Harry was fast asleep, curled in his chair. Some time ago, May had draped a blanket over him and tucked it gently under him to keep him warm. He didn't even stir. She assumed he'd probably be out a while, the last few days must have been stressful for him and nothing breeds exhaustion like anxiety.
Watching him sleep broke the woman's heart as she thought about the awful things Vernon and Petunia had done to him. How could anyone want to hurt such a sweet child? How could anyone dislike him? Of course she'd wondered the same about Peter and somehow, someway, he still managed to have a bully or two.
"He's not gonna vanish if you take your eyes off him." Tony told her. May rolled her eyes and returned her attention to her book. She wanted to talk to Harry more about his life-his likes and dislikes but Tony had gotten all he could out of the boy for he nodded off.
"Anyways, kid's birthday is coming up, we'll need to figure something out there. I'm getting the feeling he's never had a real birthday party and I say we go all out. Invite his friends-the works." Tony was already planning a huge party and May didn't have it in her to tell him to stop. She was, however, going to insist on not blowing Peter's birthday out of proportion.
"And how do you plan on getting a hold of his friends if they're method of communication is through Owls?" May asked calmly. It wasn't that she was against the idea, she just wanted to be practical about it.
"He mentioned one of his friends- the know it all one-"
"Hermione Granger." Friday supplied helpfully. Tony nodded.
"Her parents are dentists-they can't be hard to track down and then we'll have her help us get a hold of the others." He offered. "We can make it a surprise party-he won't suspect a thing."
"You think it'll be that simple?" May asked, the doubt obvious in her voice. It was a nice idea but that meant that Tony would have to investigate every single girl bearing the name Hermione Granger and that seemed a bit… daunting.
"I do." Tony nodded. "How many Hermione Grangers could there be in the world-and we don't even have to look across the globe. Just around the UK."
"There are approximately three hundred eighty-three girls going by the name Hermione Granger within the UK." Friday voiced. May raised her eyebrow at him and gave him a look that he brushed aside.
"Okay, the list is a little longer than expected." He admitted. "What about if we just search for girls in the UK with the name Hermione Granger whose parents-both mom and dad-are dentists?"
"I have found one match- Hermione Jean Granger. Born September 5th, 2004." Friday informed him. "Parents are Daniel and Jean Granger."
Tony flashed May an 'I told you so' look and she rolled her eyes. She should have known Friday could run that search in seconds flat. "Be a dear and call one of them up for me." He instructed.
"Of course, boss."
"I'm gonna take this in the other room." Tony stated and ducked back to the bar area. May turned her attention back to the sleeping boy. She was glad Tony was doing this, he deserved a nice birthday party and if anyone knew how to throw a party it was Tony Stark.
"Hello?" A man answered the phone call. Tony grinned to himself and set the device on the bartop counter.
"Daniel Granger?" He asked, pulling the fridge door open to grab the orange juice.
"Yes, may I ask who's speaking?" The man asked, his tone patient and even.
"Don't flip out on me but this is Tony Stark." He told the man. There was an audible pause on the other end and Tony used the man's disbelief as time to fix himself another mimosa.
"Good Lord." The man said softly. Tony couldn't see the man but he seemed to be cycling through all stages of grief in just a few moments. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Mr Stark?" Mr Granger asked, finally landing on acceptance.
"Actually Daniel," Tony started strong. "I was wondering if I could talk to your daughter for a moment." Daniel seemed to freeze, suddenly even more uncomfortable than he'd been before.
"Hermione? Whatever for?" His tone had adopted an unmistakable protective edge to it. It wasn't surprising really, any dad worthy of that title would feel that way.
I won't take up much of her time, I swear." Tony soothed. "I just need to talk to her about a friend of hers- Harry Potter."
"Er.." The man started awkwardly. "The name rings a bell, yes. I'll just go and see if I can grab her, shall I?" Daniel finally gave in.
"Take your time." Tony shrugged, taking a sip of his drink. He heard some kind of commotion in the background and patiently waited until he was greeted by a young girl's voice.
"Hello?" She asked cautiously.
"Miss Granger. Hermione Granger. Do you know who I am?" Tony asked.
"Er, yes, of course I do, Mr Stark." Hermione admitted politely. "I'm just not sure-Dad told me you wanted to speak to me about Harry? Is he okay?"
"He's fine- much better than he was two days ago. He's actually asleep in the room next to me." Tony brushed her concern off. From what he understood this girl was only thirteen so he probably shouldn't just casually mention that her friend had to be removed from an unsafe household.
"Oh… that's good to hear I suppose." Hermione responded with a thoughtful pause.
