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 5
Hermione walked hesitantly into the Director's office. She didn't need this job in the usual sense, she wasn't looking for the paycheck or trying to build up her resume, but she wanted this job badly. It would keep her busy and keep her mind off of everything that was overwhelming her.
The Director watched her walk in behind folded hands and a frown marring his features. His search through her records and with his contacts still hadn't yielded any specifics and her test results hadn't helped reveal anything either. "Please sit down. I've viewed your test scores. Frankly, your scores are confusing, your written test seems to indicate high intelligence and field experience, meanwhile Agent Hill tells me that you've never fired a gun but, adjusted well to it and have decent precision and accuracy. Agent Romanoff is damn near convinced you've never fought a day in your life, says you aren't muscled enough and you need to diet less."
She ground her teeth as anger rose in her again. She had never tried to diet in her life and she resented being compared to girls like Lavender who had cared more about what she looked like than what she learned. She had starved for months living off only what she could scavenge or steal so she could stay with Harry and complete the mission. She was just now starting to gain weight back, but it was slow going and too much food still made her feel sick.
Hermione took a deep breath and clenched the fabric of her pants. She could feel her magic frizz her hair and seep into the room. She was also aware that if she didn't get it under control something would break and Fury was canny enough to start putting pieces together. She had no desire for him to know about magic nor to break the statute of secrecy. She sighed softly. Normally, it was Harry who had problems with accidental magic not her.
"Frankly, Ms. Granger I did as you suggested and looked at what the official story was for your medal and between that and all my contacts the only thing I could find out was that you took part in covert long-term mission to take down a domestic terrorist. There were no names or specifics of any kind," Fury said as he looked out his full-length office windows.
"Like I said, if you aren't privy to the information than I can't tell you anything else except to confirm that that is essentially what happened," Hermione said with a shrug.
Fury fought a grin. He couldn't give the game away too early. There was only one person he knew who was more relentless about digging into other people's business especially when he wasn't supposed to know. "I'm going to have you trained up in hand to hand combat a little more and then keep you as a consultant of sorts. If you are good enough to fool a terrorist you should be able to go on an undercover mission as a personal assistant and fool Tony Stark."
After all, why do all the hard work when he could have Stark do it? Besides it would be better if he could have some kind of link between Stark and Rogers if he ever did get the Avengers Initiative off the ground. He doubted that Ms. Granger would be an active participant in that particular initiative, but if she could calm down some of the ego and testosterone between them that would be invaluable.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. There was definitely something he wasn't telling her. "Stark is the one with the tower? What happened to his last assistant?" she asked.
"Yes, he is the one building the tower and Agent Romanoff had to blow her cover, but we still need tabs kept on Stark. He will be on the lookout for anyone who screams SHIELD. You fortunately, do not and it is relatively low risk. The worst that will happen if Stark finds out about you is complain to me," said Fury.
"This seems too easy," said Hermione.
Fury shrugged, "I get to gauge your covert skills and get information on Stark without risking a new agent. You get a relatively safe mission to prove yourself. Seems beneficial all parties involved."
"Except Stark," she quipped back.
He sat back down at his desk. If he had two good eyes he would have rolled them. "Stark deserves some trouble every once in a while. I'll have someone take care of putting in an application and a good word at Stark Industries for you. In the meantime, be at the front office at six am for the next few days to meet with Agent Romanoff. She'll provide get your prints in the system so you can access the parts of the building you will need and train your hand to hand combat in the mornings. Now get out of here," Fury dismissed her and went back to working on his never-ending paperwork.
"Yes sir," said Hermione as she stood from her seat, smoothed her clothing, and walked out of his office down the hall. She walked straight into Steve. It was equivalent to walking into a brick wall and she nearly fell over except he grabbed her upper arms to steady her. She blushed and stammered out, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
"No, that was my fault. Agent Hill told me you were in Fury's office and I was coming up to see if you were done or not for the day and I wasn't paying attention either," he said as he scratched the back of his neck. She never should have been able to get that close to him without him hearing her, but he had been distracted by his thoughts of the past. He couldn't keep those last few minutes before he had crashed into Arctic out of his head."
"I'm sorry you've been waiting around all day. You could have left and I would have taken the subway home," she said. He had already helped her so much and she didn't want to be a burden.
"It's no problem. Let's get you home. Do you have to come in tomorrow as well?" he asked. They began to walk toward the elevator to get to the parking garage.
"I do, but I think I can manage to get here by myself. Thank you for getting me this job and driving me around, but I don't want to wear my welcome out," she replied. They reached his motorbike and he handed her a helmet.
"Like I said, it's not a problem." Steve genuinely liked the younger woman and didn't want to leave her by herself while she tried to pick up the pieces of her life. He would have given anything to have some real assistance after he woke up.
