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Chapter 4
Harry tried to listen to the argument that was going on outside his room; he couldn't make out much other than a few key words including his and Hermione's names.
He huffed, slamming his good fist down on the tray table hard enough that a small split formed in the wood and his hand sting. "Damn it!" he yelled in irritation. It had been almost two days since he had first woken in this infernal room! Two days of almost constant worry about Hermione, and no real answers!
Other than his worry for Hermione, he had spent most of the first day in shock, (most likely like many others in the city), watching the almost constant reruns of the attack that had taken place in New York, an attack by an alien race…
He smirked, a tiny chuckle escaping him. 'Then again, why shouldn't aliens exist? Wasn't he a wand carrying wizard? Didn't he just meet a man that flew around in an armored suit painted red and gold? Hadn't he met a god?' he thought, as his head flopped back against the pillow behind him.
From what he had been told, Hermione's injuries had not been as serious as his… but she had been hurt again during the attack. When she had been found, just minutes after the battle had ended, she was unconscious. No new injuries had been found, but as of the last time anyone had been in she was still the same, unresponsive.
A light knock drew his attention to the door and a tall blond man smiled at him as he came in. "Hi Harry," said the man, as he stepped inside.
"Well?" Harry asked anxiously.
Steve shook his head. "Sorry… She's the same…" he said walking back to the chair he had been occupying before he went to talk to Tony when Harry had spotted the man in the hallway. He sighed as he sat. "He's got a couple of specialist on their way… he had to fly them in… everyone local is…" He waved toward the muted television showing the devastation in the city streets below. "He's doing everything he can Harry, the invasion is going to keep everything disrupted for quite a while…"
Tears ran down the boy's face. "I can't lose her too…" he said quietly.
Steve sat forward, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. "They're doing all that they can for her…" he began.
Harry shrugged Steve's hand off his shoulder. "You don't understand… s-she's all I have left… I've lost everything… My parents, my godfather, my school, my friends… She's the only thing that has kept me together…" Tears rolled down his face as he spoke.
Steve sat quietly, as the young man cried. Whatever these two had been through had been horrible. According to the doctor, both were suffering from borderline malnutrition, and showed signs of starvation. Harry more so than Hermione so she suspected that he had been giving her the lion's share of what they had, she had most likely never known.
Though, if the way Harry was eating now was any indication he would be back up to weight in no time. Steve had been stunned when he saw what the kid had put away at lunch only to say something in passing two hours later about being hungry.
"Harry," Steve said quietly when the young man had gathered himself and wiped his eyes. "We want to help… but we need to know what happened? Who were you running from?"
Harry shook his head. "I-I can't… I'm sorry… but I can't…"
Steve sighed, and turned toward the T.V. "Jarvis?"
"Yes, Captain Rodgers?" Harry looked up at the man sitting next to him in confusion, 'Captain Rodgers?' he thought, as the disembodied voice spoke.
"Can you put the film of Hermione I saw earlier up on the Television?" he asked.
"One moment please." The screen flickered and the silent news cast disappeared.
Harry watched, a small smile creeping across his face as he saw his best friend sitting on the bed speaking with the doctor. "This was not long after you arrived," said Steve as the doctor left the room.
Harry's eyes widened as he watched her arm disappear into her bag, his breath hitched as she rummaged around inside of it withdrawing items and setting them on the bed. He glanced over at the man sitting with his arms crossed, watching the screen closely. When he looked back, Hermione had made her way into his room. He watched as she locked and reinforced the door with magic, and limped to his bedside to treat his wounds with Essence of Dittany.
Steve watched the teen out of the corner of his eye as the film played, sweat had appeared on his face and his breaths came much quicker. What he was seeing was scaring him for some reason; he didn't look like the actual acts were the cause rather the fact that she had been caught while doing them.
As it ended, Steve turned to face Harry. "If that is what you are trying to hide, I think it is too late."
Harry didn't know what to do, Hermione had broken the secrecy statute and been caught on film! Merlin, what a mess they had gotten themselves into! Hermione must have been scared senseless to have done something like that! He unconsciously rubbed the spot he had seen her heal on his chest.
"Ho-how badly…" Harry's voice trailed off, it was as if his voice didn't want to ask the question.
Shrugging, Steve answered, "Bad. The Doctor didn't know if you would survive, and if you did she didn't know how long your recovery would be."
Harry's head sagged. "Maybe it would have been for the best…" he said weakly.
Steve was startled by what he had heard, this kid was a fighter, a survivor. He had seen it with his own eyes, how hard he had fought to not only live, but to make sure Hermione did as well. "Harry, you can't let yourself think like that, and I doubt Hermione would want that either!" Harry turned his face away. "Harry, the more we know the better we can help."
