Spying on spies.
"Breathe in, with every inhalation of air feel your energies swirl within you."
I inhale.
"Hold your breath and let the multiversal energies co-mingle with your magic, feel both of them flow together as one."
I hold my breath.
"Exhale slowly, letting the buildup of negative energies leave your body, feel the tension leave your physical form as your spirit and mind are rejuvenated."
I exhale.
"Focus on your energies, but do not strain your mind. It should feel natural, without effort."
I feel the gentle yet strong buildup within me, my energies both internal and external, swirling around within me.
"Now gently guide the flow of your energies toward your mind, let the energies flow through the dam of your mental walls and into the core of your consciousness."
I maintain my breathing as I let my energies flow like a stream, I feel them soak into my mental walls and gracefully fall through the void of my mental protections until reaching the center of my mind, where my consciousness lay.
"Use your magic to create and shape your mindscape the same way you do for reality, feel the visual representation of your being bloom to life."
I focus on creating a mindscape, I try and visualize a small plot of land. I feel the energies swirl faster and with more energy.
"Imagine yourself walking through a library, but the books are your thoughts and memories, the entire collection of your experiences. Imagine being able to look within yourself and interact with the deepest parts of your mind the same way you would navigate reality."
I focus, my energies swirl faster and faster, come on... come on, I can feel it... nearly,
and...
Nothing.
I let out a sigh of defeat, releasing my energies and feeling them return to their natural flow around my magicka pathways. As I open my eyes I see the ancient one sitting crossed legged before me. She speaks calmly,
"I know it is hard to not feel frustrated or defeated, but the creation of a mindscape is one of the most esoteric and difficult concepts to even grasp let alone master."
I take a breath to steady my emotions and reply,
"I know, it's just... annoying, I've learnt how to control and focus my magic through intent and emotion, hell I've even seen the foundations of creation! I feel like the esoteric stuff should just kind of be... natural to me, y'know?"
The ancient one merely chuckles and replies softly, "You may have the minds and memories of many men, but you are still a child. Your understanding and grasp of strange and unknown magics is beyond anything I've ever seen, the topics you so easily mastered before have taken experts years to fully study. You just need to keep practicing and it will come to you, I'm sure of it."
The ancient one stands up and speaks, "Now then, I find a short walk will help 'cleanse your palate' so to speak, so you may be able to return to Hogwarts with a fresh mind. Come, follow me"
I get up and walk with the ancient one through the grounds of Kamar-Taj, I do find the walk calming as the natural energies of the area flow through my body and help settle me. I had started my second year about a month ago and had tried to find out if one of the typical fanon tropes was possible in this universe, The Mindscape. To my surprise it was possible, to my frustration it was considered one of the most difficult and esoteric branches of magic to perform. The ancient one herself had only created her own mindscape after her first century of life, and she was considered as a prodigy during her training.
No matter how much I tried or focused I just couldn't get a mindscape to form, I'm supposed to feel a pulling sensation similar to apparition. But instead of being pulled to another location I'm pulled inward, being able to see and interact with a representation of my consciousness. From there I'd be able to shape and re organize my own neurology and thought processes as if I was redecorating my room. Alas my efforts so far have been fruitless,
I make sure to swing by Grimmauld before I head back to Hogwarts, luckily for me today's class was during the weekend so I'm in no rush.
Portalling into Grimmauld I feel the wards of the place brush against my magic, verifying my identity. Soon enough the house is satisfied and I feel the dark inkiness of the black family magics retreat from my person. I look around at the main foyer, the place is clean and actually seems like something that's befitting the status of a noble and ancient house, however it still has the grim look and feel to it.
Sirius tried to redecorate and give the place a more welcoming appearance but the magic in this house is old and has taken on a life of its own. The Black family magic seems to be very fond of the gothic look, as any time Sirius tried to change the decor it would mysteriously revert and change back when he turned away, Interestingly enough however the house wasn't resistant to change itself. Certain pieces of furniture if they were of a high enough quality, would have a design and color scheme change instead of being removed by the house entirely. The house also accepted the additions I had made to the wards as once I had actually implemented them the ward schemes themselves would change slightly to fit the theme of the house.
While I was able to remove the features that targeted muggleborns and muggles respectively, I wasn't able to remove the security features that would deal with intruders in a gruesome manner. In fact it seems that in retaliation for my removal of the anti muggle wards the house generated new security wards that would inflict very unpleasant effects upon intruders.
