Hey guys! I'M BACK! I can't believe it has been year since I last updated. Sorry about that. But, I'm in my last two semesters of college and I'm ready to get out. I do plan to get my Master's degree later, but that's for another time. Anyways, I want to thank everyone that has stuck around this long for this story and for showing so much support. I have more news, but first enjoy the chapter and wait until the end.

Upload date: 09/21/2018

Disclaimer: I do not own HP or the Avengers thought I really wish I did.

Chapter 7

"OF ALL THE IRRESPONSIBLE, IDIOTIC, RECKLESS, INSANE STUNTS THAT HAVE EVER BEEN PULLED, AND BELIEVE ME I'VE DONE MY FAIR SHARE OF IDIOTIC STUNTS, WHAT YOU'VE JUST PULLED HAS GOT TO BE THE WORST!"

There have been a number of times that Harry lost his temper in the past, but never has he ever been this angry and afraid in his life. Not only has his children snuck away from the safety of Potter Manor but also somehow stowed away onto the most heavily guarded station in the world. Once he discovered who was hiding underneath his invisibility cloak, he had James, Al, and Lily sit at the conference table before dragging Teddy towards a corner. After casting a muffliato spell, he began his rant.

Harry took a second to try to reign in his anger, but wasn't very successful. "How in Merlin's name did you all even get on board in the first place?"

Teddy, who was nervously rubbing his arm, glanced up at his father figure before lowering his eyes back towards the ground. "There was strange noises coming from the forest and I went to investigate. I didn't know James and the others decided to tag along until I reached the clearing where some sort of battle took place. We saw you with a bunch of strange people and decided to follow."

It hit Harry like a ton of bricks when he realized why the forest where Thor and Stark had their showdown felt familiar. It was same forest where Potter Mansion was hidden with the clearing being only a few miles away. He felt like an idiot as he realized how dangerously close his family was to the fight.

The older wizard let out a groan and ran a stressed hand through his hair. "Do you realize how much danger you have not only put yourself but the others in? There is very dangerous man on board this ship, if he figures out you all are here and associated with me, he will use you to get to me."

The young wizard bit his lip as his hair changed to an embarrassing shade of pink. "I'm sorry, I thought that…"

"But you didn't think," Harry interrupted. "You recklessly endangered not only your life by coming here, but also the kids." He took a moment to take a deep breath before a disappointed look came onto his face. "I thought you had more common sense than this Edward, I'm very disappointed in you."

A hurt look appeared on Teddy's face before he lowered his head in shame. Harry sighed heavily as a tired expression came onto his face. "Come on, I'm taking you and others back to the mansion." The older wizard waved his hand and the muffliato spell was disengaged.

An annoyed look came onto his face again as he stared at the empty conference table. He didn't take his eyes off the table when he felt a presence stand next to him. "Fury, where are my kids?"

"Stark decided to take them to the lab when he noticed how bored they seemed to be." The green-eyed man slowly turned to look at the Director incredulously.

"You let Tony Stark watch my kids… unsupervised?" Fury looked unapologetic and met the younger man's gaze evenly. Harry groaned as he dragged his hand down his face.

"Bloody hell," he groaned out.

"Potter." Harry turned his attention back to Fury, whom had a serious look in his eye. "We need you to continue the search for the Tesseract."

"And I will continue to help with the search after I take my kids home," Harry firmly stated with a glare. The dark haired man's glare hardened when Fury remained unmoved. "You cannot be serious."

"As unfortunate as it is, we can't afford to lose any time," Fury retorted. He let out a sigh and stared at the young man with a tired expression. "I don't like this any more than you do, but consider the possibility that Loki already knows that your children are here."

"Which is all the more reason why I should take them home," Harry angrily interrupted before he grabbed Teddy's arm and began to march off the bridge.

"And doing so might lead him to the rest of your family." Fury's voice rang out across the bridge causing Harry to stop.

The wizard slowly turned towards Fury with an enraged look in his eyes and a snarl forming on his face. "Are you trying to blackmail me, Fury?"

