Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Hi, Kingsley."

Eleanor Potter sits in her car, waiting to pick up her son, Peter, from his friend's house when she gets a call from a good friend of hers, Kingsley Shaklebolt. He has been the Minister of Magic over in magical Britain since the end of the Second Wizarding War in 1997. He was able to clear her name as Voldemort's second-hand woman without a trial. Besides, she was one of the only two spies in the Order of the Phoenix. 

She doesn't like to think about the war, anyway. Too many bad memories. 

"Okay, let me get this straight. Your kid brother, Nick Fury, who is a squib, is the director of a spy agency called SHIELD, and he's putting together a team of heroes and he wants Harry and I to be a part of it? Hi, kiddo." 

Peter just got in the car. "Hi, Momma." Eleanor caresses the top of his head as he put his seatbelt on. 

Eleanor, being the caring mother that she is, switches to French so Peter couldn't understand her conversation. "Kingsley, tu ne comprends pas, d'accord? (Kingsley, you don't understand, okay?)" The car starts and she pull out of the apartment parking lot. "Nous ne voulons pas être entraînés dans une autre guerre! Nous avons participé à cette maudite guerre avant même d'être majeurs. Je sais que vous avez participé aux deux guerres, mais... (We don't want to get dragged into another war! We fought in that god damned war before we were even of age. I know you fought in both wars, but...)" her voice grows softer. "Vous ne savez pas comment c'était là-bas. (You don't know what it was like there.)" 

"Eleanor..." Kingsley says. "I know I don't know what it was like there, but I was hoping that with at least one magical on the team, I could try and convince the ICW to consider coming out of hiding." 

"I'll talk with Harry," Eleanor says shortly before hanging up the phone and sighing. 

"You okay, Momma?" Peter asks, worried for his adoptive mother. 

Eleanor sniffs and smiles down at her seven-year-old son. "I'm okay, kiddo. Just... I have a lot on my mind." She sighs and asks, "How was your day with Ned?" knowing that this question would get the boy to start babbling about his day. She smiles as, exactly as she knew he would, Peter starts to babble. 

"Peter," Eleanor says softly later that night. "Can you please go to your room? Your dad and I have to talk." Harry glances up at her with a questioning look. She gives him a lop-sided smile. 

"Okay!" Peter says enthusiastically and he hops out of his chair and runs to his room. 

"Nora, love, what's wrong?" Harry whispers once he knows that Peter is out of earshot. Eleanor slouches and lets out a deep breath as she covers her face with a hand. "Nora."

"I got a call from Kingsley today." The hand on her face is taken away and she finally makes eye contact with her husband. 

"About?" Harry leans back in the chair and crosses his arms across his chest. 

"He has a kid brother named Nick Fury. He's a squib, but he's also the director of a spy agency called SHIELD." They don't have to say magical or non-magical anymore. They spend so much time in both worlds they eventually started to mesh together. "He's starting a team called the Avengers and he wanted at least one magical on it, so he called Kingsley. He recommended us."

Harry rubs his eyes under his glasses with calloused hands. 

"Kingsley, being the stubborn man he is, sent me the files about the other team members anyway." Eleanor chuckles softly. "Apparently, this team is needed within the week because a magical alien artifact was stolen from a SHIELD base in the Mojave Desert. Kingsley gave me Fury's number in case we agree as well."

"Say that we agree to join this team, what will happen?" Harry asks tiredly. 

"I don't know," Eleanor whispers. She sighs as she stands up. 

A knock sounds on their apartment door. "I'll get it," Harry mutters and he goes to open the door. 

The open door reveals... "A PIRATE!!!" Peter exclaims. The man at the door wears an all-black trench coat and an eyepatch over one eye. 

"My god, you look like Kingsley," Eleanor says after she makes her way to the door. 

"I haven't heard that in over 25 years," the man says dryly. 

"You must be Nick Fury," Harry says kindly, letting the man in. 

"I am," Nick confirms before turning to Eleanor. "Did you talk to him about the Avengers Initiative?" 

She nods before shooing Peter to his room again. Not without a million questions spewing from the seven-year-old's mouth such as, "Who's the pirate?" "Is he going to take you to his pirate ship?" and "What's the Avengers Initiative?"

