Don't own anything Marvel, Harry Potter, or any other references you recognize.
Chapter 7
Revving the engine of an enchanted motorcycle wasn't strictly necessary. Really the only reason Harry even needed to turn it on was due to the fact that it was enchanted that way, because what did the wheel spinning around and around actually accomplish? Landing at speed is certainly easier if you're accelerating, any decent dirt-bike rider will tell you that, but the flying portion could be as loud or as quiet as Harry desired.
But none of that went through Harry's head as he took off down the road littered with Chitauri shooting their alien weaponry at him. Every once in a while Harry had a chance to show-off, to live by the rule-of-cool that Teddy loved to preach. And if Harry didn't make his motorcycle roar as he shot into the air, Teddy would whinge for the next year after seeing the memory in Harry's pensive.
A Sectumsempra decapitated a bunched up group of Chitauri and Harry thought it'd probably be best to wait until Teddy turned seventeen for this one.
The chariots were certainly doing a lot of damage but Stark and Barton seemed capable of taking them on with minimal fuss, so Harry mostly ignored them. He would throw out exploding hexes at any that got in his way, but other than that he was hunting something bigger.
Harry saw his first target flying through buildings half a mile ahead of him so he pulled back the throttle as far as it would go, the engine roaring in response, and he quickly caught up to it. The leviathans were obviously troop-transports of some kind, each one of them disgorging a continuous stream of foot-soldiers any time they were near enough to something to land on. Thor, the only other one that Harry thought could take them down, seemed busy. So it was up to him.
Staying above the leviathan kept the worst of the return fire away but the Chitauri were clearly intent on defending the beast. Each one of the flying transports that he defeated would be a greater blow than a hundred dead aliens.
As he finally pulled ahead of the leviathan he arced down in front of it, barely maintaining ten yards of separation from its massive jaws. He began pestering it with random hexes, mostly to keep its focus on him, and led it up and away from the buildings nearby. Just as he was about to press the red button Iron Man flew up next to him from somewhere below the beast.
"Barton says you got something on your six." Stark said a little more urgently than normal.
Harry feigned a startled jerk and looked behind him. "Whoa! Don't they know it's rude to tailgate?" he asked in faux incredulousness. "Might wanna move!" he yelled to Stark.
He saw Iron Man just shake his head and rocket away in search of new targets. When Harry felt Stark was far enough to be safe he finally slammed a hand down onto the button at the center of his handlebars.
Immediately a giant torrent of dragon fire released itself from the exhaust pipe of the motorcycle. Harry's speed doubled as the leviathan swallowed the magical fire, its maw having been open in an attempt to consume him. Its roar of protest became a deep, choking, gurgling sound before the fire did its damage and broke the surface of the great beast. The air pressure difference caused the remaining fire to explode outward, catching dozens of nearby chariots in its wake, before it finally sputtered and died as the beast's remains began raining down.
Harry felt the thrill of accomplishment briefly as he looked back at his handiwork, until he faced his vehicle towards Stark Tower again and saw multiple other leviathans crashing through the streets below. He felt like a rookie Auror going through field-healer training all over again. Treat the symptoms if they're life threatening and treatable, otherwise work on the underlying issue. Taking down one troop-transport didn't accomplish much if in the same time three more came out of the portal.
Harry landed on a tall building and thought hard, all the while shielding and counter-attacking chariots that came near him. He had a decision to make. Either work on shutting down the portal, or hope someone else did and help Thor bottleneck the aliens coming through. It didn't take him long to realize that he was likely the only one that could actually help Thor, so he got off the motorcycle and pointed his wand to the sky.
Slowly he began to sweep it in a circle, each rotation enlarging the circle until eventually he was tracing the horizon. Rubble drifted towards the building slowly at first, gaining in speed with each concentric arc completed. By the end the rubble was spinning around and around the building, as if it was a giant tornado, and when Harry could barely see through the rubble-maelstrom he snapped his wand straight back towards the portal.
