MARVEL-THE MULTIVERSE TRADER

They stumbled out of the portal and immediately found themselves standing in a secluded clearing. The night air here was cooler, the scent of earth and pine thicker, the faint rustle of leaves coming from the nearby forested cliff.

The abrupt change in surroundings left them all momentarily disoriented.

Harry looked around in wide-eyed disbelief.

"Where the bloody hell are we?"

Before anyone could answer, Nova stepped ahead casually, his boots crunching on the grass. He tapped his foot twice on the packed earth, and with a smooth ripple, the ground shifted. Grass and soil folded inward like liquid silk, revealing a set of wide, stone-cut stairs spiraling down into the earth.

Both Harry and Hermione instinctively took a step back.

"What the…" Harry began.

Nova smirked, motioning them to follow.

"Don't just stand there gawking. Safehouse's down here. Come on."

Mrs. Granger clutched her husband a little tighter but followed cautiously, Hermione and Harry trailing just behind.

As they descended the stairs, the air grew cooler and thicker with ambient magic. At the bottom, they stopped short.

There, sitting in the middle of a stone floor, was a large, ordinary-looking trunk.

Harry blinked. "Wait… is that it?" he asked, pointing at the trunk, clear disbelief in his voice.

"You seriously live in a trunk?"

Nova opened his mouth to reply — but Hermione's gasp cut him off. Her eyes widened as she stepped forward, recognition dawning instantly.

"Wait — is that a dimensional trunk?!" she blurted, her voice a mix of awe and shock.

Harry turned to her, eyebrows raised. "A what now?"

Hermione practically vibrated with excitement, even through the fear and exhaustion.

"Dimensional trunks, Harry! They're the highest grade of magical trunk enchantment. They don't just expand space — they create an entirely separate pocket dimension inside. It's like… like Newt Scamander's trunk, remember? The one with the creatures. Those things cost a fortune, like… a million galleons each, minimum!"

Harry's jaw dropped. "A million—bloody hell."

Nova gave a smug grin, leaning casually against the trunk. "It's worth every Knut. Trust me."

---

Nova moved forward and with a casual flick of his hand, unlatched the trunk. The lid creaked open to reveal a shimmering portal of soft blue light swirling within. The air around it shimmered faintly, the faint pull of magic noticeable even to the untrained. All dramatic illusions.

"Alright," Nova gestured toward it smoothly. "Enter through here, one by one. Don't touch anything once you're in — just wait for me. Explanations after."

Harry hesitated a second longer, casting Nova a wary glance — the look of someone trying to decide whether to trust a snake or a lion

Nova smirked.

"Go on, kid. No one's going to hex you in the back."

Reluctantly, Harry nodded.

Harry, pale but steady, bent down and with a grunt helped haul the unconscious Mr Granger through the portal first. Nova reached in, lending a hand.

"Got him," he muttered, and with a final heave, Mr. Granger disappeared into the light.

Then Nova turned to Hermione.

"Your turn, sweetheart." His tone was casual, even playful.

But Hermione didn't move. Her eyes narrowed, sharp as cut glass, and flicked from Nova to her mother — and back again. She wasn't blind. She'd seen the way Nova's gaze lingered too long on her mum earlier, and now, the suspicion in her chest was all but confirmed.

Mrs. Granger, cheeks pink with embarrassment, knew exactly what her daughter had picked up on. After all, she hadn't missed Nova's lingering glances — or the fact that, despite the terror of the night, she'd felt a small, irrational flicker of pride. She was still in her nightdress, after all, baring more skin than decency normally allowed.

"Hermione, darling… just go. It's alright."

Hermione bristled, clearly wanting to argue, but maternal authority won out.

"Fine," she grumbled, pointing a finger at Nova's chest.

"No funny business, you hear me?"

Nova raised both hands innocently. "Cross my heart."

She gave him one last glare before stepping through the portal, though she didn't take her eyes off him until the moment the magic swallowed her whole.

Left alone with Mrs. Granger, the clearing suddenly felt quieter.

The woman bit her lip, gathering herself, then took a small, hesitant step forward.

"Listen…" she began, voice a little hoarse, "I know we… we don't have anything to offer you. Our money's worthless in your world. And I'm married. I love my family — my husband. I do. But…"

She took a breath, cheeks flushed with both shame and gratitude.

"After what you did for us tonight… this is the only thing I can give you. Of my own will."

Nova blinked, taken aback for half a heartbeat. He hadn't expected her to actually follow through on that flicker of boldness he'd seen earlier.

And though he wasn't one to force, wasn't one to pressure — when she leaned up and brushed her lips against his, Nova didn't pull away.

