“An agreement, Gandalf.”
“No.”
Tony’s stomach twisted when Harry blinked at him with his jaw practically on the table. It would be really funny if Tony wasn’t sure it was about to be a fight.
How could Harry think Tony would let him go back? What parent in their right mind would? Even a brand new parent doing a half-ass job, like Tony, could recognize that school was insane and kids should stay fifty feet away at all times.
“Pardon?” Harry asked, his voice nearly as warm as Steve used to be.
Tony cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair. “You should go to Midtown with your friends, like we planned, kid.”
Harry narrowed his eyes. “I thought it was my decision?”
“And if you want to go to Illvermony or York, great,” Tony shrugged. “Not Hogwarts.”
“Why not?” Harry demanded. “I’ve been going there for years!”
Tony threw his hands up. Was that a real question?
“And all sorts of crazy shit happened!” Tony said. He took a deep breath to center himself, no need to get worked up. “I’m sorry, kid, I’m the parent here and that means I have to pay the taxes and make some rules.”
Harry got to his feet and kicked his chair beneath the counter, glaring at Tony harshly the whole time.
“I’m going back,” Harry said firmly, more than a little cocky and irritated. “Just because you shagged my mum doesn’t mean you can keep me from going to my school.”
Harry turned on his heel and stormed to his room, pausing long enough to gently close his door behind him.
Tony preferred it when he slammed it, honestly. At least then it wasn’t the weirdest damn thing to see a pissed off teenager closing his door silently during a fit.
The internet really hadn’t prepared Tony for parenting.
“You made the right call,” Steve assured Tony later that night when Harry was asleep and the team came over to bond. Tony personally did all his best bonding over a bottle of whisky, which was what he patiently explained when the others showed up only to find Tony still seated at the kitchen island with a bottle in one hand and a glass in the other.
It hadn’t taken long to catch the others up on the newest ‘Tony didn’t know how to be a parent’ dilemma and their support for his decision was vindicating.
“That school doesn’t even sound too bad,” Nat shrugged. She poured herself a second drink and took a sip while the guys gawked at her. “What?” she demanded. “It could be worse.”
Tony grimaced and swirled his drink around, idly wishing he’d thought to grab ice cubes before pouring his fourth glass.
“The kid has some horror story happen every year,” Bruce said, both entirely sober and rational. He patted Tony’s shoulder kindly. “Better for him to be mad now than to risk him dying.”
“Yeah.” Tony sighed and sent a forlorn look at Harry’s door. “It’s just… we’d been getting along so well.”
In fact, Tony had began to feel like maybe he could be a real dad. Like one of the lame ones on TV whose kid didn’t hate him and wish for a different parent. Tony would be a thousand times better looking than Gomez Adams, but only nearly as fun.
But he couldn’t even be Cousin It if his kid wouldn’t talk to him.
“You will again,” Clint said with a careless wave of his hand. “The kid’s all buddy-buddy with his godfather again, right? So send him to MIT with his nerds and he’ll get over it.”
Tony rubbed the back of his neck with both thumbs, pointlessly trying to massage away the stress he’d built since the instant he said ‘no’.
Steve cleared his throat, drawing Tony’s eyes up to him.
“If you’re not sending him to the wizard school, I’m telling you, Tony, the kid needs therapy. I- did he tell you about boxing today?”
“No…” Tony sat up and narrowed his eyes at Steve. “He said you were annoying, what’d you do?”
“I told the kid to punch the bag like it was someone he hated,” Steve said, holding his hands up innocently. “He- well, no offense, but he’s not exactly overflowing with physical strength, so I was trying to perk him up. You know, add some fire.”
“So who’d he imagine?” Bruce asked. His eyes flicked toward Tony and he frowned when he saw Tony catch the movement. “Oh come on, it’s not unrealistic.”
Tony threw back the rest of his drink and sighed. “Did he imagine me?”
“No.”
Good.
“He said he wouldn’t do it because it was cruel to hit someone just because he didn’t like them.”
That… Tony’s lips curled up at the edges. That was actually kind of cute. Sirius said Albus wanted Harry to win a war, and the kid was a pacifist.
Tony Stark’s son was a pacifist.
Hysterical, truly.
Nat caught Tony’s eyes and she smirked, sharing his thoughts apparently.
