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Sirius held on as tight he could to the feathers rolling beneath his fumbling hands.

He liked flying, he chanted to himself. The nausea was just his imagination. He only had to last 5 more minutes and then his fingers would fall off anyway and that would be when he'd stop flying. Living. Whatever.

He was shaking enough that the cold might kill him before he hit the ground anyway.

He could still feel their breath on the back of his neck, glancing back only made him imagine clawed, skeletal hands grasping at his soul.

He needed to get away, then he could rest. 5 more minutes. And 5 more minutes after that. He could hang on for 5 minutes.

He'd been colder.

When they first took off he'd tried to bury his hands in the fluff of his newfound friend, protect them from the icy wind that was threatening to scoop him off the back. The bird had taken screechy offence to that and he had cautiously smoothed the ruffled patch down, watched by a glaring golden eye.

Merlin, he'd always been shit at care. That had always been more James' deal. A knack the Prongslet seems to have inherited up based on the escape vehicle his godson had shown up with.

He cackled, a Hippogriff! Little Harry, only 13 and already on prison breaks and deadly creatures. James would’ve loved it.

He couldn't spare a hand to wipe away the tears burning down his face.

For one shining moment, he'd pictured it. Clearing his name, being free for the first time this decade, rescuing Harry.

He’d looked so happy. Blood and dirt on his face, still shaking with adrenaline and barely keeping a lumos afloat in front of him. Happy, Harry had looked happy. He’d never looked more like Lily.

Sirius could power hundreds of Patronuses on that memory alone. Or feed the dementors for another 13 years, a bitter voice added.

He screamed into the wind, burying his face into the Hippogriff's back. He had been so close and now it was like every hope he'd ever managed to hold on to, to keep back from the soul-sucking demons of Azkaban, was turning to ash in his hands.

He'd lost the rat.

Lost his chance at freedom.

Lost Harry.

He sobbed hysterically, releasing his grip to clutch desperately at his own sides. He could still feel movement, was vaguely aware of the lashing storm around him but all he could see when he closed his eyes was Harry's desperately hopeful face.

He hadn’t seen it in the moment, too focused on vague plans for Harry’s room. What eating breakfast together as a family might look like. Where would they live? The Pottery maybe?

But now the shiny memory was twisting, because Sirius recognised that hope on his godson’s face, James would have recognised it too.

Would have hated seeing it on his son.

Sirius let out one last strangled sob, mouth dry and lungs aching. All it took was a slight twitch of the wings tucked under his thighs and he was slipping. His eyes blazed back open staring up at a stormy sky, dark shapes shaking at in bewildering angles. He grappled desperately at the Hippogriff, stiff hands scuttling off any possible grip. All it took was one last shift and he was falling.

He hit a branch that snapped beneath his weight.

Leaves whipped past his face, his vision still just full blurry confusion. The second branch caught him the chest driving the breath out of his chest but also letting him know which was down.

He grasped at the branch desperate to do something to slow his fall, he managed to get his legs underneath him. Dropping blindly for another couple of seconds Sirius had time to send out a desperate plea - to fate, magic, anything - before he landed abruptly on his feet. Closely followed by his arse and the his back.

He gasped for air in frantic hiccups, his chest spasming desperately as the Hippogriff came to land gently beside him. The bird nosed, or beaked rather, at his face for a couple of seconds before wandering off to drink from a nearby stream.

He gazed upward as his breath finally settled somewhere close to normal, they’d left the dense wild of the woodland in the highlands and the tree he’d hit was only maybe 20ft tall.

In other words, considering lower than they’d been when he’d started his freak out. Because Harry had the best taste in Hippogriffs. He was definitely going to need to remember the bird's name and find him a nice chicken. If he’d fallen from the height they’d previously been cruising at, well. He’d be pining for the fyords, that’s for sure.

The ground was covered in dew and Sirius was immediately soaked, a thrill of cold pain running through his whole frame as his first clear breath left him in a huff.

He stared up at the sky which was now starting to clear, the first tinge of dawn hinting over the horizon. Empty skies.

No shadowy figures.

No unnatural chill. Just the regular old early morning cold.

He stared up at the sky and he breathed.

He felt like he was thinking clearly for the first time in months.

He couldn't go after Pettigrew.

Remus...

Remus had his own issues to sort out. He was under no illusions that Moony's nighttime jaunt would go unpunished and he would be under watch again...

It would have to be enough that his last living friend knew he was innocent because he didn't imagine he would be seeing the cardigan-wearing bastard any time soon.

No, now he had stopped for a moment to think it was clear that there was only one person who actually needed him.

He didn't know what the fuck had gone wrong to leave his godson that willing to throw his lot in with someone like Sirius. He wasn't operating on all cylinders and even he could acknowledge that he wasn't a good option.

But if Harry needed an out.

Sirius would give him an out.

He laughed. For the first time in a long time, there wasn't a discordant note.

Dumbledore had hinted that he should leave the country after all.

They'd gone over everything.

Hermione made him recite it.

Ron took one look at Harry's panicking face and made him a cheat sheet. Then Hermione took one look at the scrawled instructions, rolled her eyes and rewrote it. This time with colour coding.

They'd collected what they could from around the castle but they had a long list with some very questionable entries so when Ron suggested they ask the twins he hadn’t expected much.

He needed to stop underestimating the power of Weasley with a point to prove. And to keep reminding himself to never get on their bad side.

In exchange for Hermione's help on some arithmancy project they were working on in their spare time, the twins were happy to introduce Harry to the thriving black market they had been running at Hogwarts for the last 2 years.

Everything from potion ingredients to test answers were available if you had the galleons to spare.

"People mostly use us for snacks and sweets between Hogsmeade runs," George had commented as they ran through their catalogue.

"Parents can monitor owl post-" Fred glanced over at a frowning Hermione who was staring down at a series of symbols that Harry wouldn't even know where to start with. And luckily not paying too much attention. "And we have our own ways of getting things into the castle-"

"-so we take requests. If we can't get something we usually know someone who can."

"-or we just pick it up next time we're in Hogsmeade."

"Add a little commission for the effort-"

"-and fantastic customer service-"

"-and we've got a little business going."

Ron was glaring at his brothers and probably picturing all of the extra chocolate frogs he could have been ordering so Harry rushed to interrupt that explosion before it happened. "Do you sell finished potions?" He glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention to them. "Like Polyjuice?"

They looked at him silently for a moment before glancing at each other.

"I know it's regulated but we don't have time to brew it and Hermione said-"

Fred nodded, cutting off Harry's frantic ramble. "Whatever you need Harrikins."

"Give us a list and we'll see what we can do," George slapped a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Anything that's going to get you away from those muggles."

"He'll need Polyjuice, enough for 18 hours or so." Hermione commented absently from across the table, "Probably some pepper ups, calming draughts and something for sleep. Murtlap essence and some essence of dittany would also be helpful, I've already brewed and bottled some wiggenweld, burn salve and bruise cream but that would save me breaking into the potions cupboard again.”

Harry stared at her, glancing at Ron who was similarly open-mouthed.

Hermione sighed, "You ran after a giant snake last year Harry, and this year you were hardly any better. I decided reading up on some basic first aid was a good idea and I'm not letting you go anywhere anymore if you don't have some supplies."

Harry couldn't really argue with that.

It wasn't long before Harry was feeling fully kitted out, everything from food to a now very substantial first aid kit tucked away in his trunk.

He also had a collection of potions essays for next year that he was keeping as far away from Hermione as possible. For all that she had broken a lot of school rules, and not a small number of laws, Hermione still had no patience for academic plagiarism.

The last Hogsmeade trip of the year left Harry alone in the library still frantically researching. Ron and Hermione had a shopping list and a bag of gold to get through so they wouldn't be back for hours and Harry was still fiddling with the necklace the twins and Hermione had managed to cobble together.

He had brilliant friends.

He propped his current headache up against the other books Hermione had pulled from the stacks. He probably had every book Hogwarts had on MACUSA spread out in front of him and he was rapidly reaching the end of his ability to take in new information.

Just what he needed, time to himself and nothing left to distract him.

He fiddled with the edge of his book bag for a moment before he sighed and pulled out Sirius's letter. It had arrived a week ago with a new owl for Ron, a feather from Buckbeak and a heavily annotated map of Kings Cross.

He smoothed out the folds in the worn yellow paper, and glanced through the tightly scribbled instructions that covered both sides of both pages. It looked like it had been ripped out of legal pad and the heavy notes in the margins combined with Hermione's red pen highlights made it look a little alarming.

Harry silently went through letter line by line, checking against Hermione's list of preparations. Hermione had been just as excited as Harry and Ron when Sirius announced that he was working to get Harry away from the Dursleys.

Less excited about Sirius' plan.