"I'm not gonna get into details about why , but Harry's moving in with a friend of mine." Tony stated firmly. "And it came to-"
"You mean out of his Aunt and Uncle's house?" She sounded hopeful and it threw Tony off a little but then this was one of Harry's best friends as he'd said, and a bit of a know-it-all. He probably shouldn't have been surprised she had a suspicion things at her friend's house weren't good.
"Uh… yeah. I'm getting the feeling you already have an inkling as to why." Tony told her.
"Yes, I believe I do." The tension in Hermione's voice seemed to vanish. "I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am. I was so worried about him last summer." She gushed. "Ron as well of course-has he mentioned Ron to you?"
"Yup, and you obviously. But that's not why I'm calling-well sorta. It came to my and May's-his new guardian's attention- that his birthday is in about two weeks and it doesn't give us a lot of time to plan."
"Of course." Hermione agreed. "I don't think he's ever had a proper celebration-he mentioned once he'd been given a coat hanger and a pair of his uncle's old socks for his birthday." Tony sucked in a breath of air and held it, trying not to lose his temper while talking to the girl. No wonder she knew something was amiss. What kind of sadistic bastards-? Tony wondered if it might have been kinder to just ignore the kid's birthday if that was the sort of present they gave him.
They let him know they knew when his birthday was but also that they didn't care enough to actually get him something nice. It didn't even have to be expensive, just a card would have been acceptable. Instead they wanted him to know they didn't want him around. He should have blasted them with a repulsor.
"Well he's getting one this year." He said a little more coldly than he'd intended. "May and I want to do something of a surprise party and invite all his friends."
"That's very nice of you, Mr Stark. The only thing is, I'm not sure if I'd be able-I do want to go but my family is leaving for Paris tomorrow morning and we'll be visiting until well into August." She admitted apologetically.
"Kid, you let me know where you're gonna be and I'll fly out to get you the day before. Or someone will. It probably won't be me." Tony told her.
"Oh! That's so kind of you! Really, thank you. I'll get you my Gran's address." She agreed. "I'm sure mum and dad won't mind-I've told them about Harry but they were unsure of how to-well, he'll be much happier now, I expect."
"Yeah, he's… doing better." Tony repeated, thinking of the look of pure relief that had been on Harry's face the moment he realized he was free of his awful relatives. There were several years of therapy in that kid's future. "Now, I have you taken care of, how can I get in touch with his other friends?"
"Oh! Well, Ron's family does have a telephone. Harry gave us his home phone number to call him this summer. Ron tried to call but it went horrifically. He seemed to think he might've gotten Harry into terrible trouble, so I've been worried." Hermione explained. Tony had to once again reign in his temper. All that was over now, May and Peter would welcome Harry into their little family and Harry would never again have to worry about being treated like he wasn't even human.
"Though I don't know the number myself, I do believe it would be registered under 'Arthur Weasley-that's Ron's dad." Hermione offered.
"Thank you very much, Miss Granger." He managed in a charming tone. "You're a gem and I look forward to meeting you. You got a cell phone, can you text that address to me?"
"Oh!" He could tell by her tone that she was blushing. "I'll use my mum's." She told him quickly. Tony gave her the number to text and bid her goodbye.
oooOOOooo
Things at the Weasley Household were as calm as they could be for a home with four boys and a young girl. There were loud explosions coming from the bedroom of Fred and George Weasley which the family had learned to pay no mind to, Percy was likely doing homework, Ron was up in his room not doing homework, Ginny was dozing on the sofa and Molly Weasley was seated in her chair reading a copy of Witch Weekly.
They were all of them enjoying the nice summer's day when something that had never happened before threw everything into chaos; The phone rang.
Molly shrieked and threw her hands up in shock and Ginny rose from her nap. The Twins peeked their heads out of their room, Percy followed suit, grumbling about the noise, Ron came down the steps halfway to determine if he heard what he'd thought he had.
"It's ringing!" Ginny stated the obvious, watching as the device screamed at them all. "I think we're supposed to pick it up." She voiced. Molly watched the phone suspiciously-Harry had told Arthur how fellytone worked during last summer break but Molly had not been given that crash course.
"Will somebody stop that racket?" Percy asked, clearly annoyed at the shrill noise. As if it had heard him, the phone ceased its alarming noise. Percy disappeared back into his room but Ron and the twins had emerged from theirs and just watched the phone in interest.
"I wonder what that was all about." George stated. "Should we tell dad that it did the ringing thing?"
"He'll be pleased." Ron nodded. "D'you reckon it was Harry? Maybe the muggles decided to let him use their phone after all?"
