Being inside Amelia's memories was a weird experience, Tony decided.
Bruce had decided against joining the group inside the memory, scared that something might set of the hulk. And the hulk being inside a memory wasn't something anyone was willing to give a try. Clint joined him in his decision. His mind still felt fragile (not that he wanted to admit it) and he didn't like that someone had been in his mind, so he respected Amelia and didn't invade hers. The two of them made it their mission to read through the rules and laws of the wizarding world, hopeful that the new information could help them with Amelia's court.
The group had argued that Tony shouldn't risk going in as well, even with his now 'magic proof' arc reactor. Tony didn't care, too curious to miss the opportunity to learn more about what happened from Amelia's point of view. That and the fact that viewing memories was something he really didn't want to miss.
So Steve, Natasha, Thor and Tony went inside the pensieve, which was apparently what the circular slab that Hermione moved to the table was called, with Hermione and Ginny joining the group as well. Amelia's memories were poured into the pensieve, the silvery lines mixing into the mysterious liquid already in there. Hermione moves her wand around the dark and blueish fluid until an average looking New York apartment appears inside it. Leaning her head into the water, Hermione's body get's pulled inside. Ginny gives them a wink and follows the older witch's lead.
Thor was quick to join in as well, more used to weird magical things than the others. Tony was almost afraid that Thor's huge warrior build wouldn't fit inside but magic seems to take care of it. Steve, always the brave (and reckless) soldier, headed in next. Giving Natasha a shrug, the billionaire follows the others.
And then he was falling. He briefly thinks back to his fall before and his chest clams shut. The shock from the landing luckily brings him back to the present. Or the past actually. Steve helps him up and the genius takes in the rather empty looking apartment. Like he had said before, it felt weird to be inside a memory. It looked so real, as if he was really there. But then an owl flew through him and he was reminded that he wasn't.
Natasha had joined the others by now and the whole group takes note of the first memory that Amelia had gifted them. It looked like a fairly normal morning but Amelia wouldn't have added it if it wasn't necessary. So Tony assumed that it was the morning that it all started.
They all stood at the sidelines and watched as the two owls inside the room began challenging each other, watched as Amelia shot up out of her bed and began to ready herself in a hurry. It was kind of nice to see Amelia in such a normal situation. To see her preform magic on everyday tasks. Then the room faded out, switching to a profession looking office. A blond woman stands before tall windows with her arms on her back.
"Who's that?" Steve asks.
"It's her boss, the head of the auror department, Marilyn Bonneville."
Natasha frowns at Hermoine's words, "Bonneville? Didn't Amelia say that name when she was arrested?"
"I believe that she did, she said that Bonneville had set her up."
"I've never liked her."
"Ginny, you have never met the woman." Hermoine remarks dryly.
"I did now, and I don't like her."
Hermoine rolls her eyes, "Well, I did meet her once, on a Ministry event. She was a bit rude actually, didn't seem very interested in werewolf rights either."
The conversation gets cut short as a familiar figure rushes inside the office.
"So you have finally decided to bless me with your presence, Miss Martin?"
Natasha curls her lip in disgust, "I'm with Ginny on this one."
"I'm sorry, are we going to ignore the fact that you just said werewolf, as if they are real." Tony remarks.
"Oh they are." Ginny absently replies, most of her focus on Amelia awkwardly talking to her boss as she tries to explain why she wiped her dirty mouth on her sleeve. And failing at doing so, the red head notes with a chuckle.
The billionaire shakes his head in disbelieve before his focus returns to the memory in front of him.
"-What do you know about S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"It's a weapon to defend yourself with?"
Steve snorts. Bonneville continues to explain about the assignment and the team looks offended as she complains about 'babysitting' them. Tony notices that Hermione was taking in every word said, as if mentally noting down every small detail, so the genius decided to avoid bothering her. Steve moves to watch over Amelia's shoulder as she reads the files about the team, a look of recognition dresses her face when it lands on Steve's file.
"Her father used to talk about you."
The soldier raised a brow at Ginny, "Really?"
"He was a big fan apparently. Amelia told me he used to read strips about you when he was a kid. You even inspired him to join the army."
"From your past tense I suspect he's not around anymore. He didn't pass in the army, did he?" Steve asks while playing with his fingers. He would feel awful if he was the indirect reason of his passing.
"Oh no, he didn't." Steve frowns as the witch doesn't elaborates.
After hearing the underlining threat of Bonneville the scene changes again. They all watch as Amelia enters the ship. A fond smile flashes over Tony's face as he hears Amelia and agent Hill create a bet and mess around. They all watch as Amelia and Fury discuss the plan of action. The group doesn't talk much. A question about magic here and there but everyone is just watching it happen.
