History Fanfic / ChildOfTheStorm

* And the story's incarnation of Doctor Strange is mentioned under his main incarnation's tab both in the [[{{Pantheon/Magic}} House of Magic]] and on the WMG/TimeLord page, in the latter case being equivalent to [[AGodAmI the Time]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Lord Victorious.]] He's also an accredited member of [[Wmg/TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness the Omniscient Council of Vagueness]].

A MegaCrossover by Creator/NimbusLlewelyn that started on a WhatIf In this case, what would happen if ComicBook/{{Thor}} had been incarnated as James Potter, as a first run on that humility thing?

* Book 1: ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8897431/1/Child-of-the-Storm Child of the Storm]],'' which starts it all with Harry discovering his heritage and, essentially, trying very hard not to die as a lot of people try just as hard to kill him, while discovering new powers and making new friends, all while HYDRA ascend, the Darkhold whispers and everyone dances on the puppet strings of the Sorcerer Supreme... It is complete.
* Book 1.5: ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11152917/1/Chaos-Reigns Chaos Reigns]],'' is a side story set just prior to chapters 59 and 60, [[SwitchingPOV alternately from the POV]] of Harry Dresden and Wanda Maximoff, as they handle an incursion by the demonic N'Garai. It is complete.

* A reading, the first several chapters of which can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wuBmAAW574 here.]]

