Harry Potter - Avenger
Chapter 12
I originally had a scene where Harry does his first animagus transformation and gets stuck until the magic "settles" so Felicity takes him to the park to learn to fly and they meet a girl on the bus who has a pet squirrel … hint hint … but the scene was fluff after several chapters of fluff, was a bit clunky and didn't really move the story forward so I scrapped it and moved the first transformation to off screen.
Time passed in quietly, from Christmas. Harry and Felicity had celebrated the arrival of 2012 quietly at the apartment, having had enough excitement on Christmas.
Business had not picked up but Harry was not particularly worried as their expenses were minimal, he still had plenty of funds in his account and SHIELD provided him a retainer even if they hadn't made use of his abilities yet.
Felicity continued her adult education classes while Harry toyed with enchanting, learning more about Ancient Runes and finally mastering the animagus transformation.
Harry had discovered his animagus form, a large green eyed raven, during his last year at Hogwarts but hadn't had the time to complete the transformation.
Winter turned into spring and spring to early summer.
With nothing but idle time on his hands, Harry had honored his father and godfathers legacy by cautiously completing the transformation, taking extra measures to minimize the risk of being stuck in his form.
Harry was interrupted in his study of Ancient Runes by a ringing coming from his desk drawer.
Harry picked up his barely used cellphone and accepted the video call.
"Potter, we need you to come in. Something big has come up. Can you poof over?"
Harry stared at agent Sitwel's image on his screen. The man appeared to be on an air strip of some type. Men in safety gear could be seen running behind the agent and a fighter plane being refueled.
"Poof?" Harry asked incredulously.
"This is an unsecured line Potter. We need to get off it quickly and I'd rather not use certain keywords".
"Sure … how far are you from New York?"
"About 15 miles away".
Harry spent a few moments converting those miles to kilometers and staring intently at the image on his phone before nodding to himself and shutting off his phone.
With a crack the wizard disappeared from his office and appeared behind the startled shield agent.
"So what's the situation agent Sitwel?" Harry asked the startled agent.
"Damnit Potter! Don't DO THAT!" the man replied as he put away his suddenly drawn weapon.
"Sorry, sounded urgent." Harry explained with a shrug.
"It is. Several hours ago Loki, the Norse god of Mischief attacked one of our research facilities, compromised one of our best field agents, some soldiers and some of our best scientists and walked out with an item known as the Tesseract."
"The what?"
"The Tesseract, an ancient power source of unknown origin discovered by Hydra in 1942 in the town of Tonsberg. As far as we can tell it's a vessel of unlimited energy. It was lost in 1945 when Captain America crashed a plane containing atom bombs into the Arctic waters. You know that the Captain was found, you were the one tasked to introduce him to his new reality but what you don't know is that in the 1970's, during search efforts made to find Steve Rodgers, the Tesseract was discovered and brought back to the US. In the 1980's, it was handed over to SHIELD and we have been studying it since."
"The literal Norse god of magic and mischief, son of the Ice Giant Laufey and adopted by Odin? That Loki?" Harry asked his eyes wide open in shock.
"You seem well informed." Sitwell pointed out.
"Between the 8th and 15th centuries Viking and Norse settlers colonised parts of what is now Scotland, mainly around Orkney and Shetland. I spent eight years in a magical school in Scotland where my best friend studied ancient runes including Norse runes. I've also been studying them myself for the past year. Norse Runes and Norse Mythology are intertwined with Ancient Futhark runes representing Thor and Odin directly. We also had a class called History of Magic. Of course, my information might not be relevant here." Harry pointed out.
"And that's one of the reasons you were called in. This Loki seems to be using magic so we need your expertise on this."
"And so the GOD of magic and mischief now has a source of, as far as you know, unlimited power?" Harry asked, staring at the man incredulously.
"Yes."
"And what's he planning on doing with it?"
