June 21st, 2012 - Stark Tower, New York City

It was just like any other day for Tony Stark. Wake up around noon, have Pepper pester him to eat food around 12:15, and begin tinkering in the lab from 12:30 until around 2 or 3 in the morning. That is until JARVIS, Tony's AI system decided to drop a bomb on the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

"Sir, you asked me to inform you if I found any abnormalities in Mr. Stane's files." JARVIS reminds Tony Stark.

Tony, who is repairing his suit from his latest mission, doesn't even look up as he says, "Give me the coordinates, I'll blow it up as soon as I fix the fuel output on my suit."

"I don't think this is the kind of situation you want to blow up sir," JARVIS says. Tony sighs and puts down his tools. He pushes himself towards the nearest computer.

"Okay JARVIS, bring up what you found," Tony orders politely, he is slightly annoyed at the interruption. At this point, he thought that any issues regarding Obidiah Stane would've been over and done with by now. But Stane is proving himself to have been like an itch you can't scratch. Never truly going away. Tony doesn't have to wait long for the documents to appear on the screen. His eyes briefly scan them and find the death certificate of Mrs. Helen Granger nee Carter-Sousa. The daughter of a friend of his father. The death of his godmother's daughter in fact. Tony feels a twinge of sadness, however, he hadn't seen the woman in years, and they weren't very close, to begin with, only ever interacting when their parents forced them together.

"Why am I looking at this JARVIS? And why would Stane have this?" Tony asked curiously, his patience was wearing thin on the issue. Though, anything involving more time on Stane's messes was something that Tony has greatly come to dislike nowadays.

"I was looking into that, Sir, and found that Mr. Stane had been sponsoring Mrs. Granger's child. He's been doing so since approximately five months after her birth, using his own personal funds." JARVIS informed him in his signature monotonic AI voice.

"That is odd, Stark Industries sponsors gifted children all the time, but never from that early of an age and never from personal funds. Look more into Stane's files on this kid, why her?"

"Right away sir."

Tony leans back in his chair and pushes himself back toward his work. He begins soldering some wires together on the gauntlet of his suit. The pang of guilt and sadness hit him as he realized this poor child is probably now an orphan, and his poor godmother just lost her child. He would have to visit her at some point. Tony could count on one hand how many times he's seen his godmother since his father died. He knew she was not in the greatest of health. Tony made a mental note to tell Pepper to schedule a visit in the next few weeks.

"I have found more on the child sir, would you like me to read it out for you?" JARVIS asks Mr. Stark. He only nods in response, never taking his eyes off his work. "It is on this day, January 8th,1997, that the Victoria Hospital determines that Mr. Anthony Stark is the biological father of Miss. Hermione Jean Maria Granger born-"

Tony drops his tools on the ground, now frozen from shock. He can barely even register what JARVIS was saying. He feels like he can't breathe, there was no way he heard that right. There's no way he has a daughter he never knew about.

"I'm sorry...what?" Tony manages to choke out.

"It seems that you are Hermione Granger's biological father. I've looked more into Helen, and it seems that throughout her pregnancy she tried to contact you about Miss. Granger. As per usual, we had a staff member investigate the claim, however, it seems Mr. Stane insisted on checking the claims himself." Tony began to connect the dots.

"He knew that Howard and my godmother had stayed in contact after the war. When I was younger, I'd hang out with her daughter, Helen. Hermione's mother. That's probably why he wanted to investigate, he thought there might've been some truth there." Tony connects the dots. "So Stane got a DNA test, found out the kid was mine and kept it from me."

"That is what seems to have happened, Sir," JARVIS confirms. "I found an email Mr. Stane sent, posing as you. Claiming you wanted nothing to do with the child, but would have Mr. Stane check in every once in a while and pay compensation to help raise the child."

By this point, Tony is furious. Stane had kept his kid from him, and made him sound like he wanted nothing to do with her. Tony puts his gauntlet on and begins punching a nearby post. How could Stane do this? How could he not have known? He had a grown-up daughter, one who doesn't even know he exists. Tony couldn't help but wonder, did she get Helen's straight brown hair or his black waves? What color are her eyes? Does she have freckles like Helen and Peggy? Is she right or left-handed? These questions kept swirling in his head…the only thing that was able to pull him out was JARVIS's voice.

