Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own the Avengers or Harry Potter.

This story came about as a way to fill a prompt by njchrispatrick. Where Thor and Loki are Harry's parents after Loki is banished to Earth in female form and Thor inadvertently stumbles across her. It is a very different premise than my other story A Lily by Any Other Name, and will go down a very different path.

Prologue: Mistaken

A beautiful young woman sat alone on a bench. The wind tossed her dark red hair around her pale face creating the impression of a halo of flames. The dark and overcast weather seemed to reflect her melancholy mood. As if to encourage her dark mood a bolt of lightning struck off in the distance to herald an upcoming storm. She had good reason for her dark disposition. Several unfortunate events had occurred within a very short period of time. She had broken it off with her boyfriend of just a year. The war in the wizarding world was escalating. Her parents had been causalities in the war. And finally she had gotten in a fight with her older sister at her parents' funeral. Her sister had placed the blame of their parent's deaths on her shoulders.

She felt alone in the world with nothing, and no one to cling to. She didn't even have anywhere to go. Her sister had turned her away, she had graduated from her boarding school, and again she wasn't moving in with her boyfriend like they had planned. All her life she had felt a sense of being different. Of just not belonging. When she discovered she was a witch she thought she had finally found her place in the world. Magic was everything to her. She spent massive amounts of time learning all that she could. But she still felt like something was missing almost, like she was forgetting something. It nagged at her from the back of her mind, yet she could never quite grasp it. She still felt like she didn't quite belong, and it wasn't just because of all the anti-muggleborn sentiment. This feeling was so much worse now that she was truly alone. No family, no friends to be there for her.

She'd had the dream again last night. A dream she always had when she was stressed or upset. In this dream she was someone else. A male someone. Someone who lived in a towering gold castle in a magical realm. Someone who was being punished and then cast out of the glittering, magical world. She never knew why she was being punished or who was punishing her. Unimaginable pain would wash through her after being sentenced. She would be twisted and shrunk into a new shape, and it never failed to make her wake up in a cold sweat. She never saw faces in her dreams. But the dreams were so real. They felt more like memories of a past life than a dream.

"Do you need some assistance, my lady?" questioned a deep voice.

Startled, Lily looked up.

/

Thor did not know what to make of Midgard. It was a very strange place. The people were tiny, and they rode many strange mechanical beasts. Their cities were loud and disorganized. And sadly there was not a feast to be eaten or a beast to slain anywhere in sight. Thor hadn't wanted to come to Midgard. He would much rather be off on an adventure fighting with his friends, Sif and the Warriors Three. Nevertheless, he had asked Heimdall to send him here without his father's permission or knowledge. He had come here to prove a point. They had been drinking after a hunt, and somehow the topic of Midgard had come up. Volstagg bemoaned what a horrible place it was, and Thor had boasted that it couldn't really be all that bad. Somehow it ended with Fandral betting him that he could not last a fortnight on Midgard. Thor was nothing if not prideful, and he had promptly set out to prove him wrong.

Now that he was actually here, he wished he had taken the time to think things through a bit more. It was a much stranger place than he thought it would be so very different from his home, Asgard. Heimdall had thoughtfully provided him with mortal clothing and some of their currency to aid him. It was a start at least, and it would only be for a fortnight. Surely Thor could survive and blend into this strange world's customs for that long. He was the Mighty Thor after all, wielder of Mjolnir, a Prince of Asgard.

A loud honking noise like that of an angry goose suddenly sounded. Thor looked to see one of the mortal's metal beasts beside him. An angry man sat inside and was making angry gestures with his hands. Thor frowned unable to understand his words with him inside the metal contraption. Was the man being eaten? He looked fine to Thor. Confused Thor walked away. He needed to find lodgings for the night and a place to buy some sustenance. Oh how he wished his brother were here. Loki was much more adaptable than Thor was. He was always able to get him out of the reckless situations Thor was always getting them into. But sadly he was off on some task or other of their father's. Thor had not seen Loki in several years. It wasn't a long time in the life of an Asgardian but it was longer than Thor and Loki had ever been apart.

Just as he was beginning to feel truly lost, he caught sight of a young woman sitting on a bench. She was breathtakingly beautiful with fiery dark red hair, the likes of which he had never seen before. The woman looked as lost as he himself did. Thor decided to approach her. Perhaps together they would not feel so lost and they would be able to change both their bad days.

"Do you need some assistance, my lady?" he greeted.

She looked up, her beautiful emerald green eyes were wide as she looked up at him. She was even lovelier up close.

"My lady?" she questioned quirking a brow and smirking.

"Of course, one as lovely as you could be nothing less," Thor said sincerely.

She laughed and glanced away, blushing. "You actually mean that. You're even cornier than Potter."

"I do not know any potters. Perhaps you would like to accompany me for a meal?" Thor asked. "This is my first time visiting this area, and would love to have someone familiar with the area show me around."

"I'm not really in the right mood. I'm afraid I wouldn't be good company," she said softly.

