AN: If you're interested in joining my Discord server, you can do it at /nzxJcxsyrd
Chapter 15 - Dare to Live
The news that Batman had passed away was not released to the public, but some of the keener people noticed that there was something going on with the Justice League. For one, several members of the Justice League had been hospitalized. Then, there was also the fact that Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Emissary had all but disappeared, having yet to make an appearance in days.
Nevertheless, the majority of people were far more preoccupied with the bureaucratic nightmare that New York City's restoration had created.
While most people's feelings towards Emissary bordered on veneration after he pulled off such an unheard-of miracle, the authorities' feelings on the matter weren't quite as unified. The big corporations and the politicians tied to them weren't happy with the 'miracle', to say the least.
Alas, while people were mourning and recovering in the aftermath of one of the most terrible tragedies of the last century, Harry Potter had secluded himself from the world for a while.
After resigning from the Justice League, he left the United States; there was no reason for him to continue living there anymore. He returned to Europe, but this time around, he went to France.
If the United Kingdom was his place of birth, France was the country where he had been truly happy for the first time. Provence, in southeastern France, was where he married Fleur and built their home. Time dulled emotions, feelings, and memories, but several hundred years later, Harry still thought fondly about Provence.
Unfortunately, Harry couldn't afford to rebuild the home of his dreams. After dying from a meteorite less than a month ago, his paranoia grew to unprecedented levels. He didn't dare build a normal home above the ground. What if another madman built another railgun and fired another meteorite at him? What if someone got a hold of a nuke and dropped it on his head? The chances for that to happen were abysmal, but not zero. He didn't want to risk it. Therefore, he spent the better part of a week creating a home for himself at a depth of nearly 2 kilometres underground.
⁂
Having finished creating a home for himself and casting on it all the protective spells that he could think of, Harry decided to take care of his unfinished business, namely meeting up with Power Girl and giving her a proper explanation before cutting things off with her for good.
One unpleasant Portkey trip later, Harry found himself in New York's Central Park, on the shore of the Lake. Seeing as he was invisible, nobody noticed his arrival.
Unlike a week ago, when New York was completely empty, like a ghost city, the Big Apple was bustling with people now. It was as if the catastrophe from a month ago had never happened. Despite that over one million people lost their lives there, many others flocked back to New York, taking their place.
Not in the mood to deal with the infernal traffic, Harry flew above the city until he arrived above Lower Manhattan. After landing behind a few trees, he cancelled his Invisibility Spell and blended in with the crowd, heading towards Wall Street at a walking pace.
Considering the fact that he had yet to buy himself a new phone, Harry had no way of contacting Power Girl other than going to see her directly.
Half an hour later, he stopped in front of a sizeable building on Wall Street.
"Starrware Industries," Harry read the big letters above the entrance out loud before stepping through the automatic doors.
⁂
"Hello, sir, how may I help you?"
The energetic voice belonged to a brown-haired young man in the reception area. His clean appearance and well-kept suit, coupled with his seemingly genuine smile gave off a favourable first impression.
"I'm here to see Miss Karen Starr."
"Ah! Are you here for the interview as well?"
"Precisely," Harry said, smoothly going along with his wrong assumption.
"I don't believe I caught your name, Mister-"
"Potter. Harry Potter."
The young man checked his boss's schedule for that day in the system, but he couldn't find his name anywhere.
"Have you made an appointment?"
"Of course. I spoke with Ms Starr directly on the phone," Harry lied easily. "Did she forget to mention it?"
"So it would seem… Ms Starr is in the middle of an interview with a candidate at the moment. I cannot guarantee anything, but if you have the time, maybe you could wait until it's over and I will bring it up to her."
"Sure, let's do that," Harry agreed easily, not wanting to make his life difficult.
Once he arrived in the waiting room and took a seat, Kara's voice could be heard from her office:
"You're dangerously close to sounding psychologically unhealthy yourself, Mr. Belvin."
"Am I? The natural, psychological, societal, and moral worldview is a product of man's development within a society. No person can develop without being influenced by other people and their personalities, or by the values taught to them by civilization and its moral and religious traditions!" came the agitated voice of a male.
Kara's voice sounded like she was quickly losing her patience.
