Disclaimer – Anything you see and recognise does not belong to me. Harry Potter is JK Rowling's; The Avengers and other related characters belong to Marvel. I'm simply playing in their sandboxes.

ooo00ooo

Heroes Assemble!

Chapter 53 – Foul-Mouthed Little Toad

Harry was having the time of his life. A massive grin was plastered to his face even as he continuously dodged the threat in front of him.

Watching carefully, he stepped to the right.

Left.

A second quick-step left.

Spin back to the right.

Drop to his hands and knees before pushing straight upwards in a jump.

Gaining his feet, Harry laughed as he dodged again. A simple half-turn was enough to evade the next attack.

His opponent, it was easy to see, was starting to get frustrated; his face intense and frowning. The wand-work, too, was starting to get sloppy as Teddy tried to hurry his shots making them go further and further afield. Coming to a decision, Harry spun to the right, flicking his wand into his hand as he did so.

"Flavo pila pingere!" Harry snapped, elucidating clearly for Teddy to hear.

Teddy, though, obviously wasn't expecting it for his mouth was still dropped open in surprise when the bright yellow blob of paint smacked him straight in the chest.

"Uncle Harry!" he protested. "You're not supposed to be shooting back!"

Harry laughed.

"When have you ever seen or heard of a duel where only one person casts?" Harry asked. "Part of duelling and casting is to know how and when to dodge yourself. You can't just stand there like some great lump. Move around a bit in case I shoot back."

Teddy nodded and pushed a lock of hair out of his eyes. A determined expression came over his face and he nodded once again, this time lifting his wand into a ready position.

Before Teddy could fire his first magical paintball, though, a triple rap at the door above caused both Harry and Teddy to look up.

"That'll be Doreen," Harry remarked before smirking at his godson. "Hold up and let me let her in."

Ignoring Teddy's confused expression, Harry bounded up the spiral staircase taking two steps at a time.

"Hey, Harry," Doreen began as Harry yanked the door open.

"Hi, Doreen," Harry said happily before grabbing her arm and pulling her inside.

"Wait! What?" Doreen protested.

"Time for some training," was Harry's only response.

"Oh, okay," Doreen replied, still sounding confused. "I guess you guys can pick what you want for dinner later."

When the two hit the bottom of the stairs, Harry practically dragged the teen girl across the basement to the far side of the room from Teddy. There he dug around in a cupboard until he found the bag of marbles that he'd stashed in there after finding them when he was first renovating. One quick transfiguration later and the bag of marbles was now a bag of bright blue paint balls.

"Here. Put these in one of your belt pouches," Harry instructed.

After staring between Harry and the paint balls, Doreen shrugged and complied.

"Right," Harry said, leaning in towards her and lowering his voice. "I'm going to have Teddy shoot paint balls at you using his magic. I want you to dodge them and, when you get the chance, throw yours back at him."

Doreen's eyes flicked over Harry's shoulder at the other teen in the room.

"Um, what about …?" she asked, nibbling her lip.

"Hey, it's Ted. He knows about your abilities. I want you to go for it. Really give him a challenge," Harry insisted.

"Can I?" she asked, gesturing towards her butt.

"If it helps with your balance and agility, sure," Harry replied.

As Harry crossed back towards Teddy, he noticed that Doreen was fishing her tail out of her pants before taking off her jacket.

"Alright, Teddy. I want you to do the same drill, but this time, you'll be aiming at Doreen," Harry said.

Teddy's eyes widened and his hair shifted to a chestnut brown.

"Um, but she's …" Teddy began.

"A girl?" Harry asked, deliberately mis-interpreting. "Teddy! I never took you for someone who thought girls were weaker. Your mother would be very disappointed."

"No! That wasn't what I was going to say!" Teddy protested. "What if I hurt her?"

A musical laugh came from the far side of the room.

"Never gonna happen! You'll never even hit me," Doreen mocked.

Harry, meanwhile, quickly crossed the room and hoisted himself up onto a bench out of the way, sitting cross-legged, his head swivelling between the two.

