Number 11
They left in the middle of the night while it was still dark. Harry had no idea why, just that Tony told them to come to the roof while wearing comfy clothes for hot weather. Everyone filed into the Quinjet while yawning and rubbing their eyes.
Just as the sun peeked over the horizon they arrived at their destination.
"Happy birthday, kid!" Tony said, slapping Harry on the shoulder. "I made a few calls and they're opening the park for us so we can celebrate your birthday. In return, they get to have some promo-shots with the Avengers hugging Mickey or something, we'll see."
Harry found himself entering a theme park called The Magic Kingdom, which was one of the parks in Walt Disney World in Florida. And even Harry, though he'd literally grown up in a cupboard, had heard of Disney.
"This is amazing," Harry breathed as they walked inside the completely empty park. A few PR people and a photographer from Disney joined them to help them navigate the park in the short amount of time they had before the park would open to the public. The photographer had strict instructions only to take photos of the Avengers themselves, not any of their guests, which he did without any problems.
Harry and everyone else got to go on rides like Space Mountain, which was his favourite, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain, which were both a close second. They also enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, both which were pretty funny in their own way.
By then it was almost time to open the park, and they all gathered to have breakfast in a private room in one of the restaurants, where they were visited by lots of the characters and the photographer went mad taking shots of Captain America kissing Minnie Mouse's hand and Hawkeye fist-bumping Goofy.
Harry, feeling famished at that point, ate his fill of the breakfast buffet, his plate overflowing with scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, waffles and pancakes. Bucky followed Harry around the buffet and put the exact things Harry choose on his own plate as well. Harry figured this was Bucky's way of figuring out which of the things on offer were actually good to eat.
"So, best birthday party ever?" Tony asked him as they left the park through the underground tunnels so as not to be mobbed by the public.
"Only birthday party ever," Harry blurted before he could stop himself, and then he quickly ducked his head. Tony patted his shoulder while Harry heard his mother muttering that if the Dursleys weren't already dead he'd go and take care of that right away.
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Number 12
August was coming to an end and Harry needed to get ready to return to Hogwarts. Problem was, Harry's mother refused to let him go.
"Haraldr, you have been making amazing progress with your magic," Loki told him with a very reasonable look in his eyes and an utterly serene smile. "I can teach you all you need to know. You are not human. You have no need for their magic."
Harry swallowed. A part of him, a small part, was tempted to just go along with Loki, just stay in the tower and enjoy spending time with his new family and friends. But Harry had other friends that he missed and that he wanted to see again.
And then there was Voldemort, who Harry knew wouldn't stop looking for him if Harry just disappeared from the wizarding world. And Harry understood that by him staying in the tower all year long, he'd be all but inviting Voldemort and his Death Eaters to come find him there.
And what chance did most of the Avengers stand against a killing curse?
"I want to go back to Hogwarts," Harry muttered for the umpteenth time. "I have friends I want to see and I enjoy learning human magic."
Loki made a face as if he suddenly smelled something rotten right under his nose.
"Brother," Thor said from where he sat beside Harry at the breakfast table. "Remember when you wanted to go study magic on Vanaheim and our father refused to let you go because he thought it a waste of time?"
"That was different." Loki narrowed his eyes at Thor, obviously not liking where Thor was going with his story one bit.
"Mother intervened on your behalf, because she understood you needed it." Thor paused for a moment to stare into his brother's eyes. "Not to learn magic, you could do that at home. But to grow up and mature away from home."
Loki sighed and shot Thor a very dirty look. "Bringing our mother into this. That was unnecessary."
"You know she'd tell you to let Haraldr go and join his friends at this school he loves so much."
Shrugging, Loki seemed to consider things carefully for a few moments. "Fine, Haraldr can go." Loki turned to Harry and gave him a very intimidating look while crossing his arms. "Tony is working on getting a telephone to work around your magic. You will call us if you are in any danger. No discussion."
"Yeah, I will," Harry said, beaming at his mother, knowing he wouldn't call them unless the situation was truly dire.
Later, when Thor and Harry were alone in their private living room, Thor turned towards Harry. "You must forgive Loki for clinging as much as he does. Loki does not want to lose you again like he has lost his other children."
Harry nodded his understanding, having heard bits and pieces about the lives of his siblings. It had certainly put his own strange life in perspective. Besides, deep down Harry rather liked having a parent who wanted to cling to him. It was more than he remembered ever having before.
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Number 13
"You didn't tell them about Voldemort?" Hermione all but hissed at him.
Harry glanced around the train compartment they were in. The strange girl, Luna something, was distracted by her magazine, Neville was politely staring out the window, pretending not to be listening, and Ginny stared at him without a hint of shame at being caught eavesdropping.
"Look," Harry said in a desperate attempt to reason with a furious Hermione. "I did tell them about Voldemort, about how he killed my mum and – I mean, James and Lily."
"They're still your mum and dad, Harry," Hermione said softly, knowingly. "Maybe call them adoptive parents?"
Harry considered that for a moment. "Yeah, that works. Anyway, I did mention Voldemort, is my point."
