Marvel/HP: A Third Path to the Future

As they made their way back to where the portal to the Earth realm was hidden, disguised by a rock made to look like a meteor, Harry began to question his new friends about themselves. "So, I take it we've got one person with a fire power in Sparky over there." He nodded at Johnny who scowled at his nickname. "Another guy who's probably super strong," he nodded, and Ben who nodded back, "and someone who stretches. The ladies must love you by the way."

This statement surprisingly caused Reed to blush a little, and both Ben and Johnny to burst into laughter. Susan however growled a little. "They'd better not!" She said sharply.

"What's the matter, sis," Johnny teased, "a little jealous that others might be looking at the big brain over there?"

"Not at all, they can look all they want," she said, "as long as he remembers that he belongs to me."

Harry looked over at Reed and nudged him in the ribs at the possessive tone of the blond woman. The older man grinned a little back at him, an unusual look on the man.

"So, what's your power, Mrs. Richards?" said Harry.

Before Susan could answer, Johnny spoke up "Oh, she can turn invisible, and she can project these invisible shields of many sizes too."

Harry stopped in space, staring at her in horror. "My God in Heaven, that's the most terrifying power I've ever heard of."

The others all looked at him in shock. Secretly, all three of the men had felt that Susan was a bit of a wallflower in comparison to their own abilities, though Reed, at least, knew it was not so much because of her power, but because of her personality.

"Why in the world does that terrify you when my face doesn't even shock ya'?" Ben asked, half joking, half seriously.

"She can turn invisible," Harry said calmly. "Do you have any idea the number of pranks she could pull on you if she wanted to? Trust me, I'm speaking from experience."

"Well, my wife isn't exactly much for pranks," Reed said, with Susan nodding in agreement.

She wasn't, but the thought did have some appeal. The next time Johnny left her with his laundry or brought home a date who spent the night without first telling her, he would be in for a shock. Or if Ben broke any more of her plates. And if she ever woke up again with Reed having secretly gone off to his laboratory without telling her or at least kissing her goodbye, just wait….

Both Reed and Johnny suddenly felt a bit of the chill go up their back.

Harry, however, countered, "But that's not all you said. She can create invisible shields, right?"

"Yeeeesss," said Ben slowly, wondering where the kid was going with this.

"That means she could create them around your nether regions, right? Or around any other body part for that matter. Then she could shrink the shields. You'd be taken apart slowly by something you couldn't see."

All four of them looked at him in surprise, and then Sue cocked her head thoughtfully, "I guess I could." She said, "I've never thought of using them on distinct and different body parts before. I wonder if that would work? I can change their shape after all. Thanks, Harry."

"You're welcome." He chirped happily. "Just don't use them on me all right? I like my wedding tackle the way it is, thank you very much."

Susan turned to the others and grinned evilly at them. All three of the men silently declared vengeance on Harry for introducing Susan to that idea.

They were nearly back to the portal, most of the time spent with Reed and the others explaining their adventures to Harry, when another flight of Annihilus' troops came upon them, appearing over a large rock that Ben was passing close to. Ben charged forward using his jet packs, slamming two of them together and then throwing them at the others. Before anyone else could respond, Harry had begun moving insanely fast, using his odd powers on the enemy troopers.

Two of them were turned into rocks, another was changed into a spear, then driven into a fourth one, killing him instantly, and the fifth was simply held motionless in the air. This all happened in an instant.

Reed shook his head at the incredible reflexes of the other young man and the power he used so easily. Agatha was rated a strong magic user, but she had never shown anything on that scale before. Harry though… "Is there any limit to those transforming powers of yours?" Reed asked, after the battle had ended.

Harry shrugged. "Quite a few actually, though I've discovered through trial and error that they react differently here in the Negative Zone than elsewhere. Before I arrived here, I would never have been able to transfigure, that's the wizarding term, old boy, living matter, especially an intelligent lifeform, to an inanimate object. There are also limitations to what I can conjure. I don't know if my power grew here somehow or what though."

Reed nodded, though he wasn't really mollified. The young man was friendly enough, but also extremely dangerous, and that worried him.

With a wave of Harry's hand, the alien that was held in the air started to come towards him slowly, obviously not under his own power. Reed noticed a wooden ring on one of Harry's fingers but rather than dwell on that seemingly odd bit of jewelry, he asked, "What are you going to do with him?" The fact that most of the other attackers had been killed by Harry did not sit well with him.

Harry shrugged. "I was going to give him a message for his boss."

When the thing was close enough, Harry turned his full attention to the captured being and said, "Tell your boss that this Earth and these heroes are under my protection. I'm certain he won't want a redo of the pink tutu incident, yes?"

The thing shook its head wildly. Every inhabitant of the Negative Zone that Harry had run into had found that he was slightly, well crazy, even by their standards. They had also discovered that dying fighting him was often better than his practical jokes and punishments; well, to them at least.

