The Fire crackled with a dance of its own. Eye's lost in thought as they stared longingly into the flames. That face haunted him till this day, the one who tore at his heartstrings and to think that she was here again, as if some cruel joke were being played on him. How many years had he searched for her? How many look a-likes did he come across only to be disappointed by the truth of it not being her? The memory of the first time they met replaying in his mind yet again. He paused as he looked at the photo of Taddio's killer, her face the exact copy as Victoria's. His mouth spread into a wide grin. Victory would be his this time. The memory of her fleeting looks of triumph as she rode off into the distance; it felt as if the games had begun again.

It was a rookie move for Hermione to be standing out in the open as she was, but her confidence in knowing that she was not in any immediate danger permitted her to steal a few moments to herself. Hermione allowed her face to momentarily bask in the glow of the moon; she honestly couldn't remember the last time she actually took a moment to look at the real night sky. Her life had become a constant reminder of her days in school with Harry and Ron, focusing on the task at hand, almost forgetting to live. She had been on mission after mission since she took her position with The Gallery. She really couldn't remember if she had ever gone on vacation anywhere, besides the occasional day trips with her friends. She couldn't even recall the last time she had been on a real date with someone she really anticipated spending time with. It was just impossible in her line of work. She missed the things she had always taken for granted, but she was sure she would be deathly bored if not for this job. How many times had her thoughts travelled along this doubting road? She was good enough, if she weren't, then The Gallery would never have selected her. No, she was right where she belonged.

Pushing the self-loathing down into the pits of her thoughts, she crept through the darkness, being mindful to not disturb the overly large leaves and twigs that littered the floor. A sway of something to her right caught her attention and the corners of her lips tugged into a delighted smile. Casting a silencing charm on her movements, Hermione swept up the length of a tall tree that was full of branches and dark shadows from the full overgrown leaves. Settling as close to the trunk as possible, but till able to observe the ground below, she waited, listening for anything or nothing at all. It didn't take her long before the hunted appeared before the hunter.

Severus combed the shadows, hugging the darkest corners of the changed scenery as he tried to find the extremely large thorn in his side. He was mildly impressed with the amount of transfiguration and charm work, stiffly crossing to another dark corner created by an over grown bush. The floor was littered with leaves and twigs, covered in fresh muck, making him believe that it still was drying from a tropical storm.

The humidity caused the man to pull off his frock, hanging it on a low branch of a tree next to him. He continued a few paces, slow steady steps that left not a single branch or twig undisturbed. Pausing, he gave into a dead sprint back the way he came, not once stopping until he was crouched half up a great big oak tree, melting into the shadows of the over grown tree. He listened intently, trying to hold in his light pants from the sudden burst of adrenaline.

It was quiet, too quiet.

With a nonverbal spell, he silenced the sound of him drawing the gun out of his holster and without a second thought whipped around aiming higher into the darkened branches above him and fired his gun twice.

Had Hermione not been watching closely she was sure she would have lost this battle, but acuteness left her in a state of awareness at all times. So when she saw Severus standing perfectly still and looked to be contemplating something, she silently moved from her position to the other side of the tree, giving her a clear profile view of the man. As she watched his reflexes whip around and fire at the spot she had occupied moments ago, she took this as her cue to make a move. Hermione dropped down from the current branch, holding onto it by her hands as she pulled herself closer to his looming figure. With a great big bodily thrust, she swung into him, feet outstretched in front of her as she propelled all of her weight into the man's rigged form.

Severus tried to turn towards the attack as he fell from the tree, but was cut short as he landed forcefully on his side. Pain shot up his arm, but he disregarded it as he rolled away in time before the attacker landed gracefully where he original fell. Ignoring the blinding pain, Severus quickly bolted to his feet, one gun pointing into her face.

