A/N: Well… I'm alive. Just about. I'm so, so, so sorry! And here's my list of crap excuses:
1. My undergrad degree became non-stop lab reports and, in order to avoid the inevitable, I buried myself in so many different fandoms that I kinda lost where I was with this story.
2. I thought that becoming a teacher was what I wanted to do with my life. Which was a mistake. Teaching is not something that you go into lightly and I'm not cut out for the constant abuse from kids and blame from parents and senior leaders. So I'm escaping after only being in teaching for 3 years.
3. The plot bunnies got a bit hungry and started turning cannibalistic… So there's a warning to you all; never leave plot bunnies alone for eight years (fucking hell, that's a long time! Sorry!) they eat each other… Now I'm waiting for the remaining plot bunnies to reproduce and it's taking a (not entirely) surprisingly long time.
As ever, a huge thank you to all you amazing people who have favourited or subscribed to me or my story. And a mah-hoossive thank you to everyone who reviewed! Each one brightened my day and I feel giddy whenever I get an email alert. I swear this feeling must be more addictive than heroin! Well, maybe not… But I'll never know. ;)
Anyway, enough of my mad ramblings…. Enjoy!
P.S. The views and opinions expressed about Psychology in this article are those of Teddy Lupin-Black and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the author.
Chapter 3
When Harry woke up that morning he had no idea that his world of carefully balanced chaos would be shattered beyond all recognition. When Teddy jumped on him to wake him up, he was unaware of the repercussions the day would bring. Only when he sat at the breakfast table and picked up his copy of the newspaper did he finally understand the feeling of unease he had experienced the day before.
TONY STARK ABDUCTED
Sources within the US Army and Department of Defence have revealed today that Tony Stark was kidnapped yesterday in Afghanistan after giving a presentation to US Army Officers on the Stark Industries' newest addition to the Freedom Range, the Jericho missile. Mr Stark, genius, billionaire, philanthropist and CEO of Stark Industries, was travelling in convoy with two other US Army Humvees back to Bagram Air Base in the Parwan province of Afghanistan. The lead Humvee was hit with an IED and Mr Stark's Humvee was targeted by terrorists who have since claimed to be members of the Ten Rings militia.
No members of the lead Humvee survived the initial blast and Mr Stark is believed to be the only survivor of the attack on the second Humvee. The families of the victims have been informed.
A video showing a severely injured Mr Stark in captivity was sent to Mr Obadiah Stane, Mr Stark's long term mentor and friend, last night, who then contacted the authorities. No ransom has been demanded but sources believe that Mr Stark may be coerced into constructing weapons for the Ten Rings militia. No further information regarding the situation has been released by the US Army, other than to confirm that an extensive search and rescue mission is being carried out.
Harry could read no further. His mind had gone blank. Beautifully and painlessly blank. His brain could not comprehend it. Tony Stark, the snarkiest, most sarcastic, most arrogant, most brilliant person he had ever met, was gone. His best friend had been kidnapped.
Teddy and, to a lesser extent, Harry were great influences on Tony. He had focussed his massive intellect on fields other than weapons and, due to Teddy's fascination with the arc reactor, had begun working on making it more efficient. There were still explosions and the occasional power surges but any collaboration of Blacks and Starks was bound to create some kind of chaos.
And now he was gone.
Harry blinked, once. Twice. He let out a calming breath, placed the offending newspaper gently down on the kitchen table and stood up. He slowly made his way to the (reinforced) basement, closed and locked the door before relinquishing his impeccable control over his occlumency and magic. He allowed his magic to flow out through his pores and let out a pained scream.
It took less than ten minutes for the massive surge of magic to exhaust him. He collapsed down onto a nearby sofa and surveyed the damage. The last time he had lost control of himself he had set the basement on fire and destroyed everything but the sofa on which he currently sat. Somehow it had survived all of Harry and Teddy's and, more recently, Tony's 'experiments' and all the explosions that came under said dubious title. One of the arms of the sofa was smoking slightly from the intense heat of Harry's magical outburst but, other than that, it was still in pristine condition. Harry shook his head in confused amusement before wincing as he saw the rest of the basement.