"That, Potter, is the million dollar question. Of course, this is a major crisis so we've pulled a team together to work on this. Here are some files on your team mates or potential team mates." the agent explained as he handed Harry a binder filled with reports, profiles and photographs.
Harry accepted the binder and leaned up in the shade of some crates to review the files.
Harry, quickly scanned the team profiles, recognizing most names and faces. Natasha Romanov, Steve Rodgers, Tony Stark. The one name Harry did not recognise was Bruce Banner, codenamed Hulk.
"Robert Bruce Banner, respected biochemist and nuclear physicist. Has more degrees than I have scars which is kind of impressive." Harry read off the cover page.
"Thanks, it's nice to be recognised for that instead of for the … well … other thing."
Harry turned to see a short nervous man dressed in well worn clothing.
"Dr. Banner I presume?" Harry asked, extending a hand to the man who hesitantly accepted it.
The man felt familiar. Not that Harry believed he had ever met the man before but his forced quiet, calm demeanor, worn clothes, apparently academically inclined mind. This man reminded Harry of his surrogate godfather, Remus Lupin.
"And you are?"
"Harry, Harry Potter." Harry replied as he put down the info packet.
"You don't look like a shield agent. No gun, no uniform … I'm assuming you've been called in like I have. What's your specialty?"
"I'm a … private detective would be the best way to describe what I do I guess." Harry temporised
A Quinjet landed nearby, disrupting the two men's conversation and down the ramp came Steve Rodgers.
"Dr. Banner." Steve walked up to the two after exchanging a few words with the Black Widow and shook Dr. Banners hand.
"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming."
"Word is you can find the cube."
"Is that the only word on me?"
"Only word I care about." Steve replied earnestly.
"Harry. Not surprised they dragged you into this." Steve greeted with a smile and a warm handshake.
"You guys know each other?" Dr. Banner asked.
"Yes. Harry helped me adjust after … waking up."
"Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute." Black Widow interjected. "It's gonna get a little hard to breath."
Suddenly the ship began shaking as massive machinery sparked to life.
"Is this is a submarine?" Steve asked looking about with some confusion.
"Really? They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Dr. Banner asked sounding worried and incredulous.
"I don't think so, the planes and crates on the deck would get washed off by water or damaged by the pressure." Harry pointed out.
The three men moved closer to the edge of the Helicarrier. Massive fans on the side of the ship began to spin and miraculously the entire carrier began to lift into the air.
"Bloody Hell!" Harry cried out, his words were drowned out by the wind while Steve watched in AWE as Dr. Banner smiled a strained smile.
"OH, NO. THIS IS MUCH WORSE."
Harry surreptitiously shrunk his files and put them away for later perusal as the group made its way to the Helicarrier's control center.
Again, Harry was utterly amazed at Muggle enginuity. Here they had created a flying aircraft carrier, something Harry was certain was beyond the skill of the Ministry of Magic or any magic government from his old world.
The doors parted and the group entered the bridge of the ship. The large room was a flurry of activity as dozen of SHIELD agents worked on various high tech computers.
"We're at lock, sir." Informed agent Hill.
"Good. Let's vanish." Ordered Fury.
Fury walked over to Doctor Banner, who appeared rather nervous and uncomfortable, and extended his hand. Banner, reluctantly shook it. "Doctor, thank you for coming."
"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?" Banner asked nervously.
"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."
Banner nodded apparently relieved by the words. "Where are you with that?"
Fury turned to Agent Coulson to explain
"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."
Harry's eyes went wide in surprise, finally understanding how they had managed to keep track of him so easily.
"That's still not gonna find them in time." Romanov added in from her position at one of the computer terminals.
Banner and Fury exchanged a few words of technobabble that Harry wasn't even sure was English before Banner and Romanov left to find the scientist a place to work.
"So while Dr. Banner is going to try and find the cube, I can try and find your missing agent." Harry offered pointing to the monitor where Romanov had been working that showed an image of one agent Barton.
"What do you need?"