"Okay. Whenever you're ready," Harry called.

Teddy stood motionless, his eyes flicking from Doreen to Harry almost in a pleading sort of way. Doreen, though, was having none of it. Dancing to the right, her hand reached into her pouch before flicking out.

"Ow!" Teddy exclaimed, rubbing at his chest.

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the incredulous expression on Teddy's face as he saw that his hand and chest were now stained bright blue as well as yellow.

"So that's how it is, huh?" he mock-scowled at Doreen.

"Yep," she smiled back.

With a flourish, Teddy brought his wand to bear.

"Runbum pila pingere!" he exclaimed, sending a red ball of paint shooting at Doreen.

Doreen, though, moved quickly, spinning away with a laugh as she dodged his attack.

And then it was on.

Harry grinned as he watched the teen wizard shooting spell after spell at the teenaged girl across from him. Doreen used every facet of her acrobatic skills to jump, spin and dodge the spells, even going so far as to jump straight up and to cling upside down to the ceiling at one stage. And every now and again, she'd fling a pellet back at him, making Teddy dodge.

And then it happened.

A spell from Teddy's wand impacted, splattering bright red paint onto Doreen's bushy tail.

With a near-growl, the girl began flicking blue paintballs at Teddy one after the other, putting him completely on the defensive and making him dodge as best as he could. Teddy's best, though, was no match for Doreen's squirrel reflexes and before long, he was completely backed against the far bench.

"Hah!" Teddy exclaimed as he dodged one particularly vicious throw.

"Crrrrp! Fix yer hair yer blue twerp!"

Both Teddy and Doreen froze, their eyes huge as they stared at each other. Slowly, Teddy turned around, just as Harry joined them.

"Looks like that last throw clipped the lid and broke the silencing charm," Harry commented absently.

"Huh?" Teddy asked, his eyes fixated on the glass aquarium that was now visible with a white and blue cloth half-draped off of it.

"Did … did that toad just say something?" Doreen asked, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with Teddy.

"You call that a tail, you …"

"Yeah," Harry replied, slamming the lid back into place and silencing the toad.

Harry then pulled off the cover so that the teens could see it properly.

"Toads," Teddy stated flatly. "Talking."

"Yep," Harry beamed. "But they're not quite ready yet."

"Why is that one," Doreen asked, pointing to one of the four in the aquarium, "wearing a pink cardigan?"

"I couldn't help it, it just seemed appropriate," Harry grinned, not even bothering to explain.

"Uncle Harry, why do the toads talk?" Teddy asked.

"They're supposed to be for Uncle George. I thought that he could sell them in WWW," Harry explained. "As to why they talk, well, I've charmed them that way. I married the charm from insulting magical mirrors with a few other little spells so that you get a talking, insulting toad."

"That's … that's brilliant!" Teddy exclaimed. "Can I have one?"

"They're not quite ready yet," Harry repeated.

"Why not?" Doreen asked.

Harry sighed. "Because I did something a bit wrong. Yes, they insult anyone they see, just like they're supposed to. But they also have a … bad habit of swearing every other sentence."

"Sounds like they're perfect to me!" Teddy grinned. "Can I take one back with me to Hogwarts? I can drop the others off with Uncle George if you like."

"NO!" Harry exclaimed, waving his hands at his godson.

"Ohh, why not?" Teddy near-whined.

"Because if I let you take one of them to Hogwarts, I'll have Headmistress McGonagall here the next day transfiguring me into a toad!" Harry exclaimed.

"Well, everyone's always saying that she needs a holiday," Teddy deadpanned.

Harry stared at his godson with narrowed eyes for a brief second before flicking his wand up and letting loose a cannon blast of water.

"Hey!" Doreen spluttered. "Watch where you're aiming that!"

ooo00ooo

Pepper opened yet another bag and dumped the entire contents into a large bowl. Surveying the counter, she nodded, albeit a little uncertainly.

That, she thought, should hold them. For now, at least.

