Many, many apologies for this ridiculous gap. Real life was being... rough.

Sorry everyone for taking so long :(

Anyways, a word about the canon - I think I'm going to end up smashing a few pieces of the HP canon. Yaxley did not tail a ride on Hermione's sleeve, so the HP crew can - and still are - using Grimmauld place as a base. They're still more or less in contact with big members of the Order of the Phoenix via Patronuses and other sneaky ways of communication. It was through the Order that the Prime Minister managed to get a message through to Harry. I hope this isn't too big of a break for anybody... :/

Oh, and the rating for this might jump up to M depending on how dirty I want to get with the language, and especially depending on how the FrostIron goes... oops! Have I said too much? xD

And thank you thank you THANK YOU to the followers and favoriters and reviewers! I have over 100 followers... I can't believe it! This is so amazing! And I find myself on tenderhooks waiting for reviews, I never know what people will think of this story xD Thank you all so very much!

Anyhoo, I'll stop yammering now. More at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!


For all the buildup, Tony had expected something a little more grand.

"What, not James Bond? Never heard of this Potter guy," Tony said.

"You will," Fury replied. He gestured to the open conference room door. "After you."

Tony took off his helmet, tucking it under his arm as he entered the room. He couldn't help feeling a little surprised at what he saw there.

The conference room was not empty. Among the SHIELD guards, three teenagers stood at the head of the table. Two boys and a girl, they were gritty, grimy, and above all, young. 16, 17 maybe, tops. The boy in the middle had badly-cut black hair and round glasses. Behind the round glasses were very, very green eyes – Tony was reminded uncomfortably of Loki, and looked away. The girl beside him was taller, although that could have been an illusion created by her incredibly bushy hair. She was possibly pretty, Tony thought, but it was a little hard to tell, considering her choice in clothing. All three of them were dressed in several layers of sweaters and jackets, making them all look oddly lumpy. Instead of looking like he was trying to discern her figure (no need to start off on the wrong foot too early, Tony thought) He looked to the last boy, who was standing almost possessively by the girl. He had startling red hair, almost the same color as the red on his suit. Nothing else distinctive about him, other than his rather mulish look. All and all, three teenagers.

Why was Fury so happy about finding these people?

And then he noticed how the guards were treating them. Not with disdain, as Tony currently was, but something rather close to awe.

What the hell was going on here?

Fury stepped into the room.

"Potter, this is –"

"Tony Stark," the black-haired boy finished, stepping around the table with his hand outstretched. "The famous Iron Man."

Well, someone who addressed him like that couldn't be too bad. He offered his gauntleted hand, rather enjoying the discomfited look on the boy's face as he shook his huge metallic hand. But he was distracted as he heard a whisper from the back of the room – the girl was whispering to the red-haired boy. But with the room so quiet, Tony could clearly hear the words.

"I think Harry's enjoying not being recognized for once," The girl said, her face hidden behind her bushy hair. "We've done better hiding from the Muggles than I thought," the boy replied.

This was going a bit far. Muggles? It sounded like some weird new dog breed, but that didn't fit the context. And who was this guy he was currently shaking hands with?

He didn't get a chance to ask. "And Steve Rogers," the boy said, breaking away from Tony and going to where Steve was lurking in the corner of the room. They said something to each other, but Tony was more interested in hearing the gossiping teenager's conversation – it was slightly harder to hear this time, but he thought he caught "—Strengthening Solution, right?"

Okay, that was it. Tony turned towards the pair and said, "Guys, room's quiet. I can hear everything you're saying. What's this about a strength solution, and what the hell is a muggle?" Tony didn't like asking questions, but he hated not knowing the answer more.

To his intense surprise, the girl answered him immediately, though she looked rather disdainful as she spoke. "A strengthening solution is a potion that gives extra physical power to the drinker, though the degree of strength depends on the quality on the potion." She said as though she was speaking common knowledge. Maybe she was talking about the Steve's serum in really weird jargon or something. He let that pass. "And Muggle?"

"Non-wizard folk," ginger-hair grunted.

Well, that was ever so helpful. He opened his mouth to make an undoubtedly snarky remark, but Fury cut in.

"I'll take it from here. Stark, Rogers, this is Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. I take it you three already know the Avengers."

