What's this? Me, actually posting another chapter of a fanfic? Who am i?

Seriously, it's been too long. I'm sorry, life and the pandemic got in the way. I won't promise that I'll update soon, but I will start on another chapter right away. So know that even if months pass that I'm still working on this fic, albeit very slowly.

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this next instalment of The Maillard Reaction!

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Harry felt a lump rise in his throat. What was Tony doing? He couldn't mean-

Tony walked him forwards towards the door and pushed the door open with his other hand. Harry's jaw dropped. The room behind the door was huge! It was easily the size of the whole gryffindor common room.

"Now, I know it's a little basic right now, but we've been rushing to finish it as soon as possible so that we could get you out of the med bay." Came Tony's voice from behind his ear.

"Basic?" Harry exclaimed, "This-this is far too much. I can't accept this. This must have cost a-"

"Oi!" Tony interrupted him, put his hand on Harry's shoulder and span him around to face him. "You are worth every cent squirt. Besides, i'm a billionaire. This wasn't even a drop in the ocean. I have the money so I spend it on those that I like, and newsflash kid, you're on that list. Okay?"

Harry nodded, the lump in his throat stopping him from being able to speak. He felt so guilty that Tony had gone through all of this trouble for him. He would have been fine in that room from before. Harry didn't know what else to say without sounding ungrateful.

The room was beautiful. It was enormous, but somehow still cosy. Harry was slightly confused though, if this was supposed to be his bedroom, where was he to sleep? There wasn't a bed in the room, although there was a sofa. At least the sofa looked like it would be reasonably comfortable.

"So this is your main room." Tony said, "It's got your tv and gaming consoles. There's a sort of study space over there, not that you have anything to use it for yet. But it's there if you ever want to use it. Bathroom is through that door on the right and the bedroom is on the left there."

Wait, what? This was all the equivalent of a humongous flat! He couldn't quite process that this was all for him. He took a shaky step forwards. Harry was pretty sure that Tony was able to read the complete and utter shock on his face for what it was. Tony squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm going to let you explore and get acquainted with your new rooms. Let Jarvis know if there was anything in particular that we've missed and we'll get it for you." The man said, and then he was gone.

Harry numbly made his way around the sofa and towards the doors on the other side of the room. He put his hand on the door, intending to open it. He stood there, frozen for what was probably a couple of minutes, but felt like forever. Harry removed his hand from the door. It just all seemed so unreal. They wanted him to stay. They had put all this effort into making him a flat. They didn't even really know him yet!

Harry ended up slowly pushing the door open with his foot. It was somehow easier to do it with his foot than to push the door with his hand. Behind it was a room that was roughly the size of his dorm room, but with only the one bed, instead of five. Numbly, Harry walked over to the bed and sat down. How could this be real?

Harry was glad that Tony had left him to explore by himself. It would have been impossible for Harry to keep his emotions buried, and he'd already burdened Tony with enough.

How was this his life?

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Tony was sprawled out on the sofa in the communal living space, tablet in hand, scrolling through the emails that Pepper had forwarded to him. He may have given her the CEO role, but that didn't stop all of the work. He would rather be down in his workshop, but it would be easier for Harry to find him if he wasn't sequestered down there.

Tony blinked. How had he become so domesticated so fast? The kid had wormed his way past all of Tony's walls with ease. There was no reason for Tony to have gotten so attached, yet he had fallen so easily into the routine of life with the kid. Not that there had been much routine, with the kid being in and out of the med bay.

Tony's musing was interrupted by his least favourite person currently on this planet.

"What do you want Loki?" Tony said, deliberately not looking up from his tablet.

"Where is the child?"

Tony smirked. He hadn't told anyone that Harry was being moved today, least of all Loki.

"Lost him, have you?" Tony looked up and made eye contact with the god. It felt so good to have the upper hand in this situation. Loki rolled his eyes.

"I intend to begin our lessons today." Loki replied. The superiority in the tricksters voice was grating.

"How wonderful." Tony deadpanned. Oh how Tony wished he could just punch him. Instead, Tony took the higher road and got Jarvis to let Harry know.

It was only a couple of minutes later that Harry appeared, and Tony could tell that the kid had been crying. Had he really gone that overboard with the rooms? Pepper had stopped his craziest ideas from happening, so they were nothing like it would have been without her oversight.

Then again, Harry had been through a lot. He hadn't said anything about his home life, which in and of itself said everything Tony needed to know about it. Having someone actually provide seem to be novel to the kid, and it just made Tony want to keep Loki at least a planet away.

But that didn't seem to be what the kid wanted. Tony stood up suddenly, startling Harry a little.

"Well I'm going to be in my lab." He declared. Loki might be in his tower, but that didn't mean he had to actually see him.

As soon as he was out of earshot he spoke again, "Jar-"

"I will notify you if anything goes awry sir."

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Harry wrung his hands. He wanted his magic back, but he was finding this a lot more difficult than he had thought it would be.

"Calm yourself." Loki said, interrupting Harry's thoughts, "Getting frustrated will only hinder your progress. Try again."

Harry looked back down at the ball on the table. Loki was just asking him to light the ball. It should have been like using a Lumos charm, right? Wrong. When he tried using that line of thought the orb had exploded. Loki hadn't seemed fazed. He just conjured another and told him to try again. That had been an hour ago, and Harry had made very little progress in that time, three more balls had met the same fate as the first.

"Let us try this a different way." Loki murmured after yet another failed attempt. "Close your eyes."

Harry obeyed. He felt Loki take a hold of his hands and was tempted to open his eyes again, but resisted the urge. A few seconds later he felt a warmth flow through him. His eyes flew open.

Loki was smirking. "You felt that then. Close your eyes and concentrate on that flow, feel for its pathways."

He did. The warm ran from his fingertips to his arms and up into his chest, where he could feel it the strongest. Why was that? As he concentrated on the feeling, trying to figure it out that warmth surged, this time outwards.

"There we go, young one. That is your magic. It is a physical flow through our bodies. Try that again."

Harry felt Loki let go of his hands and place something cool and round into his hands. It must be another orb, but Harry didn't dare open his eyes and lose this feeling, his awareness of that warmth. It had faded when Loki had let go, but it was still there. He concentrated, willing it to flow out again.

"Good!" Loki sounded pleased.

Harry opened his eyes and the light spluttered out. He had done it! Harry felt tears well in his eyes. His magic was still there. He was still a wizard.

Sure, he wasn't very good at using it like this, but the orb hadn't exploded this time! Harry looked up at Loki, who still was wearing that smirk, but there was a new look in his eyes that Harry couldn't quite decipher.

"That is all for today, young one."

Loki waved his hands and a box appeared between them. He placed it on the table and pushed it towards Harry.

"Practice this whenever you have a spare moment. The more in tune you are with your magic's flow the easier the next lesson will be."

"Thank you so much sir." Harry said, trying hard to keep the emotions out of his voice. He reached over and opened the box. It was full of other orbs, just like the one he was holding.

"Just in case." Loki said with a wink, causing Harry to laugh.

This might be hard, but at least he wasn't alone.

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Please review and let me know what you think!

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