It's just as hard now to find a sparring partner as it would have been before receiving the serum. Bucky had tried to teach Steve to box, but he'd had to pull his punches, as much as Steve bellyached about it. Before the serum, beating Steve was too easy; now, it's too easy for Steve to beat others.

Thor is one of the few people Steve's found who's an even match, but that's hardly the only reason Steve likes him. They're both unfamiliar with modern earth, and Thor understands more than most what Steve went through with seeing Bucky fall and then finding him again, irrevocably changed and fighting for the wrong side.

While Loki teaches Harry magic and James supervises as always, Steve and Thor decide to spar. They've been given access to the Danger Room, which has training simulations that are realistic beyond anything Steve would have ever dreamed possible. For now, they're sparring outside on the sprawling lawns, not far from where students run laps in PE, stumbling and grumbling about the early hour.

Logan barks orders at the students, nasty as any drill sergeant. "Quicksilver could crawl laps around you!"

Steve runs a few laps as a warm up, easily passing even the fastest student multiple times. "On your left," he tells them each time he runs past. All the students glare at him as he laps them effortlessly.

Thor lays a hand on Steve's shoulder with enough force to knock most people down. "Perhaps we should head inside, to avoid demoralizing them with our superior strength and stamina."

They stay outside but move farther away, putting aside the shield and Mjolnir to grapple on the ground.

Loki appears out of nowhere, eying them disdainfully as they roll around on grass. They're wet from dew, not sweat. Steve hardly sweats anymore.

"You've corrupted a young mage," Loki tells Thor. "He prefers physical pursuits to scholarly ones,"

"You expected a scholar?" Steve's tone remains dry as if he's not currently attempting to put Thor in a headlock. "Harry will only be turning five soon."

Steve may be new to this century, but he hadn't attended any sort of school until he was older than Harry. Kids are supposed to run and play. Sure, Steve had spent a lot of his childhood sitting and drawing, or poring over comic books he and Bucky had scrounged up for. Trying to play stickball in the street had set off his asthma, and the other boys had teased him mercilessly for not being keeping up with them.

"He cannot read," Loki says, exasperated. "Only books with pictures capture his attention, and not for long. His ability to focus is abysmal. Rather like yours, Thor."

Thor frowns as he struggles to pin Steve, who learned how to slip out of holds back when he had no muscles to speak of.

"I recall you spending much of our lessons devising new tricks to torment our tutors," Thor reminds Loki, and Steve aches that he can't blackmail and banter with James like this, like when he'd been Bucky.

"I need to hear some of those." Tony grins at Loki as he saunters into the yard. "And you need to come up with better lesson plans."

Loki opens his mouth to argue, but Tony doesn't let him get a word in. "Your lessons flew right over Harry's head, and not even literally. He definitely would've paid attention if you'd done that."

"I started with the basics." Loki says, as if Tony is daft.

"Still, it would be like if I signed him up for engineering courses at MIT. I didn't even get my degrees that young. I was building circuit boards when I was his age, but he's fine just flying around being a kid." Tony barely pauses to take a breath or realize that Thor and Loki don't know what MIT is. "Like I said before, not everyone can be a genius like us, and we don't want Harry following in our footsteps exactly."

Steve remembers the amount of effort and patience required to convince Harry to aspire to be a hero in a way that didn't involve fighting.

"He should hope to be like me." Loki doesn't quite puff his chest out.

"You're setting a standard he can't live up to." Tony's eyes flick over at Steve before continuing to bore into Loki. "If you made him feel bad about it-"

Rather than looking at Tony, Loki scowls bitterly at Thor. Steve had heard how Thor was the favored prince, constantly overshadowing Loki and setting a bar Loki could never reach. Thor seems burdened with guilt about it now, though he'd hardly realized the fact during their childhood.

"He did not listen to a word I said. I am a prince. Such disrespect would usually be punished."

Jarvis suddenly speaks from the phone in Tony's pocket, making Steve and Thor startle. "One can hardly blame Master Harry for his lack of attention and conversational skills, with Sir as a role model."

"Careful, J, or you'll be answering calls on a crappy customer support hotline,"

Before Loki can respond, Harry bursts out of the mansion with excited shouts of "PE! PE! PE!"

James and Sirius follow closely. Harry starts to run towards Logan's class, but James holds him back. "Don't bother them,"

Harry buzzes around Steve and the others like an overexcited wasp. He plows into Thor, beaming. "Thor! Let's play Lightning Ball!" He rubs his scar, then points at Loki "He won't teach me magic."

James insists that Harry stretch first and leads him through a series of stretches. Harry is somewhat petulant but follows along with James.

Loki watches, clearly miffed that Harry listens more to James than him.

"I overestimated your abilities," Loki's words surprisingly lack a condescending tone, until he adds "I should have known Midgardian development was slower than that of Asgardians."

"I can read P-E." Harry says petulantly.

"There are many skilled mages who would fall to their knees and beg for my tutelage," Loki says with a somewhat unnerving smile.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Yeah, and people would beg to live with me. Or sleep with me."

"I don't sleep with you, I sleep with Dad."

"I didn't mean like crawling in your parents' bed after a nightmare." Tony says. "I never did that."

