Important Note: Huge spoiler alert for the prequel below – to get everyone more or less on the same page. Had to say it, because I just wanted to avoid questions about why, how, or when something happened. :)
General Nicholas "Nick" Fury was giving Harry a chance to leave – in fact even helping Harry by having him meet the only person Fury knew who could access other universes. The Director of SHIELD wasn't doing this because he was being nice – he didn't do nice – it was because having Harry go back was the simplest solution to what could be a catastrophe.
A folder with SHIELD's emblem was laid in front of his desk. Fury flipped the cover open to skim over photos of an empty coffin, a body bag inside, and the hole in the earth. There were more photos of where John Doe 4134 was found as well as some from the morgue. Fury had purposely left out any photos of Harry Potter – of John Doe the corpse, there were several, but of Harry the living person, none. It was important to leave no trace – no connection between Potter and John Doe.
Fury had ordered Coulson to incinerate all evidence that would link the two.
Fury was giving Harry a chance just like he had taken a chance by accepting Asgard's treaty and recompense for Loki's involvement. By the end, it had turned out well overall – an alliance between the two races was solidified, Stark's competitor weapons company A.I.M. and the Cosmic Cube was now under SHIELD watch, and of all the miracles, Fury was still astounded by the fact that Loki had decided to work with Stark, Banner, and Foster to recreate the Bifrost on Earth.
Fury grabbed another folder on his desk - this one of the freshly built Laser-Interferometer Observatory and Propulsion Technologies. It was mostly Stark property but SHIELD had unofficial connections to it. The facility secretly doubled as the Earth's Bifrost – a sister bridge to the one just rebuilt on Asgard. There had been no contest as to who should be the first Director to the research facility. Jane Foster, who had been one of the first people to meet Thor, now led all personnel inside.
Fury briefly looked through the output charts for the power source behind the bridge: the Cosmic Cube. Good, the gamma radiation from it was minimal. After ransacking the A.I.M. base in Bronx, New York, SHIELD had transported the Cosmic Cube to New Mexico. It was an impressive imitation of the Tesseract, surprisingly by human hands.
He looked through several snap shots of the chamber housing the Cube. On them, his eyes picked up a couple of Stark's robots maintaining the inside of the room. If he remembered correctly, one of them was ridiculously named Butterfingers and the other, Fury had no idea. Stark just kept calling it you.
Reminded of Stark, Fury couldn't help but to glance at the cameras inside his office. They were hidden, of course, but he remembered a specific point in time when all the cameras on board had been compromised – by Stark. The cameras had been gifted to SHIELD by Tony, which immediately raised red flags, but when all the cameras checked out and came back with no bugs … Fury had grudgingly accepted them.
That had been a mistake. Fury had to grit his teeth and write an entire report about why all the cameras on board the Helicarrier saw through clothes. Tony had claimed it as an extra security feature.
Fury pulled out another folder - this one at the bottom of the stack. It was the psychological profile of one Loki Odinson, carefully compiled by both Agents Romanova and Coulson after watching him over the course of several weeks.
The only reason Fury had even considered allowing Loki back onto Earth was because the trickster had really lived up to his title: God of Mischief and Lies. While the Chitauri and the billions in property damage were real, the human deaths weren't. Behind the scenes, Loki had arranged for a mass illusion, only possible through the generous power boost he received after stealing the Tesseract. What impressed Fury was how the illusion was maintained. Loki had boasted of an army but it wasn't the Chitauri. In the end, it didn't really matter. Coulson had nailed it when he stated that the second Prince of Asgard lacked conviction.
The absence of a death toll didn't fool Fury into thinking that Loki had a reasonable level of respect for human life. The Director figured it had something to do with power. Loki had tried to set himself up as the new ruler and what better way to impress and place fear than to show how you could easily take a life and then miraculously return it?
No, Loki had no problems inflicting pain and in some cases enjoyed causing death.
