“Never leave a fifteen year old in charge.”
Harry fidgeted anxiously with the cuff of his jacket and peeked over at Tony again. They were on the roof of the Tower, waiting for the jet to land with Sirius so Tony and his team could take off to capture the evil robot bloke. The others waited closer to the doors, their faces stony as they waited to take off on their trip.
Pietro smirked at Harry when he caught his eye, so Harry scowled and turned back to Tony.
“You planning on coming home or should I learn to run a company quickly?” Harry asked, masking his concern behind sarcasm.
Tony ran a hand through his dark hair and gave Harry a wry smile. “Oh this’ll be cake, kid, no sweat.”
“Then I can go?” Harry asked quickly.
Tony chuckled and shook a finger at Harry. “Nice try. You hang out with your godfather and Usain Bolt. Try and keep them from destroying our place, huh?”
Harry crinkled his nose and glared down at his trainers. Either it was so simple that Harry should be able to go or it was dangerous enough that Harry would rather Pietro take Tony’s place. It was selfish, since Tony was much more of an asset against the robot he technically built, but Harry would rather be selfish than be an orphan once more.
“Here he comes,” Tony said cheerfully as the large black jet came into view in the sky. Tony smiled over at Harry and Harry wished he had Tony’s never-ending confidence. “This’ll be fine, kid, you’ll see. I’ll be back by Monday and we’ll go get you enrolled at Midtown.”
Harry’s shoulders slumped and he inched closer to Tony as the jet began to whip wind around wildly while it descended on the roof.
“Be safe,” Harry murmured quietly, unsure if Tony could even hear him.
Tony grinned and put his arm around Harry’s shoulders slowly. “I will.”
The instant the jet doors opened, Sirius came barreling down the short ramp.
“Harry!” Sirius was dressed down with a grey hoodie beneath his leather jacket and a pair of jeans on, but the smile on his face was the same one that he always had for Harry.
Even when Harry had a few words about keeping secrets for his godfather.
“Sirius.” Harry stepped forward, out of Tony’s loose embrace, and let Sirius hug him briefly. Sirius was… well, he was everything to Harry. Even when Harry was pissed at him, there was something in his chest missing when Sirius wasn’t around.
It was part concern, since Sirius was a cocky bastard who didn’t take his safety seriously, but it was also… also just things were better with Sirius.
“Who’s the new weirdos?” Sirius whispered to Harry before he released him, his grey eyes wary when they landed on Pietro and Wanda.
Harry snorted, “Avengers, apparently. How’d you escape?”
Sirius slapped Tony on the shoulder as a greeting and laughed brightly.
“I grabbed a few bottles of whisky then slammed my door. Buckbeak’s in charge of storming around and making it seem like I’m home.”
That was the problem, Sirius said that as if it were a foolproof plan, and it all hinged on a hippogriff. A hippogriff that was rather intelligent, but still, Sirius was an idiot at times.
Harry kept silent though as Tony did a brief introduction between Sirius, Pietro, and Wanda and then ushered his team on the jet.
“You’re in charge,” Tony told Harry airily. “Have fun, order a bunch of junk food, do something interesting.”
Harry, impulsively, hugged Tony quickly before stepping backward with Sirius and Pietro.
“No wormholes,” Harry called to Tony.
Tony lifted his hand before he stepped on the jet. “No dragons,” he called back.
Harry smirked and flipped him off and Tony flipped him right back off before he climbed on and the runway closed behind him.
“I’ve got a ton of Polyjuice and a fistful of pink hair,” Sirius announced as he bounced on the balls of his feet and grinned at Harry. “You said there’s a garage full of cars here, right?”
Harry squinted at him suspiciously. “Yes…”
“Any motorcycles?”
There were in fact half a dozen motorcycles in the garage, but Sirius got distracted by a bright yellow flashy car that Pietro called a Lamborghini.
“How much do you reckon this cost?” Sirius breathed, running his hand down the side of the car lovingly.
“A fortune,” Pietro drawled. He dashed off quickly and returned in an instant with a set of keys dangling. “Anyone know how to drive?”
Harry looked at Sirius, Sirius looked at Harry, Pietro laughed.
“Dibs!” Sirius cried. He snatched the keys from Pietro and paused long enough to swallow some Polyjuice from a flask. Harry smirked at Pietro’s wide eyes when Sirius abruptly turned into Tonks.
