Harry/Bucky - Harry Potter/Avengers
Hell Entry #4
Welcome back, Traveler.
This scroll didn't claw its way from the dirt.
It simply arrives, with a tired breath, a diaper bag, and a sleeping baby.
This one is tender, steady. It doesn't beg for attention, but it may deserve it.
So, settle in. There's a war behind us, a tower ahead, and a weary man caught in the middle.
Enjoy
Summary
Harry Potter stands in front of Stark Tower with a baby strapped to his chest, a diaper bag slung over his shoulder, and absolutely no idea what he's doing.
He's eighteen, fresh out of war, and carrying grief that clings like a cloak.
The wizards may be behind him, but the future is a question mark.
And somewhere inside the looming building may be a man who shares his blood. But will he choose to be his family?
But first, there's a receptionist who doesn't believe him, an elevator ride with a stranger who stares too long, and a baby names Teddy who needs to be fed before the past swallows them both.
Preservation note:
This entry was very close to life. So, so close. That said, here is a more polished vision, that has the bones of a world built behind it.
He's My Son
Harry stood in awe before the giant tower. He double checked the address on the note from Gringotts but he wasn’t used to the layout of New York City so he couldn’t really confirm that it was correct. The kind lady from the corner store told him to look for the tall tower with the huge red A so that’s what he did.
Teddy released a whimper from his place in the wrap, settled snuggly against his chest. “Just a bit longer bud, I promise it’s almost over,” he whispered to the infant. Steeling himself, and praying that this was the correct building, Harry made his way to the automatic doors.
The lobby was large and sparsely decorated. People bustled back and forth from the lobby to a set of double doors in the back. A receptionist desk sat against the far wall, with a perfect view of anyone entering or leaving. A couple of fairly attractive ladies manned the desk, the brunette on the right already staring him down as he walked closer.
“Erm, excuse me ma’am, I’m looking for Tony Stark? Is this the correct building?” he asked hesitantly. The woman rolled her eyes before she raked her eyes down his frame. Her gaze halted at the infant bound to his chest.
“Lemme guess, you can swear on your life that Mr. Stark is the baby’s father, there’s no other possibility it couldn’t have been anyone else as he was the only man that baby’s mother ever slept with, right?” She rolled her eyes again before clicking away at her computer.
“Uh, actually-“
“We get people in here a dozen times a day with the same story. You’re pretty original with yours though, being a man trying to pass of a child as his. Usually the mother comes herself,” she interrupted him, still clicking away.
“I’m not-“
“What’s your name so I can mark your file, please.”
Harry was stunned for a moment. It wasn’t until the clicking stopped and she stared at him again that he realized she’d asked him a question. “Oh, er, it’s Potter, Harry Potter. But I’m not-“
“Alright Mr. Potter. Take this tablet with you and you see those doors there to the left,” she gestured towards the double doors all the people had gone through, “go straight through to the elevators and it’s the sixth floor. The tablet has the paperwork you need to fill out before the DNA test can be done. If you have any further questions, the receptionist there can help you when you arrive.”
“Er, thank you.” Harry quickly shoved the door open, barely taking in the short hallway as he bashed the arrow for the elevator. His cheeks were hot, and he wasn’t sure why. A sick feeling of shame and wrongness filled him, and he nearly turned on his heel to leave. The elevator doors opened with a soft ding before he could take a step.
Taking a deep breath, Harry stepped in and hit the button that said six. The doors started to close when he heard a voice shout. “Wait! Hold the elevator!” He shoved his hand between the doors, forcing them to open again, and a short dark-haired man with brown eyes and a neatly trimmed goatee stepped in.
“Phew, thank you so much. I really didn’t want to wait for the next elevator.”
“It’s no problem really.” The man reached over to hit his floor before he stopped.
“Oh, we’re going to the same floor.” The man’s eyes glanced over at him, halting at Teddy. “Oh, you’re here for a DNA test, huh. What’s the little guy’s name? It’s been a minute since we’ve had such a little one here. Most people stopped bringing infants once the engagement was announced.”
“Oh er, his name is Teddy. But I’m not here for him.” Harry felt very uncomfortable at this point. The man rose an eyebrow at Harry’s words before taking him in again. He stopped briefly at his hair and the clothes he wore. Harry glanced down at his raggedy shirt and too large trousers. He was still wearing Dudley’s cast-offs from when he was twelve, and they were still too large.
“Huh, would you look at that. Say kid, how old are you anyways? It’s been a decade since we had someone older come in.”
Harry glanced at the floor marker that showed the number three as he absently answered the strange man, “I just turned eighteen.”
