Chapter 4 - Bonding
The days following Hermione moving in the Stark Tower, she continued to get to know Tony and vice-versa from childhood stories, preferences, and anything they could think about but the conversations remained light and avoided heavy topics still. Hermione also took the time every couple of days to go to Central Park to meet Steve and get to know him better beyond heavy conversations on grief, they bonded really well on history and literature but still hadn't shared their last names, and their stories were heavily doctored to not give away their real identities.
After almost a week, the siblings were eating take away on the couch of the still under construction room when the read-headed woman Hermione had followed in the elevator came in and froze at the sight.
"Tony, who is this?" She asked in a cold voice.
"Hermione, meet Pepper Potts, Pepper meet Hermione." Tony said with a wide smile and no context.
"It's nice to meet you Miss. Potts." Hermione said and got up to shake her hand, Pepper took her hand and shook it but her face was still frozen in dislike.
"Right, Pepper here is the CEO of Stark Industries." Tony explained.
"Oh, I thought you were." Hermione said, after having sat back down, while Pepper remained standing with a glare towards Hermione.
"No, I gave the reins to Pepper about two years ago, she's a much more level-head boss than I ever was or could be, and I was focusing on the Arc Reactor clean energy device I was talking to you about." Tony replied.
"Oh okay, yeah that makes sense." Hermione said.
"By the way, I own 100% of the company still, I should really give you 50%, I'll call the lawyers to get the paperwork done." Tony said.
"What the fuck are you doing Tony giving away half of the company to this random British slag?" Pepper said, finally exploding.
Tony immediately got up and stalked towards Pepper, "She's my sister, my full sister, daughter of Howard and Maria Stark, half of the company is her fucking birth right, her legacy."
Pepper took a step back in shock, "You don't have a sister!"
"I do, I wasn't aware of it, we thought she had died a few days after birth but she was kidnapped. She found me a couple of weeks ago." Tony explained, trying to keep his cool.
"She could be lying, trying to get your money and family legacy!" Pepper exclaimed.
"She could sure, but I did the testing myself with Jarvis, she's not lying." Tony said, remaining firm.
Tony had thought something might be starting with Pepper, they were flirting more and more but this conversation reminded him that they were very different people and Pepper did not trust him and likely never would. Besides dating the CEO of your company sounded like a recipe for disaster and he was trying to be more mature. Besides, having Hermione in his life meant being an older brother and he should really lead by example.
"Fine, she's your sister. Are you going to publicly claim her? You have enemies that would love to hurt her to get to you." Pepper said, trying to twist the knife.
"We haven't discussed it yet, probably not immediately." Tony said.
"Oh, I have no desire to have a public anything. I didn't even know he had a whole company, I don't really need that or publicity." Hermione chimed in.
"You're a Stark, girl, you don't have a choice." Pepper said with a sniff.
"We always have a choice Miss. Potts. Besides, I highly doubt our family is really something you should concern yourself about." Hermione replied with a glare.
"Your family reflects on the company, as you do individually." Pepper replied.
"Fine, but I'd rather not make a big deal about it. I just want to get to know my brother, that's it. I don't really care either way about the company, I don't need the money nor do I know anything about clean energy or technology or business really." Hermione said.
"Really, so you're not good at anything then? A pity for a Stark, I thought you were all supposed to be geniuses or something." Pepper replied snidely, her annoyance at her advances towards Tony being rebuffed making her meaner than usual.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise being a tech genius was the one and only thing to be. Do you want me to dig out my Victoria Cross to shove into your face? I would love to shove all my professional accomplishments in your face as well, but I'm afraid they're classified and you do not have clearance." Hermione replied with a glare.
"Jarvis, does she really have a Victoria Cross? Why didn't you mention it?" Tony asked, cutting off the conversation between the two women.
"Yes sir, she does. However, being rewarded the Victoria Cross isn't public knowledge, she is on a special restricted list I am not supposed to access." Jarvis replied with a hint of pride in his tone. Jarvis and Hermione had become quite close over the past week.
Pepper was looking at Hermione mouth agape with wide eyes, "Did MI6 send you to spy on Iron Man or something?"
Tony buried his face in his hands, while Hermione with a frown said, "What's Iron Man?"
"You don't know who's Iron Man?" Pepper asked, startled by her reaction.
"No? I'm sorry, I've been fairly isolated back home and I'm not up to date on the news or pop culture, Tony had been forcing me to watch all the movies I should know about though. Is he a character in a movie?" Hermione asked, puzzled.
"No, he's sitting next to you. Tony is Iron Man." Pepper said.
Tony groaned, "That's not a conversation I wanted to have right away, and I knew you weren't aware so I was stalling."
"Okay, what does she mean when she says you're Iron Man?" Hermione asked him.
"Stay there, I'll show you." Tony replied before leaving the room.
"Right, I'll leave you to it then, it was nice to meet you." Pepper said with a fake smile before leaving as fast as she could.
A few minutes later, Tony repapered in the room in his full Iron Man suit. He opened his helmet and with a smirk said, "I'm Iron Man."
