A/N: I told you to keep an eye out! Here you go! I'm churning through chapters at the moment, a vain attempt to keep my sanity in tact as work is as dull as ditch water at the moment. We are launching a new company sales website so guess who the lucky person is that gets to check the codes, prices and descriptions of over 6,000 plants and tools? Ah well, the joy of writing is you can ignore your own reality for an infinitely more interesting reality!

Thanks to everyone for reading this, seeing that you enjoy it means I have an excuse to keep writing!

Chapter Thirty Five – Pooling Resources

Being back at the tower for an extended period was bliss to Mateo, as he had the opportunity to participate in any number of activities from checking out the labs to joining in training with Steve. The first day he spent quickly ensuring his and Bruce's living quarters were tidy for their guests tomorrow before joining his father down in the labs. Tony and he had finished their work on the Arc Reactors and now had versions that would run for thirty years powered merely by the Starkanium element Tony had in his chest.

The amount of power that they produced could be devastating in the wrong hands, and seeing as there was one buried in Tony's chest, they had decided not to make the product public just yet. However there was one installed in each of Tony's buildings and they were working on creating a version compatible with the engine of his jet. And Mateo thought he had heard the billionaire talking as if he was considering having the reactor removed, so perhaps global sales could eventually happen.

Bruce's research into the Other Guy had restarted now that he had the facilities to properly monitor the changes he underwent to become his larger self. Mateo had seen the small leather bound journal that he had used to scribble ideas and basic observations as they travelled, but now he was equipped to do more than theorise. Apparently the Avengers were starting to get on quite well with him and the collateral damage caused by 'Big Green' was dwindling. Tony had created special pants for Bruce too that stretched with the transformation, so he ran no risk of being embarrassed when he changed back.

There were blueprints and designs tacked to numerous walls that proved the pair had also upgraded everyone's weaponry even more, and Mateo was 100% certain now that he would never want to get on the bad side of any of them.

Mateo's sleeping pattern was still slightly skewed when he woke up at four in the morning in his room in the tower. The silence was slightly disconcerting, but he forced himself to stay in bed for another couple of hours that he dozed through until he gave up and got dressed. He had missed his normal clothes whilst being at Hogwarts, and he was thankful that Pepper had insisted on buying some extra sets in a larger size, he seemed to have grown over the last year. Clad in a green shirt and brown trousers and brown loafers he moseyed up to the communal kitchen.

It was unlikely that he would find anyone awake at this hour, Steve may be but he often went running before appearing up in the kitchen. So he settled for making tea and watching the sunrise above the skyline with only his thoughts for company, which he found was actually quite pleasant. With every one of the Avengers wanting to spend quality time with him Mateo barely had any time to himself, and he didn't see that changing over the summer.

Eventually the others began to stir and appear, first with his Dad then the three more physical Avengers. Thor made an appearance just as breakfast was pronounced ready, almost as if he had a sixth sense for detecting food. Tony appeared once they were all settled and groggily made a beeline for the coffee.

"So what's the plan with you professors coming to visit?" he asked after he had drained at over half his mug.

"They are probably getting here around ten, I'm going to head up to the roof to meet them as that is the easiest point to apparate to without spying out the place first," Mateo spoke after he had swallowed his mouthful of egg. After Albus' unexpected appearance last summer the Avengers had figured out how the man had done it.

"Who do you think should be present for this chat?" Clint asked next.

"Dad and Tony at least need to be here, they are the ones with the most knowledge that could be helpful. Thor should probably be here too to give whatever input you can on what Loki sensed. I don't have a reason to doubt them but if we end up working with them I know you guys would prefer to get a feel of them before," Mateo said to the two assassins, then paused to think. "You know what? You can all be here if you want, just please don't make a scene or make things more complicated than they need to be."

"We'll just listen in and stay in the background," Steve promised.

