Fanfic #180 The Last Seiðr by SummerChildWinterFury(HarryPotterXAvengers)

This fanfic is a crossover between Harry Potter and the Avengers following Harry at the end of his second year in the world of Avengers. I really like this fic because it follows has a lot of great world building around magic and it has a Harry form second year which I've never really seen much off.

Synopsis: The Cube sparked again -for the room to shake. It continued to spark more, bigger each time - to which a beam of energy was suddenly brought forth and -an explosion... Once visual returned, it was only for Fury to tense further as he took in the unknowns now of the platform. A dark haired kid complete with a bloodied sword in hand. And the brightest tropical bird flying overhead.

Rated: T

words: 50k

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13570826/1/The-Last-Seið

Here's the first chapter:

'Dizzy and bruised, covered in soot, he got gingerly to his feet, holding his broken glasses up to his eyes. He was quite alone, but where he was, he had no idea. All he could tell was that he was standing in the stone fireplace of what looked like a large, dimly lit wizard's shop — but nothing in here was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list.'- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

May 01, 2012 - Evening

Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, Western Division

Project Pegasus

NASA Space Radiation

S.H.I.E.L.D. Accelerator Test Facility

Mojave Desert, Nevada

"Talk to me, Doctor."

Doctor Selvig looked up from behind the Tesseract at Fury's call.

"Director," he answered the call, stepping off the platform and moving towards him.

"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked, his eye sliding between Selvig and the Cube; the Cube which was definitely glowing brighter than the last time he had visited.

"The Tesseract is misbehaving."

Fury eyed Selvig as they finally met halfway, "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"No, it's not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she's..." the doctor clearly searched for a better word, only to come up with, "—behaving."

Fury's jaw twitched. "How soon can you pull the plug?"

"She's an energy source: we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level..."

"We prepared for this, Doctor; harnessing energy from space."

"We don't have the harness. My calculations are far from complete...-"

Fury's eye returned to the Tesseract as Selvig continued his report, "...-Nothing harmful, low levels of Gamma radiation."

His head snapped back to stare at the doctor, "That can be harmful." Jaw tight, Fury gave a quick sweep of the rest of the compound, "Where's agen—"

Before he could finish though, the Tesseract hummed, glowing even brighter. "Doctor! It's spiking again," cried out one of Selvig's minions.

Both Selvig and Fury moved towards the call, eyes falling on the nearby screen. It displayed a graph tracking real-time energy emissions; not only was there an increased frequency of spikes, but also an increased intensity.

— The Cube sparked once more, a much larger spike then those previous.

"What's that?"

Fury's singular eye had already locked onto the Cube, and before he could so much as tense, it sparked again — the ground and walls visibly shook.

It continued to spark more and more, each spark bigger than the last until it seemed as though it would spontaneously combust...

—And it did: An explosion of blue-white light-energy rippled out, tendrils grasping at the very top of the chamber...

...

Most dissipated...

...

... Though a small residue continued to linger.

And yet, this residue was not the only thing that remained; as the light dimmed, and visual returned, silhouettes took form.

Confusion and concern ran through Fury as he took in the several unknowns now on the platform, each odder than the last. In the centre was a dark-haired kid - ten or eleven, if Fury had to guess - a bloodied sword in hand. Yet, he was not the oddest thing. That was reserved for the brightest tropical bird he had ever seen, equipped with a wide colourful wing-span and a long tail rivalling that of a peacock's, which hovered above the boy.

Harry bit back a groan; his whole body ached.

One moment he was in Slytherin's Secret Chamber, trying to make sense of having met and defeated Voldemort for the third time. Of having somehow survived a basilisk's bite thanks to Fawkes. The tears had done much more than simply saving Harry from the venom; somehow, they also managed to remove the bite-mark from his ankle and correct his eyesight (which was rather a good thing given that one of his lenses was completely broken, the frame not faring much better).

All this occurred while he simultaneously attempted to reassure Ginny that Riddle was gone, passing her the fang-pierced diary.

In the next moment, a great big ball of light and energy had formed in front of their very eyes. —Harry had pushed Ginny out of the way, not wanting her to get injured. Then, he was jerked irresistibly forward. He sped into the howl of wind and swirling colour, and then —

His feet slammed into the ground; only the sword still in hand kept him steady, stopping him from falling over...

Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just travelled several hundred miles by Floo powder.

Slowly, he looked around him... only to stop dead in his tracks.