Steve sat quietly and let him think it through. Finally he spoke. "If I say something… even if I somehow survive… We would both spend the rest of our lives in prison… Probably for the rest of our lives…"
Steve's eyes widened, he thought they would be imprisoned for even talking about it? Who exactly were these people? "Harry these people, they know how to keep it a secret, if that is the way you want it."
Minutes seemed to pass at a snail's pace as he waited; finally Harry spoke. "Magic…" he said softly, "Magic… is how she did those things."
Magic? Steve's mind whirled at the thought, as Harry continued. "I-I don't know how things are here… but at home, our people are at war. A war hidden from muggles… non magical people. Our people have kept themselves hidden for centuries… but the effects of the war… that bridge that collapsed in London last year…that was… him…" he said with a growl.
Steve looked at him in shock. He had seen footage of the bridge on the news, with lots of talking about its one year anniversary, as he was moving into his new apartment. "But they said that was a freak storm!"
Harry shook his head. "No. That was the story our government came up with. It was Deatheaters, and giants. He ordered it…" His voice trailed off.
"Who, is he?" Steve asked.
"I can't tell you the name he uses now… he's using a spell that lets him monitor its use, then he sends his people after you, but his real name is Tom, Tom Riddle. He took over our government late last year…" Tears streamed down his face. "According to some seer I'm supposed to have some power that will let me vanquish him." He chuckled. "I still have no idea what that is supposed to be… My Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, said it was love… how is that even supposed to work?"
Steve stepped out of the room when Harry's dinner arrived, both to give him a break from the questioning, allowing him to eat in peace, as well as allowing Steve to check on Hermione again. He walked back to Tony's apartment and into the midst of an argument.
"It's just not possible!" said Tony, waving his arms in the air. "How in the hell could they have stayed hidden so long? I mean, you can hardly turn around in that country without stepping in front of a camera! It would be especially difficult with a population as dense as it is there!"
Pepper shook her head. "But you saw what his friend Hermione could do. Maybe they have people in the government, or ways to bypass everything to stay hidden?"
Natasha was watching the footage again on a separate screen. "She seems… genuinely surprised by your surveillance. Then terrified by it…" She turned away from the screen, toward the others. "She didn't have much of a reaction to Tony's name either; I saw some recognition but not enough considering how often his name is in the news… I think someone needs to go back to the forest we found them in, maybe there is something there. We didn't look around very well; we were more concerned with their wounds."
Tony sighed. "I could get there the fastest, but I don't think I'm the best choice. I'm not much of a detective."
Steve snorted. "How about that? Something Stark will admit he's not the best at… How will his ego cope?"
Stark scowled at the blond headed man, then looked at Pepper. "Why aren't you defending me from him? Aren't you supposed to run interference for me? Keep me happy?"
Pepper scowled right back. "Why would I defend you? And I only run interference for you from the board!" She stalked closer, finger wagging as she did. "As for keeping you happy!" She grabbed him by the front of his sweatshirt and pulled him forward into a kiss. "Better?" she asked, pushing him away.
"Much!" he said, with a goofy little grin.
Natasha shook her head at the display. "I'll go, I still have at least a few days before Fury will want me back in the field. I'll need transportation though, unless you want to explain this to him."
Tony shook his head. "No, I think we need more information before we involve S.H.I.E.L.D. Jarvis? What do we have that she can use?"
Almost immediately the AI's voice answered. "The Quinjet you are planning to refit the engines of is operational, the analysis showed no major damage, I can have it prepared for an evaluation flight by the time Ms. Romanov has arrived at the airfield."
"Well, that was easy," he said, as the red headed woman nodded and made her way toward the doorway. "Cap, give the kid back the stick, when I'm done setting up a few more instruments, give me about an hour. I want him to show you some of his 'magic' while I get some readings. Dr. Banner would you care to join me?
The quiet man answered as he stopped idly chewing on his glasses earpiece and stood, "I believe I will. This is quite fascinating."
After both of the scientists had exited, Pepper turned toward the only person remaining. "Steve, what do you think of all this?"
The man sighed as he sat at the table and watched the video loop again. "I don't know…
Nat doesn't think either one of them is lying, and we've seen what she can do…"
Pepper sat next to him, shoulders slumped. "Tony wants to run more tests on them, especially Harry. I think I've talked him into just doing it passively for the moment… Do you think what they are doing is really magic?"
