Definition: assemble

1. (verb) to gather together in one place for a common purpose

2. (verb) to fit together the separate component parts of an object

…

There comes a time where even the simplest task can go tits up. Harry knew a thing or two about this stage. His problem-solving technique was infamous; some say that he has tried every way that doen't work and then several more that should be impossible. And that in several time periods, the concept of things going wrong unexpectedly was named in his honour.

Harry was so experienced with chaos, that he had learned to appreciate the subtle nuances, like the difference between A Mess and A Situation, or between being in A Bind and in Hot Water. He could smell an incoming disaster a mile away. He knew the exactly how bad things could get before he would require backup. Unfortunately, that milestone had passed. But, like anyone who had done time as an Unspeakable, Harry knew the best way to recruit help.

There is one device that an Unspeakable would reach to before their wand. It's harder to trace than apparition, faster than patronus messages, and quieter than a Howler but conveys bad news just as well. What, you ask? The communication watches for Forwarding Undercover Broadcasts And Reconnaissance. Which, incidentally, was Harry's second favourite meaning of FUBAR.

Harry activated his watch with a perfunctory warning. "Riddle, you have one minute to shake anyone you don't want hearing highly sensitive information."

A mere twenty seconds passed before Harry's watch heated in warning, and a mirage of Tom appeared, warding his office door. "I'm available now," Tom said, turning and appearing to walk through the sink Harry was using. "Are you in bathroom?"

"What? I'm pressed for time, and you know how these old man bladders get." Tom hissed in denial. "And this is too important to wait. We have a rogue magic user on the loose. He's not human. He's a mage from an alien realm, Asgard, and also the Norse god Loki."

There was a pause. Harry looked up from drying his hands, concerned. Tom was pinching the bridge of his nose. "Go on," he mumbled.

"He's running around enslaving the minds of muggles and stealing powerful artefacts, to further his agenda as an aspiring overlord."

Tom made a sound reminiscent of a disgruntled cat.

"Which is not a good thing," Harry clarified, just to be sure.

More worrying silence. It was probably best to just wait it out.

"Do you know where our modern magical practice originated? Our main runic alphabet, most rituals, the very foundations of our spell crafting – his people invented it."

"So… you want me to get you an autograph?"

"I want you to be careful, you pillock!"

"Oh." Harry was set to ruin that already. "Also, I'm on a SHIELD aircraft carrier. I'm piggybacking on the new surplus of Asgardians to establish my own cover as a magical alien, in order to fight Loki. I'll try to stop him as quickly as possible. Anyway, I thought you needed to know. The Statute of Secrecy basically copyrights magic, doesn't it? There's no exemption clause for this kind of thing, so… that's going to be a fun one to break to the ICW. Good luck. I'm afraid I won't be able to make it back to England to help. I'm busy. Terribly busy, world saving stuff over here."

"Potter –!"

"Gotta go, bye Tom."

Yes. The watch was a godsend; it allowed him to report in remotely. If he'd gotten within Tom's grasp he wouldn't been dragged down, never to escape the meetings.

…

A tall, dark haired woman approached Harry and stood next to him at parade rest. "So you're the man that's been giving Fury an aneurism."

"Did I really?" Harry grinned.

"Perfect facial matches after 2005, but no prior sightings. Backdated school and job records. You made it onto a SHIELD watchlist in 2010, and you were subsequently blacklisted by agents that were revealed to be compromised by Hydra. First DNA recorded earlier this month from some toenails you shed while fleeing the morgue, where, I might add, you had been declared clinically dead, presumably since 1945. You are known, at least by reputation, to Loki. And recently, you said you work for Director Riddle."

When she put it like that, it did sound pretty suspicious.

"You are very informed."

"Maria Hill," she introduced herself. "Fury's not the only one you have to convince. And he's friendlier than a lot of us."

She would not be assured by sentimentality, but maybe some practical motives would sooth the ruffled feathers. "We are united by a common interest."

"Are we? We're keeping an eye on you, Porter – if that's even your name," she glanced around the bridge. "I have a job to do. Stay out of trouble."

"Mr Porter, take a seat. We're taking off in 10," Fury ordered as he strode towards the control deck.

Harry straightened from where he'd been leaning against a railing. "Wait. This thing flies?"

"Why'd you think we called it the Helicarrier?"

"Aircraft carrier for helicopters? I assumed you ran out of acronyms."

Fury might have rolled his eye. It was hard to tell.

