Disclaimer: I do not own Agents of SHIELD, The Avengers, Captain America, The Hulk, Ironman, and any associating involved with Marvel. I do not own Harry Potter. They are belonged to their respective creators and owners. Please support the official releases.
Settling in and Adjusting
Chapter One
Harry felt an headache coming on. No wait, scratch that, a headache not only decided to move straight into the side of his brain but ended towing a party with them while they were at it! The throbbing pain surfaced struggling to keep himself from slamming against the wall in an attempt to place himself into a come. The thought had been so, so, so very tempting. He'd check with Hermione later to see how long it would take to slip into one. That information would be beneficial to him somewhere down the line he was certain.
Quickly making a mental note to write that information down once acquired.
It still does not help him in the slightest though. Eyes flickering back and forth between the shadows that hanged upon the walls with the very loud, obnoxious, and irritating voices of the Avengers (more so his Uncle and grandfather) arguing adamantly with the rest of them. He felt torn between being highly annoyed and highly amused.
"-What kind of school is this? There isn't anything on Maths or Sciences! Why isn't there anything on those?" Tony's voice echoed vibrantly with the shadow throwing up his hands into the air. "And what the hell kind of courses are 'Divination' and 'Care of Magical Creatures'? Sounds like a goddamn nutbar fest!" The frustration and anger had been as clear as day with the way he talked, pacing around within another room. Something slammed down upon a table loudly followed by the strange noise of something popping before it felt rather silent. Another slam appeared not too soon after that.
"There isn't anything on English, nor language courses either." Natasha's brisk disapproval cut through the air sharply.
Bruce came to the rescue, weakly. "There's a history course at least. He'd have to know about his magic and the history of that world, right? So at least Harry's learning something useful!"
"I would not put such faith." Loki's voice stirred dryly, as Harry peeked from outside of the door. "The last I heard before my little attempt at World Domination and far, far before I met any of you when I posed as a student there, the teacher that actually does teaching of that particularly subject is not only ineffective but also dreadfully boring and incapable of expanding beyond a subject that does not concern the Goblin Wars. It does not help that the teacher not only died while on the job but his spirit has continued to remain there teaching utterly unaware of the fact he's dead." His eyes rolled sarcastically. "It seems that Hogwarts had fallen so far since its founding that I'm certain the four would be rolling in their graves."
"Goblins?" The utterly look on Tony's face had been priceless.
"There isn't anything on physical education either," Steve began, slowly and carefully.
Bucky gave him a pointed look. "You are one to talk, punk." There had been a fondness within his tone smiling gently at him.
"I've never even heard half of these things. 'Arthimancy' 'Ancient Runes' 'Study of the Dead' and what the hell is muggle studies?" Clint glanced up, shaking his head with a screwed up expression.
"Arithmancy is similar to what you call maths. It is based upon numerology, the magic of numbers." The woman, Agent Hills, answered immediately. "Some magics can be increased strong or dampened depending upon numbers. Such as how many generators can power an entire city, the lack of a few would have devastation consequences. It is a rather unusual art. From our research we can distinguish that several wizarding jobs such as curse breaking follow under the umbrella with Arthimancy with a secondary subject of Ancient Runes seems to be linked," As she folded a sheet of paper and stared blankly. "There are other schools of magic that have different subjects. This is merely what Hogwarts seems to teach from our findings."
"I want him pulled out." Tony decided. "How is he supposed to function in this world without a normal education?!"
"I think that's the point." Sam murmured, leaning forwards appearing pensive and focused. "Hey Sharon how many kids actually end up returning to this side?"
The blonde woman frowned. "It's Agent 13. Very few ended up returning to this side and the ones that did haven't been able to really do so well with their lack of normal education. Those that have simply wish to be left alone at this point."
"Sounds like a conspiracy." Steve stated.
"Or something else," Fury continued on frowning.
"Man of Fury tell me how does this pertain to my nephew?" Thor inquired. "He is a magic user is he not? Why is it troubling so?"
