Chapter 26
Though she was no seer, it was eerily odd that Hermione's predictions rang true the moment she and her friends stepped off the carriages and went into the Great Hall for the Welcome back feast.
She was met right away by the quartet of Ron, Draco, Susan and Luna who had all opted to stay at Hogwarts for the duration of the holidays. They went on to tell Harry Hermione, Dudley and Neville who had come in behind them that they had spent the time investigating the third floor corridor.
"You didn't go in did you?" Hermione demanded as they all sat down at the Ravenclaw table for the welcome back feast.
Draco scowled. "Do I look stupid? Of course not, besides what with Weasley's knees knocking together like wind chimes the monster would have been able to hear us from a mile away."
"Hey!" the red head glared at him. "My knees weren't knocking! And what's your excuse for going white as a sheet and almost passing out?"
"Really?" Susan asked raising an eyebrow at the blonde. "You almost passed out Draco?"
He huffed. "It was very drafty in the corridor, it would have been unnatural if I didn't get short of breath."
The rest of them snickered at the blonde who proceeded to look very put out and turned back to their meals.
Conversation continued on all around them and the group went back to whispering about the third floor corridor.
"It was all quiet in the corridor," Susan continued, "and we had just decided to call it a night and come back to the dorms when there came a low growl from behind the doors. We stopped because we were pretty sure it was the monster."
"I crept a little closer to the door," Ron continued. "Just so I could hear better."
"Typical Gryffindor thing to do, charging headlong into danger," Draco muttered.
Ron rolled his eyes but ignored him. "Anyway, I put my ear to the door and to my surprise I didn't hear growling. But I did hear something like soft music…..as well as a strange voice."
He shivered. "Bloody hell guys it was creepy. It was like a snake hissing and it would go up and down and up and down….and then all of a sudden it stopped."
"What happened then?" Dudley demanded.
"We heard footsteps," Susan went on. "We barely had time to dash around the corner before the door opened and a man came out!"
"What did he look like?" Hermione demanded.
"It was too dark to see," Ron explained and Hermione got the feeling he was still disappointed that they hadn't been able to catch the crook in the act of whatever it was he had been doing.
"He was tall," Luna put in dreamily. "And he spoke with two voices, one high and one low."
Everyone paused in the meals and turned to the small blonde who was happily chewing away at her pecan tart.
"What do you mean he had two voices Luna?" Susan asked. "We only heard the one hissing voice and we don't even know if that was the one coming from him."
"Trust me, he had two voices," Luna said firmly. "When the time comes I'll prove it to you."
Hermione mind was whirling. Just what had gone on here while they were away on Christmas holidays? She was beginning to feel a little guilty and wished she had stayed.
"Who do you think it was?" Ron asked. "I've been wracking my brains trying to come up with something but nothing makes sense."
"You're not thinking outside the box Weasley," Draco muttered. "As usual."
Ron glared at him. "Well why don't you come up with something if you're so smart then?"
Draco smirked. "Alright then, I will. Did you make a list of all of the people in the castle at the time we went and investigated the third floor corridor?"
Ron's face turned red and Hermione felt sorry for him for a moment.
Neville patted his shoulder. "That's alright mate, the important point is that we figure this out."
He fished a piece of parchment and quill from his bag and spread it out smoothly on the table. "So who was in the castle during the holidays that could have gone into the room? Don't leave anybody out."
Ron stroked his chin. "Well let's see, there were all of the professors and the headmaster as well as me, Malfoy, Luna and Susan, but you can rule us out because we were watching it."
"There was another two boys from Slytherin," Draco put in. "Theo Nott and Blaise Zabini."
Neville carefully wrote their names down.
"Padma Patil and Terry Boot stayed over the holidays too," Luna supplied.
Neville's quill was scratching faster than ever.
"Andrew Gourlay and Kevin Fishburne sixth year Gryffindors stayed too," Ron went on.
"And there was Ernie Macmillian and an older boy named Cedric Diggory in Hufflepuff," Susan finished.
She glanced over at the Hufflepuff table from where they were sitting at the Ravenclaw one and Hermione saw her friend glance at a boy with golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He was a fourth year and quite good looking.
Hermione smirked to herself, it was obvious Susie fancied him.
What was more obvious was the fact that Harry seemed to be aware of the fact that Susie fancied Cedric because his grip on his fork tightened ever so slightly.
