Marvelous Return

When Phil woke up it was once again to JARVIS showing him the video feed from the others. By others, he meant Severus trying to feed breakfast to Harry and Luna alone. 

Luna was cooperating. Harry not so much. In fact, Harry was full-on pouting, refusing to open his mouth when asked, his little arms crossed over his chest and the cutest glare of doom on his face. 

Thankfully, JARVIS also provided audio feed with this morning entertainment. 

“Please Harry, I said I was sorry,” Severus pleaded with him. “You needed sleep and you know it.” 

Well, clearly Severus wasn’t used to pleading. Everyone knew you don’t tell the person you wish would forgive you that it was for their own good, especially a toddler. 

As to prove Phil’s point, Harry turned fully away from Severus, or as fully as he could while sitting on his high chair. 

“No,” Harry said firmly. 

“Fine,” Severus finally said. “Sirius can give you your breakfast.” 

Harry made a mistake at that point: he grinned. You never grin. It just gives the game away. 

“On second thought,” Severus told him. “Either you eat your breakfast with me, or you won’t have breakfast.” 

Phil was out of bed before Severus even understood his mistake, running to the kitchen to try and calm Harry down before anything happened. 

Too late, Harry was crying up a storm and Severus was blue from head to toe. 

“You mean,” Harry was yelling, “‘ike them.” 

“Harry, no,” Severus tried to calm him. “I would never do that.” 

But Harry only cried louder, soon everyone was there, but Phil stopped them, Severus needed to solve this on his own or Harry would never trust him again. With how Severus had been to Harry, in Harry’s remembered past, it was just a matter of time before Harry figured he would revert to his dungeon bat persona and be mean to him. 

“I’d never do that Harry, never,” Severus assured him. “You may be grounded some time, just as any child would. Just ask Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, and George, I’m sure they’ll tell you they spent some time in the corner, or away from a toy. But I will never withhold food or drinks, or a blanket, or your bed. We are not like them, Harry.” 

“To be fair you did threaten his breakfast,” Phil pointed out. 

“So he’d let me feed him,” Severus protested, “If he had kept his attitude someone else would have fed him after he spent some time in the corner.” 

“But it’s the first time we’ve had to ground Harry, so he doesn’t know that,” Phil explained. 

Severus groaned. 

“I’ll never keep food from you, or Luna,” Severus promised. 

“Rea’’y,” Harry asked. 

“Yes, really, I promise,” Severus said. 

“We promise too,” everyone else affirmed. 

“‘kay,” Harry said with a smile. 

Severus kissed his forehead, wiped away his tears and tried to feed Harry his breakfast again. Which went better. 

As soon as breakfast was done with, for the little ones at least, Harry cried out: “S’eve,” and all Hell broke loose. 

Severus sighed, Sirius and Remus went to the counter to prep food and let him deal with that one, and Clint just laughed his ass off on the floor. 

“Enough with that already,” Severus snapped, though he did not yell. “We’ll bring you to Steve as soon as he wakes up, but you cannot be there when he wakes, there will be agents all over the place, they can’t know about you.” 

Harry made a face that clearly stated try and stop me. Thankfully, Severus was quick with his wand. Before Harry could flash away to parts unknown, he was sitting in the corner facing away from the adults. 

“How are you keeping him from flashing away,” Sirius asked. 

“I used that spell Lily used on you when you tried to get me in trouble for the prank you played in the Astronomy tower in 3rd year,” Severus told him with a smirk. 

“You stuck him to the chair,” Remus asked him amused, but keeping his voice low so Harry couldn’t hear. 

“As long as he doesn’t figure out he could just flash with the chair, we’re safe,” Severus said with a shrug and turned to his own breakfast. 

Harry was only in the corner for 5 minutes, but when he was levitated back to the table he was pouting once more. 

“No, ‘ike,” he announced. 

“Well, it is grounding - you’re not supposed to like it,” Severus reminded him. 

“No do more,” Harry ordered. 

“You’re a little boy, you’ll be grounded if we think you deserved it,” Remus argued. “Luna will be grounded too, and I know Arthur grounds the boys when they deserve it. It’s part of having parents.” 

“I have an offer for you,” Severus told Harry, who looked at him in interest. “I talked to Ragnok. If you choose this solution then I can implement it in a week.”

Harry nodded, as everyone looked intrigued, apparently no one knew what Severus was talking about. 