Anyway as I wandered around the gothic house I was unable to find Sirius, I did find Kreacher and ask him where Sirius had gone and he told me that he was with the muggle man with a star heart. Normally Kreacher would detest muggles but the arc reactor emits an energy that is detectable to magical beings and so Kreacher sees him as a step above a normal muggle. I take the doorway in Grimmauld place to the Pottery and then take the doorway to Malibu.
The doorway in Malibu is within an expanded space that connects to Tony's workshop via a false wall, Jarvis detects my entrance and unlocks the wall for me. The upgrades to Jarvis were still in progress, instead of updating the servers within Malibu we created new ones using a mix of regular and magical materials. The process was slow and it would take a few months to have fully replaced all of the servers. However the few that were installed have already allowed Jarvis to be unaffected by magic and even scan and track magical signatures within the house.
As I enter the workshop proper I find both Sirius and Tony hunched over a workbench talking, Tony is working on incorporating a basic set of magic compatibility runes and protections into what looks like the boot for the mark III. Sirius is holding a white crystal while waving his wand at it, I recognize the crystal as a ward stone. As I approach I hear them speaking,
"The basic makeup of the ward stone is quartz and silicon, it should be compatible enough to directly integrate it into a circuit board and have it replace the basic crystals that are already included within circuitry." Tony states with a matter of fact tone,
Sirius follows up, "I don't know Stark, the magics that have been worked into ward stones are complex, even in the most basic of ward schemes. You'd have to make a rune engraved circuit board that has been specifically designed with the ward stone in mind, and since this kind of thing has never even been thought of before there's no telling what kind of rune scheme is actually needed for it to work."
Sirius uses the holographic display to pull up some of the blueprints for the magical circuitry both myself and Tony have designed. He continues, "These designs are revolutionary, but they're only meant for spells and enchanting, an entire ward network is something next level mate. Not to mention you wanna have Jarvis interface with the wards directly, Jarvis himself is a pretty impressive piece of work but you need a magical core to have the wards recognize you. At best Jarvis could be considered an advanced magical golem, er... no offense Jarvis."
Jarvis dryly replies with, "None taken Mr. Black"
Sirius finishes his speech, "I'm pretty smart, you were expected to be if you were a Black. But this is something only you and Harry would be able to figure out and he's currently at Hogwarts-"
Sirius momentarily pauses finally catching sight of me, he speaks with sass and continues, "-Well he's suppose to be anyhow."
Tony catches the change in Sirius's voice and turns around to greet me, "Kid! I didn't hear you come in, Jarvis why didn't I hear him come in?" Tony asks with poorly hidden sass,
"If you remember sir, you told me to 'not disturb you during iron man work unless someone who is not in the know approaches the workshop'. Perhaps you should see a doctor about your short term memory loss?" Jarvis replies with dry wit.
Tony acts affronted and Sirius snickers at him, Tony does eventually address me though "Anyway what brings you to my not so humble abode kid? shouldn't you be learning how to use a crystal ball at hogwash or whatever?"
"Divination doesn't start until third year and its the weekend anyway, I was at Kamar-Taj and decided to swing by before heading back." I reply.
Sirius quickly snaps to attention and asks "Oh, did you run into that blonde haired girl? I gave her my number but she hasn't called, she seemed really into me at the time."
I roll my eyes and say, "Yes Sirius, she said you seemed really nice but she was unsure of how to tell you that she, was in fact, a lesbian."
Tony shoots Sirius an unimpressed smirk and Sirius quietly mutters to himself. I snort in amusement before making my way over to a desk that held a few beakers and chemicals within a sealed container. This was a project I was working on for both my own personal use as well as a possible product that could be sold for use in construction and demolition.
The substance I'm trying to make is an adhesive gel that detonates in a controlled explosion when subjected to an electric current. It was inspired when I went to check if the Arkham games existed in this universe only to find that I still needed to wait a year until asylum releases, at least I don't have to wait until 2009. Anyway the gel itself mostly used mundane chemicals and processes to create, there were however a few plants that were added in that while mundane, held magical properties if prepared correctly. I had come up with a process to have the final product express these magical properties via use of standard chemistry practices. The gel was completely immune to being reversed engineered by wizard or no-maj, as one needed and advanced understanding of potioneering, chemistry and physics to even begin to replicate it. The gel worked a bit too well, with the explosions being much more volatile than anticipated. I've been trying to make sure the gel has no chance of being weaponized and that if it were ever used to harm someone, the most it could do would be incapacitate them for awhile.
