I'm thrilled I got this out on Harry's birthday, even if the chapter isn't about his fifth birthday.
"I pulled your dog ears. Sorry, Snuffles." Harry turns toward Sirius, rather than speaking to the picture of his baby self sitting on Snuffles, tugging his ears. Sirius drinks the sight in, as if these memories and faces had been lost to him. Tony gets it; in Afghanistan, he hadn't exactly had the luxury of reminiscing over happier times, either.
"You sure did," Sirius huffs. They watch photo Snuffles stand, giving baby Harry a ride on his back, and only then does Sirius remember he'd done that. Tony knows magic is completely capable of stealing memories, and Azkaban seems pretty big on torture. Tony doesn't want to think about what those corpselike, floating figures in black robes are capable of. Just seeing Sirius at the trial had been enough proof that he'd been tortured.
Sirius gazes at the picture, at last speaking, his voice still a croak. "Once I got you your first broomstick, you wouldn't ride Snuffles anymore. Bet you're probably too big, now."
"Do you have money?" Harry asks. "You need money to bet. Loki can give you some. And Mr. Stark has more'n anyone."
"I've got money, at Gringotts. Wizard Bank. Run by Goblins. Your parents-" Sirius cuts himself off, but Tony's certain he was going to say they left Harry a considerable sum.
Tony's not even surprised by the goblins.
Sirius flicks his wand to turn the album's pages; probably a simple spell that had been denied to him in prison. He tells of Harry's Uncle Remus, who can't come because it's a bad time for him.
Tony's not known for tact, but he restrains from pointing out this is clearly a bad time for Sirius, too. He can't blame him; he'd been glad to see Rhodey, Pepper and Happy, despite his horrible condition after his own captivity.
"Grandpa Remus," Harry insists.
Sirius quirks his lips, clearly unaware about Harry's wariness of uncles. Harry hasn't yet made any direct references to the Dursleys since Sirius arrival, but Tony knows Sirius will become ferocious when he learns that, for three years, Harry's life had been about as bad as his own imprisonment.
"He's not any older than me, even if he looks it," Sirius
Sirius tells of songs Lily sang, but cannot recall their words.
Tony moseys outside to where Cyclops is cooking burgers with his laser eyes. Tony watches, arms folded. "You know, I could calculate the exact temperature with my suit. Not that my suit was intended to be a glorified barbecue. I once programmed a barbecue to cook to the perfect temperature, but it got persnickety with me and ended up burning the burgers out of spite. It was worse than Dum-E, not that I'd ever let him near a grill."
Cyclops turns toward him, and Tony suddenly wonders if he'll be grilled alongside their dinner, but Cyclops just states that his powers are as precise as Iron Man's lasers.
Logan spears two patties on his claws as he passes, and Cyclops clearly finds Logan more irritating than Tony. That must be a first.
Jean levitates the other burgers onto plates, then sends the plates soaring inside like UFOs.
Inside, students, staff and residents alike gather. Kurt simply teleports in. "Burgers, assemble!" Jubilee shouts. Tony holds out his hand, demanding Jubilee pay up. Tony had bet that Sirius would want burgers, but Jubilee argues she'd never bet against that prediction.
Sirius glances at the students and the display of powers, clearly comparing his current whereabouts to Hogwarts. At the sight of Jean levitating burgers in, he looks like he's seen a ghost, despite Jean Grey and Lily Potter bearing little resemblance besides their fiery red hair.
"Thought you were finished with school, huh?" Tony says to Sirius. "I finished early. Never expected to be staying at mutant school, but here we are."
Tony gestures at the room.
"Where's 'here?'" Sirius is clearly unused to such crowds and commotion, despite his trial having both. Tony doubts he got much time to mingle with other prisoners, but doubts he would have wanted to.
Professor X rolls up, calmly explaining about the Institute.
While eating, Harry eagerly tries to unhinge his own jaw around a massive burger, even asking Loki to turn him into a great big snake. Sirius wrinkles his nose in disgust at the snake comment, but he looks at the burgers ravenously. Moody sniffs his suspiciously, and Tony wonders how the magical world could deprive people of burgers.
Sirius struggles to chew the meat, and seems barely able to stomach the bun. Right, burgers aren't the best food for someone who's been starved.
It reminds Tony so much of Harry, when he'd first arrived; Sirius even looks about as emaciated.
Sirius shifts into his dog form and noses the bun, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese aside to go straight for the hamburger patty. He seems more capable of chewing as a dog than a human, and Tony wonders just how that works; surely his diet as a dog wouldn't sustain him as a person, and vise-versa. Not that it's been sustaining him in either form. The fact he can shift his anatomy that easily is almost more bizarre than Bruce Hulking out.
Still, the burger seems to be too much even for Snuffles. The dog whines pitifully, gnawing at the patty.
Harry abandons his burger to run to a cupboard, returning with a can of chicken noodle soup and a box of animal crackers. "Here," he says, holding out a bear cracker to Snuffles. "They're yummy and easy. Dad lets me eat as much as I want. We have biscuits here, too."
