Tag, Your It
Hermione clutched Teddy to her chest. She tried to ignore the throbbing wound on her leg. She had to remain upright. She had to get home. She couldn't stop. She stumbled as she got to the steps. Teddy's grip on her tightened, he shook in her arms. Even though he didn't turn, the full moon was tonight. He was sick, and exhausted.
"It's ok, Teddy. We're here." She whispered, moving one of her hands to rest against one of the pillars on the porch, so she could used that as leverage. Getting up the steps was hell, but she had been through worse by this point. She tripped on the last step, twisting in time to land on her back to cushion Teddy on top of her.
"Aunt Mimi?" Teddy asked tiredly.
"I'm ok. I'm ok, Teddy Bear." She pressed a kiss to his forehead. She pushed herself up. She rummaged in her coat pocket for her house key. After all this time, she still had it. Heaving herself up, she leaned against the doorway and unlocked the door, bouncing Teddy further up on her hip. The door creaked open, and she stumbled through, closing the door behind her. She sighed, placing her key back in her pocket.
"Mimi?" Teddy asked.
"We're safe, Teddy. It's ok. We're safe now."
"We see Elena and Jer now?" He rubbed at his eyes sleepily, causing Hermione to smile.
"Soon, Love. Why don't we get you some hot chocolate, and I tell you a story about your dad and mum?" He nodded against her shoulder, prompting Hermione to move from the hallway and into the kitchen. She sat Teddy on the counter, and moved through the cupboards until she found the hot chocolate and threw two cups in the microwave. As she moved around, she told Teddy the story of how Remus and Tonks got married, and how not long after they found out they were expecting a little bundle of joy (him). As they finished their hot chocolates, she placed them in the sink before moving upstairs. She headed towards, what was her room. She expected it to be a guest room by this point, considering all the angry phone calls she got. She was shocked to see the familiar red bed spread, along with her posters. Everything was exactly how she left it before she moved with Aunt Helena and Uncle Richard. She slipped her wand from its holster on her wrist and flicked it outwards. Teddy's playpen appeared from her bag and was set up in an instant. She changed his clothes into pajamas, before settling him down. She hummed a soothing tune, pulling his favorite stuffed wolf out of her bag, along with his favorite blanket. Once he was fast asleep, Hermione crept out the door, closing it softly behind her and placing a one way silencing charm over the door. Once it was placed, that's when the sobs broke free. She was so tired. She was exhausted, and in pain, and just tired. After taking a moment to just cry it out, she pulled herself together, and moved back downstairs. She settled back in her chair in the kitchen and pulled out the Essence of Murtlap and Dittany. Pulling her pant leg up, and removing the bandage. That's when she heard the front door open and voices echo through the hallway. She pulled out another roll of bandages, slathering on the Murtlap and Dittany and wrapping her ankle as quickly as she could. Only she wasn't fast enough.
"Who are you?"
Hermione turned her head, freezing up, as she faced the blonde, her sister, and the black haired girls. "I would have given more of a notice, but it was a last minute decision to come here Caroline."
"Still doesn't answer the question. Who are you?" Caroline asked.
Hermione went back to wrapping her ankle. "You most likely wouldn't recognize me, considering the last time I saw you was before I moved in with my aunt and uncle."
"Hermione?" Elena asked.
"Hey Elena. I'm sorry for just dropping by, I've been meaning to get back in contact, but it's been really hectic." Hermione said, stuffing the potions and bandages back into her bag.
"Well considering you didn't bother to come home for Mom, Dad's, and Aunt Jenna's funeral, I'd assume so." Elena snarked, crossing her arms and glaring at her older sister.
Hermione sighed, she knew it was going to be hostile, but this was a last resort. "It's been just as long since I've seen you Elena. I'm sorry I couldn't make it back for the funerals. I had a lot going on. If you want, I can go stay in a hotel or something."
"So you're staying in Mystic Falls now? Not going to rush back to England or to your friend Harry? You left awfully fast last time we came to visit." Elena growled, glaring daggers at me.
"I'm sorry I couldn't stick around, Elena. I wanted to stay and catch up with all of you, but you have no idea what was going on in my world. None. So don't act like you know anything." Just then a patronus in the form of a stag appeared.
