Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You can't live without the fire
It's the heat that makes you strong
'Cause you're born to live and fight it all the way
You can't hide what lies inside you
It's the only thing you know
You'll embrace it and never walk away
Don't walk away

~ Iron by Within Temptation

Chapter One

He didn't know where Pepper was, and he hoped that Happy was taking care of Morgan, and would continue to take care of Morgan no matter what. He thought all of them, team Iron Man as Underoos had called them. Pepper, with her business suit and high heels. Happy. Rhodey, before the accident, before the braces. JARVIS and FRIDAY.

Peter, before he fell to dust.

It took just a split second for him to remember them all and hope that what he was about to do would make them safe.

“I am Iron Man.”

And then he snapped his fingers.

And was gone.

**********

"Wake, my Merchant. I need of you.”

Tony woke up, which he thought was impossible. He was dead, or so he thought, despite talk of Gods and Infinity Stones, he had never truly believed in the afterlife. You lived and then you didn't. That was it.

He was wrong.

He opened his eyes. He was laying on a bench that looked to be in a train station. Gray mists surrounded the area and there was a dark figure in a cloak.

Tony looked down and found he was naked as the day he was born, but that he had a glowing circle where the arc reactor had been.

He looked at the figure. “You must be Death.”

"I am."

Tony stood up. He resisted the urge to cover himself. He hadn't been ashamed of himself in life, there was no way he'd be so in the afterlife. He bet Death saw people all the time naked. It wasn't like they could take clothes with them when they went.

Still... “I'm sorry, if I'd known I'd been meeting you, I'd put on my best Armani.”

There was a sound that could have been a chuckle. Tony shivered. It was more like the sound of nails going down a chalkboard.

"It does not matter, My Merchant. Come, walk with me.”

Tony wasn't going to touch the whole Merchant thing with a thirty-foot pole, so he just shrugged and started walking. It was odd because while they were in the train station, it seemed like they were never getting anywhere.

“So … is this where we come to judgment? A train station?”

"Not as such. I owe you a debt, my Merchant. I don't like owing mortals."

“Well, I didn't do it for you so much as, well, everyone else in the universe. My family.” This, Tony knew, was not the time to be a smart ass. Pepper would be ever so pleased.

"Still, you met me on your feet, with no fear. Like an old friend. That means something to me.”

They stopped and Death turned to look at him. Tony got a vague impression of a female figure and a face like a skull for a moment and looked down. He may have had balls of iron, but he wasn't going to chance to look Death in the face.

“I don't know what to say to that.” And Tony wasn't sure what to say. There was something more in that last statement but he wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Wise men would say nothing.”

Tony couldn't help it, he laughed a bit. “My best friend would tell you that I'm smart, but not wise. There's a difference you know.”

And didn't that hurt, knowing there would be no more banter with his Sour Patch. He'd miss Pepper and Morgan and Happy and Peter.

But they were safe. That's all that mattered.

"I will give you a boon. What do you want? Immortality? Power? I can give you all that and more.”

Tony winced. He was not going to ask for anything, he didn't want to owe Death anything. Besides, he'd listened to Queen enough to know that living forever wasn't all it was cracked up to be. “You can't give me what I want the most.”

"Why do you say that?”

“I want a second chance to tell my family how much I love them, but even if you could shove me back into my body it was pretty much destroyed by the Infinity Stones.”

"I can do that. It fits in with my plans.”

“I'm not sure I want to ask, but hey, I'm dead so why not? What plans?”

"I will send you back, to one of your earlier deaths. I will send you seven others, of your choosing, to help you keep the Infinity Stones out of Thanos' grasp. Midgard, or Earth as you call it, is at a tipping point. The Stones will make their way to you, one way or another. Stop him and you may continue to live.

“Oh, is that all?” Tony snarked. “I thought we did that already?”

"The Universe is still out of balance, not just on Earth but on every planet. The Universe will crack thanks to Thanos. The Stones are a necessary part of the Universe. With their destruction, the Universe will not last another hundred years.”

Tony closed his eyes in defeat. Yeah, Morgan and Pepper might be safe for now, but what about their future? He had failed. His only choice was to go back. But when?

“What did you mean by earlier deaths?”

"You have set foot in my realm many times, my Merchant. During the Afghanistan issue you nearly died, it was only by my benevolence that you survived. I knew it was not yet your time. During Siberia, you died but for a moment before your servant in your armor managed to awaken you. And during the Chitauri invasion. It is during this last that I suggest you go back to. You will have eight years this time to prepare for Thanos.”

“Didn't help me last time.”

"You did not know of the Stones at first, and you placed your trust in your Avengers. If you acquire the Stone first, you shall have no trouble defeating Thanos.”

“Are they even safe for humans to use?”

"Together they held too much power, but using just one is not beyond your mortal body, as your Sorcerer Supreme found. That is why I'm sending seven souls back in time with you. You will have to work with them to protect the stones and defeat Thanos.”

Tony could work with that. He'd worked with less and came out on top before. He was a Stark and Starks were made of iron after all.

“I take it my daughter is too young to come with me?”

"Yes. But her soul will be returned to the first child you procreate.”

Tony narrowed his eyes. “All right, what's the catch? This is a chance that's too good to be true. I can see you sending seven people back with me to protect the stones, but my daughter too?” He stood with his hands on his hips, ignoring his nakedness still.

"You are correct. I have … a refugee from another reality. He has been raised as a weapon and needs a home. You taught your servants to be good people, and I watched as you turned back time to bring back your son. I ask that you take this person into your home and teach him.”

“Teach him what, exactly?”

"Anything. Everything. Your culture, your technology, your way of life. He is from a reality that is behind yours by over ten years, and he has lived in a situation where he knows almost nothing of the modern world. The people he thought were family betrayed him and turned his entire world against him. He will never be normal on his home plane, which is all he wants. You can give that to him.”

This was doable, but still, Tony felt like he wasn't hearing the whole thing. “He has powers?”

“Yes. Powerful enough to help you stop Thanos. He has that reality's version of the Soul Stone in his possession, when he comes here they will combine and he will be its keeper.”

Damn. Tony couldn't pass this up, he was going to take this guy in. It would keep him from having to make a sacrifice to get the Soul Stone. Still, Death was awfully accommodating.

“What do I need to know about him?”

”This.”

Death came close and Tony stood his ground. The entity touched its finger to the middle of his forehead and there was a sensation of deathly cold for a moment before images ran through his head.

He saw a happy baby, doing baby things. Then he saw the baby reach for a toy and the toy flying to him. The parents were happy for the child, the child on a small broomstick while the parents and a shaggy-looking dog chased him. A man with no nose on his face killed the boy's mother and then turned what had to be a magic wand on the baby.

Then there was darkness and starvation. Beatings and chores. Tony knew the backside of Howard's hand more than once but at least he had his mother and Jarvis and Ana. This poor kid didn't even know his name was Harry until he went to school!

The scenes played in his mind like on a movie screen. A letter coming, and then more letters, and the shitty family taking the boy and running halfway across the country to a little island. A large man came with his umbrella. “You're a wizard Harry!”

Tony hoped this new world would help the kid. He needed someone to help him. But no, the teachers didn't even notice the kid wearing rags on the weekends, much less the fact that one of them was trying to kill the poor kid.

The years flew by and Tony watched as just about everyone at one point in time turned on the kid. Harry took it and took it and still did the right thing, unlike his mentor. There were possessed professors, giant snakes the size of one of those Chitauri Leviathans, godfathers who didn't notice that the kid was ready to go home with a stranger, dragons, and more.

He watched as Harry was tortured by a new teacher that looked like a frog, how his godfather died, and how the headmaster admitted to leaving Harry in an abusive environment and then sending him back there.

He watched as his red-headed friend tipped something into his juice and the kid start chasing after the redhead's sister. He watched as the boy's other friend started chasing after the redhead. Tony didn't get what Hermione saw in that Ron kid but she was awful to Harry about that damn book he was reading.

Tony watched as the Headmaster took the kid out of school to a cave filled with honest-to-god zombies! There was no respite, even after they got back to the castle, as it was being attacked. He watched as the Headmaster was killed.

He watched as the boy's friends sent him back to his damned relatives, even though they promised to join him. He watched as they took him out of there at the very last minute as those Death Eaters were approaching which was a stupid idea. Why the hell they didn't call a bunch of taxis and took the kid out that way, Tony didn't know.

He concluded that magicals were illogical, maybe even functionally stupid. The kid tried to learn things but Ron and Hermione would block him at every turn, with chess games, quidditch, and lectures from Hermione that would turn anyone off learning.

Tony saw how they went on the run, how Ron left him, and how Hermione would make Harry tea with a little something added. He watched as they were nearly killed by that snake and Harry's wand was broken. Tony saw everything, being taken to the dungeons, and escaping with his little friend's help but Dobby was killed. Tony watched as they ran from a fire-filled room, the screeching of another Horcrux behind them. He watched as Harry walked to his death.

And how he survived.

Tony watched the final battle. He watched as they celebrated and left the boy to his own. Tony naively thought it would get better for the kid, but it didn't. His friends turned on him, telling everyone how he'd had a piece of the bad guy in his head. The only people who stood up for him were his former enemies and two of his schoolmates. Neville and Luna tried to protect Harry but the Weasleys weren't having it.

Finally, the boy-turned-man went running with little more than the clothes on his back. He quickly found that he couldn't hide with the non-magicals, he didn't fit in anymore, and he stuck out like a sore thumb. And he didn't want anyone getting hurt because of him.

He didn't want to fight and kill his former friends.

Tony could understand that, to a point. But once they came after you, they were fair game in his mind. But Harry had been taught by the headmaster and his minions that killing was bad. That and the fact that almost all of magical Briton was calling for his head, he'd have to kill hundreds and become the Dark Lord they were calling him to get any peace.

It was a tricky situation.

The movie ended with Harry being cornered by his former friends. Just as they were casting the Killing Curse everything stopped and Death appeared out of nowhere and held out a hand to Harry. He gave a heartbroken look at his former friends and took Death's hand, disappearing.

The sudden ending of the images left Tony feeling as if he'd gotten drunk and done three lines of cocaine all at once. His heart was racing and he felt like throwing up. Not to mention the massive headache he had.

He bent over, almost gagging, trying to assimilate the knowledge that had been shoved into his brain. Tony managed to keep his gore down and stand up. That had not been fun. But it was what he needed to know if he was going to help this young man get used to his world.

“Will he be able to use magic and not mess up technology?” Tony didn't want to take magic away from the kid, but he didn't want FRIDAY shorting out either.

Then it hit him. If he went back to 2012, he'd have JARVIS. He'd have his first son back. That made him choked up and he almost didn't hear Death's answer.

"Yes. The Ministry had the wand maker Olivander put a ward on his wands to destroy technology when in use around magic. They forget that Diagon Alley is in the heart of London and most people didn't even think about it, just took it for granted that magic and technology don't mix.”

Tony shook his head. Those magicals didn't sound very logical.

“Sure, I'll take him in. Kid deserved to have some fun and learn about the real world. I can show him how to live.”

Tony could also show him ways of dealing with PTSD. After the Snap just about everyone got help, including him. Pepper has picked his counselor herself. Hopefully, Dr. Colby was available in 2012, the kid needed to talk to someone.

“So... let's get this thing rolling along. I get to pick seven people, right?”

”Correct”

The first three were easy. “Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, and James Rhodes are the first three.”

"Done. But be aware that you do need help with the stones. The one called Rhodes is strong enough to be a protector, but the other two may not be.”

Tony laughed. “They're strong enough to put up with my shit and not let me get by with it, they'll be strong enough.” He was thinking of giving Happy the Power Stone and seeing what the former boxing champ could do with it.

”The others?”

“Doctor Stephen Strange. Might as well let him take care of Time again. Loki of Asgard, whatever last name he's calling himself by, and James Barns. Can you make sure the last two are cleared of all mental traps and triggers? I want them both without them being controlled.”

"The one you call Hulk has released Loki from the Mind Stone, but I shall clear the Stone of Thanos' influence so that it is not as malevolent as it was. The one known as the Winter Soldier will be cleared the next time he is awoken.”

Tony hated doing that to the man, putting in Hydra's control for even a little while but he needed someone to be Captain America's keeper and the man himself would only listen to good ol' Bucky Barnes. Hopefully, Barnes would be able to escape. If not maybe he could send Loki after him.

That is if Reindeer Games would listen to Tony. Tony had plans for the God of Mischief, that's for sure.

"And the last?”

Tony tried to be objective but he just couldn't do it. He wanted his family back and if he had to wait for his daughter he might as well have his son. Besides, maybe it was early enough to save the kid's Uncle. At the very least he'd be a good friend for Harry.

“Peter Parker”

"Done. The last one will be a good companion for my Master.”

Tony laughed. “My thoughts exactly. So how are you getting the kid to my dimension? My tower is a bit wrecked in 2012.” It was hard to remember just how long it took Manhattan to get back to normal. Tony hadn't been in charge of that, Pepper had. He'd been too busy running after the Avengers.

Not this time.

"Your Tower is safe enough, I shall leave him in your penthouse. When you get him situated simply have him call me and I will be bringing him gifts from his old dimension.”

Tony tilted his head to the side. “He can do that?”

Death nodded. "He can.”

Right, he was going to have to sit down and talk to the kid, if he could just summon Death like that. He knew from the memories that the kid was the so-called Master of Death but he didn't know what exactly that meant, and he had a feeling that Harry didn't know either. Something they'd have to learn together. “Sounds okay. I'll contact JARVIS and get him to bring the boy upstairs to the penthouse as soon as I get Reindeer Games on his way. I think the penthouse is mostly intact except for the window and floor.”

If he had to he'd sleep on the floor at this point. Wouldn't be the first time. He'd protect this kid with all he'd have because he was giving Tony a second chance. Or Death was.

Tony started to mentally comprise a list of things to do, starting with getting all his iron ducklings in a row. Rhodey would be able to get him a seat with the President probably after flying the nuke that was aimed at New York through the wormhole, hopefully, the US Military would listen to him about a space armada out there since SHEILD hadn't until it was too late.

Or had that been Hydra? Who knew at this point?

While he had been trapped in his head a train had silently arrived behind him. It was a bright red steam engine with compartments like they used to have in the old days. Death turned to him and got his attention by pointing at the train.

"Now go, my Merchant. Fulfill your two missions, destroy Thanos, and teach Harry Potter to live.”

Tony threw a cocky grin at the aspect. “With pleasure.”

He stepped onto the train car and everything went black.

********

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

There was pressure and cold and pain and then a sound. A roar. The Hulk's roar and Tony found himself awake on the pavement, coughing and gasping for air.

“You okay, Stark?”

If he wasn't trying to get his breath back, Tony would have rolled his eye at Rogers. Did he fucking look like he was okay?

“Tin Man hurt.”

Tony stopped coughing, hating how it felt breathing around the damn arc reactor. “Please tell me no one but Pepper kissed me.” He looked up at the Hulk. “Thanks for the catch, Big Green. You're pretty awesome!”

He was laying down but he held out a fist and Hulk looked at it a moment and then oh, so gently bumped his fist with it. “Hulk awesome!”

Tony laughed in delight, ignoring Rodgers and Romanoff who were picking her way over debris. He was alive and he has time to figure out how to kick Thanos' ass.

Hulk sat down beside Tony and started to lose his green. A few moments later and Banner was sitting there. “Let's never do this again.”

Tony hated to tell him this wasn't a one-off. Now was not the time. “I hear ya, Brucie. One out of ten, would not recommend.”

Rodgers put his hand down to help Tony up and oh, how it galled him that he needed it. He was hurting all over and probably had a few cracked ribs. Being pummeled around in a metal suit was not for pansies.

He made it to his feet and thankfully let go of Rodgers. He needed a moment to talk to JARVIS but he didn't think he'd get it right away.

Thor of course had to be a buzzkill. He was looking at Stark Tower. “We're not finished yet.”

Of course not, they were after Loki, and Romanoff had the scepter with the Mind Stone. That was going to be fun getting away from her.

“Right.” Tony carefully bent down and picked up his helmet from where it fell and put it on. “JARVIS are you there?”

“Wherever else would I be? It's not like I'm able to pace while I'm waiting to see if you've survived once again, Sir.”

Tony winced. Oh, he'd missed the sass but he was in trouble. “You know you'd miss me. Switch over to a private channel, will you?”

“Of course, Sir.”

“First of all, tell Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey I'm here and I'm fine. That I survived the Snap this way. To get to the Tower as soon as they can. I'll explain everything together. Keep an eye on incoming phone calls from Dr. Stephen Strange and a May or Ben Parker. Let them know the same thing and get their contact information. The one calling from the May or Ben Parker line will be a kid.”

“Speaking of children, Sir, one has mysteriously shown up in the penthouse through a portal.”

“He's my new kid JARVIS, it's a long story and one that I'll gladly share with you when it's more private. Right now I need him to hide and you to get Loki moving and tell him to fade or do whatever it is alien magicians do and make like a tree and leave unless he wants to go back to Asgard in irons and a muzzle again.”

