Bewitched by You (A Marvel/Harry Potter Crossover) COMPLETED

Chapter One: The Worst of Many Bad Ideas

Bucky's eyebrows shot up as he looked over the file. "Loki?"

Sighing, Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. Bucky had just gotten himself untangled from all this, and here Steve was pulling him back in. "I know, I'm sorry, but we need someone we can trust."

With a frown, Bucky flicked his gaze toward the window. On the other side, the rest of the team—waiting for Steve, and for Bucky's answer—conspicuously turned away, as though they all suddenly found the street behind them utterly fascinating at the same moment.

"But they don't trust me."

Steve's shoulders drooped. Damn. He never could lie to Bucky. "Fine," he said, shaking his head. "I trust you, and they're low on options."

Bucky nodded and sat back. That wasn't exactly what he wanted to hear, but at least it was honest. And, after everything he'd done—had been made to do, really, but that was a matter of semantics, he supposed—he knew perfectly well he couldn't expect any other response.

"Look, I didn't even want to bring you in on this, but we're operating on one man's suspicions. There's no way to report this through official channels, so we need someone who isn't official."

"Fury can't possibly have okay'ed this."

"Well, we kind of left him out of this decision," Steve admitted, dropping his gaze to the floor for a moment. He wouldn't mention the blanket response they'd gotten when they'd approached Fury about this potential problem. The party-line these days was about how resources were tied up in rebuilding SHIELD, and investigating their nifty new wormhole tech. Well, almost all—it was also suggested that their team had more pressing matters to deal with than chasing ghosts.

Or—Steve's personal favorite response—they all had itchy trigger-fingers after everything they'd dealt with, and were seeing enemies where there were none. He was also far too aware that Fury was only one of many who didn't want Loki to still be alive. Refusing to give a scant possibility the time of day should hardly be a surprise.

Once more, Bucky glanced through the glass. Thor had his head down, but from the angle, Bucky could see a look of pained concentration on the Asgardian's face. God of Thunder, trying to eavesdrop. Yup, that was dignified.

The man had reason to believe that his wicked step-brother had somehow survived the events on the Dark World. However—because that sentence, by itself, didn't smack of insanity—since Loki hadn't made any overt moves, as of yet, that had to mean he was up to something.

Not that babysitting the planet while the Avengers tripped off-world didn't sound like loads of fun, but . . . .

Shaking his head, Bucky braced his gloved hands against the table and pushed up to stand. "There's no way leaving me in charge of anything is a good idea."

He was still having nightmares about crimes he could only recall in snippets, or didn't remember, at all, but which others had delighted in filling him in on in graphic detail. Several times he'd stopped himself just short of lashing out at those around him after waking dreams.

Steve really couldn't expect him to do this. Even repaired, as he was considered, Bucky knew he still had the potential to be dangerous. The Avengers should stick him in a box and leave him there, and they all knew it.

But then, he realized that should also probably tell him how desperate they were.

"Please, Buck?" Steve met his friend's gaze, his expression serious. "He could be wrong, it could be nothing. Maybe he's just paranoid, but I can't leave this to chance."