Loki's return back on earth was only after the trickster realized having the Tesseract returned to Odin also endangered Asgard. Loki didn't care about Earth being a battleground, but he did if it concerned Asgard. With the Bifrost destroyed, Asgard was practically cut-off, alone and weakened against the next Chitauri assault. The tricky bastard had pushed for the alliance trying to hide that fact, until Natasha and Coulson had picked up on it. There were very few things that made Fury laugh, that had been one of those moments. He didn't laugh then because the Asgardian Queen, Frigga, had also been present, but it didn't prevent him from replaying that footage and laughing in private.
That had all been months ago. Now the bastard was busy infiltrating the criminal underworld - the part where even his more talented agents had failed. Fury couldn't think of a more suitable person to do that than a half-reformed villain … if Fury could completely trust him. He was only mildly comforted that Loki wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the treaty. Fury's regular correspondence with Queen Frigga helped relieve some of the doubt too.
Fury rubbed his eyes from reading files and reports all day.
He wished Harry the best of luck – because neither Romanova nor Coulson could confidently predict how Loki was going to react.
Fury was giving Harry a chance even after considering the possibility that all of the events starting from Stark's basement experiments could be one elaborate scheme to lure the second Prince of Asgard into the open. SHIELD had been careful to avoid using his name for mainly one reason: to avoid drawing unwanted attention.
Just because Fury had decided to take a risk in Harry's case, didn't mean he wasn't keeping an eye on the situation. This was why he had ordered Natasha to follow up on Harry. She had purposely lied when she said she was withdrawing from the case.
"You got visual?" Fury asked through her ear piece.
She would shadow this Harry from a distance and while not as good as Hawkeye, her eyes and steady hands were more than capable of using the sniper rifle she had in the trunk of her car. She could get it out and assemble it within seconds.
A pair of binoculars set in front of her face, Natasha watched the three figures inside the glass house.
"Yes."
Both of them knew that the outer walls on Tony's house were bulletproof. Based on construction records she had stolen, Natasha knew that firing several bullets in rapid sequence on the same spot before the metal shutters were activated was a possible way of getting around that problem … or she could wait until they left the house. She was confident that a bullet to the head would be sufficient to handle Harry. Coulson had gotten a shot through and that was with a handgun – comparatively much slower in velocity than her rifle's bullets.
Leaving Harry with Tony and Bruce was a calculated risk, but a reasonable one. Tony might not have the fast reflexes to handle Harry if their guest turned hostile, but JARVIS was more than equipped and it controlled everything in that house. The brief time she had shadowed Tony Stark, she was able to learn that the A.I. would protect its creator and with the security improvements Stark had recently placed into his house, it could become a veritable death trap.
Bruce was hard to take down if he knew ahead of time where a threat was coming from. After spending so much time with Bruce, she knew that he treated everything with caution, including Harry.
"You think, where he's from, he got a stronger variant of the Super Soldier serum?" Fury asked.
Natasha wanted to know the conversations going on in that house, but she would stick with lip-reading for now. She knew Fury could have ordered for Stark's house to be hacked like before when he had sneaked inside to personally meet Tony after Iron Man's identity was revealed ... but Fury needed his superior's permission to use that specific resource again – and he wanted to avoid drawing their attention if possible.
"No, his muscles aren't developed enough. He can't even best me - ," Natasha replied with a frown. " – and I received weaker enhancements decades back."
"What about one which specializes in only tissue regeneration?"
She lowered her binoculars. "Have you seen Phil's report yet?"
"I should be getting it in an hour."
"I read the first few pages … and it's not tissue regeneration. That requires some tissue to still be alive and by the time of the autopsy, several organs had died already."
Fury cursed. "The Super Soldier serum already gives extended life and youth – Rogers being the prime example. At least with you, it's kept confidential as hell, but I'm still dealing with the aftermath of Rogers's inexplicable re-appearance into the public. The military is already trying to reopen that project and don't forget the private companies who are going for it, now that they see it's possible."
"I know," she quietly said. "With Potter here literally coming back from the dead, there're people out there who would tear the world apart to know how."
