Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is God of HP Universe. I am a subordinate. Marvel owns Marvel characters. Wow, that sounded awkward and bland.
Story: The Civil War continues. But before things could erupt in animosity, the world is dragged into a war worse –the War of Wizards. Harry Potter must find his place in the world and he might just find it with the Avengers.
Set after the fifth book and in the beginning of Marvel's Civil War comics.
Spoilers: Books1-6, CW1 definitely, Ultimate Avengers animated movie.
Warnings: Eh, I dunno right now.
Pairings: Tony Stark (Iron Man)/Harry Potter/Steve Rogers (Captain America), Implied (maybe not so much) past Victor von Doom (Dr. Doom)/Harry Potter, Janet Pym (Wasp)/Hank Pym (Giant Man), Bruce Banner (the Hulk)/ Betty Ross, etc.

Like Raindrops
Chapter Two: Fairytales and Castles

They came home to another home cook meal, lunch laid out for all of them. But the cook was missing.

There wasn't a sign or hint Harry had been there.

Grudgingly, they sat down at the table and began to eat. One of them finished early, excusing himself and deciding that he could now safely check on Harry.

Steve carefully maneuvered himself around the West Wing, looking for any telltale signs that one of the rooms was Harry's. He heard a soft thump and pinpointed it in the direction of the room at the corner. The door wasn't locked so he got in easily.

But he winced when he saw the disarray the room was in. And in complete darkness.

"Steve?"

Turning around, he saw Tony. He put a finger to his lips and the other man nodded. Both of them entered the room fully, their eyes searching out Harry.

"You know, you could have just knocked," a soft voice cut into their thoughts.

They whirled around to see a shadowy figure close the door before turning on the light. Harry was revealed and they were surprised to see the bloodshot eyes and the pale face. There were hints of tear tracks on his face, as well as his hair even more messier than usual.

"Hey, you okay?" Steve asked first.

Harry chuckled darkly, "Fine. Just…I don't know if lonely is the word."

"How about homesick?" Tony smiled comfortingly, him and Steve navigating their way to the bed. He patted the space in between him and the blond Avenger, indicating Harry should come over and sit with them.

Harry's face twitched a little, and they hoped it would've been a smile, before deciding he would indulge them.

"I guess that fits better," Harry replied quietly.

"Well, it certainly is better than being lonely in a place full of people…well, sort of full," Steve tried pointing out.

"And we're not all that bad," Tony teased.

Harry laughed and it was a better sound than that dark chuckle earlier.

"I've hardly stayed here long. How would I know if any of you are bad or not?" Harry smirked.

"Because you're messing with us just as we were just messing with you," Steve returned the smirk.

"True…but that's hardly grounds for knowing someone," Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well, I guess that's true too. But we're likable, aren't we?" Tony grinned.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't you guys have errands to do or something?"

"Yeah, but Tony and I are finished."

Harry looked pointedly at them.

"We just wanted to bother you," Tony finished.

Harry sighed, but his dark demeanor had diminished.

Everyone was once again off doing errands so Harry sat on the couch and watched TV, stuffing his mouth with ice cream (he felt like he needed from all the screaming he did –even if it was dream-him). He wasn't really watching, his mind on other things. Like how was Hogwarts, what was going on, why did they…

He shook his head and scowled into the ice cream carton.

"It is the one week anniversary of the Stanford incident. It was on that day the tragedy occurred and over 600 deaths were caused, a significant amount of them children from the nearby school. It was just a block away where the villain Nitro blew himself up in the residential area, destroying the surrounding residents as well."

The news went on, talking about the entire incident and what happened. A woman named Miriam Sharpe came on, sobbing into the microphone about her son dying and that this Superhuman Registration Act could only better the rest of the world from those freaks. Harry cocked his head to the side, studying her, before his face darkened and he tossed the empty carton in the garbage can and laid the spoon off to the side. He curled in on himself, brooding about what he'd just heard. Glaring off to the side, the door locked with a small click, without him ever having to touch it.

Harry began to reminisce about the time he had left in Britain before his stay here.

Everything was going wrong. The war was happening too soon, too many being killed. The worse yet was that Voldemort wasn't going all out. The Dark Lord was being subtle in his attacks, threatening and low key. Even though everyone was well aware of his return, Voldemort had yet to perform any large scale strikes against anyone. It was almost…mocking, the way Voldemort was going about things. Taunting in a way that said he was untouchable.

It rankled Harry.

It bothered him more that they were sending him away.

"Are you bloody kidding me? This is the worse time to be sending me off on some kind of adventure!" Harry shouted.

"It is not an adventure, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said sharply. Her tone softened and she looked at him sadly. "It's for your own good. The Dark Lord is specifically aiming for you and Headmaster Dumbledore wishes for you to be safe as we find a sure way to defeat him. Make no mistake…Harry. When the time comes, we'll come for you and won't let you be coddled and held back, if you so wish. But until then, your safety is our number one priority. Please don't fight us on this."

Harry struggled with himself for a long time before he nodded unhappily.

"People are dying," he gritted out. "I don't like the idea of being hidden away."

"I understand how you feel, Harry. It's just, if you are one hope, then you being alive to keep up that hope is better than your death leaving behind people in despair," she said patiently, though an undercurrent of tears seemed to have seeped in.

He felt his own throat closing up and he hesitantly went behind her desk and gave her a hug.

"Thanks, Professor," he said gruffly. "I'm sorry. I'll try to do my best to keep alive and not give my caretakers trouble. Take care, alright? You live on too."