“Truly, Sir? Helping the enemy?”

Tony staggered a bit and started walking, well clanking towards the Tower. His power was so low he didn't think he'd make it to the Penthouse through flight, so he'd have to take the elevator. “Helping someone who was under mind control, the same as Barton. Only with an added side of torture. If you check your feeds his eyes were blue until Hulk came and planted him in my floor, and now they're green.”

There was a pause, so short that anyone else wouldn't notice it but for JARVIS it was a good long pause. “I see what you mean, Sir. Loki has left my sensors.”

“And we don't know anything about it, right?”

“Of course not, Sir. I am a being of technology and logic, not magic.”

Tony had to laugh at the way JARVIS said magic as if that were a curse word.

Before he made it to the door, a hand grabbed his arm. He barely contained himself from raising a repulsor blast.

“Stark, what are you doing?”

Tony narrowed his eyes at Romanoff. Nosy little spy. “JARVIS switch me back to the team's channels.”

“Done, Sir.”

“I'm going home. You know, the place where you keep all your stuff?”

“Why couldn't we hear you.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to say none of her business, but that would only make her more curious. “I was letting Pepper know I lived, you know, after a battle. Didn't think you'd want to hear that.” He lied.

Rodgers held his damned shield in front of him like a banner. “We've got more important things to do than talk to your girlfriend.”

“Hence me walking at the same time. I can walk and talk you know.”

“Wow, we knew you were smart but not that smart.”

Tony turned and there was Barton. And he had to admit he did walk into that one so it was one for the spies. “Unless you wanna walk up all these stairs, you'd better hope the elevators work. JARVIS?”

“According to my scans, despite the cosmetic damages to the building, the structural integrity remains intact. With the building's arc reactor no longer powering the portal, power has returned to the tower. The elevators should work, although I would suggest that you, Sir, come up in one alone due to the weight of your armor.”

That would give him a few moments to talk with Jarvis too. “I hear you, J.” He had reached the lobby and one of the elevator doors opened without him doing anything. “See you in a few.”

Tony turned to the others and gave a smirk behind his faceplate. He could tell the spies weren't happy leaving him on his own. “I'll go up first, and set out the good china.”

“Whatever, Stark. I just want to get up there and put an arrow through that bastard's eye.”

“Yeah, yeah, come on up.”

Tony entered the elevator and waited till the doors shut. “Are our guests all hidden, J?”

“The boy is currently in your walk-in closet, I do believe. Loki is … I am afraid I am unsure. There was an energy fluctuation but he still appears to be lounging on the stairs.”

Tony let out a breath. He'd just have to trust that the ultimate trickster had another trick up his sleeve. The Elevator doors opened and he clanked out into the penthouse. Loki was there, smirking. Tony ignored him and wrenched off his helmet and went to the bar.

He was drinking scotch, neat, by the time the Avengers came up on the elevator. Loki was smirking still but there was something … static, about it.

“You bastard!” Barton had his bow up before Tony could say a thing and let the arrow fly.

It went through Loki and sunk into his hardwood floor.

Tony snorted. “Yeah, if you would have waited a moment Barton, I would have told you that that wasn't Loki but a copy. Where the original is I don't know.”

“Wouldn't your AI know?” Romanoff asked.

“I'm afraid that some of my sensors were down until the tesseract was unhooked from the arc reactor powering the building.”

“Man of Iron, how were you able to tell the difference between my brother and one of his copies?”

Thor was actually giving him the side eye. Rodgers must have been singing his praises in the elevator. Just great.

Thankfully Thor didn't fall into his plans so he just shrugged and said, “I offered him a drink, and he didn't even blink. Although it's weird, I could have sworn his eyes were blue before the attack.”

“Nay, my brother's eyes are green.”

“Well, they were blue when he tried to mind whammy me and threw me out the window.” Tony walked around the Loki copy that was still sitting there smirking. He'd have to give Loki credit, it was a good job.

“Well, then, where did he go?”

Tony knocked back the last of the scotch in his glass and put it down on a side table that had miraculously survived the fight. “Norway, perhaps?”

“We've got to find him!” Rogers was filled with determination and grit. And full of... well, other things.

“Where would you like to start? I can assure you he's not hiding in my closet.” No, Harry was, but hopefully, that would keep them from looking.

“My brother is most cunning when it comes to hiding, it will be difficult to find him. Even Heimdall has trouble keeping his golden eyes on Loki.”

Tony started walking towards the balcony where JARVIS would be able to take off his battered suit. He'd have to get to work on the Bleeding Edge suit as soon as possible, this having to clank around was for the fucking birds.

Or medieval knights.

“Well, I wish you luck in your search. Meanwhile, I'm going to eat a fuckton of whatever I can find and go to bed. JARVIS will see you out.”

The Avengers followed him out as the robotic arms that JARVIS controlled took off his armor. Underneath his ACDC shirt was dripping with sweat and his jeans were chafing. He needed a shower, badly.

“You're not going to help?” Romanoff sounded furious.

“Remember, I'm not in the boy band, excuse me, Avengers. I'm just a consultant. Iron Man yes, Tony Stark no. Does any of that ring a bell?”

For a brief second, there was a flash of something that went by her face so quickly that Tony almost didn't catch it, but if he was right she looked contrite just for a moment.

Well, maybe half a moment.

“I should have known your ego would get in your way...”

“Let me cut you off there, Romanoff. It's not ego. I am a baseline human with a heart problem who just spent who knows how long being battered around in a tin can. I am so fucking low on blood sugar I'm shaking just about and my legs can barely keep me up. What the fuck do you think I can even do against an alien sorcerer anyhow? Track his magic? Now that we have the cube and the scepter, there's no radiation for Banner and me to track!”

“There's got to be something!” Rogers posed with his shield again. Or maybe just gestured and Tony was biased. He wasn't sure at this point.

“Thor, how do you find Loki when he's hiding?” Tony ignored his sweaty clothing and pushed some debris off the couch and sat down. He wasn't going to budge until they left.

“He usually comes out of hiding in a few months.”

“Fury isn't going to like this.” Barton sounded constipated and looked like he'd been run through the mill. He probably needed a rest too, not that Tony was going to be offering up any rooms to these people.

Banner who had been standing there in the ruins of his clothes and watching all this time spoke up. “Tony's right, we have no way of tracking Loki. Meanwhile, I could use a rest too.”

Okay, he'd offer up one room. Banner was a coward, not an asshole, there was a bit of a difference. “JARVIS, take Dr. Banner down to the guest suites and let him bunk out in one. I doubt he wants to bed down in SHIELD's idea of accommodations.”

Thor looked confused and the troublesome trio – Rodgers, Barton, and Romanoff – looked frustrated as hell. It was a good look on them.

“Fury really won't like this.” Barton repeated.

It still took him another half-hour to get them out of his home.

**********

Chapter Text

Chapter Three

Tony waited a good fifteen minutes to make sure the Avengers were well and truly gone before heaving himself off his couch. He really hadn't been exaggerating how tired he was.

“Well, no rest for the wicked, eh, JARVIS?”

“That saying truly does explain some of your sleep habits, sir.”

“Funny, J. You're a real comedian. Now, let's see our guests. Are the guest rooms on this floor set up yet?”

“Just two have the basics of furniture and the other guest room is bare. Sir, has something happened?”

“A lot has happened J. I'll explain it to you when I've got my ducks in a row. Meanwhile, check and see if anyone died in the building in the attack. If everyone is alright, send someone out for a mass of takeout, even if they have to walk back with it. I could eat a horse.”

“Yes Sir. I'll send someone to Belmont Park race track, shall I?”

“You do that J.”

Tony entered his bedroom and wished for a moment to just pass out face down in the bed. There wasn't time for that, however. Instead, he went to the closet and peered into the open door.

“It's safe to come out now.”

There was a rustling and a small boy came out. Not what Tony expected. “Weren't you supposed to be taller?”

“Funny, I thought you'd be taller too.” The boy smirked at Tony, but the emotion didn't really reach his eyes.

“Ha-ha. I get enough short jokes from Rhodey. No, seriously, weren't you like nineteen in the vision Death gave me?”

He gestured for the boy to come into the living room, still ignoring the facsimile of Loki sitting there grinning and the hole in the floor. Harry looked around and then sat down on an available surface. Tony was just glad the wind wasn't coming through the broken window as badly as it could.

He'd need to have that patched up first.

“Death said she, or he, or whatever, couldn't send me to another world with phoenix tears in my blood along with basilisk venom. So Death de-aged me, to right before I faced the basilisk. She healed me too, so I don't have any … complications from my childhood.”

“Well, that's good. J, get started making a complete identity for a Harry James Potter-Stark, aged twelve. Say that he's a distant relative of the original Jarvis if you must and that he's orphaned and I've adopted him.” Tony glanced at Harry. “We've got to explain the British accent somehow.”

JARVIS spoke up. “Yes sir, one false identity coming up. Something I'm sure the computers at MIT have never done.”

Tony snorted. “You'd be surprised J.” He looked at Harry who looked confused. “I'm always threatening to ship JARVIS off to MIT for their computer lab.” Not that he'd ever do such a thing. “So, how do we call Death like she wanted you to?”

Harry looked around. “With what just happened, Death is probably around.”

"I am here, Master.”

They both whirled around and from behind the image of Loki had sad, there stood Death in his/her/its glory. A Gray robe and shifting face. No scythe was in site thank goodness, but it definitely was Death. At its feet was a large trunk.

“Whoa!” Tony bit back the remark about putting a bell on Death so he didn't have a heart attack, for once he didn't want to push it.

“Is that for me?” Harry pointed at the trunk.

"Yes, your friend Miss Lovegood gathered it for you and managed to get it into the ministry and tossed it through the Veil. I have to admit, I was quite surprised at first.”

Harry laughed a bit at that. “That's Luna for you. Thank you for bringing it to me.”

“Of course, Master. I've taken the liberty of placing a few things of my own in it, including the Wand, Cloak, and Stone.”

Tony shook his head a bit. Some of the most powerful artifacts of the Universe are locked in a steamer trunk.

“Thank you. Too bad you couldn't include a friend with it.” Harry said. Tony was getting sick or had a head injury or something because he felt like giving the kid a hug.

Harry just looked so sad.

He made a mental note to invite Peter Parker over as soon as possible.

But before he could say anything, Death seemed to hesitate a moment and then. “There are two friends I can return to you, my Master. They usually don't come to my attention but since both sacrificed their lives for you, that brought them into my purview.”

With that Death swirled their cloak and stepped to one side. There, standing with a white owl on his head, was a little green man.

“Harry Potter has missed his Dobby?!”

The kid burst out in tears and fell to his knees. “Harry Potter has missed his Dobby and Hedwig very much!”

Harry held open his arms and Dobby rushed to him, while Hedwig took off and was flying circles around the room. She must have kicked up some dust left over from the fight because it made Tony's eyes water.

He looked over at Death. “Thank you, for giving them back to him.”

“Anything for my Master. I'm just sorry I can't give him any human companionship. He'll need you for that.” Death looked at the reunited trio and Tony got the feeling that she/he/it smiled. "I cannot stay here for long. Take care of him."

With that Death stepped to the left and disappeared. Tony shook his head. “Okay, glad that's over with.”

“Sir, I do believe there is something wrong with my programming.” JARVIS sounded worried. “I do believe I'm sensing things. Extraordinary things.”

Tony sighed. The last thing he needed was an AI having a mental breakdown. “J, if you're seeing a white owl and a little green man being delivered by a being that looked like Death, I can assure you, you're not going crazy. There's a good explanation for everything.”

“I do hope so Sir. Miss Potts is on the line, as well as Colonel Rhodes. I believe they are all wanting explanations.”

“That would be good, Stark, considering the last thing I remember is Thanos choking the life out of me.”

Tony spun around, noticing that out of the corner of his eye, Harry did the same. The little green man, Dobby, stood in front of him with his hands raised while Harry had a wand trained on Loki. The same Loki that had been intangibly smirking on the floor a few moments ago.

“Fuck! Don't you people know I have a bad heart?” Tony sat down on a bit of the couch that was clear. “Reindeer Games, I know you're impatient but I hope to wait until the whole gang is mostly here to give an explanation, is that okay?”

“That was Death, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then I shall wait.” Loki looked around. “Is there a good place where I could clean up?”

Tony just flapped an arm. “Why not? Sure. As Methos says, 'Mi casa, su casa.' J?”

“Follow the lights to the right, Mr. Odinson, and you will find a spare room.”

“Liesmith if you will, JARVIS, Loki doesn't care for being called Odinson.”

“My apologies, Mr. Liesmith.”

Loki looked up at the ceiling and gave a small smile. “Not to worry, I know you mean no harm. Thank you.” Then he turned and looked at Tony. “And thank you, Stark, for whatever you've done to get me here.”

With that Loki left and Tony collapsed on the couch. He waved at Harry. “There's another room down that hall, take it, Harry. Once things get a little bit better in Manhattan we'll take you for a shopping trip and get you situated. Pepper will want to be here for that.”

There was no answer and he looked up to find Dobby tugging on Harry's jeans. “Where is we, Harry Potter?”

Harry gave in and laughed. “We're not in Kansas anymore, that's for sure.” He looked over at Tony. “You look about like how I felt at the end of every year.”

“Pfft. Just you're general saving the world stuff.”

Harry came and sat haltingly on the couch as if he were afraid it was going to collapse. “Yeah, yeah, it never gets to be fun, does it?”

Dobby was looking around and was not happy with the what he was seeing by the way he was making noises. “No, no, no! This is not a safe place for Harry Potter Sir!”

Dobby snapped his fingers and the hole that had been Loki-shaped was fixed and most of the debris in the room disappeared. He then moved to the window and snapped again and after a few moments glass that had been on the ground zipped into the room and fit itself back together.

Tony saw that and couldn't help himself. He threw back his head and started laughing.

**********

Chapter Text

Chapter Four

Harry Potter never thought he'd make it out of Hogwarts, and then England. He'd been living hand to mouth, running for so long, over two years, that to find himself not only in a safe place but one that wasn't England was a blessing.

Now though, he was in a bedroom in New York City. A bedroom in the penthouse. When he'd taken Death's hand he'd figured it was Death's way of giving him a peaceful ending rather than being killed by his two backstabbing former friends, not taking him to another dimension.

This was a whole new chance for him, even a chance to grow up again. Yeah, he could do without the spots or his voice cracking again but he could enjoy growing up and getting new clothes without Ron there being shirty about it, and learn new things without Hermione telling him he was going about it all wrong.

From what he knew of Tony Stark, thanks to Death sharing their lives, he would be the perfect person to teach him how to use computers. He'd always watched as Dudley played on his computer and had been curious, just as he'd been curious about some of the programs on the telly he'd heard spottily from his cupboard under the stairs.

Now though, he could watch what he wanted and do magic when he wanted. He could learn what he wanted and do just about anything!

“We is high up, Harry Potter Sir!”

Harry looked down at Dobby, he had his rather large nose pressed up against the window. “Yeah, Dobs, we're in Manhattan, which is in the Americas. We're in a different dimension from where we're from, instead of magic they have technology. And this city doesn't have any creatures, but was just attacked by aliens.”

“Oh noes, not aliens!” Dobby bounced away from the window to look around. Then he stopped and looked at Harry. “Harry Potter Sir, what are aliens?”

Harry laughed and turned from the window to pat Dobby's head fondly. “Aliens are people who live out in the stars, Dobby. This dimension has many of them, some good and some bad. The bad ones came to destroy the planet and our host, Mr. Stark, beat them up and stopped them.” Harry gestured to the window, “but they caused a lot of damage to the city, as you can see.”

Dobby nodded. Harry wondered what was odd about the little elf before he realized he was back in a pillowslip, without any socks or of Granger's knitted hats. He made a mental note to look in the trunk that Death and Luna had given him and see if there were any clothes in there he could let Dobby borrow.

Before he could do that, there came that voice from the ceiling again. Harry knew it was JARVIS, Tony Stark's AI but jumped anyway, not used to someone intangible talking to him out of the thin air. Dobby jumped too.

“Excuse me, Mr. Potter?”

“Yes, JARVIS?”

“There is food coming up on a cart in the elevator. Since Sir is currently talking to both Ms. Potts and Colonel Rhodes, can you please retrieve it?”

“Sure.” Harry walked to the main room in the penthouse where he saw the elevator doors opening. Inside were about ten pizza boxes, four smaller boxes, and various bags.

“What did Mr. Stark think, that we'd eat like my cousin Dudley?”

“Mr. Stark tends to burn water, so I always order extra for leftovers.”

Harry just shook his head and started taking the bags off the cart. Dobby snapped his fingers and the other bags and boxes started floating as they followed JARVIS's instructions to find the kitchen.

Then Harry had a brilliant idea. “JARVIS, this is my friend Dobby. He's a House Elf, which means they are happiest when they are taking care of a house, keeping it clean, and keeping the people in it fed. Dobby, this is my new friend JARVIS, he's a magic man in the ceiling who keeps watch over everyone in the building. He can't make tea or cook though, would you be willing to help him?”