The group follows the conversation between Amelia and the two other witches through the fireplace. As they hear the Hermione from the past warn Amelia about the dangers of muggle-including tasks, they hear the present witch sigh disappointingly, if only she had warned Amelia more.
A sudden voice breaks Tony's heart.
"Miss Martin, are you here?"
The avengers in the memory freeze. Tony was sure that he even heard Natasha sharply inhale. The two British witches take note of there strange behavior but they don't ask. Playful banter between Amelia and Tyto shake Tony out of his daze. The memory changing to Phil and Amelia talking however pushes him back into it.
Phil looked so happy, so carefree as Amelia shows him magic. Spending his last hours without even knowing it. So friendly and so.. alive. It creates a pain in Tony's chest, a pain he's sure isn't caused his arc reactor.
The scene switches into the main room on the helicarrier. With a transparent looking Amelia sitting cross legged on the table. Steve utters in disbelieve because he was there, talking to Phil about his collection cards, and Amelia wasn't there in his memory.
Speaking about Germany, the scene vanishes again and reform the room in the museum in Germany. The group standing on the sidelines as they search in the crowd for the undercover witch. Ginny was having a blast watching Amelia's fake magic show "I'm never going to let her live this down, 'Mione" and "Wait until I tell this to the others". But then Loki appeared and chaos occurs and the smile gets wiped of her face.
They switch scenes as Amelia apparates away and watch her as she looks around for the man Loki was after. Hermione flinches as Loki jumps the man and presses a device on his eye. After that Amelia sneaks towards the man that was now crying in pain and uses her wand to heal the wound. They all laugh as she mentions Fury being a bad ass pirate.
As the Norse god asks everyone to bow they note Amelia creep up behind him and latching onto his back, in a stupid way to buy time until the others get there. The Avengers (excluding Thor) watch as the past versions of themself arrive in the memory.
"This is so weird."
And Steve was right, it was very weird.
Ginny snickers along with the past Amelia as Tony holds Loki at gunpoint. The red head had to admit, the man's one liners were amazing. Ginny gasps in amazement as Iron Man's face plate opens up.
"You were in there?! Wicked!"
Tony raises his brow, "Yeah, it's kind of my thing,"
"Dude, you gotta let me use that red thingy one day." Ginny gushes, smacking him on his arm.
"The fact that you call it 'red thingy' says a lot about the possibility of that ever happening."
The billionaire ignores the red head's glare and watches fondly as his past self and Amelia playfully flirt with each other. Steve's uncomfortable face, then and now, made it even better. From the corner of his eye he catches the calculating gaze of Hermione making him clear his throat. The memory flashes forward until they have Loki on the plane and thunder fills the sky.
"Ah ha! This is where I make my presence known!"
They all wince at Thor's lack of inside voice and watch as the god from the past enters the ship, grabs Loki and swings his hammer before flying off.
"No, forget that red thingy, I definitely want to try the flying hammer of doom."
Tony looks almost offended that she would pick the hammer over his suit. Thor lets out a joyful laugh, slapping Ginny on her back, "If you can lift the hammer, you have my permission to use Mjolner as much as you like, lady Ginny."
Ginny stumbles forward from the hard pat on her back and grins back, "I'll hold you to that."
Thor frowns, "Why would you hold me?"
"It's an express- you know what? Never mind." Tony begins but he gives up as the scene changes once again.
They watch Amelia's short conversation with Loki. Steve and Thor looking guilty as the power wave they created in the past launches the witch backwards.
The next scenes pass by with no comments of the group. Hermione follows the discussion about Loki closely while Tony is more focusing on past Thor kissing Amelia's hand in a greeting. Then they are back in the suitcase and Tony would have thought that they were out of the memory if it wasn't for the all yelling.
They take note of Amelia talking with a disappointed looking Bonneville. The blond woman was criticizing Amelia's actions and by seeing Ginny's expression Tony knew that if the witch ever saw Bonneville in real life, they would need to hold her down because her expression speaks murder. Tony wasn't going to stop her though, he would join her.
Other moments pass and then suddenly they arrive at the memory about the fight in the lab. Hermoine mutters 'children' in such a way that has the avengers looking down in shame.
"-work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."
Tony watches as Amelia suddenly pales and freezes in place. He hadn't noticed that before.
"What happened? Is the memory frozen?"
Ginny gives him a sad smile, "No, it was the word war. Amelia doesn't have a lot of good memories of the war," She gives Hermoine a look, "We all don't."
Steve's eyebrows rise, "You all fought in a war?"
"Not voluntary." Hermoine adds, "We were kind of... grown into it."
The other witch scoffs, "That's putting it mildly."
It was by a long shot not enough information for Tony, but Amelia running out of the room and the memory changing hinders him from asking more. Besides, he could see how uncomfortable the topic made them so he decided to look it up later.
