Ahmanet blinked and cocked her head to the side. "Oh, hello. I'm Ahmanet. Do you have summer school as well?" The blonde shook her head with a small snort.

"No, I just have some friends who do." She said, an air of smug amusement to her tone. "As for you though...I've never seen you before. What on earth did you do to get sentenced to summer school the minute you arrived?" Ahmanet gave a slight shrug, recalling the line Lorraine had given her.

"I am an immigrant, recently arrived from Egypt." She recited. "This is a way for me to catch up and adjust to the American education system." Emma's lips twitched, as though fighting a smile. Her response had been a bit wooden Ahmanet supposed, she'd have to work on that in the future. But the blonde seemed more amused than suspicious, so no harm done for the moment. Still, it would pay to be cautious in the future, practice the lines in front of a mirror like she'd done when feigning happiness at her half-brother's birth. She hadn't realized that this summer school was generally a punishment though, she'd have to have words with Lorraine about that.

"Well, in that case Miss Ahmanet, would you like a guide?" Emma asked, waving at the school around them. "In general I think trying to find your way through a new place with just a map is more difficult than it should be, and my friends won't be out for a while yet." Ahmanet blinked, surprised, then nodded.

"That would be nice, thank you." She said politely. Emma gave a smile. It was, for the most part, a perfectly normal and unsuspicious smile, but there was a hint of triumph to it that, while well hidden, Ahmanet recognized from her own reflection. There wasn't any obvious malice, but still, she'd have to keep an eye on this blonde.

OoOoOoOoO

Avengers Tower

Harry covered his eyes with an arm, blinking rapidly. He'd been sitting on the landing pad of the Tower, closer to the sitting room but not quite inside, waiting for his father to return. As such he was very close to the pillar of rainbow light that was the bifrost when it made contact, burning a runic patch into the landing pad. A very specific, specially reinforced and already burned portion of the pad, designed specifically to let Thor return directly from Asgard without destroying the landing pad. It had taken Tony a lot of trial and error to get it that durable (his family's complex of warehouses upstate was currently full of broken concrete covered in burned runes) but everyone was reasonably sure that it'd work out.

As Thor strode out of the light his face was drawn, marred by concern and indecision, but he quickly brightened as his son ran to him. "Harry! How was the flight back from London?" He asked, throwing his arm (gently) around his young son and leading him inside, carefully keeping the fidgety twelve year old away from the ledges (he'd have to talk to Tony about whether or not guard rails would be feasible).

"It was fine." Harry said with a shrug. Nothing special had happened, aside from a minor mess when Jane had accidentally knocked over his stack of books in her excitement to study a wizarding textbook. That's where she was currently actually, set up in Thor's suite pouring over Harry's first year textbooks. He didn't need them anymore, aside from A History of Magic, and the entry level stuff was probably better anyway, so she was going at them with a highlighter and stack of sticky notes. "How's Asgard? Can I visit it soon?" Thor nodded with a slight smile.

"Very soon. Over the winter perhaps. Hogwarts still lets out in December I presume?" Harry nodded quickly and Thor chuckled. "Then it's settled. I will take you to visit your grandparents over Yule." He paused, then carefully added "And perhaps your Uncle too, at least briefly." Harry blinked in surprise.

"Really?" He asked. Thor let out a conflicted huff as they entered the sitting room.

"Perhaps. I was given reason to question my perceptions of him. He seems...well enough to talk to you at the very least. He might gain release sooner than I expected." When Loki would be allowed to return to Midgard, if the Sons of Odin would ever fight together again, were different questions, but not ones Harry needed to worry about.

"Did you get the business you needed to take care of done?" Harry asked as they headed for the elevators. Thor nodded.

"I did. I'll have to tell the others about it, but for now it's behind us, and there's no longer any danger." He paused. "Harry, from what I overheard, you have had dealings with the Malfoy boy before?" Harry scowled and nodded shortly.

"He's a bully and a prat and I hate him." He said shortly. Thor blinked, a little surprised at the vehemence in his son's voice, given how kind and even tempered Harry usually behaved, but nodded.

"Given what little I've seen of his father, that does not surprise me." He said. Harry frowned.