"I have questions." Hermione replied, studying the suit and appreciating the Gryffindor colours. At least, his appreciation of her gold and red tattoo made a lot more sense now.
What followed what a few hours of back and forth while Tony explained everything, from Jericho to being kidnapped by the Ten Rings and ransomed, injured with shrapnels near his heart, which is why he had a arc reactor on his chest that he hadn't explained yet and Hermione had assumed was something technological she wasn't aware of, building the first Iron Man suit with scraps, escaping and changing the priority of Stark Industries to remove all weapons production, the months he spent working on upgrading the suit and the betrayal of Obadiah Stane, having to fight Ten Rings soldiers, the final duel with Stane and announcing publicly he was Iron Man.
Tony skipped the part about SHIELD and Nick Fury, not willing to open that can of worms just yet, and continued to explain what happened at the Stark Expo, the debacle with the Senate committee hearing and Ivan Vanko. He skipped again the whole being rejected for the Avengers Initiative.
"I'm so proud of you Tony, you survived, you survived and adapted and became a better person, you're a hero." Hermione finally said and hugged him tight, politely ignore his tears running down his cheeks silently.
The next day, while they were lounging around without much purpose and talking lightly, Tony finally asked, "Will you tell me why you have a Victoria Cross?"
"You know why. You read the book." Hermione replied.
"Yes, I know you helped take down Voldemort, you were an essential part of the war and I get why you were awarded the Cross, but still, the book doesn't say everything, does it?" Tony said.
Hermione bit her lip, "No, I guess it doesn't. Although most of what is written down is true. The Philosopher's Stone, the Basilik, the Tournament, the Battle at the Ministry that almost killed me."
"Is he dead?" Tony cut in.
"Dolohov?" Hermione asked, and Tony nodded, "No, he was given the Kiss though, so he's as good as dead."
"The Kiss?" Tony asked.
"Yes, it's when a Dementor, you know, the creatures who guard the prison, sucks out the soul of someone, leaving behind an empty body. Sort of like being brain-dead I think." Hermione explained.
"Couldn't happen to a better guy." Tony said.
"Anyway, the year after Death Eaters got into Hogwarts and Dumbledore was killed, although it was more like an assisted suicide. A few months later, we went on the run, which the book describes rather well." Hermione said.
"It doesn't. It said it was necessary to find items to kill the guy, but not what the items were, or what happened when you go caught by Snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor." Tony retorted.
"Horcruxes. We were to find them and destroy them. We didn't know what they were, where they were or how to destroy them." Hermione said.
"Yet you did it in less than a year, impressive, very Stark of you."
"You can't claim everything I do that impress you is because I'm a Stark." Hermione said rolling her eyes.
"I can, and I will. Continue." Tony said with a smile.
"Horcruxes are a vile form of Dark Magic, the point it to split your soul and place it into an object to become immortal in a way. If your body dies, your spirit remains, you don't really die. But he had to do a whole ritual to get a body back so I really don't see how the whole thing is worth it. Horcruxes seem very impractical." Hermione explained.
"Why not use a rock and then throw it away in the ocean?" Tony wondered.
"He was a drama queen I guess." Hermione replied.
"What about Malfoy Manor?" Tony asked.
"Draco refused to fully identify us, and they put Ron and Harry in the dungeons where they plotted how to escape. I was taken to the drawing room and Bellatrix Lestrange interrogated me for a while before we could escape." Hermione said, in a brief summary of the experience. Even more than a decade later, it was still one of the most traumatising event of her life and she got regular nightmares about it.
"You were tortured, weren't you?" Tony asked softly.
At her nod, he took her in his arms and hugged her tightly, they spent the rest of the night sharing their traumatic experiences, and they went to bed both feeling a lot lighter.
A few days later, they were interrupted from celebrating putting Star Tower's arc reactor online by Jarvis announcing the imminent arrival of Phil Coulson, "Hide!" Tony told her, and she immediately disillusioned herself and tuck herself in a corner.
"Mr. Stark, we need to talk." Agent Phil Coulson said, coming into the room, "I have tried calling you several times but you ignored all of them, and therefore I am here."
"I was busy." Tony replied.
"We need you to look this over, as soon as possible." Phil Coulson said, handing him a laptop.
Tony stared at it, "I don't like being handed things."
Phil rolled his eyes and placed the laptop on the desk and opened it for Tony.
"Is this about the Avengers? The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought, and I didn't even qualify." Tony asked, then at Phil Coulson's silence, continued, "Yeah, apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, don't play well with others."
"This isn't about personality profiles anymore." Phil said and left the room as Tony got absorbed by the image of the Tesseract in front of him. He had never noticed the shimmer in the corner of the room hiding a puzzled Hermione.
A/N - I apologise about the Pepper bashing, it sort of happened on its own. Do you want me to redeem her or do you want me to pair Tony with someone else down the line? Give suggestions.
The last lines are taken from the Avengers (2012) script for the most part. All credits to Zak Penn and Joss Whedon.