Chapter 12: Spending Time at the Mall
Thanks for all the reviews.
Still not up to writing every day. My schedule is all wonky. I think I got three hours sleep the last three nights. I also wanted to remind you that this is supposed to be crackish. If my muse cooperates.
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They spent the rest of the day exploring Illuminate Mall, which was fascinating to most of them. Ivy loved all the new magical items and Tony was more than willing to indulge her in buying what caught her attention. She was now sporting new baby blue robes over her cute little powder pink shorts suit. There was a matching baby blue witch's hat with a pink ribbon on her head, and she looked adorable.
The Avengers decided to keep their non-magical attire, but they did look into some of the footwear which looked far more comfortable than normal shoes. Bruce and Steve both got some dragonhide boots. Steve even got a pair that matched his costume. The man who made them thought it strange that he wanted calf-high boots dyed in dark blue, but he made them anyway.
Tony bought several pairs of leather dress shoes to go with his collection that he had back at the tower. He didn't understand what kind of leather, but he did know they weren't from cows. The difference was that the magical shoes never lost their shine and had comfort spells on them, including a temperature spell so his feet never got hot.
The women did get some shoes as well, including Ivy, that were far more comfortable than anything that they could buy in the non-magical world. There would be no pinched toes or sore heels for them. Ivy's were sensible little girl's shoes that matched her current outfit in baby blue.
The Asgardians had better shoes from their home world. At least in their opinion.
They did get some things that would help train Ivy too. Though there wasn't much that were ranged in her age bracket. There were some dummies that would fire light spells, but they didn't want something so noticeable in the tower. So, they got a ball that would do the same thing. It would fire color spells instead of stinging hexes. It was for older children, but they thought they could make a game of it for Ivy, and she seemed to agree. The color spells were washable, so there wasn't a worry about permanent stains. They thought it would be a good idea to use it for the whole group.
There was a ball that would evade capture, that one had to catch as it rolled on the ground. The man who sold it said it was training for budding Quidditch players. There was also one for those that would play the Beaters, but they would need to be hit away. Tony bought those too. Along with the Beater Bats. He got the rule book for Quidditch, and Quadpot. Thinking they would need to know the local sports as well.
They got to make a good dent in Tony's new Gringotts' account. Well, not much of one, but the thought was there.
Tony was correct, he and Bruce bought out the bookstore. They fell on the bookstore like a swarm of locust, and bought a copy of each book that they sold, except the Ivy Potter books. They also wiped out the inventory of each of the second-hand stores. Tony had had to buy a special trunk that had library capabilities to store them all. It was a good thing Remus knew about them, and he had told Pepper about them before they went to help Sirius, or an entire floor of the tower would have been dedicated to the books alone.
They were roaming the Mall looking for where to go next when Ivy decided for them.
"I want to go there, Mr. Tony," Ivy said from her place on Natasha's hip. They had been taking turns carrying her around. Not that the girl couldn't walk, but they were all taller than her, and didn't want her to run to keep up with them. She was pointing to a gadget store. The storefront was loud and bright.
"Oh, that does look like a fun place," Tony said, steering their group to the store. It had a lot of whirling gizmos in the window. They were puffing away with little burst of steam, or spell light, and making whizzing noises.
"What do you think they are for?" Bruce asked, peering close to one of the gizmos. It was standing like a soldier but looked like a bugler. The instrument raised one arm and started blasting a noise that sounded like a car horn.
"That one is to let me know when people are too close to the exhibit," a man said from behind them.
They all twirled around to see a mountain of a man. They all gaped at him, and Ivy giggled and clapped her hands. He wasn't as big as the Hulk, but it was a close call.
"Hello," Ivy said to the man in her sing-song voice. She waved at him from under her witch's hat. She looked so cute.
"Hello, to you too, little princess," the man said, holding out a trinket that he produced from nowhere. It looked like a flower that was made of plastic. Though that couldn't be right, there were no plastics here in the magical world. "This is a new experiment of mine," he said to Ivy, still holding out the flower.
"Really?" the little girl asked, taking the trinket. "What does it do?" she inquired, smelling the sweet smelling flower. "Oh, it smells like daisies," she exclaimed, putting it back to her nose. "Now it smells like roses," she said, delighted.
"That's all it really does for now," the proprietor said with a shallow shrug. "I'm trying to reduce the plastic waste of the world by recycling and creating new lines of products. However, it is slow going," he added, looking to the adults. He handed one to Pepper and Natasha.
