Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, there are references to canon child abuse and a hospital setting. There's also brief referenced ableism. Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: I'm on a bit of a roll. I may actually manage to complete my self-imposed goal of doing all of the PAW prompts before the end of QL Season 10. I only have two more, and both of them are up over the halfway mark.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Quidditch League (Season 10); Ministry (Spring Year 1); RAVEN (2023); MC4A (Sp-Y6)
Individual Challenges: Red Instead (Y); Marvelously Magical; Quaffles (Y); Xs & Os (Y); Bludgers (Y); Polygon (Y); Magical Blood (Y); How Many Fingers; Colors of the Sky; Magical MC; Old Shoes (Y); Sandbox (Y); Crossing Over; Reader; Cinematic; Binger; Graphic; Gamer; Hospital; Small Fry; Tossed Chum (x3); Laws; Organic Smanic; Ethnic & Present; Neurodivergent (x2); Rian-Russo Inversion; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); The Story Goes On; Eating Cake (Y); Exchange (Y); Greatest Gift (Y); Green Ribbon; Two Cakes (Y); Vial Collector; Bi Bi Bi; Lovely Triangle; Shipwreck; Outer; Traveler; Zed Era; Rainbow Connection; Finders; Hold the Mayo
Team (Position): Wigtown Wanderers (Seeker)
Round (Prompt): Round 10-08 (n/a)
Other QL Challenges: PAW [02] (Spider-Man/Avengers)
Ministry Challenges: Misinformation Office [Tier 1] (Trio Era)
RAVEN Challenges: Settings [107](Plane); Items [59](Heels); Colors [105](Parakeet)
Other MC4A Challenges: Ship (Thorns)[SpBig (Flower; Mirror; Orchard); SpMed1 (They're Idiots, Your Honor); SpMic1 (Soulmate/Soul Marks)]; Chim [Walnut]("Glitter & Gold" – Barns Country; Sienna; Race Bend)
Representation(s):
Desi Lily Evans Potter/James Potter/Tony Stark (Past); Desi Harry Potter & Tony Stark; Autistic Tony & Harry; Pepper Potts; Happy Hogan; Chim Song Prompt; Sharing Secrets
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Middle Name; Mother Hen; Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Rediscovery); Demo 1 (Muck & Slime; Corvid Brain; Civil Disobedience; Three's Company; Shiver & Shake; Grease Monkey; Easy Zephyrr; Lovely Coconuts; Casper's House; Under the Bridge); Demo 2 (Unicorn; Hot Stuff; Wind Beneath; Abandoned Ship; Sitting Hummingbird)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Spare); LiCK (Poppy; Amaranth; Narcissus; Tansy; Yarrow); Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe; Inchworm); CM (Navigate)
Space Address (Prompt): 4E (In Public)
Word Count: 2283 words

(^^)
Worth Everything
(^^)

Tony was mentally tinkering with a potential upgrade to the cleaner bots that maintained JARVIS' server. It was more interesting than whatever Sandover's latest rant about… Actually, now that he thought about it, Tony wasn't completely certain what Sandover's rant was about. Probably about the medical program again. The old guard all hated any production lines that weren't weapons development, even the other six programs that the United States military contracted SI for.

Maybe he should revolutionize another scientific field just to piss off the board.

Bio tech? There was that guy at Columbia who published a paper last month about synthesizing whole blood. What was his name? Something alliterative. Tony would need to review the paper, do a little refresher course. If the research was solid, maybe he could throw money at the project. Those trapped in academia liked grants, especially ones from him because his name tended to keep the government from stealing the research out from under them. Probably because of the combination of his ability to make mountains out of molehills if he wanted and realizing that they would still get access to the research at some point.

His phone gave an insistent buzz. Considering that the only person with his direct number was Rhodey and JARVIS was under strict instructions to play whatever song would annoy the prioritized list of people in his surrounding area, a simple buzz was odd to the point of being actually interesting. Not caring that Sandover was still talking, Tony pulled out his phone and swiped to unlock it.

Immediately afterwards, he stood up and started heading towards the door to the conference room.

"Tony," Obie said as he stood as if he intended to intercept Tony, "where are you going, my boy? Benedict was in the middle of his report."

"And when it has a point, I'll listen," Tony promised without any more intention to follow through than Sandover had of actually caring about how much money SI made through non-weapon tech. "But since it doesn't, I've got better things to do."

