The Witch and The Hunters

CHAPTER ONE

Page count: 7

Hermione ran through the dark, dense forest, skilfully leaping over fallen branches and tree roots and ducking between trees and under low hanging branches. She was in South Dakota, close to the town of Sioux Falls, as she chased after three rogue Death Eaters she'd been tracking. From what she'd learned so far, they were only low ranking members of the Psycho Squad, but they'd still hurt a lot of people and would continue to do so if she didn't stop them.

The war had been over for close to nine years and unfortunately, there were still Death Eaters on the run, some being fugitives from the time of the war and others being newly recruited in the last nine years. A lot of the Death Eaters that'd been caught were actually new recruits and when they were transferred to holding cells, they barely knew their names. Harry dealt with the Death Eaters and crime in the Wizarding World, Hermione's jurisdiction was the Muggle World; they'd gone through Auror training together but now worked in separate departments.

The Death Eaters she was tracking had killed twenty-four people in the nine months they had been on her radar, but as bad as it may sound, she'd had other cases that were of greater importance and had a higher death count, but now that she'd closed those cases, she was able to focus on the three criminals she was currently chasing. As it was, she'd only been expecting one so it had been a surprise to discover there were three of them, and whilst she wasn't comfortable with having three opponents and there only being one of her, she could honestly say she's faced worse odds and been in more dangerous situations in the past.

Hermione ducked behind a tree as a dark orange spell was sent her way, one she recognised to be a dangerous Slicing Hex that would've taken her head off if she hadn't moved in time, and she heard the 'thud' of a tree branch being severed and falling to the ground.

She peeked around the thick trunk of the tree and threw a Stupefy at one of them, missing her target by millimetres, quickly followed by a Petrificus Totalus to a second opponent which was blocked clumsily, the shield shattering under the force. She'd already placed Anti-apparition wards around the forest, ensuring they couldn't escape by magical means and she knew the Death Eaters were heading out of the forest, ready to apparate away from her. She darted out from behind the tree when she heard their footsteps crunching against the dry leaves and snapping twigs beneath their weight, and she chased after them, picking up her pace despite the painful stitch that was beginning to make an appearance in her side, and it being difficult to chase down three assailants by herself.

She threw up a shield, blocking a nasty curse that would've easily caused her lungs to fill with blood if it hit its target. Narrowing her eyes, she allowed the shield to drop and she threw an Impedimenta followed by an Incarcerous at the one responsible and the robed figure ducked behind a tree to avoid them both, not being able to get a shield up fast enough.

The edge of the forest appeared a lot quicker than Hermione realised, the three figures turned to look at her with their black robes tied and hoods up, skull masks covering their faces, they turned on their heels and apparated with sharp 'cracks'.

"Shite!" Hermione cursed, skidding to a stop and catching herself against a tree to stop herself from falling to the ground.

She pulled herself upright and quickly went about casting tracking spells; she knew she could only go after one of the three as they likely would've split up. She locked her wand onto the coordinates of the shortest distance from her and she spun on her heel.

She landed in the middle of what looked to be a salvage yard. Old and totalled cars piled high on top of each other, the ground dry and dusty, the sun beamed down hot on her back and she had to squint against the sunlight. She sighed. There were too many places her target could hide; she would have to be on her guard. With her wand gripped tightly in her hand and her white Auror robes fastened securely around her, her hood up covering her face and her trusty beaded bag safely tucked away in her robe pocket, she slowly walked through the aisles of cars, her eyes searching her surroundings carefully and checking every direction.