Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Avengers. Unfortunately.

Chapter 3: Tony Stark: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist... Father?

Tony Stark was a lot of things. He was easily one of the most intelligent men on the planet. He was also one of the richest. He was good looking and charming, and could get any woman that he wanted. Not that he wanted to of course since he had Pepper now. She would probably castrate him, and then proceed to destroy him in a very horrible and painful manner if he ever even so much as looked too long at another woman. She knew him too well. He definitely didn't want to go out that way. After all what would people say if Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man, was whipped by a slender strawberry blonde woman? It really didn't bear mentioning.

Anyway he'd gone off on a tangent. Tony was a lot of things. He had been the Merchant of Death. But he was working on that. He was Iron Man, a hero and celebrity to the public. To the government and SHIELD he was an arrogant menace who didn't play well with others. But the one thing he never thought he'd be was a father. The very thought of having children left him in a cold sweat and feeling slightly nauseous. So how had he ended up one?

Tony hadn't had the most amazing of childhoods despite all the material possessions his parents had showered him with. His mother had been distant at best and blatantly neglectful at worst. She'd only had him to land his father and after she got her money she kept her distance from Tony. His father was too busy creating SHIELD and searching for good ol' Captain America to spend too much time with his only child. Not to mention his bad drinking habits. Then there were Tony's own self-destructive habits to consider. He liked driving fast, performing dangerous stunts, drinking, and he could be quite obsessive when he got a new idea; going for days without sleep and only eating when Happy, Rhodey, Jarvis, or Pepper stepped in to remind him.

Frankly, he just didn't think that he was father material, and there were many who would agree with that assessment. He wouldn't know what to do with a kid. This was why he was careful. He had to be or else get trapped like his father, and sentence some poor kid to the miserable life that he had had. So despite the many women he'd been with, he had never once slipped up. There had been only one time that he'd been less then careful, and provided a small window of opportunity for something to happen. But then he'd never heard from her. He'd been sure if something had happened she would have notified him. Lily had been honest, secretive about her past and purposefully left out details yes, but brutally honest when it counted. After all she did spill the beans that she was married that first night when he first tried to pursue her. She told him nothing else could happen between them and despite his frustration he'd agreed only for the chance to see her again arrogantly thinking he could change her mind. That in itself was a shining example as to why he shouldn't be a father.

He'd been thrilled when things took a turn in the direction he'd desired them to since he'd first spotted her in the bar. A little guilty too since she had seemed so faithful to her husband. So when things finally happened he had been in too much of a hurry, too intrigued by the stunning and brilliant red head he had gotten to know in the past two weeks for him to be cautious. And now he was paying for that stupidity. Well, maybe that was mean. So far Harry seemed like a fairly decent kid. But then again Tony had contributed to fifty percent of his DNA so he was bound to be a pretty awesome kid or well at least half awesome.

When Pepper had called to tell him that he needed to get his ass back to the tower because some British people had shown up with a kid that looked eerily like him, he'd felt like his world had tilted off its axis. For Pepper to have called him in such a wild panic he knew it had to be serious. He also knew when she told him the names of the couple that this was the real deal. Lily had only mentioned her sister and her husband once but the names were strange enough for them to have stuck in Tony's head. Combined with the fact that they were British was all the information that Tony had needed.

He'd known then that it had finally happened. His worst nightmare had finally come true. He didn't even need to read the text Pepper had sent him afterwards to inform him of the positive results of the DNA test. He had already known. He was a father. A father to the eleven, almost twelve-year-old boy with messy dark brown hair like his and emerald green eyes like Lily's sitting across from him trying to eat Lo Mein with chopsticks and failing miserably.

"You don't have to eat Chinese with chopsticks," Tony offered. He was only proficient at it due to all the company luncheons he'd had in China.

Harry sent him a determined, stubborn look that clearly said he was at the point where he just wanted to beat the chopsticks at their own game and that giving up now meant that they had won. Tony could relate.

"Here, hold them like this, at least you'll get more in your mouth that way," Tony said showing him the proper technique.

