As Loki appeared from the S.H.I.E.L.D. basement, the same energy was detected in a distant part of Gotham. This meant Director Nicholas "Nick" Fury had to inform the vigilantes of the city about the incident and tell Batman to hand over whatever he’s got. Which can’t possibly be worse than reactivating Avengers Initiative Project, having any possible information of these individuals didn’t help with getting too much hopes up about how cooperative they would be; at least they were all on their way.
However, before Fury could lose his track of thoughts, Batman contacted him through a personalized device, sent a message to Nick that he came across a man–who was indeed being cooperative, to everyone's surprise–and that he’s under his custody now, along with a picture of the person.
The man–or boy, rather–in the picture certainly resembled Loki; black hair, with green eyes, though Loki’s had a few extra tints of blue. He was in human-casual clothes in the picture, unlike Loki, probably in his early twenties at the most. But noting the fact that he’d probably had some time before being found, he could’ve been in disguise. It was a relief that he agreed to be taken into custody without resistance, saving lots of trouble, although it seemed pretty suspicious of him.
The vigilante added that he’d be on the emergency helicarrier right away with Gotham’s other vigilantes and the person. The transport was the one that Wayne Enterprises’ Tech branch had remodeled to Batman’s liking when Fury and Bruce Wayne made a deal about sealed identities and leaving the area under the billionaire’s care. It wasn't even on SHIELD's database, on the bat-themed vigilante's insistence. SHIELD didn’t want Gotham’s troubles anyways, Fury thought; the deal also included that the existence of mutants—or so they call meta-humans in the city—wouldn’t leak out of Gotham’s walls (shores, more like).
Yet there was no single detail about this being, which was all really frustrating for Fury. Just because he left out details about Loki’s attack, that didn’t mean Batman wouldn’t hack through his system to get his hands on whatever information SHIELD had. Knowing that the existence of Tesseract would be soon revealed, Fury growled but checked on with Agent Romanov that Dr. Banner was on his way here with her.
Good, he thought; at least they’d have more idea about how to track Loki down. They might have even missed a few other signs considering how one occured in Gotham, which frustrated the spy even more, though he’d never show that on the outside.
Fury instructed a laboratory and a conference room to be used for Avengers, and another conference room for the vigilantes of Gotham. He should have asked Batman how many he was bringing; the man wasn’t likely to leave his ground empty.
============
As Agent Maria Hill was bringing the vigilantes up to their assigned space, she counted the number of them and let out an internal sigh.
Looks like you’re wrong, Director. the agent messaged him; we’ve got five of them—Batman, Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Robin, though it seems Batgirl took charge in Gotham.
With their captive, all six were on-board. She also informed him that the captive was tied, though it seemed to be just a precaution since Nightwing was quietly chattering to him, looking rather amused when the boy showed a fraction of a smile before returning to expression-less, but still polite state.
After dropping them off, and informing them about Avengers who were assembling at the moment, the agent left with a short note for them to not hack through SHIELD’s system, which most likely was going to be ignored.
==============
“What’d you think ‘bout that, Harry? She didn’t even take you as hostage.” Richard “Dick” Grayson, otherwise known as Nightwing, asked Harry with a joke in his tone.
“Hmm, whether to take it as a good sign or not? I should say they let their guard down pretty much with me in your hands, though I’d say they at least needed to check me over.” Harry responded, with a tint of mockery; honestly, this SHIELD just trusted these vigilantes with their words.
“So far you have told us pretty much nothing except you were at your work on your birthday before unintentionally being transported to Gotham. We know you have a British accent and no records are found so far about your existence. You told us you’d be cooperative as long as we don’t look through your stuff, but allowed us to take it away. I mean, seriously. Who are you? Are you with that alien who attacked a SHIELD basement?” Timothy “Tim” Drake—Red Robin—asked, frustrated. So far Harry followed as they led him, but he was good at twisting words and not actually giving them enough information.
“Like I told you, I’m Harry; I have no idea why I ended up in Gotham, and I’m human, not an alien.” Scoffing internally at the frustrated questions, thinking back to his work in Auror office, he unconsciously rubbed his left thumb on top of right hand, a little bit awkward of an action because of how his hands were tied. I must not tell lies, said the scar.
