Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, nil, need I say more? All belongs to J.K Rowling, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Marvel, and Disney
Warning: There is going to be a decent amount of angst in this chapter. And some cussing.
A/N: I said this would be out by Monday and I only just barely missed the deadline since it's just past midnight. Also massive thanks to everyone who reviewed. As a thank you I worked really hard to get this chapter posted as soon as possible (see they do make me work faster). This chapter and the next are the ones that have changed most. The biggest change is the background and how the war ended. I decided to take a simpler route and eliminated the elaborate backstory and most of the OCs barring Neo and Dawn.
I completely forgot about Harry's glasses. In this version I somehow never directly mentioned whether he was wearing them or not. So I decided to address that in this chapter lest I forget. I'm a big picture so I have this bad habit of forgetting the little details like customs, press, and eyewear apparently.
Also expect an extra that I've done as a sort of SHIELD file on each of the Avengers and potential Avengers this is mostly to give people background info on Logan, Henry Pym, Janet VanDyne. There will also be a separate file on Harry so that people have his background. Some of it will be revealed in flashbacks but I figure this way everyone gets a cohesive version of prior events. Instead of putting it up here like last time.
Dinner had been devoured, mostly by Steve and Thor. Harry had brought out dessert which everyone was quite enthusiastic about. The banter was replaced by idle small talk that Harry would have thought was in a foreign language if he hadn't known better. Ray and the one man he didn't know were discussing particle somethings. Steve was talking to Thor about sports and someone named Jane. The woman next to him was holding a whispered conversation with Clint. He decided that now was as good a time as any to ask his questions.
"Who is Loki?" Harry asked addressing the table at large.
"Um, he's well no one that you need to worry about." Pepper answered, looking quite flustered.
"Well he does actually since they might be roommates." Ray said casually.
"WHAT?" Pepper shouted, turning a fierce glare on Ray.
"Er, well apparently Odin has decided to commune Loki's sentence to a stay on Midgard. Fury assigned us to be his babysitters too." Ray said.
"What about Harry?" asked Pepper.
"Well apparently reindeer games has been stripped of his powers so he's safe now. Or safe-ish at least" Ray replied.
"I think I'm getting a migraine." Pepper said, rubbing her hand across her forehead.
"Anyway Loki is Thor's brother. He has a few genocidal tendencies and he's a bit of a megalomaniac. But don't worry too much he's been given a time out with no powers." Ray said.
"I really don't think it's a good idea to have him in the tower. Especially not with me in it" muttered the man with dark hair.
"Relax, Bruce we won't let you Hulk out. I think Loki still remembers the pounding he got from your last encounter." Ray said.
Harry grinned. Now he knew the names of everyone except the woman next to him. He glanced at her briefly from the corner of his eye. She looked so much like his mother that it made him very uncomfortable. He had only managed to sit next to her by ignoring the fact that she was sitting right next to him. He shifted in his seat slightly before returning his attention to the conversation at hand.
"I agree with Banner having Loki and the Hulk in the same vicinity is…unwise." the woman said.
"It'll be fine Natasha besides if anything the Hulk will keep Loki in line." Clint said.
"Who will keep the Hulk in line?" asked Natasha arching an eyebrow at Clint.
"Uh" Clint said. His lack of a reasonable answer earned him a cuff upside the head. Clint shot Natasha a mild glare while rubbing the back of his head.
"My younger brother has been stripped of his powers much like I was. If Loki can redeem himself he will regain his powers." Thor stated.
"He's a slimy sorcerer with daddy issues" Clint added.
"Oh" Harry said. So far Loki sounded a little too much like Voldemort for his liking. If he had to deal with another dark wizard he was going to feed Neo to Norberta. Then again perhaps the others were exaggerating a bit.
"I'm surprised that you don't know this. The Chitauri invasion was on international news." Pepper said.
"Well I don't watch the telly much. I was in school at the time and my school is very low tech." Harry said. He was not entirely certain when this invasion occurred so he could have been. He couldn't think of a better answer anyways.
"Well that explains it I suppose. Have you heard of the Avengers?" Pepper asked.
"Er, not really" Harry replied, embarrassed.
"Well that's okay. How about I introduce the team?" Pepper asked.