"The British Wizarding World seems to be relatively so far out of touch with the rest of the world that their stuck in the Victorian era. Refusing to move forward with the times relying upon magic to the point where their entire civilization cannot survive without it. While they have introduced some forms of technology such as the Wizarding Radio and communications devices they are still relatively so far behind everyone else. It's astonishing that MI-13 has not yet moved in on the matter." Agent 13 straightened professionally. "I have been in contact with the head of the department. The Queen has not yet ordered them to do anything unless absolutely necessary."
Silence had befallen the room at what they had just learned. Each of them appeared unsettled by what they had been told and seemingly debating about where to go from here on.
Pepper cleared her throat. "Might I make a suggestion?" All eyes fell upon her. "Since it's the summer I think we should take the time to see all of our options. Harry's options," She threw a stern look to Tony whom opened his mouth before shutting it tightly. "We've already torn him from the one place he calls him. From his friends. This is something that he needs to decide, not us."
"He's fifteen." Agent Hill protested.
Bucky levelled her a look. "He's a fifteen year old boy who just got his entire world turned upside down. And he's my grandson. If anyone gets to decided it's me-"
"Hey!" Tony squawked. "Hammertime and I are his uncles! Don't we get a say on this?"
Steve and Bucky exchanged a split second look before turning in unison towards Tony and together on cue. "No."
"Pepper!" Tony practically whined pitifully, attempting to use the puppy dog eye look.
Pepper casually ignored the whining. "We have until the end of the summer to let Harry decide. So," She folded her hands. "Let's make sure he has fun here. This is quite a drastic change he's been going under, he'll need all of our support and understanding." To further induce fear into them her eyes narrowed darkly having a similar gleam that Hermione used to use on Ron and himself or when McGonagall desired the class to be attentive. It was rather frightening. "No one here is going to push him on anything. Am I understood?"
No one said a word.
"Am I understood?" This time her tone had been firmer.
Nearly everyone withered underneath that tone with an exceptional few such as Fury and Loki, both avoiding eye contact. "Yes Pepper," The rest murmured incoherently in unison.
"I… will go and contact Dr. Strange," Fury announced suddenly, briskly turning to leave. "He is an expert in the fields of magics and whatnot. There is a chance he'll have far more information and contact with the magical realms that we do. Agent Hill, Agent 13 we are leaving."
"Sir."
Hill marched obediently behind her superior with Agent 13 pausing in her stride glancing back towards Sam's direction before vanishing behind the door leaving the rest of the Avengers plus Pepper and Loki remaining. No one seemed to have dared to say anything, almost practically avoiding one another in silence as they were trying to digest everything from today. Harry could not blame them. He had excused himself from earlier after the jetlag had managed to catch up to him by heading into the bathroom in order to allow some moment of peace for himself to establish everything that had occurred in under a full day. It happened all so quickly, though he had easily accepted what had happened. After the previous year there was barely anything that could surprise him anymore. It made sense that the new transition would be immensely difficult for all of them to handle, more especially himself given he was nowhere near his home country nor his friends.
The wizard felt lost. It was brand new territory for him. All of this was.
What could he say though? SHIELD practically dragged him from the Dursleys without warning before dumping every aspect of detail onto to him via the trip. Whether or not the situation had been the same for everyone else he hadn't the faintest.
It appeared to him that none of them had been treated rather fairly.
"Hogwarts isn't that bad."
Harry stepped out from the shadows upon being meet with the various stares that ranged from all across the room. Hogwarts wasn't not the most ideal place to learn; he knew that, after all the adventures and everything that had been forced to deal with; considering otherwise would be ignorant. It was not the best school in the world. The final task had proven that. He did not know what records that SHIELD knew about him, nor could he vouch for the accuracy of the files dictating his history of said events, nonetheless, he wanted them to understand his perspective a bit.
"It's not great." He continued on, choosing words carefully. "I know that. I know that better than anyone here. A lot of you already want to take me out of there which is understood, I get that! But like Pepper said could I at least have the summer to think things over." His lips curled. "Please?"
He had been met with utter silence. Keeping in firm control and refuse to budge he would stand his ground.
Bucky turned to Steve. "Are you sure he isn't yours? He's doing that thing you always do when you're trying to make a point."
"Jerk," Steve whacked playfully, snorting. "He takes after you with how stubborn you get."
"Asshole."
Steve grinned further nudging his arm into Bucky's side. "Pepper he called me an asshole!"
