Hey guys

Ok I fixed the quotation marks. I wasn't aware, that it's THAT annoying. In Germany they start at the bottom. I wrestled for a while with my Laptop to get them to start at the top, because he was doing so automatically. Now I just have to remember to switch the settings whenever I need my writing program for my work, and thus german texts ... oh well *sigh* I never minded quotation marks while reading stories but obviously some of you do. And after finally finding out how to change them, it's no big deal anymore.

I hope I haven't missed any of the quotation marks, while fixing it.

And as always thanks for sooo many reviews and followers and favoriting this story! You guys rock! And it always makes me smile. So thanks for that!

So Harry arrives at Avengers Tower and meets the rest of the team. Yayy =)

Have fun!

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Chapter 4

Once Natasha got them in the air and the jet on autopilot back to New York, there was an awkward silence between them all.

"So what is going to happen now?", Harry asked haltingly.

"You're going to live with me now." Clint answered with conviction. "I wasn't exactly prepared for this turn of events. I had thought I ... we both, I guess ... had more to time to come to terms with this. But it doesn't matter. You are my son and I will take care of you."

"You didn't even know, I existed hours ago!", Harry spat bitterly, then winced. It was certainly true, but he didn't want to scare Clint away so soon. He just didn't want to be just an obligation to someone ... again. The Dursleys took him in because he had nowhere else to go and they were his family. For Harry this was the same situation all over again. Someone got saddled with him hours after they learned about him. Ashamed he looked away from the others.

"Hey. What's the matter?" Harry shrugged at his fathers concerned voice.

Steve got up and went to Natasha in the cockpit to give the newfound family a little space.

Clint sighed. "Look I know it isn't easy. You got your whole life turned upside down. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, mind you, but I'm here for you. I might not have known about you, but I always wanted kids with Lily. We were trying to start a family back then. I want you! And I want to get to know you." He laid a gentle hand on the hands of his son, which he was wringing in his lap. He watched sadly as Harry flinched barely noticeably.

"Nobody has ever wanted me. Not that I can remember.", Harry whispered.

"I do. I wanted you even before I knew you existed. I dreamed of the son I would have with Lily" However well Clint meant this words to be, they only made Harry feel worse. What if he couldn't measure up to the image Clint had of his dream son. So he just nodded in hopes of Clint dropping the matter.

Feeling that something in the air had just shifted again, Clint was at a loss of what to do. It seems he couldn't get through to Harry. He knew it would take time and he couldn't expect Harry to just suddenly jump in his arms, calling him Daddy.

"So ... uhm ... how did you find out about Lily and me? Your letter to Nick Fury was rather vague." Clint asked not knowing what else to do, but wanting to have a conversation with his son.

"I was cleaning out the attic and found some things of mum. Her diary of her time in SHIELD and some photos."

"Would you mind if I read it some time? I dearly loved your mother and I still miss her even to this day." Nodding Harry smiled a little. He didn't doubt the honesty of Clints words in this. He could hear it in his voice and see it in the way his eyes were just a tad bit watery.

"She loved you too, from what I read and she was heartbroken, when you went missing and they told her you must have died."

"I am sorry. There is not one day that passes that I don't regret ever taking on that mission. I was stuck in the middle east with no communication. My inside man had been killed. I couldn't trust any one. I had to maintain my cover, the slightest mistake would have meant my death. I spare you the details, but I was found by chance six months later by another SHIELD agent. He could contact HQ and they got me out. But by then Lily had already left and taken cover. I knew she was magical and that I had no hope of finding her if she went under wards. But I still looked. I had her face running through our systems all those years so that I would be notifyed if she ever showed up. Needless to say, that wasn't the case. I didn't know she was pregnant when I left on my mission." Clint explained with a faraway look on his face. Clearly caught in memories. "I wouldn't have left her, if I had known", he whispered.

They were both silent on the rest of the ride, till Natasha told them, they were about to land.

"This is Stark Tower, now Avengers Tower. We live here most of the time, when we're not on assignments." Clint said as they stepped of the Jet on the landing platform on top of the tower.

"What's it with the Avengers? Dudley said that too." Harry asked confused. He had meant to ask sooner but after the shock of being cast out his relatives home, he had forgotten.

"You don't know the Avengers?", Steve asked flabbergasted. Every child knew them. It wasn't that Steve liked this but he was now used to being recognised on sight.

