Chapter 7
Teddy’s birthday goes off without a hitch. He’s overjoyed with his new robot and the other toys he receives. He’s even more excited by the surprise visit from his ‘Aunt Mi and Uncle Ron,’ who had portkeyed across the pond as a surprise for both Harri and her son. They all had a weekend of toys, sweets, and muggle movies. Harriet had loved being able to see her friends in person, and had loved even more seeing them without having a tightness in her chest for the first time in years. The weekend had come to an end, though, and everyone had had to return to their daily lives. And so, Harri finds herself back in her office going over case files with Teddy several floors below her in the magical child care facility. Hermione and Ron had returned to England the afternoon before, wanting to be home in time to have a full night’s sleep before returning to work Monday morning.
As she pours over the file in front of her, her thoughts drift away from her task. Her friends’ surprise visit had granted her reprieve from the thoughts that have plagued her for over a week now. She met her father. She was in the same room as him and she fled like a coward. Some Gryffindor she makes. Maybe she should have taken the Sorting Hat’s offer of Slytherin back when she was eleven.
She and Azzy haven’t spoken of the incident since their fight the weekend before, though both the subtle looks and the mysterious flyers for the Stark Expo that she keeps tossing into the rubbish make her certain that the deity has yet to change his mind on the subject.
Sighing, she sets the folder she is currently flipping through aside, leaning back in her desk chair and stretching her arms up above her head. She needs to get some fresh air and clear her head if she plans on getting any actual work done today. Harriet stands, donning her jacket on her way out of the door. Her trip through the building has her encountering several coworkers and having to stop to consult on at least three cases from the Public Safety department before she finally makes it to the street outside of the Woolworth building. She sets a brisk pace, walking the few blocks to the small coffee shop she had found when she first started her consultant position with MACUSA. It’s on her walk back to work, hot cocoa in hand, that she feels eyes on her. That’s not necessarily unusual in this part of the city, where wixen roam a bit more freely. She’s been recognized plenty of times, no matter how much she would like to keep her head down. This time, though, the hair on the back of her neck stands on end. A sense of foreboding seeps into her gut, not dissimilar to the feeling she would get at Hogwarts right before her and her friends battled the Big Bad of the Year. She quickens her pace, heart not settling to a steady rhythm in her chest until she is safely ensconced in her office once more, cocoa held tightly in one hand and the Elder Wand in the other.
It takes a solid ten minutes for her hackles to lower, anxiety dissipating. Just as she begins to peruse the files upon her desk again, the door to her office creaks open. Just as it had on her impromptu cocoa run, the hair on the back of her neck raises and unease coils behind her ribs. She doesn’t stand from her seat behind the desk, but allows one of her wands to slip from the holster on her wrist and into the hold she holds under the desk and out of sight.
A tall, dark man steps silently inside, letting her office door fall shut behind him. She’s immediately reminded of Mad Eye Moody, not just because of the eye patch that adorns the stranger’s face, but also the way he holds himself. His good eye flicks around the room suspiciously before landing upon her. It’s obvious this is a man that holds the vigilant paranoia of someone who has been to war, a trait she can privately admit that is recognizable in herself as well. It’s quiet for several moments, a silent staring match occurring when neither makes a move to speak or attack. Finally-
“Ms. Potter.” His words are sharp and his accent American. While the knowledge that he is not from her home country soothes some of her anxieties, it does not guarantee that he is not a Death Eater sympathizer. Harriet has met many wixen that would love to see her ruin since the end of the war, not just Death Eaters who escaped capture. This man is not someone she recognizes as a MACUSA employee, though it would be near impossible for her to know each individual who works in her building. Still, she has learned it is better to trust her instincts and her gut is screaming at her that this man is dangerous.
Harri stands, keeping her desk between them and her wand gripped tightly in hand. “Hello.”
“I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Yet, you know my name.” Of course, most people in the Wizarding World know her name.
“It would be hard not to recognize the most famous witch alive.” The man raises a brow. Harriet takes note of the way his hand twitches toward his hip as his gaze flicks to her wand. Her muscles tense in anticipation of an attack.
“Right. Gonna tell me your name then, Patchy the Pirate?”
The man blinks at her for a moment before letting out a weary sigh. “Shit. You really are his kid, aren’t you?”
Lead settles in her stomach. “Excuse me?”
He takes a few steps forward before taking up residence in the chair across from her desk. Harri stares at him with unease. “Director Nicholas Fury, head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Otherwise known as the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.” It’s her turn to blink blankly at the man, Director Fury, apparently. “I realize it’s a mouthful, feel free to refer to it as Shield.”
Harriet opens and closes her mouth a few times before scowling and sinking back into her own seat. “None of which explains why you have invaded my office.”