* GhostsofThePast/TropesAToH

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Q through Z]]
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Strange, or rather, as he was known back then, [[spoiler: Taliesin]], after he arrived too late to intervene at [[spoiler: Camlann]]. Cue this trope. He notes that normally, this wouldn't have had any real effect, even considering how powerful he was. However, he was in a particularly temporally sensitive area, had a natural gift for time magic (though nothing compared to what it became), and [[spoiler: the Time Stone (for want of a better way of putting it)]] heard him. [[spoiler: It appeared in front of him, and... changed him.]]
* RageBreakingPoint: The culmination of the events of ''Forever Red'' served as one for Harry, leading to [[spoiler: his unleashing the Dark Phoenix.]]
* RaisingTheSteaks: Dresden recreates ''that'' canon moment from his own series in chapter 32, the penultimate chapter of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, exploiting a loophole in the Rule against necromancy in the most CrazyAwesome fashion possible: he unleashes [[spoiler: Sue, the zombie T-Rex, on the city]].
* {{Realpolitik}}: When negotiating with the Indian Prime Minister for the handover of [[spoiler: Red Room members seeking asylum]], Loki advises him on how to get the most beneficial information from the fugitives first, as well as how to start up India's own Avengers-like team.
* RealityEnsues: As the author notes, a three-against-one match usually will not end well for the one, especially if the three are used to working as a team. However, when the three are neighbourhood bullies and the one is a well-trained demigod with a fair amount of life-or-death combat experience... well, it's still a CurbStompBattle. It's just that the boot is on the other foot.
** To an extent with the deployment of the Red Son by the Red Room. If you've got someone with those kind of powers, you're not simply going to use them to kill people, but to grab information and to alter the balance of power on a massive scale.
** And afterwards as well - even once the bad guys are defeated and the hero is recovering from his experiences, there's going to be a huge amount of clean-up.
** If you've been horribly emotionally abused since birth, even if you have the sweetest, kindest family in the world, it's going to be a long time and lots of patient counseling before you can even begin to get over your emotional scars.
** Wanting to help your best friend when he's going into danger is great. But as Bucky tells Ron and Hermione, even with the best intentions in the world, you will still be TheLoad if punching too far above your weight class.
** As Jesus lays out to Harry, trying to bluff JerkassGod {{Reality Warper}}s who have had millennia to come up with ideas on how to torture people is a ''very'' bad idea.
** While The Avengers are heroes, it has become abundantly clear that they're willing to do whatever it takes to ensure a threat is eliminated. This has a lot to do with going up against villains who won't hesitate in killing someone to achieve their goal, putting them in a position where they can't afford to hold back or make a strategic mistake. And that means collateral damage.
* RealityHasNoSoundtrack: The LemonyNarrator notes when [[spoiler: Maddie]] picks up Mjolnir that if the universe had a soundtrack it would have instantly cut to a rendition of "Thunderstruck" by {{Music/ACDC}}, before [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall lamenting that because of this trope, it doesn't.]] [[BrickJoke About thirty chapters later,]] [[spoiler: Harry re-enters the battle against the Earth-Wyrm to the tune of, you guessed it, "Thunderstruck", thanks to Tony hacking the ''Valiant'''s speakers.]]
* RealityWarper: Skyfathers are all capable of this, to an extent.
** [[spoiler: The Dark Phoenix.]]
** Strange, to a limited extent. [[spoiler: To a much, much greater extent with the Tesseract in hand.]]
* RealWomenDontWearDresses: Quietly but firmly Averted, with Pepper, Frigga, Alison, and Diana - later Carol, to an extent - all subverting the trope (in Carol's case, she mainly embraced it to reject her father's StayInTheKitchen tendencies).
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Nick Fury, if in a somewhat [[GoodIsNotNice blunt]] fashion.
** Coulson is unfazed by Jean Grey's [[BigSisterInstinct threat to take down SHIELD if they ever harm her loved ones]], telling her (off the record) that should SHIELD become NotSoDifferent to HYDRA, he would help her. From chapter 34, he also becomes Clark Kent's FriendOnTheForce as SHIELD's Regional Commander for the Midwest, explicitly stating that he'll do whatever he can to protect him.
** Captain Stacy of the NYPD serves as one in chapter 32, during the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, being patient with a grumpy and irritable Harry (who is grumpy and irritable because he's worried about his friends and he's just been on the wrong end of a vicious NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from Dracula).
** As always, Dumbledore shows great understanding of his students' characters, and expects no more or less than the best that they can give.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Wisdom gives one to Amos Diggory as a proxy for the Ministry as a whole, focusing on how poorly the Ministry handled the remaining Death Eaters at the end of the last war, blaming the current mess on letting so many of them slip away.
** Voldemort gives Harry two short ones, first reiterating his power and morality speech from ''Philosopher's Stone'', then on the obvious nature of his [[spoiler: attempt to call on Betsy for help, which ends up with Voldemort giving her an aneurysm.]]
** Harry gives one to Carol's father when he tries to convince Harry to "put her on the right path".
** Volodya gives Lukin one just before [[spoiler: he's executed, meaning that it doubles as a FacingTheBulletsOneLiner.]]
** [[spoiler: Maddie]] gives Lukin one just after having [[CurbstompBattle thrashed him and his troops]], cutting off his response with a short textbook ShutUpHannibal line.
** When the Council Elite gathers to discuss the possible threat Harry presents [[spoiler: after being the Dark Phoenix]], Huginn calls out the other gods on the fact that technically speaking, each of them is even more of a threat to Earth than Harry is, so they have no ground to stand on.
** Harry delivers a short, savage one to Crouch Senior in chapter 28, deconstructing the man and his motives for his GoodIsNotSoft persona, describing it as driven by ambition.
* RelationshipUpgrade:
** [[spoiler: Harry and Carol finally have theirs in Chapter 46 when she agrees to go to the Yule Ball with him, and gives him TheBigDamnKiss.]]
** [[spoiler: After Harry arranges for Diana to attend the Yule Ball as Draco's date as a cover story, she and Ginny give admit their feelings for each other publicly and get together.]]
* RestartTheWorld: [[spoiler: Surtur's]] plan, which has been delayed for the past million years or so - he intends to reduce the universe to atoms, then rebuild it in his image, because he earnestly believes that it is critically flawed and only he can make it better.
* TheReveal:
** Chapter 7 has several. First, [[spoiler: Essex/Sinister is working with the Red Room,]] second, [[spoiler: Draco's mental passenger is deeply familiar with the Phoenix and aware of Harry's fragment]], third, [[spoiler: Sinister was the telepath who kept Harry at Privet Drive, pretending to be the benevolent family doctor that Petunia mentioned back in ''Child of the Storm'']], fourth, [[spoiler: the girl whose eyes were glowing blue at points in ''Child of the Storm'' and in chapter 2 is Maddie Pryor]] - though WordOfGod indicated that was a twist here: [[spoiler: she's a CompositeCharacter of her canon self and Rachel Grey]].
** Chapter 8 also has a couple: [[spoiler: Dudley Dursley is the Blob]] and working for [[spoiler: Sinister and the Red Room]] and [[spoiler: Gambit]] is also working for them (though not entirely willingly).
** Chapter 9 has two of them: [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor is actual Jean Grey's twin sister Rachel, who supposedly died as a newborn, but was really stolen and raised by Sinister, and Gambit has been working as TheMole inside the Red Room for Natasha]].
** Chapters 19 and 20 have a bucket-load of them:
*** Asgard has had [[spoiler: a Phoenix host before, in the form of]] Princess Sunniva, who became the mother of the Trimurti.
*** Surtur [[spoiler: was the original Dark Phoenix, Yggdrasil was created as his prison and the Nine Realms but for Muspelheim and Nifflheim/Helheim were composed of TheAlliance against him, and the Odinforce was created to empower someone enough to keep him distracted while everyone else ensured that he was SealedEvilInACan.]] Oh, and Strange remarks that it's NotMeThisTime (Surtur being a peripheral threat in his planning) and that [[spoiler: the Phoenix/Yggdrasil is probably behind Harry being shaped into someone able to face Surtur and survive.]]
*** While the [[MagicGenetics X-Gene]] came from the Celestials' experimentation, humanity's ability to not only survive SuperSoldier experiments like the Terrigenesis which produced the Inhumans (and which worked quite literally nowhere else), Project Rebirth and its sequels (e.g. the Hulk project), but thrive thereafter, and [[HalfHumanHybrid ability to successfully breed with so many species]], is speculated by Odin and Frigga to be a side-effect of the formation of Yggdrasil, emphasising the HumansAreSurvivors aspect.
*** Pursuant to the above, the Fae were once human, or a HumanSubSpecies, that slipped through into the Nevernever hundreds of thousands of years ago and found that they liked it. It altered them - as Frigga puts it, where humanity as a whole learned to use magic, the Fae (especially the Sidhe) ''became'' magic.
*** Doctor Strange reveals his DarkAndTroubledPast. His real name is [[spoiler: Taliesin,]] though he was born [[spoiler: Gwion ap Gwreang]] to a nomadic clan of wandering magic users referred to as druids (they kept up druidic traditions), to whom he was better known as [[spoiler: Gwion Bach]]. Yes, ''that'' [[spoiler: [[Characters/CelticMythology Taliesin]]]]. When he was a baby, his clan was raided by [[spoiler: [[Series/Merlin2008 Uther Pendragon's]]]] forces and his family was slaughtered, and his mother [[MosesInTheBullRushes put him in a hastily enchanted basket and set him downstream to save him]]. He was found by a fisherman who lived in [[spoiler: the city of Camelot]] and who took him in, naming him [[spoiler: Taliesin.]] When he started developing magic, he became errand boy/apprentice to [[spoiler: Gaius, Uther's]] Court Physician, mentored by him and his other student - [[spoiler: Merlin]] - helping them protect [[spoiler: the then Prince Arthur]], even learning swordsmanship from the Lady Knight and [[spoiler: Sir Lancelot]]. He rose to become Court Physician (and occasional Court Bard) under [[spoiler: King Arthur]] and thrived in [[spoiler: Camelot's Golden Age]], directly opposing his EvilCounterpart, [[spoiler: Mordred]]. When he was in his thirties, he had trained up successors, and decided to go travelling to learn more and bring back knowledge and glory to make [[spoiler: Camelot]] even greater. When he returned some years later, however, he found [[YouAreTooLate he was too late.]] His King had been killed at [[spoiler: Camlann]] by [[spoiler: Mordred]], who Strange/Taliesin considered to be ''his'' responsibility, along with the best of his knights, Strange's [[spoiler: (Taliesin's)]] friends, [[spoiler: Merlin]] had vanished in despair, and despite his Queen's best efforts, all that they had built was crumbling around them. He had a RageAgainstTheHeavens moment, at which point the Time Stone responded, altering him: a gift as a {{Seer}} became nigh-omniscience, a talent for time magic was made into fully fledged TimeMaster level abilities, and he became TheAgeless. Oh, and he's about [[spoiler: 500,000]] years old. He stopped counting after he hit [[spoiler: 100,000.]] No wonder he's [[BrokenAce so broken.]]
** Chapter 34 reveals that [[spoiler: Gambit is a clone of Scott Summers]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After being freed of the Red Room, [[spoiler: Harry goes Dark Phoenix]] on them.
** And during the cleanup from the above, Loki starts [[spoiler: hunting down every single Red Room member, from top to bottom.]] He is assisted in this by Natasha, Bucky, Clint, Skye, and her mysterious protégée [[TheGhost "Oracle."]]
** Meanwhile, Odin notes that Strange is hunting down the many clones of [[spoiler: Sinister]].
* RogueProtagonist: [[spoiler: Harry as the Red Son]], though not by choice.
* RunningGag: Several, as one might expect.
** Jack O'Neill, FourStarBadass and DeadpanSnarker supreme, keeps trying to be tough and go-getting... and keeps getting upstaged [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents by his mother.]]
** Speaking of Alison, ex-spy mistress extraordinaire, her explanation for every bit of meddling/keeping her ear to the ground? "Retirement is boring."
** Continuing on from ''Child of the Storm,'' everyone's automatic response to the younger generation (especially Harry) being corrupted is to blame Tony. It gets to the point where Bucky offers a theory that the Starks are less a family, more an infectious disease.
** Subverted and then played straight: At first, there's a MassOhCrap when it turns out that Strange is NotSoOmniscientAfterAll. But after the HesBack moment in chapter 20, Strange is once more on the ball, to the extent that the first book on Harry's reading list (which he gets to right after doing something rather stupidly) is ''Blood Magic For Morons.'' Which Strange himself wrote. Oh, and the book is also [[spoiler: a Portkey, which transports Harry and Bucky to Carol when she gets kidnapped by the Grey Court]].
** Harry and Carol, if asked, will insist that they are ''not'' boyfriend and girlfriend, JustFriends. Literally EveryoneCanSeeIt. [[UpToEleven Even the]] ''[[UpToEleven villains]]'' [[UpToEleven are commenting on it.]] [[spoiler: Ends in chapter 46 when they get a RelationshipUpgrade.]]
*** Harry, being [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Wiser Than His Years]], eventually admits that there is something more than platonic friendship between them (see CourtlyLove), as does Carol. While it takes them a while to realise their feelings for each other, though they agree to stay JustFriends for now. But there's still the SheIsNotMyGirlfriend thing. [[spoiler: They eventually get together in chapter 46.]]
** Frequently, someone will note that Harry has a plan, and then someone who knows him better (e.g. Carol or Diana) will say something like, [[CrazyEnoughToWork "If you'd ever heard one of his plans, you'd know how not reassuring that is."]]
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: [[spoiler: Maddie]] and the Red Son, for similar, yet different reasons. Both are incredibly powerful, and incredibly skilled at using their power effectively, but they're also not especially skilled at thinking outside the box, [[spoiler: Maddie]] being chronically LiteralMinded and the Red Son being nigh-robotic - which trips them up against those who can fight on their level and think on their feet - nor are they even remotely skilled at interacting with other people on a normal level.
** Strange cites the flaws of this approach, when Harry asks him why he didn't just arrange for him [Harry] to be trained into a LivingWeapon pointed at Thanos' throat. Essentially, it's hard to be a champion for life if you don't even know to value life in the first place.
* SanitySlippage: Both Lukin and Strange throughout the ''Forever Red'' arc, albeit for different reasons - Lukin's MaskOfSanity is collapsing under the strain of his egomania, while Strange is flying blind thanks to [[spoiler: Essex]] being immune to his Sight and thus a SpannerInTheWorks, and manically obsessed with 'making it right', undoing his [[MyGreatestFailure greatest failure]] - not arriving in time to [[spoiler: prevent Essex stealing the newborn Rachel Grey from her crib.]] The results are, respectively, a frothing maniac who thinks he can take on the universe and a mood-swinging AmbiguouslyHuman WellIntentionedExtremist fixated on killing [[spoiler: Essex.]]
** Harry has also arguably been undergoing a slow, steady example, one which culminates in the TraumaCongaLine of the ''Forever Red'' arc and, in chapter 14, snapping and [[spoiler: becoming the Dark Phoenix.]] He gets better... eventually. And the mental scars are very apparent.
* TheScourgeOfGod: After Harry [[spoiler: is taken by the Red Room and brainwashed,]] Asgard retaliates by causing all fuel, mineral deposits, and crops in all [[spoiler: Russian (and Russian-aligned)]] territories to degrade and wither, with any imported suffering the same fate. [[MamaBear Frigga]] indicates that they're just getting warmed up.
* SealedEvilInACan: Yggdrasil was created as the Can to end all Cans, serving simultaneously as [[spoiler: a power-source to allow someone to fight Surtur on something approximating the same level (enough to stall him, at least), as a cosmic scale prison to keep Muspelheim locked away, and a complex locking mechanism to keep Surtur trapped in Musphelheim once he's lured there and siphon off his power.]] The Alliance of Realms were ''very'' thorough when they put it together.
* SealedInAPersonShapedCan: Harry's got a fragment of the Phoenix inside him, which is the source of his protection from Voldemort (which Lily bargained for with the Phoenix. Normally, it doesn't do anything except make him untouchable to the likes of Voldemort and burn/terrify evil things. That said, if he's critically wounded or killed, it can and does resurrect him and serve as a conduit for Lily to go full cosmic MamaBear. In ''Ghosts'', however, it stops being passive when it's revealed that [[spoiler: Harry can tap into it, leading to him going full Dark Phoenix at the end of ''Forever Red''.]]
* SecretKeeper:
** Alison has known she's Steve and Peggy's daughter since she was eight years old.
** It's implied that Lex will become this for Clark, because unlike in canon, Lex won't try to exploit him.
* SecretSecretKeeper: Alison has been one for Clark Kent, since before he even landed on Earth, having been asked by Jor-El, when he was scouting Earth to pick foster parents for his son, to help out if needed. Out of the other four people who knew about Clark, the two most heavily involved in the matter (Fury and Coulson) were unaware that she knew, let alone that she'd manipulated them into Clark's path on the grounds that they'd react positively and protectively towards a small child in need, until she told Coulson.
** [[spoiler: Marie has known about Carol's powers since they came in, since her mother Alison raised her on stories of their family's true heritage, so she knew what to look for.]]
* SecretTestOfCharacter: [[spoiler: When Carol's muggle friends give Harry a IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer speech, he tests their resolve to that by conjuring a psychic vision of him in full inhumanly-powerful form to give them a taste of what they'd be dealing with. He's impressed when they're scared but stayed committed.]]
* SecurityCling: Stevie to his big sister, Carol, during ''Bloody Hell'' after they're kidnapped by [[spoiler: Grey Court vampires]].
* SenseiForScoundrels: Bucky seems set to become a benevolent version of this for Harry as of chapter 3, on the specific grounds that he's pretty much ''the'' master spy and Harry needs to learn that he can't simply brute force everything and, since he's a GlassCannon, how to watch his back.
** [[spoiler: Doctor Strange]] is set to become one for Harry too, as of chapter 20. How benevolent he is could be up for debate.
* SensorCharacter: [[spoiler: Maddie's]] chief function as [[spoiler: Sinister's Hound.]]
** Harry later learns to do some of this from her and from Magneto and Strange, who remark that the most important element of mastering one's powers is being able to understand what is being affected.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: This happens [[RunningGag several times]] with Harry (who's spent most of his life in Britain) and Carol (an American). In chapter 27, he bets Carol five quid that Strange gave him ''Blood Magic for Morons'' as a deliberate remark on the way that he'd [[spoiler: told Ron and Hermione about his being the Red Son and Dark Phoenix]], which she doesn't take up partially because she isn't sure and partially because she isn't sure what a quid (slang for "pound") is.
** The second time, in chapter 36, has Carol lampshade this when she borrows Harry's boxers, which he refers to as his "pants." Of course, what the British call pants, Americans call underwear, and what Americans call pants, the British call trousers. This happens again in chapter 47, [[spoiler: at the Yule Ball]], when Carol comments that if this relatively innocuous formal occasion descends into chaos, she's going to wish she was wearing pants rather than trying KickingAssInAllHerFinery. Harry's mind briefly, and predictably, goes somewhere dirty.
* SeparateSceneStoryTelling: The second half of ''Forever Red'' takes place like this, with the FramingDevice of various characters being interviewed by Agent Coulson after the fact to piece together exactly what happened, and multiple {{Flashback}}s.
** The penultimate chapter of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc also works this way, with Harry explaining the circumstances leading up to his being found by the NYPD to Captain Stacy.
* ShipperOnDeck: Thor continues to quietly (and sometimes, not-so-quietly) ship Harry/Carol.
** Bruce is sort of this, in regards to the same couple.
--->'''Bruce Banner''': They're not romantic but I figured that they'd gone through too much to be friends.
** Alison also [[BlatantLies insists that of course she doesn't think Carol and Harry are any more than friends. Calling Harry "Carol's young man" was just a turn of phrase, nothing more.]]
** Harry becomes one for [[spoiler: Ginny and Diana]].
* ShipTease: Harry and Carol, pretty much every single time they're both on-screen and a few times when they aren't.
** Diana is implied to have developed a crush on Ginny after they first meet.
** Ron and Hermione, as per canon, have BelligerentSexualTension up the wazoo.
* ShirtlessScene: Harry and Uhtred strip to the waist for their sparring match. Carol and Jean-Paul [[EatingTheEyeCandy really don't mind. At all.]]
* ShockAndAwe: Thor, obviously.
** Magneto is also more than a dab hand at this, being able to brew up a geomagnetic supercell thunderstorm for purposes of generating a ''colossal'' EMP.
** Noriko and Lorna are also capable of this, and help Carol briefly stun [[spoiler: Dudley]] by supercharging her energy-absorbent shield.
** Harry's developing a certain talent at it, which is hardly surprising - though he still prefers fire.
** [[spoiler: Maddie]] favouring a psychic variant of this (among other things, infusing lightning in the Nevernever, where reality is... suggestible), and her strait-laced personality is foreshadowing for a couple of things. First, fitting into the more traditionally heroic side of electrical PersonalityPowers (rather than being a PsychoElectro) hints at her HeelFaceTurn. Second, it foreshadows her [[spoiler: proving Worthy and wielding Mjolnir.]]
** Dracula, as King of the Grey Court, is strong enough to challenge Thor in this regard - and [[spoiler: combine it with PsychicPowers to help drive New York mad with fear once a black-out is set in motion and shut out the Bifrost.]] He also later uses it on [[spoiler: Bucky]] and then [[spoiler: Harry.]] The latter retaliates in kind.
** Several [[spoiler: senior Grey Court vampires]] have a certain grasp of this as well.
* ShooOutTheClowns: The ''Forever Red'' arc is notable for not including the Warriors Three, Huginn and Muninn (until the very end), Darcy, or Sirius Black, all of whom are usually prime sources of comic relief. It is also, not coincidentally, by far the darkest arc in the story yet.
* ShortRangeGuyLongRangeGuy: Carol's short range, Harry's long range, though they have been known to mix it up.
* ShoutOut: Has [[ShoutOut/ChildOfTheStorm its own page]].
* ShowerOfLove: One of the alternate universes Harry glimpses in Chapter 41 shows versions of him and Carol about to engage in this. He immediately switches to another universe, utterly mortified. Nathan, [[spoiler: an alternate counterpart of his]], finds it hilarious.
* ShownTheirWork: The author is a qualified Historian to Masters level with a very broad general knowledge base (though he admits that the sciences are a bit of a blind spot), a British private school education, an excellent memory and [[InsufferableGenius a compulsive need to show off.]] This was inevitable.
* ShutUpHannibal: [[spoiler: Maddie]] breaks off Lukin's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech by simply telling him that perhaps everything he says is true, but "I am Worthy. And you are not."
** When Snape tries to taunt Harry about [[spoiler: his name being in the Goblet]] with his 'crossing lines' jibe, Harry snipes back at him ("Says the former Death Eater"), remarking that if anything, Snape's ahead on the 'crossed lines' thing. Snape, nerve touched, growls how Harry is just like his father, Harry tells him that yes, in some ways he is his father's son - but more and more, people are telling him that he resembles his mother. When Snape snarls that they must be wrong, Harry goes in for the kill with a PsychoticSmirk, suggesting that Snape didn't know her as well as he thought he did.
---> '''Harry:''' In fact... I think that I'm living proof that you ''didn't.''
** When Syrus starts ranting about how all mortals belong to someone, Carol complains, "would you shut up with your evil hipster riff? It's not cool, it's not edgy, and it's not original." And when Syrus points out that the range of Harry's abilities is severely limited due to his presences as a long-distance AstralProjection, which also leaves him vulnerable to being effectively lobotomised, Harry agrees - but points out that first, Carol is worth every risk, and secondly, yes, his abilities are limited... [[TooDumbToLive and Syrus just walked right into his physical reach.]] Cue MindRape.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: It's all but stated that a large part of why Carol is attracted to Harry is because he's a genuine NiceGuy (rather than a [[EntitledToHaveYou 'nice guy']]) who completely respects her and her boundaries, determinedly putting their friendship first, something all but confirmed by her mother - [[HiddenDepths who happens to be a very sharp observer of people.]] It's also hinted that Harry is attracted to Carol because she's one of the few people his age who's treated him like a person without the preconceptions connected to his being the Boy-Who-Lived or the son of Thor in years.
* SkunkStripe: Harry's kept his. It serves both as a marker of how much he's changed, and a distinguishing feature when it's covering his scar. This becomes important in chapter 39 when Viktor Krum identifies him from [[spoiler: memories of the Red Son's attack on the Bulgarian Ministry of Magic]], despite a mask and goggles covering other distinguishing features.
* SleepCute: After Harry gives Carol some late night psychic therapy, they fall asleep in her bed, where Natasha finds them the next morning.
** After the terrifying events of Chapter 2, Harry, Carol, Diana and Uhtred all curl up together in the same bed for comfort.
** Chapter 4 opens with Harry cuddled up with Wanda, still emotionally recovering from what happened at the World Cup.
** In chapter 16, another incident is mentioned between Harry and Carol, both fully clothed, Carol playing 'the protective big spoon' and giving freaking ''Frigga'' a major league DeathGlare when she thinks that she might disturb Harry. [[NeverMessWithGranny Frigga]] [[LadyOfWar being]] [[BenevolentMageRuler Frigga]], she is entirely unfazed by this and [[ShipperOnDeck simply adds it to the mental file 'Reasons My Grandson Is Probably Going To Marry A Midgardian.]]
** Chapter 36 ends with the same couple curling up, in an inversion of Chapter 1's SleepCute. The next day, Strange arranges for Ron and Hermione to walk in on them. HilarityEnsues.
* TheSocialDarwinist: Dracula takes this view with his minions, having a very low tolerance for incompetence.
* SociopathicSoldier: Yelena Belova a.k.a. Black Widow II, and Arkady Rossovich, a.k.a. Omega Red. The former disturbs even her teammates [[spoiler: and molests Harry]], and [[EvenEvilHasStandards the latter is so vile that all the other Red Room soldiers find him revolting,]] Natasha mentioning him as someone who actually got off on killing children.
* SophisticatedAsHell: The narration, which varies from verbose enough to give Creator/ChrisClaremont a run for his money, to curt profanity.
** Alison Carter, who was raised by Peggy Carter, and therefore has a StiffUpperLip, NervesOfSteel, and the general manner suited to a member of the English upper class - she's a classic LadyOfWar. She also peppers her speech with the occasional PrecisionFStrike and according to [[SirSwearsALot Carol]], taught her most of her extensive vocabulary of foul language.
* SpannerInTheWorks: Harry has a track record of serving as this to the bad guys, but this book explores how the same tendency [[PoorCommunicationKills can screw up the good guys' plans,]] and even his own. For instance, in ''Forever Red'', the Avengers, Wanda, and Bucky crush the Red Room and rescue Harry... who promptly dives off again in order to save [[spoiler: Maddie]].
** [[spoiler: When Sinister uses his TriggerPhrase to crush Maddie's independent streak and wipe her memories of what caused it, he clearly didn't count on her touching Mjolnir, which restores those memories, and thus her desire to help Harry.]]
** [[spoiler: In turn, Maddie's plan to try and free Harry is temporarily derailed when Sinister reassigns her off base and pinches Laevateinn, which is currently holding Harry's mind.]]
** Harry, as per usual, serves as one to [[spoiler: Dracula's strike team]] by rescuing Carol and Stevie.
* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Happy at one point reflects on Obadiah Stane as a "traitorous bastard" who wasn't worth the dirt piled on top of his grave.
* SpearCounterpart: When trying to sum up Jean-Paul to Ron and Hermione - specifically, to try and get Ron to realise why, though he's closer to Ron, he'd turn to Jean-Paul for back-up in a fight - he explains that Jean-Paul is essentially a male version of Natasha with superpowers. Considering that he's a PrettyBoy who thrives on being underestimated via ObfuscatingStupidity, who always stands at a bit of a remove, always holding his cards close to his chest, and who happens to be coldly and frighteningly ruthless when required to be, it's admitted InUniverse and in Real Life by reviewers to be a pretty apt comparison.
* StandardFiftiesFather: Joe Danvers Senior, father of Carol, Stevie, and Joe Junior, is a [[AbusiveParents darker variant]] on the trope - while he never raises a hand to his children and earnestly believes that he's doing what's right and best for them, he psychologically abuses and subtly browbeats them, trying to force them to be things that they aren't: in Carol's case, a traditionally feminine, more submissive girl, and in Stevie's, a rougher, tougher, jock type boy. In both cases, it leaves them with serious issues - Carol's got serious self-esteem issues, latches onto [[ParentalSubstitute alternate father figures]] like her uncle Jack and her great-grandfather Steve, and has an outwardly spiky demeanour to begin with. Stevie, meanwhile, just retreated into himself. After his wife and mother-in-law find out that [[spoiler: he tried to get Harry to alter Carol's mind]], he is swiftly dealt with.
* TheStationsOfTheCanon: Still follows these, broadly, with the Quidditch World Cup being attended, the Dark Mark being sent up into the sky... except that it's hijacked by [[spoiler: a now telepathic Voldemort.]] The Triwizard Tournament is also occurring as well, though as WordOfGod indicated, ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' demonstrates that it will be ''very'' different from the canon version.
** Meanwhile, ''Literature/DeadBeat'' is also occurring more or less as per canon, though the situation becomes even ''[[GambitPileUp more]]'' complicated with the additions of Wanda, [[spoiler: Voldemort, Selene, and Magneto]].
** Averts this on the relatively minor incident in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', wherein Harry and Draco have a brief duel and Hermione is hit by the deflected curse, causing her front teeth to grow rapidly. WordOfGod discusses this at the end of the chapter, explaining that it doesn't take place because a) Draco isn't the same as in canon, b) no one else is stupid enough to try and fight Harry (who would laminate them to a wall in short order), c) this version of Harry's reaction to Snape's petty, nasty canon response of "I see no difference" when he saw Hermione's teeth would be... terminal.
* StealthHiBye: Harry's learned how to do this from Natasha and Clint, to the point where Carol complains that someone needs to put a bell on him.
** Dumbledore also pulls one off on Harry's group of friends, which, considering that two of them have excellent psi-senses, is rather an accomplishment.
* StealthPun: Tony and Pepper's daughter is named Ada Maria Potts-Stark. In other words, 'AMPS', as in the measurement of electrical current.
** On a darker note, [[spoiler: Maddie's]] real name is [[spoiler: Rachel Anne Grey]], or 'RAG', which fits her background, her mind and any potential independence having been torn to rags by [[spoiler: Sinister's]] control.
** In chapter 5, Harry and his friends view a museum exhibition including statues of villains the Avengers have faced--a ''literal'' RoguesGallery.
* StiffUpperLip: Alison "Ali" Carter, even in the middle of a epic battle in a WorldGoneMad, never loses her stoic cool.
* StormingTheCastle: In Chapter 10, the Avengers and a few associated allies assault the Red Room base in the Nevernever in order to [[spoiler: rescue Harry and Carol]].
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Harry when he returns to Hogwarts, after about six months away. The scale of the time gap is because he left somewhat early thanks to HYDRA's attack on Hogwarts and the deaths of [[spoiler: Luna Lovegood and himself - his was temporary, hers led to her becoming the new Delirium of the Endless]], and returned late because of a ''brutal'' TraumaCongaLine wherein [[spoiler: he was kidnapped by the Red Room who tried to brainwash him into their new Winter Soldier, the Red Son (his attempt to fake them out just left them with his empty body and him as a SealedGoodInACan), then regained his body to find out just what had been done with his reprogrammed body and that he'd lost an arm and an eye which were both replaced with techno-organic versions, then promptly snapped and briefly became the Dark Phoenix as a result]]. These events and others mean that even after he recovers from [[ShellShockedVeteran a spectacular case of PTSD]], his mentality has entirely shifted, and he's impatient with both the (comparatively normal) childishness of his peers and the comparatively backwards and insular nature of the Wizarding World.
** It also has the canonical example of Steve Rogers, though rather downplayed since he's had a couple of years to adjust.
* StressVomit: Harry, as part of his HeroicBSOD[=/=]MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment in chapter 2, dry heaving even after there's nothing left.
* StupidSexyFriend: Harry and Carol, towards each other, much their mutual dismay and everyone else's amusement. Eventually, [[spoiler: they get together in chapter 46.]]
* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: The basis of Asgardian civilisation, and, it is hinted, Atlantis too.
** Mister Ollivander complains that Howard Stark was apparently prone to taking apart captured wands, searching for 'batteries' and 'circuits', things which made them work.
** Chapter 20 confirms that not only is Asgard this, but so were the other members of the Alliance of Realms. As was Muspelheim, with Surtur mastering it to such an extent that [[spoiler: he successfully separated a fragment of the Phoenix from the entity in question, becoming the first Dark Phoenix and destroying a galaxy.]]
* SuperBreedingProgram: The Askani are indicated to run a fairly harmless variant in maintaining their bloodlines. They're suggested to have tried to get Charles Xavier, who learned from them, to take part. He firmly disagreed, and states coldly in chapter 38 that their devotion to it was a key reason why he repudiated them.
* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: Averted; Strange noted in chapter 80 of the first book that one of his aims in manipulating everyone was to build stronger ties amongst the superhuman community. Examples include Xavier coming to Harry's aid against [[spoiler: Dracula]], the Avengers and Strange helping the White Council against the Red Court, and the Council returning the favour by sending Ebenezar [=McCoy=] to help stabilize the damage caused by the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] in chapter 44.
* SuperPoweredEvilSide: The Winter Soldier persona functions as this to Bucky - it doesn't strictly make him more powerful, but it does make him ruthlessly focused.
** [[spoiler: The Dark Phoenix, and later the Red Son, to Harry.]]
* SupportingLeader: Steve, serving as the ''de facto'' leader of the forces of good - certainly, the one they all tend to turn to - while not being the main protagonist.
* SympatheticMagic: This is the speciality of both Harry Dresden and John Constantine. In the latter case, it's unexpected, as Constantine is a Wanded Wizard (a fairly average one), and thaumaturgy is Wandless magic, and few Wanded Wizards have any kind of talent for wandless magic. It's also [[NotSoDifferent one of a number of similarities between the two]] that make Dresden very uneasy.
** The Grey Court of Vampires are big on this, via drinking blood - if they drink the blood of a superhuman, it gives them a temporary boost. If they conduct a certain ritual, they can gain the additional abilities permanently, which forms the basis of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc when [[spoiler: Dracula tries to use the ritual to make him, and all other vampires he's sired, immune to daylight]].
** Thor tries to use this by hurling Mjolnir into the Red Room base as it teleports away. While it ends up in a region of the Nevernever that's too unstable to get a clear fix, it does eventually come in handy when the hammer, in [[spoiler: Maddie's]] hands, ends up opening a portal back to Thor.
* TakeAThirdOption: In chapter 16, instead of simply hiding Harry away or preparing [[spoiler: for the attack of the Council Elite]], Thor's plan is... to grab Strange by the ankles and shake him until all the answers come out, because he'll have a plan, because he's had centuries to prepare and having plans is what Strange does. Hilariously enough, it actually works.
** This was the Alliance's way of defeating [[spoiler: Surtur]]. They couldn't run away, and couldn't defeat him directly, so they had to trap him. It worked pretty well, all things considered.
** To grab [[spoiler: Carol]] from inside Avengers Mansion, Dracula notes that he would have to either find a clever way past the threshold, or destroy the building altogether, both of which would be very difficult and time-consuming. Instead, [[CuttingTheKnot he removes the problem of the threshold by lifting up and moving the entire house with telekinesis]].
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: How the ''Forever Red'' arc ends, with [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix!Harry]] being talked down cumulatively by [[spoiler: Thor, Loki, Wanda, Jean, Maddie, and Carol]], mainly because he's a TragicVillain at worst who's mostly just in a spectacular amount of pain and lashing out - as a result, violence isn't going to faze him and, if anything, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam will just drive him further into darkness.]] It works.
* TangledFamilyTree:
** Adding onto the huge one already established in ''Child of the Storm'', [[spoiler: Maddie is revealed to be Jean's long-lost twin sister, rather than her clone, and Lorna is Wanda's half-sister]]. Oh, and Emma Frost is distantly related to the Malfoy line.
** In Chapter 50, Harry (who lampshades how complicated his family tree already is) finds out that he's distantly related to the Hindu pantheon (his distant Asgardian ancestor Sunniva being the mother of the Hindu Trimurti), that he has a half-uncle named Vidar (who also happens to be ''Santa Claus'') from a relationship Odin had prior to marrying Frigga, and that he also has a half-sister named Torunn (now long dead and serving as a Valkyrie) from a relationship Thor had with a mortal worshipper centuries ago.
* TeleFrag:
** Wanda pulls this on Selene during ''Bloody Hell''. It doesn't do more than slow her down, though it does give the cast a necessary breather.
** This is how Nexus bombs, mentioned by Alison Carter during ''Bloody Night'', and used by the dozen in chapter 44 by [=MI13=] against [[spoiler: the Elder Wyrm]], work. Based on Bifrost tech, they essentially function as teleporters without a fixed destination, reducing everything around them to atoms and spreading them across several thousand miles and multiple dimensions, and while [[spoiler: the Elder Wyrm]] is too large and powerful for them to cripple it, they ''are'' one of the few things that genuinely hurt it.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: All adult wanded practitioners, Loki, Wanda, Doctor Strange, and Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightcrawler.
** Strange dials it UpToEleven when he [[spoiler: swipes the Tesseract.]] He can also apparently Apparate around Hogwarts, which Hermione finds bamboozling and everyone else just accepts as 'Strange being Strange in every possible sense of the phrase.'
* TemptingFate: Harry, at the end of the first chapter, which gets lampshaded by the LemonyNarrator.
* TerritorialSmurfette: Subverted. A rocky moment or two aside, Carol and Hermione get on like a house on fire, bonding over their amusement at Harry's foibles.
* TerrorHero: Doctor Strange tends to lean quite heavily on his reputation as TheDreaded, one that he can back up at the drop of a hat, terrorising everyone from [[spoiler: Sinister]] to the Council Elite of Skyfathers and Earthmothers.
** Harry occasionally uses similar tactics, if he feels that other more conventional ones won't work, including against the Council Elite, many of whom hate and fear him because of [[spoiler: his potential to become the Dark Phoenix]], when he states that if necessary, he would {{blackmail}} them into saving [[spoiler: Carol]] with the threat of doing it himself by unleashing [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]].
--->"So to my way of thinking, if fear is all that they understand, I might as well use it. It seems to get results.
** Unusually, related to Harry's example, the downsides of using this approach - especially if it's probably a bluff - on such powerful entities (many of whom are known for their longevity and capacity for holding grudges) are pointed out by Thor and [[spoiler: Jesus]].
* TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: Like ''Child of the Storm'', the story has its share of genuinely good characters, as well as characters who fight on the side of the heroes but will not hesitate in doing whatever is necessary to make sure that the world is safe from much worse individuals. Peter Wisdom is a particular example of this.
* TheThreeFacesOfAdam:
** Harry is '''The Hunter''' - while his KnightInShiningArmour attitudes have developed into something more like those of a KnightInSourArmour, he's usually the first to strike out on a quest.
** Thor is '''The Lord''' - originally The Hunter himself, fatherhood and the stress of a son with many, many enemies and little or no sense of self-preservation have turned him into this.
** Odin and Doctor Strange vie for the position of '''The Prophet''' - both seek to guide the other two, and everyone else, and protect the world they will leave behind.
* ThinkingUpPortals: Harry learns how to use a [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Sling Ring]] to do this by chapter 22.
** Previously, and on a rather more dramatic scale, Jean ripped one through to the Nevernever - specifically, exactly where Harry was in the Nevernever - a feat explicitly described by Fix, the Summer Knight, as something he would expect from Mab or Titania. This is one of a number of demonstrations of how frighteningly powerful she is.
** [[spoiler: Maddie]] also creates one, also point to point, via Mjolnir - though this is suggested to have more to do with Mjolnir itself than her.
** And [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] casually rips one the size of a small mountain - again, exactly where the Red Room base is, this time deep into the Nevernever - open with a mere effort of will.
** Wanda demonstrates her ability to do this in chapter 44 a couple of times. One example involves teleporting Hermione, Ron, and the Twins from Hogsmeade to right in front of a displeased Professor [=McGonagall=].
* ThisCannotBe: [[spoiler: Sinister, when Maddie reveals he doesn't control her anymore.]]
** Dracula gets one, combined with an ''epic'' OhCrap, when he smells [[ImminentDangerClue wood-smoke where there shouldn't be smoke of any kind]] (the calling card of [[spoiler: the Phoenix]]) just as he's preparing to [[spoiler: drain Carol]].
* ThreePointLanding: Thor's habit of doing this - often at extraordinary speed, resulting in large craters - continues from ''Child of the Storm''.
** Wanda lampshades that these are terrible on the knees in chapter 44 after watching Harry pull one off, though she shortly after does one herself to protect Hermione and the three youngest Weasley boys from the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm's]] lava and rock creatures.
* TongueTrauma: A variation. A pissed off Harry shuts up [[spoiler: vampire!Dudley]] by telekinetically ripping out his voicebox.
