Opening Notes
Okay, so, before we get into the chapter I thought I should address some stuff. Namely, I got a review from Visage Vengeance dressing me down for note noting the changes I've made to Harry's appearance for this story at the beginning of the chapter. I...I'm sorry. I just...I didn't consider Harry's new hair color to be all that important. I felt that it was something that needed to be addressed, because when I was pitching this story to a friend before I'd even published any of the chapters, her first question was how Thor being Harry's biological father was going to work when Harry looked so much like James. I spent some time working on how to answer that question before deciding that he had Lily's hair as well as her eyes. (And yes, I know he has other traits inherited from James with regards to physical appearance, and they'll be dealt with, but currently Harry is a malnourished preteen who's just starting puberty so I think it can wait. Though for the sake of full disclosure, I'm fan casting grown up Harry as K.J. Apa, the guy who plays Archie in Riverdale)
And...that was it. I'm sorry but I honestly don't consider the change in appearance to be a big deal. It's not a plot point, nothing is going to happen due to Harry having red hair that wouldn't have happened if he had black hair (aside from occasional jokes about him looking like a Weasley). To me it's incidental. Like how Natasha changes her hair style every movie. Or how everyone but Thor and Hulk have gone through at least one costume change since Avengers 1. It just...is. I'm sorry. (If you're wondering why I addressed Visage Vengeance by name in a chapter when I've never done so before. Simply put Visage Vengeance was the name given by a guest so I can't send them a PM like I usually do. Sorry)
Hope you like the chapter!
"Welcome, to Diagon Alley." Thor said, somewhat grandly, as the Avengers and Jane took in the spectacle before them. Bruce blinked at the large crowds which were bustling through the Alley. The crowd was likely much smaller in number than those usually gathered at Times Square, or even at a reasonably large and popular shopping mall, but by comparison the Alley was much more narrow, channeling the assembled wizards and witches into a solid stream.
"Is it always so crowded?" He asked warily. Due to his condition he was always wary of crowds and new places. It had been a long time since the Hulk had been let out on accident, but all the same he felt it was best to err on the side of caution. Thor frowned thoughtfully.
"The last time I was here it was during a war." He admitted. "So I'm afraid I'm not the best judge."
"It wasn't this crowded when Hagrid brought me last year." Harry told them. "I mean, it was pretty crowded but I don't remember it being quite this crowded." Bruce hummed thoughtfully, a reluctant look on his face. The others caught on.
"Bruce, do you want to leave?" Natasha asked carefully. "I can come with you, keep you company." Bruce looked at the others and managed a weak smile before shaking his head.
"Thanks guys. But I'll be fine." He assured them. He said this partly out of a desire not to be a bother, and partly because, for all that he kept a better lid on it than Tony, he was a scientist and he was deeply curious about the new world being opened up to him. But more than any of those reasons, he wanted to be there for Harry. The two had had a similar upbringing with regards to their guardians. From the sounds of it the Dursleys hadn't been as violent as his father had been, but there was more than one way to abuse a child, and the Dursleys had most definitely done so. And while he knew that Harry had others to support him in the here and now, that he had his dad and Jane and the other Avengers, he wanted to be there and offer his support all the same. And so he would stay. Thor looked at him, then nodded.
"Very well then. First off, we should visit the bank." He said, gesturing towards the end of Diagon Alley. Tony, who'd been scrutinizing Bruce, looked at Thor.
"Wait, is the bank literally as far away from the entrance as possible?" He asked as they started walking, making their way through the crowd. As all of them were dressed in Muggle casual wear they attracted some looks, but without their uniforms on and with Harry firmly sandwiched in a pyramid of his dad, Jane, and Clint and therefore hidden from view, that was all. "Seems inconvenient."
"Makes good tactical sense though." Steve pointed out. "Keep your money away from the easy exit, make them fight their way through the crowds." Thor nodded.
