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A dark haired man stepped off the lift on level 2 of the Ministry of Magic. His dark and expensive looking robes awarded him appreciative nods and glances, but otherwise very little attention. His dark hair was coiffed and styled appropriately and his confident gait helped him blend in with the rest of the people mulling around in the Auror department. He walked up to the large front desk that separated the lobby from the main cubicle aisles. A witch with cola-colored hair pulled to the nape of her neck in a restrictive bun looked up at him as he approached.

His lips pulled across his straight teeth in a friendly smile, which she reciprocated. "Hello, I would like to speak to Auror Nott."

She leaned forward, her work robes opening slightly at the movement, and revealed an impressive shot of her cleavage. In a slightly husky tone, "Of course. Let me just make sure he's not in a meeting, or anything."

This time his lips formed a smirk, and he leaned his elbow on the desk. "You do that now."

She giggled and tapped her wand against a sheet of parchment that had every active on-duty Auror officer in the department. Similar to a protean charm, the parchment has a sister parchment in each Auror's cubicle that glowed to notify the Auror that they were being called and where to. She looked back up at the incredibly handsome wizard before her at the reciprocal glow on her parchment.

"Auror Nott is available. He's on his way to the front desk." She smiled largely at him.

He lowered his voice. "You're really good with that wand." He said, making her giggle once more.

Auror Nott saw the dark wavy hair as he approached the front desk with slight annoyance. The new department secretary, Justine, was flirting with a wizard at the desk, a wealthy wizard judging by his clothing. Probably sensing his presence, the wizard turned around to face Theo and gave a predatory smile, showing just the hint of teeth at the corner of his lips.

Theo made a conscious effort not to flinch or show any emotion as he greeted the man. "Auror Nott. Can I help you with anything, sir?"

The man's eyes tracked Theo's features and he waited a breath before speaking. "As a matter of fact, you can Mr. Nott. Is there somewhere we can go and discuss matters privately?"

Theo considered it for a second before slightly nodding his head in the direction towards the back of the department. "Of course. We can use one of the rooms in the back. Follow me."

The man looked back at the simpering brunette once more, giving a charming smile. "Thank you again, Justine." He tapped on the desk with his knuckles twice before following Nott to the back rooms.

The brunette sat at the desk collective herself for a minute or so, adjusting her labored breaths. She felt warm all over and she fanned herself as she gained control of her breathing once more. It didn't occur to her, until after the handsome man and Auror Nott disappeared down the hall that she never got his name.

"What'cha over there thinking about Cap?" Natasha Romanov pulled her a glass of Whiskey from Stark's decanter. She smirked over at the blonde man sitting morosely across from her at the bar.

Steve looked over at his redhead friend. "Nothing. Just thinking."

"Girl troubles?" She took a sip from her glass.

He pursed his lips and looked at his other teammates gathered in one of Stark's many living rooms. They, Rogers, Nat, Bucky, and Sam, occasionally Wanda and Vision, chose this floor to hang out in. The windows took up the expanse of both the west and northern wall, the fireplace sat below a huge flat screen, and there was a bar installed opposite it.

"Let me guess," Nat continued on, giving Steve a look over her glass of dark liquor, "she has curly brown hair, green eyes, and her last name rhymes with mark."

Steve looked over at his friend, surprised. "How did—?"

Nat swallowed down another mouthful and rolled her eyes. "Please. Your little escapades were anything but sneaky. She left the building, you left the building. You didn't exactly hide your feelings about her. What, did she find out you've been following her around the city? Did Stark?"

He stared at her intensely, eyes searching her unreadable face. "I know you know something's off with her. I'm not the only person who sees it."

Rogers' voice carried over to the others in the room. Nat put down her glass slowly, not looking away from Steve.

"You're not the only person who sees it, Rogers. Look around, we specialize in weird. But what does it have to do with you?"

Steve looked at her in shock, frowning. "What does it have to do with me? Stark is my teammate. This team—if she's a threat to it—then it is my business."

Nat raised an eyebrow at him. "Right. And the airport? That was just a friendly social gathering, huh?"

Steve looked away for a second, getting her point. "Nat…"

"I get it Steve, okay? I was there. Tensions and egos were at an all-time high. But the truth of the matter is the team kinda disbanded. Or did you forget when you and your boy put Stark in the hospital? Or Rhodey?" Nat's eyes visibly softened at Steve's beat down expression. "I'm not blaming you, alright. Stark had a hand in the destruction, just like everyone else in this room. But us being here and working on a mission doesn't just make all of that go away."

