Tony Stark was having a very, very bad week. He had barely come home from Afghanistan in one piece, only to be betrayed by his pseudo father-figure Obadiah Stane. After his public outing of his alter-ego 'Iron Man', he decided to check up on his more International companies. He decided to start with Britain; Grunnings a subsidiary company owned by Stark Industries had had financial statements which didn't match up for the past decade.

Considering Obadiah's under-the-table deals, he had a hunch that Obie had been laundering money through this company among others. The influx of money was suspiciously high for a company which only made drills.

After bringing in several Stark auditors, he realized that his instincts were correct. An incredibly obnoxious man, a Mr. Vernon Dursley, had been disguising the dirty money as drill sales - drills, which were never shipped, before funneling the money back to Stane.

On top of the bribes from Stane, Dursley also partook in 'misappropriating' funds from the company. But the embezzling made Tony enormously happy. While disclosing Stane's underhanded deals could've destroyed Stark Industry's reputation and his pride, Dursley's sticky fingers gave Tony an (incredibly valid) excuse to fire him and haul him off to jail.

Harriet "Harry" Potter was scared. She trembled inside her cupboard, hiding under her blankets in an effort to escape the anger of her uncle. Vernon had arrived home drunk and cursing his boss; "that arrogant twit Stark," and bellowed that Stark would "regret firing such an upstanding, NORMAL person" such as himself.

Suddenly Harry's cupboard door was wrenched open. Vernon pulled her out of the cupboard. "It is all your fault, freak. Because of you I was fired!" He yelled. He backhanded her and began punching her in the stomach. "We take you in, feed you, put a roof over our head and how do you repay us, me? Jail! I had to spend a night there before I could get bail." His statement reminded himself of his 'horrendous' experience amongst run-of-the-mill drunkards and 'lowlifes.'

Vernon stopped hitting her. She was relieved, until his hands touched his belt. She was only seven, but she knew enough to freeze temporarily in horror. The click of the buckle shook her out of her reverie and she made a run for it, the yell of anger behind her spurring her on.

On and on she ran, not caring about the blood running down her face (a cut on her forehead where she had hit the edge of a flowerstand), the stabbing in her chest, nor the pain in her shoulder. She ran far away from Privet drive, as fast as she could even through the black eye which obscured her vision.