"Okay, testing 'Webshooter,' attempt number eleven," Harry announced as he and Gwen placed their goggles on. Peter, who was already wearing his goggles, was performing a last-minute check on the webshooter. The webshooter at the moment was not that impressive, given that it currently just looked like a bunch of circuitry connected to an old watch. "We ready?" He asked Peter.
"Ready." Peter grinned before pressing a button, he was positive that it would work this time.
"Nothing's happened." Gwen frowned.
"Give it a sec." Peter rolled his eyes, he was about to say more when suddenly a bunch of webs shot out of the webshooter, hitting Peter in the face. "Ah! Damn it!" Peter groaned before he began pulling the webs off of himself.
"Okay, webshooter testing attempt number eleven, going as well as my attempt to seduce Peter's Aunt May," Harry said under his breath before he walked over and helped Peter get un-webbed.
"It's better than the last one," Gwen commented as she joined
them.
"True!" Peter quickly agreed after getting some webbing off his face. "This one didn't even catch fire." He added.
"Thankfully," Harry nodded. "Honestly, at this point, I am glad that we haven't tested it out with the finalised version of the webs." It had taken Harry a grand total of five attempts to work out how to produce webs. His fluid, when exposed to oxygen would transform into actual webs. He had found it surprisingly easy to make, his best theory was that he had instinctively gained knowledge on how to make them thanks to the spider bite. To be honest, that wouldn't be the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him.
"So, how was your day?" Peter's Uncle Ben asked as they all sat down around the Parker family table for dinner. Peter's Uncle Ben was a kind-looking middle-aged man with brown hair and soft brown eyes.
"It was fine," Peter answered for Gwen and Harry. "we were just down in the lab."
"Oh, doing what?" Uncle Ben asked.
"Homework, mostly," Gwen answered quickly and calmly without missing a beat.
"Hmm, good, good," Uncle Ben nodded approvingly before thanking May after she poured some more food onto his plate.
"So, Peter's told me about this whole business with that 'Flash' kid." Uncle Ben spoke to Harry in a conversational tone. "I imagine that that's been quite a hassle for you.'
"Yeah," Harry sighed. "Dad's lawyers are dealing with it at the moment, it shouldn't be a problem for too long.
"What's going to happen?" Aunt May asked curiously.
"Well, Dad told me that it's an easy case for me since Flash initiated the confrontation and was the one that escalated it to violence, not to mention the fact that I didn't respond violently. Dad said he plans to have his lawyers take as much money as possible from them," Harry shrugged. "He is really not happy with the whole situation. I mean, people try to sue him all the time, so it kind of pissed him off that people were trying the same with me. I think he wants to make an example of them so that the rest of the school doesn't get any ideas and tries to sue me for whatever thing they can think of."
"Hmm." Uncle Ben hummed. "And you're okay with it?" He asked.
"With what?" Harry asked, not entirely sure what Uncle Ben was talking about.
"With suing the boy?" Ben asked.
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "Why wouldn't I be? He's the one that tried to sue me first."
"That is true." Ben hummed.
"Uncle Ben, the guy's a total jerk," Peter spoke up. "He's always showing off his money as well even though Harry's family could buy at least two of his houses. Personally, I think it's a good idea to sue him, maybe then he'll leave us alone."
"Perhaps," Ben inclined his head slightly. "Though there's no guarantee."
"Well, what do you think Harry should do?" Gwen asked, sounding slightly confused. " mean, Flash is the one who started everything and it's not fair for Harry to suffer because of it."
"And I agree with that," Ben nodded to her. "I just want you to make sure that this is the right course of action for you." He added to Harry. "What you do now could end up seriously changing that boy's life, not to mention his family's life."
"What would you do?" Harry asked, trying to hide the fact that he was slightly irritated by what was sounding a lot like a lecture.
"If it was me? wouldn't be against suing, but I would also think about how much money I'd be trying to take from him.'
"Ben," May began in a disapproving voice.
"I don't mean to lecture, and I don't mean to preach," Ben said quickly. "It's just that you are a very wealthy boy, Harry, this 'Flash' kid and his family could lose everything.
"Flash is fairly wealthy too," Harry argued. "Besides, if the spoilt idiot wants to sue me then he should be prepared to face the consequences, not to mention that his family supported his decision."
'I'm probably not sounding too good right now," Ben said with a self-deprecating chuckle. "I don't think I'm getting my words out properly. I know what I'm trying to say, I just...just have a hard time saying it in the right way. Look, Harry, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. My brother, Peter's father, lived by a set of words, a code if you will. One that I also try to live by, and one that I've been trying to teach Peter over the years. He believed that with great power, there must also come great responsibility. And you have great power, not just with your money, but also with your brains. You three kids have great power, and with that, you have the responsibility that comes with that power, understand?" He asked, silence filled the room, Peter and Gwen looked to be thinking about his words.
"You're wrong," Harry said suddenly, causing everyone to look at him. "There's no responsibility that comes with power," Harry added, images of his previous life passing through his mind.
Memories of the Dursleys abusing him, of wizards and witches using their power to get whatever they want, of the ministry using their power against him. Harry's hands twitched slightly at the memory of a life he had done his best to forget about. "The only thing that power gives us is the ability to have more freedom to do what you want. That's the way the world works, the physically stronger people dominate the physically weaker, the rich dominate the poor and the powerful do what they want."
"I don't think that's true," Ben replied.