A voice nervously called from the edge of the room. "Sir, Agent Barton has given us the slip."

"You'd better not be telling me we lost him," Fury stalked over to the monitor.

"Umm…"

"They're over the Atlantic," Harry spoke up before the minion could get fired. Fury spun. Harry shrugged. "I'm keeping tabs on them. I can't give you exact coordinates, but they're east of our position and moving fast."

He didn't know much. Archaean had probably stowed away on their vessel, but Harry didn't have any sort of mystical GPS connection to her, he was still waiting for her to find a way to contact him and tell him their position. No, it was Loki's liberal use of the sceptre that gave him the gist. It felt like a hook under his skin was tethered to a lorry being driven by a hooligan.

"I want eyes on every speck of land in Europe that's flat enough to land a jet."

The huge engines kicked into gear and for a moment the whole structure shook down to its foundations. Harry walked over to a window and watched the ocean fall away.

It must've been an odd sight. At least, until they turned the cloaking device on.

Harry didn't know why they bothered. With the amount of noise the propellers were making, people would be able to hear the carrier long before it was in visual range.

The mood shifted. The workers near Harry adopted a focused demeanour that suggested they were paying attention to anything but the things they were supposed to. Harry glanced at the bridge and saw why.

He had passing familiarity with both men. He knew Bruce Banner's name from the multitude of papers he'd written in thermodynamics. The second man had given Harry a concussion in 1945 and entombed them both in ice for seventy years. He knew a little more about the men from a hastily assembled briefing folder. Harry had just decided to go over and introduce himself to Dr Banner when the physicist was led out by the very same redheaded agent SHIELD had sent to interrogate Harry.

That left the people Harry didn't want to talk to. So it was inevitable that Fury would call, "Porter, get over here."

Steve Rogers gave him an odd look. Fair enough. As soon as he'd woken up, six months ago from his perspective, he'd been asked to identify Harry's body. That made things… awkward.

Harry put on his professional smile. "Mr Rogers, a pleasure."

"Mr Porter," Rogers shook his hand. "They say you're Asgardian. One of Loki's kind."

"A little more amiable than him, I'd like to think."

"The Captain will be shipping out to confront Loki once we've got a lock on him. You got any combat advice?" Fury asked.

"I'm not going?" Harry was a little surprised when Fury confirmed it.

"Loki is playing mind games. We need to assure the public that their established heroes are on top of things."

"Ah, yes. It sends a bad message when you need to bring in the aliens to defend yourselves. But moral is a double-edged sword. You cannot afford to lose this fight."

"Hence, pointers," Fury said.

Harry shrugged. Fury didn't trust him, and that feeling was mutual, and probably merited. Harry could be patient. It would be easier to steal the sceptre and tesseract from SHIELD than Loki, after all.

"Alright. How long have we got?"

"Until the jet is ready to take off."

Right. Magic 101 in ten minutes. "The best defence is to not get hit. Always dodge if you can. If not, then block it. Most spells dissipate when they hit something solid, but some also make things explode, so concrete shields are good, glass is bad. Most offensive spells are targeted for living things, so improvising shields out of trees or enemies are the safest bet, they will usually absorb the spell."

"Sounds simple enough. What about Loki, specifically, how does he fight?"

Fuck if Harry knew, he hadn't seen any of it. "Look, I can't give you a list of weak points. Magic isn't a trade-off, you can't expect Loki to be easy to push around. He'll be just as strong as your average Asgardian warrior, so about as easy to push around as an elephant. He's got centuries of experience. And I hear he's quite clever. So keep an open mind, be adaptable, because things will happen that you will not expect."

"And his spear?"

Fury stepped in to save Harry's cover, "It fires some kind of energy, but the mind control only works on contact."

"The sceptre isn't Asgardian. I don't know how it works, precisely," Harry hedged. "But a lot of mind control is only temporary. It only works while their will and power is greater than yours. So maybe if we break his concentration and we can snap people out of it, I'm not sure, we need an expert. Have you contacted Xavier yet, Fury?"

"We have it covered," Fury said.

That wasn't a yes.

…

"So, what do you think of the plan?"

Tom shook his head. "Even if they do catch Loki, you won't convince the muggles to just hand him over."

"Maybe not initially. But after his first successful escape? The second, third? They'll learn eventually. A muggle prison won't hold a magic user for long."

