One, two, three, fourfivesix, seven, eight ... and herself made nine.

Molly Weasley nodded at the number before beginning to hustle the group to the side, away from the Portkey Pad. There might only be the one child in the group – and him not even one of her brood – but that didn't stop her from mothering them all.

Even Arthur needed looking after and George, despite Angelina's presence, she knew exactly what he could be like in a new situation – like a niffler in a jewellery shop. Andromeda was the only one that she didn't need to keep an eye on and that was because the other woman was older than even Molly was.

"I'm thinking that I should fire call Mum," Hannah said. "Just a quick call, to make sure the kids are alright."

"They've stayed at your parent's place plenty of times," her husband, Neville said, putting an arm around her waist. "Besides, we've only saw them half an hour ago. They're fine."

"This way, troops!" Arthur called. "We need to declare ourselves."

Molly deliberately put herself at the end of the line, just behind Ron. Craning her head past the others, she watched as Arthur handed over the piece of rope to the official and began getting them through customs.

"Name?"

"Arthur Weasley."

"Purpose of visit to America?"

"Visiting a friend and to see the sights."

"Tourist, then. Length of stay?"

"A week, can't take any more time off work than that, unfortunately."

"Very good. If you'll place the tip of your wand in this box for just a second and cast a lumos ... very good, Sir, we now have your magical signature on file. This booklet details where you can find magical enclaves within America and the magical laws of the land. Enjoy your stay. Next!"

Arthur moved off to the side and the line shuffled forward. In a surprisingly short amount of time, all nine of them had gone through customs and were gathered near the exit.

"Where to now? How do we get out of this place?" Molly asked. "It's a shame that Harry's place doesn't have a FLOO like the Cauldron does."

"Come on, I'll show you," young Teddy announced. "I've been in New York a couple of times now."

Molly opened her mouth to protest, really, the idea of a group of adults taking direction from a child, but felt a hand touch her arm.

"I know how you feel but it's best to follow his lead," Andromeda said quietly. "He knows this city better than any of us ever could."

She watched as Teddy confidently strode through the magical archway, disappearing before their eyes. After she, too, had stepped through, Molly found that they were in a muggle aeroplane place, at least, that's what she thought it was, considering the giant metal constructs that she could see the through the great glass wall. Arthur, predictably, was pressed up against said glass, his eyes unblinking at the sight.

"Come on, Dad, we can come back another time and just watch them, if you like," George said, gently steering him away.

The place was absolutely packed with muggles, easily a thousand times worse than Kings Cross Station on September the first and it took all of Molly's concentration to ensure that none of their group was accidentally separated. So intent was she on her self-assigned task that the bright sunlight hitting her face caught her completely off-guard and she blinked rapidly and raised a hand to block it out.

Muggle automobiles, all much newer, sleeker and most of them bigger than their own old Ford Anglia, were everywhere and she swivelled her head, not knowing where to look next. Far off in the distance, she could see the city of New York itself. Molly clutched at her heart; if the city and the buildings looked this big from this far away, exactly how big was it?

The sound of laughter caught her attention and she looked around to see Teddy reaching up to pull Ron's wand arm down.

"There's no Knight Bus here, we have to travel like 'normal' people," Teddy told him.

Molly couldn't help but 'humph' at that. 'Normal', indeed!

"You mean take a cab?" Arthur asked excitedly.

"Basically," Teddy replied, his head moving this way and that. "Bingo! Found what we need. Follow me!"

Once again, Molly took up the rear as the group spread out in a line to follow the youngest of them all. By the time that they'd gathered together again, it was to find that Teddy was talking to the driver of a large muggle vehicle. It wasn't a normal-sized car and it wasn't as big as the Knight Bus, it was somewhere in the middle.

"This mini-van can carry us all," Teddy said. "Jump in."

As Molly climbed in, she saw that there were indeed enough seats for them all. Dropping into the seat beside Arthur, she let out a sigh. Well, they'd made it this far and, judging by the way that Teddy was talking to the driver, she had hopes that they'd make it to Harry's without much worry. Still, this was definitely a bigger adventure than she'd ever dreamed and it was still only the first hour! She wasn't sure whether to be excited or terrified for what was to come.

ooo00ooo

As she turned a page, Hermione's eyes automatically strayed over the top of the book and raked along the long counter. Once again, she frowned in frustration; there was no one behind it that she knew.

