[Emissary] Chapter 6 - Gift (Patreon)

“Sooo… Why are we meeting here instead of the Watchtower?” Flash asked.

Currently, all the members of the Justice League were gathered in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Grand Canyon, Arizona.

“Emissary wants to show us something. Trust me, it will revolutionise the way we’re fighting crime from now on,” Superman spoke up for Harry.

“It’s too risky for me to come to the Watchtower at the moment. I’m afraid I won’t be able to go there in the foreseeable future either. You probably know by now, but my magic and technology don’t mix. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but my powers have been amplified. You can almost think of me as a walking EMP bomb,” Harry explained.

“You’re kidding,” Flash chuckled.

“He fried all the electronic devices in his room at the Watchtower, and all the light bulbs burst too when he teleported inside the last time,” Martian Manhunter said.

“Until I find out what’s going on, it’s safer for everyone if I don’t set foot in the Watchtower. Anyway. Let’s get to the matter at hand: the reason why Superman called you all together,” Harry said, changing the subject.

“We don’t know when and where the villains are going to attack. We don’t get to choose where we fight them, and, because of that, the innocent are often endangered. Sometimes, casualties occur, especially since the villains tend to purposely start a fight in densely populated areas to handicap us. While we’re forced to hold back and split our attention between fighting them and protecting the innocent bystanders, the villains have none of those concerns and go all out. But what if there was a way to completely change that?”

His words made everyone focus their entire attention on him.

“Batman, can you give me one of your throwing weapons?” Harry asked.

The hero in question didn’t ask why and just handed him a batarang.

“The solution to our problem is: teleportation. I have the ability to turn any object I want into a Portkey, a magical device that facilitates teleportation. It doesn’t have to be Batman’s weapon. Literally anything can be turned into a Portkey as long as I cast the spell on it. Watch.”

He pointed the Elder Wand at the batarang and said:

“Portus.”

The black, bat-shaped weapon started glowing with a blue light.

“If you touch it now, all I have to do is say the activation word and all of us will teleport in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York.”

As Batman looked at him with narrowed eyes, Harry was inwardly amused because he could read his emotions like an open book: suspicion, vigilance, and a deep lack of trust.

“Seeing how he’s glaring at me,” he said with a smile as he gestured towards Batman, “he probably thinks that this is a trap to capture the whole Justice League in one fell swoop.”

“Oh, come on, not even Batman would think that!” Flash took Batman’s side, defending him. “Right?” he turned to ask Batman.

Batman didn’t reply.

Harry shrugged his shoulders, clearly not taking his mistrust to heart. After all, he had joined the Justice League only a few days ago; it was too early to demand from the others that they trust him with their lives.

“Regardless. Let’s do this test in turns, with two of you at a time,” Harry said. “Who wants to volunteer first?”

Hawkgirl was the first to raise her hand. Then, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern raised their hands too, at the same time.

‘Interesting,’ Harry mused, noticing the peculiar look in John Stewart’s eyes when he looked at Hawkgirl. ‘Seems like these two have a special relationship.’

Considering the fact that he had been a master of Legilimency for centuries now, Harry didn’t need to actively probe into someone’s mind in order to gauge their thoughts. The emotions radiating from their eyes and their behaviour were enough for him to read them like an open book.

“Alright, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl will be the first,” Harry said. “Come here. When the Portkey is activated, you will feel a strange sensation, as if you’re being yanked forward by your navel. But don’t panic, because it won’t last for long. The landing might be a bit rough since it takes some time for people to get used to this form of magic transportation.”

“Wait. What about my mace? Won’t there be any problems?”

“Ah, yes, you’ve told me about your weapon. As long as you don’t activate it, there shouldn’t be any issues. Now, are you ready?” (1)

“Yes,” the two of them replied and grabbed the opposite ends of the batarang in his hand.

“Alright. I’ll say the activation word after a count of three. 1, 2, 3. Foras.” (2)

In the next moment, Harry, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl vanished. One second later, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl landed flatly, face-first, onto the lawn surrounding the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York.

“This is crazy,” Hawkgirl muttered as she picked herself up from the ground.

It was not the first time that she had experienced teleportation, but the sensations felt during the Portkey travel were something new.

“Now, ready to go back?” Harry asked.

Unlike them, he had landed perfectly on his feet.

As the two touched the batarang again, Harry counted to three again before he activated the Portkey once more, but with a different word this time.

“Retro.”

