July 2012, Stark Tower
It took a few weeks for Fury to calm everything down, but he was wildly successful in the aftermath. After attacking and freeing the major SHIELD bases of HYDRA's influence, Fury was left with a competent, if reduced, workforce. He used the information he had to make many arrests of high profile politicians with connections to HYDRA. His newly gained political capital allowed him to remove many of the restrictions set by the World Security Council, especially after Ambassador Li was outed as a HYDRA plant.
Following that Fury focussed on shoring up the remaining agents he had and trying to find a way to prevent an intrusion like this from happening. That brought him to Harry.
"So you want a way to prevent people who join SHIELD from working against their interests?" Harry asked slowly to make sure he was hearing Fury properly.
"That's correct. I can't have something like the HYDRA infiltration happen again." Fury said as he stood there looking at the setting sun framing the New York skyline from the penthouse window of Stark Tower. Harry leaned back and hummed to himself as he scratched his chin. He of course has dealt with issues of secrecy before, but not with so many non magical people.
"While I don't think it's a good idea to tie it to SHIELD's interests, I think I got it." Harry said as he stood up, "Be back in a minute." Harry didn't even bother to wait for Fury as he faded away and went directly to the warehouse in his Trunk. Fury stood there annoyed that once again Harry just ghosted away. Sighing he rubbed his temples with his fingers before standing tall and resuming his position. Tony, who had been watching from the kitchen, couldn't help but chuckle at Fury's annoyance with the casual teleportation that Harry does.
It didn't take long for Harry to reappear back in the room carrying a bag. "I think I have an idea of what to do." Harry then upturned the bag over the table letting a few rings fall out.
"Are those wedding rings?" Tony asked incredulously from where he was now leaning over the kitchen island.
"Technically they're betrothal rings." Harry commented as he started moving them around on the table and organizing them by an unknown order. When he looked up both Fury and Tony were just waiting for him to explain. He smiled to himself that he had finally gotten Tony to let him explain before barraging him with questions. Briefly his memories flitted to bushy brown hair and the scent of strawberries before he reinforced his occlumency. "Back in my world the rules of men in Pureblood houses were strict and pretty much law to their wives or partners. Betrothal contracts were common for centuries but were slowly changing with time. Granted women in magic societies were subservient to their husbands or head of house, they were generally equal in most other things. Kind of evens the board when both sexes can kill you with a few words." Harry said with a smirk, "Anyway, these rings would be enchanted to protect the wearer but also keep them from committing certain acts that were against the contract supplied in the betrothal process."
"So you figure you could turn these rings into a sort of privacy lock?" Tony sussed out.
"Essentially yes." Harry said as he started waving his hands around the rings and studying the equations that were created visualized by glowing runes and numbers. "Not these rings specifically, but if I know how they work, I can make more." Fury was pleased with the idea. With his agents wearing these they could be bound magically not to spill any secrets or work with outside agencies. Fury and Tony watched Harry study the floating walls of text and pull out a plain silver ring. Harry covered the ring with both hands and a flash of light seeped between his fingers making Harry open his cupped hands up leaving a silver ring with the SHIELD insignia on one side. "There we go. First of the secrecy rings done." Harry said with a nod.
Fury stared at him for a moment but realized Harry wasn't going to explain. "Explain." Harry looked at Fury for a moment before he chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.
"Sorry. This ring, when worn, will stop anyone from removing that isn't the person who put it on. It'll auto adjust sizes and vibrate if near a poison that I know of. This ring will also curse anyone who wears it. That curse can be dictated by an attached document that I need to charm. The best part is, I only need one document for any number of rings." Harry said proudly as he lifted the ring up for Tony to inspect. Fury narrowed his eye for each thing the ring did. Before finally a grin spread across his face.
"This, Potter, is one of the best things you have ever made for me." Fury said in a grim glee.
"Even better than your trench coat?" Harry asked with faux innocence. Tony snickered when Fury subconsciously patted the coat he wore all the time. Harry had made it for him years ago. It stopped small arms fire, was temperature controlled, cleaned itself, and would repair any damage taken, given it wasn't mostly destroyed. Not even mentioning Fury's favorite part, it looked bad ass.
