Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. Only the original characters and plot are the property of this author. This author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media or franchise that is depicted within this story. No copyright infringement is intended, as there will be no profit made from this story by its author. The only places that this author has personally posted this story are on Archive of Our Own, and on Fanfiction*net; anywhere else that this story appears, is a duplicate created by parties unknown and without the express permission of the author of this story.

※ Mage of Steel ※
※ Ch. 01: Welcome to Smallville ※

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Harry Potter could still remember when he first discovered his superhuman powers like it had happened yesterday. It had been about a week after the Battle of Hogwarts, and he had just clutched the door handle at the front of Twelve Grimmauld Place and twisted it with the intent to open the door. Only the entire door came right off the hinges, along with a fair chunk of the wall.

That shouldn't have been possible, even if it was Rubeus Hagrid at the front door, as the entire building was suffused with ancient magical reinforcements that made it impervious to everything short of a direct strike from a tactical nuke, and yet he had managed it all the same. What Harry didn't know at the time, was that he could now lift 800,000 tons without breaking a sweat. Naturally, this meant he had to take extreme care for the next several weeks as he learned how to control his newfound superhuman strength.

As if that wasn't bad enough, about a week later, he was visiting the beach with Bill and Fleur Weasley, where he discovered he had the ability to set fire to anything he was looking at, and that it was seemingly triggered by seeing an incredibly beautiful woman in a bikini. Fortunately, Fleur is a Veela, which means she is more or less immune to fire.

That and the preceding discovery caused Harry to do an exhaustive search of the Department of Mysteries, where he learned two very interesting facts. The first was that a prophecy existed which concerned a man or boy from the stars who is destined to protect the entire world from what seems to be a Dark Lord who at first seemed to be the chosen one's friend. The second, is that Harry himself was actually from another world, as was made evident by the starship kept in his adoptive mother's research lab, who knew she was an Unspeakable, with his name as an identifying label.

It took Harry approximately three years, interspersed with time at the Auror Academy, to figure out everything there was to know about his starship, and ultimately the ship and prophecy pointed him in the direction of a small farming community in the United States known as Smallville. This started another year of earning his teaching license for muggle high schools, which was sped right along by the good folks at Gringotts, after which he traveled to the MaCUSA, presented himself to the proper authorities and then made his way to Kansas.

Now, however, he found himself manning a desk in Smallville High's library, as he apparently didn't have any of the qualifications needed to actually teach a class other than a teaching certificate. Who knew you needed more than a simple license for such things?

Suddenly, the doors to the library opened and a young girl with long dark brown hair entered the library and began browsing the shelves for who knows what sort of book. Harry couldn't help but notice a superficial resemblance between this girl and Sue Li, one of his many classmates at Hogwarts, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are actually related.

Several minutes later, the girl walked back to the front of the library, and approached the desk that he was manning. As she got closer, Harry's keen eyes noticed that the gemstone on her necklace began lighting up, as if it was emitting some sort of magical energy. As this was happening, Harry himself began to feel rather ill, and quickly braced himself on the desk, wondering just what it was this necklace was doing to him.

"You must be the new librarian." the girl inquired with a curious tone to her voice. Then her expression turned into a frown, "Are you feeling alright?"

"Er, yeah," Harry murmured, "Must have eaten something that didn't agree with me."

He then glanced down at the book, and risked removing one of his hands from the desk so that he could begin the checkout procedure. Fortunately, it didn't take too long, allowing him to get some relief as the girl stepped away, "Have a pleasant day."

As soon as she was gone, Harry whipped out his wand and began performing self-diagnostic charms to try and figure out exactly what just happened. It took him a few tries, but eventually he got a hit on the magical equivalent to a geiger counter. "Radiation poisoning? And it is almost completely gone too. What the heck?"

The rest of his day passed in a large blur, as one student after another came in and checked out books or sat in the study carrels doing their homework. At the end of the day, he began packing up what few things he brought with him, and left the library while contemplating what he could do with his free time.

A loud crashing sound caught Harry's attention as shards of glass fell from the school's trophy case. A young man was standing in front of the case, and it looked like he had actually used one of his hands to shatter the glass, since it was wrapped in heavy gauze. The boy reached into the case and pulled out a framed photograph and murmured the words, "Payback time."

"I suggest you put the picture back in the case and walk away, kid." Harry interrupted whatever passed for this moron's internal monologue.

