As the Night Falls

[A Harry Potter and Avengers Crossover]

Disclaimer: Ownership goes to their respective creators.

The author is not a doctor, nor am I an expert in Biology.

Warnings: Sick Harry in this chapter.

Mentions abuse.

I don't know how DNA test results look like, so I'm BSing my way through it.

Author's Note: Been busy, and it's been a while, but I figured I'd update due to being stuck at home. I hope you all are staying safe, happy, and sane during these times.

All dates in HP have been pushed forward to correlate with MCU events.


Chapter Four: The Boy in the Tower

Bruce sighed as he messed around his lab, trying to keep himself occupied long enough as not to run and check the progress on Harry's DNA sample. It would get done when it got done, and no amount of checking and rechecking on his part would speed up the process. He tried not to get his hopes up until he knew for sure that Tony had fathered the kid, but he was getting anxious. Even if the kid wasn't Tony's and he wouldn't know until the test came back, there was no way he could send the kid back to his relatives, regardless of what Clint and Steve said.

In a way, Bruce was surprised at both of them. While he did not- could not- expect them to just accept that the kid was Tony's (he just kept getting ahead of himself), he was surprised that they seemed just to accept defeat. Since when do the Avengers just give up and accept that they "couldn't save them all?"

Since we did the Avengers, say that they "couldn't save them all?"

They were superheroes, were they not?

Maybe they can't save them all, but they can sure try. They would try. Nothing was stopping them from trying. And Harry looked like he could use someone in his corner to fight for him, something Bruce was all too willing to do.

Bruce was getting anxious and half the mind to run upstairs just to check on Harry, but the child needed rest if he was going to recover. He decided to ask JARVIS to bring up articles on how to get potentially abused children acclimated to a new environment and began reading. He knew he was jumping the gun, but if Harry was Tony's child, then Bruce wanted to make sure that he could help support Harry and Tony as they transitioned into their new roles.

Finally, what felt like hours later, and probably was, Bruce was looking at the results that would prove once and for all that Harry was now exactly where he should have been the whole time.

Satisfied, if not a little surprised that it was true, Bruce pondered briefly at what this would mean not just for Tony and Harry, but for the Avengers as well.

Tony wasn't precisely the fatherly type, being too interested in being the life of the party and living a carefree life. Although it was a well-known fact that Tony was neither choosey or careful with who he slept with, never in the hundred or so allegations that had sprung up over the past few years, had there been a positive match.

And now, by some twist of fate, there was one.

There was proof that Tony had a child. A severely neglected, and very likely abused child, to take care of.

It was difficult enough to learn that you were the father of a child on any given day but to learn that you would be assuming legal responsibility for a neglected, if not abused, child. But surely it was not something even the great Tony Stark would be able to come to terms to immediately.

As badly as Bruce wanted to call up Tony and tell him, he knew that it might be better to go to Harry and tell him first. He had promised the kid to keep him informed and aware of what was going to happen to him. Besides, Tony was actually working for once, and Bruce knew that Tony needed to focus on the Convention.

Reaching the floor that Harry was being kept on, he quickly made it to the room that housed the boy and knocked on the door, waited, before knocking again. Assuming that the kid was asleep and did not hear him, Bruce slowly opened the door and invited himself in.

And indeed, he found the boy deep asleep. For a few moments, Bruce just took in the sight of Iron Man's newly found son. Even at thirteen, Harry looked so young, carefree, and innocent while he slept. The boy was small for his age, painfully so, but Bruce knew without a doubt that Tony would take the sleeping child in and give him a better life than his relatives had ever dreamed of giving him.

In other words, the only way Harry had to go now that it was determined that Tony was his father was up.

He supposed he probably should have gotten Tony's consent before running the DNA samples through, but they'd done it so many times before without it, so Bruce hadn't thought much about it at the time.

Once, he had given the kid a glance over, making sure he hadn't dislodged the IV and making sure his breathing remained unchanged- it hadn't- Bruce pulled up a chair and waited patiently for Harry to wake.