"Ink, a way to quickly print maps as needed and something from the missing agent: Hair, nails, blood …"
Agent Hill made her way to them. "Medical has blood for medical emergencies and the rest is easy."
"I'll also need someone to help with the computer. If you let me touch one of them I'm liable to bring this whole place crashing down." Harry kidded.
Hill and Fury looked at him with a serious expression.
"Not literally, I'm just not very good with computers is what I meant."
"I'll have an agent help you out but before you get to that, what can you tell us about Loki. He kidnapped our one Norse mythology expert."
"Norse god of trickery and mischief. A Jotun or frost giant, adopted son of Odin. A trickster, gifted with magic. An illusionist and shapeshifter."
"Shapeshifter?" Furry asked.
"Yes, fond of using illusions and different forms to trick his enemies." Harry confirmed.
"So facial recognition is pointless?" Hill asked.
"You're running it for the other missing agents anyways. Now how did he compromise your agent?"
"He has a bladed staff that can fire energy blasts and if he touches you with it, it puts you completely under his control."
"Like a zombie or a puppet …"
"No, Barton was in full control. It's like his loyalty was switched over to Loki."
Harry refrained from mentioning how that sounded eerily like the Imperius curse.
"Ok, that reminds me of a few things I encountered in my own world. I might be able to do something about that." Harry explained.
Harry was escorted to an empty storage area while several SHIELD agents fetched the materials he required. With a few swishes of his wand, Harry had a decent workspace transfigured.
The men returned with a portable computer, a printer, paper, a vial of blood and a pack of black ink cartridges.
"Start by printing a general world map, then we'll drill deeper as we go." Harry explained as he mixed a few drops of blood with the ink extracted from the printer cartridges.
An incantation later, Harry tracked Barton to Europe. A few more tests and Harry found that the agent was in Czechia and, following the slow movement of the ink drop appeared to be traveling north-west with his path potentially crossing Germany, Holland and Scotland if it continued in a straight line.
"The magic should last a while, probably another hour or so, can you keep an eye on it and let Fury know if it stops?" Harry asked the agent.
Harry walked back up to the bridge, not daring to apparate around so many high strung armed soldiers.
Coulson and Steve appeared to be in a discussion. Coulson appeared eager and excited while Steve appeared to be rather uncomfortable.
"I mean, if it's not too much trouble."
"No, no. It's fine." Steve replied, obviously uncomfortable with whatever it was Coulson had asked of him.
"It's a vintage set. It took me a couple of years to collect them all. Near mint, slight foxing around the edges, but...:"
Harry coughed to hide a snort of laughter as he realised that Coulson had gone full on Colin Creevy on poor Steve.
"I got a trace on Barton." Harry announced gathering what was essentially the executive branch of SHIELD.
"That was fast. Where is he?" Steve asked.
"Currently at the border of Czechia going north west'ish. If he keeps in a straight line he'll cross into Germany in a few minutes and then potentially Holland and then Scotland if he doesn't stop or deviate. I have the agent you assigned to me keeping an eye on things. My spell should last another forty minutes or so."
"Since he's going in a straight line, he must be on a plane." Hill offered.
"We might want to start making our way in that general area." Harry suggested.
"We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Wait, cross match, seventy-nine percent." Sitwell exclaimed from a computer console.
"A hit on who?" Harry asked.
"Loki."
"Location?" Coulson asked.
"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse. He's not exactly hiding."
This stunned Harry. "Are you certain?"
Sitwell projected his screen to one of the larger displays for them to view. The footage was not of the greatest quality but it appeared to be enough to convince Hill and Fury who had both seen the god in person.
"That's him alright." Fury ground out.
"That makes no sense." Harry countered.
"Why not? He's not from Earth. He might be as ignorant of technology as I am." Steve offered.
"Or me as well but he has Barton and several other SHIELD agents, they would have advised him of the possible methods they would use to track him. He's a trickster, an illusionist, a shapeshifter and has a mind control staff. There is no reason for him to be this blatant."
