Growing Up Part I
Chapter 5: When in doubt with magical kids, call Nanny Harkness!:
Avengers Tower, New York City, July 2006
Harry and Dudley were now 6 year olds. They were both enrolled in elementary school in New York, while Harry had magical tutoring from his and Dudley’s nanny. While in the beginning Tony and Pepper had decided against getting a nanny for the kids, wishing to take care of them personally, they soon realised they were both out of their depth and didn’t have time to take care of them during the day. And, when a nanny suddenly appeared one day in the penthouse, they decided to take her. This nanny, called Agatha Harkness, was luckily a witch, and therefore knew about Harry’s power. Upon further clarification, Agatha explained that she was not Harry’s type of witch, but a more older type, where a witch could live for centuries with her magical power. When she told them she had lived through the Salem Trials, Tony had JARVIS run a full background check, and discovered that she was in fact telling the truth. Agatha became a staple in the house since then. Now that the children went to elementary school, she had more time to relax, but she still picked up the children each day, and left them in school each morning. Those rules had become even more strict since the attack last year.
Flashback
Central Park, New York City, June 2005
Agatha had one of the boys in each of her hands while they were strolling through Central Park. She had just picked them up from their end of preschool party, and now they were going to play in the park for a while before going back home. As they were reaching the park, Dudley began to shake her hand wanting to run to the park directly. Agatha watched him with a kind smile, as they boys were always like this when they reached the park. Then, she realised Harry was much more calm, and turned to see what was happening with him, to find his eyes coloured red and his free hand shining his characteristic reddish glow. Suddenly, a shield sprang in front of them just as a bullet was shot at them.
Agatha released her hands and transformed her clothes into her proper combat witch outfit. When he saw her ready, Harry dropped the shield and almost collapsed from the strain.
“Dudley, take Harry and hide!” ordered Agatha. At that, Dudley went to his cousin and began to move him behind a tree.
“Who are you and why did you attack us?!” said Agatha, her hands glowing in her purple, one of them trained to blast the attackers head if need be.The other hand had erected a semi-visible shield, which covered her
“Wouldn’t you like to know!” At that, 3 more thugs appeared from behind the main attacker, all of them dressed in the same manner.
“I will not ask a third time” screamed Agatha, giving them a final chance of surrendering, before she began her attack.
“You just need to know who we are, for it will be the last thing you will learn.” said all 4 voices at once “we are those of the Old Order of the Ten Rings” Finishing their little speech, the four attackers sprang to action. The initial shooter discarded his gun for a shotgun he carried on his back. The second one sprinted at Agatha, wielding a katana in each of his hands, while the third one remained in position, trying to trap Agatha in one of his bolea traps. The fourth attacker, to her surprise, turned invisible. Discarding him for the other three, Agatha lowered her shield and began her attack.
By that time, the second attacker had almost reached her, but he suddenly found himself thrown against the trunk of a tree, hitting it with a highly-hearable thud. At that, the third attacker left his traps, and opened fire on her. She stopped the bullets with one hand, while she blasted the first attacker back. When the third attacker ran out of bullets, he grabbed his dagger and tried a melee attack. Agatha smirked, and let him get close. When he was in reaching distance, she magicked the dagger out of his hand and knocked him out with its hilt.
That’s when she heard Dudley scream “AGATHA! Help please!” and she remembered the fourth attacker. She teleported to the children following Harry’s magical essence, she appeared in front of them, sending the attacker, who had up until this point trying to slash Harry and Dudley, managing to graze Dudley’s cheek and Harry’s eyebrow, flying back to the lake.
“Boys, are you okay?” asked Agatha, changing back to her regular outfit.
“Yes Agatha” said Dudley “He did not manage to get us, I ran very fast between his legs when he tried to attack me, and when he tried to attack Harry I stepped in front of him, and that is how I got my scrape. Harry got his because I was not fast enough” Dudley finished his recounting of the events sad, because he thought he had failed Harry.
Tony, Pepper and Agatha worried about Dudley’s self-esteem. Growing up with Harry, who had magic of various kinds, made him feel lesser than. That is why he was always trying to prove himself to the adults, as if he needed to go the extra mile in order to reach the approval of his loved ones.
“Dudley, you did splendidly!” exclaimed Agatha. She was impressed with his quick-thinking, and with how he had not doubted to protect his cousin, even if he could have ended up badly hurt.
“Agatha, what about Harry! He just passed out! I tried to shake him awake, but he did not even flinch, and the scrape he got only caused him to close his eyes more forcefully.” Dudley knew this could happen when Harry used too much magic, but he still worried very much when it happened.
“Oh my dear, do not worry” said Agatha. She cast Rictusempra and Harry woke up in a fit of giggles.
“Agatha! Please stop!” screamed the giggling child. “What happened? Why am I on the ground?” asked Harry
“Oh boys…” said Agatha while Dudley just tackled Harry to the ground.
End Flashback
After that attack, Agatha decided to begin training Harry to control his innate magic better, in order to avoid him passing out every time he used it. Pepper convinced Tony to have the boys take self-defence classes. And Tony began working on what he did best: armours for Harry and Dudley.
