With an anxious sort of energy, Tony hurried out of the elevator, intent on finding his nephew - nephew - and wasn't that a thought.

He nearly stopped short when he found Harry seated on the floor near the floor-to-ceiling windows, absently tugging on his hair. He'd half expected the kid to be stretched out on the couch, watching tv, having ordered like twelve pizzas or something, but figured from the info that Dr. Cho had just uploaded to his server that Harry wouldn't be prone to that kind of behavior.

Tony was going to kill someone.

"Kid, don't tug on your hair. We Potters don't do bald." He noticed how Harry jumped a little, turning wide green eyes toward him, and filed it away for later. "We do pink, we do mustaches, we even do dead, but we do not do bald," he continued, maneuvering around the couch to plop onto the edge closest to the teen, one arm stretched along the back of the couch. "Your great-grandfather taught me that."

If possible, Harry's eyes widened further. "Great-grandfather?"

"Yup. Old Grandpa Edward misfired a jinx one time and came home with a perfectly round baldspot right at the front of his head that lasted for two years. No spell or potion could grow it back, so he decided to cut all his hair off. He immediately regretted it."

Harry grinned and Tony beamed.

"He regretted it every time He had to cut it again, too. He made a big deal out of it for James and I when we were tiny." It suddenly occurred to Tony, as Harry's eyes took on a suspicious sheen, that Harry had no memories of his family. Not just James and Lily and the Marauders, but the extended Potter family James and he'd grown up around. In the years leading up to James and Lily's death, the Potters had been one of the Pureblood Light families that had been summarily exterminated. After Grandfather Edward and Grandmother Astaire had been killed in Diagon Alley, his uncle Charles had had a long talk with James and Tony about staying safe, and Tony staying out of the magical world. Tony had learned that for all intents and purposes, his existence was a secret to the magical world. He hadn't realized until then, but the only magical non-Potter he had ever met was James' best friend, Sirius, and technically, he was family. There were uncles and aunts and cousins and birthday parties and pranks and family inside jokes and Harry knew none of that. "I've got his pensieve somewhere, you know. It's probably in one of the family vaults. I can show you some stuff, if you like. James and I got into a lot of trouble when we were your age." Harry gave him a hesitant, grateful nod, and those damp eyes made Tony feel like the world was tilting again, so he hastened to change the subject.

"You eat sandwiches? It's been a couple hours since you've been here and I think I should feed you before Pepper finds out. When was the last time you ate, anyway? It had to be breakfast. You must be starving. We Potters weren't known for our cooking, that was the Prewitts, but one of the lesser known traits of the Black's is the ability to make a mean sandwich. Dealing with the lawyers always either gives me a headache or makes me ravenous. Whatdya say?"

Harry blinked at him. "Sure." Tony watched as the teen levered himself to his feet, favoring his left leg. That was in Dr. Cho's report, a recent injury quickly healed, but new enough to still be tender. "Why were you talking to lawyers?'

The hesitant question brought Tony's eyes focused on Harry' face, green orbs pointed downward, one hand gripping the hair at the back of his head, just like a nervous James. Tony swallowed down the blob in his throat that threatened to choke him, and stood. They were nearly the same height. "Just securing your custody, making sure Vernon and Petunia can never come looking for a single penny, contacting my Squib attorney to begin the custody processes in the magical world, and a few other things for work." As he talked, Tony led them over to the elevators. "Even though you were supposed to be placed with me, I still have to make sure some one doesn't go sticking their long, thin nose into Potter family business and causes us any unnecessary trouble."

"Oh, okay." Tony watched Harry's shoulders relax, and felt inordinately pleased to have been able to put the child at ease. He was so pleased with himself that he almost didn't hear Harry's next words. "I can cook, if you like."

Instantly, Tony remembered everything he had ever read about psychology and team building and fostering successful managerial relationships with staff. Sure, the kid didn't work for him, but something had to translate right? He'd get JARVIS to download some child psychology and parenting books tonight. "Can you? Then let's make a deal, Ramsey. You cook whenever you like, and I'll add $50 to your daily allowance those days. Deal?"

Harry's brow furrows. "What would I do with an allowance?"

Tony blinked and shrugged. "Buy candy."

Harry scoffed, but Tony could see the cogs turning in his head. "I suppose I could buy some new clothes and school supplies - "

Tony slammed the halt button on the elevator control panel, absently smug when the cart came to a controlled stop instead of a instant slam like some others he'd been in. "Nope. Nada. Not going to happen." At Harry's confused look, Tony continued. "Clothes, shoes, necessities, non-fun stuff, they come under guar-di-an.'' He stretched the word out with an exaggerated hand to his chest. "That's me. You use your allowance for fun stuff. Joke products from Zonko's or Mr. M's." He sees Harry begin to protest and hurries on before he can get a sound out. "Hell, buy a new broomstick for all I care. Basically, if I won't buy it for you, use your allowance to buy it for yourself, barring illegal drugs and alcohol, you understand. And also, if I tell you Pepper won't let me buy it for you, which will probably be the case with at least half of the things I've already decided you need, like a broomstick, that just means buy it for yourself, 'kay? I'll add the extra to your allowance, don't worry."

