This is the longest chapter in this fic so far, and I really wanted to post on Halloween because it's such a significant date in the Harry Potter universe.
Over the next several days, everyone becomes a lot less fun. All the big kids spend all their time reading and studying for final exams, which Bobby says are the worst thing ever. Even during basketball, they quiz each other on confusing things. "What's the sixth element on the periodic table?"
"Bacon!" Harry shouts, wanting to hurry this up. They're slowing down the game with their questions and answers.
Bobby gives him a tired look and answers "Carbon."
That's a dumb answer. Harry thinks for a bit. "Do you shape burgers like cars? Where's the pee-odic table?"
Bobby looks even more tired at all Harry's questions. All the students are tired, and a lot grumpier.
"Must be nice being a genius and not having to study," Jubilee groans over a large book, almost as big as the one Loki wanted Harry to read.
"I didn't study this much for my O.W.L.s," Sirius says, then explains "Ordinary Wizarding Levels."
"Sure, rub it in, Mr. Not-even-an-actual-genius-like-Tony." Jubilee gives Sirius an angry look. She's still awake when Harry and Dad wake up that night.
The next morning, Grandpa'fessor has a meeting with all the students about getting enough sleep.
Doctor Bruce and Doctor Hank are happy to help the big kids study. Mr. Stark does, too, except he talks too fast and everyone looks more confused when he explains science stuff. He hands them his phone so Jarvis can help them study.
On the morning of Bobby and Jubilee's history final with Logan, Mr. Stark glares at his phone. "Shit, looks like Coulson and Romanoff weren't the only ones digging through your paper records."
"Shit!" Harry cries back. Whatever it is, it's clearly bad.
Mr. Stark looks at Dad. "They made you shoot JFK?!"
Harry doesn't know who JFK is, but it's an easy name to spell. He can tell it's bad news, though, so he says "shit!" again.
Mr. Stark doesn't laugh this time. He sighs and says, "This'll turn into a whole mess of a trial instead of a quiet amnesty. Damn, someone leaked the one with mom and-"
Dad stares down at his breakfast, both shoulders near his ears.
Mr. Stark rubs a hand over his face. "It's okay, we still have a solid defense."
Harry's pretty sure he's not talking about blocking a ball or a puck. Dad said defense was blocking a punch, too. Are people going to punch each other at Dad's trial?
"We can play it that you turned yourself into Avengers custody. You kind of did. And I'll make sure you can attend via video from the tower." Mr. Stark tells Dad. "They're not going to feel safe with you in the courtroom unless you're shackled to a chair, and none of us want that."
Dad's breathing gets loud, and fast. Harry remembers Dad shivering seeing Sirius chained to the chair, and all those floating blacked robed things. "Are the bad things going to be there?"
"There shouldn't be any dementors," Sirius scowls.
Mr. Stark talks a lot on the phone the whole morning, but not to Jarvis. He says he's talking to lawyers and shoos Harry away. Loki keeps reading huge books, only they're about laws instead of magic.
Harry finds Dad and Logan smoking on the lawn. He flies his broom slowly around them, trying to listen without them knowing, but they notice him right away.
"I never had a trial," Logan tells Dad. He's said he's done bad stuff, too. "I go wherever I damn please. And I know you'll watch your back even when they say you're not guilty."
"If they do," Dad says.
Logan breathes in more smoke and blows it out. "Barton ain't guilty. Loki got off lightly, and he ain't even from Earth. Would you lock me up?"
Dad answers right away. "No."
Logan raises a brow, clamping his cigar between his teeth.
"They're going to lock you up?!" Harry cries out, horrified. He zooms his broom over to them. "No! They said Sirius didn't do it. So they'll say you didn't do it, too."
"But I did it." Dad says after a big breath.
"Not willingly," Logan growls, like he's tired of Dad arguing. He gets a bit less growly when he looks at Harry. "No prison could hold me or your dad long, kid."
Harry likes that thought, except Dad was held in the cold when Hydra had his brain. And he heard Sirius say Azkaban is impossible to escape, even with magic.
