Chapter 26
"Checkmate," Harry declared, wearing a sly grin on his face as he looked up at Peter who looked utterly dumbfounded.
"How?" Peter whined. "That's game three in a row, how are you doing this?"
"At a school with no electricity and lots of forbidden areas, you run out of things to do pretty quickly," Harry chuckled. "Play again?"
"How about I introduce you to a different game, one that I might actually have a chance of winning?" Peter asked, sighing as he looked at all of the pieces that he had lost during the game.
"Sounds good to me. Muggle's chess is very boring anyway," Harry laughed, packing up the chessboard and placing it back in the case that it came in from the nurses station.
"How so?" Peter asked, pulling Uno out of his bag and beginning to deal cards.
"Wizarding chess is played where you command the pawns to move, and they battle on their own," Harry giggled, watching as Peter's face turned from confusion to amazement.
"That's awesome," he smiled, biting his lip, just hoping that Harry wouldn't have a flashback or go to a dark place. When Harry grabbed his cards and began looking at them carefully, Peter knew they were in the clear.
"This is the one where you have to match the number or the color, right?" Harry questioned, glancing up at Peter for confirmation. Dr. Atkins had told him that his concussion had healed remarkably quick, but he would still suffer from some dizzy spells and lightheadedness, and the occasional bouts of confusion or forgetfulness, but overall she had been impressed with how quickly his body was healing. So impressed that she had cleared him to travel as early as tomorrow.
Harry was excited- he loved his nurses and Dr. Atkins, but he wanted to go home more than anything, even if it meant lying in a bed in the medbay there for a while too while he continued to recover.
However, when Dr. Atkins shared the good news with him, Peter and Tony, the other two had seemed less enthusiastic than Harry had envisioned, and they had disappeared shortly thereafter, after passing several worried looks back and forth.
Whatever they had been talking about, Harry hadn't liked how unhappy they looked when they walked back in, so he had come up with the idea of having a game night that night with the whole team as a celebration. Tony had smiled and told him it was a great idea, which lead to where they were now. Peter curled up in an armchair that was dragged up as close as it could get to Harry's bed, where they were using the tray typically reserved for food, to teach and remind Harry how to play muggle games.
"Did Professor McGonagall ever say anything about returning?" Harry asked after a beat of silence had passed. It wasn't that he wanted to return to the wizarding world, he was just curious about what she had wanted to do with him, and why now?
"She mentioned something about coming back today, but we haven't heard anything from her since the other night when they were here," Peter responded, throwing down a blue six onto the top of the deck.
Harry thumbed through his cards, pulling out a yellow six and laying it on top. "I was just wondering, since I get to go home tomorrow, and she never did say what exactly she wanted."
Peter's face flushed involuntarily, as it always did when he was lying or hiding the truth. That was one of the perks of wearing a mask while on patrol was that nobody knew when he was bluffing.
"I don't know what they wanted, but it couldn't have been too serious since they haven't been back yet," he laid down a wild card, "blue."
Harry pulled four cards out of the deck and played a blue card, looking up at Peter, whose face was slowly returning to it's normal color.
"What aren't you telling me?" He asked in a soft voice, laying down a blue card he had drawn. Peter wordlessly played a card, clearing his throat.
"It's nothing, just some stuff with the trial, but nothing you need to worry about," he replied, trying his best to keep his face neutral.
Harry slapped down a yellow seven with a bit more aggression than normal. "Dammit Peter, stop lying to me, I know something's going on. What aren't you telling me?"
"It's nothing!" Peter exclaimed, voice coming out a bit louder than he intended as he slapped down a blue seven.
"Dammit! Would you stop doing that?" Harry cried, his magic lashing out and blowing the cards off of the tray and across the room, leaving him only with the singular card in his hand. "Fuck!"
Peter relaxed his posture and softened his gaze, realizing how tense both he and Harry were at the moment.
"I'm sorry Harry," he started, but Harry just shook his head, turning his head away. He had to hide his tears and frustration from Peter. Harry knew that if the hero saw him crying, he would immediately feel guilty.
Peter frowned when Harry didn't look at him, and instead took his hand. "I'm not trying to keep things from you, I promise. I don't like doing it, and I don't want to stress you out unless it's a big deal. I know I suck at keeping secrets, but please don't ask me to tell you. It's not up to me, whether or not I can tell you. It's up to Mister Stark."
