When Tony had said he talked to the Prime Minister about the hold on Harry's travel documents he had not really, fully comprehended that they would be picking them up from the Prime Minister's office. The three of them were ushered inside the room and Harry had to take a look around. He wondered what the Dursley's would do if they knew where he was.
There was a large, oak desk faced away from the window with two extravagant, green chairs facing inwards. There was an area rug that covered most of the tiled floor and a large, marbled fireplace to the side. Harry was stuck wondering if maybe there was a reason it was in this office-was the Prime Minister aware of the Wizarding World?
"Prime Minister Jones will be with you once he gets here." The secretary stated. She was a plump woman that looked to be about forty and had blonde hair that sort of reminded Harry of Malfoy's. "Would you like some tea or anything while you wait?" She offered.
"No, thank you." Tony politely turned her down. She nodded and left the room, letting it close with a snap after her. Tony checked his watch and muttered something about the man better not be late.
While they waited, Harry decided he wanted to get a better look at the fireplace. He moved over to it and took in the fancy designs running all through the immaculate marble. His mouth just about dropped open when recognized the gold basin up on the mantle was filled with floo powder. At least, he was fairly certain it was, admittedly it had been some time since he'd used the stuff. Would Tony or May stop him if he took a pinch and threw it in the flames just to see?
Before he could make the decision though the door opened again and a remarkably thin man with short brown hair marked with traces of gray stepped in. He had an envelope of some kind tucked in his arm and moved directly over to Tony.
"Here. This is everything you'll need for customs." He said hurriedly. "Do yourself the favor and leave now." The man insisted.
"It's nice to meet you too, Jones." Tony said sarcastically, taking the envelope from the man.
"It's not that I'm not.. Thrilled ." Jones insisted, taking a moment to straighten his glasses. Truthfully, he was anything but thrilled. "But there are other powers at work here and it'll be better if you just go now." Tony opened the envelope and casually leafed through a few of the papers to make sure they were to his liking.
"You do know I'm Ironman, right?" He chanced asking since the man seemed scared for him or maybe of him. It was really hard to tell. Other powers at work? Harry frowned and looked towards the fireplace. Jones caught the movement and crossed over to Harry to get a look at him. May twitched, holding herself back from moving in to protect the young wizard.
"You must be Harry." He said calmly, taking in the scrawny teenager with bright green eyes and jetblack hair.
"Er, yeah. I am." Harry nodded. The man's eyes flickered up to his forehead and he had to repress the urge to roll his eyes. That was weird though, this man was supposedly a muggle. How did he know about-?
"Prime Minister Harold Jones. I'm terribly sorry about your situation, dear boy." He introduced himself. "Mr Stark's explained to me about why you need to leave-and well, I agree though I do hate to lose a citizen to the US of all countries." He joked through his rambling.
"Er.. you mean with-then how did you know about..?" Harry trailed off but indicated his scar. The Prime Minister looked briefly like he'd swallowed a lemon.
"I've… had a crash course recently. Well, sort of. All Mr Fudge would tell me is that an evil sorcerer-well he didn't mention the name but you have my condolences." Jones offered.
"Er.. thank you…?" Harry questioned. And then it hit him. Mr Fudge. He meant Corneilus Fudge, the Minister of Magic. So they did know each other.
"You two mind sharing with the rest of the class what you're over there muttering about?" Tony's voice cut in.
"Just… talking to Harry about his.. Er, never mind. Please, Mr Stark, I implore you to leave before this whole thing gets out of hand." The Prime Minister pleaded. Harry wondered if the man had noticed at all that this tactic seemed to have the opposite effect on Tony.
"Tell me why you want me to leave so quickly and maybe I will." Tony offered. Harry looked from the Prime Minister to the fireplace.
"Er.. I think I know." He finally spoke up. "It has to do with the Ministry of Magic, doesn't it?" He chanced. The muggle Prime Minister looked like he might have swallowed a bug but nodded. "They don't want me to leave." Harry realized, his tone oddly hollow.
"Yes.. Er, it seems the Minister of young Harry's community is rather adamant-he came here yesterday and insisted-I warned him that I could only place a temporary hold on proceedings and that if you had a good enough reason to take the boy-which you do, of course- that I wouldn't stand in your way." Jones explained, still looking a little shaken as rambled the situation to Tony.
"I see…" Tony said thoughtfully, mulling it over. "So I either take the kid back to the states with me now or risk… what? Him coming after me? What's to stop him from trying to drag the kid back once we get him on the Jet?"
"Tony, we don't have time to start any fights, I have to be back at work tomorrow." May reminded him. Tony gently waved her off.
"Yeah, it's too late for that. But this shouldn't take long to settle." He assured her. "We need to get everything laid out in the open if we want to make sure no one tries to stop us." The man reasoned. Harry could kind of see his point, although part of him did want to just go while they had the chance. He was finally free of the Dursleys but it seemed like everyone in the wizarding world was trying to drag him back-insist that he should just stay with them because they were his family.
