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Call of Death

A/N: This fic is a continuation of Death's Master. But it can also stand on it's own.

I own nothing. Except for my version of Death.

-0-

Harry Potter gazed over the large rooftops of New York. It had been years since the final battle. Years since Death accompanied him outside of the walls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Death gazed impassively at him, eyes unblinking. That was, perhaps, because he had no eyelids. Just two silvery white eyeballs in sunken sockets. Harry turned a little so he could watch him.

"What is it, Death?"

Death didn't reply, but that was hardly unusual. Death hadn't said anything to him since he was a very young child. He simply gestured to the tall buildings and the smoke filled sky of New York with a flourish, his bony hand held together by the thinnest strands of skin, muscle, and blood vessels.

"Something will happen?" Harry asked, looking back outside. Death didn't reply to that either, but Harry tilted his head up to look at the sky. The STARK tower could be seen in the distance, its renewable energy burning brightly, even though Harry was almost half a mile away.

"Let's go then," Harry said with finality, heading towards the door. Death stood and glided after him.

Halfway to the STARK tower, something on top of the tower exploded. Then a wormhole opened and large metallic creatures swarmed out. Harry didn't break his stride.

"It looks like I'll be doing some work here too," Harry murmured. "Death?"

Death turned to him and looked down at his young Master. Harry smiled a little.

"Don't take them until it is certain they are going."

Harry didn't add where they'd be going to. Death didn't ask. No further words were exchanged.

-0-

Harry looked up at the tower and sighed, placing his hand on the fallen metallic creature. He sensed no life force coming from it. It was empty.

Or dead. One or the other.

Death wrapped his cloak around him. Harry wasn't sure if it was for comfort or to get his attention. He looked up at Death, but Death was hardly looking at him.

"LOOK OUT!"

A man wearing a red, white, and blue jumpsuit screamed at him. Harry glanced at him, but then held out a hand to intercept the oncoming metallic creature. The Levithian roared; its large wings flapping as it ran straight into Harry's open hand.

Death was instantaneous.

The whole Levithian collapsed like a light switch, causing debris and concrete to fly into the sky as the road was destroyed. The velocity the Levithian had accumulated died with it.

The jumpsuit man had his eyes wide and gaping at Harry. Harry glanced at Death, who looked back at him with a curious little nod. Harry glanced at the large creature and sighed.

"Fine," he murmured, so low only Death could hear. "But only these."

The chitauri seemed to realize that someone had taken down one of their Levithian and they snarled at Harry, abandoning their battles. A large man wielding a hammer lowered it in confusion as the chitauri fled him and went in search for the one who had killed the Levithian with one touch. Harry remained standing where he was, in front of STARK tower, waiting for them to arrive.

Death gave a strange noise from deep within his chest—if he had one, anyway. Harry glanced at him. Was Death humming?

The chitauri shrieked. Those that were close enough to see Harry stumbled backwards, away from him, their bodies fumbling over the concrete and each other. The Levithian that had just entered into Earth's atmosphere gave a terrified growl and scrambled back into the wormhole.

"Whoa! Okay then!" A voice said, looking down at Harry. Harry looked up and spotted a flying metallic suit. The face plate flipped up and Harry could see that it was a middle aged man with a scruffy goatee. "Nice timing. Want to tell me what just happened?"

There was a roar and a huge green man came barreling down the street. Harry glanced at him once before pointing up at the wormhole.

"That needs to be taken care of first," Harry said, in a rather pleasant conversational tone.

The man looked up too, the face plate slamming shut. "You're right. But after, you get to explain."

He looked back in time to see Harry vanish from sight.

"HOLY MOTHER FU-"

"Stark, what's up?" Clinton asked through the microphone, looking around for any stray chitauri.

"Did anyone else just see a man just vanish off the face of the Earth in front of Stark Tower?!"

"You're not hallucinating. I did." That was Captain America.

"Stark, can you tell us after we've sorted this out?" Romanoff asked, seemingly struggling with the wormhole. "Why did they all run back to the wormhole? Not that I'm complaining, or anything."

"That dude just killed a whole ship of the motherfuckers with his bare hand!" Stark said, flying around, trying to get a good grip on where everyone was. "JARVIS, you got video of that, right? We can show the others?"

"Of course, Sir."

"He must be a great warrior if he is able to-" Thor started, but Stark cut him off.

"Not now, Sparky. We have to deal with your brother."

-0-

By the time the team had shut the wormhole and collected themselves to show up in Stark tower, they found that Loki was not alone.

The man was there, in all of his messy black hair and his emerald green eyes. He spared them a glance before looking back at Loki. Loki seemed to be slightly nervous.

"Going to kill me then? Claim my life?" Loki rasped, the beating from Hulk apparently still taking its toll on him. "He spoke of Death. And now you're here."