"I disagree. I myself am feeling quite homesick but I believe it would be helpful to make a new friend," Thor smiled giving her a hopeful look that never failed to work on his brother.

"Oh, all right. I guess it couldn't hurt. It's better than sitting on this bench until it starts raining. Just stop with the puppy dog look, all right?"

Thor grinned and offered her his arm. "Let us find the nearest pub, and partake of some mead. Oh what is your name fair maiden?"

"Lily. Lily Evans."

"The Lovely Lily! I am very pleased to have met you. You have certainly brightened my day, and I will endeavor to do the same for you. I am Thor," Thor boomed.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Lily muttered under her breath.

/

But to her surprise Lily was soon proven wrong about Thor. Once she had gotten past his eccentricities she found he was quite a wonderful person. He was boisterous but kind. He reminded her a great deal of a golden retriever. Always happy and eager to please. But at the same time that seemingly gentle exterior hid a snarling beast that would bite those that were threatening the ones they cared for.

Thor and Lily spent the next two weeks together. They met regularly to take walks and share meals. Lily felt like she had known Thor her whole life, and Thor felt the same. She had never felt so comfortable with someone, and for a while that sense of being alone seemed to disappear. But Thor was only visiting for just two weeks and then he had to return home. He could not stay. No matter how much they had grown to care for one another. Thor did impart the truth about himself being of Asgard to Lily, and she returned the favor by telling him she was a witch. Thor and Lily made the most of their time together, and oh what a wonderful two weeks they had. Almost too wonderful for after Thor left Lily discovered that he had left something behind. Something that wouldn't come for another nine months.

Lily panicked. She feared what would happen if it was ever discovered that her child was the child of a god. A part of her wanted to run and hide but before she could, her ex-boyfriend came to check in on her. She confessed everything to him; he offered her a place to stay to help protect her child. Eventually their old romance rekindled and they got married. James gladly took her child as his own especially after hearing of who his father was. Wizards revered Asgardians and believed that their powers originated from them. James and Lily named him Harek James Potter. Harek was a name with Norse origins, the name of kings to honor his biological father. James was for his wonderful adoptive father. And Potter was for the family he had been born into. But everyone simply called him Harry.

James and Lily rejoined the war effort to put a stop to those whose prejudices threatened to destroy them. Their future was looking up until a dark wizard targeted their son. They stood together and didn't believe revealing Harry's true parentage would change a thing. They sacrificed themselves when the dark wizard attacked. Both of them gave their lives for their child. Even if it wasn't really the end for Lily. She wasn't really Lily Potter nee Evans. She never had been. The Evans family never even had a second daughter they were just made to believe they did. It was all a lie. A lie crafted to be punishment for Odin's youngest son, the Trickster whose shape shifting had caused untold damage between Odin and other kingdoms. As punishment for Loki's transgressions, Odin had stripped Loki of his powers. He bound him in his female form, changing only the color of his hair and de-aging him into an infant. Odin placed him with a suitable family who would teach him the morals Odin himself had been unable to. When the time came Odin would restore his son's memories and hopefully Loki would have grown into the mature prince he knew he was capable of being.

Odin hadn't planned on Loki being able to retain some of his magic, or that he would get involved in a mortal war. Odin alone was alerted when Loki had been killed. No one else knew of his punishment, not even his wife who would not have approved of such manipulations but Odin was desperate to change Loki's ways. Not even Heimdall would be able to locate Loki after Odin had stripped him of his powers, and hidden him away on Midgard. Odin had checked in on Loki from time to ensure that he was growing up well but he never imagined that Loki would be murdered in his new life. When Odin was alerted to his peril he went straight down to Midgard himself. He found Loki's body beside an empty crib. Shock flowed through him at the realization that Loki had a child who he had given his life for. Outside the house Odin could see a mortal man yelling at a half-giant who held a small wriggling bundle in his arms. Finally the conversation ended with the half-giant taking the child away on a flying mortal contraption while the dark haired mortal stormed back towards the house.

Creating a duplicate body to leave for the wizards, Odin quickly returned with Loki to Asgard. Odin restored Loki's powers and thus restored Loki to life. For the mortal magic that felled him could not truly kill an immortal. The damage, however, from the mortal Killing Curse had caused Loki to lose his memories as Lily. He didn't remember a thing and Odin probably thought that was for the best. Odin knew Loki's child had survived, however, he believed the child to have a mortal father and thought it would be best to leave the child among other mortals. Besides, without his memories of his time as a mortal Loki was just as wayward as he had always been. Odin did not think he was fit to raise a child, just as he was not fit to raise his other children.

So little Harek James Potter (who wasn't really Harek James Potter) was left on Earth with his oh so caring mortal relatives. Forgotten by one parent and unknown to the other. It wouldn't be until Loki's fall from the Bifrost into the void beneath that he would regain his memories. When he did, it would change everything.

So here's the prologue. Let me know what you think! There will be no slash and updates might be slow. njchrispatrick also deserves some credit for helping me to develop this story.