So, I also posted part of Dick's POV at the Dursleys. It's the second chapter in the fic 'What Harry Doesn't know'.
Also fuck canon :)
Harry was sitting in the chair in front of a computer that was bigger than some of the TVs upstairs. Which was saying something because the TVs in the manor were already ridiculous. He was sitting in a cave with a million other high tech appliances talking to Bruce, who it turned out was also Batman. What even was his life sometimes?
Bruce had led him to the chair without saying anything and Harry had all but collapsed into it. This was a lot.
"There's more I need to tell you," Bruce said after a moment, and Harry wasn't sure how much more he could take. He was apparently living with a superhero. His 'normal' family apparently had a parental figure that wore a cape and punched criminals in the face. But, on the other hand, Harry also had a scar that apparently used to have another soul in it. He had a godfather who could turn into a dog whenever he wanted, and he went to a school that taught him magic. He could handle this.
"However, I need to get Tim first, he deserves to know," Bruce continued, ignoring Harry's minor freak out.
As he processed Tim's name, Harry's head shot up. "Wait, does Tim know about all this?"
Bruce stared, and he looked almost surprised. Which was ridiculous because Harry should be the surprised one. Bruce's eyes trailed passed the bat suit and Harry followed them until his eyes landed on the Robin costume. The costume was smaller than Harry thought it would be. Clearly made for a child, and not something Harry would be able to fit in. It took a second to click.
"Tim's Robin?!"
Bruce nodded again. It made sense. They all disappeared at strange times and occasionally had weird injuries. Dick and Bruce also were really strong in ways that probably weren't completely normal.
"So, Dick's Nightwing?" Harry asked and wasn't too surprised at Bruce's nod.
"And, you're Batman," Harry repeated. Just to make sure.
"Bruce!" Tim's voice came from the elevator that Harry and Bruce had just come through. "Alfred told me you had to tell me something." Tim stopped short when he caught sight of Harry. "Harry figured it out? This is great!"
"Yeah, great," Harry mimicked, but couldn't seem to muster up the enthusiasm that Tim had.
"We're still the same people," Tim said anxiously wringing his hands. "I'm still Tim and Bruce is still Bruce"
And when Tim put it that way, it seemed remarkably simple. Sure this family seemed to have a weird extra hobby, but Bruce still was the guy who beat them mercilessly at board games, Dick was still the same person who stole him from the Dursley's, and Tim was still the one to introduce Harry to all sorts of books and TV. This was still the family that welcomed him with open arms and gave him a home. And, Harry had never really liked normal anyway. The Dursley's tried so hard to make their family as normal as possible and Harry clearly never fit in there, so it made more sense that anywhere he did fit in had to be very not normal.
"It's great," Harry repeated more firmly, and looked up to Bruce who was wearing that weirdly blank expression again. "You said there was something else."
Bruce nodded sharply, and moved over to stand next to the computer, and began typing rapidly. Tim moved to Harry's other side and he didn't seem to know what was going on either, based on his confused look at the computer.
The screen lit up brightly in the dim lighting of the cave, and images began to fill the screen. There were pictures of a figure wearing dark clothes and a bright red helmet decorating the screen. They were blurry, clearly not posed, and Harry wasn't totally sure if all of them even were the figure since some of them were so dark he could just make out a red spot on the picture.
"Is this that new guy, Red Hood?" Tim asked curiously, and Harry felt a momentary stab of jealousy before he reminded himself that Bruce was telling both him and Tim this.
"Yes," Bruce agreed. "He's been very active for the past month. He had been mostly cleaning up the streets by picking off the more problematic drug dealers and many of the gangs' leaders."
"Er, isn't that a good thing?" Harry asked, because he was pretty sure that's what Batman did.
"He's been killing them," Tim answered quietly, and yeah Harry saw how that could be a problem. "Really violently."
Bruce turned to Tim sharply. "I told you not to look at the pictures." Tim shrugged and Bruce pressed his lips tightly together, but didn't press the subject any further.
"I talked to him last night," Bruce said instead. He was looking at the pictures on the screen rather than at either of them. "It was Jason."
Harry had a horrible thought about how magic worked and people not being dead as they could be.
"Jason who?" Tim asked slowly.
