An Orphan No Longer
There was silence. Silence and stillness. It had been all Harry felt for so long. No sense of direction. No sensation of his own body. There was just the silence and stillness. It stretched on and on. Time became an abstraction that didn’t matter to Harry. Nothing mattered. Nothing existed. Harry didn’t matter. Harry didn’t exist. There was just the stillness and the silence.
If Harry was even aware of himself, he probably would have been a bit freaked out by it all. After all, the last thing Harry would have been able to recall was the fight in the alley. Perhaps his thoughts would have been plagued with ideas about having died. Or having been kidnapped and trapped in some spell. If Harry had a sense of self as he was in the silence and stillness, Harry would have been freaking out. Instead, he was just stillness and silence.
This was the state for Harry, in a timeless space. Feeling nothing. Thinking nothing. Being nothing. Then, from the depths of nothing came something.
The something was not what Harry would have expected. A sensation that he didn’t have a name for, but could understand all the same. The something was a spark of warmth. Of worry. Of care. It spiraled away into his nothing, touching every corner of it. The spark of complex emotions spun a burning web. It began to eat away at the nothingness, infusing Harry with its heat. It radiated outwards and began to bring Harry back, as much as it could, from being nothing.
Eventually, Harry could feel himself again, at least in the mental sense. He didn’t feel like he was a shapeless mass in a room the same temperature as he was. He felt aware of who he was. More than that, he was aware that he was in a place he knew next to nothing about. An empty void that was splotched with streaks of warm green and icy blue. The colors were dazzling in the way they illuminated the area. The more Harry looked at them, the more he could feel that something had brought him back.
That feeling of someone caring for him.
Harry was, despite the life he had lived, not unfamiliar with what it felt like to be cared for. Ron and Hermione certainly cared for him, his two friends holding a large spot in his mind. Their care felt like companionship. Of a bond, they had forged together. If he focused on it, he could feel the links between them holding solid.
There was also Moly and Arthur. Those two had done so much for him, at least in the times he had been around them. Molly was the one who felt like what he expected a Mother’s love to feel like. Tight, unyielding, and protective. Yet, hers also had a tinge of sorrow to it, as if lamenting something Harry couldn’t understand. Arthur had been almost the same, though he felt more like guidance than anything else. A firm handshake as opposed to Molly’s tender hug.
Harry knew what all of those felt like, what their version of caring was. This feeling, coming from the swatches of green and blue decorating his void, was like of all those feelings condensed into a supernova. Love. Adoration. Fear. Worry. Doubt. Remorse. So many feelings and emotions that encapsulate how someone feels about Harry. Once more, as he felt these colors radiate these emotions, he could feel something else there too. A tug or pull deep within him. A resonance that sent waves of grief along him. As if reconnection with something precious he didn’t even know he had lost.
Harry watched those colors. Watched and felt them as he was trapped in what had once been an unfeeling sea of nothing. He watched the something and felt how it changed and shifted. How it would sometimes feel like sparks of joy. Or the times when it felt incredibly sad and sorrowful. If Harry focused he could almost feel the person behind those emotions. Feel the slight chill in the air that seemed to surround them. Feel the wiry mirth that they were capable of. The person felt real. Felt alive. Felt like something Harry had been missing his entire life.
The boy had no idea how long he was there, watching the colors and feeling their emotions. Time still had no meaning, despite there being something now in the void of nothing. Then, the memories came. It was a slow trickle at first, faint sights and sounds that he couldn’t discern. What he could pick up on though, were the emotions attached to many of them. The ones that felt the most recent seemed to just be filled with fear and pain. Worry and strife. If he focused on them he could see them. The faint flashes at least.
As the memories grew stronger, so did Harry’s own fear of just what happened. He was starting to remember his escape from Grimmauld Place. Sirius had been fully taken over by whatever magic was running the house. How the locket had helped him. The feeling of carving those runes into his arm. As it came rushing back, Harry felt himself shrinking away from the nothing he had been in. The sensation of being within the depths of that place began to fade away, becoming less than a memory. Just a passing moment in his life as he felt the weight of his body return. Felt the new and familiar aches and pains register in his mind. Became aware of the darkness surrounding him as he finally opened his eyes.
Everything felt sore. The type of sore Harry was used to feeling after sitting down for hours on end working on homework or tinkering away in his lab. His entire back felt beyond stiff, despite the rather soft bedding that was directly under him. He was pretty sure that he wasn’t back in Grimmauld Place, the air lacked that distinct musty scent that reminded Harry of a Goodwill. The air here was sharp, almost chemical in a way. As if someone had disinfected the area over and over again. He wanted to think that he was in a hospital, but the lights were far too dim in his mind for that to be the case.
Harry shifted, moving around to at least try and sit up only to freeze as something began to move on the bed. Something that had been just leaning up against his legs. Looking towards the movement, Harry watched as the blurry outline of someone rose from the side of the bed, looking directly at him. Harry had no idea who it was and the lack of glasses was not helping with his recognition. As the figure moved closer, Harry shifted further back, at least the few extra inches that the bed would allow.
“I have no idea what you are, but I will bite you,” Harry tried to sound intimidating, but his voice came out as nothing more than a hoarse whisper, his throat feeling sore.