She'd been sitting here at this table – the perfect spot where she could see not only the counter, but also the entrance to the Den as well as the door leading to apartment upstairs – for coming up to two hours now. And still, she was kept waiting.

When she'd first arrived in New York, she'd apparated straight to the alley beside the Marauder's Den and knocked on the door to the apartment. After five minutes of waiting, she'd decided that there was no one home. Her second action had been trying to phone Harry, but for some inexplicable reason, his phone was switched off.

Thus, she'd decided to simply wait in the Den itself until either Harry came home or Gwen or Doreen came on shift.

The tinkling bell above the door announced it opening and Hermione looked up once again.

"Ron?" she asked loudly, seeing her old friend hesitantly walking in, his head swivelling as he took it all in.

His head turned towards her and a large smile bloomed on his face. Instantly, he began making his way towards her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Hey, Hermione. Nice to finally see a familiar face in this weird place. And to answer your question, we came to see Harry," Ron replied.

"We?" Hermione frowned before the crowd behind Ron finally registered.

"Hello, Hermione dear," Molly smiled, bustling past Neville, Hannah and Angelina to reach her and give her a patented Molly-smothering hug. "Harry's not here with you, I take it?"

"No, I'm not sure where he is," Hermione admitted. "I've only been in New York for a couple of hours. I guess my arriving to surprise him backfired a bit because he's not here."

"What do you mean Harrikins isn't here?" George asked.

"We came all this way to see him," Neville added.

"If Uncle Harry's not here, then he's most likely in one of two places," Ted said, making his way through the group. "Hi, Aunt Hermione."

"Teddy!" Hermione exclaimed, reaching out to give her godson a hug. "Now, where's Harry? I'm guessing you're thinking Avengers Tower?"

"That's one of the possibilities," Teddy nodded. "Come on, let's go check there."

"Are we going to have to use the cab again?" Arthur asked excitedly.

"Nah, the Tower's not that far, we'll walk," Teddy replied.

ooo00ooo

Ted strode confidently through the doors to Avengers Tower before pausing in the lobby to make sure that he hadn't lost anyone. Aunt Hermione had stayed close but everyone else had been mesmerised by the city, staring around and up at everything, pointing out so many things to each other and exclaiming loudly about the strangest things.

Not that Teddy could blame them. He well remembered his first time here with Uncle Harry; he'd been much the same. Thankfully, for him, those days were long past. Now, he considered himself someone well-familiar with New York, really, how could he not be after so many patrols with Uncle Harry, Matt, Peter and Doreen. Thankfully, the others today, what with their accents and this being New York, would have simply passed for what they were: tourists.

Once everyone was there, Ted led them to the small desk off to the side with the emblazoned 'A' on its front.

"Hi," Ted greeted the woman and showing his Avengers' ID. "I have clearance to take my friends up."

"May I?" the woman asked.

Ted handed over the ID and waited for her to check its authenticity.

"Thank you, Mister Lupin," she smiled handing it back. "We can't be too careful. I will need the names of your guests to issue them Visitor Lanyards."

"Sure," Ted replied. "This is Hermione Granger ..."

"Miss Granger. Welcome back," the woman said a second later, handing over a lanyard with a blue cord.

"How come you've got a different one than the rest of us?" Ron asked Hermione, as he fingered his orange-coloured lanyard.

"My guess would be because I've been here before and have already been cleared by security," Hermione replied.

"Okay, everyone, follow me," Ted called, leading the group into the elevator that he opened with his personal ID.

It was a little squishy with ten of them in there but somehow, they managed. Once the doors closed, Ted pressed the button for the lounge and instantly looked around, startled as the elevator began playing music.

"Friday? What's with the music?" he asked.

Most of the other occupants of the elevator jumped and started looking around when the AI replied.

"Mister Stark decided that theme music would be appropriate. This piece is Spider-Man's theme."

