A/N This takes place a month or two after the final battle in the Harry Potter Universe and sometime between Steve being unfrozen and the Avengers movie in the marvelverse. And yes, I know the timelines don't match up.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I don't own.

Chapter 4

The next morning Steve dropped her off and walked her through the front doors. "I'm not sure how long you'll be but, I'll be in the building so just have someone call me when you're ready."

"Okay. Thank you again for giving me a lift. I really appreciate the help."

"Anytime Hermione and good luck"

She smiled at him softly. However, as she turned away from him he saw the smile drop off her face and her countenance take on the nervousness that it had the day before. He knew she would be fine though; she was both intelligent and capable.

Hermione walked over to the main desk. There was only a non-descript woman with a headset and a desk top.

"Can I help you?" The lady asked.

"Yes, I'm looking for an Agent Hill."

The lady nodded at her without meeting her eyes and answered, "I'll have her sent right down to meet you. Please take a seat over there."

Hermione walked back towards the sitting area and sat on the edge of black leather couch. It wasn't very soft and Hermione made a note to let Director Fury know that you got more information out of people who were comfortable and relaxed rather than sore and angry. He clearly didn't know that yet.

As she sat Hermione scanned the room looking for any anomalies or threats. The furniture was minimalist but sleek and clearly designed more for aesthetics rather than comfort. There was only one other person in the sitting area with her. He was located on a matching chair to her right. She had made sure when she sat down that she was turned slightly in his direction so that she could keep an eye on him. She was glad she had keep him in her peripherals since now that she had a chance to look he was far more dangerous than he seemed at first glance.

Underneath his dark long sleeved shirt were clearly defined arm muscles and not the kind for show that could be attained at the gym, no these were from hard work of some kind. His eyes, a light shade that Hermione couldn't make out from her position, appeared to be staring right through the outdoors magazine in his calloused hand. Her mind raced as she tried to watch him inconspicuously, or at least without out right staring at him.

He was either a spy or some kind of assassin. Her hand reached toward her side where she normally stowed her wand, before she aborted the motion. Muggle, she reminded herself. Dangerous maybe, but still a muggle who couldn't know about magic and unlikely to be after her anyway.

A woman in a form fitted navy suit walked up. Her dark hair gleamed as she stood under a fluorescent light. She nodded at the man to Hermione's right.

"You must be Miss. Granger," she said with a small upturn of her mouth.

Hermione nodded with an answering twist to her lips. "Agent Hill I presume?"

"Yes. If you would just follow me," she said as she turned.

Hermione took one last glance at the man only to be met with a pair of hard blue eyes. He swept an assessing look over her and just as quickly went back to his magazine.

She shrugged and only turned her back on him at the last second as she left the room. She followed the other woman down a couple crowded hallways into a plain white room with several desks in it. In the first row front and center was a packet.

The agent gestured to the desk and said, "That's the first portion of the tests today. It's written. Take as much time to thoroughly answer the questions as you need."

Hermione breathed out a sigh of relief; written tests were something she could do. She grabbed the packet and moved to a desk further back. While she might have liked a desk right out front during her Hogwarts years now such a position felt too exposed even in a room with only two people in it.

She took her seat and began the test. She worked her way through the mixture of general aptitude, intelligence, logic and situational questions. They seemed to be primarily testing her ability to think mostly in the field. Mostly what sort of decisions she would make when confronted with enemies or adverse conditions. There were also a few questions that had to do with surviving in the wilderness. She believed she passed that portion of the test with full marks. With a grin she added her recipe for wild mushroom soup in the margin for bonus points of course.

Hermione raised her brow at the last question.

Evaluate the most dangerous person you've encountered today.

Though Hermione had passed dozens of people in the halls they were office workers. They had the quiet buzz of industriousness about them. It could have been faked, but she doubted it. She had become acutely aware of danger and she trusted her instincts that those people had just been administrators, researchers, and garden variety office workers.