The boy glanced in Harry's direction, and smirked and sauntered off with the picture still in his hands. This annoyed Harry, but there wasn't much he could do, at least directly, without revealing either his superpowers or his magic. So instead, he pulled out his new cell phone and dialed 911.

"Hello, please state the nature of your emergency." the operator on the other end of the phone inquired.

"I just witnessed the vandalism of Smallville High's trophy case, and the theft of one of the items contained within that case."

"If you would be so kind as to stay at the school, I'll send some officers over as soon as possible to collect your statement." the operator offered.

"Thank you," Harry agreed. With that said, the line went dead and Harry was left to wait for the officers.

Only a minute later, Harry heard what sounded like footsteps coming up from behind him, which was quickly followed by a loud and very feminine exclamation of "What the heck?!"

Turning to regard the person who just "snuck up" on him, Harry saw an attractive freshman with shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes. He immediately recognized her as one of the few students he had met prior to the school year, since she regularly visited the school, even when classes weren't in session, ostensibly to work on the school newspaper. Harry, however, knew that there was more to this girl than met the eye, and smiled while saying, "Hello, Miss Sullivan."

The girl's eyes snapped over to him from where they had been fixed on the shattered display case, resulting in her facial features morphing into something between a grimace and a smile. "Fancy seeing you here, Professor Potter."

Harry blushed at that term of address, since it wasn't one he felt he deserved, even if she somehow figured out that was what the teachers at his alma mater were called. "Would you care to keep me company while I wait for the authorities to arrive, Miss Sullivan? After all, you are undoubtedly dying to know what happened here, and I'm not particularly interested in telling the story twice."

"Why I'd be delighted." Chloe Sullivan enthused as she walked over to lean against the same wall as Harry. Once she was, she turned to look at him and asked, "So how was your first official day of work?"

"Boring." Harry admitted with a helpless sigh. "I wanted to be a teacher, but no one told me there was more to it than getting a teaching license. Apparently, I also need to have an education in whatever subject I wish to teach."

Chloe snickered at his whinging, and said, "You must have some sort of education, right?"

"Oh, I do." Harry agreed. "Unfortunately, most of my education is largely useless for those wishing to live a perfectly mundane life. I'm sort of what you might call a professional adventurer, and have one of the best educations for that particular vocation."

"Good to know." Chloe offered as the doors to the school entry hall opened to admit a pair of police officers.

The officers, one male and one female, walked towards them, with the young woman stepping over to the display case to begin gathering evidence, and the male continued over to speak with the witness. Once he arrived, he asked, "Just to be clear, which one of you called emergency services?"

"That'd be me." Harry offered. "Miss Sullivan, here, works for the school newspaper, and would undoubtedly like to run a story on what transpired, even if she has to keep certain facts out of the article."

"Gee, okay, I can take a hint." Chloe admitted. "No names will be listed. Just the facts."

"Very well," the officer agreed. He then pulled out a pad of paper and pen so that he could take Harry's initial statement. "So what happened?"

"I was walking towards the school's main doors when I heard a loud crash, looked up, and saw a willowy boy with mousy brown hair standing in front of the display case. It looked as though he punched the glass in with his fist. I couldn't see his eyes clearly, but he had a rather prominent nose, and was wearing a gray anorak…"

"A, what now?" the officer interrupted.

Harry frowned and looked at Chloe, and asked, "What's the local slang for a hooded jacket?"

Chloe snickered again and said, "We usually call those hoodies."

"Ah!" the officer exclaimed as he wrote the appropriate word down.

"Right, a gray hoodie, a blue shirt and black kecks…"

"Ah, Harry, we don't use that word either. Or at least, not very often. I think the word you were looking for is pants." Chloe admitted in an amused tone of voice.

Harry blinked for a few seconds, before his face blossomed into a blush and said, "That is just wrong on so many levels."

The officer was now quite amused, as he realized that this young man was suffering from a bad case of culture clash. "British?"

"Quite." Harry agreed. "As I was saying, a gray hoodie, blue shirt and black kecks. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good look at his shoes. I did ask him to place the stolen item, which was a framed photograph, back into the display case and walk away. Sadly, he chose to walk away without returning the photo."

"Okay, so vandalism and a stolen photograph." the officer deduced.

"And a desire to inflict harm on the people displayed in said photograph. I heard him saying 'payback time' before I asked him to put the photograph back in the case." Harry finished the explanation.

Chloe however was frowning, as she tried to recall who might match this description. "How old was this guy?"