⁂

Once Harry returned with Hawkgirl and Green Lantern in tow, Batman stopped acting as on edge as before. Taking turns, he let all the members of the Justice League experience the feeling of travelling by Portkey.

“Are you saying we can activate these things by ourselves? No need for us to cast magic?” Flash asked a second time for confirmation.

“Precisely,” Harry replied.

“The possibilities are endless,” the speedster said, impressed.

“Indeed,” Martian Manhunter also agreed. “We could teleport the villains out of the city into a remote area and avoid any casualties and property damage.”

“Even better, we could prepare a special area to trap them. Imagine if we teleported them into an unbreakable bunker with a three-foot-thick blast door and triggered a few gas grenades inside. They’d be out, tranquillized, before they even got to understand what happened to them. The next thing they know, they’re in a cell with a metagene-inhibiting collar around their neck,” Green Lantern said.

“Maybe we should decide on standard objects that would be used as Portkeys,” Flash suggested. “This way, we won’t forget about them or trigger them by mistake.”

Ever the cautious one, Batman added:

“But we also have to be careful not to let these magic devices end up in the hands of the villains.”

“They wouldn’t know what to do with them. Besides, I can choose the number of times a Portkey can be used, and we could also set the teleporting locations to places that won’t put us or the Watchtower at risk,” Harry said to put his mind at ease.

Even the grumpy hero had to stop scowling after hearing that. The possibilities offered by a clever use of Portkeys were simply too good, especially for someone like him who had no special powers. Their potential was immeasurable.

⁂ Later that day ⁂

Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Arizona.

It was a night. Harry was sitting down on the edge of the tallest cliff peak in the vicinity. Although it was summer, steam was coming out of his mouth, and the canyon appeared to glitter in the moonlight. Everything in the vicinity was covered by a thick layer of ice.

It was a telltale sign that Death had manifested into the world of the living.

“You’ve finally decided to show up,” Harry said.

It was the first time Death came down to see him in person ever since he arrived in this world. Until then, Harry had been given the silent treatment, which was unusual because, despite what others might be tempted to think, Death used to be quite chatty in his previous worlds.

“You weren’t in the best of spirits when you just arrived here. I decided to give you some space and let you sort out your thoughts for a while,” Death said.

Calling Death ‘an old friend’ would be a stretch, but still, they’ve known each other for centuries. Yet, even after all these years, Death’s raspy voice still sent a chill down Harry’s spine at times.

“What’s going on with me?” Harry cut straight to the subject. “I’ve suppressed my power with the help of [Rune Magic] for now, but this is just a temporary solution. I can’t live in the civilised world like this. I’m like a walking EMP bomb. Any electric device near me explodes; I don’t even need to touch them.”

Death’s body flew slowly in a circle around Harry, seemingly studying him.

"Weren't you complaining about the difficulty of this 7th world? I granted you a portion of my Self. It is only a tiny sliver of my Being but it is enough for you to experience a dramatic leap in strength.”

Harry stood up and glanced at Death with a vigilant and tense look in his eyes.

“What’s the catch?” he asked.

“Whatever are you talking about?” Death asked, nonplussed.

“Don’t feign ignorance. When have you ever helped me without something else for anything in return? You don’t do charity. You don’t help your Emissaries. Everything we’ve ever done was a transaction.”

Death’s laughter scratched his eardrums like the sound of nails raking on a blackboard.

“So distrustful... So weary... So jaded... And here I thought that we had grown closer after all this time. We have known each other for more than 500 years by now, have we not?”

“It’s because I’ve known you for so long that I can’t trust you. If not for your schemes, my fourth lifetime would have been the last.”

Death flew so close to him that their bony head was only a few inches away from his face.

“I have never broken my word, Harry Potter,” Death said sharply, and Harry felt as if an invisible, clawed hand had suddenly wrapped around his heart and squeezed. “You would do well to remember that.”

He fell on his hands and knees, gasping for air as if he were suffocating.

“I did not force you to sign a contract with me. And I did not force you to sacrifice yourself for Neville either. You did it out of your own free will. And it was your incompetence that extended the contract, not my schemes. You only have yourself to blame for your situation,” Death said coldly.

Although he was feeling as if he were on the verge of dying, and despite the fact that he was in the presence of a primordial being, words filled with anger burst out of his chest:

“You scammed me!” Harry spat through gritted teeth. “After living three lifetimes in worlds similar to my own, you threw me into an entirely different universe, a world of dragons and demons! You gave me no warnings about Earthland and the beings inhabiting it, which got me killed three times! And now you sent me to a world of gods and monsters! You think I don’t know your game by now? You want me to trust you? When hell freezes over!”