"Sir, I feel as though I should remind you how you know this information as of now," JARVIS says, trying to get Tony back on track.

Tony throws one final punch but keeps his arm locked in the hole he's made in the concrete post. He is breathing heavily, trying to concentrate on how he'd found out he had a daughter. Then it hit him.

"Shit...The poor kid just lost the only parents she's ever known." Tony swears, to himself or to Stane he wasn't sure. Tony starts running upstairs while giving JARVIS orders, he goes into planning mode.

"JARVIS, call Pepper and Happy, tell them to meet me at the airport, and tell them to get the jet ready. We leave in 10." Tony says as he grabs a jacket and steps inside a car that always waits for him. He tells the driver to take him to the airport as quickly as possible. While driving he gets a call from Pepper.

"Tony, what the hell is going on? Why are we getting on a plane so quickly?" Pepper asks, she sounds mad, to be far she always is when Tony changes their plans last minute. Without giving her a chance to say anything else, Tony cuts her off.

"Turns out I have a kid." Tony waits for her reaction. She reacts almost immediately to his words.

"You have a what?!"

"I have a kid, offspring, child, spawn, fetus, whatever you want to call it! I got a life insurance notice and a death certificate for her mother and father from Stane's files, and JARVIS looked into it. Turns out Stane ordered a DNA test, found out she was mine, and then kept her from me." Tony explains quickly.

"Life insurance… death certificate… oh that poor kid," Pepper says sympathetically. "I'll meet you at the airport, and then we can look into it further. Where does she live so I can have the pilot fuel up?"

"Uh…" Tony trails off. He hadn't fully thought this through.

"You don't know where she lives?! Do you even know how her parents died? Is there anyone with her right now?" Pepper asks, trying to make a point that Tony really needed to start asking more questions…well more important questions. Thank god JARVIS interrupted.

"If I may Miss. Potts, Hermione Granger was born September 19, 1996, in London, England. Her parents died yesterday in a fatal car accident. Hermione was the only survivor." JARVIS informs Tony and Pepper. That information made Tony do a double-take.

"Is she okay? Is she in the hospital?" Tony was more concerned than ever now. When did he become such a concerned parent? He was able to answer that question himself, "Five minutes ago when he became a parent." He himself lost his parents in a fatal car crash, though luckily he wasn't in the car. She must be devastated and struggling with survivor's guilt.

"She is currently recovering from a broken leg and concussion in St. Mary's Hospital. Considering the state of the crash, she is very lucky. It would have been far more likely for her to have more extensive injuries or worse, have died." JARVIS informs the concerned father and that was definitely NOT what Tony needed to hear at that moment.

"Shit...check if she needs anything with the hospital, send them the DNA test if they refuse to give any information. If she's not in a private room, put her in a private room and make sure the hospital doesn't tell her about this… situation. She doesn't need to find out like that." Tony thinks quickly.

"Right away, Sir."

Tony doesn't speak for a long time. He sits in the back of his car, looking out the window, watching as the world passes by. It isn't until Pepper speaks up that he even realizes that she is still on the phone with him.

"Tony? You okay?" Pepper asks carefully.

Tony has no idea how to process this… having a kid…a daughter. On the one hand, he was furious, if he hadn't already killed Stane, he would right now. Keeping a daughter from him… and for what? Some petty feud?

On the other hand, Tony is devastated. While he was drinking and fucking his way around the world he was missing everything. He missed her first words, first steps, first everything. He'd missed it all. Then he remembers how it was all Stane's fault and is pissed all over again. He's in a constant battle between furious and sad.

"I don't know," Tony says. "1996...she's not even really a kid anymore, she's 16. I have a 16-year-old kid."

Pepper smiles at that, Tony Stark…a father, better yet a concerned father. Pepper is sure she's seen everything now.