It started again. All the Weasley's within the room jumped in surprise. This time though, Fred dared to get close to it and plucked it off its base.
"Hello!?" He chanced asking. His voice wasn't quite as loud as Ron's was a week ago, they'd all decided that perhaps you weren't supposed to full on shout into these things.
"Yeesh." A man's voice came through. "Tone it down there buddy, you're gonna wake the kid in the next room." That certainly wasn't Harry's uncle. Fred had heard the man's voice before it part of him wished to never again hear it.
"Sorry! We usually don't-this is my first time using this." Fred admitted, lowering his voice to his normal speaking tones. "Who are you?"
"Well that's tragic." The voice on the other end said flippantly but didn't sound too surprised by the revelation. How odd. "My name's Tony Stark. I'm looking for Ron Weasley."
"It's for you." Fred told his younger brother before holding the phone out to him. Ron took it curiously and put it to his ear.
"Er… this is Ron Weasley, can you hear me okay?" He mirrored his brother's tone.
"Yeah, I can-I'm Tony Stark." The man introduced himself to Ron. "You're friends with Harry, right?" Ron nodded.
Silence.
"Kid, I can't see you nod." Tony stated calmly. "Anyways, he has a new guardian and-"
"Oh!" Ron interrupted. "His relative from America? Harry mentioned her in his Owl to me this morning."
"Alright, two points for the owl delivery system. Congratulations, it's faster than snail mail." Tony told him. Ron wrinkled his nose. Snail mail? People really delivered mail by snail?
"He mentioned he would have to move to New York, I think," Ron pressed.
"Yeah, he is. He's on the jet with May and me now." Tony explained. "But this isn't about that-his birthday's coming up and you're on the guest list."
"Oh." Ron grinned. Harry was going to get a proper celebration and he really deserved one. He was worried Harry might not be going to school with them anymore but at least he knew his friend would be safe. "Er..what about my brothers? I'd imagine they'd like to come."
"I'll work it out." Tony waved it off. "You need flight accommodations? Because if you do, I need to know now so I can put together a flight plan."
"A flight-er-yes? Let's go with yes." Ron nodded, though he had no real idea of what the man was talking about.
"Good, gimme your address and don't mention this to Harry, it's supposed to be a surprise." Tony insisted. Ron nodded again, forgetting that Tony couldn't see him. He rattled off his address and then Tony gave him another number and demanded he write down to call if he needed anything. He said he'd be in touch and hung up. Ron was left to ponder what to do next and then slowly set the phone back down on its cradle.
"What was that about, Ron?" George asked expectantly.
"Some bloke wants us to go to Harry's birthday party." Ron told his brothers. At that very same moment the back door slammed.
"Molly!" Called the excited voice of Arthur Weasley as he rushed into the room. "We won!"
oooOOOooo
It was well into the evening by London's standards but just after sunset by New York's time when the jet began its final descent and Tony gently shook Harry awake before rousing May.
"Rise and shine sleepy heads, we're gonna be landing here in about thirty minutes." He told them. Harry sat up and let out a mighty yawn and May followed suit. He watched as the young wizard moved to the window to see if he could get a look at their surroundings. Harry was clearly disappointed to find the sky was far too cloudy to show him much of anything.
"You'll get your chance to see the New York Skyline, I promise." Tony assured him. "But you might want to pack up your homework before we land." Harry had tried to do his summer assignment earlier but had fallen asleep instead. Not that Tony or May had cared much-the kid probably needed sleep.
Harry yawned again but pulled himself out of his chair to put away his books and parchment. Tony had made him use a ball point pen to write with, stating that didn't want black ink all over his jet if they ran into any turbulence. Considering the pen had rolled off somewhere, Harry supposed he'd had a good point. He just hoped Professor Bins didn't deduct points because it wasn't done with a quill.
"-Just eat dinner with us at the compound and after that Happy will take you back into the city with the kids." Tony was talking to May again. "Pepper's already expecting you."
"I suppose… Peter should probably stay an extra day though-if his cold gets any worse.." May was saying worriedly. "I'd hate to rush him back out if he ends up with a high fever."
"I haven't gotten a report about a fever-I assume he's still golden." Tony shrugged. "But he's welcome to stay the night if he needs to." There was a ding from overhead and Harry was ushered back into his seat to begin landing.
oooOOOooo
Peter was unbelievably sore and his nose and throat burned but somehow, some way he managed to make it back to the compound before Tony and May got in. He'd cleaned up all the blood stains he could in the apartment, got Ned back home and was prepared to pretend like he did not get shot by a seedy drug dealer in broad daylight. He was also prepared to never mention the weird wizard-man that had broken into the apartment and patched him up.
