Title: When two universes intersect.
Warning: Rated M for mild coarse language and non-descriptive suggestive adult themes.
Disclaimer: All original characters and canon events belong to J.K. Rowling and Marvel. This is a fanfiction story from which I'm not making any profit.
A/N: This story takes place some months after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TFATWS). If you haven't seen it, that's fine, though I will suggest to watch a specific part by the end of the chapter if applicable. Grammarly is my beta, but I'm looking for a human one. So any mistakes are mine. Yes, there is a pairing: Hermione/Bucky. For further notes about the universes I work on, check out my profile. Now, let's have some fun! Enjoy!
Chapter One
The Meeting
"Down!" Yelled Harry as a new wave of dark magic rapidly flowed towards them, then crouched behind a column of prophecies.
"Blimey! I can't believe we're back here, fighting a bloody dark … Er - what is it, by the way?" replied Ron beside him, his wand ready to send another set of spells.
"Hermione told me it's similar to an obscurus." Harry peeked from behind the column, exhaling in exhaustion. The black, smoky, floating thing at the end of the chamber sent random and dangerous rays of dark energy that nearly collided against the shelves, causing a few prophecies to shake.
"Bloody Unspeakables. Why can't we fight against normal beings? D'you know? Like crazy professors, dark wizards, or rogue werewolves?" Ron said as he and Harry observed their surroundings, looking for an escape route that would give them an advantage.
The dark, ethereal entity swiftly glided towards the exit, a curly-haired witch and a glowing wizard following it, wands in hand.
Hermione Granger and Anthony Goldstein.
"Fuck," exclaimed Ron, "it's escaping." Ron and Harry discarded their previous plan and barreled behind Hermione and Anthony, sending their mix of unsuccessful jinxes and encapsulation spells.
"No! Not the Space Room!" Cried Anthony, quivering in pain as waves of light beamed from him.
Without anything stopping it, the tempestuous shadow opened the purple door from the Space Room and entered. And, as the Room perceived their presence, dozens of bright portals materialized between the planets from the Solar System.
"What the fucking hell are these!? They weren't here before!" Exclaimed Ron, his eyes storming from portal to portal.
"Vecteclustrus" Hermione waved her wand in a complicated pattern; a luminous net encircled the dark cloud, managing to trap it for a few breaths. "He's too strong! I can't…!"
A small explosion caused the net to disappear, inflicting shallow wounds on every visible and unprotected skin.
The dark entity then renewed its attacks which crushed against non-verbally casted shields. After another failed encapsulation, Ron conjured a stone wall that erupted from the non-existent floor in an attempt to protect their group. Catching their breath, all four of them crouched behind it.
Anthony gulped and hunched beside his distraught co-worker.
"Hermione," Goldstein said, grabbing her attention, "I'm so sorry. It's my fault. You were right and … and I'll try to mend it. This … is the only way before it escapes out of this Ministry and endangers our community."
"What are you…" But before Hermione could finish her sentence, Anthony sprinted towards the shifting dark cloud. A new bright net appeared around it, giving valuable seconds for seizing it and running through the closest portal with it.
Anthony and the shadow disappeared and silence enveloped the once again serene Space Room.
"Fucking hell. Fucking unspeakables." Ron's eyes opened wide though his voice denoted annoyance; Harry stood, ready to run after Hermione if she decided to enter one of the doors.
Instead, she turned to them, an old-determined fire in her eyes.
"Kingsley. Now."
"Have a visual," Captain America said from the sky, "Target four hundred feet ahead of you."
Bucky did not respond straight away, and yet, his motorbike accelerated on the busy highway. "I bet you don't have a plan."
Wilson smirked, "Of course I have."
"I can smell bs from down here."
Wilson chuckled after he saw his friend dangerously lunge from his motorbike to the roof of a car occupied by two agents-turned-out-to-be-Skrulls. The fake agents had escaped with classified information about military stations around the world… all of them.
The car skid but Bucky remained on it. The sound of bullet shots then travelled up to the sky; Bucky avoided them, except for one that hit on his left arm.
