18 Here comes the Avengers

Harry took a slow breath as he held his arms out slightly from his body, ready to blast the muggles away if necessary. For a moment, no one moved or said anything.

Suddenly, the red and gold robot tilted his head, seeming curious. "A kid?" The robot asked, looking at Harry and then at the other muggles. "I don't remember a kid being involved in this. Do you guys? Have you always been here? And how did you get up here? This is private property, you know." The robot posed question after question, never waiting for an answer, bewildered by the fact that there was a stranger in his tower.

Thor strode up in front of the group with a huge goofy grin. "Harald! I was wondering where you went. I told you to follow me! I was afraid that we had lost you again."

Harry sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt an ache pound behind his eyes. Not exactly sure of what to tell the big oaf, Harry said: "then why did you speed off like that? No one can follow your speed, Thor."

Thor grinned as the robot made some spluttering sound in the background that sounded almost like, 'excuse me, I was talking?' but no one reacted to him as Thor spoke up, facing Harry and Loki.

"Did you see our glorious battle?" He laughed as he slammed a massive hand down on Harry's shoulder, almost making his legs give out.

"The halls of Asgard will sing of this victory for eons, and the people will celebrate. Tonight, we will celebrate with the mightiest heroes of Midgard! And you helped Loki! That is indeed something to celebrate."

Harry frowns as he takes a calming breath; there is no point in hitting Thor right now. Harry felt his fingers twitching when he mentioned how he completely dumped Harry and then boasted about the goddamn war that probably had destroyed half of Manhattan. However, at this moment, Harry did not dare to move from his potion directly in front of Loki as he would be in the line of fire for the others who still hadn't lowered their weapons. He wondered how fast he could take them down and if doing so would even be possible.

'Oh, don't hold back for me,' Loki drawled over the bond, startling Harry briefly but not so much to make the other notice 'he still hasn't learned about his inside voice, and I'm afraid he never will; at least he is house-trained.'

Harry snorted lowly but didn't answer him; instead looking over at the blond oaf. "Perhaps we should solve this situation before deciding to drink?"

Thor looked back at his brother, then at the others, and finally at Harry.

"What situation?" He echoed, ignorant of the eyes staring hopelessly at him. "What could be more important than celebrating this grand victory, brother?"

"…"

Harry was lost for words; he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Loki chuckled darkly behind him, and Thor's companions stared at the god like he had lost his marbles.

"What?" Thor asked, "You have already found Loki and, by the look of it, succeeded in rescuing him. We have dealt with the outside threat and will live to see another dawn; it sounds like a quest well done to me."

"I didn't need to be rescued like some kind of helpless damsel in distress," Loki sneered at his brother.

"And these," Thor, ignoring his brother's words, began as he held out an arm to the group of muggles, "are the Earth's mightiest heroes, The Avengers." Thor grinned. "Avengers, this is Harald, my brother-in-law and shield brother."

"Charmed," Harry said as a greeting and could not help but snicker internally at the gob-smacked faces of the muggles as Thor introduced him.

"…...you've got to be kidding me." It was the bowman that broke the silence that had come after Thor's greeting.

Loki gave a small grunt as he pushed himself up and out of the crater, making the muggles flinch.

"I'm afraid he is earnest in his words; he is, unfortunately, as dumb as he looks." Loki flexed his stiff fingers, making his brother's companions tense and raise their weapons. Loki rolled his eyes at them, so jumpy.

Paying no attention to the bowman, Loki brushed off a few specks of dust from his shoulder. "Now that all that titter and tatter is out of our way, if it's all the same to you, Stark, I would appreciate that drink now, if the offer still stands," Loki said as he plucked a piece of pavement out of his hair.

Harry's eyes lingered a few seconds longer on the sceptre in the red-haired woman's hand before looking away, no one noticing the struggle that went through his thin frame. The pure power the sceptre emitted made the hair on Harry's arms stand up, yet he could not help but think that Loki only wanted to move away from the stone as fast as he could. What was it with Asgardians and their drinking habit?

"Seriously?" Harry asked as he risked a glance over his shoulder.