"I did not come here to kill you," Harry said, his voice quiet.

"Brother, cease this at once!" Thor thundered, his blue eyes narrowed. Loki laughed.

"Stop what? Since he's here, my life is pretty much forfeit," Loki said, his eyes flashing with anger. "I am not your brother, in any case."

"So, Ghost, got a name?" Stark asked, flinging an arm around Harry's shoulders. Harry blinked at him before Loki gave a soft hiss.

"Do not act so familiar with the Master of Death!"

There was a silence that followed that statement. Harry looked at Stark briefly before turning his body to face him. "Harry Potter. And yourself?"

"Er… Tony Stark?" Stark said, a measure of confusion in his voice. "What's the Master of Death?"

"Master of Death? You?" Thor asked, his eyes wide. "A child?!"

Harry reached over to grasp the invisibility cloak that Death adorned. Death didn't move away, so Harry pulled it off with a flourish, allowing Death to be seen by the humans and Asgardians in the room. The humans gasped, taking in the bony rotting flesh on Death's face and his polished skull. Death glanced down at his Master and Harry shrugged.

"Death chose me," Harry said flippantly. "So he thinks I'm worthy. That's all that really matters to Death. He's been following me around since I was a baby."

Loki gave a soft grunt and struggled to stand. Clint instantly aimed an arrow at him, but Loki gave him a dismissive wave. "Harry Potter. Master of Death. What is it you want from me? You came to me for a purpose."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement. And a correct one at that. Harry turned to Loki.

"Your soul is mine from this moment forwards. Thanos no longer has claim on you," Harry said calmly. "From this moment on, your deal with him has ended. So mote it be."

From Harry's body, a hair strand of silvery white magic extended and latched onto Loki's magic. Loki gave a sharp gasp and his knees buckled, sending him crashing into the ground, his arms curled around his chest. Thor rounded on Harry, his eyes wide, but Stark laughed, clapping his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Wonderful! So, shawarma?"

Harry gave him a cool smile.

-0-

"Legend has it that the Master of Death is one who possesses powers of Death. He, like Death, can take life, destroy things, and grant mercy. He can pulls souls from Death, order Death to leave someone, thereby preventing their death, and force Death to cooperate with him," Thor explained, around the table. Loki was sitting quietly next to him, giving Harry curious glances. "The Master of Death does not die, not until Death allows it."

"Wow, that's pretty cool. So do you do all of those things?" Stark asked, looking approvingly at Harry. Harry blinked slowly and tilted his head, a shred of lettuce sticking out of his mouth.

"Death likes me too much to let me go," Harry said. "He's pretty cooperative. We haven't disagreed on many things." He glanced at Death. Death usually remained invisible, hidden from all prying eyes with the cloak of invisibility. Harry could always see him, even if the others couldn't.

"Bring people back from the dead?" Clint asked, leaning forwards.

"Only their souls. They don't belong here so I haven't done it often," Harry said, shrugging. "You're an interesting group. Avengers, you called yourselves?"

Stark grinned like he had won the lottery. "Yup! Wanna join?"

"As Master of Death, I can't. Death is impartial," Harry said, sipping his water. "Too bad for you. Death chose this place for his vacation. I suppose I should have known that he would be comfortable around all the dead chitauri."

Two bony hands wrapped around his throat and lovingly stroked down his chest. Harry stiffened as he felt Death's chest pressed against his back, but he silenced his inner urge to scream.

"In legends, Death has no gender," Loki said suddenly, making the others look at him. "Yet you refer to Death as male."

"Death doesn't really care if I refer to him as male or female. Death takes many forms," Harry said. "Not that he's ever shown me. I asked him to take the form of a pretty girl once. He just looked at me like I was the crazy one."

Death gave a wispy chuckle that sent Harry's skin crawling.

"Oh sure, laugh at me," Harry murmured, glancing at Death again. Death rested his head on his shoulder, humming.

"He's here?" Romanoff asked, looking around.

"He's always around," Harry answered.

There was a silence and then Stark opened his mouth.

Even before Stark spoke, Captain America knew that he was going to say something stupid.

"I wonder how Fury will take to seeing Death!"

-0-

Death's silvery white eyes glittered with malice. Fury stared right back with his single eye, unnerved, but unwilling to stand down.

Harry sipped his water and looked at Loki. Loki had decided that Harry wasn't going to kill him anytime soon and had relaxed a little around him. It probably helped that no one had bothered Loki since Harry had made the vow.

"They've been at this for five hours now." Harry commented, humming lightly. "How much longer are they going to be staring at each other?"

Loki glanced at him and waved his fingers, changing Fury's black suit to a bright purple sparkly cardigan. Fury didn't seem to notice.