"You know, we're fighting one of the big three. I don't think remaining on a car roof is a sound plan, buddy," Cap said, approaching the speeding car from the left, aiming for the tires.
The car veered and Bucky angrily groaned, "Next time give me a heads up!"
Passing cars honked.
As the car slowed and finally collided against the jersey barrier, Bucky ruthlessly fought the Skrulls, obliging them to exit their bartered transportation. Two against one, the Skrulls shape-shifted their arms into clubs and blades. Then, with no hesitation, Bucky unsheathed the combat knife hidden in its right-thigh holster, blocking and attacking the dexterous Skrulls that struck Bucky nevertheless. He flew backwards from the sharp blow.
Cap landed and did not waste time: he threw his shield, hitting one of the Skrulls. The second one, however, avoided the flying armour, covering behind occupied stopped cars.
Before the Skrull could escape in a sequestered SUV, however, a blinding light flared around them.
When Cap and Bucky opened their eyes, a new and unknown superhero stood with the second Skrull unconscious by his feet.
Joined by Bucky, Captain America surveyed the glowing blond stranger.
"Who are you?" Captain America asked.
"My name is Sentry," he answered in a British accent; he startlingly looked around and, without further explanation, flew up to the sky, vanishing almost immediately.
"I don't like it," murmured Bucky, clearly annoyed as he checked his guns and knives were in their holsters.
Cap gave him a questioning look.
"He's most probably one of the big three."
Captain America could not avoid the snort that came out of his mouth.
Not twenty-four hours later, Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Captain America, and James "Bucky" Barnes had been assigned a new mission. They were debriefed on a military aeroplane as they crossed the North Atlantic.
"… community of Ireland petitioned assistance thirty minutes ago. It's destroying coastal towns and breaking havoc," explained Rhodes from the screen of their tablet where Sam and Bucky could see pictures of the destruction.
"What is it?" asked Wilson after they were shown a photo of something dark and cloudy.
"We don't know. Your mission: stop it from destroying towns and cities. Either dead or alive, retrieve it and bring it back. We want to study it. That's all and good luck." Rhodes disappeared, leaving a black screen.
"I bet it's magical," said Bucky, a deep frown between his blue eyes.
"No man, it's obviously alien."
They stared at each other before nodding and shaking hands. "You'll let me eat all the prawns you fish next time," said Bucky.
Sam chortled, "And I want one of your leather jackets… with both sleeves."
Bucky took his time to think, his jaw clenched. He loved his jackets. But delicious prawns…
"Fine," he grunted.
Sam laughed, to Bucky's displeasure, sure to win the bet.
It attacked with bursts of light. Dark light. But more alarming was the fact that the damn thing, even if it had humanoid form, didn't have mass and morphed in shape.
Bucky groaned after being hit by a bolt of energy, flying tens of feet backwards, hitting a small boat by the shore of an Irish fishing town.
"Ugh. This is gonna be harder than I thought," Bucky complained, standing back up and securing his useless gun.
The shield went through it and back to Captain America's arm, not fast enough to protect Sam from a powerful bolt of dark energy. Sam strepitously landed beside Bucky.
"Argh."
"Any ideas?" groaned Bucky.
"We need backup. Wanda would be an acceptable choice."
"Are you accepting you lost the bet, Sammy?"
As the two of them got on their feet on the cobbled shore, ready to battle the morphing dark cloud, it switched its attention to a grey stone building where some movement could be seen inside. A burst of dark energy came out of it straight towards the old building, debris flying everywhere, painful shrieks filling the air.
Bucky narrowed his eyes, pulled out two SIG-Sauer from their holsters, and shot the smoky dark being; Captain America flew to the air.
"Hey! Up here, perturbing smoky thing!" Cap attacked the cloud, bullets coming from his suit.
But it was useless.
A stronger bolt of energy exploded from the cloud, disintegrating not only the bullets but causing Cap's wings to malfunction, forcing him to abruptly land on a nearby cobbled road.