And of course, everyone in the room caught that; Damian Wayne (Robin), snatched up his right hand to have a look at, and showed it to others. Everyone’s—except Batman’s—expression froze, their shock visible to Harry.
“Harry?” Grayson was staring at him, expecting an explanation; Harry simply shook off little Wayne's grip and shrugged. “Who did that?” he added when Harry didn’t say anything.
“Me,” said Harry, casually; it wasn’t completely untrue, considering that he was the one who wrote down the lines although Umbridge made him do it.
“When, and why the f**k did you do that?” accused Jason Todd—Red Hood, as he grabbed onto his chair tight. Harry scoffed internally. Why did they care anyways?
“Detention, when I was fifteen. Didn’t have the best childhood; could’ve been a lot worse though.” Harry rolled his eyes, actually wondering about whether his childhood could’ve been any worse; he decided not to think about it and leaned into his chair, looking at Todd as he didn’t seem too happy with the answer he got. His gestures and everything let them know that he was speaking only the truth, which they couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or not.
“What about the scar on your forehead?” Grayson asked, definitely hesitant, wondering whether he crossed a line.
“Got it from my parents’ murderer.” he said simply. Merlin, it’s been ages since he ever got that question. Harry wondered whether he was supposed to be upset at being asked about this; no one really seemed to acknowledge it as a mark of loss; everyone just treated it more like a mark of victory.
“I’m sorry,” and he did really look it. Grayson was more careful to ask the next question. “Am I allowed to ask when….?"
“When did they pass?” Harry raised one of his eyebrows at this. Huh, Grayson was definitely polite, but didn’t back off at the chance for information. “When I was fifteen months old. On Halloween night. I didn’t know when they died until seventeen.” Not that they’ll find out anything about it, he thought. So far by his guess, this was some kind of another world, or parallel dimension, whatever it’s called.
Harry didn’t recognise Wayne's name—which seemed to be very famous—though he didn’t show it. If they knew, they’d just grow more suspicious. He picked up all he could when the youngest three were fighting each other; they slipped off a bit too much, if he were to say.
The room fell into an awkward silence afterwards as Drake and Mr. Wayne went through their laptop, perhaps hacking the SHIELD’s database or trying to look for Harry’s records.
They didn’t go through his stuff like they promised, but kept it in their sight as Grayson held onto his only belonging they could find, his coat. Its pockets had Undetectable Extension Charms casted on, where several suitcases with everything he’d need in case he needed to go undercover for a while. Harry would be able to use Summoning Charm and run off anytime he wanted, and that was the only reason he was being cooperative, along with the fact he was wearing a Confoundus Charm so they’d be easily swayed than usual. Or maybe because Jason Todd seemed like he’s been dead before. Not that Harry was planning to mention anything about it.
“Are you not tired?” Grayson broke the silence, though he seemed to be almost whispering. For all they knew, Harry didn’t sleep for at least 30 hours.
“Been worse; aren’t you?” Harry decided to add the last bit just to be polite, and the air seemed to loosen up a bit. Like the conversation in the last five minutes didn’t happen.
“Been worse.” Grayson grinned as he returned his answer.
Before they could get more awkward, someone entered the room, and hey, guess what? He acted as though he belonged here perfectly.
“Stark,” said Mr. Wayne dryly after glancing up for a second. “I didn’t expect you here.”
“Neither did I, though when super spy told me that famous Bruce Wayne is Batman I just thought I’d check over.”
Stark scoffed at the man like it was the funniest thing he’s heard in forever. “And plus, this Could-be-Alien here is all our guest, am I wrong? What d’you think, pal? Surprised to see two richest people in the world ending up with hero duty? You must be freaking yourself out!”
“Actually, I’m fine Mr. Stark.” So these two were billionaires, and famous no doubt. “And here I thought a suit-up was mandatory.” he joked away as he had a quick glance around the room.
“Call me Tony; it makes me feel like I'm at some stupid business meeting and old when someone calls me ‘Mr. Stark.’ And please don’t tell me you go out fighting with kids, Bruce. That one looks like one digit-old!”
“Don’t you dare call me kid! I’m more than perfectly capable—”
“—Robin. Cut your temper.” Mr. Wayne cut in mid-sentence while not looking up from his laptop.