"Whatever. How long till you can make enough for all my agents? Also, what happens when someone triggers the curse?" Fury asked.
"Well nothing happens. They can't do what the curse prevents them from doing. It would be like having your arm lose all its strength, you can try and lift your arm, but you physically can't. That's how the curses work. No accidental leaks either, if someone not in the know is listening they can't mention anything protected by the secrecy rings." Harry said as he started making the rings by the dozens pulling out ingots of steel. Tony watched him casually making rings by the dozens as and still explain what the rings would do. "The only thing you need to do is craft the document or documents you want to attach them to. Segregate them by access levels or whatever and then place the rings on your agents." Fury nodded as Harry explained how the rings would work and what his job was when they were done.
"When you get done bring them by the Helicarrier." Fury said before he turned away from the window and left through the Portal Frame back to the Helicarrier. Tony took a seat on the couch across from Harry and picked one up inspecting it. The rings were solid steel and fairly plain with the exception of the SHIELD symbol on one side. Tossing it back on the table he looked up at Harry who was milling out rings like an assembly line.
"How difficult is what you're doing?" Tony asked as Harry placed another dozen on the table.
"Eh, not all that difficult. It took some time for the first one, but back when I was fighting the demon war I would sit and enchant arrows for hours. Eventually I learned how to copy simplistic enchantments in mass quantities. These rings all have the size and poison enchantments but I will need to curse them later." Harry said as he finally ran out of materials. "Looks like I also need to get more metal." Harry said more to himself. He conjured up a bag and waved his hand over it before the hundreds of rings lifted off the table and funneled into the bag. When it was done he tied it to his belt and stood up. "This did give me an idea for making accessories for the team though."
"Accessories?" Tony asked with a raised brow.
"Of course. Like an RPG." Harry said casually as he and Tony walked through the nearby Frame and ended up in Harry's house. "If I can make some rings of invisibility or earrings of featherfall, I can help to make sure we don't get stuck in really shitty scenarios." Harry explained as they walked downstairs into the workshop.
"You know you're right. For some reason I kept on trying to improve combat effectiveness based on damage output or weapon versatility." Tony said as he rubbed his chin. "Any way to make them fly?"
"Now that you mention it, I was working on something that would emulate levitation…" Harry trailed off as Tony picked it back up.
"With levitation they just need a pushing force and they can essentially fly." Tony nodded seeing where Harry's thought process was going.
"Unfortunately the levitations I worked out are slow and only allow a certain height to be achieved or maintained." Harry said as he finally got to his workstation and brought up the schematics of the boots of levitation. Tony studied it for a while before pointing out the runic sequence.
"Why are you using the air runes instead of the gravity runes?" Tony asked. Harry looked over at his inscription and rubbed his face with his hands. "What?" Tony asked with a smirk.
"Well I replaced the gravity runes to try and add thrust to the flight abilities." Harry said as he removed his hand from his face.
"Well why not make them weigh less and still use the air runes?" Tony asked with a smug grin.
Seeing Tony's smug looks he rolled his eyes, "Don't get too smug Tony, I need your head to fit through the Frame later. Plus we will have to find a workaround for using the weight rune since the air rune and weight rune don't cooperate usually. That's why brooms are made the way they are, because the common runes don't function properly." After that it was basically a crafting session with Harry and Tony throwing ideas out left and right. Eventually Tony was pulled home by Pepper when their session expanded past the 24 hour period. Harry walked up to his kitchen to find Wanda cooking lunch and Pietro was lazing next to the bay window playing something on his phone. "What are you two up to?"
Wanda turned and gave him a smile before seeing his face. She frowned and shook her head before turning back to her food, "Well I was making goulash for lunch and Pietro's been stuck on some game he found all day." She shot him another look from the corner of her eye when Harry grabbed some juice from the fridge, "Also, you look like hell."
