First off, I don't think the movie did NEAR enough justice to the bad-ass that is Peggy Carter and I'm here to rectify that.

November 10th, 1940 - Castle Kaufmann

Hermione was led through the dark landscapes of the night into the compound that Johann had called Castle Kaufmann. Velvet hangings hung next to enormous wooden framed windows, and classic dark wood staircases led Hermione and her guards through rooms, hallways, and foyers of extravagant decorum. More guards were posted intermittently around the rooms Hermione passed by and she soon lost where she'd been and where she was going. It truly was an enormous estate.

Her guards opened a door down a lone hallway somewhere deep in the castle, and Hermione followed through. Inside sat pristine medical tables and cabinets with old-styled medical equipment. Old fashioned stainless steel needles with large handles were precariously laying over sections of the counters. Glass beakers filled with various liquids and mixtures were clumped in organized chaos around the room and a stainless steel crank-operated operating table with an enormous surgery spotlight above the bed made up the back of the room.

Everything that Hermione could see was made from stainless steel, a very retro look that was popular in a lot of black and white photos from the past. Being there was like stepping back into the 1940's Hermione mused, studying a shelf of books written in German near the door.

"You must be zhe newest visitor," someone sitting near the back of the room said suddenly.

Hermione's guards let go of her arms and left through the door behind them, locking her in with the new stranger in the old-fashioned medical room.

He was an older, light-skinned man, probably around his 60's, with short brown curling hair peppered with white and matching short facial hair. He wore a brown tweed suit with a dull-looking tie and vest beneath it. He had kind brown eyes.

"My name is Hermione," Hermione introduced herself for the second time that night to a stranger, but trusting her gut instincts, and moving towards the man.

"Dr. Abraham Erskine," He nodded back. He folded a corner of the page he was on and closed his book, giving Hermione his full attention. They shook hands. "That was quite an entrance you made. Such a powerful blue light would not help with undercover work I would think, ja?"

Hermione settled herself across from him on a tall metal bar chair and looked out at the window beside him. Even through the darkness, Hermione could see that he had an excellent vantage point across the castle. "Well, that's simply because I'm not a spy, which was what that fellow Johann had accused me of. Spying for what I have no idea. It was an accident that I'm here."

Dr. Erskine looked at her curiously. "Do you know where you are?"

"Johann said in the Castle Kauffman, which I'm guessing is somewhere in Germany."

"The Bavarian Alps," he said.

Hermione blinked. "If I remember correctly, that's in southeast Germany sharing a border with Austria. Home to beautiful castles, great beer, and spectacular views over the mountains."

Dr. Erskine raised an eyebrow. "Did you read zhat from a book?"

Hermione nearly blushed like she would have if she were still a student. Instead, she studied the landscape below them, refusing to feel embarrassed. "I read quite a lot."

He smiled kindly. "I can see. But, you missed the biggest part. It is also occupied now by the Nazis. Worse than that, Hydra."

Hermione laughed without thought. "Nazis? The compound is militarian and the equipment is ancient I'll give you, but-"

Her companion sat in silence and the fluorescent lighting in the room deepened the lines on his face.

Hermione felt the smile slip away from her. "You're entirely serious aren't you?" she asked.

Dr. Erskine gazed at her through the tops of his glasses. "I have a question, if I may?"

Hermione felt small pieces start to fit together in the back of her mind. The tesseract, the uniforms, the medical equipment- "Yes?" she answered.

"What year do you zhink you are in?"

The question ricocheted back and forth in her mind. What year. "I'm beginning to doubt that it is 2007?"

Dr. Erskine's lips parted and his eyes widened. "Truly so far ahead?"

Hermione felt her stomach plummet and panic start to itch up the sides of her arms. "Dr. Erskine, please, what- exactly what year is it today?"

The scientist took off his wireframe glasses and rubbed them shortly on a handkerchief he had in his front pocket before checking his watch. "It is 11:53 in the evening on November the 10th of 1940."