"That is part of it. There's also the structural issues as well." He explained. "Gringotts, the bank, is built on top of a vast network of underground tunnels and caves. Even with magic, it would be unwise to build too much over them." Tony huffed but nodded in acceptance.
The trip to the bank was largely uneventful. The goblins did recognize Thor and, surprisingly, Tony. (The goblins had a proud tradition of making weapons and armor, and kept an eye on Muggle weapon makers that caught their attention). As a result things went by smoothly, Thor taking Harry down to his vault with Jane and most of the Avengers, while Bruce refrained upon being informed of the speed of Gringotts' carts. Tony stayed up with him, deciding to work on getting the gems Ahmanet has given him converted to money and ask about the benefits he'd get from opening a vault (Tony believed heavily in diversifying).
As they were leaving the bank, Harry was stopped by a familiar voice. "Harry!" Harry smiled and waved.
"Ron!" He exclaimed brightly, hurrying up to the gathered Weasleys. Tony blinked as the large family congregated around Harry.
"Cousins of his?" He asked Thor, eyeing the sea of redheads. Natasha snorted.
"We're not all related Tony." She said dryly, elbowing him. Thor chuckled.
"No, they're not cousins of Harry's." He told Tony. "They're just good people."
"How'd you get here?" Ron was demanding. "We tried to go to the Muggles' house to get you but there was a giant storm around the place! Was that you? Why haven't you responded to any of my letters?" Harry cocked his head to the side.
"Letters? What letters?" He asked. This had, to be perfectly honest, been a rather upsetting thing for him earlier in the summer. He hadn't received anything. Not a single letter from Ron or Hermione. The hurt had been pushed to the backseat by the revelations with regards to his dad, but now that he was in front of Ron they were being dragged up again. "You didn't send me any letters!" Ron stared at him.
"I sent you a dozen letters!" He protested. Harry just continued giving him a blank look, which made Ron huff.
"Must have been a problem with Errol. Our owl." He explained at Harry's confused look. "He's really old, so he gets tired and confused a lot. Probably dropped my letters off at the wrong house, or lost them in that storm around your place or something." Harry nodded his acceptance of this, though it didn't explain why he hadn't gotten any letters from Hermione. He didn't voice this thought though, seeing as there wasn't exactly anything Ron could do about it. As these thoughts were running through his mind, Mrs. Weasley came up next to Ron, followed by a tall, balding man that Harry assumed was Mr. Weasley.
"Hello Harry dear, how are you?" Mrs. Weasley asked kindly. Harry smiled at her.
"I'm doing good." He said. And for the first time in his life, outside of his time at Hogwarts, he actually meant it. Life was good. He had a family now, even if he hadn't actually met any of his Asgardian relatives past his dad. He got to spend time with the Avengers on a regular basis. And he'd never have to stay with the Dursleys ever again. Mr. Weasley shook his hand warmly.
"Hello Harry, I'm Arthur. Ron has told us so much about you." Harry blushed slightly, still adjusting to attention that wasn't focused on something he'd done as an infant. Or more accurately, something his mother had done that he'd been the beneficiary of as an infant. Mr. Weasley's eyes darted over the gathering of adults behind Harry, his jaw dropping. "Merlin's beard! Is that Tony Stark?" He exclaimed numbly. Harry blinked, surprised that a wizard had recognized Tony.
"Dad loves Muggles." Ron murmured to Harry. "He's obsessed with them and their inventions." Mrs. Weasley, on the other hand, was examining the group with pursed lips, her maternal instincts demanding to know what Harry was doing coming out of Gringotts with a group of strange adults. Thor saw this and decided to walk up to the assembled redheads, putting his hands on Harry's shoulders and smiling his best smile. Harry smiled up at him before looking back at the Weasleys.
"Ron, this is my dad. Thor Odinson." A loud bang filled the air, and everyone's attention snapped to the source, the Avengers reacting marginally faster than anyone else. They all relaxed upon seeing the source-one of the Twins was covered in soot, holding a small, smoking box. It appeared that his deck of Exploding Snap cards had decided to...well explode in his hands.
