"Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences." – J.K. Rowling

Harry quickly looked up at the sound of another person opening the door. It was a young woman with a bored expression behind thick black rimmed glasses. She leaned on the door to yawn to the side.

"Hey, Jane –" She stopped when she noticed Harry and pushed her glasses up higher on her nose. "I didn't know Loki had a younger brother."

"What? I'm not," Harry immediately responded. He turned to Loki to see his reaction but the other sofa was empty. "Where did he go?"

Jane shrugged. "Somewhere around here – probably down at the Bifrost. Darcy, did you need something?"

Darcy closed the door when she started to hear the shuffling of feet outside. "Yea … SHIELD's here, as well as the A-team – Tony's description."

"They're here already?"

"Uh-huh," Darcy said as she took out a lollipop from her trouser pocket and unwrapped the candy. She stuck it in her mouth while her blue eyes raked across Harry. Harry shifted uncomfortably under her scrutiny. "You got the green eyes, black hair, and you just magically popped in here – bypassing me. What was I supposed to think? Hmm, you don't have that dark and broody air, but you're definitely pulling off the adorable naïve look, especially with those round glasses and that bed hair – too bad you're a little young."

"Darcy!" Jane called out, embarrassed.

Darcy looked at Jane as if there was nothing wrong with what she had just said. "What? It's people twice or three times my age here – or in your case … " Darcy paused to do the math. " … about thirty times."

Harry was speechless … and then suddenly laughed as he was oddly reminded of Luna. He didn't know how, but Darcy's bluntness and generally inappropriate comments had cut through the feelings of guilt – at least for now. He still felt like he was weighed down by rocks, but her humor amidst the bad news was like how Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was a breath of fresh air in the busy and stuffy atmosphere of Diagon Alley … well, after Ron retired from the Aurors and joined George in the business.

Harry couldn't decide if he should tell her his real age. He decided to keep it secret for now.

With a hand over her forehead, Jane introduced them, "Harry, this is my assistant Darcy Lewis. Darcy, this is Harry Potter."

Harry stood up to shake her hand. "Nice to meet you."

Darcy pulled the lollipop out to say, "Ooh and charming too."

"Darcy, please – just go to the others. I'll meet you there," Jane requested after a long suffering sigh.

"Sure, boss. Remember, conference room." Darcy pointed down into the floor before she closed the door.

As Harry was walking to the door, Jane collected her papers and said, "This facility has both Stark and SHIELD employees. Only the SHIELD employees are aware of the Bifrost."

Harry connected the dots. "Because I don't know which of them are SHIELD, I shouldn't mention the Bifrost at all … but why hide such a thing? If everyone knows that there are alien races out there and a treaty with Asgard, isn't keeping this secret pointless?"

Jane took a moment staring at the papers in her hands before she replied. "The treaty with Asgard isn't out in the open yet. Our … ha, introduction to other races wasn't pleasant. Well, Darcy and I had a slightly easier time; we met Thor first – Asgard has a protective stance over the realms, it seems. Almost everyone else learned about aliens from the television broadcasting the invasion last year. Do you know about it?"

Harry took a guess. "Does this have anything to do with flying worms?"

Jane blinked and then frowned. "I wouldn't call them worms … but yes. They seem more like mounts. The invading army were made up of these strange hybrid of animal and robot called the Chitauri. Thor says they're not part of the nine realms. Long story, short – we almost lost and people haven't forgotten."

"When you say that people haven't forgotten, are you saying the distrust is over any alien race? Why not expose Asgard more if they're your ally?" It seemed like the logical solution to Harry.

"It's complicated. Some people still don't believe there are alien races out there. Too human-centric I suppose – too grounded in their beliefs."

"Outside of this group, no one knows about Asgard?"

"Asgard prefers to stay in the background until an immediate global threat." Jane sighed. "Anyway, we're supposed to be modern, but there are still people who are xenophobic – over imaginary lines on a map, can you believe that? Now add people who don't fit the classical definition of human and people who don't even come from Earth. I'm disappointed, but it's apparently too much of a paradigm shift for society."

