Returning to the Hydra base had been nothing- as simple as willing himself to be there. His magic sprung up eagerly, at his beck and call. Harry had a suspicion that he wouldn't have to worry about splinching himself ever again. He looked over, quirking a smile as he saw Strange himself step through a portal. "You think I'm going to miss this?" He said in explanation.
Harry's attention was ripped away when he felt Wanda at his mind, gripping him like a lifeline. There was a concussive boom close by, along with a dull red flash and the scattering of debris. Harry didn't need to think- in an eyeblink he was at Wanda's side, and in the next they were both back with Strange. He didn't let go of Wanda, keeping a hand pressed firmly into her back even as she staggered into him. She was bruised, and a cut along her forehead had left a dash of dried blood down her cheek, but she was alive. "You came." She breathed, scarcely believing it.
"I'm sorry I left." He said, holding her close with one hand, even as the other firmly gripped his wand. "What'd I miss?" Wanda explained quickly, in a rapid-fire breathless tone about Armin Zola- how he'd taken possession of the Mind Stone and taken control of the Avengers. The situation was dire, but the silver lining was that no one had died- Zola was purposefully sparing them for his own uses. It made something wrench inside of him, he wanted to rip Zola's filthy fingers away from his friends.
Zola landed in front of them with a heavy thud that indented the ground, and Harry sighed. Really, how were they supposed to have predicted this. The universe just seemed to want to throw curveballs at him, each on stranger than the next. "So- long dead Nazi scientists resurrecting himself as an android. Of course, why didn't I expect that." He drawled sarcastically.
Zola's eyes locked on Harry's wand and seemed to register the threat it might represent to him. There was no chatter, gloating, or monologuing. Zola attacked on reflex, like an animal snapping instinctively at a threat. The beam of golden-yellow light might have taken Harry by surprise, but he'd been prepared for surprises. The beam impacted the air between them where Harry's shield lied. It absorbed the energy with nothing more than a ripple in the air to show for it.
Next came the constructs, which had formed up on Zola's flanks. He'd picked up from Wanda's mind how she'd defeated one of them by undermining its magic piece by piece. Harry could do one better. He was sure that Bill Weasley could have devised an elegant solution to cracking them, but Harry didn't have that expertise. He did have raw power. "Finite." Harry said. It was a simple, general-purpose counter-spell that every student at Hogwarts learned. Most students wouldn't have been able to use it to undo anything much more complicated than schoolyard hexes, but Harry's magic had evolved beyond those limits. Years without a wand had attuned him to ever minor flux and flutter of his magic, giving him far more control over his abilities than most from his world. And now, with the elder wand, his magic was eager to obey him. It sparked and arced like electricity and flowed like quicksilver. In hindsight, without a wand his magic had felt sluggish, like syrup. Now, it sprang forth from his fingertips and rippled through the air. All around Zola his creations sparked and died in a wave, the runic symbols flaring and sparking brightly and then flickering dark as they collapsed into piles of scrap metal.
Zola reeled back, neither expecting to be blocked so easily or for his army to be so easily neutralized. Harry grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "How?" He said, genuine shock on his face.
Harry twirled the wand in his fingers. "Magic." He said blithely "Now's the time to surrender." Zola flinched back, and took off, streaking through the air with impressive speed.
Wanda whipped her head to him "He's trying to escape."
Oh, hell no. He wasn't playing that game again. This ended here. "You two take care of the Avengers. Zola's mine." Taking on the entire Avengers team was a tall order, sure, but Wanda had held her own up to this point of the battle and he knew Strange's capabilities were impressive as well. It was a challenge Harry felt they could rise to.
Harry popped in front of Zola's flight path. Zola reeled back but didn't dodge in time to avoid being pelted by Harry's concussive blast. Sighting Zola's trajectory, he apparated to intercept, and whacked him again, sending him ricocheting wildly. Harry bounced him around in this manner, like a pinball, before finally shunting him to the ground. For good measure, he followed this up by casting a bolt of lightning down at him. Then he apparated to the impact site, following so quickly on the heels of his assault that the sting of ozone was acute in the air. Zola had yet to recover, had barely had time to pick himself off the ground when Harry levitated him into the air. Harry dismissed using his usual toolkit of spells, knowing that they'd merely bounce off vibranium. No, he needed to go for the jugular. "Accio Mind Stone."
Zola gasped and clutched the stone with one hand. His head lurched into Harry's palm and then phased right through Harry's hand and body. Harry half expected it to feel cold, like a ghost, but instead it was just… vaguely uncomfortable. Harry narrowed his eyes, that phasing was going to be inconvenient. Harry glanced back to Wanda and Strange and saw with satisfaction that they had the situation well in hand. The Avengers had opted for an all out assault and had gotten the faces kicked in. Thor- sans hammer, apparently Zola was not worthy- had leapt at Wanda, who had caught him in mid-air. Cap had thrown his shield at her simultaneously, but Wanda had easily deflected it into Bucky, sending the man tumbling back. Strange had opened by wrapping Skye up in gossamer strings of magic, and she was currently suspended in air struggling (adorably, in Harry's opinion) against them to no avail. Then, to an oncoming charge from the Dora Milaje, he'd slammed his hands to the ground and disappeared them all in a cascade of fractaling space. Harry shook his head and grinned, apparently he'd underestimated the two magic users.
