Hermione woke up to the continuous sound of beeping and almost mind-numbing pain, as though she had been subjected to a new Weasley twins' invention that beeped every time someone swore, as it was clearly taking account of how fast she was running out of swear words to say as she continued cursing within the confines of her mind while she mentally tried to account for any missing body parts, or extra ones.

Although why she'd need to check for the latter was not something that crossed her mind at that moment.

She slowly opened her eyes and then immediately closed them to ward off the morning light filtering into wherever she was.

Breathing evenly, as though still asleep, she opened her eyes a sliver and peeked into the room. It was empty. Slowly turning to her side, she looked at the bedside table, and there, her wand and beaded bag!

She resisted from reaching out and snatching it up, and continued her perusal of the room, noting the medical equipment that was connected to her, and idly wondering how they hadn't been fried yet.

Sitting up gingerly and wincing at the pain that shot through her, she quickly snatched her wand, breathing a sigh of relief at the familiar warmth that went through her, and shot a diagnostic charm at herself, mentally cringing at the red highlights that popped up in the visual showing her health.

She jumped at a sudden sizzling sound, looking around and realizing that the use of her wand had finally destroyed the circuits of the medical equipment, and a camera, if the smoke coming from the top right corner of the room was indicative of anything.

She quickly shot a couple of healing spells at her battered body, then disillusioning herself, limped to a corner of the room after detaching the medical equipment, waiting and watching with her back against the wall as she heard rapid footsteps outside the door.

A woman walked in, Pepper, her mind supplied, eyes widening as she looked at the empty bed, and Hermione felt mildly guilty as she heard the woman's panicked cry of, "Tony!?".

The Malfoy-esque man from the previous day (She thought it was the previous day?), walked in, looking unbothered and without a care in the world.

Not for long though, as he did a double-take at seeing the empty room and fried equipment.

"Jarvis", he called out, looking around in fascination as though the destruction of costly equipment was his new favourite project, while Pepper walked out into the hallway.

Hermione fought not to jump as a disembodied voice called out, "No sign of Miss Granger, sir."

Stark looked even more delighted as he called, " Pull up the footage, J."

Hermione looked on in awe as a sudden hologram in thin air showed the room as it was only minutes ago when she was still asleep.

She watched the man, Stark she recalled, as he watched her disappear into thin air from the bed. He played it back twice more, and then turned to holler out the room, "Pepper!"

Hermione watched, bemused, as Pepper came rushing back into the room frantically.

"Where is she?", she asked shrilly, looking around rapidly as though to determine if she was still in the room.

"She's gone", Stark said, sounding like a kid on Christmas.

"What do you mean gone?! She shouldn't have been able to even get up!", Hermione winced as Pepper's voice took on a shrill frosty tone, as did Stark.

"Well, she couldn't have gotten far", Stark tried to placate, "If she's off the building, then Jarvis can run face recognition", he continued, " We'll find her in no time."

"Tony, didn't you hear what I just said? She's hurt! Getting off the bed would be an improbability in the first place, getting out the building is just imposs – –

"Not so much", Stark interrupted, grinning like a Cheshire cat, as he replayed the video, ending just before Hermione shot the diagnostic at herself.

Pepper's mouth fell open. "What?", she breathed, stumped.

"See, she could have gotten outside", Stark said, "We'll find her though, promise."

"Ok, Tony", she sighed, resigned. "Just be careful. And make sure she's alright."

"Aye aye ma'am ?", he saluted, with a cheeky grin, as he turned to swagger out the room.

Pepper sighed warily, giving a cursory glance one last time around the room, then turned to walk out after him.

Hermione released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as her caretakers (or Captors) left the room, and then immediately winced at the pain that shot through her ribs.

Her mind racing, she stumbled out the open door of the room, clutching her wand tight in one hand, and stopping in the middle of the hall to twine her beaded bag around her hand so as to not lose it.

She didn't think she was up to bend down to store the bag safely in her– –

Her thoughts stuttered to an abrupt halt.

My Dragonhide boots, she thought despairingly, looking down at her bare feet.

She had an old pair of Harry's in the bag that might fit her, she recalled, but she'd have to go barefoot for now. She couldn't risk pulling anything out of the bag right then.

She continued her slow path down the hallway, grateful that it wasn't a veritable maze like Hogwarts was. She pushed down the panic that came with thoughts of her school and her classmates, mentally chiding herself to focus.

She reached the end of the hallway, peering around the corner to see a stranger walking towards the lift. She hurried to follow, gritting her teeth against the pain as she swiftly and quietly entered the lift, pressing herself against the walls, just before the stranger got on.

She focused on keeping quiet, though to her ears, each breath sounded as though rattling chains in the dead of night.

The lift stopped after descending a few floors and Hermione cursed mentally as more people got on, making her move further back, as though trying to meld herself into the lift wall. She tightened her grip on her wand, her nerves shot with anxiety as she tried not to recall the last time she'd been in the presence of so many people.

As the lift finally reached the ground floor, she breathed a sigh of relief.

And immediately froze as a passing person looked her way with narrowed eyes, and she realized, with a dawning sense of horror that she smelled like the infirmary she'd been recovering in.

She stood stock-still and tried to look around for ways out of her situation while her heart tried to crawl its way up her throat.

As the person, she vaguely noticed him holding a folder stamped classified with S.H.I.E.L.D written across the top, came closer, as though trying to discern what, to him, must've been the crevices on the lift wall, she shot a wandless nonverbal confundus at him, mentally thanking Cormac for being her practice target in what seemed like eons ago, and desperately hoping that it would work.

To her relief, it did, and she watched as the man's eyes clouded and he shook his head as though swatting at a stray thought.

Finally, finally, the man moved away, turning around to exit the open lift, and she cautiously followed, wary of his hyper-driven senses.

As he moved out of her way, she noticed the clear path to the open doorway in the lobby outside the lift and she darted past him, making her way out the door, and finally to fresh air and freedom.

She looked around, watching people on the sidewalk not pay attention to anybody but themselves, and then looked up, at the intimidating skyscrapers looming above her.

She had to get home…

And with a determined set to her jaw that had gotten her through infinite life or death situations through sheer stubbornness, Hermione set out to do just that and walked into the throng of people, unseen.

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"Agent Coulson, report", a disembodied voice called out from a phone.

"Target marked with a tracker, sir", returned the person holding the phone.

"Good."