While most likely still underground, he wasn't in the Chamber anymore... or anywhere in Hogwarts. And while Fawkes was still with him, flying overhead, neither Ginny or the diary —or even the bloody basilisk, were anywhere in sight.

He gawked at the space, filled with various muggle machines and people facing him. People approaching him. Not to mention the muggle clothes — and the guns they were holding...

How had he gone from Hogwarts to —to here?

Wherever here was...

— "Sir, please put down the sword."

He blinked owlishly at the tone of voice; a tone similar to the no-nonsense voice of Professor McGonagall, though male.

The source couldn't have been more different from his Head of House: a tall bald man wearing nothing but black, complete with a black eye-patch. That and his accent was American; just like in the action films where everything blew up that Dudley liked to watch, confusing Harry all the more.

Still, very much not wanting to get shot by a bunch of muggles, Harry quickly but carefully placed the sword on the ground, all while eyeing the men with guns slowly approaching. As soon as his hand let go of the sword, they moved a lot quicker, closing in on the platform he was on.

One hesitated, before he lowered his weapon and offered Harry a hand, "If you would please come down from the platform, sir."

Feeling like he had little choice in the matter, Harry let himself be helped off.

Before the man could guide him any further away though, a yelp! came from behind. Both turned to the sound and watched as the bloodied sword disappeared in front of their very eyes. The man currently bent down to pick it up was left grabbing air instead.

Somewhere above their heads, Fawkes gave a soft trill; Harry was certain he was laughing.

At least neither man commented on the Sorting Hat tucked in his belt. Nor had Harry planned to mention the wand in his pocket or the invisibility cloak he had tucked in his robes when Ron and he had gone to Lockhart.

The muggle men regrouped and Harry was once again ushered forward, towards the man in the long black coat.

Much like when everyone in the duelling club was convinced he was the Heir and had set the snake on Justin Finch-Fletchley, Harry felt everyone in the room silently staring at him. The only difference: they were muggles... and he was covered in muck and slime and blood...

...Which probably made them stare at him all the more, all things considered.

Or really, Fawkes and him. The long-coat man couldn't seem to decide if he should focus his one eye on Harry or on the phoenix flying overhead. The phoenix who now perched on one of the high-up banners located at the other end of the room.

As for Harry himself, his gaze took in as much of the room as possible during the walk... his eyes continually drawn towards the bright electric-blue box. Harry was near-certain that if Fawkes and he hadn't just... appeared here, the attention would be fully focused on the machine. Especially considering how violently it seemed to be... flickering?

As they drew closer to the muggles and the glowing box, Harry swore he could feel something powerful and magical coming from it... Even Fawkes seemed to be eyeing it with clear interest, little trills only just loud enough to be heard above the sounds of the various machinery.

All this only made Harry more confused. —Do muggles know about magic? Are they developing their own 'magic'?

While most of the occupants had returned to their work (though several kept shooting glances at both Harry and Fawkes), another man-in-black slipped in behind Fury, eyes on Harry. The bald man's own eye finally focused on Harry as he stopped a couple feet from him.

"Sir, I would ask you to identify yourself... —you and the bird, along with how and why you infiltrated a highly restricted government facility."

Harry gaped. - What? Infiltrate a what?

The man's ever-present frown deepened into an un-amused scowl, for Harry to realise he might have said his thoughts aloud.

"Young man, I am Director Fury of SHIELD: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," not that that helped Harry much, given that he'd never heard of them before, though Dudley's films had mentioned an... S.I.A.? ... S.I.E.?... Something like that. "Mind telling us who you are? And how you were able to activate the Tesseract and use it to enter this facility."

But before Harry could think of an appropriate answer, the large blue box juddered violently. Harry took an unconscious step back, eyes wide open, as sparks pulsated from it, each bigger than the last. And then —

A huge beam of energy traced the length of the room, and-

—An explosion. A cloud of the bright blue light-energy billowed out from the platform Harry had been standing on not moments before.

Harry blinked away the splotches of light that had been seared into his eyes until his vision cleared. For him to blink once more: a figure now resided on the once-empty platform. It was a man half-kneeling, holding a staff with a glowing blue stone at its head; one not too different from that of the glowing blue box.

Even as residual light-blue flames danced on and around him, the man appeared completely unbothered as he righted himself with ease. If anything, he looked... pleased?

