Chapter 4
By the time the week had ended Harry had helped Eitri create the first dragon and Odin finally decided he was ready to attempt the ritual. Harry went with him to New Asgard, where a private room was warded for security and to protect from any observation, even from Heimdall.
The ritual was an involved thing, and Odin had added some of the Asgardian intent-based magic, to add a feature or two, for the mind they were shaping, while Harry had produced the Unity Crystal and showed Odin how to make it the focal point of the ritual. Odin now understood the reason why the mind was kept separate and secure, but also why it needed to be made in the specific way it was.
When he was done, Harry shocked the old man, by pulling out his Comm and producing a small dragon, about the size of his palm, and connected the crystal in a temporary configuration, so that they could see the personality at work. He placed the sculpture in Odin's hand.
The tiny dragon was modelled after the smaller form of the other dragons Harry had made, but had no gem in its chest and couldn't grow. It appeared to be asleep, until Harry channelled a bit of magic into the silvery body, which changed colour to a completely black form, with its scales softening as the dragon lifted its head and yawned.
"Hello there, little one." Odin said, with a soft smile, when the little dragon looked up at him with bright yellow eyes. It shook its head adorably, as if shaking its sleep away, and its tail actually wagged once as its ears perked up. "You will make my grandson very happy." Odin said to the little creature, even as he ran his own magical senses over the chubby little thing, while he stroked its small form and the creature purred contentedly.
Odin looked up at Harry. "It seems to have worked. I don't sense anything other than what I intended in it and the instinctual connections for the natural abilities and powers are all there and waiting."
"Awesome." Harry said, as he cupped his hands and took the little dragon from Odin, who reluctantly allowed it. "Then, all we need is to do, is get you a real body and let you meet your new best friend." he said down at the little dragon, who nodded emphatically. "But for now, go to sleep." he said and the dragon instantly curled up again and dozed off, slowly turning into shiny metal again.
"It's a command connected to that specific form?" Odin asked. The dragon had more magic and should have been active a while longer, but the moment this Harry told the creature to sleep, it had instantly obeyed and all the extra magic was channelled into another function.
"It's your new test unit." Harry agreed. "You want to always confirm that the personality you created is what you set out to create and that everything is in place. The sleep function also channels my protections into the mind, so that it remains secure, and will apply the same to the body, once connected. You surprised me by how quickly you confirmed everything, though."
"It's mine?" Odin asked. Perhaps, he could persuade this Harry to give him another Crystal, to make himself a new companion. Frigga would find the little dragon adorable. He could still use it to test new personalities he crafted. "My own enchantments allowed me to inspect the mind more easily." he added. It just made sense to add protections that nobody could counter, so he didn't question that.
"I wouldn't leave you without a proper way to test and protect your creations." Harry said easily, not having been surprised that Odin had added his own magical spin. He'd mentioned that he would, after all. "If you want to give him a personality, in the meanwhile, you'll need to ask Jarvis for more of this Crystal, though. He's the only one that knows how to make them and he doesn't have part of what he needed to make more than the initial batch."
Odin looked at this Harry speculatively. "You gave him the knowledge, but not the means, on purpose, so that he could attempt to understand and replicate the Crystal using other means."
"I have to protect my interests, but I like Jarvis." Harry confirmed. "He's a really nice guy. Smart too. If he figures the challenge I left him with out, he'll be able to come up with some interesting things. I personally created a few different ways of storing such personalities. Some of them are even unchanging, to keep their priorities set for as long as they exist. One of them protects one of my most dangerous secrets, which other people use regularly."
"Making the perfect, unchanging guardian, free from influence." Odin said, with a nod. "Very well done." He looked at Harry then, with a twinkle in his eye. "You are a worthy brother to our Harry. Were you not likely more powerful than I, I'd have given you the blessing of Asgard, for the joy you've bestowed upon this family. Hela showed me the sword you crafted for her. I fear she might be itching to test it in battle soon."
Harry had used a new configuration for the runes, which projected the lightsaber into the same shape as a small model, which could be placed in the pommel. Hela even knew how to replace it, if she ever wanted to use a new form for her lightsaber. With her conjurations, she could even do so while the blade was in her hand and active, though it would likely take practice. It even had training and staff settings, so that it could be insubstantial or blunted, for sparring. Harry had just added one extra feature. Duplication magic would not work on this unit, besides copying the external structure. After seeing his counterpart's ability to copy things, he'd applied that to his other items too.
"Yeah, well." Harry said, kind of touched by the sentiment. "She's kind of my big sister, so I couldn't very well say no to her."
"I know your real scheme there." Odin said, the twinkle never leaving his eyes, even as Harry handed the disconnected tiny metal dragon form over to him again. "Friend Tony will likely be bothering our Harry with a request to emulate some of the effects, once he's found the runes for such a weapon."
"You're no slouch, yourself." Harry said. "I've seen the mirth in your eyes as you watch Tony asking questions, which, with your innate magics, you already know the answers to. You don't speak up either."
Odin just continued smiling, as a look of mischief crossed his aged face. "Well, he's my son's best friend. It wouldn't do to spoil his fun." he said unrepentantly.
They both just smirked at that for a moment, before Harry broke the silence again. "So, I believe the first mind is done. I'll ask you to keep it until tomorrow, so that I can confirm everything my older twin has done to the dragon, which I delivered to him yesterday. I've asked him to set up the safe location for the mind and another part of the connection, which we don't actually put in the dragon, for security purposes."
"Your secrets are safe with those you have shared them with." Odin said. "Don't think I didn't notice you sharing the information with care and wise intent."
"You think they noticed?" Harry asked.
"There is no chance they haven't." Odin agreed. "But they will likely also understand the need. This is a great work and you are just protecting your most valuable secrets."
"Oh, no." Harry said. "My most valuable secrets are far more dangerous than the dragons."
"Truly?" Odin asked.
"Yes." Harry said seriously. "Some of the things I know could be misused very badly. Some of them, not even my wives know everything about."
Odin just nodded at that. He understood how easily power corrupted. It seemed that this Harry was just as wise as his youngest.
OPU
The local Harry had enlarged the small dragon, still in its metal form, so that he could more easily access the locations he intended to add powers. He'd given Eitri models for what he wanted for James. His younger counterpart had told him how he made his dragons fly faster and what he had done. For the sake of not being outdone, he'd taken things further. This dragon would be a piece of art, when he was awakened.
