Talking - "…."

Thoughts - '….'

Chapter 1 – Primary School, 5 years later

"Uncle Steve", 5 year old Harry complained as he was dragged out of bed at 5:00 in the morning, this was his new routine. Aunty Nat, Uncle Clint and Uncle Steve had put together a new training schedule, he would get up at 5am and go for a run with Uncle Steve at 5:30am, arrive back at 6am then spend an hour practicing and perfecting ballet and gymnastics with Aunty Nat. He would then spend another hour practicing martial arts, by the time he finished it would be 8am, he would then have a shower and get dressed into his school uniform. The last half an hour, he would spend with Aunty Wanda meditating and practice clearing his mind. Happy would drop him off at school at 8:45am and pick him up again at 3pm, when back at the tower he would have afternoon tea and start any homework that he had been given. At 3:30 Uncle Loki taught him about ancient runes, teleportation and creating illusions, at 4:30 Uncle Thor would teach him about Norse mythology, history of magic, and elemental magic, until 5pm.

"C'mon kiddo, don't want to be late for Natasha's lesson now do you?" Harry yelped, then proceeded to leap out of bed and run around the room trying to find a clean T-shirt and pair of sweatpants. He had only been late to one of Aunty Nat's lessons, never again. Once he stuffed his sneakers on, he ran into the kitchen and made up a bowl of cereal, scoffing it down as fast as he could, nearly running into the door in his rush to get outside. The cool morning air whipped at his face as he ran along the paved footpaths of New York with his Uncle Steve. Harry was light on his feet, a silent shadow in the dark streets of the sleeping city. 'Aunty Nat's lessons are paying off' he thought as he kept pace with his uncle, quite a feat considering that Steve was a super soldier and even when he was trying to slow down his pace, he still ran slightly faster than a normal human would when they were jogging.

Harry had successfully snuck up on his Uncle Loki the other day and took extreme pleasure in hearing the high-pitched yell that the older man gave when he had tugged on his cloak in greeting. When Harry and Steve arrived back at SI, Steve went to have a shower, leaving Harry to get to his Aunty Nat's lessons by himself.

As he walked down the various hallways that led to the training room, Harry wondered what they would be doing at school this week, 'probably more basic facts and spelling, like last week' he thought exasperatedly 'I wonder if I could be put up a class'. You see, while Harry was only 5, he had also been taught basic math, english (meaning spelling, writing, reading etc.) and science from the age of 3. He found all his classes exceedingly boring as he already knew all the material being taught. He had taken to reading more about the wizarding world during his classes, he had gotten Sirius to charm the covers of his books on wizarding etiquette and wizarding politics so that they looked exactly like his school books. Therefore, he wouldn't get bored in class.

Harry got pulled out of his thoughts as he felt someone grab him from behind. He started to panic. Suddenly a feeling of calm washed over him as he brought up his semi existent occlumency barriers, he gained control of his emotions and kept his face blank. He thought back to the first lesson Natasha had ever given him "Never let your opponent know what you're thinking, when you fight you must be swift, agile and precise. Use your surroundings to your advantage"

With that in mind, Harry spun around and delivered a swift kick to the attacker's knee, though not very hard, it distracted his opponent momentarily, enough that he could take a few steps back and analyze the situation. It was only then that he realized the 'attacker' was none other than his Uncle Tony, who was currently looking at Harry with an expression of mild amusement. "Sorry Uncle" Harry said sheepishly

"That's alright mini merlin" Tony replied with a laugh, "I was just wondering if you wanted to spend the afternoon with me in the lab?"

"Course I do Uncle Tony, but you know how Aunt Pepper is, I have to finish my studies, my homework, and answer a quiz about what I've learnt for the day, then I can come down to the lab"

"Yes, yes I know how Pepper is, but I also know how your Aunty Nat will react when you show up late without a plausible explanation"

"Oh no!" Harry's eyes widened with sudden realization as he looked at his watch, it read 6:05am, he was five minutes late!

Harry hastily said goodbye to Tony and ran the rest of the way to the training room. He knocked on the door and waited patiently for permission to enter.

"Enter" came Natasha's cold voice, Harry swallowed the lump in his throat, straightened his back and walked through the door.

The training room contained various equipment. By the far wall there were a set of uneven gymnastics bars. There were a pile of punching bags to the left of the door. On the left wall, there was a handrail that ran down the length of the wall. The right-hand wall was decked with various weapons (bows and arrows, knives, daggers etc.). to the right of the door was where the dummies were kept, they were magically enhanced and could imitate spell casting as well. In the center of the room there was a sparring mat which could also be used for gymnastics and ballet.

As soon as Harry was through the door, Natasha was on him, he had to dodge, duck and twist void oncoming attacks. This lasted 10 minutes before Natasha was satisfied.

"On the bars" she ordered in a deadly voice. Harry shivered, this was not his fun, loving, prankster of an Aunt anymore. Natasha Romanoff was someone to be respected. He had been late, wasted 5 minutes of her time, and now he was going to pay for it, in sweat.

Natasha watched as her nephew warmed up and stretched, she wasn't really angry at him, but it helped Harry learn that punctuality was important.

Once he was sure that he wouldn't pull a muscle, Harry corrected his posture and waited for his Aunt Nat to hoist him up onto the bars. He wasn't allowed to chalk up his hands because as he had been told before "If you're kidnapped or stuck somewhere and the only option is to climb up to or swing on the rafters of metal scaffolding etc. Then there won't be any chalk"

Natasha made Harry complete a series of flips and other complicated tricks, she didn't let him off of the bars for 20 minutes. Then he had to stand next to the handrail and complete the proper stances 10 times each, before moving to the mat and completing the complicated ballet routine he'd been forced to memorize the day before. Harry had to complete the routine 5 times before Natasha was satisfied.

" Приготовиться " (get ready) Natasha called as she got ready to attack

" готовый " (ready) Harry called back, already in a defensive stance, face set, determined.

Natasha started the timer that was attatched to the wall, then she struck. This was when Harry put his training to the test, despite his young age he was extremely graceful, like flowing water. He twisted away from and dodged every punch, kick and attack that Natasha threw at him. This went on for another half hour before Harry got tired.

"Alright Har, that's enough for today. Go shower and change, Wanda is in the penthouse"

"Thank you Aunty" Harry said, before running up to Natasha and giving her a hg which she returned.

"See ya after school Har" Natasha called out to her nephew as he headed to the bathroom, a smile on her face.

"Love you Aunty" Harry called back over his shoulder.

Once cleaned and dressed in his school uniform. Which consisted of grey trousers, black school shoes, a white button down shirt and a green cardigan, Harry took the elevator up to the penthouse, to find Wanda sitting on the ground, leaning against the couch, eyes closed. Harry knew the drill and sat cross legged beside her, he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing until he entered a trance like state. He had to meditate like this for half an hour every morning. It cleared his mind of any doubts, fears or worries that he may have.

A gentle tap on his shoulder brought him out of the trance and he looked up at his Aunt Wanda who was smiling down at him.

"Hey Harry" Wanda said as she smiled down at her only nephew "time to go to school"

"Do I have to Aunty?" Harry complained

"Of course you do Har, I know you find it boring but we have to keep up appearances"

"Yes Aunty Wanda"

With that Harry said goodbye to Wanda and took the elevator down to the garage where Happy was waiting for him.

Once they got to the school 'Midtown Primary', Harry said goodbye to Happy and walked to class. He picked a seat at the back of the room and took out his book on Wizarding Politics. When the teacher started writing basic facts on the whitenard, Harry sighed, it was going to be a long day.