Harry flushed in embarrassment but grinned in triumph when he actually managed to get some of the noodles in his mouth after that. Tony grinned too. He really was a cute kid. Tony gave most of the credit for that to himself; although, he did seem to have Lily's sharp cheekbones. But most of it came from Tony, obviously. It was weird to have this virtual stranger who looked like a younger version of himself sitting across from him, casually eating food with him, and knowing that if it weren't for Tony they wouldn't even exist. Tony had made a lot of different things in his life: weapons, robots, and other various technology but this was the first time he'd actually made another human being. An even scarier thought was that he was now responsible for another human life, and considering that he was barely responsible with his own life he wasn't sure if he could be trusted with Harry's. At least he had Pepper and Jarvis to help him. Between Pepper and Jarvis he was fairly certain that Harry would survive to make it to his teens. After all how much more difficult could taking care of a kid be from taking care of a dog? He just had to make sure to feed him, clothe him, and occasionally make conversation with him right? Yeah, this was going to be a piece of cake.

"Why did you build that metal suit? It looks really neat," Harry suddenly piped up looking at him with interest.

"You mean you don't know?" Tony replied stunned that he wouldn't know about Iron Man. He thought he was fairly well known all around the world by now, especially after the incident at the racetrack in Monte Carlo.

"No, that's why I asked," Harry said giving him a duh look. Tony was fairly certain that he stole that look from Tony since he was very fond of giving it to people when they said something stupid.

"I'm Iron Man," Tony added just to see if the name would ring any bells.

It didn't. "The suit's not even made of iron. Why would you give it a name like that?"

"The public gave it that name not me; although, my very first suit was made up of random iron scraps. So when I upgraded the armor I stuck with the name for simplicity's sake. I mean Gold-Plate Titanium Alloy Man doesn't have quite the same ring to it," Tony responded with a shrug.

"So why did you build it? How did you build it?" Harry persisted looking very interested.

"Well, its kind of a long story. But I guess you could say I'm sort of, well, I guess you could say I'm a superhero."

"Really? Do you go around saving people? Like in a comic book?" Harry looked a bit more star struck now.

"Yeah, I even have a really cool story on how I became a hero wanna hear it?" Harry nodded eagerly. "Well, before everything happened Stark Industries used to make weapons. I made a trip to some hostile territory in Afghanistan to give a display on a new missile I'd built: the Jericho. Afterwards I was traveling back to the airport with a group of soldiers for protective detail and we were attacked. A group of terrorists called the Ten Rings wanted to kidnap me so that I could build weapons for them. The soldiers were over powered and during the ambush I was hit in the chest—"

"Are you all right?" Harry gasped sending nervous glances towards Tony's chest.

Tony couldn't help but grin. It was kind of nice to have someone hang on his every word the way that Harry was. It was pure interest in his story not like other people who wanted to use the information to sell papers or use it as some form of blackmail. Harry was actually concerned for Tony's wellbeing not Tony Stark: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist. It was also nice that Harry had no biases from an outside source. His opinion about Iron Man hadn't been influenced by the media, and Tony was free to give him his own personal view on the events without any previously formed prejudices.

"I'm fine now. But you see some shrapnel, little pieces of metal, got stuck around my heart. To save me the terrorist group got a doctor to try and save my life. The best he could do was put an electromagnet in my chest to keep the pieces from moving any closer to my heart. His name was Yinsen and he saved my life, more than once. Anyway while I was trapped I updated the device the good doctor put around my heart. I needed a power source to continuously power the electromagnet. So I made the arc reactor. See?" Tony pulled down the neck of his shirt so that Harry could see the glowing blue circle lodged in the center of his chest. "This little baby will keep me going for a long time. Of course I've made several improvements since the original. It's also what's going to put me on the map for being the only name in clean energy."

Harry's eyes widened and his hand moved as if to touch it but he pulled back at the last moment. He shyly met Tony's gaze.

"It's okay you can't hurt it, you can touch it if you want," Tony assured him.

