The Fire Within

CHAPTER TWENTY

Page count: 11

"Come on, Deputy, up you get," Hermione spoke, looking down at her newly claimed boyfriend, standing beside her bed with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm tired," he muttered in reply, his voice muffled as his face was pressed into the pillow.

"That's your own fault, I said we should get some sleep, you were the one that wanted to go again."

"You didn't complain."

"And I'm not complaining now either, you are."

"I made you hot dogs at two in the morning, surely that constitutes the right for a sleep in."

"Well, I've made you chocolate chip pancakes, and I went out and bought you donuts."

"Donuts?" He lifted his face from the pillow and looked at her.

"Yes, iced donuts, sugared donuts and those pumpkin filled donuts that you liked. I went all the way to the bakery on the very edge of Diagon Alley whilst you were still sleeping."

"We've been officially boyfriend and girlfriend for only a few hours and you might already be the best girlfriend I've ever had."

She snorted at him. "Well, not if you don't get up, I'll eat your donuts. Come on, your pancakes are getting cold." She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek before walking out the room. "I mean it, I really will eat your donuts!" She called over her shoulder.

He sighed before climbing out of bed, slipping on his underwear and leaving to the kitchen, seeing a plate of pancakes, a mug of coffee and a box of donuts sat on the counter waiting for him.

Hermione looked to be busy; she was sitting in front of the lit fireplace with her legs crossed, her hands resting on her knees, her eyes closed and her back straight. Giving that she looked to be doing some sort of meditation, he didn't disturb her and he quickly ate his breakfast, feeling himself waking up once he'd finished his coffee and then he left to his room to shower and dress.

When he came back out, Hermione was in the same position as before, only now a map of Europe was laid on the ground and a strange looking crystal pendent was levitating in the air, the crystal swinging back and forth gently.

Being curious, he moved over to her and crouched down beside her, watching the trance-like movement of the crystal swaying. Barely a few moments later, the crystal suddenly fell and clattered against the map and Hermione's eyes opened.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

She shushed him and after picking up her wand from beside her, she flicked it at the map and much to his surprise, the image disappeared and was replaced by another map, which looked as though she'd zoomed in on it, like something you'd see when looking at a map online.

"Southampton. I can't believe it worked," she spoke with wide eyes.

"What worked? What's in Southampton?"

She moved her eyes away from the map and to him. "I know you didn't want me to, but I've been searching for Prodigium for the last two hours using blood magic." A less than pleased look crossed his face. "I was careful, no one will trace the magic back to me should it ever come up," she told him. "Anyway, it was taking so long because I gave it a large area to search, it could've been anywhere in Europe and I had no way to narrow down the search perimeters, but it's found it. Southampton, that's where it is. We know where it is and now we can surprise it, take it off guard."

"That's risky," he commented.

"It is, seeing as we don't know if it's alone or not, but we have the chance to deal with this once and for all. Prodigium seems to be a nocturnal creature, it only kills at night, if we go now, it won't be expecting us and we'll have the upper hand. I'll have to alert Kingsley but I think he'll agree with us. This it is, Jordan, this is the opportunity we've been waiting for."