Rated T: Memories and stuff in Snape's head, nothing graphic, but implied Death Eater past, abusive childhood, etc. Oh, and some people cuss a little in this chapter. Just saying.
Only one chapter/epilogue after this. Enjoy!
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Chapter Eleven: Sticking Together
Over the next week, Thor had somehow talked Earth's authorities into handing Loki and the Tesseract over to him to take back to Asgard. Steve Rogers wasn't sure how he managed that, but he knew Loki wasn't much help. He once visited the bunker where Loki was being held in a cage much like the one he'd been kept in on the helicarrier, but this time he made no effort to escape or taunt anyone. The dark-haired Asgardian seemed depressed and miserable, though he masked it with anger and sarcasm. Rogers got nothing more out of him, and talked to Thor instead. The thunder-god told him that his brother's body had looked like he had indeed been injured (read: tortured) over a period of months. Thor had refused to leave Loki's side during his check-up, and the doctor looked quite frazzled when Steve tried to talk to him. Apparently, Loki was very trying on the nerves. The god of mischief was humiliated and ashamed and defeated, and he just wanted to be left alone, so he was nasty to everyone he talked to.
Steve was sitting in a New York hospital now, drawing in his new sketchpad while he sat with Snape, who had yet to come out of his coma. Although it had been a solid week since the Chitauri invasion and most of the Avengers were volunteering in shifts to help clean up New York, progress was slow. Tony Stark was donating a great deal of money toward the relief funds, and he had also bought up some of the ruined properties to compensate their owners, but it wasn't enough. The streets still bore scars from the battle and a great many small businesses in the area had been lost, probably forever. About eighty civilians had died in the battle, which was actually surprisingly few considering what traffic was normally like near Stark Tower. A good many First Responders had been killed as well, and though Steve Rogers grieved for them, he wasn't angry the way so many other people were. Some people thought the Avengers hadn't done enough, and some even blamed them for the attack, which was absurd. Steve stopped turning on the news, and he always turned the TV off in Snape's room when he visited. He didn't think hearing such depressing information was going to bring Severus out of his coma anyway.
Since the wizard had been hospitalized, the Avengers had been visiting, sometimes in pairs or groups, but often alone. The wizard was still asleep, though he looked much better now, and no one knew when he would wake up. Thor, the last time he came to visit, brought news that he and Loki were heading back to Asgard soon, but his brother was apparently upset at the thought of leaving before Snape woke up. Since the Asgardian owed a magical life debt to Snape for freeing him from the Mind-Stone, Loki just wanted to be able to pledge himself to shut his magic up before Thor whisked him off to Asgard.
But Severus Snape remained stubbornly unresponsive.
"I'm drawing a picture of us today," Steve explained as he drew the smooth, chiseled lines of Iron Man in his sketchbook. "You know; us as in, 'the Avengers'. I'm not sure where to put you yet. Do you even want me to put you in? It isn't as if I haven't drawn you already. I drew like five pictures of you over the past week." Steve paused and glanced at the bed where the wizard lay, apparently asleep. He sighed and returned to his drawing, sketching in Thor with his hammer, his hair flying in the wind. He added Thor's cape and erased a few lines trying to make the cloth swoop just right. He glanced up at the sleeping man again and sighed. It was depressing, talking to a man who never responded.
"I remember how you looked when I first saw you," Steve went on as he sketched. "You were all creepy and scowly in your long coat … and all in black too. I remember that. You kind of scared me. A little. I wondered who you were, why you were there … I never could've guessed that you … well … were so different from how I thought you were." He faltered and went back to drawing. As he finished Thor and moved on to Natasha with her guns, he started talking again without looking up.
"Natasha's been visiting even though she's really busy, you know," he said in a conversational tone. "But I guess you know that already. She talks to you in Russian sometimes. I wish I knew Russian. Do you know any languages other than English? I don't. I know a few words in German and Italian, but that's it. You know, I loved to read as a kid. Maybe I'll bring a book next time. I just wish I knew what you liked. My favorites were old classics. You know, Rudyard Kipling and Sir Walter Scott and Mark Twain … I haven't read much since I woke up. I know I told you my story when I first visited you … How I fought in World War II, and froze in Greenland until they found me literally a month ago." Steve paused and fiddled with his pencil. "I hate the cold now," he admitted quietly. "It makes me think too much."
The Super-Soldier sighed and twisted the pencil around to erase the grim scowl on Natasha's face, and put in a focused smirk instead. He felt stupid, talking about silly things to a man who couldn't even hear him. But the doctors insisted that hearing familiar voices was the best things to draw to someone out of a coma, so every day, some of the Avengers stopped by to chat and hope that the wizard woke up.
"My shift here'll be up soon, and then it's back to sweeping rubble in the street for me," Steve sighed, leaning back and eyeing his picture critically. "Thor says him and Loki are gonna be going back to Asgard soon. SHIELD really wants you to wake up so they can pester you with questions, so hey, maybe just stay asleep to avoid that. They might lose interest after about ten years, so there's that." The super-soldier paused and began drawing the Hulk behind the rest of the team, his muscular shoulders so big and broad that they filled up almost the whole back of the page. "Stark invited all the Avengers to live at his tower," Steve commented as he sketched. "He wants to give us each a whole floor to ourselves. Ridiculous, isn't it? But, that's who he is. He's kinda … overboard. SHIELD offered me a permanent job, and they'll put me up in D.C. I heard Banner's taken Stark up on his offer though. Something about ten floors of laboratories." Steve chuckled and shook his head. "They're getting along pretty well now, but I know Bruce misses you." He sighed and looked up at Snape, lying in the white hospital bed. Leads and wires stretched out from him and the monitors beside the bed beeped in soft rhythms. "We all miss you," Steve murmured.
It was so weird, how they could miss him at all when they barely knew him. Tony played these awful songs on his phone when he came to visit, and asked Snape what metal bands he liked as if he expected the wizard to wake up and answer. Natasha talked to Snape in Russian as if he understood the language, (and maybe he did, Steve didn't know that he didn't). Dr. Banner mostly sat, but he probably talked when there was nobody else in the room, like Steve did. It felt too awkward to talk to an unresponsive man while there were other people around. Clint didn't talk very much either, but when he came, he made small talk about the weather, and the clean-up going on, and what the news was saying. Apparently, the opinions varied. Some people said "Superheroes? Give me a break!" and didn't believe a word. Some others blamed them for the damage caused to the city. But most people seemed grateful to the Avengers for stopping the alien invasion when they did. It seemed most folks with common sense realized that things could have been a lot worse.
Steve sighed and glanced at his wristwatch. His time was up. "I gotta go," he said quietly as he gathered his sketchbook and pencils and tucked them in a duffel bag. "Get better soon, okay? You're starting to worry some of us."
Was it his imagination, or did Snape frown just a bit?
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It was so white here, and so lonely.
