The Spy and the Painting
by J. Merrick
Chapter Three
Nick Fury has seen and experienced many things in his life. Just looking at the man's body was enough to get the summary of a story that most bragged about reading, but instead just kept on their bookshelf. Every time they opened the first page, the writing too dense and the story too tragic to continue further. Those that did read farther than the front flap though, understood why Fury was the unquestioned Director of SHEILD.
Well, from time to time there were those that questioned why he was in charge, but the end of the world usually poked its head around the corner and those people usually shut their mouths with a quickness.
With all this experience and "seasoning" (as he had heard Tony Stark snark behind his back a few times to Agent Barton's amusement) not much actively surprised him.
Then Agent Romanoff and a man that radiated power quite literally "popped" into his office.
"What the-" his curse being cut off as his operative known as the Black Widow proceeded to start dry heaving as the man that had seemingly brought her to his office from parts unknown looked around as if to figure out where he was.
Nick Fury wasn't in his position for no reason, as has been stated. Which was why he had his side arm pointed directly at the mystery man within moments of his arrival.
"You had better start talking quick about what just happened or I will consider you hostile," exited his mouth. It was apparently the wrong thing to say, for as soon as the words left his mouth the man waved his hand and Fury's side arm literally vanished.
"You might want to start considering," the man responded, before he waved his hand again and a chair appeared behind him, which he casually sat down into, "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt as we've only just met."
He waved his hand again at Agent Romanoff, who was just starting to sit up, who immediately slipped back down again in what appeared to be sleep.
"Am I to assume that the one in the corner who has a bow and arrow pointed at me is not hostile to you?" the man asked casually.
"No, he's one of my best agents," Fury stated, seating himself behind his desk. He had been in hostage situations before, sometimes it was just best to let things play out with one person assuming that they had an advantage. Of course, he wasn't sure if the both of them weren't playing the same game.
"Alright, then as a show of faith for the moment he can keep that weapon pointed at me," the man replied, before extending his hand out, "I'm Harry, and you are Nick Fury, Director of Shield I take it?"
Fury didn't take Harry's hand, choosing instead to just glare at it.
"Correct," he responded instead, "And you are supposed to be in a painting."
"Well, cat's sort of out of the bag now," Harry replied, dropping his hand, before bringing it back up again – this time holding a cup of tea. The casual use of magic did not go unnoticed by Fury as Harry continued speaking, "I'm assuming that you are getting all your information from the Ministry of Magic?"
"Correct, once again," Fury replied, "So excuse me if I remain cautious. According to all the files we have on you and your situation, you're the most dangerous being currently residing on this world."
"I would enjoy seeing how I matched up with Thor if I had the chance," Harry mentioned as he sipped his tea. Fury picked up on the idle threat and wondered how this man – who had no contact outside of the Magical world before being sealed in the painting even knew who Thor was.
"We're also supposed to treat you how we treated his brother," Fury continued, knowing that if Harry was as perceptive as he seemed he would indeed pick up on the trap he was laying at his feet.
"You mean when Loki led the Chitauri invasion of Earth?" was the reply, which seemed to joyfully walk straight into the trap. Fury's only response was to purse his lips.
"Exactly," he leveled out, his hand going underneath his desk to one of the weapons that had angered Stark and Captain Rogers so easily. He was starting to form a small idea how Harry knew all this information, and if he was as dangerous as his file suggested then things were about to get dangerous.
"Well Director Fury I can assure you that won't be necessary," Harry said, finishing his tea and calmly setting the cup down on what appeared to be thin air, "As long as you promise to leave me alone. I just got released from a captivity I wasn't quite fond of, and there's a few people I need to go speak to before I attend to anything else."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Fury stated, causing Harry to chuckle, "And I fail to see what you find so funny."
"Director Fury, I meant you no harm," Harry replied, still chuckling, "Now, you can let me walk out of here no fuss and we'll forget that we ever met each other."
"Or?"
"I hope you can wake Miss Romanoff up in time," Harry replied, standing, "Because I left how to undue what's about to happen in her mind when I ventured into it earlier. Give her my regards, and tell her I'm sorry. I know how she hates being used."
Harry closed his eyes as Fury felt dread building in the back of his head.
"Like I do," Harry's eyes snapped open and with a loud 'CLAP!' all the lights flashed off and every alarm started ringing at once.
Fury felt the arrow that Agent Barton had just shot go flying past his head as the lights flickered back on, revealing that Harry was no longer in the room.
"FIND HIM!" Fury shouted out, as Agent Hill came running in.
"Sir all the engines stopped working, and all of our electronics are fried," she said, "They also all seem to be contained behind some sort of barrier that is preventing us from getting to them."
Fury looked down at Agent Romanoff, who was starting to wake up as if from a coma.
"Agent Romanoff please tell me you know what to do."
X X X
Harry appeared with an inaudible sound about five hundred yards away from where the Burrow used to stand. It had been years since he had been to this spot, as the memories it usually drug up were ones that he tried he damnedest to forget, but he had a notion that he would start getting some of the answers he was after quicker by venturing here.