"Damn!"
"You all right?" Bucky inquired through their earbuds.
"Yeah."
The dark form, now with its full attention on the frightened humans inside the damaged building, captured a little boy, his and his mother's loud cries filling the air. The wrestling boy floated effortlessly towards it.
"No!" "Damn it!" Bucky and Cap exclaimed, alarmed.
With difficulty, Cap took flight while Bucky raced towards the little boy. But before they reached him, three hooded, cloaked figures appeared out of nowhere a few feet from where the boy weakly struggled to breathe.
"Fucking hell!" the tallest said as they absorbed their surroundings.
Each figure raised a stick of wood, pointing it towards the floating entity.
Neither Bucky nor Cap expected rays of lights to come out of the sticks, nor an energy force attempting to confine the cloud with bright chains made of light.
Unexpectedly, the shadow dropped the boy from a dangerous height. Bucky ran the few feet that separated him from the kid and jumped.
"Hmph," Bucky groaned after he landed on the street, the boy safely in his arms. Once on his feet, Bucky got the boy out of the fight, the cloaked figures circling the struggling cloud.
"Kid with mother," Bucky reported, "What are they?"
"I can't say, my system is failing," Cap said from mid-air as he tried to scan the new visitors without success.
"Bloody hell, it's increased its strength since last time," murmured another one in a clear British accent.
"Focus!" said a woman.
Strange energy swarmed the air, similar to Wanda's. Bucky could feel it and apparently Cap did too.
"My wings and systems. They're not functioning!" exclaimed Cap, plummeting down again.
"Stay away from here!" the woman ordered, her face showing the same concentration as the other two men, her brown curls free from the hood.
"Say what?!" Cap exclaimed back on his feet, protected by his suit.
"Technology… doesn't work … around magic," said one of the struggling men.
A wall from the battered building shook, grabbing Bucky and Cap's attention.
"There are people inside," Bucky didn't need to repeat himself twice, Cap heading straight inside, trying unsuccessfully to bring his red glasses back to life. After a quick, silent agreement, Cap led the civilians away from danger, urging them to exit faster while Bucky gained time by securing a wall from falling over the scared locals.
"Blimey, Hermione! I can't hold it any longer!" exclaimed a man with eyeglasses and dark-raven hair, his hood having fallen to his shoulders like his companions'.
"It's …stronger than we… thought!" the redheaded man stuttered.
Before Hermione could respond, the swirling, dark force escaped in a last wounding blast much like last time, vanishing in thin air.
Only the cries from civilians and the tired huffs from the visitors were left.
Bucky and Captain America guardedly approached the two men and the woman who still waved her stick in the air.
"Harry Potter. Sorry for the mess," Harry shook hands with Sam and Bucky, his right cheek twice the normal size.
"Captain America," replied Sam, to which Harry raised his eyebrows, wrinkling a visible scar on his forehead, "but you can call me Wilson."
"James Barnes," Bucky grunted back to Harry and the other man who introduced himself as Ron Weasley.
"Well, it's gone now. No traces of its magic," Hermione turned to them, huffing after she cleared her bloodied face from rebel locks. Ron waved his wand in front of her, magically healing her forehead.
"Magic? And you know that because…?" challenged Sam.
"Er… this is Hermione Granger. She… works in our Ministry Department where this entity ... Er …materialized," Harry carefully explained, unsure of how much to tell, even though Kingsley had confirmed the Statute of Secrecy concerned those inhabiting their universe, not others.
"The European Community has been working on that thing?" Sam didn't like the sound of it.
"No, no. Sorry. We didn't explain ourselves," interjected Hermione, waving her hands in the air. "Our Ministry is not… here in this country … nor in this world per se."
Bucky and Sam shared a look.
