Chapter 22: James Snaps

The next elimination round of the Quidditch tournament comes rather quickly and right now I'm in the stands, watching Viktor go against Harry. I see Harry fall a bit and catch the snitch while trying to get his broom steady. Lee announces his victory before calling excitedly, "Now to see who will be going up against the Sky Strikes for the finals! The next match of the elimination round is the Flying Badgers verses the Soaring Dragons!"

The crowd cheers, the cheerleaders begin chanting, I stand and smile at the Avengers as I say, "See you guys later. Wish me luck."

I fly out of the stands and up to where Cedric is hovering. After a while of waiting while the game plays out around us I spot the snitch and race after it. Cedric comes to my side and we race after the snitch together before it suddenly drops towards the ground. I glance at Cedric before following after it, getting flashbacks to my first game. Cedric pulls up about fifteen feet from the ground but I keep following the snitch. At the last second before it becomes too late, I pull up and stand on my broom, looking ahead of me at the snitch.

The small golden ball slows down for a second, almost trying to tease me, and I snatch it from the sky before dropping back onto my broom and flying up to the announcers stand. Lee looks at me and I smirk before showing the snitch. His eyes go wide before he announces, "Iris Potter has caught the snitch! In an amazing re-enactment of her first ever Quidditch match, the Soaring Dragons win!"

I do a flip on my broom before flying down to the ground and walking over to Cedric, holding my hand out to him and saying, "Good game, Cedric."

He shakes my hand with a smile on his face as he says, "Good game, Iris."

I begin walking away but get blocked by James. I glare at him as he steps forward and happily says, "Iris! Great job! That was really impressive!"

I shove past him and walk to the castle, my team joining me. As we walk I smirk and say, "Great job out there you guys."

"Thanks." a few of them say as we arrive at the school. The Avengers walk over as my team disperses. I smile at the Avengers and Nat puts an arm around my shoulder as she leads the way to the great hall, the other three following us. We eat lunch and I begin heading for my dorm, deciding to go to my trunk for a while.

On my way there I get blocked by James and Dumbledore, James looking furious as Dumbledore steps forward and says, "Iris, I must ask why you are ignoring your family? He simply wished to congratulate you."

I frown before looking to the left and right of myself and saying, "I'm sorry, is my family here?"

"I'm talking about James. He is your father, you shouldn't ignore him, dear girl." the old man tells me in a disappointed tone, "Now, why don't you go with him? He wishes to take a walk with you."

"Oh, you were talking about James. In that case...I haven't been ignoring family." I tell him and he gives me a confused look, I try to continue on but they block my way again, "Excuse me, sirs. I have things to do."

"You're going on a walk with me, Iris." James says gruffly. "I'm your family. I want to take a walk with you. So you are coming."

"No, I'm not." I tell him coldly, "As I said already, Mr. Potter, I have not been ignoring family, I have been ignoring you, who I have not considered to be my family since I was three. Now move."

"Don't talk to me like that!" James snaps at me and I flinch a bit.

"Or what?" I snarl, "What will I do if I keep talking to you like this?"

James lets out an angry growl before I suddenly feel his foot connect with my ribs as he angrily yells, "I'm done with your attitude, young lady!" another blow hits me in the gut and I scramble to get away from him, "Apologize to me this instant!"

I look up at James, but see something worse in his place, Vernon, charging towards me with an angry, purple colored, face. I whimper and curl into a ball, doing my best to protect my head as I say, "I didn't do anything wrong! I'm sorry Uncle Vernon! Please, no more!"

More punches and kicks come at me and I hear several of my bones make painful snapping noises as the person attacking me, now a terrifying mixture of James and Vernon, yells, "I am not Vernon Dursley! Apologize for what you said to me!"

I whimper again before the mixture thing in front of me shifts between the image of James and Vernon, sometimes becoming the mix between the two again and I see Dumbledore just standing to the side and watching, hearing him say to himself, "This is for the greater good. It should fix her attitude."

I feel one of the blows connect with my head, I try to curl up more and wait for the next hit...but it doesn't connect. I whimper a bit before looking up and finding that its James again, his fist being held in place by Steve Rogers, an angry Nat and Lily standing next to him, blocking James' way to me. I slowly stand and Natasha turns to look at me, all traces of anger momentarily leaving her face as she asks, "You alright kid?"

I wince a bit before saying, "I'm fine. Its nothing I haven't lived through before." I then glare at James, who has calmed down enough to see what he just did, and snarl, "Some father you claim to be."

I then turn and begin slowly making my way to the hospital wing. A couple steps away from the group I almost fall, but get caught and lifted into Natasha's arms. I wince a bit again as she says, "I'll take you to the hospital wing. Steve, Lily, let's go."

"You can't just take her! She's my daughter." James snaps.

"As far as I'm concerned...not anymore." Natasha says before carrying me away from him.

When we enter the hospital wing Madam Pomphrey gasps and asks, "What happened?"

"James? Vernon?" I ask, "I think it was James."

"James." Natasha confirms angrily, "I don't know why, but me, Lily, and Steve found him beating her while watched from the sidelines."

"How bad is the damage?" she asks as she gestures to my usual bed.

"My ribs were making cracking noises...and I might have a concussion." I tell her as I get set down. My vision begins fading and I moan a bit as I say, "I'm gonna nap now."