"Jason Todd," Bruce answered, speaking way too calmly about his dead son.
"Jason's dead," Tim responded.
"I've met people who were supposed to be dead," Harry input, but was mostly ignored. Harry found he didn't mind that too much. He was busy staring at the pictures and trying to pick out the Jason that Dick and Tim talked about.
"I don't know how, but it was definitely Jason under that mask."
There was a heavy silence where none of them knew what to say.
"Where's Dick?" Harry asked.
"Did you tell him?" Tim echoed.
Bruce nodded and Tim breathed out a sigh of relief. "He's been talking to some people in the league about how this could have happened."
And wasn't it strange that apparently Dick was on close enough terms with the Justice League to have conversations with them all about his maybe dead brother. Harry tried not to think too much about it.
"Are you sure it wasn't a clone or something?" Tim asked and Harry was worried about how probably that sounded coming out of Tim's mouth.
"There are potions that can change people to look like others," Harry input, and Tim nodded and added "Yeah, or maybe someone's just a look alike."
"I thought about that as well," Bruce told them. "But, beyond the knowledge Red Hood had that no one but Jason could have known, I did some digging."
"What did you find?"
Bruce wouldn't look either of them in the eye. "I literally did some digging. Jason's body is missing. There's evidence it hasn't been there in a few months."
"His body is missing?!" Harry asked because was no one else questioning this.
"You really think it's Jason," Tim said, clearly not a question. Bruce nodded. "Is he okay?"
"He didn't give me much time to stop and ask." Bruce paused. "He's very angry."
"At what?" Tim asked, looking back up at the pictures in a new light.
Bruce shrugged, which was odd. He wasn't normally the type of person who didn't know things. "The world, the Joker, me. The list goes on I'm sure."
They all were silent for a moment, no one knowing what to say to that.
"Jason's anger has manifested in some violent ways," Bruce started and Tim muttered something about heads and duffle bags that Harry didn't understand, but Bruce talked over him. "He mentioned you, Tim, and I'm worried that he is going to do something rash. You're already benched until your arm heals, but I want you to stay in the manor or with the Team until we can ascertain if Jason is actually a threat."
"Jason wouldn't do that," Tim said confidently.
Bruce's expression thawed momentarily, and he looked so broken for a second, Harry wasn't sure what to do. But, Bruce pulled himself together in just a few seconds. "He isn't the same. I don't know what he's capable of anymore."
At that, Bruce left the cave, going to the elevator and going back up to the main house. Harry turned to Tim, who was still staring up at the monitor displaying Jason's, Red Hood's, image.
"I didn't know him very long," Tim said. "I met him a few times before I moved into the manor. My parents were in similar social circles as Bruce and we had to go to some of the same parties. He was always so cool, but he hung out with me too. He was so much cooler when I figured out he was Robin."
Harry made a mental note to ask later about how exactly Tim learned about the whole Batman and Robin thing, but he was still talking.
"When Bruce took me in, Dick and Jason were so great and it made me love being here. I never had siblings before I came here. And now Jason-" Tim's voice broke and Harry wasn't sure what came over him, but he thought about what Dick would do. He sat up from the chair and pulled Tim into a hug. Harry wasn't totally sure he was doing it right, but from the way Tim latched onto his shirt and cried onto his shoulder, he clearly wasn't messing up. This is what family is. Not perfect or flawless, but just being there for each other.
The next morning, Harry found Bruce sitting at the computer in the Bat cave.
"I want to be Robin too," Harry informed Bruce. "Well, not Robin. Tim's Robin. But, I want to help."
"No," Bruce answered flatly.
"Excuse me?"
"I said no," Bruce repeated, not looking up from the computer he was focusing on. "End of discussion."
Harry went back to the main house and wished it wasn't an elevator so he could slam the door.
Dick found Harry a few hours later. Harry had taken his broom and was zipping around in the sheltered grounds. The wind in his face was refreshing and the sharp dives and weaving through the tightly packed trees was exhilarating.
Dick caught his attention by waving a lot and climbing halfway up a tree in Harry's path. Harry let the broom hover in front of the branch Dick was perched on. He looked strangely comfortable for being over thirty feet off the ground.
"I heard what happened between you and Bruce earlier," Dick started, and Harry flushed.