Harry gulped. "We come from ... Er ... another universe with the mission of retrieving two escaped beings from our Ministry: a wizard and the shadow entity that disappeared." Harry continued explaining, measuring the risk of exposing them unnecessarily. "I know it sounds barmy…"
"We come in peace," Ron interrupted just in case, his right palm forward with his fingers parted curiously. Harry and Hermione turned to him, one with a smirk, the other one with a scowl. Ron scoffed, "What? I'm being friendly. Maybe magic is punishable in this world. Maybe it doesn't exist," Ron tried to explain, his hand still making the Vulcan Salute.
"It's from a movie, Ron! No, two movies!" reprimanded Hermione, exasperated, her eyes pleading to the sky.
Harry, however, didn't take his eyes from the two confused men who still had not reacted violently to their magical news. He could not avoid feeling wary of them.
"Sorry about that. But it's true. We mean no harm. Would appreciate your help, though. We're new to this world and we're not sure others like us exist here," continued Harry, observing Captain America's advanced technological suit.
Sam considered his options, inspecting the visitors. They looked in their late twenties but something in their stance told him they were experienced in fighting. And yet, the strangers attempted to dialogue. Bucky gave him a slight nod.
"Very well," Cap said.
A few stones and cobbles broke off from the building, gaining their attention.
"Let's restore everything back and then we'll talk," reassured Harry before Ron nodded and waved his wand, reconstructing the nearest destroyed wooden door.
"I won the bet," Bucky murmured to Sam after watching the magic work, grinning as he imagined all the prawns he would eat back at Lousiana.
"Of course you did!" Cap rolled his eyes in response and huffed.
Thirty minutes had not passed when the building and ships were all restored to their previous state. The magical trio worked efficiently even in healing those wounded. With the help of Bucky and Captain America, Hermione -the most knowledgeable in healing- cured the injured. Without enough potions for everyone, she healed them the best she could with healing spells.
After a quick scan, and only after checking her friends' wounds healed correctly, Hermione offered to heal Sam, who only had minor scratches on his head.
She approached an observant Bucky next, her wand ready.
"I'm not injured," he said, stepping back.
"With a scan, we can be …" Hermione insisted.
"No scan," Bucky corrected firmly, his jaw clenched.
Hermione stopped on her feet and carefully nodded, "I'm terribly sorry. I'm being pushy."
Ron chose that moment to joke with a confident grin and giving her a side hug, "One of the best qualities of our Hermione here is her pushiness."
Hermione slapped Ron's stomach, "Oi! Why are you slapping me? It's true! You're pushy and stubborn." Ron took a couple of steps back, "Blimey woman! Clearly, you haven't accepted your best and most cracking qualities."
Hermione rolled her eyes, forcing her mouth not to form a smile, ignoring Ron again and focusing on Bucky.
"As I was saying, I'm really sorry."
Hermione saved her wand in her left arm holster hidden under her sleeve and Bucky didn't miss her confident movements. She surprised him next by extending her right hand. "I haven't introduced myself. Hermione Granger," no smile, no giggle, only a smart-business-like introduction he reciprocated.
"James Barnes."
"So," Captain America joined with Harry, "ready to talk?"
The group found a picnic table in a nearby park, the locals still indoors, probably afraid to come out.
"So, you're saying this wizard, Anthony Goldstein, is who we know as Sentry?"
"Well, he didn't go by that name back in our world but, yes, it's not a coincidence. He escaped our Ministry three days ago, our universe time. Before escaping, he took a potion to enhance his magical abilities and created the dark void we fought today," Hermione explained.
Bucky rubbed his face with his right hand. "Enhancer serums are never good news."
"So what is this dark thing?" asked Sam.
The wizards and witch shared a look that did not go unnoticed by Sam or Bucky.
"If we're helping you eliminate the void and take your wizard home, we need all the information you have," Bucky remarked, narrowing his eyes.
"Sorry. We're not sure you'll believe us." Harry explained. They still didn't know what type of world they were in.
Sam nodded, maintaining eye contact, "We've seen many things. You can trust us. We'll help you."
The trio shared another look again.
"Fine," said Harry.
Hermione started recounting their story. "Almost thirteen years ago, our time, a war broke in our magical world. Anthony's family suffered losses and… well, it wasn't easy for him. Currently, Anthony and I work in an area where we … experiment with magic." She took a breath, a pause where Bucky tried not to blanch with the reminder of experiments and maniacal scientists.
