"Boss, there's a situation in the lobby you should be aware of."

Tony Stark surfaced from the designs he'd been busy sketching, brown hair messy and face grease stained. He blinked owlishly, reajusting his eyes as Friday, his A.I., brought up the video feed from the lobby on a nearby monitor. It seemed security were trying to escort a hysterically livid couple out the door that were demanding to see him. The horse like woman screeched shrilly and bat at an officer with her purse while her obese partner tried to ram through the four men that were attempting to force him out the building like a bull.

"What do those two want?"

Stephen Strange, Tony's wonderful sorcerer, genius, former neurosurgeon fiancé, stood over his shoulder as he peered amused at the screen from over Tony's head. The inventor tried not to let himself melt into a puddle of goo when a scared hand came up to gently massage the back of his neck.

It was safe to say Tony hadn't been in a good place going into the whole Accords fiasco and had been in a much worse place coming out. Before he had suffered from numerous nightmares, PTSD, and insomnia all the while trying to keep the then current Avengers from breaking to many international laws while having to pick up the pieces and bare the responsibly when they did. Not to mention he went through it all on his own, Pepper long gone, having not be able to deal with the side effects that came with dating a superhero. The Accords had been meant to be a break for him. To let the proper authorities wrestle with Rogers and his merry band of followers while he stepped back and focused on his mental health and inventions for a while, only to be called in for the direst of situations. Accountably, responsibly, checks and balances. That's what the Accords were supposed to be. Tony had been expected some resistance from the other Avengers but nothing on the scale of what happened. And when Barnes got involved things went to hell in a pretty little handbasket very quickly. Tony would admit he could have reacted better in Siberia, but he had never aimed to kill Barnes or Rogers. In that moment he had wanted to knock Barnes out before tying him up and locking him away forever. He had expected them to fight back. He had never expected them to try to kill him. But that's what happened. The two super soldiers limped away into the sunset and left him bleeding out in a dead suit with four broken rib bones, a punctured lung, internal bleeding and a broken arc reactor in freezing temperatures. Tony had thought he was done for as he watched his quinjet fly away with his blurring vision. The last thing he saw before blacking out had been a portal open before him in blaze of orange sparks and a tall figure running towards him.

Friday, bless her, had started sending SOS's to the Avengers after she lost contact with the suit. When none of them were able to help for various reasons she started going down the list of potential recruits, Stephen Strange being at the top.

Once Tony awoke a week later, he found himself for the first time faced with someone as equally stubborn as him. Stephen refused to leave his side when he was awake and often had to force Tony to sleep with magic. The sorcerer didn't need to use his genius to pick up on the inventors' self-destructive habits and refused to witness who he thought to be earth's best defender against physical threats make anything less than a full recovery. The two men hit it off quickly the weeks Tony was in the hospital, bonding over their shared sense of humor, intelligence, pain, sense of duty and above all, facial hair. After Tony's release Stephen started to drop by the tower to help him work on redrafting the Accords. The booklet he had handed out to the then Avengers in that faithful meeting hadn't been the final product. Not by a long shot. As the two worked and continued to get to know each other and grow their friendship over the months they migrated around the tower. Starting at a random meeting room before moving to Tony's living room, then to his lab and finally to his bedroom where they partook in activities that definitely weren't related to the Avengers. The rest is history.

"Not a clue," Tony mused with a light shrug as he watched six more security guards pour into the lobby, Happy leading the way.

"How dare you!" the walrus of a man roared. "Don't you know who you're messing with!"

Happy, not impressed in the least, pushed the man against the wall face first and cuffed his hands behind his back.

"Please!" the woman pleaded as she was also handcuffed, her eyes directed at the cameras above her. "You're our only hope! We're not strong enough to fight Dumbledore!"

Stephen hissed a curse under his breath as he suddenly straightened, amusement gone.

"Does the name mean something to you?" Tony asked as he raised an eyebrow as he leaned back to grab the now still hand on his neck and gave it a squeeze.

"Sadly yes," the taller man replied looking annoyed and resigned. "Can you have them brought into a private meeting room?"

"Anything for you baby," Tony answered with a smirk but didn't make a move to do anything knowing Friday was listening to their conversation and would make the proper arrangements.

The term of endearment had Stephen shooting an unimpressed look at his fiancé but a slight quirk of his lips gave away his true emotions.

"Our uninvited guests will be arriving in room seven on the twelfth floor in approximately four minutes," Friday informed them as Tony stood and stretched. Today was supposed to be a quite work day in the lab but from experience Tony knew that wouldn't be happening anymore so he shut everything down and saved his projects before taking Stephens hand and leading him out the door.

"So, who's Dumbledore?" the inventor asked as the couple walked into the waiting elevator.