“But father—you can’t possibly think he’s taking this seriously.” little Wayne pouted—growled—as he protested, knowing already that his father was going to do nothing.
“It’s Director Fury’s business, and as soon as this is over we don’t have anything to do with him.” Mr. Wayne said after a moment’s pause.
“Hey, Bruce! You’re being mean!” overly acting, Stark grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him up. “I’m gonna take him out of this family meeting, have a lovely get-together!” he yelled in the last part as he ran out with Harry in his hand. They could hear from the hallway that multiple voices shouted out, but soon enough they were inside the next door right away.
“Look who I brought, Doc! This is the person Fury was talking about. Oh and hello there, Natalia, or was it Natasha? What do you go by now, Agent Romanoff?” Stark didn’t hide his annoyance as he bugged her with a question.
That was when Grayson entered the room; he walked straight to Harry. “Excuse me, but he's under our custody, Mr. Stark. If you’d please let go of him—”
“No way in hell, kid. Though I'm curious: did your dad really allow you to fight since you were a child? 'Cause that’s insane! I should turn him in for child abuse? What do you say, Doc?” Stark turned to Banner, though Grayson shortly cut in.
“We participate voluntarily in our nightly-activities, and the deal with Fury’s still on, so it’s none of your business, really.” said Grayson with polite words, but there was a threat beneath that drew a line. He quickly grabbed Harry and ran out of the room where Stark is and came back to the room where Mr. Wayne is, just like Stark had done before. Harry didn’t exactly care too deeply about the situation, maybe a bit exhausted, but didn’t really show it.
When Harry re-entered the room, Grayson came in behind him and a dagger was flying its way to his head, and he wasn’t dodging as if to test Harry. But of course he’d never let anyone get hurt in front of him; not with what everything he’s gone through. He did not use magic though, just moving fast enough to catch the dagger by its handle, putting it down on the table in front of him, and he simply sat down.
Grayson and the others seemed to be analyzing his every move, and at this point did he really care? Because he was being watched and probably was dumped off to another world by The Veil—which stressed him enough to stay awake; ‘constant vigilance,’ if you’d ask the dead Alastor Moody—and he hadn’t been on a proper sleep for at least a month now at this point.
Harry remembered the overloads of work he’s got since all Death Eaters’ remains and their helpers were captured, to make sure no innocents or even assumed criminals who turn out to be disposed were going to be punished in the court for the things they didn’t do. After Voldemort died, people were on streets in need of help, and they would join the terrorist group, mostly consisted of Death Eaters, just to survive.
And of course he also looked at the serious criminals’ files, too. One of them actually acted as a head to all the recent years’ terrorist activities, being smart in balancing between political lines of his enemies who provided economical support for the illegal activities, in which more than hundreds of innocents were sacrificed. He was sometimes referred to as the new Dark Lord, although not for long.
It was a week before he was sent here that all those processes were finished; good, he thought. At least I made sure the work was properly done, evacuated them from civilians’ access and whatnot. It was also nice to have already done most of the law fixing. Basically there was close to nothing that he and Hermione didn’t have to fix about the laws in not only Wizarding Britain, but the International Confederation of Wizards (and Witches—seriously, the magical world was too far behind) as well right after the war ended.
After all, Harry was mostly working internationally along with muggle leaders after his twenty-second birthday—after mostly finishing up with Britain—once or twice he actually led the whole conference and not surprisingly, there was no one younger than him (those meetings were annoying as hell too).
How weird was Grindelwald—despite the fact that he’s a wizard dictator—holding his siege on the magical world for as long as two world wars happened in the non-magical world and across the entire world almost on its surface, but majority of his followers got out because his leadership was a little less violent.
On the contrary, Voldemort's had slightly less range of time and area that actually seemed to be affected. But definitely far more violent on the outside—though for a wartime Harry doesn’t think it was any less bloodier at Grindelwald’s time—and destructive. The thing is, while it seemed that Tom had an obsession with England, there were actually a lot of his men scattered across the world who had been waiting for the announcement of Harry’s death, carefully disguised inside magical governments.
Thinking back about this world full of mess, where everything he had left was a massive amount of fortune, unwanted titles, and the loved ones’ graves. Bloodshed and war that tainted the memories of the dead. Harry was going to resign anyways in any position offered soon, and he had most of his belongings always with him, in case he had to go undercover for a while like the time he was seventeen. Why should he return to the world that offers him nothing but his own sacrifice? Harry saw no reason.