Death looked curiously at Harry, who was struggling to lift himself from the ground. Even in his pathetic state, he was still glaring at Death defiantly.

“You know who I am, Harry Potter. You know who Death is. Other than the Creator Himself, nothing on Earth or above the heavens stands above me. When the Creator came to be, I was there too. Life, Death. Chicken, Egg... Neither of us can remember who was the first anymore. Regardless, when the time comes, I’ll reap Him too. You know that I could erase your existence with a thought, yet you still defy me… So tell me, Harry Potter, why do you defy me? Just what gives you the guts to bare your fangs at me?”

Death’s words filled him with dread, but even that overpowering fear couldn’t douse the fire of rebellion burning in his eyes as he glared at Death silently.

“No answer? I suppose that it is simply your nature, as a human, to defy authority. Your kind has disobeyed the Creator from the very beginning; you are always fighting against your Destiny, and you have even devised methods to temporarily cheat Death. What troublesome but intriguing little creatures you, humans, are.”

Death took one more look at Harry before turning around. As their wraith-like body started fading away, they said one last thing:

“There is no catch, Harry Potter. I will not ask for anything in return. Not this time. You have my word."

Silence was instilled in the desert after Death vanished from the world of mortals.

Although the thick layer of ice covering the rocky ground had disappeared like a miracle and the temperature returned to normal, Harry found himself still shivering. His clothes were soaked with sweat, his eyesight was hazy, and his sense of balance was affected too. Momentarily, it was as if he was drunk.

It took some time for him to find his bearings.

“Death’s word. Pah!” he spat on the ground.

He didn’t believe it, not one bit.

‘Death is giving me more power out of the goodness of their heart? What a bad joke!"

In the first place, Harry was completely certain of the fact that Death had no intention of releasing him from their contract.

‘What are they after?’ he thought.

Why would his magic power suddenly increase so much, to the point where he found it difficult to control it right away? His eyes widened when a particular thought popped into his mind.

‘Don’t tell me, was it all for the sake of making me leave the Watchtower?’

It sounded paranoid even to his own ears, but his distrust in Death was so deeply rooted that he simply couldn’t imagine a scenario where Death would actually help him with no hidden strings attached.

‘Was I too safe in the Watchtower? Is Death hoping there will be more chances for me to die by living on Earth among regular people?’

Filled with anxiety, Harry didn’t catch a wink of sleep that night. He didn’t even try to go to bed. Instead, he started preparing for the worst future scenarios he could think of.

⁂

Six days passed since Harry’s encounter with Death.

Although Harry had joined the Justice League not that long ago, the rest of the members noticed that something was off about his behaviour. His skin was paler than before, and the bags under his eyes were darker. Something seemed to be weighing on his mind.

However, he had yet to make any mistakes in the field so far, and he had spent a day on patrol with every single one of the seven members of the Justice League.

It had to be said that when even Green Lantern and Batman couldn’t find anything to complain about him, it was a clear sign that he was excelling at his job.

Now, Harry Potter was in Boston, together with Wonder Woman. It was his last day of patrol duty with a supervisor, and Wonder Woman was the last one to mentor him. From tomorrow onwards, he would be free to choose a city of his own and patrol by himself.

Normally, Wonder Woman operated mostly in Washington DC, but she could be found all over the Bos-Wash Megalopolis when the need arose. And it certainly did. With over 40 million people living so tightly packed together, crimes happened everywhere, constantly. There was no end to it.

“Wonder Woman, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York is under attack. Security camera footage shows that Giganta, Cheetah, and Star Sapphire teamed up for this heist,” Martian Manhunter’s voice suddenly rang in Wonder Woman’s earpiece.

“Giganta, Cheetah, and Star Sapphire are trying to rob the Federal Bank in New York,” she relayed J’onn’s words to Harry. “Can you take us there?”

Obviously, they could fly over there, but teleportation was faster. And the sooner they arrived to stop them, the better.

“I don’t know where the Federal Bank is, so I’ll take us to the rooftop of the Empire State Building.”

“That’s perfect. The Federal Bank is only half a mile away from there.”

“Okay, take my hand. Ready?”

When she took his hand and nodded at him, Harry Disapparated with her in tow.

“Follow me!” she said when they reappeared in New York and jumped off the Empire State Building’s rooftop, making a beeline towards the Federal Bank.

As they got closer, they heard the alarm sound ringing from the bank and saw the dozens of police cars and vans with Special Forces operatives surrounding the building.