She had almost ripped the first page when Sirius first mentioned New York and even Ron was looking a bit sceptical when they realised he was expecting Harry to take a transatlantic flight on his own under a fake passport.

Ron and Hermione agreeing on anything was always a bit disturbing but as far as Harry was concerned even a 46-step plan that included 8 felony offences was better than going back to Privet Drive.

The last time he'd seen the Dursley's he'd just blown up Aunt Marge and he wasn't sure he'd survive another summer like 2nd year. Ron and the twins didn’t have flying car to rescue him with anymore and he knew better now than to expect any of the adults in his life to notice.

Apart from a couple of items from Hermione's 5th backup plan, and the things they were picking up today, they'd gotten everything.

Fred said they were going to try and convince Hermione to carry things back into the castle for them going forward, even Filch didn’t expect her to be involved with anything so she didn’t even get stopped for the regular bag check.

He didn’t know how they were planning on convincing her but it probably involved rare books.

He got to the end of the letter and rubbed his face. At this point the first time he read it Ron and Hermione had already been arguing loudly about Sirius's mental state.

Once we get to New York we'll start looking for your Dad. I don't know if Remus ever told you about your bio dad, your mum and dad had a thing with him for a couple of weeks back in '97. Back in the day we used to call it swinging but not sure what they call it now. Bit awkward when your mum got pregnant and counted back but James was still through the roof happy. You'll laugh, there was a small chance I was in the running! Never been so relieved to see a test come back negative - no offence Prongslet but I was not ready to be a dad. Got a bit jealous when you turned out so cute but James was so excited to be your dad.

Not sure whereabouts Tony ended up but he always said he loved New York so we'll start there. I don't remember a huge amount about him, some distracting substances were floating around, but from what I remember he's a solid bloke for a muggle. Your mum always planned on looking him up after the war.

I'll see you in a couple of weeks, I'm going to be all over the place so best not to owl me anything.

Padfoot

On one hand, this was the most he'd ever heard about his parents.

On the other hand, one of his parents apparently wasn't his parent.

He pulled out one of the wedding photos Hagrid had given him, just James and Lily looking deliriously happy swinging in happy circles and waving. He tried to imagine a third figure on his mum's other side. Smiling maybe, dark, messy hair definitely.

He stared at his Dad's face. James's face.

Looking at their picture had always hurt more than it soothed, a sharp reminder of an absence he tried to ignore most of the time.

He stared down at the man people had always told him he looked just like. The man he'd inherited his quidditch skills from. The man whose name had been given to him.

He wasn't even a Potter anymore. Harry James No Name, son of Tony Something No Name. Malfoy would be delighted and the rest of the wizarding world would hate him.

He'd done the childish thing when he was younger before the Dursley's started telling him that his parents were jobless alcoholics. He'd imagined them coming for him. Telling him it was all a big misunderstanding. They weren't dead and they wanted him.

Blurry faces and half-remembered scents, the feeling of comfort. Hugs and kisses, the things all the other kids got when their parents picked them up from school.

He scrubbed at his face and put the photo face down in front of him.

And now he had another faceless figure to imagine.

He was trying not to get his hopes up when Sirius could barely guarantee that his dad was called Tony let alone that the guy was still alive. Still alive and completely fine with a 13-year-old turning up and claiming to be his surprise son from a one-night stand he had in the 90s.

But if there was even the smallest chance he could get away from the Dursleys.

He could do this.

He could see this through.

Even if everything went to shit it would at least be one summer without any Harry hunting. He doubted anyone was going to notice he was missing and even if they did they would have to find him.

3 more days.

He could do this.

Tony was going to kill someone.

Pepper would have fit but she was barely speaking to him at the moment so one positive was that she would have to come up to his lab to yell at him. Maybe he'd be able to stretch that into a coffee date and her talking to him about something that wasn't the bar he'd bought and demolished to piss off General Ross.

Apparently spiteful destruction of property, even property he owned outright, was bad PR.

Marketing was droning on about something to do with the latest Stark Phone and completely ignoring that this wasn't his job anymore. He made the thing, it was up to them to sell it to people.

The last of the bear claws had been eaten hours ago. He was stuck on a level of candy crush and he'd run out of lives. And Rhodey had just put down flapjack for over 100 points in words with friends and the only word he could think of in return was beef. Delicious but pathetic.

It was like his brain leaked out of his ears every time someone mentioned "projected sales forecasts" in his vicinity.

Could he get a medical exemption from marketing meetings on the basis of psychological damage? Worth a try.

He pulled up his latest version of Mark VII and started to mess with the colours. He could pull off purple. He could, but he wouldn't.

The response from his doctor distracted him for a few moments but soon he was back to being bored out of his mind. Dr. Martin was unwilling to write him a note for any more of ‘his made-up neuroses’ which was probably a sign that he needed a new physician.

"Erm, Mr Stark?"

"The budget is set, I don't care if you think you could get Jesus to endorse SI I'm not approving any additional spend."

The room was finally silent and Tony finished sending off enquiries to a dozen private practices within half a mile of the tower. Cc'ing Dr Martin, of course.

He glanced up and saw that instead of his Head of Marketing, the cautious voice was actually coming from the floor's lead receptionist, the door to the meeting room still open behind him.

An interruption.

Fucking finally.

"Send your plans to Ms Potts and don't diary anymore of these meetings for me," he snapped out to the reddening row of suits circled around the conference table. He turned to the receptionist, "Book in some training for the marketing team on how to run meetings that don't drive people towards an insanity plea."

He strode cheerfully out of the meeting room and was halfway to his escape when the receptionist caught up with him. "Mr Stark, sir, there's a situation downstairs. Mr Hogan-"

"Can handle it on his own I'm sure, he's a big boy now." The lift was in sight. 5 more steps and he'd be on his way to the R&D lab where he could finish off the hours he'd promised Pepper with people he actually liked.

Sometimes.

Kasey had just made a truely moronic change to one of Tony’s blueprints for a water purification system so maybe he wouldn’t be escaping idiots entirely.

"He said it's the Reverse Vader Protocol," The man squeaked after him.

Tony felt a rush of cold run down his spine and he staggered slightly. "I'm sorry, what?"

Harry slumped in the booth gazing up at the stained ceiling of the first café he and Sirius had stumbled upon after exiting the Lexington Avenue subway station. Sirius was holding his coffee like it was going to escape if he upset it and Harry had never been so sad that pepper up potions were not safe to use in muggle spaces.

It had taken 20 hours to get here. Not counting the 8 hour train ride to get to London in the first place. It felt like his eyes were going to become giant and swollen like a chameleon or stop working entirely.

He'd kicked things off by digging around for a package hidden in the worst loo in London. A package that contained alarming looking illegal papers and some human hair that Sirius had stolen from a random teenager. He then had to drink a disgusting liquid in order to turn into that teenager which was all part of the plan but still a terrible start to the next leg of his journey.

After stealing the hair Sirius had apparently followed the guy home, and somehow managed to get personal details and a passport photo out of him. Harry didn't really want to think about the logistics there, poor Richard.

Richard who was almost a foot taller than Harry. Making all his clothes completely useless. His Dursley specials might be big on him but Richard was tall.

He'd scraped together an awkward outfit in St Pancras with only minutes to spare and caught the Eurostar to Paris. Where he’d had to escape his now incredibly tight jeans in a train-sized bathroom. When he tried pulling off his now too small shoes he had almost brained himself on the sink. He made himself so dizzy that he had to sit on the floor for ten minutes and then endure the weird looks he got from the other passengers. The length of his stay in the loo and well as the sound of banging had drawn a lot of attention.

Not the way he’d pictured travelling abroad for the first time. But certainly on message.

The food service hadn't been running and the train was delayed leaving him with very little time to make it across Paris.

He got pulled to one side at passport control because apparently, Richard Kinsdale was also the name of someone high up in some kind of gang. Even if a gangly white 14-year-old was the least likely disguise for a 5”2 Asian bloke it was apparently deemed worth investigating by 3 bored French border police.

His taxi driver sneezed on him and then insulted his French.

When he got to the airport he found out that the reason he was travelling alone was because Sirius had gotten himself a pet passport and was expecting Harry to check him in as Padfoot.

He could almost hear Hermione's sputtering from here.

The flight was delayed.

The attendant spilt orange juice on him.

His row mate took his socks off and stole Harry’s bread roll before passing out on him and snoring into his ear for 5 hours straight.

Sirius got stopped at pick-up because they thought he might have fleas and were worried about animal abuse. It helped that Harry was fourteen and Padfoot kept licking at him because it really sold the whole "he's a rescue that I'm taking to my family to look after" story but he still had to be repeatedly licked by his godfather which was weird no matter what shape he was at the time.

The polyjuice ran out on their way out of the airport which meant Harry had use the barely tested necklace Hermione and twins had put together. Luckily it worked as intended and cast a notice me not on him for long enough for him to make it to a toilet.