Dobby bounced. “Dobby will help Mr. JARVIS if Mr. JARVIS will teach Dobby to use all these things in the kitchen, Dobby has never seen such things before.”

“Some of it, I can help with, Dobby,” Harry said. “Some of it, well me may need to get Mr. Stark to explain.” He was looking at the cappuccino machine as he said this.

“If you are sure, Mr. Potter, Mr...Dobby.”

Dobby glanced at the ceiling. “Dobby is not a mister, Dobby is a Dobby!”

Harry smirked. He had a feeling that once they got to know each other, Dobby and JARVIS would get along like a house on fire. “And I'm just Harry, JARVIS.”

They both worked to spread out the pizzas. There was everything from a couple of plain cheese to pepperoni, to one with everything. Harry took a deep breath and savored the smell. “You know, this will be a treat. I've never had pizza before.”

“Never had pizza!” Stark's voice came from behind them and both Dobby and Harry jumped and spun around.

“For someone who was bitching about getting the life scared out of you, you sure do it easily to other people!” Harry scolded.

Stark gave a tired grin. “I'm beginning to see the appeal. But we weren't talking about heart issues, we're talking about you never having had pizza! That's a crime. Possibly a felony.” He looked down at Dobby. “What about you, little man? You ever have pizza?”

Dobby shook his head. “Dobby has not.”

“A travesty! J, call Loki-dokes and let him know there's food out here. I bet he hasn't had pizza either.” Stark was still in his jeans and shirt and hadn't had a shower. Harry crinkled his nose and waved a wandless cleaning charm over the man.

“Whoa! Cool, instant shower. That must come in handy! Sit, both of you. Grab a slice!”

The man followed his own directions and grabbed a couple of slices of pizza and some breadsticks from one of the bags. Harry cautiously did the same, as did Dobby. Dobby didn't seem to know where to sit so Harry pulled out a seat for him. Dobby sat down as if he was going to be scolded but Stark just grinned at him, his cheeks puffing out with food.

“Did you get your friends calmed down?”

Stark swallowed and shook his head. “Pepper never calms down about my shenanigans. Happy is resigned and my Sour Patch is rather excitable for once. They'll all get here sometime tomorrow, Pepper and Happy are flying in and Rhodey has his suit. We'll go through the whole deal thing tomorrow. Don't worry, they're gonna like you, kiddo.”

Harry started to push up glasses that were no longer there. When Death had healed him, It fixed his eyes which he was glad for but now he realized how often he played with his glasses when he was nervous and they were no longer there.

He nervously played with a breadstick instead. “We'll see.” Harry no longer trusted people at first glance. The only reason he even trusted Stark is that he'd seen how many times the other man had been betrayed by those who were supposed to be his friend and family.

Stark grinned before eating another huge bite of pizza. Harry did the same, only taking a smaller bite. He closed his eye and all but moaned. The marriage of bread, sauce, and cheese was delicious and he could see how Dudley could eat two whole pizzas if given the chance.

Harry looked at Dobby who was poking it with a spindly finger. “Try it Dobby, it's good!”

Dobby watched as Harry took another bite and then copied him. His eye almost bugled out of his head. “This is the most wonderful food! What was Sir JARVIS calling it?”

“It is pizza, specifically pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. I did not think that Sir's guests would be up to trying anything exotic. There are giant chocolate chip cookies in two of the boxes.”

“JARVIS, you do love me!” Stark started to sort through the boxes but stopped when there was a noise at the door of the kitchen.

Harry looked up and the being known as Loki stood there. He wasn't sure if he was a Norse god or not but from what Harry had seen he had the magical power to spare. Even Dobby had stopped eating, his eyes narrowing at the new person.

Hedwig was perched on his shoulder.

Before he could say anything, Hedwig took flight and soared around the kitchen for a moment before perching on the back of Harry's chair. She preked and looked over his shoulder.

“Sorry, Hed, there's no bacon. Would you like to try a pepperoni?”

She was willing to try one so Harry peeled off a pepperoni from his slice of pizza and gave it to her.

“She's a beautiful familiar. Quite smart. She wasn't letting me into the kitchen until I promised her I wouldn't hurt anyone.”

Loki was standing there without his armor in linen pants and a tunic. His hands were up in the universal gesture of We come in peace. He hesitantly stepped in and got a good look at Harry.

Loki stared at him a moment. “Your parents must have loved you very much, you have my condolences.”

Harry felt his eyes tear up just a bit. Usually, people went on about Voldemort and how great it was that he lived. He swallowed a bit. “Thank you.”

“You can tell what happened to him?” Stark glanced at them both with a look of scientific curiosity on his face.

“Yes. Our magic is not the same, but it is written on his aura, a great evil tried to kill him and a great love stopped him.” Loki gave a nod to him and then sat down on the other side of Stark. “Your servant said there was food?”

“Yeah, pizza! Grab a slice! Loki this is Harry Potter, a refugee from another dimension. His friend Dobby is over there eating his weight in pizza.”

Harry looked over and Dobby was on his fifth slice it looked like. For such a little being he could sure eat. Harry grinned to see it.

“Harry this is Loki, God of Mischief. Now we all know each other, where are the chocolate chip pizzas?”

Dobby snapped his fingers and one of the boxes from the bottom of the stack floated up and into Stark's grabby hands.
Stark grinned at Dobby. “Dobby, you and I are gonna be great friends, I can just feel it.”

Dobby grinned back, his face smeared with grease from his food. “Dobby likes it here too, Mr. Stark!”

Harry had to agree. This world was going to be good for them.

Now to survive this Thanos being who wanted to destroy the universe.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five

Tony was standing on the helipad, watching as the pilot brought Happy and Pepper in for a landing. After eating a shit ton of pizza last night he'd been tucked into bed by Dobby and had slept for a good twelve hours.

He'd needed it.

The headache he'd had from low blood sugar was gone and he was back in fighting form. Well, after Dobby had whipped up some blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a fresh fruit salad with even more blueberries, all from JARVIS's directions in the kitchen.

The AI was more than a little peeved that Tony wasn't explaining himself but Tony hadn't wanted to go over the whole deal with Death thing more than he wanted. As it was he was going to have to get in contact with Strange and Peter's Aunt when the phone lines were back up and working.

That is if the Spiderling didn't make his way uptown in all the chaos. As it was Tony had put in an order for JARVIS to let any eleven-year-olds climbing up the Tower in and direct him to the Penthouse.

JARVIS acted as if he was insane. Oh, politely, of course, but still, one of them had faulty programming and JARVIS was sure it wasn't him so it must be Tony.

Tony had to admit, watching his baby boy be flummoxed was amusing as hell.

Now the red and gold helicopter was touching down and Pepper was coming out, running in her ridiculous high heels until she threw herself into his arms.

“Tony!”

“Hey there, Pep-in-the-step! Careful, or you're gonna fall!” He swept her up and wished he had the height to give her a good twirl. Sometimes being kinda short sucked.

“What did you do?!”

“What, no words of welcome? No hi Tony, glad you survived?”

“Hi Tony, glad you survived. Now what in Hulk's purple pants did you do?”

Tony grinned. “Nice one! And I made a deal. One second chance at ending Thanos without all the death and disaster in exchange for watching over a dimensional refugee, his house-elf friend, and his owl.”

“Owl?” Pepper was looking at him as if he was crazy. Tony might be by this point, genius was close to insanity after all. Would he even know if he crossed that line? Probably not.

“Owl? You're skipping the whole dimensional refugee and elf thing and it's the owl that gets you?”

By then Happy has made his way up to them and nods. “Hey, Boss, good to see you.” As if they'd not traveled back in time, or something.

Tony just shook his head. Happy was unflappable. “Good to see you too, Happy! Rhodey should be here in an hour, and I've got a call scheduled with Stephen Strange a little bit after that. He's stuck at the hospital but has blocked out some time for this. I'll explain everything then. Just … don't mind the guests I've got staying so far.”

“Guests, boss? Someone, I should know?” Happy sounded peeved. He took his duties as Head of Security for Start Industries seriously.

Tony winced and Pepper caught it. “Tony! Who's in my penthouse?”

“For one, there's this kid. He's a dimensional refugee. I plan on Underoos helping me to educate him. Doesn't even know what a cell phone is much less a smartphone. He's harmless.” At Pepper's look, Tony found himself talking faster. “Okay, so he's magical. But he's a good kid, save-the-day type of kid, and could use a break. No one's gave a shit about him for most of his life, the ones that did betrayed him. Was trying to kill him because he had too much magic after offing their magical Hitler-type baddie.”

“Hitler, Tony?”

“Well, yeah, if you didn't have the right blood type and followed this guy it was pfft, off with your head. In that world, he came close to dominating Magical Briton.”

“Did you hit your head again? Do you realize how crazy that all sounds?”

“Yes, I hit my head, no I'm not crazy. Pep, I've got proof, and we're here in the past. That proves I'm not crazy.”

Pepper gave him an annoyed look. “Not crazier than normal at any rate. Who else is in my Penthouse?”

“Well, like I said, I expect Peter to be showing up since half the phone lines are down, and Rhodey's flying in from the Middle East.” Tony put his hand behind Pepper's back and tried to just steer her into the Tower so if she got mad she'd be less likely to throw things at her art collection. “And I have a deprogrammed Loki who needed asylum in the other guest bedroom.”

“LOKI!”

“Boss, are you sure that's a good idea?”

They had stopped just short of getting inside and Pepper was giving him her YOU MUST EXPLAIN look. Even Happy looked as if he'd gone crazy.

“Look for one, he's the Loki that was fighting Thanos, not the crazy cakes that just destroyed New York, he came back with us too. And he was being mind controlled by Thanos during the first time. We figured that out before. I couldn't just let him into SHIELD's hands, no idea what they'd do to him.”

Pepper reached over and pulled him close by twisting his ear. “If he harms a single innocent while he's under my roof, you'll both feel my wrath.” She released him and then kissed him on the cheek.

“If it helps, I think the House Elf can take him!” Tony called as she walked into the apartment without him. He shook his head. “I hate it when she does that, it leaves me horny and then I have to walk after her.”

Happy snorted and slapped him on the back. “Too much information, Boss. We'd better get in there before they start scratching each other's eyes out.”

Tony's eyes got wide. “No blood in the apartment!”

When he got to the living room, there was no blood but things were frosty. Pepper and Loki were staring at each other from opposite sides of the room and Harry sat in the middle, looking awkward. Happy slid in behind him and took a seat at the bar.

Tony clapped his hands and put on a cheerful face. “Well, here we are. We're just waiting on my Platypus to join us and I'll explain how we all got here.” He looked around. “Harry, where's your little friend? I thought we could have some tea and coffee while we wait.”

Suddenly Dobby was there, dressed in a new red pillowcase from one of Tony's silk sheet sets. Tony shrugged. He could buy more.

“Dobby be making tea but if Mr. Tony wants coffee, he needs be making it. Coffee machine be evil!”

Pepper had been looking at Dobby oddly but that last comment had her smirking.

“I always told you that the espresso machine was too much! It looks like it should be on board a spaceship, not in a kitchen!” She turned and gave Dobby a kind smile. “Hello, I'm Pepper Potts, I'm in charge of this nut over here.” She hooked a thumb at Tony and he squawked in outrage. “Tony said you were an elf?”

Dobby nodded. “I be a House Elf, we work for our masters and get magic from doing the work. Magic helps us survive. A working Elf is a happy Elf!”

Harry spoke up from where he was sitting in front of the window, Hedwig perched on the back of his chair. “He's my friend actually. Dobby has saved my life, to the detriment of his own. He's a good friend to have.”

Tony nodded. “This place was wrecked yesterday, and he cleaned it all up with a snap of his fingers.”

Pepper looks even more pleased. “Then we can hire you to keep the penthouse cleaned. It's hard getting help up here that doesn't try to spy on us. Or that doesn't get scared off by Tony's shenanigans.”

'Hey! I resemble that remark!”

Before there could be more talking, JARVIS broke in. “Sir, Colonel Rhodes will be here in ten minutes, and a small boy just started climbing up the side of the building.”

“Spiderkid is here! And Platypus! We can get this meeting going! Dobs, if you'll throw together some tea and munchies, I'll make a pot of coffee.”

Harry smiled at his little friend. “Full English Tea, Dobby. It sounds as if we're going to need it.”

Dobby saluted. “Yes Sir, Mr. Harry Potter Sir! As long as Mr. Tony takes care of that evil machine!”

*****

Chapter Text

Chapter Six

“You mean to tell me that Death itself is giving us this second chance? And you picked us to help you retain our memories? Tones, you have the weirdest luck!”

The man Tony had introduced as James Rhodes slapped Tony on the back and almost pushed him out of the chair. The kid called Peter was all but hopping in his seat. Harry smiled wistfully. This was a team, a family.

Something he had thought he'd had. But then they all betrayed him.

Harry sighed, that wasn't quite true. Luna has sent him a trunk. He hadn't looked all through it yet but he was sure it was filled with things he would need. She and Neville and George had tried to reason with people, but with Ron and Hermione fanning the flames they were unable to get people to see sense.

Just because Harry had had a Horcrux from Voldemort in his head, and had absorbed his magic and knowledge when he'd died, didn't mean he was going to turn around and become a Dark Lord himself.

Just because the only wand he could use now was the Elder Wand didn't mean he was any different than he was before. All Harry had wanted was to be normal for once, something he could never have now that he was the protector of the Soul Stone in this universe. At least he was with people who had the potential to become friends. They all liked and respected Dobby, and sang praises of his chicken curry sandwiches and Butterfly cakes. That was a good sign.

You could always tell a lot about people by the way they treated animals and servants. They were crazy over Dobby and Pepper and Peter had been brave enough to ask to pet Hedwig. They'd praised her and been amused when the owl had preened at their praise.

God he'd missed her.

Things were looking up though, he had two loyal friends, a place to stay, and a promise of education so he could fit in. And while he'd be in the fight against this Thanos character, he didn't seem to be the focal point, that was Tony Stark.

He was the backup for once, the sidekick. It was a novel idea and one he liked.

“Okay people, any questions?” Tony asked. Harry brought his attention back to the room. He was going to work with these people.

The first question came from the ceiling. “Sir, are you telling me that I … ceased to function?”

Tony's voice was soft. “Yeah, J. You gave your life to help save the Earth. A true hero. I was proud of you but more than a little broken up. I implemented FRIDAY and made sure she didn't sound anything like you. She helped me but, well, it wasn't the same. I missed you, bud.”

“I find the idea that I ceased to exist untenable, Sir. Especially since the being that emerged from my death did little to help you but followed your tormentor around instead. You will assist me in making an extra backup of myself, won't you?”

“Yeah, J. We'll find a safe place to build you some backup servers where no one will find you. Iowa maybe. No one looks to them for anything but corn.”

Tony looked at the room and clapped his hands. “Right, this is the beginning of a plan. While we have to stop Thanos there are other things we need to fight in the meantime. Loki, if you can use your mojo to infiltrate SHEILD and get the scepter with the mind stone back that will take care of several problems. No deletion of JARVIS for one, and Hydra won't be able to use it on the terror twins.”

“I always thought it was odd how Vision seemed to imprint on her,” Pepper said. “Maybe it was because he held the Mind Stone and she'd been … changed or whatever HYDRA did to her with it. Either way, if we can prevent that from happening I'm all for it.”

“We should sit down and make a timeline of what each of us deems important of what happens in the next six years, even you Pete. See what we can avoid.”

“Like Uncle Ben's death?”

“Yes, like your Uncle's death. You do realize that you'll have to tell both your Aunt and Uncle about what's happened and you won't be doing any superheroing until you're at least sixteen.”

“But Mr. Stark! I can help!”

“Yeah, kid, you can help us get in trouble with Child Protection Services,” Rhodes commented.

“Don't worry, Spiderling. You aren't benched totally. Both you and Harry have been fighting by the seat of your pants. Happy here is a boxer and also knows several ways of dirty fighting and I'm sure if you ask him nicely he'll start you on an exercise program so you're not out of breath when fighting bad guys.”

Harry sat up at that. “That would be bloody brilliant!”

“I suppose I can also help train the younglings. A proper wizard needs a staff and that is an acceptable weapon. Daggers as well.” Loki put himself into the conversation. “One of the Stones will appear here on Earth during the Convergence in the city you call Greenwich in about a year's time. Dark Elves attack Asgard's capital and my Mother is killed. I would like to prevent that.”

Harry nodded. He got why all these people didn't trust Loki but he didn't have the fractured past with him like the others. Plus even if was an agent of chaos, he loved his Mother, and saving her would put him in their debt.

Tony was nodding so he must have had the same idea. “We'll put that on our timeline. Get with JARVIS since you were on Asgard and I'm sure your calendar is different than ours. Hopefully, it's not the same week as AIM attacks the President, we'll be thin on the ground.”

Tony turned and looked at Rhodes. “You'll need to get me a private meeting with POTUS. We've got HYDRA agents in high places and the Vice President wants him dead. We'll need to have his protection re-vetted for that to make sure there aren't any snakes in the hen house.”

Rhodes was nodding. “I just hope he believes us, our story is a little on the fantastical side.”

