After everyone had raided the kitchen and settled down, Tony started things off. "Okay, I'm sure you all discussed You-Know-Who plenty while I was… otherwise occupied," He said with a glance in Loki's direction, "But catch me up. What exactly did you see?"

"Well… it's good news and bad news," Harry said slowly. Tony waited, but he did not continue. "Bad news first," Tony prompted.

"You're now all on You-Know-Who's hitlist," Harry said.

"Weren't we already? He couldn't have forgotten his meeting with me that easily." Bruce chuckled, obviously remembering the Hulk and how much fun the beast had had beating the sorcerer into the walls.

"He didn't forget – but he'd already known about the Avengers. He knew about you… but didn't really care. He had no idea you were working with us. To him, you were just an annoying Muggle police force. Remember, you're Muggles – nonentities to him.

"But now everything's changed." Hermione interjected. "You're a danger now. That means he'll be looking for you – to torture and find out what you were doing in the vault. It's good we cast the spells we did, I think," She said, casting a glance at the ceiling as she spoke.

"So no saying his name," Harry said with a hard glare in Clint's direction.

"I got set on fire for saying it. I think learned my lesson," Clint grunted. "I won't say it again."

Harry nodded once.

"And the good news?" Tony asked.

"The good news is, he doesn't know we have the Horcrux. For some reason, he thinks we were after the sword of Gryffindor, and that we failed. He hasn't made a personal trip to Gringotts yet… when he does, he'll surely find out about the Horcrux, but this buys us some time."

"Why does he think we were after the sword?" Natasha said incredulously. "The goblin stole it from us. Didn't the goblins give You-Know-Who the report?"

JARVIS, meanwhile, was quickly bringing up the relevant footage. Tony watched as the two-timing stinker of a goblin got away with the sword… and he also watched as said stinker was burned to a crisp by the dragon. The dragon's tail later brushed over the sword, sending it flying well away from the scattering of daggers left by the ashy goblins. Considering how the scene looked… well, it was actually a plausible explanation. Completely wrong, but plausible.

"Makes sense," Tony abruptly said. Before anyone could argue, he said, "Hermione, you told Bellatrix you had a copy of the sword, right?" Hermione nodded once. Tony looked over at the witch, feeling awed again at the bare fact she'd withstood torture to keep the story intact. He knew that he would always admire Hermione for that.

"Well, there's a copy in the vault now. Her copy. But that rat of a goblin actually helped you guys out and said your real one was fake, right?" Hermione nodded. "Then she probably thinks that copy in there was yours. And then the real one's just sitting out there… So now there are two swords lying around. There's no reason to bring a sword to a gunfight, so why would we bring the sword to a bank heist? It sure looks like we left a clever copy and tried to make off with the real one."

"But… why?" Hermione said after a moment.

"Why? Hell if I know. But I don't see an issue with him thinking we want it."

"Well… it was in Dumbledore's office," Harry said slowly. "I know Ginny and Neville tried to steal it, that's why it ended up in her vault in the first place."

Tony threw his hands up. "I have no idea. But look," he said, activating JARVIS's projectors. On the wall, he brought up the static image of the aftermath – of the sword lying several feet away from the soot-blackened areas, quite close to the dragon's restraints. He backed up and showed them the footage.

"That was convenient," Ron said after the video was done.

"Let's just hope he doesn't decide to look immediately." Harry said.

"Otherwise we're toast," Ron finished.

The opportunity was there with Ron's comment, but Tony figured Clint had been tormented enough that day; he graciously let the opportunity pass.

"So now what?" Natasha said after the silence had continued for awhile.

"Same as before. He's still focused on the Tesseract. If he makes another mistake and we can track it, maybe we can get it away from him."

"It is unwise to wish for a mistake," Loki said. "Do not forget that a single 'mistake', as you say, could extinguish us all."

"A small mistake, then," Harry continued, unabashed. "Another exploded building would be fine. If we can get there before he has a chance to clear out…" He trailed off. Tony thought of several possible endings to that sentence, from 'we get the tesseract and save the day,' to 'get fried and lose everything.' Considering their current track record, he had to admit the second option seemed more likely.

But Tony was not accustomed to failure – and, quite simply, he didn't like it. He'd gotten the information he needed – Voldy was on their tail. But good news, he was such a hardcore sorcerer that he'd probably never heard of the muggle-fied world wide web. So, going from his limited resources of newspapers, magazines, and magic, Tony felt pretty safe. If they hadn't cast the Fidelius charm, he would possibly be shaking in his iron-clad boots, but as it was, he felt confident in Harry's magic. There was no public tie of SHIELD to the Avengers, so no scare there. But Tony was careful not to feel too confident. Overconfidence seemed keen on biting him in the ass these days.

Tony pushed away from the table, leaving the rest of the group to their planning. If they needed him, they knew where to find him. He had more important things to do than chitchat – as in make enough improvements so he didn't get hacked to bits next time Death Eaters came calling. He grabbed a sandwich from the fridge at random, then proceeded to head towards his workshop. But he hesitated at the door for just a second, glancing back at the table. Loki did not look up, seemingly engrossed in the conversation. True to his word, then.

Tony wasn't sure how he felt about that.