"You might as well break him out yourself and deliver him to Nurmengard while the ICW decides what to do with him," Tom suggested wistfully. He didn't mean it. It would be political suicide, considering the Statute of Secrecy was about to come crashing down. But he could dream. "Have you figured out how he's controlling people?"

"No. But it looks like the imperus, so it might be similar. We are fortunate he didn't try it on Fury."

"Fortunate?" Tom latched onto that throwaway comment. "I have too much experience with the world to believe in luck."

Harry felt that way himself, sometimes. He frowned. Now that he thought about it, something didn't add up.

…

"I can't help you, Fury, if I don't know what you're trying to accomplish," Harry said.

"We're going to stop Loki."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, but you won't kill him. So then what? You bring him back here? You don't want to catch Loki. He takes your victory and finds a way to make it into his own. That's who Loki is, he's the trickster."

"Save it for the people who believe you're Asgardian," Fury snorted. "I've read the same stories you have."

"Have you? I'm a wizard, we have our own stories," Harry did not appreciate being brushed off. "And I've been to Asgard. I've met them." Sort of. It was six hundred years ago, he didn't know if Loki had even been born. And it was in a different universe, so none of them would remember him. Harry still thought it counted.

"Can you fight them? Since you're in such a sharing mood, wanna give me a better picture of your abilities?"

"Not really."

"You understand, everyone on this boat is my responsibility. I took a long shot just bringing you on board. At least tell me how many ways you can kill a person."

"What, like now? By hand? Can you give me some parameters?" Harry grinned innocently.

There was a vein throbbing. "By magic."

"I could probably concoct a way to kill you with every spell I know. I'm very flexible," Harry said, because that was just a fact. He could take a muscle relaxant spell, used for massages, to stop a heart. He could throw Fury off the Helicarrier, ignite his gunpowder, there was no limit. "You'll just have to accept that I won't."

"That doesn't fill me with confidence."

Harry sighed. "I understand that you're worried about your people. I get it. I'm trying to protect my people too."

"From me?"

"From you, from everything you stand for, and from anyone else who believes that the ends justify the means."

"Don't be naïve, Porter. It's impossible to please everyone, we do the best we can to help as many people as we can."

"Bullshit. You don't fight for the everyman," Harry snorted. "It's not a zero-sum game of costs and benefits, Fury. And it's not a coincidence that those costs come from one group and the benefits flow to a different demographic entirely. That's not investment, that's exploitation. You care about protecting your country, your overhead costs and keeping your patrons happy. You only care that it's your people receiving the benefits. You don't care about where the resources come from, or their workers, being paid next to nothing, so their CEOs can keep your unit costs low and still make a profit. Those people are the majority. Most people are not your shareholders. Most people are not on the World Security Council. Most people can't afford your protection. You run in high circles, Fury, and it looks like a majority to you because they're the only people you see on a daily basis.

Most people are your cannon fodder, your collateral damage, your regrettable sacrifices for the greater good of the minority. So don't tell me you stand for them. You don't care about the majority, you care about the wealthy minority, the people with the power – they are your people. And your people think of magic as just another resource you can use," Harry finished darkly. "Take care, Fury. Hydra already tried to exploit us. The moment you try the same…"

"We are not Hydra."

"They used SHIELD as a cover to carry out their work for decades. You can say it was a conspiracy covered up at the highest level, and the briefings and mission objective were hidden – but you had access to all the mission outcomes and no one noticed a difference. The ends justify the means. But your end results are the same. So I'd be asking myself, how much is a noble motive worth?"

…

They caught Loki. They lost Loki to his brother, settled their differences with some male diplomacy, and recaptured Loki.

Now Loki was on the Helicarrier. In a formidable cage that was designed to hold something that wasn't Loki, or even someone of Loki's skillset, because Fury refused to let Harry anywhere near it. In a flying, fragile machine, near the sceptre, that still looked suspiciously active. And Loki wasn't constrained in any way. And did Harry mention Loki?

The guy was making Harry twitchy.

…

Oh Merlin, another one.

The Asgardian offered a polite, very conspicuous, bow, "Greetings, Herald of –"

The wizard cleared his throat loudly. "It's pronounced Harry, on this side of the cosmos. Son of Oden," he returned the bow, because with that hammer, who else could it be?

"As you wish," Thor agreed easily. Harry's attention shifted to the bird perched on his shoulder.

