Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, not a thing. I just like pulling the strings while the real owners are not looking ^_^

A/N: Severus is back! For a paragraph, or two maybe even three, I also think I'm getting the hang of Tony. It's one of my biggest problems, multiple characters, their personalities tend to start looking the same, so I hope they're still individuals (I try really hard to keep them separate) Also Dumbledore makes an appearance (and a new ability of Harriet's is brought to light). I hope you like this chapter, Enjoy!

EDIT (24/06/2012) – As promised here is the second update today. I would also like to say this to the anon who called me a liar. I was just passing on information I had received myself, I had only just been informed of the blackout moments before I put it up. I would also like to say that maybe next time you can grow some balls and actually sign in to have a go at me, thank you the flame you lit in me kept me warm throughout the night (I can tell you were both the anon's because your message was the same, even if the wording had changed, and your 'name' was obviously another form of the first, have some imagination next time as this is a sight for fiction)

Harriet Coulson: Avenger

Chapter 10

Clint hit his target several more times before throwing his bow away from him in frustration, he'd received a text saying that Harriet was MIA and had promptly destroyed the little piece of technology (as if it had been the mobiles fault Harriet had disappeared). His eyes rested on the punctured plastic and circuitry before he turned and stalked from the archery range, he'd just got back to base from his last mission and had gone in for a de-briefing for his next. He'd planned to join Harriet in Malibu for a few hours before heading off again, and this is what happened.

Agents moved away from the prowling man for their own safety, this was the first time any of them had seen the man unsettled. The Hawk was always calm and rational, not prowling the place like The Hulk, Clint turned into the main area to see the screens filled with different faces, each one connected to Harriet and her aliases. Not one of them had found her in the past 30 minutes, he growled, how hard was it to find one person when you had all their faces on display and an army of people looking? Bloody hard, obviously.

"Did you break your phone again?" Clint looked beside him to see Natasha; the woman was twisting her hands together; eyes scanning each of the screens hoping that they'd find their friend before disaster struck.

"It got in the way of my target." Clint replied, and saw a slight lifting of Natasha's mouth before it was gone again.

"We're not going to find her. She doesn't want to be found yet." Clint sighed and leaned over the rail, he watched Agent Hill frantically type into one of the computer's. He and Natasha were one of the select few that knew of the two girl's secret friendship, and he felt a slight pain at the realisation that Maria had found out only when Fury had asked them to search for Harriet.

"Maybe, but I don't want to think of the alternative." And with that Clint left the main room and headed back to his archery range, he'd get a new phone as there was a chance the Harriet could try to contact him, well that and Fury would have his head if he didn't have one. Natasha watched him leave before looking at the nearest computer screen, Harriet's face looked back at her, and with a deep breath she left the room. They had to find Harriet, they just had to, and the base just wouldn't be the same if they didn't.

~~^v^~~

Agent Hill worked tirelessly in looking for her friend, she cursed again for her friend's stupidity, didn't the girl know that there was a whole government sector that would become the brunt of Fury's fury as soon as the Cyclops realised that Harriet didn't want to be found. She shook her head and typed a few more things into the computer in front of her, she had refused to answer any of Fury's calls and she sighed as she realised she couldn't stay away from the man for too long, she did work with him after all. Her earpiece buzzed and with a roll of her eyes she tapped it.

"Agent Hill."

"Yo! Would it be terribly presumptuous to think you're the only one manning the computers at this time?"

"Harriet! What the hell are you doing?"

"So you are alone then. Could you hack the cameras where I am? Of course you can, what am I thinking?"

"Where are yo- Wait, how the hell did you get from Malibu to JFK without anyone knowing?" Maria frowned at Harriet, who only grinned from the phone booth she was in and waved up at the camera, she sighed and looked around her.

"Apparition is an amazing way of travelling instantly, but it does have its flaws. I cannot get out of the country without a little help."