Just as they landed in front of the entrance of the bank, a yellow blur streaked out from the building and brushed past them, like lightning. It was Cheetah. She was carrying several bags filled with money on her back as she ran at the fastest speed she was capable of.

“You won’t get away!” Wonder Woman shouted as she grabbed the Lasso of Truth from her waist and flew after her.

At the same time, a large section of the Federal Bank’s front wall was smashed into smithereens as a gigantic woman burst out, carrying an enormous duffle bag in her left hand. Although she was immense, unlike the Giants of his previous life, she wasn’t ugly. With her tan skin, long red hair, blue eyes, and perfectly proportioned body, Giganta was a very beautiful woman.

At the sight of Emissary and Wonder Woman in the distance, Giganta’s body grew even bigger than it already was, standing now at almost 50 metres in height.

‘Reminds me of Makarov,’ Harry thought idly, his mind going back to the tiny old wizard he had met in his 4th life.

But Giganta’s size didn’t worry him in the least because, unlike the Giants of his homeworld, he didn’t sense any magic coming off her. That meant she did not have any magical resistance and not having magical resistance against his spells turned her into nothing more than a big target practice.

‘Relashio!’

Giganta showed an expression of confusion as she inexplicably lost her grip on the large duffle bag, letting it fall to the ground. Before she knew what to make of the situation, a particular crack sound rang behind her, and then her feet couldn’t feel the ground anymore. It was as if her body was compressed to the limit and sucked through an extremely narrow tube.

When the act of Apparation ended, the two of them reappeared halfway across the country, in Nebraska’s desert.

Dizzy and feeling physically ill, Giganta could no longer maintain her enormous size, and her height decreased until she took the appearance of a regular human. Bending over with her hands on her knees, she started throwing up uncontrollably.

“Thank god she didn’t start throwing up when she was gigantic,” Harry muttered mostly to himself, but his voice made Giganta turn around in a panic.

And it was just in time for a jet of red light to hit her squarely in the chest. She fell on her back stiffly as his Stunning Spell knocked her unconscious.

Conjuring a rope to tie her up and even casting an Unbreakable Charm on the ropes for good measure, Harry Apparated back to the Federal Bank in New York.

⁂

“Hey! You! What have you done with Giganta? What have you done with our money?” Harry heard a woman’s yell when he returned to New York.

Dozens of police cars were burning, and many officers were lying unmoving on the ground. It was all because of a peculiar woman flying in the air. Wearing a skin-tight black leotard, violet-pink thigh-high boots, and a mask of the same colour gave away her identity immediately.

The other members of the Justice League had not only shown Harry the ropes of Hero work, but they also gave him a large dossier with all the major and minor metahuman criminals active in the United States.

Most people would need some time to memorise all that information, but one of the many benefits of being a master of Occlumency was having excellent memory.

‘Star Sapphire, B-tier level of threat. Similar powers to Green Lantern.’

“Are you deaf? I asked you something, pig!” Star Sapphire yelled, and, bringing her fingers to her temple, a powerful beam of light burst from the violet gem in her forehead.

But Harry Disapparated right before the beam of light could hit him and reappeared with a crack behind her back. Star Sapphire didn’t have any time to react before he grabbed her by the shoulder and whisked her away, side-Apparating with her to the same place in Nebraska where he had taken Giganta.

Unlike Giganta who got dizzy and nauseous from the magical teleportation, Star Sapphire wasn’t affected in the least, thanks to the aura of violet light protecting her body. The moment that they Apparated, she let out a scream, and a violet light burst from the gem on her forehead, blasting Harry over 30 metres away from her. It was an area-of-effect move that attacked everything around her indiscriminately.

Being blasted for over 30 metres through the air would have grievously injured most people or even killed them, but Harry got up from the ground without even a scratch on his clothes.

An invisible barrier was coating his body, almost like a second skin. It was a mana barrier, a type of spell that could be held active for a long period of time at the cost of constantly draining his magic. Nevertheless, said spell was not indestructible. Once a certain threshold was reached, it would give out. Therefore, when Star Sapphire followed up with a hail of deadly light beams, he chose to cast a proper shielding spell instead.

“Protego!”

Seeing the myriad of beams of light she fired splashing against his protective spell powerlessly, Star Sapphire brought her hands to her temples for better focus. A beam of violet light several times larger than any she had thrown until then burst from the gem in her forehead. It smashed into Harry’s shield with so much power that his shielding spell started rippling like the surface of a lake in a storm.

