482A/N - this is something I've been kicking around for a while now.
Category: Triple crossover - twilight / hp / avengers
Note on the timelines: This story starts in 2008. Harry Potter is 24 years old (so we had the final battle at Hogwarts occur about 4 years later than in canon). The Avengers have not yet formed, and the events of the first Thor movie are still a ways away (I'd sit this, in the MCU timeline which I will make a bit more flexible here, in between the time the Hulk destroys Harlem and the Thor movie).
Background:
Harry Potter is Head Auror, is 24 years old, and has been an auror for 6 years. Everything happened as in Canon (*except the epilogue*) with one exception: the war ended in 2001 (when Harry turned 17) and not in 1996. Harry never married Ginny, and Hermione never married Ron, though they are all still very close friends.
Bella Swan is 20 years old, soon to start her 2nd year of college in Washington DC where she attends Georgetown University. Bella began dating Jacob Black shortly after Laurent's demise, during her final semester of high school. She never jumped, and Edward and the Cullen's never returned. Bella was not able to commit to staying in Forks and attending Peninsula College, waiting two years for Jacob to graduate. With an amicable break-up and a strong friendship, Bella headed off to Washington DC in a good place in her life.
The story starts during the summer between Bella's freshman and sophomore years. Her roommate is from London, and invites Bella to her home to spend time there in early August. Bella accepts. Harry has just celebrated his 24th birthday, three days earlier.
This is where we begin our tale.
London, Summer 2008
Head Auror Harry Potter ducked under a blasting curse that flew from the upper story of the Lion's Arms Inn, a seedy bar and whorehouse in Knockturn Alley that was frequented by thugs and criminals and was the current meeting point for their target, ex-convict Miles Durgan.
Durgan was suspected of being the leading enforcer in the Killer for Hire ring being run by ex-death eater Thaddeus Nott. What made this ring particularly dangerous was that they had recently begun employing a few vampires as bodyguards and hired hands. This set all sorts of alarm bells ringing, as vampires were extraordinarily dangerous and, with very few exceptions, could kill a wizard fairly easily. Their speed advantage and spell resistance was just too great for most everyday wizardfolk to overcome.
Nott was a well known criminal; he had gotten a relatively light four year sentence to Azkaban after the war, primarily because he had been too old at seventy to participate in any death eater activity involving wand work. When he was younger, he had proudly taken the mark and had been an inner circle member back during Voldemort's first rise. He had bribed his way free via the imperious defense, and when Voldemort rose again he quickly signed his son's up to 'the cause' and established himself as a money source for Riddle's forces. He was convicted of theft and extortion and for using his ill-gotten gains to bankroll the death eater cause.
And now, Harry thought with disgust, only a few months out of prison, he was once again funding criminal activity.
Harry was extremely pissed-off; this whole op had gone bad right from the get-go, when one of the younger Aurors moved too soon, breaking protocol and setting off a perimeter alarm that Durgan's men had set. The young auror was supposed to wait for the all-clear from the curse-breaker, but he had gotten over-excited and crossed the ward too soon.
Within a few seconds of the alarm blaring, Harry's auror team of eight were in an intense firefight against an unknown number of assailants, fighting for their very lives as vicious and deadly curses rained down on them from half the windows in the inn and the buildings to it's left and right. The curses flew at them like firework sparklers, shattering the stones and bricks of the buildings across the narrow alley that the aurors were trying to use for cover.
When Harry saw one of his team suddenly buried under a slab of stone that fell from a shattered rooftop column, he went from 'pissed off' to 'coldly angry,' and his magical aura flared and crackled around him.
Stepping from cover with his wand raised, a shouted and overpowered 'Reducto' blasted one of the balustrades on the inn's second story that the bad guys were using to hide behind. When his spell hit, the entire facade exploded inwards with deadly force, and screams of pain and anguish were added to the cacophony of spellfire.
Harry followed-up his spell with several more powerful blasting curses, obliterating the entire top two floor's of the inn's outer structure. Their opponents stopped firing back, as they were either busy digging themselves out of the debris, unconscious, or dead.
"Move in!" he shouted to his team, breaking them from their stupor at seeing him unleash his full power with such devastating effect. Regaining their focus, the sudden pause in enemy spellfire gave them enough time to storm and breach the heavily warded door of the Inn, cast their shields, and move inside to collect prisoners and try and corner their target.
They worked in teams of two; one auror constantly shielding, one on offense. The shields were needed to insure that any vampires would not be able to surprise them with their speed and snap their necks before they could even bring their wands to bear.