"Who doesn't know about them?" The girl, Hermione, replied. "It was plastered all over the Prophet for days." The black-haired boy, Harry, frowned at this, though Tony had no idea why.

Two more things Tony didn't know. This was not shaping out to be a good day. He tried to regain control of this wacky meeting.

"Okay, they know about us, they have a prophet-thing, and they like dogs. How is all of this relevant?"

"It's relevant, Stark, because they know who we're fighting. We're fighting a sorcerer – and these three people are wizards."

Dead silence. Wizards. That meant more Lokis running around. Great. The dirty teens didn't look much like Asgardians, but magic could do wondrous things. "Just how did they get here without the Tesseract?" Tony questioned, wondering whether this was the golden nugget of information these people had. "Was it new teleportation, or—"

"They're from Earth, Stark," Fury said.

"England, specifically," Harry added casually.

Tony looked from Fury to Harry, feeling uncomfortably bewildered. "So what, England breeds mutants or something?"

"They do, but no more than the rest of the world," Fury said. "They're wizards, Stark. Surely after all you've seen, this can't come as too much of surprise." There was definitely sarcasm in his tone, and there was a barest hint of a grin on Fury's face. He was enjoying this too, dammit. First he got verbally spanked, and now he was getting mocked. That would have been more than enough to send him heading towards the alcohol, but now there were wizards from earth in the mix?

Well, that did mean one thing.

He turned to Harry. "So, are we fighting Loki or not?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't think Loki's involved. This… man," His voice grew dark with hatred, "Likes to work alone. His death eaters think they're involved, of course, but anything serious is done by him alone. He trusts no one."

Whoever this mystery man was – and why couldn't Harry have given a name? – had done some serious damage. Tony doubted Harry even knew how murderous he looked right now. This baddie must have done something really bad.

But all that could be dealt with later. There was one very important thing to do. Turning to Steve, he put on his largest, most infuriatingly satisfied grin. "I told you so," he said slowly. "Told. You. So."

"You've made your point, Tony," Steve said, no longer smiling.

"Have I? Don't think I have yet. Just started, actually."

"Enough," Fury snapped.

Tony frowned."Enough is right, Nick. What exactly is your problem? We're grown men. Enough of you acting like our babysitter," Tony snapped right back.

"There is a deranged madman hunting the streets with unlimited power right now, and you want to annoy Steve about some stupid bet?"

"Yes," Tony said immediately. Fury scowled. "If you speak out of line once more, Stark, I'll personally see to it that a zipper is installed on your mouth, with the only key in my possession. You are to listen and do as you're told for once in your life, or you will never deliver a wisecrack again. Are we clear?" There was no jest in his expression. Yikes. Tony backed off.

"So who are we up against, Harry?" Tony said, the picture of innocence. Probably not the wisest decision, for usually when he looked innocent he was up to something. But Fury said nothing and let Harry speak.

Harry took a deep breath and glanced back at his companions before continuing. "It all started a few months ago – well, truthfully, everything started 16 years ago," He said, "But that will take longer to explain. His most current plan started about four months ago, when Professor Trelawney was reported missing from Hogwarts.

"We don't know much about it – the Order of the Phoenix doesn't have much footing in Hogwarts anymore. But Kingsley managed to send us an owl about Trelawney disappearing."

"She's a Seer," Hermione added, taking in Tony's blank expression. Tony's expression didn't change, he just added Seer to his growing mental list of new terms. He was going to need a glossary for all this new magic-talk.

"Anyway, ever since then, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named dropped off the radar. His Death Eaters kept up the havoc, of course, but actual sightings just… stopped. The next that we heard of him was when he broke into your base.

"The Tesseract isn't magical like our magic –" He pulled out a thin stick from his jacket pocket. A scepter thing just like the one the maniac woman had carried. So they could probably use that green laser of death too. He stopped wondering whether the day would get worse and just settled down knowing things would continue to plummet. At least these people were supposedly on the good side.

"So, as far as we know, he hasn't figured out how to influence it yet. Fury said you found a dead snake?"

It took Tony a second to find his voice. "A big charred one," He said, "And some really weird metal."

