"So you're from where now?" Tony asked, looking in between Harry and the new kid later that day. The press had gone wild at Tony's announcement that morning and Pepper had stayed to field questions, mostly saying 'no comment' at all of the questions pertaining to the armor and the suit. Or whether Tony would be willing to be on call for the military. Tony had outright said no to that reporter and Harry had wholeheartedly supported him on that one. "You're not from Krypton, right?"
Harry snorted. "I don't think so."
The new boy looked like he was around James' age, maybe 13, with short brown hair and black eyes. Though Harry got the idea that Jor, as he wanted to be called, was older, probably hundreds of years older than him.
"What's a Krypton?" Jor asked, blinking his eyes. The kid's eyes were the same as the big serpent's eyes so he was a shapeshifter obviously but Harry didn't know of any magical people or creatures that big. The boy was also wearing clothes that Harry had never seen on Earth, some kind of ceremonial garb. Jor wore a light blue cloak over a brown tunic and black leggings. Jor also had a dagger in a sheath at his waist.
"You know, Superman..." Tony said, with a speculative gleam in his eyes.
"He's the serpent that visited me in our bedroom," Allan called over, from where he was sitting with his siblings. Ranger, the small assistance droid, was right next to Allan. They were in Tony's house, after having spent the night with Hermione and Draco. They were watching cartoons now, something on one of the muggle tv channels that Jarvis had pulled up. "I didn't know you could shift though."
Jor laughed. "My siblings can shift shape too. It's not just me. Though Hela can't. She doesn't have another form."
Harry and Tony exchanged bewildered glances.
"Wait, you visited my children in their bedroom?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes at the young boy. He had his guards put wards all around the mansion but still…
"I meant them no harm," Jor remarked steadily. He looked up at Tony and Harry then over at Harry's kids. "It has been a while since I have met a light elf, let alone his children. That is why I showed myself."
"Jarvis, heard any news of a sea serpent around LA?" Tony asked idly, picking up a tablet and fiddling around with it.
"Wait..." Harry trailed off, thinking. He ran a hand through his long black hair and thought back to his lessons with his mentor several years ago. "You wouldn't be Jormungandr, son of Loki, would you?"
Tony peered up at him, raising an eyebrow. "Loki?"
"Norse god of mischief and chaos?" Harry offered, turning back to look at Jor. "I wonder if this was what Fury meant last night. The world being much larger than we thought it was."
"Sir, there have been at least four reports of fishermen up the northern coast of California coming into contact with a serpent," Jarvis reported. "They all say it must have been an ancestor of the Loch Ness monster however."
Jor's eyes widened and he burst out into loud laughter. "The loch ness monster?! I am not an ancestor of that creature! That's ridiculous!"
Harry watched bemusedly as Jor continued to laugh. Allan, James, Lily and Teddy all turned to look in their direction, their eyes wide at the laughter.
"Besides, Nessie died hundreds of years ago," Jor deadpanned, not even blinking until he cracked up into laughter again, putting his hands on his hips. He quieted down a minute later and bowed low briefly. "Jormungandr Lokisson, at your service."
"Huh," Harry muttered. "So Asgard's real then?"
Jor nodded and grinned. "It is. But who is this Fury you spoke of?"
Tony snorted. "Director of SHIELD. The all knowing Fury… even with his eyepatch."
Jor's eyes widened and glanced out of the floor to ceiling windows of the mansion. "Humans shouldn't know about us. It's too dangerous."
Tony peered down at the kid before glancing at Harry, who shrugged.
"If the myths are true," Harry commented. "Then Jor's right. It's too dangerous."
"My dad..." Tony trailed off, wincing a little.
Harry reached out to grab one of Tony's hands and Tony interlaced their fingers. "You've told me very little of your parents."
"It's not something I like to talk about but Howard… he fished something out of the sea when I was younger," Tony explained hesitantly. "He was also looking for Captain America but that's another story."
"What does it look like?" Jor asked.
"Blue and glowy," Tony said. "Howard gave it to SHIELD since he was a founding member of the organization."
"Blue and glowy?" Harry repeated, amused. "That the technical term? And who's Captain America?"
Tony glared at him then sighed. "It was a cube that was blue. You don't know who Cap is?"
Jor gasped, his hand going to the dagger at his waist. "That… should not be within human hands."
Tony smiled gleefully at Jor's words.
"Uh-oh, I don't like that look," Harry said, putting one of his palms on his forehead. "You're not planning on hacking into SHIELD, are you? Though given the new situation, I think I approve."
