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"We?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, me and Dr. Banner."
"What do you need it for?"
"Uh..." Tony started to stammer.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why is everyone so tongue-tied today? Spit it out."
"Alright, alright." Tony seemed to give up on keeping it secret. "We're working on a project and need to reference the Mind Stone's structure and energy patterns."
"Wait there."
She slashed open a spinning portal of golden sparks right in front of her and stepped through in one stride. The portal closed behind her, leaving Strange, Agatha, and Wanda staring at each other across the empty church.
The next second, Hermione was standing in the lab at Stark Tower.
Tony and Banner were huddled around a complex holographic projection, something resembling the branching web of a brain's neural network, deep in discussion.
"Hi." Hermione announced herself.
Tony's eyes lit up the moment he saw her. Banner stopped what he was doing and nodded at her, slightly reserved.
Tony gestured at the hologram. "So, we're trying to code a kind of... well, a global AI defense system. It needs a sufficiently complex neural network model, and the Mind Stone is the perfect reference."
Hermione said nothing. She just watched the two of them.
The silence stretched long enough that both men started to squirm. Finally, Banner let out a sigh and came clean. "We're working on the Ultron Project."
Tony jumped in immediately:
"Ultron will be a global intelligent defense system. With it, we can proactively defend against alien invasions. Chitauri, Dark Elves — nothing like that will ever happen again. We're building Earth a suit of armor, something that actually protects it."
He was clearly worried she'd say no, selling the vision as hard as he could.
Hermione waved a hand and cut him off. "Alright. I don't understand it, and I don't care."
She tossed the Mind Stone to Tony without ceremony. "One condition: if this ever blows up in your face, leave your master's name out of it."
Tony caught it clumsily, blinked at her for a moment, then broke into a grin. "No problem!"
Hermione was already gone.
So Ultron gets built after all, she thought as she left.
Not a bad opportunity. But first, she needed to finish the business with Voldemort.
...
Hogwarts. The Great Hall had been transformed, every corner draped in festivity.
The Yule Ball was about to begin.
The hall blazed with light, and soft music had already started to drift through the air. Students filled the space in their finest dress robes, clustering in small groups, searching for their partners with flushed and eager faces.
Ron stood beside Lavender Brown, who was practically draped over his arm, talking without pause.
Cedric and Cho stood together nearby, heads dipped toward each other, speaking quietly. The atmosphere between them was easy, warm.
Krum and Fleur had each found their own partners, two people Hermione didn't know well.
And standing beside Harry was... Draco.
Just as every eye in the room was drifting toward those focal pairs, the great doors swung open again.
A figure walked in.
The hall went quiet. Not the sudden hush of alarm, something softer. A collective intake of breath.
At Luna's insistence, Hermione had abandoned her eternal school uniform for the evening. In its place: a light pink gown that swept the floor, its hem scattered with tiny points of light that glinted with each step she took. Luna had pinned her brown hair into an elegant updo, with a delicate silver moonstone clip nestled in the curls.
The pink softened her. The cool edge that usually kept people at a distance had receded, replaced by something that made it hard to look away.
Luna trailed behind her, practically vibrating with delight, eyes bright as stars.
Ron swallowed. Lavender caught it immediately and pinched him hard. He flinched back to reality.
Krum and Fleur kept stealing glances at the doorway, their expressions complicated.
Almost everyone's breathing had gone shallow. Nobody had expected that the "witch" who spent her life buried in books and brewing experiments could look like this.
Even Snape was caught off guard. He stood very still for a moment, then stepped out from his corner.
He crossed to Hermione quickly. He glanced once toward Harry and Draco, then dropped his voice to a level only she could hear. "You really... developed a permanent reversal Polyjuice Potion?"
Hermione understood at once.
Draco had told him. She'd wondered why no one had raised an alarm about his disappearance, Snape had been running interference.
She gave a small nod.
Snape's breath hitched. He pressed his lips together, jaw tight, something shifting behind his eyes. For a long moment he said nothing, working through it internally, visibly at war with himself. Then he made up his mind.
"Can you teach me the formula?"
The moment he saw Hermione's expression, that calm, knowing almost-smile, as if she'd been watching him arrive at this question from the very beginning, Snape's face darkened. He recovered quickly.
"Purely as a Potions professor, I cannot tolerate having a potion I'm unable to master. Don't read anything else into it."
Hermione cut him off before he could dig himself any deeper. "I can give you the formula. Fair warning — you probably won't be able to source all the key ingredients."
"Leave the ingredients to me," Snape said at once.
Hermione raised an eyebrow. She produced a roll of blank parchment, tapped it with her wand, and row after row of complex instructions materialized across the surface, the full brewing process, step by step.
Snape snatched it. His eyes moved rapidly over the text, and his brow began to furrow. "Everything else I can follow. But this final ingredient — the Reality Stone." He looked up. "What is that?"
Hermione extended her right hand. A thin swirl of crimson particles drifted at her fingertip.
Snape stared. He could feel it without touching it, something vast and contained within that red light, beyond anything he'd ever encountered.
"Right," Hermione said, drawing her hand back. "This only exists in the entire world because I have it. One of a kind."
Snape's throat moved. "...Could I borrow it?"
"Given our history?" Hermione said easily. "Of course. Come find me whenever you need it. You'll just have to wait a bit longer."
She hadn't finished analyzing it yet. It wasn't ready for use in this world.
Snape nodded, tucking the parchment carefully away.
He glanced once more toward Harry and Draco, expression unreadable, then seemed to catch himself. He turned quickly, and walked back into the shadows at the edge of the hall.
Hermione watched him go. That slightly hurried retreat. The way he'd tried so hard to sound indifferent.
A slow smirk curved at the corner of her mouth.
Well, Professor Snape. In the end, you couldn't resist after all.
➤ Next: Beneath the Lake's Waters
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