" I sent him a letter."

"A letter?"

"Yes, a letter." He repeated defensively. "And I called him. Several times. He's the one who refused to talk it out, like adults."

"Mr. Stark didn't receive any calls." Vision voiced from his spot next to the window. Everyone looked at him.

Steve frowned, "What do you mean? I did call him."

Vision held his gaze unflinchingly. "You did. But he did not receive any calls. I had FRIDAY reroute all of your calls to his answering machine. He doesn't check it."

Steve stood from the bar stool, now glaring at the red android. "Why would you do that? What's your angle?"

"Angle?" Vision said as though surprised, but his face showed no such emotion. "I have no angle, Mr. Rogers. I am a free entity, free to choose and be. But I have loyalty to humankind, and that includes Mr. Stark. He needed to heal from the assault, physically and emotionally. It wasn't time."

"This is the second time now, you have alluded to something. Do you know what she's hiding?" He pointed at Vision, frustrated.

"She?" Sam looked between Vision, Steve, and Nat, finally catching on.

Bucky's eyes jerked around the room, but ultimately landing on Steve's tense form.

Sam laughed, attempting to ease some of the tension. "Don't tell me we're talking about Mini Stark. I thought you dropped all of that, Steve."

Steve looked at Sam guiltily.

Nat smirked. "No, our Captain's been naughty. He's been following her out every other day. Probably taking pictures and videos."

Steve looked down and muttered, "I didn't take any videos."

"Why?" Sam asked. Yeah, Sam noticed his Captain's weird fascination with the Stark girl, but he didn't think much of it. His eyes kept track of her whenever she entered the room and he usually left not longer after she did, but he played around with the idea that maybe they were secretly hooking up, or something. But Steve Rogers isn't exactly a 'hook-up' kind of guy, and no matter how pretty Stark's little sister was, she probably wouldn't be able to re-wire his 40's sensibility and morals.

And the Stark girl was very much that: pretty. Brown hair, green eyes, and a small but curvy figure. She was funny and seemed decently smart, nothing like Tony's but he was a genius. He didn't blame Steve if he was attracted to her, but that would be like playing fire, especially considering Tony had mostly eased up on his hostility over the last several weeks of their return. There were very few things Stark took seriously, and his little sister was one of them. Stark might have zapped him with a low-caliber laser the few times he has let his own eyes linger on the mini-Stark a few seconds too long.

Steve gave Sam a look. "She's hiding something, Sam. She gives us half truths and skirts around facts. She disappears, literally, into thin air meeting unknown persons. The other day, she told Stark she was going to see Parker right? And the library? I followed her. She wasn't anywhere near his house or the library. And then two hours later she was back, claiming to have been to both, and brought back food. She's lying."

"No offense Cap," Sam gave him a pitiful look, "but why does this concern you? I get it, it's strange. No doubt about that. But do you seriously think she's bad news? She was with him months before we came. If she seriously wanted to do something to him, why didn't she when she had the chance?"

Steve shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out. And Tony deserves to know."

"Tony deserves to know what?" A voice called out from their right. The setting sun cast an orange glow across the Stark siblings as they exited the elevator and moved towards the group.

Hermione observed Steve's guilty, but determined expression, and the others' glances at one another and knew instantly what they were talking about. Tony approached Romanov behind the bar and reached for his Whiskey decanter.

He held it up to the light, "Does this look a little empty to anyone else?" He shook his head and poured himself the remaining ounces left over.

"Tony," Steve stared at his old teammate. "Did you think about what we discussed the other day?" He shot a quick look at Hermione.

"Cap." Nat said with a certain inflection in her voice.

"You mean when you gave me a folder full of suspicious pictures of Bunny?" Tony took a sip, making a barely discernible grimace at the taste. "Romanov, how much of this did you drink? I think it still needs a little more aging."

Nat gave him a small smile but said nothing.

"Maybe, we should, uh, give you guys some space." Sam offered awkwardly.

"No," Hermione sat on the stool besides Steve. "It's best if you all stick around, actually. There's something I need to tell all of you."

"How many lies have you told me since the day we met?"