Interesting…
She was so busy thinking about what could be in the third floor corridor and the changing dynamics with her friends that Hermione barely noticed when the dishes and plates were cleared.
Professor Dumbledore gave the beginning of the New Year announcements, once again reiterating that students must stay out of the third floor corridor.
After saying goodnight to the rest of her friends, Hermione Harry Dudley and Draco made their way down to the dungeons.
It stood to reason that neither of them said much on the way down.
When they got to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, Hermione turned to her friends. "I had a thought during dinner."
"And that was?" Harry asked.
"If Hagrid was the one to put that monster in the room in the third floor corridor to guard something than someone must have asked him to put it there because it was necessary."
Dudley's eyes sharpened in on her meaning right away. "You think Professor Dumbledore asked him to put that monster there?"
"Actually," Harry said rubbing the side of his face. "It's the only scenario that makes sense. If Dumbledore is hiding something potentially dangerous and evil inside of the school than he would be the only one to sanction a guard dog. The question is why?"
"Do you think its some sort of dangerous magical artifact?" Draco asked. "I only say that because my ancestors used to have monsters or dangerous animals to guard their family vaults. Inside there were a host of potentially dangerous and cursed objects that would spell disaster if they got out."
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Dudley said. "But Draco, I think you're a genius. That's the only explanation that makes sense. I very much doubt he'd be hiding some type of prisoner in the floor boards."
It was a sentiment which all caused them to shudder.
"But if he's hiding some dangerous magical artifact," Dudley said slowly. "Just what is it?"
"I don't know," Hermione replied grimly. "But whatever it is we better find out soon, because it looks like someone else already knows about it too. And they might try and steal it."
Ω
Natasha adjusted her seat next to Clint on the flight from Monaco and settled the file of Tony Stark in her lap. She had already read it from cover to cover and was only going over it again to see if there was anything that she had missed.
Stark had no sense of subtlety whatsoever and while others may have tried to keep their identity as Iron Man a secret, he let it be known as soon as he finished fighting off his former partner Obadiah or the Iron Monger as the public had dubbed him as.
Lack of a cover is going to come back and bite you in the ass Stark, she thought to herself.
She and Clint had gone to the race in Monaco to observe the man who she would be tailing for the next little while and the both of them had had….mixed reactions.
At the appearance of Ivan Vanko and his electric whips on the track, the entire stadium had been thrown into chaos and Stark had been hard pressed to don his Mark V armor and deal with this bizarre threat.
Though he had been successful, his armor was nearly destroyed before the authorities had managed to subdue Vanko and remove Stark from the area.
Ivan Vanko was another man that Natasha had to read some more on. A genius as well, he was from Russia and apparently his father Anton Vanko had been an old business partner of Howard Stark's.
There was some bad blood there it seemed.
Natasha had observed the manic look in Stark's eyes before he drove in the race and while he was fighting off Vanko.
Does this man have a death wish? She had thought.
She also wanted to know more about Vanko's intentions about targeting Stark, but Fury was likely to know more about that and would have a file for her once she returned to SHIELD.
Clint was a lot cooler about the situation. He was impressed with Stark's tech but not is use of it. Something like Stark had created would significantly reduce the need for soldiers fighting overseas. Given the fact that he was soldier before he joined SHIELD, she could understand the slight amount of bitterness he might be feeling.
With robots fighting the wars there would be less death on the fields of battle. It would mean more money spent though.
Natasha however could understand Stark's reticence in giving his suits to the government. Governments were corrupt and they couldn't guarantee that they would use Stark's suits for the purpose that they were supposed to be used for. Stark didn't want to be responsible for more death after he shut down his weapons program.
Natasha glanced down at Hermione's latest letter. Her little girl was keeping things very general and Natasha was able to sense lies even on paper and she had a feeling the eleven year old was keeping something from her.
She went into meticulous detail about the details of the school and her new friends and her classes and grades so far but nothing about how life in the school was going.
I need to speak to her once I get back to Washington.
The plane was nearing the shores of the U.S once again when all of a sudden the captain announced that there was significant turbulence off the coast of California and they would need to make an emergency landing.
Natasha cursed. She briefly considered taking Clint and apparating out of there, but that would blow her cover as a witch and she really wasn't ready to do that yet. She was even more formidable of a fighter because she could get in and out of a fight with her magic, but she wasn't ready for that to be known yet.