Harry ignored her admonishment as he drank his OJ before he set the cup down on the counter. He leaned back and sighed as he ran his hand along his chin, which now sported a healthy dose of stubble. He created a mirror in the air in front of him before he winced. His eyes had small bags under them and his stubble looked messy. "Tony and I stayed up way too long again." he said with a sigh. "Leave me some?" Harry asked Wanda, who nodded. "Eat my portion and you'll spend tomorrow as a bunny rabbit." Harry said as he knocked lightly on Pietro's head as he headed up to his room. Pietro grumbled something about punks not deserving his sister's food as the door closed behind him.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
"WOOHOO!" Tony screamed as he flew through the air behind Harry's house. Harry was standing at the ready for anything to go wrong, but just watched Tony fly around with his new boots. Hearing the screaming coming from the back yard Wanda and Pietro both walked out and saw Tony flying.
"How is he doing that?" Pietro asked with a bit of awe.
"Tony and I finally finished my boots of levitation, granted it's more like flying than levitation at this point." Harry explained as Wanda and Pietro stood next to him. When Tony did another fly by he swooped up before coming in for a gentle landing.
"That was awesome." Tony said as he walked over and collapsed onto a nearby bench.
"Looks like you need to increase your physical conditioning Tony." Harry said with a smirk seeing Tony's tired visage. Tony just rolled his eyes as he bent down and took the boots off letting them grow back to their much larger size. "How was the handling?"
"It was good. Turns nice and quick, the acceleration is lacking and max speed is slow, but they're great for battlefield mobility." Tony said as he placed the now large boots on the table. Harry hummed as he walked over and inspected the boots. Deciding to try it himself he put them over his shoes, like Tony had done, and lifted off the ground slowly. Wanda Pietro and Tony watched as he took a slow loop in the air before suddenly he was blitzing upwards. Tony was gobsmacked when Harry reached speeds much faster than he did. It was only moments later Harry was rocketing towards the ground before he pulled up and casually started walking as the momentum bled off from his dive.
"These will work just fine. I think I'm going to switch them out for a belt though." Harry said as he too removed the boots.
"Why a belt?" Pietro asked as he inspected the boots.
"Well since the enchantments allow you to control your body in the air using the air itself, having them as a belt doesn't make a difference." Harry explained, "I have another idea for boots. Something my more physically inclined teammates would enjoy more."
"Oh and what would that be?" Tony asked as he watched Harry help Wanda put on the boots and show her how to fly. Harry watched Wanda slowly float around before she slowly picked up speed. When she whooped and started moving around like Harry did he just chuckled.
"Well I know a guy who has these boots that create platforms in midair. He uses them to jump and maintain momentum when he's dodging in combat." Harry said as he sat down and watched Wanda fly around. He glanced to the side and saw Pietro smiling at his sister's exuberance.
"So like an air step?" Tony asked as he watched Harry smiling at his pseudo children. Tony had watched Harry slowly morph from lonely and trying to hide it, to a man who was happy with his lot in life. He had seen the sad looks that crossed his face several times throughout their friendship, but recently that has been changing. Harry had slowly been opening up more and losing that cloud that hung around behind his fake smiles and false cheer.
"Exactly! I figure the belt could be used to reposition in battle or travel in difficult terrain, but the air step boots would be very useful in battle. Using the air step to increase momentum for a knockout hit or added height to get a good hit on a bigger opponent. Either way it's utility would be very useful to myself, Natasha, and Steve." Harry said, his eyes never leaving Wanda who was doing loops through the air. Below her Pietro had run out and started complaining about wanting a turn. Tony just shook his head with a slight smile wondering if Pep would want kids.
/OO-HP•SoS-OO\
It only took a week for Tony and Harry to have an array of new useful items ready for their teammates, then they had to explain the next moves for them and their plans for HYDRA.