Harry sighs as he watches Peter and Eleanor go. "The kid's too curious for his own good," he mutters. Nick chuckles slightly as Eleanor comes back into the room. 

"We talked about it, but we haven't decided yet," she says, glaring slightly at the man. He does not look phased. 

"I did not have my brother send you the full file on the Tesseract, the artifact that was stolen from Project PEGASUS," Nick confesses. "The man that stole it was Loki, the Norse god of mischief." 

Eleanor and Harry glance at each other and seem to have a silent conversation. "We'll do it," he says. 

Nick nods. "I'll have one of my magical agents here tomorrow with a portkey." The couple nod and the director walks out the door. 

Harry sits down on the couch and rests his arms on his knees. He glances up at Eleanor. "What did we just do?" She sits down on the coffee table in front of him and brings him into a hug. "Did we do the right thing?"

Eleanor lets him go and shakes her head before making eye contact with him. "I don't know." 

He nods and looks down. "I have to call Lavender to see if she can watch Peter tomorrow."

Eleanor calls Peter back into the room and sits him down in front of her where Harry had been sitting just a moment before. "Peter, Aunt Lavender is going to come over and watch you tomorrow, okay?" 

He looks at her confusedly. "Where are you and Dad going, Momma?" 

She smiles as she pulls him into her lap. "We are going to go to a very important meeting with the magical government in Britain. Very boring stuff." She only half-lied. "You won't want to come." She kisses the side of his head as Harry comes back into the room. He nods, saying that Lavender could come tomorrow. Eleanor quickly changes the topic. "Do you want to watch Back to the Future?"

"Yes please!" the boy exclaims and the family of three laugh. 

They all snuggle onto the couch and turn the movie on. They are only halfway through when a small snore comes from Peter's small body. Eleanor smiles, effectively containing her laughter. She scoops the boy into her arms and carries him to his room. After tucking him in, she walks to where Harry is watching them from the doorway. 

She looks at him with a worried look on her face. He pulls her into a hug, reassuring her about their decision. 

Chapter Text

"Lav, you really should stop wearing those glamor charms over your scars." The woman gives Eleanor a look and she holds her hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying that you look beautiful with or without them."

"You flatter me," Lavender says dryly and Peter comes running into the room at the sound of her voice. 

"AUNT LAVENDER!" he exclaims, obviously excited to see the woman again. Her smile widens when the boy runs into her open arms for a hug. 

The joy does not last very long, however, as a knock echos throughout the room. Eleanor sighs and goes to get it. The man on the other side of the door is short and stocky. He has brown hair and brown eyes and he wears an all-black outfit with the SHIELD logo where the breast pocket would be. 

"Hi," he says, holding out a hand. "I'm Agent Bobby Flowers of SHIELD. Mrs. Eleanor Potter?"

"That's me," Eleanor quips and she opens the door so he can come in. "Harry," she calls and said man walks in carrying two backpacks, one for each of them. 

Assuming Harry had listened to her, he would have packed for each of them an extra change of clothes and their wands. They didn't use their wands that often, they liked to stay muggle sometimes. 

"You the magical agent?" Harry asks and Agent Flowers nods. "Give us a minute, please." The agent nods again and stands off to the side. 

"Don't give your Aunt Lavender shit like last time, okay?" Eleanor whispers to Peter.

He frowns and crosses his arms with a small huffed, "Okay." 

"Love you," she says with a small smile and a kiss on the cheek. 

Harry picks the boy from Lavender's arms and gives him a small high five. "See you in a while, yeah kiddo?" Peter nods and wriggles to get out of his dad's arms. Harry smiles and put him down. He brings Lavender into a hug. "Thanks, Lav. We both appreciate you so much."

"I know," Lavender says with a quiet laugh. "Babysitting isn't the worst I've done."

"That's for sure," Eleanor mutters.

"Wow, the two of you are balls of optimism today!" Harry says sarcastically before grabbing his backpack off the floor. Agent Flowers watches the whole interaction with a stifled smile. 

Eleanor shakes her head and gives Peter a high five for another goodbye before grabbing her backpack off the floor. She walks towards the door and holds it open for Agent Flowers and Harry. She sighs as she closes the door behind her after the two men walk out of the apartment. 

"Um," Agent Flowers begins. "I just want you to know how big of an honor it is to meet the two of you. You're in the history books for defeating Voldemort!" 

Eleanor smiles tensely, the name alone bringing up bad memories of the war. "Yes, we're always in the history books, it's always an honor to meet us," she says bitterly before walking down the alley. 

Harry glances at Agent Flowers' downcast face and sighs. "Just the name alone brings up bad memories, you know? It was a war after all." 

The agent nods and follows Eleanor down the alley. "Here's the portkey," he says, handing them a souvenir keychain with the Statue of Liberty on it. Eleanor quirks an eyebrow at it and Harry nudges her, silently telling her not to judge. 

"Thank you, Agent," Harry says kindly. 

"Bobby, please," Bobby responds. "Too many people call me Agent or Agent Flowers." 

"Understandable," Eleanor and Harry mutter at the same time.

"The activation phrase is 'Bibbity Bobbity Boo.' It'll take you to the helicarrier," Bobby explains. "Agent Romanoff will be there to meet you before she collects Captain Rogers from Agent Coulson."

"You're not coming with us?" Eleanor asks and the agent in front of them shakes his head. 

"I have stuff to take care of here in New York." He glances down at the souvenir-turned-portkey. "The activation phrase was Director Fury's idea. He thought you would get a kick out of it." 

"Sure, we can call it that," Harry says tiredly and Eleanor snickers. 

"At least we know Fury has a sense of humor," she smirks. 

"Well, I wish you luck," Bobby says with a smile before walking out of the alley. 

Harry and Eleanor glance at each other. "You ready?" he asks and she nods. They grab onto the portkey-souvenir and he says loud and clear, "Bibbity Bobbity Boo."

They each feel a pull of their naval and they are off. 

Harry and Eleanor land on the helicarrier with confident feet. They had traveled with hundreds of porkeys before, having traveled the world (and fought in a war, but they don’t want to think of that). They land in front of a shorter red-haired woman with a stern but confident air. 

"Harry and Eleanor Potter?" she asks and they nod. "I'm Agent Natasha Romanoff."

"Nice to meet you," Harry says kindly as he shakes her hand. Eleanor eyes her suspiciously before also shaking her offered hand. 

"This is SHIELD, as I assume you already know," Natasha says and she begins to lead them away from their landing spot on the helicarrier landing strip. "I have to meet Agent Coulson and Captain Rogers before I can bring you down to Fury. This is Dr. Bruce Banner." She leads them to a nervous-looking man with glasses and slightly gray hair. "Dr. Banner, this is Harry and Eleanor Potter."

"Hello," he says, as though nervous to be in a close proximity to other human beings.

They all notice a jet landing a few hundred feet away from them. "I'll be back in a moment," Agent Romanoff says and she walks toward the newly-landed jet. 

"You guys from around here?" Dr. Banner asks, attempting to make conversation. 

"I'm from California and Harry's from England. We live here in New York now, though," Eleanor says as she looks around her. They are surrounded by constantly moving people all doing their jobs. 

"-he's very proud," they hear Agent Romanoff say as she walks up closer to them with a tall blond man at her side. 

"Dr. Banner," the man says and he shakes the nervous doctor's hand. 

"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube." Eleanor has a distinct feeling that she has seen this man before. 

"Is that the only word on me?" The poor doctor looks terrified. 

"Only word I care about." The doctor seems really touched by his words. The blond man glances down at the Potters. "Who are you? You weren't in Fury's files."

Eleanor picks at a finger and glances up at him. "I'm Eleanor." She locks eyes with Harry and frowns slightly, getting annoyed at the amount of times she has had to introduce herself in such a short amount of time. 

"Yes, hi," Harry says, shaking the man's hand. "I'm Harry and my wife is not being very friendly right now." He glares at her at the end of his sentence but she shrugs. 

"I'm never friendly," Eleanor deadpans. 

"Lies," Harry coughs and she shoves him, laughing slightly. 

"Everyone," Agent Romanoff cuts in, "you might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe."

Eleanor and Harry glance at each other and shrug. 

The blond man, Captain Rogers (where has Eleanor seen him before?), asks, "Is this a submarine?" 

"Really?" Dr. Banner asks. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized container?" 

"Awesome," Harry and Eleanor say in awe as the helicarrier's propellers come into view and begins to lift up the large vehicle.

"Oh no," Dr. Banner says with a small smile and chuckle. "This is much worse."

Chapter Text

"Nicky," Eleanor greets the eye-patch-adorned man. He gives the woman a hard glare, but she just sits down, not phased. 

He sighs and walks to where Harry, Dr. Banner, and Captain Rogers are standing. "Gentlemen," Fury greets. 

Captain Rogers hands Fury a 10 and Eleanor smirks. "Lose a bet, did you?" she teases. He nods sadly. 

"Don't tease the poor man, love," Harry says before sitting down next to her. 

"Says the man who's lost every single bet he's ever made," Eleanor retorts. Captain Rogers raises his eyebrows, surprised. (She really needs to find out where she has seen him before, it is bothering her) 

While Nick, Agent Romanoff, and Dr. Banner talk about spectrometers (Eleanor thinks that's what they were talking about, but she isn't sure), she stares intently at Captain Rogers. He looks at her, slightly disturbed. "What... are you doing?" 

"Trying to figure out where I've seen you before," she says before narrowing her eyes. She suddenly snaps her fingers. "You've come into our bakery before, right? The one on 56th and seventh?" 

"I believe so, yes," the captain smiles. 

"Nora," Harry whispers, "he's Captain America." 

"Oh." She glances up at Captain Rogers, Steve Rogers, CAPTAIN AMERICA, who is looking at her with a bemused expression, "You're that Captain Rogers. My bad." She chuckles. "I barely passed my history class when I was in school. No wonder I didn't recognize you." He laughs softly. 

Eleanor was right. Banner, Romanoff, and Fury had been talking about spectrometers. They had been running for the rest of the day until...

Agent Jasper Sitwell announces, "We got a hit. Sixty-seven percent. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent."

Eleanor straightens her back after slouching over her game of solitaire for too long as Agent Coulson asks, "Location?"

"Stuttgart, Germany. 28, Konigstrasse." Agent Sitwell looks up at Coulson. "He's not exactly hiding." 

Fury turns to Steve. "Captain-"

"We can get there faster," Harry says as he looks at Fury over his glasses. The man nods and motions for Sitwell to show them to their lockers where their uniforms are. 

Steve looks at their retreating figures in confusion but shrugs it off. "Captain," Fury said, "You should still suit up." He nods. 

Eleanor and Harry apperate and land on the roof of a building across the street from the gala. They crouch down, hoping to not be seen. SHIELD had given them each dragon hide cloaks as uniforms. Eleanor's is dark green and Harry's is dark blue. 

"So," Eleanor says. She is about to continue when screams start to echo from the large building across the street. People begin flooding out and Loki comes into view, his golden armor materializing around his body. They watch as he uses the scepter to blast police cars. "Looks like we're too late."

"Not necessarily," Harry says. He glances at Eleanor. "Nora, I've got a crazy idea."

"Harrikins," she grins. "You know I'm always up for crazy." 

Loki basks in the chaos. How he loves chaos, being the god of mischief and chaos. He gazes at the crowd in front of him. "Kneel before me." The crowd doesn’t listen. 

Foolish mortals. 

He creates dozens of illusions of himself and encircles the crowd. "I said KNEEL!" The crowd becomes quiet and they obey. Loki holds his arms out and smiles. "Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

An old man stands up and says defiantly, "Not to men like you."

Loki narrows his eyes at the man. "There are no men like me."

"There are always men like you," the man retorts. 

The god glances around at the crowd. "Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example." He raises his scepter to kill the man. 

But someone appears in front of him. 

With a wand. 

Harry apperates in front of Loki, wand pointed at his face, effectively stopping him from killing the old man. The crowd takes this as a chance to run away. He stares the much taller god in the eyes. 

"A seidr," Loki says in astonishment. "I thought you all went extinct six hundred years ago." 

Harry smirks and the two magic-wielders begin to circle each other, their weapons pointed at the other. "We're a stubborn race."

"I suppose so," Loki says and he tilts his head to one side.

Suddenly, the scepter is ripped out of his hand. He turns and a shaggy black dog is holding it in its mouth. He grabs the scepter from its mouth and holds the dog up by its neck. It transforms into Eleanor. She struggles against his grip. 

"Another seidr?" Loki asks curiously. Harry looks at Eleanor nervously. "You were stalling for your friend here, weren't you?" 

"Maybe, maybe not," Harry shrugs. He smirks and Eleanor transforms back into her animagus and she bites Loki on the arm. He lets her go to hold his wound. She lands and immediately transforms back into a human to punch Loki in the nose, effectively breaking it. Harry tosses her magic-dampening handcuffs and she puts them around the god's wrists. 

They hear a quinjet fly up to them. Eleanor sees agents Romanoff and Flowers in the pilot and co-pilot seats and bows dramatically in their direction. Iron Man flies in but stops when he sees that Loki is already taken care of. 

Steve walks out of the now-landed quinjet and walks over to them. Tony Stark joins him. "How did you guys take Loki down so fast?" Rogers asks. 

"Magic," Eleanor says and she wiggles her fingers for effect. 

Harry rolls his eyes. "We didn't use that much magic, actually. It was mostly all Nora." 

"You flatter me," she deadpans before dragging Loki to the quinjet. 

Harry, Stark, and Rogers watch her go. "So you're like... actually magic?" Stark asks. 

"You're going to have to wait and see," Harry smirks before following his wife. Rogers and Stark share a bewildered look. 

Once everyone is aboard the quinjet, quiet conversations start up between them. Rogers sits in front of Harry and Eleanor and asks, "Are you actually a wizard and witch?"

The Potters share a look. "Yeah, why?" she asks, genuinely curious. 

He smiles. "The Howlies and I were stationed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for a winter." 

"Really?" Harry asks. "I thought Minnie was just lying about having met Captain America." Rogers and Eleanor chuckle and the captain goes to speak with Stark. 

"Minnie would never lie about big shit like that," Eleanor says casually as she places down four sevens on the ground in front of her. They are playing go fish. Harry laughs slightly as the plane shakes from nearly being hit by lightning. 

"Where's this coming from?" Agent Romanoff asks and Harry notices Loki staring out the window. 

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Rogers asks mockingly. Looks like he wasn't the only one to notice. 

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki says nervously. 

Eleanor's eyes widen in realization and she throws her cards down. Harry looks up at her in bewilderment. "Romanoff, Flowers, it's-" She is cut off by a blinding white light. 

The ramp of the quinjet opens and reveals exactly who Eleanor thought it was: Thor. He grabs Loki by the throat and flies out. Everyone is left in shock. 

"Now there's that guy," Stark says and he grabs his helmet to put it on. 

"Another Asgardian?" Romanoff asks. 

"Thor," Eleanor supplies. "If there's a Loki, there's a Thor." 

"Think he's a friendly?" Rogers asks. 

"Doesn't matter," Stark says. "If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost."

"Stark," Rogers snaps. "We need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan. Attack." He jumps out of the quinjet. 

Eleanor sighs and rubs her eyes. She notices that Rogers is reaching for a parachute. "I'd stay out of this one, Rogers."

"I don't see how I can," the captain replies.

"Thor and Loki are legends. Norse mythology! They are literal gods!" Even if she just met the man, Eleanor doesn’t want to see someone die. Even if he is Captain America. 

Rogers goes to reply, but Harry cuts in. "If he wants to go, let him go, Nora." 

Eleanor sighs again and waves a hand. "If you want to go fight literal gods, have at it. I ain't stopping you." Rogers jumps out of the quinjet. 

"You're not gonna go fight legends?" Flowers asks. 

"Nah," Harry says and he and Eleanor resume their game of go fish. "I'd rather not fight literal gods. Besides, Thor is the god of thunder and I don't want to get electrocuted." Eleanor laughs. 

Chapter Text

Apparently, Stark and Thor had beat the shit out of each other, and Eleanor thought that was hilarious.

"You actually beat the shit out of each other?" she wheezes between laughs. Harry rolls his eyes and shuffles cards to continue with their running games of go fish. (Harry had beaten her too many times to count.)

"Yeah?" Stark asks as he crosses his arms. "So what if we did?" Loki stares at the group in amusement.

"Nothing, nothing," Eleanor says in between chuckles. "It's just funny, that's all." Before Harry can deal out more cards, Rogers asks what game they are playing. "Go fish, but Harrikins, I'm getting tired of losing to you. Let's play bullshit."

"You can't play that with two people, love," Harry responds.

"I'll play," Stark shrugs. "I'm pretty good at lying."

"What's bullshit?" Rogers asks.

"Card game about lying," Eleanor says. "You wanna play?"

"I would be honored to play," Thor cuts in.

"The more people we have, the better," Harry smirks. "Easier to get into fights about who's bluffing."

"Great!" Eleanor exclaims. "Everyone sit." Thor, Stark, and Rogers all sit on the ground (Stark with more trouble, being in his Iron Man suit), and Harry deals out all the cards. Loki looks at them with interest as Eleanor begins explaining the rules. "'Kay, so, who has the ace of spades?" Harry places it on the ground face up in the middle of the circle the five of them made. "Great, so, because Harry had the ace of spades, Thor, you would put down twos. Then Stark threes, Rogers fours, and so on and so forth. Doesn't matter if you have them or not, because the game is literally called bullshit. You gotta lie to win."

Thor nods slightly and asks, "What if I have more than one two?"

"Then you put them all down," Harry shrugs. "And if someone calls bullshit on you, then you have to reveal the cards that you put down. If you did lie, then you have to take the whole stack of cards, and if you didn't lie, then the person who called bullshit on you has to take the whole stack of cards. Make sense?" Thor nods and Rogers stares at his cards for a moment before nodding. "Thor, it's your turn."

"Two twos!" He places them face down on top of the ace.

"One three," Stark says nonchalantly.

They continue to play, Stark, Harry, and Thor somehow losing to Eleanor and Rogers. "One nine and I'm out!" Eleanor says as she holds up her empty hands.

"Bullshit," Rogers says. She grins and flips her card over.

It's a nine.

"Damn it!" Stark exclaims and throws his cards on the ground. She laughs.

"We're almost there," Romanoff calls from the front of the quinjet. "About five minutes out."

Everyone goes to get their gear together and Stark realizes something. He turns to Harry and Eleanor. "You guys weren't in SHIELD's files, were you?"

"Nope," Harry responds.

"Why not?"

"That's classified," Eleanor says. It's technically not a lie. That's just what they agreed upon with Nick earlier that day (yesterday? Time zones are weird).

"Ah, so you're all secretive like Romanoff over there, I see," Stark says slyly. "I'll find out soon enough."

"Sure," Eleanor scoffs. Is she freaking out? She is totally freaking out. Harry puts his hands on her shoulders, noticing her freaking-out state. Her eyes flash with worry (if it is her metamorphmagus ability speaking, no one had to know) as she makes eye contact with him. She takes a deep breath and nods. He gives her a small smile.

The group—excluding Stark—all watch Nick as he speaks to Loki. "—so much as scratch that glass." They watch as Nick presses a button that opens a hatch underneath the cell. Loki looks down at it. "Thirty thousand feet, straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works?" The hatch closes and he points to Loki. "Ant." Then he points to the button he pressed moments before. "Boot." Eleanor smirks.

Loki chuckles before smirking as he speaks. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Nick retorts.

"Oh, I've heard." Loki looks straight into the security camera and they all share a nervous glance. "The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?"

Harry takes his glasses off as Nick responds. "How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh," Loki says, slightly mocking. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what?" Loki grins up at the camera once again. "A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is."

Nick smirks before walking away. "Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something." After he has walked away, Loki looks intently up at the security camera before the screen goes black. Eleanor and Harry share a weary look, being slightly reminded of Voldemort.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Banner asks rhetorically.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Rogers asks.

"He has an army called the Chitauri," Thor says.

"Shit-auri," Harry mumbles to himself.

"They're not of Asgard or any world known," Thor continues. "He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"An army?" Rogers asks seriously. "From outer space?"

"I've seen weirder," Eleanor offers. Harry nods in agreement.

"Like?" Rogers asks.

"You've been in the magical world, you know the kind of weird shit they've got there," she shrugs.

"So he's building another portal." Banner takes off his glasses. "That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?" Thor asks.

"He's an astrophysicist," Banner replies.

"He's a friend."

"Loki has him under some kind of spell," Romanoff says before sighing. "Along with one of ours."

Eleanor, having seen the footage from Project PEGASUS the day before, realizes something. "Loki's under a spell too," she whispers as the conversation around her continues.

"What?" Harry asks.

"I'll explain later."

"Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother," Thor says.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Romanoff retorts.

"He's adopted," Thor says, trying to come up with an excuse.

"I'm adopted." Everyone looks at Eleanor but she just shrugs.

"Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?" Banner asks.

"It's a stabilizing agent," a familiar voice says. Stark walks in with Agent Coulson and he continues to speak to him.

While everyone is distracted by Stark's entrance, Eleanor takes this opportunity to sneak away to speak to Loki. She glances around as she navigates the halls. She eventually finds the room where Loki is being kept, takes a deep breath, and opens the door.

"Hello, seidr." Loki turns to face her.

"Hello, Loki." Eleanor tilts her head. "I know what you're doing."

"Do tell," the god smirks. She begins to pace in front of him.

"You wanted to get caught. You wanted us to find you. You wanted to be brought to the helicarrier." She pauses and gazes right at him. "I've read Salazar Slytherin's journals, notes, books." The little color in his face drains. "He mentioned you. A lot. He looked up to you. He never once mentioned that you ever wanted to take over the world."

Loki grits his teeth. "A lot can happen in a thousand years," he eventually gets out.

"Indeed." She places her arms behind her back, as if waiting for him to explain.

"You... you're a descendant of his, then?" he asks.

Her eyes fade from gray to bright blue, almost the same color as the Tesseract. "I am. Tom Marvolo Riddle was my father."

What the two of them did not realize, however, was that Nick had noticed Eleanor was missing from the room. He told Romanoff to find her and the camera turned on to show her speaking to Loki. They had watched Eleanor speaking to him. At her revelation of her true parentage, Romanoff's eyes widen.

Eleanor's eyes fade back to gray. "He also described both you and Thor... in detail." Loki swallows. She gets up close to the glass and whispers, "Who is controlling you?"

Loki's Tesseract-blue eyes turn green. "I can't tell you," he says, fear lacing his voice. "He'll— he'll find out and kill you." The blue returns. "How did you do that?"

"I didn't do a thing," Eleanor says. She turns around and begins to leave. "It was all you, my friend."

Chapter Text

Eleanor slowly walks from the room Loki is being held in. As soon as she reaches where everyone else has been watching the cameras, Romanoff shoves her against the wall.

"You're the daughter of Lord Voldemort?" she snarls.

"I am." Eleanor attempts to shove the other woman away. "Now let a girl breathe, would ya? I just revealed my deepest, darkest secret."

Romanoff lets her go and turns to Harry. "Did you know?"

He narrows her eyes at her. "Of course I did," he snorts. "He wouldn't be dead if it weren't for her."

"Nick, did you know?" the agent asks Nick. He nods.

"Who is Lord Voldemort?" Rogers asks.

Eleanor sighs and sits down next to Harry again. She rubs her forehead as she begins to explain. "In the 90s, there was a civil war in magical Britain. Lord Voldemort was basically a wizard Hitler."

"Fun," Stark states sarcastically as Rogers and Banner process this new information.

"So you had to fight in a war?" Rogers asks, seeming to still be struggling to grasp the concept.

"I don't want to walk about it," Harry and Eleanor say, both extremely tense.

"Stark, Banner," Nick says, taking everyone's attention away from the Potters, "Go get a start on finding the Tesseract. Romanoff, show them the lab." The three of them nod and walk out of the room. Eleanor lets out a shaky sigh of relief. Thor gently pats her on the shoulder and she sends him a grateful smile.

Apparently, the SHIELD Gossip Train traveled just as fast as the Hogwarts Gossip Train did.

So, that's how Eleanor finds herself trotting around the helicarrier in her animagus form, a shaggy black dog. The same animagus form as her favorite Marauder.

She finds Rogers breaking into a storage hanger and quietly slips in behind him. She transforms back into herself and asks, "Whatcha doin'?"

He jumps and whips around, prepared to fight. He lets out a breath when he sees it's only Eleanor. "Fuck," he groans. "You scared me."

