I've decided to post a chapter a week, you already had one yesterday, last week so now here you have the last one until next time! Enjoy!
PS: As for people being confused by Harry not recognising Johann, he only saw him with his real face(you know, big red Voldemort look-alike ;) ) and not his real one, that's ust for clarification I'm sorry you didn't understand it from my writing, I'll be careful next time.
WARNING: Just Johann Schmidt being Johann Schmidt, Flirting, Pre-Slash, Cussing (also from children)
He remained at the HYDRA base for weeks after this encounter. Why you ask? He had wanted answers. Answers on why S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA had little to no information concerning Harry Potter.
"The other reason why we don't have them"had said an insignificant HYDRA soldier"Is that the information exist only on paper…And maybe it also doesn't exist"
Johann had frowned at that.
"Then tell me where are those papers?"he had asked.
The soldier then had showed him a room filled to the brim with boxes that the former S.H.I.E.L.D, the S.S.R., had written. He had to stop himself from punching the guy. By the end of the second week, he had rummaged through every box and every single file and he had found close to nothing on the wizard. What he knew of the wizard was his date of birth—31st of July 1980, does that means he was born long after WWII?! How did he get into the 40s?!— his age, his school studies until eleven then nothing.
'As if he had vanished from the world'Johann thought
He skimmed through the file again. It was filled with a nearly blank first page stating what he already knew about Harry but the rest of the file was filled with blank pages.
'WHY KEEP FUCKING BLANK PAPERS INSIDE A NEARLY FUCKING BLANK FILE?!'Johann flung the file, papers flying everywhere as he roared his anger.
'If I stay here for another second, I'll wreck this fucking place!'
He changed clothes, put on the Veil then marched angrily out into the streets of New York. He had on direction in mind. The Lionheart Coffee. He would see Harry, have good beverage and food and he could try and ask for more information on the wizard, the brats and this 'other parent'. When the shop was within his sight, he was surprised to see a rather long queue.
'What the…?!'
The queue didn't improve his mood as he stood in it, all the while muttering to himself that the food, drink, company and information were worth the waiting. The place was bursting with customers—let them be businessmen on break, students or just curious people— but the worst of all, no seat available. He held back a groan, he had come here to calm down not to be more stressed.
"Mister!"
Johann turned his head and saw no one.
"I'm down here!"the voice said.
Staring down, Johann finally noticed Lily.
"Good afternoon, sir!"Lily smiled at him and he repressed the urge to glower at her. He hated it when people were happy and flinging said happiness into his face when he's in a bad mood.
"Good afternoon, little girl"he tried not to groan and failed.
Lily cocked her head and gave him a look.
"You don't look good, sir"noticed Lily"Are you all right?"
"No, I'm not"he growled.
The person in front of him moved and he followed. Looking ahead, he had six persons before him.
'Ficken verdammt noch mal!'he thought
"Sir?"asked Lily
"Was, kleine Scheiße?!"he hissed, making a few heads turn toward them.
Lily rolled her eyes and gave him a bitch face.
"Ich kann Ihre Bestellung entgegen und bringen es auf Sie, Dummkopf"replied boredly Lily.
He was taken aback. No really, he was!
"Du verstehst Deutsch?"
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Nein, überhaupt nicht"replied Lily sarcastically.
Lily-1 Johann-0
He held back a smirk and an impressed look.
"My apologies"replied Johann"I had a bad day at work and I had planned on relaxing a little"The queue moved and he followed.
"Doesn't give you the right to take it out on an innocent person"
"I know"he said, each words leaving a bad taste on his mouth"I'm sorry I took it out on you"
Never in his life he had apologised, the Red Skull does not apologise! And here he was apologising to this girl! Lily gave him a small smile.
"We all have bad days"Lily took his hand and gently pulled him out of the line then toward the back of the room. They passed by the counter and James, who was taking and serving the orders, who looked at them strangely.
"Where are you going?"asked James then looked at Johann"Good afternoon by the way"
Johann nodded his head.
"Just taking the man somewhere calm"Lily answered her brother
"You do know that Dad doesn't like it when we bring strangers in the back-room"replied James, frowning slightly, walking to the coffee machine, stepping on a stool to take the orders and then walking back to the counter to serve them—also standing on a stool.
Johann frowned internally at the straining of the word.
"He's no strangers"replied Lily then approached James to whisper something into his ear.
Whatever she said made him sigh then put his hand up in the air in mock surrender.
"Don't bring me into this if you get scolded"replied James, returning to taking orders.
Lily nodded and pulled on his hand again, walking him into the back-room.
There were two medium couches in a corner, a small square table by them and two full bookshelves.
'Wait…Wasn't there a stair up or something?!'
"What will you take?"asked Lily, from behind him.
