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The pull of the heavy iron chains hindered Harri’s movement as she struggled and fought her guards. She snapped her teeth at any who got too close and felt satisfaction when they gave her a wide berth after making the first ten bleed. Luna was serene by her side and if she had been in a calmer mindset she would have realized they were fine but right now panic was gripping her too hard to let her pay that fact any attention. They were heading towards the Veil. She had watched all of her friends, the ‘lucky’ ones at least, get thrown in there a few days after capture. After torture. Fred and George has been the first to go. Their deaths featured in the front page of the prophet in horrifying detail. You could see that Fred was barely able to stand and George had to hold him up. They were both bleeding heavily and had nasty festering wounds all over. Ginny couldn’t sleep for weeks afterwards. Her remaining brothers weren’t much better. The Weasleys had gotten more vicious after that day, more prone to kill first ask questions later. Dark Arts flowed easier for them and more than once Harri had to hold each of them back from going to far and losing themselves to the darkness.The haunted look in their eyes only got worse when Ginny died. A raid gone bad. That was what killed her. Not battling leagues of death eaters and dying in a blaze of glory, not in an ambush that caught everyone unaware but she was quick to defend and lost her life to save others. No, she was killed by a raid gone bad. A spy in their ranks had given bad information, hoping to catch one of Harri’s most trusted. But something went wrong and Ginny was found dead in the middle of the deserted manor.She had insisted on going alone, Ron’s death at the Battle of Hogwarts and the Twins’ fall through the Veil had completely broken her self preservation and she refused to let anyone walk into anything blind.She had left before Harri could say anything to refuse and four days later they stormed the manor and found her dead in the entryway. She was torn limb from limb and scattered across the room, her blood coated the floor and walls in a sick painting. The remaining Weasleys had been catatonic for days and after that Harri lost all control of them. Molly and Arthur died next, ambushed by a roaming pack of dementors. Their souls gone before anyone could sound the alarm. Harri thought that their souls had left with the death of their first child.Bill and Charlie were captured soon after; tossed through the Veil in a celebratory ceremony but not before they took out hundreds of death eaters together with a Dark ritual that they sacrificed an untold amount to complete. Percy was just a husk of himself by then. He holed himself up in a library whenever he could while they were on the run and was often seen muttering to himself wildly with his nose buried in a book. Hermione joined him as often as she could, Ron’s death had hit her the hardest but still tried her best to be there for everyone. They had left on a mission to infiltrate Malfoy Manor, dragging Draco behind them and armed with an obscure ritual they theorized would destroy Voldemort along with any horcruxes he might have left. The picture of their capture and fall through the Veil was in the Prophet a week later. Blaise, Vince and Greg were heartbroken when they learned of Draco’s death but soldered on. Pansy was often seen with one or the other, comforting them to the best of her ability even as she herself was struggling. Harri’s side had been slowly but surely dwindling in numbers; more and more of them had been found dead in their homes, they’re families killed and their stuff destroyed. Soon it was less about destroying Voldemort and more about surviving and helping when they could. Blaise was caught while he was trying to save a family from Dementors. He was thrown through the Veil the same day; the Death Eaters having long since stopped caring about the pomp of it all and more about the carnage they wrought. Vince and Greg were lost next, surrounded as they fought to defend and protect Pansy. She got away but they were tossed through the Veil the next day. Pansy had been beside herself with grief and guilt. She no longer smiled or teased, her appearance deteriorated. She was thrown through the Veil a year later; Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers killed by her wand. Neville had been at her side, the Sword of Gryffindor on his hip wet with the blood of Nagini. He was also tossed through the Veil.Now it was just Harri and Luna.Harri had jealously guarded her little sister like never before; they were never apart and had quickly taken to sleeping with each other at night, helping to keep the nightmares away.They had evaded capture for three years after everyone else was gone before one slip up and they were goners. Harri was furious with herself for getting her little sister in danger. She had been distracted with saving a small group of muggle survivors from dementors. She hadn’t seen the death eaters sneaking up behind them until it was too late. The only upside that Harry could see was that Voldemort wasn’t getting the death that he wanted for her. He wanted to prove that he himself could kill her as he hadn’t when she was a baby, so he had tried to AK her. But that problem had long since been solved by Hermione years ago; immediately after the battle of Hogwarts when she learned that Ron had been killed by a stray avada kedavra.Pins in the shape of a lightening bolt etched with runes and tied to the wearers magic prevented being hit. It sensed an AK in a certain vacinity and then forced the wearer into a different location just out of reach. It couldn’t break through wards but it acted like sort of apparition in that it jolted the wearer around the room to avoid the avada.Harri didn’t fully understand the physics behind it, or the magic. All she knew was that it worked and was largely the reason her inner circle were thrown through the Veil instead. She was jolted back into reality when she was yanked to a stop before the Veil. Voldemort’s remaining followers filled the room and the monster himself stood off to the left of the arch. “Harri Potter. A pleasure to finally get rid of you. Now my claim to the wizard of world cannot be contested. The fools who continue to believe in you will have to face the reality that there is no one who can save them now.”His high voice echoed around the room and Harri tensed instinctively. When he looked at her she spat at his feet and glared with all of the hate she could muster. It was a lot and she could almost see him quell before he gathered himself up and motioned at her guards. “Throw them in. Let’s not give Ms. Potter’s unaccountable luck a chance to save her from certain death once more.”Harri’s struggles renewed when she saw Luna being manhandled to the archway. She growled in fury and bit viciously into the unguarded throat of an approaching guard. She yanked back hard and brought his throat with her. His shocked expression was frozen on his face as he crumpled to the ground like a cut marionette. Harri grinned wickedly and spat the gore and blood out as her remaining guards froze in horror. Her smirk turned into a cackle as no one moved. “What. Didn’t think the “Golden Girl” could get her hands dirty like that?”Her maniacal laughter brought everyone back into reality and she was shoved from behind into Luna. She watched in horror, her smirk frozen on her face, as she watched her sister stumble in her binds and topple through the Veil. A cry of shock was lodged in her throat and Harri felt her eyes fog over with tears. “No.”A snarl of rage flew out of her and she turned around sharply, launching herself into the guard that had shoved her. They both hit the ground hard and rolled around in a tussle. Harri bit and kicked wherever she could until finally her mouth found soft skin of his stomach. His shirt had torn off in the scuffle somehow and Harri didn’t question it as she tore into it. Her teeth, now pulsing with her unchanneled magic, ripped his stomach open and cut into his soft inner organs. Blood pooled around her and over her as she yanked out everything she could; the man’s screams washing over her.A spell hit her and Harri froze in place, her head buried in the guard’s stomach and her mouth biting into his heart. Harri was yanked away from the dying man, subsequently pulling the man’s heart out of his chest with her. The guard gurgled out a bloody breath and collapsed, dead. The guard holding her practically threw her into the Veil but Harri managed to catch the look of shocked horror on Voldemort’s face as she plunged into icy oblivion.
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Harri came to in a wash of bright light.This was particularly odd seeing as the world had gotten progressively darker as the plants and other life was destroyed and burned. The only light she had seen for years had been artificial or magical. She groaned as she felt her muscles scream in agony when she tried to shift up. She held herself as still as she could as she felt her magic work to heal her, mentally praising and petting it.
Thank you, darling.
Her magic purred and rubbed her affectionately as she stood. Ever since her horcrux was removed from her scar, and she died for the first time in a long line of deaths, she had noticed that her magic had gotten stronger and more sentient. Hermione used to claim it had overcompensated when it was younger and being stifled so now that it was free it went crazy. Personally Harri was just happy that her magic felt comfortable again. Her magic had always felt... off before that fateful night. Like it didn’t fully belong to her. Now it was like her one true constant companion. The one thing she could count on no matter what. “Harri! Wake up!””Luna?”It couldn’t be her sister! Her sister fell through the Veil! Her sister was dea- wait. She fell through too, didn’t she?Harri bolted up and looked around curiously. Her magic quickly helping her adapt to the sudden bright light and influx of more than one color when for years she had only seen burnt ash and dust.There. Her little sister sat on the ground, curled up suspiciously tight and close to a corner. “Lulu?”At her nickname Luna let out a sob and launched herself into her sisters arms. Harri held on tightly, squeezing her close and petting her hair in a soothing manner. “Hush, little moon. It’s alright, I’m here, I’m here.”Harri kept up a steady stream of comforting words and caresses until Luna’s sobs subsided into quiet hiccups and cut off sniffles. A gentle rocking motion had her sister relaxing in her grip. “Shh, there we go. Are we alright now?”Her quietly whispered words further calmed her Ravenclaw and slowly Luna pulled back. She gave Harri a shy smile and tilted her head to better hide behind her hair. “Thanks Harri.””Don’t mention it, little moon. I’m always going to be here for you, however you need me.”Harri completely meant it, and she had proven it in the few years that it had been just the two of them. She had killed countless enemies herself to save her little sister the horror those deeds left inside you. She shielded her sister from the worst when she could and, as time went on, she stayed ever closer to her sister’s side. Eventually they took to sharing a bed as they slept, Harri holding her little sister close and wrapping her magic tightly around them. Knowing that if something happened to her too, Harri would be lost. When she was satisfied that her sister was fine, and she made sure of this by sending her magic coursing through her and healing everything it found, Harri turned her gaze to her surroundings. She hadn’t left them defenseless when she had awoken, sending her magic out and casting an illusion to keep them hidden from view. But now she removed the layers of wards she had placed and took her first glance in almost a decade of a clean and beautiful world. Buildings she recognized as skyscrapers surrounded the area of plant life and vegetation they had fallen in, leaving her to believe they were in a city, and the sky was a clear crystal blue that took her breath away. The area they had landed in, and she suddenly realized why she was so sore, she saw that her and Luna had created a large crater when they had no doubt impacted the earth. Harri sighed at the proof of her plummet from the sky, no doubt the only reason they had survived such a fall was because wizards and witches were naturally more durable than muggles. She was almost positive their descent had brought some attention. As if on cue, the sudden appearance of a large group of armored people caught her attention. They dressed in the same dull uniform, leading her to believe they were part of an army of some kind, and they all carried a weapon that they had directed towards herself and her sister. “Can I help you?” Harri called up to the group, playing at nonchalant. She lounged back on her hands and crossed her ankles in front of her, Luna cuddled into her side and hid her head in Harri’s torn shirt. A brave soul stepped forward, or a stupid one, and lowered his weapon. He had a crisply pressed business suit on, a vastly different outfit to all of the others, and he had a look of unruffled calm that set Harri on edge. No one could be that calm if they didn’t think they had the upper hand, and against two unknowns that had fallen out of the sky seemingly unscathed, she was left to wonder if he had seen worse or he had worse. “Good morning. Could you two please state your business and why you fell a couple ten thousand feet from the air?””Oh, that? Ya know, I’m not exactly sure on both accounts. We just found ourselves here without trying to do so.”That was safe. It was true and if he could detect lies that would put her in a better light to have told the truth, but it also protected them both from anything that might have happened if they had a functional ministry in this world. No use getting on the bad side of a new magical community before they’ve even started, right? The man didn’t look pleased with her answer but he also didn’t refute her. Good, so he doesn’t read minds. That had always been a risk. The suit turned around and made a gesture to a few others who stepped forward and helped Harri and Luna out of the crater. Harri insisted on being first and made sure to hover around the ones that helped her sister, checking that they didn’t try to separate them. They would get another thing coming to them if they tried, but it never hurt to make it clear where she stood. Another gesture from the suit had both witches being herded towards a large vehicle that looked like a cross between a tank and a prison cell. Harri huffed but followed her sister in. Luna looked confused but not worried so Harri didn’t feel too threatened. For now she didn’t mind following along.For now. —The ride to wherever they were now had been boring. The suit had insisted that they wear blindfolds for most of it, and because her sister had dreamily tied hers on, Harri was fine with following her lead. The car ride was the longest part of the whole thing, and after a few hours of that they stopped and brought her into what she thought was a helicopter of some kind. Maybe a jet, even?When they landed both women had been marched out of the vehicle and onto a tarmac. The wind had almost blown her clear off the side sheerly because she hadn’t been expecting it. But the closeness of her guards had been good for something and she survived the trip into the interior of the building. When they had walked for a few minutes her blindfold was blessedly taken off. The interior was made of metal all throughout and a sheer glass window was in front of her, separating the room she was in from a room with multiple jail cells. Luna was still at her side and a sharp intake from her sister brought Harri’s attention to where her focus was. There, occupying the cells in the next room, were her missing members. Her thought dead missing members. Her thought thrown through the Veil missing members. All of them. Luna feinted.