Clint sighed. "This is going to delay our trip back to Washington. We may have to find somewhere to wait out the storm before we head back."
Natasha nodded and glanced out the window. The clouds were going a deep dark grey and she could see lightning in the distance.
Looking at lightning reminded her of her significant other….for lack of a better word. She hadn't seen him in around a month but she wasn't worried. They were nearing the coast because she could see the shoreline in the distance.
All of a sudden, there was a roar from overhead and several of passengers screamed. The lights in the cabin flickered, oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and the captain's voice came over the loud speaker.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are flying right into the middle of a lightning storm. I would ask everyone to not panic, fasten your seatbelts and if you feel short of breathe take advantage of the oxygen masks in front of you."
Natasha and Clint exchanged glances and put their files away before following directions.
"Well I think we're in for a bumpy ride," the archer said.
He had no sooner said the words when all of a sudden there was loud vibrating sensation, almost as if someone had struck the body of the plane and the whole cabin began to shake.
Aside from Clint and Natasha there was no one not screaming now.
All of a sudden, the pressure in the cabin plummeted and Natasha felt her stomach rise into her throat as the plane dropped out of the sky.
The alarm on the plane was going steadily and people were screaming so loudly it was hard for Natasha to hear.
Impulsively she unhooked her seat belt and grabbed her brief case before turning to her partner. Screw the laws the magic right now. She wanted to get out of this plane in one piece.
"What are you doing?" Clint demanded.
"Do you want to get out of here alive?" she asked.
"I think I'd like that very much!"
"Then stop talking and take my arm!"
He did so and Natasha surged to her feet before focusing an image of the shoreline in her mind. She spun on her foot and with a loud crack, the both of them disappeared from the cabin and the plummeting plane.
Ω
The New Year proved to be even busier than Hermione expected. She loved school, but she wanted to find out what on earth was going on within its walls.
She and her friends had taken night shifts right before curfew to steal down to the third floor corridor and check to see if there were any other activity going on there.
But everything had been silent on the corridor, so silent it was driving Hermione crazy.
However the time finally came when they could go and see Hagrid about the strange goings on in the castle.
Not everyone was able to make it however and so it fell to Harry Hermione, Dudley and Luna to make the trek down to the gamekeepers cottage. He had invited them for tea several times but because of the time constraints on their classes not all of them had been able to go.
Hogwarts kept the first years busy of course. Hermione realized with some satisfaction that Professor Snape was warming up to Harry. As much as the dungeon bat could warm up to someone she supposed.
It helped that Harry had thick skin and wasn't cowed by the dour potions master. Potions remained his favorite subject and one of Hermione's as well.
Finally that Friday afternoon the three Slytherins and one Ravenclaw headed down near the Black Lake to the cottage of the gameskeeper.
It might have been big enough for Hagrid who was a half giant but it was enormous to the four eleven year olds.
"Hagrid has a lot of animals around," Luna said cheerfully. "But I don't see any Nargles or Wrackspurts around so that's a good sign at least."
Hermione smirked at the blonde and stepped up to the large door of the cottage and wrapped silently on it.
"Hold on!" A deep voice bellowed.
There was a shuffling from behind the door and a series of whines which caused them to all exchange glances.
"Back Fang," the gams keeper muttered and finally the door was wrenched open to reveal the half giant holding the collar of an enormous boar hound who was straining to get to them.
"Arry, Mione, Dudley, Luna," Hagrid said with a cheerful smile. "Come in, come in. I was wondering when you were going to come and see me."
The four of them entered the house and were not surprised to see that it was simply one room. There was a kitchen sink and cupboards on the right side of the room. Directly opposite the door there was an enormous bed covered over with a patchwork quilt. On the left side of the room there was an enormous fire place with a massive chair sitting in front of it. In the center of the room there was a large table and chairs.
"I just put the kettle on," the half giant said shuffling them inside along with Fang who seemed to have taken a liking to Dudley. "Sit down. How's school been?"
He was met with a series of groans which caused him to frown. "Not that bad has it been? Your four are all smart, you'll do well."
"It's not that Hagrid," Harry explained. "Classes have been brutal. I don't think I had this much homework when I was in primary school!"
"Don't exaggerate Harry," Luna said primly. "It's only the Nargles that are making you think it's a lot. School's actually quite easy."
Despite Luna's…..odd disposition, she was smart as a whip, easily as smart as Hermione and when the two of them put their brains together they were almost unstoppable. Ron sometimes whispered how they were both bloody mental but they ignored him.