"Again, we're an engineering company. You're talking about philosophy."
"I'm talking about reality. In order to change the world, we must genetically reengineer the human race," retorted the man. "I'm talking about biological technology that doesn't break down and yet can learn from generation to generation."
"I'm guessing you read the wrong job description. This interview is over. I'd like you to leave my office," Kara said.
Seemingly not hearing what she had just told him, the man continued:
"I understand your fear; you're a woman, and your nature is to raise children, but we can only conquer this huge contagious social cancer if we comprehend its essence-"
In the next moment, the doors of the office opened, and Karen Starr could be seen showing her interviewee the way out.
"You're just like the others! You don't get it! People like you keep humanity from achieving godhood!" shouted the man.
"People like me keep lunatics like yourself away from the technology to make your twisted dreams a reality. Get out of here and take your sexist nonsense with you."
Watching the curly-haired middle-aged man storm off in a rage, Harry couldn't suppress a chuckle.
A look of surprise flashed on Kara's face when she looked at him.
"Harry?! What are you doing here?"
At that moment, the receptionist came over in a rush to introduce him.
"This is Mr Harry Potter. He said he made an appointment with you directly, but I couldn't find him in-"
"Relax, Simon; this one is on me. I forgot to tell you about it."
In truth, Kara hadn't expected Harry to come either, but she just rolled with it.
"I'll be interviewing Mr Potter now. How much time do I have?"
"Your schedule is open until lunchtime. A bit less than two hours left," Simon said promptly.
"As reliable as ever," Kara smiled at him. "Thank you, Simon."
⁂
Once they went into her office and closed the door after themselves, Harry took out the Elder Wand to cast a Silencing Charm so that nobody else could eavesdrop on their conversation.
Turning around, he saw that Kara didn't take a seat at her desk but that she was still standing right in front of him.
Wearing a pair of black high heels, black stockings, a navy pencil skirt that stopped just above her knees, a navy blazer, and a white shirt with its top two buttons opened, giving others a peek at her sizeable assets, Kara successfully pulled off the image of a very attractive and confident businesswoman.
Leaning on one leg and resting a hand on her waist while squinting her eyes at him was a glaring sign that she was waiting for him to start talking.
"It's good to see you, Kara. You look great."
She rolled her eyes.
"Duh, of course I do! Now start talking."
Her blatant lack of modesty made him smile.
"You probably have many questions. Let's have a seat first, shall we?"
Once they were seated, Kara put her elbows on the desk and rested her chin on her hands as she looked at him intently.
"I don't know if you got the voicemail I left you a week ago from Batman's number. I didn't mean to disappear on you during our date. I was summoned by Batman to the Watchtower."
"Yes, I heard that. I got your mail. Wonder Woman also told me the gist of what happened."
"I didn't know you and Wonder Woman were close like that."
"We don't talk that often, but she called me a few days ago and asked me to do her a favour. She wants me to let her know if I ever get in touch with you again. I think she needs something from you. One thing led to another, and she also told me about the other dimension and the whole Crime Syndicate fiasco."
"I see, so you've heard about Batman..."
"I did, but that's not what I want to hear from you," Kara cut him off.
She felt the need to explain herself when she saw how surprised he was by her words.
"Look, Batman and I were never close. He never liked me from the beginning. And I never liked him either. I didn't wish to see him dead, far from that, but I won't pretend I'm heartbroken over what happened. It was an accident. It is what it is… so let's get back on track…"
Looking into his eyes searchingly, she asked:
"Why did you push me away, Harry? Was it because of your ex-wife… ex-wives?"
That question made Harry understand that she had gotten the wrong idea.
"I have long since come to terms with their deaths. I have lived a long and fulfilling life with them. I will always think fondly of them, but that doesn't stop me from living my life, seeking companionship, and forging new relationships. How sad and pathetic would it be for an immortal to spend eternity alone and loveless?"
"Then what's the hold-up? Make it make sense."
"Death is the 'hold up'. Yes, the actual Death. The Death that I have told you about," Harry said.
Knowing that it still didn't make much sense to her, he explained:
"You didn't believe me when I told you that I'm from a parallel world, but there should be no doubt in your mind anymore that alternate universes exist now that the whole Justice League have proof of it. Do you agree with that?"