"Azkaban's just for magic people, right?" Harry asks Sirius later. They wouldn't put Dad there, would they? But they put Golden Snitches with tennis balls at the sports shop.
Sirius doesn't look too happy about the question, but he answers yes.
"They're letting me walk free after the other guy broke Harlem," Doctor Bruce laughs a laugh that's not funny and plays with his glasses. "Though Ross hunted me for years. I know they're, uh, still hunting you."
Mr. Stark works on making something that can show memories like a telly screen.
"Dad has a phone now. We can watch videos of us on it." Harry points out. Mr. Stark was the one to give it to Dad.
"Yeah, but if nobody recorded it, we need telepathy." Mr. Stark says. "Or whatever the wizards call it. Legilimency."
Mr. Stark adds that not everyone can look in people's heads like Harry's Grandpa'fessor.
By the time all the big kids finish their big exams, people seem a lot happier. They talk a lot about summer holidays, and Bobby seems excited even though his parents didn't like that he's a mutant.
"Do they hit you?" Harry asks. He knows now that it's wrong for grown-ups to hit kids, even if they are a bit freaky.
Bobby shakes his head. "They chilled out after seeing the X-Men save the planet."
"They have your ice powers?" Harry's confused.
Bobby laughs and explains that they're nicer now.
"Well, you're welcome at the tower," Mr. Stark offers. "I've got a spare floor you could turn into a hockey rink."
"Yes! Bobby, stay with us!" Harry's so excited he can't stay still, though Dad doesn't seem too happy to hear that. Dad doesn't like Bobby's powers much, but he never makes Bobby feel bad about them.
Now that exams are over, a lot of the big kids sleep until almost lunch, but Dad sleeps even less.
When the big kids all head off for their summer holidays, Mr. Stark invites everyone else to the tower. Doctor Banner agrees to come, but Logan doesn't.
Loki gets them there in a blink. They're standing in the X-Mansion, and then suddenly they're in the tower's sitting room, looking over almost the whole city.
"That was smoother than Apparition," Sirius blinks and shakes his head. Loki looks really proud of himself.
"You sure know how to make having a private jet feel like a hassle," Mr. Stark mutters. "Even my armor feels slow now, but flying is more fun. Right, Harry?"
Harry nods with a smile and Thor hefts his hammer.
"Guess I'm paying Happy to not drive me around, now."
"I believe Mr. Hogan is enjoying his impromptu vacation," Jarvis speaks from the ceiling, not from Mr. Stark's phone.
"Are you going to be my magical chauffeur?" Mr. Stark points at Loki. "I sort of imagined that would be more like a magic carpet, but-"
"I have better things to do than be at your beck and call." Loki says.
"Like I said, flying is more fun." Mr. Stark holds out his hand for Harry to high-five. Mr. Stark almost falls down when Thor gives him a high-five, too.
"My fort fort!" Harry shouts when he sees it's still standing. "Sirius, come and see! There's a surprise!"
Sirius follows Harry in, and Harry runs around. "See? It's so big inside!"
Sirius doesn't seem very surprised about that. He says all magical tents are bigger inside.
Sirius seems more amazed by the smooth metal and by all the screens. The X-Homeschool is all old and fancy, except for the basement, but Harry's not allowed down there.
Harry points to the huge telly screen. "When are they going to say you're not bad, Dad?"
Mr. Stark opens his mouth, but Jarvis speaks. "Sir, Miss Potts was hoping to introduce Sergeant Barnes to his legal team. Are you amenable to meeting them, Sergeant Barnes?"
Dad nods once.
Miss Potts comes in through the lift with a whole team of women and men in suits. Harry hides behind Dad's leg, and Steve jumps in front of Dad even though he doesn't have his shield.
Miss Potts introduces the legal team, who will be arguing that Dad isn't bad. Harry doesn't even know why they need to argue that; he knew that when he'd just turned four, and he's almost five now. Adults can be pretty dumb sometimes.
"They've all gone through extensive background checks, and they've been representing Stark Industries for years." says Miss Potts.