Harry could believe that. Wizard-kind had been aware of other magical species for thousands of years but the co-existence had been and was still painful – as Hermione kept reminding both Ron and him after a stressful day working in the Ministry of Magic. These problems were on top of the ones generated by the uneasy relationship between wizards and muggles – even prejudice against another fellow wizard when permanent curses like lycanthropy were involved.

Harry thought there was something else to this long story. He could tell that she had skirted around something. It must have shown on his face because Jane gave him an uncertain smile and added, "I'm not telling you everything. It's nothing against you, but I don't think I should be the one to tell you."

"I can understand that." Harry wasn't happy about it, but he could grudgingly accept that she was uncomfortable about the topic, plus the fact that this particular event had nothing to do with him. She had been honest about it – which he thought was a nice courtesy.

Jane walked around her desk and checked her computer a final time. "Did Loki deactivate the monitoring system in my office?"

"Yes."

Jane groaned at Harry's confirmation. "There's so many of them to turn back on, at least the security's still intact. I'll have to do it later. Come on, I'll show you down to the rest." She pulled on her jacket before opening the door.

Jane led him through wide carpeted hallways, a number of people who smiled at them, and past other offices to an elevator with dim lights inside. Harry hardly paid attention to all this as his mind wandered back to this world's dark magic. Deep in his thoughts, Harry was startled when JARVIS greeted them as soon as the elevator doors closed.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Foster and Mr. Potter. The others are waiting."

Jane didn't have to press any buttons as JARVIS took control of the elevator. Harry felt himself drop from the ground level through at least three floors. He looked at the buttons on the control panel – according to that, there was nothing below the basement level. Finally, he thought, a secret underground room that didn't use the loo as its entrance. Stepping off of the lift, Harry could already hear muffled voices. They were loud enough to travel out from the conference room and down the pale hallways to him.

Jane pursed her lips and quickened her pace. "Fury's here? Harry, what happened since we talked last?"

Before Harry could say something about Tony's jet or ask about Fury, Jane opened the doors wide. There were five people inside the long room – Tony without his suit, Bruce, Thor, Darcy and one black man Harry didn't recognize but guessed to be Fury. The bald man had an eye patch with distinct scarring underneath, a severe face, and an authoritative attitude. None of them realized that Jane and Harry had entered the room – too absorbed on what Tony and Fury were arguing about. The two men were on the far end of the long room but Harry could hear everything succinctly.

"How did your plane explode?" Fury demanded.

Seated, Tony played with his personal phone and scowled at what he saw there. "JARVIS is working on it, but it doesn't look like an accident. Probably something pressure and temperature sensitive, activated when the jet descended from cruising altitude. Tell Agent to give me any information he finds down there."

Nostrils flaring, Fury yelled out, "You realize what this can do to you? I can't protect you if the Council retracts their approval of you! If you cause too much trouble, if you start to outweigh your usefulness …"

Tony crossed his arms while his scowl deepened. "I don't need protection."

Fury leaned over the table to glare at Tony. "You'll need it – especially since you were digging around Classified files."

With a loud thud, Tony slammed a fist on the table and then showed a dangerous smile to show that he was not going to be intimidated – gone was his characteristic nonchalant attitude. "I've kept myself clean of your files lately. You wouldn't come for a plane accident and the only thing I searched for recently was of someone named … Ranger? No, Granger. Is that what happened to my jet? Because I searched too deep?"

"I don't know. Hell, I'm not even supposed to know about your search. Why were you looking for her?"

"You don't know?! And you were spying on your own Wholly Stupid-Ass Council?" When Fury returned a glare, Tony scoffed. "Of course, you spy on everyone, don't you?"

Fury scowled. "This isn't a game!"

Tony matched the look. "I don't play around! Hey – that was – I was dying then!"

"Not an excuse! You had to go out with a bang didn't you? You didn't think about the consequences?"

"I had things under control." Tony pointed a quick finger at Fury. "But you! You have something don't you? How did you get around JARVIS?"