The relief was slightly ruined by needing to get changed in another disgusting bathroom. At least the hoody still kind of fitted him.

New York was loud and confusing and Sirius refused to change back from a dog until they got on the train to Manhattan which meant Harry had to find the train to Manhattan on his own and everything smelt weird and he was bloody starving goddammit.

He'd packed his snacks in the wrong section of his newly expanded rucksack and it would be incredibly suspicious if he disappeared up to his shoulder to root around for a sandwich.

The café didn't serve tea and Sirius really should have just given him his dad's full name from the start.

"I'm sorry," Harry groaned into his hands. "Did you just say Tony Stark?"

Pepper cautiously knocked on Happy's office door, the urgent message she'd received from him ten minutes ago had mostly been exclamation marks and jumbled consonants. Happy was rarely hysterical so she'd left her assistant taking notes in the zoning committee meeting and hurried down.

Happy ducked out of the office and closed the door behind him, head relaxing back into the wall with an audible crack. "Are you okay?" Pepper rushed forwards, hovering awkwardly around the groaning man.

"Of course, I'm not okay. I work for Tony Stark and he loves making my life difficult." Happy glanced back through the window on his door and Pepper caught a glimpse of a teenager slumped in an oversized blue hoody... with some kind of massive dog?

"Did Tony do something to a random teenager?" Pepper tried to peer around Happy's shoulder but it was hard to get a closer look when the boy was slumped over a desk. "Is it another random intern he's picked up somewhere?"

Happy blinked at her for a moment before looking back through the door, grimacing when he looked at the very disreputable dog, "You don't see it? I was a little thrown by the dorky glasses and the weird dog too."

The boy looked up and Pepper was caught by the brightest green eyes she'd ever seen, framed by very familiar messy hair. "Christ," she muttered, "he even has his chin."

"I've sent for a DNA test but I'm not holding out any hope that it will come back negative." Happy was fiddling with his phone but didn't seem to be doing much with it.

She looked back over at the boy who was now fiddling with a necklace, hand clasped tightly around something in his hoody pocket. "How old is he?"

"13, 14 at the end of July."

"He disappeared for a couple of months in 97, it was just before he hired me. Something to do with new friends in London." She wrinkled her nose, "Obie held it over his head for years because he had to step in with the board."

"He's British," Happy commented after a pause, "Said something about a boarding school in Scotland that his parents had a connection to."

Pepper looked over the boy who was now saying something to the dog, voice muffled through the door. He was small for 13. When his hoody rode up his forearms she could see his wrists were shockingly thin. Even with glasses he squinted when he looked around the office.

"Parents?"

Happy just grimaced.

Pepper looked back through the door, the boy was looking back at her. Face slack, he was almost looking through her eyes barely focusing but there was still something sharp there. Familiar.

He looked tired.

The kind of tired Pepper was more used to seeing on new parents. The kind of bone-deep exhaustion that sets in after months of abusing your body and no sleep.

Well, she'd already made up her mind.

"Let's call Tony."

After Harry finished explaining to Sirius who Tony Stark was he found a magazine to confirm that this was really the person he was claiming to have partied with over a decade ago. The guy who was apparently Harry's dad.

No luck, apparently Harry's last hope for some normality in this situation was not to be.

The Potter luck strikes again. He grimaced, or maybe it was just Harry luck now.

"Oh yeah, he even has the same goatee." Sirius commented, paging through the article on something Iron Man had been doing in South America, "He runs around in a tin suit now? Weird hobby."

"Sirius, he's a superhero."

"A muggle superhero."

Harry just glared.

He thinks Sirius started to understand when he pointed out the still-in-progress Stark Tower but marauder still stayed upbeat, basically skipping beside Harry in excitement as they approached the new development. The top was still being finished but people were still coming in and out in constant stream, all sharp suits and smartphones in a way that Harry found intimidating.

The enthusiasm didn't stop Padfoot from tucking himself tightly into Harry's side when they made their way into the lobby. Knowing his potential bio dad was one of the most famous men alive was one thing. Walking into a building with his biological father’s name on the side and massive blown up pictures of him on a lot of the walls was a little different.

He hadn't been surprised when Sirius went back to his furry form, he was still a wanted man even if it was unlikely to be big news outside of Britain. If any workplace was going to cotton on to an escaped prisoner it would be Stark Industries.

It was a bewildering gathering of people being very efficient, talking on phones and inputting things on a terrifying number of screens.

There were holograms. He'd not had an IT class in 3 years but he was reasonably sure he wasn't that out of step with muggle technology, how had he missed Star Wars coming to life?

Padfoot nudged him towards a receptionist who was already looking at him expectantly. "Erm, hi."

"Hello, and welcome to Stark Industries" She smiled over at him and Harry felt every thought of a plan leave his head.

They stared at each other. Harry wasn't sure what his face was doing but it probably wasn't reassuring.

"Can I help you with anything?" This time she sounded a bit more concerned than helpful, "Is something wrong?"

"I, er, I," He stuttered out, "Well, erm."

He had such a way with words.

She kept nodding at him encouragingly which just made his throat close up more.

"Do you need medical atten-"

"I need to speak to Mr Stark!" That lingered in the air for a moment before he rushed onwards. "It's private but really important I promise. I found out something he really needs to know and I know that this really isn't how this kind of thing works but I don't know what else to do so I came here and I don't really know anywhere else I could go."

She waited a moment to see if he was going to blurt out anymore and then glanced over his shoulder at someone who had come up behind him. Padfoot growled lightly and Harry turned to see a man looming above him, "You're not meant to have any dogs in the lobby unless you're blind and I don't think you're blind."

"Service dogs aren't just for blind people and a lot of disabilities aren't visible," The well-worn rant from Hermione spilling out of his mouth before he could think about it.

"Okay then, do you have an invisible disability means you need to bring a dog into the lobby?" The man responded with an eyeroll.

Harry stared at him for a for a few seconds.

He stared back before they both looked down at Sirius who stared back with big round eyes and a wagging tail.

Like that was going to convince anyone.

He looked up at the grumpy man's confused and still frowning face. "Sorry, no, not what I meant. He's not a service dog."

Sirius rolled over on his belly and quirked his head.

He had surprisingly little dignity for a grown man.

"You'll have to leave him outside then, or come back later."

"Right."

"Some time today kid."

All Harry could focus on was the idea of having to build up the courage to come back and this time without Sirius.

The woman behind the desk looked sympathetic but the grumpy man was clearly more senior.

"I think Tony Stark's my dad," he blurted at the man.

They all stared at each other with varying levels of horror and Harry clapped a hand over his own mouth, hoping to stop anymore information spewing out.

The receptionist and the now even grumpier man shared a look before he sigh heavily. “You’d better come with me then.”

Twenty minutes later he was in the grumpy man's office. With no clear memory of how he got there. He had answered some questions but he had no idea what he'd said. He blinked down at Padfoot who was slumped against his chair. "What if this goes wrong too?" he muttered, smiling slightly when that got him a headbutt and a soft pair of ears to stroke. “Not sure what I do then.”

Maybe he could just hide in America until someone found him and deported him. He had enough money to keep going for a little bit and there was a Gringotts branch somewhere hidden in Greenwich Village. Sirius could stay a dog, he could pick up some more polyjuice potions and rent them a flat.

He could make that work.

Until Ron and Hermione would turn up to drag him back to Hogwarts and that’s where his imagination sort of stuttered to a halt.

He slumped over in the chair trying to make himself comfortable on the hard metal. Maybe it was better that he wasn't comfortable, as each blink lasted a little longer than the last. Pretty much the only thing keeping him awake at this point was the cold, wet nose against the inside of his wrist and the sharp pressure of the worst chair that had ever chaired.

He vaguely registered movement out of the corner of his eye and noticed that a red-haired woman had joined the grumpy man on the other side of the door, her face rang a bell but he couldn't place it.

She pushed through to door and smiled at him in a way that usually meant someone was about to try and hug him. He scrubbed at his face and forced himself upright, only stumbling slightly when Padfoot shuffled in front of him. "Hi."

"Hi Harry, I'm Pepper," She reached out to shake his hand, "Happy said you were happy to do some tests?"

Harry gazed blankly at the frowning man who was apparently called Happy. "Yes, that's fine," he answered automatically, following the woman on leaden feet as she ushered him out of the room and into a lift.

She was saying something about the building and the ongoing renovation, Happy just kept glaring at Sirius. Harry tried to nod in the right places and when they arrived at the recognisable white walls of somewhere medical he happily offered his arm to the incoming white coat.

Unfortunately for his continued involvement past that point, the bed they'd sat on him was a lot more comfortable than the chair of doom.

He blinked and fell.

So soft.

Pepper met him outside the medical suite, with a tight smile. "Congratulations, it's a boy."

