Come Together Chapter 9 - Technomancy

AN:

Oni: It's been a while, y'all. Sorry about that! But here's another chapter! I hope you like it! Also thank you so much for all your follows and favorites!

Tom: Oni does not own Harry Potter nor the MCU.

Bucky: Tom and his snake friends hiss in italics.

Oni: AAAAAAAND ONWARDS!

It was going to take longer than usual to plan for the attack on Nurmengard, as it would be different to any raid they ever did before. Unlike HYDRA bases, Nurmengard was guarded by not only wizards but wards as well. You couldn't just walk up and open fire, as you'd be fried as soon as you stepped into range of the copious and downright lethal wards that were undoubtedly set up around the magical fortress. This was why it was Tom's job to collaborate with Howard in order to create a device that would break the runic arrays and warding lattice, as well as create magic resistant armor for the other Commandos.

The raid, primarily, was to discover why Nurmengard was even listed as a HYDRA base. Even though Schmidt and Grindelwald appeared to work together, it was glaringly obvious that Schmidt did not trust the Dark Lord, nor would Grindelwald ever even think about looking at muggles as equals. This meant that Nurmengard was holding something important to both parties behind its walls. Perhaps something of a powerful magical nature that could only be contained (or so HYDRA is convinced) by wizards. This made this particular mission the most dangerous one yet, hence the extra planning and development.

Tom was currently drawing some complex runic arrays in his diary, the same one that still held a piece of his own soul. The soul shard would temporarily power the runes if need be, though Tom knew it wasn't going to be forever. He needed to get the horcrux out.

The past year had been the best in his life, one filled with excitement and camaraderie. But even that could not take away the fact that they were in times of war, that they were soldiers who could die at any point on the field. Muggles didn't even live as long as wizards did, and he knew that neither Steve, nor Bucky, nor any of his friends would choose the path of immortality. They've already chosen the path that could even lead to a shorter lifespan, and that revelation left a very odd hole in his chest.

There was once a time when all Tom could think of was finding a way to cheat death, but what good is immortality if all you can do is watch as your friends rot away? His fear of death had somehow transformed into a fear of living while his friends died. The horcrux, at one point a desperate attempt to prolong his longevity, had turned into what was potentially his worst nightmare.

It was, of course, possible to call back a horcrux through complete and full remorse of its creation. Unfortunately for Tom, he didn't quite feel much remorse for the death of Myrtle the Whiner of Ravenclaw, though he did feel bad for expelling the half giant boy. He had spread some rather nasty rumors about the third year Gryffindor raising werewolf cubs and wrestling trolls. True, the boy had somehow acquired an Acromantula of all things, but compared to Tom's use of the Basilisk to hunt muggleborns the slightly larger than usual spider posed no harm, just a convenient scapegoat.

Perhaps when this war was over, he should go make amends with the boy. He had to be what now, fifteen? If Tom remembered correctly, the boy was expelled and had his wand snapped. He would have to ask Dumbledore of his whereabouts, and perhaps that would ease the slight guilt he felt about that incident. Tom had changed from the boy he was back then.

"What're you drawing?" asked a voice from behind, causing Tom to almost jump out of his seat.

"Merlin, Howard, a little more warning would have been nice!" Tom yelped out, his head snapping to the amused inventor.

"Aaaah. Magic stuff then. You only say Merlin when you're thinking about magic stuff. So what is it?" Howard powered on with a smirk, rubbing his hands together as he leaned over to inspect Tom's work on the diary.

"I suppose you could call it an Imprisonment Array for Magicals." Tom sighed, his eyes looking over it for any mistakes, "Theoretically, you put the wizard or other magical creature into an enclosed space, draw this rune or have it already drawn, and it should use the prisoner's own magic to keep them imprisoned."

"So it's a Wizard Trap." Howard surmised.

"Precisely." Tom said with a nod.

"Looks pretty hard to draw though, is there a way to simplify it?" the inventor asked, his finger tapping the side of the page.

"At this point in time I don't know if the original one works." the teenage wizard sighed out, shaking his head.

Howard chuckled at Tom's disparaging tone, patting Tom on the shoulder as he straightened back up. Tom groaned in frustration and shut the diary, deciding to dwell on his own sins at a later date. He placed the diary back in the mokeskin pouch that never left his side before stretching out the stiffness from sitting down for such a long time.