"And we'll have a tidy up first, unless we do this on your level," Natasha was not one to consider herself house proud, but she could see the odd piece of popcorn poking out from under the sofas, and coffee stains on the surfaces that could be wiped clean.

"Thanks," Mateo was grateful for their attention to detail and he quickly finished his breakfast.

He wasn't able to settle to much over the next two hours so he when it got closer to the arrival date of the two he headed for the roof. It wasn't too breezy that day, so he sat with his legs on the edge of the ledge and gazed out over the city. Once again he was glad that he did not need glasses as the wind probably could have dislodged them as he sat up here.

After getting bored with looking around the view Mateo slumped back on the, what he had termed it, parapet. With the wind ruffling his hair and the sun warming his face, and one leg slung over the edge he found himself relaxing even though he hadn't consciously been tense. He was in the middle of deciding what kind of animal he would like to be if he was an animagus when a rather loud pop broke the silence.

Standing there in the middle of the roof and gazing around themselves in curiosity were the two magic wielders that Mateo had wanted to see. The tiny mistrustful part of him had been wary of another wizard tagging along, one much more meddlesome than the two he trusted. But again that part of him had been proven wrong and Mateo smiled welcomingly at the teachers.

"Good morning Professors, welcome to America," Mateo said as he walked over to them. "I'm afraid everyone wants to be at our little discussion so prepare for a Spanish Inquisition. They mean well and are genuinely lovely people, they just forget they can be a bit intimidating at times."

"Thanks for the warning," Professor McGonagall said dryly. To her it was a bizarre experience getting a pep talk from someone a sixth of her age, but the sincerity in the child's eyes showed how he honestly believed his warning. After seeing their 'playing' in the school last year Minerva nodded her thanks too and took Mateo's encouragement to heart.

Mateo led the way through the door and down the stairs to the level where everyone was gathered. As he had said, seeing the six highly dangerous adults staring at them was slightly intimidating. Thankfully only Thor, Tony, and Bruce were standing at the sofas waiting for the three whilst Steve, Natasha, and Clint were sitting in the kitchen. Although they were out of the way they were easily within earshot to hear the discussion and give their opinions.

"Professors Flitwick and McGonagall, although I think most of you know my head of house. Thor, you'll have to come to one of my Quidditch matches next year. Professor McGonagall meet Tony Stark, Thor Odinson, Bruce Banner, and the three that are going to sit quietly over there are Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanoff," Mateo gestured to each person in turn, and thankfully the person called made some sign of greeting so show who they were. "Can I get you anything before we begin?"

"Perhaps some water might be a good idea if we are going to be discussing a lot," Professor Flitwick suggested.

Mateo nodded and moved to head to the kitchen, however Clint was already standing there with six bottles of water in his arms and a helpful and expectant look on his face. Mateo smiled and let him carry on, and then the archer retreated to his perch on the countertop of the kitchen without any kind of fuss. Mateo did carefully check that all the bottles seemed to still be sealed before anyone reached for theirs. Although he didn't expect anyone to dare pull a prank at such a serious gathering, he wouldn't be surprised if a tainted bottle of water accidentally made it into the mix.

"Filius and I was discussing what would require a meeting as we were heading here this evening, or morning I suppose, and we both came to an agreement," Professor McGonagall started.

"We feel it would be prudent for us to take an Unbreakable Vow to ensure whatever we learn or discuss will remain strictly between us," Professor Flitwick spoke next. "The Unbreakable Vow works in that you literally cannot divulge the information you have been told without dying, we would be completely safe from veritaserum and legillimency. Therefore we would be safe from meddling people."

"Whilst we have been lucky so far in not needing to deny knowledge of you, it would be safest for all concerned if we literally could not talk about you to anyone else," Minerva suggested. "You would need three promises for us to agree to in order to seal the vow."

"Alright, one to not disclose my true identity until such time as I wish to reveal it, two to help with the research we will need to conduct to, third to never discuss what we are doing with anyone outside of this room. Would those be encompassing enough for our situation?" Mateo asked.