"And you want me to do what, exactly?" Maria watched as Harriet's grin grew wider.

"I need your help hiding me until I get to my new destination. Don't worry, I'll continue to check in, I just need to do a few things. So, think you can help out an old friend?"

"You have 15 minutes to get on a flight to Tokyo; I'll hide any evidence of you going there. As soon as you hit Japanese soil you're to change your appearance and get the hell out of dodge." Maria was already typing away as Harriet grinned over the camera, put the phone down, and headed towards the gate that would take her to the plane she needed. Maria knew she was going to regret this later, but at that moment it was like she was a part of the mischief that followed Harriet everywhere. Hacking the cameras was easy, changing the footage was easy, and trying not to falter under Fury's glare would be the hardest thing she'd have to do. Lucky she was almost practically immune to it, she smirked, and she'd probably been the only one Harriet had spoken to other than Phil Coulson.

~~^v^~~

"It seems she had a run in with an old teacher, sir." Tony looked up from fiddling with his new suit and frowned.

"And how do you know it was an old teacher? Wait, did you hack a system without being asked?" Tony grinned and held a free hand to the reactor in his chest, "Why, Jarvis, you're growing up!"

"Sir, I don't think now is the right time for your humour. Miss. Harriet was last seen in Café Calypso with a Mr. Asgard. Checks show he was a pre-school teacher until he disappeared from the face of the earth, 14 years ago." Tony leaned forward, pushing his chair over to his main desk so he could read the screen.

"Do we have an image of this guy?" Two pictures of a man that could have been Harriet's biological father (if Tony hadn't already seen the images of Harriet's real parents he would have believed them to be related) popped onto the screen, one was of a class photo, and the other was from the coffee shop. There were no changes in the man's appearance, even if it had been 14 years, and Tony found himself frowning once more.

"Jarvis find out where he is now, if he has anything to do with Harriet's disappearance I want to know. I have a few calls to make."

"Yes, sir." Tony stood from his seat and headed out of his lab, bypassing Pepper's questions he picked up his phone and called Coulson.

"Agent Coulson."

"Hey, Agent, I got a lead on your girl. Does a Mr. Loki Asgard ring any bells?" there was silence and Tony waited while tapping his fingers on the table, Pepper stood to the side frowning slightly as she tapped her clipboard against her thigh.

"He was Harriet's pre-school teacher, disappeared a month before the end of the year, why?"

"He's back and spooked little green eyes enough to make her leave without telling anyone." Tony held up a hand to silence whatever Pepper was going to ask, "Jarvis is finding out where he is at the moment, but there's one thing that's really weird about him."

"This coming from the man who has a giant magnet in his chest?"

"This coming from the man who can supposedly keep track of anyone; apart from his daughter." Tony paused, "Back to the point at hand, the teacher. He's ageless."

"Ageless?"

"Sir, I have the information you wanted, do you want me to send it to Agent Coulson?" Tony moved the phone away from his ear.

"If you would Jarvis." He returned to his phone conversation, "Just look at what Jarvis is sending you and you'll understand. Can't find her anywhere, but at least we have a lead as to the reason she left." He put the phone down before Agent Coulson could say anything else and turned to Pepper.

"Harriet's missing?" Tony nodded and saw his assistant move to sit down suddenly, it seemed he wasn't the only one to get attached to the snarky mischievous Agent (even if Tony still refused to admit he liked the green eyed girl).

"We'll find her Pepper, even if I have to go bust a few caps as Iron Man." Pepper just nodded and he turned to the mini bar to pour them a drink, he'd head down to the lab in a few moments to look over the information Jarvis had and then figure out where to go from there.

~~^v^~~

"Ah! Severus, there you are, my boy! We have a guest, a Miss. Alinda Vane." Severus felt the urge to head back down into the dungeons, but as he'd been spotted it wouldn't do well to run (Dumbledore had a habit of finding him at the most inopportune moments when he did), and so it was with a sigh and a sneer that he turned to the headmaster and the young woman stood a little behind him.