Hermione opened her mouth and choked a bit on the words. "Tony…"

A tear crept down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. "My name is Hermione Granger. I was born a Stark, and after my biological father's death, it was changed to my mother's maiden name, before it became Granger when my father adopted me." She breathed out unsteadily as she attempted to stop the tears from flowing.

Tony clenched his jaw. "Hermine…"

Hermione forced out around her tears, "Please Tony. Let me just...let me just get this out. Please." She waited for him to give a jerky nod before continuing."When I was little, strange things would happen around me. Once when I was five and my mother didn't want to read another story, all of the books from the bookshelf flew around the room. And when I was 8, and no one showed up to my birthday party, my parents walked in on my stuffed animals prancing around the room as though they were alive." She smiled at the memory.

Tony's brows furrowed and she could see his brain working overtime. But his body was noticeably more relaxed. "Telekinesis?"

She shook her head, "Not exactly. The summer before I turned twelve a woman came to my home and told me that I was a Witch, and she gave me my acceptance letter to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's a school for people like me to learn how to control and use their magic."

"Hogwarts? And magic?" Tony's expression was much less hostile, but no less understanding. It was clear he didn't believe her.

"Yes." She stared back through damp eyes. Her chin was stubbornly poked out as she gazed back unflinchingly. "It's an odd name, sure. But it's no less real. I'm what is known as a muggleborn, because both of my biological parents are muggles, people without magic."

"You have a name for normal people?" He scoffed.

She glared at him. "I am normal. I can just do things that most people can't."

He broke their gazes. In a more quiet tone he spoke, "That's not what I meant."

She threw a bitter smile at him and shook his head. "Yes, it is. That's exactly what you meant. And that's the reason why the Wizarding World feels like hiding the existence of magic is the right thing to do. People, without magic, they can't understand, they could never fully understand what it's like to do grand things at the snap of their finger or the flick of their wrists."

Tony glared at her this time. "Um, I can. Or did you somehow forget about Iron Man?"

Hermione scoffed. "Your suit is a machine, Tony. It's engineering, physics, mathematics. It's science. Magic is something else entirely. You can rationalize and scientifically explain why you can do amazing things. I can't do that." Her words came out faster and louder. "I can tell you all about magical theory and describe the feeling of connecting with a wand for the first time, or how the Hogwarts castle looks illuminated by the moon from the Black Lake, or even how it feels to have magic thrumming through my veins as I cast powerful spells. But you would never be able to understand it.

"Merlin, there's still so much Wizards and Witches don't even understand. Most don't know how to make a wand because only wand makers pass that information down to their apprentices. We don't know magic gets passed down through the generations for a millennia and then suddenly skips an entire person. Or how people without a magical bone, or otherwise, in their body can create a child bursting at the seams with magic. We have laws and rules and theories, but magic is, at its roots, unexplainable. That's...half of the magic, not knowing."

Tony watched her eyes glow as she spoke passionately about her...magic. Perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he could even swear that he saw the tips of her hair spark. And as he watched her take in deep, calming breaths, a thought ran across his mind. 'This may be the first time I'm really seeing her.'

She caught her breath as she began again. "It's a really long story, but I became friends with two boys, one of whom was prophesied to take down this really evil Wizard. Harry was believed to be the only person who could defeat him. But when I met him, he was just a scrawny, 11 year old boy who knew about as much of the Wizarding World as I did. He was raised by his abusive aunt and uncle. Each year of schooling we had to defeat some creepy, crawly, evil that we didn't really understand at the time, was all linked to the Dark Lord. And in my fourth year, that's when we saw our first dead body. A boy was murdered in an international competition held at our school.

"The following year his godfather died and we went up against Voldemort and his sycophantic followers. I almost died that night, too. I was hit by a curse, created by the Wizard who hit me with it, that was designed to burn the body from the inside out. I have a scar that expands across most of my chest."

Tony frowned in thought. "I've never seen—"

Hermione cut him off. "I magically hide all of my scars."

Tony caught the implication but let her proceed, making a mental note to bring that back up later.

"It only got worse from that point on. The next year the school was run by a tyrant from the ministry, and the next year we went on the run. We knew that the only way for it all to end—for the Wizarding World to be safe—was to kill Voldemort once and for all. But he had done some really dark magical rituals and found a way to be temporarily immortal. We had to track down each horcrux, artifacts he imbued with his soul, and destroy them. We had no idea what we were doing," she laughed humorlessly.

