The voices in James's head argue about their return
SAFETY MUST BE ASSESSED.
New York's home. Bucky points out. Besides, we have more backup there. It's easier to hide in a crowd.
"You can come to my home," Harry offers to the Bartons as they watch the Blackbird seemingly appear in the middle of the wide, unobstructed sky. With magic, it could have easily been teleported, rather than flying in stealth mode.
"My home is a school," Harry shares for the hundredth time. "So nobody can be left behind."
Harry never had gone to school with Lila, much to both children's disappointment. Jarvis had updated the homeschool curriculum and schedule that they'd used at Xavier's Institute, so Harry had his own stories to share with Lila and Cooper the following days. Harry hadn't been quite as upset about being left behind.
HOMESCHOOLING IS A TOUGHER MISSION THAN PROTECTION. James's inner voice had groused while trying to keep Harry's attention on tracing letters rather than the window. As jealous as Harry had been, he wasn't the most attentive student.
"Your home's a magic school," Cooper is clearly as jealous of Harry's home as Harry was of his.
"A mutant school," Harry corrects. He starts to lead Lila to the jet, but Clint stops them.
"Can we go, Daddy? Please?!" Lila makes her eyes wide and pleading.
Clint shakes his head as the ramp lowers. "I want you away from all the commotion."
"But they fixed New York," Cooper acts as if it's perfectly normal for massive infrastructure damage to be repaired in a week. James has seen news clips of tirades about how mutants, witches and wizards hadn't helped rebuild quickly after other disasters that James does not remember. Clint had assured James that the Soldier hadn't caused those disasters.
The reassurance had only slightly settled James's mind. The Soldier had caused plenty of disasters regardless.
"You can meet my family, when you come over," Harry says, snapping James out of his thoughts.
Clint nods at the jet. "Looks like we'll be meeting now."
Cooper goes slack-jawed when he sees who emerges.
"I know, I'm better in the flesh," Tony Stark grins, sauntering down the ramp. "I was going to fly over myself and give you an Iron Man welcome, but this is supposed to be a safe house and all. And your dad would probably turn me into a porcupine if I led the paparazzi here."
"Dad's not magical," Cooper says, completely missing that Stark meant Barton would stick him full of arrows. Barton makes a wounded face.
"Where's Thor?!" Lila asks. She'd grown to love him over their video chats, and had heard Laura mention how handsome and muscular he was. Clint had petulantly pointed out that drawing his bows required plenty of muscles, thank you very much.
"Not here," Tony says. "That man wouldn't know subtlety if it hit him with his own hammer. Plus he's still babysitting his baby bro."
"Look who's talking," Clint snarks, though even the offhand mention of Loki makes him go as taut as his bowstring.
"Hey, I came here in this stealthy jet!" Tony argues. "And I kept Harry and James secret just as well as you kept your family secret. Even better, really, because up until last week, you weren't a celebrity sought after by every reporter in the world,"
"But everyone knows me!" Harry points out. "I'm not a secret. Everyone's after me."
Tony pauses, mid-brag, and points a finger at Harry. "You're picking up too much sassiness from Jarvis,"
Barton hacks a fake cough, disguising the words "Or you,"
Professor X rolls down the ramp, followed by Logan. Logan nods at James but folds his hairy arms with an impatient scowl.
Lila isn't deterred by Logan's gruff demeanor. She walks right up to him and states "Harry says you don't yell at people in the kitchen,"
"I do if they take my food," Logan seems vaguely amused, though still impatient.
"You'd roar at Dudley," Harry grins almost wickedly, clearly imagining his cousin's face facing the wrath of Wolverine.
"How'd the Barton Barnes Olympics go?" Stark asks, clearly eager to switch the topic to Harry's more recent, happier childhood memories.
Harry, Lila and Cooper launch into long-winded descriptions of the games Clint had set up over the week. Some were carnival games that sent flashes of memories of a place Bucky identified as Coney Island. Harry's magic had shrunk the bottle the ring had to go over, ensuring him the prize.
"And we did basketball, too, only no Quidditch 'cos we only have one motorbroom."
Tony beams. He makes a gesture and two more motorbrooms fly out of the aircraft, heading straight for Lila and Cooper and vibrating like excited puppies.