"You really need to take a break or something." Howard said, his jovial tone masking his seriousness, "You're a growing sixteen year old kid, you gotta at least eat, even if you are a genius like me."

"Seventeen." Tom intoned, closing his sore eyes for a couple of seconds and missing the look of confusion on the inventor's face.

"No, no you said you were sixteen when you joined the rag tag bunch of cowboys, you can't go changing the facts." Howard said with a frown.

"I was sixteen when I joined. I'm seventeen now." Tom stated, turning to look at his scientist friend.

"What, you mean like today? Is it you're birthday today?" Howard nearly stuttered out in surprise, "Why didn't you tell me? And you've been working all d-"

"Today is not my birthday." Tom cut in, "I've been seventeen for quite a while now."

"How long is 'quite a while'?" Howard sputtered.

"Oh…eight months, I believe." he answered flippantly, turning to walk out the door before he felt a hand clamp down on in shoulders, "It really isn't that big of a deal, Howard. It's just a birthday."

"You're almost eighteen and we missed your seventeenth birthday! You're almost a man, Tom! We need to know these things!"

Tom sighed. This was something he never liked getting into. He knew that most people celebrated birthdays with joy and company, but such was never so for the social outcast that was Tom, who would mostly be left alone as they celebrated New Years instead. His last birthday was no different, as he celebrated the coming of 1944 with Howard, Peggy, and the Howling Commandos, along with privately celebrating his coming into adulthood in the eyes of the Wizarding World. He was fine with that, and while he celebrated the birthdays of his fellow teammates, Tom never felt the need to do so for his own.

"It's not important, Howard." Tom stressed to the worrying scientist, "If you really feel that strongly about the subject, I will let you know the day I turn eighteen."

"No!" Howard sputtered, heading towards the door, "No no no no no that's not how this works! We need time to prepare and clear our schedules and get gifts-"

"Nonsense." Tom cut in with a shake of his head, "Don't waste your time-"

"Too late!" Howard shouted excitedly before going out of the door, "Hey fellas! You won't believe what Tom just told me…"

His voice trailed off into the distance, and Tom was left with another odd feeling in his chest, one that it seems only these crazy Americans could force him to feel. With a sigh, he tried to return his thoughts to the diary, knowing full well that he wasn't going to be able to get any work done once Howard brought Steve and Bucky into this. That lot was relentless in anything that they put their minds to.

For the past year, Steve, Bucky, and Howard had taken it upon themselves to break Tom out of what little shell he had left, forcing the young wizard to try and recuperate the loss of his perceived dignity. He didn't know why Americans always put so much emphasis on hugs and smiles and songs, though perhaps thus was a muggle thing. Or, if Tom thought back to Dumbledore, simply a non-Slytherin thing. Whatever it was, they would not stop until he had no choice to consider them as some odd form of family.

Tom was about to sketch yet another sigil when Howard returned with two riled up soldiers, as if on cue to some cosmic play. Both Bucky and Steve looked stricken while Howard had that damnable smug look on his face. The wizard vowed to get revenge on the scientist at his earliest convenience as he held up his hands in mock defeat, a grimace plastered on his face.

"I know what you are going to say, so save it." Tom sighed out, watching as the incensed expressions seemed to diminish somewhat, "But in my defense, I don't see why this is so important. We are in the middle of a war right now."

"Exactly!" Bucky exclaimed, "We're in the middle of a war! We have no idea whether or not we're gonna die tomorrow, so we gotta make the most of what we got right now! You can't just tell us to wait, because there's a chance that we might not be able to!"

After Bucky's emboldened speech, Tom sat there in his chair, the gears in his head turning as it tried to ignore the truth in the American's words. Judging by the expressions of the other two men in the room, they shared Bucky's sentiment. With a heavy, defeated sigh, Tom leaned back and rubbed his forehead in an attempt to stave off the headache that came with reasoning with (and losing to) these three men.

"Very well, what is it that you want me to do then?" came the groaning voice of the British wizard.

As if he had said the incantation to the Cheering charm instead, all three men immediately brightened by his caving. Howard pulled out a pad of paper along with a pen and began to jot something down. Bucky and Steve began to circle around the seated boy before heartily clamping a hand on each of his shoulders, looking for all the world like excited puppy dogs. Tom didn't let them know that he appreciated the effort they were putting in for him. It still left a wonderful feeling in his chest when he thought about it, but he wouldn't admit to himself that he was going soft.