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Harri froze. Luna fainted. The suit looked both amused and worried. “Why are they— did they do something wrong?” Harri’s voice was faint and shocked, hesitant and confused. Sure, when they were all thrown through the Veil they were bruised and battleworn, but they wouldn’t have made such a nuisance of themselves as to get thrown into prison in a new world. “No. Not really. My superiors are just worried about the sudden influx of random, seemingly indestructible, people falling through the sky and landing in our backyard with no warning.”And like that Harri could see the problem and—“That and they all refuse to speak to us. Not a word. Not even when we picked them up, not until you.”Oh crap. Right, the plan. Luna groaned out a pained sound and instantly gained Harri’s attention. She knelt by her sister and pet her pale hair softly as she felt for bruises. When she knew Lulu was fine she helped her sister up and gave her an arm to lean on. “We would like you to talk to them. Judging by your reactions you know, or knew, at least one of them. We were hoping for more than sullen silence and glares.”Harri was nodding before he had even finished speaking and was moving towards the door that separated the rooms. Luna followed quietly, her hand held tightly in her sister’s. Everyone’s attention snapped to the door when it was opened. Different levels of obvious depending on the person, but her people all saw her and Luna as they entered. Hermione was the first to say anything.”Took you long enough Alpha.”Right. Plan. Long before anyone had fallen, or was pushed, through the Veil, Luna had gathered the group together and talked about the different strategies we would need to use if we ever left our world. She had Seen many different ways we could fall through dimensions and she had been concerned on how we would be received if we revealed too much.The Plan was formed. If anyone found themselves in a different dimension alone or with a few others, they were to stay silent until everyone was together or Luna was with you. Or Harri. Once everyone was together whoever had been there the longest or observed the most would say a phrase that would give everyone else the idea of which idea they were playing through. Originally Luna was supposed to be the one to choose, as she was the one to know the most with her Sight, but then she told them that her Sight would work differently off world and it would take time to get used to it. Now Harri and Luna were here and Mione has let them know which plan to follow. Crap. Harri hated this one. “Beta.”Harri growled out. Sighing in her head she glanced at the others to make sure they were all okay. They all bowed their head and avoided her gaze. She really hated the Pack plan. “Beta?”The suit was right behind her and Harri snarled as she turned around. She had to get into character and Harri had always hated how much it made her seem like an asshole. But needs must she guessed. “Don’t startle me like that! Do you know how hard it is to clamp down on our instincts? On our world it’s kill first, question later.”Her growled out explanation wasn’t even a lie. Her world had dissolved into a survival of the fittest and Harri had adapted. She had left a lot of dead people in her wake. “Your world? You are not from here? We have had a few aliens come crashing down before. Are you from Asgard or another such place?”Harri growled softly under her breath, but loud enough for the suit to hear it, and shook her head. “No. We are from a different dimension. My Oracle let me know as soon as we landed.”Luna perked up and waved politely to the suit. He looked bemused, Lulu got that alot. Hermione gained everyone’s attention with her next words. “Alpha, apparently we’re a story here. They have names and certain events mostly correct but our society wrong.”This caught the suit’s attention. “Which book? We’ll have them brought here and you can pinpoint the differences for us.””Harry Potter.”The suit’s bewildered expression amused Harri. She turned to her ‘beta’ and gave a sharp look. Mione lowered her mind shields. ‘Harri Potter? They named it after me, why?’’No. Harry Potter. You’re a guy in the books. Which is really strange by the way...’’Got it. Why are we going with the Pack plan?’’These people are really strict here. The government where we landed has almost complete control. Magic is something they can’t control and so they wouldn’t let us leave if they thought we had it. Not without certain assurances that we don’t want to give them’’So no magic until we leave and have a safe house, got it.’Harri cut off the connection and turned to look at her other ‘pack’ members. The suit had already left to request the books so her people had relaxed and were looking at her in relief. Draco was casually lounging by his bunk, his back against the wall and his arms crossed, he looked nonchalant but Harri could see the utter relief in his eyes as he held her gaze for a moment then looked down. Vince and Greg were silently waiting in their cells, a dead look to them that hid the calculation in their eyes. Harri smiled, her enforcers were much more than they seemed and she was so proud.George and Fred were in seperate but adjacent cells and were as close to each other as they could be. They were leaning on either side of the wall and their hands were resting against it, only the solid metal keeping them from touching. Harri’s heart hurt to think of how much pain their twin bond must be in to be separated like that.Bill and Charlie were on the opposite side of the room from their brothers and Harri could see it was it’s own brand of torture to watch their suffering younger siblings.Neville was pacing like a caged lion. A constant, subvocal growl coming from him as he steadily scanned and re-scanned the room. His animagus form was shimmering behind his eyes and rippling under his skin. He hated being caged.Percy and Blaise were in adjoining cells and both looked... fine was all she could think. Percy was on his bed, staring periodically at her but then forcing his gaze on a distant wall. Blaise was also sitting down, but on the floor with his legs drawn up and his head resting on his knees. He also randomly looked at her but mostly focused on the floor.Pansy was by far the worst. She had a frantic look in her eyes as she paced her cell, she kept glancing at Harri and then quickly away again. Her hands were fidgety and she had a twitch that rocked her body every few minutes. Her hair was a mess and occasionally took to pulling at it as she went.Harri had to tear her gaze away from the other girl. She had no time to help or find out what was wrong. She would reassure her people when they were safe but right now it wasn’t possible. She focused on Hermione, the most put together seeming of all her people. Her best friend was standing in the middle of her cell, hands behind her back, eyes slightly downcast, and a slight smirk gracing her features. She was doing her best to put on her ‘beta’ mask just like most of the others were silently slipping into their own roles. Mione had trained everyone extensively for each of their plans. She was the brains and drive behind most of them and it was too important to their safety to let it come crashing down. Luna hummed a soft, barely perceptible, note in warning and Harri snapped into attention. She had spent too long making sure her people were safe to notice that the suit was coming back. At least that would help their ‘pack’ plan. Harri let out a soft growl as the man walked back into the room, agents trailing behind him. One had a pile of books, another a fold out table, yet another had a couple chairs. They set everything up in the middle of the room and left the suit alone. Harri subtly stepped in front of her sister as the suit turned to them, a sharp snarl bringing her lips up and bearing her fangs briefly. If he was at all intimidated he didn’t show it. “Would you like to sit down? I'll let out your... Beta was it? So that she can help to resolve this issue. Then maybe we could put this all behind us.”Harri bared her fangs again briefly, mostly for the act now, and sat down heavily in a chair. She took up as much space as she could as she lifted her legs onto another chair and stared the suit dead in the eye.Like she had said. This plan made her an asshole. Luna sniffed delicately and plopped into Harri’s lap, gently shifting so as to rest her head on her sister’s shoulder. Harri grinned and brought her hand up to pet her sister’s hair lightly. Lulu purred softly. Well, okay. So Harri liked some things about the plan. The suit returned with Hermione in tow and both took the seats opposite Harri and Luna. Mione immediately grabbed the first book and started flipping through it, muttering under her breath and her hand making motions as if to make notes. Harri and Luna watched on fondly but the suit looked startled. Her ‘beta’ was reading too fast for any normal human, she was on the second book fifteen minutes later. Only her and Percy could accomplish this. It was brought about by a mix of a lot of practice and what Harri suspected was a crap ton of forgotten spells and rituals. Harri just shrugged when the suit gave her a questioning look. You can’t really explain Hermione. Just watch amazed and enjoy the benefits. An hour later Hermione set the last book down and looked at it in frustration. She huffed and turned to the suit. “This is what they think of our world?! Really only the names are right! This is essentially just an alternate timeline/demension for our home world. We don’t have any magic, unless you count our shifts which I don’t, and we certainly didn’t have an adventure like this every year! Quidditch isn’t a thing in our world and I don’t know what a muggle is but I’m assuming it’s a baseline!””Breathe, Beta.”Harri huffed out the faintest hint of a growl and command in her tone. Hermione instantly shut her mouth and cut off her ramblings. She slightly tilted her head and averted her eyes. “Sorry Alpha. It’s just so wrong.”Oh yeah. Hermione had gotten to be a better lier. Harri hated that the naive little first-year she had met had to grow up so fast, but she was proud of how her friend turned out. Harri gave out a gruff snort and made a dismissive gesture. “Don’t worry. We all know how you can get. Just try not to confuse the suit.”Said suit looked confused, then amused. “My name is Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner, but under the circumstances I hope you can understand.”Harri smirked and nodded her head sharply. “Continue Beta, slowly.”Hermione gave a soft huff but continued to spin her tale. Albeit at a normal pace now instead of her rambling. “Our world has no magic. We have shifts. We can turn and force our body into an alternate form that is decided at our birth. Most think it’s hereditary but usually you don’t have the same shift as those of your relatives so we don’t really know how a shift is decided. We have schools dedicated to helping us learn to control our shifts and the natures that come with it as well as teach us how to live in both our communities and with the baselines, those who can’t shift. We have a Voldemort and a Dumbledore in our world, but our ‘dark lord’ won. He has a powerful shift and so commands a lot of power in our communities. He has a large pack that took over everything and destroyed our way of life. When we were forcefully expelled from our world it was desolate and burning. Nothing can survive there for much longer. He killed it.”Hermione’s careful explanation of their ‘world’ brought a thoughtful look to the agent’s face. “What is this Alpha and Beta and... Oracle? That you are talking about and how does it factor into your world?”Good. The reason why Harri had to be an asshole. Maybe then he would treat her a bit more cautiously. Harri loved causing fear in others. Hermione gave a quick look to her ‘alpha’ then explained. “You heard me talk about Packs? Well every pack needs an alpha. Someone who calls all the shots and keeps the pack safe. You have to be born an alpha, it takes a particular attitude and unborn power through your shift that lets you know your designation. There aren’t many of them so usually alphas have really large packs. We can’t actually control anything about our shift until we’re eleven, and at that point we come into our designation. Most are what is called a Neutral. They are what make up the majority of packs. They don’t have anything particularly special with how they react and integrate into packs, they’re the normal ones. Betas are seconds. They take care of and control pack mates when the alpha isn’t around. There can be more than one beta in a pack, but only one alpha. Oracles are our spirit shifts. They commune with the spirits of shifts long dead and can predict the future to an extent. They generally linger around areas were many shifts were killed as that boosts their power. There’s not many around anymore so usually packs only have one if they even have any. Gammas are another designation you haven’t heard yet. It’s one that is in charge of keeping the peace of the pack. They solve problems and keep the tension away. Most packs only have a few as they’re just as rare as alphas. That’s basically it. Not much else to know that has any relevance to a baseline.”The agent was thoughtful. He glanced at Harri. “How much control do you have over ‘packmates’ as their alpha?”And there was the crux of it. They didn’t want a group of powerful people running around that they couldn’t control. Harri’s magic was naturally dominating, it always had been, but now it was almost domineering. It was one of the reasons she was in charge. Well that and she was the girl-who-lived. “Essentially I can control everything. I’m alpha. What I say, goes. If I tell them to defend the pack with one arm tied behind their back they’ll do it.”Harri gave a nasty smile with too many teeth. Hermione gave a slight whimper and tilted her head, Lulu hummed and leaned further into Harri’s hand to encourage more petting. “Hmm. So if you told them to shift, they would?””Yes, of course. It’s compulsory to follow the alpha’s commands after you accept a spot in their pack.””Would you mind showing us?”Harri wasn’t stupid. She knew they wanted to know what they could shift into to better prepare but this was a risk they had calculated before. They could handle the outcome. “I could, no problem. But not all of my pack members’ shift will fit in their cell.”It wasn’t even a lie. Her enforcers wouldn’t be comfortable at all and the eldest Weasley brother was huge. The agent looked suspicious but nodded consent. “Then would you mind having those that would fit shift instead?”It was said politely, but Harri knew it was a command. Her assumed personality didn’t like commands. She growled and bared her fangs but ultimately turned to Hermione. She was the closest so she would be the first. “Shift.”It was said with command, her magic enforcing it. It had to look as though the alpha command made it compulsory, that they couldn’t stop even if they wanted to. So her magic forced the change. Hermione looked startled but resigned, perfectly faked, as her form rippled around her and she blurred out of view. When it was finished, in her place sat a greater sooty owl. Her feathers were as rumpled and uncontrollable as her hair had been and her eyes were a deep chestnut brown that were abnormal to the species. She gave a soft hoot and ruffled her feathers in agitation. The agent was stupefied. He probably hadn’t believed them until they provided proof. Oh she was going to have some fun with this.