"A vanilla coffee"said Johann"Your father's special"
"Anything else to accompany it?"
Johann shrugged.
"Surprise me"
Lily nodded and walked out.
Johann sat down on the couch, eyes on everything in the room. He put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
'I'm not crazy, I swear there was a stair and an upstairs the last time I was here, they couldn't have made them vanish like that, right? Can magic even do that?! Why didn't I ask more questions on magic when I had Potter in my grip?!'
There was movement in the bakery and Johann watched as Harry exited—dirty baker apron on, with flour in his hair and on his face, and cream on his nose—pushing a baker trolley—full of pastry— into the shop then walked back into the back-room. He started when he noticed him and Johann raised an eyebrow at him.
"Sorry, I didn't notice you"replied Harry, walking toward him"Good afternoon, by the way"Harry gave him a smile"I do not mean to be disrespectful, but what are you doing here?"
Johann was about to answer when Lily burst into the room, a tray with a cup of coffee and a…Wait, is that Captain America's shield shaped tiny cake?! Lily set down the tray onto the small table and smiled at him.
"Aaaah…Now I understand"Harry gave an amused yet slightly pointed look and Lily looked down.
"Sorry, but he wanted somewhere calm and I thought…maybe…"
"It's okay, pumpkin"Harry ruffled her hair and she laughed"Just don't start with favouring customers"
"I'm not! I'm merely thanking him"replied Lily
"And HE can here you both"said Johann, taking a sip of his coffee and almost groaned in pleasure at the taste.
"Sorry"both replied, scratching the back of their head.
Johann blinked at their syncing.
'There is no way the kids are adopted! Not when they are so much alike'
He threw them a calculating look—that they both didn't see. Lily then sniffed the air.
"Dad, don't you have something in the oven?"
Harry let out a huge gasp and ran into the bakery, cursing all the names under the sun while Lily snickered. Johann stared at the girl and hid a nasty smirk.
'Now you better start questioning the girl, Johann'said a voice in his head.
"Lily, right?"he asked in a fake curious name.
Lily nodded.
"That's a nice name"he commented.
"My grand-mother is called like that too…Well was"said Lily, coming to join him on the couch.
"Was?"
She nodded again.
"She died when Dad was a babe"replied Lily casually
"Do you know what happened to her?"
"Dad said she was murdered, along with my grand-father"
There was something poking him in the heart but he shook it off.
"I'm sorry"he replied in a fake compassionate tone.
"It's all right, you can't mourn something you didn't have"replied Lily"And I have adopted grand-parents and lots of uncles and aunts so it's okay"she turned her head and smiled at him.
"What about your other parent's family?"he asked
Lily suddenly narrowed her eyes at him.
"Are you trying to fish for information, sir?"she asked curiously but the tone in her voice told more.
He was fucked if he didn't find a way to get out of his mess. Still, he had to hand it to the girl to be this smart.
"No, not at all"Johann make sure to put on a shocked face"I'm just curious, I would have thought your father and whoever is this other parent would be both raising you"He cut himself"Instead, I find a young man raising his ten year old kids"
"Eight"replied Lily and Johann hid a smile
'It's so easy to manipulate them!'Johann thought.
"Eight? When are you born?"asked Johann, interested
"31st October"answered Lily with a smile"Both Jamie and I were born on Halloween"
'We are in 2014 now, so if they both are 8 nearly 9 year old, that means they were born in 2005, since a pregnancy last 9 months that must means they were at last conceived in late January or beginning of February'thought Johann.
Johann definitely ruled out the wizard's pregnancy.
"…r? Sir?"A hand was waved in front of his face and he shook his head"You spaced out, are you all right?"
Johann nodded.
"Ja, ja, sorry"Johann gave her an 'I am sorry' smile"I was just thinking about all the work I'll have to do when I get back"
Lily squinted at him but then shrugged.
"I didn't see you at the opening"said Lily
"Mmh?"
"The opening"she said emphatically"Of the shop, we even had the Avengers come!"
He tried not to frown—and he did it this time yay!
"My job had me occupied for weeks"replied Johann casually"It was only now I could come by and have a nice cup of coffee" Johann took the last sip of his coffee then eyed the Captain America themed pastry, half glowering at it. Lily saw his glower.
"You don't like it?"asked Lily innocently"Customers said they were delicious! We served them at the opening"
"The opening was two weeks ago"Johann turned to her"Are you telling me this cake is two weeks old?"
Lily rolled her eyes at him.
"Yes, we serve shit at shitty customers"deadpanned Lily.
"Lily Luna Potter"Lily stilled and her eyed widened comically as they both heard Harry's voice. Turning both their heads, Johann had to hold back a snicker as he stared at a glowering Harry who was standing in the threshold of the bakery, both hands on his hips with one holding a rolling pin.
