Author's note

I do not own the Avengers or Harry Potter.

First a big Thank you to: Mar91, Dusk the Cybertronian Fox, Jissy2013, Vi38, Mickieskids, PappyOldGuy, Shonta, AliceCullen3, SLYNNR, geme1, Padfootette, Winged Dire Wolf7, Rabbit887, lizyeh2000, EMILICE CULLEN-VULTURI, Kimmiekitten75, nebula-twice-kill, Rori Potter, Post U Later, and serenityselena.

To CaseLC: I changed it up a bit, Clint isn't brainwashed in this one! About the common thing… I don't do the what if game that often so I wasn't sure what to do.

To Silvermane1: I wish you had waited so that this chapter could say that.

To Inumiru: I didn't really feel like Harry was bragging he was just trying to think of a reason that would let them stay and help. You're right, Harry doesn't really brag and it doesn't fit in with him.

To Charm Caster1127: He may recruit Severus but that has yet to be determined.

To ReclaimerOfTheFAYZ: Don't worry, we're just going through Harry's summer right now, Hogwarts is where the real fun begins.

To R.B. Uzumaki: Clint isn't brainwashed in my fanfic.

I should mention now that this chapter contains some darker themes that can be sad.

Chapter 7: The Darkness Within Magic

"So this Loki character got mad when he found out he was adopted and went haywire?" Harry concluded to which Thor replied with. "That is correct, young Seidr."

Harry was silent for a moment but that didn't fool Tony. He could tell that Harry was about to start ranting and sure enough, a few seconds later.

"Finding out you're adopted in no reason to go haywire! Loki is a lucky one seeing as he got a good adopted family! He's lucky he didn't get one like my first adoptive-" Harry stopped as he realized what he had said. Fleeing into Tony's side, the eleven year old started whimpering.

"What is wrong with him?" Banner asked, looking worriedly at the child along with everyone else. Tony looked at his child before asking gently. "Can I tell them? Just so they'll understand?"

Harry nodded against his chest once, still whimpering, so Tony turned to look at the rest of the Avengers before he growled out. "Anything that I say does not leave this room without Harry's or my own permission, got it?"

Everyone nodded when they heard the intensity in Tony's voice. Tony sighed and ran a hand through Harry's hair before he began. "Have any of you heard of the Dursley case in Great Britain?"

"Are you kidding me? They are the most notorious people in that country. I mean they abused, neglected, and abandoned a kid they had had in their care for ten years. They were the lowest of the low." Barton growled out before he realized what Tony was getting at. "No… He's not…"

"Yeah, he was." Tony said gravely before adding. "I'm just glad that I found him before anything bad could happen to him."

"Wait a second, your adoptive son is the same kid as the one who was being terribly abused?" Romanov demanded before she growled. "They deserve worse than prison and I'm surprised that you didn't just outright kill them."

"Harry didn't want me to." Tony shrugged before adding. "He really has a heart of gold, having compassion for those people who 'raised' him."

"Do you know the real reason why they treated him so badly then?" Romanov suddenly asked.

"Yes." Tony growled before he told them. "They treated Harry so badly because they hated magic."

Before anyone could yell about this, there was a loud crunching sound and all of them turned to see Thor growling lowly as he hefted his hammer up after breaking the table with it. They had never seen Thor really that angry, not even when someone had tried to take his hammer.

"Not even on Asgard, where magic is frowned upon as women's work, would we ever abuse a child for having it." Thor growled out.

"It's different here, Thor." Everyone turned back as Harry peeked out from his dad's side and started explaining. "I'm not the first magical child to be abused, just one of the worse cases out there that could be proven in a noticeable way. Some abuse cases no one in the non-magical world even notices because they are done completely on Wizarding grounds, mostly because they have to do with people born without magic into magical families. The wizards don't have any laws preventing it, the only thing you can't do is kill your child. Other than that, anything goes. It's horrible but it happens and there's nothing that can be done. It would take nothing short of a whole movement against child abuse in the Wizarding world to stop it."

Everyone in the room stared at Harry in horror, even Tony who had heard some of the cases of abuse in the Wizarding world that couldn't be changed. Finally, Fury growled out. "You mean there's a chance that we could be dealing with thousands of kids, who are magic, who are also being abused?"

"Yes." Harry nodded before he asked Thor. "Now do you understand why I think it's ridiculous that Loki would do something like that just for finding out that he was adopted? At least he ended up with a big brother who cares."

Thor nodded before Harry stood up and asked. "Can I talk to Loki? Maybe he might start to understand."