"No, stating a fact," Fury shot back with a neutral expression. While many others have quaked in fear at Harry's anger in the past, it had to be Fury of all people who had to be immune. Another reason to be frustrated with the man, Harry thought. "We don't know the extent of Loki's abilities except from what's written in myth and that information is unreliable. For all we know, Loki is just waiting for you to leave and make his move. It could be here or wherever your family is. Do you really want to take that chance with those odds?"

As much as Harry didn't want to admit it, Fury did have a point. Loki was a powerful sorcerer and most likely had a wide range of incantations that Harry could only dream of. Besides all that, there was something unsettling about the god. It was as if not all of Loki's actions were his own. And one of the things that Harry was good at was solving a mystery.

Harry sighed as he mildly glared at Fury. "Fine, I'll stay." His glare sharpened and menacingly pointed at the other man. "If anything happens to my children, I will hold you personally responsible." With his threat made, he strode off the bridge at a brisk pace with Teddy scurrying after him. If he had turned back, he would have noticed the satisfied smirk on Fury's face.

Harry was steaming as he walked down the corridors of the helicarrier. Agents whom were in his path quickly stepped out of his path and only watched as a teenager with grey hair followed behind the wizard. Teddy had remained quiet since leaving the bridge and has refused to look at anyone. Never before has he seen his godfather this pissed off before. He can deal with anger but the disappointment that was shown was harsher than anything he had to deal with. Teddy was so deep in thought; he didn't notice that Harry had stopped walking.

Teddy let out an 'omph' as he collided with Harry's back. They had stopped near the lab that was assigned to Dr. Banner and they could see into it through the windows. Albus stood shoulder to shoulder with Stark as the young messy haired boy watched as the older man build some sort of box. Lily was seated at the table that held Harry's potion kit and appeared to be drawing something. Next to her was her stuffed hippogriff doll that she had taken to carrying everywhere ever since Hagrid gifted it to her on her birthday. Seated next to her was James and appeared to have fallen asleep based on how he was using his arms as a pillow. Banner glanced up from the component he was working on every once in a while and seemed to be uneasy with the kids in such close proximity of him.

The two fell into an uneasy silence as they watched a mischievous smile appear on Lily's face. She picked up a black marker and started drawing on her brother's face. The two couldn't see what Lily was drawing but she was smiling brightly.

Teddy chewed on his bottom lip before finally raising his eyes from the ground. "So, you're not sending us home?"

Harry glanced at the younger wizard with a slight frown. "No, but don't think that your not getting out of your punishment."

"I'm not the only one who snuck away," Teddy mumbled in a manner that only teenagers could achieve. The young wizard blanched and slowly looked up at Harry who only raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry," Harry said as a smirk came onto his face, "You're not the only one who's going to be grounded once this is all over. I would be more worried about what Gin and Molly would have in mind for your punishment." The older wizard chuckled as Teddy blanched at the thought. He lightly pushed the younger wizard into the lab and went straight to his workstation.

Harry took a moment to stare at Loki's scepter. He couldn't place a finger on it, but he could sense a lot of powerful energy coming off of it. He could also sense that the jewel was ancient, it was not like anything he has ever encountered before.

Tony looked up as the two wizards walked in. "Hey Big Daddy," he pointed to a grinning Albus with a smirk on his face. "This kid is a genius in the making. Normally, I'm not a kid person, but I'm willing to make an exception. It may not be much but Mini Me has a amazing understanding of mechanics and chemistry for his age."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the nicknames and leaned against the table. "Thank you for that observation Stark. I already know that he's smarter than I am." He narrowed his eyes at the genius. "You haven't shown him anything illegal, have you?"

Stark scoffed as he mockingly placed a hand over his heart. "I'm hurt Big Daddy, do you think so little of me?"

"You don't want an answer to that," Harry deflected as the kids let out a giggle. He left Stark to sputter for a moment as he walked over to Bruce. Though the scientist was keeping his attention on his work, the wizard noticed that the other man was glancing at his children nervously. He had a pretty good idea what was going through Bruce's head.

"Dr. Banner," Harry started. He watched as the other man jump slightly and turned towards the wizard. "Are you alright?"