“What is that?” Pietro asked in an awestruck tone.
“Magic,” Harry told him curtly. He moved to the passenger seat before Pietro could take it and quoted something he’d heard Pepper say before. “Shotgun.”
Sirius laughed brightly and Harry wished Sirius could always look so happy.
… and maybe less like Tonks.
Harry’s phone dinged and a photo of Peter popped up from where Harry had it connected to the radio.
“Are you not going to answer?” Sirius asked as he took a turn at a speed that had Pietro laughing and Harry clutching the dash and door hard enough to make his knuckles ache.
“I’ll call him later,” Harry grit out when Sirius ran a red light. “Oi! Did you know Tony reads my fucking texts?”
It was hard to read Sirius’ expressions on Tonks’ face, but Harry thought the way Sirius hummed and turned up the radio a bit telling.
Harry hadn’t talked to Peter since the day before when he text him about having a surprise and never got a proper reply. But Harry wasn’t going to chat about it if Tony could read their messages.
Merlin.
They’d sent each other all sorts of ridiculous texts when Harry had been at Hogwarts. Harry felt his face burn when he thought about some of the things they’d said.
Tony was bloody mad.
Pietro leaned forward, sticking his face between Harry and Sirius’. The wind snapped his peculiar silver hair in Harry’s face and made him sputter and Pietro to chuckle.
“Where are we going?” Pietro asked in his odd accented drawl.
Harry turned to Sirius, also curious about their destination. So far all they’d done is run the car out of gas and look like idiots as they tried to fuel it back up with Harry’s bank card.
Apparently Pietro spent most his life being experimented on - a story that made Harry blanch. Sirius didn’t use fuel in his bike. And Harry had never operated a pump before, he’d only ever seen Pepper and Happy do it.
Luckily, a nice looking lady with two little kids had taken pity on them and taught Harry how to swipe his card and get the fuel to work. She’d shook her head and called them tourists, but they probably looked pretty stupid so Harry didn’t dispute it. But that had been half a tank ago, and Sirius didn’t seem inclined to stop anytime soon.
“I’m trying to find Landfara Way,” Sirius explained. “I think the entrance is over by the government building, but I can’t remember exactly where that’s at.”
Harry rolled his eyes. Poor Sirius and his lack of technology.
“Hey, JARVIS?”
“Yes, Harry?”
“Can you pull up a map to get to the MACUSA building? Er, Tony and I went there before.”
“Of course. Directions should be displayed now.”
“Wicked!” Sirius laughed when the map popped up on the radio screen. “We’re only ten minutes away!”
“The way you drive? We will be there in five minutes,” Pietro smirked.
It didn’t take five minutes, despite Sirius’ speeding. It took them thirty-seven minutes because Sirius got pulled over. The stupid prat probably would have gotten a ticket if Harry hadn’t hastily shown his ID when the police officer began to wonder why they were in a car registered to Tony Stark.
“Perks of fame,” Sirius laughed when the officer didn’t write ‘the friend of Tony Stark’s son’ a ticket for speeding or not having the license Sirius definitely didn’t own on him.
Harry scowled and ignored Sirius and Pietro’s jokes for the rest of the drive. It was mildly less embarrassing to be recognized as Iron Man’s son than it was the Boy-Who-Lived, but not by much.
“Ladies and gentlemen, wizard and super powered bloke who should pretend to be a wizard, welcome to Landfara Way!” Sirius tapped his wand to the stone archway in the alley behind the government building where the President worked and Pietro made a sound of appreciation as the stones shimmered and the three of them stepped through.
It was as different from Diagon Alley as Tony’s house was to Hogwarts. Where Diagon Alley had been cobblestones and old fashioned shops, Landfara Way looked more like the muggle outlet malls Harry went to with Pepper.
All up and down the paved roads, there were modern looking shopfronts with flashing signs that advertised their services. There was the Big Apple Apothecary, Blooming’s Brooms, Wondrous Wardrobe Essentials, and dozens more.
“Amazing,” Pietro murmured as he quickly ducked to avoid the giggling children racing just above their heads on toy brooms. “This is all real?”
“Nope. You’re dreaming,” Harry quipped. He gave Pietro a bland smile, “Maybe you fell out a fucking window and cracked your head on the ground.”
