First of all: I am sooooo sorry for such a long time to update. I was in Spain for two weeks, and had forgotten to upload this chapter. I'll be gone tomorrow for another week, so next update will be a bit later as well.
second: Thank you for all the amazing reviews. I am almost at the 20,000 views for this story in one month. Really humbling. I am glad there are so many Tony/Harry lovers out there as well. I probably will start a new fic next to this one as well, either a Harry Potter fic or another Harry Potter crossover. So maybe updating of chapter will not be the once or twice a week that I promised earlier.
Anyway on with the story! As always reviews are very very very very very much appreciated!
Tony woke up not with a start the way he was used to. He couldn't open his eyes, and his limbs felt like led about to fall off his body. He found his feeling in his eyes, but still they refused to open up. What the hell had happened to him? He never had a hangover as bad as this. And that included the bet with a random hotshot that he couldn't drink a bottle of wodka and a bottle of tequila back to back.
"Tony?" that was a voice he recognised. But he never heard that voice in his head. It normally was either a pushing voice, claiming he could do better; the voice of his dad. Or it was a voice of conscience, claiming that he could make a better choice than take a random person home with him. This voice, however, was a voice he recognised anywhere. The voice that had driven him crazy now for months. The voice that said, when he was covered in flour, that he'd add upp the cost to next week's bill. The voice that he knew from saying 'no' over and over again. How come he heard this voice say his name in a pleading way?
"Please, Tony! You know you can here me." Damn straight he could here him. It was like a obnoxious game of hide and seek, he just couldn't seem to find a way to respond. No matter how much he wanted to.
"Look Tony, I know I refused to go on a date with you time and time again." Well, at least he remained honest in his head. He didn't know why kept on trying, he kept refusing no matter what he tried to impress him. He realized that he should just give up, to just see him as a friend who could be relied on for great coffee and bagels and donuts. But something pulled him in. Something fascinated him about this guy. He seemed distant, and cool, and completely confident. But that was the crux; he seemed it all. He wasn't really all this stuff. Tony wanted to know what lay behind the mask that he so artfully had created. Thus far, he had refused any advances behind what he deemed safe. But damn it! He would get to know the person behind! He would know all his grieve and strife and sorrow.
This alone would be enough of a shock to those who claimed to know Tony Stark, playboy. He did not needed to know about those he took to bed. He just wanted great sex. He did not need someone to get close to him. He had Rhodey, he had Pepper, and that was it. He did not need anything more. But somehow Harry Potter got under his skin. He had to be the one to know what made him tick. And he knew he just broke up with that jack ass of a Jay. So this was it, the moment, the window of opportunity he had to grab.
Harry didn't take though. Not that he could blame him. He had criticized him and everything around him to the upmost degree ever since he got to know the cafe-owner. And Harry knew better than anyone what he was about. Somehow he managed to cut straight through all his talk, and said exactly what was wrong or right in a situation.
"Tony please, I beg you please open your eyes. I know I've been an ass to you. It still isn't an excuse to just ignore me, especially if you like me the way you claim." Again this voice of him cut straight to the bullshit. Harry was right; he should wake up just to prove that he liked Harry as much as he tried to convene all these months. How long can the great Tony Stark pursue one person for a date? He used to think fifteen minutes was his record. It turned out that months and counting was a closer guess.
"Listen Tony, I know I refused to go on a date with you. But, I was scared. Jay hurt me alright! He hurt me bad, because I liked him badly. And he turned out to be a bigger arse to me, than my old Chemistry teacher could've ever been. But now... now I know that I was scared that you were just like him. And I hope you are not, I really hope you're not. Because if you open your eyes, and ask me once more to go out with I'll say yes. God Tony, it has come to close to know what it means to lose you."
Tony heard Harry sigh deeply, like he was trying to keep tears at bay. But that was just ridiculous; Harry never cried. He was the epitome of cool and collected, no matter what stress or crap came his way. Then he realized what Harry had said; he agreed to go out with him! So now, he had to find his way to his eyelids and manage to open them up. For there was no way that he would not keep Harry to his promise he just made.
