A/N - Rather obvious plotting begins and some events start to make sense.
o-0-o
Harry looked at the surface of the mirror, his reflection slightly blurred and more angular than normally, however the purpose of this mirror not showing a reflection of an object placed in front of it. "Sirius Black," he whispered and the surface of the mirror wavered.
The surface wavered and once it was stable he could see the face of his godfather looking at him, ebony hair and gray eyes almost impossible to be mistaken for anything else. "How is Hogwarts, pup?" Sirius asked.
"Good," Harry said and focused on his godfather. "Did you mention someone named Remus Lupin?"
Sirius looked at him and then laughed. "Tell me he isn't teaching at Hogwarts," he said, once he regained an ability to speak.
"He is," Harry grinned. "And is also head of my house."
Sirius blinked in confusion and looked at Harry. "You are not in Gryffindor?"
"No, just the head changed, he is the new one."
Sirius laughed loudly, making Harry arch an eyebrow in question. "I made a bet with your uncle and it seems that I won it. He said that you would end up in Slytherin and I decided to bet on Gryffindor."
"That's cool, I guess," Harry said dryly and looked at Sirius. "Back to Lupin, what can you tell me about him, excluding the fact that Atalanta wants to murder him."
"Why does she want to do it?"
"Because he is a werewolf?" Harry suggested and Sirius eyes focused on him. "What? She doesn't have too much love for them and we were taught how to find such people."
"Moony," Sirius softly said. "He is a werewolf, he was bitten by Greyback when he was a child and Dumbledore allowed him to study at Hogwarts. I, your father and Pettigrew were his friends and learned how to be animagii so that we could accompany him during full moon."
"So how dangerous he is?"
"Excluding full moon he is completely fine, during full moon he should be taking potion that allows him to control the wolf spirit so he should be docile," Sirius said and looked at Harry. "Are you using the mirror given to you by me or by your uncle?"
"One given by you," Harry said and frowned. "What's wrong?"
"It was easy to eavesdrop and a certain furry person should have the third one," Sirius said and Harry could see him point his wand at the mirror and mutter few sentences in garbled Latin. "Now it should be safe and he should be unable to listen, I trust Moony, but I want this to stay hidden."
"Thanks," Harry said and shuffled in his bed. "So what else do you want to know?"
Sirius grinned and Harry had a feeling they would spend a lot of time talking about things, he was right as it took him over an hour before they were done. Once it was over he placed the mirror on the bedside table and with one, last yawn he went to sleep.
o-0-o
Ebenezar McCoy moved his staff in a long, sweeping motion and dozens of lives were snuffed out, one moment they were alive, the next, they were dead. He looked around, his gaze wandering over the landscape scorched from sun and restless winds blowing from Sahara, and dotted with forms of Wardens, their bodies wrapped in their trademark gray cloaks and then moved towards their enemies. Dozens, if not hundreds of servitors and beyond, their Fomor masters. Between their positions land was dotted with craters, holes and burned vegetation, effects of magic that was used, there were also dozens of bodies of Fomor servitors and even some Wardens that fell in combat.
He leaned on his staff and tried to come up with a plan to win the battle when he felt a portal out of the Nevernever open in front of him. Out of habit and training he leveled his staff at the portal and waited. Out of it stepped out Donar Vadderung, flanked by two younger beings, one of them was hulking and with a mane of golden hair and a massive hammer in one hand, while the second was thin, yet fit with long black hair and a glaive in hand.
"Ebenezar," Donar Vadderung said with a nod. "Want help?"
"Donar," Ebenezar nodded. "What's the price?"
"I'm not a fae," Vadderung said, laughing. "There are no hidden hooks, I also dislike those beings and they started to push into my territory."
"Then I won't mind your help," Ebenezar said. "Take out those Fomors as we can deal with their servitors."
Donar nodded and glanced at the men that came with him, one with a hammer started to spin it and soon was in the air. While the other simply vanished and Ebenezar arched an eyebrow in question.
"You will see," Donar said before he started to glow and power gathered around him. "Much better," he said after a moment. "I didn't use this mantle on Midgard for last ten centuries."
Ebenezar looked at him and he could easily feel amounts of power not many had. "You are Odin and those two are Loki and Thor," he flatly stated.
"Indeed," Odin nodded. "Shall we join the battle?"
