A/N And here we go...

Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to their respective creators.

People bustled through the streets, heads down, ignoring those walking around them. Life. As healthy as it comes. Well almost. A child with a cold chased after it mother and her pram. An elderly man with cancer was making the best of his remaining time with his close friend. A student was trying to ignore the onsets of flu.

She walked down the street, her finger tips itching with anticipation. She bumped into a man, brushing the back of his hand, feeling the rush leave her. She ran her fingers along the exposed arm of a woman sitting outside a coffee shop, gossiping with a friend, barley noticing her attacker.

She continued like this, loving the sensation of her power spreading through her, out into the world, to grow, to infect, to kill. That was why that man had been so unnatural. He was immune, she felt it the moment she saw him and she hated it. He was unnatural and wrong and oh so familiar. She knew why that was, and for her saviour she will make him pay. For her, and the balance of the world. She'd had made her point, but with hindsight it wasn't as satisfactory as she had hoped. There was nothing subtle about a grunt with a knife. This, now, was what she needed to lift her spirits though.

It was with a smile that she knelt to look into the face of the child that had run into her. He apologised, his big blue eyes looking into her own. She ran her fingers down his chubby cheek, brushing off his apology. She could almost see the ripple of power leave her fingers and infect the boy. She waved off the mother's apologies and watched them leave, disappearing into the crowd. It was silly. They couldn't escape. Tuberculosis was persistent.

Harry had a headache. It was more pronounced than other times he'd come back. He swore. He remembered the pain in his gut and falling to the pavement. He was lying somewhere a lot more comfortable now. He groaned and opened his eyes.

Light burst through the crack between his lids and he was able to make out fuzzy forms crowded around him. Shit. Witnesses never made things easy.

"That's not possible." one of them was saying. Was that… Steve?

He opened his eyes fully and heard his name. He started to sit up slowly, his muscles protesting, and looked around.

He was on a bed, most likely in Tony's tower judging by the decor and the Avengers gathered around him. All with varying expressions. He had a brief moment to see the wizards in the room before he was engulfed in a hug

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, her arms wrapped around his neck which he reciprocated.

"Hermione. What are you doing here?"

She leaned away and thumped him on the shoulder.

"I'm here to see you, you idiot! After you got yourself killed!"

Harry's hand went went from rubbing his shoulder to the hem of his shirt. It was crusted with dried blood. He pulled it up and examined the bare skin beneath. True to form it was unblemished. Not even a scar.

"That's amazing." Harry looked up to see Tony examining the area as well. Unable to think of anything to say, Harry just hummed, pushing his shirt down.

"But how?"

Harry glanced back at Tony who had fixed him with a pointed stare. His gaze trailed over the other occupants of the room who had now quietened down, all looking at him for answers. He felt surprisingly vulnerable and overwhelmed by the number of people who had had a violent introduction into the secret he'd tried to keep firmly away from the people in his new life. The sensation wasn't helped by his position on the bed.

He looked back at Tony.

"How about we move through to the other room. I need something to drink. I never did get that hot chocolate."

They all exchanged looks and began to move out of the room. Harry pushed himself up further, wondering at the stiffness of his muscles and joints. HIs discomfort must have showed on his face because Hermione looked at him concerned.

"Are you okay Harry?"

He nodded, swinging his legs of the bed.

"Just stiff."

"You were dead for several hours." Luna informed him idly from her spot next to Bruce who had paused in the door when Hermione had spoken.

Surprise filled him.

"What?"

In the past he had been gone for an hour at most, it was usually minutes. What had happened? He'd have to ask Death when he next saw him.

"There are some spare shirts in the closet." Tony commented, "Sorry, I didn't really take a change of clothes with me to the morgue."

Another surprise.

"Morgue?"

"Uhuh." Tony nodded and left the room.

"You are getting careless my friend. Careless." George tutted at him as he followed while Hermione said, patted him on the shoulder and also left with her own parting words.

"See you in a minute."

Harry was left in an empty room. He fumbled with is shirt, deciding that he didn't feel like cleaning it in that moment. He held it up and examined the slit by the fifth button. Someone had stabbed him. 'Why' was such a loaded question in this situation. Why a knife. Why not magic. Why him. He supposed that last one wasn't too obscure, he had lots of enemies. But then again, pretty much all of them were wizards, and purebloods at that. This was unlike them both because it had offered them no opportunity to gloat and because it meant that that would have lowered themselves to a muggle means of attack.