Harry raised a hand. “I can help with that. While I haven't fully looked through the trunk Luna sent to me, a pensive was on the very top along with a note saying that as long as a wizard pulled the memories, a muggle can view them.”

Tony nodded. He'd seen Harry's life so he understood. “Sounds great. It's the start of a plan. And that will be a big help, Harry, thank you.”

“Meanwhile, I'm going to get in the armor and help clean up Manhattan, Platypus you can help me. It'll do the public good seeing us helping, especially since SHEILD just took the alien stuff and fucked off overnight.”

“Yeah, I hear ya man. Search and rescue it is.” Rhodes stood up and went to where his Armor was standing out on the platform.

“Pepper, you go be the magnificent person I know you can be, and direct the Red Cross to use the building as a station. We've got power when most of Manhattan doesn't. Happy, get security in there, I don't trust SHEILD not to use this opportunity to infiltrate us or bug us or something.”

“And what shall I do after getting the Mind Stone, Man of Iron?”

“See if you can find Barnes. He's known as the Winter Soldier. He's been put in suspended animation and brainwashed and tortured for over fifty years. Death promised he'd be himself the next time he was activated but who the hell knows if he'll be able to get out if he's surrounded.”

Loki gave an evil smile. “I do believe it will be a pleasure working with you all.”

Tony flapped his hands at Loki. “Yes, yes, you like mayhem and I just unleashed you on HYDRA. I'm so bad.”

“Before you go off to save damsels in distress, Sir, may I suggest something?”

“Sure, J. You're a part of this thing too.”

“Between finding HYDRA, AIM, and servicing your suits, I am afraid I will be pulled into too many directions. Perhaps Miss FRIDAY can be activated to help protect Miss Potts.”

Pepper nodded. “That would be a big help. Since Killian is focused on me, FRIDAY and I can track down AIM and see what they're up to.”

“Sounds good, I always wanted to see how my kids would get along together!” Tony grinned. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Most of the people in the room groaned. It must be a saying that Harry didn't know about. Still, he hated to break the happy mood but he had to say something.

“Just keep in mind that the more things change, the future changes with it. This Thanos might come here earlier, or HYDRA may come out of the shadows. There's a sort of ripple effect, so keep that in mind.”

“Right, well on that gruesome note, let's get started, shall we? Underoos, get back to Queens before your Aunt and Uncle misses you. We'll set up a time to meet them and let them in on things when the city isn't so crazy-cakes. Same with Strange.”

With that the meeting broke up, leaving Harry feeling a bit wistful. Hedwig noticed and preked and started to nuzzle his hair.

“This is how it should go, everyone contributing, not one old man pulling the strings. I think I'm going to like it here.”

He got up from the chair he'd conjured and let it fade into nothing. “Come on, Hedwig, everyone has got something to do, so now's a good time to look through the trunk that Luna sent.” It was a multi-compartment trunk, a large one. He was more than interested in seeing the contents.

Harry had to admit, being a sidekick for once wasn't that bad.

**********

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven

The first thing Harry found in his truck was a letter from Luna. He'd put it to the side last night, tired from the day.
Now though he took the trunk and drug it over to the bed. It was deceptively light. Harry opened it and took out the bit of folded parchment. This should be fun, he couldn't help but think. Reading Luna's notes was always amusing.

Dear Harry,

I hate that this has happened. I swear, Ronald and Hermione have Wrackspurts out their ears and they're infecting everyone else. You could no more be an Evil Overlord than you could be a scram jammier!

Neville and I went and talked to the Goblins. They took all your money for the dragon but we managed to get all the jewelry and artifacts that wasn't Goblin-made. The wing whoopers tell me your new father has money so we didn't fight so hard.

Still, you have the Black Library, the Potter Library, and the Peverell Library to continue your studies with. I know you, Harry, you will find adventure wherever you go so crack those books! You never know if some obscure spell with stop the purple menace!

We did manage to find and save your parent's wands and wedding rings, along with a few other things. Journals mostly. I know how much you value anything your parents left you.

George wasn't sure what to gift you so he put in a lifetimes supply of dung bombs and a toilet seat along with a few other things.

Neville and I thought about sending you the seeds to start a greenhouse when the wing whoopers let me know you're going to a place with no magic like our own. So interesting! We got together and bought two bottles of phoenix tears instead.

Use these only as a last resort. They will heal, but they are all you have. Also, the snarleygasters have told me that you will need to learn kinetic shields to stop fire legs. Although why muggles want to set fire to their legs is a mystery to me. They do have some of the oddest ideas.

Hogwarts got into the game and sent you a present in the second chamber of your trunk. Mort said it was clean now, no poison added so you'll be able to use it in your new world.

I hope you know how much you mean to both Neville and me. You were my first friend, and you brought my Neville out of his shell and made him into a warrior. We will miss you terribly. A little spider told me you'd find your happiness in your new world. Don't hold yourself back from them, they've been tested in the fire, just as you have.

We love you, Harry. Remember us fondly.

Your forever friends,
Luna and Neville

Harry was all but crying by the end of the letter. He'd miss Luna's quirkiness and Neville's steadfast friendship. He'd even miss George's pranks. Most of all, he would miss Hogwarts but the feeling of safety the castle had given him had been ripped away, both by the battle that had taken place there and his friend's betrayals.

He put the letter in the drawer of his end table for now. He'd find a safer place to put it.

In the top compartment of the trunk were some of his more personal things. His Invisibility Cloak, the Elder Wand, and a ring box had all been nestled inside a giant pensive that had the Potter Crest on it. That would come in handy.

He had put the Elder Wand in a wand holder that had come with it and strapped it to his arm. It had gone invisible as soon as the buckle had fastened and Harry had to smile at that. He'd be able to wear short sleeve shirts and still have his wand on him.

Although it would take him a moment to find an invisible wand. He was going to have to practice with it.

There were other things in this top compartment, some toiletries, ink, and parchment rolls, quills. Harry picked up the ring box first and opened it. There was the Soul Stone, set in a new ring. The orange light from the stone glowed even in the brightness of his room.

Harry sighed. It would be so easy to use the stone. His parents, Sirius, and Fred even. But he wouldn't use it unless he had to. He closed his eyes and willed the stone not to shine so brightly. He felt it respond and when he opened his eyes the stone was round and looked like an orange tiger's eye stone. It still looked a bit unworldly but he figured that was about as good as he could get it.

He put the ring on his right hand and put a sticking charm on it. It wouldn't do to drop the ring down the sink when washing his hands.

He closed up the first compartment and went onto the second. It opened with a tap of his wand. There, strapped to the top of the lid was the Sword of Gryffindor.

Harry unstrapped it and pulled it out. It was fucking heavy, and he needed two hands to hold it up. The afternoon light coming in the windows had it almost glowing in the bedroom and Harry lifted it up to watch the rubies glint in the light.

“Wow, that's some sword!”

Harry spun around, almost dropping the sword in the process. He'd neglected to close his door and there the now-young Peter Parker stood.

Harry set the sword down in its place in the trunk and waved the other boy in. “Hey, I was just unpacking. My friends from my world sent me a trunk and I was wondering what was in it.”

“And they figured you'd need a sword.” Peter perched on the edge of one of the Queen Anne chairs in the bedroom.

Harry grinned. “You never know when a sword will come in handy.”

“Do you even know how to use that thing?”

“Sure, the pointy end goes in the bad guy.”

Peter laughed and scratched the back of his head. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, no. I guess along with everything else I need to learn how to use a sword. This bugger is heavy.” Harry looked in the expanded chamber of the second level of his trunk and pulled out a huge owl roost with many levels and a big pan on the bottom for droppings.

Harry grinned and got up to put it by his window and opened the window. He gave a loud whistle and waited. A few minutes later Hedwig sailed through the window and landed on his shoulder.

Peter came closer and patted her on the back of the head and she leaned into it for a moment before Peter took a step back.

“Wow, that is wild. I've never seen an owl before today much less a snowy owl. Why isn't she asleep now?”

“Snowy's are a daytime owl, they sleep at night. But Hedwig is awake pretty much whenever I need her, night or day. In my world, we'd send letters and short messages by owl, instead of by post. Hedwig's pretty damn fast, one of the fastest owls I know of at Hogwarts. She pretty much ruled the owlery when we were there. Death gave her back to me, she died protecting me from Voldemort.”

Harry gave Hedwig a little bounce and the owl flew around the two boys for a few moments, making both of them a bit dizzy watching her antics before landing on the top branch of her perch and settling down.

“That is so weird. Cool, but weird.” Peter said. “And you didn't have a post office?”

“Of course we did, it was just Owl Post.”

“Huh. No phones?”

“Nope.”

“No computers?”

“Nope.”

“No smartphones?”

Harry laughed. “What's the difference between a smartphone and a regular phone?”

Peter slapped himself in the face. “Hoo-boy do you have a lot to catch up on!”

“Not to mention mate, that my so-called relatives didn't let me watch the telly, so I have no idea half of what the other Muggleborns used to talk about. Hermione set down to tell me the plot of something called Star Wars once I think but she got very confusing or didn't tell it right.”

Peter all but paled and sat back down in the chair. “No Star Wars? Star Trek? Batman? Lord of the Rings?”

Harry was amused. Peter was acting as if the world had ended. “Nope, none of it.” Harry had to admit, Peter was kind of cute when flustered. He found himself fighting off a blush. He wasn't used to having young teen hormones again, and Harry had been potioned to the gills to get him to like Ginny Weasley. Finding a guy cute wasn't something he had thought of before.

“Well, we can't let that stand. We'll start with Star Wars: A New Hope and begin from there. The prequels aren't as good as the original three movies, but you gotta watch them at least once to figure out what's going on with the sequels. And I'm sure Mr. Stark will help me set you up with a StarkPhone and a state-of-the-art laptop.”

Now Harry laughed. Peter sort of reminded him of Colin Creevy, like a hyperactive puppy. “I thought you were telling your Guardians about everything tonight.”

“God, don't remind me. Aunt May is going to kill me for leaving the apartment today, but I had to see if Mr. Stark was okay!”

Harry gave a bittersweet smile. He missed Sirius. “You're lucky you have a second chance, don't miss out on it.”

Peter smiled at him. “I won't. I have a second chance with Uncle Ben, not to mention Aunt May, I'm not gonna waste it.”
“My godfather Sirius died saving me. So did my parents. You're lucky you've got another shot at it.”

“I'm sorry you lost your family. The only thing I can tell you is that Mr. Stark and Pepper and Happy are great, and you have the opportunity to make a new family.”

Peter's voice was comforting and Harry sighed. “Yeah, it's just hard to trust people, at least for me. I'll tell you more about it, or we can use the pensive later on, you'll see what I mean.”

“What does that pensive do?”

Harry was glad of the shift in subjects and pointed to where he'd sat the birdbath-type bowl on the end table by his bed. He'd need to get some sort of case or cabinet for it that protected it. It was literally one of a kind in this world.

“I can pull memories out of my mind and shove your face in them and you'll relive them as if you were there. This one is a presentation pensive, so I can display them like a hologram about the bowl too, you just don't get the detail like you would be getting fully immersed.”

“Wow.” Peter leaned over to peer at the bowl. “Can it work for anyone?”

“You'd have to trust me to pull the memory out, only magicals can do that. But I'm pretty sure it will work for you. We'll have to do some tests and see.”

“No can do, kiddos!” Both boys turned to see Mr. Stark standing at the door to the room. “Rhodey and I cleared most of the roads, but there's a mass exodus from the city going on. So we need to get Itsy-bitsy here back to his Aunt. She's probably losing her hair by now.”

“But Mr. Stark...”

“No buts, Underoos. You're sounding your age.”

Peter grinned at Stark. “Hey, might as well use it while I can. Puberty is coming up and so is the voice cracking.”

Harry all but threw himself back on the bed. “Merlin, don't remind me.” He hated puberty. Of course, it hadn't helped that he'd had people out for him for all but one of his years growing up, but yeah, puberty was not going to be fun again.

“Come on, Itsy-bitsy, let's get going. The sooner you come clean, the sooner your Aunt can be mad and get over it. Like ripping a Band-Aid off. Mini-mage, do you want to come with us? Rhodey can give you a ride while I take the Spiderling.”

Harry sat up. “Sure, just let me get the pensive. I should be able to make it work and that will convince Peter's Aunt that we come from the future. Otherwise, she might think we're all barmy.”

Stark snickered. “I don't know if that will help convince her, but sure, we'll try.”

Harry got up and slipped his shoes on. There had been a pair of loafers along with a few changes of clothes in his trunk but he would need to go shopping soon. He grabbed up the pensive and wandlessly conjured an over-the-shoulder bag for it. “Let's go.”

It was time to see New York.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight

Tony carefully set the Iron Man armor down on top of a short apartment building in Queens, War Machine following. He let go of Peter who all but bounced around him like a Springer Spaniel.

“That was SO cool! And people saw you touch down on the roof! My roof!”

Tony lifted his helmet and put his hand on the energetic teen's head to calm him down. “Slow down, sport. Yes, people saw me, but hopefully, they'll just think I'm bringing a kid home. We don't want to attract the wrong sort to your apartment, right.”

“Oh. Right. I get that.” Peter turned to check if Harry was okay. “That was so cool, wasn't it, Harry?”

Harry was grinning. It looked good on the kid. “Yeah, mate, that was wicked cool!”

Rhodey's voice came from inside his suit. “I'm gonna go back and try to clear up some more of the damage. Let me know if you need any help, Tones. Don't want it to say you saved New York but got taken out by someone's auntie on your tombstone.”

“Very funny, Platypus. Keep an eye out for SHEILD, they may try to get in good with you.”

“Yeah, yeah. See you later.”

With that Rhodey took off leaving him with two overexcited boys.

“Ever flown that fast before, Wiz?”

Harry looked at him for the nickname, and Tony privately agreed with him. He'd have to come up with something better than just Wiz. It would do for now.

“Well, it's not my broom, but it'll do!”

“Haha, very funny, Shorty.” No, Shorty didn't sound right either.

Peter looked at Harry with wide eyes. “YOU RIDE ON A BROOM?”

Harry laughed. “Well, I haven't ridden in a few years, but yeah. I'll have to see if Luna included a broom in my trunk, if not I'll have to make one.”

“Enough time for that later, boys. Let's get down to Peter's apartment.”

A few minutes later he was out of the armor and standing there in his jeans and a nice band shirt covered by a light jacket. Red-tinted sunglasses finished the look.

“So.” Tony clapped his hands. “Where's the roof access?”

A few minutes later they were in front of Peter's apartment, and Peter was digging in his pockets for his key. Before he could get them out the door opened and a man was standing there.

“UNCLE BEN!”

Peter launched himself at the man, and Tony reached out and grabbed the spider by the belt.

“Whoa, there, Itsy-Bitsy. Don't knock your uncle over.”

Peter dangled in his grasp for only a second before falling to the floor. He looked up. “Uncle Ben, I'm so glad to see you!”

“Whoa there, kiddo. Your friend's dad is right, don't need to know me over, you only just saw me a couple of days ago.”

Peter jumped up and hugged his uncle, bursting out into tears. Ben patted him on his back and tried to soothe him.

Tony stuck his head into the apartment. “It's been a little bit longer for us, you'll have to excuse Underoos. Mind if we come in, I can explain everything.”

“Of course! Come in, come in!”

Tony and Harry inched in, the apartment was homey and nice. There was the smell of cooking in the air. It smelled like chili. Good, homemade chili.

There was a couch and a love seat in the living room and Tony put a hand on Harry's shoulder and directed him to the love seat. Ben shuffled over to the couch, nearly falling on it since Peter wasn't letting loose.

“Is your wife home, it's better if you both hear this.”

“Yes, she's just in the kitchen. May! Peter brought a friend home!”

Peter's Aunt May came in from the kitchen. Tony stood up to shake her hand, and her eyes got wide.

“You're Tony Stark!”

“Don't be ridiculous May, how would our Peter know Tony Stark?”

Tony took off his sunglasses and gave his most charming smile. This was a chance to make a good first impression on Peter's guardians and he was going to take it.

“If you don't mind sitting down with us, I can explain everything.”

Ben's jaw dropped and May was looking shocked as well. Harry just sat there quietly. May shook her head as if getting the cobwebs out.

“Let me go turn down the chili, it won't hurt it to simmer. I've got to hear this.”

Soon they were all sitting in the living room, the TV turned down low in the background.

Tony took a breath and paused. How was he going to explain this? Maybe quick like a band-aid aid would be the best. “We come from the future, where things are messed up to try again to prevent a lot of deaths.”

Ben snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“It's true Uncle Ben! All of it. Harry here can prove it!”

“Mm-hmm. And I suppose he's from the future too?”

Harry was blushing and ducking his head when all the attention went to him. “I'm from a different dimension actually, where it's still the 90s'. So I guess you could say I'm from the past. I'm a wizard though, and I have a device where I can pull memories out of Tony's and Peter's head and let you watch them.”

