Disclaimer – It has come to my attention recently that I unfortunately do not own any part of Harry Potter or the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the characters that belong to those entities. One can dream I suppose. Although I did buy a ticket to Disney World one time.

To everyone planning on celebrating National Parent's Day, I wish you an enjoyable holiday. No matter how you get along with them, we all have parents and we owe them alot. So on behalf of all kids, thanks to all the parents out there. If you need an idea of what to do, you could always go out and enjoy the fact that it is Waterpark day!

Anyone who is looking to provide support and get access to early chapters for my stories or see my original content, please visit Pa T-rEoN / FavoriteAuthor

On that note, a big thanks to my newest Kyle U., Leonard C., Josh R., Robin S., Lily E., Tom W., Steve K., Chris H., Akshay I., Tiwini K., Aaron, Thomas P., Nitesh M., Jeremy O, Hari T. Reece H., and Peter A! I do not know if I would be as motivated without the support.

This story is dedicated to Stephen Bartley, for his support.

Chapter 16: A Break-In and Pie

When Harry opened his eyes, he found himself standing alone in a large clearing which was surrounded by a dense forest that seemed to swallow all sounds. However, as he looked around in confusion, he had no idea how he got there … the last thing he remembered was lying on his back on the mountain. Shaking his head, he forced himself to take a step forward so he could get out of wherever he was, however he shivered as the sounds of his footsteps immediately disappeared. That, combined with the general feeling of the location caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up as a chill ran down his spine.

As he looked around, he tried to figure out where he was or how he had gotten here. But other than a faint memory of his doppelgänger and their fight over the Darkhold, which was fading fast, he couldn't come up with any reason as to what had happened.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his vision, a sickly green light erupted from in front of him, the hue of the Killing Curse unmistakable. Instinctively and immediately, he flinched to try and jump out of the way as a cold dread settled in the pit of his stomach. But as he finally took a breath, he realized it wasn't coming towards him.

Instead of the green colored spell coming in his direction, it was actually heading away from him, streaming from his own outstretched hand and heading straight towards a figure that he just noticed shrouded in the shadows at the edge of the clearing.

"No," he whispered, horrified. Another chill ran down his spine as he heard what he assumed was the other figure whimpering and begging for mercy. Confusion and revulsion twisted his stomach as time seemed to slow down. He began to panic, this couldn't be real. He'd never cast such a spell. And he was pretty sure that wasn't a spell you could accidentally cast. He'd never …

Then he heard it – a sickly guttural laugh that echoed through the clearing, snapping Harry out of his thoughts. The sound chilled him to the bone, and he spun around, ready to face its source. But as the echoes of the laugh began to fade into the trees, he felt his heart stop, slowly recognizing the familiar, though twisted laughter.

To his horror, he realized the laughter wasn't coming from someone else – it was coming from him.

With a deep sense of sickening dread and revulsion, he turned back just in time to see the Killing Curse squarely hit the shadowed figure squarely in the chest, momentarily lighting up the area. Seconds after the spell hit its mark, the figure crumpled, a lifeless heap, onto the ground, with a final, heart-wrenching whimper.

"No!" Harry repeated, this time screaming, the sound tearing through his throat. He felt his knees buckle, the world spinning out of control as the weight of what he had just seen crushed him.

And then, before he could even begin to process what had happened, he woke with a jolt.

Jerking upright, his heart feeling as though it was trying to hammer its way out of his chest, he found himself sitting on a park bench in a completely new area, the evening light casting long shadows on the ground. Agitatedly and disoriented, he looked around, trying to shake off the remnants of what he had just seen.

The park was eerily quiet, the only sounds he could hear were the distant chirping of birds, the rustling of leaves from an incredibly pleasant breeze, and the sounds of extremely far off traffic.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead before running a trembling hand through his hair, trying to calm himself. It was just a dream, it was just a dream, he repeated over and over to himself. Just a terrible, twisted dream.