"So, are you almost ready?" the younger asked as he joined him, which should be impossible, since he was at his workshop.
"I shouldn't be surprised that you somehow circumvented my Fidelius." he told his younger self.
"I didn't." the younger Harry said. "I just came back."
"So, you've got that House-Elf trick figured out?" the older Harry asked.
"Something like that." the younger said, with a smirk. "So, have you got everything sorted?" he asked, indicating the enlarged dragon sculpture.
"Standard fire-breath and a link for bonding the dragon to James." the older Harry said. "Maybe another trick or two, for if it ever becomes necessary." he admitted. He'd added an ability for the dragon to create a stasis field, should James ever be injured and also an automatic recall, so that the dragon could bring him home. He'd learned from his experience with Amora. There would be no way to interrupt the dragon from appearing by his side, should he ever be taken.
"I'm seeing some interesting magics here." the younger Harry said. "Something like your dilation, maybe… no, this is in reverse. This is your version of stasis? Oh, yes. I see how that would work. Nice." he said in realization. "This link, though. I have no idea how that would function. You should be able to integrate it with the dragon's instincts well enough, though. Just make sure it has the function tested. You need to ensure the dragon knows how it's supposed to work."
"I've used it before." the older Harry said, not shocked that his younger self had figured out the stasis. He'd shown his ability to learn and intuit things a few times by that point. "It becomes natural very quickly. It keeps the connected people aware of each other's emotional state and allows for one to ask the other to come to them." Natasha still had her link to Harry and she often used it to have Harry apparate her to his side.
"Okay." the younger said. "I'm thinking this all looks good. You ready to finish this project?"
"I can't wait." the older Harry said. "You do know that I'll be trying to figure everything in this out at some point, right?"
"Be my guest." the younger Harry said. "Just, be careful not to go into too dark a territory with this."
"What do you mean?" the older Harry said. "This isn't dark magic, right?"
The younger Harry sighed. He'd have to do something unsavoury, to ensure his older self didn't do something he'd regret. "Give me an hour to set something up. If you're really interested in this, you need to learn this lesson right. I'd rather you don't mess with things you don't fully understand."
"You're not going to do something you're going to regret, are you?" the older Harry asked.
The younger Harry just sent him a look and walked off to one of the other rooms, shutting the door behind himself, as another instance of his went to warn Natasha, to ensure there were no interruptions.
An hour later, the door opened and he called his older self over.
"What did you do?" the older Harry asked.
"Just, go in there and speak to her." he said.
"You brought someone here?" the older Harry asked, incredulously.
The younger Harry just pointed at the door and stood there. He did not like the look on his face. His younger counterpart seemed worried, nervous.
The older Harry nervously walked into the room, to find a crystal ball, slightly glowing, with no indication that there was anyone else there. "Hello?" he asked.
"Oh, is someone there?" a voice asked from the crystal ball. "It's so dark here. Hi!" the voice of what sounded like a girl in her late teens said. She sounded scared.
"Hi." the older Harry said, again. "Who are you?" he asked.
"I don't really know." the voice said. "This is the first time I'm speaking to someone. Do you know where we are?"
"You're in my workshop." Harry said. "I'm Harry."
"Hi Harry!" the voice said excitedly. "I don't have a name, I don't think. You could give me one? I'd love to have a name."
"Um." Harry said, not knowing what to think of the request. He looked back to the door, only to find that he didn't know where the door was. Fidelius, most likely.
"You don't have to!" the voice said, a slight tone of panic in her voice at his delay. "Please, can you just talk to me for a bit? It really is dark here. Do you normally work in such dark places?"
"No." Harry said. "There's light here. Can't you see?" he asked.
"I… I must not have eyes then." the voice said sadly. "It's okay. I suppose I don't need eyes, as long as I have company." she said. "So, what do you do?"
"I do many things." Harry said. "Mostly, I make magic things for people." The girl sounded so sad, in that moment, Harry just wanted to comfort her.
"Oh, does that mean you made me?" the voice asked. "Are you going to give me a way to see at some point? I'd really like to see you."
"Um, no. Sorry." Harry said. "Someone else made you. I don't know how he did that. He was telling me something about learning about how he did that, and then he showed me in here."
"So… I'm just an example?" she asked sadly. "Does that mean I'll not get to live?" she asked. Harry wanted to kick himself. That had been very insensitive. This 'person' sounded so real. There was real sadness in her voice and he didn't like what he was feeling.
"I… I don't know." Harry admitted. "I'm really sorry."
"No. It's okay!" the voice said quickly. Harry could hear she was forcing herself to sound cheerful. "I'm not sad. Please, just tell me about yourself? I'd like to enjoy the time I have, if I'm just an example. Can you do that?"
"Of course." Harry said. "What would you like to know?"
Harry spent the next ten minutes, chatting to the voice, while trying to calm her down. By the end, the responses were coming back more slowly, and then, they stopped, before the light in the crystal ball faded to nothing.
"Crystal?" Harry asked. He'd given her the name, so that he could refer to her. It wasn't very imaginative, but she sounded so happy at receiving a name, any name, that he couldn't help the smile her happy response had brought to him. "Crystal? Are you still there?"
"She's not going to answer you." the younger Harry said, as he walked into the room, which suddenly had a door again.
"What happened to her?" the older Harry asked. He remembered similar words being spoken by Tom Riddle, in the Chamber of Secrets. Hell, they both did.
"She's gone." the younger Harry said, sadly. "You're a really good guy, you know that?"
"What do you mean she's gone?" the older Harry asked, a light flashing in his eyes, as his fear and anger built.
"That's what happens when you experiment with this magic." the younger Harry said.
"What happened to Crystal?!" the older Harry demanded.
"I told you." the younger Harry said. "She's gone. She never existed."
"No!" the older Harry exclaimed. "She was just here! She was alive! She was afraid!"
"I know." the younger Harry said, sadly. "But she was never alone. You gave her existence meaning, for as long as she existed."
The older Harry's eyes had started glowing solidly. "Tell me what you did." he demanded softly.
"When I found this magic, it was in a book of darkest magics." the younger Harry said, softly, as he walked up to the crystal and put a hand softly on it. "Do you now know why it was considered dark magic?" he asked.
