Tony was feeling pretty good. Sure, the world was still in danger from the Tesseract-stealing all-powerful wand wielding Voldemort, he'd just been slashed open by one of Moldy's cronies, and a nasty bit of Voldy's soul was sitting on the kitchen counter, but all and all, he felt pretty good.

The fact they'd all survived probably played a part, but finding out that Phil Coulson was alive was definitely a bit of a mood-booster.

Tony had left the workshop immediately once he saw Coulson on the viewscreen, but he'd taken about five steps before making an about-face and retreating back inside. Yes, Coulson was alive. Yes, that was great news, and the team deserved to hear it. But maybe now wasn't exactly the best time. If the image he was viewing was any indication, Coulson was fine and would be fine for some time to come. But the world might not be fine if the Avengers were distracted from their task by the minor detail that their comrade/babysitter wasn't killed by the resident god of mischief. Hell, Tony probably shouldn't have taken those five steps down the hall. So the news would have to wait.

Tony went back to the workbench, where JARVIS refreshed his blueprints. At least his obsessive work ethic had finally made a reappearance. This damn sorcerer couldn't even let good news spread normally. The sooner he was killed, the better.

Despite the leaps and bounds of progress that Tony had made in the magic department, he still couldn't cast the spells himself, which was a slight drawback when he wanted to analyze them. Still, that's what witches were for. So he called in a bleary-eyed Hermione to cast every single spell she knew at a magic-hardened sensor. The sensor was in a small walled-off corner of the workshop. Tony had filled the place with runic guards, with a small hole for Hermione to aim at the sensor itself. If Hermione had actually been in the room, he had a feeling she would either stun herself, fry herself, or otherwise make herself completely useless, so Tony had thought ahead.

It took Hermione a bit to realize what Tony wanted (JARVIS had only informed him after the fact that Hermione had been sound asleep) but once she got it, she started throwing beam after beam of light at the sensor. Considering these runes were hooked to several very non-portable arc reactors, the supply of power held steady, and so did the runes. Tony watched with satisfaction as the energy signatures of the spells were registered one by one.

Everything was fine and dandy, until Hermione put down her wand, still one spell short of her full repertoire. Of course it was the green laser light of death that she chose to leave out. Tony got the distinct impression that the casting of that spell was distasteful, but tough. The killing curse was the whole reason he'd started this endeavor – the other spells were just an added bonus. If they didn't have good protection against that spell, they might as well just take a good drink and hand themselves into Voldy themselves and save the stress.

.That was the reason he'd chosen Hermione over Harry in the first place. Harry was definitely a competent magic-user, but the green laser had killed his parents. That probably made him a little less eager to cast the spell. Hermione (he hoped) would at least understand why he needed it, and he certainly didn't doubt her abilities. Ron, on the other hand, had only cast one spell in front of Tony to date – not exactly a glowing commendation for his skill.

It took a great deal of coaxing, along with a veiled threat or two to go to another wizard, but eventually Hermione grimaced, raised her wand, and shouted an incantation that sounded suspiciously like "Abra Kadabra". Then Tony watched the green bolt hit the center of the center squarely – the energy signature registered before the sensor warped and overloaded.

Tony thanked the witch, then all but kicked her out the door. "And don't worry about that soul-sucking prison of yours," he added as he ushered her out. "Those curses are only unforgivable if you use them on a person. The laws don't say a thing about trying to murder a machine with it. You're in the clear." He heard Hermione say, "I knew that already!" Before he shut the door on her.

The signatures are already uploaded, sir, JARVIS said once the locks clicked, before Tony could say a word. Shall we continue?

Sometimes it was very handy to have someone – or something – intelligent as his helper.

He remained engrossed in his work until repeated banging on the door roused him from his concentration. "I know you're in there, Tony," Bruce's voice echoed in the room. He reluctantly put down his scanner. "The wizards want to discuss that soul piece of theirs. Figured you might want to be a part of it."

Oh. Right. That cursed cup that had a piece of Voldy inside of it. Their ready made Horcrux-killing sword –which they'd brought to Gringotts why? – had been lost at the bank, leaving them with nothing to destroy the cup with. The sword had turned into a very handy alibi, but they were certainly missing its presence now.

Everyone else had migrated from the kitchen to the living room, the Avenger's preferred meeting place when someone wasn't hungry. Even Loki was there, though he'd avoided the comfortable sofas and chairs and was camped out in the corner as usual.