Natasha wasn't just talking about rich bastards who want to live forever but everyday people. Fear of death was natural, which was why so much money was being pumped into medicine … and on top of that was the notion of saving a loved one. Who wanted to say goodbye to their friends or family? There were people dying every second. If word got out that there was someone who could come back, there would be a massive manhunt - either to destroy Harry because of his unnaturalness or to figure out what made him tick. It had the potential to be a witch-hunt on a grand scale – the whole world.
If SHIELD needed to kill him and keep him dead, then Fury was willing to make that call. He had already decided to close the case even before reading Coulson's report. Any hint of Harry's continued existence needed to end. Fury still hadn't mended his relationship with his superiors after his blunt refusal to fire the nuclear missile and if they found out that he was also keeping this from them, SHIELD was going to get another Director.
Natasha heard some shuffling of paper in the background before Fury stated, "He has an alarming number of abilities."
"I'm certain he was holding back. Phil also broke something of Potter's – said it looked like a wooden baton that could light up. I doubt light is its only function considering that Potter navigated through the Archives with no trouble. I think Phil was joking when he described it like a wand in his report though."
"Doesn't matter. Potter needs to leave – either go back or maybe hand him to the Asgardians. He can't stay here, if he does…"
"Just give me the go ahead and I'll make it happen," Natasha promised with no hesitation.
"And the fact that he doesn't stay dead? He could escape right afterwards."
"Banner admitted that they had to dig him up. It indicates a period of time that he's incapacitated – perfect to kill him again."
Fury paused to take it in. "A container with water or a vacuum – even simply burying would work."
It meant Harry would suffocate or drown repeatedly.
With her binoculars, Natasha zoomed in on Harry who was going up the steps to the upper floor. "It did work, didn't it? I wonder how many times he died in that coffin for lack of air? Or inside the body bag inside the morgue before the burial."
Both knew that it was a cruel fate, but if it was the last option, then they'd do it to preserve the peace. Their jobs weren't nice – the only thing that kept them going was the fact that the world was still turning and moving along.
"We're just not ready."
And Fury was right. The world wasn't ready to discover aliens existed much less other universes - the human race wasn't even ready to deal with its own problems. Add the possibility of immortality – to recover from any injury, even death - and people would kill for it or because of it.
Harry looked to the side at the folded clothes that Dummy had brought up, minutes after he had entered the bedroom. JARVIS was an excellent host; he had several sets of clothes delivered to the house – all remarkably fitted to Harry's size.
Harry suspected JARVIS could see and hear everything that went in and around the house. "Thank you."
The response was immediate. "You're welcome, Mr. Potter. Do you require additional clothing?"
"No, thank you. There's enough here for a week." Harry hoped that he wouldn't need that much clothing – he didn't plan to stay here for that long anyway. He lifted both stacks of clothes and placed them in a drawer. He changed into a set of cotton pajamas and slipped under the covers and sheets. He closed his eyes as the room darkened and the walls changed transparency to block the daylight. In the next moment, Harry opened his eyes to blackness.
He blinked. Immediately he knew this was not Tony's house. Had he been betrayed? He tried to reach out and his arms couldn't move past several inches away from his sides. Fear stabbed into his heart as he realized he was encased in a thick plastic bag. His movements thudded against the container outside the bag. A sinking feeling grabbed him as he realized that he was lying inside of something made of wood. A coffin?! No! He couldn't have died again. With hands pushing out to distance his face from the plastic, he breathed in and out heavily. Was it his imagination or was it getting harder to breathe?
He had to get out! He didn't know where he was but he assumed going up was a safe direction. Harry apparated ten feet above and re-oriented his body from lying horizontally to standing. Emerging several feet off the ground, he had just enough time to realize this before landing onto his feet and bent knees.
He didn't feel anything. Odd. He looked down at his legs wondering why he didn't feel the shock and pain.
