Just my Luck – part two

"The words 'Statute of Secrecy' mean nothing to you, do they?" Harry asked the oblivious blonde, when the awkward silence that had descended onto the room started to become unbearable.

It seemed like his words where the start-shot for everyone else to start talking.

Stark had shot of five questions before the first even fully registered and he didn't get a chance to even attempt to answer one of them before Fury demanded everyone's full attention.

"You." he pointed at Stark, too furious to even threaten the man; "shut up."

The man wisely did as he was told, pretty sure that, despite being an occasionally helpful genius and public figure, he would possibly find himself actually dumped in a volcano if he opened his mouth right now.

"And you" the Director pointed at Harry "Start talking. Now."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the man. He knew where this anger came from. He had understood, even from their short 'conversation' after he had come aboard of the flying ship, how much the man in charge of it thrived on information and on being in control of a situation.

To be blindsided like this in his own headquarters must have been a punch in the face.

"Well… that little life-story you told me, wasn't exactly wrong… just somewhat incomplete." Harry answered casually, with a small shrug.

A full thirty seconds of silence went by before the man actually bellowed; "AND?"

With the ease of someone used to spending a lot of time around Snape, Hagrid, various magical creatures, Dumbledore in all his glory, Molly Weasely, Mad-eye Moody and a few other intimidating people – such as Voldemort -, Harry simply took a long look at the gathered Avengers and answered completely matter-of-factly; "Statute of Secrecy. It's all sorts of classified. Muggles aren't allowed to know this stuff."

For about five seconds the wizard considered obliviating the bunch of them before realising that he hadn't the faintest clue how to erase the information off all of the camera's. Well that, and the fact that he would probably get shot the moment he sent his first spell. Maybe not the best of plans, even for him.

"How do you know about this, anyway?" He asked the instigator of his current predicament, instead.

"Ah! I have heard the glorious tale of your victory told in Asgard, young wizard." the man enthusiastically told him. "Truly you faced your death bravely and battled as only a true fearless warrior may. When the defeat of the dark wizard known as Voldemort became known in our realm we feasted heartily in your honour. For such tales of battle are gladly celebrated in our halls." Thor's manly slap on his shoulder nearly sent him flying.

"Err… right." Harry answered, slightly thrown by the man who was a little bit odd even by his standards. "And… where's Asgard?"

Luckily Tony didn't seem to have any trouble following the conversation and Fury's earlier order had already lost it's effectiveness, so the genius helpfully filled him in; "Asgard is on a different planet. Thor here is kind of an alien. Apparently all of the Norse God's are aliens. Who knew, right? But then, who knew there were wizards happily living and fighting in Britain? Guess we're all still learning new things. Exciting, isn't it?"

It took a moment for Harry to cut through the man's sarcasm and process that. "So… you're not named after a God, but you are actually the Norse God of Thunder?" He asked the man – God – in question, just to be sure.

"Indeed, young friend! And I am glad that the stories of my victories have in turn, made it to Midgard as well. For I too have fought many battles in defence of my people…"

Harry decided to do everyone a favour and cut the man off before he really got going. "Ah. Alright then, just making sure."

"Well… I suppose that's alright then." the wizard mused. If the Ministry didn't like it, they could just take it up with the enthusiastic warrior-God, as far as Harry was concerned.

"So, what are 'muggles'?" Tony asked curiously, not in the least put out by any of this.

"Hmm…" Harry hummed as his attention was drawn from imagining an encounter between the fine Ministry workers and Thor. "Oh, just non-magical people. Everyone here except for Thor, I suppose." He answered easily. "There's a strict law against letting anyone non-magical know about magic."

"You don't seem to be too worried about breaking the laws." Captain Rogers pointed out with a frown.

"Well…" Harry answered, "If the Ministry of Magic doesn't like it, they can just take it up with the God." he answered, nodding his head to the muscled blond with the large hammer.

He decided to leave the possibility of any memory tampering out of his answer. People could get a bit touchy about stuff like that.

None of this information was enough to satisfy Director Fury, it seemed. "And what does being a wizard entail exactly?" he asked, customary mocking tone back in his voice. Apparently the man was good at adapting quickly to a new situation. Good for him.

"You know, magic. Wands, flying broomsticks, cauldrons. The whole picture."

"Not good enough, Potter."