Then Steve wiped the amusement off all their faces when he added, “He said he didn’t like it when it happened to him.”
“Jesus Christ.” Bruce tossed his glasses on the island and wiped his face with his hand. “You know, I’d really like to let the Big Guy go a few rounds with those people.”
Tony, Clint, and Nat all raised their glasses in silent agreement.
“Don’t get snippy, but… what if that school was the first place the kid felt safe?” Steve asked, his expression frank and genuine. As if Mister Red White and Honest could be anything but. “Even if it wasn’t safe, it must have been better than his home.”
“Helpful, really,” Tony said, his tone thick with fake cheer. “‘This crazy wizard school was safer than a house full of assholes, let the kid go!’”
“That’s not exactly what I—”
“What’s worst case scenario if the kid goes to the wizard school?” Nat asked, cutting Steve off. She raised a mocking brow at Tony and lowered her voice to a juvenile tone, “You miss him too much?”
“Ignore Nat, she forgets that assassin school isn’t normal,” Clint said. He bumped his shoulder against Nat’s and rolled his eyes. “Besides the fact that Harry going to that wizard school is exactly what that manipulative shit wanted, Tony said he’d nearly died there half a dozen times.”
“He did,” Tony agreed with a nod. He refilled his glass and held it across the counter to Clint, clinking their tumblers together. “Sirius said he fought a giant murderous snake and a hundred of those soul stealing demons and that’s not even counting the whole ‘kidnapped’ shit after he fought a dragon.”
The sad part about all that was Tony was certain he was forgetting a handful of life threatening situations the kid had been in.
“He also made his first friends, felt like he had a home for the first time. He was made the youngest seeker in a century, won the quidditch house cup, and saw his parents for the first time.”
The team all spun their heads around to stare at Harry, who had managed to silently sneak up on ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes’. Harry stood between the sofa and the island, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes firmly aimed at Tony.
“I didn’t come here to mess up your fucking life,” he said, ignoring the others who all watched him with various expressions of curiosity on their faces. “And I certainly didn’t ask you to mess up mine.”
Harry, looking more like Tony than Tony himself did, twisted his lips to the side and strode across the room, snatching a bottle of water from the pantry. He didn’t technically turn his back to the silent team sitting together, but he did a damn good job of feigning indifference to their presence.
As soon as Harry returned to his room, his door shut gently, Steve gave Tony a sympathetic look.
“When does school start back up?” he asked.
“September first, apparently.”
***
It took nearly two weeks to negotiate times and places with Sirius; two weeks of cold shoulders and Harry conveniently disappearing with his friends when Tony was home.
Tony had never predicted how much he’d miss the snarky banter he shared with his son, but damn if he didn’t. The cold shoulders were just…
Effective, really. And not at all fun.
Age-appropriate though, according to the research Pepper kept sending to his inbox flagged as ‘crucial’.
Finally though, Tony had secured a meeting with old Albus and would sit down and hammer out the details of if Harry would return to Hogwarts. Just because the kid wanted to go, didn’t mean he should. And, yeah, it was a nice speech he gave, playing the orphan card, the ‘my first friends’ card, and the abusive home card, but Harry also jumped off a building recently so Tony couldn’t let him call all the shots.
Tony sat in the tea shop in downtown London, supposedly just across the street from the entrance to an entire magical village (and he was dying to see if the arc reactor in his chest alone was enough to grant him entrance to the place) waiting on Albus to arrive for a chit chat.
Nothing too serious, just his word, preferably in blood, that if Harry went back he’d be absolutely safe while Tony and his team hunted down Darth Vader. Sirius hadn’t liked the idea of Harry going back any more than Tony had, but they’d talked it through (in calls more than texts because Tony could only deal with emojis so long) and Sirius thought it was a decent compromise.
Tony couldn’t keep Darth Vader from popping in Stark Tower just yet, not until he found a wizard not in Albus’ pocket, but Hogwarts supposedly could.
And in walked the man that supposedly kept Hogwarts such a safe place.
Albus walked in the tea shop with another garish set of suit pants, bright blue that time, purple suspenders, and a pastel pink shirt that made Tony question his ability to see color. Colorblind or not, Albus spotted Tony even with his hat and sunglasses and merrily made his way toward the little table in the back Tony secured.
