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Harry let himself fall onto his bed, his legs feeling like jelly and his arms aching. His Aunts and Uncles were working him hard to make sure that he could defend himself and the only good thing about it all was Dudley got to experience it right next to him. Except Dudley had a head start since he had been home the whole year. Since Harry wanted to catch up, he got up earlier to make sure he was in the gym with his Pops in the mornings.
Coming home had been hard. Harry missed his new friends terribly and while he kept in touch with them regularly, it was still jarring to go from kids his age to the Avengers again. He loved his family, but school had given him a taste of freedom — freedom he hadn’t really known before. His Aunts and Uncles were constantly watching and he just hadn’t paid much attention to it until now.
Once he brought it up to Dudley, his brother had just nodded before looking up and asking Jarvis to keep it under wraps that they thought the others were overbearing.
His dad had returned from his meeting and, after a short lecture on doing stupid things, he had sat down and demanded to know everything Harry had learned. Harry had laughed at his Pop’s face behind them and then sat down to tell them everything. By the end of his tale, the entire family was gathered around, asking questions and giving their commentary.
The training had begun the next morning and continued through the summer. Harry kept his friends up to date and sent Hermione pictures when he could. Neville and Ron would visit her sometimes so the group of them could call as a group and talk about everything. Sometimes one of his Aunts or Uncles would join, but mostly it was just Dudley.
(Dudley liked to ask a lot about Hermione and Harry held back the urge to tease him about his growing crush.)
It was nearing the end of July now and everybody was attempting to be sneaking around, but Harry knew a party was being planned, and he knew that his family was flying them back to Europe so everybody could attend. Natasha and Clint were, of course, the hardest ones to crack, but the others let things slip all the time. Thor, when he arrived, was at least easy enough to hear. His pops couldn’t keep a straight face, and his dad forgot to hide the plans.
Dudley was also in their Uncle Bruce’s pockets and he would just smile until the man cracked and told him the next bit of party planning.
So Harry took the tiring days where his family trained him. He accepted that his parents just barely allowed him to go back to school. He let his dad tweak four different kinds of phones that he could carry with him in the off chance that any of them would work at Hogwarts. But he also let Dudley read all of his books and his Aunt Tasha read through all of his homework. When his Uncle was home from Asgard, Harry let Thor point out the similarities between the magic at Hogwarts and the magic the Loki knew.
The more his uncle talked about Loki, the more Harry actually wanted to meet him. He knew his parents wouldn’t go for it so he never asked, but the desire still ran through him.
He turned over in his bed and stared at the ceiling, letting himself relax. He was sure they would leave tomorrow - his dad had been at the office more this week than before. Getting prepared to be gone for a lengthy time. He didn’t do that unless he was planning a vacation of some kind. He smiled and shut his eyes, letting himself drift off.
At least, he was until he heard a pop and the sound of books falling off his side table. Harry jerked up, his eyes wide as he took in a long-eared … thing standing next to him.
“What—”
“Mister Harry Potter, sir!”
Whatever it was, it was wearing what looked to be a pillow case that hadn’t been washed in years. “Jarvis?”
There was no answer and Harry held back his panic. The only time Jarvis didn’t answer was back when they hadn’t known about his magic.
“Mister Harry Potter, sir! I…”
“Who are you?”
The creature pulled at his fingers as he looked around the room. “Dobby came to warn Mister Harry Potter sir.”
“Warn me about what?” Harry thought about correcting the creature about his name, but he really wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with that. Dobby was skittish, as if he would run at any second. Harry carefully reached to his wrist and held his panic button, hoping that the new tech worked and would send his fathers a message. “You’re name is Dobby, right?”
“Mister Harry Potter sir is kind to know Dobby’s name. Dobby is very happy, but Dobby should not be here.” His eyes widened and immediately he turned to smash his head against the wall.
“Woah, wait! Hold on!” Harry reached out to grab the creature before he put a dent in either his head or the wall. “Stop!”
“Harry?” The door burst open and in came his fathers. His pop had a gun and his dad had a repulsor on his arm, both looked terrified.
Harry’s grip tightened on Dobby and he attempted to give them a smile. “I don’t think he’s dangerous?”
Dobby squealed and with another pop, he was gone. Harry fell forward, but his pop reached forward to keep him from toppling over onto the floor. They settled on the bed after his dad had taken a good look around the room.
“Room is clear, though since that thing just… came in and out as he pleased, how am I supposed to be sure?” His dad sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I forgot to—”
“Dad, it’s fine.” Harry crawled over Steve so he was between them. “We can fix Jarvis, okay?”
“It’s not Jarvis I’m worried about, it’s you.” He sighed and with the touch of a button, the repulsor retracted back into a wristband. “Want to tell us what was going on?”
Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. I think his name was Dobby and he said he was coming to warn me.”
His pop’s hand came down on Harry’s head, gentle. “Warn you about what?”
“He didn’t say, but he called me Harry Potter.”
Tony frowned and stood. “I’ll get in contact with someone from Hogwarts, then. It has to be something to do with them, right?”
“Can we do it later?” Harry looked between his parents. “I know we’re going to London—”
“What? Harry, we—”
“Pops, come on. I know we’re going to London.” Harry pushed off the bed and took his dad’s hand. “When we get there? Please?”
His dad seemed to deflate a little and he smiled. “All right, all right. But you’re not sleeping in here tonight.”
“I’ll share with Dudley.”
His pops stood and ruffled Harry’s hair. “Go get some sleep. And since you obviously know about your surprise, we won’t bother explaining why we’re waking you up really early in the morning.”
Harry grinned and gave both his fathers a hug. “You two sleep, okay? Whatever this thing was, we’ll figure it out.”
“We always do,” Tony agreed.
Harry was still worried, but he would never admit it. He just went to Dudley’s room and crawled in bed next to his sleeping brother and tried to ignore just how worried his fathers looked.