New York City, United States

New York SHIELD Headquarters

June 2nd, 2010

Tony Stark had been having a strange experience as of late. He'd blame the palladium poisoning from the reactor in his chest if he hadn't already solved that issue. No, this was something different.

Little things had been happening around him, things he couldn't quite understand. Like how he'd gotten up from his bed to shower yesterday morning, and arrived back to find the bed already done and his clothes for the day sitting on the bed.

He thought that maybe Pepper had been playing a prank on him if so, points to her, but no - according to Happy, she'd been up for three hours dealing with cleanup at the Expo.

Stepping into the sitting room of his hotel suite to find a full-blown breakfast waiting for him had been…new, yes new. He'd expected to grab a coffee and head on out. Oh well, the food was delicious and Tony wasn't about to say no to good food.

When the plates cleared themselves after he'd finished eating Tony decided that the best explanation was the easiest. Somehow, Arcane was involved.

And wasn't that something? He'd seen some photostatic veil tech before, and whatever Arcane had been doing to hide his face was not it. The requirement for forcefield technology strong enough to block missile fire without his new reactor was also non-existent, yet Arcane had waved a stick and had an entire area secure from the Hammer Drones.

He'd heard the famous quote plenty of times before when discussing his Iron Man tech. Old man Clarke had been about one thing.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

All Tony had to do was figure out how Arcane was doing the wand waving and he'd be able to replicate that easily enough. Shouldn't be too hard for a mind as bright as his.

All that was left was to figure out how Arcane had managed to keep Tony fed at even the slightest mention of being peckish and handled the cleaning for any messes that happened around him. Already Pepper was letting him know about how miraculously the Expo grounds were being cleaned, one moment she'd have her back turned to a destroyed building and after returning to it, the windows would be repaired, the inside swept clear of debris, and, in some cases, a fresh coat of paint reapplied.

He'd tried calling out for Arcane, he'd gone invisible on his sensors during the fight so it was entirely possible that perhaps he was stalking Tony. Crazy, but it wouldn't be Tony's first stalker, probably the most dedicated one though.

After a few moments of waiting, the only response had been a note written on parchment of all things, letting Tony know to finish up his work on the East Coast and that Arcane would meet him at his Malibu home.

Alright, creepy, but Tony wasn't about to argue with the person who could get the shrapnel out of his chest, or, at least, claimed to be able to get the shrapnel out of his chest.

If it hadn't been for the videos showing Arcane healing the injured, Tony wouldn't have even considered the proposal Arcane had made. It sounded ludicrous but he'd seen a man go from gasping for breath to hale and, mostly, hearty in seconds, all with the wave of a stick.

Then Arcane had just popped out of existence, literally, in front of Tony. One minute he was there, the next, gone. Only the pop of displaced air suggested he'd ever even been there. And wasn't that just something? The sudden disappearance was some form of wormhole manipulation. But the forces exerted by the tidal stretching of merely entering a wormhole should have left Arcane as a pile of ashes on the concrete. So no, there was more afoot, and Tony needed to understand it.

It was why, when Triple Imposter had showed up, he'd kept his lips sealed tight about Arcane.

"Stark, SHIELD needs to know. What info do you have on the guy who bailed you out," 'Rushman' had said, and boy was Tony still pissed off about that.

"According to him, just some mare-do-well strolling by when he saw the havoc occurring at the Expo," Tony had smirked back, putting on a false sense of sincerity that he was sure Miss Super Spy had seen right through. Her eyes had narrowed in an untrusting manner.

"Stark, Fury is asking questions. He wants them answered," she had scowled, and Tony had only given her a smirk in reply.

"The pirate will get them, just needs to ask them in person," he'd replied, before flying off, eager to get the Iron Man suit off and repaired, although the spat with Vanko had given him some ideas for improvements. He should have realized that last comment would be back to bite him.

The morning of the 2nd he'd been 'escorted' out to SHIELD Headquarters in New York. Fury had gotten tired of holding off his debriefing on the whole Expo situation. You'd have thought the red assassin they had would have given them all the necessary details, but nope, Tony had been called in. Even Pepper had suggested to just get it over with, the last thing anyone wanted was Agent randomly showing up at odd hours of the day asking for a meeting again and again.

In the end, Tony acquiesced.

It was how he ended up sitting at a table, in a clinically sterile room that needed some extra lighting. Oh the Stark-Fujikawa holotech they had floating around him was a nice touch, a little reminder of the new government contract that had gone through with SHIELD not even a month before. Seems they were already rolling out the tech upgrades.

At least the information on the screens was a good pass-time to focus on. One of them featured a map of the world. One of the markers made sense, pointing directly at the Expo grounds.

Didn't Agent mention something about New Mexico, that might explain that one.

Wait was one of them pointing at his home in Malibu? Okay, weird but strange. Nothing even happened there, granted it likely looked like a mess. Perhaps SHIELD was doing a little redecorating for him? Tony decided he'd have JARVIS perform a detailed scan of their systems when he returned.

His musings were cut off as the doors to the room opened, and the clip of footsteps on the tiled floor turned his attention away from the map, which still had a few interesting markers left on it. These focused more on Europe and Africa however.

