Chapter 29
The mystery of the Infinity Stones puzzled Hermione and her friends for the next two weeks. It was now getting on into March and teachers were starting to prepare for the end of term and they were momentarily distracted by studies.
As frustrating as it was for Hermione to have to put the mystery aside for now, she knew she had to get her priorities straight first.
Studying didn't stop her from brainstorming with her friends about it however while they were studying.
"It seems to me that we just need to break into his office and take it for ourselves," Ron said simply one day in the library while they were going over potions.
"As hare brained as that is, Weasley might have a point," Draco drawled and the red head rolled his eyes. "After all, it seems unlikely that he's going to return it any time soon."
The relationship between the two had progressed to very civil over the past seven months and Hermione was quite pleased about how well they were getting along.
"And just how do you plan to do that exactly?" Susan demanded. "Breaking into a teacher's office isn't exactly easy you know. They have all kinds of charms and jinxes on the door to prevent that kind of thing. I would know."
Being the niece of the head of the DMLE Susan had learned a few things about breaking and entering and ways that she couldn't be caught.
All theoretical of course. She wasn't a criminal.
"We're getting ahead of ourselves," Harry broke in. "This might not require breaking into his office at all. His office is directly behind the classroom. All we need to do is use the invisibility cloak to sneak into his classroom while he's teaching."
"While he's teaching?" Neville asked looking a little nervous. "Don't you think that's an awfully big gamble to take?"
"And how long are you going to take?" Dudley seconded. "He's going to notice one of us is missing when he calls role and ask where we are."
"Well the Wrackspurts have been pretty nasty during the winter," Luna said thoughtfully. "But I'm sure he knows that being the defense professor and all. We could just say that whoever we picked came down with a virus from one of them and we're in the hospital wing."
The rest of them exchanged glances but Hermione gave a small smile. Luna really was refreshing to be around.
"I think Luna's on to something," Susan said. "Although not the Wrackspurt thing. If one of us simply dropped hints all day about someone being sick and then brought it up when Quirrel asked about it, then I'm sure he wouldn't suspect anything."
"Well then who of us should it be?" Ron asked.
They had been doing a lot of espionage work lately in spite of all the studying but it had been good for everyone particularly Ron.
Hermione could sense that there was a desire to prove himself but he wasn't sure how to do it. Being around a lot of friends had been good for him because he was encouraged in his studies to do his best.
Harry Hermione and Dudley had speculated when they had gone home for Christmas that though Ron had a loving family, he was sometimes overlooked because he had so many siblings.
Hermione had strived after that to encourage him as best as she could. She was an only child and most of her friends had similar situations. Ron was the only one with an enormous family.
"I think it should be Luna," Dudley suggested. "She's the quietest and she's so small Quirrel would be less likely to notice her absence."
"Why thank you Dudley," Luna said beaming. "That's quite a compliment. Being small helps me stay away from the Nargles."
Hermione looked around the table and everyone seemed to be in agreement.
"Alright then," Draco said after a minute when there were no protestations. "So when's a good time for Lovegood to fake sick and sneak in?"
They decided that tomorrow would be the best since the sooner the better and they needed to know what was going on soon.
After dinner that night while Daphne and Tracey were away at their study group Hermione warded the room and called her mom.
"How's it going little girl?" Natasha asked once she had sealed herself inside of her room and made sure that no one was around to hear her.
"I'm fine Mum," Hermione said. "Have you spoken to dad lately?"
"Not in the last three weeks, why?"
"No reason I just wondered when he might be coming next, I kind of miss him."
There was a long silence from the other end of the phone. "You know I wish it didn't have to be this way Mione."
"I know Mum. I know."
There was another moment of silence where the both of them just sat there and listened to the others breathing.
"How's aunt Petunia doing?" Hermione asked finally.
"She's fine. Complaining about how much her feet hurt, but otherwise your uncle is putting up with her. She's due in just under two months so you can imagine how big she is. But don't you dare tell her I said so."
Hermione could hear the teasing tone in her mom's voice and smiled because she knew how much Natasha loved Petunia and Regulus.
"How's working for Mr. Stark?"
There was a pause and then a muffled curse in Russian that Hermione caught right away and smirked.
"That man drives me up the wall more than your father ever did," Natasha ground out. "But don't tell him I said so. He takes great pleasure in knowing he can make me crazy."
Hermione chuckled. "Is Stark that bad?"
"Vozlyublennaya," Natasha said which was the Russian word for sweetheart. "He is worse. He is a child. Granted an intellectually brilliant child but he has no sense of social grace, he believes the world exists to serve him and his plans are the only ones that matter. And his CEO has told me that he has become even more erratic lately than he ever has before."
"Well then maybe you need to find out what's causing that erratic behaviour," Hermione suggested. "If he's never acted like this before than perhaps there's something serious going on in his personal life that even Pepper doesn't know about."