Pietro smirked at Harry and then gestured grandly toward the rows of shops.
“Educate me then, Wizard Boy,” he said in a low drawl with a sparkle in his eyes.
“I’d love to,” Sirius sniffed haughtily, inserting himself in the conversation. “Come on, let’s see if we can’t piss away a fortune.”
And they made a good go of it.
Sirius filled three bags full of trick sweets and magical joke items in Jolly’s Joke Shop. He swore he was going to use them all on Lupin, Tonks, and Kreacher, the only other regular occupants of Grimmauld Place, but Harry figured he should at least warn Tony about the possibility of having magical booby traps set up in the Tower.
Pietro had been amazed at the rows and rows of books in Wizard’s Wiki. Harry quietly explained what some of them were while Sirius chatted up a bloke with an odd red cape and intelligent dark eyes.
“Unicorns are real then?” Pietro asked Harry when he flipped through a book on magical creatures.
Harry grimaced as he thought of Quirrell drinking from the silver unicorn to give life to Voldemort.
“Yeah, they’re real,” Harry said shortly. “I’m sure you can read about them in the book.”
Pietro gave him a peculiar look but said nothing else as he chose a stack of books to read.
Then Harry ogled a set of quidditch gloves in the quidditch supply shop that nearly brought tears to his eyes when he thought of how he’d never get to play quidditch again.
“What’s wrong?” Sirius slung his arm around Harry’s shoulders in the store and hugged him to his side. Harry had tensed under the odd feeling of Tonks’ slim arm being the one wrapped around him, but reminded himself it was Sirius and willed his muscles to relax.
Harry shrugged. “Nothing,” he mumbled.
Sirius gave him a searching look. “Missing your friends?” he guessed.
“Not too much,” Harry said evasively. He did miss Ron and Hermione, the twins and Ginny, but he’d gotten a video from Hermione of the five of them in the common room that had made him laugh as they all tried to mimic Tony’s insults to Umbridge and Snape.
“Peter?” Sirius said.
“No,” Harry lied.
“Quidditch?”
Harry shrugged. “A bit.”
Sirius laughed and ruffled Harry’s hair. “You’re definitely my godson,” he said proudly. “I went mad in my sixth year when I was banned from playing. I thought your dad was going to castrate me, it was his first year as captain.”
Harry forced a smile and listened to Sirius explain the many ways that James made his life hell when Sirius had suffered through a year long ban on quidditch. He also, optimistically, bought the quidditch gloves. He thought that if nothing else, he could wear them if Rhodey ever wanted to go flying again.
Everything had been going great until someone at the restaurant they chose for lunch recognized ’Harry Potter’ and they decided to make a dash for it before Harry got hounded.
“You’re rather famous,” Pietro said casually when they loaded their purchases in the boot of the car and started driving back toward the Tower. “Why?”
Harry turned his head and looked out the window with a frown. He hadn’t considered it luck at the time, but it was lucky that Sirius had a big mouth and explained enough of Harry’s past to Tony that Harry didn’t have to do it.
Who wanted to be famous because their parents had been murdered?
“It’s because I’m an escaped convict and Harry’s my godson everyone thinks I want to kill,” Sirius said breezily with a flick of the pink hair Tonks had been sporting when Sirius stole her identity. He snagged a pair of Tony’s mirrored sunglasses off the rear view mirror and looked as arrogant as ever when he put them on. “It’s really thanks to me.”
Harry smirked at Sirius and raised a challenging brow at Pietro.
“You heard him,” he said drily. “Now be quiet so Sirius can listen to good music.”
Harry turned the radio up as loud as it went and put Peter’s playlist on shuffle for the rest of the drive back to the Tower.
Sirius parked the car in a haphazard way, definitely outside of the neat white lines it had been in before they took it, and whistled the whole way up to the top floor that Harry shared with Tony.
“Bloody hell this place looks better and better every time I see it,” Sirius said appreciatively when they stepped off the lifts. His Polyjuice had worn off just before they pulled in the garage and Harry figured he was saving it for any outings in the magical sector of New York. Sirius stood just off the lifts and looked around the flat that had been repaired sometime during the brief few hours that Harry had slept the night before.
Hedwig hooted and flew to Sirius’ shoulder just as Joey barked and ran straight to Pietro. Joey’s tail was wagging quickly while he propped his big paws on Pietro’s knees and panted up at him with what Harry was certain was the dog version of a smile.