Of course, he realised, of course Archaean would use a god as transportation. Her choice in mount had little to do with his prestige, just that he had the tallest shoulders and a red cape that would show her in the best light. The prestige was just a bonus.

Thor didn't seem to mind. He even looked disappointed when she took off.

"Highness, control you bird," Fury protested, ducking away from the sudden rush of feathers.

"She is no mere bird! No one owns a noble beast such as she," Thor said, which explained why Archaean landed on Harry's shoulder and immediately buried her face in his hair.

"Oh darling, did an Asgardian blow your cover, too? There, there. You are a great spy, I'm sure you didn't make a mistake," Harry stroked her back consolingly and tried to keep the amusement out of his voice.

She bit his ear, so he mustn't have succeeded.

There was a conspicuous lack of questions about the crow. Harry wondered exactly what Thor had said about her, but Archaean wasn't talking.

The returning party joined Harry at the table. Romanoff was the only human who didn't spare him a puzzled glance, as if wondering why a senior citizen had taken a chair to rest his old knees.

No, her eyed fixed on him and stayed on him.

"So what are we up against?" Rogers got down to business. "My file called it magic. Is that code for something or the official statement?"

"Official. It's either magic or alien technology so advanced that it's indistinguishable." Fury looked pained. "I'm going to have a word with the prisoner. Play nice."

…

Loki strolled around the cell, occasionally smirking at the camera for the benefit of the multitude of people hovering behind the viewing screens.

Fury entered, marched over to the controls to make his threats, and showed Loki exactly how it worked. That couldn't possibly backfire. Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. Americans. They monologued as much as the villains.

It didn't accomplish anything. Fury didn't ask any questions and Loki didn't over any information, just a few jabs at Dr Banner for his alter ego, and Fury for the energy they'd been tapping out of the cube. As if SHIELD only wanted to use the tesseract as a battery. The idea was laughable.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner deadpanned.

Rogers wasn't in a joking mood. "Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead the against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the tesseract."

"He wants to conquer the planet?" Harry frowned. "Are you sure?"

"He definitely didn't declare peaceful intentions when he arrived," Romanoff said.

"Yes. He killed or brainwashed everyone in the room, except the two most useful people in it," Harry pointed out. "Imagine if he'd taken control of Fury. All of SHIELDs resources, personnel, passcodes, the Helicarrier, all free for him to manipulate like puppets. Without a witness, how long would it take you to notice Loki was on Earth or suspect mind control? He would have caused unmeasurable chaos. He could have the government at gun point by now. He wouldn't even need an alien army."

Half of SHIELD was blatantly staring, now. No one moved. Thor frowned, thinking intently.

Harry shook his head. The puzzle had been bothering him for hours. "Loki must've known Fury was someone important. The agents defer to him, they address him as Director. But even if he didn't, why would he fail to kill him? Would Agent Barton, a master assassin, not know that Fury was wearing body armour? Could he have missed a headshot?"

"Agent Barton doesn't miss," Romanoff murmured.

"So. Why is Loki here?" Harry slouched back in this chair and left the ball in their court.

Dr Banner frowned. "We can figure out his motives later. If Loki's bringing any army from space, he'll be opening another portal. We need to deal with that problem first. Iridium. What do they need iridium for?"

"It's a stabilising agent," a new voice said. Harry looked over to see his boss stroll into the room. "Means the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD."

Harry straightened, and he listened with half a mind as Stark rambling about pirates, even when he took a crack at Archaean. If she didn't find it amusing, she'd soon let them know.

The tesseract portal collapsed for the same reason the original Stark Industries arc reactor overloaded – too much magic was produced and it had nowhere to go. They were saying, what, that iridium could channel it? Channel magic?

"The only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density," Stark summarised. "Something to kickstart the cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill said, with an ironic amount of snark. Ironic, because of how basic the concept was. Energy density was covered in high school. Harry sympathised with the pained look Stark was suddenly sporting. It was clear she had no idea what they were talking about, even with the simple explanation Stark had just offered.

"Last night," Stark let the ignorance slide. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers – am I the only one who did the reading?"

"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Dr Banner pointed out, after running the numbers through his head with blistering speed.

"Does the energy have to come from heat?" Harry wondered, curious. There was a machine designed to go through the Coulomb barrier and beyond, after all. "What if he stuck it in a large particle accelerator. That'd explain why he went to southern Germany. A long way to go for iridium, but a short jump to CERN."

