AN: I try to reply to reviews (never knew I could before or how!) so have tried to reply back to them. But to the Guest – Thank you! I worry about trying to keep the Tony parts IC ^_^
Also just for fun: Ages at the moment
Vernon - 38
Petunia – 28 – (in 7 days)
Dudley - 5
Harry/Edward – 5 (in 28 days)
Tony – 33
Pepper - 29
Story Title: RIPPLE EFFECT
"speech"
'thoughts'
Chapter Nine (Thursday July 3rd )
The more Tony read through the letters in detail, the more annoyed he became when the information he was looking for came up lacking. The names that were in the letter didn't have many last names to look up and those that he had were much like James Potter. It was as if they didn't exist at all. It seemed if he wanted more information he'd have to speak more with Petunia in order to get it. Maybe she would know who the people mentioned in the letters were or how to go about contacting them. Hopefully he wouldn't be playing another round of telephone tag as he had with Henry McCoy whom put him in touch with Reed Richards who had said he would need time to contact his son's nanny, Ms. Agatha Harkness and would be in touch. When Tony asked about getting the woman's contact information, Reed had replied that it was a bit complicated and would be better coming from the scientist rather than Tony. With reluctance, Tony had agreed to wait.
In the meantime, he also had to deflect Obi's interest when he'd called to find out how much longer Tony was extending his stay in England. After finding out that it had nothing to do with business but more of a personal nature, it was only logical for the older man to assume that it was because of a woman. Tony hadn't said anything to the contrary knowing it would be in character for him. It was likely Tony's fault to begin with when he'd stated that he was interested in a little brunette. Nor did it help when he'd stated that he couldn't promise anything about not ending up in the papers. No matter what was decided upon, he was sure that some nosy reporter would find out about his kid at some point. The only thing he could do was try and keep it as quiet for as long as he could before the inevitable media shit storm that would hit.
Pepper had called the Dursley house to inform them that Tony wanted to speak some more with Petunia about the letters. She would be expecting them later in the day while her husband and the boys were out. It would give them a chance to discuss more than either would be willing to speak openly about while the children were there or chance that Edward would learn more than he should at this point. The woman was very relieved to have the box of letters back, her hand stroking the the wood lovingly as it rested in her lap while they all sat in the living room. Tony had decided to go for the one thing that had been bothering him since he'd taken a look at both his kid's birth certificate and Lily's death one. "Where exactly is Godric's Hollow?"
"I don't know," Petunia confessed. "For Lily's safety we didn't discuss that. They didn't even allow us to attend her funeral." That was something that had pricked at her Evans' temper. After dumping her nephew on her doorstep with only a letter to inform her of her sister's passing most of the letter was to get her to take in Ned because of the danger he was in and the safety that he would provide for her family. There had been no words of condolence nor anything of any kind that would hint that they had ever thought to let her know where her sister was laid to rest. Danger aside, it was very inconsiderate of them.
Tony then learned about how the Evans sisters were pulled apart by Lily's acceptance to Hogwarts and how in order to try and spare Petunia's feelings and assure her parents she was happy, had only written good things. But it was later when the sisters began to reforge their relationship that Lily confessed her doubts and how her awe of the wizarding world had waned. How she hadn't realized until it was too late how it was a trap and stuck in the past it was. It was very medieval not only in culture but in behavior. While she loved her job and wanted to continue in her field she didn't want to have to rely just on a wizarding education and wanted a fall back. It was one of the reasons that she and Tony met at Cambridge during the week that he was there.
"After you parted ways and she found out she was pregnant, she agreed to marry Potter," Petunia stated saying the name Potter with distaste. She had never forgiven him for his stunts at the dinner party nor at her wedding. "Then they heard about the prophecy."
Tony snorted as he stared at her skeptically. He didn't believe in predestined fate. He hadn't known what to think when he'd read that part of the letter. It was a bit telling that it was not mentioned in the one left with the kid when he was dropped off. The idea of prophecy just seemed so hokey. In one of the letters in which Lily had talked about the prophecy she had mentioned that her son wasn't the only one that it could be referencing. Unlike the Potters however, they didn't have a way to communicate with the outside world.
At the mention of a way to keep something secret, Tony was immediately fascinated in equal parts skeptical of the whole thing. In his opinion the only way to keep a secret was by the fewest people knowing it, namely only one person. How the Dursleys had reasoned that something must have happened to Ned's godfather to keep the man from him as well as any others that might have been on Potter's list of guardians. Petunia was unsure if she had made it as she knew that while she and Lily had become sisters once again, she believed that Lily would have chosen a magical to be Ned's godmother. While she loved her sister, Petunia hadn't named Lily as Dudley's godmother due to the war and not wanting Dudley to feel left out and resenting his guardians because he didn't have magic.
"Is there any way to contact any of the people she mentioned?"
Petunia spread her hands out in a gesture that basically said that their guess would be as good as hers. "Not that I am aware." Her lips pursed as thought about mentioning [i]that[/i] person. Stark didn't seem happy with the lack of information that she was unable to provide.
"What about the spy?"
"The cat woman? She lives down the street." She and Vernon had come to the conclusion that she had to be a spy for Dumbledore. Why else would the man come to their door just a day or so after the batty woman had seen Ned's face at the post office? There was also the cat at the boy's game, and Petunia herself was sure that she saw the furry creatures way too often around the neighborhood. Who else would also breed and have so many cats? It wasn't normal! As she knew full well, anything was abnormal was usually associated with [i]them[/i].