He also couldn't see his feet through the dense layer of swirling white. The ground was covered with it. Harry looked up and saw no sky – it was just empty space. It was the same whatever direction he looked in. How did he get here?
There were no obvious sources of light - only a light glow from the ground. There was also no sign that anyone was here. He called out anyway.
"Hello?"
Nothing. His voice didn't even echo.
He tried again. "Sphinx?"
Nothing again. He thought she would have at least responded if she was here.
Barefoot, he couldn't tell what he was standing on. His feet couldn't feel anything either – he had expected a chill from a place such as this. He bent down and tried to wave the fog away.
It passed through his hand. Not his hand passed through it – but the circling plumes had actually gone through his hands. What was going on? First he had been trapped, the feel of the plastic had felt real under his hands and now he was feeling and touching nothing. The confusion led way to ire. He felt like he was being toyed with. Every time he woke up, he was in someplace new.
He didn't have long to stew in his anger as he was suddenly knocked back by an invisible hand. He lost his balance and tumbled down. He felt like he was falling off the edge of the world as he was enveloped in darkness. There was no wind to indicate how fast he was moving, but there was something dragging him down.
He slammed back into the white bedroom and gasped at the impact. He opened his eyes to see the fuzzy outline of Dummy's frame hovering over him. The robot had stolen into his bedroom in his sleep.
"Dummy, not right now." He impatiently pushed Dummy away, sat up, and felt around for his glasses on the night stand. Harry looked around and saw that he was still neatly underneath the covers.
It had all been a dream. It had all been a dream, he repeated. Relief flushed through him.
Haunted by what he had seen, he quickly kicked off the covers and changed his clothes while checking the moving numbers on top of the night stand. He had been surprised at first that it was a touch screen serving as a table. It read eight at night – barely enough sleep, but he couldn't stand being in bed anymore.
He left Dummy in the room and with rapid steps, descended down to the ground floor. He slowed down when he heard voices. Tony and another red-headed woman was at the door – bickering. Bruce was also standing to the side and when he noticed Harry at the bottom of the steps, he smiled and put a finger in front of his mouth to request silence.
Tony tried to wrap an arm around the woman's waist. "Pepper! I meant to call you –"
"Last night." She pushed his arm away.
" – yes, last night but I was busy– "
She crossed her arms. "Busy playing."
" – no, not playing but helping," Tony insisted.
Her face clearly showed her doubt. "You were supposed to sign these documents by last night, instead you bought the trademark rights to the words Avengers Assemble and Earth's Mightiest Heroes."
Bruce quietly coughed into his hand to cover the laugh.
"I needed it for the movie and do we really need more artwork … " Tony trailed off when Pepper's glare deepened. "I completely agree Pepper, we need more art around the tower." Pepper was still trying to rebuild the collection after Tony had thoughtlessly donated the last one to the Boy Scouts.
She slapped the folder to his chest, clicked the pen for him, and held it in front of his face. He gave a weak smile and signed the bottom of the page barely looking down. When he actually did, Pepper quickly snatched it from him and turned around to go back into the limousine.
Tony stood still for a moment before chasing after her. The documents didn't look like purchase forms for any artwork. "Pepper, what did I sign?"
Harry was impressed. So this was the woman who could handle Tony Stark. Her words were just as quick and she possessed the sharp wit to match Stark's.
Bruce joined him at the bottom of the stairs. "All of that is normal. She's Virginia Potts – she goes by Pepper Potts though. They practically run Stark Industries together."
Harry remembered what Tony had said earlier today. "Oh you mean that thing with the clean energy source?"
"Yes, one of the major focuses." Bruce pointed in the direction of the kitchen area. "You're up early – or should I say late? Anyway, I had some groceries delivered. Hungry?"
Still shaken from his dream, Harry shook his head no. "I'll get some water."
Harry followed Bruce into the kitchen and sat on a bar stool at the counter. Distracted about his dream still, Harry forgot about the water until Bruce slid a glass in front of him.
