Thor stared up at her from his reclined position on the divan. She hovered over him watching him expectantly. He didn't need to touch her to know she wasn't corporeal. She was a wispy little thing. Her body was semi-translucent. He could see the outline of the bookcase facing him through her. Her skin, luminescent and pale, was nearly indistinguishable from her dress. Dressed in a loose, white gown she looked ethereal and inhuman, like a wood nymph or a faery. He blinked several times to confirm that her ghost like appearance was not just a trick of the light.

The silence stretched on for longer than what was comfortable for Hermione so she blurted out something that had bothered her for a long time, "I'm sorry I burned down your house!"

Thor struggled to form a response still stunned by her appearance. She was biting her bottom lip waiting for him to say something, but he was too distracted. He just kept imagining all those times he washed her in his bathtub back at the cottage. He had touched nearly every part of her, and he could not wait to do so again when she was human.

"That's...alright," he managed to choke out. Except it wasn't. The whole house was uninhabitable now, but she looked so contrite and pretty. Thor may be a god, but he was also male. He swallowed heavily, "I'm sorry I mistook you for my brother and tried to choke you to death." Guilt came over him when he saw the bruises dotting her delicate neck.

"I think you've more than made up for it when you saved my life again," she unconsciously touched the side of her neck.

"It was my fault you ran away in the first place," Thor asserted.

Hermione shook her head, "but you didn't put a bullet through me. You didn't have to go after me or save me once you realized that I wasn't Loki either, but you did anyways."

She swallowed and looked down at Ylva. She appeared to be asleep at the foot of the divan. "Had you not come after me, I would have died like that. No one would have known what happened to me." Not that there was anyone that was looking for her. Not anyone that loved her anyways.

"Do you forgive me?" Her forgiveness may have been a foregone conclusion, but Thor needed to hear those words.

Hermione nodded without hesitation, "I forgive you."

Thor exhaled in relief. Not taking his eyes off of her, he eased himself up into a seating position on the divan so his gaze was leveled with hers. "What is your name?"

"Hermione," she said, "Hermione Granger."

"Hermione," he echoed. He liked that very much. It was lovely and unusual just like her. "Named after the daughter of the most beautiful woman rumored to have lived on Midgard?"

"No, actually. My mum was quite fond of Shakespeare's Winter's Tale. It was her favorite play. She named me after the queen in the story."

"It's fitting either way," his mouth curved into a slight smile, "it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Hermione." Thor had a look about him that reminded her of the way Viktor used to look at her, unabashed adoration tempered by his hard features. It made her blush.

Hermione looked down feeling like she was melting under his intense gaze. Somehow without the skin of her animagus, she felt bare and vulnerable in his presence like she was meeting him for the first time. Fingering her dress she asked, "um..what do we do now?"

"We need to figure out how to turn you back into a human." He folded his arms behind his head and leaned back comfortably into the couch cushion. "Start from the beginning. Spare no details. I want to know everything. How did this happen?"

"You don't believe me, do you?" Hermione bit her lip. Turning around she tried to hide her frustration from Thor.

Thor stopped pacing the length of the room and walked around to face her. "Do I believe that you are a witch? Yes. That you traveled twenty years into the future, that is plausible with magic I suppose." He hesitated scratching the back of his neck before he expressed his doubts. "I just don't quite believe that two magical civil wars would have escaped the notice of SHIELD before its collapse. They would have interfered. Your world would have been exposed long ago."

"It was a secret war. I told you, the Ministry had teams of obliviators to modify the memories of muggles. The Minister of Magic even corroborates with the Prime Minister to spoon feed carefully crafted stories to the muggle media. All to erase the evidence of magic and the conflict. The war was also isolated to the United Kingdom. Perhaps your SHIELD was too busy meddling in other affairs across the globe. Or for all we know they may have helped with the cover up. You said SHIELD was a seedy, covert organization not to be trusted." Hermione grew more animated as she spoke. "I mean for Merlin's sake! If they hid a secret Nazi organization within their own ranks, it's plausible that they may have helped hide the magical conflict too. Then their secret was buried when your friends took them down," Hermione argued. That made perfect sense.

Thor shook his head."Nonetheless, those of us on Asgard would have known. Heimdall sees everything that goes on in this universe. If Voldemort was as terrible and powerful as you say he is, then Heimdall would have registered him as a threat and warned us. He monitors all potential threats across the nine realms and that includes Midgard."