"We haven't had as many HYDRA moles as SHIELD," Mr. Stark sounds proud, but also furious they had any. Harry had heard the big kids talking about moles in a different way, something to do with maths and chemicals.
As Harry tries to figure out the difference between that mole and this mole, Mr. Stark points at two men in suits. "They aren't part of our legal team."
A man wearing sunglasses holds out his hand. "Matthew Murdock."
"Can you shoot lasers from your eyes?" Harry asks. Mr. Summers wears sunglasses. But so does Mr. Stark, and only shoots them from his Iron Man suits.
"No," says Mr. Murdock with a tiny smile. "I don't even see with my eyes."
"But that's what eyes do," Harry says, confused. This guy doesn't even have a magic eye like Moody, or a patch like Fury. "Do you see with your ears?"
"Sort of," the other guy, Mr. Foggy, says. He has kind of long hair, like Harry and Dad and Sirius.
One woman on the legal team, with a wand and a smile that flashes bright against her dark face.
"This will be the first time we use memories directly as evidence in a non magical trial," she tells them. "As well as legilimens, or telepathic evidence."
"Are we using the truth potion?" Dad asks, rigid. Harry looks at Sirius; hadn't he drunk something at his trial?
"You won't let Dad go to jail, right?" Harry asks them all with wide eyes. He holds onto Dad extra tight, in case someone tries to take him away.
"We have a compelling case and plenty of evidence, even if we didn't have direct access to memories." Mr. Murdock tells him. Harry doesn't know what that means; it's not a yes, but he says it like it is.
"You are in excellent hands, Sergeant Barnes," Jarvis says from the ceiling.
"We got this, buddy." Mr. Stark pats Dad on his metal shoulder. "If they try to take your prosthesis, citing it as a weapon, well, the Supreme Court couldn't take my suits."
"They want to take your arm?!" Harry can't believe what he's hearing.
"I just said they won't, Oliver."
Dad sends Harry off to play with Snuffles while he goes over files with the legal team. Harry keeps running between his fort fort and Dad's lap, because Dad looks like he needs all the hugs.
Mr. Murdock has a bunch of papers with dots, which he says is how he reads. Harry can't read those, but he bets Loki can't, either.
Someone says something about acquittal, and Harry says "We're not quitting!"
"Acquittal means not guilty." Mr. Foggy says. "Which means they didn't do it."
"Dad didn't do it," Harry agrees. "Hydra did."
Ms. Potts pulls Mr. Stark aside and to talk. Harry isn't listening until he hears her say "What do you mean you had Jarvis forge an adoption? Are you trying to make the PR for this case harder?"
"Pepper doesn't trust your abilities," Mr. Stark calls to the ceiling.
"Shall I erase the records, sir?" Jarvis asks. "We could do them again, when Sergeant Barnes is free."
Mr. Stark waves a hand. "I'm sure Romanoff and Barton have tons of fake identities. Jarvis and I have been having fun with all of James and Harry's. James Wayne has a complete backstory; lost his arm in an accident and spruced it up to fuel his cosplay hobby. Adopted little Oliver and is now working as a security advisor for Stark Industries."
"Wayne? Like Batman?" Harry asks.
"There's also James Barnum, circus performer. Lost his arm in a lion taming accident, and adopted a magical kid who was being abused by the ringmaster."
"Mr. Barton was in a circus." Harry says. "Did he know James Barnum?"
"These are you guys." Mr. Stark says.
"You're forgetting. Do you have amesia like Dad?"
"No, it's playing pretend. Like Batman and Robin."
"These are worse than the worst of those stories people post about us online," Doctor Bruce mumbles. "Besides, aren't we aiming to clear James' name?"
Soon, everyone on telly's talking about how Captain America wasn't the only soldier to seem to come back from the dead; his buddy Bucky Barnes did, too.
"Does anyone stay dead?" one lady asks with a laugh.
"My mummy an' my first dad." Harry tells the telly. Mr. Stark nods.
A man on another channel says "Breaking news: the newest HYDRA atrocity involves kidnapping Bucky Barnes and forcing him to carry out over sixty assassinations. More at eleven."