Annihilus, for example, spent two months dressed in a pink tutu, along with half of his forces, regardless of anything he tried, including changing his armor to get rid of the effect. That marked the last time he had tried to attack Harry and wasn't even the worst thing Harry had done to some of his other opponents. It was one thing to be beaten, it was another to be humiliated and to have that humiliation stick around for long periods of time.

"Good lad, now off you trot." Harry waved one hand dismissively.

The beast flew off after gathering up the two Ben had knocked out, thankful beyond words that Harry hadn't added any humiliating joke or anything else before sending him on his way.

Harry turned to the Fantastic Four smiling crookedly. "Shall we go?"

Reed looked at the others then shrugged, and they set off again. They got back to the portal without further incident. Reed sent a signal at it via a small handheld device and the disguise fell away. Another quick activation code on the device and the portal activated.

Harry looked at the open portal intently. "Interesting, so are you going to shut this down when you get to the other side? Hint, hint, wink, wink."

Reed was a little reluctant to agree to that. "The Negative Zone is so fascinating though. Think of what we could learn from it." He sensed the younger man was a bit of a thinker as well and hoped to appeal to that aspect of his personality.

Harry however, disillusioned him swiftly. "We could learn that there are other races out there who are more powerful than our own and could wipe us out with a thought," he said bluntly. "Believe me, I've met some of them. I'll tell you what I know about the Negative Zone, but it is not a place to go exploring for the heck of it."

Susan nodded sharply. "I agree, I know that you had to go into the Negative Zone to find something to help me during my pregnancy, Reed, but Annihilus has shown that he is a major threat to us. Look what almost happened to our baby! He's not the only one either, remember Blastarr?" She had not let Franklin out of her arms the entire time. The baby had not exactly been displeased by this, snuggling and cooing against her neck.

Reed hesitated for a moment, sighed, and nodded. "Perhaps you're right, I think I've been spending far too much time in the laboratory lately anyway."

Susan looked at him in shock. Then a small blossoming smile appeared on her face that put another smile on his face in turn. Harry nodded and said, "Good, and don't worry about spending too much time in your lab anymore. I think two hours a day should do."

Reed flinched at that. He'd been thinking more like five or six hours a day. But Harry ignored his horrified look and said, "Every hour after that I will prank you, with increasing fervor and zeal as the day goes on."

"What's this obsession with pranks you have?" Ben asked curiously, trying to run interference for Reed, who was looking increasingly pale, though Susan was smiling appreciatively.

"Blame my father figure for that one." Harry said, laughing. "He was part of a group of students, I guess you could call them student activists, called the Marauders who acted against the pureblood movement by pranking them all mercilessly during their school years. Sneaking around while doing them, though, did help them learn how to fight and sneak around once they got out of school. As the only true one remaining, he passed on his pranking spirit to me. Now that I have an audience who will actually see the humor of it, I'm anxious to get back into the swing of things."

Ben laughed at that and the five of them moved through the portal.

Around the Earth and elsewhere, the first step of Harry Potter on to the Earth of this reality caused several different effects, as those with certain powers, both magical and not, felt the arrival of something new and different.

OOOOOOO

In New York, Dr. Strange looked on quizzically as several demons, ones a would-be demonologist just summoned to do his bidding, suddenly started screaming. They sounded so terrified that he was moved to ask, "Excuse me, but what seems to be the trouble here?"

Could some greater demon belonging to another faction be on this plane? I have not sensed anything like that, nor has the Orb of Agamotto.

"The Sword of Light is here, the Sword of Light is here!" shouted one of the demons, a minor imp that had better vocal cords, but far less power and intelligence than most of the greater demons. "We're doomed!

One of them was running in a circle shouting, "Game over, man. Game over!"

For some reason, Dr. Strange's eyebrow began to twitch at that line. It was decidedly too human in his mind. Demons should be dark and evil beings; they should not suddenly start running around gibbering in terror. A moment after he thought this, one of them, the largest the demonologist had been able to summon said, "Retreat!" With that, they all ducked back into the portal that the demonologist opened to Hell.

The demonologist in question had just stood there gaping the entire time. Now, finding himself alone against Dr. Strange, he raised a hand and said, "I demand a do over, that batch was obviously defective!"

Dr. Strange's eyebrow twitched again, and he summoned his power, forming magical manacles around the man's wrists, as well as around his mouth. "I think not." Elsewhere other magic users felt the effect, wondering where the spike of raw power they felt came from. Some of them wondered if it could be turned to serve their purposes, while others determined to stay well away from whatever it was.

OOOOOOO

While Wyatt was greeting the Fantastic Four and their new friend happily (they had been gone over two days local time after all, days which he spent manning the portal), another magic user was reacting to being far closer to the source of power than she wanted to be.

