Talon chapter 18

Chapter 18 - Harry meets Zatanna

Harry stopped at the threshold of the drawing room, his green eyes flicked across the room, assessing strangers out of habit. When he spotted the girl in the tiny magician's outfit practically vibrating with excitement, he froze like a deer who'd suddenly noticed another deer with explosives.

"You requested my presence, Father?" Harry asked formally. Dressed in black shoes, trousers and a black shirt under a blue hoodie with a 'Superman' logo on it, a red 'S' with a yellow background inside a red diamond.

"Yes, I did," Bruce confirmed with a small nod. He paused and gave Harry a questioning look.

"Grayson gifted it to me," Harry shrugged.

"Hmm," Bruce hummed. Superman had always been someone that Dick had looked up to; it seemed like he was trying to pass on the love to Harry. "I have some people here for you to meet."

Giovanni Zatara rose smoothly to his feet the moment Bruce gestured to him, adjusting his hat as he did so. His smile was warm in a way that reminded Harry painfully of Hagrid, if Hagrid had ever worn a bowtie and top hat and radiated ancient-magic confidence instead of "I broke your door down" energy.

"So," Zatara said lightly, "this must be the young man with 'abilities'." Harry's eyes narrowed just enough for Bruce to feel it. Zatara, to his credit, merely spread his hands in a harmless flourish.

"Hello, Harry," he said. "I'm Giovanni Zatara. I'm a magician." He added with a small wink. "The real kind." The girl beside him practically launched herself up, nearly dropping all of her cards in the process.

"I'm Zatanna!" She announced, beaming with joy. "We're the same age! Also, I have a trick I'm almost ready to show you, but you can't see it yet because it's not perfect, and if it's not perfect, then it's not magic, it's just… a disappointment."

Harry stared at her for a long moment. "…Right."

"Anyway, Zatara is a member of the Justice League," Bruce continued, deciding to keep this conversation on track. "He is our 'magic expert' if you will. I called him here to see if your abilities really are magical."

"It won't take long," Zatarra assured Harry before the boy could respond. And just like that, the curious and kind eyes of Giovanni shifted into something else. Harry felt the shift immediately. Magic users always had an aura, but this was something else entirely. The air thickened.

"Harry," Bruce murmured, a subtle warning in his voice. "He's just verifying."

"I know," Harry said quietly, though his posture said otherwise—rigid spine, tense shoulders, chin dipping like a fighter preparing to be struck. Zatanna paused her card shuffle mid-motion, eyes wide and unblinking.

Zatara stepped closer, moving with respectful slowness. He held his palms out, stopping a few inches from Harry, close enough to sense, far enough to avoid invading space.

"Just breathe," Zatara said gently. Harry didn't. He stared back, unflinching. Zatara exhaled, the glow of magic already gathering at his fingertips. Then he spoke, the incantation leaving his lips.

"Cigam etannI laever." The words echoed oddly, vibrating through the air. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the magic kicked into motion.

A soft gold ring formed around Zatara's hands, flickering like candlelight in a draft. The glow extended outward, heading towards Harry in a slow arc. Zatanna let out a small gasp, and Bruce tensed. Harry clenched his jaw, refusing to step back despite the instinct to do so clawing at him. The glow reached Harry's chest and promptly exploded.

A blast of green-gold light erupted around him, swirling like flames. Zatarra wasn't scared; it wasn't fire; it was Harry's aura, raw and ancient. Runes flickered in and out of existence along the edges, symbols older than Atlantis, some that even Zatara himself didn't know. Some were jagged and wild, like cracked lightning; others were smooth and deep, like ripples over water. He wasn't sure what it was, but...it felt...ancient.

The aura pulsed. Zatara took in a deep breath and cancelled the spell.

Silence.

Absolute and complete. Zatara stared at the boy as if seeing him for the first time.

"…Bruce," He said eventually, voice thin with awe. "This child's magic… is ancient. Not learned. Not inherited in any mortal sense."

"What?" Bruce looked back and forth between Harry and Giovanni. "Explain."

"He isn't merely magical," Zatara said, letting out a deep breath. "His soul is… steeped in magic. Marinated in it. But there's something else there as well." Harry looked away sharply. Bruce noticed. Zatara continued, softer now. "He is not Homo Magi. We possess the ability to manipulate magic, to guide it and shape it to our wills. But, young Harry here, he is creating his own magic from within his own body."

"Creating his own magic?" Bruce repeated. "Is it dangerous?"

"For him? No, but for those around him, yes, if not properly controlled."

