Chapter Seven: A Time and Place

Dr. Selvig was a short man with short white hair and wearing a plaid shirt. By the time that Helene and Tony had arrived Dr. Selvig was still muttering to himself while the rest of the Avengers gathered around the round table waiting for him to present his findings.

Fury cleared his throat and interrupted Dr. Selvig from his pacing and muttering to himself. "Dr. Selvig, Stark and Potter are here are you ready you share your findings?"

"Oh, of course," Dr. Selvig looked a little surprised to be addressed, apparently lost in his own mind. He fixed his shirt and shook Helene's hand. "Welcome Miss Potter, Fury has told me a lot about you. I look forward to asking you a few questions if you have time to answer them that is. I find the wizarding world quite fascinating and I'm afraid that sometimes not even my science adds up."

Helene nodded politely as Tony rolled his eyes rudely and took his seat next to Steve who gave him a scolding look. Helene took the seat next to Tony and Natasha broke the silence. "Well, now that Helene cured us all- "

"Easy for you to say," Clint murmured.

Natasha spoke over him. "Perhaps you can express your findings, Dr. Selvig."

Dr. Selvig nodded as if he had remembered why he was here in the first place. Tony murmured next to her that after the "Loki" incident Dr. Selvig had gone "cuckoo" and he continued to make coo noises until Steve kicked him.

"What did you find, Dr. Selvig?" Wanda asked as she twisted a dark curl around her finger. "Is it HYDRA?"

Helene noticed that Steve stiffened and he looked tensed. Dr. Selvig shook his head. "HYDRA? No, Wanda HYDRA may be powerful, but in my career even after Thor I never did see something like this. An earthquake of this magnitude has never been recorded, at least not in the United States."

"So, it was not geographical?" Vision prompted.

"It was not," Dr. Selvig said as he pointed to the screen. "Now I wish that Dr. Banner was here with me, he might have helped me with things that I am missing, but I'm positive in my findings. What caused the earthquake must do with something out of this realm. Nothing human could have cost it. Gods, wizardry, I'm not sure exactly what, but it was not from around here."

Helene could feel her cheeks become hot as everyone stared at her. "Do you have anything else? Earthquakes aren't exactly common where I'm from either."

Dr. Selvig shook his head. "No, it happened so fast I'm afraid that I wasn't able to capture any more data, but I will continue to keep looking. I just thought that you should know. I will keep you inform."

Fury cleared his throat and nodded. "That's it. You can go now. I just wanted to keep you informed. Helene stay back for a bit."

Helene waited until everyone had left to approach the director. "Is something wrong? I'm sorry, but earthquake doesn't exactly scream wizardry."

"I know." Helene noticed that Fury looked tired and frustrated. "I'm just asking you to write to your friend, the one who works for the ministry."

"Hermione."

"Yes, her. Ask her if she has heard anything in the rumor mill and if you have any suspicions, tell me."

Helene nodded. "I will." She gave Fury's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before she headed to her room. She saw that Hera was waiting impatiently for her holding a letter in her beak. Hera bit her lightly on the finger as she removed the letter. "Ow," Helene frowned. "You're feeling vicious today, aren't you?"

Hera gave a small huff as she accepted the two owl biscuits that Helene put on her cage. Helene unfolded the letter and immediately recognized that it was from Hermione. She recognized the neat, cursive letters.

Dear Helene,

I hope you are doing wonderfully in your new job, but I'm sure you are. You are an excellent healer and all your patients at St. Mungo's liked you. I'm writing to tell you about the rumors that have been surrounding the ministry of magic lately.

Keep in mind that these are just rumors and only those with a higher position know the truth, but rest assure I will make sure everything goes out in public. But since you're living in New York I though you should know this.

The Golden Pyramid has been stolen. In case you, like Ron fell asleep in class one too many times and didn't bother reading any of the books I recommended over the summer I will tell you what the Golden Pyramid is. It was created in 1909 by Robert Wells in England using dark magic and it nearly killed Wells in process.

He disappeared in 1912 before anyone in the ministry could capture him, but he caused a lot of mayhem before then. Apparently, the pyramid serves almost as a timer of some sort with a blue arrow in the middle on one of the triangles that can be moved to either one of the three corners of the triangle. If pointing up it can change the weather in disastrous ways, if it points on the left mind control, and if pointing on the right it controls magic. I believe the whole idea is rubbish and it is someone's idea of a bad joke since the Golden Pyramid is carefully guarded, but I wanted you to hear it from me and not some idiot. When are you coming to visit? We miss you! Ron, Hugo, Rose, and I send you our love!

Love,

Hermione


For Helene, the morning couldn't have come sooner, it seemed an eternity before the sun rose over her tiny bedroom and before she could visit the Avengers tower at an appropriate time. She quickly brushed her dark hair into two braids and nervously chewed on a granola bar as she watched the news. She had known that this whole "peace era" was too good to be true.

Helene had probably jinxed it the second that she had stepped foot in New York. She watched as the news lady delivered the news that everyone in New Yok was suffering and that some of the buildings were half destroyed, all except Avengers tower who seemed to be in miraculous condition.

She winced, maybe she had gone a bit too far in the whole remodeling especially since Muggles seemed to noticed everything. The clock finally hit nine and Helene headed outside. This was one of the things that Helene hated about living in the big city, she could hardly apparate anywhere without risking being seen by muggles.

It took her about forty-five minutes to understand how the subway situation worked before she finally found herself in front of Stark Tower. "Friday, it's me."

"Welcome, Miss Potter." Friday said as the double doors opened. "The Avengers are on the tenth floor, the elevators are to your right. But perhaps you wish to apparate that will surely be faster."

Helene nodded as she apparated to the tenth floor, Clint stepped back nearly dropping his orange juice in the process. "Geez, Potter will it kill you to give me a warning?"

"Sorry." Helene said as she looked around. Wanda and Vision were glued to the television screen, Natasha was making waffles, and Steve was helping Natasha cook, but from the looks of it he was doing a lousy job.

Natasha noticed the queasy look on Helene's face and stopped munching on a waffle. "Ok, what is it?"

Helene cleared her throat. "We have a problem."

-End of Chapter Seven-

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