"Absolutely not," Steve stated. Hermione had just returned from her fourth year at school and announced her wish to become an Avenger. It did not go over well.
"On Asgard, children are trained in self-defense, but they are not expected to fight until they reach adulthood. I thought the other Realms were the same," explained Thor.
"They are," replied Tony, shortly.
"We're not putting a kid's life in danger," Bruce insisted.
"I'm fifteen. My teachers say I'm the most powerful student since Professor Dumbledor himself," Hermione argued.
"I see no reason not to let Hermione join you," Loki remarked.
"Zip it, Reindeer Games," snapped Tony. "You're a supervillain, you don't get a say in this. Hermione, you're not becoming a superhero until you're at least eighteen and that's final."
"I'll be in more danger at Hogwarts than taking down Hydra bases," Hermione countered angrily, without thinking.
"What do you mean?" Natasha asked. Hermione hesitated. She wasn't going to tell her aunt or any of the Avengers about her adventures helping Harry save the Wizarding World.
"My best friend somehow defeated the most dangerous dark wizard three times," reluctantly, Hermione recounted the highlights of her time at Hogwarts, including the Death Eater attack at the Quidditch World Cup and Voldemort's return.
"You're still not becoming an Avenger and you're transferring to Illvermorny," Clint insisted.
"I'm Hermione's legal guardian, I have the final say," Natasha replied. "Hermione, you can stay at Hogwarts and become an Avenger."
Over the next week, Hermione's combat training was accelerated and Loki taught her to use wandless magic. Nine days later, Gryffin was ready to destroy her first Hydra base.
Hermione had only ever been this nervous before her Sorting. All of the Avengers were in the Quinjet, preparing to fight against one of the evilest organizations in history. Hermione's suit was black with red accents and yellow gloves. She had chosen the codename Gryffin. Currently, Earth's Mightiest Heroes were attacking Hydra base in a Colorado forest.
When they landed, Hermione ran through the trees heading towards a secret passageway into the compound. Unfortunately, upon her arrival, she discovered that the passageway was locked. To break the lock would mean to set off an alarm, causing the Avengers to lose the element of surprise.
"North entrance is locked. I can't use Alohomora or any other spell without setting off the alarm," Gryffin reported.
"Maybe Tony could hack into the system and disable the alarms remotely," Steve suggested. Suddenly, a familiar red and gold blur crashed through the roof and several ear-splitting alarms rang through the otherwise quiet base.
"TO BATTLE!" Thor shouted, rushing after Ironman.
"Umm… Guys, is it a code green?" Bruce asked, hearing the commotion from his seat in the quinjet.
"Bloody idiots," Hermione muttered under her breath.
"I heard that," Tony retorted.
She rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Bombarda Maxima!" The locked passageway blasted away along with a large portion of the north wall - doubtlessly setting off more alarms. What was the point of even planning for stealth when you had allies like Tony Stark and Thor Odinson?
"Lumos," Hermione crept through a narrow tunnel. According to blueprints that Tony and Jarvis had hacked, she was heading towards where a large experiment was being kept. The purpose of said experiment was unclear, but it needed to be destroyed.
"Nox," Hermione whispered as she approached the labs. She teleported her wand elsewhere using a spell Loki had taught her.
In the main lab, a strange machine took up most of the room. It was a large cube that was at least three yards high. A bizarre assortment of rusty gears and wires gave it a steampunk vibe. The device radiated strange, hostile energy.
"Evanesco," Hermione attempted to destroy it, despite her curiosity. Surprisingly, the spell had no effect, except illuminating a few lights on the device.
"Bombarda," again, nothing happened.
"Bombarda Maxima!" Hermione attempted her most powerful spell, but still there was no effect.
"I can't destroy the device. It's resisting my magic," she reported.
"Stay put, Hermione," Steve ordered. "Thor, help her."
"Wait, I just thought of something else I could try," Hermione said. She attempted a non-verbal spell that she had read about in the same book where she had gotten the recipe for polyjuice potion in her second year at Hogwarts. The spell wasn't dark magic, just very dangerous and unpredictable.
The device lit up brighter than the Hogwarts Christmas trees. It began beeping.
"That is a very dangerous spell," Loki told Hermione. "It could have done much more than destroying the device and knocking you out." It was a few weeks after her first mission, and Hermione had offhandedly mentioned the mystery spell she used to Loki.
"I have to go," she said after glancing at the clock. "Hill said she found your scepter. We're retrieving it today."
This was it. The last Hydra base. Loki's scepter was here. Steve had come up with a foolproof plan of attack that everyone knew would be promptly ignored by certain team members. *Cough* Tony, Thor, and the Hulk, *cough*. The base was so well defended that the Avengers had called a code green.
Tony flew at the roof of the base only to be forcibly knocked back. He cursed loudly.
"Language," reprimanded Steve. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs."
"The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield," the A.I. reported. "Strucker's technology is well beyond any other Hydra base we've taken."
"Loki's scepter must be here. Strucker couldn't mount his defense without it. At long last," Thor replied.
"At long last is lasting a little long boys," Natasha remarked.
"Yeah, I think we lost the element of surprise," Clint added.
"We lost the element of surprise back in Colorado," Hermione said, referring to her first mission with the Avengers.
"Wait a second. Is no one else going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'Language'?" Tony asked.
"I know," Steve replied. "It just slipped out."
"Sir, the city is taking fire," Jarvis said.
"Deploy the Iron Legion," Tony ordered. Robots that loosely resembled Tony's armor flew into a nearby city to protect civilians.
Suddenly, a blue blur knocked Clint down, causing him to be shot.
"We have enhanced in the field," Steve announced after the blur ran into him.
"Clint's hit," Natasha reported, rushing over to help her teammate. "Somebody want to deal with that bunker?"
The Hulk smashed the small structure that was firing at the heroes.
"Thank you," she said.
"Stark, we really need to get inside," said Steve.
"I'm closing in," Tony replied. "JARVIS, am I...closing in? Do you see a power source for that shield?"
"There is a pathway below the north tower," Jarvis reported.
"Great. I wanna poke it with something." It didn't take long for Tony to get the shield down, allowing the Avengers access.
"The enhanced?" Thor inquired.
"He's a blur," Steve responded. "All the new players we've faced, I've never seen this. In fact, I still haven't."
"Clint's hit pretty bad, guys," Natasha said. "We're gonna need evac."
"I can get Barton to the jet," Thor told Steve. "The sooner we're gone, the better. You and Stark get the scepter."
"Copy that," Steve replied.
"Looks like they're lining up," Thor observed the tanks closing in on him and Steve.
"Well, they're excited," Steve replied as Thor hit his shield with Milnor, creating a shockwave that destroyed the tanks.
"Find the scepter," Thor stated before flying off.
"And for gosh sakes, watch your language," Tony added.
"That's not going away anytime soon," Steve sighed.
"Probably not," agreed Hermione. "For Earth's Mightiest Heroes, you guys are surprisingly immature."
"We're locked down out here," Natasha reported.
"Then calm down Banner," Steve replied. Hermione carefully made her way across the battlefield and cast a powerful cheering charm on the Hulk, causing him to change back into Bruce Banner.