Hermione frowned, "you once said Loki hid himself and a small army of Frost Giants from Heimdall."

"Loki was a very skilled Seidr, and it wasn't a small army. It was just a few Frost Giants," Thor corrected her.

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest defensively, "so you don't think us lowly earth bound magicals would have the skill and power to cloak ourselves from likes of your kind?"

Thor suppressed his smile not wanting to further rile her up despite how cute she looked in all of her frustration and self righteous anger. Her temperament surprised him. He thought her spirit was more like that of a fierce lioness than the cool aloofness of a wolf. "I'm merely saying that large societies of magical beings may be able to hide themselves from non-magicals, but they would never have escaped the eyes of Asgard. Heimdall would have known. My father would have known. Magic died out on Midgard many centuries ago."

"No! We never died out, that's just what we wanted the muggles to believe because they were hunting us," Hermione insisted. "We simply went into hiding and imposed the International Statute of Secrecy." She balled up her fists and darted across the room her dress fluttering around her bare ankles. Her increasing frustration with direction of the conversation showed.

"And now we're killing our own," she said softly as she looked out the window. The sun's rays peeked out from behind the reflective skyscrapers. It was nearly morning, and they had been talking all night. She tried to touch the glass, but her hand bypassed the surface like it was air. She could see her hand outside of the window and Thor's reflection.

"Wait," she perked up. "What about the acromantulas?" she spun around and glided back to Thor. "You fought off an entire army of them. You didn't think the sudden appearance of giant spiders was strange?" She thought about it and realized given Thor's age and how well traveled he was that maybe there wasn't a manner of beast he hadn't encountered. "On earth, I mean," she added.

"Of course we did. You should have seen Barton's reaction. He was terribly afraid of them even though he never came across a live one. That was why we spent days investigating on where they came from. We were worried there was nest of them somewhere. We searched all throughout the countryside, but they disappeared with the fog when I came back with no trace."

"That was probably the Ministry's doing. They must have destroyed the evidence," she asserted. "The spiders came from the Forbidden Forest. It surrounds Hogwarts. It's home to loads of magical creatures not just acromantulas, but centaurs, unicorns, thestrals." She flitted about the room erratically not anchored by anything as she spoke. Thor wanted to grab her and hold her still against him to reassure her that they will figure this out together, but it was impossible to catch her.

"Those creatures have not existed here in Midgard for centuries. They were thought to have died out. Where is this forest?" Thor crossed his arms over his broad chest mirroring her earlier action. "Where is this place you refer to as Hogwarts?"

"Hogwarts was the magical school I attended."

"Ah, yes, the magic castle," Thor said piecing the two together, "interesting name for a school…" he muttered.

"It's located somewhere in the mountains of Scotland. Actually Hogwarts is unplottable. You wouldn't see it on an ordinary map. It cannot be found by muggles," Hermione stated almost verbatim from Hogwarts a History. "There are spells to protect it from discovery. That was where the final battle was, and where I escaped from. It's Voldemort's stronghold now."

"Scotland is quite a ways away from Norway, how did you cross the North Sea?" Thor asked,"did you use your magic?"

"No. I hadn't realized I could do magic in my animagus form yet. I still strug - wait, what?" Hermione paused turning her head to face Thor, "what are you talking about? I've never even been to Norway."

Thor gave her a puzzled look."You lived with me in Norway for the last month."

"No," Hermione let out a small nervous laugh. "No, no, no," she shook her head in denial. "That's simply not possible. You're wrong. We were in Scotland this entire time," she said with a false bravado.

Thor's eyebrows arched upwards."No, sweetling. I swam laps around the British Isles nearly everyday before you came along. I'm aware of where they are in relation to Norway."

"I don't," she faltered. The fog, the words of the centaurs, it suddenly came back to her, "believe you," she finished weakly.

"I think you don't want to believe that you're further from home than you thought."

"What do you mean?"

"I have a theory. Years ago there was a Convergence. Multiple realms merged and the universe was nearly plunged into darkness. I think what happened the day we met was something like that but on a much smaller scale. Instead of realms within the same universe, two separate universes converged and created an opening for you to slip through."

"You think I came from another universe that is nearly identical to this one?" she asked in disbelief.

Thor nodded. "Everything you have told me so far has confirmed my suspicions. You came from a world where your type of magic still existed. It did not die like it did in this world."