"Hermione, I know you said you were going back to your hometown, but you need to know. Grayback and Dovholo caught your trail to America. I don't know how long it will be before they make their way to you. Be careful Hermione. Keep our godson safe. Come back if you can't end up staying with your family." Just like that the stag dissolved into this air.
"Shit." Hermione cursed, her hands going into her hair and tugging on the roots roughly. "Of bloody fucking course they would trail me all the way to fucking America. They did it in Australia, and all over fucking Ireland. Let's add America to the list. Fucking Hell."
"Hermione what was that?" Elena asked.
"That was a patronus. It's the happiest form of magic. My friend Harry's patronus is the stag you just saw. Mine is an otter." She rattled off quickly. "I just need to set up some wards. That should help." She pulled out her wand again and moved to the back porch and began to mutter the protection wards she knew. Keying in those in the house, and Jeremy. She moved back inside and grabbed a glass of water and gulped it down greedily. Only for her to hear Teddy's piercing cries ring out. She sighed and moved as quickly as she could up the stairs. She could hear the pounding footsteps of the others following her, but ignored them.
"MIMI!!!" Teddy cried out, as he stood in the play pen and reached out for her. Hermione scooped him up and held him tightly.
"Shh, Teddy. It's alright. Auntie Mimi is here. It's ok, Love. Did you have another bad dream? That's ok. Shhh, Love. Using her wand to cast a charm to smell like Remus and Tonks onto the small wolf stuffy she pressed it into his arms and rocked him gently. "It's Teddy. I got you. Auntie Mimi wont let anything bad happen to you."
Slowly, Teddy calmed down. One hand clutching to his wolf, the other running through her hair. "Aunt Mimi, did you do the spells again?"
"Is that what woke you up, Love? Oh, it's just in case, Love. It's to protect you, and Elena, and Jeremy, and all their friends. It's ok, Love. It's just in case."
"Do the scary guys know where we are?" He whimpered.
"No, Love. They haven't found us, Love." The yet went unspoke.
"Will you tell me another story?" He hiccupped.
"Which one do you want to hear?"
"The dragon."
Hermione moved to her bed, sitting back against the head board with Teddy cradled in her lap. "Alright, ready?" She took a moment to figure out where she was going to start. Glancing up at the three girls just standing in the doorway. She gestured for them to come in, before focusing back on Teddy. "Once upon a time, your Uncle Harry, Ron, and Aunt Mimi had just figured out the next piece of the puzzle to take down the evil wizard. Using a potion, Auntie Mimi disguised herself as an evil witch to help sneak Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron into the Wizarding Bank, known as Grinngots. Aunt Mimi wasn't really comfortable disguising herself as this evil witch, as this evil witch had hurt Aunt Mimi only a few weeks ago." As she spoke, Teddy reached out and poked at her left forearm. "Yes, she gave Auntie Mimi those. Anyway, as they snuck into Grinngots, using magic to get the goblins to help them, they managed to make it all the way down to the evil witches vault. Only it was being guarded by a big, scary dragon. Ahh!" Hermione tickled his side gently, causing Teddy to gasp and laugh at her actions. "Only the goblins had a mean trick to make the dragon scared of them, by making this really loud noise. You know Auntie Mimi was not ok with how the goblins treated the dragon. Only, they couldn't linger on the dragon for long. The puzzle piece was inside the vault. As they went inside to get the puzzle piece, everything inside the vault began to multiply. So, your Uncle Harry rushes inside and grabs the puzzle piece. We race out of the vault, only for the guards of the bank to come rushing over to arrest us. Only the dragon was getting restless. We were trapped. That's when your Aunt Mimi gets this crazy idea to ride the dragon out of the bank. Your Uncle Harry and Ron quickly followed me onto the dragon. Using magic to break the chain that held the dragon down, we took off. The dragon broke through the floors of Grinngots and carried us away into the sky."
"Then you defeated the evil wizard." Teddy said with a smile.
"We sure did. We won."
"Mimi, who's that?" He pointed towards the three girls.
"That is Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie. Girls this is my godson Teddy."
"Hi Teddy." Elena whispered.
"Hi."