Severus wasn't sure how long he'd been walking through this place, where everything was so white and bright and nothing seemed to make sense, but there were things lying strewn about that he recognized somehow. He knew they belonged here, wherever 'here' was. A belt lay on the ground at his feet and he shuddered as he stepped over it. This wasn't the first time he'd stumbled over that particular strap. It was a heavy one his father had favored, and many were the times when Severus had felt that leather belt across his body as a child. Why did he have to keep seeing it? There were a lot of other seemingly harmless things he had stumbled across in this white landscape, but they carried painful and haunting memories … and regrets.
There was a book lying open on the ground not far away, which he'd also seen in several places already. Advanced Potions, it was called. It was now open to a page where his own handwriting glared back at him: For enemies: Sectumsempra. The sight made him shiver and turn away, even as he noticed splatters of bright red blood on the ground around his feet.
He shut his eyes and felt dizzy. This wasn't the first scene of mistakes he had found as he wandered through the broken halls of his own mind. Not long ago, he had come upon a potions station in the middle of the whiteness, where ingredients were strewn about and finished bottles of a black potion sat on a little table. As he gazed at them, the bottles cracked and spilled, and on the ground he could see skeletons grinning up at him. His flesh-eating poison had been one of the Dark Lord's favorites, and one he always regretted inventing.
Before that, he had come upon a familiar bonfire with a green snake and skull hovering above it like smoke. His arm burned then, and when he looked down at his bare forearm, he could see the dark mark there glowing red as it had that night after he was first marked.
He found an empty throne with a sleeping snake coiled around it, and a small house with the top floor blasted away, knowing that if he stepped inside he would find her dead, lying beside the crib with the crying brat in it.
He turned away from that one, but only reluctantly, and found himself surrounded by the strange paraphernalia and whistling contraptions of an old man's office … but there were no people in this mindscape; just dead, quiet reminders of his mistakes and failures. He missed Lily suddenly. If he was dead, surely he'd see her. But since he wasn't being tormented by the ghosts of those he'd murdered, he supposed he'd just gotten his mind broken by Loki's magic and was now trapped in his own head. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but he wondered if this was what the poor Longbottoms experienced when they went insane. Were they trapped in their own minds, surrounded by bits and pieces of their former lives?
Severus shook himself and kept walking, passing a heap of broken liquor bottles, the belt (again) a familiar, (and dreaded) little shack, a thrashing willow tree, and a lake like the one near Hogwarts, until he reached a large tree in a small park. He could see a swing set, and there was a little girl swinging. Slowly, he approached the swing, until he could see the small girl's brilliant red hair.
She turned bright green eyes on him and regarded him solemnly. Severus couldn't help but think of that other pair of eyes; the ones that belonged to a messy-haired boy, eyes that had willingly looked into his own when he begged … He knew this child on the swings, but he also knew that the girl was not real. She was only a figment of his fractured mind.
"You're the first person I've seen here," Severus heard himself saying.
"I'm the only one who was invited," the girl replied simply.
The wizard blinked in surprise and stared down at the small girl who hopped off the swing to face him. She clasped her hands behind her back and rocked forward on her toes … it was so Lily that he felt tears burn his eyes.
"You're not real," Severus whispered, blinking at the tears.
"I'm as real as you need me to be," little Lily answered him, smiling secretively.
Severus frowned and shook his head. He turned away from the apparition of the girl who had stolen his heart (and broken it) and walked toward what looked like King's Cross station in the middle of the white fog. He passed it just as the Hogwarts Express roared past, going in the opposite direction. The station disappeared behind him, and he suddenly stopped, his heart pounding hard. There, ahead of him, was a very familiar tree. She was standing there now, sixteen years old and dressed as she had been that day.
He wasn't even moving, but he suddenly found himself near her, and near the tree. Her green eyes bored into him, and her face, though not smiling, wasn't harsh or condemning either. She seemed to be waiting for him to make the first move.
"I'm so sorry," Severus whispered, finally letting the tears come. He stumbled forward and suddenly he was on his knees, his hands covering his face. "I was young, and stupid," he groaned. "Please forgive me, Lily. I'm sorry."
"I'm not here to condemn you," she said softly. He felt her hand in his hair, and that startled him. Everything he had tried to touch here had been insubstantial, like ghosts of things that had been and were no more. "Sev, look at me," she said sternly.
He looked up obediently, and was startled to see her as old as her corpse had been. She was a woman in full bloom now, clad in a simple white spring dress. Her red hair was loose and her green eyes sparkled with life and vibrancy.
"Lily …?" Severus breathed.
"Let me go, Sev," she whispered, stroking his cheek with cool fingertips. "You're forgiven. Stop trying to pay for the past … it's in the past."
Severus couldn't speak. He slowly sat back on his heels and shook his head. "You're only in my head," he said quietly. "You're a figment of my fragmented mind, and you're only saying what I want to hear."
She laughed. How he had longed to hear her laugh again! "Oh Sev," she chuckled. "You really are dense sometimes, you know that?"
Severus arched an eyebrow at her. "I didn't think I would ever call myself dense," he said drily.
"That's because I'm calling you dense, silly," Lily laughed again, shaking her head as if she was fond of him.
"…What am I supposed to say to that?"
Lily chuckled again and reached out to tug his hair. It rather stung. "You silly, silly man. It's me. I'm here. In your head, but not exactly. You see, you almost died."
Severus frowned. "I … I'm dead?"
"No," Lily smiled fondly. "You're not dead. But you had one foot in the other world. I sort of … followed you back. But I had to wait to be invited in."
"Oh?" Severus snorted. "How did I invite you?"
"You missed me."
Severus shook his head. "It can't be that simple," he said scornfully.
"Life was always simple, Sev," Lily grinned. "You just make it out to be unnecessarily complicated."
Severus frowned and digested that. Was she right? They had always argued about whether life was simple or complicated … as teenagers, it had seemed confusing and complicated to them. "Life is not easy," he said softly. "In fact, life is simply terrible most of the time. How can you say it's simple?"
"I never said it was easy," Lily replied gently. "Just that it's simple. That's not the same thing."
Severus got up off his knees and gazed at her. It was odd … seeing her alive like this, even if it was in his own head. It didn't make him feel how he thought he would. Had he simply idolized her? Placed her on a marble pedestal to assuage his guilty conscience? Now that they were talking, it was only slightly awkward. But this was … how they had always talked, really. Lily was just so much like herself, only mellower and more mature, and of course he was a man in his fifties, not a stupid, angry child with grand hopeless dreams of greatness.
"I'm so very sorry," Severus repeated quietly. "I wanted so much to tell you …"
"I know, and I'm sorry too, Sev," Lily replied regretfully. "I was … naïve. And selfish. I should never have treated you the way I did."
"I deserved it," Severus retorted in all sincerity. "You do not have to apologize to me for anything."
"You've chosen to only remember the good about me," Lily objected. "I was a stuck-up know-it-all, I liked being popular, I was embarrassed by you and your … eccentricities. I chose my rich popular friends over you, my first friend. Even before I kicked you under the bus … I was already a rotten friend. You didn't deserve the way I treated you, Sev."