Harry knew a vampire would not be easy to catch, but additional reinforcements should be arriving momentarily. Auror response time had improved dramatically since the war, and fast response teams were always on alert. Harry was confident that once they arrived, no one - not even a vampire - would be able to escape as they could surround the area in a ring of overlapping shields.
Suddenly, something that looked like a dung bomb came arcing down from the roof towards the middle of the street. Harry swung his wand around to repel it away, but he was a second too late. It landed with a small concussion on the debris covered cobblestones and began to belch plumes of thick, billowing grey smoke that soon flooded the narrow alley. Even as Harry and several of the aurors conjured bubble head charms to protect themselves from the noxious smoke, they were preparing to cast elemental wind spells to blow the smoke away. But at that moment, a streaky blur rocketed out from the top story of the inn and landed nimbly in the street, crouched down not ten feet away from Harry's position.
Through the clearing smoke and the slight distortion of the bubble head, Harry had a quick impression of chalky white skin and dark red eyes. Draped across the back of what Harry recognized as one of the vampires, his target Durgan was tightly clinging on with his arms and legs. With an angry snarl, the vampire leapt forward and raced away at incredible speeds, running straight down the alley into the smoke, taking Durgan with him as he made his escape.
Cursing his inability to keep the vampire contained, Harry ran a dozen meters until he was out of the anti-apparition wards his team had lain down. Once past the wardline, he apparated to the far end of the Alley, hoping to catch the fleeing duo before they could escape into the Leaky Cauldron and into Muggle London, where they would be almost impossible to track amongst the millions of muggles. The Cauldron was the only passage through Diagon Alley's wards - save for floo travel and two approved apparition points - that allowed entry to Muggle London.
With a soft crack, Harry re-appeared in Diagon Alley a moment too late: he spotted the vampire and Durgan knocking into several wizards, sending them careening away.
Harry cursed again at his oversight in not stationing an auror team by the entryway in advance. He had honestly forgotten just how incredibly fast and agile a vampire was, not having ever having faced one in combat before. He ran as fast as he could past a few screaming shoppers, chasing after the duo while sending a quick messenger patronus to his team to meet him at the Leaky.
Running at full sprint, Harry fired a stunner at Durgan, but the vampire easily stepped away at the last moment. Even as a second spell flew from Harry's wand, the vampire swung around so Durgan could open the doorway with his wand. More curses flew at them, but unlike the Lions Arms in Knockturn, Harry knew there were innocent bystanders here so he had to be careful and stick to stunners and low grade spells instead of just blasting his targets. Unfortunately, these spells had no effect on the vampire, who maneuvered deftly to insure that any spell that would have hit Durgan would instead splash uselessly against it's marble skin.
The vampire swung Durgan onto his back again when the bricks finally opened, and Harry shouted for people to get out of his way as he raced into the Cauldron before the doorway could close. Thankfully the bar was mostly empty of patrons, so Harry fired a spell at an empty table at the far end of the bar just as Durgan and the vampire were opening the door to escape into Muggle London. Harry quickly transfigured the table into a thick concrete wall that blocked the exit. The vampire reared back in surprise for a moment before it raised it's arm to smash through the wall; Harry used that momentary pause to hit the wall with an unbreakable charm, greatly enhancing it's durability.
It took four heavy blows from the growling vampire to smash through the barrier, and Harry had not been idle. He was halfway across the bar now, and had transfigured several lions and bears from barstools and sent them to distract the vampire - hopefully slowing him down - and trying to tear Durgan from his back. More spells followed, barely missing as the vampire spun out of the way; all the while, a screaming Durgan clung desperately to the vampire's back. He could not shield himself: he had put his wand away so he could hang on to the fast moving vampire.
With the last of the transfigured creatures destroyed, the vampire ran out the door; but Harry's previous spell had turned the floor in front of the vampire to quicksand, and he tripped and almost fell as his footing was lost, giving Harry another chance to put him down.
With no one in the line of fire now and the vampire off-balance, Harry's spells turned deadly; his wall-boring curse impacted the left arm of the vampire hard enough to cause cracks to appear, and a follow-up reductor impacted the vampires chest and blasted the pair out onto the street, sending them tumbling. An immediate follow up gouging curse just missed hitting the vampire's head, and the near-feral vampire sprang back to his feet. It turned fully around to face Harry, a vicious snarl rising from it's throat. The vampire's blood red eyes locked onto Harry's green, warily watching as the deadly Wizard approached with his extended wandtip glowing, promising pain and destruction.
Isabella Swan was enjoying an early evening walk near Leicester Square in London's West End. She had been in the city for a week, staying at the childhood home of her best friend and college roommate, Sophie Danvers.