"Headmaster, is there really a need for me to know of this guest?" He watched as Dumbledore blinked and the smile diminished somewhat, he felt a surge of childish glee at causing the walking fashion disaster to lose some of his twinkle.

"It is alright Alboos, 'e probably doesn't recognise me. Ve met at a Potions conference in 'ungary." Severus blinked at the mixed accent, as if the person couldn't decide if they were Bulgarian or French, and then blinked again. He'd seen this person, but what was she doing in Hogwarts.

"Ah, Miss. Vane, yes, I remember. You were very vocal about the use of Polyjuice Potion being taught to students of a lower grade and not just 7th years." He was awarded with a blinding smile off the platinum haired woman, and he had to blink again to realise this was all just an act really.

"I vos lead to believe zat a 2nd year student could already brew it." Albus looked at the two and smiled, before Severus could respond.

"Yes, you can catch up nicely. Severus you can walk our guest around the Castle, I'm going to be busy with Minerva." Severus scowled, but nodded anyway and both he and Alinda watched the eccentric old man leave.

"Do you zink that 'e's gone to unstick some Lemon Drops?" Alinda queried before Severus grabbed her arm and dragged her all the way to his rooms, her ice blue eyes widening as she tried not to trip. Once in the room, Severus placed his strongest wards and privacy spells before turning to the woman sat on his bed.

"And just what the hell do you think you are doing!"

"And 'ere I thought you vere smarter zan zis." He continued to glare and Alinda sighed, her appearance quivered until she was back to her green eyes, tanned skin, and curly black hair, "I need help, of the magical kind and I couldn't exactly owl you from Malibu."

"Malibu? I thought you lived in DC, or wherever else S.H.I.E.L.D has you?" Severus frowned and received a glare from the metamorphagus.

"I've been working with Tony Stark, he's burning his way through a ton of Palladium and if he doesn't slow down he's not going to live much longer, of course he hasn't figured it out yet, but it's only a matter of time. Although he probably knows now, it has been a few weeks."

"Harriet."

"What? Oh yeah, so I need help. How can a person have the same appearance, and age for a little over 14 years but not be a vampire or any other immortally frozen being?" Severus froze, Harriet had obviously been around a genius who spoke a mile a minute because he hardly understood anything she'd just said, and he was still reeling from her being in England, the one place she should never be until she was ready.

"Are you sure he's no-"

"I was with him for a full ten minutes, I'm positive. There were no glamour's, no metamorphic skills, and no outside magical help. It was all natural, but it's obviously not Muggle." Severus glared at being interrupted but the 17 year old, still sat on his bed, just brushed it off, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Does your father know you're here?" He watched her smile turn sheepish, "Harriet!"

"I sent him a text saying I needed to get away. I've fallen off the grid; they can't track me with the other aliases they have no idea about. Plus dad's bound to realise that as a Metamorph I can change my appearance more that they know, it's not like I'm going to stop contact completely, just not long enough for them to track me." Severus moved to his drinks cabinet and pulled himself a fire-whiskey, no wonder he'd received that frantic owl earlier.

"He could be from another realm, another world."

"And that is why Alinda Vane is here, she's a Potions specialist with a hobby of looking into other realms and worlds. Hogwarts have an extensive Library that may hold information that she hasn't found anywhere else." Severus sighed and downed his drink; Lily's daughter was going to be the death of him.

"Well let's get Miss. Vane to the Library then." He watched as Harriet grinned widely, and her appearance changed as she moved to hug him in thanks.

"Zank you Severos."

"Just don't get used to it. I swear I use up all my good will on you and that is why I treat the students like idiots."

"Zey are idiots Severos, and cannot vork a Potion to save zeir life." Severus ginned, he had to agree with her, a Neville Longbottom came to mind and he shuddered, the boy should never be let out of a greenhouse, let alone into a school.