Was this how he himself had appeared in this room? A great big beam of powerful blue energy - a sphere exploding - blue flames... and Harry was on the platform?

He hadn't ever seen the like in the wizarding world. The closest comparison he could come up with was the Floo system, and look how well his first experience of that had turned out...

His mind gave a jolt; was that what had happened here? Had he accidentally been picked up and brought to a destination not intended for him?

The man didn't appear the least bit surprised to find himself on the platform...

Though... the man also looked... well, ill.

Then again, the 'ride' hadn't really been pleasant for Harry either. Still, even as 'Director Fury' called out to the man, Harry continued to note how pale and flush he looked, the deep dark circles under his eyes... It took Harry a moment to realise who the man reminded Harry of: Ginny, throughout the year, looking ill and—

As if to prove Harry's observations wrong, the man chose that moment to not 'put down his 'spear'', and instead pointed it towards the director... who was standing right next to Harry-

—Reacting on pure instinct more than anything else, Harry pushed the muggle director out of the way as a blue beam of energy streaked towards them. The quick rhythm of gunshots and fighting echoed off of the sides of the chamber.

Catching his breath, Harry looked up in time to see the director also righting himself.

His eyes swiveled to the fight. The ...wizard(?) jumped around the muggle agents, firing more of the blue beams to any who dared be in his way, be they those in armoured black uniforms, those in business suits, or those in white muggle laboratory coats... At one point he even started throwing knives at them, moving too fast for any to stop him. He weaved between them with an inhuman ease, confirming all the more that he was definitely not a muggle. He was even wearing some type of robes; not like any Harry had ever seen before, but definitely not muggle.

The agent who was the closest to the director and Harry moved forward, putting himself between Director Fury and the man, clearly ready to shoot the wizard, only to be grabbed and his arm twisted, the wizard stopping him mid-action with ease.

"You have heart."

With those words, the wizard aimed his staff's tip right at the muggle agent's heart —but instead of piercing him through, the tip only touched his chest... The man's eyes filled entirely black… to settle into a startling ice-blue. He hesitated for the barest of moments... to store his gun back in its holster.

Movement in Harry's peripheral vision captured his attention. He turned his head to see the director pull the glowing blue box from where it was embedded and place it into a large briefcase —

"Please don't. I still need that."

Harry's head snapped back to the wizard, his own attention fixed on the director -or really, on the case.

The director's voice hardened, "This doesn't have to get any messier."

"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else. —I am Loki... of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose."

Loki?... Asgard?

Harry frowned, recognising both names from his Magical Theory's class.

"Loki, brother of Thor?" Another voice called from behind them. A somewhat portly man propped himself up from his prone position next to one of the many other people who had been felled by the wizard.

Yet his question only confused Harry more: Thor's brother?

Were these wizards muggle-baiting? Pretending themselves to be Norse gods... Perhaps in the United States (if this was where they currently were?), wizards weren't as strictly supervised, and laws weren't as stringent as in Wizarding Britain?... Though Hermione had made the Statute of Secrecy sound like a pretty important law that all wizards had to abide by...

...Which was probably why they were pretending to be gods from folklore? This could possibly also explain quite a lot of the 'conspiracy theories' Hermione had mentioned that tended to come from the US; maybe all those stories of aliens and such were just wizards tricking unsuspecting muggles? Similar to those that Mr. Weasley had to deal with in his department in the Ministry.

"We have no quarrel with your people."

"An ant has no quarrel with a boot."

If at all possible, Harry tensed further at the statement. He did not like where this conversation was going.

"Are you planning to step on us?" Clearly the muggle director hadn't liked it either.

Not that the man seemed bothered. He smiled with all his teeth at the scowling director, "I come with glad tidings -" Harry wondered if he should reach for his own wand (though how much of a chance did he have against a grown wizard?), as 'Loki' sauntered slowly towards the man who had referred to him 'Thor's brother.'... To suddenly snap his gaze back to Director Fury, "- of a world made free."

"Free from what?"

"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-" —'Loki' swiftly turned and poked the portly man with his staff's tip —his eyes going black then ice blue, just like the others. "-you will know peace."

But before Director Fury could reply, the first muggle-agent to have been put under the blue-eye-spell called out to 'Loki', "Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us... He means to bury us."

"He's right," confirmed the blue-eyed-and-portly muggle as he looked at whatever the computer screen displayed "The portal is collapsing in on itself. We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical,"

"Well then."