"I thought that was Stark's thing," Bucky snarked at him.
Pepper didn't even look up. "Boys behave. Or I will ground you."
"We're grown men-"
"I will ground you."
The threat lingering in her voice did not go unnoticed.
"Ohhhh," Tony grinned almost childishly. "She used the tone. You two are in so much trouble."
"You will also be grounded." Her reply came almost instantaneous.
"PEPPER!"
Natasha and Clint exchanged a grin between one another. To everyone else it had appeared that this had been a rather normal occurrence given the body language between Pepper and Tony, seemingly almost similarly to the relationship between Hermione, Ron and himself. Except it had been far more mature and stable.
"I do believe it's time for young Master Harry's bedtime. "JARVIS commented.
Harry jolted. It still took some getting used to when it came to him and machines though the AI had a rather pleasant and reassuring voice, trustworthy and faithful.
"Oh shush. It's summer vacation for him." Tony quipped sliding in the chair, smugly with a smirk raising his glass.
Pepper pressed his lips thinly. "You've already finished a drink-"
"It's ice tea."
"I can smell the alcohol from here."
Tony shrunk back weakly smiling at the venomous stare directed towards him by Pepper. Trying to find an out his attention landed upon Harry. "So how about we go and show you the room we made! Can't have you be sleeping out here on the couch now can we?"
"Wait…" His brows furrowed together confused. "My room?"
"After we found out about you Stark took charge and began to add another room in the tower for you. None of us really sure what you'd like, we had to trust second-hand information since none of us have really been around teenagers that much." Bucky answered, appearing more awkward and uncertain. "We didn't let him take command over anything. Nothing too much." His head bowed as his face screwed up with concentration. "We tried to choose colors that you might like. We did put in a bed, desk, lamp and basically you know, all the necessities and all that." A slight and faint smile appeared upon his face before fading as his grandfather bowed his head.
Harry felt touched at the sentiments and lengths they went through. Feeling his face beginning to burn brightly as words seemed to fall upon his lips, emerald pools glanced up shyly. "I erm… thank you," He mumbled. "None of you had to go and do that."
"Yes. We did," Steve disagreed, adamantly with a stoic yet gentle look. "We haven't known one another along. But you are family which makes you apart of this family too."
It taken most his self control not to go completely red by that statement. He had felt touched at how much they were willing to go for him despite barely knowing each other, not even being an entire day since meeting them. Kindness on such a level hardly ever came without some sort of alternative motive. Or so he had at first believed. The sincerity that flowed from Steve had spoke volumes that reached him as they glowed brightly within his eyes along with the smile that stretched across his lips, he knew that that his words had been truth. Nonetheless Harry continued to feel at a slight disadvantage. Nothing he'd be able to do could ever repay for everything that they have done.
Being acknowledged as a part of the family caused him to flush even deeper.
"I've… never been a part of a family before." He confessed truthfully, and softly.
Clint straightened on the couch wearing a controlled expression. "Then we learn. Together, kiddo."
"So," Tony clapped his hands together. "Let me show you where it is!"
With slight wariness creeping up his eyes slide over towards his grandfather and the rest of the Avengers, whom got up from the couch nearly beginning to tow him along with them as he immediately understood that there was no choice in the matter and followed reluctantly not too far behind them. He felt somewhat out of place. Awkward and almost an oddity among them. The curiosity, however, of his room remained in question.
Upon arriving to the room felt all of his doubts vanish in an instant staring around with absolute wonder.
It had been bigger than he had originally imagined expanding across from length and width allowing large enough space for him to move around. The bed had been shuffled towards the side sliding up against the wall with a greyish and white blanket resting upon it with the rooms being painted in a metallically silver colour spreading around upon each wall. The pillows were fluffy as they snuggled upon the bed and against the board appearing more like clouds than actual pillows with how big they were as they complimented the chosen color of the room as the rest had a closet located not too far from the bed and two drawers one reaching high and the other being short yet wider. At the front of the room had been a desk with an additional lamp resting upon the top with the light peering down at the desk. It had been fairly simple in overall design with a blinking light flashing amongst the darkness of the room.
His eyes narrowed in confusion curiously wondering what exactly laid at the desk. But he had been struck by the awe at his large his room had been.
