After healing Maria, who thanked her before heading straight back to work, Hermione was pulled into helping the other three dozen agents who were injured, some very badly, in Loki's attack. By the time she was done, the sun was up and her trio of comrades were all fast asleep in the lab. Shaking her head, the witch carried each to his room before tucking them in, though Steve had pulled her into bed with him in his sleep, she stayed long enough for the nightmares to pass. Once they were all settled, the woman checked the tracking program before searching for coffee.
She had been watching the horizon for hours when Phil and Maria joined her, bringing a refill, "Morning."
"Good morning Mia. I see that your colleagues are no longer slumped over in the lab," Maria said with a smile.
"I put them in bed, even tucked them in. Chances are slim that Loki will surface today, he's probably underground setting everything up and planning his next move. Regardless, everyone will need as much rest as possible for when the time comes to deal with the man. He's a demigod, while not immortal he is extremely strong and will be hard to battle against. Even with Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and I, if Loki has friends, well we had better be ready."
"Such refreshing optimism at this hour Dr Granger but Loki will be no problem," came the Director from behind them, his sarcasm in full power.
"I prefer to think of myself as a realist sir. Agent Romanoff?"
"Hung up before we could talk, we will continue trying"
"Thank you. I think I'll go check on the tracking program," throwing a smile to her friends, the witch left the bridge.
Steve was first to rise, at midday, much to his horror, but quickly showered, shaved, and dressed before going straight to the lab. When he saw Hermione, he hastily asked, "Are the others awake yet?"
"No but Bruce probably won't be long, as for Tony, I'll wake him up soon or he'll sleep all day. It's good that you're up, I'm in desperate need of a shower."
"One question first please. How did I end up in bed? Last I remember, all three of us were in here waiting and working, and we seemed to drift off."
Walking by him, Hermione pat his cheek, "I carried you all to bed and tucked you in. By the way Captain, you're handsy in your sleep, wouldn't let go of me for about 2 hours."
The deep blush was worth it and the witch went and had a long soothing shower. By the time she returned, Bruce was studying his computer screen while Steve was arguing with Tony, "Manhandling me is no way to get me out of bed!"
"I'd tried everything else, even sprayed cold water on your face, you weren't getting up and it was past midday," Steve argued back, slightly softer.
"Boys, behave! We are a team, whether you like it or not, and that means that we have to trust each other to have our backs. I may make that sound easy, for me it was to trust you all, but before we fight against any enemy, that trust must be there or we will certainly fail. Oh and that includes any future members of the Avengers," to add to her words, the witch hit the pair over the head while heading towards Bruce, "How's the tracking going?"
"Thank you for putting me to bed," the scientist said softly, "We've found a few areas of interest but Fury's people have only found illegal labs, one of which was attempting to either produce another Steve or another me. We'll find him but when is the big question."
Playfully nudging him, Hermione took his hand, and Steve's as she went past, "We need a bonding exercise. Come on Tony, catch up."
"Umm, where are we going?" Tony asked, his eyes glued to the two hands holding the hands of his younger sister, in all but blood.
"For a swim," as she said it, all 3 men were wearing board shorts while Hermione was dressed in a figure showing swimsuit.
Bruce slowed a touch, "Uh, I'm not sure…"
"Listen, we'll be in the water, and Hulk needs to trust Tony and Steve so he doesn't attack them when we're in battle. More importantly, I'll be there, and Hulk would never hurt me."
"You really need to stop making so much sense"
"Yeah, I think I'll start now," bringing forth a large gust of wind, all four of them were lifted off their feet and rushed out over the ocean.
Her boys were shrieking rather loudly, and gripping her tightly, Tony had a vice grip on her upper arms, "MIA! Put us down!"
Checking that they were a safe distance from the large vessel, Hermione laughed, "Ok Tony!"
They dropped 30 metres into the broken water and after they all surfaced, the men half-heartedly glared at their still laughing friend. Bruce swam over to tread water by Hermione, feeling himself calm and was the first to join in on the laughter, followed by the other two. Despite the fact that they would be at war soon, the quartet played in the water for hours, not at all caring that every SHIELD worker could see them.
Hermione was floating on her back, watching the sky grow darker, when she heard Tony snap his fingers, "She has no name."