The older Harry was starting to realise what was going on. "No." he almost pleaded, shaking his head. "Don't tell me…"
"Life created this way, intelligent, self-aware life, was always temporary. Those who used it, did so knowing that they would be creating something that could be self-aware. They used this to play and experiment. To feel like gods, creating life that they could simply leave to snuff out. Life that needed them to survive, no matter how they felt about the dependence." the younger confirmed his fear. "That's what Odin's job is. He's the only one that knows how to ensure this never gets abused. That it never goes too far."
"But she was a real person!" Harry said angrily, again. The poor girl had wanted to live, to see, to know him. "Why did you do this?!" he demanded.
"Because without it, you'd one day feel like the monster I just had to be." the younger Harry said. "I get that it's exciting to think about, but the consequences of playing with this could very well cost you your soul."
The older Harry rushed at the younger, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up. "You fix this, right now!" he demanded.
"What do you want me to say?" the younger Harry asked. "I knew what I was doing!" he exploded then. "Do you think I enjoyed this!? Do you think for one second I won't remember Crystal for the rest of my life?!" he demanded, as he looked his older self in the eyes. "This is the consequences of learning this lesson! This is what I needed to show you, to ensure you don't fuck with stuff you don't understand!"
Seeing the anger and sadness in his younger self's eyes finally broke him from his own anger, and a great sadness overcame him, as he set his younger self down. How much pain would this have caused him, if he'd needed to do something like this, to ensure someone didn't go about creating something that could feel like Crystal did? "You created her, knowing she would not survive? Knowing she was real, but never able to live a full life?"
"Actually, no." the younger Harry said, as he took a step back, seeing that his other self was starting to understand. "But before I give you any sort of good news, do you understand now why I shared the knowledge the way I did?"
The older Harry suddenly had a small flicker of hope, but understood. "I will not play god. I think I see what this was supposed to teach me." He took a deep breath, calming himself. "You were right to make me aware of the consequences here. Now tell me that Crystal is going to be okay, please?" he begged again.
The younger Harry reached into a pocket and removed a Unity crystal. "This is Crystal's mind-" he started, but the crystal vanished from his hand and the older Harry instantly shoved it into his storage. "Be careful! Unity Crystal is very sensitive!" He sighed then. "I was going to give her to you." he added.
"I don't care." the older Harry said. "She's my friend. I'll make sure she gets the body she deserves."
"Like I said, you're a really good guy." the younger Harry said. "You suspected, I think, from the start, that she was not made to last, because I created her to want more out of life, but you still kept her company. You still gave her your friendship and shared your heart with her." He sighed, before he got a hard cast to his eyes. "I would never, and I mean NEVER, create a life which is self-aware, and not ensure that it can live."
"You are not a nice person." the older Harry stated.
"No." the younger Harry said. "I'm not an unfeeling monster. I'm not Tom. I knew what I was doing. You needed this lesson, because I couldn't give you more information about the actual creation process, wherein I learned the consequences. You're respected among those who know the steps. You can ensure that it is never abused. You know I didn't enjoy this."
The older Harry had to concede that he'd made his point, even if it was done in a horribly bad way. Knowing what he did now, though, meant that he would not allow this information to fall into the wrong hands. He'd not be trying to mess with this kind of magic and rather leave it to his father, who he trusted completely. He could see that it wasn't easy for his younger self either. "You want me to be the one to ensure this doesn't go any further." he stated.
"And you'll have this memory to show them." the younger Harry agreed. "That's why I had to take it so far."
Sighing in final relief, the older Harry nodded. "I get it." he said. "Just, don't teach me any more big lessons."
"Well, for the pain I caused you, I was going to teach you one more, but this is a good one." the younger Harry said, with a small smile on his face.
"What did you have in mind?" the older Harry asked.
"Molecular reconfiguration and manipulation." the younger Harry said, pulling out the ring Odin had used to learn the ritual. "All in one nifty tool." he added.
OPU
"Harry!" Natasha exclaimed, pulling him into a hug, when they re-appeared a short while later. "He told us that you were being taught an important lesson. He asked me not to interfere."
"I was wondering why you didn't pull on our connection." the older Harry asked, referring to her ability to apparate to him, if he allowed it. "Thank you for that. It was a difficult lesson, but I know a bit more about the magics of the dragon, and why I shouldn't mess around with it."
"You felt like you were going to kill him." Natasha noted, as Xera joined the hug. She had seen Natasha's expression and had worried with her.
"Don't think I can, to be honest." the older Harry said. "But, then, it was necessary to learn this particular lesson. Without it, I may have delved into things that could be very dark. Things that may have ended very badly." He reached into a pocket and retrieved a small object. "On the bright, I made a new friend." he said, as he opened his hand and a small humanoid sat there.
"Surprise!" it said in a familiar, but small voice. "I'm Crystal!" she said excitedly. She was a light-skinned, fairy sized human, with green eyes and short blond hair. Harry was not ashamed to admit he'd crafted her form to look like Tinkerbell.
"Hi?" Natasha asked.
"I was an example, but now I'm a person!" Crystal said proudly. Fortunately the younger Harry had made her to be a forgiving, happy sort. "I can't wait to meet everyone and to see everything and learn about the island. It sounds wonderful!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"She's a little excitable." the older Harry said, with a soft smile. "But she��s going to fit right in, I think."
The fairies had flown closer to inspect the new addition. The Harrys had offered her a body, after the younger Harry gave her the ability to see, and she'd immediately decided that she'd like to be a fairy. Her wings, unlike theirs, only appeared when she wanted them, to save energy. She soon used them, to fly up and started chatting to the other fairies, with what looked like sparkling dust flying after her. Fine, so Harry had used not just her appearance as inspiration.
"She's quick to make friends." Xera noted.
"Designed that way." the younger Harry said, for the first time. "He offered to make her a body, with a bit of instruction." he said, pointing at his older self. He'd used a bit of Naquadah that he had on him, to give his older self the instruction, and he'd used that to construct the body for the new life. He'd already seen how his younger self had created the small human they'd used for the core.
"He taught you how to make functional humanoid bodies?" Natasha asked. That sounded like a very important secret.
"Well, she's like the dragons." the older Harry said. "Her body will look and function like any other human's, but she is also a magical life-form, so she'll need magicals around to give her what she needs. And yes, he gave me some really interesting information, which will allow me to do some interesting things."