"Are there no secrets in this house?" Harry huffed and Dick laughed.
"I thought you didn't like secrets," Dick said, then held out a water bottle as a peace offering when Harry glared at him. "Sorry, sorry. Bruce thinks you're angry and wanted me to talk to you."
"Did you figure anything out about Jason?" Harry asked instead, steadying his broom with one hand and reaching out to take the water bottle.
Dick sighed. "There's a lot of theories running around, but no conclusive evidence, so far. But that's not what I want to talk about."
Harry wiped his face with his hand. It wasn't the easiest to drink water while hovering on a broom. "I thought about it last night. You were Robin too? The first Robin?"
Dick nodded slowly, taking the water bottle back from him. "Harry, coming into this house doesn't mean you have to work with Batman. Bruce took you in, yes, but that's not why he did it. I wanted to work with Bruce. The first case we did was finding my parent's murderer. Jason had his own reasons, and he trained for over a year before Bruce let him wear a cape. Tim knew what he was coming into before he came into this house, but that doesn't change the fact that he decided this was what he wanted."
"Why can't I decide that's what I want?" Harry asked. He just wanted to help. Help this family, help others. Why were they not letting him?
Dick laughed, and Harry thought about hitting him before he worried about over balancing on his broom. "You can if you really want," Dick started, and Harry looked up in shock. "Hey, let me finish. You need to know what you're getting into. I had the least amount of formal training before I hit the streets, and it was still a few months. Tim had to wait years before Bruce let him have the mask. He started his training when Jason was Robin, and after Jason was killed, Bruce wasn't going to let Tim out. But he's a stubborn kid and trained hard enough that he convinced Bruce he was ready."
"How'd he do that?" Harry asked.
"He fought Bruce and won, is the short version. You should ask Tim for the long version sometime, it's impressive," Dick answered, and Harry was impressed. He hadn't seen much of them fighting, but from what he had heard of Batman's fighting skills, it was a bit unbelievable that Tim managed to beat him.
"Wow," Harry managed to get out, and Dick nodded.
"Tim's a talented kid, but even knowing that Bruce still worries," Dick continued. "So, you, someone who has had no formal self defense training, asking for a position like that scared Bruce. He's not great with dealing with emotions sometimes."
Harry got where they were coming from, he really did, but there was one part that didn't add up. "But I have magic." He gestured to the broom underneath him.
Dick took a moment to consider him. "But you're still in school for that, right? Meaning there's still a bunch of stuff you need to learn?"
"Yes, but-" Harry started, but Dick cut him off.
"And if someone took your wand, or it broke, how much magic could you do then?"
Harry looked down at the broom handle, not sure how to answer that. "Some people can do wandless magic."
"Are you one of them?" Dick asked pointedly and Harry didn't answer, which seemed to be enough of a response. "I'm not saying this to be mean, Harry. I just don't want you to be hurt."
Harry nodded. Great. The one time he tried to do something good and he ended up worrying his whole family.
"But, I do have a solution for this." Harry looked up at Dick's words. "I talked about it with Bruce and he agreed. We think you should start some self defense training and we can see where it goes from there. If you want to be a vigilante, I'm the last person who has the right to stop you, but if it turns out you don't, then a little training never hurt anyone. Are you okay with that?"
Harry smiled. "Yeah, that sounds great."
Dick smiled, and this time his smile was almost feral. "Excellent. First rule of training," Dick threw the remaining water in the bottle all over Harry, and Harry spluttered in shock, wiping it out of his eyes.
"Expect the unexpected!" Dick called as he climbed down the tree. And while he was making his way down the tree, Harry realized that Dick wasn't actually climbing. He seemed to jump from one branch only to grab onto another and swing from that only to jump to another lower branch. Harry started to feel some apprehension for what he was getting into.
A few days later, Harry was sitting in a living room, curled up on the couch. Tim was doing something on a laptop on the other couch and was nodding along to the music in his head phones. Bruce and Dick had been in and out, still trying to gather information about Jason, but they hadn't seemed to find anything.
Dick had started Harry's self defense training, because Bruce had been so busy and Tim's arm was still in a cast. They hadn't done anything too crazy yet, like jumping off buildings or actually fighting, but Harry had learned a number of things about how to throw a punch without hurting his hand, how to fall properly (which left him sore), and some easy tricks for escaping most holds. Harry also had instructions to work on his cardio and flexibility, which Tim took great pleasure in lecturing him about and correcting his form. All and all it felt like very little and most of Harry's body hurt.