Hermione sank her weight to her elbows on the table. 1940. She had time traveled. The tesseract had sent her back in time. Nearly 70 years in the past.

"Shit," Hermione breathed, too shocked to worry about her language.

She could feel the doctor's eyes watching her and she looked him over as well. Her mind slowly starting to move past the feeling of being stupified. "How did you- how could you possibly even have guessed?"

Dr. Erskine folded his hands over his crossed legs. "Well, there is your garments. It was the first thing I saw. I have never seen someone dressed like you, and certainly not a woman from Britain."

Hermione surveyed her clothes and had to agree with the scientist.

Muggles, no matter what era would probably find her long black cloak and inner opaque lining, a distinguishable mark for her position in the Unspeakables, a little off from normal wear. She also wore long fitted black trousers tucked into slim dragonhide boots that went to the middle of her calf and a thin dark purple and opaque lined vest over a black long-sleeved shirt to keep out the London cold. It was considered feminine, fashionable, and modest in her line of work and in her time. However, Hermione could agree that what she was wearing was a clear indication that she was not from here.

"Shit," Hermione said again, letting her thoughts and worry settle over her like a dark blanket.

"But the biggest fact was that you did not know who Hydra was."

Hermione frantically went over any memory or information in the database of her mind of the word 'Hydra' and she came up empty. "I've never heard of them before."

His lips pursed. "Never? Not once in your studies?"

"Well Nazi Germany yes, and the atrocities from Hitler's reign of course, but I've never heard of an organization named Hydra before today." She paused. "And I can assure you, I have a very extensive background in European and American history."

"That- that is very strange."

Hermione shrugged, mind tumbling over the power of the tesseract, and put a hand to her suddenly pounding head.

Dr. Erskine poured a small amount of clear liquid from a tumbler beside his window into a crystal glass and pushed it lightly over to Hermione. "Drink."

Hermione didn't question the choice and immediately threw back whatever was in it. Dr. Erskine took the glass back from Hermione when she felt the vodka hit the bottom of her empty stomach.

Her eyes watered and she nearly gagged on the substance. "That's- Merlin, that's gasoline."

Dr. Erskine threw back his own shot and smacked his lips in satisfaction when the glass came down empty. "It is Russian, very hard to get a hold of in zhese parts." He smiled and tipped the decanter at Hermione to offer her more, but Hermione shook her head.

Dr. Erskine took another shot and put the drink away. "From your face, you did not mean to come to zhis place, ja?" he asked. "Or did you not know you traveled through time?"

She swallowed her growing nausea and poured out her honesty before she could think of the ramifications. "Both I suppose," Hermione answered. "I touched something I should not have, something that should have killed me instead. Then, suddenly, I found myself with people pointing guns at me in an entirely new place. Almost seventy years in the past." Hermione took a deep breath and shook her head. "I have no idea how this happened. Worse, I have no idea how to get back." That opened another flood gate of questions. Should she try to apparate back to Hogwarts and see if she could find someone willing to help her? Could anyone travel 70 years in the future? She'd never heard of it done before. Not outside of theory.

"You cannot recreate your contraption from before?"

Hermione shook her head, recalling the perfectly formed lines of the tesseract. "I didn't make it, to begin with."

Dr. Erskine steepled his hands together. "So what will you do?"

What would she do? She had to contact someone from the wizarding world first, most likely. Get someone to listen to her plight. Build a case for the Ministry to help her? They were the only ones with the resources to do the most at this time. "Find help. Leave," she answered. Perhaps she should reach out to Dumbledore in this timeline first? Hermione realized that he was still alive here. Currently fighting a different kind of war.

"Not many have said they were able to escape this place," the doctor commented dryly, watching the spotlights in the compound trace over the foreign lands outside.

She frowned. "Are you a prisoner as well?" Hermione asked, truly unbelieving that the man in front of her could be associated with such a dark organization. Good Merlin she was dealing with Nazis!

"They have my wife, my son, and my daughter somewhere until I finish my work."

Hermione felt a terrible sadness for the doctor. "When were they taken?"

