Chapter 8 - Pavlov
Hermione's heart went out to Steve, who was not coping well with the shock of his best friend being alive after all these years, and yet clearly not himself. He had sat down heavily on a chair nearby and was simply staring at Bucky, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
Tony was pouring himself a glass of whiskey instead of coping, not even trying to understand what he was witnessing. He had only known the barebones of what The Winter Soldier was, and did not expect this.
Bucky was simply observing them, and everything else around him, assessing threats. Hermione recognised his behaviour, a soldier asserting his environment and anyone in it. Hermione moved in front of him.
"What is your name?" Hermione asked him and he simply looked at her blankly.
"Why did you try to kill me?" She asked instead.
"Mission." He replied succinctly, then he looked her up and down and added, "Ведьма".
"Yes. What do you know about that?" Hermione inquired and he did not reply.
"What did he say? Do you speak Russian?" Steve asked.
"Only the basics. My Bulgarian is much better. He said Witch." Hermione replied without looking away from Bucky.
"He didn't speak Russian before." Steve said in a small voice with a frown.
"На кого вы работаете?" Hermione asked, hoping Russian would help gain some answers, and thankful for Viktor's lessons during her fourth year, which at the time was simply to aid conversation between her and some of his friends as they did not all speak Bulgarian, or English.
He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, "Я не знаю."
Steve simply looked at her in question, "I asked who he works for, and he said he doesn't know."
"Как вас зовут?" She asked instead.
"Я не знаю." He replied again.
"Right, I need help." Hermione said and conjured her King Cobra Patronus, she gave her message and sent it away.
"What was that?" Steve asked, staring in awe at the spot the silvery blue King Cobra was in before it left.
"A Patronus. We use it to fight off dementors and send messages." Hermione replied.
"What are dementors again? And why a snake?"
"Dementors are Azkaban's guards, they take happy memories and emotions, and suck out someone's soul as well if they can.
It's a King Cobra, a Patronus represents someone's inner animal in a way. A King Cobra means I do well under pressure and I react well when under attack. Snakes, in general, belong to people who represents grace and speed and do well dealing with shades of grey." Hermione explained.
Steve nodded thoughtfully, "Who did you call?"
"Luna." Hermione replied and Tony perked up.
"How can she help?" Steve inquired curiously.
"She's Luna. She sees things others don't." Hermione replied simply.
A few minutes later, Luna strolled out the elevator with a smile, wearing a sky blue summer dress.
"Hello Hermione, Tony, Steve. How are you?" She asked with a hug for Hermione and a kiss on Tony's cheek who blushed like he was 20 years younger.
"We found Steve's best friend, but he doesn't seem to be himself." Hermione replied while gesturing towards Bucky.
Luna nodded and looked at him for a while, seemingly seeing things they weren't able to, tilting her head one way, then the other and roaming over his form with a bright blue eyes.
"James is still inside. However, he will need help to come out." Luna finally said to Hermione.
"James?" Tony asked.
"James Buchanan Barnes. Bucky is a nickname." Steve explained and Tony nodded.
"How do we help him?" Hermione asked.
Luna gave her a sad smile, "I can't help him right now. I will be needed later on, but at this moment he needs you Hermione."
"Legilimency?" Hermione confirmed and Luna nodded.
"Right, hopefully this won't be painful but just in case come forward and prepare to hold him down if he tries to fight back despite the restraints." Hermione told the men.
"What is legilimency?" Steve asked.
"It's a spell, a skill, it gives me access to his mind. I will go in and hopefully grab Bucky on my way out." Hermione replied.
Steve and Tony put themselves on each side of Bucky and nodded at her once ready. She took out her wand and pointed at Bucky, who did not even flinch or react.
"Legilimens." she whispered and was hurled inside his mind.
Running through the streets of Brooklyn with Steve, laughing and causing mischief.
A young Steve trying to fight off bullies, being rescued by a young Bucky, and then comforted.
Teaching Steve how to throw a punch, both of them determined to keep each other safe.
Flashes of their childhood in New York in the 1930'.
Being drafted in the Army, guilt of having to leave his friend behind, fear of the war.
Heading off to basic training, writing letters to Steve, trying to keep his spirits up.
Comforting Steve after another failed enlistment attempt, telling him not to give up.
The horrors of war, the first time he had to take a life, and the weight it added to his soul.
The Stark Expo.
Being rescued by Steve and the Howling Commandos, the overwhelming relief mixed with the trauma of captivity.
Being reunited with Steve.
Watching Steve being paraded around as Captain America.
Fighting alongside Steve as part of the Howling Commandos, feeling like things were finally right again.
The train, falling, pain, thinking this was the end.
Cold.
Cold.
Pain.
Flashes of his old life, too quick to grasp, then slipping away like water through his fingers.
Russian, key words. Again and again until the message sinks in, it felt like years passed.