"Er, um that's okay. I better not," Harry mumbled looking uncertain as he gazed at the arc reactor in Tony's chest.

Tony shrugged. "Well, anyway the terrorists wanted me to build them the Jericho. But instead I started building my very first and very crude suit of armor. It was actually pretty good if I do say so myself for being built with a couple of scraps inside a cave. Once it was almost done I used it to break out. But Yinsen didn't make it. He sacrificed himself to give me the chance I needed to escape."

For a moment Tony couldn't continue, remembering just how much of an amazing man the doctor had been. One of those rare, genuinely good people. If wasn't for him Tony wouldn't have changed. Sure it wasn't much he was still volatile and self absorbed but he did make Tony want to at least try to be a different person, a better person. If it wasn't for him he never would have escaped or become Iron Man. All the people he had saved since then were in large part thanks to him. He really couldn't have done any of it without Yinsen.

"I'm sorry," Harry said softly. His eyes full of understanding and sorrow. Tony could see that the kid actually got it. That he understood where Tony was coming from and that was more than what he had expected from an eleven year old. What sort of eleven year old understood about the burden of another person sacrificing their life for yours? Apparently Harry. The question was how?

"Me too kid, me too. So I built the suit, stopped making weapons, and decided to put a stop to all the groups that were terrorizing innocent civilians. Since then I've had a few other little adventures," Tony mused thinking back to Obi, Vanko, and Hammer.

"You really are a hero," said Harry looking a bit starry eyed. Maybe Tony was giving him the wrong impression about what he was really like but before he could correct him Harry asked eagerly, "Will you tell me about your other adventures?"

"Sure, I don't see why not," Tony grinned, glad to have an enthusiastic audience to his exploits. He wasn't sure why but he wanted Harry to see him as a hero. He wanted him to be proud that Tony was his real father and not Lily's husband like he'd grown up believing. He wanted to outshine whatever stories Harry had been told about this other man. He was Tony's kid, and he felt a strange surge of jealousy to think that Harry might prefer Lily's husband over him.

Tony gave him a rundown of everything that had happened to him since he became Iron Man. He left out the bad things like his almost dying from the palladium core in his previous arc reactor. There was no need to worry the kid too much. He did describe in detail how he ended up kicking Vanko's robots' butts even showing Harry clips of video from the fight. It was while showing him these videos that he realized Harry was smart. Not just normal smart either but probably genius level. Lily had been uncommonly intelligent and he had graduated from MIT at 17 so it did make sense that any child they had wouldn't exactly be an idiot. Still Tony hadn't been expecting it. When Tony talked about the thrust reactors and the various other parts of his suit he hadn't expected Harry to be able to understand what he was talking about so he'd dumbed down the explanations. But Harry did know and if he didn't know right off the top of his head it only took a quick explanation for him to figure it out, and give insightful feedback about it.

This new awareness of Harry's intelligence was exciting to him. It gave Tony a way to connect with Harry because he had no other clues on how to interact normally with kids. He'd been worried that he wouldn't have anything to talk about with Harry, and was relieved that they actually had something in common. Tony had started testing Harry's knowledge by upping the level of difficulty in their discussion. He was ecstatic when Harry was able to keep up with him and was actually as enthusiastic about mechanics and engineering as Tony was.

"I've always wanted to build my own robot but I've never gotten the chance to. The Dursleys wouldn't even let me watch the tellie let alone give me spare parts to build my own remote control car," Harry said with a pout.

"Well, I can't let any kid of mine reach his twelfth birthday and not have built his own robot. I built my first engine when I was six you know," Tony bragged.

"Really?" gasped Harry looking excited.

"Yup, now let's go down to my workshop. I have everything that you could possibly need to build yourself the most bada— awesome robot ever. But FYI no building any doomsday devices. Pepper would kill me if I let you do that," Tony informed him seriously.

"I won't," Harry assured him just as seriously.