"About the same age as yourself, Miss Sullivan." Harry admitted.

"One of the perks of living in a small town is that I've met everyone in my year at this school. I can't recall anyone who closely resembles the description you gave."

The officer talking to them nodded and then walked over to his partner, asking, "Any luck?"

"This kid was either very lucky, or very good, because all he left behind was a few drops of blood. Fortunately, I was able to collect a sample with very little difficulty." the woman admitted. She then looked over at Harry and said, "Please stay in town in case you are needed for anything further."

"Of course." Harry agreed. He may not have finished Auror Training, but he did know how police procedure worked; or at least, how it worked in the magical world.

With that said, the two officers walked off towards the Headmaster's office, with Chloe turning a smirk on Harry while saying, "I'm beginning to realize you have absolutely no idea how to use American slang."

"I hardly even know how to use British slang, Miss Sullivan." Harry acknowledged. "That's one of the many drawbacks that comes with attending a private high school for rich snobs."

"You never did tell me what school you graduated from." Chloe admitted.

"Er…" Harry murmured, as he tried to come up with a ruse that would pass muster. Eventually, he decided to wing it and say, "Smeltings Academy in Surrey."

"If you say so," Chloe agreed. She then smiled and said, "Catch you later." And with that, the girl was on her way out the door.

Once she was gone, Harry slumped against the wall and dragged a hand across his face, while saying, "That girl is far too inquisitive for my own good."

After a few minutes, Harry stood off the wall and left the school in search of something to occupy his time for the next hour or two before heading to his new manor home.

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Harry was about ten minutes into his walk when it happened. One minute he was walking at a sedate pace, and then the next he was moving so fast that everything around him seemed to blur into an ominous haze. It took his eyes a moment to adjust, and once they did, he realized he was actually running and that he wouldn't actually be able to alter his trajectory, even if he was worried about stopping.

"Ooooh craaaap!" Harry exclaimed as he realized that his path was taking him towards the Morley Reservoir, and that he would soon crash into the water unless he came to an abrupt stop. With that in mind, Harry began digging in his heels.

This unsurprisingly caused a large and very long trough to borrow its way through the ground, as Harry returned to a resting state.

"Damn it all!" Harry exclaimed as he began climbing his way out of the man-made cavern he wound up in, and realized he had stopped with only twenty feet between his location and the lakebed. This, unfortunately, was when another superpower kicked in, granting Harry an unprecedented view of the lake interior.

"That… that looks like my ship!" Harry exclaimed in shocked surprise.

With his eyes focused on the ship, Harry quickly realized that it contained an occupant. He didn't know if this person would be friend or foe, or if they were even still alive. What he did know, was that if they were still alive, then that person was in need of his assistance, and as his friend Hermione once said, Harry Potter had a 'Saving People Thing.'

Drawing his wand, Harry pointed it towards the ship, and spoke a single arcane word, "Wingardium Leviosa."

This caused the ship to lift off the lake's floor and begin floating towards the surface. Once the ship had emerged from the water, Harry began directing it over to the shore, near where he was standing. Then he set it down and walked over to the vessel, which was now sort of levitating about a foot or so off the ground, much like his own ship was known to do.

Harry placed a hand on the ship's exterior, watching as it lit up with what looked like a luminescent version of muggle circuitry, before he heard the hiss of hydraulics as the hatch on the top of the ship slid open, revealing a stunningly beautiful blonde woman who could only be a few years younger than himself.

The girl was dressed in a long silk-like dress that left absolutely nothing to the imagination, and her curvaceous figure would have made Fleur green with envy. Suddenly the girl's eyes opened, she looked around at her surroundings and began frowning more and more at whatever it was her senses were telling her. This was when Harry noticed the blue crystal she was tightly holding to her chest.

Eventually, the girl found her bearings and asked the question which was burning through her mind, "Is… is this Earth?"

"If by that you mean the third planet from the star in the Sol system, then yes; but I've always thought Earth was a rather crap name for a planet."

The girl couldn't stop herself from giggling, as she used a more advanced power than Harry currently had access to in order to float out of her ship and land on the ground. "So who are you, and where is Kal-El?"

"On this world, my name is Harry Potter, though it would appear that I was known as Byn-Kas on whatever world you came from, assuming yours is the only one which uses ships of this design. I'll also apologize if my pronunciation makes me sound like I learned the language from a textbook, because that's basically what happened." Harry admitted.

The girl blinked in surprise as she turned to more properly look at Harry, "You're from Krypton?"