"So not only am I in the wrong century, I'm also in the wrong universe. Great!" Hermione threw her hands up in the air. She turned away from him and glided back to the window. "If, and that's a big if, that is true, then how do I get back?" she glanced back at Thor.

"I do not know the answer to that, Hermione. I'm sorry." He did not miss the slight slump in her shoulders, the way her eyes cast downwards, and the subtle quiver in her bottom lip.

"But it's nearly morning now," Thor blew out the candles and lanterns as the light from the windows rendered them useless. "We should speak to Wong. Perhaps he would know."

"So you're an interloper. I thought there was something strange about you," Wong said impassively as always, "you have innate magic. A very rare gift."

"Is there a way back?" Hermione asked. She still did not fully believe Thor.

Wong did not answer right away and that made Hermione nervous. "There is a way back," Wong said carefully, "but the likelihood of you finding it is very small or I should say the likelihood of you finding your way back is one in a billion give or take."

"So there is a way back, but finding it is near impossible?" Impossible were odds she was familiar with. She had broken into Gringotts, a feat that had been believed to be impossible. "How 'impossible' exactly?"

"Allow me to explain," Wong waved his hands and the room filled with bubbles. Each one spun on its own axis floating and bumping into each other in a chaotic fashion.

"Each of these spheres represents a single universe. Some look like ours. Some have life like ours. Some have no organic life at all. Some are perfect paradises. Others contain unimaginable horrors. You look like us so you must have come from a universe similar to ours," Wong speculated. "This is but a small fraction of the billions of universes that exist. This is ours." He pointed to a red bubble bobbing along a sea of blue bubbles.

"As you can see these universes are constantly bumping and sliding against each other," Wong continued. "You are here because your universe intersected with ours at a moment in time and place. You're lucky you managed to end up on earth only twenty years ahead of your time instead of some distant planet thousands of years in the future."

"If these universes are constantly bumping into each other, then wouldn't there be more incidences like this? I would assume these crossovers would be a frequent occurrence," Hermione deduced.

Wong shook his head. "The barrier between the two worlds must be breached in order to cross over. Sometimes there are kinks or weaknesses in the barriers as they are fluid and dynamic. Magic is usually involved. We use sling rings to create openings, but that is not the only way. You said you came from 1998 Scotland and arrived in 2018 Norway?"

"Yes, October 31st." Hermione gasped, "Samhain, the veil is thinnest on this day," Hermione echoed the words of the centaurs.

"Ah, yes. The commonality was Samhain, lots of powerful magic occurs on that day. Our two worlds must have aligned on the last day of October just twenty years apart. This was a very rare occurrence indeed. Time moves independently within the respective universes of course. Even if you were to find you way home right now, there's no telling 'when' you will appear."

Hermione watched as the bubbles collided bouncing off each other randomly. They passed through her like fish in water. "And when do you suppose such an alignment will happen again," she asked tentatively already knowing the odds.

"The chances of that happening again may not be for another million years or more."

Her heart sank. If she couldn't find her way home, then she couldn't change back. If her type of magic did not exist here, that would mean there was no library filled with magical text she could dig through to find the answer. There was no Ilvermorny Library, no MACUSA, no wand makers in this version of America. Not to mention she will never see her parents ever again.

"It's purely statistical. We also constantly monitor these occurrences and record them. The instance you just described is incredibly rare. So rare it may not even happen again even in Thor's lifetime."

"If you monitor these occurrences, then why did this recent convergence escape your notice?" Thor had been silent until now busy watching Hermione's reaction. "There was an invasion of giant man eating spiders, which I took care of by the way. You're welcome." He casually flicked a sphere hovering near his face with his finger, and watched as it collided with a bunch of other ones scattering them in all directions.

"Lack of manpower," Wong said simply, "we have half the number of sorcerers guarding our world. The Ancient One had passed and Strange has been missing. We are without a Sorcerer Supreme."

Wong turned back to Hermione,"unfortunately, I do not know how to send you home. I can however teach you how to use a sling ring," he held up a simple piece of jewelry consisting of a narrow flat setting on top of two rings. "I have no doubt you'll master it quickly as you were able to master your astral projection in no time at all. But not only is it dangerous to cross between universes, you may travel your entire lifetime and never get home. And once you leave here you may never find your way back as the universes are constantly shifting past each other. It would be a fruitless journey."

He illustrated his point by showing the to two spheres touching briefly before drifting apart. "Once the universes lose contact with each other that path is gone."

