I don't own.

She leapt, and Loki swung the sceptre blunt end first towards her. Hermione ducked and slashed at his thigh with her knife. Loki reared back and Hermione took another careful step forwards, landing a hard kick to the solar plexus that didn't even faze him.

"Oh goddammit."

"As you wish." Loki returned, raising the curved end of the sceptre and slicing a tear through the suit just below her collarbone, blood welled to the surface and poured down her chest, Hermione stumbled back a little bit. How many sets of clothes did this guy manage to ruin? She raised the knife once more but let Loki step towards her.

He threw his staff to the side and raised his fists up, "It would only be fair." He offered in explanation.

Hermione threw out a silencio at his face, causing his mouth to snap shut, "Like going against a god was ever fair."

Loki's mouth moved but no sound came out, "See, that's better." And then threw a punch straight to his nose with all her (considerable, for a fourteen year old's) strength. Blood leaked out and Hermione smirked at the sight and then backed him against one of the still intact windows of the penthouse with a knife to his throat.

His eyes widened for a brief moment and quickly narrowed back into a smirk. Before he could do anything Hermione jumped up and planted both feet firmly on his chest and pushed off like he was a springboard. Or rather, pushed off the glass like a springboard; he'd vanished in a green shimmer as she fell hard onto the ground and rolled backwards to shake off the impact. Loki, or rather a version of him loomed overhead. Quickly, Hermione leapt up and tackled the image.

"I thought you'd be much better than this." Loki said, his tone that of complete boredom, he swept the sceptre along the ground a few times and kicked up the loose gravel Stark had on the balcony. The battle still raged on below them, acrid smoke filling her nostrils as she could faintly make out the Hulk carving a path of destruction in the direction of the tower. She pulled out another knife and transfigured it into a metal baseball bat.

"As much as I'd love to take constructive criticism about my fight style, I'm afraid contestant number two is ready for you." She told him, pulling the bat forwards and swinging it hard into his stomach as Hulk leapt onto the balcony. Loki flew back into the penthouse as the Hulk lumbered forward.

"I think we've got Loki distracted for a while. Where am I needed?" Hermione shouted through the comm.

"Selvig should be coming around any minute now. Grab the sceptre and go to the roof, find a way to close that portal." Steve ordered.

"Got it."

Hermione scooped up the sceptre from where Loki had abandoned it and snuck through the penthouse from behind the bar. The only reason she made it to the bank of elevators was because the Hulk found great and immense pleasure in tossing Loki around like a rag doll that was extremely light. Once the Hulk realised that Loki wasn't going to be causing any direct harm to the city or the Tower Hulk bounded away, leaving Loki to wheeze pathetically in his God shaped hole in the ground.

Wordlessly, JARVIS sent the elevator up to the roof and Hermione twisted her hands around it nervously. She couldn't help think about the possibilities if they couldn't defeat the Chitauri now.

An explosion ripped through the earpiece and Hermione shouted, "What the bloody hell was that?"

"Apparently the Chitauri have grenades now." Steve replied.

"Obviously that's something you'd want to avoid. How's it looking down there?" She asked him.

"We could do with a little more fire if you asked me. How close are you to that roof?" Stark chipped in.

The doors slid open and Hermione dived out, "I'm on the roof now."

"Good. Find a way to close that portal."

"Actually I was thinking about having a picnic with the lovely Dr Selvig. Anyone know where Stark keeps his barbeque?" Hermione replied sarcastically, staring at the glowing blue dome around the Tesseract.

"Barbeque is actually on the penthouse floor Sabrina." Stark told her.

"Dammit."

Hermione ditched the portal for the time being and went to check on Dr Selvig, who was slipping back into the realm of the living just as she reached him. Hermione pulled him up off the ground and checked his eyes for any signs of the mind control the sceptre could do. The bright blue was fading away as the astrophysicist took in the destroyed skyline around him.

"What is this?" He asked.

