Sorry it took so long for this chapter. I had some other work to do and needed to rewrite this entire chapter since it didn't fit well in the Marvel universe (cinematic or otherwise).
These next couple of chapters are to establish Harry in the MCU. There's going to be more integration soon.
Ok so this chapter is why I put this story as "Rated M".
GUEST commented that Harry isn't stupid and wouldn't be so obvious with the magic use but actually he WANTS to be found … hopefully by other magicals so he needs to be a little obvious. He's not going to go on top of the Daily Bugle and start casting fiendfyre after calling all the local and national news media but he's hoping he shows up on someone's radar … hopefully someone friendly who knows about magic.
PHILOSOPHIZE pointed out my typos amd naming errors. I'll try to be better but I mostly work on this while on the bus to and from work on my phone.
RAJESHKONT mentioned the point me spell. That spell only points North (or so says the HP Wiki). While the mapping spell actually exists.
OTSUTSUKI mentions that there are other magicals in the Marvel Universe. I'm MOSTLY basing this on the MCU and currently there are only Sorcerers and their magic is different to Harry's. I'm going with the HP magic is internal ... genetic ... MCU Sorcerers get their power from other dimensions and god like beings like Dormammu, Cyttorak and Vishanti.
The Ancient one says so in the Dr. Strange movie ...
We harness energy... drawn from other dimensions of the Multiverse... to cast spells... to conjure shields... and weapons... to make magic.
… and it's more obvious in the animated films.
"By the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak I bind and contain thee."
-HPMCU-
CHAPTER 6
Harry woke up in his soft bed. Light streaming in from the window. His head pounded in pain and both shoulders ached.
Harry vaguely recalled the events of the previous night.
Opening his eyes and looking up at the sound of someone moving about his room.
Turning back Harry found a naked woman bent over rummaging in his trunk. Her upper body having completely disappeared inside the magically expanded trunk and her shapelly bare arse pointing towards him.
"Holy shit man! This thing is bigger on the inside!"
"By Merlin's Blue Balls!" Harry quickly turned around. "Why the bloody hell are you starkers!?"
"Oh come on! Don't tell me you're embarrassed. Prude!" she replied from within the trunk wiggling her bum suggestively.
"I just need to borrow some clothing. I've been wearing the same shit for the past month. Hey! Why do you have dresses in here?" she asked. "Look, if you're into cross dressing that's fine with me. Hey actually you might have some panties instead of just boxers so score!"
Harry turned around and tried to ignore the fact that a very naked and attractive woman was holding up his school robes in his room.
"That's not a dress! They are wizarding robes. They are actually my school uniform!" Harry replied indignantly.
"Sure looks like a dress to me. If it wasn't for the fact that I can see you're a little excited right now I'd say you were deep in the closet so I'll take you at your word." she replied bending back down into the trunk. "Then again … you might be playing for both teams. Hey! You DO have panties! Kinky!"
Harry twisted back to look at the girl with a puzzled expression and then remembered where the panties came from.
"Oh for crying out loud. Don't wear those they are from some of my … urgh … admirers." turning his back to the girl again.
"Kinky! You're famous or something? Aha! Here we go!" Harry turned around to see the girl slipping on a pair of boxers and one of his old quidditch jerseys. Somehow, that was worse than her being full monty.
"You could say that. Here. Let me get you some pants and socks."
Harry climbed out of bed and realised he was also naked. He gave Felicity an annoyed look as he covered his manhood.
"What? I needed to see if you'd been shot anywhere." Felicity explained as she eyed him critically. Harry went to the bathroom and grabbed his bathrobe.
Harry reached into his dresser and took out some pants and socks along with his quidditch boots and handed them to the girl.
"Ah clean clothes. You don't realise how much the little things like fresh clothes matter until you're stuck wearing the same panties for a month."
"So come on let's go to the kitchen and you can tell me all about yourself while you make me food. You sort of passed out when we got here last night. Pretty happy you didn't die on me."
Harry didn't bother asking the girl what she would like for breakfast and made a rasher of bacon and some eggs along with some tea.
"Thank-you for your help last night. It would have been a whole lot harder and messier otherwise." Harry explained as he moved the bacon on the frying pan.
