CHAPTER 9
AN: I'd like to start by apologizing for how long it takes for me to write these chapters. The way I'm writing this story is that I write several chapters concurrently, or at least partially. I do this to hopefully so I don't write myself into a corner (see chapter 7 and 8 for what that looks like, not really happy with chapter 8) and to have some continuity between chapters and the overall story arc (yes, there is one). While I focused on this chapter, I was also writing the foundations of another 4 future chapters.
So this story is not abandoned, it's just taking me a while to write. :)
"This suit is worth more than all my other clothing put together." Harry complained as they stepped out of the limo Felicity had insisted they rent for the occasion and into the cold November night air.
Harry was dressed in a personally tailored three piece suit that Felicity had insisted they have made. Harry had of course insisted she also get an equally extravagant dress.
The relatively modest dress, a similar purple tint as her freshly cut, shaved, dyed and styled hair, hugged Felicity's contours in attractive ways while still managing to hide some of the damage several months on the street and months in captivity had caused.
"Stop complaining. You didn't have to re-learn how to walk. I know they make my legs look amazing but high heels are so annoying. Give me a good pair of doc martin boots or shoes any day."
They made their way up to the entrance to the expensive hotel in the center of Manhattan and were escorted up to the reception hall.
They were not the first to arrive. The room was a mix of older affluent New Yorkers and younger celebrities with a few reporters sprinkled in for good measure. Harry had no idea who anyone was but Felicity seemed very excited.
"Hello?"
Harry and Felicity turned to see a lovely red headed woman approach them, a clipboard in her hand and a smile on her lips.
"I don't think we've met yet. My name is Natalie Rushman." she reached a hand out to Harry.
"Harry, Harry Potter and this is my friend and assistant Felicity." Harry replied as he shook the woman's hand.
"I don't remember your name from the guest list."
"Oh! One of our clients was unable to come due to illness and they offered us the invitations. I hope that was ok." Harry asked as Felicity pulled the invitations from her purse.
"Excellent! I'll take those. Please have some drinks and mingle." taking the invitations she made her way to her shadow where they had a whispered discussion and walked briskly out of the room while the guard returned to ineptly attempting to appear as if he was not keeping an eye on them.
"Well, grab a drink or two cause I think we're about to get kicked out." Felicity whispered in a disappointed tone taking two glasses of champagne from a server.
"Not sure that's a bad thing. I never really enjoyed social events like these." Harry said as they made their way to a balcony.
"So who's our shadow?" Felicity asked.
Harry adjusted his glasses, activating his recently added naming function. "Harold Joseph Hogan. Does that ring a bell?"
A quick search on her cellphone gave them an answer. "Tony Stark's bodyguard I think? But I haven't seen Tony Stark anywhere."
As if summoned, a burst of light in the sky was fast approaching, accompanied by blaring rock music.
Harry and Felicity made their way back inside to the gathering crowd as a very Gryffindor set of red and gold armor landed on the balcony with a large thud.
"Hello everyone. I hope I'm not too late!" the man greeted as he casually stepped out of the armor as it seemed to slightly fold into itself to allow him to exit.
The man was dressed in a suit that made Harry's look like it was off the rack, even if it was a little rumpled from being stuffed into a piece of high tech armor.
Harry groaned internally, this man reminded Harry of a more confident Draco Malfoy. Rich, arrogant, egotistical, entitled but on the other hand, from what little Harry had read about him, it appeared he had the intelligence and skills to backup that attitude.
"No, you're not late at all. You're actually early." greeted another red headed woman.
Harry activated his glasses again to discover that the woman in question was Virginia Potts.
Standing behind and to the left of Ms. Potts was the woman who had greeted Harry, Natalie Rushman but the enchantment on Harry's glasses gave Harry a different name: Black Widow.
"Well, that never happens … I could just head back out."
"Don't you dare!" Ms. Potts chastised him with a smile, handing the man a drink.
"Oh! One sec." grabbing a small remote control device of some type from his pocket and pressing a button twice, the armor closed up and beeped, it's lights blinking twice.
"Did … did he just power lock his armor?" Felicity asked in disbelief.
Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark held a whispered conversation for a few moments before Stark turned to address the crowd.
"Hello everyone. Welcome to our little shindig here tonight. As much as I like the sound of my own voice, I think I'll leave the announcement to others. Now, I'd like to let the CEO of Stark Industries tell you all what this is about. Ms. Potts?"
"Thank you all for coming. I'm Virginia Potts with Stark Industries, and I'm thrilled that you could all be here. It's not every day you get to change the face of New York." the woman in question began after sharing a slightly annoyed look at Tony Stark.
"First, I'm happy to announce that all damage resulting from the Stark Expo incident has been repaired, at the sole expense of Stark Industries."