Peter felt bad throwing his mentor under the bus like that, but he couldn't stand having Harry upset with him. He really liked him, and he didn't want Harry to hurt because of his wrongdoings or slip ups.
"It's alright," Harry told him, turning to face him a bit. Peter's heart broke when he saw the tears that were welled up in Harry's eyes. "I know you're just trying to keep me safe and happy. Sometimes, it just doesn't feel like it's helping me."
"I promise, Mister Stark will tell you everything once he thinks and you think you're ready, okay?" Peter grabbed Harry's hand.
"Okay," Harry gave Peter's hand a squeeze, and leaned in, planting a soft kiss on Peter's cheek before whispering in his ear. "Uno."
*
Peter, Tony, Bucky, Pepper, Clint and Steve were all sat in a circle, surrounding Harry's bed, pens and Scattergories Game pads in hand.
"Superhero's starting with S," Pepper announced, taking a sip of her water, knowing that this round ought to be good.
"I had Sh'maptain Sh'merica," Tony announced proudly, grin spreading ear to ear. From a few seats over, Steve groaned.
"We are not counting that," he grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger in exasperation.
"What?! Why not? That's BS, I call you that all the time!" Tony exclaimed, and Harry giggled at the antics of the two men. Deciding that now would be the time to change the subject before Civil War 2 broke out, Pepper cleared her throat.
"I had Stephen Strange," she announced, "double S, and you cannot argue with me because he is a super hero- Tony do not look at me like that- and nobody said you had to write their superhero name."
"I had Steve Rogers, so I'll count that," Bucky shrugged.
"Not fair! I had Steve Rogers too!" Clint exclaimed, dropping the pen and paper, leaning back in the seat and crossing his arms with the mock-pouting expression of a toddler. Harry gave a laugh at the stupidity of the archer, who winked back at him, making him laugh harder.
"Scarlet Witch," Steve said, and Harry stopped laughing with a groan.
"Me too," Harry responded, crossing out what he had written.
"Not so funny now, huh?" Clint teased, chuckling when Harry stuck his tongue out at him.
"I didn't get anything," Peter frowned, looking at the blank line.
Everyone turned to stare at him.
"Really? Are you serious?" Tony said. "We all purposely avoided the first thing that popped into our heads because we thought you would write it, and you didn't write anything?"
"...No? What was it?" Peter cocked his head to look at the 6 faces staring at him.
"Spiderman?" Tony offered, sarcasm thick in his voice.
"Oh," Peter blushed, burying his face in his hands. Everyone began chuckling as the teen turned beet red.
"Don't laugh at me," Peter whined pitifully, words muffled from behind his hands.
"But you just make it so damn easy," Tony laughed, reaching over and squeezing his mentee's shoulder playfully.
"I hope we aren't interrupting anything," a voice said from the doorway, making everyone rise to their feet.
"Professor?" Harry questioned, leaning to peer around Bucky who had taken a rather protective stance in front of him. He inhale sharply when pain shot through his backside, making him arch his back and slowly lay back down on the pillows with Peter's help.
He had healed a lot since he arrived at the hospital, but he still had a lot of healing to do. Both physically and mentally.
"Hello Mr. Potter," Minerva McGonagall greeted him from her place in the doorway. One by one, everyone re-assumed their seats once they realized that it was just her and Poppy and Ginny once more.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked timidly. He didn't want to go back to the wizarding world, and he could feel his chest tightening at the mere thought. Peter's warm hand enveloped his, taking his mind off of the fear for a moment.
"When I didn't receive your owl indicating your return to Hogwarts this upcoming year, I began to get worried. However, then I received a Muggle newspaper with your uncle's wanted picture on it, and I became increasingly worried and decided to find you."
"While we're grateful that you were concerned, I don't think Harry wishes to return to Hogwarts this year," Tony spoke up, the school's name feeling foreign and unwelcome on his tongue. Harry had told him stories about the school, and it didn't sound safe or very welcoming for his son.