For better or for worse.
He needed to know the current status of the Magical World, and the quickest way of doing that was to go to an area that he knew would be warded specifically for him. He sent out low level magical probes of the surrounding area, looking for any triggers or ward lines.
None came back.
Feeling slightly more desperate he started casting curses he knew were on watch lists, and after ten minutes of neither hide nor hair he started casting everything he could think of: low level curses, borderline dark incantations, magical distress spells.
Nothing came.
Harry collapsed on the ground as he felt his body start to become exhausted from his flurry of spell work. When he had probed Natasha's mind he was able to ascertain that he had been locked in the painting for twelve years, and he had hoped that somebody from the magical world had been able to survive the Culling that had been foisted on it before he was locked away. Obviously they hadn't.
He sat down on the ground and pulled a cup of tea from the air. When he had told Natasha that he was the Master of Death, he hadn't been lying. The Magical World had understood it to be because Death couldn't reap him, but they didn't know that because he had gained control over Death's three hallows, he literally was it's Master. Unfortunately, such power always came with a price.
Death needed souls for it's ledger, and Harry would provide those souls or Death would find a way. Thus the Culling.
Harry had been trying to figure out a way to make a bargain with Death when the painting had been suggested. He knew that just because he was locked away didn't mean the Culling would stop, just that he wouldn't have control over Death's Ledger. He closed his eyes as he took a sip of the tea and felt his energy return, remembering the innocent souls he had been forced to add to the Ledger.
The red was overflowing.
He finished the tea and stood up, his energy levels back. After laying dormant for so long, he ran through his reserves quite quickly, but the more he flexed his muscles the more his strength came back. He felt out with his magic to make sure that no one was around, something he was kicking himself for not doing before.
It was time to venture to Hogwarts, maybe some answers would lay there. First though, he had a certain spider he had to apologize to.
He disappeared without a sound.
X X X
Natasha sat in the briefing room on the now returned to normal operations to the Helicarrier. The rest of the Avengers Initiative (minus Thor, who seemed to come and go as needed) were listening to Fury brief what had transpired over the past few hours.
She however, was wrapped in her own thoughts.
When she had woken up it was to absolute chaos, but somehow she knew exactly what to do to fix it. As if instructions had been left in her mind for this exact purpose. Well, not "as if," that was exactly what had happened. She hadn't realized it at the time but when Harry had gone into her mind, he had done more than just pull out the location of where they needed to go, but had also quickly rifled through all of her thoughts.
What he didn't know was that the connection had gone two ways. She hadn't even realized it at the time, and not even until after all the chaos had settled down and she had sat down in the locker room for a moment. It was just flashes, bits, pieces. The same that she knew he had seen of her.
It was enough to know that his soul was tortured, and his ledger bled red like hers.
She was annoyed that he had used her almost as a pawn, but knew enough from his thoughts that he considered himself honorable enough that he would find some way to apologize for it. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about the fact that she was looking forward to that and she was trying not to analyze those emotions.
She looked back out over the team, noticing that even Stark was listening to Fury with his version of rapt attention. They were all completely on board with hunting Harry down, and they didn't even know why or who. They were just taking Fury on face value. That and the enormous power that Harry had casually thrown around earlier.
She made a decision that she knew in her heart to be the right one, but hoped that she wouldn't regret.
"I'm sorry, I have to sit this one out," she announced as she stood up. All eyes turned to her, as if not understanding and she realized the had interrupted Fury mid-sentence. She steeled her shoulders up and continued, "Call me compromised, I don't care. There's more to this than we know and I'm going to go find it. I would appreciate it if you left me to it."
She turned around and walked out of the room, to what she was sure was chaos in her wake.
X X X
Eight hours later Natasha stood in front on Privet Drive, in front of house number four. She had traveled here using one of her many aliases that she knew SHIELD knew about, but as they had let her walk out with little fanfare (she supposed that once again Fury knew more than he was letting on), she assumed they would not be watching too heavily. Hopefully just enough that if she sent up a message of distress they would respond quickly enough.
Analyzing the thoughts she had received from Harry had brought her to this house. She didn't know it's significance, only that in Harry's mind, 'the story started here.' Looking around she saw that no one was watching her, and in fact were just glossing over her appearance, almost as if they didn't want to see her.
If there was one thing Natasha Romanoff knew, it was that when people actively avoided looking at you it was because something was wrong.
She walked up the drive and to the door of the house and knocked, hoping that whoever was home would at least be able to start giving her the answers that she needed, and to help her find Harry.
The door opened before she could bring her hand down once. After not being invited in, or hearing any other sound she walked in, drawing her gun.
"You won't be needing that," came a familiar voice from the living room, causing her to spin, "I promise not to bite."
It was Harry.
End Chapter Three
Author's Notes: I hope this started to answer some of the questions you have. There's still more to come!
Next chapter will have some more revelations, some more talking between Harry and Natasha, and some other...things.
Thanks to everyone that reviews, it really makes my day to see how this is being received, and gives me a good meter to go by to see if what I'm writing is clicking right! Thanks again!