Part of him wanted to stutter to a complete halt, but the rest of him was determined to face this front on before he had time to think about it too much. "You've done the tests?"

She handed over the results so he could scan through them himself, he took it staring blankly down at the data. One side was a familiar set of results. The other was familiar enough that the results didn't surprise him. What did surprise him was the age estimate. "He's a teenager?"

"Almost 14, British," Tony could feel his whole body freeze as he gaped at Pepper.

"British?"

Pepper nodded slightly to herself before she pulled up something else on his screen, two achingly familiar faces. Even looking back 15 years later the Potters were a beautiful couple.

"Lily and James Potter, reported a home birth in 1998, 31st of July. Harry James Potter." She scanned down to a birth certificate, filled in perfectly. Father: James Fleamont Potter.

The reflex to make a joke twitched to life at the name Fleamont but died with the other name on the certificate.

Lily Josephine Potter née Evans.

"Are they-" he trailed off not sure how to ask, not sure what he wanted the answer to be.

"Dead." Pepper's face twisted slightly in sympathy but ever the professional she skimmed down to the death certificates. "1999, it was listed as a gas explosion." She continued when he raised an eyebrow, "The focal point of the explosion was the nursery but James was found in the front room. Lily was found next to the crib. Not a mark on either of them. There are only barebones initial reports taken from the neighbours who swore that they didn't know anyone lived there, there were no photos taken, only one walk through of the scene, no follow-ups with the gas company and the house has disappeared completely from records since."

Tony scanned through the report, chest tightening at the victim descriptions but incredulity pushing down any other feelings as he finished the report. He scanned back through, "That's the whole report?"

"Everything filed with the local police station."

"JARVIS?"

"Reports were only recently digitised so they may not be complete," That would explain why he hadn't heard about it. "There are no further reports on the events of the 31st of October 1999, but there are many reports in the weeks after of trespassing and a steady stream of complaints from the wider village about increased traffic to the area in the years after the explosion."

He'd been thinking obvious government cover up but those didn't tend to come with en mass follow up visits. That was just weird. "People visiting?"

"Strangely dressed people clustered around the explosion site and a WWII memorial that was constructed in early 2000."

"What the fuck? Like some kind of mecca for cosplayers?"

"Complaints increase every year around the 31st of October."

Pepper pursed her lips and Tony knew he could count on her digging into things further. Things like why he wasn't informed when his biological kid's parents died. Why he wasn't informed he had a biological kid in the first place?

Tony stared blankly down at the police report, thoughts scattering, trying to put the pieces into a shape that made sense.

Happy cleared his throat behind them and Tony jerked his chin up to stare at him, "He's still asleep but the dog's being weird."

"The dog."

"He has a dog," Pepper informed him, eye going back to slightly mischievous. "Refuses to go anywhere without him."

"Right," Never a dull moment. "And the dog's being weird?"

"He keeps whining and whimpering and then looking at me and growling." Happy was doing that nose scrunch he did when something was really bothering him.

"And?"

"It's weird. It doesn't like me and I don't like it." The thickset man shuffled from foot to foot before glaring back through the door. "It's weird," he repeated plaintively.

"Are you scared of the dog?"

"It's a dog."

"So?" The familiar cadence of the conversation finally silenced the loudness in his brain and Tony refocused on the open door behind Happy.

"Of course, I'm scared of the dog." Happy "See? He's growling at me again."

There was a low level growl coming from the door but when Tony shifted to look at the dog it was already wagging its tail and looking friendly. And huge. "That's not a dog, that's a horse."

"It's annoying and it smells."

"It's some kind of Irish Wolfhound mix," Pepper shot both of them a quelling look but that had stopped working years ago.

Happy muttered something about Hellhound mixers being illegal, Tony would usually make fun of him for letting his nerd show but he was distracted.

Tony could see the edge of a hospital bed.

He didn't consciously move forward but suddenly he was standing at the bedside staring down at the comatose body of a teenage boy.

He was smaller than he'd expected, Lily had been tall, James too. Only Peter had been smaller than Tony in that little group.

Harry had clearly drawn the genetic short straw and inherited Tony's height. And his hair. He brushed the messy fringe back from Harry's face, his son's face.

Tony blinked rapidly at that thought.

He had a son.

Pepper settled at his shoulder with a light hand on his back as he stared down at the new member of his family. He hadn’t thought about family for decades.

"He has my mom's nose," Tony muttered, "Cute as a button, bet he was a terror as a toddler."

"Your chin and hair though." Pepper smiled back at him, gentle in a way that he couldn't usually take from other people.

"I can't wait to see what he was like as a chubby little kid," Tony commented, absently threading his fingers through the messy black mop. "Running around causing chaos like a proper little Stark."

"And now just at the right age to cause maximum terror then, I've heard you were a nightmare at 13." She nudged him with a shoulder, sending him a brief quirk of the lips before she looked back down at the surprise new member of the Stark dynasty. "He's handsome, bright green eyes."

"Just like Lily then," Tony felt his mouth twist and blinked rapidly. Looking up at the hospital light until his breath came out steady. "I've missed so much Pep."

Pepper reached down and squeezed his hand, "You won't miss any more though."

Harry blinked awake a dark room. His hands scrabbled blindly on the sheets, grasping gratefully around his wand when a low light illuminated the room.

He was no longer in the hospital room. The sheets were soft and pressed. The mattress was comfortable in a way that hospital beds weren't, in his experience, at least.

The walls were navy rather than the white walls he fell asleep to and the low light increased to reveal a large, modern-feeling bedroom, it had a seating area and an archway that led to even more room. One wall appeared to be a window although the blinds were closed, and he could see two doors from where he was lying.

He groaned with effort, sleepy and sluggish in a way he usually only got after his yearly run in with something terrible. He felt like he was thinking through molasses and it took all his concentration to lever himself upright. He shuffled until he could get his feet on the floor, relieved to realise that whoever had put him here had only removed his shoes.

He padded his way on socked feet to one of the doors, revealing a bathroom with a full-sized bath and a complicated-looking shower. The second was a wardrobe that was almost the same size as the bed area.

He was being kept in luxury wherever it was he was being kept. He had some guesses but he hadn't survived 3 years at Hogwarts without learning not to make assumptions.

He crept through the archway and into some kind of living room where he spotted another door. This place went on forever but the lights kept getting brighter so he was probably running out of time to get his bearings before everything got crazy again.

He tiptoed toward the main door, getting close enough to grasp the handle when it started to turn on its own. He tried to back up but he wasn't quick enough to get completely clear of the door when it swung dramatically open. Off balance and disoriented it took very little impact from the large, enthusiastic dog that immediately bounded through the opening to take him the rest of the way to the ground.

Followed by a frustrated-sounding American.

"Goddamned mutt has no sense of proper timing," a muttering man complained behind the tail-wagging Sirius who was already bathing Harry's face to his increasing disgust. "Hope you're not attached to the furball kid because it is already a pain in my ass and I can't promise I won't set DUM-E on it at some point."

It was hard to see what the man was carrying past the blur of fur and a wet tongue but Harry's stomach immediately let him know it was food with an almighty growl.

"Of course you're hungry, Pepper wouldn't let me wake you and someone was very late in letting me know you were finally back with us," The man placed the tray he was carrying down on one of the tables with a pointed glare to one of corners of the room.

Harry was starting to relax, recognition finally stirring to life as he got a good look at the face attached to the brown-haired man with scruffy hair bustling through the room, when a disinterested, distinctly British voice announced itself from the heavens. "Sir, I would like to remind you that you handed control of the guest bedrooms over to Ms Potts after the incident in-"

Harry panic scanned the ceiling for the origin of the voice but couldn't see any indication of a camera or speaker, or any another person in the room who could have spoken, his hand twitched towards his wand so he clenched his fist into the fabric of his hoody.

"Don't worry Pinocchio, that's not your conscious just my AI, JARVIS. I'll introduce you properly later," the man continued on blithely, pulling various bowls and cutlery off the tray and taking a seat on one of the larger sofas. "Gonna join me kid?"

Harry hesitantly got up and after a firm nudge from Sirius he made his way over to join the man he was reasonably sure, might be, his father. He picked up a bowl when Tony Stark pushed one towards him, one deep inhale confirmed chicken soup and Harry found himself enthusiastically digging in.

He could feel Stark's eyes on him as he ate but was left in blessed silence.

He, Ron and Hermione had spent a lot of time planning, building backup plan after backup plan in case something went wrong on the journey here.

No time spent talking about this bit though. Ron and Hermione always believed in Harry's social skills far more than he could understand. And now he had to somehow endear himself enough to this man that Tony would be willing to save him from the Dursley's in the summers.

That had been a tall order when he thought he was looking for some average American man. And now he was looking at Tony Stark.

He didn't know a huge amount about the man. He owned Stark Industries which made most of the computers Harry remembered from his primary school's IT lab. He was some super clever genius-level inventor who used to make weapons.