"What?" Loki drawled and looked over at him but not directly at him.

"Blimey... how are you thinking of drinking right now? What is wrong with you Asgardians and drinking for everything?"

"No time like the present," Loki drawled, "and that stunt you pulled has given me one hell of a headache, so yes, I would like that drink that I was offered."

"Well, the stupid stunt worked," Harry bit back; he felt like a good glass of fire whisky sounded just right now, but that was not the first of his priorities. He looked over at the muggles in front of them; some were confused, and others had a mask of anger or indifference.

"Wait a minute now," The American flag protested, "just what is going on here? The criminal is right before us, and we're all going to let him be? Just like that?"

"Oh hell no," The bowman said, raising his bow and pointing it at Harry.

The two magicians stiffened, and Harry's eyes sharpened as adrenaline rushed into his bloodstream. He gritted his teeth, he was pretty sure that neither of them were in any condition to fight, but he could still grab Loki and apparate them out of there if he needed.

A suddenly harking sound was heard from the group as they stood a few steps away, still wary about the whole situation.

"Yeah…All right, sorry to interrupt this small dispute. It is an excellent question you have, and we will come back to it soon," The robot, 'Stark', said as the front of his suit opened, and out walked a man, shedding the metal like old skin.

"However, I believe a presentation is in order before we continue this." The man continued. "Any objections?" He didn't wait for any. "No? Good! You probably already know who I am, so let's skip that-"

Harry frowned, "I can't precisely say that I do."

"Wha… what? seriously?" The man's mouth was open, gaping at Harry like he had grown a second head. "You…don't know who I am? Huh, that's a first. What rock did you crawl out from?"

Harry couldn't help but snort, "A huge one; you would not believe me if I told you." The wizarding world had missed many things, that was for sure, like flying robot-muggles.

"Oh? Was that a challenge, I heard? It was, wasn't it?" The man grinned. "Well, challenge accepted."

Harry felt a shiver travel down his spine. Did he make a huge mistake? He looked over at the man as he poured some whisky into a glass, sweeping it down in one go before doing it again.

"I would say not to get your hope up, Stark," bowman sneered as he glared at Loki. "Scum like them are all the same, not worth the time."

"And you are?" Harry asked defensively.

"You…"

"Clint," The walking flag said in a tight voice, "stand down."

"You got to be kidding me," the newly named Clint growled "why aren't you doing anything? He's right there; why are we even hesitating?"

The walking flag looked over to Harry and Loki, measuring the situation, and then back to his companion, "We will see that justice is served, but only after we get all the necessary information." He turned to Harry again.

"My name is Steve Rogers; this is Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and the Hulk, also known as Bruce Banner." Steve pointed at each of the newly named people as he introduced them, "and you already know Thor."

Harry nodded as Tony grinned. "Good, now when this little introduction is over, I will ask what everyone in this room is too chicken to ask: we know reindeer games over there, but who are you, kid?"

Harry felt his eye twitch; he hated being called a kid. He was about to correct the man when the green giant decided he wanted to be part of the conversation.

"He's Fairy!" Hulk ground out before he could say anything.

Tony stared at Hulk, then a slow grin formed on his lips. "Fairy? Oh! That's golden," he cracked.

"Don't ask," Harry said to Loki, who had raised an eyebrow at the nickname. "My name is Harry Potter, not Fairy."

"Son, that is not the name Thor introduced you by," Steve said as he eyed Harry.

"It's a long story, and one you wont be hearing about any time soon," Harry said, shrugging as he did.

"Now, as this wonderful little introduction is over, can we get on with the whole capturing of the criminal and his accomplice as we so clearly heard he is hiding a lot." Clint bit out, not yet lowering his bow.

"Already working on that part, don't worry," Tony said flippantly and walked over with two glasses. Harry felt his whole body stiffen as he walked over to them, but he did not stop as he held a glass of liquid out for Loki to take and kept the other one. "Sorry, kids don't get any good stuff; I probably have some juice in the fridge if you want to have some."

"What are you doing, Stark?" Clint bit out.

"Giving him his drink, what does it look like? Did you want one?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. "If so, the bar is there; make one yourself. God knows that you look like you need one or two."