The kiss was soft, tentative, but real. She tasted of fear and adrenaline and something warm beneath it. After a long moment, Mrs. Granger's arms tentatively circled his neck. Nova's hand rested lightly on her hip, no more.

When she finally broke the kiss, breathing uneven, she looked down, unable to meet his eyes.

"That's… that's all I can give," she whispered, cheeks flushed. "I'm sorry. I just… I love my family."

Nova's smirk softened into something almost genuine.

"You don't owe me anything, love. But… thanks."

She gave a small, grateful nod, then turned, her nightdress brushing his arm as she hurried toward the portal. Nova didn't stop himself from watching the sway of her hips as she stepped through.

Alone again, he gave a low chuckle, running a hand through his hair.

"Merlin's balls… I'm a proper bastard sometimes," he muttered under his breath.

With a quick flick of his wand, the transfigured stairs crumbled smoothly back into solid earth. Sure, earth elemental magic could've done it faster — but the old lessons from his self-imposed exile inside his trunk rang in his head.

Every little bit of practice counts. No shortcuts. No wasted opportunities.

He touched the edge of the trunk portal one last time, then stepped inside, leaving the clearing empty and silent once more.

----

Nova brushed dust off his coat, only to pause at the sight ahead.

Harry and Hermione were both standing in the middle of the living space, wide-eyed and openly gawking.

The place wasn't a typical wizarding abode — not even close.

A cozy cottage-like interior blended with modern and foreign oddities. There was a television mounted on the wall, displaying what looked like a paused scene from some muggle nature documentary. Next to it sat a sleek device, its screen active, a series of green runic codes pulsing in rhythmic patterns over a black background.

Harry pointed at it, his expression a mixture of disbelief and awe.

"Is… is that a telly? And — what the bloody hell is that?"

Hermione was already halfway across the room, her sharp eyes locked on the open laptop screen. She was close enough to see the unfamiliar symbols dancing across it but couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"A computer, no it's a laptop. Aren't they very rare and expensive," she whispered, almost reverently, then shook her head voilently. " No! that's not the point, electronics don't work around magic… the interference scrambles them."

Nova chuckled softly behind them. "Not if you reinforce the circuits with modified insulation runes and anchor the internal processors to a stabilized space pocket. Old trick. Not perfect, but it runs fine for what I need."

Hermione's head snapped toward him, blinking in stunned silence before focusing back on the laptop as if it had become the most fascinating artifact in the room.

Then her gaze shifted to the books.

Dozens of them. Stacked neatly along shelves, Hogwarts school year books from year one to seven, many out of syllabus book such as 'Minds a Mystery', muggle scientific journals, and handwritten leather-bound notebooks.

Hermione's fingers itched. She moved before thinking, pulling one of the worn notebooks free. The pages were packed with intricate notes, line after line of dense text, diagrams, formula corrections, cross-referenced experiments.

Her heart skipped when she recognized the title on one page: Draught of Living Death — a sixth-year level potion, notoriously difficult. She'd read about it in Advanced Potion-Making, but she'd never brewed it.

Except… the method scribbled on this page wasn't the standard one.

She frowned, scanning Nova's handwritten annotations. The instructions shifted ingredients order, adjusted simmer times, and incorporated a controlled-phase stirring technique she hadn't seen referenced before.

By the time she reached the bottom of the page, realization struck her like a physical blow.

"If this works… the potion's potency would increase threefold. And its onset would drop to a third the time." Her voice was almost a whisper.

Nova smirked as he walked by, leaning casually against a nearby table.

"Tried it last year during my downtime," he drawled. "Refined it after a dozen failures. Works perfectly now."

Hermione gawked at him, her lips parting in disbelief. "Do you have any idea what you've done? This would make Sleeping Draughts, Sedatives, and all incapacitation potions decades more efficient! You could publish this!"

Nova chuckled. "Not interested in glory, sweetheart. Practical applications only."

Harry looked between the two of them, confused but intrigued.

"Wait — you seriously live in here?" he asked, glancing around again at the comfortable furnishings, enchanted lights, and a lingering scent of roasted coffee. It feels strange, it doesn't feel like a wizards house.

Nova shrugged. "Spent two years shut in this trunk, studying magic, mastering spell mechanics, testing practical applications. Modified half these charms myself. Everything in here's a result of that time."

Hermione's gaze softened a fraction, a mixture of respect and fascination flickering there, though she masked it quickly.

"Two years alone," she muttered. "No wonder you're so…"

"Handsome?" Nova teased with a grin.

Hermione gave him a dry glare and slammed the notebook shut.

"No. Arrogant."

Nova laughed.

Harry snickered, the tension of the night easing, if only for a moment.

"Alright," Nova said, straightening. "Now that you've had your little tour… sit down. We need to first heal your father and then talk about your would-be assassins."

x------x

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