[Emissary] Chapter 4 - Patrol Duty (Patreon)

AN: It looks like some people are still confused, so I am going to be more detailed about my explanation (mostly for the people on FFN)

Harry’s 1st World was the canon one (up until the Battle of Hogwarts). Those who have read the previous fic know that the Battle of Hogwarts was a bit different from the canon and that from there on, it diverged even more from the canon because Voldemort kept coming back to life and Harry didn’t know the reason for it for a long time.

Harry’s 2nd World was the one from “Back? Not Really”.

As for who was “our” Harry in the 1st chapter of this fic, it was the one who won, the one wearing a skull mask. The Harry-who-killed-his-wife was an alternate dimension Harry.

Hope things are clearer now. Enjoy!

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

Chapter 4 - Patrol Duty

“This is incredible!”

After living for so long, there weren’t many things that could awe him to such an extent, but the sight in front of his eyes left him breathless. At that moment, he felt as if enduring six lifetimes had been worth it solely for the fact that he got to see that with his own eyes.

“You wake up to this view every day in the morning?” he asked as he stared at the brightly glowing giant marble below. The planet Earth, seen from space, looked mesmerising. He felt like a child going for the first time to zoo.

“Not every morning; most of us don’t live here,” a woman whose voice he didn’t recognise said, prompting him to turn around.

He had seen her on the internet before, but it was a different thing altogether to be face-to-face with her. Standing at almost 170 cm tall, she was a bit shorter than him, but her large angel-like wings, her strong arms and shoulders, and the spiked mace hanging at her waist gave her an intimidating appearance.

“I’m Hawkgirl,” she said, raising her hand for a handshake.

“I’m Harry Potter, but you can call me Emissary. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Emissary… where did I hear that name before?” Flash piped in from the side, a thoughtful look on his face as he rubbed his chin with his hand.

“He’s the one who caused the large vortex of fire above London a few weeks ago,” Batman said as he came into the room, the ever-present scowl on his face directed at Harry now.

“Ah! You’re right!” Flash exclaimed, clapping his fist on his hand. “But he looks completely different from what Captain Atom told us.”

“I can change my appearance at will,” Harry explained.

“Nevertheless, nobody was hurt, and he didn’t cause any property damage either,” Superman intervened when he sensed that Batman was about to start an interrogation. “It’s his first day as a member of the Justice League, so let’s not ruin the mood now.”

But Batman pressed on:

“Why have we not been informed of this? I thought we were a team. Inducting a new member in the Justice League is a very important matter. You all know just how many enemies we have.”

“Batman, I know what you’re thinking of, but he has even entrusted us with his civilian identity. He can be trusted,” Wonder Woman also spoke up in Harry’s defence.

“Can he, now?” asked Batman. “Harry Potter, 30 years old, British nationality, born and raised in London. Orphan. No known relatives are alive. He might as well call himself John Doe because there are no other traces of him. No information on where he went to school, no medical records, no friends, and no family. Nothing can be tied to him. He is a ghost. And, on top of it all, J’onn can’t read his mind either.”

“Wait, you've asked J’onn to read his mind?!” Flash asked incredulously.

“I agree with Batman on this one,” Green Lantern spoke up. “You two went ahead and made this decision by yourself, without asking for our opinion. And you brought a complete unknown into the Watchtower.”

It wasn’t only the fact that they had been excited by Harry’s ability to magically repair and restore property damage that had prompted Superman and Wonder Woman to invite Harry by themselves without consulting their teammates.

The main reason for their rush was that they were afraid that the Justice League of Europe would snatch him first. They thought they didn’t have time to sit back and wait to hear their teammates' thoughts, lest they lost the opportunity to recruit him. Their worries had not been unfounded considering the fact that Captain Atom and Power Girl had actually gotten to Harry Potter even before them.

“My telepathy didn’t work on him. But we aren’t out of options just yet,” Martian Manhunter, who had been silent until then, spoke.

“Wonder Woman’s lasso,” said Hawkgirl in understanding, prompting everyone to turn their attention to the Amazon.