“You traitors,” Harry told the animals with no real bite to his tone. “See if they let you sleep with them.”
“I will,” Sirius whispered to Hedwig. He dropped his bags on the sitting room floor and breezed straight to the kitchen with Hedwig picking at his hair. “What are you cooking for dinner?”
Harry laughed and flopped across the sofa, landing on his stomach. He wrestled around to yank his phone from his front pocket and dangled it where Sirius could see.
“I don’t cook,” Harry told Sirius. Pietro took the chair beside the sofa and flipped the footrest out before grabbing the remote and idly browsing channels. “I can order whatever you want though.”
Sirius turned quickly and had a smile a mile wide.
“Anything at all?”
“Anything,” Harry promised.
Pietro smirked at Harry. “Anything?”
“Anything.”
They wound up ordering a little of everything from the pizza place because Sirius wanted wings and pizza and breadsticks and Pietro wanted to try the brookie when Harry described it to him.
Then, while they ate in the sitting room and watched a dumb movie about astronauts or something, Sirius decided it was a brilliant idea to break out a bottle of Tony’s whisky.
“I told Tony I’d be the first one to get you pissed,” Sirius said cheerfully. He snagged three glasses from the kitchen and filled them all half full of whisky and then the rest of the way with soda.
“He lets me drink all the time,” Harry pointed out to his godfather smugly.
“But have you been drunk before?” Pietro asked with a crooked smile.
As a matter of fact, Harry had not ever truly been drunk before. A tragedy Sirius was determined to remedy, apparently.
“Call him,” Sirius slurred a few drinks later when the three of them were slumped on the sofa, watching Harry’s phone light up with a new text from Peter. “He’s your puppy, kiddo. You can’t leave your puppy hanging!”
“This is your puppy.” Pietro held Joey up beside his face and Harry laughed stupidly when both of them stuck their tongues out. “You don’t need a Peter puppy.”
“Call him,” Sirius insisted. He snatched Harry’s phone and pressed a few buttons before thrusting the phone in Harry’s hands. “It’s ringing!”
Harry tried to scowl at Sirius, but his face was rather numb and he wasn’t sure if he had pulled it off or not and—
“Hello?”
“Peter!” Harry giggled at the absurdity of the situation. “You’ve got a fucking stupid name.”
Sirius raised his glass, “I hate his name. Tell him to change it.”
“Can you change your name?” Harry asked curiously. “I changed mine, or my dad did. Did you know I was sort of adopted?”
“Cheers to name changes,” Pietro said, clinking his glass to Sirius’.
Peter was quiet for a moment on the phone then he huffed out a laugh.
“Are you drunk?” he asked teasingly. “You sound drunk.”
“I am seriously…” Harry, Sirius, and Pietro broke out into ridiculous snickers. “Seriously drunk,” Harry told Peter. “Oi! You should come get drunk!”
“Sure,” Peter said in a way that Harry was certain he was grinning. “I’ll just catch a flight to your top secret boarding school. I’ll be there in sixteen hours if there’s no layovers.”
“Seems like a weird thing to do since I’m in New York,” Harry told him. He smiled when Peter made a shocked little noise over the phone. “See you soon?”
Peter showed up at the Tower an hour later with a backpack slung over his shoulder to find Harry, Sirius, and Pietro all tangled up with each other, sound asleep, on the new-looking couch.
Peter grinned at the way Harry’s head lay on Sirius’ shoulder, but frowned at the way Pietro had Harry’s legs across his lap. He carefully moved Pietro from the couch to the floor and then stole the blanket off Harry’s bed and went to sleep beside Harry.
Harry groaned before he was even fully conscious the next morning. He felt the unfamiliar sofa beneath him and a familiar bundle of fur in his lap.
“Siri?” he mumbled, slightly incoherent. The sound of his own voice made him wince, so Sirius’ was like nails on a chalkboard.
“Afternoon, kiddo!” Sirius chirped. “Come eat lunch with us!”
Harry drug himself to a sitting position and glanced blearily over the back of the couch. Then Harry rubbed his eyes and squinted hard.
Sirius was sitting at the island where Harry and Tony usually ate, a ton of random food all over the area in front of him. Pietro sat beside Sirius, a tight tshirt on that had Harry averting his eyes from his arms quickly. But it was the third person sitting across from Sirius, looking as casual as if he did it every day, that had Harry wondering if he was still sleeping.