Bruce tried to smile at the wizard but it came out more as a grimace. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Harry was not fooled one bit. "You're worried about the kids," he stated bluntly.

Bruce stared for a moment before letting out a sigh. "It's not them specifically that I'm worried about." It took Harry a moment to realize what Bruce was talking about.

"If I heard correctly, you were in one of the most stressful cities on the planet and haven't had an incident that entire time," Harry countered before he let out a snort. "I think you'll be just fine."

Bruce allowed a sarcastic smile to appear as he began to run a scanner over the scepter. "Thanks for giving me so much faith, but I don't plan on sticking around once this is over."

Harry shrugged casually as he stood next to the table. "From what I've seen so far, Stark is not the type of person to get along well with anyone. Yet, he seems to have taken a shine with you. I think he's going to try and keep you around a little longer."

Bruce let out a snort as data started appearing from the scanner. "The gamma readings are consistent with Selvig's notes," he reported to Stark, "but it's going to take weeks to process."

Stark didn't seem concerned as he finished doing whatever he was doing on his monitor. "If we bypass the mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this at 600 teraflops."

The technical terminology went right over Harry's head but Al appeared to understand. "Wow, that's fast," Al was in awe as he ran a hand over the computer. "And the location will appear on this?"

Stark ruffled Al's already messy hair with a smirk before he walked over to Bruce who let out a chuckle. "All I brought is a toothbrush."

A full-blown grin appeared on Stark's face as he stood next to Bruce. Harry decided to return to his station and ruffled Lily's hair. Stark watched in interest as the wizard waved his hand over his cauldron. "What's that concoction you have going?"

Harry only spared the billionaire a glance before returning his focus onto the contents of his cauldron. "If you must know, it's a locator potion. Its not finished yet but it'll show a real time image of where the target is. All this needs is a piece of the target or in this case something with a similar signature."

Stark didn't look impressed with the explanation before he shrugged his shoulders. "It sounds an awful lot like a tracking algorithm just more archaic. But whatever floats your boat Magic Man." Harry rolled his eyes and didn't notice that the other man had picked up an electric prod. "Nonetheless, you guys should come by Stark Tower; top 10 floors are all R&D, you'd love it, its candy land."

Teddy looked seemed excited before he became subdued. "I don't think that'll be a good idea Mr. Stark, magic and technology don't really mix well."

Bruce was uncomfortable with the offer. "Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kinda broke… Harlem."

Stark held his hands behind his back and maneuvered himself into Bruce's blind spot. "Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises…"

ZAP!

"OW!"

Harry raised his head up so fast, he almost got whiplash. The cry was loud enough to catch all the kids' attention and evened startled James awake. He noticed that Bruce was holding his side and the object that was held in Stark's hand. It didn't take a genius to know what Stark was trying to do.

Stark was too busy examining Bruce to notice the angry glare, or he simply didn't care. "Nothing," he questioned in a disappointed manner.

"HEY!" Harry turned to see Steve enter the lab. The super soldier had to do a double take when he noticed the cat whiskers, nose, and ears drawn on James' face. The seven year old lazily blinked his eyes and Steve shook his head to get himself back on track. "Are you nuts?"

"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you," Stark questioned his fellow scientist while deliberately ignoring the supersoldier. "What's your secret, mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"What's weed," James asked in a bored manner. Teddy let out an uncomfortable cough as Harry's glare became murderous.

"Nothing that should concern yourself, Sleeping Beauty," Stark defused quickly. "By the way, you got something all over here." The older man waved a hand over his face. The young wizard furrowed his brows before he walked over to the closest reflective surface.

"LILY!" The young red head started to giggle as the brunette boy stared at his reflection. He grabbed the sleeve of his robe to try to wipe off the marker, but all it did was smear the image. Harry rolled his eyes as his eldest son let out a cry of dismay at the mess. The eldest wizard took mercy conjured up a moist towel and handed it to the muttering boy.

"Aww," Lily whined as James cleaned himself up. "Daddy, James ruined my drawing."