She knew all about the woman who kept Stark Tech going because without her Stark himself would be bankrupt. She handled all of his meetings and business partnerships as well as trips to the warehouses he had all throughout the country.
"Maybe," Natasha said reluctantly. "But let me tell you what he did a few weeks ago that was just the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen."
She described to Hermione in detail about the party and even the strawberry blonde had to admit that that sounded like a disaster.
"So all of his suits are gone?" she asked. "The colonel just took them?"
"The ones that Pepper and I didn't pack away first before the party," Natasha grumbled. "Stark is completely devoid of common sense and reason and he's toying with war and political conflict if he doesn't make a decision and stick to it."
"Wasn't the decision to not hand over his tech to the government?" Hermione asked. "He seemed to make that pretty clear in court when you and Clint were stuck on the farm."
"In between the slurs, the condescension and the serious pathological narcissism I suppose that was the gist of it yes."
Hermione smirked at the phone. "You really don't like him do you?"
"I respect the man's brains because he is brilliant, but it has made his ego the size of the Milky Way and given him the common sense of a poodle."
Hermione burst out laughing and then had to cover her mouth to make sure that no one was around to hear her.
"But enough about me little girl, how's school?"
Hermione chewed on the inside of her lip and wondered how much to tell her mother. She wasn't exactly in danger per say but that didn't really mean anything when it came to Natasha. Quirrel was presenting an interesting player in the game that was going on in the castle, but at the moment all that Hermione was doing was spying.
So with that thought in mind, she smiled into the phone and said. "Not much. School has been keeping me very busy and my friends have been keeping me even busier."
It was the truth. With all of the changing dynamics in her friend group it was hard to keep everyone's personalities straight sometimes. Draco was borderline narcissistic but he was very loyal. Susan was fierce and diplomatic, just like her aunt. Neville was the voice of reason and the most practical. Dudley was the most reliable and dependable. Harry had an insane amount of wits and knew how to use them. Ron was the one who knew how to make everyone laugh and release the tension in a situation. And Luna was the whimsical dreamer who challenged them all to think outside the box.
They all had strengths and weakness but Hermione that that was made them all special and work together so well.
"Good," Natasha said. "At least you're staying out of trouble. I can't even imagine the amount that Stark's going to be in when Fury gets a hold of him."
"How is the infamous director anyway?" Hermione said with a smirk. She knew her mother appreciated the no nonsense way the man ran SHIELD but at the same time that left no room for failure because he had such a non-existent margin for error.
Not that Natasha ever made mistakes that was.
"As surly as ever," the red head replied. "He's been a bit meaner lately but that's only because Stark's been giving us the go around."
"He still want Stark's tech for that initiative he's been working on?" Hermione asked.
Her mother had told her all about this strange new plan of Fury's that he had been very tight lipped about.
All Natasha knew was that it was a defence initiative and that Fury was being very choosy about who he allowed to be part of it. She knew he was sniffing around her and Clint as they were the best agents he had but if he was also wanting to recruit Stark for the task, than she'd be running for the door faster than anyone could say Iron Man.
"Yes, although with the way things have been going, I wouldn't be surprised if Stark's file is swept off the table and burned by June."
"Do you think Dad will be back soon?" Hermione asked finally and she could practically hear her mother's frown over the phone.
"I don't know little girl. Do you need to speak with him? Is it urgent?"
"No," Hermione hurried to reassure her mother. "There was just something I wanted to ask him about Asgard and Uncle Loki."
That was partially true.
"Alright then, I'm sure he'll be back soon so you can ask him your questions. You're staying out of trouble yes?"
Hermione gave her an affirmative and after a few more moments of conversation about relatively normal things, the two rang off.
Hermione let the phone drop back onto her pillow and eyed it for a moment, wondering whether or not she should tell her mother what she had discovered about Infinity Stones. The truth was, she was unsure if her mum would even know what they were but her father who was in fact a god was bound to know something.
Dad where are you? She thought as she leaned back on her bed. I really need to talk to you. I have a feeling if I don't ask you these questions, I'm going to regret it.
Ω
The following day, the Slytherins had defence with the Ravenclaws while the Gryffindors were in Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.
That morning at breakfast, Luna had slipped down to the Slytherin dorms with Harry who had given her the invisibility cloak. After that and some complicated spell work later,
Hermione had cast an "ailment" upon her friend. It looked like Muggle chicken pox, but to Madam Pomphrey it would look similar to Dragon Pox which would keep her in quarantine all day.
Before going to the hospital wing because she was supposed to be feeling unwell, Luna would steal up to Quirrel's office and make a duplicate of the book on the book of Infinity Stones. There was no sense in alerting Quirrel to the fact that someone was watching him by taking the whole book, so they employed stealth.
Hermione had discovered a complicated spell in the library on how to duplicate items and had spent weeks practicing it before it became useful.
