Doom Days (Harry Potter/MCU Crossover)

A/N- Hey guys. Right on time! Expect the following update on Wednesday next week, and know you can skip the wait and read the following two chapters and continuous updates on Pa-treon right now. Since I now qualify as an unemployed member of society, all subscribers on my pa-treon are much appreciated. If you enjoy my writing, please don't hesitate to support it. For Pa Treon, you can remove the hyphen between Pa and Treon and Google it, then search for my username—Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting it in your address bar. Please subscribe to my pa-treon using the website directly instead of the IOS app to avoid paying Apple tax. 

Important Announcement: Changes made to my pa-treon structure mean it's now cheaper to read the very next chapter with a lower-tier subscription. I'll be placing a discount on yearly memberships for a week or so to support this. 

"Enough Potter" Mcgonagall hissed harshly, and while that brought some clarity to me, it did nothing to stop the laughter. I'd fucked up. I'd completely and utterly fucked up. Now I was going to pay for it. I could see all the hints I'd ignored now that I knew what was coming. I hadn't found dragons in the forest because there had been none in the first place. When Firenze said the creature of fire was in the forest, I hadn't asked any other questions-thinking he was talking about Dragons. I never even bothered questioning the use of the singular instead of the plural, foolishly taking it as a quirk of the centaur's way of speaking. Foolish. 

Confirmation bias. It was a textbook example. I had the answers I wanted, and so I never bothered truly looking for the truth, only evidence in support of the truth I'd chosen. What a mess. I sobered up as the situation began to sink in. It was funny that I'd gotten things so terribly wrong, but the situation in front of me was nothing funny at all. 

"Apologies everyone" I said when I finally managed to stop laughing and realised the entire tent was staring at me. 

"I just felt Mr. Bagman's joke was a really good one" I said, not able to just stop there and feeling the need to offer some explanation to avoid the news breaking on the Daily Prophet that the Boy-Who-Lived was batshit insane. 

"Well, Mr. Potter, while Ludovic's statement was ill-timed, it was not a joke. You, all four of you, will, in fact, be facing a hellhound today." The black-haired woman spoke, looking at me with pitying eyes. I realised then just how small I must have seemed to all of them. A healthy diet meant I was growing a fair bit, but I was still in the body of a fourteen-year-old and Potter genes weren't disposed for bulk by any means. I'd definitely have to fix that sooner or later. The entire room seemed to tower over me. 

"Noted" I said simply, not allowing any of my apprehension show on my face. This could either be very good or very bad. A hellhound wasn't as specific a term as one would think. There were many creatures that technically counted as hellhounds. The Cerberus that had kept the philosopher's stone safe was one of those. So were a dozen other creatures. But very few of them had weaknesses that were as easily exploitable as Fluffy's. There was even one of them, according to my monster hunting, that had no weaknesses at all. It was ridiculously rare, so I had little expectations of it showing up here. 

"Okay. Mr. Bagman might have jumped the gun a bit, so let's pretend we didn't all just hear that as we go through the presentation as initially planned, ey? Mr. Crouch, if you would" She spoke again, gesturing to Crouch to take her position at the centre of the circle of bodies we'd formed. 

"Ahem." He said, coughing to gather himself and get everyone's attention. His eyes darted from place to place as he switched his hat from one hand to another and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. 

"So the original plan for this task had been dragons. We had already secured three dragons from a Romanian reserve before the naming of the champions. With a sudden fourth champion, we had to make changes. The Reserve did not have any extra dragons that did not take the level of danger to such a degree that the competition would be untenable. Instead of being forced to continue with such means, we received an influx of capital and a donation from a Greek family that would rather remain anonymous. Their donation has allowed us to secure the creature we have." He said with a smile on his face that failed to reach his eyes. 

"Instead of each champion facing a dragon to secure the clue for the second task, all four champions are to face the same creature at the same time. Your goal will be to subdue the hellhound. Whether you work together or not is immaterial. You might find that you need to do so to survive, but failure to cooperate with the others will not incur any penalties. Each and every one of you will be judged on your actions within the arena." 

"What kind of 'ell'ound is eet?" Fleur asked, eyes fixed on Crouch Senior, and right hand clasped tightly around her wand. 

"I would say that it is a surprise, but it matters little whether you know or not. You will be facing Cŵn Annwn today, champions. Have your wits about you and pray to whatever gods you hold dear to have mercy on you for the dog of hell will not" he said. Fuck. My heartbeat sped up in an instant with those words alone. He gave another look around the centre, meeting my eyes for a second before he swept away from the centre with a nod to the ICW brunette who took the centre again. Her smile was easy and calming. Too easy, part of me felt. It reached her eyes, but it was still. Too still. Like the smile did not care what happened around it. Like it would remain even as it watched each and every one of us be torn to shreds by teeth the size of swords and claws sharper than the sharpest knives. 