Zola scrambled through the wall while Harry evaluated the situation, not in a particular hurry. He wondered… could Zola phase through vibranium? Harry summoned the pieces of Zola's constructs, setting them in leisurely orbit around him as he caught up to the android. Harry casually deflected another beam of energy while he set to work on restraining Zola. His wrists were bracketed by three segments each, which Harry bound together with magic. He struggled, gasping, and hissing and straining, but it was clear that he was bound. Satisfied, Harry did the same for the rest of his body, enclosing him in a vice that clamped down and forced his body to still even as it fought against its bindings, erratically phasing into translucence and back to solidity as he writhed. "Now then…" Harry said, holding his wand alight "Lets…" He paused as he caught something in the corner of his eye.
Zola must have compromised Tony's systems, because a squadron of several dozen of Ultron drones were incoming- streaking towards him from above. "One second." He said, faux apologetically. It took ten seconds to focus his magic- marshaling it, coiling it up at the tip of his wand as it begged to be let loose. It took an instant to unleash it. It took the form of a shockwave, visible by its distortion in the air. It blasted outwards like a sonic boom, impacting the incoming squadron and instantly disassembling them. But instead of scrap metal, Harry and Zola were showered gently with soft-pink flower petals. "Where were we?" He grinned mockingly at Zola as they were both bathed in the transfigured remains of his army.
He could admit that was getting kick out of this. There was no long-lasting grudge or enmity between them, but Harry didn't need it. The mere fact that Zola had violated his friends' minds, turned them into puppets, that was enough. Harry was going to destroy him. "Accio." This time Zola would be given no recourse- no distractions or gambits. All he could do was grit his teeth as Harry pulled and pulled, until he began to scream. Eventually, something gave, and the Mind Stone flew into Harry's hand. Zola went limp as the stone was ripped from his head, but Harry wasn't given any time to appreciate his victory. He should have been more careful, but perhaps wielding so much power so effortlessly had made him reckless.
Of all the foolishly, stupidly reckless things he had done, touching the Mind Stone was certainly one of the most pointless- right up there with driving a flying car to Hogwarts instead of just waiting for an adult like a normal kid. It was… overwhelming. Too much… too much. It was as disorienting as having his mind ripped open by legimancy, as all-consuming as the cruciatus, and as overpowering as staring at the sun. He didn't register falling to his knees, or his mouth opening in a silent scream, or the tears that ran down his cheeks. No, the only thing that pierced the veil around Harry's mind was a hand on his, closing around the Mind Stone- Wanda.
Instantly, he registered her presence, her mind beside his, shouldering the burden. With the two of them sharing the load, the experience changed entirely. Everything fell away, as if reality were descending and deepening around them. Though still overwhelming, it was no longer torture. No, it was a revelation.
…
The Tesseract was held in the Red Skull's hand, but only for a moment before he disappeared in a pillar of light that stretched out to the stars. The Tesseract clattered to the floor and then burned through the metal, but Steve Rogers remained.
The plane was going down. "I'm going to need a rain check on that dance."
Another downed plane, a man and a woman faced each other. Harry could tell that he was the one who had downed her, and the woman lying on the ground was dead at his hand.
"You mean that energy core?" The woman was defiant, willing to die to stop the man's plans. She leveled her pistol at the engine and shot. The core exploded. Energy splashed out, flowing into her, fusing, melding, curling around her skin and into her bones. She hadn't died. Quite the opposite.
"She absorbed its power. She's coming with us."
…
Malekith of the Dark Elves wielded the Ether. A legion of mere humans knelt before him, taking the power he gave them. Some writhed, some died, but those who survived would never be the same. Neither would the world.
A woman in green, at the head of a troop of Asgardian soldiers, and beyond them Norse Vikings. She wore a crown of sorts, a headpiece of shifting prongs and spikes. "Kill them all." She said.
There was a man on his knees in front of her "Please. There was only one. Everyone else is clean, I swear!"
"You harbored that spawn of darkness, worm. All of you did." A blade materialized and plunged into his chest.
They would never find their quarry, who had shifted into the form of small snake and slipped away into the night. It wasn't Salazar's first lesson, but it was the most important, and one he would take with him for decades to come.
If the Goddess of Death were ever to find Hogwarts, she would have far more than a little grass snake to worry about.
…
Purple flames erupted, cracking the man's skin. He would have surely died if not for his friends- a woman with green skin, a man with grey skin crossed with red scars… a racoon? Harry knew better than to question it.