Fury's eyebrows shot up as if he couldn't believe what Tony had just said. "Under control? You call that under control? Agent Romanova and I had things under control. You let your little sidekick take one of your damn suits to the Air Force. You didn't think they'd try to reverse engineer it?"

Tony looked offended. "Rhodey wouldn't – "

"He can't watch it 24-7 and what's worse is that Hammer had his hands all over the suit. We had to steal back those plans from both the military and Hammer Industries. Don't tell me you have things under control when you pull stupid shit like that!"

"That was then - !" Tony tried to defend.

"Look what's happened now!" Fury bellowed. He swiped the remote off the table and clicked on the flat screen on the far wall. He quickly switched it to a news channel and increased the volume to drown out Tony's protests.

" – Stark's private jet was caught on amateur video – "

A click changed the channel.

" - explosion in mid-air is seen here captured by a camera phone from a hiker – "

Another click.

" – if we zoom in, those two dots are people. One of them disappeared – "

Harry winced; that had been him and Tony. Click.

" – thank goodness, no one was hurt, but there was substantial damage to the Valles Caldera National Reserve. You think it was a publicity stunt by Stark?"

Click.

" – you can see the smoke in the background. I can't get any closer to the wreckage – "

One final click.

"The bill would benefit everyone. This latest incident can't be an accident; it could've been an attack from someone with anti-Avengers or anti-superhuman beliefs. That's the worst case scenario; the best is that Mr. Stark was being reckless again. There needs to be some oversight, more importantly over such things as his weaponized suit. It's a weapon, no matter what Mr. Stark calls it. Also, that unknown person seen falling with him wouldn't have to hide," a man in a dark gray suit commented. Harry thought the man's smile was one of the most insincere ones he had ever seen; it was on par with Skeeter's. "I'm going to keep my faith in Mr. Stark and say that he is a responsible person – that this wasn't a stunt, but then it seems clear to me that even the great Tony Stark – Iron Man needs protection. What if his suit falls into the wrong hands?"

"That ass-clown Stern … " Tony grumbled as he reached for a clear glass on the table to chuck at the screen. Already familiar with Tony's temper, Bruce snatched the glass away and walked up to the screen to mute it. He gave a swift nod towards Jane and Harry as the two made their way to the others. Tony avoided eye contact with everyone.

It was at this moment when Loki entered the room from a side door. Fury rounded on Loki immediately. "And I heard that you fought with Potter?" Fury gestured to Harry. "What if someone saw? Worse, recorded it?"

Loki sneered at the Director of SHIELD. "I am no fledgling. I generously provided you a boon; I hid his second teleportation and the events thereafter behind layers of illusions. Midgard is a weak ally if such secrets are being kept from its own people. You may not be ants, I grant you that, but the rest … might as well be – pathetically mindless."

Hoping to avoid another argument, Thor tried to pull back Loki. "Brother, mind your words – "

"It's my fault," Harry loudly interrupted. All eyes turned to him. "It's my fault," he repeated. "I asked Tony to search for Hermione Granger. She's a friend back where I'm from and I wanted to know how she's like here. I'm sorry, but how is searching for someone who's dead causing you so much trouble?"

It wasn't a surprise when Loki sensed something from Fury. "Oh, another secret, Director? She is not dead, is she?"

She's alive? Harry had been discouraged before, but now he was again curious about who else was here.

"You're one to talk about secrets," Fury accused Loki before he glanced at Harry. "Her records were changed for her protection and she's being kept under careful watch."

Harry didn't like the sound of that. It sounded too familiar.

Fury ignored Harry's frown and continued with his explanation. "Her death was faked but her parents' weren't. It wasn't a random car accident by a drunk driver; it was because she was being targeted – by multiple agencies the world over."

"Why?" Harry asked. Hermione was frighteningly intelligent, Harry easily admitted, but he didn't think that was enough to kill for.

"At age 8, she graduated from MIT in Mathematics. By age 10, she was spitting out prime numbers – rivaling the supercomputers at that time."