He and Andy had the foresight to place as many protective charms as they could find on the contents of the basement, especially the delicate glassware that Teddy treasured as much as any young child cherishes a stuffed animal. Most of the basement wasn't in too bad a condition, but the new burettes and pipettes were a glowing pile of goo on the counter. Andy had bought them for Teddy for acing a recent chemistry test and they had been left out so Harry and Andy could place the usual charms on them. Harry winced again when he thought of what Teddy and Andy would say before remembering that the destroyed glassware wasn't his most immediate problem.
Harry never liked Tony going off to war-torn countries on 'business' but he didn't have a valid reason to protest as nothing had happened to Tony whilst there. Until yesterday that is.
Since joining the wizarding world nearly twenty years ago, Harry had rarely placed any confidence in any government or political regime. Therefore he was slightly wary about the US Army's ability to find Tony in the mountainous Parwan province. It would take months to find him and Harry wasn't sure he could survive a month without Tony's exuberant presence.
After all of Pepper and Andy's subtle - and not so subtle - hints over the past couple of months, he had come to realise how much he relied on Tony. And just how much he liked him. That particular thought made Harry slightly queasy. He had never been very good at relationships. Or analysing his feelings.
A timid knock on the basement door startled Harry out of his thoughts.
"Dad? Are… Are you okay?" Teddy paused as if hesitant, "I felt your magic."
Harry lazily waved his hand in the general direction of the door. It creaked open to show Teddy anxiously wringing his hands in a gesture vaguely reminiscent of Hermione before an exam.
Harry tried to smile and, if the look on Teddy's face and raised eyebrow was any indication, failed. Harry sighed and waved Teddy into the room. Teddy scrambled to squash onto the small sofa next to Harry.
"I need to tell you something," he hesitated and added. "Would you be able to call Andy, please? I think she needs to hear this."
"She's here and already knows," a voice called from the doorway.
Andy walked into the room with an uncharacteristically serious face. She perched on the arm of the sofa next to Harry and threaded her fingers through his.
"I've called your work and let them know you're taking a personal day. They were surprisingly understanding for journalists," she mused.
He squeezed her hand in thanks.
"Not all journalists are Rita Skeeter," Harry responded without his usual bite.
Teddy watched the exchange with a confused expression.
"Um. Hello?! I'm still here! Something's wrong, isn't it? What's happened? Has Tony blown someone up?"
Harry paled and look to Andy. She sighed, took a deep breath and replied,
"Tony's been kidnapped." She had always believed in a direct approach but the unshed tears in Harry's eyes made her almost regret her blunt words. Almost.
Teddy blinked and scrunched his face up in confusion.
"In Afghanistan?" He whispered.
"But he was with soldiers. Surely they would have protected him?"
Andy flicked her wand and the quiet rustling belied the approach of the morning's newspaper. Teddy deftly snatched it out of the air, demonstrating his lightning fast seeker reflexes. He smoothed it out across his and Harry's laps and read the short article under Tony's smiling picture.
Silent tears rolled down Harry's cheeks at the reminder of the man he thought of so fondly. Tony's cheeky grin pulled at his heartstrings and he forced down a sob. Andy put her arm around him and pulled him into her chest.
A wiggle at his side caused him to look up at Teddy's teary face. He plonked himself down on Harry's lap, who wrapped his arms around his son and allowed himself to release his iron grip on his tears.
Even the unflappable Andy shed a few tears into Harry's messy hair. Tony had become like a second son to her and the tight feeling in her chest remaindered her of the dark days following the Final Battle when she allowed finally himself to grieve her husband, daughter and son-in-law.
A quiet snuffle beside her brought her out of her macabre thoughts and she squeezed Harry and Teddy tightly.
WMAM
It had been four months since Harry had met Tony. Four months since Tony had forced his way into the Black's lives and into their hearts. Teddy had gotten over his hero worship of Tony fairly quickly (not that Tony's ego needed boosting much more) and treated Tony like another father. This had made Andy smirk when he told her. Andy treated Tony like another (more than slightly) wayward son and Harry had yet to figure out his feelings towards Tony.
Andy and Pepper had bonded instantly over their mutual pain at having to 'look after the boys', as they kept saying. They often exchanged knowing looks whenever Tony patiently explained some ridiculously complicated concept to Harry or when Harry was able to curb some of Tony's more destructive and annoying tendencies.
Pepper silently thanked whichever deity that had allowed Harry and Tony to meet. Tony was actually trying to impress Harry, so he drunk less; spent more time actually working on things other than his vast car collection and there were considerably less one night stands. They hadn't stopped altogether but Pepper knew better than to hope for that.