This way their questions would be answered and Quirrel would be none the wiser to the fact that they were spying on him.
Just as they entered the class Dudley made the comment to Draco that he hoped Luna was feeling better soon because Dragon Pox was no joke.
Draco agreed and said perhaps they should visit her in the hospital wing after dinner.
This was said as Quirrel doddered down the steps from his office above the classroom and began the lecture with his usual stutter.
But just before the door to his office closed, Hermione saw it prolong a moment longer on its way shut before it clicked into the lock and she grinned.
Luna was in.
After that it was simply a matter of playing their parts and behaving as if they knew nothing more than Quirrel did for the rest of the class.
Hermione didn't look at his office door for the next hour and pretended to simply be the dutiful student who didn't notice that her teacher was an incompetent drooling moron with a perpetual stutter.
Did she mention that she didn't like him very much?
The bell rang finally, signalling the end of class and Hermione gathered up her books, not having taken a single note.
She had discovered during the first two weeks of school in September that nothing that Quirrel said had any basis in fact and many of the details that he had told them overlapped with other details he had said previously.
She and her friends congregated out in the hall and began to slowly walk down it towards the Great Hall where dinner was waiting for them.
As soon as they entered the room, Ron and Neville who were sitting at the Gryffindor table with Susan waved them over.
"How did it go?" Ron whispered.
"Way to keep it subtle Weasley," Draco drawled raising an eyebrow as he sat down. "The book should be up in Ravenclaw Tower and we'll get it sometime soon, while Lovegood is in the hospital pretending to have Dragon Pox. Pomphrey will keep her there all night no doubt."
"And Quirrel didn't suspect a thing?" Susan asked quietly.
Draco cast a hand up to the high table where the purple turbaned professor was twitching as he sat down. "Look at the man, he's afraid of his own shadow, do you honestly think he noticed anything other than the students in his room to whom he was butchering a lecture on werewolves?"
Neville pursed his lips. "Probably not."
"I was thinking after dinner we should go see Hagrid," Harry broke in suddenly and they all paused in their dinners to look at him.
"Whatever for mate?" Dudley asked. "I mean I like the big guy almost as much as the next person but how is this going to help us figure out what's going on here?
In answer to his cousin's question, Harry reached into his book bag and dug out an old newspaper article from back in September.
Hermione knew instantly what it was. It hadn't made much sense to her at the time, but now it was one more piece in a never ending puzzle they were trying to solve.
"I remember this," Neville said softly. "That was the day I went to Diagon Alley to get my school things. Gran was sick that day so she asked one of the teachers from Hogwarts to take me. And Hagrid showed up."
Instantly he had everyone's attention.
"Keep going Neville," Hermione prompted.
The brown haired boy blushed a little but continued. "We went first to Gringotts because Hagrid said he had an errand to run for professor Dumbledore. We went deep underground to vault seven hundred and thirteen and Hagrid told me to stay in the cart while the goblin opened the door. I remember being surprised that the vault was empty except for one small package that had been lying on the floor wrapped in brown paper and twine. He put it in his pocket and got back in the cart. And then we went back outside.
"I remember it because I read in the paper a few days later that Gringotts had been broken into and thought it strange. But I never asked Hagrid about it again."
"And this package was for professor Dumbledore?" Ron asked again.
"Yes."
"You know?" Susan said thoughtfully. "Maybe we do need to go see Hagrid after all. He might be able to tell us things that we haven't learned so far. He might be closer to this than we know."
Plans decided, the group of first years hurriedly finished their dinner and departed the great hall at a speed.
It was March so it was still pretty cool outside and the ground was slightly muddy from the recent snow, but they made the best of it and tried to hurry as the left the castle and hurried down towards the Forbidden Forest where the gamekeeper's enormous hut was.
There was smoke coming out of the chimney in the thatched roof and the smell of cooking sausages made some of the children's mouth's water even though they had already eaten.
As they neared the hut the sound of deep throaty barking could be heard as Hagrid's enormous boar hound picked up their scent.
"Back Fang! Back!" the gamekeeper called out as they neared the door.
There was a rough scraping sound as the half giant pulled the door back and loomed in the doorway with the light of the candle at his back.
"There ya are?" he said when he saw them in their cloaks standing at the door. "I was wondering when ya were going to come. I saw ya coming from the castle. Come in, come in."
He stepped back and pulled the door farther open allowing them to come in.
Hermione liked Hagrid a great deal, he was a simple and honest man and had an honest living but his hut had very little ventilation so it was always smoky.
Today was no exception.
There was a large table and chairs sitting in the middle of the room and an enormous bed off to the side directly opposite the door. There was a kitchenette of sorts to the left side of the hut and an enormous fireplace to the right.
The chairs were so big that the six first years could sit two to a chair. Harry and Susan piled onto one, Hermione and Draco onto another and Ron and Neville on the last.
