Skye simply couldn't keep her eyes of him. He was the first thing that she'd seen after nearly blacking out- framed in the brilliant light of his spell, radiating righteous anger, looking completely in his element.
She knew who Harry Potter was, of course- he was Magic, a wizard, and an Avenger. In the back of her mind, she had harbored a hope that one day she'd get to meet an Avenger, maybe even help them. In hindsight, she should have realized that getting what she'd asked for would only end up with her in over her head.
Because that was exactly what had just happened. They had fallen in completely over their heads. She was about to die, or worse. The image of that Shield agent, the one who had been sucked completely dry… it was haunting if she let her mind stray to it.
He'd saved her, he'd saved all of them, and now he was nearly carrying her out of here. Something about… whatever that thing was still had her feeling weak, even just standing was a struggle, and she'd had to lean on Harry heavily. Ward, if anything, was worse off.
She remembered what Harry had said. It wasn't about how strong you were, it was about how bad your life was. Skye wondered what demons lurked in Ward's past. Hell, apparently, she didn't know about all her own demons. All she had were pieces of that last memory- a woman being taken away by men in suits, a man yelling…
Were those her parents?
"Thank you." She'd whispered at some point on that interminable elevator ride back up to the surface.
"Just doing my job." Harry had deflected.
"Well, thank you for taking the job." Skye riposted, and Harry looked almost sheepish, unable to accept her praise.
So, he was modest. It was… cute.
Alright, alright, lots of people had their own little Avenger crush. Some girls wanted to be Tony Stark's sugar baby. Others imagined getting a 1950s style white picket fenced house with Steve Rogers. Others pined for the literal god (who seemed to have a thing for humans, if the rumors were true). The boys (along with more than a couple women) simped for Black Widow.
It was all harmless enough. They were heroes who had saved the planet, and they had movie star good looks to boot. It seemed a little more important now, when she was face to face with her own little crush.
He was cute, alright? And his accent. He had that sense of mystery about him, like there were hidden depths behind those gorgeous eyes. She just knew that he'd seen things, been hurt, and lost people. Call her predictable, but she was a sucker for that shit, every damn time!
And now he'd saved her life and was nearly carrying her out of that hellhole. If she didn't feel like complete shit, she'd probably be flirting right now. Instead, she could only, well, admire him, and perhaps lean into him more than was strictly necessary.
They limped back to the Bus, where Fitz and Simmons were waiting for them. Simmons tittered as Harry lead the team down to sit in a common area "What should we do for them?" She asked.
Harry quirked an eyebrow "Wait, I remember you… you patched me up last time, didn't you?"
Last time? Skye wondered, he'd met them before? It made sense, she guessed, Coulson worked with the Avengers, after all.
Simmons nodded, pleased that he remembered her "Jemma Simmons."
"Thanks for that, by the way." Harry smiled "As for this lot, well, Hill should-" As if on cue, Maria Hill entered the room. Meeting Maria Hill was notable in itself. She was basically Fury's right hand, her career was borderline legendary. She carried a satchel, and promptly laid it on the table, letting the contents spill out. He hadn't been joking about the chocolate. She then took a step back and crossed her arms, shifting her gaze to Harry with an expression that read 'this better be worth it'. Given her reputation, Skye was surprised that Harry was able to convince to her to run this errand, but then again, he was an Avenger.
"Chocolate?" Simmons asked.
"Chocolate." Harry confirmed without hesitation "It helps."
They sat down, Harry sinking heavily into the loveseat beside her, and Skye suddenly recognized just how tired he was too, and he'd been supporting her all this way. She wasted no time in digging in. If the hot superhero wanted her to eat chocolate, who was she to argue with him? And she'd be damned, he was right. It was cheap, convenience store junk, but even that seemed to send warmth flooding back through her body. After a few bars of chocolate, the Dementor almost seemed like nothing more than a bad dream. Almost. "This is the best chocolate I've ever had." She declared, smiling up at Harry. He looked back down at her, and now that she was thinking clearly she could clearly see the undercurrent in his expression. Alongside the congeniality, there was an edge hidden beneath the surface.
It made something in her quiver. The chocolate had done an excellent job of restoring her, to the point that her pesky libido was making a comeback, and it was practically salivating. It'd been ages since she'd got laid, well before she got with Shield, and how many times to you meet your celebrity crush?
After a good half-hour of recuperating in which Harry began to explain what Dementors were, and what they did in his world, Coulson dismissed them, deciding they could afford to have a proper debrief in the morning. No one argued. Harry wasted no time in retreating to a bedroom.