"What are you on about Stark?" Steve asked.
"Mia hasn't got an Avengers name. Banner here is Hulk, you're Captain America, and I'm obviously Iron Man, but Mia has no name and now that I think about it, no uniform."
Looking up, the witch saw all three at the same realisation and sighed, "I do have a uniform but you are correct in that I have no operations name. Perhaps waiting until you see my uniform and my animagus form before deciding what you will call me would be best."
"You have a uniform already?" Bruce questioned.
"Ever since reading about Fury's idea for the Avengers, it did take a while to perfect though. Come on gentlemen, time for show and tell," taking Bruce first, Hermione apparated each man onto the helicarrier.
"Why must you do that? I'd rather climb the damn ship," Tony grumbled as they head towards the lab.
"Toughen up Stark," Steve responded, green around his own gills from the experience.
Bruce just laughed, not all concerned, "Try a Portkey from India to New York, definitely a unique experience."
Hermione just rolled her eyes, "Stay here, I'll be back in my uniform in a minute."
As soon as she was gone, Steve started the stopwatch on his watch, seeing his companions doing the same, "You ever caught her off?"
"Once but only by 3 seconds and only because I moved room on her," Tony said, Bruce just shaking his head.
Hermione easily got into her uniform, and appeared back in the room, just in time to hear all three occupants mutter swears and hide their watches. As they really saw her though, mouths dropped once more. She wore a tight green leather battle suit, complete with gloves, hood and boots. There were pockets all over, a utility belt that had two holsters, pouches and a strap full of throwing stars. On one leg was a quiver, the other a shotgun, while strapped to her back was a bow and a staff.
"Holy shit"
The fact that the usually gentleman Steve was the one to say it had Hermione gently chuckling, "So, this is my uniform."
Tony's eyes picked up the large belt buckle, "And the 'A' stands for?"
"Avengers of course. That was the easiest part of the whole thing. I had to return to Hogwarts for the material, the basilisk had the most indestructible skin the world, and the only one I knew about was lying dead in the sewers of Hogwarts. The SIG Sauer P226's have auto-filling magazines, the 3000 9mm bullets in my pouch here all explode but also have either curses or potions for extra bang for my buck. Curses and potions on my arrows too, a wonderful copy charm allows an endless supply of those. The Mossberg 590A1 has the shorter 14 inch barrel but delivers an acidic shrapnel blast to the enemy. My shurikens will return after coming to a stop while my staff contains some of the most magical elements as well as housing one wicked blade, Gryffindor's Sword. All in all, while wearing this, I can pretty much always hold my own. What do you think?"
Everyone was deathly silent before Steve said, "I think my previous holy shit just about covers it."
"Yeah"
"Guess you want to see my animagus form now?"
Bruce actually raised his hand, "What is an animagus form exactly?"
"An animal that a magical practitioner is at their very core. You have to be strong and determined to harness it, though one rat bastard was neither and got it through the strength and determination of his friends. I began the journey when I was 14 and saved a man who was an animagus but didn't complete it until I was 17. Harry and Ron also had one, a stag for Harry, just like his dad, and Ron was a fox."
"And you are? What an otter? Wolf?" Tony guessed.
"Oh no, I'm considered an elite animagus, part of a very small group of incredibly powerful people, who have magical animagus forms. Dumbledore was one as a hippogriff, Merlin was said to have been a unicorn. We should head back onto the deck, a bit more space."
As they walked outside, the men tried to think what their friend could be, as well as not look at how well her body looking in her suit. Taking a few steps away from them, Hermione leapt high into the air and transformed into a phoenix. Not a normal one though. Her wingspan was 15 feet, when grounded her head was 5 feet up, and she wasn't the red/orange in colour that phoenixes were. Starting at black at her beak, it went through every shade of blue before her tail feathers were perfectly white.
Changing back after doing a few flips and singing, Hermione asked, "So?"
The men thought until Bruce snapped his fingers, "Nightshade, a flower both deadly and useful."
"Not to mention beautiful," Steve added softly, causing the witch to blush lightly.
"There you go then. Dr Hermione Granger-Lupin, Avenger call sign Nightshade," Tony put his arm around her shoulder as they head back in, "Welcome to the club."