"Where exactly?" Tony wondered as he stood up. Not understanding what why he wanted to know, but deciding to humor him, Petunia stood as well. They went outside and the red headed assistant began to talk about the well tended flowerbeds. Quietly, Tony asked her to tell him where the house was at without being obvious. Once he saw her nod down the street and described how many houses past the lane it was, Tony turned his back to it. Pulling out his phone he fiddled with it and confused, Petunia had to give her attention to the redhead who was still asking her about how she got her flowers so healthy. Stark had a satisfied expression on his face when they went inside and retook their seats. Pepper immediately turned to her boss expecting an answer while Petunia watched on still baffled.
"She lives far enough away that she can't see the house," Tony informed. It made sense that as she lived a few streets over that she hadn't alerted her boss about the unusual visitors the Dursleys had. It made a certain sense if she wanted to try and maintain that she wasn't a spy but still be close. "How'd she find out about the kid's shiner?"
"The post office." Petunia told him about taking the boys out after the altercation to cheer them up. How she had seen the woman there as well. "Which is odd," she only just realized.
"Why's that?" Pepper asked before her boss could.
"They don't use the post."
Tony blinked. Who lived without mail? Granted, email was vastly overtaking traditional mail, but advertisers, magazines, bills, they still spat out regularly. At his and Pepper's looks, the woman explained about the 'magic' people using owls.
"Owls? Who looks at a nocturnal bird and thinks, 'Hey, they'd make great messenger birds.'? Did pigeons go out of style?"
"They are not known for being normal," Petunia replied not amused.
"That seems to be an understatement from everything I've gathered so far." Shaking his head, he got back on subject. "So, owls. Seriously?"
"Tony." Pepper warned.
"Right. If the spy is in contact with the -" He couldn't say wizard, he just couldn't. "Head person, why is she using regular mail? Unless she can't keep an owl because her cat's would try and make it dinner."
"Unless it was a small owl, the cat would be dinner," Pepper informed having actually seen a documentary on owls. Tony turned to look at her and she gave a defensive, "What? You're the only one allowed to have obscure knowledge?"
Opening the box of letters, Petunia shuffled through them until she found what she wanted ignoring the quiet hissed conversation about other hidden talents between Stark and the red head. "Lily wrote about a man at her school. She suspected he didn't have magic. She found out there are people like that. Maybe she is like him?"
"Read about that," Tony replied remembering that and finding it as odd especially as it seemed that people without the so called "magic" were looked down upon. It made no sense in his mind unless the man was a masochist who loved to wallow in misery and bitterness.
"Is there anyone else we could contact without Tony showing his hand?" Pepper wondered hoping there was something in the letters. There had to be someone that they could contact that could tell them what they needed to know but wouldn't tell either leader of their involvement with Edward.
"There had to be a way your parents wrote to your sister? If they allowed letters through that is?" Tony wondered.
Nodding, Petunia knew that her parents wrote back to Lily while she was away at Hogwarts whereas Petunia pretended she didn't have a younger sister anymore. She knew that while she complained of the owls that came bearing her sister's letters and how abnormal it was fearing what people would think of them having a bird continually fluttering about. She knew there had been some kind of 'muggle' address to use for those that were muggleborn. It was a front for those rare graduates that decided to return to their birth world to put on forms for their education. Unfortunately she had no idea what it was anymore nor did she have any of the correspondences from back then. The only other person she knew was him but from the exchanges that the sisters had after they began to repair their bond, they hadn't parted on good terms.
"There might be one person," Petunia slowly spoke. It wasn't something she wanted to voice as it was a long shot and as far as she knew all of Potter's little friends were loyal to Dumbledore. She mentioned him to Stark who had asked, "Did his parents hate him? That name is just asking for the kid to be bullied."
Vernon had taken the boys to their friends' houses while he was at work, picked them up afterwards, and they'd gone to the local chippie shop which the boys had cheered at. They had bounced on their feet delighted at the treat. It gave Petunia time to discuss her sister with Stark without the children present.
At the moment the boys were yelling and running about with some of their mates they played with whenever they met up at this play park. As far as Vernon could tell they were playing some sort of game that they'd made up themselves. It was pure chaos from the man's perspective. There were unwritten code and rules that it seemed every child knew instinctively and showed at times like this when they were the only ones aware of what was going on. Knowing who was and who was not following said rules of whatever game they were playing.
The boys were thoroughly exhausted and fell asleep in their booster seats during the drive home. Neither wanted to wake and were a bit cranky when he got them out of the car. Five minutes later however one wouldn't think they'd ever been asleep nor tired with how they excitedly chattered at Petunia relaying their day to her. She humored them with a smile as she filtered out the babble and and actually listened to the 'important' bits with practiced ease. When they were done she sent them off to change into their pajamas and pick out the books they wanted read that night. Petunia supposed she should have expected it but it still came out of nowhere when in the middle of the story, Ned asked if Stark had called or come by. She had told him that he had and that he'd be seeing the boy this weekend to which her nephew beamed at her. Hopefully the man wouldn't be showing up empty handed and would have an address for them.