* TooMuchForManToHandle: When a group of seven Askani tried to investigate something that turned out to be [[spoiler: Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix,]] they found this - six of them got near instantly incinerated, and the last of them survived barely long enough to relay a warning before going the same way.
* TooDumbToLive: Volodya calls Lukin on this, stating that [[spoiler: kidnapping and brainwashing the guy who's both Crown Prince of Asgard and protégé of the Avengers]] is probably not the best idea. As it turns out, he's entirely right about this.
* TookALevelInCynic: Thor, especially when [[ManipulativeBastard Strange]] is around. The latter dryly congratulates him.
** Though this was implied about Ron in the last book after his father died, it's much more obvious here.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Harry, somewhat, after the ''Forever Red'' arc. This, of course, is due to a fairly severe case of PTSD, but even considering that, he's considerably tetchier than before. It also doesn't help that he's not especially inclined to explain ''why'' he's in his current state, or what new things bother him, which means that a considerable portion of the Hogwarts student body lives in mortal fear of pressing his BerserkButton by accident - and even after he calms down somewhat, they're still justifiably wary, while Hermione somewhat bluntly points out that while he's generally considered to be decent, 'nice' went out the window a long time ago.
* TookALevelInKindness: Steve takes one after the events of the World Cup, where he nearly lost Carol, and came to his senses somewhat about how she was family.
** Harry takes one - having taken [[TookALevelInJerkass several of the reverse]] following ''Forever Red'' - after Cedric gives him a gentle WhatTheHellHero speech, and another when he decides to help Ruth.
* TortureCellar: The Red Room have at least one, of the coldly scientific variety, in which they and [[spoiler: Sinister]] torture [[spoiler: Harry]]. MindRape is the option of choice, but not the only one, and it's described as bad enough that it makes [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]], someone with a conscience that could best be described as 'in development' at that point, instinctively want to tear it apart.
** Loki is implied to have several. No one but him knows where they are, and no one but him really wants to, either.
* ToThePain: When interrogating Sabertooth, Loki threatens to rip out his entire nervous system (except what's necessary to keep him alive) and play it like a harp to the accompaniment of Creed's agonised screams. And when even that isn't enough to get anything from him, Loki whispers something in his ear; whatever he says, it's enough to get Sabertooth singing like a canary.
** Carol also gives [[spoiler: a Grey Court vampire]] one of these, displaying her BigSisterInstinct. Specifically, she promises Chinese Water Torture - with holy water. ''For a start.''
* {{Transflormation}}: Ollivander notes that this is often the fate of incautious young wand-makers who try to bargain with TheFairFolk for access to the finest trees or to arcane woods.
** Wanda does this to Selene, though unfortunately, it doesn't [[IncrediblyLamePun stick.]]
* TriggerPhrase: [[spoiler: Sinister]] uses one, a quote from T.S. Eliot, in order to enforce his control of [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] when she's slipping free.
-->"'Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act... lies the Shadow.'"
** His second one is a quote from ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
* TrueCompanions: The core group of Harry, Carol, Diana, Uhtred, and Jean-Paul developed into this as result of their previous experiences together in ''Child of the Storm''.
** The difference in experiences between this group and Harry's Hogwarts friends, specifically Carol and Hermione, is a brief cause of friction as Carol explains fairly gently but quite pointedly that there's a darker side of Harry that Hermione doesn't know about, no matter how well she thinks she knows him. This gets Hermione's hackles up, but when Carol makes it clear that she's not trying to push Hermione away but make her aware of the matter and enlist her help in acting as Harry's occasionally needed MoralityChain[=/=]be ready to offer a WhatTheHellHero speech or emotional support as and when it is required, then gives supporting evidence for what Harry's scarier side is capable of, they understand each other just fine. Draco later expounds on this difference as well to Ron and Hermione.
* UhOhEyes: Harry's eyes tend to have four rough settings. The basic one is his natural emerald green. Then there's gold and golden-white, which usually means he's doing something big, or winding up to do so. Then there's red-gold or red, which either means that he's possessed by Chthon or that [[spoiler: he's the Red Son]] - both are very, very bad. Then there's incandescent white, generally associated with the smell of wood smoke, which means that [[spoiler: his Phoenix fragment is about to emerge and that]] you should probably run - preferably to another galaxy.
* UltimateJobSecurity: Of a sort. According to Loki, the only reason Fudge is still Minister after everything that happened on his watch is because no one else wants to have to deal with cleaning up his mess or the encroaching power of [=MI13=] - specifically, with [[TheDreaded Wisdom]], who considers watching Fudge squirm to be one of his few pleasures in life and terrifies more or less the entire Wizarding establishment (which, considering [[TheUnfettered what the man is capable of]] is a pretty rational reaction). While the Avengers note that Crouch Sr might be willing to do so, they also note that Thor's grudge against him is well-known (what with Thor pulling a NeckLift on him back in Book 1 for throwing Sirius in Azkaban without a trial), and the Ministry doesn't need more enemies.
* UnexplainedRecovery: [[spoiler: Sinister]], after Wanda melted him. Cloning is revealed to be involved.
* TheUnfettered: Peter Wisdom, who is pretty much Fury dialled UpToEleven, and infinitely more ruthless. His sole drive is to protect his country, by any means possible and necessary. Morality comes a very, very distant second.
** This is what scares the White Council about Doctor Strange: The Laws of Magic exist to limit power, to ensure that no wizard goes too far in accumulating personal power and becoming evil. Strange, however, absolutely smashes the Sixth Law (no time travel) to pieces, isn't too concerned about any of the others, and in general operates alone, gathering every possible advantage to himself while making all the other characters dance on his strings. While it's somewhat justified given his mission and backstory, they do have something of a point.
* UnreliableNarrator: Gambit's tendencies towards this make it hard, at first, to figure out what he's actually up to.
** For once, averted with Strange (who never lies, but has a talent with ExactWords that the Fae would envy) in chapter 20. Probably.
* UnwillingRoboticization: [[spoiler: Harry]] is on the receiving end, via [[spoiler:Sinister]]'s version of the Techno-Organic Transmode Virus, that turns organic material to living metal, which canonically infected Cable. Thankfully, a monstrous EMP from Magneto and Wanda nuking the remains stops it before it goes too far.[[spoiler: Harry in Dark Phoenix state regenerates himself back to human state]]
* {{UST}}: Going by the number of related entries on this page, is it really that hard to guess who? (It's Harry and Carol). [[spoiler: The {{UST}} is ''finally'' resolved in chapter 46.]]
* VampiricDraining: Voldemort seems to have learned how to do this to anyone and everyone from Selene.
** Omega Red also uses this trick, through his tentacles.
** Dracula's plan in ''Bloody Hell'' revolves around a ritualised version of this - vampires gain power (and sometimes, powers) when they drain powerful people/beings, but it always fades eventually. The ritual, more along the lines of a {{Magitek}} transfusion, makes the empowerment permanent, and is speculated to be how the Grey Court (Dracula's Court) got their more unusual powers, like weather manipulation and turning to mist. In this case, he wants [[spoiler: Carol's SuperSoldier blood, on the grounds that it will quite probably make him and his Court immune to sunlight, one of their key weaknesses.]]
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: A central theme in the story.
* VillainousBreakdown: When the Red Room is finally taken down, Lukin is noted as looking like he's ready to descend into "gibbering denial". Or at least, insofar as that is possible, since [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] [[KickTheSonOfABitch melted his mouth shut.]]
* VillainExitStageLeft:
** Voldemort flees from the World Cup as soon as he learns everything he can from his fight with Harry, Crouch too.
** When the Avengers and their allies manage to storm and easily overwhelm the Red Room base in Chapter 10, [[spoiler: Sinister]] triggers a transportation system to move most of the facility to another location. [[spoiler: Maddie]] makes sure to prevent them from pulling this again with a lightning strike.
** The Beast, [[spoiler: aka Dudley]], pulls this as soon as [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] appears, and as a result isn't killed by him...he's instead [[spoiler: captured by Voldemort, who in turn gives him to Dracula to be turned]].
** Dracula pulls a ScrewThisImOuttaHere when Thor, Loki, and the Hulk show up, itching for a fight--or, more accurately, [[PapaWolf to smash him into the bedrock]].
* VisionQuest: Harry is given one when he takes the royal family's traditional visit to the Norns (essentially designed to make sure that future potential Kings/Queens aren't crazy), where he's shown glimpses of the ancient past, things of importance happening in the present, and potential future events. Considering how many visions he's seen already, he considers it to be a waste of time, pointing out how flawed it is, since the visions take place when the royal in question is relatively young - though still usually at least a century older than Harry - and often millennia before they might take the throne, suggesting that it's merely something to reassure the Council Elite (and Frigga admits that he's right). As it is, however, the visions turn out to be much more useful than previously imagined.
* WaifProphet: Ruth, a twelve year old girl whose psychic powers manifested just as Harry got into his psychic duel with [[spoiler: Maddie]], was driven somewhat mad from the fallout (though as Strange notes, she's still unusually lucid considering the circumstances) and became this trope.
* WeCanRuleTogether: The [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]], speaking on behalf of [[spoiler: Surtur]], offers Harry a chance to join their cause. Harry responds by spelling out exactly why that's not going to happen, before killing [[spoiler: the dragon]].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Wisdom. Thor notes that while he sympathises with Wisdom's goals, the sheer scale of his ambition and his frequently vicious methods unsettle him.
** Strange during the ''Forever Red'' arc becomes this in spades. He will stop at ''nothing'' to 'make it right' and rescue [[spoiler: Maddie]].
* WhatTheHellAreYou: Dracula asks this of Harry after smelling the Phoenix in his blood.
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Harry]]''': Tell you what, I'll make you a deal: when I figure it out, I'll let you know. But only if you ask nicely.
* WhamEpisode: Has [[WhamEpisode/ChildOfTheStorm its own page]].
* WhamLine: Captain Luccio gives a numb, stunned one in chapter 29 after [[spoiler: Strange's cloak and the Eye of Agamotto appear on Wanda]].
-->'''Luccio''': [[spoiler: The Sorcerer Supreme is dead. Long live the Sorceress Supreme.]]
** The introduction of a certain BadassInANiceSuit during chapter 33:
--->"I am known as Victor von Doom. Doctor Victor von Doom."
** The very last line of Chapter 34, delivered to Gambit:
--->'''Jean''': Your brother, is [[spoiler: Scott Summers]].
* WhamShot: At the end of Chapter 29, on the stroke of midnight, Harry wakes up, eyes blazing white and the smell of woodsmoke around him, both being indicators that [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix is on the point of emerging]].
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Harry's refusal to give in to the temptation to use [[spoiler: the Phoenix fragment/become the Dark Phoenix]] to rescue [[spoiler: Carol]] during ''Bloody Hell'' is cited as this. It's considered particularly remarkable, as it came despite ''extreme'' provocation ([[spoiler: Carol's]] kidnap and intended fate, and [[spoiler: a vampiric Blob!Dudley,]] who Harry had previously spared turning up and ripping out [[spoiler: Uhtred's]] [[EyeScream eye]], almost [[VampiricDraining draining him to death]], before gloating about it to Harry's face... and that's just the start), and desperate circumstances, including being hideously out-gunned and a brutal beatdown at the hands of Dracula.
* WhoYouGonnaCall: This happens a lot, with varying groups/individuals for varying circumstances. The Avengers, for generalised superhuman disasters, [[OccultDetective Harry Dresden]] for more localised magical mayhem, Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange (who, admittedly, tends to turn up on his own schedule) for grander scale magical mayhem (especially if it involves incursions from beyond reality), and Charles Xavier for all things psychic (and, as a RunningGag, when someone needs therapy).
* WickedCultured: [[spoiler: Sinister.]] Dracula also indulges in this.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Harry and Carol. While they've settled on 'won't' for the time being, sticking with being JustFriends, it's very clear that that isn't even close to the end of it, and WordOfGod has repeatedly indicated that they'll be dancing around each other for a good long while yet.
** Chapter 35 has them admit their feelings, but also acknowledge that neither of them is ready to date yet. [[spoiler: In chapter 46, they finally get a RelationshipUpgrade, sealing it with a kiss.]]
* WithGreatPower: Harry and Jean-Paul are both proponents of this trope. Jean-Paul lists this as one of the reasons he checks in on [[spoiler: Clark]] (who also tries to live up to this), and this is part of the reason the former is hit so badly by the events of the World Cup and then the ''Forever Red'' arc.
** Peter Parker, of course, alludes to it.
** Jesus reminds Harry of this trope in chapter 35, noting that if he were to get into a fight with the Council Elite, it would be the innocents who would suffer most.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: An odd example with Phoenix fire. It doesn't strictly cause insanity in the first place, but it is insanely volatile, and is both fuelled by emotions, and fuels emotions in turn. In other words, if you're off-balance when you tap into it, it will not only ensure that you stay that way, but you swiftly spiral down into OmnicidalManiac levels of insanity, getting more and more powerful as time goes by.
* WizardsFromOuterSpace: After spending the first book and a half hinting that there's something a bit strange about Asgardians as compared to the other Earth-based pantheons, before finally revealing that they started out as this trope. About a million years ago, they were a phenomenally advanced {{Magitek}} based space-faring empire. Ditto Jotunheim, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, and Nidavaellir. They all ended up squaring off against Muspelheim, an even more absurdly advanced {{Magitek}} empire, ruled by Surtur, a WellIntentionedExtremist who wanted to destroy what he felt was an irredeemably flawed universe and replace it with a better designed one. And since he was [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix, having used dark magic to sever a fragment of Phoenix fire]], he was more than capable of it. One long and hideously violent war later, Surtur was defeated, and [[WorldTree Yggdrasil]] was created to hold him, and empower the Alliance that had fought against him. This resulted in every world involved save Earth/Midgard being transported to another dimension, as well as the Jotuns becoming Frost Giants, Dvergar becoming Dwarves, Alfar and Svartalfar becoming immortal Elves, and the Aesir and Vanir becoming Gods.
* WorfEffect: The Red Army - an army of hundreds of clones of the Winter Soldier, Natasha, Steve, [[spoiler: Harry, and Maddie]], all of whom are in SuperSoldier bodies, and have the power sets of the originals, giving the reason for Lukin's apparently baseless confidence. But they're up against [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]], and their obliteration is just an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome - though it's also hinted that, like the Red Son, their lack of actual minds of their own crippled their psychic abilities. More like a RedShirtArmy.
** Proving just how very, ''very'' powerful he is, [[spoiler: Dracula]] survives taking a shot from Bucky, and after being attacked by a Cerebro-enhanced Xavier, is able to defeat the mortal psychic in a telepathic duel, before laying down a CurbStompBattle on Harry.
* WorldGoneMad: As a side effect of the intensity of Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]]'s psychic duel, the region of the Nevernever they're in stops resembling anything remotely like reality.
* WouldHurtAChild: The Red Room in general, Omega Red in particular. According to Natasha, he got off on it, and in chapter 12 he looks like he enjoyed draining [[spoiler: Harry]]. [[EvenEvilHasStandards The rest of the Red Room despise him as a result.]]
** [[Series/Merlin2008 Uther Pendragon]] is also mentioned as having been this trope.
** Harry mentions that Syrus has done some ''very'' nasty things to children, though thankfully he doesn't elaborate.
* WreathedInFlames: Harry, when in the middle of a fight and/or in a ''really'' bad mood.
** A trademark of the Phoenix and Her hosts. [[spoiler: When Harry goes Dark Phoenix,]] even in a passive state, he's hot enough to burn Thor - who's walked on ''stars.''
* WrongGenreSavvy:
** The Avengers at first think that Strange, who's so far been TheOmniscient, allowed [[spoiler: Rachel Grey's kidnap by Sinister]], so that she could be trained by him before being redeemed by [[MagneticHero Harry]], something which is admitted to fit his [[ManipulativeBastard mode of operations]]. They realise, however, that the fact they even saw it means that the much more likely and [[OhCrap much more frightening]] prospect is that [[NotSoOmniscientAfterAll he made a mistake.]]
** Everyone is quick to assume that [[spoiler: Maddie is Jean's clone]], which is understandable, given the circumstances. However, they're all way off.
* XanatosGambit: Doctor Strange, as per usual... except for around ''Forever Red'', when circumstances force him to increasingly make things up on the fly - itself a sign that something is very, very wrong.
** Harry develops something of a knack for this - when his SpannerInTheWorks tendencies aren't holing his own plans below the waterline, that is.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Harry, in the first half of the ''Forever Red'' arc, rapidly adjusts and readjusts his plans for escape in this fashion. It works... right up until he screws it up.
** Doctor Strange is forced into this when going up against [[spoiler: Essex]], who's hidden from his Sight, and does fairly well, all things considered.
** Harry and Bucky both prove their skills at this during ''Bloody Hell'' as they face off with [[spoiler: Dracula]], with Harry pulling a finely executed KansasCityShuffle (at the second time of asking).
* YouAreTooLate: Doctor Strange, disturbingly. For a man who makes a habit of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, whose mystique is based on his arranging things down to the last second, it is ''extremely'' [[NotSoOmniscientAfterAll jarring to find out that he was this at a certain time]] in chapter 9 of ''Ghosts of the Past'', arriving too late to [[spoiler: prevent Sinister from stealing Rachel Grey/Maddie Pryor]]. The point is underlined by the fact that not only was he caught off-guard, he was seen being so. Partially ameliorated by the fact that he managed to prevent [[spoiler: Sinister from stealing Jean too]], but only partially.
** It turns out that he was too late once before, [[spoiler: to stop Mordred from killing Arthur.]] This failure has haunted him ever since.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe:
** Wanda's reaction to finding out that [[spoiler: Lorna is her half-sister]].
** Carol has this reaction when she meets [[spoiler: Jesus]].
** Harry, when he learns that Odin is the originator of the whole concept of Santa Claus.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Harry looks, and acts, closer to 18 than 14 after his experiences with the Red Room. It's one of the things that makes him rather unsettling for his peers to be around.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: I through P]]
* IAmNotMyFather: Draco is quite adamant in not being like Lucius, to the point that comparing the two is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness one of the few things that breaks his usual cool, urbane calm.]]
* IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship: Carol's main reason for her and Harry staying as JustFriends. He doesn't want to ruin their friendship either (though Diana also suggests that he doesn't want them to get together just to lean on each other, which Harry tacitly confirms), and abides by her wishes. [[spoiler: They end up mutually 'ruining' it with FirstKiss in chapter 46, as part of the long awaited RelationshipUpgrade.]]
* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: [[spoiler: After Harry and Carol start dating, her muggle friends tell him that they don't care how powerful or well-connected he is, they'll make him pay. Harry being Harry, he decides to test their resolve with his best wrath of god act - and is impressed when, despite being scared, they stand firm.]]
* IHaveNoSon: Inverted with Draco, who states that his father is dead to him.
* ImHavingSoulPains: The shockwaves from Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]]'s psychic duel spread from where they're fighting [[spoiler: in the Nevernever]], affecting everyone on Earth, whether they're psychic or not - though those who are tend to be more strongly affected. It's later revealed that this [[spoiler: either triggered or overloaded Ruth Aldine's PsychicPowers, including her skills as a {{Seer}}, driving her mad.]] Harry's horrified by that, and tries to fix it.
** The manifestation of [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] has similar effects.
* ImminentDangerClue: Draco identifies a sudden smell of wood-smoke around Harry as this, because, thanks to his passenger, he knows that it's a sign that Harry's inner Phoenix is close to the surface. The smell of wood-smoke continues to act as a motif for the Phoenix, with Harry Dresden and (unknowingly) Hermione noting it.
** In chapter 33, [[spoiler: Dracula]] smells it and, having previously narrowly escaped an enraged Phoenix, has an epic OhCrap moment. [[spoiler: Of course, the twist is that he's not dealing with the Phoenix or the Dark Phoenix this time, just Harry pretending - albeit very convincingly - to be the Phoenix.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: This book continues the trend of this happening to Harry on a distressingly regular basis: it happens courtesy of [[spoiler: Magneto when he's a BlankSlate as the Red Son]] - and blasted with a gigantic lightning bolt - and then through his shoulder by Dracula (with his own sword, no less), before, again, he gets walloped by a giant lightning bolt.
** Wanda also pulls a very effective and very nasty variant, combined with {{Transflormation}}, on Selene Gallio. It is, unfortunately, only temporary.
* ImprovisedArmour: Harry cobbles together some from broken Iron Man suits in chapter 32 when about to go after [[spoiler: Dracula]]. Sirius makes it significantly cooler and more effective by transfiguring it, making him a silvery-white KnightInShiningArmour. It's noted that it's more or less the only thing that keeps him alive in the resultant brawl.
* InconvenientAttraction: A mutual version between Harry and Carol. They're best friends, they don't object to being attracted each other on principle, as such, it's just that Carol [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship doesn't want to ruin their friendship]], since she hasn't had many genuine friendships with guys (and those she's had, aside from Harry, are with a flamingly gay and decidedly enigmatic guy with unplumbed HiddenDepths, her self-appointed KnightTemplarBigBrother, and said flamingly gay guy's BiTheWay Asgardian boyfriend - who she met through Harry) and considers her friendship with Harry to be particularly precious. Harry, while not objecting to the idea of a RelationshipUpgrade, rigorously follows her wishes and doesn't want to lose their friendship either. Now if they could only get past the whole StupidSexyFriend thing, they'd be fine... As it is, though, they don't angst too much about it, save for a few moments of awkwardness, which tend to be absolutely hilarious for everyone else.
** [[spoiler: In chapter 46, they get over it and get together.]]
* IndyPloy: This remains Harry's textbook basis for a strategy, any strategy, when he bothers with one, until the end of ''Forever Red'', following an example of this in chapter 10 going horribly wrong.
** Carol's plan with her shield in the same chapter to bring down the Beast. It stuns him.
** Defied in chapter 30, where Harry takes the time to plan out how to get around [[spoiler: Dracula's]] counter-measures, and again in ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' when Harry plans his actions carefully and stalls for time when he needs it so as to plan properly.
* InfoDump: In Chapter 7, Draco gives a ton of information about the various governments of the global magical community.
** Coulson, Ivan and Fury provide one in chapter 9 on [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel, Sinister, the Red Room, and Gambit]].
** Odin and Strange alternate between this in chapters 19 and 20 about Asgard's history, its relationship with the Phoenix, and Surtur... as well as the MysteriousPast of Strange himself, including just who he really is.
* INeverSaidItWasPoison: [[spoiler: Doctor Essex a.k.a. Sinister]] has one of these slip-ups in Chapter 7, which tips off Harry as to who (or rather, what) he really is.
* InMediasRes: Chapters 12 through 15 work this way, with Coulson interviewing [[spoiler: Maddie]], Carol, Natasha, Dresden, and Loki after the action, piecing together what happened via flashback.
** Chapter 32 does something similar, opening with a battered Harry in an NYPD interrogation room being interviewed by Captain Stacy, and flashbacks explaining how he got there.
* InMysteriousWays: Doctor Strange's usual ''modus operandi'' can be very puzzling (and extremely frustrating) to outside observers.
* InSpiteOfANail:
** The Death Eaters still run amok at the Quidditch World Cup, though [[spoiler: Voldemort]] takes advantage of the chaos for his own ends.
** [[spoiler: Harry still ends up the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament - though the tasks are very different, because of his power levels.]] In addition, [[Literature/DeadBeat the Kemmlerites]] are also looking for the ''Word of Kemmler,'' though this time, [[spoiler: Voldemort and Selene]] have joined them, and Wanda, Bruce, and Magneto are aiding Dresden.
** The events of ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' apparently happen more or less as in canon.
* IntangibleTimeTravel: While not necessary to time travel as a whole, this happens in chapter 51, which Harry quickly discovers in the past portion of his VisionQuest with the Norns. He muses on the basis for the trope (avoiding changing history) as to why, though he's not particularly pleased about it (and considering what he's witnessing, you can't blame him).
* InTheBlood: The Warrior's Madness runs through the bloodline of the House of Odin, as something of a price for their powers.
** The narration notes that there's something about the expression on the statue of the First King, Frey, that's very reminiscent of Harry, his distant descendant.
** It turns out that Clark's nature as a NiceGuy [[BewareTheNiceOnes who shouldn't be crossed]] comes right from his MartialPacifist father.
** This book shows how every one of Steve and Peggy's descendants, even Marie, who RefusedTheCall, is very clearly no slouch in the intellect, stubbornness, and (when necessary) courage departments.
** Although there were hints in the previous book, ''Ghosts'' has Hermione unknowingly becoming more and more like her mother, such as her increasing power levels and using creative threats to protect her friends. Harry at one point also notes that she demonstrates 'a tone of detached ruthlessness' that reminds him intensely of her grandfather, Magneto.
* ISurrenderSuckers: Harry tries to pull this on Dracula in chapter 32, to distract him while he [[spoiler: grabs Carol]] and makes a run for it. Dracula is not fooled, [[BerserkButton and not pleased that Harry thought he'd fall for it.]]
* ItsPersonal: Strange's grudge against Sinister is ''extremely'' personal.
** Magneto has a very personal vendetta against Voldemort - who killed his wife the night Wanda was born (or more accurately, attacked Wundagore Mountain, where a young Magneto and Wanda's mother had retreated after she went into labour, and Magneto confronted him. The resultant fight wound up killing Wanda's mother and narrowly missed killing the newborn Wanda). This is brought up in ''Bloody Hell'' when Harry Dresden and Wanda persuade Captain Luccio that calling him in is the right thing to do - even if he hadn't made a HeelFaceTurn some time before, he'd still join the fight to have a shot at Voldemort. Unfortunately, his desire for vengeance nearly severely derails matters.
* InvincibleHero: The Avengers and Asgard, as of ''Ghosts Of The Past''. Especially given the way they mowed through the Red Room with minimal effort once they pinned them down.
** Averted with Harry himself. The author himself repeatedly and emphatically stated that, despite his newfound powers, he's still struggling to figure them out, and will be on the wrong end of more than one beating, as ''Forever Red'' (largely thanks to restrictions and poor strategy) and ''Bloody Hell'' (due to him being no match for Dracula) demonstrate, forcing him to resort to his old GuileHero tactics.
* JerkassGods: Zeus and Hera - or rather, Hera's more of an active {{Jerkass}}, while Zeus is mostly indifferent to her antics, which Odin calls him on.
** A lot of the Council Elite are this, or at least, Apathetic Gods, something that Strange savagely calls ''them'' on.
* JesusTaboo: Jesus doesn't appear, [[AllMythsAreTrue despite all the other gods mentioned and the fact that the Knights of the Cross appearing confirms his existence.]] [[spoiler: Subverted hilariously in chapter 16, when a mysterious demigod called Joshua chats to Harry and gives him some wise and kindly advice, playing TheMentor, while Harry is suspicious of him... until Joshua lets him into his mind and Harry realises who he is with a PrecisionFStrike: "Jesus fucking Christ!" After that, he becomes a recurring character, appearing to dispense advice and serve as a liaison between Harry and a group of gods and goddesses that have faith in Harry's ability to control his inner Phoenix (or at least, deem helping him to do it to be the most pragmatic option).]]
* JockDadNerdSon: Joe Danvers' and Stevie Danvers' dynamic [[AbusiveParents is a darker variation on this trope,]] with Joe trying to force his son into heavy contact sports and 'manly' pursuits that his softly spoken arty son hates, and treating his love of drawing as effeminate, even teaching his youngest and highly impressionable child, Joe Junior, to mock it, giving his older son what his mother-in-law terms [[BreakTheCutie 'a psychological death of a thousand cuts']]. Unlike Carol, Stevie doesn't have the friends or BirdsOfAFeather thing with their maternal family to counter that, so retreats into himself.
* JustFriends: Despite the frequent ShipTease, Carol wants her and Harry to stay like this, since she doesn't actually have that many male friends who aren't trying to get into her pants. Of those she does have, one is flamingly gay, another is her self-appointed KnightTemplarBigBrother, and a third is a BiTheWay Asgardian who's in a sort of relationship with the flamingly gay friend. And then there's Harry. Moreover, she values his friendship far more than any other kind of relationship. Harry is not averse to the idea of a RelationshipUpgrade, but respects her wishes and states that first and foremost, she is his friend.
** After ''Bloody Hell'', they start slowly drifting towards a relationship proper. [[spoiler: And come the aftermath of ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'', in chapter 46, they have a RelationshipUpgrade.]]
* KansasCityShuffle: A key part of Strange's ''modus operandi'' - his reputation is such that everyone knows, despite the fact that he famously WillNotTellALie, that when he turns up, he's about to manipulate them. The question is not 'if', it is 'how'. Strange ruthlessly exploits this, and usually comes out on top by introducing something/someone that either no one knew about, or no one took into account.
** Harry's started imitating it, as of ''Bloody Hell'', though he's obviously nowhere near as good at it - and it doesn't help that he tries it off the cuff on Dracula, [[TheChessmaster a chessmaster]] in his own right, and it fails miserably... the first time, that is. The second time [[ExploitedTrope (when Alison refers to it by name)]], once he takes some time to think, and recruits some help rather than trying to pull it off single-handed, it ends up working like a charm.
* KarmaHoudini: Bucky, who is widely believed to have been kept by HYDRA in stasis as a trophy[=/=]experiment until he was found after the Battle of London. WordOfGod has indicated that if the question of how he has the Winter Soldier's skills comes up, it will be 'revealed' that he has the Soldier's memories, because HYDRA wanted another Soldier. A JustifiedTrope, for the most part, because he was a victim of brainwashing, but few people would be able to look past the reputation of the Winter Soldier.
** The Beast/Blob [[spoiler:a.k.a. Dudley]] gets off scot-free, having apparently pulled a VillainExitStageLeft. WordOfGod has admitted that this was largely because he couldn't see any circumstance where [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix!Harry]] didn't kill him. This ends up subverted in chapter 32, where Harry pays him back for everything he's done [[spoiler: by, since he's now a full vampire, removing his arms and decapitating him]].
* KickTheDog: Voldemort spends pretty much his entire appearance in chapter 2 doing this or winding up to do so.
* {{Kneecapping}}: What [[{{Jerkass}} Syrus]] intends to do to [[spoiler: Stevie, a thirteen year old boy,]] in chapter 30, apparently out of sheer spite - and moreover, he intends to use a MAC-10 machine pistol to do it. He gets the crap kicked out of him for his pains.
* LadyAndKnight: Harry and Carol evolve this dynamic, with the two alternating between the roles (though truthfully, Harry takes more of the Knight's role), and fitting the more modern version of the trope as BackToBackBadasses (and a nascent BattleCouple).
* LateArrivalSpoiler: There are things under this section that are pretty hefty spoilers for the first Book.
* TheLeader: Steve, naturally. He's also the SupportingLeader as, though not the chief protagonist, he is the one the forces of good tend to turn to.
** Thor, who serves as the TeamDad to the Avengers, and also as TheMentor to all of the younger generation at one point or another.
** Carol.
** Harry.
** Bucky has shades of this, when required - in ''Bloody Hell'', he effortlessly takes command of the situation, and literally everyone snaps to.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
** Strange says that Prince Arthur had evil magical practitioners trying to kill him on a weekly basis. Since ''Series/Merlin2008'' had a MonsterOfTheWeek format...
** Harry notes in chapter 40 how each of his previous experiences with Voldemort had been once a year.
** Bucky's line in chapter 46 regarding the [[spoiler:TheBigDamnKiss between Harry and Carol]] is very much echoed by the fandom.
* LeaveHimToMe: Dracula says this about Harry, though only after Harry has repeatedly played SpannerInTheWorks, and he's got [[spoiler: Carol]], who he hands off to his CoDragons before turning to Harry. Unlike most examples, Harry is the one who gets his arse very thoroughly kicked.
* LesYay: InUniverse, Carol notes that Diana has 'got an eyeful' of her once or twice, and Harry becomes a ShipperOnDeck for Diana and [[spoiler: Ginny]].
* LetsGetDangerous:
** Harry, when finally pushed to his limit in chapter 2 by Voldemort.
--->"All right, Voldemort. If this is the way you want it... [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Time for Round Two.]]"
** In Chapter 10, Thor makes a mental note how he's not holding back with the Red Room, since them [[spoiler: kidnapping Harry and Carol]] [[ItsPersonal crossed a serious line]].
** Harry when he snaps in chapter 15 and [[spoiler: goes Dark Phoenix.]] Cue the usual [[BadassBoast remark.]]
--->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]
** Dracula, after Harry's thrown his best shots at him [[HopeSpot and seems on the point of victory.]]
--> [[PreAsskickingOneLiner Not bad. But not good enough.]]
* LetMeGetThisStraight: Dracula in Chapter 31, in the midst of TranquilFury, after a minion has summarised how his plans to [[spoiler: capture Carol]] have failed so far.
* LifeIsntFair: [[KnightInSourArmour Harry]] remains firmly convinced of/resigned to this. In chapter 35, he evolves into TheAntiNihilist, observing that no, life isn't fair - and therefore they should try and make it so.
* LightIsNotGood: The Red Son's power glows brightly, and he earns comparisons to an angel - specifically, Lucifer.
** Additionally, [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix, whether it's Harry or Surtur, is the epitome of Life and Fire... and is also the corrupted form of the Phoenix and a bona fide nightmare, even when it's just in its 'Dark Fledgling' state.]]
* LikeParentLikeChild: Wanda is much more like her father than she wants to admit, right down to the ruthlessness, sense of showmanship, [[TheDreaded reputation]], and temper that verges on cataclysmic when loved ones are threatened. And then there's what she does to [[spoiler: Essex]] - or rather, a [[spoiler: a clone]] - when she catches up to him, after he remarks that she's turning out very like her father. At first, she furiously denies it, before deciding that no. No, she ''is'' like her father. [[KickTheSonOfABitch And she might as well demonstrate it.]] Cue BodyHorror.
** While hints were shown in the previous book, Hermione starts looking and acting more and more like Wanda in ''Ghosts'', to the point where [[spoiler: Harry]] starts picking up on it. Additionally, [[spoiler: once he realises that she's Wanda's daughter, he also notes 'a tone of detached ruthlessness' that wouldn't have been out of place coming from Magneto]].
** PlayedForLaughs in chapter 49 when Carol's friend Monica notes that while Harry doesn't immediately look like his father, he gets one part from him: [[FemaleGaze his ass]], which "is ''literally'' divine". Cue Harry and Carol's utter mortification.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Carol is usually this to Harry, following the events of ''Forever Red'', though sometimes the roles flip. This also tends to mean that Carol effectively has the most dangerous teenager in the known universe on a leash, which does not go unnoticed by the likes of Peter Wisdom (though as Betsy notes, Wisdom's interest in Harry and Carol's relationship extends as far as how it effects Harry's mental state and no further).
** It's also why he expresses wariness at the idea of the two of them getting together, stating that if they do, he doesn't want it to be just about him using her as this to keep his mind in one piece.
* LivingShadow: During the ''Forever Red'' arc, Strange's shadow starts taking on strange shapes - in fact, multiple shadows in his general vicinity start warping and shifting in profoundly disturbing ways when his BerserkButton is pressed, combined with GlowingEyesOfDoom and, when facing [[spoiler: Essex]], a SlasherSmile. It's indicative of the fact that he is, as Dresden puts it, [[{{Understatement}} 'not overly burdened with sanity.']]
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Harry's Hogwarts friends are left entirely in the dark of the events of the ''Forever Red'' arc, and this, with Harry's reluctance to talk about it, causes friction afterwards. And when he does eventually come clean, his somewhat incomplete explanations don't help matters.
** Stevie and Joe Jr. don't have the full scoop on what Carol's been up to, and the former confronts Carol over this (although he has a pretty good idea nonetheless).
* LoomingSilhouetteOfRage: Strange pulls this on [[spoiler: Essex]] in chapter 14, with a fully fledged SlasherSmile that shows just how much he's going to ''enjoy'' making [[spoiler: Essex]] suffer.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Potentially. Love, specifically, of [[spoiler: Carol is just about the only reason that Harry would willingly unleash the Dark Phoenix again, or threaten to do so - if she'd died during ''Bloody Hell'', he'd have threatened the Council Elite to bring her back on pain of his doing so via the Dark Phoenix if they didn't.]]
* LudicrousGibs: In chapter 32, Harry pulls this on a moderately powerful speechifying vampire with [[TranquilFury two cold words]], [[PopCulturedBadass the choice of which was likely entirely intentional.]]
--> [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Bored now.]]
* MacGuffinSuperPerson: Harry, again - most people want to control him or kill him, to his endless irritation.
** Carol becomes this during the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, being sought after by [[spoiler: Dracula]].
* TheMadnessPlace: Doctor Strange seems to have set up home here in the ''Forever Red'' arc, and has undertones of it throughout all of his appearances. He gets better afterwards.
* MadeOfIron: Voldemort's become so powerful by the climax of ''Bloody Hell'' that he's able to shrug off Magneto doing his best to kill him slowly and horribly by ripping the iron from his blood (as is noted, it's not exactly efficient - [[ItsPersonal Magneto wants him to suffer]] - and if Magneto really wanted him dead quickly, he could do it) and Dresden ''shooting him in the head'' from point blank range with [[HandCannon a .44 Magnum revolver.]] '''''Three times'''''.
* MagicMusic: Professor Gwion Bach [[spoiler: a.k.a. Doctor Strange]] is a new addition to the Hogwarts faculty and teaches a class about this. The main basic point is that MagicMusic is only really an extension of basic ideas about magic [[GeniusBonus (indeed, there's a reason that 'chant' and 'enchant' come from the same etymological root)]] and of spell-casting, which shapes magic to the caster's will via rhythm and commands. While short incantations are quick, easy, and relatively customisable, they're also limited and you can only do one thing at a time. With songs, you can weave multiple spells into one casting, doing multiple things at once, especially if you're playing an instrument and singing, and/or more than one person is involved. At the very least, you can make it much more refined and precise.
* MagneticHero: Harry, as ever, though Carol has elements of this too.
** And Steve, of course.
* MakeAnExampleOfThem: Lukin has the Red Son do this to Volodya's troops, and when Volodya bitterly says that he didn't have to do it, Lukin replies that he did and this trope is why.
* MamaBear: Wanda. Oh dear lord, Wanda. You really shouldn't hurt her godson, or she [[NotHyperbole really will melt you down into traumatised, screaming atoms.]]
** Alison Carter also qualifies - when her son, Jack O'Neill, was captured and tortured during Desert Storm, she personally led the team that rescued him. When she finds out about her son-in-law trying to convince Harry to mentally alter Carol, she nearly breaks his arm to make him confess (with one hand, while sitting down and drinking tea), then uses her influence to have him [[KickedUpstairs promoted to a job out of state]] away from his family, all while warning what she'll do if he doesn't do as he's told.
** Lily, as per usual, though she has to be a bit more indirect this time.
** Defied in Natasha's case: though she's obviously angered by Belova's [[spoiler: molesting of Harry]] right in front of her, she recognises the ploy for what it is and instead files it away as something to be dealt with later (and then hands Belova a CurbStompBattle).
* MaskOfSanity: Belova's is a thin one. Lukin's is much thicker, [[SanitySlippage until it starts fraying under the strain of his egomania.]]
* MatingDance: Downplayed for the Yule Ball - Harry and [[spoiler: Carol]] have an up close and sexy dance, the Mambo (a more restrained relative of the Tango) but not ''quite'' as overtly sexual as most examples of this trope. This was intentional by [[Creator/NimbusLlewelyn the author,]] who [[WordOfGod explained]] that considering their respecting ages of 14 and a half and 15 and a half, taking it further would be entering {{Squick}} territory.
* MechanicalAbomination: Essex creates one heavily implied to be based on the [[Series/StargateAtlantis Pegasus Replicators]], resulting in this 'verse's version of the Transmode Techno-Organic Virus.
* MegatonPunch: Harry, thanks to channelling his telekinesis through his body, to [[spoiler: Dudley a.k.a. the Blob]], and very well deserved it is too.