Ebenezar grimly nodded and together they walked through the battlefield, towards Fomor lines, Wardens around joining combat as lightnings started to flash above them and rain started to fall, slowly turning into snow as gods started to use their powers and weather began to be influenced by magic released into the air.
o-0-o
Harry looked around the Transfiguration classroom, a bit puzzled by the lack of a teacher, but then his eyes landed on a large cat with black circles around its eyes that sat on the teacher's desk. He smiled as he focused on his telepathy and sent light probes towards the cat, it's mind was too developed for a normal feline and didn't feel like a magical predator.
"So a shape-shifter," he murmured as he moved to one of the desks by the windows. "Not a thing I expected to find at Hogwarts."
"Your godfather is one," Atalanta pointed out with a small smile. "So it should be obvious that they exist."
He nodded with a smile and waited patiently for the rest of the class to fill in and take their seats, just arching an eyebrow for the briefest moment when he saw Ulf being joined by a girl with hairs that were in an extremely bright shade of blonde that they looked as if they were white.
"Seems that you found a friend," Harry said with a chuckle. "That's the last thing I expected from you."
"She isn't a friend in that meaning of the word," Ulf huffed angrily.
"Maybe now isn't," Atalanta agreed. "But in the future?"
Ulf muttered something under his breath, too quietly for Harry to hear what those words were, but he didn't need to know them to guess the meaning. He smirked and turned back his attention to the cat that was sitting on the teacher's desk and waited for everybody to enter into the classroom. Once everybody was inside, the cat was gone and behind the desk stood a stern-looking witch. She introduced herself as Professor McGonagall and with a swish of her wand she changed teacher's desk into an ox and the ox back into the desk. After that she began explaining what they would be covering this year and once those things were out of the way, it swiftly changed into a lecture about the most basic laws and theorems that governed Transfiguration. It was a boring lecture, but everybody understood the need to know theory before starting practical part of their education.
Once the Transfiguration ended they made their way into the dungeons below the school where they would be studying the art of making potions, poisons and antidotes under the careful eye of Professor Horace Slughorn, one of two Hogwarts Potion Masters. It was one of few subjects that made Harry and his friends really curious about how different it would be from what he had been taught on Asgard where they were mainly used when other kinds of magic would be an overkill.
o-0-o
Fury looked at Loki as if he was insane. "You want me to reveal existence of your race, thing which we tried to keep low profile for as long as possible?" He finally asked.
"Yes," Loki said and Fury narrowed his sole working eye. "You don't get too much from hiding our existence and many won't notice it if you combine it with a lovely piece of news about Weapon X."
"I suppose you are right, but still, it is a risky move."
"World belongs to the brave," Loki said with a chuckle.
"I much more prefer being safe, than brave," Fury said and looked at Loki. "Some people will ask questions, questions that I don't want to answer and even if most remains obvious to the fact, media are known for digging out pieces of data we want to forget about."
"That's why I want it done alongside Weapon X," Loki smirked. "Everybody will be ripping into them and will mostly ignore other facts and pieces of data you release."
"That's true," Fury said and looked at Loki. "What will you give me for this favor?"
"Technology that will bolster your helicarriers," Loki said. "We won't give you top of the line, as we don't share it so freely, but even an older design will work and to sweeten the deal a fifty percent discount on hiring einherjar."
"Monoc Security prime mercenaries?" Fury asked, pulled out a thin manilla folder from one of many drawers of his desk and took a quick look at it. "A single group that knows how to deal with both magical and normal threats?"
"The same," Loki smirked. "On top of that they bring several centuries of experience and knowledge in killing. So I doubt that anybody will be able to stop them."
"Well, you will have Asgard revealed alongside all of those random bits and pieces of data that will make press go on a witch hunt to drag down those that are not in prison or dead," Fury said and looked at Loki. "Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?"
"Not exactly," Loki said and Fury arched an eyebrow. "Tri-Wizard Tournament is being brought back and if everything goes according to plan it will be held here, in the USA."
"The same one that was discontinued because of some kind of a snake starting to devour people?"
"Same one," Loki nodded. "This time there won't be any cockatrice causing havoc," he said after a moment. "I didn't have an opportunity to see with what they came up, but it should be something decent and relatively safe."
"Relatively?"