A lot of people thought he was a prick but a lot of people loved him too.

Harry wasn't particularly interested in taking public opinion into account, he had never read any of the stuff people wrote about him in the wizarding world but whatever people wrote it was probably all wrong. If people's normal reactions to him were anything to go by anyway.

He had a metal suit and had saved a load of people from something.

Drones?

Something to do with fast cars?

Never had a family or expressed any interest in having one.

Lots of coverage of him in the gossip bits of magazines that Aunt Petunia pretended not to care about and then pawed through in private.

And this was the guy he had to convince to keep him in some capacity.

And worse he was running out of soup to distract himself with.

"So," Harry hadn't even finished his bread roll, he wasn't ready, "I'm Tony Stark but I think you might know that."

"Harry, Harry Potter," Harry offered his hand awkwardly across the table, which Stark shook firmly. "Mr Stark, sir" he added as an afterthought.

Stark stared at him for another couple of seconds, looking for something that Harry wasn't sure how to give him. "This is not how I expected to meet my firstborn, but life finds a way I suppose," he finally released Harry's hand with a small smile. "It's nice to meet you Harry, call me Tony."

Harry tried a smile but he wasn't sure he managed it, he looked down at his hands, "I'm sorry for just turning up."

"No problem, you didn't send me a letter summoning me to a remote Greek island so you're already several steps ahead of Amanda Seyfried," Harry had no idea who that was but that sounded like an even worse plan than just turning up. "You're not about to get married are you?"

"No?"

"Then we're all good on that front. Not sure if Pep had a chance to tell you before you passed out but the test came back positive you are 100%, 50% Stark. So congratulations, it comes with a lifetime of neuroses, more money than you could ever know what to do with and historically terrible father figures."

Harry just blinked at him which didn't seem to be the response he was hoping for.

"We've probably got some long conversations in our future kid but for now let me cover off some basics." Tony looked away for a moment, chewing on a lip before he leant forward in his seat, hands clasped firmly in front of him. "I have no idea how to be a dad and have a series of terrible role models in that department so it is going to take both of us to work out how to make this work. If I fuck up tell me and I'll try to fix it." He waited for a bemused nod from Harry before he continued, "I don't care how you ended up here but now I know you exist you can bet your ass I want to be as involved in your life as you'll let me be. I'm not going to go all Princess Diaries on your ass but there are some potential complications to being my son publicly so I'm gonna recommend we keep things private for now until we can get you trained up but that isn't me being weird or ashamed of you or something."

They blinked at each other for a moment. "That sounds good," Harry responded when Tony looked like he might explode if the silence lingered for much longer. Harry didn't get the feeling that Tony was particularly comfortable with silence. "I don't have much experience being a son either so that works for me."

Was that an awkward thing to say? By the look on Tony's face and Padfoot's eye roll that was a weird thing to say.

Luckily Tony seemed willing to move past that.

"So Pepper tells me you go to a posh boarding school up in Scotland? Hog-something?"

On to nice safe ground. Not.

"Hogwarts Academy for the Gifted," Harry nodded, trying to push an aura of nonchalance out of his pores. "My parents met there, it's a very small school." With a muggle name that Hermione only clued him in on last week, apparently not everyone told people that they were sending their kid to St Brutus's. Shocker.

"Yeah, small enough school to not have any electronic records or anything beyond a website as far as I can tell." Tony had started playing with something on the table but Harry could still feel the man's attention on him like a spotlight, "As far as the British government is concerned you're in some kind of religious school that gets a special exemption from school inspections. They get their list of enrolments by letter via the prime minister's office every year and have done since 1918. Otherwise they have no records or even an address for the campus."

Nice to know that the ministry wasn't any better at making up fake schools than it was at conducting criminal trials. Harry just awkwardly shrugged, "I'm not sure past it being in Scotland, I just get on the train every year."

He wasn't exactly covering himself in glory here but he hadn't registered himself with MACUSA yet and Tony would only be covered legally on that front once he'd visited the No Maj Relations office, whatever that was called. He didn't want to start his new relationship with Tony by bringing the Obliviator Squad down on him.

He'd done a lot of research on MACUSA and they were far less relaxed about the whole muggle parent thing than the British Ministry was. There was a register. You had to be on it.

Tony was mostly keeping his opinion that Harry was an idiot off his face which was nice.

"Okay then, I didn't realise the whole Tom Brown thing was still going strong in England, always thought that was just something my butler would threaten me with."

"It's a good school," Harry half-heartedly defended.

"What's your favourite subject?"

Well, shit. Literally, nobody had ever asked him that. Was that something people asked kids? He should have asked Hermione.

"I like PE?" That should be safe, right? He remember enough about football to bullshit an answer if there were follow-up questions. He definitely couldn't say the same about other subjects and he wasn't stupid enough to claim to like science or maths in front of Tony Stark.

Tony stared at him blankly.

"It's, er, sports. Like gym?" That's what they called it in America, right? "I like football?" Kind of. He'd spent most of his actual PE lessons trying to avoid Dudley and very little actually playing any sports. He could pretend he was a West Ham supporter, he'd listened to Dean talk about it enough.

Tony just rubbed his face, "I know what it means bendy Beckham, I am just really confused that there is now a jock in the Stark family tree. Mind blown, I didn't know we could do that."

Harry wasn't sure what to say about that.

"Your records say you live with your aunt? Petunia Dursley? And her husband and son?"

Harry just nodded.

Tony stared at him for a couple of seconds.

Harry grimaced.

"Right," Tony nodded like that told him something and Harry tried not to grimace more. "Should I expect them to fight me on custody?"

Harry shook his head.

"Right."

Merlin, he was making himself out to be an absolute prize here.

"Aunt Petunia and mum didn't get on very well," Harry murmured staring down at his hands. "And Uncle Vernon wasn't a fan either." He glanced up at Tony who's expression was unreadable. "They don't like me very much, I'm sure they won't mind."

"There wasn't anyone else?" Tony asked angrily, gesturing violently with an open palm as if to encompass all of Harry. "Other people to take you? I remember Lily and James having friends, Renald and Sirry something? Peter Piper or whatever his name was?"

Padfoot growled and Harry glared at him until he settled down. The grim's shoulders were still tense so Harry didn't trust it to last and Harry could feel his own shoulders tensing up by his ears in response. "I don't know?"

"So what they just had no one lined up except a sister who hated them?" Tony was up and pacing now, his angry steps walking in time with Harry's rapidly beating heart. "They had a kid, my kid, decided not to fucking tell me about it and then had no fucking plan to back it up?"

Harry squeezed his eyes shut and tried to make himself small, "I don't know."

"What the fuck was wrong with them?"

Tony couldn't look at him.

Because Pepper was right.

He was too small. Thin in a way that pointed towards years of not enough food.

He couldn't find a doctor's record anywhere, either the kid had never been sick in his life or his guardians had never taken him.

None of the information he found about the Dursleys online indicated they had another child living at home. A shiny, happy family of three according to their vacation photos.

Harry's early school reports were positive but soon dropped to consistently be a mark or two below his cousin's. And as much as Harry's name was never mentioned in the diminutive-in-everything-but-stature Dursley's reports it was clear that the cousin was a bully. Bruises reported to the nurse said as much. Just clumsy, my ass. The boy had executed a perfect breaker fall when the dog had taken him out. That kind of muscle memory came from practice being pushed.

Vernon Dursley was happy to claim Harry on his taxes as a dependent but JARVIS's initial analysis gave no indication that the monsters had ever spent any money on his son. Despite them getting a monthly stipend from the Potter estate. Their food bill didn't even increase when he was home over the summer. There were no charges for clothes in sizes that would even vaguely fit the skinny boy in front of him.

There was an indication that his primary school recommended glasses but no indication that Harry had actually ever visited an optician.

Complaints to the council about non-standard additions to the home revealed that bars were installed on a single window and Tony was starting to paint a picture that he hated.

What the fuck had his parents been thinking? Why wouldn't they send Harry to him rather than these monsters?

He'd lost years whilst his son was being abused. And sure he wasn't expecting to be anyone's first choice of paternal figure but this had been the other option and they'd still picked the Dursleys over him?

"What the fuck was wrong with them?" He found himself spewing, any filter he had disappearing out the window as he stared blindly down at his son.

He was so small.

And he hadn't done anything to help. Hadn't known. Hadn't known that he had a son to be worried about. That needed to be worried about.

He paced, desperate to do something. Hurt someone for what they did to his son. He hadn't had anyone and Tony hadn't known.

He curls his fists, he wants to get in the suit and go destroy something. Burn it down to the ground, salt the earth.

The sound of harsh breathing is what brings him back, slowly bringing his pacing to a stop. Familiar feelings of regret welling up in him as his rage finally faded enough for him to see the damage he'd done with his anger this time.

