Chapter Text
Tony had a son. A son that was once a bouncy baby boy with ten fingers and ten toes. Except, Tony missed that stage in his son’s life, by a fairly large margin. At fourteen-years-old Harry looks like the spitting image of Tony, at least the photo on the profile Jarvis is compiling does. Tony had only known about him for a total of ten minutes and he already has a comprehensive history. Tony has always had the information he wanted at his fingertips he doesn't know what to do now that he knows he missed something so monumental.
The kid’s been wandering around this earth for fourteen years. He’s had time to grow and change and live. Time where he either didn’t have a father or had the wrong one. Tony’s had a kid for fourteen, almost fifteen, god, years and he didn’t know. He wonders what he’s like, beyond short, thin and vibrant. He wonders why the kid’s education just stopped at eleven and how he managed to find himself oceans away from his home.
Tony is sitting on a plane back from a function he was attending in South Asia. He wishes he hadn’t had to attend but Pepper had been insisting that the publicity was important and more importantly Peter needed space to be a teenager. Tony wonders if the space was actually helpful considering the kid almost drowned but currently he’s a little preoccupied that there’s a kid waiting for him at Stark Tower.
Whilst he's waiting to get there he has plenty of time to panic.
Tony’s had his fair share of pregnancy scares. People assume he’d be careful but he’s familiar with the dawning dread at the thought of being responsible for a new human.
This human isn’t new. Harry doesn’t come with the wide-eyed curiosity and general awe for life. Tony isn’t going to teach him his ABCs or have time to develop a relationship where he can rely on unconditional love so that later when the moodiness and mistakes come along the kid will still come back to him. The kid isn’t going to learn how to have a relationship with him just by Tony saying the word ‘Dad’ in his general vicinity, Tony is going to have to introduce himself, to navigate the oceans of distance between them.
He isn’t building from the ground up, first he needs to tear down some walls, lay some foundations. That is if the kid even wants to meet him. What the hell is he supposed to do if the kid doesn’t want to meet him. When the genius(semi-functioning) part of his brain begins to kick in he realises this thought is stupid. The kid found him. That’s what Pepper said when she called him at least. He guesses he’ll know if that’s true in about ten minutes. God, he wishes this plane was faster.
When the plane lands Tony is on his feet before it’s come to a stop. He uses his suit to reach the tower as fast as possible.
All Pepper told him was that they received a call from a Harry James Potter who said he found Tony’s picture in Lily Evan’s journal and that this was the number listed. She said it went to his personal number. The one he’d had since his dad first built him a phone and hadn’t changed since. The one he’d worked tirelessly to keep hidden and only told a handful of his most trusted. He left it with Pepper because he trusted her more than anyone in the world. He kept every model of phone that had that number and he didn’t want to lose this one in a fight.
When he received the call he had wanted to pretend that it was just some kid with his photo. There are so many kids with his photo it would've been of little consequence but deep down he’d known what had happened from the second he heard Lily Evan’s name.
He remembers her so clearly. Remembers singing into her hair and poring over science journals with her. He remembers kissing her long, slow and reverently. He remembers her eyes bright, full of life, now they’re in a picture, staring out at him in the face of a kid. Apparently, she’s dead. Tony doesn’t know what to do with that information.
The minutes it takes to reach the tower from the runway feels like hours.
He’s in the process of moving from Stark tower to the Avengers compound. Stark tower is mostly bare but he’s kept an assistant manning the front desk for public appearances. He’s also left his lab and his computer until last. He’s having trouble letting go of this tower. Letting go of the memories and the ties to this city. He’s glad that there is also a boardroom still set up, he doesn’t know why it’s still there but Pepper probably had a reason. Meeting Tony’s fourteen year old kid probably hadn’t been it.
When Tony enters the room where the kid, Harry, is waiting, he immediately gleans some more information he doesn’t know what to do with. At 14 years old Tony was running up the walls driving his father insane with his energy. This kid held himself taut and stiff as if he was bracing himself for something.
On the phone, Pepper had said she wanted Lawyers and paternity tests, but this kid hasn’t said Tony’s his father. He hasn’t asked for money. Hasn’t asked for anything. He just wants to talk. Tony thinks he can do that.
He sits down across from the kid and they stare at each other for a second, at a loss. It feels awfully impersonal sitting across from him at a boardroom table, it highlights the distance between them, but this is the room they have.
The kid is clutching a leather-bound journal intricately embossed with flowers, roses not lilies. Tony remembers it well. Lily would scribble in it at all hours of the night. Entries about her life, about her research ‘top secret’ she’d insisted. He remembered talking about it with her, “I hope you’re not writing about me,” he’d said.’ “All good things,” she’d insisted through a smile before turning and pressing a kiss to his temple. Now that his kid has it he really hopes she’d been telling the truth.