Ted listened to it for a moment. It was catchy, but needed words, he ultimately decided. Before he could ask if there was 'Marauder' theme music, the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

As he stepped from the elevator, Ted looked around. For a moment, the huge room appeared empty but then a head appeared from the other side of a lounge where Bruce had obviously been lying.

"Oh, hey. Teddy, good to see you. And you brought visitors?" Bruce said.

"Hi, Doctor Banner. You know Aunt Hermione, of course," Ted said, waving in her general direction.

"Of course, it's good to see you again, Hermione," Bruce smiled.

"And these are some of Uncle Harry's friends from England. Where is he?" Ted asked.

"He and Skye went off to the Playground, something that Coulson needed to tell them in person," Bruce shrugged. "I expected them back by now actually."

"I'll give him a call," Ted said.

"His phone's switched off," Hermione said.

"Don't worry, this one's never off," Ted said, pulling back his sleeve to get to his watch.

ooo00ooo

The instant that they popped into existence, Harry's arm shot out and around Skye, steading her.

"Thanks," she smiled.

Harry smiled back but any reply was swallowed up by a voice a few metres away.

"Thank you both for coming so quickly," Director Phil Coulson said.

"A.C.!" Skye exclaimed, quickly moving forward to give him a hug but stopped, staring at the sling that held the stump of what remained of his left arm!

"It's good to see you, too, Skye," he smiled.

"What that hell, Coulson! What happened? Are you alright?" Skye spluttered. "What happened to your arm?"

"How about you both come up to my office and I'll explain?" he suggested.

"Harry, is there anything magical that your lot can do to fix this?" Skye asked as they walked, gesturing at Coulson's arm.

Reluctantly, Harry shook his head.

"If it'd just happened, maybe. Assuming that the lost limb was still available," Harry began.

"It's not. Trust me on that," Coulson said. "And, considering the alternative, I'm alright with that."

After entering Phil's office, the door was firmly closed and they were offered seats.

"Are you going to tell us what happened now, A.C.?" Skye asked.

As Harry looked around the office, he noted a new addition – a fire axe hung prominently on the wall. He narrowed his eyes at it before switching across to look at Coulson, who gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

"That is why I asked you here," Coulson replied. "Firstly, though, I've got to get the official stuff out of the way. Skye, you've been on extended leave for a while now. I need to know, are you coming back to S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Skye looked at Harry, reached over and took his hand.

"No. I'm sorry, but I'm not," she replied. "As much as I love all of you guys, my place is with Harry now. And I'll still be helping make things better, only with the Avengers."

"I'm happy for you, truly," Coulson said. "That's not to say you won't be missed around here, though."

"I'm betting that there'll be missions where the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. will need to team up," Harry added.

"I'm sure that'll be the case," Coulson smiled. "Now, as to why I asked you here. I'm guessing that you haven't heard from your parents in a couple of weeks?"

"No. Not since we visited them at Afterlife," Skye replied, clearly confused. "Has something happened?"

"You could say that," Coulson replied sadly. "The Inhuman Gordon's teleporting around caught the attention of HYDRA. When we last attacked HYDRA, we actually managed to take away their ability to track Gordon and used it ourselves to contact Afterlife. Our objective was to create a friendly dialogue."

"But the Inhumans, we're all powered people," Skye said confusedly. "I know what S.H.I.E.L.D.'s policy is there. You would have wanted to put them all on the Index."

"Index?" Harry asked.

"It's a cataloguing system for powered people so that, if something goes wrong or someone goes bad, we have a record of them and what they can do," Coulson replied. "And yes, we would have wanted that. But the meeting went south. Way south. The Inhumans attacked us, went after the Iliad – one of our aircraft carriers. I'm sorry, Skye, but they were led by your mother, Jiaying."

"What? No! I don't believe you," Skye protested.

"I can show you footage if you like," Coulson replied softly.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"The battle was bad. Fifty-seven of our people killed and four Inhumans, including Gordon, before Cal, your father, decided that there'd been too much death and stopped your mother."

"How? What'd he do?" Skye asked and her voice was flat, almost dead as though she expected what the answer was going to be.