"Stark, you've been really holding out on me, you know that?" Fury asked, voice casual as he dropped three files on the desk in front of Tony. Good, Tony didn't like it when things were handed to him.

The first file was one Fury had alluded to before, the words 'Avenger Initiative' printed boldly on it. Tony reached for it first, eager to get his hands on the information within, only to frown when the pirate held the file down as he went to pull it away.

"I don't think that one applies to you anymore," Fury said as he took a seat, pushing another file towards Tony," now this one, I'm hoping you can help clear up the details on, it's looking a bit sparse as is."

Tony took the file, helpfully labeled it 'Arcane', and opened it. He smirked a bit as he read it out loud for the class, knowing it would likely infuriate Fury with just how empty it was.

"Name: Arcane, Age: Unknown, Gender: Male, Nationality: Likely British," Tony said, noticing a frown beginning to form on the pirate's face," Abilities: Magnetism, Force Field Projection, Teleportation, Healing. Eyewitness testimony reported flight on a broom, obscuration of face, and waving of a stick to induce seemingly magical effects prompted through the use of Latin phrases - although the phrases did not always coincide with the waving of the stick. Features: Unknown, wears a type of scaled cloak of unknown origin, likely coming from a member of the Serpentes family. Estimated to be between 5'8'' and 5'11'' in height. Personality Assessment: Natural leader and protector, organized the crowd of civilians, protected them, and then healed as many of the injured as possible. When advised about the possible drone threat, moved quickly to ensure only he would be in danger through the use of Magnetism. Avenger Initiative: Assuming no Ulterior motives, Recommended."

Tony theatrically went to turn the page, earning himself a scowl from Fury at his astonished look of surprise at there not being another page.

"That's it?" he asked the now scowling Fury.

"Any information you can give us about this man would be ideal," Fury bit out, looking rather annoyed at not having any more information.

"Hmm, let's see. I can confirm everything about the stick waving, in fact, based on what I've managed to analyze from a few recordings I got my hands on, it seems like he uses it to replicate these effects," Tony said, pointing to the initial set of skills that SHIELD seemed to be on the fence about," is it tech? Unlikely, I watched him teleport away through the application of a personalized wormhole. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can replicate that feat with nothing on them but a stick and a weird snake coat, which means…"

"He's enhanced," Fury said, coming to a similar conclusion as Tony. The Director took the file back, an annoyed expression as some of the blanks were filled out but not all of them.

"Do you know who he is under the hood?" Fury demanded to know, and Tony just shrugged.

"I'm as clueless as you. Thought it was one of my crazier fans at first, maybe one of the cameras caught him as he changed into his hero getup?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow in question to Fury, who shook his head.

"We have him teleporting in during the drone attack, likely with whatever teleportation ability he has," Fury explained, brows furrowed in obvious consternation.

"So he's a party crasher?" Tony asked skeptically, he found it hard to believe that this D&D Wizard or whatever Arcane was had been in league with Hammer and Vanko.

"You think he's not?" Fury questioned, causing Tony to shrug in reply.

"Seems like a stand-up magic man. Showed up, helped out, took off without asking for much," Tony said, inwardly wincing when he noticed Fury sit a little straighter at that.

"So he asked for something? Not exactly the most altruistic person around then," Fury remarked.

"Yeah he mentioned needed some help and that I might be able to help him out in return for a favor," Tony admitted, seeing as the cat was out of the bag.

"And? What did he offer you?" Fury's voice was suspicious.

"He thinks he can take care of the shrapnel in my chest. In exchange he wants a favor," Tony said, cutting off whatever question about favors Fury was going to ask," he didn't mention the favor but let me know he'd be in touch."

"He could ask a lot from you Stark," Fury remarked, giving him an unimpressed look.

"I'm aware, but I've had some time to reflect on my mortality these last couple of months, and having a new ticker is nice, but not having to need a new ticker at all? That'd be a whole lot better. If Gandalf thinks he can get the shards out, I'll return whatever favor he asks of me," Tony admitted," besides he kind of already did me a solid with the Expo, I can at least hear him out."

Tony made sure to keep the fact Arcane had been helping him out a lot more than with just the Expo to himself. He wasn't sure how all the housekeeping was being done and how Arcane was making him that amazing breakfast but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

As Fury placed Arcane's file off to the side, he slid forward another, thicker file.

"Miss Romanov's personality assessment of you for the Avenger's Initiative, give it a read," Fury said as he leaned back in his chair. Somehow Tony was sure that there was going to be something in that file that he wasn't going to like.

Loch Dubh, Scottish Highlands

Manor Trunk, Old Hogwarts

June 2nd, 2010

Hadrian sat crosslegged on a comfy cushion, enjoying his evening within the Manor Trunk. The past two days had been filled with deep Occulemency exercises, testing his mind's defenses for weaknesses in the Mind Palace he'd spent hours developing. He had figured that the twisting tunnels of the sewers beneath the school would keep most people out, but now he understood it was barebones and he needed to think on a much grander scale.