"Combined with one of his special abilities, he should be able to construct just about anything, from anything else. Permanently." the younger Harry said, referring to his permanent conjurations.
"Just about." the older Harry agreed. He still didn't know how the minds worked, or how to construct the dragons, or even how the connection process worked, but that wasn't something he was interested in anymore. He could still experiment with bodies, but if he wanted to test them, he'd need Odin and likely Jarvis and Tony, just to get everything working. Not knowing what damage he could cause to a personality that he put in a badly created body, however, meant that he'd be damn careful, if he ended up doing something like that.
"You're sure you're okay?" Natasha asked, looking him in the eyes. There was still a ghost of sadness in them. The other Harry had said that it would be a difficult lesson. One that would need to leave a mark, to ensure it was learned properly. She just hoped that sadness wasn't a permanent mark.
"I'll be fine." he assured her. "Like I said, it was a difficult lesson. I see now that it was necessary and that there really was no other way to learn it correctly. He didn't want me to risk myself. Magic really is a responsibility, not a right."
"Teaching you a painful, but valuable lesson." Odin said, as he joined them. "While I wish he had shared his plan with me first, I know enough to know why he did it. Even while I don't know what he did, I can guarantee you that there were worse ways to learn it." he said, looking at the streak of what looked like fairy dust as Crystal was led off by the other fairies. "It seems that he has taken one of the less scaring routes." The instruction he'd received had many warnings and examples of why this could be very dark magic indeed.
The older Harry shuddered at the thought. If Crystal's mind had not been safe, he'd likely feel like he'd just lost a friend. "I don't even want to think about it." he admitted.
"Sorry about that." the younger Harry said. It wasn't the first time. He'd made the personality in such a way that his counterpart had no choice but to almost instantly connect with her. He knew it would work, because it would have worked on him. He'd felt every moment of the pain his older counterpart had felt, even as he kept on checking his pocket, to ensure to himself that the crystal, Crystal herself, was still there, and safe. It was really not an easy thing to do.
"I told you to stop apologising." the older Harry said. "You definitely did the right thing. I just need a few hours to process it."
"On the bright side, we're making a dragon tomorrow." the younger Harry pointed out. That did actually help his counterpart a bit. He trusted his father, and his younger/brilliant/scary counterpart had kept an eye on every step, so he knew that there would soon be a new addition to his family. He couldn't wait and the thought soon brought him out of his funk.
OPU
The next day, everything was brought together. The older Harry had placed the orb, which would serve as the connection to the actual location where the dragons mind was kept, inside its body, as instructed, and Odin had overseen the connections, so that he would know how to connect said mind to the crystal he had given a personality to.
Then Odin had gone off to the place where the mind was to be kept, Backup Plan, and finished the connections through the counterpart of the orb, which would be placed in a container, along with the mind. There was also a place for a human body, for the day when James was ready to merge with his dragon. When he returned, they all stood around the metallic statue of the dragon, which was about the right size to come to James' middle, standing up, before the older Harry placed James' hand on the statue, to complete the enchantment he'd created for it.
James now had a magical core, which was necessary for this specific connection, and when his father placed his hand on the dragon and channelled magic through his hand and into the dragon, it slowly started to change. Its metallic gleam disappeared, to reveal soft golden scales.
The dragon opened his yellow eyes, blinking them a few times as he saw the people around him and shook his sleepy head once, before he got up on his chubby legs to inspect everyone. This dragon was gold, with black stripes along its sides, running down its length, with a large spot of dark red on its upper back, which narrowed quickly into a stripe that went all the way down its tail, where a secondary set of smaller wings, for finer control, was located. Along the stripe were soft ridges, which would add to that same manoeuvrability. It had a pale white belly which would be soft and warm to the touch. Its wings, even at this small size were larger than the younger Harry had made for his. This dragon wasn't made for only power. It was made for speed and flight.
When the dragon grew, it would have a very large wingspan, but it would also be able to glide, to save energy. The dragon's body would still become large, but its wings would be its prominent feature.
James was looking at the creature in interest, while it inspected the people standing around it, until they made eye contact. The small dragon bounced excitedly on its forelegs, before taking a step forward and sniffing its new best friend and then it started purring as it rubbed its head on his chest, softly, even as James placed a hand on the cute little dragon's head, with a giggle of delight.
"He's getting his scent on James." Odin said. "An animal instinct should always include such things. He'll be able to find him by scent, as well as with his magical gifts."
"Have you decided on a name for the little one?" Frigga asked. She could tell Harry��s magic had worked perfectly. She could feel the connection the two had made. It felt natural, even. Like a familiar bond.
"I was thinking… Spot." the older Harry said, with a bit of mischief on his face.
"You are not calling a Dragon, Spot!" Natasha objected. "Razor, or Fang, or Ryo, maybe. Not Spot."
"Ryo?" the younger Harry asked.
"Japanese for excel, exceed or survive." the visiting Hermione said. "It's also a common word for dragon."
"You know Japanese?" the local Hermione asked.
"Learning Crystal." the other responded with a shrug.
"That's not fair!" the local Hermione said. "You can just learn anything you want and I have to do things the long way!"
"Then design something that helps you learn." the younger Harry said. "No doubt Tony and my counterpart already plan on something like that."
"Ryo." the older Harry said, as he watched his son inspecting the new curiosity. "I like that."
"Ryo it is then." Odin agreed. He liked it. It was definitely better than Spot. "Welcome to the family, Ryo." he said. The little dragon looked up at Odin and nodded, with a wag of its tail.
"Did you just name our Dragon?" the older Harry asked, having sensed a bit of Asgardian magic activating.
"You did." Odin said. "I just helped him recognize his name."
"Ryo!" baby James exclaimed happily, as he hugged the small dragon around the neck, with Natasha assisting him to stand.
"Wow, that was quick." the older Harry said. "Fine, then. Ryo it is. I can't believe it. That's his first word too." He was only slightly disappointed, since he'd hoped for 'Mama', or 'Papa'.
"You do know he's just repeating the easiest word-" the younger Harry said.
"Don't spoil this?" Pansy interrupted him.
"You've got a smart kid." Tony said, actually impressed. "Babies usually only start speaking at around a year old, maybe a year-and-a-half." He turned to Harry. "He's probably going to be smarter than you."
"I can only hope." the older Harry said, smiling down at his son, who was leaning on his Dragon, who had no issue helping James stay balanced. He couldn't walk yet, but he could stand, assisted.