"Remember what I told you about the different branches of magic of earth?" Stephen inquired as he leaned his back against the wall.

"The basics. Everyone is capable of learning to harness the dimensional energy around us all to a point and but there also rare cases of people who are born with a pocket of unnamed and unstudied energy inside them. They've been in hiding since the witch hunts and have their own governments and communities."

"That energy is just called magic," Stephen said with a shrug. "Sorcerers have been trying to get the chance to study it for ages but the people who use it are a prickly bunch with a superiority complex. They think because of their abilities they're somehow better than everyone. To be fair that belief system is on a septum. Extremist believe people without magic should be slaves to those that do and stripped of their human rights. The majority look down on people without magic as we would a child. Fondly, but that "muggles", don't give me that look I didn't make the name up, will never be on the same level as them intelligence and power wise."

Tony snorted. "And these are the same people that have been hiding from the rest of the world for six hundred years because they're scared of "muggles"?"

"Yes. Their hypocrisy isn't lost on me either. There's a group in every magical government called Secret Keepers whose main job it is to study and hide anything that can challenge their way of thinking from the rest of the magic population, includes those running the governments. You'll find that things such as nukes, the space race, The Avengers and especially the Mystics Arts are completely unknown to their communities. The fact that sorcery is in many ways so much more powerful than magic irks them and that anymore can learn even more so."

"And this brings us back to Dumbledore how?"

"Dumbledore is arguably the most powerful magic user alive. At the moment he's the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the UK and he's always been at least a teacher there. Somehow as a geacher he keeps finding himself at the center of the fight against every dark wizard produced in the last hundred years. To be fair the two most dangerous dark lords of the last century have come from the UK and both were connected to him, one a former lover and the latest a former student."

"And this guy is bad news why?"

"In the last war, little over ten years ago, when the government fell Dumbledore was the one to put together an underground residence movement and fight back. After the war he refused all the high positions of power offered to him claiming he just wanted to teach and cultivate young minds. But everyone who ended up taking those high positions of power constantly come to Dumbledore for advice to the point it's as if they're taking orders from him."

"So, he's basically the puppet master of the entire country with no checks and balances all the while playing the innocent school master."

"Precisely," Stephen nodded grimly. "He has good intentions, but all that power has been starting to go to his head a bit. He has trust issues a mile wide and believes the safest hands are his own."

"Where have I heard all that before," Tony muttered slightly haunted as he tryed to banish images of Siberia from his head.

Stephen gave Tony's hand a squeeze to help bring his significant other back to reality as they approached the door their unwanted guests would be behind.

"Why don't you wait in the monitoring room down the hall and listen. Let me deal with this if it has to do with magic. Life would be hell if people found out attacking your security guards got them your personal attention."

"Sure," Tony said with a shrug. He once would have argued but had learned he didn't need to do everything himself anymore. He could trust Stephen to handle this.

The sorcerer gave his fiancé a quick peck on the lips before turning on his heel dramatically and pushing the door open.

"Finally!" the walrus of a man snarled from where he was handcuffed to the table in front of him next to his wife. "We've been waiting here thirty minutes!"

Stephen didn't bother to point out that they had been waiting no where near that long and even if they had it would have been a completely acceptable amount of time considering their entrance. No, best to just cut to the chase and find out what they wanted.

"My name is Stephen Strange," the taller man introduced himself as he sat across from them. "Current Sorcerer Supreme, the magic expert on the Avengers and the Fiancé of the man you so rudely and violently demanded to see. It's only because you mentioned Dumbledore that you're not in a jail cell right now for multiple charges including assault. As it stands your still being arrested but whether or not we press charges or just requests restraining orders relies entirely on the story your about to tell me. So, who are you and what problems do you have with Dumbledore?"

Stephen didn't miss the flash of disgust in their eyes when he mentioned he and Tony were engaged. He had to quickly press down the familiar rush of anger that rose in him every time a homophobe crossed his path. People were allowed to disagree with his life choices but were not allowed to try to belittle him for them, bully him or try to try to force their own beliefs upon him. Things that the couple in front of him had yet to try to do.

The man made to start yelling again but was stopped by a quick look from his wife. He kept his mouth shut but continued to glare and grind his teeth together angerly.