After a couple of hours of no luck opening his eyes, he heard the tell tall click of Pepper's heels.
"Any change?" She sounded wary and tired, like she had to endure the weight of the entire world on her shoulders.
"No," breathed Harry back. "But it can't take much longer." Was that an optimistic note in Harry's voice?
"Why do you say that?" Pepper inquired, despite herself and the doctors advice, curious.
"I just agreed to dating him, he finally got what he wanted for moths. If that isn't an incentive to wake up, I don't know what is anymore." He heard a small chuckle, that must have been Pepper. She was probably grinning at Harry, while thinking that it was inapproprate to joke at a time like this.
He felt himself fall back into the darkness, before getting back out again. He again heard Harry, encouraging him to wake up. Again heard him say he would try to date him, but that he better not try and cheat on him if they got together.
After many more hours he finally managed to lift his eyelids. The sight before his eyes was beautiful; Harry, who did not shave for two days by the looks of it, hanging over his bed with worried eyes.
Tony tried to talk, but ended on dry coughing. Harry reappeared in his eyeline with a cup with a straw out of it,
"Water, drink it." It was clearly an order of the Brit. Obediently he took the straws between his lips. When sucked, he felt the blis of the cold water hitting his mouth and throat. After he emptied the cup he tried again.
"So," he croaked, he coughed again. "So, now you owe me a date." Harry smiled braodly at this.
"You heard that, eh? I should've known, sneaky bastard. So, yes, I guess I do owe you a date. But only once you're out of here. I do not do patient dating." he huffed up in mock disgust at the last part, and Tony could not help but smile. Harry and he were going on a date! Sure, it may have taking him going in a hospital, but it worked eventually!
"So, Harry, what happened to me?" Harry's face darkened.
"You, my genius, thought it a brilliant plan to curve your car around an electricity post on your way to Marauders'. Pepper called me. She, me and Happy have been vacationing around your bed for the past two days." Harry was reprimanding him.
"Don't pull a stunt like that ever again. If you die the next time, I'll draw you back in the life, just to punish and kill you myself. Then I do the same thing again, so Pepper can have a go as well. In the end I'll be merciful and shoot you before agreeing to let Happy use you as a punching bag!"
Right, note to himself; do not get in any car crashes anymore. It brings out temper and scary threats in Harry.
Tony woke up with a start. Every night in this hell hole, he dreamed about his memories of Harry and him. First date, first time sex (not that he complained about those dreams), Harry bringing him back with his voice in the hospital.
He looked around. The cave was filled up with his rockets, and bazooka launchers, and everything possible that would need to build a Jericho missile. Or something else... His savior, Yinsen as he'd learnt, had clearly told him he only had a week with his crude electromagnet. That would not do. he would have to be dragged into death. Kicking and screaming and still they would not take him beyond, before he got the chance to say Harry that he loved him.
They had taken all the palladium they needed from the cores of the rockets, yesterday. Today was melting around the copper wiring. He sincerely hopes Yinsen had as steady a hand he claimed to have.
"Careful! Careful! We only have one shot at this!" Tony stood not a foot away from Yinsen as he made the way from the maeshift forge to the mold.
"Relax, I have steady hands. Why do you think your still alive?" He poored the melted metal in the mold, without spilling anything. Tony could not be anything but impressed.
Right now, it was time for him to get to work. He needed to fix his heart, otherwise he would never get back to his life. He worked the entire day and night. Yinsen looked over his shoulder at the finished product.
"That does not look like a Jericho missile," he breathed while looking entranced at the device on the table.
"That's because it is a miniaturized arc reactor. I've got a big one powering my factory at home. It can get keep the shrapnel out of my heart." And keep him alive, and get them out of there and back to Harry, Pepper and Rhodey.
"But what could it generate?" Yinsen asked.
"If my math is right – and it always is – three gigajoules per second."
"That could warm your heart for fifty life times." Yinsen pointed out awed.
Tony responded with a, "Or something big for fifteen minutes." He stood up and walked towards some papers that were lying criss cross over a table. He gathered them and layed them over each other.