Soon the two professors had shown Mateo how to do the Vow and had sworn each other to secrecy. It was clear that although the majority of the room had no idea how magic worked they were reassured by the sentiments behind the act at least. Natasha had stopped staring at the pair hard enough to corrode a hole through their heads, which Mateo took as a good sign. The two robed individuals had never done anything to gain their mistrust, but it was just the habit of the Russian assassin to assume the worst of new people.

"So with that out of the way, what did you want to discuss?" Filius asked as they were seated once more.

"You know my true identity and how I ended up a Banner, but that is probably only half of the story," Mateo said slowly. He had been trying to figure out how to go about explaining what Loki had sensed but had not come to a conclusion.

"Has Mateo explained about the Battle of New York?" Tony asked as he saw the youth struggling.

"Only the basics of the situation and how it lead to you all becoming a team," Professor McGonagall answered.

"Did he explain about Loki?" Tony carried on.

"He's Thor's brother and has a good grasp of magic," Minerva replied.

"When he was being led away from here to a secure location he caught sight of Mateo and stopped. We weren't entirely sure why he was suddenly so interested in the child, he had seen him before. However when Thor went to visit Loki he said that he had sensed something," Tony explained.

"Loki has an excellent grasp of magic well beyond any Seidr, Midgardian magic wielder, has possibly ever had. He can use this to sense things most people wouldn't ever be aware of and apparently it is because of this he discovered something about young Mateo," Thor explained. "My brother requested a meeting with Banner's son as he had felt something during their brief meeting on the flying fortress. I do not believe he was lying when he told us that he felt that there could be a sliver of another being living within the child."

"He said that it was as if part of another's soul was using Mateo as a vessel, it was doing no harm nor growing at all. Whatever it is, it is just there living alongside Mateo's magical core," Bruce recalled the disgraced god's description.

By the way the two on the opposite couch suddenly paled the Avengers could tell that whatever had happened was not good. Mateo unconsciously shuffled closer to Bruce and the man put an arm around his son reassuringly.

"I don't think any of us know the proper term for what happened, but I know for a fact that splitting your soul can only occur through dark magic, the darkest magic. You two would never be able to delve deep enough into dark literature to find out how that happened without attracting some unfavourable attention," Professor McGonagall said shakily. "Even we might not be able to find out what happened."

"So I'm stuck with a piece of Voldemort's soul then?" Mateo said quietly and rather tremulously.

"Have you discovered any negative effects of having it so far?" Filius asked.

"Apart from the scar no," Bruce said with certainty.

"I shall ask my father whether he knows of any way of solving this dilemma and ridding Banner's son of the parasite," Thor offered.

"I highly doubt that there is anything mentioned in the school library but I shall look there, it would be less suspicious for me to do it than a student," Flitwick promised.

Tony had been very patient and quiet through the discussion, but Mateo had seem him impatiently fidgeting. At that moment he lost his battle to remain quiet and unleashed a torrent of questions at the two magic users. Luckily Flitwick and McGonagall were patient and answered as many of his questions as he could. However the number of questions they couldn't answer showed how little they knew on the subject.

"It won't hurt to peruse Albus' personal library either, I shall try to get up to his office and search it without him being there," the female witch decided when Tony sank into a thoughtful silence.

"I can see why you swore us to secrecy before revealing this," Filius said, still shaken from the revelation half an hour ago.

The part-goblin was feeling physically sick after everything that had been revealed to him. His trust was in tatters and he no longer knew who in the world he could trust or believe anymore, for years he had trusted that Albus always knew what was best. He had never known where Harry Potter had gone, nor had it really mattered as the headmaster had insisted he was safe and well. With the revelations they had heard recently Filius felt like a fool for being so naive and gullible, and he hated being made to look like a fool.