The look that Harry and company shared next was not a promising one. They looked close to panicked. "Oh, no," Hermione whispered, her voice faint with horror. The boy named Ron convulsively gripped the front of his shirt, which seemed a rather odd reaction, but whatever. Everything was weird at this point.

But most importantly, what the **** were they all talking about?

They clearly knew more about this, but they were very unwilling to divulge anything else. Tony flexed his gauntlet, feeling rather irritated. This was an entirely new world for him to deal with, to learn about. Asgard was hard enough, but this new world was on earth. How was that fair?

Fury crossed his arms and stared at Harry. "We won't be able to help if we don't have all the facts," He said evenly. Tony frowned at Fury. Oh, fine, Nick could be polite now. The picture of a calm, respectable leader. If Tony was dicking around, he got death threats. But if these people withheld information, Fury asked them nicely.

There had to be a way to throw Fury through a wall and make it look like an accident. There just had to be.

Harry looked like he was about to say something, but he stopped, looking around at the various SHIELD guards still littered about the room. Fury took the hint.

"I think we're safe enough in here, agents. Back to your stations." They all immediately filed out the door, though a few were less disciplined and scowled as they left. Tony couldn't blame them – this was probably going to end up being a good story, and they were missing out. Poor souls.

"So?" Fury prompted. Finally, there seemed to be a slight edge to his voice.

Harry fidgeted with his scepter-thing, appearing still at a loss for what to say. Maybe he needed some prompting.

"Okay, so your muse is running dry. I get that. So you get to answer my questions instead." Tony wasn't going to take no for an answer. "First of all – who are we fighting, and what the hell did he do to you?"

Harry looked down at the ground, his hands clenched around the scepter. Touchy subject. Tony may have backed off a little under other circumstances, but he needed to know. "We're not going to be able to kill him if we don't even know who he is," Steve offered, still leaning in the corner.

"We can't say his name." That was Ginger talking.

"What do you mean, you can't say his name?" Fury growled. Finally, some aggression! And here Tony was thinking he was starting to become a pacifist.

"We can't say it. No one can. The name's Tabooed," Hermione said.

Fury sighed, recognizing he was out his depth with this magic mumbo jumbo. "Can you write it down, then?"

Harry looked up from where he'd been glaring a hole in the floor. He wordlessly held his hand out for a pen. So demanding. Fury pulled a pen and paper from somewhere and handed it to the boy wizard. Harry scribbled something, then met Tony's eyes. "Do not say this name aloud, whatever you do," He said, and Tony was internally impressed by the steel in his voice. This boy was a leader. A short leader, but a leader.

Tony did not say the name when Harry slid him the paper. He looked down, surprised to see only a single written word.

Voldemort.

Tony couldn't help laughing. Voldemort?

Hogwarts and Voldemort. Where did they get these names?

Still snorting, Tony passed the paper to Fury. He seemed unimpressed as he passed it to Steve. Steve gave the page one look of bewilderment, then looked to Harry. "And what can we call him?"

"He-who-must-not-be-Named," Ron supplied. "Or You-Know-Who. Chief Death Eater works too. Everyone'll know who you're talking about."

Not everyone.

Steve passed the page back to Harry, who tapped it with his scepter-thing. Tony tried very hard to keep his face smooth and blank as the paper caught fire. When nothing but ashes were left, Harry waved the scepter, raining water on the flame. Another wave of the wand and the wet ashes disappeared as though they'd never been there. Even the table was dry.

Harry then finally spoke, though he returned his gaze to the floor before he did so.

"You-Know-Who is a dark wizard," Harry began. "Who wants world domination – to subjugate the Muggles and have pure-bloods rule." Tony resisted the strong urge to throw his hands up in frustration. His 'I have no clue what this means' list was getting ridiculously long. "He heard a prophecy from Professor Trelawney 16 years ago." He paused, and Tony had the distinct impression he was choosing to leave something out. "…going off of her prediction, he thought she meant my parents would be a danger to him in the future. He murdered them. He killed them and tried to kill me."

Wow. Tony actually felt kind of bad for all his snarkiness. But he really hadn't seen that one coming.

"I'm sorry," Steve said awkwardly. Harry shook his head and continued his tale. "He tried to kill me, but his curse rebounded. It nearly destroyed him –"

"Wish it had," Ron grunted.

