A/N Enjoy,
Disclaimer: I own none of the verse's brought together in the creation of this fic.

Summary: Harry, Wizard, Master of Death, New York PI and friend of Tony Stark has left for England to destroy Loki's scepter. Tony has been left to ruminate on the Wizarding World.

It had been a week since Harry had left for England. Bruce was enjoying himself a couple of floors down in some of the labs while Pepper was overseeing the renovations. Tony couldn't stand watching the builders tramping over what he saw as his building so he'd made his excuses and secreted himself away on some of the lower, undamaged levels. To while away the time, he was on a secure database, trying to find out more about his elusive friend and the new world at his fingertips. And failing, quite miserably. With his real name, he found traces of Harry in the public system when he was a kid. All information however stopped when he was 11 and removed from the public school system. He supposed it was to be expected of a technology shy society. Now to hack S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Hey, sir."

"Tell Pepper I'm off saving some civilians or something."

"She said you'd say that." Happy said, walking into the room and up to the desk.

"Really, those exact words? She's getting better."

"Harry Potter? What are you researching Harry Potter for?"

Tony swiveled to look at Happy, annoyed, "Haven't you learned that it's rude to peer over people's shoulders?"

"Well... wait. Mr Evans is Mr Potter isn't he!"

"Maybe he is." Tony muttered, back to tapping away at S.H.I.E.L.D's defenses "Maybe he's also a wizard." He continued to tap away until he realized that Happy hadn't responded to that last statement. "Wait a sec. You know about Potter?"

Happy shrugged. "I'm just surprised I didn't recognize him. Then again he wasn't such a big thing over here as he was across the pond. I knew the scar was familiar."

"You know about wizards." Tony stated, sipping his coffee, trying to wrap his head around Happy knowing something so amazing that he didn't.

Here Happy looked slightly shifty, "Well yeah, I'm a squib aren't I? I'm more surprised to find that you know! What with the Statute and everything."

Tony frowned, "Squib?"

"Magic parents, no powers meself. Hey, if you want, I could turn up some old articles from the war. Some of the British ones too if you're interested. The archive's not that far from here."

"That." Tony started, "would be great. Specially as it seems that Fury discovered my bug. Dammit." Happy left quietly, leaving Tony to try and find another way into S.H.I.E.L.D's database. Fury had obviously been expecting to be hacked however, so his efforts were to no avail. It was a few hours later that Happy returned, finding him muttering at his monitor, his coffee forgotten and cold.

"Err, sir? I have the papers you wanted."

Tony spun in his chair to face Happy who was holding a fair sized sheaf of newspapers. He handed them to Tony who dropped all but one of the papers on his desk. He flicked the other one open with a flick of the wrist before nearly dropping the thing in surprise. On the front cover was Harry, which in itself wouldn't be that unusual seeing as these were supposed to be articles on him, except for the fact that he was moving. His friend was glaring at him, eyes roving around in such a way that Tony had the impression that picture Harry couldn't actually see him. He scanned the rest of the page. The paper was the Daily Prophet and the headline was "Harry Potter "Disturbed and Dangerous!" He began to read the article, his eyes flickering over the words of this 'Rita Skeeter'.

… regularly collapsing at school…

… scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him)…

…Potters brain affected by the attack…

"Parseltongue?"

"The language of snakes. It's very rare, and associated with dark magic." Tony looked up at Happy who was still lingering a couple of feet away. "These articles are actually before the war broke out but I figured you would be interested."

Tony turned back to the paper, "They aren't very Pro-Harry are they?"

"Well that's when the smear campaign started. After the war, the Prophet didn't even retract its slander or apologize, just got on the Potter train and continued on its way."

"Huh, they're journalists, what would you expect?" Tony snorted, diving back into the article, "Thanks Happy."