Sophie was born and raised just outside of London, in the posh suburb of Hampstead, about five miles north of central London, in a large, expansive home with beautiful gardens and fountains and an easy train or bus ride into the city.
Sophie had been her roommate during her freshman year at Georgetown University in Washington DC; the pair had hit it off immediately when they met during orientation week, and had quickly become close friends. They had already picked out an apartment to share for their upcoming sophomore year, and Sophie had been excited to show Bella around London.
Over the past week, Bella had become comfortable enough with the city's public transportation system that she spent a few hours each day exploring the city on her own. Sophie didn't mind, really, as she knew Bella wanted to see and do things at her own pace sometimes; and Bella didn't really mind touristy areas and museums that Sophie had been too so many times that she couldn't even fake any enthusiasm for; and while she was happy to endure it for her friend, Bella had laughed and told her she would be fine on her own for a couple of hours each day. She was planning to stay in London for five more days before flying to Florida to visit with her Mom, before returning to school at the end of August.
Bella had never been outside the USA before, and absolutely fell in love with the charm and quiet sophistication of London, where new and old seemed to seamlessly co-exist. And while she had a blast during the evenings with Sophie taking her to parties, concerts and gallery openings, it was these quiet hours, exploring by herself, that Bella found she enjoyed the most.
On this particular afternoon, while Sophie visited with some of her old grade school friends, Bella had taken the 'tube' - the name the Brits used for the 'underground' or subway system - to Leicester Square. She walked past Chinatown Gate and Leicester Park, taking in the ambience of the place, watching tourists and hawkers on the streets, and strolling along with dozens of other people who were simply enjoying the warmth of the late afternoon summer sun.
Taking a few photos on her phone, Bella bought herself a chicken ka-bob on pita bread from a street vendor and settled herself on a wooden bench to eat. She had just taken her first tasty bite when a sudden 'boom' sounded from across the street and caught her attention. Turning her head to look for the source, she heard a loud growl that sounded very familiar to her and sent shivers down her back.
Suddenly, two dark cloaked figures came tumbling out the door of an old, worn down looking pub and careened out into the street. To her dismay and shock, one of them stood up so suddenly that he seemed to blur, and then he growled, a low, vicious sound that brought back terrible memories and made her tremble.
When Bella saw the white skin, gleaming teeth, and red eyes of what was surely a vampire, she felt like her insides had turned to ice.
Her kabob fell from nerveless fingers, forgotten.
Bella had not seen a vampire since her encounter with Laurent in the old meadow back in Forks, almost two years ago now, when Jacob and the pack ripped him to pieces.
She never wanted or expected to see one again.
The vampire was crouching down and facing the doorway of the pub he came crashing out of, and Bella noted that it looked very shabby and out of place next to the modern looking stores that bordered it.
The second cloaked man got up more unsteadily, clearly hurt, his left arm hanging at an awkward angle. He seemed to be trying to hide behind the crouching figure, whose eyes swung around the street to take in the stunned crowd that had stopped whatever they were doing to watch this bizarre scene.
For Bella, her adrenaline kicked in suddenly; and, just like the van accident three years ago, her brain seemed to process everything more quickly, details sticking out sharply.
She was so focused on the vampire - even as he swung his head back to the pub and was no longer looking in her direction - that she barely saw the second man moving until he pointed a strange stick at his arm and mutter something. A dull cracking noise was heard, and the man grunted as his arm suddenly seemed to straighten itself out. He then extended his arm with the stick towards the pub, his fist tightly closed around his stick.
Trying to understand what she was seeing, Bella squeaked when the man suddenly shouted a strange word and twisted his wrist, resulting in a burst of narrow red light flying from the stick, like a phaser burst out of a Star Trek episode. The light flew towards the pub entryway at a speed that was almost too fast for her eyes to follow, towards another man who stepped out of the door at that exact moment.
Having no clue what was happening, Bella watched as this newcomer batted away the red light with a concise twist of his wrist The man - dressed in a blue and black outfit of some kind that looked sort of like a suit crossed with a bathrobe - had his own stick, elevated and pointed at the vampire and the other individual as he walked towards them steadily and without fear.
Even from this distance, Bella could see a look of determination on this man's face. His hair was dark and his skin light; but his eyes were a vivid green, like fresh cut grass or bright emeralds, hard and focused. His mouth was a tight line, his jaw strong.
He was staring down the vampire and his companion to the exclusion of all else, looking like a coiled spring.