“Your mother was a brilliant woman you know,” Tony begins, she’s so clearly the reason why they're here, he couldn’t fathom how this conversation could proceed without her.
Harry looks at him uncertainty with those brilliant green eyes, “You knew her well, then?” he asks the question cautiously and it makes Tony wonder what he’s afraid of.
He knows that Lily wrote about him, how else did the kid find him, and he knows it was frequent because he remembers her casting spells on photos before sticking them in. He thinks that the kid is trying to get a sense of his character, see if he’ll lie.
“Yes,” he says because Lily isn’t, wasn’t, the kind of person you lie about, “I knew her quite well, never as well as I wanted to though.”
He thinks he must’ve said the right thing because Harry instantly straightens, “Do you think you could tell me something about her, anything?”
Immediately a rush of invigorating but terribly inappropriate things enters his mind. He thinks about how it felt to have his hands on her, his lips on her, the curve of her spine. This thought is probably a good indicator of how much he would suck at being a parent, but it doesn’t dampen his desire to be one at all. “She had this one kind of pen that she adored. It was an exorbitantly expensive black pen 0.7mm from Japan and she loved it the way people love their pets, refused to use anything else. She would lose this pen all the time sometimes 4 times in one week, but she’d always insist on buying more and more of this single type of pen. Every gift I ever gave her always had at least one of those in it.”
It had been infuriating, he had even designed her a pen personally and whilst she had been enthusiastic in her gratitude she’d still insisted that she could never betray her pen. Apparently, she’d always used them, her school pig,hog- something had apparently insisted on using quills, but she’d never given in because ‘good stationery is hard to find.’
Harry’s smiling now, just a little. Tony finds himself smiling instantly too. Harry sobers a little and gets a pensive look on his face. “Do you know who I am?” he seems even more frightened of that answer then he did of the last one. Like he could cope with Tony being a terrible person but not with him knowing about Harry and hating him.
“I think I do kid, I mean we might need some tests to make sure, but I think with a face like that and that book it’s pretty clear.’
“I, um, what does that mean?”
Hell if Tony knows, isn’t there supposed to be adults present in this situation. Who's been looking after this kid anyway? “Well if you want to we can do some tests, and I’d love to see you as much as you want.”
The kid swallows heavily like he’s trying to clear his mouth of something awful “Is it okay if I stay here or stay somewhere. Just for the summer?” The kid looks like he’d rather claw his skin off than ask for this, which makes Tony wonder what the alternative is.
“You’re welcome to stay with me, but my house will get a little crowded.”
The kid shrugs as if it means nothing to him and Tony realises he has no idea if this kid even knows who he is. Normally he’d assume but normally people can’t say Tony Stark without immediately following it with Iron Man and aren’t nearly so blasé about sharing a room with the hulk.
“Listen, Pepper Potts will be down in a second and then we’ll sort some things out.”
The kid shrugs again and Tony thinks that maybe this is what Clint was talking about when he said parenting is hard. Maybe he shouldn’t have laughed as hard as he did when Clint complained that his son got suspended for shooting a rock at some asshole kid and yelling ‘Avengers assemble’ as he was running away from the kid and his two 6ft tall friends.
He greets Pepper at the door and they have a brief whisper conversation. Pepper, bless her soul, doesn’t judge him nearly as harshly as he thinks she should. She just says “We’ll do the tests, Tony, they’re important, and you have to look after him, this isn’t like Peter you can’t hand him back to other adults if things get rough, this is full time.” He can appreciate that, but some raggedy ass kid came to him with too big clothes, Lily’s eyes and a bad attitude, Tony doesn’t think he can do anything but love him.
Technically you’re supposed to wait 1-2 business days for a paternity test but for a genius with more money then he knows what to do with it doesn’t take very long at all. He’s friends with Bruce who is technically a physicist but he’s been more gene orientated for personal reasons. His lab is set up with ridiculous equipment that Bruce had taught him how to use. Also Helen Cho, man. Nobody could really beat her, scarily efficient but with very little patience for Tony. Thankfully Bruce inspired more patience. Go figure. Tony is just glad that they found Bruce before he could get too far away in the quinjet or else he might actually have to wait for something.
He takes Harry up to the lab and Harry watches avidly as he sets up before seemingly losing interest. The process is longish but Harry seems content to just wander the lab he hopes the kid is impressed not bored but there isn’t much he can do. Pepper organises a flight to the Avengers compound whilst they wait. The tests come back and confirm what Tony already knows and suddenly his little circle has an extra member for the summer.