"I heard you telling Mr. Weasley that you'd met Malfoy's dad before. He tried to recruit you for something?" Harry hadn't been overly paying attention, he'd been talking to Hermione and Ginny, and then Clint had slid over to make sure everything was okay. Thor grimaced.

"Yes, Lucius Malfoy was a rather high ranking member of Voldemort's army, the Death Eaters." Harry blinked.

"Wait, really? Mr. Malfoy is evil?" He said in surprise. "A bad guy, like the ones you and the others fight?" Thor cocked his head to the side, considering the point.

"More or less I suppose." He admitted, having never thought about it in those particular terms. "Given that he was walking about Diagon Alley unhindered, I assume he feigned reformation. Which is why I bring this up." He looked down at his son seriously. "Harry, the business I was attending to was that Clint and Natasha caught Lucius Malfoy attempting to sneak a dangerous artifact into Hogwarts. I don't know why he did this, or why he felt safe to do so when his own son attends the school, but be on your guard, okay?" He didn't like having to warn his young son about danger in his school, but he liked the idea of sending him unaware even less. Lucius might not have the weapon he'd intended to use, but without knowing the man's motivations he had no way of knowing if he had a backup plan to the horcrux or not. Harry looked a little crestfallen at the news that the upcoming year might be dangerous, but he nodded.

"Can't be worse than last year." He said with forced brightness.

"This time you will have aid beyond your friends." Thor told him, attempting to cheer him. "Simply say the name Heimdall and you will have the attention of the guardian of Asgard. He will make sure that I, or one of my friends, comes to aid you." Harry brightened at that, relieved. He had never truly wanted to be in danger it was just that, well, none of the adults would listen to him. The knowledge that he'd have the option to get adults who would listen to him to come help was a big relief. Thor himself paused. It occurred to him that he hadn't actually told Sif or the Warriors about Harry. His mother or father might have mentioned their grandson, but they might not. He'd have to take care of that later. For now, he just wanted to spend time with his son and with his lover.

To his surprise however, it wasn't just Jane he found in his living room, but Tony, Steve, and Clint as well, the three looking over a pair of maps, one paper and the other a hologram, both of Scotland. "What are you doing?" Thor asked, noting that Harry seemed unsurprised to see them, which suggested that they'd been there for a while.

"Trying to find the kid's school." Tony said, waving a hand and moving the holographic map. "We've partially mapped out the train line, but without an end point it's tricky." Steve was examining the paper map, which was currently dotted in small red Xs. He'd spent a decent amount of time in the UK back in World War Two, and was marking off viable spots Tony suggested that he'd been to personally and knew didn't have a magic castle school. Clint was offering up suggestions based on his knowledge from occasional missions to the region for SHIELD, but given the way he was sitting on the top of the couch with a beer he seemed mostly to be there because he was bored. For her part Jane was studying A History of Magic, though if that was her looking for clues for Tony and Steve's project or for her own separate thing was up for debate.

"There's a really big lake and a huge forest nearby." Harry offered up, sitting between Jane and the arm or the couch that Clint didn't have his feet on. "The lake's pretty deep too, there's a giant squid living in it." Tony blinked a few times at that, then shook his head.

"Don't ask how, the answer's probably just 'a wizard did it'." He muttered to himself. "Thanks kid, that narrows it down a bit." Thor leaned over, examining the map, then pressed his finger to a spot on the hologram.

"Hogwarts is here." He said finally, pointing at the ruins of a castle. "I've not seen it with non magical eyes, but I assume that's what it's enchanted to look like to prevent prying eyes." Tony huffed.

"Was hoping that wouldn't work on satellites. Oh well, guess we'd have found them stupid quickly if satellites could see through their spells. Going to have to study that, see if I can find a work around." He frowned. "My camera completely fizzled out once we entered that pub." Clint nodded.

"Mine and Natasha's too." He agreed. "Same with our mikes." Steve blinked, startled.

"You guys brought recording equipment?" He asked before shaking his head. "What am I saying, of course you did."

"May I ask why you want to know?" Thor asked, sitting down between Jane and Clint and putting his arm around Jane. She nuzzled against him, but didn't look up from her book, too engrossed. "Just curiosity?"