Had Bella not known the crouching individual was a real vampire, she might think this was a bunch of nerds from a comic con convention playing the part of western gunslingers. Her probing eyes took in a half dozen details in a single glance; the newcomer's...robe?...was slit at the hips, and the black pants he wore underneath looked like they were skin tight against his lean legs. Some sort of animal hide boots - with dark green or black scales, maybe alligator or snake skin? - came up to just below his knees. He had a belt of gleaming silver that seemed to have pouches and small items dangling from it, almost like a police officer had handcuffs and radios and other doodads on a utility belt.
The man continued to walk steadily towards the vampire and his companion, showing no fear even as the vampire's growling became deeper, more intense, more threatening. The newcomer just kept approaching, his stick pointed at them like a policeman would point his gun at a criminal.
Bella wanted to shout, to warn him that the vampire was going to spring; shout for him to run, to call for help, anything: just get away!
To Bella's immense surprise, however, the vampire began to back away!
What could a vampire be afraid of? As far as Bella knew, only another vampire or a werewolf could kill a vampire.
But there was no question about it now; the vampire was uneasy, his stance widening and his arms bending in such a way so his deadly nails were extended forward. His posture was alert and poised for action: the vampire clearly saw this man in blue with the bright green eyes as a threat.
The crowd in the street and by the park square had all turned to face the newcomers; Bella saw many people reaching for their phones to take pictures, and the ones closest were quickly moving away in fear, especially from the vampire, who's growling and snarling and fierce countenance was truly frightening. She heard a shrill whistle in the distance: probably a police 'bobby' running over to see what was going on.
As this bizarre showdown continued, Bella took notice of the other man standing next to the vampire. He was short, with grey hair tied in a ponytail and a fierce expression on his scarred face. He looked to be at least sixty years old, and he was clearly injured in the fall he had taken when he came flying out the door as he was dragging one leg, and the arm he'd 'fixed' hung limply at his side.
Luckily for him, there didn't seem to be any fresh blood on him, else the vampire might have a quick snack no matter what their relationship was.
This wounded man was dressed like his companion, in a black cloak that covered him to the tops of his grey boots. He tried to use the vampire to shield himself from the man in blue, and backed steadily away from the door, his hand hovering just over the vampire's shoulder, with the stick held straight out and pointing at the man in blue.
Unlike many of the other onlookers, who did not really understand the danger, Bella was slowly backing away, terrified of what the vampire might do. She knew what a vampire was capable of, and phantom pains from her encounter with James made her leg suddenly ache.
Suddenly, all eyes moved to the man in blue, who spoke with authority. "Last chance, Durgan. Surrender now."
Without warning, the injured man - Durgan? - shouted something and a barrage of colored lights burst from the stick, flying at high speed towards the other man, who seemed to be a cop of some kind. Bella backed away with a gasp, ready to bolt out of there. Some shouts and screams began to echo around the street as people realized something serious and possibly deadly was happening here, and the onlookers began to flee in panic.
Just as the lights looked to smash into the man in blue, they suddenly dissipated against a clear, almost translucent dome that suddenly materialized in front of him. They ricoched into the pavement, leaving small glowing holes behind. More colored lights flew at him, but he waved his stick in a wide circle and the dome seemed to thicken, causing the lights to bounce off and careen back towards the old man. One of them almost clipped him in the side, and he screamed in frustration.
Bella had no idea what those lights were, or what those sticks did, but she could not understand why the vampire was not attacking the man in blue. Clearly they were adversaries of some kind.
Where the sticks that deadly to a vampire?
Bella knew she should turn and run, but she could not take her eyes off the battle. She continued to back away, though, having no doubt that if one of those colored lights came her way that she had nowhere near the required agility to dodge.
She looked over her shoulder, and decided once she reached the corner she would run as far and as fast as she could.
Suddenly, two more men in blue robes came running out of the pub. With loud shouts, they both began to twirl their own sticks, pointing towards the vampire. As if that was some unseen signal, lights began to fly in both directions from everyone's sticks.
That seemed to be the signal for the vampire to retreat; he grabbed his companion and flung him over his shoulder. But before he could escape, some unseen force hit him and sent him and his companion flying backwards as if swatted like a bug. Bella watched in amazement as the green eyed man was waving his stick like he was conducting an orchestra; some of the lights turned into thick, corded ropes that seemed to materialize from thin air, wrapping themselves around the vampire and his companion. The vampire sprang back up and easily broke them, but the ropes caught the other man and dragged him at high speed towards the men in blue. When he finally landed in a heap by the door to the pub, he was hogtied with his arms and legs tied together behind his back, his face a mess of cuts and blood.