The Ancient One's Legillimency pull had been easy. With a single glance, and instead of pushing past his defenses, she'd lightly snagged his consciousness into her own - vastly more protected mind and trapped him in there.

Useful for explaining her situation, but it made Hadrian warry nonetheless. Warry, but eager to develop a similar skill.

A well-attuned Occulmens could partition different parts of their mind into processing multiple different actions at once, incredibly straining but doable. With one thought stream, he could lay a similar trap to The Ancient One's and drag someone less attuned to the Mental Arts into his own, much more formidable mind. Another thought stream was to power his mind's defenses and keep the intruder away from where Hadrian didn't want them. With a third thought stream to pilot his body and attack the now unconscious body that had been left behind by his trap should he drag in a bigger fish than he had thought.

It was scarily effective, but Hadrian loved the thought of performing it and had the power to try.

That and he hoped through practice with multiple thought streams he only ran the risk of one of his conciousnesses being stolen away instead of all three. The migraines made the exercises tedious, but he hoped it would all be worth it in the end.

While debating the merits of adding a potential fourth thought stream, one of the house elves serving under Hadrian popped into his quarters.

"Master Po-Peverell," she hastily corrected, holding out the latest model Stark Phone for Hadrian to use " Mopsy brings news!"

"Oh, thanks Mopsy," Hadrian replied, curiously looking at a video of live coverage of what looked to be a small desert town.

A giant metal golem was going toe-to-toe with a bunch of Viking cosplayers apparently, no - that might be the God of Thunder himself. The title of the video suggested it was an ongoing Alien Invasion but it looked like Thor had the situation handled and Hadrian didn't spot any other metal golems shooting laser beams around in the background so things were probably good. Probably.

The newcast crew quickly started speculating about who the guy with the hammer was and if the golem was an alien superweapon or just some government tech gone rogue. Hadrian watched on as Thor and his friends clobbered the golem. Looks like they had things in hand then, he didn't particularly want to take an international portkey out to New Mexico only to jump into a fight straight away. That wouldn't do his stomach any favors.

Meeting Asgardians would be cool, but Hadrian wanted to wait a bit. Chances are more of those government types were keeping tabs on the situation and they'd likely be a lot more insistent with speaking with him about everything in that case. Yeah, thanks but no thanks. He needed that identity crafted before he could continue with his Arcane duties for the moment.

Besides, Hadrian finally had received a time a date for the meet-up with Tony.

He'd be at his Malibu Mansion on the 4th.

Good, left him plenty of time trying to induce a fourth thought stream for more than thirty seconds without triggering a nosebleed.

Malibu, California

10880 Malibu Point, Tony Stark's Mansion

June 4th, 2010

June 4th arrived faster than Hadrian had expected. He'd arrived in California a day earlier, just so he could adjust to the time difference between Scotland and California. He spent most of that 'adjustment' time riding rollercoasters at Magic Mountain. It was a fundamental life experience both Harry and Voldemort had missed out on growing up, Harry because of the Dursleys and Voldemort because, by the time he was old enough to go on his own, he was busy building connections between himself and other notable purebloods and hunting down suitable objects for his Horcruxes.

So yeah, not a lot of time for going to amusement parks. Hadrian had a blast either way, he'd had to sell a couple of galleons at a pawn shop for some spending money but had enjoyed his time. Rollercoasters were only slightly less exhilarating than the freedom brooms provided. Granted some were less exhilarating and more headache enducing. Viper had looked like a fun ride but it was starting to show its age. Meanwhile, Tatsu and X2 had given him ideas for some broom techniques to try out next time he went flying. There was even a new Iron Man-themed coaster, painted in the red and gold Iron Man was known for that Hadrian had quite enjoyed.

One of the perks that Harry especially enjoyed was the fact he didn't need to set up a cooling charm or any sunscreen, his rituals kept his body well climatized against the Californian weather. The increased attention he'd gotten from some women was also a plus. He'd struck up a casual conversation with some in the lines, and he was surprised by how easily he found himself in flirtatious conversations with them.

After his day had come to an end, he'd found a 'quiet' and 'out of the way' spot to place his Manor Trunk for the next, and by that, he meant he set it up in Tony's yard. He'd wake and greet Tony in the morning, for now, the sweet call of sleep was what awaited him.

He awoke with the sun, the early morning rays were shining in through the manor window, and Hadrian was glad that the environmental charms he had up mimicked the correct day and night cycle of the planet, even if he was on technically a different Earth to the one he'd originally cast the charm on. He got dressed easily enough, debating pulling on his Basilisk armor, ultimately shrugging and putting it on - leaving the hood down for now. It'd help identify who Hadrian Peverell was at the least, but the obscuring spells were kind of pointless for the moment. After all, getting that identity means he'd likely have to reveal himself to Stark anyway. Might as well pull the band-aid off.

He arrived at the dining table to find a spread of traditional English fry-up. It smelled exquisitie and he quickly thanked the ever dutiful Dobby for the food before digging in. As he chewed away, he gave a nod to Dobby to start the usual run-down for the morning.