** Thor, to the same person, burying him halfway into a mountain. He also inwardly notes that he was actually holding back.
* MesACrowd: [[spoiler: Sinister]] apparently not only has multiple clone bodies as [[BodyBackupDrive backup]], but can operate several at once - it's how he can appear in so many places at once, and heavily implied to be how he survived Wanda's attack.
* MindOverManners: One of the most horrifying parts of chapter 2 is Voldemort's demonstration of what a complete lack of this can be like and [[spoiler: Harry having to give up his fanatical devotion to this trope and MindRape the Death Eaters into his PeoplePuppets to protect his friends]] isn't far behind.
** [[spoiler: Sinister]] completely disregards this, and taught [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] to do the same, to the extent that she genuinely doesn't realise that other people are bothered by this (and, post HeelFaceTurn, has some difficulty learning psychic ethics, simply because it's a concept she's never come across). It's part of what makes them so very dangerous.
** Chapters 7 through, to an extent, 20, underline just how horrifying a lack of this can be.
* MindRape: Voldemort. Frequently.
** Harry, directly to [[spoiler: the five Death Eaters left under Voldemort's control and indirectly to every single living person with a Dark Mark.]] Being his GodzillaThreshold, it leaves him literally retching.
** [[spoiler: Harry, at length, at the hands of the Red Room and Sinister as they try to turn him into the Red Son.]] Then [[spoiler: Maddie fakes a major version of this, pretending to erase his mind but actually hiding it, allowing the Red Room to program the empty shell as part of her plan to save Harry. However, they're separated for months, relatively speaking, meaning that when Harry's mind returns to its body he's effectively mind raped by the memories of what the Red Son was used for.]] The shock is so bad that [[spoiler: Harry responds by going full Dark Phoenix.]]
* MisterExposition: Draco offers his services as this in chapter 7, on the grounds that of all the kids present (the Weasleys aren't around) he knows the most about Diagon Alley and its environs.
** In the same chapter, Mister Ollivander does his usual bit about wand-lore, delving a little further into the meanings of Harry's wand and that of his mother's and [[spoiler: about the implications of Harry's connection to the Phoenix.]]
** Odin and Doctor Strange both do this in chapters 19 and 20, with Wanda throwing in a note or two as well.
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Gambit is Natasha's mole in the Red Room.]]
* MoodSwinger: Strange, during the ''Forever Red'' arc when he seems to have lost his few remaining marbles. One moment, he's cheerfully and harmlessly loopy. The next... you can see why he's TheDreaded.
** Ron notes Harry's inclination towards this after the aforementioned arc and its associated brutal TraumaCongaLine, pointing out to Diana that Harry's sudden chirpy mood worries him because when his mood suddenly goes up, then like a broomstick, it is usually about to go very suddenly downwards.
* MookCarryover: [[spoiler: Dudley/The Beast]] is brought back into the story in the employ of the Red Room. After fleeing their downfall, he's somehow caught by [[spoiler: Voldemort, who then hands him over to Dracula to turn into vampire, as a peace offering - though Dracula suspects that there's a sting in the tail, somewhere. Whatever that was, it becomes a moot point when Harry dismembers him - though that may or may not have been why Voldemort threw him into the mix in the first place.]]
* MoralityChain: Carol serves as this to Harry after ''Forever Red'', which considering their connection [[PsychicLink (literal]] and [[{{UST}} figurative)]] is not especially surprising. The fact that Bucky also serves as this, on the other hand, is - though since Bucky has the shared experience thing to call upon, perhaps less so. Either way, they're among the few people who can reliably talk Harry down when he's right on the edge, and [[spoiler: Carol's death is the one circumstance under which Harry would be willing to unleash the Dark Phoenix again.]]
* {{Mordor}}: The vision that Odin has of Muspelheim shows it to be this -- oceans of ash-grey water, plains of obsidian rock, and forests of stone and steel, all surrounding a city built around Surtur's citadel. And it's all utterly devoid of life except that which is bound to Surtur's will.
* MorphWeapon: Laevateinn. It used to be a wand, and before that, it was a sword, and now... it's pretending to be an entirely ordinary [[spoiler: phoenix feather]], something it's good enough at to fool Odin (but not Strange, who knows ''exactly'' what it is) for a millennium and a half. Precisely ''why'' it's doing this is unclear, but it's heavily hinted to be [[EmpathicWeapon sentient]], so it probably has its own agenda.
* MosesInTheBullRushes: Clark, of course, being a teenage Superman. Though as [[SecretSecretKeeper Alison]] reveals, it was a little more organised than most realise...
** [[spoiler: Doctor Strange]], astonishingly. His mother set him adrift in a hastily enchanted basket when [[spoiler: the forces of Camelot]] slaughtered their people, before being killed herself. Ironically, he was found and raised by a fisherman who lived in [[spoiler: Camelot]] and [[spoiler: was taught magic by Uther's Court Physician, Gaius, and Gaius' student, Merlin.]]
* MotiveRant: Harry gives a pretty good one in chapter 28 after once again being selected for the Triwizard Tournament, riffing off the Twelfth Doctor, explaining in furious tones just ''why'' he takes a lot of the crap that he goes through, and why he's furious about being dragged into this. Even with his most horrific adventures, he's usually [[ChronicHeroSyndrome chosen to get into trouble in order to help others]] and accepts it as the price he has to pay. However, he was forced into the Triwizard against his will, and furthermore, it's not for some grand purpose -- just fame, riches, and glory, all of which [[HumbleHero he has more than enough of already.]]
* MotorMouth: Harry's mouth sometimes just runs on, and on, and on, and much of it [[DeadpanSnarker is snark]]. He frequently uses it as a [[StepfordSnarker coping mechanism]], for CasualDangerDialogue, and as a distraction.
** And, of course, Peter Parker, who's uncharacteristically silent for most of his first appearances... then starts gabbling away in chapter 32. Harry, meanwhile, reflects that while most would wonder how Peter could talk so much, a telepath would be able to explain that the real miracle was that he didn't talk even ''more.''
* TheMultiverse: Harry gets a glimpse of it in Chapter 41, seeing various versions of himself from across different universes.
* MundaneUtility: According to Harry, one of the Twelve Uses for Dragon's Blood discovered by Dumbledore is as an oven cleaner. Also a case of AwesomeButImpractical, however, as it's too expensive to be used for that purpose on a regular basis.
** Harry's Asgardian muscle memory is, apparently, not only good for rapidly picking up combat skills, but also learning how to dance. Likewise, his telepathy is also very good for sharing those skills with his dance partner.
* MyEyesAreUpHere:
** Wanda's internal monologue in chapter 10 indicates that she had to deal with this from a bunch of Otaku in Japan who accidentally summoned a bunch of especially tentacled demons. This, among with a job-lot of slime, is one of a number of things that left her in a particularly bad mood.
** Carol snarks about this around Ron, in chapter 34, to his mortal embarrassment.
* MyGreatestFailure: It's revealed that the reason Strange is so determined to never fail to help people is because he was too late [[spoiler: and missed the Battle of Camlann, and his King and his mentor, Arthur and Merlin, paid for it]]. It also explains why arriving too late to save [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] drove him halfway insane.
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie's]] psychic duel has this effect, as does [[spoiler: the manifestation of the Dark Phoenix.]] "Tingling," however, is something of an understatement.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: Harry notes Ron's attitude in this respect as the reason for keeping Ron out of his ShipperOnDeck antics regarding Ginny and [[spoiler: Diana]].
* MysteryCult: The Askani are consistently described as a 'weird, but mostly harmless' mixture of this and a BreedingCult - no one's entirely sure what they actually want. Their main consistent objective seems to be maintaining their bloodlines, scouting for new members/input into those bloodlines (they happily taught and tried to recruit Charles Xavier, but they had a few ideological differences that led to his leaving), and being left alone.
* MythologyGag:
** Carol's swimsuit in the first chapter has the same design as her comicbook counterpart's most famous costume. It also gets a bit meta when you take into account that [[Creator/NimbusLlewelyn the author]] has frequently called said costume a swimsuit.
** In Chapter 3, Diana is shown wearing blue shorts and a red shirt, the same colour design as Wonder Woman's iconic outfit.
** In Chapter 4, Wanda claims that if whatever caused Harry to have to stay with the Dursleys comes after her godson again, she will reduce it to "screaming, traumatized atoms". Jean Grey once made that threat against a group who were threatening her students in the comics. Unlike Jean, Wanda proves that it's NotHyperbole.
** In Chapter 6, when Harry asks what Logan teaches at the Institute, [[DeadpanSnarker he]] [[BlatantLies responds]] with "[[Film/X2XMenUnited Art]]."
** In chapter 8, an enraged [[spoiler: Dudley]] screams a variation on Superboy-Prime's infamous line, "I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU TO DEATH!"
** Harry's appearance in that chapter heavily resembles first the New 52 version of ComicBook/{{Superboy}}, then, with the NoShirtLongJacket thing, [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]]. Then in Chapter 41, he meets an AlternateUniverse version of himself who calls himself Nathan.
** Steve notes that [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} an old friend of his]] likes to say that he's the best there is at what he does, even if it's not very nice.
** When discovering her [[spoiler: half-sister]], Wanda mutters, "by the hoary hosts of fucking Hoggoth." Minus the PrecisionFStrike, this is a phrase often used by her [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange mentor]].
** As a bit of playful teasing at Jean's denial about her feelings for Scott, [[spoiler: Maddie]] asks Jean if she can have him. In the comics, [[spoiler: Maddie]] and Scott were an item during [[DeathIsCheap one of the times Jean was dead]].
** Dresden and Ebenezar's discussion on the White Council's Laws of Magic and their purpose echoes the one that canon Dresden had with Luccio in ''Literature/SmallFavor.''
** In chapter 27, Harry threatens to make anyone who tries to put his name in the Goblet of Fire spend the rest of their lives thinking [[Film/X2XMenUnited they are a five year old girl. And when Hermione questions this, he claims that he would ask Ginny to braid their hair.]]
** The following chapter has him enter the room where the other [[spoiler: Triwizard champions]] are waiting, and think that in another life, he might've been impressed by them. Indeed, in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire another life, he was]].
** When launching an attack on Avengers Mansion, Dracula sends in his lower-ranked minions alone, stating that "[[Film/XMenTheLastStand in chess, the pawns go first]]".
** While being possessed by Dracula, Peter Parker is described as clinging to the wall of Avengers Mansion like a spider, a none-too-subtle reference to his [[ComicBook/SpiderMan canon counterpart]].
** Wanda's comment about street-dancing Mindless Ones is a reference to something that happened in ComicBook/{{Nextwave}} (which required a NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer from the author to confirm that it was a reference, not just a ludicrous joke).
** The inscriptions on Curtana's blade ("For justice take me up. In mercy cast me away. I am Curtana. Wield me wisely.") resemble those of Excalibur, which, according to some myths, had "take me up" engraved on one side, and "cast me away" engraved on the other. Considering the intentional Arthurian name that Harry gave it, the following discussion of the Arthurian symbolism, and the fact that Doctor Strange [[spoiler: (who, as Taliesin, grew up in Camelot, was Merlin's apprentice, and later Court Physician and Bard to Arthur Pendragon himself)]] had a very large hand in it indicates that it was, InUniverse, very much intentional.
** [[spoiler: Jesus']] praise of Harry for "doing what is right rather than what is easy" was originally said in canon by another mentor figure in Harry's life-specifically, Albus Dumbledore in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire.''
** Alison's amused comment to Clark that there's "already a Captain Marvel" references both ComicBook/CaptainMarvel (who's appeared already) and, in a more meta way, the title's most famous successor in the comics, her own granddaughter (though Carol shows no signs of adopting a codename).
** After arriving in a strange, in-between dimension due to a unique confluence of circumstances, Harry is met by a {{Mentor}} figure who informs him when he asks about it that "this is your party." [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Sounds familiar]].
** Carol and Diana's outfits when they [[spoiler: attend the Yule Ball]], share colour designs with their canonical superhero costumes.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Harry, after [[PeoplePuppets the]] [[MindRape extremes]] he went to in order to beat the Death Eaters at the World Cup with his powers, and again after what he did [[spoiler: as the Red Son]].
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: To Harry's annoyance, meeting with the Norns includes being magically stripped naked so that the visitor brings nothing false with them, literally or figuratively (though a robe is supplied - which is suggested to be a relatively new innovation). Mostly, he just finds it annoying - and laments that Carol will never let him hear the end of it.
* NarniaTime: Time in the [[spoiler: Red Room]] headquarters moves at an accelerated rate compared to the outside world, with an average of the equivalent of three days passing inside for every one elsewhere. This is later explained as it being in the Nevernever - and when it moves deeper into the Nevernever, the disparity increases to two weeks in the real world to ''six months'' in the Nevernever, with the observation that it could have been much worse.
* NecessaryEvil: What Hermione and the White Council consider the execution of wandless Warlocks to be, pointing out just how incredibly dangerous dark magic, wandless dark magic in particular, is. Jean-Paul agrees, while Carol is more ambivalent.
* NervesOfSteel: Most of the Avengers, Harry and Carol too, though Alison Carter is a stand-out example of this, maintaining a StiffUpperLip throughout some ungodly chaos and horror.
** In the case of Harry and Carol, it's discussed and indicated to be a result of [[ShellShockedVeteran all that they've been through]], with Carol's relative lack of reaction to being kidnapped and threatened by [[spoiler: Grey Court vampires]] being contrasted to the way that her little brother was in terrified tears. The latter is a normal reaction for a young teenager. The former is not.
** Cedric Diggory, upon [[spoiler: being kidnapped by the barrow wrights]], is much less shocked than he ought to be, since he's pretty much used to Harry being a DoomMagnet and dragging in everyone else around him.
* NewChildLeftBehind: The consequences of Steve being Carol's great-grandfather and the relationship between the two are further explored, both emotionally (in terms of Steve's response to his sudden extended family, particularly Carol, as well as his daughter/Carol's grandmother, Alison Carter), and more broadly, with the ''Bloody Hell'' arc hinging on the ramifications of it.
* NiceGuy: Kurt, to the point where after escaping [[spoiler: the Red Room]] physically more or less unscathed, his immediate response is to worry about the others. Carol instantly takes a liking to him.
** Cedric Diggory, as per canon. As Strange remarks, he is a very decent young man, an assessment which Harry agrees with.
** As usual, Steve Rogers and Clark Kent are very sweet and kind men. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Unless you make them angry.]]
** [[spoiler: Jesus,]] unsurprisingly, with a kind attitude, bucket-loads of compassion, and a snarky sense of humour. The latter is implied to be Thor and Loki's fault.
** Neville Longbottom is a generally sweet-natured young man, and this, combined with his quiet and somewhat nervous nature, leads many to underestimate him, even those who know him well, as Harry inwardly notes.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The Russian President, 'Volodya', is mentioned as being an ex-KGB officer bent on restoring Russian prestige by slow, steady, and [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic means]] (which means that he is ''not'' pleased by the Red Room's antics). While he's not stated to be Vladimir Putin, he is very obviously Putin, right down to the fact that Volodya is one of the familiar forms of Vladimir. [[spoiler: Then he gets executed by Lukin, though not before he gives a good FacingTheBulletsOneLiner.]]
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Harry's face off with Dracula is absolutely brutal, as Dracula spends the vast majority of the fight kicking the crap out of him. The second round, once it ends up in an actual fight, is more or less the same.
** Magneto has to do this to the Red Son in order to [[ImplacableMan get him to stop]], though the trope is played with in that Magneto doesn't actually ''want'' to hurt him (but he was picked partly for his willingness to do so if necessary).
* NoShirtLongJacket: Harry winds up in this, thanks to [[spoiler: slicing up the Red Room's containment suit]]. Carol mocks him mercilessly.
* NothingIsScarier: It's left unexplained what Loki said to Sabretooth to make him crack (and what illusions accompanied it), but considering that casual threats to use his nervous system to string a harp and play a symphony to the accompaniment of his screams hardly drew a batted eyelid, the fact that even SHIELD's best got nowhere, and that it's, well, Sabretooth...
** In chapter 52, it's noted that the only thing scarier than the idea that [[spoiler: Malekith is behind the mists that shroud Svartaflheim and clearly preparing for war against Asgard]] is the idea that someone ''else,'' with unknown abilities, motives, tactics, and aims, is behind it.
* NotHyperbole: When Wanda says that she's going to find [[spoiler: Sinister]] and render him down to "screaming, traumatized molecules", the narration notes that she's being entirely literal. And she ends up living up to the threat in Chapter 10.
** Apparently, Jean-Paul literally started drooling at the sight of his boyfriend Uhtred in an eyepatch. He argues that this was a justified reaction.
** Wisdom similarly starts drooling in chapter 44 when Strange mentions that [[spoiler: he used the Philosopher's Stone to transmute the newborn volcanic mountain in the Hogwarts lake, created by the Elder Wyrm, into a mixture of vibranium and mithril.]]
* NotMeThisTime: When telling the origins of Asgard, Strange mentions how Ván, the Sword of Hope, embedded itself into a tree - the focus for Yggdrasil - and would only let someone worthy wield it. When Thor asks if Strange was responsible for that, Strange replies that while he was there, for once what happened wasn't his fault.
** In the same chapter, Strange also states that he isn't responsible for [[spoiler: setting Harry up to face Surtur]], saying that while the latter is a threat, he has bigger fish to fry - like Thanos, for instance. Instead, he suspects that [[spoiler: either the Phoenix or Yggdrasil itself]] is responsible.
* NotSoDifferent: Wanda states that Wisdom reminds her of Magneto before he "went soft."
** Wanda increasingly starts to wonder this of herself and her father, especially after she melts [[spoiler: Sinister]] alive in chapter 10. He undeniably deserved it [[spoiler: and it didn't keep him down for long]], but it's a tactic straight out of her father's playbook, and when she did it, she explicitly stated that she was acting like her father.
** As for Harry, aside from the canon examples of Voldemort and Snape, he's noted to be worryingly like the old, bad Magneto or pre HeelFaceTurn Loki when he gets in a real, dark rage, something that both Magneto and Loki themselves notice. Oddly enough, though, this applies most to Doctor Strange [[spoiler: a.k.a. Taliesin]]. Let's break it down:
*** Their backgrounds are surprisingly similar, even down to coming from roughly the same part of Britain (Godric's Hollow is in the West Country of England, near the Welsh border and [[spoiler: the border regions of the Kingdom of Camelot]]). Both their families were killed by, or at the behest of, genocidal murderers, and both [[MosesInTheBullRushes were set adrift in a small, enchanted basket in the hopes they'd be taken in and loved]].
*** They're both TallDarkAndHandsome, with distinctive streaks of white in their hair (after the Battle of London, in Harry's case), and both [[WhatBeautifulEyes have startling eyes that usually serve as a key identifying mark]].
*** They both began as powerful wizards with odd powers even by magical standards (Harry's abilities as a Parselmouth and PsychicPowers, and Strange's gifts as a {{Seer}} and for [[TimeMaster chronomancy]]), share a habit of taking on beings far more powerful than they are and winning, and were touched by an inadvertently summoned and indescribably ancient cosmic power (respectively, the Phoenix and the Vishanti [[spoiler: (and more pertinently, the Time Stone)]]) that drastically altered their fate.
*** Both are schemers and manipulators (though Strange is ''the'' master and Harry is a talented apprentice who usually prefers the IndyPloy or XanatosSpeedChess) who resent being the ChosenOne, but feel compelled to do what is right and prevent others suffering as they did. Additionally, both respond to stress by [[StepfordSnarker snarking about it]], generally keep hold of their fiery tempers unless they are under ''severe'' strain [[RageBreakingPoint (at which point the explosion is usually spectacular)]], and have a knack for [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment creative punishments,]] especially when people they care for are threatened.
*** It's also worth noting that after the ''Forever Red'' arc, Harry starts to act more and more like Strange while [[spoiler: under the tutelage of the man himself]], becoming an increasingly secretive and solitary MoodSwinger and BrokenAce with a tendency towards dramatics, holding friends at arms length, and using [[TheDreaded his reputation]] as a weapon. He's even developing something like Strange's signature GrinOfAudacity (which usually appears when he's about to do something clever and horrible to someone who deserves it). This is hinted at way back in ''Child of the Storm'', with Harry's InUniverse developed fondness for ''Series/DoctorWho'', and Strange's later bitter LampshadeHanging of his resemblance to the Doctor (all previous hints [[BeenThereShapedHistory that he was involved in the show's creation]] having been PlayedForLaughs). It is also not meant to be a good thing, with Strange consistently encouraging Harry to rely on and trust his friends, and generally not to become him. Eventually, Harry listens - though the wicked smile remains.
*** All these similarities led to solid speculation that Strange actually ''was'' Harry from the far future, carrying out a StableTimeLoop. WordOfGod has {{Jossed}} this, but also noted that that was actually the original plan for the series. It actually ends up being defied by Strange, whose (stated) purpose in having Harry learn from [[spoiler: Gorakhnath]] is to avert this trope, so that Harry will have the chance to learn from other mentors and not pick up too many of his [Strange's] habits.
* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: The Council Elite of Skyfathers. It's rarely called, and it seems to spend most of its time arguing.
** The White Council is a bit better about this, particularly the Senior Council, and they're more unambiguously good (though they [[GoodIsNotNice aren't exactly nice...]])
* OddlyCommonRarity: Omega Class beings. However, it's pointed out that Omega is quite a vague classification and there's a lot of variation within it. However, it's largely confined to Greater Gods (e.g. Thor, Loki, Hercules) and Skyfathers (e.g. Odin, Zeus, etc), with human Omegas usually gaining at least part of their power from an outside source (e.g. the Hulk, the Juggernaut, the Sorcerer/Sorceress Supreme, Xavier via Cerebro).
** It's also pointed out that for natural born Omega Class beings (usually mutants), the birth-rate is about 1 in a Billion, and might even be less than that owing to the fact that that kind of power tends to run in families; e.g. Magneto, Wanda, and possibly [[spoiler: Hermione]], and Harry, Jean, [[spoiler: and Maddie/Rachel.]]
** Chapter 10 elaborates on this at the start, observing that with the exception of various Greater Gods and the Sorcerer/Sorceress Supreme (a chunk of whose power comes with the position), the only pre-modern human Omegas were Merlin (probably a HalfHumanHybrid who was BornOfMagic), and those who were empowered by an outside influence, such as [[GreenLanternRing the Green Lantern]], [[PhysicalGod the Juggernaut (the Avatar of the Elder God Cytorrak)]], and the [[ComicBook/CaptainBritain the bearer of the Mantle of Avalon]]. In other words, natural born human Omega class beings are something very new.
** WordOfGod has also noted that the whole 'Epsilon, Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Omega' classification is getting increasingly outdated InUniverse, as it was created by SHIELD back when the only active Omega Class beings were Magneto and the Green Lantern, and a few others, who were continental or global threats at the most, and Omega simply meant 'beyond conventional classification'. Now, with the scale going cosmic, and all kinds of beings waking up, Omega is being informally subdivided into 'global', 'stellar', 'inter-stellar', 'galactic', and 'universal'.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: When Strange arrives at the end of chapter 2, it's apparently right after fighting off an attempted invasion of Earth by Dormammu. As in, he's scorched and his clothing is still smoking.
** Wanda and Dresden were involved in fighting off a bunch of especially tentacular demons in Japan, after a bunch of Otaku used the wrong book of magic in the wrong place at the wrong time. The results were, apparently, very messy, as were Dresden's unspeakable jokes about sushi and Japanese pornography. It also, apparently, resulted in a lot of gunk in Wanda's hair, much to her displeasure.
** Thor and Steve march into the Kremlin, [[BewareTheNiceOnes terrify Volodya]], and demand [[spoiler: Harry back]], Lukin and/or [[spoiler: Essex]]'s heads on a platter, and the Red Room shut down, not necessarily in that order.
** Several of the fights in the climax of the ''Forever Red'' arc are so [[CurbStompBattle one-sided]] that they're just skipped over.
** On a smaller scale, so is a food fight in the Great Hall, which ends with Seamus Finnegan's eyebrows on fire ([[RunningGag again]]), Pansy Parkinson being treated for a concussion from a [[NoodleImplement hard-boiled egg]], Colin Creevey stuck in the rafters, and a tidal wave of jam engulfing [[ButtMonkey Fudge.]] [[BlatantLies Which was of course not Dumbledore's fault and he had absolutely nothing to do with it]].
** Most of ''Literature/DeadBeat'' is reduced to this, as WordOfGod noted that [[InSpiteOfANail it would be essentially the same as in canon with a few minor changes]].
** Cedric, Krum, and Fleur's exploits during the First Task are skipped over until they are [[spoiler: kidnapped by the barrow wrights]].
** In-between his two scenes in Chapter 52, Strange somehow singlehandedly [[spoiler: genocides the Red Court, in such a way that it also cures all of the half-turned victims as well]].
* OffWithHisHead: Strange cuts off the top half of [[spoiler: Sinister]]'s head (one of them, anyway) to get at his brain, in order to [[spoiler: track down his many, many clones.]]
* OhCrap: Naturally, everyone's reaction to the appearance of the Dark Mark and Voldemort announcing his return.
** Harry has a moment of this when he realises that [[spoiler: his old paediatrician, kindly Doctor Milbury]] was [[spoiler: Sinister, the telepath who kept him at Privet Drive.]]
** Everyone's reaction to Strange, for the only time in living memory, looking anything less than completely assured, and for the first time that they know of, being ''caught off-guard.''
*** The reaction to the possibility that he's finally snapped is similarly freaked out.
** When the Red Room prisoners, led by Harry and Carol, are about to escape, and are confronted by [[spoiler: Maddie]]. Noriko isn't especially fazed, thinking that it's just one person, and that they have the numbers, and probably power, advantage. Carol, by contrast, knows exactly what they're dealing with, and is consequently scared witless.
** [[spoiler: Sinister's reaction to first Maddie breaking free of his control, and then Strange showing up as a LoomingSilhouetteOfRage.]]
** And then the biggest one of all in chapter 15 when [[spoiler: Harry snaps and turns into the Dark Phoenix,]] complete with the classic BadassBoast.
--->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I. AM.]]''' '''''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis PHOENIX!]]''''']]
*** It also remarked that when that happened, as the narration puts it, 'whereupon, to put it in the simplest terms possible, the Gods and Goddesses (and Devils, Demons and other assorted entities of that ilk) of Earth completely and utterly lost their shit.'
** The Council Elite, when they realise that Strange has [[spoiler: used the Tesseract to kidnap the lot of them and whisk them away to the Rock of Eternity, without them even noticing]], and they have another when he tells them that Thanos is coming.
** Draco notes that if you can smell wood-smoke around Harry and see no sign of a fire, you should have this reaction.
** Karkaroff gets one of these when he takes a good look at Peter Wisdom and realises exactly who he is, or rather, used to be. No one really twigs to it however, because as the narration observes, no one in their right mind would be particularly happy to have [[TheDreaded Peter Wisdom]] watching them in much the same way a shark does a particularly lethargic seal. Fudge gets one at around the same time when he sees [=MI13's=] helicarrier, far beyond anything magical he's ever heard of, and realizes just how outclassed the Ministry is.
** Harry Dresden's reaction when [[spoiler:Wanda suddenly becomes the Sorceress Supreme]] and the attendant implications, and again when he realizes that Voldemort had been tracking him, and had just murdered Grevane - with Dresden himself only being spared because Grevane had swiped the book that Dresden had found and Voldemort wanted before Voldemort got to him.
** Dracula gets a good one when [[HorrifyingTheHorror he smells woodsmoke as he is preparing the ritual]], and knows ''exactly'' what it means. [[spoiler: This is actually an exploited example, since Harry knows Dracula's history with the Phoenix and since he's been the Dark Phoenix, and fakes it exceptionally well as a distraction.]]
** Harry gets a downplayed one when he sees [[spoiler: Jesus]] onboard the train, driving him to psychically influence everyone else in the carriage to leave, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness something that it's noted he'd never do lightly]], because of the dubiously ethical grounds on which such an act stands. This is not so much because of who it is, as why they might be present.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Asgardians as a matter of course.
** Courtesy of the super soldier serum she inherited in her blood, Alison looks in her forties despite being in her sixties, even with careful application of ageing make-up. Tony makes reference to the fact that underneath it, she actually looks younger than he does.
** No one knows how old [[spoiler: Sinister]] is, but he certainly doesn't look it. Mind you, [[UncannyValley he doesn't look entirely human unless he wants to, so...]]
** No one has any idea how old Doctor Strange is either, other than that he's more than 400 years old. He looks to be in his early forties, if that. Odin reckons that he was born around the same time as Thor and Loki, 1500 years before, and that with time travel, he's about Odin's own age. He's right about the former, but not the latter - Strange himself stopped counting after he reached [[spoiler: ''100,000'']] years old and estimates it to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of [[spoiler: ''500,000''.]]
* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler: Surtur, the original Dark Phoenix,]] believes that the universe is flawed, and he can do better. Which can only happen after he destroys the existing universe.
** Thanos is also referenced.
* OneManArmy: Each of the Avengers, Bucky, Harry, Wanda, and Strange, as per usual.
** Each of the Senior Council, to various extents, are this as well, as are at least some of the Wardens.
** The Beast, [[spoiler: Dudley]], is incredibly difficult to take down without psychic powers or massive amounts of electricity. (Thor manages it fairly easily, but then, [[SuperStrength he's]] [[RoyaltySuperpower Thor]]).
** Jean and [[spoiler: Maddie]] are this trope thanks to their immense psychic powers, even without the latter wielding Mjolnir.
** Wanda name-drops this trope in reference to Jared "Hellhound" Kincaid, describing him as 'the Winter Soldier of the supernatural world'.
* OnlySaneMan: Cedric Diggory, who in his recurring appearances tends to be the Straight Man to Harry's increasingly strange Wise Guy, the two bonding somewhat after Cedric inspires a JerkassRealization in Harry (who had [[TookALevelInJerkass taken an understandable level in jerkass]] after ''[[TraumaCongaLine Forever Red]]''). This shows in a FunnyBackgroundEvent in chapter 40 when Harry correctly deduces what the First Task is, then rambles on about what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, Basilisk and Teenage Voldemort and all - at the same time, Fleur and Krum shoot Cedric increasingly incredulous looks, and Cedric just sighs and nods, as if to say, 'yes, really'.
** Ron also serves as this to Harry, noting incredulously in chapter 37 that Harry is actually seemingly unfazed by Dracula skewering Harry with his own sword and almost draining Carol (as it turns out, Harry was very much fazed by the latter and is carefully controlling his temper), and in general continually lampshading the ridiculous coincidences and bizarre events that make up his best friend's life.
** Rhodey's status as the OnlySaneMan in the first book was also lampshaded offhand by Harry, who notes that he usually looks like he needs a drink after having to describe something like how [[ARareSentence "my godmother's apprentice cut off the insane necromancer's arm, permanently this time."]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Whenever either Harry stops snarking, matters have gotten ''very'' serious.
** This is part of what clues in Harry Thorson that his friends have been possessed by Voldemort.
** The Avengers and co have a MassOhCrap when Strange is actually caught off-guard.
** Dresden notes that he's seen Magneto angry before, but that was TranquilFury. When he sees Voldemort, however, he loses his temper completely.
** If Charles Xavier is not being his usual patient, polite and charming self, it's because he's either seriously rattled or in a seriously bad mood, or both. In the case of the visit of Brother Smith of the Askani, it's the second, with shades of the first.
** Occasionally, Strange will straight-out say something, instead of his usual obfuscation, such as when he tells Wanda that [[spoiler: he chose her as his successor because she's the best,]] '''not''' the other way around, or when he swears to back up Harry if necessary in chapter 44.
* OpenMouthInsertFoot: Has it PlayedForDrama when Maddie, whose social skills are somewhat lacking, picks a very unfortunate moment to tell Jean that her boyfriend is cheating on her (having just found out via her own {{Telepathy}}). Specifically, when said boyfriend was meeting her parents. Jean, unsurprisingly, blows up, having been under a lot of pressure to begin with, and ends up taking it out on Maddie, who is miserable because she didn't want to hurt Jean and was only trying to help.
* OriginsEpisode: Chapter 20 serves as one for Doctor Strange, with him finally explaining just who he really is, and why he is the way he is, doing what he does.
* OurWightsAreDifferent: Harry and the other champions encounter some during the First Task. They're mummified, animated corpses compelled to guard the caverns and tunnels under Hogwarts' lake, forcing anyone they catch to join their ranks, all at the behest of something much, much worse.
* OutGambitted: [[spoiler: Volodya, intending to shut down the Red Room, confronts Lukin with a small army, all equipped with psychic inhibitors to protect them from control. However, he didn't count on a brainwashed Harry being present and able to use his telekinesis to kill them all anyway.]]
** [[spoiler: Sinister]] is ultimately on the receiving end of this from Strange during ''Forever Red'', after decades, if not centuries, of being able to evade him thanks to the aid of someone or something that shielded him Strange's Sight. While Strange is flying blind, he still eventually (barely) succeeds in freeing [[spoiler: Harry]] and all the other prisoners from his grasp, as well as being behind the inducement of [[spoiler: Sinister's]] most prized LivingWeapon, [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]], to perform a HeelFaceTurn, and tracks [[spoiler: Sinister]] down, looming behind him with a SlasherSmile and a menacingly purred PreAssKickingOneLiner. Unsurprisingly, [[spoiler: Sinister's]] response is shock, horror, and denial, before Strange kills him. And to make matters worse, the Red Room is all but destroyed at the same time, and while he can usually rely on the CloningGambit, Strange has now literally hacked into the network behind it, being able to track down each and every one of the clones, with only one (in the Raft) and the original surviving.
* PapaWolf: Thor, as is demonstrated throughout the ''Forever Red'' arc.
** Odin likewise, culminating in, in chapter 16, facing down [[spoiler: the ''entire Council Elite'' of Skyfathers to protect Harry, in the full knowledge that he might well die in doing so.]]
** Jor-El is a pacifist, but all but states outright that he is willing to die as long as his son gets the best chance to live, and live well.
* ParentChildTeam:
** Harry and Thor team up on several occasions.
** Alison and Jack O'Neill also serve as BackToBackBadasses during the ''Forever Red'' arc.
* ParentsAsPeople: The Carter-Rogers-Danvers family is especially prone to this. Steve understandably took a while to come around to the idea of having a small clan of descendants, Alison was by her own account a much better spy than a mother and always assumed that both her children would follow her into service and wound up pushing her daughter away by pushing her too hard, and Mrs Marie Danvers tried everything to keep her daughter away from superpowered trouble after seeing what it did to her family, making said daughter resent her.
** However, Steve does eventually come round and sincerely apologise and becomes a good (if occasionally awkward) ParentalSubstitute to Carol, Alison learnt from her mistakes with her grandchildren, and Marie eventually conceded that she couldn't change her daughter, that she wouldn't want to, and instead resolved to be proud of her.
* PassThePopcorn: It becomes a RunningGag.
** When Harry and Carol stumble into an awkward conversation about whether she finds him attractive, Jean-Paul zooms off and comes back with a bag of popcorn to enjoy it. The sheer audacity of that action causes all three to burst out laughing, breaking the tension.
** When Harry is confronting his former bullies, Carol says she's content to sit back and enjoy the show, and asks if there's anyplace nearby where she can get some popcorn.
** As Wanda confronts Strange over his [[spoiler: FakingTheDead]], Carol munches on popcorn again.
** Strange spends most of the First Task eating popcorn. When he stops, everyone wise pays attention.
* PeoplePuppets: Voldemort enjoys this trick, using it on [[spoiler: Pepper, Jane, Uhtred, Diana, the Twins and Carol]], as well as [[spoiler: the six Death Eaters he sends after the others.]] The latter actually works against him, since one person controlling six is notably less effective than those six operating on their own, and his casual allusion to how he does it clues Harry in to what's happening and [[spoiler: allows him to override Voldemort's control, destroying the Death Eaters' minds in the process.]]
** Harry is capable of this, which Ron denies in shock, when the above incident is brought up by the Twins. Hermione corrects him: it's not that Harry can't, it's that he ''[[MindOverManners won't.]]'' There's a very big difference.
** [[spoiler: Maddie]] also proves frighteningly subtle in her use of this, to the point that her victims have no idea what's happening until the spell is broken by Harry, who warns her not to try it again. Interestingly, she doesn't actually ''know'' that it's wrong.
** The Red Son is a recursive example, in that his powers allow him to do this (and this is one of his main uses), while he's technically one himself, for the Red Room.
** A key point in ''Bloody Hell'', as Grey Court vampires can control those they've sired, as Syrus does to [[spoiler: Peter Parker]], range dependent on how powerful the senior vampire is. [[spoiler: And if they're Dracula, they can control more or less any Grey Court vampire, from hundreds of miles away, which Dracula uses to wake up the knocked out Peter and use him to take down the Mansion's power source.]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Harry, the 'mass destruction' part being something of a problem.
** [[spoiler: Dudley]] a.k.a. the Beast and Jono Starsmore a.k.a. Chamber.
** Grey Court Master vampires are this as a matter of course, possessing ComboPlatterPowers including SuperStrength, SuperToughness, WeatherManipulation (to varying extents), and hypnosis. Some can also use magic, with Harry alluding to all Masters that survive long enough to reach that status pick some up as a matter of course.
* PlatonicDeclarationOfLove: Carol, to her grandmother about Harry, which he later reciprocates... sort of. The sort of part comes in because [[EveryoneCanSeeIt the two are quite clearly in very much not platonic love with each other, and still coming around to admitting it.]]
** In chapter 37 [[spoiler: both accept that they love each other romantically, but they're also not emotionally ready to date.]] In chapter 46, this [[spoiler: goes out the window, as they become fully romantic]].
* PlayingCardMotifs: Gambit. Unusually, unlike canon (where he opts for the Joker or the Ace of Spades), his favoured card is the Jack of Hearts.
** Significantly, the Jack is usually TheTrickster, and also known as the Knave, with the Knave of Hearts being a thief who [[UnusualEuphemism "stole the Queen's tarts"]], most famously referenced in ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''.
* PoisonousFriend: There are quite a lot of these, with key examples being Doctor Strange (who is generally disliked for his ruthlessly manipulative tactics), Natasha (who does things behind the scenes that the Avengers just can't do), and Loki (who does much the same when 'off-duty', and more specifically, acts as this for Thor and Harry, being entirely loyal to them and willing to do things that they would never even consider, such as ColdBloodedTorture.)
* PolarOppositeTwins: [[spoiler: Jean and Maddie/Rachel]]. One is a warm-hearted CoolBigSis to the world, raised in loving family and taught by a kindly, gentle and wise mentor, and a FieryRedhead who it is best not to piss off. The other is a cool, pragmatic young woman with NoSocialSkills who was raised by a [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] MadScientist whose control evolved into MoreThanMindControl, and who's been so starved of love that she was willing to accept even faked affection because it was the first time that anyone had even ''pretended'' to care and is at a complete loss when confronted with lots of genuine warmth and kindness (being raised as LivingWeapon will do that to you). One dresses in warm colours and white, while the other dresses in cold colours and black, even post HeelFaceTurn (though she has shown a taste for green and gold). However, this is repeatedly indicated to be a result of upbringing, the two having been SeparatedAtBirth, rather than an inherent difference.
* PoolScene: In the first chapter.
* PowerHigh: Harry in chapter 33, when he's supercharged by Jean and Maddie to [[spoiler: distract]] Dracula.
* PowerLimiters: The Red Room puts Harry in a suit that cuts off his ability to use his telepathy, and stops him from externally use his telekinesis. He gets around this by using the TK on himself, and eventually uses a knife to cut the suit open, restoring his powers to full.
* ThePowerOfBlood: Type A, to an extent, and Type AB, drawing on both ''Literature/HarryPotter'' and ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', particularly the latter, in their use of BloodMagic. While it isn't necessarily dark magic, and can be used benevolently to enhance spells, empower rituals and magic circles, and enforce bindings, it ''does'' stray very close to that area, and is much favoured by vampires - especially the Red Court and, to a lesser extent, Dracula's Grey Court. As a consequence of the latter, [[CrazyPrepared Doctor Strange]] has Harry study up on it extensively when he's set to run into Dracula and his plan to [[spoiler: use the blood of a SuperSoldier to become, among other things, immune to sunlight]].