Tony could see that May was about to protest and jumped in. “Okay, we just had an alien invasion a few days ago, led by a sorcerer who was under mind control. Give us some time to explain and if you still think we're crazy, we'll get out of your hair.”

Peter looked up where he was snuggled into his uncle's side. “It's true, Uncle Ben! Really, what Mr. Stark is saying is true!”

Harry backed up his new friend. “You could say their souls from 2023 were taken from their bodies and put into their 2012 bodies. They have the knowledge and abilities they had in the future, just younger faces. Now, I was in a deadly situation in my dimension so a... friend, you could say, took me from my home dimension, deaged me to heal me, and brought me here.”

Tony had to laugh a little. “I wish there was some sort of way I can show you it's true and I'm not lying.”

Harry perked up and pulled a wand from somewhere or other. “I could give you an oath on my magic that what we're about to tell you is true.”

The Parker's looked at each other. “And what would that mean?” May finally said.

“If I lied, I'd lose my magic, which would probably leave me dead.”

Ben spoke up. “No, no, we'll trust you. Just tell me why my boy is looking at me as if he'd seen a ghost.”

Tony, Harry, and Peter all shared uneasy glances. Tony knew that the boys were waiting for him to start. Being the designated leader and adult sucked.

“It's kinda not so far off the mark. You see ...”

Chapter Text

Chapter Nine

“I died.”

Tony winced. “Yes, and Peter took it badly, to say the least. When I figured out he was playing vigilante in some spandex underwear and a ski mask, I stepped in and took him under my wing. So to speak.”

“You should have seen my armor, it had an AI and everything!”

“You took my nephew to Berlin to fight idiots?”

It had been a long conversation the first time he'd explained this to May Parker, and it wasn't any easier the second time. “Believe me, that's something I regret. I hope for things not to escalate like that again, but if so he won't be doing any superheroing till he's at least sixteen.”

Peter squawked. “Mr. Stark! I'm eighteen where it counts!”

Tony had to laugh. “Yeah, Underoos, but your body had to catch up on your brain. If you tried to beat up on the bad guys right now they'd laugh at you.”

“And just think at how much better you'll fight with some training under your belt!” Harry piped in. Thank god he had one underage superhero listening to reason.

“There is that, I'm going to arrange for self-defense lessons for the boys, not that they're not good already, but they can be better. Some counseling too, for PTSD. And I was hoping you'd let Peter tutor Harry here on modern technology and media.”

“Harry hasn't even seen Star Wars, Uncle Ben!”

Ben ruffled Peter's hair. “Well, that's certainly a travesty! You'll have to get him caught up.”

“Ben...”

“I know, May. You don't like the thought of it, but Peter is too far ahead to go back into his regular class, if he gets bullied his new strength will make things difficult.”

May nodded, her glasses catching the light. “True. I just don't like the thought of him going all the way to Manhattan on his own. He looks like an easy target. And we will be talking, young man, about you going off to Manhattan this morning. Leaving a note saying you're going to a friend's house isn't enough.”

“I had to see if Mr. Stark was okay, all the phones were off. You both were working!”

“I just don't like the idea of you riding on the subway! Especially after an alien invasion!”

“I was fine, I rode on top of the train.”

“PETER!”

Peter just laughed, pulled himself from between his aunt and uncle, and jumped up on the ceiling. His family looked in shock and awe.

Tony laughed. “It's one thing to be told, another to see, isn't it?”

They both laughed and Ben was shaking his head. “Still not happy about you going that way, Sport. One of the reasons police officers don't like vigilantes is that nothing holds up in court. It's not like we can call Spider-Boy to the witness stand.”

“Spider-Man! The friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man, Uncle Ben!”

“You're not shaving yet, kiddo, so you're Spider-Boy for the time being. Now get down here, you're giving me a neck crick.” Ben ran his hand through his hair. “And I have to agree with your Aunt May, kiddo. I don't like the thought of you commuting on your own.”

Just then Tony had a brainwave. So strong it almost gave him a headache but it was a good idea and would solve a lot of problems.

“How about this? I want, no, need to have a medic station for my people, security people, secretaries, and all asunder. You're the head nurse in an ER, May, would you be willing to fill that position?”

“What!”

“Seriously, you wouldn't believe the shenanigans R and D come up with, much less the fact there will be training rooms for our security, so it's not like you'll be bored. And if you are you can just visit the boys, keep half an eye on them.”

Tony then turned to look at Ben. “And Happy needs a good second command, the one he had he's leaving in LA in the top spot for the old facilities. A second who knows the local cops and robbers would be a good thing.”

May and Ben looked at each other, but Peter was bouncing.

“Say yes! That's such a good idea! And that way Uncle Ben, you won't be at the bodega getting coffee when it's being robbed. This is perfect! You won't be shot!”

Ben gave a nervous chuckle. “Well, there is that, but it would mean moving and I don't know if we can afford it.”

Tony waved that away. “Stark Industries have been paying for people to relocate from California to New York, I think we can afford to move you to Manhattan from Queens. Look, don't answer me right now, take a couple of days to think about it. I don't want your answer to be rushed, but I would love to have help keeping an eye on two young budding superheroes out of trouble. Especially since I'm going to be involved in a lot of political things coming up, and making sure the bad guys get taken out again.”

He stood up and Harry stood with him. “We'll get out of your hair for now, and once you make up your mind one way or another, Peter has a direct link to JARVIS and he'll be able to take a message if I'm unavailable or connect to me.”

May and Ben stood as well and looked at each other. It was May who spoke up. “We'll let you know something one way or another in a few days. I want to interrogate Peter a little more on what happened in the future.”

Soon Tony was fitting himself back into his armor. His face plate was flipped up and he was looking at Harry looking at Manhattan across the way.

“It'll look better over there once all the power is restored, right now Stark Tower is the only one with power.”

“Yeah, I know, it's just that it looks so different from what little I saw of London. Not that they let me out in the Muggle world all that much. It just... makes me kind of homesick I guess.”

Tony put his hand on Harry's shoulder, trying awkwardly to comfort him. The kid had lost a lot. Bringing Peter home and seeing him reunited with his aunt and uncle must have brought it up.

But there was nothing he could say to make it better.

“Come on kid, let's go home.”

***********

“You did well today.”

It was late and for once Tony was tired, even if his brain was running in circles. Hopefully, he'd be able to sleep. Pepper was sliding into the big bed beside him. “Thanks for the pep there, Pep. How did I do good today?”

“All of it. The whole coming back in time thing. The taking charge. Taking Peter back home and offering his family jobs just so they can move here. All of it. Sue me, I have a competency kink.”

Tony laughed. “Luckily, I do too, and seeing you set up that charging station for everyone downstairs so they can charge their phone was damn sexy. What are we gonna do about it?”

“I think we're going to start trying to bring Morgan back into our lives. That's what I think.”

Tony felt breathless as Pepper settled above him. “And what would you say if I told you I have a meeting with the President in two days?”

“I'd say as long as you don't go in there with your normal shenanigans, that's competent.”

“And if I promise only minimal shenanigans?”

“JARVIS, turn off the lights.”

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten

Tony got up the next morning feeling jittery. With all that had been happening, he hadn't been down in the lab for ages, or so it seemed. He was more than ready to get his hands greasy.

But first, he had to plan a few things since he was planning on taking Mini-mage with him to the Oval Office tomorrow. One way or another. And Harry needed clothes. That meant shopping but all the stores he'd take him to were in Manhattan. You don't go to see the President of the United States at the White House in jeans and a tee-shirt from Walmart.

After a breakfast of fresh coffee, made by him, and fresh pressed orange juice and blueberry scones, made by Dobby, Tony sat there for a few moments in the breakfast nook of the penthouse and made a plan.

“JARVIS, how are you doing with Harry's papers? Will they withstand anything the Secret Service might do to confirm them?”

“To tell the truth, Sir, I am uncertain. The original Mr. Jarvis did not have any brothers and sisters, but a cousin he was close to. I have made Harry a grandchild of that cousin, but anyone looking closely might find it unusual. Plus anyone looking for paper records will find them lacking. We will have to pay someone to add them to the files. However, I did make it so his parent's name was the same so he could still answer to Harry Potter. Once we get his paper documents in place you can formally adopt him, making him a real boy so-to-speak.”

“Good, get with Happy and find out which of our London lawyers can get the paperwork in place, even if we have to bribe someone. I don't want SHEILD or Hydra getting a hold of him and locking him up someplace.”

JARVIS's voice was dryer than normal. “I hardly think his other Patron will allow that to happen. Perhaps young Mister Potter will have a way to … magic his paperwork into the files.”

“JARVIS! You said magic as if it were a dirty word! That's so cute of you.”

“I am just the epitome of cuteness, Sir.”

Tony threw his head back and laughed. He had missed Jarvis's dry wit.

When he stopped laughing he looked up at one of JARVIS's sensors. “Are you really okay with me activating FRIDAY?”

“I assure you, Sir, if I have any problems with it I'll let you know. Besides it would be interesting to have another AI to work with.”

“Good! Plus we have our other helper. Dobby!”

Dobby popped up wearing a child-sized Iron Man shirt that they sold downstairs in the gift store and a chef's hat. Nothing else. Tony focused on his chest. Even if the shirt was overly long on him, he didn't want to see what a House Elf had under his shirt.

“Good morning, Dobby! We gotta get you some pants there, pal. Maybe some socks and shoes. It gets cold here in the winter.”

“Mr. Stark is nearly as wonderful as the Great Harry Potter! Giving Dobby socks! Dobby loves socks!”

“We'll go shopping as soon as some stores are open. We'll get you a hat and say you're a kid with progeria or something. New Yorkers usually overlook the unusual but I don't want anyone locking you up for being an alien or something.”

Dobby bounced and Tony closed his eyes. “Mr. Stark is a kind master! Can Dobby get you anything else? A blueberry smoothie perhaps, Mr. Jarvis says you love smoothies.”

Tony looked up at JARVIS's sensor. “Mister JARVIS, huh? And no, I'm good little man. Tell you what though, I'm gonna take Harry to meet the President of the United States tomorrow. He's a very important man and we need Harry to look his best. Can you resize one of my suits to fit Harry? Jarvis will tell you which ones are good for this sort of thing.”

Dobby nodded quickly. “Dobby will make sure the Great Harry Potter looks smart for tomorrow.”

“What's happening tomorrow?”

Harry stood there, rubbing his eyes to wake up. He was wearing an old tee shirt and a ratty pair of jeans. Tony winced at the site. The boy couldn't meet the President in Walmart couture but maybe some round-the-apartment wear could be bought there. He'd get JARVIS to get some measurements of Harry and send an intern on the helicopter.

“We're meeting the President tomorrow, Mini-Mage. Got to look your best.”

Hedwig came flying in and landed on Harry's shoulder, the thin material of his shirt doing nothing to protect the kid's skin. Tony made a mental note to get some different colors of leather somewhere for Dobby to sew onto his shirts.

“Dobby can you cook Hed some bacon? I'll just eat some of those scones I've been smelling.” Harry said to his little friend as he sat down in the nook, careful not to knock off his owl.

“Is it safe to give her bacon? I mean, owls in the wild don't go after pigs, much less smoked-cured pigs. I don't want her getting high blood pressure or cholesterol or something.”

Harry snorted. “Owls will eat just about anything smaller than them, if there were small pigs, you can bet they'd eat them. Bacon doesn't hurt her too much, the rest of the time she hunts on her own, or I'd get her feeder mice at the Owl Emporium.”

“We can do that. Get feeder mice, I mean.”

Hedwig preked her thanks as Dobby brought a plate of bacon over to Harry to feed her. It was cute, she'd balance with one foot on Harry's shoulder and use the other one to hold onto the bacon, carefully nibbling at it.

Tony shook his head. Right, back to the important stuff. “Right, so you, me, Rhodey. The Pres. We've got to break the whole time travel thing to him along with several other downer issues like his Vice President being a traitor and Hydra running around his government. Much less the coming alien invasion. We'll need you to pull my memories and use the pensive.” Here Tony paused. “And can do you wards? I mean, around the President's office?”

Harry took a bite of scone and chewed on it for a minute. “I think I can, I just need a bit of obsidian to carve. The larger the area the bigger the obsidian. Granite would work in a pinch but obsidian is better.”

“I can get you obsidian, enough to cover the Oval Office at least. Maybe intent wards, rather than full wards. Keep out those with evil intent?”

Harry paused in his eating. “Would that even work with politicians?”

Tony smirked at that. “I guess we'll find out, won't we?”

Harry snorted into his orange juice. “Yeah, we can make it so the President's security detail knows when someone untrustworthy is in the area. And maybe make it a portkey so in case something happens he can come here where it would be safe.”

“Good idea, kiddo! Maybe introduce Dobby to him so if he wants to communicate privately, Dobby can take messages.”

Tony looked to where it looked as if Dobby was magically kneading a bread dough. It looked like fresh bread was on the menu today. Tony drooled a little at the thought.

If Dobby was going to stay he'd either have to step up his workout routine or make the next armor a bigger size. He wasn't used to having someone cook for him after Jarvis died. Too many people tried to get close just to get to his money.

“Dobby, you're going to see The President too, so shrink down a shirt and vest for yourself too.”

“Dobby will! Dobby will represent Mr. Stark and the Great Harry Potter good!”

Tony winced at Dobby's weird take on English and heard a bit of static from JARVIS's speakers. Maybe JARVIS could work on teaching him better English.

Tony shook his head. He was getting off track. He did that often. “Right, obsidian balls. Spheres, let's not call them balls, that sounds weird. How big of a sphere are we talking about?”

Harry tilted his head to the side Hedwig wasn't sitting on. “Maybe 200 millimeters? That should do.”

“Right, that's 8 inches. I think we can find something like that before tomorrow, if not we'll just have to rely on Dobby to protect the man.”

“Do you think the president will believe us?”

“President Ellis is a good man, a little naive which is dangerous for a world leader but good nonetheless. Once we show him the memories I have of Air Force One being attacked and Rhodey having to rescue him, he should listen to us. Plus there's not only the AIM situation but Hydra. He wants to remain president another four years after this one so he'll listen, if only to keep his Presidential butt in the seat.”

Harry frowned. “Do you think SHEILD will try and stop your meeting? From what I saw of your memories they are invested in you.”

“Probably. Or come to the building to ask what we talked about. Especially if you check the office for listening devices and spying. I wouldn't put it past them to put some of their agents on his Secret Service detail.”

Harry closed his eyes and seemed to be thinking. Tony didn't push him to talk, enjoying another blueberry scone while the boy was coming to a decision about something.

“Mr. Stark ...”

“Tony. TO-KNEE. I know Underoos calls me Mr. Stark to mess with me, you don't have to do that too.”

Harry grinned. “Tony then. Do you think it's bad to use some of the things I learned when I absorbed Voldemort's powers? I mean, do you think they'll make me evil?”

Tony thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out his answer. “I think it's all about potential. You have the potential to do very bad things with that knowledge, but on the other hand, you could do very good things.”

He knocked lightly on the arc reactor on his chest. “You know I could have built bigger and better weapons with the arc reactor, but instead I choose to use it for clean energy and the Iron Man suits. A force for good, I like to think. It's all up to you.”

Harry nodded. “Okay then, Voldemort could scan people's surface thoughts. I learned that from his memories. So did Dumbledore and the Elder Wand knows how to help me do it as well. They won't even know I'm doing it. Would it be wrong to do it?”

Tony thought about that for a moment. “I think we should ask the President about that, they serve at his pleasure. We could check his entire staff that way.”

Harry was finished eating and had been petting Hedwig for the last few minutes. “Like you said, it's about doing it ethically.”

“That's right! Now, why don't you go finish unpacking your trunk, I know you didn't get much of a chance to yesterday. I'll be down in my lab making out my timeline and working on the armor.”

Tony got up and Harry did the same. “Yeah, Luna left a note saying I needed to learn kinetic shields, and those are the ones that stop bullets. I'm sure I can do it, I just need to practice.”

“Tell you what, this building has a firing range, for our security people. Tonight we'll go down there and we'll see how you do against some live fire.”

That perked Harry right up. “Sure, that sounds great!”

Tony had to laugh. Harry seemed more like a twelve-year-old at the moment than the nineteen-year-old he really was.

Boys and their toys.

Not that Tony wasn't interested, he was. He wasn't going to tell Pepper about it either. Better to ask forgiveness than permission.

Maybe she'd punish him or something. That could be fun.

“Let's get on with our day, Mini-mage, we've got lots to do.”

Before they could leave though, JARVIS spoke from his speakers.

“Sir, the phone line and cell towers have been repaired and Doctor Stephen Strange is on the line for you.”

“Great, it's the other Magic Man! He'll probably know where I can get a couple of obsidian spheres. You go on and unpack, I've got a sorcerer to talk to.”

“Cheating on me with another magical.” Harry gave a mock sniff. “I see how it is.”

“Nice bit of snark there, I give it an eight out of ten. Now get out of here so I can get to the lab.”

They went separate ways and soon Tony was down in his lab. “JARVIS put Strange through.”

He sat down on one of the chairs and spun around. “Stephy! How's it going? Anything new?”

“What did you do, Stark?”