"Thanks I already know Steve and Ray, they picked me up at the airport." Harry answered.
"Ray?" asked Pepper puzzled.
"Yeah Ray Ban" Harry answered motioning towards Ray. Ray had just taken a sip of his drink and started choking when he heard Harry's answer. Pepper had to thump him hard on the back. Ray continued to splutter and cough, and the rest of the table broke out into laughter. Clint nearly fell out of his chair.
"I'm Tony Stark!" shouted Ray. He had recovered from his coughing fit and was staring at Harry incredulously.
"Oh, sorry" said Harry turning red. He had assumed that Ray Ban was his name since Pepper had called him that earlier.
"How can you not know who Tony Stark is?" demanded Ray, or Tony rather.
"Er" said Harry not really certain how to answer. He could just hear Hermione berating him for getting himself into this situation while Ron laughed. Hermione would have forced him to research every aspect of New York before he even set foot on the plane. Ron would have complained about working and gotten distracted by all the muggle terms he didn't understand. He wished they were with him now.
"Well, I asked JARVIS for information earlier but he wouldn't tell me." Harry said, attempting to change the subject.
"I wonder why." Pepper said.
"And deprive sir the pleasure of enlightening our guest on all of his achievements?" JARVIS asked wryly. Harry started slightly as he was not yet used to JARVIS. He liked the guy but it was rather unnerving to talk to a voice with no discernible source.
"Thank you JARVIS" said Harry dryly.
"Of course, I thought it best if heard directly from the horse's mouth" JARVIS said.
"Don't you mean ass?" asked Clint.
Harry snorted. Beside him he could see Steve shaking with barely suppressed laughter. The rest of the table seemed to be in the same condition. Harry could see Tony opening his mouth to retaliate and decided to intervene once again.
"So what is it that you do Tony?" Harry asked.
"Oh you know billionaire playboy philanthropist, Iron Man, genius inventor of the arc reactor. Owner of Stark Industries one of the world's most prominent businesses" Tony said smugly.
Harry didn't really understand but attempted to look suitably impressed. He had a feeling that if he didn't Tony could probably spend hours talking about himself. Then again something told him that Tony was not as self-absorbed as he liked to appear. Nonetheless he could do without the lecture having heard several long and tedious ones before.
"Well thank you for dinner Harry it was great." Pepper said.
"No problem." Harry said. He could see the looks the group was exchanging. He recognized it easily. It was the same one Order members had before they kicked the younger kids out so they could start the meeting. He saved them the trouble of ordering him out by getting up and collecting the dishes. He was quite surprised when Pepper stopped him.
"Don't worry about the dishes Harry we'll get them, why don't you go relax." Pepper said, giving him a gentle smile. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak, and left the dining room as quickly as possible. He took the stairs down to his room and closed the door behind him. He was glad to be by himself once again and hoped that Pepper didn't notice his odd behavior. He sat down on the edge of his bead.
He wasn't tired yet and he felt that it was bit too early to go to sleep. Though he had arrived in New York in the early afternoon after an eight hour flight, not taking into account the time differences. After a few more minutes of mental calculation Harry found that he had gotten at least six hours of sleep prior to his arrival in New York. For him that was a very good amount. He decided to get in a couple hours of practice since he was in the muggle world he decided to train up a bit in fighting without a wand. He pulled his truck out of his pocket. He walked over to the closet and set it down before tapping it with his wand causing it to unshrink.
He had bought the trunk shortly after Voldemort's death. It had five rooms: a bedroom with a kitchenette, a library, a dueling room, a potions lab, and a storage room. He opened the lid and descended the stairs into the dueling room. He spent the next two hours vigorously sparring against several training dummies. He was sweaty and completely exhausted two hours later. He decided to take a quick shower before going to bed. He fell asleep immediately. He dream was familiar and unpleasant as he once again dreamed about the Final Battle.
Harry was dueling Voldemort in the courtyard. The rest of the fighters were dueling all around the grounds. It was chaos. Mulit-colored lights flew past at random intervals. House-elves kept underfoot hacking at any Death Eaters they could reach. A few spells managed to land in the courtyard, gouging holes into the ground. Harry was too busy fighting Voldemort to do more than glance. Harry dodged a particularly nasty looking curse that carved a crater into the spot it hit. He cast a shield charm as another curse was thrown at him.