A short while later, Harry began to stir. Bruce noticed and shifted uncomfortably at the thought of the conversation they would be having in a matter of minutes.


As Harry rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Bruce slowly got up from his chair and made his way to Harry.

After rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Harry pushed his glasses on his face. Hearing someone approach him, he jerked his head to see who it was. Not used to someone walking quietly as the Dursley's sounded like elephants stomping around, and Aunt Petunia wasn't exactly quiet in her heels, Harry was startled to see someone approach his bed. His heart was pounding in his chest, but he forced it to calm down when he noticed it was the same guy as before. How long had he been there? But that thought quickly left him as the man gave him a small smile in greeting before asking Harry how he was feeling.

He shrugged in between coughs. Why did it matter how he was feeling? He'd suffer in silence for a few days before getting over whatever he had, get shipped back to his aunt and Uncle, and promptly forgotten by this man. Why did he pretend to care for him when he was just some stranger off the streets they had found. Although, Harry supposed, had been sleeping in his lobby.

Bruce frowned at Harry's vague shrug.

"How's your chest? Do you feel like you are having more difficulty breathing?"
"No," Harry said while trying to stave off another coughing fit.

"Well, let me know if your chest feels like it's becoming tighter or you feel like it is becoming more difficult to breathe. There's no need for you to suffer in silence. As it is, Tony will probably contact his physician and insist he come by and look you over. While he's at it, he'll probably prescribe you something stronger than what I have at hand that will help you fight this infection off faster. As well as something for that sunburn you got, as it won't be going away on its own either."
Harry's eyes widened at the thought of a muggle doctor looking at his Uncle's handiwork. Once the inquiry was over and done with his Uncle was going to have a field day with him, he just knew it.

"There's no need to get the, um, I mean you don't have to; I will be fine! There's no need to get a doctor involved, I was just working out in my aunt's flowerbeds, and I lost track of time, and then it started to rain and, yeah I'll be fine. It happens all the time."

Harry was cut off by another hacking cough. Bruce calmly waited for him to finish before giving him some water.
"Still, I know Tony, and I know that he's going to want his- his guest to be comfortable." Bruce had almost slipped up but had caught himself just in time.

"Harry, remember I took your DNA to see if I couldn't find you some more relatives?" Bruce paused, waiting for Harry to answer in affirmative.

"Yeah, I mean, yes, sir. What about it, sir?"
"Please call me Bruce, Harry," he responded kindly while wringing his hands, trying to choose his next words carefully.

"Well, when you asked me, a few hours ago, if I had someone in mind, I did. I didn't want to tell you and get your hopes up in case it wasn't a match, as I was just acting on suspicion. Anyway, I ran your DNA against his, and it just came back, and there was a 50% match in your's and his DNA." Bruce said while staring at Harry, waiting for his reaction at the news.

So far, Harry hadn't shown any recognition to any of the names Bruce had said, but he had not actually mentioned Tony, but in passing so it was possible that if he recognized any of them, it would be Tony Stark.

"So," Harry said slowly, "what does that mean," while staring uncomprehendingly at Bruce.
"It means that I can say with 99.9% certainty that Tony Stark is your father." He said with bated breath, unsure how Harry was going to take the news.

When Harry stayed silent for several minutes, Bruce thought maybe that was going to be it and attempted to begin explaining what was going to happen now.

But Harry to Bruce's surprise started to shake his head, denying Bruce's claim vigorously.

"No!" Harry said firmly while placing the glass of lukewarm water on his nightstand. "No, you're lying! Everyone knows I'm the son of James Potter. I look just like him, but I have my mum's eyes."

"Harry, I understand,-" Bruce started sympathetically but was immediately cut off.
"No! It can't be. You have to believe me," the distraught teen was now looking at Bruce imploringly. When Bruce didn't say anything, the boy continued, "I look nearly identical to my dad, James Potter. I have his messy hair, his nose, we even have a similar smile! Look, look, I even have his poor eyesight! Honestly, I could be his twin if I was about twenty years older!" Harry said vehemently, but his emerald green eyes sparkled with the hysteria he was feeling within.