"How much?" Tony asked, not wanting to disappoint Ivy. She seemed quite happy with the trinket, and it would last a long time given the material it was made from.
"On the house," the proprietor said, smiling at Ivy. "Why don't you look around and see if there's anything else that catches your attention," the man said, waving to the mass items around the shop. "Most have a card nearby that will tell you what they do," he added, nodding to the placards on the side of the shelves that did indeed say that the bugle boy was an intruder alert.
They did as he suggested and separated and went on their own ways. Ivy, Tony, and Natasha were still sticking together.
Ivy's new way of thinking was going a mile a minute as she took it all in. This was something she could do. She brought the flower to her nose again and this time it smelled like daffodils. So it changed scent each time you smelled it. That was awesome. She was looking at all the gadgets and thinking of Mr. Tony's workshop and wondering if he would let her experiment in there.
"Mr. Tony," she said, getting his attention, "do you think there are books that I can read to get started on doing this?" she asked with bright eyes. She saw another gadget that would cook your eggs to what you wanted them to be, and she smiled. While she thought that was useless, she did admire the work that went into it.
It was run on magic and spells, and she was sure there was rune work, though she only knew what that was and not how it worked. Sirius had told her a bit about it. He had explained enchanting but only that it was rune and spell work. She was sure that was what she was looking at right now.
"Don't you want to wait until you've grown up a bit?" Tony asked, almost feeling guilty for taking some of that innocence away from his little girl. Then again, he was six when he built his first engine. She was starting to be like him. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but it was what he wanted.
"Silly Mr. Tony, I'm still your little bug," she said smiling her brilliant smile at him. "I just want to learn more now, that is all." She looked around the room with wonder and awe, the same way he used to look when he was around his dad's workshop. It was as if she was already assembling things in her head.
"I'll go ask the nice man," he said, hoping there were books so they could all do it together. He didn't want to leave her hanging like his father had done him.
"I want to do my part in making things from plastic too," she said, idly. She wiggled and got down from her perch on Natasha's hip. She started to wander around the store, already imagining how to make each item better and with different sources.
Tony was thinking that Ivy would need to get caught up on her normal education before she dove into the intricates of mechanics. She was only at a five-year-olds level, so she needed a crash course in all she could handle. He and Bruce could help with that, not to mention the Widow. They were all well-versed in homeschooling education. He'd get the three magicals to oversee her magical education. He might have to talk Sirius and Remus into starting her early. However, it was for the best. He was sure Loki would jump at the chance to teach Ivy whatever he could.
As it turned out, there were quite a few books on the subject. They already had some in their collection from the bookstore, so they purchased what they didn't have and called it a day. But first they swung by the hospital and checked on Sirius and Remus. Tony never got the call he had been expecting and everyone was getting worried that there was more wrong with Sirius than initially thought.
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"We're here checking on Sirius Black," Tony said to the receptionist, who was tapping her wand on a piece of paper. The hospital was like any other, but for the patients. There was a man with his foot in his hand. Literally. He seemed so calm about it too. There was a lady who had flowers growing out of her arm and she too seem undisturbed by this. There wasn't the normal moaning or groaning that one would find in a normal emergency waiting room.
She looked over the list of patients and said, "He's on the seventh floor. In Dr. Thomson's office." She looked back at him, and her eyes widened in recognition. "Mr. Stark, sir," she added.
"Thank you, Rose," Tony said, reading her nametag, and then directing everyone to the elevators. They had to take two separate elevators, but they were lucky, and both arrived at the same time. They took them up and found themselves at another receptionist's desk. Giving the inquiry again, they were directed down the hall.
There was a waiting room at the end of the hall with some toys for Ivy to play with. They all took seats and waited, picking up magazines or cruising the internet on their phone, as their nature dictated. A nurse came in and asked why they were there.
"We're here waiting on our friend, Sirius Black," Bruce said, standing and going to her so that he didn't have to speak loudly. He was about her height, so he didn't tower over her like the rest of the group would, bar Tony, who was also not tall.
"Oh, I will let the Doctor know that his friends are here," she said as she hurried away. The man they were waiting for had been here for the better part of the afternoon talking to the doctor. Dr. Thomson had canceled all his appointments for the rest of the day just to talk with the man. It was a good thing that the other doctors had picked up the slack.
"I hope they were able to regrow Mr. Sirius' happy bone," Ivy said from where she was playing with a flying doll. It looked like a wizard that was perched on a broom. It only went a few inches off the ground, but it would zoom for a moment if you nudged it, then stop. Ivy was watching it to see what made it tic, and Loki was watching her pick the mechanics apart.
