The morning light seeped through the large paned glass waking up the mostly empty space of the infirmary. When Tony designed the new compound he purposely built the medical wing facing the south side and installed plenty of large windows to allow the natural light in. Each member of the Avengers at some point or another had spent a significant amount of time recovering here. So he didn't want the new infirmary to feel like a basement ER of some podunk county hospital.

Like the rest of the compound these days, the infirmary saw less traffic and fewer visitors now that the Avengers were less active. Bruce hoped to bring the place back to life by finding Tony. Hunched over his laptop, he continued writing a sequence of code that would hopefully bring Tony back. The keys clicked away in tandem with the beeping monitor attached to his sole patient in an otherwise silent room.

The program he designed should sync up all the satellites in orbit to collectively scan for Tony's arc reactor signature. The universe was infinitely large and vast, so he needed all eyes searching for Tony. While the arc reactor produced a unique energy pattern, the problem was that it was not nearly as bright or massive as a star, so its light was easily lost among the the billions of stars in the universe. This was an impossible task. Bruce was metaphorically speaking looking for a needle in a haystack, and he was trying to build a powerful enough magnet.

Bruce had finally convinced Thor to leave Ylva's side to clean up and eat something assuring him that he would send for him as soon as she wakes up. He understood that Asgardians did not need regular food intake and sleep like mortal humans, but he had his reasons for sending Thor away.

Thor shamefully confessed everything after they triple checked the DNA results. Bruce scrubbed the machine free of contaminants and reran the samples three times confirming irrefutably that her DNA was human and female.

Thor told him of his suspicions when he first met Ylva. He described her unusual behaviors: her friendly temperament, her ability to read, to understand everything spoken to her, and her uncanny ability to perform magic. He thought she was Loki in disguise. While Bruce did not condone his reaction, he agreed that was a conclusion he would have automatically jumped to as well.

Thor admitted that a small part of him was disappointed that Ylva wasn't Loki, but he was more embarrassed and ashamed by his brutish behavior towards her. He had never in his 1500 years manhandled a woman before. Eager to start atoning for his mistake, he stayed by her side waiting for her to wake and ready to do anything and everything to earn her forgiveness. He had started by cleaning her up knowing how fastidious she was about her cleanliness. He had carefully scrubbed away the dried blood that clung to her fur when Bruce finally forced him to leave.

Bruce decided that it was in both of their best interest that Thor was not in the room when she woke up. She needed to feel safe enough to trust them, so they can figure out how to help her. Bruce had concluded that she was a shapeshifter like Loki, but was stuck in her animal form. If she could have changed back, surely she would have done so out of self preservation. In less than twenty-four hours the poor thing found herself in two dangerous encounters due to a misunderstanding. She was lucky to have survived.

Bruce stayed with her in the empty infirmary to monitor her recovery progress. Watching her sleep was boring, so he decided to take advantage of the solitude and quiet to get some much needed work done.

Bruce was deep in concentration debugging the new program he had written on his laptop when the phone icon popped up on his screen. He almost hit ignore until he realized who it was. He clicked to answer it and smiled when a familiar face popped up on the screen.

"Jane, what a surprise!"

"Hey! Good morning! I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"No, not at all. I was just doing some troubleshooting on this new program I'm working on. How are you?"

"I'm tired, but other than that I'm good." Jane looked radiant as always, but there were hints of dark circles forming underneath her eyes. Despite her cheerful demeanor her body language conveyed a level of exhaustion common to overworked scientists everywhere.

Bruce sympathized with her. He fought back a yawn with another sip of coffee. His third cup this morning. It was not even 10 o'clock yet, and it already felt like the end of a really long day. "I appreciate you helping me, but I don't want to cause you any more unnecessary stress. Especially given yo-"

Jane laughed, "you sound just like Erik. I don't know how I'm allowed to get anything done with everyone always treating me like breakable glass. I promise, I'm fine," putting extra emphasis on the word fine. She knew Bruce meant well. That he was actually concerned about her well-being. Unlike some of her other male colleagues, as a female scientist she had to combat a lot of sexism both intentional and unintentional.