Agatha Harkness was shocked out of her unconscious state by the first step of a Fate Marked onto the realm of Earth. Agatha had been around for a long time, since the Salem Witch Trials in fact, and she could sense these things. She would have to go search for this person, as soon as she was able to walk.

While both of them had sustained a beating, she was after all an older woman, and a few days wasn't enough time to put her back on her feet. Wyatt, the young scamp, had been up and about within two days, curse him. She looked up, not at all surprised to see her familiar, Ebony, slinking under her bed. "You can feel it as well, old friend?"

The cat creature meowed unhappily, and she nodded. "Yes, that says it all really."

Nor was it only magic users who felt the pulse of Harry's presence in their world.

OOOOOOO

In upstate New York, a computer named Cerebro began to jingle-jangle its alarms. Professor Xavier, psychologist, world-renowned speech maker, and peacemaker, of the Salem Institute for Gifted Youngsters, looked up in alarm as the noise interrupted the midday meal. Thankfully, all the kids were at school and the only ones there were Logan and Ororo. Both walked with him as he moved his wheelchair into the secret elevator that took them down into the main area of the X-Men's headquarters.

Soon the helmet part of Cerebro was on the professor's bald head and he swiftly began to control the computer, using it to heighten his own powers, scanning around to find what had set the machine off.

After a moment, he sighed, and said, "It's nothing to concern ourselves with, no danger to the school. But it would appear as if a mutant has appeared, a rather powerful one going by the readings I'm getting, somewhere in California. I'll try to isolate it. When I do, then we will have to take a trip out there to see what we can find out about this new mutant and if we want to recruit him or her."

Ororo frowned. "I don't think that the Blackbird can take us that far without refueling. Does that mean we are going to have to book a commercial flight?"

Xavier nodded. "Yes, I think we will, I've been meaning to stop in and speak with Reed and Susan anyway."

Logan grunted but inside he was happy about the trip. Ben was always fun to play cards with and was one of the few who could keep up with his beer intake.

Ororo, on the other hand, kept her mind on business. "How exactly are we going to explain to the kids that we need to go to sunny California with its beaches and everything without them?"

Xavier coughed uncomfortably. "Well, that, my dear, I think we can leave in your capable hands. I need to stay here and figure out where specifically the signal is coming from."

"I'll see if I can boost the Blackbird's range," said Logan quickly. "That way we won't have to take a commercial flight."

As Logan hurried out and Xavier started to ignore her pointedly, Ororo scowled a little, but that was all the emotion she would allow herself. She needed to remain calm to not affect the local weather conditions. She still took a moment, though, to imagine retribution falling on the two men's heads for this before she sighed and walked out of Cerebro's chamber.

OOOOOOO

Xavier was not the only one who could tell that a new powerful mutant had arrived on the scene. Magneto couldn't quite get the information Cerebro could give Xavier, but he could tell where the general vicinity was. For example, he could narrow the location where a new mutant was, down to a state or region. He frowned thoughtfully. The Fantastic Four operated in California. He had no desire to tangle with them, but he did want to find out who this new mutant was and, if possible, sway him to his cause. Drumming his fingers on his seat for a moment, he decided to send Mystique rather than going himself or sending one of his other associates. She was the most diplomatic followers he had and one of the sneakiest.

OOOOOOO

Yet, it was not only on Earth that the ripple of Harry Potter's footstep was felt. In a place with no name, no sky, and no passage of time, in a castle that looked incredibly old, a woman cloaked in a black cloak from head to foot looked up. Though nothing of her face could be seen, her body was very feminine, and the cloak was formfitting, save around her face. Even as she stood there silently, an observer, if there could be such a thing here, would have been able to see her shaking a little. And, after a moment, one could tell that it was from anger.

OOOOOOO

Susan smiled happily, rocking her baby in her arms. "Well, Harry, this is the Baxter Building. We own the top five floors, and have several suites you can use for yourself, if you want to. I don't know what you want to do with your life now that you're here, but we can at least give you a home for a few weeks until you decide for yourself."

Harry shook Wyatt's hand and looked around him, admiring all the technology he could see. "Thank you for that Mrs. Richards. I think I'll take you up on that one. Just judging from the tech I see, this world is a bit more advanced than the world I'm originally from. I also want to find out why you know about magic but have never heard of wizard society. That tells me there is a distinct difference from my world to this one."

"Yuck, research," Johnny muttered, but Harry nodded eagerly, then froze.

"Um, one moment please," he said before the others could move forward. He reached into a pocket on his suit and pulled out what looked like a small snuffbox. He set it on the ground, tapped it with a finger, and it suddenly began to grow.

Reed shook his head. "I've seen Agatha do some interesting things with magic but something like this still makes me wonder where the mirrors are."

