"Erm…Hermione…?" Marietta asked softly, whispering the words as she smoothly slipped beside Hermione on the Gryffindor table during lunch.
"Yeah?" Hermione asked back, her eyes searching for why a person she had no real impression off was coming up to her so suddenly.
"I was wondering when the 'club' meetings were going to happen."
Hermione's eyes sharpened for a moment as she remembered the associations it now carried with an 'Evil' True God, but then she responded normally.
"For now, the project will be on hold since we'll all be very busy soon. I doubt anyone wants to spend what could very well be their 'last' day holed up inside a room studying magic. It's too late to cram anything, and exhausting yourself before what seems like an important mission will only lead to a premature dive into death."
Marietta's eyes dimmed at that but she only nodded, "That's alright…but I was thinking maybe we need it the most right now…? My mum works in the ministry...and I've heard some…unsavory things…"
"...that I have too from a few professors…but I've already asked around, not many people want to participate right now. But I'll let you in on a little secret."
"Oh?"
"Hm~m. The club won't stop just because we'll all be busy. There are…a few other ways to be able to 'learn how to fight' while we're all away."
Although Hermione's mysterious words didn't fully satisfy Marietta, they had to break up the conversation since Professor McGonagall showed up to their table.
"Miss Granger, I'd like a moment of your time please."
Hermione nodded and stood up, her eyes filling with a little worry as she spotted light dark circles on her dear professor's wrinkly face.
'How much does a Demigod have to work to have dark circles under their eyes?'
Hermione followed McGonagall into an empty classroom that McGongall protected with a simple silencing spell to keep any gossipers away.
"What is it, Professor? Do you need me to help you with grading the homework of the lower classes again?" Hermione asked, confused, she'd rarely if not never seen McGonagall talk to any student so privately, in a random classroom to boot.
While Hermione had helped McGonagall quite a few times over the last few days because of the heavy mounting pressure taking time away from the school, McGonagall had always asked her about it in either the Great Hall itself, or during the rare occasional class the Fifth years still managed to snag from her.
"This is an important matter."
Hermione nodded.
"Urgent orders have been issued from the Ministry. The Unspeakables require all students participating in their weekly 'exercises' to return immediately to take part on scouting missions."
Hermione had already been prepared to be called away since Loki had warned her about it before along with the rest of the Hogwarts Honest Mill school employees.
But-
"Why would a scouting mission…"
"Deem this level of urgency?" McGonagall completed, causing Hermione to nod again.
McGonagall looked into Hermione's confused and slightly frightened eyes. She didn't have to activate her spirit vision to know that the little girl was having flashbacks to the death of her friend because that was the only other time a mission was 'urgent'.
And even though McGonagall herself had never truly grown accustomed to losing people over the years, her husband being the closest only a few years prior, and understood just what Hermione had gone through, she spoke sternly since what came next was very important.
"What I'm about to tell you must not leave this classroom. Do you understand?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes Professor. I understand." Hermione said, her fingers fidgeting with each other as she looked into McGonagall's deep marble green eyes.
After a soft silence, McGonagall spoke with the seriousness of someone at a funeral.
"Miss Granger, the Unspeakables are currently busy dealing with figuring out a way to quickly and effectively figure out which members of parliament on the muggle end are involved with the other side, knowingly or unknowingly."
"As such they are spread thin and need more hands."
"Your job is to perform one such mission with a team assigned to you. On this team will be people from the Ministry as well as Loki and Ron."
Every student from Hogwarts that was a Beyonder and had even surface level connections with any of the four Heads of Houses and was not a 'Noble' was being sent on separate missions.
Fortunately, McGonagall had worked together with Amelia to snag three people into each team to keep them somewhat connected.
So while Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley and Cedric Diggory were in one team. She had managed to push Loki, Hermione and Ron Weasley into another.
The Ministry hadn't dared touch the others yet.
As for Loki? Heir Black?
