[Emissary] Chapter 5 - Placebo (Patreon)

AN: Mentioning this just in case: most of the spells that Harry is casting are nonverbal. When they are written ‘Like this’ it means they are nonverbal, that he is saying the spell's incantation in his mind.

Whenever he casts a spell out loud, I tend to specify that. It generally means that he needed to put more magic power into the spell or that it was a spell that couldn’t be cast nonverbally (for example, the Unforgivables or the [Arc of Time] spell from the previous chapter).

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

Chapter 5 - Placebo

“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?”

“You’re like a big baby, seriously,” the doctor said, shaking her head.

Although it couldn’t be said that she and Power Girl were close, the blonde had come to the Star Labs to have her condition analysed enough times that they became familiar with each other.

“Hey, you’ve got a bottle full of my blood already, isn’t it enough?” Power Girl said in annoyance when the doctor grabbed another small flask.

Normally, 10-30 ml of blood were enough for bloodwork. There shouldn’t be a need for a second bottle.

“Oh, shush!” the doctor admonished her before quickly filling the second bottle with blood too. “We’ll have to run more tests this time around. There, was it that difficult?”

Once Kara got up from the chair, Harry cancelled the spell that was making her bleed. He didn’t even need to use his magic to heal her because the puncture wound in her skin closed instantly.

“You could wait two hours for the results or come back for them tomorrow. It’s up to you.”

“I’ll just come back in two hours. The sooner we get this over with, the better,” Power Girl said.

⁂

Walking out of the Star Labs, Power Girl and Harry stopped on the sidewalk for a few moments.

“What now?”

“Superman asked me to take care of you so~” he trailed off.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” she huffed. But then, she let out a sigh and apologised. “Sorry, I’m throwing a tantrum like a teenager when you have no fault in this.”

Harry merely smiled at her, not bothered by her attitude. Her eyes were like an open book. He didn’t even need to use his Legilimency to see how frustrated she was.

“How about we go grab a bite? You haven’t eaten anything today. You’ll feel much better on a full stomach.”

Deciding to forget about her problems, at least for the moment, Power Girl smiled.

“Why, mister, are you asking me out on a date?”

The teasing tone of her voice wasn’t lost on him but he chuckled as if he found her behaviour cute.

“Studies have shown that there’s a direct relationship between women’s mood and their satiety value,” Harry said.

“What studies? Give me a source.”

“I know it from personal experience.”

“Translation: trust me, bro,” she snickered. “But I wouldn't say no to pizza if you offered.”

“I’ll pay for it as long as you choose the place. It’s only my second time in Metropolis and the first time I came here wasn’t for leisure either.”

⁂

Thirty minutes later, Harry’s theory proved to be true. As she gorged herself with pizza and Pepsi, Power Girl’s grouchy attitude all but disappeared. Now, she was all smiles.

“So you ended up joining the Justice League of America. Let me guess, was it because of the Watchtower?”

“Guilty as charged. The view of Earth from space is incredible. This pizza’s great, by the way.”

“I used to be a frequent customer here before I moved to New York. New York’s got way better pizza.”

A lull appeared in their conversation as they focused on eating. Kara glanced at him every now and then.

‘He’s not staring at me. Or if he’s doing it, he's good at being discreet about it.’

She had come to know that men’s eyes zeroed in on her chest involuntarily sometimes. It was in their instincts. She didn’t mind it all that much either unless they started acting rude or creepy about it.

As her mind went down that lane, another thought came to her.

‘It’s not only that he’s not staring. He doesn’t seem nervous or bothered in any way either.’

Many would feel nervous next to someone as attractive as her, or they would try to impress her. Her mind went to Hal Jordan at that thought. Hal tried to hit on her every time he returned to Earth from Green Lantern business.

‘Maybe he doesn’t find me attractive? Nah. That’s impossible. Unless… is he gay?’

“You’ve been ogling at me for a while,” said Harry, mildly amused at how she was staring a hole into his face.

“I got lost in your green eyes,” she fired back and grinned, not missing a beat.