The crowd of bystanders who were not running away - either brave or foolish of them, Bella thought - were pointing fingers and taking photos or videos or staring with jaws slack; the ones who ran were in the majority, however, many of them screaming. Bella was one of the foolish ones who stopped her retreat, too riveted on what was happening in front of her incredulous eyes not more than a hundred feet away.
A loud cracking noise had her swing her head back to the vampire, who had just been swatted down the street and away from the park and the fleeing civilians; before he could rise, again he was tossed away, crashing against the side of a building, pieces of masonry falling on him as the green eyed man spun and thrust his stick. Even as the vampire stood, he was swatted back down, further and further away, the green eyed man walking inexorably towards him.
It was the most incredible thing she'd ever seen.
And then more blue robed people came pouring from the little pub - and just how was that possible? Was there an army of blue robed people with phaser sticks just hanging about inside that tiny pub? - and some now had red cloaks as well. Many of them were women, but each and every one had their little wooden sticks.
What were those sticks? Bella wondered, watching as several of them ran towards the vampire. They were clearly weapons of some kind, but they almost looked like the plastic magic wands that would come with a magician's kit for kids. And they certainly could do a variety of things...
Bella's introspection was cut short when the vampire suddenly threw a giant piece of concrete at the blue robed group, sending them sprawling like bowling pins and giving him the distraction he needed to escape. He launched himself forward as lights from the sticks splashed uselessly behind him. With mounting terror, Bella saw that he was headed her way, his red eyes seeming to grow larger as the distance between them shrank by dozens of feet in between blinks of her eyes. She was standing in the middle of the narrow sidewalk that he was now on, and she had nowhere to go.
Unless the vampire changed his course, he was going to plow right through her at deadly speed.
Fully succumbing to her fear at last, Bella opened her mouth to scream despite knowing it would not do any good: she was out of time and there were no wolves to save her now. Just like she had done in the meadow two years earlier, she tensed, waiting for the impact she was certain was coming in less than a second.
But at the same moment she gathered her breath to scream, several things happened at once; there was a soft 'crack' and 'whooshing' displacement of air less right in front of her, the backdraft of it ruffling the hair on her head. And, arriving with the 'crack, a blue robed figure was somehow standing directly in front of her, stick extended, facing the charging vampire who was upon them.
Even as she realized that her possible savior had somehow...teleported?...she recognized that it was the same green eyed man with the scaly boots.
As Bella reared in confusion at all these thing happening between one blink of her eye and the next, the man - in a lightning fast motion that she could barely follow - thrust his stick towards the vampire that had launched itself at them, hands extended and teeth bared in fury.
Amazingly, the vampire impacted some sort of invisible barrier and rebounded back a good dozen feet. And then, as her savior thrust his stick, an enormous 'smacking' noise - much closer and much louder than earlier, sounding like the crack of a gunshot - sent the vampire spinning and tumbling fifty feet straight up into the air.
To Bella, it looked like he had been swatted by some invisible giant hand.
Even as the echo from that last impact reverberated round the park, the man was twisting his stick again. He shouted a word - ignae something ('Latin?' thought Bella) - and the vampire, who had just landed back on the street in a snarling crouch - was suddenly on fire! Somehow the stick had ignited his clothing and hair, causing them to burst into flame.
Without pausing, ignoring the screams of shock and pain from the vampire, another shouted word saw a huge, billowing gout of flame stream from the stick of the green eyed man; it gathered itself into a roiling mass, and then launched itself at the vampire like a hunting cat landing on it's prey. After in engulfed the vampire, it flared so brightly that it left an afterimage in Bella's eyes, like she'd stared into a flashbulb in a dark room.
Trying to blink away the white spots in her eyes, a sudden shriek of agony from the vampire was so incredibly loud and agonizing that it hurt her ears. Bella bent down cringing while slapping her hands over her ears and clamping her eyes closed, her senses on overload.
Bella waited a few seconds before cautiously removing her hands from her ears, opening her eyes, and standing back up straight. Through the halo that still clouded her vision and the dull ringing in her ears, she saw that the vampire was rolling and thrashing on the ground like a blurry, spinning top. Burning clothing had been ripped away, and chunks of gravel began to bounce and zip around as the burning vampire tried to douse the flames by literally digging himself into the pavement. It was like a frenzy of twirling limbs and clouds of rubble as he tried to smother the fire. Bella stumbled back as rocks and shattered debris clouds bounced and billowed out of the hole the vampire was making as he dug himself into the concrete, and he was already so deep that Bella thought he might dig his way right into the subway tunnels or sewers!