Voldemort shrieked in rage and lifted his wand hissed "Avada Kedavra"
Harry shouted "Expelliarmus"
The two spells collided in midair, green met red, and there was a blast much like a canon. Harry saw scorch marks in the place. *He saw the Elder Wand saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last.
And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hand, staring down at his enemy's shell.*
There was a moment of silence as Harry registered what had just happened. Voldemort was dead, the war was over. He looked around and saw that the courtyard was empty aside from Voldemort's corpse.
There was a tremendous rumble and he turned to see Hogwarts come crashing down. Harry watched in horror as his first home collapsed, crushing many of those still inside. Without stopping to think he ran towards the castle only to find someone holding him back. A pair of strong arms was wrapped around his waist keeping him in place. He struggled and kicked but to no avail, the person holding him was stronger and bigger than him.
"Harry if you go in there now you'll get yourself killed." the person said.
"Let go of me!" Harry shouted twisting around to glare at his captor, who merely tightened their hold. He didn't recognize the man holding him back which caused him to redouble his efforts at escaping.
"I'm not gonna hurt you now listen wait for the rubble to clear. You won't be doing one any favors getting yourself injured or killed by the falling debris." his captor said.
Harry kept struggling intent on making sure everyone who had been inside was all right. He heard his captor grunt when he managed to elbow him in the stomach. The man still did not release his hold.
"I can see there's no talking any sense to you is there?" asked the man rhetorically. That said Harry felt himself being released and immediately surged towards the castle only to find the world turn dark. He had been hit with a stunner from behind.
Harry gasped and bolted upright. The dream while not as bad as some still jolted him awake. He looked around the room and forced himself to remember that he was in New York. With a sigh he glanced at the alarm clock. It was quite early but Harry was certain that he would not be getting anymore sleep. He sat up and swung his leg over the edge of the bed. He stretched lightly as he stood up. He groped for his glasses for a moment before he remembered that he didn't need them anymore. He still wore them though it was mostly for appearances sake. Not very many people knew that he had his vision corrected.
He was glancing at the end table by his bed again. There was a note on it that he was certain hadn't been there when he went to sleep. He looked around the room examining it more thoroughly than the cursory glance he'd given it seconds before. He could see nothing out of place and he didn't sense anyone else in the room. He quickly pulled his wand from its holster. He kept it there even when he slept not willing to risk being caught unawares. He quickly cast every detection charm he could think of at the paper, revealing it to be harmless. After picking it up, he realized that the writing belonged to the Minister
Harry,
It occurs to me that I may have forgotten to inform you of a few things. I hope that at the very least you are trying to settle in. There has been some news. I can't tell you what it is here shall this note fall into the wrong hands. I have set up a meeting so that I may give you the necessary information. I have a very busy schedule so I was only able to schedule a meeting for a week from now. There will be an escort waiting for you in Central Park.
Sincerely, Neo Novus Welker
P.S. Do try to keep out of trouble. The ink from the paperwork on your last few fiascos hasn't finished drying yet.
Harry felt a jab of irritation as he read the postscript. He wondered briefly who his escort would be then decided he would find out later. Realizing that he was probably the only person up yet he decided to do some more training. He was going to practice some of the muggle fighting instead of dueling. After all if he got into trouble here he couldn't use magic without breaking the Statute of Secrecy to bits. He had a feeling the minister would not be too pleased if he did that. He was not very good at hand-to-hand combat yet so he continued to practice.
A/N 2: The Final Battle is mostly AU. For example but most canon events leading up to it will remain the same. I will explain this a bit more later on. Also the person holding Harry back is the a third OC. This is the last OC from the HP side of things. I am trying to condense these by the way it's just I often have lot to say. Also sorry if this is a bit sloppy but I really wanted to make this deadline self-imposed or not. I will be going back over this when I am more awake so forgive me if there are a few errors.
Also what is written from * to * is a direct quote from the Deathly Hallows as I honestly don't think I could say it any better than Rowling did.
A/N: Updated 10/21/13. This relegate parts of the previous ANs null and void. I have changed Harry's age so he is eighteen as he would be in canon so the differences will be less.