Picking up two of the bowls of chips, she tucked one into the crook of her arm and then picked up the giant bowl of popcorn. It was then a matter of manoeuvring through the crowded lounge to deposit them in strategic places.

The first bowl of chips went on the coffee table in front of the three seater lounge that Peter, Gwen, Doreen and Teddy had squeezed onto. The second bowl was placed on the ground centrally between the plethora of beanbags that Clint, Steve, Harry, Bruce and Jennifer had commandeered. The popcorn went nearest Thor and Pepper simply had to hope that Jane, Darcy, Tony, Nat and herself were able to at least get a couple of handfuls before the Asgardian scoffed the lot.

She'd barely flopped onto the couch and wiggled close enough to Tony to put her head on his shoulder, her eyes fixing on the big screen and the image of Indiana Jones running through the jungle from some angry natives when Jarvis interrupted.

"I'm sorry, Miss Potts, but we seem to have a visitor," Jarvis said from the new watch that Tony had recently given her.

"Who is it?" she asked with a frown.

"Agent Morse," the AI replied, "and my monitors indicate that she is in some distress."

"Don't look at me," Tony stated without even turning his head from the movie. "Jarvis is talking to you."

"Only because you told him to," Pepper groused. "Alright, Jarvis, send her up; I'll meet her at the elevator."

"She will arrive in two minutes," Jarvis replied.

Pepper pushed herself back up and as unobtrusively as she could, weaved her way back through the crowd to the back of the lounge area and the elevator, smiling briefly at Bucky and Daphne sitting far enough away from the others so that neither became overwhelmed by the group, but still close enough to enjoy the movie. Bucky, she saw, was currently explaining something or other about the movie to the witch, at least judging by his gestures at the screen, anyway.

The ding of the elevator arriving brought Pepper's attention back just in time for the doors to open. Inside, almost slumped against the far wall, was Bobbi Morse. Her long blonde hair looked unkempt and there were definitely bags under her eyes. As soon as she noticed Pepper standing there, though, she straightened.

"Hi, sorry for barging in like this," Bobbi apologised as she stepped forward.

"There's no need for that," Pepper replied. "Come in, you look dead on your feet."

Bobbi's weary nod attested to exactly how tired she was. Pepper was getting a pretty good understanding of how these now-ex S.H.I.E.L.D. agents worked, as well as the Avengers. And showing any form of weakness was not something that they'd ordinarily do. For Bobbi to be exuding fatigue like this told Pepper that the other woman had had a pretty rough time of it of late.

"Tony, can you find an extra chair for Bobbi, please," Pepper called.

Tony twisted his neck around and eyeballed Bobbi. Pepper could see his eyes taking everything in and knew that he knew exactly how done in Bobbi was. Unfortunately, Pepper knew that that wasn't going to stop Tony from being Tony.

"If you'd wanted in on the movie, all you had to do was ask. And show up before it started," Tony snarked.

Only the fact that Tony was also quickly vacating the double-seater lounge for the tired woman held Pepper's tongue from giving him a good telling off.

The sigh of relief as Bobbi sank into the chair had heads swivelling towards her.

"Jarvis?" Pepper asked, waving a hand in the direction of the screen in order for the movie to be promptly paused.

"Agent Morse, are you alright?" Steve asked, leaning forward.

"Yeah. Let's just say that it's been a long week," she replied, her eyes flicking to Teddy, Daphne and Bucky.

"Don't worry about them; they're fine," Clint stated.

"Here, you look like you could do with this," Harry stated, coming forward with a small vial of something held out to her.

"Thanks," Bobbi said and promptly took it and chugged it back.

Pepper could only blink at the wisps of steam spiralling up from Bobbi's ears.

"Potter! What do you think you're doing giving this woman – and a muggle one at that – a pepper-up potion?" Daphne snapped, advancing on the wizard with her hands on her hips.

"I know this lot, they're going to want to hear Bobbi's story before she'll be allowed to sleep," Harry shrugged. "This way, she'll be awake enough to answer their questions. I do have some experience in that department."

Whatever the undertone of that last statement was obviously made some sense to the Healer.