The figure let out a gasping laugh before it gestured vaguely in the distance. The hand came back, moving towards Harry’s face. The boy flinched, thinking the worst before his glasses were slid onto his face and everything slipped into focus.
“You’ll have to excuse me for a moment. I…I need to go get someone,” the figure spoke, the voice filled with nerves.
Harry didn’t get a good look at the person before they were out the door, the metal frame blocked by the door sliding into place from the wall. It was the first really sign that, where ever Harry had ended up, it was very much not a place run by Wixen.
The figure hadn’t left him with much to go on, but with his glasses, Harry was able to get a better look around his new surroundings. The place was close to a hospital, though it seemed to be a bit more comfortable than what he pictured one looks like. For starters, there was a sofa across from him, and next to that was a round table with a handful of chairs around it. Off to the side was what looked to be a small kitchen and a television jutting out from the wall. The place felt cozy, even though Harry looked at his bed and it was clearly meant for a sick person. With the railings on the side and the vital monitor that was beeping softly.
His eyes drifted to the bags of fluid that were hanging on the IV stand. One was clear and was only partially empty. The other one was fully empty and looked to have a red tint on the plastic of the bag. He traced the tubes down to where they connected to needles in his arm and saw that at least one of them had some slowly drying blood in the tube. His head began to swim, the world feeling as if it were tilting on its axis.
“That… that can’t be good,” Harry swallowed, the monitor beside him starting to beep as his heart rate rocketed.
How long had he been out? Had they been taking his blood? Was it some organization like Hydra that had found him and was experimenting on him? If that was the case then Harry couldn’t afford to wait for the figure to come back into the room. He had to escape, and he had to do it fast.
Taking in a breath, Harry yanked the two IV drips out of his arm, ignoring the flow of blood that came from the insertion point. Pulling the blankets off of his body, Harry swung his legs over the side, thankful that the railings were down at the moment. As he shifted all of his body weight to his legs to stand, Harry was caught off guard as his body instead fell to the floor, his legs crumpling under him.
“Bloody hell,” he swore, rolling around on his back and looking down at his legs. They weren’t broken, but they felt weak, his toes barely able to curl or flex despite him wanting them to do so.
With walking out of wherever he was out of the question, Harry opted for the next best idea, hiding and defending himself. He had no idea where his wand was, no doubt taken away for some reason or another. Even if he had it, his magic felt off. Weaker than normal. No doubt due to whoever had captured him. No matter, even without magic he was still smarter than most.
His eyes looked over the oddly styled med bay, searching for options. He figured that he had only a few moments before the mysterious figure would come back for him. Moments that Harry would use to the fullest. His eyes landed on the small cart not too far from his bed, no doubt loaded with medical equipment. His hunch was correct as he pulled himself along the floor as fast as he could before tipping the cart over. Various medical instruments spilled onto the floor. There were a few sharp objects to be sure, but the one item that Harry found to be useful was a plastic bottle of surgical lubricant.
Taking the bottle and a scalpel his next focus was on the only other door in the med bay, no doubt the bathroom. He didn’t like the fact that going in there would leave him trapped, but at the very least threats could only come at him from the front. Biting his lips, Harry cut open the bottle of lubricant and did his best to coat the floor leading up to the bathroom before dragging his sore body to the door. It took a few tries, but eventually, he managed to slip inside and lock the door. All he could do now was wait.
There was silence, for a bit. Just silence and the sound of his own heart beating rapidly in his ears. Then he heard it, the sound of rushing footsteps, more than one at that. Though the bathroom walls muted most sound, Harry craned his head to listen as best as he could to the people who had kidnapped him.
“-just woke up. He will probably be a little scar-,” the first voice said, cut off by another one responding with,
“Where the hell is the kid,” the other voice sounded familiar, but it was to tell through the walls.
The other voice, one that sounded like a local bloke to London, if not a posh one, began to panic, stammering on about apparition. The footsteps became panicked as they neared the bathroom and Harry stilled himself.
“He couldn’t have gotte- FUCK,” there was a loud commotion, the sound of a body thudding on the ground, no doubt slipped up by the surgical lubricant that Harry had placed on the floor.
The teen bit his lip as he heard the man curse, slipping into some language Harry had never heard before. What he could tell though, was the man was pissed. Gripping the scalpel, Harry carefully pressed his body against the door, his ear against the wood as he listened closely.
“How much trouble would I be in if I made a joke here,” the American said, his voice so familiar that it was causing Harry’s brain to itch as he tried to place it
“I assure you, if you make any sort of a joke while he is missing I will throw you in a realm devoid of all life to torment you,” the posh man spoke, “Harry may have used this as a distraction. He might not have a lot of magic, but there is a chance he could have tried to apparate himself,”
There were sounds of the posh man slipping about, clearly trying to stand up. Harry felt a prickle of magic in the air and the sound of the posh man breathing in relief. There was a beat of silence, Harry listening as hard as he possibly could, but heard nothing for a spell.
“What is with the smug look? Do you think it’s funny that our-“ the posh man began before being cut off once again by the American
“Sorry, it’s just, that you are really overthinking this. The kid gives you the literal slip and your brain is racing in so many different directions. It’s kind of cute actually,”
“I do not have time for this, so enlighten me if you have a better idea where he could have gone,”
The footsteps, these slightly heavier than the ones Harry assumed belonged to the posh man, came to the bathroom, stopping just in front of it. Looking down, Harry could just make out the faint shadows of the person standing there. Gritting his teeth, he kept his eyes on the door while mentally preparing to stab the ankles of whoever came inside.