"Just because we're not bloody geniuses like you two doesn't mean that we don't like school," Dudley protested. "It's just a lot that's all."
"Where's everyone else by the way?" Hagrid asked.
"Susan's in the library with Ron and Neville and Draco said he wanted to get some practice on his broom," Harry explained.
He and Draco were Chasers on the Slytherin Quidditch team after the both of them had demonstrated considerable prowess in their first flying lesson. They proved to be quite the team on the field as well and helped to make the Slytherin house team unbeatable during the year. Of course this served to make the blonde even more puffed up than he already was but for once it was a good type of arrogance if there was any type.
Hermione always got a smile on her face watching her two good friends zoom over the pitch. Her father could fly as long as he had his hammer in hand and while Hermione wanted to try flying, she wanted to do it on her own terms without the help of some aid. Her father had told her that her uncle Loki couldn't fly so her inability might have to do with her godly genes.
It was amazing how they were all coming together as friends. Draco had mellowed a considerable amount as had Ron, although he still had a temper and that characteristic Gryffindor bravery. Susan was the glue in the group which kept them all together with her constant calm. She knew how to smooth over any type of situation. Neville, though still shy was the voice of reason.
Hermione briefly wondered how they were going to bring up the subject of the three headed dog with Hagrid. If he had put the dog in the third floor corridor by the sanction of the headmaster, he might not be willing to talk about it.
It turned out she didn't have to.
"You have the most beautiful animals here Hagrid," Luna said as she took a sip of the tea that the half giant handed her. "Where do you get them all?"
Bless you Luna.
Right away Hagrid puffed up with pride. "Well I get them from all over you know. Some I get from traders in Romania, some I get from overseas. Matter of fact, there was one I got over a game of cards right in Hogsmeade!"
Harry, Dudley and Hermione exchanged glances
"What kind of animal was it?" Hermione asked tentatively reaching for one of the rock cakes on the plate in the middle of the table. She gingerly took a small bite and almost choked before setting it down on a napkin and taking a sip of her tea.
I guess the rock part of the name wasn't just for the appearance.
"Really?" Dudley asked slowly. "What kind of animal was it?"
"Oh it was a rare specimen," Hagrid said proudly. "Their only talked about in legends you know and extremely difficult to find. Oh but it was a beauty, big black powerful and strong."
Unconsciously all four first years scooted to the edge of their chairs. This must have been the animal that was in the third floor corridor. It just had to be.
"But of course I had to get it," Hagrid went on. "I couldn't let an opportunity pass me buy to have one of those animals. I won it from a trader in Hogsmeade actually. You meet all sorts of interesting ones there. And I'll let you in on a little secret, all the best animal traders go there."
Harry looked like he was about to pull his hair out from the stress of not knowing.
"Go on," Hermione said severely, honing on what she was sure was the answer to what they wanted to know.
"But when I told Professor Dumbledore he asked if I was willing to let him – "
All of a sudden Hagrid got a funny look on his face, almost as if he had said too much and clamped his lips shut. "But anyways that's the professors business."
Hermione looked at her best mates and frowned slightly. Hagrid may have been a bit dim but he wasn't completely short of a full shilling. He obviously knew that what he was about to say was classified in a manner of speaking and no amount of prodding from them would loosen his lips.
Finally, Hermione realized they were going to get no more out of him with their questions and changed the subject back to school for which the half giant looked immensely grateful.
Harry and Dudley shot her looks but she shook her head shortly and they took the hint.
As soon as the door to Hagrid's hut was closed, Luna turned to them. "He's extremely loyal to professor. No amount of asking or Nargle threatening is going to make him speak up. We'll have to find out why the monster's in the corridor another way."
Hermione nodded. She was a little frustrated though. They had been so close and all of a sudden, Hagrid had wised up.
This is going to require a bit more cunning, the strawberry blonde thought.
Ω
They appeared with a crack on the shoreline and the moment Natasha released Clint, he swayed a bit and fell to one knee.
"What…the hell….was that?" he gasped out.
"Don't worry," Natasha said calmly. "It's just vertigo, it'll pass. I was like that the first time I apparated too."
"Apparated?" Clint asked getting unsteadily to his feet. "What the hell is apparated?"
"Apparition is what we just did Clint," Natasha explained patiently. "I was able to magically teleport us out of the plane onto the shore."