"Fine," Daphne replied. "But no more handing out potions without my say so; you are not a Healer."

Once again, Harry simply shrugged and Pepper made a mental note to commiserate with the witch later on about dealing with hard-headed men and their idiocy of thinking that they were always right.

"What happened, Bobbi? The last I heard, you were stationed on the Iliad," Nat said.

"I was," Bobbi replied, taking the cup of hot chocolate that Jane had made for her. "I was there when you lot were taking on HYDRA at the Triskelion – which I want to hear about properly later. I was still there when HYDRA got their call to arms."

"Huh," Clint grunted. "We knew that HYDRA went after every base that we had, never thought about the carriers and whatnot."

"Well, HYDRA didn't forget about them," Bobbi stated sourly.

"Who controls the Iliad now – S.H.I.E.L.D. or HYDRA?" Steve asked intently.

"We do," Bobbi replied. "But it was a hard fight. We had to fight hard for every deck. Agents bled, killed and died to keep that carrier. We lost a lot of good people that day."

"But you won," Steve insisted.

"Yeah, we did," Bobbi sighed. "And then we had to put that carrier back together again. Luckily, Mac – the Iliad's Chief Engineer – survived and was a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent."

"Where's the Iliad now?" Nat asked.

Bobbi simply shook her head.

"No idea. Commander Gonzales took the ship dark," Bobbi said, her eyes meeting those of Clint and Nat. "He aims to ride out HYDRA and, once they've settled down, to come out of hiding against them."

"Doubt that'll work," Tony commented.

"Agreed. Giving an enemy too much time to become entrenched is never a wise course of action," Thor nodded.

"Surprised you didn't stay with them," Nat stated.

"Almost did," Bobbi admitted. "But Fury gave me a job as Avengers liaison to S.H.I.E.L.D. and I aim to see it through."

"Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore," Tony said.

"I know. I've seen Hill. She filled me in. Suggested that I find some other line of work," Bobbi stated and Pepper could hear the contempt in her voice for that idea.

"So that's why Hill applied to work with Stark Industries," Tony commented.

Pepper's head jerked up to stare at Tony.

"Maria applied to work for us?" she asked. "And you haven't hire her yet? You hire her right now!"

"I will. After her interview," Tony replied and Pepper vowed to have words with him about that later. Or simply circumvent him and hire Maria herself.

"Hill has an extremely useful skillset," Nat mused.

"The Avengers could do with someone in a 'mission control' type of role," Bruce commented.

"That's definitely something to discuss later," Steve said. "What about you, Agent Morse? What are your plans now?"

"I was hoping that you'd keep me around. I've still got a lot of contacts around the world that could be useful. Not to mention my own skills," Bobbi said.

"I can think of one or two things that could use your touch," Nat mused and Pepper followed her eyes to the teens on the couch.

"I think that's a great idea," Pepper agreed. "But that's something for tomorrow. For now, I think I'll escort Bobbi to one of the spare rooms so that she can get some sleep."

"Thanks, I'd really appreciate that," Bobbi smiled.

As the two made their way out of the room, Pepper noted that the movie was started up once again. She was just glad that it was one that she'd already seen.

ooo00ooo

Harry sat hunched forward, leaning over the small coffee table in the main part of his library staring at the book innocently sitting there. The 'innocent' act, Harry knew, was a complete fabrication. No, this book was mocking him. It always did. Every. Single. Time.

The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, the title read. Under it was the Black family crest, which, if you didn't know better and failed to look at in the correct angle, you'd think was simply a shield with nothing but the sable that it appeared with. But Harry knew better and consequently also knew better than to look at it in the 'correct' way. Rounding out the front cover of the thick, dusty tome was the House motto: Toujours Pur.

Toujours Pur. Always Pure. And here he was considering something that would have him flayed alive if the ancient Blacks ever learnt of it. Sirius on the other hand, Sirius would approve with that great barking laugh of his.

Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Opening them, he knew, would bring an assault of the guilts. He was the Head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black.

