With The First Ray Of Light

January 21st, 2000

Hermione knelt down, barely dodging the curse thrown her way, and then rolled to the side, using a large column for cover as she took a few moments to check the damage on her arm. It was bleeding, and she couldn’t bend it, but it didn’t look too bad. Her ankle, though, that was something else. It was broken, that much was clear. She had heard the bone snap even over the sounds of the fight, and she could feel blood running down her thigh from another wound, covering her entire foot. Her leg didn’t hurt too much, but she knew that would change as soon as the adrenaline wore off. Another curse hit the column, sending debris flying around her, and she stood up as best she could, quickly glancing around her, trying to decide what the best course of action would be.

The column was hit again, and she felt it shake behind her. It wouldn’t give her cover much longer. She took a small step away from it, trying not to put any weight on her broken ankle, tilting her head to the side just enough to get a glimpse of where her attacker was. She had taken three down already, but the last two were proving trickier. The room was dark, and she had to strain her eyes to see clearly. A quick glance showed her a wizard standing in the middle of the room, just under a large stone arch. A rushed plan quickly formed in her mind.

"Hiding there won't help you," the man yelled, as he moved forward, stepping on some of the debris from the column and making enough noise for her to know where he was without needing to look around again. "Just drop your wand and it will be over. No need to get hurt any more than you already are."

Instead of replying, she twisted her good arm around the column, aimed it towards the ceiling as best she could and fired, then angled her wand a little to the left and fired again. It was only on the third attempt that the arch collapsed. She heard her attacker curse and scramble away, and moved around the column just in time to watch him try to charm the falling stones from crushing him. She'd had no hopes of the stones actually taking him down, but she was counting on them distracting the wizard for a few seconds, and she took full advantage of it.

She limped closer to him as she took aim. One quick curse, that was all it took, and the man was lying on his back, unconscious. But before she could even feel happy about it, she heard movement behind her.

“And that,” a deep voice said, sounding overly pleased, “is what I call team work.” The tip of a wand stopped her before she could even try to turn around, and she cursed under her breath. How had she let him sneak up on her like that?

A second later every torch in the room was lit, and she had to use her arm for cover as she tried to get her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. The walls around her vanished, showing the real room she was in. Suddenly, she felt the pain from every scrape, every cut, every wound, hit her, and she stumbled backwards.

“Get a healer here!” the man behind her yelled, and she felt the world tilt around her as he hooked an arm under her knees and another around her waist and pulled her into his arms. She heard voices around her, hurried footsteps, but very little of it registered through the pain.

She felt the man run, and when he stopped she felt something cool beneath her. He had laid her down somewhere as he called for healers again.

“What in Merlin’s name were you thinking?” he asked, but the only response he got was a pained scream as he touched her broken ankle.

“The healer’s still working on Edwards,” a man said, his voice sounding much closer than the others. “Is she all right?”

“Get me a Blood Replenishing Potion,” the other voice ordered. “Hermione, can you hear me?”

She tried to nod, but her head hurt.

“You never learn, do you?” he said, but she could almost hear a smile in his voice.

Something touched her toe, and then a cold, tingling sensation moved through her foot and up her leg, vanishing the pain as it went. She heard something snap, and knew it was the bones in her ankle moving back into place. The healing cold kept travelling up, spreading once it reached her chest, healing all the wounds on its way.

She felt light-headed again, but this time it was a good feeling. The pain was gone, at last, and she felt a smile form on her lips as she opened her eyes.

Kingsley was leaning over her, the stern expression on his face ruined by the twitching at the corner of his lips, the ghost of a smile he couldn’t completely hide.

“Are you all right?” he asked, in that lovely voice of his, and this time she nodded. “Can you sit up?” he asked next, and she nodded again, but still he slipped his arm around her back, helping her up. “Drink this,” he said, handing her a small vial she took without question. “Now perhaps you can explain to me what you were thinking, fighting after you’d been wounded like that. You should’ve stopped the exercise and gone to the healer.”

“There are no time outs in real duels, Kingsley.”

“This isn’t a real duel, it’s a training exercise.”

“Would you have stopped if it had been you?” she asked, knowing what his answer would be.

He laughed, then shook his head. “You fought well today, it was impressive.”

“Not impressive enough, I let you sneak up on me.”

“Well, you cannot beat the best,” he said, with one of his broad smiles. “Still, four out of five…”

“Though in a real duel, no Death Eater would sacrifice himself like Hodgins did to help you get me.”

“You never know. At least now they won’t catch you unaware.”

"That was rather impressive, Miss Granger," Moody said from somewhere behind her.

"I told you she could do it," Harry said, and she couldn't help but smile at the certainty in his voice.

She sat up a little straighter, trying to look around Kingsley’s broad shoulders. “I still didn’t win.”

"You were alone against five Aurors. You were awesome, Hermione," Harry said with a proud smile.

"Well done, Miss Granger," Hodgins said as he moved closer, his usual smile back on his face now that the exercise was over.

"You, too," she replied with a smile of her own. “How did Kingsley ever convince you to play bait so he could get me?”