McGonagall preferred not to think about how he'd waltzed up into her office a couple of days ago looking like he'd stared at death in the face for a while before telling her that she should add him in whatever was coming up next since the Hidden Sage had told him to be involved in it.
Who was she to deny something when her 'Boss' had given the orders? But it seemed that Walburga wasn't informed of it given how she'd started cussing up a storm at the 'poor' employee, who'd definitely not pissed McGonagall off by calling a certain someone a mudblood in front of her, once she heard about it.
Plus McGonagall still remembered the vivid tales of how Loki had survived and held his own in a duel against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
"What kind of mission?" Hermione asked innocently, wondering why McGonagall had called her all the way out for something like this when she could've just told her about it in her office.
"A muggle scouting mission." McGonagall said grimly.
"A muggle scouting mission?" Hermione asked while McGonagall confirmed with a quick minor nod.
"However, what makes this scouting mission special is two things." McGonagall said, tapping her wand in the air like a piece of chalk as she continued, "One, is that the location you will be sent to scout at is a 'predicted' target. A hidden munition silo far to the south of London."
"Munition silo…" Hermione's brain racked for the relation between those words as the relevant information slowly surfaced in her mind, making her eyes go wide, "An ICBM!?"
McGonagall nodded once again, her lips thinning as her mind suppressed even more important things she hadn't told her favourite student.
Things like the fact that this was more likely than not a reason to separate the students from their classes, not just to fail them at the end of the year if they didn't get good OWLs but to put them into danger.
Even still, Hermione had already paled from just learning the first reason but years of apparitions had turned McGonagall into a firm believer of trusting the magic to avoid twisting your insides out so she didn't mince her words now.
"The second reason…" McGonagall said, tapping her wand in the air again, "..is that it is more likely than not a ploy to use you to send a message."
"A message?" Hermione asked, her face scrunching up in confusion, "Surely they're not trying to kill us directly are they? Since the situation is a little chaotic and all the High Sequence Beyonders are away anti-divination shouldn't be as effective.-"
"-Surely your divination should still be just to use to figure out the truth, should it not, Professor?"
But McGonagall shook her head with a stern face and explained once Hermione had calmed down.
"The Ministry wouldn't dare resort to killing children, but like anything else right now, it's not that simple. There are two reasons again."
"First being the simpler one, that the Ministry wants you to make a mistake in this situation. Any mistake and they can spin it into a controlled narrative about how 'externally induced Beyonders' are doing more harm than good, and how they need to all be controlled through the Ministry…"
Hermione gulped, her eyes widening slightly. She hadn't thought of any of this and this was the simpler reason?
Truly High Sequence Beyonders were in a different league altogether.
"The second situation, a little more complex, is the fact that you might be able to do the missions they allot to you rather easily. Perfectly even since they might not hold a great deal of danger in and of themselves."
"...hmm…Huh? But why would that be dangerous?"
"Because that will allow them to assign more young Beyonders to the front lines regardless of the actual situation."
"..." Hermione instantly felt dumbfounded.
It was like being stuck between an uncrossable mountain that could only be crossed by lifting up its burden and the edge of a cliff from whose fall not many could survive.
Hermione remained silent for a prolonged sense of time. Her mind trying to reconcile with the situation in front of her as she tried to think of anything that could help her out right now.
But she came up empty handed.
She couldn't do much else.
At least not by herself.
And even more so when Ron was on her team and would likely make a mess out of everything, or Loki who might finish everything so perfectly that hell might rain upon them from the amount of curses the families of the future dead beyonders will have to offer them.
And so she looked back at McGonagall who still held a stern expression.
"Professor, then do you have a method to solve this madness?"
A small smirk showed up on the Professor's face, as if proud of being acknowledged even if only in such a dire situation, but she allowed herself only a tiny bit of this victory as she continued speaking.
"The solution to such a situation might not be apparent at first glance. Especially since Miss Granger you aren't strong enough to make the wills of fate bend to your whims and wishes."