Fury observes her with a narrowed eye, tilting his head to the side. “Well, when the President of the Magical United States contacts you himself concerning a spike of wixen magic in one of the most well known muggle buildings in the world, you have to take the matter rather seriously.” Harriet’s fairly sure that she stops breathing at that declaration. Of course her use of magic in Stark Tower wouldn’t have gone unnoticed. “You can imagine that upon finding the occupants of the tower in an uproar over the disappearance of a young woman with a claim to Stark’s unfortunate DNA, you can understand why I chose to handle this personally. Especially when the name Harri Potter came up in conversation.”
Her mind whirls, thinking about the professional consequences of her actions. Will she be fired for using magic in front of muggles? She could probably construe the situation as self defense sense they did kind of kidnap her. She’s sure Spiderman would have called it saving her life, but she prefers the word abduction when waking up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people who won’t let her leave. As loath as she is to do it, she could pull her ‘Savior’ title out of storage to get this mess covered up, but that’s not particularly the kind of example she wishes to set for Teddy. Money and fame aren’t everything and shouldn’t be treated as such. She’s getting off track. Her first priority needs to be getting this strange man out of her office and swearing him to secrecy on her uncovered heritage.
“Nothing to say for yourself, Ms. Potter? Or should I call you Ms. Stark, now?” Fury has the nerve to smirk.
“It’s Potter.” She casts him a glare before straightening in her seat. “Now that we’ve covered why you’re here, what exactly do you want?”
“Your department head says you’re a consultant?” He leans forward reaching into his black overcoat. Her fingers clench around her wand, handing twitching. Her heart calms some when he produces a file folder instead of a wand of his own, slapping it down on the desk between them. “Rein it in, Potter-Stark, it’s a case not a bomb.”
His words make her realize how heavy the air around them is, her magic practically leaking out of her pores. Harri rolls her shoulders back and takes a few calming breaths, counting out ingredients to the Polyjuice Potion in her head for a long moment. Hermione had ingrained the technique into her years ago, after the fifth time sparks of Harriet’s excess magic caught something in their dorm room on fire. Once the atmosphere in the office no longer feels like an incoming thunderstorm, she pulls the folder to her and flips it open.
“Grunson is under the impression that I’m here for a wizarding consult, which I am. It just so happens that visiting you checks a few more things off of my to do list.” Fury leans back in his seat, crossing his arms. The mention of the Public Safety Department’s head makes her skin prickle. She’s fairly sure that the wizard in question, an Ilvermony graduate barely ten years Harri’s senior, would fire her in a heartbeat if given the chance. Franklin Grunson hasn’t liked her from the moment she stepped foot on American soil. “As you can see, I have a bit of a problem on my hands. One I believe might be fixed faster with a wave of a wand rather than your father flying around in a tin can.”
Harriet raises an unimpressed brow over the top of the page she is reading. A surprising thought occurs to her before she is able to deny the ‘father’ comment. She sets the document down with a confused expression. “You’re a muggle.”
“Certainly not a stick swinging Harry Houdini.”
Harri scoffs at his comparison to wizards before turning her attention back to the matter at hand. “This sounds like an alien problem. Not a wizard problem.” She says, flipping through the papers that are now scattered over the top of her desk.
“You would be right, except these aliens seem to be wizards themselves.”
Her brows begin crawling up her forehead. “This species has magic?”
“They use some odd sort of crowns instead of wands, but that does seem to be the case.”
Harriet skims a page detailing a minor attack in a midwestern state. A troop of the aliens touched down on an army base. It hadn’t ended well for the human military. She glances between Fury and the case file a few times. “I am not the one you will need to speak to about organizing aurors and hit wizards to help. That would be Grunson, possibly even President Quahog for an incident of this size.”
“I’m not here for an army of wizards.” He stares her down expectantly, his single eye trying to burn a hole straight through her. Despite him being a muggle, she strengthens her occlumency shields unconsciously. She had finally been able to master the subject once Riddle’s stowaway had been ejected from her during the Battle of Hogwarts.
“As you said before, I’m a consultant. I no longer participate in field work.”
“I was hoping an exception could be made considering the circumstances. And your newfound connections to another member of the team tackling the situation.”
Paper crinkles under her fingers as her grip tightens unconsciously. She breathes deeply before answering. “Unfortunately, I don’t believe that will be possible.” She begins replacing the documents into the folder he had given her. “I would be happy to put in a word to Grunson for you or to recommend you hit wizards that I believe would work well with your team, but I will not be available to help in the field.”
The two stare at each other intensely, Fury as if trying to intimidate her and Harriet trying to summon the aura of a woman that won a war and mastered death. Finally, the man hums and takes the folder she holds out to him, standing from the chair. He reaches into an inner pocket of his coat before placing a small card on her desk.
“In case you change your mind.”
