Polygraphs are notoriously inaccurate. Before Iron Man, Stark industries had become embroiled in a number of lawsuits thanks to Tony's ethically questionable relationships with various beautiful women. In several of these cases, Pepper had been asked to give a polygraph and every time she'd aced it, even when she was telling a white lie. She always prided herself in being able to keep her head under intense questioning which was very handy when entering a press conference. There were a few times when a huge amount of stress (usually over something Tony had done) caused her to lose control.
This was one of those moments.
Vision had floated completely out of the floor and was now hovering about a foot above the ground so he towered over Pepper and Harry. Heart beating at a thousand miles per hour, Pepper glanced nervously at Harry who seemed completely blasé about the whole situation.
"We are telling the truth." He said, walking forwards as if this were a casual conversation. In doing so, he 'accidentally' knocked Pepper's wand with the toe of his dragon hide boots, sending it whizzing towards her in a shower of golden sparks. Vision lurched backwards, clearly thinking they had just ignited some sort of fire cracker, but relaxed visibly when Pepper scooped it up into her hands and instantly felt safe.
She'd never truly understood why Tony couldn't give up being Iron Man until that moment, when she felt her wand humming happily in her hand. He got a certain thrill out of souring through the air and a validation from saving people. It was an addiction. And, like any addiction, once you fall off the wagon it's twice as hard to give it up again. Perhaps magic for her was a similar addiction; that would explain why muggle borns overhauled their entire lives to be surrounded by the thing they craved so badly.
"I take it you are aware that F.R.I.D.A.Y. is malfunctioning?" Vision asked them, his voice completely calm and even. If not for his aggressive body language, Pepper would have thought he was remarking on something as mundane as the quidditch league tables. No. Baseball league tables (if she didn't want to become embroiled in the magical world once more, she was going to have to stop thinking like a witch). "When the fire alarm was activated, F.R.I.D.A.Y. began to remove air from all sealed rooms in the compound... Natasha could have died."
"Is she..."
"She's fine. I saved her." Vision assured her. "The others haven't been so lucky. Captain Rogers and your friend Ms Granger are unaccounted for. It was a miracle I was able to find you... the two of you." He pinched the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. Was it even possible for him to have a headache? "From moment I laid eyes on you, Ms Granger and Mr Weasley, I knew something was wrong. I knew I was missing something... part of me knew I was missing a fourth person... I could almost see you."
"Fascinating." Harry murmured.
"Is that all you have to say?" His voice became increasingly agitated with every passing second. "People are in danger. Everyone downstairs is worried about you, Ms Potts. I was worried about you. But you weren't in danger. You were gallivanting around the compound with a brother you've never mentioned to anyone before. I can't even begin to fathom how you're actually breathing right now!" He didn't need to breathe, so he didn't pause for breath as he spoke.
"We never intended for this to happen." Pepper said feebly. All the adrenaline and excitement she had felt earlier left her, making her feel strangely heavy, deflated and, most importantly, ashamed. "We are so, so sorry."
"Right now, I don't want an apology." Vision snapped, his normally gentle voice sounding colder somehow. "I want-"
"Answers." Harry exhaled loudly in submission. "Trust me when I say that I know the feeling. I spent most of my early life being lied to, used and manipulated. There was a time when all I had was Pepper. I took her for granted and ended up pushing her to another continent." His voice was low and ashamed, and Pepper knew he was telling the truth. "I'm still taking you for granted." he said, turning to Pepper, his bright green eyes begging her forgiveness. "You said to just talk to the Avengers and I dismissed you. Then when you agreed to help with the heist, I've ignored your advice at almost every turn. So this time, I'm going to do whatever you say. I trust your gut, little sister."
"Thank you, big brother." She smiled warmly at him. "Although I'm technically taller than you..." Reluctantly, Harry grinned, rolling his eyes in the way every big brother rolls their eyes when his little sister is being particularly annoying. Vision seemed especially confused by the unexpected emotions that had suddenly overcome the people he was attempting to interrogate. Pepper decided to give him what he wanted before he called the other Avengers and turned this into a fight. Even with magic, she didn't think her and Harry stood a chance at beating them alone. "The cloak allows its user to move undetected by the human eye. Its power..." Pepper paused, her eyes settling on the golden stone nestled in his forehead. "Well, we believe its power is drawn from a source similar to the stone in your head."
Vision's eyes widened in shock. However he thought that conversation was about to go, he had not expected her to say that. His feet, that had been several inches off the ground, lowered to the floor and he regarded them with more curiosity than suspicion.