"Besides, this is important. Possible the most important project of my life."

"Besides the one that's about to hatch in what two months time?" Bruce teased lightly.

"Five and a half weeks," Jane corrected rolling her eyes, "and it can't come soon enough. Anyways, we're trying to save someone's life here! If there's any chance that Tony may still be alive, we need to do everything we can to find him and fast. He's our Matt Damon, and we need to bring him home."

Bruce chuckled softly behind his mug of coffee, "so I guess that makes us NASA then."

"Of course," Jane said, "between your seven PhDs and my Nobel, there's enough brain power here to run mission control in Houston. I'm sure Tony is doing everything he can to survive out there. We can't let him down."

Bruce couldn't help but smile. Her optimism was infectious. Bruce had not seen Jane in person for a long time. She left her post at Culver University shortly after him when she met Thor and became involved with SHIELD. Then he disappeared from the planet for two years while Jane traveled around the world teaching and consulting at the most prestigious institutions. Right now she was in Texas at the McDonald Observatory.

When Bruce began his near impossible search he knew he required the help of a world class astrophysicist, and he knew exactly who to call.

"Anyways, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm calling you. I have some good news."

"Really? What is it?"

"It concerns our Matt Damon actually," she beamed unable to contain her excitement. "I've been playing with a few of our remote satellites, and they've picked up some readings that match Tony's arc reactor signatures. I think I may have found him."

"Oh. Wow! That's.." Bruce was speechless,"that's great!" This was the first bit of good news Bruce had heard in a very long time. He would hug her if he could. Finally one of them had a breakthrough.

"How far away?"

"A few jumps from our solar system. There were recorded readings from multiple locations. You know what that means?"

"He's alive," Bruce couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, and he's on the move. I haven't locked down the exact coordinates yet, but I can get them to you in less than 24 hours."

"That's great! Thank you so much Jane."

A sudden loud crash caused Bruce to nearly fall out of his chair. He whipped his head around and spotted the fallen equipment beeping loudly, the detached wires, and an empty bed. He scanned the room for his missing patient and panicked when he saw the open door, which he swore he locked to deter Thor. Not that a locked door could stop him.

"Uhhh Jane, I'm going to have to call you back."

"Um….Okay, is ever-"

Bruce quickly shut his laptop and ran through the open door. Thor was going to kill him if he found out he lost her.


Hermione did not know where she was. She stared down at the endless hallway identical to the previous ones. She woke up to the sound of people conversing. When her eyes came to focus, she immediately realized that she was no longer alone or in the forest. The room had been white, clean, and it had smelled strongly of industrial cleaning solvent. The same kind her parents used at their dental office. Probably a hospital of some sort she had surmised. Wherever she was didn't matter. Being a soldier and prisoner of war had conditioned her to always look for all available exits no matter where she was. She had spotted a door. Not willing to wait and see if her captor had good intentions or not, she went for it.

Her muscles in her left foreleg protested every step she took. To her surprise the sharp pain in her left side was gone. All that remained was a tender soreness. She didn't know what happened, but she managed to make it out of the woods alive.

Concentrating she tried to conjure up a point me spell. She didn't know where she was going to go from here. But she'll start with finding the exit. She had never done a point me spell without her wand and wasn't sure if it would work without it. To her amazement it worked. A tiny floating arrow appeared, and she followed it.

Strangely there was no one around for a building this size. It looked less and less like a hospital the further she walked and more like the headquarters of a large international business conglomerate with its shiny floors and floor to ceiling windows. She expected to see someone, anyone, business men in fancy suits, CEOs walking and talking on their brick mobiles. She spoke too soon.

Bruce intercepted her just as she was about to reach the elevators. "Oh thank god! I found you," he said relieved that she hadn't gone far.

Surprised by his sudden appearance, she lost her concentration and the arrow dissipated in a puff. She had only a split second to decide whether or not to attack.

"Thor would have killed me if I had lost you."

