Foreseeing the future?

Hermione blinked, and a terrible idea came to mind.

She looked at Nick Fury.

"This Stark person-is he a good man?"

Nick Fury hesitated for a moment, then nodded decisively. "Yes, he's a good man too."

He might sell weapons, chase women, and be arrogant beyond belief, but he was a good man.

As the only son of Howard Stark, one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders, and a renowned scientific genius in his own right, Tony Stark was someone Fury had to save, whether for sentimental reasons or for his value.

Although he had been abducted while under military protection, S.H.I.E.L.D. was also doing everything it could to assist the search and rescue.

Hermione nodded. "All right, I'll help you this once."

"You have a way?!"

Nick Fury was pleasantly surprised.

He had only been fishing, never expecting to land anything this big.

"I can't find out where he is," Hermione said frankly.

That was true. The movie only showed that he had been kidnapped and held in a cave in the Afghan desert; it never gave the exact location.

"Then how are you..." Nick Fury was confused.

Before he could finish, Hermione interrupted him. "But I can foresee how things turn out for him. Maybe I can spot something in those images of the future, though I'll need your help."

What!!!

What had they just heard? Foreseeing the future?

Nick Fury, Natasha, and Coulson all jolted at once, staring at Hermione in disbelief.

Every time they thought they understood Hermione well enough, she managed to overturn their understanding all over again.

"What do you need us to do?"

Nick Fury was the first to recover.

"Get me a crystal ball, one that's perfectly clear and transparent, without a single impurity," Hermione said.

A crystal ball?

All of them immediately pictured those fortune-tellers in movies and television shows, putting on mystical airs with a crystal ball to scam people.

Surely Hermione wasn't going to imitate them?

They immediately dismissed the thought.

Young as she was, the girl before them was a genuine wizard. How could those frauds compare to her?

"What else do you need?"

"I don't have enough magic to predict the future of someone I've never met out of thin air. So to cast the Prophecy Spell, I need the person here in front of me before I can see their future."

Nick Fury was utterly baffled.

Seriously, Miss Wizard, are you kidding me?

If I could bring Tony here so you could predict his whereabouts, would I still need your prediction?

What kind of circular nonsense is this?

Seeming to realize the problem with what she had said, Hermione scratched her head sheepishly and poked out her little tongue.

"I didn't explain it properly. Even though I can't see Stark's future, you can find someone very close to him. Wouldn't predicting her future work just as well?"

The three of them suddenly understood what Hermione meant.

If they predicted the future of someone close to Tony Stark and saw Tony appear in it, wouldn't that mean he would be all right?

Although they couldn't directly locate him, they could indirectly confirm his future safety. The outcome would be the same.

Nick Fury flushed, though fortunately, the change didn't show on his dark face.

Their minds hadn't even worked as quickly as a little girl's.

Had all this exposure to magic really made them stupid?

"Someone close to Tony Stark..." Natasha frowned deeply.

His parents had died long ago, he had no siblings, and he was arrogant and conceited, always looking down on others. With that personality, she really couldn't imagine who could be close to him.

Surely they couldn't bring in some cover girl he had slept with.

Suddenly, Natasha seemed to think of something and whispered into Fury's ear.

Nick Fury nodded at her words. "Then invite her over."

After confirming that nothing else was needed, Coulson hurried to have everything arranged.

A little while later, an agent pushed open the door and entered, carrying a crystal ball.

"Just put it on the table," Hermione said calmly.

The agent glanced at Fury, who said directly, "Do as she says."

The agent left.

About another hour later, a beautiful woman in a women's business suit was led into the room, looking somewhat haggard.

"I heard you can find Tony?"

The woman asked the moment she entered.

Nick Fury said, "We can, but we'll need your assistance, Miss Potts."

Pepper Potts nodded, looking a little excited.

"As long as you can find Tony, I'll help however you need me to. Just please bring him back safely as soon as possible."

An indescribable weariness hung over her face.

As Tony Stark's personal secretary, she had been so worried during his disappearance that she couldn't sleep at night. She had also called on every connection she could in the hope of finding him, but none had yielded any results.

Worrying about Tony while struggling to keep the company's daily affairs running had left even a formidable businesswoman like Pepper exhausted in body and mind. All she wanted was for Tony to be safe and return soon.

And she knew perfectly well that the subtle feelings between them went far beyond the relationship between a boss and his secretary.

"Please rest assured, Miss Potts," Nick Fury said. "S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't make that claim without some confidence. But we aren't taking the lead in finding Tony this time. Like you, we're only assisting."

"Huh? If it isn't you, then who is it?"

Pepper was surprised. If not an intelligence agency like S.H.I.E.L.D., who else had that kind of capability?

The military?

If they were reliable, Tony wouldn't have been kidnapped in the first place.

Nick Fury pointed to Hermione, who was still studying the crystal ball nearby.

"Her."

Pepper froze.

Before her stood a little girl who looked no more than eleven or twelve.

And she was wearing a black robe. Was she cosplaying an evil wizard from some cartoon?

"You're saying... she's going to find Tony?"

Pepper looked at Nick Fury in disbelief.

"...How?"

Suspicion gradually crept into her eyes.

"With magic," Nick Fury said without batting an eye.

Taking a deep breath, Pepper suppressed the urge to turn around and leave. "I'm in no mood for jokes," she said coldly.

Nick Fury felt rather helpless, but he could only explain patiently. "It really is her. She and her magic-her Prophecy Spell, to be precise-can find Stark."

"If you brought me here just to make fun of me, congratulations, you've succeeded. There's still a mountain of work waiting at the company. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving."

Deep disappointment filled Pepper's eyes, and she turned to leave.

Just as she approached the doorway, the door slammed shut on its own with a bang.

Pepper spun around angrily, only to see the little girl dressed as a wizard pointing a small black stick at her.

"Full Body-Bind!"

The next second, some inexplicable force froze her entire body.

Her thoughts were still perfectly clear, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move a muscle, as though someone had pressed pause on her whole body.