Chapter 7 In which Harry meets Tony


1st March 2016, New York, SI HQ

He arrived at SI HQ 10 minutes before his meeting, judging it was enough of an advance.

"Mr. Stark has not yet arrived," the secretary informed him before inviting him to take a seat at the table. It wasn't much of a surprise. If rumors about Stark were to be believed, Harry was in for a long wait.

He started watching a video on his phone – discretely of course – to pass time and waited, and waited, and waited, until 2 hours have passed and he was starting to get hungry.

This must be a joke, he thought rather angrily to himself as he made his way back to the secretary's desk.

"I'm sorry," he said, "It's been 2 hours already. Can you call Mr. Stark to see if he is still planning to come?"

"Of course, sir," the secretary replied before picking up the phone. 5 minutes later, she hung up and said: "It seems that Mr. Stark had forgotten about the meeting, but you are free to make your way to his penthouse if you still want to meet him."

Harry resisted the urge to gape in outrage. He forgot about the meeting? Was Mr. Stark really a businessman? That was one of the least diplomatic way to treat an employee possible.

"Can you give me the address?" he asked instead, working to keep his tone pleasant. It wasn't the secretary's fault that Mr. Stark was an utter ass.

"Of course," the woman smiled at him before handing him a piece of paper, "Good luck."


As expected from Stark, his New York Penthouse was modern, luxurious and more expensive than most people could afford. It was also one of the most technically advanced architectures that Harry had ever seen. The security was top notch by muggles standards; security cameras everywhere he turned, infra-red sensors, fingerprint scanners, heat sensors and much more. It felt more like entering a top secret underground lab than a penthouse.

Harry entered the building wryly, keeping an eye on his surroundings as he made his way to the elevator. Despite his vigilance, he still jumped in surprise when a British voice greeted him as soon as he pressed the up button.

"Who are you?" he asked, turning around to check for an intercom.

"My name is JARVIS, sir," the voice replied, "I am Mr. Stark's personal assistant, if you will. I'm not human but an artificial intelligence designed by Mr. Stark."

"That is so cool," Harry admitted, eyes wide. He had heard about the existence of AI technology but this is the first time he came in to contact with one.

"Thank you," Jarvis replied, "I apologize profusely for what happened today. I tried to get Mr. Stark to leave on time, but he just got started with a new project and shut me out."

"Don't worry about it," Harry replied, feeling a little weird that an AI was apologizing to him, "It's your creator's fault. He should apologize, not you."

"Thank you sir," Jarvis repeated before the door dinged once more, indicating that the elevator had reached the right floor, "If you'll follow me, Mr. Stark is in his lab."


It was like a scene from a sci-fi movie; holograms everywhere, robots milling around handing their inventor tools whenever the latter asked for it, machines so complicated that it made Harry's head spin. It was incredible how advanced the muggles have gotten over the centuries. While the wizarding world stagnated, muggles evolved by continuing to innovate. Tony Stark was the embodiment of that innovation.

As soon as Harry stepped through the glass doors, the music stopped and JARVIS' voice rung through the speakers once more.

"Mr. Stark," he said, "You have a visitor."

Tony Stark stopped whatever he was doing and turned around, eyes widening a little as he took in Harry's presence.

"Hi," he said, a little confused, "And you are?"

"Harry Potter," Harry replied, "I'm from the Accounting department. We had a meeting today Mr. Stark but apparently you forgot about it."

Tony winced a little and rubbed his neck sheepishly with a hand that wasn't covered in grease.

"Yeah, about that," he started, "That happens to me a lot. When I get caught up in something, anything else tends to take backseat drive. But at least you are here now, what can I do for you?"

TBC