7.

Harry looked up as a ginger woman in a business suit came into the lab. He dropped the Protego he was holding, and a small pipe flew at him, hitting him in the chest. Harry hardly noticed, his eyes fixed on the woman and her long red hair. All of the air seemed to have been sucked from the room.

"Tony!" She called. "I've been buzzing you, didn't you hear the intercom?" She glanced at Harry. "Have you been down here all day?"

Harry nodded mutely.

"Pepper Potts." The woman said, holding her hand out to Harry. Harry didn't take it, staring at her as he noticed her eyes were a bright green.

"Er, Harry?" Tony said.

"Sorry." Harry shook his head and took Pepper's hand. "H-Harry. Potter."

"You alright?" Bruce asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Fine." Harry replied.

"Steve told me you abducted Harry early this morning, he was getting worried he hadn't seen any of you." Pepper said.

"We were working." Tony said defensively.

"Well, go upstairs. The others are ordering pizza." Pepper commanded. She turned to Harry. "You shouldn't let him keep you down here this long. You could at least have stopped for lunch."

"Sorry." Harry said quietly. "I'll see you upstairs then Tony." He said, and apparated away to his room before anyone could stop him, collapsing onto the bed. He took a deep shuddering breath. So Pepper Potts looked like his mother.

There was a knock at the door, and Harry jumped. "Come in."

Steve poked his head into the room. "Jarvis told me you were in here. We're ordering pizza if you're hungry."

"Right." Harry nodded, running his hands through his hair.

Steve stepped into the room. "You okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Pizza sounds great." Harry attempted a smile, and followed Steve out the door.

"So, you're British, huh?" Steve said as they walked down the long corridor.

Harry nodded. "Born and raised."

"What brought you over to the States?"

"I fancied a break." Harry replied as they stepped into the lift.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "A break?"

Harry just nodded and closed his eyes as the lift door slid shut and they began to move, gripping the metal bar behind him tightly.

"So, how was the gym?" Harry asked, desperate for something to take his mind off the fact that he was trapped in a small metal box that was carrying him hundreds of metres above the ground. Seeing Miss. Potts had already rattled him.

"Fine." Steve replied, and Harry got the impression he was giving him a strange look.

"Great."

"Are you sure you're-"

At that moment, the lift doors pinged open, and Harry stepped out quickly, breathing deeply. "I'm fine." He shrugged. He glanced at a clock on the wall, and was surprised to see it was already eight o'clock.

Natasha was sat at the island as Clint made himself a cup of coffee from the coffee machine, a pile of takeaway menus lying on the side. Harry noticed he had a pair of discrete hearing aids in as he turned to reach for a mug.

Thor was stood off to one side, peering at one of the menus, and Harry walked up to him. He placed his fists over his heart and gave a small bow. "Ben Trovato, mighty Thor."

The Asgardian looked surprised. "Well met, Galdr." He replied, returning the bow. "I was not aware Midgardians still used such greetings."

"They don't usually." Harry replied. "But you and your brother Loki have always been idols of mine."

Thor gave a deep, booming laugh. "That is good to know." He reached out and shook Harry's hand. "But we have battled together, no such formalities are necessary. I would be honoured to call you a friend."

"And I you." Harry replied, smiling at the god.

At that moment, Tony emerged from the lift with Pepper.

"Point Break." Tony nodded at Thor.

"Stark."

"Why'd you rush off on us Gandalf?" Tony asked Harry.

"Gandalf?"

Tony shrugged. "You're a wizard, aren't you?"

Harry shook his head.

"Is Bruce coming up?" Natasha asked.

"He took the stairs." Pepper replied, dropping her handbag on the island.

Natasha nodded and held out a takeaway menu to Harry, frowning slightly. Harry took the menu without a word, then moved away from Pepper, his throat constricting painfully.

Pepper and Natasha were obviously good friends, and stood around chatting as the men chose pizzas from the takeaway menu.

Tony had Jarvis call the delivery service, and twenty minutes later, they were sat in the common room, various boxes spread across the coffee table.

"So Potter, how come I can't find you anywhere?" Tony sad, taking a large slice of pepperoni.

"Come again?"

"The only records I could find for a Harry Potter are school records from the age of four to ten." Tony said.

"You've been stalking me?"

Tony shrugged. "I'd call it researching."

Harry laughed. "Well, I lived with my aunt and uncle. I left mug-normal schools after year 6 and went to a boarding school for seven years."

"Magic school." Clint said.

"Magic school." Harry nodded. "Wizards went into hiding around the 1690s, so you won't be able to find any of my records as a baby or teenager."

"Salem witch trials." Steve nodded.

"But why are there no other records?" Tony continued, looking frustrated. "Doctor's reports, a birth record, Facebook posts, you don't even have a freaking passport!"

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Well, there's no doctor's reports because I'd never been to a doctor until I went to school."

"You'd never gone to the doctor's?" Pepper said, looking scandalised

Harry just shrugged and grabbed a piece of margarita pizza.

Bruce leant forwards. "You said you went to university." He turned to Tony. "Surely there's record of that?"