"Sir, we've begun to remove the Stasis Charms from a few of the trunks needed for the more important healing potions. The unicorns were rather glad to roam the forest we grew for them, but refuse to let any of the male elves approach," Dobby explained, reading items from a list in a breakdown of events that Hadrian was thankfully glad about. Most of the morning announcements today were rather mundane mainly focused on more creatures being taken out of stasis. The last of the elves had returned after the last of the maintenance over the Expo was completed during the night. Also, Fiddle had reported that Mr. Stark had been made aware of the Manor Trunk's appearance in his backyard Hadrian had been caught on the security cameras setting up the Manor Trunk the night before.

Tony had reportedly come out shortly after Hadrian had set up his Manor Trunk for the night, informed about his arrival by the 'house ghost' whatever that was. Tony had tried to move and open the trunk, to no avail. He'd paced around it a few times, and at one point disappeared into the house and reappeared with his Iron Man armor on, trying desperately to lift and open the trunk. Hadrian only wished he'd been awake to witness the situation, sure that it would have been highly amusing to watch at the least.

"Let Fiddle know that I'd very much like to see that memory, is there anything else to report about Mr. Stark?" Hadrian asked. Tony Stark was working with the government types as some form of consultant now, but Hadrian couldn't help but hope they could still agree. The fact that neither Dobby nor Fiddle had reported that a large-scale ambush was awaiting him outside was at least heartening.

"Dobby will let Fiddle know Master Peverell, sir!" Dobby said excitedly," Also Mr. Stark be waiting outside for your sir."

"Really? Has he had breakfast?" Hadrian asked, and Dobby shook his head.

"No. He's been waiting since the early morning for you to emerge," Dobby said, causing Hadrian to wince.

Perhaps setting up my trunk in his backyard wasn't the best idea.

"I'll go greet him then, get a spread ready for him. I'll ask Tony to join us in here, but he may prefer to eat inside," Hadrian said with a nod, turning to the Manor's exit, climbing the stairs that lead to the exit of the trunk, and opening the door to start climbing out.

It seemed the sudden movement from the top of the trunk opening was enough to startle a dozing Tony Stark, whose eyes grew wide as Hadrian emerged from within the depths of the trunk.

"Sorry about slumming in your yard, parking rates in L.A. are impossible," Hadrian said to the still-startled Tony, who seemed to be trying to comprehend the fact a full-grown man had emerged from a trunk that was too small to fit him.

"W-What? H-how?" Tony said as he leaped to his feet, circling the trunk again while giving Hadrian a cross look," Bigger on the inside tech, I should have known you were a Time Lord."

Hadrian couldn't help but crack a smile at the comment of Time Lord.

"Unfortunately, my TARDIS doesn't travel through time. Your original guess of wizard was far more correct," Hadrian replied with a cheeky smile, before extending an arm.

"Hadrian Peverell. Harry to my friends. Magic user from a different dimension," Hadrian replied casually, giving Stark a smirk. Stark for his part looked mindblown by the revelation, only having the fortitude to raise his hands away from Hadrian's extended arm.

Tony raised a finger, before collapsing into a chair, seemingly taking a moment to get his thoughts in order.

"You want me to believe, that you're from what, a parallel dimension where magic exists?" Tony demanded to know, still looking like he couldn't naturally believe what he was hearing.

"Oh, magic exists in this dimension as well," Hadrian said nonchalantly, casually waving his arm and conjuring a nice recliner to sit down on and lean against, an action that caused Tony to jump to his feet and carefully walk over to the recliner and give it a poke. Checking it for texture and even ripping one of the seams to check the stuffing. Hadrian let it happen. It seemed to him that Tony was more of the type of person who needed to verify things with his own two eyes before deciding anything he didn't understand.

"Okay, first of all. I forgot you could do things without your stick-

"Wand."

"-and was just shocked that you just waved a hand and made a couch. Then there's the fact you parked a pseudo-TARDIS in my backyard. Which by the way, hats off to you. I'm insanely jealous," Tony said, sitting back in his chair, and looking wistfully at the trunk.

"Maybe I can show you how I made it?" Hadrian suggested, and he was sure he spotted a gleam of interest in Tony's eyes at that statement.

"Maybe? Oh no, you are going to teach me how it all works," Tony insisted, causing Hadrian to give him a grin," but first, how is it that a Wziard pops in from a parallel universe to crash my Expo?"

Hadrian held a pensieve expression for a few moments, before giving Tony a shrug.

"The how is easy. I stepped through a trans-dimensional portal that spat me out in Central Park. I was very fortunate to catch a stream of the Expo and noticed things were kind of falling apart and I'm not the type to stand aside and not help out if the situation looks bleak," Hadrian admitted," and from what the stream was showing me, people were dying and no one else was helping you against the drones. So, I decided to show up and give you a bit of help."

"There's a trans-dimensional portal in Central Park?" Tony asked, looking for clarification on that topic.

"Yep. Very hidden on this side, doubt anyone without magic would ever find it, or remember that they ended up finding it. The warding on it was old but decent enough that you could have walked by it a thousand times and never noticed it. On my side of the portal, it's called the Veil of Death, a highly misleading name. I think only a few people in the government even knew what it was, everyone else thought it was a portal created by ancient wizards to dispose of their dead - hence the name," Hadrian explained to the eagerly listening Stark.

