Hey guys, I know it's been ages and I am sorry, but... my Beta and I left Uni and started out own business! Life has been so crazy! And I've been having real trouble with the hook for this chapter. I knew what I wanted to write, but I always nee ONE thing, to work around. This time, it was me sitting on the Tram , reading the news and thinking "What is going to happen to the SI-HQ because of Brexit?" In the end, the answer didn't even make it into this chapter, but it still made this all possible.

So never forget to ask questions!

Here is the chapter set directly before Harry picks up Wanda in "Home".

I'm a Stark

Margaret Stark took one last, scrutinizing look into her handheld mirror, before she clicked it shut and let it slide into her handbag. It was ridiculous to feel nervous and she knew that. But still: She hadn't seen her uncle in quite a while and she wanted him to know that she cared enough to make an effort. She had even straightened her hair and put those stupid contact lenses in. That endeavour mostly ended with her still having one contact in, while unable to either remove or add the other one. And without her glasses on, she couldn't see well enough to really do anything about it.

Still, today she had dared anyway. She and her Dad had made a pact for their time together on this business trip: Try and find the courage to do ONE thing you are anxious about. So her Dad had called his friends from Manhattan. From before he knew about being a wizard. Before Hogwarts. And today he was meeting them to reconnect, talk about old times and (Emmy had insisted) get at least a little drunk.

And Emmy had actually called her Uncle Tony, told him she was in Washington and free for the evening. Much to her enormous relief, he had immediately agreed to jump on a plane and meet her for dinner. She shouldn't have doubted him, Emmy logically knew that, but she hadn't seen him in so long that she had needed to prepare her heart for disappointment anyway.

"Miss Stark?", Jackson, her bodyguard for the night interrupted her thoughts carefully, "We are here."

Absentmindedly, she nodded at him and he exited the car to open her door, carefully helping her and her high heels out of the car.

Maybe she had overdone it a bit, she nervously thought and straightened her cocktail dress with a quick brush of her hand.

"If you decide to wear a dress, you own it. You are never overdressed. Make anyone else feel underdressed instead. Chin up!", she could hear her Mum's voice in her head. Even after years without her, Emmy knew exactly what her Mum would have told her. What she DID tell her, when Emmy was still a child, conscious of being tall and lanky. Her Mum would tell her to own it. "You got the genes of the tall Weasleys. I don't know why that skipped a generation. Look at you, luv. Don't slouch. Don't feel awkward. Stark men might be short, but you are a Weasley, too."

Emmy sighed, when Jackson carefully walked her through the doors of the small, cozy korean restaurant her Mum had loved so much. She hadn't been here in so long and she knew Uncle Tony would appreciate the gesture.

"Weasley. Table for two?", she told the young woman waiting to seat her. Chun-ja, her name tag said.

"Of course, Miss, your guest has already arrived.", she smiled warmly at Emmy, but looked slightly confused at her having an escort. This was not the kind of high end place where personal security was normal.

Chun-ja led them to a private booth in the back and the moment Emmy came into view, Uncle Tony jumped up from his chair, raced towards her and engulfed her into the biggest bear hug imaginable.

"I am so happy you called.", he said quietly and hugged her even more.

"I am glad you had time.", Emmy smiled back, as he let her go. She actually had to look down. When had she gotten taller than her Uncle? Even without her heels.

"Wow, honey, look at you!", Uncle Tony laughed, "Way to make me feel very, very old."

"You are not old, Uncle Tony. You're just a Stark man.", Emmy echoed her Mum's old saying and Uncle Tony laughed again, when he pulled her chair back. Chun-ja had already wandered off and Jackson had blended away into the darkness behind her somewhere.

"How are you, Emmy? How is life treating you?"

"I'm good! Life's good."

"Yeah? Things at Hogwarts are better, too?"

Emmy froze. "Pardon?"

"It's not… I mean, we weren't gossiping or anything like that. I just asked Teddy how you were, when I visited him in London. And he just mentioned, you weren't that happy at Hogwarts."

"I am no longer at Hogwarts. If I were, I wouldn't be here right now. It's the school year.", Emmy explained calmly. Teddy had actually told her about their uncle's visit. It was one of the reasons she had reached out. He hadn't told her WHAT Uncle Tony had told him, but Teddy had reassured her, he believed their uncle loved them.

"You left school early?", Uncle Tony asked, looking dumbfounded, before turning away to order his food. Just like Emmy, he hadn't needed to look at the menu.

"I left Hogwarts, not school.", Emmy explained, when their waiter had taken off again, "I got my OWLs. Now I've joined the local school in Penzance."

"You are going to muggle school."

"I am."

"Why? Why give up on all those opportunities?"

Emmy felt a sudden rush of anger at his words. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, you are a witch. You can do MAGIC. Why would you want to stop learning more about it?"