"Is that the name of our world?" Harry inquired. "I only ask cause it wasn't written anywhere on the hull of my starship."

The girl nodded and said, "I'm Kara, by the way. Kara Zor-El."

"It is my pleasure to meet you, Kara." Harry said as he smiled at the girl. "As for this Kal-El, person… Well, I might be able to find them, presuming they haven't changed their name in a way that invalidates a Point-Me spell, but for now it would be best if we moved your ship to my personal residence."

Kara frowned as she turned to regard the ship, "Even though Kryptonians get a massive boost to their physical strength on this world, it would be impractical to move this ship very far using brute force."

Harry smiled and pointed his newly drawn wand at the ship, and said the word "Reducio."

Kara's eyes almost fell out of her head when she noticed that her starship was rapidly shrinking to a more manageable size. "That shouldn't be possible…"

"It gets better," Harry admitted as he walked up to the greatly diminished ship and tapped his wand against the hull while speaking the word, "Perfusorius." He then reached down and picked the ship up and stuck it into one of his pockets, before turning to look at the girl while saying, "Take my hand, and whatever you do, don't let go until I say otherwise."

Kara eyed him suspiciously for a few moments, before sighing and grabbing his hand. Seconds later, she felt a sensation that she could not adequately describe. It felt both like a complete and utter lack of sensory input, and also like she was being shoved through an incredibly narrow tube that was constantly being compressed to an even smaller size. Then all of a sudden, the sensation stopped, and Harry spoke, "Okay, you can let go now."

Kara promptly fell to her knees and began dry heaving, even as Harry knelt beside her and began patting her back, "The first time is always the worst. It only gets easier with each successive jump."

Eventually Kara recovered, at which point she shot a venomous glare at Harry and demanded, "What in Rao's name was that?"

"That was a point-to-point Apparition, one of several different forms of magical transportation available to the residents of this world, though only those with the ability to use magic can initiate the process."

"I've never heard of magic, what is it?" Kara wondered.

Harry smiled as he pointed at the building behind her, saying, "Let's go inside before we discuss it any further so I can whip up something to eat, as I imagine you are quite hungry."

Kara turned and looked at his home, and had to admit it was impressive as far as Terran architecture was concerned. It was a large square structure with lots of rounded features, and multiple gables. It even included what seemed to be working artillery turrets. Most of the windows were done in stained glass, though Kara had absolutely no idea what the images were supposed to be depicting. The entire building was made from a combination of stone masonry and incredibly elaborate woodwork. "Is this a house or a castle?"

"A bit of both, actually." Harry admitted as he led her through the front doors and into a vaulted entry hall that seemed to be far bigger than should have been possible given the building's exterior geometry. "This home features four floors above ground level, though the exterior only shows off two. You can have any of the rooms on the third floor, my private quarters are on the uppermost floor. Do not enter the top floor unless I personally give you permission to do so, as that level is considered to be for family members only."

"Alright. What else?" Kara wondered.

"On the ground level you will find my potions laboratory and ritual room. I advise you to use extreme caution when in the room with lots of jars on the shelves, since some of the contents in those jars can be quite volatile."

"Kryptonians are practically invulnerable on this planet." Kara admitted in what would have been an arrogant tone of voice, if not for the fact that she had absolutely no idea if that would hold true around magic.

"Better safe than sorry, my dear." Harry countered. "After all, it would be utterly terrible if you went in their thinking you were safe from harm, only to discover that magic can ignore our apparent invulnerability."

"Duly noted." Kara agreed through the blush that erupted when he referred to her in what she considered to be a familiar form of address. "Is there anything else I should make note of?"

"On the ground floor you will also find the formal dining hall, adjacent kitchens and an utterly massive indoor swimming pool, though we will need to see about taking you clothes shopping before too long, unless you want me to see you in the altogether while we are swimming."

Kara's face scrunched up into a cute frown as she asked, "Aren't I already altogether?"

Harry snickered at the girl's expression and said, "Altogether is sort of a synonym for naked."

Kara smirked and said, "Kryptonians can see through practically anything on this world, and with practice, can focus it in a way that only removes small layers of the thing they are viewing, rather than seeing through the entirety."

Harry blushed at her admission, and grumbled to himself, "Is there anything Kryptonians can't do?"

"Well, I've never heard of a Kryptonian who can shoot a shrinking ray out of a hand held shaft of wood. Nor have I ever encountered one who can teleport from one place to another. Flying or running at supersonic speeds is doable, but not teleporting." Kara admitted with a cheeky grin. "Anyways, what's on the um… first and second floors?"