"September 14th, 1935," he smiled without humor.

"Over five years ago," Hermione concluded.

"One day I will return to them. It will-"

The door to the medical room opened and a brown-haired woman stepped in with a large tray of food. She was a little taller than Hermione with braided pigtails down both sides of her face and had generous curves accentuated by her brown serving dress.

"Doktor, ich habe das Abendessen mitgebracht," she announced lightly, stepping into the room with a guard behind her.

"Vielen dank, Ava," Dr. Erskine replied politely and stood from his chair.

Hermione followed the Doctor to the maid as she gracefully dropped her tray of food before them. "Herr Schmidt wünscht sich, euch beide morgen zum Frühstück zu treffen."

Dr. Erskine froze. He looked to Hermione for a split moment, fear flashing through his eyes before he turned back and smiled warmly at the serving girl. "Wir werden beide kommen," he nodded. "Goodnight Ava."

"Goodnight Doctor," she said back with a very heavy German accent. "Fräulein Hermione." She bowed her head a little to the both of them, and then both she and guard disappeared back behind their locked door.

"I don't speak enough German to have understood all that she said," Hermione stepped closer to the food and reached for one of the two silver-covered plates. They smelled heavenly.

Dr. Erskine uncovered his own food and brought it back to the stainless steel counter by the window they'd sat previously. "We are being summoned to dine with Herr Schmidt, or Johann as you know him, tomorrow morning."

Hermione paused over her food. "Does he normally dine with you?"

"Do time travelers normally fall out of zhe sky?" he answered. Unease sat heavy in her stomach.

As soon as they had finished their portions of steak, green beans, potatoes, and steamed carrots, two guards came to collect their trays and appeared at the door again.

"I think this is where we must part, Miss. Granger," the doctor stood from his place and moved her tray away with his.

A guard reached for her arm and Hermione threw off the urge to suddenly punch a soft part of him. "Tomorrow?" she asked the doctor instead. She didn't know why, but she needed to know that she would see him again.

"First thing in the morning," he agreed, his eyes surveying the medical office like he was memorizing it.

Hermione touched the sleeve of his tweed jacket. "Goodnight then, Dr. Erskine."

He smiled softly at her, his eyes dull and shuttered. "Goodnight Miss. Granger."

Later That Night

Hermione had been led to a guest room not far from the medical office that she had shared with Dr. Erskine. While the windows were locked, and the door locked behind her, Hermione felt that it was actually a very nice room. A little cold from the night mountain air, but it was nothing a little warming spell couldn't take care of and she had certainly slept in worse places before. It had a four-poster bed similar to what she'd slept in during her time at Hogwarts although much bigger, a large wardrobe, vanity and mirror, and a conjoining bathroom. There was even a record player on a side table near the bedroom door for her. All very cozy if she didn't add in that she was on a Nazi compound and currently a 'prisoner'.

Men's pajamas were waiting for her neatly folded on her bed, and after a quick wash in the other room, Hermione found herself standing in front of the bedroom vanity, taking in the reflection of herself.

She had to admit, she hadn't changed much since Hogwarts. Maybe it was because Wizards and Witches aged slower than muggles, maybe it was her extended time dealing with time turners and other strange magic within the Unspeakables. Maybe it was even the tesseract itself. Either way, Hermione recognized that she looked younger than she should in the mirror. Much, much younger.

If she were to look at herself from an outside perspective, she'd say she was on the cusp of 21 or 22. Not the 28, nearly 29 years she knew she was.

Hermione also had no idea if that was entirely normal or not, as she had spent very little time staring at herself in a mirror throughout her adult career. Vanity wasn't something she normally cared for, and it certainly wasn't high on her list of priorities within her cases as she was almost always behind a desk or out in the field away from most of the populace.

Hermione stepped away from the mirror and put the borrowed pajamas on, spelling her hair dry and watching her curls fall and soften into ringlets down her back. Tomorrow she would find a way out of Germany and back to magical London. She was sure there were magical towns in between Germany and Britain, but she didn't know their exact location, not in 1940 at least. And she wasn't sure how she would travel from here to there either as she had no muggle money on her, passport, or ID.

