Names: Sorry about the waffling on the names, I just learned more about the Russian language and became enamoured with the variety of nicknames (anyone who knows more or has cultural things they want to be added to this story, please let me know). I know it might be irritating to some readers but as I'm making MCU Natasha have her comic book age, I wanted to celebrate culture a bit more. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine and Russia, the people of a nation are not their governments.
KEYnote: Bucky and Natasha have a history but they are not the main pairing.
Timeline: After Iron Man 2. And as the description says, Natasha is not from the future she just hacked SHIELD and found Hydra and the alien weapon storage.
INSPIRATION: This, You Protect by Owlet, I highly recommend and I do not have permission to use their work but my characters are taking heavy influence from that series.
Chapter 3 - Surviving
"If you knew this would happen, why did you tell him at all!?" Minerva yelled.
"Because he's miserable!" Sirius shouted. "Every time he wrote to us this summer, every time I've seen him he's been miserable. He's depressed, he's angry, he's lost, and when people get that way they do stupid things. I didn't know he would lose his magic, but it's done now and even if he hates me forever, at least he has hope."
"And his birth family is dead? What then?" Minerva asked.
"Then at least it gets him out of this damned country."
"He's a muggle, Sirius! And he has no way to live in the muggle world, he's lost five years of education—"
"Harry is a survivor. He will be okay. You said he's eating more, that he looks healthier, and he seems to even be sleeping according to what the portraits say. If Lily used the curse I think she did, it would have killed him in the end anyway."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Lily Evans was Severus's best friend. Lily was as good in Defense Against the Dark Arts as Harry was, but unlike Harry, Lily played with Dark Magic. From what Harry told me he remembers of that night was that Lily didn't fight Voldemort, do you have any idea how absurd that is? Lily was as good as Bellatrix Lestrange."
"No, she wasn't…" She began to say but then remembered, that Lily had graduated with the highest marks in the school.
Higher marks than James or Severus in every subject, save Transfiguration.
Minerva shook her head, "What does the curse-driven ritual actually do?"
"Well, for starters, Lily and James would have died shortly after casting that ritual. It also would have killed Harry. The long term placement of this curse causes immunal issues. Witches and wizards have different diseases that don't cross well with the muggle ones. Every single person who had that curse cast on them died before they were thirty, if not from murder than disease."
Minerva blinked. "Then why the hell didn't you remove it sooner?"
"One," Sirius said, "because I didn't know until the portraits told me Harry was losing his magic. Two, even if I had known, Voldemort has already been after him and without magic, Harry wouldn't have survived last year."
"Hogwarts is still the safest place for him," Minerva said though she felt the untruthfulness of that statement like a battering against her bones.
Sirius sighed, "I know this isn't what you want to hear, but Harry needs to leave Hogwarts before his appearance is widely acknowledged. If Harry wants to go to Russia then Harry and I can go live there. We will have to keep moving, however, the Russian Wizarding Bureau has no great love for the British. I will not be hunted by the government there and they wouldn't enforce any laws if I was living solely in the muggle world."
"Would you give up magic?" she asked, already knowing his answer.
He gave her a dry look, "I would do a lot of things to get out of this hell hole."
"I can't believe Lily would do this."
"That ritual saved Harry from the Killing Curse."
"But how?"
"She gave her life for him in a ritual, when Voldemort used the Killing Curse on James and then Lily, it was Voldemort who completed the curse. Her life was the final step in that ritual and Voldemort fired dark magic into a still settling magic.
"Had he cast a counter curse to the ritual, that would have killed Harry, but magic isn't something the Killing Curse can stop."
Minerva grimaced, rituals were not taught at Hogwarts for that very reason.
So much could and often did go wrong. An explosion that could kill a man and blow up half a house?
Yeah, that was pretty typical for meddling in rituals.
Minerva frowned, "Did Severus know?"
Sirius grimaced, "I know the story is that Lily stopped being his friend when he insulted her. But Lily was not the good girl she appeared to be. She never shared much with us but she did tell me once that she did things with Snape she regretted doing. "
He lifted a book off the table, "I found this in the Black library. I wouldn't be surprised if the Prince Family didn't have a first edition.
Minerva looked at the title and grimaced."
A Life for a Life: Curses and Rituals for the End of Days.
Minerva took it gingerly in her hands and read through it, most of the book was horrific.