Then they all glanced at Harry.

“Wonder Woman’s lasso has the ability to make everyone she ties up speak the truth and only the truth. Even the gods can’t resist it. If you truly have nothing to hide, there should be no reason for you to refuse it,” Batman said.

Harry was silent throughout their discussion, merely observing them and their interactions with each other.

‘Batman and Green Lantern appear to be wary of unknowns. Flash seems to be the more easy-going one among them. If I were to pick the leader, it would be either Batman or Superman, I think?’

He wasn’t a fan of how the Martian had tried to read his mind, but he couldn’t fault them either.

‘I would’ve done the same if I were in their shoes.’

Seeing as everyone was looking at him, waiting for his answer, he replied:

“Sure. Ask me what you want. But I trust you that you will respect certain personal boundaries.”

Once he grabbed one end of the Lasso of Truth, Wonder Woman said:

“The Lasso of Truth commands you to speak the truth. What is your name?”

As the rope started glowing with a golden light, Harry felt a tug at his mind. But that was all there was to it. The Lasso didn’t have any effect on him.

It was not because his Occlumency was powerful enough to allow him to withstand something that even the gods couldn’t. The reason why it didn’t affect him was that he was Death’s Emissary. Death was far above the one who had enchanted Wonder Woman’s lasso, far above the gods and most of the creation. There was no spell capable of affecting Death’s Emissary’s mind or soul.

“Harry James Potter,” he replied, not revealing the fact that the lasso was not working on him.

“Do you have any plans of harming the Justice League and its members in any way?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Why did you so easily agree to join the Justice League?” she asked.

Pretending that the lasso was working on him, Harry used this opportunity to reveal his real purpose, incidentally speaking the truth even if he wasn’t being coerced by Wonder Woman’s artefact.

“It is the only way for me to kill Darkseid. I need the Justice League’s help to get to Apokolips and execute him.”

Batman narrowed his eyes at that answer.

“Why do you want to kill Darkseid? What’s your history with him?” Superman couldn’t hold back his curiosity.

“Superman, I think that goes beyond the boundaries of what we need to know,” Martian Manhunter intervened.

“No, I think it’s better if we do,” Green Lantern retorted. “For all we know, he could be a sleeper agent Darkseid had sent to infiltrate our ranks and weaken us from within.”

“You’re being paranoid,” Hawkgirl said, looking at Green Lantern in annoyance. “As if Darkseid would need to do something like that. You need to remember that it is only New Genesis’ army that stands between Darkseid and us. Without New Genesis’ intervention, he would have conquered the Earth when he invaded years ago.”

“Darkseid is exactly the type to do something like that,” Superman contradicted her words. “He doesn’t rely on strength alone to accomplish his goals. He is more vile and cunning than you could possibly imagine.”

If someone asked Superman who was the one person he hated the most in the entire world, Darkseid would definitely make it into his top 2 list.

“Superman, aren’t you the one who asked me to tag along in order to recruit him?” Wonder Woman unexpectedly asked. “Why did you want to recruit him if you were bearing these kinds of suspicions in your mind?”

“Hey, I’m not saying I’m suspicious of Harry,” Superman defended himself. “All I’m saying is that it’s not beyond Darkseid to operate like that.”

When they started arguing with each other, Harry said:

“You, people, seem to have gotten something wrong here. I didn’t barge in here. You were the ones who invited me here. I even let you interrogate me with a lie detector. If you don’t want or need me, I could always go back to Europe. I’m sure Captain Atom would welcome me to Paris with open arms.”

“You won’t need to do that. You’ve proven yourself under the effects of the Lasso of Truth,” Superman said categorically and glanced at Batman and Green Lantern as if to tell them that if they had something to say against that, now was the last chance they had.

When the two of them kept their silence, Superman told Harry:

“Welcome to the Justice League!”

“Welcome!” Flash said and grinned at him.

Martian Manhunter also came and shook Harry’s hand before saying:

“I understand that Earthlings have a custom of celebrating important occasions with food and beverages. I have prepared a small welcoming party for you.”

