Chapter Three
Hermione was just starting to finally relax after her confrontation with Ronald when she heard Jarvis announce that Nick Fury was in the building and coming upstairs.
Before she had a chance to excuse herself, he walked in and saw her sitting on the couch.
"Miss Granger please tell me why you're sitting in the middle of Stark tower, when I haven't received an answer on whether you will be joining the team or not?" he asked as he walked over to where she was sitting.
Taking a deep breath Hermione looked up at Nick Fury and said "Well I just decided on my course of action this very evening and was going to give you a call once I returned home to England to put my things in order. Since you're already here, I guess I will give you my answer; I will join the team. I am going to take a wild guess and say that the team you want me to join has something to do with Stark Tower?"
Nick Fury just smiled, looking at the three gentleman standing in the room at the moment he said, "Yes Miss Granger, I gather you heard about our little mishap not too long ago here in New York?"
Hermione just smiled as she nodded her head, "I was visiting my parents when the attack came on the news, and it wasn't until after I received your job offer I did some research on the team. I discovered that Mr. Stark is a Billionaire Genius Playboy, Mr. Rogers was discovered frozen in ice only to awake in this time, and he is a super soldier, Mr. Banner has a giant green man living inside him that only comes out to play when mad.
"There wasn't much information in regard to the other three members of the team, but I was able to find out that Thor is the first born son of Odin. It was his adopted brother Loki, who started the fight in the first place as for you two master assassins I was able to find out that Miss. Romanoff came from a secret training facility in Russia but came to join Shield when Mr. Barton got her to switch sides. Mr. Barton was interesting to read about; he was in the circus as a boy until he ran away. It doesn't say how he was recruited into Shield, but I know that he was very good with a bow, while Miss. Romanoff is very good with guns."
"Miss Granger what is your specialty, you seem to know a lot about us, but we know nothing about you?" Mr. Banner said politely to Hermione. She just smiled and said "Why I am the brightest Witch of my age, but I am not like the Witches you Americans have persecuted in the Salem Witch Trials back in the sixteen hundreds. Those women and men weren't in control and never got a letter inviting them to study at a school for Witches and Wizards in Scotland."
Tony being Tony started laughing at Hermione, "If you're a witch then I have pink hair and wearing a tutu to match." He said threw the laughter.
Hermione removed her wand from her handbag and changed Tony's hair to a shocking pink and changed his clothes into a pink tutu to match. Everyone in the room started to laugh uncontrollably at the sight of Tony's new look, Hermione just stood there and said "Never laugh at me again Mr. Stark or I might just turn you in to a teacup. I had enough of the laughing at my expense in school and I will not take it now that I am out of school. Now I will gladly tell you my story, but I will only tell it once, I suggest you call the other members of your team that is on sight and have them come upstairs please."
Tony just stood there in shock, finally he looked at himself in the toaster and asked, "Do you think I will make Prima Ballerina this year?"
Again, laughter erupted in the room again, Hermione started to relax. She hadn't felt this relaxed since before Fred, Tonks and Lupin died during the battle for Hogwarts. She knew that joining this team and breaking it off with Ron was a very good idea, it got her away from England and away from everything that reminded her of Fred. She never told Ron that she was in love with his brother Fred, she knew that he would just get mad and yell at her again. He more than likely would have called her a traitor and go screw Lavender Brown or try and kill Fred.
Finally, when everyone that was in the building had arrived she spoke up, "All my life I was looked down on, either because people thought I was a freak or because I always had my nose stuck in a book trying to learn everything that I could learn so that I could prove to people that I belonged in Hogwarts. When I was eleven I received the biggest shock of my life, a woman in robes appeared at my family's door wanting to talk to me and my parents.
"She introduced herself as the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she told us that my name had been written on a list since the day I was born to attend Hogwarts. She explained that all the strange things that was happening to me was caused by accidental magic and that the school could teach me to harness my magic. So, when September first came around I was ready to begin my first year at the school, on the train I met a bunch of people. Some looked down on me, some thought I was a know it all and other's accepted me for being a muggle born. There are four types of people in our world; the first is pure bloods, they can trace their family line back to the first witches and wizards to build Hogwarts. The second is half-bloods, half-bloods come from when a witch or wizard marries either a muggle or muggle born witch or wizard.
"The third group is the one I belong to, muggle born witches and wizards come from non-magical parents. My parents were dentists and owned a small practice in London, but they are no longer among the living. I lost them a few years back while they were hiding out in Australia, I will get to why they were hiding in a few. The fourth and final group are called Squibs, usually squibs are born to purebloods who have intermarried too much.
"Squibs are cast out of their families and sent to live in the muggle world without any family support, there are some squibs who do have contact with the Wizarding World. In fact, I know of two Argus Finch, was the custodian at my school and Arabella Figg, who lived in the neighborhood in which my other best friend also did growing up. In fact, she was the one to help Harry during his expulsion hearing at the Ministry of Magic, she told the judge what she had seen. He didn't get expelled and was able to go back to school for our fifth year, which at the end of that year we lost his godfather.