"Unless he wants us to know where he is." Hill offered.
"It's either a trap or a distraction." Steve added.
"He's a trickster. All good stage magicians make you focus on their right hand doing showy gestures while their left hand quietly takes the coin away." Harry agreed.
"And Barton should be getting to Germany right now so he's not with Loki so he's on his own mission." Coulson added.
"So who do we go after?" Steve asked.
"If Loki is a distraction then Hakeye's mission must be important." Hill suggested.
"But at the same time, we can't exactly ignore the Norse god walking around in plain daylight either." Fury countered, looking straight at Harry.
"I'll take Loki, Steve and the Black Widow should go and disrupt Barton's mission."
The group, minus Fury, looked at Harry in surprise.
"You want to go one on one with a Norse god?" Hill asked baffled. "He cleared out a room of some of our better agents in under a minute."
"Want to? No. But we can't exactly pass up the chance and if I get in over my head I can probably just 'poof' away as Sitwell so elegantly calls it."
"Harry, you're not a soldier, you're a private detective. You did your detective work."
Harry looked to Steve, seeing only concern from the man.
"No, I'm not a private detective, I'm a wizard."
Steve looked Harry straight in the eye for a few more moments before nodding to him. "I'm not in any position to tell someone they are getting in over their heads."
"Ok so we have a plan. Everybody head out."
"Sir, we're about to reach the 600 miles target to Stuttgart." the pilot called back to Harry over the noise of the engine and wind some time later.
"How long before you get there to back me up? Oh and it's just Harry." Harry asked as he made his way to the cockpit.
"At our current cruising speed of 1800 miles per hour that would be about 20 minutes, sir."
Harry nodded to the man. Shaking his head in amazement at the speed these planes could fly. Harry's top of the line racing broom could only do 240kph or 150mph.
"Right, can we get some images of the area?"
The copilot punched in a few buttons and a side screen shifted to a detailed satellite view of the area around the building Loki had appeared in.
After a few moments, Harry nodded to the men. "See you in 20 minutes." and with a twist and a crack the wizard disappeared only to appear a second later in front of a lavish building to the sounds of panicked screaming.
Harry cursed himself silently for having left his invisibility cloak back in his apartment and settled for the far inferior disillusionment charm.
Quietly sneaking into the lavish reception hall, Harry spotted his target. Looming over the bloody body of an elderly man lying on an altar like table, some type of high tech probe in one hand and a bladed scepter with a glowing blue gem in the other.
Harry noted briefly that the god apparently had no family name or so the enchantment in his glasses informed him.
Loki pulled the device away from his victims eye after it had beeped twice and tossed it negligently over his shoulder. After staring at his handiwork in satisfaction for a few moments, he began to make his way towards the main doors.
Having moved into an advantageous position Harry fired off a quick but silent stunning spell at the god, the disillusionment spell fading.
With inhuman speed and agility, Loki twirled about and batted the red spell away with the bladed spear to splash against the walls harmlessly.
"Now who might you be … ah! Harry Potter. They sent the detective to face me? Where is the soldier out of time?" Loki asked as he casually walked a few steps towards the wizard. All the while his expensive suit shimmered and shifted into an exotic looking outfit in greens and golds. On his head appeared a massive golden horned helm
"Steve had a prior engagement."
"So they send a Seidr to face the god of mischief?" The god in question asked mockingly.
Harry shrugged, moving his body slightly into a better dueling position.
"Are you going to come quietly?" Harry asked, raising his wand.
"You believe you have power over me mortal?" Loki's voice was low and filled with disbelief.
"You believe your paltry magics are a match for my own power!?" The gods voice rising with the powerful beings anger.
Lighting fast, Loki swung his scepter out a blazing blue blast of energy streaking towards Harry.
With a flick of his wand, the wizard deflected the bolt of power, causing it to explode into the ceiling. A chandelier crashed down along with plaster and timber.
Not waiting for a follow up blast, Harry sent out another powerful stunner towards the Jotun only for it to be parried and deflected by the bladed staff.