The last few years in his life had been more of a torment than anything else for him; Fred, Bill, Charlie, and Arthur died in the final battle along with hundred others. George fell mentally unstable losing Fred, and Molly grieved at her sons’ and husband’s death. Fleur—who, despite losing her husband Bill also, did her best to keep the family together. Percy found Burrow devastated after returning from the battlefield where he’d seen his family members die, desperately holding onto the remainder of the family as well. Ginny went out with Harry sometimes, and it was a silent promise between the two that when they were together, to not talk much, afraid to bring more trouble into their relationship.
Ron helped in repairing Hogwarts and the Ministry before marrying Hermione, two taking their recovery time and looking for her parents while Hermione promised Harry that she’d be returning for her political career to the Ministry soon so he won’t be alone in dealing with Wizengamot and all.
But soon, a terrorist attack in Burrow killed the Lovegood family and the Weasleys, only leaving Ginny and Ron. A message of warning was left on the scene, that anyone close to Harry Potter should abandon him before it came to worst.
Ron threw himself into Auror missions with the most dangerous potential. He didn’t seem to be able to stop himself from thinking that it was all Harry’s fault. Losing sleep and avoiding Harry, he died in a battle.
Teddy, with his grandparents, also passed too early, barely over two years old when he died, his home attacked by a band of terrorists as well. Harry felt sick with himself for letting all this happen, because he had to be better than this, right?
Hermione was found with an unknown curse casted upon her, dead, probably assassinated by her political enemies who thought that the Muggle-borns don’t belong in the Ministry after a few weeks of Ron’s death.
Ginny—Ginevra, so brave and true-hearted, struggled in keeping her love for Harry when her brother was alive and loathed him. After Ron’s death, she relied on Hermione a lot, but when she ended up dead too, Ginny couldn’t bear living anymore. Especially since Harry was too busy to be there with her. She killed herself and left any Weasley-Prewett fortune upto him, and apologized for the first time in months, for leaving him.
Why was Harry to continue alone in this burden?
Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, Snape, students who shouldn’t have had to fight, newly married couples, parents, families who all died in front of him because he didn’t give himself in earlier. Deaths of other people haunted him so much that his didn’t bother him after all. But they all lay dead in front of him, tortured—
He did scream as he woke up, though, left alone in the room.
This helicarrier seemed to be failing, and he had to get out now. One figure hurried inside and grabbed him by arm to drag him along. It was Robin. A boy about ten-years-old who shouldn’t be involved in this. At the thought, Harry moved almost instantly, as a figure suddenly appeared from the back who threw a dagger, which pierced through his shoulder while covering for the boy, all this happening just a bit off the room they just came out of.
When Harry counterattacked with magic, it was unexpected. The figure fell through the wall without giving Harry much time to observe, though he could make out that they looked similar the way Tom joked about it in his second year at Hogwarts.
–”Robin, did you find Harry? We need to leave before it collapses!”
“Yes, and I’m coming, so get the engine going before my arrival!”
Robin started to drag him again by dagger-less arm, and seemed to be content when Harry didn’t go crying or made sure he kept up the speed.
It was as soon as they got onto the Bat-carrier that it took off. Grayson checked in with them, finding out his arm was injured, which he wasn’t so happy about. Harry, honestly not finding any reason to hide his abilities now, summoned his coat and pulled out a vial of ditany, which he poured onto his shoulder after pulling out the dagger and casting a cleaning charm on the wound. To others’ surprise, it was instantly healed and Harry repaired his shirt with a swing of his hand.
“And now what the f**k just happened?” said Drake, who was watching the whole thing as they entered a conference room.
Harry shrugged, but when he got a disapproving look he simply said, “Magic.”
“Right, first, an alien attacked Germany with magic and now you are a magician. Care to explain a bit more? You don’t seem Asguardian;” Grayson, trying to stay calm, asked firmly.
“By my guess? Multiverse or parallel dimensional travel happened to me without my consent or will.” Harry said nonchalantly, which seemed to have caused Grayson a bit of high-pulse.
“And? You can’t just drop that out of nowhere without explaining more!” Drake exclaimed frustratingly, consuming what looked like Harry’s usual coffee.
