A million thank yous to the talented ShadowThestral for my banner
This is my second fan fic and features characters from my first Bright Lights. It sort of compliments Bright Lights, with some spoilers for Bright Lights. It will make sense as a stand alone story, but I'd recommend reading that one first. The plot and additional characters are mine but anything else you recognise belongs to the wonderful JKR. One: Avalanche Two: Surprise Three: Steaming Four: Fall Five: Stunning Six: Seal Seven: Ice Eight: Prey Nine: Fire Ten: Infatuate Eleven: Tangle Twelve: Apprise Thirteen: Capricious Fourteen: Translate Fifteen: Bellicose Sixteen: Circumspect Seventeen: Consternation
One: Avalanche
Hermia Smith had settled into her job at the Ministry. She had applied for the job without telling anyone. She had been interviewed by Euan Abercrombie, who had no idea of her connections to Teddy Lupin or Harry Potter. She had been determined to get a position on her own merit and had taken enjoyed the look of shock on their faces when she announced that she would be joining Hermione in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
She had been charged with the task of locating the original copies of old laws that needed to be redrafted and updated. As she opened the door of the file room, her heart sank. The shelves seemed to stretch for miles. On them were huge dusty books, most of them the size of gravestones, their titles were patchy and faded with peeling letters and damaged bindings. She propped the door open so that the some fresh air could replace the stale air that seemed as old as the law books, looked at her list and rolled up her sleeves.
She walked along the rows, searching the titles and indexes for the documents she needed. Having found four of the books of documents that she needed, she spent almost an hour searching for a copy of a law concerning how the property of convicted criminals should be handled. Finally she saw it on a high shelf, at the bottom of a pile. She was far too short to even try reaching it. Frustration caused her to loose her temper and she pulled out her wand. “Accio books!” The pile of books she wanted flew towards her and she grinned, but only for a split second as she realised that all the books from that shelf were avalanching towards her at great speed.
“Protego!” She screamed the spell as the first book hit her.
~
Ashtad Djalili walked out of the Auror department towards the lift. He noticed that the door of the old file room was open, which was a very rare occurrence. As he drew level with the door he heard a scream and a cloud of dust exploded out into the hallway. He ran into the file room just in time to see Hermia Smith cast a Shield charm. Two of the books had hit her causing her small frame to crumple to the floor in a flurry of robes, but her shield charm was so strong that the other books were forced away from her, hitting the floor in a volley of deafening thuds. When the books had stopped falling he pushed his dark brown curls out of his eyes and cleared his throat.
“What are you doing?”
She threw him a contemptuous look.
“Pruning a Flutterby Bush.”
“Really? You’ve got an interesting technique.”
Her chocolate brown eyes narrowed.
“Oh go play on the train tracks.”
“Now, now Hermy, you know you don't mean that.”
She stood up, smoothed her long brown hair and looked up at him with utter disdain.
“You might get paid to stand around all day trying to be witty, but I’ve actually got a job to do. Don’t call me Hermy again. If you do, you might find out how talented I am with a Severing Cham.”
“Thanks for the warning, Herms.” Before she could reply, he turned and walked away, grinning as she muttered about what she’d do to him if she was given half a chance.
*****
John Smith sat in an otherwise empty carriage on the Hogwarts Express. He watched as the tall figure of Keith Moore passed by the door, followed by Teddy Lupin, who looked ridiculous as usual, his hair a vulgar shade of blue. He stared out of the window as the train began to move. He couldn’t wait to get back to London and get home. He was sick of the sight of his squeaky clean peers.
He looked up as the door slid open. Tyr and Quirinus Eastman strode into the compartment and sat down.
“Alright Smith?” Tyr clearly didn’t care one way or the other.
“Fine.” John didn’t like the Eastman twins but they were useful people to know.
“There is someone you should meet this summer Smith, someone who is interested in you.” Quirinus was watching him carefully, as he always did.
“Me? Why does this person want to meet me?”
“She’s heard good things about you.”
“Oh yeah? Who is she?”
“Morgana.”
*****
Hermia arrived back at Lupin Cottage to find eight year old Remus Lupin chasing gnomes around the garden, laughing as they shouted and swore at him. Remus looked very much like the grandfather he had never met. He was thin with tawny brown hair and honey coloured eyes.
“Hermia!” He ran towards her and hugged her, almost knocking her off her feet. “I missed you today. Did you miss me?”
“Of course I did, there was no-one to tell me silly jokes!” He grinned up at her and they walked into the cottage together.
Amelia Lupin was searching through a pile of books in the parlour. The parlour was Hermia’s favourite room in Lupin Cottage, it was full of books and comfortable chairs to sit and read them in. Remus picked up a comic and threw himself into one of them. Hermia made her way into the kitchen and unbuttoned her robes to reveal a large purple bruise on her stomach.
“Hermia, I don’t suppose you’ve seen that cookbook Molly let me borrow have you?”
“No, sorry.”
“Oh heck, I wanted to try something new, since we have a guest for dinner.”
Hermia was only half listening. She was looking in the mirror at the bruise on her stomach from where the book had hit her. She started to heal the bruise; thinking that if she was lucky Amelia wouldn’t find the book and Teddy would do the cooking. Amelia was a brilliant Auror but a lousy cook.
“Hmm? Who’s coming to dinner?”
“Teddy’s bringing his trainee, that’s why I’ve come home early. The twins are at Ginny’s tonight. And Remus,” She gave her son a warning glance, “is going to bed.”
“Awwww, Muuuum! I want to meet him!”
“And you can, so long as you go get a bath now and go to bed when you are told.”
Remus ran out of the room and clomped up the stairs. Hermia fastened her robes and glanced out of the window. Walking up the path was Teddy, followed by Ashtad. Hermia’s lip curled with disgust.
“They’re here.” She managed to keep her voice neutral. “I think I’ll go change.”
“Ok. Don’t be long though, will you?” Amelia had a pleading look in her brilliantly blue eyes. “If you’re here there can’t be too much Quidditch talk.”
Hermia grinned. “I’ll be down soon.” Her mind was already ticking over, trying to think of a way to get out of having to stay for dinner.