Snuffles makes a questioning huff, gazing at Harry with eyes too human for any dog. Harry digs into the box for another cracker. "Do you want a lion?"
Snuffles takes the cracker from Harry's hand and chomps it down, spraying crumbs. Harry feeds him an elephant, another lion and a zebra. James pops the lid off the can of soup, and Harry holds it out for Snuffles to lap up chicken broth.
James watches, clearly remembering when Harry had been as skinny, and Tony can easily picture Harry feeding that dog they'd had on the run, the one they'd lost before coming to Tony's house.
Snuffles gazes at Harry's burger, and Harry holds it out to him. Snuffles noses it back, indicating Harry shouldn't forget to eat. Harry dutifully takes a bite without trying to unhinge his jaw, before holding out the soup again.
"Lucky never turned into a man," Harry slowly strokes his hand through Snuffles' fur. "You're way better than Nighty. You won't have to eat poop here. Do you want brandy?"
Snuffles sputters, spraying chicken broth over the floor. He shifts back into human form to ask, still hacking "Poop? Brandy?"
"Nighty ate poop," Harry wrinkles his nose.
"Surprised you didn't say shit," Tony mutters.
James gives Tony an unimpressed look as Harry's eyes light up with glee. "Shit!"
Harry offers some lettuce to Sirius. "You have to eat green food to grow strong like Hulk. Dr. Banner's a great doctor but he's not green now. And Dr. Hank is blue."
Harry points to where they're eating, and Bruce waves rather awkwardly.
"What's a doctor?"
Harry sighs the exact way Tony does, "They help when you're sick or your body hurts."
"I'm supposed to take care of you," Sirius protests as Harry offers the lettuce again.
"You were a dog," Harry replies, nonplussed.
Sirius takes the lettuce and nibbles it a bit, and Harry smiles. By the time Harry's finished his burger, Sirius hasn't been able to stomach much, but he quickly diverts the attention. "Want to try your new broom? Just see, it'll be better than the one you've got."
Tony scoffs at that, but soon they're heading outside with both brooms. Harry races off on the magic broom, but Tony's sure he'll be back for the better one, soon.
Sirius seems shocked to be standing outside. He soaks in the air and sunlight, though he squints, clearly more used to the dark. Tony finds it hard to believe he'd hated this guy at first, thought he was a traitor like Stane. Hell, he'd hated Sirius more than he'd ever hated James, even though James had been made to kill his parents.
"Thanks for looking after him," Sirius says, and the regret that he'd been unable to rolls off him in waves.
"I'm just footing the bill," Tony shrugs. "Or, was, until we came here."
"You are a sugar daddy." Thor says sagely, and Tony makes a strangled sound. Thor frowns, confused. "Darcy said a sugar daddy pays for-"
"That's just for adults," Tony interrupts quickly, and shakes his head.
Harry swoops around them on his magic broomstick. "What is? Cigarettes? Beer?"
"This conversation," Tony replies, and shoos him away with a wave of his hand. Harry huffs and zooms off again, but quickly barrels back towards them to change to his motorbroom.
"You're even better at flying than I remember," Sirius tells Harry.
Tony knows Sirius is faking. Putting on a front. Tony had done the same thing after he'd come back from Afghanistan; he'd acted like he was okay, and hadn't let others see the nightmares, the panicking inability to get into a shower.
Tony's world had changed, even though he'd come back to the same house. He'd still had Rhodey, Pepper, Jarvis and Happy. True, Tony hadn't completely been his old self; he'd ended Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing and crafted more Iron Man suits. But he'd put on that old cocky grin and acted like he hadn't been particularly bothered.
It's pretty clear that Sirius is far from okay. Sure, the guy's genuinely glad to see his godson, but he's not coming back to the home he left. He's coming back to a world where his best friends are dead and his remaining connection to his old life barely remembers him, and has a completely new life without him.
Sirius and Steve should get along great, Tony thinks.
"Dumbledore said he wanted Harry away from the fame," Sirius says, not tearing his eyes away from Harry.
"I'm one of the most famous people on the planet, but clearly you were living under a rock even before…" Tony trails off. "Dumbledore didn't exactly pick me. Harry did."
Sirius's eyebrows rise, and he turns to James. "You adopted him?"
James nods, and Sirius nods back, somewhat stiffly. He doesn't seem ready to trust any of them, not that Tony can blame him. After Pettigrew's betrayal, he bets Sirius will have some major trust issues.
Tony's surprised to realize just how much he himself trusts everyone at this mansion, even Loki, who's infamous for his lies.
Tony shoves his hands in his pockets. "Really, it's Harry adopting everyone else. He just decides he's got dads and moms, a 'grandpa'fessor', even. So I'm sure you'll fit right in, even if you're a dog. Godfather, dogfather, Sirius, Snuffles, whatever. He won't care."
Sirius gives a humorless bark of a laugh, probably thinking he's too damaged to truly fit in, and Tony gives his own mirthless chuckle. Even James shakes his head, lip twitching the tiniest amount.
Sirius will fit right in here, and he doesn't even know the half of it.
So yeah, Sirius isn't quite as okay as he's letting on to Harry.