"Yeah, you do. You are her person now Tony. Other than neighbors and friends, you are it when it comes to family… Are you ready for that?"

"I have to be, I understand what she's feeling more than anyone. She just lost her parents at about the same age I did… she needs me Pep."

"Yeah, she does. I can see your car pulling up right now. I'll see you in a minute." Pepper says before hanging up.

Tony steps out of the car and sees Pepper and Happy doing the same. They lock eyes and it's almost as if Pepper can read his mind. She swiftly walks over to him and locks him in a tight embrace. Pepper rubs circles over his back, and tells him that it will all be okay. They pull away, and Tony sees Happy standing there with a lopsided grin on his face.

"I don't really know what to say other than… congrats Tony, or should I say…Daddy?" Happy said, pulling Tony into a bear hug as Tony mutters a 'shut up' on Happy's shoulder. They pull away and Happy goes to collect the to-go bags that Pepper, Tony, and himself always had packed for last-minute trips.

It isn't long until they all board the plane. Tony takes a seat, while Pepper goes to talk to the pilot. It isn't long before they are in the sky, headed to England. They sit in silence for a while. Tony is the first to speak.

"JARVIS, open all the information you can on Hermione Granger. Newspaper articles, youtube, academic records, I want to know everything." Tony asks.

Quickly, articles and videos are showing up for Tony on a screen in front of him. One video stands out, it's a video of what looked like a National Spelling Bee. He presses play and suddenly they showed a lineup of children, between the ages of 12-14, all but one. A little girl with big, bush, brown hair who couldn't be older than 4 or 5 years old sat in a chair far too big for her, along with all the other students. He looks at the date of the video which is set in early 2001. Hermione would be 4 going on 5 at that time. If the date didn't confirm it, her looks and attitude sure did, confidence with a cocky side grin at her fellow competitors; Yep, that little girl on the screen is his daughter.

An announcer called Hermione Granger to the front of the stage. She hopped off her seat and walked proudly up to the microphone. She stood tall and proud with her hands neatly tucked in front of her. She smiled wide as she waited for her word, and Tony could see a front tooth missing, which made his face break out in a stupid grin.

"Miss. Granger, your word is Ragnarok."

Hermione stood confused for a moment before asking:

"May I have the origin of the word please?"

Tony's eyes start to water as he hears his daughter's voice for the first time. That perfectly adorable, sweeter-than-honey, British accent. He'd never heard anything more beautiful in his entire life. He watches as she won a national spelling competition. He determines that that is the proudest moment of his life. Forget Iron Man or Stark Enterprises, though it sounded ridiculous, seeing his daughter win a 12-14 national spelling contest at the age of 4 was the proudest moment of his life.

"I'll tell you one thing, Tones." Happy says, "That is definitely your kid."

He finishes watching the video and begins pulling up academic records. At the age of 7, she was put into advanced classes for her age group at a private school local to her area. At the age of 9, she began taking secondary school courses in her spare time. She was proficient in Piano, Violin, and Vocals. Spoke French, German, Gaelic, Welsh, Italian, and Russian. As well as participating in local debate clubs and editing articles for her local newspaper.

He finds testing which showed that she had an IQ of 230 at the age of 10, as well as an eidetic memory. Only 40 points short of being at the same IQ capacity as him. Although it wouldn't have mattered to Tony whether she was a genius or not, it was comforting to know that they would maybe have some similar interests.

As much as he hates that this was the way things were, he is a tiny bit grateful that Stane provided her with enough money to attend that private school. He looked at the school's averages for the year Hermione attended the school and she was the smartest kid there. Any other school would've made her feel more out of place than she probably already did at the private school. On report cards, Hermione's teachers had said that most of the time she would be teaching the classes, and those were comments from college professors teaching at the school!

He is interested to see what she'd accomplished by this age, but after the age of 12, she virtually disappeared. Her parents nor she had any form of social media, he has no way of seeing what his daughter looks like now. The latest picture he has is from the age of 11, which was from a math competition she competed in with her private school.

