Disclaimer – It has come to my attention recently that I unfortunately do not own any part of Harry Potter or the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the characters that belong to those entities. One can dream I suppose. Although I did buy a ticket to Disney World one time.
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This story is dedicated to Stephen Bartley, for his support.
Chapter 10: Knock Knock
Less than fifteen minutes later, the Avengers gathered around the gift-wrapped form of Loki. The animated letter, once vocal and lively, now lay silent, having fallen back onto the bound individual, its last words still echoing through the room.
"... My name is Harry Potter. I am the Master of Death, and I am here to help."
Their collective gaze was fixated on the letter, watching as it silently burst into flames. The room remained hushed, absorbing the moment, until Clint released a brief laugh, his eyes scanning the circle assembled around Loki before settling on Tony.
"Say what you want about your meeting with him earlier. You may not like him, Tony, but even you can't deny: Harry Potter's got style."
Harry dropped heavily onto the bed as he released an exhausted breath, looking out the window, cringing slightly at the sight of the flashing lights of emergency vehicles reflecting off buildings in the distance and the sound of the sirens from around the city as first responders continued to try and help those in need.
As Harry looked over to the clock on the night table in his room, he shook his head still not believing that it had been just over thirty hours since the battle had officially ended, and over the last day and a half Harry had been unable to convince himself to take a nap or a break longer than scarfing down a bite of food from one of the many first aid food stations that had been hastily erected. Every time he paused to try and catch his breath, he couldn't help but think of the wasted time resulting in lives being lost and as a result Harry had spent almost every moment since the battle ended running around the city trying to help as many people as he could, usually helping in situations he came across where there seemed to be little hope. Consequently, Harry found himself lying on the bed, completely exhausted, unable to even make his way across the room to the small table where he had dropped his take-out order of shawarma, that he had picked up on his way home.
Letting out another deep breath and closing his eyes, Harry felt himself almost immediately began to drift off, thinking of the past day and a half.
Flashback
Harry stood on the top of the empire state building, looking down on the city below him … specifically at the group of heroes who were standing around Iron Man, who based on the movements had survived and was starting to recover from his experience with … well with travelling through the portal in the sky, falling back into their atmosphere moments before it closed.
He watched as Iron Man eventually made his way to his feet and slowly led the group towards the entrance of Stark Tower.
Harry nodded as he looked out onto the city, happy that at least Loki would indeed be dealt with appropriately – confident that based on his very limited knowledge of Norse folklore, that the large man with flowing golden hair, carrying a hammer, must indeed be Thor, and as such he would likely know what to do with his brother.
Happy that they would deal with that issue, Harry looked out over the city and felt a huge surge of guilt seeing the amount of damage that had been done during the battle.
Setting his jaw and pushing away the feeling of fatigue, that he had started to feel beginning to grow ever since he had left Loki tied up moments before, he looked around the city from his vantage point trying to decide where he could be of the most use … his eyes widened for a second seeing a good place to start and apparated … appearing in front of a large sign on the ground with a red cross on it.
Momentarily shielding his ears from the loud wailing of the ambulances and police cars that were in front of the building, both coming and going.
Seeing a man standing on the back of a police car shouting at everyone Harry assumed that he was a good a place as any to start and he made his way over to the man. Arriving just as the group of ten police officers and paramedics, who had been standing in front of him, split off and ran to do whatever tasks that had been assigned.
Reaching the man, who was shaking his head and staring down the roads that led to the hospital, Harry cleared his throat loudly to get the man's attention.
Hearing Harry's cough the man looked down, momentarily surprised to see Harry.
"What are you just doing standing around? Shouldn't you be in the hospital or off doing stuff?"
"Sorry … what?" Harry asked looking back towards the hospital before looking up to the man, a look of confusion on his face. "I don't work at the hospital, and I am not looking for medical help or anything like that. I'm here to help, where do you need more help?"
The police officer on the trunk of the car, began to dismount, looking at Harry in surprise, "If you don't work here or need help … how the hell did you get past the police cordon around the area … we are keeping the area clear of non-vital individuals. The entire area is a mess and the hospital is only going to get more full as the day goes on and more people are brought in."
As if to prove his point an ambulance drove by them, the sirens preventing Harry from responding, and came to an abrupt halt in front of the doors to the hospital.
Harry looked back to the man and simply shrugged his shoulders at his question, staring at him as he finally turned to look back at Harry.
"Well … I guess it doesn't matter how you got past the cordon, there is too much space to cover and until the national guard arrives we don't have enough people to fully keep people out … but we aren't just assigning jobs. Best thing you can do is to stay out of the way of emergency services, trying to help might result in you getting hurt and as you can see the last thing we need is for more people to get hurt." The officer said pointing behind him to another ambulance that had just come to a stop by the doors to the building.
"Honestly … my advice is to return to your building … that is if it is still standing … and maybe if on your way back you see someone in need of help you try to get them to the hospital, only if it is safe for you to do so … we certainly don't have enough ambulances to get to everyone quickly … there are certain areas of the city entirely inaccessible to vehicles because of the debris from buildings right now."