"Got the recording?" the younger Harry asked Luna.
"Of course." Luna said.
"Cool." the younger said. "We'll just convert it to something simpler for them, before we leave."
"Do you have to sound so condescending?" Tony asked. "You do realise that we've got access to advanced alien technology too, right?"
"We've not met an alien race that has our data storage capabilities." the younger Harry countered.
"Who could compete with what you've shown me?" Jarvis asked. With what he'd seen, it was likely that the Unity Crystal was the most advanced and adaptive storage medium that anyone could invent. Even if the younger Harry didn't use it for data, it was still unlikely that anyone could go further, except perhaps for Doctor Hank Pym, but then he used shrinking tech, which changed the rules all over again. He didn't know that Harry could actually store much more with his blue diamonds, using the magic he'd invented for the learning crystals. It could contain information stored by magical means, which had infinitely more space due to the fact that magic wasn't as limited as physical changes to store data.
"Not many." the younger Harry admitted. "I think that you'll find a way, though." he said.
"I'll definitely try." Jarvis said.
"What's he talking about?" Tony asked.
"It's protected information, Tony." Jarvis said. "I'd have to get permission from Harry Black, to be able to tell you."
"So, it's the brain for the dragon?" Tony asked, having put that together easily enough. "Fine, then. I'll just wait for Jarvis to invent something better."
"It will likely take me a long time." Jarvis warned. "I've yet to come up with a viable option, to change what I've been taught and apply the principles with what we have available." He already had simulations running on alternative ways to create an adaptive crystalline structure.
"You can tell me about your new project, right?" Tony asked, with a mischievous grin.
"Nice try." the younger Harry said, smirking at the man.
"Without access to the original data, I can't see you coming up with a modified version of what I already have." Jarvis said.
"And even to make the original, there's a missing element." the younger Harry said. "To be fair, though, Jarvis's brain is very compact and well made. I don't think I could easily copy that. It's just that our technologies went at it from different angles. It's not that my technology is better, it's just that different technologies have different applications."
"Without a direct magical interface, the dragon's brain would simply not work either." Jarvis agreed. "It's both a limitation and a feature of the technology."
"Fine." Tony finally relented. "But now that I'm a wizard, you can bet your ass that I'm going to be experimenting on new tech too."
"Good." the younger Harry said. "This world could do with some smart magicals."
"Hey!" the older Harry said.
"You're smart, too." the younger Harry allowed. "You're just not as scientifically inclined." He turned back to Tony. "Just be careful. The possibilities of magic and science working together are both wonderful and very dangerous."
"Harry has to work in a lab that's located on the other side of a black hole, from our solar system, just in case he does something that could still affect Earth." Padma said. "His technology has the potential of travelling at the speed of light and sometimes, depending on what he's working on, even faster."
Tony was actually struck silent at that one. What the hell kind of technology could warrant that sort of security just to work with?!
"Hey, I'm not that bad." the younger Harry defended himself. "I'm just careful, after a few accidents." He looked at Tony then. "You would not believe how much shit I got for one tiny little accident."
"What happened?" Tony asked.
"I was eating pizza and my fingers were greasy-" Harry started.
"He almost cut the moon in half with a defensive technology he was working on." Pansy interjected. "He was working from Mars at the time."
"They will simply not let it go." Harry agreed. "Seriously, one mistake and all of a sudden, I'm a 'danger to society' and shouldn't mess with things 'man was not meant to know'."
"Well." the older Harry said, finally pulling his eyes away from his son, who was still snuggling into his new best friend, who was purring at the attention contentedly. "If your defensive experimentation could do that much damage, I can understand being cautious." He turned to Tony. "And you don't get to experiment with magic until you've trained your core up and learned what's necessary, just like with your runes studies."
"I hear professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are already planning your syllabus." Natasha agreed.
"I'll not be alone in my studies." Tony said, as he hugged Pepper to him, looking at his Harry.
"Fine." the older Harry said. "Your core checks out. It's already developing and it seems to have become fully integrated, just as we'd hoped."
"I've been practicing." Tony said. He'd never returned the wand the other Harry had made and he'd since locked it up in a vault, which was hidden under a Fidelius.
The younger Harry was completely aware of it, but didn't really mind. It was protected and would serve as a nice homing beacon, should he ever come back and go looking for the man. That reminded him. He pulled out his Comm and opened a storage box, pulling out another Comm and holding it out to his counterpart.
"I've added a bit of my technology right into this one. Once our timelines synchronize, I should be able to make contact with you." the younger Harry said.
"What was the date on your side?" Tony asked.
The younger Harry turned his Comm around and looked at the date, but before he could answer, his Hermione said, "You know that our Harry is twenty-one, so you already know it will likely be nineteen years."
"Not necessarily." the older Harry said. "You don't know my whole story." He'd been sent forward in time, after he magically aged himself and transplanted his memories, so he wasn't sure how many years ahead they were. "Tony is right to ask."
"2001." the younger Harry said.
"It's 2020 here." Tony said. "That's nineteen years." he agreed. Damn! The next time that they saw the other Harry, he'd have had nineteen years to advance more, before they'd even be able to start upgrading their abilities. That is, if there wasn't a difference in the fundamentals that governed time in the two universes.
"Harry loves his research." the new Luna said. "He'll probably be wanting to get back to his research soon." she added, basically confirming Tony's previous thought.
"I have learned so many things here, which I'd love to go into when we get back." the younger Harry confirmed. "On the bright side, the things that I'll be researching are likely things that you already know about. Thanks for that information about adamantite, by the way. I'll be having some fun figuring out how you used alchemy to produce it, and using that knowledge to start delving into ways of extracting power from matter."
"You told him?" the older Harry asked Bruce.
"Well, he had some insights into alchemy, which was useful to me." Bruce said, with a shrug. "I never even gave him any information. I just told him about what we did, not how. I didn't even tell him about the other things we do with the stuff." He was referring to Adamantium, the nearly indestructible metal, which used adamantite as one of the most important ingredients. He didn't even think the new Harry knew about vibranium.
"I've already had a couple of ideas about that." the younger Harry said. "Frankly, I'd prefer you don't tell me. I'll be able to do more with it, that way."
"Ever the researcher." Pansy said, fondly.
"What I'd like to know, is how long we have to wait until we see Ryo in his grown form?" Charlie asked.