*****

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven

“Seriously, Stark, why am I in the past? I know I didn't use the Time Stone, you had it last I saw when you snapped. Did you snap us back into the past?”

Tony laughed, it was always fun to see Strange frazzled. “No, I didn't snap us into the past. I made a deal with Death to keep the Universe going.”

“What.”

“I'm sorry, was that a question?”

“You made a deal with DEATH?”

“Yeppers.” Tony pulled up a screen and started going through memories. He could write and annoy Strange at the same time, he was a genius after all.

“Stark I have been awake longer than God, patching people up from the invasion. I am tired and want to go to bed and sleep at least thirty hours, but before I can do that, I need to know what the hell happened?”

Tony takes pity on him. He'd forgotten that Strange had probably been in one surgery after another.

“Well, I snapped my fingers and died. Death met me there and … “ He went on to tell the story. Again. Maybe he should get note cards made of the explanation. Nah, it wouldn't have the personal touch.

By the time he was finished and explaining who he'd brought back with him, he'd written down the timeline up to the signing of the Accords.

He didn't really feel like writing about that shitshow, but it was vital and the President had to know about it.

Strange was speaking up. “Let me get this straight, destroying the stones destabilizes a universe. Then why does this Master of Death have the Soul Stone from his own universe? Wouldn't that destabilize it?”

“Hmm, good question. I don't know, we'll have to ask Harry. Or Death, if Death is available. I just don't know.”

“Never mind, I am not going to call on Death just to ask a question that may not have an answer. I'm just glad we don't have to sacrifice anyone to get that stone.”

“I hear that.” Tony paused stopped writing for the moment. He didn't dare write about the airport in Berlin or Siberia. He still was furious over those two things and didn't want that to bleed into his voice over the phone.

“So Strange, what are you going to do?”

“I believe I already said I was going to sleep for thirty hours, do keep up Stark.”

“I mean after that, Magic Man. Are you going back to Timbuktu or wherever it was in Tibet and getting your fancy-schmancy cloak back? You don't have to wait for the wreck and your hands to fuck up, you could go now.”

“But the timeline...”

“Pfft. We're fucking up the timeline. I'm hoping to out HYDRA before the woman who gives a bad name to both the color red and witches gets any powers. Get rid of AIM before anything happens. Get ALL the Infinity Stones so we can use them and blast the Big Raisin and his motley crew into the sun before anyone gets dusted. What do you want to do?”

“I could save the Ancient One.” This was said quietly. “Or at least the other Sanctums. I must think on this, I'm too tired now.”

“Eat and get some water before you sleep, trust me on that. You'll feel much better when you wake up. When you are awake, sit down and write out a timeline. Everyone's doing that, even Peter.”

“I don't think I have any food here.”

Tony shook his head. The man was as bad as... well, as bad as Tony was, pre-Dobby.

That was the answer. “Dobby!”

Dobby popped into his workshop, flour on his long, pointed nose. “Mr. Stark needs Dobby?”

“Stark, what are you doing?”

“Getting you food. I'm talking to Dobby, who is a House Elf. Dobby, over the magic floo I'm talking to a healer, Doctor Strange. He's been healing people the past few days and is tired and has no food. Can you find out where he is and give him something to eat? I'm sure he'd love your fresh blueberry scones.”

Dobby nodded. “If Master JARVIS can get Dobby directions or even a picture, Dobby can find!”

“I believe this is the building Doctor Strange lives in, in the penthouse. That's the top floor, young Dobby, will you be able to find him using that?”

Dobby nodded at the ceiling. “Doctor Strange has magic, right? Dobby just needs to find it.”

Dobby popped out and Tony laughed at the little guy's exuberance. “Get ready, Strange, breakfast is coming your way.”

“Stark, I'm damned tired I don't have time for him to cross town before I fall …. asleep.”

“Dobby got there already, eh?”

“A basket of scones and a pitcher of orange juice just showed up, no elf.”

“Hmm, that must mean Dobby's being shy. Go ahead, eat. I assure you they're fresh. Call me when you wake up, we'll discuss things like you moving to the Tower then. Have a good morning, Strange!”

“Stark!”

“Cut the line, JARVIS.” Tony grinned. He loved doing that to people.

“Sir...I've been reading what you've been writing. Did Captain America really release all those files on the internet?”

“Yeah, J. He did all that and more. It kept rolling downhill from there.”

There was a pause before JARVIS continued. “Why did he not contact you, you and I would have been able to pull the HYDRA names from the list without endangering the innocent ones.”

“I'd give just about all my money to find that out J, I just don't know.”

*****

Harry was lying on his bed and just enjoyed stretching out and relaxing. The past couple of years on the run, first from Voldemort and then from his former friends were tiring.

Now that he'd unpacked his trunk, he felt more at home. In his en-suite bathroom, he had a toilet seat from Hogwarts courtesy of George. There was a snow globe of Hogwarts on his bedside table from Luna. And there was a beautiful sketchbook from Neville. Evidently Dean didn't think he was the devil incarnate and had done some drawings for Harry at Neville's request. There were a bunch of brooms from the ROR, he was going to have to figure out where to store those.

He was going to miss his friends.

Hedwig preked at him from her perch near the window. “So you like our new home, eh, Hedwig?”

She had totally grossed him out this morning by bringing home a New York rat for her lunch. It was somehow worse than seeing her eat mice and rats in the owlery back at Hogwarts.

Possibly because the rat looked big enough to lift a lorry.

He's ended up banishing what she couldn't finish. He'd have to find a pet store and get some feeder mice, there was no telling what kind of diseases that rat had.

“Mr. Potter, I have a call for you from Mr. Parker.”

“Umm, where's the phone in here, JARVIS?” He was looking for a handset.

“There is no phone, just speak into the air and Mr. Parker will hear you through my speakers.”

Harry blushed and ran a hand through his hair. “Right. Technology. Hello, Peter!”

“Uncle Ben and Aunt May agreed! We're moving to the Tower!”

Harry grinned. “That's great! You'll be able to bring me up to speed in no time! When are you moving?”

“Mr. Stark is paying for the breaking of our lease, so as soon as we can pack up and move, we'll be in the Tower! This is gonna be so cool! We'll be living together! I can show you my favorite movies and everything!”

“I'm looking forward to a phone, mate. Everyone seems to have one and I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb.”

“You need a phone and a laptop or tablet. We've got to get you online, Harry!”

Harry had to laugh, if anything Peter was more excited about it than Harry himself was. “Whatever that means, mate. Do you need me or Dobby to come and help you pack? Now that I know where you are I can just apparate over to you. I just can't tomorrow, Mr. Stark has plans.”

“What kind of plans?”

“Me meeting the bloody American president plans. He's gone out to find me some obsidian for me to carve an intent ward into it, so the President will know if someone means him harm. That's not difficult but I've never been good at meeting important people, mate, I don't want to be the one messing it up.”

“Just imagine him naked.”

“Peter!” Harry found himself blushing. Stupid hormones.

Peter was laughing. When he finally stopped, he continued. “Cheer up, it's far more likely Mr. Stark will say something, he has a habit of that.”

“Oh goody, the secondhand embarrassment. That's fun too.” But he was laughing as he said it. “Mainly I'm going to work the pensive and set up the ward. I'm the sidekick for once and it feels so good.”

“Really?”

“Really, Peter. The pressure the Wizarding world put me under was terrible, and Dumbledore didn't teach me shit. No one did. Oh, Remus taught me the patronus spell and gave me some books but for the most part, I was teaching myself and my schoolmates. This way I can help, make sure the world isn't taken over by the bad guys but take time to learn as well. Right now I'm going over the kinetic shields and trying to learn them. If someone gets trigger-happy tomorrow at the White House, I don't want to be pulverized.”

“Good idea. We'll have to get together and see what your magic can do here.”

“Not only that, but I have memories to sort through, with darker magics. I'm hoping Loki or this Doctor Strange bloke will help me with that. I don't want to raise the dead, just protect people, you know?”

“Yeah, I get that. Aunt May and Uncle Ben are always going on about responsibility. You have to take responsibility for your powers. That's why I like the thought of being trained by Happy, he's a great boxer and he knows some street fighting. Much better than just relying on my instincts.”

Harry didn't like to imagine that. He'd seen how in Tony's past Peter had gone web-swinging in a hoodie and ski mask. Being trained and having proper equipment was a much better idea.

They talked for a few minutes before saying goodbye. It was weird not hanging up the receiver on a phone.

He sighed and pulled out the Elder Wand from the holster on his arm. It had felt powerful last night when he was learning that shield for bullets. Too powerful at first, the bullets had exploded and had ricocheted. It had taken him a couple of tries to get it so the bullets just stopped in midair and fell to the floor.

Tony had been impressed, either way. He said there was a time to save the bullets for tests to arrest someone and a time for shrapnel. Learning how to push that shrapnel back on his attackers would take some time, Harry figured, but it might be needed.

But it still disturbed him how easily the magic came to him. He wasn't used to his magic being quite so powerful, it had taken him weeks to learn how to cast a Patronus. Harry wasn't sure if it was the Wand or how Death had unblocked his magic.

Maybe his magic was supposed to be this way, and Dumbledore had blocked it. Who knows, and who could he ask at this point? He was definitely going to wait for one of the older magic users to have time to help him.

There was a knock on his door frame and Harry looked up just in time to see Tony tossing something at him. Harry caught it without thinking, oof-ing a little at the heft. It was heavier than the snitch he usually caught.

He looked down and it was an obsidian sphere, slightly larger than what he needed.

“Great, you got it!”

Tony hefted up a box. “I got several in case you needed to do a dry run first. I figure if you have time later you can do one for Pepper's office too, if you don't mind.”

Harry nodded. “That sounds good. I also want to research how steel and concrete take wards, this entire building needs warded, and the wizarding world never really kept up with modern construction materials.”

Tony came fully into his room and leaned on the wall. Harry would have offered him a chair but there wasn't one in his room yet. “That's something that maybe Strange or Loki would know about. Once they're freed up maybe you magic users can form a coven or something and figure it out.” He lifted the box and shook it a little, making the obsidian orbs inside clink against each other. “Now come on, I want you to do your warding work in the lab, so JARVIS can keep an eye on things as you work on them.”

Harry stood up. “Sounds good. If there was a way, I'd let him scan my books but I don't know if they would scan since they're magical and have a copywrite spell attached.”

“That would be great! Maybe we can try it with U or DUM-E and a book that you don't really care about. Meanwhile … “ He shook the box of orbs again. “Let's go play with your balls.”

Harry snorted and followed Tony to the labs. “You know, it's a shame you never got a chance to meet my godfather. Padfoot always liked jokes like that. You and him would have gotten on like a house on fire.”

As they entered the lift that would take them to Tony's lab, Tony reached over and ruffled his hair. “Then I'll just have to look out for you for his sake, kiddo.”

***********

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve

“Now, Tones, we're going to be in the Oval Office. Keep the jokes to the minimum, for the love of all that's holy.”

Tony looked at his best friend and could tell the man was joking. He gasped and put a hand to his chest. “Honey Bear, would I do anything like that?”

“Tony I know you, there's an inappropriate BJ joke in that head of yours somewhere, wanting to come out.”

Harry just about choked and Tony grinned. He and Rhodey were joking around to get the kid's mind off going to see the President, he'd been pale getting off the plane.

“Now Platypus, this is a serious first visit. I'll save the blow job jokes for the second visit.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Thank you, that's SO much better.”

They were waiting in the hall outside of the Oval Office. Rhodey was in his dress uniform and Tony and Harry were dressed up in suits. Dobby was waiting for them to call him. The Secret Service had not allowed Tony his briefcase suit, which had been sent back to the plane and Tony felt naked without it. He needed to get working on his Bleeding Edge tech as soon as possible.

Harry had only been allowed his messenger bag since it seemed empty. Wizard space was a thing, who knew? The pensive and ward stone was hidden until Harry pulled them out of the bag.

Tony turned to Harry. “You think you can find all the bugs and listening devices that might be in the room?”

Harry nodded. “I think so. If we were in my world, magic would do funny things to technology. Here I'm just going to send a pulse out from my wand that should cause them to glow, and then you two or the guards can take care of them”

“Great. Good. No need to make the men with the guns mad at us.” Tony gave a squinting look to the guards down the hall from them.

“Just take your own advice, Tones, that's all I'm saying.” Rhodey stood as the President's Chief of Staff strode down the hall.

Tony and Harry also got up and waited quietly till the man met up with them. “I don't know what you two said to get a private meeting with him so quickly, but you've got twenty minutes. Don't waste them.”

Tony kept his mouth shut after Rhodey stepped on his foot. So rude!

“I'll keep Tony here in check, don't worry.”

The Chief of Staff glared at Harry. “And I suppose this is bring your illegitimate kid to work day or something, Stark?”

Tony could hear Harry huffing. “No, it's bring your intern with you to work day, especially when that intern has with him a gift for the President.” He pulled Harry behind him when the Chief of Staff made to grab Harry's messenger bag. “Ah, ah, ah. No grabby-hands. President's only, lackey's need not apply.”

His Platypus came to the rescue, like always. “I've already checked it, it's safe. Nothing you need to worry about.”

“And I'm supposed to trust you, Rhodes?”

Rhodey stared him down. “Yes. Yes, you are.”

Before the argument could escalate, one of the President's secretaries came through. This one was a neat-looking young woman with blonde hair. “The President will see you now.”

They left the Chief of Staff behind and Tony had to wonder if he was Hydra or just an asshole. It could be both, it was probably both. Tony made a mental note to get Harry to scan the man's brain or whatever he did and followed in Rhodey's footsteps.

There were introductions and then Tony stepped forward. “Mr. President, before we get started I'd like to sweep this room for listening devices.”

The President looked at them oddly. “But the Secret Service checks several times a day.”

“Yes, well, this is a new way of checking, you might say. What I have to go over with you is incredibly top-secret. So, please, it can't hurt to check.”

The President thought for a few minutes and nodded. “Go for it, Mr. Stark.”

If he was expecting Tony to pull out a new device he was in for a surprise. He turned to Harry instead. “Go for it, kiddo.”

Harry pulled his wand out from his sleeve. He pointed it up to the ceiling. “Audire revelare machinae!”

A red pulse went through the room, rather how Tony thought a dolphin's sonar would work, and then things started lighting up. Both phones on the desk, the statue of the guy on the horse behind the desk, a couple of books on the shelves by the door that faced the desk, and a few other places.

He and Rhodey started moving to disable the devices. The President looked flabbergasted. “Wait, what just happened here?”

Harry spoke up which was a good thing since Tony was busy looking through the phones for bugs. “My name is Harry Potter, I'm a magic user. I used my magic to reveal the listening devices in the room. For more than that, I'd rather not say until they've all been destroyed.”

It took Tony a few minutes to de-bug the phones and by then Rhodey had gathered the other devices on the desk. They were small but most of them had that little octopus symbol of Hydra on them.

Before they could show them to the President the doors on both sides of the room flew open and men in suits with guns were coming in.

Tony wished he had his suitcase armor. The Bleeding Edge tech was now a number one priority of his. For all of them.

Harry brought his wand to the front. “Scutum in motu!”

This time a navy blue shield flared to life, protecting them from the gunfire that was aimed mostly at Tony and Rhodey. The President was probably safe for now, he didn't know anything, but Rhodey took charge and pushed the man under the desk as Harry shielded them.

“Harry, how long can you keep up the shield?”

“I'm going to say until they run out of bullets but I'm not sure! Can you contact JARVIS?”

Tony's hands wanted his repulsars. “No, they took my phone.”

“Right. I'm calling in the big guns.” Harry took a deep breath. “DOBBY! Some men with guns are trying to hurt me, about ten meters in front of me!”

There was a crack and Dobby, dressed in a gray shirt and red waistcoat, popped into the room. He looked at the five men with guns and snapped his fingers. “You shall not hurt Dobby's friends!”

The men's guns went flying to the ceiling where they stuck, and then the men all flew upwards, hit the ceiling themselves, and then hit the floor. There were few groans as they were mostly unconscious. But not all. One hardy soul on the bottom of the pile was struggling to get loose.

“Stupefy!” Harry had taken down the shield and stunned the men, en mass so to speak. The man trying to get up slumped to the floor and all was quiet for a moment.

“What the hell was that?”

“That was your minders, Mr. President, trying to stop us from telling you anything about Hydra. Dobby, check their teeth, there may be poison capsules.”

Dobby nodded and snapped again. A pile of teeth gathered on the carpet in front of Tony.

Tony looked at the pile. “Is that all of their teeth Dobby? I mean, all of them?”

“Bad men tried to hurt Dobby's friends. They can eat stewed prunes for the rest of their lifes!”

Harry chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Good job, Dobs! You saved the President, not to mention us. I'm gonna buy you all the socks you can stand when we finally get to go shopping.”

Dobby bounced on his toes. “Dobby do be liking Mr. Tony's waistcoat too! They make Dobby look smart!”

Tony clapped his hands once to get attention. “That they do, Dobby, you look great. Can you tie these goons up individually so they can't get loose? Then can you tidy up the room, so it doesn't look so destroyed by all the gunfire?”