"No dragons, basilisks, cockatrices or griffins."
"And where will it be?"
"At Xavier's," Loki said and smirked. "Who actually has the best chance of winning it, maybe Olympian has a decent chance, but that depends on how many godlings and demigods they can find."
Fury nodded and focused on Loki. "How big of a security issue it should be?"
"World Cup or something similar," he said. "Thousands of wizards will show up for the tasks and a lot of dignitaries. Maybe even my father assuming that Harry will take part in the actual tournament, also maybe someone from the royal family of Wakanda will show up as they have close ties with magical community and the White Council usually sends them invitations to various summits."
"How much worse can it get?" Fury asked. "As if someone else shows up, I will be probably forced to assign one of my deputies to oversee it and I don't have spares."
"What about Director Carter?" Loki asked. "She took Infinity Formula after giving birth to her children and is almost immortal."
"I would need to speak with her," Fury said thoughtfully. "But that is my agency, not yours so I won't do as you tell me."
"That's understandable," Loki bowed his head. "So as not to anger you more, I will take my leave."
Fury waited for Loki to leave before reaching for another folder, he placed it on the desk and looked at it. It was weathered by the flow of time and dozens of years spent in the archives below various buildings that housed OSS and later SHIELD. On the front page there were just two words written, Dies Irae, ink was so bleak that it was almost impossible to tell what was there. However he didn't need those words to tell what was inside, it was one of the most secret things even inside of the agency that prized security and secrecy. Obtaining it cost SHIELD dozens of agents, protection of them was even more expensive and demanding.
He carefully opened the folder and looked at a couple of photos and sheets of paper, some of them new, but most of them extremely old and fragile. He carefully picked the first photo and looked at it, visible, but barely was an image of a sword and of a large sickle. Two pieces of metal that were coveted by a lot of groups, groups that had resources and desire to get their hands on them. He placed photos back in the folder, closed the whole thing and looked out of the window. The city was mostly unaware of what was happening around the world and he hoped that it would still be the case as if they learnt about the true state of the world, panic would ensue and not much would stop it.
o-0-o
Harry was about to start devouring his breakfast when he felt something land on his shoulder. He glanced at the thing and a short growl left his lips when he saw that it was a large raven, one that looked as if the whole world belonged to it.
"Do you know that bird?" Neville asked, his eyes weirdly focused on him, yet quickly switching to the bird.
"Unfortunately I know that feathery thing too well," he nodded with a sigh and glanced at the raven. "What do you want, Huginn?"
"To pass messages," Huginn croaked. "Mainly from your grandfather as some envoys were on Asgard, asking about you."
Ulf snorted at those words and Harry glared at him. "What?"
"You will see," he said, once he contained his laughter. "Just don't be surprised that there is a lot of letters ahead of you. Probably a wagon or two of them."
"He is right," Huginn said and Harry's glare focused on him. "There is a lot of letters ahead of you."
Harry was about to say something when he saw letters land around him, most of them collecting around him, but few managed to drown in various pitchers and lawn on tables of other people. It looked like an avalanche of letters had a desire to bury the whole table.
"The hell that is?" Oliver asked, waving his wand and sending some letters to Harry.
"Diplomacy," Ulf said with a chuckle. "Harry is second in line to the throne, so he is a desirable spouse. A lot of nobles and royalties wouldn't mind seeing him as part of their families, even if it is up to his grandfather, they have hopes that if they buy him, getting his grandfather to agree will be easier."
"Royalties?" Dean Thomas asked.
"Most of other pantheons," Harry said with a sigh. "Which makes them my really distant family."
"So inbreeding isn't only a problem for wizards," Neville muttered and made Harry laugh.
"No," he said as he composed himself. "When you have a limited amount of options you sooner or later get some inbreeding, on Earth you have plenty of examples of this."
"Did you find something interesting?" Atalanta asked.
He looked at the letter he was holding and smiled. "This one looks interesting," he said, breaking a wax seal, his eyes scanned the lines of spidery letters and then he smiled. "Horus wouldn't mind seeing me as a husband of his great-granddaughter Neith."
"I thought that he would suggest the hand of his heir," Atalanta said with a chuckle.
"Prince Ihy?" Harry frowned and at the same time he noticed several gasps of shock and surprise. "Over my dead body, he is nice, but I don't like him that much."