Harry and Teddy were invited to Tony's Malibu beach house every other weekend; sometimes with Andy, sometimes without. The time they spent there was mainly Teddy and Tony doing 'experiments' and Harry attempting to follow their convoluted train of thought or just watching them and laughing at the friendly banter that had become the norm between the three of them.
Teddy always teased them about how old they were and, in return, Harry and Tony would tease Teddy about the horrors of going through puberty. Although those conversations always ended either when Harry turned bright red at something that Tony had said (usually some kind of innuendo) and would refuse to say anything else, much to the amusement of Tony, or when Andy overheard them and started telling stories of Harry's years at Hogwarts (not that it was named, of course) that she had heard from the Weasleys and occasionally, Harry himself. Those, in Harry's opinion, were worse; his school years weren't exactly what you could call 'normal'. Even for a wizard. Sometimes Andy would slip up and mention things unique to the Wizarding world; those always earned her a stern look from Harry and a baffled look from Tony. Harry was afraid of how Tony would react if he found out what they were.
Harry and Teddy would have entire conversations using English slang or phrases they'd picked up from their friends in the Wizarding World and occasionally they would have conversations in Latin just to confuse the hell out of Tony.
Tony had learnt to ignore the strange phrases and words the Black family used, only because Teddy, and occasionally Harry, would 'help him with his work'. Although their experiments, if they could even be called that, could hardly be classed as work, unless Tony's job was 'general mischief maker and explosion enthusiast'. Of which he had tried to convince them that it was on several occasions.
Teddy's reaction was complete and utter outrage that someone had stolen his job title. Harry would gently remind Teddy of his Uncle George and then run away bravely before one of the 'experiments' caused him permanent harm. Andy and Pepper had just broken out into giggles when they heard what had caused Harry to sprint into the kitchen and hide behind Andy.
The Black's life had become so much more insane since they had met Tony and Pepper and yet, whenever Harry allowed himself to think about it, he would hate to go back to the admittedly boring life he had led before meeting Tony. He loved the usually incomprehensible conversations between Tony and Teddy; the even more incomprehensible texts that Tony sent him whenever he was drunk (which was quite often, as Harry had discovered) and the increasing number of explosions that were (mostly) contained in their basement.
Whenever Andy dragged the three of them to some kind of charity event, Harry and Tony would stick together as if joined at the hip, so they wouldn't have to 'mingle with the boring people', as Tony had put it one night. Or get ambushed by past lovers and/or journalists, which was more often the case. Teddy just followed the two men with his head stuck in his journal, occasionally looking up to ask Tony a question before scribbling something down in the worn journal.
Well, there was another reason that the two men never left each other's side but neither had mentally acknowledged it yet and so neither would even dream to verbalise it. Teddy had been shooting them strange looks for about a week before he confronted Harry.
"Dad, what's going on between you and Tony? You keep blushing when talk to him and Auntie Andy said something about 'pulling each other's pigtails' whenever you tease each other." Harry flushed at Teddy's question and looked around as if to check that Tony wasn't listening. He wasn't, he was getting drinks for the three of them from the bar at the other side of the room. Harry ran a shaky hand through his hair and swallowed before looking back at Teddy.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he huffed. Teddy's eyebrows rose and he gave Harry a significant look.
"Yes, you do. You're just embarrassed. You like him, don't you?" He giggled at the thought. Harry's face was almost crimson as he replied,
"Well, yeah. He's a good friend."
"Friend? Is that what you think? Don't make me go all Sherlock Holmes on you. You know I will," he teased playfully. Teddy had recently started reading Arthur Conan Doyle's works and had since been trying to deduce things about people. He was surprisingly good; although Harry just pegged it up to him listening to Andy's gossiping and making up valid 'observations' to back his comments up.
Harry snorted and his face had started to turn back to its normal colour as he reminded himself of Xeno's training.
"Go on then. Deduce away!" He dared, before mentally scolding himself for issuing Teddy with such a challenge.
"Well, first there's the blushing" (which caused Harry's face to flare again) "and then there's the head thing; the fidgeting; the way you look at him; the way he looks at you; the way he's stopped drinking so much and -"
"Okay, okay! I think you've made your point," Harry cried, pushing his hands through his messy hair. He paused and thought over Teddy's words.
