Lightning Scars & Metal Hearts

The portrait hole no more than swung closed behind Harry before it opened right back up. He turned his head and saw Ron and Hermione climbing through.

Hermione’s cheeks were wet with the tears of laughter she had been crying in the Great Hall and Ron looked like someone had made his birthday a national holiday.

“Mate…” Ron was smiling too hard to even speak properly. “Wicked… just… wicked.”

Hermione must have seen Harry’s red cheeks and scowl because she tried to rearrange her face into something more sympathetic.

“Of course I’m sure you were very embarrassed,” she said in a high pitch voice that wasn’t sympathetic at all. “But, Harry, he called Umbridge a colorblind Trunchbull!”

Harry sighed while his friends collapsed in giggles again. Personally, he didn’t see the humor. He was sure it was more obscure references Tony loved to make, but it had been humiliating either way.

Not only did Tony announce to the entire school that Umbridge had Harry write those lines, but then he went on and pissed off two of Harry’s professors.

“Imagine if I were staying,” Harry hissed at the two of them. “Snape would chop me in potions ingredients!”

Ron snorted and tried to control his laughter. “Or he’d never talk to you again,” he said with an annoying grin. “‘Snivellus’, he called him!”

“I’m going to grab my stuff,” Harry scowled when Hermione and Ron started shrieking with laughter once more. “Idiots.”

Harry stomped up the staircase to the boys dorm, fuming all the while. The first thing he did before he started packing was pull his phone out and send a quick message to Sirius.

Traitor.

Harry was never telling him anything.

Everything had been packed while Harry’s heart slowed from the frantic pace it had been beating to and he slowly became numb. The thought that he was actually leaving and not returning kept circling his mind. A small part of him was relieved - no more Umbridge, no more whispers questioning his sanity, no more hero one day and deranged lunatic the next - but another part of him was disappointed.

No more magic. No more finding a way to vanquish Voldemort and earn the life being offered to him. No more doing something that his parents could be proud of.

Harry reminded himself that he wasn’t running away this time, not really. Tony was making him leave, wasn’t he? Harry couldn’t attend Hogwarts without his parent’s permission.

A quiet voice whispered that Harry could probably fight to stay, but Harry hushed it quickly.

Harry wasn’t being a coward by leaving, his parent was making him go.

It was entirely different.

Ron and Hermione were still in the common room when Harry drug his trunk down the stairs. Hermione rolled her eyes at him before swishing her wand and casting a levitation charm on the trunk.

“Honestly,” she muttered.

Ron grinned and held up the fancy golden cage that Tony had purchased just last month. Hedwig hooted happily at Harry inside of it and Harry smiled appreciatively at his best mate.

“Thanks,” he told Ron earnestly. Harry poked a finger in Hedwig’s cage and stroked her beak softly. “Ready to go home, girl?”

Hedwig trilled out a joyful noise and Harry tried to let that soothe away his guilt at leaving. If Hedwig was pleased, then that should count for something.

Hermione sniffled when she and Ron followed Harry down to the Entrance Hall. Harry was relieved that the hall was empty, the students probably went to gossip in their common rooms after what had to be the most exciting dinner they’d had in…

Well. In Harry’s history of dinners at Hogwarts, anyway.

“I’m glad you’re going to be happier, but I’m going to miss you,” Hermione said as they lingered by the door. Her eyes were sparkling with genuine tears and Harry resigned himself to being hugged by one of his first ever friends. Hermione hugged Harry tightly and then Ron took her place, giving Harry a quick and manly hug.

“You’ll call us on Hermione’s phone?” Ron asked gruffly, staring at the ground rather than Harry’s face.

Harry nodded at his own shoes. He cleared his throat and looked up at Ron through his fringe. “Yeah, I will.” Harry attempted to smile at the first friend he ever truly made. He felt oddly bashful at the thought of leaving Ron behind, they’d been close as brothers since Harry’s first year - the three weeks last November notwithstanding. “Reckon you two’ll kill each other before Christmas break?” Harry asked as a weak joke.

The tears spilled over Hermione’s lids and she threw her arms around Harry and Ron both as she began crying in earnest. Harry sent Ron a bewildered look and Ron merely shook his head; girls were mad.