Hermione decided on the way back that she was going to have to find a subway map or show up very early at the station to look up how to get back to the SHIELD building in the morning. She had always been very independent and she didn't like having to rely on anyone for transportation.
The next morning Hermione showed back up in front of the glass doors of the SHIELD building after dragging herself on to the subway at the crack of dawn. She supposed she could have apparated, but she was concerned that Director Fury might have her followed or watched. Besides, she was supposed to be getting away from magic for a little while and focusing on being normal. If she had her wand strapped to the inside of her thigh and her beaded bag shrunk and disillusioned on her at all times those were just safety precautions.
She took a deep breath and opened the door preparing herself for another grueling day of being beat up by Agent Romanoff.
Hermione sighed and mumbled, "Speaking of the devil." Agent Romanoff was standing right by the front desk drinking what looked to be crappy office coffee.
"Prompt. That's good. Leave your prints at the front desk and we'll get you a badge sent up by the time we are done," said Natasha as she handed her a paper and a pad of ink for her fingers. Natasha swiped her through a different couple sets of doors into another gym. This one had mats on the floor and a variety of equipment set up along one side of the room.
Natasha looked the other woman up and down. She was wearing athletic clothes and seemed to be ready for training. She wasn't sure why Fury had chosen her for training, she usually didn't get stuck with the new recruits. She didn't know if it was because Fury wanted information on Granger or if he didn't trust her at all, either way she got to rough up a new recruit so it was not a complete loss for the day.
Hermione tried not scratch at her arm where she had glamoured the still weeping scar where Bellatrix had carved into her as Agent Romanoff sized her up. Magic wasn't the best way to cover it up, but her other scars she might be able to explain away if her clothes didn't hide them, but a scar spelling "mudblood" would certainly bring questions she couldn't answer and wearing long sleeves in the height of summer while training would be suspicious.
"I'm going to demonstrate a few moves and then we will spar, so you can figure out a way to incorporate them into actual fighting," Natasha said. She proceeded to show Hermione how to throw an opponent over her, use their weight against them, how to properly punch, as well as a few types of kicks. She went over each move a few times and corrected Hermione's stance when it was off.
"Do you think you have the basics down?" Agent Romanoff asked with a hard stare.
"Yes ma'am," she said.
Natasha barely held in a cringe as she said, "If you wish for me to throw you around the room for longer keep using ma'am. Just Romanoff is fine."
"Alright Romanoff. I think I understand these," she answered with a small upward tilt of her lips. Before the war, the thought of only having a morning to practice physical activities before having to preform them would have had her in fits. She wasn't sure if she had grown up or just realized that failure in such a low risk environment was okay.
Natasha started out slowly, giving Hermione plenty of time to react to her movements and work in the new moves. When she was satisfied that the other woman could successfully preform the punches and kicks while being attacked Natasha sped up and began to attack with more force and variety of moves. She swung up for a side kick that connected sharply with Granger's hip. Granger hardly even stumbled.
Natasha furrowed her brow that should have been plenty of force to at least knock her back. She glanced over Hermione Granger, she looked ordinary enough. Yesterday she had been trying to access the slight-framed woman and had cared more about knocking her around then teaching her, so she had used a lot more force. In fact, she had used so much force in some of her hits that Ms. Granger should have had bruises decorating her skin at the very least. However, her visible skin was nearly unblemished.
Moving in with a speed that the other woman wouldn't be able to match at her present skill level, Natasha landed a hard kick on the other woman's ribs. Hard enough that Natasha knew it should have broken at least one of her ribs. Hermione flew back a few feet and fell. As soon as she was down though, she popped right back up ready to fight again. That was unusual.
"I'm so sorry. That was way too hard for a practice session. Are you alright Ms. Granger?" Natasha said, concern evident in her voice.
"I'm fine. No harm no foul," she answered.
"I thought I felt a rib break. Let's get you to medical." She started toward the door.
Hermione stood up and pulled her shirt part way up to reveal the skin underneath. There wasn't even a mark yet. "Really, I'm fine. You must not have hit me as hard as you thought."
"If you're sure?"
Hermione dropped back into a fighting stance. "I am."
Natasha put her through the paces again, this time she paid special attention to how much force she was using and how much it took to knock the other woman down. For such a small frail looking girl she was withstanding a lot more force than she should be capable of. Natasha noted that she wasn't an accomplished fighter by any means. She wasn't capable of hitting her and she was already sweating and panting heavily.
Natasha let the next punch Hermione threw hit her in the shoulder, while she punched Hermione in the ribs in the same spot as she had kicked her earlier. Hermione wheezed out a breath and stumbled.
"Damn I think that might bruise," Hermione muttered to herself as she held a sweaty hand to her ribs.
