Hydra Headquarters, Swiss Alps, 1944
Zola looked at the five newcomers uncertainly. "I'm sorry gentlemen, I wasn't aware that I would be having visitors today." His lab had been a hive of activity since the tesseract had been recovered, as Zola and his assistants had worked on more and better ways to harness its power for the war effort. The visit by some of Hydra's top military commanders left him nervous. Up to this point Zola had existed outside the chain of command, reporting only to the Red Skull himself.
"We were given directs orders from Schmidt." One of the officers said. "We were told that you had a solution to our predicament."
Zola raised his eyebrows. It was true that he had shared some of his speculations on the nature of the Tesseract with Schmidt just yesterday. But if he was intent on acting on that… the situation must be worse than he knew.
"My apologies, Zola." Red Skull entered the room, and the officers snapped to attention with a 'Hail Hydra!' Zola followed them a half second later. "I did not hive time to inform you. The developments in the war have been going… poorly."
"But the Valkyrie's mission was successful, surely after deploying our super-weapon, we have no enemies left standing?" Zola had a hard time imagining how anyone could be left fighting their will after the destruction of almost every major population center on the planet.
An officer scoffed "Tell that to the wizards."
Zola looked down. Ah, yes, the wizards. They had erupted onto the stage with terrifying speed. Three days ago, people all over the world had woken up to find that their governments were 'under new management', that all along magic users had lived in the shadows, living as the ultimate secret society. Now they were stepping into the light, as bringers of peace and order, to exercise what they say as right to rule over those without magic. It was a bitter irony for those in Hydra. This 'Wizarding Order' had just managed everything that Hydra had been striving for- a world where freedom had been eliminated, where all existed under the guiding and protecting hand of those who were superior.
The only problem was they weren't the ones who had taken power, and that was unacceptable. Knowing that Hydra's existence could be ended at any moment, Schmidt had ordered their ultimate weapon to be deployed. The bombs dropped all across the planet, utterly destroying every government that wizarding kind had just taken over. It was a rash and brutal move, but it was likely their only option other than surrender.
"While we likely inflicted massive damage on the Order" Schmidt explained "It seems they have strongholds outside of the large population centers. It may take months or even years of research to hunt them down. In the meantime, the situation on the front has deteriorated."
"Ah." Zola uttered "How long do we have?"
"I believe there may be a mole." Schmidt said "As they've been attacking our secret facilities with rapid speed and precision. Our defenses are strong, and while we may be able to mount a defense against their foot-soldiers, there are clearly some very powerful individuals involved in these attacks as well."
"We've observed two such individuals." An officer offered "We believe they have a leadership role in the order. Given their statements, its likely that the most powerful among them are afforded the most respect and authority."
"But surely you can handle two men." Zola asked.
The officer shook his head "You don't understand. You didn't see one of them in action. Its unreal, its terrifying."
"That is where we come in, Zola." Schmidt said "The only solution is our own trump card. We need a champion of our own, something of the same overwhelming power that can carry us to victory."
"What I said, about the Tesseract acting as a portal, it was just speculation." Zola hedged.
"Ah, but your speculations have normally been astute." Schmidt said "And its not like we have other options."
"Even if I am correct, sir, I don't have the equipment-"
"We don't need equipment." Schmidt interrupted "All I need is intent and will." He stepped to the reactor, where the Tesseract was housed. "I will bring us our champion. Someone who was the strength and the desire to defeat our enemies." With that, the Red Skull grabbed the Tesseract and gasped, falling to his knees "Or… die… trying…."
He screamed, and the room was bathed in blue light. Zola was convinced that he would fail, that this was little more than an elaborate suicide, until a beam of energy lanced out from the cube, hitting the floor in front of them. The light intensified until it was blinding. Only Zola with his shielded goggles could continue to observe the process. There was an explosion and blue fire spread across the floor from the spot the beam struck. Then the light receded, and Schmidt's screaming cut off.
