A/N: So Harley Keener shows up again in this chapter, and just a reminder he's a kid from Iron Man 3 that helps Tony out. He's basically one of Tony's adopted kids, like Peter Parker, and he's like an older brother to Alexa. He showed up in the first book too, but I thought I'd just write a little clarifying note to make sure nobody gets confused 😄
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The rest of the week was pretty relaxed. I even had time to watch some muggle TV with a little help from Ana on Friday, since I managed to get quite a bit of homework done on Wednesday. I woke up for another run on Saturday, and I barely even flinched at the idea of waking up early on the weekend anymore. My schedule was working great, and it hadn't even taken me that long to adjust to it.
Cedric ran with me again, like he had every day that week. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy spending so much time with him, even if my friends had taken their teasing up a notch.
I was just managing to change the subject away from me and Cedric as I piled scrambled eggs onto my plate when the owl post arrived. Everyone had relaxed a little about scanning for Howlers, since it had been so long since the last one, but everyone in the Hall perked up as Jimmy Tallon swooped in, carrying a bright red letter in his claws.
I grinned, sitting up straighter as Jimmy touched down gracefully next to my plate and dropped the Howler in front of me.
"Hi Jimmy! It's good to see you," I said, smiling at the owl and passing him a little owl treat. I never knew when Jimmy would show up, so I kept a few on me just in case.
"Open it!" Fred exclaimed excitedly, practically bouncing up and down in his seat. The rest of the Hall was looking at me with the same excitement, which just made me laugh. I was so used to my family and their crazy that it was normal for me. It was fun seeing other people's reactions to them, especially when most of these people didn't realize my family was a bunch of famous superheroes.
"Alright, alright. Here we go."
I was thinking ahead this time, and I had Ana record the message as I opened the Howler.
"ALEXA!" To my surprise, it was Harley's voice that came ringing out of the Howler this time, and not my dad's. "WHAT'S UP? DAMN, YOUR DAD WAS RIGHT, THIS LETTER THING IS CRAZY."
"HI, ALEXA." My dad's voice joined Harley's now as he explained. "THOR'S NOT GOING TO BE OFF WORLD FOR A WHILE, SO I DECIDED TO PAY A VISIT TO HARLEY AT MIT. POINT BREAK'S NOT GONNA JUST SHOW UP IN HIS DORM ROOM, SO WE CAN ACTUALLY SEND A LETTER IN PEACE— STOP TOUCHING THAT!"
"HOW ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND OUT HOW IT WORKS?"
"YOU'RE NOT, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME SEND A LETTER TO ALEXA."
"FINE. ALEXA, BRING HOME MORE OF THOSE BITING TEACUPS. I HAVE AN IDEA FOR THEM."
I could practically see my dad face-palming, instantly regretting involving Harley in this.
"DON'T YOU HAVE CLASS TO GO TO RIGHT NOW?"
Harley scoffed. "LIKE I'M GONNA MISS THIS. SO THIS YELLS OUR MESSAGE TO YOUR WHOLE SCHOOL? ALEXA ALMOST BLEW HERSELF UP TRYING TO OVERCOMPLICATE A BAKING SODA VOLCANO WHEN SHE WAS FOURTEEN!"
My eyes went wide, and I tried to grab the Howler to stop it from yelling, but it moved out of my reach. I was going to kill Harley!
"ALRIGHT, ENOUGH. GO TO CLASS." Based on Harley's scoff, I assumed he just kicked back in a beanbag chair or something to watch my dad record the rest of his message. "WE'RE DOING GOOD AT THE TOWER. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE TEACUP, NONE OF US ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO LET REINDEER GAMES GET HIS HANDS ON IT. THOR'S BEEN TRYING TO GET STRANGE TO HELP HIM GIVE YOU A SURPRISE VISIT, SO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THAT. AND TRY NOT TO BLOW YOURSELF UP LIKE YOU DID WITH THE VOLCANO.
"BE SAFE, AND WRITE BACK SOON. I LOVE YOU."
"COME TO MIT WHEN YOU'RE READY FOR REAL SCHOOL!" Harley managed to squeeze the last bit in just before the letter tore itself up. I honestly felt kind of bad for my dad. Between me, Harley, and Peter, there was always at least one kid giving him a hard time.
Everyone in the Hall still looked shocked by the letter, even though it was basically the same thing as last time. Oh well, they'd get used to it eventually. There would be plenty more opportunities to desensitize them, since I was pretty sure my dad was serious about mostly communicating like this from now on.
After breakfast, I took a quick detour to send another Howler back. I left specific instructions for Pietro and Wanda to go mess with Harley for me, since he said that whole baking soda volcano thing, and I tried to say things that would keep Thor from bugging Strange. The last thing I wanted was to be on my way to dinner only to have Thor show up in the middle of the entrance hall like Strange had last year.