She ran another assessing look over Agent Hill who was going over papers at the front of the room. She was also clearly dangerous. She carried a gun, but Hermione didn't think that made her the most dangerous. She was clearly important to SHIELD as an organization since she was administering these tests. Director Fury would be a fool to trust her, so Agent Hill likely held both security clearance and combat training. Hermione didn't believe that Agent Hill actually posed much a threat to her specifically, she was just highly trained so she discounted the Agent as the most dangerous.

She closed her eyes a moment recalling Steve Rogers image. He was potentially dangerous, he was a consultant for SHIELD. He was almost unnaturally big and strong for a muggle. She blushed slightly at the memory of her hands on him while they were riding on his motorcycle. He was extraordinarily deft in his movements, which was indicative of not only a high level of combat training, but also a high level of proficiency. Although he was physically dangerous Hermione sensed something innately good in him. He seemed incorruptible and wholesome. Hermione would be willing to bet that he believed in fair fights which would be easy to exploit.

No, Hermione wrote that the man in the lobby was the most dangerous she had encountered that day, since she believed him to be an assassin or spy. He had almost no visible scars, so she believed that he was a long range assassin with a high success rate. Even more dangerous was the fact that he looked normal, like someone you could pass on the street and never remember. Hermione wasn't even sure that if he hadn't been in the SHIELD she would have recognized the threat he posed. While he hadn't seemed ill intentioned, he didn't seem to have the same idealism that Steve held and likely wouldn't hesitate to take out a target even before they knew they being hunted. He was grittier and observed with an intense focus like a bird of prey.

Hermione could defend from an outright attack, but sneak attacks were dangerous to her even from a non-magical human. Hermione felt a chill up her spine. She glanced around the room and she knew there was nothing there, that it was only paranoia.

Hermione handed her exam to Agent Hill after a quick review of her answers.

"Are you sure you are done? You can take as much time as you need," she asked Hermione skeptically.

Hermione nodded and Agent Hill began to flip through the test occasionally looking in depth at some of the answers she had given.

Agent Hill gave a wry grin. "Clint will be flattered that you think he's more dangerous than your friend Mr. Rogers. Most people view it the other way around."

"Muscle mass does not equate to danger. An obvious threat is sometimes less of a danger than a threat you never realized was coming," Hermione answered.

Agent Hill nodded and replied, "That is a reasonable answer. The second part of your test is a combat test. You aren't required to seriously fight anyone we just want to see what you are capable of."

Hermione nodded and a few curls tumbled into her face. She sighed and plucked a hair tie off of her wrist and secured as much hair of hers as she could up and out of her face.

"If you would follow me once again," Maria Hill said as she stood up and made her way to the door. She followed the agent into the adjacent room, only to call it just a room would have been somewhat of a misnomer. It was at least four times the size of the last room and twice as tall. It looked more like a gymnasium than a room. At the top of the room there was a mirrored window and Hermione would bet that there was at least one person watching her performance. There was a corner dedicated to what looked like close combat weapons, most of the floor was covered in mats, and a red headed woman sat in the middle of it all sitting calmly and staring at her assessingly.

"Agent Romanoff, I wasn't expecting you here. I believe Clint is in the lobby waiting for you," said Agent Hill.

"Fury called me in to evaluate someone. Said to put them through their paces."

The woman's eyes flicked over to the other agent before coming to rest again on Hermione. Her gaze was feline like in it's intensity and Hermione nearly gave into the impulse to look down and fiddle with her jumper like a nervous house elf.

"Tell me, Ms. Granger are you proficient with any combat weapons?" She asked as she stood up in one fluid motion.

"I am not."

"Do you have any experience fighting hand to hand?" She continued.

Hermione shook her head slightly. "No, not really."

And thus began the most humiliating fight of her life as Agent Romanoff knocked her off her feet and onto her ass at least a dozen times. She got up each time and kept dodging attacks as best she could and every once in a while getting in a blow or kick though she never hit anything vital and her efforts were certainly not enough to turn the match in her favor.