"Thanks." Wanting to get his mind away from the disturbing dream, Harry decided to think of his friends back home. The thought of his tracking spell which had located the Hermione here popped into his mind.
Tony walked in on the quiet scene, noticed the groceries, and began riffling through the bags. "I didn't know you cooked."
"The food's only enough for a meal or two. Anyway, living in places like Brazil and India – I had to," Bruce answered.
"Why'd you move back here?" Harry asked. It was supposed to be a simple question, but the pause indicated otherwise.
"I was told that I was needed, and so I came," was Bruce's short reply.
Tony finally found something he liked and pulled out a box of crackers. "Bruce's work on anti-electron collisions is really un-paralleled," Tony complimented before he popped in a cracker into his mouth. "I couldn't let that brain power get away, so now he works for me."
Bruce shrugged in a way that showed it was more or less true.
Tony looked to Bruce and asked, "When was the last time you left the tower? Months?"
"It hasn't been months," Bruce defended.
"Any longer, and I'll start calling you Rapunzel."
"And you're supposed to be Prince Charming?" Harry accused.
"Absolutely not. I don't go prancing around on a horse. Please, I have more style than that."
Harry chuckled and drank some of the water from his glass. He thought back again of home and an idea formed.
"I want to ask for a favor," Harry said. "Nothing bad or expensive, I think."
Tony leaned on the counter. "I don't want to promise you anything before I hear what it is."
"You said that you're good at finding people. I'm curious about one person."
"A friend from home?" Bruce asked, while he put together a sandwich.
"Yes, I just thought that this might be my last chance to find her counterpart here."
Tony didn't miss the fact that Harry was referring to a female friend. "Special friend?"
"Not like that. One of my good friends. It'd be great to tell her how she's like here in this world."
"I don't see the problem, sure. Her name?"
"Hermione Jean Granger." As soon as Harry said her name, he felt a strange slowness. He looked to Bruce and Tony, who didn't seem bothered at all. It was heaviness in the air only he could sense – wrapping around him. When he blinked, it passed and was gone.
Tony pulled out his phone and started swiping and pressing on the screen. "A general search should be sufficient to pull up matches. Huh – only one. Born September 19, 1979 – "
"That's her!" Harry exclaimed – the discovery distracting him from that fleeting heaviness.
" – and is deceased," Tony finished.
"That – that can't be right." He had found her with the Point Me spell. Did she just die? He slumped back in his seat at the missed opportunity. There wasn't a lot he could have done, but he still felt an odd sense of loss for someone he didn't even know.
Tony moved his fingers – going through several documents. "I've got her birth certificate, school records, and the death certificate here. I'm sorry; she died in 1990 in a car accident. Newspaper articles on the accident - "
Harry sat up straight immediately – on the edge of the seat. "That's not possible. She was alive yesterday night."
"How do you know? Did you actually see her?" Tony pressed.
Harry hadn't told them about his wand – or what was left of it. He didn't think it was necessary to tell them. "I was able to magically track her. I know she's northeast of here, but I don't know how far."
"Is it possible that you tracked her remains?" Bruce suggested.
Harry shook his head. "No, I created this spell. I know it doesn't."
"You said things were different here. What if this is another one of those differences?"
Harry couldn't argue with that logic. Maybe this Hermione was gone. He had thought to ask about his other friends' alternate versions after Hermione's, but after finding out about her death, he didn't want to anymore – at least not now. And what was that feeling back then? It had felt familiar.
Tony wasn't a fool. He was immature, arrogant, and impulsive, but he wasn't a fool. Everyone thought that he was just playing around with the movie idea but he wasn't. It might have started off as a joke to piss off Fury, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. He was a businessman and the CEO of a billion-dollar empire – and he understood the power behind the image of a product.
The Avengers – the heroes – desperately needed a good image.
After the world witnessed the might of the Avengers, people scrambled to deal with the aftermath and the long term consequences of having such powerhouses loose. The subpoena that U.S. Marshall had served him and Senator Stern's demand of the turnover of the Iron Man suit was only the beginning. Now, the whole world was involved and it had become a political and public struggle.