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After seeing Hermione shift things went much smoother for the group. The suit brought in a bunch of his agents and released Harri’s friends into their custody. They had all looked at Harri when that happened and only followed the agents when she gave swift nod of consent. They were all brought out of the carrier and into an awaiting jet. They were then taken to a base on the ground where they were then asked, politely, to show them all of their shifts. Harri of course had growled but eventually ‘relented’ and had forced her people to shift in front of the suit and his agents. Draco paced back and forth restlessly with Neville following close behind. The tasmanian devil and lion shifters had never liked outsiders close to their ‘pack’. Vince and Greg were both lying docilely on either side of her, the brown bear and bull a startling size. Luna was flitting too and from groups of people, rubbing her muzzle affectionately on pack mates and staring curiously at the agents. Her pure white lynx form was the most friendly and inquisitive of all of their shifts. Pansy, George, and Fred were huddled in a small group closest to the agents, putting themselves between the most dangerous of her ‘pack’s’ forms and the soft squishy muggles. The three canines paced and prowled a parimeter, keeping an eye on both groups. Pansy looked ridiculous as her frou-frou dog next the intimidating forms of the twins’ hyenas but that gave her an edge when she needed. Pansy was just as vicious as everyone else in their group, her bite just as deadly.Bill and Charlie were a huddled mass of scales that writhed in a dangerous and entrancing way. The crocodile was a massive weight that only looked even more imposing with the hulking snake wrapped around it. Percy had situated himself right in front of her and was silently staring the agents down. His beautiful tawny pelt was in perfect order but Harri expected nothing less from the wolf. Blaise was a difficult one. Harry had to demand a large tank of water. His lithe form could be compacted if he wanted to but only to an extent and she didn’t want the first time he has shifted into his octopus to be without a source of water. While he could technically survive on land for a short time, she didn’t have access to her magic right now to extend that. Harri let her ‘pack’ stay in their other forms and explore for close to a half hour before she had them change back. Then came the negotiations. She had never been good at compromising or debating. She had always had a very dominant and take-charge outlook on life and didn’t much appreciate having to limit herself. She would be expected to stay calm, to not raise her voice or argue too heatedly. Or at least, that had been her experience so far. If she showed too much emotion or any sense of her real reactions then she was dismissed as a child who was overreacting. So it was no surprise to anyone who knew her that she had Hermione negotiate for her. And she did it beautifully. The suit, Agent Coulson, obviously knew how to negotiate and he had a wonderful poker face. But he had never gone up against Hermione before. By the end of it they had decided that Harri and her group could leave with no restrictions, a forgone conclusion, but would check in once a month at the nearest Shield location to, as he had said, let them know how they are adjusting. Like that would happen. They smiled and nodded greatfully but were secretly snarling with rage. How dare they try to put a leash on them!By the time Harri and her friends were escorted to what they called New York, she had decided that Shield had to go. From what she understood, they were a shady government agency that had almost no accountability or overhead. And that just wouldn’t do. Her people all exited the cars and grouped up to watch their escorts leave. No one moved until the last car was out of view. —Harri was thankful for Hermione and Percy’s preparedness and her own manic paranoia. She was, as of fifteen minutes ago, setting everything up in her magical stronghold. Said magical stronghold was built out of the magic-imbued stones that made up Hogwarts and all of the old pure blood manors and estates they could get their hands on. When they had lost the Battle of Hogwarts, but had somehow managed to chase Voldemort and his death munchers away, she had known that they couldn’t hold their position. But she refused to let them have Hogwarts and all of the secrets and knowledge it contained. So they’d, Hermione and Percy, created the charms. They weren’t all that complicated, so Percy said anyways. A trunk that was magically expanded to as large as they could make it, which was then shrunk and made to look like a charm on a bracelet. This idea was expanded on and soon she had a prison charm, a birdcage charm, a charm that became her broom when enlarged, and so on. The charms became specialized to the person that held them. All of the girls had a charm bracelet, even a few of the males decided to take the easy route of concealment as well. While the males had them become pins, earrings, cuff links, and the like. Luna had trunks she had transformed into habitats for all of the animals that were displaced from their homes due to the chaos of the dark forces. One for magical and one for muggle. Every sentient race was given their own charm to stay safe in and weren’t forced but asked politely if they would like the safety. Harri left such negations to Lulu, she knew all of their own languages and customs and was able to offer such things without insult. Charlie was given exclusive rights to the dragons. Here was where Harri had helped the most in that regards. Being able to translate for both sides was the biggest deciding factor in their favor. It helped that Charlie was ruthless in his defense and care of them over the years and they knew and trusted him for it. Hermione and Percy has claimed the rights to the care of all of the books and scrolls they found of their world. How they divvied it up was known only to them but their sorting spell was an accomplishment of theirs that they shared with the group. Draco and Blaise both took over the care of preservation of the potions and potion ingredients they came upon, while also being tasked with harvesting them as they came up. Again, how they chose to split the work was known only to them but everyone trusted that if they had need, one of them would be there with a potion bottle in hand. Neville was tasked with the care of all of the magical plants, Pansy the nonmagical. Harri had had to fight Neville to give up care to even that, knowing that it was too much for him to care for alone. Pansy knew enough to help, but wasn’t skilled at keeping the dangerous or volatile ones content and safe. In the end it had worked out for the best. Bill had taken up the care and containment of all magical and cursed objects they came across. Harri had long since stopped caring about whether something was dangerous as long as she could keep the knowledge and magic alive. Bill was the only one of them with the training to safely handle such items, so no one fought him on his self-appointed job. George and Fred has taken care of their joke items and sweets as well producing and inventing more. At first their self-appointed mission was to lighten the mood and make them smile or laugh with their inventions. Near the end it became less about that and more about killing, trapping, maiming, or otherwise disfiguring as many death eaters as they could with their craft. Vince and Greg were charged with the care and upkeep of all of the brooms, wands, swords, knives, armour, and likewise. When they needed a replacement anything one of them would be there to back them up and hand them a substitute. Harri had been given the care of every snake they could find, magical or otherwise. She had learned much from some of the ancients they had found and she was grateful she got them before Voldemort. She shivered to think of such an army against them, but she knew he was too far gone in his madness to think rationally.She also looked after any orphan they found. She didn’t have too many, all things considered, but they didn’t descriminate in regards to blood status. She had a trunk for muggle and magical with a few Potter house elves maintaining and feeding them. She had been distressed when she had learned children were being targeted, regardless of blood, and so she’d reacted. If she had planned ahead she would have saved hundreds of magical and thousands of muggle children. She made sure to always be twelve steps ahead after that.Ginny, when she had still been alive, was the one who had taken care of the confiscated manors and estates. When she died that duty was distributed equally among those remaining. Any food, drinks, clothing, blankets and such that they found was distributed and stored as needed, with the twins being the ones who held the majority. Everyone had a broom charm and everyone had a prison and pet cage charm. As their members disappeared through the Veil, assumed dead, the remaining members took up their task. Until eventually it was just Harri and Luna.Thankfully, but really not, the earth was too charred and barren to leave much to gather and keep safe. The animals had all long since disappeared, the plants and vegetation all burnt to ash, buildings in ruins with wards in tatters. Muggles has been few and far between then, their less durable bodies failing with all of the toxins and chemicals in the air. Magical were hunted with abandon and slaughtered where they stood. But now they didn’t have to worry about that. Any of it. Sure, there were some obvious problems that could become catastrophic if they weren’t dealt with correctly, but Harri felt confidant that she could do anything with her friends at her side once more. She could rely on them and they could rely on her and this world will never know the pain and despair of her home world.Not if she had anything to say about it. And oh, did she ever.
