35 The Assassination!

{Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts, Scotland}

{9:23 PM, 17th Nov 1991}

"Come in Mr. Jackson" Harry heard Dumbledore's voice just as he was about to knock at the door, shaking his head at the man's antics he once again entered the headmaster's office. Nothing has changed except the unknown man now sitting in the room along with Dumbledore. Harry hasn't ever met him before but he could still recognize the direct superior of his mentor/trainer.

"Agent Fury, what a surprise, I never expected to run into SHIELD at Hogwarts..." the last part was directed at Dumbledore, there was no reason ever to trust spies.

"So it seems the rumors were true," Fury had a blank face as he sized Harry up, Dumbledore on the other hand quickly intervened to dissuade the lingering tension.

"It seems you guys have met before,"

"Nope"

"Never"

To negative answers immediately stopped whatever angle Dumbledore was going for, "Harry, as an ICW representative I have interacted with SHIELD for decades now, they are all trustworthy people."

Harry scoffed and asked, "You really need to stop trusting spies, they don't even fully trust each other," Harry countered, never once breaking eye contact with Fury, they both were vary of each other. Harry's senses depended on the mana coursing through wizards so sadly that didn't work on Fury, and he didn't trust the man not to carry a weapon no matter where he went.

Fury was the first one to break the staring contest, he realized that there was no point in even trying to capture him at the moment, he did not have the home crowd advantage nor did he have any backup, this was just an intel-gathering mission, "You mentioned to Albus that the 'reason for your extended disappearance' was that you were trained and brainwashed by HYDRA, but HRDRA doesn't exist, not anymore..."

Harry and Fury stared at one another for a moment more before Harry shrugged and sat down on the seat beside Fury's, "Just because you don't know it does, doesn't mean HYDRA doesn't exist, anyway, is this meeting already in shield records? What's the security clearance given to it?" Harry asked.

Fury gave him another glare before he responded, "I did not enter your ridiculous story into our system, although it would be tempting to finally catch one of the most wanted assassins, the word HYDRA is a taboo, for good reason, of course, I would search through everything before even thinking about logging it in..."

Harry rolled his eyes at his response, "you agents and your ridiculous secrets, at least in this case it would help you, don't even think about logging anything HYDRA related into your system, it would be instantly flagged and you would be the next target of the winter soldier."

"That, that is exactly why I am here, what do you know about this Winter Soldier, where is his base of operations, SHIELD is willing to give you a pardon for your crimes if you help us catch him," Fury exclaimed, for the first time his mask breaking a little bit.

Harry was tempted, whatever he said about SHIELD, they were an international organization of spies, and he did not want his information floating around in the whole organization ultimately leading HYDRA hot on his tail.

Harry watched Dumbledore from the corner of his eyes, for the second time ever he saw him with a frown on his face, something major must have happened for him to react like this. He could even see the anxiety on Fury's face and a question emerged in his mind which he voiced out, "What did he do?"

Receiving silence in return for his question Harry asked again, "Don't play with me, what did he do?"

"On 15th November, 11:47 PM, Howard and Maria Stark were assassinated by the Winter Soldier on their way to their yearly vacation." Fury said with a straight face.

And then it dawned on Harry why Fury was anxious, the people he mentioned were among the founders of SHIELD, so the problem that SHIELD ignored all along, flagging Winter Soldier as just a Russian assassin has now bit them in the ass "That was quick," Harry mumbled gathering the attention of both the agent and the headmaster, "Stark designed something new perhaps..." Harry looked at the glare he received and rolled his eyes, "Please, I know who Stark is and what he does, the question is why now... my answer would be his son, Tony was his name right, he should be turning 21..."

"We will have an extended chat about all the secrets that this supposed cell of HYDRA entails, Winter Soldier now, who is he, which base does he operate from?" Fury tried to keep the conversation on track, he knew the technique most of the war prisoners used, misinformation and misdirection by presenting more appealing facts.

"You think Winter Soldier operates from a base?" Harry scoffed, "Winter Soldier is just a weapon, only to be used when necessary otherwise cryogenically frozen, he is just a tool, a genetically enhanced friend of your good ol' Captain America..." He paused for a bit before he decided to rub it in a little bit,"...what can I say HYDRA leaders do love irony..."

Fury had a stunned expression on his face, there was no way what he was hearing was true, there were several sightings of Winter Soldiers per month reported by various agents across Russia, that's why it is designated as the ground zero for their search. "What do you mean by Captain America's old friend?" Fury asked.

"James Buchanan Barnes was his name according to what I remember," Harry responded, his thoughts going back to the day he first met and used [Observe] on the Winter Soldier.

"Bucky Barnes..." Fury whispered, his face cycling through various emotions, even if he knew it was a possibility that this was just a piece of misinformation, it was a little too big to not pursue, "Why would Barnes work for HYDRA?" the question slipped past his lips before he could think about it.

"Stop being naive Fury, if HYDRA could attempt to brainwash an 8-year-old, you bet your ass they won't hesitate to get themselves a supersoldier, but the brainwashing technique back in the 50s were not as advanced as they are now, so they just hit reset on his mind and memories before reprogramming him into Winter Soldier. They were planning to do the same to me so I escaped..." Harry shrugged and watched as the man in front of him paused, as Fury went deep into contemplation. Harry turned his attention towards Dumbledore, "Was it really necessary to inform SHIELD?"

The aged wizard gave Harry a complicated look, he could see so much of Gellert and Tom in the boy, he was smart, scarily so, charismatic and powerful, but in the end, he had made a vow to the two people that day and he had to keep it, "Yes it was, after all, I was present there the day SHIELD was founded..."

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So what do you say? Agent Fury! with both his eyes intact? Anyway, let's bleed a little bit of Marvel in the story! More explanations soon!

P.S - P.atreon current chapter- 49 (14 chapters ahead of Webnovel), - patreon.com/WN_Translations