"Perhaps I have misjudged you Völva." Loki conceded.
"I get that a lot." Harry acknowledged, not lowering his wand.
"It is a mistake that I'll not soon repeat."
Loki vanished in a flash of light and suddenly a dozen Lokis appeared in various places around the reception hall.
All the Lokis laughed as Harry spun about is surprise.
"While you might actually have some sliver of power, you could never hope to match the Master of Magic." Loki taunted, his voice echoing from all directions.
For some reason, those words brought a shiver down Harry's spine.
Harry had noticed one interesting fact, only one of the Lokis showed a name in his glasses, a Loki fairly close to his position by the large windows leading to the front of the building.
Harry spun aiming at one of the images 90 degrees to the left of his enemy casting a silent stunner once more as a feint and readying for the sneak attack he knew would be coming from the real Loki.
When all the Lokis sent a blast from their staff, Harry ignored the blasts coming from what he assumed were illusions and deflected the blast from the real Loki back at the god sending him crashing through the windows and out into promenade beyond.
Harry rushed outside the building to see the god slowly come to his feet, his green eyes aglow with power and anger.
Harry began to wave his wand, silently transfiguring whatever pieces of debris he could into a flock of a dozen or so ravens while his opponent made to stand.
"That … was … a … mistake." The angry god ground out as he sent a blast of power at Harry.
A raven dived, intercepting the blast while Harry returned fire from his wand. Seeing how the blast of energy that had taken part of the roof of a building had simply annoyed the Ice Giant, Harry used a powerful blasting curse.
The two green eyed, dark haired magic users traded blasts for a few moments. Loki dodging or deflecting Harry's attacks while Harry's quickly diminishing flock of ravens intercepted Loki's scepter blasts.
The quick exchange of powerful blasting energy quickly caused massive damage to the surrounding plaza until Loki summoned a dagger in his free hand, sending it flying just behind a bolt from his scepter.
Harry deflected the bolt with a flick of his wand but only missed being skewered by the dagger by a narrow margin, the knife slicing a gash over his ribs.
Harry marveled at the speed and fluidity of the Ice Giant's movement. Harry had considered himself a great duelist, not the best in the wizarding world but certainly the best at Hogwarts by a large margin, years of having madmen trying to murder him forced the developement of survival skills, but Loki's speed and agility were unlike anything he had seen before clearly showing Loki's inhuman heritage.
Seeing how his current tactic was leading to an inevitable loss, Harry gathered water from a broken fire hydrant and, like Dumbledore had done to Riddle in the atrium at the Ministry of Magic, entrapped the god in a sphere of water. Harry pushed with his magic, increasing the pressure, hoping the lack of air or the pressure would be enough to make his opponent pass out.
For a moment it seemed to work as Loki's skin began to turn blue but then the entire ball of water flash froze from the center outwards. The ball no longer being water, Harry's spell fizzled and the ball of ice fell to the ground, shattering and revealing a very angry Jotun.
Loki raised his staff to fire but Harry snapped out his wand, sending a tendril of fire whipping from the tip of his wand to wrap around Loki's arm.
Loki screamed in pain and anger, wrapping another loop of the fiery rope around his arm, he suddenly pulled causing Harry to go flying through the air, landing at his feet.
"You fought well … for a mortal. I could use someone with your skills and powers." And with that said, Harry was pushed unto his back and held firm by a powerful foot. Harry struggled but could not budge the leg that held him down. Loki lowered his scepter with the tip touching Harry's chest gently.
The power of the staff hit Harry like a tidal wave compared to the power of even Voldemorts Imperius. Harry found himself floating in a familiar haze of bliss. His worries and uncertainties washed away as the power of the staff flowed into him. Or no, not the staff itself but something within the staff.
"Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled." Loki spoke confidently, as he stepped back from the fallen wizard.