As he takes in his surroundings he immediately wishes that he didn't. He knows what happened now. He watched it on his tablet. Tony isn't sure if he can see it again. They watch Amelia talk with Loki and then they both fall silent and still.
"What happened to them?" Natasha asks. The billionaire had almost forgotten that she was there. He guesses that she, just like Hermoine, was analyzing everything in the memory.
"Ugh, I can't believe she did that! You would think that she was a gryffindor with all her reckless behavior." Hermoine tuts, "She is reading his mind."
"You can read minds?"
"Some of us can."
"Which is basically Hermoine's way in saying that she can't do it."
Hermoine huffs at Ginny while crossing her arms, "At lot of wizard or witches can't! Just because you and Amelia can do it doesn't mean that everyone can."
The banter comes to a stop as an energy wave shakes the area and Amelia flies back into the wall.
"Does that always happen when you read minds?"
Hermoine frowns, looking concerned. "No, something must have gone wrong. I've never seen that happen before."
They all stand still and watch the events take place. Amelia getting dragged into the cage Loki was kept in by the god himself. Thor rushing in to help only to join Amelia in the cage. And then Phil comes in with his large gun. The two witches gasp as Loki stabs Phil and the others couldn't suppress shivering.
And Amelia's face. It's even more heartbreaking from up close. And then the cage drops. The memory becomes faint and hazy, flickering black and Tony didn't need to be a wizard to know why it was happening. The group gets moved to a green field as they watch the cage get closer and closer to the ground. Heart pounding in his chest, Tony watches as Thor finally breaks free out of the cage. Clutched in his arms the unconscious body of Amelia. The landing is rough and the memory gets more hazy.
Frustrated yells attack Thor. The man trying to defend himself, saying that he didn't know that Amelia's bag was a house that had the supplies to magically cure her. They don't get a memory of Amelia healing. One second she's almost dead, the other she's entering a familiar office in MACUSA.
She all but stumbles out the fireplace, and Tony wouldn't blame her with what happened right before. Determined and slightly out of breath, Amelia lays down a surprisingly well thought out plan of evacuation and protection of the city. For a second Tony feels anger boiling up like never before. He had seen what Amelia could do, seen what a witch was capable of. Knowing that there were so many more wizards and witches that were capable of helping but didn't. He knew it wasn't Amelia's fault though, she obviously was ready for backup. Bonneville however wasn't.
Wand pressed to her back, Amelia faces her boss with uncertainty. The blond witch confesses her hate for Amelia, followed by her unwillingness to send magical help.
It was official. Bonneville was a disgusting person. Must be why her name is Bonne'vile'.
Such a vile woman shouldn't even be in the ministry, let alone run it.
He hears Ginny cuss like a sailor to his left. "That blood racist, pure blooded bitc-"
Steve flinches from all the bad words but even he was getting close to call out the woman for threatening Amelia. An urge to protect Amelia hits Tony hard as he watches the two witches battle in the office. His magical teammate was powerful and perfectly capable of protecting herself but she had been through so much already, only for her boss to betray her after all that.
Amelia comes out on top and flees the office in a haste. Mind buzzing, the group watches as she teleports in the middle in the street. She looks close to losing her mind. And still she comes off so casual as she enters the tower were Tony and Loki were standing. And then they are back in the battle, following Amelia as she takes out as many aliens as she can. It was uncomfortable to watch the fight again, to be in the battle again.
And then suddenly they are back into the present, shot out of the memory. The atmosphere is tense and quiet as Hermoine collects Amelia's memory back into the bottle.
"So? How did it- ah!"
Tony looks up at the sudden sound and watches as Natasha flips a figure over her shoulder, she follows the person down and clams their arm behind their back.
Ginny looks surprised before laughing out loud. Hermione, however, shrieks in surprise before addressing the situation, "Natasha, it's okay. That's Sirius, he's Amelia's step-father."
"Oh, I apologize." Natasha mutters as she lets Sirius go. The older man blinks and begins chuckling as another new tall man helps him up.
"Are you alright, Padfoot?" The new man fusses as Sirius straightens his clothes.
Sirius chuckles, laying a hand on the man's shoulder, "I'm fine, Moony. I can take a punch," He faces Natasha, "Very impressive by the way. One hell of an introduction too."
He clears his throat while facing the others, sticking out his hand, "As the lady said, my name is Sirius. Sirius Black. And this handsome fella next to me is Remus. I'm sorry for surprising you but don't worry, we don't bite." He says with a chuckle. Sirius was a relatively small man, with brown wavy shoulder length hair and a copy of Tony's goatee with a mustache. His clothes were well put together and finished off with a long jacket. Remus stands taller, with short blond hair framing his face and scars dressing every inch of visible skin. Some scars still look fresh while others appear older. The tall man looked tired and worried.