Hermione had always been good at Arithmancy – so this was how her talent with numbers manifested in this world.

"I would have known about her," Tony argued. "It is my alma mater."

"She was never officially enrolled and used a dummy name," Fury responded.

"What's so important about prime numbers?" Darcy asked, getting everybody's attention. Harry wondered the same thing. She got an annoyed look when everyone turned to her. "Well sorry for not being part of the genius club."

Bruce explained, "It's important for the encryption of data - specifically public-key encryption or digital signatures. Any other integer can be divided into other numbers, but not primes. The larger the number, the better. It also means it's harder to find; more processing power to find the next one in the sequence."

"If she can produce the next prime before any computer can calculate it – no wonder everyone was gunning for her. If she somehow discovered an efficient equation for primes … " Jane hinted. " ... or the factoring problem.

Bruce nodded. "The economic system – banking, trading, everything publicly encrypted – is based on the faith that there is no equation."

"We never found out who was after her – but we took the opportunity to claim her as dead along with her parents," Fury added.

Doubt covered Tony's face. "You sure it's to only protect her? Seems like an excuse to keep her."

"She is working for the Council. She can walk out of wherever she is, at any time."

"Yeah, exchange freedom with protection," Tony pointed out.

"That's not an uncommon concept. You make it sound like you don't understand it." Fury nodded towards Bruce, who only looked away and frowned at the unwelcome reminder.

"You don't know where she is?" Harry asked. He found it odd that even this Fury didn't know.

"No, I don't. It's to protect her; the fewer people who know where she is, the better protected she is. I only make requests to the Council if we need her to remotely get access to information or a location." Fury then turned to Loki and asked, "Can you return our guest home?"

Loki purposely dragged out the silence to irritate the Director of SHIELD before answering, "What will I receive in return?"

"You don't have to be here."

"Banishing me from Midgard will do more harm to you than to me." Harry didn't think Fury's glower could etch further into his face – but it did. Loki smirked when he got the reaction he wanted. "Consider this a favor."

"Get it done fast," Fury said before he quickly swept through the room, took one look at Harry as he passed, and disappeared around the corner. It was a quick glance but with the same certainty Harry had with meeting Tony for the first time, he was sure he had seen Fury's face on television before.

Annoyed at being brushed off and disturbed by the strangeness of this world's inhabitants, Harry didn't say anything.

"Okay … I'll just go back upstairs," Darcy said when the room became uncomfortably silent. The two women briefly whispered to each other before Darcy left the room.

With a wide smile, Thor broke through the quiet and took the opportunity to heartily greet Harry. "Welcome Orlendr. I am Thor Odinson of Asgard."

"Harry Potter … " Harry paused when he couldn't think of anything to add after his name – well nothing that didn't sound pretentious.

"See, Brother? Restraint," Thor said to Loki, pulling a chair out for Jane. Both of the Asgardians claimed seats on the other side of the table while Bruce sat next to Tony who was still avoiding everyone's eyes. Jane took the offered seat.

Harry didn't miss the way Thor and Jane scooted their chairs closer together. The motion achingly reminded him of what he had ended with Ginny. It made him question his choice again; his reasons for doing it felt weaker than ever when he realized that these two were together despite their differences. He tried to ignore the sinking emptiness. To even out the sides and also because he felt more comfortable with Bruce and Tony, Harry decided to sit with them.

There was another silence that descended over the entire group.

Looking at the two on his side, Harry could honestly say that he had underestimated both Tony and Bruce. He had seen what Tony could do, which made him very curious what Bruce was capable of doing if the man was the so-called babysitter. Harry wasn't sure if he should ask about it again; Bruce had been reluctant to explain and Harry didn't want to pry into something obviously sensitive.

Glancing across the table at both Odinsons, Harry could now understand why Bruce and Tony had been reluctant to believe his magic. His magic didn't exist here – wasn't necessary here when he considered what they could do or create with their own hands … like that circle glowing through Tony's shirt.

Tony smirked when Harry gave him and the light on his chest a funny look. "I did say it wasn't only to illuminate my dashing figure. It's a miniature arc reactor: the power source to my suit."

