NOTE: I am posting two chapters for this story today. Please read the note for chapter 8 for detals.

Once again I own nothing! Just playing with someone else's toys!

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Chapter 7

Harry closed the door and stepped out into the main room of the well appointed cabin. "She went back to sleep… I told her we moved out of the tower into a cabin but that was it. I think she'll be fine, after the last of the sedative wares off. I'll need your help to explain the reason we kept her asleep for the move."

Steve smiled and nodded as he stirred the large pot on the stove. "I made a big batch of chili, it will be easy to warm back up if she's hungry later." He dipped them both a bowl and headed toward the sitting area.

Harry sat heavily down on the couch. "Thanks… It smells good." He followed the larger man's example and added onions and shredded cheese to the top, then tasted it. "Can you teach me the recipe? This is good."

The man shrugged. "It's not hard. My best friend, Bucky, he taught me how to make this not long after my mother passed…" He looked lost in thought for a moment before shaking his head, "Yeah, I'll be glad to teach you."

They ate in silence for a few minutes. "Have you heard anything from Mr. Stark? Or Dr. Banner?" Harry finally asked.

Steve nodded. "He said he would send over the rest of the things Natasha found with her this afternoon... other than the locket. He locked that in one of the security vaults after you told him it was dangerous and needed to be destroyed. He does have an idea or two he wants to try to destroy it, but thought it would be best if he talked to both of you first."

Steve stirred his chili, scooped up a spoonful and put it on a cracker and ate it. "He wanted to thank you for letting him look at Hermione's wand and the other magical doodads, and explaining their uses. Especially as they were all you had to defend yourselves with over the last year."

Harry sighed. "After talking with Director Fury the other day, I really doubt that is an issue here. Though I will admit that I am a little glad we will have at least one working wand between us."

Steve chuckled. "I would imagine…" The rest of his thought was cut off as several beeps came from a wooden wall section that slid open to show a communications console. "Speak of the Widow…."

Steve made his way to the console and thumbed one of the controls. "Tom Sawyer here, go."

"Funny," replied a female voice, "I would have thought you would have wanted to be Huck Finn…"

"No," the blond replied. "That was my best friend Bucky, he was the one that got us into or out of trouble."

"Ah." she said. "I'll be landing in five minutes."

"Ok, lunch is still on the stove. See you soon." He flipped the switch off and tapped another closing the panel. "I'll go see if she needs any help with anything, can you check on Hermione?"

Harry nodded and headed toward his best friends room.

When the pair of Avengers reentered the cabin they found Harry sitting on the wood framed couch once more; he stood as they entered. "Hey, Ms. Romanov… Hermione is in the shower, she wanted to clean up before she ate…" When he saw both of their arms were filled with bags of groceries he asked. "Is their anything else that needs to be brought in?"

Natasha shook her head. "No, this will last you a few days and if need be, we will resupply." The red headed woman sat the bags on the counter as Steve began to put things away. She then shucked the leather bag from her shoulder and walked toward Harry, sitting next to where he had been and gestured at him to sit again. "Tony sent something for you." She dug into the pack and pulled out a metallic box. "I won't pretend to understand what he did… something about carbon nano-tubing and some alloy, I'm sure he'll be more than pleased to explain it in excruciating detail… if it works."

She handed him the box, still speaking as she did. "He wanted to assure you, if it doesn't work he can undo what he did."

Harry slowly pushed the lid as she had indicated, and it slid open with a metallic 'click'. Inside he found what could only be a wand. The shaft caught his attention first, it was a metallic blue, with a spider web like design of red, when his eyes moved to he handle they grew wide. It was the handle of his old wand! Gently he reached into the case and wrapped his fingers around it, warmth spread though him as he lifted it from the case, giving it a wave, dark blue and red sparks flew from the end.

A smile grew across his face as he turned toward the chair next to him. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he intoned, and the chair shot into the air impacting with the ceiling and breaking into pieces and crashing to the floor. "Ah, sorry about that!" he said, sheepishly, rubbing his neck. "I may have put a bit too much into that spell…"

The shocked pair of heroes glanced at each other then at the pile of wood as Harry waved his wand again. "Reparo" the young man said, and the chair re-assembled itself, in front of their stunned eyes. "That will last a couple of days… a week at most. Sorry it isn't permanent… Hermione is better at charms than I am, she'll be able to tell you better after she has a look at it."

Natasha was the first one to speak. "No, no it's not a problem. The furniture here is easily replaced…. So… I guess it worked?" she asked.

Harry's grin widened. "Yeah…. It feels great, maybe even better than it did when I first bought it! I'll need to test it out some more but…"

It was just at that moment that a still wet Hermione burst into the room holding a towel around herself, "HARRY! What happened? Are you alright?"