"So, during our first year we had mountain trolls, three headed dogs, dying unicorns and baby dragons. Towards the end of our first year, I helped Harry with the help of Ron defeat a Professor who was trying to kill Harry all because he was being possessed by the very evil wizard who tried to kill Harry when he was a baby and failed to do so. During the summer of our second year, Harry met a house elf named Dobby. Dobby was doing his best to try and get Harry not to go back to Hogwarts, but everything Dobby was doing was just getting him in more trouble with his muggle Aunt and Uncle (they thought Harry was a freak, like his parents.)
"When it came time to return to school the barrier that would let you onto the platform nine and three quarters was magically blocked. So, Ron and Harry thought it would be a good idea to 'barrow' the family car and use it to get to the school. Neither of them knew how drive a car let alone a flying car, once they arrived at the school they crashed the car into the Whomping Willow. They were almost expelled but was given detention instead, it seemed that the Headmaster was keeping something from Harry, but we didn't know what it was just yet.
"During our second year we had a teacher who could rival Mr. Stark on his narcissistic attitude, he was so full of himself it wasn't funny. I even had a school girl crush on him, hell the entire female student population had a crush on him, but he really wasn't the greatest teacher. During that year muggle born students were being attacked by an unseen creature, but I figured it out right before I became its next victim. Harry and Ron went to that Professor for help and instead he wound up erasing his memory to the point he couldn't remember that he was a teacher. Leaving Ron with the Professor Harry went to kill the creature that was called a Basilisk, otherwise known as a giant snake.
"Harry with the help of a Phoenix and the sword of one of the school founders defeated the snake and the destroyed a part of the man who keeps trying to kill Harry. Then in summer of our third year Harry made his Uncle's sister blow up like a balloon by accident and then left his Aunt and Uncle's house. It was then we found out that a prisoner who was reasonable for a lot of murders when Harry and I were babies had escaped, so we were all on high alert that year.
"Ron and I were fighting a lot that year between me turning Harry's new broom in to our Head of House, to Ron accusing my cat of killing his pet rat. Well, we came to find out that new Professor at our school knew both Harry's parents and the prisoner, he couldn't continue to teach at the school because he was a were-wolf. Well again at the end of the year, we saw a hippogriff 'die' and found out that the prisoner was really Harry's godfather. It was him who sent Harry the broom and that he really wasn't the one to sell out Harry's parents, we also found out that Ron's pet rat really was just Peter Pettigrew in animagus form. Peter was the one who really sold out Harry's parents to the Dark Lord, because he was tired of being in the shadow of Harry's dad.
"As you can see I spent 90 percent of my school years keeping my best friend from either being expelled or killed. It wasn't until our seventh year that we actually skipped so we could hunt things that was keeping the Dark Lord from dying. During our hunt Ron just got up and left us high and dry, so for some of the hunt it was just me and Harry. Only towards the end did Ron show back up and it was his stupidity that got us caught and almost killed, he had said a word that had a trace on it. If you said the Dark Lords name out loud, people called snatchers would come and snatch you up; well, they came and snatched us and took us to Malfoy Manor. Once there I was tortured for what seemed like hours, I did my best to keep from telling everything and was praying for someone to come help.
"Well, it was the same house elf that Harry set free at the end of second year that came to save us, but he ended up dying in the process of helping us escape. We buried him on a hill near one of Ron's brother's house, then we proceeded to go after two of the last four objects we needed to make the Dark Lord mortal again. We finally made our way back to where it all began for the three of us, our school; once there we gathered as many teens of age to help us and then we called in the Order as well. We found the third to last object and burned it, the next two were going to be tricky; one of them was the snake the Dark Lord always kept by his side and the fourth was Harry himself.
"So, Harry sacrificed himself, upon doing so the piece of the Dark Lord's soul that was attached him was removed. Harry decided to play dead long enough for someone to kill the snake, that honor went to our friend Neville Longbottom. He took the very sword that Harry had used in second year and chopped the head off the snake, that's when Harry popped up and started to fight the Dark Lord. The wand that the Dark Lord was using wasn't working for him and he thought by killing that person the wand had allegiance too, it would work for him.
"But he killed the wrong person, the wand was now aligned to Harry and wouldn't work for the Dark Lord. So, with the faulty wand in the Dark Lord's hand and Harry using Draco Malfoy's wand (which Harry took from him) they fought to the death. Well Harry won, but we lost a lot of people on both sides including someone who could have stolen me away from Ronald in the end, it was a short time afterwards Nick Fury found out about us and offered us to join his team." She said.
While everyone was quiet Hermione removed the pink hair and matching tutu, she then went to stand on the balcony to get some fresh air.