But as he sat there, the slight chill of the evening air calming him slightly, he couldn't shake the feeling that it had been more than that. The vividness, the sounds, the emotions – it all felt too real.

Unable to stop himself, his mind drifted back to the cursed spell he had seen flying from his outstretched hand, the figure in the shadows, and then his own sickening laugh. He'd had his own fair share of nightmares before but none like this … well, none since the visions he'd shared with Voldemort. But even then, those had felt different. This one had felt more like he had just relived a memory.

Finally, with a last shudder, he managed to shake off the intruding thoughts and prepared to stand up, determined to put as much distance between himself and that dream, or whatever it was, as possible. But just as je leaned forward to stand a crumpled newspaper blew into his legs, getting tangled up there.

Smiling and shaking his head, he reached down to grab it. However, he ended up freezing halfway down as his eyes got caught on the cover of the paper, specifically the publication's title: The California Inquirer, dated July 14th. Harry's heart skipped a beat as he wildly looked around, noticing for the first time that most of the trees surrounding the park were actually palm trees.

'What the hell!' He thought, wondering why he was looking at a newspaper from California that was dated for the middle of July.

As his mind raced, trying to understand what was going on, he absently noticed the three top stories on the cover of the paper. A youth had gone missing in the San Jose area, a mega church of a religion he had never heard of was having an event to welcome new members, and a large technology company, VistaCorp, was posting record profits despite firing an employee over a professionalism issue.

Shaking his head, he looked back to the date wondering what the hell happened to the rest of May, all of June and then the first half of July. As he stared at the cover of the newspaper in shock, he was positive that the Battle of New York had been on May 5th, mainly because of the fact that even without paying attention to any of the news right after the fighting it had been impossible not to hear the common refrain on the TVs or from passing people how May 5th would be a day that would live on in history, and while he didn't doubt that he might have lost track of a day or two due to exhaustion from being constantly on the go trying to help people, he was pretty sure that it hadn't been more than a week before he'd gone to Momentum Labs and then ended up … well, wherever he had ended up.

Panic began to claw at him as he thought about the missing time. Just what had happened to him after his doppelganger had knocked him out. Had he been unconscious this entire time? Under some sort of spell? Was it something even worse?

He leaned back on the bench and closed his eyes as he tried to piece together anything that might explain the missing time, but other than the jumble of memories from his first few days in New York, everything was completely blank.

Opening his eyes he saw that his hand's were trembling as he clutched the newspaper, he decided to reread it one last time before looking up.

Not finding any more answers or solace in what was written he shook his head, knowing he needed answers, and he needed them soon if he was to try and make a plan. Pocketing the newspaper, planning to at least skim it later, he started walking, his mind racing, as he started thinking about who, if anyone, might be able to help him.

Certainly, everything he'd heard about Tony Stark indicated that the man might have the resources and intellect to help him, but remembering their previous meeting he wasn't sure if the man would be willing to do it. That brought him to Natasha or the Ancient One as possibilities. But while those options were more likely, the Ancient One was not an option for the moment as he remembered her saying it would be impossible for him to find her until he got to Kamar-Taj and other than the phone Natasha had given him, which he had no idea where it was, as he had left in his room apparently two months ago, he had no idea how to contact her.

Realizing that at least that was a place to start, Harry squared his shoulders and started looking around, having decided that he would try to make his way back to New York and hope that the hotel staff hadn't gotten rid of all his stuff. As all options looked pretty much the same, he started walking towards a road that looked like it had more cars parked on it. However, he ended up finding out two things very quickly. The first was that he was in an extremely upscale and unfamiliar neighborhood and the second was that he was completely and utterly having no luck finding his way out of it.

He wasn't sure how long he was wandering through the neighborhood, past all the ridiculously large mega mansions, manicured lawns, well kept gardens, and expensive cars, but the roads were quiet and he had not seen anyone who would have been able to point to the way out, not that he was looking forward to having a conversation where he was asking for help to get out of the neighborhood after waking up from a two month nap.

