A/N: Time jumps a bit back and forth in this, just pay attention after the breaks.
Unified Theory
Chapter 6: Agent Zero
Hermione waited in her rebuilt office the day after the attack, watching the clock on her desk as it clicked closer to 8 AM. Her eye twitched a bit as it turned 7:58. "Ron, I am going to kill him if he crosses me on this," she glared at her husband, who took the day off of Quiddich to be with his wife after dropping their kids off at the Burrow with Molly.
"Come on now Hermione, you know Harry, he'll be on time…" Ron nervously glanced at his watch as it ticked closer and closer to 8 AM before a knock came at the door. "Thank god," he whispered as he got up and opened it a crack taking a peek before opening the whole way. "Bloody hell, you weren't kidding about that," Ron gawked as Sirius walked in along with the man in the red suit.
"Ron Weasley I take it?" the man extended a golden metal hand. "The boss has told me a lot about you," he laughed as Ron nervously shook his hand.
"The papers?" Hermione asked impatiently, holding out her hand.
"As you requested, Minister Weasley," James bowed a bit before a panel in his armor slid open and a thick folder of papers slid out. "Magically enhanced armor, don't ask," he cut her off as she looked at the slot in the arm of his armor carefully.
"Everything there will make what happened yesterday a plot we were waiting for, granting you the use of our boy here for whatever dangerous missions England, the World Federation or Wizards, or the UN deems necessary, so long as it is within reason," Sirius explained as Hermione flipped and scanned through the papers.
She stopped suddenly, feeling another headache coming on. "You can't honestly expect the people to call you this alias, can you?" she looked at the man in the metal suit.
"Was Harry's idea, he said we needed something better than 'that other Iron Man'," he shrugged. "I'm a Muggle, but I read the book you wrote, I don't see the big deal," he continued.
"I will not be calling you James Gryffindor in public, that will have Merlin knows how many people up in arms, even more than they will be already," she frowned as she waved her wand erasing part of the paperwork. "You'll be called Agent Zero in the field, is that satisfactory James?" she eyed the suit carefully.
"Not a problem Minister Weasley, I live to serve," he mock saluted. "Harry told me I have a bit of a saving people thing, said it's about time we put it to good use," he added as Hermione looked down and continued with the paperwork.
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"How many?" James asked as he examined the wall in front of him.
"Near as the intelligence says there are twelve wizards in there and an equal number of Muggles, if not more," Lee Jordan replied to his newest partner. Lee has risen through the Aurors following the purges that happened when Hermione took over and was one of the top Aurors on the Ministry payroll. He was slightly confused when Hermione had given him the job of working with what she called Agent Zero. Then he saw his partner and immediately Flooed his old friend George Weasley to come over and take a look.
The two poked and prodded James until he got tired of it and picked the both of them up by their ankles and threatened them. After that, Lee had trained with James every day for a couple hours until Kingsley decided to send them on their first mission together. "I can take down the wall, but it is going to take me a moment to get the targeting systems good enough to take the guns out, never mind the wands," James felt his hand along the wall thinking.
"Don't target them then?" Lee smirked. "What's the damage that pulse could do to a person if it hit them?" he twirled his wand in his hand.
"Nothing Skele-Grow can't fix," James nodded in agreement. "On three then?" he asked as he spread his hands over the walls, targeting the bricks and mortar with his sensors.
"Go nuts Zero, I'll get the wards up, then we can clean up," Lee patted him on the back and started waving his wand in the air. "One," he counted as he completed a rune in the air.
"Two," James continued as he finalized his targets in the computer system.
"Three!" Lee shouted as he finished the final rune for the anti-apparation ward as James disintegrated the wall at the same time. Lee dove behind the large metal body as some of the quicker draws got off some shots of bullets and spells before James got his pulse blast to activate. "Could you please fire faster next time?" Lee joked as he beat the dust off his clothes and examined the downed criminals.
"Could you read the files regarding my firing speed, or at least listen when I explain it to you?" James replied as he kicked a man in the midsection as he reached for a wand.
"Probably not, that would take the fun out of the job," Lee smirked as he found a briefcase against the far wall. "Hello, what do we have here," he smiled as he popped it open, revealing a cache of illegal potion ingredients. "Unicorn blood, Veela hair…" Lee stopped as he looked over the vials. "Where the bloody hell did they get Chimera blood?" he frowned as he examined a vial. "Merlin," he murmured as he looked over the rest of the vials. "Get Shack and the containment team here now, this is…this is not good," he ordered James who radioed in the signal.
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"Today, several members of our joint Auror/Muggle team apprehended twenty six Muggles and Wizards in the midst of an exchange of outlawed materials in downtown London. The men were taken to Azkaban for holding until the time of their trial," Lee read the report in his face as he sat in Shacklebolt's office. "You're kidding right? This isn't even close to what we found, if what they had all that labeled as is right, then this is huge Shack!" he yelled at the older Auror.