"Loki's army. Is there a way to close that portal?" Hermione demanded straight away, not wanting any time to be wasted away making sure Selvig was going to be able to do what he was already doing.

"The sceptre. The cube can't fight itself. If you dislodge it then the portal should close." Selvig told Hermione, he opened his mouth to speak again but she cut him off.

"That's all I need to know. Just, relax. I can take it from here."

Hermione raised the sceptre and gripped it with both hands as she inched to the Tesseract, choosing the side with the most roof behind so any backlash doesn't throw her away from the building. Her hair whipped out of her braid as the wind picked up.

"I can close the portal. Does anybody copy? I can close it!" Hermione shouted.

"Do it!" Steve commanded. Hermione pushed the sceptre inside the portal and fought with the shield as it pushed against her.

"No wait! There's a nuclear bomb heading right for the city and I know just where to put it!" Stark interjected.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip." Steve told him gravely.

"It doesn't have to be."

"Stark, I'd kill you. The magic and the arc reactor don't mix." Hermione objected.

"I trust you."

Tears leaked in the corners of Hermione's eyes and she pushed the sceptre in further, "Then you do me a favour and call Pepper, alright?"

"I'll see you soon." Stark told them, before his side of the link cut off and a red, white and gold blur flew past the corner of Hermione's vision and into the portal. Her breathing became laboured as she threw everything she had into getting the sceptre to the Tesseract. They clinked together lightly and amber tinged visions danced through her mind; but she pushed them aside out of necessity.

"Close it."

With a loud cry she jabbed the cube out of its hinges and dropped the sceptre. The force field drew in and then blasted outwards, knocking Hermione clean off her feet and into the wall.

The void directly above her began to shrink rapidly as she raised her hands and screamed, "ACCIO TONY STARK!"

Seconds later, a red and gold blur dropped out of the metre wide circle and Hermione smiled, "We've got him."

The suit dropped past the roof and towards the ground and Hermione leaned over the ledge to see what was happening. Stark's thrusters weren't activating even past the penthouse level and worry began to nibble at her stomach; not even the suit would survive a fall that high. And the only thing that would cause the suit to not activate was if the arc reactor was off.

Hermione closed her eyes and rolled back over to stare at the Tesseract, not wanting to know Stark's fate as he got closer to the ground. A violent tugging sensation began at her navel and her body twisted. When she opened her eyes again she was stumbling over the husk of a chitauri body, on the bridge where everyone had gathered, looking over Stark's body. She jogged over and could only watch and Thor ripped away his faceplate. Then she noticed the lack of glow coming his chest and gripped her mother's arm.

"Oh god." She whispered.

Without giving any indication as to what he was about to do, the Hulk roared directly into Stark's face and then turned back around. A second later the light in Tony's chest flickered back to life and he shouted out in shock.

"Please tell me that nobody kissed me. Oh, hey, is it over?" He gasped. Hermione laughed a little bit as Stark looked around.

"We won." Steve confirmed.

"Yay! Let's just not go into work tomorrow. Take a day off. Has anyone tried shawarma? I saw a place a couple of blocks over, don't know what it is but I'd like to try it." He babbled.

"Let's get you out of the suit first and then we'll see about food." Hermione told him.

"Oh hey you. How'd you get here?" He asked, everyone turned to look at her. Hermione looked around and then realised she'd moved from the roof of a skyscraper to a bridge in an instant. But then again, teleportation was a common practice in wizarding society.

"I don't know." She told them.

"Cool. But let's deal with Loki first."

And so deal with Loki they did.

Annd, done!

Phew!

Okay, so it's very speech heavy which is something I'm very worried about partly because the first draft felt incredibly rushed and just horrible. Hopefully this version isn't too bad.

Next chapter, the sending away of Loki and Thor, and the return to Hogwarts (Yayy! I finally get to write Harry and Ron after 19000 words!)

I'm going to try to stick to canon, however due to this being fanfiction, it is going to go off massively as you know, universe building and all that.

Please review/favourite/follow.

Thank you,

Lauren.