It was the hardest thing he had to do, to walk away like that after it all.

And now there was trouble here as well. A civil war that seemed as pointless as the one he'd left behind, but fortunately didn't seem as bloody just yet. Still, those that had died…plenty that were just children and so young…what a waste of life…

"Now, your plane should just be here," McGonagall murmured. "Make sure you have your plane ticket and have it out when it's time."

"I just take off? I won't get to say goodbye to any of the others?" he asked miserably.

"I'm sorry, Harry. It's best if you go quietly, so that there's no chance of stopping you or an attack," she explained.

He nodded and then she was seeing him off for the last time in what was going to be a long time for both of them. He walked with a heavy step, his trunk hidden and shrunk around his neck, while a regular bag was carried on his shoulder. He passed the ticket lady after showing her his ticket, and then he got on the plane. Finding his seat, he was glad he had no neighbor and immediately stared out the window, eyes glazing over as his mind stayed in England.

It'll probably be that way for a long time…

He didn't pay any attention to the movie playing or to anyone else as he sat there quietly, ignoring everything around him as his eyes sort of drooped to a half-close and he kept to himself. When he stepped off the plane, hours later, his eyes looked around like a hawk, searching out the people who were supposed to pick him up and trying to recall the exact descriptions of them he was given.

It was a bit of a lonely pick, all three of them silent on the way back. But Harry could do silent. He'd had a lot of practice with the Dursleys and he'd learned by now to comply to that order…at least when it wasn't Hogwarts and a place he'd allowed his own voice freedom.

It wasn't so bad here though. And the people were actually nice. Secretive lot, but who didn't have secrets? Harry had plenty of them and he wouldn't be hypocritical and start complaining about theirs. Besides, they were living a rather normal, non-invasive environment at the moment. Exchanging secrets or just the reveal of just one, would lead to changing that and therefore a change to their relationship.

Harry was fine with being out of the loop.

He traversed down from his room, looking for the kitchen so he could make himself a cup of tea. He was surprised to see someone else already there, thinking as she sipped on a cup of coffee.

"Oh, Harry. I didn't see you? Coffee?" Natalia smiled hesitantly at him.

Harry gave her a much easier smile, making hers a lot more surer.

"No thanks. I'm just going to make myself a spot of tea, if that's alright?"

"Go on ahead," she gestured to the teapot and the stove.

He moved quickly and they didn't exchange any words as he put on the pot and got out a mug, searching for a teabag after and then setting it aside. Then he was sitting down in front of her and waiting for the water to finish boiling.

"How are you liking the place so far?" she asked him curiously.

He shrugged. "It's not bad. People are nice too. Just a little homesick, though Tony and Steve might've said something about that to you all earlier."

She waved it off. "Mentioned it in passing. Didn't want to spread about your business. Anyways, you got to call back home though, at least. Right?"

Harry smiled sadly at that. "Quickly. And they couldn't really stay long."

He involuntarily grabbed a strand of her hair, twirling it around his fingers a bit, his smile turning a little longing.

"I know a family back home who all had red hair," he murmured. "Not as dark as yours, brighter actually. Yours is bit more scarlet. The Weasleys are more of a fire engine red, bright and attention-getting," his voice turned fond. "Ron, my best mate, had the trademark hair of his family also. I miss him. And the rest of them…"

A soft hand wrapped around his, the one holding a strand of her hair, and he was startled out of memories as he looked at her sad face, her smile just as sad as his.

"I'm glad my hair kind of makes you remember people you're close to. I'm sorry you miss them so much though…" she said gently.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably, moving his hand jerkily away.

"Sorry about that. That was rather rude, wasn't it? I shouldn't have just touched your hair," he laughed lightly, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

She just smiled again and shook her head. "I don't mind. We all get lost in our memories sometimes. It's alright."

And he looked at her, a sort of lost look trailing onto his face, before a loud whistling interrupted the moment between the two and Harry's attention was brought to the teakettle, where the water was finally ready for him.

Turning off the stove, he took the kettle and poured the hot water in his mug.

"You know, I think I'll try some of that tea," Natalia announced, dumping her coffee into the sink and then rinsing it out. "I love coffee and never cared too much about the drink, but if your cooking's any indication, I'm sure you could probably get me to like tea," she winked teasingly at him.

"We'll just have to see then," he grinned back, taking her mug and pouring some hot water, getting another teabag for her. "I have to admit though…I'm more into oriental tea than any English tea…"

"…Cheater."

Harry inwardly admitted Natalia's hair brought to mind Lily Potter's, and he was just the tiniest reminded of his mother.

Started 7/29/09 –Completed 2/8/12

A/n: Ugh, I'm sorry this took like years to come out (that's probably literally…). I had up to 12 chapters written before my old computer crashed, and I just never got up the motivation to rewrite all of them after all the work I put into them (though I managed to at least rewrite chapter one and post it before my depression about it all made me lose interest again; my website at least has chapter summaries you guys can see and for me to remember the outline I had). However, after last year's really good Captain America and Thor and this upcoming Avengers movie, I'm getting a little interested in maybe being able to get back into this.

Unfortunately, I'm kinda leaning towards having Tony share Harry with Steve (and Victor after growing fond of him during what I can remember I wrote of him last time) after I feel in love with the CA movie (though I wrote the beginning of this chapter as platonic with Steve in mind). So I hope that's alright? However, the romance won't be really graphic aside from kissing or whatever, so those who don't care for the main pairing or whatever don't have to really be too bothered by it.

Thank you all for being so patient and sticking to this! Remember to review if you liked it!