Harry looked to Felicity, silently asking what this incident was about but she appeared as clueless as he was. Looking to the crowd, it appeared they were the only ones in the dark.
"Now, the long, historic and mutually beneficial relationship between Stark and NewYork can once again turn in the direction it's always faced: towards the future. It is with great pleasure that I present to you the plans for Stark Tower."
As these words were spoken, the lights suddenly dimmed and a 3d holographic display of a massive tower appeared floating in mid air in front of Ms. Potts.
"The very first, completely clean-energy-powered skyscraper in Manhattan … and what we hope will be a model for future development in the greatest city in the world."
Harry, of course couldn't make heads or tails of the floating plans but others in attendance murmured in excitement.
Apparently, in attendance were members of the press and Ms. Potts began fielding technical questions concerning the new tower. Not understanding the technical jargon being used, Harry wandered from the group towards the Iron Man armor.
The armor was a marvel that Harry doubted even the greatest of wizard artificers form his world would be able to match. Getting closer to the armor, Harry made to touch it but was interrupted.
"Don't touch my stuff."
Harry turned to the softly spoken command coming only a few steps away. Standing just behind him was Tony Stark looking at him with a deep intense look.
"Sorry. It's just an amazing piece of technology. What is it made of? Obviously not iron." Harry asked, turning back to the armor.
"95.5% Titanium and 4.5% Gold Alloy with a bit of ceramic here and there and some silicone infused-steel. Now my turn. Who are you?"
"Oh! I'm sorry, where are my manners. I'm Harry, Harry Potter." Harry replied, reaching out a hand in greeting.
"I ah … I don't do handshakes." Stark replied with a small grimace.
Harry awkwardly lowered his hand back down and turned back to the armor.
"So not interested in the presentation?" Stark asked as he moved to Harry's side.
"I'll be honest, I don't really understand even one tenth of what they are talking about. From what I understand, your tower is going to be powered by some sort of electricity?"
"... well, you're not wrong." the man replied with a strained smile.
"So if you have no interest in the tower and tech. Why are you here. What can a "wizard" for hire want from Stark Industries?" the man had said the word wizard with special emphasis and accompanied the word with air quotes.
Harry turned to look at the man in surprise.
"Don't look so surprised, you have a website! By the way, it looks like it was made by a blind monkey high on absinthe."
"Don't let Felicity hear you, she'll be crushed. She worked very hard on it." Harry replied lightly.
"The cute girl currently handing out home made business cards? Her real name is Amanda Thorpe. Father died in Iraq, mother died of an overdose. She spent some time in juvenile detention for aggravated assault. She disappeared a little while back but then suddenly popped back up."
"Ok … I'm impressed." Harry replied, his eyes wide in surprise.
"This is the information age and, not to toot my own horn or anything but that's sort of my jam." the man said as he made to stand next to his armor, leaning his shoulder on it slightly.
"You on the other hand … you are a mystery, a ghost even. As far as I can tell, you didn't exist up until a few months ago. You have no passport, no birth certificate, no visa, no business license, no medical history, no school records. There are no pictures of you on social media or in the news. You popped out of literally nowhere. I'd think you were some type of spy or secret agent except they at least create a paper thin backstory. You have literally nothing until a few months ago when you dropped several million dollars into a prestigious bank. How you managed to open that account is also a mystery. They would have done the same type of background check I just did, it would have just taken them longer, but instead they rubber stamp your account. So the question is : Who's pulling your strings?"
"There are no strings on me." Harry replied darkly.
Harry had finally broken from the manipulation of others in his last year at Hogwarts. No Dark Lord, no spies, no assassination attempts, no corrupt minister of magic… the DADA teacher hadn't even tried to kill him … for once ... though the woman had left her post in disgrace two weeks before final exams after it was discovered that she had been having relations with a fifth year Ravenclaw student.
While Harry was certain that Dumbledore had loved him, Harry had come to see that the aged wizard had manipulated him from that fateful night where his parents had died up to and well past his own death.
His placement with the Dursley's and his insistence that Harry return there every summer.
Sending Hagrid to retrieve him instead of a teacher as was more standard. Hermione had received a visit from Professor McGonagall after all.
The childish defenses protecting the Philosopher's stone that were by passed by a trio of plucky first years.
The return of his father's cloak with a note practically telling him to use it to break the rules.
The lack of effort to remove his name from the triwizard tournament or the lack of support in the face of school bullying as a result.
The trickling of information concerning the Horcruxes.
Insisting that Snape provide occlumency lessons.
Harry even viewed his meeting of the Weasley's at Kings Cross before first year as suspect but had never mentioned his suspicions out of respect for the genuine love the Weasleys had shown him.