“Morning, Bright Eyes.” Peter grinned at Harry and then patted the stool beside him. “Feeling your first hangover?”
Peter looked just as he had before Harry left- his hair was maybe a little longer, the shaggy brown locks hanging across his forehead. His eyes were the same soft brown, a happy little twinkle in them. And he looked… he looked fit, honestly, even in a pair of loose sweatpants and a white tshirt.
And Harry was suddenly, and painfully, aware that he probably had drool dried on his face, his hair was a wreck, and…
“What’re you doing here?” Harry blurted out.
Peter chuckled and Tony and Pietro burst out in loud peals of laughter that had Harry twisting his face up against the annoying noise.
“You called me,” Peter told him. “I think you said ‘oh Peter, I miss you so much, please come spend the weekend with me and a convicted serial killer and some dude who was cuddling me’,” Peter said in a high pitch that didn’t match Harry’s voice at all.
Harry’s face turned red and he shot a furtive look at Pietro who sipped a cup of what smelled like coffee with a tiny smirk.
“Wait…” Harry messed with his hair, trying to get it to lay flat. “Er… Sirius isn’t a convicted killer…”
Peter whipped his phone out and clicked the screen on.
In the back of Harry’s mind, the small part that wasn’t panicking over Sirius being arrested, Harry was pleased to see that he was still Peter’s screen photo.
“That’s not what Google says,” Peter sang brightly. He waved a hand when Harry’s eyes went wide and were likely bulging in panic. “It’s cool, he says he didn’t do it.”
Pietro spat out a mouthful of coffee and gave Sirius a gobsmacked look. “You did not tell me that,” he said accusingly.
Peter shook his head at Pietro. “Did you think you’ve just been hanging out with a serial killer?”
“It is hardly the first time,” Pietro said nonchalantly as he cleaned up his mess.
Harry was planning on asking more about that, but the bitter taste in his mouth set his priorities for him.
It wasn’t until Harry was standing under the stream of hot water, letting it run down his face and wash away the gross feeling of sleeping in his jeans on the sofa, that he smiled self-deprecatingly.
It was an entirely new revelation to have his head pounding and Voldemort having nothing to do with it.
Once Harry was clean, and subtly sipped the hangover potion Sirius slipped him, the four of them made plans for the day. And since Sirius couldn’t take Polyjuice with Peter there, they had to be indoor plans.
“Movie marathon,” Peter decided. He took turns pointing at each of them as he listed his reasons for it. “You have never seen anything,” he told Harry, “you’ve been in prison for a freaking decade,” he told Sirius. He paused at Pietro for a moment, “I actually don’t know anything about you.”
Pietro picked at his nails with a bored expression. “I’ve been in captivity for eight years,” he said lightly. “There were not many films being shown.”
Peter frowned at them all. “This is sad, gentlemen. None of you have seen the Fast & Furious movies?”
They hadn’t, but Sirius was quickly a big fan.
“It looks like your dad‘s car!” Sirius whooped when a similar looking yellow car raced another flashy car on the telly. “Petey, you know how to drive?” he asked Peter with a manic light in his eyes.
Harry slapped his hand over Peter’s mouth quickly and shook his head.
“We cannot race Tony’s cars,” Harry told Sirius firmly. “Quit making me be the adult, Pads, I don’t like it.”
Sirius pouted. “Why do any of us have to be the adult?” he whined. “Tony’s not a real adult.”
“He has a point,” Pietro said with a grin. “What is the worst that could happen?”
Peter licked Harry’s hand, causing him to quickly drop it from his face, and gave Sirius a bright smile.
“Tell your godson to ride with me and I’ll race you,” he told him. His voice got a cocky lilt to it that shouldn’t have been attractive when he added, “I’ve got a license even.”
And the race was on.
They decided to race to a ‘smoothie’ shop because Peter swore they were brilliant for hangovers. Harry joined Peter in Tony’s sleek black car with the top down and Pietro climbed back in the yellow car with Sirius.
“Sirius drives like a madman,” Harry warned Peter as he carefully drove the car out of the garage.
Peter smiled widely when they hit the highway not far from the Tower.
“Luckily for us, I’ve got excellent reflexes,” Peter bragged just before he pressed on the gas and they were flying.