Hagrid bustled around the kitchen pouring tea and setting a plate of rock cakes on the table which all of them were smart enough now not to eat.
Turned out he knew something the rest of them didn't though because when he picked up the rock cake, he tapped it with his wand and muttered something before taking a bite.
This time there was no cracking sound.
Hermione realized quickly that Ron had created his own spell to soften objects.
"Ron that's bloody brilliant," she hissed. "How did you come up with that?"
Ron shrugged, the tips of his ears turning red. "I was bored one day."
Draco rolled his eyes. "That spell could come in handy Weasley, don't forget it."
"What's that?"
They all turned at the sound of Neville's voice.
The brown haired Gryffindor was looking towards the flames of Hagrid's enormous fire and as Hermione looked there too she also perceived something sitting among the embers.
It was large and oblong shaped and for a moment she thought with a start that it was an Infinity Stone.
It was a deep green color but had peculiar ridges along the outside of it that made it seem as if it were scaled.
"Oh that?" Hagrid said looking up from the pot of tea he had placed on the table. "That's nothing. I won it at a game in the Hogs Head tavern last night."
He seemed a little uncomfortable that they had seen it so that made Hermione all the more curious.
When he turned back around to get more cups, she slid off her chair and hurried toward the fire, stopping at the hearth to kneel down and look more closely at the object in the fire. Seeing what she was doing, Ron slid off his chair and joined her.
"I know what that is now," he whispered quietly to her. "It's a dragon egg. My brother Charlie works at a reserve for them in Romania and he handles the eggs and all the young dragons."
He turned to the gamekeeper whose back was to them at the kitchen. "Hagrid who sold a dragon egg to you?"
Hagrid started as if he hadn't been expecting them to figure it out. "Wha do ya mean? Tha's not a dragon egg! Tha's – "
"Oh come off it," Draco snapped as he slid down from his chair and walked over to Hermione and Ron to examine the egg. "I'm willing to bet my life that's a dragon egg."
"Hagrid you know it's illegal to raise a dragon in Scotland right?" Harry asked. "They'll come and take him away because he'll be a danger to the surrounding area."
"He's not a danger!" Hagrid protested.
All of a sudden, there was a popping sound as if someone were making enormous popcorn and all the first years turned to look at the egg in the fire and saw that there were two large cracks sprouting from its center.
"It's ready!" Hagrid exclaimed.
With a pair of enormous tongs from the oven, he bustled over to the fire and picked up the egg before putting it in a large plate on the kitchen table.
The egg continued to crack and the six eleven year olds watched in fascination as the egg shells dropped to the table surface and the milky white membrane appeared underneath where a creature pulsed.
Finally the membrane tore and the small dewy head of a baby dragon appeared. It was a deep color and about as long as Hermione's forearm excluding its tail.
As they all watched in wonderment, the baby dragon cleared the remains of the egg and awkwardly attempted to lift its wings.
"It's beautiful!" Hagrid said wiping a tear from his eyes.
"It might be beautiful, but there's no way you can keep it here Hagrid," Susan explained patiently. "Keeping a dragon in this country is illegal like Harry said. You should see if there are any reserves around here that it can go to."
"But it's too little to leave," Hagrid protested, looking as if he were going to cry again. "He'll die out there."
All of a sudden, the baby dragon seemed to expand and then shot out a jet of flame which caused them all to duck. The fireball flew over their heads and hit one of Hagrid's frying pans. The gamekeeper quickly put it out with a cup of water.
"Well I think you'll have to worry more about dying in here if he keeps doing that," Draco drawled.
"Hagrid?" Ron broke in because it looked like the half giant was going to start bawling again. "I have a brother who works on a dragon reserve in Romania. He'd be glad to take the dragon. But we should give him a name first so they can tag him along with the others."
Hagrid sniffed and wiped his eyes. "Norbert. I'll call him Norbert because he's a Norwegian Ridgeback."
Hermione exchanged glances with Susan who looked like she was trying not to laugh.
"Alright then," she said. "Norbert it is. Ron how long do you think it'll take to get your brother out here?"
Ω
Needless to say they didn't learn anything from the gamekeeper that day on account of the baby dragon trying to light his hut on fire, but the day wasn't a total loss because of what happened later that day.
Susan and Hermione were coming from the library and were about to head up to the hospital wing to see a "sick Luna," when all of a sudden they heard voices coming up the corridor toward them.
Upon hearing that it was in fact Professor Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, Hermione remembered what Neville had said earlier about Hagrid running the errand for Professor Dumbledore and she paused in the hallway grabbing Susan's arm to stop her.
"Are you sure it's safe Dumbledore?"
Hermione realized they were coming up the wall towards her and she yanked Susan behind one of the many suits of armor that were stationed throughout the hall.
"What are you doing?" Susan demanded in a whisper before Hermione clamped a hand over her mouth and stuck a hand over her own lips in the universal gesture for silence.