"You're telling me the power of one of the six infinity stones is somehow woven into that blanket?"
"It's a cloak." Harry said, defensively.
"When I was created, I absorbed every ounce of information known to man. The whole internet. So trust me when I tell you it's a blanket."
"It doesn't matter what it's called." Pepper interjected, hurriedly, worried the situation was about to escalate even further over something so trivial. "What matters is that it's these stones... the infinity stones... that created it. Please could you tell us more about them?"
For a moment, Vision looked like he was about to protest. He had demanded answers from them, not the other way around. However, something in Pepper's face pacified him. Despite the current events, he trusted her as much as he trusted Tony Stark.
"To my knowledge, three of these stones are accounted for. The space stone, the reality stone and the mind stone. The others are the time stone, the reality stone and the soul stone." He ticked the name of each of the stones off his fingers as he spoke. "Each have a very specific subset of powers when used correctly; the time stone can manipulate time, the reality stone will augment reality, the power stone holds an unfathomable about of power, the space stone can open portals between the worlds and is what caused all that havoc back in 2012, the mind stone holds all the knowledge in the universe and currently resides in my head. Finally, the soul stone can resurrect the dead."
Pepper chewed on her lip thoughtfully (and cursed herself for falling back into that bad habit). If their theories were correct and the hallows were somehow linked to the infinity stones, Vision's information was priceless. The invisibly cloak allowed the user to augment reality to become invisible, the elder wand was the most powerful wand in the world so it wasn't hard to guess which stone made up its core. There was a chance that time turners derived their powers from the time stone... but none of those stones were the one whose fate was at sake in that moment.
Her face paling quickly, Pepper turned to Harry. Her blue eyes were wide with fear as she looked into his green eyes. His mother's eyes.
"The soul stone can resurrect the dead." She echoed Vision's words.
"That's what Death's guarding!" Harry announced excitedly, smacking his hands together. "That's what the artefact will lead us to!"
"And Malfoy's looking for it!" Pepper clapped her hands over her mouth in horror. "Whatever he intends to do with it, it can't be good."
"I'm sorry." Vision interrupted, not sounding particularly sorry at all. Indeed, he appeared to be completely baffled by their whole exchange. As far as he could tell, they'd had some kind of hallucination where they'd spoken to the embodiment of Death. According to his encyclopaedic brain, such visions were fairly common for humans, especially when they'd either had a head injury or had inhaled an extreme amount of hallucinogenic drugs. "But I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about... and I have answered all your questions..."
"Of course." Pepper nodded. "Harry, give him the artefact." There was an authoritative edge in her voice that made Harry's hand flinch, part of him desperate to do as she ordered. However, his and hesitated about his mole skin bag, reluctant to trust Vision.
"Are you sure?"
"What happened to you 'trusting my gut' and 'doing what I say'?" She snapped. "I wouldn't have asked you if I wasn't bloody sure!" She snapped. Technically, she wasn't sure, but she was an excellent bluffer under the right circumstances; she beat Tony whenever he was foolish enough to challenger her to a game of poker (he never did anymore). Harry knew her better than Tony and he believed her. With a loud, passive aggressive sigh, Harry shoved his whole arm into the bag and rifled around for the artefact.
When he'd found it, Harry reluctantly pulled the artefact out of the bag and slowly stretched his hand towards Vision's open hand. Pepper rolled her eyes, and found herself physically prising it from her brother's fingers and gently handing it to Vision without a second thought.
"We found this... we believe it's a map to the soul stone." She explained hurriedly, refusing to look guilty about not bringing it to the Avenger's attention sooner.
"Where exactly did you acquire this?" Vision breathed, handling the artefact as if it were made of glass. Pepper and Harry exchanged sheepish glances; they'd been tossing it around as if it were a tennis ball.
"Umm... that's classified." It wasn't a lie... the minister for magic had insisted that they keep this a secret. But this was not the same as an actual muggle organisation like the FBI or CIA declaring a a mission as 'classified'.
"Classified by whom?" Vision asked skeptically, instantly sensing Pepper's discomfort.
"Never you mind." Harry growled. "If you can't tell us what it is, we'll be on our way... come on Gin, this is a waste of time..."
"Wait." Vision said, sharply. When Pepper looked into his eyes, she could see he was torn. She and Harry stood frozen, as if they had the body bind curse on them. For almost ten agonising seconds, the room was so quiet she could have heard a pin drop. "You are right. Together, the two halves of the map will transport the owner to the exact location of the soul stone, and allow you to speak with its guardian."