At the mention of Thor's name she chose not to attack. Hermione studied the man with a healthy sense of apprehension. He ran his hands through his hair nervously. On the surface this man with his messy hair and wrinkled clothes seemed harmless and friendly even. Call it a sixth sense developed from her animagus, but she sensed something dangerous lurking underneath his seemingly harmless exterior that made her hesitate to trust him.

"Uh..hi. You're awake and moving. That's good." Bruce cleared his throat. "Um...I know you can understand me. I'm Bruce. Dr. Bruce Banner. I'm a friend of Thor's."

Thor brought her here she realized. She wanted an explanation, so she put her grand plans of escaping on hold. For now.

"Ylva, may I call you Ylva? I understand that might not be your real name," Bruce said awkwardly. This was a very one-sided conversation, but if anyone understood what it was like to be trapped in the body of a savage beast, it was him.

"You were hurt," Bruce explained. "Thor brought you here just in time for us to save you. You're in America now specifically New York. This is the Avengers Compound."

Hermione didn't know what the Avengers were, but she was surprised that she was so far from home. How did Thor manage to get her across the pond?

"He told me everything that happened. I'm not going to try to justify his actions or apologize for him. I understand if you are not ready to see him, but you will have to eventually."

Hermione's guarded demeanor relaxed a bit surprised by how considerate he was being towards her. Especially since he knew nothing about her except for what Thor may have told him. Which could not have been much as Thor didn't know anything about her either.

"But let's not worry about that for now because I need to do a quick post op check up. Will you come back to the clinic with me? Please?" he asked as he took a few steps back towards the medical wing. "As your doctor, I have to say you left against medical advice," Bruce added half jokingly when she didn't move. He couldn't seem to break the ice with her.

They stared at each other for a moment. As the seconds ticked by, Bruce started to doubt her ability to understand him. Had he been presumptuous to assume she understood English? It just dawned on him that Thor found her in Norway, and he had the gift of Allspeak. Of course she understood Thor. Bruce gave her a comforting smile hoping that translated well enough to convince her to go with him.

Clearly he wasn't afraid of her and seemed to care about her well-being as a doctor would for his patients. Hermione reluctantly followed still wary of the man. It was just a short and silent walk back to the infirmary thankfully for Hermione. She was already feeling tired and achy all over. Performing wandless magic after recovering from a gunshot wound was probably not wise.

Bruce righted the beeping machine and turned it off. He sighed, "you and Thor are destroying all the medical equipment. You're lucky Tony's not here." There was no malice in his voice. He smiled at her as he grabbed a step stool for her to use to get herself onto the examination table.

Hermione didn't know who Tony was, probably another friend of Thor's that she might meet while she was here. She stepped gingerly onto the table and scrutinized the man in front of her. This was her doctor. The person that saved her. Well apart from Thor, again.

Bruce carefully approached her reading her body language for any possible hostile reaction. When she didn't react, he interpreted it as her implicitly granting him permission to touch her. He first listened to her chest with his stethoscope. "Deep breath in. Good. And out."

Then he checked her wound and hummed in approval when he saw the fully healed pink flesh. "The wound has healed nicely. Good to know that my latest invention worked."

Hermione eyes narrowed. She desperately wanted to ask what he did because she was sure that unless he used magic, bullet wounds don't heal within twenty four hours. Perhaps he wasn't an ordinary muggle.

"I'm going to take your temperature now. Can you open your mouth for me?"

Hermione opened her mouth revealing two rows of pearly, sharp teeth. Bruce carefully tucked the thermometer underneath her tongue. "Okay, close gently."

She complied without fuss.

"Good." Bruce wished all his patients were this easy, but above all he was amazed. Thor was right. He was skeptical at first, but she really could understand him.

The thermometer beeped. "37 degrees Celsius, perfect. For wolf and human." He smiled at her knowingly as he set aside the thermometer.

Hermione's eyes widened. Was it possible that this man knew she was human? He did say he knew that she could understand him.

"Alright. Let's take a look at your neck. You've experienced some trauma there when Thor grabbed you," Bruce noted clinically.

She flinched at the memory. He certainly didn't sugarcoat it. Thor had attacked her.

Bruce didn't miss the subtle change in her demeanor. He needed to tread more carefully. "If you don't mind, I'm going to touch you there now."