"Stop it," Severus pleaded, wanting to grab her shoulders but feeling awkward about it. As kids, he had sometimes grabbed her shoulders to emphasize what he was saying, but they were both adults, and he was painfully aware that she was married, and not to him. His hands hovered uncertainly before he dropped them helplessly. "That … that's not who you were," he said hesitantly. "You stood up for me, even against your house-mates. You remained my friend and tried to keep me from falling into the Darkness … You were not a rotten friend. That was me. I was cruel and ungrateful … I never appreciated you or your help until you were gone. I deserved your scorn."
"Severus," Lily sighed. She reached out and laid her right hand on his left arm like she used to, apparently not feeling as self-conscious about the gesture as he was. "I'm older now," she said quietly. "I'm a married woman, and a mother. Or at least I was … Anyway, I can see how immature and … stupid, I was back then. I regret not being the friend you needed. I regret never making up with you. I regret a lot of things. I've watched you, and I've regretted my own cruelty more and more as I watched you fight for the light, amidst horrific odds and suffering. You've more than made up for your mistakes. Stop punishing yourself."
Severus stared at her, unsure of what to feel. Surely it wasn't that easy. Was it? "I don't know what to do," the wizard whispered, feeling lost suddenly. Who was he without his guilt? Who was he if he no longer had to punish himself and do penance for his sins?
"Forgive yourself, Sevvie," Lily whispered back, smiling tenderly. She took her hand from his arm and reached up to cup his face in her hands. Her fingers were cool, but her palms felt faintly warm, like light. "Forgive yourself … and live."
"Live?" he repeated in a whisper, as if he didn't know what she meant. Well … he really didn't know what she meant, did he? He had never truly lived. Even the Potter boy had realized that. He had wished him luck, and wished for him to live free at last.
"What you've been doing since we last stood together under this tree …" Lily looked up at the spreading tree above them, a memory of what had been. There was regret and sadness in her face. "You've been existing, not living," she whispered.
Severus couldn't speak. He could barely think. He looked up as he heard a strange echo. He couldn't understand the words, but the voice seemed … familiar. It was annoying to be interrupted, but at the same time, he felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He staggered, and Lily's hands dropped to his shoulders, steadying him. He automatically reached up and caught her wrists in his hands before he realized what he'd done and dropped his hands to his side. It was strange how solid she felt to him.
"They're calling you," Lily said with a happy smile as she pulled away from him. "My time's up. I'd better go now. But remember what I said, alright? Live, and not for me."
"For who, then?" Severus whispered, missing the solidness of her hands on his shoulders.
"For others? For yourself?" Her smile turned teasingly coy. "For Natasha?"
Severus felt his face blush furiously. He folded his arms and fought the urge to look away. Instead, he jutted his chin defiantly at her. "There is nothing between us," he said flatly.
"Sure," Lily chuckled.
"Stop playing matchmaker!" Severus complained. This, more than anything convinced him this wasn't a figment of his own imagination. Just the thought of him and the Russian spy … "Why in the world would there be anything between Natasha and I? We barely know each other, and besides, it is obvious she has a thing for Barton."
"Oh, you might be surprised!" she laughed. "You don't need romance right now, though. You just need some other women in your life besides me."
"You are dead," Severus said flatly.
"Exactly," Lily smirked as she stepped further away. "And while undying, unrequited love is romantic in a story, it's a bit creepy in real life."
"I have moved on from you," Severus muttered rebelliously. But a tiny voice in the back of his mind wondered if he really had, though.
"You haven't," Lily said in a more gentle tone. "But you should. And you will. Falling in love with someone else isn't betraying me, Sev."
"I know," Severus huffed, finally allowing himself to feel amused. "I'll think on what you said. But don't expect a betrothal anytime soon, much less a wedding. I like being alone, thank you very much."
Lily laughed and shook her head. "You are so much easier to reason with at fifty than you were at fifteen!"
"Teenagers are notoriously thick-headed," Severus agreed with a smirk.
"You would know, wouldn't you?"
"If you've just come here to torment me, are you certain I'm not dead and in hell?"
Lily tilted her head and smiled mysteriously as her body began to look transparent, like a ghost's. "Well, I'm dead, and I think I would know better than you what 'dead' looks like. You're alive, I assure you; just drifting."
"Drifting?" Severus repeated. "You mean I'm trapped in my own head?"
"Normal people call it a 'coma', Severus," Lily laughed softly, fading quicker as her voice was starting to sound strangely faint.
"Lily," the wizard whispered, suddenly panicking at the thought of her leaving him again. "Can't you … stay? For just a bit longer?"
"My time's up, Sev," Lily's voice echoed. She looked as insubstantial and wispy as the Gray Lady, the Ravenclaw house ghost. "Wake up and live, Severus."
"I don't know that I want to wake up," Severus said bitterly. "My life has been one long hell and I'm sick to death of it."
The chuckle from the Lily-shaped ghost sent shivers down the wizard's spine. It sounded ethereal and strange. "You did used to say that 'Life' was overrated. But you've got so much to do still. You just have to let me go, Sev."
"I … don't know what to do."
"Does it matter? Go save the world, mock morons, defeat villains, settle down in a bakery with a plump little wife, or whatever it is you need to do to be happy. But you don't need to save the world if you don't want to, even if you just can't seem to stop doing it."
"I will not be getting a 'plump little wife' or a bakery, that is certain," Severus retorted in disgust. Lily just laughed, but she was almost invisible now and her laughter sounded like echoes. "Lily, wait!" he called desperately. There was still so much he wanted to say, so much they needed to talk about, so much he needed to apologize for.
"Let it all go and start again, Severus," Lily called, her voice faint and sweet. "You're forgiven. For it all. So move on, and live."
The rest of her body was swallowed by the white fog around them both. She was gone.
But Severus didn't feel like crying, surprisingly. He felt peaceful … and tired.
The white faded as he dropped into the dark embrace of sleep.
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Tony Stark thought his idea of making his Tower into the Avengers' headquarters was a good idea. Of course, nearly everybody else balked at the thought, but he couldn't understand why. Anybody with sense would give an arm and a leg to be living in Stark Tower! After all, he was a billionaire, genius, and philanthropist; the rest of the Avengers team should have been ecstatic at the thought of having such incredible headquarters and such an awesome host too.
Well, at least Bruce Banner took him up on the offer. One Avenger was better than none; well, two if he counted himself.
Anyway, even though Cap was being a stuck-up snob about it and the two SHIELD super spies treated Tony like he was kidding, he was still designing floors for everybody like he'd promised. After all, he was having half his building repaired or rebuilt anyway, so he may as well put those climbing rafters in for Hawkeye and a special gym for Black Widow and a lot of really sturdy punching bags for Cap while he was trying to design a Hulk-proof room and a biology lab for Bruce. He even (tentatively) put in a room for Snape, and after consulting Bruce, made sure to put in a 'potions' lab and a comfortably old-fashioned library on his floor. Of course, everything was still in the planning stage. Nothing was really started yet, after only a week. But give him a month or two and Avengers Tower would be ready for business!
When Natasha called him up demanding the Avengers get together for an emergency meeting in his tower, he was a little surprised. He'd been nagging at the Avengers to get together to properly celebrate their victory, but with the wizard of their number still in the hospital, everybody thought it would be in bad taste. He mentioned it, she brushed him off and told him to order dinner, and then she had to go and tell him that she'd already told Thor and Hawkeye, so it was left to him to call Capsicle.