"Then how do you travel without getting lost?" Hermione asked.

"There is a spell on the sling ring that tethers us to a place. It's like traveling with a spool of thread. If you go too far you run out or the thread snaps. That is why we don't travel to other universes. We stay within our universe and the dimensions that overlap it. Watch."

Wong used the sling ring to open a portal and disappeared into it. Another portal appeared on the other side of the room where Wong emerged from. "If I wanted to travel to Hong Kong from here, I can do it in seconds." He opened another portal overlooking Hong Kong Harbor and the city skyline at night.

She heard the crashing waves. If she had flesh she would have felt the breeze and the salty mist.

"Similarly I can also access the mirror dimension using the same sling ring. A dimension that reflects ours but bears the consequences while ours remains unchanged."

He opened another portal in front of where Thor stood next to a large ceramic urn. Inside it was a mirror image of him along with the same urn. Wong threw a weapon through the opening shattering the urn." Closing the portal he revealed the urn to be intact.

"That's incredible," Hermione said. She had never seen or heard of dimensional magic. It sounded very much like science fiction.

Wong snapped his fingers to close all the remaining portals. "We don't open portals to other universes for the fear of what we might let in. We have enough threats to worry about within our own universe. That and it would upset the balance," he said cryptically. "Think carefully on whether or not you want to undertake such a journey, Miss Granger." With a wave of his hand the spherical bubbles all disappeared.

Hermione avoided Thor for most of the day. She left Ylva asleep on the divan while she drifted through the sanctum unhindered by material barriers. This was what it must felt like to be a ghost haunting Hogwarts. Being non corporeal had its advantages. She simply floated in between the walls and stayed there, where Thor couldn't reach her. She needed time to reflect and process what she learned today. Of course Thor could not stay away. His thudding footsteps alerted Hermione to his arrival.

"Hermione?" Thor called, "I know you're in here. Come out." Even when she was a wolf that only worked when she was ready to come to him. She was not his pet and did not appear at his command. She was stubborn, but Thor was patient. "Please?"

Hermione stayed where she was hidden behind a wall of books. They were in one of the sanctum's many libraries.

"Hermione," Thor sighed, "where are you hiding?"

Hermione huffed indignantly. She was not hiding! She was a Gryffindor. She simply needed a moment to herself right now and after everything she just learned, she deserved it.

Thor heard a sound and smiled knowing she was in here. Finally, this had been the third library he checked. "I know how you must be feeling right now," he said as he fiddled with what looked like an ornate candelabra.

No you don't! Hermione thought childishly in her head. She was in an alternate universe for Merlin's sake! The chances of her returning to her world and to her human form was nil. She crossed her arms and waited for him to give up and leave.

"You feel alone in a place that's not your home. You want to go back, but you can't. I know that feeling all too well, little one," he said as he moved toward the bookshelves. His voice grew louder as he approached her hiding place.

Well, that was surprisingly accurate. Hermione felt a pang of guilt. How could she have so easily forgotten that Thor had lost everything.

Thor brushed his fingertips along the spines of the books. Hermione heard his heavy footsteps as he circled the room.

"I've come to find that nothing can ever replace home," Thor mused, "but you salvage what you can of the old and use it to build something in a new place. And maybe it'll be worthy enough to call home someday. People do this everyday. They migrate from famine, natural disasters, political conflicts, war."

She blinked and a few tears spilled from her eyes rolling onto her cheeks before vanishing never touching an actual surface. She sniffed and wiped the corners of her eyes. What home did she have to go back to? She sent her parents to Australia. She would be killed on the spot or worse if she were to return to Wizarding Britain.

"It's certainly not easy," Thor continued when she neither responded nor revealed herself, "but I'm speaking to a girl who before her majority faced a giant three headed dog, freed an innocent man from execution, all while keeping her two best friends alive in a castle designed to kill small children," Thor smirked. She kept surprising him with her character, tenacity, and wit. He could not wait to discover more about her.

A slow smile formed on Hermione's tear streaked face as she listened to Thor speak. She loved hearing his voice. She thought it was beautiful. Every syllable he uttered resonated like a baritone note.

Thor frowned when she still remained hidden. "Hermione, talk to me." He hung his head. Maybe he didn't have an infinite amount of patience. He had to find another way to coax her out of hiding, so he resorted to more drastic measures.

