The next morning found Harry back at the Helicarrier. Fury had asked him where he had gone, but Harry's eyes just flashed and he refused to speak about it. He told them he was fine and that they would soon find out.
And find out they did. A couple of hours later there was a report delivered to Fury about the disappearance of current and retired government officials from their places of residence. Some of which were lying right next to their partners. When Fury had their connections investigated, he found all of them had ties back to the Red Room, the hellish spawning ground of the Black Widow program.
When next he saw Harry, Fury just nodded and continued on his way, to go speak to Natasha. It was an hour later and Natasha tracked Harry down to the lab, where he was amiably discussing potions with Bruce. She walked in and addressed him, "Agent Potter, I'd like a word."
He looked up and nodded. He said goodbye to Bruce and said he'd be back in an hour or so. Then he followed her out. She led him to Fury's office, having gotten permission to use it earlier. When he entered the room, she closed the door and pressed the button he knew made it impossible for them to be overheard.
Then she rounded on him, "How DARE you!? They were mine!" she shouted at him.
He stood there silently for a moment and then said, "They still are. Take my hand." he said it quietly and without emotion, but held out his hand to her.
At first she looked shocked, but then there was a gleam in her eyes, and she grabbed his hand.
They appeared in a room she was very familiar with. They were in the entrance hall of the abandoned Red Room facility. "Hand me your badge." Harry said, in the same tone. She complied and he concentrated on it for a second. "When you are done, take your badge in your hand and say 'Vengeance is best served cold', it will return you to your room, so that you can take a shower and change your clothes if it is necessary. Please don't take more than an hour, otherwise I'll have to come looking for you." He made sure she understood and when she nodded, he pointed to a door that lead to one of the ballet studios and disappeared back to Fury's office.
She squared her shoulders and walked through the door. In front of her were all the tormentors from her nightmares, hands tied above their heads. Most of them had started struggling when she entered while others just looked resigned and wept. Around their necks hung signs saying words that described their various misdeeds, with written confessions from each of them. When or if they were found, people would be so disgusted with what they had done, that few would care who took them. Natasha smiled.
Harry exited the room and went to Natasha's quarters. He stood sentinel. In case anyone wanted to enter the room, to ensure nobody saw her arrive.
Just before an hour was up, he felt the portkey activate and heard her arrive. He stayed where he was, knowing he was as guilty as her for whatever she had done, but also knowing that those men had continued their deeds and would have done more if they had not been stopped. They were just putting rabid dogs down.
Ten minutes later the door opened and Natasha froze. Harry looked up at her, nodded and left. As he walked away, he heard a soft, "Thank you." He did not acknowledge her words. He just continued back to the lab. He took the time while he was walking to compartmentalize and store the memories he did not want at the forefront of his mind, away.
When he reached the lab he was feeling better. He entered and said, "So how goes the studying. Has Tony started trying to write rune-words again?" he said with a smirk.
"Hey it was only that one time and they didn't even work!" Tony said.
"It's because your EIHWAZ was upside down. Had it been the ISA, you may have actually caused an explosion!" Harry replied.
"That doesn't make any sense! The ISA is a straight line it looks the same both ways." Tony said.
"Have you gotten to the part about the proper directions to draw the lines with?" Harry asked.
"Direction?" Tony asked.
"Even I know that! You have to start at the proper point. Some runes look like they have straight lines, but you have to draw part of a line one direction and then the other part in the other direction. That's how the scheme knows your intent. One rune can be drawn ten different ways and that's just for their basic functions. You're only on the first book, practice only starts at book three." Harry explained.
"But I'm done with the first book and you won't give me a new one!" Tony complained. He had shot through a year's worth of information in a single night! Harry was beyond impressed, but he couldn't have them going any further without proper supervision.
"And as I said, that's very impressive, but I can't be here to help, and as you've proven, you can't be left alone with more information. I'm sorry Tony, but I like you too much to see you kill yourself. At your current rate, you'll go past my level of knowledge in days, but you need to be taught the basics the proper way." he sighed, knowing he needed to get a concession or Stark will become intolerable. "I tell you what, if I teach you a basic light creation rune-word, will you promise to stop experimenting?"