"I think that will take a bit longer than one day," Pepper said, knowing that mental distress wasn't healed that quickly. Then again, they were talking about magic. She had noticed the lack of stress in the emergency room, and she wondered if maybe they had cured the man in such a short time.
"I'm sorry to say she is correct," a man said from the doorway. Sirius and Remus were standing behind him, but they came into the room when he waved them forward. "I can't tell you what is going on with Mr. Sirius," the doctor said to Ivy, squatting down to her level. "However, I can tell you that regrowing his happy bone will take time and plenty of kisses from princesses," he said, touching her forehead.
"I have plenty of kisses," she said, smiling at him. She knew they were telling her that her kisses would help, but her new insight was saying that it was just something that adults told kids. Still if kissing Mr. Sirius would help, then he'd get all the kisses he could handle. She knew that it helped her when they hugged and kissed her when she was feeling scared or worried. So maybe there was some truth to it.
"That is good to hear," the doctor said, standing to address the adults. "Sirius needs all of your support in the coming weeks. He will go through a gamut of emotions due to the potions I will be putting him on. I can tell you that he will not be a danger to himself or any of you," he said, pointedly looking at Ivy.
"Should we hire a nurse?" Tony asked, also looking at Ivy. He would feel better if there were fulltime magical medical personnel around.
"I don't think that will be necessary, though I won't stop you from hiring one," Thomson said with a small smile. "However, your support should be enough. Here is your prescription," he said to Sirius, handing him a piece of paper with his potions and instructions written on them. "Don't miss a dose and you'll be right as rain in no time," he said with a confident smile.
"I can't thank you enough for all the time you've spent explaining it all to me," Black said, knowing that the man had spent an extraordinarily large amount of time with him. When he had come in, he thought he'd be here for an hour at the most. Then when he told the doctor his story the man had given him his undivided attention.
"I have never been around someone who was in Azkaban like you, or for as long as you were, so you were doing me a favor as well," Thomson said, making a few notes in his notebook that he had taken out of his breast pocket.
"I hope you can publish your paper," Sirius said, more than willing to be the subject of that documentation. It might open the public's eyes to how wrong the dementors were. They might finally get rid of the foul creatures.
"Do you have a number I can contact you at?" the doctor asked, hoping he did. He knew that Mr. Black was a British pureblood, so it was wishful thinking.
"You can call the tower," Tony said, handing him a card with Jarvis' number on it. "Jarvis will connect you to him," he added, pointing to the number to use. "You can leave a message if he's not there," he added, making sure the man knew that Sirius would get in touch with him somehow.
"Thank you," Thomson said, taking the card and tucking it in his notebook. "I'll contact you if I need anymore information," he told Sirius and then nodded to everyone else.
"Bye, Doctor," Ivy called from the back, making the man turn and wave to her. Even if she was changing the way she was thinking, she still liked to be polite. She would make sure that those around her were as happy as she was.
"So, you're okay?" Steve asked, coming up to Sirius as they walked down the hall to the elevator. They were going to have to split up and Ivy, Tony, Sirius, Remus, and Steve were going to be the second group.
"I'll get there," Sirius said, holding up the paper with is potion prescription on it. "They can do wonders with potions," he added knowingly.
"And it's not just to treat the symptoms?" Steve asked, knowing that was the way most mental health was treated in the non-magical world. Not from lack of trying, but there was no cure for mental illness.
"No, this will put my brain back to where it was before I was incarcerated," Sirius explained, not sure what he meant by treat the symptoms. Though he had an inkling. The doctor had explained that what was going to be a cure for him, would not work in the normal world. Sirius had asked about Tony's PTSD, but the doctor said there was nothing to be done for the man here at this hospital. Tony was a non-maj, so he could not help him.
"Can anyone take it?" Captain America asked, wondering if it would work on Tony.
"No, only magicals can take potions," Remus answered, going into lecture mode. "I know it sounds wrong, but there is a spark in us that react to the properties in potions that non-magicals don't have," he explained in the simplest of terms. "I have tried to give our cold cure to non-magicals and all it did was give them diarrhea. I would not recommend anything stronger," he added, making sure that the captain understood he was not just blowing wind. They were on the elevator now and going down.
"You have a cure for the cold," Tony asked, jealously. "I would kill for that," he said with a pout.
They had rejoined the first group. Pepper giggled and patted him on the back. "Poor Tony. He hates being sick," she explained. "He says it's a waste of time and resources," she said with another giggle, which caused Ivy and Natasha to giggle too, and the men to chuckle.