Harriet does her best to keep her expression neutral as he leaves, not turning a glare onto the card until her office door is firmly shut and she’s alone once more. Scowling, she swipes the offending piece of cardstock into one of the drawers in her desk, slamming it shut. Honestly, must everyone think that she is the only witch in the world capable of winning wars?
-
Despite the unwanted visitor she endured that afternoon, Harri’s work day ends on a nice note. She and Teddy make the walk from the subway station to their apartment, well Teddy’s skipping and jumping over cracks in the sidewalk, but all the same. Her son chatters on about his day; the activities he participated in, the friends he played with, how he surprised his daycare worker by turning his nose into a beak. Harriet’s heart pangs at the last one, unable to stifle the sudden grief she feels for Tonks. Sometimes, Teddy reminds her so much of his birth parents that it’s painful.
They’re only a block away from home when Teddy tugs her to a stop, squealing. “Mummy! Mummy, look!”
“What is it, dar- shit.” Harri freezes in place at the sight of New York’s pajama-wearing arachnid swinging from building to building above them.
“No swearin’!” She barely registers her son scolding her as the vigilante lands before them. The city goers around them barely spare a glance for the scene.
“So, we meet again.” She can practically hear the smug grin in his voice.
“It’s Spidey-Man!” Teddy jumps up and down in his excitement, tugging on her hand. The aforementioned super hero turns his attention to her son, crouching down to his level and holding out a fist. Teddy immediately bumps his own fist against the man’s.
“Hey, little man!”
“You’re Spidey-Man!” The little wizard vibrates with excitement.
“That I am, and you’re Teddy Potter.” Spider-Man pokes her son’s tummy, causing him to giggle. Harri finally regains control of her senses and tugs both herself and Teddy a step back, away from the masked man. Spider-Man glances up at her from his still crouched position. “You’re a hard person to find, Ms. Potter.”
Harriet wrinkles her nose in dismay, making sure to keep a tight grip on Teddy’s hand. “And yet you still managed to track me down.”
“Well, I’ll have to give Tony more credit for that.” He shrugs sheepishly, standing up straight once more. His words cause her to glance around nervously, expecting Stark to fly out of the sky and land in front of her next. “Don’t worry, he doesn’t even know I’m here.”
It’s then that Spider-Man’s familiar voice clicks in her mind, causing her to think back to her impromptu visit to Stark Tower. Her sister had said that ‘Petey’ had saved her, not Spider-Man. Which means that the man beneath the mask is actually the same one who had been experimenting on her wands with Stark. The thought makes her take another step back.
“What do you want?” Her hand twitches at her side, fingers craving the wood of her wand. If there weren’t so many muggles around, she might risk it. As it is, she’s been lucky enough to not find trouble from the incident in the tower.
Peter, as she’s almost positive that that’s his name, shuffles awkwardly. Avoiding her eyes even through the mask. “Well, you were shot. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
“I’m fine, so you can go.”
She makes to move around him, keeping Teddy close to her side, but the man (Muggle? Wizard? Mutant?) is faster, blocking their path. “Wait?”
She huffs, frowning impatiently. “What?”
“Why don’t you come back to the tower with me and meet Tony properly? He’s been a mess since he ran the paternity test.”
“Paternity test?” She blinks, shocked that the billionaire would have gone to such lengths to confirm the claim made by a stranger.
“Dr. Banner still had blood samples from when he had checked your levels while you were unconscious. Tony had Friday run the test almost as soon as you disappeared. He’s been trying to find you since.”
“Hulk!” Teddy exclaims, tugging on Harri’s hand with all of his strength. “Mummy, we meet Hulk, too?”
She glances down at the boy, his wide and excited eyes pulling at her heart strings. The expression almost makes her want to break before thoughts of the Dursleys cross her mind. Just because Stark has been looking for her, doesn’t necessarily mean that whatever he wants is a good thing.
“Not now, sweetheart. Kreach and Uncle Azzy are waiting for us at home.” His crestfallen expression breaks her heart.
“They’re welcome to come, too!” Spider-Man steps forward, reaching out a hand, causing Harriet to flinch away, pulling Teddy behind her.
“No!” She clears her throat, straightening. “I mean, no. We aren’t able to join you today.”
“Well, when are you free? Morgan would love to see you again.” The mention of her younger sister, the girl who had looked up at her with hopeful eyes set in a face so similar to her own, makes her longs want to seize. She takes a moment to clear her mind of those light green eyes.
“Look, the answer is no. I’m sorry, but this just isn’t going to happen.” Bending down, she swings Teddy into the air before setting him on her hip. “It’s just better this way, trust me.”
This time, Peter lets her walk around him. She’s a few feet away where he speaks once more. “Better for who, Harriet?”
Harri pauses in stride for just a moment before picking up her pace, heading home. She’s tired of everyone in her life trying to convince her to foster relationships that are doomed to fail.