The two of them headed towards his workshop. He wasn't sure if he should be letting an eleven-year-old use a soldering iron or a blowtorch but he was supervising and Harry seemed like a pretty responsible kid. Besides Tony had taught him how to use all the equipment beforehand, and he'd used tools like that when he was Harry's age and he was fine. Tony wasn't sure how long the two of them were in the workshop but it was surprisingly fun. Harry was a whiz and soaked up all the information that Tony imparted to him like a sponge. By the end of their bonding session they'd built a remote control monster truck that could transform into a small robot and shoot flames. Harry named his creation Tank and the huge smile on his face as he tested it out made Tony feel oddly lighthearted.

He'd only known the kid for a couple of hours and he was already feeling sappy towards him. It was definitely a strange feeling. He honestly hadn't thought he was capable of it. When he'd first realized the truth about Harry his first thought had been there must be someone else who could take him. But when Pepper told him his relatives had come to drop him off and that his mother had died, he knew there was no escaping the responsibility. He then came to the decision, after freaking out a bit, that he would at least try to make an effort to be a semi-decent father. It was obvious the kid didn't have anywhere else to go, and going with Tony couldn't possibly be worse then ending up in foster care. He didn't want to be the same absentee type of father that his own had been. But he hadn't been expecting to make a connection to Harry so early on in their relationship. He still had no idea if he was capable of being a father but after spending time with him he at least knew that he wanted to attempt it.

"Master Stark, Miss Potts would like me to inform you that she has ordered pizza and that she is in the penthouse waiting for you and Master Harry," Jarvis informed.

"We better go, Mini Me, Pepper does not like to be kept waiting when pizza is involved," he told Harry.

"Ahhhh," Harry whined looking disappointed.

"Bring the car. Just don't make it transform or shoot fire balls," Tony offered.

Harry grinned, and scooped up his new toy before following Tony into the elevator.

"Thank you, for everything, Tony," Harry gushed, green eyes bright with happiness. "Today was so much fun. The only other person I've ever really talked to about this stuff is my friend Hermione, she's really smart too. She's a bit too practical though. She likes to follow the rules and keeping things structured. She'd tell the professors for sure if I ever tried to build a fire breathing robot."

"Sounds like Pepper. Always taking the fun out of things," Tony mused. "But I had fun too kid, we'll do it again sometime, okay?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically the simple statement seemed to make him even happier and it was weird to Tony that he was the cause of that happiness. He was pretty sure he had never made anyone that happy before with so simple a gesture.

When they made it back to the penthouse Pepper was flopped in one of the armchairs looking exhausted. Surprisingly Harry's owl was perched on the arm of the chair and was allowing Pepper to pet her. The thing was definitely an interesting pet choice and surprising enough it did seem pretty smart. More than he was expecting from a bird. He wondered where he had gotten it and just who had given it to him. The bird just better not crap all over his penthouse. Pepper looked frazzled and Tony knew that the conference with the Dursleys must have been difficult for her to show physical signs of her stress. She was normally always Miss Cool, Calm, and Collected. When she saw them step out of the elevator she forced a large grin.

"What have you got there, Harry?" she asked brightly.

"A remote control car," Harry enthused.

"Very neat, did you build it?"

"Yup! Well Tony helped a little," Harry added sheepishly.

"Did he?" Pepper's eyes narrowed on him in suspicion.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It's completely kid safe," Tony assured, crossing his fingers behind his back as he lied to her.

"Uh huh." She didn't look too convinced but she seemed too tired to press the issue. "You did a great job Harry and I'm glad you finally got the chance to do what you've always wanted. Here, I bet you both are hungry. I ordered us a couple of different kinds of pizza. I wasn't sure which kinds you liked, Harry."

"I don't know, I've never had pizza before," replied Harry looking over the selection curiously.

"Never had pizza! Where have you been that doesn't have pizza? It must be a dark, terrible place. A wasteland, where dreams go to die," Tony gasped clutching his heart and making Harry laugh. But inside Tony was kind of concerned over why a kid his age would have never had pizza before. Pepper was frowning darkly and even the bird seemed to be scowling. Tony was now more curious as to how Pepper's meeting with the Dursleys went. There had been several irregularities he'd noticed while spending time with Harry and he wanted to get to the bottom of them.