They stopped and got Sirius' prescription and continued the conversation.
"The Asgards too have a cure for the common cold," Thor said from his place in the back of the group.
"Yes, but like the magicals, only Asgardians can take it," Loki pointed out. He had been unable to use it as a child. They told him it was an allergy, but now he knew it was his physiology. It was a good thing he had not been a sickly child.
They were now on their way out of the Mall.
"I wonder if you could get me a sample of this cure," Bruce said to Remus. "I might be able to find something in it that can help humans," he added at the inquiring looks. "We are not that far apart on the biological ladder. If I can isolate what the cure is, then I might be able to create one for us," he mumbled, already going over what he would need in his lab to do his research.
"I can help with that," Remus said more than happy to be of help. "I'm better at potions than Padfoot," he said, nudging his friend.
"Better you than me," Sirius said, laughing. The potions that had been given to him were working already. He felt much lighter than he had when they started the day. He took Ivy from Pepper and swung her around. "Thank you," he said, kissing her on the forehead.
"What for?" she asked, laughing at his antics.
"For being a perfect little angel," he said, peppering her face with little kisses.
"Mr. Sirius, stop," she squealed, giggling her new giggle, making everyone around her smile.
"Okay," he said, placing her on his hip. "Let's go home. I feel like Chinese tonight," he said to the group.
"Sounds good to me," Tony said more than happy to see someone was feeling better. He was a bit jealous that Sirius got a cure for his ailment, while he, Tony, had to suffer through his emotional rollercoaster, but it was still nice to see Sirius so lighthearted.
The rest of the group agreed to Chinese. Tony had Jarvis call in their order so it would be there by the time they got there. Remus, Loki and Sirius had shrunk all the packages, so they weren't ladened down with them as they trekked to the limo. It was the only car that Tony had that would seat them all.
"We need to find a better way to get around town," Tony said as Happy merged into traffic.
"Not all of us can fly," Steve said with Clint and Bruce nodding in agreement.
"We could talk to MACUSA to see if you can hook up to the floo network, or if Sirius and I can make portkeys," Remus suggested, rubbing his chin in thought.
"I need to go and speak to them anyway. I have to report Dumbledore's aborted attempt to kidnap Ivy," Tony said, indicating the sleeping girl on his shoulder. She had fallen asleep as soon as the limo started driving.
"What is MACUSA?" Steve wanted to know, though the rest of the Avengers and Loki looked just as curious.
"The Magical Congress of the United States of America," Sirius said, a bit gleefully. "They don't like Dumbledore any more than we do," he added at their inquiring looks. "They think he should have acted earlier on the last two wars." He agreed with the American government.
"Well, it sounds like we have them in our corner," Tony said, happily. "I'm still bringing a lawyer." There were things that might trip him up if he didn't have someone there to explain the laws to him.
"That sounds like a good idea," Pepper said, knowing that it never hurt to bring one to talks with the government. They didn't have a good track record with the American government since Afghanistan. Tony's shutting down the weapons department was a huge blow to their relationship with them. Iron Man didn't help.
"I'll go with you," Loki said, wanting to see the government in work. He did wonder how much different the democracy worked to Asgard's monarchy.
"I think you showing up in any government office would be a declaration of war," Tony said, shaking his head in the negative.
"I think he's right," Bruce agreed.
"Very well," Loki said, disappointed, but understanding that it would take years, if not decades, to overcome what he had tried to do.
"I forgive you, Mr. Loki," Ivy said, reaching over and putting her hand on his arm. She had woken when they started talking about that mean man. She had only been dozing anyway.
"Thank you, Miss Ivy," Loki said a lone tear in his eye. He blinked it away, not sure why her forgiveness would affect him this much. She had not even been there. "I just hope more people will do the same," he said, giving her a sad smile.
"I'll just tell them about you and they will have too," she said simply as if it were fact. She knew that people listened to her. Accept her Aunt Petunia, everyone had always believed her when she talked. Not that she ever lied, she was a good girl. But they believed her over her aunt when the woman had tried to say mean things about her.
"You do that, little bug," Tony said, kissing the top of her head. He could only hope that she kept some of that innocence now that her brain was working on a genius level. So far, it seemed to which was a relief. "We might even hold a press conference," he added, thinking it might be a good idea, once it got out that both Ivy and Loki were living with him. He couldn't hide the fact that they were there forever.
"Oh, that's a lot of people," Ivy said, her eyes wide. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. She liked the idea of speaking to a lot of people. They would all be nice to her and believe what she told them. She was sure of it.