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Tony couldn’t keep the smirk off his face no matter how hard he tried. So he didn’t try. Fury had called the Avengers to the helicarrier after five months of radio silence. As they had docked Tony couldn’t help but noticed the frantic and panicked looks on all of the baby agents’ faces. As they walked the halls red lights flashed and slightly more experienced baby agents rushed passed them. He knew he should probably feel a bit more worried, but he couldn’t help thinking that he was glad whatever it was wasn’t his problem. Well, unless Fury tried to make it his at least.When the team walked into the debriefing room Tony couldn’t hold back a smirk at the sight. Fury was pacing in front of the window and furiously(pun intended) muttering to himself. If he had hair, Tony knew Fury would be ripping it out. “Hey Patchy the Pirate, what’s shakin?””Sit down Stark. There’s an emergency.”His team all fell in line and took the offered seat, Tony followed after making another snappy comment. He was testing just how far he could push and what would happen next if Super Spy One Eye was already pacing and muttering.”Yeah I kinda got that from the flashy light show you’re pulling. Thinking of turning this place into a disco? I can dig that, a bit retro but you could pull it off if you—“”Stark!”Tony smiled, internally pleased, and flopped gracelessly into a chair. He kicked his feet up onto the table, leant back in his hair, and put his hands behind his head. “Shoot, I can take it.”Fury looked like he wanted to take him up on it, his hand was twitching near his holster, and Tony almost thought he would. Whoever had caused this much tension in the normally unflappable spymaster, Tony wanted to hug them. This was highly amusing.”Sir, would you tell us why we’re here?”Captain Serious spoiled his fun and Tony almost pouted, but then he saw Fury’s shoulders clench in an even more compressed state, and relaxed to enjoy the show.”A few months ago Shield caught the last of a group of people in the middle of Central Park. They had all fallen from the sky tens of thousands of feet and all walked away without a scratch. This started a little over a year ago and they arrived in an indiscernible pattern. By the time the leader showed up, we had found and detained twelve.””Wait, hold up. By detained, do you mean held in prison without cause? Because it sounds like you just said you held these people captive.”Fury scowled at him but didn’t dispute his words, causing a few of his team to mutter amongst themselves. Capsicle, especially, looked nonplussed. “Right, so you immediately got on the bad side of a nigh indestructible group of unknown super humans... please continue.”“We detained them, and then when we found the leader with another of the group we brought them in as well. After a lengthy discussion with one of our own, they disclosed their people’s secrets and made an agreement to stay accountable to us.””Wait, wait a moment. And you trusted them?! They gave their word and you just let them strut right out of here?”Fury gave him a whithering look but Tony stayed firm. If that was how they truly operated then obviously he drastically overestimated them and he would need to re-evaluate some things. “Of course not. We had some legally binding documents that they all signed to keep them accountable.”Tony held his head and started muttering under his breath. Yeah, he drastically overestimated them. Or, they had overestimated themselves. “Okay so, to be clear, you had a group of what are essentially an alien species sign legal documents? Do they even have those where they are from? How can you hold them accountable when, and I’m going out on a limb here, you can’t find them and they’re causing trouble? Cause I’m assuming that’s why the lights are doing a jig down the hall in the first place. They’re not human! They aren’t a part of us so we can’t really do anything to them! That is just a piece of paper with words on it now, it has no real value!”Indestructible aliens, that looked like humans he assumed or Fury would have started with that, fell from the sky and their first thought was to lock them up. Yeah, he was sure that endeared them to the group. “We’re getting off track here. Sir, why are we here?”Fury sighed and sagged in place. “As Stark pointed out, we lost contact with the group immediately after we set them loose. A week later our operatives started disappearing, bases of ours have gone dark, weapons staches and safe houses are destroyed. We’ve had a few high priority targets disappear as well. No ones heard from them again.”Fury seemed to deflate even further. “Most of our people haven’t been returned to us. Those that we’ve managed to find again have been relocated and are missing all of their knowledge of anything to do with Shield. It was like they were never an agent. Their memory continues on like they lived their life normally, just without the decision to join. Or... well a few bodies have been found as well. No discernible pattern there, they’re all agents of varying levels of access.”Natasha and Clint both sucked in harsh breathes and looked at him in disbelief. “Any of them know anything about us?”The silent look of resignation on Fury’s face had Birdbrain nodding and turning away. “Okeydokey, so you pissed offa bunch of nonhumans and they’re getting their, admittedly overblown, revenge on you. What does that have to do with us?””You’re Avengers, a part of Shield! So we need your help to—“”Nope. Not happening. I’m out. No way am I getting in the way of you and a bunch of rampaging aliens with a grudge. I don’t want to put a target on my back and then have those I love suddenly turn up dead, so thanks but no thanks!”Tony turned to go, grabbing Brucie as he went. A sharp call of his name halted him. “You’re an Avenger! You can’t just leave, we have to do this as a team!”Captain Tightpants was glaring at him fiercely and it was at times like these he was glad only Bruce had taken him up on his offer of a room at the tower, he couldn’t imagine trying to get along with all of that for more than a few hours.”Uhm how about no? I’m actually not, officially, an Avenger. Just a consultant. Seems I’m too self-absorbed and uncontrollable to be a good teammate. So fine, I’ll just take myself out of the equation now.”They were never really a team anyways. Only his Brucie-Bear and god of rippling muscles treated him with any kind of respect. It was fine, really. It served him well in this case at least. “Banner stays at least, we will need the hulk if they are this indestructible.”Tony gave a humorless chuckle and shook his head. Oh how he hated how they saw Bruce. He was so much more than a mean green machine.“A-actually Tony is my employer, not Shield. I work for him in the labs, and it’s an exclusive contract. Can’t do anything else without his express permission.”Tony had barely even finished his explanation before Bruce had snatched the contract out of his hands and signed it. He had been thrilled with all of the protections it offered him, as well as touched that Tony would do that for him.Let it not be said that Tony doesn’t take care of his friends. “So we'll just be on our way. Have fun with the homicidal aliens on a warpath!”He probably shouldn’t have been as amused as he was with how dumbfounded they all appeared as Bruce followed Tony out the door and away from all of them. But Tony knew he wasn’t squeaky clean and he couldn’t wait to kick back and watch them all scramble around. Yeah, Tony was looking forward to this.
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The body landed on the floor with a sickening squelch, the mans limbs a jumbled mess and his head rolling onto the floor beside her feet. Harri smirked in vicious amusement and turned her gaze to the few remaining people in the house. The four agents all paled and backed up even further, raising their guns just a little bit more. It was cute, that they thought that would stop her. A quick flick of her wrist had their guns sailing through the air to land at her feet, sliding in the pool of blood that only got progressively bigger as time went on. The only female of the group up and bolted out of the room while the other three stood in shock. Harri’s grin got even wider as she stalked closer. Her intel from the last group of agents she had... detained... informed her that these five, now four, would have the most information that she needed. It seemed they were go-betweens for the grunts and the higher ups. Which suited her just fine. The three of them all charged her at once, obviously meaning to overwhelm her, but years of fending for both herself and her sister had been an excellent tutor. Harri ducked and weaved amongst them, striking here and there as she went. She twisted her body up and around one to land his shoulders. Her thighs clamped down to steady herself as she gripped his head between her hands and twisted.A crack echoed through the room and the body she was perched on toppled forward but she didn’t stop there. She yanked ferociously and his head tore completely off his shoulders. Harri pushed up off the corpse, negligently tossing the head over her shoulder as she strutted closer to the other two men who had watched all of it in blind horror. One seemed to come back to himself as she got closer and backed away frantically, shaking his head and muttering things Harri couldn’t decipher. She wrote him off for now and instead stepped up close to the other. His eyes were far away and glassy while his body shook with tremors. You would think, with what he did for a living, he would’ve been more numb to such things.Ah well. Her magic coated her hands as she struck, puncturing through his ribs and straight to his heart. She grasped it tightly and yanked. He gave an inhuman shriek as he toppled to the ground, twitching once before going still. Harri looked down at the still barely beating heart curiously. The last time she had torn out someone’s heart had been just before she was thrown through the Veil. She hasn’t been given much time to process doing so before her world went black but...A whimper brought her attention back to the last man left. He was huddled in a corner, his hands covering his ears and a steady rocking motion bringing him forwards as he cried and whimpered. What a wuss. She gave a negligent wave of her hand, consequentially sending the heart flying away, as she turned around to leave. A strangled choking sounded behind her, she didn’t have to turn around to know he was dying, so her work here was done. Harri slammed the door shut behind her as she followed her magic to the final agent she was hunting. The house she had tracked them down to was smack dab in the middle of the woods and she was looking forward to the hunt. It had been far too long, what she had been doing recently was barely anything compared to what she used to do. And she was bored. —Harri has spent a delightful few hours hunting through the woods and spreading her magic out as she searched. Now finally, finally, she found the girl.The agent’s dirty blonde hair was caked in mud and blood, her clothes were torn and filthy, and her body was littered with cuts and bruises. Some of the cuts were deep and still oozing blood as she collapsed onto the ground. Harri’s magic clamped down on her and held her still as she trembled with exhaustion. Harri has done more than just stalk her, she had appeared occasionally to strike a wound somewhere or to scare her into another direction. The agent had gotten more and more lost, only helped along by the minor concussion she received when Harry had flung her hard against a boulder, until eventually she arrived right back where she had started. The girl gave a broken sob as she watched Harri casually make her way towards her. Harri herself was a sight. Her clothes and hands were coated in dried blood that she hadn’t bothered to clean up, her face was also speckled but it was her eyes and the manic grin on her face that were the most frightening. Harri cupped the girl’s face in her hands and stared into her eyes. “You are going to help with what I need to know, whether you want to or not.”Her quiet murmur only brought the girl further into hysterics as Harri tore through her mind, viciously ripping apart memories and information in her quest. Finally, after she was satisfied she had everything she needed, Harri stepped back and watched disspationately as the agent tumbled to the ground. Her eyes were glazed and vacant and her body had faint tremors wracking through her.Harri was almost tempted to just leave her like that as a warning to any who might see her that no one was safe anymore. Let the agent live the rest of her life dependent on others to keep her alive now that she no longer could do so herself, her mind too shattered to retain anything for long. But Hermione has ordered there to be no survivors this time, so...A simple snap of her fingers and the agent was gutted and dead at her feet. Harri gave a sigh of disappointment and turned to apparate, but soft clapping drew her attention. To the left of her, perched on the hood of one of the dead agent’s cars, was a red and gold suit of metal. As soon as it saw it had her attention it stood and walked toward her, the metal retreating somewhere until a man in a business suit stood in front of her. He was brunet and had a goatee that was well groomed, his brown were sharp and took in every detail as he stopped a few feet in front of her. “-And who might you be?”Her eyes were wary as she took him in. He didn’t look at all fazed by her defensiveness and he showed no fear, even though she knew he had seen what she could do. That made her curious enough to hear him out. At least until she found out what he knew. “My name is Tony Stark. We need to talk.”