“Knock knock,” the American said, knocking on the door in time with his words, “If you fell in, just shout really loud and we will come in and fish you out,”
“You can’t be serious,” the posh man said before apparently knocking himself, “Ha…Harry. Are you in there,” the man's voice became low and worried. An odd tone for a kidnapper to have.
Neither he nor the American had made a move to open the door or even check if it was locked. Instead, they were silent, waiting to hear if Harry would respond. The smart move would have been to just ignore them and hope they would go looking for him somewhere else. However, he couldn’t shake the sound of the posh man’s voice from his mind. He didn’t sound like a man who had just kidnapped a teenager. At least as far as Harry could tell.
Letting out the breath that he was holding, Harry didn’t let go of his weapon, but he did knock on the door by way of responding to them.
“I’m not opening the door,” he responded verbally, “Not until I know who you are and where I am,”
There was some commotion, the shadow of the American’s feet retreating for a moment. He could hear them muttering, their words too low for him to pick up on, but he could at least tell there was some animated bickering coming from at least one of them. His money was on the Posh man.
“I…I mean we can do that,” the posh man eventually spoke, “I know this seems a bit…well scary,”
“I woke up in a bed with tubes in my arm. This is well into mildly horrifying territory as opposed to just scary,” Harry snarked, drawing a chuckle from the American
“Yeah, he definitely has the family wit and charm,” the American joked
“Wit and charm,” Harry muttered, turning the words over in his mind alongside the American’s voice. It sat on his brain for a moment before it clicked, “T…Are you Tony Stark,” Harry asked, voice cracking with nerves
“Got it in one kid. Though if you prefer, you could just call me Iron Man. All the kids your age rave over superheroes, right,”
Harry couldn’t help but laugh at that. Considering the life he had lived he hadn’t had much time to rave over the superhero persona of Tony. Then again, it didn’t stop him from idolizing his other job.
“If you two are done, I’d like to see about getting you to come out of the bathroom Harry. Could you do that for me,” the Posh man spoke. His voice was not as readily familiar, all the more reason Harry kept himself on guard.
“If I open this door, you aren’t just going to drug me or anything,” Harry questioned bluntly
There was a sigh, not one of annoyance like he was used to hearing from Snape, but one of mild worry and concern. Like the ones Mrs. Weasley would give when she sees just how thin he had gotten since the last time they had met.
“Harry James Potter. I promise on the very essence of magic itself, that we will cause you no harm or ill-will. We truly just want to care for you and help you,” the Posh man spoke with rather sincere-sounding words.
There were not many adults he trusted to just help him like that. The one he had trusted ended up possessed by a house, and even before then Sirius seemed to only see his father in him. Beyond Sirius, Harry did not put stock into the words of most adults. Yet, he did have to at least face the cold facts of his current predicament. At worst, if things went sideways, he could add ‘stabbed Muggle Superhero Tony Stark’ to the list of titles he currently held.
“Fine. I’ll open the door but the moment I see any funny business, I’m stabbing ankles,” Harry commented, shuffling around a bit to open the door while still prone on the floor.
Harry sorely missed his wand as he sat there on the floor, looking out into the room at the two figures that were waiting. One of them, the actual Tony Stark, was sitting on the edge of bed his fingers laced together as he gave a soft smile to Harry. The other one, it took a while for Harry to piece just who it was exactly. The long hair and eyes were strikingly familiar, but not clearly recognizable. Looking at the entire face as a whole though, it finally clicked into place just who this Posh man really was.
“You’re Loki,” Harry gave a breathless whisper as he slid back from the god looking at him with expressive green eyes.
He had only seen a few pictures and videos of Loki, but it had been enough to color his opinion of the man. The needless murder that he had reveled in while invading New York. His forces, coming out of the sky to destroy and kill in the name of conquest. At least if the stuff released to the public were to be believed. And here he was, looking down at Harry as if he could undo his entire world.
“Hey, Lokes, why don’t you take a back seat, pretty sure the kid kind of needs some space. And to probably get off of the floor,”
Loki looked over to Tony before nodding and slowly stepping away from Harry, the boy’s eyes never leaving Loki as he clenched the scalpel even tighter. Tony Stark had been hard enough to accept, but to see a literal God before him, one that had all but leveled an entire city of the map, well that was hitting high levels of unbelievability.
“I’m dead. I’m dead and this is some weird afterlife,” Harry reasoned, trying his best to reconcile his racing thoughts with what he was seeing.
“No such luck kid. Now, how about I take the very sharp knife from you and help you back onto the bed,”
Tony had taken a single step off of the bed and the skittish Harry snapped towards the sound, holding his weapon just that much higher. Tony held up his hands and sat back down,
“Okay, how about you hold onto that and we figure out a way to get you into bed,” he cautiously spoke.
“Harry,” Loki drew, “I can lift you back into bed if you’d like. No one would have to touch you and you can keep the blade with you as well. Always good to have one of those on hand,”
Harry looked the god over, trying to peer into those green eyes as if he could see if the man was lying or not. Of course, knowing he was the god of trickery and lies, that was probably a moot point. However, there was honest tenderness in his gaze. It felt almost palpable, the way it was turned onto Harry. It didn’t make him uncomfortable but it did make his skin tingle.