"Well, go on grab a slice, let's see how you like it. New York City pizza is some of the best out there. So if you don't like then there's something wrong with you." Tony waved him towards the pizza boxes.

Harry took a slice of cheese pizza and took a bite chewing slowly.

"Well?" Tony demanded impatiently.

Harry looked thoughtful for a moment his expression carefully neutral until a wide stretched over his face. "It's really good."

"Good, cause if you hadn't liked it you would have been disowned." Tony grinned and grabbed his own slice as he flopped down on the couch.

Harry laughed and Pepper rolled her eyes before turning to Harry asking him how he liked his new room and said that tomorrow she would take him shopping for new clothes while the decorators got his room ready for him. That was another thing Tony had made a note of. Harry was in serious need of some new clothes. The ones he was currently wearing looked five times too big for him and they looked like hand-me-downs at best and rags at worst. Yeah he definitely needed to hear more about these Dursleys but he had a feeling he wasn't going to like what he heard.

Pepper was very good at talking to Harry. She was kind but authoritative and Tony would forever be eternally grateful for her. He was pretty sure that if she wasn't here he'd be having a full scale melt down right about now, like crying in a corner and rocking back and forth bad, over the fact that for the next six almost seven years he was going to be legally responsible for a kid and all that it entailed. He knew there was no way he could do it alone.

"So Harry now that Tony has custody of you, we can change your last name or you can keep it as Potter which would you prefer?" Pepper asked. "You don't have to make a decision right this minute of course, it's just something I'd like you to think about and I wanted to give you that option if you wanted it."

Harry looked nervous and glanced at Tony out of the corner of his eyes. "Well, I'm not really a Potter now am I? So I guess being a Stark wouldn't be too bad. I mean if you want me to be?"

It seemed to be some sort of test for Tony. But Tony honestly didn't understand what the kid was getting at. "I don't have a problem with you being a Stark. Of course you'll have to make sure to live up to the legacy. After all we Stark men are known for our dashing good looks, our brains, and our killer charm with the ladies."

"Tony," sighed Pepper with a roll of her eyes.

Harry smiled. "Okay, I'll change my name to Stark. Um well my middle name is James is that okay?"

"Do you want to change it?" Pepper asked gently.

Harry again looked contemplative. "I don't think so, if that's okay?"

"Sure, kid its absolutely fine," Tony assured. The kid did deserve to have a bit of stability.

"So Harry tell us more about you? What are your favorite subjects in school? Who are your friends?" Pepper questioned.

After a little more prompting and assuring that they both really wanted to hear the answers, Harry launched into a long winded story about his love for engineering, his two bests friends Hermione and Ron, and how he wanted to some day fly. They learned he had attended a boarding school for the first time this year in Scotland. He described the teachers and the school, which sounded like a pretty impressive old castle, quite a bit but Tony couldn't help but feel he was leaving some important details out. There were several times that he would start telling them a story but then cut himself off midway through and it piqued Tony's interest. It reminded him a bit of his conversations with Lily, and he wondered just what he was hiding. The fact that Harry had avoided all the attempts to give him the name of the school only made him more interested in discovering the truth. He made a note to have Jarvis do a search for boarding schools in castles in Scotland as soon as he could.

After their long discussion the three of them watched a movie. Tony got bored and started flicking pieces of popcorn at Harry. The look of surprise on his face as he threw popcorn at him was hilarious and after only a moment's hesitation he started throwing it back. It ended with Tony being double-teamed and wrestled to the ground while popcorn was tipped down his shirt curtsey of Pepper holding him down while Harry poured. After that Pepper proclaimed it was time for bed.

"But mom, I don't want to go to bed yet," Tony whined.

Harry grinned and nodded in agreement. They might have gotten away with it too had Harry not let out a wide yawn.