“Can I have some coffee also? Need to clear my head first, I think.”
Grayson seemed to doubt that Harry actually wanted to drink what his younger brother was having, but only creased his forehead when he told him that it was perfect.
“Anyways, um, to put it simply I kind of worked internationally with magical governments, which were impossible to trace from here, and Gotham or Wayne or Stark didn’t exist where I was from. So I figured that whatever year it is, it can’t be possible that I haven’t heard anything about famous figures.” Harry had another sip of coffee while slipping his coat on. “Also I couldn’t feel the energy wave of my kind of magic around anywhere I’ve been, and trust me, I can cover the United States with my detecting spell; which reminds me, we should head to ‘that’ direction right now ‘cause that’s where the highest energy flow is happening.”
“You better know what you’re talking about, Harry.” Grayson kind of frowned at his own words.
“Swear on my magic; if civilians need my help there, I want to help also.” Because it was the only thing he was somewhat good at. Couldn't be good enough though.
Not the time for that train of thoughts.
Grayson seemed to be on channel with Batman already through his earbuds about this. Drake seemed to be shooting questions after questions which Harry was too wary to answer. Seriously, he didn’t need a reminder for his work at the Ministry or ICW, though he told Drake that his coat had undetectable extension charm on, he was pretty impressed.
“That’s why you didn’t let us search through your coat! What do you have in there?”
“Things needed for survival;” Harry said, not too voluntarily but it slipped off his mouth somehow. “Can you tell me about what happened after I fell asleep? Before any more questions? Any video records of the situation would be great, too.”
So Drake did: Tesseract and scepter, attack on Germany by the same alien who attacked SHIELD—Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistic Division which as far as he could understand was something like CIA or MI6 but more international, and poke their noses in other people’s businesses—basement, mind control, arrest, Project Insight, Thor–another alien who claims to be ‘Loki’’s brother and Asguardian–’s interruption, Loki’s breakout and Agent Coulson’s death, which they found out was fake.
“Obviously him getting arrested there was a show; but for what reason do you think he attacked Agent Coulson? It doesn’t fit…could you resume that first video of him? At the SHIELD basement.” Harry asked, his expression determined, and fixed in a way that made them think no one could be more focused than he.
“There. You see? He’s been definitely tortured when he first came out of portal, hands tremble and shaggy like that. I see some hints of mind control on him also. We should consider the factor that even Loki might be a pawn, though he meant it when he said that all humans are less than him. People would have thought he was just another I-Rule-the-World madman repeatory without his power, but the weird thing is that he seemed to be holding back at his moves and power. Knowing what magic is capable of, besides his physical strength, if I had that much flow of energy I think I wouldn’t have too much trouble enslaving humanity with a well thought out plan.”
“Thanks, just tell us next time if you intend to take over the world.” Grayson half joked, but his tension increased. “So you’re saying Loki is holding back on purpose. If you mean that he’s holding back his every move as if he’s playing, he would be much more dangerous than we think him to be. But why attack Germany before he’s ready? Why give us a warning?” There he caught something from his own words. Drake seemed to, too.
“So you’re saying he’s warning us about whoever tortured him and sent to Earth.” Drake remarked. They hadn't thought about this possibility, and he couldn't feel but annoyed that Harry figured it out first.
“Or he could be hiding a bigger picture of his taking over plan, which seems unlikely because he never seemed too eager at the idea whenever he said it.” Harry shrugged, checking over his armor and wand holster that’s been hidden with magic beneath his clothes.
Before anything further could be discussed, it was clear that they’ve arrived in chaos; the city was under attack. Harry Apparated outside immediately to help civilians evacuate, but looking at the number of enemies they had, he changed his method, after a moment of hesitation.
“Everyone get inside this building!” after he’s secured the place to not collapse, he waved his wand like drawing a line in front of the building. “Protego Diabolica!"
Bright blue flame burned everything it touched, disabling the alien machines, and as Harry waved his wand in another direction, a part of the flame disconnected to attack the ones coming from the sky. A few carefully calculated explosions followed, which was also Harry’s doing. Taking a bottle of magic supplement—overdose, but who cares—he took down at least half of their army at an instant.