Now, after a year of tinkering and figuring out the technicalities of how the children will carry it and use it, both armours were ready. Pepper had been angry at Tony when she first heard what his plan for the children was, but as time went by, she began to accept the idea and even give inputs on the armours, such as the colouring of it and their functions.
They had decided to wait until Harry’s birthday to give them both their armours, instead of doing one per day. That way both children could learn and help the other. And they solved having an anxious Harry for a month asking for his armour.
On Pepper’s orders, these armours were a very light version of Tony’s initial idea. While he wanted to have the children carry a set of deterrent missiles in case of danger, and for each of them to have their specifical modifications. Tony would have added, for each of the boys, a special AI catered to their personalities, and many of the technological elements of his own suits in their suits. He wanted Harry to be able to free his dominant hand when he needed to cast magic, wand or otherwise, and he wanted Dudley to be able to create a shield if he needed to cover himself or to fight.Using a shield to fight had come from Steve, who had began teaching Dudley how to protect himself with a shield, and promised to teach him how to fight with it in time.
Alas, Pepper order’s caused all of these modifications, save Harry’s possible free time and Dudley’s initial shield, to go back into the drawing board for future armours. Pepper had also overruled him on the AIs, telling Tony that for the time being JARVIS would be in the armours, with the possibility of a “parental” override installed in case the children were in real danger.
So, when all the Team had given Harry his presents, and his godfather had turned back into human, Pepper and Tony approached both boys and gave them two wristbands, each with a charm. A wand for Harry and a shield for Dudley.
“Harry and Dudley” began Tony “would you please press the charms on the wristbands and say Protection, Magic and Avenge?”
Both boys did, and suddenly metal began to flow out of the charm and enveloped both kids. Their armours finally fit their whole bodies and turned on, with JARVIS greeting them. Harry’s armour was coloured in red and blue, while Dudley’s was yellow and silver. Harry’s colours came from both the Houses of Potter and Black shields and significant colours, with the Potters identifying themselves with the colour red and the Black’s with the deep ocean blue. And Dudley’s colours came from his favourite Avengers: Iron Man and the Hulk. These two were also the people Dudley felt more comfortable with. Tony was his actual father, now that Vernon was dead and had not ever met him, while in Bruce he found someone that helped him with his rage. During his pre-school years, Dudley had some issues with his anger and strength, resulting in several kids getting hurt after teasing Harry for his glasses or Dudley for his chubby face. When the incidents got too much, Tony asked Bruce to talk with Dudley, which resulted in Dudley talking to Bruce when it got too much.
The children’s reaction was the best thing either Pepper, Tony and Sirius had ever seen. Harry instantly began to float, having already figured out how to fly. Harry had taken to flight like a bird, whether it was in a broom, in the Quinjet, or even in piggyback atop Tony’s armour. Dudley, on the other hand, activated his shield and wowed very loudly.
“Steve! Look Steve, it's a shield! It’s just like yours!” screamed the child excitedly
“Yes Dudley, and yes I will begin training you with this one.” said Steve when he saw the face of Dudley begin to practise with his new shield.
These new armours were also the byproduct of combining Magic and Technology. Once they had the design of the armours, Tony and JARVIS had tried to figure out how to make them carriable. After weeks of failed experiments, Tony asked Sirius if he had any ideas on how to allow the kids to carry them around. Sirius just waved his wand and miniaturised the tablet Tony was holding, and regrowing it seconds later. After feeling dumbstruck for half an hour, Tony went into a frenzy and managed to alter the armours in a way that they could work as they did, extracting a promise from Sirius that he would help him to better his own armours in future.
Upstate New York, Unnamed Stark field property, August 2006
“Okay boys, try to turn on the thrusters in flight mode, but regulate the speed so you just fly up 10 metres. We don’t want you getting hurt, or worse, Pepper hurting me…” said Tony.
“Remember, you just have to kick your foot against the ground and slow the acceleration speed with JARVIS”
“Yes Tony!” said Harry and Dudley.
Dudley began to float upwards, stopping when JARVIS pointed out the height they were currently reaching, while Harry sped up to the skies, stopping when Tony ordered JARVIS to override Harry’s armour and stopped it. He had reached the 250 metre height.
“Yes, we need to install flight limitations on that armour” said Tony, sounding fondly exasperated, as if he already expected this.
“Yes, or else Pepper and Minerva may kill you, or worst, turn you into a pig” joked Dudley.
“Don’t remind me about those days” said Tony, with a joking dark tone and cold stare. In truth he had suffered the second fate of Dudley’s threat. Professor McGonagall had learned of Tony’s past, and had decided to practically teach him what would happen if he ever took up his play-boy ways.
“But Tony, you looked very cute as that pig! And we still have the feeder we bought!” giggled Tony
“You laugh again and I will get Agatha or Sirius to turn you into a cow!” threatened Tony, while flying up to get to Harry, who had begun to fly again.