I look inside the container and check the readings from the various devices and meters I have hooked up to it, I can see that this version is also a failure. Damn... I gain the interest of Tony who walks up to me.
"You still having trouble keeping the explosion contained huh?" Tony asks.
"Yeah... I've tried various ingredients both magical and mundane, Heck I've even tried to work in a basic runic matrix and nothing seems to be solving the issue...It's annoying me."
"Hmm, well chin up kid. It's still a kick-ass invention... actually do you mind if I incorporate a few canisters of the stuff into the mark 3?"
"Sure knock yourself out." I say as I bring up the formula and synthesis process up on a nearby screen. As I turn back to Tony I see him holding...a box? Before I can ask he speaks.
"Oh by the way kid here are your specs back, thanks for letting me take a look at them...and I hope you don't mind but I made a few improvements, here try em out."
I had given Tony my cool magic science glasses thingy (Still working on a name) a while ago and had forgotten about it, as I take them from his hands I note that the frames are a bit more compact and sleek. I open up a small side panel and can see the rune circuitry has been improved and upgraded as well. Putting them on I note that the HUD now has a direct link to the SI satellites and Tony's private network, it even scans my iris and magical signature to verify its me, I take a look at the interface and notice it has a few of the features from the iron man armor. Even some of the code from its operating system has been incorporated, including a direct link to JARVIS.
"You put JARVIS in this?" I exclaim, Tony hands me another item before replying.
"That's not the only thing I did, your glasses have been given the same software I use for the armor so that they can connect to this." As I take the small item in my hands I turn it over and realize it's a watch, with red and gold plating. It seems...familiar. As I slide it on the face lights up with digital display of the time, weather and date. I see the HUD on my glasses light up as it connects to the watch, as I read the information coming from it I realize what exactly this watch is.
It's the watch Tony used in civil war, the miniature Iron man gauntlet... How was he able to make this?! That technology should be years away. I place my thumb on the watch face and it scans my fingerprint, I quickly slide my thumb toward my hand and the plating unfolds and reassembles along my wrist and hand as a finger-less iron man gauntlet.
"How did you make this? The technology for this should be years away, even for you." I state with amazement as I turn my hand over to admire the device, even Sirius has come over to check it out.
"It's thanks to you kid, the magic you showed me opened my eyes to new ways to advance my tech. I had Scooby over here help me with the runes to ensure everything worked properly." Tony states gesturing to Sirius. Sirius rolls his eyes and it's then I notice that he has one too.
"How many other people have you given one of these to?"
"Currently? Only us 3. I haven't even told Pep or Rhodey about the whole Iron Man thing yet...I have no idea how I'm gonna tell them about magic or the fact that I adopted a kid with 17 past lives in his head...Fuck, Pepper is really gonna freak out when she realizes I adopted you." Tony says worriedly as he raises his hand to his temple.
I raise an eyebrow, "You're only realizing the consequences of your actions now?"
Tony waves me off and I bid both him and Sirius goodbye before making my way back to Hogwarts, with watch and upgraded glasses in hand. I also take a canister of my explosive gel, just in case.
I'm at the great hall during dinner, I'm currently devouring a delicious roast ham as Ron does the same beside me, while Neville and Hermione sit across from me. Hermione is staring at the way I completely eviscerate the ham in hunger, she speaks up.
"I thought Ron was bad enough but now you too Harry? How can you even eat like that without getting sick?" She asks.
I swallow before replying, "Enhanced metabolism and large magical reserves. My body requires a large amount of calorie intake every day to stay at peak efficiency." I go back to eating as Neville joins in,
"Will...that happen to us as well?" He asks in between bites of his mashed potatoes.
I reply after taking a drink, "Well, when building up your body you should see a gradual increase, yes. But not as extreme as mine, I've already undergone a few light rituals and enhancements, speaking of rituals I'll be getting you lot to do one during Spring. A basic magic stabilizing ritual that I've modified so you should see a greater benefit, without needing to have unstable magic to begin with." I had held my wand underneath the table and erected a privacy ward around us to prevent anyone from freaking out at hearing the boy-who-lived mentioning rituals.
Ron swallows the lump of food in his mouth, his own curiosity peaked, he asks. "The ritual isn't... dangerous? is it?".
I reply, "Not at all, it just requires drawing a basic ritual circle and lighting a few candles...well it did hurt for me, because of my previous...'condition', but you 3 should be fine, unless you have any magical maladies I'm unaware of? You don't have to tell me what they are, just a simple yes or no."