Then there it was; a faint trace of shadow casted onto the city. Well, I guess the damn governments here are as crazy as mine! He got onto one of the alien machines and fled directly to it, while adjusting its direction as best as he could; taking down a few more alien machines on the way, he casted any safety charm possible on himself as he saw a man–assumed Stark, Iron Man–shipping it into the portal. Harry Apparated right next to him and escaped after making sure the nuke was outer-space. He wondered if the other man saw that massive army of aliens out there; of course anyone would be able to see the need to warn about this.
As Harry floated in the air for a bit to search for the highest building, he saw a tall tower with A, where the Bat-carrier landed. Harry fled to the direction while checking on Stark’s vital, which seemed to be a bit concerning, but it could be handled later as he wasn’t dead. Just a bit of a problem in even breathing, but no hemorrhage or damage in his organs. The wizard stepped onto the rooftop of the building where he found Agent Romanoff and Moody-looking guy (Director Fury, Harry assumed).
Wearing off the Confundus Charm, he revealed himself to them, clearly showing them he has no intention of any fight by raising both of his hands as they aimed their gun at Harry. At that moment, Stark found it was perfect to wake up, and let his face plate open to get some air.
“Yo, director. Slow down; this guy just saved me!”
“He just took down at least three fifths of the Chitauri army single handedly! Who knows if he turns on us right away and decides to attack civilians? He is a danger.” Fury claimed, though he and Agent Romanov lowered their guns, they didn’t exactly put it right away.
“Yeah, maybe if you think so, try not to antagonize that person at the face;” Harry simply rolled his eyes and helped Stark get to his feet. “Where’s this Loki? Grayson and Drake came up with a theory about him, so we should try to spill his gut out.”
“You mean you did, Harry; honestly, me and Tim can’t possibly take credit for it.” Grayson climbed up the edge of the roof with his wire-gun. “B’s with others downstairs, and there is Loki, too. Tim told me he was beaten up really badly by Hulk. We should go down to join them.”
So they did. The walk was short enough that no one suffered too much of the awkward silence, thanks to Merlin. Harry’s mind was sharp enough that when someone grabbed onto the shoulder, he almost sent a Stunning Spell before checking that it was Robin. Double thanks to Merlin that this kid was able to survive this; Harry tapped onto the child’s hand twice soothingly and couldn’t stop himself from hugging the little figure.
“Aww, little D! I’m so proud of you for making a friend!” Grayson exclaimed. The worst part, it seemed, was that he actually meant what he said. Wayne parted from Harry almost instantly, spitting out a bit of late insults for daring to hug him. Harry simply smiled and ruffled through the kid’s hair, noticing all the attention on him.
As he looked around the room, at the center was Loki, cuffed with something. He seemed to be surprised by Harry, though at an instant both realized each others’ resemblance and creased their foreheads. What broke a short silence was Thor walking up to Harry, who offered a hand and started to speak LOUDLY.
“I am Thor Odinson of Asgard, God of Thunder. What is your name, warrior? I have seen the way you took down the Chitauri army, and was at my utmost surprised to see any kind of magic in Midgard. So why not tell me about you and your powers!”
Harry definitely heard something of a scoff or a murmur about ‘unintentionally collecting information’ and 'brother of Loki' but shook hands with the Thunder God and introduced himself.
“My name is Harry Potter, nice to meet you. It was a little inconvenient for me to end up here, but I was glad to help, which means I am not from here.”
Harry heard some I told ya's and won the bet, but ignored the conversation going on at the back.
“I seem to come from another dimension, to be straight in the sense of talking, but I am from Earth, just not this one.”
“Wait, so the multiverses exist?! This is insane!” Stark almost screamed as he said so.
“I’m glad to hear that you have something to be amazed at even after fighting off an alien army.” Harry said with dry wit, which reminded the family there of Alfred, their beloved butler and someone like grandfather. “Anyways, have you tried questioning Loki yet?” he glanced at Drake as he said it.
“Yes, but he’s ignoring us.” he clenched his fist. “And Thor says we can’t beat it out of him.”
As if I’m not here, seemed to be what Loki was thinking, but he frowned a little when Harry pierced him with flaming-green glare.
“That’s interesting. What did you ask him?”
“About why he attacked Earth?” Drake didn’t try to hide annoyance in his voice, not knowing that he’s gone too comfortable with the stranger. It didn’t matter; not right now.