He wondered, still, what had happened to the orphaned boy who vowed vengeance on all muggle-kind for their slights upon him.

"Well, first we need to plan your party," Bucky said matter-of-factly, ticking off things with his fingers, "And then we need to get your actual birthday so we can plan an even bigger party for our little man."

Ah, yes, he met these idiots that somehow turned him into a man that would gladly take a bullet or a curse to the chest in order to save them. How a single choice to Apparate into the woods of a postcard set such things in motion was daunting.

"The Thirty First of December." Tom replied with a sigh, "I was born an hour before the New Year. Hence why I found no point celebrating it if we were to celebrate the more widely known anniversary instead."

"Huh." Steve said, running a hand through his hair, "That would explain why the files from the Orphanage only listed your birthday as Nineteen Twenty Six."

"Yes, the nurses were drunk when I was born, as usual. I only found out my birth date when they were explaining to new caretakers how unnatural I was and how they had me pinned as a bad egg since I was born right before the New Years." Tom explained with a roll of his eyes, ignoring the chuckles of his friends as he stood up from his seat, stretching a little after sitting for so long.

He had grown quite a lot in the past year, something many of his peers were both disgruntled and intrigued by, having gone from Howard's height to staring straight into the eyes of his Captain. Steve had joked on whether or not Tom had taken some magical equivalent to his super soldier serum, of which the wizard vehemently denied. It was strange, even among wizards, to grow a good four inches under a year without a spell or potion. Perhaps one of the runes he carved gave this as a side effect?

It was something he put off researching, as the Anti-Magic grenades, armor, weapons, and traps had taken up the majority of his brainpower. If his growth did not cease by the time he passed Steve's height, he would look into it.

"Well aren't you just a regular Oliver Twist." Howard shot back with a cocky grin, pulling Tom's mind back to the laboratory, "Are you going to ask me for more porridge now?"

The scientist was rewarded with a withering stare.

"Right!" Bucky then said, his hand clamping down on Tom's boulder once more as he steered the teenage wizard towards the exit, "How about we take a break and see what the others have found out, eh?"

Grumbling half heartedly that he didn't quite have a choice in the matter, Tom walked down the halls with the three Americans to the meeting room designated specifically for Captain America and the Howling Commandos to use. Since not everything had to be reported to Colonel Philips immediately, most of the time the room was used as a semi break room for when they weren't allowed to leave the facility. Which has been happening more recently as the day they can obliterate HYDRA and Grindelwald completely draws nearer. With a sigh, the wizard opened the door to their destination.

…And stared flatly at the men standing in front of of him, all of whom had matching, smug grins on their faces.

It appeared that he had underestimated the Slytherin qualities that laid in his comrades, especially in Steve, who beamed at him as the wizard scrutinized the cake sitting on top of the meeting room table. They had been bloody stalling him in the laboratory. Stalling him so that the other Howling Commandos could rush to the nearest bakery to get a cake for an impromptu belated celebration. Judging by the smirk on Peggy's face as well, she had aided them in some way as well. On Peggy's shoulder was Jormungand, who was muttering about the strangeness of his Speaker's friends.

A scowl crossed his face while something warm stirred in his chest. He was led to the head of the table, where Captain America usually sat, and rolled his eyes. Sometimes his friends were simply ridiculous, he commented to himself as he watched with a quirked eyebrow as Dernier lit the candles on the cake with a lighter, while the other men flinched slightly as if the cake would suddenly explode.

Unbidden, a smile wormed its way onto his face as the group began to sing. Their singing was positively abysmal, with many voices and accents melting together into to form the monstrosity that was his birthday song. A chuckle burst from his throat at the ridiculousness of it all as they urged him to blow out the candles, of which were procured by unknown means, before cheering when he did so.

As he watched them cheer, Tom decided that this truly was the place where he belonged.

Tom and Howard stared at the devices in pride, marveling at their work, finished at last. The Technomancy line of gear was the birthchild of both Muggle and Magical research, with runes, enchantments, and electrical work meshing together almost seamlessly to create what Tom was certain was the beginning of a new era of technology.