Great.
Still, he was in a good mood when he dialed the number for Steve Rogers' cell phone. He'd really looked forward to getting everybody together just to hang out when the fate of the world wasn't in the balance. While he waited for the call to go through, he really hoped the guy had figured out how to answer his phone while he sat drumming his fingers. To his relief, he only had to wait for a few rings before it was answered.
"Rogers," the voice on the other end grunted.
"Hey there Capsicle, how you doing?" Stark cheered. He was maybe overdoing the friendly vibes a little, but Natasha asked him to be civil, so this was how he did it.
"Stark?"
"I prefer Tony," the billionaire returned. "Of course, I wouldn't be averse to 'your awesomeness' but I can't ever get anybody but JARVIS to agree to that …"
"Tony, why are you calling me?" Now Steve sounded annoyed. Sheesh, couldn't the guy just chill sometime? Oh, that was kind of funny. 'The Capsicle needed to chill'. He snorted a chuckle and then burst out laughing when Capsicle demanded to know what was so funny.
"Oh, it's nothing," Tony gasped once he got over his laughing fit. "Hey, I'm having a little something here at the tower, wanna come? It's just the team, you know; just us and some food and maybe a movie night. We're not having shawarma, I promise." He remembered how the super-soldier's super taste buds had revolted at the strong flavors of his new favorite food, and honestly, he thought he was being pretty thoughtful all things considered. He wouldn't mind having shawarma again, but pizza was fine too. His favorite pizza place had survived the alien attack, so that was one good thing to be thankful for in this whole mess.
"I don't know, Tony," Rogers sighed. "I had a really long day …"
"Yeah, sweeping rubble, babysitting a wizard in a coma, punching the guts out of punching bags; I get the gist, you're a busy guy," Tony huffed. Now he was getting annoyed. "But you're coming to the pizza party and you don't have a choice, got it? It's team-bonding stuff and Natasha'll do something nasty to me if you don't come."
"She put you up to this?"
"Why else would someone like me call you out of the blue and laugh at you for no reason?"
Steve Rogers sighed again; the sigh that made him feel like a toddler for some reason. Tony didn't like it. That was it. He was calling Steve 'Grandpa' from now on; or at least until he got tired of that and came up with a new name for Captain Icicle.
"Fine," the super-soldier said. "I'll be there in twenty minutes. Is that too soon?"
"The sooner the better," Tony rejoined cheerfully. "See you in twenty, Gramps."
He hung up before he could hear the annoyed sigh again. Honestly, sometimes Cap was just a stuffy pain-in-the-you-know-where, but for team-bonding, he guessed he could put up with the uppity old-timer for an hour or two.
Tony'd had to move down a few floors while his penthouse was under repairs, but it didn't really matter to him. After he and Pepper fixed it up, he floor he had picked now looked almost identical to the one currently all smashed-up. There were some bedrooms and a great big common room with the newest, biggest flat-screen TV he could fit against the wall. It was connected to JARVIS like everything in his tower, so the screen wasn't just for watching movies. He wondered if they'd use it tonight. Natasha had sounded rather stressed when she called. Anything that could stress that spider-girl super-spy had to be big. Not to mention that calling a meeting after dark was kind of sneaky. Good thing Tony liked sneaky stuff.
Legolas arrived first, announced by JARVIS even before the pizza delivery guy. He wore the sunglasses that made him look all secret-agenty and sneaky and he was dressed for a mission. At least, he was wearing pretty much what he wore during the alien battle and was carrying his bow.
"Heya, Katniss, you're early," Tony greeted Hawkeye cheerfully. He held up his half-full glass of whiskey. "Want a drink?"
"Why not?" Clint shrugged and put his bow and quiver down on the coffee table. "And you can stop calling me Katniss. And Legolas. And Robin Hood."
"Hey!" Tony protested indignantly as he splashed some liquor in a glass tumbler. "I haven't called you Robin Hood yet!"
"Just heading you off before we get there," Hawkeye smirked, winked over the tops of his shades, and took the glass. "When's everybody else coming?"
"After the pizza," Tony answered with a careless shrug. He sat down on the sofa and put his feet on the coffee table. "So, how's life treatin' you, Ulysses?"
"What did you call me?"
Tony blinked at the SHIELD archer in disbelief. "The guy from The Odyssey? King Ulysses? Best archer in Ithaca? Split an arrow on an axe … You know what, never mind."
"Didn't think you the classical type," Clint commented with amusement.
"I saw the movie," Tony shrugged and sipped his drink.
"I'm technically on leave," Hawkeye answered the first question, swirling his glass. "But … with the clean-up and Snape still in the hospital … I haven't really gone anywhere."
"You should take a load off," Tony suggested. "SHIELD probably thought you really needed it if they gave you indefinite leave like that."
Clint Barton shrugged and quaffed half his drink in one gulp.
JARVIS announced the arrival of the pizza, and almost at the same time, thunder boomed outside and the AI drily added that Thor had landed in the penthouse.
"Send him down, JARVIS," Tony answered as he went to greet the delivery guy at the elevator.
Thor seemed subdued when he finally made it down, (via the stairs since he didn't trust elevators yet) but he smiled and greeted his 'fellow warriors' and put his hammer down beside Barton's bow. He gravitated at once to the pizza, but Hawkeye stood guard over it, to Tony's amusement.
While those two bickered in a friendly fashion, Tony set out paper plates and drinks and poured himself another whiskey. He asked JARVIS to find some background music, (the AI promptly put on something with a steady beat, but not too obnoxious) and then wandered off to find Bruce. He found his science bro coming down the stairs from his private lab, looking rather absent-minded behind his square glasses.
"Well there you are," Tony groused. "I almost went all the way up there to get you!"
"Sorry, Tony," Dr. Banner sighed. "I got distracted. Am I the last one?"
"Actually, we're still waiting on Black Widow and Grandpa Rogers."
JARVIS suddenly announced that Natasha had arrived and Steve Rogers was right behind her. Tony glanced at the clock in surprise. It had been exactly twenty minutes since he and the old grandpa had talked. What was it about Army guys and them always being right on time? Rhodey was the same way and frankly, it was irritating, especially since Tony himself had a hard time NOT being late.
"Well, there they are," Tony shrugged at Bruce. "Does the Other Guy like pizza?" Without waiting for an answer, he led the way back to the comfy lounge where the pizza was still untouched, despite Thor's best puppy-dog expression. Hawkeye was immovable.
The elevator dinged and Natasha Romanoff stepped out, dressed much like Hawkeye in serviceable black leather. She looked surprised to see everyone here already and Tony smirked at her, waving his glass in her direction.
"You didn't think I could do it, did you?" The billionaire smirked. "Well, voila, sweetheart; may I present The Avengers Re-United!"
"We never dis-united in the first place," Hawkeye grumbled.
"I don't see Cap," Natasha commented.