"It's almost ten, Tony. And Harry we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, not to mention you're probably still a bit jet lagged. I'll make sure you get all settled in all right?" Pepper offered.

Harry nodded without complaint as Pepper escorted him back into the living quarters. She took the time to tell him the password into their private quarters something Tony hadn't thought of doing the first time around. Tony trailed after them into Harry's bedroom feeling very out of place in the domestic scene as Pepper showed Harry how to use the different faucets on the shower and sink, and that Jarvis controlled the lights so he just had to tell him when he was ready for bed. Hedwig's cage had been settled on a nice stand and the owl had put herself to bed on her perch with her head tucked beneath her wing. Harry's trunk had been put at the edge of his bed and Tony felt strange knowing that that trunk was all Harry had in regards to possessions. It seemed like a kid his age should have had more toys or something.

"Goodnight Harry, tell Jarvis if you need anything and he'll get Tony or I. Anytime of night don't hesitate okay?" Pepper insisted sounding like a worried mother hen.

Harry nodded. "Thank you, Pepper. Goodnight."

Then surprising Harry and Tony, Pepper swept Harry up in a fierce hug. Harry blushed a bright red but he ended up hugging Pepper back just as tightly.

"Goodnight Tony," Harry said giving him a slight, awkward nod.

"Night, kiddo," said Tony ruffling Harry's hair feeling just as awkward.

With that Tony and Pepper left Harry alone in his new room to get ready for bed and headed back to the living room.

"So spill what happened with the Dursleys," Tony demanded.

"Oh my god! They are the most despicable people I have ever met in my entire life," Pepper ranted. "I mean they didn't just not like him. They hated him, Tony. I mean they actually hated a little boy in their care. A baby, Tony. A cute little baby who had done nothing wrong. The sister was a bitter witch of woman and extremely jealous of Harry's mother. So she just decided to take it out on Harry. There were even a couple of times they slipped up and called him a freak. I think they must have been intimidated by his intelligence or something, which they should have been considering they're all as bright as a box of rocks."

"What else did you find out?" he asked feeling his anger threaten to start to bubble up. He decided that it was time he did a search on the Dursleys, Lily, and Harry.

"He's been living with them since he was fifteen months old. They said Harry's mother and stepfather died in some sort of car accident. The sister made it sound like the husband was drunk or something but knowing how hateful that woman is I'm not inclined to believe her. They also went on and on about how they struggled without any other income to support Harry but their obnoxious, pig of a son had an expensive gaming device and nice clothing while Harry obviously got his hand-me-downs. An environment like that can't have been good for his self-esteem. I guess we should be thankful he's as well adjusted as he is. I just don't understand those people. Harry is such a sweet boy. They had to be monsters to go out of their way to be cruel to him." While she had been continuing her tirade she had been pacing back and forth in front of Tony. She only stopped when she finished speaking, and looked at Tony with sad eyes.

Tony felt a peculiar sensation of anger swell in his chest to know that Harry had grown up in a similar environment to his own but even worse. At least he had had nannies and butlers, and free access to anything he wanted. It seemed like Harry had been treated like a very unwanted freeloader being both neglected and mistreated.

"No wonder he was so concerned about getting my approval. Do you think they hit him?" Because if they had he would kill them. It was as simple as that. He'd hire someone to make it look like an accident and that would be the end of them.

"Harry said no when I asked him and I'm pretty sure he was being honest. But what they did was almost worse. I'm sure there's more to the story but according to some of the reading I've done it'll take time for Harry to trust us and talk to us about what his life was like at the Dursleys. I don't know if you noticed but most of what he told us about his life was about the boarding school he attended this past year. He barely even mentioned his life before that except to tell us about how he spent a lot of time in the library of his elementary school."

"Yeah, I noticed. Was there anything else about the Dursleys? Where do they live? Where do they work? What are their hobbies?" Tony asked Pepper in rapid fire. "Jarvis get me everything you can on the Dursleys. Also while you're at it pull up everything on Harry Potter's school records and Lily Potter's death."

"Right away, sir," Jarvis responded in typical fashion.