After what felt like the better part of an hour, he finally let out a breath of fresh air as he spotted someone across the street. However, just as he was about to call out, he watched as the man pulled a ski mask over his face and continued down the road trying, poorly, to stay hidden between cars and along the sides of shrubs. Harry looked around feeling a flicker of concern deciding that this couldn't be normal, but something deep inside felt it was a little far-fetched that someone was trying to rob a house in this neighborhood.

Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Harry decided that it would at last be worth checking out. Therefore, he started following the man from a distance, casting an illusion charm on his face to make him look like Draco, chuckling at the thought that if he did get into any trouble, anyone who saw him would be describing someone who looked like Draco to the police.

After several blocks, the man finally cut across the lawn of one of the biggest and yet gaudiest houses Harry had come across yet. More confused than anything, Harry followed the man around the back of the house, careful to stay out of sight.

Walking past a large pool, Harry saw the man kneeling beside the back patio door with several tools on the ground beside him. As Harry prepared to stop the man, a flash of light reflecting off the car in the driveway caught his attention and he looked over seeing that it was just the headlights of a passing car reflecting off the luxury car in the driveway. However, before he looked away, he saw the license plate of the car and shook his head.

Looking back to the back door, Harry's eyes shot open at the sight of the partially open patio door, evidence that the man had already managed to break into the house.

Impressed, Harry made his way across the lawn, entering the door to stop the man before things got out of hand. However, the house ended up being significantly larger than he had anticipated, and he quickly got lost in the maze of hallways and rooms. He spent five minutes searching for the man, although admittedly part of that time involved him constantly getting distracted by the décor and technology that he came across. Finally, as the ten-minute mark approached, he heard a noise coming from one of the rooms on the second floor.

Creeping up to the room and peeking inside, Harry's mouth dropped open at the sight of what was undoubtably the master bedroom, which appeared to be about the same size as the entire first floor of the Dursley's house. After that brief moment of shock had passed, he noticed the man wearing the ski mask rifling through a safe which was above the head of the bed, pocketing what appeared to be jewelry and other valuables. Deciding it was time to act, Harry stepped into the room, staring at the man, "Petrificus Totalus," he cast.

Caught completely off guard, the man stiffened and fell face-first onto the bed before bouncing off and rolling onto the floor.

Shaking his head and smiling, Harry walked into the room, making his way over to the man, watching as the man's eyes shifted from confusion to panic.

"Hi, I'm … well, not that it will matter to you, but I'm Harry," he said casually. "I wouldn't keep bothering to move as it will pretty much be impossible until I end the spell and as you can tell it's a rather complete petrification." Harry finished as he arrived beside the man and removed the ski mask letting it fall to the floor beside his head. He raised an eyebrow at the face of the man. Not that he was expecting the man to look a certain way once he saw his face up close, but he couldn't help but feel that the timeless face of the man in front of him didn't look like a thief.

"I'm going to release the spell in a second if you promise not to run and then we are going to make our way out front before I summon the police here." Harry said, deciding that in a neighborhood this nice, casting the red sparks would likely bring the police very quickly.

After a brief moment of contemplation, he saw a look of acceptance in the man's eyes.

"Finite."

The man gasped as he regained control of his body, before slowly making his way to his feet. For a moment, the man stood still, staring at Harry. Then without warning, he bolted for the door.

Having partially expected this, Harry shook his head before casting the petrification spell again.

This time, considering the man was farther from the bed and in motion he fell straight forward as he stiffened, landing right on his face which caused Harry to accidentally let out a chuckle.

"Okay, now that I've proven that my reflexes are quicker than your ability to run out of the room, I wouldn't try that again. I could just levitate your body but would have a very tough time explaining that if all the cameras caught me. So, let's try that one more time. Finite."

The man slowly got to his feet, rubbing his nose as he eyed Harry warily, before his eyes went wide and shot upwards focusing on something just above Harry's head. "Oh my god, what is that?" he called out.

Harry didn't even flinch or turn around. "Do you honestly think I'm eight?" he said, as he watched the man turn and try to make a break for the door again.