"Okay." Tony said quickly. Too quickly. Had he been doing that on purpose? Oh well.
"Okay, let me show you…" Harry started explaining the rune word for creating light, Bruce watching as he did. Five minutes later, Tony had written his own first rune word, simple enough to take energy out of the air without needing to be infused by direct magic. He was ecstatic, but kept to his word and started drawing it over and over again muttering over and over again, "I'm doing magic!"
He went over to Bruce's station, and started answering some questions about herbology, as it was a required field of study when working with potions. Unfortunately, they would have to stick with the potions that are made from only plants as Harry couldn't save any magical creatures. He was certain he had most of the plants, if not just their cuttings, but he'd have to be very careful with those, as he didn't want to lose them. He had no doubt that that would make things difficult, but if anyone can figure out a way around the limitations it would be Bruce.
It was a while later, when Harry was talking about one of his friends with a real talent for herbology and who he had ended up becoming that the door opened and Steve walked in, a scowl crossing his face. "Shouldn't you be working on finding the Tesseract? Why are you distracting them, Harry?"
"Relax, Steve. I'm just keeping them company while the machines do their work. You know how boring that can be. It's a waiting game at this point and bored geniuses get distracted. A distracted Tony is a dangerous Tony." he looked over at said genius, "Am I right?"
Tony looked up from his scribbling. He had gotten Harry to show him how to change the colours of the light, stating that that was obviously part of the light rune-word and Bruce had just chuckled, saying Harry should have known better. Tony was currently struggling to get purple to work, but he answered anyway, "I can get in trouble whether I'm busy or not." He looked up at his device that he had been ignoring for the last couple of minutes. "For example, I wonder who all knows about Phase Two."
"Phase Two?" Steve asked, as he walked up to look at the display.
"Tony, now would be a good time to re-enable the cameras. Please put away your books guys, we don't want certain people knowing about some of what we're doing." Harry said with a pointed look. Tony caught on almost immediately, Bruce only a second behind. Something about Phase Two was not right. Harry was telling them something. They hurriedly put away the books and notes they were making, Tony switching the Cameras back on when they were done while Tony showed Steve what he had found.
"What are you doing?" Fury said as he marched into the lab.
The confrontation slowly grew as people entered the lab and voices raised. Tony was supplying Steve with the information he had gathered and Steve was coming to the realization that while Harry was there, he was covered up again and he was not interrupting. Fury wanted this confrontation for some reason. And then it clicked. Fury wanted the team to be their phase two, but couldn't force his superiors to listen. He still argued that things never seemed to change, but his heart wasn't in it.
Thor and Fury were screaming at each other when Harry suddenly spoke up. "Quiet," he said, but when nobody listened he said more loudly, "Quiet!" When all sounds stopped coming from the arguing people, Natasha trying to get Banner to leave and Fury blaming Thor for the need for Phase Two, Harry looked at Fury. The sharp look in his eyes immediately got everyone's attention. "The sceptre is putting out waves of anger indiscriminately. I think it's trying to get Bruce on edge. Please evacuate the room and Bruce, if you would?"
Harry didn't need to finish his statement, Bruce opened and downed a vial, before a look of contentment covered his face. As everyone started leaving the room, there was a beeping from one of the screens and Harry went to go look and then there was an explosion.
Harry came to with a ringing in his ears. He was disoriented, but remembered an explosion. He looked around himself and found he was in a hallway with debris around him, but the hallway seemed intact, like it had fallen from above him. He looked up and saw someone waving at him. They were pointing at their throat. Harry touched his throat, to see if he was injured, but he was not.
A moment passed and his memories came rushing back. Damn! There was an explosion! He apparated back to the hallway outside the lab and found Fury pointing at his throat again with the others arranged around him. Harry remembered suddenly and cancelled the silencing spell with a move of his hand.
"It's about damn time, Potter! Don't do that again!" Fury said as he started moving away from them calling for an update over his earpiece.
The rest of the team were looking at him worriedly. "Are you well, friend Harry?" Thor said.