All 3 of them shake their heads confirming they have no maladies, "Great!" I reply. Hermione speaks up, "Harry... what do you mean when you say you had a...'condition'?" She asks cautiously.
The tone of the conversation shifts noticeably as both Ron and Neville seem to grow uncomfortable as I close my eyes and sigh,
"That is..." I softly speak as I lean back, all 3 pairs of eyes are on me. Waiting upon my next word.
"A story for another day!" I say quickly standing immediately gaining a cheery look, the tense atmosphere completely falls apart as the other 3 seem to deflate.
As I begin to get up to leave Hermione quickly asks after me, "Harry! Where are you going?"
"I'm bored, I'm going to go steal secrets from an international spy agency. see you guys later!" I wave back as they struggle to process my words.
I'm back in the workshop in Malibu, Tony is currently off doing a trial flight of the upgraded Mark III, with Sirius supervising via a broom. Leaving me alone in the workshop with JARVIS. My cloak materializes around my body and I pull up the hood, rendering me completely undetectable. Then I access JARVIS via my glasses.
"Jarvis? You able to hear me through the glasses?" I ask,
"I am indeed young sir, I must say it's quite... disorienting to be able to hear and see you through one device, but not through any others." JARVIS replies with a slight tone of unease.
"You're able to manage though? The connection isn't weird or anything?" I ask with concern for the AI.
"Not at all, The connection is perfectly stable." JARVIS answers.
"Great, let's go spy on the spies." I say brandishing my wand and getting ready to apparate, I have images and the location for the Triskelion pulled up on my glasses.
"I would like to inform you that sir has stated, and I quote, 'You are not breaking into the headquarters of an international spy agency'" JARVIS informs me while I hold my wand and feel my magic begin to swirl within me.
"Tell him that he lost the right to ban me from making dumb ass decisions when he iced up the Mark II and nearly fell to his death." I reply simply, the last thing I hear before apparating away is JARVIS speaking, "Sir would like to know how you aware of that considering that is was before he met you."
My surroundings swirl around me and everything becomes blurry, I feel the ground leave my feet as I tumble and spin through the air. The HUD on my glasses briefly flickers before stabilizing as I land on my feet in a completely different location. I see the Triskelion looming in front of me, across the Potomac River.
"You still there Jarvis?" I quietly ask.
"The connection is stable, I am here" JARVIS responds.
"Good, let's get to work." I state approaching the building.
The cloak ensures that I'm not picked up by any cameras or security they have in place to detect intruders, so getting into the building is simply a matter of waiting for someone to walk by and following them in. Once I'm in the main lobby it takes me awhile to get an understanding of where I need to go. I make my way towards the top floors of the building, the top floor is where the offices of Fury and Pierce are, because of this not many people are found wandering around on this floor so waiting for someone to enter and following behind them is a no go.
I stand in front of the door to Pierce's office, the lock is high tech and I'm unsure if any attempts at using magic or hacking it would go unnoticed.
"Jarvis, you got any ideas?"
"I'm scanning the surrounding area, on your left I detect a false panel on the wall where an air current is coming through, possibly a vent." JARVIS replies.
The HUD on my glasses highlights a section of the wall, I run my wand across the panel and whisper, "Revelio" My magic shows me where to press to have the panel come loose, JARVIS loops the footage from any nearby cameras until I've slipped my way into the ventilation shaft. It's a tight squeeze but with JARVIS's help I'm able to find my way into Pierce's office,it takes awhile to get through the vent cover from the other side but eventually I manage.
I stretch my limbs as I meander over to Pierce's desk, for a Nazi the guy has a good taste of interior decor. I tap the side of my glasses and a small wire ejects from the frame, I connect it into the port on Pierce's computer. The combination of a STARK operating system, JARVIS and software that literally runs on magic is too much for any form of firewall or security that SHIELDRA has. A number of notifications pop up on my HUD informing me that my intrusion has gone undetected and that JARVIS has created a backdoor for himself.
"Okay Jarvis get as deep into the network as you can, they most likely won't have everything on the one network. But having access to a higher ups computer like this will be useful. Make sure not to make any noise, just stay hidden and be careful." I speak quietly.
"Of course sir, I'd like to remind you that I do have experience with breaking into places where I shouldn't" JARVIS replies with a little sass.
"One of Tony's late night benders result in some less than legal forms of government protesting?" I ask with humor.
"Oh if only you knew the extent of it..." JARVIS says with exaggerated exasperation.
JARVIS speaks again, informing me of some new information he just found. "The bookcase on your right conceals a direct elevator to the lower levels of the complex, I'm unlocking it now."
