A.N.: Hello, my lovely readers!
First of all, thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed or comment ‹3 I was really half expecting no one to read my story.
I'm also sorry for the long wait. I had originally planned to update every weekend, but school is really a lot right now. So please excuse me if it takes long.
The chapter's also not really long; for some reason I'm struggling to make them longer, but I hope you like it anyway.
Happy reading and I hope you have a great day!
-Chapter 4-
Harry jolted awake. He was sweating and breathing heavily.
After the persistent dreams about the Department of Mysteries for weeks before and the sleepless night yesterday, he had just not been able to stay awake anymore and had fallen victim to his exhaustion.
But he couldn't have slept for more than a few hours, it was still completely dark outside.
Suddenly the door opened and Tony rushed inside, his eyes darting around the room until they found Harry sitting on the bed.
"I heard screaming. Are you okay?"
"Sure."
"You know you can talk to me, right? Or someone else. I know I might not be exactly the right kind of person and we haven't known each other for long, but...yeah. I have nightmares too and I can confirm it works talking about it. Bruce has helped me a lot last year."
"I'm fine. ...Thank you."
"Well then, good night Harry."
"Good night."
Harry could tell Tony felt just as awkward as he did, but he had still come into his room. All of the Avengers were an odd bunch, but they had welcomed him with open arms and he was beginning to really like them.
The dream that had woken him before was already becoming blurry, but he knew it had been about Hermione.
And they would keep coming.
It had now been two weeks since he stranded here. Harry was at a point where he just felt empty. At night the nightmares were tormenting him and during the day he tried to solely live in the present. Because every thought about the past caused him to withdraw completely inside himself.
But sometimes he felt like some bright spots were slowly starting to lighten his life. That feeling stopped as soon as he went to bed at night, but it was at least something. For some reason he felt at ease with the Avengers. They were all nice and eager to make him feel at home.
Even Tony, who he had figured wasn't exactly the sentimental type took him to his workshop frequently and did his best distracting him.
Last week Pepper had fussed about his lack of clothes and unceremoniously took him shopping without listening to his complaints. Even though it hurt to think about it, he couldn't deny that she sometimes really reminded him of Mrs Weasley.
No one pushed him to talk, but Harry still knew that they were all curious and he would have to tell them the whole story at some point. He still didn't really know how to approach the situation, but turns out the decision would be taken from him soon enough.
Harry was in the graveyard again. He was tied up to the could stone behind him and not able to move a muscle. In front of him Voldemort, with his pale, snake-like face twisted into an evil sneer.
To his feet were Hermione and Cedric, hands tied behind their backs and held at wandpoint. They were both looking at Harry, fear etched deeply into their faces, begging him to do something.
Everything was muted to his ears, but he could see Voldemort's lips move and form the killing curse. First Cedric, then Hermione went limp, all the while Harry could do nothing more than watch, just helplessly struggling against his restraints.
All his emotions, the anger, sadness, despair, they were overcoming him in a huge wave of chaos and he felt his magic build up inside his body, threatening to destroy everything around him.
He only woke up from his dream when he heard someone running inside the room, shouting for the others to come.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Tony standing at the bed looking alarmed. Harry had never seen him looking so distraught over anything.
"Harry, what happened?!"
Just then Harry even paid attention to his surroundings. Wind was blowing through the room and when he looked to his right, he saw the huge wall of glass in shards on the floor. The whole room was a mess and after he lay his hand on his stinging cheek, he saw blood staining his fingers.
His face blanched. He wasn't able to utter a single word.
Half an hour later, Harry sat on a fluffy couch in the huge living room area of the tower. His cuts caused by the glass shatters that had been flying around had been treated by Bruce and now the whole team were sitting around him, all carrying concerned looks.
No one said anything and Harry was becoming fidgety. He drew a deep breath and finally broke the silence.
"I'm sorry for the mess."
Pepper spoke up:
"No, that wasn't your fault, Harry..."
He interrupted her. There was no going back now.
"Yes, it was. I have to tell you something. I know you've all been curious about my past and the truth is...I'm a wizard."
Even Tony was too surprised to make a bad joke.
"I had a nightmare and must have accidentally did some magic tonight.
Where I come from, there is a whole community of magical folk living hidden from the non-magical people. And in our world, there was a war going on, with me in the middle of it.
You see, when I was a year old, an evil wizard of the name Lord Voldemort came into my home. He killed my parents with the killing curse, but when he tried to kill me, it didn't work for some reason. No one had ever survived this curse before, but that night, the spell rebounded and hit Voldemort instead. I only got this lightning bolt scar on my forehead from it.
Everyone thought he was dead and I was celebrated as the saviour. Turns out he was only weakened and would return about thirteen years later...
But for the next ten years I had to live with my aunt, uncle and cousin, who weren't magical and hid me from the wizarding world. They quite disliked me and until I went to the wizarding school Hogwarts when I was eleven, I didn't even know I was a wizard.
At Hogwarts I met my best friends, Ron and Hermione. They were always by my side when I got myself in danger again.
In my fourth year Voldemort resurrected himself with the help of my blood and killed another student of Hogwarts, but almost the whole population thought I was crazy and didn't believe me that he was back.
Apparantly him and I had always been connected through my scar and sometimes it would hurt or I would have dreams seeing through his eyes, but in my fifth year he explored that connection and sent me a false vision of my godfather in his clutches. He actually tricked me into getting a prophecy about us from the ministry, because no one else would be able to touch it and when I got there with my friends, his followers, who call themselves 'deatheaters', were there waiting for us.
'The Order of the Phoenix', who are on our side came to help and in the following battle it happened. Hermione, my best friend who is called the 'smartest witch of her age', cast some sort of old spell to get me out of there. When I disappeared, she was just about to be hit by a killing curse and now I don't know what happened to them or how I could ever get back."
With his last words, his voice failed him and he couldn't hold the tears anymore. It was just too much.
Harry startled when Tony suddenly put his arms around him, but soon enough relaxed into the embrace.
They stayed like this until dawn, with Tony holding him on one side and Pepper on the other, running her hand soothingly through his hair.
Everyone was processing the information and decided that the questions could wait until later.
Harry just felt lucky that they didn't hate him. He had known that they all weren't exactly normal, but with the muggles he had known before, there was still the fear inside him that they would hate him if they knew.
He really hadn't known Pepper and Tony for very long, but at this moment he just felt safe and a small part of his mind wondered if that was what it would have felt like to have parents.