"...then?" Hermione asked, a sliver of hope sparking within her eyes.
"So what else is there to do, but of course, you must push the blame onto someone else!" McGonagall said with a little glee and joy, her Gryffindor pride and recklessness showing up in her words as she gave a rare smile despite the tense atmosphere.
It all left Hermione stunned.
"Bu…wha-?"
McGonagall didn't allow her to finish, and continued to explain, "Loki is on your team. I managed to snag both him and Ron Weasley a spot on yours. As long as you make a mistake or do something too impressive, make sure to put all the blame on either of them."
"How would tha-...ah…"
It only then struck Hermione.
It wasn't about Ron's stupidity that would only increase the difficulty of their mission or Loki's strength to stand up against Voldemort that might make it too easy.
Ron was a Noble and in this scenario a representative of the Order and Loki was backed by the Black family.
Mess with Dumbledore and The Oldest and Most Ancient House Of Black?
Who dares!? It's like courting death!
Hermione would have loved to meet such a suicidal person if Mr. Error offered a life for a life exchange deals so she could resurrect Daphne faster.
And so, after talking about a few more details, like the fact that she had to group up with Ron and Loki and leave for their mission right now, Hermione was finally able to leave the stuffy atmosphere of the classroom.
…
"Huh.." Loki said calmly as he stared at Hermione who had just told him everything.
Meanwhile-
"What!? Where!? Why!? Harry gets to do all this cool stuff and I'm stuck in some random…mission silly, was it? Whatever! Why there of all places!!? I could beat up the bad guys along with Harr-" Ron nearly shouted but Hermione zipped him up with a simple modified transfiguration based silencio.
With Ron quiet, Hermione looked at Loki who seemed rather calm about it all.
"You knew?"
"Well…not really, I just knew that we were going to get involved in something troublesome since Sirius told me about Grandma being angry about something at home."
Hermione gave Loki an unconvinced stare before looking back at Ron who was pleading her to remove the spell since his own Finite Incantatem didn't seem to work for some 'odd reason'.
"You won't be able to remove that spell unless you're at a sequence higher than me, Ronnie Toonie." Hermione mercilessly teased Ron with Luna's nickname for him after his first botched up mission.
'Hmph! She dares use those words against me!?'
'I'll make sure I don't help her at all during this mission!'
And as if she could read his mind, Hermione snorted, taking offence, "Help me? I'd rather you keep your hands to yourself you fool! If you dock anymore of our points I'm going to be hitting you until you fall asleep you dunderhead!"
'This witch!'
'She's fallen to the dark arts!'
'I clearly felt her probe my Body of Heart and Mind just now!'
'Aga-'
Hermione's eyes widened in shock.
"Ron! Did you really just say 'Body of Heart and Mind'!? Where did you learn such utterly basic knowledge from!? Was it literally any tome containing mystical knowledge!? Did someone tempt you with fame and trick you into learning such unforbidden knowledge? What was the price!? Your dignity!?"
That was it.
Ron had had enough.
But more importantly-
"PFFTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!" Loki had held back long enough.
"Hahahahahah~!"
"Burn~ Hermione burn~!!! What a sick burn~! Where did the little girl who hardly broke any rules go!? Where did you learn to speak like that!?" Loki asked, slapping Ron's shoulder, 'hardly', as he laughed.
"Hmpf. It's called studying one's opponents. Learning from actual red headed purebloods how pitiful 'blood traiters' actually are."
Ron jumped at Hermione. His hands lunging out to grab her robes to toss her out as he cussed up a storm inside his min-
'Mind!'
Ron froze as a sudden eerie smile crept up his 'shut lipped' face. His eyes arced into crescents as he looked right into Hermione's eyes, like he'd achieved the highest of what man could be.
"Huh? What idiotic thing are you thinking about no-"
Hermione rushed to the corner of the room and puked into it.