"Wait, what 'head thing'?!"
"When someone is attracted to another person, they tilt their head to the side when they look at them. I don't know why but they do. Some of the kids at school do it when they look at their 'crush'," he wrinkled his nose as if it was a curse word before returning to his explanation.
"I read it in a Psychology article the other day. I don't remember why I resorted to reading such drivel; you know how much I hate Psychology. The flimsy excuse for a science that it is!" Harry chuckled at the familiar rant of Teddy's before his brain caught up with him.
"Wait a minute! 'The way he looks at me?'"
"Well, yeah. I thought you noticed and that's why you were acting all weird."
"I have not been 'acting weird'!" Harry announced firmly.
"I'm not sure about the context, but yeah, you have. But then again you guys are just weird anyway," Tony commented, startling Harry who flushed crimson again when Tony passed him his drink.
"So what were you guys talking about?"
"Nothing!" Harry said quickly to interrupt whatever Teddy was planning on saying. And it wouldn't have been very complimentary judging by the particularly vindictive look on Teddy's face. Harry knew he would be suffering for that later.
That had been five days ago and Teddy had been prodding him to admit his feelings for Tony since then. Feelings that Harry had been forced to admit to himself by Teddy and Andy. And now Tony was gone. His brain refused to compute the word 'kidnapped'; he flinched whenever he read it.
He wasn't ready to lose Tony, not now that he'd finally worked out how he felt. He collapsed into the nearest chair and ran a shaking hand through his hair. He forced himself to think of the last time he and Teddy had been to Malibu to see Tony.
The constant 5 hour flights had been taking their toll on Teddy and so Harry had taken to apparating them across the country in a series of jumps. Even though Teddy had heard plenty of splinching horror stories from various Weasley's, he much preferred it to flying. As he constantly reminds Harry whenever they get on a plane.
"But I can see everything that could go wrong! I know the principles of flight and if the controls in the cockpit are anything like that flight simulator, then I could probably fly the plane –" Harry had cut him off at that point.
"You crashed the plane every time! And you broke the simulator; I'm not allowed to take you back into Edwards Air Force Base anymore. You've been banned from an Air Force Base! At ten!"
"Well, all the variables were wrong! You can't allow trainee pilots to learn something that wouldn't translate into real life. It was far too easy anyway. I was only having fun; I'm sure I could land the plane properly if they let me back in."
"They won't. The US Air Force doesn't take kindly to ten year-olds taking apart their training flight simulator. Surely you would have thought about that. And no, I am not buying you a flight sim for your birthday, no matter how much you want one."
"But Daaaaad! Please! I promise I won't break it this time. I promise!" He pleaded, pressing his hands together and attempting to recreate Tony's kicked puppy face that caused Harry to cave. Every time.
"No. And don't make that face; I'm not buying you a multi-million dollar flight sim just so you can prove that you're right. Remember what happened to the last Christmas present I bought you; you broke it within a week!"
"Eleven days, actually. I can look after things, you know! Besides how was I supposed to know that the beakers weren't reinforced? You knew I wanted to experiment with my Hydrofluoric acid! I just assumed you'd strengthened them!"
Harry huffed in exasperation at the familiar argument before chuckling.
"You know, most parents don't have to tell their children off for melting their Christmas presents."
"How boring! What do they argue about then?"
"Umm… Not doing their chores, I suppose."
"Well, chores are boring too. I'm glad I'm a wizard then," Teddy nodded and, as if to support his point, turned his hair emerald green and his eyes yellow.
WMAM
"Harry James Potter-Black! You stop right there!" Harry winced and turned to find Andy in the 'Molly Weasley pose'; hands on her hips and a frighteningly fierce look on her face. Her stance and the use of his full name alerted him to exactly how much trouble he was in; not just heaps of trouble but entire mountain ranges. He winced at the strange mix of hurt, absolute fury, betrayal and disappointment in her eyes.
Teddy had started their strange little ritual a couple of months ago by comparing the heaps of trouble he was in for blowing up the basement (again) to mountain ranges. And from then on it had stuck.
"I do hope you are merely taking some clothes to a charity shop and not running off to Afghanistan, young man. Because Voldemort would seem like a mildly irritated kitten compared to me."