* ThePowerOfLove: Familial love, primarily, which is how Harry wound up with the Phoenix fragment protection. He also uses it with the PowerOfTrust to appeal to successfully [[spoiler: Maddie's]] better nature and induce a HeelFaceTurn, and it's then used on him to [[spoiler: talk him down from his Dark Phoenix rampage]].
* PowerOfTrust: Bucky notes in chapter 25 that this Harry's willingness to extend trust to people is one of his most remarkable gifts, allowing him to inspire the better natures of people who didn't even know they ''had'' better natures. A particular example of this is [[spoiler: Maddie]] - though the ground work had been laid by [[spoiler: Gambit]], Harry's willingness to believe that she could be a better person drove her HeelFaceTurn.
* PowerPerversionPotential: Carol mutters darkly after seeing magic glasses that can see in the dark and magnify vision that if that's possible, you can bet that someone's invented the XRayVision version. Considering Moody's eye, she's actually right about that.
** The potential for this via Harry and Carol's psychic connection is occasionally alluded to, but [[DefiedTrope defied]] - {{UST}} and frequent unconscious flirting aside, they're carefully platonic. It gets a little close to the line when Harry penetrates... er, ''enters'' her mind to project his astral form through. However, aside from Harry's amusement at Carol's line of thought/turn of mental phrase, it's not dwelt upon since both have other things on their mind. [[spoiler: Since the two have got together following chapter 46, who knows what'll happen.]]
* PowerTrio: As noted in the first book, Harry tends to gather friends in trios. There's himself, Ron, and Hermione, the schoolfriends who know each other best on the day-to-day matters. There's himself, Carol, and Jean-Paul, who have a similar connection thanks to the amount of near-death experiences they've shared. In both, there's a couple with {{UST}} and a ShipperOnDeck who's at something of a remove from the other two (Harry because he's been through far more and is far more powerful than Ron and Hermione, and Jean-Paul because of his natural aloofness).
** Harry also forms one with Jean and [[spoiler: Maddie]], being family and the three most powerful human psychics ever born. It also overlaps with TheHecateSisters--Jean has the maternal (or, in this case, BigSisterInstinct); Maddie is the coldly pragmatic one with the least life experience, and Harry serves as the balance between the two.
* PragmaticVillainy: The main reason that Volodya is furious with Lukin for [[spoiler: ordering the kidnap of Harry]] and Natasha knows that he wasn't behind it - while he likes neither SHIELD nor the Avengers, he doesn't want to make an enemy of them either.
** [[spoiler: Dracula]] is also very much an example of this -- while completely evil, he also has a sense of honour, and doesn't waste minions who show intelligence.
** [[spoiler: Doom]]'s primary reason for helping to fight Dracula, whose victory would threaten the former's own power.
* PreAsskickingOneLiner: There are quite a few.
** Magneto gives a subdued but no less terrifying one when confronting the Winter Guard.
---> Good evening. [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya My name is Magneto.]] You kidnapped [[spoiler: my daughter.]] You kidnapped [[spoiler: my daughter's godson]]. You tortured them both. You have twisted the latter into your weapon. [[DeadlyEuphemism I would like to discuss this.]] And once we are done, if you are ''very'' lucky... [[CruelMercy I might actually allow some of you to live.]]
*** He gives another in Chapter 31 as he pulls off a BigDamnHeroes moment. As [[spoiler: Cassius]] notes that Dresden has only a few moments to make good on his threat to kill him, Magneto enters and says:
----> Sometimes, a few moments are more than enough.
** Doctor Strange purrs an absolute peach of one combined with a SlasherSmile when gliding up behind Essex, who he's ''finally'' got his hands on...
---> Hello, Nathaniel. ''Long time no see.''
** Harry, meanwhile, gives an example in chapter 15, when [[spoiler: he snaps and goes Dark Phoenix]], repeating a classic example of this trope.
--->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]
** As befitting her LadyOfWar nature, Alison gives a [[TranquilFury very calm one]] in chapter 20.
--->'''Alison''': I am going to have a discussion with your father, one that I should have had a very long time ago.
--->'''Carol''': Is this a discussion or a "discussion?"
--->'''Alison''': It will be the former if your father minds his manners. It will be the latter if he doesn't.
** The Hulk gets a wonderful one in chapter 33 as part of a BigDamnHeroes moment.
--->"HULK SMASH PUNY VAMPIRE!"
* PrecisionFStrike: Harry's utterly deadpan reaction to [[spoiler: being selected by the Goblet of Fire]] includes one of these. He reiterates it after triggering a flood trap during the First Task.
-->'''Harry''': Oh, for fuck's sake.
** He gets a more basic "Oh fuck" when he learns that [[spoiler: Dracula]] is coming to attack Avengers Mansion personally.
** Neatly summed up here:
---> It wasn't by anything particularly loud, it had to be said. But when all is silent, even a whisper is like a shout. And a trickle of water is like a torrent. Especially when you're a powerful demigod, have all your available senses keyed up, and know that it's about to become one, at which point there is only one appropriate response.
---> '''Harry''': "Oh for fuck's sake."
* PreMortemOneLiner: [[TranquilFury A coldly furious]] Harry [[PopCulturedBadass intentionally]] uses [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Willow's]] famous one-liner before turning a vampire to LudicrousGibs and slaughtering the remaining five vampires in the room in less than a minute.
--> Bored now.
* PrideBeforeAFall: Harry's [[spoiler: older alternate counterpart,]] 'Nathan', warns him of this in chapter 41, after Harry underestimated a trapping enchantment in the First Task that led to the two of them meeting in the first place - though he softens it somewhat by noting that Harry did actually examine the trap, and put more thought into than he [Nathan] would at the same age.
* PrimaryColorChampion:
** Diana and Clark have both taken to wearing their classic red and blue colors.
** In one of the alternate universes Harry sees in Chapter 41, he's part of a Young Avengers team, many of whose members wear red and blue costumes. This leads Harry to [[LampshadeHanging question]] whether there was a discount on cloth in those colours in that reality.
* ProperlyParanoid: Wisdom, as per usual.
* PsychicLink: Harry's psychic therapy session with Carol accidentally resulted in this. While this makes things a little awkward, they quickly adapt to it, and tend to slip into telepathic conversation without even noticing - though Jean-Paul semi-seriously speculates that their little slips are partially intentional, to keep some conversations, implied to be of the dirty variety, private. Chapter 8 also reveals that it lets Carol vaguely sense when he's around, and she later accesses it to ask for his help after [[spoiler: she and Stevie have been kidnapped by the Grey Court]].
** Jean and [[spoiler: Maddie]] both have one with Harry and each other, which it's speculated may have formed in the womb.
* PsychicNosebleed:
** Harry gives Voldemort one during their first psychic duel. Shortly after, when Voldemort mentally attacks Betsy to remove her from play, she gets a worse one - and Loki, who'd been checking on her, gets a nasty migraine (albeit mostly as a side effect).
** Just about everyone in the surrounding area gets one as a side effect of Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]]'s duel.
** Harry gets one in Chapter 30 [[spoiler: due to the effort required to fight as an AstralProjection on the other side of the Atlantic.]]
** [[spoiler: Doom]] gets one in Chapter 33 while duelling Dracula's mystics.
* PsychicPowers: Most sufficiently powerful supernatural beings have some degree of this.
** Harry, Jean, [[spoiler: Maddie]], Essex, Xavier, Voldemort, and Betsy Braddock, are some of the more prominent examples.
** The Askani, described as a 'weird, but mostly harmless' cult of psychics are apparently among the experts on these.
** Dracula proves himself incredibly skilled and powerful, able to turn Xavier's psychic attack back on him.
* PsychologistTeacher: Both Dumbledore and Xavier, to varying extents - Dumbledore dabbles, sometimes serving as a confidant for certain students, particularly (but not exclusively) Harry. Xavier, by contrast, is pretty much the on-call therapist to the entire superhuman community - while there ''are'' other therapists, he is widely considered to be the best.
* PsychoticSmirk: Strange's usual GrinOfAudacity can sometimes take on this quality.
** Whenever the [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] smiles, it tends to look like this.
** Harry, in chapter 28, directs what is described as 'a disconcertingly nasty smile' at Snape when he's about to go in for the verbal kill.
* PublicExecution: What Volodya was planning to do to Lukin. It didn't go as planned. [[spoiler: Lukin did it first to Volodya's troops, then to Volodya himself, the latter on his knees at point blank range.]]
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Voldemort, a couple of times on his return in chapter 2.
** Harry then does this when [[spoiler: he snaps and goes Dark Phoenix]], repeating a classic example of this trope.
--->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]
** Regarding [[spoiler: Thanos]], Strange says that like the Red Skull, the sanity of his plans is immaterial. ''Because. He. Can. Do it.''
** Magneto, when faced with Voldemort (who is directly responsible for the death of his wife), snaps into pure rage and roars the following before [[spoiler: ripping Voldemort's blood from his body and turning it into his signature helmet in a concerted attempt to kill the Dark Lord in the most painful way possible.]]
---> Voldemort! ''You. Are. Mine!''
* ThePurge: [[spoiler: After Lukin and Essex are captured, Loki uses information taken from them to spearhead the hunting down and murder of ''every single other member'' of the Red Room.]]
** Strange mentions Uther Pendragon's purge of magic users in Camelot, which ironically led to [[spoiler: his being adopted and raised in Camelot]].
* PurposeDrivenImmortality: Doctor Strange, who's over [[spoiler: 100,000 years old, and is probably around 500,000]], with that purpose being to prepare Earth to [[spoiler: go up against Thanos]].
* PutOnABus: As per usual, quite a few characters get subjected to this. Lorna, Noriko, Kurt, and Jono all go off to the Xavier Institute after the ''Forever Red'' arc, and this trope is also invoked by Harry Dresden, sending Bruce Wayne back to Wayne Manor so he won't get involved against the Heirs of Kemmler, [[spoiler: Voldemort, and Selene]], all of whom are far beyond his weight class - though only after [[BadassNormal Bruce]] apparently bailed him out when he was cornered by one of the Heirs and her pet ghoul. Specifically, he used a flashbang. Wanda was impressed.
** After being nearly turned into [[spoiler: a Grey Court vampire]], being cured, and helping out against Dracula, Peter Parker promptly passes out of the narrative again.
* PuttingThePalInPrincipal: Both Dumbledore and Charles Xavier qualify as this, being well-loved by their student bodies and faculties. This is particularly true of the latter, who doubles as a PsychologistTeacher (Dumbledore dabbles, but Xavier's a full-fledged therapist, the one who everyone in the superhuman community turns to) and whose smaller student body means he can take a more personal interest.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: A through H]]
* AbusiveParents: Mr Danvers establishes himself as a subtle psychological abuser when he first appears in chapter 6. It's intentionally depicted as insidious and very hard to pin down [[TruthInTelevision (as psychological abuse often is)]]. He tries to force his two older children to become what he thinks they should be (and honestly thinks would be best for them) - their polar opposites, essentially. Carol is a sporty, HotBlooded teenage ActionGirl, while Stevie is a slight, [[TheQuietOne softly spoken]], arty boy. As Alison notes, if they'd been the other way around, he'd have been delighted. As it is, he tries to forcibly mould them into what he wants them to be.
** The form it takes means that it only becomes clear in retrospect, to both characters and readers, but when it does... Carol's understated but rampant self-esteem issues, spiky attitude, reflexive reaction against authority (usually male), and latching onto [[ParentalSubstitute alternate father figures]], such as her uncle Jack and Steve, her great-grandfather, are a clear product of that abuse, for instance. As for Stevie, one incident makes it clear: Harry's invited round to dinner at the Danvers house in chapter 6. He asks about Stevie's drawing. Before Stevie can say anything, his little brother Joe Junior loudly says that "drawing's for girls," whereupon his father laughs and ruffles his hair in approval. Stevie wilts and shuts his mouth. While his mother does her best, buying him art supplies and supporting him, as well as reprimanding her husband, [[WellDoneSonGuy he desperately wants his father's approval]], and the latter's constant subtle put-downs giving him what Alison terms as [[BreakTheCutie 'a psychological death by a thousand cuts'.]]
** Also in chapter 6, it turns out that Mr Danvers invited Harry to get the measure of his daughter's BestFriend and to [[spoiler: ask him to use his PsychicPowers to change her, to [[MindRape 'make her take the right path'.]]]] Harry erupts with rage, gives him a ReasonYouSuckSpeech, then telepathically knocks him out, but only ends up giving only a limited account to Carol's mother (who thinks that they simply argued, Harry having been engaging in PassiveAggressiveKombat with him all evening). When Alison gets the full account from Carol in chapter 20, which she passes onto Carol's mother, they both agree that Mr Danvers has to go: Alison pulls strings and he's KickedUpstairs to a job out of state and [[NeverMessWithGranny she terrifies him]] into going along with it, as well as staying away from his family.
* ActOfTrueLove: Lily's sacrifice and the resultant Phoenix based protection becomes increasingly important as Harry learns to harness it... with mixed success.
** In chapter 33, after going two rounds with [[spoiler: Dracula]] and getting the crap kicked out of him twice, leaving him so tired he can barely stand, Harry determinedly donates as much blood as he can spare to Carol (who's dying of blood loss) in an impromptu and unorthodox blood transfusion. It nearly kills him, but he doesn't care. Afterwards, [[spoiler: Carol gives him a [[AnywhereButTheirLips kiss on the cheek]] and thanks him.]]
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Xavier's response to Logan's crack that if one of the staff at the Institute went mad, no one would notice the difference.
** Dracula, of all people, seems to find [[spoiler: Carol's]] proposal that her appointment with him take place at high noon to be this, wryly remarking that he'll have to decline.
* AdaptationalBadass: Voldemort quickly establishes that he's a ''lot'' more dangerous than his canon counterpart.
** As of the update, Barty Crouch Junior has been upgraded as TheDragon to Voldemort. A sign of things to come, probably.
* AdaptationalJerkass:
** Carol's dad wasn't pleasant in the comics, from what little we see, but he wasn't an explicitly psychologically abusive parent.
** The Doctor Strange in this fic is rather less noble and scrupulous than his comic counterpart. Given his DarkAndTroubledPast, and the malevolent cosmic threats like Thanos lurking about, a guy like Strange has to get his hands dirty once in awhile (and sometimes, even more frequently) to assure the universe remains safe.
** Odin and Thor... sort of (there's a reason the entry used to be on the YMMV page).
*** Odin was willing to put innocent Russian civilians lives at stake, just for the sake of taking down the Red Room, though it could be argued that the Red Room controlled Russia and there was no real way of getting a stranglehold on them without getting one on the rest of Russia as well - a stranglehold that lapsed the moment the Red Room were squashed. Which seems in character for an experienced and occasionally ruthless commander who's both achieving an aim and making a point.
*** Thor at first seems to lack the humility he'd developed from the Marvel films and is more brash and hotheaded when compared to his canon counterpart - though this might be explained by his sudden adjustment to two decades of memories and his son's recurring habit of getting into trouble, which would strain the patience of a saint. And while he went out of his way to have a little 'chat' with Snape over how he treated Harry, he did have a legitimate bone to pick. He also did it in private, as well as thanking him for saving Harry's life, and calling off Huginn and Muninn when they decided to have a similar conversation in public. And when Snape ensured that Remus lost his job, even then, he restricted his revenge to a small thunder-cloud following Snape around at all times - which, while perhaps petty, isn't exactly a grave offence. By ''Ghosts'', he's mostly calmed down, and is if anything wiser and more patient than his MCU counterpart - except when his son is involved.
* AdaptationalSexuality: Diana has an obvious crush (which could border on romantic feelings) on [[spoiler: Ginny Weasley]], and it seems to be mutual. Harry is gleefully playing matchmaker.
* AdaptationalWimp: General Lukin. His canon counterpart is an incredibly powerful CEO and ex Soviet General, ruling a de facto miniature state and wielding a cosmic cube - though that comes with the issue of the Red Skull trying to possess him. This version is an admittedly powerful General and commander of the resurrected Red Room, but he plays a definite second fiddle to [[spoiler: Sinister.]]
* AdaptedOut: While characters such as Amos Diggory and Waldo Butters still appear, their roles are much reduced, the former due to Harry not being as closely tied to the Weasleys and thus the magical world in general, and the latter due to ''Literature/DeadBeat'' having been condensed into a mostly [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome offscreen adventure]].
* AdventureDuo: Harry and Carol. If one is involved in some form of trouble, the other is rarely all that far behind.
* AGodAmI: One rather unexpected character veers into this after [[BreakTheCutie finally being pushed too far]], summed up by a variation on a very famous catchphrase.
-->[[spoiler: '''Harry''': '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER... I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]
* TheAllAmericanBoy: Joe Jnr Danvers, Carol's baby brother, fits this trope like an adorable, impressionable 9 year old glove. [[AbusiveParents His father]] also tries to force his [[TheQuietOne softly spoken]], creative older brother, Carol's middle sibling, Steven 'Stevie' Danvers, into this mould, the same way he tries to force Carol to be more traditionally feminine.
** Clark Kent also fits the trope - the irony of this, since he's from another world, is noted.
* TheAlliance: In ancient times, the worlds that became seven of the Nine Realms, as well as several other races, banded together to defeat [[spoiler: Surtur]].
* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: Despite the implication of the finale of ''Child of the Storm'', this is Subverted. It's made very clear that Harry and Carol in particular are still suffering from varying degrees of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]], right from chapter 1, which features Carol awakening from BadDreams and a resultant {{UST}} heavy piece of psychic therapy as Harry tries to help. Other near-death experiences/generalised horror are treated as increasing the issues, particularly in Harry's case, and broadening the rift between him and those who aren't involved, such as Ron and Hermione, and other Hogwarts friends - one widened even further by first his refusal to explain because of trauma, and then his somewhat cack-handed explanation that only makes things worse. And usually, every time it looks like he's recovered and in good shape (or getting that way, at least), something else comes in to make matters worse.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: In Chapter 32, Dracula launches an attack on Avengers Mansion in order to [[spoiler: abduct Carol]]. To bypass the defences and the Threshold, he telekinetically tears the building apart, then has his minions swarm into the separate pieces.
* AlmostKiss: Harry and Carol share one in chapter 36, with Harry instead [[AnywhereButTheirLips opting to kiss Carol's brow.]]
* AlternateSelf: During the First Task, Harry triggers a mental trap spell that, due to his own powers and the fact that reality is still thin from Chthon's rising, allows him to meet an older version of himself from a timeline where Wanda took him in after his first year at Hogwarts. Then he glimpses various other versions of himself from across TheMultiverse.
* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Thor occasionally enjoys winding up his son, having remarked in the previous books that it's pretty much his duty. Usually, said teasing revolves around Harry's attraction to Carol. Harry, naturally, ends up mortified.
** Jack O'Neill keeps trying to be badass and go-getting, and keeps getting upstaged by his mother, Alison Carter.
* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: The Red Son]] has his left arm and much of his left side blown off while fighting Magneto, then replaced by the Transmode Virus. Unsurprisingly, once matters are set to rights, [[spoiler: Harry]] is vocally unhappy about this. [[spoiler: Then he snaps and becomes the Dark Phoenix, blasting off the Transmode and regenerating his limbs.]]
** During ''Bloody Hell'', Wanda pulls a TeleFrag on Selene, removing her hands while getting clear. Since this is [[NighInvulnerable Selene]] [[HealingFactor we're talking about]], her hands just drop off [[HelpingHands and scuttle back towards their owner]]. Therefore [[BewareTheNiceOnes Wanda]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice decides to]] [[{{Transflormation}} up her game.]]
** [[spoiler: Doctor Doom]] uses weaponized {{Portal Cut}}s to do this to Dracula's minions during the climax of ''Bloody Hell''.
--->'''[[spoiler: Doom]]''': They have failed to rest in peace, so now they [[IncrediblyLamePun rest in pieces]].
* AncientEvil: Selene is noted to have already been old when Atlantis fell.
** The original Dark Phoenix has been in stasis for the last ''million'' years.
** The [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] from the ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' arc was a member of the above-mentioned first Dark Phoenix's army, and has been slumbering in the caverns beneath where Hogwarts now is ever since its master's defeat.
* AnywhereButTheirLips: In chapter 33, Carol kisses Harry on the cheek to thank him for what he did. Harry returns one to her brow in chapter 36, after they AlmostKiss.
* ApocalypseHow: Strange reveals that [[BadFuture of the bad futures he can see]], the ''best'' are at least a Class 2, while the worst are minimally Class X-4's, with [[spoiler: Maddie as the Dark Phoenix destroying all of the Nine Realms except for Muspelheim, which she takes over, and a straight race between Chthon and Thanos to destroy/control the universe.]]
* ARareSentence: Dresden notes that Selene "ate his dinosaur," the weirdness of which Morgan lampshades.
** When discussing Strange's production of ''Theatre/WestSideStory,'' Wanda notes that "you haven't lived until you've seen several dozen Mindless Ones pull off a flawless street dance routine." Everyone - including Thor, who really has SeenItAll - can only stare in disbelief.
* ArchEnemy:
** It's reiterated that Harry and Voldemort are this, though it looks increasingly like Strange is setting Harry up to be this to Thanos.
** Strange seems to consider [[spoiler: Sinister]] to be his, given how he treats hunting him down as a case of ItsPersonal. He also considered [[spoiler: Mordred]] to be his, and both of them for the same reason: He was too late to stop them from harming others.
* ArcVillain:
** The Red Room, led by General Lukin, Yelena Belova, and [[spoiler: Sinister]] in the ''Forever Red'' arc.
** The Kemmlerites and Dracula in the ''Bloody Hell'' arc.
** The [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] in the ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'' arc.
* ASharedSuffering: Harry and Carol's shared experiences, shared traumas, and shared resultant nightmares etcetera, play a significant role in deepening their bond.
* AutobotsRockOut: In order to provide Harry with a suitable background music to strike at [[spoiler:an Elder Wyrm]], Strange has Tony hack the ''Valiant'' so its loudspeakers start to crank out "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Thunderstruck]]", much to [[spoiler:Peter Wisdom's]] (very vocal) displeasure.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Carol's brother Stevie is LockedOutOfTheLoop regarding her adventures with Harry, but has been able to piece together at least a vague idea of what's happening just by paying attention to the way everyone's acting.
** This is also how Carol is able to deduce that [[spoiler: there's a strike team after her]], their numbers, and who and what they are.
** More than once, Bucky is able to deduce what Strange is up to just from the observed evidence.
* BadassBoast: Strange, when putting his foot down to the Council Elite, lets an epic one fly:
-->"I am the Sorcerer Supreme. I am the Evergreen Man, the Lord of Time, and I know my place perfectly well. I fight beings like you ''every single day''. I have guarded reality against them for centuries, and for the most part, I have done it ''alone''. For centuries I have stood, and I stand here still, now with [[spoiler: an Infinity Stone]] in my hand. Do you really think that ''you'', ''any'' of you, is a match for ''me?'' So how dare ''you?'' How dare ''any'' of you? '''''How dare any of you raise your voices to me!'''''"
** Dracula gives one when fighting Harry:
--->"I am Dracula. I defied empires, causing the fields of Europe to steam with the blood of my enemies, long before I began drinking it as well. When I destroyed their armies, I made a screaming forest of their survivors, ''earning'' the name of Lord Impaler. I am the Lord of the Vampires, I have slain gods and demons alike, and I, little Prince, am going to teach you a lesson you should long since have learned." *tosses Harry through a portal into open skies.* "Why not to meddle in the affairs of your betters."
** In Chapter 34, Wanda asks [[spoiler: Jesus]] to give a message to the members of the Council Elite who might potentially harm Harry, on her behalf:
--->"The message is as follows: I am [[spoiler: the Sorceress Supreme]]. Harry is my godson. And if any god, or goddess, or any entity of that ilk, even ''breathes'' the wrong way towards him, then I swear by my power and my name that I will make them ''wish'' that they were dealing with [[spoiler: my predecessor]]."
** [[spoiler:The Elder Wyrm]] gives a lengthy one in chapter 43 that carries shades of Smaug's, and one that - since he's capable of taking on both Thor and the ''Valiant'' simultaneously - he's plenty capable of living up to.
---> ''[[TheHero "You]]'' would fight ''me?'' You think much of yourself, oh very ''little'' thing. You are an Asgardian, of the blood of Frey, and one of moderate intelligence at that. Those qualities alone make you worth conversing with. But I, I am far more. My sire was Jormungand, Father of Dragons. I was born at the command of the Surtur Ash-Bringer, King of Flames, Lord of the Inferno, for a purpose beyond your comprehension. I was a vanguard for his infinite armies; I burned worlds beyond number from clouds to core, and devoured their people like sheep on the fold! Your people are gods now, Asgardian, but I ate my fill of gods long before your kind ever claimed the spark of divinity! Your people are old now, but I was ancient when the eldest of your sires were mere mortal babes in their mother’s arms! Even in my sleep, I reached out my thought and ensnared gods, both of this land and of your kindred, and ''broke'' them to my will!”
* BadassCrew: Harry already has a team of proto-Young Avengers, composed of himself, Carol, Jean-Paul, Uhtred, and Diana.
** This group, minus Jean-Paul (at first) and including Bucky, Remus, Sirius, Gambit, and a [[spoiler: half-turned Peter Parker, later joined by Alison, and Doctor Doom]], work together quite effectively against [[spoiler: the Grey Court]].
** The Winter Guard are said to be this trope, though [[TheWorfEffect in practice they get]] OvershadowedByAwesome.
** After Alison was kidnapped by [[spoiler: the Red Room,]] [[MamaBear Peggy Carter]] teamed up with [[spoiler: Charles Xavier, Jor-El, Howard Stark, Mar-Vell, Piotr Rasputin, Bra'tac, and Teal'c]] to get her back.
** The Avengers, of course, who are respected, if not outright feared, by every mortal and supernatural power bloc on Earth and its associated realms.
** The First Class of X-Men are mentioned again, with Fury noting to Loki that before he joined, he would've given them even odds against the Avengers. While they never fight together as a collective, each of them demonstrates just how dangerous they are on multiple occasions.
* BadassLongCoat: Harry Dresden, of course.
** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] has a similar one, but she ditches it as part of her HeelFaceTurn.
** Wanda Maximoff seems to have picked up the habit from her boyfriend, and when she receives the [[spoiler: garb of the Sorceress Supreme]], it takes the form of one.
** Harry briefly wears one during the finale of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc as part of his [[spoiler: imitation of the Dark Phoenix]].
* BadFuture: It would seem that Strange can foresee these, and actively works to prevent them. For example, he tells Wanda that if he hadn't [[spoiler: led Gambit to the Red Room, setting in motion the first steps of Maddie's HeelFaceTurn]], the worst possible outcome of events would have been Earth and the rest of the Nine Realms being destroyed by [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix Maddie]], followed by a race between Chthon's ilk and an Infinity Stone-powered Thanos to control or destroy the universe. Most of the 'better' futures would still have had [[spoiler: Maddie]] dead and a death toll extending into the millions, if not the hundreds of millions - and while there were other, better futures that Strange could more easily have arranged, though they were few and far between, he felt he owed it to [[spoiler: Maddie.]]
** Harry's shown a number of possible futures in chapter 41, with the worst showing Harry as [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix, having slaughtered his family, the Avengers, and set the Nine Realms aflame, and now just sitting on the melted throne in the ruins of Asgard and laughing like a maniac because he knows that Harry can see him]]. Harry, needless to say, freaks the hell out.
* BaitAndSwitch: At first, it is implied that the Red Son is a clone of someone, perhaps Clark or Harry, or some other genetically engineered abomination from the tail-end of the Cold War. Actually, though, it's [[spoiler: Harry, or at least the BlankSlate of his body, brainwashed and programmed.]]
** The same arc also heavily implies that [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] is either an ArtificialHuman or [[CloningBlues a clone]] of [[spoiler: Jean]]. As it turns out, she's just always been told that she's an ArtificialHuman as a means of dehumanisation and thus control. In reality, [[spoiler: she's Jean's stolen at birth twin sister.]]
** Carol notices Peter Parker acting strangely, standing up to Flash Thompson, and moving with super-human agility. Most readers believed that this was {{foreshadowing}} of his spider-powers, but actually, it's [[spoiler: because he's a thrall of the Grey Court]].
* BatmanGambit: Voldemort has Crouch send up the Dark Mark during the fight at the World Cup, knowing that its reputation will cause panic and confusion among the heroes and assembled allies.
** The Avengers pull several on the Red Room in Chapter 13, counting on exactly how they're going to react to provocation in order to lead them into several traps. [[spoiler: Harry]] notes rather scathingly that they were blatantly obvious and wouldn't have worked were it not for Belova being mad and Lukin's sensitive ego. However, it could also be said that the latter was kind of the point.
** [[spoiler: Alison Carter]] pulled one in the backstory, when she arranged for [[MagnificentBastard Fury]] and [[ManipulativeBastard Coulson]] to be the first SHIELD Agents to run into a recently landed infant Kal-El a.k.a. Clark Kent, knowing that they'd react sympathetically to a lost child. Even more impressively, she managed it without once indicating that she was involved.
* BattleBallgown: Subverted, with Carol noting Strange's presence at [[spoiler: the Yule Ball]] and wondering if everything is going to go wrong and if she has time to change into something more practical.
* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: Harry and Voldemort have a couple of these during their fight at the World Cup. The first one ends in a draw due to Harry's raw power going up against Voldemort's skill and willingness to use Harry's friends as hostages. The second, without hostages, ends with Harry overwhelming Voldemort, forcing him to flee.
** Harry and [[spoiler: Rachel Grey/Maddie Pryor]] get into another, pretty epic one, later on. It causes a global scale PsychicNosebleed, almost kills some elderly psychics, and results in a WorldGoneMad in the relevant part of the Nevernever.
* BeAllMySinsRemembered: At Loki's own insistence, the "RoguesGallery" exhibit at New York's Natural History Museum contains a replica of him as he was during the Chitauri invasion.
* BeautifulDreamer: Harry wakes up and sees Carol snuggled up to him in chapter 37, and smiles fondly at her peaceful expression... then realises to his absolute mortification that [[RagingStiffie he's got a case of morning wood.]] Cue some very careful attempts to extricate himself without waking her up.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Harry gets hit with this ''hard'' when he darkly remarks that he ''hopes'' the then unknown telepath - Sinister - who intervened to keep him at Privet Drive to study him comes around and has a go, doubtless planning to wreak horrors on his person. Cue the ''Forever Red'' arc, in which Harry is kidnapped, tortured, [[spoiler: his BlankSlate body is [[ReforgedIntoAMinion reprogrammed into the Red Son]]]], hundreds of deaths, countless cases of MindRape to varying degrees, the geopolitical map of the mortal and spirit worlds being turned upside down, and worst of all, [[spoiler: the rise of the Dark Phoenix, an event which leads to more than a few mortals and gods concluding that Harry is an ApocalypseMaiden and too dangerous to live, while Harry himself is a slowly recovering traumatised wreck.]] All in all, it's fair to say that that particular wish backfired.
* BehemothBattle: To counter Dresden bringing in Sue [[spoiler: [[RaisingTheSteaks the reanimated T-Rex]]]], Selene transforms into a primordial dragon called a Long-Wyrm. To Sue's credit, she holds out for a fair while before Selene wins.
* BerserkButton: There are many, occasionally several for each character.
** A general one for most any character is hurting or threatening a member of their family or their TrueCompanions.
** Draco does ''not'' like to be compared to his father.
** Harry has a selection of new ones (usually relating to telepathy) after the ''Forever Red'' arc that he's rather reticent about. This makes him even more unnerving for his fellow Hogwarts students as, from their point of view, there's every chance that they'll make an innocuous joke and he'll go off like a claymore mine. He also absolutely hates being controlled or dictated to, for understandable reasons.
** ''Never'' condescend towards or treat Dracula like an idiot. Harry and Voldemort both try fairly transparent ploys on the VampireMonarch, and in neither case does it end well for them.
* TheBet: Several were apparently made among both the Avengers and the Hogwarts staff regarding whether Harry and Carol would [[spoiler: have their FirstKiss before or during the Yule Ball]], with the winners collecting their earnings in Chapter 47 after [[spoiler: the kiss occurs when Harry asks her to the Ball]].
* BigBadassBattleSequence: Chapters 9 and 10, especially 10, embody this trope.
** Chapters 12 and 13 also emphasise this.
** Chapters 32 and 33 are pretty much entirely this trope, with several separate battles.
** Chapters 43 and 44 have Harry, the Hogwarts staff, the various heroes who have come to watch the Triwizard Tournament, and [=MI13=] fighting an [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] who awakens from underneath the Black Lake and starts attacking everyone in the area.
* BigBlackout: The Grey Court cuts all power and communications networks in Manhattan, in order to create enough confusion and chaos that they can [[spoiler: abduct Carol]] without anyone noticing.
* BigBadEnsemble: While Voldemort appears to be the OverarchingVillain of this book, the StoryArc format provides plenty of other antagonists time to shine: in ''Forever Red'' there's the Red Room as led by General Lukin and [[spoiler: Sinister]]; in ''Bloody Hell'' Voldemort is joined by Selene and the Kemmlerites (all in opposition to each other) in the Dresden storyline, and Dracula and his Grey Court in the Harry storyline; in ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'', an [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] is inadvertently awakened by the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament and comes into conflict with Harry as it tries to devour him and the other Champions.
* BigDamnHeroes: The Avengers, Wanda, Bucky, Jean, Alison, and Jack O'Neill in chapter 10.
** [[spoiler: Maddie,]] Jono, Harry Dresden, Sir Fix, and [[spoiler: Doctor Strange]] pull this in chapters 14 and 15.
** For a given value of 'hero', but [[spoiler: Strange]] pulls this in chapter 16 when Odin's being backed into a corner by the Council Elite of Skyfathers. By [[spoiler: whisking them to the Rock of Eternity with the Tesseract]], no less.
** [[spoiler: Gambit]] pops up at the end of Chapter 30 to help Carol, Stevie, and [[spoiler: Peter]] escape the Grey Court. Chapter 31 follows up on this by showing he brought Uhtred, Diana, and Logan with him as backup. And ''then'', Harry and Bucky show up just in time to [[spoiler: stop the vampires from executing Stevie]].
** Chapter 31 also has Magneto show up just in time to save Dresden from Cassius.
** Dresden pulls this off in chapter 33 with Sue the polka-powered dinosaur (ItMakesSenseInContext), Harry, Bucky, and Alison pull together a team to rescue Carol from Dracula, and Hulk, Thor, and Loki later show up to rescue Harry once things go south.
** Just as Harry Thorson is about to be pounded into the ground by Dracula in the same chapter, who's seen through his ploy, Harry starts counting down. Five seconds later, Thor performs a ThreePointLanding, followed swiftly by the Hulk and Loki.
* TheBigDamnKiss: [[spoiler: Harry and Carol in Chapter 46, when she agrees to be his date to the Yule Ball.]]
* BiggerOnTheInside: Harry speculates that this is the case with Hogwarts.
* BigSisterInstinct: Jean to Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]], outright threatening to bring down SHIELD singlehandedly if she thinks that they're a threat to her family.
** Carol notes after [[spoiler: being kidnapped by the Grey Court]] that what really angers her isn't being captured, nor is it innocents getting hurt, but her baby brother crying.
* BilingualBonus: Magneto and Ruth's terms for each other, ''Zayde'' and ''Aynikl,'' are {{Affectionate Nickname}}s in Yiddish for "grandpa" and "granddaughter," respectively.
* BiTheWay: [[spoiler: Ginny]] comes to realize that she's attracted to both boys and girls.
* BlackAndGreyMorality: The story settles into this, after the first book flirted with it, particularly in relation to the Avengers' habit of obeying rules more or less only when it suits them, a habit that Harry has acquired, which is treated as morally dubious. For instance, Doctor Doom's concern that the Avengers might one day decide to stroll into Latveria and depose him is presented as reasonable (even if his methods are not), on the grounds [[NoodleIncident that it has happened before.]] Likewise, their keeping the fact that Bucky used to be the Winter Soldier secret, having faked the Soldier's death, and using him as Harry's bodyguard in a school where more than a few students - including Harry's close friend, Ron - lost relatives to the Winter Soldier and the HYDRA troops he was leading (even if, as with Arthur Weasley, it was a MercyKill, it was still a kill). [[WhatTheHellHero Carol]] calls her grandmother, Alison, and the Avengers by proxy on this, pointing exactly why it's morally extremely dodgy. Alison, for her part, concedes that Carol is right, but Harry needed the best (not so much to protect him as to mentor him through the aftermath of ''Forever Red''), and for better or worse, Bucky is the best - and he also flies under the radar for those who don't know who he used to be.
* BlaseBoast: Strange gives a quiet one to Thor:
--> We both know that no prison built will hold me. I've been through enough tortures that anything you could do to me would be at best amusingly quaint and frankly, cathartic.
** Jean-Paul also tells Clark that there's no one faster than him, with Clark noting that this isn't as much of a boast as it is a statement of fact.
** Alison gets a couple in a flashback in chapter 36, noting to [[spoiler: Jor-El]] that she could, when necessary, make then Director Jim Woo do what she wants. Whether he likes it or not.
** Strange gets another in Chapter 37, stating casually (while inspecting his fingernails) that [[TheDreaded Queen]] [[PhysicalGod Mab]] knows much better than to get in his way.
** Harry gets a couple in chapter 42. The first is to the Undines, telling them that if he wanted to cause trouble for them, he would have, but so far has been willing to play nice. If they want to get nasty, he will oblige them, and they ''won't'' like it. Later on, he tells the [[spoiler: barrow wrights]] DontMakeMeDestroyYou, warning them that it's not a bluff, a threat, or even a negotiation: it's a statement of fact.
* BodyguardingABadass: This was [[spoiler: Maddie's job for Sinister,]] since he MinoredInAsskicking, but regards combat as beneath him.
** Bucky also serves as this for Harry after ''Forever Red.'' While the latter is capable of taking on just about anyone up to and including a fellow PersonOfMassDestruction, his primary reaction is to KillItWithFire, and subtlety, espionage, and being a planning are skills he has yet to master. Furthermore, because of his [[FamedInStory growing legend]], most enemies aren't going to just flat-out attack him, but instead strike from the shadows - and who better to watch his back and teach him how to fight in the shadows than [[TheDreaded the undisputed master]] [[ProfessionalKiller of those skills?]]
*** He also serves as a moderating influence on Harry in general, helping him along the rocky road of recovery following ''Forever Red''.
* BornOfMagic: Chapter 10 implies in passing that Merlin was this.
* BorrowedCatchphrase: Harry uses a slightly modified version of his father's "I would have words with thee" when confronting Dracula.
* BrandishmentBluff: Harry uses this - specifically, he pretends to [[spoiler: go Dark Phoenix]] against Dracula, who has a very understandable fear of [[spoiler: the Phoenix]], as part of his KansasCityShuffle at the end of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc. It works, for just about long enough.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Harry ends up suffering this at the hands of the Red Room, becoming the Red Son.]]
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: [[DoomMagnet Harry]] at one point hopes for world peace, good weather, and a year to go by at school without someone trying to murder him. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't get his wish.
* BreedingCult: The occasionally mentioned and extremely secretive Askani are consistently described as a 'weird, but mostly harmless' mixture of this and a MysteryCult. It's never made particularly clear what they actually want, though their most consistent goal is described to be maintaining their bloodlines and scouting for new input - which would be why they were so interested in Charles Xavier.
** When one of their members appears in chapter 38 and speaks to Xavier, this impression is confirmed - along with a general interest in psychic goings-on worldwide (on the grounds that they're affected too) - and it is further revealed that the Askani previously not only picked up new psychics, but ejected bloodlines that stopped producing psychics. They've acknowledged this as a mistake (though not as immoral, which Xavier coldly points out), with the reveal that [[spoiler: the Grey family, including Jean, Maddie, and Harry (through Lily) are descendants of a previously defunct Askani bloodline]].
* BrickJoke: During the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, the LemonyNarrator describes the injustice that the universe didn't have a soundtrack, for if it had, it would have welcomed [[spoiler:Maddie]] lifting Mjolnir to a rousing rendition of "[[Music/{{ACDC}} Thunderstruck]]". [[spoiler:When Harry is about to use the thunderstorm to add to the power of his attack, Tony hacks the ''Valiant'' helicarrier so that its loudspeakers will ''blast'' "Thunderstruck".]]