"You'll need to wait a few years for that." Odin said.
"Ryo needs to grow up with James for a bit." the local Harry agreed. "He's still a baby. We want him to learn about the world, so we set him up with the ability to grow for defensive reasons only, at this point. Once James is old enough to understand, his connection with Ryo will allow him to invoke the merge, which will reveal his gem."
"I'd been wondering about that." Charlie said in disappointment. The dragon didn't have a gem, like they'd seen in the presentation. "What colour gem did you decide on?" he asked.
"We didn't." the older Harry said. "It will take the colour that best suits his and James' personalities, when the time comes."
"Like the Hogwarts houses?" the younger Harry asked. He'd not had a hand in that part, and his older counterpart and Eitri had worked that out.
���Not really, no." the older Harry said. "I added a bit of an enchantment, which will allow them to choose together, when the time for it to appear comes."
"But, you know how he'll look, right?" Tony asked. "You and Eitri planned what he'll look like together."
"I have an idea what he'll look like." the older Harry agreed, with a bit of a smirk. "He'll still develop in different ways, depending on what he ends up spending time on. I wanted the Dragon to have as real an experience with life as I could, so he'll have a base form, but he'll need to practice, like any living creature, to reach his potential."
"So, there's nothing else to see today?" Tony asked, only slightly disappointed. He actually thought it was a good idea. While there was a level of control in the creation process, his little girl would have to work for what she got, when he got her, her own dragon. In this case, he really appreciated the forethought. "Morgan will not have to wait too long to get her Dragon, then." he added.
"Not until you've trained up some." the older Harry said. "She'll need to be a magical to bond with hers, and you need to be able to feed it, before you can have such a creature in your house."
The younger Harry looked off to the side, then. "Were you aware that there's a fleet of ships that just appeared through a portal of some kind, just beyond Mars?"
"What?!" the older Harry asked, just as his mirror vibrated. "Heimdall?" he answered quickly.
"It is as Harry Black says, my prince." Heimdall confirmed. "I did not know their destination when they set off, but it seems that the Kree have decided to attack Carol Danvers' home planet."
"How did we not know about this?" the older Harry asked, as Xera quickly picked up James, to take him away, while Ryo just followed them and the Avengers were soon in attendance, as their costumes appeared on them.
"It seems that they were not allowed to speak of it." Heimdall said. "Their Supreme Intelligence no doubt knows that we keep an eye on their movements and told them to maintain secrecy."
"EPI?" the older Harry asked.
"I informed you first." Heimdall said.
"Kree?" the younger Harry asked Tony.
"Hostile aliens." Tony said, even as the older Harry thanked Heimdall and Natasha got in contact with Abigail Brand, who was still the director of SWORD. Midnight was already in orbit above the Earth and would likely be their primary form of defence. There was little chance for the Kree to be able to stand against it, but depending on the size of the fleet, they could still pose a threat to the Earth.
"Mind if I put up a protection or two, before you go spank the aliens?" the younger Harry asked.
"What did you have in mind?" the older Harry asked.
OPU
It had taken negligent effort for the younger Harry to erect a protective shield around the Earth. Nobody on Earth would see it, but the entire planet was now encased in a cube of invisible laser-induced shielding, which would re-direct any attack directly back at anyone that decided to attack, even from a distance.
"The entire planet?" Tony asked from the bridge of the Sphere. "Seriously!?"
"It's basic science, Tony." the younger Harry said. "The only thing that took any power was creating the containment method for this form of protection." Mirrors and Lasers were very low power to produce, but even Harry would normally have issues with that large an effect in space. This particular reality however, had no issues with magic in space, it seemed, and that, combined with his magical Battery, were more than what he needed to produce this particular effect. Project Black Light had a vast amount of applications after all.
"But how?!" Tony exclaimed again, when the younger Harry just smirked at him.
"Harry's needed to protect against aliens in the past." Hermione said. "I suspect I know what he's doing and the principles are, in fact, based in science, even if the execution is very much magically achieved."
"It's highly unlikely that you will figure this one out, though." Daphne added. "It's a magical discovery that was the foundation of many of his discoveries." She knew that he was powering this with his blue diamond lasers, attached to the Sphere. In all the history of the magical world, nobody had discovered this particular way of manipulating magic before.
"Sorry Tony." the younger Harry said, seeing he was going to ask about it. "This is one thing I can't even give you a clue about. It's simply too dangerous."
"How did you detect the arrival of the Fleet?" Fury asked. He'd joined them shortly after they were made aware.
"StellarNet." the younger Harry said. "Sorry. Also protected."
"He can see what is going on in the entire Galaxy with his StellarNet." Fleur said, proudly. "It is usually set to detect movements in the local solar system, but could potentially watch as many worlds as are inhabited in the galaxy as well, as long as it was set up to do so."
"You're going to have a new project when we get back." Fury said, looking at the local Harry.
"Sorry Director." he replied. "I don't even have a clue how I'd go about trying to figure this one out. The best we can do is try to get someone with divination to look out for things like this, but even that isn't infallible."
"My mirror didn't show me a thing." Fury groused.
"That's because these aliens aren't coming for you." the local Harry said. "The Foe Glass is bound to you, not Earth."
"But such a tool-" Fury started.
"No." the younger Harry interrupted. "At best, I can consider making you a limited form of this tech, but the possibilities for abuse, especially with a company like EPI, is simply too large."
"The system doesn't just see space movement." Hermione clarified. "It's also precise enough to watch the surface of a planet. My husband would not even let his own government use his technology that way, blocking off those functions for the privacy and protection of the people."
"The problem with allowing someone access to this technology, is that its functions would reveal how it operates." Padma agreed. "Doing that would give away too much of its secrets and allow someone to possibly reproduce and abuse it."
"If you want, I may be persuaded to leave you with a similar shield, but not using my techniques would make it very power-hungry." the younger Harry confirmed, as he finally locked the shield in place, having powered it enough to last a few hours unassisted. Then he accessed the on-board StellarNet and instantly moved them to where he knew the alien fleet was located.
"That's a big fleet." Parvati said, as her eyes bulged. Not even Anubis's fleet, which was the largest they had seen had been this big. There were thousands of ships. Some were even larger than Anubis's flagship had been. "How sure are you that your ship can handle all that?" she asked.
