While there are mentions of Batman and Superman they are not major things in this fanfiction

Disclaimer: I don't Harry Potter or any of the DC Characters or locations.

Harry Potter: ShadowKnight chapter 1

"Thank you Mister Potter for putting up these 'wards'" the famous millionaire smiled as his shook Harry's hand.

"I'm glad to be of service, Mister Wayne," the 23-year-old wizard replied with a nervous laugh, cursing his knack for landing himself in awkward situations.

After all, it wasn't every day you talked to the Batman without him knowing you knew. He mentally cursed his habit of legillamising everybody he saw and resolved to never do it again unless it was completely necessary.

He gave a speedy farewell and apparated away quickly, eager to escape the uncomfortable situation.

Six years ago, when he had moved away from the political turmoil of post-Voldemort Britain and into America he had been shocked at what he had found.

Muggles knew magic existed.

Apparently magical superheroes emerged all the time in America, being blessed by gods/ demons or finding magical items that they used to fight crime and had been so obviously magical that they had decided not to bother hiding it's existence from the rest of the world: a cover up would simply look suspicious.

You could fly on a broomstick on the street and not be arrested.

He later discovered that the existence of the Wizarding world was still concealed from the muggles even though they knew about magic.

This meant that as long as he did not use a wand and avoided any mention of the wizarding world he wouldn't be arrested.

After finding out that he could use magic in public so long as he didn't use a wand, Harry did some research into alternative magical foci.

Despite his eagerness in research it was almost completely by luck that he discovered the world of runes and wards.

Within a year and a half of extremely exhausting studying Harry became a Rune Master with a certificate to prove it.

Developed thousands of years ago as a way to design spell, runes were in essence the computer programming of magic. One could simply inscribe the correct sequence onto a sheet of paper, charge it with your magical core and make the paper do anything from changing colour to blowing up.

Harry caused the latter to occur several times a day within the first half year while attempting to do the former. After being assured by several experts that this was perfectly normal for someone his age he continued his studies.

Next came wards.

Wards were basically a specialised form of rune sequences used almost exclusively as a security system for defending a building against intruders.

With a new form of expertise and a goal other than becoming an auror in mind Harry started to tour the states setting up wards for rich persons and government establishments such as orphanages.

All for a high price, of course.

Harry completed the wards around the Jump city jail, collected his pay and apparated home: content with his day's work.

He reappeared in the front garden of his extremely well defended home in Metropolis, looked around and walked through the front door without opening it first.

The design for the door was a very complicated version of the entrance to platform Nine and Three Quarters in King's Cross-station.

The building materials had cost a fortune.

Fortunately, however, on his first day in Metropolis Harry had met Superman and rescued him from what appeared to be a robot with a piece of green glowing rock in its chest.

Later that day the 19 year old RuneMaster had enjoyed and interesting conversation with the famous reporter Clark Kent who when he learnt of it offered to provide funds for his dream of becoming a professional RuneMaster.

While Mister Kent had never admitted to it, Harry was pretty sure he knew who Superman was.

Once Harry entered through his door he noticed a letter on his welcome mat. He quickly opened the letter, noting the hippogriff seal on the front: the mark of America's magical government.

It read:

Mister H. Potter

An appointment is requested between you and the Minister of Magic at 3pm tomorrow

Do not be late

Signed

Arnold Dingby, (American) Minister for Magic.

"So," Harry whispered, "It seems they've found a use for me after all."

When Harry had first moved to America, the Ministry had let him into the country under one condition: That any service required by the Ministry he would provide or be kicked out of the country/arrested.

He hadn't expected them to ask for at least another five years.

Harry stormed into the office of the most powerful magical politician with a scowl on his face, "You wanted to see me minister?" he asked, glaring at the short man seated before him.

"Harry!" The minister smiled, seeming genuinely pleased to see him, "Please, take a seat."

The 23year old in question sat down heavily on the intensely magic saturated chair, the pacifist compulsions and calming charms woven into the fabric of the seat having no effect judging by the intense glare he was giving.

Arnold Dingby, the minister wisely chose to ignore this and continued speaking as if nothing was wrong, "Harry, what do you know about Jump City?"

Harry sighed, having a sneaking suspicion as to where this was going. "It has the highest magical crime rate in America."

"Exactly Harry! And this is why I want you to become a-"

"You want me to become an auror and wage a war on crime in Jump City that will eventually get me killed in and extremely painful manner that will dissuade anyone from ever trying to do so again."

"No! Harry," the minister faked shock as if the idea had never occurred to him though the expression didn't quite reach his eyes. "I want you to become a superhero!"

"I'm leaving"

"No Harry, let me explain." The minister exclaimed hurriedly as he stood up.

"Explain then."

At this point Dingby grew solemn, the room seeming to darken slightly and Harry had a suspicion that the anti spy wards outside had just had more than a few layers added. "Harry," he started "In Jump City witches and wizards are running amok with no regard for the statute of secrecy and casting the unforgivables left right and center. The situation is so bad that the wizarding world has been predicted to be exposed to the rest of the world in three year's time, if this happens and the mugggle's first impression of magic is what is seen in Jump City then there will be war."

"Why do you need me to be a superhero though?"

"I need to finish first Harry. If you look at the muggle world you can see that the crime rates have gone down extremely fast ever since superheroes were introduced to the system. Take the Batman for example: When he emerged Gotham City was the most corrupt muggle city in America, now look at it!"

"Why do you want specifically me to become a superhero though?" Harry asked, intrigued.