"What did you mean?" Loki asks with a wicked grin.

"He's too young for the birds and bees," Steve gives voice to James' death glare.

"I'm big enough to play Lucky Ducks." Harry argues.

"The point is, people would go nuts to spend time with any of us. Even Harry's a celebrity. Face it, you're not exactly special here, Loki."

Steve thinks countless people would sell their souls to live in this mansion alone, even without a ton of superhero roommates. He certainly never imagined he'd live somewhere as grandiose as Xavier's Institute.

"Some Hogwarts students skive off class even though muggles would be desperate to go to Hogwarts," Sirius says. "Petunia even begged Dumbledore to let her attend."

Harry blinks at this news about his aunt. "Did he steal her, too?"

"No. He said she couldn't come. Probably why she turned into such a bitter bit-"

"Language," Steve warns.

With the recent revelation of magic, Steve's sure there will be more of that bitter jealousy rearing its ugly head. They've already seen hostility between so-called ordinary people and those with mutations or magic.

Steve can't say he's surprised. He'd seen the worst of humanity in the war, though he was surprised to learn there was a wizarding war happening the same time as his own, and that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald the same year Steve crashed into the arctic.

"I'm not going to Hogwarts," Harry insists for the umpteenth time, completely needlessly. He's finished stretching and starts to drag a mesh sack of dodgeballs. "I'm learning here."

"Not well," Loki mutters under his breath as Harry starts hurling the dodgeballs. Loki stops one mid-flight and leaves it hovering out of Harry's reach.

James frowns at Loki. "Jarvis has been providing a curriculum focusing on pre-literacy and math skills, fine motor development and social development."

"You know, preschool," Tony points out. "Reading picture books is a huge part of it. Surely even you started with storybooks."

"You can teach me magic nursery school!" Harry beams at Loki, as if that's the most brilliant idea on any planet.

Loki seems to think being beaten with Mjolnir would be preferable.

"You still have not shown the slightest appreciation for my efforts this morning."

"You mean like the heaps of appreciation you've shown for letting you crash on our planet?" Tony says pointedly.

Sirius jumps in with "Or for giving you a trial before locking you away for three years?"

Loki inclines his head. "I have received harsher punishments on Asgard for past transgressions. Rarely was my side of the situation taken into consideration."

Sirius raises a pretend glass in a commiserating toast.

"Your warriors hold magic in higher esteem." Loki says somewhat appreciatively towards Tony and Steve.

"I should not have viewed your strengths as lesser. Nor should you view young Harry's as lesser." Thor says solemnly. Harry throws a ball for Thor to zap with lightning; it falls to a fried crisp, and Harry looks between Loki and Sirius, waiting for one of them to fix it.

Sirius draws his wand and mutters "Reparo,"

Harry hurls another ball for Thor to zap, and then Harry waves his own hand with a shout of "Reparo!"

The ball continues smoldering. He isn't even holding his Wii Wand, not that that ever works like Sirius's. Tony had tried to explain the Wii to Steve, but it definitely would have been considered magic in Steve's day.

Harry turns to Sirius. "Is there a magical nursery school? Lila gets to go."

"Barton's daughter? Is she magical?" Loki asks. Steve's glad Clint isn't hearing this, because he'd put an arrow through Loki in an instant.

"No," Harry shrugs, unconcerned. "She gets to play and do art and storytime."

"You do all that here," Steve says. Harry has more to entertain himself with than Steve ever had.

"What do you do at magic nursery school?" Harry asks.

"We don't have that," Sirius tells him. "Kids are homeschooled until they're eleven."

"Like here?" Harry gestures at the mansion. "We're at a home school."

"You're the only magical preschooler here, Oliver." Tony says, though Harry clearly already knows as much. "Who knows, maybe there are some munchkin mages running around the Stark Tower preschool. James isn't really my employee but I could definitely get you a slot. It's my tower, after all."

Harry grins. "Is there flying class? I'd ace that!"

Steve chuckles. Harry's clearly heard the older students discuss acing or, in some cases, failing tests.

"There's a flying class at Hogwarts," Sirius tells him.

"We didn't get to fly at Hogwarts," Harry crosses his tiny arms.

There's a sharp whistle and Logan calls "All right, warmup is over!"

"Warmup?!" gasps Bobby Drake. "We're dying here!"

"Well you're about to die some more," Logan smirks. "Dodgeball time! Listen up. We're going to be recreating some battles, because you can't hammer down the details in my history class."

Thor raises Mjolnir high and Loki sighs. "Not that hammer, you oaf."

"The Man of Hidden Claws has declared a battle practice!" Thor seems far more excited than the students, some of whom look even more worried.

"It's Wolverine." Logan growls, but Thor's attention is on Harry, who's smiling just as broadly as he is.

"I want to play, too." Harry insists, but the students are too busy arguing who gets Steve and Thor on their team.

"Jarvis, prep the suit."

"Shall I re-enroll you in high school, sir?" Jarvis asks from the phone.

"Shut up, Steve and Thor are playing too, and they're both ancient." Tony tells his AI.

"And me!" Harry hollers.

"We're playing without powers." Logan tells the group, to a collective groan.

I wasn't planning on having to write a dodgeball scene when I started this chapter. It might be tricky.