Oh, Emmy had known exactly what he meant, even before he had said it.

"Funny.", she huffed, "People always tell you bullshit about the great opportunities you have, but what they really mean is that you have to do what they deem best."

Uncle Tony visibly recoiled, as if she had slapped him and Emmy felt almost sorry for her harsh words. Almost.

"Maybe I don't want to just learn about magic. Maybe I want to be able to live my life the way I want."

"Of course, you should. I didn't mean it like that.", Uncle Tony hurried to explain.

"I know what you meant. Jo once told me, when she told her grandma she was basically a stay at home mum now, she told her it was a waste. Because she had a masters. Why is it a waste? Why is education apparently the death of options?"

"It's not! I am sorry, I misspoke, Emmy. I didn't mean it like that in any way. And also I feel like I just walked into something I wasn't really part of before."

Emmy took a deep breath. Yes. He was probably right.

"Sorry.", she admitted, "My leaving Hogwarts has been a huge thing. Everyone had an opinion. My grandparents. Every aunt and uncle. Most cousins. And the entire magical press."

"Ahhhh, yes. I can imagine that. I was just surprised, because I remembered how much your father always loved going there."

"I know. It just never felt right to me, somehow. And Dad loved Hogwarts so much… It was actually Jo's idea and I know she had a lot of work to do to convince Dad. I don't think I've ever heard them fight like that before."

"Jo convinced your Dad to let you quit school?", Emmy could clearly hear the thinly veiled disapproval in his voice.

"No, she was on my side, though, when I said I wanted to. She said what good is having all that money, if you still force your kids to be unhappy. Even if you could afford for them to be happy. Dad was not happy about that."

"I would imagine not, no."

"I am actually doing quite good at school.", Emmy hurried to explain to her uncle, not wanting him to think this had just been some rich kid acting out, "I want to get my A-Levels and study business. Dad already started showing me around SI. That's why I am here, too. He had lots of meetings and I got to tag along. One day, Uncle Tony, I want to take responsibility and work at Stark Industry.", she told him proudly.

"Take responsibility?", he frowned, "For what?"

"My name? My family? The company? I am a Stark, after all. And a lot of people are counting on this family. All the employees depend on us, right?"
Uncle Tony blinked. "I guess so…"

"I've done a lot of research, you know? I read a lot about taking responsibility for your history or where you came from and all that. I mean… Grandpa worked his way up from nothing and that's absolutely amazing. But now we have all that money, most of it made through selling weapons and I just feel, like… I should take that and do SOMETHING and…", Emmy stopped, when she saw her uncle's shocked face and blushed, "Sorry. I just love this subject. I shouldn't have talked your ear off like that."

"You didn't. I love to hear your thoughts. I was just… Yes. My Dad and I built weapons, but we did it to keep everyone safe. I just… I never thought you'd feel the need to apologize for it."

"I am not apologizing. Taking responsibility doesn't mean I apologize or admit guilt to anything. It just means I am aware of what happened. And I am aware that my actions have consequences for a whole lot of people. With SI's clean energy work, Dad's decisions impact the whole world. Maybe one day mine will, too. I just don't want to do less than I could have done, you know?"

"Yes. That I do get."

Emmy smiled happily at her uncle, when the food was carefully placed in front of them and they both decided to dig in. They were quiet for a comfortable bit, before Uncle Tony asked: "How did your interest in this whole personal responsibility thing start?"

"I've done a lot of talking about it with Mama and Wanda. It was very interesting, really, because everyone had something else to struggle with. Wanda feels guilty for letting herself get manipulated and all the destruction HER powers caused in turn. And what was I gonna say? The bomb that killed her parents, had my name written on it. MY name. So what does that say about me? And then Jo, of course, is German. She always says she feels the responsibility to keep the memory of what happened alive. But that she doesn't have to feel guilty. Those are two different things, she says."

Emmy stopped, realizing she had just talked for way too long again, but her Uncle just stared at her wide eyed.

"Sorry.", she felt the need to apologize again.

He was still looking at her with that weird look she couldn't place, but it made her more than a little uncomfortable.

"I'm… there was just a lot to unpack there. I never knew you'd started calling Jo Mama."

"Well, now that Dad and her are…", Emmy stopped right in the middle of her sentence, realizing that she had just made a grave error.

"What? Dad and Jo what?", Uncle Tony asked, his voice sounding like he was trying not to shout. Emmy felt her old enemy anxiety creep up and tried to sink back in her chair a little.

"I shouldn't have said that. Please just… let's not, okay?"

"They got engaged?"

Emmy pressed her lips together, unwilling to say anything on the whole thing. Her uncle's face turned white, then red.

"They got married.", he stated and Emmy flinched, as he hit the nail on the head, "They got fucking married and didn't even bother to tell me."