None of them dared speak, unsure of what exactly had happened, if their leader was alive, if his gamble had even succeeded. Then a figure stepped out of the flames, dark against the blue backdrop. "Red Skull's plan worked!" One of the officers shouted.
"Is that so?" A feminine voice asked, the figure came into view. She was tall, regally elegant, certainly not what Zola had expected.
"A woman!" An officer barked "Perpost-" The man fell limply to the ground, his head severed from his body. She had struck faster that Zola could even see, with a blade that hadn't been in her hand moments before.
They'd summoned someone with power, yes. But Zola could now see the massive flaw in Schmidt's plan. Hydra could not possibly hope to control her.
"For what purpose did you bring me here?" She asked.
"We- we are at war." Another officer managed "Against the Wizarding Order."
The words seemed to infuse the woman, her eyes glinted malevolently. "Then you have chosen me wisely. Their kind is an abomination of nature, which I will happily cleanse for you if you swear fealty to me."
Red Skull, not quite dead, pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. "You will serve us." He rasped "You are our champion, and you will do our-" He died, a spear lodged through his head. A man fired at her, but even Hydra's tesseract powered weaponry had no effect, in the blink of an eye, he met the same fate.
"You don't appear to understand." The woman hissed "I am Hela, the Goddess of Death. I am no mortal's servant. I am no slave. I am no champion. I am nothing less than a Queen. And you. Will. Kneel."
They had merely exchanged one master for another, Zola realized. But it wasn't so bad. He had served Red Skull, despite his erratic and reckless ways. Serving Hela would not be such a leap. Perhaps by submitting to her first, he would gain some favor with her.
He knelt. The remaining officers followed him.
-----
Harry's vision without his glasses was a blur, but even with ten years of separation he recognized their voices in an instant. Ron. Neville. Ginny. His friends, they were his friends. His mind reeled as he tried to piece events together. He remembered… sacrificing himself for the Soul Stone, meeting Death again, the battle with Voldemort, Hela, the time stone…
Harry groaned and got up to his knees. "Hey mate, you okay?" Ron said as a redheaded blur approached. Harry took stock and found that he actually felt… fine. He closed his eyes and focused, and after a few seconds of visualizing his intention, produced a pair of glasses in his hand.
"Bloody hell." Ron uttered.
"Was that wandless?" Neville asked.
"Does he look like he has a wand?" Ginny returned.
"How would you know? You're clearly too busy looking at his other wand." Neville teased. Ginny squeaked.
"I really don't want to hear about it." Ron grumbled.
"Oh please, you think I enjoyed watching you shove your tongue down Lavender's throat?" Ginny returned.
The banter was familiar and comforting. He loved them so much. "I missed you guys so much." Harry said, smiling as he put his glasses on. He wasn't sure how this had happened, but it was something out of a dream. He'd found his friends again. He was sure that this would come with its own host of problems, but for the moment he let the joy blossom within him.
He blinked, and took in the scene, and that joy was stunted. Physically, he appeared to still be in the time room of the Department of Mysteries, which tracked with his memories, but it seemed… off. Everything outside of their little bubble was frozen in place. He had hoped to use the time stone to fix everything, but it seemed that he'd failed. Moreover, none of his friends were as Harry remembered them. Ron and Ginny looked… worn down, and there was a faint trace of a scar along Ron's cheek. Neville looked like he was modelling himself off Alastor Moody. His enchanted eye wasn't identical to the old aurors', but it followed the same principle. His face was laced with scars, including a nasty looking burn that ran down his neck and probably lower.
At his words, the three resumed staring at him. Ron looked confused but was still kneeling down to his level. Ginny was keeping her eyes defiantly locked to his face, despite her fierce blush. Neville's enchanted eye was examining him in an uncanny manner. Finally, Neville broached the question "You know us?"