Harry looked at the Martian in surprise. Considering that J’onn had tried to read his mind, Harry had not expected him to have prepared a welcoming party for him.

“Beverages? Tell me you brought alcohol too!”

“Alcohol is not allowed in the Watchtower!” Green Lantern barked at Hawkgirl.

“Oh, loosen up, you. You’re always acting like the “fun police”. How often do we get new members? It’s the first time we got one!” she shot back at him before spreading her wings and flying after Flash, who had already rushed ahead of everyone to the canteen.

As the rest also followed after those two, Superman turned to Batman, who didn’t move from his spot.

“Care to join us?”

“I’ll pass. I’m needed in Gotham.”

“Can’t you make an exception for today?”

“Criminals don’t take days off,” Batman said flatly before turning around and taking the path that led to the drydock where his bat-themed spaceship was docked.

Superman sighed but didn’t pester him anymore. He knew what kind of person Batman was.

“Flash! That food is supposed to feed ten normal people! Leave some for the rest of us!”

Hearing Hawkgirl’s shout, Superman chuckled and flew towards the canteen too.

“I better hurry up, or Flash will really gobble up everything before I even get there.”

⁂

Arriving in the mess hall, Superman stopped at the sight of a scene that looked as if it was out of a movie: Flash was in the midst of gorging himself with ham sandwiches. His hands and mouth were a blur as he threw one ham sandwich after another into his mouth, but, miraculously, the pile of sandwiches on the plate in front of him wasn’t diminishing in the least. For every sandwich that Flash took, another one spawned in its place.

“You can conjure food with your magic?” Superman asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

“Hey, Harry, one more cup, please?” Hawkgirl grabbed him by his shoulder and shook him hard, preventing him from answering Superman’s question.

“Hawkgirl! You’ve had enough alcohol already!” Green Lantern shouted at her.

“Maybe you shouldn’t give her any more wine,” Wonder Woman also took the Lantern’s side. “Hawkgirl can be a rowdy drinker sometimes.”

“Wine? I thought you didn’t buy any alcohol?” Superman turned towards J’onn and asked.

“I didn’t. Harry cast a spell and turned the apple juice into wine.”

“Are you serious? Who is he, Jesus?”

Harry laughed at that question.

“Not Jesus, just a wizard. Turning water or juice into wine isn’t that difficult. Back home, any child could do it.”

“No matter how I look at it, creating food with magic is an amazing ability. Imagine how much good you could do with that!” Wonder Woman said as she sipped on a cup of orange juice.

“I can’t create food out of nothing. I can duplicate it if I have real food first. But it will go bad faster than real food. Even frozen food doesn’t last long if it’s duplicated.”

“Still awesome! You’re my best friend from now on!” Flash stopped eating just to say that before going back at it.

“Get yourself another best friend! I call dibs on him!” Hawkgirl slurred and downed yet another cup of wine, courtesy of Harry, who had Transfigured more juice into wine for her despite the others telling him not to.

Having bribed the local glutton and alcoholic to his side, Harry gained his first two friends in the Justice League.

⁂ Later that day ⁂

Located in the north of the United States, in Michigan State, at the border with Canada, Detroit City was widely considered one of the worst big cities in the country.

It was night. Despite the later hour, Detroit City was still very much awake. Now, Green Lantern and Harry Potter were flying above Belmont and making a straight line towards Fishkorn. From there, Green Lantern led the way towards the Delrey district in the east. They were three of the most ill-famed districts of the city. All sorts of crimes happened there almost daily.

“Do you always go out on patrols as a team?” Harry asked, making some light conversation.

“Usually we don’t. But it’s my job to show you the ropes tonight. Stay close and listen to my instructions. Even if we have superpowers, a bullet fired from the back, when you don’t expect it, can still hurt us, or worse. So I need your guarantee that you will stay sharp and listen to my orders.”

“Got it. But relax a bit, I used to work in Law Enforcement so I understand this isn’t a child’s game.”