Harry let out a chuckle—Agent Romanov ready to shoot him anytime, though the gun was still lowered; she could probably pull off getting information from the trickster god, he was sure, but it seemed he was at the center of her caution for now. Shame, thought Harry—as he approached Loki.
“Thought you could be a bad guy easily? Tell me, God of Mischief,” Harry leaned in accusingly, though he still kept a foot of distance. “Doesn’t it always seem so easy to be bad than what would be considered good and right?”
Loki just raised an eyebrow, gazing at him a bit more furiously than before.
“Oh, don’t see this as too serious, huh? How would you react, then, to a potion that’ll make you spill quite literally everything you know?” Harry summoned a bottle of Veritaserum. “Three drops, and a question would do. Who sent you to Earth tortured, that wishes for something bigger than controlling humanity?”
In the background quiet whispers of ‘what is he doing’ and ‘shit does that mean it’s not over’ seemed to go on between the heroes, but Harry continued on as he saw clenched fists of the god. Many in the room noticed it, much to Loki's dismay. A short and unnoticed Legilimency caught the word ‘titian’, though Harry didn’t go in too deep; Loki seemed capable enough of a magic user and he didn’t want to antagonize him. Well, not too much.
“Although I could force it down on you, I am generous enough to give you a choice: you may choose to tell me willingly, everything about The Titan, or I could have some fun trying out my spells on you, just to check everything works fine in a different dimension.” Harry made his voice go even and cold, and noticeable cruelty that he wore on the surface, through a polite smile that looks deadlier than Chitauri.
That was the strike.
“You! Who, what are you, and how do you know about the Mad Titan?” Loki didn’t sound aggressive towards the name, but scared. Definitely fear in his voice as he said it, though he tried to hide it.
“That is up to me to answer or not; you, however, don't get that choice. Do you feel like talking now?” Harry flashed a sly smile, and he knew he’s got it.
“Fine, I agree to tell you, but not everyone else.” Loki seemed somehow desperate in the issue, so Harry nodded.
“But I’ll share what they’ll need to know. I guess that’s that.” said Harry, quite satisfied with himself. He turned around to see if the rest of them heard everything, and they definitely did. Drake seemed to be quite impressed with Harry’s ability to pull out information, so did almost everyone else, which excluded Batman and Fury who tried to remain at a stern expression. Harry rolled his eyes at the two. “So we should keep Loki at a certain place, any ideas?”
“SHIELD would take care of that; we could lock him up in our quarters. And Potter, you should be questioned also, for your abilities and strengths.” The director didn’t miss his cue to say that to Harry, who scoffed but agreed on the condition that there cannot be any kind of recording of the info, just him talking to Fury. Director didn’t seem too happy about it, but agreed if Avengers were allowed to be present as well.
“Deal, if you let me put some securing spells to make sure he doesn’t run off, and to have a look at Tesseract and the scepter.” said Harry, mischievously, glancing at Loki who frowned.
“Deal.” Fury (not too happily) confirmed, as SHIELD agents came in to arrest Loki, and the director himself exited with the members. Finally, only the ‘heroes’ were left in the broken penthouse. Doctor Banner was wearing a pair of pants and some kind of shower gown after his re-transformation.
“Mr. Stark, do you mind if I fix it a bit here? Oh, and no one here is seriously injured, correct?” Harry asked politely, which startled most of them.
“Whoa, kid. You are from another dimension, just got Loki to talk to us, went up to Fury for a deal, then asked if you could fix my place?" Stark laughed, though the sounds of his thin breathing made Harry kind of concerned. "Go on! Try to give me another heart attack, kiddo.” Stark challenged him, and he accepted.
Harry pulled out his wand, wanting to finish in one shot, and waved his wand. “Reparo.”
Instantly, every piece of broken things started to rearrange themselves into rightful places until moments later, when they were standing in a not at all broken penthouse.
“Unbelievable! This is freaking cool and so against the laws of physics!” the man seemed to be in shock until a second later exclaiming, “Awesome! I will allow you to stay at my place now that you fixed it. You don’t have somewhere to go now or anything, right? Have any of you ever heard of shawarma? I know a place in the neighborhood, and now is the perfect time to check out whether it’s torn down or not.”