"Mr. Stark, I do believe that's up for Mr. Potter to decide," Minerva spoke, voice short and tight. She knew that these people had Harry's best interests in mind, but she did feel that Harry's education was in his best interests.
"I don't," Harry murmured, voice almost inaudible. "With all due respect, I don't want to return, ma'am."
"Don't be foolish, Mr. Potter, you have to finish your schooling," Poppy scoffed, speaking for the first time since they had returned.
"Don't you understand? I don't have to do anything for you! I've already defeated Voldemort as a god damn teenager, something you guys couldn't do as fully trained adults. I've already experienced enough loss and pain to last me a lifetime without returning to Hogwarts. I'm done!" Harry exclaimed, taking everyone in the room for surprise.
Peter gave Harry's hand a light squeeze, noticing the grimace that Harry was trying to suppress.
"Harry, relax a bit and lay back down," Peter whispered, helping Harry ease back to the pillows from where he had leaned forward and was tensely bracing himself. As soon as Harry was repositioned and more comfortable, Peter turned to the witch with an angry expression.
"I thought I told you that the other night! Harry doesn't owe any of you anything! You can't force him to do anything against his will, and you should just leave him alone! If he doesn't want to go and wishes for you to leave him alone, then I think you owe him that much!"
This time, it was Harry's turn to give Peter's hand a grounding squeeze.
"I couldn't have said it better myself," Tony spat, tired of everything being so complicated for his kid. Why couldn't everyone just leave him alone? He had been through enough!
From the doorway, Ginny moved forward silently. Harry looked up at her, his face flushing bright red and he dropped his gaze to his hands.
"Please don't," he whimpered, shifting away from her. He didn't know what she wanted with him. Ron had punched him the last time they had talked, and while he couldn't imagine that Ginny would do that, especially in a hospital room in front of trained superheroes, he had learned that you couldn't always believe the best in people.
"I'm not going to do anything to you Harry," Ginny told him, her heart breaking when she saw how Harry was cowering away from her.
"What do you want from me?" Harry cried, posture still hunched over and leaning towards Peter.
"I don't want anything from you, Harry," Ginny whispered. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for how Ron reacted and how my mum reacted, and how everyone has treated you. None of this is your fault, and I hate that everyone is blaming you for it. You saved us, and you're being treated as if you were the cause of the entire mess. But you're not. And no matter what you choose to do, I want you to know that I don't blame you for anything and that I'm here for you if you need a friend. And if you never want to speak to me or anyone from the wizarding world again, I understand that as well and I truly, from the bottom of my heart, wish you the best life with your family."
With your family.
Harry sat up, glancing at Ginny for the first time and really taking in her appearance.
The bags under her eyes were prominent, indicating a lack of sleep. Her normally flaming, silky red hair was tied back into a ponytail, seeming a little less fiery than usual. Her eyes that were normally so full of mischief, passion and love seemed dull.
Harry couldn't help but feel responsible.
"Ginny, I'm really sorry about Fr- Fred," Harry choked, heart racing when her face fell for a fleeting moment before being replaced by a strong façade.
"Thank you, and again, it's not your fault, despite what anyone says. I'm sorry for how my mother and Ron acted, that was so wrong of them. But I'm not holding anything against you. Owl me if you need anything, okay? Even just someone to talk to."
Harry nodded, dropping his gaze from her face as she turned and stepped back to her place in the doorway.
"Harry," Steve cleared his throat. "Whatever you choose to do, we'll support you. We don't want to force you to do anything, and don't feel swayed to do one thing that you think will make people happy over something that you really want to do. You'll still have us as a family no matter what you choose to do."
"Can't believe I'm saying this, but Cap's right," Tony spoke up. "You're part of the family, and no matter what you choose to do, Pepper and I will still adopt you, and the rest of the team with still love and support you just as much. And if you choose to return to school in Scotland, we can buy a house there for the school year. The choice is all yours, Harry."
Harry turned to Peter, searching his face for any trace of an opinion. But Peter was just looking at Harry with comforting and encouraging big, brown eyes.
And Harry knew what he was going to do.
"I want to stay with you. I want to go home to America and move past this part of my life. I want to live my happily ever after with the team. I want to get married and have a family in New York. I want to get a job, maybe open a bakery. I don't want to return to Hogwarts. I want to go home."