The storm was pretty bad on the ground too. The sea was roiling like a wild animal and there were flashes of lightning all around them. The wind was whipping her hair so wildly she could barely see and the thunder was rumbling overhead.
Natasha could just make out the plane in the distance. It was unsteadily coming in for a landing.
"Okay first of all," the archer said. "I think you have some explaining to do."
"I'd be happy too," Natasha said. "But I think we should find a drier locale first. There's no way we're going to make it back to Washington today."
The two hurried up the shore and within ten minutes came in sight of a sea side diner. They were welcomed in soaking wet by the owner and were given towels and seated in a nearby booth.
Only after they had dried off some did Clint turn to her. "I'm sensing that this isn't some sort of device that Fury's given you to transport you out of trouble then?"
Natasha rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous Clint even Stark tech can't do that. This was magic pure and simple."
"And I'm the tooth fairy."
Natasha smirked and rolled up the sleeve of her right arm. Her partner was anything if not cynical about anything strange or other worldly in the universe and even though he had seen a frozen aircraft being thawed upon which there was thought to still be life, he remained skeptical.
"Alright," she said. "In order to keep this short, a practical demonstration is probably the best way."
She made sure he could see the piece of wood bound to the inside of her arm before she pointed it at the salt shaker on a nearby table. Regulus had been teaching her how to cast non verbally and while she couldn't do it for everything, the summoning charm wasn't one of them.
The salt shaker flew into her hand from across the room and even I've – seen – it – all – and – done – it – all – Clint blinked.
He looked across the room to the table where the salt shaker had been and then back at her hand for a few times before he rubbed the side of his face as if he were seeing things.
"Okay then," he said. "How long….exactly….have you been able to do that?"
Natasha untied her wand from her arm and twirled it back and forth between her fingers like she would one of her knives. "It's not like it's a skill I picked up at summer camp Barton. Magic is something you're born with. When my parents died I stopped practicing, I learned to control my accidental magic and I joined the Red Room when I was young so I could have some control over my life, and I essentially left magic behind me."
"And now?' Clint prompted.
"I met someone a few years ago who told me that magic was a part of me and that it would be wrong and foolish to ignore a gift like that," Natasha said fondly thinking of Regulus.
When he had found out before their raid on Azkaban that she was a non-practicing witch and why, he had given her that little piece of advice that made her think. After the raid she came back and asked him if he would teach her how to use her wand properly again as it would help her in her jobs and she had happily agreed.
Natasha had used it before she met Regulus to dispose of Vernon but it had been necessary then, and she had put it away after.
"You know," Clint said. "Now that I think about it, I did have a sister whose son was sent away to a school for the gifted when he was eleven. Ironically the M word was mentioned but I brushed it off. Does Fury or Coulson know?"
"Hell no, and I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible."
"Point taken," he said. "In the meantime, I think we need a place to lay low until this storm passes."
He pulled out his cellphone. "And I have just the place in mind."
Ω
After their near success at Hagrid's Hermione hurried to the library with Susan and Draco to see if she could look in the history books to find a picture of the three headed dog for more clues.
"So he just clammed up?" Susie asked. "You couldn't get anything more out of him?"
"Believe me, I tried," Hermione said grimly. "But I'm not my mother I don't know any advanced interrogation techniques."
"Merlin Granger that's Gryffindor thinking," Draco said quietly as they stepped into the doors of the library. "You need to be even more subtle than that."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? Enlighten me then Malfoy since you seem so informed. "What would you have done?"
"Well it's really quite simple," the blonde explained as they walked quietly through the stacks. The library was nearly empty because it was almost dinner time and most students were in their common rooms. "What I would have done is not lead with the animal route at all. You're going at him directly that way."
Susan and Hermione exchanged glances.
"Okay," the red head said. "What would you have led with then?"
"You should have tried his everyday habits," Draco explained. "If you had asked him what he liked to do when he wasn't doing his job, you would have learned right away that he likes to go into Hogsmeade once every week or so and go to the Hogs Head."
"Wait a minute," Hermione said coming to a screeching halt. "I think we've been going about this all wrong."
"Well that certainly seems obvious," Draco muttered but the strawberry blonde ignored him.
"What do you mean Mione?" Susan asked.
"I mean that we've been assuming we can get the information out of Hagrid," Hermione said. "But he might not be the only one who has it. Is there any way we can get off of the school property without being seen?"