A week ago everything had made sense and was orderly, now only the vow he had just committed kept him from confronting the supposed forerunner of light and demanding answers from him. At least he could be content with the knowledge that Mateo's family were prepared to work with them to find the answers they needed.

"It's getting late, you should probably be heading back if you want to get back to the UK in daylight," Natasha interrupted the gathering. She was the only one who had a mental note on the time differences between America and the UK.

There were a number on the couches who were surprised by the woman's announcement but they soon gathered themselves. They had indeed been talking for over three hours and they couldn't risk both professors being discovered missing. The last thing they wanted was for someone to start asking questions, so they would have to be content with what they had covered for now.

"Indeed we should be going, thank you for entrusting us with this information, we shall keep you up to date with anything we find," Filius clapped his hands and slid from the couch.

"Thank you for coming Professors," Mateo stood and gave a tiny bow out of habit.

"Don't practice too hard over the summer, we wouldn't want you getting too bored next term," Filius said with a smile.

"I won't, I may read my books but I'm aiming to learn more Muggle things rather than Wizarding ones," Mateo replied with a grin. "It wouldn't be fair to outcompete everyone just because I live in the better place."

"Whilst I remember, avoid making eye contact with some of the teachers and wizards you don't know," Professor McGonagall instructed, "Professor Snape and Dumbledore are able to read minds using something called Legilimency. Until you can shield your mind with Occlumency then avoid their eyes."

"I didn't know that it was possible to read minds, can many people do it?" Mateo asked, slightly worried about what could have been revealed already.

"Not many can master it, but unfortunately the two of them have. You needn't worry overly about Snape, he learnt it out of necessity and truly respects people's privacy. He'd probably only use it if he suspected you of committing a crime on school grounds. Dumbledore on the other hand I can no longer vouch for, so be careful," McGonagall said darkly. It was obvious how much her opinion of the man had plummeted in the last few days.

Bruce led the two departing Brits to the roof for them to disapparate but was soon back down the stairs, his shoulders spotted with dark marks from the drizzle that had started without their noticing. He was quite surprised that on his return he was met with an awkward silence. Collectively the Avengers had faced pretty much every bizarre life threatening situation and knew how to overcome it. But magical incidences left them all floundering in confusion as there was no way to apply their knowledge to fix the situation. To Mateo it was obvious that the adults around him really didn't like being helpless like they felt they were now.

"I reckon we need a pick-me-up, anyone for a game of laser tag?" Tony asked to the silent room.

It was a rather obviously desperate attempt and lifting morale in the group but Mateo was extremely grateful that the man suggested doing something. Despite the obvious ploy everyone jumped on the idea, apart from Bruce who decided to referee to make the teams even, and soon the numerous guns and sensor jackets were being dug out of the relevant cupboard.

"What is this 'laser tag' that you speak of? Is it some kind of accessory like tattoos?" Thor asked innocently.

So after ten minutes of explanations and demonstrations the god was all clued in as to how the guns and the game worked and they split into teams. Clint and Natasha had instantly been split to even the playing field and were teamed with Thor or Steve, the former still looked a little bemused and the latter apparently was better when aiming with a shield. Tony and Mateo teamed together. The three teams moved out to start on separate floors, leaving Bruce to make himself a cup of tea and watch their antics through the security system that JARVIS fed to the large TV. With all the commotion the scientist quickly found himself being kept company by the ghost of the tower, the little red fuzz ball known as Augustus.

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Mateo's birthday that year was even more spectacular than the year before, mostly because everyone knew each other better and it was easier to interact. Like the year before though Mateo got a heap of gifts that he had no idea he needed or would use much, but was incredibly grateful for nonetheless. Food, cake and laughter kept coming all day and the now twelve year old thoroughly enjoyed the day. It didn't take him long to fall straight back into the pattern of life with the Avengers and soon it didn't feel like he had left at all. However as soon as his birthday was over he asked to start lessons again and was grateful when everyone agreed to help him.