"Harry spoke to the guardian once before using this half of the map." Pepper admitted. "It's fitting the the guardian of the soul stone was Death himself."
"There is no physical embodiment of Death." Vision frowned... well, Pepper supposed he frowned, it was hard to identify the facial expressions of a being that was missing eyebrows. Pepper chewed on her lip again, rather confused by his statement.
Could it be that he was mistaken? She had seen Death in Harry's memory. She could never forget the hollowed out eye sockets, the black cloak floating eerily despite the lack of wind, and the bright red skull... On the brink of an epiphany, Pepper's train of thought was broken by Vision's voice.
"And I must tell Captain Rogers and Mr Stark about this. If the soul stone is to be retrieved, we must make sure it is done by the correct organisation."
"Couldn't agree more." Harry smiled, high bright green eyes flickering to Pepper. For a few moments, he stared at her questioningly as if he was silently trying to ask her permission. Confused, she frowned ever so slightly, trying to figure out what he was asking. Harry's eyes flicked from her face to Vision and back to her wand. It didn't take her long to understand what he was asking.
"No. No way Harry!" Pepper said, shaking her head fiercely.
"It's the only way." Harry promised. "Do you really want Stark involved?"
Pepper hesitated, trying to figure out the answer to his question. Part of her ached to see Tony again; to hold him in her arms and ensure he was ok... but at the same time she had to protect him. Getting involved with whatever Malfoy was planning was far too dangerous. She knew over a dozen spells that could disintegrate his armour and render him unconscious, and she had never even finished her final year.
She felt a desperate itch in her forearm that she didn't allow herself to scratch. However, the scar proved as a useful reminder of what Wizards were capable of. Her uncertain blue eyes met Harry's determined green eyes, and after what felt like an age, she nodded ever so slightly. In the same heartbeat, Harry spun around on his heel and pointed his wand at Vision.
"Petrificas Totallus!" He yelled. Vision, who had never experienced this kind of magic before, slumped onto the ground. Harry crouched down beside the limp body of Pepper's friend, he looked sad as he whispered the word; "obliviate." He was always so respectful when wiping someone's memory, even if it was just an hour.
"I can't believe I let you do that." Pepper whispered, rubbing her face with her hands. She was shaking. Harry looked up at her, saying nothing. "I know, I know... this is our job and I volunteered for this. We have what we came for; we know what Malfoy's looking for and we know how to find it..." With every passing second, Pepper became more agitated. The pitch of her voice gradually increased. "...but what if we find it? Malfoy is bound to find out. We will have done the grunt work and he could simply stroll into the ministry and take it without harming a hair on his head. He could use it to do whatever he likes... Harry, he could bring back you-know-who!"
"Say his name, little sister." Harry ordered, a hunt of disgust in his voice. Stubbornly, Pepper crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him, refusing to do as he asks. Finally, Harry sighed, walked over to Pepper and placed his hands lightly on her arms. "He won't bring him back, Gin." He promised staring into her eyes comfortingly.
Pepper stared right back at him. She could see a tiny spark in his green eyes, one he probably didn't even realise was there. He wore the expression he'd worn when Dudley finished up all the apple pie when Harry had so desperately wanted a slice. it was the expression he'd worn when Pepper went out to play with the neighbour hood kids who wouldn't dare go near him. It was the expression he'd worn when Ginny was dating Dean Thomas. It was the expression he'd worn while he wiled away the hours staring into the mirror of Erised. It was the expression he'd worn when he first heard of the deathly hallows...
"Falcon." Harry said suddenly, just as Pepper was about to reprimand him for lusting after such a dangerous artefact. Harry jumped away from her and threw the cloak over his head. "Pepper get down for crying out loud! Sam Bloody Wilson is about to launch himself through that window!"
She turned around and tried to gasp, but no air entered her lungs. The bubble head charm she had so proudly created, had failed. Her face turned scarlet and she clawed her long next to try and find the smallest spec of air in the room.
The white and grey room dissolved into something that looked to her oxygen starved brain, like some kind of whirlpool spinning uncontrollably. She didn't realise she was falling when she fell. She didn't feel her head crack against the marble floor. She felt like she was sleeping. Like she'd been sleeping for hours on end. When her eyes opened she half expected everything to be a dream, that she would wake up in her silk sheets with Tony slumbering beside her...
Author's Note:
Thanks for reading, I'm sorry for the delay in publishing, life has gotten in the way! Thanks to coronavirus I should have more time to write so hopefully I'll be able to get more chapters out!