Tony watched Harry grapple with that a moment, idly wondering how much longer he had before JARVIS overrode the elevator command and set them moving again. Not a second longer, apparently, since the red light on the control panel suddenly flashed green and the elevator continued it's short descent to the team level. It paid to have an eavesdropping AI, after all.

Still, something about Harry's apparent responsibility irked him. What fifteen year old felt like he had to use his allowance to buy school supplies. Didn't the kid know he was rich? Sure, he may not have had access to any of the twelve Potter vaults, but Tony knew James and Lily had set Harry up with a cushy trust fund for his upkeep till he came of age. Just another thing to tackle at Gringotts when he had a chance. Which meant he'd be paying the American Branch a visit at 3am sometime in the next few days. Thank God goblins didn't sleep.

"How are you my guardian?" Harry's quiet words derailed Tony's plan for a starbucks run before he hit the bank. Goblins should experience caramel frappacinos, he decided. "I know you said my dad was your cousin, but are you a Potter or am I a Stark?"

Tony blinked, tempted to press the halt button again. "How do I keep forgetting you don't know this?You know what, nevermind. JARVIS, give us the scenic route without the scenes, buddy."

"Certainly, sir."

Harry peered curiously up at the ceiling.

"That's my AI system, he runs the tower. I'll introduce you to him properly later. Now, uh, Potter family history. I'm going to try and make this short, Foxtrot, so keep up, okay." Tony closed his eyes and cast his mind back, searching the part of himself he'd closed off for the family history lessons he'd memorized as a child.

"My grandparents were named Edward and Astaire Potter, nee Bones. They had thirteen children, numbers seven and eight of which were twin boys they names Charlus and Howard. As the children grew it was realized that Howard was a squib. As is magical custom, children aren't announced to the community until they are three years old. My grandfather, a professional conspiracy theorist, decided to keep Howard a secret. He was raised alongside the children and discovered his own kind of magic: mechanics. While his siblings learnt spells and runes, he devoted himself to muggle studies in engineering. By the time he was seventeen he'd built quite a name for himself in the non-magical world, and shortly thereafter he moved to the magical world. He and his brother were just as close as twins could be, but there was no denying the natural separation. Charlus, though, was determined to not lose his brother. He would pester him about his engineering and its uses and when he began dating Dorea Black and found out she had a twin squib sister living in Italy, spent months setting up the most elaborate blind date in history. Months later, Howard and Maria married in secret in Italy and Dad used to swear he still wasn't sure if he hated that Uncle Charlus would interefere so much with his affairs or loved that he'd dedicated so much time to make sure he wasn't alone. Charlus and Dorea married, and both couples simply enjoyed being together for a while, since both sets of twins had had to be separated for so long. Then, the women decided it would be absolutely fantastic if they were to get pregnant at the same time, since their kids would technically be twins genetically if not hereditarily. They succeeded and although James and I were born two weeks apart, we were twins in all the ways that counted. Jmes was late," he added with a grin. "He kept deflecting the enducement spell because he wanted to sleep."

Harry grinned back up at him, eyes sparkling. "Did you tease him about it often?"

Tony snorted. "I couldn't. He was too proud of it. He said sleeping was a noble pursuit."

Just as Tony thought he could get used to Harry snickering like that, in a way that was no James at all but just a little bit Lily, the elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.

They stepped out together, into the foyer-ish area on the group floor and Tony had a flash of panic because the team was here and Harry was new and what if they scared him and he never wanted to see Tony again before Thor, big overgrown-puppy Thor, rocketed across the room, his sheer delight at seeing Tony again, or maybe it was the kid next to him, or maybe it was a combination of both, Tony didn't know, splayed all across his blonde face.

One second he was sucking in a deep breath to tell Thor to sit in his most 'I-am-the-boss-of-you' voice ever, the next second said breath was knocked out of him as Harry's skinny little hand smacked right into the arc reactor and pushed him back against the closed elevator doors. There was a flash of blue then a flash of red and Thor slid back a few feet like something had pushed him and now everyone was reaching for a weapon and Harry's hand was still on his chest and the other wrapped around a thin length of wood pointed right at the still shocked Thor and Tony's brain caught up to the situation and oh.

Harry had defended him. Expelliarmus and protego. Fastest spellwork he'd ever seen, ever, and he'd watched James and Sirius practice for their auror tests. Had Harry even blinked? That aim was amazing, not excluding the awesome fact that he'd fending off a whole Asgardian prince at full tilt.

But the team was still edging for weapons, and teen or not, Tony knew if they felt any more threatened, they would use them.

"Harry, buddy, remind me never to get on your bad side." He pats the hand still on his chest as he shifted. "Thor's like an overexcited puppy, you gotta forgive him. Let's do some introductions, shall we?"