By far their greatest breakthrough was the use of electricity in order to affect and detect magic, instead of the other way around, by creating a magnetic field that could then be directed to do a multitude of things. This would include breaking ward lattices in the form of magically disruptive grenades, and even form a protective shield similar to a Protego that could be activated at the press of a button. The gear was already fitted onto the uniforms, including Tom's own. When paired with his non-electrically invasive runework, the gear would be able to withstand not only magical attacks, but physical ones as well.

"Wow," muttered Bucky, inspecting the new rounds of ammunition that he was to carry in his sniper rifle, "You guys really outdid yourselves..."

"Your weapons contain runes for unbreakability." Tom stated, addressing his Captain and the other Commandos, "Your uniforms have been fitted with Technomagical shields, and if you ever find yourself in the midst of a battle, I suggest you activate it. The Shield will last five minutes before they have to recharge on ambient magic, which will be approximately thirty seconds in the magically concentrated area of Nurmengard."

At Tom's words, most of the Howling Commandos began to activate the shields, gaping in awe as a large circle of light burst from from the device built into their left forearms. The young wizard noted that the shields were a glowing blue, the same shade as the solid magic shard that Steve brought back from the Austrian base so long ago.

"Your ammunition has been modified to pierce through magical shields." Howard added, holding up a pistol, "Which is why you guys still have bulletproof vests. These rounds are unstable once they've been shot, and will explode upon contact, so I suggest you avoid any friendly fire."

The men all began to gather the ammunition before holstering their weapons. Peggy looked at the gear appraisingly, and gave Tom a nod of approval. She would also be joining them to Nurmengard, as this mission required both cunning and strength to be successful. Howard, too, would be coming along, but he would be observing from afar.

"You should also come out, my friend. I don't want you to get hurt during this next mission." Tom hissed under his breath.

Jormungand, who had been sleeping in the hidden pouch of Tom's collar, slithered onto the wizard's shoulders before winding down his left arm. The asp stayed still as the teen wizard tugged a black metallic mesh over his scales, a second set of protection for his most recent serpentine familiar. Once he was finished, Tom listened to the snake complain about the strange feel of the little metal coat with a hint of a smile before placing Jormungand back atop his shoulders.

Tom looked around the room where his comrades were getting ready for what was possibly their biggest battle yet. It wasn't just the defeat of the enemy that was on the line, but this would be one of the first times that muggles and magical would be awaiting the battle with bated breath, and the outcome of it might change the way the Magical World viewed muggles, for good or for bad. Who else would be brave (or stupid) enough to storm Nurmengard, a place that not even the most hardened Auror would march against? And with Tom at their side, it could be said that the two worlds could live side by side as equals. Winning the battle would crush the stigma that muggles were weak and ignorant, and would be detrimental to Grindelwald's campaign.

He looked at his Captain, at his fellow Commandos, at Peggy and at Howard, and knew that the world was truly about to change.

Nurmengard stood on top of a cliff side, its entrance staring at the ocean. It's dark, towering presence would remind any wizards nearby of the Azkaban prison, and the cold from the unforgiving ocean almost emulated the chill of the dementors. Grindelwald had built the structure as his main headquarters, and as a prison for any hapless wizard who got in his way. That is, any wizard that was still useful to his cause, for Grindelwald had no qualms with killing those he deemed too useless. According to the Daily Prophet, nobody knew which wizards were killed and which were merely imprisoned, as the fortress was nigh impenetrable.

The wards on Nurmengard were done by Grindelwald himself, and it was estimated that ten professional ward breakers would be required to break the wards in a month, if the ward breakers survived that long. Enemies would be killed by many of the Disillusioned guards crawling about the place, unseen and unheard until it was too late. Anyone flying on brooms to the entrance would either be fried by the wards or shot down by enemy spellfire, and daring wizards coming from behind would most likely share the same fate. It was well known in the Wizarding World that Nurmengard was an impossible fortress to down.

Until now.

Creeping through the woodland area, Captain America and his Howling Commandos made no sound, curtesy of the noise-cancelling charms placed on their feet. Agent Carter and Howard Stark followed close by, Peggy armed with a pistol and Howard with a Technomagical Grenade cannon. Howard then stopped just as the wards came into view, visible on his Magic Detector, which fired electrical pulses and simulated a kind of energy echolocation. He then began to set up camp with the rest of his technology crew, and gave a lazy salute as the others continued forward into dangerous territory.