He laughed. “Thanks. I got them from my mother.”

“She must be very pretty. I’d love to meet her one day.”

“It’s only our first date, and you’re already trying to meet my parents?” Harry said teasingly, getting back at her for her earlier comment.

They both laughed.

“You’re much better company than I expected,” she said, resting her chin on her palm and looking him in the eyes.

“What did you expect?”

“I don’t know. You looked like you were friends with Superman.”

“Huh? What’s wrong with that? He seems like a great guy.”

“He is a great guy, I never said he wasn’t,” Power Girl defended herself. “But fun isn’t a word I’d use to describe him.”

“Are you at odds with him?”

She let out a sigh. “No, it’s the opposite. I respect him and look up to him. It’s just… he still thinks he owes me something and acts overprotective, almost as if he were my father or my elder brother. It’s one of the reasons why I left the US and joined the Justice League of Europe.”

As Harry remained silent, she continued:

“When I first landed on Earth, I thought that I was his cousin, and he welcomed me with open arms. His adoptive parents gladly opened the doors of their house for me too. They were all overjoyed to have a new family member, especially Superman. He thought I was from Krypton, just like him. But I’m not. I realised that when the real Supergirl came to Earth… …but, for some reason, he still hasn’t given up on me. He still treats me as if I were a Kyrptonian, as if I were his cousin.”

“Aren’t you? From what that doctor at Star Labs said, you seem to be a Kryptonian. Your powers and your DNA proved it.”

“My powers can be replicated with Atlantean magic. As for my DNA, is it that reliable? You’ve seen the scans of my eyes yourself. How can someone’s body change that drastically in such a short time? Magic is the only explanation.”

“But I don’t sense any magic from you. Trust me, I’d know. My ability to sense magic has never failed me, and I also have a spell that reveals all traces of magic for more than a mile around me.”

“Maybe, but you’ve never come in contact with the Atlanteans’ type of magic, have you?” Power Girl said stubbornly.

“Maybe you’re right,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, not feeling like arguing over that matter. “So, are you saying that you might be from the same race of people as Aquaman?”

“Probably? I don’t know what to think." A hint of frustration seeped into her voice. “I seem to remember living on Krypton. But I think I also remember living on Atlantis...”

She gnawed on her lower lip.

“Recently, I’ve even started getting flashes of a life on Earth where I was raised by Superman and L-”

She quickly stopped herself when she realised she had almost divulged the fact that Superman and Lois Lane were in a relationship.

“-and his wife. But how does that make any sense? Superman isn’t even married yet.”

Power Girl ran her hands through her hair and blew out a long sigh.

“Okay, that’s enough moping around!” she suddenly said in an upbeat tone. “I’ve been complaining about my problems for too long. Tell me more about yourself instead.”

“What do you want to know?”

“For starters, is Harry Potter your real name? Is that even your real face? You looked completely different when Captain Atom and I met you in the skies above London a few weeks ago.”

“I really am Harry Potter, and this is my true face. You can’t build a relationship of trust and friendship with other people based on lies, can you?”

“Tell that to Batman,” she muttered with a scowl. “He knows everyone’s real identities, but he never lets others know his. Excluding criminals, he’s got to be one of the most unfriendly and least pleasant people I’ve ever met. Anyway, can you change your appearance however you want? Can you turn into anyone, like Martian Manhunter?”

“I could if I had a magical potion.”

“A magical potion? Like the ones from kids’ fairy tales?” she asked, grinning.

“Yes, just like the ones from fairy tales. But I have no idea where I would find the ingredients I need to brew it. Without a potion, I can only use Transfiguration Spells to change my face and hair. It’s much trickier to copy someone’s appearance perfectly.”

To prove his point, he Transfigured his face to look like the person he had disguised himself as when he summoned the large vortex of fire above London. Then, with a mental ‘Finite’, he turned himself back to normal.

“How did you learn magic?” Power Girl asked. “Did your parents teach you like Zatanna?”

“Unfortunately, my parents died not long after I was born.”

“Ah, sorry. Didn’t mean to bring that up.”