His thoughts whirred as he grabbed a green shirt that was slightly too big for his frame and pulled it on. There was blood on his trousers, but the hem of his shirt covered most of it, so he could ignore it for now.

He heard them before he walked into the living room and found the group. They noticed his arrival and silence fell across the group.

"Hey." He said inadequately.

No one deigned him with a response. Harry noticed a distinct absence of Hermione but decided to plough on.

"So, I know you all have… questions. I suppose to answer them, I'd have to give you some background on what happened." He coughed slightly, finding his throat dry.

"Hermione told us about the final battle." Steve said.

"She mentioned something about Horcruxes." Tony added.

"Ah, well Horcruxes are kinda part of it, but indirectly. They were why I was there."

Luna seemed to take pity on him and his slightly scratchy voice because she pushed a newly conjured glass of water into his hands.

"Thanks Luna."

She smiled. "It's strange don't you think, that Gamp's Elementary Law of Transfiguration doesn't cover water. Maybe we summon it from somewhere else."

Harry looked in surprise at the water. "Huh, maybe."

"Or maybe as an element it follows different rules." Luna mused.

There was a clearing of a throat.

"You were telling us about the whole you not-staying-dead-thing." Clint said and Harry started.

"Sorry! So yeah. It starts a bit before the final battle. Well actually about a year beforehand." He loosely explained Horcurxes. Natasha concealed a blanch when he explained that murder was the act that split the soul. He couldn't offer her any condolences beyond the fact that to split the soul there had to be intent to do so.

"And the bastard split his soul into seven pieces?" Steve asked incredulously. They'd all taken seats when Harry had started detailing the story and were looking at him with looks of disgust.

"Technically eight." Luna added from her perch on the arm of Bruce's sofa.

"Well yeah, all of them items that were significant, which probably made it easier to track them down to be honest. Except the first one, which was a practice, if you will. He killed at girl at school and put part of his soul into his diary."

"I'm torn between commenting on the fact that your Big Bad kept a diary and the fact that he started young." Tony said looking past Harry thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that's a whole other story, he found a way to attack a load of students, muggleborns, when he was at school. Paralysed most of them, killed one."

"And people didn't realise he was evil?" Steve asked.

"He framed another student. Hagrid." Harry added for Tony's benefit.

"The big man?"

"Yes. They snapped his wand and would have sent him away but Dumbledore, who was a teacher then got him the job of gamekeeper. But we are getting off track."

"Just a little bit." Hermione commented having reentered the room with a collection of mugs hovering around her. She sent each to a different member of the room. Harry plucked his out of the air and grinned at the smell of chocolate.

"Don't spoil it!" George complained, "I didn't know much about any of that. You guys never explained everything about the basilisk."

Harry shrugged, taking a sip from his mug and savouring it before continuing.

"So my… mission during the war, was to track down the Horcruxes and destroy them. I had destroyed the Diary in my second year and Dumbledore had found the Gaunt ring and destroyed it at the cost of his hand. He basically taught me about Voldemort's history as Tom Riddle and what he guessed the Horcruxes were." Harry remembered the night they went after the locket, an event that continued to pain him and occasionally give him nightmares. "He took me one night at the end of the year to go and find Slytherin's Locket… An example of the possible defences Voldemort would have left. He knew he was going to die and wanted me to be as informed as possible. The locket wasn't there, someone had already removed it at the cost of his own life to try and destroy it. We found that later. The cup we broke out of Gringotts-"

"It was amazing!" George enthused. "Gringotts was supposed to be impregnable, especially the old family vaults. The one previous theft in my third year was a scandal. But those three broke out on a bloody dragon!'

"A dragon?" Clint rose an eyebrow at them and Harry shrugged while Hermione crossed her arms.

"They were torturing the poor thing!"

"And Neville killed the snake." Harry concluded.

"Horcruxes could be living things?" Natasha clarified.

Harry exchanged a glance with Hermione.