"I'll be fine. It takes more than that to keep a wizard out of a fight." Harry replied. He saw Romanoff nod and Bruce was just standing there relaxed against the wall with half a smile. He heard Fury barking orders and Tony and Steve were running off to go help with the disabled propeller. Natasha was soon off as well, apparently looking for Barton. Bruce just followed Fury as he left. Thor and Coulson were going to go check on Loki and Harry told them to go ahead, while he sorted out his aching head.
He concentrated, making the headache worse, took a moment to conjure a vial and replaced it with a general pain potion. Giving it a minute to work, he felt around his body and found that he had a bump on his head. If it hadn't been for Coulson's suggestion that he add a hood, he might have had serious problems, the dragon-hide was able to take most of the impact for him.
Once he was thinking more clearly, he decided to go check on Loki. He apparated to just outside the room with his holding cell, he made himself invisible and snuck in. What he saw shocked him. Thor was in Loki's cell, with Loki standing at the controls and Coulson pointing the Destroyer inspired tech at him. There was a build-up of magic and Harry realised what Loki was going to do, just before he did. It seemed Loki was good with illusions and had a form of invisibility himself.
Harry felt Loki approach Coulson and he jumped to tackle his friend out of the way, but it was too close. The sceptre impacted Harry instead. The Dragon hide was tough, bit it could not withstand the entire blow, the tip of the sceptre entered his back and Harry fell. As Harry and Coulson tumbled, Harry became visible again. Coulson was shocked, but keeping a cool head, he shot Loki just as he began to smile. Loki went through a wall and disappeared on the other side.
"Harry!" Coulson suddenly realising Harry wasn't moving, turned him over. Something was wrong. "Harry, what can I do?!" Coulson asked.
Harry's eyes opened, but he didn't move. "I… think he got me in the spine…" Harry said softly.
At this point, Thor broke out of containment, shattering the cage as he exited. He came to Harry's side and asked, "Can your magic not help you?"
"Need… body to channel…" Harry whispered.
"Damn it, Harry! There must be something!" Coulson said, panic in his voice. Harry had never heard the man show so much emotion.
"There is… Marauder's… say… 'activate… last chance'… use… as little… as you can." Harry wheezed out.
Coulson did not hesitate. He didn't even stand up. His hand went to his badge instantly and he said, "No Marauder without his pack!" Never had Harry thought it more apt.
Thirty seconds later, Harry heard Coulson return. He was suddenly looking at the floor again, but couldn't feel a thing. He heard Thor gasp and then the medics entered. "Don't touch him!" he heard Coulson say, "He's been injured, but he'll be okay. You better be okay Harry, otherwise Fury will never let me hear the end of it. He actually might shoot me this time." Coulson joked.
Harry couldn't help himself, he let out a laugh, and then suddenly started screaming as the rest of his body burst in pain. He screamed a good thirty seconds, while Coulson apologised over and over again, thinking he'd done something wrong. Suddenly Harry's screams broke off. He was breathing hard, but Coulson was very glad to see that he had started moving again.
When Harry was in full control of himself again, he slowly sat up, and Coulson helped him up. "You scared the hell out of me, Harry. What was that, what is this stuff?" Coulson asked.
"Keep that safe. I can't store it just now. My magic isn't stable yet." Harry said, seriously, and Coulson immediately put his hand inside his shirt, presumably depositing the vial in his pouch.
"What is that stuff?" Coulson asked again.
"The very last phoenix tears I will probably ever own. It can cure anything, fix any wound, but I cannot make it and I cannot replenish it. It is the last." Harry said.
"That is not possible." Thor whispered. "Even I've only heard of phoenixes in legend. Harry is right. If that is indeed phoenix tears, it is probably the most valuable thing on this planet, besides the Tesseract itself. My father would put it in his vault and it would be kept under guard at all times. Phoenix tears are said to be able to heal even immortal beings. Wars have been fought over less."
Coulson's eyes went wide. "I'll keep it safe, I promise. Why were you screaming, though?"