“It’s okay. It’s been so many years; I’ve long since made peace with it.”

“You don’t look that old to me.” She leaned over the table to get a closer look at him.

“How old do you think I am?”

Kara made a humming sound as she studied his face with attention. “Around 25? But there’s this air of a mature man around you, so I’ll go with early 30s.”

When he smiled at her, she narrowed her eyes.

“Or… don’t tell me, you’re like Wonder Woman.”

“Like her, how?”

“You wouldn’t give her more than 25, but she’s like 4000 years old.”

She burst into laughter when he nearly spit his drink out.

“I’m not that old, Jesus. But I’m still old. Very old.”

“Oh, come on, spit it out! Don’t leave me hanging!”

Suddenly, police sirens started ringing in the distance.

“Sorry. Duty calls!” he said.

Leaving three bills of $50 on the table, he stood up. But he only took one step before she grabbed him by the sleeve.

“Wait, take me with you. I can’t fly now, but I can still punch through the walls.”

“You shouldn’t be fighting or doing anything dangerous in your condition… but fine,” he added when he saw her eyes squinting into a glare.

‘Well, she’s an adult. She can take care of herself. I don’t have to act like a mother hen,’ he thought.

⁂

“Is there ever a dull moment in this city?” Harry asked rhetorically as he looked at a high-rise building being consumed by flames and the firefighters trying their hardest to stop the fire from spreading further than it already had.

Holding Power Girl by her wrists, he tried to fly with her towards the floor where the fire was raging.

“You’re way heavier than you look-”

“Excuse me?!”

“-so I’m going to cast a spell to make you lighter,” Harry said, not acknowledging her shout of indignation.

Luckily, a skull mask was fully covering his face, so Power Girl didn’t see the shit-eating grin on his face.

“It’s probably because of those-”

“Don’t you dare say it’s because of my boobs!”

The mask he was wearing couldn’t hide his amusement anymore because he burst into laughter.

“I was going to say muscles and bones that are much denser than those of a human, but your breasts certainly contribute significantly to your total mass,” he said, still snickering.

“Hmpf. Fine. You may cast the spell.”

“Done. I also cast a charm to protect you from fire,” he said as he flew together with her to the 25th floor.

She was curious about how he was casting spells without an incantation, but there was a time and place for everything; they certainly didn’t have the leisure to do talk about that now.

After they plunged inside through one of the broken windows, Harry quickly cast a Bubble Head Charm on both Kara and himself. Normally, a Kryptonian wouldn’t feel anything from that level of fire or be affected by the smoke but, considering how unreliable her abilities were at the moment, it was better to be safe than sorry.

‘Homenum Revelio.’

Once he cast the Human Presence Revealing Spell, it was as if a radar appeared in his mind’s eye and several humanoid silhouettes started glowing from behind the walls.

“There are five people on this floor, three on the upper floor, and six on the floor below.”

“I’ll go for the people on this floor. You can go for the ones above. We’ll leave the lower floor for the last,” Power Girl suggested and he nodded before grabbing the closest object to him that wasn’t burning and handing it to her. It was a rubber slipper.

“What are you doing?” She looked at him as if he were crazy.

“It’s a portkey. Once you rescue all the people, ask them to hold tightly onto each other and say the activation word, ‘nuggets’. It will teleport you outside, on the streets below.”

She glanced at him as if to gauge if he was having fun at her expense, but he appeared to be serious. Deciding to trust in his integrity, she grabbed the stinky slipper and rushed out of the room.

“Two of them are at 10 o’clock; the rest are at 4 o’clock,” he yelled after her, secretly letting out a sigh at how impatient she was.

“I know, I can hear them!” she yelled back.

It looked like her superhearing was back.

‘Defodio!’ he thought as he aimed his wand at the ceiling.

A wide, circular hole appeared in the ceiling, and he flew up through it. Following the glowing silhouettes outlined by the Human Presence Revealing spell, he found the three survivors right away.