"...Yes."
"Good. I told you that I am Death's Emissary, right? As Death's Emissary, I am sent to various worlds to do Death's bidding. In every world I travel to, I am given a task. In this world, my task is to kill Darkseid, the God of Evil."
"What does this have to do with why-" Power Girl began in annoyance.
"Patience, Kara, I'm getting there," Harry said. "As Death's Emissary, I am immortal. No matter how someone tries to kill me, I will always come back until I accomplish my task."
"Is that how you survived that meteorite strike?" Kara asked, realisation dawning on her.
"Yes… But there is a catch: for every time Death brings me back to life, my time in their service lengthens by one lifetime," Harry said.
"Humans aren't meant to live for as long as I did. I wasn't meant to live for so long. I should have died when I was 40 years old in my first life, and I jumped into the gateway that leads to the afterlife. But here I am today, at the age of over 500, because Death repeatedly pulled the strings to lengthen my contract. For example, the meteorite hitting New York was going to happen regardless, but I wasn't supposed to be there. Death manipulated the events in such a way that I would be in New York at the time of the meteorite strike, so I would get killed."
Power Girl became speechless as she heard him talk. She hadn't known what sort of explanation to expect from him. After all, for the life of her, Kara couldn't imagine why any single man would reject her, much less Harry, who had shown that he was attracted to her.
"I'm just… tired. I've fought for too long. I've lived for too long. This is my 7th life… and I want it to be the last. So I don't want to make any mistakes. I can't be together with you or anyone else. I don't want to give Death any weaknesses to exploit."
She was silent for a while, taking it all in.
"If that's the case, why did you flirt back with me? Why did you lead me on if you weren't interested?" she asked.
Harry sighed.
"You're beautiful, charming, and you're a flirt and a half. And I'm just a man; I'm not made of stone. I didn't mean to let it get this far, but it happened before I knew it."
Nobody said anything for nearly a minute.
"I understand…" Kara said eventually. "Thank you for being honest with me, Harry."
"It's the least I could do. For all it's worth, I'm sorry."
As he stood up from his seat, preparing to leave, Kara suddenly said:
"Work for me, Harry."
"...What?!"
"I want to employ your services for my company."
"Where did that come from?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Your skills would be invaluable to what I'm trying to do. Work for me. Work with me," she said, not afraid to meet his eyes.
He looked at her in confusion, wondering what she was playing at. For a moment there, he was even tempted to use his Legilimency on her, but he quickly banished that thought. He didn't use his mind arts on the innocent.
"I don't think this is a good idea. Besides, I've already relocated to France."
"You can teleport anywhere you want; distance is hardly an issue for you. And why not? Just because we went on a dinner date and shared a hot kiss before you dumped me doesn't mean we can't work together, does it?" she said with a grin.
"...You're definitely holding a grudge. What are you after?"
"I'm being honest, Harry. I want you. I want your magical abilities. Imagine all the good you could do!"
As he remained silent, she continued in a voice that was getting more excited the longer she spoke:
"That magical cream that you used on me when we first met was incredible. Imagine if we could mass-produce that cream for the sake of those who suffered severe burns and other flesh wounds. Also, your magic restored even the destroyed part of Central Park. That means that it can affect plants too, doesn't it? And I remember you telling me you can fast-forward the time of an object too. We could plant a belt of trees that you could magically grow overnight to stop desertification in Africa. And that's only the tip of the iceberg of what we could do with your skills. Just think of the possibilities!"
By now, Kara was on her feet, leaning over the desk, her face uncomfortably close to his.
"Listen, I'll help someone in need if I happen to be close by, but this isn't my world, Kara. I'm only passing through. I won't get sidetracked doing miscellaneous things. I have one mission: to kill Darkseid. Once I'm done with that, I'll be gone."
"Don't be like that, Harry!" she said, not bummed out by his refusal in the least.
Quite the opposite, a fire seemed to have lit in her eyes, and it wasn't because of her heat vision.
He was forced to take two steps back when Kara flew over the desk and landed in front of him, further intruding into his personal space.
"Do not go gentle into that good night."
As Kara unexpectedly started reciting the verses of that poem, he found himself backing away again, overwhelmed by her intensity.