"This is what can get us out of here."
"What is it?" Yinsen could only see the top drawing of some part of what he would assume to be the missile.
"Line them out and look." He straightened the papers out. The thin see through papers pressed together showed a big metal soot with a mask and what seemed to be the arsenal of a small army.
"Hmm," Yinsen made a sound of understanding. "Impressive," he smiled a little at Tony in anticipation.
Pepper looked at Harry, Minerva and George. She knew her eyes were probably bulging out and her jaw stood a jar. But she couldn't find the proper muscles to close her mouth and return her eyes to normal.
"That all happened when you were eleven?" she finally managed to choke out. He had to face his parents' murderer at the age eleven. Kill the man who was hosting the wraith as Harry had called him. And all the little hints this Dumbledore used to manipulate the young child. She feared she would be ill at any second. Truing to find her center she took deep breaths. When the world stopped spinning she looked at Minerva.
"And YOU!" when an eleven year old comes to you saying that there is danger, don;t you think you should listen before you discard it as a childish prank!" Her red headed temper came looking around the corner now. Minerva looked down with a sad look on her face. She knew how much she had failed Harry at Hogwarts.
She looked up at the hand on her arm. Harry looked at her with a wistful smile. "Would it've helped if she believed me? Yes probably. However, she'd be dead now." At the indignant look on Minerva's face he chuckled darkly. "Quirrell couldn't touch me Minerva. Voldemort was too damn curious what became of the baby that bested him. Any teacher however would've faced the full wrath of him from the dead go. At the Final Battle you, Kingsley and Slughorn duelled him and couldn't drive him back." Minerva was forced to accept this. Though judging by the look on her face, she did not seem to like this at all.
"Blimey Harry, I knew you always told us you were a magnet for trouble. But hearing all the details like this. You were a crazy boy, you know that right?" George did not manage the light tone he was striving for. But damn it! Harry had faced Moldyshorts at the end of his first year. He was entitled to being shocked. How much trouble did he end up getting in!
Harry stood up with another dark chuckle that seemed to accept George's opinion. He walked in to the kitchen and soon after got back in the living room with a plate of snacks and two more glasses floating behind him. He quickly filled three glasses with Firewhiskey and one with bourbon for Pepper. He left the bottles in front of them.
The others didn't need any words. They knocked back the drinks and went for seconds again. After fifteen minutes of silence and eating some of the snacks Harry had brought, Harry cleared his throat. "Let's tell you everything then."
And they did. They talked about the next years, Harry told Pepper about the deaths. Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, Moody, Ted Tonks. He told her about the horcruxes. The capture in Malfoy Manor, hearing Hermione getting tortured. The settling of the life debt of Wormtail. Breaking into Gringotts. And finally the Battle of Hogwarts.
It was deep in the night when they were done. She was reeling with Harry's story. She didn't want to believe it. Not about magic, that seemed like a inconsequential little thing compared to the war and loss that made up Harry's past. She looked at George, who was pale and had a haunted look in his eyes.
He had explained to her that the death of a twin was so much more than the death of a close sibling in the wizard world. There was a bond on such a deep level, that to lose one meant an aching empty feeling where the bond used to be.
Pepper felt with shock that her cheeks were wet with her tears. "Why- why did you move to the States?" Her voice trembled with the sobs she so desperately wanted to let out. But she could see one their faces that there was no room for tears anymore. They had hardened and lost. Mourned the dead and tried to pick up the pieces.
Harry's face darkened. His eyes were lost in a pain that went deeper than Pepper could percieve. Minerva layed her hand on his shoulder. "Harry, do not put this on yourself. Your friends should have stood by you, not condemn you."
George nodded, "Minerva is right Harry. Although I must say I never could've imagined mum running as fast as she did." he laughed at the memory of a cursing and blazing McGonagall chasing his mother of the Hogwarts grounds. Harry looked at George with confusion written all over his face.