"I'm here," the man himself announced, emerging from the stairwell in the hall. He was dressed more casually in a button-down shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket. Honestly, the two SHIELD agents and Point Break were dressed like they were gonna go save the world tonight. Didn't they know how to relax?
"See?" Tony smirked at Black Widow. "Told ya I could do it. Now the pizza's getting cold, hurry up!"
Once all the Avengers were gathered together, Tony put Steve in charge of drinks, (because it was amusing trying to teach him how to mix a screwdriver) Hawkeye parceled out the pizza, (even though there was plenty even for Thor's appetite) and the atmosphere seemed to relax a bit.
"So, Nat," Tony began once mostly everybody was on their second piece of pizza and the small talk was out of the way. "What'd you want us all together for? Surely not for my charming company or my knowledge of the best pizza in New York?"
Natasha shook her head, not even bothering to roll her eyes. "Snape's in trouble," she said quietly.
For a few uncomfortable seconds, the Avengers glanced silently at one another.
"What do you mean?" Hawkeye demanded.
"Will he not live?" Thor asked, his bearded face crumpled with a strange kind of grief.
"I just visited him a couple hours ago!" Bruce blurted out, looking stricken and confused. "Natasha … this trouble isn't medical, is it?"
"No, it isn't," Black Widow answered impatiently and dropped her paper plate in the trash after just two slices. "Snape's recovering fine, it's just … SHIELD's issued a transfer order for him to some 'private clinic' that doesn't exist. I looked it up; St. Winifred's. It's kind of fishy, you know?"
"SHIELD's gonna get ahold of him?" Tony demanded, feeling his appetite vanish. "What for? Just 'cause he's a freaky wizard?"
"They're taking him?" Bruce gasped, looking horrified. "They can't do that! He's not a lab rat!"
"I know that," Natasha snorted, giving him a Look. "Why do you think I wanted to tell all of you this?"
"When are they planning to do it?" Steve interrupted, putting his glass of water down. He was taking charge, as usual. but Tony couldn't fault the guy for that. Everybody else was freaking out and only the Super-Soldier was keeping it cool. Heh. Tony knew he needed to stop it with the cold jokes ... but it too darn funny not to.
"I'm part of the team, and we're supposed to do it early in the morning," the red-haired Agent replied. She hesitated and then took a deep breath. "Fury told me some … classified things about Snape. I can't tell you everything, obviously, but suffice it to say … he's not the only one of his kind."
"Not the only …?" Tony repeated before his brain caught up with his mouth. "Shit," he whispered.
"There's other wizards …" Hawkeye murmured, shaking his head in wonder.
Tony noticed Bruce suddenly stiffened and looked strangely conflicted, as if he was trying to decide if he should say something or not. The Doc didn't say anything yet, and Tony's attention was dragged away by Natasha's voice.
"The other wizards want Snape back, and they're not happy," the Black Widow explained. "Apparently he's supposed to be dead."
"Dead?" Steve repeated carefully. "Like … the way I was dead?"
"He faked his death," Natasha answered shortly. "He was involved in some magical war and ran off when his side lost."
"That's not true," Bruce blurted out suddenly. "He didn't 'run off when his side lost'." His square face was full of fierce determination and he plucked the glasses off his face, making him look less like a timid nerd. Tony was impressed despite himself. Bruce's loyalty to Snape was kind of touching. "His side won, thanks in large part to him," Bruce was explaining firmly. "Snape was a spy and a double-agent, so he was forced to do some things he wasn't proud of. He left after it appeared he died so he could live in peace … and atone for his sins, he said."
"He told you that?" Natasha asked slowly.
"Severus ... he told me he was a wizard about a year ago," Bruce answered hesitantly, fiddling with the glasses in his hand. "He also said wizards erase people's memories if they find things out they shouldn't, so ... I wasn't sure if I should say anything."
"Well it was a shock when Fury briefed me," Natasha snorted. "Apparently, SHIELD works with the magical police in America despite it being against their rules or something."
"The Statute of Secrecy," Bruce nodded.
"Okay, I guess that explains why I never heard of this before," Tony broke in loudly. "But, holy crap, there's other wizards out there? And they want Snape back? What the hell?"
Dr. Banner shrugged sadly. "I never did ask him what would happen if they found out he was still alive."
"Fury doesn't trust him, naturally," Natasha huffed. "But even he doesn't think Snape deserves death or life in hell for whatever he did, which is what those magical idiots will do to him."
"Hell no," Tony butted in. "Nobody deserves that, even if he was an evil wizard."
"He made mistakes when he was young, and he fought in a war," Bruce said severely. Tony grinned. The guy was just too cute when he got riled. "I've known him for two years and he carries regrets and shame even more zealously than I do. He's a good person."
Tony was still grinning as he shook his head. "We're not saying he's evil or anything, Doc. All I meant was: even if he was somebody bad before, I'm living proof people can change. I mean, he fought with us and nearly died stopping Loki. Whatever he's done is in the past and all that."
"Unfortunately, it doesn't matter to the magical community," Natasha said grimly, folding her arms. "They want him back now that they know he's alive."
"What'll they do to him?" Steve demanded, standing up and folding his arms. "He saved the world, there's no mistake about that. Are they even going to take that into account?"
Natasha folded her own arms and faced him squarely. "Fury told me the American wizards are going to ship him back to Britain for a trial. If he's found guilty, the sentence is either execution via some dark creature sucking out his soul, or life in a prison guarded by those soul-suckers. People in there usually go insane within five years."
The horrified gasps that followed this statement seemed to suck the air right out of the room. Tony felt a little ill, though that might have been the alcohol and bell peppers disagreeing in his stomach, as they always did.
"Suck out his soul?" Steve repeated, dropping his arms to his sides. He sounded as sick as Tony felt and looked like he was either going to punch someone or puke. "They have creatures that actually do that?"
"Called Dementors," Natasha replied sadly. "We don't have much of a say, really. This is a whole different government in a different country we're talking about."
"That's barbaric," Barton snarled. "Don't these people have any understanding of basic human rights?"
"They seem kind of old-fashioned," Natasha replied. "And Britain's more backward than most. Unfortunately for us, we can't do anything if their court decides he deserves death."
"Or life in jail guarded by monsters that suck out souls and drive you insane," Tony cut in, feeling terribly angry. He barely knew Snape, save for the fact that he could out-scowl anybody he'd ever met and was a helluva fighter. But he could see that the guy was decent, and definitely didn't deserve to die or lose his mind for whatever it was he'd done.
"So are these wizards idiots, or what?" Tony went on, gaining traction as he ranted. "I mean, seriously, how would anybody deserve that? Can't they see that sucking people's souls out or locking them up til they go insane is kinda harsh? What'd Snape even do?"
"He murdered his boss, and probably other people, and apparently betrayed the good guys by publicly siding with a Dark Lord," Natasha answered flippantly.
"Severus told me his boss was the leader of the 'light'," Bruce interrupted to explain. "This boss was dying from a curse and ordered Sev to kill him before he died a long painful death. Not only was it a form of suicide, the Dark Lord would see it as an act of loyalty. Then he ran the magical school, but he had to make it look like he was totally evil, so he was more in the public eye then … So I bet you can guess where the accusations of treason came from, but he had to in order to keep gathering info and protecting who he could."