Loki only briefly glanced at the cognitohazard in Ron's mind as he too felt uncomfortable and nearly retched like Hermione.
'I did not need to read that thought…but who the hell thinks about 'toads' going at it?'
As such, on their way out, towards the Shrieking Shack along with the dozen or so other randomly formed teams leaving from the castle to the Ministry of Magic, Ron walked with a shameful face with pervert written on his forehead written with painful puss filled pimples as everyone else snickered while pointing at him as girls scooted 'ever so slightly' away.
Holding out the softly buzzing portkey Professor McGonagall had given her, Hermione looked at both Ron and Loki.
"Ready?" She asked softly, her voice losing the edge from before.
Even though she'd been on several missions before, a certain tense premonition of danger creeped up into her voice.
Learning the truth of the situation from Professor McGonagall had made her worry even more.
But Loki calmed her down, "Whoever messes up this time has to look at Ron's forbidden mind for the entire day."
"And if Ron loses he has to clean the toilets while dressing up as a girl the entire day." Hermione added immediately, her nervousness long forgotten and her hands clenching into a tight fist ready to punch Ron.
But Ron took it light-heartedly, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, "Eh..whatever, it's just cleaning toilets and what can book snobs do anyway, I'm going to win."
But then he panicked.
"Wait! Cleaning toilets as a gir-" Ron screamed in his mind, hoping for either of them to restate what they just said but he couldn't have his wish.
The already buzzing portkey activated at that moment and whipped them up to their targeted location.
…
"Is…everything…prepared?" a voice asked from the shadows.
Kneeling in the brightest spot of the room, right on top of a grill on a bed of burning candles the voice answered softly, enjoying the smell of his own flesh tinged with the flickering flames, cooking his skin to a perfect medium rare, "Yes~ my…Lord. Everything is just as was foretold."
"Hmmm…alright…" the voice said and then paused, suddenly sinking into a whisper as if communicating with something of the beyond as another voice, slightly older than the one before, took over, "...I don't want any mistakes this time…"
"Yes my Lord~"
The corrupted priest on the floor, knelt with reverence, or was just waiting for his flesh to be cooked a little longer before his flesh melded through the grill, falling past the candles as he reformed on the floor they were floating above.
The diffused light from the candles revealed a person dressed in black robes from head to toe, his head covered fully, revealing only a hint of his jaw that made them feel androgynous.
He then contorted his body as if he had no bones and crawled out of a small vent before reaching a study where he reformed on the chair sitting in front of a lectern holding a book that whispered forbidden knowledge in the ears of any who listened.
Folding his hands religiously in front of the lectern, the Priest began to pray diligently.
"My Lord~. The one who you seem to want to prey upon has arrived. Lord Templar has decided to move personally…we all eagerly wait to have even a drop of blood of the prey you seem so eager to din-"
"-Ah~ Forgive me my lord! For I have sinned!"
"A lowly Bishop is not worthy of sharing your meal!"
The man immediately collapsed to the floor, pulling apart his fingers, snapping his joints, tearing his flesh and then vomiting chunks of flesh and blood all while praising the lord, creating an altar of sacrifice from his own flesh and blood.
It lasted for a long while before the man diligently picked everything back up and swallowed them back up diligently, thoroughly happy for having received the blessings of his lord.
Was he enjoying cooked food? Truly a question to answer.
…
"Wotchar~! Junior! 'Mione, Ronnie." A young, funny girl met up with Hermione's team after they finished going through the proper channels to secure their documents and mission files.
It took a while and delayed them since the 'proper channels' were still being established as the sudden storm had taken everyone by surprise.
"And hello to Heir Black." The girl added, after noticing Loki looking at her like she was a specimen he couldn't wait to dissect.
"Ah. You misunderstood me." Loki said, offering a polite handshake to Tonks who looked at it warily while he continued, "Never seen a person who's got so many alchemical items on them before."