Tony would never, in a million years, know what made the man so fearsome. He looked like someone’s colorblind grandpa with his beard and his happy eyes.
“Mister Stark,” Albus offered Tony a hand that Tony gripped without getting up, “I was pleased to hear from you.”
“Most people are,” Tony quipped. He waited for Albus to sit before deciding to be gracious. “Tea?”
“Thank you.” Albus smiled warmly while Tony poured him a cup and pushed it over to him. Tony himself already had too much tea, too much coffee before that, and was fighting down jitters. Caffeine jitters would look like nerves, and something told him that Albus’ eyes, a twinkling blue, like Steve’s, were as sharp as they were disarming.
“Let’s not beat around the bush here,” Tony said, cutting to the chase and taking control of the conversation right from the start. “You want Harry at Hogwarts? Sell it to me.”
Albus, to the very little credit Tony would give him, didn’t bother to put up false protests. Sirius told Tony to be subtle, push for answers, but Tony Stark didn’t do subtle.
He was Iron Man, for God’s sake. Didn’t get much more blatant than a shining red and gold suit flying from a twenty-five story building with his name splayed across the side.
“How would I do such a thing?” Albus asked curiously. He stirred his spoon in his teacup, directing it with only a finger. He smiled at Tony’s glance. “I have taken quite a few precautions to ensure our presence is unnoticed.”
Tony hummed and took his hat off, keeping his glasses as a security against those intelligent eyes.
“Great.” Tony combed his fingers through his hair, carelessly messing it up. “So let’s hear the pitch, Albus. ‘If you’ll let Harry go to Hogwarts, I will…’?”
“Does Harry wish to return?” Albus asked. He smiled when Tony said nothing. “I thought he may.”
“He’s fifteen, he also wants to let aliens rule the world and his dog shit in the house,” Tony said firmly. “Let’s get this straight, I am the adult, the parent.”
For better or worse.
“Harry is the child.” Tony raised a brow at Albus’ unchanged or bothered smile. “Understood?”
“Perfectly,” Albus said genially. “Shall I explain to you the layers upon layers of wards that Hogwarts has to keep the students safe? Or shall I tell you how Voldemort would never dare breach our walls while I remain headmaster?”
“Both.” Tony took a sip of the tea and held the cup firmly in his hands while he crossed one leg over the other and sat back in the little white metal chair the tea shop favored. He waved a hand grandly, “Any time now, Gandalf.”
Tony listened intently while Albus described the magic that protected Hogwarts. All of it sounded medieval, but… effective at a base level. He brought up the previous events, the dragon and the snake and the dementors, and Albus sat there and discussed it with them while they went through the tea and scones.
“I will admit to making mistakes, I am merely human,” Albus sighed and his shoulders curved inward. He stared down at his empty cup as if it held the answers to all his problems. “I never meant for Harry to be another mistake on my conscious, Mister Stark.” He looked up and Tony held back a wince at the depth of anguish in his eyes, “I truly do care for your son.”
Tony flicked his sunglasses up on his head, wanting to be sure that Albus saw how serious he was, and leaned across the table until they were eye level with each other. He maintained a solemn and cool expression, refusing to break in the face of one old man’s sorrow.
Albus’ problems weren’t Tony’s, only Harry’s.
“Harry is the only family I have, he is my son,” Tony stressed. “I don’t care how important you are, how powerful you are, how ‘human’ you are. If Harry is hurt at all, if he is unhappy for a single instant, I will find you and I will kill you. I want that perfectly clear, because if you can’t guarantee his safety and his happiness, you damn well better tell me now because I’ll be extremely unhappy to discover it later.” Tony raised his brows, “Capisci?”
Albus’ voice was low, solemn, and the lines in his forehead smoothed away. “I can assure you that your son’s life matters a great deal to me. And,” he gave a slight smile, “I have never seen Harry as happy as he is during quidditch matches and during meals with Mister Weasley and Miss Granger.”
“An agreement, Gandalf,” Tony demanded, refusing to be sidetracked by a pretty picture of a happy wizard boy. There was a dark side to that picture, and Tony saw the aftermath. The aftermath that led to scars and nightmares, insecurities and fears. Flying with his friends wasn’t worth tacking another ten years to the therapy the kid needed.