"This is…" Harry began slowly entering it, taking each step with slight hesitation and wonder spinning around before turning towards them. "I… thank you. A lot, this is wonderful."
Tony smirked smugly. "That ain't everything kiddo. I added a few things to make your room a bit more fun-"
"Tony." Pepper warned, slowly.
Clint beamed. "Oh this I need to see."
"Stark do not go killing him this quickly. Still need to break him in." Bucky commented, lowly with a stern stare yet his lips twitched.
Steve looked away shaking his head while Thor simply continued to smile oblivious to everything that was going on before him. Loki and Sam mere hang to the back staring with nonplused stares without even blinking. He glanced back to see Natasha sliding his arms together just in time to catch her let out a sigh proceeding to watch Tony cautiously and carefully where as Bruce rolled his eyes pointedly staring up at the ceiling trying to pretend that nothing was wrong.
"Is… there something wrong?" His brows furrowed together uncertainly.
"No." Pepper pressed her lips thinly together elevating his half-uncle with a stern look. "Knowing him he must have gone ahead and upgraded something just to make sure you had some fun and freedom. The question remains as to what exactly did you upgrade and why." Her eyes focused internally upon Tony as the man began to shrink back. "Tony." Her tone had been simply yet direct, not entirely demanding an answer from him and expected one regardless.
"It isn't anything bad!" He promised. "It's just a laptop that I added with some virtual stuff. You know, like my lab screens and all that."
"As long as it isn't anything dangerous," She seemed to relent slowly.
Tony seemed to relax. "I figured he'd get a kick out of how to make his own robot and armor. Teenagers love that kind of stuff."
"Tony!"
"What?"
The utterly baffled stare and the look of pure exhaustion from Tony and Pepper had been absolutely hilarious as the rest of the Avengers had all conveniently decided that the ceiling had been the most interesting thing in the room at that current moment in time and decided to leave them be. As Pepper walked out of the room rather sternly with his Uncle chasing after him not a minute later, still confused by her reaction as their voices seemed to fade within the hallway being muddled by the distance as a door closing echoed.
Harry felt his lips twitched utterly bemused. "Am I allowed to begin unpacking?" Not that Harry had a lot with him to start. Everything had been placed within his trunk, the only clothes that he even wore were also inside of said trunk. It had been rather sad that all the things that he owned all fit into his school trunk. On the other hand he had never really perceived himself to be a materialistic person. Everything he had to do with school with the exception of his album and his invisibility cloak, even his Broom had been mainly used to play Quidditch and fly around the castle during his spare time; which were few and far between. There had been much space and he had very little to truly put into places. Having a large room all to himself felt rather lonely.
"Only if were allowed to help," Bruce stated smiling softly. It had been the first time that the man had spoke since his little introduction with everyone else.
Loki rolled his eyes. "Why not use magic and be done with it?"
"Because I'm underage and out of school." Harry pointed out. "I'm not allowed to use magic."
Natasha smiled. "We'll have that figured out for later."
Somehow the way she smiled sent a dark chill down his spine. He suddenly found himself glad to understand that her intentions seemed to be directed towards someone else, it almost made him want to sympathize with that person. Almost.
"He might want some space." Sam pointed out. "We've practically been hovering since he got here."
"We haven't been hovering!" Steve defended.
Clint gave him a look. "We've been hovering."
"I had some space." Harry reminded. "In the bathroom."
"That doesn't count kid," Clint informed.
His brows furrowed frowning. "Why not?"
"Because everyone uses that excuse to get away from the insanity that is us!" The archer commented sagely, nodding.
Harry blinked. "The insanity?" His tone coated in disbelief.
"That's what out PR managers keeps saying." Bruce flushed, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish smile.
Steve blinked. "We aren't that bad."
"You are that bad." Bucky reassured, patting his shoulder with a smirk. "I can hear your PR manager screaming in frustration several miles away. Or should I remind you of that little incident at the Press Conference three weeks ago?"
Clint grinned. "That was a riot!"
"The tabloids were magnificent." Loki quipped, lips curling into a large smile thought it appeared like he attempted to prevent the smile.
