It Only Takes a Second

- XXVI -

(A/N: Before I start writing this chapter, please know that my knowledge on both legal and medical stuff is very limited, so if you see something that's unrealistic or too good to be true, chalk it up to fanfiction magic, and/or the magic of Harry's healing powers or whatever. That being said, I'll try to make it believable, but no promises as to how realistic it is! I might also try to tell things more focusing on Peter, Tony and Harry, and not so much directing in the court case and Natasha's arrest, and give information through the grapevine that way [ex: Pepper tells Tony, Tony tells Peter and Harry]. Whichever way it happens, I want to say thanks for reading and enjoy this new chapter!)

*

"Checkmate," Harry declared, wearing a sly grin on his face as he looked up at Peter who looked utterly dumbfounded.

"How?" Peter whined. "That's game three in a row, how are you doing this?"

"At a school with no electricity and lots of forbidden areas, you run out of things to do pretty quickly," Harry chuckled. "Play again?"

"How about I introduce you to a different game, one that I might actually have a chance of winning?" Peter asked, sighing as he looked at all of the pieces that he had lost during the game.

"Sounds good to me. Muggle's chess is very boring anyway," Harry laughed, packing up the chessboard and placing it back in the case that it came in from the nurses station.

"How so?" Peter asked, pulling Uno out of his bag and beginning to deal cards.

"Wizarding chess is played where you command the pawns to move, and they battle on their own," Harry giggled, watching as Peter's face turned from confusion to amazement.

"That's awesome," he smiled, biting his lip, just hoping that Harry wouldn't have a flashback or go to a dark place. When Harry grabbed his cards and began looking at them carefully, Peter knew they were in the clear.

"This is the one where you have to match the number or the color, right?" Harry questioned, glancing up at Peter for confirmation. Dr. Atkins had told him that his concussion had healed remarkably quick, but he would still suffer from some dizzy spells and lightheadedness, and the occasional bouts of confusion or forgetfulness, but overall she had been impressed with how quickly his body was healing. So impressed that she had cleared him to travel as early as tomorrow.

Harry was excited- he loved his nurses and Dr. Atkins, but he wanted to go home more than anything, even if it meant lying in a bed in the medbay there for a while too while he continued to recover.

However, when Dr. Atkins shared the good news with him, Peter and Tony, the other two had seemed less enthusiastic than Harry had envisioned, and they had disappeared shortly thereafter, after passing several worried looks back and forth.

Whatever they had been talking about, Harry hadn't liked how unhappy they looked when they walked back in, so he had come up with the idea of having a game night that night with the whole team as a celebration. Tony had smiled and told him it was a great idea, which lead to where they were now. Peter curled up in an armchair that was dragged up as close as it could get to Harry's bed, where they were using the tray typically reserved for food, to teach and remind Harry how to play muggle games.

"Did Professor McGonagall ever say anything about returning?" Harry asked after a beat of silence had passed. It wasn't that he wanted to return to the wizarding world, he was just curious about what she had wanted to do with him, and why now?

"She mentioned something about coming back today, but we haven't heard anything from her since the other night when they were here," Peter responded, throwing down a blue six onto the top of the deck.