"Wait, you don't know me?" Harry stood up, and Ginny's face impossibly turned an even darker shade of red. In a normal situation he would have loved to tease her about it, but his world was in the process of being reordered. They didn't remember him, didn't know him. Whatever the time stone had done to the timeline, it had erased his history with his closest friends. The hope that had sprouted in his chest wilted, but he consoled himself. He'd never thought he'd see them again, there was a time where he would have given anything for just the chance to see them one more time. Even this was a gift. Besides, by the way Ginny was acting, he almost wondered…
"Well… no." Ron said honestly "This is the first time I've seen you." He turned to his friends. Neville nodded in agreement, though Ginny was non-responsive. Harry took pity on her and took a few seconds to conjure a simple set of robes, which he wrapped around himself. Ginny let out a sigh of relief.
"Merlin, how can you just do that, like its nothing?" Neville muttered. Harry blinked and remembered that accomplishing anything greater than party tricks with wandless magic was almost unheard of in the wizarding world. It had become second nature to him after having to go without a wand for so long, and it hadn't even occurred to him how shocking his little display would be. Maybe he shouldn't have tipped his hand so soon, but it hadn't occurred to him to mistrust them.
"Err, practice?" He said "I spent years without access to a wand, so it was either learn or nothing." He shrugged.
Ron just blinked and asked "Who are you?" The bewilderment in his voice would have been funny in other circumstances. His question was simpler to ask than to answer, how could Harry even begin to explain his life to them?
"My name is Harry Potter." He answered "But- " Before he could continue, Ginny's fiery personality- no longer cowed by his state of undress- came roaring back.
"Okay, what the hell was that?" She asked, snappish and flustered.
"The wandless magic? Well-"
"No! When I touched you." Ginny shook her head "I saw things, like… like… memories! What did you do to me?"
There was that hope again, blooming anew. "Could you describe them to me?" He asked, fighting a smile.
"I remember being a kid, waking up in this… cavern? You were hugging me. And then there was…" She blushed "You know what, you don't need to know the rest."
The smile came bursting through. He could take a guess at the other memories she'd seen. Ron and Neville's scrutiny couldn't weigh him down, just the knowledge that Ginny remembered something was enough for him. "Well, I have answers to all your questions, but I have to warn you… its weird."
"Try me." Ginny challenged with that blazing look in her eyes that he so adored.
"Right. Well, I have no clue what your lives are like or how you got here, but I lived a life before this. That's where those memories are from. You guys were some of my closest friends. The fact that you don't remember me tells me that events for you were different, which means… I don't know. My guess is that something's happened to the timeline, or maybe I'm in another universe." It wouldn't be the first time, he supposed. Ron and Neville were looking at him as if he'd grown a second head, and Harry couldn't blame them.
Neville rubbed his temple "Okay… and you're in the center of the time vortex… how?"
"What's the time vortex?"
"You know our names, but not about the temporal storm that has ravaged London for the past fifty years?"
"Look, let's just assume that while I personally know you, I have no clue about current events, so how'd this time vortex happen?" Harry had the sinking feeling that this 'time vortex' was only scratching the surface on the differences from the worlds he'd known.
"We were hoping to figure that out. The working theory is that when something in the Department of Mysteries went wrong when Hydra dropped the bomb on London."
"What?" Harry choked. It was a vicious piece of dissonance, to hear a wizard refer to Hydra as a matter of course. He hoped desperately that this didn't mean what he thought it meant. The implications were too terrible, that Hydra had pulled off its genocidal plan at the end of the second world war. Either Steve hadn't been able to stop them, or he'd never existed, or never had the opportunity to become Captain America. How many people had died?
"When Hydra dropped the bomb?" Neville repeated unsurely.
"Right, I heard that." Now Harry was the one rubbing his temples "How many cities were hit?"
"All of them?" Neville said, and Harry's face crumpled "Well, not all of them, but I don't exactly have a detailed history on hand."
"Yeah, I get it." Harry sucked in a breath. Something else occurred to him. Hydra existing in the same universe as the wizarding world had some implications. "Wait, why didn't the wizards stop it?"