“Fine,” Harry finally replied with an added nod, “Just back on the bed. Nothing else. Believe me, I’ll know if you try something else,”
Harry refused to elaborate, even after Loki gave him a curious look. All the same, the god gestured his hands to Harry and the boy let his magical sight take over. As he was used to by now, the world slowed down as he watched the magic of Loki. Unlike the magic of other Wixen, the magic Loki was wielding was practically radiating from every inch of his body. There was no one direction he was pulling from, it just came from him. He didn’t look to be drawing magic as much as he was just using it, much like breathing. He willed the magic to come forth and it did. Dropping his sight, Harry felt the world shift ever so slightly and felt the soft padding of the bed directly underneath him.
“How did you do that,” Loki questioned, looking at Harry with that curious stare of his,
“Do what,” Harry shot back, not keen on giving up too much information about himself
“I am a god of magic and I can tell when it’s eyes are upon me. You can see magic. You have Mage sight,”
If Loki was going to elaborate, the man didn’t really have a chance to do so, before Tony cut in with a rather obvious cough
“Sorry, I’m allergic to confusing magic mumbo jumbo. I’m still trying to wrap my head around Dr. Oz the Great and Powerful, so let’s not complicate things too much for me,”
“Well in that case, could you tell me why I am here, or even how I got here? Pretty sure that answer can’t be complicated,”
“You’d be surprised kid. Long story short, a guy in a red cape appeared with you in his arms and got to work fixing you up. Said you were in a bad way and that you needed rest. Glad to see it was only a few days and not the month he thought it would take,” Tony answered.
“A few days! The trial,” Harry began to panic, the heart monitor beeping erratically.
He had missed the trial. If he did there was no telling just what the Ministry was going to do to him. Snapping his wand seemed almost assured at this point and that thought alone was enough to triple the worry for Harry.
“Hey their buckaroo, I can see you thinking too fast. Slow down. Breathe. No need to worry about the trial stuff, it’s all been taken care of,” Tony pressed, talking slowly, “Don’t focus on that for now. Just breathe with me. In and out. Slow and steady,”
Harry wanted nothing more than to not breathe in time with the man he had idolized for ages and to just let his panic take control. Instead, he found himself mimicking the man’s breathing. His chest slowly starts to rise and fall in time with Tony’s. Slowly his heart began to slow down until the machine was a steady rhythm once again.
“See, I got this whole kid thing down pact. Did the same thing with Peter once and it helped a ton,”
“What’s this about the trial being taken care of,” Harry asked, desperate for answers
“We’ve spoken to Madame Bones, she had an extension filed for your trial so you could have time to heal. It is in a few days, but you don’t need to panic,” Loki filled in,
“That’s all well and good, but why is she talking to you? What do you and Tony have to do with…any of this? With me, Wixen, my trial. Why am I here and not in St. Mungo’s or something? None of this makes any sense,” Harry growled, holding the scalpel closer
The looks Loki and Tony gave each other caused a small pit of dread to form, one that grew as the men looked unsure of how to proceed at the moment.
It had been Tony who had caved first, clearing his throat and finally taking a seat across from Harry’s bed.
“I know this is going to be hard to believe. I didn’t at first but, I swear it’s true. Fifteen years ago, I met Loki. I didn’t know who he was at the time, he was just some guy I ran into at a bar when I was younger. Sparing you the uhh details, we hooked up for a bit. What I didn’t know then was he was like you, he was magical. And what I definitely didn’t know was guys who have magic can…well-,” Tony danced around what he was trying to say, clearly grasping for the words to express what he wanted to say.
“If you’ve had sexual education at Hogwarts then you are aware that those born male can bear children if their magic allows for it,” Loki helpfully spoke up
Harry nodded, still unsure of where this was going. He knew Loki wasn’t lying on that one. He thought back to the week-long class McGonagall had done for all of the Gryffindors. The fact that Harry and Hermione had been the only ones who were confused about that part when it was brought up spoke to the common nature of the knowledge amongst Wixen raised in the magical world. At least amongst some of their peers
He would never forget the look of fear on the faces of Seamus and Dean when they found out it was still possible.
“Well," Loki continued as he tried to look anywhere but at Harry, "When we got together my magic made it possible for me to bear a child. One that would be born at the end of July,”
No.
The pit in his stomach became a cavernous hole.
“That’s not true. That’s impossible,” Harry felt his body bristle as his mind tried to process what he was being told, “I know my parents. Everyone does. Lily and James. They’re my parents,”
“They were, but they are also not. Lily offered herself to be a surrogate when I found out. I couldn’t risk anyone finding out you were my child,” Loki tried to reach out to Harry but the boy swiped at him with the scalpel.
“I’m not your child! Not either one of yours,” Harry violently denied, his magic welling up in his outrage. The heart monitors rapidly beeped until it died out with a shower of sparks, “I saw them. In a picture of them holding me when I was born. I-I saw them in the mirror. I hear my mum when-” Harry’s grip on the scalpel tightened as he pointed it at Loki, “You’re lying,”
All Loki could do was shake his head, his eyes misty with unfallen tears
“I’m not. You are mine and Tony’s child. I swear on my magic that this is truth,”
Harry heard the words. He could understand them, but they just didn’t make any sense. None of what Loki was saying made sense. He had been told many times how much he looked like his father. How much he looked like James. Sirius always said he was the spitting image of the man. Or his eyes, how he had his mother’s eyes.