Harry frowns. That's way after his bedtime.
The next guy is even worse.
"They actually believe Barnes was brainwashed?" the guy chortles. "Figures, they didn't realize their own coworkers were HYDRA. Let me tell you, Barnes is a traitor who signed up willingly. Can't believe people are still calling him an American hero when he shot the president. I say the only justice is a bullet in the-"
Jarvis changes the channel before the guy finishes talking. This one shows videos of huge crowds of shouting people holding signs that Harry can't read. Apparently these crowds are all over, and there's one at the bottom of the tower.
Steve starts to stand, but Dad tells him not to go protest too.
Harry and Dad both have a hard time falling asleep. Dad eventually takes him to the gym. Harry watches Dad punch a bag, over and over. Harry doesn't normally like the sound of things being hit, but this makes him think of how Dad will protect him against anything.
Harry wishes he could protect Dad from stupid people.
Dad stops punching things, breathing hard, but he's not all sweaty. He starts to do push-ups, and Harry lays on Dad's back, trying to shield him and cuddle close at the same time.
Harry falls asleep as his dad goes up and down. He wakes up curled in the boxing ring with Snuffles, a blanket draped over them both.
Harry's first question when he wakes up is "Did they say you're free?"
Dad's mouth twists, but it's not a smile. "The trial starts today."
"You'll be free by lunch, right?"
Dad huffs. "Doubt it. It'll take several days."
Sirius's trial didn't, Harry thinks, as Snuffles changes into Sirius.
"I felt sick before my trial," Sirius tells Dad, but he mutters that Dad's lucky there aren't dementors.
Dad stays in the tower for the trial, dressed in plain clothes. Harry says he should wear his Batman suit so everyone knows he's a hero, but Ms. Potts says no.
Dad sends Harry off to play with Sirius, but Harry wants to stay with Dad. He saw Sirius's trial, so he should get to watch Dad's too.
He only gets glimpses while Sirius tries to keep him busy. Mr. Murdock and Miss Michaels, the other team's lawyer, ask lots of questions, which sounds like final exams.
The other team keeps saying that Dad should get in trouble. They go on and on about treason and terrorism and more words Harry doesn't know.
It's confusing grownup talk, and he'd really rather watch sports, except these people are trying to send Dad to jail. One lady says Dad killed her daughter.
The judge calls for a recess, like Lila and Cooper talked about. The kids at the X-Homeschool don't get recess, and Harry wonders why these grownups do. He doesn't see anyone playing.
Sirius takes Harry away to the tower's gym and makes the toy broomstick bigger so he can play Quidditch with Harry. For the first time he can remember, Harry doesn't want to play Quidditch, or even fly. All he can think about is what people are saying about Dad. Why isn't Mr. Murdock defending him?
They still haven't said Dad's free by the end of the day. Mr. Barton calls, but Harry hardly gets to talk to Cooper and Lila before it's bedtime.
Harry can't even sneak out of bed to listen to Dad and Mr. Barton, because Jarvis is watching.
Mr. Barton does most of the talking, but not much about the trial or their brains being stolen. At least, Harry doesn't think so. He falls asleep.
The next day, the other team is still making Dad look really bad, but the other team's lawyer starts sneezing whenever she tries to ask a question. Mr. Stark says it's Loki, but Loki swears he's not doing anything.
Loki and Thor play with Harry by making fake trials. Loki usually plays the person people are saying is a villain, like Dad. Thor's the judge with the hammer, and Harry's the lawyer, except Loki keeps talking over him. Loki's the only one who's read those huge law books.
Harry's superhero action figures and Thomas trains are cast as the crowd, jury, and all the people being asked questions. Sirius does voices for all the toys, but he doesn't make them come alive.
They pretend Loki's on trial for making the other team's lawyer sneeze, but Harry argues that's good, because then she looks silly and stops making Dad look like a bad guy.
Thor swings Mjolnir and says Loki's not guilty, which means he didn't do it.
Harry holds a trial for his Wolverine toy, arguing that HYDRA made Wolverine do everything bad, too. Harry's pretty sure all the same stuff that happened to Dad happened to Logan.