"Midnight is quite capable." the older Harry said. "We're also not alone, but it might take some time to call in all our allies."
"Our allies don't all have ships that are immune to magic, but Heimdall can open portals to them, if they decide to join us." the local Harry said.
"What's your SOP in this case?" Susan asked. She was fully outfitted in her Wolf battle gear. She looked like a soldier, but all in black, with red accents and the Marauders insignia on her arm. She wasn't a highly ranked officer, after all.
"We try to speak to them first." the older Harry said. "We don't know their true objective. This could just be a trick to try and divert attention while something is going on somewhere else."
"Should we call in Danvers?��� Tony asked Fury.
"She's unavailable." Fury said. "We tried calling, but she's not responding."
"Are you sure she's safe?" Natasha asked.
"We've not been in contact with her for a while, but last time we spoke, she was going after the Kree leader." Fury said. "The Supreme Intelligence is an artificial intelligence, which has eluded being directly attacked for thousands of years. It's supposedly able to control reality itself within a short distance of where it is stationed and also, supposedly, it's existed for more than a million years."
"Sounds like a proper bad guy." the younger Harry said.
"I don't think now is the time to be impressed." the older Harry said.
"I'm just saying." the younger Harry said. "I've not had many challenges in the past. Do you think Heimdall could point me in its direction?"
"You're not serious, are you?" Fury asked.
"A challenge would be nice for once." the younger Harry said, with a shrug, as he felt a large amount of energy building up and he directed a secondary view to where he felt the power build-up. "Ooh. Something's about to happen." he said.
Just after he said, it, a pulse of energy shot off from nowhere and almost instantly reached its target, one of the larger ships in the alien armada. Unfortunately it seemed to have hit a shield, which broke, but the shot flew past the ship.
"Warning shot." the older Harry said.
"Do we have comms?" Fury asked.
"Hold on." Tony said, as he accessed his suit's systems and soon he'd hacked into the Sphere's newly installed wireless system. Unfortunately for him, once he was in, he had no idea how to navigate the relatively alien system. "How do I patch this in?" he asked the younger Harry.
"Here." he said, bringing up a display, which showed the communications array.
Tony quickly looked through the system, and adjusted a few settings on the illusionary display, once again being impressed at the application and then they could suddenly hear the communication from Midnight.
"- in restricted space." a female voice said.
"That's Brand." Fury said.
"You do not have the power to withstand the Kree empire." a calm voice said back. "Attack us again, and you will have started a fight which you cannot hope to win."
"You have been warned." Brand said. "You are to remove yourself from our system. If you attempt to move any closer, it will be seen as an act of war. We will not miss again." she warned.
There was no response, as a shot was fired from the enemy fleet directly at where Midnight's shot had come from. It hit nothing. The shot however, was still on a course to Earth.
"That's a few kilotons of energy." the younger Harry said. "It's also heading directly for Earth, and speeding up as it goes."
"What!?" Fury said.
"It'll be fine." the younger Harry said. "Just watch."
The shot had indeed been speeding up, somehow increasing in speed past the speed of light, by Harry's calculations, in a short amount of time. Had there not been a shield, it may have actually done significant damage to the Earth. Unfortunately, there was a shield. Unfortunate, that is, for the ship that had fired, as the moment it reached the shield, it instantly reversed and, at the speed it had been going, it was back in seconds, and the ship that had fired, exploded in a rain of fragments that damaged many nearby ships.
That's when Midnight started firing as well. In the next few seconds, many ships started firing on and through Midnight, all missing, but some succeeding in aiming for the planet, and therefore at themselves.
"How did you make the shield so adaptive?" Jarvis asked.
"I've been studying energy redirection." the younger Harry said. "I don't have all the spectrums covered yet, but anything that shield doesn't cover, gets absorbed by the second layer of shielding, to be released in a safe environment of my choosing."
"Fascinating." Jarvis said.
"Director Fury." a voice said from Fury's Mirror. "If you're able, I'd like some assistance here. If this fleet decides to simply move on, there is a high likelihood that we wouldn't be able to kill them all before they reach Earth."
"Black." Fury said. "Any chance this thing's got weapons?" he asked.
"Sure thing." Harry said. He turned to Susan. "Susan, if you'll take out the primary Caco and show my brother how to use that, and the relay, I'd appreciate it." He walked over to the gunner's position. "Who's your most-"
"I'll take Gunner." Tony said instantly, as his suit retracted and went back into his pouch.
"Why aren't you out there?" the younger Harry asked. "I'd think with that suit, you could just go out there and start destroying them."
���Midnight is our first means of defence." Fury said. "The Avengers defend against threats on the ground."
"Don't you have a fleet?" Daphne asked. "Our Harry helped his people design and produce an entire fleet, so that they could be in multiple places at once to defend our allies."
"He also helped some of our allies increase their capabilities, so that they could help defend themselves and the rest of the Alliance." Pansy said.
"We have allies for such things." Brand said from the mirror. "I've been asking for more capabilities, but I keep on being told we don't need more than Midnight. These Kree decided to attack us first. We had to start defending the planet."
"The shot they fired was likely a warning shot too." the younger Harry said, as he flew the Sphere into the enemy fleet, while Tony took great joy in using the available weapons to lay into them. "It was aimed at the ocean, not the land."
Fury looked like he was about to say something, but then he spotted the local Harry flying between the enemy ships and firing on them with what was obviously magical means, using some sort of remote controlled device. Between Midnight, the Sphere and the Caco, the enemy was suffering more and more damage, as ships were disabled, blown up and lost hull integrity as both the Caco and the Sphere simply flew through some of their ships, while firing at others.
"I believe the enemy is making preparations to flee." Heimdall's voice said over one of the many active mirrors on the bridge.
"Not today." the younger Harry said, as he flew them to the side of the enemy fleet. "Recall the Caco. Tony, please aim for the biggest mass. Weapon's ready in twenty seconds."
"What are we firing at them with?" Tony asked, excitedly, as he saw his view change in his head. There was a warning too, which warned him that he was not going to be allowed to fire, until something called 'Containment' was in place. "What���s 'containment'?"
"Reflection matrix." Hermione said, as she hurriedly accessed the system. "Harry, are you sure about this? We've never tested it." her fingers were running over the controls, as she accessed the StellarNet, to see if the shielding was up.