"Like Mr. Crouch just said, you will be facing Cŵn Annwn. As the head of the ICW safety division for Magical Games, Sports, and Competition, I have a few things to inform you about. First of all, each of your robes is charmed with a special portkey. The Supreme Mugwump has been kind enough to give us some allowance within the wards. It is a single use portkey charmed to take you to the medical tent right next to this one. Please do not fall into the temptation of attempting to modify the charm. You will die, and you will do so painfully. Secondly, if at any time you feel the need to surrender or cease your participation in the task, send up red sparks with your wand and your portkey will be activated remotely. It will also be activated if any of the support staff judge you unable to continue with the task or at overwhelming risk of death." She said easily to nods from all four of us. 

"Now, you have fifteen minutes before you will be called into the stadium to begin. Cŵn Annwn will be released into the stadium after you. It will not be able to travel through the shadows as a means of keeping this sporting and entertaining. It will also be confined to a fixed perimeter. That is up to you to figure out. Good luck, Champions. Magic bless you all" She said as she left. With her, went the entire team of judges and staff. Before she'd left, Mcgonagall had placed a hand on my shoulder in a silent show of support. 

I turned to the other champions and found each of them had begun to walk to different ends of the tent, almost by silent agreement. Part of me wanted to make the offer to work together, but common-sense won out. I could not trust them as far as I could throw them, and getting betrayed with Cŵn Annwn on the prowl was a death sentence. Speaking of Cŵn Annwn itself-it was another can of worms. 

When I said there was only one species of Hellhound that didn't have a conventional weakness that could be taken advantage of, I had meant this one. Fuck. I jinxed myself, didn't I? Fuck me. Cŵn Annwn. The drawings were a ferocious thing already, and Riddle actually had memories of seeing a painting on one in the McNair manor when he had been able to get an invite to one of the balls the family held. Unlike the muggle myths, the real Cŵn Annwn did not hunt in packs. They had the power to jump in shadows and jump out of them so it could seem like one was facing dozens when it was really only one creature on the prowl, so it was understandable where the muggle myth had come from. 

A grown Cŵn Annwn was about the size of an adult man when it came to height, and their bodies were somehow even more bulky. They were bigger than any other breed of hellhound with the exception of Cerberi but unlike their three headed cousins, they had several other things going for them beyond size. First was their hide. The book rated the magic resistance of their hide as a level 5. Level 5 was insane considering trolls enjoyed a level three rating and giants were level four. For context, some other creatures that had level 5 ratings when it came to magic resistance were dragons and basilisks. That wasn't good company. Not good company at all for my interests. And it wasn't just the hide. 

There was the fire as well. Just like dragons, Cŵn Annwn could breathe fire. They put the hell in hellhound and were said to be able to breathe fire hot enough to melt steel. The only silver lining was that they couldn't just breathe fire endlessly and had to rely on taking in air to breathe out infernos. Not much of a silver lining, but well enough. The other part of the hellhound combination was that Cŵn Annwn were able to travel between shadows. They could jump into one shadow and jump out of another. It was a powerful ability and I agreed with the woman when she said that if it was allowed to do that, then the fight would not even be close to sporting. 

It wouldn't even have been a fight. I know how strong I am. I am pretty sure that I could take all the other three champions at the same time if I needed to, but regardless of all that, I knew there was no chance of me beating one who had free rein over the shadows. It just wasn't possible. Thankfully, that ability would be limited, and the beast would be confined to a fixed perimeter, so there was some chance of moving in and out of the beast's range over time to get rests, but that depended on a lot of things. 

I heard a coughing sound, and I looked up from my wand which I had been studying to the smiling face of Cedric Diggory. 

"Wotcher, Harry?" He asked. Harry, I noted. Not Potter. 

"What's up, Cedric?" I asked in turn, ignoring the question and moving straight into things. What do you want? 

"The others seem to know what we are facing. I never took Care of Magical Creatures, you see? What even is a Cŵn Annwn?" He said, stepping closer to me like he wanted the conversation to remain between the two of us both, the tent was so silent the others must have heard. 

I knew they did because a barked laughter shot out from Fleur's lips as the French girl regarded us with a pitying expression. 

"Bad news, Cedric. Magic resistant as hell. About the size of a grown man and twice as wide. They can breathe fire hot enough to melt steel and travel between shadows, although we shouldn't have to worry about the latter. I'll be honest with you, Cedric. You can't resign the second we step in because you'd never live that down, but the second you feel your life is in danger, you should send those sparks flying. Cŵn Annwn are dangerous. Class Five beasts, just like Dragons, Basilisks, and Phoenixes. I have no idea who thought it would be a good idea to place four teenagers against one, but its not worth risking your life for their amusement" I said in a serious tone, and the tent was silent for a second before Krum scoffed from his corner. 

