19. MISCHIEF MANAGED.

Harry silently agreed, he was tiring. Loki's supernatural origins were only partly to blame for this. Harry realized that he'd been rather slothful since his arrival in this reality, spending his leisure time mostly reading.

Loki's rant was interrupted as bright blasts slammed into his side, sending him flying, Iron Man landing with a slide, repulsors ready to fire again.

"Oh hey Pinocchio! Kind of surprised to see you here." Stark said, turning his head towards Harry.

"Not the time, he's not down yet!" Harry replied as he readied himself.

Loki suddenly stood up, a blast of kinetic energy sending debris flying away from the enraged god.

Harry fired off another blasting curse only for it to be reflected back by the staff but this gave Stark an opening, firring his repulsors again, sending the god flying.

With Iron Man on hand to provide a bit of breathing room, Harry was able to use more complex spells. Turning some of the rubble into a pair of large, grim like dogs and sending them to engage his opponent.

Loki rolled to his feet, sweeping his bladed scepter through one of the transfigured Grims, slicing it clearly in half while the second Grim clamped it's jaw, ineffectually, unto his ankle.

Stark blasted away with another pair of repulsor blasts but Loki deflected one and, with a swing of his foot, sent the second Grim flying in the path of the blast causing the dog to burst apart in a spray of blood and guts.

Harry sent a series of spells in a quick chain. The spells ranged from deadly to the benign, blasting curses to color changing hexes. Whatever he could chain together quickly. While most would not do anything to Loki, the God of Mischief would still have to defend against them, not knowing what they were. This distraction gave Iron Man a chance to hit the god with more energy blasts.

The two allies continued to overwhelm Loki's defences, battering him with powerful explosions until he raised his hands in surrender, his elaborate outfit shifting a much simpler one.

"Good move reindeer games!" Stark commented.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry incanted out loud to give the spell a bit more power. Loki's limbs snapped together and the Jotun fell back stiff as a board.

"That should keep him down for a bit, not sure how long, never used it on a Jotun … an Ice Giant before and Loki is also a powerful magic user in his own right so he might be able to break the enchantment but the Quinjet that's incoming will have restraints that should work." Harry explained as he slowly made his way to stand next to Stark.

"Totally petrified?" Stark asked, after removing the faceplate from his helmet. "What kind of half-assed magic spell is that? Might as well just cry out Abrakadabra!"

The quinjet landed and the team that had accompanied Harry for support rushed out. The team medic making his way to Harry. "Sir, you're bleeding."

"No worries, I'll deal with this. Go see if you can help anyone else. There's also a dead man on an altar inside and Loki threw down some type of silvery probe thingy he used on the man somewhere."

The man hesitated but Harry rolled his eyes, lifted his shirt and with a tap of his wand, the cut slowly sealed itself.

"What the hell!" Stark exclaimed as he leaned in closer to observe the now healed wound.

"Let's get our prisoner in the quinjet and from the public before we talk."

Harry levitated Loki into the Quinjet where he was shackled to a bench and then unfrozen. A few soldiers and the medic remained on site to await a cleanup crew while Harry and Stark made their way back to the Helicarrier.

"So you're a real life wizard." Stark stated.

"Yes." Harry replied. "Do we know how captain Rodger's mission went?" Harry asked the pilot.

"Sorry sir, not something they'd broadcast over unsecured comms lines."

"Thank-you Mr. Stevens."

"Ok, so what's your con?" Stark demanded.

"Not a con, just magic." Harry replied simply.

"Card tricks, pulling a rabbit out of a hat, tea leaves and tarot cards?" Stark demanded mockingly.

"We just fought the Norse god of mischief." Harry pointed out, placing special emphasis on the word god.

"An alien from another world, not a god. That stick is some type of subatomic particle manipulation tech or something!" Stark insisted his expression getting darker by the second.

"Not tech, eleven inches of holly with, at its core, a tail feather from a phoenix." Harry explained, producing the wand from his wrist holster.

"There is no such thing as magic! Just science we haven't understood yet." Stark insisted vehemently.

"You are so pathetically simple minded."

"Shut it Rock of Ages!" Stark ordered Loki angrily pointing a finger in his direction.

"You are a man looking at the world through a keyhole. You've spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole... to see more, to know more. And now, on hearing that it can be widened, in ways you can't begin to comprehend, you reject the possibility? You think you know how the universe works?" Loki continued unabashed. "The universe is far greater and more complex than your simple mortal mind can fathom. I have seen things mortal … worlds beyond even all knowledge of the All-Father."

"I hate to say this but I have to agree with Loki. While some things could probably be explained by science like magical creatures I've seen things that defy science: ghosts, unkillable demons that steal your soul, animated paintings that retain a portion of their subjects knowledge and personality, spells fueled by negative or positive emotions." Harry explained.