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Adam Corvane hadn’t thought that he would have to deal with something like this. Ever. He had joined Shield, and then later on Hydra, so that he wouldn’t be on the receiving side of chaos and destruction anymore. He was supposed to be the one to cause it.His Hydra suit itched something fierce as he raced down the hall of the secret underground bunker that was his New York station. Other agents parted before him and gave him pitying glances. No one wanted to be in his shoes right now.Adam unconsciously twitched as he knocked on the imposing set of doors that set apart the top brass from the grunts. He had once plotted how to become one of them, now he pitied what they would have to deal with. “Enter!”A loud voice echoed from the other side of the door and Adam quickly entered, shutting the door behind him with a foreboding sense of finality. Every Hydra agent that had delivered news half as bad as what he had, hadn’t been seen past this door again. Madame Hydra was dressed as she was always was in her head to toe green outfit that fit her figure snugly. Her darker green cape was loosely hanging around her shoulders and her hood was down. Her emerald hair was down and her gaze was intensely focused on him. Adam gulped and nervously met her eye.”Madame, another of our safehouses has gone dark, the third one this week. Five of our top level clearance agents have missed all of their check-ins and have been presumed dead. Every one of them had information about many of our other locations and agents.”Fury lit up Madame Hydra’s eyes. She gave a shriek of rage and flung a few chairs against walls and the equipment that dotted them. The rooms lights flickered as she turned to him, chest heaving. Sparks danced behind her when she walked and lit up her silhouette as she gave a menacing grin. “Thank you for informing me, Agent, but now I think your services are no longer required.”Her gleaming manic eyes were the last thing he saw before darkness overtook him.
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Harri has been a bit reluctant to lead the strange man to her new base of operations, but she trusted her people and their skills enough to know that if anything occurred, they could handle it. So she didn’t do much blustering about and instead grabbed hold of his arm and apparated a couple different places until she touched down in the courtyard of her hideout. “Welcome to Magi Ridge. Don’t get too close to the edge, it’s a sharp fall to the ocean and that’s if you don’t hit one of our guards before you get there.”She meant, of course, Charlie’s dragons who had all taken up nests in the caves that littered the raised island. When they all made this place Charlie had been adamant that they needed their own space that wasn’t too restrictive, so they made their island several thousand feet high and a dead drop on all sides full of craggily caves and small landings occasionally. Charlie had been thrilled, as had the dragons. “Uhh, so where is this place?”“Oh, somewhere in the Atlantic.”Harri gave a negligent wave of her hand and then strolled towards the entrance. Tony was quick to follow her, still holding his briefcase that housed the metal suit he had first appeared in. “Just be cautious, don’t touch anything I haven’t explicitly told you you could. Many of the artifacts we have are cursed and many more are cursed against mundanes specifically.”Leaving him with that chilling thought, she waved her hand to open the humongous double doors. The entrance was almost reminiscent of the entrance to Hogwarts. It has its enormous size and the general shape was also similar, but the stonework was a tad more modern and had a sleeker appearance. Harri noticed his slightly dumbfounded look when he caught sight of the enchanted ceiling and had to hold in a smirk. Today Luna has decided she wanted to see the aurora borealis so the ceiling was showing a glowing flickering light show that many in the world never experienced in their lifetime. “Stay close to me, don’t wander off now kids.”Stark’s attention snapped down and zeroed in on Luna and Neville who were both corralling two groups of kids from out of a side room. Harri assumed they were heading out to the courtyard so she politely sidestepped when they got close but not before giving a few absently reassuring touches to arms and, in Luna’s case, a soft kiss to her forehead. “Bye Luna, Neville. Have fun kids!” An excited chorus of goodbyes echoed behind as the entrance doors shut and Harri gave a soft smile before turning and continuing on. Seeing the kids was always bittersweet. Luna and Neville wouldn’t have been her first choices to watch them but her twins were still recovering from their separation by sticking close and not moving away. They were both in their room on the bed, arms wrapped around each other as they desperately tried to reassure themselves that the other was still there. Percy had volunteered to stay with them as well so Luna and Neville has volunteered before Harri could put much more thought to it. “You’ve got kids in here?!”Harri turned to look at Stark. He seemed incredulous, maybe a bit angry. “We didn’t kidnap them, if that’s what you’re thinking. If you must know, they are all orphans from my world. Every child that we could save we did so and kept them safe until we landed here.””So know you just have watch a bunch of kiddos while you’re doing... what I found you doing?”He looked a bit reproachful and he glanced around as if to check that no more kids were around. Harri gave a soft sigh. “It’s not like we have much choice. We are finding them homes as fast as we can but we only have so much help and there were so many kids. Magic is smoothing the way, but we still are being very selective in where we leave them. And we have many more magic-inclined children that we simply can’t leave with mundanes. Not here.””What do you mean, not here?”Harri gave a soft sigh. She had thought when they had landed on a new world that maybe here would be different. Yes, there were baddies that she had to take care of, but if she did that then the world be peaceful. She could take a break. “Don’t tell me you don’t know the inherent biases of your own people? This world is fighting amongst themselves and killing each other over petty things. Different colored skin, different faith, he’ll, even who they love! This isn’t all too different from my own world, really. I could have dealt, tried to fix it as best I could. But mine once reached the point yours is reaching, right before a massive war broke out. Right now there is a movement sweeping through the mundane, about a different gene that a portion of your people are carrying, and how they need to wipe them out. Just one small thing that gives them something different that those without can’t have. So imagine the absolute panic that could occur if they found out that some kids had the potential to use magic like I do? We have had many studies done with our blood to find how we tick, how we’re so different! Mundane of my world using us, using children! And guess what they found? We don’t have just one gene different, like these mutants that are causing such a fuss. We have eighteen. So just... imagine what would happen if I left a small, vulnerable child in their care with that much of a difference in their very make-up to mundanes. They already call mutants subhuman, animals! What would they call us? And to leave a child at their mercy? Unable to defend themselves? I would rather stay on my dying planet as I watch it implode before I even think about it!”Harri was heaving with passion and anger by the time she was finished. Her magic was flickering across her skin and charging through her body. She could feel her hair flickering about her face in a dark shade of power, her magic trying to release itself in any outlet it could find. She had been so, so angry when she had learned how this planet dealt with their mutants. Killing them?! It was no better than her own planet! When Voldemort has increased his terror campaign against the muggles after the stalemate of the Battle at Hogwarts the end result had been exposing magic’s existence to the mundanes, then known still as muggles. They had at first been terrified out their minds. Their first exposure to magic not being how wonderful and enchanting it could be, but how destructive and dangerous it was to them. This had colored everything they did from that point forward. Because you see, with muggles, they will only handle being afraid of something for so long before they actively try to find or make a way to put a stop to or harness the thing. Soon the muggles were finding ways to get to muggleborn and halfbloods that were among the muggle population. Stealing them away and performing experiments on them to try and understand magic. Magic wasn’t meant for muggles to use. They hadn’t liked that. A few years after that horrid battle where she had failed to kill the dark lord, she was fighting a war on two fronts. The muggles, now demanding to be known as mundanes, were killing every magical they could get their hands on with everything at their disposal. They all united together against the magical community and we hadn’t a chance. They were still abducting children, but now they also stole away captured full grown wizards and witches. And now it was less experiments and more violent torture. Harri has been caught once. She had spent a few months under their tender care until her magic had completely manifested and merged with the full power of the Deathly Hallows. She still didn’t remember what happened the night of her escape, it was all a blank spot in her memory, but she did remember going back and seeing a massive crater were the warehouse she was tortured at had once been. She hadn’t felt the same since. Her body still carried the multitude of scars left over from the mundane, and she woke up screaming more often than not. A ghostly memory of constant pain, tears, and the sharp acrid tang of blood dancing on the edge of her senses until her magic could ruthlessly snuff it out. Harri shook herself out of her memories and leftover fury when the frantic thuds of little feet echoed closer and a small, excited voice started to call out for her. “Momma! Momma! You’re back!”Harri felt any remaining tension zip out of her in a sudden rush as she turned to catch the little boy from midair. Her smile couldn’t help but show her absolute joy and happiness she felt when she settled her godson onto her hip and he started to babble at her; his hair, eyes, and skin all changing colors as he went. “-and I missed you loads but Lulu said you’d be right back so I waited patiently by the door until I saw Char walking outside so I followed him out and I got to pet the dragons and he let me sit on one of them and he said when I’m older maybe I could fly! Then I wandered back inside when I saw everyone else was going back too and then I was bored but then you came! So now I can show you the dragon! Can we please? Pleeeeeeeease?!”Harri gave a low, gravely laugh full of amusement and she ruffled his currently bright pink hair affectionately. “Slow down Teddy-bear! I only just got back and I have an unexpected guest. We'll go out to see the dragons together later tonight, okay?”Teddy gave a pout, his skin going midnight black and his hair shading to grey but then he perked up, his skin shading a light brown and his hair exploding back into color, when he caught sight of one of the magical kids down a hall. “Okay! But you have to promise me, momma! No escape this time!””Okay, Teddy-bear. No escape, except maybe through a window!”She gave him a sneaky wink, which he burst into giggles at, before setting him down and letting him scamper off. Harri couldn’t contain her smile as she watched him until he disappeared with his friend down the corridor. A soft clearing of a throat had her turning around to face Stark again. He had a small smile on his face but a hesitantly questioning glint in his eyes. “So... momma?”She have a start at his words but then relaxed. Nodding at his question. “Hmm, yeah that happened when I was seventeen. His father and mother made me his godmother, they both died a few months later. So now I’m his mum, birth mum or not doesn’t matter anymore.””Wait, how old are you? You don’t look like you’re late teens? He looks like he’s three, maybe four.”Harri gave a rueful smile. “That would be because I had a choice to make. Around Teddy’s fourth birthday the mundanes started to actively become aggressive to all magicals. We were already on the run from the dark lord so we didn’t have much structure. Mundanes can be... pretty ruthless. They started destroying every place they thought had magical presence with all of their military might. The backlash on the earth was pretty heavy, so eventually the food supply was running too low for how many kids and fully grown adults we had. Now as a general rule our bodies don’t actually need that much food to survive, but it’s not usually a fun experience. So I made a call. We put all of our kids under an enchanted sleep that essentially kept them in stasis until we could, as we thought then, stop the mundanes and nurse the earth back to health. But, as the years went on, the enchantment was kept more so that they didn’t have to suffer.”Stark, the poor man, seemed a bit overwhelmed at the explanation to his rather simple question. Whoops. Harri hadn’t planned on sharing this much with him, especially considering they had just met. But her magic was rather enamored with him and she trusted her magic’s instincts implicitly. “Wow, sorry sugarplum. Didn’t mean to bring that up.”Stark seemed to have a thing with nicknames. Harri wasn’t entirely sure what she thought about that but she knew it wasn’t anger... hmm...”It’s quite alright. Not your fault. Please follow me. Expecto Petronum!”A silvery wolf exploded out from her wand and loped around her in a watchful manner before sitting and looking at her expectantly. Harri gave Padfoot a wistful smile. “Pads, tell Mione to meet me in the war room, we have an unexpected guest that needs her expertise.”Padfoot gave a nod then raced off and through a wall. Harri turned around and made a steady pace to the war room. If she knew Mione, and she did, she would probably already be there by the time Harri arrived.