Now that got Green Lantern curious.

“Law Enforcement?”

“I’ll tell you some other time. Looks like there’s trouble,” Harry said when the sounds of police sirens rang in the night.

⁂

Other than helping the police stop a hit-and-run criminal and putting an end to an armed conflict between two rival gangs, the night was fairly uneventful.

That was not, by any stretch, something that regular people would call uneventful, but it did seem so for Green Lantern who was used to dealing with superpowered aliens and metahuman criminals. Regular thugs and ruffians armed with mere handguns, knives, and crowbars were hardly a challenge.

“So how do you decide who goes where?”

“This isn’t exactly Justice League business what we’re doing now,” Green Lantern explained, his tone having lost some of its previous edge once Harry told him that he used to be a Law Enforcement officer. “Normally, most of us just take care of the cities we grew up in. For example, Batman and Gotham, Superman and Metropolis, Flash and Central City, and so on. You get the gist of it. I grew up here, in Detroit, so I’m trying to keep the order here. God knows this place needs all the help it can get.”

“I see…”

“The Justice League usually handles criminals and situations that are too difficult or too dangerous for us to handle alone. Usually, it’s coalitions of metahuman criminals, rogue aliens, or natural disasters.”

“Should I decide on a city to patrol too?” Harry asked.

“Don’t be in a rush, rookie. Take your time to learn the ropes from the more experienced members of the League first and focus on your main task, the reason why Wonder Woman decided to pay you: fixing property damage and keeping civilians safe.”

“I get the feeling you, people, aren’t big fans of receiving payment for your deeds. As a Green Lantern, don’t you get paid for your work too?”

“I don’t.”

“You don’t?!”

“One of the main requirements to become a Green Lantern is to be a selfless and altruistic person. Greed has no place in the heart of a Green Lantern,” John Stewart said stoically.

“Mate, I’m talking about receiving remuneration to afford living, not to buy a yacht or build yourself a palace.”

“I have a regular job on the side too. I’m an architect, you know? You don’t have to worry about me starving,” Green Lantern said. “Besides, the Guardians don’t forbid us from using our powers for the sake of making a living, as long as it doesn't break any laws. I could always dig up some valuable metals and ores from outer space and sell them on Earth if I needed.”

As morning approached, Green Lantern stopped chit-chatting and gave Harry an entire list of things a hero shouldn’t do on the job and another one with all sorts of procedures and guidelines that he had to follow when apprehending criminals and handing them over to the police.

‘This bloke is a stickler for the rules.’ Harry thought as he watched the Lantern leave.

But, in spite of his thoughts, he smiled. He didn’t hate it. He wasn’t sure what it was about the black superhero that reminded him of Mad-Eye from his first life. It made him feel nostalgic.

‘Well, time to return to the Watchtower.’

And with that, he Disapparated.

⁂

As a loud crack suddenly rang behind him, Batman instinctively jumped up to his feet, rolled to the side, and threw a batarang in the direction where the sound came from.

Harry looked startled at the sharp, bat-shaped weapon that stopped only a few inches away from his face. Had it not been for his quick reflexes to cast a Shielding Charm he could’ve been grievously hurt.

“What’s this about?” he asked.

“I thought it was a gunshot,” Batman replied. “Do you make that sound every time you teleport?”

Harry had given the Justice League a summary of his abilities, so Batman knew that their new teammate could teleport but Harry forgot to mention the loud sound that Apparition made every time he used it.

“Ah, yes. My bad. I must’ve forgotten about it.”

“Any other peculiarities we should be aware of?”

“Nothing off the top of my mind.”

Without as much as offering an apology for nearly skewering his face, Batman went back to his seat and started typing quickly on the keyboard again.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked curiously as he looked at the large number of newspaper articles and classified documents that flashed quickly on the screen, one after another.

“I’m investigating some dubious movements made by the royal crown of Kasnia,” Batman replied curtly.

“I see,” Harry said.

