Written to fulfill three challenges:
2020 Marvelously Magical Bingo:
Square: O2 - Prompt: Gryffindor Scarf
2020 Hermione's Haven Bingo:
Square: B1 - Prompt: Banter
2020 Tropes & Fandoms:
Square: 80/FINISH
Trope: I Didn't Mean To Turn You On

The Power of the Scarf

It was the woman's long scarf that first caught Tony's attention as soon as he stepped out of his building. The deep red and gold colors were so similar to those of his Iron Man suit that he felt sure it had to be more than just a coincidence – especially since she was also standing on the sidewalk in front of Stark Tower. He did not even consider the fact at all that she seemed to be scanning the street in the opposite direction - as if looking for someone else.

Instead, his eyes flicked up to see what she looked like. He noticed the warm smile set into the pretty face that was framed by lots of lively hair. Even though she was not his usual supermodel type, he still felt Iron Man Jr. stir with interest at the sight. After all, he knew that her wild tresses would look simply fantastic spread out over the pillows on his oversized bed.

That thought only intensified when he looked down to see the rest of her and realized, that despite the bulky winter coat that she wore, it was still obvious that she had an attractive figure. Consequently, he decided to go ahead and make his move. After all, Pepper had left him a couple of weeks earlier…so it was way past time for him to have some fun. Not that he was worried about his chances of success, or anything…even if his technique was a little rusty from lack of use…but he knew that he still had to go through at least the motions of seduction. Therefore, he pasted on his most charming smile as he approached the woman.

"So…I see that you're a fan!" he announced cheerfully as the woman whirled around to face him at his approach.

"Excuse me?" she asked politely with a look of slight curiosity in her eyes.

"Oh…and you're a Mary Poppins, too!" Tony exclaimed with enthusiasm when he heard her obvious British accent. "That's even better…very sexy!"

"Excuse me?" she asked again, but this time there was a hard edge to her tone. Nevertheless, Tony did not seem to hear it as he pushed forward in pursuit of his agenda to get laid as soon as possible.

"The colors…red and gold," he gestured at her scarf, instead. "It's obvious that you're a fan of Iron Man." Tony moved closer to the woman and spoke in the lower tone that never seemed to fail to get women to drop their panties. "If you come up to my penthouse, I'll sign the scarf for you. After we get it…and this coat…off and get a few drinks into you first, of course."

"Excuse me?" The woman said one more time in a much higher pitch than before as she started to reach for her sleeve. She then looked around her at the crowded street, however, and stopped herself. The hand dropped back to her side and she took a deep breath instead before she addressed the man.

"Look…I don't know who you are, but I am not interested." She paused as obvious disbelief at her words crossed his face. "In fact, I am supposed to be meeting someone here in just a few minutes. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate it if you would kindly bugger off and leave me be."

Tony was not even fazed by her denial. Playing hard to get, I see, he thought with an internal chuckle. Oh well, I'll humor her. Seeing one end of that scarf tied to my headboard with her on the other end will be worth a game or two, after all. Maybe I will even let her tie me up, as well. After all, I haven't done that in a while.

"Alright, you win!" He winked at her roguishly. "You can leave the scarf on…just the scarf...if you are into that."

The woman made a little strangled sound in the back of her throat and stepped towards him. At that moment, Tony finally saw that the fire that lit up her eyes was not desire. He took a hurried step back.

Before either of them could say anything, however, a large black SUV pulled up to the curb next to them. A tall dark man with an eyepatch stepped out of the passenger side and onto the sidewalk. At his signal, the vehicle pulled away and drove off down the street again.

Oh, damn! was Tony's first annoyed thought. I forgot that I had an appointment with the pirate this afternoon. Then, however, his annoyance turned to amazement when Fury immediately gathered Scarf Girl up in his arms and gave her a long and surprisingly hot kiss right there on the sidewalk.

Who knew that Director Gargoyle had it in him? Tony mused, quite impressed and even more turned on, before his thoughts switched back to the woman whom he had been trying his best to get into bed. Who the hell is she, though…and what can he possibly have that I don't?