Harry relaxed marginally, and Tony used the opportunity to sling his arm over the teen's shoulders, made only slightly awkward by the fact that Harry had yet to lower his wand all the way, his green eyes still staring suspiciously at the group. Tony ignored this, silently commanding the other to do the same and stand down with his eyes. Only Natasha complied, and Tony wasn't sure how he felt about that. "Everyone, this is my nephew, Harry. Again, big and floppy here is Thor of Asgard - "

"I am honored to meet you, little warrior! At first, I was simply pleased to have met one of friend Tony's kin, but now I see that the thirst for battle runs through your family's veins and I am more honored to have met you both."

The shield flickered, and Tony looked down in time to see Harry frown. "I'm not little," he mumbled, cheeks a bright red, stuffing his wand back into his back pocket.

"Ay, you are, young Harry. But you are also braver than many twice your size."

Harry only pouted and blushed deeper. Tony stifled a laugh.

"Dark and broody over there is Thor's brother Loki. Then we have Steve Rogers over here drinking out of my mug again, next to him is my science buddy Dr. Bruce Banner and next to him is Agent Natasha Romanov, who's Brucie's girlfriend, but don't tell them I told you that, it's a secret", he stage whispered, "and the weirdo sitting on top of the fridge is Agent Clint Barton. He's part bird, so don't ever let him sit above you, got it? Though of course that protego would definitely come in handy."

By the end, Harry's face was flaming, and he gave an odd sort of hand flop for a greeting. Tony took pity on the teen and steered him over to the island in the middle of the kitchen. "Turkey's good, right?" he murmured, aware that Harry probably didn't care and would probably accept the floor swallowing him whole at this point. He made sure the kid sat close enough to the fridge that Tony could ask him a question or two if he felt Harry needed to get over his embarrassment a bit faster, a problem he doubted he'd have, and far enough from everyone else that the kid wouldn't feel like an exhibit at a zoo.

From the fridge Tony whipped out everything he had ever seen on a sandwich and set them on the counter. This was always the part he didn't like, the part that required him to pay attention so he didn't mess anything up or poison someone, usually himself. That didn't mean he had to devote all of his mental faculties to the task, though.

He had just enough brainpower to spare to annoy Cap, Bruce and Barton, whom he realized ten minutes in had picked up on his plan to give Harry some space and were twinkling at him, the bastards, even if they responded as usual to his banter. He stuck to those three mainly because Thor was too loud, Loki couldn't be trusted to not turn him into something small and amphibious and annoying Natasha implied he had a death wish, which he didn't. He peeked over at Harry every once in a while, making sure he got a sandwich into his too-thin frame (Harry actually managed one and a half, but the mother hen in Tony ached to stuff him with another one), pulling him into the conversation when he could, which wasn't easy.

From sandwiches they ended up watching movies. Tony wasn't sure how they ended up watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy again out of his excessively expansive movie collection that he'd specially updated and expanded for Bruce and Steve (and he could guess why they all watched that one because the whole Middle Earth thing reminded Thor and Loki of home, Clint loved the elves with the arrows, Steve loved how awesome and real it all looked and got sucked into the story every time and Bruce enjoyed it being so completely different from regular life. Natasha, Tony was sure, just picked it because everyone else liked it, which annoyed Tony to no end) but he was glad when the credits rolled on the last one and JARVIS raised the lights because of course it was suddenly after midnight and Harry turned out to be knocked out on a cushion on the living room floor.

"Finally,"Clint breathed, and Tony had to agree. He'd watched Harry struggle to stay awake, knowing the kid was comfortable for the moment and didn't want to lose that comfortable feeling just because he had to go to bed. There was probably a desire to not look like a little kid in front of everyone mixed in there as well, but Tony liked to think that Harry just didn't want to leave him. It was sappy and he knew it and Tony didn't care.

As Steve gathered their trash and Natasha stretched her legs, Tony gathered Harry to his chest, careful not to jarr the kid's left ankle, and rose to his feet. Tony knew he was fit, but he wasn't a gym junkie. It bothered him that lifting a fourteen year old boy taxed him less than lifting one of those clunky pieces of the Mark II. He stood still a moment, Harry's head limp against his shoulder, the teen's weight seeming to seep into Tony's very soul. This was his nephew. Technically cousin, yes, but James' father had been his father's twin and their mother's had been twins so scientifically James and he could be considered brothers and they were in every way that mattered, and someone had kept him away from Harry and a sharp, choking sort of rage filled him then and he realized he was clutching Harry with a grip so tight it hurt when the teen started to squirm.

Instantly, Tony squashed the red from his vision, turned on his heel and headed for the sleeping quarters. JARVIS had informed him that Harry's bedroom was across the floor from his own on this floor, since Tony hardly ever used the rooms on the penthouse level since the attack on Manhattan. He'd just entered the hall when Harry began to squirm in earnest, emerald eyes, darkened with sleep, blinking blearily behind his glasses. "'S'okay. I cn make it b'm'self. I got it. I cn do it."

Tony blinked, before pulling Harry even closer, squeezing the child close just like the iron band around his heart squeezed the tears out of him and into Harry's hair. "You don't have to, Bambi. Never again."