“We don’t look anything alike. I look like my dad,” Harry countered, his magic sparking more as he yelled, taking the lights out with it.
“You look like James because of the magic woven into the surrogacy spell. Even then, you still have my eyes and Tony’s hair. Even your magic is like mine, you have to have noticed that it isn’t the same as other wizards as you got older,”
Harry looked over to Tony who had, shockingly, left the room, leaving Harry alone with Loki. The wild nature of his magic was causing the room to surge, light rapidly blinking on and off as Harry pushed himself as far away from Loki as he could.
“Stop lying to me! Are you even Loki? Are you Voldemort, messing with me again? Is this all in my head,” Harry lashed out with the scalpel when Loki reached out to try and calm him, the man avoiding the blade.
Nothing was making any sense, the world felt like it was crashing down around him. Loki was right about his magic, ever since he turned fourteen it had felt odd. This summer, with the Dementors and the being able to see magic, had proven that something was wrong. He knew he wasn’t normal, just like he knew he was the son of Lily and James Potter. And yet.
A splinter of doubt began to fester in his mind, and it was quickly spiraling out of control.
Harry wanted to run. To hide. To be anywhere else other than where he was right now. He could feel his magic reacting to his intentions, but it still felt drained and weak. What little he had recovered since the fight in the alleyway had been wasted in his anger. Instead, he just drew into himself, still holding onto the scalpel as if it were a raft in a raging ocean.
“Ever the petulant child, are we Potter. Or should I call you Lokison now,” came a voice that Harry never thought would actually calm him down.
Looking over to the door, he spotted Snape, standing alongside Tony. The man had that same constant dower look upon his face that never seemed to leave. The consistency was very much welcomed by Harry.
“Professor,” Harry said between a shuddering gasp as he hadn’t even realized he had been crying, “What are you doing here,”
“It seems that your sire thinks he can summon me at will. He even enlisted the aid of a sorcerer in order to get me here as quickly as possible. He is under the impression that I can somehow calm this childish temperament of yours,”
“Tony brought you here? How-,” Harry didn’t even have a chance to finish that question before Snape cut him off
“The world does not revolve around you, no matter how much fate seems to think so. There have been events happening beyond your view that have brought me together with Loki and Stark. Mainly, the truth about your parentage. They are not lying to you. They really are your parents,”
Harry wanted to fight back against the words some more, but hearing them from Snape added weight to them. No matter how much the man was irritated by him in class, the man had never lied to him. At least not outright. Even when he clearly wanted to do nothing more than berate him in potions, the man had never gone so low as to lie about the quality of his work.
“Can you prove it? With a test? I know Muggles have DNA tests so we should be able to do the same,” Harry demanded
“Midgardian test would not work properly with Wixen DNA. If you want a proper test, then we would conduct a heritage test. All it takes is blood and I can prove I’m not lying,” Loki seemed ready to beg, still keeping his distance from Harry.
“Is that true,” Harry looked to Severus, the man still looking as if all of this were rather childish to deal with at the moment.
“Clearly. One should have been conducted for you after the death of Lily. Determining one’s bloodline is commonplace and the test itself only requires a few drops of your blood upon a parchment from Gringotts. I would suggest bothering them instead of taking time from my own personal life and endeavors,” the last part was pointedly aimed at Tony, who merely shrugged
“You say that like you haven’t been happy to work alongside us on this little project," Tony tried to alleviate the mood, "And how do we get this test thing? And what is it with magic and blood, I really thought that was just a Craft thing,”
Harry, who was well versed in reading Snape’s mood, huffed a smirk at the twitch in the man’s eyebrow. It was always novel to watch someone else irk the man and have the intellect to back it up. Intellect that, if the test proved Loki to be honest, ran in his blood.
“I’ve already had one done when we started all of this, but if it will make it easier on you Harry, we will go visit the goblins and-,” Loki began, but Harry didn't allow him to finish
“I want Professor Snape to take me,” Harry cut in
“Absolutely not,” the potions master predictably responded
“Out of the three adults here, you are the only one I know. And the only one I sort of trust. Either you take me or I will find a way to leave this place on my own,” the ultimatum was handed down, and Harry had his face set in determination not to budge
“The outcome of the test shall be the same, regardless of my involvement. All my presence will do is serve to irritate me further and make me question why I decided to get involved with this foolishness beyond what was needed,”
“I’m not changing my mind. I am not going anywhere with them. Either you take me, or I start plotting how to break out of here,”
Harry looked at the three adults, each one with differing reactions to his words. Loki looked hurt, though he did his best to bury it behind a weak smile. Tony was trying rather hard to keep his words to himself, though clearly wanted to say something. Snape, on the other hand, was staring directly at Harry. Smokey eyes met green ones as the two of them stared each other down.
“If I bring the parchment from Gringotts myself and conduct the test, will that satisfy your childish actions,” Snape finally caved
“Yes,” is all Harry said in response, leaving Snape to rub his temple
“Irksome child and your irksome family. I cannot wait until my part in this is finished. I shall go collect the needed items. I would rather return under my own power, so do not have your sorcerer pull me from my chair from one of his gaudy portals,”
Snape didn’t give time for anyone to have a parting shot, as he turned on his heels and vanished with a pop. One that made Harry’s ears ring for a moment. As the ringing faded, Harry realized that he was now just stuck in the room with two men who were claiming to be his parents.