"Partly." Tony admitted readily. "But also, the kid told us a bit about his last year. Considering the stuff he got up to, thought it'd be best to have a drone following the train, keep an eye on him." Harry turned red at that, and he shifted a bit in his seat, but didn't say anything. Thor, for his part, was touched.

"Thank you Tony." He said with a nod. "That's very thoughtful of you." Tony waved him off.

"It's no biggie. What can I say, I like him. The thunderbolt has good taste in music." Thor blinked, and glanced over at Harry, whose face at this point was close to matching his hair for color.

"I...I like rock and roll." Harry muttered. "The Dursleys hated it…well, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia did, I don't know what Dudley thought. Tony has a lot of it though." Thor chuckled. That was a bit of an understatement.

"Anyway, I'm going to go get to work. Now that I know where the place is, I need to start getting drones over there, see how close I can get to the school before they crash and what data I can get from their crashes." Tony said, standing up and leaving. As Steve started folding up the map, Clint looked over at Thor.

"So, find out anything useful up in Asgard?" The archer asked. Thor nodded.

"Yes, mother destroyed the artifact quite handedly."

"What was it?" Steve asked curiously, looking up from the map. Thor paused, unsure of how much he wanted to say in front of Harry. He decided to go for a partial truth, the more relevant part.

"In truth I do not know." He admitted. "I was told that its purpose would have been to possess the one who read it, but to what end I do not know." He wasn't certain of whose soul the horcrux had been, but Loki had said that it didn't appear to be designed to function as one normally did. He'd asked his mother for clarification before leaving Asgard, and she'd explained that, normally, horcruxes acted as anchors. However many times one lost their body, so long as the horcrux existed they would not move on to any of the various afterlifes. Having one possess a person made no sense unless the intention was to clone yourself or open up something that was locked to all others. Neither option was good, but which was the case was important. "Unfortunately, judging from what I saw in Flourish and Blotts Lucius Malfoy is well off, and given what I remember of the wizarding community in Britain that means he's likely well respected. I need to interrogate him, but I am...not subtle." That got matching snorts of agreement from Clint and Jane and a chuckle from Steve, to which Thor gave a self deprecating smile of agreement.

"And more to the point, I lack the skill to make a man talk without doing him harm, or at least threatening it. That could have negative consequences for Harry, so I don't wish to take that route unless I must. And as you saw earlier, at Diagon Alley, there are spells that keep a person without magic from seeing buildings, which means that, unfortunately, I cannot ask you or Natasha." He continued, glancing at Clint. "What I need is a way to make him talk without hurting him, a way to make him tell the...truth…" Thor let his words trail off as he looked at Steve. Steve blinked, then realized where this was going.

"I have no idea where she is." Steve said quickly, holding up his hands. "It's been fifty years almost, and even if she is still alive, which she might not be because I have no proof she was immortal, and still in France, I don't know how we'd find her."

"Do you remember her face?" Clint interjected. "I've seen you sketch, you're pretty good at it. If you draw her face, and it's accurate, we can run it through SHIELD facial recognition. Unless she's living in a cave or the woods, away from all cameras, we'll find her, or at least have a place to start. And if she's not immortal and died, we might be able to find out if she had kids that she passed that lasso on to." Steve let out a long huff, but nodded.

"I'll do my best." He promised, running a hand through his hair. "Let me go get my pencils and notebook."

"Thank you my friend." Thor said.

"Yeah, thanks." Harry said. He didn't want to show it, but the fact that a bad guy was trying to sneak something into his school worried him. A lot. Last year had ended with him and Ron in the hospital wing, and that had been when one of the good guys (the best good guy who wasn't an Avenger according to Hermione) snuck something into the castle. He didn't want to think about what might have happened if Malfoy's dad had been successful. Steve gave him a small smile and headed off.

OoOoOoOoO

One Hour Ago - Midtown School of Science and Technology

"Well, here they are. The prisoners, released on parole." Emma said, her voice taking on a teasing edge. After the guided tour Emma had lead Ahmanet to the school's library, and towards a nook with a trio of armchairs and a couch, all battered but still intact and fairly comfortable. Ahmanet looked up to see a set of four teens, two boys and two girls, heading towards them. One of the girls, a blonde, detached herself from the tallest of the bunch, a very messy haired brunette boy, to give Emma a firm look as she sat herself in the armchair opposite Ahmanet's, with the messy boy perching himself on the back of said armchair.