A voice inside Harry's mind agreed with Loki whole heartedly. It was simpler … no! It was right! But another voice, one Harry was more familiar with retorted in anger and disgust 'Ruled? Subjugated!?'
And suddenly the fog cleared, the enchantment: broken.
The declaration of subjugation had awakened something within Harry that even the imperius curse had never been able to overwhelm but the staff ahd. Harry was fairly certain that had Loki not gloated he would still be under the staffs thrall.
"I think I've had enough of people trying to rule me." Harry answered out loud as he called his wand to his hand and sent a blasting curse at the god sending him flying once more, this time over the flaming ruins of a car.
Slowly making his way around the vehicle revealed … nothing. Scanning the area, Harry noticed a snake making it's way around some debris, a snake named Loki.
"Nice try." Harry whispered, unknowingly in Parseltongue.
The snakes head whipped up in surprise just as Harry sent a flipendo curse at the transformed god followed by a blasting curse while his target was still in mid air.
Loki transformed back into his normal state mid flight, rolling to the ground.
Loki quickly shrugged off the blast and came rolling to his feat, charging towards the wizard. A dagger in one hand and the deadly bladed staff in the other.
Harry sent a quick burst of three blasting curses at the quickly approaching god only for them to be dodged or deflected. As Loki neered melee range, Harry twisted and apparated on the other side of the plaza.
"You infuriating insect!" Loki raged. "You cannot win, even now, I can see you tire! Why do you resist! You have no hope of defeat..."
Harry silently agreed, he was tiring. Loki's supernatural origins were only partly to blame for this. Harry realized that he'd been rather slothful since his arrival in this reality, spending his leisure time mostly reading.
Loki's rant was interrupted as bright blasts slammed into his side, sending him flying, Iron Man landing with a slide, repulsors ready to fire again.
"Oh hey Pinocchio! Kind of surprised to see you here." Stark said, turning his head towards Harry.
"Not the time, he's not down yet!" Harry replied as he readied himself.
Loki suddenly stood up, a blast of kinetic energy sending debris flying away from the enraged god.
Harry fired off another blasting curse only for it to be reflected back by the staff but this gave Stark an opening, firring his repulsors again, sending the god flying.
With Iron Man on hand to provide a bit of breathing room, Harry was able to use more complex spells. Turning some of the rubble into a pair of large, grim like dogs and sending them to harrie his opponent.
Loki rolled to his feet, sweeping his bladed scepter through one of the transfigured Grims, slicing it clearly in half while the second Grim clamped it's jaw, ineffectually, unto his ankle.
Stark blasted away with another pair of repulsor blasts but Loki deflected one and, with a swing of his foot, sent the second Grim flying in the path of the blast causing the dog to burst apart in a spray of blood and guts.
Harry sent a series of spells in a quick chain. The spells ranged from deadly to the benign, blasting curses to color changing hexes. Whatever he could chain together quickly. While most would not do anything to Loki, the God of Mischief would still have to defend against them, not knowing what they were. This distraction gave Iron Man a chance to hit the god with more energy blasts.
The two allies continued to overwhelm Loki's defences, battering him with powerful explosions until he raised his hands in surrender, his elaborate outfit shifting a much simpler one.
"Good move reindeer games!" Stark commented.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry incanted out loud to give the spell a bit more power. Loki's limbs snapped together and the Jotun fell back stiff as a board.
"That should keep him down for a bit, not sure how long, never used it on a Jotun … an Ice Giant before and Loki is also a powerful magic user in his own right so he might be able to break the enchantment but the Quinjet that's incoming will have restraints that should work." Harry explained as he slowly made his way to stand next to Stark.
"Totally petrified?" Stark asked, after removing the faceplate from his helmet. "What kind of half-assed magic spell is that? Might as well just cry out Abrakadabra!"
The quinjet landed and the team that had accompanied Harry for support rushed out. The team medic making his way to Harry. "Sir, you're bleeding."