"Yes. In fact, the reason Luna mentioned the eighth part of his soul was because, the night he killed my parents and tried to kill me the curse rebounded and killed him. I think I was supposed to fuel his last Horcrux. His soul was so fractured by that point a fragment latched onto me, making me the seventh Horcrux."

"And for Voldemort to die, all the Horcruxes had to be destroyed." Tony finished slowly. And the people in the room stilled.

"Didn't even tell us he was going." Hermione said, "Voldemort had demanded his presence in the forest and he'd promised us he wouldn't be so stupid."

"I'm sure that went to plan." Barton muttered with a wry expression.

" I wasn't initially going to go, but then I found out about being the other seventh horcrux and what had to happen. According to Dumbledore it had to be Voldemort that did it"

There was a moment in which the other digested this and it's implications.

"Did he know you'd come back?"

Harry though back to his old Headmaster and the mission of the Hallows he'd been sent on.

"I think he tried to orchestrate it so that I would." He said thoughtfully.

"And how did he do that?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, so far you are yet to tell us how exactly you are… you know."

Harry waved a hand in Hermione's direction, "Hermione, you're better at this than me."

And so Hermione launched into the story that she had memorised all those years ago.

"A long time ago there were three brothers.."

Harry remembered the first time he heard it in Luna's house, her father trying to hold them up until the Death Eaters arrived. Then he was listening to it for the story. After that he reread it several times to help fuel his obsession with the Hallows. He'd reread it later after he'd reunited the Hallows and he'd found out that Death was indeed an entity. Not that Death had ever matched the loose impression given by the book. Except the bit where Ignotious and Death went to the afterlife as friends. That he could imagine.

Now he listened to it in the light of what he'd learnt recently and became more certain in his earlier conclusions. Not that he could act upon them now, not with this new possible threat.

"Pretty story." Tony commented, as Hermione concluded the story with the previously unproved theory about the uniting of the Hallows "Are you trying to tell us that these… Hallows exist?

"Yup." Harry replied, "I don't have them here with me now, or I'd show you. The cloak I received from Dumbledore, who in turn had it from my father, a descendant of Ignotius, the youngest brother. The stone Voldemort accidentally turned into a Horcrux, which Dumbledore gave me in his will disguised as a snitch. And the wand… is complicated, but I disarmed the last owner, making it mine and claimed it after the final battle."

"And these three items mean that you can't die."

"Yes." Harry nodded to Tony, "Or rather, don't stay dead."

Tony opened his mouth to ask another question, but Rogers cut across him.

"Not that I'm finding all of this fascinating, but I feel that we can keep asking questions for hours and only be scratching the surface and we might have something more demanding of our time on our hands." He continued before Tony could snark back. "Someone killed Harry, yes he's fine now, but that doesn't change the fact that someone tried. Isn't anyone concerned about who this was, or their motives? Was it an attack on the Avengers, Tony or Harry? If the latter was it muggle or a witch or wizard being sneaky? Did they know it wouldn't be permanent or will they try again if they think it failed? We are working with an unknown. I think we should focus on that. I'm sure we can pick away at wizard lore at a more secure time."

"He has a point." George conceded, his expression set seriously. "Especially so soon after Rudolphus' attack.

"Well it's not going to be an attack on the Avengers." Romanov asserted, "We managed to keep Harry's face out of the news, the public don't know who he is. They call you 'The Sorcerer' by the way." she added for Harry's benefit, "as your superhero name."

Harry's face fell, "You have to be kidding! Sorcerer isn't even accurate!"

He looked at his fellow wizards but all they had to offer was a shrug, a grin and from George, a snicker.

"You have a superhero name." George chortled.

"Helpful."

"So it could either be a personal attack on Harry, or an attempt to get to Tony." Bruce surmised, looking at the genius how had a carefully schooled expression as he looked out over the city.

Clint who had been checking his phone waved it in their direction.

"Prelim from Fury. The attack was caught on camera. They found the guy."

"Wait, what?" George exclaimed, "Since when?"

"I just received the report."

"Who was it?"

"Well, he appears to be a non-entity. Benjamin Harvey, undergrad at NYU. No seeming connection to anything. They are going to dig deeper, but they are working on the assumption that he was working for someone. Why him though, we don't know."

"Thats strange." Bruce admitted.