There were many different ways that he could have his revenge on the Dursleys. He'd just need to hit them where it hurt them the most.

"The little I was able to gather was that they live in Surrey or at least they did. They were planning on moving now that they've been 'compensated' for taking care of Harry," Pepper spat. "In the end I just gave them what they wanted to get rid off them even though they certainly didn't deserve it. I knew we would get them back later once Harry was securely in your custody, and they signed all the waivers so they would never get the chance to contest it or make trouble for you or Harry. I made them sign waivers saying they could never go to the papers or tell anyone anything about what they know about you or Harry. So there's absolutely nothing they can do in regards to blackmail or threats once we go after them and if they do they'll be thrown into a federal prison for twenty years. Either way it will be a win-win situation for us. Anyway the uncle works for a drill company Grunnings or something and the aunt's a stay at home mom. The cousin was just the whiniest little shit in the entire world."

"Wow Pepper, I never expected to hear you speak so badly about a kid," Tony mocked absently while his mind was whirling with plans.

"You would too if you met the kid. Tony, you're going to make these people pay, right? You won't let them get away with this? And I know the responsible thing for us to do is to turn them over to the authorities and let them deal with it, but I think whatever you can dish out might be better," Pepper said hesitantly, nervous about giving Tony such leeway.

Tony grinned evilly. "Of course. No one messes with the Tony Stark. It's nice to have you on board for once, Pepper. Together I'm pretty sure we can make the Dursleys lives a living hell."

"Good," Pepper grinned back just as fiercely.

Tony's grin widened. If he had more of a heart he might have almost felt sorry for what was in store for the Dursleys but he didn't so he would enjoy every second of making their lives miserable. Did they really think they could take money from Tony Stark after the way they had treated his kid? Did they think they could just waltz in demanding his money and practically forcing him to buy his kid from them? Obviously they didn't know anything about him or what a vindictive son of bitch he could be. There was a reason people had called him the Merchant of Death before they called him Iron Man. Tony Stark had more resources and more weapons at his disposal than any man on Earth. He could kill them and get away with it and what was more he wouldn't lose a wink of sleep over it. No the Dursleys would be quivering in their boots if they knew what kind of man it was that they had pissed off.

He settled down on the couch and scanned the information that Jarvis managed to bring up on Harry and Lily first. He remembered then that he had done a search on Lily before to see if she had indeed been genuine when they first met. One could never be too careful when one was as rich as himself. He was able to prove that a Lily Evans did exist and her picture matched her face. He found the records of where she was born, where she had grown up and where she went to school up until the age of eleven. After that he could barely find anything on her except for the article on the death of her parents in some sort of gas leak that led to an explosion and her marriage license to a James Potter who he couldn't find anything on. His search on her now was barely any more successful. He did find Harry's birth certificate and an announcement of the deaths of Lily and James Potter. But the cause was listed as a gas explosion too, which was a bit too much of a coincidence for Tony. Had Lily's family been involved in something that led to their deaths? And it said Harry had somehow survived the explosion. How did that work? It just didn't seem plausible, unless he had been in a different part of the house and the house had been large enough for that area to not have been affected. The police report was far too vague for Tony's liking.

Leaving that for later he then looked over Harry's school records. His first year of school he passed with flying colors and there was even a note from the teacher that said they should seriously consider moving him up a grade but the request was denied by his legal guardians. The next year however Harry did extremely poorly and the teacher had notes about him being disruptive and having behavioral problems. The next few years followed in a similar pattern. Notes from parent-teacher conferences said that the Dursleys agreed with this assessment of Harry's character and blatantly told teachers that Harry was a nuisance at home as well. Going on a hunch Tony brought up the grades of Harry's cousin and found that they were mediocre at best. Tony seethed with the realization that the Dursleys must have ordered Harry not to get better grades than his tub of lard cousin. He was relieved that Harry hadn't let the Dursleys keep him from educating himself. Who knows, if things had been different they might have killed Harry's interest in school all together. Tony did wonder if he should start looking for a tutor for Harry but he figured there would be more than enough time for that once he was settled in better.