Harry makes all the toys say Wolverine is good, because Sirius won't. "We're done!" he shouts.
Jarvis tells him Dad's real trial isn't done yet. Harry groans.
Later, when the claws on Harry's toy Wolverine become floppy like noodles, Harry argues it is Loki and sends him to time-out.
Then he thinks about Dad going to jail, which is the biggest time-out in the world, and feels bad. "You can come out now!" Harry yells to Loki.
They've had two trials, but Dad's real one is still going. Harry says so to Mr. Murdock and Nelson when they meet with Dad.
It takes grownups forever to decide if someone's going to get in trouble. At least, it takes the ones on the telly forever. Harry's aunt and uncle had said everything was his fault as soon as it happened, and Mr. Stark is always quick to say everything was HYDRA's fault, not Dad's.
Harry's heard Mr. Stark say that on the phone a lot, and he shows up in a suit and tie to say so on the telly, too. He goes into a box and has to say he's telling the truth.
Harry frowns. Weren't they going to use potions?
A woman asks Mr. Stark if Dad killed his parents.
"HYDRA did, even if they used his hands." Mr. Stark says. "They made their asset do it. Had to torture Bucky and fry his brain to make the Asset, and I know how fast torture makes a man cave."
Mr. Stark isn't joking at all. "James has no love for Hydra. He's been giving us intel to take them down. His choice is to destroy them, not join them."
Still, some people don't believe him. When Mr. Stark gets back to the tower, a lot of people on the telly talk about what he said.
"Tony Stark was tortured, but he didn't build weapons for the bad guys." says one guy, "He became Iron Man instead, and destroyed the bastards. And we're supposed to forgive Barnes for not being strong enough?"
"They didn't erase my memories," Mr. Stark calls an Iron Man glove to his hand and shoots the telly screen but Harry's counted five on this floor. A new one arrives before the end of the day.
"You should really stop watching the news," Mr. Stark tells them.
"But you said I can watch telly whenever I want,"
"Yeah, but you're a kid. You shouldn't care about the news."
"But it's about Dad!" Harry argues.
Jarvis tells Dad, in a very sorry tone, that people are sending him hate mail. Mr. Stark claps Dad on the shoulder and says he's no stranger to it, even as Iron Man.
"Can't say I blame them," Dad mutters.
Harry bets all the mail is mean, from what people on the telly have been saying, but he doesn't make a bet about it. He really, really hopes he'd lose that bet.
"There are plenty of letters offering their support, admiration and condolences," Jarvis says. "Along with hundreds of thousands of online comments."
The next day, Steve goes on the telly in his Captain America suit. "Bucky was the best soldier I ever knew, one of the best men I've ever known. HYDRA took him as a prisoner of war. He was tortured, unable to resist, and you're trying to imply he did it willingly?"
Steve shakes his head. "If there's any justice left here, you'll leave James alone. We know HYDRA's the real culprit. James already spent seventy years as a prisoner of war; a life sentence for the crime of being captured. And you want to give him another life sentence- or worse- for crimes he was forced to commit?!"
Steve's yelling now. "The fact we even need a trial for this is-"
"Objection!" shouts another man.
The minister- no, she's called a judge here- says "Sustained. Calm yourself, Captain Rogers."
"Would you say Sergeant Barnes was just following orders?" the other team's lawyer asks. "I would expect you of all people to know how dangerous that excuse is."
Steve's even madder hearing that than hearing what HYDRA did to Dad. He gets so angry that the judge bangs her little hammer and Steve has to leave.
There's a huge crowd with cameras outside the courthouse, but Steve pushes through them. He comes back to the tower, furious, and Harry makes sure to stay away, even though Steve's never hit him.
Even Ms. Romanoff talks on the telly. At first it's about how Dad shot through her to hit a scientist, but then she changes.
"I grew up in the Red Room." Ms. Romanoff tells everyone. "That was classified information, but now the whole world knows I was an assassin. That's all I knew. They had James train me, and the other girls in the Black Widow program. He had fewer memories than we did."