Steve shakes Sirius' hand, "It's nice to meet you both. My name is Steve Rogers. These are my friends and teammates Natasha, Thor and Tony." He says while pointing at each of them. "And you have probably already met Clint and Bruce."
"Amelia called them as witness to court." Hemione adds.
"Harry and Ron are on a mission, but they should be back for court." Remus says when Ginny asks for her husband and brother.
"So what did you find out from the memories?" Bruce questions. Tony only then notices that Timothy had joined the others as well.
"That Bonneville is a manipulative and blood racist bitch that betrayed Amelia and send her to Azkaban."
Steve frowns at the straight forward answer and replies, "Ginny's right. However, Amelia's memory should be enough prove to take her down right?"
Hermione looks at Steve, "It should be, but we don't know what Bonnevile got up her sleeve. This isn't the first time that an auror that was involved into a muggle including case was send to Azkaban. Bonneville has gotten away with it before so we need to collect as much evidence as possible."
"Alright so we do that," Natasha says, "But that doesn't clear Amelia's crimes."
"Seems like we got our work cut out for the next 4 days." Hermione says with a frown, "There is one thing that doesn't make sense though."
"What is it?"
"Amelia's memories. She included so many of them. Even the ones that put her in a bad light like her using an illegal potion or her acting rash."
"Maybe she wanted to give the court the full story?"
"Yeah but that's the thing. Memories are worth more when they are collected directly in the court. It decreases the chance that people might have altered them."
"You can alter memories?" Tony asks.
Hermione frowns, "It's difficult but not impossible. It's fairly obvious when people have done it as it makes the memory unclear but i've only seen one altered mermory before. Why would she give all of it now?"
"Because she doesn't think that she'll make it to court alive or at least sane enough."
Remus gasps, "Sirius, don't think like that!"
"Sirius has a point though." Ginny adds, more serious than Tony has seen her before, "You all saw how much damage she caught with the fall and the battle with Bonneville and the aliens- which by the way isn't a sentence I thought I would ever say- but she wasn't in a good state. She took way too many potions which will cause her to relapse in Azkaban, which will damage her body even more. And let's not forget Azkaban itself." The wizards and witches in the room visibly shudder.
"After staying 12 years over there, I don't think forgetting will ever be a problem." Sirius sarcastically adds.
"You were in prison for 12 years?" Bruce asks.
"Falsely accused for murder." Sirius offhandedly answers.
"What about Azkaban?" Steve questions, focusing back on Ginny's earlier statement.
"Azkaban isn't exactly a normal prison."
Sirius cuts Remus off, "It's a shit hole guarded by beings whose sole purpose is sucking up your happiness and soul until you are nothing more then a shell of yourself."
"I'm not so sure I like the wizarding world anymore." Bruce says.
Sirius shrugs, "We have our flaws."
"But you stayed over there for twelve years, and you look relatively sane and put together." Tony says which earns a 'thanks' and chuckle from Sirius, "Five days can't be that bad, right?"
"Well, she is already vulnerable from all the fighting. And it's not like she had the best childhood, which only attracts them more..." Hermione reasons.
Everyone stays quiet after that. The more that Tony learns about magic, the more he wants to forget about it all together. Spells and flying brooms, sure, but demon monsters that suck out happiness? Werewolves and what not, it's a lot to take in. It speaks against everything that he thought he knew. It's the first time Tony wants to remain out of the loop. But then he thinks about Amelia and he realizes that he can't do that. She was nice company, sarcastic much like himself. Sure, she was a bit strange at times, what he now knows is because of magic, but he liked to see her as a friend.
One thing's certain, once this is over he will take that magical potion and give his suits a magic-proof layer. He needs to be able to protect himself from all that magical danger.
Tony meets Steve's eye across the room and they share a nod. He claps his hands together.
"Well, we better get started then." He then turns to Timothy, who had been biting his nails in stress, "You better have a shit ton of coffee 'cause we are going to need it."
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Author's note
It's been too long, so sorry about that! I hope this extra long chapter helps earning your forgiveness ;)
Good news though! Next week is my last exam and then I'm finally free! So expect more chapters coming after that. In the meantime, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 12K!! This is insane omg.
I haven't edited this chapter so I hope there aren't too many grammar mistakes. I hope that the recap through Amelia's memories wasn't too long, it was difficult to shorten it up as a lot of things are important for the team to see. Might redo it later when I will edit the story.
Next chapter should be Amelia's trial, or the one after that. So stay tuned for that!
Once again, thank you all so much for the votes and comments, stay save and good luck with your exams if you have any! Lots of love, Leentjekat x