"Thank you!" both children scream loud enough that even Clint winces with his hearing aid.
"Now we can play Quidditch!" Harry cheers, grabbing his own broom and completely forgetting his eagerness to leave. Logan huffs as the children zoom around the yard. Lucky chases the broomsticks, tail swinging as if trying to propel himself into the air with the children.
Stark explains that the brooms' AI also keeps them from doing dangerous stunts.
Laura looks skeptical about that claim, having seen some of the maneuvers Harry has pulled on his motorbroom.
Stark reaches into his pocket with a grin. "Speaking of which, I do have something for the older members of the family."
"I'm younger than you," Clint snipes, though he's smiling too. "And don't call my wife old,"
Stark pulls out two brand new StarkPhones and offers them with a cocky flourish.
"For secure Avengers communication," he says to Clint, then turns to Laura. "And because it'd be unfair for you not to have one. Jarvis is ready to assist you both. How you manage all their schedules without Jarvis is beyond me, but trust me, you won't forget anything with him. Even things you'd like to forget."
"Like nightmares!" Harry shouts, still eavesdropping as he streaks by. Lila and Cooper hover to admire the fancy new phones.
"Sorry, none for you," Tony tells them. Both children pout, and Laura tells them to be thankful for what they did receive.
"Your mom and I didn't get brooms," Clint points out, sounding a touch disappointed. Laura playfully smacks him upside the head, telling him he's a bad example.
Tony launches into a technical description of a broom Clint could control with his legs, to allow him to draw and shoot a bow while flying.
James loads their bags into the jet, and tells Harry it's time to depart. Harry hugs all the Bartons, clearly reluctant to let go.
James recalls Bucky's goodbye to Steve, before the war. There's fewer insults in this goodbye, but just as much hugging.
"I have your photos, so I won't forget what you look like," Harry tells the Barton family sincerely.
James won't forget, either, thanks to Jarvis.
The children prolong their departure by shouting bye sixty-seven times, each child wanting to be the one to say the last goodbye.
At last, they're strapped into the jet. Harry hadn't even suggested flying behind it this time. He continues to wave out the window, as the take off and the Barton farm disappears below them.
Upon their return to the Xavier Institute, Moody clumps up to them, both eyes scanning Harry. "Still in one piece," he says approvingly.
MOODY NEGLECTED HIS DUTY TO PROTECT HARRY. James's inner voice is unimpressed.
Probably didn't want to stay with Muggles, Bucky adds scathingly, though Moody has been living with Stark and James.
"I've got something for you, laddie," Moody pulls a photo album out of his robe.
Harry stares at it, nonplussed. "A book?"
"Open it," Moody growls, handing it over.
Harry plops on the floor and flips the album open. "It's a telly photo."
Moody had mentioned that magical photos could move, but it seems slightly less impressive compared to Stark's holograms and phones, which play videos.
The first page has a moving photograph of baby Harry. James has never seen Harry as a baby, but recognizes his son's eyes and black hair, though it was far shorter then than James has ever seen it. The scar is noticeably absent from his forehead.
Cute little punk, Bucky says, affectionately, and James suddenly wishes he'd been able to feel the weight of baby Harry in his arms, and had been able to rest Harry's head on his shoulder far sooner. He wishes his assassination of the Dursleys had been that Halloween night, the same night Harry's parents had been assassinated by Voldemort.
If only he'd been able to take Harry then and run, saving them both three years of torment. Harry would have never known the pain those years would bring, so long as James avoided HYDRA. James doesn't remember all the tortures he's gone through, but three fewer years would have been nice.
James tears his eyes away from baby Harry and he sees who's holding him in the photograph. Lily and James Potter.
Harry strokes Lily's red hair. "Mummy?"
"That's Lily," Moody growls in confirmation. Lily has Harry's eyes, just as Moody had told them, but aside from that, Harry strongly resembles his father. They have the same messy hair, the same face, and James feels a stab of jealousy.
Anyone would argue that Harry would have been best off with James Potter, not the James he has now. In the photo, James and Lily cuddle baby Harry close, all three of them smiling. James holds Harry often, but he doesn't remember ever smiling like that.
Stark's hand lands on James's prosthetic shoulder, right above the star. "He has your hair, really," Tony remarks, nodding at Harry's long hair falling around his chin.