One man says, "Some would say you belong in a penitentiary too."
Miss Romanoff seems to know that Harry didn't know what a penitentiary is. "You're not going to put any of us in prison."
Harry thinks that's the end of the trial, that they'll finally say Dad is free, but it goes on and on and on. Grandpa'fessor talks in the courtroom too, revealing that he's been in Dad's head, seen the proof that HYDRA stole his brain, and that Dad's been slowly taking it back. Grandpa'fessor shares that he's helped make sure HYDRA can't steal Dad's brain ever again.
Even hearing that doesn't make them say Dad's not guilty. The trial still isn't done when it ends for the day.
"I don't know if I'm worth all this to you," Dad tells Steve that evening when Miss Romanoff has invited herself over for dinner. Jarvis won't play the news during dinner, because people are saying bad stuff about Mr. Stark and Steve too. Mr. Stark doesn't seem to care.
"I'll go to bat for you anytime," Steve tells him, seriously. "And I'm not the only one."
"Yeah, I've been Team James for ages." Mr. Stark says around a mouthful of pizza. "I was Team Barton and I didn't even know the guy. You've been living with me for almost a year and you haven't killed me yet. That's proof you're a good guy."
"Tony," Steve warns.
Dad helps Harry cut his steak, flipping the knife in his hand. Mr. Stark raises one eyebrow. "It's good they aren't seeing your knife work, though some of those pictures-"
"Tony," Steve cuts him off.
Dad cuts through the plate on accident and stares down at the knife in his hands.
Mr. Stark quickly says that Steve's birthday is coming up, and keeps teasing him about it being on the fourth of July. Harry doesn't know why.
"The best birthday gift would be James being declared not guilty." Steve says.
"I wanted that for my birthday!" Harry cries, "I never got a birthday wish and now Steve wished it! It's not fair!"
The whole thing isn't fair. It's not fair Dad has to have a dumb long trial when nobody else did. It's not fair people are saying awful stuff about Dad, worse than what Harry's aunt and uncle said about him.
Mr. Stark suggests that Harry go to nursery school lower in the tower, but Harry won't be going anywhere without Dad.
The next morning, not even Jarvis will let Harry watch the trial on telly. Dad's on a video call with the people on the telly. They're probably watching Dad's memories of HYDRA hurting him. Or his missions like killing Mr. Stark's mum and dad.
Harry's tired of not being able to play with Dad. Every trial day is longer than when Dad has therapy with Grandpa'fessor, and Dad always looks even sadder. It's worse than waiting during the alien attack, because at least he waited with Dad for the Avengers and X-Men to kick the aliens' bums.
Harry's terrified that people will say Dad's bad for good, and take him away. Or what if bad guys burst through the window and steal Dad to fry his brain again? And then freeze him?
Harry doesn't even hear Sirius talking to him. He doesn't want to play with Sirius or Snuffles. He wants to be in Dad's arms, the safest place in the whole wide world, even safer than the X-Homeschool. Harry would leave the tower and the X-Homeschool if it meant staying with Dad.
Harry backs up and runs at the door, trying to run through it like Kitty does.
Instead, there's a hook on his neck and he's whooshed and squeezed through a tunnel. He gasps. It's just like when they went to Mr. Stark's seaside house.
When he opens his eyes, he's not at the seaside house. He's sitting on Dad's lap, in front of a huge, flat screen showing the courtroom. Everyone on the screen is looking at him and Dad.
"Is that Harry Potter?" someone asks. The judge has to bang her hammer a lot to quiet everyone down.
"When are you going to say Dad's not bad?" Harry demands. "He's a hero, better than Batman. He saved me so many times. The bad stuff is all HYDRA's fault. They messed with Dad's brain and freezed him. Dad's the best Dad. He's going to take me to Coney Island and the Olympic Games in London! But you're taking forever!"
"Harry," Dad sighs, picking him up and starting to carry him out of the room. "Don't tell them the plans."
Harry glares at everyone on screen. "Didn't you hear Mr. Stark? He's Iron Man. And Miss Romanoff and Steve? They're all heroes. You should listen to them."