A man was tied to an X-shaped cross on the wall and he was buck naked. Next to him, two women were lying on the floor, just as naked as he was. All three were unconscious from inhaling too much smoke.

‘Just my bloody luck,’ he cussed inwardly.

As annoyed as he was, he didn’t dally. He aimed his wand at the man and cast:

‘Relashio.’

The leather straps tying his wrists and ankles magically unbuckled themselves, and the man fell onto the floor too.

A modified version of the Incarcerous Spell conjured a rope that tied all three of them together. Grabbing a pillow, he turned it into a portkey and threw it on top of them before saying the activation word:

“Perverts.”

⁂

Less than ten minutes later, Power Girl and Harry rescued all the survivors trapped on the floors affected by the fire and brought them to the ambulance cars waiting below. However, there were still many more people on the upper floors of the tower who had not been able to evacuate.

Fortunately, most of them had gathered on the rooftop. They were anxiously waiting to be rescued by helicopters. 

Once he arrived there, Harry noticed that children had already been rescued and that were were few women left too. It was standard procedure to give children and women priority during a hazard.

As he held the tip of his wand against the side of his neck, Harry’s magically amplified voice was heard loud and clear over all the murmurs and cries coming from the over 50 people on the rooftop.

“We are with the Justice League. We are here to save you. Everyone, hold onto this rope. Don’t worry, it will be over in the blink of an eye. I’ll teleport you all to safety.”

Harry had expected some of them to act distrustful or to not recognise him because he had joined the Justice League only two days ago and it hadn’t been released to the public yet but, surprisingly, they all listened to his words obediently.

‘Either the video of me fixing up Croydon and St. Martin made me more popular than I thought of the Justice League’s name carries that much power.’

Harry wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was just glad that the people didn’t give him an additional headache.

“Everyone ready? Are you all holding onto the rope tightly?” he asked one last time.

At their chorus of affirmative answers, he activated the portkey. The rope glowed with a blue light and then, over 50 people vanished into thin air.

Extinguishing the fire was not a difficult affair for Harry. Once he became certain that all people were evacuated, a large torrent of water came out from the tip of his wand. It was an immense amount of it, enough to flood and completely encase the three floors affected by the fire into a gigantic bubble of water. One mental ‘Evanesco’ later, the water was Vanished too, preventing any further damage to the buildings and cars around the tower.

Now, sweaty, dirty, and reeking of smoke, the two of them headed back to the Star Labs to get Power Girl’s blood test results.

“Wait, before we enter, Scourgify!”

Cleaning Charms weren’t exactly his forte, but his spell did work wonders to remove most of the visible dirt, ash, and soot off their clothes. But there was little that those charms could do about the smell.

⁂

“I saw you on the news. Great job out there,” was the first thing that the female doctor said when they met again.

True to her words, the news channels were in the middle of broadcasting about that incident.

“One hour ago, a residential high-rise building in the New Troy district of Metropolis City caught fire. Three entire floors were engulfed by flames and the firefighters were struggling to contain the fire and evacuate the people until the timely arrival of Power Girl and the new member of the Justice League of America, Emissary.”

As the anchor spoke, a clip of Harry conjuring a large amount of water to douse the fire started playing.

“Fortunately, there were no casualties. It appears that this new hero, Emissary, is capable of teleportation as well. His efforts played a crucial part in reducing the number of casualties to zero [...]”

“Look at you! Barely your second day and you’ve already made a name for yourself,” said Power Girl as she elbowed him in the ribs jokingly. “Wait, come to think of it, you forgot to fix the tower like you did with the other destroyed places before.”

“I didn’t forget. I left it as it was on purpose, for the investigators to do their job. If I turned the building back to pristine condition, they’d have no way of finding out if the fire was started by an accident or if it was arson.”

Power Girl didn’t comment on that, but, inwardly, she was surprised at how thoughtful he was.

“More importantly, what did the tests show?” he asked the doctor.

“It’s as I suspected. Her DNA is unchanged and it confirms that she is a Kryptonian, there’s no doubt about it. The density of her muscles and bones are far beyond those of a regular human, they’re even denser than Superman’s which confirms that she grew up on a different planet, a planet larger than Earth.”