“So you’re back for good now?” Peter yelled over the wind that was strong enough that Harry’s eyes tearing.
“Yeah,” Harry yelled back. He gripped the dash tightly as Peter wove in and out of traffic at speeds that were unreal. “Fuck, who taught you to drive?!”
Peter laughed and he sounded so happy that Harry risked a glance over at him. His hair was blown backward and his entire face was lit up with excitement. Harry’s stomach curled with something warm at the expression- it was a good look for him, one Harry didn’t see very often.
He took a quick photo and stuck his tongue out when Peter caught him.
“Nobody taught me to drive,” Peter admitted. “I mean I took drivers ed, but— Jesus Christ, what happened to your hand??”
Harry looked down and saw that the bandages he’d wrapped his hand in after his shower were already stained red.
“Uh… I cut my thumb when I was cooking,” Harry said, thinking quickly. “Oi! CAR!”
Peter didn’t even look before he spun the steering wheel and Harry fell against the door at the sharp turn he took to evade the car he’d almost rammed into.
Harry’s heart was hammering in his chest and he suddenly worried what Tony would do if they so much as scratched one of his expensive cars. Tony was laid back, much more than almost anyone Harry knew, but everyone had a line somewhere.
“Sorry,” Peter said sheepishly. He quickly spun the wheel again and skid to a screeching halt in front of an orange business that had posters of colorful smoothies in the windows. “We win though.”
Harry let out a very heavy sigh and then impulsively leaned across the middle console to snog Peter.
“I’m driving back,” he told him.
Peter had a goofy grin on his face when he turned the car off and tossed Harry the keys.
“It’s all yours, Bright Eyes.”
Sirius waited (and pouted) in the car while Harry, Peter, and Pietro ordered a variety of smoothies to try once they got back to the Tower.
They’d just paid when Harry got a text from Tony.
Having fun?
Never. Are you?
Always.
Harry felt guilty when they got back in their cars so he gave Sirius a very firm order to drive carefully before reluctantly handing the keys back over to Peter.
“Don’t wreck it,” Harry told him pleadingly. “I’d rather not have Tony wring my neck when he gets home.”
“I won’t put a single scratch on her,” Peter swore. He gave Harry a curious look from the corner of his eye. “Do you and your dad fight a lot?”
Harry considered the very few arguments they’d had since Harry first arrived in New York.
“No,” he said, sounding mildly surprised. “We get along alright.”
Peter hummed and nodded while obediently keeping his eyes on the road.
“He seems cool, your dad,” he told Harry. “Your goddad is cool too, for an escaped serial killer.”
Harry relaxed at the playful tone and kicked on a song they liked while Peter drove the speed limit.
“You’re still a nerd though,” Peter called over the music.
Harry gave him a fond smile. “You’re the geek, Moe.”
Peter laughed. “Moe? What’s that mean?”
Harry threw his hands in the air. “No idea, ask Tony!”
The rest of their day was peaceful enough. They camped out in the sitting room and watched the telly while they snacked on the various foods Sirius kept gleefully ordering. They’d finished the second movie in what Peter claimed was a seven film series when Harry and Sirius dipped outside to take Joey to the bathroom.
“How you feeling, kiddo?” Sirius asked Harry while they leaned against a tree and watched Joey chase birds.
Harry shrugged. “Fine.”
Sirius poked him hard in the side and narrowed his eyes.
“Could you be any more of a dick?” he huffed. “Give me something more than ‘fine’.”
“But I’m fine,” Harry insisted. “I’m a bit peeved that Tony left me behind when I wanted to help, but you’re here and Peter’s here and Pietro isn’t too terrible.”
And it was home, was what Harry didn’t tell him. Even when he’d been annoyed at being brushed off like a child the other night, even when he’d been embarrassed by Tony and spied on, and even when a stupid bloody hammer decided Harry wasn’t a good person, it was home. And home was ten times preferable to Hogwarts even on its worst days.
Sirius stared hard in Harry’s eyes, searching for something. Whatever he found, he smiled softly and put his arm around Harry’s shoulders.
“I’m happy for you, kiddo,” he said after they went back to watching Harry’s dog. “This is the life I always wanted for you.”