The rubble shot forward, still twisting in on itself, and tore through everything in its path. Each chariot destroyed added to the deadly wave and by the time it disappeared through the portal it had almost doubled in size.
With that slight reprieve Harry set off to find his allies, hoping one of them had a better plan.
(S/B)
Harry saw Thor and Captain America desperately fighting a large group of Chitauri not far from the building he'd been on. They looked to be on the verge of being overwhelmed when Harry swooped through and banished the aliens that were attempting to flank the duo.
He landed his motorcycle and summoned the Captain's shield from where it was lying, directing it to the man. Somehow Steve caught it as if he'd been expecting it and used it to finish off the small group of aliens he'd been fighting.
"Thanks." Steve said with a nod, already looking for new enemies.
"Anyone know how to close the portal?" Harry asked.
"Natasha is working on it. Wait.." Steve said as he held a hand to his ear. "Stark says he intercepted a nuke, he's going to try to put it through the portal."
"Brilliant, a bloody nuke? Who the hell thought that was a good idea?" Harry asked incredulously.
"I doubt Stark will be able to make it through that." Thor said, pointing his hammer at the portal.
Harry could only nod as he looked at the already gathering swarm of Chitauri outside the portal. Evidently the reprieve he'd bought them wouldn't last as long as he'd hoped.
"I guess I'll just have to clear him a path.." Harry muttered.
"It might be a one way trip." Steve warned.
"I've had worse odds." Harry replied as he kicked his motorcycle into gear. He wasn't all that confident that he actually had.
As Harry neared the portal he had to fight his way up increasingly slowly. Eventually he was forgoing his usual repertoire of spells in favor of mass banishment charms, continuously throwing the chariot riding aliens into one another with ease. Soon though he could only hold a shielding charm around himself, and that too was beginning to strain under the constant stream of energy fire. He would have to come up with a different plan if Stark was to even have a chance.
A path cleared in the Chitauri swarm ahead of him as another leviathan came down through the portal, and Harry's brain naturally gave him possibly the best/worst idea that had a chance of total success/failure.
He pulled his motorcycle in a back-flip, corkscrew turn to stay ahead of the leviathan that was coming straight at him and let it slowly catch up to him. As the wheels of the bike touched down on the head of the beast he cast a sticking charm on the bottom of his shoes and leapt off his ride, simultaneously summoning the bike and shrinking it so that he could stuff it in an inner coat pocket.
With that he stowed his wand away and brought his hands together, forming a circle with his pointer fingers and thumbs. A moment of concentration later copies of his arms began sprout from his back until he thrust his arms out, and nine clones stood behind him in a triangle formation. As one they all reared their right arm back and then threw them forward, as if tossing a lasso. Thick red bands of glowing energy descended below the leviathan's upper mouth, looped through, and came back up to be held by the ten Harry Potters that stood on its head.
Together the clones pulled their makeshift reins and the monster roared its disapproval. But still it could not help but attempt to alleviate the new pain, and it changed its course until they were flying straight towards the portal.
The original Harry at the front of the triangle released his reins, relying on the others to maintain their direction, and he once again brought his hands together in concentration. He turned his body as if to show a smaller profile to the portal and focused his eyes where his hands met.
After a few moments of flight, spent concentrating and getting closer to the portal, Harry looked up. The hole in the sky now dominated his field of vision, and he could just make out what looked to be a command ship in the distance surrounded by dozens of other ships and a never ending swarm of the alien army.
Finally he thrust his hands up while dropping to one knee and intoned in a deep, otherworldly voice "By the Seven Suns of Cinnibus!". What looked like seven multicolored stars were visible for just a moment, orbiting each other above his cupped hands, before each one shot a widening beam of kaleidoscopic energy towards the source of the aliens. The seven beams spiraled into one and raced forward faster than a blink, instantly erasing all it touched. The air between Harry and the portal turned to plasma and incinerated the Chitauri too close to flee, chariots and leviathans alike.