According to Pepper they should contact the relatives but Tony suspects if the kid made it all the way to America without any kind of police complaint, Tony maybe did something a little illegal to find out that information, then the parents are probably a lot like Howard and it might take them a little while to get over the relief of not having responsibility to remember that they love Harry. He hopes it’s that, that these people are ill-equipped to be parents and not something more sinister.
Harry doesn’t say much on the plane ride to the Avengers compound. They make their way up into the building, Tony thinks the kid might be in shock. He grips Lily’s book like it’s a lifeboat keeping him afloat. The team is out today and so the tower is unnaturally quiet. The kid seems cautiously enamoured. He eyes everything for only a second, but he seems solely engaged with taking in the environment. Tony wonders what’s going on in his head.
----
Harry settles down in the room that Pepper leads him to.
The room is nice. Like really nice. Harry almost melts onto the bed it’s so soft. Except he kind of hates the neutral tones and the bare desk. The dull grays make him miss the burrow. Harry likes the window best, it's the only thing about the place that really has character. The view was good, breathtaking really, though not nearly as magical as Hogwarts. There is lush green grass punctuated by training equipment. Dusk is falling and the casts the compound in a pale pink glow.
The room is on one of the higher floors, the elevator up had been painfully awkward Pepper and him had been alone and she opened her mouth like ten times to say something but never quite got the words out. Tony apparently has things to deal with and Pepper has to take a call as soon as Harry gets to the room which is fine. Harry just makes no noise and pretends he doesn’t exist. He won’t wear out his welcome and he won’t take more than his share. Everything will be easier here.
Hermione won’t need to respond to his endless questions whilst she’s in France, Ron won’t have to rescue him and get Arthur in trouble. The order members won’t have to worry about him because MACUSA has offered him sanctuary for the summer he plans to spend here. They even arranged a portkey. All Harry needs to do is turn up to a few meetings and Have a few discussions with the president. Samuel G. Quahog had said in exchange for information and a few quidditch orientated publicity stunts America would be willing to provide protection. He even agreed to allow Harry to attend a few classes that Ilvermorny over the Summer, apparently, they’re available to any and all young keen wizards who are restricted from practising magic because of no-maj separation.
Harry was a little bit wary of the information part of the deal. He wouldn’t sell out his friends but quidditch he could do.
He glances at the journal in his hand and tries to remember why he’s here
Hermione had been teaching him science and math diligently since he first showed interest at beginning of third year. He had found his mother’s journal the summer before and there had been complex algorithms and formulas that just looked like scribble to Harry. It was the only connection that Harry had to his mother and the only thing that alleviated the fragility he felt after being bombarded with his mother’s dying screams.
He needed his mother’s journal to make sense. He needed to understand what drove her to pursue the man that gave him his skin colour and cheek structure. She talked about science the way somebody might talk about a lover, waxed poems about every new discovery she made, about how much it meant to her that she could share them with somebody. She talked about life like it was this wonderful thing. Harry didn’t understand but he wanted to, desperately.
Asking Hermione to help him without giving away too much had been hard. She had always been perceptive, except, he realised, when distracted by the allure of knowledge. Instead of asking her to teach him science he was loud in his ignorance and she quickly set to remedy him of it. Of course, she became suspicious when he actually borrowed the books she recommended but by then it was easy enough to convince her that she sold him on the idea. It felt a lot like the way Malfoy tried to endear himself to the teachers but Hermione had been happy, and she’d deserved to be happy so Harry figured no harm no foul.
It turns out that his mother wasn’t insane, there was a thrill in just knowing something, more than that in using the things you know to achieve a goal. Admittedly attempting to learn chemistry and physics and biochemistry whilst trying to keep up with his studies was hard and extremely frustrating at times especially when Hermione didn’t have time to be his full-time teacher as well as keep up with her studies but it was a brilliant kind of frustrating. Harry wasn’t used to learning without consequence until he met Hermione.
He wishes she was here. She was the only person that would ever explain things to Harry and make them make sense. The teachers were patient with the muggleborns because they felt like they were justified and even some of the purebloods because they knew how to ask for help.
Harry didn’t know how to ask for help, even when it was offered to him he didn’t really know how to take it.
He wishes that Hermione were here to explain how muggles have buildings this tall. He wishes Hermione was there when Tony took him to his lab stuck something in Harry’s cheek and proceeded to fiddle for a while before, seemingly by magic, determining Harry was his son. I mean Harry knows science occurred but the intricacies are so lost on him. He understood genes a little bit but not to this extent.