Everyone else was crowded in a small circle – Tony found himself wedged between Steve and Bruce. The cup was being passed around for everyone's inspection – Tony declined and had Bruce pass it right along to Steve. Handsome though it was, it had a slimy piece of Voldy's soul attached to it. And that was just gross.

"But you have nothing to destroy it with, you say?" Loki said, staring with distaste at the cup.

"No," Harry said helplessly. "The sword was the only weapon we had."

"We survived your bank once," Thor said solidly. "I see no reason why we cannot succeed a second time." And he moved toward the door even as he spoke.

"Slow it down, big guy," Bruce said. "The bank has to be on red-alert right now. It'd be suicide, and we won't have a dragon to bail us out this time. There's got to be another way to destroy this… this thing," he said, gesturing to the cup lying innocently between them all.

"Mortals," Loki scoffed. He slid the door open and disappeared. "I shall be back," his voice echoed faintly back to them.

Everyone stared at the empty doorway. "Should we be worried?" Steve said after a moment of surprised silence.

No one answered, but Tony did not miss the glances in his direction before anyone looked away. Yeah, so no one had been oblivious to how long they'd spent holed up together in the workshop. Great.

"Well, anyway," Harry said, trying to reclaim the meeting, "There are only a few options to destroy this safely. Like I said before, it needs to be put beyond magical repair."

"And we do that… how?" Bruce asked.

"And don't say with the sword or I will shoot something," Clint grumbled.

"The sword itself wasn't what kills the Horcruxes," Hermione said. "Goblin-made armor only imbibes that which strengthens it. That sword – and that sword only – was impregnated with basilisk venom. It's the venom that destroys the Horcruxes, not the sword itself."

Well, that cancelled out just making a new sword – but Tony had expected some crazy answer like that anyway, so he wasn't very disappointed.

"Can the venom be replicated somehow?" Steve asked hopefully.

If there was a way, the wizards didn't know of one. It sounded like a question more suited for the non-rule-bound magician, who was currently MIA.

"Well, since our other sorcerer thought this meeting was too boring –"

"Manners, Stark," drawled Loki.

The god of mischief had returned, a large bundle tucked under his arm. Loki smacked Tony on the back of the head as he passed – Tony wouldn't have minded overmuch, if his hand hadn't been covered in some sort of slime.

"What the hell was on your hand?" Tony demanded, feeling his hair with distaste.

"Frog spawn," Loki replied coolly.

"And why the hell do you have frog spawn all over you?"

"Actually, it's toad spawn, if you want to be specific."

"Thanks for the particulars. Still didn't answer the question."

Loki shook his head and put the bundle on the table. With the air of bringing out something extremely valuable, he pulled out two things – a chicken egg, and an absolutely enormous toad.

"You got a new pet?" Tony said skeptically. He didn't get the significance. The wizards, however, did – or two of them did, anyway.

"No. No, no, no. This is not a good idea, Loki," Harry said immediately. Hermione gasped and shrieked, "You can't hatch a basilisk here!"

Ron looked from Hermione to the egg. "That's a chicken egg, not a snake egg, Hermione," Ron said quietly, with the air of not wanting to embarrass her.

"That's how you hatch a basilisk, Ronald," Hermione hissed back.

Basilisk… that sounded familiar. "Wait wait wait. A basilisk. As in that one-glare-kills-you-dead creature you killed when you were twelve?" Harry nodded grimly. Tony rounded on Loki. "This is your grand plan? I may be a mere mortal, O God of Mischief, but this is a stupid idea."

"And you're well versed in what makes an idea a good one?"

"I know when an idea's rotten."

Loki raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really?"

"Hatching a death-eyed poisonous snake in the middle of the only group that can save the world… yep, that carries the stench of a very, very bad idea."

"Hatch it in your room, Loki," Clint piped up. "That way, if it kills someone with its glare, we won't be any worse off." Natasha elbowed him into silence.

Loki glared around at them all. "There are ways to tame them," He said quietly. He turned to the wizards. "They can easily be taught who not to eat." And with that, he scooped up egg, toad, and swept from the room.

Oh, this was going to work out brilliantly.


This may seem a bit like filler, but things are coming together. We're coming to an end here, folks - this story will probably be wrapped up before Christmas time. And if you want something to look forward to, let me say that the Battle of Hogwarts is coming up fast!

Hope you enjoyed!