Yesterday, I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the first time in years. Today was also the first day of working with kids at my summer job. And my birthday's coming up, tomorrow :)
"You know, normally I don't play well with others, but we make a pretty good team." Tony remarks in the lab, which is almost as impressive as his own. "Throw in Doctor Banner, and we'd be the dream team. I'd love to see witches try to attack us then. Not that Storm didn't do amazing, cause she did, but you know, big green rage machine."
Tony smirks. He's saying that to a hulking, hairy blue guy who, apparently, wasn't born blue. Dr. McCoy had shared that he was trying to fix his mutation of having prehensile feet and somehow turned himself into a blue beast. Sounds a lot like Dr. Banner's exposure to gamma radiation, Tony thinks as he absentmindedly taps his arc reactor with an Iron Man gauntlet.
The faceplate of Tony's suit slides down. He turns to Moody, who has been standing silently in the corner, leaning on his gnarled, wooden staff. "All, right, hit me, moody man. What was it last time? Stupefy? Can't believe that's the name of a spell."
Moody has his usual scowl as the magic eye rolls in its socket. He raises his wand, just as a voice demands "Were you going to shoot that at a child?!"
Tony turns to see Steve placing himself between Moody and Harry, who had apparently been very stealthy slipping in. Tony's suit suddenly sparks, right as Jarvis lets out a warning. Steve seems disgusted. "You hit a man when his back's turned?"
"Constant vigilance." Moody is unrepentant. "Your enemies won't wait until you're looking?"
Steve's leveling Moody with what must've been that Captain's look of disapproval, the kind Howard claims Steve would have used on Tony many times throughout his childhood. It's almost a shock that Captain America seems firmly on Tony's side, but maybe he's loyal to Tony for pulling him from the ice and helping his long-lost best friend.
"Is he the enemy now?" Harry asks, glaring at Moody. "If you hurt Mr. Stark, I'll knock your eye out."
"No, we're just practicing fighting, like you and your dad did." Tony says. "We're going to make it so magic can't stop my suit."
"Dad's going to make it so magic can't take his brain." Harry's small, skinny chest puffs out with pride. Steve looks stricken,
"I take it your dad's busy right now?" Tony asks, this time not taking his eye off the grizzled wizard in the corner.
"With P'fessor X." Harry nods. "He said you're not my other other dad, and they said I can't come here, but I did."
Tony barely registers Harry's defiant tone, his mind actually stuttering for a moment at the word dad.
"Who said I'm a dad?" Tony's voice isn't frantic, no way.
"You're not my uncle." Harry says.
"He'll be dead if he keeps getting distracted." Moody growls. Steve pulls Harry off to the sides when Moody shoots a red energy blast at Tony's suit. Tony counters it with his own blast, and dodges another, to a round of applause from Harry.
Tony snaps his faceplate up, grinning.
Harry shares how he pushed a drink just like Matilda. Steve watches Harry with a look of confusion. Honestly, Tony can relate- he wouldn't trust himself looking after kids, either, but he thinks he's doing a better job of it than Steve is. Take that, Howard.
Steve must have read Tony's face, because he seems unable to run away from a challenge. He squares his shoulders and says "Harry, how about we play ball?"
"What's frisbee?" Harry asks irrelevantly, and Steve clearly doesn't know the answer.
Tony smirks. "It's a disc you throw through the air."
Steve actually chuckles at that. Jarvis informs Tony, in his helmet, that the frisbee wasn't invented until 1957.
"Can I ride it?" Harry asks Steve.
"It's good to see you getting along." Dr. McCoy comments, looking between Harry and Steve.
"Dad said Steve's important, even if he forgot." Harry frowns. "Like I forgot mummy and my other James dad 'cos I was a baby."
"Professor X said they were smart and brave." Steve reminds him.
"Are they coming back?" Harry asks Tony, seeming far more hopeful at the prospect than when he'd mistaken Natasha for his mom. He turns to stare at Steve, brow furrowed a lot like Tony's.
Tony's heart aches as answers "'Fraid not, Oliver."
"I'm sorry," Steve says, awkwardly yet sincerely.
Tony clears his throat and grins. "Maybe Cap'll let you use his sled as a shield."
"His shell?" Harry asks, racing for the door. Steve follows, casting a look back at Tony.
"James would approve." Moody remarks, and it takes a genius like Tony a few seconds to realize that he means James Potter.
Tony continues throwing himself into trying to make his suit immune to magic, fielding calls from Pepper and Coulson. He has several stabbing moments of panic where he's convinced HYDRA is lurking in Stark Industries as well, has Jarvis run background checks on employees. Not that they ever caught Stane before his betrayal.
Tony winds up calling Pepper in the middle of the night, relieved to hear her voice even if she's clearly exhausted and irate.
Tony spends days on work, tracking down HYDRA bases and having Jarvis gather evidence, which is complicated by the fact that wizards and witches apparently don't use technology, not computers, not even lightbulbs.
He hasn't made much progress in tracking down the wizards and witches who'd attacked them mid-flight. Moody says they might be associates of a man named Karkaroff, a former Death Eater who Moody had apparently arrested.
Tony's good at throwing himself into projects to forget or solve his problems, but he can't forget Harry's words. He said you're not my other other dad.
He hasn't forgotten, but he has been so wrapped up in work that he realizes he's barely seen Harry the past few days.
He's turning into Howard.