Skye hesitated, lingering in the meeting room while going back in forth in her mind on what she should do. Her indecision was broken, however, when Hill approached her. "I think he could use someone to talk to." She told her.
"You know him." Skye said "Maybe you should…"
"I have a feeling he doesn't want to hear from me right now." Hill frowned "Or anyone at Shield. You though…"
Skye didn't quite get why Harry would be adverse to Shield, after all, wasn't he a part of it? But who was she to argue with Maria Hill. Skye was by far the newest addition to the team, with the loosest affiliation to the agency.
Besides, she couldn't deny that she really wanted to talk to him.
That was how she found herself knocking at his door.
"Yes?" She heard from behind the door. She pushed it open, and immediately regretted her decision.
She'd caught him in the act of undressing. Skye went scarlet, eye's bulging as she took in his toned upper body, and with an undignified squeak she shut the door. She leaned back against the wall, heart pattering disobediently in her chest as she tried to reign herself in. Calm down, he just had his shirt off. Sure, he's hot… and cute… and a hero…
She nearly jumped as the door opened "Couldn't resist, could you?" Harry chided. Skye had the decency to blush again. He shook his head "Come in, if you wanna talk, let's talk." That edge in his voice was still there, and Skye felt a little like she was being led into a predator's den. But she couldn't say no, and he knew it.
He was wearing a t-shirt that had come with the room, and it fit a little too snugly on him. Down, girl! She reprimanded, to no avail. There was no way he missed the way her eyes followed him. "So, I assume you came here for a reason." He prompted.
Skye blanked for just a moment, before remember that she did have something she wanted to ask him. "That Dementor…" She started haltingly "It made me remember things."
Harry nodded with sympathy "That they do."
Skye swallowed, wondering if her next question would be a little foolish. "Is it possible for them to make you remember things you didn't even know about? People you never knew?"
Harry's eyes grew a little sad as he nodded again. "Who?"
"I think- I heard my parents." She let that drop like a lead balloon. What was she even looking for hear? An explanation? Sympathy? A magical way to make all these questions go away?
He leaned down and touched his hands to her shoulders, his eyes were kind now, with no hint of the agitation she'd seen earlier. "Its okay. Whatever it was, it must have been hard to see. There's no shame in it."
"That's the thing." His compassion urged Skye to continue. She couldn't imagine talking about this with the team right now, except for Coulson. It just felt safer talking about it with Harry… she sensed that he wouldn't judge her, and even if he did, it wasn't like she was going to see him again. "It was horrible in the moment, but I'm sort of glad it happened? I guess it's just that-"
"It was the first time you ever heard them." Harry preempted her, his voice communicating that he knew exactly what she was talking about. Skye stared at him, surprised that he took the words out of her mouth and prompting him to explain. "First time a saw a Dementor, I was thirteen. I heard my parents being murdered. I passed out on the spot."
"God that sucks. I mean the parents being murdered, obviously, but the other kids must have been terrible about you passing out."
"You have no idea." Harry grinned ruefully "But it was… a silver lining, to have that little piece of them. As horrible as it was."
"I don't even know who my parents were. I don't even know their names." Skye muttered. Harry brought her quickly for a hug, and the breath momentarily left her lungs. After a second that felt like an eternity, he pulled back.
"You're a part of a top secret intelligence organization. Surely they'd help you out?" Harry asked, before shaking his head "No, of course they wouldn't."
That wasn't a bad idea, actually. Skye mused. The higher ups wouldn't care, but if she asked Coulson… he might come through for her. Finding out who her parents were hadn't been a priority before, but now… well now she suspected that they hadn't just abandoned her, that she'd been taken from them. That they loved her.
She needed to know.
-----
The morning had come, and while the night's sleep had cooled his temper, it had only hardened his resolve. He knew that if he'd let himself, he would have revealed far too much last night. So he'd shelved his anger and focused on helping Coulson's team.
Skye had made this task surprisingly easy. It wasn't just that she obviously had a crush on him, or that she was an equal to any woman he'd met in attractiveness. There was something in her manner, as she spoke to her teammates, that he found endearing. She joked and prodded, even in the face of a terrible situation. She flirted shamelessly in a way that he'd never been subjected to before, at least not since he'd dated Ginny. It made him blush more than a few times and set him off balance, but he liked it a lot. She was brave, brazen even, if circumstances were different, he would have loved to see more of her.
But he'd done more than just speak with Skye that night. Before going to bed, he had retrieved a pen from his room's desk and whispered 'Point-me Loki's Staff'. And just like that, the pen wobbled and slowly turned to the east.