“So we’ve learned nothing new. I knew this was a waste of time,” Power Girl said flatly.

“It wasn’t exactly a waste of time. After so many tests, we can say confidently that your body is perfectly fine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you physically.”

“Then what-”

“It’s a mental thing,” the doctor cut Kara off before she could go on a rant.

“You can’t be serious!”

“I’m willing to bet my career and my name as a scientist on it.”

When she said it like that, even Power Girl had to acknowledge that she was being serious.

“Is she... mentally ill?” Harry asked.

A deadpan stare from the doctor and a glare from Kara promptly shut him up.

“It’s more like an extreme case of placebo,” the doctor explained. “She believes herself to be a fake, to not be a real Kryptonian. There are documented cases where placebo effects caused people to heal themselves of terminal illnesses or even get ill despite being healthy, simply because they believed they were ill.”

Harry didn’t find that hard to believe. After all, he was deeply familiar with that concept. People’s beliefs were so powerful that, back in his home world, they had given birth to immortal spirits and even gods. (1)

Kara, on the other hand, couldn’t accept it as easily.

“Okay, I get that, but how is it possible for even my organs to change? How did my eyes change their structure from that of a Kryptonian to a human? How do you explain that?”

“I can’t explain it with our current technology. The only explanation I can give is that it’s an extreme case of the placebo effect that is possible only due to your alien constitution.”

⁂

“Just great. I just found out I’m crazy. It was literally the only thing that was still missing,” Power Girl said in annoyance as they left Star Labs.

“I believe she was right. Not the part about you being crazy, but the part that people’s beliefs possess a great power. It wouldn’t hurt for you to get some counselling. Have you considered asking Martian Manhunter for help? I heard he’s a powerful telepath and everyone seems to respect him.”

“I’m not letting anyone rummage through my mind!” she said, crossing her arms to her chest.

Harry shrugged his shoulders noncommittally. “Your choice. Nobody is going to force you into it.”

Putting his hands on his waist, Harry bent back and let out a groan as he arched his spine, stretching.

“Age getting to you, old man?”

“I wish it did,” he said, chuckling. But that laughter didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s time for me to go. I didn’t catch a wink of sleep last night. I need some rest.”

“Okay. Thanks for tagging along with me today,” Kara said. “It was fun.”

“Yes, it was,” he smiled. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m not sure. I need some time to think about it.”

“I see. I’ll leave you with your thoughts now. But, if you ever feel like wanting to talk to someone, I can lend you my ear,” he said kindly.

“I will. Thanks, really.”

“Before I go, remember you’re not invincible anymore, so exercise some caution. Take care of yourself.”

“I will,” Power Girl said, smiling.

As the wizard teleported away with the crack sound specific to his spell, her smile dropped from her face.

⁂

Fortunately, after he returned to the Watchtower, nobody called him anymore, so he finally got a good night’s sleep.

He woke up the next day fully rested and in a pretty good mood. Considering that none of his colleagues had called him on his phone yet, he decided to start decorating his room and make it look like someone lived there.

That said, he didn’t have a passion or an eye for decorating rooms tastefully. To him, decorating his room meant hanging some paintings of people and other things he loved.

A hippogryph flying through a cloudy sky, a large green Anaconda snake crawling around one of the thick branches of a Scots pine tree, a snowy white owl sleeping on a perch in front of a fireplace, and, lastly, two large portraits of two women.

The paintings were animated. They were moving but there was no intelligence in their eyes.

His dull green eyes brightened as he glanced at the portrait of a pale white woman with long, silvery-blonde hair. Upon seeing her, many would be hard-pressed to remember ever seeing a woman more beautiful than her.

“My skills aren’t good enough to do you justice,” he muttered.

He had taken up painting in his 4th lifetime. His talent wasn’t exceptional when it came to painting but he had had many years to practice.