“Since you can’t just forget about your past, as it is not possible, and you clearly hate being a little boy, I can brew an aging potion for you, you’ll be back to being a 27 year old wizard by the end of next week.” 

Sirius, Remus, and really everyone wanted to protest but Severus silenced them. 

“Now if you choose this path, you’ll be more in control, you’ll get to follow your own plans, your own planning, and save whoever you want, however you want, we’ll let you date whoever you want, you won’t have to go to school unless you want to. You’ll be an adult. Though this also means, you’ll be in charge of your own life, of your estate, of your negotiations with the Goblins and every other person you choose to include into your group. You’ll go back to being the leader of the Marvelers, as it is yours by treaties. Or, …” 

Severus said and turned all his attention to Harry. 

“Or, you decide to trust us enough to stay a little boy, enjoy playing all day with Luna and the Weasley boys, learn exciting new things at school, have fun and get cuddles whenever you want, have loving parents, and new fun and happy memories that will, with time, take the place of the old ones. You’ll still remember the people and if you can trust them or not, just not in details as you’ll have new memories you’ll want to recall. Sure sometimes you’ll get grounded, or things won’t go exactly how you want, or as fast as you want, but you need to trust that we are doing everything we can to make your plans work.”

“I know which one I’d like you to choose. I hate how we were in those memories you showed me, I don’t want this for us. I want to help you grow up into the wonderful man we all know you’ll become, but with love and care, not with what you went through with those people.” 

 By the end of his little speech everyone had tears in their eyes and Harry was freely crying, but Severus told him not to answer immediately. 

While Harry looked like he wanted to jump at the opportunity to become an adult again, he was now looking at all of them and finally held up his arms for Severus to lift him after everyone was done eating. 

“‘itt’e boy,” Harry nodded and kissed Severus’ cheek before repeating, “‘itt’e boy, go up ‘gain.” 

“I won’t offer again, Harry,” he informed him. 

Harry just nodded and snuggled against Severus. 

“‘ove oo,” Harry told him, making Severus smile softly. 

“I love you too.” 

Phil tried to wrack his brain for a new topic but all he could think about was Steve, to be honest, he was as excited as Harry for the man to finally wake up. 

“So,...” Clint said attracting everyone’s attention to himself. “Familiars, what’s the deal with them?” 

“Didn’t we explain that already,” Remus wondered. 

“Just that they are attracted to our magic,” Clint said. 

“Oh, well, after the bond is formed, you can communicate with them,” Remus explained. “There are laws to protect the bonds, for example, no one is allowed to separate you from your familiar, an attack on your familiar is an attack on yourself and you can retaliate in kind… There are others but as I never had one I didn’t delve into the laws of it all.” 

“If your familiar is magical you often gain a power boost, and/or a special ability after you bond to them,” Sirius completed. 

“So, what? The twins will get to disappear like the dodos do,” Clint asked. 

“Well, I don’t think they’ve completed their bond yet, but it is a possibility,” Remus admitted, looking around for the twins. 

“Arthur had them up early and took them to the bank to see about registering Prank and getting the papers he’ll need to get the boys enrolled,” Severus told them. “He wanted to be done before the day got hectic.” 

“Smart,” Remus said with a nod. 

“Back to Familiars,” Clint said, “Do we have to meet them for it to happen?” 

“What are you thinking about,” Natasha asked him. 

“Well, we know mine, and we know where he is,” Clint pointed out. “Plus, we know he’ll come to his wizard if called, or so the books said.” 

“You want to call Fawkes,” Sirius asked for confirmation. 

“I don’t plan on leaving him with the old fool if it is what you are asking,” Clint argued. 

“Not, what I meant, I’m just surprised none of us thought of it before, we’ve seen Dumb-as-a-Door use him this way enough times on the battlefield,” Sirius explained. 

“If you know him maybe you should try,” Clint offered. 

Sirius shrugged and called out, “Fawkes.” 

They waited for a little in case he couldn’t come immediately, but nothing happened. 

Clint got another idea and turned to Harry, “Try it mini-Merlin.” 

“‘w’es,” was what Harry came up with, but Phil figured if this was meant to work then Fawkes would understand him anyway. 

“Maybe you should try it,” Severus told Clint. 

“Fawkes,” Clint called out, but again nothing. 

Harry narrowed his eyes in concentration and chuckled, “Fi’ecake,” he called surprising everyone. 

Once they figured out what he meant they all laughed at their own stupidity. 