"But apparently you conveniently forgot to mention he's back!" Hermione's eyes had narrowed again.
"Mate," Ron said from where he sat beside Harry. "Why not ask them for help? Hermione said they help all sorts of people in the muggle world, right?"
"They stopped an alien invasion," Hermione said with a pointed look at Harry.
"But they're still muggles, and I've been skirting around the Statute of Secrecy enough as is." Harry gnashed his teeth together for a moment in sheer frustration. "And the ministry hates me enough already, I mean, have you seen the Prophet lately? I bet they'd like any excuse to mess with me, and if they found out I've involved a bunch of muggles in wizarding affairs they might sent people to come obliviate everyone and that would not end well, trust me."
Harry did not want to know what the Winter Soldier would do to anyone who came to wipe his memory again. Not to mention what Steve would do alongside him. And then there was his mother and father, who weren't even human, for fuck's sake. Loki had more magic in his little finger than all of the British ministry combined, Harry was sure of it. Not to mention, Loki looked like he'd happily take any excuse to work out his frustrations in life on a whole bunch of humans sent to harm him and his family.
Yeah, best to let sleeping Avengers lie and all that.
Hermione chewed on her lip as she mulled things over. "I suppose you're right," she finally conceded "The ministry as it is right now wouldn't look favourably on muggles involving themselves in wizarding affairs." She leaned a little closer to Harry. "But if something happens, if Voldemort becomes a direct threat, you will tell them."
"Sure," Harry said easily. He wasn't stupid. If he really needed it, he'd ask his parents and the others for help.
"I wonder why the ministry's being so difficult right now?" Ron asked no one in particular.
"It's the heliopaths," Luna, the strange girl said as she lowered her magazine to stare at them with wide, slightly bulging eyes. "They've gotten to Fudge. My father wrote an article about it just last month."
There were several long moments of baffled silence.
"What are heliopaths?" Harry whispered in Ron's general direction.
"Dunno," Ron said with a shrug.
Harry sat back and stared at the ceiling. Whatever heliopaths were, they couldn't be worse than his mother on a warpath. Fudge should consider himself lucky.
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Number 14
Harry found the Winter Soldier sitting on his bed in the middle of the night when he woke up. In the Gryffindor fifth year boys' dormitory. At Hogwarts.
"What?" Harry managed to say while he frantically blinked his eyes to make the image before him go away. No such luck.
"Volunteered to check up on you," Bucky whispered while crouching on the foot of Harry's bed, the curtains hiding him from view from the rest of the boys sleeping around them. He quietly handed Harry a box of chocolate-covered Oreos. On auto-pilot, Harry accepted them.
"What?" Harry said again, because…what was happening?
Bucky reached inside his leather jacket that was lined with knives and…was that a gun? Were those two guns, no, three? He pulled out an amulet that Harry could barely make out in the darkness. "Your mother made these so we can see all the wizarding stuff."
His mother. Of course. Harry should have known. For all that his mother apparently wanted to kill everyone in the world at all times, when it came to Harry he was a regular mother hen and had barely let him return to Hogwarts at all. And now he'd sent spies to check up on him.
Harry supposed he should be grateful it was Bucky who volunteered. If Natasha had shown up, Harry would have never seen her coming. She'd have returned to report all of Harry's carefully kept secrets to his mother before Harry would even know she was there.
"Tell him I'm fine," Harry said, subconsciously sliding his wounded hand under the covers.
Apparently, those weird Nazis that had brainwashed Bucky for decades had also given him excellent night vision because before he knew what was happening, Harry felt metal fingers gently close around his wrist.
"Who did this?" Bucky demanded, carefully looking Harry's hand over. The words Umbridge made him carve into his hand over and over were barely visible but the wound still stung.
"Nobody," Harry said quickly. Too quickly. But truth was, Harry didn't want The Avengers bearing down on Hogwarts with all their might. He was genuinely concerned there wouldn't be a castle left standing after his father was done exacting vengeance in the name of his son. Never mind what the Hulk would do if he were ever to get involved.
Bucky frowned at him for a few seconds before apparently making up his mind. "I'm telling your mother." And with that, Bucky hopped off the bed and disappeared into the darkness. Harry barely heard the door open and close.
"No, wait!" Harry called after him, trying to untangle himself from his blankets. He threw himself out of bed, tripped over his trunk and fell face-first on the floor.
"Bwah?" Ron said from the bed beside him.
Harry didn't even bother raising his head from the floor. They were fucked. They were all incredibly fucked.
Loki was coming to Hogwarts.
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Number 15
Harry was writing lines into the back of his own hand, again, when he noticed an owl land on the windowsill behind Umbridge, who sat at her desk grading essays on all the things they weren't learning in her classes.
It was a solid, black owl with glowing green eyes, which stared at Harry with a gaze full of all sorts of accusations.
Harry froze in his seat.
"Is there a problem, Mr Potter?" Umbridge asked sweetly, head tilted as she smiled at him. Umbridge couldn't bear the idea of Harry not causing himself irreversible harm for even one second while in her office.