Then she found the ritual.
A Parent's Sacrifice. Minerva felt like she was going to be sick as she read through it.
Lily hadn't just used her own life, she and James hadn't just used their lives to give Harry magic.
The cost had been their souls.
Voldemort had killed two people who would have no afterlife.
"No," she breathed. "They knew better. They knew better. And how can you know the side effects? This spell couldn't have been used often."
Sirius sighed, "Some pure-blood families who only had one heir, the heir's parents would perform this on the muggle spouse to keep their legacy pure."
Minerva was horrified because knowing their history, she was certain it had been more than a few people who had tried this. "They could have just said he was adopted."
He shook his head, "Before they knew Voldemort was after Harry, he would have been a muggle child in the wizarding world, during the war he still would have been targeted. I thought when I got out of prison that Harry simply was magical himself. I mean he came to us in a burst of blue light. But Lily must have had him tested after all."
"Blue light?" she asked.
Sirius waved it away, "It doesn't matter. The curse only works on muggles not squibs."
Minerva wanted to press, but she knew her presence would be missed soon. She debated the merits of taking Harry out of school without Albus's permission.
She doubted she would ever be charged with kidnapping. And Sirius was right, Harry couldn't continue on in Hogwarts, nor could he stay in the country.
What was more, she did trust Sirius.
"Tomorrow night then, before the exams."
Sirius nodded.
Minerva would have an alibi for going to Hogsmeade and Harry had his invisibility cloak,
"Tomorrow night it is then," Sirius said as if he were already planning.
It was her turn to nod, she would miss Harry but this might be better. He would be free from the pressures of the wizarding world.
Free from the war and Voldemort, something he should never have been a part of something.
Something Lily and James had given their lives and souls in attempts to prevent.
She hoped one day, Harry would understand how very much his parents had loved him.
Soldat does not tell Natasha that he killed Stark's parents.
Nor does Soldat tell Stark.
On the whole, Soldat is not particularly bothered, though he feels he should.
He's fought on both sides of too many conflicts for far too long to truly think it matters anymore.
Howard Stark invented weapons, he also helped create the atomic bomb.
Atomics bombs had hurt more people than Soldat ever could.
Of the people he has killed, he doesn't feel particularly bad about the Starks.
If it hadn't been him, they would still be dead and Anthony Stark would still be an orphan.
Yelena was sitting crosslegged on the work table Soldat was leaning against with a tablet in her lap.
He was oddly fond of her. She was nothing like Melina who was harmful and wicked. No, Yelina was cheerful and earnest, she reminded Soldat of his little sister, Rebecca.
Not that he actually remembered much about his sister. But he had dreams sometimes, and Yelena had the same thirst for the world around her that had made Rebecca pursue a degree in education.
Becca had passed away only a few years ago, Soldat had learned.
It was a sadness, like Rogers's name and face were.
But Yelena was not a sadness, in fact, watching her recover bits of herself after years of compulsory obedience, gave him hope that he could recover too.
Made him want to recover.
Resisting compulsion was easier without torture. Easier given the freedom to patch his memories back together without being reset each time.
But he preferred standing guard beside Yelena than letting Melina and Natasha break him off his conditioning by whispering the hypnosis words in his ears and giving him conflicting commands.
Yes, guarding Yelena was preferable.
And Soldat was very convinced that everyone needed guarding against Tony Stark.
"My father invented a new element from this thing," the man muttered as had one of his robots poke at it.
"I don't need a new element, I need you to reconnect the portal," Natasha said.
Dr. Bruce Banner, who like the super-soldiers was a mutant —albeit one who had gained mutation from radiation that on anyone else should have created cancer, lots and lots of cancer— took off his glasses and sighed, "This is insane."
"No, what's insane is the organization my father, Agent Peggy Carter, and Captain America spent their lives destroying is still around," Stark said hotly.
Melina, who was tinkering with one of Stark's tablets while reading Banner's notes, spoke without raising her head, "Corruption is hard to negate when you accept it to move forward. What Hydra was and what it is now are different things."
The Red Room was an example of that, born from Hydra, the Widows had become a law unto themselves, one not even Hydra had been able to control.
"Can you do it?" Natasha asked.
Stark sat back, "I don't know why I should help you when you're the one who lied to Pepper and me for months."
"Carter was a spy," Melina said.
"You didn't know Peggy," Stark retorted.