He didn’t see it. He didn’t even know where Kasnia was supposed to be; he had never heard of that country before. But he could read the room and understand when someone wasn’t eager to talk to him. Leaving Batman to his own devices, Harry went to the room of the Watchtower that had been assigned to him to get some rest. After all, he had spent most of the night flying around Detroit, arresting thugs.

⁂

It was 11 o'clock in the morning. He had barely managed to get four hours of sleep before his cellphone rang. It was a very old and bulky Nokia model, but it was just what Harry needed because he could use the older models without the need to wear “magic-insulating” gloves. It was impossible for him to use the newer models with a touchscreen because his magic fried them instantly. His brand of magic and technology were like oil and water. They didn’t mix.

Having spent so many years on the battlefield or surrounded by enemies, Harry became accustomed to sleeping with one eye open. Any sudden movement or noise in his proximity was bound to startle him awake. Therefore, despite his tiredness, he heard the ringing sound and picked up the phone right away.

“Harry Potter speaking. Who is this?”

“It’s Superman. I woke you up, sorry,” Superman said from the other end of the line after recognising by the sound of his voice that he must have been asleep.

“It’s fine. Since I’m awake now, is there anything you need help with?”

“Just had a scrap with Toyman in Metropolis. He put up a much tougher fight than I expected and even carved out a whole skyscraper’s midsection.”

“How many casualties?”

“Almost twenty,” Superman said quietly.

“Merlin…”

A poignant silence followed.

“You think you could fix the damage here?”

“Yeah. I could normally teleport directly to Earth, but I’ve never been to Metropolis before.”

Seeing as the Watchtower was orbiting the Earth at an altitude of roughly 500 km, it wouldn’t be difficult for Harry to Apparate to ground below, as long as he had been in that place before.

“J’onn is on his way to the Watchtower, as we speak. He’ll pick you up.”

Hanging up, Harry stood up from the bed and went to wash his face. Changing into his battle robes, he took one last look in the mirror before going to the drydock. Martian Manhunter just happened to arrive at the Watchtower with the Javelin at that moment to pick him up.

⁂

It was only his second day as a member of the Justice League of America, yet Harry was hit once again with the severe reality of what happened when superpowered beings fought.

‘The damage is extensive,’ he thought as he walked out of the Javelin, and looked at his surroundings.

It was as if he was in the middle of a war zone, not in one of the biggest and most developed cities in the world. The centre of St. Martin’s Island (one of the six main districts of Metropolis City) was in ruins. Over a dozen buildings were in various states of ruin, many cars were burning, and a high-rise tower had an enormous, circular hole gouged in its midsection; it was a miracle that the skyscraper was still standing.

“I tried to evacuate as many people as I could while Superman fought, but I wasn’t fast enough,” Martian Manhunter said in a sorrowful voice.

“There were too many robots. Toyman must’ve been preparing for this attack for a long time,” said Superman as he flew down and landed next to them.

Although he had apprehended the criminal and handed him to the police already, there was no sign of joy on his face.

“The damage is much worse than I thought. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fix everything, but I’ll do my best,” Harry said.

No, he was sure of it because the Repairing Spell wasn’t all-powerful, there were limits to it. For example, if an object had been obliterated or incinerated completely, it couldn’t be repaired anymore. Luckily, due to his tenure in Earthland, he had learnt other different brands of magic too.

“You might want to distance yourselves from me. It’s better if you get out of the affected area.”

Once Superman and Martian Manhunter flew away, Harry brought his hands close and spoke in a language that the two of them couldn’t comprehend:

[Lost Magic: Arc of Time.]

Even on Earthland, it was a very rare type of magic, one that extremely few people were capable of. It was the power to change the time of non-living objects and plants. It could rewind the time or it could fast-forward it.

A sphere of white light appeared in the palms of his hands, and when he let it go, it flew up and quickly grew in size, engulfing the entire district that had been ruined by Superman and Toyman’s fight.

“That five-figure monthly salary that Wonder Woman decided to pay him might not be enough. This is incredible,” Superman said in awe.