"Alright, now I'm definitely taking you to medical. Come on Granger, no need to be a masochist. Let's get those ribs checked out." Natasha lead Hermione down several more hallways that looked identical while she protested all the way that she was fine.
Natasha put on her best contrite countenance as they neared the doors to the medical wing, "Look, I'm sorry Granger. They don't normally send me trainees and I'm afraid I went a little too roughly with you. Fury would have my head if I didn't take you to medical." Which definitely wasn't true but, Granger didn't know that.
"Alright," she sighed.
Natasha went through the swinging doors and up to the receptionist who was staring at a computer screen. "Hello, I need a chest x-ray done for some possible broken ribs."
The receptionist sighed, "Again Agent Romanoff? That's the third set this year already."
She smirked at the lady. "Not for me. For Ms. Hermione Granger. Fury should have sent papers down here when he hired her."
"I remember seeing them in the pile yesterday. Go ahead back to room eight, change out of your clothes and the technician will give you an x-ray and the doctor will consult with you after." She waved them through the door.
Agent Romanoff opened the door for her and said wryly, "Here I'll show you where to go and then wait for the doctor with you. As you can see I'm familiar with this part of the building."
Hermione nodded and sighed. All this really wasn't necessary, but she didn't want to contradict Agent Romanoff. It was only her first day training and she didn't want to cause too much trouble.
She undressed herself quickly and folded her wand in her clothes for safe keeping. She wasn't entirely sure what a wand would do to an x-ray machine, but she didn't want to find out, especially at a SHIELD office.
The technician directed her to lay on the table. Hermione shivered as some of her bare skin came into contact with the plastic. The technician quickly and quietly took several photos and then directed her out and back to the room where Agent Romanoff was waiting for her. Romanoff stood leaned up against the corner of the room and Hermione took a seat on the chair for patients.
They didn't have to wait long. The doctor came strolling in a few minutes later. He was an older man with greying hair and friendly eyes. "Hello, I'm Doctor Thomas. Well Ms. Granger it appears your ribs are just fine. There's no break or obvious swelling, so you should be good without any restrictions placed on you. Any questions?"
She shook her head "No. Thank you doctor."
"No problem. It's the easiest case I've had all day. You can get dressed and leave whenever you are ready," he said as he made his way out the door.
Natasha nodded at Hermione. "After you get dressed you can head home. We've done enough today and we can start again in the morning."
"Alright. Same time?" asked Hermione.
"Yes. See you tomorrow." She left the younger woman to get changed and made her way out of the medical division and up toward Director Fury's office. She breezed into his office.
"Romanoff, it's not even nine o'clock. What could you possibly be ruining my morning with today? Aren't you supposed to be training Ms. Granger?" Fury said without looking up from his paperwork.
"You aren't always happy to see me sir?" she quipped.
"No, you are less like a black widow and more like a black cat in the morning. If I cross paths with you this early then something is wrong. You like to avoid my office if at all possible," he said bluntly. He put several sheets of paper through a paper shredder and finally looked up. "So, what Earth-shattering information have you brought to me this morning?"
"Well," she started slowly choosing her words carefully. "It's Granger. There's something odd about her."
Fury's face schooled itself into a blank mask. "You have my attention now."
Natasha leaned against his office wall, crossed her arms, and continued. She was too seasoned to show too many emotions, but she did let some confusion leak into her tone. "She isn't bruised from yesterday's test. When I noticed the lack of bruising I kicked her hard enough to fracture a rib and she just got back up without complaining, so I punched her again in the same spot damn near as hard as I could manage with a fist. She barely had a mark on her and I took her down to medical to have her ribs checked out and there was nothing wrong with them. I know how hard I hit her and she should have broken at least one rib."
"So, you think she is abnormally strong or something? Could explain why her file is so slim if she's someone's experiment," he said. Agent Romanoff was one of the most experienced Agents he had, so he didn't doubt her claim that she had kicked and hit the other woman hard enough to do real damage.
She snorted, "She doesn't hit hard and she is clearly untrained, but she is extraordinarily durable. I don't think she even realized there was anything wrong."
"That could be useful too. Do you think you are capable of continuing to train her?" he asked.
"Yes sir. Although, you might consider bringing Rogers down to test the range of her ability and it might help her motivation to not get hit if the strikes actually hurt." she offered from her resting place on the wall.
His eyebrow raised. "I will consider that. Now get out of my office. You've caused me enough hassle for the day."
He waited until she was halfway out of his door to declare, "And we will talk about hitting a trainee hard enough to break bones twice in training later."
"Yes sir," she muttered on her way out.
A/N So here's another chapter. Let me know if you guys like it or if things are moving too fast. I rewrote this chapter a lot and I'm still not completely satisfied. Also, poor Director Fury he hires a sad looking woman and ends up with a heap of problems.
Thanks for reading!
Blushin