However, the blue robed man had not been idle; he spun the stick and more Latin sounding words fell from his lips; and then thick steel chains - the kind a superyacht or warship might have for its anchor - were conjured from the end of his stick and launched themselves into the hole with the vampire. Bella could not see anything through the now thick dust clouds, but the vampire began to snarl even as the sound of the concrete being shattered suddenly stopped, replaced by the sound of grinding metal. And then, to Bella's astonishment, she watched as the vampire was lifted bodily from the crater, chains crisscrossing his charred body, coiled around him from his chin to his feet.
The man waved his stick again, and the levitated vampire fell to the ground at their feet. It was struggling against the chains, clearly straining but unable to move anything save his head and feet. More muttered words fell from the stick waver, and Bella saw glowing characters that seemed to inscribe themselves onto the chains; they flared for a moment, and then slowly dimmed and faded away, leaving only vague impressions that were almost impossible to see.
Bella found that she was panting as she stared at the captured vampire in disbelief; he was completely immobilized, trussed up like a pig for slaughter. Her hands shook and her muscles ached, but her breathing began to slow at last as the tension and adrenaline faded. However, the sudden crash left her feeling dizzy and giddy at the same time, and she found herself giggling at the sheer ludicrousness of what just happened.
At the sound of her somewhat hysterical laughter, she saw the green eyed man look at her with a raised eyebrow; she slapped her hand over her mouth in embarrassment before turning her eyes back to the vampire. She was almost incredulous at the enormous damage that was done to it; it's hair was completely burned off his head, and his skull was filled with cracks; chunks were missing from several areas of his forehead, probably the result of all those giant impacts he had taken. His face was blackened and seared, his nose crushed, and one eye was a milky and somewhat transparent mess. The other eye missing completely, just a scorched crater in the socket: it was almost like the venom had combusted and burned it away. Finally, she could see in the few areas where skin was visible through the gaps in the chains, it was charred and blackened.
With a deep breath, Bella finally turned and looked at her savior, staring at him with a feeling of awe and caution. She noticed that, even now with the danger seemingly passed, his eyes were alert and constantly scanned his surroundings. However, after a few moments, she watched the tense set of his shoulders slowly relax, which helped Bella to relax as well.
Bella shook her head in disbelief, her head foggy at the events of the past few minutes. What had she just witnessed? She had never believed anyone could put a vampire down; she thought them unbeatable except by other supernatural creatures like Jake's pack of werewolves.
And yet, this blue robed man had done it, seemingly with little trouble.
What was he?
By the time Bella had gathered her wits, she realized she had better get out of there. She had no idea what was going on, but she would rather watch from a safe distance. She saw that more of the blue and red robed stick holders were arriving - there had to be at least twenty of them now - and Bella was troubled to see that they were pointing their sticks at groups of onlookers.
Where they going to attack the bystanders?
And then, to her horror, she saw the civilians suddenly become still as statues as they stood stiffly with blank expressions.
Whatever was going on, Bella didn't want any part of it.
She slowly backed away, her eyes scanning left and right, trying to find the best way to get out of there. The people in blue were even entering the shops lining the street, pointing their sticks at anyone who they saw, making them all stand stiffly.
Really scared now, Bella hunched her head into her shoulders and began to walk towards the corner, where she could then quickly go down into the subway system and get the hell back to Sophie's. She was praying they would ignore her, willing herself to be onubtrusive and counting the seconds in her head until she could duck around the corner.
As she tried to not call attention to herself but keep a decent pace, she noticed the crowd noise from earlier was completely gone; only the background sounds of traffic on other streets could be heard. The silence in the middle of a city intersection with dozens of people standing like statues was eerie, and Bella was as spooked now as she was at any point today save perhaps when the vampire was right up in her face.
And though that might have been more dangerous, this was far creepier.
Bella almost tripped when a group of the statue people about fifty feet to her left seemed to suddenly come back to life. In an almost robotic fashion, they passed their phones and cameras to the men in blue who then pointed their sticks at them, causing them to spark. And then, even more bizarrely, after getting their devices back, the people seemed to stroll away as if nothing happened.
This scared Bella more than anything she had seen so far today. Stories of alien body snatchers or mind control cults flitted through her mind, and she wanted off that street more than she had wanted anything in a long, long time.
When she was just a few feet from the corner and was ready to turn and run, she felt someone hurrying to cut her off. She prepared to run, but even as she looked up, the green eyed man who just a few minutes ago saved her life was suddenly standing tall in front of her, blocking her path.
She stopped in her tracks with a yelp, her hands shaking as she fought down her terror of this man who easily defeated a vampire and was now about to...do something to her that was unfathomable.