“Threatened to pair me with you in every training session from now on if I didn’t,” he said, and Kingsley laughed at her surprised expression.

“Hodgins here’s afraid of you,” he whispered, loud enough for the wizard to hear, and got a punch on the shoulder in return.

"All right, that’s enough for today," Moody suddenly yelled, waving his wand around the room and leaving everything as it had been before the duel had started. “Next training session, tomorrow at seven.”

There were a few tired groans, but no one openly complained. They had been hoping he would give them a day off, but Moody didn’t care about them being tired, all he cared about was being prepared, and she couldn’t honestly blame him for that.

As everyone started making their way out of the room, she saw the other three wizards that had duelled with her moving closer, two of them walking on their own, but the third one needing a little help, and they all stopped by her as they made their way to the door, shaking her hand and telling her she had done a good job. She did her best to hide the blush that was creeping to her cheeks as she thanked them and told them they had done well, too. Soon it was only her and Kingsley in the room.

"I told you you’d done an impressive job, Cameron can barely walk on his own.”

"Thank you,” she replied, getting up. “I've had a good teacher."

"That you have,” he said with a broad, self-satisfied smile, helping her up even though she didn’t need it. “Those were four of my best Aurors," he said after a second, growing serious again. "Not many could have done what you did today."

She didn't know what to say to that, so she settled for a small shrug and a smile and started walking next to him towards the door.

"Have you given my offer any thought?" Kingsley asked, after a moment of silence.

"I have. I just don't think I want to be an Auror."

"Why ever not?" he asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. She knew he loved his job, and that he had hated the months he’d had to spend ‘looking over the Ministry,’ as he called it. He had been named Minister for Magic, and though he’d proved to be an excellent stand in, he had given the job up as soon as he had been able to. ‘I’m a man of action,’ he had told her when she’d asked him why he’d gone back to being an Auror. He couldn’t imagine life as something other than an Auror, and she couldn’t imagine a lifetime of being one.

"I've been fighting since I was a child,” she said, trying to explain the unexplainable. “I just... This war will be over one day, and if I’m still alive, I want to do something else with my life. I don't want to spend the rest of my days fighting."

They were almost at the door when Kingsley paused. "You would make a great Auror. You have it in you, everything an Auror needs. You’re smart, and powerful, and you are a bloody good fighter."

"Thanks," she said, trying not to blush. “I’ve had a lot of practice over the years. Being friends with Harry Potter, fighting skills are a must.”

He laughed at her comment, but didn’t push the matter. She knew Kingsley didn't understand why she wouldn't want to be an Auror, but he accepted it, and for that she was grateful.

She walked over to the hanger by the door and took the set of robes she had left there, as well as the bag she’d brought her training clothes in.

“So, how tired are you?” Kingsley asked as she started putting on the robes. When she turned to him, frowning in confusion, he just smiled, quirked an eyebrow and said, “Up for a little more training?”

“I’ve just spent the last two hours duelling four of the Ministry’s best Aurors, plus Kingsley Shacklebolt himself.”

“You can’t tell me you’re too tired, you’re never too tired,” he said. “And you’re always willing to learn some new tricks.”

“Don’t you think two hours is enough for one day?” she asked, even as she slipped her arm back out of the robes and returned them to the hanger.

“Two hours? That can hardly be called training. Warm-up, at best,” he said, undoing his own robes and taking them off. “Besides, you need to get better with blocking low shots; that would’ve saved your ankle earlier.”

“So, Mister Shacklebolt, I was fighting five Aurors earlier, but now it’s just you and me. You think you can take me?” she taunted as she walked back to the centre of the room.

“Think you’re so good, don’t you?” he asked, hanging his robes and walking after her. She turned back to him and spread her arms in a small shrug for response, as she watched him walk closer, trying to stop her eyes from wandering from his face to that oh-so-distracting body of his. It wasn’t easy to do, but, as with the fighting, she’d had a lot of practice during the last few months. “You know what they say, the only way to be the best is to defeat the best,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows as he stopped a few feet from her. “Think you’re ready?”

She laughed as she pulled her wand from its sheath, moving around him in a fighting stance. “You know me, I do love a challenge,” she said, then fired the first curse.

He moved so fast, he always moved so fast, that she didn't even see him block her attack; in fact, the only reason why she was able to deflect his curse was that she knew it was coming. She’d spent countless hours training with him, and she knew how he fought.

Hermione threw another curse, and then another, and another, as she backed away from him. She could hear him laugh as he blocked each of her attacks, taking a step forward with every step back she took, not even bothering to attack her himself. He wanted to tire her out, and then he would have her.

No matter how many times she fought him, his style, his reflexes, his power always amazed her. She couldn't remember ever seeing someone move so fast, except perhaps Voldemort himself. She knew she wasn't good enough to defeat Kingsley, not by a long shot. The only reason she had managed to defeat his Aurors earlier was that she had seen them fight countless times during training sessions, and she had made it a point to study their strengths and weaknesses. Some would focus on the attack, but were no good at defensive magic, which left them vulnerable if she managed to surprise them.