Soldat was amused by that. Natasha was younger than him, as was Yelena, but Melina had a few decades on Soldat.
Melina smiled sweet, "I did know her, in fact."
Stark did a double-take, "How—?"
"Can you do it?" Natasha pressed.
Stark gave her an exasperated look, "Of course, I can."
"I don't know why you had to pull me out of India for this," Banner said.
"He's an engineer, technology, but he is not as gifted as his father in biological problems," Melina said.
Stark glared at her, "If I applied myself, I could handle biology just fine, but considering what my father's experiments caused, I was interested in following his mistakes."
Soldat didn't miss he meant the super-serums everyone in this room had used on them save Stark himself.
Melina tsked, "You mean the race your father joined, not inspired. I'm older than Captain America."
Soldat didn't envy her, and one of the reasons he allowed her to pick at him, was because she had been one of the first Widows, and had been cycled through the training several times over.
"Whatever, but this stone has nothing to do with bodies, what do you need on the biological front?" Stark asked.
Melina shrugged, "We figured he could help you, or do it himself if you refused, given he also has degrees in robotics."
Banner frowned at her, "Why are you avoiding the question?"
Natasha looked at Soldat, but he just looked back, passive. This was her idea, her want; it was up to her how much she wanted or didn't want to share.
"We need to find my son in another dimension, it would be helpful to focus that portal through space into an alternate dimension on him," Natasha said.
"What if he doesn't want to return to this dimension?" Banner asked. "What if he has a life and a family there?"
"Then I'll know he is okay and we close the portal," Natasha said.
Stark sighed, rubbing his temples, "Well isn't that just a tad more difficult than recreating this abomination."
"That still doesn't explain what you need with me," Banner said.
This time Natasha shared a look with Melina before answering, "Aleksey is my son and Soldat's son, his file marked him as 'successful.'"
"Meaning what exactly?" Banner asked, looking at Soldat warily.
"He has both serums in him," Melina said. "And as far as we know, the only person we know who naturally inherited super-abilities through his chromosomes. We don't know how that will affect him. I need an extra pair of eyes on this, my studies are more focused on the neurological. I'm less certain about bone growth."
Banner sat back in his chair, "You mean, he's what, not a mutant but an—"
"He's evolved."
Yelena asked, "Is that what you all were worried about? And how is he not a mutant if he's like us?"
"A mutation is a one-off," Banner answered. "A singular growth that can happen in an embryo or post-birth, caused by chaos theory or, in our case, outside interference in our DNA. But to inherit such an alteration naturally, especially from two different parents, is evolution. Evolution is typically more stable, something that can be passed onto his own children."
"And if it's not stable?" Yelena asked, proving that though she was no scientist, she still had a good head on her shoulders.
Of the people Soldat had played bodyguard for, she was his favourite.
Rogers didn't count, he had been a friend, the person he was now, didn't have friends.
"I have no idea what side effects might have been," Banner said.
"I can give you the files of failed serum candidates," Melina offered.
Banner grimaced but nodded.
Stark was a bit wide-eyed, as he turned back to his advanced draft table. "Right, I'll leave it to Banner's capable hands."
"Why help us?" Soldat asked.
Stark looked up with a frown, "Because I decided I have a lot to make up for, and if SHIELD is corrupt then I owe it to Aunt Peggy to bring it down. Right now, that means helping you. Using science to reverse engineer a machine to recover someone's son, sounds like as worthy cause as any."
Soldat looked at Banner who had been watching the exchange with pinched brows.
Banner met his gaze and Soldat didn't repeat himself.
The doctor said, "Over the years, I've had a lot of people ask me for help, but you are the first people, knowing what I am, who asked for my help, not the use of the green fellow."
"Fortunately," Melina said. "We have enough muscle to handle Hydra."
As if on cue, Alexei Shostakov barged into the room with bags of take-out food, "I brought Chinese!"
Melina smiled at him, "Well done, Lexi."
Lexi.
Soldat wasn't altogether pleased that Natasha's son had been named after this idiot.
Even Melina who gave the appearance of being Lexi's partner treated him more like a pet than a lover.
Then again, any version of the name Alexander was extremely common in Russia and had many diminutives or nicknames that could be used.
From the name Aleksey, one could get anything from Alek to Lyosha. If Natasha's son wanted to return to this universe, if he wanted his birth name, he would still have choices on what he wanted to be called.