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Bruce hadn’t had an easy go in life. The whole gamma incident being only the latest bad thing. He didn’t see Hulk as bad in itself, anymore... but what others did after they learned about the Hulk he definitely classified as a bad thing. After so long of being seen as a monster, a freak of nature, a mistake... he wasn’t proud to say that he’d internalized it all. He’s come to see himself as lesser, not as important in the grand scheme of things. He hadn’t had the best self-esteem to begin with but after being looked at with terror, fear, hate, loathing, or indifference he’d begun to lose hope.He’d doubted anyone would miss him, would in fact cheer when he was gone, so eventually he’d tried to... remove himself from the equation. Why stick around when all he did was destroy and hurt?He thankfully wasn’t in that bad of a place anymore. And Bruce credited a large portion of the credit to Tony.Tony had been the first person to look past the ‘monster’ and see the scientist; see Bruce Banner first and not the Hulk. Tony called him his Science Bro, Big Green, friend. Tony saved him from Shield, protected him, gave him a home that made him feel safe for the first time in way too long.So when Tony came back from a ‘top secret meeting, Brucie, need to know basis’ he didn’t mind relaxing and letting Tony deal with it. He used to be stressed all the time, suspicious of any little thing that could come back to bite him later. But after spending the past few months in the Tower, having his own level designed for his comfort, well, Bruce was much happier now. “Hey Brucie-bear! Ooh! That looks good!”Bruce smiled when he saw Tony making grabby hands for his croissant. Tony was rumpled and sleepy-eyed, clothes in disarray and with endless oil stains. His hair was so ruffled and on end that it made Tony look like a particularly adorable hedgehog, but it was the killer doe-eyes that he was giving that made Bruce sigh indulgently and push the plate with his breakfast on it towards his friend. Tony made a delighted sound and quickly stuffed a large portion into his mouth, making a few garbled sounds that Bruce assumed was a thank you. “Jarvis, how long was Tony in his lab?”Because Bruce knew that his friend didn’t like to sleep and would instead work himself to exhaustion before crashing in his lab on the couch. Bruce had seen him in the common room kitchen after such a binge only a handful of times, usually when it wasn’t so extreme. “Sir has been awake for 5 days, 16 hours, twenty-nine minutes and counting.”Bruce didn’t know if an AI could sound any more exasperated than Jarvis. But Bruce could also detect notes of worry hidden in there as well.“Don’t worry, I’ve got it from here.””Thank you Dr. Banner.”Bruce smiled over to a nearby sensor then pushed his chair out and made his way over to Tony. His friend had somehow finished the croissant in the small time frame that Bruce wasn’t paying attention to him and was now laying face first on the counter.”Tony. Hey Tony, come on let’s get you bed now.”Tony made a soft whining noise from the back of his throat but moved with Bruce’s gentle suggestions and stood up from the chair. Tony stood up straight for exactly .03 seconds before he was leaning heavily into Bruce’s side.Bruce never minded, and was often too awestruck with how comfortable Tony was in his presence to show himself this vulnerable, and instead adjusted his stance accordingly and made his way to the elevator.Jarvis shut the door behind them and raised the glass box slowly into the air. Bruce was thankful that he was so careful. Yes Tony was asleep, but he would bet that Jarvis did it because he knew Bruce didn’t do too well with enclosed spaces so high up.When the door gave a soft ding and slid open silently Bruce let out his minor tension and gently coaxed Tony down the hall and toward his bedroom. Bruce knew the layout of Tony’s penthouse just as well as he knew his own; having spent many nights up here conversing with Tony or just hanging out near each other without a word, just so they weren’t alone.When he finally got Tony through the door he was suddenly faced with the choice of either stripping Tony down to his boxers and putting him bed, helping him put pajamas on and then getting him to sleep, or just tucking him in the covers as he was and leaving him be.Every other time Bruce brought Tony to bed he was at least awake enough to let Bruce know what he preferred. Tony’s insecurities, paranoia, and/or his ptsd all tended to flare up at random times. Sometimes he was fine with whatever, and sometimes there was a limit to how vulnerable he would let anyone see him. Bruce didn’t want Tony to panic when he woke up, but he also wanted Tony to be comfortable.”If I may, Dr. Banner. Sir has been having a good day, I do not think he would mind if you helped him into something more comfortable.”Bruce let out a sudden breath and released his worry. Tony trusted Jarvis, Jarvis knew Tony better than anyone.”Thank you Jarvis.””Of course.”Brice was quick and efficient in helping Tony change, but he was still very careful with where he touched his friend and how he moved around him. The first and only time he had accidentally touched the Arc reactor without Tony’s express permission made Bruce very mindful of his friend’s triggers. He never wanted to cause that reaction in Tony ever again.It was only ten minutes later that Bruce was gently tucking Tony into bed and making sure he was okay before leaving. Tony blinked sleepy eyes at him and mumbled in a soft but clear voice.“I’m really glad you’re here, Brucie. I’m really glad you stayed.”Tony then scrunched his face up adorably and promptly fell asleep. Bruce had a hard time kickstarting his brain back up but when he did he tiptoed his way out and gently shut the door. So yeah. Tony is the best thing in Bruce’s life and if he didn’t want to tell him what he is doing right now -what he’s gotten into- out of some attempt to keep him safe or some other such thing then Bruce wasn’t going to push. He was just going to there for Tony and support him in any way he could until he was told, and then he would back him up in that as well. Because Tony was the best, Tony was too generous and self-sacrificing for his own good sometimes, and because Tony was Bruce’s friend. And he didn’t have many of those anymore, so Bruce would do anything to keep him.
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Hermione knew that she should have been focusing on the text in front of her. Percy has stressed the importance of reading and researching heavily during this period of respite for as long as they could, but while she completely agreed with that she also couldn’t help but obsess over the changes that had occurred with the group. Percy, while not always the most in-tune with everyone, had become even more immersed in his books and scrolls, frantically learning and re-learning everything he could like every moment that passed was a moment closer to a time when they would need those obscure rituals or the odd forgotten charm. Like it be life or death. She could understand to an extent, just look at where they were now for instance, but even Percy’s sweet and easy-going wife was starting to worry about him. The twins hadn’t even left their bed since they had been released from holding and had warded themselves onto this towering island they had all raised from the sea. Their bond had been stretched thin with such a prolonged time without any kind of contact. Wizarding twins were especially attuned to each other’s magics so the fact that they hadn’t stopped clutching desperately to each other hadn’t surprised her; but it did worry her. She had been mighty surprised at how well Luna seemed to be doing though. True, the girl was struggling to adapt to the different ways to See in this new world but she was showing no other signs of struggle. Which was odd in that she was the only other person aside from Harriet that had spent so long in that hellscape. From what Hermione had gathered it had been a couple extra years on top of everyone else’s.And Hermione knew that she herself was having a hard time dealing what few things she had to go through. And she had had plenty of support. Luna had only had Harri. Hermione knew she hadn’t truly grieved for all she had lost. Images of Ron still haunted her every dream. The look of frozen shock and horror that was forever etched onto his face in death had been the catalyst for every one of her sleepless nights since the battle at Hogwarts. But she also knew that if she thought too hard about that day, let alone tried to wrestle with the mess of emotions it had caused, she would break down and be of no use to anyone for a good long while. And what would she be if not useful? She was the smart one, Ron had said, the one they needed the most. Of course, at that time he was stating facts as he saw them while also trying to convince her of his own uselessness. And she had fired back that he was their heart and soul, dependable, and if he wasn’t there then they might as well all throw down their wands and surrender on the spot. She had been trying to prove he was needed, essential. She’d been head over heels in love with him and couldn’t have stood by while he’d belittled himself. She could never have thought that such a thing- that he wouldn’t always be there- would ever come to pass. But...Well. Ron had been her anchor. Her rock in the tempest that was her ever tumbling and roaring thoughts. He was always there to distract her just when she felt like her mind was too full and a headache was imminent. He was always there to pull her away when she was stressing too hard over a problem and he always knew just what to do when she felt overwhelmed and not quite right, like her mind never quite fit her body right and she felt all out of sorts.She had floundered when that support was suddenly no longer there to tie her down.Hermione shook herself of her thoughts when she felt her eyes start to fill with tears. Hadn’t she just said she couldn’t deal with those thoughts or emotions right now? She rubbed furiously at her eyes and cast her thoughts frantically for something to occupy her. Harriet, maybe?Harri is her oldest and dearest friend, she would quiet literally walk to her death before she ever betrayed her for any reason. But in the comfort of her own mind Hermione could give voice to her concern, no, her observations, that her best friend was no longer as she used to be. Yes, they’d all changed. Grew up, found love or a passion to devote time to, and all of them had been through a war that had lasted during their most formative years. And that was bound to create some damage for sure. But she wasn’t afraid to admit that where Harri was now... scared her a little bit. Her magic had lost that zing to it that been so innocent and curious, maybe even care-free but with what Hermione knew of her friend’s childhood she didn’t believe so. Now her magic was an almost tangible force around her, sparking in such a dark and unpredictable fashion. Plus, and this is what truly made her pause for a moment. Because everyone in their group had used dark magic before, you couldn’t truly avoid it if you had wanted to stay alive. But the look in Harri’s eyes as she killed, protected, attacked, defended, truly anything to do with magic and hurting another person... It wasn’t quite a sane look. And it scared Hermione with how okay she was with that. How seeing her best friend use her considerable magical powers in her defense made her feel safe and protected and loved. She knew her best friend was twisted. That she wasn’t okay anymore. She had been tortured and abused and lied to and so many other horrible things that it was no mystery why she was this way. But how twisted did Hermione have to be to not care about that? To even enjoy when someone was hurt or killed in her defense?That was what scared her.Because Hermione didn’t know if that meant that she was quite as sane anymore, or if it meant that maybe... maybe she had always been this way and only now realized it?Hermione jolted when she felt arms wrap themselves around her shoulders and a weight was settled against her back. “Darling, what are you thinking so hard on? You’re too pretty and young to have stress wrinkles before you’re twenty-five.”Pansy purred her words into Hermione’s ear, her breathe ghosted against her cheek and she shivered with the sudden chill it left behind. Pansy had been a surprise. Not in the sense that she hadn’t been a friend; she had been since Harri had been sorted Slytherin and Hermione had decided that House didn’t matter when she had such a low selection of people willing to be her friend anyways. No. She had been a surprise in that Hermione hadn’t thought she could love another again so soon after losing Ron. And Pansy hadn't pushed. Far from it. She had only been there in the beginning to drag Hermione out of the slump she had found herself in and hauled her around behind the chatty Slytherin until she finally felt up to socializing normally again. It had taken close to a year of being such a steady presence in Hermione’s life before she’d even thought about Pansy in a romantic sense. With Ron it had been an obvious ending to such an explosive and often antagonistic relationship that had just felt right. But with Pansy it had been a steady build until suddenly Hermione realized that they basically were a couple. The only thing that had changed in their relationship had been a small increase in physical affection and a greater sense of knowing that the other was yours. Pansy had from the get-go been all over in her in the sense that she was gently pulling or leading her into or out of places and was constantly draping herself over Hermione’s lap or back to get her out of her mind and focusing more on the Slytherin girl instead.Speaking of...”Just... thoughts about how much has changed for us and how we’re dealing and recovering from them.”A soft snort from her girlfriend let Hermione know that Pansy had noticed the dip of her thoughts and didn’t quite believe her words.”Well, I can think of a few things I’d rather do with you than sit here and think about the others.”Pansy had such a teasing and promising lilt to her voice that Hermione was just about to turn around and greet her properly when Harri’s silvery Padfoot loped into the room and let out a woof to get her attention before opening its gleaming mouth.