A/N- HAPPY HALLOWEEN! sorry to those of you from other countries, i'm in the uk and i only just got back home. But anyways, sorry it's been a while! i completely procrastinated this until last monday where i realised i had to get my head down if i wanted this down for HALLOWEEN. O.o. Anyways, i hope you enjoy it and have had a good Halloween. Mine was good, i dressed up as a clockwork doll in the weekend and t'was BANTER. anyways (why do i always say anyways?) i hope you enjoy the chapter!

Three weeks apparently. Luna can keep her secret for three weeks. First of all, because Mr Stark is lazy, so even though FRIDAY could not keep her secret, she did disable the cameras temporarily, and Mr Stark hasn't even bothered to check. The strange letter is hidden away under her mattress, the deadline looming. Obviously, she'll have to tell them about it -their compound's been compromised after all, even if it isn't hard to look at satellite images and find the building site with a giant "A" for Avengers on it- she just doesn't know how to.

But she's pretty sure she'll just have to wait for Mr Stark (or probably any of them for that matter) to check the security logs and her Google search history. And her room.

But she still hasn't worked out the letter. No, it didn't have any explosives or toxic gases, which is a good sign. All she knows is that she has a deadline (31st July) and that on 1st September, something will happen, most likely a chain of events if the word "starts" is anything to go by. It's not much, and she knows that. Luna's a clever girl remember? Maybe? Or well she used to be at least. But she just feels helpless and… and confused. The words in the letter can't have any literal meaning, right? She Googled all the keywords (Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards, Minerva McGonagall) and there's not anything that ties together. Even the SHIELD information dump has revealed nothing. It's almost like a new set of codes that Luna doesn't know the pattern to yet.

Yet. Because she will figure this out.

….

Its somewhere in the back of Natasha's mind, niggling about and demanding she do something. But she can't, she can't even search Luna's room because as a Red Room agent, Natasha knows Luna can tell. No, Natasha has to bide her time, gather intel and watch- it's a little like a long term op, except with good intentions for the subject. She hasn't told Tony about Luna's missing security feed yet. She will, but Natasha knows Tony would only blow this up their faces. FRIDAY's "Luna requested to have her security feed shut down in her quarters from the 0900 to 1300." is just not a good enough answer.

To be honest, Natasha isn't sure if it's the fact that Luna is ten and she's killed people, or the fact that Luna is powered, that puts Tony at unease. She knows he still isn't completely okay with Wanda, though. However, three weeks have passed. Luna isn't giving anything away, but she's certainly not fooling Natasha with her usual spiel of

"Oh, it's just the wrackspurts. If I can just find the right corks it should be fine. The ones from this company don't seem to be working as well." or "Maybe another radish

species would work. Or maybe it's plums, I can't remember." Natasha might just be growing a little impatient.

….

A small part of Luna has to wonder how they know about her magic ("It's not magic." Dr Banner shakes his head, "There's no such thing, it's just science we haven't discovered yet." ). She supposes it was too much to hope for, her magic going completely undetected under HYDRA. Or perhaps it was that agent Morse. But they can't possibly… right?

Actually it seems fully unlikely that she's gone over six years with powers undetected, but what are the chances a whole magical school has gone undetected, it can't be real. She's missing something, she has to be.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Luna mutters furiously, pacing.

She needs to stop. Take a deep breath. No I need to figure this out!No she needs to take her time, think through things. "Ugh!" There are wracksputs everywhere and she can't possibly think like this. She needs to get some fresh air, take a walk, but she can't even leave the building, much less leave the compound!

….

Tony is having a swell time living with these Avengers. They all think he's some heartless bastard- they haven't said it, but they're all thinking it. Even Rhodey. Probably. It isn't his fault though! Aunt Peggy and Jarvis always said never to trust a girl with a perfect smile and perfect words. He's heard all about those escapades with the Red Room girl. He doesn't trust Natasha, fine, she doesn't trust him either. And that little girl Luna- sure the morally correct thing to do would be to make her family, read her bedtime stories, bake cookies with her- she's killed people, who knows how fucked up she is? She could stab him in the back at any time and go running off back to HYDRA. Sure

Wanda says she can read her mind, but Tony doesn't believe for one second that she's actually done it. Besides, the girl has powers too, she could be blocking Wanda out or some shit.