Also how stinking rich is this guy? Petunia’s friends fall all over each other when one of them go on a plane but this guy has his-, Pepper, Harry doesn’t know her title, organise one like its nothing. Also, why does anyone needs a building with so many rooms let alone two buildings.
He wishes Hermione was here to explain to him why he’s so afraid when Tony isn’t nearly as powerful as Voldemort.
He wishes there was somebody here telling him what to do. He supposes he could have asked Sirius but in his last letter Harry could see the crossed out letters JA and well Sirius was James’ friend what if that means-, Harry can’t even finish the thought. It’s scarier than Cedric Diggory’s face frozen in agony.
He hopes these people will be kind, it's only for the summer and it's only because Harry thought he might do something stupid if left in isolation. He needs to be strong, there’s going to be a war, he doesn't know how to be strong alone with his thoughts, alone with his ghosts.
He really hopes these people are nice. Harry get the vibe that there are going to be so many people here and Harry doesn’t know if he’ll be able to handle feeling alone in another big building filled with people that were supposed to be something more.
It sounds like Tony really loved his mother, Harry hopes that’s a good sign. Maybe he might even be able to explain the complicated numbers in her journal. Harry isn’t ready to share it just yet but maybe. Mrs. Potts seems nice if a little bit intimidating. She shows Harry his room, has hushed whisper fights with Tony and brings him a shirt that is only one size too big.
Harry hopes Tony isn’t in too much trouble because of him. Harry won’t be a problem he’ll cook and clean and at least when he’s here there’s an ocean between him and Voldemort. He won’t bring them trouble he’ll be good and useful and none of the horrible things that Snape and Petunia believe about him. He’ll be better.
He doesn’t say any of these things because words don’t really mean much instead he stays alert, tries to figure out what these people want. He thinks he’ll only ever be lucky enough to meet a family like the Weasleys once confusingly seem to want nothing in return for all that they offer him, he won’t be naïve to expect that here, especially in a home that seems fit for muggle royalty, he wonders if that’s what Tony is, if he’ll expect Harry to behave like the Malfoys.
Tony comes and brings him some clothes. Some blue jeans made of what Harry assumes is supposed to be tight fitting material that hangs loosely around ankles. The top is also loose on him but it’s much nicer than Harry is used to and not too big. When Harry says nicer he means without holes and not spectacularly dull, the top has a pizza on it. Harry wonders why Tony randomly has a teenaged size top but whatever.
There’s the ding of an elevator and a loud voice that comes from seemingly nowhere announces the arrival of ‘the team,’ Tony apologises before exiting quickly. Harry watches cautiously half hidden behind his door as some of the most intimidating people he’s ever seen spill out of a glass elevator. He can’t make out much detail beyond well built and bleeding but Harry identifies them as soldiers because it’s written in the way they hold themselves. They all head into what seems like a break room with Tony and Pepper following behind.
Another thing that Harry finds mystifying is elevators. These people levitate without magic although Hermione says muggles believe that magic is just science that hasn’t been discovered yet. He wonders how science would explain the way Quirrell’s skin burned under his skin or the way Voldemort had endured where Quirrell didn’t.
Pepper comes in again a few minutes after. “I know this all must be a lot for you right now, and I’m really sorry that Tony isn’t here right now, work can be hard to balance even if the whole world isn’t relying on you,”
For a second it sounds like she’s attacking him personally, but then he remembers that MACUSA told him about Tony. Not because Harry disclosed the relationship, but because apparently the Avengers are an important group to be aware of because they’ve had interactions with other forms of magic that make it dangerous for wizards. Harry had almost been hoping that that meant he didn’t have to hide his magic, but apparently whilst they’re aware of Norse mythology wizards have managed to maintain relative confidentiality.
He also remembers that Dudley had mentioned the heroes a few times when he was very young. Dudley gave up on them around the same time he started closing doors on Harry’s fingers.
“It’s getting late,” Pepper continues, “so maybe if you want you can wash up in the adjoining bathroom and head to bed and we’ll introduce you to everyone properly in the morning, get you properly settled.” She pauses for a moment seemingly finished before she backtracks “That is if that’s okay with you. We don’t plan to enforce a bedtime on you or anything, and oh my gosh we’ve forgotten to feed you, are you hungry, is there something you want me to get you?
Pepper Potts can’t seem to decide if she wants to be intimidatingly efficient or all over the place. He thinks she’d get along with Hermione
Harry resists the temptation to start scratching at his hands, according to Hermione it isn’t very healthy behaviour and Harry doesn’t want to display any obvious signs of discomfort. He is hungry, but doesn’t want to ask for food, not before he knows what it means here. Instead, he shakes his head and remembers his manners. “No thank you, I think bed sounds good.’