Annoyed, Harry asked, "You couldn't have mentioned it earlier?"

"And ruin the surprise?"

"Any other surprises?"

"Possibly …" Tony answered.

"Probably …" Bruce added with a wince.

"Certainly," Loki stated.

Harry had to take a moment to separate out all the responses; they were spoken all at once.

"Hey what's life without surprises?" Tony gleefully added.

"Where's Coulson?" Jane asked to change the topic. "Isn't he supposed to be here too?"

"He's at the crash site, handling the clean-up," Bruce answered.

"Who was that man? Fury?" Harry asked.

"Agent's boss," Tony replied. "Director of SHIELD – aka Captain D. since he likes to remind me that there are bigger fishes to fry. That reminds me – " Tony pulled out his phone and pressed a button to talk into it. " – JARVIS, drinks? I thought I programmed you better than this."

The AI didn't respond, but a side door opened and another one of Tony's minion bots rolled in. Harry closed his eyes and hoped this one was nothing like Dummy.

"Butterfingers, did you wash your hand?" Tony asked after he took a close look at the robot.

Butterfingers nodded.

"Don't you lie to me. I see dust and oil on you," Tony chastised. The robot groaned before it left the room like a petulant child. Harry shook his head at the almost human relationship.

"Sorry about this, Harry. It seems you've been dragged into our mess," Bruce apologized.

"It's alright. I'm responsible too."

Tony laughed. "I did say you'd fit right in … how many is that now? Four?" Tony teased. "I'm not counting myself – I was trying to save you."

"I'm beginning to think this is a trend when meeting your friends," Harry grumpily commented.

"Eh, you still love us."

Harry finally remembered about the suspicious man handling the jet's cargo. "Tony, I don't know if this will help, but the man who was loading the luggage … I'm not trying to accuse him, but he seemed a bit off when I talked to him."

Tony nodded. "I'll look into him. I'll look into every person who had contact with my jet."

"This was not a murder attempt," Loki concluded. "At least not an attempt on your life."

"Yeah, it's easier to kill me when I'm not in the suit. Either they miscalculated on the amount of explosives – which I highly doubt – giving me enough time to suit up or this wasn't to kill me at all." Tony's eyes traveled back up to the silent flat screen still displaying the burning wreckage that was once his favorite jet. "Who's in charge of national parks? I'll have to send them some flowers."

"Is that your standard response?" Jane asked.

"You're right. Cut flowers after I killed their trees is probably a little faux pas."

"A little?" Bruce needled.

"Gift basket?" Tony tried again.

"Whomever is responsible, they have spectacularly damaged your image," Loki added as he too watched the screen. "If I wanted to destroy a man completely, this is how I would start."

"You haven't heard of anything down in the grapevine have you?" Tony asked.

"None about you … well, nothing other than the normal griping."

"Fury hinted at the Council pulling their support of you. You think they're responsible?" Bruce asked.

Tony shook his head. "I doubt it. They like things quick and efficient."

"Hold on, if Granger can get any information, then why are we talking so freely?" Jane pointed out.

"Fury had ordered Tony to shut off JARVIS from this room – at least until after Fury left. Quite a big argument before you arrived," Bruce replied.

Still bothered with something, Jane spoke her thoughts. "It's strange Fury would come here in person. He dropped everything to be here."

"Aww, isn't that sweet?" Tony said while dramatically placing a hand over his heart. "And here I thought he was trying to break up with me."

Jane closed her eyes, deep in thought. "He took a big risk. I can understand why he wouldn't want to call you if the Council is watching you, but why didn't he just send a message to Coulson? In spy code – or whatever."

"Unless he doesn't know about Hermione either," Harry suggested. He didn't know why he kept referring to her as Hermione when he only knew her secondhand.

"I thought Coulson was pretty high up on the echelon," Bruce said and then sighed. "We're not going to solve this today."

Harry looked away, guilt seeping in again. "Sorry about all this. I didn't know it would cause this much trouble for you."