Disapparition could only take one so far, especially in an unknown part of the world, and Portkeys were heavily controlled in the 1940s, Hermione recalled. Only those within the Ministry were sanctioned to create one during WW2, and an awful jinx, categorized in the same family as a Taboo, was laid on those that tried to cast one without the proper authority. This was not something that Hermione wanted to try to deal with in addition to everything else going on.

The fact that she was nearly 70 years in the past also made her very fearful. Terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time, Hermione had warned Harry when they were only thirteen years old. She had read the Chaos Theory and its subsequent Butterfly Effect in her third year, and it basically stated that small changes made in a certain condition could result in large differences in a later state. Hermione wondered if her presence in time now would set off ripples in what she could go home to, and then if it would affect her now present in the past. Theories flashed across her mind, each one more dismal than the last to her outcome, and Hermione huffed in frustration.

Dr. Erskine was the last thought on her mental list, but nonetheless, a powerful one. Hermione couldn't help but feel as if she ought to do something for the Doctor. There was no chance that she could take on an entire military fortress by herself and rescue him through the fire, not without destroying the timeline and showing every muggle in the world her magic, but she did want to do something. Even giving him an exact location of his family so he could try to find them by himself was an idea. But, that only could happen if it didn't disrupt the timeline she wasn't sure she was already meddling with.

Goodness. She needed to talk to an Unspeakable now.

She sighed at the frustration of it all and tucked the covers more firmly around her. It would all have to wait until the morning.

November 11th, 1940 - Castle Kaufmann

Hermione woke up to a soft knock on the bedroom door. Weary of a man stepping into the room with her so undressed caused Hermione to launch herself out of bed hurriedly.

"Fräulein Hermione?" A familiar and heavily German-accented female voice asked from beyond the wooden door. "Are you avake?"

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. The maid from the night before. "Ava?" Hermione asked.

"Good Morning Fräulein Hermione, I vill be stepping in now!" was the only notification that she received before the taller maid let herself into the bedroom and closed the door securely behind her. She was wearing her maids uniform from the day before, complete with the long braids down her chest. Hermione couldn't help but study her smiling face as she took Hermione in as well. Ava had very light skin, nearly porcelain, with a square jaw and high cheekbones that accented her broader shoulders and full lips. She had perfectly darkened arched eyebrows that framed her wide charcoaled hazel eyes. All in all, she was a very beautiful woman.

Ava made to move around Hermione and surveyed the room lightly. "Hm, it is warmer in here than other places in zhe house."

Hermione mentally cursed. She'd kept self-sustaining warming charms around the room last night and hadn't thought of heaters in the castle other than the fireplaces in their rooms. "Perhaps it is just having a person in the room to occupy it that keeps it warm?" Hermione asked airily and made to start for the bathroom, leaving her wand under her pillow by the bed.

"Herr Schmidt asked for me to help you zhis morning," Ava announced, following her.

Hermione nearly cursed again and turned to the woman. "Is there hot water in the tap for a bath?"

"Yes."

"Then as much as I appreciate it, I don't need help this morning, but thank you."

Ava stood still for a moment at her words, and Hermione wondered if she had spoken too fast for the woman to understand. "I will put music for you to hear now," she announced a second later and walked to the bedroom before Hermione could say anything else.

Hermione let the building annoyance go. Ava had a job to do just as Hermione did. A woman's voice echoed with violin instruments in German from the record player in Hermione's bedroom, and she turned to take off her pajama shirt. Ava came back into the bathroom and started the tap for her bath, loudly dispensing water into the porcelain tub.

Hermione unbuttoned the last of her nightshirt and nearly screamed when Ava's hand wrapped around her mouth and pulled her down. Ava's weight and gravity worked against Hermione and she fell against the taller woman with pin-wheeling arms. Before Hermione could scream or think of a spell, Ava's lips came close to her ear and she whispered urgently over the noise of the filling tub and the music from Hermione's room, "Stop struggling. My name is Peggy Carter and I work for the Strategic Scientific Reserve in America."

