Disclaimer:(Sadly) I do not own Harry Potter or Avengers.

Chapter 1

As he grew up, Harry became extremely familiar with the people living on Privet drive. Even if they didn't know that. He knew their routines like the back of his hand just like anyone would if they had to spend most of their time outside the house. But it was either the streets or the cupboard. And Harry definitely preferred the former even if it got boring after a while.

It was the same 9 to 5 routine for all of the residents, the same old gossip and the same old petty issues. Well for almost all of them. There was a house at the end of the street that was different. Its structure was the same as all the others but it was different. The lawn wasn't as well kept, the door knobs not as shiny, the paint not as fresh. Harry had only seen it occupied once, a long time ago.

When he was six and a half to be exact.

It was about the time Aunt Petunia started taking the 'Positive Parenting' class. The effect of the classes wasn't seen on Aunt Petunia or Dudley for that matter, rather it was apparent by the massive collection of stickers, given out in the class, on the fridge.

'Rules for life' Aunt Petunia called them, 'New-age bullshit' Uncle Vernon declared it to be.

Dudley didn't care either way. He couldn't read and didn't care what was on the fridge, only what was in it. As for Harry, well he was just confused. Mostly because he wasn't sure whether or not the rules applied to him as well.

There were some rules that were Dudley specific. As in, only Dudley was expected to follow them because Harry had no need for them. An example of such a rule would be the'No running with knives' rule, Harry learned to chop vegetables for his Aunt when he was 5 years old, he still had the scars to show for it or 'Make sure no one steals your toys', Harry had no toys for anyone to steal, though he was falsely accused of stealing Dudley's toys many times.

So it was quite a chore to figure out if they were his rules as well. In the end, Harry reached the conclusion that no, they did not apply to him. Why? Well, there was a 'No talking to strangers' rule. But Harry had broken it many times and nothing ever happened. Plus, he didn't want the rules to apply to him. Strangers were nice to him, why should he be rude in return.

Maybe this was the reason that he did not run away when he met, and talked to, the red-haired woman from the house at the corner of the street for the first time.

It was a cold day when Harry met her, one of the coldest days of the year. He had been peeking from behind a rock as Dudley and his gang stood around a small blonde girl with piggy tails whose one hand was clutching her teddy. Harry could tell that Dudley was demanding her to give him her teddy even if he couldn't hear him. Because that's what Dudley did, he bullied people into giving him stuff.

Harry'd gripped the grass in his fist and was pulling it out in tufts when their eyes met. The girl, whose name he never found out, had looked at him with tearful eyes and he couldn't not help. The next thing he remembers is leaping out from behind the rock and standing in front of the girls. "Leave her alone, Dudley", he'd said.

"Wha are you goin ta do?" Dudley had turned his beady eyes towards him.

And Harry could tell the exact moment he became the target instead. He ducked under Pier's arm when he tried to grab him and ran. He ran between the people in the park, thanking whatever entity was up there that it was a busy day, and tried to lose them.

Dudley was screaming, Harry was running when everything came to a stop and he collided with a figure on the street. He fell on his bottom. Dudley cheered.

Harry didn't spare a moment to remember his pain and jumped up again, narrowly escaping the hand that would've grabbed his foot. He would've run but a thin but strong hand grabbed his arm.

He'd looked back at the figure opening his mouth to apologize when light brown eyes met his green and the world fell away. The lady flashed a quick smile at him, her eyes were soft as if seeing something that wasn't there and then she turned towards the gang.

She must have said something to them, scolded them probably judging by the cold and strict tone of her voice, and they ran away mumbling quick apologies.

Harry was too busy looking at her. The lady had been facing the park so she'd probably seen the whole scene and for some reason, it made him embarrassed. He wanted to look away but he couldn't. He had never seen anyone more pretty. No one more vibrant. She just radiated light and energy.

The lady had perfectly curled dark red hair pinned to one side, red lips, high heels, and a business outfit completed her look. For some reason, he wished her eyes were green like his instead. With that thought he stepped away from the woman, her grip had loosened and now her hand only rested on his arm softly.

Hard eyes soften again when they looked at him, Harry felt like she was seeing someone else in his place. His Aunt had the same look sometimes when she told him that he was too much like his 'good for nothing' mother. He wondered who she saw, as it made her look soft and sad at the same time.

The voices rushed back into his ears and the time seemed to resume when the woman raised a hand and gently touched his cheek as if by accident and then stepped back.

He saw red lips moving and forced himself to pay attention.

"You have a strong heart and good instincts kid." A strong yet gentle voice told him, Harry nodded his head as if in a trance. The woman smiled, "Always trust them. It's better to be safe than dead." She said it as if repeating someone else's words and with another smile, she walked away.

The advice stayed with him for some reason, maybe it was because of the smile that accompanied it. No one had smiled like that for Harry before. It stayed with him and proved fruitful in a graveyard almost 8 years later. It was a fateful day for more than one reason.

The scene flashed before Harry's closed eyes even now.