Hermione suppressed a grin as she snatched his wrist with her right hand and twirled into him against his arm, bringing her own gun to rest lazily against his large nose. With his free hand he ducked her hand up, the unexpected move knocking the gun out of her grasp. His grip was tight but he let go trying to catch the leg that tried to swipe at his face, whipping his face back in time before she hit him. What he did not anticipate was her using that very leg to wrap around his outstretched arm, bolstering her self up and over it, pulling him down with her as she forced him into an armbar submission. Severus landed with a grunt, but he was not giving up just yet. Though her legs were strong, holding his chest and neck down, he pushed through the strong hold as he rolled towards his encased arm, using his other arm to wrap around her slim waste and pull her up with him. Her feet dangled in the air momentarily before he threw her down on her back like a rag doll. He flung his other gun out of his holster and pointed it at her forehead.

"Do you yield Miss. Granger?"

"Never." She kicked up onto her feet, but Severus anticipating this, grabbed her in a chokehold and pointed the gun at her bullet proof covered midriff, letting two fly.

A buzzer sounded and the scenery dissolved around them, the harsh florescent lights blinding them momentarily. He released his hold on her, smirking as he fired one more at her.

"Hmm." He held the gun up admiringly "Not so hard to use after all." He smirked as he turned to walk up the stairs.

Hermione knew it was low of her, she couldn't even believe she herself would stoop to such a low level as she holstered her gun. He had won fair and square, but she couldn't let it go. She broke off into a run, gaining momentum as she grabbed his neck, kicking over him and pulled all her wait to pull him head first into the ground. She moved to un-holster her gun, but Severus knocked it out of her hand. She pulled back her hand and aimed to punch his predominately large nose, but he shifted at the last minute. A block met every attack and she was growing even more desperate to draw first blood. Her anger at trying to win, making her loose complete focus and control of her movements.

"You just can't ever be second best. You are still the same incompetent chit from your school days." Severus snarled as he blocked yet another punch. "Still trying to prove that you're above us mere mortals. Saint Granger, please lend me your wisdom." This caused her to strike harder and quicker than before but to no avail.

"Come on Granger, you call yourself a spy, the brightest witch of your age. I. DON'T. SEE. IT." Severus bared his teeth like an angered dog. "Coward! Fight back!" Severus grinned with excitement. That was exactly what he did next. Severus grasped her neck into tight chokehold then through a large energy ball of raw magic at the girl, throwing her into the wall behind her. He turned to walk away but was startled when she appeared in front of him, the barrel of the gun staring at his nose. "See this!" She shrieked and instead of firing the gun, she threw all her might and kicked him in the balls.

Severus fell from the blinding pain, if this was what dying a terrible death felt like, then he was sure he was already in hell before he even realized it. "Stupid! Fucking! Bloody! Know it all! Chit!"

Hermione, satisfied began to walk away but fell into a crumpled heap, exhausted and finally feeling the impact of being flung into the wall.

"Very good, very good." John clapped, a smile breaking across his serious face. "Go get cleaned up and get some rest, we have a bright an early training session tomorrowand the real fun begins." John turned and exited the room leaving the two spies to recover from the pain.

"I hate you." Severus grumbled out, still holding him manhood.

"Feeling's mutual." Hermione moaned.

A/n: please leave a review if you are confused or having trouble understanding. I enjoy wrting but i do not enjoy having others scratching there head wondering what the hell happened. I want to make sure i am doing my job as a writer and not ruining anything for you. As to the previous a/n that was attactched with this chapter. This story is old and i failed my loyal readers from before, for abandoning this story that they were very excited for. I do not anticiapte to do this again, but i wish to make sure that readers are on the same page if there is any confusion or concerns they may have. Most readers who cannot stand my writing do not make it this far so i try to make sure that by this point those who are enjoying this story, know that they are apart of this story and are apart of the process. When most authors ask for your reveiws, yes i understand it is annoying, but we are compelled to make sure that we have not failed the readers but most importantly ourselves. My previous statement of taking this down is beacuse i have tried extremely hard with this story, in planning it and have enjoyed writing it, but i feel as if i have faild with this story because i did not do what i had promised myself i would do from the beginning with it. I need to make sure, not in order to validate myself, but to make sure that what i am trying to convey is being understood and that by picking this story back up again, i have not left you in the dark with things. I apologize for the previously poor wording of the the authors note. Thank you for reading.