“Firecracker,” Clint called out, and instantly the room heated up and a big, beautiful red and gold bird flashed into the room, in a manner not that dissimilar to Harry’s brand of flashing. 

The bird thrilled and went to Clint, looking him in the eyes as if judging him before pecking his finger when the man lifted his hand to pet it. Phil thought it was meant as a reprimand but the bird lapped at Clint’s blood and suddenly both of them were engulfed in a bright red and gold light which dissipated just as quickly as it came. 

The bird trilled again and Clint’s eyes got as big as saucers, not even Sirius turning into a big black dog before his eyes got that big a reaction out of him.  

“This did not happen with Prank,” Natasha noted tensely.

“Prank is a baby still, she might not know how to do it,” Remus countered, “But that was a true familiar bound.” 

Firecracker turned to him when he heard his voice and hobbled to the trio of wizards, looking at them before singing something which sounded happy and appeasing, that Phil could feel deep down in his bones. 

“He says he is happy you are not fighting as the old one wanted,” Clint translated. 

“We are happy too,” Sirius told him as he brushed his hand over the phoenix’s feathers. 

“Fi’ecake,” Harry said and the bird turned to him chirping happily, as he fluttered to Harry, rubbing his head against a delighted Harry’s cheek. 

Everyone turned Clint who held his hands up. “That’s between them,” he told them. 

Phil will interrogate him later, he didn’t like not knowing stuff, especially about Harry, not even if it meant good things not bad. He was starting to feel more fatherly than a simple protector toward Harry and he didn’t want anything to hurt his little one. Though he would never tell anyone that. Not until he talked with Remus about it anyway. He didn’t even know why he needed to talk to Remus about it, but he felt as if he should. Well, Harry and Sirius. Maybe Sirius first. First the date then the baby, right? 

The rest of the morning was spent with JARVIS and Tony scanning Firecracker as Clint made him fly around the living room, or have a flash and hide contest with Harry to keep him busy. 

Soon, lunch came and with it a call from Fury, informing them that Captain Rogers was waking. 

Phil and Sirius decided to take a walk with Harry to SHIELD’s headquarter instead of apparating there as Phil knew it would take time before the doctors were done examining Steve and they were allowed in. 

Halfway there though Steven Grant Rogers appeared running into the street, soon surrounded by half a dozen SHIELD issued SUV. Now Phil knew why Natasha told them to let Fury screw this up. He still didn’t know what happened, but this could work for them. 

Phil caught Fury’s attention, and pointed to Harry and then to the director’s SUV, which Phil knew had the least surveillance, a system that Fury could disable with a simple command. 

“Captain Rogers, I can drive you back to SHIELD if you’ll allow me,” Fury offered politely. 

As Steve looked a little lost, though not as much as Phil would have expected, he agreed, after Fury led him to the car he went to gather the agents involved further away to give them their orders. 

“Harry, go now,” Phil told him and Harry disappeared with a grin. 

“Are you sure about this,” Sirius asked. 

“I’m sure,” Phil told him and on impulse kissed his cheek before walking to the SHIELD agents acting as if he had always been there. 

---------------

When Steve woke up, he immediately knew something was wrong. No, it wasn’t the game, though that was a dead giveaway. It was a feeling of warmth and safety which had been there for days as he fluttered between consciousness and unconsciousness. That small but heavy bundle of warmth he kind of got used to, wasn’t there at the moment. 

At first, he thought it was Heaven when he felt the warmth again, but soon he felt more, something putting pressure on his whole body from that point, a buzzing under his skin even when the bundle wasn’t there. It was familiar yet different. It’s only when he woke up that he remembered what it was, that he recognized it, MAGIC. 

Howard introduced them to it after a night of drinking. As the man explained, the drinking wasn’t necessary but if things didn’t pan out he could pass off anything they saw as drunken hallucinations. Not that he knew, or they did, that Steve and Bucky were not drunk. 

Bucky only revealed it to Steve that night as they tried to fall asleep, wondering if European alcohol was just less potent than the American one. 

It was only when Howard found an answer to why Steve couldn’t get drunk that he understood what went on, by then it was too late, Bucky had already fallen, and they were too far from the scene for Steve to choose to go after his best friend instead of raiding Red Skull’s base. 

The hope was that just as it worked for him, the serum would help Bucky survive the 24 hours it would take them to get back to the ravine. Unfortunately, when Steve crashed the Valkyrie, he knew it meant the end of Bucky too, as to protect his friend from the life of lab test subject they tried to inflict on him, he told no one of the serum he suspected was given to him. So, no one would go looking for him. 

