"Natasha!"
At the sight of Natasha in the hospital bed, Hermione jogged straight over and threw herself into her arms.
She nuzzled her little head affectionately against Natasha's chest, fulfilling a dream from her previous life-a face wash courtesy of Black Widow's breasts.
The sudden impact sent a sharp stab of pain through Natasha. Her face went pale, and even the corners of her mouth twitched.
Yet as she looked at the little girl happily nestled in her arms, all her emotions ultimately melted into a wry smile.
After nuzzling her for a good while, Hermione left the beautiful woman's embrace and looked her up and down.
"Natasha, where are you hurt? Let me see!"
Natasha shook her head slightly. "Better not. The wound is too bloody. I'm afraid it'll scare you."
Hermione: "..."
You seem to have forgotten that I slit that Black looter's throat, not to mention killed twenty people in one night.
Still, she understood. Anyone seeing a little girl with such an adorable face would find their heart overflowing with affection.
"Nooo, I want to see!"
Hermione pretended to be angry.
"All right."
Unable to resist her, Black Widow lifted the blanket and slowly pulled her clothes aside, exposing the side of her lower abdomen.
Coulson tactfully turned around.
Once the bandages were undone, a wound deep enough to expose bone could be seen running across her entire flank, stark against her fair skin.
The blood around it had already been cleaned away, but traces of dark red still showed between the stitches.
"Ah!"
Hermione covered her mouth with both hands and gasped.
"It's fine. Just a minor wound," Black Widow reassured her.
She was not lying. Compared with the through-and-through wound beside it that the Winter Soldier had left her, this one really was minor.
"Natasha, how long will it take you to recover?" Hermione suddenly asked.
Black Widow thought for a moment. "An injury like this will take at least two or three months."
"Can't it be any faster?"
Black Widow was a little speechless. Do you think wounds heal through willpower?
"There's nothing I can do. That's how injuries work."
She wanted nothing more than to regain her mobility sooner, but the laws of nature were there, beyond any mortal's defiance.
"It's okay. I have a way!" Hermione suddenly said.
Natasha froze for a moment, then could not help laughing. She assumed the child simply did not know her limits and thought a little medical knowledge could be applied to anything.
"Hmph... you don't believe me!"
Seeing that Natasha was not taking her seriously at all, Hermione puffed out her cheeks in indignation.
"All right, all right. Tell me, then. How can I recover faster?" Natasha felt a headache coming on. She might as well humor her.
She also wanted to hear what brilliant advice Hermione had to offer.
Surely she would not just tell her to "drink more warm water"?
Hermione took out her wand and warned her, "These threads are in the way. I need to remove the stitches first. It might hurt a little."
The wand's big. Bear with it.
Natasha: ???
"Wait, what are you doing?"
She started to panic. She had assumed Hermione would only offer some common-sense advice about recovering from injuries. Who could have guessed that she would suddenly get hands-on-and go straight for her stitches?
"Leviosa!"
Before Natasha could question her further, Hermione waved her wand and spoke the incantation.
With some of her spells now at level two, she no longer needed to recite their full incantations to cast them.
The Levitation Charm, for instance.
As the incantation fell, the stitches on either side of the wound snapped open by themselves. As though drawn by some mysterious force, the ends of the threads slowly pulled free of the wound.
"Hsss..."
Compared with a professional doctor's, Hermione's technique could only be called rough.
Natasha's cheeks twitched from the pain, but for the sake of her image, she forced herself to endure it without crying out.
By the time the threads were completely out, the wound was oozing copious amounts of blood again, staining the entire sheet red.
Hearing the groan behind him, Coulson sensed something was wrong. Throwing discretion aside, he hurriedly turned back to stop her.
"Episkey!"
The next second, Hermione cast again, gently passing the tip of her wand over the open wound.
As the wand moved, the flesh around the wound seemed to come alive, drawing together and knitting itself shut.
In the blink of an eye, the entire wound had healed.
Natasha stared blankly at the sight before her, then quickly grabbed a towel and wiped her lower abdomen clean.
Her fair skin lay exposed to the air, smooth and pristine, without a single trace of injury.
"Th-this..." Coulson's eyes nearly popped out of his head. His mouth hung open, his face blank with shock.
Only then did Natasha finally remember that the girl before her was no ordinary little girl, but a genuine wizard!
The kind who could do magic!
"Is... is this your magic too?"
In her excitement, Natasha still managed to ask a stupid question.
What else would it be...? Hermione rolled her eyes. Did you suddenly awaken some self-healing superpower instead?
Realizing she had asked a foolish question, Natasha smiled awkwardly and hopped straight onto the floor. Feeling her body in its usual condition again, she was delighted.
Only then did Coulson come to his senses. Having witnessed magic firsthand, he was thoroughly shaken.
At the same time, he raised Hermione's importance another several notches in his mind.
"Oh, right. Do you want me to get rid of that scar too?"
Hermione pointed at Natasha's waist. She knew Bucky had put it there with a bullet, and Black Widow had said goodbye to bikinis ever since.
"You can heal this one too?" Natasha's eyes lit up.
Hermione said nothing. She simply cast the weakest possible Diffindo on the scar at Natasha's waist, then followed it with a Healing Charm.
The scar vanished.
Overjoyed, Natasha pulled Hermione into a tight hug, treating her to another face wash.
While scars were hardly the greatest concern for an agent of her caliber, what woman did not want to look beautiful?
Ten minutes later, Natasha and Coulson escorted Hermione toward the director's office.
Along the way, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s medical staff stared at the lively, agile Black Widow as though they had seen a ghost.
After walking for who knew how long, they finally arrived at a door.
They pushed it open to find a figure standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, his back to everyone as he gazed outside.
That bald, dark back of his head was simply impossible to ignore.
"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D., Miss Wizard." The figure turned around. "Allow me to introduce myself. Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Black, bald, and one-eyed.
It really is you, Black Egghead!
Hermione tilted her head as she looked at him, then suddenly asked, "Are you Natasha's boss?"
Nick Fury nodded. "That's right."
Hermione blinked. "Mm, I trust Natasha. You're her boss, and she trusts you, so you must be a good person too!"
"Uh..."
The corner of Nick Fury's eye twitched. With a single sentence, Hermione had nearly left him at a complete loss.
Such simple, childish logic.
What else could he say?
No, you've got it wrong. I'm not that good a person?
Watching Fury stiffen, Coulson and Natasha nearly burst out laughing.
It was the first time they had ever seen that expression on his face.
Sure enough, sincerity was the ultimate finishing move.
An innocent child had completely countered the calculating king of spies.
Before you continue