"I have it under control," Harry stated matter-of-factly.

"Do you?" Zatara asked. Not challengingly, not mocking or taunting. Genuinely asking.

"Can I see?" Zatanna asked excitedly, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the room. Harry stared at her for several moments before lifting his hand, palm-up. Above his hand, a fireball appeared. "Cool," Zatanna smirked. "I can do that too." She said, shifting her cards into one hand before raising her free hand as Harry did. "Llaberif!" She said, a ball of fire appeared above her palm, just like Harry's. She showed it off proudly, at least until her father waved his hand and got rid of it. "Hey!" She protested.

"No fireballs," He told her. She opened her mouth, and he quickly cut her off. "Do I need to remind you about what happened last week?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," She deflated, face forming into a pout.

"Your incantations," Harry said, vanishing his fire. "That language...it's-"

"Backward talk," Zatanna nodded.

"That's how we perform spells," Zatara informed Harry while placing his hand on Zatana's shoulder. "But evidently, you don't need the incantations."

"Not really," Confirmed Harry.

"What else can you do?" Zatanna asked curiously.

"I can bring things to my hand," Harry said before summoning all of Zatanna's cards to his hand. "I can levitate things," He added before levitating all the cards and having them float around his head in a circle before he brought them all to a stop in a neat stack in front of him. "Plus, I can banish as well." He added, waving his hand and giving the cards a gentle push so they landed in Zatanna's hand.

"Wicked." Zatanna beamed.

"I have a few books I can offer that may help," Zatara cut in, speaking to Bruce. "But I'm hesitant to teach him more than a few things. Our magic channels energy from other sources, while he creates his own. Mixing the two together could have unforeseen consequences, at least at his current age. When he's older, and his magic has settled, I would be more than willing to take him on as a student."

"And what would that involve?" Bruce asked, sounding as calm as ever, as if discussing the weather.

"Let's discuss that together," Giovanni suggested. "In the meantime, why don't you two kids go and have fun?" He said to the two youngest present.

"Okay, Daddy," Zatanna said brightly before grabbing Harry by the wrist and dragging him off before he could respond.

"I wonder how long it'll take for her to remember that she doesn't know where she's going," Zatara wondered to himself.

"Something you don't want the kids to hear?" Bruce asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not really," Zatara said with an amused huff. "It makes no difference to me if they hear, but I just figured that the kids could benefit from having some time with people their own age. But, with that being said.." Zatara trailed off, looking uncertain.

"What is it?" Bruce picked up on his hesitation immediately.

"I'm not sure if...well..." Zatara let out a very deep sigh before looking at the man in front of him, who was growing more and more impatient. "...It's the boy's soul."

"His soul?" Bruce frowned. He had always been favourable to science, things that explained how and why the world works the way it does. It was one of the few reasons he wasn't fond of magic; magic took science and shattered it before rearranging it like some nonsense drawing that only a two-year-old could understand. It was hard for him to deal with concepts like souls and spells, but after years of seeing dimension travel, aliens, and once even meeting an imp from a fifth dimension, he was able to roll with this sort of stuff a lot better than he previously could.

"A soul tells a lot about a person," Zatara hummed. "And Harry's soul is...odd. As I stated previously, it is magical. But it's also been touched by something, something old. Ancient, even. Yet, the boy is unharmed by it."

"You could just tell me so I don't have to keep asking questions," Grunted Bruce.

"Death," Zatara said at once. Bruce froze. "His soul has been touched by 'Death'."

"He...he used to live with the League of Assassins," Bruce took in a deep breath. "He was forced to kill people there. Perhaps -"

"No," Zatara cut him off gently. "That's not it. I'm saying that his soul seems to have been touched by death, which means at some point or the other, his soul had been in contact with death. The end of all things."

"Perhaps the Lazarus pit," Bruce said thoughtfully. "Ra's Al Ghul used it to bring himself back from the dead on multiple occasions. He...he might have used it on Harry."

"Perhaps," Zatara didn't sound convinced.

(.)

"So, is this your card?" Zatana asked with a grin.

Harry, against his best efforts, felt his lips curl up into a smile as he looked at the card that somehow ended up in his hoodie pocket. He had to admit that he found himself impressed. The girl's enthusiasm was infectious, as was her smile. She reminded him in many ways of Luna Lovegood.

"Okay, that was good," Harry admitted, tossing the card back into her hands. "You really like doing these tricks, huh?"

"Yeah," Zatanna said immediately. "They're fun," She shrugged before pausing. "Plus," She continued, sounding slightly hesitant. "People like them. They're fun, they make people smile. I used to do them for my Mum all the time." She added, tone barely bordering on normal. It didn't take a genius to realise that the girl now had one parent less.