Thor had not been present for any of Mateo's early lessons the summer before so was delighted to head to the gym to watch the youth train. The Avengers had collared the god and made sure that he was welcome to help with the training, so long as he was certain that he would not cause any accidental damage to the child. Thankfully the god hadn't taken it the wrong way and promised to be extremely careful as he was perfectly aware of how he sometimes underestimated his own strength.

He was the one to point out that his fighting techniques wouldn't really suit the child anyway, he relied on his strength and powers whereas Mateo was built for speed and manoeuvrability. However the god decided to attempt to teach the child some Asgardian wrestling moves in case he was ever stuck in hand to hand combat. No one commented when Steve and Clint randomly appeared in the gym during those lessons, seeming coincidentally.

Natasha also went with the theme of physical combat and Mateo became even better acquainted with the mats of the gym as they repeatedly practiced moves. When he eventually mastered the one they were practicing the Russian would move onto the next one so Mateo never spent too long on his feet. To keep his spirits up they practiced Russian at the same time, although it was only when Mateo practiced wrestling with Clint did he ever learn any vulgar words.

By far his favourite exercise-based lessons were with Clint because of how varied the lessons were. The archer helped him improve his agility through hosting games in the air vents, or by using the giant climbing frame that had been built onto a side of the tower. The two were also often found in the archery range improving Mateo's aim and reaction times to targets. Even the range had been hit by Tony's regular bouts of tinkering, and now the targets could be programmed to appear from random locations and from behind cover, instead of just hanging stationary on the lines. Clint never voiced his opinion on the changes but to Mateo it was obvious that he loved the changes and the new challenges it presented.

Tony ensured that everyone knew he was setting aside two hours a day in which Mateo could come and learn about whatever took his fancy in the billionaire's lab-cum-workshop. Considering most people could barely get ten minutes of his attention on a normal day they were surprised by his gesture, and made sure that Mateo was free at the same time so that it was not made in vain. It wasn't, and Tony patiently explained in depth anything that Mateo asked, from how circuit boards worked to the intricacies of hacking a computer system. Once Bruce had to go and retrieve the pair for dinner, four hours after they had disappeared into the labs, and had found them both elbow deep in Tony's Hot Rod as the billionaire showed Mateo how to strip an engine. That lecture carried on for a week and Tony only dropped the topic when Mateo could at least name all the major parts of an engine and knew how to diagnose a fault. The fact that Mateo would also be able to hotwire a car or rebuild an engine from stolen parts went unvoiced, and Bruce ignored that fact.

In complete contrast to pretty much everyone else's lessons Steve took to comparing drawing techniques with Mateo. They also spent a lot of time exploring technology together and either learning how things worked or trawling through videos to better understand modern culture. Tony had walked in on them during a lengthy cat video watching session and had immediately gone to find Augustus to see whether he could replicate the tricks with the red cat. Mateo also took up joining Steve for a short part of his morning run in a way of increasing his stamina beyond dodging blows. However Steve was often away from the tower on vague errands, and sometimes Natasha would go with him. He knew better than to ask what they were doing, but the secrecy did intrigue Mateo.

And at the weekends Mateo largely took a break and spent all day with his father. Unless there were communal plans for food on weekday evenings the two would also cook together, and often their plans would be hijacked by at least one other Avenger so they cooked plenty for others. On their days together the pair would sometimes venture out into the city to visit museums or landmarks, but most often if they left the tower they went via car to remote areas. Both of them had finally fully adjusted to city life so the crush of humanity no longer caused them to panic, but neither argued if the suggestion was made to go for a walk in the countryside.

Like the summer before Mateo was content to let his father continue working seeing as Bruce always made time in the mornings and evenings for him. The fact that the other Avengers were more than happy to do something with him helped ensure he was never bored. And for the first month and a half Mateo happily lost himself in the madness that was life in Avenger Tower, his magic books and wand left abandoned in his room.