Widow's Vengeance chapter 23 -

Chapter 23 -

"Nat," Harry said, sitting opposite her in the library. "What did you get for number seventeen?" He asked, looking down at his homework.

"Sunlight and heat," Natasha answered, twirling her quill as she began looking over her answers. "What did you get for number twelve?" She asked.

"I wrote down 'dragon dung'," Harry answered. "That's apparently part of why dragons are so valuable, you know, besides being dragons. Hagrid told me and Clint that dragon droppings are apparently the best fertiliser in the words. Dragon reserves sell tons of it to make money."

"I don't blame them," Natasha said, putting down her parchment. "You get to rid of dragon crap and make money at the same time, that's a win-win."

"I'm finished on herbology," Harry said, placing his parchment to the side. "What about you?"

"I finished a minute ago, I'm just nice enough to wait for you to catch up," She said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Your kindness blows me away," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "What do we have to finish next?" He asked.

"We've only got charms left," Natasha answered as she put away her herbology homework and pulled out her charms homework while Harry did the same. They had just placed them down on the table when Clint walked in and sat down next to Harry.

"Sorry that I'm late guys," Clint said apologetically.

"It's alright," Harry waved him off. "Hey, how was your detention?" He asked.

"That old asshole made me clean up an entire room by myself," Clint grumbled.

"What did Filch even give you detention for?" Natasha asked, knowing enough about the school's caretaker to know that the man didn't really need a great reason to start assigning detentions to students, given that it was well known that the man hated students.

"I was outside and apparently when I had walked back in, I had 'wilfully and with malicious intent, performed an act of extreme and unholy vandalism and unlawfully assaulted the castle in an attempt to damage his dignity and ruin his work reputation whilst also tormenting him with additional tasks that would leave him with even less time to spend his day'." Clint responded.

"What the hell does that mean?" Harry blinked.

"I didn't dry my shoes when I came back in and got the floor wet," Clint answered. "Honestly, what does the jerk expect? We live in bloody Scotland! There's like a fifty percent chance of my shoes getting wet everyday, and it's not like there's a bloody welcome mat where I could dry my feet."

"Well, I suppose you could have used a drying charm," Natasha pointed out, playing Devil's advocate.

"Yeah, but there is absolutely zero point in doing that before I get inside the castle and out of the rain," Clint countered. "Honestly, what are the chances of you writing a complaint about him to Mum?"

"Let's work on getting Snape to settle down before we start going after each and every jerk in the castle," Natasha responded.

"What do you think's going to happen with Snape?" Harry asked.

"My guess is that either Dumbledore starts to keep him in line or he gets fired," Clint responded.

(.)

"That is utterly ridiculous!" Snape growled, standing opposite Dumbledore who was sitting at his desk.

"I am quite unsurprised that you think so," Dumbledore said calmly whilst picking up a lemon drop from his personal sweet bowl. "But that is the reality that we are now working with." He added with a small shrug before he tossed the sweet into the air and let it land in his mouth. "Hmm, got it on the first try." He smiled, sounding very pleased with himself.

"Forget your blasted muggle sweets for a moment and focus on me," Snape said impatiently. "Are you serious about this?"

"I am deathly serious," Dumbledore nodded. "You must cease acting the way that you have."

"Just because a few little brats complain, it means that I have to..."

"It is not 'a few little brats' as you like to put it," Dumbledore cut him off. "The complaints have come from all of the first years from Hufflepuff house, which also means their parents complaining on their behalf. Not to mention the fact that having the boy-who-lived being one of them has added even more weight to it."

"Yes, of course," Snape scoffed. "The spoilt brat can't handle a bit of criticism and because of that the world bends to his will and..."

"Really, Severus?" Dumbledore asks in a disappointed voice. "While I will not deny that having Harry's voice means that the complaints are taken more seriously, it is undeniable that even without him, this would require action. In case you haven't noticed, one of the complaints had come from Susan Bones. A lovely young girl who just so happens to have an aunt that's rather high up in the ministry, in fact she's the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I'm sure you remember her, don't you?" He asked, causing Snape to grimace.

Snape did remember her, Amelia Bones had been a few years older than him and a prefect when he was in school, she had caught him breaking rules several times and they had even fought against each other during the war. He had ended up damaging one of her eyes, but she had ended up hitting him in the back with a rather painful curse that severely damaged his spine. To this day he still found it hard to bend down. During his court trial she had tried her best to convince the court to send him to Azkaban and had been furious when Dumbledore had gotten him off.

"Yes, I remember her," Snape said through gritted teeth.

"I'm glad, so by all means, if you wish to antagonise Miss Bones and her aunt then continue on your current path," Dumbledore replied. "I dare say that Amelia would appreciate having more ammunition to use against you. Not to mention the consequences that could arise should you lose your job, namely exactly what Lord Voldemort will think of his spy having lost his extremely valuable position in the school."

"You'd fire me?!" Snape blurted out with disbelief.

"Do you think I'd have much choice?" Dumbledore sighed. "Severus, you must accept reality, if enough people complain then I will have no choice. Despite what many people believe, I am not all powerful."

(.)