I pass out before I can hear a response. When I wake up again I find the Avengers standing around my bed, Lily, Harry, and Neville at my side. Madam Pomphrey is speaking to the group, "She needs to rest and not do anything stressful for the next two days. This includes her morning exercises so one of you needs to stay with her so you can stop her."

"Got it." Tony says, "What else?"

"She needs to take one of these potions with every meal for the next five days and I'm officially banning James and Dumbledore. They aren't allowed within five feet of her. I have already told McGonagall that she's going to be out of classes for the next week and a half because of this."

"Alright, got it," Tony says, "don't leave her alone, keep the guilty party away, potion with every meal. Anything else?"

"She might want to stay in her trunk instead of her dorm room. If she does, you need to make sure she stays out of her forge." Madam Pomphrey says while turning to Natasha, "Will you stay with her?"

"Yeah, no problem." she says and I take a breath before wincing a bit at the pain in my ribs. They turn to me and Natasha immediately says, "Are you alright, kid?"

I frown before asking, "How bad is it?"

"Half of your ribs were broken in some way or another, most of your torso is a bruise, you definitely had a concussion, and you need potions with your meals in order to fix the injuries James did to your stomach." Madam Pomphrey says and I nod before slowly sitting up. "You have the next week and a half off from classes and I recommended that you spend that time away from the castle, which McGonagall consented too when I recommended it. She's much easier to deal with than the old fool."

"How long was I out?" I ask.

"A couple hours." Natasha tells me as Madam Pomphrey hands me a slip of paper. I read it and chuckle a bit before wincing.

I look up at Natasha's curious face and say, "Doctors proscription, no James or Dumbledore allowed within five feet of me. They're bad for my health."

"Alright." Natasha says as I stand up and begin heading for the door, "Take it slow, kid."

I sigh before slowing down as she and Lily come to my side. As we're walking out I call over my shoulder to Madam Pomphrey, "Thank you for the help."

We all walk in silence for a few minutes before Natasha suddenly asks, "Can we go somewhere private to talk?"

"Sure." I say before leading them out of the school and down to the wards. We're about fifteen feet out the wards when I turn to face them. "What's up?"

"Um...after we saw you get attacked we all took a walk out of the wards and discussed a few things..." Natasha says and Lily nods.

"We can't help people who would do things like that. Especially not to you, kid." Tony says.

"We were wondering if you would get upset with us if we chose to join Loki?" Lily asks hesitantly.

"You want to know if I would get angry over you siding with my soulmate and her brother?" I ask blankly and they nod. "No, I would not be upset." I then pull out my wand and summon one of my plain black hooded cloaks and trunk. "Now, I'm going to go somewhere for the next week and a half, Lily, Harry and Neville are needed here, but Madam Pomphrey has ordered me to keep someone with me at all times. So, who's coming with me?"

"All of us Avengers." Tony says and the others nod.

"Alright, Harry, Neville, we'll properly punish James and Dumbledore when we get back, they can stay in the dungeon until then." I say and they nod before hugging me. Lily hugs me as well before I turn to the Avengers and say, "Come on, we can check out a few places before you make any big decision, though as I said, I wouldn't hate you guys for siding with Loki and my soulmate."

I lead them to Hogsmead before buying two way portkey to France, claiming to be doing a reconnaissance mission. After the portkey is given to me I buy the Avengers a cloak like mine and we all grab the portkey, a rope before Thor asks, "How does this work? I've never traveled like this."

"Just hold on." I say before clearing my throat and saying, "Paris." The portkey glows for a few seconds before we get transported to our destination. We put our hoods up and begin strolling through the streets, finding people doing magic in the middle of crowded streets of muggles, people selling potions at vendor tables, and everywhere around us seeming cheerful. "Loki seems to have decided to remove the need to hide magic from the muggles."

I then spot Loki speaking with Hella on a large podium, where several people seem to be stopping briefly to bow to them happily before continuing on. Natasha looks around before saying, "Everyone seems to be doing better than we thought." she then notices the guy standing next to Loki, looking relaxed, she gasps a bit and mutters, "Clint."

"I suppose you know him?" I ask.

"My best friend." she says as I begin walking over to the podium. "Where are you going?"

"To interact with my soulmate." I say as they follow me. "I can't just see her from a distance and not talk to her, can I?"

"Wait." Steve says and I turn to him. "What about us?"

"I can tell Loki that you've decided to join him if you'd like. The guy on the podium seems way to relaxed to be mind controlled, which means that if he was controlled before then he isn't now." I tell them. "From what I've heard from Hella, the mind controlled are tense, kinda robotic in their movements, does that guy seem to be moving robotically to you?"

Natasha's eyes go wide before she turns to Steve and says, "My decision is made."

He sighs before nodding, the others doing the same as Steve says, "Alright, we're all in agreement, we'll join Loki's side of the war."

"Great. Now can I please go see Hella?" I ask and they nod. I smile before continuing to head for the podium. When we reach it the two guards at the base of the steps move to block me so I pull my hood down and call up to Loki and Hella, "Hella!"

The two on the podium look at me and Hella smiles before saying, "Let her up. She's safe."

The two guards move out of my way and I quickly walk up to them. I hug Hella before bowing to Loki and saying, "I come with news."

"Excellent. Let's go to the meeting room." he says as I stand straight. He then gestures at the guy with the bow and says, "This is Clint Barton, he's been quite useful to us."

"Nice to meet you, sir." I tell the archer and he nods before we all go into a nearby building and down a hall. We enter a room with a long table surrounded by chairs and take seats.