If he told them about the man they'd know he left the compound and then he'd be in a world of trouble. Then again, Tony never said he had to stay there the whole time after Happy dropped him off, which was the exact loophole he'd used to convince Friday to let him leave for a bit.
He was lounging on a couch when he heard the jet land and as much as he wanted to get up to greet them, his leg was still aching. He tossed a blanket over himself as though that might help to hide the injury currently already hidden beneath his plaid pajama pants.
He had a few minutes at least before they made it to the living area of the compound and that would give Peter some time to decide which excuse he'd give for not going to greet them-maybe he was just waking up from a nap? Maybe he didn't hear the plane because of all the congestion in his ears and throat?
All too soon, the elevator doors were opening and Aunt May, Tony and that cousin he'd seen on facetime entered into the room. May stayed close to the younger boy, her arm gently wrapped around his shoulder. He remembered then what the wizard had told him-May was bringing home some kid with her.
"Well! Look who decided to stay put this time!" Tony announced as he crossed over to Peter.
"Yup." Peter nodded. "I've just been here-catching up on some reading." He lied quickly. That was a good reason for why he didn't get up to greet them right?
"Mr Park arrived back forty-five minutes before you did." Friday's voice sounded. Peter felt his heart sink. Why did Friday have to be such a tattletale? Tony's lips thinned at him and he raised an eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.
"Okay, look. You never said I couldn't go out once I got here and it's not like I have a fever." Peter argued, shrinking back from the look on Tony's face.
"Mr Parker's core body temperature is currently at 100.7" Friday tattled again. Tony raised his eyebrow higher, waiting for Peter to try and talk his way out of that one. May approached, eyebrows knitted with worry and the younger boy was just behind her.
"Peter-!" She started.
"That's a recent development-I feel fine." Peter tried, only for Friday to toss him under the bus again.
"His fever is likely due to an infection brought on by the gunshot wound in his left thigh."
"The what ?" Tony broke his silence and May squeaked in alarm, her eyes going down to where the bullet wound must have been.
"You got shot ?" May demanded, her tone an interesting mix between livid and anxious.
"I can explain-!"
"I don't want to hear it." Tony brushed him off. "Med Bay. Now. " he insisted. Peter didn't move and looked awkwardly at the ground.
"...It still hurts to stand." He muttered. Tony scoffed.
"Yeah, of course it does." He rolled his eyes and moved to help Peter to stand, draping an arm over his shoulder to support his weight. "I'll take him over to Med Bay." he informed May who nodded.
"Peter, you have to tell us when you get hurt." She pleaded with her nephew as Tony helped him to move in the right direction. Peter tried not to look at her expression as she watched him wince trying to put pressure on his leg. He wanted for her to see he was fine and just made it worse.
"I didn't want to bother you- I have it handled." He tried.
"A fever's not handling it." Tony pointed out and then flashed a smile at the younger boy. "Well Harry, this is your cousin, Peter Parker. He's gonna be spending tonight in the hospital." Peter groaned as he was pulled away.
May took in several breaths to try and calm herself down and sat on the sofa Peter had been hiding his injury on. She left Queens and he got shot. She left him on his own for a few days and he got shot.
"Erm.. Aunt May?" A small voice pulled her out of her oncoming panic attack and she smiled at Harry warmly, tucking all the negative emotions away to deal with later.
"Sorry Harry, Peter can be a bit of a mess." She told him. Harry looked in the direction Tony had dragged Peter off in.
"...Yeah." He agreed and then sat down beside her a bit stiffly. May pulled him and hugged him tight but let go the moment she felt him tense up. She sat with him for a long moment before finally telling him she needed to take care of something and that he should have Friday take him to the Medbay. She would catch up with him and Peter later.
Harry made it to the medbay and the sleek metal doors slid open, allowing him to step through. He found himself suddenly nervous and fretting over if Tony wanted him to visit the medbay when Peter was injured. Maybe he should have stayed by that couch?
"Heeeey!" A voice startled him. "It's my cousin! What's up, cuz?" Peter greeted, his words a little slurred. Harry watched him and then looked to Tony.
"Don't mind him. I gave him a Hulk sized dose of the good stuff."
"I'm high as fuck." Peter stated, matter of fact.
"Hey. Watch your mouth. He's twelve." Tony lightly smacked Peter's arm.
"Owww." Peter whined though it was obvious it didn't really hurt. "But he's gonna be in New York, Mr Stark. If he's here he's gonna need to get used to hearin' the word fuck." He pointed out. Tony ignored him.
"I'm sorry this is your first impression of your cousin." He offered.