"You want to sneak out?" Susan asked. "Do you know how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught?"
Hermione smirked at the red head. "But we're not going to get caught Susie. I happen to have a friend who has a fail safe."
On Christmas morning Harry had received a rather odd present. It was a cloak of invisibility along with a note with only the words: this belonged to your father, attached.
It would be ideal for sneaking out of the castle.
When she explained it to Draco and Susan they both had mixed reactions.
"I don't know Mione," Susan said uneasily.
"This is madness," Draco said. But then his expression slowly morphed into a grin. "But I like it. When do you want to go?"
"Tomorrow," Hermione said. "Although if we take Harry's cloak it can only cover three of us and not all of us should go anyways."
"Well what's the best way to get to Hogsmeade then?" Susan asked. "I mean we won't be able to go on visits there for another two years so how do we get there without being seen? An invisibility cloak is fine and everything but that's going to get a little awkward the three of us traveling under it from the castle to the village."
"We'll figure that out with everyone else," Hermione put in. "Right now, forget the research, let's get to dinner."
"Are my ears deceiving me?" Draco said clutching at his chest in mock theatrics. "Did the great bookworm herself Hermione Granger suggest we forget about the research?"
"Shut up Malfoy," Hermione said as the three exited the library. "I don't always have my nose stuck in a book, but if I recall correctly, yours is always stuck in the air."
"Hey!"
Susan laughed.
Ω
Out of all the cars Natasha had expected Clint to call for, a minivan pulling up outside if the diner wasn't one of them. And she definitely wasn't expecting a pretty middle aged woman to get out of the minivan.
And she definitely wasn't expecting Clint to call her honey and kiss her.
"Nat, this is my wife Laura," Clint said turning to the red head. "Laura this is my partner Natasha."
"It's nice to meet you," the dark haired woman said. "Clint's already told me all about you."
Natasha raised an eyebrow at her partner. "Really? Apparently the courtesy hasn't been extended this way."
The archer looked a little sheepish. "No one besides Fury knows. I wanted to keep it that way."
Natasha considered the massive secrets she was keeping about Hermione and Thor that no one besides her knew about and nodded, seeing his point. "I suppose that makes sense. It's just of all people to be married I didn't expect you to be one of them."
Laura laughed and Clint looked insulted. "Well I suppose being unpredictable is what works for me. As long as my enemies don't think I have anything to hide they won't come after me."
I couldn't agree more, Natasha thought.
And speaking of which, she had to call Hermione and let her know what happened. The eleven year old would likely have a fit when she found out.
"Well I suppose we should beat feet then," Laura said. "Hop in Nat. We'll get back to the safe house right away."
The red head nodded and pulled open the side door of the minivan only to be confronted with one more surprise.
"Daddy!" the two year old blonde boy cried from his car seat.
Well this day is just getting weirder and weirder.
"Hey buddy!" Clint said leaning into the van to give the two year old a hug. "Look how big you've gotten!"
He chucked the child under the chin and the little boy laughed, sending a pang through Natasha. She remembered when Hermione was small and laughed like that.
"It seems you've been keeping a lot of secrets Clint," she muttered and the archer laughed.
"Everyone in this business has secrets Nat, even you it seems."
They all piled into the minivan and Natasha was seated next to the two year old who they had named Nathan.
"Hermione would love you little guy," she whispered as the baby latched onto her finger, totally unafraid of the new person.
When Laura found out as they drove about the near plane crash, she looked like she was going to have a fit until Natasha had reluctantly explained about her abilities and what she had done to get them out.
Surprisingly, she took it better than Clint had done.
"My sister has three kids all of whom have magic, but they go to the Salem Academy I Massachusetts so they're not that far from home."
"Well, I never really had any formal training," Natasha explained. "I'm self-taught for the most part but I do have a few friends who were more than happy to get me back on track."
Natasha was surprised how easy it was to talk to Clint's wife. She supposed it was simple because they both had significant others as well as relationships and kids they were hiding from the world.
And speaking of kids….she needed to give Hermione a call. Clint had been nice enough to share this part of his life with her, and obviously trusted her enough to keep this secret, so she couldn't help but feel a little honored.
Natasha dug through the one bag she had managed to save from the plane and cursed when she realized her cellular device wasn't there.
"What's wrong?" Clint asked from the front seat.
"I left my cell phone on the plane, it's probably blown to bits by now."