"If you don't come out, I'm going to have to dismantle this entire room," Thor warned lightly. "It would be a shame if I accidentally damage some of these books in the process. These really old, dusty books. With centuries of precious knowledge printed onto its thin, fragile paper." Just for the effect Thor tipped over a small, sturdy end table, and it landed with a heavy thud. Dr. Strange would have rolled over in his grave had he not turned to dust on Titan.

Taking a deep breath and wiping her tear stained face, she revealed herself emerging from behind the bookcase. "I don't think Wong would appreciate that," she said stiffly crossing her arms over her chest. She avoided his eyes knowing hers were probably red from crying. "We're his guests after all. He's going to throw us out if we break things." The whole Sanctum was a museum of precious magical artifacts.

Thor righted the table. "He won't need to because we're going back to the compound."

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "why?"

Thor shrugged, "we've learned everything we can here."

Hermione raised her eyebrow finally facing him, "you mean you know how to change me back?"

"No," Thor replied, "but Wong doesn't know either. We need to try something else." She had been crying he realized. He lifted his arm ready to wipe away the fleck of moisture resting on her cheek when he remembered that he could not touch her.

"Like what?"

Thor dropped his arm."I don't know, but maybe Banner does. He promised to help, remember? It'll be much easier now that you can speak to him."

Hermione sighed, "Dr. Banner is wonderful. He's already done so much for me. But... what can he do?" she asked gently afraid to offend.

"Plenty. The man has seven PhDs," Thor said crossing his arms.

Hermione's eyes widened in surprise,"that's...that's very impressive, but unless one of them is in magical transfiguration, I don't think he'll be much help unfortunately."

"I guess he neglected to mention that he can transform into a giant, green rage monster then."

"Really?" Hermione asked surprised, "he seems like such a kind, soft spoken man." She clearly didn't understand that Bruce Banner turned into a literal giant, green rage monster.

"Oh yes. He is known as the Hulk not as smart as Banner of course. He is incredible. Has severe anger issues though. Limited vocabulary. Favorite word is smash. Favorite activity is also smash," Thor described fondly. "I have also fought him in a deathmatch," he said seriously, "and won if anyone asks." He looked pointedly at her.

Hermione tilted her head wondering how the fight could have possibly been a deathmatch if they were both still alive.

"But I have also fought alongside him before. A truly formidable opponent and a most useful ally whether you're fighting against an army of invading aliens or an army of murder robots or even the Goddess of Death herself," Thor finished with a wide grin.

"So he literally turns into a giant green monster?" Hermione asked skeptically deciding she would ask about the aliens, robots, and the Goddess of Death on another day that was less overwhelming.

"Yes," Thor answered as if that was totally normal. That might explain why everyone so readily accepted that she was a human trapped in a wolf's body.

"Years ago he had an accident in his laboratory that resulted in the aforementioned transformation. He is as far as I know, indestructible." That answered Hermione's previous question about the deathmatch.

"Over the years he has developed ways to control his transformation. Perhaps he can help," Thor suggested. He would have felt bad if Banner didn't already volunteer. Bruce already had a lot on his plate with his search for Tony. "The wolf you turn into is not a random animal, but a manifestation of your spirit. The Hulk is an alter ego of Banner's."

"Except he wasn't cursed by a deranged witch," Hermione muttered.

"I know the circumstances of his transformation were different than yours, but we cannot afford to leave any stone unturned," Thor said pragmatically. "What do you say?"

Hermione nodded. Thor was right. She was lucky that these people she barely knew were offering to help her at all.

"Great," Thor grinned, "let's gather Ylva and say our goodbyes to Wong so we can head back," he said as he headed toward the stairwell that led to the foyer.

"Thor?" Hermione called.

"Yes?" Thor turned around to find her still hovering in the same spot.

She fiddled with her dress debating on whether to even ask this question, but it had been in the back of her mind for a while. "Why are you helping me? Even before the um...the incident with the fire, even before you knew I was human, you were always there. Helping me. Why?"

Thor shrugged. "Because I can," he said simply, "someone once told me that I have a bit of a hero complex."

AN: I'm not sure how to classify the magic in the Dr. Strange movie. It seems like anyone can learn it. So when Thor says magic died centuries ago, he meant natural born witches and wizards. Also I took a lot of liberties with the sorcery in Dr. Strange's universe from what I remembered their powers are sort of mystical and abstract (I have not read the comics). It made for a pretty visually stunning movie though. Favorite character is definitely Wong:)