Dobby nodded and got to work as Rhodey helped the President up to his seat.

The President looked at the guns on the ceiling, and the now tied up men lining his office wall. He looked at Dobby, snapping his fingers at lampshades and watching them fix themselves, and then looked at Tony.

“All right, will one of you tell me what the hell is going on here?”

***********

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen

When Harry finally got to bed that night he was bone tired. He'd done more magic than he had since he had left his old world and a lot of it was scanning people's minds. That took a delicate touch unless you wanted to rip information out of people's heads. Something Harry didn't want to do unless he had to.

The President had not been pleased to find out that half his staff and the Secret Service had either been Hydra or SHEILD or both.

The Chief of Staff was just an arse. He had been angry when called in and saw the pile of HYDRA bodies in the corner, and blew his top when he saw Tony's memory of AIM and the Ten Ring's attack on Air Force One.

He'd wanted all of the staff, right down to the secretaries to be scanned. They'd ended up bringing the staff in one at a time, starting with the Secret Service, and seeing if the obsidian orb Harry had tied the wards in the room to lit up. If it didn't, they were sent on their way.

But if they did they were frozen by Harry or Dobby and then Harry scanned their surface thoughts. More than once Harry had wished for Veritaserum to ferret out spies and turncoats.

They still had more staff to go through tomorrow, along with the Heads of the FBI, Secret Service, and the CIA. Tony was upset because it looked like they were stuck in DC for at least a week and he wanted to be in his lab, making his new armor. Pepper was flying down in two days, to take Harry shopping one day before she returned to New York.

It was going to be a busy week.

There was a knock on his door and Harry looked up to see Tony there, looking just as tired as he felt.

“Hey, shorty. You want to go out for dinner or have room service?”

Harry didn't have to think twice. “Room service sounds great. Anything that means I don't have to put on those terrible dress shoes for a while gets my vote.” His new shoes pinched terribly. They probably would until they stretched a bit.

“I hear you. Come into the living room and we'll see what we can find to eat, the menu is in there.”

Harry groaned, not wanting to get up. Still, he was hungry and that meant moving.

Forty-five minutes later they were biting into giant cheeseburgers with a side of chips. Both Tony and the bus boy had looked at him oddly when he asked for malt vinegar for the chips and Harry had to admit to pouting when told that here in the States they ate their fries with ketchup.

Americans were weird.

After they had eaten their fill, Tony leaned back in the chair he was in and gave Harry a look. “How are you doing, kid? It can't be easy going through the minds of HYDRA goons?”

Harry shrugged. “It's tiring, but not too bad. They've mostly been low-level goons, so far, so there is that. This is just going to be a long bloody week if we check everyone in the government though.”

“I don't think that's the plan. Right now the President just wants the personnel in the West Wing checked and a good portion of the Secret Service. Maybe the Chiefs of Staff. Then they can start doing deep background checks and root out the rest of them.”

“Then why am I going through the Heads of the FBI and CIA?”

“They'll be checking their people and giving support. Plus they are the ones who are going to be going after SHEILD once they have the personnel in place. It's going to take a long time to root out Hydra from all the alphabet organizations. They've had a long time to hunker down and hide.”

“That makes sense. And I'm glad it's not just down to us.” Harry looked around the luxury suite they were staying in near the White House. “Where's Colonel Rhodes?”

Tony snorted. “Platypus was impressed with the way Dobby took care of disarming our attackers but wanted to advance on that. So he's taken Dobby to a shooting range he knows to teach him how to properly use a gun, take out bullets and magazines, things like that.”

Harry laughed. “Oh, Merlin! I can see Dobby pulling a gun out from somewhere and quoting Dirty Harry!”

Tony gave a belly laugh at that. “Dirty Dobby!” He shook his head. “We're getting silly. Let's head to bed, we've got an early start tomorrow.”

Harry grunted and got up. “Tomorrow is going to be just so much fun.”

**********

Harry had been right. Today had been boring as hell. After scanning the minds of the people he needed to account for, he's been mostly shunted off to a corner, everyone thinking he was nothing but a little kid.

Which was true in a way. He didn't know much about this world, or the politics played in it. So mostly he just listened,

“And are you sure it's Alexander Pierce who's in control of this … Project Insight?”

Tony nodded. “HYDRA in SHIELD has been working on this for a while. There are three Helicarriers linked to satellites in orbit that will track down anyone who may be a threat to Hydra and send out STRIKE teams to eliminate them. There was an information download from somewhere, Fury never told me where that had a list of all the HYDRA agents on it. Unfortunately it was mixed in with all the regular SHEILD agents on it. Rogers, Romanoff, and a man by the name of Sam Wilson download all the details on the internet. A lot of good people died when HYDRA rose and started attacking. Then they managed to do something to the three Helicarriers over DC and they started falling. It was a cluster fuck, sorry for the language.”

“Don't apologize,” The President said. “If ever there was a cause for cursing that would be it. How do we stop this?”

Harry watched as there was much arguing. Some of the people in the office was all for arresting this Pierce guy right away, while others wanted to investigate him. Some others wanted his shot on sight for treason.

Harry had to admire them in a way. Instead of putting their heads in the sand, as Fudge did, they were all trying to figure out something to stop HYDRA.

Even if all this arguing was giving him a headache. He supposed it was necessary though, in a way. This was like the filler bit in a story. Not very interesting but needed to make the plot move on.

Finally though, the President called for quiet and got it. “Right. We've covered HYDRA. Tell them about the Winter Soldier.”

Tony straitened up. “Right. The Winter Soldier. He turned up a while ago and has made himself a name as an assassin. He's a prisoner of HYDRA. A captured prisoner of war who's been experimented on, tortured, and brainwashed to forget his past. He was sicced on my parents, but he didn't even slow down when he killed Howard and he knew my Dad well, back in the day.”

“But your parents were killed in a car crash?” One of the generals said.

“Nope, it was an assassination. He was looking into the Super Soldier formula again and had some samples and all the notes with him when he left the house. They weren't found in the wreckage, that I know of. And either his controllers staged the scene to make it look like a wreck or SHEILD did to keep me drunk and not questioning things. Not sure which, especially since it was Stane who identified the bodies, and now we know he was a bad guy.”

“Do you know who he is?”

Harry could see Tony pausing for a moment and then he straitened his shoulders. “Bucky Barnes, former Howling Commando and best friend to Steve Rogers.”

'Barnes!?”

“Isn't he dead though?”

“Wouldn't he be old now?”

Tony held his hands up. “One at a time, please! Yes, Bucky Barnes. He isn't dead and he isn't old. They got him with a version of the Super Solider serum, and cryogenically frozen in-between assassinations. He hadn't aged more than a few years, and now that I made the deal to come back in time, I asked for him to be one of the people joining me. His trigger words and programming have been wiped clean so he's all Barnes again. No more Winter Soldier.”

“Won't they just put him under again once they figure out he's himself again?”

Tony turned to the President. “That's a good point but I have one of my … friends who came back with me going after him and the Scepter used in the attack on New York. Having that will end several problems I haven't brought up yet.”

The President gave him a look. Harry snorted to himself. As if that would make Tony behave.

“Which one of your friends have you sent up against HYDRA and SHEILD?”

Tony gave a grin. “You're not going to like it.”

The generals and other officials in the room started grumbling and Tony gestured to them over his shoulder. “They are really not going to like it.”

The President pinched his nose. “I can feel a headache forming, Stark. How bad is this?”

He started to speak but Harry felt something attacking his wards in the Oval Office and quickly got up and pulled his wand. Before he could say anything though, a bright light in the middle of the room blinded everyone.

When the light finally faded and Harry shook away the spots in front of his eyes, he noticed there were two new people in the room.

There, in the middle of the Oval Office, stood Loki in all his helmeted glory. In the one hand, he had the Scepter with the Mind Stone in it. In the other hand he was supporting who Harry assumed was Bucky Barnes. He had blood running from a cut on his head and he was missing an arm.

Tony just threw his head back and laughed. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear!”

*****

Chapter Text

Chapter Fourteen

Tony couldn't help but laugh. Loki may be a pain in the ass sometimes but he had style. Loki's helmet shimmered and disappeared as the man gently set Barnes down in a chair. He then seemed to notice all the people in the room and laid the scepter with the stone at Tony's feet.

“The Mind Stone, Stark. As promised.”

“Thanks, Reindeer Games!” He turned and gave the President his most charming smile. “Mr. President, may I present my ally Prince Loki of Asgard.”

“Isn't this the same … being that tried to concur Earth and nearly destroyed New York?”

The President looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, and the Generals were all mumbling. Harry ignored them as he worked on healing Barnes and Loki just smirked and rocked back on forth on his feet.

There was grumbling from the President's staff but Tony ignored him and so did Loki. Which was good because some of the things he'd heard, he'd expect the God of Mischief to turn one or two of the generals into toads.

The President looked over at Loki and then turned to Tony. “Can he be trusted? After all, he did lead the aliens who attacked New York.”

Tony looked over at Loki and Loki raised his eyebrow but said nothing. “Mr. President, Loki was under the same type of mind control as Barton and the other SHIELD agents. When the Hulk... body slammed him into my living room floor, it stopped the mind control and reset Loki's original personality. So while I would trust Loki at my back in battle, I wouldn't trust him not to put a snake in my bed as a prank.”

The President glared at him and then looked over at where Harry was helping a now-healed Barnes off the floor. “Is he okay, son?”

“He'll be okay, I've healed most of his wounds. He may need orange juice or something because he bled out a bit but his healing factor should help him with feeling better.”

“Good, good.” The President looked at Tony and Tony tried to look all honest and patriotic. “And these people are going to help us find HYDRA and AIM?”

Tony sighed a bit. They hadn't gotten to the real big bad yet. Time to break that news. “My allies will help with HYDRA and AIM, but that's just the beginning. When I took that nuke into space, I saw an armada of ships. They belong to Thanos, an alien. He'll be here in about six years with his Black Order.”

“And I suppose this Thanos wants to rule Earth?”

“No, Mr. President. He wants to wipe out half the Universe with a single snap. And if we don't collect certain items, he can do it.”

The President looked at him. “Well, fuck.”

**********

“So what are we going to watch tonight?”

Peter looked up from where he was going through the files on one of JARVIS's holographic screens. “Well, since Mr. Stark is busy at the British Embassy tonight, I figured he'd prank me into submission if I start with Star Trek, Star Wars, or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. So I think we'll start with an 80s classic, Ghostbusters. Give you a look at some great comedy. Then if we have time, I thought I'd go into the 90s with Jurassic Park.”

Harry grinned. He'd heard some of Jurassic Park from his room upstairs, Dudley always had the television on high, and it had sounded awesome. He didn't remember anything about Ghostbusters though. “What's Ghostbusters about?”

“It's about these scientists that start a paranormal business catching ghosts. It's real funny, and there's some lines that are quoted by just about everyone today still.” Peter pushed a button and a giant screen came down in the middle of the living room and lit up.

Harry settled in and a big bowl of popcorn popped into being on the coffee table thanks to Dobby. He'd been looking forward to this, even if he was a bit disappointed that it was only Peter and him to do a movie binge.

Tony was at the British Embassy with Loki, talking to them about the portals that'll open up and the alien elves. Pepper and Mrs. Parker were coordinating the building of a first aid station in the Tower and what they would need. Happy and Ben Parker were going over security. Barnes was in meetings with Rhodes and the military. Even Dr. Strange was working. It was just him and Peter.

Which, Harry, had to admit, was kind of nice. After a week of being in Washington, explaining how the wards worked and scanning people's minds, Harry was ready to just have a quiet evening in.

The fact that it was with Peter was a bonus.

Harry could admit to himself that he was attracted to Peter. And it made sense in a way, they were both mentally older than they looked, and it was nice to have someone he could talk to about going through puberty a second time.

Plus Harry thought he was cute and liked his floppy hair for some reason. He kind of wanted to run his fingers in it.

Harry sat back to watch the movie, trying to ignore the fact that Peter was just a few inches away from him. He watched for a few moments. “Is it okay if I think they're kind of an arse? Because electrifying someone to flirt with a pretty girl is a sick move.”

Peter laughed. “Yeah, Venkman's kind of a lovable asshole. You just kind of get used to him.”

They watched the film quietly for a while, but Harry had to speak up when he saw the three scientists walking through the gooey card catalogs.

“You know, the ghosts I know don't leave slime like that, thank Merlin. Nick's Death Day party would have been worse than it already was if there was goop everywhere.”

Peter's head snapped around and his eyes got big. “You knew a real live ghost? I mean, a real ghost that had been dead?”

Harry laughed. “I get what you mean. Yes, Hogwarts, the school I went to, had several ghosts. And a poltergeist.”

Peter paused the movie. “What's the difference?”

“Not much, just that Peeves, the poltergeist, could touch things. Like water balloons, and chalk. Ghosts in my world are intangible. I'm sure there are more differences, but that's what I got off the top of my head. I'm sure I have a book on it in my trunk.”

“Really? That is so cool! Can I look at them?”

“Most of them are safe, so yeah. I was going to ask Tony if there was a space I could set up as a library so I could just keep the dangerous books in my trunk.”

Peter hopped a little on the couch. “Thank you! I've been wondering how magic works!”

Harry shrugged. “Magical theory wasn't my thing in school, but I, ah, picked some up after. I'd be glad to help you learn.”

“Great!” Peter turned and put the movie back in play, and Harry watched as the guy named Ray tried to talk to the librarian's ghost.

And if, when the library ghost screamed and Harry jumped, he ended up scooting a little bit closer to Peter, that was okay.

**********

Chapter Text

Chapter Fifteen

As the elevator doors closed and started taking Tony down to his lab, he couldn't help but sag a little. The past month had been filled with meetings with officials, rooting out HYDRA in certain government agencies with the help of JARVIS, and trying to keep most of his sass to himself.

That last part had been the hardest bit.

Now he was finally getting a chance to get back in his lab. He was itching under the skin. Rhodey, his best friend, had been laughing at him at the last meeting they'd had together. He said it looked like he was jonesing for a technology high. Tony had just groaned and tried not to beat his head on the desk he was using. His brain was too beautiful to bruise.

The elevator doors opened and Tony walked into his cathedral. He took a deep breath and DUMMY, U, and Butterfingers woke up from their charging stations and started whirring around him. He'd had them moved to the Tower considering that in the past they'd been in the lab in Malibu when it had been blown to smithereens.

“Hey, guys! I missed you! Did you all make the trip okay?” He listened to the cheerful beeps and whirs. The next few minutes left Tony feeling ridiculous, with sentences like “I don't want a smoothie right now.”, “Thank you for the screwdriver.”, and “Nothing is on fire, put that away!”

After he finally satisfied himself and the bots, they left to go to their things in the lab, and Tony smiled as he stepped up to his main console.

“JARVIS, let's make some magic.”

The lights came on and all the holographic screens and keyboards lit up. “I do believe, Sir, that Misters Loki and Harry would argue about you making magic here.”

“Philistines! I will show them my magical powers!”

“Of course you will, Sir.”

The next few hours were spent working on the technology he would need to create the Bleeding Edge armor. He needed to get an upgrade since he was down to his briefcase suit. Before the first Invasion he hadn't quite gotten to the levels of paranoia he'd had later on and now he was missing his armor. Maybe he'd start another backup one, just in case.

After that, he would work on FRIDAY, so Pepper would have some help looking into AIM and just generally running the company. Then he had plans to work on the Iron Legion again. Without the tainted imprint in the Mind Stone, Ultron should never happen, leaving that entire clusterfuck in the past. Hopefully, it meant that the Witch and her brother would never get powers, but Tony didn't think he'd be that lucky.

Still, once he told JARVIS about the Terrible Twosome, he started looking especially for hints of them in HYDRA. If anyone could dig up dirt on that Witch, it would be JARVIS.

The next few hours Tony spent happily coding and working on designs. The fabricators were up and running for the equipment he would be needing, and he was happily working on programming the nanites he'd need in the future for his armor, all the while, ACDC, and Black Sabbath playing in the background.

“Sir.”

Tony didn't really hear JARVIS, he was too intent on singing along. “I've got big balls, I've got big balls, they're such big balls and they're such dirty balls. And he's got big balls, and she's got big balls, but we've got the biggest balls of them all!”

“Sir!”

“And my balls are always bouncing, my ballroom always full, and everyone comes and comes again! If your name is on the guest list, no one can take you higher. Everybody says I've got great balls of fire!”

“SIR!”

“I've got big balls, oh, I've got big balls! 'N they're such big balls, dirty big balls! And he's got big balls, and she's got big balls, but we've got the biggest balls of them all!”

Suddenly the sound cut off and Tony looked up from his coding. “J, you're harshing my coding vibes here! I need my music!”

“Is that what you call that screeching? Music?”

Tony twirled around, almost falling over. There in his lab stood Pepper. Her suit coat was off but she still had her heels on. She looked gorgeous as usual.

Then he remembered what he'd been singing when he came in and blushed. Would it be unethical to get Harry to do one of those memory spells on her to forget the last few minutes?