“Eighteen years, and British. Huh, go figure,” the man whispered under his breathe. The elevator finally opened up into another lobby. Harry gave a tight smile to the strange man as he stepped off, readjusting Teddy as he went.
There were about five or six women of varying ages sitting around the lobby. Every one of them had a child with them. The oldest he could see was around ten and the youngest about three or four. Some of the kids were playing at the toy stations that were set up.
Ignoring the stares he could feel, Harry walked to the reception desk that was manned by only one slightly older lady. “Excuse me ma’am. I was told to speak with you if I had questions?”
The lady glanced at him from over her computer screen, the light reflecting off of her glasses. “Did you fill out the questions on the tablet?” she asked politely.
“Er, that’s what I need help with,” he said as he held the device up. “I have no idea how to work this. I was wondering if you could help me?” He grinned sheepishly as a look of amusement crossed the woman’s face.
The women around the room were tittering in the background, the noise becoming rather loud. He did his best to ignore it as he gave the woman his best kicked puppy look. He could have sworn he heard someone say “Stark”, but he didn’t turn around.
The lady, her name tag read Sandra, gave him an exasperated look as she took the tablet from him. Harry watched closely as she explained how to work it, what he needed to fill out, and how to submit the paperwork.
“Thank you so much, Ms. Sandra,” he gushed as he took the table back from her.
“It’s no problem. Return the tablet back to me once you have finished everything, alright?” She went back to her computer as Harry turned to find a seat. Several of the women had huddled up together, talking in hushed whispers as they obviously gossiped. They kept glancing at the swinging doors at the side of the room. Some of them stared at him as he passed but he ignored them as best he could.
Finding a quiet corner, forgoing a chair, Harry gently sat the tablet and the diaper bag on the floor as he set to unwrapping Teddy from the sling. His shoulders and back were killing him since he’d been toting the baby around for several hours. He knew that he had to be hungry at this point, and everyone in the room was lucky that Teddy wasn’t screaming his head off.
Harry spread the sling out on the carpeted floor as a makeshift blanket, gently setting Teddy down on top of it. He was old enough to sit up at this point, could even hold his own bottle, but he wasn’t quite ready to crawl just yet. Quickly reaching for the diaper bag, Harry set to making a bottle before Teddy got fussy. He used a tiny amount of wandless magic to warm it before he handed it to the expectant infant.
He couldn’t help the doting smile as Teddy laid back and happily suckled the bottle. He was so thankful that after everyone the war took from him, he was left with this wonderful creature. Keeping one eye on the baby, he picked up the tablet and set to work filling out the questionnaire.
Half of the questions he couldn’t answer, and he grew frustrated as more and more were left blank. There was nothing he could do about it though so he just filled out what he could. By the time he was finished, Teddy had finished his bottle and rolled over on his stomach. He was pulling the fabric up to his face, chewing on pieces, as he stared around the room. His chubby little legs kicked out several times as he happily gurgled and played.
Harry hit submit and gently picked the baby up, tugging him over his shoulder as he stood. Ms. Sandra took the tablet from him, smiling indulgently with warm eyes as Harry started patting Teddy’s back.
“Is he your nephew?” she asked curiously as she checked the numbers on the tablet to the one on her computer.
“No, he’s my son,” Harry said absently as he gently burped Teddy.
“Oh?” When he looked back at the woman, curiosity practically glowed from her eyes. “I thought you were here for him.”
“Oh, no. I’m here for myself, ma’am,” he explained, pulling a cloth seemingly from nowhere to wipe the small amount of spit up away.
“Ah, well then. Please have a seat Mr.,” she glanced at her screen, “Potter. You’ll be called momentarily.”
Harry gave a nod and moved back to his spot. One of the children in the lobby had ventured closer, staring at the infant still perched on his shoulder. They looked about six and Harry could spot a couple of missing teeth when they grinned.
“Can he play yet?” the young boy asked curiously.
“No, he’s still quite small.” Harry explained as he sat Teddy back down in his spot.
“Hey, you talk funny mister.”
Harry couldn’t help the chuckle as he grinned at the kid. “I’m from a different country, we have a different accent there.”
“Oh,” the kid settled down near the makeshift blanket. “What’s it like over there? Ms. Bigsy told us about other countries at school, but she never told us they talked different. What else is different? Do you have cars over there? I like cars. My favorite one is a-“
Harry settled in as the kid rambled. He asked so many questions but rarely waited for Harry to answer any of them. The childlike curiosity was refreshing to him, and he indulged the questions where he could.
Eventually a stern looking woman called “Roger” over to her and they disappeared through the swinging doors. Harry released a deep sigh at the sudden quiet, unhappily left alone with his thoughts. He ruminated on the end of the war, the people lost, and the ones that were forever changed.