What could happen in one day?
Minerva regretted asking herself that question and regretted not taking Harry out of classes immediately u[pn returning from Grimmald Place.
Because sure enough, the next day, the news swept the school by storm that Harry Potter had no magic.
By lunch, Minerva was inundated by questions from her coworker.
"Did you know?"
"When did it happen?"
"I don't understand, he was so powerful when he tried."
Albus answered before she could, "I'm sure it's just a mental block, pressures of exams."
Minerva gritted her teeth.
So Albus didn't know, or did he?
She looked at Severus, who was staring down at his plate in mute observance.
Minerva cleared her throat, "Speaking of students, Severus, I need to speak with you about some of your Slytherin students."
Severus immediately looked up with a scowl, "This is not the appropriate place."
She nodded and rose to her feet, "If you will all excuse us."
Filius waved but Albus nodded, his gaze on the entrance to the hall as if waiting for Harry to appear.
He wouldn't, Minerva knew. Harry had skipped meals before, and no doubt, after a morning of being unable to cast anything during a study period.
Minerva went to her classroom, leaving Severus to lengthen his stride to keep up with her.
As soon as her office door was securely shut, she turned on him.
"What did you teach Lily? What were her main interests in the Dark Arts?"
Severus gaped at her, clearly not expecting this line of questioning.
"What— I thought this about my students."
Minerva went to her desk and pulled out the book she recovered from the Potter House in Godric's Hollow.
She stood before Severus and shoved the tome at him, "This is yours, Half-Blood Prince."
Severus frowned at her in confusion until he read the title.
He reeled back, almost dropping the book as he sat back on one of the desks, "This is how she did it?"
"You knew what curse she used?" Minerva asked.
Severus flipped through the book, A Life for a Life:Curses and Rituals for the End of Days, and he paused on the ritual that Sirius had said outmatched the Killing Curse.
It was a fluke, it was intended.
Lily truly had been the cleverest witch of her generation, to plan such a complex ritual to render any outside magical tempering into a trap.
Not that anyone could say they wouldn't have underestimated Lily as Voldemort had done.
Because, honestly, muggle-borns were not known for their interest much less competency in the Dark Arts.
Minerva looked at the page Severus had opened to, A Parent's Sacrifice, the death of souls to give a muggle magic. Idly, she wondered if this was where some of the purebloods' propaganda had been born from.
But Sirius said that this was not a ritual that had been used to success.
"Why did you give her this book?" Minerva asked.
Severus dragged his gaze up to look at her, shock still clear on her face. He swallowed hard, but did not deny this was his book, he had signed it Half-Blood Prince to Lily.
"She wanted to give Petunia powers," Severus said, voice lacking in strength.
"You would allow her to risk her soul for that monster?" Minerva asked.
Severus looked up, eyes wide, "No! No, I showed her it to prove there's no way to give a muggle magic without killing themselves and eventually the muggle. This book isn't restricted, rare, but not restricted because each one is a form of suicide, you can't use these without ending your own life and only your own life can be used. Hence the title. This book is more theory than magic."
"Well, that book was used to curse Harry."
Severus' expression twisted, "Why? They couldn't have known if he was a squib or not that young. Even if they did know, this curse doesn't work on squibs."
"Harry is adopted."
Severus's jaw dropped, "What?"
"Harry is a muggle, He was adopted by James and Lily Potter."
"No… no, that's impossible!" he said stridently.
"You've heard the rumours, Harry hasn't used magic in my classroom since returning from winter break. Sirius confirmed it, Sirius was there when they adopted Harry."
Severus looked back down at the book in his hand, "But… but why? Why would they trade their souls for a child that was not theirs?"
"Because some bonds are stronger than blood," she said.
"But she damned him. Minerva, this ritual cannot be used. Pot— Harry will die unless the curse is broken."
"It's already been broken," she answered.
Severus shook his head, "But why cast it in the first place? The Dark Lord wouldn't have been…"
"You know that's not true," Minerva chided. "You know as well as I do that he would have killed him just to be sure, just to hurt Lily and James,. Or just as collateral when he had them killed, two of the most powerful fighters from the Order of the Phoenix."
"So why cast it? Why put the boy through all this?" Severus asked.
"Do you know what happens to someone who fires a spell or curse into an active ritual?"
Again, Severus gaped, "Lily planned the explosion?"