The cold, calculated voice of his handlers, the relentless training, the forced obedience.
Cold.
A soldier turned assassin.
A mindless assassin.
Cold.
Another target.
Another.
Cold.
Cold.
Another, dozens of targets, dozens of missions. No rest.
Years spent frozen in time, until being needed for another mission.
Years of cold blankness.
She went further, deeper than the memories until she stumbled into a cold cell inside his mind. The cell itself was bare, three concrete walls, no windows, bars, barely any light to see his prostrate form on the ground, sitting against the far wall.
"Who are you?" Bucky asked her in a small voice, sounding like the young boy she had first seen in the memories.
"A friend." She replied.
"Is Steve okay?" He asked immediately.
"Yes. He sent me. Do you know where you are?"
"Hell."
"Do you know who did this to you?"
"Hydra. They took me when I fell off the train. They gave me the serum. A metal arm. They froze me."
"Do you remember what happens when they unfreeze you?"
"Flashes. Murders. I'm a monster, a murderer."
"You're not. You're not in control. You didn't do this." Hermione insisted and sat down next to him in the cell.
"How can you say that? I've killed so many." He whispered brokenly.
"Hydra killed them. They used you as a weapon, a means to an end. You didn't make the choice, the decision, it wasn't you, not really."
"How could anyone forgive me? I can't forgive me."
"Time." Hermione replied.
The duo remained silent for a while, staring off in the dark distance.
"How long has it been?" He wondered.
"Decades. 70 years."
"God, Steve is going to be so much older than me." He said with a small smile.
"He was frozen for almost 70 years, so he won't. He's waiting for you outside."
"Did Hydra get him too? I don't remember seeing him."
"No, he sacrificed himself."
"Typical." Bucky snorted, "How do I get out?"
"Take my hand, we'll leave together."
Bucky looked at her for a moment, and took her hand, hope flashing in his eyes for the first time in decades.
Together, they walked out the cell and followed the maze-like corridors until they found a door.
"Open the door." Hermione said.
He did.
Hermione ended the spell and the icy blue eyes she had met transformed into a darker shade, hope and recognition shining through.
"Hello Bucky." She said softly.
"Hi, love." He replied.
"Bucky?" Steve whispered from his side and they looked at each other for a second before embracing in a tight hug although Bucky was still tied up.
Once the reunion was done, Steve released him, "What happened?" He asked.
"Hydra." Bucky said.
"I thought Hydra was gone, you took it done." Tony said, looking at Steve.
"I thought so too. I wasn't there all the way to the end, obviously, but they said it was over." Steve said with a small voice, then added "Can we release his binds?"
Hermione gave him a small smile, "No, not yet. While I was able to bring Bucky forward, the Winter Soldier isn't gone."
"What do you mean?" Steve inquired.
"If anyone were to say his key words, the Soldier would come back immediately." Luna chimed in.
"She's right. I can feel it, lurking inside." Bucky said, "Don't untie me."
"Can you do something?" Steve asked Hermione.
"I think so. Ideally, he should see a therapist and spend months, if not years, going through a thorough deconditioning process." Hermione explained.
"As lovely as that sounds. They'll send someone for me as soon as they realise I'm gone." Bucky said.
"I guessed as much yes. Which is why I'm going to Obliviate you instead."
"The memory spell?" Bucky asked with a confused frown.
"Yes. I'll be removing your response to the words, so they lose any effect on you. How do you know so much about magic?" Hermione inquired.
"Back there, it's not just Hydra agents, there's a few wizards too. They have an ugly tattoo on their forearms. I'm not myself often, so I don't remember much, but I do know one of them gave me this mission." Bucky explained.
"A wizard with a forearm tattoo gave you the mission to kill me?" Hermione asked, he nodded, "Is the tattoo a skull and a snake? Faded, sort of grey?"
"Yeah." Bucky said.
Hermione closed her eyes, she wanted to scream but refrained. "What is it?" Tony asked, worried.
"Hydra is working with Death Eaters." Hermione explained.
"Like the ones from the last war, in the book?" Steve wondered, having read the 2000 edition of Hogwarts, A History to learn more about magic and Hermione.
"Yes, a few fled and were never found. Either, they found Hydra or Hydra found them. Doesn't really matter, they've wanted me dead for so long it barely phases me anymore. Do you know his name or what he looked like?" She asked instead, looking at Bucky.
"I don't know his name. He sounded Russian, he had shoulder-length dark curly hair, tall and wide." Bucky said with an apologetic shrug.
"Antonin Dolohov." Luna said.
"The one who almost killed you when you were 16?" Tony asked, anger flashing in his eyes and Hermione simply nodded, Steve's hand curled into fists.
"Right, let's tackle the whole brainwashing first, remove the immediate threat. We'll deal with Hydra and Dolohov after." Hermione said firmly.