"So, how different is this dimension from the one you come from? You mentioned a government? You mean to tell me there was a magical government where you came from? Are there magical countries too" Tony asked, still sounding more than a little incredilous over Hadrian's claims.

"Kinda, a lot of the magical governments and any wizarding settlements were hidden away from non-magical, you likely heard about the Spanish Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials, in our world they were a pretty big deal. Sent a lot of the magical community into hiding as a result," Hadrian explained," since we were so isolated though, and because magic tends to make innovation pretty trivial, magical society stagnated. Of course, this was a culture shock when new magicals were discovered, and went from living in modern times to transitioning to a magical world that didn't have any modern-day comforts. Electricity, lighting, pens, and paper. They would make suggestions, but the magical world had always been very insular. They resisted any change, and now and then a Dark Lord would rise and persecute any with new blood or non-magicals in general. Eventually, I kind of got fed up with it, found credible information that the Veil of Death was a trans-dimensional portal, and decided to try it out."

Tony stared at Hadrian speculatively at that.

"There's more you're not telling me in there," he accused, to which Hadrian just shrugged away.

"Oh definitely, but, no offense, I'm not about to tell my life story to someone I've just met. You have the necessary information to come to an educated conclusion as to why I would want to meet with you," Hadrian said, easily diverting the topic to one he knew Tony would be curious about.

It seems to have done the trick.

"JARVIS, you run a facial scan on Mr. Peverell here?" Tony asked, as he got up and started pacing.

"Yes sir, Hadiran Peverell's facial scan has a 63% match with James Potter from the United Kingdom and an 87% match with Harry Potter. Both are lawyers with no evidence of the abilities Mr. Peverell demonstrated at the Expo. Both were also currently last reported to be in their homes in the United Kingdom. If Mr. Peverell's claim of being from a parallel dimension is true then there is a high probability he has reached out to us for assistance in attaining an identity," JARVIS replied, Hadrian looked up to the speaker that was built into the wall where JARVIS's voice had echoed from.

"The 'house ghost'," he murmured, realizing just what Fiddle had meant.

Tony gave him a curious glance at that but held off on questioning him about that strange comment, instead following up on the information that JARVIS had given him.

"So, what? You figure I have the technical know-how to build an identity for you. Seems like you're putting a lot of faith in me for only just meeting me. You are just meeting me, right? We weren't buddies in this parallel dimension, right?" Tony asked, curious about Hadrian's response. Hadrian just shook his head.

"Nope, I never met your parallel version. What I know of the Stark name comes from this dimension mostly, my dimension was sixteen years behind so no Iron Man yet. Combined with me having been in the Wizarding World for the last few years means I had very limited exposure to non-magical media these last couple of years. You could exist in that parallel universe, you might not," Hadrian replied with a shrug," I only really discovered you by chance. You're wealthy enough and have the technical know-how to probably be able to create an identity for myself, right?"

Tony gave Hadrian a nod.

"Oh for sure. You came to the right place if you want an identity created, and sixteen years? Yeesh, you must have still been dealing with dial-up. No wonder you came to me. Alright, I'll bite but it's going to come with some conditions," Tony said, giving Hadrian a curious look. Hadrian gave Tony a nod.

"Make sense, nothing's free. What do you want?" Hadrian asked, already guessing one of the things Tony might want.

"You said you could heal me?" Tony asked, looking at Hadrian suspiciously.

"Will you allow me?" Hadrian asked, drawing his wand," Just need to run a Diagnosis Charm."

"Diagnosis Charm?" Tony asked, looking speculative as he stared at the wand Hadrian had drawn, but nodding his head anyway.

"Yep, gives me the inside scoop on your body's current health," Hadrian replied, waving his wand in an intricate pattern in Tony's direction. Tony froze at the wand's movement, but when nothing happened right away he glanced over to Hadrian who was giving Tony a piercing stare, as if he was seeing something Tony couldn't.

"How does it work? I haven't noticed anything on my end," Tony said looking down at his chest in confusion, trying to see whatever Hadrian was looking at.

"Only the caster can see the effects of the spell," Hadrian said," to me, you look like a lit-up Christmas tree, with green parts of your body and internal organs glowing green for healthy and damaged body parts glowing red. Any foreign objects glow black. Currently, I'm counting 9 of those metal shards dangerously close to entering some blood vessels. That thing in your chest is doing its job. Then there's your damaged liver, I recommend cutting back on alcohol consumption - I can fix that too but it'll be delaying the inevitable if you hop back into old habits. There's a large hole in your sternum for that magnet in your chest, it seems to be developing an infection."

Hadrian tilted his head in deep contemplation, running a hand through his hair before nodding," I can fix you up, but it'll be a complicated procedure."

"What'll it take doc?" Tony asked, looking very hopeful at not having to deal with a gaping hole in his chest any further.