He continued through the papers for the next couple of hours drawn in by the story and world of his friend. Part of him still rebelled when it came across some new form of wizardry that seemed ludicrous, but he pushed it aside knowing that at this point that there was little that should surprise him. Occasionally he would flick through a paper to examine other articles; accidents with love potions that went wildly out of control, the threat of uprising from Goblins that apparently ran the Wizarding banks and match reports of a game called 'Quidditch' which was played on brooms. One match had apparently lasted five days. His main attention however was on following the progress of his friend as he went from being slandered a dangerous liar to being heralded as the possible savior and Chosen One to then being labelled as 'Undesirable No. 1' and finally being lorded about as a champion and slayer of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Annoyingly enough, the actual name of this You-Know-Who wasn't mentioned, something which began to grate a couple of papers in. He found upon reaching the end that he still knew very little about his friend. He knew no how others saw him, or wanted him portrayed and it left a bad taste in his mouth. Knowing the surface of what Harry had gone through was difficult enough to digest, facing dragons and evil mazes at fourteen, fighting and winning a war at seventeen was more than Tony would wish on anyone. Not only watching someone die in front of you but also enduring speculation that may you'd killed him yourself? These wizards were morons,

Tony told Jarvis to get the jet ready. He had someone to talk to.

Harry needed a walk to clear his head. He was strolling through London when he heard a beeping noise. He recognized the tone and scrambled for his phone. He looked down at it and noticed that he had over a dozen missed calls. He taped at the keys to bring up a list and saw that they were all from the same number, Tony's. Or rather JARVIS on Tony's behest. He pressed redial and held the phone to his ear.

It was picked up on the third ring.

"You managed to fall off the radar."

"Well yeah, magic does that. What do you want?"

"Can't a guy contact a friend for no other reason than to say hi?"

"Not quite so persistently, no. Wait," Big Ben was tolling in the background, and was being echoed towards him from down the line, "Where are you?"

"Around."

Harry sighed. "You have GPS, meet me at Grimauld Place, in the park."

He hung up and continued his stride, walking quickly now that he had somewhere to be. Tony obviously didn't want to appear too eager as Harry got there first. He leaned against the fence, looking at number 12, where he'd been staying upon coming back to England. Hermione had kept the place in order in his absence with the help of a certain couple of House Elves.

His mind was just wandering to the meeting just then with the Minister when he saw a familiar figure walking towards him.

"Tony."

"Good to see you too, how's the scepter " his friend grinned, removing his sunglasses with his signature grin. Harry returned it.

"Gone. How're the tower renovations going?"

Tony shrugged, "Peppers got them all in hand. What are we doing here then?"

"Before we do anything, I have to ask. How dependent is your arc reactor on electricity?"

Tony frowned at him, obviously trying to figure out why the question relevant. "It isn't It's powered by a whole new element."

"I'm asking because magic tends to mess with electrical things. I wouldn't want the reactor to start faulting, for obvious reasons. That said, if you feel it going at all fitsy, you need to tell me, and we'll get out of there."

"Fitsy?"

"The point stands."

"I understand. What are we doing here then?"

"My home is Number 12, Grimmauld Place."

Tony glanced around, "I know this may come as a shock, but there is no- whoa. Do all wizard's houses do that?"

Harry grinned and clapped Tony across the shoulders, "Only the cool ones. Come on, I'll get you a cup of tea."

Tony followed him up the steps as Harry let him into the house.

"So is this always here, or does it vanish, some sort of alternate dimension?"

"It's always here I guess, as long as you are on the top step you're invisible to the street. But you can apparate onto it, so it's got to be a fixed location."

"So I can see it because..."

"A secret keeper, in this case me, told you it was here. It's a protective charm."

The door opened smoothly and Harry crossed the threshold, pulling off his jacket as he went.

"Paranoid?"

"The previous owners were."

"I trust you had a good day Master?"

"Yes thanks Kreacher, could you put the kettle on?"

"What is that?"

"Winky is doing just that Master."

"What is that?"

"Thanks, Kreacher, this is my friend Tony, he'll probably be staying with us for a while."

"I'll set up a room."

"Hello, right here!"

"Sorry," Harry turned, "Tony, this is Kreacher. He's a house elf. He's served in this house for years. When I inherited the house, he came with it."

Tony was looking in disbelief after Kreacher who'd left up the stairs. "So he's a servant?"

"Yes, though he and Winky react violently to being paid, they just take a couple of days off a month. I tried to pay them in the beginning but the galleons would just show up under my pillow the next day. It's all very well Hermione changing the laws, but it'll be years before the elves accept them. "

"So they were slaves then?"

