Disclaimer: Neither the Avenger Comics nor HP are mine, sadly…

Placing: Before Hogwarts.

Challenge: 'Prompt of the day'. Prompt (action): a loved one leaving away. 1350 words. Gryffindor, Hogwarts.

Crossover with Avenger-Comic Background

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sSsSsSsSs

BARNEY

sSs

"Father."

Brandton stopped walking and looked up from his fitfully sleeping daughter. In front of him, just a few feet away, his oldest son was standing, watching him.

His son's brown hair was unkempt and his clothing looked old and a bit rugged. Brandton hadn't seen the boy in years – yet one look at him and he recognised him instantly.

"Barney," Brandton said surprised. He had never suspected that his son might come home again. Barney had run away when Brandton and his first wife had taken a break from their marriage and he had never heard from his oldest again.

Now, seeing his son, unexplained unease settled into his stomach.

Barney on the other hand, smiled a bit shakily at his father, then his gaze fell onto the baby girl in Brandton's arms and he grimaced.

"I see you decided to have another child," he said, clearly unhappy about that and because of that half-snarling. "And not only that. You haven't just another child – you have a child with another woman!"

Brandton frowned at his oldest boy.

"You know your mother and I had out differences," he told his son slowly.

Barney snarled.

"You didn't even try to make everything alright again with Mum!" He accused his father. "You just walked away and divorced her!"

For a moment, Brandton looked sadly at his oldest child – a child he hadn't seen for six-a-half years. Then he shook his head slowly and sighed while shifting his sleeping daughter's weight in his arms.

"Barney," he said softly. "Your mother and I divorced amiably. We both knew that we couldn't continue like we had. All those arguments, all those fights – we couldn't live like that anymore. Divorcing was the best thing we could do to find some peace again. We agreed on that."

"That's what you say!" His son said unhappily. "But in reality, you didn't even try –"

"We tried," Brandton interrupted his oldest son. "We tried to sort out our marriage for years. In the end, we simply had to accept that it shouldn't be –"

"No!" Barney interjected hotly. "NO!"

Then his son's eyes narrowed at Brandton.

"You didn't try! The twins agreed with me on that!"

Hermione whimpered in Brandton's arms and he shushed her before turning back to his son and the accusations thrown at him.

"The twins were six going on seven!" Brandton objected, forcibly calm. "They were far too little –"

That's when it hit him why seeing Barney in front of him had rung alarm bells in his head.

"Barney," he said slowly, interrupting himself. "Where are the twins?"

The little ones had run away with Barney – and like with Barney, no matter where they looked, they hadn't found them again. Now Barney was back… and the twins were still nowhere in sight…

For a moment, Barney's face twisted into a grimace Brandton didn't know how to interpret. Then his oldest son shook his head.

"They didn't want to come," he told his father, his face looking like it was made of stone. "They're still angry with you and Mum."

Brandton frowned at that briefly before raising an eyebrow at his oldest child.

"And you aren't?" He asked with heavy scepticism in his voice.

Barney just stared at his father and the little girl in his father's hands, his face blank and unreadable.

"It doesn't matter, Father," he said finally. "I came."

Brandton couldn't object that logic – but he didn't have to like it either.

He shook his head slowly, but in the end nodded.

"That you did," he said, his eyes on his son's blank face. "That you did, Barney."

Barney's gaze again came to rest on the little girl in Brandton's arms.

He frowned a bit at her, but there was no visible resentment for the little girl.

"I thought you didn't want to have more children after the twins," he said, still sounding a bit unhappy.

Brandton wondered if he could gain the place where the twins hid from Barney if he made some more small-talk with his eldest.

"I didn't," he finally said truthfully. "Jane didn't as well."

Barney's eyebrows furrowed.

"Then why -?"

"She wasn't planned," Brandton answered truthfully before looking lovingly at his daughter. "But even if we didn't plan to have her, that doesn't change the fact that we love her."

Barney nodded slowly.

"I'm not happy with her mother and neither with you," he said slowly. "But that doesn't change the fact that the little girl in your arms is my sister."

And Brandton wondered if those words were something akin to a peace-treaty from his eldest.

He inclined his head, then looked searchingly at Barney.

"Do you want to hold her?"

For a moment, his son hesitated, but in the end, he nodded very, very slowly.

"May I?"

Then he reached out and took the little girl from her father's arms carefully. For a moment, the little girl's face scrunched up, then she turned and relaxed in her eldest brother's arms.

Barney looked at her with the same awe he had had in his face when he had held the twins for the first time.

"What's her name?" He whispered, his voice softening while he looked at her.

Brandton smiled at his son and his baby daughter.

"Hermione," he said, nearly as softly as his son. "Her name's Hermione Jane Granger. Today's her first birthday."

His son nodded, the awe not leaving his face. Then the young man reached out and touched his little sister's face, caressing her cheek with his thumb.

Her face scrunched up in her sleep again before she leaned into the touch.

"Her mother is that woman you –"

"Her mother is my wife," Brandton said calmly but firmly. "Jane and I married nearly two years ago."

Barney grimaced.

Then his mouth twisted into another frown.

"I still can't understand how you could cheat on Mum," he said, a softly spoken accusation in his voice.

Brandton sighed.

"I didn't cheat on her," he said. "I divorced your Mum a year after you and the twins ran away. I was already divorced when I met Jane."

Barney looked up and a bit forlornly into Brandton's eyes.

"But why did you leave Mum?" He asked as if he couldn't understand it try as he might.

Brandton sighed and shook his head.

"We simply drifted apart over time, Barney," he said tiredly. "There was nothing anybody could do about it. But just because we drifted apart, it didn't mean that we loved you less –"

Barney pressed his lips together and shook his head stubbornly.

"You should have stayed together," he said accusingly before handing sleeping Hermione back to her father. "You should have stayed together like it should be! If you had, neither I nor the twins would have run!"

Brandton frowned at Barney.

Something about how he said 'twins' had been… odd.

"Barney," he said slowly. "Where. Are. The. Twins?"

Barney just snarled at him.

"As if you care!" He said icily before pulling out a small parcel and thrusting it at Brandton.

"That's for my baby sister," he declared, still snarling.

Brandton took it with a frown.

"Where're the twins, Barney?" He asked again. "Where are your thirteen-year-old brothers?"

Barney just gestured at the parcel.

"Forget them, Daddy," he said, saying the last word mockingly. "It's not as if you'll ever see them again!"

Brandton had a very bad feeling when hearing that.

With shaking fingers he opened the parcel without setting down his daughter.

Inside was a knife – a knife with a brown, dried substance on it.

His eyes widened.

"Barney – what?!" He asked alarmed.

Barney just send him a vicious smile.

"I made sure that you can fully concentrate on your new family," he said, his smile cold and cruel. "Good-bye, Daddy."

With that he turned and walked away from his father.

A second later the entrance door fell closed with a bang.

Brandton stared emptily at the knife in his hands, the brown, dried substance chilling him to the bone.

Blood.

The brown substance was blood.

And Hermione cried.

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Not amusing, this one. More a bit of semi-crime or some such... T.T

Anyway, that was Barney Barton for you, Clint Barton/Hawkeye's fabled brother in the comics. I promise the next one will be more humorous again. I simply couldn't do it with the man who in comic-canon as well as here went against his baby brother.

Hope you liked it anyway, at least a bit.

That' s it for now.

Ebenbild