‘She packs a stronger punch than I thought,’ Harry thought, surprised at her firepower.

What was not mentioned in the files the Justice League had on Star Sapphire was that she was deemed merely a B-tier threat, not because her powers were weak but because of her lack of skill in using them. In terms of power alone, she didn’t lose out to an ordinary Green Lantern.

‘My Shielding Charm won’t last much longer.’

He had cast the spell out loud while wielding the Elder Wand, so it was definitely strong, but Star Sapphire’s power was nothing to scoff at.

Two seconds before his spell gave out, he teleported above her, in the air, and pointed his wand at her before shouting:

“Depulso!”

Star Sapphire was smashed into the dunes below with such strength that a 4-metre-wide crater appeared in the sand.

Her eyes widened when sparks of lightning started dancing on the tip of his magic wand, and she conjured the strongest sphere of violet light she was capable of to protect herself.

“Fulgur!” (3)

The moment he said that word, the world went white, and an explosive sound boomed.

A blinding lightning bolt struck Star Sapphire’s construct of violet light.

However, to Harry’s surprise, her shield didn’t give out despite the immense power of his lightning spell.

‘Looks like I have to release the Runes.’

After his magic went haywire and fried all the electronic devices in his room at the Watchtower, Harry was forced to suppress his magic power with the help of [Rune Magic]. However, it looked like he couldn’t afford to pull his punches against the Star Sapphire.

He tapped his forehead, his chest, and his navel with the tip of the Elder Wand before aiming it at Star Sapphire who was now picking herself up from the ground.

“Fulgur Tria!”

Not only was it a more powerful version of the previous spell, but his magic power was unbound now too. Star Sapphire let out a pained groan when the lightning bolt smashed into the construct of light protecting her.

When he cast a second lightning bolt, her construct of light shattered like glass, and she collapsed on the sandy ground.

A third lightning bolt came down, and it was so fast that she didn’t have time to conjure another construct of light to protect herself; her screams of agony filled the skies.

Even after he cancelled his spell, Star Sapphire’s unconscious body was still twitching uncontrollably from the aftereffects of his lightning spell.

Magical ropes were conjured out of thin air and bound her from head to toe before he flew down next to her and cast a Diagnosis Charm on her.

‘Looks like she’s just unconscious. There shouldn’t be any long-lasting damage.’

⁂

Blinding flashes of light and a cacophony of sounds greeted Harry when he Apparated back to New York with the two tied and unconscious Villains in tow.

“Emissary! Over here!”

“Could you answer a few questions?!”

“Is it true that you’re a Sorcerer?”

“Did you defeat Giganta and Star Sapphire by yourself?”

More than a dozen reporters were shouting their questions at the top of their lungs, trying to get his attention. It almost looked like they were going to start a brawl with the police officers, who were struggling to stop them from going past the yellow tape with which they had cordoned off the area damaged by the villains.

But the journalists couldn’t easily give up. The new Hero, Emissary, joined the Justice League more than a week ago, but nobody knew anything about him even after all that time. It was unacceptable! It was impossible for them to ignore such a scoop.

Wonder Woman flew next to him at that moment and smiled at the sight of the bound and defeated villains.

“Great job, as always.”

“Thank you. What about the first one? Who was she? Did you catch her?”

Diana put her hands on her waist as if that mere question was offensive.

“It was Cheetah. And of course that I caught her. Was there ever a doubt?”

“No, Ma’am,” he said, chuckling. “Have all the civilians been evacuated from the building?”

“Yes. I’ve recovered the money that they were about to steal too,” Wonder Woman said.

“Then, could you hand these two over to the police, please? I’m going to fix up the place.”

As Diana grabbed the two women, put them on her shoulders, and walked away, Harry went to the ruined building and took out his wand.

“Reparo.”

Although the damage to the building looked severe, it wasn’t that bad in reality because there hadn’t been any explosions, so nothing was lost; all pieces of wreckage and debris were still at the scene. Therefore, a simple Repairing Spell was enough to do the job.

But it was different for the burning and smashed police cars littering the streets. He had to resort to his [Arc of Time] magic to fix them.

The journalists on the side went crazy as they filmed and started snapping photos of how the pieces of concrete and broken bricks flew back into the building and melded into each other. Even the passing-by bystanders stopped and took out their smartphones to film the fantastic process.

Once the Federal Bank’s building was fixed, Wonder Woman came to him and asked as she pointed at the crowd of reporters waiting for him outside the cordoned-off perimeter:

“Are you not going to speak to them?”