"But it didn't," Harry said. "He turned into some sort of… ghost. If he'd stayed that way, none of this would have happened, but he managed to get a body back, and a wand. He's more dangerous than your space villains, even without the Tesseract."

"A wand?" Steve questioned. Raising his eyebrows, Harry raised his scepter-thing. Ah. So the scepter-thing was a wand. Sure, why not.

"So he's back now," Ron said. "And doing a pretty good job on the subjugation."

"The wizarding world's in chaos," Hermione added.

"But –" Steve started to say, but Fury cut him off. "This is all very well, but my team here didn't meet with a man. They fought with a woman. Any idea who she was?"

They looked at each other, then Hermione said tersely, "Describe her."

"Absolute maniac," Tony said immediately. " Madwoman. Crazy with her scepter – wand, sorry. Dressed in period clothes gone wrong. Black hair, looked like a corpse. Her hair was a rat's nest with ten generations of rats. She screamed 'I have failed you, master!' when she got beamed away. Any of that sound familiar?"

Hermione scowled, looking as murderous as Harry had. She reached down to the ground, seeming to dig in her boot – then she pulled out a scruffy beaded bag. They all watched, bewildered, as the witch dug around in the bag, which engulfed firs t her hand, then her elbow, then her entire arm – yet the bag still looked only a few inches deep.

Magic, Tony. Magic, he repeated to his tenuous grip on sanity.

"Oh, forget it," Hermione grumbled. Withdrawing her still-intact arm, she tossed the bag on the table. All non-magical folk in the room jumped as it clanged loudly, as though she'd thrown several iron bricks on the table. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the bag. "Accio Prophet!"

Immediately, a yellowed newspaper flew from the bag and into her outstretched hand. Appearing supremely unimpressed with her own magic, she put her wand back in her pocket and unraveled the newspaper. "This look familiar?"

A moving hologram was on the newspaper, of a familiar woman screeching soundlessly at the photographer. No question as to who that was.

"That's the chick," Tony said, watching the hologram, which probably wasn't a hologram at all, and was instead more magical crap.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Hermione said, stuffing the newspaper back in her bag. Muffled crashes could be heard from within. Tony moved away from the table a little.

"You're right, Tony. She's an absolute madwoman." Hermione crossed her arms tightly. "She's You-Know-Who's second in command. She was probably sent to clean up after their little accident with the Tesseract. Make it look like they were never there."

"She, along with Fenrir Greyback, are probably the most dangerous Death Eaters, apart from the Chief," Harry said. "People they want to kill usually don't escape."

"You did," Tony pointed out.

Harry shifted in his chair, scratching at his forehead. His badly-cut bangs moved, and Tony caught a glimpse of a strange scar on his forehead – deep and jagged, almost like a bolt of lightning. Harry smoothed his bangs over the scar quickly, almost as though he was self-conscious of it. Tony would have questioned him about it, but the shape had reminded him of a rather pressing matter – the unconscious thunder god residing in the hangar. Harry had said Voldy had tried to kill him… had the same thing happened to Thor?

Tony stood, feeling a little horrified with himself that Thor had slipped his mind. Then again, his mind had been inundated by a ludicrous amount of ridiculous information – maybe he didn't need to feel too bad. He had remembered him, that was the important thing. Though he was a little surprised Steve hadn't spoken up earlier.

"Listen, I think we've got time for the rest of the explanations," Tony said, ignoring Fury's furious glare. "We're safe enough here so long as we don't say Moldy's name, right?" Before anyone had a chance to answer, he continued, "While we were fighting that mad lady… Thor got hit by one of her lasers. Come and see if you can fix him please?"

Hermione was already to the door before Fury gave his official permission. Passing the eager witch, Tony snapped his helmet back on and led the way down to the hanger, only to be informed by the ever-helpful JARVIS that he'd been moved to the medical bay. With the speaker turned off, he kept up a steady stream of curses as he led his troupe up to the medical bay.

JARVIS, when not providing late hints, was getting every reading he could off of Harry and company's wands, as well as any energy signatures they were giving off themselves. It wasn't much, but it was something.