"You're mortal! How?"
"You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."
The Power Stone was kept under guard, under lock and key. But Harry could feel that that safety was an illusion. A dark shadow hung over it- power always attracted those who sought to wield it.
…
"Dormamu, I've come to bargain." Said Stephen Strange, again and again and again. Each time he died, and each time he came back for more. Harry felt his opinion of the man rise- perhaps he had withheld information, but as the parade of painful deaths continued, it was clear to him that Strange would put his own life and his own sanity on the line if it came down to it. He was not a hypocrite, he would sacrifice himself if it came down to it.
"MAKE. THIS. STOP. SET. ME. FREE." Dormamu, a god, incomprehensible even to Harry's eyes, brought to their knees.
His plan had come together, there was an air of satisfaction as he said "No, I've come to bargain."
The Eye of Agamotto was kept securely within the Sanctum, protected by the Order of Sorcerers, and so it was too in the time room of the Department of Mysteries. Time Turners in racks and glass cases, clocks lining the walls. A hummingbird circling through its life cycle, trapped within a bell jar. Where had all this come from? Stored safely away, beneath a trap door where even most Unspeakables did not know to look, was the source of this room's magic.
Yet even then, the Unspeakables had not tapped its full power. They did not dare to.
…
"Maybe I am a monster. I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go." For a moment Harry thought it was Zola, but no, it wasn't. The form was similar, with the Mind Stone encrusted in his forehead, but his body red and gold instead of pure white. Moreover, he was different, more human than Zola had ever been.
The scene shifted. "We don't trade lives, Vision." Steve told him.
"Captain, 70 years ago you laid down your life to save how many millions of people? Tell me why is this any different."
The world changed again. "It's not fair, it shouldn't be you, but it is. It's alright. You could never hurt me. I just feel you." Vision put Wanda's hand to his cheek, and she gave a sob. There was no context for this scene, but it was clear that they cared for each other… they loved each other. Harry's heart ached, an upwelling of emotions far too complex for him to untangle. Wanda unleashed her power on the Mind Stone with one hand, while the other held back…someone. Harry strained to see what this threat was, but the figure was blurred and ambiguous, blotted from his mind's eye. He could feel, however, that if the Mind Stone fell into his hands, it would be a disaster, a tragedy.
The stone shattered, and Vision died. The threat stood over Wanda, denied his prize.
"Now in no time to mourn. Now is no time at all."
At that moment, Wanda saw that he had the Time Stone, and understood what it meant. "NO!"
"I killed the man I love." Wanda said. She was different now. Her face had been marred by grief, but also something much darker. Harry ached to go to her, to hold her and help her. To ease the pain she must be feeling, to bring back the woman he loved. "And it meant NOTHING. Do not speak to me of sacrifice."
…
Harry was in the forbidden forest; he knew the scene instantly. This was the day he died.
He held the resurrection stone in hand and was surrounded by people he loved, who loved him. His mum, his dad, Sirius, Remus and Tonks. "Stay with me?" He asked.
"Always."
And they did. Harry walked to his death, but he didn't die alone. The killing curse struck his body, and Harry watched in horrible fascination as it fell. Then, suddenly, it wasn't his body falling. It was Natasha's.
The scene shifted out from under him. It was no longer a forest clearing in Scotland, but a cliff face on an alien world. Natasha was falling, falling, falling… and then she wasn't. She hit the jagged, stony ground.
She wasn't moving. There was blood.
She was dead. She was dead.
Even though it was only a vision, Harry felt it as if it were real, as if Nat had really just died in front of him. Harry was no stranger to loss, but it did nothing to prepare him for the pain of it- visceral, awful and horrible. He couldn't bear it. It couldn't be her. It should be him. Please, let it be him instead.
"A soul for a soul, an everlasting exchange."
…
Harry came to, gasping for breath with tears streaking down his face. Wanda had collapsed on top of him, and was burrowing into him, her own face hot with tears. He opened his mouth to try to form words, but couldn't manage it "Wh-"
"You're a dumbass." Strange said bluntly. In his hand was the Mind Stone, safely contained in the amulet that Madame Hydra had been wearing. He waved it tauntingly. "You both could have died."
Harry nodded, his tongue still not fully cooperating. "Here." Strange tossed the amulet to them, Harry tried to catch it, but his coordination left something to be desired and it just fell onto Wanda's back. "One Infinity Stone is enough for me; I recommend that you find a secure location for it." Harry nodded again, throwing an arm around Wanda, both to grab the amulet and to pull her closer to him. Wanda sniffled and responded in kind.
His mind reeled as he tried to process the information. It had come to quickly for him to make sense of it and coming in after the fact to piece it together was like putting together a shattered vase.
"Oh, and for the love of god, don't use it unless the world is at stake. And don't give it to Stark. We're probably past that fucking disaster, but lets not risk it."