When she didn't back away he placed his hands on the sides of her face sliding down to her neck. He gently felt her neck. She winced, it felt very tender.

"Still hurts?" he nodded emphatically. "You're going to have some bruising. I want you to wear a neck brace for now. Hopefully it fits." He retrieved a neck brace from the supply cabinet behind him and secured it around her neck. "Ah. Perfect. I know, it's not the most flattering," Bruce joked lightly, "but it's meant to restrict your movements so you'll heal quicker."

Bruce was almost finished with the check up when Thor barged in unannounced. Bruce sighed silently kicking himself for not locking the door. Though a locked door would scarcely keep out the Asgardian god anyways.

"Thor," Bruce started.

Thor ignored him. His eyes lit up at the sight of her awake and alive, and he made a beeline right to her bedside.

Hermione was definitely not ready to see him not knowing what to expect she braced herself. Fur bristling, she instinctively scrunched herself up like a spring ready to pounce if provoked. She was vaguely aware of how the stupid neck brace must have undermined the menacing front she tried to put on.

Hair damp, he looked like he just got out of the shower. He was so close she could smell the soap and feel the moist heat leftover from his shower.

"Ylva, please forgive me. It was never my intention to hurt you." There was a tenderness in his eyes and a tinge of desperation in his voice that nearly melted her, but she staunchly maintained her resolve. She had forgotten who he was and let down her guard.

She forced herself to remember the day she first saw him. How terrifying he looked in his armor as he effortlessly killed an entire horde of acromantulas. He was no ordinary man, but a god to be feared. Then the unbidden memories of him bathing her and reading with her resurfaced as well. Her mind struggled to reconcile the two versions of Thor along with the one standing before her kind stranger that fed her. The friend that invited her to stay in his home. That she burned down. She cringed at that memory.

Thor reached out to touch her, but hesitated when he saw her recoil. She hadn't meant to. He looked hurt by her instinctual response. His hand wavered a moment midair before dropping to his side.

He didn't know where to begin to earn her forgiveness. He sighed, "Loki and I have a very long and complicated history."

Hermione almost snorted. That was an understatement.

"I was so convinced that you were him. Had I known...I would not have touched you like that. I would never had hurt you." Thor had never been very eloquent with his feelings."I didn't think. I simply acted. I am truly sorry." He nervously scratched the back of his neck.

His apology came out rather clumsily, which she found kind of endearing. She softened a bit despite her previous stance.

"But I know now. And I promise I will do whatever it takes to change you back," Thor vowed. Thor's face had a look of singular determination about him as if nothing could stop him from fulfilling that promise.

Hermione wouldn't know what to say even if she could talk.

"And I will help," Bruce piped up from behind Thor's massive body. He had been briefly forgotten by the two other occupants in the room. "But first we need to make sure she gets a clean bill of health first. She did go through some significant trauma."

You have no idea. She hadn't even turned twenty yet, and the things she had done, seen, experienced during and after the war warranted at least a decade worth of intense therapy.

Bruce cleared his throat. "Uh Thor, may I speak with you for a moment?" He pulled Thor aside but still within Ylva's earshot. He didn't want her to think they were hiding anything from her. Secrets early on were not the right way to go about to earn her trust, which was already tenuous.

"What is it? Is something wrong with Ylva?" Thor glanced over to her worriedly. Hermione's ears perked up at the mention of her name. Mortals no matter what form were susceptible to diseases whether from their environment or created within their bodies.

"No, she's fine. It's something else." Bruce felt bad that he was about to send Thor on what was possibly a wild goose chase, but judging by Ylva's tepid reaction to him, he thought it would be best if Thor gave her some space. Plus, he wanted to find Tony.

Thor folded his arms and looked at him expectantly, "then what is it?"

"I think I may have found Tony," Bruce said hesitantly as if he couldn't believe it himself. He had been searching for so long.

"That is the most wonderful news!" Thor exclaimed as he patted Bruce on the arm with a little too much force judging from the pained expression on Bruce's face. "Well, where is he?"