"We heard," one woman says. "But-"
"Loki and Mr. Barton didn't have this!" Harry shouts as Dad carries him out of the room, handing him over to Sirius. "Sirius's trial wasn't even until bedtime! Why is this one so many days?! It's more than final exams!"
Harry's mad, but then he starts to smile as Sirius carries him away. Surely they'll realize how dumb they're being, thinking Dad's bad and taking forever to realize they're wrong.
Besides, Harry disappeared and appeared just like Loki, without Loki's boring book and class.
Dad's trial still isn't over for real by dinner time, and Harry frowns at his plate. Mr. Stark looks at Steve in disbelief. "And you say I'm a bad influence? You're the one who got thrown out of a courtroom before Harry copied you. Don't be like Steve, Harry. I'm a way better role model."
Steve frowns. "Didn't you hack their systems during your trial?"
"Yeah, to show evidence." Mr. Stark folds his arms. "And you weren't even awake then, Sleeping Beauty."
Mr. Stark turns to Harry and James. "You guys broke the internet, by the way. I bet there's going to be a sitcom about a dysfunctional superhero team raising a sassy magical pipsqueak. Jarvis, get a legal team to ensure we get first crack at making it."
"Should this take priority over Sergeant Barnes' trial, sir?"
"Hire another legal department if you have to."
"You should hire another so this trial ends faster." Harry looks at Loki. "Can you fix the internet?"
"Pardon me, but I believe that would be my area of expertise," Jarvis says.
The telly still works and people are still talking about the trial.
"The trial of Sergeant James Barnes' involvement with HYDRA revealed more than just Barnes' past. In an unexpected turn of events, Harry Potter, the young savior of the British Wizarding World, appeared in Barnes' lap to declare Barnes 'a hero, better than Batman'. When exactly young Harry was sent to live among other heroes is unclear."
"They say I shouldn't be a superhero." Harry tells the telly. The lady on the screen keeps talking, so it's probably not a video call.
"Wonder what the Daily Prophet is saying." Sirius says.
Everyone on the telly starts wondering how Harry started calling the Winter Soldier his dad.
"Surely he knows about his real parents?" one woman asks.
"I know Dad's a good guy," Harry tells the telly crossly. The lady doesn't reply, but Harry adds "I have a photo book of my mummy and first dad."
Harry gets to sit in Dad's lap when Dad tells how HYDRA sent him to bring them Harry, but they ran away instead. Harry helpfully holds up the book of their adventure with the pictures Steve drew.
Harry throws his book down when the telly shows Dumbledore in the courtroom. Harry tries to shield Dad as he jabs a finger at Dumbledore. "He freezed Dad and tried to steal his brain! He's HYDRA!"
"I can see why you'd think that. I thought your father was a dangerous killer."
"He is." someone shouts.
"It's clear now that the Soldier's mission was to protect Harry." Dumbledore looks at the camera like he's looking right into Harry. "Harry, James, I apologize for any distress I caused. I thought I was saving you but the Soldier already had."
Mr. Murdock asks Dumbledore a bunch of questions about what happened and what Dad and Harry acted like at Hogwarts.
Mr. Murdock and even Dumbledore make Dad sound like the good guy he is.
Harry folds his arms and stares at Dumbledore. "You're not only a dumb doorbell. Promise you'll never freeze Dad or take his brain ever again."
"You have my word." Dumbledore tells them both through the telly. "We aren't obliviating muggles anymore."
Suddenly tons of people in the courtroom start shouting. The judge bangs her little hammer but nobody listens. Harry wonders if Thor will fly over to bang Mjolnir.
"Great idea, mentioning obliviating most of the world's population in a trial where the accused had his memories erased." Mr. Stark rolls his eyes at the telly.
The trial ends for the rest of the day, and there are even more protests after that, with screaming crowds waving signs and chanting. A lot of them wear black, with silver tape covering one sleeve to look like Dad.
Other people ask why the Soldier changed his mission to protect Harry but still killed everyone else. One angry guy yells. "He did the right thing for once, and we're supposed to forgive every other atrocity?"