"Next time, do your drawings on pieces of paper instead of your brother's face," Harry rebutted causing Lily to pout. Once James was done, he placed to towel on the table and watched as it disappeared. Stark let out an interested hum as he stared at the place the piece of cloth was at.

"Is everything a joke to you," Steve asked angrily, trying to get everyone back on topic.

"Funny things are," Stark retorted.

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve firmly stated with Harry silently agreeing with him. "No offense doctor."

Bruce let out a nervous laugh. "No, it's alright," he tried to reassure everyone though it came off tense. "I wouldn't have come on board if I couldn't handle pointy things."

Stark pointed the prod at the other man. "You're tip toeing big guy, you need to strut." The genius proceeded to do as he made his way back to his workstation. He pulled a packet of blueberries out of his bag and proceeded to munch on them.

"You need to focus on the main problem," Steve retorted having enough of the billionaire's attitude. Harry only raised an eyebrow at the confrontation between the two men. He knew that Stark didn't like the man, and even though he hasn't known the captain very; he doesn't real seem the type to lose his temper.

"You think I'm not," Stark shot back. "Why did Fury bring us in? Why now? Why not before?" Harry had to agree with the genius on this point. There was something about this situation that was not adding up. The Tesseract appeared to be a powerful magical artifact and should have been under the careful watch of MACUSA. It should have been confiscated long before this point. "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think he's hiding something," Steve and Teddy asked at the same time. Steve raised an eyebrow at the young wizard and his eyes widened when the boy's hair turned blonde and his eyes became blue.

Stark only blinked his eyes and defended his position. "He's a spy, Captain he's the spy. His secrets have secrets." He tosses a handful of blueberries into his mouth. "It's bugging them too." He pointed between Harry and Bruce.

Bruce became uncomfortable when everyone's eyes turned towards him. "Uh… I just want to finish my work…"

"Doctor," Steve encouraged, wanting to know his opinion.

Bruce glanced around for a moment before letting out a sigh and taking off his glasses. "'A warm light for all of mankind to share' Loki's jab at Fury about the cube."

"We all heard that," Harry stated confused on where the doctor was going with his line of thought.

"Well I think that was for you," Bruce stated as he pointed to Stark. The genius held out his bag of blueberries for the scientist to take. "Even if Barton hadn't told him, it was all over the news."

Steve was skeptical when he figured out what the scientist was talking about. "The Stark Tower? That big ugly…" Stark shot him a look that had Harry smirking in amusement. "building in New York."

"It's not ugly," Albus defended the genius. "It's the most advanced building in the world. It's powered by Arc Reactors and can run on its own power for a long time."

"Got it in one kid," Stark praised as he offered his blueberries for the six year old to take. "Its just a prototype, but I'm kinda the only name in clean energy right now." Harry had to roll his eyes at the fact that Stark had to brag.

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project," Bruce asked. "What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"I think we should also be asking is why didn't SHIELD bring someone from the wizarding community in when they were running tests on that thing," Harry stated as he came over with a scalpel in one hand and a petrie dish in the other. "It may be archaic, but we do have ways of measuring and understanding energy." The wizard began to carefully scrap off a piece of the jewel until he got a decent sliver.

Stark ignored the jab made at him as he pulled out his cell phone. "I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into SHIELD's secure files." Harry raised his eyebrows at the casual declaration of committing a criminal act. Normally, he would have done his duty as an officer and turn the genius in. In this instance, however, there was something Fury was hiding from all of them. So he was going to let it slide for now to understand what was really going on in this organization.

Steve on the other hand looked taken aback. "I'm sorry, did you say…"

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge," Stark casually explained to the flabbergasted soldier. "In a few hours, we will know every dirty little secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide." He then held out his blueberry bag for the supersoldier to take. "Blueberry?"

Steve ignored the bag and glared at the genius. "Yet you're confused about why they didn't bring you in."

"An intelligence agency that fears intelligence, historically, not possible," Stark countered.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve firmly stated to them. His statement made all of Harry's children to look up from their places in the lab. They watched the interaction in confusion and nervousness wondering why they were angry at each other. Teddy understood better than the younger children but felt it was not a good time to explain it to them. "This is a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have our orders, we need to follow them."

