Harry also seems to be intent on talking a lot. Maybe Harry could think about how his foes talk a lot and does not reply. Immediate action would go better.

Why on earth would he want to transfigure the explosive into another form of explosive? Are you going with the theory that its easier to transfigure an item into something similar? If not, he could transfigure it into something far more mundane and less likely to kill him.


The fact that Fury increased the guards around Harry after finding out what he did to Tarleton seems pointless. What could be the reason? He knows that Harry is capable of escaping or keeping secrets from them if necessary. Getting in and out of SHIELD headquarters without them noticing, when they were tailing him should have made that evident. It seems like a waste of resources. Also, keeping more people around a mind reader would only give him more chances to gain information.

 

He loved his monologue at the end of DH, so I don't think it's a surprise. Then again, Voldemort at the end of GoF...

Guess I should make that clearer. Considering the kind of things that get taught at Hogwarts first, changing things that are similar into each other is simpler. E.g. matches and needles, fluffy slippers and bunnies, beetles and buttons. I thought that it would make sense that turning one explosive into another would be the most plausible transfiguration to pull off in a pinch.

I went by the logic that with more people around they could keep an eye on each other. I can't see him doing -nothing- about finding out something like this. I'll think about it.

 

Patiently waiting for a proper Harry and Loki interaction

 

Harry pulled of a nice stunt there. Not quite unbelievable enough to be a minus for the story but, well... I guess ridiculous enough for the Avengers. I mean climbing on top of a flying nuke aside, the air resistance flying at that speed alone...

(Skip if not interested in pseudo physics)

and because this fic is awesome, I am actually going to calculate the air resistance for Harry flying alongside a nuke at Mach 1+.
He is travelling at approximately 400 meters/second, he can still breathe so the air pressure is not too low, maybe half of that on the ground (that's a height of 6.5km) so air density is at 0.6 kilograms per meters cubed.
I am guessing that Harry's aerodynamic qualities on a broom are similar to those of a muggle on a racing bike, so he has a drag coefficient of 0.9 with a reference surface of 0.33 meters squared.
So the force of the air resistance=1/2*drag coefficient*air density*reference surface*velocity^2=14256 Newton.

To overcome that the broom needs at least air resistance*velocity power. That's at least 5702400 watts. So the broom has at least 7650 hp.
Nice!... Now I want it, even though I doubt I could withstand the air resistance.

Hope this amused you at least a little bit.

Other than that, I can only say that this chapter was awesome. Harry did skip a few steps on the scale of brutality by going from disarming to mind-rape, but it was in character and justified. I do wonder how Fury will react when he hears of the Imperius curse or the existence of time turners and so on. Your Tony is still awesome.

 

I have to agree with The Infidel about the transfiguration - the reasoning behind turning the warhead into fireworks/explosives seems pretty weak to me. I see your point about similarities between the two parts of the transfiguration apparently having some meaning in canon, but the connection between a nuclear warhead and some fireworks seems to be stretching it in my opinion.

Sure they both explode, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. It's like saying you can transfigure a pistol into a sword easily because they both kill people - it just seems like a contrived way of adding in some excitement when Harry should likely be able to transfigure into something much less dangerous.

Other than that I did really enjoy the chapter and I'm looking forward to seeing where you go from here, especially with Tony's new tower and suit.

 

To go with the analogies, I am not sure if it would be like a pistol to a sword because they both kill people. A pistol works in a fundamentally different way than a sword, while an explosion is an explosion. It feels more like it would be a machine gun to a pistol if we are using a pistol in our analogy, and that doesn't seem that off to me.

I really enjoyed the chapter and this whole story. It is pretty much the only story I am following right now.

 

I think in this case both of our analogies are somewhat flawed - my point was though that a firework and a nuclear warhead are pretty fundamentally different in most ways. Saying 'an explosion is an explosion' seems a bit absurd to me.

 

You are not a wizard though I think it is fine, the explosion link works for me - it is Potter-verse magic after all, and composition, laws of physics and other such mundane things doesn't even factor in it.

Harry was extremely badass in this chapter, it will be hard to top this extremely crazy stunt. I wonder, what SHIELD now thinks about Harry - after all, now they know that he is bona-fide wizard what with magic wands, broomsticks and turning railgun's to fish.

 

I'll say my general response to when people try to scientize Harry Potter: "It's fucking magic. DEAL with it."

No seriously, the exact material that the bomb is turned into doesn't really matter. We didn't say squat when Harry was turning guns into seafood.

I kinda wanted to see the flames and sparks of the wreckage turning into flaming dragons and giant 'W's in the sky, though. A resurgence of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes in an alternate universe. Maybe that will cancel out some of the 'flatness' some people have been talking about.

 

You kind of just made my point though - it doesn't really matter what he turns it into (see Harry turning guns into seafood with no problem) thus it doesn't make much sense to turn the thing he's sitting on top of into a massive explosion.

That said, I'll recognize your point about it being magic. I still can't help but feel that the scene was a bit contrived, but it's not that big a deal I suppose.

 

To be honest, the explosive transfiguration scene didn't really bother me. I figured the transfiguration was easier because in Harry's mind fireworks and explosives are similar, thereby making it easier for Harry to visualize the change, not because they actually are similar on a scientific level. It has already been established that Harry is not that bright when it comes to technology, so it is understandable that all he knows about explosives and fireworks is that they explode, thereby making them similar as far as he is concerned.

 

Hmm...I thought about ICBM altitude in flight and checked it out:

Wiki tells us, that

So, Tony was at an altitude of at least 120 km in a suit not capable for a space flight when Harry spoke to him at the end of boost phase, or might be a small correction in order?

Also, a bit of useless information: the distance from Santiago de Chile to L.A. is 9000 km, so the highest altitude of ICBM would be about 1300 km from what I've found.

 

I think Harry's conversation with Fury about Legilimency should be onscreen, instead of just briefly mentioned in a massive summation. That's a fairly serious thing.

 

Next chapter.

 

Next chapter.

 

I tried to stay in character with Fury; the original scene here was a bit too conciliatory on his part, which I figured made some sense as his personal views (he's generally tolerant of Tony's nonsense in canon, and that gets pretty crazy) but not when speaking for SHIELD in general.

I thought after three chapters of action and three more chapters of drama, a few good old semi-normal chapters were nice, and it also gave a good moment to check in with all the major players (aside from Clint, I guess. Well, I don't think anyone's too terribly sad.)

Fixored those.

Yes, I tried to give it a bit of that twilight zone-like vibe, where things just are a bit off from normal. Mythology-nuts probably already saw it coming given the fact that the wolf Fenrir shows up early in the scene, and the serpent Jormungandr too, not to mention a glimpse of Odin's steed, Sleipnir. These are all Loki's children in various legends (though not in Marvel.)

Yeah, I have edited this already and will probably expand on it a bit. Mostly this is dealt with in the next chapter when Harry actually goes looking.

For 'good' reasons. His casket deal in Thor was hardly 'good' but he seemed to me to have a good end goal in sight before Laufey and his jealousy got the better of him. I'm still uncertain what to say about his appearance in Avengers. He came across as so fundamentally different from his last appearance that I kept wondering if he'd been brainwashed/controlled too. He had a bit of the wittiness, but hadn't thought things through much and seemed a bit dumb and even overly grandiose compared to Thor. Yes, he's a ham, but I kind of favour his Thor showing, where he seems to me better written as the original character. Perhaps we will see that side again when he inevitably reappears in Thor 2.

Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?

 

Loved that Harry and Loki interaction