She literally fell from the sky. A flash of light appeared out of nowhere, blinding Bucky for a moment. He felt something crash into him and send him to the ground. When the light disappeared and he was able to open his eyes again, there was a girl on his arms.

Badly injured, she was covered in blood everywhere. Her clothes were torn apart and full of what looked like ashes and dust. And, of course, blood. Her hair was in no better condition. She barely looked twenty, and Bucky's stomach clenched at the thought. What could possibly had happened to her, to end up in such state?

"What the hell?"

Hearing Steve curse never ceased to amaze Bucky. He rarely did. Bucky supposed, though, that the recent events were a good enough excuse for Steve to broke his own rule.

"She needs medical attention," Bucky answered.

"You think?" the irony in Steve's voice was obvious. "Give her to me."

Bucky had to make a great effort not to say 'no' to him. He didn't want to let go of the girl. But he knew he would probably injured her more if he tried to move from his position with her cradled in her arms. And he trusted Steve. So he did.

Tony was so surprised when he and Steve arrived at the Tower with the mysterious girl in their arms he wasn't even able to make a remark before Steve rushed past him, straight to the infirmary. Bucky followed close behind.

The doctor gasped in horror when she saw the girl. She ordered Steve to put her in the closest bed, and she started to work, ushering them out of the room.

Tony and Natasha were already waiting for them in the hallway.

"Who is she?" Natasha was the first to speak.

"We have no idea."

Tony was next. "Where did you find her?"

Bucky had been expecting that question. He and Steve exchanged a look, trying to figure out the best way to explain what they had just witnessed.

"She found us," Steve finally said. "She just… fell from the sky. Literally."

Tony blinked. "She fell from the sky," he repeated slowly. "As in… a breach opened in the sky and she just came through?"

That was probably a good theory, Bucky thought, even if they couldn't be sure. It also wouldn't be the weirdest thing neither of them had witnessed.

"There was a bright light," Steve offered. "When the light disappeared, she was there."

"Where, exactly, is there?"

Bucky blushed. He didn't think he had blushed in almost a century. "On my lap."

He tried his best to remain expressionless when Tony laughed and Natasha arched her brows at him.

"There was a light on the sky, and that girl fell on your lap," Tony summed up. "A teenage girl who looks like she came right out of Hell."

Steve nodded. "That's basically what happened, yes."

The doctor opened the door before any of them could say anything else. She wore a grim expression on her face, and Bucky got worried that maybe she hadn't make it.

"She's stable," she informed then.

Bucky breathed again. "Is she awake?"

"No. And I don't think she'll wake up in the next hours."

"We should call Wanda," Natasha told them when the doctor came back inside. "Have her look inside her head. We don't know if she's a threat."

Tony nodded. "Yes. Better find out before she wakes up."

The strong grip of Steve's arm was the only thing that prevented Bucky to argue. And he really wanted to. He wanted to tell them how wrong that was, violate her privacy while she was unconscious, recovering from her injuries in a hospital bed.

Yet, he knew, logically, they were right. She looked innocent, but they had all seen enough to know that appearances could be deceiving. Natasha looked innocent, for those who didn't know her. They had no way to know if that girl was a menace to them; and Wanda could provide them those answers.

He found himself praying she wasn't.

Wanda's expression was of sadness and sorrow when she got herself out of the girl's mind. She took a couple of steps back, and fell into Vision's arms, who hugged her immediately.

"Poor girl," she sobbed in his chest.

"What did you see, Wanda?" Vision tried to sooth her with gently strokes on her back.

Wanda shuddered. "Pain, torture, war." She separated herself from Vision and looked directly at Bucky and Steve. "She's like you."

For a moment, Bucky worried she was going to tell them she was enhanced, too. Steve's expression told him he was worrying about the same.

"A soldier," Wanda explained. "A soldier fallen out of time."

Everyone stilled.

"When you say out of time…" Steve was the first one to recover.

"Not as far away from home as you two, but very far away from home."

Bucky considered it. "So she was frozen, too?"

The witch shook her head no. "She's a wand-wielder. Magic brought her here."

It was Natasha's gasp what put Bucky on alert. When he looked at the former spy, her eyes were widened in surprise and her entire body had tensed. She took a few steps towards the sleeping girl, and Bucky felt the urge to step between them.

"You said you saw a war?" Natasha asked Wanda, ignoring Bucky's move. The witch nodded. "We need to call Fury. I think I might know how she is."

"Is she dangerous?"

Natasha nodded. "Very much so. But not to us."

That seemed to ease Steve. "I'll call Sharon. She'll know how to find Fury."

Nick Fury gaped at the sight of the girl. There was no better way to describe the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director expression when he entered he the room, Sharon Carter and Maria Hill following closely behind.

"Is she who I think she is?" Natasha didn't waste time.

Fury nodded. "Hermione Granger."

Maria and Sharon gasped in surprise, which told Bucky that, whatever wand-wielders were, S.H.I.E.L.D. was very aware of them, and that girl in front of them –Hermione Granger, according to Fury- was very important among them.

"I thought she died." Maria looked at the girl.

"The whole world did," Fury explained. "And she died a hero."

"Well, she obviously didn't die," Tony quipped.

Ignoring Tony's comment, Steve directed to Fury. "Wanda said she was a soldier."

A grim expression on his face, Fury nodded. "From a very young age," he told them. "She and her friends found themselves thrown into a war when they were barely teenagers."

"She can't be more than a teenager now," Steve exclaimed, surprised.

"She was nineteen when she went missing, the same day the war ended," Maria explained. "Her side won the war, but no one could find her then. The official version is that she disappeared during the battle. She was declared officially dead on the first anniversary of the end of the war."

Fury's expression changed. "Which was nineteen years ago today."

"You're right!" Maria exclaimed. "The war ended on May the second, in 1998. She was declared dead a year later, that same day."

"So she vanished from her own time in the middle of battle and landed in that very same day, just twenty years later?" Steve questioned, surprised.

Maria nodded. "What I can't understand is why here. The battle happened in Scotland. What could have happened to her to end up in New York?"

Director Fury sighed, looking suddenly very tired. "We need to contact Harry Potter. He was his best friend. He'll want to know we found her."

Steve took a step forward, putting himself between Hermione and the rest of them, a very determined expression in his face.

"I think we need to wait for her to wake up, and have her decide what she wants to do."

"But Mr. Potter…" Fury tried to argue.

"She is what matters now. She'll wake up twenty years away from home, probably completely terrified if the last thing she remembers is being in the middle of a battle," Steve explained, his expression clouded with memories. "That was probably just hours ago for her. If she wakes up and the first thing she sees is her best friend looking forty years old…"

"She'll freak out," Sharon agreed.

The explanation seemed to convince Fury. "What do you suggest we do, then, Captain?"

"You didn't handle my 'awaken' very well, Director," Steve narrowed his eyes at him. "So you probably should let me handle this."

Natasha nodded. "He's right. If anyone here knows how she'll feel, it'll be Steve."

Bucky wanted to argue, wanted to tell them that he wanted to be there when she woke up, even if he couldn't to understand why. That girl had fallen into his arms out of nowhere, and for the first time in months, Bucky felt like he had something to live for; even if it was just helping Hermione Granger come to terms with the new reality she'd found herself in.

He knew a few things about waking up in a world too far away from home, completely lost and alone.

"Bucky should stay, too," Steve said, then.

Bucky blinked, looking at Steve, confused. Had he voiced his thoughts aloud? Had Steve just read his mind?

"Our experiences were different," Steve explained, "but still very similar to hers. He can help, too."