Pepper’s expression turn speculative but she doesn’t push. “Okay then, have a good night, Harry, and don’t worry about getting up if you need anything I’m sure Tony wants you to treat this as your home. Also if you want something and don’t know how to get it Jarvis will help you, have you met Jarvis?”
“No, he hasn’t ma’am,” volunteers the mysterious voice, presumably Jarvis. The voice makes him on edge because it sounds like it thinks, and Arthur Weasley has told him never to trust an object that thinks if you can’t see where its brain goes. Harry wonders what he would say about something that you can’t even see full stop.
He wonders if this is something rooted in science or something rooted in the supposed almost magic that the Avengers are supposed to have come across.
His discomfort must show because Pepper smiles softly. “don’t mind him he’s just a computer,” science, Harry’s mind supplies, “Tony designed him so he’s pretty advanced but he’s just here to help you.”
Harry wonders who exactly this computer is supposed to help, if maybe this computer is designed to make sure Harry is being useful.
“Good evening master Harry, my deepest regrets at your newly discovered parentage,” the computer said. Pepper laughs softly at this, “It’s a pleasure to meet
“Uh, Ditto.’ Harry was at a loss at how to reply. He supposes it’s a good sign that this computer doesn’t sound like Tom maybe Arthur would forgive him for trusting him.
Pepper laughs lightly, “I’ll leave you boys to get acquainted. Good night Harry.” She smiles at Harry the same way McGonagall smiles at him sometimes, with a sort of reserved fondness.
“Good night.” He whispers to her retreating figure, but he doesn’t think she heard.
---
Tony doesn’t really know what to say to the team when they come back looking wrung out. He knows the feeling knows they probably don’t want to be bothered with new information, but they’re trained for war. They deserve to know there is another person staying in the tower, he owes them that much.
He doesn’t start with ‘I have a kid’ though because he isn’t ready to let judgement ruin the joy he’s feeling right now. Tomorrow Tony has a whole person he gets to discover and learn about. He hopes Harry’s interested in science the way Lily was. He hopes he can share his science with someone the way he has always wanted to. Tony wonders if he has Lily’s otherworldly gifts if he’ll continue her research.
All that to look forward to tomorrow. Today he quietly pulls Steve aside, “Listen, I’m letting somebody stay on this floor of the tower, he’s a kid about a year younger than Peter and he really needed a place to stay. He’s staying near my room and if you aren’t comfortable you guys can either stay on another floor or we can block off a part but I trust him.”
---
Steve is at a loss. The team had only just got back from a government-mandated task designed to ‘repair their image’. Tony was supposed to be here finishing Hawkeye’s new arrows and smoothing over some legalities with Pepper and yet apparently, he found time to adopt a fourteen-year-old.
He can’t really be mad though. Tony and Steve had been mad at each other for a long time and were only just starting to realise that maybe the problem wasn’t each other but the nature of the world they live in. Also adopting a fourteen-year-old is exactly the kind of shit Steve probably would get up to if left to his own devices. So instead he informs the team that there is a kid wandering about the building and the team is too tired to care beyond a ‘no you’re not allowed to freaking shoot him.”
He finds it peculiar how white Tony goes when Natasha suggests this, he thought they had all been desensitized to casual threats of violence, but more and more Steve is realising that when it comes to kids Tony is a little on the protective side.
Tony and he never disagreed that collateral damage was bad they just had different methods of dealing with it. In hindsight maybe neither of them were right but they need to learn to work together now that chitauri technology is proliferating the streets. Steve doesn’t know if Tony establishing the D.O.D.C. is a good thing or a bad thing but it’s probably better than allowing the chitauri technology to circulate unregulated. He just hopes that when the time comes that the country needs the Avengers they won’t be cut off at the legs.
He wonders what this new kid will be like. Why he’s here, why he needs sanctuary. More immediately he wonders if he can get through a shower without falling asleep.
---
Tony thinks the team takes the news well, barring vaguely terrifying threats. Overall Tony is hopeful about the future. He just wishes that the political climate wasn’t so toxic now, that he could offer the kid safety. Maybe the responsible thing would be to give him to Clint’s wife and allow him to live on the farm but selfishly Tony just wants to know him. These are all problems to deal with in the morning.
For now, Tony goes to bed comfortable that despite the fact he doesn’t really know much about kids, he hopes this one isn’t quite as reckless as Peter and has better sense than Clint’s rascals, but none of it matters much because this one is his. His and Lily’s.