“Hermione, we have a sudden unexpected guest that I’m bringing to the War Room, please meet us there.”With that final word in Harri’s voice Padfoot faded away and Hermione was left staring were it had been. Her mind in one of those rare ‘blue screen’ modes before it booted back up with a vengeance. War Room? That didn’t sound promising. Hadn’t she gone to take care of a cell of agents that had been hidden away? Did that mean she brought one back?If that was true it didn’t spell anything good for her sanity. Harri had gotten scarily good at extracting information out of people’s minds; the few times she hadn’t been able to had resulted in many... messy sessions for that person. Oh! She’d need to find Bill if it was going to be one of those sessions. He was the only other person - aside from maybe Charlie, but he was too caught up in his dragons right now to bother - that she knew didn’t mind all of the unpleasantness these things brought out in Harri, and could in fact keep a sort of leash on her more horrific impulses. ”Love?”Hermione startled out of her thoughts and launched herself from Pansy’s hold.”I’m sorry, dear, but Harri will go off the wall in these situations if we aren’t careful so I’m going to need to leave right now so I get everything prepared.”She made to rush out of the room but stopped herself, turned around, and gave her (lover? girlfriend?) partner a long kiss and smiled softly at her. After she got an answering smile that was just as soft Hermione jerked herself back around to hightail it out of the room.—Germaine wasted no time in finding Bill. His wife, the heavily pregnant Fleur, had been keeping with her in their suit of rooms after she was awakened with the others.She had not been happy when she was told she would be put under a magically-induced coma, she had wanted to fight to the bitter end with her husband and best friends, but she had to think of their unborn daughter, still not far along enough to induce and making her a liability. The blow was softened only a little to know Penelope, Percy’s wife, was also being put under for the same reason as well as many other witches that had made it to safety back then.But she still had been far from happy about it.Now that she was brought back with everyone else she had taken to making up for all the time she’d missed out on and was either seen practicing spells out in the courtyard or sequestered away with her husband doing things Hermione was more than fine never knowing about.It had been with this in mind that she had sent her own patronus darting down the halls before her to warn them of her coming. So by the time she made it to their chambers Bill was tumbling out of the door looking decidedly rumpled but put together enough that she chose to ignore it.”What’s up Hermione? You said something about Harri and the War Room? Should I be getting my interrogation bag?”Hermione shivered at the mention of his bag but gave a small nod causing him to summon it with a flick of his wrist.”I don’t know much, but Harri told me she had an unexpected guest and to meet her there. I deemed it prudent to call you along to make sure this isn’t as... messy as it could be. You know how best to handle her when she does these things so I chose to ere on the side of caution.”She didn’t need to say much more than that as she could see the spark of understanding in Bill’s eyes as he gave a small nod and then followed her down the hall.When they reached the door she could hear a small commotion coming from inside and she braved herself before opening the door.The scene that met them was not at all what she had been expecting.Harri was arguing with Grimaxe, the goblin-wizard relations representative, about something to do with setting up a bank underground or something. She didn’t put focus to it as she was far for intrigued by the mundane that was awkwardly standing beside Harri and trying his hardest not to stare at the goblin in front of him. He wasn’t really succeeding, the man looked far too fascinated.She had been expecting some blood, maybe some screams. She did not expect the supposed guest to be casually standing beside her volatile best friend and looking very much whole and unharmed.Maybe she had misjudged.”Bill! Thank goodness you’re here! Her minor you’re a mind reader! Bill I need you to tell this bull-headed goblin that I don’t care if he needs to use our resources, that’s fine! But he doesn’t need to be in our debt or anything! We’re happy to help them get back on their feet just like every other magical race we have here!”Harri tossed her hands into the air in the universal sign of frustration and then practically dragged the mundane from the room and through the entirely wrong door.There were technically three rooms for the dubbed War Room. The meeting chamber, which was where they were, that just a glorified sitting room and had the other two attached to it. The interrogation room, that had been warded to the high heavens with all kinds of truth, silencing, protection, and countless other spells and runes for the express purpose of getting information out as fast as possible. And then there was the actual war room that they used for top secret debriefings that they needed total security for. That last one was where Harri had dragged the mundane.Hermione sighed to herself, sent Bill a sign if any look where he was trying to handle the highly frustrated goblin representative, and then followed her friend into the war room.Oh boy, this had better be good.—Turns out it was and wasn’t.Tony Stark, the name of the mundane - and wasn’t that a surprise - had been following Harri’s systematic purge of the corrupted agents with much interest and was keen to actually help them. Turns out he’d been losing trust in them for a long time and searching for why only certain agents had been killed made him lose any he’d had left.As she had talked to him she noticed that Harri was oddly attached to him. Her magic was practically wrapped around him in a thick cloak of stiflingly protective dark magic. She had only seen that happen so quickly to one other person, Luna. And now Harri considered her a sister. So Hermione spent more time and effort to make this work.In the end she had spent the better part of three hours hashing out a plan with him that they all could agree on and feasibly do. Long story short; he would help them in any way he could with his tech, money, and influence and they would supply him with knowledge and assistance on many magical things, more protection for the very few trusted people in his life, and a promise to not completely wipe out the world's population in frustration.That last one let her know that Harri had probably been set off around him and he had clued in to her general overwhelming power and high instability. She wasn’t surprised he caught on, he was a well renowned genius and all.When she had shown him out and he had been apparated away to a distant wood by Bill so he could fly home with his suit, haha let herself hope that this new world would work out much better. Smoother.They had a mundane ally, something they hadn’t really had on the last one. He seemed very invested and willing to put as much into it as they would.So Hermione made her back to the library to try and find Pansy and allowed herself to relax some. They would be okay. She could trust this now.And that night she finally slept without a nightmare of the whole turning against and killing everyone she had ever loved. Instead, she dreamed of a world that accepted them with open arms. She didn’t even worry if they were hiding a knife behind a false facade. For once her thoughts were blessedly silent.
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It was almost two weeks after introducing Stark to her little operation that she finally decided to bite the bullet.Harri burst through the door, startling the Twins, and sashayed in with as much dramatic movements as she could muster. She was aiming to get a laugh, maybe even a small smile, with her performance.”Get up, get dressed - or don’t, your choice - but I’m taking you both with me on this next raid.””What?-“”Harri?-“George was sprawled across his brothers chest and Fred has his hands clasped behind his brother’s back in a tight hug. Both of them had their shirts off but as far as Harri could tell they were still wearing pants.Neither of them had left their bed since they had made the darn thing. Both of them were still heavily affected by their forced separation after a traumatic event. And she got it, really she did. But she felt it had gotten past the point of healthy to stay so cooped up.”Nah uh. I don’t want to hear it. You’re both coming. I took down a few of the small little hideouts I learned about around two weeks ago and then I suddenly stopped. They are sure to think we don’t know about this little secluded base until it’s too late. But it’s too big for just one person and so I thought to take some hunting wolves with me, Percy said absolutely not, so then I thought a pair of spectacular hyenas would do nicely. So come on!”Percy had said no such thing, in fact Harri highly suspected that he would jump at the chance to accompany her himself, but she knew the Twins well enough to know that they loved doing something Percy didn’t approve of. She didn’t think Percy would mind being used in this way if it helped his brothers.Just as she suspected, both Twins got a devilish smirk on their face and were suddenly leaping out of bed. Still clutching each other’s hand desperately, sure, but this mission wasn’t to separate them. Just get them out and about again. They didn’t bother to put on shirts, something she silently approved of, and stood in front of her with twin expectant looks. She grinned back. ”Great! So you can either shift before we get there, or do it after they see you for that little extra pizzazz.”She already knew what they chose by the glint in their eyes. She snagged both of their unoccupied hands and clasped them tightly before jumping across the world. They landed in some snowy, abandoned mountains in the middle of nowhere Russia. A lone grey compound was nestled between two nearby hills.So freakin cliche. Harri sent out a burst of her magic into the sky. It exploded into shimmery energy like a firework and the dust of it settled across the land. Her awareness of the woods spiked up and she could feel a rabbit breathing in its den a mile away. Now nothing could sneak up on them, but the noise of it had alerted the base to their presence. Harri smiled. Good.They weren’t here for information and she didn’t care about stealth. Her main goal was jump starting the Twins. And nothing did that better than than absolute chaos and carnage. Harri let the boys race off towards the base and followed them at a leisurely pace. She kept her attention firmly focused on watching their backs but they did that for each other well enough that she was able to focus more on how the enemies reacted to them.Blind terror when they first shifted was good. No clear strategy to combat the Twins’ instinct-driven attacks was even better though. The two hyenas were ducking and weaving between the soldiers; slashing throats, ripping out spines, gutting them, and even an occasional decapitation. Harri was beyond proud of them. They made great pace through the silent base. The only thing breaking the stillness was the brief bursts of battle whenever they came upon a group of soldiers. Harri was in no hurry and she knew that they would get everyone here so she didn’t bother with secrecy. When she had extracted the information of this base at first she had been surprised to learn that they had included no escape routes. When she found the reason she had almost thrown up. This base was used for human experiments and a storage spot for their ‘Assets’. They didn’t want any escaping asset to get far so no escape routes and the base was located in the middle of no where. Easy to track and bring back any missing experiments. Harri felt sick just thinking it but she took comfort in the fact that this meant that those responsible were now being hunted back with no way out. Karma was a bitch. It took a good hour for her boys to have cleared the extensive halls of any obvious patrols and soldiers. Even the occasional white coat. So she released them to explore the rooms and take care of anything they found. They gave her twin bloody grins before they off like a shot down the hall and around a corner. Harri took her own path at a lazy pace and eventually found something promising. She stood in front of a heavily enforced safe-like hinge door that was connected to a key pad. She smiled to herself and sent out her magic to circumnavigate the circuits and soon she saw a green light blip on the screen and the door unlocked with a soft hiss. With a wave of her hand the door swung open and she felt shock jolt through her at what she saw. —Tony was elbow deep in his newest Mark and had AC/DC running on full blast through his lab. He had been up the whole night working out the kinks in the calibration and finally found the wire that had been eluding him. He let out a satisfied sigh when he felt the wire slot into place and he carefully extracted his arms from the inner workings before closing the paneling back up. ”J. Run simulations on it now and see if that fixed everything. I’ve got to head back up top, Brucie is expecting me to go over his newest findings before he sends them in.””Of course, Sir. Running now, will be completed in approximately 2.32 hours and counting.””Perfect. Thanks buddy.”Tony aimed a smile at the nearest camera as he wiped any grease off his hands and feet before throwing the rag on the counter and heading out.He took the elevator and in almost no time he was seated against his fellow scientist’s side and reading over his shoulder, pointing out every now-and-then a line that could be changed but generally just enjoying his friends presence. It almost wasn’t believable to him that this wasn’t something he had had before. Tony felt like Bruce had been with him all of his life, he was so comfortable around him. He had such a calming presence that Tony didn’t even stress anymore if he was being too annoying. Too pushy or cocky. Bruce didn’t care. And Tony loves him for it.The silence and comfort of the evening was broken by Selena Gomez belting out the chorus to “Magic” and Tony jolted into action. Scrambling for his phone and hesitating for the briefest of seconds, casting a glance at Bruce, before hitting speaker. ”Hello-“Tony’s greeting was swiftly cut off a frantic feminine voice. He had heard her sound upset before but not like this. He could practically hear her heartbeat over the phone and there was no mistaking the tremble in her voice as she spoke. ”Tony. I-I found something I really think you need to come see. It’s not good, but you deserve to know.””What is it? What did you find?””Well. I’m pretty sure it’s a person, 80% sure the organization that I’m taking down did something to him. But it’s what I found in his file that you really need to see in person. I’d bring a friend...”Bruce was giving him a look and all Tony could do was nod and grasp his hand as he felt a heavy weight settle against his chest.”Who did you find?””His name is Bucky Barnes. Code name: Winter Soldier.”