"Indentured, but their quality of life depended on their family. When I first met Kreacher he was a miserable old sod. Hermione, being a muggle born was outraged when she found out about them and formed SPEW, the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare."

"Spew?"

"Yeah, we magical folk seem to have a tendency towards slightly silly acronyms."

"Your tea is ready sirs! Will you have it in the sitting room?"

Harry looked down at the tiny elf, clad in a small pinafore and apron.

"Thanks Winky, we'll come into the kitchen. Lead the way."

Tony paused to look at some of the pictures lining the hall. As the pictures in the newspapers had been, they were moving. He examined the faces, and realised that he recognised them from Harry's photo album, only in this they were waving at him. He spotted Harry, who was being nudged by the large bearded man who then pointed out at Tony. Mini-Harry waved, and Tony, without thinking gave a small wave with two fingers back.

"That was taken just before their wedding," said Harry, indicating a tall red headed man and a stunning blonde woman by his side. The man had three large red scars running across his face, but he smiled regardless and clutched his fiancée closer to him. A cheeky looking red headed man in front of him, standing next to someone who was obviously his twin stuck his tongue out while his brother doffed his ear. Tony felt his eyes widen.

"He just took his ear off."

Harry just looked bemused, "Yeah, It's become a party trick of his. The kids love it. You coming?"

Tony followed his friend into the small kitchen. He looked around, taking in the old fashioned style and the bronze pots. His eyes were drawn to another 'House Elf' that he was going to assume was female because of the hair and the slightly pointier face.

"Good Day Master Harry." She squeaked as she took cups down from a shelf. She slipped off her foot stool and placed them on the table before bowing to Harry.

"Winky, this is my friend Tony."

"Good Day Mr Tony sir."

"Uh, just Tony please."

A whistling filled the air and the elf darted past the pair of them to lift a kettle off the stove. As she set about preparing the tea- Tony just nodded when Harry asked if the beverage was okay- he sat at the table as Harry took a seat opposite him.

"So what are you doing this side of the pond?"

Tony accepted the empty cup presented to him before looking back at his friend.

"I found some newspapers," Harry merely raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue, "about you, from the War."

Harry sat back, looking contemplative, "That's a fairly cumbersome topic. Still have that list of questions?"

"It only grows."

"Shoot."

Tony was looking straight at Harry's face as he spoke, so naturally the first question that came to mind.

"Your scar, the one on your forehead. Apparently not a car crash."

Harry laughed, shifting to allow Winky to pour the now brewed tea. "Thanks. Yeah. No, not a car crash. That was what my Aunt and Uncle told me growing up. Well if you've read the papers, you've heard of Voldemort?"

"So that's the guy's name! What's with the whole You-Know-Who business?"

"His name is feared. The scar was a result of a killing curse that failed. I'm the only person to survive the curse, the first time when I was only one year old." He grimaced, "That's why I was famous."

Tony in turn was frowning. "That was mentioned in the papers. One year old? Why would anyone, even a crazy tyrant try to kill a baby!?"

Harry sighed, "Tom was a twisted man." And with that Harry launched into the story, describing the life of a boy named Tom Riddle who grew up to be an evil tyrant. Such stories had been debated in the newspapers but the facts mentioned were obscure and conflicting. Harry's on the other hand was surprisingly rich in detail, from his descriptions of how the man changed physically to how the Wizarding world was altered by him and the journeys that the man made. It ended with an extremely vivid description of the man's attack on his parents. Harry's voice changed slightly as he finished the story, growing slightly terser, tipping Tony off to his unsettled-ness in speaking of the events.

"And the curse failed, rebounded everybody thought. Voldemort was gone and I was left with my life and a scar. All because of a prophecy."

"So prophecies are real? Seeing the future and all that jazz?"

"Yup. It's not a highly regarded magic though. Real ability is rare. I took Divination as an O.W.L and that was just a farce. The teacher as capable of real prophecy occasionally but she didn't even realize she did it. The rest was just posturing."

"Like 'muggle' fortune tellers?"

"With candles and incense to boot."