"Is this supposed to be part of the task?"

"I dunno," said Cedric. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"

"Yeah," said Harry, glad that Cedric had made the suggestion rather than him.

They pulled out their wands. Harry kept looking around him. He had, yet again, the strange feeling that they were being watched.

"Someone's coming," he said suddenly. The advice rang in his ears 'Trust your instincts'

So when his scar ached he didn't think, he acted.

Harry pulled the struggling Cedric after him and hid behind one of the larger headstones. He signaled at Cedric to stay quiet.

Cedric looked skeptical, "We should at least check, Harry." He whispered.

"Wheres the boy?" A raspy sound made their eyes widen, Harry clutched at his head falling down to his knees with a soft gasp; His wand slipped from his fingers; as his knees hit the ground he reached out for his wand again trying to push back the pain.

"Where is the boy?" The cold voice asked again, a rustling of robes and a second voice answered, "He must be hiding master, the portkey is right there."

"Then find him, you fool!" And the world exploded into pain again.

Harry's eyes flashed open. He clutched at his chest, the phantom pain seemed to radiate from his chest outwardly.

Breathe in.

One two three four.

Hold for seven.

Exhale at eight.

Harry repeated the same drill over and over until it felt like he could breathe again. The panic seemed to have backed away, for now.

A simple glance at the clock showed the time as 5 am. Harry yawned stretching his arms, it seemed as if he was tired all the time nowadays. It may have something to do with the fact that he could hardly sleep more than a few hours without waking up screaming.

Remembering that, Harry reached up behind his head to untie the piece of cloth he had wrapped around his mouth to muffle his screams. The knot came undone after a few tries. Harry touched the small lines over his cheeks and sighed, knowing that the red lines would stay there for at least a few hours.

Well, it was worth it. He came up with the trick after the first few weeks when he was given almost nothing to eat because apparently, his Uncle couldn't sleep with his 'racket' all night.

Harry bound the red cloth around his arm and went ahead to complete his morning routine.

The red color kept taking his mind back to 'the red lady' as he called her in his mind. Nowadays everything kept reminding him of her. Maybe it was because of what happened in the graveyard, her advice did save him even if it wasn't able to save his friend, or maybe it was because of the news that she was apparently back for some time.

After so many years, she had probably forgotten him but Harry could never forget her. And he felt this deep yearning to talk to her, to thank her even if she didn't know what she'd done for him.

Because something worse could've happened if it wasn't for her words ringing in his ears. The thought prompted a sudden feeling of guilt mixed with determination.

Harry paid the owl waiting at his window for the daily prophet when he came out of the bathroom. The owl hooted at him and flew off, he cast a look at the front page before throwing it into the rubbish. When the people finally accepted Voldemort's return, it will be on the front page and that was all that Harry cared about.

He saw some letters laying on the desk from the corner of his eye and chose to ignore them. As usual, they would be nothing but empty platitudes without any real information.

Harry looked at the cloth on his arm, the red standing out against his pale skin. He looked back and forth between the cloth and his trunk for a while before shrugging. He had kept his head down and stayed out of trouble all summer; even relying on snippets of news from the bushes to keep in touch with the outside world.

He deserved to do at least this one thing for himself.

He pulled out the best clothes he had. An old dark blue button down that belonged to Dudley about three years ago and finally fit Harry relatively well along with his uniform trousers. He even ran a comb in his hair trying to trick it into laying down.

Harry climbed down the stairs with a relaxed stance, the Dursleys wouldn't be up until much later since it was Sunday. He grabbed an apple as it wouldn't be missed and rushed out of the house. As of this year, he was officially not required to make breakfast for the Dursleys.

It may be because he threatened to poison them with wizarding herbs when they pushed him a few times but well, he was the one suffering from recurring nightmares and guilt that never left him alone so he was allowed to be a little trigger happy.

Sometimes he just felt like goading Dudley into hitting him just so he could feel the pain, it would feel like a well-deserved punishment.

Harry shook his head, trying to chase away the dark thought and bit into the apple. He passed the well-groomed front yards of the Privet Streets identical houses and looked for the one with the ungroomed garden.

It was actually Aunt Petunia's horrified comments about that 'Red haired military' woman's house that grabbed his attention. After all, there was only one military woman that had ever resided in Privet Drive so he decided to check out whether or not the lady had come back to the neighborhood.

With the last bite taken, Harry threw the few seeds he had in his hand into the garbage can and rubbed his hands on his jeans to clean them off of the juice.

A couple minutes later and he stood before the only different house in the whole street. It was a neat and clean house with a not so bad garden, Aunt Petunia was totally exaggerating about the state of the lawn.

Harry's breath quickened and he wondered for a second whether or not he should do it. He almost walked away but with a shuddering breath managed to knock in the door somehow. He rubbed his hands over her trousers again looking left and right.

The door opened without a sound and before him stood the woman that had plagued his mind.

Brown eyes met green.

She smiled.

Edited:8-10-18