"Don't go lumping me in with these delinquents Emma, I'm tutoring." She said, her voice tinged with faint, fond mockery, though if that was aimed at Emma or the so called delinquents Ahmanet wasn't sure.

"Choosing to spend your summer helping the irredeemable is as worthy of mockery as being absurdly truant or openly insulting your teachers Gwen." Emma retorted.

"Irredeemable is a bit harsh, don't you think?" The other boy, also brunette but much more put together than the one sitting on Gwen's chair, pointed out as he flopped onto the couch. "I mean, give me a break, I'm new to not being homeschooled. I don't know what Peter's excuse is."

"Not that I don't love our banter but…" The other new girl, one with her black hair in a short, neat bob, gestured at Ahmanet. "Maybe we introduce ourselves, yeah?" She gave Emma a pointed look and remained standing.

"Oh, yes, I suppose." Emma said casually. "Everyone, this is Ahmanet, recently arrived from Egypt." Ahmanet gave a small wave and a smile, trying to remember what the polite, casual greeting was and not act like royalty. "She'll be attending summer classes to adjust to our school system before the year actually starts. Not because she's an idiot like most of you." The messy boy huffed.

"I'm not an idiot, I just have a lot of...stuff going on." He said before giving Ahmanet an awkward little wave. "Hey, I'm Peter Parker." The other boy sat up, sliding himself along the couch and holding out his hand. Ahmanet recognized the gesture and shook. His grip was surprisingly strong she noted.

"Dick Grayson." He seemed braced for something as he said his name, but neither his first nor last triggered anything in Ahmanet's brain, so she said nothing, which made him relax with a chuckle. "Hey, you're more mature than Peter or Zatanna, that's nice." Peter squawked.

"What is this, rag on Peter day?" The blonde whose chair he was sitting on chuckled and patted his knee.

"Don't be silly Peter, that's Wednesday. You'll know because it's the day we wear pink." She said before looking at Ahmanet. "I'm Gwen Stacy by the way. The sane one."

"What does that make me?" Emma asked, trying to look indignant but clearly smirking.

"The evil one." Gwen replied quickly, not missing a beat and getting a chuckle from her fellow blonde. Ahmanet watched them interact with a slight pang in her chest. She'd never really had...friends before. There were certainly people she wasn't related to that she liked, her combat instructor chief among them and a couple servants, but by and large there hadn't been anyone she'd allowed herself to get close to, anyone that her station would have allowed herself to be close to. At the time, she hadn't cared, she was in line to take the throne and that mattered more than anything else. Now however, she had no throne to take, no real concrete goal to aspire to. She was...adrift. Maybe Lorraine was right, and this might help. Not that she'd ever admit that of course.

"I apologize for...us." The black haired girl said, gesturing at herself and her friends. "This is what happens when you let a bunch of teenagers spend too much time with each other I guess. I'm Zatanna by the way. Zatanna Zatara." Ahmanet blinked behind her glasses. That was an unusual name to say the least.

"It is nice to meet you all. I hope I am not intruding." She said.

"Please, Emma's the only snobby one here." Dick said, waving his hand as Zatanna finally sat down. "The rest of us have no standards, so if you impressed Emma enough to let you sit you'll have no trouble." Ahmanet cocked her head to the side.

"That was not as...complimentary as I think you thought it was." She said slowly. Dick chuckled ruefully and rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah, realized that after I said it." He admitted.

OoOoOoOoO

The Next Day - Avengers Tower

"That's her." Steve said, pointing at the photograph on the screen of Clint's laptop. Thor noticed that his friend sounded more than a little stunned almost as if he was about to faint. "She looks exactly the same."

"Diana Prince." Clint read, pulling up the file attached to the picture. "She works in the art restoration department at the Louvre." He paused, frowning. "She's got a SHIELD file already, a pretty comprehensive one. She's been noticed. Doesn't say what for though, strange." He reached out and pressed a couple buttons on his phone. "Hey Nat, you know anything about Diana Prince, an art restorer in Paris?"