"I'll need to numb the area around that hole in your chest, I don't know your tech very well so if anything goes wrong you'll need to be awake to fix it. From there, it'll be simple to summon those shards out the same way they went in. There should be some bleeding but it'll only last a few seconds at most as they reopen some of the internal wounds, the hole should help with the exit, and once I have them out I can use a Healing Charm to close your wounds. Another Diagonsis Charm to confirm that all of the shards are out. From there you'll need some Skelgro to regrow some of the bones in your chest that had to be cut away to make room for that device you have," Hadrian explained," the skin can be grafted back closed with some Murtlap Essence, but it'll scar, nothing we can do about that. Although some Scar-Relief Balm should minimize the scarring. From there I'd recommend a Wiggenwald Potion, just to make sure I didn't miss any internal injuries in the healing process."

Hadrian tilted his head back in contemplation, before giving a nod.

"Alright, so that should be…10 maybe 15 minutes in total," Hadrian explained.

Tony was listening to everything, wanting to ask a million questions about the type of 'potions' that Hadrian had brought up.

"Alright, then another condition is you have to give me as much of a rundown on magic as you can and I want to study this trans-dimensional portal you brought up," Tony said.

"I can help you out with the magic part, not that you'll be able to perform any yourself, although I suspect Arithmancy and Runes should be fine for you to attempt, I'll need to power any rune arrays you develop however," Hadrian explained, causing Tony to perk up in interest at the thought of using magic," that said, that trans-dimensional portal is off limits. No offense, but I'm not the only set of eyes on it in this dimension, the last thing I want is other interested parties poking at it and somehow making their way back to my dimension. The magical community there was scum, but I had a good set of friends that would be put in danger by the crossing."

"I want to see if I can get some scans of your body and then, analyze your blood to see if your magic is locked behind some sort of gene us non-magical folk don't have," Tony insisted, before taking a step back at Hadrian's piercing stare.

"Any experiments performed with any of my biological material will be closely monitored by me. Especially if it involves blood. If you insist on drawing blood, then I insist you destroy any samples after you have the necessary information. Blood is powerful, and in the wrong hands, my blood could be used against me. Is that understood?" Hadrian asked, causing Tony to lift his hands in relent.

"You got it Gandalf, no complaints on my end about that," Tony said, before quickly adding in," So there are magical people in this dimension as well?"

Hadrian relaxed a bit before nodding.

"Kind of, they don't use the same magic as mine but I've already been approached by a member of their organization. As far as I can tell this dimension doesn't have the same magical governments that mine had, but an order of magic users defending the Earth from the shadows. It's all kind of complicated and I've been invited to learn under them, so I'll likely be splitting my time between here and with them," Hadrian explained with a nod.

"Different magic than you?" Tony asked," So what, like a different D&D subclass then?"

Hadrian gave Tony a shrug, he'd read Dungeons and Dragons out of curiosity one day when in the library in the summer before his letter for Hogwarts came. It had seemed fun, but without any friends to play with - not to mention the ramifications that would have come if he'd been discovered to be playing the game by the Dursleys - Harry had only read through it once before putting it aside.

"I guess. I think they're more like Specialized Wizards and I'm more like a Mage," Hadrian hedged, shrugging his shoulders while Tony looked exceeding excited about something.

"Oh my gosh, sixteen years that's right. Three new editions of D&D have been released, have you played before? JARVIS you down to be a Dungeon Master, I'm sure I can rope Rhodey into taking a day," Tony said as Hadrian gave him a blank look.

"Certainly sir, will the 3.5 edition be suitable?" JARVIS asked, causing Hadrian to glance at the speaker with a suspicious glance while simultaneously wondering how he'd ended up being roped into a D&D game by Tony Stark of all people.

"3.5 edition will work, heard 4th edition hasn't been well received," Tony said, noticing the glance Hadrian was giving the speaker.

"That's right, you probably didn't have any AIs where you came from, huh?" Tony queried, quirking a brow, before grinning," Granted, there isn't a system around like JARVIS even now."

"AI? As in artificial intelligence?" Hadrian asked, only relaxing his posture slightly," in truth, there are magical effects that can create objects that think for themselves but they tend to be pretty dangerous. We Magicals believe that if you can't tell where something keeps its brain, then you should probably stay away from it. Dealt with a sentient diary a couple of years ago."

"A sentient diary? Seems scary," Tony snarked.

"It was. It held the piece of a soul and tried to possess a little girl," Hadrian explained, causing Tony to tense up at the explanation.

"Rest assured that I built JARVIS's brain and know where it's kept, it exists," Tony explained, doing his best to reassure Hadrian.

"That is correct Mr. Peverell, rest assured that my programming includes safeguards to ensure I do not go Skynet without Mr. Stark's permission," JARVIS said with a hint of snarkiness.

"Did he just crack a joke? Is he sentient?" Hadrian asked, looking slightly alarmed. He'd caught the Terminator reference, Dudley had seen Terminator 2 and been terrified about using the big computer Uncle Vernon had gotten him the year before. It had promptly joined the pile of broken toys in Harry's room and Harry had been forced to throw it out.

"Yep, he's sentient, it's the sapient part that is still a work in progress. Ah, you didn't hear that from me though," Tony said, miming a zipped-lips gesture.