"Well when you pulled a fucking huge sword out of a trashcan I figured you might actually be able to get us out of there." she explained as she poured a fourth spoonful of sugar into her tea. "Of course, I didn't know you weren't going to use it. You do know that the pointy bit goes INTO the other guy right?"
Harry shrugged as he sipped his tea. "They weren't very dangerous. I've killed before, killing is easy. It's easy to dehumanise your opponent but the man whose life you just ended might be a father or an uncle, he might not be there of his own will. When the odds are in my favor I try to use non lethal approaches."
"In your favor? I guess it was all part of your plan to be eating dirty carpet while some two bit thug dislocated your shoulder?" Felicity replied, raising an eyebrow incredulously.
"Well things would have been easier if I …"
Harry was interrupted by the doorbell.
"Are you expecting anyone?" Harry asked.
"Nope. Who the fuck would even know I'm here. You don't even have a phone for me to make a call with."
Harry drew his wand and moved to the door. The only person who knew Harry lived here would be Kate and they had parted ways at the Hostel.
Looking through the peephole Harry saw Mrs. Hernandez.
"Mrs. Hernandez? How can I help you?"
The woman rushed into the apartment and grabbed Harry in a rib crushing hug.
"¡Salvaste a mi chico!" she cried over and over. Behind her, Harry could see a man he assumed was her husband, a young girl around 11 as well as their son Samuel.
"Please come in."
Harry was suddenly aware that he was quite naked under the housecoat.
"Please, sit down. I'll just go get dressed quickly and be right back."
Harry returned a few moments later to find Mrs. Hernandez salvaging his forgotten breakfast.
"Oh Merlin. Thank-you Mrs. Hernandez." Harry exclaimed as he made his way to the oven.
"No. Go sit down and talk to my husband. We obviously interrupted your breakfast so it is the least I can do."
Harry grudgingly acquiesced and sat down at his kitchen table.
"I would like to thank you for what you've done for my family. I was originally angry with my wife for going to a what I believed was a scam 'mystic' but both she and my son say that you are real and since you returned my son to me … I have to put my skepticism and pride aside. Thank you for bringing my son back to us."
The man slid a small envelope towards Harry.
"I … I can't take this." Harry replied not even looking at the envelope.
"Why not? Did you not provide us with a service that my wife hired you for?"
"It feels wrong. It feels wrong taking money from someone who has less than I do for doing the right thing." Harry explained. "I don't mean to be insulting but I have enough money that, if I'm careful I could not work for the rest of my life."
"Tell me. Do policemen get paid? Firemen? Doctors? Nurses? Teachers? Soldiers? Why shouldn't you get paid? You say you have enough money to live forever? Then use this money to help people more."
The man slid the envelope closer to Harry who grudgingly accepted it and put it in his pocket without opening it.
Mrs. Hernandez brought Harry and Felicity their breakfast, gave Harry another hug and took her family home.
"You are so fucking adorably naive!" Felicity exclaimed.
"Dude! Don't give me that look." she exclaimed at his cross expression. "You started a business of solving peoples problems and then refuse to take their money when they hire you? That's insane. It's not like you're going around shaking people down for protection money … right?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders half in annoyance and half in agreement.
"So last night you started telling me about yourself. You're a wizard from another reality. What else can you tell me Gandalf?"
"You're not surprised?" Harry asked.
"Giant sword out of a trashcan, hundreds of birds from thin air, people being tossed around like rag dolls … I'd have to be pretty fucking stupid to deny it all. Now dish! This sounds fucking nuts and I want details."
"We can talk about it later. What are you going to do now that you're free? Do you need a lift to your parents or …"
Felicity's cocky smile fell.
"No. I'm an orphan. My dad died in some foreign shithole fighting a war and my mom was a junkie whore who od'd when I was 12. No aunts or uncles, no grandparents … nothing. Ended up on the street once I got out of the foster care system."
"Well, you can stay here for a few days while you figure something out if you like. I'll setup a spare room for you to use."
The girls expression changed into one of utter relief and gratitude for just a moment before returning to her cocky expression.
"Let's go shopping for a few items like a few clothes and some toiletries first." Harry offered
They went out shopping for some necessities and returned to his home.
Harry let her back in the apartment and, after locking his more dangerous or rare items in his trunk, went back to his office to properly store the Triumph.
Going back to his apartment he could hear Felicity in the shower. Going into the spare room he had considered turning into a laboratory or workshop, Harry transfigured some random debris into a bed and left some linens and blankets.