As Bella's eyes moved upwards towards his face, her hands shaky and her mouth dry as ash, she got her first really good look at him. She realized she must be going into shock if she could notice any details about him, but she did.
His robes were a brilliant, royal blue, and had small epaulettes on the shoulders like a military officer might have. He was average height, with pale skin and black, messy hair. His jaw was firm and his nose was straight, and he had a faded scar on his forehead. Despite the danger he was to her, Bella thought he was a reasonably handsome man; and then, like a wave crashing on her, she was fighting an overwhelming dizziness and fear that suddenly made her feel faint.
She couldn't pass out now, she couldn't! What would they do to her then?
With a helpless feeling, Bella finally looked into his eyes.
They were a brilliant, bright emerald green and seemed to be almost mesmeric; deep, dazzling in a way.
Those eyes were suddenly boring into her own, and she felt herself panicking as the stick was suddenly pointing at her, her fear returning like a freezing blast of ice.
"Wait, please!" she started to say, but the man didn't hesitate. She finally heard one of his strange words clearly - 'obliviate' - and a faint yellow light, almost too faint to be seen, leapt from his stick and splashed against her forehead.
Bella was shaking like a leaf, she was so scared, ready to be turned into a statue like the other people.
When she felt no different, she clenched her hand, finding that she was able to do so.
Was something supposed to happen? She opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say, when he stepped closer and started speaking, his voice fairly deep and his English accent clear and easy to understand.
"You were walking through the park, you saw nothing out of the ordinary. You will hand me your phone or camera if you have one, and I will give it back to you and later you will remember dropping it. If you don't have a phone or camera, you will walk away when I say. You will go a few blocks away from here, and then continue with whatever you were doing before. Give me your phone now if you have one, or walk way and follow your instructions."
Bella stared at the man like he was an idiot, her fear momentarily receding. Was he really telling her to simply hand over her phone, walk away and pretend nothing happened here? What was going on? Where were the police? Who were these people?
The man had his hand outstretched, waiting for her to obey. When he realized she hadn't moved, his eyes narrowed and he looked at her more closely, almost expectantly. When she still did nothing, his eyebrows scrunched just as her hands began to shake, feeling half terrified and half incensed.
Harry Potter was having a really shitty day. The chance to take the death eater quietly had gone sour, and now they had about a hundred muggles to obliviate and a long report to the PM about why more wizarding trouble was spilling into Muggle London.
As he looked around the square, he saw the obliviators moving with their usual calm precision. He would have to contact the muggle police himself to have the video feeds of the street for this particular intersection have a 'lost footage' accident occur. It had been a common enough occurrence a few years ago, and the paperwork for these kinds of things were thankfully not too bad.
He saw that most of the muggles seemed to have been handled and were calmly walking away, with no memory of what they had seen. However, his quick eye saw that there was one girl that was moving too quickly towards an intersection where she would be out of sight of the ministry people. He wasn't sure why no one saw her, but he could easily tell from her nervous gait that they'd missed her in their sweep.
As he moved closer, he recognized her as the girl he apparated directly in front of. That must be why the teams skipped her, because she was standing so close to him they figured he handled it.
Five years ago, a single muggle seeing things they shouldn't wouldn't be a big deal; who would believe them? But now, with the cameras and camera phones they all carried and websites like youtube with global reach, they had to be more thorough. So, he quickly made his way over to her, cutting her off her escape. She opened her mouth and started to say something, but Harry didn't have time to listen. He hated having to obliviate the muggles, but it was part of the job.
He cast his spell, followed by brief instructions to hand over the phone and then walk away and forget everything she'd seen. Obliviation allowed the caster to implant a few quick 'suggestions' as the victim were very susceptible for a few seconds after being hit with the spell.
So, satisfied that he'd gotten her, he held out his hand, waiting for her to hand over her phone or - if she didn't have one - to walk away.
To his surprise, however, he saw the girl had not moved. His eyebrows rose in confusion. Had the spell not taken? Even if she was a witch, it would have taken. His power levels were high enough that he had never met anyone who could withstand an obliviate from him, even an occlumens.
Not ever.
He took a careful step towards the girl, looking at her more closely. She was about average height for a girl, a few inches over five feet, and rather petite with narrow shoulders and hips. She was rather pretty, with pale skin and dark eyes and hair. She had a straight, small nose, a pouty mouth, and small ears with little gold earrings in them. She was dressed in jeans and a short sleeved white blouse, and had a small handbag slung over one shoulder that she was clutching with white knuckled hands.
She was terrified.
As Harry took another step closer, she took a step backwards; yes, definitely afraid. And honestly, he couldn't blame her. She had just been almost smack in the middle of a duel; and then a stranger cast a spell on her without giving her a chance to say a word.