"My Lady Jane had been quite worried about us." Thor boomed, and yet smiled. "She is always looking after us and providing great relief! You must meet her dear nephew. She is sure to take a shine to you as will Lady Darcy."
"She's Thor's girl," Clint elaborated with a wink and a smirk.
Harry stared up at Thor. "Should I start calling her Aunt Jane then?"
The redness that spread across Thor's face made the entire room burst out into laughter.
"It might not be too soon for that," Loki's eyes gleamed playfully at the thought curling his lips into a large smile. "Shall I give her a call dear brother and inform her?"
Thor looked absolutely scandalous. "NO! I-I mean Lady Jane has far more pressing matters than that of the heart, brother."
"That sounds like an excuse to me." He seemed to be thoroughly enjoying tormenting his brother as his smile continued to grow. "In fact I'll just go and pop in. She'll love to see her new brother-in-law after all, then we can prepare the wedding preparations!"
"Loki!" Thor sounded horrified.
Another round of laughter echoed through the room as the god continued to stare obliviously at the teasing which had been directed towards him.
(1)
The bed rocked, crackling sounds and shuffling of the floor, murmurs of inaudible grunts filled with fatigue and exhaustion. Eventually the bed stopped shaking having been replaced by the sounds of rolling instead; the two parties comprised of the bed entangled themselves into one another as their heated breath connected in unison. The covers wrapped around their bodies from the waist downwards with nothing but their chests exposed around the room though they were the only occupants within, each bedroom had been coded lock with the digitalized interface via JARVIS unless circumstances were brought to top priority or when Natasha decided to either make nice with the AI or use the codes to get into everyone else's room. By now everyone knew she knew how. In fact everyone knew everyone else's code by now with how much they spend time together. It would be more confusing as to why they hadn't.
"Did you see how fucking thin he was?" Bucky murmured, his arms wrapped around Steve with a serious and almost pained stare. "Fuck, the kid is thinner than you were back then!"
Steve nodded. "I noticed that. We all noticed how thin he was," He agreed. "I don't remember any teenagers being that thin. Not even know. Natasha did some digging apparently your eldest happily signed Harry away to you without a second thought."
"Maybe I should go and pay her a visit." His eyes flashed darkly with a cold smirk sliding upon his face.
"Bucky," Steve began, the warning tone seeped into his voice.
He threw him an angry look. "They willing give up my grandson Steve. For fuck sakes I think I'm allowed to feel offended own his behalf. Shit, he's basically like a miniature you goddamn adorable and polite yet has that sharp tongue. If he didn't look like me I'd swear Harry was yours!" Bucky then looked smug. "Good thing too! Who knows how he might have turned out if Harry had an ounce of your DNA in your body," He stated teasingly with a huge grin.
"Jerk," Steve pushed him slightly as he pulled himself on top of Bucky, smiling ear to ear while leaning down and grabbing a kiss from him. "He'll be okay."
"Did you hear what they said?" Bucky murmured quietly. "About him fighting some Dark Lord and shit?"
He sighed sliding his forehead against Bucky's as his hands cupped his face. The worries of his lover had been understandable given how the two had lived and how they both entered the Army, seeing such a young boy like Harry being forced to fight at such an age worried them greatly. No child should be forced to fight in battles. There was no excuse in their eyes. A child should be able to live their lives without worrying about fighting, wondering if this day would be their last or worst. The struggle that had been their lives had been why they fought so hard to make certain that no one would be able to suffer what they had suffered through. While the future had provided some positive outcomes there were still things that riled the two up whenever they saw it, by no means was the future perfect but hope existed.
"Listen. Harry's here with us now right?" Steve waited for the nod before continuing. "As long as he's here with us we can all keep an eye on him. I sincerely doubt that an almost fifteen year old boy can cause that much trouble."
Steve and the rest of the Avengers would soon learn to regret those words.
Chapter End.
Back to popular demand and desire; the Superhero Relations Series is continuing! I did not realize how popular this thing was going to become as I initial began this as a one-shot so seeing how many people enjoy this warms my heart. So I have decided to see this thing through; several ideas of where I want to take this and where I want to go have appeared so please look forward to it.
Please also note that the poll indicating which Super hero(es) Harry will meet next and whom will appear in the series.
Until next time!