Obie didn't follow once Tony was out of the room.

Fortunately, Pepper fell in step with him as he continued towards the elevator. Today's outfit was a very somber charcoal skirt and blazer paired with a parakeet blue blouse and matching heels. He could see the glint of a necklace, probably the tiny sapphire pendant JARVIS authorized her to purchase for her birthday last week. It was a tasteful piece.

"Happy is already waiting downstairs," Pepper said without looking up from her ever-present tablet. There was a pause, which Tony would have expected if his mind wasn't already racing through a labyrinth of memories and predictive scenarios. "He's driving you to the airport."

"Yes," Tony agreed as they entered the executive elevator and began their descent. He could feel the tremors in his hands starting. There was no way that he was fit to drive, especially not through New York traffic. "Will the plane be ready by the time I get there?"

"It's prepping as we speak," Pepper replied, clearly accepting that her unspoken question about Happy driving would go unanswered. That was one of the things that made her such a good PA. Pulling her from the accounting department after she had stormed into his office five years ago was perhaps the smartest interpersonal decision Tony had ever made, just for that alone. "The London house is already being opened as well. A car will be waiting for you and Happy by the time you touchdown at Heathrow."

"Good," Tony muttered. His stomach roiled threateningly. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "That's good. I can work with that."

"What should I tell Mr. Stane about your sudden departure?"

"Tell him—" What in the name of Turing and Lovelace should Obie be told? Tony struggled to order his thoughts enough to come up with a cover story. "Tell him that I had a family emergency."

"Okay," Pepper said. She was putting more weight on the two syllables than they deserved, but Tony didn't want to explain, not before he had a chance to verify the information that JARVIS had sent him. Not until he knew what it even meant. The elevator opened, revealing the private level of the underground parking garage and Happy standing beside the passenger door of a nondescript sedan. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"That will be all, Ms. Potts."

(^^)

JARVIS made sure to keep sending updates to Tony's tablet. Like a starving man presented with a feast, he couldn't stop reading it all. In many ways, he was a starving man presented with a feast. It had been almost five years since the disappearance of the Potters and the discovery that the name was likely an alias. In all that time, the lack of information had nagged at the back of his mind like a hair under a contact.

This might be another while goose chase. He had had quite a few of them over the years. It hadn't stopped him from following up on every single one of them. This was the first one that involved the name Potter as well as other identifying factors. It was also the first that Tony had chased that he knew for certain was not directly either of his missing lovers.

What JARVIS had turned up was a child, for one thing. According to the CPS report, Harry Potter was four years old. He had been living with his maternal aunt since he was fifteen months old. Petunia Dursley nee Evans had been rather vague about how young Harry had come into her care. She had claimed her sister died, which gave Tony a sour stomach to think about, but JARVIS was hitting the same lack of documentation that he had when the Potters had originally gone missing.

Most promising was that Lily Evans was not biologically related to the very white and blond Petunia Dursley. Both Lily and Petunia had been born to their parents' previous relationships. Judging by the names listed on Lily's birth certificate, her mother was Irish while her father was of South Indian descent. JARVIS was still pulling records, but it looks like the latter immigrated a few years before Lily's birth and died when she was three months old. Roisin Murphy then moved from Ireland to England, changing her name a more English sounding Marigold Dimmer, before marrying a widower who also had a young daughter. The newlyweds adopted the child of the other spouse, making all members of the small family share names even if one of them was visibly a different ethnicity from the rest. Everything seemed fairly standard aside from a few young prodigy awards for Lily.

That was, everything was standard up until the school year after Lily turned eleven. At that point, she disappeared from public record for almost a decade when she was named as the executor of her mother and stepfather's wills. After signing over much of the estate's real property to her stepsister Petunia, now married to a man named Vernon Dursley, Lily Evans disappeared again. There wasn't a record of her death, a marriage-related name change, or a birth certificate for the boy found in Petunia's custody. She was just… gone.

It was too much to just be a coincidence, but it also wasn't enough to be a confirmation.

JARVIS added the medical report from the hospital that the CPS worker had taken Harry to after removing him from the Dursley household.

Somewhere over the north Atlantic, Tony decided that even if this boy wasn't the son of his lost lovers, he would be taking him home. No one deserved to be treated like that.