"They fired on Earth." the younger Harry said. "They could have killed millions with the tidal waves that first attack might have caused." He was quickly putting up another form of containment.
"If you're sure." Hermione said, as she confirmed the reflective matrix was up. "Containment is in place. Weapons charged. Key system, awaiting confirmation."
"Confirmed." Harry said, pressing a button, which glowed for a second as the wards detected that it was someone that was allowed to give confirmation and read his intent, after confirming the Caco had been recalled.
"Confirmed." Hermione said, doing the same, followed by all his wives.
"Weapons free." Harry said.
Tony had been aiming for the largest concentration of ships in the fleet and activated the weapon. He did not expect the ships he'd been aiming for to simply disappear, as what seemed a beam of directed energy simply went through them. In the next seconds, the rest of the fleet suffered a similar fate. A glowing box of energy was now visible, as the reflective nature of the containment, sent the laser, back and forth, faster than the eye could see.
"Motherfucker!" Fury exclaimed, as he watched the enemy simply cease to be.
"What the hell?!" Tony exclaimed as well.
"Just one moment, please." the younger Harry said, as he approached and entered the containment field. There was a sound, like a gong, on the hull of the ship. "Weapon countered. Hermione, are you picking up on anything still going on in the matrix?"
"Containment measures were successful." Hermione reported. "Enemy fleet was completely disintegrated."
"Disabling containment." Harry said. "Hull integrity?"
"Minor damage to the primary defensive layer." Hermione reported. "It's already been repaired. I think you forgot to protect against one of the forms of energy."
"No, that was always going to happen." the younger Harry said. "The spell needed to meet the counter, on a solid surface, otherwise it could have simply bounced off our protections."
"What spell?" the older Harry asked. He'd never seen such devastation. It was both impressive and very worrying.
"Trade secret." all Harry's wives said.
"This was all one spell?!" Fury asked, incredulously.
"Applied through a one-of-a-kind system, which require many different protections and preparations, all of which were pioneered by myself." the younger Harry said.
"This was the same thing that almost cut the moon in half." Luna said, sadly. She knew that there wasn't much of a choice. The enemy had decided to attack Earth. This was one of Harry's latest developments and he'd told them about it, since only they could allow Harry to fire the weapon. He had thought it was too powerful, for just himself to make that choice. They all needed to agree to it.
"It was meant to be defensive." the younger Harry said. "Unfortunately the specific magic had a side-effect, which did as you just saw."
"Potter, your 'brother' just destroyed thousands of enemy ships with a single attack." Fury said. "We'll need more than 'Trade Secret'."
"That's not going to happen." Pansy said. "This is protected information. The only way that this weapon is ever used, is if all of us decide to allow it."
"But now the enemy will think that we have this capability." Loki said, from where he'd been watching. "We'll be considered a greater threat."
"I'll set you up with a defensive shield for the Earth." the younger Harry said to his older self. "You'll need to power it, but from what I've seen, power won't be an issue for you." The ships destroyed by his older counterpart had impressed on him that he had a vast source of power. He didn't know where he had pulled from, but the damage he had done negligently confirmed to him that his older self would have no problem powering such a system.
"How long will it take you to set something like that up?" Fury asked. "And will it protect from something like what you just did."
"A couple of hours." the younger Harry said, as he returned them to New Atlantis with the slightest of effort, having set a return point. "And yes." He turned to the Director then. "You really don't need to worry about this. We'll be leaving soon, and the only way that this weapon is ever activated, is with permission from all my wives and myself." he reiterated.
"I don't want to know what you come up with when you start developing weapons." the older Harry said.
"Harry is not a war-monger." Luna said. "He likes to learn. One of his best devices to date, is his Index, and he never develops weapons for the sake of making offensive items. He just figures things out and then tests the new development for its capabilities."
"Standard protocol for new discoveries." Daphne added. "When you make something, you then need to spend time learning the applications, capabilities and then how to counter those, as well."
"We need to ensure that there's protection for our people against everything we make." Padma said. "Even the dragons only became possible, when Harry figured out how to turn the dark magics into something more than the limitations of the original creation process, to overcome what made it dark."
"Padma and I worked on it together, too, so that I didn't make something that would suffer from the process." Harry agreed.
"Well, this just proves it." Tony said, as he got out of the gunner's position. "Science and magic can do wonderful and horrible things."
"How was what you just did, not dark?" Fury asked.
All of Harry's wives glared at the man, who actually took a step back. "Defending your allies is a burden and a responsibility, which our husband didn't choose for himself. It was forced on him." Pansy said, dangerously. "He just wanted to experiment and learn and invent fun things for others to enjoy."
"If you ever insinuate that he is dark, ever again, we'll ensure that he never comes to this reality again." Daphne agreed.
"Magic isn't innately dark or light." the older Harry said. "It's how you use it that defines its classification. While we may have liked to take some prisoners, we know enough to know that the fleet wasn't here to just make friends. They were sent to destroy."
"If their idea of a warning shot would have killed millions, I'm inclined to believe that." Fury relented. "Don't think that we're ungrateful." he added. "Midnight wasn't ready for what happened."
"I told you that we needed more vessels outfitted for war." Brand's voice came through Fury's mirror, which he had forgotten was active all this time. "The only other ships we have are those exploration vessels."
"You don't have those." the older Harry pointed out. "Those belong to a different branch of EPI."
"Doesn't change the fact that without your new friend, we could have been outclassed today." Brand said.
"We'll need to send people to find out what happened to Danvers." Fury nodded.
"I'll take care of that." Brand said, before closing the connection.
As they trooped off the Sphere, there were many people waiting to hear from them. No doubt Heimdall had been keeping Odin updated.
There was a greeting, as Odin played to the crowd as he tended to do, but there were no smiles from the visitors. Harry had never used that weapon against intelligent beings before, and while Tony had pressed the button, it was still him that had given him the opportunity.
"We need to spend some time with our husband." Fleur said to Tony, as she took one of Harry's arms.
"Not going to stay for the party?" Tony asked, with a bit of a smile.
"There shouldn't be a party." Luna said, as she took Harry's other arm. "Thousands of people just died."
"Sometimes we do end up killing the servants of the real bad guys, but we usually try to take them alive and only punish the leaders." Hermione added.
All of Harry's wives were now standing by him, and soon they led him onto the ship again. While that was happening, Odin was finishing his speech, congratulating his sons and their allies on a successful mission.