Except… it's not like there are any other solutions for Luna. They can't just dump her back on the streets. But-

Scrolling through the security camera logs, Tony noted that Room 9-A was disabled earlier. What was Room 9- A again? There wereway to many rooms to keep track of "Hey

Jarv-" He sighed, " FRIDAY? What's Room Nine- A for again?"

"That's Miss Luna's bed chambers, Mr Stark."

What. Damn it! He should have- "Thanks FRIDAY… Um, did she say why her room cameras were disabled?"

"No but if it is helpful, she did ask if I was able to keep a secret from You and the rest of the Avengers. Of course, I declined. Is this information of use to you, Mr Stark?"

Tony gritted his teeth and frowned. "Yeah, thanks. Call an Avengers meeting would you?"

"Time and destination?"

He glanced up to the clock, twelve thirty am, and shrugged. "Here and now is fine."

"I'm on it."

Carefully, Tony cleared his stuff in his office/lab and settled himself down on the sofa area, grabbing a cup of coffee as he went. And waited.

….

"Mr Stark has requested a meeting with the Avengers in the Lab 24, immediately." FRIDAY's voice sounds.

Frowning, Wanda puts down her book (whatever, she hasn't been able to concentrate on anything lately, anyway. Not since Pietro…) and glances at Vision who's sitting opposite her. He smiles pleasantly and she has to shift her eyes.

"Well I will see you there, Wanda." He says solemnly, before disappearing through the ceiling. What could Tony possibly need to discuss now? Immediately? She knows, he's been having trouble lately, with Ultron being not too long ago - just under two months- and particularly with his distrust of Luna.

Speaking of Luna… Wanda furrows her brows, she's been acting unlike herself lately, maybe she should… No. Wanda won't do that anymore. She isn't going to just disregard

Luna's trust… What would Pietro say?!

Sighing, she stands up and makes her way to the elevator doors.

Can't she just pretend to be sleeping?

….

It's another good day. Minerva always likes introducing new students to the world of magic. Their parent's faces never fail to amuse her, she truly likes children actually, and

if she can persuade them to favour Gryffindor then it's a bonus. But mostly she likes seeing the child's reaction to magic, to the fact that they have magic and all these years they knew they were different.

Minerva loves that moment.

"Peppermint sherbet." she says with perfect diction. The stone gargoyle twists and a secret passageway is revealed, a grand orchestral sound coming from within. For anyone else (or anyone muggle) this would be astonishing, mysterious, frightening even. But for Minnie, this is just normal, everyday and mundane. She makes her way up the cool stone steps and enters his office just as the music crescendos and the piece ends. His being her boss.

"Ah, Minerva!" Albus smiles, as if he hasn't been expecting her. "Take a seat." He says, gesturing to the plush leather chair before her. So she does. The sound of the chair

legs scraping the marble floor echoes through the room in ambience.

The wizard busies himself for a moment, gathering various parchments and a globe before settling himself down. He stares at her for a moment

"Albus, who is it today that I'm visiting?"

"A young lady, Miss Luna Lovegood." He smiles again, and there's something behind it.

There are too many things wrong with that sentence, Minerva realises as she processes it. The main thing being that, quite simply, Luna Lovegood is dead.

Or missing really, because there was no body and everyone just assumed because Aurora… because of the way Aurora was found. Beaten, mutilated, demoralised. Minerva allows herself moment.

"What do you mean, Albus." She hears herself say carefully. Albus just twinkles his eyes.

"I've found her, to put it simply, she was missing and she made her way to America. New York, to be precise. She has gotten her letter but currently we are not aware of her

knowledge of magic. She's currently living with muggles- so to speak."

"Has she received her letter yet? She's not yet quite eleven."

Albus hums."Yes. About three weeks ago. We had to make some exceptions as she must take her place at Hogwarts, it's only right, and it's a special case."

Frowning, Minerva narrows her eyes. "So how should I approach her?"