“Alright gentlemen, the name of the game is never have I ever.” Peter poured a bottle of something that smelled terrible in four shot glasses and gave one to each of them. They’d gotten sick of movies around the time that Sirius ordered half of a Mexican restaurant for dinner and Sirius decided that getting Harry, Pietro, and Peter drunk was a good idea.
Honestly, it was no wonder the man wound up in Azkaban. His best ideas were always illegal.
Harry leaned back on the carpet and scratched Joey’s head while Peter explained the drinking game. Everyone took a turn saying something they’d never done, if the others did it, they drank.
It would be hard to play with two wizards, one enhanced bloke with super speed, and a muggle, but Harry figured he and Sirius would just have to be creative.
“Never have I ever… raced before today,” Peter said.
Sirius held his glass up in a toast before throwing it back, just as Harry had to do.
“I raced Sirius on motorcycles in Malibu,” Harry explained.
“And I used to race everyone on my bike,” Sirius said nostalgically. He grinned at Harry, “I raced Tony back when we met in London.”
“Who won?” Peter asked.
“I did,” Sirius drawled before adding, “I also cheated, but don’t tell him.”
Harry gave Sirius a sweet smile that didn’t take away from his narrowed eyes at all.
“Oh I won’t, because unlike some fucking people, I can keep a secret.”
Sirius rolled his eyes as they’d already argued over it the night before when they first began drinking. Sirius claimed it was for ‘Harry’s own good’ and Harry swore revenge one day; perhaps he’d tell Tonks and Lupin about Sirius’ jealousy.
He wouldn’t, but he wouldn’t be telling Sirius if he so much as got a paper cut in the future either.
Sirius didn’t promise not to do it again, but he did tell Harry he’d at least give him a heads up the next time, which Harry figured was as good as it got from him.
“Is that when Tony made you Harry’s god dad?” Peter asked curiously.
“Hm?” Sirius tilted his head at Peter. “Tony didn’t make me Harry’s godfather, James did.”
“Who is James?” Pietro asked.
“Harry’s mum’s husband, my best mate.”
“Wait! Tony slept with Harry’s mom while she was married?” Peter asked with wide eyes. “Damn.”
Harry scowled and kicked Sirius when he either had to let Peter have the wrong impression of his mum or admit something he’d rather not do.
“Tony slept with both my parents,” Harry said in a rush, triggering a blush that burnt his face, neck, and chest. “Whose turn is it?”
Peter bit his lip then ducked his head while his shoulders shook with silent laughter and Pietro volunteered to go next.
“Never have I ever… lived in a robot house before,” Pietro said, eyeing the giant telly and the ‘smart fridge’ and the other electronics that Harry had grown accustomed to seeing in their flat.
Sirius and Peter laughed while Harry was the only one who had to drink, then Sirius wagged a finger at Pietro.
“Doesn’t count,” he told him. “You said you lived in a cell for eight years.”
“As did you,” Pietro countered with quickly. He smiled lazily at Sirius, “Perhaps we have quite a bit in common.”
Sirius perked right up and Harry felt his heart clench painfully in his chest. Sirius was always so excited by anyone’s attention, it was like he thought nobody noticed him ever since he got out of Azkaban. He’d once told Harry that he lost all his good looks and charm to Azkaban just as he’d lost his freedom the same night he lost his best mate in the world.
Harry figured that was the real reason the Tonks and Lupin thing bothered Sirius. Sirius probably assumed him and Lupin would be a thing again and when Lupin chose Tonks, it broke Sirius’ pride as much as it did his heart.
One day Harry hoped Sirius would be free to explore the whole world and find someone that made him happy in a way that Harry couldn’t do. If anyone deserved it, it was Sirius.
“My turn,” Sirius said, a new pep in his tone. “Never have I ever… uh…” Sirius tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I’ve done a bloody lot of things,” he admitted.
“Drugs?” Peter asked.
Sirius nodded.
“Women?” Pietro asked slyly.
Sirius nodded.
“Have you ever actually killed someone?” Harry asked thoughtfully. Sirius had been accused of it, but—
“Sure have.”
Well that was out.
It took a while, but eventually Sirius decided that he’d never flown on a jet before Tony flew him there and Peter decided to let it count. Especially since it meant that Harry and Pietro had to drink while Peter didn’t.
Everyone looked expectantly at Harry.
Harry bit his lip and blurted out the first thing he could think of.