"Er…" was all Harry managed to say before Loki materialized right behind Umbridge.
"What is the meaning of this?" Loki asked in a tone of voice that meant he was hanging onto his sanity by only the slightest of threads. "Haraldr, why are you cutting yourself with such foul magic?"
Umbridge let out a tiny little squeak, all but fell out of her chair and whirled around to meet Harry's mother. Umbridge was so small, she had to throw her head almost completely back to look up at Loki. "How dare you interrupt this boy's detention? I do not care who you are, I will report you to the ministry for this criminal trespassing."
Loki's answering grin was terrible to behold. "I am this boy's mother and I am here to find out why my son is being made to harm himself."
"Because he's a liar!" Umbridge all but shrieked, puffing up like an angry bullfrog. "This boy has done nothing but spew lies, going against the ministry's carefully considered interpretation of events."
"A liar, is he?" Loki laughed, a sharp enough sound to cut through stone. "That is no surprise, given who his mother is." Loki turned towards Harry, who still sat frozen behind the small desk in front of Umbridge's opulent one. "Haraldr, show me your hand."
The temperature in the room dropped to such a degree that for a moment Harry was sure dementors were invading Hogwarts and heading straight for them. He didn't dare disobey his mother, not when his face looked cut from glass, his skin gaining the slightest blue-ish tint. Harry stuck out his hand, showing the bleeding words on the back of it.
"I must not tell lies," Loki read out loud and turned back to Umbridge, who had her wand pointed at Loki's belly button. One snap of Loki's fingers and the wand turned to ashes that floated gently to the floor.
"How dare you!" Umbridge screeched while she stomped her foot against her fluffy, pink rug.
"If my son must not tell lies, then the same shall be true for you, Madam." And while smirking like a supervillain people once thought he was, Loki tapped a finger against Umbridge's forehead. He offered Harry a brief, narrow-eyed look that promised they would talk about this sometime in the future, and a second later Loki was gone as though he'd never been there in the first place.
"I will see you expelled for this!" Umbridge stabbed her short little finger in Harry's direction and marched out of her office.
"What?" Harry scrambled to grab his things and all but ran after Umbridge, who rushed towards the Great Hall. It was Saturday afternoon, almost dinner time, so the hall was rapidly filling with students and teachers.
"I want Mr Potter expelled, right now!" Umbridge yelled as she entered the hall and charged straight towards the head table. Dumbledore, who had just sat down, rose again and blinked at Umbridge. "The boy didn't even have the decency to be home when I sent dementors after him this summer to see him kissed, but I am done with his insistence to tell the truth and I want him expelled immediately!"
All around them students fell quiet and stared at Umbridge as she stopped in front of the head table, glaring up at the headmaster with all her might.
"Well? Expel him, Dumbledore!" Umbridge pointed her stubby little finger at the headmaster.
Dumbledore seemed to regain some of his composure after a brief moment of obvious shock. "On what grounds should I expel Mr Potter, Dolores?"
"On the grounds that he interrupts me when I torture him in my office," Umbridge said, earning whispers and shouts from students all around them. At the head table, McGonagall turned white as a sheet, Sprout clapped a hand over her mouth and Flitwick hurried out of the hall through a side door. "All the mudbloods I've been maiming with my blood quill have kept quiet and accepted that they deserve to suffer for their dirty blood, but Mr Potter can't even make it an hour of enduring excruciating pain without interrupting me. His behaviour is out of control and if I could get away with it I would torture him to death with a cruciatus curse."
Dead silence was followed by harsh whispers and raised voices and students shouting over each other, hurling accusations of all sorts at Umbridge, from her terrible classes to her torturing students during detention.
Flitwick came running back into the hall, followed by three red-robed Aurors. "There she is. She confessed in front of everyone she sent the dementors that killed Mr Potter's muggle family this summer."
Umbridge whirled around and cackled at Flitwick. "Of course I sent them. Cornelius insisted I find a way to shut the boy up and leaving him a soulless husk would have done that job nicely. Now I'm stuck torturing the boy for hours and hours every week by making him carve words in his own skin with dark magic, yet he insists on showing me nothing but insolence while he keeps telling everyone who will listen the truth. The boy must be stopped, permanently if I can manage to get away with murder."
One tall, muscular Auror raised his wand in an almost lazy fashion and fired off a silent stunner at Umbridge, who dropped to the floor like a full bag of potatoes. "We've heard enough." He waved his wand around and Umbridge's unresponsive body floated towards them.
"Ah, yes, Auror Shacklebolt," Dumbledore said after a rather awkward pause while the students around them were cheering and hollering. "I assume you will take it from here, and that I'll need to find yet another Defence against the Dark Arts teacher."
Chaos erupted as students at all tables jumped up on top of their benches and threw quills and parchment and scarves into the air to celebrate Umbridge's demise. Harry slunk towards the Gryffindor table where Ron and Hermione were waving him over.
"What the hell just happened?" Ron demanded in a shout, as the noise around them had yet to die down.
Harry glanced around the out of control students and snickered. "My mother just happened."