"Ever had your spinal-cord re-attached? Not a fun process. Every nerve in my body started sending impulses to my brain, including the pain receptors." Coulson winced. A man with a high pain-tolerance threshold would have passed out. Even now, Harry still impressed him.
They helped Harry back to the command deck after Harry assured them he didn't need rest. The tears would continue to work for a while yet.
They met up in the briefing room where the rest of the team was waiting. Apparently someone had told them he was gravely injured and the looks of relief on all of their faces was heartening. Of course it was Tony who spoke first.
"Heard you were going to be out of commission for a while. Good to see you're feeling better." Harry hadn't seen him that serious before.
"Why, Tony, I didn't know you cared." Harry said as he sat down gingerly.
"How are you feeling?" Bruce asked, worriedly, interrupting Tony's no-doubt snarky reply. Apparently the calming draught had worn off.
"I feel like I just had my spine replaced, to be honest, but I'll be okay. Just need some time before my skills are operational again." Harry said as he looked about the room, not knowing if they were being observed.
"Do you know how long that will be?" Fury asked walking into the room. He looked like he had been in a fight, but was back on task anyway.
"Not sure, sir. Half an hour at most. I can feel it coming back already." Harry replied, straightening in his chair.
"Good, Romanoff was able to detain Barton. We'll need you to use your skills to get him back. Any means necessary is authorised." Fury told him. Authorising any means, bypasses a Contract they had later created for the safety of Fury's agents. Harry didn't complain.
They discussed what everyone had been up to and Harry mentioned that once his skills were up and running, he'd be able to pinpoint Loki, if he had not discovered the 'tracker'.
When he felt up to it, Harry went to where Barton was kept. He asked Romanoff to keep anyone out. It would not do to be interrupted. She nodded, stepped outside and closed the door.
Harry kneeled over the man, opened his eye-lids with his fingers and entered his mind. It was a mess. It seemed his emotions had been suppressed, while he was implanted with false memories. False memories making him a double agent. That would explain the difference. The Imperius suppressed your will, but you could still feel and that allowed your emotions and subconscious to fight the commands. With his emotions suppressed, his subconscious could not fight the false memories, because he didn't need or want to. Quite insidious. It seemed that when Natasha had knocked him out, his subconscious had been able to reassert control and was purging the false memories. He would be fine without Harry's help, but he'd be tired. They were probably not allowed to sleep, for fear of losing control.
Harry withdrew from Barton's mind. When he got to the door, he explained the situation to Natasha. She had saved her own partner. She looked relieved. Harry handed her two pepper-up potions, "One of those is for you. When you get him up, give him the other. He'll need it."
"You keep on helping me like this and I might have to kiss you one of these days." Natasha said, grinning at him.
"Whoa, don't go talking crazy, now. I don't put out until the third date." Harry joked back.
"Depends on how good the date is." Natasha replied with a saucy smile.
"Damn it, woman! How am I supposed to focus on my job now?" Harry continued.
"Cold shower?" Natasha suggested, not skipping a beat.
Harry just smiled, shook his head and walked away. After his mental exercise in Barton's mind, he was feeling his magic respond to him almost like it should. Turns out he didn't need a tracking spell as Tony had already figured it out.
"You will not go without the team! I don't need you popping over there and getting yourself killed without backup!" Fury said, brooking no questions. "And no apparating until you are fully back up and running. I don't need you leaving pieces of yourself all over the city, do I make myself clear, Agent?"
"Yes, sir." Harry said. He knew Fury was right. He wasn't exactly up to one hundred percent, yet.
He followed the team, minus Tony who was flying in his suit, as they entered the quinjet and Barton took off. When they were in the air, Barton switched on the autopilot and approached Harry who was sitting at the back of the jet looking out the window. "I hear I have you to thank for the all-clear and that elixir thing?" Barton said.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I had to enter your mind to see what was done to you. If it makes you feel any better, I swear I only looked for what was wrong. I didn't go near anything else." Harry apologized. "As for the pepper-up potion, no problem. I knew you'd be tired after your ordeal."
"No problem. I trust Fury to do the right thing. I'm just glad you were around. Wouldn't want to worry about turning on the team." Barton said. Then he asked with a quirked brow, "So is it true? You're a wizard that casts spells and stuff?"