The others relaxed as Harry slotted into place in their minds as just another kooky scientist. Of course, what else could an old man offer but his years of experience? Nothing to see here.

"You speak sense," Stark pointed at Harry and tilted his head. "Of course you do, you work for me. I thought you looked familiar. Right – but there's an easier way. Selvig was on the edge of a breakthrough, whether he knew it or not. He can stabilise quantum tunnelling."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner realised, which was a leap even Harry couldn't keep up with. But since he was merely educated, not a genius, he decided to take their word for it.

"Exactly," Stark's eyes lit up and he went to shake Banner's hand. "It's good to meet you, Dr Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

"Er… thanks."

"How does this help us find the cube?" Rogers wondered, frustrated.

Stark was busy doing what Harry had wanted to do since yesterday, so Harry translated. "It means we can't narrow down their location. They don't need to use one of the very few particle accelerators or experimental fusion reactors. They can manipulate any one of the thousands of nuclear reactors to fuse elements instead of splitting them."

"We need to track to cube directly," Banner agreed. "I'm on it. We couldn't get a clean lock on the tesseract because the gamma wave frequency changes. I'll scan Loki's sceptre. If there's a rhythm to the fluctuations, then it's just a matter of finishing the search algorithm."

"Stark, if you could join him," Fury returned. "Porter – just, go wherever you're going to be useful."

Archaean gave his ear a pointed tug. Harry knew better than to ignore her. "Thor, let's take a walk."

…

Harry led Thor into the first unoccupied room. There were security cameras in the ceiling, but they were soon made very obsolete. Harry started with muffliato and didn't stop until Fort Knox paled in comparison.

Thor watched him with interest.

"I am glad we have this time, we have much to discuss," Thor said when he decided the room was secure enough. "The crow told me you have met Loki before."

Wait. "I have?"

"The asteroid," Archaean prompted.

"Oh," that brought back bad memories. "Oooh. Hold on – that guy was Loki?"

Archaean gave Harry an odd look. "Didn't you recognise him?"

"No, he was a mess, I wouldn't know him from pureed meat. How do you know it's him?"

"He smells like ice and fire." Archaean was interrupted by a bang as a spark the leapt from the god to the ceiling.

"I apologise," Thor grit out, slowly unclenching his fists. "I would have you tell me anything you know. My brother is not himself."

"Crazy plans and toppling planets not his thing?"

"That is in character," Thor admitted. "But we spoke briefly. He is delusional, twisting events."

Harry paused to think. "You are aware the tesseract is an infinity stone?"

Thor looked alarmed. "Is it?"

"Your father didn't tell you that?" Harry frowned. "He's the reason it's on Earth."

"No, he did not."

"Then I suppose you don't know any more about it than I do," Harry sighed. "That's annoying. Well, there's another one. It's in the sceptre. That's why they're connected, how Loki activated the tesseract remotely."

"How would he even come by a stone?"

"It was given to him. We were there when Loki took the blue crystal," Archaean said. She looked like someone had taken a comb to her feathers, backwards. "I thought it would kill him. I've never seen a person touch an infinity stone and live. We saw a group do it briefly, but never a single man. The tesseract scatters them across the cosmos. The purple stone disintegrates them. The yellow stone drives them mad."

"We are not entirely mortal. We have the strength and experience of a dozen humans," Thor explained. "But the legends around the infinity stones are very specific. They contain the energy from the expansion, it would be suicide to touch such a thing directly. Even my brother is not powerful enough to master such power. Our father could barely manage that feat. Perhaps the crystal is a vessel for a stone, much like the tesseract is."

"Perhaps," Harry agreed. "But if Loki's not strong enough to master a stone, then who is?"

"Who indeed." Thor took a steadying breath. "Is my brother under mind control?"

"I don't think so. But he is acting erratically, you said?" Harry hummed. "Well, there are other ways of directing a person with magic, like coercive spells or unbreakable vows. And then there's blackmail, death threats – perhaps Loki is just desperate."

Thor was crackling like a faulty electrical socket. Harry took a prudent step back. "Who gave him the crystal."

"A big purple bloke floating on a couple rocks in space. Do you know him? He seemed to hold a grudge."

"No, but there is no shortage of beings that would love dearly to draw blood from the House of Odin. I will ask my father," Thor sagged, suddenly looking impossibly older. "Is it wrong that this gives me hope? In these days past, I learned that my brother was not lost to me. Now I hear he may not be lost to himself."