The hum of the wards were getting closer and closer as they trekked on, Falsworth holding a smaller version of the Magic detector in his hands. Every member of the team was invisible to the detector, except for Tom, whose core was cast in a bright blue, denoting his magical nature. In the distance, a giant wall of translucent blue could be viewed on the screen, revealing the wards that weren't visible to the naked eye. As they got closer to the ward line more blobs of blue, people with magical cores, could be seen patrolling the grounds behind the wall. The Captain raised his hand to stop the group, and motioned for them to take their places. He raised his hand held radio to his face and whispered the code words.

For a second, there was silence, as if even the sea felt the oncoming storm. From where Howard was encamped came several missile-like objects, all flying towards the wards. As they arched in the air, Tom could feel the palpable anticipation, the buildup of something that would shake the very foundation of the Wizarding World for years to come.

The Anti-Magic grenades hit the wards, and for a moment the resulting explosion blinded everyone, covering their ears from the resounding crack of something very large breaking. When the smoke cleared, Tom chanced a look at the site in front of him. The wards were completely destroyed, the grenades having destroyed one of their wardstones in the explosion. Not only that, but it seemed to have also disintegrated the enemy wizards' Disillusionment charms, leaving them both shocked and horrified. With their path now paved and taking advantage of this lull in enemy attention, the Howling Commandos charged forward.

It was pandemonium. The sound of gunfire rang out amongst the roar of the ocean, hitting the armorless wizards with almost depressing ease. That was, until the wizards started to attack back. Shouts of surprise and horror began to ring out as the muggle members of the Commandos activated their shields, watching as the dark curses simply bounced off of discs of blue light. They would rotate which person activated their gear, so that a shield could always be up at any point in time. Steve and Tom, who had their own shields, marched forward and fired away at the enemy. With his shield in one hand and gun in the other, Tom looked for all the world as Muggle as the rest of his team. This was done to confuse Grindelwald's army, who had no doubt heard that a wizard was aiding the Allied soldiers against them.

Like HYDRA, wizards bearing the sigil of the Deathly Hallows began to pour from Nurmengard, like wasps from their disturbed nest. Step by step Tom pressed forward, firing away at those he would have once supported wholeheartedly. Steve, who had a couple of wizards come up at close range, resorted to smashing the enemies with his shield, sending them flying. Tom, who had run out of bullets, began to do the same, noting in his mind how his strength seemed to match that of the Captain as he caved in a wizard's face with his fist. Once he unholstered his wand and began to cast spells, the members of Grindelwald's army began to focus more on him, allowing the Captain to enter Nurmengard first. In the meantime, Tom was subject to the verbal abuse coming from the wizards firing at him, chasing him into the fortress as well. Exclamations of "Mudblood!", "Traitor!", and "Muggle lover!" were shouted from all around him.

A high, cold laugh echoed inside the walls of Nurmengard as Tom attacked the wizards with violent abandon. He may not have graduated Hogwarts, but that didn't mean he was uneducated in the art of dueling. Tom blocked and casted again and again, his skill and repertoire of dark magic aiding him in striking fear into the hearts of these wizards. The enemy wizards began to retreat, scuttling into the many corridors of the labyrinth-like structure of Nurmengard.

With the wizards gone, Tom took this as his chance to locate the other members of his team. Peggy and the rest of the Howling Commandos were just storming in, which meant that the enemies outside were either dead, injured, or had retreated back into the castle. He gave them a nod just as Steve returned from where he had gone inside the fortress.

"There's a couple of cells off on the west side that appear to be occupied." said Steve in his leader voice, "Jones, Falsworth, see if we can get them out. There might be more, but we'll have to go deeper to see. Dernier, plant the explosives but don't activate them until my signal. Dum Dum and Morita, watch the entrance and alert us if any reinforcements arrive. Bucky, Tom, Peggy, you guys are with me. Let's see what Grindelwald is hiding in here. All clear?"

"All clear!" was the determined, unified reply before everyone split up to do their respective duties.