"I'm sorry, Skye, there's no easy way to say this," Coulson replied. "He killed her. It was quick, if that's any consolation."

Instantly, the base began shaking as Skye's fists clenched.

"Skye! Skye! Look at me. Focus on me. You need to get a hold of your powers," Harry said urgently, sliding from his chair to kneel in front of her.

Slowly, the rumbling subsided and Harry wrapped her in a hug and rubbed his hands on her back. Eventually, he felt her nod into his shoulder and he pulled back. After looking deeply into her eyes to ensure that she could handle things right now, he turned and retook his seat, never once letting go of her hand.

"What happened to Cal?" Skye asked.

"He was distraught at what he'd had to do," Coulson said. "He asked to go through the T.A.H.I.T.I. program."

"So, you wiped his memories?" Skye asked, sounding incensed.

"It was that or lock him up in the RAFT for the rest of his life," Coulson replied. "He left a letter for you."

When Skye didn't move to take the envelope that Coulson held out, Harry took it for her and pocketed it.

"That doesn't explain what happened to your arm," Harry pointed out.

"Ah, yes," Coulson said. "The Inhuman plan was to use terrigen crystals to turn as many people as they could and simply to kill the rest. To save lives, I had to grab one of the crystals before it broke. My hand started to turn to stone so Mack did the only thing he could think of: he cut it off."

"Wow! That's, that's ... crazy," Skye eventually said.

"I know. Saved my life, though, so a win overall," he said. "FitzSimmons are already working on some new high-tech prosthetic."

"And the rest of the crystals?" Skye asked.

"That was the big loss of the day. In the battle, the crate that they were in was sent overboard. I've had submersibles down there looking for it, but the ocean's deep in that particular part of the ocean, very deep and we haven't had any luck finding it," Coulson replied.

"All these years I've been searching for my parents and just when I finally found them, they turn out to be wack-jobs and I lose them," Skye muttered.

"Skye, I really am sorry, if there'd been anything ..." Coulson began only to be cut off by her.

"Daisy. My name's Daisy," she said.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, giving her hand a squeeze.

"My parents, they named me Daisy. I think that I'd like to use it, to remember them by," she replied. "I would have liked to know my last name, but I guess that it won't matter once we're finally married."

"For what it's worth, it's Johnson. Your name is Daisy Johnson," Coulson smiled. "We finally managed to work out who Cal was. He owned a building in Milwaukee where his medical practice was. I don't know what sort of condition it's in, but it's yours now."

"Thanks, I guess," Daisy replied.

The vibration of Harry's watch interrupted them and he looked down at it.

"Anything urgent?" Daisy asked.

"It's Teddy. He's at the Tower and he says that there's a whole lot of visitors there waiting to see me?"

ooo00ooo

"Harrikins!"

Harry couldn't help but grin at the greeting as they'd portkeyed into the Tower.

"What are you lot doing here?" he asked as George, Angelina and Ron engulfed him in a combined hug.

"Well, we heard that our favourite adopted brother was getting engaged and we had to come make sure that she was worthy of the Saviour of the Wizarding World," George replied.

Even after all this time, Harry still found it shudderingly-weird to hear George speak in complete sentences.

"We missed you, so what better excuse to come visit?" Angelina corrected.

"Hello, Harry," Hermione said, stepping in and claiming her hug. "I must say that I'm not impressed that I found out that my best friend is now engaged by reading about it in the Daily Prophet!"

"Hey! Not my fault!" Harry protested. "You wouldn't answer your phone. I left what, a dozen messages? Two?"

"Hello, Harry dear," Molly said, giving him a hug before stepping back, holding him at arm's length and looking him over critically. "Well, you've filled out some but I suspect that you're still not eating enough."

"Leave him be, Molly, he's a grown man, now," Arthur said, shaking Harry's hand.

"Neville, Hannah! Where are the kids? You've got two now, right?" Harry said.

"Brendan and Alice," Neville beamed. "They're home with the grandparents."

"Harry?"

Looking around, he stepped back until he had his arm around his fiancé and his visitors arrayed in front of him.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Sk ... Daisy. Daisy Johnson, my fiancé," he said.

"But ...," Teddy said, looking extremely