Silence reigned after her statement as the obviously surprised group of wizards watched the approach of the group. It was clear the Scandinavians didn't recognize Harri and that the Germans however, did. They had all paled and dropped their hands to their sides, some even taking steps back. The Scandinavians however bristled angrily.
"Who are you to burst in here during our diplomatic talks? Those doors are closed to everyone who is not involved." One old wizard with immaculately styled grey hair asked indignantly, moustache quivering in agitation.
Harri mentally snorted,
"Sexist old geezer" she said softly to the others, who had to stifle grins. Louder she continued, just as dryly,
"Why are you holding diplomatic talks in my home then?"
The man spluttered,
"Your home? You lie. This is a castle and a school not anyone's home."
"Why last I checked I do own the place. Has that changed in my absence dearest Hogwarts?"
A flash of white light appeared from no one set direction and caressed Harri, who smiled and gently caressed it with her own magic.
"Nope, clearly I am still the owner." By this point she had reached the dais where the teachers would sit during school time, currently missing the table and sat in the head chair with aplomb before continuing smugly,
"And that means, my dear sirs and ladies, that you are in my home, uninvited and are all being exceedingly rude."
The Avengers were struggling to contain their laughter as they watched the panicked Germans and the confused Scandinavians. They grew more serious however when as one the Germans knelt before Harri,
"Forgive us our impertinence Lady Harri." Looking at Harri, Bruce realized she did look every inch a lady.
"Why should I? You clearly organized the talks to be held here because you believed you would have strategic advantage. You know that I know when Hogwarts is being used in such a manner and wished for me to judge favorably when your uneducated rivals put their foot in it, so to speak."
The leader of the German party bowed his head even further and spoke earnestly,
"The Judge is correct. Even so we would ask The Judge to hear our quarrel."
One Scandinavian recognized the significance of the title and whispered frantically in the ear of the spokesperson whose eyes opened dramatically wide and his face lost all colour. He looked up at Harri with new eyes, and saw that she looked unimpressed. Soon all the Scandinavians had joined the Germans on the floor.
Thor was confused, from what he had gathered of Harri, she was not one to enjoy subservience. So why did she allow these people to cower before her. Before he could think more on it, Harri spoke, and this time all could hear a difference to her voice. Where before, her voice had been gentle, friendly and amusing. It now reeked of barely restrained power.
"Enough. Stand up, all of you. Shame on you Germans for bringing your enemies to a place they did not realize the significance of. Shame on you," she looked to the other group, "for not doing your research on the locations of your diplomatic talks."
"Did you not think anywhere in your heads that perhaps there could be a peaceful outcome before you declared war?" She asked softly, and yet her voice carried through the hall.
The spokespeople from both Germany and Scandinavia shared looks and approached the chair,
"If you please Lady Judge. Will you hear our dilemma?" Bruce was shocked at the title, and then remembered back to the codenames discussion. Harri had said she was called the Judge, and now it appeared to be the reason behind it. Harri was apparently some sort of magical mediator between countries about to declare war.
"I believe I have the gist of it. Some Scandinavian wizards found out that the Chancellor's daughter, who is muggle found out about magic and took offence to this. They obliviated her, which meant that the Germans took offence to them. Some idiot somewhere in a ministry stuffed up the peace talks and voila here we are." She waved her hand airily.
The Avengers were very grateful that they had taken the time to dress up. If the discussion was about muggles knowing about magic, it was very good that these people didn't realize they were muggles themselves.
"Am I correct?" Harri asked, and the German ones spluttered a bit before nodding resignedly,
"Essentially yes."
"Goodness. What am I to do with you all?" She asked, loud enough for everyone to hear, but obviously directed at herself. She was silent for a brief moment before she clapped her hands once.
"There we go, I have fixed the damaged memory of the Chancellor's daughter. You," she looked to the Scandinavians, "don't go picking on people, it's not nice. And you guys," she spoke to the Germans, "Don't get needlessly angry and then drag them somewhere where you believe yourselves to have the advantage. You didn't like it when the English did it to you, so no turning tables on others."
Harri stood up and everyone bowed again,
"I declare this matter finished with, no war will start today. And for goodness sake, work out your peace talks not at Hogwarts."
The assembled wizards realized the dismissal for what it was and all began to leave. The Avengers watching were all surprised by how anticlimactic the resolution had been. Harri had entered and within 5 minutes everyone else was leaving, matter solved.
"Forget the Avengers, we just need you to negotiate all the Alien problems we have." Tony announced when the room was clear. Harri turned around and everyone could see her shoulders lose their tension as she relaxed.