Swiftly Harry cast Petrificus Totalus again, shaking his head at the sight of him falling once more to the floor.

"Okay, as much fun as this must be for you, maybe this will make it easier. Incarcerous." He said, looking at the man and nodding as ropes shot up and bound him tightly. This time Harry smiled as he watched the man's eyes grow in shock, before he ended the petrification spell and leaving in place the binding spell.

Realizing that he was no longer petrified, the man appeared to struggle against the ropes for several seconds before settling and looking up at Harry, a mixture of concern and curiosity on his face, "Okay … how'd you do that?"

Pausing and looking around, Harry shrugged his shoulders as he looked back to the man. "Magic." He said simply.

The man laughed, though it was tinged with a hint of nervousness. "I'm a pretty accomplished amateur magician myself. You should see what I can do with a deck of cards, but let's be serious … fast acting paralyzing agent and then an equally fast-acting antidote?"

Harry smiled as he shook his head. "And how'd I get you? It's not like I'm holding a tranq gun or anything." He paused for a second before waving his hand at his current state. "And what about the ropes?"

This caused the man to pause, looking uncertainly around the room before looking back to Harry. "Nanotech?" He said, although the tone was more a question than a statement. "I've seen ads about StarkTech invention. Maybe this is something from them?"

Harry shook his head in amusement at his attempt to rationalize what he was seeing but didn't respond.

The man stared at Harry for a second before responding. "So you honestly expect me to believe that Geoff Zorrick has a magician-slash-security guard on staff just to protect his house?"

Harry chuckled, "Well I prefer wizard. But no, I just … well, let's just say that I found myself in the middle of this very fancy neighborhood and spotted a suspicious looking man dressed completely in black wearing a ski mask on a summer evening, so I thought I'd check it out. Then, to my surprise, the incredibly suspicious looking man ended up doing something incredibly suspicious and broke into the house."

The bound man, narrowed his eyes in contemplation as he stared at Harry, "So you seriously aren't security? Just some random kid who claims to know magic?" He asked cautiously before pausing and shaking his head. "Just typical Lang luck." He said with a scoff, before looking back to Harry. "Okay, I know this looks bad, but it isn't what it looks like. My name is Scott Lang and I work … well, worked for VistaCorp. This is my boss's house. This all started a little while ago when I noticed that the company was overcharging clients, so I took it on myself to fix the code, a problem I thought had been a mistake. But then the boss found out about what I did and was furious when he came down to tell me to correct what I had done. That's when I realized that what I found was not a mistake, the error had been made on purpose – the company was defrauding clients of millions of dollars." He paused to take a breath before shaking his head angrily. "So, I went to HR to try and report Zorrick, but then surprise, surprise, I was fired the next day."

Harry stared at Scott for several seconds, surprised and not entirely sure how to react, but unable to shake the feeling that the man was telling the truth.

Seeming to know what Harry was thinking, the man nodded and tried to shrug, "It's the truth."

Unsure just what to think, he glanced to the far wall before shaking his head. "So as revenge for firing you, you broke into your bosses house to steal from him."

Scott paused before looking up at Harry, "Well it's more like burglaring, but I chose to think of myself as more of a Robin Hood character in this situation."

Harry laughed, "I'm not entirely sure how things work in this world, but I imagine that defense won't hold up very well as a defense for you."

Trying to shrug again, despite being bound, Scott looked straight at Harry, "The bad people can't keep getting away with stuff, but I guess I may have been a little upset and did want revenge after getting punished for trying to do the right thing. But everything I took was going to go to the victims."

Harry looked up and down the man before finally shrugging his shoulders. "Okay, I'm not saying I fully believe you yet, but I'll give you a chance to fully convince me. If you put all the things back, I'll hear you out. But Merlin help me, I'll turn you over to the police faster than you can say Accio if you try to run again."

After a momentary look of confusion, Scott nodded eagerly from the ground. "You have yourself a deal."

