Bewitched by You (A Marvel/Harry Potter Crossover) COMPLETED

Chapter Fifteen: No Escaping You

Pathios was . . . breathtaking.

Rolling hills of long-bladed bluegrass, dotted with wild flowers unlike any she'd ever seen on earth. The sky was crisp and clear, the breezes warm—the air even smelled pleasant.

Yet, all this beauty only created a strange, hollow feeling in the pit of Hermione's stomach. She wasn't certain if that was due to the megalithic ruins in the distance, or the disparate appearance of this world to what she'd worked herself up to expect.

She could tell the others were on alert as they moved through the grass toward the towering remnants of a grey ziggurat. There was nothing overt in their movements which suggested such, but the tension zinging though the group was palpable.

Hermione was sure, she, too, had fallen prey to the paranoia bred by walking on a long-still planet. She held her wand at her side, but her fingers clung so tight to the wood, her knuckles were white.

It did not ease her apprehension that the group moved in formation—a loose almost-triangle, with her in the center. Thor, the only one with any familiarity with Pathios, limited though that was, at the lead, Natasha and Clint on either side of her, Steve and Bucky walking behind her, practically shoulder-to-shoulder.

She knew the way they clustered around her was due to Loki deciding her a necessary component in whatever he was doing, and not having the foggiest idea where he was, but that she understood the logic behind it did precious little to lessen the feeling. The impression that she was being marched toward something was difficult to ignore.

Well, aside from the fact that that was what was happening, it lent to the notion that something was waiting. Not a comforting thought, by any means, when considering an environment where nothing was supposed to exist, anymore.

Where nothing was supposed to exist, anymore . . . .

Hermione gave her head a sobering shake and forced herself to keep walking. "Did the scans you mentioned show any fauna?"

The whispered question seemed to thunder out of her, disproportionately loud. None of them had realized how quiet they'd all been until the witch broke the silence.

"No, just flora," Natasha said, her voice low, as well.

Hermione tried not to let that unsettle her. After all, flora could survive on the elements, alone. Perhaps that it did not have a circle-of-life existence in the way that they knew it was the troubling thing.

Bucky had thought she was nervous when they'd first set foot here, but not until now—now, that he'd just heard that tremor, buried beneath her otherwise calm and steady voice—did he know for certain. Moving up a bit closer behind her, he reached out.

She felt the touch of his hand as it brushed hers and immediately threaded her fingers with his. Somehow, that small gesture allowed her to draw a deep, calming breath she'd simply not been able to catch, before.

* * * * *

Loki stepped into existence on the crumbling steps of the ziggurat. As luck would have it, the approaching group had not noticed, giving him time to slip out of sight.

Darting inside the ancient stone monstrosity, he tread carefully—light steps along the walls, turns in the corridors that had him hugging the corners—to minimize the chance of leaving footprints. To simply zip through, as he would like, would disturb the layer of dust, and he could not allow that.

He heard the rumbling, then. Faint, only detectable to him just now because he was inside the ziggurat. This was no good, he had to move faster.

Another tear to find, closer to the heart of this place.