The other strange thing he found was that the records for this boarding school didn't match up. The Dursleys had stated their reasons for not sending him to the public school was that they were sending him to St Brutus Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. But there was no record of a Harry Potter ever attending which was a good thing for the Dursleys because Tony would have killed them if they had actually sent him to that horrible place. But then where had Harry been for the past year? Tony really didn't like not being able to find out. People were supposed to be able to find out anything on the Internet and Tony was one of the best hackers out there. Wherever Harry had been they obviously didn't file their records on a hard drive.

The information Jarvis found on the Dursleys was basically the same as what Pepper had told him. The uncle was a mediocre drill salesman, the aunt a stay at home mom who liked to throw dinner parties, and the overweight cousin was an idiot and a bully. He was disgusted to see that they made a very comfortable living. There was no reason whatsoever that they couldn't have afforded better clothes for Harry besides pure spit. He was also so much skinner than their own small whale so he knew they must not have been feeding him the same amount. He had decided to watch the security videos of the Dursleys just to see the way they acted for himself. He was disgusted by their behavior and the way they constantly referred to Harry as a brat or simply the boy and at worse they called him a freak.

Tony noticed that all of the vacation tickets or hotels that they booked were just for three people, which meant they had left Harry behind. There was a pattern forming one he really didn't like. He grew more and more enraged with these people the more he learned about them and the urge to spoil Harry rotten was growing just as bad. He realized that if they had been too cheap to buy him clothes that actually fit him then would have probably been way too cheap to buy him birthday and Christmas presents. The thought that Harry might never have gotten birthday or Christmas presents made Tony almost physically ill. At that point he knew nothing he did to the Dursleys could be considered too awful or cruel. He would put feelers out so he would know exactly where they ended up moving to, and make sure someone was always watching them to learn their habits. He wouldn't do anything to them just yet he wanted to bide his time, let them think they were safe and then he'd pounce.

The Dursleys wouldn't know what hit them. He'd make their lives hell by doing little things at first. He'd hire people to sneak in and mess with their plumbing, electricity and furniture until they thought they were going crazy. He would mess with their pasts, ruin their credit scores, and wipe out any record of graduating from high school or college. He'd give out their National Insurance Numbers, and make credit cards in their names and hand them out for people to use. He'd have someone stage a break in and trash their home and steal their most valued possessions. He would destroy their vehicles and get the uncle fired from his job without any chance of getting a new one considering by then his records would be nonexistent and his credit would be down the drain. He'd get dirt on them then spread the rumors to all the neighbors since they were people that cared about their proper public image. He'd stop their bill payments from going through so they would they lose their house and he would lock up their bank accounts to keep them from getting access to the money they'd demanded from him to try and support themselves. Then once they were sufficiently cowed and broken, Tony himself would pay them a visit. After he was through with them he'd give them the option to turn themselves over to the police or let Tony crush them completely. He'd also spend the time to teach the fat bully a thing or two. It would be wonderful and he couldn't wait to start. They were going to regret the day they had made an enemy of Tony Stark.

Tony was then reminded that he had a lot of enemies. It was really going to be imperative that he keep Harry a secret from the general public for as long as he could. People would use Harry to get to him and he didn't want to put the kid in that kind of danger. He was determined to even keep the information from SHIELD since he didn't trust their security systems or their motives. He was already making the arrangements to turn Harry's identity into the best-kept secret in the world. He was building all sorts of different firewalls and codes protecting the files, which named Harry as his biological child and his ward. He also had Pepper draw up some of the most airtight contracts for any workers that may come into contact with Harry, and for those who already had. He knew they could still talk on pain of death. Realistically he knew that he couldn't completely isolate the kid from the world that eventually the secret would get out. He would just try to keep it a secret for as long as he could. And when the truth did get out he would protect him to the best of his ability and that's all he could do. After the years he'd suffered with the Dursleys he deserved the most comfortable and safe life Tony could provide.

Thanks for reading!