"Mordo, Kaecilius, and Wong — which one of them isn't your prized disciple?"
"Mordo?" The Ancient One shook her head gently. "Too rigid. No adaptability. He's not fit for the role."
"Wong's talent is limited. His ceiling isn't high."
"As for Kaecilius..." She sighed. "He's already been corrupted too deeply by the Dark Dimension."
"Like you haven't been..."
Hermione muttered it under her breath, still looking at the Ancient One.
The words had barely left her lips when the Ancient One's calm eyes shifted , deepening, darkening, something from the Dark Dimension bleeding through into her gaze as she fixed it on Hermione.
Purple runes rose slowly across her forehead, radiating a wrongness that made the chest seize.
"Okay, okay, I surrender." Hermione threw both hands up. "Just come out and ask for Strange already. Stop using Dormammu to scare me — it's genuinely horrifying."
The Ancient One withdrew that gaze. The purple runes faded.
"Originally, I intended for you to be the Sorcerer Supreme." Her tone was mild, unbothered. "But I knew you wouldn't agree, so I settled for having you bring Strange here early."
"And as for Dormammu — I'm not using it to scare you. This second condition..."
A bad feeling rose in Hermione's chest.
The next second, it came true.
"Is for you to destroy Dormammu completely."
"You want me to destroy Dormammu?"
Hermione stiffened.
"Master Ancient One, are you serious? You yourself only managed to banish it. And now you want me to destroy it?"
"What do you think I am, your errand girl?"
The Ancient One looked at her calmly. "These two conditions are non-negotiable."
"If you refuse, then you'll simply have to wait until after I leave this universe to worry about the Time Stone."
Hermione's expression soured.
"Fine, don't give it then. No need to slap conditions on it that ridiculous..."
She muttered the last part to herself, turned on her heel, and walked away.
Two steps. Then she stopped.
Her eyes slid sideways. Something clicked behind them.
She spun back around, face arranged into a sunny smile. "Master Ancient One , those conditions you mentioned? I accept."
The Ancient One raised an eyebrow.
"However..." Hermione rubbed her hands together, grinning. "I'll need to borrow the Eye of Agamotto. Temporarily."
The Ancient One studied her for a long moment.
"Fine," she said at last. "But the Eye of Agamotto stays within Kamar-Taj. You don't take it with you."
Hermione nodded. "No problem."
---
The Kamar-Taj library.
Hermione moved through it like she owned the place, found a tucked-away corner, and pulled an alchemy workbench out of her backpack with a thought.
She stroked her chin, eyes moving over the workbench's surface.
The Eye of Agamotto.
The vessel of the Time Stone. Infinite mysteries packed into one artifact.
Shame the old woman guarded it like a prison ward , Kamar-Taj use only, no exceptions.
The memory of those dark, rune-lit eyes flashed through her mind. Hermione quietly buried the thought of just walking off with it.
She did covet the Eye. Considerably. But she couldn't exactly camp in Kamar-Taj for half a year waiting for her magic book to finish its analysis.
The good news: she already knew how to handle Dormammu.
A level-five strike probably wouldn't put something that size down in one hit. Even grievously wounded, Dormammu could retreat into the Dark Dimension whenever it wanted. There was no clean kill that way.
But there was one method. One strike, total annihilation, no exit window.
It was fiddly. But it would satisfy the Ancient One's condition, get her the Time Stone through legitimate means, and let her harvest Dormammu's soul energy on top of it.
Complicated, yes. Worth it? Also yes. It just needed preparation.
Hermione stopped deliberating.
She lifted the Time-Turner from her alchemy pack, set it carefully on the workbench, and extended both hands. She followed the method the Ancient One had shown her, forming the gestures slowly, deliberately.
The Eye of Agamotto opened.
A beam of vivid green light shot from its center , coiling like a snake through the air, winding itself around the Time-Turner.
The Time-Turner shivered. A faint hum rose from it. Its golden casing began to shift, a pale green seeping in along the edges.
Hermione's pulse jumped. It's working.
She held her breath. Didn't let her focus slip by a hair.
Time moved quietly. The library held its silence.
Just the Eye's green glow. Just the Time-Turner's hum.
Thirty minutes later, Hermione eased her hands down. The Eye closed. The light dissolved.
The Time-Turner rested on the workbench, an emerald glow rolling slowly across its surface.
She picked it up and examined it.
[Curio]
[Time-Turner (Fully Charged)]
[Can physically return to the past. Withstands lv5 magic and below. Maximum return window: 30 minutes.]
There it was.
The Time Stone could charge the Time-Turner , sharpen its capabilities, let it bear the full weight of her level-five magic. The return window was shorter now, yes. But more than enough.
This is just charging. If I could fuse the Time Stone directly into it with alchemy , really inlay it in...
She stopped herself.
One thing at a time.
Hermione tucked the Time-Turner away and turned to go.
Her peripheral vision snagged on something.
A figure, moving like it didn't want to be seen.
Hannibal , wait. Kaecilius?
What was he doing sneaking around the library instead of training?
Hermione crouched low and drifted closer without a sound.
Kaecilius was bent over an old book, absorbed, completely unaware of anyone behind him.
The Book of Cagliostro?
She recognized it immediately.
The forbidden text. The one with the Dormammu summoning ritual written inside it.
So this was what he was up to , skulking around in the dark, studying forbidden arts.
A slow smile spread across Hermione's face.
She reached out. Her hand came down SMACK on Kaecilius's shoulder.
"Hannibal! What are you doing?!"
Kaecilius went rigid , like a cat that had just had its tail stepped on , and whipped around.
Then he saw her.
His shoulders dropped. The tension drained out of him.
It was Hermione.
That girl who was always wandering around Kamar-Taj. He had some memory of her , a mage of some kind, not one of the Ancient One's disciples, always turning up to cadge food and borrow books.
He exhaled slowly.
Thank every dimension it wasn't Wong or Mordo.
If either of those two had caught him with this book, it would have been a serious problem. The Book of Cagliostro documented methods of communing with the Dark Dimension. An absolute taboo.
Hermione read him like a page.
She was laughing on the inside.
This entire place , every corner, every shadow , is probably inside that old woman's line of sight.
Sneaking in here to study forbidden texts. Did he really think the Ancient One didn't know?
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