Tony waved it off. "No, this is good. I've been trying to figure this out, because both Natasha and Agent have become miraculously adept at going around my security." Tony started to absentmindedly tap on his arc reactor, deep in his thoughts. "Something's still off. Yeah sure, Granger can be the best hacker in the world … but no way she beat JARVIS, not without leaving a trace. I don't care if she made her own A.I., there's no way she can hack her way in without JARVIS knowing about it. It's like she gained access - pulled the passwords and override codes out from thin air."

"Well, she's a borderline genius if not a genius in my world. And she is good with numbers," Harry supplied.

Tony snorted. "And what do you think I am?"

Harry ignored the blatant show of arrogance. "You got a partial answer, at least."

"That's another thing," Tony said. "Captain D. didn't have to say anything. You can't demand information from someone like him. He gave it to us – the question is why?"

"You forced his hand," Thor spoke up. "The move was not planned but a consequence."

"Still … " Tony commented distractedly before he focused his attention onto Loki. "Hey, don't think I've forgotten about this dark magic thing. You know I'm going to find out right?"

Loki revealed a cryptic smile. "I apologize, but we must be on our way."

Thor immediately stood up, dread marking his face. "I have forgotten the time!"

"Well, there you have it." Loki then pointed to Harry. "Orlendr, we will speak again tomorrow."

Harry narrowed his eyes at him when it sounded like a demand.

"Hey - !" Tony called out. Loki and Thor disappeared anyway.

After the others had left – Bruce had ushered Tony out the room, oddly right after Harry had used his shirt to wipe a smudge on his glasses – Jane led Harry through the underground level towards the living quarters. Jane had explained that the rooms were there because Tony wanted a secluded place to crash when he was in the area. There were multiple guest bedrooms and one was available to Harry as long as he needed it.

To keep himself from thinking about the trouble he had caused, Harry asked, "What was that practice? Earlier in your office."

She paused in her stride, surprised at the question. Resuming her walk, she tucked a little of her hair behind an ear and gave a half smile. "I'm not a fighter or an aesir – I mean ásynja. Argh, need to get that right."

Harry returned the half smile. He recognized her mistake and said, "Yes, it wouldn't be good to switch the female and male versions. I think I can guess your dilemma already."

Jane nodded. "I don't carry the same amount of respect there as I do here. I only have this." She pointed to her head.

Now that he had a better picture of her relationship with Thor, he realized, "You were bluffing about that threat."

"Yeah … he knows I wouldn't tell others so freely."

"Because Thor would get the blame for telling you?"

"Exactly – which is why it was practice. Realistically, I would get no real penalty but Thor would."

"I think you can still tell Bruce and Tony at least. All of you seem close and they wouldn't tell others if the information is so sensitive."

Jane laughed. "Loki knows that too. He's banking on it."

Harry frowned at the thought of all the secrets. "Why would he go through all this trouble if he wants all of you to know anyway?"

"Asgard forgives Thor more readily than it does Loki. Thor also wouldn't be lying if he said he didn't reveal it to me directly. Loki can't use that defense."

That didn't surprise Harry. "He doesn't inspire trust – seems like his fault. So … he's been waiting for Thor to slip?"

"Looks like it. And yes, I do agree with you. He doesn't inspire trust once he turns off the charm – and believe me, can he turn on the charm – but … he's earned it – trust, I mean." From me was left unsaid. "The Bifrost here wouldn't be possible without him. He provided the initial data and equations."

"What about telling Bruce and Tony?"

Jane tilted her head and tapped her chin. "Probably Bruce, but I'll hold off on telling Tony. I love it when he's agitated. And that pout! Pepper and I laugh about it all the time. Oh, have you met her yet?"

"I saw her, if only briefly."

A beeping noise interrupted their conversation; it came from Jane's pocket. Taking her phone out and frowning, she said, "Ooh, I need to take this, Harry. Your room's down the hall on the right – look for a white sliding door. If you need anything, just call for JARVIS."