Or maybe conjure a hole in the ground he could jump in?

“Pepper! Pep, Pepperony! You are beautiful as always! What brings you to my humble lab?”

“Humble? Right.” Pepper smirked at him, before turning serious. “Fury contacted me today. He wants to meet with you.”

“Joy. Did you tell him you weren't my PA any longer?”

Pepper leaned against the console he'd been typing on. He turned and closed out the program for now, saving his progress. “Funnily enough, Fury doesn't care. He's angry he can't get to you himself so he's decided I'm going to be his messenger girl.”

“Did the old pirate say what he wanted?”

Pepper frowned. “Not really, but he asked me if I knew what you'd been up to the past few weeks. I think there's a leak to SHEILD, and that means HYDRA.”

“Damn. J, see if Barton has been to any government buildings lately if you can. The little birdie likes to spy from the ducts in the ceilings”

“Probably should check if anyone has a new girlfriend or date in the past few days. I wouldn't put it past Natasha to honeypot her way into some general's bed.”

“Shit.” Tony was getting a headache. There went the next few hours of his lab time going up in smoke. “JARVIS, contact Rhodey, let him know there's a leak. I'll be joining him in Washington in two to three hours.” He turned and looked at Pepper. “What are Loki and Barnes up to today?”

She snorted. “Joining Harry in Peter's class on technology. I think Loki has an Instagram account now, and Barnes is on Facebook looking up old war buddies besides Rogers.”

Loki and the internet. For some reason that made Tony frightened. Maybe he should give him something to do. A bored chaos god was a dangerous one. “See if they want to go HYDRA hunting and ask Rhodey to point them in the direction the President would most like right now.”

“Right. I'll ask them. Anything else?”

“Maybe get Happy and Ben to step up security for now. I wouldn't put it past the leather bastard to try to sneak in the Tower. And you and I both know he doesn't give a damn about JARIVS's autonomy. Turning him off like that. Pisses me the fuck off.”

Pepper patted him on the arm. “I know, Tony. What about the boys?”

Tony wasn't sure what to do. “Tell them what's going on, let Peter into one of the labs so he can work on some web shooters and fluid under JARVIS's supervision. They can't do anything as of yet, they look too young, but if they can think of a way to help secure the Tower let them. Tell Dobby too in case Fury does get in. I don't want anything happening to him.”

“Right. Meanwhile, I've got some research to do on Alexander Pierce, since we're not going after AIM right now.”

“Get JARVIS to help if you need any.”

“Will do.” Pepper went to leave the lab, but threw a last comment over her shoulder. “And you should take a shower. I don't think the President wants to smell your dirty balls.”

Tony sighed. Maybe he'd just stay in Washington until he was no longer embarrassed. That would only be what, twenty or thirty years?

***********

Chapter Text

Chapter Sixteen

Harry looked over at Peter who was tinkering with something in the lab they were given. He had said it was web shooters, whatever that was. Harry was still just getting used to texting on his Stark Phone.

Before he'd started that he'd consulted with JARVIS and Tony about constructing Peter a suit, that was now under fabrication. Peter had plans if SHIELD came knocking again.

To tell the truth, Harry wasn't sure what he could do to help. It depends on if he wants to hide his magic or not. Then after that, it depended on how far he wanted to go in protecting the Tower.

On one hand, the knowledge he had from Tom and the Elder Wand would make it easy to set up dangerous traps in the hallways and the air ducts. But that wasn't how he wanted to go, that would be bad and also messy. Tony would have him scraping up the remains of a spy hit with a disemboweling curse in the ducts.

On the other hand, and this was the plan that Harry really liked, is going full Marauder on the Tower. Rubber spiders, tripwires with different jinxes. Maybe some small innocent curses on the room to JARVIS's servers and the labs. There were all those dung bombs from George just waiting to be used.

Of course, it would all need to be used with an intent ward. That would be the most difficult thing. How to differentiate Stark Personnel and SHIELD people. And then there were other corporate spies. Maybe just a hair-changing charm on them, with them being spelled to not notice it themselves until they were out of the building?

Harry glanced over at Peter but he was mixing some chemicals at the moment. He knew from the Twins that it wouldn't be a good time to bother the other teen. No one wanted anything to blow up.

Harry then looked up to the ceiling. Maybe JARVIS could help.

“JARVIS, how do you go about verifying that people in certain areas are supposed to be there?”

What followed was a half-hour tutorial on facial recognition software, security badges, and fingerprint keypads. He sat and thought for a few minutes and figured he'd have to rope both Ben Parker and Happy Hogan into his plans. New security badges could be made with runes etched into them, allowing them in certain areas.

He figured Peter could take care of the air ducts. Some of his web shooters could be programmed to wrap anyone up who was trying to get through them. Maybe Harry would push him to make some spider robots to bring them out of the ducts once caught. No need for Peter to have to go get them after all.

There would be minor hexes for people just out of their area, nothing too harmful, but for the more secure areas, such as the labs, JARVIS's servers, and the penthouse levels, Harry could bring out his full Marauder.

Yes, this had possibilities. Maybe an extra special hex for Fury, perhaps a pirate hat and a stuffed talking parrot? This could be fun!

And if Loki showed up, Harry was sure the older sorcerer would have some fun ideas. He was sure that somewhere in the ducts there were places for trap doors into a snake pit. It would have to be rubber snakes, no one wanted to feed the things.

Yeah, this had some real comedy gold potential. The Twins and Sirius would be proud of him. Harry asked JARVIS to show him a blueprint of the building floor by floor.

This would take a bit of planning. Then again, all good pranks did.

*****

“What are we doing out here again?”

Harry laughed as he levitated on his broom. Peter was in his new costume, trying it out and helping Harry by carrying some of his rune-carving tools.

“I'm setting up an intent ward. It'll flag anyone who has ill intent towards anyone in the building by changing their hair color to neon orange. Of course, they won't notice it until they are escorted from the building.”

Peter snorted. “That'll work. How's Hedwig doing with her mechanical minions?”

Harry laughed. Peter had liked the idea of robot spiders patrolling the air vents and had gotten together with Tony about them. Then they decided they needed more eyes on the building on the outside so they'd made mechanical owls, after watching a movie called Clash of the Titans.

Hedwig had enjoyed the movie and had posed as JARVIS had done scans of her and now twenty-five owls were keeping an eye on the airspace and outside walls of the Tower. They each had a special … payload of about twenty dung bombs each. Just for fun.

“She's having a grand time. I was worried she'd be lonely when I was busy without other owls around, but now she has her own flock of attack owls. The learning software you and Tony came up with is genius! They're acting like real owls! It's amazing!”

Harry turned his attention to the runes he was inscribing at the top of the building. This was the last set, he'd already done the other sides of the building. He'd practiced before coming out here, with JARVIS asking him questions for once.

It seems that JARVIS was interested in runes, and how he could etch them onto Tony's armors during fabrication that would help keep him safe from magical attacks.

He'd had to teach Dobby how to use a scanner, and the elf was happily scanning rune and arithmancy books into JARVIS's database for him to learn from.

It amused Harry to think the AI would be using magic. Even if Harry had to put some of his magic into powering the runes.

He looked at Peter in his costume, it was red and blue with gold highlights with a spider on the front of it. “So, you can't be Spider-man right now, since our voices haven't cracked yet. What are you going to call yourself? You know that if you let Tony pick, it'll be something ridiculous.”

Peter laughed. “Yeah, he'd try to make my official name Itsy-Bitsy or something. I thought about going with a scientific name for a spider species, but that would get difficult so I guess I'll just be Spider and when I get older I can tack the Man back on.” He paused. “Going through puberty again when I barely got out of it is going to suck.”

Harry laughed. “Tell me about it.”

Peter eyed his jeans and looked at Harry up and down as he levitated on his broom. “Are you going to let Tony build you a suit of some sort?”

Harry thought about it. Right now he was just in a band t-shirt and jeans. It probably wouldn't be as safe as some of Tony's tech. “Sure, why not? I just want to keep my broom for flying, thank you. None of that repulsor tech or web swinging for me.” Harry paused. “I'm not too sure about having to let one of Tony's bots undress me either.”

Peter laughed “I'm sure Mr. Stark can think up something easier for you to use.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you keep calling Tony, Mr. Stark? I mean, he was pretty much insistent that I call him Tony.”

Peter looked away as if he were embarrassed. “At first I was just so amazed, my idol was talking to me! Asking for my help! That moved onto mentoring me, and well, we got closer. But at the time I didn't feel comfortable calling him just Tony, he became more to me. So I stuck with Mr. Stark.”

Harry thought of Snuffles and gave Peter a sad smile. “I get it.” It was probably as close to calling the inventor Dad as Peter would ever be comfortable with.

Peter shifted uncomfortably on the side of the building. “So, change of subject. What is your code name going to be? Merlin? Wiz?”

Harry thought about it for a moment. He wanted something that meant something to him, to remember the friends and family that he had lost. Then he gave a grin.

“I think I'll go by Marauder.”

**********

Chapter Text

Chapter Seventeen

“Any update on what the President is doing?” Tony asked Rhodey as he was getting dressed. The best thing about being a technical genius was being able to hold a conversation anywhere in the penthouse. It made things so much easier.

Rhodey and he had decided to keep Tony away from the President and the UN for now and start working on his armor and other defenses for the Tower and other places like the White House and the Pentagon.

Tony may have stopped making weapons, but body armor and better security systems and drones? That he could handle. Besides, he had enjoyed the idea of attack owls. Once he got all the bugs out they would make the perfect spy drones.

“Secret Service found the leak to SHIELD. It was one of the General's assistants. He got a new 'girlfriend', a redhead named Nadia, and turns out he likes to brag in bed.”

Tony snorted. “You'd think Romanoff would at least dye her hair and go with a name like Debbie or something. Nadia sounds like the name of a Bond villain's girlfriend.”

Rhodey out and out laughed at that one. “Wasn't she the one who was always going on about your ego?”

“Yep. Talk about people who live in glass houses. I take it the General has fixed the leak?”

Rhodey snorted. “Oh, yeah. He was ropeable! There was a lot of yelling in that meeting, let me tell you.”

“Well, good. Black Widows aren't the only ones to set out honeypot traps. Just imagine if that was a reporter getting all chummy with that assistant.”

Rhodey groaned. “I don't even want to think like that.” She shook his head. “Onto other things, the computer geeks at the FBI have found some interesting files on Pierce's work computer, when they served a warrant. Nothing related to HYDRA has been found yet, but a lot of double-dealing with companies and moving around campaign monies”

“Well, that's a start.” Before Tony could move on to the next subject, JARVIS spoke up.

“Sir, Mr. Hogan and Mr. Parker need you in the security office.”

Tony sighed and put on his suit jacket. He'd been planning to meet with the Board later on. “Don't tell me. Let me guess, the trouble twins have caught a spy.”

“Two, Sir. Mr. Hogan assures me that you'll want to see this.”

Tony smirked. “I bet. Tell them I'll be down in five minutes.”

Rhodey laughed. “I'll leave you to it. Make sure JARVIS sends me some video or something.”

“It would be my pleasure, Colonel Rhodes,” JARVIS said. If asked, Tony would say that JARVIS sounded like he was amused. Whoever it was they'd caught, it was going to be good.

In a few minutes he was going down the elevator to the Security Conference Room One. It was off the lobby so that they had a place to have any undesirables taken to so they could be debriefed.

When he got there, there were two guards at the door, and Happy and Ben were waiting for him. They had the biggest smirks on their faces and Tony couldn't help but laugh when he saw them.

“All right, who is the lucky winner of the booby prize this week?”

Ben Parker gave an evil grin. “Well, today's contestant number one Tony, comes to us from the vents near the computer servers. Brought to us by several Spy-ders, we have the Avenger known as Hawkeye!” he said in a smarmy game show-type voice.

Tony looked at Happy and asked, “Contestant number two?”

Happy sighed as if the weight of the whole world was on his shoulders, but he played along, albeit without the voice.

“Contestant number two was found in the elevator trying to make it go up to Penthouse, your lab level specifically. It's the Black Widow.”

“Wow, Happy, way to bring the tone down, aren't you excited?”

“Yeah, yeah. I have to admit, it's funny as hell. Barton's been webbed up to his eyes and has been cussing like mad, not that we can tell since he's mostly gagged. Romanoff is, well, petrified is the way I heard Harry tell it. You may have to get him here to undo it.”

Tony looked up at one of JARVIS's cameras. “Ask Harry to come down, maybe see if he can look like an adult or someone else or something with that magic of his, will you J?”

“Of course, Sir. I do not doubt that both he and Peter will be happy to see their efforts at protecting the Tower have worked.”

Yep, JARVIS was amused.

Tony rubbed his hands together in glee. This was going to be fun. “Shall we, gentlemen?”

Ben Parker rocked back and forth on his feet, looking eager. “We shall.”

Happy just shook his head and used this thumbprint to open the door and walked in.

Ben and Tony followed him. When Tony got in there, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

On the floor was Barton. He was cocooned in Peter's webs with a couple of the mechanical Spy-ders crawling over him. They were about the size of a dinner plate and were blue and red with red eyes. Barton was squirming for all he was worth and, as Ben had said, cussing up a storm. There was a tuft of green hair at the top of the cocoon.

But Romanoff, well, she was a masterpiece! She was petrified with an intense look on her face. She was dressed as a clown with big shoes and a red nose and everything. Her curly red hair was green.

And so was her beard.

Looking at Barton, it seems that the cocoon had a few more … curves than the archer normally had. Meanwhile, Romanoff had a long beard and was flat-chested.

Harry had switched their genders.

Tony laughed until his sides hurt. When he finally calmed down he got closer to Romanoff and booped her nose.

It honked.

That set Tony off again and Ben as well. Happy was grinning as he stood in front of the doors with his arms crossed. Tony looked at his friend and wondered.

“How did you get them down here?”

“We had to use dollies. It was fun, Barton kept wiggling and rolling off. Just about everyone in the lobby saw us bring them into the conference room. I think there was a tourist group taking pictures. It might have taken me a few minutes to get the door open.”

Tony thought if he was going to laugh anymore he'd hurt himself. That's when he noticed that while Romanoff was Petrified, her eyes were moving so she was aware of the complete humiliation she was facing.

This was priceless.

When he finally stopped laughing, Tony looked at a camera. “J, put Marauder down for a bonus, will you? I'll figure out something good.”

“May I suggest a case of Slinky's, Sir?”

Tony gave a thought to all the stairs in the Helicarrier and wondered if Harry to make them go up and down, never-ending, while playing the Slinky song. And if Dobby could pop them over.

“Make that five cases, J.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Tony looked at Happy. “Did Spider give you the spray to get rid of the webbing?”

“Yeah, Boss. It's right here.”

He pulled a small spray bottle out from his pocket and shook it up for a moment before stepping up to Barton to dissolve the webbing. The Spy-ders scattered up the wall and back into the vents, going back to their places.

In a few minutes, the webbing gave way and Barton jumped up, swearing.

A voice came from behind Tony and he and Ben jumped.

“Ah, ah, ah, Agent Barton. You know what they say if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!”

With that statement, a strip of duct tape appeared over Barton's mouth. Barton tore it off and screamed into the room.

“Loki, you bastard! Where the fuck are you?”

Tony waggled his finger at him. “Barton you do know that there are other magic users in the world, right? I have a couple of friends who worked on security on the Tower. Looks like you and Romanoff were caught red-handed.”

“Stark! You fucker! I'll ...”

Before he could say anything Barton froze and his SHEILD uniform turned into a pink ballerina outfit complete with satin shoes and a tutu.

Tony had to admit, the décolletage of the outfit showed off Barton's cleavage beautifully.

Tony shook his head. “Marauder, you there?”

“Yes, Boss.”

Tony figures Harry is hiding under his invisibility cloak. That works and probably is freaking the SHEILD agents out.

“How long will the agents' transformation last?”

“There are two conditions Boss. One, they have to be two miles away from the Tower, and two, three hours must pass. Everything will go back to normal then. But if they come back, not only will they be petrified the second they get into the lobby, but the gender swap spell will happen again and last three months.”

“Well, that sounds good. What we'll do is write a note and drop you two off at SHEILD headquarters downtown in that nondescript building you guys always hope no one notices. It'll be up to them to bring you in off the sidewalk so the pigeons don't shit on you.”

Any expression is wiped off Tony's face with his next words though. “But you tell Fury to take his secret plans and his spy games and peddle them somewhere else. Tell him the Tower is strictly off-limits to SHIELD. And if he wants to come at me, do it to my face instead of sneaking around in the shadows. In the immortal words of Captain Steven Hiller in the movie Independence Day, 'Don't start none, won't be none.'”

**********

Chapter Text

Hey, y'all. I'm letting you know that I won't be uploading a chapter like I usually do. I had a bad infection that landed me in the hospital for a week, and I was sick and out of it for the week before. Heck, even though I'm at home I'm on strong meds three times a day and am just getting back into the swing of things.

So I'll try to update next month, rather than rush anything. I hope that's okay with y'all.

Thanks muchly!

Amejisuto