"Jarvis, new project."
"Yes, sir. Private or public?"
"Definitely private. Put it under double security."
Two Weeks Later
Harry was supervising the kid's lessons while Tony was working on his suit, making a few upgrades to the weaponry on it. Allan's eyes were fully healed now, his vision returning fully now that they had had time to recover under bandages. He was needing the guide robot less and less but it still followed Allan around, assisting with various tasks. Harry had seen the robot interact with Dum-E and Jarvis in the past week and it seemed like the robot was taking on a mind of its own.
The press was still camped out behind the fences that surrounded Tony's mansion. Ever since Tony had announced that he was Iron Man and thus the man in the suit, reporters had hawked him every time he had gone out of the house. And then Harry had insisted on Tony taking one of Harry's guards with him. Each guard had gone out under a disillusionment charm and had fended off the paparazzi, regardless of the reporters were after answers on Tony's new relationship or the fact that he was a hero now.
Jor was settling in after deciding to stay. Tony had installed a bunkbed in the kid's room and Jor had claimed the bottom bunk, having announced that his brother would probably prefer the top bunk. And Harry and Tony had gotten the distinct impression that the snake shapeshifter had not been talking about either Teddy or James.
Tony had asked Harry if he had been cursed to be a child magnet or something along those lines. That had made Harry laugh and say no, there was no such spell. At least, none that I can think of.
Right now, Harry watched as Lily did a small gesture toward the fireplace and a small bout of flame jumped from her finger to the fireplace. The logs in there burst into flame, lighting up the living room. It was getting dark, the sun nearing the horizon as it passed through the sky. Harry had called Tony up for dinner twenty minutes ago and the other man had yet to come upstairs so he waved to Kani, stood up and walked over to the stairs.
He ventured down and stepped into Tony's workshop, leaning against the door for a few minutes to watch Tony work. He was making some adjustments to the red and gold suit of armor, Mark II he had called it. The suit was upright on a rack but it didn't have one of its gloves which Tony was working on.
"Tony, Pepper's upstairs for dinner," Harry called out, reaching out to the glass wall to dial down the loud music that was playing. It was rock music, very loud, and very fitting, he supposed. "Said something about a meeting in Europe for you."
Tony was fully engrossed in his work enough to not hear him.
Harry grinned a little. "The world's ending up there. Thought you would want to know."
No response.
"Alright, I'm withholding sex for a week."
"What?!" Tony exclaimed, finally looking up with wide, dazed eyes. "What was that about sex?"
"Figures," Harry muttered. "Dinner's ready up there. Also, Pepper's upstairs. Came ten minutes ago."
Tony stared at him, glanced down at the glove he was working on, then peered back up. "Pep? What did she say?"
"I think it was something along the lines of a contract with a European business that Stark Industries wants," Harry remarked as Tony started to back up out of the mess he had unintentionally made.
"European? Am I safe to travel there?" Tony asked as he stopped in front of Harry.
"You're non-magical," Harry replied as Tony's hands wandered around him and pulled Harry closer. "I see what you're doing there. Dinner first. Sex later. I'm hungry."
Tony pouted, his shoulders dropping and glaring at Harry.
"Plus, the wizarding world doesn't even read the muggle news," Harry commented, dropping a kiss on Tony's forehead even though Tony had some dirt on his face.
"Any word on hacking into SHIELD?" Harry asked as they ate. Pepper had left and dropped off some information about a trip to France, to meet with a company that wanted to do business with the company. The kids were busily gulping down the spaghetti with meatballs that Kreacher had cooked. They were getting more comfortable here, with guards to protect them and their father. They were also having less nightmares, as the last one that Lily had had was a few nights ago.
They had also easily included Jor in their little group, going so far as to inviting him to play with them. James had taken it within himself to show Jor all of the disney movies that the four enjoyed and Allan was whispering in parseltongue to Jor more often than not.
"I got in a few days ago," Tony said, staring at a tablet by his side before looking up at Harry. "I'm still working on finding the object that Jor described. SHIELD has a lot of firewalls."
"I'm still thinking that we might need another bunkbed," Harry muttered. "If the myths are right and Jor did say that at least some were, his siblings might come along."
Tony snorted. "Hey, at least we don't have to hide a space ship!"
Harry laughed. "How long will that trip to France take, you think?"
"Ah, they usually take a week. CEO's don't usually take too long to capitulate when I'm there."