But having not seen a picture of James Potter, Bruce could only assume that the boy knew what he was talking about. "I understand that this is a lot to take in, and I'm sure that you have a lot of good memories of your step-dad, but you look a lot like Tony. Which is why I initially suspected that you two might be related."

Harry frowned at this, "But surely loads of boys look like Mr. Stark. Does that mean that they're his son too? Doesn't he have other kids? Why would he want me?"
"No, you are the only child of Tony's that we're aware of, and it's Tony. He hates it when people call him Mr. Stark." Bruce said, glad that Harry had calmed down a bit and willing to talk about this a bit more rationally. He had begun to worry about how labored his breathing had become.

"Then why did you suspect that I was, is, this Tony Stark guy's son?"
Bruce looked confused before looking at Harry in absolute shock. "You mean to tell me you've never heard of Tony Stark?"

"No. Should I?" Harry said meekly peering apprehensively at the man who had settled back into the chair beside his bed, with a forgotten piece of paper in hand. Would he be mad that Harry didn't know about Mr. Stark? He certainly seemed surprised.

Shaking his head in amazement, Bruce muttered to himself, "I thought everyone had heard of Tony Stark," before talking a bit louder for Harry's benefit. "Tony Stark is part of the Avengers; he also owns the building we're currently in."
But Harry appeared even more confused at the mention of a new name. "Avengers? What is that?"

"Superheroes. You know like, Iron Man? Captain America? Hawkeye? Battle of New York? Loki?" Bruce said, hoping one of those names would ring a bell, but the boy still appeared clueless.

"Um, should I recognize any of those names?" The teen lying on the bed said uncertainly.

Bruce let out a heavy sigh while muttering, "it would certainly make my life a lot easier."

Harry looked down at his folded hands in shame.

"Never mind, Harry, we cannot know everything. I am just surprised. I had thought everyone had heard of us, but it's fine if you haven't. A lot of what the media says about us is wrong anyway."

"Oh."
"So, do you want to see the proof?"
"Proof of what?" Harry's green eyes flew to meet Bruce's brown ones before he looked at his hands again.

"The proof that Tony is your father?" He said while stretching out his hand, proffering the paper for Harry to take.
While Harry did not take the paper, he didn't immediately refuse it either.

Did he what to take the paper? Did he want to upend everything he had always thought to be true and take the paper, or did he want to selfishly hold onto to what he knew and reject the "proof."

But was it really that simple? Was anything as simple as accepting or rejecting a piece of paper?

Tentatively, Harry reached out, careful not to touch Bruce, and grabbed the paper, because, no, it wasn't. Nothing was as simple as merely denying something by refusing to see the proof when everyone else knew the truth.

It didn't really matter what Harry wanted, after all. It never had, and Harry was sure it never would matter.

So quelling his fear and summoning his inner Gryffindor bravery, Harry took a peek at the paper. Not knowing enough to comprehend what it was trying to say but anxious enough to see it in writing where it said that this supposedly famous Tony Stark was his father.

Harry's searched the paper over not knowing what he was supposed to be looking at and eventually admitted defeat and looked up at Bruce for answers.

Bruce chuckled, "Sorry, it can be a bit confusing if you don't know what to look for, but this is what you're looking for." He said while directing Harry to what was supposed to tell him that Tony Stark was his father.

But when Harry looked at it, he didn't see anything that even remotely looked like it said Tony was his dad.

He had no way of knowing if he should know how to read DNA results. It had been a few years since he had gone to a regular muggle school, and they didn't exactly teach them how to interpret DNA results at Hogwarts, so he still wasn't sure what he was looking at.

It looked like a bunch of darkened spots on the sheet, not unlike Morse Code.

"Those are DNA markers; you get half of your DNA, which is your genetic make-up, from your mother, and the other half from your father. This is why I said that I am 99.9% positive that you share 50% of your DNA with Tony Stark. As the reason why you are most likely favoring your step-dad and possibly Tony in appearance is that we tend to have more of our father's traits than our mothers, even though we only share half of their DNA."