As much as he disliked magic in general, there was nothing but admiration in his voice at that moment. Superman and Martian Manhunter had watched the video of Harry’s exploits in London, but seeing it happening in front of their eyes was entirely different.

But Harry’s area-of-effect spell didn’t fix only the ruined buildings and the wrecked and burning cars around; it rewound the time for the broken remains of the army of giant robots that Toyman had used to assault the city as well.

The two superheroes watching from the sidelines were spooked, thinking that they’d have to start fighting the robots all over again, but, fortunately, without Toyman remotely controlling them, the robots remained immobile.

⁂

“Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about the dead. My spells only work on non-living things and plants,” Harry said when he was done fixing all the destruction.

“You’ve done more than enough. I shudder to think about the costs of fixing that mess if it weren’t for you,” Superman said. “I feel at ease knowing that we have someone like you on our side.”

‘I can fix the damage, but what about the people who died?’ Harry thought.

Even after hundreds of years, despite going through so many battles and walking with Death by his side, he had never lost his compassion for the innocent. It had never sat well with him to watch the weak suffer at the hands of the strong.

‘This world doesn’t have a Ministry of Magic or an International Confederation of Wizards. There is no Statute of Secrecy either, so I don’t need to hide my magic from the Muggles. Maybe we could prevent these fights from taking place in the middle of the city from now on.’

Coming to a decision in his mind, Harry asked Superman and Martian Manhunter:

“When do you have some free time? There’s something important I want to discuss with you. Not just with you two, but with all the members of the Justice League.”

“As long as there isn’t an emergency in the field, I’m usually at the Watchtower,” Martian Manhunter said.

“I’m afraid I’ll be busy for the rest of the day. I made an appointment for Power Girl at the Star Labs, and I’d like to be there when they run tests on her. You could join me if you want. If it’s very important, we can discuss it while we’re waiting for her.”

⁂

“This doesn’t make any sense,” a woman wearing a long white lab coat said as she alternated between looking at the machines in front of her eyes and the computer screen below.

Superman and Harry Potter were next to her too, watching Power Girl with furrowed faces.

“Her pushing strength is 10000 times lower than the first time we tested her but 14 times higher than the last time,” the scientist said.

Harry had followed Superman for the sake of discussing the proposal that he had in mind, but that thought took the backseat momentarily when faced with the current dilemma.

“How can someone’s strength fluctuate that much?” he asked. He wasn’t familiar with how metahuman abilities worked, but it was strange no matter how he looked at it.

“The first time we tested her abilities was when she first arrived on Earth nearly three years ago. At first, her abilities were comparable to mine,” Superman explained. “Similar physical strength, she could fly as fast as I could, she had the same Ice breath, heat vision, X-ray, and super hearing as I do. I thought she was my long-lost cousin from Krypton. She certainly seemed to think so too.”

Although he hadn’t been living in this world for a long time, Harry Potter was familiar with Superman’s story. Who wasn't? After all, he was the figurehead of the Justice League and one of the most famous people on the planet. There was virtually nobody in the Western World who had not read or at least heard of Lois Lane’s articles about Superman.

“What happened?” Harry asked in interest.

At that moment, Power Girl stepped out of the gigantic overhead pressing machine and let it fall to the floor with an extremely loud bang.

“The real Supergirl happened,” Power Girl answered to him instead of Superman.

“What do you mean?”

“Another girl who looks just like me, but younger, arrived on a rocket from outer space, just like I did. But she was the real thing. She was Kryptonian, just like Superman. They are even blood-related, they are cousins.”

Harry shifted his glance from Power Girl to Superman and back.

“But that doesn’t explain why you randomly lose your abilities and randomly get them back too."

“That’s something I’d like to know too,” Power Girl said, crossing her arms to her chest as she glared at the screen of the computer.

On it, there were two images depicting the structure of her eyes from several weeks ago and from the present.