Hermione went limp. Gone was the heavily German accent and instead was a perfectly British one, and from Hampstead of all places. Peggy Carter.

Hermione slowly went to lift Ava- Peggy's hand away from her face, and she turned to face her. "You're from England."

"So are you." Her eyes flitted across the room silently as if someone could hear them.

Hermione's eyes widened at the sudden thought. "You're a spy!"

"Not so loud!" Peggy took a step towards Hermione so their faces were very close. "Every wall in this castle has ears, do you want to get me killed?"

Questions filled her mind. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to end the War, no thanks to you," she whispered, nearly an accusation.

Hermione spluttered. "I haven't done anything."

Peggy's eyes nailed her to the ground. "You show up in the middle of the night, talking about time traveling and you think that won't bodge the S.S.R's plans, Hydra's plans?"

Hermione's eyes widened. Every wall in this castle has ears. "Oh, Merlin."

"I haven't been able to communicate with my contact since I heard, but you can bet Schmidt has made plans for you by now."

Panic flooded Hermione. "I need to go."

"You can't," Peggy whispered. "Schmidt has mobilized the castle's forces and the grounds are overrun with soldiers. You won't make it ten meters."

Hermione thought of her wand in the bedroom under her pillow. She could apparate out if she needed to. Maybe.

How far she'd actually make it was an entirely different matter. She knew of no current landmarks close enough for her to travel to without getting splinched along the way. And she would be in a war zone. Merlin forbid she should land on a mine or get shot along the way.

"I'll figure it out."

"You've become an interest to the leader of one of the most dangerous special-weapons divisions of the world. He would rather burn and salt the ground of his homeland than let you go free by now."

Hermione's bathtub was nearly filled to the brim. She still didn't have a plan. Frustration and fear crawled up her throat. "What exactly is your suggestion then?"

"Stay here wit-"

Hermione scoffed and felt the panic rise within her like a cresting wave. "You're out of your-"

"Look! I'm planning to save Dr. Erskine. You can come too."

The feeling of drowning stopped. "When?"

"In two days," she confessed. "I already have a plan and a plane ready."

Hermione struggled to swallow. "He could kill me by then."

Peggy didn't disagree. "Dr. Erskine's work is very very important. It could change the tide of the War."

Hermione didn't have anything to say to that. She shouldn't even be here. "Okay."

"Alright?"

Hermione nodded. "Two days."

Relief and a tiny flicker of surprise flashed across Peggy's face. "Well- good. And remember, you can't say or do anything that could jeopardize my position."

Hermione huffed, a little offended. "Oh honestly. I'm not an idiot, of course I won't."

Peggy nodded. "Good. Now get in the tub, you have to get to breakfast."

Later That Morning

Somehow Johann had someone deliver woman's clothing to Hermione's chambers that fit her near perfect. It was a button-up light blue dress, reminiscent of the Beauxbatons Academy's uniform Hermione had seen in her fourth year, with a quarter-inch frill down the front of her collar to the hem just below her knees. There was a thin cloth belt that tied around her waist to accentuate her form with silk stockings and a pair of sturdy black pumps.

"Does he treat all his guests this way?" Hermione had asked Peggy, cinching the belt close to her body.

"Herr Schmidt is alvays good to guests," Peggy answered in Ava's persona again.

"Well, how lovely of him," Hermione grimaced.

"To breakfast, ja?" Peggy asked, walking to the front door.

Hermione silently lunged for her wand under the pillow of the bed while Peggy's back was to her and layered a sticking charm, a notice-me-not, and a muggle repellent charm to her bare skin before sticking her wand on her upper right thigh.

It was going to bloody sting if she had to remove it, but it would do the trick while she didn't have her wand holster on her. She threw another notice-me-not on the pile of clothes from home and walked out after Peggy.

