-Chapter 3-
"Would you care to tell us what's going on?" Stark seemed to become impatient.
Harry didn't know how to reply. He sighed again.
"So it seems that I did not only travel in time, but also changed worlds. Apparantly neither I nor the people I knew exist here and I don't know how I'm supposed to get back, because I don't even know how exactly I got here." His voice failed him there.
For a few moments no one said anything.
"Wow...that's certainly interesting... Well kid, I'm not just going to abandon you on the streets, even though you did break my platform" Banner shot him a warning look. "Yeah, I know, but I still wonder how you managed that without a scratch... Anyway, you can stay here until...well I don't really know, but I have more than enough space. And Bruce's probably going to stop me from bothering you too much."
Harry sat on the bed in the huge and luxurious room Banner had showed him. 'Room' might have been an understatement; he even had his own bathroom and a closet the dimensions of Dudley's second room at the Dursley's.
He faced the large glass wall opposite the door and watched the nightly view of the city completely lost in thought. Despite the late hour the streets were illuminated with lights of all colours.
Harry was overwhelmed and confused. He still couldn't completely comprehend that he would likely never see his friends again. Or anyone else he had known before for that matter. He felt so alone.
He knew what happened with Hermione would keep him up at night, just as Cedric still did.
And he deserved it.
And to make it all more complicated, he didn't understand these people here at all. Why were they helping him? He couldn't imagine any ulterior moves. They were muggles and no one here knew who he was. They were probably just curious about where he came from and would try to do experiments on him soon.
Though he still found it weird how little questions they had asked.
Harry didn't sleep that night. After checking out the bathroom and taking a long shower, he dressed in simple jeans and a sweater he found in the closet and sat down on the bed again.
His mind felt numb, but at the same time the thoughts were still running through his mind.
He wondered about Hermione's spell. He didn't think she sent him away by mistake, but had she known exactly where he would end up? Harry doubted it, because how would she have known about parallel dimensions or whatever was going on exactly? Maybe the intent was more vague. He believed to have heard that in older times spells worked more like accidental magic.
Magic reacted to will and intent with very vague directions and if that was strong enough the magic would find a way to make it come true. Later the magical folk discovered that they would obtain safer and more precise results if they worded their spells more precisely, even though they would lose some raw power with it.
Knowing Hermione, she had researched for every possible precarious situation and had used the ace up her sleeve for him, to send him far away from danger.
Very far indeed.
Harry hated himself even more for endangering her like that while she was just so loyal and kept him save.
A few hours after the sun had finally risen, Harry was startled by a voice from the ceiling. Stark had told him it's name was Jarvis and he was an artificial intelligence, but he was still spooked.
"Good morning, Mr Potter. I was asked to bring you to breakfast with the other residents of the Tower."
When Harry reached his destination after following Jarvis' directions down a floor, he was surprised by the people sitting around a huge dining table filled with food.
He saw Stark and Banner, but also four others. As he entered the room, a fierce looking red-headed woman just spoke to Stark: "-just because you don't have anything to do, doesn't mean no one has. What was so important now?"
Then all eyes turned to Harry and he just stood there, not knowing what to do.
Another woman with strawberry-blonde hair sitting beside Stark turned to him.
"Tony, who is that?" She sounded exasperated.
Harry was cringing internally.
"Well...that's Harry. Two days ago he did a very Thor-like move and appeared out of nowhere and crashed on the tower. No rainbow bridge to my knowledge.
But apparantly he came from a parallel dimension, because there are no records of him or his friends here. Isn't that exciting? Oh right, and before he came here, he was in Britain in 1996. How old are you anyways, kid?"
Harry cleared his throat.
"Fifteen."
"See, Pepper, what was I supposed to do with a teenager?"
She sighed and shook her head. Then she got up from the table and approached Harry.
"Hi, Harry. I'm Pepper Potts, it's very nice to meet you. Please excuse Tony, he's an idiot."
"Hey!", Stark complained.
"Uhm, it's nice to meet you too, Ma'am."
"Please call me Pepper. So that's Natasha Romanoff." She nodded at the read-head.
Pepper further introduced Clint Barton, a man with brown hair sitting beside Romanoff; Steve Rogers, a very muscular blonde man and Banner.
Stark spoke again: "And we're the Avengers. I'm Iron Man, I have a super cool suit, these are the super spies Black Widow and Hawkeye; this is Captain America (though he does listen to 'Capsicle'), he is also from the past, and this is the Hulk, he turns into a green monster when you make him angry."
"Okay... What are the Avengers?" Harry was confused.
"Oh, we just saved to world from an evil god and an alien invasion and I almost died when I flew into the portal with a nuclear bomb to save everyone's ass."
"And he is so humble; he only tells the story thirteen times a day now.", Romanoff said flippantly.
"Okay, kids, now stop bickering and let us eat." Pepper made them shut up and while they ate, Harry learned more about their stories.
He figured that these people weren't as normal as he had initially thought and somehow it was comforting.
If he was going to stay here, he would eventually have to tell them everything and they didn't seem like they would hate him like the Dursleys had.
They also didn't push Harry to tell his own story and he was thankful and started feeling more and more at ease in this place.
For the moment, the distraction kept his thoughts away.