Others would hesitate before using the most powerful spells, which sometimes gave her just enough time to dodge or block them. She knew what kind of magic they preferred, the curses they used most of the time, and that had allowed her to be ready for them, but still it had taken her weeks of practice to finally beat the four of them in a duel. She knew what her own strengths were in a fight and out, and she made sure to exploit them to the maximum.

But with Kingsley it was different. He was the best she had fought against, and she wasn't ready to beat him yet. He knew that, and he always found a way to taunt her into duels, challenge her to fight him, because he knew her well enough to know that was the easiest way to get her to give her best. "Won't be the best until you defeat the best," he always said, and it worked, every single time.

Today he had decided to let her do all the work, counting on her being tired after the training session, and she knew she had to make him fight back now or his plan would work. When she was exhausted, her defensive spells weakened the most, and he’d used that to his advantage more than once.

She attacked with the most usual spells and curses first, waiting for him to lower his guard, then threw a jinx at him right after a blocked curse, hoping he would be so focused on the curse that such minor magic might slip past his defences.

When the jinx hit him it was her time to laugh as she watched his legs start shaking under him, but even as she laughed she continued to attack. She knew he would focus on the most urgent problem, the curses she was throwing at him, and that he wouldn't be able to take enough time to even mutter the counter-jinx without risking one of her curses getting through his protective spells.

"Well, aren't we sneaky today," he said after a few moments, as he fought to remain standing, echoing her laughter as he went from defending himself to attacking.

She was able to block the first few curses as she threw some of her own, but then he made a strange series of movements with his wand, something she'd never seen anyone do before, and suddenly she was flying back against the wall, hitting it hard enough that she almost dropped her own wand.

She fell to the floor, feeling as if her head was about to explode and every bone in her body had vanished, but still she fought to scramble to her feet, keeping as tight a hold on her wand as she could while she watched him calmly walk closer to her.

"Are you all right?" he asked, but instead of answering she groaned in pain and let herself fall down.

He lowered his wand, his expression worried as he hurried his step, and she used his distraction to hit him with another curse, sending him flying against the opposite wall. She heard a low, pained groan, and then his laughter filled the air. "Oh, you devious little thing.”

"You're the one that taught me there are no rules in a real duel," she said, smiling too as she stood up and rested back against the wall.

"And it's the utmost truth," he replied, standing up himself and once again walking closer to her, though this time he held his wand in front of him, ready for another attack.

"Hello?" someone suddenly called from outside the room, interrupting. The voice sounded urgent. "Anyone still here?"

Kingsley turned away from her and hurriedly walked to the door, opening it wide.

"What's wrong?" she heard him ask.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Molly Weasley replied.

"What's happened?"

"I just got a message from Albus. I tried to Floo the rest of the Order, but couldn’t find anyone. I was hoping there would still be someone here."

"The others already left," Kingsley said. "They've probably gone out for a few drinks; that might be why you can't contact them."

"Well, if they are out there in public we cannot use a Patronus Charm to call them," Molly said, wriggling her hands together nervously.

"Why did you need them? What did Albus say?"

"He said one of our spies had contacted him to inform him that a group of Death Eaters were about to leave their headquarters on some kind of mission. Albus said he didn't know where they were going, or why, but from what the spy said, he gathered it was important."

"What did he want us to do?"

"He wanted to send a team there, to find out what’s going on. If they’re planning an attack we’ll need to know and call reinforcements, but Albus thinks if that were the case the spy would know it, so it has to be something else."

"How much time do we have?"

"Not much, that's why I hurried here."

"We could try to contact the rest of the Order in person, but without knowing where they are, it might take too long. Perhaps-" he started, then hesitated and turned to her. "What do you say, Hermione, up for a little field work?"

“I-” she paused for a moment, surprised at his request. So far she hadn’t been allowed on many Order missions. In fact, she’d only been out on four, all of them low risk and with more than a few Order members tagging along. It seemed as if the Order was trying to make sure Harry stayed out of trouble, and that unfortunately also meant she and Ron were cut out from the action.

“Come on, Hermione, I know you’ve been dying to get out for weeks. This is your chance to do it. Besides, we mustn’t forget the added bonus of a possible real fight,” Kingsley said, excitement clear on his voice.

“Actually,” Mrs Weasley said, “I don’t think that’s what Albus had in mind. Hermione’s too young to go on such missions, and we have Aurors that are trained for that kind of situation. Perhaps we should-”

But neither of them was listening to her any more. Kingsley had his back to the witch as he watched Hermione intently, waiting for her response. It took her but a second to make up her mind, and a broad grin spread across her face. Of course she’d love to get out of headquarters, to be useful to the Order, to go on a mission without a group of Aurors guarding her every step as if their only mission in life was to make sure she, Ron and Harry would be safe.

With a grin of his own, he turned back to Molly, pointing at something the witch was holding. “Is that the Portkey to the location?”

“Well, yes, but-”

Kingsley reached forward and took the large coin from her hand. “I’ll take care of that. If we run into trouble, we’ll contact the Order again. Shall we?” he added, turning back to Hermione and offering her his hand. With a quick look at the frowning witch, she took Kingsley’s hand and let him pull her to him, using her other hand to touch the Portkey just as he activated it.