"You're joking!" He wheezed as Mrs. Weasley let out a tut and waved her wand, cleaning off the twin's face with a wave of her wand while never taking her eyes off of Thor. Thor chuckled and shook his head.
"He is not, I assure you." He told the now clean twin. "I am the proud father of Harry." He nodded at Ron. "My son tells me that you're one of his closest friends, who helped him stop a great evil this spring. Thank you." Ron turned bright red and nodded, his eyes wide. Thor turned his attention to the Weasley parents. "He has also told me that you sent him gifts last year, on a Christmas in which he expected to receive none. You have my thanks as well for your kindness." Mr. Weasley nodded silently, almost as red as Ron, while Mrs. Weasley studied Thor intently.
"And where were you all this time?" She demanded curtly. Harry flushed.
"Mrs. Weasley..." He started softly, but Thor patted his shoulder.
"It's okay Harry. I did you and your mother a great disservice, and I deserve her scrutiny." He told his son gently before directing his attention to Mrs. Weasley. "I did not know about him into very recently." He confessed frankly. "When I left Earth I did not know that Lily was pregnant. And so I left both her and him, and I will always carry some shame for that." Mrs. Weasley studied him intently, and Thor met her gaze without flinching. Finally she nodded.
"Well, at least you acknowledge that you did wrong. That's more than many do." She said shortly before refocusing her attention on Harry. "So, Harry dear, here to do your school shopping then?" Harry nodded quickly, relieved to be past the confrontation.
"Yep!" He paused, then looked at his list. "Who's Gilderoy Lockhart though?" He asked. "Why do we need so many of his books?" It had been bothering him ever so slightly since he'd received the list. None of the books on last year's list had shared authors. The Twins and Ron groaned at his question, while Harry noticed that Mr. Weasley's smile grew a little fixed and even Percy seemed to be bracing himself for something.
"He's a very brave and accomplished wizard." Mrs. Weasley said, though she was bright red. "I'm surprised his books haven't been used as Defense Against the Dark Arts texts before honestly." She glanced quickly at her family before nodding briskly. "Well it was lovely to see you again Harry, but we've got much to do. We've got to go to our vault." She said hurriedly, gesturing at her family and getting them to move towards the bank. Harry waved at Ron, who was rolling his eyes at his mom, then did a double take. Hiding behind Mrs. Weasley was Ron's little sister Ginny. Apparently she'd been there the whole time without him realizing it. She looked at him over her shoulder and gave him a little wave before quickly whirling around. Harry waved back, a little bemused.
"Big family." Steve remarked as the doors to Gringotts closed behind the Weasleys. Thor nodded.
"With hearts to match."
"I liked the dad." Tony interjected.
"You just like him because he's the first human here to recognize you." Natasha said dryly, rolling her eyes.
"And?" Tony asked with a smirk. Natasha shook her head as they headed back up Diagon Alley.
The next hour or so was rather uneventful as they worked their way through the shops. Harry got some new robes while Tony and Clint critiqued the old fashioned apparel, trying to figure out the practicality of eschewing modern dress in favor of robes. When they went to the Apothecary so Harry could stock up on potions ingredients however, Tony stopped mocking, instead darting from barrel to barrel, dragging Bruce behind him as the scientists discussed the properties of the various ingredients, some familiar to them and others entirely unique to the Magical community. Tony ended up buying two of everything, earning him a bag of ingredients far larger than Harry's, for testing back at the Tower. Steve had left halfway through their visit, his enhanced senses overwhelmed by the smells of the Apothecary, and they found him and Natasha perusing the Quidditch shop, admiring the sleekness of the brooms on display and inspecting the gear. Harry stopped at the Owl Emporium to get some treats for Hedwig, and the others had to forcibly stop Tony from buying an owl for everyone and ten more for testing.