Dad frowns like he's in huge trouble, and Harry hugs him as tight as he can. "Even Dumbledore knows you're good now. He's not as dumb as the telly people."
Some people won't admit Dad's good, no matter what. It makes Harry so angry that he screams at the people on the screen, even if it's not a video call. He wants to hit the telly like Dudley did, but stops himself right before.
Dad sends him to time-out anyway. He's been sending Harry away all the time during this dumb trial.
"I'm afraid some will refuse to see your father as a good person, no matter how much evidence Mr. Murdock presents proving HYDRA's control."
"They're so dumb!" Harry yells, flopping on the floor. That's probably going to make this time-out even longer, but he doesn't care.
"They're allowing their hatred to close their mind to other perspectives," Jarvis agrees. Harry's not entirely sure what that means, but Jarvis sounds like he's agreeing.
By the time Steve's birthday comes around, Harry's sure they're going to be showing memories and asking people questions forever. Mr. Stark says it's almost closing.
"You've witnessed firsthand the tortures James Barnes endured during his imprisonment with HYDRA. You've heard of the conditioning required to turn him into the Winter Soldier. You've heard of lives ended and changed at the Winter Soldier's hands, including President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. You've seen him with Harry Potter, a child he was sent to kidnap, and how he started to defect from HYDRA. The question is, does the torture absolve him of guilt for the crimes he committed?"
Harry squirms impatiently. Nobody says anything. Nobody says he's not guilty.
Dad stands up and beckons Harry to the kitchen. He gets out flour, eggs, milk and other things.
"We're baking a cake." he tells Harry. He's not so shaky now that he's doing something, his breathing sounds a bit better too.
"A Not Guilty cake?" Harry asks. "We didn't quit!"
Dad shakes his head. "For Steve's birthday."
"But you need a Not Guilty cake." Harry argues. It's like when they made cake for everyone when they were fighting all the aliens. This whole trial was even bigger than that. They'll need lots of cakes.
Harry helps Dad pour and mix, and taste the frosting. "Make sure to make it red, white and blue," Mr. Stark says. Dad gives him a good, long stare.
They still haven't decided when Dad puts the cakes in the ovens with his metal hand. Or when the cakes are all done baking.
Harry rushes around impatiently. "Hurry up!" he shouts at the telly. "We have cake!"
They can't eat the cake until the people say Dad is Not Guilty, that he's not going to jail.
Waiting for what Steve calls the verdict almost seems as long as the whole trial did.
And then, finally, they come back and say that Dad's not guilty of what HYDRA made him do, that it's all HYDRA's fault.
"That took ages," Harry shouts, but he can't even be mad. He flings himself at Dad, who scoops him up in his arms. Steve throws his arms around them, too, then freezes until Dad puts an arm around Steve's shoulders, still holding Harry tight.
Mr. Stark goes over to the bar. "Glad we can crack out the celebratory drinks, instead of the ones for condolences."
Thor is eager to celebrate, and Loki pops away to grab Mr. Murdock and Mr. Nelson.
"I'm going to be a lawyer when I grow up." Harry tells them when they pop back. "But my trials are going to be a lot faster. Only it's not your fault, they were just so slow."
Mr. Foggy snorts.
"We need to eat cake! Should we sing Happy Birthday?" Harry asks.
Steve laughs. "I don't even care that it's my birthday. I got what I wanted."
Steve grabs a tube of icing and writes something Harry can't read. Dad says it says Not Guilty.
Dad cuts the cake, his shoulders looser, and tells Harry he can wish for anything on his fifth birthday.
As they eat cake, Mr. Stark raises his glass. "Hey, it's Independence Day, and you got your independence."
I'm not a lawyer, so I apologize for any inaccuracies. I did watch the Legal Eagle videos about Daredevil and the Sokovia Accords, but neither of those involved magic. Apparently the international criminal court (the one for war crimes, genocide etc) doesn't have a jury, but most of the Winter Soldier trial fics have him tried by the US supreme court. I figured Harry wouldn't know the difference, so I left it vague.