My Dad, the Boy (*Man) Who Lives

Beginning of July, 1979

With only three people, actually two grown-ups and a little boy, the people whom knew Howard and Maria (Peggy and Obie), thought that their long-time butler and housekeeper would be enough to serve their needs 24/7 even with the presence of a baby such as young master Tony. And, as one of the founder of SHIELD, Howard was known to be paranoid.

Imagined Peggy's surprise when she met one Harry James Evans.

The hiring of an unknown British citizen to the household was quite baffling to mostly the housemaids at first, since they met the young adult right after the couple brought their baby boy home.

As Howard’s partner, Obadiah Stane’s only thought was about securing the future of the company and hoped that the heir would grow up to be a genius like his dad, or even more. Thus the presence of a stranger to the mansion was another pair of eye he could pay to spy on the Starks. Although, in the weeks to come he will later find out that Harold or Henry’s (Obie didn’t think it was important to remember the name of the help) loyalty to the Starks was forestalling his plan. But, whatever. What can an under-butler do anyway.

Tony’s godmother and Howard’s oldest friend, Peggy Carter was undoubtably suspicious and curious of the new under-butler. She knew the Jarvises since when she worked as an SSR agent, so she knew how capable they were.

This prompted her to have young Harry’s background thoroughly check. It was difficult and which surprisingly considering SHIELD’s rep with 084 and out of the world oddity, it was hard to get this information by. But in the end, she discovered a famous someone whose whereabouts was currently unknown to Great Britain Magical World with the name of Harry James Potter.

Confronted with the truth, Howard was certainly surprised and unsurprised when he was informed. Taking the element of magic away, Howard observed the man a few times and thought that Harry’s eyes seemed older and sorrowful when he thought nobody was looking.

At first, the genius thought that Harry was a soldier, but he didn’t have the tell tale signs of military training. Then he thought that the man was abused, yet he seemed to be the type of person who was confident and not afraid to stand up for himself. Though he flinched that one time when Howard raised his arm in frustration in the time they talked about adopting Tony, which led the millionaire to think that the young man was probably abused as a child.

Despite being young, the young savior couldn’t hide his jittery or the way he was wary of his surrounding as if he expect someone will jump out to attack him. Before he knew of the man’s past history from Peg, he was puzzled at how young Harry looked but seemed old in presence.

So yeah, Howard was paranoid but he respected Harry’s privacy, after all, the man has helped him tremendously although reluctant at first. But when his best friend came, telling him about the man’s identity and past, he genuinely felt angry on Harry’s behalf for his horrible childhood and things that happened to him at his boarding school that no kid should have gone through.

To appease Peg, the inventor arranged a meeting between Harry and Peg and himself, since the statute of secrecy of magic would not be apply to them as the heads of a secret government agency.

To not scare Harry away, Howard invited the young man to help him fix the car in the garage. They’ve done this several times since Harry came to live with him and it was always fun to have a young mind, whom was attentive. As they fixed the car, he confronted Harry slowly and nonchalantly that he came to an information about the young father from a trustworthy colleague.

Harry was skittish at first but with a few nudge, the three of them met and talked. It was a great painful deal for Harry to discuss his reasons to stay away from the magical world and lived in the muggle world (the term for non magic people, he said?) and later this of course prompted both fathers to tell her how Harry came to be hired, and after, Tony’s biological parents.

“Oh, Howard…,” the woman grabbed his hand and clasped it firmly in her hand. The wrinkles on his friend’s face were more defined with her sudden downturned mouth. Peggy looked so old in that moment with the whole unsaid condolences on her face.

Pasting a strong front, Howard tried to smile and put his hand on top of her hand. “We’re not fine, but we’re getting there. Maria and I.”

“Harry and Tony’s presence help. Maria is starting to move on since her hands are full with the baby. She’s in her 40’s but now she’s as frisky as the day we met.”

“I bet you’d love that.” Peggy chuckled throatily at this. “And you must have been wonderful too with the baby.”

“I don’t know, Peg,” he shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I like baby Tony, he makes Maria happy and he is cute, never doubt that,” then he pointed his thumb at Harry’s direction. “But I’m so old, I felt Harry is more my son than the baby.”

There was a low chocking sound coming from Harry, replaced by a sudden coughing sound. From his peripheral vision, he noticed blush on Harry’s face and a hopeful look behind those pair of glasses. The old inventor recalled the excitement on Harry’s face every time he helped him in the garage.

Howard was a workaholic and the thought of being a father only came to him because his wife wanted a child. He wanted to be a parent but couldn’t picture himself as a dad until he was forced to interact with this young person, who seemed so sad at times yet there was fire burning behind those pair of green eyes.

So when he admitted to Peggy that Harry felt like a son to him, he was being truthful.

“Young man, you do know that people my age have a baby for a grandson and not a son,” he cocked an eyebrow, trying to hide his smile. “For example, if we go to a zoo with a 5 year old Tony, the ticket girl will say, one ticket for the child, one adult ticket for the daddy and one senior citizen ticket for the grandpa.”

The dark-haired man burst out laughing and after that, they were all laughing. So yes, the Stark senior liked having one Harry Potter Evans in his home. Having one Anthony Edward Stark and getting to help in raising the boy was a privilege. But having both of them at his home was the greatest gift to the old man.

***

Without him knowing, Peggy was secretly smiling at her friend. She was proud of how mature her friend was now and glad that old Howie was able to move on slowly from his loss. The young father and son weren’t a substitute for her best friend’s loss but the boys seemed to help heal the wound, one tiny step at a time.

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