Hermione pulled back and gave Harry a trembling and wet smile. “You have to invite us over for Christmas,” she insisted. “We want to meet the rest of your family and Peter of course!”

“And Arsehole!” Ron added. He winced and rubbed his shoulder when Hermione smacked him. “What?” he whined. “Harry’s the one who named him!”

Harry felt a twinge of regret wash through him as his two friends began bickering in a way that was exasperatingly familiar. Neither Ron nor Hermione were perfect, but Harry wasn’t either, and he didn’t think he could have ever asked for better mates to have than the two of them. They were the ones that made Hogwarts Harry’s home when he first started and the ones that made it bearable the last two years.

“I’ll miss you guys,” Harry said softly, interrupting their argument. He hadn’t meant to make Hermione start crying again, but that was precisely what happened.

Harry was buried in a group hug with Ron and Hermione for what felt like ‘long enough for Hermione to soak Harry’s shoulder with her noisy crying’. Finally, just when Harry thought he might actually drown from Hermione’s tears, a familiar buzzing noise filled the corridor and the three of them turned to the staircase.

Tony flew down the staircase in his flashy Iron Man suit and somehow, with a mask covering his face, seemed to radiate smugness in the most irritating way.

“Bloody hell,” Ron breathed. Ron didn’t look irritated by Tony’s smug demeanor or flashy entrance, he looked so impressed that it was a wonder he didn’t fall to his knees in worship then and there. Ron turned a bright smile toward Harry. “Think he’ll kidnap and adopt me too?”

“No can do, champ,” Tony said, apparently overhearing Ron’s joke. His voice came out distorted and flat, but it was unmistakably his.

“Sir, did you really unenroll Harry?” Hermione asked Tony breathlessly. Her eyes were shining as she gazed up at Tony in a very Lockhart-esque way.

“Sure did,” Tony said. “Ready, kid?”

Harry looked around the Entrance Hall slowly. He drank in the feeling of magic in the walls that once made him feel so safe and so special. He looked at the candles floating up on the ceiling and the gleaming doors of the Great Hall.

Goodbye, Harry told his first home with equal parts peace and gloom.

“Yeah,” Harry told Tony, “let’s go home.”

Harry took one step on the giant black jet parked on the rolling grounds outside the gate and froze.

“You must be Stark’s son!” A giant man with long blonde hair and a black jumpsuit topped off with a flowing red cape stormed across the jet to Harry and raised a hand the size of Harry’s head to him. Harry jumped backward immediately only to bump into Tony’s metal suit.

Tony maneuvered around Harry and dropped his face shield once he was inside the jet.

“Jesus, Thor, back up,” he grouched. “You smell terrible and the kid doesn’t want to smell the sweat of a God.” He turned enough so Harry could see his crooked grin, “Harry, meet Thor.”

Harry nodded while it felt like his heart was beating inside his throat. He carefully followed Tony toward a bench and then stopped again when two more people were sitting there.

Tony had too many damn friends.

“Hello.” The woman sitting on the bench rose to her feet and her brown eyes were sparkling when she smiled prettily at Harry. “I am Wanda,” she said. She had an odd accent, different than Harry’s and Tony’s other friends.

“And I’m Pietro,” the bloke with silver-blonde hair said. His eyes were sparkling as well when he smirked at Harry and stood to offer him a hand.

Harry looked from his hand to the woman beside him and then to Tony.

“And I’m not interested,” Harry said. He set Hedwig’s cage on top of his trunk that Tony carried to the jet and settled for sitting on the trunk beside her and petting her through the bars.

Tony called out an order to take the jet home and Harry couldn’t resist turning to look out the window as they flew up… up… up… away from Hogwarts.

“It’s a pretty picture,” Tony told Harry, startling him by his ability to sneak up on him in his suit. Harry looked at Tony’s face, scanning it to see what he was thinking, and saw nothing but a glimmer of happiness in his eyes and a grin on his lips.

“Yeah.” Harry looked back down at where Hogwarts disappeared from sight as they moved faster than Harry ever had in his life. “It used to be brilliant,” he said quietly.

Tony’s hand creeped slowly over, giving Harry time to realize what he was about to do.