To say his mind was buzzing with thoughts and questions was a gross understatement.
“So,” Harry began, trying to think of some way to break the tense silence that had cascaded down, “How long have I been out for again,” it was the only thing he could think to ask. Any of the other questions he wanted to ask would have to wait until after Snape got back.
“Roughly four days. Things were a bit…well panicky when you came in. The good Doctor pretty much ran the show. You…you were in bad shape when Peter found you,” Tony answered, looking askance as he talked.
“Peter? You mean the kid who was sticking to walls and everything? Is he okay? Did those guys get him to or-,”
Loki made a motion to get Harry to calm down,
“Breathe. The spider child is fine. A bit shaken up at everything that happened, but fine. Going back to being in bad shape, just who carved those runes into your arm and why,” Loki asked back
Harry looked down at his arm for the first time since waking up. The limb was bandaged, heavily so if the layers were anything to go by. He reached out to touch it but stopped short, his mind flashing with the images of having to carve those runes. Of that desperation to escape.
“I…There was no other way. Sirius put this ring on me that I couldn’t take off and I had tried everything. So…intangibility runes,”
“Harry,” Loki looked faint, “What you did was incredibly dangerous. Rune magic is not meant to be carved into the body, especially not one that has a magical core. If Stephen didn’t get to you as quickly as he did-,” Loki trailed off
“I didn’t have a choice. It was either do that or let Sirius take over my body. I had to get out of there and it was the only plan I had,”
“What is this about Sirius taking over your body? He didn’t…,” Tony trailed off, letting the silence speak for himself.
It took Harry a moment before the implication clicked in his mind.
“Merlin no,” he swore, “Sirius was being controlled by the house. It was like some living dark magic or something that had infected him. It wasn’t Sirius. He wasn’t like that,” Harry argued, though part of him thought otherwise
“I’ve never heard of magic like that. Do you remember anything about it? Any small thing could help break whatever this curse is on Sirius,” Loki asked
“No. Just…before I escaped he said something, or rather the house did, about being many. Like every pure-blood member of the Black family. Everything was moving so quickly that I just don’t remember it fully,”
“Souls,” Loki muttered, more to himself than anyone else, “I don’t much about the Black family line, but it was well known that they practiced dark magic. I mean, magic is magic, but what they used relied more on rituals and sacrifices than most. I wouldn’t be shocked if they used soul magic of some kind,”
“Will Sirius be okay? I just left him there and there is no telling just what that house is doing to him,”
“When it comes to soul magic, it can be tricky. The living are not meant to contain more than their own soul. The longer souls remain entangled together, the harder it is to pull them apart,”
There was a weight to his words that set Harry on edge. The way he spoke about soul being entangled filled his mind with the image of Sirius, lost in a sea of screaming members of his family. Being dragged under by the black tendrils to be lost.
“He’s the only family I have left,” Harry said, his eyes downcast.
He didn’t notice the look on Tony or Loki’s face.
The somber feeling was broken by a knock on the door, Harry looked up to find a man with facial hair similar to Tony and wearing a red cape coat standing in the doorframe.
“At the risk of interrupting a family reunion I need to my patient, make sure he is doing okay,” the man said, practically gliding into the room, his cape fluttering on its own.
“Oh, not at all. Just two dads and the son they have never met just enjoying each other’s company, feel free to intrude,” Tony, seemingly, joked.
Harry, to his credit, didn’t refute the man’s words, though mostly because he was too busy watching the newcomer as he came over to his bed. The man’s hands were producing a shimmering golden energy as he formed an odd gesture with his fingers. With a clap of his hands, he produced, of all things, a pen light.
“I knew you’d see it my way. Speaking of seeing, I need you to follow this light for me, Harry,” the man muttered, waving the light from side to side
“Uhh…who are you,” Harry questioned as he looked at the light, following the path it made, “And how did you do that with your hands? I’ve never seen magic done like that before,”
“That’s because it isn’t just magic, it's sorcery. Now, have you been feeling any weakness anywhere? Any lingering pain,”
“My legs. I tried to…well run and my legs kind of collapsed on me. Also, isn’t sorcery just magic by another name,”
The man gave Harry a withering look before pulling another tool from thin air with his golden magic. Magic that Harry noted came with various symbols etched into the air
“Is sorcery the same as magic? I swear what do they teach you at your school these days? No, the two aren’t the same. The methods are wildly different, not to mention magic is something you have to be born into. Whereas sorcery is for those who display an aptitude for learning it. Now, does this hurt,” the man finished before striking Harry’s kneecap with a small hammer-looking item.