"Was just teasing you," Atalanta said, before leaning closer to him and kissing him on the cheek. "I know that you want me," she whispered. "Not anybody else."
He blushed and looked at her. "Not only you," he replied, kissing her. "But you the most."
"An acceptable answer," she said and he could see a smile on her lips. "Not that many will like it."
"No, I guess not," he said, looking around and noticing jealous stares and glares. Ones that could turn him into a neat pile of dust on the floor. "It seems that you have quite a competition."
"It can try," she said with a predatory smile. "I will enjoy their attempts at getting to you."
"Are you always that territorial?" Fred asked, inching away from her.
"Yes," Harry sighed as he tore through the rest of the letters and looked at Huginn. "One more such avalanche and you will end up as a meal for my wolves. Recently they wanted something new, so a raven will work."
"You have no power over me," Huginn croaked. "Only your grandfather can order me around. Not you, nor your father."
"I don't need to order you around," Harry smiled. "A bow and a single arrow will be enough."
Huginn croaked in indignation and disappeared, in his wake was left a trail of black feathers that slowly floated to the ground.
Harry looked at the spot and then he shook his head and focused on his breakfast, magic was exhausting and surviving until lunch could be a challenge.
o-0-o
"We need to talk," Gambit said as he silently appeared to the side of Harry. "About something important."
Harry looked at him and later at the crowd of the students around them, most of which were already focusing on them, as if trying to learn more and hear as much as they could. "I doubt that here we will have any privacy," he said with a look around. "After all gossips are juicy and travel far faster than light does."
"Indeed. As a former thief I can tell you whole lot of things about gossips and what can you learn from them," Gambit said and looked more seriously at them. "Come with me, I think that I have just a right place for us to talk."
Harry nodded and with Atalanta and Ulf moving behind him and keeping an eye out for troubles they made their way to a deserted classroom on the other end of the castle. Gambit waited for them to enter into the room before closing the door and looking at them.
"I know that all of you trained martial arts and possibly could kill me, so the training the rest gets will make you bored and frustrated," he said and they looked at him. "So you have three choices, train on your own and focus on whatever you need, train with Banshee or help me with teaching wizards those things and some shows of what you can do won't be amiss. Which one do you choose?"
"The last one," Harry said with a grin. "Throwing other people around is always fun and I think that At won't mind an opportunity to show who is the best."
Atalanta only smirked at those words and Gambit had a feeling that getting between her and Harry could be not the safest idea. Even if she looked completely innocent and defenseless, he knew that she would be more than capable of ripping open the throat of anybody foolish enough to get too close to Harry. Though rumors and gossips at Xavier's said that she didn't murder Laura Kinney or Jean-Paul, which made it even more interesting.
"Well, tomorrow you will have me first thing in the morning," Gambit said as he kept his attention focused on Atalanta and several daggers hidden below her clothes. "So I expect you to be present or..."
"Or what?" Ulf asked. "You can't get worse than Sif."
Gambit just smirked. "You will see." At those words all of them gulped and he could see them look for easily accessible escape roads that didn't require chopping him to pieces. "Now scram and don't annoy me for the rest of the day."
"We? Annoy you?" Harry asked. "I know no such word."
"You know what I mean," Gambit said and after a moment they hurried out of the room, briefly showing inhuman speed of Æsir as one moment they were in the room and another they were outside of the classroom.
For a moment he watched them walk away before he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled, Umbridge needed to stay away from this or troubles would happen.
o-0-o
With excitement coursing through their veins they rushed to the dormitories, Harry pulled out and quickly opened his trunk, digging through the clothes and dozens of other things, piled in thick layers before getting to his target, the bottom of the trunk. When he reached it he pressed his palm against it and a second trunk appeared in the world, this one more massive and heavily reinforced with metal.
"How much weaponry did you bring with you?" Ulf asked.
"Enough," Harry said, unlocking dozens of locks and lifting the lid. "I also brought a gift that you should like."
"Oh?"
"Yes," Harry smiled as he pulled out an axe out of the trunk and hurled it at Ulf. "Catch."
Ulf reached and snatched the axe out of the air before taking a better look at it, it was quite a large one with a blade forged out of mithril and covered in runes, a shaft carved out of a massive oak branch, thus giving it a wicked shape and a handle covered in fine leather. "Jarnbjorn?" He asked. "An axe used by your father?"