"Of course not. Take your hope wherever you can find it," Harry advised.

Thor nodded like he understood. He probably did.

Knowing that Loki was a minion complicated things. At the very least, he wasn't the mastermind and stopping Loki wouldn't necessarily stop the invasion. But there was a chance he was a victim, so Harry was morally obliged to care about the man who was – for all intents and purposes – the enemy. Harry would have to argue down Fury, Tom and probably the UN. And when Loki inevitably escaped, Harry would have to limit himself to reasonable force, against an opponent who would not bother, and did not care about collateral damage. That would take some creativity.

"People are going to want punish him for the murders, whether or not he did it willingly. The best thing you can do is go back to Asgard to let tempers cool."

"We will depart when we retrieve the tesseract."

"You're taking it back to Asgard? Good. Do me a favour, take the sceptre too."

One problem down, three more pop up. Harry was happy to see the back of Thor. He took a moment to enjoy a moment of silence. Then he sighed, rolled up his sleaves and got back to work. There was no sense wasting perfectly good secrecy charms.

Harry activated his watch.

Tom answered immediately, with trepidation. "What now?"

"SHIELD has Loki."

"Oh?"

"I give it an hour, tops."

"I'll put the aurors on high alert and contact MACUSA but I doubt they will get involved until the ICW has a ruling."

"They're running out of time. He's already lit up Germany. The broadcasts are still calling it alien technology, but they won't be wary of calling it magic for much longer. It's not a big leap from accepting that magic is possible, to trying to manufacture it."

"One year, Potter. Buy me one more year and we'll be ready to drop the statue."

"You don't ask for much," Harry muttered. "One other thing – Stark and Banner think that iridium will allow the muggles to control a magical portal."

"You should have lead with that."

"I thought you might need the good news first." Because an alien invasion was the up side. It was that kind of day.

Tom did not look like he appreciated the thoughtfulness. "How?"

"I don't know, they didn't elaborate. Stark just said it can stabilise quantum tunnelling. Those words make sense, but not together."

"Explain it to me."

"Quantum tunnelling? Shit, alright. You need to know two things. First, elementary particles –electrons and the like– sometimes act like waves. Second, the uncertainty principle means you can't perfectly describe the particle properties: the more you know about where it is, the less you know about how fast it's moving, and the same goes for energy and time. It's weirder than it sounds, just accept it. The important thing is, because of these two quantum phenomenon, we have to describe particles in terms of probabilities. There is a small probability that you will find an electron orbiting kilometres away from its nucleus, or inside a proton. Quantum tunnelling just means that particles can get to places where logic and energy says they shouldn't be able to get to, because there is a slight probability that they can."

"And stabilising it? What would that do?"

"That's the part that doesn't make sense. Any way I look at it, stability implies control. Physics says that can't happen. It contradicts so many theories and a couple laws."

"Have you heard of Mandy Williams?" Tom's voice was blank. Harry shook his head. "She was a muggleborn researcher in the 1910s. She quit the Department of Mysteries in disgrace and died of dragon pox a month later. Her ideas were so obscure and absurd that her colleagues thought she was mad. She tried to explain magic in terms of entropy and enthalpy." Muggle ideas. She would have faced a lot of prejudice for that.

It clicked, and Harry jumped to the page Tom was on. "Possible states and likelihood. There is an infinitesimal chance of a spontaneously shuffling a deck of cards back into order, but a spell will do it every time. She said magic rigs probability, didn't she."

" 'It is not the impossible, merely the implausible.' " Tom quoted.

"If the iridium makes things deterministic, it can control any outcome with absolute certainty. It does the same thing our spells can do."

"Potter?"

"Hmm?" Harry said, a bit faint.

Tom looked about as good as Harry felt. "Speak with Stark. Get his cooperation by any means necessary. I want the memory in my pensieve by lunch time."

…

A/N: The science in the marvel movies if awful. They do that horrible thing where they just throw vocabulary at a problem, do some hand-waving and hope you don't understand what the words mean. That annoys me. I'll be ignoring much of the nonsense and changing the scripts where I notice things are particularly stupid. If it gets too bad I might just have to ignore it (Ant-man makes me cringe).

I'll straighten up the science as much as I can, but the magic…. Ugh. My explanation of magic = probability does just as much handwaving, because Harry Potter magic does a lot of things that are flat out impossible, like turning porcupines into pincushions. But that's my headcanon, it's the best I can do.