Hermione had sweat trickling down her face and the back of her neck and was breathing hard by the time the other woman called for an end to the match. Predictably the other woman still looked pristine while Hermione was sure that she looked frazzled and about to expire at any moment. She experienced a brief stab of jealousy for how put together the woman appeared. Clearly Hogwarts should have included a mandatory gym class though she wasn't sure how much it would have actually helped against a woman like Agent Romanoff. She leaned forward with her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

It was true that if she was able to use magic she would have definitely had a shot at winning that match, provided of course that she could ever catch the agent.

"I would suggest a hardy meal and plenty of fluids this evening. Whatever diet you are on- ditch it. It's eating your muscle mass and making your punches weak and effecting your stamina." She said as she tossed her vibrant curls over her shoulder and walked out of the room.

Hermione could feel the heat rise in her cheeks. It wasn't her choice to be on a diet of wild plants and whatever they could scavenge up for nearly a year. She had packed everything else they needed in her beaded bag but, because of their hurried escape from Bill's and Fleur's wedding she had not gotten to pack enough food to last them through the Horcrux hunt, even with Ron leaving them for a couple of months.

Anger welled up in her as she remembered when Ron had come back and she realized that his ribs were perfectly padded and his clothes fit just as snuggly as they ever had at Hogwarts while her clothes were too loose for even resizing charms to completely fix and her stomach never quit hurting. It had felt like betrayal all over again.

She shook off her feelings as best she could and unclenched her fists. Already Agent Hill was motioning her across the room and through a doorway. Hermione followed into an indoor shooting range.

"This is the last portion of today's test, then I believe Director Fury would like to speak to you afterwards. Have you ever fired a firearm?" She asked.

"No, I do know the rules though," She answered. When her parents had realized that wands were not just for turning tables into pigs and matchsticks into needles the summer after her fifth year they enrolled her into a gun safety class. They believed that if she was essentially going to have a dangerous weapon at the tip of her fingers then she should learn the appropriate level of caution since it didn't appear that her school had prepared her, except to say don't hex each other in the halls.

Maria Hill frowned for a split second. The Director had assumed that Ms. Granger knew her way around a gun. She would have to go about this differently than she had expected.

"Alright, well that's a start."

She went over to a cabinet, selected a small handgun and loaded it.

A loud shot rang from the other side of the room. Hermione spun on the spot ready to apparate or draw her wand, sure for a second that someone had apparated. Her eyes darted around the room before she snapped out of it and realized it was just another agent in the room.

Agent Hill had noticed the lightning quick response of the other woman with a raised brow. "That's likely just Agent Ward. He's normally here at this time of the day. He's probably wearing ear protection and didn't hear us talking."

Hermione took a couple deep breaths and turned back around. Agent Hill handed her a pair of ear muffs and the handgun she had loaded.

"The safety's on the side. Don't point at anything you don't intend to shoot," she said before Hermione slipped the ear muffs on.

"I won't."

"Then aim at the target and shoot whenever you are ready."

Hermione held the gun firmly and swung it up to point at the target. She flipped the safety off, took another deep breath and fired. The first shot hit the corner of the paper. Hermione crinkled her forehead and instinctively adjusted her aim just like she would for her wand and fired again. This shot hit on the bottom half of the second circle. Hermione frowned and fired the rest of the magazine off getting increasingly closer to the center though she never hit directly on the bullseye.

She flipped the safety back on, placed the gun on the counter, and placed the hearing protection next to it.

"Are you sure you've never worked with firearms before?" Maria asked surprise coloring her tone.

Hermione tucked a couple curls behind her ear. "No, I haven't used them before."

"Well that was an impressive showing of either skill or luck then. We're done here, so let me escort you to the Director's office and then as far as I know you will be done for the day."


A/N I'm not super happy with this chapter, but at least it is out. There isn't a lot of Steve/Hermione but, next chapter should have more. I'm not a hundred percent certain where all of this is going so, as always I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Blushin