He had just enough time to see the command ship, with a brand new atmosphere-exhaust-port straight through the center of it, before he had to jump off the head of the leviathan as it crossed through the portal. He fell back-first towards the earth and couldn't help but admire the constellations of some distant part of the universe before he flipped to his stomach. He could only hope that he had cleared enough of a path for Stark.
Normally he would hesitate to use such a destructive spell, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and already he could tell it had been used to great effect. The air before him was mostly clear, the remainder of the alien army still fighting amongst the buildings. The air was mostly clear because heading straight for Harry was Iron Man with a large missile held on his back.
Harry again flipped to his back and watched as Tony Stark flew through the portal, aiming the rocket straight at the center of the group of alien ships. Harry thought Stark should be turning back to the portal but he seemed to be floating there, dead in space, as the missile reached the ships and exploded. The ships nearest the detonation vaporized instantly in a flash Harry was sure he'd have to look away from without his charmed glasses. The ones further away were already being torn apart by the left over scrap.
Harry thought quickly when Stark remained stationary in space and removed his wand. A powerful Ascendio halted his downward momentum and reversed it, causing him to shoot once again towards the portal. The G forces nearly caused him to pass out but he maintained his focus and yelled "ACCIO TONY STARK!"
The armored man barely made it through the portal as it closed, but make it he did. As Harry's upward momentum crested he caught Iron Man and cast a sticking charm on the man's back, sticking the armor to his own chest. Together the duo began to fall again like tandem sky-divers. There was no way for Harry to maneuver his broom or motorcycle underneath them so he summoned his sling ring and slipped it on.
Harry opened a portal a few yards ahead of them, the exit opening just above the Stark Tower landing platform, and together they shot out. Gravity reasserted itself quickly after that and Harry landed on the platform with Stark still stuck to his chest. He let out a heavy grunt as the armor's weight landed on him, almost certainly breaking a few ribs. If they had reached terminal velocity he was sure he'd be dead.
Harry unstuck the man and shoved him off with a wheeze of pain. Thor, Captain America, and the Hulk landed near them and ran over to check on the two prone men but Harry blearily waved them off towards Stark as he removed his balaclava, indicating that he himself was still alive. He would have liked nothing more than to leave his eyes closed, curl into a fetal ball, and have a nap.
The Hulk apparently had other ideas as he roared in Tony's face, causing both of their eyes to shoot open.
Stark took in a few gasping breaths before he said, "What the hell? What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me?"
"We won." Steve said with a sigh of relief.
Tony began sarcastically celebrating but Harry was busy. He'd ripped open his shirt and vest, still lying flat on the ground, and began repairing what damage to his ribs that he could. Sadly his entire chest was already bruising heavily, and he had a few scorch marks that he hadn't felt receiving. 'Maybe Poppy has a point.' he thought to himself as the soreness began to set in.
As Harry stood slowly and ran his wand up his shirt, repairing the buttons, he heard something about shawarma. "Hey, yea, I know a great place in Cairo." At some point Natasha and Barton had shown up, and now all of them were staring at him. "What, we're getting shawarma, right?" he asked, looking back at them confusedly.
"Yea.. I was thinking a little closer to home." Tony said.
"Oh, sure, that works too." he replied with a shrug.
"Let us deal with Loki first." Thor said with a grin.
(S/B)
"If its all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." Loki said as he looked up at the assembled group.
Harry snorted and waved his wand at the apparent god, casting a silent Aguamenti. The stream of water drenched Loki, who began to sputter incessantly.
"Magician." Loki hissed. "I would show you true magic, not your petty parlor tricks."
"You had your chance. You lost." Harry said with what he would never admit was a sneer. He thrust a hand at Loki and bound the defeated god in the same red bands he had used earlier. One wrapping around his wrists, another around his ankles, and a final one connecting the two.