Harry gulped and hurriedly shook his head. Harry had learnt over the years that dealing with Molly Weasley after he had helped the twins with one of their hare-brained schemes, facing two enraged dragons or even facing Voldemort could never have prepared him for a furious Andy.
She cast a piercing look at him, raised her eyebrows and sighed. She gestured to the bag in Harry's hands.
"Come on. Let's have a cup of tea and a chat." Andy took the bag and gently steered Harry into the kitchen, before waving her wand at the kettle and a few mugs. Harry slumped at the kitchen table and looked up beseechingly at Andy.
"I can't stand sitting here doing nothing; I have to go and look for him. I have to do something. It's like fifth year all over again. I can't just leave him there. I just can't…" Harry trailed off and put his head in his hands. Andy sat down next to him and put her arm around his shoulders.
"I know, honey. Believe me, I know. I get that the almost daily news reports on the lack of progress in the search are starting to get to you but you can't just rush off, wands blazing and expect to find him before the US Army. Firstly, you've never been to Afghanistan and wouldn't know where to look for him. Even the Four Point spell wouldn't be specific enough to find him in those mountains. Secondly, how would you explain to the Army how you, a mere journalist from Boston", Harry snorted at that but she ignored him and continued, "…found Tony when the various search and rescue missions they've already sent out over the last two and a bit months couldn't find any sign of him or the Ten Rings? And what about me and Teddy? What if you didn't come back? What if Tony came back and you didn't? How would he feel?"
Harry lowered his eyes to the mug of tea that had landed in front of him.
"I just want him back," he whispered tracing his finger over the Stark Industries logo and breathed in the calming scent of bergamot.
"I know you do, honey. But Gryffindor tactics don't always work," she said to try and alleviate some of the tension in Harry's shoulders. The corners of his mouth lifted at Andy's comment.
"Look, I'll see what I can do to find out how the search is going but I make no promises, okay? I know you don't trust them but we have to. Just for the moment. Just until they find him and then you can go back to mistrusting them. You'll have good reason to after this; sending a civilian to a warzone just for a demonstration. I mean, really! There's a perfectly good desert in… Where is it? The place with the casinos; I read about it the other day. Begins with an M, I think? Or is it an N?" Her slight ramble brought another small smile to Harry's face.
"Nevada?" He asked to try and bring her out of her thoughts.
"Is it? Oh, I was calling it New Vader for some reason… Humph. It's the accent, I think. I still have trouble with it."
He smiled conspiratorially at her recognising her attempts at distracting him and thanked Merlin for being blessed with such an amazing family.
"Thank you, Andy."
"For what?"
"You know exactly what." He replied, raising his eyebrow at her.
"Whatever do you mean? Anyway, I need to phone Pepper; we haven't had a proper chat in ages. And she's been left all alone with that Stane fellow. There's something a bit off about him; I don't like him. I think I'll go and see her sometime this week…" She trailed off, already planning her conversation with Pepper.
"You know Vader is a Dark Lord of the Sith, don't you?" Harry wondered, startling Andy out of her thoughts.
"A what?! I didn't know the Muggles had Dark Lords…" Harry shook his head at Andy's ignorance of Muggle popular culture.
"They don't. I meant Darth Vader from Star Wars movies; Tony made us watch the movies last month. He was shocked that we hadn't seen them." Andy nodded slowly in confusion before shrugging and glancing at the clock.
"Oh Merlin! Look at the time! I'm late to pick up Teddy. Text him to tell him I'm on my way and don't you dare move from that seat! I'll stun you if I have to but you are not under any circumstances going to Afghanistan!" She aimed another fierce stare at Harry before rushing out the door.
Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and slumped further into his chair. Well, that went better than expected, he mused. Andy could have cursed me. Again. He flinched as the memory of the last curse Andy had used on him surfaced.
I hope Tony's found soon; I'll go mad if he's not. It's been nearly three months, surely they've searched most of Parwan province by now…
WMAM
In a dimly lit cave a little over 6,500 miles away, Tony Stark looked up sharply from his welding as if his name had been called. Yinsen shot him a slightly confused look before turning back for a last minute recap of their escape.
"You think this will work, yes?"
"It should. But what's the worst that can go wrong?" Tony joked sounding infinitely more confident than he felt.
WMAM
A/N: Well that took considerably longer than I'd hoped… But the next chapter will hopefully feature the big reunion. Yay!