"No, why?" Natasha replied, sounding slightly out of breath. Thor glanced at the clock and realized they were interrupting the redhead's morning workout. It was a good thing Clint had made the call, anyone else would likely have been ignored at best, and had their hidden stash of pop tarts sabotaged at worst. Not that he'd ever been so foolish to do just that of course, and if Harry ever asked he'd claim it was lies spread by Tony.

"We're pretty sure she's Steve's Wonder Woman, and she's got a pretty hefty file that's just a study of her everyday routine. Nothing overtly suggesting she's enhanced, but somebody's definitely keeping an eye on her. Was wondering if you'd been assigned to her at some point, or if Maria had said something to you."

"Doesn't ring a bell, sorry." Natasha said, the sound of thumping suggesting that she'd started hitting a sandbag while talking.

"Why would she have a file in the first place?" Steve asked, a little thrown off. Clint shrugged.

"There's a couple artifacts in most big museums that we're pretty sure were made from the remains of alien tech. Ancient people find a chunk of a spaceship, don't know what it is but assume the gods left it where they could find it for a reason, and so they make something out of it. Most of the time it's harmless, a strangely durable sword or something, but occasionally there's radiation or nanites or something and it can get messy. SHIELD likes to keep tabs on the art restoration departments because of that, since they're the ones most likely to poke around at stuff and accidentally trigger things." He glanced back at Thor. "You'll be wanting to talk to her today? If you leave now you should be able to catch her on her lunch break." Thor nodded.

"The sooner we talk to her the better." He said firmly. "I need answers from Lucius Malfoy before the Hogwarts term starts. That book could have been the entire plan, or it could have been a trigger for a much more serious chain of events." He looked at Steve. "Would you be willing to accompany me? It would be helpful to have you make introductions." Steve nodded.

"That wouldn't be a problem. It'd be nice to see her again."

"Well, if you're going to France, you'll be needing a quinjet, especially if she agrees." Clint pointed out. "Hey Nat, you willing to fly these guys to Paris?" There was a pause in the thumping coming from Natasha's side of the conversation.

"Why me?" She demanded, a little put out.

"I've already got plans for tonight, and Tony's locked in the lab on some new project. Probably the drones he wants to watch over Harry."

"I've got plans too you know."

"Yes, but unless there's something you weren't telling me, you haven't been planning your thing for over a month." There was a long moment of silence, followed by a huff from Natasha.

"Fine. Give me an hour, I have to cancel and get ready."

"Thank you Natasha." Thor said quickly, before she could hang up.

"Yeah yeah, you're lucky I like you people."

OoOoOoOoO

Three Hours Later - Paris, France

Diana sat down in a back corner of her favorite little coffee shop, a small, random little hole in the wall close enough to her office in the Louvre to not require her to gulp her coffee down, but far enough away to not be a tourist hole and let her stretch her legs in the process. She took a sip of her café noisette, glancing at her phone as she did so, and when she looked up she was greeted with a face she had not seen in a long time. Her expression shifted rapidly, from surprise to confusion to finally happiness, and she stood up, giving the American a firm hug. "Steve!" She said, taking a step back to look at the man. "It is good to see you. You look exactly the same."

"So do you, Diana." Steve said with a slight smile. Diana blinked for a second, but brushed it off. It wasn't surprising that he'd know her name, given that he'd managed to find her again.

"I was confused, and a little angry, when I heard that Captain America was fighting in New York." Diana confided, her voice quieter to avoid being overheard. "Imagine my surprise when I saw the footage and realized that it really was you." She leaned in. "How are you still alive?"

"I crashed a plane in the Arctic, and it froze me. About a year ago or so I was found and thawed out." Diana nodded, forcing her face to be serious.

"A Capsicle." She said, trying to sound wise and sagely in so doing but unable to hide her smile. Steve let out a sigh and shook his head.

"That's not going away any time soon." He muttered. "And you?" Diana's face drew tight.

"I don't...age." She said slowly. "A product of my birth." Steve nodded, letting it stay at that.