He wouldn't go. He'd decided. He was going to New York with May and Tony and he'd be so far away from the Dursleys' that he'd never think of them again. He couldn't go back. Not when he was so close.
There was a roar from the fire and it caught everyone's attention. Harry looked on in horror as the flames turned an emerald green and out stepped the Minister of Magic himself. He was wearing a pinstripe cloak over a bottleneck green suit and looked entirely too pleased with himself.
"Okay, that's going to take some getting used to." Tony commented as the Portly man hurried out of the fireplace, his fancy shoes clacking on the tiled floor..
"Ah! Harry! There you are! Thank goodness we've found you in time." He beamed in triumph, completely ignoring the others in the room. Harry took several steps back away from the minister and closer to May and Tony. "Er.. right, I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Corneilus Fudge, Minister of Magic." He seemed to pass Harry's reluctance off as him thinking he was a stranger. He held his hand out to shake but Harry didn't take it.
In all honesty, He had recognized Fudge from the single time he'd seen him last year but since that was from beneath his father's invisibility cloak he chose not to tell Fudge this.
"You're the Minister of Magic?" Tony asked, moving towards the man and subtly blocking Harry with his shoulder.
"Yes, that's right." Fudge straightened his cloak with importance. The flex fell flat as Tony just didn't seem impressed. This seemed to annoy Fudge. "And you are?"
"Tony Stark." Tony introduced himself flippantly, as though Fudge should have known that already.
"Ah. Yes." Fudge recognized the name, just clearly not in the same way Tony was hoping for. "The muggle that wants to take Harry to.. Was it New York, Harold?" He turned to the other man. Jones looked like he would rather not be there. He'd gone as far as to stand behind his desk to put distance between him and the conversation.
"I told you, Mr Fudge, I wanted no part of this." He pointed out.
"I'm not the only one on that gravy train. May's on my side." Tony gestured over to the woman that was now hovering near Harry and watching Fudge with a sharp gaze. "And as of about eight oclock yesterday, she's his legal guardian. What she says goes." He crossed his arms.
"Well, that's easily remedied. You'll both have to have your minds modified, I'm afraid. Can't have you going around knowing about the wizarding world, that just wouldn't do." The casual way that Fudge spoke about erasing their memories was almost sickening. Harry found himself wishing he had his wand but pulling it on the Minister of Magic would be a poor idea. He might as well buy a ticket to Azkaban Prison.
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Tony said darkly.
"Oh no you won't." May said at the same time.
"I want to go with them." Harry finally piped up from beside May. "Please, Minister, I'd much rather stay with Aunt May."
"Now, now Harry, you mustn't be that way." Fudge chided as though Harry had just said something rude to him. "I'm sure your Aunt and Uncle will be happy to see you." Harry felt himself back up again and May pulled him closer.
"He's not going back there." May said fiercely, moving to shield him. "I won't allow it."
"Well, Madame," Fudge started, starting to sound a little irritated with them now. "With all do respect, it's not really up-"
"Oh yes it is." Tony cut him off before May could lose her temper too badly. "Vernon and Petunia Dursley signed legally binding documents acknowledging May as Harry Potter's sole guardian. When she signed her name in agreement it completed the adoption. Finito. Harry Potter is now legally under May Parker's care."
"And I'm not relinquishing my rights." May said angrily, a protective arm still around Harry.
"Well… yes, only.." Fudge shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. "Harry's not a muggle citizen so those papers would only be binding if acknowledged by the wizarding world." He pointed out. Harry felt his stomach drop. It didn't count?
"Not true." Tony spoke up, crossing the room in a sort of angry nonchalance. "See, that thought crossed my mind but the fact is that Harry's uncle-his previous guardian is a.. What was the word? Muggle?" He glanced at Harry who nodded mutely.
"So then as a muggle he's bound by muggle law and signed a legal muggle document forfeiting his rights as Harry's legal guardian to another muggle, May, and since Harry is a minor he doesn't have to sign anything which means the Ministry doesn't need to get involved. Isn't that right Harold?" Tony turned attention to the Prime Minister again and the man looked a little ill. He clearly had hoped that they'd forgotten all about him.
"Er… Mr Stark is right." He finally chimed in when Tony fixed him with a look. Harry found himself wondering just how much power this man actually had. "It is rather binding. Even by your standards, Harry is a minor. You'd have to convince Mr Dursley to re-accept guardianship and Ms Parker to-" He stopped mid sentence when all eyes were on him. "Don't look at me like that Corneilus. The law is the law."