"Oh!" Tonk's eyes lit up, grabbing his hand and giving it a good shake. "A good one you are. But a proper duel will have to wait. We're in a bit of a rush right now." But just as Loki had thought she'd recognised him as an equal, she said, "The order is busy right now and was only able to spare me to babysit you all, so let's not delay the true professionals any further."
Loki's brows twitched but he remained calm since Hermione looked like her eyes had turned into stars from the moment Tonks had arrived.
"By the way…I was wondering…what did Ronnie do to…." Tonks shrugged at his clearly weird getup causing Hermione to flick her wand and cover it all up since it would reflect badly on her 'admired senior'.
But don't be fooled, Hermione hadn't taken away Ron's punishment. No she'd simply covered it up with an illusion from the beloved Gospel and drawn an illusory face on his face to give him a 'mouth' while covering up all the puss filled pimples.
Now Ron's every expression was in Hermione's control.
'Who needs a Marionettist or a Parasite when you can simply do this…' Loki commented to himself.
"Better." Tonks said as she continued walking along with her team to a new spot that only Ron had ever been to before-
"Welcome to the International Immigration Office. The bane of wizards and the bread of butter of Aurors." Tonks said, proud of her introduction as she spread her arms to do so.
"Oi! Tonks! Here! We're late! The extra portkey's about to activate! Everyone else left already!" Someone shouted from behind her causing everyone to look at who it was.
"Yeah, yeah, Belmont." Tonks said with an air of relaxation that felt out of place in the entirety of the department they were in.
In just the past minute they'd been here Loki had seen a person try to sneak an entire spine of some animal stuffed in their pants, claiming they just had a problem with an Engorgement charm along with a clearly suspicious dark wizard who kept shouting curses while setting random paper work near them on fire.
The staff were upset and angry because of the delays along with the other people in the line who hoped that the two people ahead of them would just drop dead because Merlin himself would've willed so were he there.
"Had a nice 'sleep'?" Hermione asked, her mood automatically lightened as Tonks nodded, "Yep! Beat up a bunch of thugs right before coming in to work today! Couldn't have been better!"
Hermione nodded, her eyes flickering towards Ron, causing him to shiver and take cover behind Loki who simply sighed and carried on walking until they reached Belmont who was diligently holding a portkey at the door of his office.
As soon as they entered normal talking range, the man twirled his mustache with his free hand and introduced himself, "Trevor Belmont! I'm of the Apothecary pathwa-"
A glimmer of the man's canines caused Ron to freeze up before he inadvertently poured in excessive spiritual energy into Hermione's spell to break it and speak up.
"A Vampire!"
Belmont frowned.
Loki could swear he heard the man say, "I hate spectators…" but Tonks interrupted then.
"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself to you, Heir Black. Since Mione and Ronnie already know my pathway, that leaves you alone. Care to make a guess?"
Loki nodded with a smile.
"I know your pathway."
"Oh? Really?"
"Yes. You're on the arbiter pathway."
Tonks looked pleasantly surprised, she'd assumed he'd guess that she was from the Darkness pathway since her mother was from the Black Family so she asked curiously, "Who told you?"
"You did. You love working as an Auror. The only pathway where you can act out beating up people is the Arbiter pathway."
"Ha~ What a lovely junior! You've been paying attention then. Good job."
"What's so hard about that?" Ron suddenly asked, slightly annoyed that Loki was being praised while he was called Ronnie but he genuinely meant it.
He hadn't realised it yet, but his analytical abilities put together with his spectator potion had actuallyqualitatively turned him smarter.
But everyone just ignored him as Loki continued.
"So you're being 'raised by the adults' in the Bones family then? Ha~ Whose the kid now?" Loki teased, finally having his revenge.
And when Tonk's hair turned pink and then a shade of embarrassed crimson, his smirk only grew wider in the relish of victory.
And before they knew it, they all placed their hands on the humming portkey in silence and teleported away.