"Old age should burn and rave at close of day."
Unknowingly, when he tried to take another step back to keep his distance from the ever-advancing blonde girl, he found himself with his back against the wall.
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light." (1)
By now, they were face-to-face, mere inches separating each other. Power Girl was already a tall woman, but she looked even more imposing with her high heels on.
"If this is going to be your last life, make it memorable. Live every day as if it's your last, and when the time comes, go out with a bang."
Her burning passion reached out to him and cracked the thick layer of jade covering his heart. A flicker of light glimmered in his dull green eyes, giving them life.
"Abandon your fears. Live in the present. Dare to love and dare to live."
On a rational level, he still believed that it was safer and wiser to keep his distance from everyone to not allow Death to take advantage of him…
However, at that moment, he realised that he couldn't push Kara away again. Not anymore. The blonde girl didn't sneak into his heart through the gaps in his ramparts this time around; no, she bulldozed through all his defences and the walls that he had raised up, tearing them all apart.
He didn't even attempt to stop her when she put her hands on his chest and covered his mouth with hers, taking his lips in a passionate kiss. Kara moaned into the kiss when he brought his hands to her hips and then to her ass, giving it a strong squeeze. Her arms rose to wrap around his neck, and her breathing became irregular with need as she deepened their kiss.
He was thoroughly defeated. She had conquered him. His worries, his fears, his paranoia, and his pessimism all vanished.
[Lemon removed]
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[Lemon removed]
⁂
Almost two hours later, Kara and Harry were lying breathlessly next to each other on a thick and soft rug that he had conjured on the floor.
Kara's eyes were closed, and her body was shuddering every now and then in post-orgasmic bliss.
As for Harry, he was drained. He was even more exhausted than he had been after casting the colossal spell that had rewinded the time over the entire New York City. His eyes were looking vacantly at the various holes and chips left in the walls and ceiling of the office. Kara had made those holes every time she orgasmed and love juices splashed around. Harry's own clothes were filled with holes too.
"How the hell did you ever have sex with anyone without killing them?" he asked seriously.
Power Girl laughed airily. It was as if she was high.
"I don't remember the last time I had sex," she answered.
She hadn't slept with anyone ever since she came to this world. As for what happened before that, her memories were too jumbled up for her to make sense of them.
"I'm not sure which of my memories are real… but I seem to remember Superman having a room with artificial red sunlight. Red sunlight takes our Kryptonian powers away, rendering us no different than humans. I believe he and his wife used to spend time there."
She crawled closer to him and wrapped both her arms and legs around him, melding her body against his. Harry let her do as she pleased, taking delight in feeling her soft bosom against his chest.
"I've never felt anything like that, Harry... It was… it was out of this world," she said in a dreamy voice and her body shivered involuntarily again.
"Good for you. It was life-threatening for me. My whole body hurts. I feel like one big bruise. You nearly broke my spine and destroyed my hips!" he shot back grumpily, making her laugh. "But it was totally worth it," he added after that with a smile.
She mirrored his smile and pressed her lips to his in a soft, lingering kiss. Harry cupped her cheek, caressing it tenderly with his thumb as he closed his eyes and kissed her back.
That strong oak desk had been obliterated from how Kara had slammed her hips against his while riding him; the walls and paintings in the office were riddled with holes as if they had served as cover during a gunfight; and the floor was cracked and damaged too.
However, Kara and Harry were lying in each other's arms, exchanging loving kisses and sweet caresses with no care in the world. And they would have continued to do just that for hours to come if not for Kara's employee, who suddenly knocked on the doors of the office and called out her name:
"Ms Starr! Your Uber Eats has arrived!"
AN1: You can find the Harry/Power Girl lemon on pa tr e on, at /grumpywolf. I posted there the entire chapter, uncensored.
You do not have to pay because this chapter's privacy is set to public so anyone can read it. I do that with all the chapters that have lemons in them. Just type the name of the chapter in the search bar and you will find it easily.
(1) "Do not go gentle into that good night" is a poem written by Dylan Thomas.
AN2: Telling me to go to Ao3 is useless because I won't. Nothing short of FFN shutting down would make me go back to that website.
Until next time!