"What sir means is, should anyone question you about me, please inform them that I am just a very intelligent system," JARVIS replied. Hadrian blinked at that information before grinning and nodding,

"Alright, seems sound to me," Hadrian replied, before standing up," your conditions are fine, but I may need additional help. I have quite a bit of gold that I need to be converted into actual useable currency, have any idea how I can get that circulating into a bank without lighting up some red flags?"

Tony grinned, and nodded," Ever been to Switzerland?"

Hadrian gave Tony a surprised glance at that. Switzerland was well known for its neutrality in its dimension, but was it that easy?

"Really?"

"Yep, good place to store your gold. Melt it down into some bars and they'll buy it off you, I'm sure," Tony said with a wave of the hand," you could probably rent out a warehouse to act as a temporary storage facility and then get it transported to the bank in question. Don't get me wrong, it'll look shady to some people with JARVIS and I help, but it should be doable. And if you even have as much as you claim, I wouldn't mind buying some off your hands. I am the majority shareholder in a large tech company you know, we burn through a fair amount of gold on "

Tony suddenly had a curious expression on his face.

"Out of curiosity, just how much do you have in gold?" Tony asked. Hadrian blinked in surprise but shrugged.

"Not a clue. Dobby!" Hadrian called, being answered by a quick pop that seemed to Tony, who stared with unbelieving eyes at the small creature at Hadrian's feet.

"Yes sir?" Dobby asked, looking expectantly at Hadrian.

"What would you estimate to be the current gold stockpile we possess in tons?" Hadrian asked, more than a little curious for himself just how much they had made off with.

"In total? Master, we are having 480 tons in galleons," Dobby quickly replied. Hadrian's eye twitched at that, the Black and Potter investments together were already a hefty sum," with an additional 20 tons of gold valuables that would mean a final total of 500 tons. There are also an additional 400 tons in non-galleon related valuables."

"Meaning?" Hadrian asked a hint of exasperation in his voice.

"Other non-melted precious metals, gemstones, rare tomes, keepsakes, heirlooms, portraits, weapons, wands-"

"Thank you, Dobby. If you could make sure our breakfast is ready, I suspect Tony will be joining us in the trunk momentarily," Hadrian explained. Dobby gave a quick bow and hurried away with a pop of displaced air. In another life, Hadrian likely would have freaked out over discovering the wealth, but the firm hold he had on his Occulemency prevented such a thing from arising. While Harry Potter had not exactly been one who enjoyed opulence, that wasn't the case for Tom Riddle - who had used his school connections and the servitude of his Death Eaters to partake in a life of luxury after graduating from Hogwarts while building his army in the shadows leading up to the 70s.

Tony for his part seemed to be gazing blanking at the spot where Dobby had just been.

"What or who was that?" Tony asked, before blinking at the amount of tons of god Hadrian had, "JARVIS ran the calculations on those 480 tons of gold. How much is Mr. Peverell worth?"

"Certainly. Mr. Peverell is worth 17.7 billion dollars," JARVIS dutifully replied," although that number is likely to drop based on how much gold Mr. Peverell supplies initially. A large initial sale may devalue his stockpile as well."

"We don't need to sell all of it at once, a few dozen bars will still make me a millionaire which is more than enough for my purposes. I'm not exactly burning through expenses at the moment," Hadrian admitted," as for Dobby. He's a magical species of brownie from my dimension that forms symbiotic bonds with wizards. In exchange for some of my magic, they perform work for me. I had Fiddle keep an eye on you and report back to me when you'd arrived back home, I suspect that you may have taken notice of some of his help?"

A look of realization came over Tony's face as the little tasks that had been done around him these last couple of days suddenly made a lot more sense. He gave a nod.

"Yeah, pass along my thanks to Fiddle. Was he the one who made the breakfast, because it was good," Tony admitted, earning a laugh from Hadrian in response.

"Yep, House Elves are some of the best cooks I've encountered. If you'd like I can have Fiddle continue to help you out, he'll still be bonded to me but he'll answer your calls and do any work you require of him," Hadrian offered," I'm bonded to quite a few elves at the moment and they tend to grow antsy and depressed if I'm not giving them enough work. He does more than just housekeeping, elves are some of the best assistants to have."

"Well I need a new personal assistant," Tony admitted," especially now since my previous personal assistant turned out to be a super spy assassin working with SHIELD."

"SHIELD? The government bigwigs?" Hadrian asked as he waved a hand for Tony to follow him into the trunk. The man quickly followed, an excited gleam in his eyes.

"The very same. JARVIS, note it down that I entered a TARDIS on this day!" Tony replied excitedly, as he followed Hadrian into the trunk.

"A very momentous occasion sir," JARVIS replied.

What followed were about a million questions from Tony over the manor's breakfast table. Hadrian did his best to answer them. It seemed like Hadrian's use of space expansion runes needed to be seen to be believed. The artificial sun and weather also had the billionaire tech genius asking questions. Breakfast went by at a snail space as the two talked at length about how Hadrian had set up the manor.

