...This ended up taking an age and a half anyways, didn't it? Ah well. Sorry guys.

This chapter and the next were by far the hardest ever to write... hope they came out okay.

But anyways, since you guys are so awesome for sticking with this story, two chapters again! Chapter 15 will be up in about two minutes X3

Enjoy!


A strange rustling noise dragged Tony from his slumber. Disoriented and still half asleep, Tony opened his eyes – and found Clint's staring face inches from his own.

That was definitely not the face Tony wanted to wake up to. Startled by the unexpected dose of Clint, Tony yelped and shot backwards, hitting his head soundly on the wall opposite. Clint roared with laughter. "Wake up, sunshine!" He crowed, dancing out of the way as Tony tried to strangle him.

Before Tony could detangle himself from the sheets and reach him properly, Clint ran for the door. "You can catch up on your beauty sleep later," He called over his shoulder. "We're all meeting in the kitchen. Hurry up!" He shouted as he ran out, his fiendish cackle still echoing behind him.

"Sneaky bastard," Tony growled, rubbing his head from where he'd smacked it against the wall. His heart was still pounding from the rude awakening. He cursed under his breath as he got up and headed for the door himself. If he knew Clint, he'd probably already overblown the story and told half the team about his little screaming fit by now. Brilliant.

If Clint knew what was good for him, he'd sleep with one eye open for the foreseeable future.

Tony was still feeling grumpy – a pretty good sign he hadn't slept enough, though Clint's little visit probably had something to do with it. Still, he was functioning, and that was all that was necessary. Clint had said they were all meeting – Tony hoped that meant the wizards as well. He was more than tired of working with incomplete information. Maybe the wizards would finally lose the 'I know better than you' attitude and fill them all in about this Dark Lord. Considering they'd all just risked their lives to save the wizards (And Tony had almost lost his a few times over) Tony figured they deserved a little honesty in return.

"Stark!" Thor boomed joyfully the moment Tony set foot in the kitchen. Predictably, everyone was around the kitchen table, wizards and all. Also predictably, there were several dishes of food piled high on the table – if Thor was around, of course he'd make more than enough for everyone to eat.

"Thor!" Tony cried in a mocking imitation of Thor's enthusiasm. Thor didn't even blink at Tony's blatant sarcasm – he was beaming from ear to ear, looking for all the world like a kid who'd just gotten a puppy for Christmas.

Before Tony could ask who'd slipped the god happy pills, Thor stood and said, "The wizards know their magic well. They assured me that my brother shall survive his injuries." Despite the fact that Loki had tried to kill Thor – several times – he, as usual, didn't seem to care. Thor looked like the news was the best news in the whole wide world.

Tony really hoped Thor was an exception with the whole toddler mentality thing. If all the Asgardians thought like two-year-olds… well, Tony could understand why people had quit praying to them.

Still, Tony was surprisingly relieved by the news. But what was more surprising – and disturbing – was the little knot of tension that had taken up residence in his stomach. Tony had been ignoring it – but upon hearing that Loki hadn't up and died, the knot eased and faded.

What the hell?

Clearly he hadn't drank enough this morning.

He went and poured himself a generous glass of alcohol – but was interrupted by Steve. "Tony," The Captain said disapprovingly. He looked at the liquid in Tony's glass. "For breakfast? Really?"

Tony heaved a theatrical sigh. "Fine," He said, and poured some orange juice on top of the liquor. Raising the strange mixture to Steve, he said, "Mimosa. Happy now?"

Grinning at Steve's exasperated expression, he went to sit down with his new morning drink. Steve and Natasha budged up so that Tony could fit between them. With the wizards in attendance, the table was even more crowded than usual. Tony still didn't quite understand how or why the rickety table had been designated as the official meeting place of the Avengers. When it was just a few people, sure, but now with three more people, Tony was bumping elbows and dangerously close to bumping knees with everyone present. He knew the dining room wasn't popular – it was empty and gathering dust; Tony didn't know if anyone had even entered there since everyone had moved in. But the living room was Tony's meeting place of choice, filled with overstuffed sofas and normal, non-rickety tables.

Maybe Thor still hadn't grasped the concept that food could, in fact, be carried from the kitchen. Whatever. They were all gathered, and hopefully the wizards were finally going to spill the beans about Voldy. That was more important than cramped seating.

Tony awkwardly spooned himself a plateful of what looked like corned beef with all the fixings – Thor sure didn't do anything halfway.

And then there was silence as everyone looked expectantly at the wizards. Tony took a huge bite and stared at the wizards too, but they said nothing.

"This is your meeting, sorcerers," Natasha said when they continued to sit silently. "Tell us what we're up against."

"Yeah – we need to know so we don't get our asses kicked next time," Clint added.

"I don't think anything they tell us will prevent that, Clint," Bruce said. Clint scowled at him.

The wizards looked at each other – then finally Hermione cleared her throat and began to speak.

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"Everything," Tony said with a shrug.

Hermione frowned. "There's quite a lot," She said quietly. She looked over at Harry, who still wasn't speaking. Frowning deeper, she said, "This is really Harry's story to tell."

They were really awkward in the whole public-speaking department. Tony decided to give them a nudge.

"You don't have to go into some great speech outright. Let's start with some questions." A sentence had stuck in his head from their run-in with Voldy – maybe the wizards could shed some light on it.

"When Loki was having his little chat with You-Know-Who, Voldy said something about 'ancient powers you have never dreamed of.' Is that typical supervillain crap, or does he really have something that's bigger and badder than everyone else's?"

Ron gulped. Looked like he'd hit the nail on the head, then.

"That means yes. Mind explaining?"