Albus simply shrugs. As if he is not considered one of, if not the, wisest wizards of this century. "Well I trust you judgement, Minerva. But I recommend you not say anything of her heritage unless she asks or shows signs of knowing." He pauses to look Minerva straight in the eye. "Remember we do not know what happened to her all those years ago. Keep that in mind. "

Nodding, Minerva stands up to leave. The situation ways down on her like a heavy ocean and she's at an impasse. She has a lot to think about and a lot to prepare. Her heels click on the ground rhythmically.

"And Minerva-" Albus calls. There can't possibly be anything stranger about this situation! "the muggles she are with... They're the ones that call themselves Avengers."

Of course Minerva's heard of them, the ministry's only barely covering then up, and from what she's seen of them, they're reckless and arrogant. And.

Well, this is a very delicate situation indeed.

...

"You have to admit. It's a little suspicious." Natasha lets up.

Everyone -including Thor this time- is gathered around the lounge area of Tony's office-lab area. He's rich and excessive, what more is there to expect? Tony, Rhodey, Bruce and Clint on one plush, leather sofa; and Sam, Steve, Wanda and Natasha on another. Vision and Thor are both just standing there.

Tony rolls his eyes."Not just a little." he mutters.

"Well what are we going to do about it then?"

"What do you think, Steve?"

Steve sighs a little, sometimes he feels like he really is too old for this shit. "Well she technically hasn't done anything wrong." He says, shifting his gaze around the room,

"Not that we know of, at least." He adds.

Everyone nods, even Tony.

"Wanda, are you willing to..." Says Steve slowly, after a minute's pause. He already know the answer though.

"No! I'm not just going to break our trust over some silly footage Stark wants... I can't do that."

"Well she already broke it seeing as she didn't trust us enough to keep a camera running." Pipes Tony.

"Yeah well if we trusted her then why do you put a camera in her room?!"

"Oh well," Tony scoffs, "maybe because I don't trust her. And apparently I'm right not too!"

This doesn't feel good. He doesn't want to shout at Wanda, she's still just a kid! But he can't not...

This whole thing's a mess. Already. Again.

"Tony stop, this isn't necessary." Steve intervenes, always the "voice of reason".

"Isn't necessary?!" Tony explodes. "I'm watching our backs. I'm protecting us. Sorry for doing my damn job!" He yells. " But you know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe I am being so unreasonable."

There's a tense moment before Clint stands up as if physically clearing the air and everybody is a little relieved.

"Hey guys, break it off okay? We won't be solving anything by fighting. And Wanda," he goes to purposely look her in the eye, " nobody's gonna make you do anything you don't want to do. You can feel safe here."

Wanda wants to say something snarky in reply but instead she just nods.

"You know." Vision begins, as if he has this all figured out, which he doesn't, "we could just ask her."

"We could," Natasha hums, "but if she wanted to keep it a secret from us she would just lie. And it would tip her off that we knew something was up and she'd be even harder to crack." It makes her sad that she has to talk about Luna like this- but she has her priorities. "We can just keep an eye out, monitor her more vigilantly, maybe check her digital history. She's from the Academy so she's one of the best. I should know."

It'll do for now. But everyone wants answers.

...

The spell is almost ready to perform. The connection is almost complete. It's been a while since Loki has been actually excited, for anything. But he knows he must remember

it's for her good not his.

Like a thought, like an emotion, Loki can feel Luna drifting, slipping into unconsciousness. As she falls into the realms of Niorun, the magic of Mischief and Lies brush at hers, tendrils stoking her mental bonds until he finally feels that connection, melding and soldering together.

Ahh…

So her mind palace. It's colourful and chaotic and beautiful; and if Loki's mind wasn't as twisted as it is, he wouldn't have noticed that intricate yet straight forward logic to it. It is genius. It is… marvellous!

He lets his voice echo in her head. "Hello moon-child."

She tenses and looks around confused, eye's as wide as the moon she is.

"Mister Loki?!"

A/N- i hope you enjoyed reading! Don't forget to leave a review. thanky you!

~Mercia xxx