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Tony seemed to be in a daze. His eyes had gone glassy and distant and his gaze was locked onto the file Harri had handed him a little over half an hour ago. He hadn’t turned a page in ten minutes. Harri turned her gaze to Stark’s companion, the good doctor looked concerned but was keeping his distance at the moment, clearly unsure if he would be welcome at this time. He looked severely out of place in the grey concrete and sterile white tiled floors.She knew what Stark was looking at, of course. Having read it before giving the man a call. But Banner didn’t have a clue other than it was bad and involved his friend. She felt for them both, truly she did, but they were now on a time crunch so she had to take things into her own hands if anything was going to get done.”Stark.”His head snapped up and his eyes cleared enough to focus on her. Harri breathes a soft sigh of relief. At least he was aware enough. She could work with that. ”Focus please, Stark. We don’t have much time before the de-thaw of the containment cell due to accidental damage done to it. I need to know right now, can you work with him? On him?”If Stark was unable to put aside any feelings of anger or resentment at this moment then she would need to get him out of here. They would be completely understandable yes, but she knew that he would regret any hasty reactions later. She had no personal attachments to the Asset like she did to Stark, so she knew she could stay collected. It was how Stark could react that worried her. “No, yeah. I can do this. I can do this.”His gaze hardens even more and a mask seems to slip over him. His emotions are clearly shunted away and an indifferent look settles on him like a cloak instead.”Good. Now I just need you to get him up to working order. We can worry about any further maintenance after we raze this place to the ground but I’m just focusing on functional for the moment.”The Asset was used to a maintenance check immediately after defrost. After his new Handler got him under control first of course, but then it was his checkup. Harri was doing her best to make it as smooth a wake up call as she could provide right now.The end goal was getting the poor man to her resident mind healer and seeing about helping him recover. But because of the discovery of his sudden de-thawing she couldn’t bring him to Blaise as quickly as she’d like. Yes, what she was planning on wouldn’t be considered ‘ethical’, and she would completely understand if the man hated her after he got his mind back. But Harri would handle it as safely as she could right now and worry about the consequences later. She gave herself a mental shake to clear her head then snapped her hand towards the containment cell. Her magic whooshed out and ripped the door completely off before vanishing it into the void.The man- no Harri, Asset- very nearly tumbled out with the sudden lack of support but he quickly caught himself on the nearby table and maintained his position. She could see the inhuman muscle mass on him and couldn’t help but notice the metallic glint of the arm on his side. Reading about it was very different from seeing it in person, she found.”Soldat, beachtung!” (Soldier, attention!)The Asset snapped up into a standing position and settled into an obvious resting pose; His hands clutched loosely behind his back, feet slightly spread but firmly placed, posture relaxed but alert with his head lightly tilted down. “Sehnsucht. Verrostet. Ofen. Tagesanbruch. Siebzehn. Gutartig. Neun. Heimkehr. Einer. Guterwagan.” (Longing. Rusted. Furnace. Daybreak. Seventeen. Benign. Nine. Homecoming. One. Freight car.)The further along Harri went with the controlling words, the tenser the Asset became. His shoulders were bunched up to his ears in a half-hearted attempt to block them out, his muscles were obviously tensed and prepared to leap at a moments notice, but his face was where she was paying the most attention. He was grimacing and shaking his head in tiny furtive motions, clearly in great mental agony but trained too well to do much more than he already was to relieve it. All of that tension bled out of him and his face blanked over completely when the last word left her lips. His eyes were glazed over and she could see nothing going on behind them. He truly became a blank slate for her bidding. Terrifying. ”Bereit tu entspruchen.” (Ready to comply.)Harri gave a decisive nod to the rough, gravely voice. ”We will speak in English from now on, to account for the American mechanic we have. All orders from him are to be followed like they came from me but will not supersede my own. Proceed to the operating chair then do not move a muscle unless otherwise informed.”Harri gestured the Asset towards Tony, and consequently the chair that the compound’s former animals had all prepared. She knew she wasn’t much better, watching as he prowled towards it and sat down- motionless, but it was necessary.Stark nodded to her in a decidedly distracted manner, then maneuvered the mechanical arm into place and opened it up, proceeding to dive straight in to the wiring beneath. Harri had the boring task of sitting off to the side and skimming the other files for the next three or so hours. Tony was clearly entranced by the inner workings of the arm and wasn’t paying much attention to the man attached to it anymore. She still kept a surreptitious eye on them just in case she needed to intervene, but otherwise left them to it.When finally Stark closed up the arm and set aside his tools with a resounding bang, Harri jerked up with the sudden noise and almost fell out of her chair. Cursing silently to herself for almost zoning out, she got up and made her way to them.”Hows it looking?””Functional for now. It’ll need further tuning at a later time, took too much of a beating with the sustained cold, but it should suffice until then.”Harri gave a thoughtful nod. She glanced over to Bruce and waved him closer to them. He had been absorbed inside the file on the Asset, reading about the experiments he’d endured, but he set them aside and came over as soon as it was clear he was needed.”Okay. Tony, do you and Bruce need an assist to head back to the tower, or would you both like to come to the tower with the Asset and I? I don’t care either way but I wanted to know your thoughts.”Tony glances at Bruce momentarily, then scrutinized the Asset for a few minutes. He must have seen something she couldn't, for he gave a decisive nod.”We'll head back ourselves. I want to take these files with me and go over them from the comfort of my own place. Plus, I have a few things that need sorting out now. He’ll need his own identity back when he’s more himself and I have a few strings I can pull discreetly in the meantime.”“Of course. Let me help with what I can, then.”Harri casually flicked her wrist and summoned all of the scattered files around the room to sort themselves into neat piles and then deposit into boxes which she then temporarily shrunk and handed to the two men. ”Tap the lid 5 times successively and they will I shrink themselves. Stay safe you two, I would hate to have to send my allies after you if you got in trouble. They are all considerably more chaotic than I.”She gave them both a soft smile, mischief dancing in her eyes and coming out in her magic that ruffled the air around them.With those parting words she wrapped her magic around them and sent them back to the tower. And then snagged the arm of the Asset in a firm grip and snapped themselves out as well, but not before sending a message to her twins that the compound was fair game now, and they could destroy it however they liked.—Bap. Bap. Bap.Steve Rogers- the Man Out of Time, Captain America, the Man With the Plan, etc.- was feeling decidedly wrong footed.He had been in this new time not even a year, not even half a year, and he was still getting used to all of the new things at his disposal. It didn’t help that he had barely been awoken a week before thrust back into a war; one he thought he’d finished, damnit. So he was still coping with all of it. Badly.
Bap. Bap.
He knew he wasn’t doing well. He is twenty-seven, but everyone around him treated him much older than he was. He’d started leaning into it, hiding his actual opinions and comments behind what they expected from him.An upstanding, old-fashioned, self-assured, all-around American hero.
Bap.
He did it at first to blend in, lay low and not draw attention. Shield may have been founded by Peggie, but Steve wasn’t fooled into thinking that automatically made them good. He’d hardly known Peggie, even before he’d gone under, so he couldn’t put much faith in them purely from that. So he kept an eye on them.But he also did it so they would help him. Being stuck in the future with no connections and no knowledge about anything other than very outdated subjects, he needed their support. So he swallowed his doubts and did his duty as the good little soldier boy that he was literally made to be.
Bap. Bap. Bap.
But then he took it too far. Too much time pretending would wear on anyone, and he was already rubbed raw from the war and losing his closest companion. So he wore the mask too much, and he’d accidentally alienated a man that could have been a friend.Stark was a good man. No matter what Shield and Natasha has tried to prove otherwise with their obviously biased report they’d practically thrown at him. And he’d reacted as they wanted him to when he was around them. But he forgot to revert back when they were alone, and he was paying for it now.Stark didn’t trust him. Hardly talked to him outside of meetings or battles, and even then only when required. And Steve ached at the missed opportunity. But he saw that it was too late.Reap what you sow, and all that.
Bap. Bap. Bap. Bap.
So now he made the best of what he had. Natasha wasn’t terrible; too wily to be completely trusted, but enough that he could turn his back on her without worry at least. Coulson was okay, a bit excitable when he was around but was slowly calming down with time. Clint was fine too; Steve didn’t see him often enough to form much of an opinion aside from that.All in all, fairly decent people to work with, but Steve still mourned for his unit. The howling commandos had been as close as brothers, no secrets among them anymore after too many nights in the thick of it to worry about judgement. No room for that when you were fighting for your life daily and wanted some things about you to be remembered by the survivors. And there wasn’t much you could hide anyways when you were living as closely as they had.The boys had found out about him and Bucky fairly quickly, after all.Back then, among the soldiers, no one cared what was and wasn’t supposed to be. Why fault a man for seeking comfort and companionship? As long as both parties were happy with everything, who cared?Steve and Bucky got some knowing looks and teasing remarks after they had both stumbled out of the same tent in the early mornings, and the boys didn’t remark if they exchanged simple physical gestures occasionally like hand holding or quick cheek kisses. They weren’t the first, nor the last, couple among the army who decided life was too short to worry about strangers’ opinions.Steve shook himself.
Bap. Bap.
It wasn’t to be. He may be in a time where such couplings could be out in the general public now, mostly accepted. But it was too late for them. Too late to enjoy it, and even if Bucky had still survived, he would have moved on with his life by now after Steve had gone down, and they still wouldn’t be.He finished up his sets, the final hit completely snapping the sand bag off it’s hook and sailing into the wall with a bang, then he took a quick shower and left. He snagged his bag on the way out the door, waving to the friendly lady at the counter on the way out, and set off on a brisk jog back to his apartment.It was only as he shut his door behind him and set his things down that he noticed the new message flashing on his phone screen.It was from Tony Stark.