The First Meeting
Chapter 6: The First Meeting
Harry looked at his father for the first time.
Harry didn’t know why, but Tony Stark was shorter than he had imagined. He knew that James had been relatively tall, so Harry had always just attributed his height to his childhood and bad luck, but now he may have to rethink that. He also had black hair, but it was cropped short and impeccably styled. With the way he slouched against the door frame, seemingly at ease, one wouldn’t guess that he had almost died two days ago. The only sign of battle was a black eye and a slight tension in his shoulders.
He knew he was staring, but Harry couldn’t bring himself to look away. His heart was beating fast. He frantically racked his brain for something to say, anything.
“I..uh. Hi.” Smooth…real smooth. Way to make a first impression. Merlin, what was he doing? He felt horribly awkward in front of the man who appeared to have mastered ease. Harry shifted in the bed, trying to get more comfortable. This was never the plan, he had never meant to meet Tony in the first place. But now, he wanted nothing more than to…impress him…prove something…please the little boy in the cupboard that he never truly grew out of. He didn’t know.
“Hi.” Tony smiled gently. Harry thought for a moment that his eyes looked misty, but he must have been imagining things.
Ron looked between the two of them cautiously, before determination crossed his face and excused himself.
“I’ll see you in a bit, mate.” Tony nodded at Ron as he walked past before shifting his gaze back to Harry.
“Thank you by the way, for not dropping the hunk of metal. That would have been one hell of a dent.” Tony said, smirking a little.
Harry relaxed a little, snorting.
“That would have been one hell of a pancake.” Tony’s grin grew wider and he started laughing.
“Hey, don't underestimate the suit.” His smile was contagious, Harry could feel the corner of his mouth begin to twitch.
“Jarvis would be offended, he ran the impact tests himself, right Jay?”
“It takes more than that to offend me, sir.” A disembodied voice spoke out, seemingly filling the room.
Harry jumped, whipping his head around. The last time he heard a voice surrounding him like that, coming seemingly from nowhere…..
Bring me Harry Potter rang in his ears, summoning him to his death. Warmth and peace, followed by cold, never ending cold. Harry didn’t think he had been warm since. He started shivering, staring at the wall, trying to snap himself out of it. He must not have succeeded quickly enough, because Tony took a step towards him, hands up trying to calm him.
“Woah, kid you are okay, it's Jarvis, my AI. He…it's just tech. You’re safe.”
Harry clenched his fists in the covers, trying to come back to the present. He was making a fool out of himself.
“Yeah…sorry. He sounds like a friend of yours.” Harry smiled tightly, determined to pretend that didn’t just happen. Merlin, he keeps embarrassing himself. Tony doesn’t even know that he’s his son yet, and he already was acting like a “freak”.
Tony looked at him closely, looking like he wanted to say something more before deciding against it.
“Well, I built him, but he sort of took on a life of his own. So, yes… I think a friend would be the best description.”
“That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me, sir. I apologize for startling you Mr. Potter.”
Harry looked to Tony, as if for permission before looking at the ceiling. “It’s fine, not your fault, I startle easily…should I call you Jarvis?”
“Yes. If you need anything, you can always ask me.”
“Thank you.” Tony watched the interaction carefully, smirk gone, replaced by something like sadness in his eyes. Tony took one step back towards the door.
“Well, I’m going to let you rest. You took one hell of a nose dive. Scared the living daylights out of everyone, especially your friends.”
“Hermione is here, too?”
“Oh yeah, been here for one day and already running the show. My kind of person.”
Harry laughed, he couldn’t stop himself. “I’m not surprised. She’s been running our lives for 8 years.”
“Reminds me of Pepper. You’ll meet her soon enough, she should be coming in tomorrow with Rhodey. Second guessing that decision now, though. The two of them in one room would be terrifying. I think you may have reason to be terrified already. I heard her say and I quote, ‘when he wakes up, I’m going to kill him’.”
“Brilliant.” Harry grimaced. Wait, tomorrow? Harry started panicking.
“Mr. Stark, I…”
“Tony.” Harry looked at him, surprised.
“Okay…Tony,” He said slowly. “I appreciate you letting us stay here, but we can get out of your hair now. We have a hotel room and..”
Tony snorted, holding up a hand to stop him. “Listen, you just passed out for 24 hours straight after saving my life. I’m not letting you leave until you are back to full health and don’t even think of fighting me on this. I got permission from your friends and everything.”
“But…”
“You can take it up with them. We are having a team dinner tonight if you are feeling up to it, so don’t be shy. And, I know he already said it, but seriously, if you need anything ask Jarvis or me, okay?”
Harry just nodded, feeling a little shell shocked.
Tony looked at him a second longer, like he had something else on the tip of his tongue before clapping his hands. “Rest well, Harry.”
Tony left the room, leaving Harry staring at the door. What just happened?
…
“Coward, coward, coward.” Tony whispered, berating himself as he left Harry’s room.
Tony didn’t consider himself a very warm person, more comfortable around technology than people, but when Harry, his 18 year old son, looked at him with those bright green eyes, lost and a little scared, he wanted nothing more than to wrap him in a hug. He wanted to spill everything, to apologize for not being there, to ask if he was okay, to protect him from whatever had made him flinch like that.
And he was planning too. Well, at least planning on telling him about the DNA test, but no. Tony was a coward.
Tony took a deep breath in. It was okay, they could talk after dinner, if Harry still wanted to talk to him, that is. He should have warned him about Jarvis, the kid had just been in a battle for Christ's sake, and remembering Lily and James, probably knew jack shit about tech, of course he would be startled! Tony felt like he was already fucking this up.
But he wouldn’t stop trying.
…
Ron stormed down the hall to the room he and Hermione were staying in. Hermione was on the bed, flipping through the pages of one of the hundreds of books she brought with her on vacation (because why wouldn’t she).
“You know something,” he said, the minute he entered the room. She looked up from her book.
“You’ve been acting all weird and dropping little comments to Harry all trip. And the way they spoke to each other… I dunno ... just.. somethings going on and you know what it is.” He said, gesturing furiously.
Hermione sighed, putting her book to the side. “It’s Harry’s business, Ronald, and I don’t think he has wanted to speak about it until now.”
“He’s my best mate! I should know what’s going on!” Ron said, volume rising. “I can’t help him if I don’t know and he needs help!”
Hermione looked at him sadly. “Ron, I don’t think either of us can truly help him with this.”
“Say’s the person who has been interfering this whole time, don’t think I didn’t notice.”
“I may have prodded, but I can’t do anything to truly help either. Harry has to tackle this on his own.”
Ron deflated, sitting down in bed beside her. “I’m tired of him tackling things on his own. He hasn’t been himself since…for a long time, and I just can’t.”
“You can’t fix everything Ron and you’ve been doing enough, for George, for your mother, for me, and for Harry.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying each other's calm, steady presence.
“Tony says we should come to a “team dinner” tonight.”
“Sounds brilliant, he’s good at ordering food. Who knew muggle food was so good?” Hermione elbowed him, rolling her eyes.
“Do you ever stop thinking about food?”
“Nah.”