Objectively, his painting was nailing down Fleur Potter’s appearance perfectly. However, he didn’t see it that way. He wasn’t capable of replicating her smile the way he remembered it. Her eyes missed the glimmer of warmth that the real Fleur's eyes had whenever they were together too. His painting lacked… soul.

He turned to look at the second painting. It was a classy and elegant woman, seemingly in her late twenties. Her long black hair fell freely down her back in waves, and the teasing smirk on her face and the pointy witch hat on her head gave her an air of mischief and joviality. It was Bellatrix Black or, how she had come to be known in his third life, Bellatrix Potter.

He sighed at his incompetence again. This painting also failed to express Bellatrix’s personality. He couldn’t replicate that ever-present glimmer of curiosity and slight insanity in her violet eyes. The painting also failed to show the air of aristocracy she gave off effortlessly from the way she moved or looked at other people.

Nonetheless, even soulless, watching those two paintings was like a balm for his jaded and tired heart.

He was several hundred years old already. Time dulls everything, and Harry’s feelings were not an exception to that rule but, even so, he had never forgotten them. He had never stopped loving them. He would never forget his second and third lives.

He turned around startled when someone knocked on his door loudly.

“Harry Potter? May I come in? There is an emergency,” came Martian Manhunter’s voice from behind the door.

“Yeah, sure, come in,” Harry said, opening the door with a wave of his hand.

The Martian stopped in his place for a second, his eyes involuntarily falling on the two large portraits hanging on the wall opposite the door. But he chose not to comment on it and said:

“Superman has tried to reach you on your phone, but you weren’t answering.”

“Wait, really? But I didn’t get any calls,” said Harry. He took out his bulky Nokia phone to show it to him… …only to realize two seconds later that the phone was dead.

“Bollocks. How did it happen?”

“It appears to be broken,” J’onn said.

“I can see that.”

He took out its battery and tried to turn it on a few times, but nothing was working.

“My magic must've fried it. Technology and my brand of magic don’t interact well. But I don’t know how I broke it, I was careful not to cast any powerful spells while holding it.”

“Perhaps we should leave that mystery for another time. A metahuman blew up an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Metropolis. Things aren’t looking great. Superman extinguished the fire with his Ice Breath but the property damage is extensive.”

“Metropolis again, huh?” Harry said as he waved his wand in a circle above his head, casting a modified Switching Spell that replaced his casual clothes with his battle robes instantly.

“Who did it this time?” he asked as he put his skull mask on.

“A woman with the ability to control fire. Her name is Volcana. Apparently, she was also responsible for the fire at the apartment building yesterday. She was targeting someone, trying to murder them.”

“How many casualties?”

“No civilian casualties, but nearly 15 people died. According to Batman, they were all part of a top-secret project of the government called ‘Project Firestorm’. Volcana surrendered without a fight once she killed her targets,” J’onn said.

“Alright. Thanks for letting me know. And sorry, I’ll get a new phone before coming back.”

⁂

While the destruction that resulted from the factory’s explosion wasn’t quite as big as that left by Toyman and Superman’s battle the day before, it was still nothing to scoff at. Harry had to cast his [Arc of Time] magic in order to fix it, a simple Repairing Charm was nowhere near enough for it.

Once he was done with that, he went to the first pawn shop he could find and bought himself another old phone, a Motorola, and a new SIM card.

Then, he Apparated to the Watchtower. The moment he teleported back into his bedroom, a bang was heard, and it wasn’t the sound made by his Apparition. The light bulbs in his room all exploded and the mini fridge in which he kept his drinks stopped working too, a cloud of smoke coming out of it now.

“What the hell happened now?”

He knew that his magic was the bane of conventional technology but that was only the case if he came in direct contact with it. Older, less advanced devices were slightly more resistant too, yet now everything in his room that had electricity coursing through it blew up without him touching anything.

“Death, is this your doing?”

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN:

(1) It is a reference to the Shamanism shown in “Back? Not Really”. But this concept is kind of true in the DC world as well. The Olympian Gods, for example, can draw an enormous amount of power from people’s psychic energy. People’s beliefs, fears, feelings and so on are a source of power for the gods.