The billionaire shook his head. "Nope. There were no Harry Potters studying engineering at Cambridge university."

"So you think I'm lying?" Harry asked.

"We'll you've definitely studied engineering." Tony shrugged. "Up in the lab was evidence enough of that."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, I have. I was at Cambridge for three years and got a PhD from it." He sighed. "I enrolled as James Evans. So there won't be any Harry Potters."

Steve frowned. "Why did you change your name?"

"I... got a lot of attention as Harry Potter." Harry replied, absently scratching the scar on his forehead. "My middle name is James, so I went with that, and my mother's maiden name was Evans, and so I figured it would be honouring her to use her muggle name in a muggle uni. Plus, I knew it would annoy my aunt."

"Muggle?" Clint asked.

"It means somebody without magic, like you guys." Harry explained.

"Why would you using your mother's name annoy your aunt?" Steve asked.

Harry swallowed his mouthful of pizza. "She was my mum's sister, and would have hated someone like me having her name."

Bruce frowned. "Someone like you?"

"I believe they often used words such as weirdo and freak." Harry shrugged.

Steve frowned. "Because of your magic?"

Harry shrugged again. "Probably." He shifted slightly, not comfortable with the direction this conversation was going. "I always knew they didn't like me. It can't have helped that I kept shorting out the toaster once I turned nine." He looked over at Tony and Bruce. "Have you worked out a way to stop that happening?"

Tony shook his head. "Your magic doesn't work like any form of energy I've ever encountered. We can't shield things against it if I don't know what it is we're shielding against. If you come back down to the lab a couple more times, we'll work it out. You had some good theories about shielding technology."

"As long as you stop to eat." Pepper frowned.

"I know there's runes you can use to dampen magic in certain areas. Like, my friend had some around her TV and stuff at home." He said thoughtfully. "I don't know how they work though." Harry noticed that Natasha was peering at him, not having been fooled by his evading of the question.

"We're getting closer to working out what the magic actually is." Bruce said. "Once we sort that out it'll be easier to make some sort of protection."

"Just as long as I don't accidentally stop your heart before then." Harry frowned, tapping his chest and and looking at Tony.

Tony waved a hand. "I'll be fine."

Harry leant forwards and grabbed a bottle of beer off the table, tapping it with his wand to take off the top.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Pepper said, and Harry froze with the drink halfway to his mouth, turning to look at her. "Put that down!"

"What? Why?"

"You know perfectly well why, young man!" Pepper glared.

Harry felt his face heat up, and Clint sniggered. "I'm old enough to drink!" He gasped.

Pepper shook her head. "Maybe your relatives let you drink, but not in my house."

"Technically-" Tony began.

Pepper didn't even look at him. "Be quiet Tony." She shook her head again and pointed at the table. "No. Not until you're of age."

"But I am!"

The glare she sent him appealed to his inner eight-year-old, and forced him to put the bottle down.

"Steve, I would expect this from Tony, but not you. You can't give minors alcohol."

Steve looked confused. "Sorry ma'am."

"But I'm not a minor!" Harry exclaimed, and Clint burst out laughing. "I'm twenty!

"Pardon?" Pepper said.

"I'm twenty years old." Harry repeated, sounding exasperated.

Pepper frowned. "Harry, please don't lie to me."

"I'm not!"

"He's not." Clint laughed.

"Really? Oh my goodness, Harry I'm so sorry!" Pepper turned to Tony. "Why didn't you tell me before I made a complete fool of myself?"

"Well, if you remember correctly, when I tried to speak-"

"Thank you, Tony." Pepper interrupted.

"That happened." Tony muttered.

"I'm so sorry Harry." Pepper said, reaching out and placing a hand on his forearm. "Although you're still not old enough to drink."

"You what?"

Pepper gave him a stern look. "You have to be twenty-one, Harry."

Harry pulled a face. "Guidelines."

Pepper reached out and pulled the beer bottle from his hand. "You can have a drink on your twenty-first birthday, and not a day before young man."

"You're kidding?"

"Not at all." Pepper replied.

"You realise most British teenagers generally start drinking before they're 14, right?" Harry floundered and looked to Tony for help as Clint laughed, but the man just shrugged, looking a little helpless. "Fine." Harry huffed. He crossed his arms petulantly. "So, is this like your superhero base? Do you live here?"

Thor shook his head. "My presence is required on Asgard."

Bruce laughed. "Until a few days ago I was living in Calcutta."

"We don't normally stay together." Natasha explained.

"That can change." Tony replied, and everyone looked at him. "We're getting the builders in for repairs. You can each get a floor. The tower can become the avengers' headquarters."

"That could work." Steve said.

"Even if we don't stay here permanently it would be good to have an HQ." Natasha said thoughtfully.

Harry frowned. "How do you work together as a superhero team if one member's living in India, and another's on another world?"

"The avengers' initiative was only started recently." Steve said. "We've only known each other a short period of time. But we're going to develop it. Especially if we start living here." He gestured at the room. "We'll need to train together to be able to work as a team when we're needed."