His son, tired and sad. Curled into the corner of the sofa like if he pressed hard enough it would swallow him.

Fuck.

He was moving forward before he really thought about it, he was shit at physically comforting people. But Christ he needed to get good at it fast. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't-"

Harry looked up at him, blank and unseeing for a moment before they focused somewhere behind Tony and then started to widen. "Sirius, NO-"

The next thing he knew he was being tackled by a furry blur that was somehow turning into a man?

He had a repulsor up and ready before he really registered what was happening, luckily JARVIS was quick enough to turn the beam down from lethal. The follow-up tranquiliser was possibly excessive but he'd learned from the Rhodey School of Double Tap and double tapping with electricity was a terrible idea.

Still he was left with an unconscious but still recognisable man on his floor. "That's Sirius Black," He looked up at Harry who was looking concerned but considerably less freaked out, "Your dog was Sirius Black."

"Yeah," Harry sighed, "Sorry about that."

Harry scooped Sirius' wand off the floor and tucked it next to his own in his hoody pocket. He pulled out the metal dart from Sirius's chest which Tony had immediately reassured him was non-lethal.

"JARVIS will monitor his vitals and notify medical if he needs it but this stuff was approved for hospital use years ago so there shouldn't be any side effects," Tony had gone back to pacing but this time it was decidedly more anxious than angry. It reminded Harry more of Hermione than Vernon which was a welcome change. "Medical can be here within 2 minutes if he has any problems but its probably best we don't let the whole of Stark Tower know that there is a wanted man hanging out in the penthouse."

Ignoring the giant floating question marks in the room, Harry nudged Sirius into a recovery position. Tony could wait until Harry had made sure he wasn't going to lose another family member, not much had stuck from his first aid classes in primary school but the instructor's description of someone choking on their own vomit had stayed with him.

He settled back on his haunches with a sigh. Glancing up at Tony who was now staring at him with crossed arms, "There may be a couple of things I need to tell you."

"Just a few things Dorothy? Because your version of Toto breaks all the laws of conservation of mass I know." Tony's voice was tight with stress but he deliberately tried to relax his posture by shaking out his arms, Harry appreciated the effort even if it didn't make the mad look any less on edge. "I know this is probably a 3rd date question, but why is your dog an escaped convict?"

"He's my godfather and he was falsely imprisoned. We're not sure if we can get him cleared so he stays as a dog most of the time."

"The most normal sentence that has ever been said." Tony muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "So he's what, a werewolf?"

"No, that would be Remus, or Renald as I think you called him," Harry was trying to keep his voice light-hearted by judging by Tony's face he wasn't doing a great job. He gestured towards Sirius, "This is Sirry and the other guy you mentioned, Peter?"

Tony nodded hesitantly.

"Well, he was the person who framed Sirius. He gave my parent's location away to the man who killed them and then framed Sirius for murder. Mass murder really. Sirius went to prison without a trial so everyone thought he was the one to give up my parents. He only escaped prison late last year and then he went after Peter who everyone thought was dead but actually, he was pretending to be my friend's pet rat."

It all sounded a bit insane when he said it like that but he wasn't sure how to make it sound less insane.

"So Peter is some kind of rat shapeshifter?"

"Kind of."

"And this is why you decided to come to New York? To escape Peter?"

Actually, Harry paused, that would have made a lot of sense as a motivation but Harry hadn't even considered it. Peter had been hanging around with the Weasley's for years there was no way he didn't know where Harry lived.

Huh.

"Er, no, actually, I left because my relatives don't like me very much and last summer I blew up Aunt Marge." Harry took one look at Tony's conflicted face and rushed to explain, "It was an accident, I didn't mean to and she got fixed and everything but she spent a couple of hours floating around Surrey and I haven't seen them since. My aunt and uncle have never liked the freakish stuff, you know? I figured that was likely to be the last straw so when Sirius told me I might have a dad somewhere I thought that was worth a shot." Harry grimaced and rubbed his face. "I didn't know it was you, I promise, Sirius just said it was some guy called Tony from New York and we were going to try and find you once we got here. And then when we got here he said your full name was Tony Stark and he didn't know who you were and I tried to explain it to him but then, well, he was like cool, you said he had an office building around here? Let's go ask there like it is completely normal to walk into Stark Industries and be like, 'hey, I might be your boss's son.'" He could feel his breath coming faster and he closed his eyes, "And then I just blurted it out because there can't be dogs in the lobby and I promise you I didn't come here looking for anything. It would be nice if you could get custody from the Dursleys because it would be great if I could avoid going back there but I have my own money and I can look after myself, I promise I won't be any bother. I'm sorry I told those people downstairs I just didn't know what to do. I didn't plan for this, I didn't really think you would still be alive because these things don't tend to work out for me very well and even if you were alive I thought it would take us weeks to find you and then Sirius-"

"Harry," Tony interrupted him and Harry was left gasping for a breath and blinking up at the man who had moved closer, hands held out, palms open. The pose reminding Harry of the way Hagrid calmed some of the angrier Hippogriffs. "Bud, I don't think you were listening earlier, I didn't know about you but that doesn't mean I don't want you here now I know you exist."

In disbelief, Harry stared at the man, "Why would you want me?" He gestured to the unconscious man on the floor before waving a hand over the rest of him. "All I bring is trouble, believe me, this isn't even the start of it something always goes wrong or someone new comes after me or-" Harry was horrified when his voice cracked.

Tony moved closer, hesitating for a moment before sitting down next to Harry on the sofa. Harry slumped down next to him. "You know that could be considered a family trait."

"What?"

"Something always goes wrong, my life isn't drama-free kid and I don't know what's going on with you yet but I can promise that whatever it is won't send me running for the hills." Harry turned to watch Tony, he was looking down at his hands but Harry didn't feel like he was avoiding eye contact, just giving Harry space. "I survived 3 months being held captive in Afghanistan, I survived all the Iron Man shit, I almost died of Palladium poisoning a few years ago and I'm still here. Us Starks are stubborn like that."

They sat in silence for another couple of moments, only interrupted by Sirius' snuffling breaths from the floor. They both looked down at the man as he shuffled for a moment before he snorted and rolled over, seconds later he was snoring.

Tony stifled a laugh and glanced over at Harry with his eyes dancing, "Glad he's feeling okay at least."

Harry mustered a smile, even if it felt awkward it was enough to push back the tears he could feel boiling up behind his eyes.

"Listen kid, all I'm saying is I'll try can't promise I'll get things right but whatever happens I want to be there." Tony shrugged, "It's just up to you if you want to let me."

Hermione's voice felt like it was echoing in his brain. You don't have to do it alone, Harry.

"Yeah," Harry pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa and laid it over Sirius, "Yeah okay."

They sat in comfortable silence for another couple of minutes.

"So I have to ask, do you turn into an animal or is it just the blowing people up thing? If we're going to be running a miniature menagerie I need to prepare my heart for the stress."

Harry laughed.

Sirius grumbled and scratched at his belly as he came back to the world of the conscious. His mouth was dry and the whole front half of his body ached. It was one of the better wake-ups he'd had in the last 13 years so he wasn't complaining.

He was warm, there was something soft wrapped around him and everything smelt like leather and expensive cologne.

"Good afternoon Mr Black, how are you feeling?" The voice was low and reassuring but Sirius just groaned in response flopping over onto his back.

He blinked up at the white ceiling and pushed his hair back from his face. He yawned, jaw cracking loudly before he had a quick look around at his surroundings. Some muggle bedroom? "Mornin'," he slurred, "Thin' I f'll 'sleep."

"Unfortunately not Mr Black, you were sedated when you made aggressive action towards Mr Stark," he started blinking more rapidly, memories coming back in a rush. "Mr Potter asked me to reassure you that everything is fine."

"Harry!" Sirius exclaimed, rushing upright in a flail limbs that mostly served to wrap his blankets more tightly around himself before sending him crashing back onto the floor, "Where's Harry?" he demanded at the ceiling.

"Mr Potter is currently taking Mr Stark to the Woolworth building to register as his guardian in the magical world," the ceiling answered, "He left you a note to explain."

Sirius shook his head to clear it and worked one of his arms free from the blanket straight jacket he'd given himself, propping himself up he took another look around the room. He'd been made some kind of blanket and pillow nest on the floor and on the nearby table was his wand, a glass of water and folded piece of paper.

He grabbed the wand first, tucking it into his new blanket prison before he reached out to guzzle the glass of water. Water ran down his face but he ignored it, focusing on the relief to his parched throat. "Merlin, I needed that."

"Patients often report dehydration after being sedated, Mr Potter was keen to make sure you weren't affected adversely despite your violent reaction to Mr Stark."

Sounds like ceiling voice was a bit bitter.