"At one point we were captured. My quick thinking stopped my two best friends from being recognized, making our capture that much difficult, but I didn't have enough time to change my appearance. I don't—Bellatrix she—His most loyal follower questioned me under cruciatus and an enchanted knife about the belongings of a family heirloom." She couldn't look at him.

"What's a cru—" He had a sick look on his face.

"The cruciatus curse is one of three unforgivables, magical curses that are one way tickets to Azkaban, our magical prison. Think Alcatraz but with literal soul sucking monsters as the guards. Anyway, a friend helped us escape at the expense of his own life. But in the end, it was all worth it. Harry killed the bad guy, we lost too many friends and family, but we didn't have to live in fear anymore. I wouldn't be targeted because of my blood. But we were wrong. For a while, I mean, it was good. We were in the stages of rebuilding the school, the small shopping center near the school, and our lives. I thought we were headed in a better direction. That, after everything that happened, those in positions of power, those who looked down on me because of my blood and heritage, they would no longer run our society.

"I later learned it was incredibly naive of me to think so. Things went back to business as usual. They tried to just sweep things under the rug as though the war never even happened. The ministry was still corrupt, the rich and elite still had influence over politics. Children were still being taught hatred and prejudice. And this is what I risked my life for. I fought in a war, practically since I was 11, only to still be scoffed at for who my parents were!" Her voice raised.

Tony approached Hermione, eyes tracing over her furious features. He reached out a slow hand, so that she could see his hand coming towards her, before grabbing her fist.

"Bunny…"

She looked down at his hand calmly wrapped around hers. She took in a few deep breaths.

"It wasn't fair Tony," she looked up with glittering eyes. "I didn't put my life on the line for an unfair world. I didn't bleed for more bloodshed in the future."

Speechless was never an adjective that could describe Tony. Boisterous, scary intelligent, stupid rich. But after what he just heard, Tony couldn't string together one intelligible sentence. How could he with all of the feelings and thoughts running through him right now. Anger, because his sister, his little sister, also had to grow up too fast and endure paid she never should have had to. Sadness, because he recognized that tortured look in her eye that said she, too, had nightmares keeping her up at night from the torture she faced. Anger, again, because the adults who should've taken care of things, didn't. Pride, because she was resilient, and didn't let it break her. She won. Anger, once more, because he couldn't do a damn thing to take away the pain she still carried with her.

Magic. Thor's fucked up brother, Loki, had magic. And he used that to mindfuck agents and people to commit mass murder. Maximoff also had magic, sort of. But she too did some mindfuckery on his team that...well let's just say, the less he sleeps the better. Now his sister, Hermione—Bunny. Bunny had magic. Yes, the irony was just too good. But the way she spoke about it, she made it sound like the cauldrons and potions kind. Maybe her magic...wasn't so bad...maybe...

"So...I devised a plan."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Sam waved a hand. "You're a Witch? Why didn't you just come forward with that from the start? We do have one already on our team." He gestured towards Wanda.

Hermione shook her head and snorted. "Despite her moniker, Wanda Maximoff is no Witch. Truthfully, I was befuddled by her abilities as well. Though her powers are quite similar, her powers are genetic in a different manner. I strongly believe that Ms. Maximoff is actually a mutant. Her powers were latent until HYDRAs experiments on her and her brother. Whereas my own are not due to one specific genetic mutation. There's still a lot unknown about how we get our powers, but it is believed that the Core is the origin of magic for every Witch and Wizard."

"The Core? As in—" Nat questioned.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, like the legend King T'Challa mentioned. It is in Wakanda and I'm sure that's what those dark Wizards are after."

"I'm sorry," Steve interjected. "But how do we know that what you say is true? How do we know you aren't working with them?"

Hermione tugged the headband holding her curls back out of her head and, without muttering word, it morphed into her wand. "Finite incantatem." And she waved her wand in an intricate pattern over her body. Instantly her appearance changed before their very eyes. Her skin darkened a shade, her eyes changed from their soft green to a honey, and her dark curls lightened until it was a golden brown. The curls became a bit more riotous, almost as though they had a life of their own. Freckles darkened over the bridge of her nose.