'I like him.' Loki chimed in over the bond as he eyed the glass in front of him.

Harry shook his head, but even he had to admit that the man was something else, 'of course you do.'

'Can we keep him?'

Harry ignored that question in favour of keeping an eye on Clint, who was still arguing with Tony. Even so, he was glad Loki had opened up to him a little bit.

"This is ridiculous," Clint raised his voice, "he's the one that controlled me and went on a killing spree, and do I have to remind you that he killed Coulson! He's the one that has been doing all this…."

"Let me stop you there, Mr Barton," Harry interrupted. "You are missing most of the information." Harry felt his magic starting to crawl underneath his skin at the reminder of whose fault this actually was. "…. Loki is much a victim as you are."

Clint snarled, "I wouldn't call him that; he has killed over 80 people and-"

"-and how many have you killed?" Harry asked defensively. "You were in the same position as him, am I correct? You reek of the same magic as Loki, and if I'm not wrong, you're an assassin too."

"No," Clint bit back, teeth showing and the crazy desperate glint in his eyes magnifying. "It wasn't my doing! He is the one who controlled me."

Harry stared at him. "And someone was controlling Loki; what does that tell you about the enemy?"

Before Clint could answer, Steve held up a hand to stop him, "What do you mean?"

Harry looked at the captain. "Easy, an enemy out there had the power to control a literal god. What does that tell you about the whole situation? If not even Loki had a chance to fight him fairly; what could you all have done?"

"With the right information, we could have proceeded according to the decision of the higher commanders." Clint grit out defensively.

Harry blinked and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came to his mind as he looked at the soldier before him. The higher ups' decision? Is he not capable of thinking on his own?

"By the Norns, you're giving me a headache," Loki sighed as he drowned the last of the golden liquid and put the glass down, wishing it had been something more substantial; the human drink was so weak. "There are far more worlds outside your little planet than you can imagine."

"..Is he for real?" Clint huffed out. "Other worlds?"

"Yes, I think Reindeer games here is on to something; when I flew that nuke into the portal, I saw what was on the other side, and let me tell you, it was not pretty."

"Nuke?" Harry asked, surprised at the news; why would they send a nuke to an alien invasion? And perhaps it was that moment they had attacked Thanos' mind. He had seen an awful split in his concentration then; could it have been that?

"Yeah, you know, a big bomb that goes 'boom'," Tony made a gesture with his hands like an explosion.

"So, you're telling me what your government thought would be smart was to send a nuclear bomb to Manhattan without evacuating the citizens?" Harry stared at him and then looked over to the others, landing on Clint, who flinched slightly. "And now you are accusing Loki and trying to detain him for killing whilst under mind control? You've got to be kidding me!"

"They probably didn't think they had another choice," Steve said in defense of his leader.

Harry stared at him, "so that justifies the use of a nuclear bomb?"

"The aliens…"

"- were working under Thanos, and that was only a scouting party," Harry interrupted. Unlike this man, he didn't have the patience for this crap. "Are you out of your fucking minds?"

"Harald…."

"No!" Harry snapped at Thor. "Don't start with me, Thor Odinsson!" Emerald-green eyes turned an almost poisonous green colour as the magic around him became unstable. "They have the fucking guts to accuse Loki of murder, even though he was being mind-controlled, when their government was ready to slaughter the population of an entire city! How can you ignore that?"

"Calm yourself, Harald; they do not know any better. They are still a young race," Thor said as he tried to calm the situation, only to make it worse.

Harry could feel the itch in his back as his wings were trying to break out and unfurl in his anger. Calm himself…. oh no, he didn't want to calm down, no, Harry wanted to snap right there and then. His magic was only seconds away from lashing out in anger. And he would have, if not for the ping of the elevator followed by its door opening.

"Mr.Potter! Stand down."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Harry growled when yet another person tried to tell him to calm down. He glared at the new threat because that was what his mind registered the man as.

At first, it felt like he was looking at the Minister for Magic, but he couldn't feel any magic coming from the bald, black man strolling over to them like he owned the room. He almost looked like a modern take of a pirate captain with his black trench coat and an eye patch over his left eye.