“I don’t understand it either,” the scientist said as she motioned with her hand at the images on the screen. “When we tested you three weeks ago, you could still fly and you still had your heat vision. Your eyes were built in a way that allowed a large amount of solar radiation to pass without suffering any side effects. But now they’re… normal. They’re no different from my eyes or those of any other regular human.”

“Maybe it’s magic,” she said and shot a glance at Harry.

“That again? Doctor Fate confirmed that your abilities aren’t mystical in nature. You’re not the granddaughter of an Atlantean sorcerer as you claimed to be,” Superman refuted her words.

“But, clearly, I’m not your cousin either,” Power Girl said with a huff and turned her head away from him.

“I’m not a medi-Wizard but I can’t sense any magic from you,” Harry said with a shake of his head. “No curses or any other type of spells are currently affecting your physique either.”

“Hey, I thought you were on my side!”

“I’m on nobody’s side,” said Harry and chuckled when he saw the glare and the pout on her face.

“I think I need to draw another sample of blood from you,” the female doctor said, interrupting them.

“Sure, whatever,” Power Girl shrugged her shoulders uncaringly and took a seat on the chair where the doctor led her.

But when the medic tried to push the tip of the syringe into her vein, the needle snapped.

“Looks like your invulnerability is back?” the scientist muttered to herself and went to a cabinet, from where she took another syringe.

This syringe looked different from the other one. Its needle was glowing with a bright green colour; it was made of Kryptonite.

“Most fascinating!” the doctor exclaimed in surprise when even the Kryptonite needle couldn’t pierce her skin either.

“This is driving me nuts,” Superman said, rubbing his face with both hands. “How is this possible? She was vulnerable to Kryptonite during the previous tests, just like I am. How did it stop working on her now?”

“I don’t know, Superman. That’s what we’re trying to find out,” the female doctor said calmly.

Martian Manhunter's voice suddenly rang into Superman's head:

“Superman, an airplane heading from Rome to Boston has lost two of its four engines, and it’s going to crash land into the ocean, not far from the American coast. You’re the closest member of the Justice League who could stop it.”

Superman clicked his tongue, but he couldn’t say no when there were lives at risk.

“I’m sorry, I have to go. An airplane is about to crash. Can you take care of Power Girl in my stead? I’ll owe you one.”

Not even waiting for an answer, the Man of Steel became a blur as he sped out of the room.

Harry turned his attention back to the doctor, who was fussing around Power Girl, trying to find a method to draw out her blood. He wasn’t sure what Superman was expecting him to do when he asked him to take care of Power Girl but he could at least watch over her until they were done with the tests.

‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he's her older brother.’

“Maybe I can help you with that?” he offered when he saw that the doctor was the end of her wits when all the methods she had tried failed to pierce Power Girl’s skin (she had even attempted to cut her open her skin with a laser).

“You? How?” the doctor asked, her interest piqued anew.

“I’m a wizard.”

“Ah, that should do the trick. Kryptonians aren’t immune to magic,” she nodded.

“I thought it’s obvious by now that I’m not a Kryptonian,” Power Girl said with a huff.

“Honey, I may not know what’s causing the instability in your powers, but when I first tested you, you had the same abilities as Superman, even his vulnerability to Kryptonite. Your DNA matched the Kryptonians and, on top of it all, your bones and muscles were even denser than those of Superman’s. In theory, your body should be capable of the same feats as his, at the very least.”

Taking out the Elder Wand, Harry came closer and asked: “Where should I do it?”

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just get this over with,” Power Girl said, sighing. “I’m tired of running tests like a lab rat.”

“We’re doing this for your own good. Have some patience,” the medic said in disapproval of her attitude.

“Whatever. You’ve been testing me for months and couldn’t find what’s wrong with me. Ouch!” she let out a yelp when Harry pressed the tip of his wand on the back of her forearm, cutting open her skin. “Give me a warning first, will you?”

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Power Girl having troubles with her Kryptonian abilities is something that happened in the comics. It’s not just a gimmick, there is a good reason for it. As for those who cannot wait for the reason to be revealed in the story I could spoil you in a private message if you wanted.