"Look Diana," He said slowly. "I know you don't like leaving France but...I need your help. Well, a friend of mine needs your help." He quickly held up his hands. "It's nothing violent, we don't need you to fight or anything. It's just, my friend...a bad guy tried to sneak something very dangerous into his son's school. We need to know if he had any backup plans or such and…"

"You need the Lasso of Truth." Diana finished, nodding. She sighed, running a hand through her hair. She'd never called in a sick day before, she could get off early...Steve wouldn't lie to her, he was a good man, and he seemed to genuinely need her help. "I am not joining the Avengers." She said finally. "I will help you interrogate this man, but I am not coming with you to New York." Steve brightened and nodded.

"Of course not. Just a one time thing."

OoOoOoOoO

At the Same Time - The Mandarin's Home

Two hours ago a message had gone out. Thor, Captain Rogers, and Agent Romanova have left the country. Agent Barton is heading North towards an unknown destination. Now is an optimal time to launch.

Of course, the man calling himself the Mandarinhad no idea about that. All he knew was that mere minutes ago, a baker's dozen missiles crashed down towards his valley. He had been able to destroy or deflect most of them into the nearby mountains, but not all of them. To make matters worse, they were Tony Stark's Jericho missiles, so even the ones that he deflected exploded with enough force to inflict terrible damage regardless. Only he, and those in the basement of his home, had survived.

He stormed through the remains of his palace, and picked up a shard of metal. He growled, seeing the familiar Stark Industries logo. He turned towards one of his few remaining lieutenants. "Alert our minions in the United States, both our own and those of AIM. I know not if Stark himself launched this attack, but the Jericho missiles were supposed to have been destroyed years ago, when he first donned his suit. Only he would be able to have more made, and he will know who attacked us. Order an attack on New York, now. Tell them I will join them shortly." His man nodded quickly and hurried away, leaving the Mandarin to growl and head his own way. He needed to get ready for battle. If the Avengers and their allies wanted a war, he would give it to them.

OoOoOoOoO

Wellp, that was chapter 10! Took a little longer to finish it than I'd have liked, but less than the gap between chapters 8 and 9 at least! And hey, the Mandarin is getting ready to do stuff, meaning we're actually advancing the plot instead of just puttering!

So, some stuff to address. As you might have guessed considering Gwen's presence, the Peter Parker we're going with is the Andrew Garfield version. I'm sorry, I know we have a Peter in the MCU, and in all honesty Tom Holland is a very talented young man who has done a good job in all of his movies so far, and Homecoming was good, and if if it was just Tom Holland against Tobey Maguire I wouldn't hesitate but...I miss Andrew Garfield. I'm sorry, I do. I walked out of Homecoming and my first words were just 'I miss Andrew Garfield'. Tom Holland was good, but...Andrew is my Peter and I can't help myself. It's like how in Doctor Who fan works, the Doctor that shows up is rarely the most current one but the one the creator likes best. I'm sorry if you hate Andrew, or love Tom, but this was what felt right to me and I hope you guys can forgive me.

On the topic of actors and casting, Gwen is (of course) Emma Stone. I'm of mixed feelings about Zatanna's casting, I'm currently torn between Tatiana Maslany, because I love her and I think she'd do a good job, and Lacey Chabert, who is the official voice for the character in animation and video games right now. Let me know if you have a preference, and if you have any suggestions for Dick, because I'm at a bit of a loss. Oh, and I think I might have said that Ben Kingsley would still be playing the Mandarin when I started this fic. Scratch that, he's a good actor but no, Donnie Yen is the Mandarin instead.

I will also say that no, Emma isn't mind controlling any of the teens Ahmanet met here, nor is she even really influencing their thoughts. She might lightly skim Peter and Gwen occasionally, but she's very wary of the other three, as she can feel Ahmanet and Zatanna's powers and her first skim revealed that Dick has very sensitive mental defenses. That being said, she's not above messing with the minds of the people around them.

Oh, and we will be using the movie version of the Aquaman cast of characters, because that movie was great! They'll probably be aged down a bit, but that's who'll be playing them at least.

If any of you want to ask a more specific, possibly spoilery question, feel free to leave a review or shoot me a PM! I