Eventually they came to their last stop of the day, Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore. Earlier the Avengers had been rather distracted, trying to take in everything at once. Even Clint and Natasha had been more focused on getting the general layout of the shopping district than in taking in the details. Now though, having had time to adjust, they discovered the source of the large crowd. There was a truly massive line coming out of the bookstore, made up largely of middle aged women. Clint's eyes caught the reason first, noting a poster on the window obscured by the crowd. He groaned before reading aloud. "Gilderoy Lockhart will be signing copies of his autobiography Magical Me today, 12:40 PM to 4:30 PM."
"Maybe we should come back tomorrow?" Bruce suggested, eying the crowd tensely. "Or go wander around regular London until he leaves?"
"Seems silly to leave when we've only got one store left to go." Tony countered. Bruce nodded his reluctant agreement to this point. Natasha examined the crowd.
"Looks like this Lockhart person is a fast writer." She said carefully. "The line's big but it's moving fairly quickly." She shrugged. "If we don't get held up too badly we should be able to get in and out in ten minutes or so." Harry quickly scanned his book list.
"Magical Me isn't on here." He told the adults. "We don't even have to wait in line, we just have to get past them." There was a moment as they considered their options. Bruce sighed.
"Might as well." He said with a shrug. That decided it for the others, and the group made their way through the crowd and into the bookstore, elbowing past the gathered autograph seekers. Harry grabbed the Standard Book of Spells Grade 2 from off of a table, and was about to head deeper into the shelves to look for the Lockhart books when a man with a large camera that sent up clouds of purple smoke stepped on Tony's foot.
"Move over, this is for the Daily Prophet!" The man snarled at Tony.
"The Daily what?" Tony asked irritably. Lockhart heard him. He looked up, his eyes settling on the source of the disturbance for a second before his eyes slid on across the room. He saw Harry, and stared. Then he leapt to his feet and practically shouted,
"It can't be Harry Potter?" The crowd parted, excited whispering filling the air, and before even Thor could react Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. Thor froze as this wizard he'd never met used his son for a photo op, torn between the desire to drag his son away and not wanting to make a bigger scene. Harry was clearly unhappy with his situation, but he also didn't appear to be in any physical danger and Thor didn't want to cause his son further aggravation.
The same debate ran through the minds of the Avengers as they watched events unfold. They, and the majority of the Weasley family who were in the line, a platinum blonde boy, and a young girl with very bushy hair were islands of disapproval in a sea of glee as the assembled public gawked at Harry and Lockhart and applauded the man's announcement that he would be teaching at Hogwarts the upcoming year. "Something's not right." Tony said slowly, folding his arms and leaning against a display table.
"You mean besides the fact that all these people seem to love this arrogant jerk?" Jane muttered, glaring daggers at the jerk in question. Between his obvious sense of pride in himself and his disregard for Harry's obvious discomfort, the blonde wizard had made his way into Jane's 'to punch list'. Tony shrugged.
"There's that. But also, look at this crowd." He waved at the full to bursting shop. "I've seen less full Stephen King signings. The man clearly isn't hurting for publicity. And he clearly loves the spotlight. And yet he dragged Harry into full view with him." Clint shrugged.
"So? People love celebrities getting together." Tony frowned thoughtfully.
"Yeah but look around." He waved his hand at the posters of Lockhart's beaming face, and at the piles of his books. "Who puts their face on everything they make? Especially books about fighting monsters. Look at these covers, no monsters, just him looking like he's a model, not some fighting hero. Speaking as a former celebrity narcissist..." Steve snorted.
"Former?" He asked weakly. Tony pointedly ignored him and continued.