"You're expecting another alien invasion?" Harry laughed.

Tony shrugged. "Next time it might not be aliens, but you can bet we'll be needed."

"I know the feeling." Harry said bitterly.

Clint looked at him questioningly.

"Nutter that tried to kill me?" Harry said, pointing at his scar. "Came back a couple of times. Everyone expected me to be the one to finish him off because I'd done it before."

"What do you mean 'done it before'?" Steve asked.

"You know the 'abracadabra' curse?" Harry said.

Clint nodded. "Kills you."

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "The nutter, Lord Voldemort, tried to use it on me, but it kind of... backfired, and he disappeared."

"He died?" Bruce asked.

Harry pulled a face. "Kind of."

"What kind of name is Lord Voldemort?" Tony scoffed.

"His real name was Tom Riddle Junior, but he hated the name and everything it stood for: His father was a muggle who was only with his mother because she dosed him with love potions." Harry explained. "He changed his name and started gathering followers, and terrorised the wizarding world for around ten years."

"You said he came back more than once." Natasha said.

Harry nodded. "I stopped him twice, but end of my fourth year he got a body again. He...I..." His throat tightened and he pulled his sleeve down over the scar on his arm. "Well, then the chaos started." Harry ran a hand through his hair. "It was a mess. A lot of people died during that year. You remember Brockdale bridge in London?"

"The one that collapsed?" Tony nodded. "Something to do with corroded expansion joints on a bridge that was less than a decade old."

Harry shook his head. "That was Riddle."

Tony leant back on the sofa. "Shit."

"Yup." Harry replied. "The hurricanes a few years back, that was him and his followers too."

"How do people cause hurricanes?" Steve asked.

Harry smiled kindly at him. "Magic."

"Right."

Bruce was still frowning. "What did you mean by he 'kind of' died?"

"He... well basically, he split his soul, and stored fragments of it in various containers so he could live forever."

"Split his soul?" Natasha repeated, looking sick.

Harry nodded. "Yup."

"Sorry I asked." Bruce said.

"I left school after my fifth year to track down the containers." Harry said.

"So you're a high school drop-out too." Tony grinned.

Harry laughed. "I mean technically I left normal school at eleven."

Tony gaped at him. "How do you know, like, anything?"

"They're these things called private tutors." Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm not completely thick, I mean, PhD anyone?"

Tony grinned at Bruce. "How many PhDs have you got again Doc?"

Bruce shifted uncomfortably. "Six?"

"Six?" Harry repeated. "Do you even have a life? Shit, sorry, that came out way harsher than I meant."

Bruce smiled. "It's fine, I don't, really."

"Compensating for something?" Harry smirked, and Clint laughed. "How old are you?" Harry said. "That's like twenty years just of PhDs. No wonder you have anger issues. I'd be ready to murder someone if I was in school that long."

Natasha snorted, and that set off Clint, Tony and Steve.

Bruce just smiled and shrugged. "I'm not sure you can really call the... other guy 'anger issues'. I'm dangerous."

To Bruce's surprise, Harry just rolled his eyes. "You would have gotten along so well with my uncle."

Bruce frowned questioningly.

"He had a... furry little problem." Harry replied.

"What, did he have a badly behaved dog or something?" Clint snorted.

Harry smiled sadly. "Something like that." He grabbed another piece of pizza. "Wait, doesn't that make you like, Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Bruce Banner?"

Bruce laughed. "I think one'll do it."

Harry grinned. "Sure. So, when's Loki going?"

"He shall return with me to Asgard tomorrow." Thor replied.

"Can I talk to him before he goes?" Harry asked hopefully.

Thor peered at him. "Of course. Though I am curious as to why a Midgardian Galdr would wish to speak with my brother?"

"He's a god of magic." Harry replied.

Pepper laughed. "Somehow I feel like there's more to it than that."

"Why does everybody always think I'm up to something?"

A/N: I just wanted to mention that yes the scene in Tony's lab in the previous chapter was heavily influenced by the same scene in Stargon1's 'Heroes Assemble'. I tried not to copy it but honestly their fic is incredible and I found that particular scene (is it a scene in a story? Whatever it's called) brilliantly hilarious and had to include it in my own fic. If you haven't already you should check out Heroes Assemble - it was that fic that made me want to write this and so a lot of my earlier chapters are influenced by it - I really hope it doesn't seem like I've just copied it, and what I have written out already definitely goes in a different direction than Stargon1 went, but early on they do seem pretty similar.
Another thing I wanted to say is that I do have most of the story planned out if not prewritten, so if something seems OOC or unexplained chances are I'll explain it in a chapter or two rather than just spoon-feed all the information and characterisation in one go - personally think this is more realistic and makes a better story, but I understand that it's frustrating when you only read a single chapter at a time.
Hope you guys are enjoying this, and sorry I take so long to update - I have no excuses other than laziness, school and a general lack of organisation. If you don't like the story then I won't be offended if you stop reading - different people have different tastes in literature. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Feel like I shouldn't be calling fanfic literature but you know what I mean.