"My dear, I am not sure of anything anymore," Dumbledore replied and their voices became louder as they walked slowly up the wall. "I was sure the stone would be safe in Gringotts but time has proven that point null and void. Nicholas cannot take it back as I have asked him and the knowledge of its true origins must remain a secret. No one must know its true origins."
Hermione's eyes went enormous and she didn't readily lose her cool.
The stone? She thought. An Infinity Stone? Is that what Dumbledore's hiding in the third floor corridor?
She anxiously searched back in her memory for what she and Harry had learned about the Infinity Stones earlier in the library. There had been a stone which had entered the world's atmosphere and had never been found. Now which one had it been?
Susan's eyes had gone wide upon hearing the word stone as well and she looked like she wanted to talk. Hermione shook her head violently and held her breath as the footsteps of the headmaster and deputy head neared.
She could see their shadows on the wall elongate as they came nearer in the light of the candles and they didn't speak again until they were so close that Hermione could tell that they were right in front of the suit of armor.
"But have there been any attempts?" Minerva demanded. "Severus did say that one time several months ago on the night the troll came into the castle that he found Professor Quirrel in the third floor corridor. You don't think he would attempt to steal the stone do you?"
"Minerva my dear I make no promises and I will not reassure you that everything is perfectly safe. But I can tell you that the protections I have placed around the stone have been tested by Nicholas himself. It is as safe as it is going to be."
"Very well Albus, I hope you know what you're doing."
"My dear, these are dangerous times. You and I both know that our quarry is not dead and there are no safe days anymore."
They moved off down the wall and Hermione waited a full ten seconds before emerging and letting out a breath.
Susan tumbled out behind her looking like she was going to explode and she had just opened her mouth to do so when Hermione shook her head.
"Not here," she hissed. "There aren't any portraits around here but there could be anywhere nearby. We're meeting everyone in the hospital wing and we'll talk there."
In really she felt like she was going to explode too but she took a few deep breaths to contain herself as they walked up to the hospital wing.
But in reality, these were her thoughts on the way to the hospital wing.
There's an Infinity Stone in Hogwarts….there's an Infinity Stone in Hogwarts…..there's an Infinity Stone in Hogwarts!
It couldn't be possible but it was and Dumbledore himself had said it. Sure he hadn't specifically said the name of the stone but what else could it be?
Hermione also had a feeling she knew which stone it was because there had only been one stone on the list that had entered the earth's atmosphere but had never been found.
It was the Philosopher's Stone.
It was the Philosopher's Stone inside of Hogwarts and that meant the stakes had just risen a million times higher because of how powerful and dangerous this stone was.
Granted the Stones were all powerful and dangerous but even having one of them in proximity to her was a hazardous thing.
At first Hermione was wracking her brains as to why Dumbledore would keep something like that in a school that people would potentially be after but then she had a moment of clarity on the way to the hospital wing.
If this stone is that powerful than there's no way that people wouldn't try to use it for greedy ends if they knew it exists. It sounds as if the headmaster has tried other options and they haven't worked. And if someone has broken into Gringotts to try and steal it then obviously someone knows about it.
At that point they reached the hospital wing and Hermione was too lost in thought about the knowledge that there was an Infinity Stone inside of Hogwarts to really talk so she let Susan do the honors and needless to say everyone else had a lot of input.
"What….the bloody hell are they thinking keeping something like that locked up in a school?" Ron burst out when Susan was through and Neville hurriedly shushed him.
"If it is the philosopher's stone than we're in trouble," Harry mused. "That thing has the power to remove the magical core of every magical being in its vicinity and transfer it to the person who's using the stone.
"We're overthinking things," Draco said suddenly and everyone turned to him incredulous.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about mate?" Dudley demanded. "If anything, I think we're under thinking things."
Draco shook his head. "Don't you remember what Potter and Granger saw in the book? Only a powerful being can use the stone. I'm guessing that the cosmic entities that they talked about were gods so only gods or people who have the power of gods can use it. Lesser beings can't use them and typically burn to ash when they've tried in the past."
There was a moment of silence from all those gathered and Hermione felt her tension abate somewhat.
"I suppose that's true," Neville replied. "But if someone's after the stone they aren't likely to know that and die in the process?"
"Do you think it's Quirrel?" Hermione said suddenly and they all turned to look at her. "I mean it makes sense doesn't it? The way he's been acting all year I mean?"
Now that raised a lot of questions about Quirrel's motives involving the stone if he in fact knew what it was at all.
"Surely he wouldn't be going after it if he knew what it was capable of doing to him," Susan argued.
"He probably doesn't know," Harry replied. "Have you seen the man? He has the attention span of a squirrel and the only thing he's thinking about is whether or not he can use the stone to turn all of his possessions into gold like King Midas. He probably has no clue about what it could do to him."