Harry said nothing, but Hermione reached once more for her abyss-bag. She scrounged around in there for a minute, then drew out something on a long golden chain – a charred and mangled locket. She placed it carefully on the table.

They all stared at it. "A broken necklace? That's his secret weapon?" Tony said skeptically, one eyebrow raised.

"It used to be," Harry replied. The wizard was looking at the locket like it was the most repulsive thing he'd ever seen.

"Going to need more than that, Merlin."

Harry finally looked Tony straight in the eye. "You-Know-Who was telling the truth," Harry said. "He does possess ancient magic. Because of this," he gestured to the locket, "And others, he's all but immortal."

Harry looked around the table again, and his eyes were steely as he continued. "This is You-Know-Who's best kept secret," He said. "He never told his followers, never spoke a word of their existence. We've never told anyone either," He said, glancing at his comrades. "We never planned on it, but…" He paused, and the faintest half-grin appeared on his face. "I doubt Dumbledore ever expected we'd team up with a group like you."

Tony didn't quite know what to make of that statement, but it sounded like they were being brought into their confidence, which could only be a good thing.

"You can't tell anyone about this," Harry said, his voice incredibly serious. "If You-Know-Who discovers that we know about his Horcruxes, it's over. This is the only chance we have at beating him."

"We won't say a word," Steve said solidly before anyone else could reply. Everyone else just nodded.

Harry took a deep breath, steeled himself, and said, "You-Know-Who's greatest fear is death – he is willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, to become immortal.

"He's not the first to want immortality – other Dark Wizards have gone down that path before. But he…. He travelled farther than anyone else. He made several Horcruxes – hidden across the world, covered with curses. All but impossible to find - but so long as they survive, so does he. With the Horcruxes intact, he's immortal.

"That's what we're facing. That's what we've been doing. We've been trying to hunt down his Horcruxes and destroy them."

Harry fell silent, his face grave. Tony looked serious right along with him. Of course Tony had no clue what the hell 'Horcrux' meant, but he was familiar with the word immortal.

And that was really, really bad news.

"I'm sorry, but what exactly is a horcrux?" Steve asked, looking quizzically at the wizards. The good Captain was always so polite.

Harry looked at Hermione. Hermione, looking grave as well, slowly said, "A Horcrux is a piece of darkest magic. It's when a person commits an act of unspeakable evil… an act of murder. An act that tears their soul apart. They make a spell as they kill, and encase a piece of their shattered soul within an enchanted magical object. So long as that object remains intact, they cannot be killed."

Thor issued a wordless exclamation. "It is an abomination," Thor whispered. He looked positively sick. "The soul is otherworldly, untouchable. To not only shatter it with murder, but rip it from the body to achieve one's mortal means…?" His revulsion mixed with anger. "This monstrosity must be destroyed, no matter the cost." His hand tightened around Mjolnir, and there was a sudden shifting around the table as Bruce and Clint tried to move away from the sparking hammer.

"That's what we've been trying to do," Harry said to the god.

Tony just stared. "So, how many Horcruxes does this guy have?" Tony asked, dreading the answer.

He was right to dread it. "Six," Hermione said. "The seventh still resides within his body."

The implications of that were more than frightening. But before Tony could start to panic too much, Harry jumped in.

"He made six – we've destroyed three. That's the third," Harry said, and now Tony could more than understand his revulsion. There used to be a piece of Voldy's nasty soul encased in there.

"So you're saying, so long as even one Horcrux is intact, he can't die?" Bruce asked slowly.

"Yes."

Silence. Not even Tony could think of anything to say. He'd known the situation was bad, but he had no idea it would be this bad.

It was Natasha who finally spoke up. "What can we do?" She asked, her voice calm and cold as ever. All business. "Do you know where the others are? Or even what they are?"

"We think we do," Harry said slowly. "They're going to be objects of importance, at least to him. That locket," He gestured to it once more, "Used to be Salazar Slytherin's."

Despite the situation, Tony had to hold in a laugh again. It was astonishing the wizards were able to blend in at all with names like Voldemort and Slytherin.

"Back up," Steve said, holding up his hands. Everyone looked at the Captain. Turning slightly pink, he said, "Look, I know we need to know about these Horcruxes – but we can't just jump right in. We need some backstory first. You say Salazar like that's supposed to be of some importance, but I have no idea who you're talking about."

"And there's more to this than a bad guy with soul-splitting problems," Tony interjected. "You're not just some random vigilante out to save the world. Voldy made it personal, I get that – but he's killed plenty of people, made plenty of enemies. How did you, and no one else, manage to find out about all this?"

Tony felt bad about indirectly mentioning the fact that Voldy had killed Harry's parents, but Tony wasn't stupid – he'd seen how reluctant the wizards were in divulging any information. It was obvious that the Horcruxes were Voldy's best kept secret, his tie to life – these wizards were not only trying to destroy them, but trying to do so without the noseless man finding out about their quest.

That seemed a huge task for three teenagers.

But Tony was nothing if not thorough, and Tony knew that Harry had played a bigger part in the fight against Voldemort. Regardless of method, Tony was going to figure out what that part was.

Harry heaved a great sigh. "You should tell them, Harry," Hermione said quietly. "From the beginning. They're on our side," She reminded him when Harry continued to say nothing.

"They should know what you've done," Ron grunted, surprising Tony with his support.

"What we've done," Harry corrected. That seemed to be a turning point – he looked around at the crowded circle, looked down at the ruined Horcrux, and began.


That would have been such a mean cliffhanger. X3

This was originally going to be posted on St. Patrick's day, it's a few hours after that now... but anyway, that's why Thor made corned beef. Wanted to throw a little reference to St. Patty's day somewhere xD

Hope you enjoyed!