"And who the bloody hell are you?" Harry snapped angrily, not standing down at all.

The black man looked over at the Avengers and then back at the wizard with a raised brow, unimpressed with this situation. Why did he have to have the Wizarding World's golden boy mixed up in this mess?

"I'm Director Fury. You probably know of my brother Kingsley?" Fury said.

Harry looked at the man, magic crawling over his skin but ready to do its master's command. The man did look like the minister. "Yes….. I know him. Are you the one in charge of these muggles?" Harry asked. "If so, then you already know that we're wasting time standing here and arguing."

"That is debatable," Fury said as he clapped his hand behind his back. "Everything in due time, Mr. Potter. The Higher ups want a scapegoat. They want to bring justice for what happened and Loki made himself the perfect target."

Harry snorted, "they want someone to take the fall and glaze over the fact that they sent a nuke to bomb Manhattan, still full of innocent people?"

The silence that followed said it all.

"No," Harry said, "I'm not going to let you do that because that would be a waste of our time." He eyed the man in front of him, weighing his options as he did, but feeling like he was missing so much out, as his head felt muddy. Thanos was out of the equation, but someone else was always ready to pick up where he left.

There was something about this whole situation that rubbed him the wrong way. There was so much he didn't know about what happened. The flickering of the sceptre made his gaze lift to Natasha as she was still holding it, making the emotions in the room twisted and more frantic than before.

"You might as well put that one down," Harry said, breaking the silence, and nodded to the sceptre in Ms. Romanoff's hand. "The sceptre doesn't care for whom it takes hold of."

"Are you telling me that the sceptre is sentient?" Natasha asked, incredulous.

Harry tilted his head to the side. "No, not more than this building; it is still only a rock with some…awareness?"

Tony leaned forward this time to take a look at the sceptre, eyes sharpening as he did.

"What kind of awareness are we talking about? Because I can tell you that my building can do a shit load of things," Tony chimed in.

"No, not that kind of awareness, more like energy and..." He waved his hand, not finding the right word.

"Magic?" Loki added.

Tony's face scrunched together. "No, nuh uh, we are not going to call it that or dig further down that particular rabbit hole. Seriously," He said, "there is no such thing as Magic. Magic is the only science we don't understand yet. I refuse to go around calling that glowy stick 'magic'."

"But you just said that it doesn't care? That implies that it is able to feel," Natasha asked, ignoring Tony's rambling.

"Yes and no, apart from the sceptre, that holds the mind stone, there are five other stones," Harry explained as he let his arms relax at his sides.

"They are said to be scattered throughout the realms, separated from each other because if they ever were brought together, it would invite disaster, and it would bring the wielder unlimited power. That is what Thanos was after them in the first place."

"The Infinity Stones?" Thor said, bewildered.

"Congratulations, brother," Loki drawled, "You have a surprisingly good grasp of the English language; good for you. Now shut up." Thor turned around, annoyed at him, and Loki glared right back, challenging.

"All right, back up and take it from the beginning. Who's Thanos, and why does he want the stones?" Director Fury asked.

"Thanos had a lot of names, The Mad Titan, The Destroyer, a conqueror of worlds. He commits genocide as he walks from world to world searching for the stones- "

"-And is not a problem anymore as he is dead," Loki drawled as he interrupted Thor's explanation, "not our business anymore, but the stones are."

"So, why haven't we heard about this galactic Hitler before today?" Tony asked as he frowned, not liking that they did not have any information on this threat whatsoever, and if he hadn't seen the ship with his own eyes, he would not believe them. Honestly, he was surprised as Loki answered him, not with a sneer or at all.

"You...Midgardians are growing. Maturing. You are starting to reach beyond yourselves, and in that aspect, you touch a greater power - some of which you barely understand," Loki looked at them as he spoke, "and you are not necessarily able to respond in favour of your actions."

Loki rolled his eyes with a mocking laugh escaping his pale lips, "I mean no disrespect to either you or humankind, but your planet is not exactly a threat to anyone else in the universe as it is."

"Brother," Thor admonished.