"Yeah, well, Mr Stark needs to learn not to yell about things he knows nothing about," Sirius simpered back glaring upwards with a rude gesture, "Then maybe he wouldn't end up being attacked."

"Forgive me if I'm wrong sir, but that sounds like victim blaming. I understand you have been incarcerated for over a decade so I am happy to offer my services to help to update you on this and other areas where you might be wrong."

Sirius barked a laugh, grabbing the piece of paper from the table and slumping back against the now-pillowless sofa. "Y'know, being a voice from the aether doesn't mean you're right."

"Jarvis."

"What?"

"My name is Jarvis, I am an artificial intelligence created by Mr Stark to assist him in his work. Mr Potter said that the closest equivalent you might be aware of is a House Elf without a physical body." The disembodied voice sounded vaguely offended by this and Sirius snorted. Weirdest house elf he'd ever met and the Black house elves were notoriously strange.

The paper was filled with Harry's untidy scrawl, it looked rushed but was long enough that Sirius wasn't worried that the boy had been forced to write it.

Sirius,

Hope you're okay, Mr Stark said you'd wake up a bit groggy but otherwise fine. Jarvis said he could get you more water or food if you need it. I convinced Mr Stark not to lock you in but it's probably best if you stay in the guestroom, he can guarantee that no one will come in there and until we get something sorted for your status as a wanted man we don't want to risk people knowing you're here.

There's a bathroom through one of the doors in the actual bedroom area and Mr Stark had some clothes sent up. He also suggested shaving but I'll leave that up to you.

I'm fine. Mr Stark is fine. But your transformation pushed up the magical world conversation a bit earlier than I'd expected. He's taking it really well, apparently, a god from space turned up in New Mexico a few years ago so he's not that surprised magic exists. Even if he thinks it's just some kind of advanced science.

MACUSA get really funny about the whole muggles knowing about us thing so I've taken him to the No Maj office to register and hopefully get some of the information he wants, I have no idea where to start answering half his questions.

I'm hoping we can get in and out without too many problems but Mr Stark said he'd let Jarvis know if we got too delayed.

I left a pepper up in the bathroom if you need it.

See you soon,

Harry

Sirius folded up the letter and tucked it into his inside pocket with the rest of Harry's letters and the still-intact clipping from the Prophet.

He had been hoping for a grand reunion between father and son. Something dramatic with sentimental music. Maybe a high-stakes chase across an airport, something like the muggle films Lily had shown him.

Instead, he watched a man he once did MDMA with in a Camden nightclub frantically read as many parenting books as he could in 4 hours. Something he did with an intensity that rivalled Remus on a research binge, interspersed with 10-minute bursts of ranting about some people called the Dursleys.

His memories of Tony in the 90s were fuzzy in the way that most of his memories of his life before Azkaban were fuzzy. Emotion drained out of them like a strange sepia, a mess of clubs and parties spread over muggle London.

It was a rare couple of months in the middle of the war, quiet in a way that promised that something was brewing. They spent the first month anxious and tense, lots of quiet muttering and strained order meetings. They'd lost the Prewett twins that summer he remembered.

It drove home the risks they were all taking in a way that all the serious conversations from the older members never had.

Some of the Order had gone to ground. Marlene, devasted at the loss of her fiancé had cut off most contact with everyone but Lily. Edgar and Caradoc were out exploring potential alliances on the continent. Alice and Frank focused on their families.

Lily's mum died just after they joined the order in '96, so when her dad followed a year later Lily was left with no family that was still speaking to her. James' parents had died of dragon pox that spring, Remus's dad was still around but distant and Peter's mum was ill but needed the peace and quiet more than she needed her son around.

Sirius preferred to think he didn't have any family.

So they'd gone to the muggle world. Jumped into the grunge scene of the 90s with all the enthusiasm their 19-year-old selves could muster. Britpop had been at its peak and there was a kind of ravenous need for new experiences that 5 mostly sheltered magicals had fully embraced.

Tony had been part of that for a couple of months, escaping to the same haunts in Soho, Camden and Dalston. Stumbling through club nights and lock-ins, taking anything anyone would sell them and drinking more and more and more.

Older by a couple of years and enough of dickhead to not be put off by Sirius and James, clever enough to keep up with Remus and Lily. He'd made fun of them for not knowing who the Spice Girls were, introduced them to 80s rock and spent hours arguing with Lily about slasher films.

Things had been a bit more hazy back then, they fell into bed with whoever they fell into bed with. No one had been surprised when Tony and Lily, sometimes with James and sometimes without, had fallen together.

And then Death Eaters had wiped out the McKinnons. And three nights later the Bones.

They were back in the middle of a war.

Any relief he had once drawn from the memory of those months had long since been taken from him. Now he only remembered the frantic grief when it all came crashing back, the guilt that they'd been off partying when Marlene's whole family died. Even when they had been back on alert they'd been too late to save Edgar, or his wife, or his children.

"Did Tony ever mention his time in London to you?"

"I was created shortly after his return to New York, he never spoke about it at length."

"Did he ever talk about Lily?"

Jarvis stayed silent for a long moment.

"He occasionally talked about someone who went missing."

"Missing?"

"For a while, he asked me to run monthly searches on the names Lily Potter, James Potter and Sirius Black. After 5 years of no results, he asked me to stop running them."

5 years.

Lily and James would have been dead for 3 years already, Sirius would be 3 years into Azkaban. Harry would have been 4.

Sirius closed his eyes against the memories, sobs shaking his whole body and he curled into himself on the pile of pillows.

Tony was right. They hadn't been thinking, they hadn't been thinking at all.

"You know what I said about magic just being science we didn't understand yet?"

"Yeah."

"I take it back, this stuff makes no sense."

Tony was leafing through some pamphlets that had been thrust at them, when they got the right department to register him as an in-the-know No Maj. Which was apparently essential if he wanted to make sure a team of wizards wouldn't try to break into his tower and wipe his memories like some kind of cracked-up version of the Men in Black.

The office was actually called the Federal Bureau of Covert Vigilance and No-Maj Obliviation which was suitably ominous. He still preferred No-Maj to Muggle which was apparently what the British called their non-magical compatriots.

A severe-looking woman had glared at him when he walked into the room but when she caught sight of Harry her entire demeanour changed. First open-mouthed shock followed by handing over every piece of paper she could find that she thought might be vaguely useful to them.

She had rushed off to get them an appointment and since then people had been poking their heads into the room just to openly stare for a couple of moments before leaving.

This behaviour wasn't new to Tony but it was really strange to see it directed at someone else. And for that someone else to be his son. "I have a feeling that you might have understated a couple of things."

Harry grimaced but didn't try to deny it, "I didn't think it would be this bad outside of the UK."

"You in a boy band or something?" Tony craned his neck to lift an eyebrow at a woman who was clutching a camera that looked like it had come out of the Victorian period. She blushed and hurried away.

Harry snorted, "I wish. I sound like a dying whale when I sing."

"That's a family trait I'm afraid, on both sides, Lily couldn't sing either. And she'd do it loudly at every opportunity." Harry laughed which made a new witch by the door coo. Tony was caught between preening and cooing along with the interloper. Harry just blushed and shuffled until he was slightly more hidden behind Tony, it was easy enough Tony wasn't a big man but Harry barely came up to the middle of his chest. He wasn't absurdly small for a fourteen year old but Tony remembered being taller at Harry's age. "What makes you famous enough for this parade of gawkers to follow you around? From the sounds of it, you've only been in the magical world for a couple of years.""The wizard who came after my parents was the leader in this war. The war had been going on for a while, it started while my parents were still in school I think and when they left school they got involved somehow? I don't know, no one ever really explained. They all hate talking about it. They don't even say the guy's name, they call him You-Know-Who or He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named." Some of Tony's bewilderment must have shown on his face because Harry was nodding in agreement, "I know right? Really strange, I found out in my second year that his real name was Tom Riddle but he went by Voldemort."

"What just one name? Like Cher?" Tony joked, waiting for Harry's shoulders to relax before he asked for more.

"Yeah, it's an anagram or something. Tom Marvolo Riddle, I am Lord Voldemort."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

He quietly tapped out a request for JARVIS to start running a new query on this Voldemort person. "So he killed your parents?"

Not an ideal conversation to be having in the middle of a government office but this sounded like background that he needed before he had a conversation with anyone else from this world.

"Yeah." Harry answered quietly, "He came after them, my dad-" Harry closed his eyes tightly. "James, tried to give Mum enough time to grab me and escape but Voldemort killed him and came after me. I don't know why but he offered to let Mum stand aside, but he did and she wouldn't stand aside so he killed her and then when he went after me-" Harry's voice cut off harshly, and Tony shifted until the view of him from the door was completely cut off.

"You don't have to explain this now-" Tony tried to offer but Harry quickly started speaking again.