They encountered little resistance as they climbed the stairs up the jet-black fortress, shooting and blasting way the wizards that attacked them with vehemence. Stark's Magic Detector showed them any occupied cells, but nothing of note came up on the screen that could indicate something powerful and world-changing. As he climbed higher alongside his comrades, Tom wondered where Gellert Grindelwald was. It wouldn't be far-fetched to assume the man was in the midst of the HYDRA headquarters, perhaps trying to get his hands on whatever power source Schmidt possessed. This meant that, unfortunately, they would not be able to take what Grindelwald himself possessed, but the destruction of Nurmengard would signal the beginning of the end of Grindelwald's reign.

The sound of gunfire and joyous cried reverberated from below them. Jones and Falsworth must have found and freed some of the prisoners kept in the lower levels. Assuming that the prisoners were kept in order of importance, those in the lower levels must have been in the most risk of being killed. Deducing from that, it was disturbing how many cells in the higher levels were empty. When they crossed the next level of stairs, however, the sound of shouting could be heard from one of the farther cells.

"Hello? Hello, is anyone there?" was the voice of a man, followed by the sound of hands banging against metal doors.

With a nod of affirmation from Steve, both Tom and Bucky went to investigate while their Captain and Agent Carter continued on up the stairs. With wand and shield Tom crept along the corridor with Bucky, getting closer and closer to where the prisoner was.

"This is Sergeant Riddle and Sergeant Barnes from the Strategic Scientific Reserve. We are here to rescue you." Tom told the voice as he came closer to the door after noting that the prisoner sounded British.

Once at the door Tom raised his wand to destroy the lock, but was stopped by Bucky.

"Don't worry, I got this!" the American soldier muttered to Tom, raising his gun up with a grin.

Tom nodded to his first friend and stepped back, allowing Bucky to blast off the lock. His lips twitched upwards in mirth as the muggle firearm destroyed what was probably a lock with powerful enchantments in a single blast. Bucky held the gun steady in one hand and wrenched the door open with another, revealing their prisoner, who had a puzzled expression on his face as he took in their uniforms and guns.

"Dear Merlin," the man breathed, "You're muggles! How on Earth did you..."

Tom's eyes took in the sight of the now-freed wizard. Grey eyes stared at his rescuers in shock behind large round spectacles, some of it covered by long, unkept black hair. He had some ragged facial hair as well, indicating that this man had been imprisoned for quite some time. His pale skin stood out starkly from his black hair and the dark, tattered robes that he wore. It was difficult to judge how old the man was, but he was easily over thirty. He seemed oddly familiar.

"Actually," Tom stated, showing his wand, "I'm a wizard. Sergeant Barnes here, however, is a muggle and so is the rest of the team. We're here to destroy Nurmengard."

"Destroy Nurmengard?" asked the wizard, before chuckling, "Well, as long as I'm not in here when you do it!" he joked, the joy of being free finally hitting him.

Tom watched as Bucky smiled at the man, and the two of them held out a hand to the sitting man. Just before the wizard could reach them, however, their radios crackled to life.

"Captain America to Howling Commandos," came Steve's voice, "Top floors have been checked and charges set. Evacuate the building immediately."

With that order in mind, Tom and Bucky hoisted the man to a standing position, helping him exit the cell. The three of them made their way down the stairs of the fortress, Bucky armed with his rifle and Tom armed with his wand. After a few flights down the teenage wizard noticed that their most recent acquaintance was eyeing their weapons with trepidation, wringing his hands worry. Knowing what was going through the man's mind, Tom internally sighed and unholstered Marvolo's wand, handing it to the older wizard.

"Ah, thank you Sergeant!" he replied, taking the wand with obvious relief, "Mine is still at the Ministry. I was captured during a Potions conference."

A Potions conference? What would Grindelwald want with a Potioneer? Tom eyed the man closely, taking in his features, before recognition dawned on him. He had met this man before, during one of Slughorn's Slug Club parties.

"And you are?" asked Bucky, who had just now realized they didn't know the man's identity.

Smiling at his rescuer the Potioneer bobbed his head in half-bow, as a full one would have been difficult seeing as they were still quickly descending the stairs.

"Fleamont Potter. I'm a well-known Potioneer in the Wizarding World."

AN:

Oni: That's all for now, folks!

Tom: You ended on a cliffhanger? With YOUR update schedule?

Oni: *laughs nervously* Yeeeeaaaah...

Steve: Don't forget to Follow, Favorite, and Review!

Oni: And I'll see you next time, my pretties!