"I only speak the truth, and you know it," Loki drawled as he vanished the glass from his hand.

"Why… yes… but still, you did not have to say it like that," Thor protested.

"Why not? I don't need to coddle the Midgardians the way you do," Loki pushed back, "they wanted to play with the big boys; well, here they are."

"That doesn't mean that they are ready-"

"They were playing with an infinity stone; what did you think would happen?" Loki tells him bluntly and rolls his eyes, "there is still the matter of finding the four other stones."

"Wait, back up," Steve interrupted. "Four? There were five a moment ago."

"We got two right here," Harry said. "The first is the sceptre there that controls minds," he nodded to the thing in Natasha's hand. "The second one is the tesseract, containing the space stone; it opened the portal. So only four are missing."

"And how do you know all of this?" Natasha asked suspiciously

Harry shrugged, "I read about them."

"You...read about them?"

"Yes." He nodded, not bothering to develop his answer, he had suspicions about where the other stones would be, but it was dangerous information to have, and even more, to share.

"Then we have to destroy them," Tony said firmly.

Harry shook his head, drawing the attention of the group again, "you can't; the infinity stones are tied to different aspects of the universe. They were forged at the beginning and are remnants of six singularities that existed before creation. That is why they are impossible to destroy. Ordinary people would not even be able to touch them with their bare hands as they are too powerful for a single person to hold."

After that, there was a deadly silence. If not even Thanos could have handled the stones without help…

"Is Earth safe?" Steve suddenly spoke up again.

"Probably for the moment," Thor said as he scratched his chin, not knowing what else to say.

"No, it's not! This is the signal to all of the realm that earth is ready for a higher form of war," Loki argued, surprising half of the avengers because it sounded like he cared for what happened to the Earth.

"A higher form?" Fury asked and shook his head. "You forced our hand as soon as you invaded our planet."

Loki sneered but held back another comment; if the humans wanted to destroy themselves, who was he to stop them? He would ask for a front row seat to see it all if he weren't going to rot in the deepest dungeon in Asgard when this was all over.

"Well then…. the current threat is neutralized," Tony said as he looked around. "So, what now?"

"As long as the stones are still on Midgard, it will continue to attract threats," Thor said. "I will bring them back to Asgard where they will be safe."

Harry relaxed slightly but not entirely, "The use of the stone is a sign to the rest of the realms that Midgard is ready for a higher form of war, and it will become a target, but it is probably too late to change that."

"Then we take them back to Asgard anyway, it will be safer there than anywhere else," Loki broke his thoughts, "and besides, they belong there anyway."

"Now wait a minute," Fury interrupted, he could not let them take both the tesseract and the sceptre.

"If I were you, I would be listening to the gods here, Director Fury," Harry said.

"Yes," Thor said as he stood up, "I can promise you that my father will protect the stones with everything Asgard has to offer."

Fury looked unimpressed but did not deny his words. "And what should I tell the World council, hm? I just let Thor take it all away, and with it, Loki, I can tell you right now that that won't float their boat."

"They don't have a choice," Harry said as he vented, his head pounding now, and it felt like his stomach wanted to eat itself; he was famished. "They can't have anything they want to control or weaponize."

"Well, they do like to feel like they are in control," Fury sighed, not even going to argue with the god and his kind. Perhaps it was for the best. "They hate to feel powerless, especially in an intergalactic war kind-of-way."

Harry stared at him like he had lost his marbles and saw a few other muggles do the same. "What? They want to be reminded what real power is? Because whatever power they think they can get, it won't enough. Earth doesn't want to be involved in intergalactic wars, they need to understand that." Harry massaged his head as he finally felt this conversation was getting too much.

Fury looked at him neutrally, but said nothing. He knew that he had gotten a lot of information already, and the very idea that there had been a being strong enough to control an actual god made his heart race in his chest. Someone stronger than Loki, who had wreaked havoc in this way, had been out there, and this young man in front of him had somehow dealt with it. It made a shiver travel down his back, which did not happen often.