Minerva nodded, "Rituals are known to cause explosions when tempered with, I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried with one of the Unforgivables, however, it was well-timed."
"Well-timed?" Severus repeated. "She used the death of her husband, her own murder to set a trap—"
"As well as provide her son with protection," Minerva said. "The blood-wards Albus has relied on so heavily, was a by-product of this ritual, protecting him from anything that would register him as being muggle-born or findable by magical means within his home. It's not his relation to Petunia Dursley that was the catalyst, it was Lily's relation to her that created that safe harbour."
If you discounted the harm the Dursleys had done to Harry.
"I never thought—" Severus began but was cut off by a tremendous explosion outside her door.
"What was that?" she asked, already running.
They emerged into the hallway in time to see the flutter of students on broomsticks followed by the erratic footfalls of heels on stone as leftover fireworks whizzed through the hall.
Minerva knew at once the three on brooms had been, the Weasly twins and Harry.
She and Severus didn't say another word as they followed the sound of explosions and crackles down the halls toward the create hall.
By the time they caught up to Umbridge she was standing beneath the staircases, wand pointed up toward Harry and the twins.
The red-head duo divebombed Umbridge, cherry crackers going off at her feet making her dance.
Making her furious in her outrage.
She directed her wand upward and yelled, "Reducto!"
"No!" Minerva yelled.
Harry just managed to dodge the spell that hit the stair cases.
But he wasn't fast enough to dodge the falling rubble as a hundred fireworks were set of in chain up and around the stair cases.
Before Minerva could cast a protective spell for Harry, Severus grabbed her, pulling her to the ground beneath a Protego shield.
Severus saved her life.
But not Harry's
Minerva shoved the man off her as the smoke and dust cleared, she didn't see Harry beneath the rubble.
Students filled up the space, Albus pushed through the crowd,
Fred growled, "You killed him! You killed Harry Potter!"
Students screamed as whispers and exclamations broke out among them.
Umbridge's stunned expression went passive as she rubbed at the soot on her face. "I was not the one who put fireworks in the staircases."
"You fired a Reducto at a student!" Minerva interjected.
Albus looked incensed, as he seemed to grow with his powers, "I will have you brought up on murder charges."
"Harry!" Hermione yelled breaking through the crowd.
The twins helped Ron hold her back.
They wouldn't be able to lift the tons of stone until they cleared out the hall, none of these children should be allowed to see what became of a body after falling from such a height and being crushed.
"Mr. Potter fell victim to his own arsine of school property," Umbridge said, turning up her chin.
It was only sinking in then that Harry was truly dead when the rubble moved of it's own accord.
Which was impossible, no one could survive—
Harry shouldered his way out of the piles of stone as if it were no more than sand.
More screams, followed by cheers went up.
Minerva gaped, aside from scratches on his arm and a bit of bleeding at his temple, he looked… fine.
Though his blue eyes burned with hatred as he glared at Umbridge who had nearly accomplished what Voldemort had failed to do several times over.
"See," Umbridge said. "No need to be so dramatic, the boy is fine. Aren't you, boy? I'll be most pleased to be the one to inform you of your expulsion from Hogwarts for the destruction of school property."
Harry grabbed a stone the size of a fist, "Don't."
He wound his arm back, "Call. Me."
He pitched the rock with super-human strength and speed, "Boy."
No one could have cast a spell fast enough to halt a simple projectile.
Minerva had to reply in her mind what she knew had happened even as Dolores Umbridge's face was pulverised and her body fell limp and truly dead to the ground.
A pool of blood spilling around.
The screams were extensive this time.
Minerva looked to Harry, his face slack with shock, clearly not expecting he had the strength it took to kill someone with a stone.
Reasonably speaking, the only person in the school who had that much strength was Hagrid.
Someone yelled, "Murderer!" As another spat, "Freak!"
Harry seemed to come back to himself, stumbling out of the pile of stones, he took off running toward the exit that lead to the Foribben Forest.
He was incredibly fast.
Minerva had never seen a human run so fast.
"Harry! Harry, wait!" Minerva wasn't the only one calling after him, so was Albus, the Weasleys, and Hermione.
But by the time they reached sunlight, Harry was already sprinting into the forest as if all the demons of hell were nipping at his heels.
AN: Thoughts about the chapter, brontosaurs, or feedback, pretty please?