When they got to Thor, Tony was struck again by just how terrible the god looked. Ashen gray, barely breathing, limp as a wet noodle. This really didn't look good.

"He looks bad," Ron said, stating the obvious. "What did he get hit by?"

"The green laser light of death," Tony said. "It looked like the same light that killed two dozen people back at the SHIELD base."

Silence reigned in the room. Hermione was the one to break it. "Avada Kedavra," She said, her voice hushed.

"Abra Kedabra, whatever. Make him better, please?"

"Stark, that's the killing curse," Harry said. "No one survives it."

"Well, he did," Tony replied curtly.

Harry paused. "Did anyone die for him?"

"No," Tony said emphatically, wondering where in the world Harry had thought of that question. "We were the only ones there."

"He shouldn't be alive," Ron said, staring down at Thor.

"He still is, Ginger," Tony said irritably.

"He shouldn't be," Ron retorted stubbornly.

"He is! He's still breathing, isn't he?"

"Still shouldn't be."

Stubborn argumentative wizards. Tony turned away from him with yet another curse. JARVIS placed a light target on Ron, just in case he wanted to stun him a little, but Tony's true anger was borne of nervousness, nervousness and fear that Thor wasn't going to be all right.

"Okay, so we've all covered the fact that he shouldn't be alive. Let's focus on the fact that he is. Any suggestions?"

Hermione was studying Thor intently. "There's no known cure, but I don't see how curative tonics would hurt any," She said. "Maybe we can call in Madam Pomfrey…?"

"I'd trust her more than anyone in St. Mungo's right now," Harry agreed. "She wouldn't be able to go back to Hogwarts, though."

"They'll find another healer," Ron said. "I don't think there's a better choice. We don't know who's infiltrated Mungo's."

"He seems to be in a coma, best as I can tell," Hermione said, looking at a book she'd probably pulled from her abyss-bag. "There's no telling how long he can hold off the curse. He could go at any time."

There were exclamations of surprise and horror around the room – Tony was happy his speakers were still off, because he'd shouted right along with the rest of them.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione started planning how to contact who, what to do then, etc… Tony lost track. He didn't know enough about what they were talking about to keep track – it was a feeling he was starting to be familiar with. He twiddled his mechanical thumbs but had JARVIS record their conversation for future reference, just in case.

"We're not finished debriefing yet," Fury said as the wizards began to move toward the door. "Do you want Thor back alive?" Hermione asked him. His pause was enough.

"At least take this." He pressed a small black phone into Harry's hand. "Encrypted line. Call if you need help or to tell us where to pick you up."

With a nod and a salute, the wizards disappeared out the door. JARVIS informed him that they disappeared from all readings just a few steps outside the front door. So they could to the beam-me-up-Scotty move too. Hmm.

Fury was the next out the door. "Keep an eye on him," Fury said as he left. "I need to go see what I can find on this Chief Death Eater. I'll keep you posted." And he, too, was gone.

And so it was just Tony and Steve, standing beside their unconscious and possibly-soon-to-be-dead friend. The thought was crippling. Wordlessly, Steve and Tony both sank into chairs. Tony really should have been trying to grapple with the new information, trying to figure out how to make it work in his favor, but for once, friendship – or something close, anyway – won out. He stayed with Steve in case anything changed or if he was needed. Maybe if Thor started to go, a good arc reactor blast would help bring him back.

Or maybe there would be absolutely nothing he could do. But Tony was going to stay with him anyway, at least for now. Mulling things over in his head didn't require a laboratory, anyway. A chair in a medical bay would do just fine.


Hope you guys enjoyed ^^

A few words, as always, it seems -

I thought the Prophet, being a newspaper, even one in Voldy's grasp, would report on the Battle of New York. I would think the wizards would find it more suspicious if they ignored such a huge event - which is, of course, how Harry and co. know about The Avengers.

And for some reason, Tony likes calling Ron ginger. I'm not entirely sure how well those two are going to get along xD

And for those not as well versed in Harry Potter lingo, I'm sure you feel just like Tony in this chapter, my apologies. Harry will eventually get around to telling everyone what the heck they were blathering about xD

And I think that's it. Thanks for reading! Next chapter should be up in a day or two - for real, this time, I promise! xD