As Steve burst through the wall, he noticed immediately that things weren’t as they used to be, that this wasn’t his time, people in the hall had a little piece of plastic in their hands, one of the guards was communicating with a device he never saw before. On the outside, skyscrapers surrounded him when there hadn’t been so many before nor so high, the cars were different, faster, there were more of them too, as well as more people. 

He should be panicking he knew, but that buzzing under his skin was still there and he could feel it become stronger as he ran. 

Fury told him to wait in the car while he briefed his team but it wasn’t long before the weight of the warm bundle was back on his chest. This time though Steve knew what the bundle was. A baby, maybe a toddler, with big green eyes, messy dark hair, and a toothless smile which could lighten even the darkest mood. 

“S’eve,” the little one called out, snuggling into his chest. 

“Hello there, little one,” Steve said as he cradled the little body closer. He didn’t see how he came in, but he was sure the little one wasn’t in the car when he climbed in, and he didn’t want him to disappear again. 

“Ha’’y,” the little one told him, but well, Steve might have been handed many babies on his USO tour but he didn’t speak baby really well. 

“How come you’re here,” Steve asked him. 

“Daddy say ‘kay,” the little one told him. 

“Who’s your Daddy then,” Steve asked. 

“Fi’ Cou’son,” he was careful to enunciate as if someone taught him in case anyone asked. 

“Is he around,” Steve wondered. 

Harry nodded and pointed toward Fury to an elder man in a grey suit. 

“You don’t look like him much,” Steve noticed. 

Harry chuckled. 

“Magi’ say Daddy, Daddy be Daddy,” he explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world. 

“Oh, and does Daddy know about it,” Steve asked with a chuckle of his own. 

“Noooo,” Harry answered and ‘tried’ to put a finger on his lips to keep a secret. Of course, he missed his lips and almost stabbed his eye but Steve got the message. 

“And is Daddy a SHIELD agent,” Steve questioned. 

Harry hummed and nodded. 

“Daddy, Un’a C’int, Ant ‘asha, fo’ now.” 

“I see,” Steve nodded. 

So, whoever SHIELD was, they knew about magic. Though after a second Steve amended this, some of them knew. If they all knew about it then Steve and Harry wouldn’t be hiding in the car. 

“Should I trust SHIELD,” he wondered not exactly expecting an answer. 

Harry shrugged, “Fu’y fine,” he finally told him. 

“But he’s not one of your uncles,” Steve pointed out. 

“No,” Harry agreed. 

“And me,” Steve asked. 

“S’eve be S’eve, ike Se’vus be Se’vus,” Harry answered, not that it helped Steve much. 

“How come you want to help me, do we know each other,” Steve inquired. 

Harry shrugged, “S’eve.” 

“If I ask your Daddy, will I get a more comprehensive answer,” he teased, only to get glared at. 

“‘itt’ boy,” said little boy growled at him. 

They stayed silent for a while until the man called Daddy approached the car, the window going down automatically. 

“Harry, please go back to Sirius,” the man asked and before Harry could protest, he told him. “Steve needs to see a doctor, you don’t want him to get sick, right?” 

The little boy glared but disappeared just the same. Steve followed the gaze of ‘Daddy’ to the other side of the street where Harry reappeared in the arms of a dark-haired handsome man, talking animatedly to him. 

“He wanted to see you, but make no mistake,” the man told him, “you are under no obligation to keep contact with us.” 

Before Steve could ask for an explanation the man handed him a card, “If you ever decide you want to get involved, or just want to visit him, call me, I’ll arrange for it.” 

“Wait,” Steve said as the man took a step back. “What’s his name?” 

“Harry,” the man told him, “Harry Potter.” 

With that, he walked away. 

Potter, well that at least was a name he knew. Fleamont and Charles Potter were two of the people Howard introduced them to. Could the little one be related to them? But he was in New York, and from what Howard explained the wizarding community in England didn’t do much traveling, not with their children anyway. 

At the moment, there were bigger questions he needed answers to than this though. Starting with the date, as he didn’t think he was in the 40’s anymore, no matter the advancement Howard had planned for their future, even that man couldn’t accomplish them all this fast. 

He looked at the card in his hand; 

Philip Coulson

Temporary Residence: Stark Tower 

With a New York address and a phone number to call any day and night. 

So, Stark was involved. But was it his friend or Howard’s uncle as it involved magic?