It was in range of his spell now. Whatever Shield facility housed the staff, it seemed to be in Europe. After seeing what Shield had done with the Veil, Harry felt compelled to take matters into his own hands liberate the artifact, and he didn't intend on letting anyone know about this mission.
His plan had been to leave before anyone else was up, before anyone could ask questions or stop him, but either through luck or design, Hill was waiting for him. "Harry." She said, eyeing the packed bag slung over his shoulder, filled with essentials he'd pilfered from the room "Sneaking out?"
At the receiving end of her penetrating gaze, he felt compelled to answer "Well, yeah. I was hoping no one would be up."
"Why? What are you up to? You know your teammates wouldn't-"
"Spare me!" He shouted suddenly, his temper breaking. He drew a few heavy breaths in an attempt to steady himself, which failed "I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing, where I'm going, or why. You should know why."
"You can't just walk away from your problems. The world doesn't work like that." Hill argued.
Harry wavered, looking for just a moment like a man about to jump off a precipice. But it was just a flicker and was quickly replaced by steely resolve. "I quit." She thought he was naïve, that he was just lashing out, that this would all just blow over. She was wrong.
"What?" Hill was floored, staring in complete disbelief.
"Do you really think I'm going to work for an organization that sacrifices people to make undead, soul-eating monsters?" His eyes pressed into her, and she shifted uncomfortably. The light above him started to flicker- his magic was responding to his anger.
Hill still managed to rally "This wasn't authorized, Harry. We didn't know-"
"Bullshite!" He spat, his accent becoming more pronounced as his temper rose. He heard the sharp chirp of glass cracking somewhere in the room "Maybe you didn't know. Maybe it wasn't explicitly authorized. That doesn't mean it was just a 'few rotten apples'. Something like this doesn't happen because of one person, this is the organization. This is Shield." By now, he noticed that he'd woken up some of Coulson's team, who were gathering to watch the spectacle. He didn't care.
"Harry. I promise you. I'll get to the bottom of this. There will be accountability." Hill, shockingly, seemed desperate. She'd been projecting such an air of confidence and authority earlier, it was jarring to see her so undone. "We can figure this out, Harry. We can do this together." She reached out for him, but he let her hands pass through air.
"Do whatever you like, but I'm done. I'm done." Then he walked out without another word.
He had a staff to find.
-----
Silence reigned for a long minute. Hill just stared at the empty doorway where Harry had left from, her expression unreadable.
"Well shit." May said succinctly "We just lost an Avenger."
"No we haven't." Coulson said "He's still an Avenger, he just…"
"Hates our guts?" Skye prompted, inspecting a window that now had a large crack running through it. She hadn't heard how the conversation had started, but she'd seen how it had ended. His magic had been visible around him, his power radiating out in a subtle aura. Others might have been intimidated by the display, but Skye found it hot.
Coulson nodded "I have to respect the decision, even if it makes everything much more difficult for us."
Hill suddenly shook her head decisively "No, we can't let him go off alone."
"He seemed pretty adamant on that point, Hill." Coulson said plainly.
"Phil, he's been the target of two assassination attempts." Hill pressed, her voice growing stronger "We need someone there, if only so they can request backup."
"Makes sense to me." Ward agreed "I could go."
"No… that won't work." Hill said reluctantly "He needs someone he'd actually want around."
"Time to call the Avengers?" Coulson suggested.
"I think we have to. We just have to hope he doesn't go completely underground before they get here." Hill mused.
"Though Romanoff could probably track him down, if need be." Coulson said "Though I doubt Harry would appreciate it if it came to that."
"I'm half afraid Romanoff will shoot him on sight." Hill quipped wryly.
"I'll go." Skye interrupted, finally finding voice to what she'd been contemplating the entire conversation.
As one, the occupants of the room turned to her. Hill eyed her appraisingly. "He seems to like you." She acknowledged "We'd just need you to keep an eye on him while we figure things out with the other Avengers. For a few hours at least."
Skye nodded "Understood."
"Are you sure about this?" Coulson asked her "This isn't expected of you."
Skye rolled her eyes "You really think Harry's going to be a threat? Besides, it'll just be for a few hours. What could happen?"
In the span of a few minutes, Skye geared up to leave. There wasn't much time to waste, ever minute would make it harder for her to track him down. She just hoped that he didn't expect to be immediately followed.
As she stepped out, she turned back to look at the assembled group, which now included a groggy looking Fitz, and a somewhat more put together Simmons. Her friends. "Well, I'll see you guys soon. Leave some coffee for me." Not the most memorable parting words, but this wasn't really a goodbye. She really would be back soon.
Wouldn't she?