There was a tapping at the window and Tony turned to see a small bird of all things on the ledge outside. Its large amber eyes seemed to be impeaching them to open the window which surprisingly enough Kreacher did, lifting the latch with a crack. The, what he identified to be an owl, hopped into the room before fluttering over to Harry. It set down on the table with a clutter of claws before proffering a leg to Harry. Tony watched with a mutely raised eyebrow as Harry retrieved what appeared to be an envelope from the bird and pet it on the head.

"Thanks Rapier, Tony this is Rapier." He lent back and grabbed a morsel from the jar on the counter behind him and gave it to the owl which promptly gulped it down before making its way to a perch that Tony hadn't noticed previously by the now open window.

"And there is an owl called Rapier because…"

Tony asked as he watched the bird preen itself. Harry had cracked the wax on the envelope, how archaic were these people?

"He's Ron and Hermione's, they named him after Ron's late brother."

Tony had the sneaking suspicion that Harry was enjoying Tony's clueless-ness and decided not to deign the ribbing with a response.

"Sorry for being rude, one moment." Harry scanned the letter, looking up at Tony briefly before reaching some paper from a drawer underneath the owl food jar.

"I shall fetch a quill for sir." Kreacher croaked, darting from the room.

Harry leaned forward, "You know that friend I told you about, the one who was caught up in the S.H.I.E.L.D base when Loki attacked?" He barely waited for Tony to nod before continuing, "Well she's out of the hospital and her in-laws are having a celebration. Any excuse to gather everyone together. Do you want to come? They won't mind. Molly loves an extra mouth to feed and Arthur loves Muggles."

"Sure," Tony replied smoothly and Harry grinned as he took a genuine quill, feather and all from the elf and scribbled a note on the paper that Tony now noticed was too think to be normal paper. Was it parchment?

Harry called Rapier over and tied the note to its leg and released it out of the window. Tony watched it flutter off into the sky.

"You use birds for post."

Harry nodded, "Yup. Every morning at school, hundreds of owls would come to deliver the post. It was a spectacular sight."

"I can imagine," Tony muttered his attention on the window," The impossibility… This house squeezed itself from between two connected houses, how can there be windows? And visible space?"

"I must confess, I know it happens, but I don't know why. You kinda have to accept the unbelievable when magic involved."

That was unhelpful. "Are there no limits?" Tony asked. When he'd found out about magic, his whole world had shifted, everything he knew was solidified in science with its rules and limits. No matter how impossible something seemed, there would always be an explanation because it had to be achievable somehow, even if the methods may be somewhat impossible. But Magic defied all of that. It was the house that brought it home to him. He hadn't really seen this side of magic before now. Rubbing it in was a duster brushing down the shelves by itself in the corner of the room.

"Yes." Harry sat down, "There are many laws, both magical and ministry that govern our people. For example, Food cannot be conjured out of thin air, which is the first of Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

"What are the others?" Tony asked curiously

"Money," Harry asserted, his brow furrowed, "I think. I must confess, I can't remember. It's been years since then. I only remember the first one because it was extremely annoying."

"You are very helpful." Tony sniped. "So do you wizards use normal currency? Or do you just use the cash of the country you're in?"

Later that afternoon, after several refills of tea and quite a number of biscuits, Tony was still asking questions about the semantics of the wizarding world. Occasionally Harry would release snippets of his past in his explanations, a centaur that had been banished from his tribe because he dared to help humans, books which could react violently and take a hand off and so on. It was a while before Tony realized that the conversation had drifted away from the topics he had originally planned to confront Harry about. That was the problem, every answer to a question only raised more and it was easy to get lost in the knowledge.

"So wait, let me get this straight. You can use magic to: Tear people to bits, cut them to ribbons, blow them up, turn them into a menagerie of different creatures, set them on fire, drown them, mutilate them, wipe their memories etc. All very… dangerous, let's say and all horrible things, but only the one that kills you quietly, no pain or anything is the only one that is outlawed, considered 'Unforgivable' next to the torture and mind control ones? There are worse deaths at your wand tips, that do a lot more damage and apparently aren't illegal! What kind of society is this?!"

