legitimate interest

… or an interlude to the oddities of meeting one Hermione Granger

In his many, many years Elijah had rarely ever misjudged a situation — mainly because he'd picked up on how to properly pay attention early on in his life. And since he'd always been the quietest of his siblings, he'd had ample opportunity to simply observe; to get a read of someone's character instead of resorting to throwing temper tantrums when things didn't go quite as planned.

Of course, she liked to remind him that he, too, had his moments.

(In fact, he remembered her doing so every chance she got.)

Unsurprisingly, she'd also been the first one to call him on the fact that he enjoyed leading people to believe that he was the polite and reasonable Mikaelson. That despite wearing the face of a man who kept his word, he couldn't quite gloss over his tendency to be perfectly rude and unreasonable whenever it suited him.

And according to her, he'd demonstrated this particular talent when he'd first taken to following her.

(Stalking, asRebekah had happily corrected him.)

(So, Elijah had, just as happily, decided to call it karma when someone ended up buying the whole stock of that particular Chanel handbag his little sister had been dying to get her hands on.)

It didn't change, however, that his siblings thought him paranoid when he claimed that they were underestimating the strange little witch.

So, in the end, he'd been the one to keep an eye on her. Especially after she had not only made some rather astute observations about his family but also given him a complete run around in Lisbon.

To Elijah it became a matter of security to know of her whereabouts — a legitimate interest for the safety of his family.

(And not just because she'd been cheeky — which, now that he was thinking about it, might have had something to do with her immunity to both compulsion and threats.)

There was just something about her that always caught the Original somewhat off guard.

Perhaps because he'd attempted to play her like everybody else— had tried to bring her to his heel with dimpled smiles, the promise of money and a handful of honeyed words. It usually did the trick. Or rather, it had served him so well that Elijah had long grown used to the fact that his prey usually couldn't fight the attractive combination of both danger and power for too long…

Well, until he'd met that quibbling, infuriating woman it seemed.

The only part about him that had even remotely intrigued the curly haired witch was the knowledge he'd accumulated over the centuries. And so, limited to tempting her with the names of the people he'd met instead of redirecting her interest to his own person, Elijah had quickly grown frustrated with his inability to charm this potentially powerful ally.

Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised that it was because of this that took him quite some time before he fully realized that she'd been dealing the cards for their little game — long before he even knew of her existence.

That was how, despite his observant nature, Hermione Jean Granger had and did remain an unsolved puzzle — making him wonder at times how things would have played out if he hadn't noticed the enticing scent of lime blossoms on that strange woman back in 1887. Only to run into her time and time again; almost leading him to believe that he'd found another doppelgänger. It would have been the most obvious explanation — what with her beating heart and natural talent at remaining elusive.

(That Hermione had been designed for the sole purpose of frustrating him in so many more ways than any his siblings could ever hope to, was just Elijah's private opinion. And people rarely asked for that anyway.)

It certainly didn't help her case that Elijah appeared to have been the only one who had noticed her, not to mention spoken to her. Neither Rebekah nor Klaus, not even Kol had ever caught a glimpse of the telltale mane of curls or the glint of her whiskey colored eyes.

If it weren't for the fact that the woman was a horrid liar, he'd never been able to tell that she had actually recognized him on several occasions. Another fact that helped Elijah to rule out the possibility of her belonging to another bloodline of doppelgängers. If she'd been one, she wouldn't have remembered him. And she most certainly would not have been able to wield that kind of magical power.

(Elijah now knew for a fact that only annoying curly haired witches did.)

That was why, when he suddenly ran into a woman wearing her face and scent in Mystic Falls, Elijah immediately approached this Hermione Granger.

(Who, apparently, had decided that becoming a resigned, somewhat alcoholic english teacher was an acceptable life choice.)

What he hadn't suspected, however, was the fact that this Hermione had never before heard of an Elijah Mikaelson; going so far as to repeatedly claim that she never met him before. No matter how many times he insisted that he knew her.

(It didn't exactly help that the witch thought the Original was a creep for trying to hit on her with such a lame pick-up line.)

A/N: This is a story for my friend who recently rewatched TVD and wanted to know what would happen if you were to plant a wary post-war Hermione into Mystic Falls. We kinda decided that throwing all that drama, some of the originals as well as the American high school system at our golden girl might be fun.

This will (probably) include: time travel, Hermione as the smitten godmother of Teddy Lupin, the unlikely friendship between Alaric, Hermione and one Damon Salvatore (+lots of alcohol, dares and hangovers), several MACUSA investigations, blasts from the past, Jenna & Hermione bonding, Originals who are sometimes too curious for their own good (with Hermione trying to keep the statue of secrecy intact)… oh, and Luna. Because she's awesome.

Also, a quick heads-up: this will probably be Elijah/Hermione; however, I don't know how far I plan to take this since I promised myself not to start another story… Well, anyhoo, I would love to hear what you think of the idea!