Once my Howler was safely on its way, I headed upstairs to join the rest of my friends in the Common Room. None of us had much work this weekend, so we started an exploding snaps tournament between the six of us.
We made Fred and George go up against each other early, to limit the chances of the twins absolutely running the table all game. The rest of us were kicked back against chairs and sofas, sitting on the floor as we watched the twins.
"Hey, Alexa, you know how we're not doing WWHRS this year?" asked Lee, his eyes not leaving the twins' game.
"Yeah. Sorry again about that."
"No, it's alright. I was wondering though, if you could show me how to use that muggle thing you're always on... your computer. Not now, obviously, but some time."
"Sure thing Lee! We can do it later today, if you want."
"That'd be great!" Lee's face lit up, and then he lowered his voice so nobody else could really hear him. "I know the twins don't care much for muggle stuff, but I think it's wicked cool."
"Lee, I'm literally so happy to hear that." We laughed, then turned our attention back to the game. I had a thought, so I spoke up again. "Hey, if you want, I could save some of my muggle homework for when we're not in class. Like my math and science homework. We can go through it together, and then you can learn more about... well, high school physics and calculus and stuff."
"That'd be great!" Lee exclaimed. "Although I don't really know what calculus is."
"Yeah... maybe we'll start with something a little easier than calc on the math side..."
I spent the rest of the morning laughing and talking with my friends. Angelina won the exploding snaps tournament, which no one was really surprised by. That girl was insanely competitive sometimes, and that was coming from me.
Just after lunch, I went to do an arms workout. It wasn't very fun, but I had to do it. If I didn't, all that work I did over the summer with Nat and Clint would be for nothing.
After my workout, Jackson and I met up in the Astronomy Tower again. We hadn't managed to completely break the Imperius Curse yet, but we were both determined to do it this weekend. We wouldn't stop until we got it.
"Come on Stark! Again!"
"Ugh, Jackson, if you try to make me do another single push-up I will kill you."
"If you don't want to do push-ups, then you better figure out how to resist the curse! Why are you so against push-ups anyway?"
"Because I've already done a ton of them today!" Jackson and I had been working on resisting the curse for hours, straight through dinner, and I was starting to get fed up. He kept forcing me to do push-ups too, which was just normal enough to be hard to resist while still being insanely annoying and frustrating.
Jackson looked confused about why I did push-ups on my own, so I quickly explained about all the things I was doing to keep up my training.
"You're lifting and running? That's it?"
Not the reaction I was expecting.
"What do you mean 'that's it'? What else exactly do you think I should be doing?"
"Sparring! You're not going to keep your reflexes and training sharp if you don't practice the combat stuff they taught you."
"And who do you suggest I spar with? Pretty sure I can kick the ass of every wizard in this school in hand-to-hand combat."
"Ha! Not me."
I paused to squint at Jackson. Was he being serious?
"Your family's not the only one training you how to fight, Stark. My mom started teaching me hand-to-hand when I turned five."
"Of course she did," I said, rolling my eyes. "Well, if you're offering to be my sparring partner, I'll take you up on it. We can replace our curse-breaking sessions with sparring once we figure this stupid thing out. Just be prepared to get absolutely destroyed by me."
Jackson started laughing. Like actually, full-on laughing.
"Oh, okay Stark. Sure. I'm absolutely terrified."
"Hm. Maybe you're not now, but you sure as hell will be. Now come on, we still have work to do."
Progress was slow, but neither one of us was willing to give up. We kept working well past curfew, and we actually had to hide once or twice to avoid teachers patrolling the school for students out of bed. Still, we kept going.
Finally, finally, after hours and days of work, Jackson told me to give him a thumbs up, and I didn't do it. I completely managed to resist the curse, on the hardest level to resist it.
"Ha! Yes!" I yelled, jumping up and punching the air in triumph. Jackson and I high-fived, and then it was his turn. I think the fact that I'd been successful and he hadn't helped him a lot, because after just a few more tries, Jackson could break the curse with ease too.
"Nice work Stark," he said, sighing as we high-fived again. "Now make me a sling portal to my Common Room. It's a long walk with lots of teachers, and I'm too tired to avoid them all."
"You're lucky I'm too tired to yell at you for not saying please."
I made a quick sling portal for Jackson, and he saluted as he stumbled to his bed and I closed the portal. I made another one to my own dorm, since I didn't really want to walk all the corridors either, and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. Despite a relaxing start, this day turned out to be absolutely exhausting. Still, I slept easier knowing I could keep wizards from mind controlling me any time they wanted.