You're Not a Horse, Harry!

Number 10

Number 10

The next time they had a visitor from the wizarding world, instead of breaking in via a column of flames, they announced themselves at the reception desk in the lobby.

“A Mr Lupin and Professor McGonagall are here to speak to Mr Potter,” Jarvis said right after breakfast, while everyone was busy cleaning up. “They say they have urgent news concerning Mr Potter’s relatives.”

“Do they even know those people aren’t really Harry’s relatives?” Tony asked no one in particular. Harry silently agreed with him. He’d thought about that little fact a few times over the weeks he’d been staying there, how Petunia and Dudley weren’t even related to him by blood and never had been.

Jarvis brought the elevator up to the penthouse where the Avengers placed themselves strategically around the room while Harry sat on a couch beside Bucky, while his parents hovered behind them.

“Harry,” Lupin said with a warm smile as they stepped out of the elevator. “It’s good to see you again.” McGonagall didn’t say anything but did offer Harry a small nod and an even smaller smile.

“I’m afraid we have bad news,” Lupin said as he accepted a seat on a chair near Harry that Bruce offered him. McGonagall stood at his side. “The Dursleys were all kissed by a dementor just two days ago.”

“What?” Harry stared at Lupin with wide eyes, his mind filled with disbelief.

“What’s a dementor?” Bucky whispered beside Harry, though he wasn’t the only one to wonder that out loud.

“Dementors are dark creatures that cause misery where ever they go,” McGonagall explained patiently. “They guard the wizarding prison Azkaban, and their worst weapon is the ability to suck out someone’s soul through a kiss. The victim will remain in a vegetative state until they pass away.”

“Show us these beasts so we can slay them!” Thor bellowed with thunder in his voice. “They have harmed Haraldr’s caretakers, so we shall have vengeance in their names!”

“The dementors in question were rogues,” Lupin said, looking slightly taken aback by Thor’s loud proclamations. “There are no other dementors roaming around that require termination.”

“A pity,” Thor said while he crossed his arms.

Harry wasn’t sure what to think about any of this. He didn’t like the Dursleys. Really, truly didn’t like them, even though for years he’d thought they were the only family he had left. And while he wouldn’t wish them dead, he couldn’t muster up many feelings of sympathy for what happened to them. Harry remembered all too well all the times Petunia, Vernon and Dudley had hurt him. Dudley beating him up every other day, Vernon smacking him on the head and dragging him around by his arm until his shoulder screamed in pain, and Petunia hitting him in the head with a frying pan. And that didn’t even address the locks on his bedroom door or the cat-flap through which they gave him insufficient portions of food for a growing, teenage boy.

Harry felt very little at all knowing the Dursleys were as good as dead.

“Vernon’s sister Marge is organizing the funeral, since as muggles they all passed away just a few hours after being kissed,” Lupin explained while giving Harry a sympathetic look. “We’re here to take you back so you can attend.”

“I don’t want to go,” Harry murmured while staring at his knees.

“Mr Potter,” McGonagall snapped while narrowing her eyes in disbelief. “They are your family, no matter what some people may have told you recently. The least you can do is –”

“Are you blind?” Clint asked, as he hopped off the edge of the kitchen table he’d been sitting on. “Do you truly not see what the hell is going on here?” Clint focussed his attention on Harry as he walked closer to him. “You don’t owe them anything, Harry. Not a goddamned thing. They never cared about you and you don’t have to pretend to care about them. They’re dead. Good riddance.”

Dead silence followed and Harry wanted the couch to swallow him whole as he kept staring at his knees, not daring to meet anyone’s eyes because he wasn’t sure what he’d find there. What he wanted to find there. Disbelief? Judgement? Sympathy? Harry wanted none of it.

“I told you I’d teach you how to use a bow,” Clint said, gesturing at Harry to get up. “So, let’s go shoot some arrows.”

Harry didn’t think he’d ever been more grateful to have a valid excuse to leave a room. He jumped up and all but plastered himself against Clint’s side. “Nice meeting you,” Clint said with a slight sneer. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” And with his hand on Harry’s back he led him into the elevator.

An hour later, as Harry was just allowed to try using a bow by himself, Lupin walked into the shooting range.

“I won’t mention your muggle family again,” Lupin said, holding up a hand in surrender as Clint glared at him. “And Mr Stark showed us the evidence of your parentage. I swear, Harry, we had no idea James and Lily had adopted you.”

Shrugging, Harry scuffed his shoe against the wooden floor. “I’m honestly not sure if James and Lily even knew they adopted me. My grandfather may very well have made them believe they gave birth to me. Loki said that would be something he’d do to hide me.”

Lupin nodded in understanding. “It doesn’t even matter in the end. James and Lily loved you, Harry, and you were their child, no matter how you came into their lives.”

Harry swallowed against a lump in his throat. He hadn’t realized how much he needed to hear someone say that about his adoptive parents. Ever since learning the truth about his parentage, Harry had wondered what James and Lily would make of him if they knew. “And what about Sirius?” Harry asked Lupin, since he hadn’t heard from his godfather since the end of his schoolyear. He’d hoped Sirius would at least send him a letter or something. “Is he still my godfather?”

“Yes, of course he is,” Lupin said quickly, and then sighed. “Sirius is still recovering in some ways, Harry, and he doesn’t believe you aren’t James and Lily’s biological son. This was a huge surprise for all of us. I will talk to him.”

“All right. Thanks.” Harry turned back to Clint while Lupin quietly left them to it and walked out of the room.

They spent the rest of the day on the shooting range and Harry learned a lot about shooting with bow and arrow and he was ever so grateful he didn’t have to think about the Dursleys at all. By the time they made their way back to the communal area for food, Lupin and McGonagall were gone and everyone else pretended nothing had happened, which suited Harry just fine.