"First floor contains the library. And that's all there is on that floor." Harry admitted. "A friend of mine was an avid book collector, and I spent much of my youth hiding from bullies in the municipal school library. With that said, only a third of those bookshelves have actually been filled at this point in time. The second floor contains an extensive weight room with enchantments that simulate the energy that is emitted by a red star, as my adoptive mother managed to figure out how that energy would affect our physiologies."

Kara blinked in surprise as she asked, "You actually work out in a room where you are as physically powerful as a human?"

"I mean, yeah. After all, what better way to increase my already superhuman physical strength?" Harry admitted.

"I think I'm keeping you!" Kara enthused as she glomped Harry, which caused her D-cup breasts to smoosh against his chest, much to his embarrassment and equal pleasure.

Harry spent the next two hours toiling in the kitchen and explaining as much as much as he could about magic in the limited time they had left before he needed to be asleep so he could get up and head to work on the start of the next day.

※ Chapter End ※

Author's Note: This blurb was written as a modified response to my "The Wizard of Steel" challenge. I will go ahead and say that Kara's portrayal is most definitely out of character, since I was drawing inspiration for her personality from the DCAU character known as Kara In-Ze, more than I was from Laura Vandervoot's portrayal of the Maid of Steel (hehe, see what I did there?). Unfortunately, I lost inspiration for this idea fairly quickly, so if anyone wants to continue it based on what I have hear, they are more than welcome. I will even include the modified challenge below.

I also want to thank both the people on Emerald Library (see my Profile for details) and those on my Discord Server for their assistance in helping me get both this and my other stories off the ground, even if I haven't ever completed any of my stories. I will also say that I am about to begin work on a new rendition of the idea where Harry is adopted by Stephen Strange, though it won't be a direct rewrite of Rise of Arcane, since I don't think I can do that story any real justice.

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Major Character Image Refs:
- Harry Potter: The Advisor by Lidiash on DeviantArt
- Lana Lang: Lana Lang by Riverlimzhichuan on DeviantArt
- Chloe Sullivan: Cindy by ShuraKRGT on DeviantArt
- Kara Zor-El: Supergirl by Flowerxl on DeviantArt (Look for the one in a white halter top, with S-logo knickers that is facing the audience and you'll have the one I'm using; and yes, Kara is far more endowed in this fic than in canon)

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Mage of Steel

Premise: Having discovered the truth of his origin, Harry Potter travels to Smallville in search of a young man who may hold the key to yet another prophecy, one which speaks of a Traveler from the Stars. Unfortunately, Harry's task is made more difficult by the various Meteor Freaks that his counterpart regularly contends with.

Required Inclusions:
- Harry Potter must be a Kryptonian who was sent to Earth in order to avoid the complete eradication of his family at the hands of Krypton's artificial intelligence, Brainiac.
- Harry must have been adopted by the Potter family, with his powers being temporarily disabled by the Killing Curse, which is a weakened Omega Beam, during that fateful Halloween night.
- Harry will either regain his Kryptonian powers over the course of his life, or else regain them in one fell swoop when struck by the Killing Curse for a second time.
- All further attempts to strike Harry with that curse will be invalidated by Harry's new status as the Master of Death, even if it grants no other benefits.
- While Harry and Clark will not be directly related, it is the intention of this challenge that Harry assumes a mentorship role in Clark's life.
- The author is to mold the world of DC around Harry's inclusion therein. Give him his own villains and he is only allowed to derail the Justice League when/if he joins the group.

Preferred Inclusions:
- Harry should start his time in Smallville as the Librarian at Clark's High School, ala Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before ultimately opening an apothecary in the town square.
- Harry should end up in a romantic relationship with either Kara Zor-El, or else one of her many, many duplicates, such as Galatea.
- Harry should have a hard time controlling some aspects of his Kryptonian physiology due to having only a limited amount of time to adapt to these powers.

Optional Inclusions:
- Harry could rent a plot of land on the Kent family farm where he grows the necessary plants for both his apothecary and any magical reagents, drafts and potions he wishes to make.
- Harry's heat vision could kick in after seeing one of his girls in skimpy clothing.

Forbidden Things:
- Harry being paired with Daphne, Astoria, Ginny or Hermione.
- Harry being romantically interested in men.
- Harry the Malevolent Emo Doormat.