A dark and angry purple scar began at the top of her tank top, in the middle of her breasts, before disappearing beneath her shirt. She twisted her left arm to reveal a hideous word carved into her forearm, glaring up at them. Mudblood.

"Enough proof for you? I changed my appearance because I didn't want to be recognized. Although I'm much lesser known here in the states, I still have a bit of a reputation. I didn't want to risk it while I was getting to know my brother." She smiled at Tony and who returned it.

"No need to be modest, Bunny. It doesn't look good on us Starks. What she meant to say is she's famous." Tony cut in.

Hermione rolled her, now hazel, eyes at him. "I'm not famous, Tony. That's ridiculous. Fame implies celebrity status. I'm more of a symbol, if anything."

"A symbol of 'vat, exactly?" Wanda spoke for the first time.

Hermione opened her mouth to answer but Tony beat her to it. "Righteousness and freedom. Sounds familiar, Cap?" He leveled a weighted stretch at Steve.

Steve caught the implication, and despite how much he wanted to look away, he kept eye contact with Tony.

"A child soldier?" This time, it came from Bucky. His dark eyes looked up at her for the first time since she came clean. If Hermione was being 100% honest with herself, she'd admit that the relief that flooded her body came solely from his response.

She gave a halfhearted nod and shrug combo. "Yes. We were the frontline of defense."

"Why?" His eyes searched hers, frowning. Confusion shown clearly in his face. Child soldiers weren't really a thing in the 40's, at least not in the capacity they are known now. Boys lied on military forms about their age to fight in wars and protect their country, that he could understand. Sort of. It angered him that they believed they felt they needed to, but that was their country fed them the dream of patriotism and heroism and that's what they fought for. But school children fighting over...blood, that he could not comprehend.

"We—we didn't have much of a choice, really. The adults, they weren't prepared to do what needed to be done. They had dragged out the war, so much so that it spanned decades, giving Riddle, and his allies, time to grow and cause more damage. We understood that, if something was going to put a stop to it, it would have to be us."

"The British army?" The corner of his mouth was slightly tilted upwards.

She grinned apologetically, "Made that up."

"The Gala?" Steve threw out.

She nodded her head. "They were looking for me. I killed Bellatrix, the woman who gave me this scar. I casted a shield to protect the event goers from harm, used a charm to make it difficult to see, and then cooled down my body temperature enough so that Tony's thermoscan technology couldn't detect me."

"Connect 4?" Sam added.

Hermione giggled. "I beat you in that fair and square. No magic needed."

He cursed.

"The plan?" It was Nat's turn to ask.

"Pardon me?" Hermione's head turned towards Nat.

"You mentioned a plan that you made."

"What the fuck!" Tony shouted, dropping his glass on the bar, shards spreading on the lacquered surface. Hermione pointed her wand in the direction of Tony's shout at the same time Natasha drew her gun. But Hermione smiled when she saw it.

Harry's patronus trotted to Hermione, bending in deference before relaying Harry's message, "We're coming through in 30."

Hermione scoffed and muttered something under her breath as she sprinted to the fireplace. Quickly, using her wand, she drew runes around the fireplace that glowed and then disappeared.

"Who's coming through in 30?" Steve demanded.

Hermione didn't answer. She stepped away from the fireplace.

"Bunny?" Tony's voice made her turn and look at him, smirking.

"You said you wanted to meet my friends, right?" Hermione's smirk widened into a smile as the green flames ignited and then burst into existence in the fireplace.

The boys are back, the boys areee backkkkk! This confrontation has finally occurred and we may (?) be seeing some of the HP gang next chapter...no spoilers. But the next chapter has already begun being written so be on the lookout for that.

The next chapter of BR will be slightly postponed on accounts of me working on my other WIP. I have kinda neglected my other babies and one story in particular, Fatum Erratur, is in the midst of being re-written. SO once I rewrite the first 5 chapters of that, I will return to BR. Hopefully it won't take that long, but I make no promises of when the next update will be. BUT AS ALWAYS love you guys, love the work you're doing, and stay tuned.

Beta's comments:

"okayyyyy classic receptionist vibez"

"LMFAOO WHAT AN EASY HOE"

"question. why they always at starks home? they aint go no homes?"

"AHHHH I LOVE THIS ANDROID WE LOVE A PROTECTIVE DROID THIS IS SO CUTE"

#JusticeForAhmaudArbery

#JusticeForBreonnaTaylor

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd