Chapter Text
Harry Potter was not just an ordinary boy. He wasn't merely a simple wizard. Harry Potter was the Master of Death. And Death had a bad habit of following him everywhere, relishing the freedom that a living host provided. Harry liked to refer to Death as "him," but honestly? The entity changed its personality as often as someone changes their underwear. Strange things constantly followed Harry; some would argue that this was due to being a wizard, but he had learned that being the Master of Death made bizarre occurrences as common as sneezing during allergy season. He swore there wasn't a single day without something happening, and the entity just laughed it off. Okay, okay, an alien invasion in New York was new, even for his annoying companion.
“This was not my doing,” the being protested rather vehemently. “Just for the record, I don’t condone this level of unnecessary killing. Do you have any idea how much work this will give me? I don’t understand why you are blaming me for everything.”
“Because you’re so convenient to blame for everything?” Harry asked in a sweet voice.
“Your sarcasm is not appreciated,” Death murmured with an annoyed huff.
“Boy, you should go somewhere safe,” a man clad in an unusual costume adorned with stars and stripes said after killing a rude alien that tried to interrupt Harry’s conversation with Death. Not that the alien could see Harry’s unwanted companion, but still, how rude!
‘Master of Death, my ass! I’m just a piece of moving, talking slave for this bloody parasitic entity,’ Harry thought, pulling out his wand and literally obliterating the next alien that came too close. ‘If I had known that I would become this host or avatar thing, I swear I would have tried to find a way to avoid it!’
“Thanks, buddy,” Harry said to the costumed individual. “But I’m fine. By the way, I’m Harry Potter, nice to meet you.”
Captain America looked at the young man, who appeared to be no older than 18, grinned, and nodded. The boy indeed looked like someone who could take care of himself, and there were enough aliens for everyone; why not let someone capable deal with a few, right?
"Only the Brits would choose the middle of combat for niceties like an introduction,” Steve Rogers said with clear amusement as he pressed his earpiece to share with his team. “We’ve got an ally with us.”
Before anyone could reply, he had to turn his focus back to killing aliens.
Harry grinned at the costumed man and, with an exaggerated movement, killed three aliens with one slashing hex. Oh, he had to admit, being the Master of Death had a few upsides. He shook his head, recalling the night after he returned the wand to Dumbledore’s grave and dropped the stone. Both of those stupid items ended up on his nightstand when he woke up. He tried to get rid of them over and over until Death was nice enough to appear and explain that it wouldn’t work. Harry groaned at how entertained the entity was when he threw a tantrum worthy of a three-year-old. After a while, he got used to the idea of being the Master of Death. Still, he couldn’t help but feel annoyed with Albus Dumbledore whenever he thought about the man orchestrating events in such a way that Harry could potentially become the Master. Neither of them had read the fine print of the contract. Not that they had been provided with a contract, anyway.
“Nah, contracts are not my thing,” Death commented, while Harry continued to slay aliens, now accompanied by Captain America.
Since he became the damn Master of Death, Harry didn’t age at all. One would think that would be an upside, but it was not. Wizards age slowly, so it wasn’t evident at first, but gradually it became awkward. A 32-year-old shouldn’t look like a scrawny teen with unruly hair. So, yeah, he left Britain, only keeping in contact with his godson. Andromeda was fondly exasperated each time he randomly appeared to put his godson to bed or to play with the boy for hours. Teddy loved every moment of his visits, so the aging witch decided to tolerate the eccentric young man, even if he drove her mad sometimes. Of course, it didn’t help that everyone wanted him to marry Ginny and start a family, including Andromeda. She was adamant that Harry should pick up his responsibilities, as she wouldn’t live forever to cover for him. He was the head of both the Potter and Black houses, so Andromeda was partially right; however, yes, Harry was the Master of Death. He couldn’t spend his time in Wizengamot meetings—they would drive Death mad, and who knows what a bored Death would do. On second thought, the entity might decide to leave if it had to endure those boring meetings or kill everyone arguing about important topics like the thickness of cauldron bottoms.
“In your dreams, my little host, in your dreams,” Death commented, causing Harry to focus for a moment.
Note to self: losing focus in the middle of a fight was a bad idea. Harry groaned when one of the aliens shot him in the shoulder. He would have to thank Charlie Weasley for the dragon hide vest when they met next. He wasn't injured, but damn, that shot still stung! The alien was not surprised for long to see his target still standing; Harry’s blasting curse was spot on.
“All right there?” the Captain asked.
“Yeah, fine, no need to worry. I can take a few shots,” Harry replied nonchalantly.
Anyway, Harry Potter didn’t run away from Britain. He categorically refused that claim. Running away was missing from his vocabulary. He… did a rather hasty retreat when Mrs. Weasley started to organize Ginny’s wedding with him. The only problem with this plan was that they forgot to tell Harry he was the man supposed to marry the girl. According to Molly, 20 was old enough to make a decision. But, you see… Harry Potter had other ideas. He realized, while living with Hermione during their Horcrux hunt, that he had no desire to live with a woman. They were nice to look at, and he could even have a crush on them, but he wasn’t interested in marrying any of them. Sure, Ginny was cute with a fiery temper. She kissed well and all that, but… if Harry had to marry a Weasley, he would have chosen Charlie over Ginny. So, no… There was no way he could marry her. To avoid a serious confrontation with them, he decided to say goodbye to Britain and travel around the world. That was more than ten years ago, and it was completely random that he was in New York when these alien problems started.
It occurred to Harry that he had no idea what was going on, so he casually asked his fighting companion,
“What’s going on here, anyway?” Harry shouted over an explosion, ducking just in time to avoid a blast. “I deducted that the aliens are the bad guys, but that’s about it.”
Captain America snorted and took a moment to slam his shield into an alien’s head before responding.
“It’s tied to Loki and the Tesseract. Long story short, the Tesseract is a powerful artifact that can manipulate space and time. Loki, Thor’s brother, was using it to open a portal, allowing these aliens to invade. They are the Chitauri.”
Harry's brow furrowed as the name sounded familiar. Suddenly, his eyes widened. He remembered the Weasley twins jokingly offering their more chaotic pranks to Loki. He had thought it was a joke—never did he imagine the god was a living entity! Well, he reasoned, given that Death was his companion, perhaps he shouldn’t be so shocked.
“Hey, I’m completely different!” Death protested. “These Asgardians are not gods, just very good at living for a long time, so you know! They are not above Death!”
“Loki? The trickster god?” Harry asked, ignoring Death's comment. “A real god? Like in the myths? Cool. Oh, God, one of my friends would love to meet him. I mean, if he weren’t a bad guy and all that,” he said with a sheepish grin. “So he’s behind this attack?”
The Captain made a face at the 'real god' question while dodging a blast from a Chitauri, but he had to let it go for now; the midst of a battle was not the right place for theological discussions.
“Yes,” he replied, kicking an alien away as he spoke. “Loki wants to conquer Earth.”
"Please tell me you also have an army," Harry added, a hint of worry creeping into his voice. He was good—damn good—but going against a full invading army might be a bit too much even for him. Not entirely true, he thought; he could handle it, but it would involve burning down the city—something that would probably be frowned upon by the others. He certainly didn’t want to kill so many innocents in the fire.
"Not an army, no. Just the Avengers. Four heroes against an army... with you, it's already five."
Harry sighed, waving his wand to kill a bunch of aliens, protecting the Captain from a huge blast.
"Well, we could have worse odds... I guess."
Just then, a red and gold armored figure dropped next to them.
“Hey, magic-boy, catch!”
Harry’s seeker reflexes were still sharp, and he easily caught the earpiece the armored man threw at him. He blinked, looking at the small device.
“What should I do with this?” he asked.
“Use it? Or not. You are now part of our team. Congratulations! Let’s kill aliens together. The god in green leather with horns is somewhere around. He got away from Thor. For now, we have the aliens to slay. The guys picked the wrong planet to invade, so they need some explosive hospitality.”
“This is Iron Man for you,” Captain America said with a chuckle, catching his shield after braining another alien with it.
“Iron Man?” Harry asked back. Honestly, if he could take aliens with a straight face, he should be able to do the same with a man in shiny armour. Perhaps it was completely normal for Americans, who knows? He just arrived on this continent three days ago. Costumed heroes might be in style here.
Iron Man saluted before blasting two aliens off their feet.
“Tony Stark, yes, the one and only,” the man in armour said, but Harry literally had no idea who he was. Heh, living mostly in the magical world and pretty much hiding in small wizarding villages all over the world was not the best way to keep track of Muggle media.
“A pleasure, I’m sure,” he said, his voice clearly showing his confusion, while he put the earpiece in, hoping it would be able to handle his magic. What’s the worst that could happen, right? Explode? Death just laughed at that, so Harry thought he was safe from this fate. Probably?
Iron Man stopped mid-blast and looked at the wizard with open wonder.
“Wait, wait, wait, you don’t know who I am?! Are you for real?” he asked. An alien hit him, but he killed it with an annoyed blast, barely noticing the attack. “Were you living under a rock or something?”
Harry chuckled, dancing away from a few blasts from the aliens.
“Or something,” he responded.
“Oh, my, this is new!” Iron Man chuckled. “Keep your eyes open for Mr. Horns. I will try to deal with the big, bad flying whale. And magic-boy, we will correct your lack of knowledge when we are not invaded by aliens.”
With this farewell, he flew off to get the attention of the big, flying alien monster. Harry followed the Captain, amused by the armoured man, trying to kill as many aliens as he could while trying to avoid blasts and explosions. He was surprised to see a woman with guns and a man with a bow and arrows fighting in sync.
“Are you also part of the team?” he asked after slicing an alien attacking the man from behind.
“Thanks, dude. Yeah,” the man replied. “Hawkeye. I would say nice to meet you, but I am too busy.”
Harry grinned, but raised an eyebrow.
“He is fighting with a bow and arrows? Am I hallucinating?” Death asked, laughing. Harry almost asked back how a shield made more sense. “I concur,” Death added, hearing his thoughts. “A bow and arrows doesn’t sound as ridiculous… oh, how I wish I could eat some popcorn to enjoy this entertainment. I love that you always get in ridiculous situations!”
“Less talking, more shooting,” the woman ordered with a growl, firing her weapons precisely.
Hawkeye and Harry grinned and replied,
“Yes, madam,” they told almost at the same time. They burst out laughing at the hilarity of the situation, but continued killing the invading forces.
The woman shook his head and murmured in a half-exasperated, half-amused voice,
“Men…”
“She is Black Widow, don’t get on his wrong side… not like she has any bad sides, if you get my meaning,” Hawkeye said after shooting another arrow.
Suddenly, thunderbolts struck several aliens at the same time, and a moment later, a man landed on the ground next to them. Harry looked flabbergasted at the hammer in the man’s hand.
“Let me guess, Thor. Great. We have Loki, Thor, any other gods on the way to help or try to kill us?” Harry asked.
The man couldn’t reply because the Captain interrupted his thoughts,
“What’s the story upstairs?”
The young wizard grinned at the up-to-the-point approach. The man was right, they didn’t have time for his jokes in the middle of combat.
“There’s always time for your jokes,” Death corrected his thoughts. “Actually, I would appreciate you sharing more of your dirtier ones. It would be entertaining.”
Harry shook his head. Only Death would want more entertainment in the middle of a fight for their life. Aliens were shooting at them from all directions, and a giant, flying alien whale destroyed buildings. Harry had to concentrate now to stay alive.
“Nah,” the entity added. “They are fighting for their life. You are fighting for my entertainment. Don’t you remember? You can only die if I decide that I don’t want a host anymore.”
The wizard adamantly tried to exclude Death’s comments to concentrate on what Thor said, ignoring the fact that the entity was again threatening him as a slave or a moving, breathing taxi service.
“The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable.”
Iron Man commented in their earpiece,
“Thor’s right. We've got to deal with these guys.”
The woman, Black Widow, as Harry reconed, asked,
“How do we do this?”
Captain America replied with certainty, resonating well with Harry.
“As a Team.”
Thor and Hawkeye started an argument about who should take care of Loki, but it was soon cut short because Harry decided to use something more damaging from his repertoire. With a swift flick of his wrist, Harry cast a blinding flash of light that spiraled into a dazzling beam, hitting three aliens squarely in their chests. They tumbled backward, convulsing in agony as their cries drowned out the chaos of battle. He usually avoided this path, but a surge of power coursed through him, and he realized that this was his moment to unleash. Just a fraction of his true strength—any more, and New York would be nothing but rubble. It felt good. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been holding back.
Death nodded enthusiastically next to him, cheering when he killed at least six aliens with one spell, injuring even more.
“Damn,” Hawkeye muttered. “I guess we should just let him deal with Loki. I concur he would deal more damage than my arrows.”
Thor still muttered,
“I hate dealing with magic.”
Harry chuckled, seeing the amusement in the Asgardian’s eyes.
Just as he was ready to offer his new team to check the situation upstairs with the Tesseract thingy, they heard an approaching motorcycle, navigating between the broken and burning remains of the cars on the road. Seeing the man arriving with a motor in the middle of chaos was so random that Harry had to chuckle.
“You know what?” he said to Death, fully aware that his new teammates would hear through the earpieces. “I was right. Today was a really great day for sightseeing in New York.”
“I concur. I’d recommend trying the pizza, but I guess we’ll have to save that for later,” Iron Man quipped, earning a chorus of groans from the others as explosions lit up the sky around them.