Happy and Pepper notice the rare look of confusion on Tony's face and immediately grow worried at what Tony may have discovered about Hermione.

"I don't think I've ever seen you confused before, Tony. What's going on? Something wrong with the kid?" Happy asks, concerned heavily in his tone.

"There's nothing here. After the age of 12, she just disappears. The only records are her yearly checkups." Tony explains, brows furrowed with his confusion. He asks JARVIS to go into SHIELD's records which, as much as he hates to admit it, are far more advanced than his. It all turned up blank.

"I'm sure there's a reason Tony. A kid doesn't just disappear, there is a reason for everything." Pepper says as she tries to calm Tony's worry. "Maybe you should rest. You only found out this news a couple of hours ago and it's got to be a lot for you to process."

"I think I'm going to watch more of these videos," Tony says as he shakes his head. Pepper knows he won't want to rest but had decided it was worth a try.


June 22nd, 2012 - London, England

When the plane lands, Tony looks out the window to see cars already prepared to take them to the hospital. Without so much as a word, he walks off the plane and into the car, knowing Pepper and Happy were following him.

"Welcome to London, Mr. Stark. Where can I drive you this morning?" The driver asks.

"St. Mary's Hospital, as quickly as possible." He answers.

"Thank you," Pepper adds, shooting Tony a look to mind his manners, even though she knows he has other things on his mind besides manners. "So… I feel like we should talk about this before you are too blinded by your love for this girl. How are we going to break this to the press?"

Tony sighs, "I don't even know Pep. Either way, it makes it sound like her mother is a whore and my daughter is a bastard."

"Speaking of...who is her mother?" Happy asks curiously. He expects that before today, Tony wouldn't have remembered her name.

"Her name is Helen Granger but I knew her as Helen Carter-Sousa. Her mother was my godmother so we grew up quite close, even when we didn't want to be. Her mother Peggy and my dad helped found SHIELD together. After my dad died, Peggy checked in as much as she could but got sick after a while. Helen had moved to England and so we never spoke. I was in England doing...what I did back then, we saw each other again at a party then I guess 9 months later Hermione came."

"Wow. From what you told me, Peggy Carter is one badass woman. Mix that with your genius… do not give me that look, you and I both know it's true." Pepper scolds after Tony smirks at Pepper admitting he was a genius. "You've got one strong kid."

Tony sighs, "She's gonna need all the strength she can get right now. Between losing both her parents, finding out I'm her father, and the media backlash she could get from this… I can't even imagine how hard it's going to be on that poor kid."

Tony slouches against the back of his seat and rubs his hands over his face in frustration. This whole situation was fucked. He enjoyed most of the attention he got from being Iron Man and of course being a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. But would his daughter be the same? He didn't want her to be under the scrutiny of the media during this time, he remembers that he hated it after his parents died. He just wants to be alone with the people he cared for, which at the time was no one. He doesn't want the press showing up at his door, asking questions about how he was or about the future of Stark Industries.

The screen between Pepper, Happy, and Tony came down, snapping the group out of their separate thoughts.

"Mr. Stark, we have arrived at St. Mary's hospital." The driver says, handing him a card, "Here's my card in case you need any more transportation during your stay in London."

Tony quickly leaves the car without another word, Happy trailing behind him. Pepper takes the card from the driver, saying a grateful thank you, and makes him sign an NDA to make sure he doesn't reveal Tony's presence in England. She knows he probably wouldn't have said anything, however, it's always safe to take precautions.


Tony walks through the door of the hospital, determination visible on his face. He strides up towards the nurse's station. He can see that the waiting room for all of the visitors is practically empty, so there is nothing to worry about as far as being noticed. He approaches a young woman with brown hair tied in a loose bun atop her head, wearing blue nurse's scrubs, and visibly busy with paperwork.

"I need the room number and medical status of a patient of yours," Tony says to the young woman, getting right to the point.

"Name of the patient?" The young nurse asked without even looking up at Tony.

"Hermione Granger," Tony replies anxiously, he's moments away from his life-changing forever. He knows that, as soon as he meets her, everything will be different.