Minerva turned to Pepper. "Harry wanted custody over his godson Teddy Lupin. Bu his grandmother Andromeda wanted custody as well. She used an underhand trick, claiming that Harry was unfit to raise a child." Pepper exclaimed angry at this. Harry was the sweetest and steadfasted man she knew. Granted the man she knew best was Tony Stark, but still!
The old woman nodded in agreement to Pepper. "Yes, she went to Kingsley saying he would need therapy after all the loss and war in his young life."
"She was right about that one Minerva. I was messed up because of everything. But Teddy was, is, the light to which I was fighting. The next generation, our children for whom we wanted to make the wizard world a better place." Harry knew how broken he was after the fighting was over and done. He knew that he had needed the therapy. But he had needed Teddy as well. And Andromeda did not allow him any alone time with the baby.
"Yes, yes, you were in need of some mental guidance. But you were not insane, nor broken by the war. You would not flip when looking after your cub!" Minerva was fierce in her response, she knew that Harry's biggest regret was that he was not there to see Teddy grow up. That he would not have any father figure in his life, not one adult to nurture his Marauders' heritance. "Anyway, yes Harry went to therapy, counseling for everything he went through. But well,-" Minerva broke off.
Harry smiled at the woman his grandmother for all intents and purposes. "I did not realize my sexual preference till the end of the war. I struggled with the guilt of a lot of the dead, and I wanted to give survivors something to live for. Especially my friends. And Ginny, well, I knew she was waiting for me. But I couldn't. And then, the only person I told about this was my Mind Healer. But it ended up in the papers." Harry had to swallow, but could not continue.
George picked up where Harry had broke off. He knew how much hurt there still was over the fight with his family. Hell, he even hardly spoke with his mother after he heard what she did to Harry. After everything he did for their family she threw him out because he could not live his life for others anymore. "Let's just say a lot of people did not take the news that their savior was bend really well." George's words were proof of how disgusted he still was with what happened.
"My mum and Ginny got into a full blown row with Harry. Ginny claiming that Harry had proposed to her after the Battle. Hermione and Ron, well they turned their backs on Harry here. In the end, I guess the only ones left on his side were Minerva, Neville, Luna, Kingsley and me." George sighed.
"The Wizard World sounds like a revolting place to me. I know how the public can be fickle, hell look at a tabloid every week and you'd get a whiplash by how fast public opinion on Tony changes. But this, family! It's, it's" Pepper could not put in words how angry she was by what happened a decade ago.
"We know ms Potts, we know. We try to change it, but it is hard. People will always be scared of what they don't know or understand." Minerva sighed heavily, she was tired. Tired of fighting an uphill battle to change the mindset of the young witches and wizards at Hogwarts, to only see them fall back in their ways after graduation.
"Well, I can't say I handled that all very well. It was the straw that broke the camels back," George snickered at this. "Shut up George, it's just the Muggle expression for 'the drop that exploded the cauldron'. I went to Minerva and broke down. She showed me that I had nothing to stay in Britain for and could start over somewhere else. I went to the States, staid first in New York and learned as much as I could there about different aspects of magic. Then to Michigan, South Dakota, untill I ended up here in Malibu."
Pepper stood up and knelt down in front of Harry. "I am going to hug you, Harry. And there is nothing you can do about it. You're still you, the best damn cook that I know, boyfriend of Tony Stark, and best friend of me. We'll get Tony back, if only so I can see the look on his face when you tell him your a wizard and that not everything is science." With those words she drew Harry in her arms, where he staid with a small chuckle at her last words.
"Aaaw, if that isn't cuter than a pigmypuff I don't know what is," stagewhispered George to Minerva.
She looked at him with a fierce glare. "You've not been my student for twelve years mr Weasley, but don't think I will not punish you for your behavior. The only difference here is that now I am not bound by proper conduct for a teacher."
George gulped, Minerva McGonagall punishing you without restraint was a scary thought.
Harry was laughing in Pepper's arms. He felt relieved that she'd accepted him, everything about him. George and Minerva were here, supporting him. If only Tony could sit right there in the chair with his scotch, his life would be good. He sighed, if only. If only indeed.