He let himself into the darkened workshop, triple-locking the door as usual. It didn't keep out his more determined visitors, but it made him feel better. With a sigh, he stood on the platform for JARVIS to dismantle his suit. Considering the unplanned 'renovations' his suit has gone through, the de-suiting was not pleasant as JARVIS attempted to pry apart the pieces that had been jammed together. But then it was done, the remnants were piled on his workbench, and he was finally, finally free to work.

The first thing he did was scrap the entire thing. The runes directly on the suit brought the danger way too close to home. As a last defense, fine, but not as the first and only defender. In the first hour that he worked, he drew up half a dozen plans of alternate uses of the runes, and set JARVIS to constructing prototypes.

But in that time, Tony felt as though he should have made at least a dozen more. He felt distracted as he was working. Not distracted as in bespelled – he sure as hell knew what that felt like – just… distracted.

At first he wasn't sure of the source of his unusual inability to concentrate, but then habit decided to give him a hint. While working on prying the runed pieces of his chestpiece apart, a particularly fervent move wrenched the pliers straight out of his hand. They flew across the room and landed against the opposite wall with a clatter. Retort ready, he glanced towards the corner by the entrance –

But of course no one was there.

So he was so used to the god's presence, he'd actually made a habit of looking in the corner. Wow.

He resolutely turned back to the chestpiece, but his concentration was, if anything, even worse now that he'd acknowledged the habit. The god had said things that weren't easily ignored, try as Tony might. And he was definitely trying.

Well, he wasn't getting anything of worth done in this state. 'Consider it objectively'… Tony gritted his teeth. He'd give it a shot.

Wrench still in hand, Tony rested his head in his hands. He wasn't used to having his concentration compromised… but he hadn't expected his little meet-up with the god in the field. Try as he might to work on something else, the situation demanded his attention.

Tony closed his eyes and tried to view the situation objectively. It was very difficult to shove away his deep-rooted dislike of the god, but he attempted it and tried to see what the god found so obvious.

In the beginning, there was quite clearly nothing. When Loki had first appeared in the mansion, there had been nothing but shared revulsion. They'd hated each other. No question about that. Though some of the blatant hatred had abated somewhat, he hadn't thought the core of their relationship had changed. From his point of view, they were two enemies tolerating each other to prevent the end of the world.

But the god had insisted upon viewing the events objectively. Imagining Loki's taunting laugh, he sighed and sifted through his memories… and with growing shock that bordered on panic, he noticed what his… his 'denial' had so thoroughly covered up.

Their time in the workshop held the bulk of their interaction together – and though at the time, Tony had assumed Loki was simply digging for secrets for later use, but in hindsight, most of the questions asked were… trivial. Conversational.

Sure, the god annoyed the hell out of him a lot of the time, but he was intelligent – and that was a trait Tony didn't run into very often.

Tony sighed, quitting with the beating-around-the-bush. So he'd enjoyed the conversations with the god. Enjoyed, and gotten used to them, too, if his current actions were any hint. His automatic look-to-the-corner bit emphasized just how much time Loki spent in the workshop… how much time they'd spent together.

Fast forward. Then there was the whole battle at the manor. Loki had saved his life what, five times? Then afterward, when Tony had returned the favor… He remembered the panic he'd felt when he'd seen Loki injured after his run-in with Voldemort. He remembered his relief when the god had made his recovery…

Another jump ahead. Gringotts added more points for Loki's theory. He could still vividly remember the green laser aimed right for the illusion-Loki. Yeah, he hadn't been all too happy with that one. And then their little conversation in the middle of the battlefield hadn't exactly been the banter of enemies.

That brought him back to the field. He already knew his feelings about that… or thought he knew, anyway.

There was still that distrust – Loki had jinxed him once. Who was to say he wasn't doing it again?

But Loki wasn't stupid. Of that, Tony was very sure. And if Loki could flawlessly dupe him now, then why didn't he bother with that before, instead of the whole fog thing? The indecision Tony was feeling now was a lot more authentic than his brief experience of being a dimwit. No spells this time around then.

If there were no spells… then where the hell did that leave him?

Tony shoved away from the desk, with such force that the chestpiece clattered to the floor. "Enough with the feelings," Tony growled, standing and pacing away from the desk. He'd had more than enough of them for one day.

After a moment's hesitation, he went over to one of the many viewscreens and started to tap into the satellite feed. All this soul-searching had dredged up another memory. Loki had said, absolutely assured him, that he had not killed Coulson. Fury certainly wasn't going to answer any questions on the matter, so, as was his custom, Tony would just find out for himself. If they could find Loki by global satellite feed, then they could find Coulson… if he was anywhere to be found, that is.

He hated himself for hoping… but still he hoped. And his hope was rewarded gloriously an hour later by a sharp ping from the viewscreen. Tony was greeted by the image of a man stretched out in a beach chair, clad in Hawaiian shirt and shorts, complete with umbrella-tipped drink. Despite the drastic change of clothes, Tony recognized at once who the man was. He glanced at the statistic as he made his way out of the workshop. The computer reported a 98% match to Agent Phil Coulson.

I had this planned waaay before Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came up... obviously this isn't as much of a revelation now, what with the show and everything, but I'm sticking with my original plan. So for this fic, the TV show isn't canon... I have other things planned ;)

And one more chapter coming right up!