"Release me and I will show you why they call me the God of Magic!" Loki retorted, quickly regaining the anger that had been beat out of him by the Hulk.
"Oh, please keep talking, God of Lies, it's such a rare treat that I get to practice the defenestration charm."
"The what charm?" Barton asked, watching the byplay with some amusement.
"I think 'Harry' here is threatening to throw him out a window." Natasha replied with her own small smirk.
"I think that's enough." Steve said with finality, over Harry's muttered "Got it in one."
"I wasn't actually going to do it." Harry said defensively. "But how many people can say they made a god flinch?"
"If anyone could!" Thor exclaimed with a hearty laugh as he patted Harry on the back. Harry had flashbacks to Hagrid's own exuberance as the Hulk let out a guttural noise that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle.
"Ooh, watch the ribs big guy." Harry said with a hacking cough.
"So, a magician?" Tony asked, now very interested in Harry.
Harry waved his wand at Loki again, satisfied by the small flinch it resulted in, and cast a silencing charm over the bound god. "Something like that." he finally replied.
"Your names Harry?" Tony continued, and received a nod. "Tell me your last name isn't Houdini."
"What? No -"
"Dresden?"
"No, it's Potter."
"A good name for a good profession." Thor said with a nod.
"Er, right. So when does he shrink back?" Harry asked, indicating the Hulk in attempt to get the focus off himself.
"As soon as he calms down." Natasha said in answer, though her eyes remained on Harry.
Harry just hummed and cast a strong calming charm on the green giant, while watching with interest. It wasn't as potent or as long lasting as the potion, but it should work. The Hulk grunted in confusion before slowly shrinking back to the form of the tired man from before. Harry hit the man's pants with a repairing charm when it looked like they were about to fall off.
"Never got your name." Harry said as he reached a hand out to help the man up.
"Bruce Banner. What did you just do? The other guy never goes that easily." the now named man said as he accepted the help.
"Calming charm, does what it says, as most do."
"So you're some kind of wizard?" Steve asked, looking disgruntled. "I owe Fury another ten bucks."
"Oh, the director doesn't really know about me yet." Harry replied. "I'll have to talk to him but hopefully that's after, well, after I finish up with some things."
"You're trying to stay hidden?" Natasha asked, and Harry only now noticed the staff held in her hand.
"For now, yes. I think I should probably take that." Harry said, indicating the staff.
"S.H.I.E.L.D will protect the scepter just fine." she said coolly.
"Terribly sorry, I didn't mean to imply you had a choice."
Natasha blinked at her now empty hand and looked like she was about to protest when Barton laid a hand on her shoulder "Maybe he's right, Nat." Natasha just looked at him askance so he continued. "Its like you said. Monsters and magic, we aren't trained for this. He clearly is." She finally gave a grudging nod and crossed her arms.
"Right, and the Tesseract?" Harry asked, glad that they wouldn't fight him on it. He wouldn't be making that mistake again. When the others looked back to him the scepter was nowhere in sight, safely tucked away in a pocket dimension. Or just a pocket.
"I will need it to return Loki and I to Asgard. It can be kept safe there in Odin's treasure room." Thor replied.
"What about the Bifrost Bridge?"
"Destroyed." Thor answered, shooting a glare at Loki. "You know much for a Midgardian."
"Comes with the territory." Harry replied with a weak smile.
"Great, shawarma?" Tony asked hopefully.
(S/B)
Dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D was annoying for the group, but Harry was allowed to fade into the background with a minor muggle-repelling charm on himself. After Steve had announced that they would keep his identity secret as long as he needed, backed up by Thor, the group accepted with no protest.
Harry could only think that he needed to find a way to make friends that didn't involve life or death situations.
The S.H.I.E.L.D 'S.T.R.I.K.E' team that showed up to secure Loki, until he could be returned to Asgard, seemed annoyed that they wouldn't be recovering the Tesseract or the scepter. It only took a few clipped words from Natasha and the glares of the gathered Avengers to get them to accept, though, and soon the group was walking the streets towards to the shawarma place Tony wanted to try.