Harry had barely nodded his head before she ran off. He continued his way through the long passage. He passed by several neutral colored doors and then another hallway. He looked to his right and immediately ducked back out of sight when he saw Thor and Loki emerge from a set of double doors, arguing in heated whispers. He peeked around the corner when they turned away from him.

"What good if they are devoured by their own people? Ever since the arrival of this Orlendr, the Menn have become more distracted – too mired with internal problems. A realm troubled with civil war is no ally."

"The Menn have shown great potential," Thor tried to defend.

"The majority are sheep! Kept in the dark of an intra-galactic alliance which should have been revealed to the masses months ago. Their internal strife has delayed this – and the Orlendr has already complicated the situation."

Harry winced at the reminder. He had felt relieved at Tony's dismissive attitude about searching for the Hermione here, but now … that guilt plus the revelation about this world's dark magic sapped all of his strength. He leaned his head back on the wall and breathed out a heavy sigh.

He waited behind the corner until their whispers died down. He peeked around again and when he saw no sign of them, he continued his way through the empty hall to his room. The door slid open for him when he stood in front of it.

Passing all the wooden furniture and ignoring how the room was colored with light shades of gray and blue, Harry practically collapsed onto the bed after removing his shoes and glasses. His clothes were dirty and there were bits of pine needle in his hair, but he didn't care. He was exhausted and disconsolate.

Feeling heavy in body and heart, he crawled underneath the covers, into the white sheets and closed his eyes. His last thought before slipping into dreams was his decision to leave as soon as possible. It wasn't his place to involve himself anymore – perhaps worsening the situation, especially since he didn't fully understand this world. He should go ahead and take his chances; he was supposed to have died after falling into the Veil anyway.

Harry's back was cold.

He'll ask about adjusting the air conditioning later. With eyes still firmly shut, Harry tried to curl in deeper. His fingers prickled with numbness as he tried to bring them closer to his chest. He shivered deeper into the snow – snow?! Startled from the realization, Harry snapped his eyes open and sat up quickly, his fast movement dispersing a layer of white off of him. He looked down at his hands – they weren't blurry. He felt around his cold face to make sure, but his glasses weren't there. This had to be a dream – the only time when he didn't need his spectacles.

He couldn't sleep in peace, couldn't sleep without having strange dreams! He wished he could wake up.

His teeth chattered as he looked around him. All he could see were heavy flurries of snow falling, twirling madly. The storm was too heavy, the winds strong enough to make his eyes tear up – he couldn't see through the snow for any trees or other landmarks.

His body shook again. He needed to start moving or he'd freeze to death. Can you even die in a dream? Harry rolled onto his knees and put his weight on one foot – before he collapsed. He couldn't feel his feet, he realized with a bit of panic. Why did things feel so real? He had to find shelter … or somehow wake up, he crankily thought. Why was he dreaming of such a place? Harry slowly stood up and breathed a sigh of relief when his legs held steady. He dusted the snowflakes off his clothes – strangely made of fur and roughly woven fabric. Fur boots covered his feet and stitched fabric and animal hair over his legs and torso. With a heavy hooded cloak over his shoulders, he thought he looked like one of those Mongolian nomads traveling across the tundra and mountains.

He picked a direction – they all looked the same to him - and fought his way through the snow and ice. Even drawing his cloak closer and covering half his face, he felt like he was breathing in the snow. Deciding no real consequence should come about from a dream, Harry summoned warm air again and cupped his hands over his nose and mouth. He closed his eyes when a strong wind lashed against him.

He stumbled over something covered in the snow. Taking a closer look, Harry realized it had a light tan fur coating.

His heart beat wildly as he touched the fur in disbelief. He remembered how it felt the last time – soft and warm, but now … it was still soft – but cold! One of the paws and its sharp nails were lying in the snow, covered in the snow, buried in it. His eyes followed the paw to the mound of snow three times taller than him. He couldn't tell how tall it really was – the snow fall hadn't let up in its intensity.

"Sphinx?"