The young woman types for a few short seconds before informing him of what she sees.

"I'm sorry but that patient's information is classified until a member of the family arrives."

"That is why I am here," Tony says. The woman looks up and her eyes suddenly go wide, she stands up in a panic, fiddling with paperwork nervously.

"M-Mr. Stark, I am so sorry, your assistant informed us of your impending arrival. I should have expected you would be here soon. My apologies." The woman stammers out nervously. Tony flashes her that smile he would use in his more "playboy" days.

"That's alright. Now I have traveled a long way and would like to see my daughter now and meet with her doctor as soon as possible for an update on her health." Tony informs the nurse, still using his charm to hopefully make this interaction as quickly as possible.

"Of course sir, right away." The brunette goes back to typing on her computer for a few moments. "Your daughter is in room 215, just down the hall and to your left. I can escort you if you would like."

The woman moves to walk him to the room but Tony gestures for her to sit back down.

"Not necessary, my security guard and assistant will need to speak with whoever is in charge of the hospital," Tony says, only to change his wording after seeing the look on the young woman's face. "They only need to discuss protocol and secrecy. Nothing about you or how anything was handled during this conversation."

The young nurse lets out a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Sir. You should know that from the look of your daughter's chart, she is still asleep from the medication we have her on. However, that was a few hours ago so she should be waking up soon, it may be a few minutes before she is completely coherent."

"Thanks for the head up." He says sincerely to the nurse, he sees Pepper and Happy behind him from the corner of his eye. He Is about to speak when Pepper holds up a hand to silence him.

"We've got it covered. We'll come to find you when you are done, just go be with your daughter." Pepper tells him, with Happy nodding in agreement.

Tony smiles at the two before practically running down the hallway to find Hermione's room. It isn't long before he stands in front of room 215. Just on the other side of this door is his daughter.

He slowly opens the door, trying not to make any noises that might wake Hermione. He notices the lights are dimmed but not completely shut off. He closes the door anyways. He doesn't want to let any light in, in case it wakes her up.

It isn't until he turns around from closing the door that he sees a woman sitting in a chair across from where he assumed the bed was. The bed is covered by a privacy curtain, so Tony can't see Hermione from where he is. The woman puts a finger over her lips, indicating that he needs to continue to be quiet. He doesn't know why he feels the need to listen to her but he does. She looks like a woman that one would not want to trifle with.

The woman stands up from her chair and walks closer to him. This is the first time Tony notices something odd about her. The woman is wearing a long green dress made of velvet that looked like it'd come from the middle ages, she has thin wired glasses and had what looks like the tip of a stick poking out of her long sleeve. Her dark grey hair is pulled into a perfect bun, with her silver streaks shining under the fluorescents. The woman is clearly older and Tony can't help but wonder how his daughter has any connection to this woman.

"I'm Tony Stark," Tony whispers, holding out a hand to the older woman.

"A relative of Miss. Granger, I presume?" The older woman asks in a thick Scottish accent, also speaking in a whispered tone. Tony is shocked to see no look of recognition on the older woman's face. Usually, he is pretty easily recognized, if the face didn't work, an introduction usually reminded people of who he was. However, this woman looked at him as if he was a normal person. It was quite refreshing.

"It's a long story but I am actually her biological father," Tony informs the woman with a proud smile. The grey-haired woman's eyes go wide in shock.

"I see, Miss. Granger did inform me that Mr. Granger was not her biological father when I arrived. However, she informed me that her biological father was not in the picture." The older woman says with a disapproving look.

"Until a few hours ago I didn't even know I had a daughter," Tony confesses, and at that comment, the woman's eyes grow even wider. "I told you it was a long story, which I will be happy to tell you as soon as Hermione wakes up. Something tells me you are close to her and that she will want you here when I tell her…" Tony gestures with his hands that he would like to know who the strange woman was in his daughter's room.

The woman flushes in embarrassment, "Oh how terribly rude of me, I must apologize. I should have introduced myself sooner. My name is Minerva McGonagall, I'm one of Miss. Granger's professors."

EDITED: November 11, 2022