Time to defuse this. "Miss? I'm sorry, my name is Harry Potter. I am an Auror with the British Ministry, and this is now considered a government crime scene. Can I ask you for your name, please?"
The girl looked at him in surprise, but at least the fearful look on her face faded a bit, turning into one of careful curiosity and distrust. He looked up into her eyes, and found himself appreciating the intelligence he saw there. Her brown eyes reminded him of Hermione.
"What...what are you? How did you stop that vampire? What are you trying to do to me?" The girl's voice was a pleasant sounding alto that Harry found very easy to listen to, but it was stressed and shaky.
But he immediately was on guard - how had she recognized the vampire?
"Miss, as I told you, I am an Auror with the British Ministry. We operate under a secrecy clause, and the men and women you see in the blue and red robes are my co-workers. They are insuring...no one discusses the fight, so certain government secrets can be contained. No one is being harmed, at all." He took a breath. "Now, may I have your name?"
Harry watched the girl nibble her lip as she digested what he had just said. He had not used the word 'magic' or anything else that would be a clear violation of the statute - but what were they going to do with her if she could not be obliviated?
She finally seemed to relax. "Isabella."
He nodded, thanking her. "Isabella...how did you recognize the vampire?"
Bella thought about everything this strange man...this Harry Potter...had just told her. There was a lot not being said here, but what he did say? Secret truths? Insuring no one talks about the fight? How did he do all these things, like conjuring chains from nothing?
Even as part of her mind focused on the puzzle this man presented, she saw he was getting impatient. "I…I've met vampires before. Back home in the States."
The man...Harry, opened his mouth to reply, but then a woman, also in blue robes, ran up to him, a bit out of breath. "Harry, all the muggles have been obliviated. We've got Durgan and the Vampire portkeyed out already, and I'm going to head back and inform Kingsley. He's going to need to brief the Muggle Prime Minister, especially after what happened last time."
Harry looked over at the newcomer...Isabella...and clenched his jaw; she was going to be a problem, but he had other responsibilities and things he had to do.
Bella watched with curiosity as he nodded at the woman, who seemed like she must be his subordinate. She watched as she jogged back towards the pub, and disappeared through the front door, and soon after the rest of the blue robed men and women either did the same, or suddenly vanished with a pop, making Bella's eyes go wide.
"What...how did those people disappear?" She turned her eyes back to Harry. "What does 'obliviated' mean? That sounds dangerous! What are you? You've told me nothing!" Bella, while having lose her fear of this man, was still afraid of her situation. This felt remarkably like when she first began to spend time with Edward: a clear and present danger, filled with secrets, who was undoubtedly deadly, and who could, at any moment end her life.
Bella fought to keep herself calm as Harry watched her with a mix of concern and amusement.
Harry clearly was dangerous if he could stop a vampire - but he seemed like he might be one of the good guys.
"What does obliviate mean?" she asked again. "Is that what you tried to do to me?"
She watched as a slew of emotions seemed to run across his face, before his shoulders sagged and he gave her a small smile. "Well, Isabella, let me ask you one question, and, depending on your answer, then I should be able to answer all of your questions without any problems. OK?"
Bella gave him a hesitant nod, seeing no harm in it.
"Okay,', he said, pointing at the old pub. "See that billboard over there? What do you see directly next to it? Do you see a tavern?" Harry waited to see what she said.
Bella looked over, and then back at him like he was crazy. "Yes, of course I see it. It's an old run down pub that looks a hundred years old. Was that some sort of trick question?"
Harry let a relieved breath, followed by a small chuckle. "No, not a trick. But I know that I can tell you a few things now, seeing as you are able to see the Leaky Cauldron. Normal muggles can't see it."
"What?" Bella asked, confused. "What do you mean, they can't see it? It's right there! And what's a muggle?"
Harry just smiled, and motioned for her to walk with him. She hesitated a moment, and then followed along, keeping a cautious distance between them as they began heading towards the pub.
"Isabella..."
Bella chewed her lip, cutting him off. "Just Bella is fine."
Harry smiled at her, and Bella found herself further relaxing. He had a warm, charming smile, and when he relaxed he looked younger than the 30 something she had originally thought. Now, with the tension gone from his face and his shoulders not held so rigidly, Bella thought maybe he was in his mid to late 20's.
"Well, Bella, what do you know about magic?"
A/N: Let me know what you think. I have wanted to do a crossover for a LONG time, found this in alpha condition on an old hard drive. Will be a lot of work to continue it as I have nothing written yet, so lmk if you think it's worth it.