For the second time, Harry reacted without thinking; just as the blue-eyed agent pulled his gun out, Harry pushed the director out of the way —and felt the woosh! as the bullet just missed him.

He looked up, and released a small sigh; it hadn't hit the director either.

And yet, due to his quick action, the muggle-director was now on his back, twisted, and wasn't able to react in time as the blue-eyed agent gave a swift quick to the hand holding the case. The agent just as quickly grabbed it.

As for the wizard 'Loki': for the first time since his arrival, his attention focused solely on Harry, as if he had only just noticed him. Harry skittered back as the man's head tilted ever so slightly; piercing blue eyes looked straight at him. Heart beating rapidly, he wondered if now would be a very good time to draw out his wand... for all the good it would do against an adult wizard passing himself off as a Norse god.

The situation reminded him of his encounter last year when Voldemort had been possessing Professor Quirrell...

...Though this time there was no protection from his mother's love to save him...-

As if to reinforce the feeling further, the wizard's gaze just as quickly snapped to Harry's scar. But there was none of the typical recognition Harry usually got from meeting new witches or wizards. The man only frowned and refocused his gaze to the whole of Harry, lips pursed in incomprehension.

And yet, the wizard dismissed him just as quickly, instead striding behind the others on their way out of the room while Harry just stood, unable to do much of anything but watch.

Behind him, Director Fury started speaking. Mind snapping back to the here-and-now, Harry turned to find him with a muggle radio, calling into it, "Hill! - Do you copy? - Barton... has turned."

Whatever reply Fury got, Harry didn't hear. The conversation was drowned out by the groaning of the surrounding infrastructure, which reminded Harry that the big blue energy cloud was about to destroy the room. He scurried behind the director out of the room, as Director Fury continued to call into his radio, "Get the Tesseract. Shut them down."

Trying to escape while also trying to keep an eye on the structure that had started to fall around them, Harry was caught off guard when Fawkes suddenly appeared, swooping down in front of him. Embarrassingly, with everything that had just happened in the matter of minutes, he had completely forgotten about the phoenix.

The phoenix who was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark, waving his long golden tail feathers at Harry. Harry blinked uncertainly at him—

For Harry to realise - he called out to the director, "sir - sir - Director Fury, sir!"

Finally the director looked at him. Harry offered him his hand, "We've got to hold on to each other—"

"What do you mean? —We need to get out of here!"

"Yes! - That's why you need to grab my hand! Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird—"

Harry held back a groan; it was clear that the man wasn't going to listen, probably wasn't used to getting orders from others, especially not from children... But they were losing time and Harry wasn't sure if he should mention to the muggle that Fawkes happened to be a mythical magical phoenix. Instead, he just reached out and took hold of Fawkes's tail feathers - strangely hot - and then grabbed the director.

An extraordinary lightness spread through his whole body, and in the next second, in a rush of wings, he heard a short yelp behind him — they were flying... Upward they flew as debris fell all around them... until they were flying over the building. The chill air whipped through Harry's hair as he and the director watched in mute horror as the roof caved in all that much faster, just as a muggle helicopter escaped in the nick of time, and as the cracks deepened into full-on crevices...

The entire complex of buildings imploded — crumbling in on itself, to sink into the ground below...

As the destruction started spreading outward, Harry heard a call; the director was calling out to him, pointing to something below; "Get him to fly to that jeep!"

Harry looked to where he was pointing and there was indeed a jeep, one with a bright blue light coming from the back — and the man, 'Loki'.

Fawkes must have heard him as well, as they started flying in its direction.

— Bang, bang; impatient, the director had already pulled out his gun and fired at the jeep. Harry nearly let go of Fawkes' tail as 'Loki' returned fire— sending a blast at them...

Fawkes was thankfully able to swerve out of the way... — and Harry found himself hitting the ground as Fawkes landed nearby, all while sending a cacophony of angry trills and squawks at the director.

Harry was tempted to yell at the man himself, truth be told.

Instead, he scanned the horizon for the jeep. Not that they could see much of it anymore: it was now but the size of a snitch, the faint blue light glowing from its back as it drove off into the distance.

Turning back to the director, Harry regarded him warily as he slipped his gun back into its holster, and took out his radio once more, "The Tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"

"A lot of men still under. Don't know how many survivors."

"Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."

"Roger that."

"Coulson, get back to base. - This is a level seven. As of right now we are at war."

"What do we do?"