The walk from her room to the dining room didn't take long at all. Sooner than Hermione had expected, Peggy led her to a pair of open alder wood double doors that entered into an enormous paneled dining room. At the very end of the dining room table fit for a Hogwarts house, sat Johann at the head with Dr. Erskine on his right.

They both stood from their seats when they saw her enter the room. "Fräulein Granger," Johann bowed his head slightly. "Velcome."

Hermione walked easily to both men and nodded back to the leader of Hydra. "Good Morning Johann."

He smiled thinly at the use of his name and both men seated themselves after she did. "I hope you are hungry. I have only the best for people like yourself." He snapped his fingers and doors previously closed behind Hermione's chair opened without a sound and a lineup of wait staff bore silver platters to their table. Rolls of sausage, piles of bacon, mounds of ham and eggs and toast and jam and fruit were laid before them.

Hermione was nearly speechless at the display. Nearly. "Spies?" she questioned, reaching for the toast first. She wondered briefly if she should be worried about poisoned food.

"Hmm, no. Time travelers," Johann smirked.

Dr. Erskine choked on the coffee he had started to sip and Hermione paused in adding jam to her toast. The dim lighting of the room did nothing to hide the savage delight behind the Hydra leader's eyes.

"Well, that's certainly a step up from 'Spy'," she commented hollowly.

"You can not deny it. I have heard it from your own lips."

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Eavesdropping you mean," and continued with her toast.

Johann reached for toast himself and added fruit to his plate before he began. "How I heard does not matter. It is now the prelude in the convergence of my plans that will concrete zhe coming denouement of the future. One which will now have a very special role for you to play."

Hermione chewed on her food and added small portions of the other sides presented to her. "I assume you're going to tell me what that is if I have such a part?"

He smiled wickedly. "A superhuman Fräulein Granger. The perfect soldier. The perfect human. The perfect army. Created by science into existence, and unstoppable in zhe purpose of man; war."

Hermione wanted to gag on her breakfast. "You want me to help you create a weapon?"

"No child. I already have the means to create my army. Dr. Erskine helped with that problem. No, you would be the thoughts of the future for our world. the blueprints to begin a new kind of civilization." He made eye contact with her and shook his head slightly. "Ah, to see the things you must have seen. What you could give." He sighed shortly and went back to his breakfast.

Hermione had shivers down her legs and back and itched to run for the closest door and disapparate somewhere far far away.

"The serum is not yet ready," Dr. Erskine said with furrowed eyebrows. "I have not completed-"

"It will be," Johann interrupted. "By tonight. It will be ready for human testing."

Dr. Erskine put down his fork and shook his head. "It can not be ready so soon! There are-"

Johann slammed his fist against the wooden table and Hermione flinched on instinct as the china rattled. "I will hear no more! It will be ready tonight Doctor, or you will lose a family member."

Dr. Erskine paled and Hermione felt fury bubble beneath her skin. Johann wiped at his mouth and stood from the table elegantly. "I have much to prepare for, so I will leave you in the capable hands of zhe guards. Until tonight."

He swept himself from the table and out the double doors as Hermione placed her napkin down on her plate. She was no longer hungry. "Are you alright?" she asked the doctor across from her.

Dr. Erskine placed his napkin on the table as well and stood from his seat. "I must ... get back to my work. Fräulein Granger."

And then suddenly Hermione was left alone in the dining room.

"Do you vish to go to your room?" Ava asked at her shoulder.

Hermione worked to not flinch at her sudden appearance. "Yes Ava, I wish to go back." She stood silently, leaving her half-empty plate and facing the taller woman.

"The Doctor will do the right thing," Peggy met her eyes with intent.

Hermione didn't know how to help something she wasn't sure she could interfere in. "I'm sure he will Ava. Thank you."

Later That Night

By the time night had fallen, Hermione had devoured two books Ava had gotten for her, and one had been entirely in German. By order of Johann, she was not allowed to leave her rooms, and Ava was not allowed to stay with her. So Hermione had no idea what time it was when she started hearing the screaming.