"Oh, and I got another letter from Ron," Hermione said. Harry had kept up calling her, while they didn't talk every day, they did keep each other pretty updated. It was nice to hear from her over the Summer, and he sort of wished Ron could call too, but the house he was in was too magical and it was much too far for an owl to travel.
"How's Ron?" Harry asked. It was much easier to talk about Ron's mysterious living situation now that he had grown more comfortable here.
"He's doing well, apparently there is a lot of cleaning, which he hates. Ginny sent me a letter too, and it actually sounds like Ron isn't exaggerating."
Harry laughed.
"And Snuffles apparently has offered to once again come to get you if you aren't happy there," Hermione continued. "Although I have absolutely no idea how he thinks he could get there. The MACUSA have always had strict policies on foreign Wizards, and I'm sure his fugitive status wouldn't help."
"The MACUSA?" Harry questioned, stumbling over the familiar term.
Hermione sighed. "Honestly, Harry, don't you read? The MACUSA, The Magical Congress of the United States of America. They have a number of policies on foreign guests and wand carrying. The only reason I can think that they didn't stop you entering was that you're underage and haven't done any magic yet. You haven't done any magic, right?"
"I've ridden my broom," Harry answered. Hermione sighed again and Harry had a feeling that he was going to be lectured.
"Brooms don't use your magic, Harry. They're enchanted when they're made and fly based on that enchantment. A Wizard may have better control over a broom because they are able to channel their own magic into it, but it would be so minimal, no one would even notice. That's why old broom's enchantments can fail and the broom can get slower."
Harry had already known most of that, he did have multiple books on broom care, and Tim had ridden his broom at one point, but it had been a long time since he had heard her lecture. He almost missed it.
"Anyway, I picked up a few books on the MACUSA and could send you the information," Hermione said. "My mum and I are going out, but I could email you later? Do you have an email?"
"Wait, I think Tim made me one of those," Harry answered then called over to Tim. "Tim do I have an email?"
"HarryP179 ," Tim answered without looking up from his laptop. Harry relayed that information to Hermione.
"That's great! I'm going to go now, but I'll get you that information soon!"
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said, but she had already hung up.
Hermione had sent fifteen pages of notes. Fifteen pages of neat, typed single spaced notes. Harry appreciated the work put into them, but fifteen pages. He skimmed the first page, which seemed to consist of when the American Wizarding government was founded and how. Trust Hermione to be thorough.
Deciding that dinner had been too long ago and that if he was going to read all this he needed a snack, Harry got up from his bed and made his way into the hallway.
Harry noticed Tim's door was open, so he went to go see if he wanted anything. Tim was sitting on his bed staring intently at his laptop, and Harry stayed in the doorway which seemed to be the only clean part of the floor. "Tim, I'm going to grab a snack, do you want me to bring you anything."
Tim didn't seem to be paying attention, so Harry tried to take a few steps into the room, stepping over two non-matching shoes, a mug that probably had been there since yesterday, a sweatshirt that Harry was pretty sure was Dick's, and a pillow from his own room that he hadn't even realized was missing.
"What are you doing?"
Tim looked up, clearly just noticing Harry. "Oh, hi. When did you get here?"
It reminded Harry of when Hermione was reading a book and got too invested. "Just a second ago. I'm going down to the kitchen, you want anything?"
"Yeah, I'm really craving orange juice. And chocolate," Tim answered, going back to focus on his laptop.
"What are you working on?"
Tim sighed. "There's a rumor that Joker got out of Arkham again, and I'm not allowed out since my arm is broken. Alfred told me to stop thinking about it, so he locked me out of the Batcomputer. Now I'm using civilian news sources to track their progress."
Logically Harry knew that Bruce and Dick had fought Joker and a number of others, but still that was kind of terrifying to think about.
"Are they going to be okay?"
Tim looked up. "They should be fine, they do this a lot," Tim reassured. "But if you get me orange juice, we can see if I can get into the Gotham City surveillance system and we can watch."
"Are you supposed to do that?"