Amazingly the elderly couple that owned the restaurant were there, already cleaning up the damage, and accepted the group with open arms. Apparently being seen as heroes meant they wouldn't be paying for their meal, but both Harry and Tony silently vowed to leave a hearty tip.
They mostly ate in tired silence until they were nearly done, when Thor decided to speak up.
"Songs will be sung all throughout Asgard of our battle today, my friends." he said with a content smile.
"Yea, there's no covering this one up." Clint muttered.
"Too bad we don't have a Thunderbird." Harry said offhandedly. When the others looked at him again he just shook his head. "Tell you later."
"And I thought Fury's secrets had secrets." Tony said, still looking at him.
"Where'd you come from, anyway?" Natasha asked.
"Well, in the beginning the universe was created.."
Harry was gratified when Tony at least chuckled and continued "This has made a lot of people very angry."
Natasha, however, just raised an eyebrow at Harry so he weakly said "Britain?"
Only Thor seemed uninterested in pressing him, but it was Bruce who attempted to change the subject. 'Attempted' being the operative word. "A month ago I would have said you were insane if you told me magic was real."
"And then a god whammied my mind with it." Clint said, looking at Harry with only slight distrust.
"Been there, mate." Harry said in solidarity. "Unpleasant business."
"So there's more of you?" Natasha asked.
Harry just sighed. "I don't want to lie to you guys. I get that you work for an intelligence agency, but I'm already probably in a lot of trouble for today. If you could just keep me off the books until I take care of some things I promise to tell you everything I can."
Natasha had the tact to at least appear sheepish as she muttered "Sorry.. Old habits."
"Whatever it is, you're still one of us." Steve said with authority. "We couldn't have won today without all of us working together."
Tony air-quoted "The Avengers."
"You think there will be more of, well, this?" Bruce asked, tiredly waving at the destroyed street outside.
"Things are changing." Harry replied with a grim look to Thor. "Activating the Tesseract, defeating an alien army. There are other worlds out there just waiting for a chance to take us on now."
"Harry is correct." Thor affirmed. "I know not who gave Loki the scepter or his army, but it cannot be good."
"What then?" Clint asked. "We fight off more alien invasions?"
"Whatever comes, we'll be ready." Steve replied.
Tony was looking annoyed with the conversation when he said "Enough depressing talk. We won, lets get some dessert."
"I could go for some treacle-tart." Harry agreed, perking up.
"Some what-tart?" Bruce questioned.
"Treacle.. you've never had treacle-tart?" Harry asked incredulously, only receiving confused shakes of the head in return. "Bloody yanks, the lot of you. I'll be right back." he said before apparating to his flat. From there he opened a portal to Grimmauld Place, stepped through, and called out "Kreacher!"
"Half-blood master calls for Kreacher?" the elf said from behind him.
"Kreacher, could you go to Hogwarts and get as much treacle-tart as you can carry, please?" Harry asked the house-elf.
"Kreacher will do what the good-half-blood-master asks." he replied before popping away.
Less than a minute later the elf returned with a veritable mountain of Harry's favorite pudding. "Whoa, that's a lot. Perfect, thank you Kreacher." he said as he took over the levitation of the dessert.
"Winky be keeping some ready for you." Kreacher said as Harry opened a portal back to the restaurant, there was no way he was apparating with the stack of dessert. Luckily a house-elf that didn't want to be seen never would be.
The others stared wide-eyed as Harry came through. "Dig in, plenty to go around." he said with a smile as he set the pudding on the table.
"Man, I really need to spend more time in jolly old England." Tony said as he took his third helping.
(S/B)
The combined brains of Doctor Selvig, Doctor Banner, and Tony Stark were able to construct a device that could harness the Tesseract, allowing Thor and Loki a way home.
The group was gathered once again a week later, in Central Park, to see the two off. Before they could leave, though, Harry asked for a word with Thor.