While he was glad to be leaving Wizarding Britain behind, he wondered if he’d made the right choice. When Gringotts had delivered the letters on his eighteenth birthday, his world had been shattered. Everything he’d thought he knew had been wrong.
Hopefully this ‘long lost father’ would pan out and Harry could finally have a semblance of family. Although, judging by just how disenchanted the receptionists were, Harry wasn’t too sure on how welcome his entrance would be. He already knew what the results would be. Gringotts was never wrong, and on top of that, his mother had never been called a liar, so he was sure she was telling the truth.
“Potter.” Harry’s head jerked at his name. Teddy had begun to doze off, so Harry quickly scooped him up and shoved the sling and bottle back into the diaper bag. A no-nonsense lady waited by the swinging doors as Harry approached, discreetly looking him up and down. “Hmm, follow me please,” she said tersely as she turned away and walked at a brisk pace.
The room they entered was what he imagined any state-of-the-art lab looked like. While he couldn’t identify most of the equipment, he did finish enough of primary to know that it was muggle science tech.
“Dr. Banner will be here in a moment. He’ll be the one to administer the DNA test.” She turned to leave after directing him to a chair.
Harry stopped the lady just as she reached the doorway. “Er, excuse me but how long does this usually take?”
“Not long at all, actually. You’ll be in and out before you know it. Mr. Stark utilizes cutting edge technology that can deliver the results quickly.” She didn’t wait any longer before booking it out the door. Harry was left with a slumbering Teddy and his thoughts once more.
Thankfully it wasn’t for long. A weary looking man with eyes almost as green as his walked into the room shortly after she left.
“Good evening Mr. Potter, I’m Bruce.”
“Erm, hello. Dr. Banner?”
“Yes, but I’d like to be called Bruce. I’m not actually a doctor, I just have a doctorate but Tony doesn’t seem to understand that.” Bruce explained with a roll of his eyes. The man looked stressed but calm. The type of calm that seemed forced.
“But you do know what you’re doing, right?” Harry asked skeptically. He bundled Teddy closer as the man snapped gloves on. The urge to flee nearly overtook him, but he just closed his eyes and pushed through it. He was a Gryffindor and Gryffindor’s did not run.
“I do, it’s alright. The test is really simple. I can either take a cheek swab or draw some blood to get the results. Which would you prefer?” Bruce walked to a cabinet on the wall adjacent to where Harry sat nervously.
“Um, which one is faster, or better? Erm, which would you recommend?”
Bruce turned to look at the young man, finally taking in his appearance. Confusion hit him. Usually, the type of people that came in were confident, self-assured. They foisted the child off immediately taking no care of the fit the child typically threw. This young man had the child pulled tightly to his chest as his eyes darted all around the room as if looking for an escape. His clothes were little more than rags and several sizes too big for him.
Deep circles ringed his eyes, his hair hung in limp curls around his face. A stark scar highlighted his forehead, stretching down into his eyebrow to his eyelid. He was scarily thin, gaunt, as if he’d been without a meal in years. The infant was very well fed in pristine clothing with rose dusted chubby cheeks.
Bruce made the decision then that when the results came back negative, he would absolutely be reaching out to help the young man. He looked like he needed it. Grabbing the supplies he needed, he quickly sat on a rolling stool and scooted closer to the boy.
“Either will work fine. The blood test usually comes back faster than the mouth swab, but there really isn’t too big of a difference.” The young man wouldn’t meet his eyes, looking down at his nose or his chin instead. His shoulders began to hunch in as he curled around the sleeping infant.
“I’d like to do the swab then, please,” Harry said quietly. Bruce catalogued every minute change in Harry’s expression.
“Do I make you uncomfortable, Mr. Potter?” Bruce finally asked. He would understand completely if the young man was afraid of him hulking out. He himself was always scared he would.
Harry’s eyes finally snapped up and met his in confusion. “Why would you make me uncomfortable? You haven’t done anything.” Bruce felt the breath leave him at the pain he could see reflected in the depths of the brightest green eyes he’d ever seen. Hulk shifted, growing taut as they watched together as the kid visibly pulled himself together, straightening his shoulders and no longer looking so nervous.
Final Note From the Crypt Keeper
This one still walks, secure in its steps, sure in its place.
It has a voice, bones, and breath.
It is but one chapter, but it is built on quiet heartbreak and whimpering hope.
And it carries a child, not just in the narrative, but in the tone.
Here in the archive, we remember:
Some stories are only half-buried.
They're just waiting for a reason to rise.
-𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝔂𝓹𝓽 𝓚𝓮𝓮𝓹𝓮𝓻
(Curator of Quiet Courage. Archiver of Ashes. Believer in Second Chances.)