The castle was eerily silent when it started. No noise from the outside encampments could be heard, and nothing from inside the castle was echoing. It was as if everything around them was holding their breath.

And then Hermione heard someone scream. Absolutely gut-wrenching, soul tearing, piercing cries of pain vibrated through the walls of the castle. It was as if someone was dying. The agony in its shriek threw Hermione from her bed and towards the locked wooden door.

Consequences be damned, Hermione needed to know it wasn't Dr. Erskine that was rebounding against the walls.

Alohamora, Hermione thought viciously, and her door swung open. Hermione readied herself for guards that didn't come, and she peered down the hallway outside her door.

It was completely empty.

She didn't waste time pondering the absence of her guards but sprinted down the hallway that sounded closest to the screams.

"What have you done to me?!" violently ripped through the air and Hermione pumped her arms faster down the deserted hallways. "What have you- Ah!"

Hermione pushed through a closed door and found a group of people standing outside Dr. Erskine's medical room. Another harsh scream pierced the air and Hermione made to throw herself against the people surrounding the open doorway. A solid hand grasped the top of her arm, and Hermione saw that it was Peggy. The taller woman silently shook her head.

"I told you it vas not ready! I told you!" Dr. Erskine's voice echoed from the room beyond and relief immediately flooded through Hermione. It wasn't Dr. Erskine screaming like he wished for death, it was-

"You fool! Look at what you've done to me, look at what I am. I- AH!" Johann's voice heightened into another spazzem of awful shrieks of pain. "S-S-S-Seize him!" Johann bellowed, and the guards from outside the room rushed the medical office.

Hermione pulled out her wand attached to her thigh, ignoring the burning pain from her skin. She would save him.

Hermione stepped forwards and lifted her wand to attack, but was jerked back again by a familiar hand. Peggy stared at Hermione with bewildered eyes. "Stop! If you interfere now, you'll get him killed," she whispered fiercely.

"I can save him!" Hermione whispered back, hastily putting her wand down before someone saw her.

"With a polished stick?"

Hermione didn't have the time to explain. "It's a ... future thing."

Peggy furrowed her eyebrows. "You can't- oh no," she tightened her grip on Hermione's arm. Leading Dr. Erskine away down the hallway was a short balding man with light blonde hair and copper bespectacled eyes. "It's Dr. Arnim Zola."

Hermione had never seen or heard of the man before. She made to raise her wand again. "I will-"

"NO!" Peggy slashed her hands down and secured Hermione's arms to her sides. "If you do anything it could kill him. Look at them, everyone wants to pull a trigger right now!"

"They're going to take him to... away. The dungeons or something, they could kill him!"

"He will be safe from getting executed or shot by one of the guards, his mind is valuable," she assured in a fierce whisper. "Stay down."

Peggy led her back by the arm out of the eyes of the guards, but before she was out of eyesight from Dr. Erskine's office, she caught a glimpse of what used to be Johann. He stepped out near the door of the medical office, clawing at his disfigured face. His pale skin had dissolved from his skull and his sharp cheekbones stood out from his jawline. The entirety of his visible body was covered in blood-red skin like it was trying to bleed out. His nose was completely gone.

"What- happened to him?" Hermione shuddered, letting herself be pulled away.

"Dr. Erskine warned him the serum wasn't ready for human consumption and Schmidt used it anyway," Peggy answered without mercy. "Come on, we've got to get you back to your room before anyone notices you escaped."

Hermione allowed herself to be led away, her thoughts concerned with the Hydra leader and his dramatic reaction to "the serum" she had heard about. What had it done to him?

German translation from beginning to end:

Doktor, ich habe das Abendessen mitgebracht- Doctor, I have brought dinner.

Vielen dank, Ava- Thank you, Ava

Herr Schmidt wünscht sich, euch beide morgen zum Frühstück zu treffen- Mr Schmidt wishes to meet you both for breakfast tomorrow.

Wir werden beide kommen- We will both come.

Fräulein- Young Lady