Tony was about to object but Harry steadied him and just shook his head with a glare that said he could do this. Wisely, Tony did not say anything as Harry turned to everyone else. There was some thinking for a moment before Fury said.

"Fine, but Romanov goes with you."

Harry nodded at the same time that Romanov did before they left the room, leaving a fretting Tony.

There was complete silence as they walked to Loki's cell for a moment before Harry asked Romanov. "So why don't you like dad? I mean he has made some pretty bad choices in life but since he adopted me, he's gotten much better."

Romanov kept walking for a moment before she said. "He keeps hacking into things that don't need to be hacked into, including SHIELD. He may update our systems firewalls afterwards, but he can just tear back through them. Like last week, he tore through our firewalls and made it so fireworks appear every time you open a file."

Harry didn't reply to that, he didn't even laugh. When Romanov looked at him with narrowed eyes, he cracked saying. "Ok ok, that might have, sort of been me."

"You?" Romanov asked in surprise.

"Dad's been teaching me some tricks and he told me that you guys could use a laugh every once in a while." Harry said sheepishly.

Romanov didn't say anything for a moment, which made Harry nervous, before she ruffled his hair. Harry stared at her with bug eyes for a moment before she said. "I can tell when someone didn't mean any harm. The only person I'm going to kill is Stark for teaching you how to do that."

"Dad didn't mean any harm either." Harry told her before saying. "I never get why people think he always does things to cause problems. He doesn't. Dad's actually been trying to get you guys to be less tense. If you're always tense, you don't get to enjoy the good moments in life. The only one Dad is trying to mess with is Fury and I think that's because dad considers Fury family, no matter how manipulative."

"I'll take your word for it." Romanov said with a smile that made Harry beam. Harry was just to innocent for someone not to smile at it. That was just the way that Harry was.

They didn't get much more chance for discussion on the subject as at that moment, they arrived at the door that would lead to Loki's cell. Romanov swiped a key card and after taking a deep breath, Harry pushed open the doors and walked into the room with Romanov close behind.

In his cell, Loki looked up and his eyes widened when he saw Harry. There was a deafening silence for a moment before Loki said. "I didn't know that SHIELD recruited children."

"They don't, I'm just here because my dad was here and I heard that you went haywire just because you found out you were adopted from a different race." Harry said the last part with a glare.

"They told me stories of monsters from the time I was young, then it turned out that I was one of those monsters. What was I supposed to do?" Loki asked with a similar glare.

"My first adoptive family said I was a monster straight to my face, you don't have a right to talk." Harry said angrily, making Loki focus on him, with an unasked question forming on his lips. Harry went on without that. "I was abused from the time I could walk by my first adoptive family because I am a seidr. You think you have problems, I guarantee you can't top that. Especially since after ten years of doing it, they abandoned me like I was some kitten. So you do not have a right to complain. At least you had an adoptive brother who is trying to still be brothers with you. That's more than most seidr children get nowadays."

Hot tears had started to run down Harry's cheeks even as Loki growled angrily. The young adgardian prince turned to Romanov and asked. "This is what you do to ensure that you get what you want? Using an abused, adopted seidr child is despicable."

"They're not using me." Harry growled out making Loki look at him as he continued. "I'm talking to you about this because I am angry. I am angry that someone would go haywire and kill people just because of being adopted. Adoption is something that is precious to seidr children, because it means getting out of abusive homes. I wouldn't even be here right now if it weren't for me getting adopted again after I was abandoned."

Loki did not reply to that. It was as if he couldn't. Harry looked into the eyes of the trickster. Loki's eyes were a bright electric blue that shimmered with the power they held. But as Harry stared longer, he realized something else about them. While his eyes were shimmering with power, they were also dim and spaced out as if he wasn't aware of anything.

The Imperious Curse, his mind whispered to him. When Harry had been at Hogwarts, he looked up how his parents were killed and discovered that it was by an unforgivable. Curious, Harry had looked up the other unforgivable and discovered the imperious curse which made people obey the caster's every will. The person's eyes would be dimmed as if they weren't in control. Other controlling curses turned the person's eyes a different color to signify it but the imperious curse didn't.

"Agent Romanov, are the others listening?" Harry asked her and when she nodded, he asked the question. "Thor, what color were Loki's eyes?"

"Green." Agent Romanov replied a second later. Harry nodded his thanks before saying outloud. "But the Loki inside the cage's eyes are blue. A bright electric blue. Not green. Thor, I think you brother is being controlled by a curse similar to that of the imperious, but not quite."

Romanov suddenly winced before she took out her earpiece and gave it to Harry so that he could deal with the headache that came with that revelation.