"I'm sorry, she sounds like a nice person," Harry said genuinely. "I lost my grandfather recently."

"Do you miss him?" Zatanna asked softly.

"I'm not sure," Harry admitted slowly.

"What?" Zatanna blinked. "How can you not be sure?"

"Because on the one hand, he was my biological grandfather. But on the other hand, he was also a supervillain that my biological father had fought multiple times, and he was intent on making me a living weapon." Harry explained. "Also, he didn't give me any birthday presents for my last three birthdays," Harry added with a slightly bitter tone.

"He sounds mean," Zatanna frowned.

"He was a bit," Harry agreed. "Anyway, you want to show me another trick?"

"You first," Insisted Zatanna.

"Fine, I've been working on something." He said, aiming a hand at Zatanna's hat. "Stay still," He told her. 'Carpe Retractum,' He thought mentally before an orange cord of light shot out of his palm and grabbed her hat, pulling it off her hand into his waiting hands. "Ta-da," He said dryly as he tossed the hat upwards. It spun two times before landing perfectly on his head.

"Cool," Zatanna grinned. "What was that?"

"Seize and pull spell," Harry shrugged. It was a pretty underrated spell from Harry's world; many people didn't bother learning it because the summoning charm existed. Still, it was a much easier spell to master. Essentially, it made a cord that would pull whatever you grabbed to you. Unless it was heavier than you, in which case the reverse would happen, and you'd be pulled to it. Harry had been working on it shortly before he had left the league; he figured it'd be good for travel. His grappling gun now made the spell a bit less useful, but he figured that once he managed to practise more, he could use it as a quicker alternative for short to mid-range situations while keeping his grappling gun for longer ones.

"Oh yeah, how about I teach you a trick of my own?" Zatanna said with a mischievous look in her eye.

(.)

Jason Todd had seen some weird crap in his life. He'd be the first to admit that. He had seen and been adopted by a man dressed as a bat. He once fought a dozen dwarves in clown make-up. One of his favourite memories was of the time Jason kneed a man known as the 'Riddler' in the nuts after the man had insulted Jason's intelligence several times. Jason had even been killed and come back to life.

But nothing — nothing — prepared him for the sight he walked into when he pushed open Harry's bedroom door.

"Harry, Bruce wants-" He began, before freezing, barely noticing Dick walking in behind him.

"What's going on? I...whoa." Both of them had stopped dead in their tracks.

Because lying down on Harry's bed was Harry and Zatanna, both of whom seemed to be sleeping at first glance. At least, that's what it looked like until you looked four feet up and saw Harry and Zatanna floating in the air!

The floating versions of the two looked exactly like what one would expect from a ghost, a soft blue light echoing from their see-through bodies. Harry sat cross-legged and upside down, calm as a cucumber, as he casually dismissed gravity as an optional extra. Meanwhile, Zatanna was doing floating cartwheels around the room. At least she did until the pair noticed Jason and Dick.

"Hello," Harry said casually before turning his attention to the floating girl who was now next to him. "These are my father's adopted children, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd."

"Hi, I'm Zatanna," She said, giving them a small and awkward wave.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but would someone PLEASE EXPLAIN?!" Jason erupted, pointing towards their unconscious bodies. "Did you two die?!"

"Not recently," Harry replied. For a moment, it looked like Jason was contemplating running headfirst into a wall.

"Medic!" Jason yelled.

"It's not that serious," Harry sighed.

"MEDIC!" Jason said furiously.

"I think your rage has broken," Zatanna frowned thoughtfully. A pained noise came out of Jason, who looked ready to yell again. Dick placed his hand on Jason's shoulder to calm him down.

"We're 'astral projecting'," Zatanna explained to the older boys.

"You guys can do that?" Dick asked in an impressed voice while Jason pulled each and every trick he had to calm himself down.

"Apparently," Harry nodded. Without a single physical movement from himself, his astral form rotated so he was now the right way up.

"Bruce and Zatara are letting you do this unsupervised?" Jason asked suspiciously. The two floating forms both exchanged glances. One unintended result of their astral projection was that their faces seemed to be a bit more expressive than their usual selves, almost as if they were clearer to see, which was why it didn't take much effort for the older males to notice Zatanna's small wince and the barely noticeable twitch in Harry's eye.

A deep silence filled the room. At least there was until Harry spoke up.

"She forced me to do it," Harry's voice broke through it.

"Hey!"