"I'm not trying to discount your belief out of hand but for example there is a spell that once cast hides a secret inside a single person. If I cast this spell and say that 'Tony Stark is Iron Man.' everyone who ever knew your true identity would forget it, even you. Every written record or recording would be un-viewable by EVERYONE except the secret keeper and once the secret keeper reveals this secret to a person, all that information would suddenly become available again but only to that one person and they would be incapable of sharing it themselves in any way, shape or form. The first time I saw this spell in use, I was brought to a home that was hidden by the spell since it was used as a secret base of operations by a resistance group. I was taken to a street where the houses in front of me were number 10 and 14 with no space for a number 12. I was told the secret and suddenly number 12 Grimmauld Place squeezed itself in between 10 and 14. People who had been raised in that house couldn't remember anything about where they had grown up. Not sure how science could explain that."

Loki looked on with eyes wide with surprise but remained silent while Stark eyes narrowed in thought.

"Prove it!"

"Unfortunately, I was never taught the spell. It's one of those magics that, in the wrong hands, could have terrible, terrible consequences so it was a really well guarded secret. A friend of mine, bloody brilliant, theorised that it could be used for nefarious reasons. One example she gave was making secret the fact that a certain person needed to eat and drink to live causing everyone other than the secret keeper to wonder why that person's health was failing until they died of starva..."

Harry was interrupted by the sound of thunder and Loki's sudden shifting in his bonds.

"What's the matter, scared of a little lightning?" Stark said mockingly.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows…" was Loki's reply as something impacted the quinjet causing a large thump sound and shaking the quinjet itself.

Harry waved his wand as Stark put on his faceplate.

"There's someone on top of the jet!" Harry warned.

"I'm gonna go say hello then." Stark replied as he pressed a button to open the bay door.

A shape suddenly flew into the quinjet. A massive man dressed in strange armor, a long red cape, with long flowing dirty blond hair wielding a hammer Harry had seen before.

"Mjolnir!" Harry whispered.

Thor looked at both Harry and Stark before grabbing Loki and pulling him out of the plane.

"Now there's that guy!"

"That was Thor Odinson, the god of thunder. I was under the impression that he was an ally." Harry explained.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost." Tony replied as he leapt out of the Quinjet to chase after the two Asgardians.

Wishing he had mastered Snape's and Voldemorts ability to fly of their own power or at least brought his broom, Harry swore softly and ran off the ramp, leaping after the others.

Harry could see, in the distance, Starks repulsor jet's lighting the night sky. Using his years of experience riding a broom, Harry angled his body to follow the bright points of light. Harry watched in the distance as Stark suddenly swerved and apparently landed. Without propulsion, Harry would be unable to reach them in free fall so, after slowing his descent slightly, with a mental push Harry transformed into his still unnamed raven form to cover the final distance.

Harry landed next to Loki, sitting on a ledge looking on with undisguised glee as Stark and Thor confronted each other.

"... will face Asgardian justice!"

Loki stared at Harry with a raised eyebrow as the wizard returned to his human form but turned his attention back to the two in the clearing below.

"He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then, stay out of my way."

Harry assumed that Stark must have said something in a lower tone of voice because Thor gave him an affronted look before sending Mjolnir into Stark, sending Iron Man flying across the clearing.

"Petrificus Totalus, Incarcerous, Stupify!" Harry cast all three spells, securing Loki before apparating down to the clearing with as loud a crack as he could.

"Are you both insane?" Harry asked as he appeared between the two combatants.

"Choose your words wisely mortal lest I take offense."

"Thor Odinson crown prince of Asgard?" Harry asked the man.

"That is correct."

"Did Asgard just declared war on Midgard?"

"Of course not, Midgard is part of the Nine Realms and under Odin's protection!" Thor replied in an insulted tone.

"You just attacked a military transport, transporting a war criminal who has broken into a military base, killed several military personnel, kidnapped more military personnel, stolen military property, murdered several civilians and reduced a multi million dollar military complex into rubble. You then rescued that criminal! So I guess that Asgard approves of Loki's plans then if they're sending their crown prince to rescue him."

"I am here to put an end to Loki's schemes!"

"And you Stark. What are you doing?"

"Trying to stop this guy from leaving with Loki!"

"By picking a fight with him and leaving Loki unguarded?"

"You left him there too!" Stark pointed to the ledge where Loki lay.

"He's paralysed, wrapped in ropes and unconscious! I secured him before trying to break up this stupid, pointless fight! On top of that, Loki doesn't want to escape, he's right where he wants to be."

"What?" came from Thor and Stark in stereo.

"He's the trickster god, master of illusions and a shapeshifter. On top of all that, he also has a mind control staff. All of those are subtle arts. Knowing this, how did we ever find him? Because he wanted to be found. What part of what happened at Stuttgart was subtle? He could have used a minion to do what he did or to bring that man to him and do what he did in private, he could have done this under an illusion to disguise himself and fool our image recognition. Instead he did this himself, un-cloaked and very publicly. He wanted to be found and captured."

"He is correct, my brother is a master of illusions and a shapeshifter. He has managed to hide his presence from the all seeing eyes of Heimdal on several was one time my brother transformed himself into a snake because he knows how much I like snakes, and so I picked the snake up to admire it, but then he turned back and went 'AAHH! It's me!' And then he stabbed me."

Both Harry and Stark turned to look at Thor in disbelief.

"Then what was all that about the cuffs keeping him secure in Stuttgart?"

"I don't want him to know that I know that he wants to be captured obviously or he'll change his plans." Harry replied as if talking to a child. "I want him to think we've underestimated him."

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