"You two work there as well?" Bucky asked, his eyes on Ron and Harry.
"No, they're unspeakables. We're aurors. Like policemen? Do they exist in this world?" Ron questioned, getting confirmation from Bucky and Sam.
"Continue," Bucky said to Hermione.
"Our research explored the origin of our magic. Why did magical families continue to have children with magic? Why do some families who didn't have magic have children who did? Using both magical and muggle…"
"Muggle?"
"Sorry. Non-magical." Hermione replied, "... by using both bits of information, we concluded that our magic comes from a genetic mutation that permits our body to channel the available energy in our surroundings, to control it with wand movements and words, much like algorithms would control a computer. It was… a breakthrough in our society. It confirmed that every wizard and witch are equal and have the same rights."
Sam nodded, his focus on Hermione while Bucky observed the wizards. Harry and Ron, who were seated on each side of the witch, wore small smiles as they listened to her. Proud smiles if he could guess.
"A few months ago, Anthony and I had our first disagreement. He argued that with a potion, we could enhance the strength of the magical gene, improving our society. But, I disagreed."
"Why?" Wilson asked.
"Because we would be giving power to many who are not worthy of it. We believe power corrupts and creates fear. Takes out the worst of humans."
"Wise words," replied Sam. Bucky could hear a note of respect from his friend, not a year appointed the new Captain America.
Wasn't what the symbol of Captain America meant? Power without corruption? Doing what was right?
"Then, how…?"
"A week ago I found out he had been secretly developing the potion. I confronted him but he insisted on carrying on his research." Hermione exhaled, clearly annoyed, "Long story short, two things occurred when he drank the potion. First, Anthony glowed in a bright golden hue, not only that, but I observed him battling pain, possibly a consequence of the potion enhancing his abilities. For example, you mentioned flying, an ability he did not have back in our world."
"I've only met one wizard with the ability to fly… and he was … evil," Harry murmured, frowning. Ron shuddered.
"Second," Hermione continued, "a dark cloud materialized beside him. A void. A shadow that instantly mastered the magic around it despite the lack of physicality. It has a consciousness I presume will expand as Anthony's abilities have until they reach a peak."
"Do you have a theory on why the Void appeared?" Sam questioned from across Hermione.
"Yes. The potion not only enhanced Anthony's magical skills but the negative emotions associated with them, namely, the hate Anthony harboured from the war."
"Is there a way to reverse it?" Sam had crossed his arms, thinking.
"There is. I already have the beginnings of the antidote potion. I need to finish it and add an extra ingredient, a lock of hair from Anthony. Before crossing the threshold, I ran some calculations and I am 99.93% sure the potion will eliminate the Void."
"99.93%?" Sam raised an eyebrow; Bucky, undisturbed, regarded her.
"Yes, well with arithmancy…"
"Hermione's quality number two: she's a know-it-all." Ron chuckled again as she swatted his arm.
"You prat," Hermione murmured and rolled her eyes.
"Ok, then. We'll help you get both of them. I'll notify Headquarters. The only problem we've got…" Wilson paused, pushing a button on the right side of his glasses and attempting to turn on his wings without success, "my equipment isn't working."
"It's time to visit Wakanda," Bucky declared, thinking about how he could explain this situation to Okoye.
A/N: For this story, Bucky's bionic arm isn't affected by magic. Time isn't parallel, that is, there is a gap of 18 years. In the HP timeline, the year is 2008 while in the MCU timeline is 2026, roughly six-eight months after the end of TFATWS show.
You can find in youtube the part when Bucky and Sam discuss "The Big Three".
This story is complete and needs only to be checked by Grammarly. So, if you wanna know how this story ends, don't forget to subscribe. Also, leave a review on your way out to let me know what you think. Did you know there is a superhero called Sentry and a being called The Void in the Marvel Universe? Cheers! – Aniara27 ;)