"No worries, I'll deal with this. Go see if you can help anyone else. There's also a dead man on an altar inside and Loki threw down some type of silvery probe thingy he used on the man somewhere."
The man hesitated but Harry rolled his eyes, lifted his shirt and with a tap of his wand, the cut slowly sealed itself.
"What the hell!" Stark exclaimed as he leaned in closer to observe the now healed wound.
"Let's get our prisoner in the quinjet and from the public before we talk."
Harry levitated Loki into the Quinjet where he was shackled to a bench and then unfrozen. A few soldiers and the medic remained on site to await a cleanup crew while Harry and Stark made their way back to the Helicarrier.
"So you're a real life wizard." Stark stated.
"Yes." Harry replied. "Do we know how captain Rodger's mission went?" Harry asked the pilot.
"Sorry sir, not something they'd broadcast over unsecured comms lines."
"Thank-you Mr. Stevens."
"Ok, so what's your con?" Stark demanded.
"Not a con, just magic." Harry replied simply.
"Card tricks, pulling a rabbit out of a hat, tea leaves and tarot cards?" Stark demanded mockingly.
"We just fought the Norse god of mischief." Harry pointed out, placing special emphasis on the word god.
"An alien from another world, not a god. That stick is some type of subatomic particle manipulation tech or something!" Stark insisted his expression getting darker by the second.
"Not tech, eleven inches of holly with, at its core, a tail feather from a phoenix." Harry explained, producing the wand from his wrist holster.
"There is no such thing as magic! Just science we haven't understood yet." Stark insisted vehemently.
"You are so pathetically simple minded."
"Shut it Rock of Ages!" Stark ordered Loki angrily pointing a finger in his direction.
"You are a man looking at the world through a keyhole. You've spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole... to see more, to know more. And now, on hearing that it can be widened, in ways you can't begin to comprehend, you reject the possibility? You think you know how the universe works?" Loki continued unabashed. "The universe is far greater and more complex than your simple mortal mind can fathom. I have seen things mortal … worlds beyond even all knowledge of the All-Father."
"I hate to say this but I have to agree with Loki. While some things could probably be explained by science like magical creatures I've seen things that defy science: ghosts, unkillable demons that steal your soul, animated paintings that retain a portion of their subjects knowledge and personality, spells fueled by negative or positive emotions." Harry explained.
"I'm not trying to discount your belief out of hand but for example there is a spell that once cast hides a secret inside a single person. If I cast this spell and say that 'Tony Stark is Iron Man.' everyone who ever knew your true identity would forget it, even you. Every written record or recording would be un-viewable by EVERYONE except the secret keeper and once the secret keeper reveals this secret to a person, all that information would suddenly become available again but only to that one person and they would be incapable of sharing it themselves in any way, shape or form. The first time I saw this spell in use, I was brought to a home that was hidden by the spell since it was used as a secret base of operations by a resistance group. I was taken to a street where the houses in front of me were number 10 and 14 with no space for a number 12. I was told the secret and suddenly number 12 Grimmauld Place squeezed itself in between 10 and 14. People who had been raised in that house couldn't remember anything about where they had grown up. Not sure how science could explain that."
Loki looked on with eyes wide with surprise but remained silent while Stark eyes narrowed in thought.
"Prove it!"
"Unfortunately, I was never taught the spell. It's one of those magics that, in the wrong hands, could have terrible, terrible consequences so it was a really well guarded secret. A friend of mine, bloody brilliant, theorised that it could be used for nefarious reasons. One example she gave was making secret the fact that a certain person needed to eat and drink to live causing everyone other than the secret keeper to wonder why that person's health was failing until they died of starva..."
Harry was interrupted by the sound of thunder and Loki's sudden shifting in his bonds.
"What's the matter, scared of a little lightning?" Stark said mockingly.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows…" was Loki's reply as something impacted the quinjet causing a large thump sound and shaking the quinjet itself.
Harry waved his wand as Stark put on his faceplate.
"There's someone on top of the jet!" Harry warned.