Tim shrugged but pointed at the door. "Orange juice."
"And chocolate," Harry agreed as he walked out, and Tim shouted after him. "Thanks!"
The halls were quiet and dark this time of night. Dick and Bruce were out in the streets of Gotham, and Alfred was down in the cave. There was soft lighting on the walls of the hall, so Harry didn't feel a need to turn the bright overhead lights on. He was debating if Alfred would notice if he stole some cookies for him and Tim. Alfred would definitely notice, but he may excuse it given the nature of the evening.
Harry suddenly felt himself be grabbed from behind, one armed wrapped around his arms and chest, another hand covering his mouth. Immediately, Harry started to squirm and try and break free from the unfamiliar grip.
"Calm down, Timmy, this is going to be a lot easier if you don't panic" An unfamiliar voice mumbled close to his ear. Harry panicked more and thought about Dick's words on how there were no such thing as dirty tricks when fighting for your life.
"What the fuck? You bit me, asshole! Even through my glove!" The voice was shouting now. Harry took the brief moment of his attacker's surprise to wrench one of his arms free, and grab his wand from his pocket. He hoped that Tim had heard this guy's shout and could get help.
His attacker was stronger and more skilled, however, so before Harry could even think of a spell, nevermind cast it, the wand was plucked from his hand and the arm around Harry's waist tightened painfully enough to make him gasp and momentarily stop struggling.
"What did you think you were gonna do with a stick, Tim? Perform a magic spell?" The voice taunted. He waved the wand dramatically and Harry had a moment to thank that this person was clearly a muggle.
"Bippity boppity boo," the attacker said overdramatically. Then- "WHAT THE FUCK?" And Harry had to agree with that because suddenly, a tapestry, a rather ugly depiction of a field of flowers, right in front of them had burst into flames.
"Jason?" Tim's startled voice came from the end of the hall. "Harry?" Then his voice became sharper as he saw the fire. "Hold on, I'll get a fire extinguisher!"
Tim ran off down the way he came, and Harry's attacker, Jason apparently, seemed to be in a state of shock as he looked down at the wand in his hands. The arm around Harry's chest had loosened with surprise, so Harry wrenched himself free, then grabbed Jason's limp arm and pulled him away from the fire he had started, despite the fact it didn't seem to be spreading.
Tim raced by with a bright red fire extinguisher and completely doused the ruined tapestry before Jason seemed to be able to speak again.
Jason was wearing that weird red helmet that covered his entire face, like in the pictures that Bruce showed them. Harry could see at least two guns covered partially by the other boy's leather jacket, but he didn't seem dangerous at the moment. He was holding Harry's wand up to his face, or the weird eyeholes in the helmet, and seemed to be confused. Then, he looked up at Harry, and Harry reflexively took a step back.
"You're not Tim," Jason said. And Harry nodded and pointed behind himself where Tim was still holding up the fire extinguisher near the tapestry, just in case it seemed. Tim looked up when he felt the two boys eyes on him, then he smiled and ran over to Jason, surprising both Harry and Jason when he threw his arms around his waist, letting the fire extinguisher hit the ground.
"I'm really glad you're not dead," Tim said into Jason's chest and Jason looked up at Harry, and Harry couldn't see the expression under the helmet, but Harry had a feeling it would probably be confused, considering the failed kidnapping that had apparently just happened.
"Yeah, me too, kid," Jason answered, patting Tim on the head hesitantly. The hand holding the wand was still hovering awkwardly above Tim's head. Tim plucked it out of Jason's lax hand and gave it to Harry.
"That's Harry's," Tim explained as Jason looked down at him. Or it seemed like his head moved. It was honestly a bit hard to tell under the helmet. Tim seemed to be thinking the same thing, and the kid was a lot braver than Harry, since he reached up behind Jason's head, and found the catch to get it off, and it came off in his hands.
Harry was surprised to see a red mask, like the ones Dick and Tim wore, under the helmet. Tim gave the mask a strange look, but continued to hug Jason, while Jason looked confused, but not dangerous as he patted Tim on the head. Harry felt awkward as he shifted from foot to foot beside them.
"What the fuck?" Jason asked, more quietly this time, but with a lot of feeling nonetheless. And, honestly, Harry had to agree with that.