I watch the bookcase slide away, the wall behind it slides into the floor revealing an elevator door. It opens and I step inside, there are no buttons for floors, the entire elevator is automatic. The door closes and the elevator begins descending. I should totally get a secret bookcase door for the Pottery.
The elevator doors open up into a private viewing room that overlooks the massive underground hangar beneath the Potomac bay. The Helicarrier from the first Avengers movie is currently parked there, undergoing maintenance by the looks of things.
"Jarvis if we get you into the servers here do you think it'll get you onto that?" I say gesturing towards the helicarrier.
"A vessel like that would have it's own onboard server system and mainframe, if you wanted me to access any information stored there you would have to board the vessel and access those servers."
I nod at JARVIS's words and turn around to exit the room, I'm walking though the subterranean complex as JARVIS pulls up a map on my glasses to guide me. I find my way to the server room and make my way inside with little fuss. All it takes is for me to connect my glasses to one of the servers and JARVIS opens up a backdoor for himself, not only that he essentially clones himself and leaves the clone in the SHIELD systems to rummage around undercover and send data back to the main version. I make sure to copy all access codes and clearances to my glasses, essentially letting me use them as a form of identification for any electronic locks or restricted areas.
"Young sir, if you would turn your attention to your heads up display I am about to pull up a map of all shield bases around the globe. I have marked the ones I believe to be under HYDRA control."
As JARVIS speaks the map pops up and I raise my eyebrows in surprise at the amount of compounds SHIELD has around the globe, I'm even more surprised by the amount that are believed to be HYDRA.
"The data I am receiving suggests that there are locations for other HYDRA compounds that are not recorded on official SHIELD servers. The best chance at knowing the full scope of HYDRA operations would be to venture to the highlighted locations and access any servers located on site."
I let out a sigh of resignation at JARVIS's words, knowing he's right. Still gaining access to all the information on SHIELD servers isn't something to turn your nose up at. With my job here done I make my way out of the server room, before leaving I ask one more thing of JARVIS.
"Hey Jarvis, are there any projects or experiments going on in the labs down here that I should visit before I leave?"
"Within the Biology labs there are samples of Emil Blonsky's blood being kept in storage. Both before and after the transfusion received from Dr. Banner." JARVIS states.
My eyebrows raise up, this time in excitement. Samples of both the serum given to Blonsky and the gamma irradiated blood of Banner? Granted it's after they had already bonded to a body, but still. Following the map JARVIS brings up for me I saunter over to the Biology labs, using the access codes I copied I'm easily able to just walk in and open the freezers kept in the back. I find numerous trays of blood samples from agents and people of interest. I find Blonksy's and take two vials, one from after receiving the serum Ross gave him and one from after his transformation into abomination. I also find blood samples from Natalia Romanova, the black widow. I believe it was rumored that the widows received some form of serum or enhancement but I can't remember if it was fanon or canon. I decide to take a vial just in case.
I smile at a successful mission and the bonus retrieval of three vials of super soldier blood. I exit the complex the same way I came in and with my new access codes I'm able to temporarily disable any monitoring in Pierce's office without tripping any alarms. I exit through the main entrance of the building, with a pep in my step and a stride I know that no one else can see.
Halloween approaches and with it the whole chamber of secrets plot-line shall begin in earnest. I'm lying on my bed within the boys dorms, lost in thought. As I stare at the ceiling I contemplate on whether I should do anything. At first I was going to just nick the diary off of Ginny and be done with it, but then there would still be a Basilisk, not only that but the reveal of Slytherin's heir would help to make people more open to the idea of the dark lords return. This links back into a bigger problem I'm facing, if I decide to just hunt down the remaining horcruxes and consume them, then Voldemort's wraith would become un-tethered to this world and it would fade away. But then all of his followers would remain hidden, never emerging to serve their lord. They would maintain their positions in the high societies of wizarding Britain. If I were to let the Dark Lord return, and better yet, have his return be public. Then it would be that much easier to perform a sweep of the ministry and root out the rot.
I let out a sigh as I close my eyes in frustration. Then I reach an epiphany...
I've been removing myself from the situation, looking at this world as if it was still a work of fiction. These people I've been interacting with are real, they have loved ones and lives and stories of their own. Fucking hell I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should save my best mate's sister from being possessed, what the fuck?!?
I'm not gonna sit here and play chess with people's lives.
I open my eyes, a strong sense of determination and resolve burning through my body.
I have a horcrux to hunt and a basilisk to kill.