"Same one," Harry said, pulling out his own sword. "He said that he doesn't need it, so I borrowed it and now you can have it."
Ulf made a couple of swings with the axe and then nodded contently. "It works, decently," he said and placed by his trunk. "At least I don't need to dig deep to get my own axe as you gave me this one."
"No," Harry smiled. "I doubt that we will bother with armor, hand to hand will be enough for them."
"More than enough," Ulf said. "If they are as bad as we think they are our basic tricks will be more than enough to awe them."
"Probably," Harry agreed as he pulled out his vambraces and gloves. "But those two will be useful."
"So that we won't chop each other's hands to pieces?" Ulf asked with a chuckle.
"Yeah, that," Harry said as he looked at his gear. "Do we need anything else?"
"Nah," Ulf said. "We are not going to war."
"True," Harry said as he sent last glance at the bottom of the trunk where his armor laid in a neat pile. He reached into it and pulled out a piece of cloth, a whetstone and all other gear he would need for polishing and sharpening the blade.
He waited for Ulf to get his own supplies and together they walked to the common room, weapons slung over their shoulders. They spotted Atalanta in the corner and made their way there, not paying attention to the bundles they carried with themselves.
"I wonder when someone with a spear up their ass complains about those things," Harry said as he placed on his lap his sword and started to polish the blade.
"At the Institute nobody paid any attention to what we had," Atalanta pointed out.
"The Institute is a different place," Harry said with a sigh. "There nobody paid too much attention to weapons as it was kept in a safe place, simply because we tend to have unwanted guests that are hard to remove."
"And chopping their heads off is the best way of doing so?" Ulf asked with a grin.
"Considering that the last time they were removed they woke up the Phoenix, than yes, they need it," Harry said and Ulf's eyes widened slightly, making him smile, however it was a thin and a dour smile. "Yes, they unleashed the Phoenix."
"How stupid they were to tangle with that thing?"
"Enough to stomp onto everybody's toes and get mauled. It was before the time the Institute ended on Asgard," Harry said and winced. "I still have scars thanks to them."
"That large one on your back?" Atalanta asked and he looked at her. "Harry, it's not hard to feel it."
"The same one," Harry said and focused his attention on the blade, his finger trailing along the edge. "It is weirdly dirty," he muttered, moving oil-covered cloth over the surface and trying to remove dirt and dust gathered on the blade.
He was about to finish one edge when an unpleasant "Khem." interrupted his work, he carefully placed the cloth on a nearby table and made sure that a bottle with oil was secured before he looked up.
"How may I help you, Miss Know-It-All?" He asked, looking at Hermione.
"Since when weapons are allowed inside of Hogwarts?" she asked, folding her hands over the book she was holding.
"Be kind and leave us alone," Atalanta said, her voice quiet, yet Harry could feel a very dangerous message hidden below it.
"Or what?" Hermione asked.
"Or someone will leave this place in a bodybag," Oliver Wood said as he appeared behind her, he was leaning against a table and seemed not to care about her. "And it most likely will be you."
She spun around, as if she was bitten by a large bee and glared at Oliver. "They broke the rules," she said. "So why do you take their side?"
"Because I know of things that you do not know and won't know for quite a some time," he said, twirling his wand between fingers of his right hand. "And I am older and since this year Quidditch teams Captains have same powers as Prefects have. I don't like to do it, but perhaps it will be necessary to remove some points."
Harry smiled at the exchange, it seemed that some people had troubles understanding that there was a pecking order and they needed to accept it. Hermione let out a mighty huff and stormed away from them, most likely to nag some teacher to talk to them about weapons. It also gave Oliver time to walk to them.
"Harry," he said. "I know that you, all of you are used to having weapons with you, but could you be more subtle about them. While I and most of Prefects were warned to let you have them, a lot of busybodies will annoy you and us with it. There is also Umbridge and she is a nightmare, so stay away from her and you should be fine. Just be more discreet."
Harry looked at Oliver, considering his words. "I will try, but I won't promise anything, we prefer to be armed at all times."
"I'm not forcing you to do anything, just suggesting," Oliver said and Harry arched an eyebrow on question. "I know that forcing you would result with me having my own ass handed back to me, so I don't want to end in more troubles than necessary."