Undressing for the night, Harry slipped into his bed and considered his current situation.
The Hernandez's and Felicity were right. If he was to run a detective or troubleshooting business he would have to accept payment. His current wealth was significant but running a business, especially if he hired help in the future, could get rather expensive. He vaguely recalled Vernon mentioning that some companies daily operating budgets would empty his current accounts in one day.
His next problem was what to do with Felicity. He couldn't just have every homeless person live with him.
Like Hermione's quest to free the house elves by tricking them in accepting clothes was simply treating the symptom and not dealing with the actual problem of the wizardings world view of house elves, aiding each individual homeless person wasn't solving the problem, just treating the symptom. It was also impossible. Even with his funds he'd run out of money within a week just in New York.
Harry wasn't sure why he had extended the offer of a place to stay to the woman. Sure, she had saved his life but he knew nothing about her.
Thinking back to his world, Harry missed his friends terribly. Neville, Luna, Ginny and especially Ron and Hermione. He had grown so accustomed to Ron and Hermione's constant presence ... well more Hermione really. Ron had abandoned him a few times over the years.
Harry's musing were interrupted as the door to his bedroom creaked open. The light form the hallway cast Felicity in a sharp silhouette.
"Hey. Do you have everything you need?" Harry asked, shielding his eyes from the bright hallway light.
Felicity didn't answer and slowly entered the room, letting the bath towel that had been wrapped around her body slide to the ground.
"Uhm … are you ok?"
The girl didn't answer and simply slid under the blankets pressing her body up against Harry's side.
"Look, it's not that I don't think you are pretty or anything but I … I don't want this right now." Harry explained, not moving for fear of doing something inappropriate. He could feel the heat of her skin pressed against him. Her month long captivity had not been kind to her body but she was still a very pretty woman.
Suddenly he felt Felicity's body shake in small bursts followed by sobs.
"Why … why not? Am I not pretty enough? I know I'm skinny and my boobs aren't super big but ..."
Harry was dumbfounded.
"I don't … I'm not sure what's going on here. It's nothing to do with you or your looks. It's … we just met. I don't know why you are doing this."
"I .. I've got nothing else to offer you. You saved my life and this is all I've got."
Harry sighed softly.
"You don't owe me anything and you especially don't owe me that. Look, up until less than a month ago I was in my own reality in a long term relationship with a wonderful woman. We didn't break up, we were torn apart. I'm not ready for … this … and even if I was, I would never use someone like this."
"How are you so fucking noble?" she asked quietly "Most guys would have my ankles over their shoulder by now."
Harry's thought process ground to a halt for a moment as the images those words brought flittered through his mind.
"Look, you're welcome to sleep in my bed tonight but I'd be a bit more comfortable if you wore something." Harry finally replied after shifting his thought process back to the crying girl.
Felicity got up and dressed in his old Quidditch Jersey and a pair of knickers and then slid back in bed with him.
Harry spent a long night lying awake in bed, unable to sleep with a complete stranger in his bed.
The next week went by quickly.
Somehow, along the way, Felicity had decided she would be Harry's assistant. They had restructured the business floor and moved his office deeper inside with Felicity occupying a new reception area.
Felicity had brought some important skills to the business … computer skills.
After an expensive trip to an electronics store for a computer, tablet, smartphones and internet hookup she had also taken on the task of digitizing Harry's collection of books to preserve the knowledge kept in the one of a kind collection.
She had, also to Harry's amusement, made a simple website.
Harry had felt completely stupid as he struck various poses for the portraits needed for the website while Felicity snapped away with her cell phones camera.
Some of the images captured magic use that to most would simply appear to be digital manipulation.
Other than the impromptu photo sessions, this had freed Harry to pursue other projects.
Harry would spend some time in Central Park doing diagnostic charms to no avail and then would spend the rest of his time studying his books.
His first project was unraveling the spells that identified people on the Marauders map and the Omnioculars.
Between his charms books, Sirius's old notebook and ancient runes book Harry had managed to create a simple version of the Marauders map for his office and apartments.
It was thanks to this map that Harry had discovered Felicity's real name: Amanda Thorpe.
Harry had then gone and purchased several pairs of prescription glasses and was attempting to add the identification spell to the glasses.
After the excitement of his first case, things had quieted down.