** This is actually a doubled example, as in chapter 80 of ''Child of the Storm'', Wisdom remarks to Pepper that [[spoiler: he half-expects Tony to put something in when revamping the ''Valiant'', perhaps a backdoor to hack in through and doesn't mind for his own reasons - part of them being that if he had a problem with Tony, he wouldn't use a helicarrier to sort it out. Then, Tony hacks into the ''Valiant'' to use its speakers, which Wisdom ''definitely'' minds.]]
** Back in chapter 77 of ''Child of the Storm'', during the Battle of London, Thor embarrasses Harry by cheerfully informing him that he and Carol make a lovely BattleCouple. In chapter 43 of this book, when Harry alludes to that battle and how he and Carol teamed up to take down a demonic dragon - in reference to [[spoiler: the giant dragon he's facing now]] - Thor snarks that that wasn't a battle, it was a first date. Cue another wail of teenage embarrassment (though, as it's noted, Harry doesn't actually disagree with this assessment).
* BringIt: Harry says this to [[spoiler: Maddie]] right before their psychic duel in [[spoiler: the Red Room base]].
-->'''[[spoiler: Maddie]]''': Consider it brought.
* BrokenAce: Doctor Strange, as best shown during the ''Forever Red'' arc and when he explains his background in chapter 20. He's brilliant, witty, and incredibly powerful... and he's also ancient, miserable, half-mad, chock full of self-loathing, and incredibly lonely, regarding the prospect of torture as cathartic and of death as a release.
** If Harry Thorson wasn't this trope before, he certainly is after ''Forever Red.''
* BroughtDownToBadass: According to Dumbledore, while Strange stripped Grindelwald of all his outside enhancements and gifted power, he was still the joint strongest Wanded practitioner of his era, armed with the Elder Wand, and exceptionally knowledgeable about the Dark Arts. In other words, he went from PhysicalGod to PersonOfMassDestruction.
** Thor demonstrates during the second half of ''Forever Red'' that being without Mjolnir doesn't really slow him down. How? He snaps into [[UnstoppableRage the Warrior's Madness]] and beats the freaking ''Juggernaut'' to a pulp.
* TheBusCameBack: Sean and Warren make cameos in chapter 2, and the latter gets one in chapter 27.
** Peter Parker also shows up in chapter 29, having had one fairly brief appearance all the way back in chapter 20 of ''Child of the Storm.''
* ButtMonkey: Cornelius Fudge. The only reason he's still Minister is for lack of better alternatives, or anyone willing to take the job while it means dealing with Peter Wisdom. Additionally, Wisdom regards terrorising Fudge as one of his few pleasures in life. And that's not even getting into the Hogwarts breakfast food-fight, wherein he's engulfed by a tidal wave of jam, which, [[BlatantLies of course, had nothing to do with Dumbledore whatsoever.]]
* CallBack: When Voldemort first reveals himself to Harry by turning [[spoiler: Carol and Uhtred]] into PeoplePuppets, he has them reiterate his comments to Harry from ''Philosopher's Stone'' about power and morality. This is actually what clues Harry into what's happening.
** Carol mentions the heart ripping/pseudo-Blood Eagle incident to Hermione as a demonstration of what Harry's dark side is capable of. She also mentions the Battle of London in general, and Harry's resurrection by the Phoenix and Her resultant rampage in chapter 71 of ''Child of the Storm''.
** Mention is also made of Trelawney's second prophecy in Chapter 4.
** When Diana and Uhtred come to visit Harry at Hogwarts, the latter gets his attention by knocking on a window and shouting "Found you!" just like [[Film/{{Thor}} Sif and the Warriors Three did when they found Thor on Earth]].
** Professor Bach [[spoiler: a.k.a. Strange]] references [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Ron's creative usage of a Levitation Charm on a troll's club.]]
** In chapter 28, Harry refers both to Crouch Senior's role in Sirius' incarceration and Thor's violent reaction to it, noting that they haven't forgotten, just been distracted by more important things - therefore, Crouch would be wise not to draw attention to himself.
*** In the same chapter, in reference to [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Kemmlerite necromancers plaguing Chicago]], specifically how one of them - Kumori - used her necromancy to prevent someone from dying, Dresden discusses Doctor Strange resurrecting him in the Catacombs under Paris, after he used his Death Curse on Gravemoss, and mentions the ''veidrdraugar'' (and how he is heartily glad none of the Kemmlerites have figured out how to replicate them).
** Later on, Wanda describes the previously-mentioned fight between her father and Voldemort on Mount Wundagore the night she was born, and she and Luccio reference Strange's famous challenge of the Council over her.
** Harry Dresden calls back to [[Literature/BloodRites his previous adventure]] a couple of times when speaking to Ebenezar and Luccio, and he and [[spoiler: Cassius]] reference [[Literature/DeathMasks Dresden's first encounter with the Denarians.]]
** In chapter 32, after absorbing the best Harry and his allies can do and letting them pound him a little, the MonsterOfTheWeek catches Harry's strike and says, "Not bad. But not good enough." This exact situation occurred in chapter 60 of ''Child of the Storm,'' with Zemo and HYDRA's Destroyer instead of Dracula.
** Mention is also made of Harry and Thor meeting and helping Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker, back in chapter 20 of the first book, by Gwen's father, Captain Stacy - who also notes that according to Gwen, Harry was decidedly ''not'' 'arrogant, difficult, and prone to making threats'. Harry's snarky response is that [[{{Understatement}} he's "had a difficult year."]]
** In chapter 38, when discussing the [[GreyAndGreyMorality moral ambiguity]] of hiding Bucky's past as the Winter Soldier, Alison - who supports keeping the secret - recalls that the Winter Soldier killed Brian Falsworth a.k.a. Union Jack (the [[FlyingBrick Captain Britain]] of his day, and son of Lt. Montgomery Falsworth) and his partner, Roger Aubrey a.k.a. [[BadassNormal Dyna-Mite/the Destroyer]] in the 1970s. This was mentioned in passing in ''Child of the Storm'' to establish the Soldier's badassery, and the two made a brief post-mortem cameo at the Battle of London. However, it's expanded upon here, with Alison stating that she knew Brian very well (after all, their parents were friends), and that he was the little brother she never had. She also confirms what their cameo implied - [[BadassGay they were more than]] [[BattleCouple just professional partners]] - remarking that she acted as Brian's [[TheBeard beard]] a couple of times. Accordingly, her decision to support keeping Bucky's secret is not one made lightly.
** [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger Arnim Zola's remark]] that the sanity of the Red Skull's plans is immaterial, because he can do it, is referenced by Dumbledore. Strange later says exactly the same thing about [[TheDreaded Thanos.]]
* CallingCard: The Dark Mark, for the Death Eaters.
** The Red Room's is a blood red star.
** The phoenix, particularly the simplified and stylised Jean Grey emblem, becomes this for Harry. It's not that hard to guess why.
** Gambit's literal calling card is the Jack of Hearts.
* TheCameo: [[Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell]] appear briefly in the background in chapter 7 as two wandless Wizards, the former an expert on Faerie, the other an owner of a vintage bookstore that almost never sells anything. They are, predictably arguing and the jury is still out on whether Jonathan Strange is any relation to Doctor Strange. Jonathan apparently doesn't know (and quite plausibly points out that Strange's time travelling means that it's anyone's guess). For his part, the good doctor isn't saying anything.
** In chapter 18, Hermione mentions having a brief chat with 'Ambrose Penn', a wandless wizard who made a cameo in ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban,'' regarding magic and magical theory. He also may or may not be [[spoiler: Merlin.]]
* CannotSpitItOut: Harry regarding his feelings for Carol. He even lampshades how he can fight the likes of Voldemort and Dracula without batting an eye, but struggles with this. As it turns out, it's mutual - both the feelings and the inability to spit it out. Fortunately, having a psychic link helps clear things up.
* CaptainErsatz: The InvisiblePresident of Russia, Volodya, is one for Putin, or [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Putin himself]], considering that Volodya is one of his known nicknames and his characterisation fits Putin's background and displayed character.
* CapturedSuperEntity: The canonical example of Dream is mentioned by the Gatekeeper, as is the attempt by the Clan Akkaba to capture and control the Phoenix in Vienna in 1897. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge In neither case did it end well,]] though the latter has continued significance, as before breaking loose, the Phoenix did as the Clan desired and all but wiped out the Grey Court of Vampires (mainly because She really doesn't like vampires), and it's indicated repeatedly that Dracula might just have a grudge against Harry because of this. When he appears, he isn't particularly interested in fighting Harry, but when the latter rudely insists on being a SpannerInTheWorks, Dracula does attack him, [[{{Foreshadowing}} and seems to both recognise the Phoenix within him and fear it.]] [[spoiler: This gives Harry the idea to pretend to be the Dark Phoenix to scare Dracula and keep him from thinking straight for long enough to keep him on the back foot and rescue Carol.]]
* CasualDangerDialogue: Harry and Carol continue this trend from ''Child of the Storm'', flirting[=/=]snarking at each other even when in the middle of an escape attempt from the Red Room.
-->'''Noriko''': (''annoyed'') Do you always talk this much when there are more important things to do?
-->'''Harry and Carol''': [[BlatantLies ... No.]]
** Peter Parker, Diana, and Harry get into quite a bit of this while fighting Grey Court vampires.
* CerebusRetcon: Carol's dad, previously established as having [[StayInTheKitchen old fashioned attitudes]], and generally being a StandardFiftiesFather in the wrong century, is established on his first actual appearance as psychologically abusive in such a way that it only really becomes obvious in retrospect - something which also, in retrospect, provides the root for most of Carol's issues. He tries to get Harry to use his PsychicPowers to set Carol 'on the right path.' [[BerserkButton Harry predictably erupts with fury.]] When his wife and mother-in-law get the full story in chapter 20, they agree that he has to go. Since said mother-in-law is [[NeverMessWithGranny Alison Carter]], he is gone in very short order.
** It's mentioned in ''Child of the Storm'' that Brian Falsworth a.k.a. [[FlyingBrick Union Jack,]] and his partner [[BattleCouple (professionally]] [[BadassGay and otherwise)]] Roger Aubrey, who were both killed by the Winter Soldier in the 1970s, mainly as a throwaway reference. In chapter 38 of this story, however, it's revealed that Brian was a close friend to Alison, and the nearest thing she had to a little brother - she even played TheBeard for him on a couple of occasions. Bearing in mind that the Winter Soldier turned out to be her long lost father's brainwashed best friend, who she interacts with on a regular basis...
** The circumstances of Hermione's adoption become even grimmer once it's made clear just what Constantine did, that (combined with the Order [[TheFellowshipHasEnded falling apart]] and her mentor remaining persistently and unhelpfully silent) left Wanda so very alone and without options.
* ChekhovsGun: Back in Chapter 69 of ''Child of the Storm'', Fury had an OhCrap reaction to an EurekaMoment he had after reading something in SHIELD's file on Jean. In Chapter 9, we learn what it was: [[spoiler: he's realised that her twin sister Rachel didn't actually die as an infant, but was in fact stolen and still alive. Sinister's involvement led him to figure out who was behind it]].
** The phoenix feather (or, as Strange puts it, 'what you all so charmingly think is merely a phoenix feather') that Odin showed Harry way back in chapter 35 of ''Child of the Storm'', and gifted Harry with in the epilogue. Here, [[spoiler: Maddie stores Harry's consciousness in it to protect him from the Red Son reprogramming, and it's later used to absorb his out of control Phoenix powers.]] It's later revealed to be [[spoiler: Laevateinn, the shapeshifting wand of Prospero Slytherin,]] first mentioned in the above chapter.
** Also first mentioned in Chapter 35 was the Twilight Sword, which Harry finds out almost a book later was wielded by [[spoiler: Surtur]].
* ChekhovsGunman: In chapter 7, the mysterious voice in Draco's head is directly alluded to for the first time since chapter 21 of ''Child of the Storm'', with circumstantial hints as to who it might be: [[spoiler: Prospero Slytherin, ancestor of Salazar, hero of the Last Frost Giant War and wielder of the Phoenix associated Laevateinn.]]
** In the same chapter, Sinister finally appears, having lurked in the background throughout ''Child of the Storm''.
** The Girl With Glowing Blue Eyes finally runs into Harry, also in chapter 7, having appeared in scattered scenes throughout the second half of ''Child of the Storm'' and earlier in ''Ghosts of the Past'', each time responding to a major use of Harry's psychic powers or of the Phoenix and is [[TheReveal revealed to be]] [[spoiler: Rachel Grey a.k.a. Maddie Pryor.]]
** [[spoiler: Jesus]] mentions that his counterpart, [[spoiler: the Anti-Christ,]] is named [[Literature/GoodOmens Adam]].
* ChildrenForcedToKill: [[spoiler: Harry]] as the Red Son. It's part of why he's so broken that he [[spoiler: willingly becomes the Dark Phoenix.]]
* TheChosenOne: Harry, as per usual, to his profound displeasure.
** Frey, the First King, was this, and doesn't seem to have liked it any more than his descendant. His statue, unusually, is described as having the look of someone who's scared out of their mind by what they're about to do but is nevertheless about to do it anyway - as Strange notes, he was a young man almost defined by his devotion to duty, and did it without complaining.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Harry's comes up again in Chapter 10, as he [[spoiler: chases after Maddie/Rachel as she's teleported away with the Red Room]], not caring about the danger it puts him in.
** Mab plays on Harry Dresden's ChronicHeroSyndrome to get him to take the Winter Knight mantle, as he [[FriendToAllChildren would absolutely be willing]] to make a DealWithTheDevil to save one kid. Thankfully, Pepper helps him to TakeAThirdOption.
** Mention is also made of Bruce Wayne's, as he helps Harry (Dresden) against the Kemmlerites despite the latter's direct orders.
* CivilWar: One broke out on Krypton in its last days, between the Science Council (which [[HeadInTheSandManagement refused to believe]] Jor-El's warnings), General Zod (who believed Jor-El and believed overthrowing the Council would somehow save their planet) and the Cult of the Eradicator (who also believed Jor-El, but felt that [[ApocalypseCult the world ending would be a good thing]]). To say that Jor-El, a pacifistic scientist, was unhappy about this would be a spectacular understatement.
* CoDragons: Yelena and [[spoiler: Sinister]] serve as this to Lukin -- the former is his chief physical enforcer, while the latter is the resident EvilGenius (and the [[DragonInChief brains behind the operation]]).
* CombatPragmatist: Clint, Bucky, Natasha, and Loki are particular examples of this, as is [[spoiler: Maddie]], who was taught/programmed to go for the quick and efficient solution - her EvilMentor, Essex, is the same when actually forced to fight.
** At a contrast to his ChronicHeroSyndrome influenced strategic thinking (and tendency to IndyPloy his way in and out of trouble), Harry's actual fighting style heavily reflects this, particularly after ''[[TraumaCongaLine Forever Red]]'' when Bucky starts teaching him - at which point he starts planning much better. In the next major arc, he explicitly states, "when it comes to monsters attacking my friends, I have absolutely no interest in fair fights". It's also noted in chapter 44 that in a high-stakes fight, he "left his scruples at the door", going for eyes and other soft parts, attacking wounds and signs of vulnerability, and literally stabbing more powerful opponents in the back while they're distracted.
* TheComicallySerious: [[spoiler: Maddie]], at first. This eventually evolves into some extremely deadpan sarcasm.
* CompositeCharacter: [[spoiler: Dudley]] is the Blob in this setting, having been experimented on by Sinister.
** The Blue Eyed Girl is a fusion of [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor and Rachel Grey, being the twin sister of Jean, stolen at birth by Sinister, and raised as his Hound.]]
** Gambit is a mixture of his canon self and [[spoiler: Gabriel Summers]].
* TheConfidant: Carol develops into this for Harry. There's a number of reasons why, but it has a lot to do with the facts that: a) she's usually right alongside him in whatever insane (and frequently, ludicrously traumatic) scenario he's found himself in ''this'' time, so she usually has the inside track on what's happened - which is important, if whatever happened was too painful for Harry to really want to talk much about, b) they have an increasingly close friendship flavoured by {{UST}} that eventually evolves into an AnchoredShip, c) after the first chapter of the sequel, as a side-effect of her letting him in her mind to perform some well-intentioned but inexpert psychic therapy, they wind up with a PsychicLink, meaning that he doesn't actually have to say things, as such. This only gets dialled up further in chapter 46, after [[spoiler: their RelationshipUpgrade.]]
* ConfusionFu: This is Harry's strategic trademark, mixed in with frequent {{Indy Ploy}}s and latterly, XanatosSpeedChess, and along with his tendency (partly down to Doctor Strange's manipulations) to be in the right place at the right time, it's why he's such a SpannerInTheWorks to various villains - he's the wild card factor, because no one quite knows what he's going to do next. All they ''do'' tend to know is that it'll probably be [[CrazyEnoughToWork completely nuts]]. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that when combined with [[PoorCommunicationKills a habit of not sharing changes in plan]], it's also prone to derailing his allies' plans, and sometimes ''[[UpToEleven even his own.]]'' After this goes horribly wrong in ''Forever Red'', he learns to moderate it by actually stopping and thinking first, and communicating - at which point the plans he comes up with often still qualify as this, because they're still just that nuts.
* ContinuityNod: The orca whale in the Hogwarts' Lake is occasionally mentioned, both in passing in terms of the Lake, and in reference to Hermione's emergent chaos magic (which created the whale from a chair).
* CoolAirship: Helicarriers in general, but particularly [=MI13=]'s ''Valiant'', which proves more than just a paper tiger when it goes toe to toe with [[spoiler: the Elder Wyrm]], and actually does the bulk of the damage, thanks to its [[TeleFrag Nexus weaponry,]] and thanks to its Vibranium armour (scraped off HYDRA's ''Dreadnought''), it can not only shrug off blasts of flame sufficient to melt 'a mountain of adamantium', but store it and return it, with interest.
* CoolCrown: Harry gets one in chapter 47, for the Yule Ball, a circlet of golden ivy branches and leaves (symbolic of life, rebirth, and love), set with a gem of pure starlight. He's a bit uncomfortable with how fancy it is, but it is generally acknowledged that he wears it well.
* CoolHelmet: Thor's, as usual - though he doesn't often wear it.
** Harry winds up with a silver-white and short-lived winged one in chapter 32, in the style of his father's mixed with [[PoweredArmour an Iron Man helmet]] - which has something to do with how Sirius transfigured it from [[ImprovisedArmour the broken pieces of several Iron Man suits.]] It also has a certain [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Tolkienian flair]], as does the rest of the KnightInShiningArmour aesthetic, which WordOfGod indicates was very much intentional.
*** An improved variation appears as part of 'Project Galahad', a suit of Iron Man armour tailored for Harry, in chapter 43.
* CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: Zig-Zagged. While the characters who do so (Harry, the Avengers, and Doctor Strange) who tend to do so are usually cool, respectively their reasons for doing so are deconstructed, being portrayed as flawed (Harry's lashing out, albeit [[ShellShockedVeteran with good reason]]); as creating as many problems as they solve (the HYDRA-Death Eater alliance was formed based on fears of the Avengers' vengeance, with Doom's actions being preparing for the same); or actively undermining the authority of those who need it, e.g. the White Council, who backed down when Strange threw down the gauntlet to protect a young Wanda. While Ebenezar [=McCoy=], a member of the Senior Council, notes he was glad to see her spared, he also points out that the White Council's ability to face down rogue practitioners and darker supernatural powers is based on its reputation, which was ''not'' helped by Strange's actions.
* CoolSword: The Twilight Sword, wielded by Surtur and indicated by Odin to be on the same level as Mjolnir or Gungnir.
** Van, the Sword of Hope, which was at least somewhat sentient, could NoSell [[spoiler: Phoenix fire]], and was wielded by [[spoiler: Frey in the FinalBattle against Surtur]].
** Harry's sword, which post [[ReforgedBlade reforging]] he names [[spoiler: Curtana.]] Before, it's simply a very sharp and well-balanced sword (made out of Asgardian materials, meaning it probably beats most Earth metals). Forged by Uhtred (with Tony's help) and enchanted by Loki, it receives a kind of re-forging thanks to a mixture of Dracula's lightning, Harry's power, his Phoenix-infused blood, and a couple of enchantments from Doctor Strange. It thus becomes more powerful; how powerful is so far unknown, as beyond glowing occasionally and possibly 'biting' anyone who tries to pick it up without permission, it doesn't do much - until chapter 44, when it proves very effective as a channel for Harry's powers, being one of the few things that seriously harms [[spoiler: the Elder Wyrm.]]
** In relation to Harry's sword, it's compared InUniverse to the ''Series/Merlin2008'' version of Excalibur (a very well-forged but mundane sword that was enchanted by being reforged in a dragon's flame at Merlin's behest). Since Strange [[spoiler: grew up alongside Merlin and was involved in those events as a boy]], being involved in the creation of that sword, Loki remarks that the similarities were almost certainly intentional. Harry, a King Arthur geek, spends the next few minutes on the verge of nerdgasm, and eventually gives it a very Arthurian name: [[spoiler: Curtana, the Sword of Mercy]].
** He also discusses another example of this trope, ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Amoracchius]]'', explaining how Arthur had two apparently different swords that were both known as Excalibur. Essentially, the dragon-forged one was the original Excalibur, and became the Sword in the Stone (the current location of which is unknown, with Loki sourly speculating that Strange could quite easily be using it as a fireplace poker), while Arthur wielded ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Amoracchius]]'' (another example) in later life, and confused record-keepers conflated the two, calling ''both'' Excalibur.
* TheCorruption: Black magic has this effect, particularly on wandless practitioners - wands serve as a buffer for wanded practitioners, reducing the side-effects. As a result, even those who innocently break the Seven Laws and use BlackMagic with the best of intentions (e.g. by using magic to MindRape someone into stopping their self-destructive drug abuse), are at risk of very quickly JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope. This in turn explains the White Council's [[InspectorJavert zero tolerance]] policy regarding dark magic.
** The only ways around this are if you have an artefact that, like a wand or the Blackstaff, that serves as a buffer, or have mastered the techniques of the Sorcerers Supreme to use it without being changed by it. The latter is the final test of an Apprentice Sorcerer Supreme, and one that's often failed, with Captain Luccio noting some of history's worst Dark Lords and Ladies are former Apprentices that failed that particular test and were corrupted.
* CosmicEntity: The Endless, especially Destruction a.k.a. the Phoenix. Also mentioned are Galactus and Eternity.
* CostumePorn: Harry's jury-rigged armour, which he put together from a bunch of pieces of battered Iron Man armour, becomes this, courtesy of Sirius, being described by a dazed Carol as 'something from another age' - WordOfGod was that it was intended to evoke Numenor, KnightInShiningArmour aesthetic and all.
** Tony then uses this design as a template for a suit of armour referred to as [[MeaningfulName Project Galahad]], which Harry wears in chapter 44.
** Harry's, [[spoiler: Carol's]] and [[spoiler: Diana's]] costumes (the latter two being closer to SimpleYetOpulent) in chapter 47 for the Yule Ball all qualify, with Harry, among other things, wearing a golden ivy themed CoolCrown set with a gem of pure starlight, the rest primarily being [[GoldAndWhiteAreDivine gold and white themed, with hints of silver]] and red trousers beneath. Being ModestRoyalty, he's a little uncomfortable with it, but is noted to wear it well.
* CouldSayItBut: During a fight, [[spoiler: Gambit]] uses banter to cover that he's telling Harry how to find where Carol and the other captives are being held.
* TheCoup: [[spoiler: When Volodya states his intent to shut down the Red Room and hand Lukin over to the Avengers, Lukin responds by killing him, taking de facto control of Russia.]]
* CourtlyLove: Harry and Carol's thoroughly complicated relationship evolves into this on the way to becoming an AnchoredShip, with the Avengers discussing which of TheFourLoves applies (they're not entirely sure, but settle on ''philia'').
** Regarding Carol, Harry's just about the only person other than her mother and grandmother that she lets see her genuinely vulnerable side (thanks to major trust issues, particularly regarding guys, and [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship is terrified of ruining their friendship]]).
** Harry, meanwhile, is utterly scrupulous about abiding by her wishes, stating repeatedly that their friendship comes before anything else - [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan this is a large part of why she likes him]]. However, following ''Forever Red'', he's leery about a relationship because he doesn't want it just to be a case of Carol holding his mind together - since she's one of a very short list of people who can reliably act as his MoralityChain and provide a CooldownHug[=/=]YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre speech, [[spoiler: even when he's on the verge of transforming completely into the Dark Phoenix]]. The others are his father, and Jean - his cousin and increasingly, surrogate big sister.
** Interestingly, their psychic connection, formed accidentally in chapter 2, seems to be fuelling both sides of their relationship. They frequently share a bed and snuggle after one or both has gone through something traumatic (since Harry's a DoomMagnet, this is frequent), and are practically joined at the hip/the brain. While broadly platonic, [[{{UST}} the door is clearly open]] for them to become MindLinkMates. [[spoiler: In chapter 46, they do.]]
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Doctor Strange observes that Uther Pendragon's paranoid fear of the pacifistic druidic clans and his genocidal response led to a number of druidic plots to bring him down. Indeed, this habit came back to bite him twice: two druid boys survived ThePurge. One was Taliesin, [[spoiler: now known as Doctor Strange]], who had been [[MosesInTheBullRushes set adrift in an enchanted basket by his desperate mother as their clan was being slaughtered by Uther's men]], and became apprentice to Merlin and his right hand man, as well as eventually [[TheMedic Court Physician]] of Camelot, playing a key role in dismantling Uther's legacy during Arthur's reign. The other was Mordred, whose family and guardian were likewise murdered, and whose enmity for the Pendragon dynasty led to his allegiance to Morgana and Arthur's death on the field of Camlann, and the eventual collapse of Camelot itself. In other words, his actions led not only to the total dismantling of his legacy, but the collapse of his dynasty and his realm.
** After leaving Grindelwald for Dumbledore to defeat, Strange apparently told Dumbledore that this trope was why he wouldn't just do it himself - though it's suspected that Strange [[HalfTruth being]] [[ManipulativeBastard Strange]], this may not be the only reason.
* CreativeSterility: [[spoiler: Surtur]] is depicted as such. While he's stone-cold brilliant, his brilliance is just that: stone cold. There's no intuition, no spark of inspiration, it's all technical. This is suggested on more than one occasion to be his FatalFlaw.
* CreepyMonotone: Essex, usually, with it being noted that it's [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness very rare for him to show any sign of emotion.]]
** [[spoiler: Maddie]] picked it up from him, as part of her EmotionlessGirl and LivingWeapon shtick, contrasting her with Jean. Notably, as her HeelFaceTurn progresses, she starts doing this less and less.
* CrushBlush: Harry and Carol. ''Frequently.''
** Harry even manages it when [[spoiler: on the edge of a Dark Phoenix meltdown, being incarnate as a being of living flame, which the narrative notes should, by all logic, not be able to blush.]]
** Diana gets a small one when Ginny's mentioned, after meeting her.
* CulturedBadass: Loki, Natasha, Charles Xavier, Bruce and Tony are all stand-out examples.
** [[spoiler: Sinister]], being WickedCultured and a badass, using quotes from T.S. Eliot and Alfred Lord Tennyson as trigger phrases. One of those he uses them on [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] breaks free in chapter 14 and being an example of this in her own right, replies to his attempt with a stinging quote from Robert Burns and a snippet from ''Invictus''.
** Since Gambit taught [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] the Robbie Burns poem and is a major badass in his own right, he also qualifies, while Dresden is at least familiar with the Burns quote (and is more cultured in his own series, though it's overshadowed by being a PopCulturedBadass). His mentor, [[BraveScot Ebenezar McCoy,]] was a drinking buddy of the poet himself, and therefore this can be assumed of him as well.
* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: The Avengers[=/=][=MI13=] vs the Death Eaters and Harry vs Voldemort Round 2.]]
** Harry vs his childhood bullies in chapter 7. In the same chapter, [[spoiler: Sinister vs Carol]] and [[spoiler: Maddie]] vs Harry.
*** Harry avoids a later repeat of the latter in chapter 10 by refusing to directly engage.
** Wanda vs [[spoiler: Sinister]]. He didn't stand a chance.
** Natasha vs Yelena. The latter gets in a few early hits, but then the former gets her measure, stops playing around and takes her down relatively easily.
** Thor vs [[spoiler: Blob!Dudley]]. The former stops the latter's double axehandle strike with zero effort, then, with just as little effort, piledrives him halfway into a mountain.
** The conclusion of the ''Forever Red'' arc has a few of these -- Avengers vs Winter Guard (including Natasha vs Yelena Round II), Magneto vs the Winter Guard, Strange vs [[spoiler: Sinister]], [[spoiler: Maddie vs the Red Room]], Jono vs [[spoiler: Blob!Dudley]], and [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix Harry]] vs the Red Room, including [[spoiler: Bizzaro Jor-El]] especially.
** The Avengers vs the Red Room, overall really, doesn't go well for the bad guys.
** When [[spoiler: Cassius]] attempts to torture Harry Dresden, Magneto shows up, paralyzes, and kills him without the sorcerer being able to get off a single shot.
** Harry's rematch with [[spoiler: a now-vampire Blob!Dudley]]. Harry's in TranquilFury mode and in no mood to deal with him, so he just rips out [[spoiler: Dudley's]] voice-box, then uses his sword and [[LightningBruiser his speed advantage,]] taking him apart with three blows.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Than ''Child of the Storm''. While it's lower on the carnage (at least so far), it explores the moral shades of grey in the good guys, and is far more physically and psychologically brutal towards the main characters, Harry in particular. The villains are also much more personal when it comes to going after Harry, something shown in their tactics, while [[TokenEvilTeammate Wisdom]] tightens his grip on Magical Britain and Harry's own darker side comes into play.
* DarkestHour: The ''Forever Red'' arc arguably hits its in Chapter 12. With the aid of the Red Son [[spoiler: (brainwashed Harry)]], the Red Room is able to cause most of Eastern Europe to leave the European Union and NATO and rejoin Russia's sphere of influence, which also spreads to Central Asia. Meanwhile, the Winter Guard hunts down potential supernatural threats and either wipes them out or forces them to flee to other regions, further increasing Russian influence. And then, just to top it off, [[spoiler: President Volodya tries to shut the Red Room down, only for Lukin to kill him and seize de facto control of the country and most of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Coulson and Gambit himself imply that Gambit has one in chapters 9 and 10. The details are elaborated upon in chapter 34, when it's revealed that [[spoiler: Gambit is a clone of Scott Summers.]]
** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]], oh dear god, [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel.]]
** Harry Dresden makes note of his own in passing in chapter 15.
** Stephen Strange has one at least equal to any of the others, which he finally elaborates on in chapter 20.
* DarkMessiah: Magneto is namechecked as having been this trope, being referred to as 'mutantkind's DarkMessiah'. Now, he's ReformedButNotTamed.
** Doctor Strange shows himself as this in this book, oddly enough, though he's a little closer to Moses - and he definitely veers into DarkShepherd territory when facing down the Council Elite.
** Surtur, and [[spoiler: Harry]], as the [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]].
* DavidVersusGoliath: Carol versus [[spoiler: Blob!Dudley]].
** Harry versus [[spoiler: Maddie]], which would be why he spends most of the fight using every ounce of cunning and creativity he possesses to avoid a direct contest of power and skill.
* DayInTheLimelight: Hermione gets one in chapter 18, which mostly consists of her, Ron and the Twins being LockedOutOfTheLoop and trying to figure out what's going on. They actually manage to get a pretty good idea of what happened.
** Chapters 29 and 30 mostly focus on Carol getting [[spoiler: kidnapped by Dracula's forces]] and Dresden and Wanda teaming up with the Wardens in Chicago.
** About half of chapter 36 involves Alison Carter, speaking to Jor-El (in a flashback) and his son about Krypton's destruction. More detail is also provided about the time the Red Room and their alien allies kidnapped her for her blood.
* DeadGuyJunior: Ada Maria Potts-Stark is named after Tony's deceased mother.
* DeadlyDoctor: [[spoiler: Sinister.]]
** Doctor Strange is a benevolent variant on this trope. Well. Mostly.
* DeadlyUpgrade: The [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] usually serves as this to Harry.
** Likewise the Warrior's Madness to Thor.
** Also to Harry, in chapter 33, he gets supercharged by Jean and Maddie and spends a portion of the chapter [[PowerHigh drunk on the power surge and has difficulty focusing on what he's meant to be doing.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much all the usual suspects, [[WorldOfSnark which means almost the entire cast.]]
** In chapter 10, O'Neill, Kurt, and unexpectedly, [[spoiler: [[TheComicallySerious Maddie]]]], have their moments.
** Magneto gets special mention for his utterly dry ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' reference.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Wanda, Thor, Steve, Carol, Jean, and Maddie ask [[spoiler: Jesus]] to pass one on to the Council Elite in chapter 34 regarding Harry (see Wanda's BadassBoast above), though it's somewhat subverted when he mentions quietly that, being JerkassGod {{Reality Warper}}s, they won't really care about most of the above.
** Xavier gives a quiet but no less fierce one to Brother Smith of the Askani, warning him that if any of them so much as try to contact Harry, Jean, or [[spoiler: Maddie]], he will know. And they ''will'' regret it.
** Harry gives one to the [[spoiler: barrow-wights]], telling them that Cedric, Fleur, and Krum are under his protection.
* DecompositeCharacter: In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', it's eventually established that Donnar Vadderung, the Fae Lord who also happens to be Santa Claus, is a modern avatar of Odin. Here, it's stated that while Odin ''used'' to be Santa (in fact, he originated that legend) he eventually passed the mantle off to his son Vidar, who still holds it to this day (Vadderung being his alias).
* DeconstructorFleet: Completely tears apart the KidHero concept by showcasing just how heavy a burden that role has become for Harry. The neverending threats that continue to target him just because he's the son of Thor (and/or to eliminate him before he becomes a threat in his own right), along with the mental trauma already built up from his previous adventures, start taking a serious toll on his psyche, to the point where he develops a serious case of [[ShellShockedVeteran Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.]]
** It also paints a clear picture on just how far The Avengers would go to defeat an enemy [[ItsPersonal who targeted those around them]]. Some of the methods they'd resort to aren't on the moral side of the scale.
** The world doesn't stop when the heroes defeat a BigBad. After defeating HYDRA, not only does the world move on, the next instalment also shows that it's not always a happily ever after scenario. Both Harry and Carol need therapy following their experiences during the HYDRA Arc, and Voldemort is still a present problem, lurking in the shadows. The latter also indicates that no matter how many villains the heroes defeat, there will be another out there just waiting for a chance to strike. It's noted that the rise of [[spoiler: the Red Room]] is partially due to the fact that, with SHIELD still rebuilding and HYDRA having fallen, there's no one to stand in their way.
* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler: Volodya]], when Lukin is about to execute him, merely calls Lukin out on the nearsighted stupidity of his plans, how it'll bring Russia to ruin, and how the Avengers will destroy him. He was right about that one, as it turns out.
** [[spoiler: Harry]] is similarly defiant when faced with the prospect of programming or being lobotomised - though that's partly because if there's no other option, he's prepared to unleash [[spoiler: the Phoenix.]]
* DestructiveSaviour: Both Bucky and Carol note Harry's tendency towards with this, with Carol describing the results of Harry losing his temper as being "like ''{{Film/Carrie}}'' as directed by Creator/MichaelBay." It's not an inaccurate description, either.
** This last remark takes on an edge of {{Foreshadowing}} when Harry snaps through mistreatment, just like the titular Carrie and [[spoiler: becomes the Dark Phoenix.]]
* DeusExitMachina: The Hulk gets subjected to this no less than three times in ''Ghosts of the Past'': Due to fears of getting telepathically manipulated, Bruce works as TheMedic at the Quidditch World Cup in chapter 2. In chapter 10, during the attack on the Red Room, Loki has to teleport his thoroughly Hulked-out self to an empty desert. Finally, instead of helping Thor against the Juggernaut in chapter 13, he remains on hand to stop any of the other prisoners.
** However, after Thor snaps into his BerserkerRage after the latter incident, the Hulk does restrain him long enough to be calmed down. Considering that BerserkerRage Thor can destroy planets, this is an important role. He also gets involved at the end of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc, smashing Dracula.
** Harry gets subjected to this in chapter 30, when he starts bleeding from the nose after having strained himself too much with his AstralProjection.
** This is also invoked by [[spoiler: Voldemort, Selene, and]] the Heirs of Kemmler, as well as Dracula, who would not have dared to try [[spoiler: the Darkhallow]] nor [[spoiler: abducting Carol]], respectively, if the White Council, Strange, and the Avengers weren't dealing with the Red Court and were unable to come to Dresden or [[spoiler: Carol]]'s aid.
* DidntSeeThatComing: Wanda's reaction to hearing that Karrin Murphy is dating Jared 'The Hellhound' Kincaid, being on a romantic holiday in Hawaii with him.
** [[spoiler: Dracula and Syrus]] did not expect Harry to show up to rescue Carol and Stevie, who in turn didn't see [[spoiler: Gambit, Logan, Uhtred, and Diana coming to rescue them]].
* DirtyMindReading: How Harry knows that Carol is attracted to him - while he doesn't go looking, empathy ''is'' part of the psychic package...
** Jean-Paul also insinuates the less family friendly aspects of the psychic link between the two of them - and while he's trolling, they ''have'' used it to flirt. Carol later suggests the possibility; though [[TheGadfly to see his expression.]] [[{{UST}} Mostly.]]
* DissonantSerenity: Harry, after a flashback in chapter 12, remarks in a disturbingly casual voice, "That's when the torture started. You'd almost think I'd annoyed him."
** Bucky very calmly explains to Ron that a teenage wizard isn't going to be able to do much against a Grey Court vampire, especially a senior one. All the while, he has one hand on Ron's wand and the other on his throat, having disarmed him and pinned him to the floor mid-sentence, in the blink of an eye.
** After Bucky asks if anyone can see any sign of Dracula trying to infiltrate the Mansion, Gambit notes quietly that he can: [[OhCrap Peter Parker's formerly unconscious body has disappeared]].
** As usual, Diana is almost always cool and unruffled unless in the middle of a fight, and sometimes even then.
* DivineIntervention: Several of the Endless, as well as both Faerie Courts (though not exactly out of altruism in the case of the Fae), step in to aid in bringing down the Red Room for good, [[GodsHandsAreTied as much as they're they're allowed]].
** Mentioned by Harry Dresden in chapter 29. He speculates that the reason Voldemort is not interested in becoming a Greater God is because then he would make himself fair game/an easy target not only for Thor and Loki, but also for [[BadassGrandpa Odin]], who wouldn't so much as step in as step ''on''. Given the latter's truly epic PapaWolf moments seen so far, this is probably a fair guess.
** Defied by Jor-El in a flashback, explaining that he considered asking Asgard for help against the Dheronians, but believed that it will take too long for them to muster their armed forces - and if they made a move, the Dheronians would just destroy Krypton outright. Plus, he's not sure what's going on in Asgard, with the last he heard being that Thor had vanished (he'd just have died as James at this point), so he isn't sure that Clark/Kal-El would be any safer there.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted, hard. Belova aggressively kissing and fondling the Red Son [[spoiler: a.k.a. Harry]], who's a) physically a teenager [[spoiler: (14/15, even though he looks closer to 18)]], b) a puppet of the Red Room and in no state to even consider consenting, with the narrative noting that from Belova's point of view, that's part of the point, in front of Natasha as a power play. This is because she sees [[spoiler: Harry]] as something of Natasha's that she can take, and afterwards makes a lewd comment about how he's 'almost done cooking', bragging about how she'll show him what pleasure means is treated as horrifying and absolutely disgusting. The fact that she's [[EvilIsSexy exceptionally attractive]] is treated as utterly immaterial by the narrative; [[EvenEvilHasStandards her sane teammates]] are [[{{Squick}} deeply disturbed by her behaviour]] and Natasha cuttingly describes it as what it is: an adult gloating about how she's going to molest a child.
** When the subject comes up again, and it transpires that she more than once molested [[spoiler: Harry]] as a power move after she'd been thwarted, Carol's immediate response is [[TranquilFury an eerily calm declaration]] that she'll "tear that [[PrecisionFStrike fucking bitch]] limb from limb." The only reason that she doesn't follow through is that Belova is currently suffering a FateWorseThanDeath.
* TheDragon: Barty Crouch Junior, to Voldemort, as usual.
** Belova to Lukin.
* DramaQueen: Harry is occasionally prone to this and Carol calls him out on it in chapter 15, neatly undercutting the drama of the scene in question.
-->'''Carol''': [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Oh my]] ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments god]]'', [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments you total fucking drama queen.]]
* TheDreaded: Voldemort, especially since he TookALevelInBadass.