Stark appeared taken aback by Harry's sudden intensity.
The tension was broken by the thunderous applause of the gathered crowd behind the two men.
Ms. Potts signaled for Mr. Stark to approach the podium.
"Remember Pinocchio, don't touch my stuff." he whispered as he moved past Harry.
"Ok. That seemed intense." Felicity commented as she approached Harry.
"Yeah. He's kind of scary. I thought he was just a show off but … he seems ridiculously intelligent." Harry commented as he turned back to stare into the armors glowing eyes.
"I meant you." she whispered back.
"He brought up some interesting points. Things I should have noticed or considered but was too frazzled to. How did I get that bank account with literally no paperwork, no history?"
Felicity simply shrugged.
Harry surveyed the room once more, sipping on a glass of champagne when he noticed Natalie Rushman speaking to Mrs. Potts across the room.
"Another thing. I think Mr. Stark has a spy in his company. That redhead who greeted us? Her real name is "Black Widow"." Harry offered softly.
"You mean her name translates to that or…"
"No, I mean that as far as she is concerned, at the very core of her being, she identifies herself as Black Widow."
"Maybe you made a mistake?"
"No, Emily's name showed up as her married name, even your name shows up as Amanda instead of Felicity. That woman doesn't identify with her real name but some kind of codename. I've never seen anything like this before." Harry explained, thinking how even wormtail or 'scabbers' had shown up as Peter Pettigrew on the Marauder's Map.
"Should we tell Mr. Stark?"
Harry considered this for a moment.
"We'll send him an anonymous tip. I don't think he thinks too highly of me and would probably disregard any information I offered out of hand. But for tonight stay out of her way just in case. Actually, here."
Harry surreptitiously waved his wand at Felicity.
"What did that do?"
"Monitoring spell. Normally used on babies or hospital patients. Will let me know if something happens to you and I'll be able to track your general location, at least distance and direction anyway." Harry explained.
"Why wouldn't you have that on me all the time? Seems like a reasonable security thing to me."
"I'd rather not be privy to every time you need to er … use the facilities or anytime you … climax for example." Harry explained, his face gaining quite a bit of red as he rubbed the back of his head. "It's actually quite invasive and at my end can be distracting. For example, I can tell that you need to go pee."
Felicity snuck in a kiss on his cheek and walked off towards the bathrooms grabbing another drink on her way.
"Well, I confirmed your story with the Thompson's so feel free to stay and enjoy the festivities." Harry turned around to find the 'Black Widow' standing behind him with two drinks in hand. "Drink?"
"No thank you, still working on this and sorry for all the bother." Harry replied, trying not to eye the proffered glass suspiciously.
"No worries, it's just with Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts at a public venue you can never be too safe. Mr. Stark has made a few high powered enemies over the years and more recently as Iron Man." the woman replied, putting down the glass she had offered Harry and taking a sip of her own glass.
"So what is it that you do?" The woman asked eyeing Harry with interest.
"I'm a private detective of sorts." Harry explained, trying not to offer too much information to a potential enemy. "What about yourself?"
"I was Mr. Starks assistant for a very, very brief moment and until Monday I am Ms. Potts assistant."
Harry turned to the woman in surprise.
"Why until Monday?"
"I am … returning to a past job. Working for Stark Enterprises was … interesting ... but Mr. Stark is … difficult to work with."
Harry loosened his tie from around his neck feeling suddenly a little warm. "Yeah, he's a little … little intense."
"Are you ok?" the woman asked looking concerned. "Your breathing is a little heavy and you look a little flushed."
"Yeah, it's just … is it me or is it a little warm in here." Harry feeling flushed.
"I'm fine but maybe we should head out to the balcony." she offered guiding Harry with a hand on his back.
Harry nodded in agreement, trying to hide his rapidly developing erection and they made their way to the balcony.
'What the HELL!' Harry thought to himself. 'I mean she's attractive but …'
His musings were interrupted by another flash of pleasure. 'No! Oh no! She didn't!'
"So you're going back to your previous employeur?" Harry asked, hoping to get her talking so he wouldn't have to.
"Yes well my old employer called me …" the woman's voice simply stopped registering as Harry fought to remain in control over ever increasing waves of pleasure until they mounted to a crescendo and a release. Thankfully Harry did not achieve a release himself but collapsed limply against the railing.
"Oh my god! Are you alright?"
"Yeah … yes. Whatever it was it passed. Maybe I had something bad for lunch … but I'm feeling much better now." Harry replied getting his breathing back under control. "Let me just grab a seat for a moment."
Harry sat down and looked at the woman, she seemed to have actual concern for him in that moment.
"So, what is it that you do at this other job?"
