Chapter 1
Tony Stark looked at the short man who had delivered a letter according to James Potter's will. He had only told him that he was a lawyer for the Potter family and that he had a letter for him. And now he was leaving without even looking at him
He hadn't thought of his cousin James for years.
It had been one of Howard's worst secrets and one of the biggest blows to his pride and his ego. Howard Stark, at the age of eleven, had done something so wrong that his own family had expelled him and sent his older brother, Fleamont, to another continent.
None of Howard's diaries were older than that age. And his father never spoke of the past or his family.
Tony only knew that he had two uncles and a cousin when he was young and they came to talk to him about something. There he met James, the boy was weird, but Tony thought it was because he was English. But there was nothing that he did not solve when he taught him to play Parcheesi
-You gotta get over it, Tony, get over James. You need to show that we are not inferior to them- that was how his father had howled, drunk from him that same night while Jarvis contained him in his study. After that he called Jarvis a "rude house elf" and he passed out.
After Howard's death, Tony learned that his father had received twenty million dollars in the 1930s from his brother Charlus to start his company. What today in 2000 would be more than two hundred million dollars. Tony didn't know why his father was so angry, because he never told him why he was kicked out of the Potter family and forced to change his last name.
All those unknowns stayed on his mind until he met James again at a party fourteen years ago. And he screwed up spectacularly by sleeping with James's wife when they were drunk. She always said that she mistook him for James, but that didn't stop his cousin from leaving without giving him answers.
And now this letter arrived
- Is something wrong with that envelope? You look at him like he holds the secrets of the universe
-It's a letter from my cousin. I don't know if I want to read it, he hasn't even mailed it. A lawyer brought it to me
-Howard had brothers? - Steve seemed surprised
-He was disowned by his family, they even forced him to change his last name-Tony laughed- he never told me what he did to get disowned and Howard always rejected all contact with his family.
The team fell silent
-Do you want me to read it for you? - Clint said- It may be easier if someone else reads it
Tony leaned back on the couch before getting up to go get a single whiskey.
-Okay, read, little bird.
Tony hear a sound of paper ripping but he refused to turn around
-Tony, if you are reading this, I have died. - Tony staggered. Was James dead? His rare sporty cousin of his who was brimming with health? - I have thought a lot before writing you this letter, but this is my insurance. If you have not heard from me or Lily before receiving this letter that means she is dead too.
Steve was next to him and held him back to the couch. The rest of the team looked at him in silence
-I met him three times in my life. When he was ten, after his father died and a couple of years later. But always…. I was sure he was somewhere with his wife, still angry with me. --- Tony drank and felt the liquor burn his throat. - I no longer have a family.
After a few moments Clint continued
-If you receive this letter, it also means that she is still alive. Tony, you have a daughter- the glass exploded in Tony's hand and Bruce approached to look at her palm that was without injuries.- She is your daughter and Lily's, she happened that night at the party. I do not blame you for having sex with my wife- Steve looked at Tony judging him silently- And I know that she is not my daughter, because I cannot have children. I got sick at the age of fifteen and lost the ability to leave offspring. That is another reason why I am not angry with you, you have let me experience parenthood, something that was just a distant dream for me. I am very grateful to you for that
Tony gasped coming out of his shock.
-I have a daughter?
-Maybe not- they all looked at Natasha- I mean… That woman had cheated on your cousin with you. Couldn't she have done it with another man?
-Even so, she is my relative. Why didn't I hear from her before? Clint, continue
-Her name of hers is Haresa Lillian Potter, I really wanted to call her Lily, but apparently she hates her own name. She was born on June 31, 1990, so you will have received this letter on her thirteenth birthday. She has the black curly hair of the Potters and the eyes of Lily. Everyone says that she looks a lot like me, but you and I were always very similar, she looks like you. Right now I'm watching her sleep, I'll send a picture of the girl in the letter envelope so you can see how adorable she is.
Clint took out an old photo and gave it to Tony. There a girl had slept between blue blankets with strange winged golden balls. Her hair was thick and Tony saw several of her features
His daughter
He had to find her, had to change her will and find her
-Tony, this will sound very strange to you but this is the reason why your father was expelled. The Potter family has a mutation in their genes, a mutation that gives us certain powers. Your father didn't have it and that's why they took him out of the family. And when we were younger your father thought you had it and made my father check it, but you didn't have it either. Haresa has her, she is extraordinarily strong. There is a secret society of people like us and we are currently dealing with our own version of Hitler and the Nazis.
Tony saw Steve tense, he always got that way at the mention of the people he fought in WWII. But Tony's head was spinning. Mutation? Secret societies? Civil war? Mutant Hitler? And his daughter was in the middle of it?
No joke
He would pick her up from wherever his daughter was and he would personally take her to the tower where she would be safe and sound.
-Wait, it gets better- Clint sighed- The point is, cousin, we have somehow caught the attention of that psychopath. If you receive this letter, please find Haresa and protect her from it. Most likely, if she is not with you she will meet Lily's sister, she knows about the mutation and despises her, so you will have to save her. Take it as quickly as possible and without a trace to the United States and from there follow the instructions that I leave below so that you can claim it in our society and none of our British can go for it, and never trust Albus Dumbledore. Lily, My dear wife, she adores Dumbledore but he is a manipulator and I don't think he sees us as anything other than chess pieces. Please, Tony, be the father to Haresa that I would have been to her. And tell her that she is my princess and I have loved her with all my heart, because if I died, I am sure that my death was protecting her
Tony got up and called his pilot looking at the address on the letter
He was going to find his daughter