"That's the second time you've mentioned a magic user by that name," said Harry, as he opened the now large trunk. He reached inside and gently pulled out what looked at first to be a stuffed owl. This notion was disproven however, as soon as all its body was fully out of the trunk.

Wyatt looked on with interest as the snowy owl, the genus Bubo Scandiacus, (unlike the others he knew a thing or five hundred about animals), came alive and started to peck angrily at Harry's hand and face. "Preck!"

As the others looked on in surprise, and with growing smiles, the owl continued its attack on a beleaguered Harry.

"Ow, ow, Hedwig, bloody, ow, cut it out Hedwig! Ow, you know it, ow, it was for your own good Hed, you, ow, stop it! You know I wouldn't have done something like that if it wasn't necessary!" The snowy owl continued for several minutes, then came to rest on his shoulder, nipping at his ear and pulling at his hair.

Harry shook his head, then turned to the others. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said dryly, "I give you Hedwig. When I took my jaunt through the Veil of Death, she wanted to come with me. Eventually I had to put her in stasis. There's nothing whatsoever she can eat in the Negative Zone. Or at least nothing I've found, and conjured food doesn't sustain you. And unfortunately, this is purely a trunk for the storage of items, not people. So, I had to put her in stasis and put her in there. And, as you can tell, she's rather cross with me."

Hedwig precked again, but much softer this time, and Harry raised a cautious hand up to her. When the owl didn't nip at it, he slowly began to stroke her chest feathers. "Sorry, girl, I did tell you that this trip would be trouble."

Susan looked at the bird appreciatively. "She's magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen an owl quite like that one before."

Harry chortled, his fingers still busy stroking the snowy owl's plumage. "Oh, she's one of a kind, is my Hedwig."

"So, is she, what, your familiar or something?" Johnny asked.

"Precisely who is whose master is still a matter of much debate between us," said Harry drolly. "One I refuse to bring up because I'm afraid I might lose."

The others all laughed, and Susan said, "Well you can patch things up with your owl later, there's a room with a window down that hallway. It also has a bath so you can get changed and rest up."

"Bath", said Harry blankly standing stock still, one foot still raised mid-step. "Do you know the last time I had a bath? You can't conjure water in the Negative Zone for some reason; it always evaporates too quickly, or the spell just doesn't work. A bath, I would cheerfully immolate a world for a bath. You have an enemy you want me to hunt down and dismember for you? Seriously, I'll do it in a second for a bath! My dear lady, please show me the way to this magnificent marvel!"

Susan laughed and pointed down the hallway again. "Fifth door on the right," she said simply.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you," Harry said, then actually skipped down the hallway to the room, Hedwig still perched on his shoulder.

Reed followed him, intent on asking some questions about the Negative Zone while it was still fresh in the young man's mind. He started off by saying, "I'm fascinated by that suit you're wearing. I can tell it's not just rubber or something like that. Care to explain what it's made from?"

Hedwig had flown up to perch on the bedpost and Harry had already peeled off the top of the suit, showing several sets of scars to Reed, who looked at them, then away. He knew the signs of war when he saw them. After all, he and Ben had both fought in the Korean War together. That, and the young man's eyes and stance told him a lot about the civil war this boy had survived. If he was really in the Negative Zone for five years, he must have fought in the war at fifteen or sixteen. No child should fight a war that young. What in the world were his people thinking? What was he thinking?

"I call it a crisis suit. I took the name from a game advertisement I saw in the window of a game store at one point. Of course, my relatives would never allow me to own the actual game, but the name was sort of cool. One of my friends…" here Harry paused, looking out into the distance at something Reed couldn't see, though he recognized that look all too well, before he went on.

"One of my friends and I developed it, or at least the concept behind it, and I created it before I was exiled. It's fueled by magic and has dozens of protective wards, spells, and runic symbols worked into it, as well as some that have changed its atomic composition. I imagine, though, your own suits are rather advanced scientifically. Can't imagine them surviving being set on fire or stretched otherwise."

Reed nodded. "True, but I would love to sit down with you and compare the two, as well as pick your brain about the Negative Zone."

By this time, Harry was down to his underwear, looking over at the bed, and said thoughtfully, "I hope you blokes don't mind, but I'm going to kip out for a bit. I can't remember the last time I've had a good night's sleep, as in the full eight bloody hours of sleep. In the Negative Zone you either live by naps and sleep with one eye open or you soon die."

Reed nodded. "I'll make certain there's some food in the kitchen for you if you wake up at any point. It's one floor below us to the right of the elevator."

Harry waved him off and opened the door on the side of his new room, sighing happily as he saw the porcelain bath there. "I'll talk to you all tomorrow, okay?" Reed nodded and left him there, then went outside to spend time with his wife and son.

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