Stark let out a scoff as he tossed blueberries into his mouth. "Following isn't really my style."

Steve appeared to finally have had enough of the genius's attitude. "And you're all about style, aren't you?"

Stark also seemed to have enough with supersoldier as well. "Of the people in this room which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit, and B) not of use." Harry didn't turn but he heard a quick intake of breath and a chorus of oooh's at the jab. He quickly glanced behind and saw that Teddy had taken a step back and James, Al, and Lily staring at the scene with wide eyes.

Harry could sense that the tension between the two men was starting to get out of hand, and quickly stepped between them. "Look Steve, I agree that Stark's methods are unorthodox but you have to admit that there is something not right about all this."

Steve looked at all the adults in the room and knew that arguing was not going to get them anywhere. Harry could see it in the captain's eyes, and knew that their words have created a sense of doubt in his mind. However, he knew that the soldier would never admit it in order to keep up a strong face.

His prediction came true when Steve turned to leave the lab. "Just find the cube."

The lab was filled with tension and a quick glance at Stark told the wizard that the other man needed to rant. He cleared his throat as he placed his sample on his workstation. "Kids, I think its time you all head to bed."

The Potter children all let out groans of dismay. "But we're not tired yet," James tried to argue. The boy backed down when his father sent him a look.

"It's late as it is and your mother will kill me if she finds out I let you stay up any longer," Harry stated as he picked up Lily and her plushie. The young red head let out a sigh as she rested her head on Harry's shoulder and hugged her toy close. He herded his other children out of the lab and quickly placed a hand on Teddy's shoulder when it looked like he was about to take a seat. As they left the lab, he caught Stark sending him a grateful look.

He led the children back to the room that was assigned to him and expanded the bed that was in there. As Harry placed Lily on the bed, James and Albus began shoving each other. A pointed look stopped them in their tracks, and they climbed onto the bed. Teddy leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest, as the elder wizard tucked his children in.

"Dad," Harry turned his attention to James as he got settled. "How much trouble are we in?"

He let out a sigh and decided to be honest with them. "A lot, all of you are in a lot of trouble. I already yelled at Teddy earlier, and once all of us are back home you kids are going to be grounded for a long time and face whatever punishment your mother has in mind." James and Albus paled at the thought of facing their angry mother. Lily, on the other hand, was messing with string that got lose from her doll.

"You still love us right," the young redhead asked with big brown eyes.

Harry was shocked for a moment before he gently placed his forehead against Lily's. "I will never stop loving you, no matter how angry or disappointed I get, never doubt that." He kissed her forehead and met each of his boy's eyes. "That also goes for both of you." He kissed each of their foreheads and smirked at their grumbling. "It's time to go sleep, I'll see you all in the morning." He got up from the bed and motioned for Teddy to follow.

He placed a charm over the door to let him know when the children woke up and if they left the room. Harry and Teddy made their way down the corridor and ignored the looks that were thrown their way. Harry stopped in front of a conference room near the lab and pulled out his two-way mirror. He gave it to a confused Teddy.

"You remember the way back to the lab," Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, but why did you give me your mirror," the younger wizard asked as his hair changed to a greenish-yellow color.

"You are going to start your first punishment by contacting Ginny and telling her where you are and how you and the others got here." Harry smirked as Teddy paled and his hair turned white. He patted the younger wizard's shoulder before nudging him into the conference room.

"Good luck."

And that's the end of this chapter. Now the news I wanted to convey.

As much as it pains me to say this, but I need help. My schoolwork is not the only reason for the lengthy time between chapters, but also mainly I don't really have anyone to talk to about my stories. I do have friends that are fans of HP and the Avengers, but their not really into fanfiction like I am and it sort of feels awkward for me to try and bounce ideas off them. I don't know if any of you are interested in PMing me and giving me a hand every once in while, but I feel like I should have completed this story a long time ago, and be at the same point as the MCU movies. This also goes for the other stories that I currently have up on my page.

Okay now that's everything I wanted to get off my chest. Please leave a review and follow/favorite this story.

See ya'll next time.