(^^)

Happy did his squint thing at the young guy that the car company had sent to deliver the car. Tony knew that Happy thought it looked intimidating. Because of that belief, Tony didn't have the heart to let his head of security know that all it really did was make him look like he needed glasses. That didn't mean the poor kid felt the same way.

"That's enough, Hogan," Tony ordered, already headed towards the towncar. JARVIS had been monitoring Harry's case (less than legally, but Tony wasn't going to so much as scold him for it). Harry was stable enough that CPS was going to release him as soon as they could find somewhere with an opening. Tony wanted to be at the hospital before that could happen.

Thankfully, Happy left off on his attempt to intimidate the poor guy. Happy handled the half hour drive to Guildford from Heathrow Airport while Tony worked his way through paperwork on his tablet. JARVIS was very thorough. He had already submitted for a paternity test as well. If JARVIS had a body, Pepper might need to be concerned about being replaced.

"Boss," Happy asked as they pulled up to the front entrance of Royal Surrey Hospital, "why are we here?"

"Chasing ghosts," Tony answered as he sent the last document that JARVIS wanted him to fill out. Then he got out of the car and headed inside the hospital.

He knew that Happy would be lurking in the lobby when Tony came back down. There was definitely a lecture in Tony's future for keeping Happy out of the loop like this, but the Potters felt too personal to share with anyone. Not even the head of his personal security.

JARVIS had already given him Harry's room number. He had also slipped Tony's name onto the necessary digital lists to give Tony the permission necessary to just go where he wanted. Which was exactly how he found himself lingering by the viewing window of the playroom for the pediatric ward.

There were only a handful of children playing with the various toys available. Most of them were in small groups or pairs. A little girl was playing by herself with a tea set covered in purple flowers. And in a beanbag near a bookshelf, there was a very small little boy with sienna skin and wild curls that had been allowed to grow longer than Tony ever did his own.

Tony had only been watching for a short time, but the boy had already gone through half of the small stack of books beside him. Harry had long fingers, pianist fingers, and they turned the pages with far more gentleness than a four-year-old should be capable of. His green eyes (so much like Lily's that Tony ached) squint as they move across the page. Every couple of pages, he lifted the thumb of his right hand to his lips, but it never made it past them.

Harry clearly wanted the comfort but wasn't willing to take it. Tony just knew that Petunia probably had the same philosophy about thumb sucking that Howard had had. For all of his flaws, at least Howard had never locked Tony in a cupboard.

"As you can see, Mr. Stark," the doctor continued as Harry finished the book he was on and picked up another from the stack on his left, "Harry exhibits a lack of play drive. He has a similar lack of verbal communication. While his awareness of body language appears increased for a child of his age, he rarely manages to look people in the face, even when instructed to do so. Given his history, these things could be from abuse and neglect." The doctor cleared his throat nervously. "However, I would still suggest Harry be evaluated for autism."

Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath that only had the tiniest of hitches in it. He knew why the doctor would hesitate to voice that suggestion. Howard had been very vocal about his stance on mental health. He had been barely tolerant of PTSD, and that was only if soldiers had it. Despite how the man had been dead for over twenty-five years, people still thought Tony was synonymous with Howard. That was fair to a certain extent.

There was a reason that Tony hadn't been evaluated until after his parents were dead, after all.

"It runs in his family," Tony said, opening his eyes to watch Harry as he set aside the last book. Harry carefully gathered up the stack and carried it to the little bookshelf. He put the books away neatly. His gaze swept across the available selection. Then his shoulders slumped as he obviously recognized that he had read through everything. He returned to the beanbag, emptyhanded. "He's been squinting. Has his vision been tested yet?"

"He had a mild concussion when he was admitted," the doctor answered. At some point, Tony should try to remember the man's name, if only to let Pepper know who to get to sign an NDA. "He also spent a great deal of time in a dark space. Adjusting to normal light levels could present similarly to astigmatism. I would suggest waiting for another four to six weeks before testing his vision." The doctor hesitated again. "Mr. Stark, I know that you're now listed as Harry's guardian, but I must ask what your relationship to him is?"

Pepper and Happy would both yell at him for not letting them prepare for the potential risks of the information being leaked. Rhodey would be mad that Tony had kept the affair a secret from him, especially when Tony rarely kept anything from him. Obie might actually kill him for the scandal of having a child with a married woman. The stockholders could go either way if the news that there was finally a Stark heir.

"He's my son," Tony stated, because Harry was worth everything.