Hello. Welcome. Greetings. Saludos! New fan fiction here and I am excited to share.
Before we get started I need to get the preliminary thanks and disclaimers out of the way.
Thanks to Beta Chop Shop Team: islndgurl777, Lisa , Christina, EntwinedLove.
Alpha reader: Bahowle as usual
I don't own Harry Potter or MCU characters.
Also, I am using Wikipedia and Google for my El Dorado and native knowledge of Colombia. I don't assume to be an expert at all. If I do cause any offence or have said anything culturally inappropriate please let me know.
Same with any typos you spot. Let me know :)
That's it. Enjoy!
.1.
Mosquitoes
Droplets of sweat trickled down Hermione's neck, making her frizzy hair stick to her back and forehead like glue. She had given up wiping it away hours ago as it would always fall back into the same spot within five minutes of her clearing it away. This humidity was making her hair even more unmanageable than usual, and being on magic restrictions meant that her options were limited for trying to tame it. It was becoming quite tempting to just cut it all off the further south the expedition travelled.
They had just crossed over the Colombian border and still had hundreds of miles to go until they got to the supposed dig site. But that was the reason she was trudging through jungle in crazy humidity.
Because it would be an Earth-shattering and career-breaking achievement for her to say she was the archaeologist that discovered the lost empire of El Dorado. But also, a potential source of ancient magic which would rock the very foundations of the Wizarding World and their theories on how magic and Wizarding-kind came to be.
If she didn't drown in her own sweat first. She had been vigilant so far about keeping her fluids up as she was losing water faster than she could drink it. A flask of never-ending water certainly could have been handy to have around; unfortunately, she had not had the foresight and lacked such a wonderful piece of equipment. Which then left her to sip what she needed from the communal canteen. That of course came with its own share of problems.
"You finished with that?" a deep voice asked, interrupting her thoughts of cool showers and the calmer climate of home.
Not lowering the canteen of water from her lips, Hermione glanced over the rim of the container. The person who had called out to her was the Spanish wizard that had been sent on the expedition by the University to be her back up, so to speak.
If there was a curse she could not break or if anything were to happen to her all the credit for the discovery would go to one Julio Gonzalez. Which would only happen over her dead body, and even then she would be sure to come back as a ghost and do some serious haunting as retribution.
A tanned hand snapped out and yanked the flask away from her mouth, making her inhale some of the water in shock.
She glared up at Julio who was now chugging down the remainder of the liquid. Once the container was empty he wiped his mouth, screwed the lid back on and tossed it back to her.
She caught it easily and flipped Julio the bird once she tucked it back into her pack. There was no real point in starting an argument about it. Over the last few weeks the same thing had happened more times than she could count. But it was always difficult when Julio constantly baited her.
"Your own fault, Mione. You always hog the water and don't even share when I ask nicely."
She bit her tongue and mumbled a half-hearted, "Whatever." She made sure to bang her shoulder into his as she moved past him and up the line of the party.
She wasn't in the mood for Julio's mind games. Her body killed from trekking through the jungle all day and all she wanted to do was make camp for the night and curl up in her tent and forget where she was. Or even just go sit down - that would be nice. But that wasn't going to be possible any time soon.
The guide, Juan, had scouted ahead a few hours earlier and come back with intel that they were close to Sapzurro and if they picked up the pace they would be able to make it before last light.
The thought of an actual shower had put the spring back in her step and picking up the pace. But she had only been able to keep it up for so long. She was slowing down with each mile she walked and her blisters felt like they had blisters. She was also pretty sure she had fed a whole colony of mosquitoes at this point.
She wouldn't do it any other way though. Entering the country by foot had been one of the conditions the government had put upon them if they wanted permission to excavate potential dig sites. They had said they didn't want to raise hopes of the world unless something concrete was found.
Which was complete bullocks. Hermione knew the real reason was that guerrilla factions were on the rise in the country and if they found out what they were up to her party would be slaughtered and the government would have several countries to answer too. That lead to the other reason two magical practitioners had been sent along. A few well cast Notice Me Not spells had saved their lives more than a couple of times over the past few weeks.
She jumped as she felt something tugging on a lock of hair from behind her. Whipping around she was met with the grinning face of Carter.
Carter, her annoyingly adorable, geeky and surprisingly a squib, assistant. He had been with her since the first days of earning her PhD, so it hadn't even been up for question that he would be coming along with her on this trip.
The grin grew even larger as he marched ahead and smacked her arse on the way past. "Come on, Mione! Nearly there!"
She swatted back at him. "Shoo!"
"Have to try harder than that," he laughed dancing out of her reach.
She made another half-hearted swipe at him before bursting out in giggles herself as he wiggled his butt at her. Shaking her head at Carter's antics she reached into her pocket to pull out her notebook and double check the map she had crudely copied out of an atlas before she left on this crazy journey.