Work had been sparse and of more mundane nature.
A husband had asked for proof his wife was cheating on him. Something the man could have confirmed for himself in one day.
A woman had asked to have her house checked for ghosts but in the end it had been nothing but a rat infestation and faulty wiring aggravated by the shaking caused by the train passing close by.
An elderly lady had asked for a prediction of her future. Harry had explained that divination was an imprecise science and that he was rather balls at it but had in the end, at her insistence, agreed to a tea leaf reading and had refused payment when the Grim had stared back at him from the bottom of the cup.
Time flew by and summer passed into fall.
That dreaded day, Halloween, was quickly approaching and Harry sat at his desk wondering if his curse would carry over to his new reality.
The bell on the door rang, breaking Harry's concentration on his work. Looking up to his map he noted that one Emily Thompson had entered and was speaking with Felicity.
Harry waited watching as Felicity and their potential new client approached his door and before Felicity could knock he took a page from Dumbledore's book and greeted them.
"Mrs. Thompson, please come in."
Harry did his best to hide his mirth at the woman's flabbergasted expression.
"Please sit down Mrs. Thompson. Would you like something to drink?"
She reminded Harry of what his aunt petunia aspired to be. An woman of means and respect.
The woman sat across from Harry. She was white, well dressed, wearing expensive appearing jewelry. She sported a calm and collected expression that didn't quite reach her eyes.
Her eyes were red from irritation of crying and heavy makeup attempted to hide heavy bags under her eyes.
"How did you know my name. I gave your … assistant … " she said these words with a level of disdain that Harry was all too familiar with. "... a false name."
"It's what I do for a living." Harry answered simply. "So what can I do for you."
The woman seemed to consider her words carefully, her hands nervously clutching her purse.
"This is ridiculous. I don't know what I was thinking coming here. You and that girl are just children." with this she stood up and made to leave his office.
"Emily!" Harry exclaimed softly causing the woman to stop in surprise.
"Something is obviously bothering you. You look exhausted and you're desperate enough to have walked into a shady looking business looking for help. Please, sit down and tell me your story and we can see if it's anything I can help you with."
The woman hesitated for a moment and sat back down. Harry took out a pad of paper and a fountain pen, a concession to his use of quills for the past decade, and waited patiently for the woman to begin.
"It's … oh god! I can't even start to explain, it sounds so stupid." the woman began.
"Just start from the beginning, you'd be surprised by the things I've seen or heard." Harry said comfortingly.
The woman stood up and moved to the window overlooking the busy street. She remained quiet for some time before quietly speaking.
"For the past month, my husband and I have been plagued by nightmares." She hesitated for a moment, looking back at Harry from the corner of her eye to gauge his reaction.
Harry looked up from writing some notes and nodded to her in encouragement.
"Every night for the past month we've been plagued by nightmares. Last week, my husband never woke up. He's in some type of coma in the hospital. The doctors have no idea what is causing it."
"Can you describe the dreams?" Harry asked.
"No, I can't remember much. All I remember is being chased in a maze I believe. It's all murky." she replied as she sat down.
"Did your husband dream the same thing?"
"No, he told me his involved fire somehow." she replied sitting back down.
"And it's the same dream? Every night?" Harry asked.
The woman simply nodded.
Harry finished his notes and pondered. He had enough materials left over to brew a few doses of dreamless sleep potion but his reserves of the standard ingredients as well as the flobberworm mucus was currently irreplaceable while the others were widely available in the normal world. The flobberworm was really only a thickening agent but the standard ingredients, a standard mix of magical herbs, could not be found in this reality.
"Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way … treat the cause and not the symptom." Harry whispered softly to himself. Harry could extract the memory and replay it in his pensive but that might be a little too obviously magical and after his rather gryphindoorish first case, a more slytherin approach would be needed … of course there was nothing for him to blow up … yet.
Taking another page from Dumbledore's book would unfortunately require using a skill he was dreadful at.
"I'd like to try something with you. I'd like to try and bring the memory of your dream back. Are you willing to try?"
"You mean like hypnosis?"
"Something like that." Harry agreed, decided that would be close enough to the truth.
"What do I need to do?" she asked.
"Please sit down. Now I need you to clear your mind of though and focus only on your memory of the dream. When you are ready I need you to look me in the eyes." Harry directed.