Clint frowned. "You need to Fury right now?"
"No," Natasha said and prepared to reveal one more secret. "My daughter."
This time Clint turned fully around in the seat. "What?!"
Natasha smirked. "Come on Barton, me having a kid isn't that farfetched is it?"
"Given that you've given me the impression of never being able to settle down and kicking ass till the day you die, yeah I'd say it's a little farfetched."
Natasha sighed and reached into her pocket. She always kept a picture of Hermione on her, but Regulus had taught her how to disguise it so no one but her was able to see it.
She waved her wand over it and muttered the words to reveal it. The air above the picture shimmered and thickened.
Natasha handed the picture to her partner. "This is my daughter. Her name's Hermione and she's eleven years old."
Clint gave a low whistle as he looked at the picture. "She looks just like you. I take it she's away at school too?"
"Yes, she has magic like me, but she goes to boarding school in Scotland."
"It is Hogwarts by any chance?" Laura asked. "It's supposed to be one of the best in Europe."
"It is," Natasha said, a little impressed by the woman's astuteness. "She's there right now. Their years range from eleven to seventeen so she'll be there for the next seven years."
"She's beautiful," Laura said glancing away from the road and the slanting rain to the picture. "And a unique name too. What made you decide on Hermione?"
Natasha smiled, fondly remembering the Barlows and their wise words over a decade earlier. She still thought about them from time to time. She had never regretted keeping Hermione but if things had turned out differently, that would have been where she would have wanted the strawberry blonde to go.
"It was the influence of an old friend," she explained.
Laura nodded and they lapsed into an easy silence. Laura soon turned off the main road onto a muddy gravel one line with trees which they drove down.
After about five minutes, they came in sight of a lovely farm house and as the rain died to a drizzle, Natasha could see a bard in the background along with a silo as well as various types of farm equipment.
"Funny Barton, I kind of expected you to have an underground bunker. Little house on the prairie doesn't really seem to suit you."
The archer smirked. "Well I like unpredictable Nat."
Laura pulled up at driveway just in front of the wrap around porch of the house and Natasha slid the door open and jumped out.
Well this certainly looks like a safe house.
Laura went to unhook Nathan from his seat and Natasha followed Clint up the stairs of the house to the wrap around porch and inside the house. There was a staircase directly opposite the entryway and an archway led into the kitchen/living room area which was littered with children's books and toys.
After they took off their shoes, Clint led her up the stairs to a small guest room with a bed desk and dresser that was connected to its own bathroom.
"Clean up," he said. "Laura had dinner on before she got us. We can connect with Fury after."
When he had left her alone, Natasha dropped the bag on the bed with an exhausted sigh. Apparating out of a plane and finding out her partner had a wife and a kid was a little much in one day to say the least.
Shower, first I need a shower…..then I can call Hermione.
And so after a hot shower, Nat picked up the landline on the bedside table and after punching the area code in, she dialed Hermione's number and hoped that she picked up.
After about five rings, the other line picked up and Natasha breathed a sigh of relief. "Mione?"
"Mum?" Her daughter asked. "Why are you calling me on a public line, you always call from your cell phone."
"Yeah well, there was a bit of an…..incident today involving me and Clint."
"What kind of incident?"
"Well it involves a lightning storm, a car crash, a vengeful son and an emergency plane landing."
"What?!"
"Hold on let me explain."
It took about a half an hour to explain what had happened at the race track in Monaco along with Tony Stark and Ivan Vanko. Then she went into detail about the flight back and how she and Clint were caught in a lightning storm and the plane had to make an emergency landing before she apparated them out and finally how it led to meeting Laura and Nathan as well as letting Clint know about Hermione herself.
Finally when she was done, there was a long silence on the phone.
"Well its about damn time," Hermione said. "So when can I meet him?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself little girl," Natasha said smirking. "We still need to connect with Fury and get back to SHIELD."
"You're okay though right?" Hermione asked and her tone shifted to somewhat worried which warmed the red head.
"I'm fine, you can thank your uncle Reg that he taught me how to apparate otherwise we would have been in a bit more trouble."
"I'll bet."
Hermione kept her news about school very general and the conversation slowed down after that.
Shortly after, both Romanovs rang off and as Natasha put the phone back on the cradle, her brow furrowed into a frown.
Hermione was definitely hiding something.