"So you're conquering businesses?" Harry asked bemusedly. He glanced over to where the kids were playing with their utensils. Lily had actually melted her spoon and had stolen James' spoon. As long as they didn't hurt each other, Harry figured the play was fine. They needed to get used to being kids again and not grown ups who needed to look after their younger brother or sister. Besides, he could just repair the damaged utensils when they were done with them.
"Hmm?" Tony said, peering down at the tablet. "Jarvis, what's the status of SHIELD right now?"
"Sir, I have uncovered a unique project that is under multiple security walls and is as you put it, under lock and key. It is called Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Your father may have had a few notes on that."
"Howard?" Tony said, rubbing his eyes as he took a bite of the food at Harry's urging. "I… might remember something like that. I don't know where that notebook might be at though."
"Your father did found SHIELD. He probably knew something of what they were doing with the tesseract. I… have a few contacts within SHIELD; they might be able to help," Harry remarked, as the kids finished their dinner and ran off to go play.
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Contacts?"
"I know one or two agents," Harry offered idly.
"I'll work on it, see if I can get through their firewalls," Tony said after a minute. He grinned wryly. "Can't have SHIELD's own agents besting me."
Harry snorted. "Of course."
"Come back soon," Harry said as Tony walked out to his company jet. Pepper was already in the jet, along with Rhodey. And two elven guards who were going to guard Tony and Rhodey's backs. Harry didn't exactly trust any of the European wizards right now except a few in France and Kingsley Shacklebolt. So he had ordered a few of his own guards to follow his boyfriend.
Tony stayed back a minute after Rhodey disappeared into the jet and ruffled each kid's hair. Teddy wrinkled his nose but grinned, pushing his hair back into place. Lily laughed and tugged Tony down for a hug, to which Tony raised an eyebrow but did as she asked. James stood there stoically before grinning a little. Jor grinned, though it was more of a toothy smile than the others. Jarvis had ordered clothes that fit Jor for the nonhuman boy and now, Jor was wearing shorts and a black tshirt with the slogan, 'Snakes aren't evil' on the front. Except when they end the world was written on the back of it. It had been a mystery as to why Jarvis had ordered that one until Tony had caught Jor ordering more from the internet a few days ago. It seemed that Jor had a twisted sense of humor regarding the Norse mythology.
Ranger, the guide robot for Allan, stood next to him and Tony reached out and solemnly shook its claw before ruffling Allan's hair. When Tony got to Harry, he pulled the other man into a heated kiss. Harry shuffled closer to Tony, almost melting into the inventor and billionaire. They heard muffled boos from the kids and Harry snorted. Tony sighed and pulled apart, peering down at the kids.
"The peanut gallery doesn't get to criticize our kisses, got it?" Tony confirmed, his lips twitching up into a smile.
"Ah, but it's parents kissing," James muttered. "It's gross."
"Yeah, it's gross," Lily added, wrinkling her nose. "And I'm the only girl here. I get double points for criticizing them."
"Can I criticize our kisses?" Harry questioned, glancing up at the jet where Pepper had come out to yell at Tony to hurry up.
Tony gasped and put his hands on his heart. "Why, I have never been so mocked in my entire life! The horror!"
The kids laughed out loud.
"Tony! Come on!" Pepper yelled down to them. "The plane's ready to take off!"
"You better get going," Harry murmured delightedly, nudging Tony toward the plane. "You got your armor?"
"Yep, it's in there," Tony said. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"That is a long list of opportunities," Harry muttered before grinning. "I'll take care of the bots. Don't go picking up anymore strays while you're at it."
"You're the one who picks up strays," Tony retorted, before tugging Harry into one more goodbye kiss.
"He was a perfectly good stray and you know it," Harry said after they pulled back.
"They called me 'parent'," Tony whispered, tucking his head into the crook of Harry's neck. Harry wrapped an arm around him, coming up to run his hands through the hair at the nape of Tony's neck.
"You will make a good parent," Harry murmured. "You're not like your father and I'll say it as many times as you want to hear it."
"Good. I think I'll need it," Tony muttered before drawing back and starting off toward the plane. Harry watched him enter the plane, followed discreetly by the elves Rania and Theras and then he and the kids watched as the plane took off.
AN: I have created a facebook page for readers of my stories to ask questions, leave comments, anything like that. I will also be putting polls for pairings eventually on there too so feel free to like the page. And I will try my best to post updates on stories too.
Just search for 'molmcmahon' on facebook if you're interested.