's footsteps faded away and utilized the modified Human Revelio created by Neville and Luna. It was a brilliant bit of magic, designed to be performed wandless and only alert the caster to the results. During their collaboration, Luna and Neville managed to create two distinct sounds to report how many people were in a room. One to repeat for each person detected, and one to provide a negative response.

Despite wearing a hospital gown, Hermione's wand holster was still strapped in place as was her beaded bag, which she attributed to the concealment and sticking charms. Thankfully she was feeling much less sluggish and successfully made it into the bathroom. Retrieving her bag, Hermione fished out her back up trainers along with a change of clothes.

Rather than risk using more magic in unfamiliar surroundings, Hermione pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak. Forcing herself to shove the unwanted memories of the last time she saw her best friend, Hermione added a silencing spell to her feet and disappeared under the cloak. She took her time exploring the building, in an attempt to learn exactly who had found her.

Her fear increased once she had moved past the medical area and spotted soldiers. Realizing she was in a military base terrified her. She only remained long enough to learn and memorize the name of the organization, which was helpfully displayed on the wall of the lobby. She couldn't help but snort in derision at the effort the creator went to make the acronym into a coherent word.

Note to self, avoid all members of SHIELD.