"Harry Potter, at your service." Harry said in lieu of answering the question, offering a hand.
"Glad we'll have friendly magic on our side, then." Barton said shaking his hand.
"Let me know if you ever need your bow enchanted. I don't know any enchantments off the top of my head, but I'm sure I can figure something out." Harry offered lamely.
"I'll take you up on that," Barton said with a smile.
They started their strategy meeting as they flew, while Harry mounted his mirror on the back of one of his gloves, so he could stay in contact with Coulson, where he was sitting in Fury's office. Coulson would in turn stay in communication with Fury where he was on the deck. Coulson had a headset on that would record anything he saw on the camera and show video only to Fury on the bridge. Coulson's idea.
Romanoff handed him an ear-piece and he just smiled shaking his head.
"Technology and magic don't mix. I don't want it exploding in my ear." Harry said. "Speaking of magic, here I am in my dragon-hide armour and you guys don't have any magical protection. What kind of tech do you carry? Maybe I can cast a couple of protection charms on you?"
Harry went about casting protective spells on them where he knew it wouldn't cause problems and ignored the smile from Natasha as he blushed slightly when he covered her bodysuit. "Like what you see?" she had asked. He supposed keeping spirits up was never a bad thing.
When they reached the city they were beset by monsters on flying chariots that were coming in from a hole in the sky! The quinjet didn't last long after Loki shot out one of their engines and they crashed onto the street. They rushed out of the jet and saw Iron Man taking a bunch of the monsters on. Thor immediately went to go confront his brother, as planned.
When they stopped to evaluate the situation, they noticed a giant worm-like creature come through the portal. Tony got its attention when he found no weak spots and led it to the team. Suddenly Bruce turned to Harry, "Don't think badly about me for this," he said.
"I already know, remember? I actually look forward to meeting our other teammate!" Harry replied with a smile. Bruce relaxed a bit and started walking out to meet the leviathan.
"Doctor Banner, now might be a really good time to get angry." Steve said.
"That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." As Bruce turned around to face the monster that was about to eat him, he transformed. Seeing it in person made a big difference and Harry was both impressed, that this behemoth of a man was so easily kept in check by his rather unassuming counterpart, and amazed at its strength. It punched the leviathan in the face and it went down. Harry just watched it in amazement as it crumpled and flipped over, until Tony blew it up, finally able to breach the exposed skin.
When more creatures came through the portal, the team came together for Steve to assign duties. Barton was to be the eyes, informing them of what was going on. Tony was sent to keep the perimeter. Thor was sent to focus on the portal. Hulk was told to smash.
"We'll keep the fighting here. Harry, you've got the lightshow, get their attention."
Harry just smiled and activated one of the other features of his armour. He levitated slowly into the air and started focusing energy into his hands as he held them over his head. When he felt he had enough energy, he pointed his hands at some of the monsters on the sides of the buildings. As he pointed, flashes of red light started shooting forward, some missing, but most hitting their targets.
The monsters started falling from the buildings and Harry was now a beacon to draw their attention. As they opened fire on him he landed again and cast a shield, blocking all their ranged attacks. They had no choice but to come to him.
"You never said you can fly." Natasha said to Harry as she started shooting at the approaching monsters on her side.
"You never asked and technically, that was levitation." Harry replied, casting spells from his other hand.
When there was a break in the fighting, they decided that someone should go to the portal device. Natasha volunteered and turned to Harry, "Want to give me a ride," she asked Harry.
"Of course, but we'll have to fly otherwise I'll fry your equipment." He replied, not thinking that now was the time for innuendo.
"I thought you said that was levitation?" she asked mildly.
"That was." Harry replied. "You're going to have to get on my back and hold on tight." Harry turned. She didn't hesitate, throwing her arms over his shoulders. Harry activated the suit again on the last setting and suddenly they were air-born. Slight twists in his posture would change his trajectory and with her on his back, his hands were free to fire spells at the flying creatures. Harry noted that when he hit the chariots they lost power and crashed.