"My name is Petunia Dursley and this is my husband Vernon. We live in Surry with our son in the UK. About ten years ago my sister Lily Potter and her husband were killed and Dumbledore forcer her son Harry upon us citing that we were his last living relatives. We wanted nothing to do with the boy. I washed my hands of my sister and her…magic long ago. We don't believe in such nonsense. We tried to call social workers, leave him at orphanages, and many other…places. He always ended up back on our step a few hours later and whoever had taken him had no memory of him or us. He turned into a horrible child. Pulling nasty tricks and terrorizing our son. We tried to stamp it out of him with no luck. It finally came to a head last July when the boy turned eleven and got his invitation to that school. We refused to let him go, he frightens us enough without knowing how to use his unnaturalness, of course we didn't want him to learn how to use it. The school constantly stalked us before sending one of their henchmen to attack us and take the boy away. Our Dudley ended up with a pig tail! A tail! We paid thousands to have it removed. Now they are forcing us to take him back when the school year ends! He's was dangerous enough before he left but he'll be the devil incarnated now! We knew no normal proper person could take on Dumbledore and win so we went searching for anyone on the boy's father side that could and eventually found an old diary of my sisters which you might find interesting. The book is in my purse with the proper page marked."

With a flip of Stephens hand said mentioned purse appeared on the table. The Dursley jumped and scooted as far away from the sorcerer they could, a whole new hatred in their eyes. Stephen huffed impatiently, Petunia's little speech already reviling their feeling on the magic. The Sorcerer was more concerned that he recognized the boys name. Harry Potter. The famed baby that had somehow stopped Voldemort in his tracks. Why was Dumbledore so insistent upon him being raiser by people who obviously hated him, last living relatives or not.

Stephen opened the worn diary to page with a sticky note pocking out of it and started to read. The more he read the harder it was to keep his emotions in check and his face blank. Tony had people knocking on the door almost every day claiming he was the father of their child, but this seemed very real. While he wouldn't put it passed the Dursley's to try to scam then while getting rid of Harry at the same time a quick sweep with his magic confirmed the book was fifteen years old, this particular passage had been written twelve years ago and it had in fact been written by Lily Potter. Stephen was suddenly very happy Tony had decided to wait outside.

"Did you bring a DNA sample?" The sorcerer asked monotonously as he struggled to contain his inner panic.

"Yes!" the woman answered desperately, falling for Stephens ruse that he didn't believe them. "In my purse, in a plastic baggie."

Stephen quickly fished out the bag, finding a comb and toothbrush in even smaller bags inside. The DNA samples were old, presumably from before Harry went to school, but for his magic it would be enough.

"How long were you planning to stay in New York?" Stephen asked as he stood, taking the plastic baggie with him.

"A whole week. We just arrived today."

"Good. Either I can place you on house arrest here in the tower until this issue is resolved for have the authorities escort you a jail cell to await trail on assault charges and trespassing. You're choice."

This time Vernon did start yelling again, none of his wife's pleading able to stop him and was dragged from the room by a group an annoyed officer's. Petunia shook like a leaf but agreed to house arrest, if only to see this horrible situation come to an end as quickly as possible.

Stephen waiting until both brits as exited the room before making his way to Tony, finding the inventor lounging as agreed upon in a room down the hall.

"I remember Lily Potter," Tony informed Stephen as the sorcerer took a seat and grabbed the shorter man's hand. It had been awhile since Stephen had seen Tony this stressed. "We met at a bar in London at least a decade ago. I was drunk off my ass, she was hot, and I hit on her. To my surprise she could keep up with me better than most of my flings and had a killer sense of humor. We saw each other a few more times over the course of a couple months until she didn't show up to one of our dates one night. Didn't leave a message and never answered any of my calls. Frustrated, I did a little research and found out she was married. I never tried to get in contact with her after that and she never contacted me."

Stephen rubbed calming circles on Tony's palm knowing the genius in front of him was putting the missing pieces together himself. The inventor took a deep shaky breath before continuing.

"That dairy says Harry is my son doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"This is most likely the real deal?"

"Yes."

"Not matter if the kid is mine or not that despicable couple have probably been abusing the boy and we're gonna do something about it?"

"Yes."

Tony fell silent as he eyed the dairy Stephen had placed on the table when he entered the room wearily, fearful of what he would find within.

"Why don't we start with testing the DNA before you read that?" Stephen asked, pulling his fiancé's attention back to him. "The diary can wait until your feeling better but I'm afraid before we do anything else, we need an indisputable answer."

Tony nodded and leaned back as Stephen stood and pulled the baggie of Harry's samples from his pocket. A few dramatic waves of the sorcerer's hands and some golden sparks had script in an ancient language the inventor couldn't hope to decipher appearing before their eyes. While the former neurosurgeons' eyes skimmed the script Tony's thoughts were buzzing a million miles per hour, creating in his mind the numerous appearances an eleven-year-old son of his and Lily's could take.

"What's the verdict doc?" Tony asked, his bouncing leg a sign of his fragile patience waning.

Stephen slowly turned towards his partner, the weary and gentle look in his eyes answer enough but Tony still needed to hear him say it out loud.

"Harry Potter is your son."