Being Head meant that there was a myriad of duties attached. His Wizengamot seat he'd palmed off to Andromeda, just like Sirius before him (along with his Potter seat and the one he'd gained with his Order of Merlin, First Class). He'd also handed his business holdings to the goblins to do what they did best – make him piles of gold. His properties he avoided as much as possible, allowing only Kreacher to tend to them.

But there was one property. One that neither he, nor Kreacher nor Andy had ever visited. Sirius, he suspected, might have. Really, the only indication that he had that it existed was a memory of a brightly coloured bird and a fuzzy image of a page that he'd once read in the very book before him.

Finally, Harry gave in. After slipping his Head of House ring on, he balled his fist and pressed the ring to the clasp on the book. A small pain told him that the ring took a sample of his blood to transfer to the book. For a moment, nothing happened. And then, with a pulse of near black magic, the clasp fell free.

A fresh smell of dust wafted up when he opened the book and continued as he rifled through the pages, searching for the one that he wanted. Eventually, after much flipping to and fro, he found what he was looking for, not that it amounted to much.

Paradis Noir, the head of the page read.

It was listed under the section related to properties, at least. There were no GPS coordinates to find it, no easy to find directions. Just a vagueness that hinted more than it told. Oh, and the instructions on how to use the Head of House ring to portkey to the place.

What little description there was sounded promising. Its size sounded perfect, maybe even a little large. Supposedly, there was a bungalow there of some kind, but this was the Blacks that he was talking about, so 'bungalow' could be completely misleading.

On the down side, though, this was a magical property and a Black one at that, so it was bound to have the most powerful and all-encompassing wards that money could buy. On the other hand – and on the positive side - this was a magical property and a Black one at that, so it was bound to have the most powerful and all-encompassing wards that money could buy. It simply came down to working around them. Or with them. Either way, it definitely held potential for the plan that was coming together in his head.

With the information fixed in his head, Harry closed the great book and snapped the clasp shut with a sigh. Looking up, Harry eyed the entrance to his magical library where the book belonged before shaking his head and picking up the second and much smaller book from the coffee table.

He found Teddy in his room, laying on his bed, headphones on and his foot tapping away to whatever he was listening to.

When the first knock didn't get a reaction, Harry wandered in and nudged his godson's foot. Instantly, Teddy's eyes snapped open before settling on his godfather.

"Heya, Uncle Harry. Did you want something?" Teddy asked, taking his headphones off.

"Actually, I wanted to give you something," Harry replied.

When Teddy straightened up to sit cross-legged on the bed, Harry took a seat, turning to face him and tucking one leg up underneath himself.

"Here, this is for you," Harry said, holding out the book.

Teddy took the book curiously before his eyes widened at the title: Releasing Your Inner Animal: A Guide to Becoming An Animagus.

"Becoming an Animagus? Like you?" he breathed.

"You are the son of a Marauder, the same as I am," Harry replied with a smile. "And even though your father wasn't an Animagus, all the others were."

"Including you," Teddy added. "But how will that work with the extra werewolf blood that I inherited?"

"You're not a werewolf, Ted, you just have a little extra something, courtesy of your father. I suspect that it won't cause a problem at all," Harry replied.

As Teddy attempted to flick through the book, a frown appeared on his face.

"Hey, these pages are stuck together," he protested.

"Of course they are," Harry smiled. "There's a lot of work to be done before you get that far and I don't want you trying something that you're not ready for. We'll start working on it here, if you like, but when you go back to England, I don't want you getting ahead of yourself. When you think that you've got everything up to here mastered, you can either talk to me or go to Headmistress McGonagall to get the next step 'unglued' for you."

"We can start here? Now?" an excited Teddy asked.

"Sure. Assuming you want to," Harry replied.

"YES! Of course I want to! I wonder what animal I'll be? Probably a wolf, like dad. Or maybe something with wings, like you," Teddy babbled. "Hey, can I show my friends? I know that they'd love to be able to become animagi, too."

Thankfully, Harry had expected that question.