"Well, there was a war on." Ron said.
It took Harry a moment before he caught on. "Right, Grindelwald." It was odd to think of it, World War 2, Hydra's war, and Grindelwald's war all happening simultaneously. He could see how that could go very wrong.
"Yeah. It broke the statue of secrecy." Neville nodded "Which… might have triggered Hydra's attack. Dumbledore and Grindelwald struck back of course-" Harry didn't even want to touch on the implications of those two working together "-but they weren't prepared for her."
"Her?"
"The Goddess of Death."
-----
She believed him.
The memories had been confusing and overwhelming at first, but they had been nothing next to the emotions that came with them. The fear, the grief, but most of all the love. She'd never felt love quite like that, not even with Luna. It was scary, how powerful the emotion was, and she wondered if it was affecting her judgement. That was why she'd snapped at him, it was just too much, all at once.
Now though, as things began to settle, Ginny felt her heart go out to Harry. His affection for them was obvious, and his horror and pain as he'd learned about their history was raw and real. He really was learning about all of this for the first time, and every revelation seemed to hit him like a hammer blow, creating new painful cracks for them to see.
She couldn't not believe him.
"Hela?" Harry clarified.
Neville just nodded "We don't like to say her name."
"Course." He mumbled to himself "Wizards."
"We're not sure on all the details, but she took control of Hydra after the bombs dropped." Neville continued "She's a monster. She wants to kill all of us, anyone with even a scrap of magic. That was how the war started. Hydra and the Order fighting over the ruins of the world."
"The Order, being Dumbledore and Grindelwald's people, then? Do you work for them?" Harry asked.
"Hell no." Ginny snorted, and Harry sagged with relief. Ginny wondered what significance those two great and terrible wizards had for Harry in his timeline. She wanted to know everything about him, the life they'd had together, their relationship, just… everything.
"Why not?"
That was a long story. Perhaps not as long as the one Harry likely had for them, but still. How could one distill down how the Order treated people? Witches were breeding cattle and wizards were like pigs for slaughter. It was all justified as necessary, a sacrifice to save their people. That was enough for most, but not Ginny. She'd lost every one of her brothers, save Ron, and if she and Ron hadn't defected, she was sure she would have lost him too. He would have died, and she would have become a consort to whichever man was well connected enough to arrange for it. She knew that Lucius Malfoy had his eyes on her, and the prospect of being forced to bear his children, only to watch them grow up and either be killed or suffer the same fate as her… it was intolerable. She'd rather die.
She was grateful that Professor Riddle had given them another option. Working for him was still dangerous- it was a war- but everyone was there of their own choice. Witches weren't breeding stock. Witches and wizards alike bore the burdens of the war. Werewolves, giants, vampires, and all the others that the Order considered subhuman were welcomed.
While Ginny was lost in her thoughts. Neville glanced between them. She knew him well enough to know what he was trying to communicate. Harry was obviously powerful, to an extent they were likely only scratching to surface of. They needed to recruit him, and make sure that he would never consider joining the Order. Ron answered first. "Did you know my brother, Bill?" He asked.
Harry smiled "Yeah. Brilliant curse breaker, effortlessly cool." Ginny and Ron both grinned faintly, that sounded like him, alright.
"He was a werewolf." Ron said "Got bitten by a rogue pack on a scouting mission."
"One of my closest mentors was a werewolf." Harry said. "They're victims of a disease, not monsters."
"Damn right." Neville approved.
"If only the Order thought the same way." Ron shook his head "The next full moon, they portkeyed him into a Hydra base. Like he was some rabid dog. We never even got his body."
"Oh." Harry looked heartbroken.
"You want to know how I got this eye?" Neville said next, and without pause continued "It wasn't fighting Hydra, no. It was fighting Goblins."
"Why?"