"Lily…"began Harry
"I gotta go!"Lily shot off the couch and out of the room.
Harry glared at her retracting back, his pin pointing and shaking menacingly at the little girl. Johann snickered and Harry turned to glare at him and he put his hand up in surrender with an amused smile on his face.
"She'll get it when it's all over"growled promisingly Harry, walking toward him and sitting on Lily's vacated spot the couch with a groan.
"Try not to be to hard on the brat" Johann smirked at the man, picking up the pastry and taking a tentative bite only to take a bigger one as the pastry tasted as delicious as the cheesecake he had eaten when he first came here, fuck that is was themed like his enemy.
"I will just remind her not to say any bad words that I can understand"said Harry
"Understand?"asked Johann
Harry shrugged.
"Both my Gremlins know many languages"answered Harry"Like Russian, Esperanto, French, Spanish, German…"Harry cut himself and stared at him suddenly"By the way, were you the one speaking German with my daughter? I heard someone speak German and her answering back"At this, Harry had a small smirk.
Johann stilled a little.
"Yes…"he replied uneasily
"You're a native?"asked the wizard.
Johann nodded slowly and Harry smiled.
"Now I know why"answered Harry.
"Know why what?"
Harry smiled at him.
"Why I can hear the tiny accent you have"answered Harry"One only a native German would have and couldn't get rid of even after many years of English"Harry suddenly frowned
"What is it, Harry?"
"It's nothing"answered Harry"Just that…"Harry took a shaky breath"That…Your accent reminded me of someone"Harry's gaze turned cold and angry"Someone I'd rather forget about"
Johann stilled again, certain that Harry was talking about him.
"Why?"he forced himself to ask
Harry shook his head.
"Because that man hurt me both physically and mentally"growled darkly Harry"And if I could, I'd kill him myself"
Johann gulped inaudibly, yup, Harry was definitely talking about him.
"Why, is he dead?"
"That's the thing"Harry stared at the man"I don't know, I believed it at first, but then I was told he was still alive and trying to find a way back to me"Harry broke eye contact to stare at the threshold of the coffee room"I can't let him take or hurt my children"
"Couldn't you ask their ot-mother"Johann cut himself from saying 'other parent'" to look after them until the storm is over?"
Harry shook his head.
"They don't have a mother"answered Harry"And my friends and their family still have trouble accepting them, especially their daughter whom still has a crush on me"Johann frowned at that and anger bubbled inside him.
"Why aren't they accepting? I'm sure your children are angels"
"Long story"Harry stared into the wall as if it held all the answers in the world then gave a long sigh.
Johann watched the young man stood up and walked toward the bakery.
"Harry wait!"said Johann.
Harry stopped and turned to watch him. Johann stood up, walked toward the wizard and stopped before him, he extended a hand and with his finger wiped the wizard's nose and showed him the cream on his finger.
"You had cream on your nose"replied Johann, smirking when Harry blushed hard.
"Oh blimey!"could only say the wizard, looking like he wanted to crawl under a rock.
Johann watched the wizard's skin turn almost red when he licked the cream off of his finger and he had to hide his grin. Harry, for his part, was flabbergasted and blushing like no tomorrow. They both noticed just how close they were, there was barely five inches separating them. Johann held back the urge to pass an arm possessively around the wizard's waist and take him against the wall, instead, he advanced his head and whispered huskily into the wizard's ears.
"Do not be ashamed, my dear Harry"he smirked when he sensed the body shiver slightly"If anything, it made you more delectable"Johann was sure Harry's face was as red as his skin"I wish I could stay some more but sadly"Johann retracted his head and Harry gazed at him, a bit disappointed"I have to go"
Harry looked down and Johann put two fingers under his chin and raised his head to meet his gaze.
"I'll be sure to pass as many time as my job allows it"
Giving the wizard one last smile, he walked into the coffee room and toward the counter and handed James a twenty bill.
"Keep the change"he replied before walking toward the exit.
"Noah!"Harry called suddenly, walking into the room.
Johann cringed internally at Harry calling him that but he still turned to stare the approaching wizard.
"If…If"Harry cleared his throat"If you want to pass by here, try between 9am to 11am or 3pm to closing time, it wouldn't be Rush Hour and you could have your relaxing moment"
Johann inclined his head in acknowledgement.
"I'll be sure to remember it" and with that the man was gone.
For those who aren't German speakers and need an immediate translation or are to lazy here's what they are saying:
Ficken verdammt noch mal!-Fucking damn it!
Was, kleine Scheiße?!-What you little shit?!
Ich kann Ihre Bestellung entgegen und bringen es auf Sie, Dummkopf-I can take your order and give it to you, idiot
Du verstehst Deutsch?-You understand German?
Nein, überhaupt nicht-No, not at all
See you all next week!