Harry sighed and figured in for a penny in for a pound. As long as they steered clear of any personal questions and particulars he really didn't care all that much.

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

Apparently the Director wanted to know more than anyone else was allowed to know, because he had Harry escorted back to the room of his first friendly chat with the man.

Three quarters of an hour later, Fury still wasn't too happy with the wizard and Harry was refusing to provide any more particular information. Both were slightly frustrated with each other (maybe that was an understatement when it came to the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D) and neither was used to backing down.

Finally, the Gryffindor had enough; "I've told you far more than any muggle is supposed to know. Keep in mind that wizards have kept this a very close secret ever since the witch trials. And even with the current muggle technology of camera's and the like the world still does. not. know. We have our ways of keeping our secrets. Don't push too hard or you will not like the response."

"Is that a threat, Potter?" The Director asked in the matter-of-fact tone of someone used to either receiving or issuing them. Or both.

Harry just shrugged. "I didn't come here as a wizard. I came here as Bruce's friend. I had no desire to expose this secret and I still have no desire to interfere in your business. In the end, how this turns out depends solely on you."

Fury sat back and took a long look at the calm wizard in front of him. "Thor called you the Saviour of the Wizarding World."

Harry nodded, wondering if the man was trying to question him again on the meaning behind those words and just who this 'Voldemort' was. He narrowed his eyes having no desire to answer either of those questions, but the man continued thoughtfully;

"Maybe a wizard-saviour is just what the Avengers needed."

While the computer in the lab was tracing something called 'the Tesseract' Harry and Bruce had found a quiet corner in the cafeteria – it was surprisingly empty for such a populated aircraft – and managed to find some tea.

A comfortable silence stretched between the two. It was quite the opposite of the barrage of questions Fury and the other Avengers had for him and Harry felt himself soothed by it.

At least Bruce wasn't too angry about his secret.

If he had been Harry would know. The transformation into a large green creature would have been hard to miss, after all.

"So, a… wizard, huh?" The usually unassuming man asked him calmly after a long moment.

"To be fair, you didn't tell me about 'the other guy' either." Harry had found about that the way he usually found out about things… by being thrown to the lions. Or the Hulk, as the case may be.

"True." Bruce agreed affably.

Another moment of silence as they both sipped their tea.

"Saviour of Wizarding Britain?"

And because this was Bruce and not Director Fury, Harry actually answered him; "A bad wizard decided to take his issues out on the whole of Britain and I was drafted to go up against him." A hint of bitterness might have made its way into his voice, but he was pretty sure Bruce wouldn't hold it against him.

"That sounds rather… unfair. You're only eighteen, right?"

"Hmhm… yeah. But there was a prophecy and everything." Harry added, deciding that fair was fair and it wasn't exactly the wizarding world's fault he had been pushed to the centre of their war at such a young age. "So I suppose I was involved either way. Voldemort was targeting me, as well as my friends. And someone had to do something. I've never been the type to stand by and let innocent people suffer. Hermione calls it my saving people thing."

"You'd get along well with the Captain, then."

"Hmm… maybe."

With another sip of their green tea – Bruce seemed to have taken a liking to the stuff – the two silently enjoyed the current calm.

Finally it was Bruce who spoke up again, the curiosity in his face and voice only barely covering his concern; "Will you be taking the Director's offer, then?"

For a long moment Harry didn't answer. He had been the appointed saviour for a long time, too long. And he had never enjoyed it. He had actually travelled so far from Britain to get away from it all. So when Fury asked him to join his little world saving team he just said he would think about it with no real intention of saying yes.

But in the end, when it came down to it and people were in danger, could he really do anything else?

"Probably." he answered his friend truthfully, once again wondering how he always found himself in these kinds of situations. The Gryffindor was pretty sure that somewhere up there, someone was having a good laugh at him.

Ah well, things didn't exactly go according to plan. But then, when – if ever – did they? Harry supposed that in the grand scheme of things it could have been worse.

After all, Bruce didn't get angry. And at least he had tea.

So all in all, things could be worse.

And, just as he was thinking this somewhere on the muggle airship something exploded.

Harry couldn't help but sigh.

…well, bugger that.

A.N. Due to popular demand, and the fact that I wanted to do a sequel for at least one of my recent stories (I have been overdoing the one-shot thing a bit), this little sequel found it's breath of life (so to speak). It feels kind of weird to write a sequel, but I hope it was ok.