Ω
"You do realize that if we go in as Hogwarts students they're not going to tell us anything right?" Harry asked quietly that night as they were sitting in the Slytherin common room. "In fact their just as likely to call for the teachers."
"That's why we're going in disguises," Hermione put in and at once Dudley looked intrigued.
"You're talking about the poly juice potion aren't you?" he asked.
"That takes like two weeks to brew and its extremely difficult," Draco protested.
"Not for us it won't," Hermione put in.
Her uncle Regulus always kept a supply on hand when he went into the wizarding world because everyone there thought he was dead. She had taken the liberty of snitching some before they had left for school.
He wouldn't be happy if he found out but she could deal with the consequences later. Regulus had used the hairs he had snitched off of random strangers so they couldn't be traced.
Her uncle was going to be a SHIELD agent in no time.
"Now I know this is madness," Draco muttered.
"So how do we decide who stays and who goes?" Dudley asked.
"Well Harry should go since its his cloak," Hermione put in. "And I think Luna should go too."
"Lovegood?" Draco asked. "Why her?"
"Because she has a unique ability to tell when someone's lying," Hermione said.
"Well if that's the case, than you should go too Mione," Harry said. "You can pretty much do the same thing and let's face it, you can be pretty intimidating when you want to be."
"Why thank you."
"I guess the rest of us can just run interference on the teachers if they ask where we are." Dudley suggested and the rest of them nodded.
"What exactly are you guys going to ask when you get there?" Draco asked. "I mean you're going to need a plan going in."
"Well the first person we would need to go to would be the bartender," Hermione put in. "He sees everyone in the place and he would remember Hagrid if he's there that often."
The strawberry blonde didn't really want to get into the core cause of why she wanted to find out what was going on in her school because every time she had gone to stake out the third floor corridor, she had heard that voice again. That whispery evil voice that it seemed that only she and Luna could hear. It was cold and soft as snow.
Hermione had this feeling deep inside of her that it was Asgardian or something even beyond this world in origin and though she hadn't told any of her friends about her suspicions, she had a feeling that Harry and Dudley could tell that something was bothering her.
They had grown up together, it would be remiss if they didn't notice something.
If she had just noticed the monster in the school, she would have been curious but it would have been something that somewhat easier to overlook. But that voice…..that evil voice was something that was impossible to ignore because it shouldn't have been there….it shouldn't have been in her school.
Something had to be done.
"What time do you guys think you're going to go?" Dudley asked.
"I think after curfew. That way everyone else will think we're in bed and we'll have an alibi on our side," Hermione explained.
"Just don't get yourselves expelled," Draco muttered. "Merlin I can't believe I even thought of joining this group."
"Too late to change now mate," Dudley said grinning. "You're stuck with us."
"I'll let you know when it's go time," Hermione said, feeling a little bit like her mother in that moment. "Then we'll suit up."
Ω
Silent as a fairy, the little blonde slipped out of the tower and darted down the hallways away from the Ravenclaw common room. She didn't do this very often, but he had asked to meet her and because she hadn't seen him in a while, she wasn't about to refuse him.
He had taught her magic before she had ever gotten her wand so she wasn't afraid of anyone seeing her. Her mother Pandora was part fairy so she knew how to move without being seen.
Luna skipped down the stairs and humming softly to herself, made her way to the doors of the school before slipping out and running across the grounds, past the Black Lake and down past Hagrid's cottage to the Forbidden Forest.
He hadn't been able to meet her as much lately but she knew he was busy. Her last birthday he had given her a bracelet made out of moon stones that would conceal her from unfriendly eyes, and cast a shadow over her so no one would see her.
She found him just inside the trees of the Forbidden Forest. He was sitting on a log and even though he was seated he still cast a tall shadow.
Luna crept up to him slowly but before she got a few feet away, he turned around.
Upon seeing her, he smiled.
Luna smiled too. "Hello Daddy, it's been a while."
Loki's smile grew even wider. "I know my little moon and I am sorry for the delay. Things on Asgard have been….tense to say the least."
Ω
Ahem...well...neither of you were expecting that now were you? Luna's origins will be dealt with in depth more in the next chapter and we'll see how she's evolved as the daughter of Loki. Natasha's going to finally meet Tony in the next chapter and we will begin ramping up Iron Man 2. I think I'm going to have five or six chapters for each year to start and there will be progressively more as the years get more and more in depth. I'm already thinking this story is going to have at least 100 chapters so get ready. Don't forget to review and enjoy!