Hawkeye hopped down from where he'd been perched on the bar. "That's pretty twisted," he commented. "But I think anybody can see he was just a soldier following orders there."
"It's really complicated," Natasha sighed. "Apparently a small group of people from the war have been actively working to clear his name over the past ten years, but Snape turning up after faking his death casts a shadow over all that."
"I guess it indicates a guilty conscience," Tony muttered and drained his glass. He needed something stronger than whiskey and wandered back toward the bar.
Steve suddenly stopped pacing and squared his shoulders. "So what do we do?" he asked.
"I want to get him out of there before anybody gets their claws in him," Natasha said at once. "Anybody else want in?"
"I do," Bruce answered, predictably. "He never planned to get involved in any of this. He just wanted to help people and now look where that got him. I don't think he would have if he'd known SHIELD works with wizards."
"But the problem is: what do we do with him?" Steve pointed out. "We can't just get him away from the hospita;, wait for him to wake up and then send him on his merry way."
"And we would somehow need to protect him from magical people who might have different ways of tracking people down," Clint added, wiping his greasy hands on a napkin.
Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. "Um, are you guys forgetting the most important bit? We also need to make sure we don't get caught doing it. I don't need some old one-eyed pirate breathing down my neck, thank you."
"I … may have a solution," Thor suddenly spoke up at last, his deep booming voice catching all their attention. He sounded conflicted, but his blue eyes were bright with determination. "I and my brother leave for Asgard in the morning, and Loki owes Mage Snape a life debt on account of freeing him from the Mind Stone … So how would it be if we brought the Mage to our realm with us?"
"The Mage?" Tony repeated with a snort. "What is this? 'Magic the Gathering'? You mean the wizard?"
"Aye," Thor nodded gravely. "Loki tells me that your friend is a powerful and clever sorcerer, for a mere mortal. Perhaps in Asgard he could even expand his abilities."
"You can really do that?" Steve asked, hope coloring his voice. "You could keep him safe in Asgard for a while? Your All-father king wouldn't be upset at you bringing a stranger home?"
"I have been planning for some time to bring my Lady Jane for a visit," Thor explained, blushing a bit. "This would be a good opportunity to gauge how my Father receives mortals."
"If you could take Snape, that would be the best solution, actually," Natasha said thoughtfully.
"Not only would he be out of those magical maniacs' clutches, he'd be off-planet," Hawkeye added, sidling over to the table to get more pizza. "Anybody want any more of the supreme before I eat it all?"
"I do wish to have more of the Pizza of Supreme, hands off!" Thor answered quickly. He hurried over to Clint and helped himself.
"He's unconscious in the hospital," Bruce pointed out. "How are we going to work around that?"
"Thor could request to leave early," Natasha suggested. "He could say he got a message from the All-father or whatever that they need to come back pronto. Meanwhile we," she indicated the rest of the Avengers. "We break Snape out of the hospital, meet up with Thor and Loki, and they all go off to Asgard."
"That's not a bad idea," Clint nodded appreciatively. "I'm in."
"I'm in too," Steve said as he got another slice of meat-lovers pizza. Tony had lost count of how many slices he'd already eaten, but he was pretty sure Grandpa had already polished off more than a whole pizza.
"We're on a tight window here," Dr. Banner reminded them, putting his glasses back on. "You said SHIELD's coming for him early?"
The Black Widow nodded. "We pick him up at 4:00 A.M. SHIELD's taking care of the release paperwork now."
"Okay, okay," Tony interrupted. "We need to hash out a plan. How are we getting Snape out of there?"
"I have an idea," Steve announced around a full mouth of pizza. He blushed at the snickers that greeted his lack of manners and he washed out his mouth with a drink of water before he spoke. "Sorry," he muttered. "Alright; so, back in the war, we infiltrated this Hydra base once by stopping a supply truck and taking the place of their guys. Maybe when the SHIELD people come to the hospital, some of us can wait in the room, and some can wait outside. Natasha, how many agents are on this job?"
"Five," she replied, smiling slightly as she saw where he was going with this. "There'll be two medics to handle the transfer, a driver and a guard, and me as the second guard, all in a medical van. It's a small team. We're only taking him to D.C after all"
"Do you know where in D.C?" Tony demanded. "JARVIS, pull up a map on the TV, wouldya?"
"Affirmative, sir," the AI replied and the TV flicked on, showing a large, zoomed-out map of Washington D.C.
When Natasha rattled off the memorized address, JARVIS highlighted the spot on a street map and zoomed in while splitting the screen and showing a satellite image of the address.
"That's a condemned building," Tony said flatly.
"Prime bit of real estate," Steve drawled, and Tony gave him a sharp, surprised look. He hadn't known Grandpa Rogers was capable of sarcasm.
"Yeah, doesn't look like a private clinic to me," Hawkeye commented.
"Perfect little rendezvous," Bruce muttered while he rubbed his chin. "It's at the edge of the city, it's pretty remote …"
"We're meeting some people there," Natasha interrupted with a frown. "I wasn't allowed to know names or meet them, but I don't think they're SHIELD. I imagine they'll be Snape's sort."
"Wizards," Hawkeye supplied.
"Right," Natasha nodded.
"It's all fishy," Tony said in a loud voice as if that was the end of it. "So anyway we're getting Snape out of here 'cause nobody deserves to get their soul sucked away no matter what they did." He turned to Thor. "Hey Point Break, you don't have any creepy dangerous monsters living up in your castle in the clouds, do you?"
"We do not have any Dementors in Asgard," Thor answered slowly as if unsure whether Tony was joking or not. "Mage Snape will be quite safe, I assure you."
"Great," Tony clapped his hands together. "So Thor, you go get your brother and the Tesseract and meet us at that spot on Central Park we talked about. Nat, get things set up with the Snape-napping and whoever's going with you."
"What about you?" Capsicle asked, not sounding accusing for once. Instead, he sounded curious, which made Tony smirk as he attempted to appear cool and confident and powerful. He knew he looked every bit the genius hero off to his own battlefield of data and encryptions and forbidden knowledge.
Tony whipped out a pair of sunglasses and perched them stylishly on his nose. "I will be entering the realm of computer hacking to make sure nothing gets in our way," he said in a grim, suitably dramatic, tone.
"Sir, I do believe I'll be the one doing the actual hacking while you make all the demands, as usual," the eternally dry tones of JARVIS sounded from the ceiling.
"JARV, come on!" Tony whined, totally back to normal. "You messed up my dramatic scene-closing line!"
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Severus Snape had always had a sixth sense for danger. It was odd that the sense even worked when he was unconscious, because all it took for him to come completely out of his coma was someone sneaking into his dark unfamiliar room after three in the morning. One second, he was unconscious, the next, he was completely awake, his heart thudding in the silence from a burst of adrenaline. A nearby machine hooked up to his pulse picked up the change in pace and beeped in time with his pounding heart. He blinked in the dark, but it wasn't really very dark. His window glowed with light from outside and the machines in the room gave off their own lights. He shifted, realized he felt stiff and uncomfortable, and gave into a slight stretch, regulating his breathing and listening as the machine began to slow down as well. There was someone in the room, he could tell, and before he could even think about demanding they show themselves or get out, someone turned on a little flashlight.