"Please, Uncle Tony, I shouldn't have said anything. Can't we just… go back? Please? And enjoy our meal?"

And even though he nodded, their evening was practically done. They didn't quite manage to get a conversation going again and Uncle Tony kept angrily stabbing his food, like it had personally offended him. Emmy meanwhile was so anxious about the whole thing, she felt ready to throw up. No way would she be able to finish her dinner. She felt hot and cold all over, her breast tightened uncomfortably, like she was unable to breathe. This had been a mistake. She shouldn't have come here. She should have stayed in her hotel and done the research for her SI project. This had been a horrible, horrible idea.

After about 20 minutes of tense silence, Emmy just gave up.

"I… Uncle Tony, I don't feel so good."

His face shot up and he looked at her with newfound worry.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't… I've been having problems with…", depression, anxiety… she could have said all those things, but she didn't want to see the worry on his face, "... with low blood pressure."

She stood up and felt herself tumble, but before she could fall, she felt Jackson's firm grip on her arm, pulling her up.

"Emmy!", Uncle Tony almost yelled, people were beginning to stare.

"Miss Stark, I have called for the car. It's outside."

"Thank you, Jackson.", Emmy tried to breathe more calmly. She hardly noticed her Uncle trying to talk to her, as Jackson swiftly led her through the restaurant, onto the street and into the waiting car.

Emmy just stared at her hands all the way back to their hotel.

"Thank you.", she told the man she had just met a mere five days ago.

"Don't worry, Miss Stark. It will get better."

She looked at him in surprise. Never before had he said anything outside of work to her.

She wanted to thank him, but they had already reached the door to her suite and Jackson knocked loudly.

"Dad's out with friends.", Emmy tried to explain.

"Not yet, Miss Stark, he should still…", and the door opened to show her father, already in a suit and ready to leave.

"Emmy? What happened?!", and he pulled her into his strong, safe arms, "Whatever it is, it's gonna be okay."

She wanted to tell him, it wasn't that bad, but instead she just started crying.

"Jackson?", she heard her father ask with alarm in his voice.

"There was a disagreement with Mr. Stark, Sir."

"I understand.", and Emmy felt him softly kiss her head, "Come on, darling. Let's sit down on the couch, okay?"

And when Emmy was still crying uncontrollably, he simply scooped her up in his arms and moved her to the couch.

Ten minutes later they were sitting on the couch, Dad had his arm thrown over her shoulder and she just snuggled close to his chest.

"I'm sorry for being so dramatic.", Emmy hiccuped.

"You are NOT dramatic. Don't apologize, okay? There is nothing to be sorry for. Do you want to tell me what happened?"

"We were just talking and then…", Emmy was interrupted by the loud knocking on the suites door.

"Back in a sec.", Dad grumbled and disentangled himself from both daughter and blanket. He left the living area and closed the door behind him.

Emmy could hear the soft rumble of her father's voice and then another. Uncle Tony, she realized with a jolt. She couldn't hear what exactly was being said, but she didn't really want to know anyway.

"How could you do that?!", Uncle Tony shouted next door, Emmy sat up straight, unsure, if she should say something or reach for her headphones to try and drown out the angry voices. She couldn't hear her Dad's answer and it was quiet again for a bit.

"... FUCKING about you!", this time it was her Dad.

"… murderer…"

More and more angry bits of conversation were making their way to Emmy.

"... hurt my daughter…"

Suddenly there was another loud bang and about a minute later, Dad walked back into the room and slit back down under the covers.

"How much did you hear?", he asked with a sigh.

"Not much.", Emmy admitted, "But I wasn't trying to, either."

"He came to make sure you were alright. He was worried about you."

"Didn't sound like that."

"It was. But then we talked about some other things… I told him about my efforts to get Bucky pardoned. Well, could have gone better."

"He was already angry. He figured out you and Mama got married.", Emmy explained, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to tell him."

"It's alright. It's not a secret, is it? He was angry I didn't invite him. I told him it was only us and the kids, that no one else was invited, but… oh, well."

"I really am sorry, Dad."

"Stop saying that. None of this was your fault. And it shouldn't have ruined your evening with your uncle."

"When are you going to meet your friends?"

"What? I'm not. I called Bradley when I was outside. We'll meet another time."

"Dad…"

"I am not leaving you. That's final."

"So we'll sit here and just watch a movie?"

"Sure. Why not? Or, crazy thought, I could read to you. Like I did, when you were still tiny."

"Uhhhhhh…", but then something else occurred to her, "Dad… could we maybe read on the plane? It… it was our last evening anyway. Could we maybe go home?"

"Actually, yes. We can. Pack our things, I'll call the pilot. Okay? And then we'll just rest on our way home."