The officer paused for a second, looking to the south, before shaking his head and looking at the ground, "Actually … maybe just avoid Hell's Kitchen entirely, sounds like that neighborhood took a beating … having difficulty getting anyone in to help and almost impossible getting people out of the area to hospitals for help … buildings are still collapsing …"
The rest of his sentence was cut off by a loud cracking sound right in front of him, causing the man to duck out of reflex, as he spun to face the noise, hand on his weapon, remembering all the danger from earlier.
Although as he looked towards the spot where the sound had come from he froze seeing there was nothing there … including the young man who had been there moments before, the one he had been talking to.
Frantically he looked around, trying to see if he could identify the source of the noise or where the boy had disappeared to. However his search was interrupted as he spun around, noticing one of the junior officers running towards him in the direction of the side entrance of the Metro-General Hospital. The direction of the administrative offices where the police had set up a temporary field office.
"Sergent Mahoney … Sergent Mahoney …" he panted, clearly out of breath, as he got to him, "we need you inside immediately, we got a call on a secure line from some guy calling himself Fury or something, man wants to start organizing relief efforts … thought you might want to take charge of that …"
Sergent Mahoney nodded, idly wondering who exactly this Fury was, before pausing to take one last look back over the city as he stepped towards the building.
Looking back towards the officer he noticed by the expression that something else was still bothering him so he asked, "What else is there?"
The officer looked at him a little sheepishly, "Well … Dr. Palmer wants to see you when you have a moment, apparently something relating to a car crash patient that had just come in yesterday … something … strange … I think she said …"
Mahoney looked at the man inquisitively, but after receiving no more elaboration, he shook his head in exasperation. "Ok … fine. I'll take the call first and then if I have time, I'll go see what Dr. Palmer needs."
He then entered the hospital … all thoughts of the Boy-Who-Had-Disappeared already gone from his mind.
HP - Marvel - HP - Marvel - HP - Marvel - HP - Marvel - HP
At the exact moment Sergent Mahoney sat down to take the phone call, the very same boy was staring out in horror at the street in front of him. He had seen some awful things during his time in the magical world, but nothing he had seen, including all the damage he had caused to the Ministry of Magic in his fifth year, could prepare him for the appearance of the street he had just apparated onto.
He looked out and stared in shock at the destruction and damage to buildings, roads, and vehicles, remembering its prior condition from the impromptu taxi tour upon his arrival to the city. Looking out over the damage he shook his head confident that even Hogwarts gad been in better shape at the time he had headed off to confront Voldemort.
To Harry, walking through the street was like stepping into a nightmare. The entire neighborhood seemed to have been wrecked, as if a tornado … or perhaps several giant space whales … had gone right through it. Cars were flipped over, crushed, on fire, or a combination of all three; storefronts were shattered and filled with debris, entire buildings which had once stood tall were now little more than large heaps of rubble. Scanning the area Harry saw scorch marks from the aliens weapons scarring the walls of the buildings that remained standing and he could almost taste the smoke that hung heavily in the air.
The scene before him was a portrait of chaos, residents shuffled aimlessly, dazed and disoriented, or feebly tried to help shift rubble to free people crying out from below the wreckage that was once the buildings. The few emergency workers that Harry could see scurried amidst the debris, faces etched with weariness but determination in their eyes.
Shaking off the initial shock at the sight, determined to help, Harry sprang into action, running over to a determined looking lady who was trying to shift large pieces of rubble out of the front of the entrance of a partially collapsed apartment building.
"Need a hand?" Harry called out as he approached the lady who looked to be just a couple years older than him.
She turned, startled at the sound of his voice, her expression bordering on desperation, but then her eyes softened. Gratitude evident at the sight of someone offering to help.
"Please. There are people trapped in here." She replied, gesturing to the blocked entranceway. "I … was trying to make my way to the hospital, I'm a nurse and I know they are going to need me. But I heard yelling."
As if to confirm her last statement, Harry heard the sound of muffled yelling coming from the opposite side of the rubble pile and while most of it was too muffled to make out, he could tell the tone was panicked and was pretty sure he heard the words 'heart attack'.
Knowing he would need to act quickly and couldn't waste time, Harry decided he would have to use magic in front of this person.
With a sigh, Harry took a step back, looking briefly over to the lady, "You might want to take a couple steps back Ms …"
"Temple." She replied, looking at him curiously before slowly taking a couple steps backwards.
Shrugging his shoulders, Harry decided there was no time like the present and refocused his attention back on the wall of debris, whispering "Locomotor Rubble."
Harry almost lost control of the spell as he heard Ms. Temple gasp audibly and curse from right beside him as they watched as all the pieces of rubble move out of the doorway, one by one.
"How did you …" he heard her mumble as he looked to her.
"It doesn't matter, the way is open. We can help them."
Seeing the conflicted look on her face he nodded towards the opening. "They need help."