At this Dingby laughed "Harry. You are the most gifted RuneMaster for someone of your age and can only get better as you get older, you could easily enchant a suit of armour and fight crime. Also you're the Boy-Who-Lived, your record of being a hero is famous even here in America 6 years after you killed Lord Voldemort and the way you hunted down the horcruxes in a tent with two friends added to the fact that you amazingly enough became a RuneMaster in two years without any prior training proves that you have high levels of intelligence which you could use to hunt down crime syndicates (and believe me, there are quite a lot of those in Jump City) makes you the best possible candidate."

Harry sat in silence, thinking it over "How much do I get paid?" he asked. "After all, crime fighting will take up all of my work time and I need money."

The minister beamed. "So you'll do it then?"

"Yes" Harry sighed "I don't think I have much of a choice considering the agreement."

Jump city: Harry's new home

Harry looked at the matte black suit of medieval armour in his basement thoughtfully. The minister, or Arnold as he wanted to be called by Harry now had given him a suit of armour custom made for him, spray painted it black with Permanent-PaintTM and told him to enchant it and that all expenses would be paid for."

He grinned to himself: all expenses paid for? This would be fun.

...

"Finally" Harry muttered a week later as he examined himself in the mirror a week later, admiring his work.

Even if he hadn't wanted to brag the RuneMaster would freely admit that this was a work of art.

Etched onto the surface beneath another layer of black paint were literally hundreds of silver runes, most of them Norse or Egyptian.

The runes functioned as:

Strength enhancers, shields, voice distorters, anti-apparation wards (For other people, he could still apparate just fine), sound muffling runes (to hide that tell-tale pop when he apparated) and much, much more.

The gauntlets and chest plate were composed of an alloy that the creators called mithril, even if it was nothing like the fictional metal from J.R.R Tolkien's best selling novels.

For one thing it was black in colour. Also, it was most certainly not made by elven smiths and was in fact, ironically enough invented by goblins.

It was also quite brittle.

However it did have some redeeming qualities, the biggest one being that it could channel magic like a wand.

And since it was not a wooden stick use to channel and internally produced energy that wizards called magic he could cast spells in public using it without being arrested.

At least, as long as he did not mention the wizarding world.

Upon detecting an unforgivable being cast somewhere in the city using the sensors in his helmet he apparated out of his home silently, his armour cloaking the usual popping sound.

Martin Cooper, a skinny wizard with red hair watched gleefully as the pretty muggle women stepped into the alleyway, a dazed expression on her face.

Heh! The imperious curse was great, and the best thing was you wouldn't be arrested for using it in Jump, a fact that was unlikely to change any time soon-

"Excuse me," An almost completely expressionless male voice said from somewhere behind, causing the hairs on his neck to stand on end. "May I ask as to what you are doing?"

The distraction caused Martin to lose concentration on the imperious curse, allowing the muggle to regain full control over her body, look around for a few seconds and then sprint round the corner.

Martin turned around furious "What do you think you're doing…"

He stopped as he saw the figure that stood before him. The figure wore somewhat elegant medieval armour that did not creak like the stuff Martin saw occasionally in the museum and was entirely black. The doomed vibes increased as he noticed the red dots on a black background behind the visor where the face should have been.

Harry watched in pride as the wannabe criminal noticed the red eyes: they had been a last minute addition and he was rather glad they worked. "Stopping you," he answered as his armour distorted the voice and made it seem almost completely expressionless.

Martin fired a stunner at the armoured man in panic and gasped in surprise as the man jumped upwards and seemed to disappear.

Inside his armour, Harry was rather annoyed: he had leapt up to avoid the stunner and the weight lifting charms had proven to strong as he was descending at a speed one would find on a small asteroid half the size of the moon.

Truthfully he could have just let the stunner splash harmlessly over his chest, rather than testing the agility of his armour. Making a mental not to adjust the power input for the weight lifting runes later he quickly fired some stunners at the criminal and the muggle women who was watching with her head poked around the corner of the alley.

He didn't really want to do that to her but wands had been used and it was easier to modify the memories of someone if they were unconscious.

After obliviating the poor women and tying up the criminal he sent out a call for a team of aurors and apparated away silently, detecting an unforgivable being used elsewhere in the city.

They didn't stand a chance.

The next day the latest edition of Magical Jump, the number one newspaper for magic users in Jump city displayed the following article:

ShadowKnight arrests 15

Yesterday night, no less than 15 witches and wizards were arrested and given a life sentence for casting an unforgivable curse on muggles.

The so-called ShadowKnight has been christened as such by a witness who would prefer to remain nameless.

Distinguishing features of ShadowKnight are black medieveal armour and gleaming red dots that seem to serve for eyes beneath his visor and no face with blackness where there should be one.

It is interesting to note that ShadowKnight only arrested those who used one or more of the unforgivable curses: perhaps this means that ShadowKnight has a way of detecting when an unforgivable curse has been cast or that…

Harry put down his cup of tea and smiled. The name, not that ShadowKnight was that bad (It was more original than Superman anyway) was unimportant and in truth he had forgotten how good it felt to save people. The 23 year-old RuneMaster was reasonably certain that even if he were no paid he would still continue foiling crimes, a fact he would never admit to Arnold.

Just because he would fight crime without it a 6-digit salary was quite a nice thing to have.

As he walked out of the door Harry prepared himself mentally for the day ahead:

First he would visit Arnold and give his report and personal opinion on how many zeros his paycheck had, although he doubted it would work.

Then he would visit the magical section of Jump City and buy food and compile a list of crime syndicates and other places of illegal activity.

After that he would go home, make some modifications to his armour and fight crime at night.

If only things were that simple for people like Harry.

How do you find it so far? Should I make it more humorous or dark or maybe include more speech?

The titans will be introduced in the next chapter or maybe the one after that so it's something to look forward to

Please review!

signed, Shng Lotn (Sherlock Holmes Ninja Gnome Lots Of Terrible Noise)