** Wisdom functions as this to the British Ministry and the Death Eaters. One of the main reasons Fudge hasn't been replaced is because no one wants to go up against him.
** The Red Room to absolutely everyone, and with good reason.
** The Phoenix, even to the good guys. As Loki points out, even though Lily is the chief aspect of the Phoenix, she is far from the ''only'' aspect, and some of those aspects aren't fuzzy and nice - [[TheUnfettered at the very least, they aren't constrained by mortal, or even divine, morality.]] The fact that Trelawney's second prophecy speaks of 'something ancient beyond telling' awakening, just before it goes on about how 'embers long banked now burn again' and 'the twisted flame' that 'welcomed by fools' will 'consume all', as well as the fact that Harry has a) displayed a frightening dark side, b) had ominous and somewhat prophecy flavoured warnings made about said dark side and what could happen if he gives into it means that this is not in the least bit unwarranted.
*** In chapter 15, [[spoiler: he proves all these worries right by becoming the Dark Phoenix.]]
*** Chapter 20 elaborates on this with the reveal that the original Dark Phoenix [[spoiler: was Surtur, who]] destroyed an entire galaxy.
** Doctor Strange is this to [[spoiler: Essex/Sinister]], whose usual calm - which later holds up in front of the freaking [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] - dissolves completely when Strange finally finds him, looming up behind him with a SlasherSmile.
*** To a lesser extent, he is this to the White Council, given that they are very much about [[TheFettered controlling power so that it's not misused]], and Strange is almost the definition of TheUnfettered.
** Harry, on a lesser scale to Hogwarts students after he emerges from the events of ''[[TraumaCongaLine Forever]] [[DarkestHour Red]]'' with a rampant case of [[ShellShockedVeteran PTSD]] and a HairTriggerTemper - it doesn't help that they don't even know ''why'' he's like that. He gets better after Cedric Diggory gives him a gentle WhatTheHellHero and he has a HeelRealisation.
** Thanos, though still TheGhost, casts a large shadow over proceedings. The Council Elite have a MassOhCrap when they hear that he's coming, and even Strange is... perhaps not afraid, as such (or at least hides it well), but unequivocally describes him as being the worst and most dangerous threat in the universe.
* DressCodedForYourConvenience: Played Straight and Subverted with Alison Carter on various occasions. Sometimes, she's in typical SHIELD combat gear, entirely befitting a RetiredBadass, SuperSoldier, and ex-Deputy Director of SHIELD who hasn't aged (physically) half as much as careful application of make-up would have most believe, and indeed, finds retirement boring and is still very active behind the scenes. When meeting the [[spoiler: Kent]] family, however, to set them a bit more at their ease, she dresses up in a casual, comfy fashion that the narrator observes a Brit would have described as 'mumsy', and that the very American [[spoiler: Clark]] inwardly pegs as resembling 'a soccer mom from central casting' (albeit an upper-middle class 'ladies who lunch' version). He also, however, picks up very quickly on the fact that this is far from all that she is.
** When Harry is discussing his different identities/aspects of who he is with Ron in chapter 45, he performs an InstantCostumeChange (or, rather, a psychic illusion of one), taking on the appearances and voices he used as [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix, Light Phoenix, Red Son,]] and Harry Potter (in the latter case, basically him just before he discovered his heritage).
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: A usual hazard of [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] possession.
* EasilyForgiven: Discussed and Zig-Zagged with Harry after the way he's been passively terrorising his fellow students following what the ''Forever Red'' arc did to him (as in, they're terrified of accidentally setting him off). On the one hand, after he has his HeelRealisation courtesy of Cedric Diggory's WhatTheHellHero speech, and publicly apologises to Seamus Finnegan, who [[NoodleIncident at one point he scared witless]] after the other boy unwittingly pressed a BerserkButton of his, the Hogwarts student body relax significantly and generally seem willing to let bygones be bygones. On the other, the narration notes that they're 'cautiously optimistic', but also wary of a reversion, and Harry and Cedric discuss the trope, with Harry dryly noting that his fellow students would mostly just be relieved by the change and too scared of him to be willing to push it. Cedric, ever optimistic though he is, does not disagree, and Hermione later notes that while Harry is seen as being generally decent, the view of him as nice went out the window a long time ago.
* EatingTheEyeCandy:
** Harry and Carol, mutually, when they're in swimsuits. It's deeply awkward and leads to Harry reaffirming to a faintly worried Carol that they are still JustFriends and their friendship comes first.
** Carol and Jean-Paul, when Uhtred and Harry go [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] for a training bout, make their appreciation known. [[TheGadfly Harry being Harry]], he offers Carol a conjured handkerchief to wipe up the drool.
* EldritchAbomination: As part of his VisionQuest with the Norns, Harry gets a glimpse of Annihilus, who aside from his overall bug-like appearance is noted to be constantly shifting through colors that Harry's eyes refuse to comprehend.
* EldritchLocation:
** The Dreaming, which is noted as being even stranger than the [=NeverNever=], which is apparently a small portion of it.
** Also, the Rock of Eternity.
** The Mirror Dimension, as per ''Film/DoctorStrange2016'', is thoroughly weird.
** The strange in-between dimension in chapter 42 created by a spell reacting oddly to Harry, which allows him to [[spoiler: see a small and hopefully relevant section of the multiverse and interact with an alternate version of him that goes by Nathan.]]
* EmotionlessGirl: [[spoiler: Maddie]], thanks to Essex's conditioning, often complete with a CreepyMonotone. Even after her HeelFaceTurn with an associated increase in willingness to show emotion, she still gives off a very dry, reserved vibe.
* EmpathicEnvironment: Those parts of the Nevernever near to the mortal world tend to be influenced by it, and it can be similarly influenced by suitably powerful individuals. When two Omega class psychics throw down, this results in a WorldGoneMad.
* EmpathicWeapon: The Green Lantern Ring is mentioned again as being semi-sentient, enough to form opinions on people.
** Wands, of course, and the Sword of Gryffindor.
** Mjolnir. In chapter 12, [[spoiler: Maddie]] discovers that while it isn't quite sentient, thanks to Odin's spell, it ''does'' have something of an emergent consciousness. Certainly, it's capable of [[spoiler: indirectly answering a telepathic question about what it means to be Worthy by showing previous wielders, indicating what actions the questioner - Maddie - had performed that were worthy, and shattering a powerful telepathic block.]] It also appears capable of expressing a certain degree of smug satisfaction.
** The artefact that, as Strange puts it, the cast so charmingly thinks is a phoenix feather - it can store [[spoiler: Harry's mind and epic amounts of Phoenix fire]], it moves around of its own accord, and considering that it used to be [[spoiler: Laevateinn, the wand of Prospero Slytherin]] and was in Odin's possession for a millennium and a half without him twigging, it can disguise itself extremely effectively.
** Ván, the Sword of Hope. It was forged from uru and vibranium, layered with the best spells that the Alliance of Realms could come up with, had a mind of its own, which [[LoyalPhlebotinum like Excalibur, only someone worthy could wield]] - which despite Thor's suspicions, had nothing to do with Strange (who suspects that, instead, it had more to do with Yggdrasil). It was made to take on [[spoiler: Surtur,]] a fully fledged Dark Phoenix and NoSell the best said Dark Phoenix could throw at it - which, by inference, it ''did''. It makes the Sword of Gryffindor look like a toy in comparison.
* EmptyPilesOfClothing: PlayedForLaughs in chapter 32 after a Grey Court vampire's body is charged and turned to ash by Gambit, and what's left of the vampire is apparently thrown down a hospital laundry chute.
* EnemyMine: Strange recruits [[spoiler: Doctor Doom]] to help Harry's group fight the Grey Court, on the grounds that Dracula's victory would threaten his own power base.
* EnthrallingSiren: Harry encounters a group of Undines (water spirits) in the maze of caverns under Hogwarts' lake during the First Task, which use enchanted music to lure people into their lake and drown them. Thanks to his powers, Harry's not affected (mostly, he's just mildly annoyed), and winds up bargaining with them: they guide him through the caverns to protect the other champions, in exchange for him breaking them free of the magic keeping them imprisoned underground.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Dracula gets one in chapter 24. He's sitting and listening to Voldemort's proposal for mutual advantage, having remarked that he doesn't particularly want to play games... then Voldemort finishes his proposal, saying that he'll elaborate on the details of what information he has to offer once Dracula accepts. In a blurred instant, Dracula is on his feet and has lifted Voldemort out of his chair like it's nothing, coldly remarking that he doesn't appreciate being manipulated into a war with the Avengers or Asgard which would be 'tiresome'. So, it's going to be the other way around - Voldemort's going to cough up his information, and if, and only if, it is sufficient, then Dracula will accept his proposal. Oh, and any attempt to use his magical or psychic powers won't work because Dracula's suppressing them with a mere effort of will. [[EvilerThanThou Voldemort promptly coughs up.]]
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Jean-Paul agrees with Carol's assessment that Warren is hot. While this isn't necessarily surprising, considering that Jean-Paul is very, very gay, even Harry (who's otherwise entirely straight) notes that he's astonishingly good looking.
** In a gender-flipped example, Carol (who is otherwise very heterosexual) mentions that Jean Grey is hot.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Even before her conscience started to really develop, [[spoiler: Maddie]] despised Omega Red. As did pretty much all the rest of the Red Room, actually.
** The saner members of the Winter Guard are visibly disturbed by Yelena molesting [[spoiler: Red Son!Harry]] to get at Natasha.
** When one of Dracula's minions suggest he employ some LoopholeAbuse to get around a promise made to a captive [[spoiler: Carol]] on his behalf (by pointing out Dracula himself didn't make the promise), Dracula is incensed at the idea of breaking a vow, and later demonstrates a certain amount of VillainRespect for both Carol and (to a lesser extent) Harry.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Harry and Carol. By this point, both of them are aware of their mutual attraction, but [[AnchoredShip deny that they're taking it further,]] or flirting, when they blatantly are. It gets to the point of almost being an ExaggeratedTrope, given that beings who have seen them together for just a few minutes can already tell that they're flirting, and becomes a RunningGag. [[spoiler: Then they finally get together in chapter 46.]]
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Xavier points out to Sinister in a BreakingSpeech that this is his FatalFlaw: He never understood either ThePowerOfLove or the persistent strength of [[spoiler: Maddie's free will]].
** Averted in the case of Doctor Doom, who knows perfectly well why neither Alison Carter nor Bucky is willing to force [[spoiler: Peter Parker]] to drink the antidote to [[spoiler: the Grey Court infection within him]], [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork but aren't making any moves to stop him]] - it could kill him, and Alison, a grandmother, has a soft spot for children, while Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, was well known in certain circles [[WouldntHurtAChild for his refusal to hurt children.]]
** Both 'Dave' the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] and his master [[spoiler: (Surtur)]] offer Harry the opportunity to join them and share his power. Since this is Harry we're talking about, the reply is a salvo of snark.
* EvilGloating: Yelena indulges in some when confronting Natasha again in Chapter 13, specifically, about [[{{Squick}} molesting]] [[spoiler: the Red Son]], because she saw him as being Natasha's. An unimpressed Natasha asks if she wants a [[RightHandCat white cat]] to stroke while she does it, snarkily offering [[RussianFashion a white ushanka (the famous Russian furry hat)]] as a substitute, before coldly deconstructing what she's doing.
* EvilPowerVacuum: After the Avengers devastate the Red Room in retaliation for the events of the ''Forever Red'' arc, and thus effectively decapitate the Russian government (which the Red Room had taken over) it's noted that everyone from Chechen rebels to Islamic fundamentalists to splinter fragments of HYDRA to the Grey Court are trying to take advantage of the power vacuum left behind.
* EvilerThanThou: As far as Strange is concerned, Thanos is far, ''far'' worse than Surtur, as while the latter is at least operating under InsaneTrollLogic on how to "improve" the universe, Thanos just wants to render it a barren void and has no illusions otherwise.
** Dracula, as part of his EstablishingCharacterMoment, subjects Voldemort to this. Of course, it could be argued that Voldemort still got the better of him.
* ExactWords: Dresden (at Pepper's suggestion) uses this so that he only has to serve as Mab's Emissary during the fight against the Red Room, rather than have to become her Knight. And since she'd just attempted to scam him into thinking he had to take the position, he threatens to bring it up with Thor and Odin, who would be less than pleased that she's trying to turn what is supposed to be a goodwill effort to her own advantage, if she objects. Mab being Mab, she's grudgingly impressed.
** Harry's 'apology' to Snape in chapter 28 ("I'm sorry, Professor. What I said hurt you.") is explicitly noted by the narration as being very carefully structured to carry an undertone of total insincerity and subtext of 'and I'm glad it did, because it was meant to.' Dumbledore later somewhat dourly remarks that trying to make Harry apologise to Snape publicly would be pointless, as Harry's budding talent at this (by implication, developed by watching his uncle and Doctor Strange at work) means that he would just structure his 'apology' to be as insincere and humiliating (for Snape) as possible. Harry tries (and fails) not to look pleased.
** Rita Skeeter is warned by Loki via Bucky that any slandering, libelling, or misrepresenting Harry in the ''Daily Prophet'' will be met with harsh legal action. She therefore very carefully does not do any of these in her article, but does include as much innuendo and rumour as she feels she can get away with.
** In chapter 45, Harry uses this to very carefully and [[ConsummateLiar skilfully]] dance around the point of [[spoiler: the Winter Soldier still being alive]], with [[spoiler: 'Dave' the Elder Wyrm]] having hinted to Ron that this was the case. Afterwards, he feels distinctly unhappy about it.
* ExcaliburInTheStone: Played with. According to Loki, the name Excalibur was applied to both the sword Arthur pulled from the stone and the one the Lady in the Lake gave him, but that they are in fact different swords (the name was shared because it had importance and power). And the latter is the one wielded by [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Knights of the Cross and now known as]] ''[[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Amoracchius]]''.
* ExcuseMeComingThrough: Carol pulls this in chapter 29, when making an escape attempt from [[spoiler: Dracula's vampire]] strike team, through Lexington-63rd subway station. The narration notes that the fact that she's most of six feet tall, well built, moving fast enough to break several local speed limits (whilst carrying her younger brother under one arm to boot) helps, as does the fact that she's apparently inherited her great-grandfather's "I-am-Captain-America-and-shit-is-getting-real-so-do-as-I-say" voice.
--> "MOVE!"
* ExpendableClone: This, crossed with the HiveMind trope, is how [[spoiler: Essex]] manages to turn up in multiple places simultaneously and survive repeated violent murder. He's also known for cloning his minions and, with the Red Room, creates [[spoiler: the Red Army,]] an army of clones - though when faced with [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]], he might as well have built snowmen for all the good they did.
* {{Expy}}: What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; his vast and only barely trained power which he's initially scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]]
** There are also major elements of [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]] in there too. Ludicrously strong PsychicPowers thanks to being part of the Grey family that might end up screwing him over? Check. Dark hair with skunk stripe in the fringe? Check. Miserable childhood with [[spoiler: Sinister]] heavily involved? Check. MommasBoy? ''Definite'' check. HotBlooded [[DeadpanSnarker snarker]] with ChronicHeroSyndrome? Check. GuileHero prone to the IndyPloy, a tendency that evolves into XanatosSpeedChess? Check. Mutually intrigued by [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor]]?Check. Occasionally frighteningly ruthless? Check. In chapter 8, he even briefly gets Nate's ''New Mutants'' era outfit when he slices up the black leather [[spoiler:containment suit the Red Room put him in,]] leaving him in, effectively, a NoShirtLongJacket. Carol, predictably, mocks him mercilessly.
*** Doctor Strange also quotes the 616 version of Moira [=MacTaggert=] in her original assessment of Nate when discussing Harry - specifically, the original page quote on Nate's Marvel Wiki entry.
*** In relation to that, Harry's also gaining increasing shades of {{ComicBook/Cable}}, Nate's 616 counterpart. First, the [[spoiler: infection by the Transmode Virus that transforms his left arm, left side, and left eye,]] temporary though it is. Second, an occasional tendency for just one eye, his left, to glow gold when he's using his powers rather than both. Third, when he jokingly suggests building his own version of Asteroid M/Avalon, after noting that he has the power (though not the knowledge), he mentions as possible names 'Greymalkin' and 'Providence' - the former being Cable's former space station, the latter being a floating city Cable built out of the remains of the former.
*** In chapter 41, an older alternate counterpart of Harry turns up, is heavily designed after both Shaman era Nate and the 'Brother Nathan' version of Cable, and when Harry snarks that he'd call him 'Other Harry' but [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles that name is spoken for]], casually refers to himself as Nathan.
** Separately to that, Harry also has significant shades of Hope Summers: a half MessianicArchetype, half potential DarkMessiah[=/=]ApocalypseMaiden who was targeted from birth because of the threat they represented, heavily associated with the Phoenix Force from infancy, with vast powers that don't truly realise themselves until their teens, who goes through hell and consequently manifests TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour and [[ShellShockedVeteran textbook PTSD]], is trained by a brilliant soldier/master assassin with a metal arm, and wants to experience a normal life but what with BloodKnight and DoomMagnet tendencies, keeps putting themselves InHarmsWay.
** Doctor Strange is an often mischievous immortal sorcerer who [[ObfuscatingStupidity routinely acts a good deal more strangely and less dangerous than he actually is]], casually and often impatiently pushes around/outright bullies monarchs and other authority figures, and when matters get serious, belies his silly reputation by unleashing hell on his enemies. In other words, he carries significant shades of [[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarath]] - though his precognitive methodology, plan to guide history, and very dry DeadpanSnarker tendencies owe just as much to [[Literature/TheBelgariad the Light Prophecy]].
*** Related to the above, with her vast power, similarly ominous reputation, maternal affection/terrifying MamaBear tendencies towards small boys of great destiny in her care, along with an often fractious relationship with her father/father-figure and stunning beauty, Wanda has more than a few shades of Polgara about her.
* EyeScream:
** Sabretooth gets his eyes slashed out by Loki after he looked at baby Ada funny.
** The Red Son has his left eye blasted out by Magneto as part of an attempt to subdue him. [[spoiler: He gets a Transmode replacement.]]
** In Chapter 44, Harry tries to take the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] out by turning himself into a living bullet, going in through the eye, through the brain, and out the other side. Unfortunately, it moved at the last moment; as such, he only manages to slash one eye out, a wound [[CombatPragmatist which he ruthlessly exacerbates]] and ultimately, he [[spoiler: kills it with a blast through the eye.]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: According to Strange, when he told Frey that try as he might he couldn't save him, Frey simply thanked him and asked him to accompany him to his final battle. Strange accepted, on the grounds that it was both the least and most that he could do.
* FacialMarkings: Harry's scar, as usual.
** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel's]] famous markings on her face are revealed to be magically applied tattoos and part of her asserting her own identity, as part of Gambit's nudging towards independence.
* FairyTaleMotifs: Many of the same ones that appeared in Book I reappear here. A new one, however, is an even straighter version of the Changeling tale, with [[spoiler: Jean Grey's twin sister having been stolen at birth by Sinister and replaced with a dead infant, making it look like a tragic case of SIDS, being raised by Sinister as Madelyne 'Maddie' Pryor.]]
** The fairy tales themselves are discussed in chapter 12, which reveals that [[spoiler: Sinister]] used a number of them, twisting their meanings, to underline his MoreThanMindControl hold on [[spoiler: Maddie.]]
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Strange does this during ''Bloody Hell'', both to give Wanda the room to prove herself as the new Sorceress Supreme, and to give himself room to make certain moves without anyone being aware of him.]]
* FantasticallyIndifferent: Most of the cast who're regularly exposed to him tend to take this attitude to the weird, CrazyAwesome, and frequently BeyondTheImpossible antics of Doctor Strange, summarising it as, 'Strange being Strange, in every sense of the phrase.' Hermione, by contrast, has 'mild hysterics' at Strange doing things that all the laws of magic dictate should be impossible.
** Harry is a particular example, being able to observe and analyse most things that would drive even gods insane with perfectly clinical calm and equanimity thanks to his experiences with Chthon and the Dark Phoenix, dismissively remarking at a couple of points that he [[BoredWithInsanity tried insanity and got bored with it.]] However, he does have limits. Frigga at one point remarks on how perhaps his most remarkable gift is relating the most extraordinary things in perfectly casual tones, as if they're completely normal.
* FatBastard: The Beast/Blob a.k.a. [[spoiler: Dudley Dursley]], even more than his canon counterpart (or rather, ''[[CompositeCharacter counterparts]]'') - while he's not a cannibal like his Ultimate and ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' counterparts [[spoiler: (until he turns into a vampire)]], he's [[spoiler: Essex's]] DumbMuscle, never told no save for very select occasions, encouraged to indulge in every vile whim... the result? An unrepentant murderer and a rapist. He's bad enough that [[spoiler: becoming a Grey Court vampire is described by Harry as having changed very little, other than his diet.]]
* FateWorseThanDeath: Chapter 46 reveals that after the Red Room's defeat, Dream punished [[spoiler: Belova for her part in Harry's torture by sending her nightmares that tore away all her self-delusions and justifications for her actions. Due to the magic involved, this warped her waking world self, transforming her physically into "Gollum's uglier sister" and driving her completely insane]]. It was bad enough that Loki, mid RoaringRampageOfRevenge, took one look at [[spoiler: her]] and decided that he couldn't make it worse.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Voldemort, who acts friendly and polite in an urbane sort of way in the midst of making some of the most horrific threats imaginable.
** [[spoiler: Essex a.k.a. Sinister]] in his guise as [[spoiler: Nathan Milbury, kindly family doctor.]]
* FemaleGaze: When Harry meets Carol's muggle friends, one of them admits to admiring his ass, much to his and Carol's mortification.
* FieryRedhead: It takes a bit to get Jean fired up, but [[UnstoppableRage once she is,]] [[BigSisterInstinct oh dear]] ''[[PhysicalGod god]]''...
** [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] subverts this, generally being as cool as ice, no matter the situation. It's actually considerably more frightening.
* FightDracula: Essentially what the Harry Thorson and co half of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc can be summed up as.
* {{Fingore}}: The unfortunate [[spoiler: Remus]] gets splinched in chapter 32 by some rather nasty wards. Thankfully, the fingers are reattached by [[spoiler: Sirius]].
* FlirtingUnderFire: [[RunningGag Harry and Carol do this a lot.]] And then deny that they're flirting. [[EveryoneCanSeeIt No one is fooled.]]
* FlowerMotifs: At Betsy's suggestion (what with her knowing these things thanks to her training as a ProperLady), [[spoiler: Harry]] gives [[spoiler: Carol]] a Viscaria (meaning "will you dance with me?") when asking her to the Yule Ball.
* FlowersOfRomance: [[spoiler: Harry]] giving [[spoiler: Carol]] a Viscaria [[FlowerMotifs (meaning "will you dance with me?")]] to ask her to the Yule Ball, especially since [[spoiler: it results in a RelationshipUpgrade]]. It is widely deemed to be adorable.
* ForgottenFallenFriend: Averted; Mr. Weasley is still mourned and remembered, and the Weasley family's grief for him fuels Ron, Fred, and George's CharacterDevelopment, with the fact that his killer, the Winter Soldier, is secretly still alive as Bucky, who later serves as Harry's bodyguard and mentor and is thus around Ron in particular almost every day, is repeatedly brought up as something that will be a ''major'' problem when the truth comes out.
** Luna's death is also remembered - though since she's still an active character post-mortem, this is not quite the same thing.
* ForWantOfANail:
** According to Gambit, Thor was able to stop Hurricane Katrina before it could devastate New Orleans. This leads to him feeling indebted to the God of Thunder, which he cites as a reason for helping Carol and company - or so he says. [[UnreliableNarrator Gambit being Gambit,]] this is rather less than the complete truth.
** Due to his friendship with Carol, and by extension Harry, and familiarity with superpowered beings in general, Lex figures out Clark's secret almost immediately after meeting him, and decides to help protect him.
** Magneto's intervention means that Cassius is never able to cast his "Die alone" Death Curse on Dresden, and that Kumori is captured before she can flee (though Cowl gets away).
** Wanda is able to reverse Corpsetaker's swap with Captain Luccio, returning the other to her own body.
** While Strange is [[spoiler: pretending to be dead]], he cures Lea of her Nemesis infection in exchange for Mab freeing Dresden of his debt to her, and convinces her to give up on making him the new Winter Knight by pointing out that as a potential Sorcerer Supreme he'll be fighting the Outsiders anyway. He also kills Mavra, a Black Court vampire who had crossed swords with Dresden in the past and had indirect leverage on him. This essentially curtails a significant number of later ''Dresden Files'' plot points.
*** And in chapter 52, Strange takes another hammer to ''Dresden Files'' canon by [[spoiler: wiping out the Red Court]] long before Dresden himself is put in a situation to do that same thing in ''Changes''.
** Due to Harry's massive power advantage, even when wearing PowerLimiters, different Tasks are chosen for the Triwizard Tournament.
** Sean's presence at the Yule Ball as a chaperone allows him to give Ron some much needed emotional advice, preventing his canonical row with Hermione.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[SignatureStyle By the bucketload, as per freaking usual.]] A significant example is [[spoiler: Maddie's]] powers glowing electric blue-white, and infusing lightning with psychic energy when fighting Harry, which [[spoiler: foreshadows her being deemed Worthy and wielding Mjolnir.]]
** Harry's fears of losing control and his powers harming others foreshadow first [[spoiler: his becoming the Red Son]] and then [[spoiler: his cutting loose and becoming the Dark Phoenix.]]
*** During ''Forever Red'', he also warns [[spoiler: Maddie]] that the Red Room are only holding him for as long as he allows them, and when he does, his voice takes on a hint of [[spoiler: the Phoenix's echo]]. At the end of the arc, he reveals just what he's been holding back: [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]].
** Carol's flippant remark that Harry losing his temper is like "''{{Film/Carrie}}'' as directed by Creator/MichaelBay" at the start of the ''Forever Red'' arc takes on a dark twist at the end when Harry snaps just like the titular Carrie and [[spoiler: becomes the Dark Phoenix.]]
** On a darker note, Harry's dry remark about being very attached to his arm and liking to think that it's very attached to him in the BreatherEpisode at the museum [[spoiler: comes back to bite him when, as the Red Son, it's blasted off in his fight with Magneto, and is replaced with a Cable style Transmode construct.]]
** In Chapter 11, Wanda mentions Zatanna Zatara, a prodigy at combining wandless and wanded magic, and that her parents managed to create a hybridized style of magic before dying in the war against Voldemort. Not long after, Zatanna becomes the new DADA teacher at Hogwarts, and [[spoiler: the deaths of her parents and Constantine's part in it are established as the reason why Wanda hates Constantine.]]
** Strange mentions being weary and "near the end of the line" a couple of times, and then [[spoiler: appears to die in chapter 29. However, it was faked, so he could do a few things on the quiet]].
** In chapter 19, Jean briefly reflects that Remy has a striking resemblance to [[spoiler: Scott Summers.]] Fifteen chapters later, she and the audience discover that there's a ''very'' good reason for this. [[spoiler: He's a clone of Scott]].
** All the way back to the beginning of ''Child of the Storm'' [[ChekhovsGun (again, as per usual)]], when discussing how Harry had provided a MercyKill to Sally the Basilisk, Loki commented that perhaps they should call him "Harry the Just." Fast-forward to ''Ghosts'' chapter 35, and Harry is discussing the justice or otherwise of another MercyKill, and resolves to bring some justice and mercy to the universe. Looks like Loki was more accurate than even he realised.
* FreakyFridayFlip: Voldemort uses his enhanced psychic powers to make [[spoiler: Carol, Pepper, Diana, Jane, Uhtred, and the Twins]] swap minds, as part of his messing with Harry at the World Cup. Unusually, it's ''not'' PlayedForLaughs and all the potential horror is played up instead.
** This is a key part of the Corpsetaker's MO - not that it saves her from Voldemort, a rival who thanks to his {{Telepathy}} is not even the slightest bit fooled.
* FreudianTrio: Harry's TheMcCoy to Carol's TheKirk and Jean-Paul's TheSpock. He's also TheMcCoy to his father's TheKirk and his uncle's TheSpock. However, he's TheKirk to Jean's TheMcCoy (usually) and [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel's]] TheSpock. In general, he walks the line between TheKirk and TheMcCoy.
* FullNameUltimatum: Alison uses this on Tony, [[TheGadfly partly to annoy him]], partly to get him to do as she tells him. She later uses it more seriously on her son, General O'Neill, when he tries to leave her LockedOutOfTheLoop - or at the very least, fails to inform her - [[spoiler: regarding the Red Room going after Carol and Harry.]]
** O'Neill, in turn, pulls one of these on Carol in chapter 17 when she's being shifty about where the dog she got for him (one of Freki/Geri's puppies by one of the royal hunting hounds in Asgard) comes from.
* GeneralRipper: Lukin is a quieter, milder version of this trope, but all the more terrifying because of it - and he becomes more of a classic example as his MaskOfSanity fades away and he becomes drunk with power.
* GenerationXerox: Alison Carter looks much more like her father than her mother, though she acts much more like the latter than the former.
* GenreSavvy: By the time of the First Task, Thor is so used to Harry's DoomMagnet status that he fully (and calmly) expects things during the task to go horribly wrong, possibly involving some kind of AncientEvil awakening that Harry's going to have to fight. As it turns out, [[spoiler: he's absolutely right]].
* GentlemanWizard: In addition to Strange, Dumbledore, and Lucius from the first book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell make a cameo in chapter 7.
* TheGhost:
** Though mentioned several times, Thanos has, thankfully, not appeared yet. But he's coming...
** Piotr Rasputin is mentioned in chapter 27 by Magneto, and Alison later expands on his backstory in chapter 36, but so far he's stayed offscreen.
* TheGlomp: Carol gives Harry one in chapter 1 after the psychic therapy scene, when they both got a good look at each other's minds and stirred up a lot of emotions. It led to a SleepCute, but nothing more.
** In chapter 16, he gives her one in return, though this time it's more of a SecurityCling.
** Jean gives Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]] one in chapter 15 after [[spoiler: Harry's cooled down from the Dark Phoenix just after breaking loose of the Red Son programming]] and [[spoiler: Maddie executed her HeelFaceTurn and discovered that she was Jean's SeparatedAtBirth twin sister]], being described as hugging them both so tightly that it almost seems as if she's trying to merge with them.
* GodzillaThreshold: Wanda, Dresden, and the Wardens, being outnumbered and outclassed by the Kemmlerites, Voldemort, and Selene, call Magneto for help, despite the fact that relations between he and Wanda are touchy at best, and he's TheDreaded amongst the Wardens.
** Harry threatens that if his plan to rescue [[spoiler: Carol from Dracula]] doesn't work, he'll bring an ultimatum to the Council Elite: Either they resurrect her... or [[spoiler: the Dark Phoenix]] will. Thankfully for everyone involved, it doesn't come to this - especially when [[spoiler: Jesus]] explains the problems with it in chapter 35 (namely, even if it works, these are not beings that take being bullied lightly, hold grudges, and pretty much codified DisproportionateRetribution).
* GoForTheEye: Harry's absolutely vicious tactics against [[spoiler: the Elder Wyrm]] primarily consist first of blinding it in one eye, then ruthlessly attacking the wound to get at the brain.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Ivan indicates that this was what happened to the Red Room. At first, it was created as a response to the rising number of superhumans: The Nazis had the Red Skull, Kemmler, Grindelwald, and Tesseract-based technology, and the Western Allies had superhumans like [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Cap]], Blade, Spitfire, Namor, Dumbledore, and Strange (though as Fury noted, the latter is on no side but his own). While the Russian winter proved deadly against mortal enemies, it was not nearly enough to stop superhumans, and so the Red Room and the Winter Guard were formed, including the Winter Soldier. [[OhCrap It was a complete success]].
* GreenRooming: As per usual with this fic, due to the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. One notable example is that of Peter Parker, who appears in the ''Bloody Hell'' arc for the first time since the early chapters of the previous book, briefly becomes [[spoiler: part-Grey Court vampire]], helps the heroes FightDracula, and... a few name-drops aside, promptly disappears again.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: When confronting his childhood bullies, Dudley's gang, Harry winds up hitting one of them with the nearest thing that came to hand - their leader.
* GuileHero: While Harry's power now means that he can usually rely on a strategy that leaves a trail of destruction visible from space, these tendencies resurface when he's faced with someone more powerful than he is. This is demonstrated in chapters 9 and 10, with an IndyPloy that involves [[spoiler: getting into a psychic duel with Maddie/Rachel to buy the others time to escape and cause enough psychic upheaval that the Avengers won't possibly be able to miss it, while never directly taking Maddie on in a contest of power and skill because he knew she'd crush him, doing enough to keep her occupied and all the while peppering her with little memory fragments of Jean, confusing her, before eventually having an extended psychic chat with her, all in aid of hopefully getting her to switch sides.]] While it doesn't all pan out as he'd hoped, the vast majority does. Not bad for a plan he made up on the spot.
** Instead of charging in to rescue Carol, Harry takes the time to contact Xavier and enlist his help against [[spoiler: Dracula]], and he and Bucky rapidly put together plans to counter the latter's own.
* HateSink: The Beast a.k.a. the Blob a.k.a. [[spoiler: Dudley]] lacks any redeeming qualities whatsoever, so it's understandable to root for Harry when he literally [[spoiler: cut him apart during ''Bloody Hell'', after Dudley got turned into a vampire - something which, Harry notes, only changed his diet.]]
* TheHecateSisters: The three leaders of the Norns, Maiden, Mother, and Crone, who respectively see into the past, the present, and the future.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Maddie]] pulls one towards the end of chapter 11, then completes it in chapter 12.
* HegemonicEmpire: Asgard has this in respect to the Nine Realms, albeit with a light touch since they don't actually want or need anything from the rest of the universe. As a result, they only really get involved if someone's mucking around with one of the other Realms, or one of the other Realms is mucking around with another (Jotunheim screwing with Earth led to the Asgard-Frost Giant Wars), with a general policy best summed of 'don't make us come down there'. However, it's also noted that this attitude hasn't been entirely consistent over time, with some periods, like Bor's rule, where Asgard ignored various realms and dominated others, and others hinted at when it ruled a much more conventional (and huge) empire. Under Odin, however, Asgard tends to keep a gimlet eye on the affairs of the Nine Realms and make a statement where required. This is pretty much the only reason that the likes of the Kree, the Skrulls, the Shi'ar and other would-be powers have left Earth alone, because messing with Earth means messing with Asgard, and that just isn't worth it.
* HellBentForLeather: [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] is referred to as 'gorgeous-in-black-leather-trousers' by Jono, wearing tight black trousers and a black leather trench-coat.
* HeManWomanHater: Lukin's not exactly a classic example, though he uses typical misogynistic slurs against [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel and Wanda]] when incensed by the former's HeelFaceTurn.
** [[spoiler: Dudley a.k.a.]] the Blob, who's noted as being a rapist.
* HeroesPreferSwords: Played With. Almost none of the heroes favour swords, except for the long deceased Arthur Pendragon, and the much longer deceased Frey. However, Harry's shown an increasing affinity for the weapon, and Trelawney's prophecy stipulates 'a Sword of Fire' that waits for his hand.
* HeroicBSOD:
** Harry, after [[spoiler: being forced to MindRape five Death Eaters to protect his friends.]] His dad talks him out of it.
** Jean is left practically catatonic in Chapter 11 after [[spoiler: Harry being recaptured by the Red Room and learning Maddie is her long-lost twin sister]].
*** [[spoiler: Maddie]] basically collapses after finding out the same thing, in part because it proves that everything she thought about herself, everything she believed, is a lie.
* HeroicSacrifice: About a million years ago, Frey, the First King of Asgard, made one to [[spoiler: trap Surtur]]. Harry notes that his statue, at the bottom of the Cavern of the Kings (Asgard's royal mausoleum), is unusual in that while most of the statues have the standard expression of noble constipation, Frey instead looks very young and very frightened, like someone who's scared witless by what they're about to do, but has nerved themselves up to do it anyway.
* HeroWorshipper: Zatanna is pretty starstruck when she meets Wanda, who remarks that she was the same when she met Agatha Harkness.
** Harry Dresden alludes to having had a reaction along these lines when he properly met Steve (while they'd met at the Battle of London, they were rather occupied). Steve was, apparently, patient.
* HesJustHiding: Following the initial shock, this is the general reaction, both InUniverse and among the readers, to [[spoiler:Doctor Strange's apparent death]].
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: As in the last book, this is a constant worry about Harry. [[spoiler: A justified one, going by the way he snaps and becomes the freaking Dark Phoenix in chapter 14.]]
** Strange sadly admits that this has happened with him in his struggles to save the world, especially when facing off with [[spoiler: Sinister]].
* HiddenDepths: Carol's mother turns out to be much more than the ExtremeDoormat Carol's been making her out to be. ** In addition, Zatanna Zatara is far more than just a pretty face, as is Cedric Diggory, who's perceptive enough to pull off a basic SherlockScan on Peter Wisdom, a man he's barely met, and a more insightful one on Harry. While he's nowhere near the TropeNamer, he's sharp enough to catch quite a few details and impress Harry, who's currently in one of his {{Jerkass}} moods.
** While Stevie is TheQuietOne of the Danvers family, he reveals that he has a pretty good idea of what's been going on with Carol, even though he's been LockedOutOfTheLoop.
* HolyBurnsEvil: The shield Carol was gifted by Odin in the first book's epilogue is capable of burning vampires on contact, due to being god-forged and blessed by Odin.
** Harry's lingering Phoenix embers in his blood have the same effect, leading to [[spoiler: a partly-turned Peter Parker reluctantly drinking a mug of Harry's blood and successfully burning out the vampirism.]]
* HolyHandGrenade: Even when he's not consciously tapping into it, Harry's Phoenix fragment burns vampires on contact with his blood and gives his fire magic a bit of an edge against evil. And, to be fair, more or less everything else too.
* HopeSpot: In chapter 11, [[spoiler: Maddie seems to be steadily gaining a mind of her own, throwing off Essex's control, thinking for herself and moving to protect Harry from the Red Room... then Sinister uses a TriggerPhrase and knocks her out.]]
* HorrifyingTheHorror: Dracula completely freaks out when he scents Phoenix fire (or even [[spoiler: what he thinks is Phoenix fire]].
** According to Strange, Frey and his descendants achieved this with [[spoiler: Surtur]]. Having stolen power from one of the Endless themselves, he rampaged through the galaxy, an unstoppable force, before his mighty Great Captains were destroyed and he himself was defeated and bound for a million years.
* HotBlooded: This is pretty much the hat of the House of Odin thanks to the Warrior's Madness, and also, it would seem, the Evans-Grey family. Harry, being a scion of both, gets a double-dose.
** Uhtred and Diana both are this trope - like Harry, Diana has a double dose from her parents, though she usually controls it better.
* HotWings: [[spoiler: Harry]] as the Dark Phoenix.
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: The Dark Phoenix]] - it causes global scale BadDreams, makes animals howl from hundreds of miles away, and leaves ''the entire planet'' feeling as if someone had just walked across their grave. And that's when it's still basically a ''fledgling'', its power still growing, with it being pointed out that the fully fledged [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix]] would be much, much worse. Which makes it even more unsettling to realise that [[spoiler: it's Harry.]]
** The [[spoiler: Fire Giants, of whom Surtur is the leader,]] are said to be this.
* HumanSubSpecies: In addition to the ones already established in ''Child of the Storm'' (mutants, magicals, Eternals, and Deviants), it's revealed that [[TheFairFolk the Fae]] were originally human - or at least, a prehistoric human relative - before they migrated to the Nevernever hundreds of thousands of years ago and adapted to it, with Frigga remarking that where magical humans learned to use magic, the proto-Fae ''became'' magic. Under the circumstances, this explains a ''lot.''
** Also, mention is made of the Comicbook/{{Inhumans}}, who're a variation on mutants. And it's later established that the [[Series/StargateSG1 Jaffa]] also exist, and like the Inhumans are a sub-race created by the Kree as a warrior caste.
* HunterOfHerOwnKind: [[spoiler: Maddie]], pre HeelFaceTurn as she's a CompositeCharacter of famous canon example [[spoiler: Rachel Grey.]]
* HurricaneOfPuns: The list of streets off Diagon Alley - the canonical Knockturn Alley, Internation Alley (embassies, foreign businesses and travel agents), Theatric Alley (magic West End/Broadway), Alchemic Alley (alchemists), Aesthetic Alley (jewellers and clothes shops), and Gastronomic Alley (food district). The terrible nature of these puns is lampshaded by Carol: [[DeadpanSnarker "Well. So much for the famous British sense of humour, then."]]
[[/folder]]