"I'm gonna go say hello then." Stark replied as he pressed a button to open the bay door.
A shape suddenly flew into the quinjet. A massive man dressed in strange armor, a long red cape, with long flowing dirty blond hair wielding a hammer Harry had seen before.
"Mjolnir!" Harry whispered.
Thor looked at both Harry and Stark before grabbing Loki and pulling him out of the plane.
"Now there's that guy!"
"That was Thor Odinson, the god of thunder. I was under the impression that he was an ally." Harry explained.
"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Tony replied as he leapt out of the Quinjet to chase after the two Asgardians.
Wishing he had mastered Snape's and Voldemorts ability to fly of their own power or at least brought his broom, Harry swore softly and ran off the ramp, leaping after the others.
Harry could see, in the distance, Starks repulsor jet's lighting the night sky. Using his years of experience riding a broom, Harry angled his body to follow the bright points of light. Harry watched in the distance as Stark suddenly swerved and apparently landed. Without propulsion, Harry would be unable to reach them in free fall so, after slowing his descent slightly, with a mental push Harry transformed into his still unnamed raven form to cover the final distance.
Harry landed next to Loki, sitting on a ledge looking on with undisguised glee as Stark and Thor confronted each other.
"... will face Asgardian justice!"
Loki stared at Harry with a raised eyebrow as the wizard returned to his human form but turned his attention back to the two in the clearing below.
"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then, stay out of my way."
Harry assumed that Stark must have said something in a lower tone of voice because Thor gave him an affronted look before sending Mjolnir into Stark, sending Iron Man flying across the clearing.
"Petrificus Totalus, Incarcerous, Stupify!" Harry cast all three spells, securing Loki before apparating down to the clearing with as loud a crack as he could.
"Are you both insane?" Harry asked as he appeared between the two combatants.
"Choose your words wisely mortal lest I take offense."
"Thor Odinson crown prince of Asgard?" Harry asked the man.
"That is correct."
"Did Asgard just declared war on Midgard?"
"Of course not, Midgard is part of the Nine Realms and under Odin's protection!" Thor replied in an insulted tone.
"You just attacked a military transport, transporting a war criminal who has broken into a military base, killed several military personnel, kidnapped more military personnel, stolen military property, murdered several civilians and reduced a multi million dollar military complex into rubble. You then rescued that criminal! So I guess that Asgard approves of Loki's plans then if they're sending their crown prince to rescue him."
"I am here to put an end to Loki's schemes!"
"And you Stark. What are you doing?"
"Trying to stop this guy from leaving with Loki!"
"By picking a fight with him and leaving Loki unguarded?"
"You left him there too!" Stark pointed to the ledge where Loki lay.
"He's paralysed, wrapped in ropes and unconscious! I secured him before trying to break up this stupid, pointless fight! On top of that, Loki doesn't want to escape, he's right where he wants to be."
"What?" came from Thor and Stark in stereo.
"He's the trickster god, master of illusions and a shapeshifter. On top of all that, he also has a mind control staff. All of those are subtle arts. Knowing this, how did we ever find him? Because he wanted to be found. What part of what happened at Stuttgart was subtle? He could have used a minion to do what he did or to bring that man to him and do what he did in private, he could have done this under an illusion to disguise himself and fool our image recognition. Instead he did this himself, un-cloaked and very publicly. He wanted to be found and captured."
"He is correct, my brother is a master of illusions and a shapeshifter. He has managed to hide his presence from the all seeing eyes of Heimdal on several occasions.There was one time my brother transformed himself into a snake because he knows how much I like snakes, and so I picked the snake up to admire it, but then he turned back and went 'AAHH! It's me!' And then he stabbed me."
Both Harry and Stark turned to look at Thor in disbelief.
"Then what was all that about the cuffs keeping him secure in Stuttgart?"
"I don't want him to know that I know that he wants to be captured obviously or he'll change his plans." Harry replied as if talking to a child. "I want him to think we've underestimated him."