"Sorry I'm late, Babe." Tony heard Fury tell her while they both ignored him for the time being. "Barton and Romanoff returned from their mission right before I left HQ."

"Are Clint and Nat alright?" she asked with obvious concern in her voice.

The usage of the agents' first names seemed to confirm Tony's newest suspicion. Of course, he thought. She's with SHIELD. She's been sent to spy on me, too. With that conclusion, he seemed to have conveniently forgotten all about the fact that he had been the one to approach her first...and that she had rebuked his advances.

"They're fine…as usual…which is more than I can say for the other guys." Fury chuckled. "We just had to debrief before I could escape back to you." Then the newcomer turned and finally addressed the man next to them.

"Stark," he acknowledged with a simple nod. "I can see from the murderous look in her eyes that you've already met Hermione."

"Hermione?" Tony repeated in confusion while he wracked his brain as he tried to remember where he had seen that unusual name recently. At the same time, however, the woman looked at Fury and choked out a question in shocked disbelief.

"This really is Tony Stark…the supposedly reformed weapons designer and philanthropist? I assumed that he was full of shite and all of that Iron Man and scarf talk was just a bunch of pathetic pick-up lines."

Fury chuckled again knowingly. "I didn't say he had been reformed at everything, Babe. You didn't hex him, though, did you?"

"Not on a street full of Muggles…no matter how much I was sorely tempted to do so," she admitted a bit sheepishly. This time Fury laughed out loud.

Tony had never seen the Director of SHIELD look so cheerful, and he was a bit amazed by the transformation. However, he knew that getting regular action between the sheets could do that for even the grumpiest of Cyclops. Nevertheless, he did not like it one bit that the man's newfound mellowness was at his expense. He looked at the woman…Hermione…again – only to see her smiling sweetly up at Fury.

"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?" he asked irritably as he realized that particular ship had apparently already sailed before he had even had a chance to come aboard.

At the question, the woman pulled her attention away from one man and nodded at the other one. "Why don't we take this inside?" she suggested sagely. "The sidewalk is obviously not the right place to discuss it. After all, there is some highly classified information involved. Secrets may not mean much to you, Mr. Stark, but some of us occasionally have to depend on them for our very survival."

Fury agreed and Tony shrugged in acquiescence. Since he was obviously not going to get anything else from the woman, he found that he at least wanted answers...and he did not care where he got them. Therefore, the three of them were soon inside the Tower and heading up in the elevator.

"Is this lift secure?" the woman asked.

"I assure you that all security protocols are in place, Ms. Granger," the disembodied voice of the Tony's AI system explained in a very pleasant and polite tone as they continued to rise. She nodded before she cocked an eyebrow at Tony who had sighed at the mention of the familiar name – especially since he had finally remembered where he had read it.

"Thank you, JARVIS," he replied sarcastically before he turned back towards her right before the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

"So you are the mysterious Hermione Granger…the new head of the Avengers Initiative." He paused to smirk before he continued. "I was told that plan had been scrapped, by the way…something about me not being able to play nicely with others."

"Do I even want to know how you already knew all that, Stark?" Fury growled in warning as they stepped out of the elevator into what was obviously a conference room.

"I often know things that I am not supposed to." Tony just shrugged before he turned back to Hermione. "So...what makes you so special then? I tried to gather your intel, but the security on your files is tighter than a nun's hoo-ha. Even JARVIS wasn't able to find anything. It's almost like you don't exist. Therefore, what makes you qualified to lead their superhero freak show?" He smirked again. "Besides the fact that you're obviously sleeping with the boss, that is."

In retrospect, Tony realized that he should have suspected what was coming when Fury, instead of getting angry, just grinned and stepped back out of the way. However, there was no way that he could have anticipated that the woman would pull a thin carved stick out of her sleeve and point it at him.

While Tony scoffed at her choice of weapon, though, she turned to ask Fury casually, "What do you think, Dear…slugs or bats?"

"Definitely the bats!" was the man's enthusiastic answer and before Tony knew what had happened, he was fighting off winged versions of his own nasal secretions.

"Alright…alright…call them off! I apologize!" Tony shouted just a few moments later in between desperate swats at his nose and the horrific creatures that emerged from it.