Harry was debating whether to mention and try to describe the presence he'd felt before his attack, but his musings were cut off by the arrival of a familiar face.

"I know who it is."

"Who?" Harry asked immediately, worried by the saddened expression on Death's usually cheery face.

"Sorry?"

Harry looked at the others, specifically at Rogers who had asked the question and realised that they couldn't see Death. He looked between the living and the dead, trying to decide how to explain.

"One moment." He told Death who shrugged and sat on a free sofa. Harry noted that his weight didn't affect the cushions at all.

"Harry?"

Harry sighed.

"Right, so you know the whole 'Master of Death' thing."

"We have been talking about it for the last twenty minutes." Tony replied bluntly, "What about it?"

"Well Death isn't a metaphor. He actually has a physical, or rather non-physical presence. And he just showed up and said he knew who attacked me."

The whole room stilled except for Hermione who jumped slightly and and squeaked.

"Death is here!"

Harry nodded. "He's sat over there at the moment." He waved in Death's direction. He saw some of the looks of disbelief. "Seriously, make your minds up, you either believe me or you don't. For the record I'm not crazy."

He looked back at Death. "Who was it?"

Death gave a pained grimace.

"Pestilence. Or rather her master."

Harry gaped in surprise. "Seriously?"

Death shrugged, "Ya didn't think there was jus' little old me out there did you?"

Harry was still gaping at him when Hermione cleared her throat. Harry looked over to see everyone giving him very strange looks.

"What did he say?" Hermione asked, still giving Death's general direction strange looks.

Harry blinked, "Oh, that the person who attacked me was… well, Pestilence's Master."

Hermione had much the same reaction as him while the others all started and made exclamations of disbelief- whether it was at the statement or whether they were still hung up on Death's presence Harry wasn't sure.

He noticed again that Death was looking weary, his usually cheery persona somewhat muted.

"You okay?"

Death looked up at him with a wry smile, "'Course I am. It's just unsettling is all. Sorry I took so long to get to you after the attack. Things have been.. hectic."

Well that answered some of the questions about his resurrection, but that still left him concerned for what was going on.

"If this is… Pestilence's Master, she's of the same ilk as Harry. She was so determined to get to Harry. Why would she target him?"

"Erm, I may be able to explain that as well." Death mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

Harry glanced at him, "What do you mean?" he asked ignoring the puzzled looks he was getting from a couple of the others. Steve seemed about to answer, but Hermione stopped him with a couple of words in his ear.

"Well," Death prevaricated, "The current Pestilence and I, we may have been supposed to court each other. Many years ago."

Harry stared at Death dumbstruck. "You have to be kidding me!" Death shrugged. "Is that even possible?"

"Of course it is!" Death exclaimed. "There isn't one Death or Pestilence that lasts forever. We are allowed to retire you know, for which we need an heir."

Questions exploded in Harry's mind, but he shook them away. He had time to learn about the semantics of the supernatural hierarchy at a later date. For now he only needed to know one thing.

"What happened then?"

"Well I wasn't interested was I? She was dull, no sense of humour! And not to mention the pustules!" Death's tone had become defensive.

"Are you planning to explain any time soon Merlin?" Tony asked wryly, obviously tired of being left out of the loop.

"Apparently, Pestilence is a spurned lover." Harry reported back, enjoying the looks of consternation that spread over his companions faces.

"Oi!" Death complained, "We never actually got together. It was an arranged thing!"

"What, of Death?" Clint asked, frowning in the direction that Harry had been talking to.

"Apparently he reneged on an arranged marriage."

"They do that?" Tony asked with an raised eyebrow.

"Apparently so."

"You know, this one sided conversation thing is getting tiring." Natasha commented dryly.

Harry was about to shrug it away before Death snapped his fingers. "I have an idea! I'll be right back!"

Harry relayed the message and sat down.

"You know, I still can't get over Death being a physical being." Bruce commented, his brow furrowed in thought.

"It was a surprise to me too." Harry acknowledged.

"But think about it, hundreds of thousands die every day. How can one physical being control that? He can't be everywhere at once!"

"Maybe he can, he is some sort of spirit." Hermione added thoughtfully.

"Maybe he has reapers do his dirty work." Tony suggested before letting out a manly yelp when Death appeared in front of him. "What the-"

"You can see him?" Harry rose to his feet bewildered while Death merely stood there with a massive grin on his face, clutching a small cage in his right hand.