After Harry ended the spell, Scott emptied and returned everything from his pockets before relowering his mask and leading Harry through the house. While they were crossing through the kitchen, Scott paused to shake his head and point out the collection of wine bottles on the far wall. However, seconds before Harry looked back to Scott, ready to tell him to keep moving, he missed Scott grabbing something from a small bowl on the counter before turning around and continuing out the patio door.

They managed to make their way off the property without any issue and were just about to cross the street when Scott froze, patting down his pockets. "Oh no! I forgot something!" he exclaimed, before turning back to the house.

Harry spun towards him, "Hold on, if you tell me what it is and do a good job describing it, I might be able to summon it." But the words were in vain as Scott had already taken off across the lawn at a run.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Harry walked across the street to stand under a clump of trees on the neighboring property to wait for Scott, deciding that he could probably grab whatever it was he was looking for himself.

However, that thought had barely crossed his mind when Harry heard the muted roar of a car engine starting up, which was followed rather quickly by the splash of a large object hitting water.

Looking back towards the gate Scott had gone through, a bad feeling settling in his stomach, he watched Scott appear, smiling to himself, and making his way across the lawn chuckling.

Before Harry could even ask, Scott held up his hand and shook his head. "Some things just need to get done. Let's go talk, I know a place."

Harry looked back to the property, wondering just what had gone on there, before shaking his head and turning to follow the man who had already started off at a gentle jog down the street.

After jogging for several minutes, Scott led Harry out of the neighborhood, having to sneak past a security booth that Scott had told him with a laugh was to 'protect' the gated community, and eventually made it to his car, which they got in. Looking out the window in the direction of the house Scott waved and then drove for the better part of thirty minutes before pulling up in front of an overnight diner.

"Honestly the best pies in the entire city and its not even close," he said simply, as he got out of the car.

After getting seated by a waitress that Harry could not help but think would have passed as a not-so-distant relation of Madame Maxime, Scott ordered two pies and coffees.

Before the waitress had a chance to turn away, Harry shook his head and asked for a green tea, which caused Scott to laugh as the waitress turned to fill their orders.

"I guess based on your accent, I should have assumed you wouldn't be much of a coffee drinker."

Once their pies and drinks arrived, Scott went on to fully explain the situation, including his earlier actions when he had managed to electronically return all the 'stolen' money to VistaCorp's clients. He stopped only briefly between sentences for bites for the pie, which while Harry had to admit was delicious, was no Treacle Tart. Scott even went as far as pulling out a tablet from his bag and showing Harry all the files that he'd copied from the company to support his story.

Eventually, after almost an hour, Harry held up his hands. "Okay, I believe you and won't turn you in or anything, but I need to know, why'd you do what you did? There had to be other ways around it."

Scott shrugged, "If there's one thing I've see hundreds of times before, it's that even good people usually tend to focus on big problems and when that happens, they tend to forget about the little guy, discounting just how much they matter."

Harry paused and stared at Scott before nodding, "What if you were to get caught?"

Scott looked thoughtfully in the distance before looking back to Harry and shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure I covered my face the entire time I was in there, except for the little part when you took off my mask in the bedroom. But what kind of creep has cameras in their bedroom? So, I'm pretty sure they won't be able to track either the break-in or the returning of the funds back to me, besides I can't have been the only one who knew about this who wasn't on good terms with them. But if they catch me, I can do the time. I won't sit by when bad people are getting away with hurting the little people." He paused and took another bite of pie before looking back at Harry. "But enough about me, what about you? What's your story?"

Looking to his now empty plate, Harry paused considering how to answer the question before finally shrugging. "I had gone to a British boarding school since I was eleven where I learned magic. And then …" He hesitated. "Well, something happened, and I wound up in New York just in time for the Battle of New York."

Looking like he still didn't believe Harry's claim of magic, Scott couldn't hide the impressed look in his eyes when Harry went on to describe the fight. "That's insane. I saw clips of what happened there … I couldn't imagine ever doing something like that."