* TheGhost: Though mentioned several times, Thanos has, thankfully, not appeared yet. But he's coming...

* GenreSavvy: By the time of the First Task, Thor is so used to Harry's DoomMagnet status that he fully (and calmly) expects things during the task to go horribly wrong, possibly involving some kind of AncientEvil awakening that Harry's going to have to fight.

** Thor.

** In-between his two scenes in Chapter 52, Strange somehow singlehandedly [[spoiler: genocides the Red Court]].

** Everyone's reaction to Strange, for the only time in living memory, looking anything less than completely assured, for the first time that they know of, being ''caught off-guard.''

Manages to take a Marty Stuish WishFulfillment based premise (Harry gets a ReallyRoyaltyReveal and wins the SuperpowerLottery big time) and turn it into something (so far) pretty good, largely by exploring the ButterflyEffect: while Harry is far better protected, loved, and supported, it creates issues that weren't there before, both personally for Harry and on a far grander scale for the rest of the universe. Notable negative repercussions include the deaths of [[spoiler:Arthur Weasley and Luna Lovegood.]]

** A trademark of the Phoenix and Her hosts. [[spoiler: When Harry goes Dark Phoenix,]] even in a passive state, they're hot enough to burn Thor - who's walked on ''stars.''

-->"So to my way of thinking, if fear is all that they understand, I might as well use it. It seems to get results.

** Harry is a particular example, with Frigga at one point remarking on how perhaps his most remarkable gift is relating the most extraordinary things perfectly casually.

* FantasticallyIndifferent: Most of the cast who're regularly exposed to him tend to take this attitude to the weird, CrazyAwesome, and frequently BeyondTheImpossible antics of Doctor Strange, summarising it as, 'Strange being Strange, in every sense of the phrase.'
** Hermione, by contrast, has 'mild hysterics' at Strange doing things that all the laws of magic dictate should be impossible.

** It turns out that Clark's nature as a NiceGuy [[BewareTheNiceOnes who shouldn't be crossed]] comes right from his father.

-->'''[[spoiler: Doom]]''': They have failed to rest in peace, so now they [[IncrediblyLamePun rest in pieces]].

-->"I am Dracula. I defied empires, causing the fields of Europe to steam with the blood of my enemies, long before I began drinking it as well. When I destroyed their armies, I made a screaming forest of their survivors, ''earning'' the name of Lord Impaler. I am the Lord of the Vampires, I have slain gods and demons alike, and I, little Prince, am going to teach you a lesson you should long since have learned." *tosses Harry through a portal into open skies.* "Why not to meddle in the affairs of your betters."

-->"The message is as follows: I am [[spoiler: the Sorceress Supreme]]. Harry is my godson. And if any god, or goddess, or any entity of that ilk, even ''breathes'' the wrong way towards him, then I swear by my power and my name that I will make them ''wish'' that they were dealing with [[spoiler: my predecessor]]."

--> ''[[TheHero "You]]'' would fight ''me?'' You think much of yourself, oh very ''little'' thing. You are an Asgardian, of the blood of Frey, and one of moderate intelligence at that. Those qualities alone make you worth conversing with. But I, I am far more. My sire was Jormungand, Father of Dragons. I was born at the command of the Surtur Ash-Bringer, King of Flames, Lord of the Inferno, for a purpose beyond your comprehension. I was a vanguard for his infinite armies; I burned worlds beyond number from clouds to core, and devoured their people like sheep on the fold! Your people are gods now, Asgardian, but I ate my fill of gods long before your kind ever claimed the spark of divinity! Your people are old now, but I was ancient when the eldest of your sires were mere mortal babes in their mother’s arms! Even in my sleep, I reached out my thought and ensnared gods, both of this land and of your kindred, and ''broke'' them to my will!”

-->"All right, Voldemort. If this is the way you want it... [[PreAssKickingOneLiner Time for Round Two.]]"

-->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]

---> Sometimes, a few moments are more than enough.

--> Hello, Nathaniel. ''Long time no see.''

-->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]

-->'''Alison''': I am going to have a discussion with your father, one that I should have had a very long time ago.
-->'''Carol''': Is this a discussion or a "discussion?"
-->'''Alison''': It will be the former if your father minds his manners. It will be the latter if he doesn't.

-->"HULK SMASH PUNY VAMPIRE!"

-->[[spoiler: '''I AM LIFE. I AM FIRE. NOW AND FOREVER...''' '''I. AM.''' '''''PHOENIX!''''']]

--> Voldemort! ''You. Are. Mine!''

-->'''Bruce Banner''': They're not romantic but I figured that they'd gone through too much to be friends.

--> '''Harry:''' In fact... I think that I'm living proof that you ''didn't.''

-->"I am known as Victor von Doom. Doctor Victor von Doom."

-->'''Jean''': Your brother, is [[spoiler: Scott Summers]].

* EvilCannotUnderstandGood: Xavier points out to Sinister in a BreakingSpeech that this is his FatalFlaw: He never understood either ThePowerOfLove or the persistent strength of [[spoiler: Maddie's free will]].

* {{Expy}}: What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; his vast and only barely trained power which he's initially scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary
creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood:
** Xavier points out to Sinister in a BreakingSpeech that this is his FatalFlaw: He never understood either ThePowerOfLove or the persistent strength of [[spoiler: Maddie's free will]].

** Both "Dave" the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] and his master [[spoiler: (Surtur)]] offer Harry the opportunity to join them and share his power. Since this is Harry we're talking about, the reply is a salvo of snark.

* EvilerThanThou:
** As far as Strange is concerned, Thanos is far, ''far'' worse than Surtur, as while the latter is at least operating under InsaneTrollLogic on how to "improve" the universe, Thanos just wants to render it a barren void and has no illusions otherwise.

* {{Expy}}: What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; his vast and only barely trained power which he's initially scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]]

* TheHecateSisters: The three leaders of the Norns, who respectfully view past, present, and future.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: To Harry's annoyance, meeting with the Norns includes being magically stripped naked so that the visitor brings nothing false with them, literally or figuratively.

* VisionQuest: Harry is given one when he takes the royal family's traditional visit to the Norns, where he's shown glimpses of the ancient past, things of importance happening in the present, and potential future events.

* EvilCannotUnderstandGood: Xavier points out to Sinister in a BreakingSpeech that this is his FatalFlaw: He never understood either ThePowerOfLove or the persistent strength of [[spoiler: Maddie's free will]].

** Both 'Dave' the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] and his master [[spoiler: (Surtur)]] offer Harry the opportunity to join them and share his power. Since this is Harry we're talking about, the reply is a salvo of snark.

* EvilerThanThou: As far as Strange is concerned, Thanos is far, ''far'' worse than Surtur, as while the latter is at least operating under InsaneTrollLogic on how to "improve" the universe, Thanos just wants to render it a barren void and has no illusions otherwise.

* {{Expy}}: What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; his vast and only barely trained power which he's initially scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary
creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]]

** Averted in the case of Doctor Doom, who knows perfectly well why neither self-described 'cold-blooded bitch' Alison Carter nor the former Winter Soldier is willing to force Peter Parker to drink the antidote to [[spoiler: the Grey Court infection within him]].
** Both 'Dave' the [[spoiler: Elder Wyrm]] and his master offer Harry the opportunity to join them and share his power. Since this is Harry we're talking about, the reply is a salvo of snark.
* EvilGloating: Yelena indulges in some when confronting Natasha again in Chapter 13, specifically, about [[{{Squick}} molesting]] [[spoiler: the Red Son]], because she saw him as being Natasha's. An unimpressed Natasha asks if she wants a [[RightHandCat white cat]] to stroke while she does it, snarkily offering [[RussianFashion a white ushanka (the famous Russian furry hat)]] as a substitute.

* EvilerThanThou: As far as Strange is concerned, Thanos is far, ''far'' worse than [[spoiler: Surtur]], as while the latter is at least operating under InsaneTrollLogic on how to "improve" the universe, Thanos just wants to render it a barren void and has no illusions otherwise.
** Dracula, as part of his EstablishingCharacterMoment, subjects Voldemort to this.

** Harry's 'apology' to Snape in chapter 28 ("I'm sorry, Professor. What I said hurt you.") is explicitly noted by the narration as being very carefully structured to carry an undertone of total insincerity and subtext of 'and I'm glad it did, because it was meant to.' Dumbledore later somewhat dourly remarks that trying to make Harry apologise to Snape publicly would be pointless, as Harry's budding talent at this (by implication, developed by watching his uncle and Doctor Strange at work) means that he would just structure his 'apology' to be as insincere and humiliating (for Snape) as possible.

* ExpendableClone: How Essex manages to turn up in multiple places simultaneously and survive repeated violent murder. He's also known for cloning his minions and, with the Red Room, creates [[spoiler: the Red Army, an army of clones.]]
* {{Expy}}: What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; the vast power dumped on him that he's only barely trained in and - to begin with - scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary
creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient of bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]]
** There are also major elements of [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]] in there too. Ludicrously strong PsychicPowers thanks to being part of the Grey family that might end up screwing him over? Check. Dark hair with skunk stripe in the fringe? Check. Miserable childhood with [[spoiler: Sinister]] heavily involved? Check. Bit of a MommasBoy? ''Definite'' check. HotBlooded [[DeadpanSnarker snarker]] with ChronicHeroSyndrome? Check. GuileHero prone to the IndyPloy, a tendency that evolves into XanatosSpeedChess? Check. Mutually intrigued by [[spoiler: Maddie Pryor]]?Check. Occasionally frighteningly ruthless? Check. In chapter 8, he even briefly gets Nate's ''New Mutants'' era outfit when he slices up the black leather [[spoiler:containment suit the Red Room put him in,]] leaving him in, effectively, a NoShirtLongJacket. Carol, predictably, mocks him mercilessly.

*** In relation to that, Harry's also gaining increasing shades of {{ComicBook/Cable}}, Nate's 616 counterpart. Aside from all the things Nate and Cable have in common that in turn are reflected in Harry, there's one or two others. First, the [[spoiler: infection by the Transmode Virus that transforms his left arm, left side, and left eye,]] temporary though it is. Second, an occasional tendency for just one eye, his left, to glow gold when he's using his powers rather than both. Third, when he jokingly suggests building his own version of Asteroid M/Avalon, after noting that he has the power (though not the knowledge), he mentions as possible names 'Greymalkin' and 'Providence' - the former being Cable's former space station, the latter being a floating city Cable built out of the remains of the former.

*** Related to the above, with her vast power, similarly ominous reputation, terrifying MamaBear tendencies when it comes to small boys of great destiny in her care, often fractious relationship with her father/father-figure, and stunning beauty, Wanda has more than a few shades of Polgara about her.

* FreakyFridayFlip: Voldemort uses his enhanced psychic powers to make [[spoiler: Carol, Pepper, Diana, Jane, Uhtred, and the Twins]] swap minds, as part of his messing with Harry at the World Cup.

* EatingTheEyeCandy: Harry and Carol, mutually, when they're in swimsuits. It's deeply awkward and leads to Harry reaffirming to a faintly worried Carol that they are still JustFriends and their friendship comes first.

* EldritchLocation: The Dreaming, which is noted as being even stranger than the [=NeverNever=], which is apparently a small portion of it.

* DressCodedForYourConvenience: Played Straight and Subverted with Alison Carter on various occasions. Sometimes, she's in typical SHIELD combat gear, entirely befitting a RetiredBadass, SuperSoldier, and ex-Deputy Director of SHIELD who hasn't aged physically half as much as careful application of make-up would have most believe, and indeed, finds retirement boring and is still very active behind the scenes. When meeting the [[spoiler: Kent]] family, however, to set them a bit more at their ease, she dresses up in a casual, comfy fashion that the narrator observes a Brit would have described as 'mumsy', and that the very American [[spoiler: Clark]] inwardly pegs as resembling 'a soccer mom from central casting' (albeit an upper-middle class 'ladies who lunch' version). He also, however, picks up very quickly on the fact that this is far from all that she is.
** When Harry is discussing his different identities with Ron in chapter 45, he performs an InstantCostumeChange (or, rather, a psychic illusion of one), taking on the appearances and voices he used as [[spoiler: Dark Phoenix, Light Phoenix, Red Son,]] and Harry Potter (in the latter case, basically him just before he discovered his heritage).

* EasilyForgiven: Discussed and Zig-Zagged with Harry after the way he's been terrorising his fellow students following what the ''Forever Red'' arc did to him. On the one hand, after he has his HeelRealisation courtesy of Cedric Diggory's WhatTheHellHero speech, and publicly apologises to Seamus Finnegan, who [[NoodleIncident at one point he scared witless]] after the other boy unwittingly pressed a BerserkButton of his, the Hogwarts student body relax significantly and generally seem willing to let bygones be bygones. On the other, the narration notes that they're 'cautiously optimistic', but also wary of a reversion, and Harry and Cedric discuss the trope, with Harry dryly noting that his fellow students would mostly just be relieved by the change and too scared of him to be willing to push it. Cedric, ever optimistic though he is, does not disagree.

* EmpathicEnvironment: The Nevernever in general tends to be influenced by the mortal world, and it can be similarly influenced by suitably powerful individuals. When two Omega class psychics throw down, this results in a WorldGoneMad.

** Ván, the Sword of Hope. It was forged from uru and vibranium, layered with spells, had a mind of its own, which [[LoyalPhlebotinum like Excalibur, only someone worthy could wield]] - and despite Thor's suspicions of Strange's involvement, it wasn't him. It was made to take on [[spoiler: Surtur,]] a fully fledged Dark Phoenix and NoSell the best said Dark Phoenix could throw at it - which, by inference, it ''did''. It makes the Sword of Gryffindor look like a toy in comparison.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Dracula gets one in chapter 24. He's sitting and listening to Voldemort's proposal for mutual advantage, having remarked that he doesn't particularly want to play games... then Voldemort finishes his proposal, saying that he'll elaborate on the details of what information he has to offer once Dracula accepts. In a blurred instant, he's on his feet and has lifted Voldemort out of his chair like it's nothing, coldly remarking that he doesn't appreciate being manipulated into a war with the Avengers or Asgard which would be 'tiresome'. So, it's going to be the other way around - Voldemort's going to cough up his information, and if, and only if, it is sufficient, then Dracula will accept his proposal. Oh, and any attempt to use his magical or psychic powers won't work because Dracula's suppressing them with a mere effort of will.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Jean-Paul agrees with Carol's assessment that Warren is hot. While this isn't necessarily surprising, considering that Jean-Paul is very, very gay, even Harry, who's otherwise entirely straight, notes that he's astonishingly good looking.

** The saner members of the Winter Guard are visibly disturbed by Yelena molesting [[spoiler: Red Son!Harry]].
** When one of Dracula's minions suggest he employ some LoopholeAbuse to get around a promise made to a captive [[spoiler: Carol]] on his behalf (by pointing out Dracula himself didn't make the promise), Dracula is incensed at the idea of breaking a vow, and later shows a certain amount of VillainRespect for both Carol and (to a lesser extent) Harry.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Harry and Carol. By this point, both of them are aware of their mutual attraction, but deny that they're taking it further, or flirting, when they blatantly are. It gets to the point of almost being an ExaggeratedTrope, given that beings who have seen them together for just a few minutes can already tell that they're flirting, and becomes a RunningGag.
* EvilGloating: Yelena indulges in some when confronting Natasha again in Chapter 13, specifically, about [[{{Squick}} molesting]] [[spoiler: the Red Son]], because she saw him as being Natasha's. An unimpressed Natasha asks if she wants a [[RightHandCat white cat]] to stroke while she does it, snarkily offering [[RussianFashion a white ushanka (the famous furry hat)]] as a substitute.

* EvilerThanThou: As far as Strange is concerned, Thanos is far worse than [[spoiler: Surtur]], as while the latter is at least operating under InsaneTrollLogic on how to "improve" the universe, Thanos just wants to render it a barren void and has no illusions otherwise.

** In chapter 45, Harry uses this to very carefully dance around the point of [[spoiler: the Winter Soldier still being alive]], with [[spoiler: 'Dave' the Elder Wyrm]] having hinted to Ron that this was the case.

* ExcuseMeComingThrough: Carol pulls this in chapter 29, when making an escape attempt from [[spoiler: Dracula's vampire]] strike team, through Lexington-63rd subway station. The narration notes that the fact that she's most of six feet tall, well built, moving fast enough to break several local speed limits (whilst carrying her younger brother to boot) helps, as does the fact that she's apparently inherited her great-grandfather's "I-am-Captain-America-and-shit-is-getting-real-so-do-as-I-say" voice.

* {{Expy}}: What with his possessing a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics; the faintly ominous prophecies about him; the vast power dumped on him that he's only barely trained in and - to begin with - scared stiff of, leading him to make stuff up as he goes along; the royal[=/=]pseudo-royal status that he's reluctant to embrace; the association with fire and light, as well as reincarnation[=/=]rebirth; the red and gold colour scheme complete with a legendary creature that scares the pants off a lot of people; the number of truly ancient of bad guys out for his blood before he can grow up and crush them; plus [[spoiler: the vast power he has access to that could quite easily drive him insane and destroy the world]]; plus references to a 'sword of fire' that waits specifically for him, Harry has a definite resemblance to [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Rand al'Thor.]]

*** Doctor Strange also quotes the 616 version of Moira [=MacTaggert=] in her original assessment of Nate when discussing Harry - specifically, the original page quote on Nate's Marvel Wiki page.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: According to Strange, when he told Frey that try as he might, he couldn't save him, Frey simply thanked him and asked him to accompany him to his final battle. Strange accepted.

* FairyTaleMotifs: Many of the same ones that appeared in Book I reappear here. A new one, however, is [[spoiler: an even straighter version of the Changeling tale, with Jean Grey's twin sister having been stolen at birth by Sinister and replaced with a dead infant, making it look like a tragic case of SIDS, being raised by Sinister as Madelyne 'Maddie' Pryor.]]

** Hermione, by contrast, freaks out somewhat at Strange doing things that all the laws of magic dictate should be impossible.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler: Chapter 46 reveals that after the Red Room's defeat, Dream punished Belova for her part in Harry's torture by sending her nightmares that tore away all her self-delusions and justifications for her actions. Due to the magic involved, this warped her waking world self, transforming her physically into "Gollum's uglier sister" and driving her completely insane.]]

* FlowerMotifs: Harry gives [[spoiler: Carol]] a Viscaria (meaning "will you dance with me?") when asking her to the Yule Ball.
* FlowersOfRomance: Harry giving [[spoiler: Carol]] a Viscaria [[FlowerMotifs (meaning "will you dance with me?")]] to ask her to the Yule Ball, especially since [[spoiler: it results in a RelationshipUpgrade]].

** Magneto's intervention means that Cassius is never able to cast his "Die alone" Death Curse on Dresden, and that Kumori is captured before she can flee.

** While Strange is [[spoiler: pretending to be dead]], he cures Lea of her Nemesis infection in exchange for Mab freeing Dresden of his debt to her, and convinces her to give up on making him the new Winter Knight by pointing out that as a potential Sorcerer Supreme he'll be fighting the Outsiders anyway. He also kills Mavra, a Black Court vampire who had crossed swords with Dresden in the past. This essentially curtails a significant number of later ''Dresden Files'' plot points.

** O'Neill, in turn, pulls one of these on Carol in chapter 17 when she's being shifty about where the dog she got for him comes from.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Ivan indicates that this was what happened to the Red Room. At first, it was created as a response to the rising number of superhumans: The Nazis had the Red Skull, Kemmler, Grindelwald, and Tesseract-based technology, and the Western Allies had superhumans like [[ComicBook/CaptainAmerica Cap]], Blade, Spitfire, Namor, Dumbledore, and Strange (though the latter is really, as Fury noted, on no side but his own). While the Russian winter proved deadly against mortal enemies, it was not nearly enough to stop superhumans, and so the Red Room and the Winter Guard were formed. [[OhCrap It was a complete success]].
* GreenRooming: As per usual with this fic, due to the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. One notable example is that of Peter Parker, who appears in the ''Bloody Hell'' arc for the first time since the early chapters of the previous book, briefly becomes [[spoiler: part-Grey Court vampire]], helps the heroes FightDracula, and... promptly disappears again.

* HateSink: [[spoiler: Dudley lacks any redeeming qualities whatsoever, so it's understandable to root for Harry when he literally cut him apart during ''Bloody Hell'', after Dudley got turned into a vampire - something which, Harry notes, only changed his diet.]]

* HegemonicEmpire: Asgard has this in respect to the Nine Realms, albeit with a light touch since they don't actually want or need anything from the rest of the universe. As a result, they only really get involved if someone's mucking around with one of the other Realms, or one of the other Realms is mucking around with another (Jotunheim screwing with Earth led to the Asgard-Frost Giant Wars), with a general policy best summed of 'don't make us come down there (because we can kick the crap out of you and you know it)'. This attitude hasn't been entirely consistent over time, with some periods, like Bor's rule, where Asgard largely ignored various realms, and others hinted at when it ruled a much more conventional (and huge) empire. Under Odin, however, Asgard tends to keep a gimlet eye on the affairs of the Nine Realms and make a statement where required. This is pretty much the only reason that the likes of the Kree, the Skrulls, the Shi'ar and other would-be powers have left Earth alone, because messing with Earth means messing with Asgard, and that just isn't worth it.

* HesJustHiding: The general reaction, both InUniverse and among the readers, to [[spoiler:Doctor Strange's apparent death]].

* HiddenDepths: Carol's mother turns out to be much more than the ExtremeDoormat Carol's been making her out to be. In addition, Zatanna Zatara is far more than just a pretty face, as is Cedric Diggory, who's perceptive enough to pull off a basic SherlockScan on Peter Wisdom, a man he's barely met, and a more insightful one on Harry. While he's nowhere near the TropeNamer, he's sharp enough to catch quite a few details and impress Harry, who's currently in one of his {{Jerkass}} moods.

* HotWings: [[spoiler: Harry as the Dark Phoenix.]]

** Also, mention is made of the Comicbook/{{Inhumans}}. And it's later established that the [[Series/StargateSG1 Jaffa]] also exist, and like the Inhumans are a sub-race created by the Kree as a warrior caste.

* InconvenientAttraction: A mutual version between Harry and Carol. They're best friends, they don't object to being attracted each other on principle, as such, it's just that Carol [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship doesn't want to ruin their friendship]], since she hasn't had many genuine friendships with guys (and those she's had, aside from Harry, are with a flamingly gay and decidedly enigmatic guy with unplumbed HiddenDepths, her self-appointed KnightTemplarBigBrother, and said flamingly gay guy's BiTheWay Asgardian boyfriend - who she met through Harry) and considers her friendship with Harry to be particularly precious. Harry, while not objecting to the idea of a RelationshipUpgrade, rigorously follows her wishes and doesn't want to lose their friendship either. Now if they could only get past the whole StupidSexyFriend thing, they'd be fine...
** As it is, though, they don't angst too much about it, save for a few moments of awkwardness, which tend to be absolutely hilarious for everyone else.
* IndyPloy: This remains Harry's textbook basis for a strategy, any strategy, when he bothers with one.
** Carol's plan with her shield in chapter 10 to bring down the Beast. It stuns him.
** Harry's plan at the end of that chapter. Unlike most examples, it goes horribly wrong.
** Defied in chapter 30, where Harry takes the time to plan out how to get around [[spoiler: Dracula's]] counter-measures.

** The Death Eaters still run amok at the Quidditch World Cup, though [[spoiler: Voldemort takes advantage of the chaos for his own ends]].
** [[spoiler: Harry still ends up the fourth champion in the Triwizard Tournament.]] In addition, [[Literature/DeadBeat the Kemmlerites]] are also looking for the ''Word of Kemmler,'' though this time, [[spoiler: Voldemort and Selene]] have joined them, and Wanda, Bruce, and Magneto are aiding Dresden.

** Although there were hints in the previous book, ''Ghosts'' has Hermione unknowingly becoming more and more like her mother, such as her increasing power levels and using creative threats to protect her friends.

** Averted with Harry himself. The author himself has repeatedly and emphatically stated that, despite his newfound powers, he's still struggling to figure them out, and will be on the wrong end of more than one beating.

** After ''Bloody Hell'', they start slowly drifting towards a relationship proper. [[spoiler: And come the aftermath of ''Of Dungeons and Dragons'', they have a RelationshipUpgrade.]]

** Strange says that Prince Arthur had evil magical practicioners trying to kill him on a weekly basis. Since ''Series/Merlin2008'' had a MonsterOfTheWeek format...

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Carol is usually this to Harry, following the events of ''Forever Red'', though sometimes the roles flip. This also tends to mean that Carol effectively has the most dangerous teenager in the known universe on a leash.

* LoomingSilhouetteOfRage: Strange pulls this on [[spoiler: Essex]] in chapter 14, with a fully fledged SlasherSmile that shows just how much he's going to enjoy making [[spoiler: Essex]] suffer.

* MagicMusic: Professor Gwion Bach [[spoiler: a.k.a. Doctor Strange]] is a new addition to the Hogwarts faculty and teaches a class about this. The main basic point is that MagicMusic is only really an extension of basic ideas about magic (indeed, there's a reason that 'chant' and 'enchant' come from the same etymological root) and of spell-casting, which shapes magic to the caster's will via rhythm and commands. While short incantations are quick, easy, and relatively customisable, they're also limited and you can only do one thing at a time. With songs, you can weave multiple spells into one casting, doing multiple things at once, especially if you're playing an instrument and singing, and/or more than one person is involved. At the very least, you can make it much more refined and precise.

* MatingDance: Downplayed for the Yule Ball - Harry and [[spoiler: Carol]] have an up close and sexy dance, the Mambo (a more restrained relative of the Tango) but not ''quite'' as overtly sexual as most examples of this trope. This was intentional by the author, who [[WordOfGod remarked]] that considering their respecting ages of 14 and a half and 15 and a half, taking it further would be entering {{Squick}} territory.

* MegatonPunch: Harry, thanks to channelling his telekinesis through his body, to [[spoiler: Dudley a.k.a. the Blob]], and well deserved it is too.

** [[spoiler: Sinister]] completely disregards this, and taught [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]] to do the same, to the extent that she doesn't realise that other people are bothered by this. It's part of what makes them so very dangerous.

** Harry, directly to [[spoiler: the five Death Eaters left under Voldemort's control and indirectly to every single living person with a Dark Mark.]] It leaves him literally retching.

* MookCarryover: [[spoiler: Dudley/The Beast]] is brought back into the story in the employ of the Red Room. After fleeing their downfall, he's somehow caught by [[spoiler: Voldemort, who then hands him over to Dracula to turn into vampire, as a peace offering - though Dracula suspects that there's a sting in the tail, somewhere. Whatever that was, it becomes a moot point when Harry dismembers him.]]

* MotiveRant: Harry gives a pretty good one in chapter 28 after once again being selected for the Triwizard Tournament, riffing off the Twelfth Doctor, explaining in furious tones just ''why'' he takes a lot of the crap that he goes through, because he accepts it as the price he pays for stepping up and doing some good, and why he's furious about being dragged into this. Even with his most horrific adventures, he's usually [[ChronicHeroSyndrome chosen to get into trouble in order to help others.]] However, he was forced into the Triwizard against his will, and furthermore, it's not for some grand purpose -- just fame, riches, and glory, all of which [[HumbleHero he has more than enough of already.]]

** Carol's swimsuit in the first chapter has the same design as her comicbook counterpart's most famous costume. It also gets a bit meta when you take into account that [[Creator/NimbusLlewelyn the author]] has frequently called it a swimsuit.

** In Chapter 6, when Harry asks what Logan teaches at the Institute, he responds with "[[Film/X2XMenUnited Art]]."

** The inscriptions on Curtana's sides ("For justice take me up. In mercy cast me away. I am Curtana. Wield me wisely.") resemble those of Excalibur, which, according to some myths, had "take me up" engraved on one side, and "cast me away" engraved on the other. Considering the intentional Arthurian name that Harry gave it, the following discussion of the Arthurian symbolism, and the fact that Doctor Strange [[spoiler: (who, as Taliesin, grew up in Camelot, was Merlin's apprentice, and later Court Physician and Bard to Arthur Pendragon himself)]] had a very large hand in it indicates that it was, InUniverse, very much intentional.

* NewChildLeftBehind: The consequences of Steve being Carol's great-grandfather and the relationship between the two are further explored, with Steve's daughter/Carol's grandmother, Alison Carter, being introduced, and the ''Bloody Hell'' arc hinging on the ramifications of it.

** Wanda increasingly starts to wonder this of herself and her father, especially after she melts [[spoiler: Sinister]] alive in chapter 10. He undeniably deserved it [[spoiler: and it didn't keep him down for long]], but it's a tactic straight out of her father's playbook.

*** All these similarities led to solid speculation that Strange actually ''was'' Harry from the far future, carrying out a StableTimeLoop. WordOfGod has {{Jossed}} this, but also said that that was actually the original plan. It actually ends up being defied by Strange, whose (stated) purpose in having Harry learn from [[spoiler: Gorakhnath]] is to avert this trope, so that Harry will have the chance to learn from other mentors and not pick up too many of Strange's habits.

** Harry Dresden's reaction when [[spoiler:Wanda suddenly becomes the Sorceress Supreme]] and the attendant implications, and again when he realizes that Voldemort had been tracking him, and had just murdered Grevane - which Dresden was only spared because Grevane had swiped the book that Dresden had found and Voldemort wanted.

** [[spoiler: Sinister]] is ultimately on the receiving end of this from Strange during ''Forever Red'', after decades, if not centuries, of being able to evade him thanks to the aid of someone or something that shielded him Strange's Sight. While Strange is flying blind, he still eventually (barely) succeeds in freeing [[spoiler: Harry]] and all the other prisoners from his grasp, as well as being behind the inducement of [[spoiler: Sinister's]] most prized LivingWeapon, [[spoiler: Maddie/Rachel]], to perform a HeelFaceTurn, and tracks [[spoiler: Sinister]] down, looming behind him with a SlasherSmile and a purred PreAssKickingOneLiner. Unsurprisingly, [[spoiler: Sinister's]] response is shock, horror, and denial, before Strange kills him. And to make matters worse, the Red Room is all but destroyed at the same time, and while he can usually rely on the CloningGambit, Strange has now literally hacked into the network behind it, being able to track down each and every one of the clones.

** However, Steve does eventually come round and sincerely apologise, Alison learnt from her mistakes with her grandchildren, and Marie eventually conceded that she couldn't change her daughter, that she wouldn't want to, and instead resolved to be proud of her.

** The potential for this via Harry and Carol's psychic connection is occasionally alluded to, but [[DefiedTrope defied]] - {{UST}} and frequent unconscious flirting aside, they're carefully platonic. It gets a little close to the line when Harry penetrates...er, enters her mind to project his astral form through. However, it's not dwelt upon since both have other things on their mind.

---> Good evening. [[MyNameIsInigoMontoya My name is Magneto.]] You kidnapped [[spoiler: my daughter.]] You kidnapped [[spoiler: my daughter's godson]]. You tortured them both. You have twisted the latter into your weapon. I would like to discuss this. And once we are done, if you are ''very'' lucky... [[CruelMercy I might actually allow some of you to live.]]

* PrideBeforeAFall: Harry's older alternate counterpart, 'Nathan', warns him of this in chapter 41, after Harry underestimated a trapping enchantment in the First Task that led to the two of them meeting in the first place - though he softens it somewhat by noting that Harry did actually examine the trap, and put more thought into than he [Nathan] would at the same age.

* PuttingThePalInPrincipal: Both Dumbledore and Charles Xavier qualify as this, being well-loved by their student bodies and faculties. This is particularly true of the latter, who doubles as a PsychologistTeacher (Dumbledore dabbles, but Xavier's a full-fledged therapist, the one who everyone in the superhuman community turns to) - his smaller student body means he can take a more personal interest.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Strange, or rather, as he was known back then, [[spoiler: Taliesin]], after he arrived too late to intervene at [[spoiler: Camlann]]. Cue this trope. He notes that normally, this wouldn't have had any real effect, even considering how powerful he was. However, he was in a particularly temporally sensitive area, had a natural gift for time magic (though nothing compared to what it became), and the Time Stone (for want of a better way of putting it) heard him. It appeared in front of him, and... changed him.

** Volodya gives Lukin one just before [[spoiler: he's executed.]]

** Harry and Carol, if asked, will insist that they are ''not'' boyfriend and girlfriend, JustFriends. Literally EveryoneCanSeeIt. Even the villains are commenting on it.

** Harry has also arguably been undergoing a slow, steady example, one which culminates in the TraumaCongaLine of the ''Forever Red'' arc and, in chapter 14, snapping and [[spoiler: becoming the Dark Phoenix.]] He seems set to get better... eventually.

* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: This happens twice with Harry (who's spent most of his life in Britain) and Carol (an American). In chapter 27, he bets Carol five quid that Strange gave him ''Blood Magic for Morons'' as a deliberate remark on the way that he'd [[spoiler: told Ron and Hermione about his being the Red Son and Dark Phoenix]], which she doesn't take up partially because she isn't sure and partially because she isn't sure what a quid (slang for "pound") is.
** The second time, in chapter 36, has Carol lampshade this when she borrows Harry's boxers, which he refers to as his "pants." Of course, what the British call pants, Americans call underwear, and what Americans call pants, the British call trousers.

* ShowerOfLove: One of the alternate universes Harry glimpses in Chapter 41 shows versions of him and Carol about to engage in this. He immediately switches to another universe, utterly mortified.
* ShownTheirWork: The author is a qualified Historian with a very broad general knowledge base (the sciences are a bit of a blind spot, however), a British private school education, an excellent memory and [[InsufferableGenius a compulsive need to show off.]] This was inevitable.

** When Syrus starts ranting about how all mortals belong to someone, Carol complains, "would you shut up with your evil hipster riff? It's not cool, it's not edgy, and it's not original." And when Syrus points out that the range of Harry's abilities is severely limited due to his presences as a long-distance AstralProjection, which also leaves him vulnerable to being effectively lobotomised, Harry agrees - but points out that first, Carol is worth every risk, and secondly, yes, his abilities are limited... and Syrus just walked right into his physical reach. Cue MindRape.

* SpannerInTheWorks: The Avengers, Wanda, and Bucky crush the Red Room and rescue Harry... who promptly dives off again in order to [[spoiler: save Maddie]].

* TheStationsOfTheCanon: Still follows these, broadly, with the Quidditch World Cup being attended, the Dark Mark being sent up into the sky... except that it's hijacked by [[spoiler: a now telepathic Voldemort.]] The Triwizard Tournament is also occurring as well, though WordOfGod has indicated that it will be ''very'' different from the canon version.

** In relation to Harry's sword, it's compared InUniverse to the ''Series/Merlin2008'' version of Excalibur (a very well-forged but mundane sword that was enchanted by being reforged in a dragon's flame at Merlin's behest). Since Strange [[spoiler: grew up alongside Merlin and was involved in those events as a boy]], being involved in the creation of that sword, Loki remarks that the similarities were almost certainly intentional. H Harry, a King Arthur geek, spends the next few minutes on the verge of nerdgasm, and eventually gives it a very Arthurian name: [[spoiler: Curtana, the Sword of Mercy]].

** The Grey Court of Vampires are big on this, via drinking blood - if they drink the blood of a superhuman, it gives them a temporary boost. If they conduct a certain ritual, they can gain the additional abilities permanently, which forms the basis of the ''Bloody Hell'' arc in the sequel when [[spoiler: Dracula tries to use the ritual to make him, and all other vampires he's sired, immune to daylight]].
** Also in the sequel, Thor tries to use this by hurling Mjolnir into the Red Room base as it teleports away. While it ends up in a region of the Nevernever that's too unstable to get a clear fix, it does eventually come in handy when the hammer, in [[spoiler: Maddie's]] hands, ends up opening a portal back to Thor.