"But that makes him seem like a total idiot," Draco responded. "I mean the book said that lesser beings like us can't wield the stone and would burn up with they tried. What does makes Quirrel think that's any different than any one of us for example? How is he not a lesser being?"
At this philosophical but pressing question they all fell silent and in truth, Hermione was stumped.
What did Quirrel know that they didn't?
"This needs some more looking into." Hermione mused. "If Quirrel's on the same wave length we are and he knows that what's buried in the third floor is an Infinity Stone and yet he still plans to go after it for whatever reason than there's still a piece of this puzzle missing."
They sat in silence around Luna's bed where she was reading her copy of the book on Infinity Stones.
"Maybe his definition of a lesser being is skewed," the tiny blonde said finally and all looked to her in confusion.
"What do you mean Luna?" Susan asked.
"I mean that if Quirrel knows that there is no way to pick up the stone without being burned to ash by it than he must have some other way of doing it that we don't know about. Perhaps he is not human at all."
The six first years gave each other concerned looks. It was bad enough that they were dealing with a teacher with a desire for gold and eternal life, but if that teacher was also in fact not human…..
"We need to double our efforts," Hermione said giving voice to everyone's thoughts. "And I think it's time that we tell one of the teachers that we know. They might be able to do something to prevent Quirrel from getting the stone."
There were more uneasy looks all around because confessing meant that they would need to bring everything they had investigated to light since September.
It was worth the risk to keep everyone in this castle out of harms way because there was no telling what Quirrel would do if he got his hands on the stone.
"We'll tell Professor McGonagall," Neville volunteered looking at himself and Ron. "She's the deputy head mistress. She'll know what to do."
Unfortunately, another week went by and all was silent.
Ron and Neville came down to breakfast a few days later and told their friends that they had told McGonagall who although astonished at their knowledge of the stone had said she would take their concerns to Dumbledore.
A few days later however it seemed that their worries were exacerbated when it was announced that Professor Quirrel had gone missing and that Professor Snape would be taking over the Defence lessons for the remainder of the term.
Hermione locked eyes with Susan and Luna from the Slytherin table and they all exchanged a grim look.
If Quirrel were gone than that meant that he must have known that they were getting close. If he knew that they knew than the stakes had just been raised.
Unfortunately however, there was nothing they could have done about it because the man of interest had disappeared.
An uneasy quiet descended upon the castle in the final months of school before the summer. Hermione and her friends studied, went to class and generally kept to themselves sometimes exchanging words in whispers about where they thought Quirrel was.
No answers were ever given though because no one knew.
And that was what bothered Hermione the most.
Ω
Natasha had reached her wits end.
After the disaster of a party a few weeks earlier, she had gone to Fury and threatened to quit if he didn't tell her what was so important about having Stark's tech. Surely there were millions of other brilliant engineers in the world with even temperaments unlike Ivan Vanko that they could use.
He had sat in his office while she paced and waited until she had finished what she needed to say.
It was then that he told her about the Avengers Initiative, a group of highly trained special individuals he had been putting together to deal with the international threats that the world was facing.
It seemed like an intergalactic rock band to Natasha full of men who were too busy flexing their cosmic and physical muscles to get anything done.
Kind of like Congress.
But then he had told her that he wanted her to be a member of the group and she shut right up in surprise.
At least now she understood him a little better.
It didn't make her happy about her current situation though.
She was currently standing in the back room of a doughnut shop conferring with Coulson on her phone while keeping an eye on Fury and Stark who were sitting in the booth talking.
"I told you, I don't want to join your super-secret boy band," Tony was saying and Natasha rolled her eyes.
Fury sat back in the booth and folded his arms across his chest as if he had all the time in the world. "No, no. See now I remember….you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?"
Tony paused. His eyes were unfocused as if he were just coming down off of a high of ecstasy and he looked even more ridiculous given that he was still wearing his suit without the mask of course and a pair of sunglasses on his face as if he were still suffering from a hangover.
"It's…It's….I'm sorry. I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly I'm a bit hung over. I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm having – "
Classy Stark, real classy.
"Oh I'm real," Fury said in that no nonsense tone of his after he took a sip of his coffee. "I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."
Tony sighed. "Just my luck. Where's the staff here?"
Fury meanwhile was looking at his neck and the cross world puzzle of shiny veins that were standing out in the skin. It honestly looked as if Stark was being slowly poisoned and the hangover effects were just a symptom of it.
"That's not looking so good," he said and Natasha stifled the urge to snort as she kept one ear on Coulson and one ear on Fury.
Stark was still looking around as if he expected one of the waitresses to pop out and serve him at any moment.
Natasha took that as her cue.
She ended her call with Coulson and strode calmly out into the dining area and up to the booth. "We've secured the perimeter but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer."
It was one of those rare moments when she wished she had a camera.
Even hungover and completely out of it, when Stark looked up at her he had the decency to be surprised.