"Well some people call us superheroes. We are a crazy bunch of people with special skill sets and/or superpowers. Steve here was a soldier in 1940, when he was injected with a serum that made him into a supersoldier. He was then frozen in ice for 70 years. Natasha and I are trained assassins and agents of SHIELD." Clint explained. He understood, that Harry propably hadn't had much access to modern technology, being in Hogwarts most of the year. He told Harry about being an assassin a little bit nervously. He didn't want Harry to find out later by accident.

"You kill people?", Harry asked astounded. He had known Clint was an Agent, so he didn't think Clint was a stranger to violence but actually aiming to kill people?

"Only the bad guys, who would kill others in a heartbeat" Natasha chimed in. That Harry could accept, thinking of Voldemort and his Deatheaters. They certainly deserved death for what they did, dind't they?

Clint then proceeded in telling him about the other members of the team. Harry was impressed and just a tad bit incredelous. The Norse God of thunder, seriously?

While they were talking they had arrived in the main living room, where everybody else was waiting to meet the son of Clint Barton, having been notified by Natasha of their imminent arrival while still airborne. Harry looked around and saw curious eyes all watching.

Feeling selfconcious, he ducked his head and froze in the doorway. He would have liked nothing more than to run and be alone for a while to process all this.

"There he is, the mini Hawkeye. So Hatchling, how was the ride?" Tony asked pompously.

"Uhm .. Ok I guess." Harrys eyes were darting around looking for an escape. This were even more new people and they were all interested in him. He felt as if he was measured up and didn't know if he passed. His father might have said, that he wanted him, but even if that was true, that didn't mean the people living with Clint would want a teenager staying with them.

"Oh it's so good to have you here. Tony already arranged for the second bedroom in Clints appartment to be furnished. Don't worry you can decorate the room however you like, but we thought it would be better to have at least a bed and a dresser in your new room. You can choose the rest later. The workers just finished putting evrything up." Pepper told him with a reassuring smile. Having seen that Harry was starting to feel overwhelmed she offered to show him to his room, where he could put everything away and freshen up some, if he'd like.

Harry felt immensly grateful to the beautiful woman. She was giving him an out, without him having to bolt from the room. With a look at his father, who nodded, Harry followed the woman to his new room. Steve following with his trunk wich he laid at the bottom of the bed before going back to join the others.

"I'm Pepper by the way." She introduced herself.

"Oh are you an Avenger too?"

"Oh no no, I just happen to be in love with an avenger. I'm Tonys girlfriend, but sometimes I feel more like his babysitter." She told him with a wink. "Well I think I leave you to it. Come up when ever you're ready. Just ask Jarvis for directions. He is an artificial intelligence and manages this house. He will assist you when ever you need it."

"Hello Mr. Potter. I am Jarvis", a british disembodied voice said. Harry jumped a little in suprise.

"Hey Jarvis, just call me Harry", he said timidly.

"As you wish Harry"

After Pepper had left, Harry slowly sank on the mattress of his new bed. It was the softest bed he had ever had. It was even better than his bed in Hogwarts.

His room was still a little bare, with only a queensized bed in one corner of the room and a side table beside it. A huge dresser stood just beside the entrance. The whole opposite wall was made of glass and was overlooking New York. It was a truly breathtaking view. The windowsill was wide and padded. It was obviously meant for sitting. Beneath the seat there were some shelves.

The carpet was a soft plushy one in dark red. The walls were cream colored. The room itself was spacious, and without further furniture it looked a little lonely. Pepper had said that he could furnish it himself, but the bed and dresser were brand new and of high quality dark wood. It looked expensive. He wasn't sure he could ask for more. And besides this was more than the Dursleys ever gave him.

Slowly he began to unpack and put his clothes in the dresser. In the huge dresser his small pile of hand me down clothes looked rather pityful. Frowning Harry closed the door of the dresser, so nobody saw that he couldn't even fill half of it. His schoolbooks, he put on the shelves beneath the windowseat. His other things he left in the trunk, not having anywhere to put them yet.

Sighing he sat down on the padded windowsill and just took in New York. The sun was just beginning to set, casting a beautiful warm light over his new home. It had been late evening when they left Surrey. But now after a long flight it was evening again thanks to different timezones.

Drifting off with his head against the windowpane, bathed in golden evening glow, Harry dared to hope that maybe he finally had found a home.

...

Till next time!