Chapter 2

Apartment 456, Tall Tree Apartment Complex

"For the past ten years," Fury explained, "I've been assembling Earth's mightiest heroes in order to wage war against threats our planet has faced." Hermione's expression darkened, "I didn't see or hear much about that when Voldemort was taking over all of the Wizarding World. Where were you then?" Nick held his hands up in guilt, "I'm sorry, Hermione. The Ministry of Magic has always kept us at arm's length. Dumbledore was the last Wizard who kept us in the loop, and after his death we had nobody to give us information about the war."

Hermione lifted her wand and pointed it at Nick, "What's stopping me from wiping your mind about the Wizarding World completely?" Nick smiled and feigned nervousness, "I was hoping you would trust me. You're from our world, and we need somebody with your skills to stop the elimination of both Muggle and Wizardkind alike."

Hermione grew curious, she was playing with her long hair as she thought about all of the implications of these revelations. "Mr. Fury, why wouldn't you recruit Harry Potter, or an established Auror?" She asked him, already knowing the answer. Nick smiled, he knew that Hermione was a sucker for flattery. "Because none of them are as talented as you are. Harry Potter could barely handle Voldemort, and probably has deep psychological problems after a childhood of abuse. And no Auror would dare risk a cushy job at the Ministry in order to help some Muggles." Hermione blushed and smiled ear to ear. "Well, if you really need me, I suppose I could assist you. What are you asking of me?"

Nick let out a breath of relief, and turned the television back on. An image of Hermione's parents hugging each other and crying in joy was visible before Nick quickly changed the channel. Now the screen showed a man with an unnaturally gaunt red face holding a shining, blue capsule. "This is Red Skull," Fury explained to Hermione, "fifty years ago we defeated him and kept him from getting a mystical item full of magical energy called The Tesseract. Now, our intelligence says he's meeting in Singapore with a collection of villains in order to ally together. We don't know if what he has is The Tesseract, but we do know that the last time he got his hands on magical energy, he almost ended the world.

"Right now, two of my best men, Captain America and Thor, are on their way here. We were hoping you could apparate us to Singapore, to meet up with the rest of the team and stop Red Skull." Fury looked at his watch, "We have almost twenty hours, so if you're on board, you can get some rest. But if not, I need to know now so I can divert a plane to take us there." Hermione was still staring at the television when she answered, "Of course I'll help you. Now, I've had a long day, I'm going to lie down in there," she pointed to the bedroom, "you can take the couch." Nick nodded and moved to the windowsill, "Of course. Good night, Ms. Granger."

Hermione went into the bedroom and threw her bag on the bed. She stared at the wall and slapped her palms to her forehead. Thor? Hermione thought to herself, I'm going to be working with a literal god? Hermione laid down on the bed, she was mentally exhausted from the information she had just received. Dumbledore worked with a Muggle organization called SHIELD, and now she would be following in his footsteps. Hermione considered if all of this was true, then resigned herself to the fact that the only real way to find out is to get first hand experience.

Hermione lifted herself off the bed and walked into the attached bathroom. The large tub appeared to be clean, and Hermione looked at it longingly. Do I have time? She wondered to herself. Hermione examined herself in the mirror, she was wearing a white blouse and tight, black pencil skirt. She had needed it to blend in, but had underestimated the heat of Australia. She had sweat through her blouse completely, and her black bra was visible through the shirt. Hermione stripped the Muggle clothes off, and entered the bathtub. If I'm going to be one of Earth's mightiest heroes, I might as well be clean.

When Hermione left the bathroom, she was totally clean. She crawled under the covers, gripping her wand under the pillow. She sat up in the bed, and pointed her wand towards the door, the windows, and all four walls. She whispered Protection spells to herself, "Cave inimicum, protego, Fianto Duri, Repello Muggletum..." Hermione laid her head on the pillow, confident in her magical abilities. She set the Muggle alarm clock to go off in two hours, then Hermione closed her eyes, eager to drift off to sleep.

When Hermione woke up, she got dressed in her witch clothes: Grey robes with a burgundy and gold trim. She considered putting on her witch hat, but decided it would be too on the nose for the rest of the Avengers. Hermione emerged from the room and saw Nick Fury seated at the kitchen table speaking to Captain America. Thor was stretched out on the couch, and all three of them were wearing full gear. The Black Widow entered the room at the same time as Hermione, giving her a nod of approval.

The men stood up and smiled as Hermione entered the room carrying her bag. Nick Fury produced some papers and laid them on the table, beckoning the team over. Hermione looked over them, recognizing them to be satellite images of the Pacific Islands. Nick laid a finger on top of an airport near Singapore. "We need to be here," he said gruffly. Captain America leaned down over the table, looking Hermione in the eye, "Are you sure you can take all of us, Hermione? Maybe we should go one at a time." Hermione saw Black Widow roll her eyes behind him.

Without a word, Hermione ran her arm around Thor's and grabbed Captain America's hand on the table. With her other arm, she wrapped it around Nick's shoulder and touched Black Widow's arm. Hermione closed her eyes and when she opened them, she was standing outside an airplane hanger. Black Widow was leaning against the hanger with her eyes wide in surprise. Captain America and Nick Fury fell to the ground, heaving. Thor seemed unphased as he held his hand in the air, "You forgot to bring Mjolnir," he commented to Hermione. A few seconds later, Thor's hammer flew into his hand and he caught it lazily.

Hermione smiled at the two male humans as they stood up panting, "Okay, what else do you need from me?" Nick and Steve smiled at each other. "We need to find some cover while we wait for the Red Skull to arrive, then we need to follow him to wherever he's meeting his friends." Steve nodded in agreement, "We want to have all of our rotten eggs in one basket, the. We're going to blow up the basket."

Hermione smiled and put her hand out with her palm facing up. Then she looked around and made eye contact with each member of the team. One by one they each placed their hands on top of Hermione's. Nick was the last to do so, but when he did all five of them disappeared with another loud CRACK.