That's a weird thought. Tony's not Harry's dad. He shouldn't feel bad about leaving the mansion to attend a meeting. Harry's in good hands, and Tony still has stuff to do.
Still, part of Tony feels oddly guilty, so he decides to throw money at the issue.
"I have presents!" Tony announces as he strolls back into Xavier's mansion like its one of his own after a meeting. "Think of me as a younger, more handsome, hi-tech Santa. What is it you Brits call him? Father Christmas?"
"He's not real." Harry scoffs, lacking any of the excitement expected from a child his age. Figures his magic-hating relatives would've forbidden that story.
Tony refrains from commenting on that. "It's not Christmas now, but trust me, your first one with me will be worth all the ones you've missed- not that you should've missed them. These are 'just because' presents."
He presents Harry with a basketball of his very own as well as a kids' plastic hockey set, then pulls out a gift and thrusts it at Steve. "Here, Cap, since you miss the old Bucky so much."
Steve looks at the bear clad in a blue coat with red buttons and a dark mask covering its eyes. He holds the bear out to Harry "Harry should have it."
Harry looks offended. "Teddies are for babies."
Steve looks like he wants to argue Harry is a baby, but instead says "It's probably more cuddly than that basketball you've been bringing to bed."
"That's to beat bad guys." says Harry as he bounces his new ball on the floor.
One of the students takes the bear, crouching to Harry's level and adopting a deeper voice to speak for the bear. "I'll keep you safe from bad guys."
The girl lowers the bear. "You know, I still have some bears, and I'm not a baby." A few other students raise their hands, indicating they also have plush toys, though one student mumbles Tony's gifting a vintage, valuable toy to a toddler, even though it was intended for Steve.
Harry still looks skeptical, dangling the Bucky bear by an arm, eyes locked on the long, thin package Tony had brought, green eyes resigned rather than hopeful.
Tony passes out more gifts, including some better phones for some of the students. Then, Tony turns to James and pulls the memory stick out of his pocket.
"We got everything out of him. He's all yours." Tony smiles grimly. James nods, taking the stick. Tony expects him to crush the small plastic device in his fist, or under his boot, but he looks up instead.
"Any secure places I can plug him in?"
Tony leads James to the room he's been staying in, fetching a laptop that's not connected to the internet. He inserts the stick, and Zola's face appears on the screen.
"Soldier." Zola croaks, then starts to rattle off words in Russian. James shudders, and Tony wonders why he chose to expose himself to something that's clearly triggering him. His eyes are distant, his breathing becomes strained. Zola says two more words gleefully, victoriously.
Tony's about to slam the laptop closed when there's a flash of silver. James punches through the laptop screen, snapping it off the hinges. He shakes the broken screen off his arm, rips the flash drive out with his other hand, and crushes it under the heel of his boot.
Something surges in Tony's chest, almost as strong as when he'd fought his way out of the cave in Afghanistan.
James turns on his heel, the plastic crunching under his boot, but he spares it no further attention.
Taking his cue from James, Tony asks "Want to help give Harry his next present?"
"You're going to kill me, aren't you?" Tony asks James, eyes glued on Harry as the boy almost brains himself on the metal pole of the basketball hoop while flying his new Motor Broom.
Harry himself had coined the term upon opening his gift. It's a version of a broomstick, only its based on the propulsion systems of Tony's own armor rather than the magic that enables brooms to fly. Like Moody's broomstick, Harry's has a seat rather like a motorcycle, but instead of a wooden frame, it's sleek red and gold metal.
"I will if he kills himself." James replies. Not long ago, that would've sounded terrifying, a legitimate threat, but there's something almost like a smile on his lips. James looks at Steve and mutters that Steve throws himself into danger too, and had thrown up riding the Cyclone.
Steve's jaw drops in outrage. "You made me ride that!" James claims he can't recall, but Tony honestly think's he's screwing with them.
Harry loops the yard and zips toward them, whooping with delight. Tony holds out a hand for Harry to high-five as he goes past.
"He's a natural." Tony says, seriously impressed when he remembers his own flying attempts. Harry had taken to the motor broom as if he'd been born on it. According to Moody, he'd been flying toy broomsticks even as a baby, racing under tables and knocking over vases.
Now, at four, Harry attempts to pull off a barrel roll only to wind up rolling in the grass. He pops up laughing, climbing on his broom and gripping the sleek handle.
"Is it weaponized?" James asks. Tony shakes his head, but Harry disproves him by swinging his new hockey stick around as he flies, whacking it into Tony's shin.
Harry is the happiest Tony's ever seen him as he soars through the air. He's not quite soaring freely- Tony did think to add some safety features, only letting the broom go a foot or two off the ground. There is a speed limit, but Harry doesn't seem to notice, shouting he's the fastest ever.
Tony takes him up on the challenge, and he's not the only one. They line up at the end of the driveway- Tony in his Iron Man suit, Logan on his motorcycle, Harry on his motor broom, and James and Steve on foot.
Tony hovers more than flying, and Steve and James jog almost painfully slowly. Even Logan plays along, having his motorcycle run at barely a purr.
Harry beats them all to the mansion with a scream of triumph, and soon he's maneuvering, pretending he's outflying bad guys on brooms and planes.
I know Moody (or really Crouch) turned Malfoy into a ferret for attacking Harry when Harry's back was turned, but I feel like he'd be all "constant vigilance" if someone turned their back on him while dueling.
Harry's finally flying!