"The labels were correct, I ran some scans before the containment team got there," James replied from his place by the fireplace. "Those last warded vials were Uranium if my scans were correct, and they always are," he mused as he looked at the fireplace. "This is bigger than potions ingredients and guns," he looked up at Shacklebolt.
"Be that as it may, both Ministries have signed off on this story, so you will go along with it in public, you have any problems, take it up with the Ministers," Kingsley ordered. "We have the best men around interrogating them, we'll find the truth about what they are up to," he rubbed his head behind his desk. "You two did good today, you work well together," he looked at Lee. "I'm recommending that Minister Weasley sign off to permanently stick the two of you together on missions that are deemed in the range of needing to use him," he pointed at James. "James Gryffindor, Agent Zero, whatever your real name is, I don't care," he paused and pulled out some glasses and poured three drinks. "You both did good, keep it up," he raised his glass as the three of them drank together, the mouth slit of James' suit opening more than usual to allow the liquid to enter.
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"You kept something like that from me," Gabrielle frowned at Harry as she met with him the day after the attack on the train. "I helped you build this company and you kept that from me," she glared at him.
"Gabrielle, I really don't want to hear you lecture me about it, Merlin knows I get enough lecturing about everything I do from Hermione and Molly as it is now," Harry brushed her off as he tapped away at his computer on his desk as he ate breakfast. "To be fair, there was a reason to keep it all a secret," he added as he bit into his toast.
"And what possible reason could you have Harry, haven't I proven trustworthy?" she stared a hole into his head.
"You misunderstand me Gabrielle, I was doing it to keep you and the company safe," he explained as he watched her eyes grow wide. "I never planned on revealing the project at all, it just happened and we had to roll with it," Harry shrugged. "We can't close Pandora's Box now, we just need to do what we can to make sure we land on our feet," he scratched at his head.
"The Minister said she'd cover for you?" Gabrielle asked, relaxing a bit, sipping her morning tea.
"Oh yeah, Hermione acts all tough, but she knows her boundaries," Harry smiled. "She acts furious in front of anyone and everyone that watches, but she'd give up her position in a minute to spend a day in our labs here," he laughed. "She can't come out and say she's okay with what I am doing, but she hasn't gone and had me arrested yet, has she?" he eyed Gabrielle carefully.
"Tell me what it can do," she relaxed as Harry smiled and began explaining his creation.
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"I wonder if I talked to a lawyer, if I'd have a case for some kind of copyright infringement here," Tony Stark mused as he stood on the bridge of the SHIELD helicarrier with the faceplate of his armor retracted.
"Very funny," James replied shaking his head. "To be fair, these are school colors," he chuckled. "What's the mission?" he asked as Tony pointed at the large display monitor in front of him.
"Nothing too crazy, SHIELD and the UN want a better gauge of your abilities before they start putting you on some peace keeping missions," Tony explained as he touched the screen and it changed. "Just some local warlords with some weapons caches," he pointed to several highlighted areas on the map. "The UN wants them taken out before they can be used against peacekeepers," he zoomed in on the targets. "Nothing too crazy, some surface to air missiles, machine guns, a minefield next sector over, should be easy," he watched as James studied the screen.
"Any magic users?" James asked.
"Not that we could discern, had the Auror representative take a look and didn't see any wards, so I think it's just run of the mill bombs and guns," Tony smirked as the other man nodded in agreement. "We'll hit the main camp together, one on each side, then split up, you get the western cache, I'll go take out the northern, sound good?" he asked as the faceplate slid over his eyes.
"Not a problem, radio channels synched up?" James asked as he and Tony ran last minute diagnostics.
"Roger, after this mission, I want to see your face though, see who you are," Tony motioned at the techs that opened a large panel in the ceiling. "Not fair that everyone on the planet knows what I do in my free time, I'd like to know who I am working with."
"On one condition, same condition I have with Marauder International, no one finds out who I am," he said before he shot up out of the room into the sky.
A/N: I know people are hating on Hermione, but look at it from where I am writing from. She's the Minister of Magic (and the magic/Muggle worlds are more or less integrated at this point, if some of you did not realize that), she can't go around endorsing him, regardless of how much she likes him and agrees with what he is doing, but she doesn't have to stop him either. In regards to Gabrielle, she was the first person hired by the company if you missed that earlier, she's been with Harry a while and has a right to be mad, not to mention whatever underlying sexual tension there is.
In regards to Malfoy escaping…there is a reason, besides the obvious one that I need the villain free to be out there running amok. And in regards to Harry just taking all the abuse from the ladies, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.
Now that we have all the anger towards Hermione out of the way, time for your little preview of the next chapters: Harry's fun with chaperoning, the man behind the mask (James Gryffindor) revealed, a more technical explanation of the suit itself, and chaos in Marauder International.