"No use looking at that, chicka," the guide, Juan, said coming up from behind her.
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.
He chuckled. "Doesn't matter how you look at it, we are still a long way off from town."
She raised her other eyebrow. "When you say a long way…"
"I mean hours," Juan answered grumpily. "And I have just gotten orders over the sat-phone that we definitely need to get there by sunset."
"Great," Hermione sighed.
"Not what I said, but what can you do?" Juan replied, shrugging. "Orders are orders, right?"
When they did finally make it into town, it was right at sunset and Hermione had never been so happy to see civilization. Not that there was much of it other than a few buildings here and there, scattered around, but there was still a hotel and a bed with her name on it.
Juan had told her to wait near the jetty while he and Julio went ahead to greet some newcomers to the expedition. Hermione had been a bit taken aback at hearing that there would be more members of their dig team than expected. But in her eyes the more the merrier, as an extra set of hands to help excavate wouldn't be turned away.
She was actually really enjoying the sunset and the beautiful glow it cast on the and pinks mingled together to create a breath-taking scene that was reflected across the water as well, changing it from a diluted blue to an off tone orange colour. The over effect made her appreciate just how lucky she was to be here. To be the one chosen to come on this expedition and be standing there taking in such a wonderful sight.
Her tranquillity was ruined by her assistant coming up to her stand beside her. "What do you want?" she groaned, not taking her eyes off the scenery.
In reply, Carter threw his arm over her shoulder and lowered his aviators. "Damn, girl. You got a good eye," he commented as his eyes travelled up and down the man, Hermione realised had been in her range of vision the whole time, but she had someone not spotted. She was way more tired than she had originally thought to have missed the giant fleet of boats that had pulled into the docks.
Several guards had started off-loading various types of containers and supplies. One man, in particular, was standing on the boat's hull and barking orders at the men. Said man, was also who had captured, Carter's attention.
Carter continued to stare for a few more seconds—eyes lustfully following the movement of the in-charge looking man, who had moved from the hull of the ship to the side so that he could jump onto the dock. "Hmm," Carter purred in appreciation into her ear. "Me Likey."
She shoved an elbow into his ribs. "Knock it off," she grumbled while risking a glance back up at the guard.
"Mione, you can't deny you weren't having a perv as well." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
She scoffed at him. She wasn't perving on the man or, at least, that is what she tried to tell herself.
Carter, not knowing when to quit, continued to tease her. "Come on, couldn't hurt to have one of those hunks excavate your holy temple, huh?"
"Get off, you brute," she said, pulling herself out from her companion's arm.
She couldn't help but giggle as he lost his balance and barely caught himself from kissing the ground. He threw his arms out just in time. He glared up at Hermione and opened his mouth to shout at her but closed his gob when he saw that the guard they had just been watching was heading their way.
"Shit, he's heading this way," Carter cursed and looked back down at the dirt.
"Yeah, he is so," Hermione glimpsed up from looking down at Carter to double check and the guard was definitely still walking in their direction, "you might want to get up –" She stopped talking when she saw that Carter had started to do push-ups.
"Carter, what in the name of –"
"Shh, don't talk to me, Mione. You will break my concentration…"
"Are you lowering your voice?"
"No."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him and made to walk over to the jetty so that she could get a closer look at the beach. Her progress was stopped by a wall of solid muscle encased in black kevlar, standing in front of her, blocking her path. Raising her chin she was able to make out a scruffy face full of stubble and icy blue eyes. Not one to be intimidated by a mere stare or by anyone that had a silly man bun, she shrewdly glared back at him.
"Excuse me," she said, trying to sidestep the dark guard but was blocked by him again.
So she tried to go the other way and he cut her off again which finally made her snap but just as she was about ready to rip him a new arsehole he finally spoke.
"You two," he said, looking from her to Carter, "debrief tomorrow at six." His voice was hoarse and made her want to claw his eyes out with how monotone it was. Years of lessons with Snape had given her a loathing for it. Still, who was he to be giving her orders?
Before she could ask her question, Carter piped up, "Six in the evening?"
Man-bun blinked and stared blankly at them.
"Alright, six am tomorrow then," Carter said reluctantly as he stood to join them at head height again.
Still not liking the man, she started to try and ask for more information, "Where exactly –"
"Out in front of the hotel," he grunted, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the hotel.
With that action, she just noticed he was wearing a jacket and gloves. He looked nice in them, but it was not the clothing you wore in a humid jungle. Not letting her paranoid brain think too much on it, Hermione dismissed the observation, instead turning her thoughts back to baths and soft beds.
"Awesome. Will you be there?" Carter asked not so subtly.
Hermione snorted at his lack of subtlety and excused herself before the conversation became more of a trainwreck. "Great, can't wait for that fun meeting. Now if you don't mind I want a bath." Promptly, she turned away from both men and headed up to the hotel - ready to wash away the stress of the day.