Harry wiped and pushed the offending white away from the paw up to the rest of the body. He knew in the back of his mind that she was – no, she wasn't! She can't. He uncovered the shoulders, and then the neck …

"Please no…"

He had to see this creature's face – to make sure it wasn't her.

Leaning over to reach the head, Harry gently brushed with his shaking hand. It was a woman's face, relaxed and with eyes closed.

It was her. He couldn't go home. He couldn't – ! The body vanished underneath his hands and he fell into the thickening snow.

Harry searched around, felt around with his hands. Nothing.

Blazing anger started to flood in.

He hadn't been this angry in years – only when he felt like he had absolutely no control over his life. And then heaviness clung to him. It started from his belly and then spread to his chest. He had felt this before. It was almost crushing in its weight and it prevented him from breathing in the cold air. It spread so that his entire body felt heavy and sluggish. This was no dream.

"There was no sphinx was there? Who are you?!" Harry demanded. He had felt something like this yesterday … when he had asked about Hermione. It was only a feathered touch compared to this. Horrified, he now knew that he started something, a cascade of events starting from a simple search of a name and stepping into Tony's jet.

The last time he had felt this – this burden – was when he had worked on Level 9 in a specific Hall. He had been invited by the Keeper of the Hall of Prophecy. Harry couldn't say no, not because it was part of his apprenticeship, but he had felt guilt and responsibility for destroying all the glass orbs. He remembered stepping into the freezing Hall and being surprised by the aging Keeper dressed in dusty robes. The bearded wizard appeared to have risen from the dancing shadows in the far corner of the room. Harry was asked to pull out a thread of memory of his own Prophecy into a Pensieve. A duplicate was made for a glass orb. Once finished and recorded, the ball had glowed dimly with a soft white and warmth. After that he was tasked with recording the Prophecies the Keeper could recall from memory. The Hall was never fully restored but it still had taken months.

Harry hated that room the most, because it always felt like something was clinging to him every time he entered the Hall. It was also a constant reminder of how his life had been molded by a Prophecy.

"I don't want another Prophecy! Not another Destiny! You can shove it back up your arse! Why did you send me here? I should have died like Sirius when I fell through the Veil, so why am I here?!"

He didn't know what to think. A Prophecy could imply that he had no control but then that would go against everything he wanted – needed – to believe in: that a man determines his own destiny. He didn't want to go back to the first seventeen years of his life – couldn't live as the world dragged him along.

"I'm only making things worse!" Harry shouted. The howling winds and ice were his answers.

Harry ground his teeth – it wasn't because of the cold. "Is that it?! Then I'll break your bloody Prophecy! It's people who give it its power. Their belief in the Prophecy that brings it to life. I'll break it and whatever it is, wherever its glass orb is located, it'll turn dull and brown. The mark of a failed Prophecy!"

Harry took a step back and then another. He had to leave – had to get out! He started to run and then slipped on a patch of ice. Seeing something through the snowfall he grabbed for it. It was only a thin branch of a tree and it did nothing to save him from his fall. The branch broke and he landed heavily on his back. Disoriented, he groaned out loud and thought he could feel the emerging bump on his head. He tried to move but then heard some cracking. What was that? Before he could roll on his side to make sure all his limbs were alright, he heard a final snap and then a plunge into the frigid water underneath. The shock was instantaneous as he felt his arms and legs locking in place from the cold. He gasped in air and water.

Up! He needed to be up. He Apparated up.

AN: I asked about looking up detumescence because I thought it was a funny word. I'll be honest; I had to look it up too. In fact, I look up stuff all the time – and I like it, especially if it makes me laugh.
SHIELD's not all that bad – consider Tony. I think people often forget that Tony's not a completely good person. In the first Iron Man movie, instead of negotiating for the release of the hostages or incapacitating the terrorists, he just shot them in the forehead. He didn't even try for an alternative.
Harry's facing a dilemma … centered on the nature of destiny. He's unintentionally influenced events up to this point but now he's going to rock the boat. XD
2013-10-13 Thank you to the reviewer who correctly pointed out that modern encryption utilizes more than just prime numbers.