Harry looked a more than a little loss at Bruce's explanation but nodded his head. "So, what happens now? I mean, does he know? Have you told him yet? Does he even know I'm here?"
"Tony knows that you are here. He went down to the lobby with me and a couple of other guys after Pepper discovered you down there. He's the one that set you up in this room; it's actually on his floor after Pepper insisted that you be kept close by so that we could monitor you. Pepper is the CEO of your dad's company."
"Could you -could you please not call him that?" Harry said while biting his lip as the nerves were getting to him.

"I apologize, Harry. Of course, I will stop calling him that. I wasn't thinking when I said that, and to answer your second question. No, I haven't had a chance to talk to Tony about him being your father yet. He had an important engagement today, and so he's been busy with that, but I assure you I will talk to him as soon as he gets in about it. He will no doubt come by and check on you, and as I said earlier, insist that his personal doctor come and check on you as I am not actually a medical doctor."
Harry looked wide-eyed at Bruce before his eyes drifted to the needle that was taped securely to the back of his hand.

"I know enough about medicine to do the basics; I just don't have a doctorate in medicine as I chose to study physics." He said in an attempt to soothe the child.

"Oh."
"If you would rather see one now, though I am sure it could be arranged, I just thought that with your situation, you might not want to have to go through that. I have always heard that children's homes and foster homes are not always the best environment for kids. And some of the older kids have trouble adjusting, and it's not like Tony doesn't have room for you here." Bruce felt like he was rambling, and while he felt bad for the kid's predicament, he knew now that they knew that Tony was his father, that there was no chance that Harry would ever set foot in a children's home.

"My relatives always told me that they should have dropped me off at an orphanage somewhere," Harry said softly and had Bruce not had enhanced hearing, he might have missed it.

"Your relatives are Petunia, and Vernon Dursley, aren't they?" Bruce said as he watched Harry turn and look at him in alarm for having known that information.

"How did you-"
"We had JARVIS look you up after we found your passport. Don't worry; we are not going to send you back to them if you don't want to go. You have a home here, now, if you want it, always remember that Harry."

"Whose JARVIS?"
"JARVIS is Tony's hyped up butler. JARVIS, which stands for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System is an AI or Artificial Intelligence that Tony built into the building. He can do anything you want; all you have to do is ask."

"Not so, Dr. Banner, I cannot cook or clean up after you; however, I can order take-out and inform the cleaning staff to come to one of the floors."
"See, as I said, JARVIS can do just about anything."
Harry looked unsurely at Bruce, but Bruce met the gaze with an encouraging smile, "just say something back, like hello, or you could ask him something, like what is the weather like outside?"

"Um, hello, JARVIS." He said lamely. He felt kind of silly talking to thin air, although he had spoken to ghosts sometimes at Hogwarts. The only difference was, was that Harry could usually see the ghosts while he was talking to them- unless it was Peeves, but that was Peeves and everyone knew he was a pain to deal with anyway. He couldn't see JARVIS.

And at that moment, Tony's mysterious computerized butler spoke, "Good Morning, young sir, I am JARVIS. If you need anything just ask and I will assist in any way I can."

"Ask him about the weather, Harry. He'll answer. If you're anything like Tony, you will get so used to JARVIS being around; you'll wonder what you did without him."
Harry doubted it. He didn't think he would ever get used to being able to talk to something he couldn't see. But he didn't voice his thoughts; instead, he just asked, "So I should just ask him about the weather?"
"Yes, start with "JARVIS-" and he'll respond."
"Er, okay, JARVIS?"
"Yes, young sir?"
"Please just call me Harry," Harry said as his cheeks became slightly redder.
"Very well, Harry, how may I assist you?"
"Could you, could you tell me what the weather is like outside, please?"

"The current weather outside is 81 degrees Fahrenheit or about 27 degrees Celsius." The automated butler, of sorts, responded promptly.

"Oh, okay, thanks, JARVIS."
"You can ask JARVIS anything at any time," Bruce reassured the still uncertain teen before him. "I know it will take some time to get used to it, but I promise you, you will. If Steve can get used to it, I know you can too."