"Oh.. it's…" Harry started awkwardly. "It's fine." He decided.
"You can't ignore my point just because I'm high right now-Mmph!" Tony had reached over to cover Peter's mouth. He pulled his hand away rather quickly though, a horrified expression on his face.
"That's disgusting, Parker. What are you five?" Tony demanded as he wiped his hand on Peter's shirt.
"Will you bring me apple juice if I say yes?" Peter asked. Tony gave him a look. Peter just looked pathetic.
"...Yeah, alright." Tony finally gave in and then got up from where he was standing. "Watch him, make sure he doesn't jump out the window or something."
"That was one time!" Peter groaned. Harry just nodded and watched as Tony left the room, ignoring Peter's protest. This left Peter and Harry in the room by themselves. Harry had no idea how to talk to his cousin, especially when he was 'high' as he'd put it with some rather colorful descriptors.
"Sooo." Peter broke the silence first. "You're my cousin? That's cool."
"Yeah…" Harry answered uncertainty. "I mean- I am. Your cousin. Er.. have you really jumped out a window before?" He chanced asking. Peter shrugged.
"I mean Yeah, but how else was I supposed to get out? Mr Stark locked me in the medbay because 'I needed to heal and I wouldn't stay put' or something."
"Oh.." Harry responded softly, not too sure what else to say to that. His cousin was.. Interesting and a tad chaotic. He wondered briefly how he'd get along with Fred and George and then decided maybe he didn't want to find out.
"So." Peter started again. "May brought you back from London?" He pressed.
"Surrey, but yeah. She.. didn't like my relatives much and I guess Mr Stark didn't either. They seemed to think it wasn't a good environment for me." Harry explained. Peter winced.
"Man, I'm so sorry." He managed to sound sincere through the 'good stuff'.
"What for? Your Aunt-Er Aunt May's been great. Mr Stark's been great. I don't ever have to go back." Harry pointed out. Peter gave him a look like he wasn't understanding something and burned at Harry's temper just a little. "What?"
"Nothing." Peter shook his head. "Ignore me. I'm high af rn." He rambled out. "Nice to meet you though-in person and everything." Harry's temper faded only to be replaced with confusion. 'A-F-R-N?' Peter didn't explain and he was forced to let it go.
"Yeah, you too." Harry nodded.
"So um… welcome to the Parker family, I guess. It's small but we do our best." Peter shrugged. Harry gave him a small smile and nodded.
"Thanks."
Peter gave him a half nod and leaned back on his pillows. For someone that had been shot he looked remarkably relaxed.
"Er… I've always imagined getting shot would hurt." He voiced.
"Hm? Oh it hurt like a bitch. But I'm on enough pain killers to calm a raging hulk so I can't feel a goddamn thing." He explained proudly. Harry didn't fully understand the reference but the idea of painkillers was explanation enough.
"Alright, one apple juice for the five year old." Tony announced as he came back in, handing a glass to Peter who made grabby hands for it. "And one for Harry." He passed it to the young wizard. "Don't worry, it's May approved."
It wasn't long before May herself came into the room, another woman hot on her heels. The newcomer had bright red hair and a serious look on her face as she crossed over immediately to Tony.
"You ordered renovations without telling me, again?" Harry could tell by her tone she wasn't too happy. Tony didn't seem phased though. In the meantime, May had moved over to Peter to check him over herself. Peter protested twice but gave up when she shushed him.
"Ah yes, Mr Potter, meet Miss Potts." Tony gestured to red headed woman before turning his attention back to the woman. "They're necessary renovations and I'll tell you about them later." He assured her. She didn't look convinced but she did seem to drop the subject for the time being.
"It's nice to meet you, Harry." Pepper told him gently, her whole demeanor changing as she addressed him. "I'm Pepper Potts and I have the unfortunate task of marrying Mr Stark." She explained with no real malice in her voice.
"Hey!" Tony objected. Pepper ignored him.
"Nice to meet you, too." Harry said politely.
"Hey Ms Potts!" Peter chirped, offering her a wave.
"Hi Peter." She acknowledged him and then turned back to Tony. "We'll talk about this later." She warned the man before turning around and walking off.
"I think you're in trouble, Mr Stark." Peter offered.
"Eh, when am I not?" Tony shrugged.
"Tony and I have decided that Peter's going to stay here for the night." May cut in, now done checking Peter's charts.
"I'm cool with that." Peter shrugged.
"When we say stay here for the night, we mean 'here' as in medbay." Tony pointed out. He groaned. "Yeah? Well, you're the idiot that got shot so now you get to be monitored all night." Peter just rolled his eyes like this was some great inconvenience to him.