"Only your very best friends," he temporised. "There were only four Marauders, remember, and only three of them were true friends."

"Lachlan, for sure, he's my best friend. And Gabby, of course. And … Mirah and Jon," Teddy said, counting on his fingers. "That's only four others. Is that alright?"

"Sure, Ted, but let's keep it at that, shall we?" Harry agreed.

"What's first? How do I start?" Teddy asked.

Harry's answer was interrupted by an owl flying through the open window and landing regally on the bed between them. The Great Horned Owl looked between the two before settling its gaze on Harry and lifting the leg carrying an official-looking scroll.

"I'm sorry, I don't have a treat for you," Harry told the owl as he took his mail.

The owl either understood or didn't seem to care as, as soon as its burden was free, it leapt up and soared out of the window.

"Who's it from?" Teddy asked.

"The International Confederation of Wizardry," Harry frowned as he read through the summons.

"What does the ICW want with you?" Teddy asked, clearly confused.

"Guess I'll find out tomorrow," Harry replied. "Apparently, I've been summoned."

ooo00ooo

Sterns pushed the door open and paused. The only light inside was the rectangle on the floor from the open door and even that was partly obscured by his shadow. As he waited for his eyes to adjust, he let his other senses take in what was before him.

There was a bed, as expected, with a man laying in it. The soft beeping of machines told him that this man was being monitored medically. There was a soft breathing, but not the rasping breath of one would expect to hear from someone suffering from Retroviral Hypodisplasia. The smell, too, indicated that something was off. The room smelt clean, even if it wasn't fresh. There was no smell of dying or rotting flesh.

No, it was obvious that something was off, that this was all a stage, that the man on the bed was a dupe.

And then, as his eyes adjusted, the tiniest of movements in the darkest of shadows had Sterns shifting his body to face that direction.

"Mister Osborn," Sterns stated with a small bow of his head.

"Who are you? You're not one of my doctors. And you're not one of that other lot, either," Osborn replied, seemingly happy to remain in the shadows.

"No. I'm not," Sterns replied. "I represent something … different. Have you ever heard of Project Sinister?"

Obviously, he'd said something right, for his question brought Osborn out of the shadows. The man was encased in some form of armour. It was a dark green, almost sickly in colour. There were no repulars or arc technology that Sterns could see, so he knew that it wasn't based on Stark Tech. As Osborn stepped further into the light, Sterns realised that the only part of Osborn himself that was visible was the man's head and even that had tech reaching up his neck beside his ears.

"What do you know of Project Sinister?" Osborn countered.

"I know that the two of us, as well as a number of others, are on the list," Sterns replied.

"Really? And what do you bring to the Project?" Osborn asked.

"My brain," Stern replied simply and, considering the distended forehead that he'd acquired after the 'incident' he thought that that really should be enough of an answer.

"I see," Osborn replied and stepped even further into the light. "I understand that our … benefactors are now out of the picture."

"They are. That doesn't mean that we can't proceed anyway," Sterns replied. "And perhaps even improve on their plan."

"There are others," Osborne stated and Sterns easily saw what the man wasn't saying.

"There are," he agreed. "And we will find them and bring them together to create something … extraordinary."

"Yet you came to me first. Why?" Osborn demanded.

"To be honest, your money," Sterns shrugged. "But now that I see you, I believe that my decision was … fortuitous. If you are as powerful as that armour suggests, then our goals became that much easier to attain."

"You have no idea," Osborn grinned.

Sterns watched as Osborn tapped something on the inside of his left arm. Instantly, an eerie green light appeared from the right. Looking that way, Sterns could see dozens, no hundreds of silver spheres all lit from lights above where they sat in rows on shelves. His inspection of the other weapons in the room was interrupted by a device powering up and lifting off of the ground. It was slightly curved downwards and looked to be perfectly designed for someone to stand on while operating it.

"I think Project Sinister is off to a good start," Stern commented. "I assume that you have a private plane?"

"I do," Osborn replied.

"Excellent. In that case, how do you feel about taking a trip to Alaska?" he asked.