Harry smiled wryly, "I suppose it's because all those spells can be used for other reasons, non-violent reasons. If you were to use them on a person, then yes, you'd go to Azkaban. Avada Kadavera is very… final. There is no doubt as to your intentions."

Tony hummed to himself and he tapped the table contemplating the information he'd just been given.

"It's nearly time to go." Harry commented, looking down at a pocket watch, a curious gold thing with stars on the dial and a dent on the back. "Come on, I want to show you something."

Tony rose and followed Harry though to a room just off the hall. The first thing he noticed was how empty the room was. Green wallpaper, wooden paneling and an oak floor, Tony would have pegged it for a dining room, except it lacked a big table. He noticed that Harry had turned to the wall behind them so Tony followed his gaze and saw what could only be an intricate family tree.

He let his eyes travel across the names and dates, headed by small stitched portraits. The dates around eye level were recent Tony realized. Well, as recent as the 1900's were. Some of the older pictures looked newer than the surrounding fabric however and he hovered over these. Isla Black, Phineas Nigellus, Cedrella… where did they get these names? These were strange even for Brits!

"They were burned off." Harry informed him, from his shoulder, "Hermione recreated and once fixed it extended." He gestured to Cedrella and traced his finger from her name as it became that of the 'Weasley family. Tony looked ahead, "Hermione, that's your friend right?"

Harry nodded, "Most of the pure-blood families are all inter-related." He informed Tony- "It was all about keeping the blood pure. Septimus Weasley was a 'blood traitor' though, that's why Cedrella was blasted off. Sirius ran away, and his uncle, Alphard was blasted off for giving him gold."

"Tough family."

"You have no idea. Be glad we managed to get Mrs Black's portrait down. A muggle setting foot in her house would be too much to bear, curtain or no. It was stuck with a permanent stick charm. Hermione said she had to get someone to cut away the wall and repair it later."

Harry must have been aware of the look he was receiving from Tony, but was casually ignoring it.

"We've marked the known followers of Voldemort here," He indicated the stitched black "DE" in Bellatrix Lestrange's portrait.

Tony spotted other such stitched figures on the Tapestry, the majority close to the main Black branch.

"I presume there's a lot of general Wizarding politics that I'm missing."

Harry nodded. "Just a few. I'd explain, but we have to head off now. I can give you your first taste of apparition!"

The unmasked anticipation in his companion's voice made Tony's stomach twist unwillingly.

"Nice try, Legolas has already explained your little teleportation trick."

Harry grinned, "Fine, we can floo instead ."

"Wai- wha-? You're doing this to annoy me!" Tony called after his friend as he was left alone in the bare room. He scanned over the carefully designed faces; set in a variety of different expressions that he assumed represented their personality. He found Harry's face beneath two people that he presumed were his parents. Why had Harry shown him this?

"Coming?"

"Don't get your robes in a twist!" Tony threw back at him, turning to leave, but not before noticing a small list of dates under Harry's name. He frowned; the last one had been ten days previously. His brow remained furrowed as he left the room and followed the sounds of Harry's moving about to what he presumed was the lounge. He was standing next to a roaring fire, a small pot in his hand.

He proffered the pot to Tony how raised an eyebrow at it.

"Take a handful," Harry explained, "and toss it into the fire."

Tony did so cautiously. He managed to maintain a stoic facial expression as the fire exploded into green flames. He had to stop expecting anything normal of this world.

"Now step into the fire." Wait, what? "And say clearly as you can 'The Burrow'."

"You want me to step into a fire?"

"And say 'The Burrow". Yes."

"Is this supposed to be some ironic statement to the witch burnings?"

"Just trust me okay. And try not to swallow any ash. That's what I did my first time. Ended up in the wrong grate."

Tony drew in a deep breath.

"The Burrow?" Harry gave a quick nod and without further ado, Tony stepped into the grate. He nearly flinched, expecting the flames, but was instead greeted by a faint tickling sensation. He marveled at this for a moment before enunciating, "The Burrow", and suddenly he was spinning. Views from what were obviously other peoples fireplaces flashed past him. He was just wondering about privacy issues that could arise from such arrangements when he came to a sudden stop. Eh took a moment to orient himself before stepping out into the lounge of what he presumed must be called 'The Burrow'.