"Damn it," Natasha groaned as she climbed up to her feet, taking a moment to clear her head.

She remembered everything that had happened during the last ten minutes, she had gone to Loki's cell and had a conversation with the so called 'god of mischief', a bit of acting and careful words had allowed her to trick him into revealing his plan. His plan was as simple as it was brilliant, unleash the Hulk in the helicarrier and have him destroy it from the inside out. Once she had worked out what he was intending to do, she had rushed to the lab where Banner and Stark were working so she could move Banner somewhere safe.

Except that didn't go as planned since Captain America and Nick Fury were also there, not to mention Thor had followed her in and eventually one thing lead to another and the whole group had started arguing with each other right until three things happened.

1) Banner ended up unintentionally holding Loki's spear.

2) They had detected something flying towards them.

3) An explosion knocked her and Banner out of the room and to the floor below.

Natasha shook her head and pushed a stray bit of hair out of her eyes before her gaze landed on Banner, she froze when she saw that he was already transforming into the Hulk. He was growing in size and mass, his skin turning green and his growls sounding like something that would come out of a bear's mouth.

'Shit!' She mentally cursed before turning around and running like the hounds of hell were nipping at her feet. She had barely been running for a few seconds when she heard a loud roar, she glanced back in time to see a giant metal box flying towards her. She managed to turn a corner in time to avoid the box that had crashed straight into a wall, denting it, she hadn't waited for even a moment and continued running. It didn't take her long to hear the sounds of the Hulk running behind her, catching up to her.

After turning several more corners she had managed to make it into the warehouse where she saw Potter leaning against one of the crates, he dropped a pill into his mouth before drinking from a water bottle in his hand.

"Run!" She yelled, catching his attention. "Run now!" She told him, she glanced back and wasn't yet able to see Hulk but she knew that he was gaining. She looked back just in time to crash into something and fall on her back, looking up caused her heart to drop into her stomach as she saw an amused looking Loki standing in front of her.

"My, my, Agent Romanoff," He whispered. "Today is not your day, is it?" He asked just as the Hulk burst into the room.

Hulk roared and growled, his bright green eyes were practically glowing as his gaze searched around the room. It wasn't long before he spotted the two of them, he growled and took a couple of steps forwards before suddenly stopping, a look of fear appearing on his face. Natasha and Loki both shared a great amount of confusion when they saw the great and mighty Hulk whimper before turning and running from the room.

"The beast is scared?" Loki blurted out. "Of what? Did I scare him?" He wondered for a moment, though his thought process was interrupted by a steel pipe hitting him on the side of the head with all the effectiveness of a pillow. Loki merely raised an eyebrow and turned around to look at Potter who had dropped the pipe and was now crouching on the ground in agony, holding his right arm and looking as if he was struggling to stay up.

"Stupid mortal body!" Potter cursed.

"Indeed," Loki agreed with a small nod of his head. Natasha quickly pulled out a gun and aimed it right at Loki's head, she quickly fired at him, though it didn't do much good as her bullets bounced off of him and Loki merely looked at her like she was an annoying insect. "Ow." He said in a dry voice before reaching down and yanking the gun out of her hand. "The fact that you attempted that actually bothers me more than the bullet," He told her as he crushed the gun in his hand.

"Hey," Potter said, catching Loki's attention. "Listen up," He took in a deep breath. "You're going to back off and surrender, now." He told him.

"And why would I do that?" Loki blinked.

"Because I'll let you live if you do," Potter said as he stood up, not remotely sounding like he was joking.

"Your delusional," Loki smirked. "I suppose I'll just put you out of your misery."

"No!" Natasha was barely get up to her feet by the time Loki had plunged his spear through Potter's body, leaving the head of spear poking out of his back.

"Don't worry, Agent Romanoff, you're next." Loki told her with a grin on his face. "Though I will give credit where credit is due, you had managed to trick me, not many are capable of that. Maybe I won't kill you after all, I think you'd be better served as one of my minions." Loki took a step forward and began to pull the spear out, only to stop when he felt a hand on his wrist. He looked at Potter who had blood dripping from his wound and out of his mouth. "You can die now," Loki told him whilst gesturing him to hurry up and get on with it.

"I had warned you," Potter growled.

"I beg your...Arrgh!" Loki gasped and dropped to his knees. "Let go of me!" He yelled to Potter who had tightened his grip on Loki's wrist.

"I know I shouldn't enjoy what I am going to do to you," Potter whispered. "But I'm going to." He growled as his body suddenly started getting bigger, Natasha took a step back and gasped as Potter suddenly began getting covered in black his face becoming covered in shadows before a hood appeared over his head.

"No way," Natasha whispered to herself just as he had completed his transformation into Revenant.

"Are you joking?!" Loki screamed before he finally managed to escape his grip and pull his spear out of Revenant, Loki and Natasha couldn't help but watch as the hole from the spear quickly healed in front of their eyes along with Revenant's robes. Loki roared and tried to stab at Revenant who quickly raised his hand and blasted Loki hard enough to send him crashing through the wall behind him.

"Well...this is a revelation." Natasha couldn't help but comment, staring at him.