"Sorry about that everyone, the Wizarding world is mostly stupid." She apologized with a shrug.
"So to the Wizarding world you are called the Judge?" Bruce asked, curious.
"Yes. I was given that title back when I was the head Auror and settled a heck of a lot of conflicts between other countries. After a while people sought me out just to have me judge, I got the title from my friend Luna. My immortality is somewhat of an open secret, and it has given me a sort of…. Power over the masses."
"I'll say. They just turned tail and left." Clint commented. "They didn't even care about who we were."
"That's because they all saw I was annoyed. A few hundred years ago I lost my temper quite drastically, caused a huge earthquake, did a lot of damage… they're all wary of making me angry."
"You caused an earthquake?" Natasha asked incredulously.
"Um… yes.." Harri said sheepishly and then changed the subject.
"Now that we have Hogwarts to ourselves. What do you wanna see first?"
The whole group spoke as one and Harri laughed.
"Hold on. I can't hear you all. Lets do the 10 words again, but this time with places instead of words."
"Who wants to go first?" Natasha asked.
"I will," Tony announced, as expected.
"I want to see where you fly your broomsticks."
Harri laughed, and led them back outside. "It's called the quidditch pitch."
"What the heck is a quidditch?" Clint asked.
"Quidditch is the main sport of Wizards. It's played on broomsticks and is very dangerous." As they walked down to the pitch, Harri explained the rules and told them amusing anecdotes about her time as the Gryffindor seeker. At the pitch she pulled out her firebolt from behind her watch and mounted it.
"Want to see me fly tricks or want to have a ride?" she asked.
"Tricks." Tony said. "I want to see the maneuverability of that thing."
Harri grinned and kicked off hard. She flew off like a rocket and the team had to crane their heads to see Harri rising high above them. Soon she turned and plummeted back to earth at a startling speed. They watched as she came closer and closer. Bruce's nails were digging into his palms as it looked like she was going to crash but she pulled up at the very last second, her kneecaps just grazing the edge of the grass.
From there Harri demonstrated all sorts of tricks, it wasn't often that she had time just to play around on her broomstick and so she had fun. Barrel rolls, flips, tight spirals, dives and many other tricky maneuvers were demonstrated to the team who were watching avidly. When she landed, completely windswept and cheeks rosy, they all applauded and Bruce exhaled sharply, only just realizing that he had been mostly holding his breath.
"You're crazy" Steve said, shaking his head, "I would never be able to control something that quick, even with the serum."
"I have good reflexes, and they have only gotten better over the years." Harri replied,
"I'll say," Tony agreed, "what's the top speed on that thing?"
"Well.. it depends on if I use charms to protect myself, it doesn't actually have a limit but the faster you go the harder it is to breathe and all that… so I think the fastest I've gone on it is about Mach 5, and I had to slow down pretty quickly because breathing was a bit of an issue, if I wore a bubblehead charm though, it could go faster."
"You are seriously mental." Natasha said good-naturedly.
"What do you want to see next?"
"I want to see the forbidden forest" Clint declared, "I've been in my fair share of forests, but a magical one must be pretty cool."
Harri smiled and led the group out of the pitch and into the forest. As they walked she explained various trees and plants they came across. When they walked into an unexpected clearing they were surprised with the sight of several threstrals, who all vied for Harri's attention.
"What are these?" Natasha asked in a horrified whisper,
"Thestrals, or known in folk talks as Death's mount. They can only be seen if you have seen death, so they are often perceived as a bad omen, but really they are truly beautiful, in an odd sort of way."
Thor attempted to pat one of the Thestrals, but they shied away until Harri calmed them enough for Thor to touch. When the male he was patting trusted him it snorted his approval and suddenly Thor found himself in the middle of a thestral circle, being nosed and head-butted by the odd creatures. He yelped and Tony burst into laughter, scaring the herd off. They turned tail and darted into the undergrowth to the right of the clearing.
"Uh, oops?" Tony scratched his head sheepishly, but Harri just laughed.
"Don't worry, they just don't feel comfortable around people who aren't inherently magical."
"Most magical beings do not feel comfortable around a group of non-magical beings my Lady." Interrupted a low voice and the group swung around in surprise.
Hi guys! So sorry that this is so late! My brother got married and then my grandma died and I had exams and…. Life is just ridiculous isn't it. I'm a little stuck at the moment for what places the Avengers should see. I've got three more places to go (that actually have something to do with the overarching plot) yay! But I need 10…. So review or PM me and tell me what/ where/who you want to see! I shall do my best to accommodate. And an imaginary cookie goes to anyone who can guess who the group just ran into.