“Ouch! Yes, yes it does. You still haven't told me who you are, Gandalf the Gold,” Harry shot at the man, earning a chuckle from Tony while Loki groaned and covered his face with his hand
“You are very much your father’s child,” the man muttered, banishing away his tools before standing, “I am Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, master of mystic arts, and protector of this plane of reality. I am also a Doctor and surgeon before you start to question my credentials for attending to you,”
“Master of the mystic arts and your name is Doctor Strange. Wicked,” Harry smirked
“Right. If you are done wowing a child with magic tricks, can you tell us if Harry is going to be okay,” Loki demanded, looking ever so slightly annoyed
“For all intents and purposes, Harry is fine. He isn’t as healthy as I would like, deficient in several nutritional areas, a few broken bones and injuries that didn’t heal properly, but as for the major reason he was here all is well. Harry will be back to casting spells in no time at all,” Strange answered
“If they don’t snap my wand at least,” Harry couldn’t help but mutter, his mind going back to the trial coming up
“Even if they did, it wouldn’t matter. While I don’t deal with most Wixen issues, you have a lot of magical potential. Loki had to bleed your core dry in order to fix your arm and your magic was powerful. It will take some time for it to fully replenish but you, Harry, have a wellspring of magical potential brimming within you,” Strange finished
“Strange. While I appreciate your help, would you leave the explanation about magic to me?," Loki interjected before Strange held up a hand
“Say no more. I’ll leave you three to get more acquainted. If anything feels wrong, Loki should be able to get a hold of me,” Strange gave Harry’s shoulder a reassuring pat, “And kid, everything will be okay,”
Harry didn’t know how to respond as he watched Strange leave, giving Tony what could best be described as a curt nod before carving a portal out of the air with his fingers and stepping through to a room beyond.
Was everything going to be okay? It was hard to say, at least from Harry’s point of view. There was not just the trial, but everything with Sirius. Even if he got to keep his wand and still go back to school, Sirius was still trapped in that house. Trapped with no way to escape.
Harry looked up to Loki, wanting to ask the god of magic if there was any way he could go to Grimmauld Place and save Sirius when his thoughts were interrupted by a crack and the arrival of Snape. The dour man had a withering look on his face as he produced a roll of parchment from a bag in his hand.
“There. Now if you excuse me, I would very much like to return to my own devices. It has been bad enough dealing with Dumbledore and his insistence that he knows my every move now. I do not think he will take lightly the fact that I have helped you once again without his knowledge or input,”
“Frankly, Dumbledore should be happy I have not sent the might of Asgardian for crimes against one of its own. Thank you for all the help you have given us Severus,” Loki responded, taking the roll of parchment from him.
The man didn’t respond to his thanks, merely giving a small curt nod before giving Harry a look. Harry, as usual, couldn’t parse just what was on the man’s mind, but whatever it was Snape was looking for, he found it as he eventually broke eye contact.
“For what it is worth, Harry. I do hope you escape Albus and his machinations. The greater good is not worth…,” he trailed off before letting what emotion might have been on his face vanish. With nothing said at all, he spun on his heels and vanished once more from the room.
Harry had always been conflicted about how he felt when it concerned the Potions Master. The man was hellish at times in class, even though Harry had been decent at the subject. However, he hadn’t ever been needlessly cruel. Just cryptic and very reserved. Now though, knowing that he had played a part in everything that had transpired, Harry’s view of them had become more muddled than before. The man was still a cloak of questions with no easy answers.
For now, Harry turned his mind away from Snape and to the parchment that Loki was unrolling. There, at the top, was the seal for Gringotts. One that could not be duplicated. The bit of parchment was blank, save some flowery script that said, ‘Wixen Bloodline’ at the top. Looking at it, all Harry could feel was nerves. Even if he was sure that Loki and Tony weren’t his parents, he was going to find out the truth all the same.
“So. All I have to do is drop a few splashes of blood on this and it will tell me that Lily and James are my real parents,” Harry said to himself, though Loki nodded all the same.
“It will show you who your parents are, not who you wish them to be. I know this isn’t ideal Harry but-,”
“Ideal,” Harry laughed, looking at Loki with a withering glance, “None of this is ideal. Not the trial. Not what happened to Sirius. Not being told that the family I believed I was a part of wasn’t actually mine. None of this is ideal. But since when has my life ever been that” Harry took a breath and used the scalpel to cut his thumb.
Drops of blood splashed onto the parchment below, staining the surface before they were absorbed by the paper itself. It had taken a moment, one that seemed to stretch into eternity for Harry, before the parchment began to show any form of change.
Thick lines drawn in swirling black patterns began to form, branching off as a family tree began to form. At its base, Harry saw his name forming. He focused all his attention there, blocking out anything else being formed.
It’s going to say, James and Lily, he told himself.
To his left, he saw Loki relax ever so slightly, something that he refused to look into.
On his right, Tony made a noise that he could parse.
Lily and James, the thought rose again in his mind. It was the only truth that there ever could be.
His eyes glanced from his spot on the tree and traced the thick lines. His eyes followed the trail to the first node on the tree. He read the name and his heart felt lodged in his throat.
Bearer: Loki Laufyson
Sire: Anthony Edward Stark
There, in magical ink was the truth.
Unchanging and unmitigated truth.
“This entire time,” Harry muttered under his breath, “I could have-,”
Harry couldn’t hold back the flood of emotions that were overtaking him. The tears were hot and silent against his face, his emotions racing faster than he could give them names. Anger. Grief. Regret. Fear. Longing. Loss. They all crashed down at once, threatening to swallow him whole. Instead of trying to swallow it all backdown, Harry, for the first time, let it out.
Harry had no idea how long he sat there, feeling the hot tears streaming down his face. It could have been minutes or hours. At some point, he felt the side of his bed sag with extra weight and found his face full of the bushy hair of his best friend.