"I'm famous for surviving," Harry grimaced again, gesturing at the strange scar on his forehead. "There's this curse, they call it the Killing Curse and it's one of the worst things you can do. Universally fatal and just casting it can land you in prison for a decade. Voldemort and his people were famous for it and when he tried to cast it on me-"

Tony clenched Harry's hand in his, involuntarily squeezing at that revelation.

"-it bounced? Or reflected back at him or something?" Harry shrugged, "I survived with this scar and he died. Or lost his body or something, Dumbledore said he's still floating around somewhere and he keeps coming to bother me at school. Peter escaped last month and went off to find him so he'll probably come back at some point but in the meantime, the rest of the wizarding world seems to have decided that I did something when I was a baby and defeated the Dark Lord and now they call me the Boy Who Lived like that's something to proud of."

Tony had so many questions but none of them were as important as giving his son a hug. He wrapped his arms around Harry's slight shoulders and pulled the boy into him. Harry started slightly, skittish like a deer, but settled into the embrace after a couple of seconds and buried his face into Tony's shoulder.

And if his shoulder got a little damp then he wasn't going to tell anyone.

Either the No Maj department wait times had massively improved since they last updated their pamphlet or Harry's fame was finally doing something positive for him.

Even if Miss Porter's interruption of the bewildering hug from Tony was unwelcome Harry was still glad they were going to be able to get Tony's registration done today.

"Ms Kowalski has some free time now to do an introduction and get the paperwork started," She announced cheerfully, leading them through a maze of corridors. "Mr Stark should be able to take home the certificate today."

"They give out certificates for everything these days," Tony muttered to himself, tapping away at something on his phone. "Congratulations, your son's a wizard."

"I didn't believe Hagrid the first few times he told me I was a wizard, kept insisting I was just Harry. A certificate might have helped. As it was he ended up giving my cousin a pig's tail and it was hard to deny the existence of magic after that."

Miss Porter looked horrified but Tony smiled, "Sounds like more fun than being jumped by a man disguised as a household pet."

"It was great, the Dursleys left me alone for weeks after that and I'll have the memory of Uncle Vernon's horrified face in my heart for the rest of my life." Harry smiled brightly at the confused-looking witch, "Which way is Ms Kowalski's office?"

"Just down here," she hurried onwards before stopping abruptly outside a plain black door. A quick knock and they were shuffled into a cramped office.

It would probably feel like a perfectly normal office if it wasn't so... full.

Paper was everywhere. Books and file folders were stacked high on every surface in uncomfortably tall piles that swayed alarmingly with ever breath. A high, out of breath voice called out from somewhere in the middle of one of the piles. "Be right there! One second!"

A couple of moments later one of the stacks whizzed to one side, parting like the red sea to release a plump blonde witch from the depths. Her hair looked ready to fly away and there were several quills and pencils sticking out of her hair as well as peeking out of all of her pockets.

"Morning!" The blonde witch chirped, "I'll be with you in a second, just grabbing some refreshments, please have a seat."

A flick of her wand cleared the chairs directly in front of her desk and Harry shared a long look with Tony before they both moved forward to sit.

Porty whirled around, now carrying a tray of tea and a tin of something, several folders tucked under one arm. When she caught sight of them she paused for a long moment. "Evie."

Miss Porter glanced at Harry with worry painted across her face before turning back to what must be Ms Kowalski. "Yes, Ma'am?"

"I would have appreciated some warning that Tony Stark would be visiting my office this afternoon."

The receptionist blinked at her for a moment before glancing back over at Tony, "Tony who?"

"Stark! Tony Stark!" Ms Kowalski gestured with an expressive eyebrow, "Iron Man?" She added tentatively when Miss Porter continued to stare at her blankly. "Evie, you work in the No Maj department now you've got to start reading my briefings. Tony Stark, the man currently sat in front of my desk with a smirk and a smartphone is one of the most famous No Maj's alive. Stark Industries. Weapons Dealer. Had that whole thing declaring he was going to privatise world peace? Any bells? Dresses up in a metal suit and beats up terrorists?"

Harry was also trying to stifle a grin at this point but he was careful to look perfectly calm when Miss Porter looked over. He even tried a hopefully encouraging smile.

It seemed to work, she nodded firmly at Ms Kowalski, "I'll read up on it Ma'am, apologies for the lack of warning."

"Thanks for the warning on Mr Potter here in any case," She sent Harry a warm smile and plocked one of the file folders down in front of him. "Meant I had enough time to dig out the right set of forms for someone across the pond and I found the citizenship forms too in case you were planning on staying in New York long term."

Harry stared down at the forms like they might bite him before sending a panicked look at Tony who was already looking quite pleased. "Thanks?"

"You're very welcome honey."

Harry wasn't sure what to do with that so he just reached for the file to start leafing through.

"Thanks for your help Evie," the dismissal was clear even if it was very polite and Miss Porter soon exited the room with one last wave at Harry who waved back. "Now Mr Stark, Miss Porter told me enough to know that you are here to be registered as a No-Maj Affiliate of MACUSA, has Mr Potter explained what that means?"

"He has," Tony responded before gesturing to the bewildering number of pamphlets he was still holding. "And if he hadn't these would have covered it. My understanding is that I am basically signing a lot of forms to say I am aware of the magical world, I promise not to tell anyone unnecessary about it under pain of consequences and I am willing to be treated as an extension of my magical sponsor." Tony gestured to Harry who nodded furiously.

Ms Kowalski glanced between them as she finally settled in her seat, a flick of her wand sent over the tea tray, or coffee tray, Harry corrected himself as it got closer. It settled on the table between Harry and Tony, the only paper-free surface in the room.

"And why is Harry Potter sponsoring you to affiliate with the magical world? When last I heard he was safely ensconced in Britain under the watchful eye of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore." She didn't sound any less cheerful but there was an edge to her voice nonetheless.

"He's my dad," Harry blurted, "My biological father, I only found out I had one a couple of weeks ago and only found out it was Tony this morning."

Ms Kowalski looked shocked but Tony just looked smug, "I'm taking the magic reveal very well."

"He is." Harry agreed with a small smile at Tony as the man grabbed himself a cup of coffee. Black with a load of sugar. "He hasn't fainted once," Tony grinned back at him.

If Tony had a sweet tooth Harry had plenty of decent baking recipes from his time with the Dursleys. It was something he hadn't really done since he left for Hogwarts, Aunt Petunia seemed convinced he would infect her precious family if he cooked for them now he was actually practising magic. Where that attitude had been the rest of the time he lived with them he didn't know.

"Well, I'm very glad to hear that." Ms Kowalski answered with a smile, "There are a lot of forms to go through Mr Stark, and I'll have to cast a couple of spells on the pair of you to certify a few things but by the end of today, you'll officially be Harry's guardian. You'll be able to nominate a magical guardian if you want one, most No Majs chose a teacher or headmaster to operate in loco parentis in the magical world but who that is, if you want to go that route, is completely up to you."

"I don't think we'll need that but we'll keep that in mind." Tony answered with a smile before pull forward the first form, "but please call me Tony. Now run through me what OWLs and NEWTs are and why I would need to have some in order to apply for wand rights?"

"In that case, please call me Porty." When Tony stared at her she smirked slightly, "It's a shortening of family name, the less unusual option was already taken by my Aunt. Now OWLs and NEWTs, those are wizarding qualifications, the sort of the equivalent of SATs taken at 15 and 17 respectively. The OWLs at 15 represent the minimum amount of qualification you need in order to carry a wand without being in full-time education. You won't be needing that I don't think, unless you have some latent magical talent. Some OWLs and NEWTs don't require active magic if you're interested at a later stage."

"I'd love to see a list," Tony muttered, paging through the forms, "I don't curently have any wards whatever those are but I'm sure I'll want some so I'd love some recommendations on how to go about getting those too."

Porty looked delighted to be questions and started summoning pamphlets and lists from her endless reams of content around room.

Harry focused on his own forms, only interrupting their conversation when he needed information from Tony.

By the end of the conversation he had a new home address, citizenship to the Magical United States (the No Maj citizenship would apparently follow in a few weeks, they had a contact in the No Maj immigration office) and understanding of just how terribly insufficient his own entry into the magical world had been.

Harry loved Hagrid but he wasn't exactly the person he would have chosen to introduce anyone to the magical world.

And Harry was really bad at asking questions.

Tony was excellent at asking questions.

Tony wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulders as they left Porty's office and Harry was even able to muffle the flinch. "Our first stop is to get you a hat and sunglasses. Then we're going to hit all the bookshops, find the wizard equivalent of a Yellow Pages so we can hit up a lawyer and then we are going to find something ridiculous and expensive to buy to celebrate the fact that I officially have a son now. I don't know what the teen wizard version of a pony is but I'm getting you one."

Harry stared at the witches and wizards around them who were blatantly staring and smiled, "Sounds great to me."