Tony pulled out his phone again from his trouser pocket and watched the screen. He sat in a way to hide what he was watching from Bruce and Harry. The sounds were sent directly to his Bluetooth ear piece.
On the screen, there was a news broadcast championing a bipartisan Congressional proposal.
"Senator Stern and Senator Kelly, co-sponsors of Senate Bill 141 colloquially known as the Superhuman Registration Act, have gathered a lot of attention these past few days," the newswoman reported. Playback of a speech given by the two senators was momentarily displayed, accompanied by a round of applause from the crowd.
"Based on Gallup polls, the public is torn with a slight majority in favor of the bill. It will be up for a vote on the Senate floor in a number of weeks." This time, scenes from a rally supporting the bill was shown.
"Both senators have declined our requests for an interview - " Tony turned off the sound.
Tony actually didn't mind revealing his identity. His personality wouldn't allow him to hide behind the bodyguard story, but … Tony glanced worriedly at Bruce. Sure, he thought making Bruce mad and Hulk-ing out would be funny once in a while, but people like Bruce wouldn't be able to handle being out in the open. Still, the bill wasn't all bad. In its most innocuous form, the bill could help people with special abilities adjust, protect them … but it had the potential to be abused.
It all came down to fear and trust.
Tony narrowed his eyes as the crowd clapped again. He had hoped for something like Steve's Captain America popularity back in the 1940's. There were posters, promotional videos and toys made in Captain America's image. The public had loved him, had adored him – he was the darling of that era. If he had remained dead, he would have kept his iconic martyr status. That kind of popularity was difficult to gain, but it might have worked here and now.
The movie idea had come too late… or maybe people were just more fearful. Stern and Kelly certainly weren't helping. They've gotten the bill packaged in a neat little bow proclaiming that it was good for both sides. Tony wanted to scream it was all irrational fear and speculation. Whatever it was, Tony was losing this dangerous game.
They were all losing.
It wasn't just the Avengers, if he believed everything that JARVIS had discretely pilfered from the SHIELD database, there had always been special people – all hiding low ... or kept low by SHIELD. JARVIS wasn't able to get any more information though.
Tony was going to chat with JARVIS later; the speed at which SHIELD blocked JARVIS from stealing more information was alarming. He wasn't able to hack in like he had done with the Helicarrier anymore. Ever since Coulson had somehow performed that override on the private elevator in Stark tower, Tony and JARVIS have been trying to figure out how. There was also that time when Natasha was able to access the security around the Iron Man suits. In that doughnut shop, she was able to counter Tony's lies about Rhodey's taking of the War Machine suit and how there were redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage. He had also pretended to not notice the fact that she had tracked his vitals from inside the suit when he was busy destroying Hammer's drones.
How the hell had she done that?! SHIELD was withholding something big from him – it had to be, to be able to go around JARVIS.
A pair of green eyes focused and adjusted to the dim lighting in the room. His jaw clenched as he fumed in his anger.
There was another teleporter somewhere on Midgard. That didn't concern him so much as the strong shifts in the dimensions he had been feeling over the past several days. Powerful shifts - too powerful. Now he had another mystery.
There had been an intruder – and the damn trespasser had brought time with him! An outsider guised as a human boy – who was summarily kicked out upon detection.
So many events happening … perhaps they were all connected. He grimaced. If they were - he reached around to his lower back to trace the handle of the dagger hidden underneath his coat – then he had a dark practitioner to hunt.
AN: I'm glad you guys like the humor from the last chapter and even though Harry doesn't get the references, you guys do. The story just got darker but I think more realistic – as realistic as a story can get with magic and movie/comic-book physics. O_O
In the comic-verse, the Cosmic Cube and the Tesseract is the same thing – well there's more, but I won't go into it. I've left the Tesseract an Asgardian artifact as the movies had it, but in the prequel I also introduced the Cosmic Cube as an A.I.M. invention like in the comics.