“I give you my word that your son will be safe at Hogwarts. For the record, Mister Stark,” Albus gave Tony a warm smile, one that felt as real as the beard on his face, “I was quite shocked to hear that James was not Harry’s father. I can admit that it concerned me to discover that Harry came to you.”
“And now?” Tony asked tightly.
“And now,” Albus held his hand out once more, “I believe that you are precisely the parent that young Harry requires.”
Tony shook his hand and internally preened. He didn’t need Gandalf’s approval, God knew that man couldn’t run a school, let alone be a parent, but it was nice to hear all the same.
Tony would still blast his ass to Pakistan if a single hair on his son’s head got hurt at his magic school though.
“Excellent.” Tony leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Now let’s talk about Mister Evil Wizard. I’ll make you a deal - you tell me what you know, my team takes him down.”
Albus tapped the tea kettle with his finger, instantly refilling it with steaming tea.
“I can think of no better team to work with,” he said agreeably. “Where shall I begin?”
“The beginning, usually,” Tony drawled arrogantly.
“There was once a brilliant boy at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle…”
Tony didn’t make it back to New York until the sun had long since set and Pepper had fallen asleep on the sofa. He smiled slightly at the puddle of drool the woman was leaving on a pillow that probably cost a hundred dollars and he sat his bags down long enough to cover her with the blanket from his own bed.
Pepper was good to have around, a steady support for Tony and Harry both.
Tony probably owed her a raise or a shopping spree.
He collected the bags and knocked lightly on Harry’s door.
“Hey,” Tony poked his head in when Harry called out a friendly greeting that was obviously not meant for him. Harry sat at his desk, his lamp on and his phone propped up. Tony had a brief flash of Peter’s face on Harry’s phone before Harry blocked his view with his shoulders.
“I’ll call you later,” Harry told Peter hastily. “Night.”
Tony dropped the bags by the door and leaned against the wall while Harry hung up on his boyfriend and spun around in his chair to glare at Tony. He didn’t say anything, he just sat there, glaring at Tony as if Tony truly had ruined his life by saying ‘no’ to the crazy magic school full of death traps.
Tony prayed to Thor himself that he wasn’t about to ruin the kid’s life by changing his answer.
“I got you something.” Tony reached in one of the bags and snagged the textbook that Gandalf took him to buy. He tossed it across the room to Harry, smirking at Harry’s automatic response to catch it.
“‘Standard Set of Spells…’” Harry trailed off and his eyes flicked up to Tony’s, full of confusion. “Where’d you get this?”
“Diagon Alley,” Tony said blithely. “Gandalf and I went, he told me what books to buy, and I grabbed some stuff for the owl too. Magic city? Amazing, by the way.”
It had been effective in showing Albus’ reputation in their community as well, which Tony suspected was his goal behind accompanying Tony through the shops. People were reverent of Albus and Tony saw fear in their eyes too. Sirius hadn’t exaggerated on the man, he was held in high regard.
By the magical community, anyway. Tony appreciated the information on Tom Riddle, a perfectly normal name that didn’t need changed to anything ridiculous, but Albus wasn’t a part of Tony’s team. So if Albus used Tony to get Harry somewhere he could keep an eye on him, it worked for the moment. Tony had pushed for information on Tom the entire trip, so he wasn’t innocent of any manipulations himself.
As long as Harry followed through on the conditions Tony wanted to set, Tony could handle his son leaving for boarding school. It would be a cold and lonely few months until Christmas break, but Tony could focus on Tom in that time and then maybe convince the kid to go to Midtown instead.
Maybe dangle Peter like a nerdy little gift of hormones for his son to chase clear to the normal high school that would send him home at three every day?
Harry got up and inched toward Tony, now squinting at the bags by his feet. He hesitated at the foot of his bed, his fingers twitching at his sides.
“Why?”
“You need them for school,” Tony shrugged. He pushed the bags toward Harry with his foot. “Let me know if anything’s missing. We can go to Landfara Way if you want normal stuff too. Quills, kid, really? Ugh,” Tony shuddered. “How does Hedwig feel about that?”
Harry’s brow furrowed and he looked from the bags to Tony. “You said no?” he said uncertainly.