She stared at him for a few more moments before taking a chair as well.
"Literally the same thing I've been doing while I've been working here at Stark Industries." she replied with the slightest of smirks as if privy to a personal joke. "What about you? Must have done some interesting things as a private detective."
"A few things. I can't go into specifics … client confidentiality and all that but honestly a lot of it is kind of boring … cheating spouse sort of thing you know."
"What's the most interesting case you've had?"
"This maniac was stalking my clients. Had to figure out who he was and what he wanted and in the end convince him to leave my clients alone. That one was a bit challenging." Harry simplified the Thompson's experience.
From the corner of his eye, Harry could see Felicity returning from the bathrooms giving him furtive pleased glances.
Harry simply shook his head at the girl with a somewhat annoyed expression.
"Am I boring you?" Black widow asked looking where Harry was staring.
"No! Sorry, it's just, I like to keep an eye on Felicity … she's a little … er … impetuous?"
"So what's the relationship there? If you don't mind me asking."
"Complicated would be a good description. I got her out of a bad spot, gave her a job and a place to stay. She on the other hand feels like she owes me … it's a bit awkward."
"Why would you do that? I mean offer her a job and a place to stay. By the way you say it, it sounds like she moved in with you."
"It's what my friend Hermione called my 'saving people thing'." Harry replied distractedly as he stared at Felicity laughing with some minor local celebrities.
"So … nothing romantic then?" the woman asked, giving Harry a flirty look.
Harry wasn't certain when it had happened but the woman had, at some point, unbuttoned the top three buttons of her white blouse showing an impressive amount of cleavage as she leaned forward slightly.
"No … well she keeps trying but I think it's out of a sense of obligation and that just doesn't feel right. Also, I lost my long term girlfriend recently and I'm not really ready to move on." Harry explained, hoping to curtail the women increasing and less than subtle attempts at flirting.
"Did you guys break up or …" the woman asked, leaning back in her chair.
Harry turned his gaze back to the party to mask the lingering pain of his separation from Ginny. "She's gone." Harry replied quietly.
When Harry next looked back at the woman, he found that she had re-buttoned her shirt as if by magic and was looking at him not with pity but something else.
"I'm sorry to hear that."
Harry simply shrugged and took another sip of his drink.
"Well, looks like my break is over." the woman commented after a few moments of silence. "Looks like they are ready for us in the dining room."
Harry nodded to her, watching her carefully as she made her way towards the double doors leading to the dining area.
The announcement for dinner was made and Harry made his way to a table, joined shortly thereafter by a pleased looking Felicity.
"What the bloody hell were you thinking?" Harry whispered angrily at the girl.
"What? When?" she asked confusedly.
"When you went to the bathroom! You …" Harry faltered in his explanation.
"You are so cute and so British." Felicity whispered gleefully "It's called 'Rubbing one out' or 'Flicking the bean', 'Diddle the Skittle', 'Doing the Taco handshake', 'Stroking the beaver'. I think I once heard that you Brits call it 'Jilling off'?"
"I know what it's called, I'm not that bloody clueless. What were you thinking! I was talking to that Black Widow woman when I suddenly started feeling your … arousal!"
"Wait!" the girl interrupted, her expression going from gleeful to incredulous in a flash. "Are you telling me you FELT everything I did?"
"Yes!" Harry whispered back harshly. "I told you I'd know what your condition was and that it could be distracting and invasive!"
"There's a huge fucking difference between knowing I'm playing with myself and feeling me cum to a messy orgasm. I thought you'd know what I was doing, not that you'd feel it! I thought I was just going to make you a little uncomfortable." she finished with a giggle.
"It's not funny." Harry whispered fiercely.
"Come on, it's fucking hillarious and honestly it was just a mistake on my part. If I knew that that's how that worked, I would NOT have done that here."
The conversation stopped momentarily as a waiter arrived and asked for their meal choice.
"So … you felt that?" Felicity asked as she took a sip of her fresh glass of wine.
"Not at full strength … it's kind of like a phantom feeling, just an echo."
"That could be fun in the bedroom. Both partners do that to each other beforehand."
"No!" Harry quickly replied. "Both people would go insane. You'd end up in a feedback loop. It's a warning that was in the medical book I read about the spell that was in big bold letters right at the top of the spell description. Normally the warnings are at the end for most spells but not this one."
"Well, worse ways to go than by having a, literally, mind blowing orgasm."
Being honest with himself, Harry had to admit that he should have expected Felicity to do something along those lines when he cast the spell. And in less potentially dangerous situations, it would have been a crude but effective prank.
"I hope you washed your hands after that." Harry calmly whispered just as Felicity took a large sip from her glass causing the girl to sputter and choke in surprise.
"Did you just make a joke?"