"I may not know much about these stones, but if there is one thing that I know about this stone… it's that it sends out energy, so if you put the two of them together, the energy would be more potent. I recommend that we keep at least one of them on earth." That way, the higher ups wouldn't be too hard to deal with. Not that he cared. Did they want to argue with literal gods and someone who could kill a god and still stand and be ready to fight? They could do that themselves.

Harry scratched his neck, "Perhaps, we should…" Thor immediately started to protest, but Harry glared at him, and Thor's mouth snapped shut. "Asgard would be its next target if anyone decided to collect the stones," Harry explained. "Is that what you want?"

"We can take it," Thor argued, but doubt flickered in his eyes. "We have done it before and can do it again."

"But I don't believe we can take the risk, do you?" Harry asked him, "And that way, perhaps the council would back off slightly from Loki?" The last question was directed at the director, who looked deep in thought. What fascinated Harry was that he did not seem surprised that there was external life in space. Perhaps he already knew about the risk. And even if he did not like the thought of leaving a stone in human hands, the risk of Asgard being a target was too great as the Bifrost was still down.

"That's alright, but I have a request that I will not compromise on. Until you leave, our S.T.R.I.K.E team will guard them both. To make sure that," Fury looked pointily at Loki, "someone doesn't get any more ideas."

Harry sighed. It was not like Loki would be alone, Thor probably would be glued to his side anyway.

"Good, come one, Hill," Fury turned to the women who had entered after him, and had been silently observing throughout, "let's greet the council, I'm sure they'd find something to complain about even without this mess." Fury said, leaving with a dramatic turnaround that could rival a specific professor's walk as he swept out of the room.

"Well, that happened," Tony deadpanned as he looked around at the bunch that was left, standing there, dirty and sweaty.

"This has all been informative and fun, but we still have a significant problem on our hands, so what do you all say that we take a break, shower, eat some well-deserved food and then sleep on it?" Tony said as he clasped his hands, no longer having the patience to stand still.

Harry looked over at Loki and then looked away. He held back the hurt as the other could not even look at him; this was not what he had planned. Harry had no idea what he hoped for when he met Loki again, but this was not it.

Harry understood Loki. He had been freed from his mental torture, and his memories were back, but he also remembered that Harald had died. To suddenly have Harry there, who was so similar to Harald, yet the knowledge that he wasn't entirely him made it worse.

Harry looked away from his mate because they were still bonded, whether they liked it or not, even if Loki had stepped away and blocked the bond again, which was another fact that Harry was going to ignore. Because it was terrible, for lack of a better word, it felt like he was being denied, and a part of him pleaded to be recognised, to feel that familiarity that his whole being ached for.

Tony did his thing, letting everyone have their rooms and floors in his massive tower. Even Thor got his right between the assassins, but for the time being, they would hold both Harry and Loki there for the time being as Tony did not trust them, probably for the best.

Yet, they were not prisoners, but they still didn't want Loki to do anything, and by the bracelet that Thor had provided, his magic was not wholly sealed but almost. He could still do a few things but not to his usual extreme, and it was one of the conditions the humans had put up. Although, really it was proof enough that Loki was too tired as he accepted it without any protests.

Harry looked silently at Loki as they went their separate ways, and he walked into the first best room he could find and silently closed the door behind him, ignoring everyone behind him. Harry tried to ignore the feeling of hurt by the motion, but he needed to remind himself that this whole thing was not easy for Loki. Especially not when his presumed dead soulmate suddenly pops up out of the blue as someone else.

Harry tried to ignore the look of pity on Thor's face as he clapped him on his shoulder before walking off somewhere, leaving the wizard alone in the hallway. But there was nothing he could do, so he walked into the closest vacant room.

The room he was walking into was nothing special; it was bare, almost sterile like it had never been used, and no one had even tried to give it a little more soul. But Harry didn't mind, he had had a worse sleeping place, and honestly, he was utterly spent.

There was a bed; it smelled clean and looked newly made, so he walked over to it and plopped face down into the bedding, and his whole body sank like he had flopped down on a fluffy cloud.

He was barely awake enough to set up a ward around his room, as both Loki's and his paranoia would not let him relax otherwise. The next second he was out like a light.

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