Runes chapter four

I'm sorry, I'm a terrible person! in my defence, first I had to finish my exams, then I had a couple of induction days, then I did nothing but sleep for a few days in celebration of my new found freedom, then my mum confiscated my computer. THE INJUSTICE! but I have returned to you with this increadibly short chapter. my apologies, though there is a reason You might find Hermione's rune a little weird but I'm sorry in spite of its other meanings Hermione HAD to be rationality.

Rune: Raidho

Meaning: ride, journey

Associations: progress, riding, the right order or way to precede, rationality, growth.

Appearance: the letter R

The girl was smart.

The best in her year.

Everyone knew it, even those that refused to admit to it, and the girl herself knew it too.

The problem was that she wasn't quite smart enough. No. actually that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she had never needed to be smart enough.

The girl had always been alone, that was the problem. It was only after she had come to this new school, this school of magic that she actually had friends. The girl wasn't used to having people to help her with her theories. That was why she was in the library alone.

Everyone in the school knew her story. She had been attacked by the monster. If she hadn't been using a mirror she would have died. There was however one thing that most people forgot or perhaps they had never realised in the first place. There were two girls in the library that day. There was only one mirror.

The girl hadn't been using the mirror at the time the animal came across them, the Ravenclaw had.

The girl looked directly into the yellow eyes of the serpent.

When she woke up in the hospital wing the first thing she did was ask what happened. The second thing she did was go down to the feast. The third thing she did was go to bed. It was there that she noticed the change.

There was a mark on her arm, a mark in the shape of an R. the girl never told anyone. She made sure to wear long sleeved shirts and made sure that no-one would ever see. And, for reasons known only to herself, next year she took the class ancient runes.

Despite being so smart it was only much later, when Ehwaz appeared on her love's face and her family confessed to their own marks that the girl began to see a pattern. the one thing she never could figure out, even with her knowledge and her resources, was what having the marks actually meant.

Bruce woke slowly, as he always did after the other guy took control. He the room blurred for a moment before coming into focus. He looked around before jumping about a foot in the air and blushing bright red. Sitting directly in front of him in the rubble of the ruined roof sat a girl.

The girl was staring at him with eyes that were slightly unfocused and she didn't seem to notice his state of undress, something that Bruce was acutely aware of. He was looking around for something other than bricks to cover himself up with when a pair of trousers landed on his lap.

"I figured they wouldn't fit til you shrank down to regular size." A voice said.

Bruce spun round to see a man standing on the largest pile of rubble looking down at him.

"Thanks. What happened?" he asked pulling the trousers on.

"You came smashing in here all big and green and that girl followed."

"Was anyone hurt."

"No."

Bruce sighed in relief, "Lucky."

"Or just good aim. You were both awake when you fell."

Bruce had to frown at that opening his mouth to ask what the man meant about both when he was cut off.

"You an alien?"

"No."

"Then I hate to tell you this but you've got a problem."

"No he doesn't." a new voice chimed in. Bruce turned back to the girl, able to examine her properly now that he was fully dressed. She had long blonde hair and wore a flowery yellow dress that looked quite out of place in the dust and ruin of the factory. She also had what appeared to be a stick stuck behind one ear. She was digging in a bag that hung over one shoulder. With a quiet "Aha!" she pulled out two things. One he didn't see clearly before it was dropped the other was thrust into his hands.

He blinked at it. It was a necklace. A very weird necklace. Some sort of purple stone was dangling down from the centre on a plaited piece of silver. The necklace itself was made up of a second plaited piece of silver which had, for some reason, bright green feathers woven through it.

"Thank you?" it came out a lot more like a question then he had intended it to.

"It's for the Wrackspurts, you have too many. This will get rid of them." She smiled encouragingly and gestured for him to put it on. He did so, still feeling a bit befuddled by the whole thing.

"What are Wrackspurts?"

"They go inside your ears and make your head go fuzzy." This was said in a matter of fact way that suggested everyone knew of the existence of creepy ear creatures.

"…okay. What are you doing here?"

"I fell." She pointed up through the hole. "From the flying boat. I'm Luna, how are we getting to New York?"

"Sorry, WHAT?" Bruce yelped.

The girl looked at him. "I fell." It was said in the same matter of fact tone that she had been using for the whole conversation. "How are we getting to New York?" as she spoke she had picked up the second object that she had taken from her bag, something that Bruce could now identify as a mask.

"Why are we going to New York?" Judging by the conversation so far Bruce was almost afraid to ask.

Luna smiled at him and slipped the mask onto her face. "To fight the Heliopaths."

"…The Heliopaths." Bruce wondered if his face was as confused as he felt. Somehow he doubted it.

"Yes. These ones don't burn, it's very sad. They're still part of a secret army used to keep people under control though…maybe they're the Heliopath's cousins…aren't you going to come with me?"

Bruce sighed in defeat, the girl was pulling what looked like a black leather jacket out of the bag along with matching boots. He turned back to the man who was watching the whole thing with what looked like amusement.

"I don't suppose you have a car we could borrow."

Xxx

It was quiet in the room. The remaining Avengers were gathered around a large table, all of them were silent and subdued. Harry felt rather guilty watching it, especially as he knew for a fact that the person they were morning was not in fact dead.

The man at the front, Nick Fury, according to Hermione's 'research' that he was sure had been found using legal means and no violation of rights or computer codes at all (note the sarcasm) threw a pack of cards across the table and gave a speech for which Harry had to give him credit. He was almost as good with the guilt trips as Dumbledore.

At the end of it one of the other men-Tony Stark-stood up and stormed from the room. Steve Roberts stood up and, as he made to follow paused.

"Sir…" he began uncertainly, "one of them helped me."

"What?"

"One of the men invading the ship…well, they helped me, probably saved my life. I don't know why." With that parting shot he turned and left the room, Hermione darting after him.

Harry spun round to observe the group, his gaze fixing on Neville who was shifting nervously. He raised one eyebrow.

Neville shifted some more.

Casting a whispered muffilato Harry opened his mouth only to be beaten by Neville blurting out "Okay, fine, it was me. I got distracted during the fight and let my shields drop."

"Any particular reason they think you're one of them."

"Well in his defence they wore black masks. We wear black masks. They probably didn't think that there would be two different unknown groups wandering around this thing." Ginny pointed out.

At that moment Hermione snuck back into the room. "We have a location."

The group jumped to attention but it was Ron who asked the question, "where?"

"Stark towers, New York."

Harry grinned, "well then, guess we should suit up."

hope you enjoyed despite the shortness. the reason behind the shortness was basically that if I started writting the fight scene I wouldn't stop and the chapter would be insanely long. I shall instead leave that for your next chapter, which-due to the afforementioned length may take a while. Don't you totally love the new reveiw system? that takes up unneceassary space and stares obnoxiously at you as you read? Because as you can tell I just love it. In spite of the monstrosity please reveiw my crappy short chapter.