“Never have I ever snogged a girl.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Harry felt like an idiot, but Peter and Sirius clinked their glasses cheerfully and threw them back while Pietro only shrugged.
“I’ve never kissed anyone,” he told Harry. He lowered his eyelids and raised his brows, “Interested?”
Peter quickly wrapped his arm around Harry’s waist and gave Pietro a strained smile.
“He’s not, actually. But Sirius looks single, flirt with him.”
Harry laughed at Pietro’s theatrics at riling Peter up then quit laughing quickly when Pietro spent the rest of the game bringing up an embarrassing variety of sexual things he’d never done just to see what all Harry and Sirius had done.
Harry had done nothing, Sirius had done everything.
“You’re a slag,” Harry slurred at his godfather when they finally called it quits and were laying all over the sitting room talking drunken nonsense.
Sirius had an odd high pitched laugh and tried to ruffle Harry’s hair and wound up hitting Hedwig and got his finger pecked for it.
“With Tony’s genes, you will be too,” he told Harry. “You’ll get tall and confident and then you’ll be shagging everyone.”
Peter was half-laying on Harry with his head on Harry’s chest and slapped out at Sirius’ hand with uncanny aim considering he was pissed.
“Fuck off,” Peter told Sirius. “Don’t tell my boyfriend to be a hoe.”
Harry’s breath hitched for a moment. Were they- were they actually… boyfriends? Harry peeked down at Peter, but his eyes were closed and his lips were curled up in a half-smile of contentment so Harry figured it was a question better asked when they weren’t drunk.
Except he didn’t get an opportunity, because Tony came home the next afternoon, not long after they all woke up.
Harry had been laughing his head off as he kicked Sirius, Pietro, and Peter’s arses on the racing game on Tony’s Xbox.
“You lot suck,” he teased them when he won the second round in a row.
“I’m letting you win,” Peter said with a crooked grin. He grabbed a handful of the popcorn they were sharing and threw it at Harry. “It’s called being nice, Bright Eyes, maybe you should try it.”
Harry tilted his head back and caught a piece in his mouth. “Oh yeah?” he smirked after he slowly chewed and swallowed the piece. “That’s awfully chivalrous of you, Parker, too bad you’re a liar.”
Peter had watched Harry’s lips while he chewed and slowly moved his eyes to Harry’s. There was a spark in them that sent a flare of heat from Harry’s stomach clear to his face.
“Oh, Stark, you’ve got no idea—”
Ding!
Everyone’s heads spun to see the light above the lift doors light up just before the doors themselves opened and Tony strode through quickly.
Tony stopped dead in the doorway of the sitting room and looked around slowly, prompting Harry to do the same.
It was… it was more than a bit trashed, actually.
There were pizza boxes and empty glass bottles from Friday night under the coffee table. Empty smoothie cups on the tv stand with the Xbox and a stack of video games they’d worked their way through. Hedwig was preening on the back of the chair, Joey was in the middle of the sofa. And there were pillows, blankets, and popcorn everywhere.
Harry turned to Tony and opened his mouth to give a quick defense, one he was sure he’d think up any moment, but Tony inexplicably had a wide smile on his face.
“Good to see you, Pete,” he said to Peter. He tossed a posh looking black bag toward his bedroom door and then quirked a brow at Harry. “Remind me to never leave a fifteen year old in charge again.”
“I thought I was in charge?” Sirius protested weakly as he stretched a leg out to kick an empty bottle beneath the sofa.
“Where is Wanda?” Pietro asked quickly.
“You were never in charge,” Tony said, pointing at Sirius. He swung his finger to Pietro, “She’s downstairs, pouting with Steve.”
“Why’re they pouting?” Harry asked. He’d been relieved to see Tony whole and healthy looking, no limps or obvious injuries, but if they were pouting…
Tony shook his head and grimaced up at the ceiling. “Mission unsuccessful,” he said flatly. “Oh!” Tony tilted his head down at winked at Harry before smirking at Sirius. “You busy tomorrow?”
Sirius made a show of pulling his phone from his pocket, frowning and moving his lips as he scrolled through it, then pocketed it and rolled his eyes.
“Nothing I can’t cancel,” he drawled sarcastically. “Why?”
Harry felt his heart actually skip a beat when Tony lifted a shoulder casually and propped himself against the doorway with his arms crossed.
“How do you feel about a fair trial?”