Chapter 10

"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

It was decided that Thor would still take Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard and that Loki's fate would be dealt with there. If Loki was found innocent, like he should be, and wanted to join the Avengers than he would be allowed to providing one of the other Avengers kept an eye on him until they were sure he had full control of his mind back.

Loki still hadn't woken up properly; he looked awake and, according to Thor, he was acting like his old self but he seemed permanently dazed and his sentences tended to trail off because he got distracted so easily. Harry assured them that they were just side-effects of being locked out of his mind for so long and that once he was fully connected again he would be fine.

The other Avengers went back to Start tower once Thor and Loki had gone. The tower was quite broken up and some of the rooms looked like they could fall down at any moment, but Tony made sure each Avenger had a room to stay in until the tower was repaired.

Pepper, Tony's CEO and girlfriend, lived in the tower with them and made sure that they had everything they could need or want. Another surprise for them had been Jarvis; Tony's AI who was connected to every room in the tower and available to answer any questions or help when he could.

Both Bruce and Tony were pleased that the labs had been saved from the destruction and they spent most of their time in there. Tony had banned anyone else from entering the labs on the grounds that they weren't as smart as him.

For Steve, Clint and Natasha the workout room was where they spent most of their time; Tony made sure to keep stocked up on punching bags so that Steve could replace any that he broke and he talked about adding an archery range for Clint once the rest of the tower was finished.

Harry wandered around the tower, doing different things depending on what his mood was like. The others also got used to the fact that Harry would sometimes spend the day in the form of some type of animal; he once left the tower to spend the day as a bird.

Coulson, while meant to be living with them, went backwards and forwards from the Helicarrier to the tower so often that Fury told him in the end that as long as he checked up on the Avengers occasionally then he didn't have to live with them too.

Pepper was surprised and relieved to find that both Harry and Steve could cook; she had expected to have to hire a cook for them for fear that they would order take out every night if not. Natasha and Clint knew the basics for when they were on missions but neither of them cooked for enjoyment and they both preferred not to bother.

It was four months before the tower was back to its previous state and Tony had added new features for the Avengers. He left the 'A' on the outside of the tower and didn't bother adding other letters. The construction should have taken much longer but Tony paid the builders a lot of money and the Avengers helped out wherever they could.

Thor came back from Asgard six months after he'd left and moved into the Avengers tower. He told them that he wouldn't be staying forever because he would have to go back to Asgard and rule when his father wished to step down, but for the moment he was willing to stay on Earth.

He told them that Loki had fully recovered during his time on Asgard and that he'd decided to stay there and make amends before joining Thor on Earth. Loki thought that it would be best if he spent some time apologizing to his parents but agreed that he needed to atone for his sins on Earth as well.

Fury added Loki to the Avengers program by saying that the best way he could make up for what he'd done was to fight other criminals and save people. Loki wasn't thrilled by the idea but acknowledged that it would be beneficial towards redeeming himself.

Harry found himself feeling quite lost once the war was won; he'd done what he came to do and, while there would always be other villains to fight, he found himself wondering what had happened to his friends back in his own universe.

In the end, he told Steve and the others not to worry about him but that he would be leaving for a few days. He then attempted to teleport to the cave where he and Steve had first met Thana after completing the ritual that had allowed them to enter this universe. The teleportation took longer than usual and Harry got the feeling that he only managed it because Thana let him.

When he opened his eyes, he was stood in the cave again with Thana, only this time both arches looked like peaceful waterfalls. Thana stood in the middle of them again, wearing the same outfit and looking like she'd always been there.

"What is it you want, Young Harry?" Thana asked mournfully. "I cannot allow you to go back through the arch to your own universe. I warned your choice was permanent."

"I don't want to change my mind," Harry replied, thinking of the Avengers and the links he'd made with them. In some ways he was closer to them than he'd ever been with his Wizarding friends. "I just want to know if you can tell me what happened to my friends."

"I don't deal with the living, Young Harry," Thana sighed. "I can only tell you things about the dead or dying."

"They're alive and well then?" Harry confirmed, reading between the lines of what she'd said. "If you can't tell me about them then they must be doing fine."

"Indeed," Thana gave her semblance of a smile that caused shivers to run down Harry's spine. "It is not your old universe that you should worry about." She gestured with a hand towards Steve's universe.

At first Harry couldn't see any difference between the two arches, but after a few seconds he saw a flash of red that fell through the waterfall like veil. It gave Harry a sense of foreboding and he turned back around to look at Thana.

"What does that mean?" Harry questioned nervously.

"It means, Young Harry," Thana said. "That war will be coming your way once again and he will threaten even you."

A/N: I can't believe how many people added this to Story Alert and/or favoured it! I hope you all enjoyed it but I'm afraid that it's finished for now. I am planning on writing a sequel when the next Avengers film comes out, but I won't know for sure until then.

Thank you for reading and please remember to leave a comment! :)