Pepper and Rodhey, meet my son!
Pepper Potts, the CEO of Stark Industries was, believe it or not, worried. Tony had been in a meeting, but he had left not long after that, and she couldn't find him now. Where did he go? Why did he go? Wait, scratch that, Pepper knew Tony. She knew he wasn't impressed with the employers, not that she had been either, and he had, in turn, ran off to get some fresh air. Honestly, that man was so hard to pin down at times, and he always got extremely snappish when people crowded him for too long or simply forgot about him.
Pepper remembered the first time she'd noticed this side of Tony. Most would not, could not see it, but Virginia Potts had been born to a family that worked for COMSUBIN, a military-affiliated group, and Pepper had also met a female commander who had given her lessons on body language. Virginia had been still very young when she had first heard about flames of resolve, not that she ever told anyone. The people that had forced Lal Mirch and her student, Collonello to resign from their post amongst the military had given her the chills, although Virginia had never seen the people in question, or found out where her older sister figure had gone. Neither did the young girl mention anything to the people around her, afraid of what will happen to her if she mentioned it to them. So yes, Virginia Potts, later called Pepper Potts by one Anthony Stark, knew what she was seeing when Tony, her employer, became subtly twitchy and she felt the subtle killing intent from the still so young and emotional man. She had taken over immediately, getting the guards to get those reporters away from the blast radius, and giving the close to sapping man an out. Because while Virginia Potts had never seen the colors of the flames themselves, the strange people of her past had explained the personality traits that came with each type, and it was so very obvious that Tony was one of them, it's surprising that he doesn't know a thing about those flames yet.
So it is understandable when James Rodhey, Tony's best friend and partner in crime, got a message from Tony, asking for a van with enough space to house a fully grown deer, and to arrange for some adoption papers because Tony has seemingly found someone worth protecting, the first thing Pepper did was panic for a whole minute before she snapped out of it, but she sadly remained shocked still. I mean come on, Tony with a child?
James Rodhey, on the other hand, had frozen for a second upon registering what his friend had asked of him before he got himself together and decided to not ask questions. That way lies madness, so he just did as requested of him and herded a still shocked redhead to the car he had ordered for them. He did as told, and soon, the pair were meeting a jumpy small boy that was… Harry James Potter, The Boy Who Lived, and a… What the hell? What is it with the animals? Damn you, Tony! Adopting a magical savior is not good for business. Because James Rodhey is a pureblood, supposed to have been killed, a man who was once known as James Theodore Zabini, the elder brother of the Black widowed Juliet Zabini and the uncle of one Blaise Zabini. James had joined the non-magical world when he was young because the idiots in the magical world had 'accidentally' had his magical core destroyed, but he still kept in touch with his dear sister. And while James hated the magical light side, and should have been blaming the fall of the dark lord on the 15-month-old kid – that is currently in front of him -, he couldn't.
And right now, he wouldn't.
Because this kid, young, hurt, and wary, but willing to trust his savior. Because this boy is proof that Tony Stark, James's anti-social best friend, and younger brother, has what it takes to care for others. Because this kid has made James own savior, the one who gave James the will to keep moving even after he lost everything, happy in a way James never was able to.
And for that…
For this
James would care, even if this child has now what it takes to destroy James, Pepper, and their mutual friend, Tony himself.
Even if it means the world will eventually burn down.
Because the magical world will come for their savior, and they will burn and break, and even possibly crush the innocence in those green eyes, and they will never let go of him. James will have to protect the kid, and his new father, with everything he has. And he won't let anything stop him. Because sometimes… Sometimes, a single smile can be worth everything.