Hermione finally took pity on him and swished her wand through the air with a clearly-spoken Finite Incantatem. Then, as Tony gingerly touched his abused facial feature, she looked him straight in the eyes and told him, "For your information, he is not my boss…and not that it is any of your business…but rest assured that very little sleep happens when we are together!"

While he still held his nose protectively, Tony glanced over at the smug-looking Fury. The man had sat down and casually placed his hands behind his head as he reclined back and propped his feet up on the conference table in order to better enjoy the entertainment.

"Don't look at me, Stark. This is her show," he said with barely contained delight at the other man's discomfort. "I'm just the middle man on this particular venture. Therefore, proper introductions may finally be in order. May I present Hermione Granger, veteran and heroine of the Second Wizarding War in Europe, Order of Merlin: First Class, and former Head of the Department of Magical Creatures and Beings for the British Ministry of Magic. Therefore, as you can see, she is more than qualified to lead the Avengers Initiative on her own merit."

At the impressive resume, even though he had never heard of those particular agencies before, Tony's head swung back to the woman whom he now realized he had seriously underestimated when he had just tried to get her into his bed.

"Hello!" she said with a little irreverent wave now that she was sure that she had his attention.

"Magic?" Tony breathed. That explained so much and he finally understood just how wrong he had been about…well…everything. Not that he would admit it aloud - especially since he knew that particular road led to freaky things flying out of his nose, but the woman was now even more attractive to him than she had been before.

"What do you need from me, then?" he asked instead. Hermione nodded at the question as she started to pull huge files out of her impossibly small bag. Tony itched to examine it. However, he knew that he needed to make serious amends before she would allow him to touch any of her goods.

Consequently, he listened carefully to her explanation. "We mainly need your expertise in technology," she admitted. "Magic and electronics don't tend to mix well, so I would like your assistance in coming up with a way to help them coexist a little more peacefully while we also put the team together. By the way, despite everything, there is still a spot reserved for you, as well."

Tony had to admit that he was more intrigued with both of her offers currently than he had been with anything that Fury had approached him with in the past. "Tell me everything," he insisted…and Hermione obliged with a bright smile that once again caused a response from down below. However, Tony willed the reaction away in order to focus on the admittedly fascinating challenge at hand. He could always think about that situation later.

...

Many hours later, Hermione gathered up her moving photos of the team's possible recruits and handed the hand-drawn schematic of a possible solution to her magic and electronics problem back to Tony. She and the technology expert had hashed it out together while Fury watched appreciatively from the sidelines with just a few useful suggestions. Then they all made plans to meet together later in the week in order to see what ideas Tony had for the prototype.

In preparation to leave, Fury helped Hermione pull on her coat and wind her scarf…the same one which had caught Tony's attention in the first place…back around her neck. It was so long that it still reached her knees – even when it was doubled up. While Tony watched, he suddenly realized that now that he knew the woman was powerful and brilliant…as well as hot…he wanted to see her in just that scarf even more than he had when they were out on the street.

In fact, even the way she interacted with the one-eyed, tall, dark, and brooding Director did something for him. Tony did not normally go for sausage fests, but he had to admit that he was intrigued by the possibilities of such a situation with all three of them together. After all, he did have a huge bed that would easily accommodate them all...and there was definitely enough scarf to go around. Just as he was about to suggest something to that effect, however, Fury glared at him.

"Don't even think about it, Stark," he growled. "You're not my type…and I don't share!" Meanwhile, the witch just gave him a final amused goodbye wave and wrapped her arms around the lucky bastard she had chosen. After all of the other events of the evening, Tony was then only slightly surprised when they both disappeared with a loud crack instead of taking the elevator down to the street level like normal people.

Tony was far from discouraged by his initial set-back and rejection, though. After all, he was nothing if not persistent. In fact, his mind had already raced ahead to the next week when Hermione and Fury would be back to see the progress he had made on the prototype. Maybe if he played his cards right…and pulled out his full set of Stark seduction techniques then…all three of them would be able to enjoy that scarf together before everything was said and done.