"Well, it's.." Fudge seemed to be having difficulty thinking his way out of that one and Harry felt hope bubbling inside him again. "We'll have to modify a few more minds, I suppose and destroy the document, it's the only way… everything will be right as rain." The bubble of hope quickly sprang a leak. Why wasn't he listening? Why was everyone so convinced he needed to stay at Private Drive?
"Except it won't." May stepped in, her tone cold and hard. "You'd be sending Harry back to an abusive family. I can't allow that. And worst of all, you won't even acknowledge why he doesn't want to go back there-you just brushed him off like he's just being stubborn." She snapped.
"Abusive?" Fudge honestly seemed shocked and looked at Harry again and then shook the accusation off. "My dear lady, I think you're confused. They are his family. Surely they wouldn't-"
"And I'm an Emergency center nurse." May snapped, interrupting that thought before it could be completed. "I know how to recognize the signs of child abuse. Do you have any idea how many kids I've treated who were in the ER because of their parents?" She asked, eyes flashing dangerously. "Don't you dare try to gaslight me on this."
There was that word again. May seemed convinced that Harry was living in an abusive house and while he knew the Dursleys hated him and didn't treat him well he just wasn't sure that it crossed the line into abuse. He'd heard the term but most often he imagined kids that were beaten bloody with obvious bruising.
Neither Uncle Vernon nor Aunt Petunia had ever really been gentle with him that he could recall but the full on beatings weren't that frequent. It mostly was getting shoved around, having things thrown at him and a lot of chores.
It was difficult to wrap his head around the idea. He definitely didn't think he deserved all the things they'd done to him and maybe he could kind of see why May and Tony both seemed to think that he was abused but it was like his brain refused to let the pieces connect together.
"The blatant disregard of an unhappy home life aside," Tony interrupted Harry's thoughts. "I'm nothing, if not a man of contingencies. Which means the copy of the guardianship papers I have isn't the only one, and I have several witnesses and lawyers, video footage, backups, backups of my backups and the most important part in all this-Harry's consent. So face it buddy, the kid's coming with us."
"Why must you try to make this so difficult?" Fudge asked, finally getting impatient and stomping his foot angrily. Tony let out a sharp laugh and stepped a little closer to the man, his eyes dark and dangerous.
"Honey, you have no idea how 'difficult' I can be." His voice was low and threatening. Fudge seemed to falter as he took a small step back from the Muggle and looked over at the Prime Minister for some form of support.
"I warned you, Cornelius." Jones insisted, still half hiding behind his desk. "But you wouldn't listen."
"Well, perhaps we can come to an understanding." Fudge attempted to change his tactic, turning back Tony.
"Yeah sure." Tony agreed, his voice still had that same dark edge in it. "Understand this; right now? I'm asking nicely, and only as a courtesy to you. If you threaten May or me again that courtesy ends."
Fudge moved to grab his wand. There was a sudden high-pitched whine and Tony was holding his hand up, though it appeared to be cased in metal and palm glowing slightly.
"You want to play games? I guarantee you I can shoot faster." He warned. It was clear Fudge didn't know what he was being threatened with, just that he was being threatened. His face screwed up in anger but before he could do anything or use his wand there was a loud blast as a beam from Tony's other hand exploded into the wall, leaving a smoking, charred mess.
"Mr Stark!" The Prime Minister exclaimed in alarm as May yanked Harry further back to protect him from any debris.
"Bill me." Tony told the man, not taking his eye or his aim off Fudge. No one dared move and Harry tried to think how things had escalated so far or what he could do to stop this from turning ugly. Before he could figure it out though, there was another roar from the fireplace, the flames turning emerald green again and this time Harry couldn't help but let his mouth drop.
"That's quite enough of that." The newcomer said firmly.
This time, none other than Albus Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace.
Dumbledore was wearing his usual purple robes, his long sliver beard well past the gold waistband. The high-pitched whine coming from Tony's gauntlet suddenly stopped and he took a step away from Fudge. At the same time, Fudge took a step back from Tony as though an invisible pulse had forced the two men apart.
"What the hell?" Tony asked.
"Really, Dumbledore, was that necessary?" Fudge demanded.
"Indeed it was, Minister. It's clear to me you have no idea who this man is." He answered calmly.
"He wants to take Young Mr Potter out of the country. I thought for sure you'd have an issue with that." Fudge said before shooting a look over at the young wizard.
"You're Dumbledore?" Tony asked, turning to the man dressed in a floor length robes.
"Yes, Albus Percivile Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry." He introduced himself. Tony faltered at the long name.
"Great." He said flippantly, disregarding the name. Harry thought it was a bit rude but he noticed that Dumbledore didn't seem to mind in the slightest. "And you know who I am?" Tony asked.
"Unlike our Minister of Magic, I do like to keep a breast of muggle affairs, Mr Stark. I hope you're not offended when I explain to him that you might just be the most dangerous muggle in the world." Dumbledore politely declared.
"Dangerous!" Fudge exclaimed in shock and then shot a look back at Tony who just shrugged in acknowledgement.