Shrugging his shoulders, Harry looked at him. "It wasn't an experience I would ever want to go through again. But in my experience, one usually isn't given much of a choice when things like that happen. But the Avengers mainly dealt with the big problems, like the flying whales, and the hole in the sky, and Loki, I tried to focus on the ordinary people who were in danger. I think you'd be surprised by what someone can do in the right situation."

Scott stared at Harry for several seconds looking even more impressed. "So, what have you been up to since then? I'm pretty sure there'd be stories of magic men running around the streets if you got up to anything big. How'd you end up on the East Coast?"

"I'm … not sure." Harry said, getting quiet and shaking his head.

Scott looked like he wanted to press on and follow up but apparently managed to read the look on Harry's face and decided to drop it and move on to another subject. "So, the boarding school you mentioned. What was that like? I can't imagine its easy learning magic on top of all the normal things you need to learn."

"We didn't … or at least I didn't have any of those classes after I started there. They just focused on magic and magic related classes."

Shaking his head, Scott looked at him, "That's probably not a good idea. If you want to do anything with your life other than fighting aliens, you should probably catch up on your schooling." He paused before an excited look crossed his face. "Actually … if you want to take some time for yourself to make a plan and decide what your future looks like, I have a cousin in Tennessee. She's a history teacher, but tutors in the evenings and she owes me a favor. She could help you catch up on everything you need so that you can consider college or university if you want. Otherwise, at the very least you could consider yourself a high-school graduate and that might open up doors for you. Don't know what kind of prospects there are for you otherwise but this way you aren't limited to working at a Baskin Robins."

Harry paused for almost a full minute before he slowly nodded to Scott. "That's actually not a bad idea. I could use a little more time to try and figure out what's next for me while trying to get my bearings and I doubt getting caught up on some basics certainly wouldn't hurt."

Smiling Scott reached over and patted him on the shoulder, "Great! I'll reach out tonight and with any luck I'll have this all set up and you could leave tomorrow afternoon if you want … in the meantime, you need to consider one important question."

"Oh, and what's that?" Harry asked, looking back to the man with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you ready for that next piece of pie?" Scott asked with a laugh as he waved over the waitress.

Kind Regards,

FavoriteAuthor

Up Next: An Explosive Visit to Rose Hill

If you like this content do not hesitate to smash that like button and subscribe. Haha but seriously if you do enjoy the story - do favorite it, other than messaging me or leaving a comment it's the only way I know if you are enjoying the stories and chapters.

Story Note – Foreshadowing was strong in this chapter. Hope some of the clues and hints (which will relate to upcoming arcs) were picked up on!

Story Note 2 – The car's license plate was '1per¢' - did anyone guess whose car it was before Scott introduced himself.

Story Note 3 – Harry stayed the entire time with the Draco illusion as even though he was willing to give Scott a chance he did not fully trust him. So as of yet Scott has not met the real Harry.

Story Note 4 – The next chapter in Rose Hill, Tennessee will not get dragged out. But there will be some important things happening, both a significant moment that Harry will try to affect and of course making a plan. While after the Battle Harry certainly had his hands full, he had tried unsuccessfully to find any mention of Kamar-Taj, but maybe a historian might be able to help him out. And just because he'll be in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee doesn't mean nothing happens there … but of course no spoilers (IYKYK)

Thanks to those of you out to those of you who enjoy my stories, I promise to keep updating the stories as long as you enjoy them, and a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave feedback or reach out to me directly.

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starboy454, cameron1812 - I appreciate the time it took you to read and leave a comment. I am glad you are enjoying it so far!

William Killian - Really happy to hear you are enjoying the way its been written.

Shinobi Gatana - Thanks :) small little cameos!

George Cristian810 - That's fair, do not hesitate to let me know the specifics you do want to see. Or things you did like! Although I am surprised, in general it seems based off the comments and messages I received that the villain was well received. What was it that you didn't like? Specifics give me something to work on or at least consider. Thanks in advance!

stars90 - Voldemort is such a pain!