"I've been to lots of conferences and conventions and stuff. And whenever I was in the spotlight, I never pulled someone up there with me if I didn't have to. And I never put my face on this much stuff. This guy's acting like Justin Hammer did." Natasha made a sudden noise of understanding, and Clint arched an eyebrow, while Steve and Bruce just looked confused. "Former competitor of mine, he's in jail now." Tony explained as Harry finally got away from Lockhart only to be accosted by the bushy haired girl. "Point is, the man was ludicrously flashy, even by my standards, and whenever he did anything he wanted as many big names up there with him as possible. Because his products were garbage. He made conventional weapons just fine, but anytime he and his people tried to innovate..." he shook his head with a snort. "The point is, Hammer tried desperately to get every piece of publicity he could, to boost everything, because he knew that he wasn't going to get by on substance alone. This guy, what he just pulled with Harry? That felt like a desperation move."
On the opposite side of the bookshop, Harry wasn't pondering the psychology of Gilderoy Lockhart. He rather wanted to do his best to forget the last three minutes in fact, and after a forceful hug from Hermione he dropped his free Lockhart books into Ginny's cauldron. "I'll buy my own." He muttered.
"Bet you loved that, didn't you Potter?" Sneered an unfortunately familiar voice. Harry straightened up as he and Hermione turned to look at Draco Malfoy. "Famous Harry Potter, can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."
"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" Ginny snapped. Harry realized that it was the first time she'd ever spoken in front of him.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Draco drawled, looking down at Ginny, who quivered angrily, her face scarlet, as Ron made his way to the cluster of preteens. "Two Weasley's in a shop?" Malfoy exclaimed with blatantly false surprise. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all this." Ron lunged forward, only barely restrained by Harry and Hermione.
"Ron, what are you doing?" Mr. Weasley asked as he and the Twins pushed through the crowd towards them. "It's too crowded in here, lets go wait outside..."
"Well well well. Arthur Weasley." A casually arrogant voice drawled. Mr. Weasley went stiff.
"Lucius." He said coldly, staring at the tall man, who was dressed in fine robes and leaning lightly on a cane.
"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear." Mr. Malfoy said with a slight smirk. "All those raids...I hope they're paying you overtime for it." He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted a very old and battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, turning it over in his hands. "Obviously not." He said with a chuckle. "Dear me, what's the point in being a disgrace to wizards if they don't even pay you well for it?" Mr. Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Hermione, before he could say anything in response though, a deep voice cut through.
"Ah, Lucius." Thor said calmly, placing his hand protectively on Harry's shoulder. "I haven't seen you in quite some time." Lucius' face tightened and lost some of its color. He cleared his throat, eyes darting from Thor to Harry and back again.
"Prince Thor. I did not expect to see you amongst wizards again in my lifetime. To what do we owe the honor of your presence?"
"Same as you actually." Thor said, nodding at Draco, who was staring at Thor with obvious shock. "Taking my son school shopping." Lucius' eyes widened marginally.
"Your son." He repeated carefully, looking at Harry once more. "I see. Well then, I don't wish to hold you up any further." He carefully put Ginny's book back into her cauldron, nodding at Thor carefully. "Good day to you Prince Thor." He turned and walked briskly away, one hand on Draco's shoulder as he guided him away. Thor watched him leave, a look of distaste on his face.
Mr. Weasley looked at Thor in surprise. "I didn't know you knew Lucius Malfoy." He said. Thor shrugged.
"We met once, halfway through my courtship with Lily." He told him. "He tried to persuade me of the righteousness of the Death Eater's cause, that I should help Voldemort. I declined. Strongly." He chuckled. "I suppose I made an impression." Mr. Weasley chuckled as well, remembering the emotions that the normally controlled Lucius had allowed to show on his face.
"It certainly looks that way." He agreed, hefting Ginny's cauldron as the group headed out of the bookshop, the Avengers, the Grangers, and the other Weasleys joining them as they exited.
Author's Notes
Thank you for reading everybody!
Don't have a whole lot to say about this chapter. Fairly straightforward and basic I think. I know the last two chapters didn't flow super well, I probably should have split up chapter six into at least two chapters. Likewise, I could have found a better way to transition to Rhodey's encounter with the Mandarin. So I'm trying to be more concise and centered. Hope it worked!