"Um, well. My colleague at the McDonald Observatory picked up some heat signatures from his arc reactor. She's working on pinpointing his exact location. I need you to go find him."

"Absolutely, with Stormbreaker I have access to the bifrost. I can go just about anywhere in the universe. Just tell me where." Thor was excited at the prospect of an intergalactic space adventure, but he also didn't want to leave Ylva. The last thing he wanted her to think was that he had abandoned her. He glanced back at her forlornly.

Sensing his hesitation, "we'll look after her while you're gone," Bruce assured him. "She still needs lots of uninterrupted rest and quiet if she is to recover fully." That may have been a white lie. She certainly recovered well enough to escape earlier.

"Alright, I shall go. It should not take me long," Thor said decisively after contemplating silently for a few minutes. "Where am I going?"

"Well my colleague is working out the exact coordinates as we speak." Lying by omission now, good one Banner! Bruce's snarky conscience snarked. Bruce ignored the pesky voice in his head, "she works at the McDonald Observatory in Texas, " he said as he casually steered Thor toward the door.

"Oh, I know of that place. I accompanied Jane there once. She was invited as a guest lecturer."

"What are the chances," Bruce muttered at the irony.

"What?"

"Nothing. So you know where it is?"

"Yes. That's what I just said."

"Great! When can you leave?"

Thor shrugged, "now? I suppose. But I'd like to see to Yl-"

"Great, we'll see you when you get back. Tell them that I sent you," he said quickly as he ushered Thor out.

Thor said a quick goodbye to Ylva, before Bruce shut the door. He took out his phone and quickly texted Jane to give her a heads up.

Bruce turned to Hermione and took a deep breath. "Alright, where were we?"

Hermione stared at him silently.

"Right. We should find a way to communicate." Bruce reached for a prescription pad and wrote 'yes' on one sheet, 'no' on another, and 'I don't know' on the last sheet. Tearing them off the pad he placed them in front of her.

"Not ideal, but we'll figure out something better later." Bruce knew this method will rely heavily on him asking the right questions.

"Are you in any pain?"

She nosed the slip of paper with the word 'no.'

"Good. If anything changes and you start to feel any pain or unwell let me know by tugging on my shirt. That'll be our code, okay?"

She nudged 'yes' to show that she understood.

"I think that wraps up your checkup. Moving on, Thor tells me you can perform magic. Is that true?"

She enthusiastically tapped 'yes.' If he already knew about magic then she did not breach the Statute of Secrecy. At least that was what she hoped.

"Are you a sorcerer? Er, sorry, sorceress?"

Hermione thought about that for a moment. She supposed it was all semantics really, mage, sorcerer, witch, enchantress. But it mattered to her so she tapped the space between 'yes' and 'no' with her paw.

Bruce understood what she was trying to tell him, "that's not a yes or a no, so not a sorceress, but something else that does magic. A witch?"

She happily tapped 'yes.'

Bruce did not have the faintest idea as to what the difference between the two were. Perhaps they studied different disciplines of magic much like how a physicist and a chemist study different fields within science. Or maybe it came down to differences in genetics and natural abilities. Perhaps her magic differed from that of Strange's and Wong's.

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere," Bruce smiled. He took out a pen and some paper to take notes.


This interaction went on in the same manner for some time. Bruce deduced that her enemy had attacked her with an unknown spell, which has trapped her in the form that she was in now. She did not know how to change herself back. Her magic use was limited. That precious amount of information was gained painstakingly by playing the longest game of twenty questions ever. Both of them were tired from the exchange but too polite to admit it.

Hermione wished she could tell him more, and she could tell the feeling was mutual. But since Bruce was muggle and knew nothing of her world, he wouldn't even begin to know what to ask.

Bruce was in awe. This was truly remarkable. She really was human. He wanted to know her name, how old she was, where she was from, how her magic worked, and ask a bunch of other questions, but that will have to wait until he devised a better way for them to communicate. He confirmed that she was literate, so he decided he would create a keyboard for her. The keys needed to be enlarged enough so that she could touch the letters with her paw or nose. He planned to get to work on it straightaway.