That was all it took as she looked back towards the doorway and nodded, allowing Harry to enter first before she followed him as they rushed inside.
Once they reached the first landing, Harry looked to her, "Ms. Temple …"
She interrupted him with a snort, "Claire is fine."
Harry nodded looking around the floor before looking back to her, "Ok, Claire. Check this floor and bring whoever you can outside … what's left of this building doesn't look to stable. I'll head to the top floor and work my way down, trying to get people out."
Claire looked like she wanted to say something but was interrupted by a little boy running out of one of the rooms and into the hallway, "Please help. I think my grandma had a heart attack."
Immediately seeming to forget about Harry, Claire turned to the boy, "I'm a nurse, show me to your grandma and I'll see what we can do to help her."
Choosing to take advantage of the distraction and to let her get to work, Harry ran up to the fourth floor, and apartment by apartment alerted the residents that they needed to get out of the building, as the fighting was done, and the building looked ready to collapse any minute.
Just under thirty minutes later, Harry found himself escorting the last group of people out of the building, an older couple, who had been quite reluctant to abandon their dwelling, and their cat, who had been content in scratching Harry in several places, to the street below.
As Harry exited the building, passing the cat over to the couple, he looked over and saw that at some point an ambulance had arrived and was parked in front of the building and the paramedics were currently loading an elder lady into the back.
As he looked at the group behind the ambulance he made eye contact with Claire who was in the back of the ambulance and had just turned around to look out.
Apparently, he was covered in a significant amount of dirt as it took several seconds before a look of recognition flashed across her face.
Looking around the crowd that was around Harry she offered a grateful smile and mouthed 'Thank you' before looking back down to the older lady and grasping her hand.
That was the last thing Harry saw before the paramedic shut the door and ran around to the front of the vehicle, climbing in. Within seconds the ambulance took off, weaving its way through the obstacle course that was the street, leaving Harry and the building behind it.
Over the next thirty hours, Harry was kept constantly on the move, running and apparating all over the city, finding himself helping those with his magic as often as without, only stopping to grab little drinks of water and once even half a sandwich that some of the residents and shop owners were giving away to people who were walking by.
But eventually it got to the point where Harry doubted even a case of Pepper-Up potions would have kept him going and he decided that even he needed at least a couple hours of sleep before he did harm to himself or accidentally made a mistake with his magic. So he headed back to his hotel room, stopping at a shawarma restaurant that he had been surprised to find had been almost entirely undamaged. After picking up the meal to go he made his way the remaining blocks to his room, no longer confident he could maintain the concentration necessary to safely apparate.
Arriving in the room, he settled into the bed, realizing that despite his intentions, was going to fall asleep without eating.
That belief was of course until he heard a sound at the door …
Knock Knock
Kind Regards,
FavoriteAuthor
Up Next: Whose There?
Grosvenor - Thanks so much!
Manga reader 125 - Haha thanks :) I thought it was a good place!
kristinchew84 - Well here is another one for you!
robtar - Thanks definitely true - will go into that later but as of that point his magic wasn't fully working the way he remembered and while the shield spells worked for magic I don't know if canon protego was ever used for projectiles or energy based weapons so it resulted in Harry being careful
.upg - Thanks so much!
oneoddtodd - I love the getting to binge a whole story fun! Hope you enjoy the chapters as they get released!
Armiture - Really glad you enjoyed the chapter, I had thought about using accio but then I was worried it would cause the several ton suit of armor to squish poor Harry
cameron1812 - Haha everyone needs a superhero name!
A10riddick - Thanks so much!
Ezequiel Goni - Well Master of Death was more just a reference to being the holder of all three hallows at the same time not necessarily his skill level.
DZ2 - Thanks was looking for a fun way to end it now that I am going to move past the battle and on with more of the other writing.
outcome 5 - And here is the next one, enjoy!
Time Emperor - Haha I thought it was a good way to end it. Sure makes it helpful, I guess we will see how long he manages to stay away from Tony and/or shield. But evidentally there are ways to find him!
stars90 - Well I thought it was a nice gift Harry had got for them!
Guest - I think when Harry was using it here it was more so for the fact that he was using it to denote he possessed all three hallows not that he was the actual master of Death or he was the best wizard ... plus everyone needs a superhero name
Thanks to those of you out to those of you who enjoy my stories, I promise to keep updating the stories as long as you enjoy them, and a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave feedback or reach out to me directly. All feedback is welcome (hopefully constructive!) Looking forward to hearing what you think!
Story Note – I felt this chapter was a little grittier than usual and indeed grittier than most of the future chapters but I felt it suited the characters mood. This would have been his first time in such an experience and by the end of it he was physically and emotionally drained.
Disclaimer 2 – This story will be inspired by the Earth 199999 (AKA – the Earth from the MCU movies, shows, … ) but not exactly the same, specific changes being highlighted in story notes when they appear. Think of it more as Earth 199999.1.
I hope you all liked the start to the new story, and I look forward to hearing your feedback. This is a story I have been looking forward to writing for a very long time.
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