"I'm quite aware," she quips. "Now, whatcha doin'?"

He sighs. "Stark said he was hacking into SHEILD's files, but I don't want to wait for the computer."

Eleanor shrugs. "Fair." She walks ahead of him and turns back to find him staring at her. "What, you aren't comin' with?" He blinks and follows after her. Eleanor mutters to herself as she digs around for her wand in her pocket. "Lumos," she whispers, and the tip illuminates.

Rogers stares at it for a moment before looking up. "There's another level."

Eleanor looks up as well. "So there is." She puts her wand in her mouth and climbs up. Rogers follows after and they continue to look around.

He stops at a crate and opens it. Eleanor turns around to find him glaring down at the crate's contents. "What's in there?" she asks as she glances inside.

"HYDRA weapons," Rogers snarls. He grabs one and hurries out of the room, not waiting for Eleanor. Eleanor, not being a super soldier, struggles to keep up.

She eventually finds Rogers throwing the HYDRA assault rifle on a table in Banner and Stark's lab and saying, "PHASE 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons." He turns to Stark. "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow."

"Li— like how HYDRA did in WWII?" Eleanor asks, trying to catch her breath after running after a super soldier.

Nick ignores Eleanor and tries to explain, "Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're—"

"I'm sorry, Nick." Stark cuts him off and turns one of the screens to face him. "What were you lying?"

Eleanor quickly takes the screen out of Stark's hands and roves her eyes over the weapon plans in shock. "Nick..."

"Eleanor," he responds.

She slams the screen on one of the tables and slowly stalks closer to him. "You know exactly what I had to do during the war. That's why your brother—"

"Brother?!" Stark says in shock.

Eleanor continues as if Stark never interrupted, "—recommended us for the Avengers, and why I am going to have to ask you not so fucking politely to stop this shit." Eleanor had been so caught up in her rant that she doesn't notice that her hair slowly starts to turn red and that Thor, Romanoff, and Harry had come into the room until Harry places a hand on her arm. Her eyes snap to Harry and back again to Nick before she takes a deep breath. "Just..." she sighs. "I don't know. Just don't." 

Harry feels everyone's curious gazes on him. "Uh." He chuckles nervously. "Please don't ask."

Banner catches on to his nervousness and asks Nick, "I want to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Nick points to Thor "Because of him." And then to Harry and Eleanor. "And their kind."

$Our kind is your kind,$ Eleanor sneers in parseltongue.

"Nora!" Harry hisses.

Thor looks between Nick, Harry, and Eleanor confusedly. "Me and their kind?"

Nick nods. "Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor says confusedly.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat." He turns to Harry and Eleanor, but she glares at him. "The British magical community had a civil war that lasted almost 30 years. They had the non-magical government blame it on terrorists, but we know that's not true. You've been hiding in plain sight for hundreds of years."

"They," Harry begins, showing that they don't consider themselves a part of the magical community a lot anymore, "Probably would be part of the rest of the world if their heads weren't stuck so far up their asses to see that non-magicals have evolved past medieval times." Eleanor nods as the rest of the group stares at them.

"Like I said, the world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"You don't know what it's like to be controlled!" Eleanor exclaims at the same time as Rogers asks, "Like you controlled the cube?"

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor cuts in. "It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Rogers asks.

"You forced our hand," Nick retorts. "We had to come up with something."

"Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything down," Stark responds sarcastically.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?"

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—" Rogers says before Stark interrupts.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor comments. 

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Nick retorts. 

"Do you always give your champions such mistrust?"

"Are you all really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threats." Harry and Eleanor glace at each other with this new information. 

"Captain America is on that list?" Banner asks in disbelief. 

"We all are." 

"Woah, woah, woah!" Harry exclaims. "When did SHIELD decide we're threats?"

"Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"

"Stark, I swear to god that if you make one more wise crack—"

"Threatened! I feel threatened!"

While everyone continues to argue, no one notices the scepter glowing brightly. 

Suddenly, Eleanor hears a jet hovering outside with her animagus form-enhanced hearing. She shakes her head and snaps out of the "mind-control." Everyone is too busy arguing to notice that she leaves the room. 

She quickly navigates to the control room when suddenly, an explosion rocks the whole helicarrier.