"That is correct, Minister. He is not, you understand, a muggle you can just obliviate and expect no repercussions. "
"Like I said, I like to have contingencies in place." Tony said with all the nonchalance of the world's most dangerous muggle. "Now, if either of you could explain to me why you want to send a twelve year old back to a clearly unsafe environment. That's the part I'm not getting."
"Unsafe!" Fudge exclaimed. "They are his family! And allow me to remind you-"
"Stop putting that in his head!" May snapped, her sharp tone causing Harry to jump. She immediately softened. "Oh, I'm sorry sweetheart." She told him gently. He just nodded.
"Putting what in his head?" Fudge turned to her.
"You keep saying he's safe there because they're his family but haven't stopped to consider it's his family he needs protection from!"
"If I might?" Dumbledore requested gently. May turned her eyes to him. "I admire your spirit, Mrs Parker but I'm afraid you only have half the story behind why Mr Potter had to be placed with his Aunt and Uncle."
"Enlighten us." Tony told him, still in that same flippant tone.
"It's because my Mum and Dad were murdered by a Dark Wizard." Harry finally spoke up. "They were my only living relatives."
" Blood relatives, yes." Dumbledore nodded. "I fear Harry might be a little too young to understand this just yet, but it seems I have no choice."
Harry stood up straighter. He was finally about to find out why Dumbledore insisted he had to live with the Dursleys.
"Yeah, you say that but I don't know that any reason is enough to justify leaving a kid to deal with abuse like that." Tony offered his two cents. "And point of interest, I'm fairly sure locking someone up and dark confined space violates the Geneva Convention. When I was being held captive, even my kidnappers, who were terrorists, let's all keep in mind, let me have a well lit space to work in and regularly gave me meals." He pointed out.
"What is a Geneva Convention?" Fudge pushed his way back into the conversation.
"It consists of four treaties detailing how one can and cannot treat prisoners during war time." The Muggle Prime Minister stated. "You cannot deprive someone of their basic human rights."
"The fact you're in charge of a government, and you don't know that? Legitimately terrifying." Tony told the man. "If they're violating international anti-torture laws? Not a good environment for a kid to grow up. In fact, if Harry wanted to he could probably press charges."
"If what Mr Stark says is true then-well.. Yes. Mr Potter would be within his legal right to press criminal charges. In fact, since he is a minor the Crown Prosecution Service might yet want to step in. We take the health and safety of children very seriously." The Prime Minister agreed.
"Yes, I will not deny that Harry's treatment by his Aunt and Uncle has been…" Dumbledore trailed off, trying to think of a word.
"Abysmal? Criminal? Abusive?" Tony prompted. Harry just watched the older man carefully.
"-Less than Ideal." Dumbledore decided on.
"Oh, so you're aware." May cut in darkly.
"However-" Dumbledore continued. "The night Lily and James Potter died his mother went to great lengths to protect him. When she did, it created a kind shield on her son so that none of his enemies could touch him-Voldemort included." Fudge winced horribly. "I used his mother's sacrifice to place a powerful charm on him. I made it so that the shield will stay intact but only if he calls his Aunt's house his home. When she agreed to take him, it completed the spell. A bloodward was put in place." the man explained. "He was protected from all harm."
"I hate to be 'that' guy but your charm has one, tiny, fatal flaw." Tony said casually as he took in that whole statement. "Who's Voldemort?" Fudge winced again.
"But you didn't take into account that his family could harm him." May pointed out. "Where was this so-called 'protection' then? If I was his mother I'd be furious with you for putting him in that situation-I am furious. The moment you knew he wasn't safe in that house you should have moved him."
"I didn't have the luxury, Mrs Parker, The blood wards-"
"Are bullshit." May interrupted. Harry winced at the language coming from an adult and even Dumbledore looked a little taken aback at the blunt words. "I'm sorry, I'm not saying anything against his mother's sacrifice but I refuse to believe she would want that sacrifice to be used to keep him in a house he doesn't feel safe in."
"That's rather presumptuous of you, Mrs Parker." Fudge stated. "Harry my boy, you feel safe at your Aunt and Uncle's, don't you?"
"What? No." Harry answered before he even had time to process the question or think about how he should answer. "But I never really thought-" He was interrupted by Tony gesturing at his response.
"I think that right there puts this whole argument to bed." The man stated firmly. "He didn't even hesitate."
"Of course not, you hardly gave him any time to think about it." Fudge pointed out, irritation leaking back into his tone.
"He shouldn't have to." May snapped. "If he has to think about it then a line has already been crossed."
"I can see the two of you are not easily swayed." Dumbledore said gently. "Very well, I suppose I'll have to tell you more about the man that killed Harry's parents. A man whose name very few in the wizarding community dare to say aloud-The Dark Lord Voldemort."