"Why shouldn't I- this is Death?"

Harry nodded and the others started in surprise, but none seemed to dare speak. Death sauntered to the closest table and placed the cage down upon it gently before turning to Harry with a big grin.

"What no black cloak and scythe?" It was Tony who broke the silence, looking Death up and down.

Death shed his brown coat and removed his cap. "Nah, that look died out centuries ago."

A pin could have dropped in the silence that followed.

"Geez, people, you don't need to be so alarmed!" Death exclaimed exasperatedly.

"You really are cockney!" Hermione replied in surprise. Harry raised an eyebrow in her direction, "Sorry Harry, I thought you were joking." She muttered abashedly.

"Is that a mouse?" Steve asked, eyeing the small creature that was sniffing around the cage.

Deaths grin returned, "Yup! I found a loophole!"

"Loophole?"

"Yeah. That is, if Death sets foot in a house, someone will die. It's the way of nature. Calm down, calm down!" he hurried to add as the others stiffened, "That's what the mouse is for! Genius if I do say so myself."

"What about all the times you visited me?" Harry asked.

"Well you're my master which means A, I don't need to be corporeal for you to see me, so I haven't technically set foot in your house and B it wouldn't affect you even if I did."

"I guess that's also why you can't buy your own jelly babies."

"Well that and I have no money." Death grinned.

"Right, I hate to break up the bro-bonding," Tony broke in exasperatedly, "Now that we've ascertained that we'll all live another day-"

"The mouse won't." Death corrected with a tilt of his head in said animals direction.

Tony glared at him, "We need to figure out what we can do about Pestilence."

"Well for her to be affecting the physical world as she is, she'll have a Master." Death said, looking at Harry.

"So what, someone has gathered the … 'Pesty' Hallows?" George asked incredulously and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Truth be told, I'm not sure how it works with Pestilence. I've been avoiding them for a while now." Death admitted. "Well you would!" He exclaimed at Harry who raised an eyebrow at him, "Her dad wasn't particularly happy with me either. It's not like she knows about my Hallows."

"How would she know about Harry then?"

"She knows I have Masters, but she doesn't know how I choose them."

Harry's head darted round. "Wait. 'Choose'?"

Death waved his hand, "Not important, what's important is figuring out her endgame."

Harry opened his mouth to protest the importance of the last statement but Death overrode him.

"Look, earlier this week it came to my attention that the balance is off. There have been a surge of deaths attributed to illness- That makes them Pestilences domain."

"The Dragon Pox!" Hermione exclaimed, and the room turned to look at her. She looked around her at the bemused faces before clarifying. "There's been a massive outbreak of Dragon Pox in the last couple of months. Ron said that it has severely impacted the Ministry and Neville mentioned that it's effected a fair number of students."

Harry remembered the surprisingly empty corridors of Hogwarts and frowned.

"There's been outbreaks of various diseases all over the world." Bruce added, " I'm pretty sure theres been a surge in cases of tuberculosis locally. It's been on the news." He added when Tony sent him a look.

"That's her?" Steve asked.

"Her master, yes. She can't have this much impact in the mortal realm without one. Anann can start outbreaks obviously, but nothing to this scale. Those normal outbreaks help maintain the balance. But this… this is destroying it."

"And she attacked Harry because of her grudge against you?" Steve clarified. "How did she know who he was?"

"We can inherently recognise each other."

Harry nodded. " I felt something. I knew something was there I just didn't know what."

"But why a knife? Especially with what she's capable of."

"That's a point! A scorned woman knows no limits. Why didn't she give him, I don't know, some kind of cursed syphilis?"

George let out a short laugh while Harry shifted uncomfortably and Death shook his head.

"It doesn't work like that. She can no more Infect Harry then he can Take her life. In fact I doubt she wielded the blade which means she had someone do it for her. When you face her, you will have to find another way to fight."

"Shouldn't be too hard, what with Harry being a big badass wizard." George chuckled.

"It won't be as simple as that." Death pointed out.

"So." Bruce sighed, looking around at the other people in the room. "What do we do now?"

A/N When you realise that you are losing your day to Cracked video's and articles..