“Harry I’m…I’m so sorry,” Hermione cried into the boy’s arms, pulling him in for a hug, “I’m here for you Harry. I’m here for you,”
As the two teens embraced in a bid of comfort, neither one of them noticed as the other two adults slipped out of the room to give them much-needed privacy and to discuss things amongst themselves.
At some point, Harry pulled himself together, sniffling still as he let Hermione go.
“How’d you even get here ‘Mione,” Harry finally asked, scooting over a bit to give his friend more room on his bed.
“I was looking for you. Ron sent me an owl saying you were in trouble. I went looking for you and the next thing I know Loki is saying he is your dad. Then Tony is asking me a bunch of questions about you and PRONGS. My father had a right fit when he brought me home late at night. Was convinced Tony had picked me up on the street corner or something. It was embarrassing,”
Harry could help but give a soft smile as Hermione spoke quickly, the sound of her voice a comforting anchor point after all that he was dealing with
“He just lets you call him Tony,” Harry asked
“He insisted on it. Luckily, he was able to convince my father that this was Wixen's business. Probably the only reason he and Mum didn’t freak out when that Doctor Strange person arrived in our living room to bring me here. Wouldn’t even tell me how his magic worked, not that I won’t find out,”
“If there is anyone in the world who can figure that out, it would be you, Hermione,”
“How silly of me. I didn’t even ask how you were handling…well all of this,”
Harry took a breath to steel himself.
“I’m…not handling it, Hermione. I just found out that I wasn’t an orphan. For some reason, I ended up in a home with less-than-stellar people who treated me either like a freak or like I didn’t exist. I could have had a home. Not a room under the stairs. Not someplace where anything I did was viewed as wrong or freakish. I could have had a family,”
“You have one now. Tony and Loki, they want you. You’re the son they never got a chance to know,”
“What if they change their mind,” the dark thought was a splinter in Harry’s mind, “What if they think I’m too difficult? Or too dangerous to be around. People die around me, Hermione. Who I thought were my parents died because of me. I can’t let that happen to them. I can't let them get close. Even Sirius-,”
“Harry James Potter,” her voice was low but filled with conviction, “Lily and James didn’t die because of you, they died to protect you. Not to mention you are practically an honorary Weasley at this point and damn near my brother as well,” she smirked and Harry’s barely concealed laugh, “Not to mention your parents are a god and a superhero. Both of them would burn the world to protect you and happily fight any battle you face,”
“They shouldn’t have to though. It…it isn’t their job. Even though he was a bit much this summer, Dumbledore was right about one thing. It is up to me to beat Voldemort. Not anyone else. I can’t risk anyone else getting involved,”
“It’s silly you think you have a choice in that matter,” Hermione answered flatly
“What are you on about,”
“Even if you didn’t have a family of red-heads, a god, and a father with his own team of superheroes on your side, you’d have me. I told you Harry, wherever you go, I’m going too. I know you are going to fight tooth and nail to tell me it’s too dangerous and I should stay, but I won’t. I won’t because you need someone with you. Not just me either, but Ron as well. I know you care about us, but don’t shut us out because you fear what may happen if we stick around each other,”
Harry said nothing more, knowing that Hermione was firmly set in her position. He wanted to refute her words, to make it known that he wasn’t going to willingly drag her into danger, but that was a moot point. She had always been a loyal friend, one he was glad to have.
“Well, I should probably warn Tony and Loki what they are getting into with me…still can’t believe that I have-,” Harry trailed off, unable to complete his thought
“Is it even weirder how much you idolized Tony? I mean, you molded your own AI after his and the man turns out to be your father. Maybe intelligence is genetic,”
“Maybe. Or maybe fate just has a funny way of writing my life. Speaking of PRONGS, is he okay? You said Tony was asking you questions about him,”
Hermione smacked her forehead,
“Yeah, I almost forgot. Tony got him up and running after you shut him down. Some of his original code got corrupted but he is at least functional. For the most part. We kept him stored on a drive until you were around to bring him back,”
PRONGS. There was no telling just what sort of damage Harry had done to his code, as he never properly tested the shutdown protocols before. Just another causality of his life.
Like Cedric.
“None of that Harry. I can read your face like a book,” Hermione chimed back in, dragging Harry away from his thoughts, “PRONGS isn’t gone. Between you and your Da-Tony he will be back up and running at full capacity in no time,”
“But PRONGS is your thing too. I don’t want you to think tha-,” Once again, Hermione was ready to beat Harry to the punch.
“It will be fine Harry. Think of it as a way for you two to bond. How you are going to do that with Loki is beyond me though,”
“Yeah, well first things first I have got to make it through this trial in a few days. After that, then I can start worrying about bonding with them,” he couldn’t bring himself to call them his parents. Not yet,
“Thanks again, Hermione. I really needed this,”
“I know. Now, get some sleep. You just came out of a coma of all things. You need to get some more rest,”
Hermione broke no argument as she pulled off her friends’ glasses and set them on the side table. Harry huffed in mock annoyance before letting himself lay back down. Hermione made a few adjustments, carving out enough space for her to curl up beside him. The warmth of knowing she was there, just a few inches beside him, was all the reassurance Harry needed to drift back off to sleep.
For the first time in a while, he didn’t have a single nightmare.