"Okay team, this is an update on HYDRA's activities, but first presents!" Harry said with excitement as he pulled up a bag from the ground. He proceeded to pull out four belts, four pairs of boots, six rings, six stud earrings, and Clint's quiver. The entire team sat up and looked at the items he pulled out. "First up the boots." He handed Cap his red vibranium boots, Nat her black boots, Clint's purple boots, and Thor got a dark gray pair of boots. "These are the boots from your outfits. Thor, I made these for you. These boots are now enchanted with several things. First they're set to always be comfortable regardless of weather. You'll also notice that they now go over your regular footwear, they have been made using linked plates so they have plenty of mobility. The best part is they now have an Air Step enchantment." Harry didn't bother explaining as he stepped back and showed off his white boots before he stepped onto the air and did quick hops back and forth before he landed. "You can do that as long as you have the stamina, but the air platforms last only moments."
"Next," he said, not waiting for them to try out their boots, "is these." Harry said as he held up one of the belts. He then pulled up his shirt to show a similar black belt with an insignia emplace of the belt buckle before he started to gently float off the ground. "These are enchanted to allow flight." Harry said with a massive grin. Steve and Clint both perked up at that and quickly snagged a belt with their matching insignias from the table. Bruce was looking unsure and Nat just walked around the table and grabbed the one Harry was holding that had the widow insignia on it. Harry handed it over with a kiss as payment. He then looked at Bruce, "That one's yours. It'll grow with your transformation and I bet Hulk will love flying." Harry said with a smirk. Bruce picked it up and looked it over before shrugging and sitting back down.
Harry then went on to explain the rings and how they could detect poison and locate the other rings in case someone was out of commission. "These are our new communicators." Harry said as he handed everyone an earring. He touched the bottom of his left ear causing an earring to appear where there wasn't one before, "As you can see it's invisible and fairly indestructible. It doesn't require a piercing and it has been cursed so it can't be removed. They are paired to the others so we can talk with one another just by using intent or saying the person's name for direct communication. So you won't hear everything I say unless I want to broadcast it." Harry explained as they all attached the earring to the lobes of their ears. The next few minutes were spent testing them and figuring out how they worked, Harry even took the Frame home and talked to them from the United Kingdom. When he came back it was Clint looking at him expectantly holding the quiver in his hands. Harry rolled his eyes, "Fine. I upgraded your quiver, it's now expanded and works much like my bags do. When you reach for an arrow you have to think of the arrow you want and it'll appear." Harry barely finished talking when Clint was pulling out arrows and putting them back. Once he had pulled one of each type he was satisfied.
Clearing his throat and waiting for them to all settle he pulled up the holo screens in the Avenger's Penthouse. "Now we can cover HYDRA. First off SHIELD is as clean as we can get it without me ensuring that every agent is loyal to SHIELD personally. Fury and I have some plans in place that should weed out the rest, but they aren't ready yet. Next," Harry moved to a new image, "Fury has created a task force led by our dear Coulson to start searching out hidden HYDRA cells and researching what HYDRA has been doing over the years. This includes the original cult that spawned HYDRA. All we have to do is be ready, we'll probably be sent on raids if the base is too large for a regular continent of agents. Any questions?" Harry asked as he looked over his team. Tony was once again sitting in his chair doing something on his phone, Clint and Nat were shaking their heads in response while Clint held tight to his quiver, Steve was looking contemplative with Bruce, and Thor was looking right at him.
"Do we know what has been done with the scepter?" Thor asked seriously. Harry was confused why it mattered so much but answered anyway.
"Not so much no. It was last seen with these two men." Harry said as he pulled up a picture of Baron von Strucker and Jasper Sitwell. "Sitwell was fairly deep cover and didn't pop up on any of our radars until he made off with the scepter and released Strucker from captivity." Thor frowned more before he sat back and crossed his arms. "What's up Thor? You didn't seem that worried about the scepter before."
"Well," Thor huffed and flexed his fist, "Loki has revealed some secrets of the Scepter to Father. It seems the Scepter is much more than it appears. He led us to believe it was an artifact of power quite similar to the Tesseract." At Thor's proclamation Tony dropped his phone and the rest of the Avengers all looked directly at him, Harry just tiredly rubbed his face before he plopped down on the chair behind him.
"Well fuck."