Tony sighed and his casual stance became more of a slump against the messily painted red wall.
“Yeah, well, now I’m saying ‘yes with conditions’.”
Harry sat on the foot on his bed and crossed his arms defensively.
“What conditions?”
“You take your phone,” Tony started with the easiest one. “I can send you portable chargers since Gandalf said you don’t even have outlets- Muggle repellent, indeed.”
Harry’s lip twitched and the kid clamped down on it with his teeth while he nodded.
“And?”
“And you check in, like every day,” Tony went on. “No dangerous stunts, kid. No dragons, or giant snakes, or—”
“Or aliens and wormholes?” Harry drawled snarkily.
Tony grinned, “Precisely. Do as I say, not as I do.”
Harry snorted and he relaxed his tense pose. He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes roaming to the bags once more. “So I can go?” he asked slowly. Tony’s metaphorical heart clenched at the tapered down hope in Harry’s voice. “Really? Even after…?”
“Even after freezing me out and acting like every pissed off teenager ever?” Tony raised a brow at Harry’s look of chagrin. “Kid, I didn’t say no to ruin your life, I did it because, well, I care about you.”
Shoutout to you, Dad, thanks for making emotions so easy to express, Tony grimaced at how stilted and awkward he sounded. He added a shoutout to Harry’s scummy relatives for the way Harry looked as uncomfortable as Tony was. He kicked one bare foot in the carpet and Tony breezed ahead, putting them both out of their emotionally stunted misery.
“If you swear to stay safe, check-in every day, even just a quick text, then- then you can go.” Tony swallowed down his disappointment and quietly added. “And I want you to come back for Christmas.”
Harry peeked up at Tony through his messy bangs and eyelashes.
“You want me to come back during the holiday?” he asked quietly. It was lucky the metal in Tony’s chest couldn’t crack or he was sure it would in that moment.
His own dad aside, what parent didn’t want to spend the holiday with their kid?
“Of course,” Tony said honestly. He gave Harry a crooked grin. “There’s nothing like New York at Christmas, you’ll love it.”
Harry nodded and he looked adorable, if a little pathetic, with his cheeks pink and his eyes a little glassy.
“I’ll definitely come home for Christmas, if you want me…” Harry blinked and looked down at his lap, “…Dad.”
Tony blinked and felt like the floor was tilting beneath him. He couldn’t explain the emotions that slammed in him full force- there was shock and joy and pride and—
Harry scowled and shook his head. “That sounds fucking weird, nevermind.”
“That’s more like it,” Tony laughed and gave the kid a cheeky salute.
Harry could take it back, but Tony still heard it. And damn if he didn’t want to hear it again.
“Glad to have you back, kid,” Tony said cheerfully when he left Harry to dig through his purchases.
He only wished that he didn’t have to lose him all over again in only two short weeks. Less than that if he caved and let Sirius have him in London for the last week of summer.
“Parenting is hard,” Tony whispered to Pepper when he decided screw it and curled up beneath his blanket on the couch with her.
Pepper hummed and repositioned herself to cuddle up against him with her warm and distracting body.
“Yeah, but you’re doing a good job,” she said sleepily.
Tony grinned and touched his head to hers. “Harry called me dad,” he whispered softly. Pepper made a happy and half-asleep sound. “You should follow in his footsteps, call me Daddy.”
Pepper’s eyes snapped open and she pushed Tony, catching him by surprise and causing him to topple off the couch and on to the floor.
“You’re disgusting,” she said. She stretched out then, taking up the whole couch. “Sleep on the floor, Tony.”
“But you’re so much warmer!” he whined. He climbed back on the couch, laying directly on top of her and wrestling for control of the blanket. “C’mon, Pep, don’t be like this. Who’s going to entertain me while Harry’s at Hogwarts?”
“Probably one of your other children you didn’t know about,” she said. She conceded the blanket to Tony and moved so he could lay beside her. “Man whore.”
“That’s daddy man whore to you, missy,” Tony grinned. He accepted the swat to his head that Pepper dished out. “Night, Pep.”
“Night, Tony.”
Tony closed his eyes and tried to not think about how quiet his place would be shortly when Harry was gone and he was alone again.
If it made the kid happy, then surely it was the right decision.
Right?