'I do," Harry shrugged. "Your 'great power and great responsibility thing does sound nice and all, but how many people do you think actually follow that? The corrupt officials in pretty much every major department ever? Including the police and government."
"Hey!" Gwen protested.
"Not your dad, he's a gun-wielding angel," Harry told her with an apologetic smile before turning back to Ben. "How about the criminals in the streets? Businessmen, who solely focus on the money they can produce? The school bullies?"
"What about firemen? The non-corrupt police officers?" Ben countered. "The doctors? The soldiers that fight to save lives?
Some would say they're heroes."
"Heroes?" Harry scoffed. "The worst thing in the world to be is a hero."
"Really?" Peter looked at him with disbelief along with Gwen.
"Dude, heroes are awesome.
"To each his own," Harry shrugged. "personally, I think it's overrated, the pay is terrible."
"Alright, Mum, Dad." Harry greeted as he entered the penthouse and found his mother sitting down on the sofa, watching TV while his father was standing in the corner, on the phone with someone else. His father gave him a small nod before continuing with his conversation, meanwhile, Harry sat down next to his mother who smiled before kissing him on the forehead.
"So, how was your time at Peter's house?" She asked.
"It was good," Harry replied. "We just did our homework and hung out for a bit."
"Is that all you did?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I beat Peter in a Yu-gi-oh duel after he beat Gwen," Harry grinned proudly. "We also spent some time inventing and experimenting.
"What were you making?" She asked, not entirely sure if she should be worried or not.
"We were trying to invent a cure for stupidity," Harry answered without missing a beat. "unfortunately, it didn't work as Peter still thinks he's better looking than me, poor soul."
"There, it's done," Norman said as he hung up his phone call and walked over, interrupting whatever Emily was about to say. "I hope you're happy." He told Emily, rolling his eyes.
"What's going on?" Harry asked, sensing a bit of tension between the two of them.
"Well," Norman spoke up before Emily could, looking almost glad that he was the one answering the question. "Your mother insisted on me contacting the lawyers and having them reduce the amount of money that we will be counter-suing for." He finished by sending a flat stare at Emily.
"What?" Harry blinked and stared at his mother. "Why?"
"Harry," Emily sighed. "This Flash kid is undoubtedly a jerk."
"Undoubtedly." Harry quickly agreed, still looking confused.
"But he and his family are not as wealthy as ours, we hardly need their money so we don't need to take as much from them as possible," Emily began.
"Mum, the guy deserves it," Harry protested. "He's been trying to bully Peter for years, he attacked me and..
"And is now suing you for that," Norman helpfully added.
"And now he's suing me for that!" Harry repeated as he gave his father an appreciative nod before turning back to his mother. "He deserves it.'
"Harry," Emily began. "his family..."
"Deserve it as well," Norman spoke up. "They know exactly what they're doing, they're greedy imbeciles who heard what their son said and decided they wanted to use the chance to gain some of my hard-earned money."
"Exactly," Harry agreed before Emily could come up with a counter-argument against his father's point.
"Harry, listen to me," Emily replied in a calm voice. "I wasn't always as wealthy as I am now, and neither was your father. You've lived an entire life with more money than most kids your age, but what you need to know is that money doesn't grow on trees. We don't know how badly this could change that kid's lifestyle, sure we could look into his family's finances but we might not get it right.
Plus, that's not to mention the strain we could cause between the boy's family. Harry, I'm sorry, but you've lived a pretty nice life, you don't really understand what it's like to struggle the way others do." She finished in an apologetic voice.
"|...I see," Harry said in a slightly frosty voice. "Excuse me." He stood up and began walking away.
"Harry, where are you going?" Emily called, a worried look on her
face.
"To my room," Harry answered without looking back. He heard his parents start arguing with each other but he tuned it out and quickly made his way inside the room before he closed the door and locked it.
As soon as he had locked it Harry paused and took several deep breaths, on the one hand, he definitely understood what she was saying, but on the other hand, he couldn't help but be a little pissed off by it. He understood that as far as his mother knew, he was simply a rich kid that had lived a fairly nice life. But he knew better, he wasn't a simple rich kid. In his past life, he had lived through things that most people wouldn't be able to before he had even taken his OWL exams. It had taken the worst dark lord of all time to end him. That's not to mention the utter hell he had gone through with the Dursleys. Sure he had a great life here, but that didn't mean he always had.
He knew that everyone in this world thought he was a rich kid, and it more than likely sounded a bit emo, but none of them really knew how hard his life actually was. Though admittedly, he couldn't reallv tell evervone that he had been a wizard in a previous life, he would be considered crazy at best.
'I should probably apologise for that outburst,' He thought to himself. 'I'll do it tomorrow.'
Harry let out a small sigh before he looked down and blinked when he looked at his door handle, his door handle which was now crushed.
"That's going to be awkward to explain." Harry ran a hand through his head as he made a plan to buy a door handle and replace it without his parents noticing.
"Okay, testing webshooter, attempt number fifteen." Harry put his goggles on and made sure that the other had their goggles on, he was also glad to see that Gwen had a fire extinguisher ready.
"Ready?" He asked Peter who was wearing a thick pair of gloves on his hands.
"Ready," Peter confirmed, he pressed the button and a second later they were all awarded for their efforts by a web line that shot straight out of the device and caught onto the wall opposite. "Holy shit!"
"Finally!" Gwen cheered.
"Eureka!" Harry exclaimed, earning looks from the other two.
"What?"
"Did you just say 'Eureka'?" Gwen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I've always wanted to say that," Harry said without a hint of embarassment.