"Anything to say, Bulgarian?" I asked, turning towards him. 

"Nothing much. Vour friend is stupid, and Vou are weak. Vhat else is there to say about British vizards?" He asked with a scoff through his thick accent. I stared him down, contemplating replying but just thought better of it. We were going to be facing a guaranteed wizardkiller as 'Profitable Beasts and Where to Hunt them' described our opponent, so there was no need in speaking to someone who could be dead by the end of the day. I briefly contemplated deciding to hasten his journey there by planning some sort of betrayal but thought better of it. Krum, like it or not, was a popular athlete. Getting him killed in such a public forum was guaranteed to be the kind of thing that would stick. I wouldn't be saving his life if it came to that, though. 

When it became clear that I was not going to reply, Fleur barked out another laugh from her corner. I just turned to Cedric instead and began whispering to him about the beast we were about to face. 

In no time at all, the canon that signified that it was our time to step into the ring rang out. Krum was the first one out. I stared at Fleur for a second and our eyes met before she followed the Bulgarian with a huff. I wondered what each of them had in mind to deal with the threat. Part of me was certain that they knew what was coming, so that meant they would have had time to cook up plans. 

 Cŵn Annwn didn't tend to have weaknesses that one could just prepare for, but weeks of time to a resourceful enough wizard were practically an eternity when it came to cooking up plans. 

"Good luck, Harry" Cedric said while squeezing my shoulder before stepping in. He was the only one of the lot who viewed me even slightly as competition, and I relished the chance to force the others to eat their words. 

I stepped through the exit and closed my eyes for a second to allow them to adapt to the sudden influx of light. It had never really hit me how dark the tent had been. 

The arena was just as expected. A large barren field. The grassy plains of the quidditch pitch had been replaced with flat earth. The field was dotted with boulders here and there. For perhaps the first time, it truly sunk in just how large the quidditch pitch was. Doom's memories struggled to come up with a similar sized field from all his memories of his first life but struggled to come up with anything. The sound was another factor that he hadn't expected. Morgana above, wizards could get loud! 

"Last but not least, we have Harry Potter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" it was then I realised the reason they were so loud was because they were cheering for our names being announced. At my name, there was a small rictus of boos erupting from the crowd, but it was thankfully drowned out by cheering. Either I had more fans than I thought or they were all just caught up in the spectacle of the thing. Both were equally likely. 

"And now their opponent, the mythical Cŵn Annwn" Bagman's voice cracked at the end as he screamed the name of the beast for all to hear. I wondered how they would get it in for a second since I didn't see any openings in the arena, but there was a whoosh of air and I had my question answered. Portkey. 

The Beast landed with a thud that echoed through the arena. Echoed because every screaming mouth had shut itself with its arrival. The hellhound was many things at the same time. Majestic, great, fucking dangerous. Perhaps the last one was most important. It landed and took two steps forward to orient itself before it growled. The audience remained silent. Dead silent. 

So did the four of us. I wondered if this was what it felt like to be frozen in fear. When the creature looked at us, not a single part of my body wanted to move. Sure, I would rather be anywhere but here, but I could not do it. The first of the four of us to move was Krum, and he did the most foolish thing possible with the privilege. The idiot leveled his wand at Cŵn Annwn, slashed it in a lightning bolt movement and proclaimed loudly to the world, "Avada Kedavra" His killing curse hit naught, but air as the beast jumped in the air to avoid it and began tearing through the ground to cross thew distance between it and us. 

"Run" Cedric screamed as he bolted left. Fleur fled in the opposite direction. As if intent on proving his lack of brain cells, Krum stood his ground and began the movements for another spell. Just like him, I did not move either, but my plan was less stupid. 

I waited for the perfect moment even as I threaded my magic through my wand and into the ground. The beast jumped past a boulder on its way to us, and it suddenly found itself being tossed to the side. The boulder it had passed, transfigured into a golem, had dived right into it as it jumped past. I clenched my teeth as Cŵn Annwn rolled on the floor for a second before it was back on its feet and staring right at the two of us. 

The ground shook as my golem shuffled along it to take its place between Cŵn Annwn and my position. 

Important Announcement: Changes made to my pa-treon structure mean its now cheaper to read the very next chapter with a lower-tier subscription. I'll be placing a discount on yearly memberships for a week or so to support this. 

A/N; And the chapter ends in a standoff. So how do you guys think this is going to go? A win for Doom? A humbling moment? An opportunity? If you're really excited about this, then you can skip all the waiting and read the next two chapters of this up on my pa-treon right now. And if you come from any of my other stories, please do me the favour of commenting which story that is.