"What else? Prejudice, hubris, greed." Neville uttered "Dumbledore was so persuasive, though. Spun us tales of bringing back the Sword of Gryffindor, of us being a heroes. He was certain that they held some war winning artifact." He scoffed bitterly "I lost count of how many good people died for nothing in those caves. I'm lucky to be alive myself."
Harry's eyes turned to Ginny next, and finally she said "I just didn't want to be Lucius Malfoy's breeding mare." She said, and Harry looked ill. "While the wizards are sent off to die, the witches are meant to make as many babies as possible." She shot him a rebellious look "I'm worth more than that."
"Damn right you are." Harry agreed vehemently.
-----
They set off after that. While they still didn't have a full explanation of Harry's past and there was still plenty to tell him, the middle of a temporal storm was no place for long discussions. He did give them the broad outlines as they ventured out- how he'd grown up in a war against a Dark Lord by the name of Voldemort, how he'd died and found himself in a different universe, how he'd died again and had a final battle with Voldemort and Hela in the Department of Mysteries that had caused the destruction of a powerful artifact. It all seemed surreal, but at the same time she could feel that he was holding back.
Perhaps they should have pushed him for more information, for specifics, but they didn't. In just a few minutes, Harry had slid into their team like he was meant to be there, like he had always been there. Ron liked him, seemingly instinctively. He'd had no reason to think that Harry would be friendly, yet his first reaction to seeing him was to kneel down and ask if he was alright. He never would have told Bill's story, something so raw and personal to them both, to a stranger. Neville had been cautious at first, but for a grizzled veteran like him to let his guard around an unknown like Harry so soon spoke volumes. Even now, he led the way with his back turned to Harry and his enchanted eye mostly fixed ahead. But most telling of all was that they- all of them- believed him. Somehow, they all felt that Harry's ridiculous story was the truth.
Perhaps some of it was that she wanted it to be true. The idea that there was a better world out there- that this world was not how things were meant to be- was comforting. But Ginny felt that it ran deeper. Some part of her knew that he was telling the truth, that what she had seen and what she had felt was real. She was still trying to sort out her feelings, but it felt an awful lot like she loved him. Whatever emotions those memories had implanted in her weren't fading, if anything they were solidifying. He was genuine, empathetic and kind. His pain and his warmth were real and unguarded, and those emotions shone through his beautiful eyes. His smiles were enchanting, and his grief had her wanting to smother him with affection. He was far from naïve, but he didn't let his experiences turn him into a stoic soldier- the trap that Neville and so many like him fell into. She had no idea what to do with these feelings, they were so sudden and so powerful, but at the same time they slotted into her perfectly, like they were meant to be there, like Harry was meant to be there. She wanted to hold him in her arms, she wanted to run away screaming, she wanted to grill him for every detail of his life, she wanted to rip off his robes and fuck him.
Harry was grim as he observed the frozen moment in the atrium, and his despair only deepened when they reached the surface. "We need to stop this." He murmured. She wished she knew what he was thinking, what was behind that turmoil in his eyes. She wanted to comfort him, but what could she do in the face of all this destruction?
Then Harry paused, his gaze was riveted to a figure amidst the chaos. It was a woman in a military uniform, she bore a shield that displayed the Union Jack, the old symbol of muggle Britain. She was frozen in the process of shepherding a small group of people down into a shelter. The trio had barely noticed her on their way in, but to Harry she was an object of fascination. He scrutinized her, as if trying to place her. "Huh." He said. Then he stepped out of their bubble.
Neville turned and shouted "Wait!" too late. Harry was out, but instead of freezing, he just… kept walking. The three of them gaped as he made his way to the woman, completely unaffected by the vortex. After a moment's hesitation, they followed him in their bubble. When he reached her, he touched her arm, and just like that she reawakened.
The woman panicked, but Harry was patient as she thrashed and shouted. He kept a hand gently on her arm as he assured her "It's okay. I'm a friend of Steve's. You're Peggy Carter, right?"
The woman stilled, taking stock of her situation and her rescuer. Finally, she said "You know Steve?"