“For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re coming home,” Tony said as his hand landed on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry tried to remember that it wasn’t Tony he was angry with - Tony didn’t seem to be able to help himself when it came to being a dramatic prat - and he nodded shortly.

“Was Professor Dumbledore angry?” Harry asked curiously, dodging having to respond to Tony’s sentiment.

Tony laughed and sat on the floor right beside Harry’s trunk.

“Old Albus? No,” he said. “The ‘Minister of Magic’? Yeah, a bit.”

Harry gaped at him and the others in the jet seemed to be eavesdropping without making it blatantly obvious as Tony filled Harry in on his ‘parent teacher conference’.

“Who’s the witch with the bun and the thin lips?”

“Professor McGonagall, she’s- she was my Head of House.”

“I like her. So she called Minister Fudge, who, by the way, is definitely an idiot, to report assault on a student.”

Harry scowled and dropped his head, his irritation at Sirius filling him again. Sirius was a terrible friend. Harry doubted it Sirius would like it very much if Harry went around telling everyone how jealous he was of Lupin and Tonks or how much being in his childhood home gave him anxiety. But Harry wouldn’t tell anyone, because Harry knew how to keep a secret.

Tony went on as if Harry wasn’t silently plotting revenge against his godfather.

“So he shows up while I’m fighting with Snivellus—”

Harry bit his lip hard to keep from laughing at the way Tony adopted Sirius’ hateful nickname for Snape.

“And he decides to say that you’re a liar, blah blah blah, you can’t be trusted, clearly you’re looking for attention, blah blah blah.”

“Clearly,” Harry agreed with a sneer. He lifted his head and saw that Tony actually looked irritated about Minister Fudge’s words, which… which was nice, really. People who believed Harry for things he couldn’t or wouldn’t prove were few and far in between.

Tony raised a brow and nodded. “Right, so I tore into him, asking why he was defending his staff when they were the ones attacking school kids. Then Gandalf got involved, he told Fudge that Umbridge had to leave his school and they were still fighting over it when I asked McGonagall to get me a list of all muggleborns in the school, or anyone with at least one muggle parent.”

“What is a muggle?” Wanda asked.

Harry didn’t even turn to look at her, he just watched Hedwig sleep as he stroked her wings.

“Someone without magic,” Harry told her. “Why’d you want those names?” he asked Tony.

Tony sounded smug, “So I could write to their parents, let them know about what passes for detention in that place.”

Harry snorted. “Right. Did she get it?”

“Nope. Said it was against policy.”

That made sense, especially with Voldemort back and his prejudice against muggleborns. A list of muggleborn students floating around could be a disaster for those kids and their families.

“She told me to take an ad out in the papers.”

Harry looked up at Tony and saw a smile on his face that he hesitantly mirrored back at him.

“Are you going to?” Harry asked him.

“No need.” Tony’s smile was just as smug as it was thrilled. “Umbridge was being terminated when I decided that the lack of actual light and technology was making me itch.”

Harry released a heavy breath. That was a relief. He hadn’t been thrilled to have his detentions told to the entire bloody school, but if it got rid of Umbridge, then at least nobody else would suffer through them while Harry was gone.

“That’s good,” he said evenly. “Hermione’ll be happy.”

“This calls for revels!” Thor boomed, his loud voice causing Harry to twitch as he turned to see the giant God/man standing much too close to them with a hammer the size of Harry’s head in his hands.

“We have secured Loki’s scepter, you have saved your son from the wicked sorcerers, and we have new friends!” Thor said, swinging his hammer toward Wanda and Pietro. “We must celebrate with food and drink!”

Tony jumped to his feet at once with a bright smile.

“Oh, this absolutely calls for food and drink,” he laughed. He waggled his brows at Harry, “You in?”

Harry glanced uneasily where Wanda sat, her eyes hadn’t left Harry’s face since he stepped foot on the jet, then where the others were all practically shaking with excitement.

“As I’ve been kidnapped once again, I suppose I don’t have much of a choice,” he said in a slow drawl.

Tony laughed and put his hand on Harry’s shoulder again.

“That’s the spirit!”

As mixed as Harry’s emotions were about leaving Hogwarts - letting everyone down, unable to defend himself once again - he felt a little better when he stepped in the tower from the jet and Joey came running to him with his tail wagging.