He pulled down his sunglasses and gave her the once over, probably seeing her for the first time in not a blouse and pants suit but a dark blue leather uniform with the eagle of SHIELD emblazoned on her shoulder. There were two gun holsters strapped to her right and left thighs and bullet casings wrapped around her wrists.
She probably looked vastly different to him, almost as if she were wearing a Halloween costume.
"Huh," he said while Fury smirked. "You're…..fired."
Natasha suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and sat down. "That's not up to you."
Fury put one arm around her. "Tony I want you to meet Agent Romanov."
"I'm a SHIELD shadow agent. Once we knew you were ill I was tasked to you by Director Fury," Natasha supplied.
If possible, Tony looked even more drunk as he tried to take all of this in. He took off his sunglasses and was leaning on his fist against the table watching her. "I suggest you apologize."
Natasha ignored him and simply raised an eyebrow while Fury got back down to business.
"You've been real busy," he said. "You made Potts your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You even let your friend fly away with your suit! Now if I didn't know better – "
"You don't know better," Tony interrupted. "I didn't give it to him, he took it."
Natasha had never seen Fury incredulous but she would make a mental note not to make it happen too often.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just….took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?"
He glanced at Natasha. "Is that possible?"
Natasha hadn't taken her eyes off of Tony. He just looked really bad. "Well according to Mr. Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage."
She wasn't lying, she had seen them herself.
Fury turned back to Tony and spread his hands as if waiting for Stark to give him a better answer.
Stark seemed to be all out of them.
"What do you want from me?" he asked.
"What do we want from you?" Fury asked as if it were some sort of joke. "Uh uh, what do you want from me?"
He paused here and pointed at Stark as if he were a child. "You have become a problem, a problem that I now have to deal with."
He snapped his fingers and Natasha got up knowing what it was that he wanted.
Stark meanwhile had rested his head on his fist, eyes half closed as if he were a petulant teenager listening to his parent give a lecture. Thankfully he didn't put his sunglasses back on.
Natasha smirked as she went to the counter of the empty doughnut shop and retrieved the suitcase from behind it.
"Contrary to what you might think, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the world to deal with." Fury went on and Natasha prepped the needle and walked back to the table just in time for Fury to say: "Hit him."
Natasha stuck the needle into the side of Stark's neck and dispensed the lithium dioxide.
The effects were instantaneous.
Stark jumped and jerked his head from his hand, suddenly completely aware with whatever hangover he had possessed gone. "Oh God! What are you trying to do to me? Take my kidney and sell it?"
Natasha ignored him and turned his face toward her so she could see his neck. The effects of the solution were as instantaneous as his response. The complicated cross puzzle of silver veins in his neck began to diminish as if they were tubes being emptied.
"What did we do for you?" Fury corrected him. "That's lithium dioxide, it's going to take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."
"Yeah, well give me a couple of boxes of that and I'll be right as rain," Stark replied.
"It's not a cure," Natasha returned. "It just abates the symptoms."
Fury leaned forward, taking command of the conversation once more. "Doesn't look like it's going to be an easy fix."
For the first time since he walked into the doughnut shop, Stark looked like he was actually being serious. "Trust me, I know I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for pladium. I've tried every combination….every permutation of every known element."
Fury leaned forward on the table. "Well I'm here to tell you that you haven't tried them all."
Ω
Even though her mother and her conversed every week, Hermione didn't see her father often so whenever he was with her, she was going to enjoy it despite the fact that she knew he couldn't stay long.
Currently the two of them were out in the Forbidden Forest as it was the only time they could be alone and he wouldn't be seen.
He was testing her proficiency with her blades again and Hermione was very glad for it. It wasn't that she needed the practice it was that she was getting tired of doing it alone and though Harry and Dudley were decent at martial arts they had had nowhere near the training that she had had from both her mother and her father.
"A Cerberus?" Thor asked as he swung at her head and Hermione numbly ducked under it. "There is a Cerberus in the castle?"
Hermione nodded. "It's been there since the beginning of the year. I think it's guarding something but it isn't allowed to leave the room because there is a chain around its ankle with what appears to be ancient runes that prevent it from escaping."
Thor frowned. It wasn't common to find a Cerberus on Midgard and so the magicals must have had more access to them than the mortals did.
Still though, it was odd to find one now especially in a school. Scotland and North Western Europe had been the primary place of worship for the Norse gods thousands of years ago and they would often hold festivals to Odin and himself and his mother and brother.
"You haven't tried to engage the creature have you?" he asked and was relieved when Hermione shook her head.
They continued sparring for a few more minutes until Hermione decided to raise the most pressing question on her mind.
"Dad….is…..is there a way to tame a Cerberus?"
Thor paused mid swing. "None that I know of. Hela perhaps would know, but other than that none can say. Why do you ask little spark?"
Hermione wondered if she should tell him what she suspected the Cerberus was guarding and decided she was going to have to go about this a bit more carefully than she thought.