"That's a really useful ability." Romanoff said taking Harry's gun from its holster and firing at a couple of monsters preparing to leap at them off the sides of the building.
"You haven't even seen the fun kind." Harry said as he pointed a hand at another chariot. There was a flash and the chariot exploded in a giant flash of fire.
"What was that?" Romanoff asked.
"Maximized Bombardment hex. I suppose I could have done without maximizing it…" Harry said with a shrug.
"Any other party tricks." Natasha asked.
Over the next minute as they approached the tower, monsters suddenly found themselves in strange situations. Some were sitting on balloons shaped like chariots that almost instantly popped. Some would heat up till they had to jump off. Some simply vanished or turned to jelly. Most of them simply stopped working or exploded though.
Harry dropped her off and she told him that Steve asked him to help Tony with the leviathans.
As Harry flew to the nearest one, he communicated with Coulson, who said the Director was taking a call from the council. Harry nodded and continued his work. He landed on one of the giant monsters put his hand on its armour and concentrated. Turning the piece of armour into a time delayed Portkey apparently affected some of its equipment and it began to fall. Harry watched and counted down as, just before it hit the ground, it disappeared.
Only to reappear on the other side of the portal. Harry was elated that that seemed to work. He was on his way to the next one when Coulson informed him of the nuke. Apparently Tony was going to handle it. Harry was worried, but decided to let him handle it. He sent two more leviathans packing by the time the nuke arrived. Harry watched with dismay as Tony disappeared through the portal. He then noticed that the portal started to close.
"Phil, what's going on?!" Harry all but screamed at Coulson.
"We had to close the portal." Coulson said.
"But Tony's on the other side!" Harry said.
"We know. Rogers made the call." Coulson replied.
"Damn it, Steve!" Harry started racing to the Portal not knowing what he could do, but he realised that he wasn't going to make it. The portal was closing too fast. Just before it closed, Tony fell through the portal, knocking into Harry and sending him off course. It took a moment for Harry to re-orient himself, and when he spotted Tony he raced after him. Before he reached him a big green figure came out of no-where and grabbed him.
Harry followed them down and when he reached them it was to find Tony's face-plate off, but Tony wasn't breathing. Harry couldn't do anything for fear of damaging the arc reactor. They waited and then suddenly Hulk roared, seeming to have grown impatient of the metal man taking too long waking up. Tony jolted awake.
Overcome by exuberance, Harry threw his arms around the big man's middle exclaiming, "Hulk, you beautiful green behemoth! Thank you!"
Hulk didn't seem to know what to do and just patted Harry lightly on the head.
The smile on Harry's face felt surgically attached. When they arrived back at Stark Tower, Loki was lying by a Loki-sized crater in the floor. Harry turned to Hulk, "Your work I take it?"
"Puny god." Hulk said nodding, repeating himself, not that anyone there knew it. Harry just smiled up at him, having removed his mask and hood. Hulk smiled back before scowling at Loki.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now." Loki said.
Harry stunned him. Then he looked around the place. "Kind of messy in here."
"I had some unexpected guests." Stark replied.
"Well let me fix it up for you." Harry said. Harry lifted his arms and directed his magic wherever he saw damage. Not a minute later the place looked pristine.
"Have you ever thought of life in the private sector? I just so happen to have a position open for a wizard." Tony joked.
"You couldn't afford me." Harry joked right back.
This devolved into some ribbing and joking until Coulson's voice was suddenly heard, "Agent Potter. We've got a second containment cell ready for occupation."
"Oh, sorry Phil. I forgot I had you on the mirror." Harry said as he lifted his arm so the team could see Phil smiling at them.
The picture quickly changed and Fury's frowning face was in it. "Good job Avengers. You exceeded my expectations. The Counsel will now need to explain themselves for their attempt to bomb the city as well, so I suspect they will need to save face by endorsing you." he said. "Agent Potter. If you can port the prisoner directly to the holding cell, that would be appreciated. Avengers, consider yourselves off duty." With that the mirror went back to Coulson's face.
"He meant to say good job, and thanks for saving my ass." Coulson said.
"Motherf…" was heard from Fury before the mirror went back to being a mirror.