“Arsehole!” Harry crouched on the floor and caught his dog when it came running to him. “Oh, buddy, you’ve gotten big,” Harry scolded him playfully. “You promised you wouldn’t.”

“And you’ve gotten skinnier,” Tony huffed. He dropped Harry’s trunk in the middle of their living room then stretched his back out. “Hungry? We’ve got a couple hours until ‘revels’ are expected to start.”

Harry was starving actually, he hadn’t ate much dinner… or lunch before that… or breakfast at all.

“Sure,” he said. Harry scooped Joey up in his arms and followed Tony to the kitchen. “Where’s Pepper?”

“Hmm? Oh, she’s off in Washington lobbying for something or another,” Tony said vaguely. He opened the refrigerator and frowned at the empty contents. Harry could see just over his shoulder that there were mostly just takeout containers and bottles of water.

“Oh! I know.” Tony slammed the door shut and began digging in his pocket. “Why don’t you go grab food with Happy and pick up your geek? Bring him by for the party, meet the whole family!”

Harry eyed the wad of money Tony offered him warily.

“I’ve got money,” he hedged. In the backpack Tony had sent with him to Sirius’ he’d managed to stuff every snack food Harry had ever eaten along with a months worth of portable chargers along with a thick wad of cash, both American and British.

Ron had been as interested in the foreign snacks as Mister Weasley had been the money and chargers.

“Well here’s more,” Tony said stubbornly. “Grab me a burger or something on your way back, will you?”

“Fine.” Harry scowled and accepted the money when Tony thrust it in his face again.

“How’s the hand, by the way?”

Harry frozen and instinctively shoved his left hand in his robe pocket. “Fine,” he said evenly. It was throbbing and sore, but since Harry didn’t have anymore detentions to serve, he figured it would heal up eventually.

Tony hummed skeptically. “Mind if I see?”

“I do actually,” Harry said shortly before turning on his heel to stride away. “Bye.”

“Maybe change before you go see Lover Boy,” Tony called at Harry’s back, causing Harry to turn and veer toward his bedroom instead of the lift.

It wasn’t like he wouldn’t look like a freak showing up at Peter’s house in his Hogwarts uniform.

As soon as Harry changed in a pair of normal jeans and a hoodie, he went to track down Happy while Tony slipped away to his lab with Bruce.

Happy, unexpectedly, was not happy at all when Harry found him on the previously empty floor that Tony said was Thor’s.

“Sure, just move more people in,” Happy complained under his breath once they got in the lift to go down to the garage. He’d seemed relieved when Harry hesitantly interrupted an argument he’d been having with Wanda and Pietro, and Harry couldn’t help but empathize with him.

There were too many people in the Tower and Harry still had no idea who Wanda and Pietro were or why they gave Harry such intense looks when he was near them.

“Are they staying long?” Harry asked Happy.

Happy sighed and scratched his jaw before giving Harry a sideways look.

“Who knows, your dad’s always adopting strays.”

Harry raised an unimpressed brow at him. “Interesting theory to share with his adopted son.”

Happy chuckled and gestured for Harry to leave the lift when the doors opened to the garage filled with a dozen cars, each one flashier than the one before it.

“You’re not ‘adopted’,” he stressed. “You’re his son, the paperwork just got a little messed up on you when you were born.”

Harry scoffed and climbed in the passenger seat of the slick black SUV Happy drove.

“Interesting way to explain it,” Harry said drily. He fiddled with the radio dials while Happy pulled out and headed toward Peter’s house in Queens.

“Well how do you explain it?” Happy asked him.

“Kidnapping and surprise adoption.”

Happy laughed and tuned the radio to the station Harry had been looking for with a button on his steering wheel.

“Man, I bet your dad is thrilled to have you back,” he said with a grin. “God knows he needed someone to argue with.”

Harry settled back in his seat and listened as Happy filled him in on everything he’d missed in the last few weeks. He also ignored the three texts Sirius sent him in response to his single message and chose to send Peter a quick text.

Hope you like surprises.

Harry didn’t much like surprises, but he hoped Peter did.

Or, at least, Harry hoped Peter was as excited to see him as Harry was.