"I was just curious," she said and they continued sparring for a few moments longer both of them having fallen silent.
After a while of repeated blows, Hermione decided she was going to ask her most pressing question yet.
"Dad? What are Infinity Stones?"
In all of her life, the strawberry blonde had never seen her father surprised but now he nearly dropped Mjolnir from his shock.
He looked up at her, his face growing hard. "Where did you hear of such things little spark?"
Hermione decided that she had better tell the truth as it was the only way she was going to get anywhere with the god.
"Harry and I found a book about it in the library," she said which was the truth. "We didn't really know what they were and it was an old book. Something told me you would know."
Thor sighed and to her surprise looked more tired than she would have expected. "Little spark the Infinity Stones are seven objects of immense power that were created by the cosmic entities thousands of year before Asgard came into being. Their names and color vary but their general order is thus: The Space Stone is purple and grants the ability to travel through space using teleportation and it can interfere with the motion of other objects.
"The Mind Stone grants near limitless psychic abilities using empathy, telepathy and telekinesis.
"The Soul Stone is green and grants the ability to observe, attack or even steal a beings soul or spirit, it is the most corrupt of the Infinity Stones.
"The Reality Stone is yellow and can alter all reality; simialr to the effects of what is known as a Cosmic Cube but much more powerful.
"The Time Stone is orange and grants the ability to travel through time, slow it down, speed it up or reduce aging.
"The Power Stone is red and increases strength and durability and enhances any ability that the bearer of it has."
"And finally there is the Sorcerer's stone which is white. It is said that this stone has the ability to remove the magic of all the beings in the known universe and transfer it to the user of the stone. It can also produce a liquid that grants eternal life."
Hermione had gone cold from the knowledge her father was imparting but she knew there was no way she could let him find out that this had rattled her because he was watching her closely.
"Do you happen to know where the Infinity Stones are?" she asked slowly.
"No one knows," he said. "They've been lost to space and time for the last several thousand years. They emerge every few millennia or so but they always disappear again as they can never belong strictly to one being. Plus there are very few that can wield them only beings of immense power can do so."
Now came the most pressing question.
"Is there a way that a person, a mortal for example could carry an Infinity Stone?" Hermione asked, hoping against hope that he wouldn't suspect anything.
Thor gave her a long look. "I have never heard of a mortal being able to do so. But then the only mortals who ever tried to hold one of the stones centuries ago did do alone.
Now if there were someone helping them, perhaps touching the person who had taken hold of the stone than they might be able to hold onto the stone but for how long I do not know."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why so many questions little spark? Do you believe that there is an Infinity Stone nearby?"
It took every ounce of her mother's training for Hermione to keep a straight face. "No…but after reading the book on them I began to wonder if I could perhaps wield one…..we don't really know if mortal or immortal right?"
Thor's entire face darkened and Hermione wondered for a moment if she had gone too far.
"Little spark," he said and she got the feeling that he had thought about this many times before. "That is something we will not talk about until we reach your majority in seven years."
"So once I'm eighteen we'll know if I'm immortal or not?" Hermione mused to herself. Then she frowned. "What if I'm not?"
Thor tried to smile but it came out more like a grimace. He bent down and kissed the top of her head. "Do not worry little spark, should that happen there are plans I have put in place."
Ω
"He's got an accomplice."
Everyone looked up from studying at the library table when Hermione slapped her hands down on it.
"What are you talking about?" Susan asked.
"I mean, Quirrel has someone helping him. Think about it, if he knows that he could burn to ash when he tries to pick up the stone than he's going to need someone to help him."
"But who would do that?" Neville asked. "I can't imagine someone in the castle helping him steal the stone."
"Then it has to be someone from outside this place that knows about it," Draco reasoned.
"Exactly."
"So then what the bloody hell do we do?" Ron asked ever the eloquent one.
"I don't know, but something tells me this is bigger than us now," Dudley put in.
Luna looked at Hermione carefully. She knew the strawberry blonde was hiding something but now in front of all of their friends, she decided not to press.
From the first time they had met, both the two girls had noticed that there was an instant connection between them, they just seemed to get along so well and neither of them knew why. There was a magnetic energy between them that made them gravitate toward each other.
Both Hermione and Luna didn't know that they were cousins though their father's knew of the other child's existence. Thor knew about Luna and Pandora and Loki knew about
Hermione and Natasha. Both gods had deemed it necessary to leave their children ignorant of it for the time being however for both of their safety.
There was a time coming soon when both of them would learn of it however and things would be set in motion that no one would be able to account for.
"So we get back to detective work?" Luna asked her unknown cousin.
"We bust this case wide open," Hermione finished grimly.
Ω
So next chapter is when things kick into high gear and all hell breaks loose. It's also going to be the last chapter of Hermione's first year and then we get into the exciting stuff I have planned for year two. Don't forget to review and enjoy!