The woman closed her eyes and steadied her breathing.
While the woman had her eyes closed Harry silently cast a very mild cheering charm hoping it would have more of a calming effect.
Harry could see some of the tension leave them woman's shoulders as her worries apparently lessened.
The woman slowly opened her eyes and nodded at Harry.
Harry looked deep into her eyes and silently and surreptitiously cast his spell sending himself into the woman's mind.
Harry found himself floating inside an endless black starfield. He knew, from his self study of legilimency and occlumency, that each star represented a memory.
The woman had done an amazing job at focusing her thoughts on the memory of her dream. Only a handful of other memories floated around him.
Harry approached the nearest sphere and looked inside, not entering the memory itself.
Inside Harry could see a hospital scene, a man was lying on a bed and a doctor was speaking to her.
Harry pushed the memory away and pulled another. In this memory the woman was reading the mail at her kitchen table. Harry could see some hospital correspondence but what drew his attention was the flyer the woman was reading at the time. The flyer was made of parchment and had his name on it.
Curious, Harry entered the memory.
Unlike a pensieve, legilimency locked the user in the with their victims view, a simple passenger looking from the targets point of view.
Early morning light filtered through the kitchen windows. Soft music played from the radio the DJ indicating that the weather would be cold and that the date was only two days previous.
Harry focussed back on the pamphlet in the woman's hands. It was made of actual parchment or rather velum based on the feel of the material.
The colorful calligraphy appeared to be hand painted with elegant brush strokes and colorful inks.
"Harry Potter, wizard for hire! Problems solved with arguable efficiency."
One half of the scroll had a very stylised silhouette of himself. The other half had harry's address.
What concerned Harry was that neither he nor Felicity had created a flyer amd he had not used a piece of parchment, much less velum, since his arrival in New York preferring the convenience of modern paper
Harry pushed himself away from the memory and searched about for the one that would show how she got the document but couldn't find it.
"I've wasted enough time on this I guess." Shrugging his metaphysical shoulders, Harry returned to the task at hand.
Searching amongst the small cluster of memories, Harry finally found the one he had been looking for.
Harry entered into the dream and was assaulted by the woman's feelings of blind panic. It was night and they were running through a hedge maze of some type with walls that reached over twenty feet high.
The memory didn't feel like a normal memory, it had a sense of hyper reality that was not normally found in memories viewed with legilimency and especially not normally found in dreams.
Somewhere in the distance a deafening, inhuman roar was heard and the heavy thumping sound of hooves on the ground.
The woman kept running, her legs pumping as fast as they could, branches sometimes slapping at her exposed flesh.
Harry could feel the cold air on her nude body, could feel the twigs and branches scratching and stabbing at her bare feet.
Emily came to a dead stop. A man with a chaotic mane of spikey grey haired, pure white skin dressed in green with a tattered flowing cloak emerged slowly from the shadows ahead.
The man was inhumanly thin and sported an impossible, maniacal smile. His eyes were pure black and seemed to absorb the little light available.
"Oh! What do we have here? A new plaything to add to my collection?"
The man or creature began to laugh maniacally causing Emily to start running again down another side path.
In the distance, Harry could hear the creature call out. "There's no point in running. You will never escape."
The creature began cackling again but the sound seemed to come from all directions at once.
Emily collapsed as the fear overcame her, falling to her knees and gasping for breath between panicked sobs.
The sounds of something large and fast brought the woman back to her feet and stumbling forward again.
Harry could feel something pursuing them, gaining ground. The sound of hooves clomping on earth getting closer and closer.
Harry, deciding he had enough information for now attempted to leave the memory but it seemed to resist his effort.
The memory continued through his efforts. Emily fell to the ground and quickly rolled onto her back to face her pursuer.
The creature resembled some kind of demonic centaur crossbreed. It's centaur form twisted and inhuman. Under its horse body a massive and erect member indicated it's intended action.
The demonic cackling laughter increased in volume and pitch as the creature slowly approached Emily frantically scrambling backwards.
With a great mental shove Harry managed to push himself out of the memory and out of Emily's consciousness.
The woman cried out in fear and pain, collapsing in a dead faint unto Harry's desk.
Felicity rushed into the office a pistol in hand.
"What the fuck is going on in here?!"
Harry took a few calming breaths before answering.
"That's what I'd like to know."