"I will try," Harry said before looking at the blade laying on his lap. "It's just that we are used to having weapons all the time and not concealing them. On Asgard nobody would even think of telling us to hide them."
"Because they are a show of whom you are?"
"Indeed," Atalanta nodded. "Only we, that is nobles, and warriors can carry weapons all the time and it is a sign of our position, so we have them at all times. Not always big weapons, but always some kind of them."
"Usually swords or daggers," Harry added. "They are the easiest to make presentable and don't hinder our moves too much."
"Oh," Oliver nodded. "So when we were at the Academy that's why everybody had some kind of a dagger or sword with them."
"Yes, there are also brawls and duels, but mostly because of those things."
Oliver nodded and Harry could feel him getting somewhat used to the idea. "Alright, just don't provoke people with them and clear out anything with your head of house."
Harry nodded and with a smile returned to polishing the blade, while his mind ran to his friends on Asgard and at the Institute, wondering about what they were doing.
o-0-o
Warren ducked behind the cover and watched as place where he was moments ago was turned into a pincushion by dozens, if not hundreds of shards of ice, ones that could easily cut him to pieces. He took a quick look around Danger Room, one that currently was covered in heaps of snow, ice and rocks. In the distance he could see a couple of human shapes, but that was all he could see because of a blizzard that threatened them with burying them alive. To his side was Phoenix and Shadowcat was crouching behind one of nearby rocks, while Havok, Nightcrawler, Carol and Northstar were somewhere else.
"You should be more careful," Jane said as she looked at him, before her eyes flashed gold and shards of ice flew into the air and towards one that sent them. "Even if you were rash, it worked well."
"Or I was lucky," he said before jumping into the air and starting to climb higher and higher. His eyes roamed over the whole area before he spotted Iceman who was one that almost turned him into an icy pincushion. He made few massive swings with his wings and felt as dozens of metallic darts separated from his body and with an unearthly howl flew through the air.
"Not bad," Jean said as he landed. "They should be hiding behind cover."
"I know," he nodded as they emerged from behind the cover, running through the snow and jumping over rocks and puddles of ice mixed with melted snow.
o-0-o
On the day when they were supposed to have the first class with Gambit Harry woke up early and before everybody else even managed to get out of the bed, he and Ulf were done with their workouts and fully dressed, eager to start the day.
"How the hell are you already awake?" Seamus asked as he woke up and saw that they were both dressed and ready for the classes of the day.
"We have a reason and energy to be," Harry said with a grin and glanced at the watch on his hand. "One that you will see in about hour and a half."
Harry sat down on his bed as everybody else started to wake up and go around their morning routine, while giving him precious time to look through his weapons and choose ones that he would need. He pulled out his sword, slid it out of scabbard, just to see if there was no rust, which shouldn't happen, but weirder things happened, placed it to his side and reached into the trunk. Next he pulled out his round shield, its surface covered in runes and forged out of a thin sheet of mithril, below which was hard oak wood, one that endured hundreds of duels and strikes of axes and swords that would have shattered a weaker material. The last two things he pulled out was his saxe knife and a simple axe, a simple utilitarian weapon that wasn't a masterpiece like Jarnbjorn or his sword. He looked at this small collection of weapons and for one last time reaching into the trunk he pulled out a leather harness reinforced with metal.
He got up and put on the harness, securing it to his body and making sure that all of the holsters and whatnots would stay in their places, even if he was running, jumping or doing any other kind of things associated with a fierce duel or usual combat. He tightened the belts and checked that everything was in its proper places before attaching weapons to it and throwing Hogwarts robe over it. Once that was done he looked at himself and muttering few words in the language of Asgard casted a couple of shoddy veils over bulges caused by his weaponry. It wouldn't stop any serious magic, but not many here knew such magic.
"Ready?" Ulf asked, placing an axe in a holster on his belt.
"Ready," Harry said with a grin. "Gambit wants a show so it will be worth the trouble."
Ulf only grinned back in reply and they walked to the common room where they were joined by Atalanta who had a similar harness to their and the same, obscene amount of weapons on herself. Harry kissed her on the cheek and together they walked down for breakfast and later for their class with Gambit.
o-0-o
A/N:
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