"There were rumors during the war... about magic," he said his eyes showing a deep sadness. "Peggy… told me about a file she had seen at S.S.R. - that's Strategic Scientific Reserve." Pepper placed a hand on his as he continued. "She thought it was what led the Red Skull and Hydra to look for the Tesseract. It was one of the magical legends they researched, one of thousands from around the world. Evidently it was one of a small group that showed promise. So much so that Hydra took notice of it… If any others were true…"
Pepper felt sick inside. "Then we need all the information we can find."
Harry felt useless, stuck in a hospital bed, but in this case it was much worse because there was no way he was going to be getting around on his own in the foreseeable future. There was no Madam Pomfrey to take care of his broken legs, no Skele Gro or other potions to take, not even a wand to heal the breaks by way of a spell, and worst of all no Hermione to come up with a new plan.
He lay there listening to the quiet beeps of the machinery, thinking about how it had come to this. Maybe if he had just done what the Dursleys had wanted, told Hagrid to go away… gone to the school Aunt Petunia had chosen, St… something. Everything would have been better for everyone…
He was pulled from his thoughts when Steve opened the door and stepped inside. He shook his head, killing Harry's question before his voice ever formed it. Steve sat in the chair for a while, in an uneasy silence. After a time he reached into his jacket and withdrew the wand Hermione had been using. Harry's eyes widened.
"Harry, I want to see what you can do… personally, with my own eyes. Can you do something?" he asked handing the wand to him.
"You need to understand… this isn't my wand, it's not Hermione's either," he said softly as he took it from Steve's hand. "Mine was broken on Christmas eve by his familiar, a giant snake he calls Nagini. I don't know what happened to Hermione's, we were both using it before we ran into you, this one doesn't work well for either of us. It takes more… power, and concentration to use… at least for us. This is a wand we… found, and decided to use as an emergency backup."
Steve had no reason to doubt him so he gestured for him to continue.
Harry sighed. "I'll try something small." He looked around the room. "Levitating that cup." He pointed at Steve's coffee cup from that morning. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he said giving the wand a swish and a flick.
Slowly the cup began to rise, just an inch or two, but rise it did. After about thirty seconds Harry ended the spell, and the cup clattered back to the counter. When Steve pulled his eyes away from the stunning sight, he looked at Harry, who had a deep scowl on his face.
Harry inspected the wand carefully. "I expected it to be hard, but that was worse than I thought. I guess this wand just isn't compatible with my magic."
"So a wand must be made to fit your magic?" Steve asked.
Harry chuckled slightly. "Sort of… the man I bought my wand from when I started school, said, 'the wand chooses the wizard'. He had hundreds of wands, possibly thousands of them, in boxes lining his store. I spent a long time trying wand after wand that he chose from the stacks for me to try before finding mine. How he decided what to look for I don't have a clue, but he said that he could remember every wand he ever sold, and to who."
"If you kept practicing with that wand would it get any easier?" he asked.
Harry laid the wand aside. "No… I don't think so, I know you can cast wandlessly… but that takes years of practice. My Headmaster could do a few spells, but they were not nearly as powerful as they would have been if had used his wand."
Steve pondered that for a moment. "Harry what was your wand made of?"
Harry looked wistful for a moment. "Holly, its core was a phoenix feather. I still have the pieces…. Hermione made sure to gather all of it up. Keep it in my Mokeskin bag."
Steve looked stunned. "A phoenix… ? They're real?"
Harry nodded. "My Headmaster, he had one… I think it was his familiar. Its name was Fawkes, she was beautiful. Her feathers looked like spun gold, with a slight red coloring at the tip… it was different on her burning day though… I saw her on her burning day once… she had just come through her rebirth cycle, she was a little featherless chick sitting in a pile of smoldering ashes… her feather was used as the core of my wand… only the second one she had ever given…" He realized he had been rambling, and his voice trailed off.
"Is there a way to fix your wand?" Steve wondered.
"I don't know… I doubt it. I'll need to find a way to get another one…" he said, voice filled with dejection.
Steve didn't know if it would help Harry's situation, but Tony may be able to learn something from that wand. "Harry you said you had the pieces?"
Harry shrugged. "Yeah, they are in the small pouch, the one with the long leather strap. You won't be able to open it though, they can only be opened by the owner."
Steve nodded. "If you're ok with it, I'd like my friend Tony to look at it. Is that ok? He'll keep it a secret, I promise. He's a scientist, and wants to try to understand how your magic works."
Harry looked down at his hands, "I-I don't think that is a good idea… I-I…" He took a deep breath and blew it out. "It was the first thing I ever really owned… I'd like to keep the pieces…"
Steve smiled, "How about I get him to promise to be extra careful? You'll get it back exactly like it is. If it isn't he'll answerer to me. Deal?"
Harry sat there still for a long time before agreeing. All the while praying he was doing the right thing, and not putting them all at risk.