"Do you know what the Tesseract is?" he asked seriously when they were alone.
"It was once the crown jewel of Odin's treasure room, before we lost it on Midgard many years ago."
"No, I mean what it really is. What's contained within the cube."
"I'm afraid I don't." Thor said with a frown.
"Have you heard of the Infinity Stones?" Harry asked, and could immediately tell that the god had. "The cube contains one. There's another on Earth, and I'm not sure yet, I need to run some more tests, but I think the scepter has another one in it."
"That is worrisome." Thor said, maintaining his frown. "That three of six could be found in one galaxy, let alone on the same planet, cannot be a coincidence."
"That's what I thought, too." Harry agreed. "Whatever, whoever, gave Loki his army had to know that."
"You think someone is attempting to gather them?" Thor asked skeptically. "There are very few beings that can wield even one."
"I don't know. But we need to be prepared. You have access to a lot more knowledge than I do, can you look into it?"
"I will do what I can." Thor allowed. "But the other realms have been plunged into chaos with the destruction of the Bifrost Bridge. I will be busy containing ravagers all across the nine realms once it is restored."
"Thanks, and.." Harry started, thinking back to his conversation with the Ancient One. "And.. make sure you spend time with your parents." At Thor's surprised look he continued, "It's just something the.. one of my mentors said to me. She said the old protectors are ready to move on. I think she might have been speaking of Odin, too."
"He does grow old." Thor said with a chuckle. "Good advice, regardless. Perhaps he will allow you to visit us in Asgard. That Midgard has such powerful and wise sorcerers now will no doubt be of interest to my mother."
"That'd be great." Harry said with a smile.
(S/B)
"If you ever feel like being a lab rat, stop by the tower." Tony said to Harry after Thor and Loki left. "Shouldn't take longer than a few weeks to get her back in shape."
"I'm sure I'll be around, soon" Harry said with a nod.
"Fury's been bugging us every day to talk to you." Natasha said, though it was with much less chill than she had immediately after repelling an alien invasion.
"Haven't even given him a name, though." Clint added.
"I really appreciate it. I'm working on it, and I think I'm almost there."
"Bureaucrats work slowly everywhere, I guess, magic or not eh?" Tony prodded.
Harry chuckled and said "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."
"What you did to the other guy, is that reproducible?" Bruce asked with interest.
Harry nodded and replied "Should be, though what I did was only a stopgap, really. We'll have to test some other things."
"Thanks, I look forward to it." Bruce said as he shook Harry's hand.
The others trickled away until it was only Harry and Steve, both mounting their respective motorcycles.
"So, Captain America, any chance I can get you to convert to British engineering?" Harry asked cheekily as he started his bike.
"Doubt it, what's that thing's top speed? Fifty?" Steve asked with a smirk.
"Oh, it's a race you want. You remember what I am, right? Wait, what's that?" he asked, pointing to something behind Steve.
When Steve looked back to where Harry was after not seeing anything behind him, the other man was gone. "Can't believe I fell for that.." he muttered as he drove off.
A/N Another tough chapter, but we've made it to the end of The Avengers. I went through this chapter more times than all the others combined, and by the time I was done the combat portion was almost doubled in length and looked nothing like it had at first. It started with Harry pretty much fighting solo until I realized he needed to be assisting the other Avengers, becoming part of the team. At the same time it's their first time fighting together, so I didn't go full Dr. Strange in Infinity War knowing exactly when and where to open portals for his allies.
Also our first major canon divergence. How will it impact their futures? I don't exactly know myself yet, but I'm excited to find out.
Big thanks to my reviewers, you lot are great. Critique is always welcome, and I do try to take other ideas into consideration. Dzerx thinks Harry should learn to fly himself, a la Voldemort/Snape. This chapter left that idea open, maybe. What does everyone else think?
To everyone who read, favorited, and followed thank you as well. Hope you enjoyed.