"Snape? You're awake?" a familiar voice whispered. Was that the voice he had heard echoing over him in the white land of his memories?
"Rogers," Severus replied, startled at the hoarse croak of his voice. He grimaced and reached up to massage his scarred neck, but it was hard with all the wires and things taped all over his hand and wrist. With a growl, he ripped them all off, wincing as he tore out a needle that was taped on his hand. The hand he used to tear off the needle felt stiff and heavy for some reason and he could barely move his fingers.
The electric torch flashed briefly over him before Rogers placed it on the bedside table and gently helped him to sit up. His stiff, heavy forearm was splinted and in a cast, and he wondered whether to be relieved at the realization that his Dark Mark was now hidden under the pale green material. At least he wouldn't have to explain its significance to the Captain.
Severus grimaced in discomfort as he sat up. His muscles and bones all ached. Whether that was dark magic backlash or the fact that he had probably been lying mostly immobile for the last few days with a collection of debilitating injuries, or a combination of the two, Severus couldn't say and he didn't care. He missed Poppy suddenly. Despite his hatred of the Infirmary and all things medical, Madam Pomfrey had always managed to make things a bit more bearable for him, mostly by not pitying him and letting him pretty much take care of himself. She had always been very understanding, and had really been the only one in Hogwarts who didn't hate him during that last, hellish year.
Someone else was in the room, quietly turning off the machines. Severus twisted round in bewilderment before he recognized Barton in the dim half-light. The archer flashed a grin at him before he went on silencing the machinery.
"Why does this look suspiciously like a kidnapping?" Severus hissed, cursing his cracked and broken voice.
"'Cause it is one," Barton replied with a smirk.
Severus glanced around the dim room. "… Am I in a hospital?"
"Yes, now hold still so I can get all this off you …" Rogers answered, gently helping him to remove the last of the wires from his body and not commenting or making this any more uncomfortable or humiliating than it had to be.
Severus flung it all away in disgust, hating muggle medicine more than ever. He always had, of course, and he hadn't set foot in a hospital since going to identify his father's body when he was seventeen.
"Why are you kidnapping me?" Severus demanded, suddenly overwhelmed with confusion. "How long have I been here?"
Barton finished with his job and sat on the edge of his bed. "We're getting you out because your wizard-kind wants to suck out your soul, or something," he said with a shrug. "I didn't get most of it. But basically, there's supposed a SHIELD team coming by in a few minutes to take you away."
Severus stared at the man he'd freed from the Mind Stone, feeling his mind spinning away from him. He'd been found already? The Aurors were coming? Dementors? He felt naked without his wand and started to shiver as if the creature was already approaching.
"Okay, that was a terrible explanation, Clint," Rogers scolded, placing a warm, steadying hand on Severus' shoulder. Despite his desire to push it away and declare himself fine, he chose instead to act like he hadn't noticed anything because it was comforting to feel something warm and bracing on his bony shoulder. He shut his eyes and took a few deep breaths, cataloguing the sensations against his skin, like the scratchy hospital gown, the soft blanket under his fingertips, the cool air brushing his cheek and flowing through the thin material of his garments … He calmed down after a few seconds, hating himself for nearly having a panic attack just because somebody mentioned Dementors.
"Well, why don't you explain it then?" Barton huffed.
"Someone please explain it or I will lose my temper," Severus muttered, feeling as if he had staved off the panic for now.
"Alright, so Natasha called the team together a few hours ago and told us Fury was going to hand you over to the magical police," Rogers explained, picking up his little flashlight and hooking it on his belt. He was wearing normal clothes again, including his leather jacket. "They were planning to ship you back to England for a trial, and apparently you guys have the craziest, most barbaric punishments for criminals I've ever heard of. Sucking people's souls out? Really? That's just sick."
Severus swallowed hard and realized his mouth was dry. He scratched the back of his hand where the needle had been and wondered why he hadn't thought of this when he had that bright idea to follow the Avengers. What had he been thinking? His mind wandered back to when Lily in his head had told him to stop punishing himself … but was that only because she somehow knew that others were going to be taking his penance in hand after all these years?
"Now that they know I am alive, it will be more difficult for me to hide," Severus rasped. "I appreciate your help, but I am too weak right now to run. Let them take me. It is time I stopped running anyhow."
"Stop, you don't get it," Barton chuckled. Really, why was he laughing at a time like this? "Thor offered to take you to Asgard until this all calms down."
Now Severus was speechless. Asgard? Thor offered? Was this because of Loki and that life debt he said he'd owe? It was an unbelievable offer and it was one that made his inner Ravenclaw jump for joy … but he was feeling guilty about getting so excited now. What about the other Avengers? Surely they would be in terrible trouble for helping him escape!
"I can't allow you to do this," Severus croaked. He refused to look up at them and clenched his fists in his lap. He felt like he had woken up in a surreal dream where nothing makes any sense.
"We don't care," Barton barked a laugh. "We're doing it anyway."
"We owe you," Steve finished, his voice warm. "And I hear Loki owes you too." The Captain squeezed his shoulder before he reached down and pressed his warm hand over Severus' cold one. "We're not letting any monster suck your soul out, Snape," he said firmly. Severus glanced up at him, incredulous. "Nobody deserves that, definitely not you."
"And you can't back out now," Barton added. "The other half of our team is drugging the driver and the guard as we speak."
Severus threw him a look next and was surprised, that even in such dim light, he could see their genuine smiles and the hope shining in their eyes. It was strange. He wondered if this was what it felt like to have … friends.
"Very well," Severus muttered, though not unwillingly. "What is the plan?"
Barton stood up and stepped into a square of soft light that glowed from the doorway and talked while he watched the hallway. "It's real simple: Steve and I wait for the medics to come up with your stretcher, we drug 'em and leave 'em here, take you ourselves, and head down to the van. It's like an ambulance, but it doesn't have flashing lights or anything, so we'll be hard to spot as such."
"Should be fun," Rogers remarked casually. "We thought you'd be unconscious, actually."
"Lucky thing you woke up," Barton added.
"I have a sixth sense for danger," Severus admitted. "All you had to do to wake me up was sneak up on me in the dark, apparently."
"That's hilarious," Barton snickered.
"But not uncommon," Rogers pointed out, throwing the archer an annoyed look. "Soldiers are often hyper-alert even when sleeping. It's a result of training."
"Yeah, secret agents and spies are light sleepers too, but I never heard of somebody coming out of a coma 'cause they thought someone was sneaking up on them."
"I have been slowly waking up," Severus said. "Earlier today, I believe I heard your voice, Rogers."
The captain looked surprised, and maybe a little embarrassed. "Oh, we've all been visiting you for the past week. It was my turn this morning … and I thought I saw you frown a little when I told you we all miss you."
"I did not hear you, only your voice," Severus clarified, frowning as he went over what Rogers had implied. "A week, you said?"