Harry and Steve immediately turned away from the partially covered woman, faces going red, and all the while a large grin graced the lips of the only other female available. Stepping in front of the girl, Natasha said, "He's fine, what say we get you into something that is not so… wet," as she spun the girl around and pushed her back through the doorway. "My name is Natasha, by the way. Nice to see you up and around."

When the door clicked shut Harry finally let out the breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He shrugged when Steve looked at him. "What? She worries about me."


It didn't take long for the women to join them again, but this time they all sat at the table as they ate. It was Hermione that spoke first. "Harry, you said you would explain what happened to you. How did you change like this?"

Harry shrugged, "I needed a transfusion after we were hurt in the forest…" He wasn't really sure how to continue at that point.

Natasha sighed, while she didn't understand all of the science she was probably the best one to explain. "Hermione, Harry has told us a little about you," Hermione's spoon paused in mid bite, as she glanced at Harry. "… that you were what your society calls a muggleborn, someone who was born to a family with no known magical talent."

She watched as the tension that had gathered in the girl dissipated somewhat. Natasha continued. "Did you study World War Two?"

Hermione nodded. "A little. We covered the basics at least, dates, leaders, things like that."

The red head smiled. "Did they ever tell you about Captain America?"

Hermione, chewed on her lip as she thought. "H-He was some sort of hero… Worked with the troops in Europe… He wore some awful red, white, and blue costume…with a shield. He looked rather silly, as I remember."

Light chuckles came from both Harry and Natasha, while Steve looked abashed and turned bright red. "It felt silly too…." he said quietly.

Hermione's head turned toward him. "I? Y-you couldn't be him he would be… what?"

"Eighty-five," the young looking blond man said, looking down at his hands. "I'm eighty-five years old, as of March."

Her eyes grew wide. "B-but… How?"

"I was frozen in the arctic, destroying a Hydra bomber headed for the United States…" he began, but was cut off by Hermione.

"The Germans never had a bomber capable of reach… Hydra?" This time it was Natasha that cut her off.

"There are a lot of things that were never made public even after the war, and the Hydra and its weapons were part of them," she informed the girl.

"At any rate…." Steve said, "I was frozen, the abilities that were given to me and allowed me to be Captain America allowed me to survive in a form of suspended animation."

Natasha continued from that point. "Steve was given a treatment meant to bring out the maximum of possible human potential... a super soldier. Soon after the scientist in charge was assassinated, so he was the only one ever created. That is where my story begins."

She poured herself a cup of coffee before she continued. "I was born in Russia at the tail end of the war. My father had died during one of the battles, and my mother during child birth, so I grew up in an orphanage. When I was twelve I entered a special school and was trained to be an assassin. Later I was selected to receive a treatment based on that same super solder formula, the Infinity Formula."

She took a moment to sip her coffee before continuing. "The formula I took, unlike Steve's that changed his body to the maximum of potential, brought me to the peak condition my body was capable of and, unbeknownst to us at the time, slowed my aging to a crawl."

Natasha sipped her coffee again. "Harry was badly injured and needed a transfusion immediately or he may not have survived… so Steve and I donated our blood to him… His magic did the rest."

Hermione looked at both of them then back at Harry. She could see small hints of both of them in his features now that she paid attention to it. The amber flakes in his eyes matched those in the red headed woman's and the chin and now tamed hair, though still black, matched the blond mans… "So he gained some of your abilities?" she asked.

Natasha shrugged, "We know that he has exhibited changes and both formulas are in his body, so we suspect he will have some form of enhanced physical abilities but we haven't tested them fully yet."

"I've been putting off the tests they want me to take…" Harry said.

"Why?" Hermione asked, stunned. "We need to know how this is going to affect you! We need to get these tests started as soon as..."

"Hermione," he said grasping her hand. "We will! But I needed them to focus on you!"

She looked at him confused. "Why? I feel fine! Did something…" Her face went pale, as she remembered the glowing green curse flying at her.

Her breaths started coming in gasps as she toppled out of her chair and onto the floor; she heard Harry saying something but she couldn't make it out over the roaring of the blood in her ears.

Harry found himself being thrown to the ground outside the cabin, still screaming his best friends name as the pair of Avengers sealed the door. Clambering back to his feet he ran toward the door, only to be grabbed by a pair of powerful arms.

"Harry no! You can't! She's changing!" Steve yelled.

"I can help her!" Harry cried, "I did it before!"

"We don't know that!" he said, physically holding the boy back. "That cabin was designed to hold the Hulk! She'll be fine once she starts to calm down."

A crash of something hitting the wall came from inside, as the pair of heroes pulled the boy further away toward the waiting Quinjet.