Harry flips the page after only 15 seconds and laughs at the next photo. Baby Harry races in and out of the frame on a miniature broomstick as Lily's legs chase after him.
"Looks like you were always a gifted flier," James says. Harry beams up at him, his smile as wide as his carefree baby smile in the photographs.
"And Pepper says I'm irresponsible for giving you a motorbroom when you're a big boy," Tony exclaims, throwing his hands up. "Think she'll get off my case if I show her this?"
Moody shares some stories of James and Lily and Baby Harry, as well as a large, bearlike black dog called Snuffles in the next photograph. Snuffles was apparently a stray that the Potters sometimes fed and housed.
"He was quite the guard dog," Moody says. "Always watching you. Gave you rides, too. Very protective, but he wasn't there after the attack."
Harry's first question is "Did he die?"
"I don't know." Moody says. "Don't know if he was there that night."
"Did Snuffles eat poo like Nighty? Lucky doesn't eat poo, but we pick it up in a bag."
Moody doesn't deign that with an answer.
"Where did you get these?" James demands. Clearly, this is what Moody had been doing rather than guarding them at the Bartons'.
"He got some from You-Know-Who," Tony says conspiratorially.
Both of Moody's eyes fix on Tony as he snarls "I did not get them from Voldemort."
"I meant the Gandalf wannabe," Tony rolls his eyes as Harry flips the page again, jabbing at a brown-haired man who seems older and more ragged than Lily and James, despite appearing to be the same age.
Younger than when I shipped out, Bucky sounds sad that they'd faced a war even before him.
The photo is obviously torn, but Harry focuses on the people in the photo rather than the clear absence.
"Who's that?" Harry jabs the man with dark circles under his eyes.
"That's Remus," Moody says. "He's like Banner."
"He's a doctor?" Harry asks.
Moody huffs. "He can get a bit out of control,"
"What, are you going to tell us he's a vampire or something? He looks pale enough," Tony studies the picture critically. "Or maybe he's a werewolf that goes feral every full moon?"
James can't tell if Tony's joking or not, but Moody's silence is telling.
"You know, I'm not even surprised werewolves are real at this point." Tony sighs.
Harry clearly doesn't know what a werewolf is, and James isn't any more knowledgeable. Harry barely listens to Moody's description of the small, mousy man, Peter Pettigrew.
Harry hugs the book to his chest and runs to find Banner. He slams the book on the table, making Banner jump.
Harry flips through the album, giving Banner a tour.
"Look, here's my Mummy, and my first James dad. And there's Snuffles, he's as good as Lucky. And my dad now's better 'cos he's not dead."
Harry turns to beam at James, but James feels death would have been a better end for Bucky than becoming the Soldier.
Life ain't so bad now. Bucky argues. We've got Harry, Steve and all the others. More stuff than we could ever imagine in the thirties.
Harry turns back to the album. "And that's Remus. He gets really, really angry like you and turns into a wolf."
"He's a werewolf," Tony clarifies, sidling up behind Harry. "So, only once a month, on the full moon. Apparently stories got that right."
Harry winds up grabbing the attention of Colossus and Storm, showing them the album with Bruce. Despite all he shares, it's obvious Harry has fewer firsthand memories of his babyhood than even James has of his life before becoming the Winter Soldier.
"Snuffles liked the sprinkler," Harry shares, before suddenly shouting "Jarvis, can you show the Barton Barnes Games?"
"Of course, Master Harry." Jarvis says from the phone in James's pocket. " Although your father will need to remove his phone from his pocket,"
James pulls out his phone, and Jarvis plays the videos James took of the ring throwing games, foot races, hurdles. Next come the bike races and basketball. James watches Harry dive over sprinklers with Lila, Cooper and Lucky and bounce on the trampoline.
Harry turns back to the book, but begins talking to Lily and James Potter in the photos. "They're my new family. He's my dad, he's James too. And Mr. Stark gave me a new broom, like when I was a baby."
Harry continues to tell his deceased parents all about his new life, with his new family. The portraits smile on, seemingly thrilled with Harry's new family, though James wonders if they harbor the same jealousy he had at seeing them. Surely they'd wish to live, wish that Harry would know only them, rather than James or anyone else in the mansion.