Most importantly he also planned to get in touch with Wong at the New York Sanctum to see if he could break the spell, but he could wait until Thor returned first, hopefully with Tony. She needed to make a full recovery before he could allow her to leave the compound anyways.

Bruce placed a full water dish on the tray. He moved to the refrigerator hoping to scrounge up something for Ylva to eat. The fridge was filled to the brim with half empty take out containers with questionable expiration dates. Someone should clean this out he thought.

"So, how's our newest Avenger doing?"

"She's napping at the moment. I think I wore her down with all my questions," Bruce answered head still in the fridge not even startled by Natasha's sudden appearance. The woman moved everywhere with inhuman stealth. "And she's not a recruit. Do we have anything still edible in here?" He unfolded the lid of an old chinese to go container and gave it a sniff.

Natasha took the box from his hand and dropped it into the trash. "Let's not feed her our old leftovers. We don't want to accidentally poison her after all the hard work we put into saving her. Plus Thor would murder us."

"Yeah, you're right. I think I discovered a new species of microorganism in this one." He tossed another container into the trash.

"I'll order something," Natasha volunteered. She forcefully opened the stuck drawer crammed full of take out menus. Flipping through the pile she asked, "did you happen to ask her what she liked to eat during your interrogation?"

"Nah, we didn't get that far."

"Pizza?"

"Yeah, that's a safe bet." Bruce gave up and closed the fridge. "Ask Cap what he wants on his."

"Right away, sir," there was a pause before the AI answered, "mushrooms and ham."

"Thanks, put in our usual order to Coltivare Pizzeria," said Natasha.

"Consider it done. Delivery expected in 30 - 45 minutes," the AI reported.

"She's a shapeshifting witch. Our numbers are down. We could use some new blood. There's even a vacant position for 'witch' waiting to be filled," Natasha said casually.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Bruce crossed his arms over his chest. "Someone may be looking for her, she may have family searching, worrying. Thor found her in Norway and now she's in the states. She's probably a long way from home."

"I doubt that," Natasha said, "the part about the family," she clarified.

Bruce leaned against the counter looking at Natasha expectantly.

"She's like us. Abnormal in a very ordinary, vulnerable world," she explained. "I don't like to use this word, but she's a freak basically. Freaks don't have friends or family looking after them. They may have people hunting them," she closed the overstuffed drawer and planted herself next to Bruce her shoulder bumping gently with his. "In fact, I'd be surprised if she didn't have anyone after her."

Her words struck something deep in Bruce. Those years running away from Ross were the most isolating years of his life.

"Why do you think the Avengers worked? We're safer together, no one is going to protect you better than your own. It seems that we've forgotten how to do that these last two years," she said almost wistfully. She tilted her head leaning it against Bruce's shoulder. Natasha softened against his shoulder. Bruce was surprised by her sudden sentimentality. She was always so guarded.

Bruce had to admit that she was right. Aside from Clint, who was able to cobble together a relatively normal life, which was a feat in of itself as none of them were able to achieve such a thing. None of them really had a chance to. Natasha had been groomed to be a killer since she was a child. Steve, a super soldier, woke up in another century. Thor exiled to earth at one point eventually returned to make it his home when he lost his. Months after he returned to earth, Bruce finally allowed himself to accept the love and intimacy he denied himself out of fear. Bruce lost all his friends and acquaintances after his transformation. He didn't find any sort of acceptance until he joined the Avengers. Natasha had a point. He was not normal, none of them were. They were a collection of overgrown orphans with nowhere else to go.

Natasha shrugged,"the Avengers, Clint, Steve, you," she reached for his hand clasping it tightly, "are the closest thing I have to a family, which is why you need to find Tony, so we can get the reckoning over with and be a damn family again," she said pragmatically.

Bruce nodded, "I agree. I already sent Thor after him," he sighed, "and now we just wait," he said squeezing her hand.


AN: Hello, I know all of you are anxiously waiting for the chapter where Hermione turns back into a human. I just want to reassure everyone that I have already written that chapter and we're not far off. Thank you all for being so patient! Happy Holidays!

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