She took a deep breath, and focused on Bucky again, then she raised her wand and aimed towards his face, "Obliviate."
Bucky went slack immediately and a few minutes later Hermione was done and released a breath.
"How do we know if it worked?" Steve asked, not really sure he wanted to know the answer.
"We try to active the Winter Soldier." Hermione replied matter-of-factly and woke Bucky up with an enervate spell.
"How do you feel?" Hermione asked him.
"So much better, I feel lighter, free." Bucky said with a relieved smile.
Hermione nodded, "Very well, hopefully it lasts."
Then she started to recite, from his own memories before anyone could object, "Желание, Ржавый, Семнадцать, Рассвет, Печь, Девять, Добросердечный, Возвращение на Родину, Один, Грузовой вагон."
Everyone watched Bucky, staring at him to check if he would slip back again and The Winter Soldier would come back again, all of them were ready to restrain him again.
"I'm still me." Bucky finally said with a big smile, and Hermione's shoulders finally dropped from relief.
Hours later, after Hermione had removed his bindings, they all gathered in the bar in the upper level as they did after the incident with Loki and they talked mostly about Bucky and Steve memories before the army, then gradually they moved towards the topic of the war. Eventually, Bucky explained what happened to him as much as he could remember.
Hydra hadn't been finished, there were remaining cells, and while he didn't have a lot of information, spending so much time frozen and so much simply not him, they did know now that Hydra was still embedded into SHIELD, and they knew Dolohov and at least a few other Death Eaters had joined in recent years.
"How are we going to take down Hydra?" Tony asked the question everyone had been avoiding so far.
"I don't know." Steve said in a small voice.
"We need Nick, Natasha and Clint, for the SHIELD angle. For the Death Eaters, I need to call someone who's been working on tracking them down since the Auror office seemed to have given up years ago." Hermione said.
"What you did, am I okay now?" Bucky wondered.
"As okay as anyone who went through something like that. While The Winter Soldier persona can't be activated again, you still have the memories. The trauma." Hermione explained kindly.
"I've trained as a Mind Healer recently, I will help you." Luna chimed in.
"You did?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, it felt like it would be needed sometime soon, and it is now." Luna said with one of her enigmatic smile.
"What will you do?" Bucky asked, fearing lacing his voice.
"It's similar to therapy, but I will be using Swooping Evil as well." Luna answered.
"That's what they used to obliviate New York, isn't it?" Hermione inquired.
"Yes, it was done as a mass obliviate. My ex-husband grandfather used it with a Thunderbird to make it rain over New York so Muggles would forget the terror they had witnessed. I've researched it a lot while getting my mastery in Mind Healing, and I can dilute enough to work on an individual and specific enough to simply remove the trauma for the memories associated with the Winter Soldier." Luna explained.
"So, I'll forget everything I did?" Bucky asked with a frown.
Luna shook her head, "Not exactly. I could make it like that, but trauma shapes people, what I will do is make sure you understand The Winter Soldier isn't you, and never was. You will still remember some of his memories but they will be disassociated from you."
"Right, so Luna will work on Bucky. I suggest we call Nick." Hermione said.
"How do we know we can trust him? How do we know he's no Hydra himself?" Tony asked.
"We don't, but that will be the first thing we check."
"Can we circle back to obliviating New York?" Tony chimed in.
Some time later, Luna had went home to start preparation while Bucky went to sleep in a guest bedroom in Steve's floor. Tony went back to his lab to continue his search of SHIELD classified files with the knowledge of Hydra to filter through things differently.
Hermione was on the deck, looking over the city, lost in thoughts.
"Thank you." Steve said in a low voice while joining her on the deck.
"You don't have to thank me." Hermione replied without looking away from the city skyline.
"I do. He tried to kill you, and you still helped him. You brought my friend back to me." Steve replied.
They spent the next few minutes in silence, until Hermione said, "I should go to bed, good night Steve."
Before she could go too far, he took her wrist, "Wait."
She stopped and turned to look at him in question and he bent down to kiss her before he could change his mind and chicken out.
She kissed him back immediately and for a time, they lost themselves to each other, not thinking of the war looming in the background.
A/N - Russian translations from Google Translate, apologies if it's not great:
Ведьма = Witch
На кого вы работаете? = Who do you work for?
Я не знаю. = I don't know.
Как вас зовут? = What is your name?
Also, the translation of The Winter Soldier trigger words from Civil War subtitles (forgot last chapter):
Желание = Longing.
Ржавый = Rusted.
Семнадцать = 17.
Рассвет = Daybreak.
Печь = Furnace.
Девять = 9.
Добросердечный = Benign.
Возвращение на Родину = Homecoming.
Один = 1.
Грузовой вагон = Freight car.
Also, I already know who I'm bringing in to help take down Death Eaters, any guesses?