“Maybe some other day.”

“Being famous isn’t a bad thing, you know?” she advised him. “You could use that fame for good, to inspire other people and bring them hope.”

Although Wonder Woman couldn’t see it because of the mask covering his face, he smiled.

“I agree with you on that. It’s just not a good moment for me to be close to their cameras and other electronic devices. I had to cancel the Runes that were suppressing my magic while I was fighting Star Sapphire. She proved to be more troublesome than I thought.”

As they flew away, leaving the crowd of deeply disappointed and frustrated reporters behind, Wonder Woman asked:

“Have you decided which city you’re going to live in?”

“No, not yet.”

She let out a humming sound before saying:

“Come, let’s stop over there for a few moments.”

Once they landed on the rooftop of a skyscraper, Harry took off his mask, not seeing any reason to wear it now that there were only the two of them there.

“Don’t rush into choosing a city,” she advised him. “Take your time before you make a decision, because that is going to be your new home.”

He noticed that, unlike Green Lantern and Batman, who were strict and to the point with all the instructions they were giving him, Wonder Woman seemed to actually care about him as a person too.

“You need to have a life outside of crime fighting, too. You may not notice it for a while, but as time passes, stress will accumulate. It will take its toll on you, and, in the worst-case scenario, it could even change you as a person.”

“Talking from experience?” he asked.

“Yes. When I left Themyscira a few years ago, I was focused entirely on Justice League business. I didn’t have a life outside of crime fighting. After a few months, I realised that my mental state had started worsening. As we fight crime, we see what the dark side of what humanity has to offer all the time. Witnessing so many crimes every day influences you. And that’s why most of us have lives outside of our hero work too, moments when we spend time relaxing and having a good time with our family and friends.”

“You have friends outside of the Justice League?” Harry said in surprise.

As far as he knew, Green Lantern was good friends with Flash and in a secret relationship with Hawkgirl, and Superman and Batman seemed to be as close as friends could be. But Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman appeared to be rather isolated from the rest of the group.

“...I’m working on it.”

He laughed at her answer, and she chuckled too.

“I’m serious. Speaking of it, I was invited to a party in Paris tomorrow.”

“I didn’t take you for that sort of person.”

Knowing that she was the Princess of a race of warrior women and that she was several thousand years old, he hadn’t expected her to say that.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I can be plenty of fun at parties! When I was on Themyscira, I’d often start-”

“Go on,” he encouraged her to continue with a grin, but she stopped.

She cleared her throat before changing the subject.

“Nevermind. Anyway, it’s not that kind of party. There will be many important figures there. Billionaires, politicians, and even the Princess of Kasnia is supposed to attend.”

“Ah, I see. Well, you could still have a good time.”

“True. Can I ask you for a favour? Would you keep an eye on things here while I’m away? You know what Batman often says: villains don’t take days off. I’m afraid I’ll be stuck in Paris for two or three days.”

Harry adopted a thinking posture but nodded after a few moments.

“I’ve actually wanted to create a device that would let me communicate with J’onn… but I guess it could wait for a few days.”

Due to Death’s “gift”, he couldn’t use a phone currently, even if he suppressed himself with the help of runes. He was planning on creating two-way magical mirrors as soon as possible, but that would have to wait for a few days now.

“You could always just allow J’onn to contact you telepathically. He can be trusted; I vouch for him,” she suggested.

“I can’t do that,” said Harry, shaking his head. “It’s not only a matter of trust. Intruding into my mind can be dangerous. Very dangerous."

At Diana's sigh, he added:

"Maybe one day I will let you and the rest know why. But, for now, I will only tell you that I’ve witnessed people dying after they tried to read my thoughts and got trapped in my memories. Anyway. Rest assured, I’ll keep an eye on New York and the surrounding cities while you’re away. I won’t be able to stop every single crime out there, but if any metahuman criminals act up, I will definitely take them down.”

“Thank you, Harry. I’ll owe you one.”

Little did Harry know that that decision was going to completely change the course of his life.

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN:

(1) Hawkgirl’s mace is made of “Nth metal”. It is a metal in the DC world that counters magic. The Thanagarians (Hawkgirl's people) used weapons made of this metal to rebel against their god and defeat him.

(2) From Latin, foras = outside and retro = back.

(3) From Latin, Fulgur = lightning. It's a made-up incantation but the spell itself does appear in the movies (Voldemort and Grindelwald were shown to cast lightning spells).