"It's been a week since the attack, and you've been here the whole time," Rogers answered.
Severus didn't answer. He had thought he had been unconscious for a few days at least. Even after a week though, his head was swimming and he felt exhausted. His magical core throbbed in his chest and he wondered how badly he had exhausted himself. An exhausted magical core often took weeks to heal. But maybe in Asgard they would be able to help him heal quicker.
"Here they come!" Barton suddenly whispered. The SHIELD agent melted back into the shadows, disappearing into what looked like a bathroom. Rogers turned off his flashlight and stood up, moving the chair aside so he had room. Severus hesitated for a second before he lay back down in his bed, figuring that the less suspicious the strangers were when they entered, the better.
Severus could hear the squeaking of wheels in an echoing hallway and swiftly approaching steps accompanying it. He glanced sideways at Rogers, who was standing beside the bed with his hands behind his back in a parade rest. The footsteps and squeaky wheel reached the room and suddenly the overhead lights were clicked on. Severus inhaled quickly as he slammed his eyes shut against the light, and he now knew why Barton had ducked into the bathroom. It was dimmer in there and allowed for better light acclimation. Severus was aware of the door to his room clicking loudly shut, two men cried out briefly, there was a struggle, and when Severus managed to roll over and open his eyes, blinking against the glare, he saw Rogers and Barton releasing their captives, now limp and sleeping deeply.
"That was not badly done," Severus commented. He glanced at the mattress on a wheeled contraption with trepidation. "Do you expect me to ride in that?"
"You'll have to," Rogers shrugged apologetically.
"It'll raise the least suspicion," Barton explained. He was wearing dark sunglasses and his hair looked nicer than it had appeared the last time they met. It was clean now, and not plastered to his skull with sweat.
"Hang on a minute, then we'll get you on the stretcher," Rogers grunted. He was starting to strip the burly black man he had knocked out. The two unconscious men were dressed like paramedics and Severus realized that Rogers and Barton meant to switch clothes with them.
"You're going to be in trouble for this," Severus muttered.
"Nope," Barton grinned as he deftly defrocked his medic and picked the half-naked man up to lay him on the sofa in the room. "Tony hacked into the security feeds here to loop the cameras and erase anything incriminating. They'll think you either got outside help or escaped on your own with your magic."
"Won't that make me look even guiltier?" Severus pointed out, kicking his blankets off and curling his lip in disgust as he noticed the plastic bracelet on his wrist and the fact that he was only wearing a hospital gown. Ugh. "I hate hospitals," he growled venomously.
"So do I," Rogers replied with surprising vehemence. "Thankfully after the serum I don't spend even a fraction of the time I used to in the places."
"I knew a young man who spent literally every single school year getting into hospital for one life-threatening situation or another," the wizard grumbled.
"Real troublemaker?"
"You have no idea. But … I'm not too uncharitable to admit that most of the time, it wasn't completely his fault. He had a Dark Lord out to kill him, you see."
"Sounds like his school-days were even funner than mine," Rogers muttered facetiously.
Barton was finished changing his clothes already. He wasn't a SHIELD spy for nothing. But once he was dressed as a paramedic, Severus had to smirk. Barton still managed to look dangerous, even without his weapons or his combat leathers. He didn't look very comfortable, especially with the sleeves.
"I don't like sleeves," the archer complained. Rogers just chuckled at him and disappeared into the bathroom to change. He was apparently a lot more self-conscious than Barton was.
By the time Rogers finished changing. Barton had somehow coaxed Severus onto the contraption they called a stretcher and covered him up with a blanket, advising him to look asleep, or preferably dead. It was utterly humiliating, and he was lying on top of the clothes that Barton and Rogers had been forced to remove, like their shirts and heavy jeans, and it wasn't comfortable at all. Moreover, His rescuers didn't look like the medics that had gone up at all. He felt utterly ridiculous. What he would have given for a couple bottles of polyjuice potion.
"I hope you idiots realize that you look nothing like the men you are impersonating," Severus grumbled. "About the only thing you have in common is your gender." Which was true. The man whose clothes Rogers was wearing was a burly and chubby dark-skinned man with a round, bald head, and Barton's medic had been a tall, slim oriental with gray hair. They were about the furthest thing from look-alikes they could have picked.
"That doesn't matter," Barton snorted without concern. "People hardly ever pay attention to details like that. People in uniforms are always faceless to the majority of folks."
"I would notice," Severus muttered peevishly. He knew he ought to stop talking and cooperate with this escape plan, but it was just so humiliating. Suddenly, he wished he had an invisibility cloak like Potter had. He could have just slunk out of here on his own.
Sighing in resignation, Severus closed his eyes and allowed his muscles to unwind as his 'medics' wheeled his stretcher down the hallway of the hospital. He regulated his breathing to a sleeping level and retreated into his mind to inspect the damage to further the illusion that he was in a coma, and so he wouldn't die of boredom lying here being carted around like a dead body. To his surprise, there wasn't much damage to his mind at all. He might experience some bouts of confusion, probably disjointed memories, and he definitely would need to repair his Occlumency shields again over the next few weeks as his magic slowly rebuilt itself, but otherwise his mind was as strong and durable as ever. He was pleased. With all that he had endured in his life, it was a good thing he had such a strong mind or he would be either dead or insane a dozen times over. From the Dark Lord's fondness for the Cruciatus curse to his constant rummaging about in all his servants' minds, Severus had remained strong and powerful. Maybe all that conditioning was what allowed him to stay whole during the battle in Loki's mind.
It would be interesting to see the god of mischief again, and talk to the real him face to face. It would be fascinating to see Asgard and see how many myths Earth actually got right. He might even meet other Norse deities like Tyr and Freya, (if they existed) and he might see the eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. The thought made him almost want to smile.
Maybe this whole thing would be quite the adventure. Severus could not remember ever having one of those without ending up almost dead, but maybe this time would be different.
A~HP~V~HP~E~HP~N~HP~G~HP~E~HP~R~HP~S
Thank you to everybody who's been able to point out 'canon errors' in this story. Even though this is an AU Crossover, there are some things I end up writing in here that don't make much sense and I don't realize I ought to either change/fix it or explain why it's different. My ignorance of the Marvel universe I blame on my upbringing. Superhero movies (and god help you if you even touched a Comic book, shudder) were never very popular in my home, but thanks to some of you experts out there, I'm able to fix the little details that I get wrong here. I've seen maybe half the Marvel movies for the first time in just the past three months, (all three Captain America movies, The Avengers, Ant-Man, Infinity War, Endgame, and the first two Thor movies) so there's a lot I don't know. So I just want to say thank you for your help, and don't hesitate to drop me a PM or review if I go off canon in assuming something about the heroes that makes no sense.
It has been fun, writing one of my favorite HP characters into one of my favorite Marvel movies, and thank you all for coming on this adventure with me! Just one chapter to go, and we'll be finished with The Avengers. I've got maybe one paragraph written of my Dark World continuation of this story, but I might scrap it and start over because I am not happy with it. So bear with me. It might be another couple of weeks before I get enough of the story fleshed out that I can start posting that one.