After breakfast, Hadrian spent a couple of hours giving Tony the tour. The manor was quite large, larger than the Malibu mansion Tony prided himself on. Most of the rooms in the manor had Tony asking away. His Potion's Laboratory brought back the earlier subject of Potions and Tony wondered if it'd be possible to start up a branch of Stark Industries that sold magical remedies in the guise of huge improvements in modern medicine.

Hadrian eagerly jumped on board, with the elves brewing the potions the only thing that Hadrian and Tony needed to worry about was figuring out how to incorporate the effects into modern medicine. Potions couldn't exactly be injected in the bloodstream, at least, not in their current form. Hadrian hypothesized it'd be possible to imbue a potion's effect into a saline solution using a bit of alchemy but it would be a time-intensive process. Perhaps he'd be able to teach some of the elves the process, once he managed to develop it. Granted there was probably a lot of governmental red tape he'd need to worry about before they'd ever be able to sell their medicine like they wanted.

From there they spent some time in the library. Thankfully the library index stone helped with finding books that Tony was interested in. A House Elf by the name of Ginger kept charge over the library with a sternness that reminded Harry of Madam Pince at Hogwarts. Something he was quite thankful about. This book collection was the acquired knowledge of his old dimension, he'd withstand a bit of nagging from the house elves to ensure the collection was well maintained.

Hadrian would have shown Tony his collection of magical beasts but the only ones that had been removed from stasis were the unicorns, who wouldn't appreciate the company of the men. He promised as soon as the other habitat trunks were ready for their inhabitants that Hadrian would show him his menagerie.

Once the tour was settled, Hadrian led Tony out of the trunk.

"Let me know when you have a free day and I'll come get that shrapnel out of you," Hadrian promised," I guess I may have eaten more than a fair share of your scheduled time away with how abrupt my visit was today?"

"Oh shoot, Pepper is going to kill me," Tony remarked, as he crawled out of the trunk," I think she mentioned something about meeting with R&D over a new project they wanted my opinion on."

"Yes, I did say that, didn't I?" a stern-sounding female voice responded, causing Tony to halt from exiting the trunk. He cast a glance back down into the trunk's depths where Hadrian was giving him an apologetic smirk.

"Did you know she was out here?" Tony asked, sighing as Hadrian shook his head.

"Nope, but might as well explain the situation to her," Hadrian replied, casually levitating Tony out of the trunk and following after him, receiving a squawk from Tony in response," Don't block the exit next time, it's a fire hazard."

"There wasn't a fire in there," Tony petulantly replied, pouting slightly as he Hadrian set him down in the chair he'd been occupying as he stepped out and offered his hand to Pepper.

"You must be Pepper? Hadrian Peverell, wizard extraordinaire," Hadrian greeted, holding his hand out to a shocked-looking Pepper," I've agreed to help out Mr. Stark with his chest piece apparatus. And I think we may have become business partners in the process?"

Hadrian gave Tony a questioning look, and Tony just shrugged.

"Let me work out the red tape, I've got some government contacts I can use. You do your magical chemistry thing Gandalf. If it works like you think it will, then we're in business," Tony said with a shrug, while Hadrian nodded.

"Alright then," Hadrian replied, giving a hand gesture to the trunk to shrink it down and store it away.

"I keep forgetting you don't need the stick?" Tony muttered, looking more than slightly amazed. Of course, Tony already knew this to be the case, but dang did he need his questions answered! The man was one of science and it wouldn't do to not have all the information.

"Wand," Hadrian patiently corrected, still amused by the flummoxed expression on Pepper's face before turning back to Tony," I'll be by on the 6th if that works for you. We can have the procedure done at ten in the morning, some of the potions I need are better administered fresh and that's the soonest they'd be complete. If you could explain things to Pepper, I think she's gone into shock."

"You got it doc. Any special instructions before the surgery? No food or water at least eight hours before or all that jazz?" Tony asked, he wore an amused expression but there was a hint of nervous excitement in the way he asked his question as well.

"Of course not this is magic. Although I suggest you have something to chase down the potions with, not alcoholic mind you, they tend to only worsen the potions," Hadrian advised, giving a cheeky wave before activating the porkey he had prepared that would return him to New York.

Time to see what magic was all about in this new dimension.

-0-

AN: And so we return with an update. Sorry, it took so long. The last set of chapters I wrote really sapped me of writing mojo for a bit and I decided the only cure for that was reading Fanfiction instead of writing it. Then I got caught up with my D&D and PTR games and prepping which take a decent amount of time. Then when I finally returned to writing my writer's block said insert Buggs Bunny meme where he goes "NO!" here. Needless to say, it was a struggle to write anything during the month of January. I had hoped to get another few thousand words in but I think I'll keep Harry's interaction with the Sorcers to next chapter.

Also I want to say thank you for all the suport you've all shown for this story. It has blown me away how much interaction both this and "With Eyes to See" have been receiving. It's humbling to think so many enjoy my work.

Also thank you to kossboss you followed and favorited! Made me have a mini-freak out that a writer that inspires me was following my work.

Anyways, I know this chapter has been lackluster but check out the Discord link in my profile! The Discord server is pretty bare bones but if you all have suggestions for improvement. I'd love to see it! Expect a chapter of "With Eyes to See" next!